fatal error of the church rates (into which you were led by a man who knows no more of England than of Mesopotamia), I believe you would have gone on well with the church to the last. There is a genius in action, as well as diction; and because you see political evils clearly, and attack them bravely, and cure them wisely, you are a man of real genius, and are most deservedly looked up to as the leader of the whig party in this kingdom. I wish, I must confess, you were rather less afraid of Joseph and Daniel; but God has given you a fine understanding, and a fine character; and I have so much confidence in your spirit and honour, that I am sure you would rather abandon your bills altogether, than suffer the enemies of the church to convert them into an engine of spoil and oppression.

I am, &c.

SYDNEY SMITH.

SERMON

ON THE

DUTIES OF THE QUEEN.

DANIEL, IV. 31.

'OH KING, THY KINGDOM IS DEPARTED FROM THEE.'

I Do not think I am getting out of the fair line of duty of a minister of the gospel, if, at the beginning of a new reign, I take a short review of the moral and religious state of the country; and point out what those topics are which deserve the most serious consideration of a wise and a Christian people. The death of a king is always an awful lesson to mankind; and it produces a more solemn pause, and creates more profound reflection than the best lessons of the best teachers.

From the throne to the tomb-wealth, splendour, flattery, all gone! The look of favour-the voice of power, no more; -the deserted palace-the wretched monarch on his funeral bier-the mourners ready-the dismal march of death prepared. Who are we, and what are we? and for what has God made us? and why are we doomed to this frail and unquiet existence? Who does not feel all this? in whose heart does it not provoke appeal to and dependence on God? before whose eyes does it not bring the folly and the nothingness of all things human?

But a good king must not go to his grave without that reverence from the people which his virtues deserved. And I will state to you what those virtues were, state it to you honestly and fairly; for I should heartily despise myself, if from this chair of truth I would utter one word of panegyric of the great men of the earth, which I could not aver before the throne of God.

The late monarch, whose loss we have to deplore, was sin

cere and honest in his political relations; he put his trust really where he put his trust ostensibly-and did not attempt to undermine, by secret means, those to whom he trusted publicly the conduct of affairs; and I must beg to remind you that no vice and no virtue are indifferent in a monarch; human beings are very imitative; there is a fashion in the higher qualities of our minds, as there is in the lesser considerations of life. It is by no means indifferent to the morals of the people at large, whether a tricking perfidious king is placed on the throne of these realms, or whether the sceptre is swayed by one of plain and manly character, walking ever in a straight line, on the firm ground of truth, under the searching eye of God.

The late king was of a sweet and Christian disposition; he did not treasure up little animosities, and indulge in vindictive feelings; he had no enemies but the enemies of the country; he did not make the memory of a king a fountain of wrath; the feelings of the individual (where they required any control) were in perfect subjection to the just conception he had formed of his high duties; and every one near him found it was a government of principle, and not of temper; not of caprice, not of malice couching in high places, and watching an opportunity of springing on its victim.

Our late monarch had the good nature of Christianity; he loved the happiness of all the individuals about him, and never lost an opportunity of promoting it; and where the heart is good, and the mind active, and the means ample, this makes a luminous and beautiful life, which gladdens the nations, and leads them, and turns men to the exercise of virtue, and the great work of salvation.

6

We may honestly say of our late sovereign that he loved his country, and was sensibly alive to its glory and its happiness. When he entered into his palaces he did not say, All this is my birthright; I am entitled to it-it is my due-how can I gain more splendour? how can I increase all the pleasures of the senses?' but he looked upon it all as a memorial that he was to repay by example, by attention, and by watchfulness over the public interests, the affectionate and lavish expenditure of his subjects; and this was not a decision of reason, but a feeling, which hurried him away. Whenever it was pointed out to him that England could be made more rich, or more happy, or rise higher in the scale of nations, or be better guided in the straight path of the Christian faith, on all such occasions

he rose above himself; there was a warmth, and a truth, and an honesty, which it was impossible to mistake; the gates of his heart were flung open, and that heart throbbed and beat for the land which his ancestors had rescued from slavery, and governed with justice :-but he is gone-and let fools praise conquerors, and say the great Napoleon pulled down this kingdom and destroyed that army, we will thank God for a king who has derived his quiet glory from the peace of his realm, and who has founded his own happiness upon the happiness of his people.

But the world passes on, and a new order of things arises. Let us take a short view of those duties which devolve upon the young queen, whom Providence has placed over us-what ideas she ought to form of her duties-and on what points she should endeavour to place the glories of her reign.

First and foremost, I think, the new queen should bend her mind to the very serious consideration of educating the people. Of the importance of this, I think no reasonable doubt can exist; it does not, in its effects, keep pace with the exaggerated expectations of its injudicious advocates, but it presents the best chance of national improvement.

Reading and writing are mere increase of power. They may be turned, I admit, to a good, or a bad purpose; but for several years of his life the child is in your hands, and you may give to that power what bias you please: thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal-thou shalt not bear false witness;— by how many fables, by how much poetry, by how many beautiful aids of imagination, may not the fine morality of the Sacred Scriptures be engraven on the minds of the young? I believe the arm of the assassin may be often stayed by the lessons of his early life. When I see the village school, and the tattered scholars, and the aged master or mistress teaching the mechanical art of reading or writing, and thinking that they are teaching that alone, I feel that the aged instructor is protecting life, insuring property, fencing the altar, guarding the throne, giving space and liberty to all the fine powers of man, and lifting him up to his own place in the order of creation.

There are, I am sorry to say, many countries in Europe, which have taken the lead of England in the great business of education, and it is a thoroughly commendable, and legitimate object of ambition in a sovereign to overtake them. The names, too, of malefactors, and the nature of their crimes are subjected

to the sovereign;-how is it possible that a sovereign, with the fine feelings of youth, and with all the gentleness of her sex, should not ask herself, whether the human being whom she dooms to death, or at least does not rescue from death, has been properly warned in early youth of the horrors of that crime for which his life is forfeited? Did he ever receive any education at all?-did a father and mother watch over him? -was he brought to places of worship?-was the Word of God explained to him?—was the book of knowledge opened to him?

Or am I, the fountain of mercy, the nursing-mother of my people, to send a forsaken wretch from the streets to the scaffold, and to prevent, by unprincipled cruelty, the evils of unprincipled neglect?'

Many of the objections found against the general education of the people are utterly untenable; where all are educated, education cannot be a source of distinction, and a subject for pride. The great source of labour is want; and as long as the necessities of life call for labour-labour is sure to be supplied. All these fears are foolish and imaginary; the great use and the great importance of education properly conducted are, that it creates a great bias in favour of virtue and religion, at a period of life when the mind is open to all the impressions which superior wisdom may choose to affix upon it; the sum and mass of these tendencies and inclinations make a good and virtuous people, and draw down upon us the blessing and protection of Almighty God.

A second great object which I hope will be impressed upon the mind of this royal lady is, a rooted horror of war-an earnest and passionate desire to keep her people in a state of profound peace. The greatest curse which can be entailed upon mankind is a state of war. All the atrocious crimes committed in years of peace-all that is spent in peace by the secret corruptions, or by the thoughtless extravagance of nations, are mere trifles compared with the gigantic evils which stalk over the world in a state of war. God is forgotten in war-every principle of Christian charity trampled upon-human labour destroyed-human industry extinguished;-you see the son and the husband and the brother dying miserably in distant lands-you see the waste of human affections-you see the breaking of human hearts-you hear the shrieks of widows and children after the battle-and you walk over the mangled bodies of the wounded calling for death. I would say to that royal