current among our neighbours. A salvo was occasionally thrown in, to be sure, that these bright discoveries were not altogether adapted to the mediocrity of English understandings, or practicable against the sturdy resistance of English habits. But the qualification was an obvious mockery in the circumstances in which it was introduced, for the system of France, which obtained their sanction, professed the recovery not of the variable, but of the imprescriptible rights of man; and to talk of physical or moral limits to the progress of such a system, was an insult and a contradiction.-What then shall be said of the wisdom of that distinguished party leader, who avowed "his admiration of the new constitution of France, as the most stupendous and glorious fabric which human integrity had erected to human happiness in any time or country?" or to the judgment of that notable author, and yet living statesman, who, under auspices of the same renowned chief, composed a goodly volume of unshrinking defence, and unqualified panegyric, upon this miracle of legislation? It was really impossible that such things should be, and yet have no visible result, impossible, that such opinions could be so countenanced and defended, without shaking in some degree the stability of public opinion, and scattering abroad the seeds of disorder. The respect professed by the English Whigs for novel and extravagant theories of legislation, together with their unceasing opposition to a government which so long excluded them from power, betrayed them into habitual exaggerations, and produced in them an unseemly contempt for, and a habit of degrading, upon all occasions, the institutions of their country. In this laudable undertaking they have been more or less busily employed for the last thirty years, and have been liberally insinuating into the extended audience which their talents, but far more their zeal, secured for them, distrust and suspicion of all the measures of government, without one solitary exception made to the spirit of candour. It may be said, that this is the settled practice, and, in the ordinary latitude of party morals, the bounden duty of all oppositions; and that the Whigs have done no more for the developement of that detested spirit,

which all now lament, than any other body of public men, suffering as they have done reiterated irritation. But it has happened, that their influence in exciting discontent has far transcended the power of doing mischief possessed by any former Opposition,-that the questions upon which they have been at variance with the actual government, and the ancient spirit of England, have been of a profounder and more vital description than usually divide the parties of this country,-that the constitutional differences which have arisen have been unhappily interwoven with the events of foreign policy, and that the varying fortune of faction within has often exhibited a marked coincidence with the vicissitudes of the war raging without. It cannot be surprising that some vestige should remain of storms of party warfare thus dark and terrible,-and that while its ordinary lightnings leave no trace of their vivid play, the earthquake should have left a chasm at the very base of society, which it may be difficult to close.

The spirit, indeed, with which the Opposition has long been animated, can be a secret to no one who has cast even a casual glance over the domestic history of this island. The invidious comparison of our most revered institutions with the hasty products of an empirical legislation, the advantages almost invariably allowed in their speeches and writings to the maxims of a strange policy over the system congenial to the habits and usages of their native land,-the contempt expressed by them for every establishment consecrated by antiquity, but of which the long experience appeared to them not the motive to commendation, but the incitement to reproach— the audacity with which they have traversed the hallowed circle of British wisdom, and, regardless of the majestic spirits that frowned upon their course, have endeavoured to burst at all points the consecrated round,—the temerity with which they have attempted to lay open the fabric of the constitution, and to let in upon it the sifting breeze of reform, while there was no motive to the rude experiment, and could be no justification of the ultraphilosophic undertaking-all these things are profoundly treasured up in public remembrance, and must insure for the Whigs no small portion of the

honour or the shame which belongs to the real authors of the present agi

tations.

It may be true, that they had but a subordinate, and not very alarming object in view when they employed this formidable machinery in their attacks upon the existing government, and that their bitter complaints may have been extorted by the pangs felt in their laborious ascent towards the high places of trust and power. But there were many not initiated into such mysteries, who took them at their word, and unhappily confounded the sentiments thus uttered, in the turbulence of party disputes, with the quiet and settled conviction of the understanding. There were some also, among the leaders of mischief, who willingly fell into error, and who were glad to have the sanction of such men as the leading Whigs of England for the frantic opinions, which it was their determination, at all events, to propagate. The cause of radical reform has now accordingly been taken out of the hands of the Whigs altogether, and transferred to the protection of leaders of a different description. The abuse of all governments, and, in particular, of the government of their own country, has been taken up in earnest by a class of men, under whose vulgar auspices the Whigs appear amazed to see how well their system has thriven. They start back with dismay when they discover their own principles fully developed in the sturdy insolence, and straight-forward daring of their new expounders. They cannot endure this rude but natural interference, and would fain annihilate by their frowns, the hideous form of discontent which meets and appals them wherever they turn. For while they were yet busy in finishing this image of terror, in bestowing upon it the last touches, and tricking it out with the last fantastic decorations, -while they gazed with delight upon the formidable, but lifeless figure, the fierce current of Plebeian animation rushed in, the pageant became impregnated with living and ruthless energy, and the startled inventors recoiled from it in amazement.

But deep as the regret of the Opposition must be presumed to be, for the part which they have hitherto acted, now that the consequences have become apparent, it is melancholy to

observe the pertinacity with which they still cling to many of their old opinions, and appear, even in the midst of the most imminent peril to the state, to look upon the embarrassment of administration as the foremost duty of a constitutional Opposition. Even at the present critical moment, when the very being of the constitution is threatened when armed ruffians are proposing to seek imaginary freedom through the guilt of assassination, and when the stability of the government is menaced with the array of rebellion-when the mass of mis chief prepared for instant explosion, formidable as it is, is yet insignificant compared with that which is still in a process of formation, and in the developement of which so many base and busy hands are strenously employed-when the foul current of disaffection is fed and fostered by a thousand tributary rills of intense pollution, in the various shapes of speech and writing, and when the only choice left is betwixt exemplary vigour or the most degrading abandonment-even at this moment, so inviting to patriotic exertion, so imperative in its calls upon every good citizen, what has been the conduct of the Whigs? In Parliament they have raised scruples-affected a chilling scepticism-accumulated topics of irritation-reiterated charges of misgovernment, which, even if true, were lamentably out of season-and industriously traced to this imaginary source the prevailing spirit of disaffection. They have deprecated coercion, and demanded inquiry-and at the very moment when all was anxiety and trepidation throughout the land, have endeavoured, instead of that system which was required to re-assure the spirit of the country, and perhaps to save the state, to substitute a course of feeble and faltering policy, which, from whatever motives it may have been proposed, could not have failed to stagger the confidence of the loyal, and to lift up the hopes of the disaffected.

In aid of this system the Edinburgh Review has boldly stepped forward. It contains in the last number two articles connected with the present state of the country, calculated, beyond almost any thing that has yet issued from the press, to exasperate the prevailing distractions, and to fill the

popular mind with distrust and in dignation. Both the articles referred to are full of the most palpable misconceptions, and breathe a spirit which, in the actual posture of public affairs, may well excite sorrow and surprise in every mind not perverted by the virulence of Opposition politics, and intent rather upon the wel fare of the country than the triumph of a faction.

The paper on the "State of the Country" begins by announcing the existence of divisions which neither time nor returning prosperity can be expected to cure, and to impute them to a separation of the upper and middle classes of society from the lower," of which it is the chief object of the remainder of the discourse, to impute the blame to the higher classes, and above all to the corruption and folly of government.

The first question which must occur to every one, on perusing these strange lucubrations is, whether, even if the Reviewer's opinion had been supported by the fact, it was wise or patriotic, at such a moment, to have given publicity to such doctrines? If this lamentable alienation of the lower from the higher orders had existed, would it have been prudent to have confirmed the estrangement, and rendered the breach irreparable, just when disaffection was ripening into revolt? A rational patriot would, at such a crisis, have held a very different language, and anxiously suppress ing every cause of distrust, and every topic of irritation, would have occupied himself in soothing the spirit of the lower orders, and arresting them in that career of delusion and of crime, which, whether they have been hitherto treated with tenderness or neglect, cannot fail to lead them to destruction, and to endanger the very being of the state.

But is there any justice in the picture thus presented of the state of public feeling-any evidence of that conspiracy said to exist among the rich for the oppression of the poor? In what corner of the island can that man have lived, who has discovered a systematic design on the part of the higher and middle classes, to treat their humbler brethren with contempt and aversion? Can any man look upon the smooth and gentle elevations of British society, and listen to the deep breathings of the spirit of humanity

with which it is animated throughout, and then proceed to utter such a reproach upon his country? Never in any age or country was there so firm an alliance betwixt the higher and lower orders as there existed in Great Britain, until it was fatally disturbed of late years by that which could have alone broken in upon it-the spirit of turbulence and faction; and even now, when the cord has been snapped by the revolt of the labouring classes from their natural protectors and best friends, we yet perceive among the latter an unwearied and assiduous spirit, labouring for the real benefit of their inferiors, by the most liberal sacrifices, both of time and resources

by the formation and execution of arrangements calculated to develope the industry of the labouring classes, and to secure for them its produce and wisely adapted at once to increase their comforts and to elevate their characters. Yet this is the country in which the neglect and oppression of the rich have long been alienating the poor, and driving them on to the madness of insurrection! It is true there is not much of wordiness and ostentation in that philanthropic spirit which pervades the more opulent classes of our native land; they do not, like some of their rivals for the affections of the poor, make a mere empty parade of conciliation; but while the rhetorical humanity of their opponents evaporates upon the heated field of party warfare, and expires with the glowing sparks of contention, their benevolence takes its quiet course through the dark recesses of suffering and sorrow, and winds its way in humble purity to the emaciated countenance and the breaking heart.

It is true there has been, and now unhappily exists, an alienation of the lower from the higher classes-But how has it been brought about? Let the Reviewer and his friends ponder this question well; let them remember all that they have said and done for the last twenty years, to persuade the people that they have been ruled by the basest and most profligate government on earth-that the higher and a large portion of the middle clas ses have been in league with this oligarchy of corruption, and have supported it in all its most scandalous undertakings. Let the Reviewer remem❤ ber, how this very book, which now gives currency to his own speculations

has conducted itself towards the country almostsince its commencement with what mockery it has assailed all that Britons have been accustomed to hold in reverence, and with what cruel revilings it has persecuted the characters of the living and the memory even of the illustrious dead, whose fame was interwoven with the goodly fabric of the British system-let him reflect on all that this celebrated journal has done to mislead, to unhinge, to inflame, and let him repress his wonder at the present state of the country. What! was the labour of twenty years to go for nothing-Were "all the talents" of the country to be vigorously put forth for so long a period without one testimonial to their efficacy-Were the Whigs of England to labour so long in calumniating the government of their country, without one popular movement to attest their success? Can they be surprised that the doctrine of the infinite degeneracy and corruption of the government, which they have so long and so zealously preached, should have come at last to be believed in certain quarters, even by mere dint of repetition, or that, once believed, it should have moved the stern and sturdy ignorance to which it was addressed to the characteristic experiment of force for its overthrow? It is vain for the Reviewer to go about theorising upon the generation and the growth of the leaders of radical reform, or to explain how the candidates, as they rose successively above the horizon of anarchy, transcended each his predecessor by some new attribute of absurdity, and fastened another and another patch upon the harlequin garment of reform, to render it more intensely attractive of the stupid gaze of the multitude. However various and motley the additions that have been made, every man must recognise the original tissue for the handy-work of the busy and reckless genius of Opposition.

The Reviewer admits, that the elective franchise must be regulated by property; and he is an enemy, of course, to those who would declare it to be " common and personal," although such was once the opinion of the party to which he attaches himself. But where does he go in quest of evidence to prove that contempt of the poor by the rich upon which his whole speculations hinge? Why, to the public meetings, at which the

elective franchise is exercised, and where he assumes that those who do not possess it are spoken of and treated with contempt. He next assumes that the government is in league with these privileged contemners of the poor, and remarks, that "the example is not to be found in history of any government securing to itself a quiet existence by leaguing with a considerable part of the people against the bulk of them who see their neighbours in the possession of rights denied to them, and are held in subjection, not by kindness and influence, but by main force."

He who ventured to assert so

boldly the harshness of the higher classes, might surely have been expected to be ready with some substantial proofs of so serious an averment. But what does the Reviewer give us? A mere imagination, a dream of his own. At what "city or county meetings" have the poor been treated in the manner he alleges? The public prints have long been filled with accounts of meetings held to relieve them; but where have the meetings been held to insult them? It may have happened, indeed, at some county meetings, that the voice of a few pragmatical men, who have acquired an unsubstantial qualification alone to enable them to harangue, and to protest, and to embarrass the proceedings, have not been listened to with the deference paid to the great landholders having a deep stake in the country, and more solicitous of the public welfare than attentive to the struggles of party; but the neglect shewn here, if indeed it was shewn, was not surely neglect of "the poor"-" of the labouring classes""of the lower orders"-of those whose power may be made irresistible, and pointed to the destruction of the public peace by an ill-judged disregard of their rights." No! no, it must have been neglect of a very different class of men, for whom it is possible that the Reviewer has a yet deeper feeling of regard.

It is not worth while to notice the general instructions which the Reviewer condescends to give the government for the regulation of its conduct at the present crisis; because so long as the discussion is confined to mere general propositions, no progress can be made, and it would lead to mere quibbling to pursue it in this track. But this author takes it upon him, contrary to the opinions of the most