deficit. He allows that the state of the country is alarming, and that it is in vain to expect any reduction in the estimates or expenses for the current year. He allows that the Reform Bill has failed in quieting the people, and that the strongest heads in Europe say, "Your new constitution is a very good fair-weather constitution, but show us how it will stand a storm." He admits that it is a grave and serious question how far the new and liberal system of allowing the public mind to be daily drenched with the, to them, uncontradicted falsehoods of a press "which never utters one word of truth, and never utters a falsehood without a motive," can long exist without dissolving and destroying society. Lord John Russell admits in the House of Commons that the state of the manufacturing districts is alarming that enormous masses of men have grown up in different quarters, having no connexion or sympathy with the higher orders, and exhibiting a "deplorable want of education, and above all, religious education." These are the admissions of the leaders of Ministry themselves; and what remedy have they proposed for such acknowledged evils? They are these impunity to incipient and organizing treason-stern refusal of any religious instruction to the people -and the system of open questions in the Cabinet.

The "National Convention" began its sittings in London in November 1838. Delegates in September and October had previously been elected over the whole manufacturing districts, all of whom were sent there with the avowed purpose of organizing the most effectual means of carrying through by "agitation, intimidation, and if necessary, force," the people's Charter. This illegal and seditious assembly was allowed to continue its sittings for six months, in London, under the very eye of the Home-Office; every night spouting sedition, and recommending arming; not unfrequently organizing treason. Ministers appointed the Radical leader and quondam Chartist treasurer at Birmingham, Lord Mayor of the town; they had previously made Frost, the Chartist delegate, a magistrate of Monmouthshire; and having thus allowed sedition and treason to acquire consistency and effect organization as it were under their very eyes, and

with their apparent if not real approbation, they naturally, and, as every man foresaw, unavoidably, brought about, unintentionally we believe, but really and effectually, the Birmingham burnings, the Newport rebellion, the Sheffield insurrection. So completely were the Chartists deluded as to the ability or inclination of Government to resist them, that they expected, we are persuaded, any thing rather than punishment from the success of their effort; and never were words spoken with more sincerity than those of Frost to Jones, when he was setting out for transportation, "We little expected

this when we set out on the 4th of November."

They

The next panacea of the Ministry, for the admitted and hourly increasing depravity of the manufacturing districts, and the frightful anti-religious and anti-social doctrines which have spread amongst them, is the profuse distribution of the power of reading, and the stern denial of all extended religious instruction; that is, the means of perusing the obscenity of the Socialists and the sedition of the Northern Star, but none for hearing the words of salvation or the Gospel of Christ. They know that crime is increasing with a rapidity, in the manufacturing districts, unprecedented in any other age or country. know, that under the combined operation of intellectual cultivation, spiritual destitution, Socialist meetings, halls of science, labourers' institutes, penny magazines, mechanics' reading-rooms, and deserted churches, felonies in the manufacturing districts are advancing at the rate of fifty per cent every three years, or doubling EVERY SIX YEARS, while population is doubling in the same districts in 36 years; in other words, advancing in the manufacturing districts as the square of the population. They are so conscious of this that they have not yet printed even the criminal returns for 1838, far less 1839; they know that the returns show three educated for one uneducated criminal; and knowing this, they have set abroad the cry, that these their darling returns, which they expected were to show the superior innocence of the sons of Adam who had tasted of the fruit ofthe tree of knowledge to those who had not, are, in M'Culloch's words, " entirely delusive, and fitted more to mislead than in

struct." They know all this, and what remedy do they propose for these enor. mous and unheard-of evils? Why, they make Mr Pare, the noted Socialist, Registrar of Marriages at Birmingham; they obstinately resist one farthing to Church- Extension, though in Glasgow alone the report of their own Commissioners showed 66,000 persons for whom there is no room in any place of worship, established or dissenting; and their remedy for all these evils is a grant of £30,000 a-year to Educa tion Commissioners, apart from and at variance with the Church, and where a sort of nondescript morality is to be taught, which the Papist, the Socinian, the Dissenter, the Presbyterian, and the Episcopalian can equally swallow. What is this but a system which will clearly aggravate the very evils which they themselves acknowledge to be now dissolving society, and, if generally adopted, bring forth a nest of young infidels—a brood of moral vipers into the world, who will speedily join the cry of “community of goods and women," and, giving full swing to their passions, overwhelm the state with horrors far exceeding those of the French Revolution?

The last panacea for a distracted state is the system of open questions. Of all means of hastening the dissolution of an empire that ever were devised this is the most effectual. What is the open question system? Why, it is just an abdication by Government, on certain subjects, of its vital functions-an abandonment of the great interests of society to the efforts of faction-an open proclamation of the principle, "Here are the wealth and property of the state! Huzza for the strongest !" Government, doubtless, do not intend this, when they go into this short-sighted policy, but they do a thing which will unquestionably have this effect. The subjects which are now to be left as open questions in the Cabinet are the Corn-Laws and the Ballot, to which it is easy to see, at no distant period, the Extension of the Suffrage will be added. To proclaim the open question system on such subjects, in such times as the present, is evidently to deliver over the empire to the hands

of the Revolutionists. What is it but saying,-Government is so weak that it cannot maintain any opinion of its own, even on subjects the most vital to the national existence; it cannot control the opinion of the masses, even when they are conscious they are urging the state to perdition; therefore all it can do is to let the opposite factions fight it out, and turn them like wild beasts into the great arena of Parliament, when the state and all its incalculable interests are to be the prey of the strongest ?

Lord Melbourne tells us that the idea of abolishing the Corn-Laws is the "most insane imagination that ever yet entered into the mind of man." Lord John Russell says, in the House of Commons, that the Ballot will prove fatal to public morality—that it will inevitably lead to the extension of the suffrage; and that again to a republican government and a division of property. Yet, entertaining these opinions-seeing these dangers-aware of these perils these noble lords, as a convenient way of avoiding the difficulty at the moment, make these vital matters open Cabinet questions ; in other words, leave the door open for the Revolutionists to work out, by the destruction of agriculture, the aristocracy, and the constitution, the ruin of the empire. What is this but a captain, when drifting on the breakers, proclaiming it an open question whether or not they shall put about the helm or furl the sails; or Wellington at Waterloo declaring it an question, on which his generals may follow their own opinion, whether they will fight or retreat?

open

How, then, has it happened that a Ministry, possessing, as their words demonstrate, the confidence of no interest, section, or party in the state; whose acts have outraged, injured, or endangered all the vital interests of the empire; and whose avowed principles are alike ruinous to public morality and destructive to public safety, should still command, as they unquestionably do, when matters come to a crisis, a majority of the House of Commons? This is the question which it behoves England to answer-this is the ques tion on which history will dwell with

astonishment. In our apprehension nothing is so plain as how it has happened we always foresaw and predicted it so far from being surprised at the result which has occurred, we should have been astonished if any other had happened.

Although all the great interests of the empire, that is, all persons having an interest in our institutions or possessions, are adverse to Ministers, yet there is an immense number of persons, even in those different sections of the community, who have not only no sympathy with them, but have decidedly adverse wishes. The empire is composed not only of the holders of property, but the holders of no property; not only of the house of Have, but the house of Want; not only of the good, but the bad; not only of the religious, but the infidel; not only of the industrious, but the prodigal; not only of the lovers of their country, but the haters of its institutions. Every class of society has numbers of such men in its bosom; every interest it contains, swarms with their ranks; every year that is added to the national age adds something to their numbers. There are abundance of insolvent landholders, bankrupt tenants, ruined merchants, labouring manufacturers, profligate publicans, indigent tradesmen, destitute operatives, not to mention the whole "host of abandoned and profligate moral characters;" the covetous, the sensual, the selfish, to whom the grandeur of the empire is an object of hatred, and the success of their compeers a matter of envy. "As many," says Bacon, "as there are overthrown fortunes, are there votes for innovation ;" and to that class nothing will ever be so attractive as a government which promises to pave the way for the realization of all their dreams of plunder and enjoyment. "Community of goods and women," gin for sixpence a-bottle, ale for the asking, bread for nothing, or at your neighbour's expense, constitute a very efficient war-cry for an age far advanced in wealth and civilisation, teeming with opulence, groaning under riches, abounding with wealth in some quarters and mouths in others. Nor will such a party ever want leaders: there are Catilines and Cetheguses in other ages besides that of Cicero. Without ascribing such

desperate projects to any of the British aristocracy, it is sufficient to observe, that a certain portion of the nobles will always be found in every country, who, from the various motives of spleen at rivals, disappointed hope, party violence, court vexation, Ministerial ingratitude, private profligacy, or factious ambition, will put themselves at the head of such a coalition; and a few honest men in inferior station who will, from deluded philanthropy or private resentment, follow its ranks.

It is this vast party, which the Reform Bill warmed into political life, by which the Whig Radical Ministry have from first to last been sustained. We do not say that the whole Whig- Radicals are persons of the sort we have named. There are some of their number whom we esteem and love, though we consider them as labouring on this subject under monomania; but we do most confidently say, that the vast majority of this hideous coalition is actuated by these motives, and that it is to carry them out that they support the Ministry. They dread the Conservatives, because they will put a period to the progress of the Movement: they support the Administration just because they see they are incapable of resisting it. The announcement of the open-question system is sufficient to set the whole Liberal camp in a tumult. However much they may abuse and despise Ministers, they will never fail to support them, and rally cordially round their banners at an election. The eloquence of Peel or Graham, of Stanley or Colquhoun, only confirms them in their opinions: by convincing their judgment that Ministers are incapable, you determine them to give them their most strenuous support. The Irish Papists, with O'Connell at their head, exclaim“Huzza for the Incapables! They are the men for our money-they will soon prostrate the strength of the empire-they will render the 700,000 fighting men unnecessary-they will avenge the wrongs of seven centuries

they will reinstate the Gael over the Sassenach-they will place the Church of Rome above the Protestant heresy! Huzza for the Incapables!" The Radicals say-" Huzza for the Squeezables They cannot resist the Movement-the Ballot is already an open

question-the Corn-Laws are goingthe land and the House of Peers are falling-Universal Suffrage is in prospect!-Huzza for the Squeezables!" The Chartists and Socialists exclaim"Huzza for the Intellectuals! They care nothing for religion or sectsall faiths are alike to them-all establishments are equally useful, all creeds equally false-they will open the door for universal reading of Socialist books-halls of science will be seen in every street-the Church is falling Christianity expiring—all property will soon be common- -Huzza for the Intellectuals!"

Thus this hideous coalition, composed of such jarring and frightful materials, is yet held together by the common bond of anticipated ruin to the state; and, while openly professing these doctrines, and urging on these principles, give their cordial support to the present Ministers, from the belief that by so doing they will best promote their dissolving and anti-national projects.

They, in fact, make no disguise of their designs; they openly say that they support Ministers because they are "squeezable," and because instalments may more easily be extracted from their hands than those of their opponents. We do not say the members of the House who support the Cabinet are actuated by any desire of effecting these objects, or bringing about the ruin of their country; but we say that the course they pursue is calculated to produce that effect, and that their supporters in the constituencies are for the most part actuated by these motives. In fact, they don't disguise them; they are everywhere proclaimed in the streets and on the housetops; and therefore it is that they always have and always will rally round the Whig-Radical Administration. They make their representatives vote they have confidence in Ministers, precisely because they themselves have

none.

MR PARKINSON, Mr Aubrey's solicitor, who resided at Grilston, the posttown nearest to Yatton, from which it was distant about six or seven miles, was sitting on the evening of Tuesday the 28th December 18, in his office, nearly finishing a letter to his London agents, Messrs Runnington and Company-one of the most eminent firms in the profession-and which he was desirous of dispatching by that night's mail. Amongst other papers which have come into my hands in connection with this history, I have happened to light on the letter Mr Parkinson was writing; and as it is not long, and affords a specimen of the way in which business is carried on between town and country attorneys and solicitors, here followeth a copy of it :

"Grilston, 28th Dec. 18-.

"Dear Sirs,

"Re Middleton. "Have you got the marriage-settlements between these parties ready? If so, please send them as soon as possible; for both the lady's and gentleman's friends are (as usual in such cases) very pressing for them.

"Puddinghead v. Quickwit. "Plaintiff bought a horse of defendant in November last, warranted

NO. CCXCIV. VOL. XLVII.

sound,' and paid for it on the spot £64. A week afterwards, his attention was accidentally drawn to the animal's head; and, to his infinite surprise, he discovered that the left eye was a glass eye, so closely resembling the other in colour, that the difference could not be discovered except on a very close examination. I have seen it myself, and it is indeed wonderfully well done. My countrymen are certainly pretty sharp hands in such matters-but this beats every thing I ever heard of. Surely this is a breach of the warranty. Or is it to be considered a patent defect, which would not be within the warranty?-Please take pleader's opinion, and particularly as to whether the horse could be brought into court to be viewed by the court and jury, which would have a great effect. If your pleader thinks the action will lie, let him draw declaration, venue- Lancashire (for my client would have no chance with a Yorkshire Jury.) Qu.-Is the man who sold the horse to defendant a competent witness for the plaintiff, to prove that when he sold it to defendant it had but one eye?

"Mule v. Stott. "I cannot get these parties to come to an amicable settlement. You may

2 E