of the soil for the people's benefit, royal visits might be made more useful

'Then for displays of gorgeous fruit and flowers,

And offerings of mere useless luxury,

All would be zealous to evince their powers

Of ruling well, whate'er their place might be ;

For palaces, a happy peasantry;

For splendid mills, a more contented mass

Of artisans, the only rivalry

Fit for a Sovereign's sight.'—

'What matters it what Governments may aim,

If priest and landlord ruin mind and means?
Then go to Ireland and its huts explore,

And you will feel that there is wretchedness;

Call round its priests, and learn from them the lore;
They teach the people, and you'll wonder less

That they are scarcely human !'

This is surely pretty strong for this time of day, and yet it is literally true.

We will just touch upon another subject, and have done. This is the treatment of men of science, and inventors and instructors generally, in this country. We have had some mawky twaddle lately on this subject, from low quarters, as well as from high. Our author, of course, speaks clearly upon this, as upon all other themes touched by him, and we should have been sorry if such an authority as he is soon likely to be, had not been in the right. Others as well as statesmen (as 'cart-horse politicians' are too often called) have erred upon this subject, merchants and manufacturers for example, and they now hear of it. We need not here take up the treatment of inventors in mechanics

'The men who made the country what it is;'

in manufactures, because we think that will be read and marked' in the pages of our author; but we are anxious that the cause of the men of thought' should have every certainty of being heard that we can give it; and this is what is said of them:

"Yes! but for men of science and of thought,

What were the World? what were it but a den

Of brutal tyrants, capable of nought

But mischief, and of unimproving men?
Lo! Africa (lest it too much should strain

To bring to mind again the Heptarchy)

They have their Kings and statesmen, fighting men,
Nay, and their priesthood, and yet what are they?-

What we without our literature should be.
The leaven of the earth are learned men,
They are the men to whom the world should bend,
Not to the mere retailers of their thought;
Into all time their potent voice they send,
And from their words is growing wisdom wrought:
Yet, what is their reward or reverence? Nought!
The priest, the judge, the statesman-all are trades;
They sit enthroned in palaces unbought;

The teachers of the world must hide their heads
In life's most sordid or sequestered shades.'

There is much more to this purpose, for the subject calls for it; but we think it will be sought where it ought to be sought, and that it will not willingly be let die.' We hoped to be able to give some of the many graceful things said to the Queen; but even in that also we must almost deny ourselves. If her Majesty shall ever see the book, we think it must stimulate her thoughts upon many things. The greatest compliment paid is in holding her likely to take an interest and a responsibility in such matters as are here considered, and refusing to think otherwise; and we have no doubt she will justify the confidence, if it shall ever be placed in her power, Meantime, the following appears both energetic and graceful:

With millions of uncultivated land,
And science rising till it even assumes
The functions of the wonder-working hand,
And with a ray of Heaven the earth illumes,
Who is he that this land to failure dooms ?
We are but on the threshold of our power;
To me, the universal empire blooms

With wealth and beauty never known before;
And war and tyranny will soon be known no more.

Hasten the period, ever gracious Queen!

Send all thy voice can influence to their toils;
Tell them no spot in Britain should be seen
Not yielding something suited to the soils;
Till like an Eden the whole kingdom smiles
In peaceful and contented industry;
And, having settled thus these happy isles,
You then with ease and dignity may see
All other lands, and bid them learn of Thee.

Meantime you are in your great place so pure,
No one would bear disaster to thy hearth;
For thee no prisoner weeps the weary hour;
The royal prisons might be cast to earth:
No rumour even of unseemly mirth

In aught indifference to our state conveys;
But matron modesty and Queenly worth,

And hatred of all trivial displays,

And this even in the opening of thy days—

What may a life like this, not merit yet of praise?'

VOL. I. NO. IX.

BB

Grave tasks are imposed upon Her Majesty :

A Roman Emperor justly boasted once

Of leaving marble where he found but clay :

Leave You each British home such as a Queen might see !'

And in the Queen's royal name,—

Injustice shall not reach them' (her people), or to me.
Oh! talk no more of empire or renown;

They shall not feel the gripe of poverty,

If I should pledge the jewels of my Crown!
No, Britain is all things on earth to me,

And nought is done unless, tis for her good;

I live but for her Peace and Dignity,

My Crown were else but as a gilded hood.'

We

Every one will doubtless respond Amen, and admit such feelings are worthy of the exalted personage addressed. think the finest, if not the justest thing said of the Duke of Wellington's intellect, is here struck off

'It feels no age, knew no minority.'

To end as we began, we repeat this work is a remarkable one, and will certainly live in our memory. Walter Scott entitled the first of his novels, 'Sixty years since;' this might be entitled 'Sixty years hence;' for unquestionably it is in many things a great stride in advance.

We should add that the volume, though modestly, is neatly got up; very accurately printed, and highly creditable in its executive details to the cooperative Bibliopoles of London and Edinburgh, who have ushered it into the world.

FREE TRADE IN RELIGION AND EDUCATION.-The freedom that is salutary in commerce is not equally so in religion and education. In the unrestricted competition of the former individual good is identified with the aggregate weal, but not in the latter. In trade a man left freely to seek his own interest, best promotes that of the community. But in faith and tuition, so far from the interests of teachers coinciding with the interests of the community, they are often conflicting It is the interest of the public to be instructed by the shortest and most efficient modes but it is not the interest of the instructors to make education expeditious and effective-it would curtail their employment. Bentham used to say that lawyers had the same interest in bad laws that workmen have in bad machinery, or no machinery at all-it made work. If people were in constant health, what need would there be of physicians? A superstitious priesthood have a like interest in the perpetuation of ignorance, not the enlightenment of the people. What offerings would be made to idols, if a popular apprehension of their malign power were not kept alive by imposture and lies? It is not meant to insinuate that educators or professors are so void of principle as to act unfaithfully in their respective vocations; that doctors do not cure their patients in the best and shortest mode; that tutors and schoolmasters do not instruct their pupils by the cheapest and aptest methods; that lawyers do not rescue their clients with all possible despatch from hopeless and ruinous litigation, nor priests their followers from darkness and delusion: all that is sought to be illustrated is, that there is not the same community of interest between them and the public that subsists between the public and the merchant. If people were their own teachers, lawyers, and divines, then the leave alone system would be as applicable in law, religion, and education, as it is in trade. But the relation between the public and the classes just mentioned approximates nearer to the relation between the slave and the slaveowner, in which it is the interest of the master not to do the best he can for his slave, but to make the most of him,

LATE ALTERATIONS OF THE DEBTOR LAWS.*

SIR JAMES GRAHAM has twice declared during the current parliamentary session that sufficient time had not elapsed to test the recent alterations in the Debtor Laws, and no further change was in contemplation. We hope Ministers will have the firmness to adhere to this determination. It is not from indifference to the interests of any class, however small, that we urge upon them the policy of perseverance, but from a deep conviction that they have legislated upon a sound principle, which requires time only to realize all the practical benefits anticipated. But it is manifest that no amendment can be made in the relations of property, or the distribution of legal powers, without inflicting temporary suffering, at least, in some quarter. It is also clear that the suffering class, if organized, active, and clamorous, may make their sufferings appear more than equivalent to the undeniable benefits conferred on all the rest of society. A third truth not less obvious is, that the minority, if energetic and vociferous, and aided by the quiescence of the majority, may, by their one-sided appeals, cause both the public and Parliament to forget pre-existing evils, and in a moment of precipitancy, to the great detriment of the community, to retrace their steps. It is of this result that we are apprehensive; we fear a retrograde movement,† and it is to avert this that we shall occupy a few pages of our Journal in calling to recollection the former relations of debtor and creditor, and the imperative considerations in which the new legislation originated.

It may be useful to remind some of our readers of the two more important alterations in the debtor laws to which we allude, and this we shall do without technicality or circumlocution.

First, the power of arrest on mesne process has been abolish. ed. No person can now be arrested for any amount of debt

1 & 2 Vict., c. 90,-An Act for Abolishing Arrest on Mesne Process in Civil Actions, and for extending the Remedies of Creditors against the Property of Debtors. 2 & 3 Vict., c. 39,-An Act to amend an Act passed in the last Session for Abolishing Arrest on Mesne Process.

5 & 6 Vict., c. 96,-An Act for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors.

7 & 8 Vict., c, 96,-An Act to amend the Law of Insolvency, Bankruptcy, and Execution.

7 & 8 Vict., c. 70,-An Act for facilitating Arrangements between Debtors and Creditors.

The House of Lords has been already prevailed upon, by sundry petitions and private applications, to nominate a select committee to inquire into the operation of the act abolishing imprisonment for debts not exceeding £20.

till the legal existence of the debt itself has been established before a competent tribunal; unless reasons can be adduced, satisfactory to one of the judges, that the debtor intends to leave the kingdom, and thereby withdraw from the jurisdiction of his creditors. In contrast with this melioration we shall state the former state of the law, which was this :-If a man owed five pounds (it was afterwards raised to ten, next to fifteen, and finally to twenty pounds), the creditor could, at his own pleasure, without notice or proving a shilling of his debt, arrest the person of his debtor, and carry him away from his business, his family, and his friends, and lodge him in a prison or sponging-house.

The second great alteration in the Debtor Laws is that which abolishes imprisonment for debt on final process, when the debt recovered by the judgment of the court does not exceed £20, exclusive of costs.

In compensation for these curtailments of creditorial despotism the Legislature has made important concessions. They have abridged the power of the creditor over the person, but have extended it over the property of his debtor. They have made, for instance, lands, tithes, and hereditaments liable to an extent under an execution which they were not before. Money, bank-notes, checks, bills of exchange, bonds, and promissory notes are all now seizable by the sheriff. Government stock, and shares in public companies whether incorporated or not, if standing in the debtor's name, may be charged with his debts. And every judgment debt carries interest at the rate of four per cent. per annum from the time of entering up judgment.* Further, they have armed the creditor with a power of criminal punishment when debts have been contracted under fraudulent pretences, without reasonable assurance of being able to pay them. In addition, the judges have the discretionary authority just mentioned to prevent debtors by personal arrest from absconding.

In legislating upon these principles a course in our opinion has been pursued conformable with the dictates of humanity, justice, and good policy. What does the creditor seek by his suit? Of course, the payment of his debt-not to wreak his vengeance upon the person, family, or private affairs of his debtor. Because a man owes ten, twenty, or fifty pounds, would he be heartless enough to destroy him for ever, in health, morals, and prospects, by shutting him up in a prison?

* 1 & 2 Vict., c. 110, ss. 11 to 17.

† 7 & 8 Vict., c. 96, s. 59.