a few steps; his Majesty smiled in a very gracious manner, waved his hand towards us, and said something in a peculiarly kind accent which we did not distinctly hear; he then turned round, and the whole party along with him; which set us at liberty without impropriety to turn to the right about ourselves, and make our egress from the gardens. This incident, to me at my age, was very naturally one of considerable interest. But the reflection, to which I alluded above, as one which, even at those years, it forcibly impressed upon me, suggested itself often afterwards, and at the moment of recording it in a journal which I kept, or tried to keep, at that period. It was this: Was it possible that much truth of a general nature, bearing upon man and social interests, could ever reach the ear of a King, under the etiquette of a court, and under that one rule which seemed singly sufficient to foreclose all natural avenues to truth-the rule, I mean, by which it is forbidden to address a question to the King. I was well aware, before I saw him, that in the royal presence, like the dead soldier in Lucan whom the mighty enchantress tortures back into a mo. mentary life, I must have no voice except for his attestation to the truth (or to the generallying a profound obeisance, we retired backwards reputed truth) of a story which I had heard from higher authority-viz. that the librarian, or, if not officially the librarian, at least the chief director in everything relating to the books, was an illegitimate son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, (son to George II.) and therefore half-brother of the King. His own taste and inclinations, it seemed, concurred with his brother's wishes in keeping him in a subordinate rank and an obscure station; in which, however, he enjoyed affluence without anxiety, or trouble, or courtly envy and the luxury, which he most valued, of a superb library. He lived and died, I have heard, as plain Mr. Barnard. At one time I disbelieved this story, (which possibly may have been long known to the public,) on the ground that even George III. would not have differed so widely from princes in general as to leave a brother of his own, however unaspiring, wholly undistinguished by public honours. But having since ascertained that a naval officer, well known to my own family, and to a naval brother of my own in particular, by assistance rendered to him repeatedly when a midshipman in changing his ship, was undoubtedly an illegitimate son of George III., and yet that he never rose higher than the rank of Post Captain, though privately acknowledged by his father and other members of the Royal Family, I found the insufficiency of that objection. The fact is, and it does honour to the King's memory-he reverenced the moral feelings of his country, which are, in this and in all points of domestic morals, severe and hightoned, [I say it in defiance of writers such as Lord Byron, Mr Hazlitt, &c., who hated alike the just and the unjust pretensions of England,] in a degree absolutely incomprehensible to Southern Europe. He had his frailties like other children of Adam; but he did not seek to court and fix the public attention upon them, after the fashion of Louis Quatorze, or our Charles II. There were living witnesses (more than one) of his aberrations as of theirs ; but he, with better feelings than they, did not choose, by placing these witnesses upon a pedestal of honour, surmounted by heraldic trophies, to emblazon his own transgressions to coming generations, and to force back the gaze of a remote posterity upon his own infirmities. It was his ambition to be the father of his people in a sense not quite so literal. These were things, however, of which at that time I had not heard. During the whole dialogue, I did not even once remark that hesitation and iteration of words, generally attributed to George III.; indeed, so generally, that it must often have existed; but in this case, I suppose that the brevity of his sentences operated to deliver him from any embarrassment of utterance, such as might have attended longer or more complex sentences, where an anxiety was natural to overtake the thoughts as they arose. When we observed that the King had paused in his stream of questions, which succeeded rapidly to each other, we understood it as a signal of dismissal; and mak answers. "vox illi linguaque tantum Responsura datur." I was to originate nothing myself; and at my age, before so exalted a personage, the mere instincts of reverential demeanour would at any rate have dictated that rule. But what becomes of that man's general condition of mind in relation to all the great objects moving on the field of human experience, where it is a law generally for almost all who approach him, that they shall confine themselves to replies, absolute responses, or at most to a prosecution or carrying forward of a proposition delivered by the protagonist, or supreme leader of the conversation? For it must be remembered that, generally speaking, the effect of putting no question, is to transfer into the other party's hands the entire originating movement of the dialogue; and thus, in a musical metaphor, the great man is the sole modulator, and determiner of the key in which the conversation proceeds. It is true, that sometimes, by a little travelling beyond the question in your answer, you may enlarge the basis, so as to bring up the new train of thought which you wish to introduce; and may suggest fresh matter as effectually, as if you had the liberty of more openly guiding the conversation either by way of question, or by direct origination of a topic; but this depends on skill to improve an opening, or vigilance to seize it at the instant, and, after all, much upon accident: to say nothing of the crime, a sort of petty treason perhaps, or, what is it? if you should be detected in your "improvements" and "enlargements of basis." Freedom of communication, unfettered movement of thought, there can be none under such a ritual, which tends violently to a Byzantine, or even to a Chinese result of freezing, as it were, all na tural and healthy play of the faculties under the petrific mace of absolute ceremonial and fixed precedent. For it will hardly be objected that the privileged condition of a few official councilors and Ministers of State, whose hurry and oppression of thought from public care will rarely allow them to speak on any other subject than business, can be a remedy large enough for so large an evil. True it is, that a peculiarly frank or jovial temperament in a sovereign may do much for a season to thaw this punctilious reserve and ungenial constraint; but that is an accident, and personal to an individual. And, on the other hand, to balance even this, and for the moment, I have remarked, that, in all noble and fashionable society, where there happens to be a pride in sustaining what is deemed a good tone in conversation, it is peculiarly aimed at (and even artificially managed,) that no lingering or loitering upon one theme, no protracted discussion, shall be allowed. And, doubtless, as regards merely the treatment of convivial or | purely social communication of ideas, (which also is a great art,) this practice is right. I admit willingly that an uncultured brute, who is detected at an elegant table in the atrocity of absolute discussion or disputation, ought to be summarily removed by a police officer; and possibly the law will warrant his being held to bail for one or two years, according to the enormity of his case. But men are not always enjoying or seeking to enjoy social pleasure; they seek also, and have need to seek continually, both through books and men, intellectual growth, fresh power, fresh strength, fresh health, to keep themselves a-head or a-breast of this moving, surging, billow ing world of ours, in these modern times, when society, for reasons in part easily explained, revolves through so many new phases, and shifts its aspects with so much more velocity than in past ages. A King, especially of this country, needs, beyond most other men, to keep himself in a continual state of communication, as it were by some vital and organic sympathy, with the most essential of these changes. And yet this punctilio of etiquette, like some vicious forms of : w, or technical fictions grown too narrow for the age, which will not allow of cases coming before the Court in a shape, desired alike by the plaintiff and the defendant, is so framed as to defeat equally the wishes of a prince disposed to gather knowledge wherever he can find it, and of those who may be best fitted to give it. However, to leave dissertation behind me, and to resume the thread of my narrative, an inci. dent, which about this period impressed me far more profoundly and more durably than my first introduction to a royal presence, was my first visit to London. (To be continued.) ATTENDANCE IN PARLIAMENT. It is much to be regretted that some mode is not adopted for placing on record the votes of the representatives of the people, in an effective manner, instead of leaving it to Mr. Hume and other industrious members, to make out the majorities or minorities, as they have hitherto done, with great labour and loss of time. A proposal was made by Mr. Harvey, last session, to have the names of the members in every division taken down. The proposal was rejected: but it is to be hoped that, in the ensuing session, it will be renewed with better success. We have before us a list of 211 divisions in the House during last session; and although some of them may have been of minor importance, yet the publication of the names of those who voted for and against, as well as of those who were absent on every division, would be a most valuable statement for the constituents, to enable them to judge of the conduct of their representatives. Some of the members for Scotland, particularly those for Aberdeen, Perth, Kirkaldy, &c., have been entertained at public dinners by their constituents; their public conduct in Parliament, in the last session, has been praised as consistent and liberal throughout; and their votes in support of those measures which were demanded by the country, as the fruits of the Reform Bill, have been approved of. We hope that some person will take the trouble to collect and publish all the divisions that have taken place; that when the day of rendering account of their conduct shall arrive, each member may be judged of by his acts in the House, or by his keeping out of the House when he ought to have been there, rather than by his speeches at public dinners. We annex a list of some of the divisions; to show that, on very few occasions, so many as onehalf of the members attended. Some of the most important questions were decided when only onefourth or one sixth of the members were present. Surely these are points deserving the attention of electors everywhere. One or two examples may be cited. When the Ministers, after rendering the collection of tithes in Ireland impossible, by their unconstitutional acts of 1832, by which the King was made the collector of tithes,-proposed to advance one million, from the taxes of England, to pay Irish clergymen and lay impropriators for the arrears of tithes due to them, there were only 162 members in the House, on the 12th of August, to protect the public purse, and prevent the richest church in the world receiving one million from our taxes. On the second reading of that bill, 109 voted for, and only 53 out of 658 representatives could be found to vote against such an abominable grant. Ought not every member absent on such an occasion The people are becoming daily too enlightened, and too poor, to permit the misapplication of so much public money, as is now spent on the sine. cure churchmen of Ireland; and it is unreasonable in Lord Althorp and his colleagues, who took credit with the public for their intentions to carry on the Government of the country without patronage, to expect that the people have forgotten, if the Ministers have, that pledge. Besides, it has been agreed upon by the House of Commons, contrary, we admit, to the wishes of Lord Althorp and his colleagues, that all civil, military, and naval sinecures, shall cease. They are mistaken who think that clerical sinecures can be much longer endured by a people suffering under excessive taxation. to be called to account, as well as those who voted | ment in Ireland is reduced to the wants of half a for the grant? Again, on the 19th of August, million of people, and the immense property now when Mr. Hume moved that that loan of one mil- enjoyed by the sinecure clergy, applied by Parlialion, if not repaid by the clergy and impropriators, ment to public purposes, for the relief of the buras proposed by the bill, should be made good to the dens of the people. In every other country, expublic treasury from the property of the Church, cept Spain and Portugal, such has been the applionly 111 members were present; viz., 42 supcation of the Church property. The time is ported Mr. Hume's motion, 69 opposed it; and not very distant when we shall see the same use 547 members were absent, regardless of their made of the Church property in Ireland; in spite duty, or of the public interests they were sent of the conspiracy of Stanley, Althorp, and Grey, to Parliament to support. The Ministers are to keep up that enormous Juggernaut, the Irish very justly blamed, but the members of the Episcopal Church. House are more to blame. Ministers never would dare to propose such a vote, if members attended to do their duty. The exhibition of the divisions shows many curious and important results. One of them is, of itself, sufficient to condemn the present House of Commons, as subservient to men, and careless of measures. On the 14th of June, when Lord Althorp moved his resolutions for reform in the Irish Church, one of which declared that all the money arising from the sale of Church leases and lands in Ireland, should be placed at the disposal of Parliament, for the public service, there were 310 members present, and 348 absent,-of those present, 270 voted for that resolution, and only 40 Tories voted against it. But, on the 21st of June, to the eternal shame of Earl Grey's administration, and particularly of Lord Althorp, if he has any sense of shame remaining, when Mr. Stanley proposed to strike out of the Irish Church Reform Bill, the 147th clause, thereby taking away from Parliament that control of the money from the sale of Church leases, agreed to on the 14th of June by so large a majority; my Lord Althorp, and 279 of his dependents, (all of those who had voted for the propo.. sition on the 14th of June,) turned round at the desire of Mr. Stanley, regardless of their pledge to the country, and, without shame, voted for the striking out the 147th clause, thereby rendering the bill, as regarded the reform of the Church property, absolutely worthless. Such a shameful exhibition of slavish, disgraceful subserviency, to the nod of a Minister, cannot be found during the odious Castlereagh administration. So much for Whig consistency, and for Whig honesty. By that bill they have actually made the Irish Church richer than it was, and taken from Parliament the power of interference with the Church property. It should be recollected, that Ministers defended the Coercion Bill, by assurances that, if passed, they would be able to carry into effect measures of efficient reform, of which the 147th clause of the Irish Church Bill was the most important. We feel confident that there will be no peace in Ireland, and we question whether there ought to be any, until the Church Establish A list of the principal divisions of last session is annexed, that the public may, from it, draw their own conclusions. The electors deserve to be, and will continue to be, loaded like asses, (and asses they will prove themselves to be,) if they allow the Ministers, or their own representatives, to act, in any future session, as they have acted in the past one; cheating the people and the cause of liberty over the world of the advantages of our Parliamentary Reform. France has been cheated of the benefit of her revolution, and now groans under the Holy-Alliance persecutions through the person of Louis Philippe. Let it not be said, or tolerated, that the people of Great Britain have driven away from power the Tories, because their acts were against the liberties and rights of the subject; and that they will quietly submit to be deprived of their rights and liberties, by hypocritical Whigs, who, having got into power on the shoulders of the people, use that power which was so gallantly won, and so generously bestowed upon them, by that people, to press their supporters down by a continuance of the multifarious abuses now existing. No, no; the people will not longer be slaves to either the Whig or the Tory faction. They will demand, and, if they act firmly and steadily together, they will obtain the benefits sought for by the Reform Bill; which are all comprehended in a cheap and a good government,* We request the particular attention of the Reform Constituencies to this article. The writer (who is one of our most distinguished public men, and one of the people's most valued friends) has had ample opportunities of knowing how much the public business, especially every notion for the reform of profitable abuses, suffers by the bad atten. dance of members pledged to a liberal policy. On the most important occasions, the absence of not a few miscalled liberal members was not accidental. Shirking the division was so notorious a practice of Whiggish liberal members, who duist neither disobey the Minstry L olend their constituents, that the really liberal members knew perfectly well beforehand, who would, and who would not skulk away, to avoid voting. 1833. Feb. 14. Mr. Eume. Against Sinecure Offices in the Army and Navy, Mar. 11. Lord Althorp. For Second Reading of Irish Church Reform Bill, 26. Mr. Robinson. For a Select Committee to Revise Taxation, April 2. Mr. Hume. To Abolish Flogging in the Army, May 24. Lord Althorp. Against the Depreciation of the Standard of Value, 26. Sir W. Ingilby. 30. Sir J. Key. For Reducing the Duty on Malt, 3. Mr. Hume. For Reducing the Vote of L.3,168,216, for the Land 10. Mr. Hume. For Reducing the Vote of L.103,318, 13s. 6d. for Vo- 17. Mr. W. Whitmore. For Alteration in the Corn Laws. 22. Mr. R. Grant. For Second Reading of Jewish Disabilities Bill, June 14. Lord Althorp. First Resolution in Committee on Irish Tithes Bill, 18. Colonel Evans. To Repeal Rate-Paying Clause in the Reform Bill, 18. Mr. Fryer. For a Bill to Amend the Corn Act, . July 21. Mr. Stanley. To Strike out Clause 147 of the Irish Church Bill, 26. Mr. Gillon. (Royal Scotch Burghs Bill.) That all Burgesses have 27. Mr. Finch. For the Suppression of Political Unions, 28. Colonel Torrens. To Postpone Consideration of Bank Charter Bill 1. Lord Althorp. For Making Bank of England Notes a Legal Ten- 8. Mr. Stanley. That the Irish Church Bill do pass, 8. Mr. Gillon. To Insert L.5 instead of L.10, in First Clause of 9. Mr. C. Fergusson. On Polish Affairs, 12. Mr. Hume. Notice as to Renewal of East India Company's Charter 16. Mr. Ruthven. That the Reduction of Taxation and Sinecures are 17. Mr. Hume. To Adjourn Discussion on Clause 89 (on the Church) 22. Mr. R. Grant. Third Reading of Jewish Disabilities Bill, 26. Mr. C. Fergusson. To Strike out Clause 53 of East India Company's Charter Bill, 26. Mr. C. Wynn. To Send No More Students to Haileybury College, (East India Company's Charter Bill,) 46 66 592 475 31. Mr. Stanley. To Vote L.20.000,000 for the West India Planters, 132 51 183 Aug. 5. Mr. Littleton. For the Advance of L.1,000,000 to the Protestant Irish Clergy for Tithes, 5. Sir C. Burrell. Second Reading of Labour Rate Bill, 6. Mr. Littleton. That Report on Irish Tithes be read, 9. Mr. Gisborne. To Postpone Bank Charter Bill for Six Months, 17. Mr. Hume. To Postpone Grant of L.20,000 for Building Schools, 87 51 138 520 17 29 46 612 34 15 49 609 40 119 159 499 47 122 169 489 109 53 162 492 54 59 113 545 26 50 76 582 PROSPECTS OF THE PEOPLE DURING THE COMING SESSION. No. II.-POOR LAWS.* FROM the evidence already adduced, and from the known intentions and opinions of the commissioners appointed to investigate the effect of the poor laws, it is evident that the course that ought to be pursued in this important and delicate subject will be marked out for his Majesty's Government. Whether they will have the courage to follow that course, we very vehemently doubt. They will not, however, be able in this case, as in most others, to plead ignorance of the right conduct, as an excuse for their mistakes: if they go wrong, it will be because they have not the courage to go right. We will first briefly explain the plan that we expect will be recommended, and which ought to be adopted; and then point out those sinister interests which will coerce and alarm the Ministers. The persons who are accustomed to demand parish relief may be divided into two classesclasses between whom there runs a broad and very important line of distinction. 1st, The aged, the infirm, and children. 2d, The able-bodied who are without the means of subsistence. Respecting the first class no difficulty occurs. The providing for those whom age has disabled, and whom fortune has not so favoured as to provide them with a sufficient fund for their maintenance, cannot be such a temptation to improvidence as need alarm the Legislature. If, while he has had health and strength, the poor supplicant has maintained himself by his own hard toil, let us not fear to be charitable unto him in the hour of his distress, brought on by age and infirmity. There can be no demoralizing the labourer by obeying the dictate of humanity. The same observation holds with respect to those who are incapable, through mental imbecility and disease. We, therefore, dismiss the consideration of this portion of this class, by saying, that the State ought to provide for them a decent and comfortable subsistence. The case of children deprived of all means of support, but that which the State may offer, is one calling peculiarly on the sympathies of their more prosperous brethren. If they come in the condition of orphans, it is hard to conceive a case more painfully distressing: and we are sure that every right-feeling man would deem it an imperative duty to alleviate, as far as possible, the misery by which they are afflicted. Do what we may, that lot must be a wretched one. The State will in vain endeavour to supply the affection and solicitude of a parent. It cannot give In our next number we shall treat of the expenditure of the Government, and the mode of carrying on the business of the Session. To the subject of national education we shall also devote a separate paper. From the repeated declarations of persons connected with the Ministry, it would seem that something will be attempted on this important subject. Let us hope that it may prove a really effective plan. VOL. I.-NO. I. the little sufferers a mother, on whose bosom they may rest; who will listen patiently to their wailings, and will never feel tired with watching and tending them. Although this cannot be done, yet much may be effected to make their lives comfortable, and to rear them into industrious and worthy members of society. To this end great care should be taken of their education. They should be taught, not to feel that a foul stigma is affixed to them for life as parish children, but that they have been unfortunate in needing public support. They should be filled with the hope of one day being independent, and with an ardent desire to labour to attain that much-cherished object. Children thus reared would easily find employment when capable of labour. After the age of fourteen, they ought to be no longer considered children; but if still dependent on public support, should be treated as able-bodied paupers. Every correct system of a pauper establishment would thus necessarily include an efficient system of education. The case of the able-bodied pauper is of a very different complexion. Without any specific experience, we might at once assume, that to confer a legal right on every one not possessed of the means of subsistence, to demand support of the community, would go far to destroy the industry and morality of the labouring classes. Improvidence would not bring its punishment; idleness, extravagance, drunkenness, and all the many vices which idleness engenders, would incur no restraint, and would not be followed by those pungent evils which serve as the best sanction against their existence. Such, without any specific experience, is the conclusion to which we should be driven by the consideration alone of the principles of human nature. "If by law every human being wanting support," says Mr. Ricardo, "could be sure to obtain it, and obtain it in such a degree as to make life tolerably comfortable, theory would lead us to expect, that all other taxes put together would be light, when compared with the single one of poor-rates. The principle of gravitation is not more certain than the tendency of such laws to change wealth and power into misery and weakness; to call away the exertions of labour from every object, except that of providing mere subsistence; to confound all intellectual distinction; to busy the mind continually in supplying the body's wants; until at last all classes should be infected with the plague of universal poverty. Happily these laws have been in operation during a period of progressive prosperity, when the funds for the maintenance of labour have regularly increased, and when an increase of population would naturally be called for. But if our progress should become more slow, if we should attain the stationary state, from which I trust C |