with the equilibrium of the whole. Were it fixed by act of Parlia ment, that as soon as any borough is disfranchised for corruption, its member should be returned by the unrepresented town, containing the greatest population, a clear inlet would be opened for the gradual extension of popular power. It is just because we feel strongly the benefit of any such progressive change that we deprecate the introduction of any sudden and general measure at this juncture.

The Duke of Wellington's declaration against Reform in the House of Lords has been more the subject of obloquy than any statement by a minister in the recollection of any man living. So also was the battle of Navarino: the most glorious event almost that ever graced the annals of Britain, the justest and "bravest deed" ever done by a Christian power. Yet who now concurs in the vituperation that was once lavished on that heroic achievement? We are proud to take the lead in dissenting from the clamour; and in recording the assertion on Feb. 1, 1831, that, situated as the country was, assailed by domestic incendiaries, and convulsed by foreign revolutionary example, it was the wisest statement that could then have been made by a Prime Minister. General dissent will probably be expressed against this opinion and it will be said, timely concession was the only way to avert a revolution. We shall see, when it becomes matter of history, to which side the verdict of reason will incline.

From the language and conduct of all parties at the present crisis, one would imagine that the lessons of experience have been forgotten by the young, the experience of years by the old. The 13th Charles II. c. 32, enacts, "That no person or persons shall repair to his Majesty, or both or either Houses of Parliament upon pretence of presenting or delivering any petition, complaint, remonstrance, declaration, or other addresses, accompanied with excessive numbers of persons, nor at any one time with above the number of ten persons, under the penalty of L.100 in money and three months' imprisonment." In the case of Lord George Gordon's riot in 1781, it was

determined by Lord Mansfield, that this act was in full force. Nevertheless, in December 1830, a deputation of the trades of London, attended by 8000 persons bearing a tricolor flag, presented a congratulatory address to the sovereign.

We acquit all concerned in this measure of the remotest bad intention. We know the demeanour of the trades in the procession was perfectly becoming; and we have no doubt that the Government conscientiously believed, that contesting the point would have been productive of worse effects than conceding it to the people. But still the propriety of the measure remains a question, and it is material to attend to the consequences of the practice in the neighbouring kingdom.

Early in the revolution, the custom was introduced of presenting addresses to the French king by numerous deputations from different bodies, and for some time without any bad consequences. But what was conceded to one set of petitioners could not be refused to another; and what was yielded in periods of tranquillity as a measure of prudence, came to be demanded in moments of agitation as a matter of right. At length, on October 5, 1789, four months after the meeting of the States General, the scarcity of provisions in Paris, the natural consequence of a revolution, produced an unusual degree of excitement among the labouring classes. They set off in a body, 30,000 strong, to present their petitions to the king. Fayette in vain endeavoured to induce the National Guard to resist the tumult: after labouring for five hours without intermission, he was obliged to yield to the torrent. furious multitude of drunken men and abandoned women proceeded to Versailles, where they insulted the King, broke at midnight into the palace, ransacked the royal apartments, and pierced the bed of the Queen with their bayonets in spite at the escape of their victim. On the following day, the royal family were brought captives in mournful procession to Paris. "Two of the Body Guard, with all the parade of the execution of justice, were cruelly and publicly dragged to the block,

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their heads stuck upon spears, and led in the procession; while the royal captives, who followed in the train, were slowly moved along, amidst the horrid yells and thrilling screams, and frantic dances, and infamous contumelies of furies of hell in the abused shape of the vilest of women. After they had been made to taste drop by drop more than the bitterness of death in the slow torture of a journey of twelve miles, protracted to six hours, they were, under a guard composed of those very soldiers who had thus conducted them through this mournful triumph, lodged in the old palace of the Tuileries, now become a Bastile for kings." *

On June 20, 1792, when the passions of the people were wrought up to the highest pitch by the refusal of the king to sanction the inhuman laws against the nonjuring priests and emigrant nobility, an immense body of workmen proceeded from the Fauxbourg St Antoine to present a petition to the king, praying him to withdraw the veto. The unruly torrent first approached the National Assembly, and tumultuous bands defiled through the Hall of the Deputies, amidst the shouts of the Jacobins. Next, they inundated the Tuileries, filled every apartment of the palace, insulted the royal family, surrounded the king for hours with vociferous threats, and compelled him to put on, in derision, the red cap of liberty. The smallest accident on that day would have exposed to destruction the whole royal family.

On 2d June, 1793, forty thousand armed men proceeded to present a petition to the National Convention, that very democratic assembly which had so recently beheaded the king, praying for the immediate impeachment of six of its members. Beset on all sides, the deputies in vain endeavoured to impose on the people by the majesty of the legislature, and force a passage through the columns of the assailants; the insurgents pointed their cannons against the Assembly, and drove them back in dismay to their seat of deliberation. "Retire, deliberate, and OBEY!" said

Marat, and the trembling legislators, in momentary expectation of death, yielded to the demands of the sovereign multitude, and gave up the thirty-one illustrious leaders of the Gironde, the bravest and noblest republicans, to captivity and death. With the presenting of that petition commenced the Reign of Terror in France.

On the 20th May, 1795, an assemblage of the populace of Paris surrounded the Hall of the Convention to present a petition, praying for "bread and the constitution 1793." Unable to resist such formidable supplicants, the Convention were compelled to admit them to the bar of the Assembly. Vociferous multitudes defiled in their presence, exclaiming, "Bread and the constitution 1793 " Pikes and pistols were presented to the breast of the president, the deputy Feraud, who, with generous devotion, interposed his body, received a fatal stroke, and was seized by the mob. His body was dragged out and beheaded in the lobby; and the murderers returned with the head on a pike, and presented it to Boissy d'Anglas, the president of the Assembly. With Roman constancy he bowed before the lifeless remains of duty and devotion, and was at length dragged by his friends from the jaws of destruction.

All these petitioners founded their right to be received en masse upon the practice of such petitions having been admitted in the commencement of the revolution. They were all preceded by the tri-color flag.

And, on the 7th December, 1830, a petition was presented to the King of England by eight thousand persons, bearing, amongst other banners, the tri-color flag.

Was the flag of England, that which waved at Cressy, and Blenheim, and Waterloo, then not sufficient? Were the citizens of London driven to seek devices from the French republic in consequence of the absence of any heart-stirring emblems in the records of their own city? Truly, the present generation of English seem to have forgot the ancient glories of their race. The danger to be apprehended, we

repeat, is not from the present administration, or the immediate and foreseen consequences of any measure which they may bring forward. Neither was the danger to France, from the anticipated effects of the increase of the Commons by Neckar. Yet that fatal measure immediately brought on the Revolution. It is the ultimate consequences of the concessions to the people now so much the object of encomium, which are to be dreaded. It is the spirit which they will excite, the hopes they will revive, the passions they will awaken. The spirit which revolutionized France was excited by sudden additions to the popular representations brought forward by men as great, supported by arguments as plausible as those which are now arrayed on the side of reform. But these great and good men were speedily overthrown by the democratic energy which they had excited; the idols of the people one day, they became the objects of universal execration the next, the moment they strove to moderate the fury on which they had risen to eminence. The present administration, like Lafayette, Mirabeau, and Bailly, will maintain their popularity as long as they concede to the demands of the people; the moment they oppose them, they will, like him, become the objects of popular detestation-and lament, when too late, the growth of a revolutionary spirit, which all the might of England will, perhaps, be unable to subdue.

The growth of this spirit has already been frightfully rapid. Since it was announced that reform was to be made a Cabinet measure, it has augmented tenfold-the vehemence of its partisans has increased in that short period to a degree unprecedented in the memory of man. Universal suffrage, vote by ballot, are talked of by the people as inevitable acquisitions. The addition of a hundred new members to the House of Commons from the commercial cities is spoken of as certain-an addition which will render the democratic party irresistible. "Were opinion," says the Atlas, "not so strong and irresistible, the weakness or wickedness of nature might come in to delay the consummation of the great national events which are now in

progress. The Minister is now, he cannot help it, impelled by the vox populi. He is carried on with the tide, and although he may be the very last convert in the kingdom, he has no time to wait for conviction. The question of reform has advanced with inconceivable rapidity even since the date of our last." Such is one of the consequences already produced by concession even on the admission of the very party in whose favour it is made. Reform has made inconceivable progress "since the date of our last;" the minister has now "no time for conviction," "he is impelled by the vox populi.” A graver and more serious question than any which has been agitated since the revolution; one on which the future destinies of Britain hinge, is hastened on in this manner. How clearly does this indicate the presence of the" passion for democracy!" How exactly does it resemble the fatal precipitance of the Constituent Assembly!

Objects of real practical importance are now disregarded-a sure proof that it is the desire of power, not the love of freedom, which is agitating the country. The repeal of the assessed taxes, the reformation of the poor-laws, the limitation of corporeal punishment in the army; the mitigation of the criminal code; the amelioration of Ireland; the employment of the poor, occupy no portion of the public attention. No public meetings are called on such subjects-no journals think them worthy of discussion. When passion is awakened, the voice of reason becomes inaudible-real benefits are overlooked in the struggle for political supremacy.

Mr Stanley, one of the most gifted men in Parliament, of an old and illustrious Whig family, himself one of the most able advocates of popular reform, has been thrown out, and Mr Hunt is elected Member for Preston! This is exactly what might have been expected; it is an example of what may be generally anticipated from a sudden extension of the elective franchise to the great manufacturing cities. The high-minded and upright Whigs will be immediately discarded, as the Constitutionalists and Girondists were in the French Revolution. To be a reformer and

a patriot, will no longer be a recommendation with the populacestronger popular flattery will be required-more extravagant professions of zeal for the majesty of the people demanded-those who headed the movement will speedily be supplanted by those who have adopted it.

We devoutly hope the returning good sense of the nation may avert the calamities we apprehend; but should a convulsion arise, it will be very different from any which have preceded it in this country. The next revolution which Great Britain undergoes, if so deplorable an event should ever occur, will not be long headed by the higher orders; it will not follow the guidance of the Lords and Commons-it will not be directed to the establishment of any civil immunities. Power, not freedom, will be its object; it will be directed against both Lords and Commonsit will aim at the destruction of all influence save that which emanates from the lower orders of society. It will be a general insurrection of the lower orders against the higher; an effort of the populace to take the powers of sovereignty into their own hands, and divide among themselves all that is now enjoyed by their superiors. It will be followed by the consequences which attended a similar effort in the neighbouring kingdom. It will, in the first instance, be loudly praised, and it will excite the most extravagant expectations; it will be headed by many good men, warm in their hopes of human felicity, ardent in their expectation of the regeneration of society. Speedily their ascendant will be at an end; vice, reckless ambition, daring selfishness, will rise from the lower classes of society; philosophic enthusiasm will instantly be annihilated by

vulgar ambition. The property of the church will be the first victim; the regenerators of society will declare, that they take the public worship under the safeguard of the state, and they will perform their promises by giving its ministers L.40 a-year each. The national debt will be the next object of attack; the people will find it intolerable to pay the interest of burdens which they had no hand in imposing; the public creditors will be swept off, and the industry of the people relieved by destroying the accumulation of a thousand years. The estates of the nobility will then become an eyesore to the purifiers of society; land will be viewed as the people's farm; the public miseries will be imputed to the extortions of these unjust stewards, and a division of the great properties, will be the consequence. In the consternation occasioned by these violent changes, commercial industry will come to a stand-agricultural produce will be diminished-the employment of capital will be withdrawn-famine, distress, and want of employment, will ensue the people will revolt against their seducersmore violent remedies will be proposed-stronger principles of democracy maintained. In the struggle of these desperate factions, blood will be profusely shed. Terror, that destroyer of all virtuous feeling, will rule triumphant. Another Danton, a second Robespierre, will arise; another Reign of Terror will expiate the sins of a new Revolution; and Military Despotism close the scene.

Should we be accused of gloomy predictions, we ask our readers to study the History of the French Revolution; they will find that what in this country is Anticipation for ourselves or our children, is there History.