same thing, we hesitate not to adopt it. We mean, that hereditary succession appears to us essential to the existence of legal and limited monarchy. This form of government is altogether independent of the personal character and qualities of the prince. Any extraordinary degree, indeed, of activity and popularity on his part is not only unnecessary, but is directly contrary to the spirit of such a government. These dispo. sitions would inevitably prompt efforts to enlarge his prerogative, and would favour success in this pernicious undertaking. The hereditary monarch, like others fixed by birth in any high fortune, is likely to be a man of easy temper, indolent habits, without much vigour in action, disposed to enjoy life, and more anxious to preserve what he has, than to acquire more. He may, no doubt, be occasionally acted upon by the natural desire of power, and of gaining his ends; but whenever he encounters any serious opposition, will seldom put all to hazard, rather than yield. Inheriting a fixed and great place, he is more desirous to preserve than to extend it. He, on the contrary, who rises from an inferior station to supreme power, is active, restless, enterprizing; the habit of acquiring renders him still dissatisfied, while there is yet a higher place to be obtained. Such a prince would be much less disposed to confine himself within the limits of prerogative, and submit to the controul of a popular assembly. A more serious evil still exists in the dissensions which must be generated among those who contend for so brilliant a prize. Europe has had full opportunity to observe the tendencies of elective monarchy. She has seen one of her most powerful kingdoms,

after suffering by its means a long series of internal commotions, erased at length from the list of independent states. If these dissensions do not lead to the domination of a foreign power, they can scarcely fail to pave the way for military ascendancy, that power to whose fatal predominance a popular state is continually exposed. We are aware, that the case of the United States is quoted, in which a temporary and removeable magistrate has performed the executive functions in a sufficiently respectable manner, and without any tumultuary canvas. America, however, is in a very different state of society from any European country, and above all from Britain. She has a smaller population dispersed over four or five times the extent of territory; no immense fortunes, no overgrown capitals, no masses of poor and corrupted populace. In such a society, a much lighter pressure of power will restrain the tumultuary principles, than amid the crowded cities of Europe. America, besides, has never yet been involved in any protracted war, which could form a veteran standing army, or a commander of high name and popularity.* Yet unless the era be really come, when men are finally to beat their spears into pruning-hooks, these can scarcely fail to arise; and already, indeed, America has only been prevented from engaging in a long war, by the want of an enemy with whom she could hope to contend. Such an enemy, and such a chief once formed, could only, we conceive, be kept down to their proper place by the weight of a hereditary executive head; otherwise they could scarcely fail to become the ruling power in the state.

2

If there be any truth in these views of the subject, we leave the popular writera to consider, how far the studied obloquy and derision which they continually throw on every thing connected with royalty, is or is not conducive to the true interests of freedom. A tendency to the vices of self-indulgence is certainly an evil to which hereditary princes, like others unfortunately surrounded with too ample means of gratification, are liable. There have no doubt been brilliant exceptions; and, after all, these vices have been more gross and conspicuous in individuals raised to the throne from a private station. Still they are prevalent failings of hereditary princes, and, in point of example, have certainly a pernicious influence. Although, therefore, in a hereditary limited monarchy, the general and salutary rule be, to abstain from the person of the monarch, yet we should not be sorry on such points to see the application of a little "grave rebuke," which, if it could not be expected to fall with much weight on the quarter towards which it was pointed, might yet tend to preserve unaltered, in the minds of the nation, the distinctions of right and wrong. This, however, ought, we conceive, to be done with an anxious care to avoid throwing contempt on the person and office of the distinguished individual thus animadverted on, not, as usual, for the express purpose of producing that effect.

The next particular in which a change is still more pointedly and earnestly demanded, is the state of the national representation. The system called for by the mass of the people is, and always must be, one and the same -universal suffrage. The fact is, this system is so natural and plausible, that we ought not too much to blame raw politicians for deeming it the best. In theory it seems to be so; but in political affairs, first views are extremely

VOL. XI. PART 1.

fallacious. We conceive it undeniable that expediency, the tendency to promote the welfare of the society, must be the main part of the merits of any representative system. It may not then appear very illiberal to assert, as a leading principle of expediency, that the administration should be chiefly in the hands of the most enlightened and best informed part of the community. The interest of all the orders of society is so linked together, that scarcely one of them, if they know well what they are doing, will injure the rest. Do we not see how Russia has flourished under a despotic government, because that government has imported, and as yet chiefly monopolized the knowledge of more improved countries? We would never compare the Russian people to one, a large proportion of which are qualified to exercise a free voice in public deliberations. Still, being such as it is, who can doubt that, with a different government, it would have been a century back in civilization? England, more happy, possesses a large body of citizens, who are capable of the salutary and ennobling exercise of deliberating for the public weal. Still, if we consider cultivation of mind, as a requisite for the exercise of political functions, we must at present in Britain, as in every other country, restrict them to a minority. We are not among those who would for ever doom to ignorance, as well as toil, that portion of the society which subsists by manual labour. We see no obstacle to their attaining one day a considerable extent of intellectual culture; we have no doubt of their doing so; but we expect it, like all the great processes of nature, to take place only gradually, and after the lapse of ages. Knowledge, it is true, is beginning to dawn on all the dark corners of the earth. Multitudes who never read before, read now, and are making use

B

of their newly acquired faculty, by devoting themselves to political discussion and inquiry. But, though we see much to make this class of persons suppose themselves fit for the task of legislation, we see very little to make them really fit. This early dawn, shewing on ly the dim erroneous surfaces of things, is more deceitful than even the darkness which it has begun to dispel. One feature which invariably accompanies the decisions of unexperienced intellect on any new subject, is an unbounded confidence in its own hasty decisions. Thus no one judges himself fitted, without a long previous apprentice ship, to manufacture a loaf of bread, or a web of cloth-most useful operations, and demanding, we believe, a greater share of intellectual exertion than is commonly supposed; yet they can scarcely be supposed so very much easier than the task of giving laws to nations, that the latter may be taken up at once without pains or study. It seems now supposed, not only that the legislator, like the poet, is born, but that while a select few only are born poets, all are born legislators. Unfortunately there is no science in which first appearances are so deceiving as in politics and political economy; nor any class of measures which so often terminate in the direct contrary of their obvious and apparent tendency. The consequence is, that the unexperienced politician not only is very uncertain of being in the right, but has many chances of being in the wrong. His eager zeal too for these little-pondered opinions, and his infuriate rage against all who in any shape dissent from them, preclude all prospect of an error once committed being ever retrieved. Far less are his eyes ever likely to be opened by the political oracles to whose responses he listens; and who, as already observed, know their trade too well not to use all their arts to inflame, instead of calming every

blind passion of the numerous classes to whom their sheets are addressed. All things then considered, we scarcely hesitate to conclude, that the measure of knowledge and political inquiry newly diffused among the less enlight ened orders, is, for the present, rather a disqualification than otherwise for the exercise of any high political functions. The discussion of such subjects, if conducted at least in a somewhat different style from the present, may give, indeed, a certain enlargement to their mind, and may lead ultimately to farther improvements. Let the mechanic decide the fate of empires over his pot of ale; but let him not yet seek, by his decision, to regulate the destinies of the world.

Upon the grounds now stated, we may be enabled to form an opinion as to the expediency of general suffrage. Its evident and inevitable tendency must be to throw the whole power into the hands of the uninstructed classes; of those whose education and habits disqualify them for forming an opinion on those high and complicated questions submitted to legislative discussion. Those better qualified, by leisure and education, for the task, must be so far completely outnumbered, that their voice would have scarcely any weight in the decision. The multitude, indeed, will, by several irresistible causes, be prevented from chusing representatives from among themselves; but they will easily find in another class, proper organs, who will court their favour by adopting and inflaming all their passions and preju dices. The councils of the nation, dictated from the ale-house and the smithy, could scarcely fail to bear some stamp of the scenes amidst which they originated. The opulent classes, indeed, find sometimes a remedy, by keeping the labouring population in such a state of depression and dependence as may entirely deprive them of

the exercise of their free will in voting. Such a system, we believe, is carried on to a certain extent in England, and to a much greater among the landed proprietors of Ireland. It is a remedy, however, still worse than the disease, being attended with the deepest depression, intellectual and economical, both to the persons endowed with this vain privilege, and to the nation in general.

From the whole of these considerations we are led to believe, that there is nothing clamant in the state of British representation, and that it is very fairly calculated to embody the sense of the respectable and intelligent part of the nation. We should hesitate, in fact, in wishing to see it reformed upon any systematic and theoretical principle, even the most accordant with our own general views. There appear to exist in the present system useful anomalies, which it would be absurd to introduce deliberately, but which, being there, ought to remain. Thus although we consider a certain measure of property, as in the present state of society, naturally connected with the information and intelligence requisite for the due exercise of elective functions, we doubt the expediency of a rigid and total exclusion, even of the lowest ranks. It is probably expedient that the multitude, though in a partial and irregular manner, should have some organs in the House, who may plead their cause, and compensate for the smallness of their numbers by their zeal, and the large body by which they are backed. By their orations, even though noisy and turbulent, they may force into view those interests of their constituents, which might otherwise be overlooked; their clamour may even serve as a substitute for more perilous external tumults. It may be questioned, whether the want of this might not have its effect in preventing the French

constitution from taking root in the nation, and in paralyzing, at a critical moment, any efforts for its preservation. We do not then wish the sway of the lower orders, in the national councils, to be increased, but neither do we desire that what they have should be taken from them. There may appear room even for a certain degree of local adjustment between the places which have lost their population, and those which have gained a remarkable accession. A town has not perhaps very much reason to complain of non-representation, if others, placed in the same situation, and having the same interests with itself, are represented. But there appears to be a class of newly-formed manufacturing establishments, which stand almost by themselves, and have no means to secure a guardian of their interests in the national assembly. However apocryphal the authority may appear to many of our readers, we should perhaps strongly object to the very moderate and rational plan laid down in a late number of the Edinburgh Review. The views now given, however, would obviously involve a dissent from the idea, that the principle of such alteration should be the reduction of the power of the crown, still less the extension of the elective franchise to the less educated and informed classes. Amply sufficient, in this last respect, appears to have been done by the fall in the value of money, which has reduced almost to nothing the original freehold qualification of two pounds a-year. At the same time, those who view things on the whole as well, and regard with alarm any sudden and extensive change, may yet concur in the correction of striking and palpable abuses, on single and special grounds, without any shock to the general sys

tem.

THE first event by which the year was distinguished was the meeting of parliament. The session proved a very busy one, and marked by the vehemence of its political conflicts. The meeting took place on the 28th January. The views and intentions of government were as usual announced by the speech from the throne, which it will therefore, we conceive, be satisfactory to give at full length.

"My Lords and Gentlemen, IT is with deep regret that I am obliged to announce to you, that no alteration has occurred in the state of his Majesty's lamented indisposition. I continue to receive from foreign powers the strongest assurances of their friendly disposition towards this country, and of their earnest desire to maintain the general tranquillity. The hostilities to which I was compelled to resort, in vindication of the honour of the country against the government of Algiers, have been attended with the most complete success. The splendid achievements of his Majesty's fleet, in conjunction with a squadron of the King of the Netherlands, uuder the gallant and able conduct of Admiral Viscount Exmouth, led to the immediate and unconditional liberation of all Christian captives then within the

territory of Algiers, and to the renunciation by its government of the prac tice of Christian slavery. I am persuaded that you will be duly sensible of the importance of an arrangement so interesting to humanity, and reflecting, from the manner in which it has been accomplished, such signal honour to the British nation. In India, the refusal of the government of Nepaul to ratify a treaty of peace which had been signed by its plenipotentiaries, occasioned a renewal of military operations. The judicious arrangements of the governor-general, seconded by the bravery and perseverance of his Majesty's forces, and of those of the East India Company, brought the campaign to a speedy and successful issue; and peace has been finally established upon the just and honourable terms of the original treaty."

"Gentlemen of the House of Commons, I have directed the estimates for the current year to be laid before you. They have been formed upon a full consideration of all the present circumstances of the country, with an anxious desire to make every reduction in our establishments which the safety of the empire and sound policy allow. I recommend the state of the public income and expenditure to your early