the right ends be steadily kept in view; if the right means be carefully pursued, our success is not only certain but will be rapid. A few short years, and we shall see golden fruits rewarding all our labours; we shall see an intelligent and happy people governed by a wise and beneficent, because a thoroughly popular government. But there must be no pan. dering to public ignorance; no preaching up of wild and quack remedies for evils which the people in their individual capacity alone can cure. We must have no breach of public morality, no spunging out of our existing encumbrances. Like an honest man in difficulties, we must put down every superfluous expense; the most rigid frugality must be made to pervade every part of our establishments. Let education be spread among every class of the population; let the energies and talent of mankind be exclusively turned to the amelioration of our lot; and we shall have no more wars to sully the pages of our history; no more debts to bear down the spirits of our people; no squalid and dreadful poverty to be a curse and disgrace upon our nature. The soad to this glorious country is intricate and dangerous. Stout hearts, intelligent heads, and honest purposes, will, nevertheless, conduct the travellers through their long journey in safety.

J. A. R.

TAIT'S COMMONPLACE-BOOK.

SIR JOHN DALRYMPLE AND THE BALLOT.-The Hon. James Abercromby told us that if the ballot was shewn to be necessary to ensure the free exercise of the franchise, he should give it his support; he was understood to peril his case upon the late election proceedings. But Sir John Dalrymple is not so easily satisfied. At the Leith dinner, he is reported to have said:" He had a majority of the new consti tuency, and would have had a greater but for the undue influence that was used against him. He declared, that if such influence was continued he would be inclined to favour the vote by ballot." Sir John's cool pick tooth indifference can only be equalled by Liston in Billy Lack-a-day. When every bell in the inn is jingling, and the guests screaming "waiter!" as if for a wager, "Do you intend to answer?" asks his mistress. "Yes; if they perseweres!”

MR. PEASE. The election of a gentleman named Pease (a Quaker) to serve in the reform Parliament has elicited much forensic lore, touching the knotty points of oaths and affirmations. It seems quite clear, according to the lawyers, that it will be difficult to contort or pervert, with any effect, the divers proscriptive follies (called acts) of for mer Parliaments, so as to secure to this spirit-moved member a peaseable possession of the seat to which a friendly constituency has elected him. Much learned rubbish will be shot on the occasion, no doubt; but it is to be hoped that the event will have the effect of once, and for all, agitating and settling "affirmatively" the question, whether a fit and honest man, whatever be the tenets of his faith, be qualified to act as a citizen in all the relations of social life. Exclusion on the ground of religious opinions from the rights of citizenship might have been all vastly fine during the halcyon days of priestism; but that craft, as a craft, is luckily, (for “nothing happens without the permission of Heaven,") at shocking discount nowadays. Our "friend" is, we verily believe, a staunch Reformer; and Ministers, no question, are too wary to forget their Pease and Qs. They will do well to amend or rescind all such stupid prohibitory laws as now disgrace the Statute Book, in more particulars

than one.

DYING LIKE A BRITON." I know that I have done the deed," exclaimed a ruthless ruffian, the other day, who had slain his wife, and I am satisfied to die for it like a Briton!" The almost daily occurrence of some foul murder is a fearful and disgracing blot, indeed, upon the national morals; and it is not improbable that the frequency of its commission may have removed from the minds of the peo

ple much of its atrocity. We are all familiar with the story of the negro slaves, who ludicrously, and in the wretchedness of their ignorance, hanged themselves as the only effectual method of escaping back to their lost homes. It would almost seem that many among the lower orders of the English, much in the same spirit, imagine that they have only to perpetrate some appalling murder to achieve salvation and eternal happiness hereafter. We seriously put the question, Whether the scenic effect of judicial condemnations, and the bastard humanity ostentatiously displayed in the records penned by some silly self-conceited reporters," have not contributed much to remove the indignation and horror with which the people should be educated to view such a detestable crime a crime above all others damnable by the laws of God and man? "The unhappy prisoner" is so. lemnly exhorted, after sentence is pronounced, to return to his cell, and "make his peace with Heaven, through the mediation of Christ ;" and the judge often pathetically weeps as he dooms the culprit to deserved death. The "misguided man" leaves the dock in dogged sullenness, and his impenitence is only gradually removed through the importunate and benevolent admonitions of "the worthy and reverend ordinary, who is unremitting in his holy exertions to administer the usual consolations of religion." The murderer being thus first moved, all of a sudden starts into a true Christian, sobs in all the repentance of faith, utters pious ejaculations, acknowledges the justice of his sentence, asserts his perfect reconciliation with an offended God, and prepares " to die in peace with all men." An "affecting and heartrending interview" takes place between himself and the wife and children, whom he has brutally maltreated every day for months or years before: they "kiss and make it up;" he shakes hands with the governor and the sheriffs, to whom he expresses all sorts of gratitude for past attentions; they blow their noses distressedly at "his untimely end;" he "ascends the scaffold with a firm step," and after the fraction of a prayer breathed by the 'kerchief-dropping clergyman, in which "the unfortunate man," in holy fervour, takes part, he is duly "launched into eternity," and the "sad ceremony" is completed! And this solemn melo-drama is represented to be played on almost every occasion of legally consigning to death those monsters who, by the enormity of their wickedness, have forfeited all claim to life.

Far, very far, are we from ridiculing the feelings of any officers under the painful excitement which their duties too often cause, or from treating with ribaldry any proper ceremony or external solemnity attendant upon so awful a scene,-where man, by the imposition of a violent death, resigns as it were, into the very hands of the Almighty, a fellow, clothed in his sinfulness, for the infliction of that punishment which we are taught to believe awaits those who are too evil to live here on this earth. But we cannot restrain our disgust at the unseemly exhibition of a morbid sympathy thus paradingly acknowledged, and the attempt to create pity for the perpetrator of deeds which ought rather to excite feelings of virtuous abhorrence; nor can we disguise our belief, that this truckling to the depraved appetite of the public, by furnishing up a sorrowful statement wantonly interlarded with commiserating expletives, (supplied at a price,) acts as a positive premium to the ignorant or the criminally disposed for the commission of the deadliest sins, as the readiest way of gratifying their worst passions in this world, and of securing unqualified pardon and everlasting happiness in another.

MODEST ASSURANCE.-At a late meeting of the Town Council of Edinburgh, the Lord Provost stated, "that he believed they were all quite aware that a bill would be brought into Parliament in the ensuing session for effecting a reform of the Scotch burgh system. It was, therefore, of importance that they should turn their serious attention to the subject, and after making up their own minds as to the changes which should be introduced, take steps for communicating with the members for the city; who, he felt perfectly assured, were quite disposed to pay the utmost deference to the suggestions which might be made by the Town Council; the members of which, from their practical acquaintance with the subject, were so much more com petent than most others to form a correct judgment on the matter." What is the Town Council? Our Police has been confided to the management of others. The City Improvements have been confided to others. An independent Small Debt Court has been found necessary. In short, the only business now left to the Council is the contracting and the mis-management of the city debt. What "practical acquaintance with the subject" of local government have they? The same that felons have with the distribution of justice. We shall next hear of the tenants of Bridewell “ commu

Have not certain functionaries within the walls of Newgate a hand in the concoction of thead precious accounts?

nicating with the Members for the City, who, they feel perfectly assured, are quite disposed to pay the utmost deference to their suggestions" respecting reform in our penal statutes.

THE SEMI-SCION OF ROYALTY AGAIN.-How felicitously all things seem to work for the cause of the people. The Aristocracy inveigh bitterly against the Min. ister for having forced a measure which especially tends to lower their blood-descended rights in general estimation, and to bring into contempt a race only not quite divine; yet are the members of that same sacred "order" ever doing some kind act to abet the people in breaking up the line of demarcation between the two castes. The papers of the day have been teeming with the domestic jars of certain illustrious personages; the jealousies and heart-burnings, and murmurings, and ambitions of certain other semi-illustrious personages and parties-now sulking, now demanding, now refusing, and now coquetting-in their struggles to secure the fattest plumb in John Bull's pudding; with the patriotic view (there can be no other) of exhibiting, in its worst aspect, the inappeasable, insatiable, cravings of mercenary spirits, in order that the measure of John's disgust may be brimming quite.

Such exhibitions must be nuts for brother Jonathan.

GENERAL BANKRUPTCY OF LITERATURE.-It has long been rumoured that the Republic of Letters was encumbered with a little private national debt, in the shape of some hundreds of thousands of unsaleable books, that must ultimately lead to the gazette. The fatal moment is fully come!-A general frost has nipped the buds of promise; and nothing is heard on all sides but the cry of "Remember the poor frozen-out gardeners!" Deceived into the imaginary tenure of the cap of Fortunatus, by the temporary rise of the markets,-which (like the tulip-speculations of Holland) invested the productions of a popular writer with an ideal value, our writers of the day have ventured beyond their depth, and are now overwhelmed by the waters of strife. At a time when a sum of fifteen hundred guineas was given by the Lorenzo de Medicis of Burlington Street, for more than one novel of moderate merit, it is not surprising that writers so powerful as the author of "The O'Hara Tales" should have outreckoned their expected gains. And when we inform our readers, that in a state of declining health, Mr. Banim is now imprisoned for debt, in a foreign country, we have no fear that an appeal to the friends of literature, in his behalf, will be made in vain. From the booksellers, meanwhile, little encou ragement is to be expected. Very few books of fiction, now published, yield the return of their expenses; and "Eugene Aram," the most favourite novel of last season, has not yet reached a second edition !" The Row" closes its purse-strings and its heart, against all but elementary or theological works;-Murray undertakes nothing beyond his re-prints;-and Bentley, although he puts forward a novel per week, is only making a paper tail to keep his kite afloat, of the reams of MS. bequeathed him by his predecessor. Of the new annuals attempted this season, not one, we understand, will be continued; and in consequence of the general failure of these meritorious volumes, the one announced from the pen of Mr. Bulwer is postponed till the spring, when it will appear as an illustrated work, of the fashion of Rogers's "Italy." The booksellers blindly attribute this general stagnation of their trade to the Fenny Magazines; which were, in fact, created by its influence; a number of "hands," (ay, and "fine Roman hands" too) being "thrown out of work,”that could not dig, and to beg were ashamed. For the last two years the writers of Great Britain have been more numerous than its readers; and the quantity of japan ink consumed in the metropolis, has exceeded even its japan blacking! The scrib blomania is now at an end. The fashionable novelist has written himself down, (an ass ;) and the lachrymose sentimentalists, of the banner of red, lately, have returned to their original vocations, of "figuring prettily on catgut, and telling for tunes on the cards!" Things are consequently likely to come straight again:-but a writer such as Banim must not be the victim of the fluctuation of the balance. Let him only advertise a novel by subscription, and trust to the public for the result. The author of "The Nowlans" has sacred claims on the attention of the literary world.

htt

MONTHLY REGISTER.

POLITICAL HISTORY.

GREAT BRITAIN. THE ELECTIONS.-The Triumph of Reform is complete. The victory of the people is greater than the most sanguine friends of liberty and order ever ventured to anticipate. The example so gloriously set by the City of London, and the new Metropolitan electoral districts, has been nobly followed by the whole island. The Tories are utterly defeated, and driven from the strongholds which they have held for half a century. Croker, Wetherel, Sugden, Murray, Clerk, Hope, and many others of the most talented and active of the party, have been excluded from Parliament; and good men, and true, supply their place. In the great fight, Scotland has done her duty. The elections have proved that the charges of political subserviency and sycophancy, so often brought against her, were unfounded, when applied to the body of her people; and that the independence and liberality of their opinions were concealed by the preposterous system of representation, which has at length been destroyed. The influence of the Aristocracy to return the old Tory Members, has, in nearly all the Southern districts of the kingdom, been used in vain. The Duke of Buccleuch, the most extensive land proprietor in Scotland, has not been able to return a single member. His Grace has been defeated in the counties of Edinburgh, Dumfries, Selkirk, and Roxburgh, in which he has extensive possessions, and on the elections of which districts he used formerly to exercise the greatest influence. In the county of Edinburgh, the Tories have been paramount for the greater part of a century; and so firmly were they seated that, for many years, no attempt as been made to contest the election; but Sir George Clerk was defeated by a candidate who, in truth, had nothing but his profession of liberal principles to recommend him. Sir George Murray has been ejected from Perthshire, a county long distinguished for its Toryism, by a Whig

candidate; and the Earl of Lauderdale, formerly a Republican, then a Whig, and now a Tory, has been defeated in Berwickshire, and in the Haddington, Lauder, &c. district of burghs; although his Lordship formerly returned both Members almost without exertion, and without the apprehension of opposition. The defeat of Lord Maitland, his Lordship's son, in Berwickshire, is the more remarkable because Mr. Marjoribanks, the successful candidate, was opposed by four-fifths of the land proprietors, and the tenantry are very generally inclined to Tory principles : but the constituency of the towns and villages, when joined to the liberal part of the landholders and tenantry, overmatched the supporters of Toryism.

In the North Eastern Counties of Scotland, Aberdeenshire, Banffshire, Kincardineshire, and Elginshire, the liberal candidates have been defeated. This has arisen from the remains of feudalism, which still, in some degree, exist in these districts, and from the ignorance of the tenantry of their political rights. The tenantry in the counties we have named, are of a very inferior description to those in the south-eastern counties, which have long taken the lead in agriculture. While the tenantry of East Lothian, Berwickshire, and Roxburghshire, are in general men of capital and intelligence, occupying extensive farms, and paying on the average from L.300 to L.500 per year of rent, and many have much larger possessions, those in the north-eastern counties do not, in general, pay so much as L.100 a-year of rent, and consequently are little removed from the rank of agricultural labourers. The greater part of such men are ignorant of the value of the elective franchise, and of the objects intended by the Legislature in conferring on them the rights of freemen. They were therefore well content to please their lairds, by bestowing on their favourite a vote, which appeared to them of so little value. Inverness-shire, has, however, vindicated its character for inde

pendence. In spite of all the influence of the Duke of Gordon, Lord M'Donald, Glengary, the Earl of Seafield, and the whole clan of the Macleods, whose chief was the Tory candidate, Mr Charles Grant was returned, though not without an arduous struggle. The Northern and Western Highlands have also nobly done their duty. All over Scotland many votes have been lost to the liberal candidates by the dread on the part of the tenantry of a removal of the restrictions on the importation of corn; for few of them yet see, that in this question, their interests are identiIcal not with those of the land owners, but with those of the general body of the community. Farther, intimidation and influence have been so extensively used, that by the tenantry generally, the elective franchise has been found a curse, without the protection of the ballot.

In Ireland the elections have not been so favourable for the triumph of liberal principles as in England and Scotland; but still the Reformers are to the Conservatives in the proportion of three to one. The New House of Commons, as far as can be at present judged, will thus be constituted :

English members-Reformers, 401
Conservatives, 112

Irish members-Reformers,

Conservatives,

Scottish members-Reformers,

80

25

44

9

Conservatives, So that the Reformers will be to the Conservatives nearly as five to one. We cannot conclude without pointing out the glorious aspect Scotland now presents. Formerly she, with difficulty, returned five or six liberal members to Parliament; now she sends forty-four, a proportion considerably greater than either England or Ireland presents. Sir W. Rae, Sir Charles Forbes, and other Scotch Tories, were loud in prognosticating the serious consequences of popular elections in Scotland, and foretold that the country would be deluged with blood. But during the whole course of the elections there has not been a riot of the smallest consequence; and in the most populous towns the elections passed over with perfect good humour, and without the slightest disturbance. On the whole, therefore, the result of the general election gives us an additional reason to be proud of our coun trymen.

The Tories have been equally mistaken in their prophecies regarding the sort of persons who would be returned to the new Parliament. Instead of the people returning political adventurers and demagogues, they have, even in the burghs, in many instances, elected landed proprie tors as their representatives; and no fewer

Viscount Falkland and Lord Belhaven having been created British Peer; sand the Marquis of Queensberry and Lord Napier, who were also in last Parliament, not being returned to this; there are four new Representative Peers by the present election, viz. the Earls of Airly and Orkney, and Lords Sinclair and Elphinstone.

THE REVENUE.-The state of the revenue is one of the few indications we possess of the prosperity or adversity of the country; and hence the quarterly returns are always regarded with interest. Comparing the produce of the revenue for the year ending 5th January last, with the preceding year, (1831,) it has increased 1.546,169; but comparing the quarters ending 5th January only, there is a decrease of L29,473. The principal decrease is under the head of Excise, being no less than L.299,086; for which the de duction of L.160,000, being the amount of the duties on candles, (now repealed) received in the corresponding quarter of last year, will not account. The increase on the customs, L.358,583, is very remark. able, more especially, as little has been received during the quarter for corn; and shews that commerce is beginning to revive. The deficiency in the stamp-duties is undoubtedly the effect of over taxation. For many years this branch of the revenue has been declining. In the year 1817, the net revenue was 1.7,101,767; and although no changes of any importance have been made since, the revenue for last year was more than half a million less. The principal falling off has been in the stamps used for bonds, mortgages, and conveyances. A great addition to the revenue would, we have no doubt, take place, were this branch of the stamp duties considerably lowered. The deficiency in the Excise shows that the people are still becoming poorer; for it is the middle and lower orders who pay the far greater proportion of those duties, There can be little doubt that over taxation also exists to a great degree in the Excise; and, indeed, it is remarkable that the Ministry do not make some experiments