England nineteen, and in Ireland only five per cent, out of the adult male population, possess the franchise; whilst in that favoured electoral section of the community, not more than two-fifths are able to enjoy the suffrage, without being allured, corrupted, or intimidated by the purses, influence, and power of the aristocracy. The movement therefore must go forward; since even a pause proves ruinous,-whilst to recede, is neither more nor less than to fall back upon revolution. We say, let our present, or any other cabinet, remain altogether deaf,--if they dare. It would be as though two poor creatures were dying through destitution, and there was to come into their abode some little, well-dressed, plausible, cunning-looking gentleman, who should thus accost them, after considerable investigation of their painful circumstances, My friends, you are both in the worst possible condi'tion, with dissolution hard at hand; yet there grows a medicine in your own garden, which might cure each of you forthwith. 'One hundred drops would afford you health and prosperity; but ' of this balsam, I shall only permit you, John Bull, to take nineteen; and you, Paddy, my boy, must be content with only five! -nor is it of any use for either of you to complain about the 'short allowance, for I am the son of your noble masters, a great doctor of the state,—an orator, historian, and poet withal,-and 'I am called amongst men, the right honourable Lord John Finality!' But as we mentioned some pages back, the question recurs, as to what ought to be done. We have demonstrated before in this journal, that an oligarchy, invested with irresponsible power, weighs down our best energies. Surrounded, as all must allow, we now are, with difficulties on every hand,-with the industrial classes foaming and chafing, like an ocean previous to a storm,with a monopoly in the Bank of England, deranging the most important of our commercial affairs, and provincial issues adding ad libitum to the currency of the country,-with an Established Church anathematizing the Boards of Education on either side the Channel, and with the Corn Laws, about, if we mistake not, to develop the fullest mischiefs of their nature,--we repeat it, that amidst abuses unredressed, prices fluctuating, and governors either unfaithful or imbecile, our hope under Providence lies in the adjustment of the Houses of Parliament to the wants of the people. We must endeavour to procure, with the least possible delay, Household Suffrage and the Ballot, so that the best portion of our operatives may have a voice in the legislature, and all be protected in its exercise. We feel satisfied that by measures of this sort, the reasonable might be severed from the unreasonable; and so the force and momentum of the masses be drawn over from disorder to peace, or at least to present contentment. But how any extensive reform, either of an organic or practical character, is to be achieved, without an immense addition to the peerage, we profess ourselves utterly at a loss to conceive. The rule of the satirist is a good one, Nec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus ; yet surely that precise nodus has now come to pass in our history. Were the crown to exert its prerogative, after a fashion befitting the occasion, one noble remedial act might invest our householders with that which, we must ever contend, the ancient constitution of these realms gave them. Taxation, heavy as it is, would be borne cheerfully when running parallel with representation; or as nearly so as circumstances allow. Great fiscal changes would undoubtedly follow; but that must be the case, do what we will. Our main desire is, that seeing these alterations to be inevitable, they may be brought about peaceably and not violently. Meanwhile Chartism diffuses itself rapidly; by which we mean not physical-force insanity, but the growing impression, that he who sits under his roof-tree, paying imposts whether directly or indirectly for the protection which the law affords him,—and who may be drawn at any moment to serve in the militia, or otherwise be obliged to act in defence of his country,-ought to have the elective franchise. Should this be granted in due season, with due wisdom, and in a gracious manner, all may yet be safe; and although we look round, rather despondingly, we confess, for those able enough, and honest enough, to apply the only real remedy, we pray God, that such may be yet raised up, in his own time and way, so as that our beloved land may subside from her present state of alarm, uneasiness, and uncertainty, into the smooth waters of progress, prosperity, and concord. Brief Notices. Memoirs of Sarah Duchess of Marlborough, and of the Court of Queen Anne. By Mrs. A. T. Thomson. Two volumes 8vo. London: Henry Colborn. 1839. It is remarkable, as Mrs. Thomson remarks, that both the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, two persons who acquired in their lifetime as great a share of celebrity as any British subjects ever enjoyed, incurred a risk of not being commemorated, after their decease, by any connected and adequate work.' Archdeacon Coxe, in his able and elaborate Life of the hero of Blenheim has supplied this lack of service, so far as the duke is concerned, and the volumes now before us, will be accepted by a discerning public, as a full acquittal of the claims of his imperious, intriguing, and talented wife. About two years before her death this remarkable woman published, her own Vindication under the title of An Account of the Conduct of the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough, from her first coming to Court, to the year 1710,' which excessively galled many of her enemies, both personal and political, and elicited several acrimonious replies. The book was revised by the historian Hook-and lost in consequence much of the characteristic features of her ladyship's style; yet it is replete with ability, carrying a conviction of the sincerity of the authoress, and unfolding the motives by which she was actuated, with force and clearness.' Ă concise and meagre biography of the duchess, probably ordered and paid for by her,' was subsequently issued in 1745, and to these two works we have hitherto been restricted, for our knowledge of the character and history of the ablest and most remarkable woman of her age. Mrs. Thomson has undertaken to supply what was yet wanted to complete the picture of the proud duchess, at once the subject and the mistress of Queen Anne, and no candid reader will close her volumes without a grateful appreciation of her labors. She has spared no pains to gather up every scrap of information yet existing, and has happily succeeded in setting the intrigues and fluctuations which marked the career of her heroine in a clearer light than had previously been done. The life of the duchess of Marlborough is so interwoven with the politics of William III. and of Anne's reigns, that we must know much of the latter in order duly to understand the former. The main object of the work, however, is to develop private history, connecting it by general remarks, with the leading events of the day.' It is in this point of view that the volumes before us are chiefly interesting, and their value would have been increased if the style had been somewhat more condensed and spirited. The New Excitement; or a Book to induce Young People to Read. For 1840. Containing Remarkable Appearances in Nature, Signal Preservations, and Such Incidents as are Particularly Fitted to Assist the Youthful Mind. By the Editor of The New Excitement' for 1838 and 1839, and of The Excitement' for the Preceding years. Edinburgh: W. Innes. The name of the estimable editor of this little volume will serve as a sufficient introduction of it to the confidence of our readers. Designed to furnish innocent and amusing reading for young people,' it is miscellaneous in its contents, yet carefully guarded against the infusion of any sentiment tending to lower the tone or impair the force of moral principle. The incidents recorded are, in many cases, instructive as well as interesting, and the whole volume is happily adapted to rouse the slothful mind, and to induce a taste for reading where it had not previously existed. To the juvenile members of our own family it is the most welcome visitor we can introduce. Government of Canada. Debates of the House of Commons in the Year 1774, on the Bill for Making more Effectual Provision for the Government of Quebec. Drawn up from the Notes of the Right Hon. Sir Henry Cavendish, Bart., Member of Lostwithiel; now first published by J. Wright. With a Map of Canada, copied from the Second Edition of Mitchell's Map of North America, referred to in the Debates. 8vo. pp. 303. London: Ridgway. An invaluable addition to the parliamentary history of our country, which ought to be in the hands of every person who is interested in the discussions now afloat respecting Canada. 'Two generations have passed away, and yet the debates (recorded in this volume) might be conceived to be those of yesterday ;-so completely are the circumstances of the country brought round by time to the point from which they first started.' It has long been matter of regret, that the proceedings of the Commons in the 13th parliament of Great Britain, commencing in May, 1768, and ending in June, 1774, should, in consequence of the strict exclusion of strangers from the house, have remained nearly a blank in our history. We rejoice to learn that Mr. Wright, guided by a curious passage in Almon's Biographical Anecdotes,' has at length succeeded in discovering amongst the Egerton Manuscripts, a voluminous report of the debates of this period, drawn up by Sir Henry Cavendish, one of the members of the house. The volume before us is a specimen, which is to be followed up by the publication of the whole in four or five volumes, if sufficient encouragement be obtained. There cannot surely be any doubt on this point, for a more valuable addition to our historical literature can scarcely be imagined. It would be disgraceful in the last degree if such an undertaking should not prove eminently successful. From the specimen which this volume furnishes we have no hesitation in declaring our conviction, that by the projected publication, a fuller and more life-like report will be obtained of the proceedings of this parliament, than is possessed of the debates of any other prior to the relaxation of the standing order of the house. A Praxis on the Latin Potential and Subjunctive Moods, being an Attempt to Illustrate their Nature andConstruction in the way of Exercise. By the Rev. Robert Maclure, LL.D. London: John Mortimer. 1839. This is in some respects a judicious arrangement of the various uses of the subjunctive mood, but it is deformed by the obsolete and absurd theory of a potential mood distinct from the subjunctive. When even in Greek the best grammarians are agreed in regarding what are called the subjunctive and optative moods as in reality one mood, (the one being the conjunctive of the principal tenses, and the other the conjunctive of the historical tenses,) it is too late in the day to revive the useless figment of a Latin potential mood. VOL. VI. U U The Autobiography of Thomas Platter, a Schoolmaster of the Sir teenth Century. Translated from the German. By the Translator of Lavater's Original Maxims. London: Wertheim. 1839. This is an interesting biography of a singular man in an extraor dinary period. It is a practical and vivid exemplification of the de termined pursuit of knowledge under the pressure of difficulties, and will be read with great pleasure. It gives a view of one side, and a very curious side, of society in the sixteenth century. The book is illustrated with wood-cuts. 1. The French Master for the Nursery: or Early Lessons in French By M. Lepage, Professor of the French Language in London. 2. Lepage's French School. Part I. L'Echo de Paris. 3. Lepage's French School. Part II. Effingham Wilson. 1839. Gift of Conversation. London: The above works are intended to form a complete French course; and any one who will go through them as the author recommends may make himself master of the language. But unfortunately the difficulty is not in finding good books for teaching French, but in getting them worked through with perseverance. It is mere empiricism to talk of acquiring any language thoroughly (and if not acquired thoroughly it is not acquired at all) in a short time. A smattering of a dozen languages may be got in a few weeks; but to learn any one well is a work of time, and of a long time too. What is wanted is the resolution to go regularly through some course. Supplementary Notes to the Third Edition of The Law of Christ Respecting Civil Obedience, especially in the Payment of Tribute By John Brown, D.D. 8vo. pp. 123. London: Ball, Arnold, and Co. On looking over the third edition of his volumeOn the Law of Christ,' &c., Dr. Brown informs us, that 'various remarks occurred, and a number of passages, I had overlooked, or had met with in the course of subsequent reading, suggested themselves to me, as fitted to throw additional light on the important topics treated in the work.' These were noted for future use, in the event of another edition being required, but were ultimately found to be so numerous and important. that he resolved on immediately printing them as a Supplement In the propriety of this resolution we fully concur, our only fear is that in this day of light and hasty reading, few will be disposed to ex amine with sufficient diligence the invaluable materials with which he has supplied them. We counsel all our readers to do so, and feel con fident of their thanks should they take our advice. The various reading and discriminating judgment of the esteemed author are sig nally conspicuous throughout his excerpts. |