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should not be able to stem, nor perhaps even to escape from it. I would stand forth, like any other man, at a period of threatened convulsion, or pressing danger: but, as the world goes, I shall content myself with a few books and a few friends, and hope to pass in their society quietly to my grave."

CLERICUS.

The person next in place to the president is a beneficed clergyman of the established church, whom the public must, for the present, be content to know under the simple style and title of Clericus. "What! a beneficed clergyman of the established church, as an active member of a political association ?" "And why not?" we might answer at once; bishops sit in the House of Peers ;"-which is the place, by the way, in which all his friends would be happy to see "Clericus," if he would promise still to continue in the Council of Ten.

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But no; our opinion, we own, is very strict upon this point; nor shall we, at this moment, run the risk of giving offence, by expressing our full sentiments upon the interference of clergymen in the party-politics of the day. Thus much, however, we must say; they have other duties to perform than those of a partisan. It is their office; and none surely can be more honourable or more dignified-to heal divisions, to moderate animosities, to inculcate peace and good-will, and, instead of mixing in the miserable broils and dissensions of this world, point out, by their precepts and their example, the road to a better. They have to distribute the pure waters of life, instead of themselves dabbling in the muddy, and troubled, and bitter pool of political controversy.

We are here speaking of politics in the common acceptation of the term; but the word has another sense, as we shall explain more at large hereafter-according to which there is nothing in the study of politics inconsistent with the sacred character of a christian divine: for, to state one among many reasons, under this comprehensive science, religion itself is necessarily included, as far as religion is connected with the state. At present we shall only desire VOL. I.

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our readers to withhold their judgment, until they are better acquainted with the general temper and intentions of our Council, and the particular office assigned in it to him, whose character is now under consideration.

Clericus is, in two words, an orthodox divine-and, perhaps, in matters of doctrine, what is generally called a high churchman; but he is too well imbued with the genuine spirit of christianity to entertain any feelings of rancour against those members of the establishment, whose opinions, on certain points of belief, differ from his own. Towards the various denominations, also, of dissenters he has a kind and charitable disposition; however, he may regret their secession from the church-and however firmly he believes the tenets of that church to be at least as conformable as any others to the letter and meaning of the gospel, and the institution of that church worthy of steady support from every friend of religion and of his country. The first wish of his heart-we fear, alas! it is a very chimerical one is to see those unhappy divisions which rend the christian world, die gradually away; to see the different sects united by the bond of brotherhood" as one fold under one shepherd;" or, at all events, their conduct and sentiments towards each other, such as becomes the professors of a faith, the essence of which is altogether incompatiblealtogether irreconcilable, with any emotion of proud resentment, or any expression of injurious contumely.

He takes a strong interest in the proceedings of the various societies, which have been formed for the diffusion of christianity, and the promotion of christian knowledge. He is ever ready to approve their motives, and admire their intentions: yet it must not be concealed, that he sometimes harbours a doubt as to the prudence of their plans. He sometimes wishes a little more worldly wisdom and local experience added to their evangelical zeal; and he has, unfortunately, less sanguine hopes with regard to their immediate success in some distant countries, than the enthusiasm of others has enabled them to cherish.

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His political principles may be soon stated. He deems it to be the especial duty of a clergyman to uphold the existing institutions: and, generally speaking, to support

the government, as being the government. The mere squabbles about place, or office, or preferment, he regards with a smile of calm indifference; and leaves to any who can take more pleasure in them than himself. He is a staunch enemy to innovations, and feels somewhat too much alarm at the machinations of those wretched men who are atheists and blasphemers; because they find atheism and blasphemy a trade, which just keeps them from starvation: and who are objects, after all, rather of contempt than dread, and perhaps of pity than contempt.

Clericus is a man of great and universal learning; but, having spent many years of his life in the retirement of a college, and having hung over the great authors of Greece and Rome, until their pages are familiar in his mouth as household words, he has imbibed a disrelish, not to say, contempt, of modern literature; and would look with unequivocal horror at any change in the English system of education, as it regards the higher classes of society. It may here, indeed, be remarked, that his opinions on the general subject of education form a not unamusing contrast, and often come into strong collision, with those of other members of the Council.

For the rest, he has the art to make himself beloved; and, what is of more consequence, to inspire love for the profession to which he belongs, by the mildness of his deportment, and the uniform rectitude of his life. He is nothing of a fanatic-nothing of a puritan; and far stricter in his own conduct than in his censure of others. His presence is no restraint, except upon licentiousness: he is no enemy to gaiety, when it is innocent; or wit, when it is not tinctured with ill-nature, and steeped in the gall of personality. His anger is only kindled when he hears of philosophy as a substitute for religion. It is religion that sustains him in his upright and unblemished course; and he believes the light of the gospel to be the only beacon by which we may steer safely and steadily through the shoals and quicksands of our present state of being, as well as arrive at that happier one, which is the haven of his hopes.

THE SQUIRE.

In the formal deliberations of our council, the member last mentioned is always seated at the right hand of the President: the chair on his left is occupied by a country gentleman of property, whom we call the Squire, in imitation of the peasantry around his estate. The name evidently pleases him; and he makes no scruple to declare, that he would not exchange it for any patent of nobility; much less for the title, and prerogatives of royalty. His estate although not particularly large, is a very good one, and perfectly unincumbered. He is a magistrate for the county; and there is not a better landlord in the kingdom.

Every thing about him is essentially English. His very dress; his athletic, and somewhat portly, form; his frank, unstudied air; his hearty hospitable salutation; all bespeak the English gentleman, independent, and conscious of independence. His hale and ruddy complexion is a striking contrast to the paler but smoother visages of his metropolitan companions. Agriculture and the country are all in all with him. He will sometimes recite with peculiar animation, what Goldsmith truly, as well as beautifully, says of "a bold peasantry their country's pride;" and the circumstance is the more remarkable, as, with the exception of now and then a stanza in a hunting song, these are the only lines of poetry, which he was ever known to quote. He would infinitely rather see, as he often tells us, his tenantry down to the very ploughboys, engaged in their evening diversions in the open air, than a crowd of sickly artisans congregated in a theatre; and holds, we are afraid, a rural couple making love upon a stile, to be a far finer spectacle, than any petit-maître on the town lisping compliments to a high-born beauty in an opera-box, while he is thinking only of himself. A landed proprietor, and a sportsman, all his interests, all his occupations, and all his amusements, are connected with woods, and corn-fields, and the magnificence of cultivated nature. He is a very humane man, except where hares and pheasants are con

cerned. But he is lord of a manor, he has a preserve, and, we say it, as we have vowed to ourselves to speak the truth in every instance-he would have little hesitation in transporting a poacher, or getting rid of himn in any imaginable way, if he could secure his game from further depredation. His family is ancient, and like most men of ancient family, he is aristocratic in principles and habits.

With this temper of mind, the popu'ous streets of London are to him, "the abomination of desolation." Here he is as much out of his element, as an Indian chieftain in a drawing-room; or as Mr. Cobbett would find himself in the House of Commons. Here" a southerly wind and a cloudy sky," only make the streets slippery and uncomfortable; while, if it is in the hunting season, his impatient imagination carries him forthwith into the country, and he pictures to himself a large field; a fox breaking cover; excellent scent; and the hounds in full clase. Moreover, he is not quite so great a man in London, as in his own village. In fact, here he is nobody, and there he is a person of the highest consideration; feared for his power, respected for his wealth, and loved for his hospitality.

Pretty generally, indeed, he resides upon his paternal acres. Once only has he left England; and he has taken a solemn resolution never to leave it again; for, like many other men of his class, he considers it a point of virtue to dislike foreigners. He hates France, and the French, upon principle; he hates the character, he hates the living, he hates the wine; and he hates them all the more since he paid a visit to Paris in the year 1820, "to please, as he says, the ladies of the family." The only thing connected with this journey, which seems to give him any pleasure in the recollection is, the circumstance of his having discovered his daughter (who, we whisper in a parenthesis to those whom it may concern, is one of the prettiest girls in the county of Buckingham,) feeding her bright eyes a short time after their return, upon some French silks, which she had smuggled over without his knowledge; and he prides himself upon having done a service to government, by laying a remorseless grasp upon them, and throwing them all into the fire with his own hands. He is

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