every part, and no one can enslave them without attacking every individual at once in his most permanent and best-understood interest. Hence the people have the power of granting to the crown its necessary supplies—and they are too keen-sighted now to allow the king to become independent, either by foreign possession or accumulated riches. All the political passions of mankind, it may be seen, are satisfied and provided for in the English Government; and whether we look at the monarchical, or the aristocratical, or the democratical part of it, we find every jarring interest settled. Total liberty or total equality is chimerical; but civil liberty is ensured to us, by appointing a chief with privileges raising him above envy, but binding him to grant all possible liberty: by appointing great men, and fixing the limits of their clearly ascertained course : by appointing representatives, who are, from their small number and ability, able to cope with those opposed, and forced to do so from self interest, having the people, like a threatening drawn weapon, ready to destroy, in case of neglect, fraud, or deceit. Thus is a government formed capable of incalculable combinations and resources. Thus do the

people become interested spectators of those playing for them the noble game of liberty. Thus have we avoided a Tarpeian Rock, and Council of Ten, state prisons, and secret informers. Can any true comparison be made between this Government and any other of which we know? Thus the temple of liberty is placed by De Lolme in Britain. That Goddess, whose shadow and likeness only were seen by Cicero and the ancients, and who, nearly to all the rest of the world, may still be called the unknown goddess, is sheltered within a citadel of ever-during British oak.

Madame De Stael, speaking of England, in the preface to her " Allemagne," says—“ On l'a vue, comme un chevalier armé pour la defense de l'ordre sociel, preserver l'Europe pendant dix années de l'anarchie, et pendant dix autres du despotism. Son heureuse constitution fut, au commencement de la Revolution, le but des ésperances et des efforts des Francais." And De Lolme thus again finely eulogizes the British constitution:

"When the world shall have been again laid waste by conquerors, England will still continue to show mankind not only the principle that ought to

unite them, but, what is of no less importance, the form under which they ought to be united. And the Philosopher, when he considers the constant fate of civil societies amongst men, and observes the numerous and powerful causes which seem as it were unavoidably to conduct them all to a state of incurable political slavery, takes comfort in seeing that liberty has at length disclosed her secret to mankind, and secured an asylum to herself."

293

No. XIV.

CONCLUSION.

Know, all the good that individuals find,
Or God and Nature meant for mere mankind,
Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence.
But health consists with temperance alone;
And peace, O Virtue! peace is all thy own.

POPE.

You remember I marched off in double quick time from the news-room to the inn, ordered my horse, and posted home, to communicate to my wife the wonderful turn our affairs had taken, the liberal offer of my invaluable friend, and the unexpected munificence of the singular Peter LEsq. As I rode along, the virtues of my inestimable Peter mounted higher and higher in the scale of my thoughts. Worthy creature! dear old soul! super-excellent man! were some of the terms I applied, in mental exclamations, to him, as I re

flected on his exceeding goodness of heart in distinguishing me and my family from all others, as worthy of inheriting his fortune.—“ Ah,” ejaculated I, "admirable Peter! thou shalt have an eternal monument in my memory." Thus you may perceive how easy it is for you, by leaving all you have in the world to a stranger, to be considered a most benevolent soul, worthy of gratitude down to the last sand of time. I should not remind you, however, of the bitter recollections such conduct will excite amongst your immediate relations; the way to please whom, according to the Economist, is-"Go to India-stay there twenty years-work hard-get money-save it-come home-bring with you a store of wealth, and a diseased liver-visit your friends-make a will-provide for them allthen die."

Just as I approached my own door, I was overtaken by a horseman, who had evidently used both whip and spur in a good long ride. On his nearing me, I discovered the horse to be a well-known animal belonging to my father, and in the man Ț recognized his old whimsical servant, Paddy Murtoch, as good a process-server and assistant bailiff as