common sense. Why should a person be allowed to assist in electing a member of Parliament because he has an estate worth a thousand pounds, and this permission be denied to one who has a million of pounds in money? The one man's wealth being in earth, the other's in gold, seems to be a very odd reason for the difference. Personal property is as valuable, and has as much interest in the state, as real. Perhaps the sense of the thing is, that wealth ought to be the basis, without taking any account of the form it appears in, and that payment of taxes ought to be the evidence of its existence. But these are matters foreign to the present purpose. We must not lose all the substance for the best theory. All that we have to urge now, is, that some qualification or other should be introduced which shall have the effect of admitting the intelligence of the middle rank of society, and of the upper part of the lower rank. Whether the probable possession of this intelligence is to be inferred, as heretofore, from land alone, or from any other species of wealth, or from contribution by taxes to the State, L.5 a-year would not be too low, and any thing beyond L.10 a-year would be too high.

The qualification being fixed, the only thing that remains is to let in the qualified persons. They would vote along with those who are already qualified, or may choose to become so under the existing system. The qualification arising from real property must be made to attach to the ownership of houses, without which, indeed, nothing effectual can be done. And therefore whenever there was a town not comprehended within the sixtysix Royal Burghs, it would form a part of the county;-a woful proposal, no doubt, for the country gentleman, but absolutely necessary for the welfare of the community. Things cannot last as they are; and the more gracefully they are changed the better.

2. For the Royal Burghs there are two ways of proceeding;either to let the magistrates continue to elect by delegates, but to make the appointment of the magistracy depend on the people; or to leave the municipal structure of the towns as it is, but to throw the election of the member at once into the hands of the persons having the new qualification. Some will be disposed to prefer the first of these schemes, because it implies a reform in the constitution of the burghs, which is a subject on which the people have very deep feelings, justified by intolerable grievances. But the wiser resolution, with reference purely to the representation, is clearly to adopt the other course. In the first place, to connect the reform of the representation with the reform of the burghs, is to obstruct a very simple case by one which may easily be made extremely complicated; and, in the second place, even though the magistrates were to be properly

appointed, no system of representation can ever be good which withdraws the direct election of the member from the people, and vests it in any interposed body. Delegates in every shape are bad. The true course is, to fix on the qualification, and then to let the qualified persons meet the proposed representative face to face.

The qualification for towns would probably require to be somewhat different from that for counties. But it ought not to be higher; and if it did not include a certain description of tenants, it would exclude large classes of the wealthy and best educated persons. Edinburgh stands clear of all connexion with other burghs. But where four or five of them are united, it has sometimes been stated as a difficulty, that except by delegates, they could not be brought together to elect. There is no difficulty in this at all. All that is necessary is, that the qualified persons should vote at any of the burghs that they pleased, and the result would be determined by the sum total of votes, when collected and examined. The small places will, probably, insist that the election shall depend, not on the majority of individual votes all over each class of burghs, but on the majority of burghs; because this would throw as much power into the hands of the most insignificant place as into the hands of the most important. But yielding to this would exhibit the spectacle of a member who was chosen by three hundred people, composing three burghs of a hundred votes each, although he were rejected by ten thousand who happened to live in one place. Each class of burghs should be dealt with exactly as if they formed one town, which had the privilege of voting at a variety of spots. It is the average mind of the whole that ought to prevail.

The safety and the advantages of these reforms can be doubted by no sensible man, who either respects the constitution or experience. This is the system which does not merely work well in England, Ireland, and Wales, but which works so well that the government could not be maintained for a single year without it. The Scotch have never been tried with it; but if it be safe and beneficial anywhere else, it must be more safe with the people who are most cautious and educated, and more beneficial for those whose public character has hitherto been depressed by systematic exclusion from the exercise of political rights. It is scarcely twenty-five years since they were trusted with even the election of their own Commissioners of Police; and the first recognition for this purpose of numerous classes of voters, beginning at L.10 a-year, was only yielded with a grudge, and with many a demonstration that it would lead to nothing but disorder and riot. It was within a still shorter period that they

were allowed to act as jurymen in civil causes; and this also was only conceded with great alarm. Many other inferior points have been gradually obtained; all tending to liberate the people from that detestable system of distrust and insignificance in which they used to be kept. If we had wished for a triumphant answer to all these fears, we could scarcely have got a better one than what is afforded by appealing to the results of these experiments. They have not merely succeeded, but they have succeeded with a degree of facility and quietness, which is the best evidence of the advance of the public mind, and of its being fully prepared for the exercise of still higher rights.

There never was a time in which these rights could be asserted with better reason. Not merely because the people are powerful, but because their power is founded on knowledge and right feelings. The case of the Scotch representation is in itself so perfectly clear, that were it not for fear of the call for reform in England, we should have no doubt of its amendment being conceded. The outcry that will be raised by our own corporation of electors, though it may probably be the loudest, is to be utterly disregarded. The whole of our representatives voting against increasing the number of their constituents, would only be a proper commentary on the system that returns them. But though our only hope, on the whole, is from England, we are exposed to two risks from that quarter,-one arising from the enemies of English reform being anxious to resist a precedent, the other from its friends being lukewarm about any improvement which does not apply exactly to themselves.

The

The friends of Scotland, however, must do their own duty. If it be true that the people are pleased, they have only to continue silent. If they be displeased, they must employ the ordinary means by which redress of grievances is obtained. redress of this one is no party measure. It is the case, of course, of all those whose general principles incline them to the popular side. But still more is it the case of him who professes to be a lover of peace,-who must know that there will be no peace in these realms until the restless and wearisome projects of the visionary are put down, by some change which shall destroy the abuses from which they derive their dangerousness ;—of him whose rule it is to strengthen the hands of government,which he can never do by depriving government of the public co-operation ;-and of him who calls himself the friend of the monarchy, which he must be blind indeed if, in these times, he does not see cannot be more effectually undermined than by letting the people grow in number and in sense, but always with a just grudge at their condition. There are only three sorts of people

whose case it is not;—the fool, who holds the constitution itself to be a grievance; the demagogue, whose vocation ends with the removal of popular discontents; and the forlorn elector, who looks at his twelve children, and would like to have all that is going to himself. With these exceptions, this is the case of every man who wishes Scotland to be respectable, and public affairs to have the benefit of its people's reason.

We must warn our countrymen, however, not to stir this question at all, unless they be resolutely determined to persevere in their exertions for its accomplishment. Nothing is so injurious to a claim of this kind as a shortlived ebullition. It is the best evidence that those who urge it, think it groundless or unimportant. The excitement of a few public meetings, and a few petitions, is soon over, and soon forgotten. They are powerful engines; but they require management. Nothing is to be gained without concert ;-without the press;-without moderation ;and above all, without perseverance. It is only by repeated movements, that deep impressions are produced on the public mind. It is not by a single blow, however judiciously aimed or successfully struck, but by the constant repetition of the assault. Those who undertake a public cause, ought to remember, that in the case of the Catholics, it took above a hundred years to convince the most intelligent nation upon earth, that religious persecution could never benefit the persecutor; and that in the case of the slave-trade, thirty years were spent in discussion, before a senate of enlightened Christians could be induced to act on the conviction, that man-stealing, torture, and murder, could never be lawful or expedient. They ought, therefore, to reflect before they begin. They ought to summon up a spirit of determination worthy of the object; and to go on, if they move at all, under the conviction, that to let their cause rest is only apathy, but that to let it be lost from inertness is treason. If the people of Scotland be true to themselves, the result is cer tain. Whether the triumph be witnessed in our day or not, is a different and inferior question. By energy and union it certainly might. Far greater, and far more hopeless measures have, after it has been made plain that they were never to be abandoned, succeeded in a moment, and even when the expectations of their friends were lowest. The result does not depend on the enemies, but on the friends, of the measure. If the excluded be firm and wise, they have no enemies to fear.

ART. XI.-The National Library. Conducted by the Rev. G. R. GLEIG, M.A. Vol. I. The Life of Lord Byron, by JOHN GALT, Esq. 12mo. London : 1830.

THIS

HIS is one of the many works which have been lately published in imitation, or apparent imitation, of the plan adopted by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Of these, Dr Lardner's Cyclopædia is by much the most valuable, and the most recommended by distinguished assistance, scientific and literary. Considered as bookselling speculations, they may all be allowed to be moderately priced ; but in this most essential recommendation they are still greatly excelled by the Libraries of the Society.

This quality is really so material a requisite in such publications, that nothing can supply its place. The Society originally bent itself almost exclusively to the important task of bringing down the enormous price of books, which was by degrees confining the use of them more and more to those classes of the community who are in easy circumstances. Writings of an original cast, and of extraordinary genius, it was impossible, at least until most extensive circulation could be obtained, to publish at such very small cost as those of the Society are sold at. Sixpence only for as much matter as would fill a hundred pages of a common volume, with a number of excellent engravings, was plainly out of the question, if high prices were to be paid for original genius, or learning of the first order. It is of the essence of such books to be extremely cheap, but, or rather we should say, therefore, of a kind which many men may be able to write, as well as all to read. The immense circulation of twentyfive or thirty thousand, may now have enabled the Society to extend its remuneration greatly to authors. Its maps, too, are extensively circulated, and certainly of a very rare excellence, as well in the composition as in the execution. But it is manifest that such books as many of the volumes forming the Libraries, both of Entertaining Knowledge, and the Family Library, might be composed by a variety of literary men; and that, consequently, com petition must be fatal to any one of this sort not sold at the lowest price possible. This applies in an especial manner to works published by individuals. Those of the Society must always have a material advantage, from being revised by many eminent men of science and letters, which gives a security against errors, and even against omissions, not attainable by the works of unaided individuals. Hence, the authority of the Society's Treatises will always be higher, and therefore competition will be