of government. If there be any ministers who care nothing for office, and prefer a private station, surely the part for them is that private station; and they ought to be gratified by the immediate attainment of the object of their wishes. No man can be expected to follow the fortunes of those who only wait for an opportunity to leave him in the lurch. Instead of being quick to descry little grounds of difference either with the Court or the Parliament, or one another, the servants of the state ought to do all in their power at all times to reconcile differences, and to sustain their body unbroken, and their power unimpaired. Unworthy compliances, abandonment of principles,-submitting to such degradation as we have often seen place-loving ministers bear, no one, of course, can do otherwise than contemn and reject with indignant scorn. But upon all unimportant matters, union should be the grand and common object; and a government strong in the People's affections as in the Sovereign's favour, may well disregard an occasional coldness on the part of either House of Parliament. The present Ministers are firmly united among themselves, alike by the long habits of close private friendship, and by a community of public principle on all great objects of national polity. This is, certainly, a most important advantage gained by the sacrifice of another benefit which many might have reasonably desired for the country, in the valuable co-operation of one or two honest and experienced men among their predecessors-men, whose accession may hereafter be looked for in times fast approaching, when no government that can be formed will be found too strong for the exigencies of the public service. But regarding the Cabinet as it now is constructed, we again assert, that, compact in itself, and respected by the people, it can have no reason to apprehend any parliamentary opposition from any quarter; as long as it discharges its duties faithfully, and proceeds steadily, yet temperately, to redeem its pledges. Let it only bear in mind that the SAFETY OF THE COUNTRY requires its continuance in power; and that to endanger its duration by any rashness or any impatience, or any self-denying scruples, will be an act of desertion, and not of disinterestedness. The hopes of the few, whose party-feelings have been already displayed, and of the lovers of mere mischief and anarchy, are sup posed to centre in two chances-the possible differences among the Ministers, on reform and its details-the possible discontent of the people with the measures of reform propounded. As it is most devoutly to be hoped that these measures will be moderate-will be pointed to reparation, and restoration, and amendment, not to mere change and revolution-there can be very little chance of those distinguished statesmen differing among themselves. But the country-we mean the real bulk of its respectable and well-informed inhabitants-in a word, the middle classes, may safely be appealed to in behalf of temperate but effectual alterations and corrections of admitted abuses, against the well-meaning but unwise theorists, who will be satisfied with nothing but the realizing of their own fancies, and the pernicious agitators who work only for anarchy and confusion. We hope and trust that the Ministers will be found hateful to the latter class. Its desire is to see the Castlereagh school-the enemies of all reform, all improvement, once more in power; because its hopes are centred in a quarrel between the People and the Government, only to be settled by wide-spreading revolution. To the bulk of the people-its well-informed and virtuous portion-we equally trust that the Ministers may appeal with friendly but respectful confidence, and expect at their hands a cordial support, even if their plans of reform do not seem all at once to realize whatever good may be looked for in renovating the constitution. The reflecting portion of the community, we know, will duly appreciate the difficulties that necessarily surround A REFORMING ADMINISTRATION; they will, we are sure, give it credit for doing all that it is safe to do at the first; they will hail with pleasure the first reformation that ever yet proceeded from the Sovereign and his Ministers; they will patiently wait for such further improvements as a little time, bringing with it needful experience, may prove to be safe; and they will avoid all manifestations of impatience or discontent, as only tending to paralyse the arm of those who are not more the King's chosen servants than the people's ancient friends-aware that the only effect of withdrawing their confidence from such statesmen would be the throwing power into the hands of others, the very worst enemies of both.** * It is a most wise and practical remark of Mr Fox, never to be lost sight of by the people of this country in the approaching discussion of the Reform measures to be proposed by Government, that of all delusions it is the most inexcusable, to prefer giving up every thing to your enemies, rather than surrender a little to your friends. The tone and spirit of some distinguished and justly popular men in both Houses of Parliament since the late change, show them to be deeply imbued with the profound sense of this faithful saying, so worthy of all acceptation. NOTE to the Article on the Capital Punishment of Forgery. WE desire to be understood as by no means lending our countenance to the mischievous attempts of a most mistaken zeal, or what may truly be called a perverted humanity, to interfere with the ordinary course of criminal justice in particular cases of capital punishment. If the laws are wrong-and we have endeavoured to show they are wrong-nothing can be more praiseworthy than the efforts of enlightened and considerate men to amend them. But surely there is neither reason nor true philanthropy in the course pursued by some well-meaning but unreflecting persons, who never see a capital punishment about to be inflicted by the law as it at present stands, without raising an outcry against it in the individual case, and even making direct exertions to prevent the execution of the sentence. What is the consequence? Petitions are got up, and the community is canvassed to sign them. In one well-known case, (where a quaker was condemned for forgery,) copies of the petition for mercy were lying at every fourth or fifth shop in the frequented thoroughfares of London. A vast multitude of signatures were obtained; but the government had the sense and firmness to resist this unbecoming importunity, and the law took its course. Of late, a new line has been pursued, and public meetings are actually held to debate the merits of particular sentences; to excite sympathy with the culprits as victims of a cruel law; and to raise indignation against the prosecutors and the judges. The crimes, too, are not like that for which the quaker suffered; but acts of the most atrocious violence, approaching in their guilty intent as near as possible to murder, and only not ending in the loss of life through mere accident. It is the perpetrators of these acts who are held up as objects of mere pity; and no quarter is given either to the injured parties who complain, or to the ministers of justice who would prevent a repetition of crimes, that make all property insecure, strike dismay over the peaceful inhabitants of whole provinces, and are inconsistent with the very existence of civilization. To show the utter ignorance of the pretended friends of humanity who hold such meetings, one of them praises the Parliament of Edward III., which passed the Treason Law, as the blessed Parliament, in which there were no lawyers,'-confounding it with one some generations later, in which it is notorious to the merest smatterers in learning, that no law was passed which ever was heard of afterwards. Another orator (and the meeting seems to have gone with him) denounced as cruel and unjust all Special Commissions! As if any one in his senses ever doubted the expediency of trying offences as speedily as possible after they are committed. We trust that nothing contained in the text of our Article on the Capital Punishment of Forgery will be found to give the slightest countenance to such miserable follies as these. No. CV. will be published in March. ALLEN, John, notice of his work on the rise and growth of the royal pre- Arnauld, his idea of perception, 187. Ashburnham, John, groom of the bedchamber of Charles I., account of Ashburnham, Earl of, vindication of his ancestor, John Ashburnham, B Banim, Mr, character of, as a novelist, 413-fails in attempting to imi- Bedouins, account of, by Burckhardt, 73-characterised as a nation of Bowring, Mr, notice of his translations of the works of foreign poets, Buckland, Professor, his new views respecting the existence of animal Burckhardt, John Lewis, his notes on the Bedouins and Wahabys, 72— Byron, account of Galt's Life of, 230. C Canning, George, not deserving of the title of chief leader in the march |