This may be partly owing to prejudices arising from subsequent events, but we feel that the principal cause of their failing to interest us, is the general tone of the composition.

"It was thought a daring expression of Oliver Cromwell," says Mr. Horne Tooke, " in the time of Charles the First, that "if he found himself placed opposite to the king in battle, he "would discharge his piece into his bosom as soon as into any "other man's. I go farther: had I lived in those days, I would "not have waited for chance to give me an opportunity of "doing my duty; I would have sought him through the ranks, "and, without the least personal enmity, have discharged my "piece into his bosom, rather than into any other man's. The king, whose actions justify rebelion to his government, de"serves death from the hand of every subject; and should such a time arrive, I shall be as free to act as to say."

We can not much respect the feelings of the man who, at this distance of time, shaded and softened as remote events usually become in the retrospect of common humanity, can remember only the failings of the unhappy Charles, without a sentiment of pity for his sufferings, or respect for his virtues. One would have thought that the calm hostility of Mr. Horne Tooke might have contented itself with a declaration which satisfied the keen ambition and fanatical fury of Cromwell. It was scarcely to have been expected that the scholar and the philosopher would have envied the usurper his bloody precedency, and have compensated the want of actual guilt by the display of a more sanguinary disposition of the heart. Having been born too late to be an actor in the scene of regicide, was it a consolation to Mr. Tooke to boast that the greatest performer in the tragedy was not better qualified than himself to play the part of the hero? Yet such appears to have been the taste of that gentleman. His hand, by his own account, would have been ready, had he been born in time, to take away the life of a sovereign distinguished among men, even by the confession of his enemies, for piety, courage, and humanity; distinguished also for his untimely grey hairs, and multiplied sorrows; distinguished too, if to err be a distinction from the common lot of man, for some mistakes in conduct. We are of another taste; a taste which leads us to prefer to the vengeance of Mr. Tooke the valour of Sir Edward Lake, who, after receiving sixteen wounds, by one of which his left arm was disabled, continued with the bridle between his teeth, to fight the battle of his prince. While we condemn the boast of the patriot, we can easily forgive the pride of those (if proud they are) who can boast their descent from him whose valorous loyalty has pur

chased for them the right to record the achievement, by adding to their armorial bearings the lion of England, the armed right arm, the sword, and the banner argent, as the symbols of the gratitude of a sovereign who had nothing left him to bestow but honour.

The period at which the character of Mr. Tooke reached its highest distinction, was that in which he became conspicuous for his exertions in favour of parliamentary reform. To have acted in conjunction with such men as at that time united their efforts for effecting this object was, in our opinion, a circumstance conferring some dignity on the name of Tooke.

Great has been the obloquy cast on the memory of Mr. Pitt for his imputed apostacy from his early professions. He has been said to have thirsted for the blood of his former associates in reform. In answering party invective argument is thrown away: by the violence of its ebullition it either overflows and wastes itself, or expends its substance in fume and vapour. He, therefore, that respects the memory of Mr. Pitt should be cautioned against employing a mode of vindication which supposes the semblance of truth in the distortions of party exaggeration, and gives body and consistence to sound and fury.

It must, however, be confessed that the sentiments of the distinguished person to whom we have last alluded did undergo a decided alteration on the subject of parliamentary reform, practically considered. But did the practical condition of the country undergo no change? And was Mr. Pitt the only man in the country in whom age and experience could justify no change of opinion? Is it not the common fate of this much abused subject to be considered by those who are unacquainted with actual affairs, and the real difficulties of the art of governing, as a question of principle rather than of expedience, as a question of abstract truth, rather than as one of which the solution is found only in the passions, the wants, and weaknesses, of ordinary humanity?

We certainly are among those who have always given Mr. Pitt full credit for sincerity in his early professions in behalf of reform, and we have never imagined that a man in the meridian of his mind, is bound by any duty to himself or others, to give effect to the projects of his dawning genius. We know of no necessary limit but the grave to the progress of self-correction; but if the understanding must have its solstice, let it at least be the solstice of summcr-let it be placed, in correspondence with the laws of the physical world, at that point of altitude from which its light and heat are most vigorously imparted, and not in the incipient stage of its ascending glory.

It is possible, however, that Mr. Pitt might have judged that the reform to which he had given his sanction, was subsequently

enlarged by those with whom he had been associated, much be yond his own original views; on which supposition it might be consistently alleged that reform deserted Mr. Pitt, instead of Mr. Pitt's descrting reform. Might he not also have con sistently regarded the question itself as having become adulterated by an admixture of French revolutionary principles, which had rendered that dangerous in application, which was still true in the abstract? Or lastly, might he not have been convinced by reflection, that while so many under the pretence of reform dissembled very mischievous or mistaken views, it would be quite inconsistent with sound sense or policy to risk the enjoyment of so much practical good, in the pursuit of projects of problematical advantage? It seems to us that any of these reasons would have justified the change in the policy of Mr. Pitt, which has been the subject of such bitter accusation. We are inclined, however, to think that none of these reasons formed the true ground of Mr. Pitt's alteration of sentiment on the measure of reform: it was, we presume to conjecture, the natural consequence of his clear and unclouded perceptions, exercising themselves on a nearer view of those objects which at a greater distance had cheated his fancy. What had seemed to be the 'useless adjuncts, if not rather the deformities of the structure, appeared on closer inspection to be the buttresses, and real supports, on which it depended. What was wanted in grace, he found compensated in strength and durability; and a new and special 'beauty in the fabric appeared to arise from the aptitude of its parts to its purpose, and the substantial excellence of its interior dispositions.

It is probable that the mind of the youthful statesman as it accumulated the means of comparison, discovered that there was no warrant in the practice of former times, no preexistent model, for the proposed changes of the system; that no earlier period in the history of man could be matched with that in which he drew his breath for the enjoyment of a rational and regulated freedom; that the House of Commons had never been in fact better composed; and that, composed as it was, it was the true epitome of the nation; comprizing a more diffusive representation of the country, than if it had been wholly popular in its constitution. That it represented the mind and faculty of the people, and displayed a sort of mosaic of breathing embroidery, working up into its texture the variegated pattern of human character, as it lies spread out on the floor of a nation superlatively free.

We are of opinion, upon the whole, that the great majority of reasoning men in the country are satisfied with the House of Commons as it is at present composed, from a persuasion that it

practically answers its true intention. But reform will never cease to have a captivating sound. To the vulgar the hope of change will always be seducing as long as they shall continue unequal to distinguish between adventitious evils, and those which are inseparable from man's appointed condition. The contagion of any strong feeling gives it a spread beyond the limits of ignorance, and thus the mind of the young statesman is apt to be carried away by the acclamation which accompanies the idea of reform; while the ends of designing ambition are answered by adopting the clamour. It is no disrespect to the memory of Mr. Pitt to suppose him at his political outset to have beer in some measure misled by the very magnanimity of his character into some of these illusions on the subject of reform, which a little more constitutional tact and political experience naturally dispelled. Let Mr. Horne Tooke then engross the merit of consistency, for he was certainly persevering to the end. The very pillar of Mr. Pitt's glory on the other hand, must rest upon what has been called his apostacy. Never to change while all about one is changing, is what some understand by consistency. It seems to us that this immutability of opinion is often the result of obstinacy and bad design. There is, to be sure, a right and wrong in substance which can never vary, but relative and circumstantial right and wrong (which are only the proprieties of human actions) are perpetually changing places, and even as to that which is essentially right or wrong, opinion must vary with the capacities of discernment in the same man. He that preserves in his changes the progressive law of his nature, marks his consistency by his varieties, which like the vicissitudes of the seasons, are as beautiful as they are beneficial.

Passing through these mellowing changes, Mr. Pitt advanced to that maturity of knowledge, and elevation of views, which enabled him to discern and counteract the malignant tendency of the disorganizing principles, which, at the commencement of the French revolution, had begun to find advocates and supporters in this country. That we were not "confounded in the perilous time" was owing, under God, to the efforts of his firm hand and commanding voice. He that now contemplates the smiling faces of his children, or sits under the shade of his own sycamore, or perambulates his fields, or gathers the fruits of his industry on British ground, is deficient in sense or gratitude, if he honours not the name of William Pitt;-of him, who from afar, saw, (what it is charitable to presume escaped the penetration of reformers, and it is just to conclude deceived the sagacity of his great opponent and his adherents,) the gathering peril, and holding in his hand the protecting trident of Britain, admonished the country of it's duty, and repressed the spirit of the storm.

So when the father of the flood
appears,
And o'er the seas his sovereign trident rears,
Their fury falls: he skims the liquid plains,
High on his chariot, and, with easy reins,

Majestic moves along, and awful peace maintains.

Such was the happy fruit of the imputed apostacy of Mr. Pitt. In the mean time the consistency of Mr. Tooke proceeded with a steady march, until we find him with associates very inferior to himself in capacity, a state prisoner under a charge of treason. Of this charge of treason he was acquitted, and we think rightly acquitted, by a jury of his country; but we must be permitted to think and speak with some disrelish of a conduct liable to be mistaken for treason. And independently of the question whether any and what legal offence was committed by Mr. Tooke, in the part he acted in his connection with the corresponding societies, we must, for ourselves, declare bluntly, that whatever is truly English in the composition of our minds, turns with disgust from their character and proceedings.

The country is so entirely sick of the very name of these corresponding societies, that it is almost become bad taste to bestow above a sentence upon them. It would, besides, be utterly useless. It is no longer necessary to expose them. A sort of odour accompanies their principles, which announces their pestiferous approach, and puts common prudence upon its guard. They have borrowed from the genius of Mr. Tooke neither ornament nor disguise, to protect them from disgust; nor under the specious pretext of reform are they any longer able to impose upon one man in the country, possessing a competency of common understanding. How these doctrines appear when dressed up in the political philosophy of Mr. Tooke, he has left us the means of judging in that precious introduction to his second part of his publication called the Diversions of Purley, in which the same incubation has hatched a motley brood of politics, grammar, egotism, and invective. It is thus that under the etymon of the word right, which wanted no explanation, he has explained himself on the notable doctrine of the rights of

man.

H.

"It appears to me highly improper to say, that God has a right: as it is also to say, that God is just. For nothing is ordered, directed, or commanded, concerning God. The expressions are inapplicable to the Deity; though they are common, and those who use them have the best intentions. They are applicable only to men; to whom alone language belongs, and of whose sensations only words are the representatives; to men who are by