support to this false principle;-the position now taken by this party is, that the state knows nothing, ought to know nothing, can know nothing, of what is truth. Morals, they will admit, the state may know something of, and may properly endeavour to cultivate and patronise; but religious truth, from which alone the principles of morals can be ascertained, and the sanctions of morals derived, must be considered to be wholly inaccessible.

Into all the absurdities of this view we shall not now enter; our present object is merely to point out the fact, that this is the chief controversy which will, for the next few years, agitate the parliamentary deliberations of this country. This is the central point of "liberalism;" this is the ruling vice of modern politics.

Now from this controversy let no man think to escape; except, indeed, he means to abjure politics altogether, and to trouble his head no more with the state of the nation than with the affairs of the moon. If he means not utterly to banish all such matters from his thoughts, then must he of necessity come to some conclusion, or at least give some vote, on the question, whether the truth is discoverable or not?

It is from a deep conviction of the pressure and weight of this question, of its being actually clamorous for admission and establishment in the British legislature, and of the immense importance attaching to its admission or exclusion,-it is because we feel entirely assured, that upon its decision the whole fate of the country depends, that we express, without hesitation, our regret at the low tone adopted in the late debate, by some of the leaders of the Conservative party. There were, indeed, those, among whom

Lord Ashley and Mr. Gladstone stood honourably pre-eminent, who did no injustice to this great argument, by resting it upon inferior or temporary considerations.

But how unfortunate was it, whether the expression were so meant or not, that the great leader of the Conservative party should commence his address by a limitation which might be interpreted to mean, and which by the ministerialists was eagerly interpreted to mean, that he disclaimed the grand and noble principles avowed by the friends to whom we have just adverted, and preferred to rest his case on the miserable footing of mere momentary expediency,

We will not hastily conclude, from a casual expression of this sort, capable of various meanings, that Sir Robert Peel was really guilty of this shortcoming. But we know well that the circumstance was with the utmost delight fastened upon by the occupants of the treasury-bench, and that their exultation since has known no bounds, at their great opponent's supposed repudiation of those principles, by which, and by which alone, he can ever effectually and permanently establish a Conservative administration.

But this false impression cannot long remain. Other opportunities will occur of more explicitly declaring himself; and the leader of the great Conservative party must then leave no room for misapprehension. "If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for the battle?" He must give his opponents, as well as his supporters, thoroughly to understand, that he is contending, not for place, which, he does not want,—not for power, which he already possesses, -but for THE TRUTH.

DURING a few weeks in the autumn of last year, I halted at a certain large town in Deutschland; and, taking the traveller's chance for temporary companions, became acquainted with some half-dozen of capital fellows, professors and students, who, however they might have wrangled at times on mathematical or metaphysical matters, were perfectly unanimous in the spirit of their translation of Horace's pithy line,

"Dulce est desipere in loco."

So all went on pleasantly enough till the arrival of one Doctor Zwingenbock, and a Baron Schwartzlippe, with their "tail" of proselytes, patients, and attendants, for the purpose of enlightening and astonishing the natives, by lectures on, and marvellous cures and feats to be performed by, animal magnetism, or, as the doctor called it, Mesmerism.

Now, all that I then knew of that wonderful science was, that Mesmer had got the principles from Hehl (a German philosopher) and Ingenhousz (a doctor); but that," ingens animi," he "went a-head" of his masters, who incontinently pronounced him to be a humbug, a sentence which was subsequently confirmed by the University of Vienna, and the Academy of Sciences at Berlin. Of his and his followers making money afterwards, in London and Paris, by their queer exhibitions of iron rods, finger poking, and pianoforte playing, I thought little, inasmuch as I think so little of the idlers in both those cities, as to believe that no absurdity or tomfoolery can be too egregious to lack patronage among them.

Something of this sort I ventured to

observe in one of our meetings; and, forthwith, the harmony of our vμoría vanished. Being a lover of peace, I strove to back out, by confessing utter ignorance of the subject. It was in vain ! Information was proffered. Facts were stated and contradicted. The ball of contention was launched; and if I would not keep it up, others would.

"Procul omnis esto Clamor et ira,"

was quoted uselessly from their favourite bard. It seemed as though they had indeed been magnetised by the points of quarrelsome weapons.

Again and again we met, but ever with the same result; and thus was broken up the comfort of as snug a little party as a wayworn traveller might desire to nestle with for a brief sojourn.

At first, the affair appeared to me of about equal importance with Dean Swift's egg-breakers' big-and-little-endian controversity; but the dropping of water wears holes in stone (the proverb is somewhat trite), and my ears were continually assailed. The whole place was magnetic or anti-magnetic. Even the ladies insisted upon a plain declaration of one's sentiments, and permitted no shuffling, however complimentary. Then I was compelled to wait the arrival of sundry letters, and more particularly of one with a supply of the "needful." So, being thus tied to the spot, I said, "Homo sum," &c. Man is a gregarious animal. I'll go with the throng, and hear what this Doctor Zwingenbock has got to say for himself. So I went to his lectures, and was experimented upon, and at last was resolved to believe if I could.

"Do I believe in clairvoyance?" exclaimed Dr. Zwingenbock." How can a man not believe vot he knows? vot he has experienced and vitnessed? Ven I vos in Courland, dere vos a youngish girl very susceptible of de magnetic influences. She could neider read, nor write, nor draw, nor paint, nor play upon any instrument, nor dance, nor noting. She had never been taught; and as for politics, bah!

VOL. XX. NO SYY

she knew not de meaning of de vord, nor de name of any reigning prince. Vell, I practised upon her, and she vent to sleep; and ve votched her, as she lay on a sofa in de middle of de room, and had some motions by vich I knew as she got some revelations. Vell, presently she get up, fast asleep, and dance along de back of de sofa, vitch vas not vider dan vere a cat can valk; and never—no, never-did Tag

lish, as usual; and, presently after, returned with the kellner, or waiter, who deliberately placed a bottle of wine before each guest, as they were handed to him from a basket by the baron. Then we had toasts and songs alternately (the former out of compliment, they said, to me), till the room became so intolerable from the fumes of tobacco, that I was induced, contrary to my habits, to accept of a cigar presented to me by the baron, " to smoke in my own defence."

My recollection of what subsequently occurred, till I found myself in a state of clairvoyance," is somewhat cloudy. I remember observing that there was a peculiar flavour in the cigar; and being assured that it was the very best Havannah, and when I made a similar remark concerning the wine, the doctor requested to taste from my bottle, and, having sipped at a glass, expressed himself highly delighted.

"It has got by sympaty," he said, a little of de magnetic flavour, and proves as you are coming a littel en rapport vid dese philosophes. I telled you ve vos doing your business. Drink so fast as you can, and I hope you get more of de taste presently."

That it did taste worse and worse, as I frequently had recourse to the glass, to remove a parched feeling produced by the cigar, I have a dreamy remembrance, as also of endeavouring to comprehend and follow the thread of a long, dreary story, concerning magnetic influences and somnambulism. All was in vain. The wondrous power hovered over me; then came down, and, as a cloud, separated me from my fellow men. The precise moment I knew not; but, anon, I felt myself borne away as though by wings, and away, away, smoothly and pleasantly enough, but with immense rapidity, I sailed through the air, without interruption; though, at the first start, I had been stopped by an old fellow with a scythe and an hourglass, and a single lock of hair ou his forehead, who angrily declared that he never suffered any one to go "a-head" of him into his dominions. I was in a placid mood, and rather amused by his irritation; so I merely said, "Don't be in a passion, old daddy! It's of no use; I've been regularly magnetised, and am a clairvoyant."

"Ah!" he exclaimed, "that alters the case entirely. I beg you a thousand pardons!" and, throwing down

his scythe, he laid hold of his forelock (for want of a hat), bowed with obsequious awkwardness, lifted his left leg behind, as though to take a step backward, and added, with an odd sort of smile, "You are perfectly welcome to go just wherever you please."

"Am I?" thought I, as I glided onward; "well, then, since I feel perfectly clear of the times in which I have hitherto lived, here's for a good long stretch into futurity! If an unlettered child could discern events, of which she knew not the meaning, ten years before they occurred, surely I-" (Here I fell into an overwhelming fit of selfconceit, a delusion pretty general among the initiated,)" surely I— I, who have studied, travelled, written, philosophised, &c. &c. &c., when in an unmagnetised state, may now dash forward a few centuries at least! It shall be so !"

"When and where would you like to be wafted?" inquired the voice of my invisible guide, which I then heard for the first time. "Let us skip a brace of thousands at once!" I exclaimed: "so, hey for London, and anno Domini 3838!"

"Here we are, then," said my cicerone, and immediately, gently, as a snowflake meets the ground, I felt myIf self placed upon my legs in the centre of a large city, in the midst of a moving multitude dressed after strange fashions, which I am neither tailor nor milliner enough to describe.

"I don't know this part of the town," said I. "Which is the way to Regent Street?"

"Regent Street," replied my magnetic guide, "was in old London, a city long since deserted, and now so utterly gone to decay, that its remaining ruins serve only as matters of speculation for the antiquary."

66

"What!" I almost breathlessly exclaimed, "London! the emporium! the queen of cities! Is it possible?" Nothing more regular," replied my guide, dryly; "followed the example of Babylon, Nineveh, Paris, and others. All regular."

"But how, and why was she deserted?" I inquired.

"By degrees," said my attendant. "But you may judge somewhat for yourself, by going about a dozen miles westward, and looking at the narrow, choked-up river, where the remains of some two or three long bridges yet