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in this crisis. The volunteers were resistible, while they asked only for their country what all the world saw she was entitled to: But they became impotent the moment they demanded more. They were deserted, at that moment, by all the talent and the respectability which had given them, for a time, the absolute dominion of the country. The concession of their just rights operated like a talisman in separating the patriotic from the factious: And when the latter afterwards attempted to invade the lofty regions of legiti stantaneous discord and confusion, and speedly dispersed and annihilated from the face of the land. These events are big with instruction to the times that have come after; and read an impressive lesson to those who have now to deal with discontents and conventions in the same country.

terials for conversation. The House at Uxbridge, where the treaty was held during Charles the First's time; the beautiful and undulating grounds of Bulstrode, formerly the residence of Chancellor Jeffe ties; and Waller's tomb in Beconsfield church. yard, which, before we went home, we visited, and whose character, as a gentleman, a poet, and an orator, he shortly delineated, but with exquisite felicity of genius, altogether gave an uncommon interest to his eloquence; and, although one-andtwenty years have now passed since that day, I retain the most vivid and pleasing recollection of it. He reviewed the characters of many statesmen.Lord Bath's. whom, I think, he personally knew, and that of Sir Robert Walpole, which he pour-mate government, they were smitten with intrayed in nearly the same words which he used with regard to that eminent man, in his appeal from the Old Whigs to the New. He talked much of the great Lord Chatham; and, amidst a variety of particulars concerning him and his family, stated, that his sister, Mrs. Anne Pitt, used often, in her altercations with him, to say, That he knew nothing whatever except Spenser's Fairy Queen.' And,' continued Mr. Burke, no matter how that was said; but whoever relishes, and reads Spenser as he ought to be read, will have a strong hold of the English language.' These were his exact words. Of Mrs. Anne Pitt he said, that she had the most agreeable and uncommon talents, and was, beyond all comparison, the most perfectly eloquent person he ever heard speak. He always, as he said, lamented that he did not put on paper a conversation he had once with her; on what subject I forget. The richness, variety, and solidity of her discourse, absolutely astonished him.*

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which, we fear, few precedents have been left in the office of the Secretary of State.

But if it be certain that the salvation of Ireland was then owing to the mild, liberal, and enlightened councils of the Rockingham administration as a body, it is delightful to see, in some of the private letters which Mr. Hardy has printed in the volume before us, how cordially the sentiments professed by this ministry were adopted by the eminent men who presided over its formation. There are letters to Lord Charlemont, both from Lord Rockingham himself, and from Mr. Fox, which would Certainly no nation ever obtained such a almost reconcile one to a belief in the possideliverance by such an instrument, and hurt bility of ministerial fairness and sincerity. itself so little by the use of it; and, if the We should like to give the whole of them Irish Revolution of 1782 shows, that power here; but as our limits will not admit of that, and intimidation may be lawfully employed we must content ourselves with some extracts to enforce rights which have been refused to from Mr. Fox's first letter after the new min supplication and reason, it shows also the ex-istry was formed,-for the tone and style of treme danger of this method of redress, and the necessity there is for resorting to every precaution in those cases where it has become indispensable. Ireland was now saved from all the horrors of a civil war, only by two circumstances;-the first, that the great military force which accomplished the redress of her grievances, had not been originally raised or organised with any view to such an interference; and was chiefly guided, therefore, by men of loyal and moderate characters, who had taken up arms for no other purpose but the defence of their country against foreign invasion:-The other, that the just and reasonable demands to which these leaders ultimately limited their pretensions, were address-not add, that I feel myself, on every private as well ed to a liberal and enlightened administration, -too just to withhold, when in power, what they had laboured to procure when in opposition, and too magnanimous to dread the effect of conceding, even to armed petitioners, what was clearly and indisputably their due. It was the moderation of their first demands, and the generous frankness with which they were so promptly granted, that saved Ireland

I here omit the long abstract which originally followed, of the Irish parliament and public history, from 1750 to the period of the Union, together with all the details of the great Volunteer Association in 1780, and its fortunate dissolution in 1782-to which remarkable event the paragraph which now follows in the text refers.

"My dear Lord,-If I had had occasion to write to you a month ago, I should have written with great confidence that you would believe me perfectly sincere, and would receive any thing that came from me with the partiality of an old acquaintance, and one who acted upon the same political principles. I hope you will now consider me in the same light; but I own I write with much more diffidence, as I a much more sure of your kindness to me personally, than of your inclination to listen with faState. The principal business of this letter is to vour to any thing that comes from a Secretary of inform you, that the Duke of Portland is appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Colonel Fitzpatrick his secretary; and, when I have said this, I need

as public account, most peculiarly interested in the
success of their administration. That their persons
and characters are not disagreeable to your Lord-
ship, I may venture to assure myself, without being
too sanguine; and I think myself equally certain,
that there are not in the world two men whose
general way of thinking upon political subjects is
therefore, too much to desire and hope, that you
more exactly consonant to your own. It is not,
will at least look upon the administration of such
men with rather a more favourable eye, and incline
to trust them rather more than you could do most
of those who have been their predecessors."-
"The particular time of year at which this change
happens, is productive of many great inconveniences,
especially as it will be very difficult for the Duke
of Portland to be at Dublin before your Parliament
meets; but I cannot help hoping that all reasonable
men will concur in removing some of these diffi

culties, and that a short adjournment will not be readers one or two specimens of his gift of denied, if asked. I do not throw out this as know-drawing characters; in the exercise of which ing from any authority that it will be proposed, but he generally rises to a sort of quaint and as an idea that suggests itself to me; and in order to show that I wish to talk with you, and consult brilliant conciseness, and displays a degree with you in the same frank manner in which I of acuteness and fine observation that are not should have done before I was in this situation, so to be found in the other parts of his writing. very new to me. I have been used to think ill of His greatest fault is, that he does not abuse all the ministers whom I did know, and to suspect any body,-even where the dignity of history, those whom I did not, that when I am obliged to and of virtue, call loudly for such an infliction. call myself a minister, I feel as if I put myself into a very suspicious character; but I do assure you I Yet there is something in the tone of all his am the very same man, in all respects, that I was delineations, that satisfies us that there is nowhen you knew me, and honoured me with some thing worse than extreme good nature at the share in your esteem-that I maintain the same bottom of his forbearance. Of Philip Tisdal, opinions, and act with the same people. who was Attorney-general when Lord Charlemont first came into Parliament, he says:—

"Pray make my best compliments to Mr. Grattan, and tell him, that the Duke of Portland and Fitzpatrick are thoroughly impressed with the importance of his approbation, and will do all they can to deserve it. I do most sincerely hope, that he may hit upon some line that may be drawn honourably and advantageously for both countries; and that, when that is done, he will show the world that there may be a government in Ireland, of which he is not ashamed to make a part. That country can never prosper, where, what should be the ambition of men of honour, is considered as a disgrace." pp. 217-219.

The following letter from Mr. Burke in the end of 1789, will be read with more interest, when it is recollected that he published his celebrated Reflections on the French Revolution, but a few months after.

"He had an admirable and most superior understanding; an understanding matured by years-by long experience-by habits with the best company from his youth-with the bar, with Parliament, with the State. To this strength of intellect was added a constitutional philosophy, or apathy, which

never suffered him to be carried away by attachment to any party, even his own. He saw men and things so clearly; he understood so well the whole farce and fallacy of life, that it passed beforo him like a scenic representation; and, till almost the close of his days, he went through the world with a constant sunshine of soul, and an inexorable gravity of feature. His countenance was never gay, and his mind was never gloomy. He was an able speaker, as well at the bar as in the House of Commons, though his diction was very indifferent. He did not speak so much at length as many of his parliamentary coadjutors, though he knew the whole of the subject much better than they did. He was not only a good speaker in Parliament, but an excellent manager of the House of Commons. He never said too much: and he had great merit in what he did not say; for Government was never committed by him. He plunged into no difficulty; nor did he ever suffer his antagonist to escape from one."-pp. 78, 79.

Of Hussey Burgh, afterwards Lord Chief Baron, he observes:

"My dearest Lord,-I think your Lordship has acted with your usual zeal and judgment in establishing a Whig club in Dublin. These meetings prevent the evaporation of principle in individuals, and give them joint force, and enliven their exertions by emulation. You see the matter in its true light; and with your usual discernment. Party is absolutely necessary at this time. I thought it always so in this country, ever since I have had any thing to do in public business; and I rather fear, that there is not virtue enough in this period to support party, than that party should become necessary, on account of the want of virtue to support itself by individual exertions. As to us here, our thoughts "To those who never heard him, as the fashion of of every thing at home are suspended by our as- this world in eloquence as in all things soon passes tonishment at the wonderful spectacle which is ex- away, it may be no easy matter to convey a just hibited in a neighbouring and rival country. What idea of his style of speaking. It was sustained by spectators, and what actors! England gazing with great ingenuity, great rapidity of intellect, luminous astonishment at a French struggle for liberty, and and piercing satire; in refinement abundant, in simnot knowing whether to blame, or to applaud. The plicity sterile. The classical allusions of this orator, thing, indeed, though I thought I saw something for he was most truly one, were so apposite, they like it in progress for several years, has still some- followed each other in such bright and varied suc what in it paradoxical and mysterious. The spirit cession, and, at times, spread such an unexpected It is impossible not to admire; but the old Parisian and triumphant blaze around his subject, that all ferocity has broken out in a shocking manner. It persons who were in the least tinged with literais true, that this may be no more than a sudden exture, could never be tired of listening to him; and plosion; if so, no indication can be taken from it; when in the splendid days of the Volunteer Assobut if it should be character, rather than accident, ciation, alluding to some coercive English laws, then that people are not fit for liberty-and must and to that institution, then in its proudest array, have a strong hand, like that of their former mas- he said, in the House of Commons, That such ters, to coerce them. Men must have a certain laws were sown like dragons' teeth,-and sprung fund of natural moderation to qualify them for free-up in armed men,' the applause which followed, dom; else it becomes noxious to themselves, and a and the glow of enthusiasm which he kindled in perfect nuisance to every body else. What will be every mind, far exceed my powers of description." the event, it is hard, I think, still to say. To form-pp. 140, 141. a solid constitution, requires wisdom as well as spirit; and whether the French have wise heads among them, or, if they possess such, whether they have authority equal to their wisdom, is yet to be seen. In the mean time, the progress of this whole affair is one of the most curious matters of speculation that ever was exhibited."-pp. 321, 322.

We should now take our leave of Mr. Hardy; -and yet it would not be fair to dismiss him from the scene entirely, without giving our

Of Gerard Hamilton, he gives us the following characteristic anecdotes.

"The uncommon splendour of his eloquence, which was succeeded by such inflexible taciturnity in St. Stephen's Chapel, became the subject, as The truth is, that all his speeches, whether delivered might be supposed, of much, and idle speculation. in London or Dublin, were not only prepared, but studied, with a minuteness and exactitude, of which

those who are only used to the carelessness of modern debating, can scarcely form any idea. Lord Charlemont, who had been long and intimately ac quainted with him, previous to his coming to Ireland, often mentioned that he was the only speaker, among the many he had heard, of whom he could say, with certainty, that all his speeches, however long, were written and got by heart. A gentleman, well known to his Lordship and Hamilton, assured him, that he heard Hamilton repeat, no less than three times, an oration, which he afterwards spoke in the House of Commons, and which lasted almost three hours. As a debater, therefore, he became as useless to his political patrons as Addison was to Lord Sunderland; and, if possible, he was more scrupulous in composition than even that eminent man. Addison would stop the press to correct the most trivial error in a large publication; and Ham. ilton, as I can assert on indubitable authority, would recall the footman, if, on recollection, any word, in his opinion, was misplaced or improper, in the slightest note to a familiar acquaintance." pp. 60, 61. No name is mentioned in these pages with higher or more uniform applause, than that of Henry Grattan. But that distinguished person still lives: and Mr. Hardy's delicacy has prevented him from attempting any delineation, either of his character or his eloquence. We respect his forbearance, and shall follow his example:-Yet we cannot deny ourselves the gratification of extracting one sentence from a letter of Lord Charle

mont, in relation to that parliamentary grant, by which an honour was conferred on an individual patriot, without place or official situa tion of any kind, and merely for his personal merits and exertions, which has in other cases been held to be the particular and appropriate reward of triumphant generals aud commanders. When the mild and equable tempera ment of Lord Charlemont's mind is recol lected, as well as the caution with which all his opinions were expressed, we do not know that a wise ambition would wish for a prouder or more honourable testimony than is contained in the following short sentences.

"Respecting the grant, I know with certainty that Grattan, though he felt himself flattered by the intention, looked upon the act with the deepest concern, and did all in his power to deprecate it. As it was found impossible to defeat the design, all his friends, and I among others, were employed to lessen the sum. It was accordingly decreased by one half, and that principally by his positive declaration, through us, that, if the whole were insisted on, he would refuse all but a few hundreds, which he would retain as an honourable mark of the goodness of his country. By some, who look only into themselves for information concerning human nature, this conduct will probably be construed into nency of virtue, and the character of Gratian, are hypocrisy. To such, the excellence and pre-emias invisible and incomprehensibe, as the brightness of the sun to a man born blind."-p. 237.

(September, 1818.)

An Inquiry whether Crime and Misery are produced or prevented by our present System of Prison Discipline. Illustrated by Descriptions of the Borough Compter, Tothill Fields Prison, the Jail at St. Albans, the Jail at Guildford, the Jail at Bristol, the Jails at Bury and Ilchester, the Maison de Force at Ghent, the Philadelphia Prison, the Penitentiary at Millbank, and the Proceedings of the Ladies' Committee at Newgate. By THOMAS FOWELL BUXTON. 8vo. p. 171. London: 1818.

THERE are two classes of subjects which naturally engage the attention of public men, and divide the interest which society takes in their proceedings. The one may, in a wide sense, be called Party Politics-the other Civil or Domestic Administration. To the former belong all questions touching political rights and franchises the principles of the Constitution-the fitness or unfitness of ministers, and the interest and honour of the country, as it may be affected by its conduct and relations to foreign powers, either in peace or war. The latter comprehends most of the branches of political economy and statistics, and all the ordinary legislation of internal police and regulation; and, besides the two great heads of Trade and Taxation, embraces the improvements of the civil Code-the care of the Poor-the interests of Education, Religion, and Morality-and the protection of Prisoners, Lunatics, and others who cannot claim protection for themselves. This distinction, we confess, is but coarsely drawn --since every one of the things we have last enumerated may, in certain circumstances, be made an occasion of party contention.

But what we mean is, that they are not its natural occasions, and do not belong to those topics, or refer to those principles, in relation to which the great Parties of a free country necessarily arise. One great part of a statesman's business may thus be considered as Polemic-and another as Deliberative; his main object in the first being to discomfit and expose his opponents-and, in the second, to discover the best means of carrying into effect ends which all agree to be desirable.

Judging à priori of the relative importance or agreeableness of these two occupations, we should certainly be apt to think that the latter was by far the most attractive and comfortable in itself, as well as the most likely to be popular with the community. The fact, however, happens to be otherwise: For such is the excitement of a public contest for influence and power, and so great the prize to be won in those honourable lists, that the highest talents are all put in requisition for that department, and all their force and splendour reserved for the struggle: And indeed, when we consider that the object of this struggle is nothing less than to put the whole power of

that excite the imagination, or inflame the passions of observant multitudes.

administration into the hands of the victors, | paign. The inventors of the steam-engine and thus to enable them not only to engross and the spinning-machine have, beyond all the credit of carrying through all those bene- question, done much more in our own times, ficial arrangements that may be called for by not only to increase the comforts and wealth the voice of the country, but to carry them of their country, but to multiply its resources through in their own way, we ought not per- and enlarge its power, than all the Statesmen haps to wonder, that in the eagerness of this and Warriors who have affected during the pursuit, which is truly that of the means to all same period, to direct its destiny; and yet, ends, some of the ends themselves should, while the incense of public acclamation has when separately presented, appear of inferior been lavished upon the latter while wealth moment, and excite far less interest or concern. and honours, and hereditary distinctions, have But, though this apology may be available been heaped upon them in their lives, and in some degree to the actors, it still leaves us monumental glories been devised to perpetuat a loss to account for the corresponding sen- ate the remembrance of their services, the timents that are found in the body of the peo- former have been left undistinguished in the ple, who are but lookers on for the most part crowd of ordinary citizens, and permitted to in this great scene of contention-and can close their days, unvisited by any ray of pubscarcely fail to perceive, one would imagine, lic favour or national gratitude,-for no other that their immediate interests were often post- reason that can possibly be suggested, than poned to the mere gladiatorship of the parties, that their invaluable services were performed and their actual service neglected, while this without noise or contention, in the studious fierce strife was maintained as to who should privacy of benevolent meditation, and withbe allowed to serve them. In such circum-out any of those tumultuous accompaniments stances, we should naturally expect to find, that the popular favourites would not be the leaders of the opposite political parties, but those who, without regard to party, came forward to suggest and promote measures of admitted utility-and laboured directly to enlarge the enjoyments and advantages of the people, or to alleviate the pressure of their necessary sufferings. That it is not so in fact and reality, must be ascribed, we think, partly to the sympathy which, in a country like this, men of all conditions take in the party feelings of their political favourites, and the sense they have of the great importance of their success, and the general prevalence of their principles; and partly, no doubt, and in a greater degree, to that less justifiable but very familiar principle of our nature, by which we are led, on so many other occasions; to prefer splendid accomplishments to useful qualities, and to take a much greater interest in those perilous and eventful encounters, where the prowess of the champions is almost all that is to be proved by the result, than in those humbler labours of love or wisdom, by which the enjoyments of the whole society are multiplied or secured.

The case, however, is precisely the same with the different classes of those who Occupy themselves with public interests. He who thunders in popular assemblies, and consumes his antagonists in the blaze of his patriotic eloquence, or withers them with the flash of his resistless sarcasm, immediately becomes, not merely a leader in the senate, but an idol in the country at large;-while he who by his sagacity discovers, by his eloquence recommends, and by his laborious perseverance ultimately effects, some great improvement in the condition of large classes of the community, is rated, by that ungrateful community, as a far inferior personage; and obtains, for his nights and days of successful toil, a far less share even of the cheap reward of popular applause than is earned by the other, merely in following the impulses of his own ambitious nature. No man in this country ever rose to a high political station, or even obtained any great personal power and influ ence in society, merely by originating in Parliament measures of internal regulation, or conducting with judgment and success imThere is a reason, no doubt, for this also-provements, however extensive, that did not and a wise one-as for every other general law to which its great Author has subjected our being: But it is not the less true, that it often operates irregularly, and beyond its province,- -as may be seen in the familiar instance of the excessive and pernicious admiration which follows all great achievements in War, and makes Military fame so dangerously seducing, both to those who give and to those who receive it. It is undeniably true, as Swift said long ago, that he who made two blades of grass to grow where one only grew before, was a greater benefactor to his country than all the heroes and conquerors with whom its annals are emblazed; and yet it would be ludicrous to compare the fame of the most successful improver in agriculture with that of the most inconsiderable soldier who ever signalised his courage in an unsuccessful cam

affect the interests of one or other of the two great parties in the state. Mr. Wilberforce may perhaps be mentioned as an exception; and certainly the greatness, the long endurance, and the difficulty of the struggle, which he at last conducted to so glorious a termination, have given him a fame and popularity which may be compared, in some respects, with that of a party leader. But even Mr. Wilberforce would be at once demolished in a contest with the leaders of party; and could do nothing, out of doors, by his own individua. exertions; while it is quite manifest, that the greatest and most meritorious exertions to ex tend the reign of Justice by the correction of our civil code-to ameliorate the condition of the Poor-to alleviate the sufferings of the Prisoner,-or, finally, to regenerate the minds of the whole people by an improved system

of Education, will never give a man half the power or celebrity that may be secured, at any time, by a brilliant speech on a motion of censure, or a flaming harangue on the boundlessness of our resources, and the glories of our arms.

tails of a painful and offensive nature; and an indolent sort of optimism, by which we naturally seek to excuse our want of activity, by charitably presuming that things are as well as they can easily be made, and that it is inconceivable that any very flagrant abuses should be permitted by the worthy and humane people who are more immediately concerned in their prevention. To this is added a fear of giving offence to those same worthy visitors and superintendants—and a still more potent fear of giving offence to his Majesty's Government;-for though no administration can really have any interest in the existence of such abuses, or can be suspected of wishing to perpetuate them from any love for them or their authors, yet it is but too true that most long-established administrations have looked with an evil eye upon the detectors and redressors of all sorts of abuses, however little connected with politics or political personsfirst, because they feel that their long and undisturbed continuance is a tacit reproach on their negligence and inactivity, in not having made use of their great opportunities to discover and correct them-secondly, because all such corrections are innovations upon old usages and establishments, and practical admissions of the flagrant imperfection of those boasted institutions, towards which it is their

It may be conjectured already, that with all due sense of the value of party distinctions, and all possible veneration for the talents which they call most prominently into action, we are inclined to think, that this estimate of public services might be advantageously corrected; and that the objects which would exclusively occupy our statesmen if they were all of one mind upon constitutional questions, ought more frequently to take precedence of the contentions to which those questions give rise. We think there is, of late, a tendency to such a change in public opinion. The nation, at least, seems at length heartily sick of those heroic vapourings about our efforts for the salvation of Europe,-which seem to have ended in the restoration of old abuses abroad, and the imposition of new taxes at home;and about the vigour which was required for the maintenance of our glorious constitution, which has most conspicuously displayed itself in the suspension of its best bulwarks, and the organisation of spy systems and vindictive persecutions, after the worst fashion of arbitrary governments;-and seems disposed to re-interest to maintain a blind and indiscriminate quire, at the hands of its representatives, some substantial pledge of their concern for the general welfare, by an active and zealous cooperation in the correction of admitted abuses, and the redress of confessed wrongs.

It is mortifying to the pride of human wisdom, to consider how much evil has resulted from the best and least exceptionable of its boasted institutions-and how those establishments that have been most carefully devised for the repression of guilt, or the relief of misery, have become themselves the fruitful and pestilent sources both of guilt and misery, in a frightful and disgusting degree. Laws, without which society could not exist, become, by their very multiplication and refinement, a snare and a burden to those they were intended to protect, and let in upon us the hateful and most intolerable plagues, of pettifogging, chicanery, and legal persecution. Institutions for the relief and prevention of Poverty have the effect of multiplying it tenfold-hospitals for the cure of Diseases become centres of infection. The very Police, which is necessary to make our cities habitable, give birth to the odious vermin of informers, thief-catchers, and suborners of treachery; -and our Prisons, which are meant chiefly to reform the guilty and secure the suspected, are converted into schools of the most atrocious corruption, and dens of the most inhuman torture.

veneration in the body of the people—and, thirdly, because, if general abuses affecting large classes of the community are allowed to be exposed and reformed in any one department, the people might get accustomed to look for the redress of all similar abuses in other departments, and reform would cease to be a word of terror and alarm (as most ministers think it ought to be) to all loyal subjects.

These, no doubt, are formidable obstacles; and therefore it is, that gross abuses have been allowed to subsist so long. But they are so far from being insurmountable, that we are perfectly persuaded that nothing more is necessary to insure the effectual correction, or mitigation at least, of all the evils to which we have alluded, than to satisfy the public, 1st. of their existence and extent-and, 2dly, of there being means for their effectual redress and prevention. Evils that are directly connected with the power of the existing administration-abuses of which they are themselves the authors or abettors, or of which they have the benefit, can only be corrected by their removal from office-and are substantially irremediable, however enormous, while they continue in power. All questions as to them, therefore, belong to the department of party politics, and fall within the province of the polemical statesman. But with regard to all other plain violations of reason, justice, or Those evils and abuses, thus arising out of humanity, it is comfortable to think that we intended benefits and remedies, are the last to live in such a stage of society as to make it which the attention of ordinary men is direct- impossible that they should be allowed to sub ed--because they arise in such unexpected sist many years, after their mischief and iniquarters, and are apt to be regarded as the quity have been made manifest to the sense unavoidable accompaniments of indispensable of the country at large. Public opinion, which institutions. There is a selfish delicacy which is still potent and formidable even to Ministe makes us at all times averse to enter into de-rial corruption, is omnipotent against all infe

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