stract notions of individuals, prepared to disturb the constitution at their pleasure, by the advancement of private schemes. It is earnestly to be hoped, that the newly-elected members of the House of Commons, as a body, will ponder seriously the critical position of the nation at large; and, waiving all personal and party considerations, support those measures only, which have direct reference to the real security of the state. With the Romans there long existed a fundamental law of emergency, which law was attributed by them to their chief deity, and it not only authorized, but justified, all measures, under which the security of the commonwealth might be preserved." Jupiter ipse sancivit ut omnia quæ reipublicæ salutaria essent,—justa et legitima haberentur."-Cic. Plin. 2. The independent commons of England are imperatively called upon to exercise the spirit of that law, at this conjuncture, as a matter of urgent state duty, in their responsible characters of British legislators, and with the highest sentiment of Roman virtue, without contemplating on popular resistance, as the result of their decisions,—the bare possibility of fatal effects from the approaching "Ides of March," or the improbable necessity of "sailing through seas of blood," for the purpose of sustaining with becoming honour the great destinies of their country!

The condition of the sister kingdom is a subject of paramount importance, for the consideration of all those who have at heart the welfare of their country, and the good of their fellow-men. The heart recoils from the narration of those deeds, which daily transpire in defiance of law, religion, and authority, in the bosom of that unhappy land, which, blest with so many natural advantages, suffers herself to be humbled to the lowest depths of human degradation,—at once the sport of faction, the nursing mother of bigotry, and the willing slave of an iron-handed despotism, that exults in pro

portion as she writhes under the agonies of intestine popular commotion, dragging, like the wretched devotees of another Juggernaut, the ponderous car of her great political idol, and prostrating herself, with her crippled frame and mutilated limbs, before it; not in the agony of despair, but under the madness of fanaticism, which has fastened itself on the vitals of her population! Can any portion of ancient English pride remain, and permit the continuance of this moral stigma on the nation's honour,—or, rather, is it not the duty of her Parliament, by one united effort, for one mighty purpose, to arrest the monster in its career of levelling depravity,―to show that it reverences its country in its laws, and reveres the King for the sake of both? That such a lamentable state of private feeling and morbid condition of public morals, exists in Ireland, the records of the recent popular election bear witness; and they alike require the combined possession and prompt exercise of that heroic moderation, which, in periods of national danger or excitement, is the greatest attribute of statesmen, even the control of that master-spirit which a Chatham could pourtray in the ennobling declaration, “I know no party but that of my country," by the early application of efficient measures for ensuring the duration of her proud monument of civil power, which still exists the terror of its enemies, and the admiration of surrounding nations.

It will be well, if our representatives, taught by the experience of past events, and looking back upon the storms which have been raised, as well as considering those they have escaped, will reflect, that the late Parliament, with the government at its head, after having been the authors of a new and most extraordinary popular measure in the constitutional history of England, were unable to sustain either the executive or legislative functions of the state machine, under its operation; and that the confidence of the reflecting and

intelligent portion of the numbers they represented, should, step by step, have been withdrawn from them, after they had been so openly caressed by the people, barely escaping contempt in the declension of their power. If they would know the secret of this extraordinary result, as the wind up of the reign of popularity enjoyed for a season by their predecessors, they must impute it to their unparliamentary desertion of the first great principles of government,-to the unconstitutional abuse of setting up individuals as popular leaders, and creating, by their means, a dominatio plebis, unknown to the constitution and the law of the land. It was not the freedom of debate, however irregular, within the House of Commons, but the encouragement given to persons, disowned by God and distrusted by Man, for the promulgation of their opinions, which destroyed the Whig ministry. In this conjuncture, the mass of the people of England opened their eyes, and the result has shown, that they will not endure to be governed by rules opposed to the dictates of sound reason and sober sense, although their own representatives may acquiesce therein !

The chauge of domestic policy, which has marked the present from the past and preceding reigns, has yet to be put to the test for its consistency, and the permanent advantages which the state may derive from its application. The aversion of the people at large, for the latter proceedings of the late administration, and its obsequious House of Delegates, as well as the intestine distractions in the cabinet, that led to the dissolution of both, are contingencies which may be improved upon, and applied to good purposes, in the hands of an intelligent ministry, and a deliberative House of Commons; far more advantageous for settling the balance of power once more upon an equality, than appears at first view, under the operation of recent measures. Under the unprecedented changes which have taken place, England has

nothing to fear from her peers of Parliament.—their common interest, if inclination and duty, binding them to the state, did not influence their conduct and guide their actions, is alone sufficient to induce them to make more than one struggle for preserving the essentials of her constitutional ascendency; nor, can this feeling possibly be entirely laid aside by her representative commons, who possess an integral share of responsibility. The remaining security rests upon the love and sense of gratitude which the people bear towards their present kind-hearted Sovereign, grounded upon full conviction and experience of his merit, as well as ready concessions to all their reasonable desires. Human passions are transitory, in proportion to their violence, and time alone can reveal the ultimate consequences they may produce; but, to whatever point of attainment the general wisdom of the nation may have arrived, whenever it comes to pass, that the popular assembly, free from tumultuous influences, or not, and already possessed of more than an equal balance of power, shall continue to act under the impulse of an opinion, which (per fas et nefas) declares its insufficiency, by unfairly cramping the hand which holds that balance, and, by contentions and dissensions with the peers, should still labour for more; there exists nothing, in the ordinary constitution, or the progress of human events, which can possibly prevent the production of similar effects and consequences to the British empire, from those which marked the ruin of the liberties of Greece, and the destruction of the independence of Rome. Let England stand upon her ancient morals!

"Thus saith the LORD GOD, Behold I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.

"And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee, with their face towards the earth."

Isaiah xlix. 22, 23.

THE rise, prosperity, and renown-the succeeding intelligence the naval and military glory, and the enterprise of Britain, in her past and present position amongst the nations. of the earth, may solely be traced from, and attributed to, the invaluable construction, and the dignified character of her religious and civil institutions. The outline of such a system had indeed struck the admiring imagination of one or more of the sages of antiquity; but was considered by them far too perfect to be capable of attainment, or practical application to the purposes of human government.

Without Religion, as a foundation, and that religion based on the hope of rational immortality, a nation may not inaptly be compared to a heavily laden vessel, cast on a sea of