which the Almighty seems to have destined her, let her remember, she has resources within herself, by which, with the blessing of Him who conferred them, she may still set an example to all the kingdoms of the earth. We will not say she may acquire a superiority over other nations of that she has long been in possesion-No; we must not try her by her comparative, but her positive merit : not by placing her in juxta-position with other countries, but with the possibilities of her own excellence.

sources.

Britain, we repeat, has abundant reIf it be true that she has lately, in any respect, gone back, rather than advanced; if, when her public character has reached its zenith, her private character is in any thing deteriorated, she has still within herself all the materials of moral renovation; ample means, not only of recovering what has been lost, but of rising to heights yet unattained. It is only to be wished that she may use these resources, and consider them as raw ma

terials, that will not produce their effect without being industriously worked up.

If the familiar and protracted intercourse with a neighbouring nation; if, during this intercourse, the long-witnessed contempt of religion, morbid insensibility to morals, violated Sabbaths, an abandonment to amusements the most frivolous, to pleasures knit in one eternal dance; if all this should happily have left unimpaired, or have only tinctured, too slightly to make a lasting impression, the noble simplicity, the ancient rectitude, the sound sense, and the native modesty which have long been the characteristics of the British people; if the growth at home, and within our own doors, of an intolerant and superstitious church, be not too fondly fostered - be not promoted instead of tolerated; if the paramount fondness in too many of the more delicate sex, for unbounded dissipation, for profane and immoral writers, should decline; if the middle classes among us should return to their ancient sobriety and domestic habits;

should cease to vie with the great in expensive dress, and the decorations of high life, should cease to give their daughters the same useless accomplishments, which are carried too far even in the highest station, and in theirs are preposterous; if the instruction we are at length giving to the poor be as conscientiously conducted as it is generally adopted, and the art of reading be made the vehicle of true religion; if a judi cious correction of our criminal code, and a prudent rectification of the demands of pauperism, be successfully followed up; if the African slave-trade 'should be effectually abolished-not in promises, and on paper, but in very deed and act; if our prisons be made places of reform, instead of increased corruption; if the young offenders be so instructed that they come not out as bad as the old, and the old come not out worse than they went in; if our venerable universities should fulfil the promise they give of becoming as distinguished for moral discipline and strict religion, as

they have ever been, and they are now more than ever, unrivalled for learning and ability of every kind; if churches be as readily attended, as they will be cheer. fully provided; if there be the same honourable attention paid to filling the pulpits, as to raising the buildings; if the Bible be as generally read by the giver, as it is liberally bestowed on the receiver; if the good old practice of family-prayer should be revived, and public worship more carefully attended by those who give the law to fashion; if those who are "the makers of manners" will adopt none but such as deserve to be imitated:- if all these improvements should take place, and which of them, let me ask, is impossible? then, though we laugh to scorn the preposterous notion of human perfectibility, we shall yet have a right to expect that England, so far from being satisfied to excel other nations, will not only excel her present self, but be continually advancing in the scale of Christian perfection.

FRENCH OPINION OF ENGLISH

SOCIETY.

THE French nation have lately had many opportunities for forming their opinion of the English. It may be worth our while to consider what opinion they have formed; since by ascertaining their present judgment of the English character, we may form some instructive conclusions as to the change their tuition is likely to effect in it.

Foreigners are of opinion that we want polish. If this were all, we should rather blame their discernment, or their deficiency in fair deduction. For grant us that we are solid, and we have high authority for saying that solid bodies take the brightest polish. And if in point of fact the English character, like the English oak, be susceptible of no inconsider