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produce, Government ought to give it every facility, seeing that it is obviously the very life of industry and trade; for, if we cannot exchange what is superfluous at home for some commodity which is in more request, that commodity will not be produced; and thus industry, along with commerce, is discouraged.

The truth of these maxims is now acknowledged on all hands, and it is really grateful to hear the sound and enlightened views on the subject of trade which are propounded from the Opposition side of the House, and loudly re-echoed from the Ministerial benches. The only drawback on all this harmony and liberality of sentiment is, that nothing is done. All are agreed that restrictions on trade are essentially impolitic, and that our foreign trade ought to be freed from them; but, somehow or other, the business stops-nothing is done ;-no practical good follows from all the edifying theories which Parliament has promulgated on the subject in the speeches of its members, or in the elaborate reports of its committees ;-not a single restriction has yet been repealed; -not the slightest breach has yet been made in that Chinese wall of restrictions by which the country is barricadoed against the influx of foreign produce. It is confessed on all hands that the commerce of the country is depressed, and that by repealing some of the restrictions which impede our intercourse with foreign states it would be greatly relieved. Why this slowness, then, to investigate this important subject, and to grant the relief so necessary and so much desired? For what purpose is it that Parliament meets? Is it not to consult for the general interest of the community?—or is it merely to vote supplies, and to afford an opportunity for factious debate-for the Opposition to attack the Ministry, and the Ministry to recriminate on the Opposition? The trade of the country has been languishing for years, and session after session of Parliament has passed away without one effort for its relief. It will, no doubt, be said that we cannot suddenly and rashly alter our system of commerce, faulty though it be, without the risk of producing greater evils than those we are endeavouring to remove. This is unquestionably true. We grant that caution must be

followed, even in the reform of admitted evils. Every commercial society is linked together by so many artificial and intricate ties, that we cannot rashly tear them asunder without the risk of remote and consequential damage to an extent which cannot at first be foreseen. But, giving all due weight to this practical maxim, it by no ineans implies a tacit acquiescence in what every one condemns, and in what it would so much benefit the community to have removed.Some beginning ought to be made in the great work of commercial reform. We may act as cautiously as we please, but still we ought to act, and not content ourselves with mere words, which signify nothing.

2. There is another subject on which a report has been made to the House of Lords, which is, as usual, extremely judicious, and in which every one, including the Ministers, seem to be agreed. We allude to the state of our trade with India. It is well known, that, by the act which partially threw open the trade to that quarter of the world, certain restrictions were imposed which are extremely burdensome to the merchant, while they are totally useless to the Company. The British merchant is, for example, strictly excluded from dealing in the article of tea, a monopoly in this trade being still reserved by the East India Company. The consequence of this restriction is, that the Americans and other foreigners have engrossed this commodity, with which they supply all the continental states; and thus the British merchant is injured, while the East India Company is not benefited. Owing to the restrictions also imposed on the merchants of this country as to the tonnage they must employ in India adventures, and to the tedious formality they must go through of obtaining a licence, they are clogged in their operations, and their rivals, the Americans, who are under no restraint whatever, have a decided advantage over them. The merchants have petitioned the Legislature that these useless restrictions be done away,that they shall be admitted to the same privileges as the Americans, and be allowed to bring back tea as part of the return cargo, not to this country, where the monopoly of the Company can be enforced, but to Europe, where it cannot be enforced. All

parties agree that their demands are quite reasonable, and that they ought to be granted; but, in the meantime, nothing is done, and the parties continue to carry on their trade under all the burtful and foolish restrictions which were heaped on it by the imperfect and ill-constructed act of

1812.

3. On the subject of agriculture, we have had a report from a Committee recommending, and wisely recommending, that nothing should be done, yet it is somewhat singular that this report should be immediately followed by the repeal of the agricultural horse tax, and that the House of Commons, where they profess nothing, should thus do something, and, on the other hand, where they profess a great deal, that they should do nothing. It was manifest, indeed, to every one, that Parliament could not benefit agriculture by any new restrictions. For the last thirty months no importation of corn has taken place into this country. The dealers in corn have, therefore, had the monopoly of the home market, and still the prices have been remarkably low. In this case it is plain there is no remedy. No one could possibly think of going farther for their relief, or of endeavouring to raise the price of corn by an act of Parliament. The evil in respect to agriculture is the low price of its produce, which it is plain that Parliament cannot raise, and it is clear, therefore, that in this way nothing can be done. With respect to the repeal of the horse tax, it is a boon granted by the ministry, or rather extorted from them by the landed interest. It will afford no perceptible relief to agriculture, and we understand, indeed, that the farmers consider it to be of very little consequence. If revenue to this amount lost by the repeal of this tax could have been spared, taxes might have been abolished which would have produced far greater relief to the community at large. This tax on horses was one of the least exceptionable that could have been selected. It was not in any respect an oppressive tax. In the general outlay of the farmer, it made a very small item, and the repeal of it to him can be of little importance, while, if the same revenue had been remitted on salt, leather, or any other consumable com

modity in general use, the relief would have been generally felt.

4. Another important subject was also brought under the consideration of the House of Commons during the late session of Parliament, namely, the unrelenting severity of our laws in cases of forgery. This is surely a subject which it well befits the wisdom of Parliament to entertain. Humanity is shocked by the revolting frequency of executions for this crime. It is essential, therefore, that some method should be devised of securing property without such a prodigal sa crifice of life, and if the two Houses of Parliament could spare some of their precious time from factious debate for such great works of legislation, they would rise both in the estimation of the country, and of the world at large.

Our laws for the prevention of forgery have been improved into their present stern and merciless character by gradual emendations, and now a peremptory rule has been laid down, that a pardon shall in no case be extended to the crime of forgery. The consequences of this state of the law are not a little singular; the princi ple is so harsh and inexorable, that it is not reduced to practice; and in place of a pardon being granted by the King, on a due and impartial consideration of the case, the Bank of England declines to prosecute capitally, and thus the royal prerogative is in reality exercised by this corporation. In no other country are there such sanguinary laws for the prevention of forgery. In most countries, indeed, it is not a capital offence; and it deserves to be remarked, that we do not find the crime more frequent on this account. Indeed, it is proved by the documents laid before Parliament, that forgeries have increased with the severity of the laws made to check this offence; and it will ever be the case when great temptations are held out to the commission of crimes, that they will increase in spite of the most severe laws to prevent them. every community, more especially a commercial community, a certain quantity of moral corruption is necessarily engendered from the accidents and instability of trade,-from high wages, which, in many cases, produce vice, profligacy, and improvidence, and fit men for every species of depravity,

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and from the other pernicious extreme of low wages, which entail poverty on the labourer, and render him the prey of those vices which too frequently accompany it; and those dispositions being once engendered, profligacy, idleness, and dishonesty ruling in the mind, they will flow out in acts of depredation upon the honest part of the community, in thieving, swindling, or open robbery, as circumstances determine. The enemy will reconnoitre the ground, and the most vulnerable point will of course be chosen. In a community such as that in which we live, so well provided both with law and police, open robbery is not an eligible speculation, -violence always excites alarm-it is watched with corresponding vigilance, and it is soon repressed. It is a coarse expedient, therefore, and is only resorted to by the most vulgar practitioners. Swindling seems more congenial to the refined habits of the present age, and with suitable ingenuity and address, it may be prosecuted with infinitely more advantage; and of all modes of swindling, forgery offers the easiest and the speediest road to the wealth of others. If the fraud is ingeniously executed, the notes may circulate a considerable time before it can be detected, and in the mean time the gains must be considerable. More money may be gained, and with greater certainty by this, than by any other species of swindling, and when it is once begun, it is a sort of regular and steady business, which supersedes all other less eligible modes of thieving. It is the great staple branch of the swindler's trade the general outlet by which all the surplus villany of the community finds a vent. Those crimes against property are committed by a class of persons who are outcasts from all honest industry; they must either steal, or they must starve; it is not with them a matter of choice, but of necessity; and to this state they are reduced by deep rooted habits of idleness and profligacy; in consequence of which the mind be comes diseased, and thoroughly alienated from all that is sober and industrious. While those causes of crimes exist in society; while the corrupt matter is engendered, it must flow through some channel, and no laws, however severe and bloody, will ex

tirpate, or even materially check the evil. So far from this, it may be doubted, whether the frequency of these revolting spectacles which are continually exhibited, does not take away from that salutary horror with which they ought to be viewed. It is certain that the human mind grows familiar with evils of every sort, and experience proves how completely, in certain professions, mankind master the fear of death. The same causes will always produce the same effects; and may not the vanity of what is called dying game, in the perverted imagination of the felon, be a counterpart to those splendid illusions which sustain more honourable minds under similar trials? At any rate, we know that crimes have multiplied as the penalties have increased; and if there be a chance that a milder system would have the effect of preventing them, every principle, both of policy and humanity, suggests that it should be tried.

The truth of these maxims, as the only sure basis for a system of criminal law, is now universally admitted; and yet this subject, though frequently urged on the attention of the House of Commons, has been but coldly supported. It was first brought forward by Sir Samuel Romilly, and has been dragged into the House, Session after Session, until at last it came the length of a bill. In this bill every sacrifice was made to procure support, insomuch that the principle, and all that was valuable in the measure, was compromised; after which it was rejected, frittered down, and amended, as it were, to conciliate its opponents.

5. Besides these measures, a bill for relieving the Roman Catholics from the religious disabilities under which they labour, which passed the House of Commons, was rejected by the Lords. Several other propositions for improving the criminal procedure in Scotland were also rejected. A plan was proposed for a general revision of our navigation laws, and for altering such parts of the system as are plainly hurtful and inapplicable to the present state of our affairs. We have no doubt, that many of the restraints imposed by our navigation laws might be done away with great advantage. These laws were enacted for the encouragement of our shipping; and by many our extensive

maritime power is traced to the efficacy of this artificial contrivance, and not to that living principle of energy which must ever animate a free people, and must carry them forward in improvement not only without these petty devices, but in spite of them. These prejudices, we fear, are too prevalent to allow of any alterations in our navigation laws; and, at any rate, it is quite manifest, that no proposed improvement can be carried through the House of Commons, except under the sanction of those in power. It thus appears, that between the contests of the Opposition and the Ministry, the interest of the people is apt to be neglected. The Opposition, from time immemorial, have stood forth as the self-elected champions of the Constitution, the patrons of every improvement and reform,—and the stern enemies of corruption. It is their business to ask questions of the Ministers regarding the public interest,to make motions of inquiry,-and to bring forward all the defects in our system for amendment. It is the business of the Ministers to countercheck them in all their movements, to evade when they cannot oppose, but by some means or other to cause all their propositions, brought forward, of course, for the good of the state, and from the purest of motives, to miscarry. Thus the people are ill situated between them. The Ministry are averse from improvement, even where they confess it is wanted; and the Opposition, though eager to do good not to themselves of course, but to the people, want the power. They somewhat resemble the prophetess Cassandra of old, who, though gifted with the spirit of divination, had this fatality attached to her prophecies, that nobody would believe them, so that her inspiration was of no use. In like manner, the Opposition, though gifted with the power of devising all that is good or laudable for the improvement of the state, have attached to all their schemes the fatality of their certain failure, by which means their political illuminations are unfortunately lost, both to themselves and to the world.

ON THE PERIODICAL LITERATURE OF

GREAT BRITAIN, MORE ESPECIAL-
LY OF THE PRESENT DAY.

No fact can be better confirmed by observation, than that the periodical literature of a country is an index of the prevailing sentiments of its inhabitants. How and in what degree the press forms and directs these sentiments, or how far it is itself formed and directed by them, is another and a totally different question. Assuming, therefore, what cannot be contradicted, that the periodical press, no matter how, does exercise a constant and powerful influence over the tastes and habits, political, moral, and even over the religious opinions of mankind, it will be well worth our while to inquire into the origin, character, and tendency of that on which, it is scarcely too much to affirm, that the national happiness and improvement depend.

It is a common idea, we believe, that nothing deserving the name of a periodical press existed in this country previous to the days of Queen Anne. This idea is not altogether correct. Long before a single paper of the Spectator was heard of, and even previous to the Revolution, there were more than one regular print, in which the politics of the day were discussed, attacked, and defended, with fully as much asperity and keen. ness as at present. Every body that knows any thing of the history of the civil wars in England, is aware, that, during that stormy period, the press teemed with pamphlets vindicating their respective parties in their appeal to arms, and exhorting the people to rally round the throne, or calling on them to enlist in support of their constitutional rights under the banners of the parliament. The amiable and accomplished Lord Falkland, who fell in the unfortunate battle of Newbury, aided the cause of his royal master as much by the vigour of his pen as the valour of his sword. And, at a somewhat later period, the first poet of modern times was only known as a controversialist, more famous during his life as the redoubted champion of popular freedom, than as the inimitable author of Paradise Lost. These pamphlets, it is true, do not come under the class of periodical writings. They are merely mention

ed to show, that even then some deference was paid to public opinion, and that there existed considerably more political feeling than we of this age are apt to believe. It is very difficult, indeed, to form a just estimate of the degree of interest taken by a remote age in affairs of government. In those things, feeling is a great deal, and it is quite impossible for us at this remote period to enter into their feelings. Questions and events too that strike us when coolly narrated by the historian, as mere trifles destitute of importance, might probably appear in a very different light to those who viewed them at hand, whose interests were affected by their proximity, and whose passions were excited by their discussion. Besides, in the lapse of a few years, not only the party politics of a country become obsolete, the very writings devoted to them are almost unknown. New questions, new events, and new interests are constantly occurring to engage men's at tention, while the past are insensibly forgotten, and quietly sink into oblivion. Who now knows or cares about the innumerable party pamphlets of the Royalists, and Parliamentarians, and Church of England men, and Independents, and a hundred other sects of the seventeenth century? With a few solitary exceptions, they have met the fate they deserved, and have perished with the occasions and opinions that produced them. Perhaps there never was an age in which politics and political controversy employed so many able pens, or found so many intelligent and attentive readers as the present, yet it is a little mortifying to think, (what is nevertheless very true,) that in something less than half a century, the far greater part of them will be unheard of. The principles, indeed, and the constitutional questions they maintain and discuss, will remain and be maintained and discussed as they are now, but the little bickerings, manœuvrings, and jealousies of our present race of editors and journalists will have perished. Our posterity, acquainted only with our standard literature, our poets, philosophers, and historians will, in all probability, wonder nearly as much at our political apathy, as we now do at that of the ages which are past.

These considerations make it fair

to conclude, that, previous to the Revolution, politics occupied more attention, and excited more interest in England than is usually believed.

Still it must be allowed, that till the reign of Queen Anne there was little in this country deserving the name of a periodical press. The causes of this are obvious. The people, that is, the middling and lower orders of society, for whose use this species of writing is chiefly calculated, and on whose support and patronage it mainly depends, were still rude and unenlightened, destitute of curiosity, and utterly indifferent to whatever did not directly affect their personal comfort, or supposed worldly interests. The Reformation, though it had unquestionably done much to stimulate the hitherto dormant powers of the human mind, and rouse the spirit of inquiry, had not as yet produced its full effect. The majority of the population were still nearly in the same state of helpless ignorance as their forefathers had been in the very midnight of barbarism. It is a well known fact, that, during the long reign of Elizabeth, and for a considerable part of that of her bigoted successors, the Stuarts, particularly James and the first Charles, a great proportion of what would now be called the respectable and intelligent classes of the community were absolutely unacquainted with the first elements of learning. Very few could read, and of those who could, not more than one in a hundred, it may be fairly presumed, possessed the inclination or capacity to turn their reading to account. In such a state of the public mind, therefore, any thing like a periodical press was certainly not to be expected.

But another obstacle to periodical writing, addressed to the people previous to the commencement of the eighteenth century, is to be found in the prejudices of the learned themselves. To us, indeed, who are accustomed to see men of the first eminence in the republic of letters voluntarily contributing their share to the publications in question,-who see philosophers, orators, statesmen, and poets, addressing the judgments and appealing to the feelings of persons of almost every rank and condition, through the medium of the daily and periodical press, it may at first sight seem incredible,

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