mortality. Here, then, you have splendid pageants ycleped the higher orders. Of them, purpose I to say but little, because little interest can be excited in any human heart by their endless rotations of insipidity. A flock of geese marching home from a common, is regular and graceful; but I prefer to mark the activity and industry of the unceremonious bee. Among the metropolitan nobility, or, rather, the nobility while in the metropolis, the most striking circumstance that presents itself, is their entire subjection to a discipline more rigorous and irksome than military duty in an enemy's country. The peer, encumbered with wealth and pomp, has less freedom of action than his groom. He must lie down and rise up, visit abroad and return home, promenade and dance quadrilles, with as complete subserviency as the raw recruit marches and countermarches, in the bird-cage walk, to the tune of "right, left, right, left." -Man, associated and leagued with man By regal warrant, or self-join'd by bond For interest sake Like flowers selected from the rest, and bound And bundled close, to fill some crowded vase, Fades rapidly, and, by compression marr'd, Contracts defilement not to be endur'd. In the clustered bunches of grace, and fashion, and dignity in London, every manly sentiment is suffocated. The movements of the human mind, in this situation, are as subdued and insipid, but not so innocent as those of misses in a boarding-school. In the country, and at their familymansions, their situation is not so disastrous, for there they are not chained to the wheels of fashion, and obliged to run for ever in the same dull routine. But the load of greatness which makes them but units in a system, clings to them as his philosophy to Tully. They cannot detach themselves from it, they must bear it, And, in the silent watches of the night, And through the scenes of toil-renewing light, The social walk, or solitary ride, Keep still the dear companion at their side. In this splendid province of life there is no respectability, and no re putation to be acquired or preserved, without submitting to trammels more galling to a vigorous intellect than those of laborious poverty. Not one moment of real enjoyment, of honest, free, and unrestrained relaxation, is felt by him who is but a part, though the principal part, of an unwieldy machinery. That bold and daring spirits should occasionally burst from the dreary uniformity of these circles may be regretted, and ought to be censured, but cannot excite surprise. In arbitrary and oppressive governments, revolts are most frequent. Under the unmatural restraints of monkery, or puritanism, the grossest immoralities spring up. If frequent revolts from the laws and ranks of nobility do not astonish the multitude, and disturb the regular order of society, it is because the spirit, temperament, and intellectual character of the nobility, are naturally disposed to bear unreasonable authority. Of necessity, from the very nature of their existence, those "born great," and trained, not to make experiments, or to achieve any deeds of personal distinction, but to fill niches on a stage, niches from which their predecessors drop to make room for them, and from which they will drop in their turn to make room for similar successors;-from the very condition of their existence, such persons must be, like the senators of imperial Rome, ad servitutem pa ratos-disposed to submit to absolute authority. Instead of gaping, therefore, with planet-struck amazement, at the devious excursions of rather to view them as the natural a Byron or a Cochrane, we ought effect of perverse encumbrances on heroic Jewish youth chose rather to strong and determined minds. The encounter the uncircumcised with his sling and his scrip, than to be encumbered with a helmet of brass upon his head, and armed with a coat of mail. A mind conscious of personal vigour and prowess will not readily bear the trammels of mere fashion, or perform a prescribed part in canting and gossiping. In this radical age, it may be proper to assure the sensitive alarmist, that my remarks have no political allusion. I merely mention the phenomena which are obvious to all, and the branch of philosophical causation to which they may be referred. It is no enemy to nobility who points out their miseries; nor is it one who would abolish the higher orders, that endeavours to show the inferior classes that they have no cause for envy. To be stagnant, insipid, joyless, is as characteristic of the privileged orders, as to be restless, dissatisfied, and intemperate, is characteristic of the laborious poor. The Warfaring Classes. UNDER this title I include not the Life Guards, the Oxford Blues, or the oft-devoted Forty-Second; but under the military image, I would represent all the portion of the metropolitan population, who wage perpetual war with poverty, fortune, and the thousand strongholds of adversity. If the comfortable classes can look up to the splendid circles as Epicurean gods, strangers alike to the joys of hope and the activity of fear, unmoved and unblessed : Nam privata dolore omni, privata periclis, Ipsa suis pollens opibus, nihil indiga nostri, Nec bene promeritis capitur, nec tangitur ira. If they can look up to their superiors, as thus dozing in eternal slumbers, they may look down on the warfaring classes as struggling in the hard conflicts of the field, some dying beneath the cruel assaults of the foe, some lying wounded and forsaken, and some victorious over fate and fortune: Suave etiam belli certamina magna tueri, Per campos instructa, tua sine parte pericli. The characteristic and intense enjoyments of the soldier belong to this department of London society. A plentiful and well-dressed dinner derives infinite spicery from the reflection that it may be the last. Dum vivimus, vivamus. The same source of penetrating gratification is opened, when the mechanic, the labourer, or the humble trader, sits snugly with his friend, and on some reputable pretence, drinks more freely than his income can often permit. An entertainment at Christmas, on a birth day, or a wedding-day, is supplied with sauces which the amount of the national debt could not purchase for an alderman. Your national bard keenly appretiated, and most happily described, in a thousand forms, this spirit of extacy known only to the poor. Take one example, a vivid one: See the smoking bowl before us, "Tis no matter how or where! Witness brighter scenes of love? It is not merely the humane ingenuity of the moralist, or the pious zeal of the preacher, that can discover this magical treasure of the poor; the severe impartiality of the philo sopher must admit its existence and its value. Its unbounded and thrilling sensations, unfrequent as they must be, are perhaps more than a distresses of the poor. It seems pacompensation for all the cares and radoxical to say, that a stinted and precarious income, requiring many anxious cares and painful privations, and affording few, though fervid pleasures, can be happier than the uniform enjoyment of well-secured affluence and all its gratifications. Perhaps it is a paradox, and a foolish one. But the supporter of the affirmative might question the give a fair decision. There are cases competency of the human mind to indisputably in which nature impels us to decide in favour of her purposes, and against our own interests. What lover, if his wishes could be granted, would be a day unmarried, after having obtained the plighted vows of his charmer? Yet it is undeniable, that the warmest transports of love, and the dearest delights of the heart, arise from the delays, the anticipations, and the anxieties, of accepted, but unwedded love. Burns affords a ready illustration. Willie would have unquestionably decided in favour of marriage, the instant his Nancy consented; but what I thought upon the banks of Coil, At length I reach'd the bonny glen Where early life I sported; Wha spied I but my ain dear maid, That in my e'en was swelling. The pleasures of the poor are pe culiarly numerous and unalloyed in London. Money circulates there as frequently and certainly as the sea ebbs and flows. The humbler classes are not obliged to obtain credit till a distant day of payment. Their ready wages for labour, or ready money for goods, enables them to purchase the best food, and at the lowest price. When a decisive reason for merry-making presents itself, they are not obliged to purchase their luxuries at the extravagant terms of the rich. Their alternative is not to dine at the London Tavern, on ruinous terms, or to drink gin in a low hovel, without variety of gratification, or accommodation suited to their desire and their expenditure. In London, the great demand provides an ample supply. Every article of food, and every exhilarating liquor, of the best quality, can be got at the lowest price, and in the smallest quantity. There you can dine to your heart's desire, and indulge in the incommunicable beverage of London-her inimitable porter, for one shilling. You may have two sumptuous courses for half-a-crown. I have dined comfortably, and got VOL. IX. gloriously merry with gin-punch, all for one shilling and sixpence. The chequered sunshine thus enjoyed, who would exchange for the eternal glare of Africa? There are many bitter afflictions, indeed, in this lot, but they are not without corresponding relief. If a casual fire consumes all your little furniture, the hand of Charity is prompt and liberal to supply it. But, strange as it may sound in your ears, the greatest distinction of this class in London is their political activity, and their political power. A Scotchman would say, that they who have no independent and secure property, are not fit to have any part in the great and complex machinery of the state. But England owes much of her political advantages, and all her political celebrity, to the thousands, especially in the metropolis, who have little property, and no political functions. Think you, that they are the livery of London who, with the force and authority of thunder, applaud and reprobate at the hustings in Guildhall? or that they were electors of Westminster who, at the hustings in Covent Garden, caused the words of Mr Hobhouse to float on poised pinions, and those of Mr Lamb to drop like plummets? No idea could be more unfounded. Trust me, the electors would neither be so decisive nor so correct. The persons who do this great good are not the solid structures in the political city, but the vanes that are elevated beyond the influence of the low currents in the streets-that are not restrained in their movements, by their own importance, or the pressure of adjoining materials-and that fairly indicate the truth and fair bearing of political agitations. confess to you, that I felt great surprise, and even some indignation, to find by a case reported in the Times, that an English judge, Mr Justice Holroyd, showed himself, in Carlisle, so grossly ignorant of the philosophy of politics, as to consider a poor man who had no vote as entitled to no redress for false imprisonment, in consequence of eagerly pressing forward to hear the result of the poll. Is it thus a judge reads the English constitution? Is this the judge, too, who soon afterwards pronounced it a 3 s I " gross libel to say that England has no constitution? The great Roman Annalist read human nature otherwise. His remark, in giving the history of Octavia's banishment from the favour and presence of Nero, is strikingly applicable to the populace of all countries: Inde crebri questus, nec occulti per vulgum, cui minor sapientia, et ex mediocritate fortuna, pauciora pericula sunt.Frequent were the complaints against Nero's conduct, and undisguised was the indignation of the lower classes, whose prudence is never great, and whose humble circumstances expose them to less hazard." The most independent electors may, from their own prejudices, the persuasions of others, or imaginary interest, support an unprincipled, or an unfit representative; the mob is never wrong in their partiality. This class of persons in London, reckless of fortune, uncourted, because unfranchised, hoot and applaud with perfect impartiality, and therefore with great correctness. Having concluded the last division with an explanation to the Aristocratical Alarmist, let me here bespeak the candour of the Radical Reformer. I am not much afraid of the wit of Carlile, the eloquence of Hunt, or the honest waggishness of Cobbett; but I must protest against any inference that would represent me as satisfied with the present state of things in St. Stephen's. In the fixed immoveable state of the representation, the fair indication of the public feeling has much the same influence, as the indication of the point of the compass from which the wind blows has in regulating a steam-engine. Without removing the insuperable checks to free action in the body politic, no display of popular feeling can even alleviate, far less compensate the evils of our system; but when enough of sail is given to the state-vessel, and when it can be spread and contracted according to the force of the popular breeze, I The qualified, but expressive words"minor sapientia"-applied by Tacitus to the friends of Octavia, might also be translated by the words of Mr Brougham, in allusion to the friends of her late Majesty -"not absolute wisdom." should like to see a long streamer at the mast-head, to indicate the precise bearing of the gusty currents. In one word, my respect for the lowest class of honest subjects is so great, that I would always have them impartial and disinterested arbiters' of the political strife. Mr Michael Angelo Taylor, may, for ought I knów, consume smoke into flame; but Major Cartwright, I trust, will never corrupt the free and independent populace into electors of members of parliament. The Predatory Classes. In this department of subtle science and vital peril, no part of the world can vie with London. I can both because I am ignorant, and be give you but little detail, however, bliss. Such of your readers as would cause I believe such ignorance to be have minute information, may apply to Mr Townsend, or Sir John Silvester. The manner in which this part of our species is dovetailed into the prouder, and more moral classes, is exceedingly curious. A respectable merchant fails, gambles, swindles, and dies by his own hand, or that of felon gets into the service of the po the public executioner. Á dexterous and retires, respected and trusted. lice, rises into authority and wealth, The practice of entrapping felons, as known in London, and, I believe, geyou entrap mice and rats, is well nerally reprobated. It is surely less criminal, however, and less injurious to society, than the stately trick of entraping men into high treason, to the glory of ministers, and the reproach of the nation. But let me leave those matters to the care of the Home Secretary, who, more full of eyes, and never listens to the messenger of Jove, more true to his charge than Argus, but takes care that his Io shall not escape from the beastly thraldom, into which jealousy has driven her*. Scenery of London. HAVING thus glanced at the seve ral gradations of society in London, I shall next select political, profes -Alto tantum suspiria prodis, Pectore: quodque unum potes, ad mea verba remugis. sional, and pantomimic classes, for your consideration. But I must be indulged with a pause here; yet, before I descend from the summit of the monumental column, let me cast my eyes hastily over the scene which surrounds me. Looking towards the rising sun, I trace the Thames, from the roaring fall at London Bridge, in all its pride of shipping and of commerce. Beyond a certain distance, I trace its course only by a winding forest of masts, and the swoln sail passing rapidly along. Upon its banks, nothing are to be seen but custom-houses, warehouses, wharfs, and piled goods from all parts of the world. How changed since the first vessel rode over its waves-since its banks presented the lofty borders of impenetrable forests-since "the song of the turtle" was heard in Wapping! -Variæ circumque supraque Assuetæ ripis volucres et fluminis alveo, Aethera mulcebant cantu, lucoque vola bant. In wheeling round to the right, pleasant to the eye is the gently swelling beauty of the Surrey hills. The condensed bustle of the Borough detains you for a moment. The King's Bench prison, within whose jurisdiction bankrupts and insolvents aid their philosophy with strong drink; the Bethlehem Hospital, where -Moody madness laugheth wild, Amid severest woe; and the Penitentiary on the bank beyond, where convicts work, and sigh for Botany Bay-are the objects on which the fancy may be exercised, according to every one's sensibility to human misery, and experience of human character. Again, while looking up the Thames, I view the massy curvatures of Waterloo Bridge, the religious spires of Westminster Abbey, and the dull elevations of Drury Lane and Coven Garden. The first is solid and useful; the second, you, in Scotland, consider more for ornament than use; and the last are good for-what you please. Beyond, the theatres to the west and to the north, including the splendid squares of the fashionable, and the filthy purlieus of St. Giles, all are like the part of the ocean, separated, by a large rock of adamant, from the islands of the blessed, which were submitted to the Vision of Mirza, "covered with impenetrable clouds." In the City, the eye pauses with delight on the elegant magnificence of St. Paul's. All besides is church spires and chimney stalks. The new thing thrust up in front of the Exchange shows "where merchants most do congregate." The paltry deception of the Mansion-House is here exposed, for you find that the lofty front has no more connection with a corresponding house, than a dandy's collar with a suitable shirt. It is not without some search that you can find that building, within whose walls the affairs of Eastern millions of menare managed. Surely it is a pity that nations should not be able to take care of themselves, for they must know best their own wants and resources. Are a conclave in Leadenhall-Street capable of interfering with the affairs of India, without infflicting misery on its inhabitants? But no matter though the helpless bees be suffocated in brimstone, provided we get the honey. CORNICULA. London Monument, Nov. 1st 1821. [Should it occur to any reader of the preceding ingenious article, (which is only the precursor of a series of others, on the same inexhaustible subject,) that it indicates a political bias somewhat too marked and strong for the general mea. sured tone which it has been our constant study to maintain, we have to suggest, first, that the Edinburgh Magazine is not a party, but an independent Journal, in which men of the most opposite sen. timents on government may, with pro priety, discuss their respective, opi nions; secondly, that we consider it neither fair to the writer, nor just to the public, to cut or smooth down every article to one invariable standard of po litical doctrine; and, lastly, that each article is to be held to express the sen timents of the writer of that article only. By ruling our conduct conform ably to such principles as these, we believe that we shall at once impart the charm of an agreeable variety to the pages of this work-give truth, which is not all of one side, a fair chance of being felt and acknowledged— discharge a duty which we owe to our friends of both parties, who have beca |