necessarily follows that laws are but types of slavery.' 'Give me leave to say, sir, you do not understand me, at least. No man has a greater reverence for the laws, or is more firmly attached to the constitution, than myself." Only, that, like the man who had grown so attached to his knife that he bestowed a new blade and then a new handle to it, you would renew it altogether.' No, sir, I say what I think, and what I feel. I am not bound to uphold the faults and defects, though I may love the constitution as sincerely as you do.' Depend upon it, sir, our love begins to slacken ominously, when the faults of the object are more visible to our perception than its beauties; one step more, and our love is turned to hate.'

"Aye,—well,—I don't understand all these roundabout ways; I stick to my facts, and want only a plain answer to a plain question; why, because men have monopolized our land, should they have the power to monopolize our rights?' Still, your question in this form is any thing but a question; for you beg the whole of it, and then demand a categorical answer. But since you are determined to have one, I answer, in the first place, that those who have the greatest stake are likely to be most interested in the welfare of the country, whilst at the same time I readily admit, that this predominance should be so extended as to prevent partial or unjust leaning toward any particular class, or order of men, in society. There you have hit it; isn't that what I say?' asked his opponent triumphally. I fear not exactly,' answered Pen; for, by referring to the very grievance, the canker which the nice optics of the reformers have discovered in the system of close boroughs,--we shall find that the practice of the constitution, in deviating from the strict theory, has applied the most effective means of preventing any undue preponderance of the landed interest over those of the moneyed, the commercial, or trading part of the community. I will not discuss with you, sir, the first principles of government. I have already said, what no man acquainted with the subject has ever denied, that the representatives of a country, whose object is permanency and security, must be the representatives of its property. This is the principle of English legislation. When this was originally established in our constitution, which, by the by, you, sir, seem to imagine a piece of old parchment, drawn up by some notable lawyer, and declared regularly signed and sealed by somebody, at some particular date I said no such thing,' interrupted the stranger. Your arguments imply it, at least; but when this principle was first understood and acted upon, land was the chief, if not almost the only representative of property; so that even the boroughs were frequent

ly omitted in the returns to parliament, through the agency of their superior lords. Wasn't that an insufferable grievance, sir ?'

"It might be so, sir, in your opinion but we are speaking of the pure periods of the constitution, to which your reformers look back with such tender yearnings, when, instead of a grievance, it was considered as a relief from a burthen. I must not, however, be interrupted, sir. Land, I repeat, was then the representative of the property of the country; but as the rights of individuals came to be better ascertained-when the professions were opened to men of every rank and station in lifewhen the spirit of adventure brought the treasures of a new world to our shores, and commerce and trade multiplied the sources of wealth,-a strict adherence to the letter of the constitution would have excluded the whole, or greater part of this new property (inasmuch as it was extraneous and independent upon the land) from being represented in parliament, and have subjected a large and daily increasing portion of the people to the overruling and predominant influence of the landed inte rest. Without, therefore, imputing injustice to the landed interest, we may suppose their ignorance of the true nature of mercantile or commercial transactions to be a sufficient ground for some change in the original plan of representation. There was no opening, no provision made for this new state of things. It was not because certain towns, rising into importance, and certain ports, appropriate to commerce, might occasionally send men capable of watching their interests, that the great mass of persons unrepresented at all would be satisfied. These, as I said before, might assert local rights and privileges; but it was necessary, with a view to the country at large, and to the privileges of the constitution, that some essential change should be made in the general representation. Our ancestors were too wise to propose sweeping reforms. The constitution had been gradually forming itself under the collective wisdom of succeeding generations; and any sudden deviation from its course was only likely to produce those rude convulsions which have, more than once, threatened the subversion of all that has rendered us the wonder and admiration of surrounding nations.'

"Bravo, bravo!' exclaimed the grazier, who had been roused from a gentle slumber by the increasing energy of our hero. 'Auld England's worth 'em all shaken together.'

The machine,' continued Pen, who hardly heard his cheerer, was so well put together, that it gradually adjusted itself to the new order of things. As ancient boroughs decayed, or became rotten, if the term please you better, they fell under the influence of small bodies, and even indivi

dying a single evil, it professes to have discovered. The popular branch of the constitution has for many years been gaining ground upon the other two estates; and I have no hesitation in affirming, that the power of the crown is more circumscribed and limited in the present, than in any former period of our history. The few crafty politicians, who are the secret springs, and movers of the radical party, perceive this, -and cry out against the House of Com mons, as the usurpers of power, whilst they affect to identify the interests of the people, with those of the crown, at the very time, in fact, when they are labouring to seize upon that popular branch of the legislature, as the most effective and powerful means of becoming masters of the government, and turning it equally against the people, and the two other estates of the realm. All parties, my good sir," continued Pen, whose brain having been set in commotion by the hostile appeal recently made to the outside of his head, or by the sapping system of the spirituous remedies within it, had become unusually elo quent, all parties are constructed upon the same principles; it matters not whether it is limited to the weekly club at mine host's in the village, or extended over the country, in affiliated societies, from a parent-stock in the metropolis. A few strong and determined heads, who perceive all their points, and concentrate all their means of aggression, gain the ascendant; a larger number of agents receive from them their cue, and dole out in daily portions, through the medium of a hireling and prostituted press, or in clubs, associations, and public meetings, poisoned food for discontent, and disaffection towards the government. The evils incident to all men, but more pressing upon the subordinate classes,-as must inevitably and necessarily be the case in every community,-are made to appear the result of peculiar and extraordinary corruption on the part of their governors: every privation is felt, which had never been felt before, and the common lot of man is rendered intolerable to them, by the conviction, that it is the immediate product of tyranny and oppression. There is but one step from feeling an injury, to the attempt at redressing it. A patriot, or mob orator, is at hand with the means, and the misguided multitude rush forward to aid his patrierotic exertions, without stopping to inquire, or without sufficient intelligence to ascertain, the nature or extent of his designs. The people of this country, who wept tears of blood as a martyred sovereign was led to slaughter,had been blind instruments in the hands of his murderers, and invested them with power sufficient, to crush their monarch, and themselves.-The people are again called forth, and encouraged by the promises of men, who have not even the VOL. XI.

pretext, which ga to the rebellious Rou they thoughtlessly accu rials for their own future subje be incapable of informing whether they were about "to fire and Troy," or to see a man creep into a quar bottle."

With this long and splendid pas It is a sage we quit Pen Owen. book which no doubt the Whigs will run down. One consolation the Tories have when they see their books run down by the Whigs is, that though the Whigs of our day can write reviews enough, none of them (at least there is scarcely an exception) can write books. Lord Byron being laid out of view, and perhaps Tom Moore, where is the MAN now living that can write a tolerable book, and is not a could as soon leap his horse over a Tory? Can Jeffrey write a book? He six-foot stone wall and a double ditch. Could Mackintosh? We for one would be the first to subscribe for it. Could Brougham? No more than Joseph Hume, or Lord A. Hamilton, or the Duke of Bedford. We had, to be sure, forgot Mr Luttrell, but we can scarcely after all quite credit that report about his being a Whig. We believe ved against him. To do otherwise, no man to be a Whig until it is pro

would be

to bar from the kind heart

All thoughts of human gentle charity, And think of the poor brothers of our race As if they had not sprung from Adam's loins."

WORDSWORTH (we think.)

Farewell, then, wise, witty, perhaps wicked author of PEN OWEN! WE, at least, love thee, (we mean all true Tories) admire thee, praise thee! Write on! Write three volumes yearly, painting" the living follies as they rise!" Lash and spare not the vile, the filthy, the sacrilegious, the blasphemous, infidel, rebel crew of THE UNENGLISH, and verily thou shalt have thy reward in the favour of all the good, the wise, and the patriotic!-Au Revoir!-and that, we hope, is not a long look. Thou art not a poet, so far as we see, nor art thou a man of romance. Thy vein is the keen clear bitter; if it be not so grand as some others, 'tis at least a far rarer one in these sentimental days. Thou wearest on thy shoulders a truly knowing head of the old English cut. Would we could see thy 4 N

face

dost thou understand the hidden matters of St Stephens. Art thou a statesman? We verily believe thou hast sat many and oft times at some long green table somewhere in the parish of St James's. Art thou an old author? Most surely. There are not ten men in Britain who understand the nature of the Bibliopole in all his sublime and sordid varieties, and one of these ten wrote Pen Owen, as certainly as another of them writes this review of

it. But who thou art we know not. Perhaps Ebony or Cadell only knows lawyer, thou shouldst not long wear bombazeen. If thou art a parson, lawn sleeves would become thee. If thy ne ther end reposes on one of the treasury benches, Lord Londonderry should lose no time in looking about him, and asking, "Who wrote Pen Owen ?"

Now, after all these pretty speeches, are you not a shabby fellow if you don't send Ebony an article every month you live?-Once more, au reVOIR!

Books bearing so humble a title as that subjoined, however useful to the traveller in the country they describe, are seldom consulted for information or amusement by those who can only travel by their own firesides—and, in truth, they are very rarely worthy of such consultation, their sole intention being not to give full information, but to facilitate and direct those who wish to gain it for themselves by actual and personal examination. Paterson's Road-book would give but a poor idea of England. Poland, however, interesting as that ill-fated kingdom is, has never been sufficiently described in works of a superior class; and we found insuperable difficulties in our sedentary peregrinations through it, from the want of clear and satisfactory descriptions of the people, places, and things, in any books we could meet with. On stating our grievance to a Polish friend, he was kind enough to send us this Traveller's Guide, with some valuable information of his own, of which we shall avail ourselves in the course of our remarks.

This book, as its name imports, is intended as a guide to foreign travelers in Poland. As usual, the principal post-roads are marked out,-the principal towns through which they pass are described, and the objects chiefly worthy of attention are pointed out, sometimes, it is true, rather too minutely. In fact, there are many de

tails which can only be interesting to those who use the book as a travelling companion, and it is only after turning over many pages that any thing generally interesting can be found. The accounts are, however, according to our information, candid and just, and calculated to give a tolerably correct idea of the kingdom of Poland, as it is now constituted, including the territory of the free town of Cracau. The extensive provinces formerly included in that kingdom, but now united to Russia, Austria, and Prussia, are not described. To this description the author has annexed certain "notes instructives et nécessaires à ceux qui voyagent en Pologne;" and with all submission this is exactly the part of the book which is most instructive and necessary for those who have it not in their power to travel in Poland, and we shall make use of it in the sequel accordingly.

The book is published anonymously, but is well known to be the production of the celebrated General Krasinski, who highly distinguished himself in the late campaigns. To make it more generally useful, he has written in the French language, and his object in undertaking so humble a task was to remove the misconceptions arising from the prejudice, and perhaps the malice, which disgraced the accounts of previous foreign writers. Thus we see, that in Poland, as well as