The Muse had seized the rights of Fame, Time, when it lowers on states, inspires knowledge the justice of his fame-I cannot, however, but consider that the greatest benefit he ever conferred on his country, is to be found in the nature of his fall. He depended on the people, and he was safe; in vain the Aristocracy combined against him-in vain the Church. He deserted the people, and he fell at once. Never was fall so sudden-so complete! It was the revenge of the common Sense and the common Interest he had outraged. What a lesson against the intrigues by which states were formerly governed! What a warning to future ministers ! What an incentive to the vigilance of the people! It is for Lord Grey to profit by this example; if he do so, he will triumph over the two great and substantial causes of dread-the ardour of theorists, and the tendency of the times to hurry events, not in accordance with, but beyond, the intellect of the multitude. His order' is in danger-it can be saved ---by a prompt surrender of all that it contains obnoxious. To the dominion of the Aristocracy may be given the same advice given by Augustus in respect to the dominion of Rome---you can only support its strength by limiting its boundaries! First conned the food of Truth, and wrought In my still heart I learnt to rear, The lusts that burn for wealth or power, What then my hope?—Oh, if thy youth * Turn to any page in the political life of Lord Grey, what is the cause for which we find him the advocate ?-Economy-peace-reformliberty allowed abroad, and enlarged at home. Was there ever before a minister in this country to whom the people had merely to say, "Be consistent?" May we not hope from thee for more To raise Concession to Redress.* If this thy glory, not in vain Was nurst the dream that urged the strain. Men's present hope, and future praise. Montesquieu, in the "Grandeur et Decadence des Romains," (chap. viii.,) the work in which the rare and brilliant genius of that great writer is perhaps displayed with the fullest concentration and the least alloy, has observed, "Le gouvernement de Rome fut admirable en ce que depuis sa naissance, sa constitution se trouva telle, soit par l'esprit du peuple, la force du sénat ou l'autorité de certains magistrats que tout abus du pouvoir y put toujours être corrigé." Yet this very power, which he afterwards calls the salvation of a free government, our statesmen, till now, have represented as its ruin. If cold, if stern, to courtlier ear, Ev'n praise by Freedom poured, appear, How Doubt hath stol'n her fire from Truth- Yet, oh! what glory waits his mind, * When Hartley, (Observations on Man, vol. i. 304,) speaking of private morals, said, "great care ought to be taken not to esteem our friend a nonpareil," and that it is a great injury to any man to think more highly of him than he deserves ;" he uttered what, if taken in the seeming sense, not that in which the speculator meant it, Age calls at once a moral, and Youth a meanness. But in private life, after all, it is wiser in the long run to confide than to suspect. In public life all experience tells us the reverse. What Epicharmus said more than two thousand years ago, and Polybius (whose actual experience in the world gave not the least merit to his noble history) has so emphatically retailed, hath lost none of its melancholy wisdom by time. "In distrust are the nerves of the mind." But in Earth's Common Soul each deed That serves mankind, records its meed. It lives with all men honour most- But why to THEE this worthless strain ?— What in this tale may we descry? The moral men in vain deny! Behold the Two whom Heaven had made To love each other and to aid, Bound by a tie that grows a thrall, Till what should strengthen-can but gall. To one, 'tis true, the irksome chain Sits light—and custom conquers pain; |