244 family. No country! No love of home! Why then do our conscripts, farm labourers, like us, however far they send them, take the home-sickness and die, and never any of the officers who go from the great houses? No family! Are we beasts then? Then let them take our girls to market, and sell our little ones like calves and sheep to the butcher. No family!-Hold! when I hear that, the blood comes into my face, my ears tingle, andHold! I was going to say a very foolish thing, enough to get me thrown into prison. But its gone now. Only if you hear speak of that good Cabet, who wants the land to be for everybody, give me, please, some news of him. The other farm-labourers think as above like me. To our minds, if our master would hear reason, it would be better for him and us too; but he takes everything his own way, without caring even to tell us why or how. And because in writing the agreement, he put in his devilish paper just what suited him and the very opposite We are like of what he had said, one's to take his word! If one goes to complain to the magistrate, the old fox who dines and drinks with the master, always makes us wrong. the fools in the play. And then that weighs on one's heart, and one gets food as one can, sometimes milk and butter, and sometimes eggs, or cuts wood where one has no business. It's trick against trick and nobody's the gainer. The young folks in the village who have been over France, say that they have never seen any people so wretched as we are, though they know very well that there's no counHow do they do then? To believe these try in the world that's worth so much as this. folks, the labourers down there live in real good houses, with shutters and windows, and their pigs too will be having a sty where they carry their victuals to them, as they do here to our master's horse. It's well to be young pigs in those countries. But ours are brought up in our room, and don't soon forget the way out of it; and there's no great harm thought of it if they make a trough of the table; they get served the quicker, and nobody for that, big or little, looks black at the broth. But our pigs may behave as they're brought up: it is not that that annoys me. One word more. I hear tell by a cousin of mine, who's a journeyman-potter, that at Limoges things are done different. When they fall out with their employers, they have their own judges, what they call a council of prud'hommes. If it was to come of the Republic's goodness to do as much for us, to bring our masters a little to reason, we should like it all the better. There are some of our labourers who think that they won't refuse it; they are going to make a petition to our representatives that we too may have judges for our own side, a country council of prud'hommes. What do you think of it? LEONARD, husbandman at Bessines, THE QUARTERLY, M. GUIZOT, AND DEMOCRACY. EVERY three months there issues from Albemarle-street, a thick periodical in a drab-coloured cover, the fulminating oracle of the high Church and Tory party. In hatred to all political reforms, and to anything savouring of a popular movement, in love for social follies and corruptions, provided these be sanctified by the venerable hand of antiquity, the Quarterly Review stands There is unrivalled. It is not, however, to be cast aside on this account. much to be learnt from its pages,-for we may often gather more valuable auguries from the fears of our enemies than from the brightest hopes of our friends. This is just the case in an article in the March number of the Quarterly, devoted to a consideration of several publications relating to the French Revolution of 1848. One of the works selected for review is M. Guizot's enquiry, 'Why has the English Revolution succeeded?' And the writer, in the course of his criticism, alludes to past aristocracy, and points out the tendency of the present age to democratic government, in the following not uninstructive terms: "If we were to consider M. Guizot's work abstractedly, and as a mere historical essay, we should have to suggest some doubts and to make some reserves in our general concurrence with his statements and opinions for instance, we must have insisted on a most important consideration, which, (strangely enough), M. Guizot does not allude to, which is, that about the time when our Revolution gave such permanent weight to the principle of popular representation, there began almost simultaneously that countervailing system by which the House of Commons itself was made indirectly sensible of the influence of the aristocracy and the Crown; and Gatton, Old Sarum, and their fellows, helped to maintain the practical balance of the constitution against what would otherwise have become a single absorbing and irresistible power. The Reform Bill deranged, and in a great measure destroyed, that moderating influence, which, however was and is so vitally necessary to the co-ordination of monarchy with popular representation, that the monarchy is now existing only on its remnants; and we must, therefore, confess, that we by no means take the flattering view which M. Guizot does of the stability of our constitutional system. Gratefully acknowledging that the Revolution of 1688 was followed by upwards of a century and a half of unprecedented order, freedom, and prosperity, we have the strongest apprehensions that the democratic tendencies of all our recent measures are preparing a certain-not slow, and yet we hope not violent-passage to a different state of things. We fear that M. Guizot may be the last that will have to congratulate us on the wise stability of our political and religious institutions." popu Now, all this, put into straightforward English, is tantamount to saying that Queen Victoria sits on a very unsteady throne; that the advancing waters of democracy will shortly wash away entirely, and carry off, in one mighty deluge, Church, Bishops, and Peers; that Universal Suffrage will be established, and the British Empire ultimately become a Republic. Dreadful thought! What a heart-quake must disturb the equanimity of the King-andQueen-loving public on reading such a prediction! And have they no reason to tremble? If they are patriotic, is not their perturbation natural? England without a monarch to parade the streets in a gingerbread coach once in three or four years! England without a House of Peers to stop the way of lar and beneficial measures! England without Dukes and Lords to pet and pension! England without a State Church to bicker about baptism? England with no aristocracy but that of intellect and moral worth! Merrie' England with a cheap President instead of an expensive Sovereign! Merrie' England a free and equal Commonwealth instead of a flunkey-ridden kingdom! No, no; the notion is too horrible ever to be realised-the British Lion won't stand that the flag that has braved so many breezes won't be blown away by the breath of democracy; and so let us retrace our legislative steps-let us countermarch in double quick time back to those blessed days of rotten boroughs, civil disabilities, Test and Corporation Acts, religious persecution, commercial monopoly, landlord supremacy, corn laws, wars abroad, and class strife at home. Yes, let us "tak' our auld cloak about us," or mayhap we shall be obliged to wear a 'bran' new suit. F. G. CURIOSITY IN KNOWLEDGE.-Nothing wraps a man in such a mist of errors, as his curiosity in searching into things which are beyond him. How happily do they live, who know nothing but what is necessary! Our knowledge does but show our ignorance. Our most studious researches, are but a discovery of what we cannot know. We see the effect, but we cannot guess at the cause. Learning is like a river, whose head being far in the land, is at its first rise, small and easily viewed: but still as you proceed, it gapes with a wider bank; not without pleasant and delightful windings, while it is on both sides, set with trees, and the beauties of various flowers; but still, the farther you follow it, the deeper and broader it is; till at last it empties itself into the unfathomable ocean; there you see more water, but no shore, no end of that fluid expanse.— Owen Felltham. THE SEPTENNIAL ACT.-Dr. Johnson, one of the most furious of Tories, in his life of Addison, alluding to the royal prerogative of creating peers to make a majority says, "it was an act of authority violent enough yet certainly legal, and by no means to be compared with THAT CONTEMPT OF NATIONAL RIGHT with which, some time afterwards, by the instigation of Whiggism, the Commons, chosen by the people for three years, CHOSE THEMSELVES FOR SEVEN!" THE LOWLANDS SWEET. With ceaseless toil the heart grows dull- Rich flow'rs now rise Our steps to greet; The Lowlands sweet. Hate and discord haunt each street, The silver cloud it sleeps on high; And the lark's spread wings, In the Lowland springs. Fays, and countless beautiful things, The Lowland streamlet sparkles clear; In the Lowlands sweet. The pure may hear the dulcet beat What joy-thus, while the lark is loud, Their taintless wings, In the lilied springs To make some thymy bank our seat, JUSTICE.-There is a sentiment in the human mind that regulates benevolence in its application as a principle of action. This is the sense of justice. Justice, as well as benevolence, is an elementary law of human nature. It is through this principle that men are impelled to distribute any means of pleasure which benevolence may suggest the communication of to others, in equal portions among an equal number of applicants. If ten men are shipwrecked on a desert island, they distribute whatever subsistence may remain to them, into equal portions among themselves. If six of them conspire to deprive the remaining four of their share, this conduct is termed unjust.—Shelley.` To Correspondents. Correspondents will please address "Thomas Cooper, 5, Park Row, Knightsbridge, London." O. P.-No: I have not had a line from Mr. Scoble since his first and only letter to me, dated 23 February.' I can but conclude that he has thought better of it,' and will not, now, sustain his own challenge. S. H. Leicester; 'Lancelot'; 'Youth of Sixteen.' Their poetry is most respectfully declined. 'Veritas,' Sheffield.--Many Country Agents, besides himself, complain that they are not furnished with Posters. This is neither my fault, nor the fault of Mr. Watson, my publisher. The London Agents are duly furnished with Posters; and I have only to request that every Country Agent who does not receive them will send me his name and the name of the party in Town from whom he receives his parcel, and I will immediately renonstrate, respectfully, concerning this neglect which is injurious, alike to the Country Agents and myself. THOMAS PARKER. He must excuse my dullness; but I really cannot understand, from the minglement of so many questions-which question it is he wishes me to answer. Lectures, in London, for the ensuing Week. SUNDAY, April 21, at 7, Literary Institution, John Street, Fitzroy Square. Washington, and the Independence of America "-Thomas Cooper. At 7, Hall of Science, (near Finsbury Square), City Road. "Property, Family, and Order; according to the Correspondent of the Times "-Walter Cooper. At 7, Institution, Golden Lane, Barbican. "The Poetry of Freedom and Progress"-Gerald Massey. At 7, Farringdon Hall, King's Arms' Yard, bottom of Snow Hill. Question "How is the Organisation of Labour to be put in practice?" MONDAY, April 22, at half-past 8, Finsbury Mechanics' Institute, Bell Yard, City Road. "The Punishment of Death"-E. Harding. At half-past 8, Pentonville Athenæum, 23, Henry Street. "Phonography"-J. Russell. At quarter past 8, Literary Institution, Carlisle Street, Edgeware Road, "Utility of Heraldry"-W. Partridge. THINKINGS, FROM DR. PARR. t Circ. He that looks back to the history of mankind, will often see that in risprudence, religion, and all the great concerns of society, reform has en the work of reason slowly awakening from the lethargy of ignorance, acquiring confidence in her own strength, and ultimately triumphing ominion of prejudice and custom. 1 sermon STENCY.-How frail and inconsistent is man; How differently does he act even from himself, in different circumstances! How strangely does passion of pride seek for gratification from contrary causes, from pursuBristol good, and from giving up that which is attainable and real. One mo 6 v. strains at a gnat, and applauds himself for sagacity-in the next he does ect himself of credulity when he swallows a camel. -The ways of Providence are unsearchable; and among all the anomalies baffle conjecture and afflict sensibility in the moral world, the follies, the ss, and the passions of man, are the most inexplicable and the most deploHe is a tyrant in defence of liberty: he is a plunderer for the support of w: he is an oppressor for the honour of government: he is a savage in the very bosom of society: he becomes the unrelenting persecutor of his species, for the imaginary glory of his God. arlis! REVOLUTIONS.-Great revolutions have usually been achieved by men of great abilities; but their success in turbulent periods is to be imputed to previous circumstances, and those circumstances gradually arise from the want of wisdom in persons who have directed the affairs of government in seasons of apparent tranquillity. OF LYING.-Lying supplies those who are addicted to it with a plausible apology for every crime, and with a supposed shelter from every punishment. It tempts them to rush into danger from the mere expectation of impunity, and, when practised with frequent success, it teaches them to confound the gradations of guilt, from the effect of which there is in their imaginations at least one sure and common protection. It corrupts the early simplicity of youth; it blasts the fairest blossoms of genius; and will most assuredly counteract every effort by which we may hope to improve the talents, and mature the virtues of those whom it infects. AVERSION TO OFFENCES.-From original temperament, from early education, from experience of personal inconvenience, and from various other causes scarcely known to ourselves, we all of us feel a stronger aversion to some offences than to others. One man is alarmed at public robbery, another takes fright at private stealing, a third startles at heresy as bordering upon infidelity, a fourth kindles at republicanism as teeming with treason; and cach, if it were in his power, would wreck the utmost of his vengeance upon the offender. But can it be right that the life, or the liberty, or the fortune of any human being-should be dependent upon the greater or less degree of these moral idiosyncracies? EFFECTS OF A NEGLECTED OR IMPROPER EDUCATION.-Where education has been entirely neglected or improperly managed, we see the worst passions ruling with uncontrolled and incessant sway. Good sense degenerates into craft, and anger rankles into malignity. Restraint, which is thought most salutary, comes too late, and the most judicious admonitions are urged in vain. CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.-He that can look with rapture upon the agonies of an unoffending and unresisting animal, will soon learn to view the sufferings of a fellow-creature with indifference; and in time he will acquire the power of viewing them with triumph, if that fellow-creature should become the victim of his resentment, be it just or unjust. But the minds of children are open to impressions of every sort; and indeed wonderful is the facility with which a judicious instructor may habituate them to tender emotions. I have therefore always considered mercy to beings of an inferior species asof a nature which children are very capable of learning, but which is most difficult to be taught if the heart has been once familiarized to spectacles of distress, and has been permitted either to behold the pangs of any living creature with cold insensibility, or to inflict them with wanton barbarity. MARTIAL GLORY. He comes from the wars well trophied with scars, In a far distant land he has fought hand to hand, Who swore by heaven's shield, never, never to yield, Why left he his home with marauders to roam, 'Twas his to stand forth when the land of his birth The glitter of arms, with dear victory's charms, Where the death-aiming steel, and the war-horse's heel, The war-trump's deep bray it was his to obey,— Great India's wealth must be pillaged by stealth, The bells may ring out, and wrapt myriads may shout, But they feel not the dart piercing many a heart, Ye chiefs of renown, whose fierce, merciless frown, Holds far nobler hearts at command, Lay down your cursed swords, dispute but with word, Uphold it who will, it is anarchy still,- "Twas concocted in hell, where the tyrant-fiends dwell |