actual bribe which it is of most importance to get rid of; it is the thousand secret, intangible, invisible, inaudible modes in which the vote is perverted from its proper direction. A hundred and thirty years ago it was said, by a shrewd observer,* "Till the freeholders will forbear to be led by persons and parties, and to vote from the sordid motives of interest and submission, it will be impossible they should be well represented." After the lapse of this long period we have seen no progress made in the species of forbearance here pointed out; and it is no great hardihood to predict that, if we persevere in the same system of open voting, the lapse of a hundred and thirty years more will be equally barren of improvement.'-p. 302-304. The debasement to all parties of the practice of canvassing, and the utility of distinct and complete expositions of the candidate's opinion, are clearly stated, and followed by an argument against pledges, in which, taken abstractly, we concur. Our exception, under present circumstances, in favour of the main points of organic reform, has been already mentioned in our last number. It is also shown that elections will never be usefully conducted while that excitement is cherished in which some so much delight, who, on other occasions, show themselves not particularly friendly to popular enjoyment. 'These remarks will scarcely be misconstrued as intended to denounce music, or processions, or other festivities amongst the people, on suitable occasions. The hostility which has been shown by well-intentioned but mistaken moralists against popular amusements would be pernicious, if it could have any effect. Such amusements are required for the healthy play both of the moral and of the physical constitution of man; and the propensities which they gratify, if not allowed to take a salutary, will assuredly take a mischievous direction. Amidst the monotonous employments arising out of the extreme division of labour in civilized states, excitement and exhilaration are especially demanded, and must be had; if they are not to be got in the active game, the absorbing representation, the animating burst of music, the splendid pageant, the spirit-stirring address, they will be sought and found in the tavern and the gaming-house, or the want of them will people the infirmary and the asylum. But an election is not an occasion designed for yielding wholesome excitement; it is an affair of deliberation and decision, in which the less perturbation of mind there is the better. If it is of any importance to mankind to have securities for good government in their own hands, it is also of importance that they should not trifle with them. These securities are not written documents deposited in a state register office; they consist mainly of certain acts to be done by the people themselves, and require the exercise of discrimination and judgment on the part of those for whose benefit they are instituted. Let the people then apply themselves to the business of elections in the spirit of sobriety and wisdom, and they may find other occasions for indulging in those joyous amusements, which true morality will never discourage so long as they are harmless and seasonable.'-p. 335, 336. The concluding chapter is a very important one on the general No. 102, * De Foe. 2 H principles to be observed in regard to political changes, and the practical application of these principles. Abridgement or extract would do it injustice. It should be studied entire. It blends the clearness of the philosopher with the wisdom of the practical statesman. The author gives distinctness to the very useless generalities so often put forth on these matters, and furnishes a guidance by which similar distinctness may be obtained in other cases. He points out the fact, so seldom adverted to, that there may be, and often is, as much rashness in resisting changes as in making them. The compound problem to be solved involves both the probable good effects of a proposed measure, and the state of opinion and feeling in the community in relation to that measure. The latter is indeed, logically, included in the former, but is too important to be mixed up with the other elements of the inquiry; it may affect, and even change, for a long period, the character of them all. These questions, however, are continually becoming more simple as politics becomes more of a science, as its principles are generally understood and admitted, and as the facility with which they are practically applied is increased by the mental habitudes of those from whom the people receive instruction. Towards this most desirable progress the present work is an invaluable contribution. It is the best text-book that has yet been provided for the popular political instructor. It is a Principia for him to master and expound. 6 Two Essays are appended, one on Political Equality,' and the other on Rights,' which our limited space will not at present allow us to notice. We cannot conclude, however, without recommending the author's style to the attention of those who, in asserting the principles of Bentham, seem sometimes disposed, partially at least, to follow his phraseology also. Mr. Bailey always writes pure, lucid, and mellifluous English. He is eloquent, and even poetical, on the same principles that made Barrow eloquent and Chaucer a poet; viz., by the transparency of his language, the masterly arrangement of accumulated thought, and the truthful presentation of important objects according to the impression made by them on his own understanding and feelings. THE SWAN. O, blended majesty and grace of motion! And graceful as a matron's bosom heaving! The crystal of the river whitely cleaving, O'er his fair shadow floats a state-proud swan! His progress silent as the mighty marching Of earth and all the planets round the sun! He nought divergeth from his forth-careering Where her close-nestled young his fond mate tendeth, * W. THE SECRET STRENGTH OF THINGS THAT GOVERNS THOUGHT! (After the manner of Wordsworth.) Ye sullen rocks and leaden-coloured clouds, That man with nature's every shape is kin; SHELLEY, Stars, stones, dead trunks—some, flame-bright flower-some, dust! AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF PEL. VERJUICE. CHAPTER IX. FEW writers, I believe, have looked with a really thinking eye on the condition of England's jolly tars;' or when they could do so, they have refrained from speaking what they thought, or describing that which they saw. Were common sailors to write, truly and thinkingly, for themselves, oh! their drama would be a very gloomy one, Dibdin's flashy songs notwithstanding: How much is the nation indebted to Dibdin !'-so fools think. Truth would have presented a different and a disgusting picture; and those really energetic and powerful writers who have given us nautical novels, with a vividness which presents all things they do paint as clearly to the eye as if we were actually engaged in or observers of them, have contrived to hedge off all matters that shall not exhibit Jack's condition as it affects his moral and intellectual being, couleur de rose. The writers are not wanting in intellectual and perhaps moral strength, but they are deficient in moral courage. Their aim seems to be to enkindle strong excitement in the readers by a detail of perils, difficulties, and disasters, sometimes stretched to the very verge of possibility, and averted by something so wonderful that escape or rescue comes with the unexpectedness of a miracle, and the reader gasps in sympathy with the actors and sufferers in the recorded events; sa do I-no reader among them more eagerly and delightedly, I am I do not accuse those writers of falsehood; I do not say sure. they have written that which is untrue: I have read nothing in the nautical novels of the age which is not acknowledged by my own experience as probability, but they have avoided truths and pictures which might be disagreeable or unpalatable. For its perceptible purposes, such writing is oftentimes as admirable for its vigorous eloquence as for its closeness to reality, and while it is devoured with avidity it creates a craving for more. .The productions of Captains Marryat, Glascock, and Chaumier, and the glorious Tom Cringle (who is he? I have occasional glimpses of a fancy that he and I have been shipmates), are not only choice in the vigorous elements of literary composition, and most heartstirring and fascinating in detail, but to nautical aspirants they contain many invaluable lessons of seamanship. Cooper, too, is as magnificent as either of these, at times; only he seems never to be content with ordinary, no, nor with extraordinary peril: he has an eternal penchant for suspending all his heroes and heroines by a frayed rope-yarn, and swinging them over the edge of a yawning and bottomless gulf. Indeed, in all these writers, extreme perils have been too much made the events, and eccentricities the costume of the drama. None of them has given a philosophically concluded picture; therefore I venture to say that (as far as my limited reading goes) the descriptions of the habits, characters, and condition of common sailors have so far failed, that the inference drawn from perusal of their writings is an erroneous one. Indeed it seems no attempt was made to give these things with the sternness of truth. There is none of Crabbe's soulthrilling and chilling rigidity in their delineations, though as ample space and occasion for it exists in the sailor's reality as ever Crabbe found in the pauper's hut. They were officers that spoke and wrote, and it is not unlikely, nor is it ungenerous to say so, that an interfering esprit de corps allured them away from the statements which might have enabled the readers, and through them society at large, to arrive at a just conclusion on these matters. Generally speaking, the authors have abandoned the clap-trap trumpery about the generous and honest English tars,' knowing, as they must do, there is as great a predominance of selfishness and cunning among them as ignorance can well engender. None of us like to have our pleasant dreams broken by reality, reader; but reality will tell you that the English sailor possesses as keen a sense of the sanctity of his MINE, (except on the matter of his brains), as does the most thriving class in the kingdom, whether on sea or land. THINE, to be sure, is another affair with both; the only difference is, Jack's mode of damaging THINE is less conventional, hypocritical, and writ-fearing than theirs may sometimes be; he has fewer shiftings, shufflings, and doublings, with all his ignorant cunning to help him therein. Of recklessness and extravagance, of wild and of cool daring, I am not disposed to deny the English sailor abundant provision and possession; and I deem it quite probable that he will retain the last 6 6 quality when a wiser training shall have eradicated all the former; or is courage' at last to be acknowledged as no more than a beastly peculiarity? Answer me, ye spurners at the inevitable consequences and necessities of man's not being all brute !* The perils of Jack's life, and his characteristic oddities, have been the sole themes on which a sympathy with him, and curiosity regarding him, have been excited. He is pitied or laughed at only on these points, and, apart from them, the common belief is, that his term is nothing but jollity, swigging the flowing can,' chorusing clap-trap songs, and the everlasting reel and hornpipe; he is attractive as a lusus naturæ only. Now, the fact is, that the perils and difficulties about which we all become so sympathetic and generous to Jack are the things which least fret his existence; if they come, they come; if he can conquer or escape from them, why, so much the better; if not, his mind is made up to them; or, at least, the forebodings of mischance do not cling to him with much sense of wretchedness. Truth, however, would make a dull book; philosophers only would turn its pages over; and-ask the bookseller Philosophy does not pay: he will point to his shelves, and show you loads of waste paper which his experience and fears have destined to the huckster's butter, cheese, and candles. Truth in these matters has had but few advocates. My aim is to direct the thoughts of others to a consideration of the existing evils, in the hope that remedies may be suggested, canvassed, and applied. The work is in progress, I thank God; and when a deeper research is more numerously made, the obstacles which now arise from opinions in conflict, in the minds of sincere philanthropists, will be swept away. So far, however, as it regards the mariner's life, to amuse, not to amend, has been too much the object of writers who have made life at sea their theme. Who has glanced at the common sailor's reality of interior? To scrutinize these, and put forth the result of that scrutiny, would be deemed unpatriotic, disloyal, un-English, or the astringency of a discontented spirit. Worse than all, it would cause an evaporation of those exciting visions in which we have been fed and fostered Although the phraseology in which they are dressed would conceal it, the gist of all the arguments which I have ever heard or seen from objectors to education amounts to these, and to nothing more, most certainly, viz.: In one set it is, If you cultivate their minds, they will discover the shallowness of our pretensions to superiority. In another it is, If you teach them science and politics, and to reason, and to think, they won't mind their work:' which, translated, signifieththey will not work for us.' With a third troop (I think this is the fullest regiment) it is, If you open their eyes we shall no longer be able to cheat them securely. To the correctness of none of these conclusions do I demur for an instant. But, I will add, when the working man is taught all that can be learnt, though it be to probe the earth's centre, or to soar to the remotest star in the system, he will be most thoroughly convinced that the natural law,' which teaching will make him comprehend, love, and obey, with a vigorous and sound alacrity, 'is, that every one who desires to enjoy the pleasures of health, must expend in labour the energy which the Creator has infused into his limbs.' And, moreover, that men,' he as one, will no longer shun labour as painful and ignominious, but resort to it as a source of pleasure and advantage.'-Vide Combe's Constitution of Man, p. 57, 58. |