expediency, never to risk any undertaking except with the hope of advantage no advantage was proposed to be obtained by the trial of the Queen, and none could be gained by opposing the popular affections at her funeral. To do so, was an act of singular political folly, and only to be equalled by the inadequacy of the means employed to carry it into effect. But to suppose, because the inadequacy of those means enabled the populace to carry their point, that the strength of the government has been in any degree weakened in the estimation of the people in general, is to ascribe effects to a cause which it is incapable of producing. The whole affair cannot and never will be regarded as any thing else than as an incident arising from a temporary cause, and consequently temporary in its effects. It had nothing to do either with radicalism, or rebellion, or discontent; it belonged to a series of fatalities in the history of an individual, whom many strange and impressive circumstances had rendered a remarkable object of popular interest and commiseration, and the whole impression and impulse which it produced must perish, as the heat which her case had excited gradually

passes away.

But as the Queen's trial served to demonstrate the strength with which the frame of the government is upheld by the great masses of the people, notwithstanding the political blunder which it was throughout, so her funeral contributes to prove the little importance that should be attached to the sentiments of the mob of London, even when it may be said they are in the right, and the government in the wrong. It cannot, I think, be questioned, that the public funeral, which was got up for the men accidentally slain in the scuffle with the soldiers, was a guilty device, contrived for the express purpose of bringing the populace and the military into open hostility. Yet what was the result? A little hooting and a few peltings at the gates of the barracks, -a mere" row," not half so outrageous as hundreds that happen annually in country towns on market-days; but which the daily newspapers, who have an interest in the exaggeration of every political occurrence, endeavoured to swell into the most alarming consequence. The fact is, that, with

all the inestimable benefits which the free circulation of the daily press confers on the country, it is one of the greatest sources of popular delusion. Not that I think the newspapers are conducted on any principle of deception,-I merely regard them as influenced by the feelings of self-interest, to render their columns as attractive as possible; and I daresay it will be allowed, that there is no readier access to circulation among a numerous and sensitive class of politicians, than by cherishing the apprehensions of popular dangers. No doubt, in the appearance of a London mob, there is much that justifies those enormous raw-head-and-bloody-bones stories of the newspapers, which so afflict and alarm honest John Bull at his country fire-side; but the vital part, the stirring energies of the multitude, the ignitious nucleus of the mass, bears no proportion to the magnitude of the whole. A London mob is naturally greater than a mob in any other town of the kingdom, merely owing to the greater population there congregated. Independent, however, of that, many circumstances peculiar to the metropolis, tend to swell the numerical appearance, without adding to the violence; on the contrary, perhaps they have the effect to lessen it. In the first place, there is always in London a prodigious floating multitude of curious strangers; and the Londoners themselves are remarkably under theinfluence of curiosity. And, in the second place, there is a nefarious and unknown number of miscreants, ever ready to profit by tumults, and who, in all assemblages of the populace, strenuously exert themselves to produce turbulence, purely as such, without any reference to what may be the objects of the meeting.

Owing to these circumstances, to the vastness of the multitude, consisting, for the major part, of persons brought together by motives of curiosity, and to the turbulence produced by disorderly characters, the appearance of a London mob is much more tremendous than of mobs in general elsewhere; but, from the very nature of the same things, it is in fact much more pusillanimous. Strangers are more apt than the townsmen to the impressions of fear; and curiosity, of all moods of the mind, is the least calculated to withstand the influence of panic-de

linquents, still more than even strangers or the curious, are liable to give way at alarms. The flight of a detected pickpocket in the crisis of a tumult in London, is sufficient to occasion the dissolution of a mob. You are not, therefore, to believe, when you read in the newspapers of the prodigious thousands assembled on occasions of popular interest, that it either indicates the strength or the popularity of the cause. I have myself, more than once, seen ambassadors among crowds assembled for radical purposes; but it might as truly and as justly be said, that the presence of such personages on such occasions, was in consequence of some dark and dreadful machination of foreign policy, as that the thousands, whom any fantastical and poverty stricken orator of sedition may, at any time, assemble, meet for the purpose of tearing down the government. I remember a meeting in WestminsterHall about the Duke of York's affair with Mrs Clarke, to which I accompanied a friend from the country, a gentleman of great learning and high acknowledged talents, but who had never seen any thing of the kind before. The snuff-man Wishart played a distinguished part, and the speeches spoken on the occasion, were as bold and seditious as any thing of the kind that either the Whigs or the Radicals have since attempted-and they were, of course, most vehemently applauded. My friend was petrified, and expected nothing less than an immediate revolution-all the afternoon he was thoughtful and sentimental. He had no appetite for his dinner, and at his wine after, rapped his snuff-box with more than common emphasis, and prophecied about the axe and scaffold, and all the other et ceteras of anarchy, with the accents of a seer, and the sagacity of a sybil. But here we are; the Duke's case was soon forgotten; the Queen's is fast following; and even Sir Robert Wilson's, that is but bursting the bud, will perish, and like every other, from the triumph of Dr Sacheverel, in Queen Anne's time, to that of Hunt, in our own, will only serve to swell the catalogue of innocuous manifestations of popular feeling in a free country.

But independent of the Queen's case and radicalism, it is supposed and alleged, that there are serious and deeply-seated causes of national discon

tent; and the Whigs tell us, that these are entirely owing to a Tory administration, and only to be removed by a reform in the representation. Any reform is a good thing; and certainly the representation might be improved; for it cannot be questioned that by commerce and manufactures, a vast mass of unrepresented wealth has accumulated in the country. But itis, I think, not very clearly made out, that by any change in the representation, by any extension of the elective franchise, our existing burdens and difficulties would be more speedily relieved, than by the system which it is the interest of Government to adopt, and which, it appears, ministers are steadily pursuing. I do not think, for example, that Mr Lambton or his friends have yet shewn that any alteration in the construction of the House of Commons would have the effect of increasing the income of landlords, or of lessening the difficulties of tenants

of procuring better markets for our merchants abroad, or more lucrative employment for our artizans at home

the evils with which the kingdom, at the present time, is most deeply afflicted. On the contrary, that pros perous state, from which landlords, tenants, merchants, and manufacturers have declined, was produced under the existing system of the representation, and has been blighted by causes altogether independent of any thing in the frame of the legislature, and the principles upon which the government is administered, and can only be renovated by the application of adequate remedies-remedies which it is less in the power of Government than of the people themselves, to apply.

The prodigious expenditure of the war, the circulation of the trade of the world through this country, like the blood through the heart, the energy of successful speculations, and the superiority which our manufactures had acquired in every market, had introduced into every family habits of luxury and expence, which the more limited channels of profit, in a sober state of peace, could never supply. Things have fallen back to their old level, but these habits have not been changed; and the adversaries of Government dexterously ascribe the difference between our means and our wants, entirely to the operation of a

mal-administration, although perfectly aware that retrenchment and reduction in our family establishments are as requisite as in those of the State. Indeed, without a co-operation in private life, along with the economy which the Government is gradually introducing, and introducing quite as rapidly as the circumstances of the country will allow, all the frugality that any set of ministers might practice, would be of very little effect on the aggregate of those burdens which our habits, more than the taxes, make us suffer.

There is, perhaps, no popular error more flagrant than that which is so constantly preached by the Opposition, that ministers are the patrons of corruption, and are, from the possession of place and power, the enemies of the people. The mere statement of the dogina in this form shews its absurdity; for, to every man who reflects for one moment, it must be evident that ministers themselves, having a large stake in the country personally, cannot but have a deep interest in every plan for alleviating the public burdens, which bear as hard upon them as upon the other classes of the community. In addition to this, in order to preserve their official superiority, they have the strongest motives to cultivate the good will of the people, which can only be done by a sincere and practical enmity to corruptions. To this, however, it may be said, that although the case should be so, yet history and experience instruct us of the contrary, and that the possessors of place and power have in all ages conceived themselves, as it were, in hostility with the people. It cannot be denied, that it is natural to man, when dressed in authority, to play many fantastic tricks. But then it is always shewn by the means which he employs; and the spirit of the British constitution so works upon our rulers, as to abridge the power of doing mischief, while it compels an endeavour to do good. Were the ministers for the benefit of their own partizans, at the present time, so mad as to persist in maintaining the establishments which the war obliged them to form, the force of public opinion would soon shake them from their places, and were they to reduce them as rashly as the impatience of popular orators would require, they would not be less blameable. There is, in truth, noVOL. X.

thing so delicate in the management of public affairs, as the disbanding of an army, and the reduction of national establishments. Nothing, certainly, could have been easier, than immediately, on the signature of the treaty of peace, to have paid off the army and navy, the clerks in the offices, and the labourers in the arsenals. But what was to become of the men? Would they have been less a burden to the country, on the poor-rates of their respective parishes, than on the general revenue of the kingdom? And I would therefore ask if it was not a wiser policy on the part of government, to go on with the reductions gradually, preparing the minds of the men for the change, and allowing the demand for labourers to absorb from time to time one portion of the disbanded, before another was sent in quest of employment? Has the policy of government, in this respect, been fairly appreciated; on the contrary, are not all the opponents of ministers constantly endeavouring to make it appear, that every reduction in the national expenditure, is a boon obtained by them? How much, for example, is said by them of Mr Hume's industry? No person can be more impressed with the extent of that gentleman's merits than I am; and considering that he is not in office, and obliged to seek his details from indirect sources, I confess that his perseverance, and the degree of his accuracy, are quite wonderful. But does it therefore follow that because Mr Hume has made himself master of the public accounts, in a nanner which no man in Opposition ever before could pretend to, that we are to ascribe to his representations those abridgments of the war establishments, which the crown is carrying into effect? In truth, even his friends must allow that his exertions, meritorious as they undoubtedly are, have not been conducted in the most judicious spirit, and that he has too often considered the necessary protection which ministers are obliged to extend over office, as proceeding from a personal regard for official corrup tion-just as if men in such conspicuous stations, were less sensible to the feelings of honour than others of the same rank in life, or that their responsibility should make them less awake to the consequences of malversations, injurious to their personal comforts and honest fame.

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But on the question of retrenchment, it seems to be overlooked, that the call for reform necessarily arises from those out of office. The machines of official routine cannot detect the effects of their own movements, and it is a factious misrepresentation to say, because ministers hesitate and pause, to consider what may be the result of that revulsion which any proposed change may produce upon the general system, that they are, therefore, averse to improvement. This obloquy, however, they share in common with all the possessors of public trusts. What, for example, can be more ungrateful than the manner in which it is heaped upon the magistrates of towns, whose time and talents are gratuitously given to the public service, and who, of all men, have the strongest motives to be found clear in their office and trust, at the expiry of their temporary authority. But the spirit of the age is against all instituted power, and it is only to be appeased by a sedulous endeavour on the part of those in authority to anticipate complaints. This spirit has arisen out of our embarrassments, and it can never be effectually laid but by a resolution as universal as the circumstances which have called it forth. The nation is pining under the difficulties which have resulted from the profusion of the war, and seeks alleviation to individual suffering, in an abridgment of the expence of the public establishments. It seems, however, to be forgotten, that every man discharged from the public service is a new member added to the number of the needy, and that every diminution of salary substracts so much from the expenditure among the tradesmen where the placeman is located, while the amount of the reduction scarcely produces any palpable effect in the public treasury. It may, therefore, I suspect, be almost said that the reductions of the national establishments have a tendency to engender dissatisfaction; and indeed, if they are not met by a determination on the part of the people to return to their old frugality, there can be no effectual cure applied to the disease with which the state is afflicted.

It is astonishing to think of the effects that may be produced, of the alleviation that might be extended to many families, were the corporations of towns to act upon a principle of

curtailing every unnecessary expenditure. But still we must bear in mind, that the quantity of the circulating medium would be in consequence reduced, and that labour, already too cheap, would become still more so in the market-that thegood which would result from any reduction of the taxes, to those particular classes who have fixed incomes, would be balanced by as much evil to those who depend on the interchanges of the circulating medium. The satisfaction, therefore, to be obtained from retrenchment on the part of government, and of a stricter fiscal administration in towns and corporate bodies, together with a return to greater temperance in domestic economy, will not consist in possessing greater means of enjoyment, but in that moral pleasure which is derived from the contemplation of integrity and rectitude in public trusts. This, however, is not the result_that the reformers in general look for. They thirst for more luxury, and consider the expences of public institutions as so much substracted from their means of procuring enjoyment-forgetting that profits are derived from prodigality, and that labour, to be lucrative, must be in request.

It may perhaps be said, that this view of the subject is calculated to be construed into a defence of existing abuses; inasmuch as it would imply, that no effectual remedy can be applied to our privations. No doubt it may be so construed; public abuses have always been private advantages; but it does not therefore follow, that they are not great evils, although I do contend, that the removal of all the abuses in the administration of the country, cannot have the effect of restoring the affluence which flowed in upon the kingdom during the late war. In truth, the utmost that can be said of the call for retrenchment is, that it is founded in an abhorrence of an unwarrantable dissipation of the public wealth, and that, with the reflecting portion of the people, it is not expected that any perceptible advantage will be experienced in private life, from all the reductions in the power of any administration to propose, in the present state of the world, and the order of things in this country.

Before concluding, it was my intention to have said something to those who seem to expect manna and quails from what is called a Reform in Par