tell us, that some day or other, seamen will have tea and coffee for breakfast, and fight the world upon slops!" Which they have now done for some time, and fought it as well as ever.

Dear fellow-creatures, whose eyes are weak, but whose faculties mighty, who see two yards before you into the blankness of futurity, but who have a call upon great endeavours and a right to hopes infinite, -will you be good enough, once for all, to take a lesson from your amazement at seeing coaches run without a horse, and leave off this idle habit of saying what "never will be!"

LITTLE did the inspired bard of the sixteenth century, whose beautiful and pathetic ejaculation we have prefixed to this article, foresee the dire fulfilment which its implied prediction would receive in the nineteenth. Little did he anticipate the downfall of that high and palmy state which had for centuries so proverbially distinguished the British Goose, that an Englishman, could scarce set foot on Foreign land, without being reminded, in a tone at once of envy and admiration, that his country's "geese were all swans."

Still less would he have believed, had it been foretold to him, that the very name of an ancient and honourable race could ever be so vilified and degraded as to become a by-word and term of reproach, and that the meanest caitiff should hold himself aggrieved in being designated “ 3 goose."

The circumstance which gave rise to the poet's exclamation was, as our readers are doubtless well aware, the sudden and severe distress which the web-footed interest of that day experienced from the substitution of fire-arms for the ancient bow and "cloth-yard shaft," a change by which the "grey goose quill," till then an article of prime importance, became a mere "drug," known but to a few old monkish chroniclers, and utterly neglected by the nation at large. Happily, we may say providentially, the rapid extension of literature,* which took place soon afterwards, effected a reaction in favour of the quill-growers, of which, with a sagacity which has ever been their leading characteristic, they immediately availed themselves; and, adapting their circumstances to the

There is reason to believe that the encouragement afforded to men of letters, by several successive monarchs, was attributable to the remorse (now, alas, unknown!) which they felt at the effects upon the condition of their quill-growing subjects, of the change in the mode of warfare which they had sanctioned; and it is recorded of Henry the Eighth in particular, that he wrote a considerable work with his own hand, doubtless from the same praiseworthy-motive.

altered times, the victors of Cressy might be seen betaking themselves to the arts of peace, scarce smiling at the innovating folly which had rendered the wrong end of the quill an object of value.

From that period to the present little has been heard of the British geese, who have gone on from age to age, and from Michaelmas to Michaelmas, toiling cheerfully in their vocation : but now, alas, their voice, which, like that of the swan, breaks forth in their extremity, again sounds in our ears. The axe of innovation, which, one by one, is hewing down all the established institutions of the country, after lopping off the superfluous branches of their prosperity, is again laid to the very root of their existence.

The Quill trade, which has long been unjustifiably harassed, and interfered with by the inroads of foreign growers, whose produce is poured forth by every northern port, with the same pestilent activity which inundated the land of yore with their hordes of barbarous invaders, The quill trade, which is without exception the oldest branch of British industry, has received its death-blow,-that blow has been dealt by a domestic hand, and the instruments" of devilish enginery" by which it has been perpetrated, is the invention of METALLIC pens !— The effects, we shall give in the words of the sufferers themselves, transcribed from a petition about to be presented by the hon. member for Worcester.

"To the Honourable, the Commons of the United Kingdoms of Great
Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled, The humble Pe-
tition of the undersigned Ganders, Geese, and Goslings,
"Sheweth,

"That your petitioners have, from time immemorial, held an honourable
rank in the community, and have carried on an extensive trade in the
production and sale of quills and pens, to their great profit and ad-
vantage.
"That your petitioners have already suffered severely by the admission
of foreign quills from Hamburg, and other northern ports,-which
measure has had the lamentable effect of driving an immense quan-
tity of their tail feathers out of cultivation; and that it is only from
the superior energy and intelligence that characterizes the British
goose, above all other geese, that they have been at all able to retain
a footing in the home market.
"That, bad as was their case before, from unequal competition with the
untaxed foreigner, it has been rendered incomparably worse by the
recent introduction of metallic pens, which are manufactured and sold
at a price ruinous to the interests of your petitioners.

"That your petitioners have for centuries laid eggs, hatched, and cackled, in the full confidence that their vested rights would be held sacred; and that, consequently, they have an undoubted claim to compensation for any injuries they have, or may sustain by their infringement. "That your petitioners, in common with every patriotic and enlightened

To prevent all cavil, we state the case thus:-The victory of Cressy was undeniably owing to the superiority of the English archers. The archer could have done nothing without his bow. His bow would have been useless without the arrow. The arrow would not have flown without the feather-ergo, without the geese the battle would not have been gained-ergo, the geese gained the battle. Q. E. D.

goose, viewed with satisfaction the application of iron to all such legi. timate objects as cables, columns, cart-wheels, canal-boats, &c. &c. ; but they hope that your Honourable House will see that, in entering into competition with them, they are placed at a most unfair disadvantage: from which they beg leave, humbly to urge the following reasons, why protection should be afforded them.

I. "That from the extreme cheapness and durability of the metallic pens, they find it quite impossible to compete with them.

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That your petitioners, from the quantity of grain they consume, are great benefactors to the landed interest.

III. "That the manufacturing interest is equally indebted to them for the lucrative trade which is carried on at Sheffield and elsewhere, in the making of penknives.

IV. "That even your petitioners' refuse feathers are of great use in stuffing beds, cushions, and the like; a purpose for which the " slag" or iron refuse would form an indifferent substitute: and, although it is universally known that the idea of personal ease or advantage never for an instant weighs in the decision of your Honourable House, or any of its members, yet that some consideration is due to the comforts of your numerous constituents.

V. "That the interests of your petitioners having been thus shewn to be identified with the comfort and prosperity of the nation at large, it is obvious policy to advance them by every legislative encourage

ment.

VI. "That even admitting that the community would be benefited by the new manufacture, still, as your petitioners must be fed, it is better to encourage their trade, so as to enable them to support themselves, than to keep them in idleness.

VII. "That the introduction of these pens must eventually have disastrous effects even on the iron trade itself, since the profits obtained by them can never compensate for the annihilation of the penknife manufacture which must ensue, and that the agriculturists will lose, besides, the outlet for their produce afforded by your petitioners. VIII. "That the Consumer will, therefore, be the only person benefited: whereas, it is the fundamental principle of all sound legislation that the Producer's interests shall alone be recognised.

IX. "That your petitioners are always at hand, and their produce made ready with very slight preparation; whereas the metallic pens cannot be produced without much time and labour, and are, therefore, not available on any sudden emergency.

X. "That your petitioners' powers of breeding may be fully depended upon; which cannot be said of the supply of an article dug from the bowels of the earth; and, consequently, that should their race become extinct from the want of due encouragement, the first scarcity of iron would cause a total extinction of literature.

XI. "That your petitioners have been the greatest and most constant friends to literature in all ages; and that it is only through their means that the works of Bacon, Shakspeare, Milton and other eminent writers, were ever produced; and that they are therefore entitled to the gratitude of the community for the large share they have had in the merit of those works.

XII "That your petitioners have ever been loyal and orthodox as a class and have uniformly supported the established order of things, under all circumstances, and in spite of all arguments; and that they have

besides the additional claim to protection which the dependents on the soil must be allowed to possess over the exercisers of a manufacture which may at any moment be transplanted from this to a rival country.

"That your petitioners are aware that much more might be said in their favour; but, being satisfied that they have already placed their case in its true light, they are willing to leave it in the hands of your Honourable House, in the confident hope that it will be taken into favourable consideration, and that an act will be forthwith passed to restrain the manufacture of pens from any kind of metal for the future.

"That, as regards the admission of foreign quills, your petitioners bein friendly to the principles of free trade in the abstract, by no means wish for a prohibition, but merely for a protecting duty in favour of the home grower of five or six hundred per cent. ad valorem. "That, to remove all doubt that might exist as to their capability of adequately supplying the demand independently of extraneous sources, your petitioners are willing to guarantee the production of three times the present supply, provided only that remunerating prices be afforded them, by cultivating their back and breast feathers to the size requisite for the pen manufacture. "That by such protecting measures your Honourable House will give the necessary stability to the ancient system of pens, under which the country has advanced to its present unrivalled station in arms, arts, and agriculture; and that the utmost satisfaction will be afforded thereby, as well to your petitioners, as to their numerous and respectable connexions in all classes of the community.

"And your petitioners will ever pray."

This, then, is another blessed fruit of the new-fangled doctrines of the present day! Another great branch of our national industry is sacrificed without mercy at the accursed shrine of innovation! The Moloch of Free Trade demands fresh victims ; and the Geese of Great Britain, the most influential, perhaps, as they certainly are the most ancient and numerous class in the community, are abandoned without mercy to the fate of the Farmer and Shipowner! Thus is the life-blood of the country drained; and for what? That the consumer, truly, may obtain what he may be pleased to consider a better article at a cheaper rate! The consumer, forsooth!!! the very man who, as being directly interested, is least capable of forming an unbiassed judgment. Yet this is the vile sophistry which supersedes the venerable experience of accumulated ages! these are the arguments employed by the advocates of a system which is fast plunging the country into beggary and ruin!

Little need our petitioners expect from a Legislature where such language is held! Vain will be their hopes! Unheeded by a House occupied with freaks of transatlantic benevolence, will be the petition of millions of their fellow-countrygeese-or if heeded, it will be but to be dissected by the sophistical scalpel of some pseudo patriot, who will prove, amid the cheers of a callous audience," that, inasmuch as the whole quantity of writing done is better and more cheaply performed by the new than the old system, the community is proportionately benefited; and the geese, as a component part thereof, must receive their due share of advantage; and that, as to their surplus population, it will readily

find employment in other branches of industry, as Singing-birds, or in the manufacture of swan's-down."

Let us dwell for a moment on the case of any one of the many thousand families thus doomed to starvation. Let us picture to ourselves the father, a venerable gander, plucked to the last stump for his coun try's good, his meek eye resting sorrowfully on his offspring, while not a murmur escapes the beak from which the cup of contentment is thus suddenly dashed; the aged mother endeavouring, in vain to conceal under her wing an agony too plainly visible in the convulsive throbbing of her crop the son, a hopeful gosling, the down still on his cheek, driven by desperation to seek a precarious subsistence on the highways; the daughter, just budding into goosehood, dragging out a polluted existence But faugh! we sicken

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at the picture-now turn we to its authors.

Who, it will be asked, are the wretches that have wrought this soulharrowing distress? what are they who are thus gambling with the desperate fortunes of a once happy and prosperous country? We answer unhesitatingly

The Political Economists,

Those whelps of famine and spoliation-who smilingly argue that the starvation of a few millions is of no consequence, provided the total quantity of food is increased; and who will doubtless be at hand when this petition is presented, to assert wth brazen front that NO distress exists; and to demonstrate, from huge piles of figures, that more frogs and tadpoles having been consumed in this than any former year, the cackling community has been indisputably better fed, overlooking; or, with the known candour of the sect, concealing the fact, that nothing but the extremity of distress would induce a Goose of right feelings to touch either frog or tadpole.

These are the men who are striving to quench the fast-declining rays of Britain's sun.

"Oh, their offence is rank, and smells to heaven!" But let them not imagine that the smooth stream of political profligacy, down which they are recklessly gliding, will remain for ever unruffled. No; the hour of retribution is at hand; the British Goose, like his prototype of Rome, has sounded a tocsin which will rally every true Briton to the defence of the capitol.

Deep and protracted were the sufferings which they have borne in silence; but there is a point beyond which endurance goeth not"the iron entered into their soul," and the calm has given place to the whirlwind. The fens of Lincolnshire have sent forth a voice which is echoed by the marshes of Essex; a voice which we pray heaven may be listened to ere it be too late; ere the cackle of discontent shall be changed for the deep hiss of determination; ere an hundred thousand heads shall be lowered, but not in submission; and the Geese of Great Britain, from the Solway to the Severn, from the Tweed to the Thames, shall find out the secret of their numerical strength; and despairing of redress from a Government ever too ready to sacrifice the standard interests of the country, shall rise as one Goose, and snatch from their oppressors the rights they have been unjustly deprived of.