Imatges de pàgina
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represented in theory. Three circumstan- reformers then promote virtuous educaces have principally led to the change in tion and right principles, and then a the nature of that body. House of Commons, the free objects of their choice, will be found capable of framing good laws for the public welfare.

The first is the innovation introduced in the reign of Henry the Eighth, of goveruing by sessions of parliament, instead of parliaments called for the business of the nation, and dissolved as soon as that business was performed. Before that time, two parliaments have been held in a year; after the innovation was made, a lengthened term was thought more convenient, and by that very improper bill now called the septennial act, parliaments are familiarly looked upon as for seven years duration, and the price of seats in the House is adjusted upon that principle.

The second circumstance is the allowance of placemen and pensioners to sit in the House: the consequence of which is, that in certain questions the votes of members may be determined by their situation, not hy the propriety of the measure. This is an evil, intended to be guarded against by our ancestors; and now, when a member takes a place under government, a new election must be made for his town, borough, county, but the placeman by bcing re-elected, returns to his seat, and thus it is in the power of the proprietor of a borough to frustrate the intentions of the bill, by which placemen were excluded.

The third circumstance is, that many boroughs have through course of time greatly decayed, but the right of election remaining in them, they become the property of a few individuals. Thus London is represented by four members, but certain individuals in the country have twice that number placed in the House by their influence, and expected to vote according to the inclination of their principal.

France is exhibiting to the world a spe cimen of representative government. All the accounts, if they may be depended upon, manifest how little sensible that nation is of the value of such a government, how incapable they are of acting up to the principles of enlightened patriotism. If in our country there are men so desperately wicked as to use the name of government in the election of a member of parliament, still they have not the andacity to commit their crimes in the face of day. It is done privately and secretly. Their menaces or their bribes are conveyed with a certain degree of decorum, a tacit confession, that they aretraitors to their country, in abusing their offices, and betraying even the government they pretend to support. But in Franceit is said, that the name of the king is publicly made use of, and persons are designated as being agreeable or disagreeable to him, who ought not in any way whatever to interfere in the choice of the people.

Whilst these abuses prevail it is improper to say that the Commons in England are represented in parliament, or that the original institution is preserved; and it is not to be wondered at, that in the legal and constitutional meetings of the country such abuses are inveighed against. But though every friend of his country would gladly see these abuses destroyed, yet we must not be so sanguine in our expectations as to expect that the reform of parliament would be the panacea for all our evils. Indeed had the people been fairly represented in the House of Commons, no such measure as the late very injurious bill the Corn Bill could have passed, a measure as injurious to the land owners interest, which it was intended to protect, as it has been hurtful to the manufacturing and commercial interests, which it has nearly ruined. But still if the government of a country ́de- ́ pends more on the people, the more requisite it is, that that people should be well instructed and virtuous. Let the

The result of the elections is said to be favourable to the ministers; that is the~ Ultra-royalists will not have the ascendancy in their new that they had in the last parliament. This will be a happy thing for France, as that wretched country may have a chance for something like government, if it has got rid of the ignorant and prejudiced men, who would have restored all the iniquity of bigotry, by which the Bourbon administration, particularly under the reign of Louis XIV. had been distinguished. One circumstance is favourable to their country: these Ultra-royalists, who were the first to destroy the liberty of the press, now, feel the effects of their own base measures, and begin to find out the benefits of its freedom. The police too, whose arbitrary sway they admired, whilst they themselves governed its secret springs, bas. been a great curb to them; and, in fact they are compelled now to acknowledge, that something must be done for the public as well as themselves. The debates therefore of the new legislative body will be interesting.

The King of Holland has opened his parliament at Brussels by a speech from the throne, in which he laments the increase in the price of provisions from the unfavourable weather that has prevailed on the Continent; speaks of measures to be introduced favouring industry, commerce and works of public utility, of some statement of expenditure and income, of changes of territory with Prussia, of the formation of a militia and a complete

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statement of expenditure and income to be laid before them. This parliament promises to be engaged in acts beneficial to their country, though their tariff of duties lately published shews them to be as blind as their neighbours to the advantages of a free intercourse between nations, which unfortunately in ali of them are craniped by tinancial considerations.

The King of Wirtemburg is still quarrelling with his subjects, who seem resolately employed in placing such checks on his authority, as are not suited to the old system of the petty German Princes. It is probable however, that the congress for the whole empire may take up some of these questions, and prevent the petty sovereigns from being too despotic in their dominions. The movements of that congress will be very interesting, but it is not likely that it will engender any thing like the Holy Roman Empire, which has been happily for the country so completely destroyed. The Prussians are still looking anxiously for their new constitution. The Emperor of Russia is said to have promised to abstain from any interference in German politics. This monarch has made a tour through great part of his European dominions, and has every where, particularly at Moscow, been received with the enthusiasm which his virtues excite. Poland under his dominion will be much happier than with its former aristocrats,

who wished no one to enjoy liberty but themselves.

The Dey of Algiers is employed in repairing his broken walls, but he will be long before he provokes again a similar chastisement. The event has however produced a very extraordinary letter, if the papers have not been deceived, and palmed a fiction on the public, from Lord Exmouth to his pretended Holiness the Pope. Little would our ancestors have expected, that a peer of parliament should salute such a character with the title of Holy Father, and much less to request bis prayers. This is one of the symptoms of the decay of the ancient Protestant spirit, and makes it more incumbent upon us to set our children upon their guard against the delusive influence of the times.

The American accounts are favourable to the successes of the old Spaniards over their opponents in the countries bordering on the Gulph of Mexico, but still the agitation remains and it will not easily be quelled. The King of Spain has published upon his marriage a general pardon, but with so many exceptions, that the patriots of that country are not likely to be bene fited by it. They are so much behind the rest of the world in knowledge and information, that it is in vain to expect there a specdy overthrow to despotism, priestcraft and the inquisition.

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CORRESPONDENCE.

We are sorry that we are not at liberty to report from Mr. Belshám any other answer to the inquiry of D. D. p. 471, than that the Commentary upon the Epistles of Paul,, which is the subject of that inquiry, is not yet in a state of preparation for the press.

ERRATA.

XI. p. 479. col. 2, four lines from the bottom, dele the comma after "party."

-480. col. 2. line twelve from the top, place an inverted comma after Scriptures.

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[From Dissertation I. by Dugald Stewart, prefixed to Supplement to Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. I. p. 59-65.]

THE

HE rapid advancement of intellectual cultivation in England, between the years 1588 and 1640 (a) period of almost uninterrupted peace), has been remarked by Mr. Fox. "The general improvement," he observes, in all arts of civil life, and above all, the astonishing progress of literature, are the most striking among the general features of that period; and are in themselves causes sufficient to produce effects of the utmost importance. A country whose language was enriched by the works of Hooker, Raleigh, and Bacon, could not but experience a sensible change in its manners, and in its style of thinking; and even to speak the same language in which Spencer and Shakespeare had written, seemed a sufficient plea to rescue the Commons of England from the appellation of brutes, with which Henry the Eighth had addressed them."-The remark is equally just and refined. It is by the mediation of an improving language, that the progress of the mind is chiefly continned from one generation to another; and that the acquirements of the enlightened few are insensibly imparted to the many. Whatever tends to diminish the ambiguities of speech, or to fix, with more logical precision, the import of general terms;-above all, whatever tends to embody, in popular forms of expression, the ideas and feelings of the wise and good, aug ments the natural powers of the human understanding, and enables the succeeding race to start from a higher ground than was occupied by their fathers. The remark applies with

Born 1589, died 1679.
VOL. XI.

AM

peculiar force to the study of the mind itself; a study, where the chief source of error is the imperfection of words; and where every improvement on this great instrument of thought may be justly regarded in the light of a discovery.t

In the foregoing list of illustrious names, Mr. Fox has, with much propriety, connected those of Bacon and Raleigh; two men, who, notwithstanding the diversity of their profes sional pursuits, and the strong contrast of their characters, exhibit, nevertheless, in their capacity of authors, some striking features of resemblance. Both of them owed to the force of their own minds, their emancipation from the fetters of the schools both were eminently distinguished above their contemporaries, by the originality and enlargement of their philo- · sophical views; and both divide, with the venerable Hooker, the glory of exemplifying to their yet unpolished

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+ It is not so foreign as may at first be supposed to the object of this Discourse, to take notice here of the extraordinary demand for books on Agriculture under the government of James T. The fact is thus very strongly stated by Dr. Johnsop, in his Introduction to the Harleian Miscellany. "It deserves to be remarked, because it is not generally known, that the treatises on busbandry and agriculture, which were published during the reign of King James, are so numerous, that it can scarcely be imagined by whom they were written, or to whom they were sold." Nothing can illustrate strongly the effects of a pacific system of policy, in encouraging a general taste for reading, as well as an active 'spirit of national improvement. At all times, and in every country, the extensive sale of books on agriculture, may be regarded as one of the most pleasing symptoms of mental cultivation in the great body of a people.

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Estimate of the Philosophical Character of Hobbes.

countrymen, the richness, variety, and grace, which might be lent to the English idiom, by the hand of a

master.*

It is not improbable that Mr. Fox might have included the name of Hobbes in the same enumeration, had he not been prevented by an aversion to his slavish principles of government, and by his general disrelish for metaphysical theories. As a writer, Hobbes unquestionably ranks high among the older English classics; and is so peculiarly distinguished by the simplicity and case of his manner that one would naturally have expected from Mr. Fox's characteristical taste, that he would have relished his style still more than that of Bacont

To prevent being misunderstood, it is necessary for me to add, that I do not speak of the general style of these old authors; but only of detached passages, which may be selected from all of them, as earnests or first fruits of a new and brighter era in English literature. It may be safely affirmed, that in their works, and in the prose compositions of Milton, are to be found some of the finest sen

tences of which our language has yet to boast. To propose them now as models for imitation, would be quite absurd. Dr. Lowth certainly went much too far when he said, "That in correctness, propriety and purity of English style, Hooker hath hardly been surpassed, or even equalled, by any of his successors." Preface to Lowth's English Grammar.

+ According to Dr. Burnet (no contemptible judge of style), Bacon was "the first that writ our language correctly." The same learned prelate pronounces Bacon to be "still our best author;" and this, at a time, when the works of Sprat, and many of the prose compositions of Cowley and of Dryden, were already in the hands of the public. It is difficult to conceive on what grounds Burnet proceeded, in hazarding so extraordinary an opinion. See the Preface to Burnet's Translation of More's Utopia.

It is still more difficult, on the other hand, to account for the following very bold decision of Mr. Hume. I transcribe it from an Essay first published in 1742; but the same passage is to be found in the last edition of his Works, corrected by himself. "The first polite prose we have, was writ by a man (Dr. Swift) who is still alive. As to Sprat, Locke, and even Temple, they knew too little of the rules of art to be esteemed elegant writers.

or of Raleigh.-It is with the philoso phical merits, however, of Hobbes, that we are alone concerned at present; and, in this point of view, what a space is filled in the subsequent history of our domestic literature, by his own works, and by those of his innumerable opponents! Little else, indeed, but the systems which he published, and the controversies which they provoked, occurs, during the interval between Bacon and Locke, to mark the progress of English Philosophy, either in the study of the Mind, or in the kindred researches of Ethical and Political Science.

"The philosopher of Malmesbury," says Dr Warburton," was the terror of the last age, as Tindall and Collins are of this. The press sweat with controversy; and every young churchman militant would try his arms in thundering on Hobbes's steel cap."* Nor was the opposition to Hobbes confined to the clerical order, or to the controversialists of his own times. The most eminent moralists and politicians of the eighteenth century may be ranked in the number of his antagonists, scarcely does there appear a new publiand even at the present moment, cation on Ethics or Jurisprudence, where a refutation of Hobbism is not to be found.

The period when Hobbes began his
literary career, as well as the princi-
pal incidents of his life, were, in a
singular degree, favourable to a mind
like his; impatient of the yoke of
authority, and ambitious to attract
attention, if not by solid and useful
discoveries, at least by an ingenious
defence of paradoxical tenets.
a residence of five years at Oxford,
After
and a very extensive tour through
France and Italy, he had the good

The prose of Bacon, Harrington, and
though their sense be excellent."
Milton, is altogether stiff and pedantic,

matical improvements proposed by Swift,
How insignificant are the petty gram-
when compared with the inexhaustible
riches imparted to the English tongue by
the writers of the seventeenth century;
and bow inferior, in all the higher quali-
ties and graces of style, are his prose
compositions, to those of his immediate
predecessors, Dryden, Pope, and Addi-

son!

* Divine Legation, Pref. to Vol. II.

.p. 9.

Estimate of the Philosophical Character of Hobbes.

fortune, upon his return to England, to be admitted into the intimacy and confidence of Lord Bacon; a circumstance which, we may presume, cɔntributed not a little to encourage that bold spirit of inquiry, and that aversion to scholastic learning, which characterize his writings. Happy, if he had, at the same time, imbibed some portion of that love of truth and zeal for the advancement of knowledge, which seem to have been Bacon's ruling passions! But such was the obstinacy of his temper, and his overweening selfconceit, that, instead of co-operating with Bacon in the execution of his magnificent design, he resolved to rear, ou a foundation exclusively his own, a complete structure both of moral and physical science; disdaining to avail himself even of the materials collected by his predecessors, and treating the experimentarian philosophers as objects only of contempt and ridicule!

In the political writings of Hobbes, we may perceive the influence also of other motives. From his earliest years, he seems to have been decidedly hostile to all the forms of popular government; and it is said to have been with the design of impressing his countrymen with a just sense of the disorders incident to democratical establishments, that he published, in 1618, an English translation of Thucydides. In these opinions he was more and more confirmed by the events he afterwards witnessed in England; the fatal consequences of which he early foresaw with so much alarm, that, in 1640, he withdrew from the approaching storm, to enjoy the society of his philosophical friends at Paris. It was here he wrote his book De Cive, a few copies of which were printed, and privately circulated in 1642. The same work was after wards given to the public, with material corrections and improvements, in 1647, when the author's attachment to the royal cause being strengthened by his personal connexion with the exiled king, he thought it incumbent on him to stand forth avowedly as an advocate for these principles which he had long professed. The great object of this performance was to strengthen the hands of sovereigns against the rising spirit of democracy, by arming them with the weapons of a new philosophy.

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The fundamental doctrines inculcated in the political works of Hobbes, are contained in the following propositions. All men are by nature equal; and, prior to government, they had all an equal right to enjoy the good things of this world. Man, too, is (according to Hobbes) by nature a solitary and purely selfish animal; the social union being entirely an inte rested league, suggested by prudential views of personal advantage. The necessary consequence is, that a state of nature must be a state of perpetual warfare, in which no individual has any other means of safety than his own strength or ingenuity; and in which there is no room for regular industry, because no secure enjoyment of its fruits. In confirmation of this view of the origin of society, Hobbes appeals to facts falling daily within the circle of our own experience. "Does not a man (he asks) when taking a journey, arm himself and seek to go well accompanied? When going to sleep, does he not lock his doors? Nay, even in his own house, does he not lock his chests? Does he not there as much accuse mankind by his actions, as I do by my words ?"* An additional argument to the same purpose may, according to some later Hobbists, be derived from the instinctive aversion of infants for strangers; and from the apprehension which (it is alleged) every person feels, when he hears the tread of an unknown foot in the dark.

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For the sake of peace and security, it is necessary that each individual should surrender a part of his natural right, and be contented with such a share of liberty as he is willing to allow to others; or, to use Hobbes's own language, every man must divest himself of the right he has to all things by nature; the right of all men to all things being in effect no better than if no man had a right to any thing." In consequence of this transference of natural rights to an individual, or to a body of individuals, the multitude become one person, under the name of a State or Republic, by which person the common will and power are exercised for the common defence The ruling power

* Of Man, Part I. chap. xiii.

+ De Corpore Politico, Part I, shap. i. § 10.

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