pedigree in his hand, and his acres in his face, thinking he does you a marvellous honor to ask you at all. Sad times these for this free country, Mr. Pelham, when a parcel of conceited paupers, like Parson Quinny (as I call that reverend fool, Mr. Combermere St. Quintin), imagine they have a right to dictate to warm, honest men, who can buy their whole family out and out. I tell you what, Mr. Pelham, we shall never do anything for this country till we get rid of those landed aristocrats, with their ancestry and humbug. I hope you're of my mind, Mr. Pelham."

"Why," answered I, "there is certainly nothing so respectable in Great Britain as our commercial interest. A man who makes himself is worth a thousand men made by their forefathers."

"Very true, Mr. Pelham," said the wine-merchant, advancing his chair to me; and then, laying a short, thickset finger upon my arm, he looked up in my face with an investigating air, and said, "Parliamentary Reform, what do you say to that? you're not an advocate for ancient abuses, and modern corruption, I hope, Mr. Pelham?

"By no means," cried I, with an honest air of indignation," I have a conscience, Mr. Briggs, I have a conscience as a public man, no less than as a private one!"

"

Admirable!" cried my host.

"No," I continued, glowing as I proceeded,

"no,

Mr. Briggs; I disdain to talk too much about my principles before they are tried; the proper time to proclaim them is when they have effected some good by being put into action. I won't supplicate your vote, Mr. Briggs, as my opponent may do; there must be a mutual confidence between my supporters and myself. When I

VOL. L.-13

appear before you a second time you will have a right to see how far I have wronged that trust reposed in me as your representative. Mr. Briggs, I daresay it may seem rude and impolitic to address you in this manner; but I am a plain, blunt man, and I disdain the vulgar arts of electioneering, Mr. Briggs.'

"Give us your fist, sir," cried the wine-merchant, in a transport," give us your fist; I promise you my support, and I am delighted to vote for a young gentleman of such excellent principles."

So much, dear reader, for Mr. Briggs, who became from that interview my stanchest supporter. I will not linger longer upon this part of my career: the above conversations may serve as a sufficient example of my electioneering qualifications; and so I shall merely add, that after the due quantum of dining, drinking, spouting, lying, equivocating, bribing, rioting, head-breaking, promise-breaking, and thank the god Mercury, who presides over elections chairing of successful candidateship, I found myself fairly chosen member for the borough of Buyemall!1

1 It is fortunate that Mr. Pelham's election was not for a rotten borough; so that the satire of this chapter is not yet obsolete nor unsalutary. Parliamentary Reform has not terminated the tricks of canvassing, and Mr. Pelham's descriptions are as applicable now as when first written. All personal canvassing is but for the convenience of cunning, - the opportunity for manner to disguise principle. Public meetings, in which expositions of opinion must be clear, and will be cross-examined, are the only legitimate mode of canvass. The English begin to discover this truth; may these scones serve to quicken their apprehension. - THE AUTHOR.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Political education is like the keystone to the arch,

of the whole depends upon it.

Encycl. Brit. Sup. Art. Education.

I WAS sitting in the library of Glenmorris Castle, about a week after all the bustle of contest and the éclât of victory had begun to subside, and quietly dallying with the dry toast, which constituted then, and does to this day, my ordinary breakfast, when I was accosted by the following speech from my uncle,

Henry, your success has opened to you a new career: I trust you intend to pursue it?"

"

Certainly," was my answer.

"But you know, my dear Henry, that though you have great talents, which, I confess, I was surprised in the course of the election to discover, yet they want that careful cultivation, which, in order to shine in the House of Commons, they must receive. Entre nous, Henry, a little reading would do you no harm."

"Very well," said I; "suppose I begin with Walter Scott's novels; I am told they are extremely entertaining." "True," answered my uncle; "but they don't contain the most accurate notions of history, or the soundest principles of political philosophy in the world. What did you think of doing to-day, Henry?"

"Nothing!" said I, very innocently.

"I should conceive that to be a usual answer of

Henry, to any similar question."

"I think it is," replied I, with great naïveté.

yours,

"Well, then, let us have the breakfast things taken away, and do something this morning."

"Willingly," said I, ringing the bell.

The table was cleared, and my uncle began his examination. Little, poor man, had he thought, from my usual bearing, and the character of my education, that in general literature there were few subjects on which I was not to the full as well read as himself. I enjoyed his surprise, when, little by little, he began to discover the extent of my information; but I was mortified to find it was only surprise, not delight.

"You have," said he, "a considerable store of learning; far more than I could possibly have imagined you possessed; but it is knowledge, not learning, in which I wish you to be skilled. I would rather, in order to gift you with the former, that you were more destitute of the latter. The object of education is to instil principles which are hereafter to guide and instruct us; facts are only desirable so far as they illustrate those principles; principles ought therefore to precede facts! What, then, can we think of a system which reverses this evident order, overloads the memory with facts, and those of the most doubtful description, while it leaves us entirely in the dark with regard to the principles which could alone render this heterogeneous mass of any advantage or avail? Learning, without knowledge, is but a bundle of prejudices; a lumber of inert matter set before the threshold of the understanding to the exclu sion of common sense. Pause for a moment, and recall those of your contemporaries who are generally considered well-informed; tell me if their information has made them a whit the wiser; if not, it is only sanctified ignorance. Tell me if names with them are not a sanction for opinion; quotations, the representatives of

axioms? All they have learned only serves as an excuse for all they are ignorant of. In one month, I will en gage that you shall have a juster and deeper insight into wisdom, than they have been all their lives acquiring: the great error of education is to fill the mind first with antiquated authors, and then to try the principles of the present day by the authorities and maxims of the past. We will pursue, for our plan, the exact reverse of the ordinary method. We will learn the doctrines of the day, as the first and most necessary step, and we will then glance over those which have passed away, as researches rather curious than useful.

"You see this very small pamphlet; it is a paper by Mr. Mill upon Government. We will know this thoroughly, and when we have done so, we may rest assured that we have a far more accurate information upon the head and front of all political knowledge, than two-thirds of the young men whose cultivation of mind you have usually heard panegyrized."

He

So saying, my uncle opened the pamphlet. pointed out to me its close and mathematical reasoning, in which no flaw could be detected, nor deduction controverted; and he filled up, as we proceeded, from the science of his own clear and enlarged mind, the various parts which the political logician had left for reflection to complete. My uncle had this great virtue of an expositor, that he never over-explained; he never made a parade of his lecture, nor confused what was simple by unnecessary comment.

When we broke off our first day's employment, I was quite astonished at the new light which had gleamed upon me. I felt like Sinbad the sailor, when, in wandering through the cavern in which he had been buried alive, he caught the first glimpse of the bright day.