the laws can be, though difficultly, enforced, however imperfect these laws may be, whereas the working of an untried system of government has to encounter all the resistance of man's passions, and is disturbed by the friction of its several parts. The source of the difficulty, however, is the same in both cases, the having to work with human beings, and not with inert matter, as the mechanist does. Add to which the impossibility of foreseeing future events, from the want of such fixed rules as govern the motions of matter, and enable the mechanical contriver to predict how far his arrangements are likely to succeed, providing for the removal of foreseen obstructions. Man has no faculty of foresight as to human conduct. He can see pretty clearly things passing around him; still more distinctly behind him things already past. In front of him, as to things future, his vision extends not at all. The more essentially necessary is it for him to examine carefully all that he has the faculty of observing, to profit by the experience of the past, and by the appearances of the present, in choosing his course for the future. Hence it may really be laid down as a maxim in the philosophy of politics, in the science of government, that no system can be safely constructed all at once by human wisdom, but must be the result of experience, of repeated trials, and some failures, not of inventive combination, arrogantly hazarded, but of a tentative process modestly undertaken. Laws are made; codes and constitutions grow. Those that grow have roots; they bear, they ripen, they endure. Those that are fashioned are like painted sticks planted in the ground, as I have seen trees of liberty; they strike no root, bear no fruit, and swiftly decay. Nature, indeed, as Bolingbroke says, beautifully translating a beautiful passage of Lord Bacon, 'throws out altogether, and at once, the whole system of every tree, and the rudiments of all its parts; but she leaves the growth to time.'

"Mulcent auræ, firmat sol, educat imber.'" (Pp. 39-42.)

While we admit the truth of this, we are far from agreeing with all Lord Brougham's conclusions. Thus, he considers as the master evil of the present French law, "that bad law which compels the perpetual and indefinite division, splitting, attenuation, crumbling down of all the land in the countrya law which has divided it into three or four millions of small patches, wholly unfit for any improved system of tillage, given constant occasion to insuperable difficulties in tracing title, prevented any thing like the formation of a landed in

terest, and deprived the constitution of an element absolutely necessary for the good working of a mixed government.” (P. 11. See also p. 9.)

Now without recommending the adoption of the French law as to the distribution of real property in this country, we must be permitted to say that it is a disputed point whether it is prejudicial to good agriculture, the authorities being very nearly equally divided'; and as to small holdings of land being adverse to the stability of a mixed government, we apprehend it will be found that during the recent revolution and most serious disturbances in France, the owners of these holdings have been almost universally ranged on the side of order and good government; and it is to them, more than to any other class, that we are to look for the restoration of confidence and prosperity in this country. It is also remarkable that in the midst of the deplorable depreciation of all other kinds of property which has been the consequence of the late revolution, land has preserved its value. We happened to pass through Lille at the end of last August, just after one of those foolish émeutes which the workmen got up to frighten the shopkeepers and master manufacturers, when rich people would take you into their houses and tell you they would sell you any thing you saw there for any thing you chose to give, at that very time it came to our knowledge that land was selling in the neighbourhood of that town for forty years' purchase. Nor can we quite agree with his lordship in the distinction which he appears to draw between the writer in a daily newspaper and any other journal appearing at intervals less frequent, even though it be a quarterly journal. It is quite true that in the latter there is time for more preparation, and the production should be better, but there may be, and frequently is, great care bestowed on the materials of a weekly or even a daily newspaper. The event of the day is frequently the match to a train of previous thought and study. It has been our wish to elevate the character of the public journalist of all sorts, and of the writers in the daily newspaper before all others, as exercising, in fact, functions more important than all the rest. We have, in an early

1 See an article in the "Journal of Agriculture" for October last, on large and small farms.

number', endeavoured to lay down the true rule as to this, and we adhere to the opinion there expressed.

But these are minor matters. In almost all his main points we heartily agree with Lord Brougham, and every day's events, and surely they come "thick and threefold," confirm, in a remarkable manner, his lordship's conclusions. As to the very interesting question of the Franchise, the author makes the following remarks:

"The great chapter of the Elective Franchise cannot be left untouched in this appeal to past experience, and it forms the third of my reflexions, respectfully and most amicably submitted to Germany and to France. I have freely confessed in the House of Lords, that the result of the late French elections has not been altogether in accordance with what I had always apprehended would be the consequences of Universal Suffrage. A smaller, a very much smaller, proportion of the deputies returned has been taken from the inferior and the uneducated classes than could possibly have been expected, especially when such wages as a pound per day were held out to tempt labouring men from their ordinary occupations. It must, however, be observed that but a small proportion of respectable proprietors have been returned, and that a very great body of political adventurers has been chosen. We are also to recollect that this election was made for a particular purpose, for one occasion only. Those returned were to be dis-. missed as soon as the Republican Constitution should be framed. It by no means follows that the inferior classes may not turn their thoughts towards the trade of deputy, when repeated elections have brought the matter fully before them; and when they perceive that a poor man once returned, is sure to gain by a couple of years attendance a much larger fortune than he could hope to realise by a long lifetime of daily labour.

"Of one thing I am quite certain; this experiment of Universal Suffrage, even were it to succeed on a full trial in a country like France, long accustomed to elective proceedings, never can be safely tried by the German States; and it is most unwise in them to have begun their electoral course by adopting it as their rule. They ought to recollect that it is quite new even in France. The most popular of all the assemblies, the one chosen by the most extended franchise, was the Convention of 1792; and the qualification for electing a member of the primary body, was the payment of about three shillings in direct taxes, indicating an income of

1 See art. on "the Press and the Bar," 3 L. R., r. 27. et seq.

forty shillings a year, while the members of that primary body, who really elected the deputies to the Convention, were to be such as paid eleven or twelve pounds, indicating an income of a hundred and fifty. This was indeed anything rather than Universal Suffrage; it was an extremely restricted franchise. The experiment of Universal Suffrage, then, in an old established country like France, has only been tried since last April. The Germans, in choosing their plan, had two examples before them; the Parliament of England, existing for eight centuries, and gradually improved, till it has been found, and is confessed by all reasonable men, to perform satisfactorily the functions of a popular representation; the Assembly of France, existing for not quite eight weeks, and of which no man can as yet venture to predict that it will be anything but a complete failure. These being the two patterns laid before the Germans, they, or rather their speculative, visionary leaders for them, have without hesitation preferred the French, backed by an experience of eight weeks, to the English resting its claim to approval upon the experience of eight hundred years." (Pp. 75-77.)

But the opinion as to the Suffrage is somewhat qualified in the Postscript —

"The peremptory opinion on Universal Suffrage expressed in the foregoing Letter, applies not to England so much as to countries unaccustomed to Elective Legislature. For I hold it to be very clear that we pitch our Franchise too high when we exclude the best and by far the most independent of all the lower orders, the Artizans. Without wishing to shew the least disrespect towards the middle classes, I am very sure that they are not more deserving, certainly are much less independent, than the good workmen. Indeed, I never saw any want of that quality so essential in a voter, independence, among any class of our working people, whether engaged in town or country labour. I feel confident, too, that with us the most extended suffrage never could produce such returns as have been made in Germany."

This book would be sufficient to make or establish the reputation of any other writer. other writer. As it is, it is merely one of the productions which the fertile genius of its author throws off without effort. It is dated from "Brougham," and it proves, if proof were necessary, that the author's return to his paternal acres endues their owner with all his pristine vigour, and that his few weeks of repose have been devoted to the lasting benefit of mankind.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY

FOR

PROMOTING THE AMENDMENT OF THE LAW. [Continued from 8 L. R. 225.]

[Permission has been obtained to insert the Proceedings and a selection of the Reports of the Society for Promoting the Amendment of the Law, but the Society is not otherwise responsible for the contents of this Review.]

GENERAL MEETING, MARCH 8. 1848.-M. D. HILL, Esq., Q. C., in the Chair.

The Minutes of the last Meeting (the 23rd of February last) were read and confirmed.

The Second Part of the Report of the Committee on the Law of Property on the following reference was considered: "To consider the propriety of amending the Law of Landlord and Tenant, with respect to fixtures and permanent improvements."

It was agreed that the Report should be further considered at the next meeting.

GENERAL MEETING, MARCH 22. 1848.-M. D. HILL, Esq., Q. C., in the Chair.

The Minutes of the last Meeting (the 8th inst.) were read and confirmed. The following Members were balloted for and elected: George Cottam, Esq., as representing the Firm of Cottam and Hallen, Oxford Street; Francis Thomas Bircham, Esq., Solicitor, 15. Bedford Row; Frederick Hill, Esq., Inspector of Prisons, Belle Vue House, Hampstead; and Hugh Innes Cameron, Esq., 10. New Palace Yard, Westminster.

The reception of the Second Part of the Report of the Committee on the Law of Property on the following reference being moved: "To consider the propriety of amending the law of Landlord and Tenant, with respect to fixtures and permanent improvements,"

The Resolutions on Tenant Right (printed 8 L. R. 121.), of which notice was given in the Committee, were agreed to.

GENERAL MEETING, APRIL 19. 1848. Mr. Commissioner FONBLANQUE in the Chair.

The Minutes of the last Meeting (the 22nd March last) were read