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already alluded, and many others which have been connected with them, the reforms in the penal code, in the government of India, in the corn laws, the postage and the circulation of intelligence, and in the representation in Parliament,— are all so many indices of the constant advance which has been made in England towards the breaking up of her ancient system of legislation, and the establishment of surer guaranties for the rights and the happiness of all classes of her people. For ourselves we have no wish to see her government changed from a constitutional monarchy to an elective republic. The freedom of a people does not depend so much on the form of their government, as on the nature of their social system. Let this be liberal and just, allowing to every citizen the free exercise of the faculties which God has given him, and it will be of little importance whether the government have at its head an elected favorite of the people or the hereditary descendant of an hundred kings.

Mr. Stanton's notices of the passage of the "Reform Bill," in 1832, are much fuller and more distinct than those which relate to the progress of religious freedom; and the chapters which he devotes to its history contain some of the best delineations of character to be found in the book. We quote the following personal description of one of the foremost of the advocates of this measure, a statesman whose remarkable career has been subject to alternate praise and condemnation far more than that of any of his contemporaries :

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We enter the House of Peers. The lions-Brougham, Grey, Wellington, Lyndhurst, Melbourne-are in their places. An exciting debate is going forward, which has taken rather a personal turn. Yonder is Brougham, stretched out half his length on one of the Ministerial benches; now listening to a clumsy Earl on the floor, whom he eyes with a portentous scowl; anon whispering a hurried word to the Peer at his elbow. What an ungainly figure! Those long legs and arms, loosely hung in their sockets, give him a slouching air. Human face could hardly look more ugly or intellectual. His iron-gray hair bristles over his forehead like the quills of the fretful porcupine. His restless eye peers through eyebrows that seem alive with nerves. He must be agitated with the debate, for he writhes as though his red cushion were a sheet of hot iron. He suddenly starts up, (who ever knew him to sit still five minutes?) walks with long strides towards the door, and while chatting with the ladies, his tormentor stops, and the ex-Chancellor cries, with startling emphasis, (lest some one get the floor before him,) "My Lords!" and slowly advances to the table in front of the woolsack. An audible hush runs round the chamber; for they had been anticipating a reply from the mercurial lord. Every whisper ceases, and all eyes are fixed on the towering intellect before them. The Peeresses leave their damask chairs, and approach the bar, to get a better view of the orator. Members of the House of Commons, till now chatting round the bar, lean forward in silence. The loungers in the lobbies enter the Hall, the word

having passed out, "Brougham is up!" The untitled spectators rise from their seats on the carpet, where fatigue had sunk them, and stand on tiptoe, to catch every glance of the eye and wave of the hand of the scholar and statesman, whilst the crowded galleries forget their lassitude in listening to one whose name and fame are the property of mankind.

But to the speech. Listen to that first sentence! How it plunges into the very centre of the subject. Every word is an argument-every period a demonstration. The first blow knocks the keystone from his last antagonist's speech, and tumbles the whole structure on his affrighted head and shoulders. And the dandy young lord, over in the corner, who, in the puny oration he recited so prettily an hour ago, went out of his way to sneer at Brougham-see the blood fly from his cheeks when his nice little piece of rhetoric comes rattling in bits round his ears. As the lion fixes his eye on him, he would give his coronet and his curls if he could slink into a nutshell. A fiery glance or two having withered him, the monarch of the debate grapples with worthier antagonists. What a sweep does he give to the argument-what redundancy of factswhat fertility of illustration. How large the field of his comprehensionhow exhaustless and varied its resources. What execution is done by those long-drawn sentences, with parenthesis within parenthesis, each a logical syllogism, or a home-thrust fact, or a blighting sarcasm, wound round and round his victims, till they are crushed in their folds! Great in matter, his speech is equally powerful in manner; violating every law of rhetoric and oratory promulgated by the schools, he is a law unto himself-original, commanding, majestic.

Brougham, having demolished his antagonists, took a seat at the clerk's table, and began to write a letter, when the Chancellor (Cottenham) rose and commenced a conciliatory speech. His calm, slow, cool manner contrasted strongly with the tempest which had just passed over our heads, reminding us of those dewy showers which follow smilingly in the train of a dark cloud, after its thunder and lightning and torrent have raged and blazed and poured, and passed away.

This great man has been described so often, that not only his public history and mental character, but his personal peculiarities-yea, the nervous twitching of his eyebrows-are as familiar to Americans as to the reporters in the gallery of the House of Lords. As an orator or debater, he is sometimes compared to Webster. The very attempt is unjust to both. You might as well compare the repose of Lake Erie to the thunder of Niagara. Each has his own sphere of greatness. The Bostonian rarely enters the arena of debate, unless clad in mail to his fingers' ends-a safe and strong debater. Not so the Londoner. He sometimes rushes, sword in hand, without scabbard or shield, into the thickest of the fight, and gets sorely galled. Little arrows do not pierce Webster, nor do ordinary occasions summon forth his heaviest weapons. But Brougham, why, he will fight with anybody, and on any terms. The smallest Lilliput in the House can sting him into paroxysms with his needlespear. But wo to the assailant! The bolt which annihilates the Earl of Musketo is equally heavy with that which strikes down the Duke of Wellington. As a whole, Brougham is unlike any of our public men. Could we mix into one compound the several qualities of Webster, Clay, Choate, Benton, and the late John Quincy Adams, and divide the mass into four or five parts, we might, by adding a strong tincture of John C. Calhoun, make four or five very good Henry Broughams. (Pp. 183-185.)

Our author's closing chapters are devoted to what he denominates the "Literature of Freedom," and in the course

of them he traces the origin, and briefly delineates the character of most of the great organs of criticism and letters, which have favored the progress of reform. The subject leads him into an attractive field, and affords an opportunity to set before the reader a good share of pleasant information concerning the chief periodical journals of England, and their conductors and contributors. Of these the Edinburgh Review is by far the oldest, and has rendered the most considerable service. It was commenced in 1802, in circumstances which impart to its origin a peculiar interest, as an event in literary history. The honor of founding it belongs to Sydney Smith, at that time accidentally in Edinburgh, on his way to Germany. He mentioned the project to Jeffrey, Brougham, and Murray, and it was agreed that they should start a Review provided they could get the first number published on trust, for they were without money enough to pay the printer. Thus by four young and penniless adventurers in literature, one of them a curate who had lost his cure, and the others briefless advocates without practice, was commenced a journal, which for nearly fifty years has given direction to public sentiment in Great Britain, and is now fead with eager interest wherever the English language is spoken. Its once humble founders have all not only attained the highest rank as writers and critics, but have also won the proudest dignities in their respective professions. Brougham has been Lord Chancellor of England, Jeffrey and Murray have each been Lord Justice of the highest court in Scotland, and Sydney Smith was Canon of St. Paul's Cathedral, and might have been a Bishop had he been less of a wit and more of a Churchman. Mr. Stanton gives the following, on the whole, just estimate of the influence which this venerable Quarterly has exerted upon the politics of the country :—

But, dazzling as has been the meteoric career of the Edinburgh in the firmament of letters, it is in the department of governmental reform that its greatest and best services have been rendered. Its founder has well said, that at its advent "it was always considered a piece of impertinence in England if a man of less than £2,000 or £3,000 a year had any opinion at all on important subjects." The Edinburgh Review has taught a Manchester calico-printer how to take the Government by the beard. In the forty-six years of its existence, it has seen the British slave-trade abolished a devastating European war terminated-the Holy Alliance broken up, and its anointed conspirators brought into contempt-the Corporation and Test Acts repealed-the Catholics emancipated-the criminal code humanized-the death-penalty circumscribed-the Reform Bill carried, extending the suffrage to half a million of people-West India and East India slavery abolished-the commercial monopoly of the East India Company overthrown-municipal corporations reformed-the Court of

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Chancery opened, and sunlight let in upon its doings-the common law courts made more accessible to the masses-the law of libel made endurable-the poor laws made more charitable-the game laws brought nearer the verge of modern civilization-the corn laws repealed-the Post-office made subservient to all who can raise a penny-the means of educating the poor increased-the privileges of the Established Church curtailed in three kingdoms-and the long catalogue of minor reforms effected, and dignity and intensity imparted to the popular demand for still larger concessions to the progressive genius of the age. And this journal may proudly say, that all these measures have received the support, and most of them the early, zealous, and powerful support of the Edinburgh Review. These measures gained advantages from the advocacy of the Review, far beyond the intrinsic force of the arguments with which it supported them; as, indeed, did the party of progress whose oracle it was. Its brilliant literary reputation shed a lustre around the most radical political opinions, clothing them in bright raiment, and giving them an introduction into the halls of the learned and the saloons of the noble. Its numerous articles on liberal and general education, especially those written by Sydney Smith, are above all praise. And while it impaled bores and charlatans in literature, and scourged quacks and villains in the State, it was no less a terror to hypocrites and oppressors in the Church. But candor must admit that if it was generally a terror to evil doers in the name of religion, it was not always a praise to them that did well. (Pp. 366, 367.)

In opposition to the Edinburgh Review, the Quarterly was established in London, in 1809, and Blackwood's Magazine in Edinburgh, in 1817. Since these periods, have appeared journals devoted to the interests of every party and sect, whether of Progressives or Conservatives, that can be found in the kingdom, by far the greater portion of which are employed in the dissemination of liberal sentiments. Indeed, the entire literature of England is becoming penetrated with them, and a book that should now express the political and social doctrines which were in vogue fifty years ago, would find little favor with the great mass of the reading public. In these closing chapters of his work, Mr. Stanton mentions the names and the leading services of many of the men of letters, who, either through the periodical press or in independent works, have written in behalf of popular improvement. Their names make an illustrious catalogue, and comprise many of the brightest and worthiest which are connected with contemporary literature. It is perfectly clear that the sympathies of men of letters are constantly becoming stronger for the masses of the people. The philosopher comes forth from the retreat of his meditation or the laboratory of his experiments, to lecture for their instruction. The novelist searches for his most thrilling pictures of human life among the scenes of their simple joys and hopes, or of their toils and sorrows and wrongs; and the poet, turning away from the castle hall and the saloon of fashion and

pride, chants the triumphs which are won for the common people, and gilds with glory the humble homes in which their lot is cast. A fellow-feeling with the race has thus become an essential element of literary genius, and without it, an author can have but a poor chance of being widely read or gratefully remembered. This is as it ought to be, and it constitutes one of the best and most precious of the reforms which the century has witnessed. The literature which long ago was written for the few, has given place to a literature which is designed for the many; and the author who once addressed himself only to a single class, and depended on the patronage of royalty or wealth to keep himself from starvation, now offers himself with generous confidence as a candidate for the favor of the million, and in turn receives from them a reward such as regal patronage could never bestow. Thus is literature through all its departments, both in England and America, more than at any preceding period, now performing its true office in promoting the improvement of mankind. It is addressing itself to the common sentiments of humanity; it is uniting all classes of society by the ties of interest in a common destiny, and is scattering abroad with a liberal hand the influences of useful knowledge and of moral truth, which are fitted to exalt and bless every condition of social life.

ART. V. BOWEN'S LECTURES.

Lowell Lectures, on the Application of Metaphysical and Ethical Science to the Evidences of Religion; delivered before the Lowell Institute in Boston, in the winters of 1848-49. By FRANCIS BOWEN. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown. 1849.

ONE of the most striking characteristics of the present age, and especially of our own people, is the spirit of utilitarianism. It is seen everywhere and in everything. It not only pervades all the departments of active, business life, which has hitherto been regarded as its only legitimate and proper sphere, but entering the ideal world, it would fain extend its influence to thought and speculation, and bring under its

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