ever there was in this sense a national folly, it is exhibited, on a Roman scale of magnitude, in the vast line of defences constructed on the frontier of Canada. Fine works! would be the exclamation of a persifleur; but what if the garrison should happen to be on the wrong side the question? And assuredly, if any part of this line be confided (as it must) to a Canadian militia, it is scarcely possible that the question should be so shaped as not to place them on the wrong side. Human nature being what it is, occasional war is essential to its dignity; eternal peace would stifle the germs of many great qualities in national character. And therefore could it be supposed likely that war would be of rare occurrence in Europe, it might be well, at an enormous cost, (say half of that actually spent in Canada,) to buy an arena for constant exercise on that vast frontier line; and the more so, as it presents a school of practice in every mode of warfare-whether maritime, or by land; and under every application of the art of engineering. But, as the hypothesis is hardly in the way of being realized on this side the Millennium, which supposes any dearth of Cis-Atlantic war, we may venture to adopt the words of Mr Douglas-that this, like other American colonies, will be "weaned by sucking blood;" and that, in a pecuniary sense, our own ruin will be consummated by such another struggle with the United States, on account of this one costly province and its appendages, as we had with her on her own account.

India is a graver theme :-Mighty continent! (for so we may truly hail her) great wilderness of nations! When we think of what she might have been-of what she is and what she will needs become under the decrees of a British Parliament, servile to the sovereign mob, —we are oppressed with the burden of contrast in the juxtaposition of infinite extremes of what is least and what is greatest in human things. That mischief ab intra, that cankerworm in her vitals, legions of revolutionary hircarrahs, carrying irritation and frenzy among nations often so benighted in morals-in one region mad with oppression, in another mad with the havoc and devastations of

continual invasions-every where so impotent to disarm bad counsels of their sting by any remembrances of a purer faith, such as in Europeamidst the most awful chaos of bad passions,everlastingly make their way to men's consciences both in senates and in camps,-these scourges will make of India one vast aceldama; and, by comparison with the other effects which will follow, it is almost a petty thing to add, that assuredly they must abolish the sovereignty of England. That indeed is an event with which they will almost begin:

what it is in which they will terminate, no eye can venture to fathom. But, considering the central position of India with regard to all Southern Asia, we may presume that ultimately, after a generation of darkness and blood, some aurora will. arise in that quarter of a light for the human race, never again to be extinguished. According to this march of events, the external enemies of our Indian empire are the less to be regarded; else, we should rate them at a higher value in the scale of probable destroyers than we find Mr Douglas willing to do. The native princes on the frontiers, in a general concert with the Burman empire, are not so contemptible as to be altogether unworthy of notice; it is true, that they are not indeed likely to become formidable, unless (but then that is likely though) in league with the advantages of European science-discipline-tactics-and engineering,-combined with the yet greater advantage of a mutiny or revolt amongst our own sepoys. Russia, however, whose farther horn menaces our Indian system from a remote station, Mr Douglas takes the trouble to appraise; but, under a skilful and more active managemen of our Persian alliance, he throws her hostilities to a distance in point of time, which makes them interesting only to our posterity. In this again he underrates the means of annoyance open to Russia, who has many facilities for co-operating with the internal troubles of India, by means of intrigues amongst our frontier neighbours, long before the time when her policy may dictate more Even for those, direct hostilities. however, it must not be forgotten, that she will find some aids in one

or two of her Armenian conquests, which were not reckoned on a few years ago by the geographical speculators on the difficulties which beset all possible routes to India for the armies of the Czar. Since then the sword has done something to smooth the path.

Inferior colonies need no separate notices. For the great ones, which are in fact colonial empires, one word will express the sum of affairs. Over each severally its own peculiar danger is lowering-which, separately, threatens to extinguish its connexion with ourselves. There are, also, as a danger common to all, which throws all other dangers into shade, the internal struggles of the mother country-rapidly approaching, and tending ultimately to the same result. In any case, from the very strongest of them, we can draw no aid, whilst all make us vulnerable in purse and in reputation-and all operate as a drain upon our military strength.

These, however, dismissed from the picture, or retained, as the reader may please-what is the general conclusion to which we are hurried by the sum of those indications which we have travelled over? Is there hope for England, as Mr Douglas is willing to believe? Or, has indeed the sceptre departed from Judah ? And is the banner of Great Britain no more to preside over the great moral confederacies of Christendom, bringing hope to the forlorn, and comfort to the desolate, like the consecrated Labarum of the early Christians, when marshalled against Pagan hosts ?

Hope is so eminent a duty for a patriot, hope, even against hope, and despondency, in any case, so absolutely forbidden to the champions of great moral interests, that even the accomplishment for the time, of the very worst evils which lie in our path, would not justify the surrender of our fortitude, or the slackening of our efforts. The anchors by which our vessel rides, a vessel freighted with such immortal hopes, must reasonably be of proportionable strength -and may yet pull us up against a strain, heavy even as that which is now trying their temper to the uttermost. And sometimes it is found that the very enormity of evil is able

to provide its own remedy, by provoking a more obstinate recoil of good principles.

In the civil contests and local insurrections which we have been predicting, there is this ground of consolation, that they cannot assume the shape of a civil war. For, in a country with such an organization of society as ours, civil war could not by possibility arise without the union of the middle and lower classes. The latter, we fear, will be found more strongly united than is generally believed: not the mob merely, but many a family at present reputed quiet and orderly, will be found in the ranks of rebellion. Few indeed will have power to resist the tempting delusions which now govern their hopes. But on the other hand, when the struggle has once manifestly declared its character, and when the war upon property, as such, shall be too openly proclaimed by acts to be gainsaid by proclamations, the entire middle and upper ranks will enter into a common league of strenuous opposition. And in this point the mob would find themselves grossly deceived, that the loudest of the Reformers will be in the very front rank of their opponents. Multitudes have clamoured for Reform, under the hope that, by altering the basis on which political power or honours are placed at present, easier access to distinction might be opened to themselves: this prospect would now be more remote than ever; and were it otherwise, the open scramble for property would at once unite in its defence all men, whether previously Reformers or not, who have any in possession to lose, or in reversion to expect.

Such a schism in the body of society, placing the two most numerous classes in bloody collision with each other, will be misery enough for one generation. But it will be far short of that which would travel in company with civil war; and for this reason, if for no other,—that it will terminate more speedily. An open war of the lower orders against the upper, would in some countries issue in an endless anarchy, but not in England. So numerous with us are the class interested in the defence of property, and so incomparably superior in all the means of combina

tion and concert, that in any general secession of the mere mob and pauperism of the land against its property and intelligence, we are satisfied that with much local bloodshed and havoc, the open war will terminate speedily in the victory of the superior classes. That local causes of peculiar irritation will often revive it in over-populous districts, and that life in England will be inseparable, through the next generation, from continued alarms and anxiety-this we acknowledge; and for this we prepare ourselves as for the sting of our situation, and the sad memento of our past prosperity. But we must still cherish it with gratitude as an article of our political faith, that a jacobinical war-a war which should divide society on the principle we have stated-could not long be maintained as an open war in the field; the victory must soon rest with the middle orders; and that it would do so, is one of the blessings which we owe to that constitution which we are now going to proscribe. Under no less fortunate balance of civil privileges and civil security, could the middle classes have attained so prodigious an expansion.

Whatever is cheerful, however,— whatever, at least, there is of mitigated gloom, in these prospects, will depend on much forbearance within, and some good fortune without. Were it possible that a general Irish insurrection, and that a large military interference of Russia in western politics, should occur about the same period, our embarrassments being so grievously multiplied, their issue would be more dubious. With these adverse events were another to coincide the obliteration, in the whole or in part, by a reformed Parliament, of the debts charged upon the public faith-a sort of ruin must succeed, which would go far to break down the preponderance of that very middle order to whom, under Providence, we look for the possibility of a favourable issue to our civil struggles. Yet we know that each of these events is but too probable. And for the last, in particular, it rests entirely with the new electoral body, and the complexion of its political feelings. Nor in this point have we even the security founded in general upon the bias of interest; for to men of small

property there is a conflict possible of real interest which may be indirect, with an interest more immediate and apparent in the diminution of taxes.

"To sum up all," says Mr Douglas, "if God be against us, the causes of our ruin are many, and are already in operation; but, if God be for us, there is yet a way for escape."

In that conclusion we also heartily concur-but not in any spirit which would justify inertness on our own part. Energy the greatest that human means can supply, may be all too little for the part we are called to perform. Great changes are in progress every where; a hurricane is sweeping onwards of political revolution; we must all suffer-and we must all act. And our first duty is, to ascertain what sort of action is required of us,-what is the part assigned to ourselves by Providence in this great drama, that at least we may act with consistency. Russia, says Mr Douglas, is evidently the "hammer" employed by the Supreme Ruler for crushing the Mohammedan faith; she is perhaps a blind instrument, but in this instance she fulfils her mission with fidelity. To Eng land, on the other hand, as the head of the Protestant league, is confided the task of uprooting Popery-" that ruin," as Mr Douglas himself admits, "of all who support it." With what consistency we have upheld this duty in our Irish policy, let those consider who are to answer for it.-But the time is at hand when our public duties will be no longer matters for dispute. It is one advantage of a great and alarming crisis, that it opens broad and determined paths of action, over which hangs no cloud of doubt as in more quiet times. The principles upon which men divide in such times, are adverse as light and outer darkness. There will soon be for all in England, who own any obligations of conscience, but one duty

-one faith-one interest-one great fight-and one final fortune. The struggle will be for the very "sum" of things; and upon the ultimate catastrophe of that struggle will depend

as we agree with Mr Douglaswhether this great empire, already weighed in the balance, be not found wanting, and her glorious memory be all that shall remain as a posses sion to posterity.