the most prolific source of profit to the apothecary or attorney; but, unfortunately, the principle of self-government is thought to be applicable to the public concerns of the state; all men are supposed by nature to be born ready-made legislators; and the most complicated and difficult subject of human study is held to be capable of instant acquisition by every person who can read a newspaper.

It is in this fatal delusion that the true cause of the present disastrous state of our finances is to be found. The Reform Bill has practically vested the administration of affairs, and especially of the financial concerns of the nation, in the masses of the people; and Schedule A. having effectually closed the gates in future against the whole race of professional and real informed statesmen, the government has had no alternative but to live on from day to day, without ever looking to the future, and to bring forward such measures only as were likely at the moment to prove acceptable to the people, without the slightest regard to their ultimate effects, or the permanent advantage of the state. On no other principle is it possible to account for the facts, that while in 1816, at the close of a war of two-and-twenty years duration, we had a sinking fund of thirteen millions annually to apply to the reduction of debt, we have now, after five-and-twenty years of profound peace, and the duplication of all our national resources, not only no sinking fund at all, but an actual deficit of a million sterling annually. Is this a sample of the capacities of the masses for the great duties of selfgovernment? Is this a proof of the great foresight and sagacity of popular administration? If these are to be taken as a specimen of the results of the great democratic changes of the present day, they are certainly more disheartening than any that their bitterest enemy ever ventured to pre

dict.

annually have been repealed since the battle of Waterloo, of which thirty. eight millions were remitted by the Tory Governments, from 1815 to 1831, and about seven millions by the Whig administration since that time. Now, what was required to have kept up the sinking fund at a proper level, and to have rendered Great Britain at this moment almost disburdened of public debt? Nothing but to have kept on about ten millions of indirect taxes above the expenditure. Such a sum, steadily applied with its growing interest to the reduction of debt, would have been now paying off nearly thirty millions a-year, and we would already have paid off above four hundred millions of the public debt. What was requisite to have attained this great and all-important object? Nothing but to have kept on the duties on beer, spirits, inhabited houses, and foreign wines. The aggregate of these taxes, the repeal of which has produced no sensible benefit to the community, is above ten millions sterling a-year * So far from either the comforts or moral habits of the people being injured by such taxes being kept on, it may safely be affirmed that both would have been greatly improved. The inordinate passion for intoxication would not have taken so fatal a hold as it has now done of the working classes, because ardent spirits would not have been placed so completely within their reach; and, while their innocent and substantial comforts would have been unimpaired, not only would the national burdens have now been reduced to a comparative trifle, but all branches of industry would have been sustained and vivified, by the public securities being permanently kept above par. All these incalculable benefits have now been lost, and the nation reduced, after five-andtwenty years of peace, to the verge of insolvency, not from any real deficiency of funds to put the finances in the most flourishing condition, but from these resources having been thrown away by successive statesmen, in consequence of clamour raised by the Whigs and Li

Nearly forty-five millions of taxes berals, and the culpable habit of looking to nothing but present popularity and the means of getting over the existing session of parliament.

We do not deny that the Tory Administrations, from 1815 to 1830, must stand responsible to posterity for some share of the blame, in consequence of the deep wounds which they inflicted on the sinking-fund, and the enormous repeal which they made of indirect taxes, from the desire to obtain temporary popularity without any regard to ultimate consequences. But what we rest upon is this, that it was the clamour for economy and reduction of taxation raised by the Whigs, and re-echoed by the whole Liberal and democratic party throughout the country for the last thirty years, which drove the Tory Government into these ruinous concessions; and, therefore, that it is the Whig party, and the principle of selfgovernment, which is really responsible for all the disastrous changes which have now rendered the debt a hopeless burden, and landed the nation in almost admitted insolvency. The Whigs are very willing now to blame the Tories for giving way to the loud and almost universal cry for reduction of taxation, raised by them from 1820 to 1830, and for yielding to which they at the time praised the liberal Tory ministers to the very skies. But the justice of history will dispel the illusion, and hold the Whig party responsible for the whole of these reductions, which originated in the clamour which they raised, just as it will hold the principle of self-government and the Reform Bill responsible for the present woeful condition of the finances and hopeless state of the public debt.

The Whig advocates will doubtless reply, that great part of the public debt which has grown up under their ad. ministration, has been owing to the twenty millions which was paid as a compensation to the West Indian proprietors. But here, again, the same difficulty occurs; and this burden is found to be directly owing to the delusive principles of the same political party. Who was it that raised the cry for instant negro emancipation, and cut short the slow and safe progress of natural restoration to liberty, and precipitated, in three years, a change which could hardly have been safely accomplished in three centuries? Who

but the Whigs, who used that as a stalking-horse whereon to carry on their assaults against the Tory Administrations, and went on, year after year, inflaming the minds of the people by exaggerated representations of the evils of servitude, and the blessings of liberty to savage man, till at last they worked the nation up to a perfect paroxysm of philanthropic fervour and benevolent insanity, until in an evil hour the fatal act was consummated, and the ruinous gift of immediate freedom was conferred upon eight hundred thousand Africans, not yet reclaimed from savage life, and wholly unfit to receive it? It won't do for the Whigs, therefore, to endeavour now to escape from the responsibility of their own deeds, and to throw the blame of the present disastrous condition of the country upon their political opponents. History has recorded their efforts, and they must abide the consequences. They destroyed the sinking fund by the clamour which they raised against indirect taxes which injured no one, and therefore they are responsible for the present burden of the public debt; they destroyed the old constitution, and therefore they are responsible for all the weakness and imbecility of the one which they have substituted in its room; they destroyed slavery in the West Indies, and therefore they are responsible for all the burdens and disasters consequent upon premature emancipation of the negroes; they destroyed the Protestant constitution of the empire, and therefore they are responsible for all the blessings of O'Connell and his tail, and the raising of a fierce cry for a dismemberment of the empire by the faction who practically rule the government.

If any additional proof were wanting of the total ruin to the financial prospects of the empire, which has arisen from the ascendency given to the masses, and the ruinous principle of self government, it would be found in the extraordinary step regarding the PostOffice, which Government have deemed it necessary to adopt in the last session of Parliament. The sums received from the Post-Office, in the year ending 5th January 1839, were L.2,531,217, of which the net profit, after deducting the charges of collection, was L.1,656,953. Every body knows, that although the nation has enjoyed five-and-twenty years of al

most uninterrupted peace, yet the po litical horizon is now in almost every quarter overshadowed with clouds, and that nothing short of a miracle can preserve the continuance of these pacific relations for any considerable time longer. We have recently had a fierce civil warin Canada-the West Indies are in such a state of discontent as to require a large force, civil and military, for their protection-a gigantic and most costly war has been commenced in the East Indies, and the British arms carried up into the heart of Asia the chances of a con. test both in the Baltic and Mediterra. nean are hourly increasing while the turbulent state of the country, excited by the experienced failure of the Reform Bill, has rendered it painfully apparent that a large increase of our domestic force is unavoidable. The effect of these approaching difficulties is already felt in the admitted excess of L.950,000 of expenditure last year above the income. And yet, with such a bankrupt exchequer, and such enormous charges staring us in the face, this is the moment that Government have thought fit to throw away at least a million a-year by the substitution of a penny for the ordinary postage, and thereby rendered it a matter of perfect certainty that in the next, and probably in every succceding year, the annual deficiency will be two millions sterling!

So prodigal and culpable a waste of public money as this, at such a time, and with such necessity for a surplus revenue existing, from so many concurring dangers, is perhaps unparalleled in the history of the world, and can be explained on no other principle than this, that the ascendency given to the masses by the Reform Bill has rendered any thing like a systematic or real government impracticable in the country, and that the wretched administration which has arisen out of the confusion it produced, has no other resource but to barter a few months of lingering existence against the present solvency and ultimate independence of the empire.

Sir Robert Peel declared, in his place in the House of Commons, that even if he stood alone, he would protest in the loudest manner against this uncalled-for and ruinous dilapidation of the public income; and that he would rather retire altogether from

public life, and spend the next thirty years in retirement, than lend the support of his name, in any shape, to a measure so ruinous to the present security, and fatal to the ultimate public credit of the country. Lord Melbourne said, on the same subject, in the House of Lords, that the experiment was undoubtedly a very dangerous one, and that he really did not know how the deficiency which would be occasioned in the public revenue was to be made up; but that the people were impatient for the reduction, and he supposed it was necessary to yield to their wishes. These two declarations may be regarded as tests of the old and new race of statesmen of those who governed the country in times past, and those who are governed by it in times present. There is no one declaration of Sir Robert Peel's for which we so highly honour him, or which will go so far to redeem his character from the imputation of undue yielding to popular clamour, which attached to the earlier parts of his political career. He may now see what are the consequences of conciliation and concession, and of the vain attempt to disarm democratic hostility by anticipating its wishes, or yielding to its demands. Better, far better for the Conservative party to remain for years out of power, than to tarnish their reputation by any further concessions to a ceaseless demand for a reduction of taxation, which is as intent upon present gain as it is blind to ultimate ruin. The night is far spent, the morning is at hand. They may rely upon it the period is not far distant, when this total disregard of the future, which has characterised all the Governments of Great Britain since 1830, will land the nation in some grievous public calamity; and that when that period does arrive, the light will at once break in upon a benighted people, and the storm of indignation which will fall on the heads of those who have been instrumental in bringing about such misfortunes will be irresistible. The passport to public favour will then be, not to have supported but resisted these ruinous reductions; and the nation, taught by the experience of suffering, will regard as her only true friends, those who had the courage to oppose them when they were wrong, and disregard their censure when it arose from ignorance.

*

*

Z.

ABOUT ten o'clock one Sunday morning, in the month of July 183-, the dazzling sunbeams which had for many hours irradiated a little dismal back attic in one of the closest courts adjoining Oxford Street, in London, and stimulated with their intensity the closed eyelids of a young man lying in bed, at length awoke him. He rubbed his eyes for some time, to relieve himself from the irritation he experienced in them; and yawned and stretched his limbs with a heavy sense of weariness, as though his sleep had not refreshed him. He presently cast his eyes on the heap of clothes lying huddled together on the backless chair by the bedside, and where he had hastily flung them about an hour after midnight; at which time he had returned from a great draper's shop in Oxford Street, where he served as a shopman, and where he had nearly dropped asleep after a long day's work, while in the act of putting up the shutters. He could hardly keep his eyes open while he undressed, short as was the time it took him to do so; and on dropping exhausted into bed, there he had continued in deep un

broken slumber, till the moment at which he is presented to the reader. He lay for several minutes, stretching, yawning, and sighing, occasionally casting an irresolute eye towards the tiny fireplace, where lay a modicum of wood and coal, with a tinder-box and a match or two placed upon the hob, so that he could easily light his fire for the purposes of shaving and breakfasting. He stepped at length lazily out of bed, and when he felt his feet, again yawned and stretched himself, then he lit his fire, placed his bit of a kettle on the top of it, and returned to bed, where he lay with his eye fixed on the fire, watching the crackling blazeinsinuate itself through the wood and coal. Once, however, it began to fail, so he had to get up and assist it by blowing and bits of paper; and it seemed in so precarious a state that he determined not again to lie down, but sit on the bedside, as he did with his arms folded, ready to resume operations if necessary. In this posture he remained for some time, watching his little fire, and listlessly listening to the discordant jangling of innumerable church-bells, clamorously calling the citizens to their devotions. What passed through his mind was something like the following:

"Heigho! Oh, Lord! -Dull as ditch water! This is my only holiday, yet I don't seem to enjoy it-the fact is, I feel knocked up with my week's work. Lord, what a life mine is, to be sure! Here am I, in my eightand-twentieth year, and for four long years have been one of the shopmen at Dowlas, Tag-rag, Bobbin and Company's slaving from seven o'clock in the morning till ten at night, and all for a salary of £35 a-year, and my board! And Mr Tag-rag is always telling me how high he's raised my salary! Thirty-five pounds a-year is all I have for lodging, and appearing like a gentleman! Oh, Lord, it can't last; for sometimes I feel getting desperate-such strange thoughts! Seven shillings a-week do I pay for this cursed hole-(he uttered these words with a bitter emphasis, accompanied by a disgustful look round the little room)-that one couldn't swing a cat in without touching the four sides!Last winter, three of our gents. (i. e. his fellow-shopmen) came to tea with me one Sunday night; and bitter cold as it was, we four made this d-d dog hole so hot, we were obliged to open the window! And as for accommodations-I recollect I had to borrow two nasty chairs from the people below, who on the next Sunday borrowed my only decanter, in return, and, hang them, cracked it! - Curse me, if this life is worth having! It's all the very vanity of vanities, and no mistake! Fag, fag, fag, all one's days, andwhat for? Thirty-five pounds a-year, and no advance!' Bah, bells! ring away till you're all cracked! - Now do you think I'm going to be mewed up in church on this the only day out of the seven I've got to sweeten my self in, and sniff fresh air? A precious joke that would be! Whew! after all, I'd as lieve sit here; for what's the use of my going out? Every body I see out is happy, excepting me, and the poor chaps that are like me! Every body laughs when they see me, and know that I'm only a tallow-faced counter-jumper, for whom its no use to go out! Oh, Lord! what's the use of being good-looking, as some chaps say I am?" - Here he instinctively passed his left hand through a profusion of sandy-coloured hair, and

6

cast an eye towards the bit of fractured looking-glass that hung against the wall, and which, by faithfully representing to him a by no means plain set of features (dispite the dismal hue of his hair) whenever he chose to appeal to it, had afforded him more enjoyment than any other object in the world for years. "Ah, Lord! many and many's the fine gal I've done my best to attract the notice of, while I was serving her in the shop,-that is, when I've seen her get out of a carriage! There has been luck to many a chap like me, in the same line of speculation; look at Tom Tarnishhow did he get Miss Twang, the rich piano-forte maker's daughter?-and now he's cut the shop, and lives at Hackney like a regular gentleman! Ah! that was a stroke! But some how, it hasn't answered with me yet: the gals don't take! Lord, how I have set my eyes and ogled them all of them don't seem to dislike the thing and sometimes they'll smile, in a sort of way that says I'm safe-but 'tis no use, not a bit of it! - My eyes! catch me, by the way, ever nodding again to a lady on the Sunday, that had smiled when I stared at her while serving her in the shop-after what happened to me a month or two ago in the Park! Didn't I feel like damaged goods, just then! But, it's no matter, women are so different at different times! Verylikely I mismanaged the thing. By the way, what a precious puppy of a chap the fellow was that came up to her at the time she stepped out of her carriage to walk a bit! As for good looks-cut me to ribbons"-another glance at the glass-"no; ; I an't afraid there, neither-but,-heigh-ho!-I suppose he was, as they say, born with a golden spoon in his mouth, and had never so many thousand a-year, to make up to him for never so few brains! He was uncommon well dressed though, I must own. What trowsers! - they stuck so natural to him, he might have been born in them. And his waistcoat, and satin stock-what an air! And yet, his figure was nothing very out of the way! His gloves, as white as snow; I've no doubt he wears a pair of them a day-my stars! that's three and sixpence a-day, for don't I know what they cost? - Whew! if I had but the cash to carry on that sort of thing!-And when he'd seen her into her carriage-the horse he got