as every inch they yield, every concession they make, is but accelerating the rapidity of their descent, and risking their existence by a suicidal act.

66

But history and experience alike attest, that passive compliance with popular demands, instead of averting or retarding, aggravates impending danger-that it but stimulates the cravings of insatiable appetite-that it is but breaking the maniac's fetters,-for him to turn and rend his keeper. We would remind our Peers of the acts of their forefathers in 1648, when unlimited concession characterized every measure until after patience was exhausted, and virtue outraged by the most insane acquiescence, they ven tured to hesitate on a trying occasion. They shrunk from the precipice to which their weakness had urged them; and forthwith the resolution which is now only proposed, was passed and executed the Commons declared, that they were the sole representatives of the nation, that the Peers held their seats as individuals in a private capacity, and that if they did not consent to acts necessary for the preservation of the people, the Commons and complying Lords should join together, &c." The sequel is known-sentence of extinction went forth against them, and they almost became the executioners of it themselves. And we would also remind them of the conduct of the French nobility in 1791, when a Parisian mob clamoured for their destruction. The noblesse in the spirit of a generous chivalry, (they knew not the character of their assailants,) at the very first struggle in one night (10th August) voluntarily surrendered all their privileges, abolishing dignities and emoluments of every kind they expiated their weakness by spoliation, exile, imprisonment, and death!!—and again-to turn from the past to the present—we would direct their attention across the Atlantic, to the boasted Utopia of the demagogue and the sciolist. There, the first shock of that earthquake was felt, which rocked every throne in Europe, and seemed commissioned against all political stability. We take up the record of events which are hourly transpiring there, and we ask, has the convulsion, which shook that nation from the parent stem, ceased to vibrate? Details are unnecessary, when

the occurrences are on every lip; but we fear not contradiction when we state, that if ever peace and union blessed those states, their days are numbered. A year or two since, that collossal fabric was almost rent in twain; the chasm was closed, but not cemented-the unhealed wound is now hid from view, but fierce and unchecked fever still riots in every limb. And how could it be otherwise! The germs of internal dissolution there flourish in rank luxuriance. The people-the unerring wisdom, the stern virtue, the majesty, the power, the vengeance, of the people, there, form the sole theme of flattery, the sole object of terror, the pole-star of legislation. Legitimate government, therefore, in America, trembles on the verge of a volcano. Popular fervour, stimulated by adulation, unable to govern, unwil ling to obey, is gathering resistless energy-each moment of partial suppression only accumulating force for the ultimate explosion. And in vain does the ruling power now seek to stay it: already is the utter impotency of coercive effort both seen and felt; and the passive nominee of a demagogue taught, that he may, by acquiescence

Whet

Not glut, the never-gorged leviathan.

At this moment is a rival banner ready for elevation in every state; and insurrection, civil war and dismemberment threaten-a train of evils which successively await, and must inevitably terminate the Western Republic.

Nor should the apprehension of civil convulsion induce our peerage to yield one moment to a delusive expediency. The assault will still wear the aspect of constitutional effort, and the struggle long continue a moral one; to resist which effectually, only moral firmness will be required. Though ruffian violence, midnight intimidation, and sanguinary outrage prevail, the sphere of their operation is, and long will be, limited to the poll and the court-house. We must suffer many a defeat, they must achieve many a triumph, ere a reign of terror commence, ere the iron sway of popular anarchy become universal-a consummation which nought but concession can ever produce. At present, therefore, the menaces of physical coercion may be met by the smile of derision. The democrat may

talk of rebellion; but his threatening jargon, without alarming the most timid, scarcely yields a pretext to a venal ministry to screen their acts of perfidy. Well they know, that an appeal to force would only hasten their destruction, which now lingereth-that the British phalanx, true as the steel they wear, would now, as before, sweep to the winds of heaven their mad and disorderly hordes. No! never will the flames of civil war consume our fair and fertile plains, until by folly, by cowardice and treachery, popular fervour be ripened to wild and resistless frenzy.

And as of civil convulsions, so of the puerile menaces of organic change in the upper house. It is only by a revolutionary second chamber that the first will ever be invaded; and what is to be feared from the attenuated majority the movement there commands? Such an attempt, at present, would only ensure defeat, and merit scorn.

But a few short months, and things may fearfully change. A few more triumphs to the movement party, and the opposition, which is now difficult, will then be vain. The murmur that now awakes, will then become the yell that appals, or the cry for blood that is never hushed but to have its victims marked. The Peers now stand at the Rubicon of their own and their country's fate. Will they cross, and rouse the demon of civil war, to scorch the nation with his fiery breath? We hope better things and therefore, as men whose lives, and liberties, and faith depend, we call upon our noble Lords to "bide the shock," to stand fast and quit them like men. We have reminded them of their ancestors' frailty; we would now turn the picture, and talk of their achievements, were it not that the task would take volumes where we have not lines. Are not our peers the descendants of those, whose names stand blazoned brightest on the dazzling pinnacles of our country's glory? potent spells, to awake in every breast resolves of might and virtue? Have not their ancestors led our armies to victory-swept the ocean with our fleets, and gathered deathless laurels in every field of fame? Has not their courage sustained our liberties, and spread our dominion? Does not the blood of the Howards and the Percys flow in their veins? Are they not the descendants of Marlborough, of Chatham, and Somers; of Abercromby, Howe, and Nelson? And have they

not at their head the hero of a hundred battles, before whose mighty arm a world's despot shrunk paralysed and prostrate; who smote the sword from the victor's hand; who weighed nations in a balance, and appointed each its due portion? And will our peers forget the glories, to imitate the weak. ness of their ancestors? Perish the thought. They will never become the fawning sycophants, the abject slaves. of a debased and debasing ascendancy. They will never yield to the serpent fascination of a wily foe, who has mingled death in the springs of a nation's life-blood, that her people might writhe under the poison that consumes them. While removing the dross that encumbers, they will not pull down the pillars that support the fabric of our constitution that august and glorious fabric, which the wisdom of their ancestors fortified, and their trophies adorn; which has survived the wrath of the zealot, the rage of the democrat, the sword of the invader; and stood for centuries, unscathed by flood, by fire, or tempest; never will they suffer it to be trampled on by the cloven-feet of an atrocious priesthood. strong in the armour of ancient faith and loyalty, let them resist the pestilential genius of republicanism, with its delusive and ever-crumbling theories, nor wait until the cup of popular frenzy is full to overflowing, to close its burning fountains.

But,

And now a word to the Irish Conservatives. The plans and object of your assailants are fully developedthe elevation of Popish supremacy, on the ruins of Protestantism, and your extirpation or expulsion from Ireland. This consummation is to be effected, not by physical, but legislative coercion. Your natural guardians are the slaves of a faction, and have a majority of your representatives to support them. In this state of things it is evident, that the peerage is at present the only barrier to the ruin that impends; and even that, your last hope, now is threatened. A second time, in British history, is the extinction of our upper chamber attempted; most ineptly, no doubt; but it is by you that this must be proved: you are the source of their strength in this vital combat; by the manifestation of your support their resistance is to be rendered effectual. We have laid before you a faithful transcript of the state of Ireland, and would now ask you, what has given it an aspect so appalling? What has

been the pregnant cause of all those evils? Bear with a few words, not of censure, but monition ;-and would, that instead of being scanned by the eye, they were branded in deep conviction on the mind, has it not been your apathy and inertness, while implacable hostility was straining every nerve for your destruction? Have you not, with childlike infatuation, instead of meeting and averting, closed your eyes to the coming danger, and by inexplicable indolence, permitted a spark, which an infant's foot might once have crushed, to threaten universal conflagration? It may well be said of you, that while you slept the tares were sown, and you awoke only to see what an enemy had done.

But though you tarried so long from the field, though your first inexperienced efforts were opposed to an enemy practised in combat, nerved by malignity, and flushed by partial success, a most encouraging, a triumphant stand has been made. Even already the results of your fresh-roused courage, your unflinching firmness are apparent. Behold the change that has been wrought among us! Instead of a few despised and trembling stragglers, crouching round their devoted leaders, awaiting ruin in every shock of popular violence, without a hope to inspire them; nothing left but their honour," and the high resolve, to share their country's fate, as was our state when the first de-formed parliament met-our leaders are now surrounded by a noble phalanx, scarcely inferior to the foe in numbers, but how infinitely above them in genius, wisdom, and honour; and above all, in their sacred veneration for that high old spirit of British thought and feeling the true source and safeguard of our national glory; and against which are now concentrated the utmost energies of blind, infuriate, implacable malice.

There is, however, still a majority; base and paltry, no doubt; but it must be annihilated, that the threats and designs which are based thereon may share its grave. For this, renewed exertion is necessary. The incendiary has avowed his guilty purpose, and knows the penalty which national retribution will exact; the cravings of revenge are therefore quickened to the recklessness of a despair which would purchase with life the death of its victim. Our safety thus rests upon the unqualified putting forth of every antagonist effort,-upon our

showing a determined, undaunted front, and wielding, with the assured skill of our opponents, those weapons of the constitution which they are perverting to its overthrow. We have already pointed out the line of policy adopted for your extirpation,—a species of assault as fatal as it is treacherous; deliberate and noiseless, but unerring in its operation; by which the system of representation that was designed to be the Palladium of your liberties, has been rendered the engine of their destruction. We have told you, that the court of REGISTRY is the place where this parricidal act is sought to be perpetrated,-an attempt which must inevitably succeed, if fear or apathy be indulged. To that scene of conflict we would urge you by those motives that must ever awake to alarm and promptitude,-the protection of your property, your freedom, your faith ;-. your happiness in this world-your prospects in a better. Surely you will not pause and procrastinate until the cloud, that now lours, shall send forth its lightnings ; when the only boon that mercy will vouchsafe, is the alternative of an appalling death, or a worse apostacy? Will you wait, until the torch of anarchy is in your dwellings, the Jacobin dagger at your throats, or the revolutionary halter at your necks? A fearful crisis impends, and every moment is pregnant with eventful interest. To loiter is to perish. Let, therefore, vigilance, energy, and ac tion characterize your conduct; and, while undefiled by its influence, catch somewhat of the spirit that nerves your foe, making zeal and indignation subserve the cause of truth and freedom. Enrol your names upon that record of the brave and free, to which your country calls you. Be up at your post, swelling the ranks of faith and loyalty, that by your wide, and deep, and dauntless front, by your enthusiastic cheers of unchanged devotion, your noble leaders may feel the thrill of fearless hope, and, strong in your strength, may meet unmoved the sweeping flood of wild licentiousness, which beats and surges round them,that, contemning alike the remorseless passion and brutal revelry of a reckless but impotent rabble, they may stand undismayed, amid the rollings and howlings of the moral deluge which so portentously threatens, and say with stilling energy to its advancing waters, "so far shall ye go, and no farther!"

C. C. T.

IF by some great social evolution in the nature of a parliamentary division, the whole body of the loyal and wellaffected to the constitution of England, were to be separated from the radical reformers, we have long felt confident that the latter would be taught one great fact of no small importance to the country, that they are a contemptible minority, which derives its whole weight from the base passions and the blind activity which make it an efficient instrument in the hands of every political adventurer- the "scoundrel to be found in every village, who calls himself the public.' But the action of the saner opinions and better affected feelings of the country is, as ever has been the case, slow and retarded in its progress. While error is easily involved in specious pleas of patriotism and public good, and exposure depends on the more difficult process of disabusing the public mind-the peaceful and industrious,-the honest and highminded have a reluctance to be dragged forward into collision with turbulence and wrongful violence, and are devoid of that fierce energy which gives its fatal power and concentration to the factious. And if it be considered that the elements of revolutionary movement, working together, long and under various forms, in many an under-ground channel, are necessarily far advanced into maturity, before resistance can be thought of it will be understood, how fearful is the advantage of the destructive principle-how desperate the odds against the counteraction of right, truth, justice, religion, and civil order. Thousands of rightly disposed minds are imposed on-and the country sustains many a heavy shock before the public mind is truly roused into a state of intelligent attention VOL. IX.

;

and before its virtue, courage, and resisting spirit can be fully brought into concert; the destructive may have secured a position inconsistent with the public safety. Such is the fearful process that has been passing before our eyes from the end of the Peninsular war to the present moment. It has been such as to make many a sound heart quail for England, and some leading minds retire in despair from the hopeless conflict. Hopeless indeed, in the history of nations, have such conflicts been. We never, ourselves, despaired, for we trusted in the righteous Power, that has never been deserted by England, or abandoned her in her distress.

Great as was the danger, and slow as has been the rally, the mind of England is awake; voice calls to voiceand deep calls to deep-the virtue, wisdom, and power of the first people on the earth-Protestant Constitutional England. The struggle on which the fate of the kingdom was suspendedhad been transferred to Ireland-the first blow was struck at the rights of the subject, and the second at the Church of Christ. Such blows could not be concealed by palliations, and the conservatives of Ireland were brought together by the common and imminent danger. The Conservative spirit of England responded-and the sense of every right and true heart began slowly to be linked into communion through the land, until the voice of the public-not the offscouring of sedition and ignorance, to which that high name is sometimes misappliedbut the genuine, well-informed, industrious, independent, sound-minded British public, utters its genuine sentiments, Nolumus leges Angliæ mutari ;— as loudly, and we trust as irresistibly

as ever it has been heard in the hour of constitutional danger.

The reaction which we have thus described, has been for some years the subject of question, among the unversed or unobservant in public events.The doubt we trust is over and the simplest Protestant will feel as little faint-hearted on this head, as the most watchful Conservative who sounds the watchword of the fight. It would be impossible to imagine a sign more fatal to the hopes of the infidel democracy, which has so long banished order and peace from the country, than the decisive conduct of Glasgow, in its recent reception of the illustrious leader of the Conservatives of England. The city of Glasgow, second to none in the empire for its commercial prosperity and profound intelligence, has been less happily marked for the curious inconsistency with which it had suffered itself to lend an ear to the spurious liberalism of infidel philosophers, and radical empirics. But it has illustriously redeemed itself, by the more sterling liberality, which frankly acknowledges error.

Of this glorious event it would be our desire to give our readers the most full and minute intelligence. For not the slightest incident can be wanting in interest, which is connected with an event, for the report of which every intelligent mind in the kingdom is on the watch. But our Number is almost made up, and while we write the printer is at a stand. We must, therefore, though fain to dally with a theme we love, pass on with a rapid pen, and endeavour to select the points of chief interest for narration or comment.

delay with the inaugural speech—it has won the free applause of even the liberal press-and this may be its praise. It was marked by that strong masculine common sense, discriminating sagacity and tact, and nervous simplicity of language, which are the great features of Sir Robert as a public speaker. Even on the topic of education conservative, he dwelt with great vigour and propriety of illustration on the study of those models of classical antiquity, from which so many firstrate orators and writers have been formed, and to the neglect of which may be traced the modern corruption of British literature.

We come, now, to the true point of universal interest, the dinner given by the city on Friday the 13th. It is hardly less memorable for the explicit declarations from Sir Robert Peel, of which it was the occasion, than for the circumstances which proudly distinguished it from all ordinary public demonstrations-the magnificence, superb scale, and perfect good taste of the preparations, such as could only come from wealth and intelligence of the first order. We remark this, because the facility with which public entertainments can be got up, in some degree diminishes the ordinary impression of this mode of expressing public sentiment. A pavilion, which dined Three Thousand Four Hundred and Thirty-Five Gentlemen,-thirty-two feet in height, supported by twentyfour elegantly formed pillars, with galleries on three sides, and adorned by national devices, was built for the occasion with a celerity that surprised the builders themselves. At five the guests assembled in this vast pavilion, more splendid than the halls of Oriental monarchs

When Egypt with Assyria strove In wealth and luxury

Nor will it be necessary for us to