that there is a tendency in this age to Universality. Granted to the full extent claimed for it by Dr. Channing in his new pamphlet on the present age. Yet, if we may be permitted to quote from another eloquent American writer, Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson," the tendency of these times is likewise to the personal." Both opinions, in fact, are true. For we require not the personal alone, nor the universal alone, -but the personal in the universal, and the universal in the personal. It is not the first time that we have remarked on the personality characteristic of the present state of politics and religion. It is no longer his party that supports a man, but he must depend on his individual character and qualifications. Nay, to do any good worth speaking of, he must have a considerable power of creative genius. He must be capable of initiating-he must originate. But though thus independent of party, and thrown on his own resources; he must, nevertheless, be the representative of Principles. Not of party, but of Principles. He must be strong on a particular question-the acknowledged advocate of a special cause. This is the secret of the influence of Lord Brougham, Mr. O'Connell, and Sir Robert Peel; and of the want of it in Viscount Melbourne, and Lord John Russell. The Duke of Wellington is strong, meanwhile, by virtue of character alone. Men believe that he will do right at all times, and in all things, to the full extent of his power and knowledge. Herein it is, that the Catholic tendency is most observable; that our leading men have, in a great measure, been set free from party trammels, and are, in some sort, compelled to argue every cause, not in relation to the interests of party, but in its general bearings, and as it affects society at large. No man feels this more than Sir Robert Peel. Hireling writers demand from him express pledges-these he wisely declines. When he is called in regularly, he will prescribe for the patient according to the then state of the patient's health-but not before. The weakness of the Whigs has consisted in their working, in all questions, for their party, and not for the country. It is not to be for a moment supposed that the Melbourne administration has arrayed the Conservative majority of the country against it on the question of the Corn Laws. Sir Robert Peel knows, as well as they, that deep consideration of the subject is imperatively required by circumstances, and of this fact the country was fully aware. Nay, it was understood that Sir Robert Peel would, in all human probability, propose some alteration himself, as the leading measure of a Conservative Government. The Whigs were therefore suspected of using the question as an instrument for party ends alone, without at all designing to carry a sincere measure for the public relief, or one that would a whit better answer the desirable purpose, than did that gross failure, the Reform Bill. The world was indeed assured that corn law repeal was adopted as an expedient only, when it recollected the strong opinion against it which had been only too recently expressed by the premier. We have no space now to show the fallacies on both sides which attach to this vexata quæstio. We might otherwise demonstrate, on the one hand, that wages and prices were not uniformly equal; and on the other, show that a fixed duty is impossible, and that a well calculated sliding duty would produce the same results that anything adopting the name of a fixed duty could by any possibility beneficially perform. We prefer, however, to point out a mode of reconciling both, contained in a tract lately published by a Mr. Browne-namely, to make the graduated scale of duties applicable, not to the value or price in the market, as at present, but to the quantity of corn in the stack-yards and granaries of the kingdom; for which purpose he suggests the following plan: "That the assessing the duty be removed from the executive of the Customs to the executive of the Excise, and that in each year the exciseman should, at a period when all grain must have been harvested, say the 1st of November in each year-that the exciseman of the locality or district should proceed to take an accurate account of the growth of the then year, and an account of the remaining stock on hand from former years, giving the estimates in quarters of corn as nearly as possible as the sworn officer could estimate them; and that these returns should be from every tithing or locality in the kingdom respectively; and that on these returns being made to the head office for the kingdom, the Government should issue an order of Privy Council on or about the 31st of December next thereafter, affixing the duty or assize for the ensuing year, or two years for the accommodation of the foreign grower, upon the principle of a graduated scale of duties, acting upon and in relation to the quantity or number of quarters in stack and granary in the whole kingdom, instead of on the price of grain per quarter, as is the present mode. "And, as the ordinary consumption of the kingdom, if not already known, could soon be ascertained; so obviously it must be fixed in an equitable relation to the average consumption as compared to the stocks on hand; leaving the duties applicable, in an inverse ratio, to the magnitude of such stocks on hand; and, as far as practicable, keeping up the scale of taxation to that of the duties as at present in operation: say, for so many quarters on hand, so much protective duty; and, of course, if the number of quarters on hand be more, the duty to be more; if less, the duty to be less; so as to admit foreign corn, on the principle only of necessity, for the supply of deficiency in our own growth." The information desired may be obtained in the following way :"That the farmer be compelled to build his stack or rick of corn square, and of a certain gauge-say so many feet square, and so many feet high, as the standard size; and that there be three of these sizes, so as to admit of large or small stacks, to suit the convenience of the farmer; but let all be built on one principle-square. "Let the exciseman ascertain, by attending to the quantity produced when the stacks are threshed-the yield of corn from these stacks for two or three years consecutively, and by that means a knowledge of their average contents would be established; and thus he would know the number of quarters to be expected from a stack of the first class-that is to say, of the greatest number of square feet, and so on of the second and third class ricks respectively. "By these means the returns of the whole kingdom would differ but little from the reality, and the estimates would come very near to true results. "If it were considered preferable-as another plan-I would say, measure the ricks, and return the whole as so many cubic feet of corn in stack, and two or three years' experience would show how many quarters might be expected from every thousand cubic feet. "But when I know that malt and other produce is gauged preparatory to a return of the quantity, I cannot foresee any difficulty in regard to corn.” Our institutions are better than we; and are, accordingly, more worthy of support than any particular class: but of all classes, there is least reason for sacrificing any one of them to the middle class. Here it is that regeneration is wanted. The whole science of distribution applies to this order in the state, or rather, we should say, that the whole business of distribution needs here being reduced to a science. Men have hitherto proceeded in the market on the principle of competition. They have met as on the battle-field, and contested the point with one another: no man has regarded his neighbour, but every man his self. The principle of Christian charity has never been tried. Now it could be shown that all this competition is not wanted; -that none, in fact, is wanted. Benevolent association is the one thing needed and whatever may be said against Socialism, whether of Owen or Fourier (and, by the way, no two men can differ more than these), it is clear that Association, as a principle, is advancing with rapid strides; from a dramatic authors' theatre to an international congress, all things to it are possible. This is the new spirit that must be conciliated by the statesman who would flourish now and for ever; he should take it into his own hands, and bring a power that will be soon irresistible under the control, by investing it with the sanction, of Government. We have survived an intellectual age, during which man, through the power of science, has been enabled to perform miracles. We literally reel and groan under the surplus wealth thereby produced. By means of it a small number of individuals can provide for all the material wants of a large population. Let us consider this. The salvation of the race lies in our creating intellectual and moral desires for the occupation of a being whose physical necessities no longer require the labour that once enslaved him. He is set free; and henceforth his business in this life is that of a freeman, and not of a servant. Some writers fear this state of things-how vainly. The politics of the poor man belong to his condition, and not to his mind. Better circumstances and enlarged experience will improve his views of society, and correct his opinions. In the mean time, every record of his sentiments is useful to all parties as a political document. It is for this purpose, that we prize Chartist speeches, essays, and poems. Biographies of their authors are most important to the true statesman, who would learn to legislate for the operative class, by becoming acquainted with their feelings-the form and pressure of their common destiny upon individual temperament and disposition. A change in the circumstances that now afflict them, will produce a proportionate change in their views. An enlarged experience of the world, such as their growing improvement cannot fail to give, damping, however, as it must be, under the best circumstances, to his warm enthusiastic feelings, cannot now proceed without inflicting considerable pain on the individual. The man soon finds that he can no longer continue the idealist he was in youth. The realities of life are at first naturally distasteful to him; and he manifests impatience of their pressure, and exclaims with bitterness against their infliction. Be it medicinal; nevertheless, and perhaps all the more for that reason, he heaves the gorge at it. We would, however, address ourselves to such, and are especially solicitous to inform him, that, whatever he may think, the regimen is wholesome, it is a part of the moral discipline which Providence designs for his redemption from that corruption which he has himself no doubt predicated of human nature. Let him not fret at opposition, or repine at disappointment-least of all, let him chafe at delay. There is yet time enough. All that is needful to man in any situation, is faith and perseverance in the path of duty: let him proceed in this way; and whether the endeavour that philanthropists are now making in favour of the Worker be successful or not, the time will come, and come as soon as it will be good for him, when he shall be delivered from what, during this period of transition, now oppresses him; when the prison gates shall be thoroughly opened, and the prisoner shall not only be permitted, but commanded, to go out free. Meantime, let him wait in pious dependence on a superior power, and not endeavour, by an act of his own, (although it may even be one of equivocal morality,) out of the line of his duty in that station of life to which it has pleased God to call him, to forestall the means which will undoubtedly be prepared for his redemption. We give not this advice because we fear him-but the wounded spirit requires not consolation only, but counsel. For the Worker himself we are assured, that in all respects he will prove himself worthy; in his great strife with the necessity of his condition, he will show himself a good soldier -both to God and man-until discharged from a painful duty, in a manner equally honourable to himself and his fellow creatures. Those whose lines have fallen in the least pleasant places of social duty, may learn to abate the sense of hardship, by reflecting that this life itself, in its best estate, is and can be but a vanity, a burthen and a yoke, which the richest and proudest devise many false shows to set off or conceal, and are glad, at last, to lay by for the chance of a better. Only by labour and death is worked out, with fear and trembling, the Salvation of the World, even as of the individual. Knowledge is not all which it behoves us to seek the knowledge which has been actually found hath hitherto abridged only the employment of labour, without improving the means of distributionsomething more is wanted to turn knowledge and its results to right account. Rather the life within us should be nourished into moral eminence above the life without, in all patience, and faith, and hope, and charity. This life, it is needful, should have its first resurrection while in the body, and surrounded with the mixed good and evil of physical circumstances, that it may certainly attain to a happy immortality in the second. Such a consummation, however, can only be secured by submission, in the first place, to Law and Order; and in the next, by acts of love and good-will to all men in the path of duty. There is every reason for the class we have been addressing, to hope and trust in the character of the QUEEN. Here it is again, as we have remarked in former articles, that the Personal comes into play. It is not upon the Monarchy as a party interest, that our young Queen can or does rest-the mere fact of her occupying the throne amounts to nothing but the manner in which she performs the part is all in all, and on her own conduct the throne she inherits will be established, and not on mere inheritance. Hitherto, she has proved herself to be a Queen, indeed, in purpose and in will. She has shown herself, whenever occasion demanded, to be no State idol, but a living reality. Her sympathy with all conditions of men has been witnessed-and her popular bias has indeed been rather unceremoniously quoted in favour of an imbecile and departing Cabinet. The fact is, that the court is necessarily placed in the same mid-political position which the country at large represents, and which should be called Conservatism, as distinguished both from Toryism and Whiggism. Her Majesty has hitherto maintained, and will continue to maintain, the station of a Reconciler -it is a Law which is irresistible in itself, although willingly obeyed by her. God to her has given the special grace to choose as of herself, even that duty and none other, which his providence in its goodness has appointed. Her disposition and her destiny are happily identical. God save the Queen! SONNET. THE MUSE OF THE DRAMA. THE Genius of Britannia's Drama rose Wet with full tears." O Muse!" I said, "disclose I swear to avenge." Then she-"Seest thou, my child, Inspirer? How my prophets are defiled By the vile cankering tyrannies of men I answered: "Mourner, thou shalt yet rejoice! Revenge shall blast them;-let them choose their lot," |