public credit and bury thousands in its ruins. When POPE made his apostrophe to Blest paper credit, last and best supply, That gives corruption lighter wings to fly! he have so little compassion on lives and properties that are useful to both? ` Let the time come (and surely it will come) when the new funds, created for the exigencies of the year, are not subscribed to, and raise not the money projected. Suppose, either that the cash of the nation is exhausted; or that our faith, which has hitherto been so ample, begins to fail us, Suppose, that, in this distress, the nation is threatened with an invasion; a rebellion is suspected or broken out at home; a squadron cannot be equipped for want of pay, victuals, or repairs; or even a foreign subsidy cannot be advanced. What must a prince or minister do in such an emergence? The right of selfpreservation is unalienable in every individual, much more in every commu̟mity and the folly of our statesmen must then be greater than the folly of those who first contracted debt, or, what is more, than that of those who trusted or continue to trust this security, if these statesmen have the means of safety in their hands, and do not employ them. The funds, created and mortgaged, will by that time bring in a large yearly revenue, sufficient for the defence and security of the nation: money is perhaps lying in the exchequer ready for the discharge of the quarterly interest: necessity calls, fear urges, reason exhorts, compassion alone exclaims: the money will immediately be seized for the current service, under the most solemn protestations, perhaps, of being immediately replaced but no more is requisite. The whole fabric, already tottering, falls to the ground, and buries thousands in its ruins. And this, I think, may be called the natural death of public credit: for to this period it tends as naturally as an animal body to its dissolution and destruction. : "So great dupes are the generality of mankind, that, notwithstanding such a violent shock to public credit, as a voluntary bankruptcy in England would occasion, it would not probably be long ere credit would again revive in as flourishing a condition as before. The present King of France, during the late war, borrowed money at a lower interest than ever his grandfather did; and as low as the British Parliament, comparing the natural rate of interest in both kingdoms. And though men are commonly more governed by what they have seen, than by what they foresee, with whatever certainty; yet promises, protestations, fair appearances, with the allurements of "present interest, have such powerful influence as few are able to resist. Mankind are, in all ages, caught by the same baits: the same tricks, played over and over again, still trepan them. The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny; flattery to treachery; standing armies to arbitrary government; and the glory of God to the temporal interest of the clergy. The fear of an everlasting destruction of credit, allowing it to be an evil, is a needless bugbear. A prudent man in reality would rather lend to the public immediately after we had taken a spunge to our debts than at present; as much as an opulent knave, even though one could `not force him to pay, is a preferable debtor to an honest bankrupt: for the former, in order to carry on business, may find it his interest to discharge his debts, where they are not exorbitant; the latter has it not in his power. The reasoning of Tacitus *, as it is eternally true, is very applicable to our present case. Sed vulgus ad magnitudinem beneficiorum aderat: stultissimus quisque pecuniis mercabatur: apud sapientes cassa habebantur, quæ neqna Hist. lib. iii, 1 he was not aware, that in half a century after his death, the passage in Homer, most applicable to his rich and heroic countrymen, would be Hector's complaint on the wants of Troy: Πριν μεν γαρ Πριάμοιο πολιν μέροπες άνθρωποι Κτηματα περναμεν εκεί, επει μεγας ωδύσατο Ζευς. Iliad, lib. 18. v. 288.* In the mean time, it will do us no good to indulge in a political indifference and vanity, at all times unworthy of our nation, but never so much so as at present. We may think as little as we can about politics, and go to the theatre to hear the players flourish about old England and Britain's glory: but all this will add neither to our safety nor our merits. We have obtained no one end neque dari neque accepi salva republica, poterant, The public is a debtor, whom no man can oblige to pay, the only check which the creditors have upon her, is the interest of preserving credit; an interest which may easily be overbalanced by a great debt, and by a difficult and extraordinary emergence, even supposing that credit irrecoverable. Not to mention, that a present necessity often forces states into measures which are, strictly speaking, against their interest. These two events, supposed above, are calamitous, but not the most calamitous. Thousands are thereby sacrificed to the safety of millions: but we are not without danger, that the contrary event may take place, and that millions may be sacrificed for ever to the temporary safety of thousands. Our popular government, perhaps, will render it difficult or dangerous for a minister to venture on so desperate an expedient as that of a voluntary bankruptcy and though the House of Lords be altogether composed of proprietors of land, and the House of Commons chiefly; and consequently neither of them can be supposed to have great property in the funds; yet the counections of the members may be so great with the proprietors, as to render them more tenacious of public faith, than prudence, policy, or even justice, strictly speaking, requires: and perhaps too, our foreign enemies may be so politic as to discover, that our safety lies in despair, and may not, therefore, show the danger, open and barefaced, till it be inevitable. The balance of power in Europe, our grandfathers, our fathers, and we, have all deemed 100 unequal to be preserved without our attention and assistance: but our children, weary of the struggle, and fettered with incumbrances, may sit down secure, and see their neighbours oppressed and conquered; till, at last, they themselves and their creditors lie both at the mercy of the conqueror : and this may properly enough be denominated the violent death of our public credit. "These seem to be the events which are not very remote, and which reason foresees as clearly almost as she can do any thing that lies in the womb of time. And though the ancients maintained, that, in order to reach the gift of prophecy, a certain divine fury or madness was requisite, one may safely affirm, that, in order to deliver such prophecies as these, no more is necessary than merely to be in one's senses, free from the influence of popular maduess. and delusion." * CowFER has destroyed the original effect of these lines, and rendered the end of the longest and bloodiest wars waged in modern Europe, but on the contrary have been reduced to the state of a spectator in a corner, while the enemy's triumphs pass by; and nothing re mains for us but to look at home, and to turn again, in refreshing repose, to those intellectual studies and those reforms in our establishment, which shall prepare us for our own triumphs in returnthe triumphs of philosophy and a wise freedom. In short, we must, in every thing that is possible, begin over again-not to fight, or to intrigue, or to pursue a thoughtless struggle-but to reform, to retrench, to restore the just harmony between the three divisions of the state, which have wandered out of their parts, and produced all our discord,—and, in a word, to become once more a" thinking" people. The Reformists ask nothing unbecoming of their rulers, nothing unwarrantable for the people. They ask only the renovation, in letter and in spirit, of that noble constitution, which has been violated by an overgrown prerogative, by an irresponsible succession of ministers, and, above all, by the parliamentary usurpations of a set of courtiers. It is in vain to tell them, that their requests may be influenced by wrong motives :— the question is not whether their motives are probably wrong, but whether their requests are positively right. It is equally in vain to tell them, that Reform will do no good:-the contrary has done a great deal of harm; and they have reason to try, as well as a right to demand, what their glorious ancestors bequeathed them.. the translation insufferably mean, by removing the wrath of Jove from the conclusion and thus destroying the climax: "Time was, when in all nations under heav'n With gold and brass; but all our houses now Stand emptied of their hidden treasures rare. Jove in his wrath hath scatter'd them; our wealth Is marketted, and Phrygia hath a part Obtain'd, and part Mæonia's lovely land." As to the passage in Mr. Pope, it is elegant verse, but no translation at all. ART. II. ART. II. THE REFORMERS; or, Wrongs of Intellect.-A fragment of a Political Dialogue. A. Utopia Lodge, March 1810.. -We are then agreed that the way which bids fairest to prove effectual in stemming the alarming torrent which threatens to overwhelm the liberties of our country, would be to reform the Commons House of Parliament? B. I believe that is our general sentiment; for my own part, I have no hope that political salvation can be accomplished through any other means than the regeneration of that assembly. Indeed it is not easy to imagine how any man who has heard and read what Major Cartwright, Mr. Whitbread, and other intelligent statesmen and patriots have said and written on the subject, and whose mind does not suffer under the enjoyment or hope of a pension or a place, can think otherwise. C. But there is a set of men who think otherwise, and men of ability too, and yet whose minds are not supposed to be impaired by their present enjoyments or their future hopes. A. You mean the Edinburgh Reviewers. With their hopes and enjoyments we have nothing to do: but of their reprobation of Mr. Cobbett's present principles*, I can safely say for myself that I have met with few writings that have any pretension to argu ment, so hollow and sophisticated; and how can we think their approbation sincere of the change which they admit to have gra. dually taken place in our political constitution, when we consider also what has since proceeded from the same quarter ?+—It was pertinently said of the pathetic language which Mr. Burke, in his later writings, occasionally held on constitutional topics, that he pitied the plumage, but neglected the wounded and suffering bird: Stuffed and exhibited in a shew glass, it would appear that this beautiful constitution would still have sufficient charms for these Reviewers-if we could here credit their sincerity. Yet even here, the health of their genuine complexion peers through the transparent veil of their political superstition. "It is on the spirit and the intelligence of the people themselves," say the Edinburgh Reviewers," that their liberties must always ultimately depend. The only substantial and operative check to the usurpations of rulers, is in their apprehension of the resistance of the people, and their conviction that they will detect the first movements toward oppression, and combine to repel and resent them. C *See Edinburgh Review, No. XX. Ditto, No. XXX. 1 No. XX. p. 408. Now if there there be a parliament, however chosen and however constituted, which contains a sufficient number and a sufficient variety of persons, to make it certain that every class and every party in the country will there have an advocate and expounder of it's views and sentiments; and if that parliament meet often, and have practically full freedom of speech, and make it's discussions public, it does not appear to us that freedom can ever be extinguished, or the rights of the people very materially invaded." In such passages as this, the roseate hue of health and vigour may be recognised through the flimsy concealment: and when the Reviewers assert or inculcate, that the late and present parliaments possessed, still possess, and will perpetuate these essential requisites, they cannot but know that this is a question not of an absolute nature, but of degree, and where there is little danger in taking the affirmative side, as long as the degree is not attempted to be precisely marked, but where there might not be equal safety in the general denial to which these gentlemen (in the earnestness of argument) would urge their opponents. Do you B. You have blamed the Edinburgh Reviewers generally, for their reprobation of Mr. Cobbett's principles of reform. then coincide with him in your opinion as to the propriety of those principles ? A. No.-I think his education and subsequent habits have led him into some errors, which are probably unintentional: but as his principles so nearly resemble what I have been taught to understand are yours, we will, if you please, attend to what you have to say on the subject, before I state my objections. may B. Knowing that you expect a frank declaration of my opinions upon this important subject, I shall at once, and without fur ther preface, state that we must return to the original principles of the Constitution of England, by ridding ourselves of the usurpations of the Borough-mongers; restoring to the King his just prerogatives; and ordaining that freeholders, householders, and others, subject to direct taxation in support of the poor, the church, and the state, shall alone exercise the right of voting for members to serve in parliament. The simple principle upon which, as upon a pivot, the whole of the subject of representation turns is this-That the free subjects of this kingdom have a right of property in their own goods; in other words, that the people of England cannot be legally and constitutionally taxed without their own consent. I suppose this will not be denied; and yet it is equally indisputable that this principle is absolutely annihilated by the present frame of the representation-I mean if you credit the allegations (which I believe few men doubt) contained in that petition for reform, in which the petitioners offered to prove at the bar of the House of Commons, that 157 persons had the power |