est to condemn. Had they been made "Why, it's the cause of cur glorious instituLords of the Treasury or under Secreta- tions," said Coningsby; "a Crown robbed of ries of State, it is sneeringly suggested we its prerogatives-a Church controlled by a Commission-and an Aristocracy that does not lead."

"Under whose genial influence the order of the Peasantry-a country's pride-has vanisl.ed from the face of the land," said Henry Sydney, "and is succeeded by a race of serfs who are called laborers, and who burn ricks."

"Under which," continued Coningsby, a sect, the nobility drones, and the people "the crown has become a cipher, the church

should have heard less of them as authors or moralists. The praise is absurd and exaggerated; but we think the censure still more unjust. There are larger and higher principles appealed to-there are occasionally more generous aspirations to be discovered among them, than can, by any reasonable possibility, be reconciled with low, sordid, or insincere views. And if we shall have occasion to deal somewhat severely with their faults and their mistakes, Lord Vere, it is because we think that many members ment-yields every thing to agitation. Conof the party are deserving of better and no-servative in Parliament, destructive out of bler things than belong to the destiny which doors-that has no objection to any change, they are striving, by fantastic means, to provided only it be effected by unauthorized means." work out for themselves.

Their first characteristic is their presumption. Desirous to fix their own statues on the most elevated pedestal, they act as determined iconoclasts, -thinking that to build they must first destroy, and that it is from among ruins only that they can obtain their materials.

The time is out of joint, O cursed spite!
That ever we were born to set it right.'

drudges."

"It's the great constitutional cause," said "that refuses every thing to argu

"The first public association of men," said Coningsby, "who have worked for an avowed end without enunciating a single principle." ""And who have established political infidelity throughout the land," said Lord Henry. nal fools we have made ourselves this last "By Jove!" said Buckhurst, "what inferweek!"

Conversations such as this are likely to have taken place at the close of very many elections besides that at Cambridge; and we how many politicians, this language is now know well in how many circles, and among

ment. We also know how reluctant is the support given to the present government by men professing such opinions.

In another and more serious passage, we

They apply these lines with this qualification only, that they never express any aversion to the task, nor any doubt of their abi-held in bitterness of heart and disappointlity to perform it. The Whigs,' say they, ' are worn out.'-'Conservatism is a sham, and Radicalism a pollution. Loyalty is dead, and reverence is only a galvanized corpse.' They accordingly conclude that they, and they alone, are called forth, and competent to effect the salvation of the country. Politically connected, whilst in opposition, with the Tory party-giving to that party now in office a general, though occasionally a vituperative support, they must be held as possessing a competent knowledge of what Conservatism is. The following dialogue between the heroes of Mr. D'Israeli's very clever, but in some respects very objectionable Novel, describes their feelings, after the triumph of the Conservative cause, at a successful election for the borough of Cambridge:

"By Jove!" said the panting Buckhurst, throwing himself on the sofa, "it was well done-never was any thing better done. An immense triumph-the greatest triumph the Conservative cause has had ; and yet," he added, laughing, "if any fellow were to ask me what the Conservative cause was, I am sure I should not know what to say."

are informed on the same authority, that Conservatism is an attempt to carry on affairs by substituting the fulfilment of the duties of office for the performance of the this negative system by the mere influence functions of government; and to maintain of property, reputable private conduct, and this negative system by the mere influence what are called good connexions. Conservatism discards prescription, shrinks from principle, disavows progress: having rejected all respect for antiquity, it offers no redress for the present, and makes no preparation for the future.' This, to a certain extent, we admit to be true, and it is the result of the false position in which the government has placed itself. They fear to acknowledge boldly the principles on which they are acting; and they dare not act on the principles which they so long openly professed, or permitted their friends to pro

fess on their behalf.

Such is the estimate formed of the Conservative leaders by a section of that body.

YOUNG ENGLAND.

[DEC.

-' At

The results of their system of government (tone of the School, and at the same time are described in terms not more flattering, exemplify the phraseology of their principal by another of their accredited organs;— author. The preparation for a first meetThe misery of the lower orders was never ing between an Eton schoolboy and a somein any country more universal or more in- what formidable uncle, is there described tense. Our foreign relations are unstable as denoting that desperation which the and precarious. An income-tax has been scaffold requires. His face was pale; his resorted to, for the first time in a season of hand was moist; his heart beat with tumult.' peace. The House of Commons has stulti- The attachment of schoolboys is depicted in fied itself on two occasions. The House of this piece of fantastic jargon: Lords, virtually abdicating in 1832, has be- school, friendship is a passion. It entrancome little more than a mere chamber of ces the being; it tears the soul. All love registry.' This, again, is an exaggerated of after life can never bring its rapture or picture; but it must be borne in mind that its wretchedness; no bliss so absorbing; it comes from the pen of no opposition wri- no pangs of despair so keen: what insane ter, but from that of a supporter of the very sensitiveness; what frantic sensibility; what government whose acts are censured in earthquakes of the heart and whirlwinds of such unmitigated terms. The fact, we be- the soul are confined in the single phraselieve, is, that Young England, like a much a schoolboy's friendship!' The only relarger and more important portion of the semblance that we have ever met to this, is public, are indignant because they have in a description said to have been given by been deceived. They feel the want of some an American citizen to his favorite horse. fixed political faith, or of some strong and He is a thunder and lightning creature, binding political attachments. The govern- with a dash of the earthquake in him.' In ment neither avows any distinct political another passage, a storm in the forest inducreed, nor commands any personal sympa- ces Mr. D'Israeli at once to borrow and to thies. The elements of strength which de- deform one of the most exquisite passages pend on respect and on attachment, are in Mr. Taylor's noble Poem of Edwin the alike wanting. Cold and apathetic indif- Fair.' The wind howled, the branches ference the most fatal symptoms of a po- of the forest stirred, and sent forth sounds litical paralysis are visible both in and out like an incantation. The various voices of of Parliament. the mighty trees were distinguishable as they sent forth their terror or their agony. The oak roared, the beech shrieked, the elm sent forth its deep and long-drawn groan, the passion of the ash was heard in moans of thrilling anguish.'

The second failing of this party is almost as much opposed to their usefulness and success as the first. Presumption is invariably productive of exaggeration. Rejecting all experience, separating themselves from all the great parties, their opinions These passages are not to be viewed as become singular and forced. If the Whigs merely exemplifying vices of style. In fact, take the road through Hyde Park, and the they do much more. The same absurd in Tories the Hammersmith road,' said Grat-flation, as already noticed, extends to printan, you will be sure to see Harry Banks ciples and opinions. The politics of the creeping along the Park wall on his hands school are founded on the rejection of all and knees.' This applies to Young Eng- experience; its philosophy on a contempt land in all respects, except in the submissive attitude of creeping. On the contrary, they are professed posture-masters. We must be permitted to call their affectation of singularity and exaggeration, a vulgarism. To excite surprise is no such very difficult task. It is done more certainly by a monster than by an Apollo. For one painter who can emulate the delicate and transparent skies and distances of Claude, a hundred pretenders to art may be found to parody the blood-red sun and inky mountains of Martin. Every sound with this school becomes a shriek, every attitude a distortion. A few extracts will disclose the

for all experiment. Great men never want experience,' is the dogma of Mr. D'Israeli; and upon this theory he argues that youth alone can perform great or good actions, and that the age of thirty-seven is the fatal bound which neither patriotism nor genius can pass. The inutility of experience he seeks to prove by a long catalogue, in which are whimsically united as inexperienced men, Raphael and Grotius, Ignatius Loyola and John Wesley, Luther and Lord Clive, Innocent III., William Pitt, and Don John of Austria. This is abundantly ridiculous. The men with whom we are dealing, delight in rejecting all common sense

as the type and evidence of vulgar expedi- unrestrained by mortmain's jealous laws,' ency. piety was permitted to offer gold and gems, To shun the expedient and the good pursue,' To deck the forehead of the queen of heaven.'

All that marks the progress of modern times, is denounced

'Let wealth and commerce, laws and learning die,

they take as their motto. But they never condescend to distinguish between that low and selfish principle of action which is misnamed expediency, and that generous and But leave us still our old nobility.' enlarged expediency which is but another word for wisdom. True expediency is but Nor are these frenzied ideas confined to the application of a just principle to prac- poetry only. The Revolution of 1688, is tice;-not by any sacrifice of the principle, denounced as authoritatively in prose as in but by applying it with a wise adaptation to verse. Our Parliamentary constitution is circumstances. To shorten sail in a storm, represented as copied from the Venetian to spread out canvass when the wind abates, is acting according to expediency; but yet neither the one alternative nor the other frees the pilot from the duty of keeping the vessel in her true course, studying the best chart, and fixing his eyes on the stars or on the compass. It is only when expediency is mean and selfish that it is debased; and debased more especially when it resolves itself wholly into personal interests. How far the expediency of which Young England most loudly complains comes within this category, it is for that party and not for us to decide.

The conclusions drawn from English history on their principles, are as extravagant as the principles themselves. Man is only great when he acts from the passions; never irresistible but when he appeals to the imagination.' Going in search of these, it is therefore in the relation between the feudal monarch and his subjects, between the baronial noble and his vassals, that Mr. D' Israeli seeks for the true ties of obligation and sympathy. As to our present condition, it seems that we cannot even boast of being governed by a legitimate sovereign. Lord John Manners informs us, that it is at the tomb of the Stuarts

that religion sings Her requiem o'er our latest rightful kings;'

and he asks despondingly,

'Where now is that fond reverence which spread
A holy halo round each royal head,
And show'd the world that more than earthly thing,
The Lord's anointed in a sceptred king?'

Hence, also, Beckett, Wolsey, and Laud, are designated as saints and martyrs-the regular clergy as a staff of holy men; her once keen sword' is still described as the just attribute of the Church; and we are conjured to imitate those times, when,

Senate-the representative system as but a happy device of a ruder age, to which it was admirably adapted; an age of semi-civilization, but a system which now exhibits many symptoms of desuetude.' The happiest expedient of the political philosophy of modern times for combining liberty and order, power with responsibility, is scornfully rejected. The only real princible of representation adapted to our era, Mr. D' Israeli considers to be public opinion, of which the public Journals are the practical expositors, and which, with the Monarch, is to be supreme.

The state of society is dealt with, as might be anticipated, in quite as extraordinary a manner as our laws and constitution. The middle classes seem to be excluded, as unworthy of all consideration. The eyes of Young England can only discover in the body politic, what they consider the head of gold and the feet of clay;-the heart, which carries on the circulation, forms no part of that body. For the very lowest class of all, the strongest sympathy is professed, and we believe honestly felt, but it is strangely manifested. It is not proposed to improve their condition by the extension of knowledge. On the contrary, those times are spoken of with respect, when 'On them no lurid light had knowledge spread, But faith stood them in education's stead."

But though education, law, commerce, and liberty, are proscribed, it may be some consolation to learn, that an equivalent will be found in the unrestrained practice of almsgiving;-that all will be set to rights. by the re-establishment of monasteries, and the resumption of those happy days,

When good and bad were all unquestion'd fed, When monks still practised their dear Lord's [command,

And rain'd their charity throughout the land.'

To accomplish the mighty purposes of that they will best serve the cause of the political and social regeneration, a holy al- laboring poor, and the social interests of liance is recommended between the Crown their country. We would fain find some and the Chartists! The former must be apology for their heresies. The stream is gratified by unrestrained power; the latter as yet near its fountain, and in its shallow Soothed by food and sports. Panem et cir- bed only bubbles and frets itself into foam. censes; bread and bulls-Mummers and A time may, and we hope will come, when Morris-Dancers. If these blessings are not its course will be more calm, and its waters speedily communicated to the people, or if, equally pure. We are much inclined to when given, they do not satisfy, we are in- think that their errors may in great measure formed, that be ascribed to the disgust felt at the want of all true elevation of purpose on the part of our Rulers and the Legislature. It is from the want of a solid Temple and a true Faith, that men betake themselves to Idols; and we are not without hopes that among the disciples of this errant school, which is not without redeeming characteristics, Truth may yet find some of her most ration

The greatest class of all shall know its rights, And the poor trampled people rise at last.'

Mr. Smythe, it is true, seems to suggest a link between the Crown and the People, which, if restored, might do much, according to his 'Historic Fancies,' to unite them. He would reintroduce the practice of touching for the Evil-a' graceful superstition,' al worshippers. which operated a 'direct communication between the highest and the lowest, between the king and the poor.. Dr. Johnson, a man of the people if ever there was one, was yet prouder of having been touched by SUE'S WANDERING JEW.-The immorality of Queen Anne when he was a child, than he was of all his heroism under misfortune.' M. Sue's romance of Le Juif Errant is gravely assailed in some of the leading periodicals of the A further agency, extending over all, is French capital. We ask seriously, says one of sought for in the Church, altered, however, the journals, can the description of those infamous in its constitution and its principles. It is orgies with which M. Sue has filled the last two to be rendered democratic in character. numbers, produce any other feeling than disgust? The blasphemous language he puts into the The priests of God are to be the tribunes mouths of the populace, whole pages filled with of the people,' observes Mr. D'Israeli. The accounts of drunkenness and vice, from the realichurch is also to be relieved from its alli-ty of which we should turn away in horrorance with the state, by being placed above it, and no longer subject to the indignity of having its bishops virtually appointed by the House of Commons, now a sectarian assembly.'

are such scenes proper for publication in a work destined to penetrate every where, and to fall under the eyes of our wives and daughters? It is preposterous to say that descriptions of this nature are written with a view to ameliorate the condition of the working classes. The morality of the public house is a disgrace to our civilization. If, continues the critic, we suffer the Roman-feuilleton to be carried on in this way, it will peril the moral and literary reputation of France in the eyes of the whole world.

We know from undeniable authority, that M. Eugene Sue has sold Le Juif Errant to his publishers for 210,000 francs.-Court Journal.

We must here, for the present, take leave of these harebrained speculators; not, however, without acknowledging, that amidst their extravagances we find strong indications of a high-minded and generous spirit. We, in particular, see much to approve and to admire in their sympathy for human suffering, and in their active desire to relieve it, wherever found. But let them 'love wisely, not too well.' It is not by wordy declamations against the New Poor-Law, PROPOSED RAILROAD FROM CIVITA-VECCHIA or in such unjust and unwise interferences TO ROME, PROHIBITED BY THE PAPAL GOVERN with Labor, as were last Session so unan-MENT.-The Papal Government has refused the swerably and eloquently exposed by Lord proposition made by an English company, for the Brougham in the House of Lords, that their duty will be best performed. It is by laboring to free industry from restraint -to procure a repeal of all restrictive laws and oppressive duties and not by the empirical nostrums of their present creed,

establishment of a railroad from Civita-Vecchia

to Rome. The King of Naples, on the contrary, would willingly extend as far as Gaete the line which is now arrested at Caserte. It might even be carried to Terracine, if the Pope would consent to establish a road from Rome to that city.

But as yet, all propositions have been rejected by his Holiness.-Ibid.

LOUIS PHILIPPE'S VISIT TO VICTORIA.

From the Court Journal.

now happily passed away, and given place to more open and kindly feeling amongst crowned heads, a feeling which cannot fail to have its influence on other classes.

LOUIS PHILIPPE has once more landed on our shores, after an absence of nearly_thirty The King of the French, as the monarch years, during a greater part of which Europe of a great country, was entitled to our respect has witnessed in his person the spectacle of a and attention; and as the personal friend of great man struggling with adversity. His our Sovereign, he has received a welcome master mind has, however, enabled him to which he cannot hereafter reflect upon but grapple successfully with difficulties, before with feelings of the highest satisfaction. His which many a bolder and less adventurous Majesty has lived too long in the world, and spirit would have recoiled. The presence of has seen too much of the vicissitudes of fortune, the King of the French as the honored guest not fully to appreciate the genuine and manly of our Sovereign is an event of deep and stir-expression of a nation's feelings which he has ring interest to all classes of the community. experienced on this occasion. His reception Whether we regard this auspicious inter- has been warm and generous-it was the rechange of courtesy, at the present juncture, spect which a great nation can afford to pay between the two most powerful monarchs of to a great man. the universe, in a political or social point of Since his arrival the proudest and the view, its importance as an historical occur- haughtiest nobles of the land have flocked rence of the first magnitude must be conced- from their feudal castles to pay their respects ed by all who take the slightest notice of to him whom all have delighted to honor. public affairs. The principle of hereditary Men of high principle and of every shade of succession is a part and parcel of our constitu- political opinion have laid aside their prejution, and any departure from the fixed rules dices to offer their respectful homage to the and spirit of legitimacy is viewed with dis- Monarch who has achieved such magnificent trustful jealousy by the great majority of the and such peaceful triumphs. His Royal HighBritish people, but it should be remembered ness Prince Albert, accompanied by the ilthat there is a tide in the affairs of nations as lustrious Hero of the age, hastened to greet well as of men, and this tide was taken at the the august traveller, and welcome him to our flood by Louis Philippe. The bark which shores, ere he had yet landed from the stately bore this adventurous Cæsar and his fortunes vessel which conveyed him across the Chanwas steered by him with surpassing dexterity | nel. in its perilous course, until he was carried by

There are two circumstances connectthe current of events to his present lofty posi-ed with this visit which have impressed us tion, where we have since seen him uphold- with even a higher opinion of Louis Philippe ; ing the dignity of his country, and by his-the first is the feeling manner in which he prudence, skill, and indomitable perseverance, enabling France to maintain her place among the nations of Europe.

Louis Philippe, by the steady policy he has pursued since his accession to the throne of France, has entitled himself to the respect of the world. He has preserved peace when that was no easy task; he has maintained the dignity of his crown without disturbing the tranquillity of Europe; and by the firmness of his government he has prevented the irritable feelings of his subjects from embroiling his country in war. France and England have but too often regarded each other, from their position, as "natural enemies;" let us hope that, in future, this circumstance, which has been so frequently a cause for war, will be good ground for peace.

alluded to the friendship existing between him and our own loved Queen:-"I account it my very good fortune," said his Majesty, at Portsmouth, " to be again visiting your shores, and enabled to express to her Majesty my sincere affection, my warm friendship, and my gratitude for the many tokens of friendship she has bestowed upon me. We are happy in believing this the langnage of sincerity. This compliment to the Queen of Great Britain was delicately uttered in the midst of the subjects of both countries, and before the King had touched our shores. Nor can the visit to Twickenham on Thursday be regarded but as an evidence that Louis Philippe has not forgotten the protection and hospitality he once experienced as an exile in this country. We repeat, that the friendly intercourse beThere could be in this country but one feel-tween the Sovereigns of France and England ing of respect for the talents and the station of the illustrious Monarch, now on a visit to her Majesty. It is impossible that Louis Philippe could expect other than a warm welcome in England; and in this he has not been disappointed. A century ago such a visit as that paid by our loved Queen to France last year, and the return which Louis Philippe is making, would have been considered next to impossible. But the petty jealousies which then existed between nations and individuals have DECEMBER, 1844.

34

cannot fail to have an influence, however remote, upon the political relations of both countries, and to strengthen his Majesty's hands in the good work of peace, which it has been his aim to preserve since his accession to the throne of France.

This, it must be acknowledged by all who have the welfare of their country at heart, is a consummation most devoutly to be wished, and at which all must rejoice. The record of this auspicious event, and of the triumphant