party, when in possession of that power which had been for so many years the object of their wishes, that the sorrow and humiliation with which they filled those persons who had hoped for better things, could only be equalled by the pleasure of their enemies, and the astonishment of all men. Every debate afforded some fresh instance of pliability; old doctrines were recanted, new ones, which were utterly incompatible, advanced; and language, which had formerly been used for the purpose of obtaining popularity, was explained away, till no meaning was left which could either have flattered the mob, or offended the most submissive devotee of the crown. "What shall we hear unsaid to-night?" was the triumphant sneer with which the New Opposition used to enter the House of Commons; and the general question was,---If these be the principles of the Foxites, what is it that has kept them out of place till now? To these causes of general disgust, (for, except the mere hangers-on of the party, all persons were disgusted, those whose opinions were taken up, and those whose opinions were cast off, alike,) other circumstances are to be added, which were even more offensive to the public feeling. Never before had so total a displacement been made in the offices of state; hitherto such changes had been confined to those great places which are the stakes for which the game of politics is played: the revolution extended farther now, and men, too humble, it might have been thought, to be considered as belonging to any party, and who regarded themselves, and were regarded, as possessing alife-hold property in their respective situations, were ejected to nake room for set of hungry par

tizans. The facetious complaint of the leader of the party, that they lay three in a bed, got abroad; and the people of England sorrowfully remembered the old fable of the Fox and the Flies.

Nevertheless, this ministry, deplorably as it disappointed the nation in other respects, has the merit of having effected the two most important and beneficial measures of the present reign. Mr Windham's Army Bill is the one. By this, the country was relieved from the mode of raising the militia by ballot, a method in every respect the worst that could be devised: operating upon those who can afford to pay for substitutes, as a tax by lottery; upon the poor, as absolute compulsion; and impeding the regular recruiting service, by tending inevitably to raise the price of men. No law was ever yet so beneficial to the whole peasantry, and poor of England, as that which delivered them from this great and heavy evil. That part of the bill, which substitutes service during a limited term of years, for that indefinite and hopeless bondage to which our soldiery had hitherto been doomed, had long been called for by enlightened men; its consequences, if left to their natural operation, will, in the course of half a century, fill our towns, villages, and hamlets, with men, who, having employed the rest> less activity of youth in seeing the world, and retired, when that restlessness is abated, to calmer occupations, will at all times be ready for the effectual defence of their country; and will, by their stories of what they have seen, excite the rising generation to follow the same course. The crimp, and the hardly less nefarious practices of the recruiting serjeant, may thus be dispensed with;

and a soldier's life, into which, under the old system, the criminal was forced, the innocent inveigled, and only the dissolute and desperate voluntarily entered, would become the deliberate, and not imprudent choice, of young mechanics and peasants; so that, once to have served, would almost be regarded as a regular part of their way of life. As this bill removed one reproach from our army, so also was it regarded as a pledge that other disgraceful parts of our military system would be done away, whenever the power of the ministry should be commensurate to the disposition which they indicated. It was hoped that corporal punishment would be exchanged for some wiser and humaner means of amendment, and that a method would be devised of assimilating martial law to the principles of freedom and of justice. The abolition of the African slavetrade was their other redeeming act; an act of more certain, unmingled, permanent, and extensive good, than it ever before fell to the lot of any prince, potentate, statesman, or government to effect. Thomas Clarkson is the man, whom this age, and all succeeding ages, are bound to bless and reverence, as the main cause and mover of this abolishment, under that Almighty Father who inspired and strengthened him. With him the work began; it was carried on by the unabating zeal of Mr Wilberforce, and that excellent body of Christians, the Quakers; Mr Fox, as if foreseeing how soon his days were to be summed up, pledged the House of Commons, by one of his last measures, to accomplish it; and the honour of carrying it into effect was reserved for Lord Grenville, who, from the time that the question was first agitated, had zealously and sin

cerely espoused the cause of huma nity, and who has oftentimes said in the bosom of his family, when the triumphant result was not to be foreseen, that, come death when it would, the remembrance of the part which he had taken, would be his consolation. The royal assent to the abolition was not obtained till immediately before his dismissal from power; otherwise, it was his intention to have appointed a day of general thanksgiving throughout the British dominions. It was, indeed, an event worthy of being celebrated thus solemnly; and the day whereon it was completed, should have been set apart for commemoration, of joyful piety for evermore.

In

The late ministry are entitled to the more praise for these redeeming measures, inasmuch as they had to contend for both against the greatest and most formidable influence. fact, neither all their political errors, nor their political sins, occasioned them such powerful enemies, and they were hated most for the good which they had done. The army bill was an experiment, an innovation; things more annoying to the sons of darkness, than day-light to the birds of night. The abolition provoked the desperate hatred of all those whose interests were involved in the trade of man-stealing; a body of men, who, during the long struggle between good and evil, which Clarkson had occasioned, availed themselves of tentimes of means hardly less infamous than the cause which they defended. Accordingly, when the change of ministry rendered a new parliament necessary, no other place in England was disgraced by such riots as Liverpool. Their late member, Mr Roscoe, was not less remarkable for his private virtues, than

eminent throughout all Europe for his literary productions. Born a mong them, and living among them, they who differed from him the most widely in opinion, had hitherto respected his high and spotless character; yet, on his re-appearance as a candidate, ruffians were posted to. attack him; the horse of one of his friends was stabbed, and a young man killed; so that, to prevent farther evils, he withdrew from a contest which was carried on against him by force of arms.

The question upon which this ministry ventured to try their strength with the king, and in which they were compelled to yield not only the measure in dispute, but their authority also, increased the load of unpopularity under which they laboured. After the manner in which the subject of Catholic Emancipation had previously been waived, they lost more credit now by the want of sagacity which was betrayed in thus bringing it forward, than they gained by their adhering to the principle, even among those who favoured it. But they who favoured this Emancipation, as it is absurdly and falsely denominated, (for the word implies a previous state of bondage,) were chiefly of two descriptions;-Dissenters, who consider a repeal of the Test Act as its necessary consequence; and men, whose readiness to tolerate any system, proceeds from their indifference to all. A third class may be added,----those who, knowing the truth, and loving it sincerely and ardently, believe that pure religion may grant safely to all forms of error, that perfect liberty

which is all that it requires for itself; but these persons are few in number, and are not those whose voice is heard abroad. The majority of the people had never thought of the question, till an appeal was made to them concerning it by a general election; but they knew that popery was a bad thing, against which their fathers had borne testimony at the stake, which had been subdued with great difficulty, and which, for two centuries, had been considered as perilous to the state; this they knew, and their natural conclusion was, that it could not be right now to encourage, what it had so long been our object to destroy.

The opponents of the measure were of two classes; the first and loudest were a base crew, the hired retainers of party, and the noisy hunters after preferment. Their cry was, "The church is in danger;" they represented the fallen ministers as enemies to it, and their clamours were dishonourably and dangerously fomented by some of those who came into power upon the dismissal of their rivals. Others reasoned thus:---The proposed Emancipation would be useless at all times, and dangerous at present; dangerous, because its immediate effect would be to introduce. Irish priests into our army and navy; men acting under orders from a church which Buonaparte has ostentatiously restored, and which he will use in whatever manner his policy may require ;---useless, because it will not satisfy those whom it is intended to conciliate. It is not with such concessions that popery will be contented, nor with any thing short

of its full and paramount supremacy. Are, then, its advocates prepared to concede this? and have they forgotten that they who are themselves intolerant, have no claim to toleration? and that intolerance has been the uniform practice of the Catholic church, whenever and wherever it has had power to act upon its immutable and necessary principles?

Further it was urged, the English Catholics enjoy full liberty of conscience, and as many indulgencies as are compatible with the well-being of the Established Church. The religion of the country is the law of the country; and, to admit into parliament those persons whose desire and duty it is to bring about the subversion of that religion,---to place them in the situation of law-givers, would be a manifest and palpable absurdity. The rigorous penal statutes, which their own desperate measures formerly rendered necessary to the safety and very existence of government, have been relaxed as time and circumstances changed; they have the free and public exercise of their religion, and the unrestrained use of the press. More could neither reasonably be asked, nor consistently granted. And, indeed, indulgence was already carried too far; for, though it was not pretended that the increase of popery was now likely to endanger the public weal, there were instances of its occasioning great private distress, which could not have happened, if the old wise precautions were enforced. The monks and nuns who took refuge here from the revolutionary troubles in France, had been permitted, as many of them as pleased, to follow their accustomed way of life. Common humanity required this; but here toleration Should have stopt. It should not

have been permitted them to recruit their numbers by the admission of fresh members, and thus to perpetuate these communities, and re-establish monastic institutions in England; still less to wean away protestants from the established faith, and from their parents' houses, and induce them to take the monastic vows. The experience of all countries has shown that such institutions are prejudicial to the state, and in every way productive of more evil than good; and, if it be thought proper to represent them as Bedlams, which the maniacs chuse for themselves, it must not be forgotten that religious madness is infectious; that the Catholic clergy inoculate for it; and that they would not communicate the contagion, unless these hospitals were ready to receive the patients.

Let us not, it was said, deceive ourselves, nor imagine that the character of popery is to be taken from the Catholic laity of England. It is to their priesthood we must look; and from their publications we shall find, what indeed no man who understands the system can have doubted, that its character is indelible; that it is still the same bedarkened and bedarkening superstition. Bishop Gardiner has his advocates; the tricks of the continental miraclemongers are circulated here as undoubted works of divine interposition; and St Winifred works wonders, which are approved and published by the heads of the Catholic clergy. There is a coarse, but scriptural ap pellation, whereby our fathers were wont to designate the church of Rome. It is now the fashion to répresent her as a decayed gentlewoman, venerable for her years and misfortunes. Misfortunes may indeed entitle her to compassion, but