fore shall never stoop to flatter the working classes by delusive declamations against machinery; but we feel, on the other hand, that, when new machinery is likely to eject an established class of human labour, those who introduce it are bound-in justice as well as charity to make the change as gradual and the discharge of the poor people as little afflictive as possible. We think therefore that some of the exuberant philanthropy which the millowners of the League have been expending at Conferences' and Demon strations' about the country, would have been better employed at home in alleviating the immediate distresses of their own peoplein delaying rather than accelerating any unfavourable changes in the condition of the workmen and when such changes become inevitable, in making them gradual instead of rapid: one might expect from persons of such liberality and benevolence, that they would not have dismissed-as the Factory Reports state that they do-faithful and efficient servants fully equal to the work on which they had been employed, but too old to learn a new trade,' for the saving that might be made by the substitution of young persons and children.' We are not sanguine enough to dream that such indulgence could be exercised for any long time, or on any extensive scale-but is it ever attempted? Are these changes ever alleviated even by the cheap decency of sympathy, real or assumed? We desire these gentlemen to produce any circumstances in their management of their affairs or their dealings with their workmen, to show that they are, or ever have been, actuated by any other principle than that same object which they are pursuing as members of the League-namely, that of getting the most work they can for the least wages-a natural object we admit, and one which, as a matter of dry business, cannot be complained of; but we may, and we do, complain of the falsehood and hypocrisy which disguise this object under professions of liberality and philanthropy, and which endeavour to excite against other classes of the community all the odium of the frequent and extensive distress, which is, and, we fear, always must be, the inevitable result of their own manufacturing system. To conclude. We are satisfied that we have made out such a case against the Anti-Corn-Law Association and League, as no rational man in the country-not even, we trust, Lord Kinnaird himself-can resist. We have shown that these societies set out with a public and fundamental engagement to act by legal and constitutional means;' but that, on the contrary, all their proceedings have been in the highest degree unconstitutional, and, to the common sense of mankind, illegal. We have shown that their second fundamental engagement, that VOL. LXXI. NO. CXLI. Y 'no no party political discussion should be allowed at any of their meetings,' has been scandalously violated; and that the language of their speeches and their press has been not merely violent and indecent but incendiary and seditious. We have shown that, even from the outset, they endeavoured to menace the government and the legislature with the pressure of physical force, and that these threats continued with increasing violence, till lost at length in the tumult of the actual outbreak which they had provoked. We have shown that the Magistrates who belonged to these societies, instead of maintaining the peace and tranquillity of their respective jurisdictions, were amongst the most prominent and violent promoters of every species of agitation; and that, while all of them talked language and promulgated doctrines that endangered the public peace, some, the highest in authority, volunteered declarations which those inclined to disturb the public peace might reasonably consider as promises of, at least, impunity. We have shown that the League have spent, according to their own statement, 90,0007. in the last year, we know not exactly how, but clearly in furtherance of the unconstitutional, illegal, and dangerous practices which we have detailed. We have shown, we think, abundant reason to conclude that the 50,000l. which they are now endeavouring to raise is probably destined to the same, or perhaps still more illegal, unconstitutional, and dangerous practices. We have shown that-from first to last-their system has been one of falsehood and deception-from their original fundamental imposture of being the advocates of the poor-down to the meaner shifts of calling brutal violence freedom of discussion, and a subscription for feeding sedition and riot a fund for education or charity. And, finally, we hope we have shown that no man of common sense, of any party-if he only adheres to the general principles of the British Constitution-can hesitate to pronounce the existence of such associations-raising money-exciting mobsorganized-and-to use a term of the same Jacobin origin as their own, affiliated-for the avowed purpose of coercing the government and the legislature--can hesitate, we say, to pronounce the existence of such associations disgraceful to our national character, and wholly incompatible either with the internal peace and commercial prosperity of the country-or, in the highest meaning of the words—the SAFETY OF THE STATE. THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. ART. I.—Le Rhin. Lettres à un Ami, par Victor Hugo. 1842. is perhaps amongst the most innocuous productions of a very able but exaggerated and mischievous writer. His novels and fictions afford in literature the species of interest resulting in vulgar life from the spectacle of an execution: an intense excitement, which, without being evil, decidedly prepares the way for all evil; and never can they be perused without leaving a taint upon the mind. His delineations of passion are false: his descriptions wonderfully spirited, full of verve in their language, and of picturesque truth in detail; and the species of grotesque romance with which he invests the middle ages gives an interest to his scenes, persuading even the most plodding antiquary to pardon the occasionally fantastic heightening received by the picture from the warm fancy of the artist. And we have here many excellent specimens of the talent, which on other occasions he has so deplorably perverted and misused. It is curious to observe, on the Rhine, the contrast between the powerful steam-boats, and the relics of mediaval navigationlingering upon the mighty waters. Such are the great rafts, bearing a whole population in the loghouses, which seem to have slid down bodily from the Alps; and the grave sailing-boats, heavily and rudely built, whose names still remind us of the age when Faith entered into all the concerns of human life-the Pius, the Amor, the Sancta Maria, the Gratia Dei, &c.—whilst the rushing creations of modern science testify by their appellations-Queen Victoria, the Grand Duke of Hesse, the Duke of Nassau, the Leopold-how entirely the whole feeling as well as the aspect of society has changed. Your steam-boat,' says Victor Hugo, is painted and gilded; your old sailor contented himself with honest pitch and tar. Your steam-boat is a personification of speculation; your sailor of faith. Your steamboat advertises itself; your sailor prays. Your steamer depends on man's protection; your sailor on the aid of heaven.' This striking antithesis meets you-is forced upon you every moment on the Rhine. It is to be found, in fact, wherever we encounter the spirit of the age;'-but, perhaps, nowhere has Giant Steam effected a more potent change than on the great and national river of Germany. Before the opening of the continent, we, in England, might know something more of the Rhine than we did of the Orinoco, but certainly not so much as of the Ganges. Nor can the portion now constantly traversed each season, literally by myriads of travellers, be said to have been a navigable river; the rocks in one direction impeding the downward navigation: whilst upwards, there was no contending with the excessive swiftness of the stream. Dr. Burney (we think) drifted down upon a timber raft, and the account of his sufferings and privations in his little den offers a whimsical contrast to the comforts of the Dampfschiff, with its sofas, its table-d'hôte, its pavilion for the ladies, and what not besides. 6 It is one of the traditions of Strasburg, that they hesitated to accept the alliance of Bâle on account of the distance between the cities. Nay,' said the Baseler burghers, we will bring you a kettle of soup warm from our Rath-haus;' and this they effected by means of an enormous iron cauldron, which retained its caloric, whilst the exertions of twelve able-bodied rowers brought it to the capital of Alsace, just in plight to fulfil their promise, before the setting of the sun. No human foresight can calculate the effect which steam will produce by the conjunction of the continental states. The one most apparent, is the extinction of any remains of independence amongst the smaller powers. At this moment, the Belgians are exulting in the importance to be acquired by their country, as the connecting bond between the French and Prussian lines of railway. Belgium, as they boast, can make her terms with either suitor: as if France or Prussia, one or the other of them, whether in battlefield or congress, will not assuredly, for the very reason which gives such new consequence to Belgium, take all that the chances of preponderance may enable either of them to demand. All the romance of the Rhine is fast departing. We can hardly take account of the rapid changes which the physiognomy of its shores is sustaining, year by year. Old walls fall; venerable gates and battlements are replaced by Bellevues and British Hotels; churches are whitened and renovated, and castles restored-as Stolzenfels and the Rheinstein-in such a manner as to make the antiquary groan and the artist shudder. Nothing can possibly be in worse tea-garden taste, particularly as exhibited at Stolzenfels: miserable pasteboard battlements and cast-iron staircases encrusted upon the old grey walls; mullions of the true carpenter's Gothic inserted inserted in the windows; and no apparent indication of the slightest feeling which may induce us to hope for a cessation of these vulgar barbarities. We can only land occasionally with our pleasant tourist. Victor Hugo wisely made a stay at Andernach, a place which, as he justly observes, is far too much neglected; and the good-tempered Landlord of the König von Preussen now (1842) shows you, with much complacency, the comfortable room which Hugo occupied, and commanding an admirable view of the very picturesque watch-tower which forms so conspicuous an object from the banks of the Rhine. 'J'aurais voulu monter dans la curieuse tour que je vois de ma croisée, et qui est, selon toute apparence, l'ancienne vedette de la ville, mais l'escalier en est rompu et les voûtes en sont effondrées. Il m'a fallu y renoncer. Du reste, la magnifique masure a tant de fleurs, de si charmantes fleurs, des fleurs disposées avec tant de goût et entretenues avec tant de soin à toutes les fenêtres, qu'on la croirait habitée. Elle est habitée en effet, habitée par la plus coquette et la plus farouche à la fois des habitantes, par cette douce fée invisible qui se loge dans toutes les ruines, qui les prend pour elle seule, qui en défonce tous les étages, tous les plafonds, tous les escaliers, afin que le pas de l'homme n'y trouble pas les nids des oiseaux, et qui met à toutes les croisées et devant toutes les portes des pots de fleurs qu'elle sait faire, en fée qu'elle est, avec toute vieille pierre creusée par la pluie ou ébréchée par le temps.'-p. 190. The great, gloomy, ghostly church, with its double towers, is perhaps amongst the latest specimens of the romanesque; and the exterior of the east end still retains some very original, and as yet, very perfect frescoes, deserving much more attention than they have received. The whole is thoroughly German, and, having escaped renovation, save and except the horrible whitewash of the interior, may be consulted as a landmark in the history of architecture. Nor should we, though they are of another age and character, neglect the Giants, the Roland and the Oliver, who guard the interior portal of the Rhein-gate, the direct progenitors of the worthies, who, frowning, because tantalized, at the spectacle of the annual festivities of London city, still hold their station in Guildhall. From Andernach the traveller should also, without fail, proceed to Laach. Our friend Murray's hint, that at Brohl there is a good inn, where a basket stored with eatables should be provided, as nothing of the kind is to be had at the abbey of Laach,' is already quite needless; for the neat gast-haus within the Abbey Close will furnish all you can desire. The noble abbey church, first discovered by the Master of Trinity, is now in a condition |