with your money in your hand and be returned quietly, nor could all Lord Fitzwilliam's patronage get you returned, without paying down pretty handsomely also. At the last election Lord Fitzwilliam's two friends came in; but they managed the matter in so slovenly a manner, that, upon a petition, they were at once unseated; and now the Whigs, in revenge, would have the franchise carried away to Birmingham, where they no doubt think they are pretty sure of adding two to their strength on the opposition benches. This scheme, like all others of Whig justice, is synonymous with injustice. I do not mean to say, that to receive forty guineas per burgess for their votes, is, in the East Retford phraseology, "all right," but I will maintain, that totally to dis franchise the entire body of the elec tors, and not only them, but their successors for all time to come, because some of the present electors have taken "a consideration" for their votes, would be a proceeding of very violent injustice. The number of burgesses is 130, of whom some have doubtlessly committed offences, which, having been proved, might reasonably be supposed to justify a measure for preventing those individuals from ever voting again; but the Whig political doctors, instead of amputating a diseased limb, propose forthwith to knock the patient on the head, to take away his possession from his children, and to bestow it on others in a distant land. Here is a sample of what Whigs call "liberality"-they would commit an act of spoliation upon the ancient franchises of the kingdom, for the purpose of being extremely gene rous to the mob. The scheme is marked with the two standing characteristics of all Whig schemes; hatred to established regulations, and stupidity in the contrivance of new ones to supply their place. Their bill, after assuming that East Retford ought to be disfranchised, and declaring that it is so, goes on to say, that in consequence of the population, wealth, trade, and so forth, of Birmingham, it ought to be permitted to send two members to Parliament. Now, perhaps this is true; at all events I shall not contend that it is not; but true or false, it is no good reason why the rights of East Retford should be beVOL. XXIII.

stowed there. If ancient and established franchises are to be broken up, and scattered, to be scrambled for by the greatest and richest crowd, certainly Birmingham would not come first. The city of Glasgow, I should think, would have a claim to priority of con sideration; but in truth, if representation were distributed according to the rule which Whigs allege to be so reasonable, it is neither Birmingham nor even Glasgow, but the parish in which I now sit, and its adjoining one, to whom, on their principles, the right should be transferred.

The comparative claims of the two parishes of which the town of Birmingham consists, and the two parishes of St Marylebone, and St Pancras, in the county of Middlesex, and me, tropolis of London, stand thus. Bir mingham by the latest population return, which is not indeed a very recent one, contained 85,000 inhabitants, and the assessment for property tax on the town was on £247,000. By the same returns the population of the two London parishes was 167,000, and the property tax was assessed on £747,000. If the calculations were made now, the proportion would be infinitely more in favour of the latter parishes, as of late years they have increased with prodigious rapidity. But it will be said the freeholders of these parishes are voters in Middlesex-so are the freeholders of Birmingham in Warwickshire. And be it remembered, that whereas the county of Middlesex, including London and Westminster, returns only eight members to Parliament, or (still taking the old population return) one representative for 150,000 persons; Warwickshire sends six members, or one for every 45,730 persons. It is worthy too of being known, that in the great contest between Burdett and Mainwaring for the county of Middlesex, where, to use a rather striking expression of a strong partisan," they almost raised the dead to vote;" from these two immense parishes of St Marylebone and St Pancras, only 95 persons voted; so limited is the number of freehold proprietors. If then the Whigs will have representatives nicely balanced to numbers and property, it is clear that to send the franchise of East Retford to Birmingham is absurd. I am well aware they may plead that

3 P

the more absurd it is, the more consistent are they with their general conduct, in supporting it; but I leave them to the full benefit of this defence.

If anything be done to improve the system of our common-law courts, Brougham will doubtless take all the credit to himself and his seven hours' speech, though every one that can spare the time, and will take the trouble to wade through the said speech, must find a quantity of shallowness and extravagance, which demonstrate that the framer of it is ut terly unfit to conduct any practical improvement. The Solicitor General, who is quite an admirable fellow in his way, though not much of a politician, showed this clearly and calmly enough, in his reply; and Mr Brougham made this rather strange kind of apology for his seven-hours' speech that he thought something was necessary to divert the people, who had to listen to such dry details. I suppose he thought this requisite upon the same principle that the opera people relieve the tediousness of a dull piece, by introducing a divertisement between the acts, in which people toss and fling their legs about in all manner of wild contortions. No doubt Mr Brougham did occasionally create a little diversion, and one set of members after another may have stopped an hour or so to witness the exhibition; but they would have done the same had it been that poor man Mazurier, who died the other day, that was playing his monkey tricks amongst the benches. For my part, I think it would have been much more suitable, and much more for the convenient dispatch of public business, if Mr Brougham had talked common sense upon his subject for one

ness, which, Whig though he be, I know he can assume, than to pour upon Parliament and the public as he did, a repulsive mass of prolixity, extravagance, bad principles, and worse jests; and that, too, most probably, for no greater or more worthy purpose, than to make the public wonder at a man that could talk seven hours without stopping.

But it is time that I should conclude this letter, and leave the Whigs for the present. I hope they will consider what has been said, as it has been written for their instruction, and amend their courses accordingly. Much as I hate them, my hatred is not of that unchristian kind which precludes the wish to do them good.

How is your gout, my worthy friend? I hope as the spring advances you will find relief. "Tis a very gentlemanly complaint, but deuced annoying sometimes. I don't think Whigs ever have the gout-they sometimes get a twinge of rheumatism which they mistake for it, but Whigs have not genuine gout; the cold juices of their system do not generate it.

I believe Sir Francis Burdett has genuine gout sometimes, but he is a misguided English gentleman, and no Whig, as he has expressly declared. To say the truth, I am glad that Whigs do not get the gout, as I would not that they should share even a complaint in common with his Majesty King George the Fourth, whom God long preserve, and Christopher North! whose name if I have placed after the prayer, it is not that I love him less, but that I honour the King more, and he will not the less on that account believe that I am His most sincerely,

A WHIG-HATER,

J

THIS little book is evidently the production of a man of genius. The style is singularly neat, terse, concise, and vigorous, far beyond the reach of an ordinary mind; the strain of sentiment is such as does infinite honour to the author's heart; and the observation of human life, by which every page is characterized, speaks a bold, active, and philosophical intellect. As a medical treatise it is excellent-but its merit is as a moral dissertation on the nature, causes, and effects of one of the most deplorable and pernicious vices that can degrade and afflict all the ongoings of social life.

It was not likely, that a work of so much spirit and originality should not very soon attract notice; and accordingly, we are pleased, but not at all surprised, to see that it has already reached a second, and a greatly extended and improved edition. It is perfectly free from all quackery and pretension; the writer does not belong to the solemn and stupid Goldheaded-cane School; he writes with much of the animation and vivida vis animi of the late incomparable John Bell; but the character of his style, of his sentiments, and of his opinions, is his own, and his little most entertaining, interesting, and instructive Treatise is stamped from beginning to end with the best of all qualities originality-of itself enough to hide a multitude of defects, but which is here found allied with uniform sound sense, sagacity, and discretion.

We think, then, that our readers will be obliged to us for an analysis of Mr Macnish's little work, accompanied with some occasional remarks of our own, and with some striking specimens.

"Drunkenness," Dr Macnish observes," is not like some other vices, peculiar to modern times. It is handed down to us from hoar antiquity;' and if the records of the antediluvian era were more complete, we should probably find that it was not, unknown to the father of the human race." Driven by sin from Paradise, if drunk

ever,

Let observation with extensive view survey mankind from China to Peru, and what one single small district of the habitable globe will be found, even on the Sabbath-day, perfectly sober? The possession of unclouded reason to the victims of sin and sorrow would seem to be felt as a curse. Therefore, they extract insanity from flowers and blossoms, bright with the blooms and fresh with the dews of heaven, and drink down their misery into dreamless sleep. True, as Mr Macnish says, " that drunkenness has varied greatly at different times and among different nations;" but, perhaps, take one country with another, though the spirit of the age has va◄ ried, the quantum of the vice has been pretty much the same, drunkard has balanced drunkard, and earth herself continued to reel and stagger on

her axis.

Drunkenness prevails, we agree with the author, more in a rude than in a civilized state of society. It seems, too, to prevail to a much greater extent in northern than in southern latitudes.

"The nature of the climate renders this inevitable, and gives to the human frame its capabilities of withstanding li

quor; hence, a quantity which scarcely ruffles the frozen current of a Norwegian's blood, would scatter madness and fever into the brain of the Hindoo. Even in Europe, the inhabitants of the south are far less adapted to sustain intoxicating agents than those of the north. Much of

this depends upon the coldness of the climate, and much also upon the peculiar physical and moral frame to which that coldness gives rise. The natives of the south are a lively, versatile people; sanguine in their temperaments, and susceptible, to an extraordinary degree, of every impression. Their minds seem to inherit the brilliancy of their climate, and are rich with sparkling thoughts and beautiful imagery. The northern nations are the reverse of all this. With more intensity of purpose, with greater depth of reasoning powers, and superior solidity of judgment, they are in a great measure destitute of that sportive and creative brilliancy which hangs like a rainbow over the spirits of the south, and clothes them in a perpetual sunshine of delight. The one is chiefly led by the heart, the other by the head. The one possesses the beauty of a flower-garden, the other the sternness of the rock, mixed with its severe and naked hardihood. Upon constitutions so differently organized, it cannot be expected that a given portion of stimulus will operate with equal power. The airy inflammable nature of the first is easily roused to excitation, and manifests feelings which the second does not experience till he has partaken much more largely of the stimulating cause. On this account, the one may be inebriated, and the other remain comparatively sober upon a similar quantity. In speaking of this subject, it is always to be remember ed that a person is not to be considered a drunkard because he consumes a certain portion of liquor; but because what he does consume produces certain effects upon his system. The Russian, therefore, may take six glasses a-day, and be as temperate as the Italian who takes four, or the Indian who takes two. But even when this is acceded to, the balance of sobriety will be found in favour of the south: the inhabitants there not only drink less, but are, bona fide, more seldom intoxicated than the others. Those who have contrasted London and Paris, may easily verify this fact; and those who have done the same to the cities of Moscow and Rome, can bear still stronger testimony. Who ever heard of an Englishman sipping eau sucrée, and treating his friends to a glass of lemonade? Yet

such things are common in France; and, of all the practices of that country, they are those most thoroughly visited by the contemptuous malisons of John Bull." Mr Macnish "it is a common belief that wine was the only inebriasays, ting liquor known to antiquity; but

this is a mistake." We never heard of that common belief before, for who does not know, as well as himself, that Tacitus mentions the use of ale or beer as common among the Germans of his time-that the Egyptians swigged malt-liquor in the Deltathat a kind of Bell's Beer deluged the middle ages-that the interior of Africa was ever famous for brewing-that our Saxon ancestors were often drowned in mead-that the worshippers of Odin were drunkards of the first water-whence the songs of the Scandinavian Scalds, and the fuddled Futu rity of Valhalla-that ardent spirits were quaffed by the Arabians many many centuries ago-that from time immemorial arrack has been manufac tured in the island of Java and the continent of Hindostan-and that, in ancient times, Bacchus, and his companion Silenus, were as household words in the mouths of all, and constitute a most important feature of the Heathen mythology?

Mr Macnish has a chapter on the causes of drunkenness-and it is an excellent one-every sentence in it being concise and vigorous; although we think him in some points rather heterodox.

"There are some persons who will never be drunkards, and others who will be so in spite of all that can be done to prevent them. Some are drunkards by choice, and others by necessity. The former have an innate and constitutional fondness for liquor, and drink con amore, Such men are usually of a sanguineous temperament, of coarse unintellectual minds, and of low and animal propensities. They have, in general, a certain rigidity of fibre, and a flow of animal spirits which other people are without. They delight in the roar and riot of drinking clubs; and with them, in particular, all the miseries of life may be referred to the bottle.

"The drunkard by necessity was never meant by nature to be dissipated. He is perhaps a person of amiable dispositions, whom misfortune has overtaken, and who, instead of bearing up manfully against it, endeavours to drown his sor

rows in liquor. It is an excess of sensibility, a partial mental weakness, an absolute misery of the heart, which drives him on. Drunkenness, with him, is a consequence of misfortune; it is a solitary dissipation, preying upon him in silence. Such a man frequently dies broken-hearted, even before his excesses have had time to destroy him by their own unassisted agency.

"Some become drunkards from excess of indulgence in youth. There are parents who have a common custom of treating their children to wine, punch, and other intoxicating liquors. This, in reality, is regularly bringing them up in an apprenticeship to drunkenness. Others are taught the vice by frequenting drinking clubs and masonic lodges. These are the genuine academies of tippling. Twothirds of the drunkards we meet with, have been there initiated in that love of intemperance and boisterous irregularity which distinguish their future lives. Men who are good singers are very apt to become drunkards, and, in truth, most of them are so, more or less, especially if they have naturally much jovialty or warmth of temperament. A fine voice to such men is a fatal accomplishment."

The distinction here made between choice and necessity, seems to us scarcely justifiable. We never shall believe, that whole classes of men have, beyond their fellow Christians, an innate and constitutional fondness for liquor still less, that "they will be drunkards in spite of all that can be done to prevent them." On the 'contrary, keep men" of a sanguineous temperament, coarse and unintellectual minds, and low animal propensities," at good, sound, healthy, wholesome, hard work, with moderate, not extravagant wages, and they will be, though not highly ornamental, yet very useful members of the state, and not grossly addicted either to women or whisky. There are many grades in society, to which such persons are admirably well suited; and if strictly and sternly overlooked, which they ought to be, (for a certain surveillance should guard all the occupations of the lower orders,) they make capital daylabourers, carpenters, masons, slaters, hodmen, and chimney-sweeps. That rigidity of fibre, and that flow of animal spirits, of which the Doctor speaks, will under such a system of things

cheese and bread and small beergreat, big, broad-breasted, roundshouldered, muscular monsters, with red faces, and redder whiskers, whom you see plastering gable ends with trowels, carrying lime up ladders, and riding on the rigging of houses ten stories high. Such fellows delight, we do not doubt it, in the roar and riot of drinking clubs; but they also delight in the genial feeling of natural hunger and thirst coming upon them at morning, mid-day, and evening meal

they will take a screed now and then, but are not-let us do them jus

tice-soakers and sots-nor with them ferred to the bottle." must "all the miseries of life be re

But suppose that such persons were grossly addicted to liquor, why should Mr Macnish call them drunkards by choice? And those other "persons of amiable dispositions, whom misfortune has overtaken," drunkards by necessity? There is just as much choice, and just as much necessity, in the one case as in the other. Excess of sensibility-partial mental weakness-solitary dissipation-unmanly yielding to misfortune-must they be more gently dealt with than the debauches of the stout, coarse, ruddy Bacchanalian, with rigid fibres and high animal spirits? Ought the one to be sentimentally panegyrised in our pity, and the other unsparingly condemned in our repugnance? By no manner of means. The latter is, in all respects, the more despicable and hateful character of the two; and while, as Mr Macnish says, he fre quently "dies broken-hearted," the former contrives to live on with mere ly an occasional disordered stomach. Be that as it may, they are equally sinners from choice-or rather, we do not hesitate to say, that as the case is put, the excuse of necessity would seem to lie rather on the side of the rosy roysterer than of the pale re cluse.

hind his papa's chair, in eager expectation of the customary rummer of