the language affords--these, the natural care and province of a lettered court, are utterly unheeded by the circles of the English aristocracy. Nor is there any other circle, since literary men with us are so little gregarious, that repairs their inattention; and our rational conversation is for the most part carried on in a series of the most extraordinary and rugged abbreviations-a species of talking shorthand. Hesitating, humming, and drawling, are the three graces of our conversation.

The refinement which is so general, and at the same time so truly impressive in the higher orders in France, is derived from the peculiarity of the constitution of society; for men of letters and genius are constantly drawn towards the upper classes, and thus a sort of grace, purely spiritual or intellectual, is conferred upon them. In England, a wide difference from this state of things exists, and here it is usual to consider a man of genius an eccentric, unfit for society; so that it is seldom that men, distinguished by their intelligence, are found frequenting what is usually called the best society in this country. In truth, literary men, as such, have no specific relation whatever in society; and it generally happens, that whatever position they do occupy, is determined not by their eminence in letters, but by their birth, connexions, and sometimes their wealth. The whole chapter on literary men is excellent, and shows in the writer a perfect power of penetration into the main springs of human action.

Mr. Bulwer devotes an elaborate paper to the social habits of the population, and enters minutely into the operation of the poor laws, which he unsparingly condemns in principle. From this he proceeds to the terrible history of early suffering which is developed in the parliamentary reports and minutes connected with the factory system. From this general view of the operative classes, and of the elements which influence their condition, it is concluded by Mr. Bulwer, that their common characteristic, even amidst all their sufferings, is "a desire to better their condition." They all have the wish for knowledge. They go to the gin-shop, and yet there they discuss the elements of virtue! Apprenticed to the austerest trials of life, they acquire a universal sympathy with oppression. "Their country is the world." You see this tendency in all their political theories; it is from the darkness of their distress, that they send forth the loud shouts which terrify injustice. It is their voice which is heard the earliest, and dies the latest, against wrong in every corner of the globe; they make to themselves common cause with spoliated Poland-with Ireland, dragooned into silence with the slaves of Jamaica-with the human victims of Indostan wherever there is suffering, their experience unites them to it; and their efforts, unavailing for themselves, often contribute to adjust the balance of the world. As (in the touching Arabian proverb) the barber learns his art on the orphan's face, so legislation sometimes acquires its wisdom by experiments on distress.

Mr. Bulwer, for the purpose of changing this demoralized condi. tion of society, proposes two methods of cure, the one physical, the other moral. The first consists in restraining pregnant women from weakening and exhausting toils-and preventing too young children from labouring at all, or at all events from labouring too long. The moral cure, which is to crown the success of the physical, is comprehended in the single word-education. The advantages which are usually represented as being derived from public charities, are placed in this work in a very doubtful point indeed. The Reverend Mr. Stone, a clergyman of London, has in a vein of happy humour illustrated the abuses to which the facilities of obtaining public assistance are liable:

He supposes a young weaver of twenty-two marrying a servant-girl of nineteen. Are they provident against the prospects of a family-do they economise-toil-retrench?-No: they live in Spitalfields, and rely upon the Charitable Institutions. The wife gets a ticket for the " Royal Maternity Society," she is delivered for nothing-she wants baby-linenthe Benevolent Society supply her. The child must be vaccinated-he goes to the Hospital for Vaccination. He is eighteen months old," he must be got out of the way;"-he goes to the Infant School ;-from thence he proceeds, being "distressed," to the Educational Clothing Society, and the Sunday Schools. Thence he attains to the Clothing Charity Schools. He remains five years he is apprenticed gratis to a weaver-he becomes a journeyman-the example of his parents is before his eyes-he marries a girl of his own age-his child passes the ancestral round of charities—his own work becomes precarious-but his father's family was for years in the same circumstances, and was always saved by charity; to charity, then, he again has recourse. Parish gifts of coals, and parish gifts of bread, are at his disposal. Spitalfields' Associations, Soup Societies, Benevolent Societies, Pension Societies-all fostering the comfortable luxury of living gratuitously he comes at length to the more fixed income of parish relief"he begs an extract from the parish register, proves his settlement by the charity-school indenture of apprenticeship, and quarters his family on the parish, with an allowance of five shillings a week. In this uniform alternation of voluntary and compulsory relief, he draws towards the close of his mendicant existence. Before leaving the world, he might, perhaps, return thanks to the public. He has been born for nothing-he has been nursed for nothing-he has been clothed for nothing-he has been educated for nothing-he has been put out in the world for nothing-he has had medicine and medical attendance for nothing-and he has had his children also born, nursed, clothed, fed, educated, established, and physicked-for nothing!"-vol. i., pp. 231-233.

In book the third we have a copious exposition of the state of education, both aristocratical and popular, and of the general influences of morality and religion in this country. Mr. Bulwer shows the defects of the scholastic institutions provided for the higher classes, and strongly recommends to that body the policy of effecting a change, which shall be able to substitute for a superfi

cial education, now the habitual result of their instruction, a real and sound one.

Some admirable and highly practical remarks follow, in this volume, on popular education, on the Church of England as a medium of instruction, and on the progress of intemperance in these countries. The subjects comprized in this list are comparatively familiar to most of our readers, so that we pass them over, in order to reach topics which, possessing nearly as much interest, have also a considerably greater portion of novelty. Of the latter we may mention Mr. Bulwer's chapters on literature, but especially on the influence of the press, the nature and extent of which he very judiciously appreciates. A newspaper is undoubtedly the representative of opinions, but not, as is so erroneously believed, of the individuals who conduct it, but of those amongst whom it circulates. Attention to this very delicate, but at the same time very important distinction, will render the whole business of newspaper circulation perfectly intelligible. The function of a newspaper is not to establish new theories, or to make proselytes to new doctrines; it only circulates amongst those with whose opinions it agrees; it adheres to the support of those opinions, and is constantly employed in discovering fresh arguments for the maintenance of the cause to which it is attached. But it is equally true, that newspapers do occasionally originate opinions and public impressions, which have a considerable share in modifying the state of society. Some very curious remarks are also made by Mr. Bulwer, on the anonymous principle on which the various periodicals are conducted, on the causes why the press is so generally anti-aristocratic, and lastly, on the advantages of publicity.

In the portion of the second volume, in which Mr. Bulwer comes to speak of the general state of literature, we find him strongly impressed with a belief that it is subject to the charge of sterility. There is no doubt that we possess amongst our contemporaries writers of extraordinary powers, and of competency to render justice to the subjects which they have selected for their studies; but then the eternally recurring question is put, "where are the fruits --where the great prose-works-where the master-pieces of criticism and the belles lettres?" In the department of imagination, poetry, for instance, we shine the brightest star of the intellectual firmament; but in every branch of literature, history, moral philosophy, politics, (save always political economy,) we have scarcely a writer who deserves to have his name placed even second in rank to those of former times who have obtained the first place. In his very interesting dissertation on this subject, Mr. Bulwer takes occasion to characterize some of the chief writers of modern times, such as D'Israeli, Hazlitt, Southey, &c. But upon consideration, Mr. Bulwer thinks he perceives a cue to the mystery which involves the right answer to the question already put-" where are the evidences to be found of the existence of mighty writers

amongst us?" The reply is, that we must seek them-not in detached, avowed, and standard publications-we must search for them in the periodicals, the quarterly, the monthly, and in some few instances, the weekly journals. Some commentaries follow on portions of Byron's works, and the conclusion to which the remarks of Mr. Bulwer, in this part of his work, gives rise, is, that Lord Byron must be regarded as the type of his age, and that whilst the merits of his eastern tales are over-rated, his tragedies are altogether under-valued. But after thus pursuing his main task in selecting the more popular influences of the intellectual spirit of the present day, he is unwilling to dismiss the subject without noticing that deep under-current of imagination and intellectual power, formed by writers whose influence is of a nature that is incapable of being buoyant on the surface. Wordsworth and Shelley are selected as the representatives of this particular class, and of the former especially, Mr. Bulwer entertains the very highest opinion, representing him as being peculiarly German in his mental habits, from his singular "householdness" of feeling, from the minute and accurate manner with which he follows his ardour for nature into the smaller links and harmonies which may be considered as her details. We shall not follow our author through the series of reflections which he makes on the degree of excellence, and of corresponding influence, to which the chief poets of this country have arrived, as instruments of moral influence; but Mr. Bulwer appears to be satisfied, that between Byron and Scott, and Wordsworth and Shelley, the four "kings of verse," imaginative literature has usurped the power which properly belongs to the jurisdiction of philosophical literature; and thus he shows that one of the most decided impressions which mark the present time, has been the result of its imaginative literature (including, of course, the novels by Sir Walter Scott).

One of the most judicious statements which the author has made, is that concerning the present abundance of cheap publications, which no doubt are very excellent things in themselves, inasmuch as they diffuse information, but then how little do they advance it! He next remarks, that the style of modern writers is improved in clearness, in spirit, and in approximating more to a natural state than formerly; but he adds, that it is less erudite and less polished, and that it is much oftener tainted by extravagance than before.

The observations of Mr. Bulwer upon the drama are just and convincing, and from the attention paid by him in his parliamentary capacity to the subject, his remarks assume an authority which merits a great degree of confidence. The suggestions which he offers respecting the sources of interest in dramatic compositions, should be carefully studied by those who are interested in this branch of our literature.

In resuming the question respecting the present state of moral

philosophy in this country, Mr. Bulwer shows that the only form in which philosophy is now studied, is that of politics, and that in the pursuit of political economy will be found at present all those superior minds which, under different circumstances, would have addicted themselves to metaphysical and moral researches; and as a personal illustration of the truth of this representation, Mr. Bulwer presents us with an account of the labours of Jeremy Bentham. In the chapter on the state of science, the author strenuously contends, that the adepts in the higher branches of science, in those which produce what is merely as yet theoretical, should be encouraged by the State; whilst, in most cases, those who contribute inventions of practical value, will be amply remunerated by the natural operation of a general sense of the service rendered by them. The distribution of patronage and the perverted exercise of aristocratic influence, as respects their operation on the scientific world, and particularly as carried on through the medium of the Royal Society, form the materials of a considerable portion of this volume. In his views on this question, however, we must say that Mr. Bulwer too servilely adopts the facts and reasoning of Mr. Babbage, and it would be easy to demonstrate that their notions about the scientific circles of Paris are any thing but correct.

With respect generally to the state of the arts, including sculpture, painting in all its branches, engraving, and architecture, the result of the consideration which Mr. Bulwer extensively affords to each of these subjects, may be thus summed up: First, that there is no cause to complain of their decline;-secondly, that as those efforts of art most adapted to private favour have succeeded far more amongst us than those adapted to the public purposes of a state, so the absence of state encouragement, and the preponderance of individual patronage, have operated prejudicially on the grander schools. Even (with a few distinguished exceptions) our finest historical paintings, such as those of Martin, are on a small scale of size, adapted more for the private house than the public hall; and it is mostly on achievements which appeal not to great passions, or to pure intellect-but to the household and domestic interests-that our higher artists have lavished their genius.

"But (concludes Mr. B.) as I consider that the architecture of a nation is one of the most visible types of its prevalent character, so in that department all with us is comfortable and nothing vast. A sense of poetry is usually the best corrector and inspiration of prose-so a correspondent poetry in the national mind not only elevates the more graceful, but preserves also a noble and appropriate harmony in the more useful, arts. It is that POETRY OF MIND which every commercial people should be careful to pre- serve and to refresh."

The fifth and last book in the work contains a view of the political condition of the country. To follow our author through the details of this branch of the general subject, would carry us much