and mystification we have seldom seen. considerably.

Here the trap narrows

In order to prove the low state of morality in the middling class, the author fixes on the trading part of the community- the shopkeepers; and instances the dishonesty contracted by their pursuits. Can any thing be more unfair than to select this part of the middle classes as a proper representative of the whole? Where are all our merchants, and rich manufacturers; where our thousands of professional, and literary, and scientific men? Where our second and third rate gentlemen, living on moderate certain incomes; where our retired tradesmen, who have left their temptations behind them? The matter is, that the intelligent middle classes are precisely those who are most opposed to corruption in church and state; and those, moreover, which include a great majority of the Dissenters. The object, therefore, is to lower them in the eyes of the public by invidious comparisons, or any other means.

But the lower classes are more moral than the middle; that is some comfort: but how is it proved? By setting aside all the numerous manufacturing bodies, and, indeed, every other, except the agricultural class, and instancing them as the representatives of the lower orders. That is, the very class who are entirely, 'from circumstances,' not from choice, under the complete control of the Tory landowners; and obliged to do their little all to support them. And the taking of these men, assumed to be the best of their order, and pitting them against the shopkeepers, assumed to be the worst of theirs, is intended, we suppose, for fair comparison. Our readers see at once, that the exaltation of this fraction of a class, at the expense of the other and differently disposed parts of it, and of the whole of the middle orders, is saying one word for the men, and two for Toryism.

But, oh, for a forty-tory power to sound the praises of the aristocracy! It is acknowledged by other nations (and also by Captain Marryat), that the nobility and gentry of England are the most moral, most religious, and most honorable classes, not only in our country, but in every other country in the world! The nature of their morals every body knows, we are speaking of the aristocracy-but their religion! They are high Churchmen and Tories, and with not more, we believe, than about half a dozen known exceptions, belong to that class of men who are opposed not only to Dissenters and the voluntary system-that would be a trifle in comparison-but to evangelical religion; the religion, that is, of the evangelists, of the New Testament, in short. It cannot then be the religion of the New Testament, with which they are chargeable. Nevertheless they are religious in our author's sense. Every one who reads the Quarterly, and other journals of the same party, must know well, that the reli

gion of which they are so fond of talking, is mere Church of Englandism, of real religion they know no more than a political pamphleteering bishop. But the aristocracy are supporters of the Church as by law-not religion-established; how else could younger sons be provided for? And how could they themselves be provided with ministers with whom their order could associate, if it were not for a Church which deals in worldly wealth and honors? They are, then, religious; and we suppose Lord Winchelsea, who has declared, that he would fight up to his knees in blood for the state Church, is the very capital of this high order, and the most religious man alive-a snug private duel or two notwithstanding, which such religion allows.

Seeing that there is no religion in any country, but that of the state church, it seems to us that the Scottish peer must be worse bestead than his English brethren. In Scotland he must attend the kirk, of course, as matter of conscience; but to fraternize with that body here, would constitute him a Dissenter; that is, an infidel-and who would be an infidel? Here, therefore, he attends the Church of England as a matter of conscience also; what is religion on one side the Tweed, being according to statechurch doctrine, infidelity on the other. So that, instead of not affording to keep one conscience, he is obliged to maintain two; one for each kingdom.

We hope our readers are convinced that the middle classes are rogues all;' one half of the lower orders only a little better, and that the Tory protegés among the latter, and the aristocracy, are the only people in the kingdom, who, as Baillie Jarvie says, are 'decent, sponsible persons.'

Heavy complaints-and as just as heavy-are made against the government of the United States for their want of honor, and breaches of faith in their national transactions with the Indians. We shall give an example.

To enumerate the multiplied breaches of faith towards the Indians would swell out this work to an extra volume. It was a bitter sarcasm of the Seminole chief, who, referring to the terms used in the treaties, told the Indian agents, that the white man's for ever,' did not last long enough. Even in its payment of the trifling sums for the lands sold by the Indians, and resold at an enormous profit, the American government has not been willing to adhere to its agreement; and two years ago, when the Indians came for their money, the American government told them, like an Israelite dealer, that they must take⚫ half money and half goods. The Indians remonstrated; the chiefs replied, our young men have purchased upon credit, as they are wont to do; they require the dollars, to pay honestly what they owe.

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Is our great father so poor?' said one chief to the Indian agent, 'I will lend him some money;' and he ordered several thousand dollars to be brought, and offered them to the agent.

In the Florida war, to which I shall again refer, the same want of faith has been exercised. Unable to drive the Indians out of their swamps and morasses, they have persuaded them to come into a council, under a flag of truce. This flag of truce has been violated, and the Indians have been thrown into prison, until they could be sent away into the far west, that is, if they survive their captivity which the gallant Osceola could not.'-Vol. ii. pp. 201, 202.

We need do no more than merely allude to the forcible occupation of the Texas.

All these, and many other things, are attributed in part to the want of moral principle in the government, and in part, also, to the inability of that government to resist the will of the majority. Far be it from us to attempt an extenuation or an apology for such flagrant wrong; but when it is imputed to the want of moral principle in a popular government, and to the ascendency of the majority-another name for democracy-we take leave to dispute the principle. Will Captain Marryat tell us by what kind of government the inhabitants of the Carib Islands were exterminated, by cruel labor, gunpowder, and bloodhounds? By what governments the infamous partition of Poland was effected, and its name erased from the list of independent nations? Or, to come nearer home, by what government the native princes of India were insulted, attacked, and deprived of their hereditary kingdoms, with the loss of thousands upon thousands of lives, and millions upon millions of subjects?

We could almost imagine from the beginning of chapter sixteen, vol. ii., that the author means merely to assert, that the American constitution was only not better than others; but he has been evidently laboring to prove it worse. If he did not think it so, what right has he to attempt to do it serious injury? If others are no better, why denounce this? He might as well attack our own institutions, as those that are no worse. The fact is, that this same will of the majority has always been a bugbear to persons of the author's opinions. The Tory maxim is, that government is intended for the benefit of the governors; that is, of the minority. The executive, of course, must always be in the hands of a minority; but it should be that minority which would consult the interests of the whole, and not that which will consider no interests but its own. It signifies little in effect, whether such atrocities as we have noticed are committed by a people too strong to be controlled by a government, or by a government too strong to be controlled by a people: but the attempt to charge them all upon democracy is so absurd, that it can only be accounted for by that obliquity, which the best formed minds are fated to contract, when forced into the mould of Toryism.

The errors of the voluntary system of religion are, according

to our author, one cause of the demoralization of the American people.

The power of the clergy is destroyed, and the tyranny of the laity has produced the effect of the outward form having been substituted for the real feeling, and hypocrisy has been but too often substituted for religion.-Vol. ii. p. 144.

The words tyranny and power should change places in the above sentence. The meaning of this is, that where the clergy have power, and can force a living from an unwilling people, they need not wear a mask; but may fearlessly indulge in any propensity, to which habit or constitution impel them. In this manner the imperfections of our natures may be fairly met;" and the people may contemn them if they like; but whether they like or not, they must pay them. Whereas among the voluntaries, the clergy must keep up at least the appearance of religion for their own sakes: a high though unintentional compliment to the voluntary system, from the mouth of an enemy. As these good people keep up the appearance of religion, Captain Marryat of course is able to read the heart; how else could he detect hypocrisy, when every outward indication of it was wanting? We cannot conceive how religion should prosper less in the hands of men who are respected and rewarded according to their labors and their usefulness, than in those of stall-fed worldlings, who are prodigally endowed for doing nothing-or worse. We had forgotten, however, while writing the last sentence, that supporting a state-church and hating Dissenters is religion,

We need not enter into any discussion on the voluntary principle; our readers are acquainted with the subject; and as to our opponents, it is a part of their religion to read and hear nothing that can be offered by, or for, Dissenters;* for which reason they are just as competent to form an opinion on the matter as a judge would be to decide a cause, after hearing the evidence on one side only. Hence it arises, that the numberless attacks of our opponents are directed against opinions that were never entertained, and positions that were never occupied.

We like an occasional illustration as well as Captain Marryat, it makes a point so much more intelligible. The night before the battle of Barnet, King Edward had placed his army before that of the enemy in such a manner, that his right wing greatly

* We should like to know how many clergymen above the rank of a curate, have read John Search, or Dr. Wardlaw's Lecturcs-the latter work, we are glad to see, is now to be had for a shilling, and is within the reach of every

one.

outflanked their left, leaving nothing opposed to their right. The Earl of Warwick, whose artillery was more numerous than the king's, and who had placed it in his right wing, taking for granted that his enemy was before him, kept up a furious cannonade in that direction; and Edward, with his usual tact, commanded perfect silence to be kept in his army, that the earl might not discover his mistake. The consequence was, that Warwick fired away all night at trees and bushes, leaving the position of his adversary untouched. In return for which piece of complaisance, and in a great measure in consequence of it, his aforesaid adversary thrashed him soundly the next morning. If Captain Marryat has nothing better to do, he may extract the moral of this.

That the voluntary system is the system of the United States, we conceive to be one of the best signs of the times for them. They have much to reform as well as others; but the living Christianity that is among them is sufficient for the purposetime and opportunity allowed-or rather time; the opportunity must be created, and the capability for aggressive warfare, is one of the best attributes of the voluntary system. There are many heavy crimes on the public conscience doubtless, and the gravest of them all is slavery. But a vigorous Christianity nevertheless, is the lever that will move them all. We do not wonder that men who are blind to the existence, and ignorant of the power of such a principle, should miscalculate the prospects of America. Heaven forbid, that she should ever be so dead to the lessons of wisdom and experience, as to establish within her that very despotism, from the cruelty and insolence of which the pilgrimfathers fled!

There is much of common sense and apparently of practical knowledge, in the dissertation on the state of Canada, and on this subject we are happy to agree with the author.

The most extraordinary part of the third volume is the author's reply to the Edinburgh Review; which would almost deserve a place amongst the curiosities of literature, were it not that it is the exact counterpart of almost every review that emanates from the party with which the author is connected. As it is not often that this kind of thing comes fairly before us for notice, we shall expend a few observations upon it, especially, as by doing so, we shall still further pursue the course which we have prescribed to ourselves.

6

The worthy Captain is wonderfully wrathy' that any one should presume to question his reckoning, or cross his course; did he expect to go-a-head'' like a streak of lightning' in the old tub, Tory,' that sails like a hay-stack; and that too with no one even to fire a shot athwart her bows? Did he think because he threw down the gauntlet with such an invincible air,