the two currents of prediction respecting these two sections of one nation run clear and distinct through all the Book, wherever they form its theme, so we doubt not that the proper key to many of them will be found in an identification, not only possible but certain at its proper time, and that proper time may be near although not now. Certainly they must be sought for as the possessors of great power, for this singularity of their condition appears to have been overlooked alike by many careful and a multitude of cursory readers; and very probably now as of old in divided communities, although open by common principles to confederated action. And singular although small in its character is the incident that the two greater of the constitutional and Protestant states of Europe-both undoubtedly representatives of one great race- -have not been confederated in recent times, for any ecclesiastical purpose except a matter of trifling expenditure connected with a bishopric at Jerusalem. So it will appear ere a few years pass away that political necessities and the purposes of statesmanship will compel us to occupy Syria, as the shortest route to India, for the Mahomedan power comes "to his end and none shall help him"-not that we would not "help him" in strict consistence with our treaties, but the fervour of the followers of the false prophet will destroy the policy of their western rulers, and as in Bengal and at Jeddo they will prevent those who would try to save from shielding them. Then we shall find from other events an alliance offensive and defensive of the constitutional and Protestant states of Europe; approaching almost to a confederacy necessary for their preservation, yet let any person investigate these matters even superficially and he will find that they are, with remarkably few exceptions, one race, whose language had one root; whose practices preserved a rude likeness of liberty until they fell into the feudal forms of Europe for a time; and whose national histories are struggles for civil and reli gious freedom, often ill-understood, but as respects their constitutional principles always founded on some tradition of rights stolen from them, rather than new rights required for the first time. Politically this confederacy is essential for European freedom unless again we are to see the day and the need for a Gustavus or a Frederic. We regret our inability to quote many of the practical passages in these lectures, although in them are centred the great strength and utility of the volume. Still, we quote one bold passage, addressed to a congregation of whom many are rich; and it starts the question-"Can a Christian become extremely rich, live uncomfortably wealthy, and yet fulfil his profession in its reality and spirit? You cannot look into the east end of this great metropolis without seeing a contrast that shames, and should rebuke, and ought to awaken the sympathies of the west end. Read, as all sometimes, I dare say, do, the wills proved in the courts appropriated for that purpose; read in the newspapers of men dying fabulously rich, possessed of sums one can scarcely realize; and at their very doors, and whilst they have been amassing these vast sums, lie pinching poverty, pining disease, miserable children nursed in the lap of crime, and ripening for the penal colony and the judgment seat of God. May not the crimes of the lower classes be retribution on the heads of the higher? May not the deepening sense of the precariousness of property which the crimes of many have generated be a call to those who have neglected the perishing and the destitute to feel more sympathy and to do something to succour and relieve them? You never can wind a chain round the hand of another without winding the opposite end round your own; you never can do wrong without suffering wrong; you never can suffer ignorance, and crime, and iniquity, to grow up like weeds at your door without the atmosphere that you breathe being sooner or later poisoned by them. It is most melancholy that, while men are fighting about systems of education, thousands, nay, hundreds of thousands, are passing to the judgment seat of Christ that literally do not know their right hand from their left, and have no fear of God and no reverence of mankind. In the midst of all this-I repeat it again—men die unprecedentedly rich. I should not like to die worth two or three hundred thousand pounds. What an awful thought, to have had so much wealth in a world where so many mouths want bread, and so much poverty and so much ignorance and misery are festering at your very thresholds. BERTRAM TO THE MOST NOBLE AND BEAUTIFUL LADY GERALDINE. That life has sacred mysteries unrevealed, IX. 665 Yet it was not the eyes, large, solemn, deep- The harmony severe of stately grace X. Not in all these can I find all the spell Which thrilled such instant recognition, wild, Yet doubtless as an holy oracle, Throughout my being, torpid and defiled: Why should I fear this joyful truth to tell, Which love has murmured to his last-born child? Unaided by the mean of bodily sense Souls can reciprocate deep influence. XI. O, music! flow for ever, soft and sweet, Through subtler mazes, that in timeless dream I may for ever watch her dove-quick feet Circling in light adown thy shadowy stream, And calm-robed form float swaying to the beat Of the long languid pulses, while outgleam. Her face and round arms, radiant through the whirls, Grand neck, white shoulders, dazzling golden curls! XII. Desire by its own wild intensity Was baffled; I stood trembling, panting, pale; And every eager step approaching thee Sank back-how spirits nearing Heaven must quail! Till some strong inspiration carried me, Half-dumb to gasp my pleading, and prevail; To sue, and stand dance-ready at thy side, Intoxicate with love, and bliss, and pride. XIII. O glory of the dance, sublimed to this! O, let me die on but another taste Of that warm breath ambrosial, and the kiss Of those whirl-wanton ringlets,-interlaced Quick frame with frame borne on, my lips the while Within a neck-bend of that dawn-sweet smile! XIV. Did music measure that delirious dancing? I heard it not I know not what strange sway And grander trusts than earth and time can yield. Kept us among those spectral figures, glancing As its poor harmonies might rule their way— I was o'erfilled with music more entrancing, Yet wild-how wild! I could have fled astray, Footing the buoyant æther's moonlight sea For ever and for ever, linked with thee. XV. Most pure and beautiful! what stayed my lips, When parch'd with thirsting near such ænomel, From clinging unto thine for dewy sips From pasturing o'er thy brow's white asphodel THE old qualification of a borough to be represented in the English Parliament was ability and purpose to support its representative. The qualification is looser now, but the support of the member forms no part of the whole. The bribery in some constituencies is not much more abhorent than the corruption and expense involved in nearly all the contests. The plain purchase of votes appears indeed to be the cheaper process. At Gloucester and Wakefield, for a long period, both parties have bought largely, and the ingenuity exhibited by both, in bribing without becoming amenable to the law, is as pretty trickery as the principals in these cases have ever been engaged in exposing and punishing from the magisterial seat. The Crown has appointed commissions of inquiry in o the political corruptions of Gloucester and Wakefield. The evidence hitherto tendered has been reported; and the gentlemen who form the commission in both cases have apparently discharged their duty without favour or fear. The facts elicited by them are deplorable. Bribery and corruption have become systematic. Sir R. W. Carden, Mr. Leatham, and Mr. Monck represent different classes of gentlemen. Sir R. W. Carden is a city magnate, and a sharebroker in extensive transactions. He has been engaged in all the benevolent and philanthropic proceedings in the city for recent years. He even approaches closely to the practice of total abstinence. He has passed the chair, and as a magistrate is benevolently severe against evil-doers and swindlers. His antipathy to street begging is almost boundless, but not, we admit, greater than his desire to assist out of the necessity for begging all the helpless who come in his way. be conscious that he was bribed and "drunk" into his Parliamentary seat. Mr. Leatham is less known except in his immediate neighbourhood; but we believe that he is a most benevolent man, altogether opposed to drunkenness, or anything savouring thereof; an honest man, and to whom bribery must appear little better than swindling or theft; yet it cannot be doubted now that bribery and drinking were employed to an enormous extent in securing his election, and the exposition of these proceedings must be more galling to Mr. Leatham than to any other living man; even if he were altogether innocent of conniving at or planning them. Mr. Monck belongs to a class altogether different from either of the other two. No doubt he has been considered by his friends a gentleman of perfect honour and integrity; yet how does he come out of this inquiry? Before the commission he admitted that to a Committee of the House of Commons he alleged "I had no knowledge that any money was spent in bribery." The reporter had changed the word into "I have no knowledge that any money was spent in bribery." Mr. Monck corrects this by claiming the benefit of the difference between had and have. Had represents the past, and have the present. At the moment when he gave his evidence Mr. Monck admits his knowledge that money had been spent in bribery. At the period immediately following the crime he had not known its occurrence. This quibbling between "had" and "have" shows the miserable shifts into which a gentleman is driven by temptation. Mr. Monck would not make such nice trips among the verbs in private life. He would expect his word to be taken as his bond, and he would not be disappointed among his friends; yet before this commission he corrects what would have been false, if he had said it, into the quibble which he uttered. be applied to elections, as to all the other transac- An election is an appeal from the Crown to the The "legitimate" expenses of elections are scandalous, even if the payment were confined to them; but they form often a small part of the total given for an honour, which is nothing unless it be free. An honour purchased never sparkles in clear eyes, and men who can only buy a seat in Parliament, should never sit there. M.P., like LL.D. in certain schools or universities, is tarnished by the pence paid for the letters. The titles always remind sensible people of their value in hard cash, more than of their intellectual worth—although the university managers, wiser than the electors, do not allow their customers to tax them. The authorities of those British universities who can still confer real honours, are anxious to have them separately stamped for common wear. Some of the constituencies might be excused if they entertained a similar notion, and insisted on ridding themselves from suspicion, by marking their representatives "carriage paid ;" and they are the only constituencies entitled to expect good service. The return of expenses incurred "legitimately" at the late election has not been published yet; but the acknowledged expenditure of 1857 has been published, and makes an instructive document. The contested elections are necessarily the most expensive, and we abridge the figures for each of them, in the order of their publication, beginning with the English counties. Bedfordshire was contested by Mr. H. Russell, Colonel Gilpin, Lieutenant-Colonel Higgins, and Captain Stewart. The four ran in couples, and one of each was successful. The avowed expenses of Mr. Russell and Colonel Higgins, on the Liberal side, reached £1533 8s. 4d. Mr. Russell polled 1564 electors, and his companion was two hundred and twenty-one beneath him. Colonel Gilpin had 1374 votes, and his friend was one hundred and thirty under him. Colonel Gilpin and Captain Stewart expended legitimately £875 10s. One party paid, therefore, twenty shillings and the other fifteen shillings per vote. We question not the benevolence of Sir R. W. Carden, the disinterestedness of Mr. Leatham, or the honour of Mr. Monck. Probably it would be difficult to find the names of three gentlemen implicated in similar operations, who could afford better a dissection of the transactions. Their share in the proceedings, notwithstanding that fact, has no better defence than the custom of the land and the times. It is no more conformable with morality than kidnapping, the press-gang, or the slave-trade. The leaders of local parties defend themselves on the plea that their opponents bribed first. What would Sir R. W. Carden say to a London thief, who told his worship that he prigged this ank'chef cos Jim, his pall, had prigged un the day b'fore? He would add the punishment of habit and repute to that of theft. Mr. Leatham knows very well that the denunciations and the woes pronounced against those who employ strong drink as the means of attaining their ends, are not limited by exceptions or precedents. The end Cumberland West had a severe contest, which will never justify the means; and that law must cost £4437 9s. 8d. Mr. Lawson was defeated, Cambridgeshire got through with an expenditure of £2308 0s. 9 d., or twenty shillings per vote; but it had three seats to give, and only one Liberal, Mr. Adeane, was elected, who paid half the total cost, or almost ten shillings for each vote in his favour. |