saw the gold weighed, that he had paid to his friend the exact sum which he had here claimed; and that, either dead or alive, he should be obliged to produce the body of the other robber, or he who pretended to have been robbed, to shew what sort of servants he employed. "I'll bring baith noblemen and lawyers frae Scotland," added he," who will see justice done to so brave and so worthy a man; an' if they dinna gar you skemps take his place, never credit a Scot again."

Adam Scott's chief being in London, and his own laird a man of no consequence, Linton rode straight off to his own laird, the Earl of Traquair, travelling night and day till he reached him. The Earl, being in Edinburgh, sent for a remarkably clever and shrewd lawyer, one David Williamson, and also for Alexander Murray, Sheriff of Selkirkshire, and to these three Linton told his story, assuring them, that he could vouch for the truth of it in every particular; and after Williamson had questioned him backwards and forwards, it was resolved that something should instantly be done for the safety of Scott. Accordingly, Williamson wrote a letter to the Mayor, which was signed by the Earl, and the Sheriff of Scott's county, which letter charged the Mayor to take good heed what he was about, and not to move in the matter of Scott till Quarter-session day, which was not distant, and then counsel would attend to see justice done to a man, who had always been so highly esteemed. And that by all means he (the Mayor) was to secure Scott's three accusers, and not suffer them by any means to escape, as he should answer for it. The letter also bore a list of the English witnesses who behoved to be there. Linton hastened back with

it, and that letter changed the face of affairs mightily. The grand swindler and the tall robber were both seized and laid in irons, and the other also was found with great trouble. From that time forth there remained little doubt of the truth of Scott's narrative; for this man was no other than the notorious Edward Thom, who had eluded the sentence of the law both in Scotland and England, in the most wonderful manner, and it was well known that he be longed to a notable gang of robbers.

It is a pity that the history of that interesting trial is far too long for a winter-evening tale, such as this, though I have often heard it all gone over;-how Williamson astonished the natives with his cross questions, his speeches, and his evidences;

how confounded the Mayor and aldermen were, that they had not discerned these circumstances before;-how Thom, at last, turned king's evidence, and confessed the whole;-how the head swindler was condemned and executed, and the tall robber whipped and dismissed, because he had in fact only intended a robbery, but had no hand in it;and, finally, how Scott was released with the highest approbation; while both magistrates and burgesses of ancient Carlisle strove with one another how to heap most favours on him and his friend Thomas Linton. There were upwards of two hundred Scottish yeomen accompanied the two friends up the Esk, who had all been drawn to Carlisle to hear the trial; and there is little doubt, that, if matters had gone otherwise than they did, a rescue was intended.

Why should any body despise a dream, or any thing whatever in which one seriously believes?

SUPPOSE the people of the island of Tongataboo, in the Pacific ocean, had advanced to such a degree of civilisation, that they were ripe for political institutions; and suppose, that hearing of the pre-eminence of Great Britain in these matters, they were to send one of their wisest men for the express purpose of acquiring a practical knowledge of all the principles of the British Constitution. Might we not imagine such a dialogue as the following to take place between the Tongataboo philosopher, and the Englishman, whoever he might be, who undertook to expound the theory and practice of our admirable system of government?

Philosopher. I comprehend distinctly, from your explanations, the separate functions, and the combined energies, of the three estates of the realm; and the more I reflect upon them, the more deeply I am impressed with that amazing wisdom which has perfected so noble a scheme of civil polity.

Englishman. It has been the progressive work of past ages, and will remain the admiration of future ones.

Philosopher. The welfare of that country is thrice secure, where nothing depends upon the will of one man, but where the sages of the land assemble in council to deliberate upon all that concerns the public good. I have been a witness of the laborious zeal with which they discharge this duty; unmindful of all personal inconvenience, and denying themselves, night after night, the needful rest which nature has ordained. In what other nation will you find such devotion, such ardent, such exalted patriotism?

Englishman (smiling,) The results are pretty nearly as you describe; the causes, I apprehend, somewhat more complicated. You see that lady who is in the act of drawing her pursestrings, to bestow her charity upon a poor crippled mendicant who has solicited it. I know her. She knows me; and she knows I am observing her. What a graceful attitude! How well that sandal becomes her foot and ankle How the diamond on her

finger sparkles in the sun! And what can be more beautifully contrasted than her white, delicate hand, and the squalid, shrivelled palm which is extended to receive her bounty? And now she steals a glance from beneath those jet-black arches, her eyebrows, to be certain she is noticed. It is a piece of acting, intended to be seen by all, but admired by one. What need the supplicant care? He is benefited. His wants are relieved as effectually as if pure and holy charity had administered the alms.

Philosopher. I understand you. Where good is done, it is not for man to look beyond the deed. The motive and the act are linked together in His sight only, who is alone able to unite them.

Englishman. Exactly.

Philosopher. Still you are a happy and an enviable people, to possess such beneficent legislators, who do nothing to complain of upon earth, and who, in their account with Heaven, may set off value received, against any deficiency of just intentions in their balance sheet. But before we quit this branch of our discourse, I must beg of you to explain a matter which I do not clearly comprehend. I perceive, in that illustrious and august assembly of sages, whom you call, in their collective capacity, the House of Peers, a class of nobles who are known by the title of PROXIES. They seem to be very numerous, and to exercise a most important influence in determining the final issue of all great public questions, on which occasions only, they take any part in public affairs. I suppose they are the wisest of your wise men: venerable seers, or individuals gifted by nature with extraordinary powers of mind, who constitute a sort of college of arbitrators, their functions being to listen to all that is urged on both sides, to enquire dispassionately into facts, to weigh evidence. with scrupulous impartiality, to mingle with none, to know no parties, but as far as human faculties can stretch into the regions of pure, unmixed truth, to do so, and then, by

and understand, through the eyes, and ears, and minds, of others? What is this but to deliver the people, and all that most nearly concerns them, into the hands of forty or fifty senators? and will not the people murmur, and require that the peerage itself should be remodelled; that ribbons, and garters, and trifles, and descent, should not carry with them the prerogative of being legislators, but that the capacity to think, and the disposition to exercise the capacity, should be the superior qualification?" My friend, you would laugh at the man who should propose to make love by proxy, to eat by proxy, to be married by proxy, or to inherit a fortune by proxy; yet, because custom has thrown her mantle over it, you cannot see the equally gross absurdity, and the infinitely greater evil, of statesmen governing by proxy.

I know not how the arguments of my Tongataboo philosopher could be overthrown. They might be neutralized a little, perhaps, by the consideration that it comes to the same end, whether men vote upon a question without knowing any thing about it, or whether, after knowing every thing, they vote at the nod of a minister, or by the compact of a party; in both cases, alike regardless of the votes they ought to give, and of the votes they would give, if neither minister nor party interposed. Still, there is a marked, undisguised prostitution of principle in the one case, which does not glare so hideously upon us in the other. The peer, who, in his place, votes with the minister, may be supposed (by a great stretch of charitable interpretation, in some cases, I allow) to be convinced of the expediency or justice of the measure he supports; it is possible he may be sincere, as well as consistent; and when inconsistent, that he may be honourably converted from former heresies. But he who pins his vote upon the minister's sleeve; who says to him, Do what you please; I am your ready, obsequious, unreasoning slave; use me whenever you want me, and for whatever purpose you want me; count me as one in every division, be it upon the dirtiest job, the most atrocious injustice, or the vilest sacrifice of national honour that ever disgraced a cabinet; unknowing, unenquiring, unsatisfied VOL. XXVIII. NO. CLXVIII.

of all, save this, that a bargain has been struck between us, and that I abide by it to the uttermost condition;-he, I say, who does this-and every absent peer who leases out his vote by proxy, does in effect do it— commits an act of self-abasement, of public wrong, and of legislative mockery, which, it might be thought, only required to be thus stated, to be for ever abolished.

Let us look for a moment how the system operates. On the 25th February, Earl Stanhope brought forward his motion for the House resolving itself into a committee to consider of the internal state of the country. It was no mere party question, but one raised upon the petitions of the people, who complained of unparalleled distress, and implored the legislature to enquire into its causes, with a view to devise, if possible, some mode of relief. When the House divided, after a debate of nine hours, the numbers stood thus :

Here, then, were sixty-one peers, (nearly one-half of the whole declared votes,) who, without hearing any one reason assigned for or against the motion, without knowing in a regular and constitutional manner what were the complaints of the people, with what justice they were urged, or with what justice they are disregarded, took upon themselves, nevertheless, to record their silent opinions (if, indeed, they had any opinions at all upon the question.) Teu of these omniscient sages were for granting enquiry; and so far as there must always be a prima facie equity in allowing those who complain to have the benefit of investigation, so far, it may be said, they were less obviously reprehensible than the 51 who intuitively saw that it would be most improper, or that it was perfectly unnecessary, to have any enquiry.

On the 18th of February, the Duke of Richmond, in a speech which produced a powerful effect-(not in the House, but upon the country)-as well from its range of research, and the facts consequently accumulated,

D

as from the reasonings with which these facts were elucidated and applied, attempted to shew the absolute necessity, the positive duty, of appointing a select committee to enquire into the condition of the labouring classes, and also relative to those taxes which pressed more immediately on the productive classes of the country." A debate of eight hours ensued, in the course of which Earl Bathurst, that great man and honest politician Lord Eldon, the Earl of Winchelsea, Lord Holland, the Marquis of Lansdowne, and the Duke of Wellington, among others, stated their views of the expediency or inexpediency of the proposed committee. Upon the division the numbers ran thus:

Contents.

61

Present, 39-Proxies, 22, Non-contents. Present, 69-Proxies, 72, 141 Here the omniscients and the intuitives multiply upon us in a fearful ratio-an advance from 61 to 94; the difference being but fourteen in favour of those present! Let it be soberly considered for five minutes, that a motion, affecting the vital interests of the country, is brought before the House of Lords; that, in the fiction of Parliamentary language, the sense of the House is taken upon it; that 202 members of the House are represented as gravely and anxiously and solemnly deliberating upon this motion, but that, in point of fact, 94 of that number are mere paper Lords, deposited in the pockets of the remaining 108-and what man will be hardy enough to undertake the defence of such a system?

On the 23d of March, the Marquis of Clanricarde moved sundry resolutions, part of them declaratory of admitted facts, respecting the arrival in this country of the Queen of Portugal, her recognition by his Majesty, and the departure of the Portuguese constitutionalists; and part of them condemnatory of the

proceedings which took place off the island of Terceira. These resolutions involved a consideration of the laws of nations; and whether they were rightly or wrongly brought forward, could be known only by hearing how they were framed, and how supported by circumstances. But the omniscients and intuitives decided that every thing was as it should be at Terceira, with the same unerring wisdom that they decided there was no occasion to enquire into the distresses of the people. The following was the division:

Contents.

Present, 21-Proxies, 10, . 31
Non-contents.

Present, 61-Proxies, 65, . 126

I have selected these three questions, first, because, up to the present moment, they furnish the only divisions upon which the strength of the ministry has been exerted; and, secondly, because such an exposition speaks home to the understanding better than the most forcible arguments. It is strange that this extraordinary privilege has never been adverted to with reference to that which constitutes its extraordinary character, its solemn burlesque upon legis lative deliberation. Nor let it be forgotten, that the ministerial majorities, by which enquiry into grievances, real or alleged, is so peremptorily stifled, and by which measures of real or alleged mischief are so promptly carried, consist of a much larger proportion of these proxies than the minorities. The system is bad and odious both ways; but it has at least a tendency to work more injuriously this way, except, indeed, we compound the matter, by considering, that if there were no proxies, there would still be majorities; though even then I should say, << Assume a virtue if you have it not," and give us the decency of apparent deliberation, and of supposed conviction, instead of the open demonstration of an utter disregard of both,

We are a droll people. Last year, the tables of both Houses of Parliament groaned under the weight of petitions from all classes of the people, and from every corner of

the country, beseeching the legislature not to pass the bill for granting political power to the Roman Catholics. The petitions were received with all possible respect, read