matters little to the state whether birds be killed in France or in England, whether dice be rattled in Paris or in London: but it is a matter of no small moment that minds so capable of better things, should lose their time among strangers, and evaporate their energies in mere words, however musical or brilliant those words may be. You owe to your country a debt which poetry_can never pay. You have a seat and a voice in the legislature. Your title is not, or at least ought not to be an empty sound. If we should think it discreditable for a man, chosen to represent us in the House of Commons, to spend his time in foreign countries, what can we think of one whose rank gives him a permanent place in the senate, and who never occupies that place, nor performs his duties there? Can you consider yourself a British Peer while you have nothing British about you but the name? What was it that rendered the peerage in the days of King John so truly reputable, and sent down their names to posterity as a glory and bulwark of the nation? Was it not their attention to their duties? Some there may be who can well be spared, who could merely give their vote, or send their proxy-they may pair off by dozens, and no one miss them. It is not so with you, my Lord; you have a name as well as a title-you have the capacity for the high and arduous duties of your station. You may be forgiven for much that is past, your youth will form an apology--but you cannot longer form a plea on that. You have already entered upon that period of life when the mind is at its highest vigor, when the judgment has gained its full strength, and the intellect is arrived at its due maturity. Now resume your duties, take that place which the laws of your country have given you, legitimately employ those talents with which nature has so abundantly furnished you; and you will then find, that the best part of your country is ready to forgive the follies of your youth, that Englishmen can venerate a truly noble spirit, that there is a glory to be acquired beyond the praise of poetry, above the splendor of a court, and more durable than the clamors of a mob. You profess yourself to be aristocratic in your feelings-this profession is no doubt sincere; the world believes you, and the most reflecting men approve the avowal. Bring this aristocratic spirit home, and when its high feeling is softened by the love of liberty, and its energies directed by your own natural talents, it will be something for the country as well as yourself to talk of. We are in no need of demagogues, we have enough of them at home. We are in no want of popular heroes, or shallow projectors, or loud talkers-we do not want tongues to inflame the multitude, but minds to inform and enlighten the senate. We want men who will give their sober and serious attention to the affairs of the country, and who so fit for

[10 this as those who, like you, have a property, and a title and rank in the kingdom? It can never be to your interest, as you have said, to overthrow the government, or forward a revolution; you will never gain as much as in such convulsions you must lose; you will not be scrupulously or gratefully rewarded by those who would overturn establishments; they have a jealousy of rank; they would not tolerate your aristocratic notions. It becomes you to think, whether by your absence from England, and by your present pursuits, you are not rather forwarding than retarding the crisis. Where you now are, and as you are now occupied, you have no influence for good in the nation; but in your proper place you might do much. You can see even at a distance our condition. Is it hopeless ?—you know it is not. The country may be, but it is not yet, ruined. Its spirit is not yet prostrate. It still has the elasticity of hope, and amidst the myriads who think not at all, and the numbers who would yield for paltry pelf, to sacrifice the last spark of liberty, and the greater numbers who are capable of being led into the mischiefs of anarchy by the designing and artful demagogues, there is still no contemptible body of sober men who have energy, and who with countenance in proper quarters would have hope, and more than hope. These men invite your return, these and more than these would thank you for it. You have it in your power to increase their number, to direct their thoughts.

Your Lordship predicts revolution; this requires no great sagacity. There is no country in the world where it may not be predicted. All human institutions are liable to changes. They have been witnessed in this country, and no doubt will be again. But are mankind never to learn from observation or experience? Is the human race never to gain wisdom from the past? If minds like yours are too heedless to learn, where are we to look for wisdom? Have you ever given your attention seriously and calmly to the subject of revolutions? You have had an education, and you have a mind that fits you for it. You can discern as well as any man, the signs of the times: and if you had spent your leisure abroad, in considering the rise and fall of empires, and had communicated to your fellow countrymen the result of those speculations, you would have done well. You might not have acquired so brilliant, but you would have gained a more permanent, reputation. You would have conferred an actual obligation on the community. Know you not from whence arise the evils of revolutions, and know you not that many of these might be avoided? For your own part you too often write as if present mismanage ment were an evil to be got rid of at any rate. This is too much the error of the friends of liberty. The fable of the frogs who would leap down a well, is very aptly put to these speculative and

hasty men: and all history is continually teaching us the same principle. The world is full of lessons of wisdom, would we but learn from them.

A revolution is not always, nor often, a change for the better; and one great convulsion seldom settles the business, unless it be for ruin. I would not go so far back as to the kings of Rome, for I am no believer in the Tarquins: or at least I apprehend some little romance in the earlier history of Rome. But I would merely refer to the history of the seventeenth century in our own country: and will run the risk of ridicule, by saying that that business is not settled yet: dropping, however, the proof of this assertion, for the sake of brevity, I will ask you, did one in a thousand who witnessed or promoted the commencement of that first English revolution, anticipate the result of it? Every debate in the House of Commons, every declaration of the king, and every battle that was fought, gave to the minds of thinking men a new direction. Nor do I believe that when Cromwell first entered the army he had any more anticipation of being made protector, than Bonaparte when at school aspired to the imperial dignity of France. Circumstances form, or more properly speaking, develope characters. Any one, that calmly considers this most important and eventful revolution, will see that events were hardly controlable by any man or set of men; and little did those noblemen and highspirited commoners who began the convulsion, imagine into what hands the power would ultimately fall. The Earl of Essex little thought of being outwitted by Cromwell. The House of Lords little anticipated the destruction of their order: but now the period is past, we can very readily and easily account for all that occurred. It was not possible to bridle the power of the court without the assistance of the country, and when powerful minds were called into action, and gigantic ambitions were roused, it was not easy to lay them aside. The army felt its power, and would keep it. And so it must be in revolutions attended with violence. When the great leviathan is roused, it is some time before it can settle again into peaceful habits, and yield its might to obedience. The power which subdues, must be greater than the power which is subdued, and they who are unused to power, are not the most moderate in the exercise of it, when they have it in their hands. You may talk lightly of revolution, and may perhaps flatter your self with the hope of losing none of your power or influence: but you may know that those who begin and those who finish a revo lution are not always the same. You may dread a revolutionthen it is your bounden duty to do all in your power to prevent it. It is much easier to prevent, than to direct the storm. Though, for my own part, I cannot immediately apprehend danger,

yet it may be near, and thus much every man is well assured, that unless due care be taken to preserve a state, it must be destroyed, for time, as Lord Bacon says, is a great innovator.

In discussing the subject of revolution, we have to observewhat are the oppressions or difficulties which lead to it-what the disposition or power of those who may be inclined to it—and what the degree of knowledge or good feeling in a society which modulate and conduct it. Unfortunately such is the state of human society, that there never has been, and perhaps never will be, a period when the minds of men shall be so enlightened as to act with prudence and good effect. Indeed were any one party in the state so prudent and wise, there could be no necessity for revolution at all, and no temptation to it.

Applying these considerations to the present crisis, and judging from what is past, I think it may be safely said, that considering all the national difficulties, we have as many applicable remedies as any country could desire. But we need resolution and wisdom to apply them. I feel myself on dangerous ground, and though I think with you, my Lord, that a revolution is possible, I do also think it in the power of the aristocracy to prevent, and not only to prevent it, but to render the country a more permanent benefit than could result from such a convulsion. For, in the first place, we do not need a revolution to change the form of our Government. If the whole reflecting mass of the population_were_canvassed one by one, there would not be found a number of any serious amount, who are desirous of a republican form of government and among those who would prefer a republic, there are very few who would think it worth the risk that must be run to obtain it and as for establishing any form which in its operation should please all, that would be absolutely impossible, till the whole community should be perfectly enlightened, a consummation more devoutly to be wished than rationally to be expected. Now, if on the question of Parliamentary Reform, which concerns only one branch of the Government, there is such variety of opinion, that it is difficult to say which predominates, and perhaps not easy to enumerate them all; what an infinite variety of opinion must there be on the subject of a total change! Again, as there is no necessity for a total change, and if there were a general dissatisfaction with the present form, it is not very likely that men would be willing to run the risk of attempting a change, is it to be expected that the same dangers would be encountered for a partial alteration, as would be necessary for a total revolution? There is certainly a general feeling in the kingdom, that the conduct of the parliament and the army opposed to Charles I, was not totally to be vindicated and there are few men whose opinions are worth much,

who will assert, or do really believe, that the court of George IV. is as tyrannical as the court of Charles I. I certainly do not make these observations with a design of obliquely commending the present ministers; I think they have wasted the public money, and I think they are too much hampered by a feeling of personal interest, and a love of place and power: but if the history of the past is written for the instruction of the present age, it is but right and just that references should be made, and comparisons should be drawn. This, however, I am free to say, that I do think worse of some supporters of the present ministry than I do of themselves. For, inasmuch as evil counsellors may, by flattery and sycophancy, pollute the principles of a monarch, and urge him on to his own destruction, so may the outrageous admirers of power give countenance to arbitrary measures in ministers, and instead of jealously watching every encroachment, give encouragement to those steps which shall terminate in their ruin. It is with this thought that men like you are wanted in the senate.

There is a tendency in politics to what is called reaction, and this increases. Toryism in its height, engenders radicalism, and that on the other hand begets toryism: and unfortunately for the welfare of the country, and inauspiciously for its prospects, those very men who should be most active are most indolent, I mean moderate men. Moderation does not mean indifference or apathyif so it means nothing. He that does not oppose the arbitrary measures of the court, gives his silent vote in their favor, and you, my Lord, by your absence from England, are giving support to ministers; and should a convulsion take place, and the multitude proceed to violence, your absence gives countenance to that violence and anarchy. The Athenian law-giver, above alluded to, who would have indifference visited with punishment, would not have punished those who endeavoured to unite both parties, or to secure the good of each; but he would not have suffered the slothful vice of indifference to wear the comely garb of moderation.

I have said that our country contains within itself a power of remedying its evils, but I have not said, and I do not think, that ministers will apply these remedies of their own free-will. If our ancestors had thought that the cabinet would always, and only do that which should be for the real welfare of the kingdom, they would not have left us the institution of parliaments; and if they had imagined that parliament would merely have consulted for the benefit of the community, they would not have put the country to the trouble and tumult of election, but would have left both houses hereditary. But they knew, that if a nation were destined for perpetuity and preservation, it must owe these blessings to itself, and not to individuals. Now it is acknowledged by the advocates of