were the words by which mine ear was startled, "that to be the eldest son of an eldest son, the accident of an accident, so far from forming the best materials for an efficient legislator, were often express disqualifications for the discharge of the required duties. For an institution whose members were the result of a blind chance, England has substituted an upper chamber, composed of senators the most distinguished for experience, sagacity, and wisdom. When this change occurred, hereditary titles were abolished. Patents of nobility are still bestowed, however, as the rewards of talent and merit of every kind, for honours thus conferred operate upon all as an excitement to similar excellence; while long experience had shown that the transmission of titles and decorations to profligate and unworthy descendants, exercised a demoralising and most pernicious influence upon the whole community." Such was the continued complacency with which this revelation was made, that I scrutinised more closely the speaker, expecting to discover the cloven foot below, and the rudiments, at least, of sprouting horns above; but all was still radiant with an expression of benignity and angelic truth. Turning from the last disclosures which, sooth to say, I found unpalatable and alarming, I requested to be escorted into Westminster Hall, that I might hear the pleadings of the most eminent barristers, should the courts be sitting. "Happy am I to say," replied my companion, "that what was termed law, in thy time, exists no longer. What was it? a fathomless chaos of fiction, tautology, obscurity, and chicanery; a system of unpunishable depredation, which, encouraging mendicity and oppression by the perversion, the delay, and the denial of justice, put fresh arms into the hands of the injurer, to annoy and distress the injured. So ruinous were the extortions, so gross the abuse, that the evil, becoming utterly.intolerable, finally effected its own cure, and was swept away by the indignant fiat of the whole nation. Every district now possesses public arbitrators paid by the government, to whom all disputes must be referred, from whose decision there is no appeal. England is freed from the costly curse of litigation, and the poorest man hath the same chance of justice as the richest." "Enough, more than enough of London," I exclaimed, shocked at the radical overthrow of so many institutions consecrated by the wisdom of our ancestors. "Fain would I see with mine own eyes whether our rural districts have participated in these most appalling inroads upon our worldenvied constitution and habits." Scarcely had the wish been uttered, when I found myself whisking over the hills and plains of England with a speed that must have equalled that of Ariel's, when he put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes; yet not so fleet as to prevent an accurate and vivid perception of every object beneath me. Oh! what an Arcadian landscape was revealed to my delighted eyes! Not a patch of land was uncultivated; beneath me lay outstretched a boundless garden, interspersed with sylvan meadows, pastured by innumerable flocks and herds. On all sides were seen numerous parties travelling to visit their friends, or enjoy the beauties of the country; countless were the social assemblages whose merry tones resounded through the air, as they sat beneath the trees, enjoying their frugal repast; while whole villages were collected in the open places, celebrating their rural sports and pastiines, or dancing to the renovated pipe and tabor. "What national festival is this," I inquired, "to which the people abandon themselves with such an universal joyousness?" "It is the most solemn, and at the same time the most cheerful, of all festivals-the Sabbath. I told thee that the spirit of Religion, freed from the shackles that impeded its diffusion, had spread itself over the land more widely and deeply than ever; scarcely dost thou see a single individual who hath not participated in public or private worship; and that duty being performed, they believe themselves to be offering a different, though not less acceptable homage to the God of all goodness, when they dedicate a portion of the day to social happiness and innocent amusement. their ancestors should have thought to propitiate the creator by the mortification and misery of the creature, seems to them a lamentable mistake, little short of impiety." That After witnessing so marvellous a change, I was a little surprised at learning, in answer to my inquiries, that the Game Laws already condemned by public opinion at the time of my death, had been totally repealed a few years afterwards; but great, indeed, was my amazement when, in reply to my inquiry, what had become of the extensive parks and stately mansions, with which every county used to be embellished, my companion said, "The law of primogeniture and entail having been found equally detrimental to the happiness of families, the improvement of the land, and consequently to the welfare of the community, was abolished many years ago. The parks, therefore, have been divided into farms; some of the mansions have furnished materials for substantial cottages, while others have been converted into hospitals, schools, or charitable establishments." Alas, alas!" cried I, with a groan, "if titles and estates are no longer hereditary, if our magnates no longer live in embellished palaces, what is to become of the arts, and where are we to look for the proofs of English vilisation?" 66 "Thou speakest the language of a by-gone age. Sumptuous architecture, painted canvas, sculptured marble, the proofs of a merely material civilisation, have the evil tendencies of pampering to vanity, of exciting envy, of rendering more painfully conspicuous the contrast, where one class is revelling in the luxuries, while another and much larger is struggling for the necessaries of existence. England can now claim the much higher pre-eminence of a moral civilisation, evidenced in a more equal distribution of property in the general diffusion of education, in the extension of the greatest happiness to the greatest number of the people, and in the consequent peace and prosperity of the whole nation. If asked to show the triumphs of her architecture, she points, not to palaces, but to the substantial combinations of grace and comfort which have been substituted over the whole land, for the miserable hovels of former days. challenged to produce her paintings, she points to the ruddy cheeks of her poorest peasants and artisans, and the smiling looks that make them living pictures of health and happiness. If her statuary productions be demanded, she points to the vigorous thews and sinews, and to the forms of healthy symmetry, which have replaced the stunted and attenuated figures of her former labourers and artisans." If "And to what," I demanded, half breathless with amazement at the wonders I had heard, "to what may we attribute such strange revolutions, effected in the comparatively short space of a single century?" "Principally to the establishment of Free Trade in England; an example which was speedily followed by the rest of Europe. Such were the advantages derived from an unrestricted interchange of their products, giving to every country the benefit of every climate, and of the universal industry of mankind, that the nations entered into a general confederacy for the preservation of peace. Secured, by a sense of their respective interests, from all chances of war, they agreed to disband their armies and dismantle their fleets, appropriating a portion of the large expenditure thus saved, to the establishment of schools in every parish, and the endowment of charitable institutions. Such have been the sources of the miracles you have witnessed.” "And were not the Free Traders and Protectionists deeply mortified when these results first began to manifest themselves ?” "For such feeling they had no ground whatever. Their opposition to the innovating measures had been founded on conscientious convictions and patriotic motives. They were wrong; and what mortal is unerring in his judgment? but they were the first to acknowledge their mistakethe first to hold out the right hand of brotherhood and reconciliation to their opponents; the first to unite with them in making the new order of things as extensively conducive as possible to the prosperity of their common country." 66 Magnanimous conduct, and right worthy of the party!" was my ejaculation. “And now, most gracious guide! tell me, I implore thee, whether our sister island, delivered by a beneficent blight from the accursed root which dooms its cultivators to a life of savageness, has assumed that proud position among the nations, which the kindness of nature so manifestly-" "Mortal!" interposed my companion, "I may no longer tarry, no longer answer to thy questionings. The hour for which I was commissioned to attend thee, according to thy dying prayer, is exhausted. I am called to other duties. My blessing be upon thee! Farewell !” So saying, the speaker vanished rapidly into the upper air, leaving a train of light behind him, and at the same moment I heard the wellknown sound of my hall-clock striking the hour; the fertile and festive scene upon which I had been gazing was no longer visible; I cast mine eyes around me, and lo! I was again sitting in my arm-chair, the candles were fitfully flaring in the socket, and the clicking fire, its own death-watch, was expiring in the grate! may Liberavi animam meam. I have disburdened my soul of its secret: frank and faithful has been my disclosure of all that was made manifest to me; and now remains the momentous question as to the nature of the mysterious visitant by whom it was revealed. Well he be termed an Evangelist in one sense, for he was the bearer of good tidings; but were his conjurings the coming events that cast their shadows before, or were they of affinity with the illusions of the tricksome Ariel? Was he kindred with the Agatho-demon which haunted the philosophic reveries of Socrates; or rather with the evil spirit that tempted and seduced the knowledge-seeking Faustus? Oh, gentle and compassionate reader! aid me in this dire perplexity. Thou hast heard my case; pronounce thy verdict, and I will bow to the decision! H. Thus, in Round-Robin form, does Time Unions where hunger marries thirst, These are the truly Celtic cause But darker fate impends, for lo! 'England's distress," was once the cry, "Is Erin's opportunity For spurning her alliance." Her ships, her granaries, her stores, Lives there a Saxon, though his need |