high offices, were ex-officio members, would con- |cated, was averted, partly by the wisdom, firmstitute an aristocratic assembly; perhaps not re-ness, and authority of the Duke of Wellington, markably inferior in virtue, in knowledge, in and partly by the speedy termination of the real talents, in diligence, and even in wealth, to that struggle in the house of commons. We now which it is now our happiness to possess. ; know, that such was the temper of the constituenIt is true that it would not be independent; cies in 1839 and 1840, that if it had taken place, since any minister, enjoying the decided support the victory would have rested with the lords. of the country and of the house of commons, On a dissolution, the people would have sided would be able, by a creation and a dissolution, to with them. The danger lay in the precedent;obtain a majority in the lords. But, under such in the fear that, in a different state of public feelcircumstances, is the house of lords now, under ing, the lords, pleased with their apparent rethe existing system, independent? Its indepen- covery of political power, might, on some other dence is confined to the case of parties in the occasion, exercise their legal right to oppose the country, and in the house of commons, being popular will; and thus force the crown to exernearly equally balanced. In such a case the cise its legal right of putting down that opposition power of creation is virtually suspended. If the by a creation, which, in the state of parties which minister, with a majority of twenty-five, create now exists, or in any which can be expected to peers from the house of commons, he destroys exist in that house, must be a very numerous his majority, even if he should lose only one one; and then, as we said before, peerage reform reëlection out of three. If, to avoid this, he ex-is inevitable. If that event should actually occur clude from the peerage his supporters, he equally if the most distinguished, and, on the whole, destroys his majority by disgusting the vain and the most enlightened hereditary body that the selfish portion of his adherents; but if he have such a majority in the house as to be able to bear some loss on elections, and such a majority in the constituencies as will render that loss trifling, he can now govern the lords by the threat implied, rather than expressed, of mere creation;-as effectually, perhaps, as he could do after the supposed peerage reform, when there would be the further necessity of a dissolution. world has ever seen, should be changed into an elected senate, on whom will the responsibility rest?-On those who endeavor to alarm the prudence of the house of lords, or on those who may inflame its ambition? On those who, by pointing out its political subordination, endeavor to secure its legislative authority; or on those who may tempt it to temporary triumph, and ultimate defeat, by ascribing to it a political indepenA few years ago, there did appear to be almost dence and a political equality, which it possesses a probability that such a reform might become neither in theory nor in practice? On those who necessary. The house of lords indeed abstained may have to sacrifice its existing constitution to not only from straining, but, in a great measure, the welfare of the state; or on those who, withfrom exercising its political as distinguished from out any necessity-in the mere insolence of power, its legislative powers. Though exempt from dis-by the wanton creations of forty years-converted solution and safe from creation, not merely inde- it from a moderately-sized council, fairly reprependent, but if such were its desire, dominant;senting both the great parties, into a large assemwith the power of expelling by a single vote an administration which it disliked and distrusted, it yet refrained from giving that vote. It did not address the crown to dismiss its ministers, though such an address would, in the then state of parties, have been a command; but it displayed a temper, and pursued a course of obstruction, which excited alarm among our most intrepid and our wisest statesmen. bly; in which one set of opinions is always persisted in, one class of measures approved, and onc body of leaders supported, by the same overwhelming and hereditary majority? We now close these volumes, with gratitude to the author, for much amusement, information, and instruction-with respect for his learning, and with admiration of his genius. We feel that the account which we have given of his work is very imperfect. We have been forced to omit the whole of the historical portion, and many philosophical discussions of great merit; among others, those on Party, on Checks, on Federal Union, and "Year after year," says Lord John Russell, "the commons grow more impatient at the frustration of measures for which they have labored for many a weary night, which contain nothing revolutionary or intemperate, and which are dis-on Judicial arrangements. This, however, is not patched before dinner by some thirty peers, who, without reading the bills, and without listening to explanation, mar the fruits of a session. Year after year, the lords, strong in their numbers, grow more and more eager for decisive battle. With these dispositions, the superiority of the lords in matters of government may one day be asserted, or England may no longer bear the double sway of government in one house, and opposition in the other. Who are in that case to give the victory? Evidently the people of the United Kingdom. The country will ask in the end whether these measures were useful; and if so, why they were rejected? They will inquire who they are who have misused the power of legislation to indulge a party spleen; and those on whom that charge justly rests, will be the losers in the conflict."* The conflict which Lord John Russell depre*Letter to the Electors of Stroud, 1839, p. 41-43. of much importance. Lord Brougham will be read in his own, not in our pages. On looking back at what we have written, we are struck by its controversial tone. This is perhaps unavoidable in criticism, where the subject-matter admits of only probable reasoning. On such subjects, when there is perfect coincidence of opinion in the author and the critic, there is little opportunity and no necessity for remark; but when this perfect coincidence does not exist, if the matter be important, the critic feels bound to express his dissent; and, if the author be one whose opinions carry great weight, to support it by argument and illustration. We have agreed in opinion with Lord Brougham much oftener than we have disagreed; but in the one case we have generally been silent-in the other, we have thought it necessary to state at some length the grounds of our dissent. No one, we are sure, will judge us with more candor than the great author himself. He will feel that, whenever we have ventured to that the influence he continued to exercise, should express dissent, it has been from no love of para-have been wielded from his place in the senate. dox or of opposition, but from a sincere difference To Mr. Van Buren, partly from his opposition to of opinion on some of the most important, and, at the same time, most doubtful questions on which the human mind can be employed. We are so deeply impressed with the truth of the opinions of the Edinburgh Reviewer, as to the tendency of reëlecting the President-that we again ask the attention of our readers to remarks published four years ago, and then favorably received by some influential journals. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. It seems probable, that soon or late, an alteration will be made in the Constitution, by which a president of the United States shall be prohibited from reëlection. De Witt Clinton in the state of New York, but From the Assistant of Education. SONG OF EXPECTATION. "Until the day break and the shadows flee away, I will get "Looking for that blessed hope."-Titus ii. 13. If the change be now made, it can be accompa-me to the mountain.”—Cant. iv. 6. nied by some other modifications and provisions which appear to us likely to be advantageous. As the constitution now stands, a man whom the people delight to trust and honor, may be retained in their service, in this capacity as long as they please. And it seems desirable, that one who has long given his mind and his heart to questions of national policy-who has accumulated a vast stock of knowledge and wisdom-and who by his position at the head of the government has had, confidentially as it were, unusual opportunities of learning many of the secret springs by which our own and foreign affairs are moved-it seems desirable that such a man should not be ostracised, and that for the simple reason that he is the just, that is to say, in the opinion of the majority of the people. We may readily imagine that at so early an age as forty, a man might, by great energy and wisdom in some public emergency, have been advanced to this highest elective post in the world. Is it expedient then, after drawing what advantage we can from him for four years, to cast him aside from the public service? His early elevation would thus prove an evil to himself and to the country. Far better for both had he continued twenty-five years longer in a subordinate station. And yet there are many disadvantages attending the reëligibility of the president. Upon these we need say nothing, as public opinion seems to be settled. We now beg leave to offer to the consideration of the members of congress and of the state legis- ' latures, the following AMENDMENT. The president of the United States shall be elected for seven years, and shall not a second time be eligible to the office. But after the expiration of his term of service, he shall be ex officio a member of the senate of the United States. It seems to us that it would greatly add to the beauty and strength of our government, to retain the presence and the experience of even the very few persons who could ever be in the senate in such a capacity. Who does not see that the services of Mr. Adams, with his incomparable memory of everything that has occurred during his long life, would be of great importance? And General Jackson, although he disappointed the high hopes we formed of him, we should be glad To watch the morning's dawn I'll get me to the hill, And who can paint its light? To chase the dreary night. Oh! I would catch its earliest gleam, For long our pilgrimage hath been, And though the glory lingers yet, I'll trim my lamp the while, And chant a midnight lay, From the Sailor's Magazine. THE EVENING STAR. STAR of the mariner! thy car, And scenes he still loves-oh! how dearly' Grey twilight gathering o'er his mountains, And hears the murmuring of green trees, The bleat of flocks and gush of fountains:How beautiful, when, through the shrouds The fierce presaging storm-winds rattle, Thou glitterest clear amid the clouds, O'er waves that lash and gales that battle; He turns to Thee in fond devotion, THE RIGHT OF SEARCH COMMISSION. spondents of the last number of the Anti-Slavery Reporter-prove that the slave-trade is undiminished either in extent or cruelty. The fair trader, rica by the armed inquisitors, and roused to make common cause with the slave-trader in crying out against them. National pride may increase the irritation which this interference with traffic cre pression of all, inseparable from the stringent methods adopted to suppress the slave-trade. DIPLOMATISTS have taken a leaf out of the book of parliamentary tacticians. Our late minis-on the contrary, is scared from the coast of Afters carried to perfection the art of substituting commissions when acts of parliament might, by provoking a collision between two great parties, have endangered their own tenure of office. Our present ministers have extended its range of ap-ates: but the real substantial grievance is the opplication, by appointing a commission to examine evidence and report on a substitute for the Right of Search Treaties with France, instead of negotiating about them. At this moment any definite settlement of the Right of Search controversy would create a dangerous excitement either in France or England; but the report of a commission will set men to think and talk about minor matters, and keep them from insisting upon immediate action, where immediate action would be dangerous. The Duc De Broglie has a reputation to support. He is regarded as one of the most earnest and sincere, and at the same time as one of the most reasonable opponents of negro slavery. And he has the character of a practical man—of one who has stood aloof from the acceptance of public offices from disinclination to accept the show without the substance of power. When he undertakes a task, men infer that its accomplishment is sincerely wished. But will this estimate of his character continue to prevail, if he has consented to act on the Right of Search commission Aberdeen and M. Guizot implies? To the success of the Commission it seems necessary that they should be at liberty to recommend other than forcible means of putting an end to the slave-trade, and to slavery.-Spectator, 15 Feb. A more impracticable task than has been imposed upon the Duc De Broglie and Sir Stephen Lushington, if it is expected that they are to do more than serve as lightning-conductors to a dan-under the limitations which the language of Lord gerous excitement, can scarcely be imagined. They are to devise a means of repressing the slave-trade, equally efficacious with a right of search strictly enforced. "Results in the way of repression, at least equal to those which the right of search has led us to hope for," are said to be required by M. Guizot himself. The attempt to put an end to the slave-trade by force is to be persevered in. At least this appears to be the only intelligible interpretation of the language used in the letters both of the French and English ministers. And if this interpretation is correct-if the forcible suppression of the slavetrade is still contemplated-mutual right of search is indispensable to its attainment. A VISION OF REPEAL. THE Irish repealers are strange people. Talk of Ireland's disordered state, and you are angrily told that no country is so quiet say that it is quiet, and you are more angrily assured that it is agitated. Ireland, says the Queen's speech, is tranquil: the Town Council of Limerick " resolves" that Ireland is agitated! Some little The soreness excited by the Right of Search time back, Mr. O'Connell thought that federalism Treaties has its origin in the obstructions which was not so very bad a thing; and straightway arise under them to commerce and navigation young Ireland was open-mouthed against him for within certain latitudes. The same or equal ob- abandoning "simple repeal." He has reverted structions would arise under any other efficient to his old assurance that repeal is certain and measures for the forcible suppression of the slave-swift: now, Young Ireland, speaking through the trade, if such could be devised. It is impossible | Nation, speaks of repeal as a thing which is to to discover from the outside of a vessel what it happen in some indefinite future. There is woncarries in the hold. The repression of the slave-derful naïveté in these passages: trade by naval armaments requires that the mere "The task undertaken by the repealers is to appearance of a vessel in the waters where the regain their country from its foreign rulers. It is slave-trade is carried on should render it an object a great and difficult task. In 1843 there seemed of suspicion and liable to be searched. The loss a possibility of carrying repeal by the hurrah of of time, profit, and temper, occasioned by the agitation. That is proved impossible. We must exercise of so stringent a police, cannot be mate- now win by the glow and ceaseless cultivation of rially lessened to traders by subjecting them only our strength till it is able to cope with our enemy. to searchers of their own nation. The privilege We cannot succeed by surprise now. Peel is of being searched by a countryman of their own wide awake. Were the monster meetings to rewould not go far to reconcile the passengers in assemble, he would not fear them. He dreaded St. James' street to a preventive palice estab-them as the preliminaries of insurrection. He lished to put down gambling-houses. Such a would be (as he was) indifferent to them as expreventive police would soon lead to the desertion pressions of public opinion. He fears no power of the quarter within which it had authority, to save that which can outvote him in the senate, or the deterioration of property and the extinction of oppress his exchequer by the costs of war. traffic and the African Coast Guard has pre- can we longer rely on the accident of an European cisely the same effect. For one kidnapper whose quarrel. That may come, or rather, will come; ends are frustrated by it, twenty men are pre- but if, ere it come, the people of Ireland are prosvented from turning an honest penny. Lord Aber-trate, how will it save us? To trust to it were undeen says, indeed, that "the stipulations [of the safe and unworthy. We must free ourselves. Right of Search Treaties] have proved effective:"The repealers must cultivate their strength till but the witnesses examined by the West African they are able for their great work. They must and West Indian committees of the house of conciliate the protestants; proving to them, not commons-the slave-trade papers annually laid by empty words, but by their whole lives and before parliament-nay, the West African corre-acts, that there is no Catholic bigotry in Ireland, Nor and that religious liberty is as dear to one church | distinctions of party, to drive the monster away by as the other. Next in value to Protes-their shouts. The unfortunate gentleman, untant conciliation is the improvement of the re-conscious of his danger, was sportively talking of pealers themselves, both individually and as a the object which the Prince De Joinville had in league. Ere we can take Ireland from the Eng- magnifying the power of the British steam-malish, we must know more than they do-we must be rine, in order to rouse the French people to rival their superiors in wisdom and virtue. The sons it. of the repealers are learning those elements of "He looked through the wrong end of the telethought, which, guided as they are to patriotic scope, in order to make our power appear to his ends by the surrounding agitation, will make countrymen as small as possible. (A laugh.) He them the terror of England, if England's misrule meant that he looked through the right side of the should survive their boyhood. In the district telescope to make our power appear as small reading-rooms the people can study the state and history of their country.' as possible. (Laughter, and cries of "Large, large!") No; small, small! (Laughter.) Re"Much virtue in if!" Here repeal is put as ally, they were very merry; but they were misa mere contingency, with such vast conditions, taken, and he was correct. The prince, for his that skeptics as to the perfectibility of human na- own sake, wished to ascertain our real dimenture would accept the whole statement as a sions; but he got his countrymen to view us periphrastic form of saying that repeal of the through the telescope, in order that our power Union is impossible; just as Acis describes the might appear to them as small as possible. (Reimpossibility of repealing his union with Ga-newed laughter.) Really, after all, they were latearight, and he was wrong-he meant as large as possible." (Laughter, and "Hear, hear.") "The flocks shall leave the mountains, The nymphs forsake the fountains, However, there is a great deal of sound advice ACCIDENT TO MR. WAKLEY. We understand that Mr. Wakley sustained no serious injury from the seizure, and that he so far recovered as to be able to walk home.-Spec tator. THE MAGIC BALL. THE Siècle of Paris relates a strange incident, but obviously mistakes the gist of the matter. During the Carnival, the Duc De Nemours gave there was a distinct list of invitations. Persons a series of balls and concerts, for each of which of mature age were to be invited to the concerts, and only young persons to the balls. We now quote the words of the Siècle "On the occasion of the last ball, to the astonishment of the prince, all the company were elderly. There were gentry, peers of France, aged spinsters, dowager duchesses, and hobbling members of the Chamber of Deputies. When the orchestra struck up a quadrille, the company were as astounded as the prince; but as etiquette seemed to require that they should dance, a quadrille was formed, and the good old folks went through it, to the great amusement of the spectators; who could not, however, venture to indulge in a laugh, lest they in their turn might be laughed at.. A mistake had been made in the list of invitations; but the mischief being done, nothing could be said about it, and the peers and peeresses, grave lawyers and antiquated deputies, shuffled through the evening, to their no small mortifica tion." Their mortification! Credat Judæus. The Duke is a "deep one," and he understands human nature. He proved it when he struck out the plan of dining all the world to make the way to his doWe have the evidence of that great physiolo-tation; but this last is a stroke even beyond the gist, Mrs. Malaprop, that in the East figures are very unmanageable, when she observes that some one is "as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile." There are monsters as dangerous on the banks of the Thames; and sometimes they wander into the low buildings and seize upon the inmates. The house of commons is much infested; and, melancholy to relate, on Thursday evening Mr. Wakley was obstinately attacked by a metaphor; from which he was with great difficulty rescued by the whole house; all his fellow members, much to their credit, hastening, without dinner. Of all passions in the human breast, the desire to resist the encroachment of time is the strongest. The very mirror is disbelieved; the wrinkles of the face are unseen in the accommodating simper with which the glass is approached, and the reflector of truth is wheedled into telling a falsehood. The hair turns gray in vain-it is anxiety. Children grow to manhood and womanhood-but they are still called children. The ear learns the trick of accepting truth with a difference. But there is one fatal sign that cannot be misconceived: balls are given, and for the first time the aging dancer is not invited! Appalling through editions so numerous that as many as negation! Who can resist that conviction? One's dancing-days are then really overer-Tithonus is not immortal! There is no attempt to resist that inevitable decree-the victim yields to fate in silent despair. But Nemours has struck that deadened chord, and wakened it to rapture. The uninvited have been invited! It was accident-quite accident-nobody meant a frolic; all was meant to be decorous; but it did so happen. The antiquated peers, the dowager duchesses, the aged spinsters, again threaded the mazy dance. The limbs perchance were stiff-the pas de zephyr was not very aërial-the knees may have tottered-the thrill of pleasure was less tumultuous; but a generation was struck from the rolls of time, and once more before the tomb, the faithful swain (faithful or not) pursued with measured ardor the goddess of his devoirs, as if it were decreed "Forever shalt thou play, and she be fair.” And the duke has given them this bonne bouche of existence. He has secured the votes of the old ones.-Spectator. REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 66 : twenty thousand copies of some have been sold; he lived long enough to enjoy his reputation, and to attain to a greater age than falls to the lot of ordinary mortals; and yet those who appreciate wit, who can admire learning, and who honor the man that used both for the good of his species, will be disposed to think that, old as Sydney Smith was, he died too soon. When a person of high intellectual power is removed from this life, the place which he occupied is never again really filled. One public functionary may succeed to another, one professional man may discharge the duties which for a long time devolved upon his predecessor; as generation follows generation in the ordinary course of human life, one man fills the place that another had occupied but such is the quality of genius-so perfect is its individuality, so peculiar its attributes-that it is "itself alone," and the void which its removal occasions must long continue to be perceptible. In no case has this truth been more generally acknowledged than in that of Sydney Smith. The conversational witticisms of Sydney Smith would fill a jest book; but his character will be estimated by posterity on far higher grounds. When his quips and cranks" are lost and forgotten, it will AMONG the aged public men who have just been be remembered that he supported Roman Catholic carried off by the protracted hard weather, none claims, and that they were conceded; that he will be more regretted than the Reverend Sydney strenuously assailed the Game laws, and that they Smith; whose wit was somewhat too vivacious underwent great modification; that he compelled for the dull decorum of ecclesiastical etiquettes, mischief of our penal settlements; that he became a large portion of the public to acknowledge the though its brilliancy did not conceal sterling worth the advocate of the wretched chimney-sweepers, and benevolence. Sydney Smith, scion of a Devonshire family, was born in 1768, at Woodford, in and their miseries were alleviated; that he conEssex. He was educated at Winchester school, church reform bill, and they were amended; tended against many of the unjust provisions of the that and in New College, Oxford; where, in 1790, he obtained a fellowship, and, in 1796, the degree of whereas, before his time, a man accused at the bar M.A. Having been appointed to the cure of been half heard, now every prisoner has the beneof a criminal court might be hanged before he had Netheravon, near Amesbury, he became tutor to fit of a defence by counsel. It will further be the son of Mr. Hicks Beach; with whom he resided for some years in Edinburgh. While there, freely acknowledged, that no public writer was he officiated at the episcopal chapel: but the most more successful than he in denouncing a political notable result of his sojourn was the Edinburgh he was on the whole an upright and a benevolent humbug, or demolishing a literary pretender; that Review, established at his suggestion, and first edited by him. In 1803, he came to London; and man; and, as the world goes, a disinterested polimarried the daughter of Mr. Pybus the banker. fortune which he nobly rejected; and that, having tician; that he had opportunities of improving his His preaching attracted full and fashionable audi-lived with unostentatious respectability, he died ences to the Foundling Hospital, the Berkely and without accumulating wealth."-Spect., March 1. Fitzroy Chapels. The whig ministry of 1806 conferred upon him the living of Frostonin, in Sydney Smith was almost the only, certainly by Yorkshire; and on the expulsion of his patrons by far the best representative of the Steele and Swift the "No-Popery" cry appeared his celebrated class in the nineteenth century. The class we Letters of Peter Plymley to his Brother Abraham mean is composed of men of genius whose social in the Country,-immortal specimens of sparkling and literary reputations mutually support each wit and forcible logic. In 1829, Mr. Smith re-other-whose writings are more valued because ceived the rectory of Combe Florey in Somerset- their readiness in conversation shows that their shire, valued at 3001. a year; and in 1831, under thoughts are their own, and whose witticisms in the ministry of Lord Grey, he became one of the society pass current the more readily because it is canons residentiary of St. Paul's Cathedral. An known that they can stand the test of print. Men interesting writer in the Times gives a masterly of this class do not write big volumes; but what review of the career of the liberal wit. "In every- they do give to the world is full of matter, sugthing which he attempted he appears to have been gestive, and highly finished. They deal in general eminently successful. At college, he graduated with topics of the day, but handle their subjects in with honor, and obtained a fellowship. He pro- such a manner as to impart to them a general jected and contributed to a review, which has en-interest and lasting freshness. They are too dejoyed the highest degree of prosperity; he at-sultory in their habits of thought to construct tempted an ambitious style of preaching, with a vigor of talent which distanced all rivalry; he became a public lecturer, and the whole world of Mayfair flocked to Albemarle street to enjoy his humor and become enlightened by his researches; he published political works, which have gone systems; but they get at truth by the divining power of comon sense-their remarks are sure to hit the right nail on the head. Their interest in polities is intermittent; they are incapable of sustaining the rôle of practical politicians; but they do like to throw in a word of advice, and their |