2. THE HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. By Sir Walter Scott, Bart. 292 III. MEMOIRS, CORRESPONDENCE, AND PRIVATE PAPERS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, late President of the United States. Now first published from the original Manuscripts... 312 IV. A DISSERTATION ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF HERODOTUS, with a Map. Researches into the History of the Scythians, Getæ, and Sarmatians. Translated from the German of V. SOUTHENNAN. By John Galt, Esq., Author of "Lawrie "The Annals of the Parish," &c. &c. VI. AN ACCOUNT of the GREAT FLOODS OF AUGUST, 1829, IN THE PROVINCE OF MORAY AND ADJOINING DISTRICTS. 345 IX. TRAVELS TO THE SEAT OF WAR IN THE EAST, THROUGH RUSSIA AND THE CRIMEA, IN 1829; with Sketches of the Imperial Fleet and Army, Personal Adventures, and Cha- racteristic Anecdotes. By Captain James Edward Alex- ander, late 16th Lancers, K.L.S. M.R.O. Cor. Mem. S.A.E. 2. Equity Despatch Court Proposal. By Jeremy Bentham. 3. Equity Despatch Court Bill. By Jeremy Bentham. XIII. NOVELS AND TRAVELS IN TURKEY 1. The Mussulman. By R. R. Madden. 2. Narrative of a Tour through some parts of the Tur- kish Empire. By John Fuller, Esq. 3. The Armenians. By C. Macfarlane. 4. Voyages en Orient, enterpris par ordre du Government XIV. EVENEMENS DE PARIS DES 27, 28, ET 29 JUILLET, 1830 475 XV. THE EDIPUS COLONEUS; chiefly according to the Text of XVII. THE FIRST BOOK OF EUCLID'S ELEMENTS. With Altera- ART. I.-Thoughts on Moderate Reform in the House of Commons. London. J. Ridgway. 1830. THIS article is destined to the consideration of the Ballot; leaving out of account, for the present, all the other ingredients, which go to the formation of a true Representative System, and are indispensable to the establishment of good government. In proceeding to prove the utility of the ballot, this uncomfortable feeling intrudes itself,-that the task is useless. The evidence is so clear and incontestible, that it seems a loss of time to put it in words. The same considerations, one imagines, must occur to every other mind, and strike it with similar conviction. Another feeling is produced, by the arguments of those who assume the part of enemies of the ballot. What they say has not the countenance, the colour, not one of the marks, of bonafide reasons; such grounds as a man rests upon for the truth of an opinion really held. All their allegations bear upon them the broad appearance of mere pretexts; the sham pleas, which are invented and set up, as often as men are summoned to defend opinions, which they have adopted and are determined. to maintain, from other considerations than those of their truth, or falsehood. As matters stand, at present, in England, we should never forget, that in determining our preference of the secret or open mode of voting for a Member of Parliament, the real question is this; Whether the people who vote, should really VOL. XIII.-Westminster Review. B have the choice of the Member of Parliament; Or should only go through the formalities, the mummery of voting, including in it the prostitution of an oath, little regarded by a religious people ;-while the whole power of choosing, should be really possessed by other parties. It may indeed be affirmed,-it is not often so done in plain words, though it is of course habitually assumed,-that the last is the proper result; that the House of Commons ought to be chosen, that is, a majority of the House,-by a few of the most powerful and wealthy men of the kingdom. Allowing this assumption for the moment, overlooking all that is monstrous in the averment,-that a few men, who may, by their choice of Members of Parliament, employ, and abuse, the property and the persons of the rest of the community, for their own purposes,—will make a better choice for the community, than the community will make for themselves; we are then met by the inevitable question; Why, if this be so,-if it is indubitably true, that the small number will choose better than the great, and that the choice is actually and fortunately secured to them,-do we not abolish the fraudulent pretence which we now uphold? Why give to the people the appearance of a choice, which is nothing but a delusion? Is there not such a thing as lying by acts, as well as by speech? Is the turpitude of the mendacity less, when it is effected through the medium of the deed, than the word? Is there a more perfect instance, in the whole compass of imposture, of mendacity by deed, than that which is exhibited in the process of open voting for Members of Parliament in England? If it be affirmed that the fraud and mendacity are, in this instance, good, in consideration of the end; because, though it be very undesirable that the people should have, in their rude and shapeless hands, any security for good government, it is very desirable that they should have the belief of it,-to this an unanswerable objection occurs,—that all hope of upholding such delusion has become vain. There is a new element among the working principles of human society, on the effects of which the retainers of this hope would do well to ponder. The art of printing exists. And the irresistible progress of the information which it diffuses necessitates, not a change merely, but a perfect revolution, in the art of governing mankind. In the times that are gone, the art of government has consisted in a mixture of fraud and force; in which, commonly, the fraud predominated. In the times that are to come, as fraud will be impracticable, and a knowledge of what is good and what evil in the mode of managing the national affairs cannot be withheld from the nation, government will be left either to rational conviction, or to naked force. This is the grand revolution of modern times. This is the new era. And another thing in this altered condition of human affairs may deserve the serious consideration of those who have to do with the powers of government. All history proves, that force alone is inadequate to the government of mankind: even the approaches to the use of it have uniformly failed. The resort to fraud is alone complete evidence of the impotence of force by itself; for, doubtless, the fraud-always imposing shackles, more or less-would never have been submitted to, had the naked force been adequate to the end.-What is the conclusion?-As fraud has, heretofore, been combined with force; fraud must be supplanted by knowledge, in the future history of the world; and force left by itself is not competent to insure the obedience of mankind. It follows, that rational conviction alone is left for the auxiliary of force. But rational conviction will not afford its aid upon any terms except its own. It then becomes the governing power: and becoming the governing power, it becomes the sole power; for rational conviction needs not the aid of force. But, to pass from these clear revelations of reason, which hold forth, as in a mirror, the future history of mankind; one remark is yet necessary to be made, upon the conduct of those abettors of delusion to whom this part of our discourse is more particularly addressed. This their plea for mendacity and imposture, to which religion ministers as a handmaid, in the instrumentality of the oath-stands directly opposed to the argument, which we shall have occasion to handle more particularly farther on, that the ballot is unfavourable to that grand principle of morality, Truth. What are we to think of the morality and faith of those men, who display all the vehemence of outraged moral feeling, when they contemplate the chance that, under the safeguard of secrecy, the voter for a member of Parliament may break the promise-extorted from him by a villain-to violate his conscience and betray the trust confided to him by his country; while at the same time they uphold the virtue and excellence of the grand practical train of mendacity by which the people are to be cheated into a belief, that they have a power, of which they are wholly deprived? Was there ever a more glaring exposure of a hollow pretence? What is different, in the two cases, upon the shewing of these persons themselves, is not the mendacity but -the end. In the one case, the end is, to place the powers of government, without limit or control, in the hands of the few. For that end, according to them, active mendacity is laudable. In the other case, the end is, to limit the exercise of the powers |