In past ages, the People-never having conceived the idea of a social condition different from its own, and entertaining no expectation of ever ranking with its chiefs-submitted without resistance or servility to their exactions, as to the inevitable visitations of the arm of God.—De Tocqueville.

The poor were not the authors of the system which has ruined their freedom, their industry, and their morals.-Edinburgh Review.

The sternest Republican that ever Scotland produced, was so struck with this reflection (the increase of pauperism, ignorance, and crime), that he did not hesitate to wish for the re-establishment of Domestic Slavery, as a remedy for the squalid wretchedness and audacious guilt with which his country was overrun.-Quarterly Review.

The English boast of liberty! But there is no liberty in England for the poor.-Southey.

The country blooms, a garden and a grave!—Goldsmith.

God knows that much evil, much tyranny, much individual suffering must exist under our present political arrangements.—London Quarterly Review, Dec., 1839.

THE REFORMERS OF ENGLAND.

MOR

I.

ORE cheerful and inspiring scenes now invite our contemplation-objects which command attention and excite hope. We come up from the dreary desert where we have so long wandered with the hopeless multitude, and mount to the high table-lands where the Reformers of England are marshalling their forces for the great battle that is to emancipate the wronged and outraged millions of the Empire. The admiration and sympathy of all men who are looking to the future with hope and confidence, are joyfully extended towards the Reform party in Great Britain. They constitute one of the most disinterested bodies of men in any nation; they are England's glory and hope. Unterrified by the frowns of the oligarchy, unseduced by the blandishments of power, straightforward they have marched to the achievement of their purpose -the emancipation of the depressed and neglected classes from their long and chcerless oppression.

It would be a grateful task to trace the lives and efforts of many of England's modern Reformers; but we must content ourselves with brief sketches of a few to whom the friends of light and progress will ever feel a sentiment of the deepest gratitude.

THO

II.

HOMAS BABBINGTON MACAULAY will doubtless be regarded hereafter as one of the most gifted of his contemporaries. As an essayist and reviewer he has had few, if any, equals. A British reviewer must unite the highest intellectual

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endowments and acquisitions. With the keenest power of analysis, he must display the broadest sweep of generalization, the most just and striking comparisons, the least hackneyed, and, of course, the most original modes of thinking and expression; all but universal knowledge, with classic purity, great powers of condensation, irresistible logic, and the charms of the most fascinating diction. Endowed as Macaulay so generously was with most of these attributes, it would be difficult to say in which he most abounded, and for which we most cheerfully yield our admiration.

One reason of his immense popularity in this country was his large humanity, which embraced the well-being of the whole human race, the exultation with which he surveyed the spread of liberal principles, benign laws, philanthropic efforts, and the progress of a high civilization. With him every thing had to bend to the great cause of human advancement. This was strikingly seen in his eloquent and convincing appeals for the overthrow of the infamous Corn-Laws, his exposure of the tyranny, corruption and cruelty of the East India Company, of the oppression of Ireland, of the corruptions and abuse of the Established Church, of the Poor-Laws, of the illiberality of the British Universities, and in the readiness and fervor with which he embraced any measure introduced into Parliament or brought before society for the amelioration of the condition of men. No Englishman has at any time more fairly won his way to the House of Lords, nor more imperatively commanded the respect of statesmen, scholars, and philanthropists. If Macaulay was not as radical in his political principles as some other Reformers, it may be alleged, in his justification, that while he was far ahead of most of his contemporaries as a Reformer, he was too careful to risk his reputation upon measures which could not be passed, or in the defense of causes which could not be won. But, in attempting and adhering to all that could be gained, and suggesting with boldness what ought to be done, he occupied, as a leader, a high place on the roll of British Reformers in the present age.

Like other great British writers, he had ten or twenty readers in America where he had one in England. Like them, too, he is here more perfectly comprehended, because all the intelligent classes in America can better comprehend his defense of liberal principles, and more cordially extend to him the sympathies of men brought up under the expanding influences of democratic institutions.

But while Americans who are familiar with the social system of Britain are sometimes amazed that Macaulay trod so confidently on the perilous ground of reform, they often regret that he did not sometimes go further. But such readers know how strong are the restraints imposed on such men by the blandishments and honors of the aristocratic society of England in which Macaulay spent most of his life. They will therefore accord to him the honor of attempting every reform he thought he could achieve, and the sagacity of avoiding every attempt which seemed likely to end in a failure.

III.

ICHARD COBDEN was a man of a far different type. Very few men have lived in Great Britain to whom the mass of the people owe a debt of deeper gratitude, or one which they have been more willing to pay. He rose from deep obscurity to enduring fame. He was the son of a poor "yeoman of Sussex." At an early age he began life as a clerk in a London house, and subsequently went to Manchester, where he was engaged as the traveling agent of a large cotton establishment. His great integrity, perseverance, and judgment, won for him the respect of all he associated with; and, in connexion with his brother, he soon began a manufactory, which became very successful. At the head of this establishment, limited as the field was, he displayed many of those characteristics for which he afterwards became so distinguished. Few manufacturers have shown greater shrewdness in adapting their fabrics to the public taste, as there has been no one, perhaps, who has

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mingled the stern and unyielding qualities of the Reformer more politicly with the address of the debater and statesman. It is said that in 1837 or 1838, having brought out a very beautiful muslin print, it was adopted by the Queen and Court, and "Cobden's Prints" became the fashion. He was now a successful manufacturer; but he had long before this studied the public interests of Great Britain, and some of his pamphlets which were published in 1835, '36, and '37, contained the germs of all those established opinions which he afterwards advocated with such zeal and ability. Perhaps the most powerful effort of his pen was an article on Russia, and to prepare himself to write it, he visited the East and examined matters for himself.

He was now regarded as one of the ablest of that corps of Reformers who have made Manchester their centre, and who have, one by one, found their way into Parliament, which has at last become the scene of their victories. In 1837 he lacked only fifty-five votes of being returned to Parliament from Stockport, and in 1840 refused to become a candidate from Manchester, since, knowing that his opinions were far in advance of the Whig party, he would not consent to take the votes of men who he knew were not then prepared to sustain him in his radical views on the great question of Free Trade. The following year, however, he was returned for Stockport; and few men have exerted so much influence in the great cause of reform, or won so much honor from the nation. I shall not give a detailed history of the origin, progress and triumph of the National Anti-Corn-Law League, for it is already known to intelligent readers wherever the English language is spoken. Many able and convincing publications had appeared in Great Britain from the time of Adam Smith, in which the great doctrine, since triumphant, was advocated-with overwhelming force that the shortest and surest road to national wealth and prosperity lies through the ruins of all commercial restrictions, which had formerly opposed or limited the friendly relations of mankind. Many brilliant and stirring papers had from time to time appeared in the Edinburgh Review on Political Reform,