Toryfield-house, Jan. 30, 1819.

THE most superficial acquaintance with human nature will enable us to perceive the absurdity of any system of laws or form of government which pretends to be incapable of amendment. Society is in its very nature fluctuating and changeable, and laws and institutions, which do not keep pace with the march of its improvements or decline, must always entail a multitude of evils.

How absurd, then, it will be said, the conduct of those who oppose and deprecate all the measures which our patriots have recommended for abolishing the errors and purging off the corruptions that so notoriously infest our constitution and our government! Is not the country sinking into the gulph of ruin, from which nothing but a reform in parliament can snatch her? Are not the people amused with this phantom of liberty, and with high-sounding acclaims of prosperity and abundance, while they are loaded with every species of political grievance: their corn kept at a high rate by a wicked and interested regulationevery necessary of life, such as tea and tobacco, taxed beyond the reach of purchasing the right of suffrage withheld from the body of the people-and seats in parliament and boroughs sold like cattle in a cattle-market? And all for what-To have every bad measure of the administration supported by interested hirelings-mere pieces of courtmachinery, who only move by the weight of gold-solid gold, which the minister contrives to have introduced into their pockets.

Now the remedy of all those evils is easy and safe-as we have nothing more to do than reform our parliament, by excluding placemen from the house of commons, by abolishing the right of election in decayed, or-(in the elegant language of the reformers)-rotten boroughs-by making suffrage universaland by rendering parliamentary elections annual. Let us think for a mo

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A STAUNCH TORY.

ment of these proposed improvements in the order we have stated them.

Placemen have for many years been an inexhaustible theme for the declamation of the party in opposition. By them every person who occupies a public-office is considered and denounced as a vampire, who goes his nightly rounds to drain the public purse and fatten on the spoils of the treasury. And for these charges, I admit, that there exists but too much proof. I am convinced that peculation to an enormous extent is carried on in the publicoffices, and that undue methods are often resorted to for the increasing of court emoluments, though I am equally convinced that these abuses are much exaggerated. But such are not the principal evils that are dreaded from those hated placemen. They are denounced as forming a junto of interested supporters of the measures pursued by the executive, and are, consequently, supposed to hesitate at no deceit, however wicked, and to scruple at no measures, however dishonest or dishonourable, in order to accomplish their designs.

But, would the influence and the means of peculation, which placemen possess, be diminished or destroyed by their exclusion from the House of Commons? It would indeed be exerted in a more secret manner, but perhaps with still more efficacy than now, when it is almost acknowledged, or, at least, but thinly veiled. The proposed reform then would, probably, in this particular case, open a path for more dangerous forms of intrigue and corruption, and might have a greater tendency to debase than to elevate the characters of our public officers.

There would also result from the proposed exclusion an evil, which seems never to have occurred to any of our reformers-it would shut up almost the only access which the House of Commons has to important state-information.

The proceedings of the executive are, from their very nature, in a great measure concealed, till they come to be known by their effects, and a destructive measure can only be stopped in most cases by a legislative act, after it shall have produced irreparable evils. This is not a speculative opinion. The members of the first American congress were, perhaps, as much prejudiced against placemen, as the most determined exposer of corruptions in Britain can possibly be; and yet they were under the necessity, in spite of the most obstinate and preposterous opposition, to request the presence of the secretary of the treasury to assist in their financial measures. When such exclusion as our reformers advise was found to be so embarrassing, and placemen found indispensible in the legislative assembly of the United States, where prejudices against them were so strong, how can we avoid concluding that they were not only useful, but that they cannot at all be dispensed with; with the evils which they bring with them, therefore, we must bear, or palliate them as we best can.

But how is this salutary measure to be obtained? How are the public officers, whose presence is necessary to the very existence of a well-regulated legislature, be introduced into the House of Commons? It is not indeed provided for by statute, nor perhaps is it necessary. But I shall be told that there is a law almost directly against it, which enacts, "that' if any person, being chosen a member of the House of Commons, shall accept of any office from the crown, during such time as he shall continue à member, his election shall be declared to be void, and a new writ shall issue as if such person so accepting was naturally dead." It is, however, wisely subjoined, that such a person shall be capable of being again elected, at the choice of the electors.

Now this, which to a theoretical inquirer into the British constitution would appear to be a defect of no common magnitude, is most effectually remedied by connivance. At the first institution of boroughs, the number of members which they were declared to be capable of returning, was no doubt proportionate to their wealth or their population. But wealth is continually shifting its channel, and population is frequently transferred from one town to another, according to the fluctuation of manufactures and trade. When this happens, it would

no doubt be but fair, that the right of suffrage should be transferred also; but, justice and right, in practical politics, must often give way to expediency and public utility. In this case, the transference proposed would violate justice as it would infringe the charters of the boroughs which had thus in the change of human affairs fallen from their former station. Besides, their decay is productive of great advantage, as it remedies the evil which would otherwise accrue from the exclusion of placemen-and enables the administration to get their own members elected into the House of Commons, which in many cases would have been otherwise impractica-, ble; for, the electors of such boroughs as have fallen into decay being less numerous, gives the friends of administration an opportunity of obtaining a greater influence over them, and they are consequently thus empowered to have the public officers returned to parliament in defiance of popular clamour. Time has thus produced, as in politics it frequently does, what the wisdom of the framers of the British constitution had overlooked, and has converted what is ignorantly denounced as a nuisance, into a useful and almost indispensible part of our constitution.

These treasury-boroughs also are indispensible for the support of the crown; for were the minister unable to secure a majority in the House of Commons, almost every public measure would either be negatived or produce an impeachment; there would be perpetual changes of ministers-the whole nation would be stirred up to commotion-and would exhibit one continued scene of confusion and misrule. This the decayed boroughs do much to avert; and they must, on that account, be reckoned the greatest blessing-next to liberty of speech and freedom of action, which our constitution provides for.

But it is contrary, it is said, to politi cal justice, that two or three men in one part of the kingdom shall have the power of checking as many members of parliament, as several hundreds of equal or superior rank and wealth in another.-Perhaps the objectors are right in this; for, if the right of suffrage be granted at all, why not grant it in an equal degree to men of the same rank and influence. If this doctrine of right however be adhered to and acted upon, I am afraid that instead of that august

fabric which it has cost us so much blood and treasure to rear and maintain, we should soon have nothing to boast of, but the confusion of a lawless rabble or the rule of a lawless tyrant. "Nay, if we are allowed to refer to experience, we may be bold to say, that it is contrary to human nature, and to the texture of human society, that such a right should ever be recognised, for we can adduce no example of any country where it ever was acted upon-nor. could I imagine it ever brought into operation except in the fancies of Uto-' pian dreamers; we demand an unequivocal example before we risk a hazardous experiment.

But what, it may be asked, would the House of Commons be improved were the right of suffrage extended, so far only as is practicable? The number of the members, it must be obvious, could not be increased, without being productive of the utmost confusion, for every numerous assembly is a mob, and although the treasury-boroughs were deprived of their ancient charters, and their rights transferred to towns which have recently increased, no very great number more could be returned to parliament by those boroughs which wish to be considered independent. The House of Commons, in short, would consist in that case of similar elements as at present, with the serious disadvantage of wanting official information from the exclusion of the public officers. Their deliberations would of course be the same, and the laws would have a similar character and tone to what they have now.

There are at present in the House of Commons members of the most various

professions and pursuits, and it may be doubted whether there is a single, individual in the whole nation who is not represented, or, which is the same thing, whose sentiments are not some time or other expressed in that house. Now this is exactly what is wanted; for no man, I presume, would expect that all the acts of the legislature should tally with his political opinions, or even with the opinions of any party. It is sufficient that these sentiments be expressed in the House and published to the nation. If they are important and just, the most venal administration that ever ruled the British empire, would find it unsafe to disregard them. If they are of a contrary stamp, they will fall deservedly into contempt.

This leads me to consider the only circumstance which would render reform at all expedient-namely, that it would humour the prejudices of a numerous and respectable class of men who have taken umbrage at the glaring corruptions in the representation, and will be satisfied with nothing short of complete perfection. They do not seem to recollect that nothing human admits of this; and since, by their own acknowledgment, we have advanced farther towards perfection than any state, ancient or modern, ever did; would it not be better to abide by the system we have found so superior, rather than overturn it by rash experiments, which, in every, probability, would make things worse instead of better?-I meant to have said something about elections, but I find my paper is already long enough, and tedious enough too, as my opponents will say.

ANOTHER of M. Arc-en-Ciel's inventions, though not so aspiring as sunmaking is, nevertheless, exceedingly ingenious. He does not, however, lay claim to originality in the invention of the Terasanthropôn, as it is mentioned by Homer in the eleventh Iliad.

Εν νεφει στηριξε τερας μεροπῶν ἀνθρωπων ; ver. 28, though the art of rainbow-making has been lost these two thousand years. Newton, indeed, made some approaches towards it in his prismatic experiments; but it was reserved for M. Arc-en-Ciel

to revive it in all its original Homeric splendour.

The Terasanthrôpôn is contrived with the same philosophic simplicity as the kosmoholoscope, being nothing more than a small elegant globular bottle of polarized Iceland spar, inclosing, like the other, a quantity of M. Arc-en-Ciel's essence of light. The bottle is inclosed in two opaque cases of ass-skin parchment, the inner of which is full of imperceptible needle perforations, of the most tasteful patterns, through which

the essence makes its way so soon as the outer case is shifted. The result is beyond all description wonderful; the sight is dazzled and overpowered by the brilliant rainbow tints, which are thus poured upon it in regular and unceasing radiance and variety; it is, indeed, a Terasanthrôpôn.

The chief use which M. Arc-en- Ciel proposes to make of the instrument is as a female ornament, and were it not degrading to philosophy to make it a nursery-toy, there certainly never was a more happy device for the amusement of infant curiosity. The poor nurse will, indeed, no longer have to lament her inability to gratify a squalling child with the pretty rainbow, heretofore out of her reach, as the Terasanthrôpôn is expressly contrived for making rainbows of every possible diversity of size. At Paris they are quite the rage at present, no lady of ton venturing to appear without, at least, one splendid iris, either on her head-dress or playing about her neck. The Terasanthrôpôn does, indeed, make the most superb necklaces and bracelets: Zones also and flounces have been lately introduced, far surpassing the natural rainbow in richness and play of colouring. But the grandest triumph of the Terasanthrôpôn was seen in the person of Madame Arc-en-Ciel, who appeared one evening at the opera in a costume wholly composed of rainbows. Every conception of angels, and sylphs, and seraphs which painters and poets

have given us-was so splendidly outshoue by the iridescent robes of Madame Arc-en-Ciel that the whole audience burst out into one loud exclamation of Mon Dieu! and sunk swooning on the benches. The device, however, which seems to have made the most impression on my friend, was that of an iris reversed and stuck in the front of a wig-turban, like the crescent of Mahomet, or the horns of the Egyptian goddess Isis. With this effect of the Terasanthropôn-my friend was quite in raptures, and raves of it with all the extravagance of a mad lover. The rainbow scarf is also a great favourite with himand it may gratify your female readers to learn, that a large order for Madame Arc-en-Ciel's scarfs, &c. has been dispatched to Paris express, from the house of M. B. M. and Co. and may be expected in a few days.

M. Arc-en-Ciel also gives displays, by means of the Terasanthrôpôn, on a scale of matchless grandeur-throwing rainbows over a vast extent of country, to the amazement of the people included in the measureless span of the iridescent arches. He means, indeed, to announce himself, on his arrival in England, by a display of this kind

the most superb which has ever been attempted in this country. He has constructed a grand Terasanthrôpôn for the purpose, which will throw an iris the whole way from Dover to London, or from that to John O'Groats.

C. E.

SPENSER.

that garden of bliss. He became weary of the bleak prospect which Gumar-unvaryingly presented. To him the mountains now wore a darker shade of brown, and the pure streams which fell from the rocks, and were lost in the desert, wanted the bordering of flowers, the shade of myrtles, and the music of birds, which his imagination had pictured in the happy region. He went with reluctance to tend the flocks of his father, and murmured at his scanty fare of milk and dates. His countenance be

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came gloomy, and melancholy settled in his bosom. The smile of cheerfulness rose on his cheek only when he had limbed to the summit of Ras el Djed to look, with longing hopes, towards the mountains on the horizon, beyond which the happy Yemen was situated. Determined to leave a country which, to him, presented nothing but sameness and misery, and not daring to ask permission from his father, he contrived, on a beautiful evening in summer, to elude observation, and bid farewell to the rocks and deserts of Gumar.

To avoid being discovered by those whom he knew would be dispatched in search of him, he took a rout which, being destitute of water, was never traversed. Guided by the star which had so often directed him in his wanderings through the desert, he hastened over the sands in all the impatient anxiety of hope. The pleasures which he expected soon to enjoy glowed in his fancy, and caused the long track of the wilderness to appear in his eye of less extent than the vale of palms, where he had passed his youth in many a gay frolic and innocent amusement. He had now reached the ridge of mountains which he had often seen far in the horizon, when the sun arose in splendour from the edge of the desert behind him. All day he wandered, with unabated ardour, along the foot of the ridge, in search of the path which had been described to him by the Circassians. But the evening approached before he could discover any part of the rocks that was accessible. Having then discovered a slope, which, though rugged, did not present so formidable a barrier as several others, which he had attempted previously without success, -he clambered up from cliff to cliff, till he had nearly reached the middle of the mountain. But coming, at last, to the bottom of a precipice, which was not to be surmounted, he began to despair of ever arriving at the happy Yemen.

On casting a look of sullen disappointment at the barrier which seemed to terminate his hopes, he perceived a Dervise on the top of the precipice, gathering berries from the over-hanging shrubs, He made signs to the old man that he had lost his way, and requested him to point out the path over the mountains. The Dervise readily directed him how to find the way to the summit of the rock, and offered him such accommodations

as his tent afforded, promising to direct him on his journey on the morrow.

Alzara's mind was so full of the beauties which he imagined were to be found in the country whither he was travelling, that he could not conceal from his entertainer the purpose of his journey. Instead of approving of his design, however, the prudent old man began to describe to him the pains of pleasure, and the. listless languor induced by uninterrupted happiness. But observing that Alzara was little inclined to listen to his advice, he took him to a rock adjoining the tent, where he hoped, he said, to convince him by his own observation. They entered a passage which led through the rock to the opposite side of the mountain, and seemed to be scooped out by the hand of nature. When they, had reached the farther end of the passage, a prospect burst upon the astonished Alzara, which far exceeded in beauty the brightest of his dreams.

On the one hand was an extensive forest of orange and palm-trees, of the most stately growth, the tops of which were yellow with the evening light of the sun. The shrubs, which grew on the borders of the forest, were covered with variegated blossoms, and imparted to, the air the fragrance of a thousand odours. This wilderness of flowering shrubs was parted by a stream, the murmurs of which were faintly heard from a plain on the opposite side, which extended farther than the eye could reach, and was adorned with every flower which beauty, or fragrance, could render pleasing. But, amidst all this profusion of delights, the enraptured youth did not perceive the least trace of an inhabitant, and turning to his guide, whom he had forgotten in the first ecstacies of astonishment, "Why," said he, "does the lovely scene before us attract no inhabitants? I think I should never tire in wandering along the shades, or regaling myself with the fruit of those beautiful orange-trees, in tracing the windings of the brook, which murmurs so sweetly, and of gathering nosegays of the spikenard and laurel-roses which grow on its margin."-"It is only inexperience," replied the Dervise, "that makes you so enchanted with those imaginary pleasures. This is called the Paradise of Plenty, and is a place of punishment and not of enjoyment. Thither the Sultan of Yemen sends all those who have endeavoured to amass wealth, at the expence of probity and