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Turks or the English. The treaty gives to the three protectors no sort of prerogative, as far as the internal adminis tration of the affairs of the city is concerned. It was our peculiar duty to take care that no such prerogative should be usurped. The constitution of Cracow, which was drawn up in 1815, and textually inserted in the treaty, does not even contain the names of the protectors, and makes no mention whatever of their protectorate*. The position of a French or English diplomatic agent in relation to the government of Cracow, would be, by right, very nearly equivalent to that of the residents of the protecting courts. His importance will entirely depend on the tenor of his current instructions, and on his official character, which must evidently not be inferior to that of the agents of any other powers. It is clear that without this last condition, he will not represent the vigilance, the policy, and the power of his nation; and that the weakness of his government would be proclaimed by the mission of a subaltern agent destined to be the object of the haughty slights of his colleagues.

In the midst of the countless restrictions which shackle the commerce of Europe, Cracow, possessing by, treaty (as we have shown in an earlier page of this article), a right of free communication with all parts of ancient Poland, might have become a point of the utmost importance, if the affairs of the west of Europe had been conducted by men of tolerable foresight. For we may apply to the commerce of Cracow, as well as to all the stipulations of the treaty with regard to Poland, the motto of a knight of old—

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* We quote the constitution of 1815; for that which was thrust upon the town in 1833 is, and must remain for us, a mere dead letter de jure, whatever it may be de facto. We have only inscribed it at the head of the present article as one of the official documents which prove the numerous insults and violations of which Cracow has been the object. We quote, however, the 27th article of the Constitution of 1833, because it embodies the spirit of the whole act, by establishing a new power, which is henceforward the sovereign arbiter of the destinies of the

state:

"En cas de différens soit entre le Sénat et la Chambre des Représentans, "soit entre les membres de ces deux corps, sur l'étendue de leurs pouvoirs, ou "sur l'interprétation de la présente Constitution, les résidens des trois Cours protectrices, réunis en Conférence, auront à décider de la question," &c.

The armed occupation of the territory is the inevitable sanction of that authority which this article confers upon the Conference.

Let it not be imagined, however, if we here speak of the great commercial advantages to be derived from Cracow as a post of almost unequalled importance, that a mere commercial agent on the spot will be competent to ensure them to us, or to revive rights which have been superseded. Such an appointment would be a fresh mockery, worthy of our foreign policy for the last twenty years. It would be a fresh display to our rivals, and to those nations whose hopes and prayers are turned towards us, of that lethargic pusillanimity, which, even when it perceives its peril-possessing means to avert the danger, and to ensure incalculable benefits-chooses to prolong for another hour that slumber from which it will be so fearfully roused.

ARTICLE XI.

State and Tendency of Parties.

THE partiality of Journalists is very much to be regretted both on their own account and that of the Public. They voluntarily descend from the high position, which they might occupy in society, into one of inferior utility and honor. By maintaining their impartiality, they might distribute the rewards of genius and patriotism, be the arbiters of taste and promoters of incalculable benefit to those, among whom they live. By an opposite course they become the slaves of faction, despicable panders to depraved appetites, and instruments of immeasurable evil.

These remarks have been called from us by a sincere regard for the honor of the Profession, in which we are engaged. To speak slightingly of our cotemporaries, in order to extol ourselves, would be a symptom of such mean jealousy and odious rivalry, that we trust, we cannot be supposed capable of it. None, on the contrary, can be more anxious, than ourselves, to uphold it in its greatest dignity, and, if it unfortunately be degraded, to contribute humbly to its restoration. In our criticisms, literary and political, truth and fairness shall always be found to preside. We should scorn to take away a character as to pick a pocket or break into a house; and we know

no more certain way of obtaining a good reputation for ourselves, than by giving to others that impartial judgment, which we desire to receive. With these few obvervations we proceed to our subject.

It has appeared to us, that it might be a useful speculation to examine the actual condition, with the purpose of ascertaining the probable tendency, of parties. Conservatives, Whigs, and Radicals, all lay claim to disinterested views, and all seem possessed of some ground for their pretensions. The Radical has to plead the extent of the past corruption of our Institutions for desiring to alter them. The Whigs may contend that their aristocracy is the most honest and alone fit to be trusted by a liberal population. The Conservatives distrust their honesty and professing equal liberality expect equal confidence. It is manifest that the Whigs can advance, in their own favor, the services of a long political life. While the Conservatives have to remove the impression made by their services and to ask permission to open an account on a new score. The Radicals, have been untried, for nearly two centuries. Their reputation as Reformers is not good, for they think little of rebuilding, while they are pursuing their work of demolition. This party has therefore received from the Public the name of Destructives. The Conservatives are more accurately described by the name of Conformers, for they are in fact Tories, who have taken up a good name, to which they had no title, in order to cover a bad one, of which they were ashamed. The Whigs, if they bear out their Professions, and reform, so far, as is consistent only with the existence and improvement of the established institutions, will then be the true Conservatives and doubtless be so considered by the country.

Let us examine the strength, numbers and position of each. The position of the Whigs is the most curious. Standing between the Tories and the Radicals, few in numbers, when compared with either of their neighbours, they are supported by both, who are notwithstanding as jealous of them, as of each other. They may be said, occasionally to oscillate from one to the other of their rivals, now hanging to the Radical side, and at another time inclined to that of the Tories. We prefer calling parties by their real names,

and cannot consent to term the Tories, Conservatives, though we are willing to give them the appellation of Conformers, which is more accurate though perhaps less courteous. The Whigs are maintained solely by their position. Each rival assists them alternately for its own purposes. Neither likes them. It would scarcely be too harsh a term, if we had said, that both detest them. But each offers them protection, because they hate them less than they do each other. The Whigs too are supported by the country for a similar reason. The sincere conversion of the Tories is universally doubted. Even the most favorable to their return to power, think their new opinions rather imposed by necessity, than adopted by choice. In this situation the country fears assumption of power by the Destructives, as they style the Radicals, and although they have not implicit reliance in the ability of the Whigs to maintain themselves long as Constitutional Reformers, they assist in supporting them in their present place in order to prevent its being occupied by others, from whom they apprehend greater and more immediate danger.

In this singular position this Party has preserved its existence, with one short exception, since the passing of the Reform Bill. Their continuance in power must of course depend upon their means of preserving their present or occupying a stronger position. Their policy wants that energy which ensures the support of men of independence, and until they give evidence of greater intrinsic strength, they cannot expect to be supported for their own sakes. Their numbers in the lower House of Parliament are perhaps equal or rather superior to those of the Radicals, but considerably less than the Conservatives, composed of Tories of the old school and Conformers. In the Country there are few Whigs. Here and there an old gentleman recollects the days, when Mr. Fox kept his friends together by admiration of his genius and respect for his patriotism and rejoices to tell anecdotes of the affectionate warmth of his heart, his disinterested and, in the right sense of the word, affable condescension, or of his intellectual conversation and richly cultivated talents. But the old Whigs are mostly gone, and their descendants are Tories or Radicals. During the palmy days of Toryism, when a Fox no longer

existed to make a stand against corruption, and that, which at one time required to be wielded by the arm of a Pitt, could strike successfully in the hand of a Castlereagh, the Whigs were gradually swept from the land. Bribes of every description in the shape of place, patronage, power, profit or something else with a more ignoble name, made rapid and sincere conversion from the faith of the Whig to the creed of the Tory.

Since that time what hopes, until lately, could cheer the labourer in the vineyard of liberty? The advocates of popular rights had every art and seduction to contend against. Providence gave them for a time the shelter of her wing under an Erskine and a Fox. But when they departed, who could take their place? We reverence, equally with any of our countrymen, the names of Grey and Brougham, Lansdowne and Holland, with other Irish and English patriots who succeeded to their mantle. But the genius of Fox left a vacancy in earth, when it fled to its pure abode, which has not yet been supplied. It occupied a space in the hearts of men, which is still untenanted. It has left his principles to us as a legacy, but it robbed us of their best defender.

Our limits will not allow us to notice the various ways, by which Whig principles have, since that time, been diverted from their channel, and the course, they have pursued, until their reappearance in the Radical or the Conformer. The task would be irksome, and unnecessary. From the honors of the Lord Lieutenant of a county to the humble bearer of a knight's escutcheon, from the dignity of the Prelate to the hard-earned pittance of the working Curate, all was distributed to serve the ends of the Tory politician. Servility was never better rewarded, than in those days, nor ever appeared in more costly trammels. Better prospects have arrived. Let us endeavor to forget the past.

We now turn to the Tories whose conduct during their ascendancy we have glanced at in our last paragraph. They must be divided into those of the new and old school. The latter are honest but impracticable. The former are more manageable, and if they are not hypocrites, they have made the most astonishing change from bad habits ever completed by human infirmity in so short a time. The latter, that

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