27,000,000 to private persons. Only about one man in five is free in Russia, and every tenth man is a soldier. The military force of the empire exceeds that of England in proportion to its population, by 955,000 men, without a colony to protect, or a fortified town to defend.' The condition of the serfs is miserable in the extreme. The picture of their wretchedness is one of the most revolting on which the eye can rest, and suggests to a reflecting mind the rude materials of a vast volcano, which, sooner or later, will pour themselves with destructive fury, over the surrounding region. It is not in the nature of of things that such elements should permanently remain passive. The laws of the moral world are as omnipotent as those of the physical, and it will require all the wisdom and tact of the ablest statesmanship, to prevent a terrible retribution being exacted on the coming generations of Russia. The extravagance and profligate habits of the feudal lords, are a source of grinding oppression to the serfs, which the occasional interposition of the government can do little to mitigate. In unpropitious seasons their sufferings are horrible, and thousands are frequently destroyed by famine:

The Russians,' says Mr. Thompson, attempt to prove to you that the condition of their serfs is enviable, compared to that of the peasants in other countries. It is a miserable deception. In the distant and sequestered departments, thousands of families pass through all the horrors of starvation, and perish from misery and the effects of brutality. Human nature suffers universally in Russia; but the men who form the staple of the soil have the hardest lot. It is in vain to contend that they are entitled to the necessaries of life, when they have not the power to enforce the fulfilment of this illusive privilege. The truth is stifled under the fallacious, though specious, axiom, that it is the interest of a master to provide for his creatures: but it is not every man who understands and appreciates his interests. In other societies, and among other people, the bad economist ruins himself, and the evil extends no farther; but here, as human life constitutes the wealth of an individual, whole villages and cantons fall victims to the improvidence and recklessness of their owner. It is true that the government steps in and applies a remedy for these evils, by placing the estates in trust, when it is aware of the mischief; but this tardy relief cannot restore the dead. Picture to yourself the mass of unknown sufferings and iniquities produced by such customs, under such a government and in such a climate! The despotism of these landlords is more aggravated than that of the Emperor himself; because, from being withdrawn from the public eye, it is not controlled by the fear of public opinion. The spirit of despotism is not to be found in the equality of its victims, but in their ignorance of the value of freedom and in their fear of tyranny. The power of an absolute master is a monster always ready to affiliate a worse, namely, the tyranny of the people. Democratic anarchy cannot be of long duration, for its very elements, Massaniello-like, involve its own down

fall; but the systematic operation of the abuses of autocracy perpetuate from generation to generation, under the mask of benevolence, moral anarchy, the worst of evils, and material obedience, the most dangerous of virtues.'-p. 207.

In Russia, as in other countries nearer home, the inferior nobility are a curse to the people. Their pride prohibits their engaging in commerce, and the public offices swarm with them. They are an incubus on the state, for whose maintenance the people have to pay, and by whose selfishness and servility the wicked policy of their superiors is carried out :

These men are free by birth, and would form, in other countries, a class of gentlemen; but as that distinction is not recognised in Russia, they are, as their name implies, attached to the nobility, among whom they hold the lowest rank. To find employment for this race the public offices are thronged; and, as they have no property and are miserably paid, they contrive to realise a sufficient income by exacting bribes, or extorting money for services rendered through their interest with their superiors, for whom they, jackal-like, hunt down the game, and share the spoil. It can easily be conceived that they are not over scrupulous, and that they contrive impediments for the purpose of levying a fine for their removal.'—p. 154.

The civilization of Russia is artificial and premature. There is nothing sound or healthy in it. It is wanting in the first elements of worth, and has resulted-such as it is-from the insane ambition of Peter the Great. The effect of his policy is visible everywhere, giving an artificial surface to society-the varnish of refinement upon the rude nature of barbarism.' Casual observers may, therefore, easily mistake the condition of things. They see only the higher points of the scenery, the glare and splendour which rival that of Paris. In the mean time the great mass of the people are sunk in barbarism, without the light of intelligence, or the industry and thrift of honest labour. Such an empire, whatever may be its brute force, has little real power in the present age, and we treat as utterly ridiculous the fears, expressed by some party scribes. perfectly agree with Mr. Thompson, that the outward appearance of its grandeur is but an illusion, founded on an attempt to appear civilized without being so; it is like the figure in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, with its feet of clay.'

We

The extracts we have given, will enable our readers to judge of the character of Mr. Thompson's volume, which we recommend to their further acquaintance, as a work of sound judgment, shrewd observation, and extensive knowledge. Such a work was wanted, and much good will result from its extensive circulation.

491

ART. VII.-Report of the Committee of the House of Commons appointed to Consider the Means of Facilitating the Dispatch of Business. 1848. Ar the end of a session, a common duty devolves upon the Queen, the press, and a chief of the opposition! They review the work done. They sum up the legislation omitted or perpetrated. For years, Lord Lyndhurst used to display the trenchant splendours of his intellect, in exposures of the large attempts and small achievements of the Whigs. When in opposition, in one year, Lord Palmerston, and in another, Lord John Russell, would undertake the discharge of this office upon their rivals, and intimate to a discerning public how cleverly they would have achieved the good, and eschewed the evil measures of the Peel ministry. This year, Mr. D'Israeli undertakes the Lyndhurst function with an equal heartlessness, but with an intellectual power as inferior as his eloquence is more gorgeous, and his wit more brilliant.

A

In thousands of apartments, of all sorts and sizes, alike only in being littered over with newspapers, the gentlemen of the fourth estate, which, when any good is done, rule the other three, write their summaries of the labours of the session. motley crew they are the gang of the press—yet almost all fellows with work and pluck in them, with big heads and restless eyes. Some try ministerial doings by the test of the interest of their parties, the isms of their philosophies, the principles of their sects, the predilections of their proprietors; but most of them apply chiefly the test of the interest of their journals. Yet few base things which are done pass without receiving their brand. Few beneficent ideas fail of obtaining somewhat of their support. On the whole, chivalry was never so faithful, and certainly never so powerful, on the side of the oppressed, as journalism is in the middle of the nineteenth century. Woeful would it be for us, if our legislators did not do their work in the presence of a body of professed onlookers, more numerous and more intelligent than they. The sovereignty of the people, insignificant in our representative system, becomes the omnipotence of public opinion in the press.

The smallest in real importance of all the summaries, is the royal one. There is a muster of helmeted guardsmen, on beautiful horses, before Buckingham Palace,―a huge state carriage, with pictured pannels and gold mountings, rolls slowly towards the Houses of Parliament, along the avenue of trees in St. James's Park:-in the House of Lords, a small, stout, and rather good-looking sovereign lady, superbly dressed with diamonds, reads from her throne a brief catalogue of the measures passed, enumerated in courteous and graceful circumlocutions,

in common places, patriotic and pious, and this is the royal close of the session. There are beautiful peeresses in plumes, bishops in lawn, nobles in ermine, soldiers in scarlet, and a striking spectacle, and a ceremonial conducted in the words first used by the Norman conqueror. All is ceremonial, and not business. Seldom, indeed, is there much real importance in these speeches of kings, or messages of presidents, whether inaugural or farewell, whether prologues or epilogues. Yet, here, as a matter of mere taste, would we beg to record our preference of the brevity of the speeches of modern royalty, to the longwinded orations of the kings of old, and of the presidents of the United States. King James the First delivered speeches superior in ability, learning, and length to the messages of President Polk. The royal ceremonial, and the brief speeches of constitutional monarchs, seem, we confess, to us informed by a finer sense of the becoming, and full of a higher spirit and a nobler philosophy than are known to the prosy lectures or messages in which the American presidents flatter the myriad-headed mob. Few and fit words in public, alone become the representative of the people. Talkativeness and verbosity are not suitable to the one who embodies the sovereignty of all. We cannot admire the leaden length of the messages of the presidents. It is a question of taste, and we deem them bad in point of taste. There is no majesty in prolixity. The Homeric description portrays Jove ruling Olympus with a nod; but fancy him delivering a lecture to the gods, on mythology, of a couple of hours long! Yet this fancy is but a companion absurdity to the picture of the august impersonation of a nation spouting for hours, like a dreary professor in his chair, a dull dissertation about governments, republics, monarchies, aristocracies, and democracies! Brief and becoming ought the words to be of all ceremonials and ceremonial personages. Of improvement in the American fashion, these ceremonies are susceptible, but the improvements to be adopted are in the way of retrenchment and simplicity, and not of prosiness.

The session began on the 23rd of November, 1847. Since then, not ten months, but ten years, have elapsed, if time is to be measured by events. It is an effort of fancy, like going back to a past age, to recal the autumn of last year. The general election of 1847 was memorable, negatively-It was neither a battle of parties, nor a battle of principles, and in its contests, neither of the aristocratic factions contended for place, nor did democracy struggle with oligarchy for any great interest or truth. Every where, except where the personal interests of individuals interfered, Whigs, Tories, Conservatives, and Liberals, all sections of aristocratic politicians, helped each other against men of the people. At Edinburgh, the personal trickery of Mr. Macaulay was punished, and in the Tower Hamlets, and

in Glasgow, Aberdeen, and a few other places, candidates of a more popular cast than their predecessors were returned. But the general election of 1847 was not a battle of principle, as the general election of 1841 was, one for the principle of free trade. Voluntaryism, indeed, spontaneously displayed itself in many places, and candidates were surprised by the prevalence of queries respecting the separation of church and state. Lord John Russell and the ministry, however, adroitly prevented the universality of these questions, by repudiating all intention of paying the Irish priests.

Doubt and uncertainty were the characteristics of the autumn of 1847. In France, observers had seen and said, Republicanism is about to reappear. Parliamentary Reform was likely to become again a great demand of the middle and working classes in this country. Agrarian assassinations were becoming more and more frequent in Ireland, and the confederates more and more seditious and violent. Cries of distress were raised by the West India body. Eight millions of money had been paid to relieve Irish distress, without preventing thousands of the peasantry from perishing of starvation. The potato murrain of '46, was followed by a money famine in '47, and the prospect of a scarcity of cotton in '48. One fourth of the cotton operatives of Manchester were out of employment, and only about a third were employed at full time, of those employed at all. September and October were months in which the day was marked as a white one, which did not witness a great commercial house going down, like icebergs which had floated into warm latitudes. Deputations from the great towns had most unsatisfactory interviews with ministers. Loud demands were made for the repeal of the Bank Act of 1844. Doubt enveloped the policy of the ministers on all subjects, domestic and foreign, political and social. Fears of invasion were sanctioned by the name of the Duke of Wellington, and the perfidy of Louis Philippe in regard to the Spanish marriages, made it possible to believe that he was desirous, by an invasion of England, to stave off a revolution in France.

Attentive observers were in doubt even respecting the politics of the premier. Was he a Whig or a Tory? The Standard commented justly on the fact that he differed from the Tories only in regard to the Emancipation of the Jews. I have taken no interest in the elections,' said one gentleman to another, 'because I see no difference between Peel and Russell.' 'I beg your pardon-I see a great difference,' was the reply, 'for Peel is a Liberal, and Russell is a Tory.'

It was in these circumstances that the cry arose for the summoning of Parliament. By an equivocal yes-and-no letter, the Bank Charter Act had been suspended, and the new Parlia