and the affairs of government will ere long be regulated by that opinion, . . as the weathercock is by the wind. If a man walk with the 'wind and lie falsely, he shall even be the pro'phet of this people *!'

MONTESINOS.

This at least is no new evil.

SIR THOMAS MORE.

But the supremacy of popular opinion is;.. and it is the worst evil with which, in the present state of the world, civilized society is threatened.

MONTESINOS.

You teach me to look forward fearfully, as if a whirlwind were approaching, in the vortex of which we were soon to be involved!

SIR THOMAS MORE.

I would warn you in time, that so the whirlwind may not overtake you when you are gaily pressing forward with all sails set! I would teach you, that in the progress of society every stage has its own evils and besetting dangers, the only remedy for which is, that which is least regarded by all states, except by those in which it is least understood. See in how many things the parallel between this age and mine holds good; and how, in every instance, dan

*Micah ii. 11.

gers the same in kind, but greater in degree, are awaiting yours! The art of war, which underwent its great alteration when the shield and lance were superseded by the firelock, and armour was rendered useless by artillery, is about to undergo a change not less momentous, with the same sure consequence of giving to ambition more formidable means. The invention of printing, which is to the moral world more than gunpowder or steam to the material, as it began in my days, so in yours its full effects are first beginning to unfold, when the press, which, down to the last generation, wrought only for a small part of the community, is employed with restless activity for all classes, disseminating good and evil with a rapidity and effect inconceivable in former ages, as it would have been impossible. Look, too, at manufactures; great efforts were made to encourage them then,.. the Protector Seymour (one of those politic reformers who fished in troubled waters, and fell at last into the stream) introduced a colony of clothiers from what was then the very land of sedition, and converted the most venerable edifice in this whole island to their use. You have now, what it was then thought so desirable to obtain, .. a manufacturing population,.. and it is not found so easy to

regulate as it has been to raise it. The peasantry were in my time first sensible of distress brought upon them by political causes; their condition was worsened by the changes which were taking place in society; a similar effect is now more widely and more pressingly felt. In those days, the dikes and boundaries of social order began to give way, and the poor, who till then had been safely left to the care of local and private charity, were first felt as a national evil;.. that evil has increased till it has now become a national danger. A new world was then discovered, . . for the punishment of its native inhabitants, the measure of whose iniquities was full; the colonies which have been established there are now in a condition seriously to affect the relations of the parent states, and America is reacting upon Europe. That was an age of religious, this of political revolutions;.. that age saw the establishment of the Jesuits, this has seen their revival.

MONTESINOS.

Well indeed will it be if the religious struggle be not renewed, not with a more exasperated spirit, for that is impossible, but with a sense of deadlier danger on both sides. If the flames,

which ravaged Europe in those

days, are not

kindled again in ours, it will not be for want of foxes and fire-brands.

237

COLLOQUY IX.

DERWENTWATER-CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION

IRELAND.

A TALL, raw-boned, hard-featured North-Briton said one day to one of our Keswick guides, at a moment when I happened to be passing by, . Well, I have been to look at your lake; it's ' a poor piece of water with some shabby moun'tains round about it.' He had seen it in a cold, dark, cheerless autumnal afternoon, to as great a disadvantage as I suppose, from the stamp of his visage and the tone and temper of his voice, he would have wished to see it, for it was plain that he carried no sunshine in himself wherewith to light it up. I have visited the Scotch lakes in a kindlier disposition; and the remembrance of them will ever be cherished among my most delightful reminiscences of natural scenery. I have seen also the finest of the Alpine lakes; and felt on my return from both countries, that if Derwentwater has neither the severe grandeur of the Highland waters, nor

the luxuriance, and sublimity, and glory of the Swiss and Italian, it has enough to fill the imagination and to satisfy the heart.

The best general view of Derwentwater is from the terrace, between Applethwaite and Milbeck, a little beyond the former hamlet. The old roofs and chimnies of that hamlet come finely in the foreground, and the trees upon the Ormathwaite estate give there a richness to the middle ground, which is wanting in other parts of the vale. From that spot, I once saw three artists sketching it at the same time; William Westall (who has engraved it among his admirable views of Keswick), Glover, and Edward Nash, my dear, kind-hearted friend and fellow-traveller, whose death has darkened some of the blithest recollections of my latter life. I know not from which of the surrounding heights it is seen to most advantage; any one will amply repay the labour of the ascent; and often as I have ascended them all, it has never been without a fresh delight. The best near view is from the field adjoining Friar's Crag. There it is, that, if I had Aladdin's lamp, or Fortunatus's purse, .. (with leave of Greenwich Hospital be it spoken,) I would build myself a house.

Thither I had strolled on one of those first