: is not to be my judge; for he is strongly prejudiced, and evidently angry the members of our profession in general are to determine the value of my humble endeavours to promote our professional knowledge and character, and in their decision I am ready respectfully to acquiesce. THE EQUALITY, &c. THE Constitution is no new subject. It has been written upon by lawyers and by politicians; some, to display its excellencies; some, to expose its deficiencies. I am sure that it has the one; and, possibly, it has the other. But it has one qualification, which its greatest enemy cannot deny-EQUALITY. The law alone is absolute; and to that, the Constitution makes every one bend: the high and the low; the rich and the poor; the learned and the simple. The three parts of the Constitution,-the King, the Lords, and the Commons, are all alike under the law: neither can do wrong to the other parts, nor even do right without their concurrence. Such, not merely theoretically, but practically-such is the Constitution of Great Britain; claiming, for their own sakes, the attachment and the support of the people. There lives not in the whole empire, one individual, however poor, however humble, unto whom the Constitution does not extend its absolute protection; or against whom she shuts her sources of wealth and ad vancement. It is in this view-not regarding any abstract questions -- it is in this popular view, that the people ought to consider it; and, comparing it with the state of other nations, gratefully to bless Heaven for their enjoyment of laws, whose equality no power can subvert, and for their privilege of advancement, which no power can repress. A Briton needs not any thing beyond integrity, talent, and industry, to share the highest wealth and the highest honors of his country: unlike the inhabitant of other states; who, if humbly born, must continue in his humbleness, be his integrity never so pure, his talent never so quick, his industry never so constant. What has been the consequence of this unnatural equality? That the natural spirit of emulation, which Providence for good purposes implanted in the mind of man, has been perverted to bad purposes which Providence never intended. That humble men, finding themselves debarred from lawful advancement, resolved upon advancing themselves unlawfully. That they possessed by violence what moderation could not give them. That they grasped by rapine what they could not attain by industry. Finally, that they overturned the elevation to which they could not rise. This general subversion, however, profited little to the worthy or the industrious. It advanced only the profligate and the idle; who had neither principle nor patience to wait for honest advancement-even had the Constitution of their country placed it within their reach. Our happy Britain has been saved from these scenes; saved by that EQUALITY of her Constitution, which removed from the good all inducement of disorder, and from the bad all its power.-Among thirteen millions of people, it is not possible, that every worthy and capable person shall, for a certainty, attain eminence: but this is certain, that every man who is worthy and capable may attain it; and that no man who is unworthy and incapable can. Besides, in that enterprise to which our Constitution encourages all, every man will be the wiser and the better, and consequently the happier, if not the richer, for following its encouragement. Success has been called "a lottery:" never was simile so erroneous: it is a purchase; open to all who will pay its price-temperance, diligence, and integrity-but open to none other. The value of its proceeds may indeed be contingent; but we can lose nothing by the bargain, and something we are sure to gain. This privilege is, assuredly, the common right of mankind; and if any among us are too proud to feel indulged by or obliged to the Constitution which secures it to us, we should at least be glad enough of such a security, to regard the laws under which we possess it, and prefer them to the laws of other countries where it is not possessed. When an humble man has attained to eminence, the example operates not less beneficially for himself than for others. He is thus elevated, as a guide, and encourager, and instructor, to the class from which his virtues have raised him; but all of whose members may by equal virtue place themselves at his side. In observing their emulation, he will urge his children to persevere in his course; lest they lose the profit of his advancement by the same means that aided him in attaining it; lest the same industry that placed him above others, may place others before them. Thus the race of prosperity is kept up; in which the slothful are as sure to lose, as the diligent are sure to win; the race, which in proportion to the speed of its competitors multiplies its prizes; and in which, provided only that all are diligent, the paradoxical yet true result must be, that none will lose and all will gain. How glorious a picture is this of moral justice, as well as of constitutional equity! How convincing a proof, that the principles of morality and of the British Constitution are the same! And, being such, that the Constitution stands on as firm a basis as morality itself! Still more, it is that equality which the Divine Founder of our religion came into the world to teach. That this is no visionary inducement, real and unquestionable facts will be the best proof. I will appeal, not to the history of past times, whereof uneducated persons may have heard little and read less; but to that of the present day; and generally of living individuals, whose eminence is known by all, respected by all, and attainable by all, if pursued with equal diligence and integrity. None of these illustrious men, or of their families, will feel displeased at our thus retracing the steps of their elevation. They will rather be gratified, at our thereby perpetuating the truly honorable title which distinguishes their prosperity. The highest office in the state, including more and more power patronage than any other known to our Constitution, the seals of chancery and the presidency of the house of peers, is at this moment possessed by a nobleman, who owes it entirely to his own virtue and his own diligence. John Scott, Lord Eldon, the Lord High Chancellor of England, derived no assistance from either his birth or his connections. Like his predecessor, Lord Thurlow, he raised himself to the highest eminence without any other aid than his learning, his perseverance, and his integrity. Treading in the same steps, and at the same time, his Lordship's brother, Sir William Scott, became the Chief Judge of the Ecclesiastical Court; and England, thanks to the EQUALITY of her Constitution! at this day beholds two brothers, raising themselves from the obscurer ranks of her people into the highest places of her law. But in reverence to our holy religion, its principal seat is placed above the most exalted honors of our state. During twenty-two years, the Archiepiscopal chair was filled by a man of very humble birth; the immediate predecessor of the present venerable primate. DOCTOR MOORE owed to his origin neither influence nor wealth: he was educated at Oxford, in the lowest rank of that University; where an education was afforded him, equal to that of the highest and proudest heir. Poverty did not dismay the young and unfriended student idleness did not seduce him. His diligence, his talent, |