MONTHLY MAGAZINES have opened a way for every kind of inquiry and information. The in- Every Art is improved by the emulation of Competitors. Dr. Johnson. LONDON: Printed by J. Gillet, Crown-court, Fleet-street. PUBLISHED BY H. COLBURN, CONDUIT-STREET, HANOVER-SQUARE; [Price 12s. Boards; or 14s. Half-bound.] PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH VOLUME. ON a review of the twelve months which have elapsed since our last prefatory address, we cannot refrain from congratulating our readers and the country at large on the improved prospects which are opening upon us. A year ago Britain had begun to feel that prostration of strength which was the inevitable consequence of her gigantic exertions in vindication of her own independence and the rights of all mankind. Distress arising chiefly from the want of employment for the superabundance of hands, and the want of a market for the produce of their labours, was never, perhaps, so general. The occasion was too favourable to be neglected by designing men who, under the disguise of Friends of the People, exaggerated the sufferings of the lower classes, inflamed their discontents, persuaded them that universal suffrage and annual parliaments would give food to the hungry and clothing to the naked, and insisted that if this their undisputed right were longer with-. held from them, they would be justified in asserting it by force. These doctrines reinforced by appeals to the worst passions of the human breast, were openly and assiduously propagated by the apostles of anarchy, both viva voce and by the powerful agency of the press-how successfully the outrageous proceedings in the metropolis and in various parts of the country during the past months, sufficiently demonstrate. The defiance of all authority rose at length to such a height that the Government found itself compelled to resort to those vigorous measures which in citical times are authorized by the Constitution. The Suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act gave security to the well-disposed; it served to rid the kingdom of the archincendiary; and though the prisoners brought to trial under its provisions for high treason had the good fortune to be acquitted, yet sufficient was disclosed to convince every unbiassed person that they could not be completely innocent. Meanwhile the fever excited in the public mind by the nostrums of our political empirics has subsided; it begins to acquire a more healthful tone: reviving Commerce again furnishes our labourers with other employment than brooding over imaginary grievances and real distress the bounty of Providence encourages the expectation of a harvest unusually propitious, and Plenty, Prosperity, and Content, will, we trust, speedily resume their wonted empire in a land blest by Nature beyond almost every other on the face of the globe. Our pages will shew that our endeavours have not been wanting to soothe the irritated feelings of our misguided fellow-subjects; to counteract the baneful effects of the poison poured through a thousand channels into the system of the social body; and to promote such objects as, in our judgment, have tended to produce so desirable a change. Had we, in pursuing this course, no other gratification than the mens conscia recti-the conviction that our feeble talents have been exerted in behalf of the best interests of our country-this alone we should deem an ample recompence: but cheered as we are by the public approbation, honoured with the assistance and patronage of so many of the truly good, great, and eminent-we shall, we hope, be pardoned the swelling emotion of pride which under similar circumstances human nature can scarcely be expected to suppress. To the present volume of our Miscellany we can confidently appeal as a proof of our solicitude to deserve the flattering encouragement so liberally bestowed: and we assure our readers that the distinguished rank among the literary productions of the day, awarded by the public voice to the NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE, shall not only stimulate us to avoid the charge of degeneracy, but to incessant efforts for its future improvement. London, June 30, 1817. NEW MONTHLY No. 37.] MR. EDITOR, FEBRUARY 1, 1871. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. IN my former letter (vol vi. p. 411), I spoke in terms of strong reprobation and disgust of the truly flagitious arts practised by incendiaries to destroy that harmony which ought always, but especially at a time like the present, to subsist between the several classes of the community, by endeavouring to render them objects of mutual jealousy and hatred. I also expressed my deliberate conviction that the extraordinary project of Dr. Busby, for exalting "mechanics" and "retail dealers" into administrators of our multifarious national concerns, tended towards that common object to which the sleepless labours of those agitators are directed-the creation of discontent, and the rendering men fierce and ungovernable. The opinion I entertained of the spirit which pervades that performance will not be affected by one or two complimentary phrases upon the English constitution which are introduced. When I saw kings sneered at in other parts of it, I could not but regard very sceptically any profession of profound respect for our established form of government; I could not lend an unsuspecting ear to what is said about a true Briton being a compound of the oligarchist, the democratist, and the monarchist. I could not avoid considering these declarations as mere "verba et voces;" as rubbish scattered over the snare into which it would decoy us by its assimilation to the terra firma on which we now stand. I may be mistaken; but the inference forces itself upon me, and I cannot withhold my as [VOL. VII. the Athenians, who, he tells us, "deemed it their greatest glory that their city was the abode of manly virtue and polite learning." He thinks that the rejection. by Aristides of the proposal of Themistocles to burn the Spartan fleet sufficiently manifests the general state of Grecian morals. "All Athens, all Greece, applauded his resolution: what, then, must have been the Grecian education!" The general education of the Athenians, like that of the other Grecian commonwealths, was principally designed to make every citizen a warrior; and their military institutions conspired with their frequent hostilities against domestic and foreign enemies to inspire them with a passion for arms, and disciplined them into valour and conduct in the field. The high degree of perfection to which, they carried the fine arts has been the' subject of fervent admiration to all succeeding ages; and its memorials, particularly their sculpture, at the expiration of more than 2,000 years, still maintain their exalted transcendence, and outstrip all emulation. Their cultivation certainly served somewhat to refine and soften down that ferocity which is the natural characteristic of democracies. These merits cannot be denied to the Athenians. But their morals have been made' the theme of panegyric; the people of Athens have been selected as a conspicuous instance of a nation rightly educated, i. e. thoroughly instructed in, and consequently discharging, virtuously and irreproachably, their moral and political duties; and as a fit practical illustration of the glorious results of public instruction conducted upon right principles. As their boasted moral superiority over us 66 petty men" is brought to prove how well they were tutored, to exemplify the fanciful scheme of an universal intimacy with moral and political science, and shew that it is not a mere figment of the brain; I am desirous of inquiring how far they merited this distinctive character of elevated virtue. The applause which the justice of Aristides received from his countrymen is exultingly proposed as a very cogent VOL. VII. |