THE

COMMON-SENSE BOOK.

I speak only the language of "Common Sense."

Chatham.

A GREAT poet has said, that "all our knowledge is, ourselves to know." Pagan moralists had said the same before him; and this wise axiom is no less valuable as a personal hint, than useful in a national application.

If it be then the height of an individual's wisdom to know himself, and consequently to be enabled to correct his errors, and adapt his conduct; so it is the very foundation of national confidence, that the springs of public measures, to be correctly appreciated, should be clearly ascertained.

An individual may perform many actions in themselves abstractedly good, and upon which may be founded an outwardly high reputation;

but as such a course of conduct may proceed from ostentation, or be prompted by a thirst for popular praise; so may a country acquire a character of greatness and yet be but a bladder full of its own inflation. The greatness of a nation, like personal character, may be casual or lastingcasual, when proceeding from adventitious circumstances; lasting, when bottomed upon sound principles. How fleeting was the career of Buonaparte! How substantial the triumphs of the late Regency!

Upon what basis is founded the destiny of Great Britain? What is the present, and what may be her future situation? What What paramount duties is she called upon to perform ?-are questions which cannot fail to excite a lively interest throughout the world.

The grand and fundamental principles upon which the Empire of Great Britain is seated, as upon a rock; are, the inviolability of the Crownan hereditary nobility—the representation of the People.

From these proceed, the law which has established the Protestant Church, the independence of the judges, trial by jury, and security of person and property.

The national position of England teaches her to acquire and retain the command of the sea, on which she rests at an undisturbed anchoragefrom hence have been derived, an extended com

merce and colonial possessions; and upon all these gifts of Providence, art, and nature, is buoyed up as upon an atlas, "the liberty of the press.'

How far all these have been preserved to us, have been extended and ameliorated, or have been curtailed and endangered, are questions which public opinion takes upon itself to enquire after of the government; in whose hands the executive charge of the Constitution is entrusted; and parties proceed from the various points of view in which the passions, bias, or interest of leading individuals place the transactions of the day; for man is a gregarious creature, and where there is a bellwether, there will follow a flock.

As this our first effort, will to a certain extent serve as a prelude to further discussion or observation on particular points; we find it necessary previously to make a short sketch of "the state of the station;" not confining ourselves, as former publications have, to the partial detail of commercial and financial results; but extending our remarks from the very fountain head of the Constitution through every important branch of the national structure; for it is of less consequence to know that the tide of wealth and reviving commerce runs clearer and less impeded; than to be assured, that the more important streams of government and legislation are powerful and unobstructed; the one may promise to us a temporary good, the other inspires us with confidence

in the future; the one may be partial and fleeting; but the other be found equally prepared for evil as for good, for peace or war.

THE KING.

Common-Sense is not insensible to etiquette, scorns flattery, and adheres to truth. Though protected by the constitutional maxim, "that the King can do no wrong," still the character of the reigning Monarch has always a powerful influence on society; nor does it follow from this irresponsibility, that the King can do no good.

Short as yet the reign, in which de facto we include the late regency, has not the Country reason to be proud of their Monarch? This is not a question put as a matter of course to remain unanswered: it can be answered by facts; and we take it as a position true in the strictest spirit of the Constitution, that as the choice of the ministry rests with the King, so the character of the reign is to be deduced from the judgment of that choice, evidenced in the public occurrences following upon or produced by the exercise of such judgment. Our answer then to the question proposed, rests upon a series of victories splendid beyond any which the history of the kingdom can produce. It rests upon the early and ready sacrifice of thirty thousand pounds per annum to the exigencies of the Country. It rests

upon a princely generosity, evidenced in the gift of a most valuable and magnificent library to the use of the nation, and in other contemplated but not quite completed intentions. It rests upon a well known and free encouragement of every institution tending to promote, and connected with the wider extension of the arts and sciences, and the elegancies of refined taste; and it rests above all, upon a mature and tried experience :for bred up among the leaders of the whigs, it was expected that the King would, upon his. accession, have brought them into power; yet, in a manner not to create a factious opposition to his cabinet, or leave dubious or unrespected the motives of the choice, his Majesty preferred the painful alternative of appearing ungracious to the companions of his social hours, rather than depart from the policy of his revered father's ministers.

An insight into the characters and sentiments of the principal whigs, added to a knowledge of the executive measures of their opponents, which continually passed through the authority of the Regent, rendered “The King” better qualified than any subject to exercise a correct judgment in the choice of an administration-of that judgment we are now experiencing the full effect. There is also another most important and distinguishing feature in the character of the sovereign power; namely, The absence "from the circle" of all po