it flow the invaluable rights of free-born Englishmen. These rights consist in the full enjoyment of security, liberty, property, and the impartial administration of the laws. The Englishman, whenever he is attacked, is not condemned to silence, or left unprotected. He can exercise a censorial power over his enemies, and speak, or publish his sentiments to the world. The courts of law are open to his complaints, and he may throw himself with perfect confidence upon the upright and impartial deliberations of a jury of his equals. He can petition the king and parliament for a redress of his grievances, and he can keep arms for his defence suitable to his rank and condition. He thus enjoys all the privileges, which the social compact, when properly understood, can bestow, and his sphere of action is as enlarged as a good citizen can desire. It is indeed only confined within such limits, as guard him from actions, which would prove dishonourable to himself, and pernicious to the public. See Blackstone's Comment. vol. i, p. 50, 127. vol. iii, p. 60. vol. iv, p. 267, &c.

This establishment is well adapted to the manners and character of the people. The freedom of spirit, which forms its basis and produces its glory; and the rational checks, which are laid upon the different branches of the legislator, accord with that complexional boldness of disposition, which is corrected by our national sedateness and deliberation of character. The temper of the people, like their climate, is variable and cloudy, continually exhibiting the most striking contrasts: but their principles of action, like those of their government and their religion, are permanent and fixed.

Stern o'er each bosom reason holds her state,
With daring aims, irregularly great;
Pride in their port, defiance in their eye,
I see the lords of human kind pass by;
Intent on high designs, a thoughtful band,

By forms unfashioned, fresh from nature's hand.
Fierce in their native hardiness of scul,

True to imagin'd right, above control:

While even the peasant boasts those rights to scan,
And learns to venerate himself as Man*.

The mild administration of justice, and the indulgence of the law to the accused, is correspondent with that na

Goldsmith's Traveller.

tional benevolence, which, at the call of distress and indigence, pours forth a stream of bounty with a degree of copiousness unknown in any other country. The equality of the laws, extending their unbounded control, their restraints, and privileges, from the throne to the cottage, cherishes the native dignity of the Briton, and increases the intrepidity of his character. This equality is moreover an incentive to every useful enterprise, and encourages that activity of mind and body, which is natural to man. In the extension of trade and commerce to every quarter of the globe, in the perfection of manufactures, in the works of art, literature, and science, and in the execution of great projects which are recommended by the prospects of private advantage or public utility, the Englishman is ardent and indefatigable, and outstrips in the race of competition most of the inhabitants of the earth.

Such is the prospect of the British government, and such are its transcendent advantages and benign effects. Still, however, we are accustomed to hear complaints of the prevalence of various political evils, and public grievan

ces.

There are some indeed, which the enemies of their country exaggerate with a malevolent pleasure, and others which its friends acknowledge with sincere concern. But these are not the faults of the constitution; for if they were, they could without difficulty be removed. And this displays the advantages arising from our political system in a new and striking light. For does it not possess a principle of amendment, and a capacity of melioration? Without requiring any other aid, can it not supply a remedy for every disease, which it is in the power of any human system to alleviate or cure? The three great branches of which it consists, the king, the lords, and the commons, can of themselves revise what is obsolete, correct what is wrong, extend what is partial, and supply what is deficient in the laws and constitutions of the state. They can remove the obstructions which impede the progress of the political machine; they can give new strength to its various parts, and new velocity to its motion. And the acts of parliament which are passed every session, adapted to the particular circumstances and necessities of the times, are conspicuous and glorious proofs of this energetic and beneficial power.

.2.

Have we not therefore, I may confidently ask, abundant reason to glory in the name and in the privileges of BriHas not Providence showed its peculiar kindness in

placing us in this favoured island, and sheltering us under the protection of this most excellent system? Let us cast our eyes around the globe, survey the mighty empires of the world, and contemplate the forms of government, by which they are distinguished; and then let us ask, if they can supply us with a superior, or an equal share of political good. From the arbitrary sway of a Russian Czar, or a Turkish Sultan, an Englishman turns with aversion: and with what eyes can he survey the inhabitants of other countries, with whom he has a closer relation from similarity of manners, or vicinity of situation? They can excite no emotions but those which increase his attachment to his own country-a country which has from generation to generation been favourable to the progress of that true liberty, which in ancient times showed, and only showed, herself for a short period to the brave and ingenious nations of the south of Europe. Short was her influence in polished Athens, short in martial Rome. Invisible to the world for ages, during the baleful prevalence of general tyranny, superstition, and barbarity, she at last appeared upon the shores of Britain; and finding the character and the genius of the people favourable to her great designs, here she fixed her abode, and developed her matchless plan. Here she seats a king upon the throne, whose happiness is centered in that of his subjects; and one of the noblest and most illustrious acts of whose reign has been to render judges, the dispensers of the laws, perfectly independent of his will. Here she establishes the members of the houses of parliament, loyal, enlightened, and magnanimous. The expression of their united will is equal law, justice, toleration, security, order, and happiness. The rulers and the people, both those who give, and those to whom this happiness is imparted, deserve it the more, as it is their ardent wish and uniform endeavour to communicate the same blessings to others, which they enjoy themselves. In whatever regions of the globe the British com. merce flourishes, are also felt the happy effects of the British polity. From the bleak mountains of Scotland, to the sunny shores of Malabar, is diffused its benign influence; and no place attests the power of Britain, which does not equally witness the mildness of her government, and the excellence of her laws.

And if more considerations can be wanted to endear our country and its political institutions to us, they may arise from the recollection of the great and extraordinary events,

which have taken place since the French revolution. Upon the continent we have seen the Genius of innovation plying his destructive work, overturning some governments by open war, and undermining others by secret plots. At home, we have witnessed the conflicts of party, and the conspiracies of faction; whilst our constitution, as "rocks resist the billows and the sky," has remained firm and uninjured. The storms which have assaulted it, and the shelter which it has afforded us, and all who have sought our shores for protection, have served to prove its unalterable stability, as well as its inestimable value.

The youth of the British empire will best show their conviction of these important truths by their persevering obedience to the laws, and their prudent use of the bles sings conferred by their native country. But to defend this venerable edifice of liberty from the machinations of domestic, and the assaults of foreign enemies, is a charge which devolves more immediately upon the nobility, and upon those who are deputed to represent their countrymen in parliament. The conscientious and careful exercise of this most honourable trust is a duty which they owe to their ancestors, to themselves, and their descendants; and what labour can be too unremitting, what vigilance too active, what public spirit too exalted and ardent, to preserve unsullied and unimpaired a CONSTITUTION, which is the brightest ornament, the most glorious privilege, and the most valuable inheritance ever enjoyed by mankind?

Mail sacred Polity, by Freedom rear'd!

Hail sacred Freedom, when by law restrain'd!
Without you what were men? a grov'ling herd,
In darkness, wretchedness; and want enchain'd.
Sublim'd by you, the Greek and Roman reign'd
In arts unrivall'd: O! to latest days,

In Albion may your influence unprofan'd
To godlike worth the gen'rous bosom raise,

And prompt the sage's lore, and fire the poet's lays.

BEATTIE'S MINSTREL.

END OF THE HISTORICAL CLASS.

CLASS THE FOURTH.

PHILOSOPHY.

CHAPTER I.

LOGIC, OR THE RIGHT USE OF REASON.

IT is a very great error for any one to suppose, that logic consists only in those formal debates and verbal disputations, in which the schoolmen and their followers consumed so much time in the dark ages, previous to the revival of classical learning. It is equally a mistake to imagine, that it is merely intended to teach the method of disputing by rules, and to instruct a young man to converse, not from a love of truth, but a desire of victory. As there is nothing more disingenuous than such a conduct as this, nothing more unbecoming a rational being, than to oppose sophistry to good sense, and evasion to sound argument, the logician disclaims this abuse of the principles of his art, and vindicates its rights by displaying its true and proper office. It is in reality capable of affording the most important assistance to the understanding in its inquiries after truth; it is eminently useful in the common affairs of life, and renders the greatest service to science, learning, virtue and religion.

Logic is the art of forming correct ideas, and of deducing right inferences from them; or it may be said to constitute the knowledge of the human mind, inasmuch as it traces the progress of all our information, from our first and most simple conceptions of things, to those numerous conclusions, which result from comparing them together. It teaches us in what order our thoughts succeed each other, and it instructs us in the relation which subsists between our ideas, and the terms in which we express them. It distinguishes their different kinds, and points out their properties; discovers the sources of our intellectual mistakes, and shows