honourable birth, their power would be nugatory, their insignia ridiculous. Luxury, that bane to national prosperity, by causing the extinction of old families, incurably vitiates, to a certain degree, the constitution of the house of lords. A new-created peer will never be respected as much as one who derives his honours from a long line of ancestors. This evil would not, however, be very considerable, if the vacancies were supplied as they ought to be; but of late years, instead of selecting those commoners who are most distinguished by their family and fortune, peerages have been lavished on professional men, often of the most obscure birth, and who sometimes have not even attained an independence, but are compelled still to follow their professions, or trust to places and pensions for a maintenance. This practice partly arises from the indolence and effeminate frivo. lity of those who are born to opulence, and who desert the service of the public, or at least consider it as subordinate to their pleasures and amusements; they therefore not only have no claims to any recompense from government, but, from the degradation of their per. sonal character, are of little importance in the eye of the minister. It proceeds, however, still more from the necessity the mini. ster lies under, of attaching to him self as many men of professional eminence as possible, who, knowing their own importance, make their own terins; and also of sccuring a devoted majority in the upper as well as in the lower house.

It behoves all parties at present to recollect themselves. Pow er, such as is vested in an English

peer, can safely be entrusted only to one who is altogether independent of the smiles of the prince, or the minister, as to his fortune; and if the house of lords is, as it always has been esteemed, the firmest support to royalty, and a necessary refuge to the constitution against the fickleness and violence of the people, it is the interest both of the people and of the crown to unite, as formerly, political power and honorary splendour to hereditary opulence and personal authority. Whatever may be his abilities and merits, however splendid his services, a new man (novus homo), particularly if he has his fortune to make, is not competent to fulfil all that is required of a peer.'

Then, criticising the famous passage in Goldsmith,

he says-The sentiment is false, for it would be still more difficult to re-establish a peerage than a pea santry; and he is certainly right, if it be true that hereditary nobles are useful inasmuch as they are venerated by the public, and that antiquity of descent is one of the causes, if not the principal one, of the veneration in which they are held by the people. He then proceeds to shew that, notwithstanding the many additions made to the list of peers, the power of the aristocracy is rather on the wane, and

that

that the influence of the democracy has long been gaining ground in our constitution. He insists that the monarchy, deprived as it is of the legal power necessary to its defence, cannot maintain itself without influence: but at the same time he admits that a government of influence is bantul in its nature; and that the resources of no state whatever can for a continuance support it: he is therefore an ad. vocate for a reformn, though, as we have already said, on principles different from any yet recommended to the public..

• Unless (sáys he) a radical amelioration of legislative policy takes place, anarchy will triumph, or despotism will crush every remnant of liberty. This horrid alternative can be prevented only by active and strenuous exertions of the advocates for order and rational freedom. Whoever values his property and his honours, must owe their preservation to him. self; he can no longer enjoy them in indolence under the protection of laws, or a constitution, for which the contending parties feel no reverence, which the one endeavours to destroy, and the other to abuse.'

A great blessing attending our government, he observes, is, that we need not disorganize in order to regenerate; and that a complete reformation may be obtained by adhering to the spirit, without departing from the forms, of our present constitution :-but, in or. der to proceed with effect, he thinks the legislature ought to begin in time. To those who have property, and to those who have hitherto possessed a kind of monopoly of places, he gives very wholesome advice in the following words:

The rich would do well to imi. tate the fabled policy of the beaver, who is said to bite off the part for VOL. XXXVIII.

which the hunters pursue him, and submits to be maimed in order to save his life. The upper rank cannot long retain an exclusive right to the lucrative offices of the state. The greedy muititude will at first insist on having a share: they will then take the whole, and the private possessions of the rich will soon follow. Before it is too late, all salaries and profits arising from of. fices of state should be infinitely reduced, and neither the populace nor their leaders will then be very keen in the pursuit of barren honour and unprofitable labour.'

After the last chapter, are given 101 pages of notes, illustrating various propositions laid down in the body of the work; to which is subjoined an Appendix of 31 pages, containing many very judicious observations on agriculture, enclosures, &c.

Such is the outline of a work, which, we are convinced, cannot be read without benefit by any class or description of thinking men. It contains undoubtedly much that will be condemned, or at least disputed, by many, on the subjects of the army, militia, religion, gar. risons, royal prerogative, commerce, and reform: but the parts which may be condemned by some, will be infinitely overbalanced by those that must be praised by all.

ductory Records, Illustrations, &c. and the Early History of the Town of Leicester.

Vol. 2. Part 1. Containing Framland Hundred.

Common Paper, 51. 55. Royal Paper, 71. 75. boards. Nichols. 1796. WE cannot sufficiently admire or applaud the extraordinary perseverance and assiduity of research which our estimable author must have bestowed on so dry but useful a publication as the one now before

as.

We have no hesitation in placing the history of Leicestershire at the head of all the county histories which have yet appeared, for extent of information and minuteness of investigation, and though from its bulk and locality, its merit is not likely to be sufficiently appreciated by the present generation, yet posterity will consider it as an invaluable legacy, and be grateful to its disinterested author for so complete a collection of ancient records, authentic documents, and original information.

The introductory volume begins with an account of Leicestershire extracted from Domesday book, with a translation. It is succeed. ed by a curious and valuable dis sertation on Domesday book, closed by a tabulary description of Leices tershire as it was in the time of William the Conqueror. Then follows an essay on the Mint at Le cestershire, with views of coins. The names and arms of knights of the county of Leicester who served under Edward I. are next given, with other lists of persons who bore honours, &c. A copy of the Testa de Neville, as far as it relates to this county, a matriculus of the churches of the archdeaconry of

Leicester in 1220, a rotula of the churches of Leicestershire in 1344, and other tables relating to ecclesiastical matters, come next. These are followed by a variety of papers, containing taxations, lists of freeholders, knight's fees, tenants i capite, &c. &c. Mr. Leman's treatise on the Roman roads and staticns in Leicestershire, with addi. tional observations by the bishop of Cork, and remarks on Roman roads by other writers, together with a learned essay on a Roman milliary found near Leicester, by the Rev. George A by, form the succeeding set of papers. The ri vers and navigations of Leicester. shire are the subject of the next article, chiefly consisting of copies of the acts obtained for the purposes of navigation, mostly of very late date. Dr. Pulteney then contri. butes a catalogue of rarer plants found in the neighbourhood of Leicester, Loughborough, and in Charley forest, drawn up with the judgment and accuracy that might be expected from so able a botanist. The returns made to parliament of charitable donations within the county, fill a large number of suc ceeding pages. All the remainder of the volume is composed of the history and antiquities of the town of Leicester, with a series of its bishops, of the kings, dukes, and earls of Mercia, and their successors, earls of Leicester. A great por. tion of this trenches deeply on the general history of England, in which the Montfort family, with others who bore the Leicester title, made so conspicuous a figure. The writer (an anonymous friend of Mr. Nichols) has also contrived to bring in the whole story of Thomas à Becket, who seans to

be

be a favourite character with this memorialist, who certainly displays an intimate acquaintance with many nice historical points; though few, we imagine, will follow him through all his narrations and disquisitions, which are however little enlivened by the beauties of composition. An appendix of charters, deeds, and other legal papers, concludes this first part of the introductory volume.

The first part of the second volume, containing an account of Framland Hundred, is a specimen of what is to constitute the proper matter of the work. Every town. ship in the hundred is separately treated in an alphabetical order. The author's general method is to give the name, situation, and contents of the district; then to trace all the owners of the manor and the landed property of the place, from the earliest records, down to the present time: with this are introduced genealogies of all the principal families, as well as anecdotes, biographical and literary, of all extraordinary persons connected, by birth or otherwise, with the township. Ecclesiastical matter comes next, such as notices of all religious and charitable foun. dations, account of the church. living, its nature and value, patrons, and incumbents; monu mental inscriptions, extracts from the parish register, population, and bills of mortality at different periods, &c. Very few details of natural history or economical matter are to be found; and, indeed, lit. tle occurs for the amusement of a common reader, except the biographical relations, so ne of which are curious. The present volume, comprising Belvoir castle and Sta.

pleford, has a minute account of the noble families of Rutland and Harborough, the latter of which is peculiarly rich in genealogical illustrations, decorated with many fine engravings. Other distin guished families, and not a few men of letters and divines of note, are recorded in the course of the work. We shall present our reader with the transcript of one arti. cle; as a neat model of topogra phical description, unattended with antiquities. It is an account of the natural history of the parish of Little Dalby, communicated by professor Martyn.

This lordship is remarkably hilly, being thrown about in small swellings in such a manner, that in the greater part of it, it is difficult to find a piece of flat ground. The largest portion of it is an ancient enclosure; and none of the inhabitants know when it took place. I thought at first to have discovered the date of it from the age of the trees in the hedge-rows; but none of them which I have had an opportunity of examining are more than about 120 years old; but if the enclosure went no further back than this, we should have learnt the date of it from tra dition. I then searched the parish register, to find whether any depopulation had taken place since the time of Elizabeth; but could find none, and therefore concluded that the enclosure was at least as early as her reign. That there has been a depopulation I conclude, not only from the natural consequence of enclosing, but from the founda tions of buildings which are discovered in the closes near the church.

The whole lordship is in pasture, M m 2 except