:

FOR several months past, our opinion of the deeply and seriously alarming condition of many important districts of our country, has been laid openly and honestly before our readers. At the time when we first expressed that opinion, we are aware that not a few, whose character and judgment might have entitled them to very consider able respect, were inclined to accuse us of entertaining needless fears, and of greatly exaggerating, at the least, the extent both of the popular delusion and the general danger. The noisy leaders of the lower Whig party in Parliament threw every possible difficulty in the way of the Administration, when they called for the authority of the senate to enact laws of temporary coercion; and out of Parlialiament, these laws, after they had been enacted, were branded on every occasion by the adherents of the same party, as so many uncalled for and perilous attacks on the liberties and rights of the British people. Clamours so reit erated and prolonged, sought and found hundreds and thousands of voices to reecho them; and in almost every company, a few weeks ago, where the subject was discussed, there were some who did not hesitate to express their belief that an alarm had been excited, to which timidity, if not worse than timidity, had given the main and moving impulse. Had the measures themselves been found sufficient to check at once the evil spirit that had gone abroadhad the remedy speedily and effectually arrested the external symptoms of the disease-there can be little doubt, that the very repose for which the country should have had occasion to thank those most salutary measures would have been pressed into the service of those who had so vehemently abused them, and represented as furnishing an unanswerable evidence of Ministerial exaggeration or Tory cowardice. It is so, that the Whigs have long been accustomed to beg the question, in every rational or irrational matter of dispute with their antago

nists. It is by such unfair methods that they have now and then disgraced their cause, even when they chanced to be in the right-it is by the same want of candour, and by the same unworthy courting of the prejudices of the ignorant, that they have far more frequently, though perhaps more excusably, aggravated their offences when they were, and when, as on this last occasion we are well persuaded they felt themselves to be, in the wrong.

Now, however-we mean within the last week or two-the talk of the Whigs has undoubtedly made one of the most sudden and remarkable turns we ever remember to have heard of in all the history of their talking sect. They are at last convinced-a thousand thanks to them for the generous admission-they are satisfied at last that there are such men as Radicals and Rebels in the land; and by what arguments have their scrupulous and most philosophical understandings been brought over to this well-timed perception? Lawless and unconstitutional assemblies were congregated for years on end, and every record of what passed at these assemblies bore evidence to the copious poison that was circulated and infused by their means. The press teemed for years on end with the permanent and substantial memorials of conscious and confessing sedition, blasphemy, and treason -it was asserted by hundreds of the most candid, unprejudiced, and enlightened witnesses, that secret meetings, for the purposes of military drilling, were going on every night in every corner of the disaffected districtbut all these things passed for nothing before the scrutinizing eye of Whig jealousy. At last a bold attempt is made to array in warlike guise the forces that had so long been in training against the best constitution, and the most upright government in the world. In the capital, a band of assassins are seized in the very act of marching to murder the confidential servants

of the crown. In the provinces, drums are beat at dead of night-men march in arms to their several appointed rendezvous. In at least three places the king's standard is assaulted by rebels prepared evidently with arms and equipments for a regular campaign. The great city of Glasgow is actually beleaguered by thousands of deluded and desperate ruffians-alarm and consternation are spread over many hundred miles of the British territory and repose is restored only by the skill of excellent officers, and the unwearied unshaken zeal of loyal troops. Discoveries are made of innumerable committees and ringleaders. Papers are seized, and among them scientific schemes of expected and desired battles. Insurrection, in short, has openly reared her front, and visibly been crushed in her commencement and now, truly, the Whigs are pleased to be convinced that all the Ministers had said, and all the Tories had believed three months ago, was not total and premeditated falsehood.

"At times, in truth, submission is most graceful

And there is pride in yielding.”—

Since the submission has been made, however, on the one side, and the victory is complete in the other, there would be no propriety and no wisdom assuredly in prolonging the shadow of a terminated contest. Honest men of all parties, we take it for granted, are now at one in opinion, and we trust, they are most perfectly at one in purpose. It matters comparatively little by whom the danger was first descried, by whom it was latest acknowledged. The danger has now come in a shape that is not to be questioned-for the present, its movements have been repressed, and its aspect tamed-but the true object of concern is, to inquire by what means the now united and combined sense of all the better orders of the British people is to guard against any recurrence of these fearful manifestationsabove all, if it be possible, by what measures the spirit that has for the moment been checked in its evil career, is to be healed and soothed into

sanity-by what means confidence is most effectually to be re-established among the dissevered elements of a long kindly population-and a great and well regulated empire secured from the necessity of wasting any portion of her energies in watching long and doubtfully over the ashes and embers of an as yet ill-extinguished fire of treason.

And in considering by what methods order and good understanding are most likely to be restored among those that have been led astray, it is surely the most natural thing to inquire, in the first place, to what circumstances those among the lower classes of our people, that have, during this time of trouble, adhered to their duty, have been indebted for their safety from the too general contagion around them. Even in the heart of the disaffected regions, it is consolatory to know (which we do from the best of authorities) that many, very many thousands, have walked through some secret charm unhurt by the moral pesall the outcries of their misguided tilence and preserved entire, amidst fellows, their devotion to their own duties, and their respect for their natural superiors and protectors. It is most consolatory to know this fact; and very important lessons, we think, may be drawn from the knowledge of it. We would be the last in the world to throw the blame of the guilty upon the innocent-but may not the question be fairly put to those best acquainted with the districts of disloyalty, whether those employed by the most careful masters, have not been, in the hour of trial, found the least inclined to rise up against them, and to disturb the general peace of that community whereof they and their employers form alike useful and alike necessary parts. There is no occasion to push this question too far-a hint is all we would permit ourselves to offer-and indeed, in all reason, and in all likelihood, a most effectual warning has already been afforded, where it was most called for, by the personal experience and observation of those most immediately concerned in the inquiry.

The blame, if blame there be, is

VOL. VII.

M-N

very far from lying solely or peculiarly at the door of the gentlemen to whom we allude. In our days it is not possible to look around upon the world, and to compare what we see in the style and structure of society with what we know to have been in the times of our fathers, without observing that many great and remarkable changes have taken place. Every where, and in every walk of life, it is too evident that the upper orders of society have been tending, more and more, to a separation of themselves from those whom nature, providence, and law, have placed beneath them. It is not now the season when men should hesitate to speak out fairly what they know and feel upon such subjects as these. A fastidious spirit of luxury and refinement has everywhere been gaining ground among us. The rich and the high have been indolently and slothfully allowing the barriers that separate them from their inferiors to increase and accumulate. An Epicurean spirit has gone wide abroad in our land, even among those that would be most inclined to startle at its name. Men have come to deride and despise a thousand of those means of communication that in former days knit all orders of the people together. Weary of pomp, and shew, and circumstance, and of all that used most to dazzle and delight the vulgar eye, men of rank and wealth have foolishly, we fear, laid aside, along with these things, many more modest and secret, but still more effectual instruments of attaching these dependents to their persons. The spirit of general kindliness has not assuredly become extinct ;-but we have learned to be too much satisfied with the conscious excel lence of that general spirit-and to be too negligent of those minute and laborious services of human concern, by which alone that spirit can be made to operate as a healing and cementing charm over the whole wide-spread and diversified surface of human society. The master has not ceased to care for his servants, but he has become too delicate to shew his care by that cordial and grateful condescension of personal communication that of old made the vassal look up to his lord like a son to his father. Societies, and subscriptions, and magnificent donations, and beneficent directions and regulations, are all excellent in their way but the

effect of all these things is nothing upon the heart of one poor man, compared with a single affectionate visit to his cottage-one simple gift to his children. The charm of sympathy is the only charm worthy of the name but men are never willing to take the existence of that charm upon trust. He that is effectually to be obliged, must see the kind face, and touch the open hand, of his benefactor.It is too much to expect that we are to sit in the seclusion of our own private luxury, and scatter forth the droppings of our bounty like deitiestoo great to be visible to the eyes of those whom we would serve. If we would have our good intentions recognised, and our kindness enshrined in warm and grateful hearts, we must not disdain to come down into the homely walks of humanity-to mingle with our brothers of the earth, and shew that we not only relieve, but are anxious and fervent in relieving and assisting them in their hour of human distress. Every thing will be pardoned except the apparent scorn and visible selfishness of remoteness and mortal sufferers will forget every other text of holy writ, ere they blot from their memories the touching and awful declaration, that

PRIDE WAS NOT MADE FOR MAN.

The fault, as we have said, has been universal-in every condition and walk of social life-and it is just and necessary to be had in view, that where its bad effects have been most manifested, the fault has been most excusable. The immense extent of the manufacturing establishments in many parts both of England and Scotland, has rendered it, without doubt, a matter of most extreme difficulty for those at the head of them to keep up any thing like those habits of minute acquaintance and tangible sympathy with their people, which prevailed among the masters and apprentices of the comparatively limited and trifling esta blishments of former days. But, if our information be correct, and we have all faith that it is so, this great difficulty has been effectually struggled with, and happily overcome, even in instances when it was greatest,and not a few of our most magnificent establishments have, through no visible human means, save the extraordinary personal zeal, and kindly habits of their superintendents, escaped quite

free from the plague that has laid waste so many, immeasurably inferior to them in riches and extent. He that knows what his duty is, and resolves to do his duty, will always, without question, find time and means to do it. But this is not all. Is it going too far to say, that, after what has passed, it is the plain and distinct duty of every man to limit his establishment within the bounds that admit of his discharging the obligations inseparable from his condition? Is the hope of any temporary gain to be permitted to make an honest man voluntarily and deliberately draw around himself difficulties with which he is aware of his own incapacity to cope? Nay, more, is the hope or the certainty of any personal gain whatever, to be permitted to tempt any loyal man to do that which abundant and most lamentable experience has shewn to be pregnant with the elements of all social and national calamity? We trust that thoughts such as these are at this moment busy in many an honest and in many a loyal bosom, and that many willing sacrifices are on the eve of being offered up at the altars of Conscience, Patriotism, and Religion. The gentlemen at the head of the establishments, which have suffered most in these last trials, are the best judges of the modes and regulations, in and under which they are to allow the return of their deluded dependents. We have no doubt, firmness and mercy will be mingled in the measures they are about to adopt-but when that first great object of their present endeavour shall have been arranged and settled-we would hope such considerations as we have now been expressing, may receive no superficial or hasty portion of their after concern.

In country life, however, not a little of the same general fault has been gaining ground, as well as in the life of cities and manufactories-although, as in that happier life it is infinitely more inexcusable, so it has also happily made far less dangerous and alarming progress. There assuredly, there is nothing to prevent the evil from being easily and effectually arrested. There the old spirit may yet be said to be entire and untainted, although some unwise assaults have been made upon its precious outworks. Nothing is more evident to those who have vi

sited the scenes of recent tumult and disaffection, than the blessed effects which have been produced everywhere by the hearty and honest zeal of our yeomanry. Foolish, and shortsighted men, have indeed been found to condemn the great increase which has recently taken place in the establishment of yeomanry corps-but we fear not to say, that this voice of detraction can now find no listeners among the loyal men, either of Yorkshire or Lancashire, or of the West of Scotland. The services which these corps have rendered, are by no means to be summed up in their own marches and watchings. The intercourse which has occurred between them and the regular troops with whom they have acted, has, without all question, been productive of the happiest immediate effects-but above all, we look to the increased intercourse which they have already created, and which they must continue to create and strengthen between landlords and tenants, as affording by far the most sure and effectual pledge, for the future well-being of the wide face of the country. It is Shakspeare, we think, who remarks, that in times of war, the citizens of the same state are more affectionate towards each other than at any other time. The deeper sense which is then felt of the community-the identity of interests, is no doubt the chief element of this kindly feeling-but there is a charm for all human bosoms, in the very air and aspect of martial exercise, which may fairly be set by its side, as another and a most powerful strengthener of all the warmer affections of our nature. The foundations of the national character, both of England and Scotland, were laid deep and sure, in days when every gentleman and every yeoman was more or less a soldier-and now we confess, we look forward to the proud and willing revival of many manly feelings, which must necessarily attend the resumption of these manly exercises, as furnishing rich and bright hopes, for the welfare of ourselves and of our children. A single day spent by the young farmer on horseback in presence of his natural superior-a single dark wet ride shared with his young master, will do more to bind him to his person and to his house than all the intercourse that could possibly occur between them in many years of ordinary life. Were

there no fear of any thing that might call again, in our day, for the actual services of these corps, we should still be vehement in applauding their maintenance, were it only for the sake of the cordial kindliness which these meetings together cannot fail to nourish. But, in sober truth, the case does not as yet stand so―or nearly so. The evil has, for the moment, been repressed, but he must be a bold man who will say that he believes it to be at an end. The day may come when these men may have to draw the sword in good earnest, in defence of the firesides at which they were nursed and reared-the churches in which they were christened and weddedand the halls, by which offices of kindness have for ages been exchanged with the cottages of their Christian

ancestors.

The dark cloud has been dissipated, but alas! who shall prophecy that its lowering fragments may not again unite to blacken the free horizon of the land? The time is come when they who possess any thing that

they hold dear and sacred should know that peril hovers near, and that it is their duty to be prepared to defend it. The apathy with which many at a distance from the immediate circles of danger, still persist in regarding what is going on in the country, is not so much to be pitied as to be despised. There is wickedness in such blindness, and it deserves to be punished as a sin. We allude, in particular, to the great city in which we write-where, within forty miles of what, ten days ago, scarcely merited a slighter name than that of raging rebellion, the Lord President of the Court of Session has, with all his ardent and most honourable zeal, found it impossible to raise his regiment of volunteers to any thing like its proper compliment. But this reproach we would hope is not destined to lie long upon our headsand, at all events, we trust every man that has joined that, or any other corps raised for the same precious purposes, will abide there till he has a son able and willing to step into his place.