astrous effects will flow from a necessary measure of justice, the only object of which was, that, in the spirit of the great Charter, justice should not be longer denied, nor deferred, nor sold, and at a most exorbitant price, too, as in Chancery. We believe, on the contrary, that the advancement and prosperity of Ireland will be greatly assisted by the operations of the Incumbered Estates Court. Adam Smith remarks, that mercantile men and purchasers of estates are generally improvers. We do not, indeed, expect that all the new proprietors will resemble Mr. Mechi, but we do anticipate that men, who by steady habits of business, by energy, and perseverance or prudence, have been enabled to become purchasers of estates, will also be improvers of them; and, at the least, there is a far greater probability of this, than that embarrassed proprietors, involved in debt or litigation, could be judicious or useful managers of property.

It is often said, too, that there will no longer be vast estates and large proprietors; but the advantages of both have been greatly overrated. Ireland long had both classes; and we cannot perceive of what advantage this has been to her; while in the south and west of Ireland, where estates were the most extensive, we recognise the most destitution and slowest improvement, and greatest priestly despotism over ignorance. We confidently expect that not only the nation, but the causes of enlightened Conservatism and Protestantism, will be gainers. Already, while the sales have not been confined to the estates of Protestants, the purchases made by Protestants have shown that the preponderance of property will still continue on their side, while it will be more equally and usefully divided among a greater number of Protestant owners; and if some few Roman Catholics, laity, priests and bishops, have become purchasers, they have also become landlords; and this will be no small gain to the peace of the kingdom. Heretofore the landlords were few, and were Protestants, not having the influence of numbers, and so embarrassed as to lack the influence gonerally annexed to rank and prietorship of the soil. T were principally Rom

and there was a constant uncheck 1 aggressive movement, partaking al-o of a religious enmity, of the tenants against the landlords, which the latter, being few in number and weak in influence, could not repel; and which, it is notorious from their speeches and attendance at public meetings, was, if not fostered, at least not distasteful to the Romish priesthood. Now that there is likely to be an increase in the number of Roman Catholic proprietors, and that Bishops Mac Hale, Cantwell and O'Donnell, with some priests, have become purchasers, we incline to the hope that the denunciations of landlords as exterminators will be less frequent in their dioceses and parishes, and that they will set useful examples of improvement, and not confine their influence to fierce censures or denunciations; they will practically experience the difficulties to be contended with in the judicious management of property, and will be inclined to make some allowance for the errors and failings of neighbouring proprietors, while interest and policy will alike suggest that it may not be prudent to excite a storm, in the violence of which they too might be overwhelmed. There will be fewer jealousies, also, from the proprietorship of the soil not being, as heretofore, confined to a few large and embarrassed nominal owners, and almost inaccessible to others; and what will be lost in rank and seeming vastness to the Protestant owners of estates, will be more than gained to them in their numbers, intelligence, and useful energies. We cannot, indeed, be sanguine of immediate beneficial results from the operation of the Incumbered Estates Act. The improvement of a nation and of a people, not dull, but obstinate, irritable, and easily led astray, is not the work of months, but of years-nay, almost of generations; but we still confidently anticipate, that while we cannot refuse to sympathise with the sufferings of all classes, owners and creditors, not caused, or even increased, but only exhibited, concentrated and mitigated, by the necessary institution of the Incumbered Estate Court, it will, by its working, cont bute, it may lally but sively, perity

astrous effects will flow from a necessary measure of justice, the only object of which was, that, in the spirit of the great Charter, justice should not be longer denied, nor deferred, nor sold, and at a most exorbitant price, too, as in Chancery. We believe, on the contrary, that the advancement and prosperity of Ireland will be greatly assisted by the operations of the Incumbered Estates Court. Adam Smith remarks, that mercantile men and purchasers of estates are generally improvers.

We do not, indeed, expect that all the new proprietors will resemble Mr. Mechi, but we do anticipate that men, who by steady habits of business, by energy, and perseverance or prudence, have been enabled to become purchasers of estates, will also be improvers of them; and, at the least, there is a far greater probability of this, than that embarrassed proprietors, involved in debt or litigation, could be judicious or useful managers of property.

It is often said, too, that there will no longer be vast estates and large proprietors; but the advantages of both have been greatly overrated. Ireland long had both classes; and we cannot perceive of what advantage this has been to her; while in the south and west of Ireland, where estates were the most extensive, we recognise the most destitution and slowest improvement, and greatest priestly despotism over ignorance. We confidently expect that not only the nation, but the causes of enlightened Conservatism and Protestantism, will be gainers. Already, while the sales have not been confined to the estates of Protestants, the purchases made by Protestants have shown that the preponderance of property will still continue on their side, while it will be more equally and usefully divided among a greater number of Protestant owners; and if some few Roman Catholics, laity, priests and bishops, have become purchasers, they have also become landlords; and this will be no small gain to the peace of the kingdom. Heretofore the landlords were few, and were Protestants, not having the influence of numbers, and so embarrassed as to lack the influence generally annexed to rank and the proprietorship of the soil. The tenants were principally Roman Catholics;

and there was a constant unchecked aggressive movement, partaking also of a religious enmity, of the tenants against the landlords, which the latter, being few in number and weak in influence, could not repel; and which, it is notorious from their speeches and attendance at public meetings, was, if not fostered, at least not distasteful to the Romish priesthood. Now that

there is likely to be an increase in the number of Roman Catholic proprietors, and that Bishops Mac Hale, Cantwell and O'Donnell, with some priests, have become purchasers, we incline to the hope that the denunciations of landlords as exterminators will be less frequent in their dioceses and parishes, and that they will set useful examples of improvement, and not confine their influence to fierce censures or denunciations; they will practically experience the difficulties to be contended with in the judicious management of property, and will be inclined to make some allowance for the errors and failings of neighbouring proprietors, while interest and policy will alike suggest that it may not be prudent to excite a storm, in the violence of which they too might be overwhelmed. There will be fewer jealousies, also, from the proprietorship of the soil not being, as heretofore, confined to a few large and embarrassed nominal owners, and almost inaccessible to others; and what will be lost in rank and seeming vastness to the Protestant owners of estates, will be more than gained to them in their numbers, intelligence, and useful energies. We cannot, indeed, be sanguine of immediate beneficial results from the operation of the Incumbered Estates Act. The improvement of a nation and of a people, not dull, but obstinate, irritable, and easily led astray, is not the work of months, bu' of years-nay, almost of generats; but we still confidently anticipat while we cannot refuse to sym with the sufferings of all classes and creditors, not caused, o creased, but only exhibite trated and mitigated, by t institution of the Incum Court, it will, by its w bute, it may be grad sively, to the advan perity and the sta valued institutions

THE domain of poetry is boundless. From the thunder-cloud that frowns and mutters in the heavens, oversha dowing the earth with sensations of awe and terror, to the lowliest flower that blossoms in the most hidden nooks of solitary glens, the wing of the poet ranges. Nor is he less conversant with the affairs of men, their business and their pleasures. Incident and adventure are by some thought to be the only path in which the poet can walk with that buoyant delight which enables him to give delight to others. Love, fear, hope, joy, such as they are made by the intricate circumstances of man's various and many-coloured life are thought to be the only proper theme of the poet's song, and from the minstrel, it is said, we want not philosophy but a story and a tune. But this were to set limits to the domain of the poet, which we have said is boundless. Beyond the utmost range of external nature, and above the circumstances of man's various life, and all the thrilling interests connected with them, is the sovereign mind of man, revolving all things; and there too the poet is privileged to range, to discover what a poet alone can see, to tell what a poet alone can utter. Who has given us so sublime a view of this province of the poet, as he whose latest published work we are now about to review? In that wonderful extract from the conclusion of the first book of the Recluse, which he gives in the preface to the Excursion, he says:

"All strength-all terror, single or in bands,

That ever was put forth in personal form-
Jehovah with his thunder, and the
Of shouting angels, and the
thrones

From the time he first began to write, until this day, the poetry of Wordsworth has been slowly, but steadily, and of late years with accelerated pace, advancing to the highest point of public respect. And wherefore this slowness and hesitation? Why had so much reluctance of taste, as it were, to be overcome? Why had so much of the light rubbish of ridicule to be cleared away, before the name and fame of Wordsworth could stand confessed upon the loftiest pinnacle of the tem ple of poetic fame? The reasons are manifold, and we shall attempt to indicate a few of them. In the first place, it was because he deliberately chose for the haunt and main region of his song a height of serious contemplation, up to which the many and the hasty cannot attain; and as he led the minds of his readers rather into habits of religious reverence of an abstract kind, than into those positive religious truths which Cowper was wont to insist upon, the devout for a long time regarded his works rather with suspicion than with favour. Again, he set at nought all the habits of association which had been formed in literature. He was the founder of a new school; and though much good has no doubt resulted from his irregularities, yet he suffered the common fate of those who will not go with the stream, and who have not the power to compel the stream to go with them. He set out with the theory not only that com mon words were the best for the expression of excited or poetic feeling but that in people of common and low condition the loftiest thoughts might be found; and that in association with the circumstances of their lives, might be brought forward all that is touch ing and terrifying, all that is subdi and beautiful, in the world aro or in the intellect of man! He

Of blessed consolations in distress;
Of moral strength and intellectual Power;
Of Joy in widest commonalty spread;
Of the individual Mind that keeps her own
Inviolate retirement, subject there
To Conscience only, and the law supreme
Of that Intelligence which governs all—
I sing."

Of nothing nobler could he have sought to sing; but with what persons did he think fit to associate that splendid train of moral, philosophical, and poetic subjects? Why, with a retired pedlar "a vagrant merchant under a heavy load," who supplied rustic wants, or pleased rustic fancies with the contents of his pack, until, provision for his own wants having been obtained, he retired upon his savings and his philosophy, to instruct, by his wisdom and experience, those who had the happiness to converse with him. Now there is nothing in the abstract nature of things to forbid a poet from creating a pedlar, and endowing him with thoughts as sublime as his condition is humble. He may give him a hardy intellect, and moral feelings strength. ened and braced by breathing in content the keen and wholesome air of poverty. He may describe him as attending to his trade so as to make money, and at the same time being a lone enthusiast in the woods and fields, keeping in solitude and solitary thought his mind in a just equipoise of love. The poet has no doubt a right to do this if he pleases, and to make his lowly merchant utter as noble truths as ever were uttered by philosopher, in language of the finest poetry; but in doing this he directly wars with the common associations of men's minds, and he must therefore expect a storm of opposition and of ridicule. It certainly was a wilful thing of Wordsworth to choose a pedlar, "among the hills of Athol born," for his philosophic hero; for since common experience associates (not unjustly) thoughts the very reverse of generous, and grand, and philosophical, with such men and with their office, it required a breaking down of such associations, and an entirely new conception of the facts, feelings, and circumstances of a pedlar's life, before it was possible to admit him in the character with which Wordsworth had clothed him.

But though, in this great and notable instance, Wordsworth may have carried his system too far, he has done

incalculable good by teaching thousands who otherwise had not been taught that useful lesson, to associate the noble in thought with the simple in circumstances; to believe that there may be, and that there ought to be, "plain living and high thinking;" and that as the lord of thousands a-year may be, and very often is, a creature of mean and grovelling spirit, with no conceptions to lift him above the lowest of the low, so the poorest may be rich in elevated thoughts, and that

"A virtuous household, though exceeding poor, Austere and grave, and fearing God,"

possesses a true dignity, which voluptuous princes in their palaces cannot achieve. Wordsworth has taught, with more effect than any one before him had taught, that there is a presence and a power of greatness open to all who behold the stars come out above their heads; and that to the feeling heart the meanest flower that blows can bring thoughts that often lie too deep for tears. For this cause, blessings be with his name. But he has pronounced his own benediction :

"Blessings be with them and eternal praise, The Poets, who on earth have made us heirs Of truth and pure delight by heavenly lays."

The poem, now first published in the goodly tome before us, contains about nine thousand lines of blank verse, diIvided into fourteen books. It was completed some five-and-forty years ago, when the author was thirty-five years old, his genius matured by reflection, and his intellectual character fixed and determined. We may expect, then, to find the full fruitage of the poetic faculty he possessed, and herein no reader capable of appreciating the highest order of poetry will be disappointed. But he will also find more of the eccentricities of this great author than his own later judgment would probably have approved. There are many heavy and prosaic passages, and some matters of familiar, and not very important, narrative are given with a solemnity which cannot but provoke a smile. But these are but casual clouds floating in the pure Wordsworthian sky. Ever and anon, he springs from level talk or ponderous triviality into the most glorious heights of poetry, and we hear, as it were, a voice of more than mortal music reverberated from the mountains, and