"The Administrations of the Nineteenth Century in Great Britain are to find an historian in F. C. Carr, of the Inner Temple. Messrs. Macmillan are to give us "Galileo's Private Life." J. G. Fichte's "Science of Knowledge" has been translated. "A Biography of B. Spinoza," by R. Willis, M.D., is said to be nearly ready. A book on the same topic was in 1856 ready for the press from the pen of G. H. Lewes. W. R. Greg is to publish a work on "The Political Problems of our Age and Country." Sara S. Hennell, a philosophic thinker of great acuteness and power, author of "Comparativism," has just issued as a sequel "Comparative Metaphysics." L. B. Philip's "Dictionary of Biographical Reference" will contain nearly 100,000 names. The Rev. Alex. B. Grosart, one of the genuine "lovers of good books," who has by his "Fuller Worthies' Library" added greatly to the gratification and instruction of his subscribers, in providing for them careful, complete, and handsome reprints of many scarce and valuable works, is about to extend his favour by producing the Complete Works of Henry Vaughan the Silurist, and also those of Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke,-while he has other biographical rarities in preparation. He also projects the publication of two vols. of Miscellanies during 1870-1, which are to include-I. (1) The Poems of Lord Bacon; (2) The Poems of Jeremy Taylor; (3) An Interlude by John Bale (1538); (4) The Poems of Sir William Herbert; (5) A Posie of Gillofloures by Humfry Gifford (6) Wm. Loe's Song of Sion; and (7) Contemporary Judgments of Poets. II. The complete poems of Christopher Brooke and Christopher ; ง Lever; "Emmanuel," by Abraham Fraunce; "Tears of the Beloved (St. John), by Gervase Markham (?); John Bultokur's "True Description of Passion of Jesus," and several other rare old poems. We would direct the attention of secretaries of mechanics' institutes, librarians, members of reading clubs, &c., to this series, of which the impressions are limited. The books issued by this editor are not only worth in themselves, but they are excellently and lovingly edited. Mr. Grosart's work is a labour of love: he is a bibliophilist who needs no profit, and seeks no payment-except gratitude for his pains and painstaking. Lord Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient Rome" have been translated into Italian by an Irish lady, and issued at Florence. Just while Tennyson's Legend of the Holy Grail is delighting its thousands of readers, news comes that a fragment of 800 lines of alliterative verse on the history of that notable cup has turned up in the Bodleian. It is to be edited for the Early English Text Society by Rev. W. W. Skeat. Sir James Prior, biographer of Goldsmith and Burke (b. 1790), died 15th November. M. Victor Hugo has sold the MS. of his novel "The Crime of the 2nd December" for £1,600. Sir H. Bulwer has added to his "Historical Characters" Lafayette, Peel, and Brougham. Dickens' novels at a shilling a vol. are again spoken of. A. C. Swinburne has in the press "Bothwell," a tragedy, and " Songs of the Republic." Messrs. A. and C. Black are preparing a Centenary Edition Sir Walter Scott's Works, with unpublished notes, &c., by the author. It is to consist of twenty-five vols., with new type and annotations, 3s. 6d. per vol. The Philosophy of Politics. LEGISLATION. "Of Law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world: all things in heaven and earth do her homage; the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power: both angels and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy." -Richard Hooker. "Where there is no law there is no freedom."-John Locke. "Most people are supine and indifferent to the general course of domestic policy, and especially indifferent as to the intellectual qualifications and conduct of their representatives. Their minds want awakening to the difficulty and importance of sound and accurate and systematic legislation.”— Samuel Bailey. "The words of a law ought to be weighed like diamonds.”—Jeremy Bentham. THE art of living is one which we all wish to acquire and to exercise. Life is man's highest treasure; and to make the best of it is man's noblest ambition. Life is subject to many laws, on obedience to which happiness and prosperity depend. These form a vast network of necessitated duty round him, and compel attention to them, or inflict penalties on him for the transgression of them. The legislation of nature is fixed, the laws of health are determined, the categories of the understanding are settled, the form of society and the constitution of the state in which we live have been made the subjects of distinct decision, prior, in general, to our appearance on the scene of this time-life;-in short, the Order of our life is pretty much formed for us, in us, and around us. But life is a dynamic force as well as a static power; and besides the maintenance of order, it requires and insists on opportunity for progress. The means of insuring order while securing progress is known as legislation. It makes possible not only orderly progress, but also progressive order. Law is the safeguard of life. It limits and regulates at once the functions and agencies of Governments, and the duties and obligations of their subjects. It defines and determines the principles and forms according to which authority shall be exercised, as well as the extent and manner of the obedience due by the citizen. Legislation is the means of government and the agent of personal security. The statesman is not now the irresponsible administrator of 1870. G compulsory force. Law is not now a mere expression of will. Legislation is the thoughtful adaptation of the powers of society to the proper effecting of the purposes of society. While it imposes duties it confers rights, and though it confers power on the executive of a state, it also provides security for the subjects of each Government. In former days the constitution of empires and the rights of dynasties formed matters for grave speculation and hot discussion, and became occasions of revolution or of war. But in our day the kind of sovereignty to which men are subject has sunk into unimportance when compared with that of the sources, forms, methods, and extent of legislation. If legislation can be made just and appropriate, it is felt that little or no regard need be paid to the sovereignty under which the State is placed. Hence changes in government are not nearly so earnestly pursued as alterations in laws. Government, when considered as the executive and administrative agency of the State, cannot, it is thought, very materially veer towards or indulge in tyranny or oppression if life is guarded by just laws impartially applied and enforced. But here there comes into play a possible evil against which we should endeavour to set our mind, namely, that if we can propose good ends to ourselves, and make them enforcible by Government, such legislation is good and right. Thus legislation may be made the agent of a tyranny which no Government could, on its own account and at its own hand, attempt. In consequence of this risk it has become a most important inquiry, What is the province of legislation? What ought law to do? and what should it leave undone? What is it that law cannot effect, and what ought it, therefore, to leave untouched? Eager reformers who have good ends in view, and who, knowing the efficacy and force of authority, are anxious to secure the passing of legislative measures in favour of their views, and to enlist the might of Government in the carrying out of their beneficent intentions, not unfrequently endeavour to overstretch the province of legislation, and induce the passing of coercive measures for the enforcement of the performance of acts as duty, the obligatoriness of which neither conscience nor public opinion admits; while, on the other hand, many thinkers, jealous of power and suspicious of authority, full of memories of instances in which Governments have employed legislation for purposes very far from being in harmony with the public good, or with very mistaken notions of what would tend to and effect the greatest advantage of the governed, desire to confine legislation within the very narrowest bounds, and to restrict the legislature as much as may be to the mere regulation of the financial, administrative, and judicial functions of the official agents of the Government. With this class of thinkers we greatly sympathize; though, as will be seen in the sequel, we do not altogether agree with them. Perhaps the most concise and epigrammatic exposition of their views may be given in the words of T. H. Buckle: |