which surround and threaten her. If, therefore, the spirit of the British constitution may well be held up as a fit object of admiration and imitation, the spirit of the British administration in some of the most important parts may also be regarded as a salutary warning to other nations, who are or may be tempted, in the consciousness of wealth and power, to run into similar errors. It has sometimes been supposed that this erroneous system might be traced to the remnant of arbitrary forms which still hangs about the British institutions; and the idea is not without plausibility. The European aristocracy have been, from habit and education, too much accustomed to consider politics as a game of chance and skill, played at the expense of subjects, by the several governments, for shares in the mass of political power existing in Europe, rather than as the science of promoting and securing the public good. Hence the department of foreign relations, which, in a better system of general politics, would be of little importance, means in practice the government itself. If this supposition were strictly true, other nations, as the United States, whose institutions are organized in purer and simpler forms, would be less exposed to the danger in question. But, after all, human nature is the same in a republic, as in a monarchy; and a spirit of

vain glory and extravagance might gain possession of a congress, as well as of a parliament. It is, therefore, important to establish firmly as a general axiom, that all schemes of aggrandizement at the expense of other nations, either in the form of influence, or of direct conquest, are necessarily as ruinous in their effects, as they are unjust in principle. A practical and universal conviction of this truth might serve, in some degree, as a check upon the disposition to abuse advantages which is natural to all, and from which, unfortunately, the British government has rarely been exempt.

In remarking upon the present state of England, it will not be necessary to enter much into the details of recent facts, which, from the great publicity attending all political affairs in that country, are generally known, both at home and abroad, by all who take an interest in the subject. In the United States the situation of Great Britain is as much studied and as well understood, as it is in England itself; and, as the British are too busy at home, or too well satisfied of their imagined superiority, to take much interest in the affairs of the United States, we possess on this account a considerable advantage on points, in which the interests of the two countries come into collision. I shall therefore suppose the knowledge of facts; and content myself with a few remarks

in explanation or illustration of such as appear most important. On a subject which is continually brought before the public in every variety of form, by far more powerful pens than mine, I can hardly hope, that I shall be able to offer any thing new or very interesting; and the whole section might as well be omitted, were it not in a manner unsuitable, in a sketch of the general state of Europe, to leave untouched or to pass over lightly the country with which we are most immediately connected. Without disparagement to the superior, romantic, and chivalrous interest attending the queen's trial and the king's coronation, the most important points in the internal politics of England seem to be the present state of the constitution, and the general complaint of distress among the industrious classes; and it is to these that I shall principally confine my remarks.

At a time when the introduction of representative constitutions on the model of that of England forms the leading object of attention in most of the civilized nations of Europe, it is certainly a curious subject of inquiry, whether, as some allege, this government, which serves as a pattern for so many others, is itself on the eve of sinking under the weight of its corruptions and abuses. Such a fact, if it were established, might well render doubtful the expediency of constructing the new constitutions upon the same model;

or at least would make it proper to ascertain, for the purpose of avoiding them, what had been the weak points, which occasioned its decline and fall. That the British constitution is actually in a state of decay and corruption is an opinion, which has been held to a greater or less extent, by most of the distinguished statesmen of the last half century. Pitt and Burke, as well as Fox and Burdett, have at times favoured this idea; and at the present moment the doctrine of reform is supported by the wealthiest of the nobles, not less than by the mob of radicals. It is maintained in the Edinburgh Review and Morning Chronicle, as well as in the Black Dwarf and Cobbett's Register; and it is not many years since it was announced by the speaker of the house of commons from his chair, that the existence of corruption was as clear as the sun at noon day; and that the present generation treated with indifference transactions, from which their ancestors would have turned, with shame and horror. This general consent among individuals and parties of such various opinions and characters, in favour of the same assertion, necessarily supposes the existence of facts, which tend to give it countenance, in some way or other. From all the examination I have been able to give the subject, I am however inclined to conclude that these signs of corruption, which have been so universally

remarked and reprobated, are rather indications of a change in the state of property, resulting from causes independent of politics, than of any material alteration, that has happened in the principles or practice of the constitution. The effect on the public welfare of one of these changes may be nearly the same as of the other; but there is this material difference in the two cases, that in one the evil might be'remedied by a reform of the political institutions, while, on the other, such a change would be wholly ineffectual, and the only real cure would be a reform in the state of property.

It may be remarked in this connexion, as rather a singular fact, that on so important a subject as the British constitution, there should exist no work of high reputation and acknowledged authority. Blackstone's Commentaries contain an elegant dissection of the body politic and a demonstration of all its details, but no attempt, even to investigate the principle of life. De Lolme, the only writer on the subject, who has obtained a certain degree of celebrity, was a foreigner, and published his treatise at the age of twenty-seven. These circumstances excite a strong presumption against its value, which is fully confirmed by perusal. There are no traces in it of a profound or philosophical mind; and it is, after all, rather a book of jurisprudence, than of politics.