LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. RECENTLY PUBLISHED. By J. H. Eastburn, Boston-An Oration delivered before the Officers of the Militia, and Members of the Volunteer companies of Boston and the Vicinity, on the 4th of July, 1832, at their request. By Colonel Edward G. Prescott. -An Oration, delivered July 4, 1832, before the City Council and Inhabitants of Boston, by Josiah Quincy, jun. By E. W. Metcalf & Co. Cambridge-An Address, delivered May 30, A. D. 1832, at the Dedication of the Masonic Temple in Boston. By Bernard Whitman. By Carter & Hendee, Boston-History of the late Polish Revolution, and the Events of the Campaign, by Joseph Hordynski, Major of the late Tenth Regiment of Lithunian Lancers. 1 vol. 8vo. [This work is published for subscribers only, and can be procured only of the publishers or their agent.] By Hilliard, Gray & Co.-Elements of Chemistry; including the recent discoveries and doctrines of the science. By Edward Turner, M. D. F. R. S.; fourth American from third London edition, with notes and emendations by Franklin Bache, M. D.-The Speeches of the celebrated Irish orators, Phillips, Curran and Grattan.-A Dissertation on employing Emulation to encourage Literary Excellence. By W. Hyde & Co. Boston-Sermons, by the late Rev. Charles Jenkins, Pastor of the third Congregational Church, Portland. By Perkins & Marvin, Boston-The Young Christian: or, a familiar illustration of the principles of Christian Duty. By Jacob Abbot, Principal of the Mount Vernon Female School, Boston. By Thompson & Homans, Washington-The American Pharos, or Light-House Guide : founded on the reports received at the Treasury Department, from the Superintendents of the Light Houses of the United States. Also, a general View of the Coast, from the St. Croix River to the Mouth of the Sabine. By Robert Mills, P. A. Engineer and Architect, Member of the Columbian Institute. By H. Hall, Philadelphia-Legends of the West. By James Hall, author of "Letters from the West," &c. Contents-1 The Backwoodsman; 2 The Divining Rod ; 3 The Seventh Son; 4 The Missionaries; 5 The Indian Wife's Lament; 6 A Legend of Carondelet; 7 The Intestate; 8 Michael De Coucy; 9 The Emigrants; 10 The Barrack-master's Daughter; 11 The Indian Hater; 12 The Isle of Yellow Sands. By J. & J. Harper, New-York-Journal of an Expedition to explore the course and termination of the Niger; with the Narrative of a Voyage down that river to its termination. By Richard and John Lander. In two vols. Illustrated with engravings and maps. IN PRESS. Gray & Bowen have in Press the following valuable and interesting Works-The Token and Atlantic Souvenir, for 1832. Edited by S. G. Goodrich. [By an arrangement with the proprietors of the Atlantic Souvenir, that work will hereafter be united with the Token, under the title of the Token and Atlantic Souvenir. It will be edited by S. G. Goodrich, Esq. No pains or expense will be spared to make this volume not only an improvement upon former ones of either work, but one which shall be creditable and honorable to the country, and able to stand a favorable comparison with the best of the English annuals. The great favor with which the volume of the Token for 1832 was received, has been an incitement to increased exertion, and the result, it is believed, will prove that the endeavor has not been in vain. It will be of the same size and general plan with the Token for 1832, and will be embellished with twenty engravings.]-A Dictionary of Biography, comprising the most eminent characters of all ages, nations, and professions. By R. A. Davenport. First American edition, with numerous additions, corrections, and improvements; and illustrated by two hundred fine Portraits, on wood.-American Almanac, and Repository of Useful Knowledge. Vol. III. for 1833.-Discourses on various subjects, by William Ellery Channing, D. D. [This volume is composed entirely of sermons never before published. It will be issued very shortly, in one duodecimo volume.] Memoirs of the Life and Times of the late Commodore Barney, prepared from Autographical Manuscripts in the possession of his family, by Mary Barney. [The Times' of the late Commodore Barney, embrace the two most interesting and important events of the eighteenth century, namely, the American and French Revolutions; and the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain; in all of which he was eminently distinguished by his chivalrous and gallant conduct. 1 vol. 12mo.]-The American Annual Register, for 1830-31, being vol. VI. [This volume will be issued in a very short time. No pains will be spared to render it equal to the expectations of its friends and the public.] THE NEW-ENGLAND MAGAZINE. SEPTEMBER, 1832. ORIGINAL PAPERS. EUROPE. "T is the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, And coming events cast their shadows before." THE study of past and passing events is principally useful in enabling us to judge of the future; and the favorite occupation of the old man, or the retired politician, is to turn his experience into a telescope, with which to satisfy his curiosity in peering into futurity. Napoleon was a sage while but a youth; his eagle spirit, when chained down upon the rock of St. Helena, and prevented from heaving up the earth with its throes, oft bent its eye upon the future; and it was while glancing into its mists, that he saw the forecast shadows of the events we now witness, and issued the remarkable prophecy, "that, in fifty years, Europe will be Russian or Republican." Dans cinquante ans l'Europe sera Republicain ou Cossaque. 'Tis nature that forms nations and stamps upon them those traits which constitute nationality; 't is man who forms states and kingdoms: these, when formed from discordant materials, ever tend to dissolution the moment the artificial bands which hold them together are relaxed; and when society is breaking up, people obey laws similar to those of chemical bodies, and each atom clings to the atom for which it has the greatest affinity, until a solid and unique mass is formed. But the discordant materials which are united to form the great political families of Europe, are not the only, nor even the principal causes of that agitation,-that surging to and fro of popular excitement, which, like the restless ocean billow is ever beating against or undermining the barriers of Governments, and before which those barriers must sooner or later be prostrated. It has become a trite observation, that the rulers are arraying themselves against the ruled, and that to a king, the word subject is almost tantamount to that of enemy; but the struggles that we have witnessed are only forerunners to that great contest which is fast approaching, and which has been long foreseen by those politicians who have taken VOL. III. 23 the horoscope of futurity. Napoleon alluded to it in the words we have quoted; and so did Byron, when he said * *_" but, never mind,-God save the King! and Kings! For if he don't, I doubt if men will longer. I think I hear a little bird, who sings, The people bye and bye will be the stronger: The veriest jade will wince, whose harness wrings At first it grumbles, then it swears, and then, Snatch when despair makes human hearts less pliant. Alone could save the earth from hell's pollution." Now this doctrine, although preached years ago, is sound political orthodoxy; every precept is a half-accomplished prophecy, and every line might furnish matter for a long sermon. Aye! the mob, alias the people, "get sick of imitating Job;" they have done so in many countries within a few years, and in England within a few months. They "grumbled" until they forced the aristocrats to take their case into consideration; they "swore" at the delay in granting their just demand for reform; and they took to "weapons" when their favorites were hurled from place and power; and then,― yes, even then, would have come the "tug of war," had not the aristocrats perceived the dreadful spirit which pervaded the kingdom, and wisely retracted in time. It is evident to one who examines into the state of public feeling in England on the news of the downfall of the Grey ministry, that the country was on the eve of a revolution; that every man was instinctively casting his eye about him in search of a weapon; that if the sheet anchor of the people's hopes-the House of Commons-had been parted, and the tories continued but forty-eight hours in their mad career, then would patience and forbearance have been at an end,— then would the knife have been grasped instead of the pen, and the feelings of the people been expressed by their muskets' muzzles, rather than by peaceful petitions. There is in England and in Ireland an immense class, whom physical suffering and moral degradation have rendered callous to every call but that of interest,-reckless of every restraint but that of fear. To address the reason, to appeal to the loyalty of these men, would be to reason with the raging whirlwind, to talk to the hissing adder; the patriot and the prudent man are unheeded, while the demagogue and the agitator who appeal to the passions, are answered with the thundering huzza of the thousands whose only argument is a shout, and whose only reply is a blow. The physical force of the country is in the hands of these men ; but as we have said, they are under the restraint of fear, and the wholesome moral influence of the middling class—as they formerly were under that of the aristocracy. But let this middling class only take away the barrier of its influence, and we should see how far the wild wave of popular fury will go; let but the middling interest in England, as did the bourgoisie in France, but once cry bravo to the mob, and it will sweep away throne, and mitre, and ermine, in one common ruin, and plunge the resisting bayonet of the soldier in his own bosom. In England, too, there exists every facility for arming the mob; such towns as Birmingham, and Leeds, and Sheffield, are but immense depots of arms; and at the beckon of such a man as Thomas Attwood, their stores would yield up more weapons than could be forthcoming by the warrant of the Lord Lieutenant of the Tower. In such a country as England, men arm not but with the intention of using their weapons; and when one considers, (what was really the fact,) that on the news of the downfall of the Grey Ministry, tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands, did actually arm themselves, one trembles to think of what would have been the consequence, had a few days been suffered to expire without calming the people. The patriotic Unions were filling up with thousands of new members daily; they openly wore their badges, and they secretly prepared their arms, and they sternly resolved to do or die," should the Tories attempt to thwart their project of reform. 66. We have it from a friend, who had it from the mouth of Attwood himself, that on the night of the greatest excitement, he was awakened by his son's entering his room, sword in hand, and saying, "Father, take mother and the children and fly to America, for the people are determined to appeal to arms !" "Well then," said Attwood, rising, "in God's name, since it must be so, I will bide with them to the last ; and if our enemies force us to fight for our rights, we will do it manfully, and all together." But happily for England, happily for the world, warning was taken in time; even the bold, the obstinate Wellington was daunted; he was obliged to throw up the hardly assumed reins, and confess to his King, that he could not guide the car of state without risking the common ruin of rulers and ruled. Well then, the King yielded, and the Tories retired, and the Whigs picked up the abandoned reins, and the Peers consented to a virtual violation of the constitution, for it is only by a violation of the spirit of the constitution that the Reform Bill can have passed. Does not any law, to become constitutional, require to have the consent of the three powers of the realm? has not the majority of the Peers solemnly declared this Reform Bill to be destructive of the constitution, and ruinous to the country? and is it not the sworn, the sacred duty of the Peers, to oppose, with their vote, any measure which they consider as such? and yet, do they not voluntarily and purposely abandon their posts, and refrain from voting-thus indirectly helping to pass the Bill? British Peers,-men of stern courage, and of undoubted patriotism have thus acted; and how can we account for their conduct, but by supposing that if they considered the passage of the Bill as eventually destructive to the institutions of the country, they considered its rejection as immediately so? And now that the people have their Bill, will they be any more content; will their hopes be realized; will the real and supposed miseries of the land be lightened? By no manner of means; nor can we cop ceive how ever so reformed a Parliament can concede all the people demand, until the vote by ballot, and universal suffrage shall open the door to enormous evils; and it is too well known in what horror the ballot-box is held in England to suppose that it will soon be conceded. For a long time the House of Commons must be filled by Representatives of the landed interest, and will such men, can such men consent to a radical change in the Corn Laws? They must and will resist it, as surely as the people will continue to call for it; and when the collision comes, either on this or any other great question, it is not to be doubted who will carry the day; for as the aristocracy is now sinking beneath the attacks of the middling and lower ranks, so shall the middling interest, at no distant day, be overwhelmed by the democratical one. No House of Commons can accomplish all which the people so sanguinely expect, and without which they will not be satisfied; and, as we have mentioned the Corn Laws, they may serve to exemplify the strange snarl [to use a homely term] into which various British interests have got entangled. It is well known that the object of the Corn Laws is to encourage the landed proprietor at the expense of the consumer, by limiting the supply of foreign grain; and that, although several million acres of cultivable land are lying waste in the United Kingdoms, the quantity of grain produced is not sufficient to supply the country with bread. In spite of this fact, however, direct encouragement is given to the consumption of grain in the production of ardent spirits; and a prohibitory duty is laid upon the rum of the British West-India Colonies, which Colonies are absolutely at the last gasp of existence,-are actually perishing from commercial distress. Here the Colonial planter, and the consumer in England are sensibly injured by the protection given to the distiller; yet, if one would do justice to the former, he must ruin the latter, and violate the tacitly pledged faith of the Government to continue the protecting system under which he was induced to invest his capital. This is a case in point, and he who would study the intricate maze into which British interests have become plunged, by a deviation from the plain principles of free trade, would do well to examine the state of the West-India Colonies. It is a most interesting subject; but we shall merely observe here that the planters are in a wretched condition; that their sugars are and have been selling in England for sixpence a hundred weight less than cost; that they are almost all deeply in debt, and yet cannot abandon their plantations, on which they live in continual fear of their lives. The great principles of justice are immutable, and evil must eventually result from wrong. Thus it is but a few score years ago that we saw Britain, in a public treaty, agreeing to pay to Spain a certain sum of money, in order to secure to her merchant ships the privilege of supplying the Spanish Colonies with cargoes of human beings from the coast of Africa to-day she forbids the importation of slaves into her own Colonies; and what is the consequence? Why, that the Spanish planter can get his slaves for about two hundred dollars, while it costs the British planter more than four hundred dollars to raise them himself; while from the recent regulations of Government, such protection |