calm philosophy; while speculative men begin at the wrong end, and employ themselves in framing plausible, but premature, systems, when they ought to be collecting facts and observations. But of this hereafter.

Strictly speaking, the Political Economist, as we call him, is the only man of science in our Council. He is our oracle in all abstruse points of Metaphysics; for he has all the great authors at his fingers' ends, and could descant for ever, we believe, upon the principles of Locke, or Leibnitz, or Berkeley, or Hume, or Hartley, or Reid; or, in short, any of the rest from Malebranche and Des Cartes, down to the transcendental system of Kant and his disciples. There is no appeal from his decision in Geology or Mineralogy; and we usually consult him upon Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, and the higher branches of Mathematics. He has paid great attention to the law of nature and of nations; and is conversant with all the jurists and publicists who have ever written. We do not indeed consider him quite a walking Encyclopædia; but, it would be strange, if he was not well acquainted with those subjects to which he has devoted the labour of a life.

We have already said, that this member of our Council is not inclined to think highly of the state and progress of political economy: and yet he belongs to the country of Adam Smith. He is a Scotchman, born, bred, educated in Scotland, and imbued with all a Scotchman's partialities. The word Scotch, is in his mind synonymous with excellence ; wherever Scotland is concerned, he does not reason, but feel. Edinburgh is the modern Athens, nay, more than Athens ever was in the days of Pericles and Phidias. And what has the whole world to compare with Scotch writers, or Scotch soldiers, or Scotch scenery, or Scotch beauties?

Now we like all this. We have no quarrel with any man's nationality, if he will, in his turn, grant equal indulgence to the nationality of others. A spirit of nationality is, without question, a fine and useful spirit in a people; when it can be kept up in such a manner as to kindle a just pride, and a generous emulation, and a steady resolution to preserve the supposed superiority, unalloyed and undiminished, without degenerating into vulgar pre

judice, or exclusive admiration. And to be candid, if nationality is allowable any where, it is allowable in Scotland. In times past, as well as in these our days, the devoted heroism of her regiments has won the grateful applause of Europe: and every Scotchman has surely reason to be proud of that constellation of illustrious names, which sheds a radiance over the literature of his country.

This circumstance, we mean our friend's nationality, is, at the same time, the occasion of much mirthful contention in our Council. The Cosmopolite produces his accustomed jokes upon local prejudices; and Clericus is at variance with him on several important points relating to education, jurisprudence, and church discipline. Yet the conversation is uniformly carried on with a mild, liberal, conciliatory disposition, which is always observable, when truth is the object of inquiry, and which might serve as an example to many "subtle disputants" upon these and the like matters in certain other deliberative assemblies. "The keen encounter of their wit" is never pushed farther than sober discourse, or playful raillery, unembittered by anger or uncharitableness. They can argue without quarrelling, and differ in opinion without thinking or speaking ill of the character and motives of each other.

There remain but few circumstances to be related of our political economist. He has been initiated in the mysteries of medical science, as he had some intentions, in the early part of his life, of practising as a physician. He belongs also to one of the lodges of Free-Masonry. In consequence of sedentary habits, he has become rather hypochondriac, and something of an invalid. With an excellent and kind heart, he is a man of shrewd observation, dry and sarcastic humour; and an inveterate hater of all sorts of foppery, empiricism, and affectation. We farther mention, for the benefit of those who are curious in small matters, that he is exceedingly short-sighted, and as careless in his dress as a county member.

THE SOLDIER.

And has not Ireland, as well as Scotland, a representative in our Council? She has; a brave and worthy one,

one, who is an involuntary absentee, yet who can never forget the land of his birth and his affections.

But military duties permit no choice of residence; and our son of Erin is an officer in the British army. Nor is there a bolder in the service. He is not a soldier, who has only passed muster on parade, or seen the array of battle only at a review. War has been familiar to him in all its forms of honour and of danger; in all its circumstances of glory and of horror. He fought under the Duke of Wellington throughout all the campaigns of the Peninsula ; and to the busy years which he then spent, his memory still looks backward with delight. Surrounded by companions in arms, gay and gallant as himself-marching on from victory to victory, with new scenes of romantic beauty still opening before them as they marched; hailed every where as at once vanquishers and deliverers; in the intervals of conquest, following the chase through wild hills and blooming valleys, enjoying the hospitality of Spanish gratitude, and the smiles of Spanish beauty;-such was his life from the lines at Torres Vedras to the passes of the Pyrenees; and such a life he can never hope to see again. He was not engaged in any part of the last contest with America; but reposed, after his perilous toils, in the bosom of his country and family, until the return of Napoleon from Elba, and his re-establishment on the French throne, awoke England and Europe to one great and final effort. In the last decisive struggle for mastery at Waterloo, he was wounded by a spent musket-ball in the shoulder: and it is strange, that actively engaged as he has been in so many battles and skirmishes, in the storming of towns, garrisoned by some of the best troops in the French army-and there are few, or none, better in the world-never flinching from danger, and never absent from his post, this is the only wound, which he has ever received. Such has been his military career; and it is our hope, rather than his own, that he may never be called again to fight as bravely in the service of his country.

His regiment, after being stationed in various parts of the United Kingdoms, has been lately reduced: and our hero is now upon half-pay in London, where he is engaged

in transacting some private business, which may still detain him for some time, in spite of his anxiety to return to Ireland; an anxiety, arising not merely from his undying love for the green hills of his native land; but from the impression, that it is more peculiarly his post in its present distressed and agitated state. When he is in town he may be generally seen either lounging about the Horse-guards, or along St. James's-street; or cantering his grey horsea very beautiful animal-slowly round the Park. We are not at liberty to mention the hotel where he lodges, but it is not a hundred miles to the west of Charing-cross.

He has risen by his merits, without any particular interest, to the rank of Major. His friends can hardly be brought to believe, that his promotion has been proportioned to his deserts: but for himself, he scorns the very idea of complaint: he sees no abuses, he suspects none: and to the present Commander-in-Chief is ever ready, in common with almost every officer in the army, to pay his honest tribute of grateful respect. The existing state of things, it is true, is far too peaceful for him. Fifteen years of hard service have not untaught him the love of war, that dreadful game, which, like all others, has an undefined pleasure in its deep and terrible excitement. The sight of a hardy veteran, covered with honourable scars, recalls to his mind those spirit-stirring days, in comparison with which we are afraid, the hours which now roll over him bring only monotonous insipidity, and appear" weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable." To him an old soldier is always an old friend. The military profession is the only profession in the world; military fame is the only fame to be desired; and a military life is the only life worth living.

His enthusiasm in this respect is certainly carried far beyond the bounds of sober and dispassionate reason. It seems so at least to all the older and steadier members of the Council. On the whole subject of war, as might naturally be expected, they are completely at variance with the major, and the very mention of it occasions a lively dispute. He regards it as the noblest of sciences, which calls forth all the energies of the body, all the faculties of

the mind, all the great qualities of the heart: they consider it as a savage and barbarous pastime; the offspring either of the inordinate ambition of monarchs, or the bloodthirsty propensities, and insane rivalries of nations; which must inevitably be neglected and disused, as men become rational and enlightened. He thinks only of the heroism which it affords opportunity to display; the thrilling and intense emotions with which it is accompanied; the fame and triumph by which it is followed: they cannot shut their eyes to the happiness which it destroys; the improvements which it retards; the desolation which it causes; the tears and mourning which it leaves behind it; the licentious dispositions which it fosters; the crimes, and horrors, and carnage which attend it as its shadow. His habits have taught him to despise death; their feelings compel them to shudder at the waste of life. In a word, he looks only at the bright, and they only at the dark, side of the picture: he regards war as a soldier, and they regard it as philosophers: and so far, perhaps, all this is as it should be.

Above all things, they who associate with our Major, must take especial care, how they assert, or even hint, that military men have no liberty of thought or action; that they are of necessity in some measure the slaves of the sovereign, and almost derive their breath and being, as officers, from the will of the ministers in power. This is a charge which he can scarcely bear with temper from his friends; and would assuredly pick a quarrel with any stranger, who ventured to throw out such an insinuation in his presence.

For the rest, his character is just such as might be expected in a man, who is at once an Irishman and a soldier. He has his country's warm blood, high honour, and unquestioned courage: its impetuous feelings, ready wit, and natural eloquence:-thoughtless, generous, and open-hearted, he is fond of society, and capable of adorning it-ever welcome with one sex, and ever agreeable to the other. It must be whispered, too, that although time, and hot suns, and hard service have done their work, he is still, nor altogether without reason, on excellent terms with his