leges of the nobility, and the inherent rights of the people; who will make it his chief study to keep up the equilibrium of the Constitution, where it exists; to restore it, where it has been lost; and to improve it, where it is capable of improvement.

A Constitutionalist is a man, who will labour to remove, in whatever quarter they may be found, all the abuses, which admit of a safe, practical, and effectual remedy; who will spare them, and connive at them, and hold them sacred, neither in the officers of Government, nor in the ministers of Religion, nor in the Administrators of Law; who will exert his utmost efforts to relieve the burdens and distresses of his countrymen, and ameliorate, in every possible manner, the condition of the people; who will consider the lasting interest of all in conjunction, not the personal interest of any particular class separately and by itself.

A Constitutionalist is a man, at the same time, who will seek to change nothing for the sake of change; but unless some clear and indisputable benefit can be proved as the natural and almost certain result of the alteration, will leave and support established institutions and established usages, simply because they are established.

A Constitutionalist is a man, who will observe the signs of the times, and the current of popular opinion; who will direct his conduct in some measure according to the spirit of the age, and the progress of human reason.

A Constitutionalist is a man, who will lend himself neither to any individual nor to any party; who will resist every invasion of his personal security, every encroachment upon his political privileges, either from the one or from the many.

A Constitutionalist is a man, who will make just allowances for a conscientious difference of opinion; yet who will maintain his own with spirit, but with temper, with moderation, but with decision; who will scorn to have always in his mouth the factious words which disgrace political controversies and preclude rational discussion; who will neither swell the indiscriminate outcry of " innovation" andanarchy" and "revolution" against every attempt

at improvement and reform; nor treat all at random, as bigots, fools, or knaves, who have a steady attachment for the institutions and customs of their forefathers:

Qui consulta patrum, qui leges, juraque servant.

A Constitutionalist is a man, who feels that he is acting in the spirit of the British Constitution, when he promotes in other states, without an officious intermeddling in their concerns, the beautiful union of regular government with personal freedom; who is animated by the inspiring hope eventually to see liberty and order walk hand in hand through every portion of the habitable globe; and who is anxious, wherever the sun shines upon a race of human beings, to diffuse knowledge and happiness, good laws and Christianity.

In fine, a Constitutionalist is a man, who is at once a true Englishman and an enlightened citizen of the world.

Such is a Constitutionalist: such, at least, is the character which we understand by the term; and in spirit, in intention, in wishes, we are Constitutionalists.

In assuming this title, we shall assume, without scruple or delay, the attitude which becomes it; we shall assume the sublime and imposing attitude which becomes us, as independent Englishmen, who aspire, we repeat, to give a tone to public opinion, and to defend with equal sincerity and zeal the rights and privileges which belong to all the orders of that community, of which it is our pride and happiness that we are members:-we would assume that attitude which the Whigs of England might once have taken. We would stand between the Government and the people; we would endeavour to point out and reconcile the true interests of both, and prevent each from bringing mischief and perdition upon the other and upon itself. In all states, and at all periods, the Government requires a monitor, and the people require a director.

We say, that the Whigs might once have taken this position. But they have forfeited their claim to it by their indiscretion and their misconduct. For them, the time is past: it is too late. The people distrust them; the Government disregards them; and the country knows them. When it is a matter of certainty, or even mere

suspicion, that a Whig is only a Tory out of place, they are not fit, they are not able, to hold the balance between those who rule and those who obey. As long as they waver and vibrate between the love of power and office on the one hand; and on the other, the desire of distracting the councils of their political antagonists, impeding their measures, and clogging the wheels of their administration; the people at large will look at such unworthy efforts, either with passive indifference, or with indignant disgust, and will not even be thankful for what is done in their own behalf and for their own benefit. Would the Whigs be informed of the reason for this unthankfulness? We tell them, that the people mistrust their friendship, and place no confidence in their good intentions. They have lost their influence, because they have mistaken their true interests. As individuals, there are many men among the Whigs, of brilliant talents, of vast acquirements, of commanding eloquence, of undoubted sincerity; but they can never regain their weight and respectability as a body, until they have more unanimity among themselves, more political prudence, and more political honesty. In short, until their views are exalted, extended, and purified; until they become Constitutionalists, the Whigs will never be useful as friends, or formidable as rivals, or valuable as public men.

That some persons, or some party, should stand in the mean time between the Government and the people, is absolutely necessary for the permanent stability of the one, and the just liberty of the other. In many respects, the country gentlemen of England seem especially adapted and designed for this honourable station. Within their immediate sphere, their influence is inestimable, where it is exerted; and no substitute can be found for it, where it is wanted. But many reasons might be given, why the country-gentlemen are not sufficient of themselves to form the connecting link between the governors and the governed, and adjust the equipoise of the Constitution. They imbibe in early life notions of hereditary dignity, and something which resembles feudal dependence; they are born and educated aristocrats; their habits are aris

tocratic; their prejudices are aristocratic; their employments and their amusements prevent them from taking wide and comprehensive views of policy; nor have they the best opportunities of examining the nice relations in which the different orders of a nation stand towards each other. Moreover, they seldom think of raising or moving public opinion by the lever of the press; and the press, we proudly affirm, is in these days a mighty and stupendous power, without whose aid all other instruments must be lame, tardy, inefficient, impotent.

To return, then, to ourselves. Although we may be as yet incapable of supplying the place of the Whigs, or of doing all which must be left undone by the country gentlemen, we shall at once assume a position, which, if firmly and steadily maintained, must command respect even from the most profligate administration, or the most licentious democracy; and this attitude we will keep, with regard both to the State and to the Church.

Of the latter, we have already spoken. We have said, that the Church, as by law established, is beset by many dangers and many enemies. That assertion we repeat; and we can imagine but one method, by which these dangers can be avoided, and these enemies can be rendered harmless. They are of two kinds: first, the infatuated men who not only disbelieve the truth of the Gospel, but who would consent to lose it as a part of our political Constitution, and sacrifice all the salutary and invaluable effects which have resulted, and must ever result, from the propagation of its doctrines and the diffusion of its spirit: secondly, the rigid sectaries, who dislike that particular form of Christianity which is denominated the Church of England, or who object on principle to any Church Establishment whatever, upon the ground that the religion of a Christian is a matter which should rest between himself and his Maker, and ought not to be mixed up and blended with concerns of State.

What, then, is the course which we intend to pursue with respect to these different adversaries of the Established Church? We have here only room to trace the barest outline of our plan. It shall be our earnest and uniform

endeavour to increase the number of Christians, and diminish the number of sects: to demonstrate the utility of a Church-Establishment, and the union between Church and State; or, at least, the necessity of retaining them, where they are established: to shew the mild and tolerant spirit of the Church of England; and, if we may without disrespect speak of it as a district, extend the boundaries of its territory, and augment the sources of its population. We would seriously exhort, we would affectionately invite, dissenters of every denomination to range themselves under its banners; and to the Church we would say, "Your pale must be enlarged, and all must be admitted who approach it in sincerity of heart; for those who would enter your precincts, the gate must be made wide and the road smooth. You must open your arms to every Christian, who will throw himself into them, and consider him among your children. You must not madly put obstacles in the path; you must not dart a proud repulsive glance upon pious men, whose consciences are tender, and whose prejudices are honest; you must not have the deplorable rashness and insanity to frighten them away by abstruse and subtle difficulties on matters of theological dispute." If a system of obstruction is pursued, let our words be marked: The Establishment of the Church of England will not last a century. How long will men be blinded to the signs of the times? Even, we fear, until their own ruin is the consequence of their blindness!

For the rest, enlightened statesmen and honest writers may ward off the dangers which assail the Ecclesiastical Establishment from without; but it must be the care of the hierarchy and clergy themselves, that it is not crushed and overturned by the plough-share of destruction, on account of its own intolerance and bigotry; that its strength is not consumed, and its very vitals devoured, by the worm and canker of internal corruption.

With regard to the concerns of State, we would inculcate on the Government the necessity of paying a strict regard to public opinion, and the duty of voluntarily making every concession to the governed, which is compatible with good order and the safe administration of