If I have not more directly afferted the right of one generation to bind another, it is because the signal exercife of fuch a right occurs but rarely. The growth of national establishments is gradual they arife from the acts of many different generations: they are the work of a people; whofe exiftence embraces time, as well as numbers.

In the most striking inftances which are likely to be adduced, of our anceftors' attempting to bind pofterity, they feem rather to have afferted ancient principles, than impofed any new and arbitrary obligations. Thus, magna charta did no more than vindicate previous rights the very title of the bill of rights fhews its fimilar nature: almost all the conftitutional acts which can be produced, are little more than records of fome legislative decifion in favour of the people's prefcriptive rights.

a

And this denial that inftitutions are, almost ever, strictly the work of one generation taking upon itself to controul others, is connected with the fubject of my present chapter; in which I mean to combat another maxim of Paine; and to prove myfelf a greater friend to the rights of the living," and their true interefts, than he is. For whereas this advocate for overthrow refufes leave of alteration, I am willing to admit of change, though I deprecate fubverfion.

I fhould no more confine the exercise of the rational faculties of nation to fome point of time in the period of its exiftence, than impofe a fimilar restraint upon the reafon of a man. And as the individual lives through years, the people does through centuries. I fhould neither compel a man (in what merely concerned

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a Entitled, when it had received the royal affent," an act declaring the rights and liberties of the fubject," &c.

On nearly the fame grounds on which I difapprove of fubverfion, do I approve of gradual alteration and improvement : it is by thefe that generations are connected in their acts as in their existence; and establishments are made the offspring not of them, but of the people. It is only in the indocile conftitution of Mr. Paine, that we fee one generation bound arbitrarily by another.

Establishments fhould admit impreffions from the ages through which they pass, in order that they may at last be. come the work of time; and fhould then be refpected, because they are the work of time: because in accommodating the edifice, and not clearing the area, the long series of our ancestors have declared the excellence of its foundation and general plan: a teftimony, to which we have nothing equivalent to oppose ;→ and because contemporaries can have neither time, wisdom, nor experience, to employ in the rearing of a new conftitution equal to the accumulation of all three, which hath contributed to building up the old one.-Now, amendments in an establishment can only be made by the fupreme authority of a state and to wreft this authority from its legal poffeffors feems to be what is meant by fubverting the establishment. To the already constituted authorities, therefore, I should entruft amendment.

But hear what Paine fays against such flexible permanence: -"A government has no right to alter itfelf:"-and again

"Circumftances are continually changing; and establishments should change with them?"-Do these two paffages give each other mutual fupport; and concurrently lead us to the fame conclufion?--Not, unless the change of circumftance which takes place be

provided

rect.

"The circumstances of the world are continually changing; and the opinions of men change alfo ;". (it might be added, that these latter often change, though the circumftances, which fhould influence their course, continue fixed)"and as government is for the living, and not for the dead, it is the living only that has any right in it.". Doubtlefs, the opinions of men do change; and every establishment ought to be fo pliable as to bend beneath their influence in a certain degree :-but should not mutable opinions be followed with diftruft?-or, if their change arifes only from the progrefs of truth, whether is it wifer to let improvement proceed gradually, and keep pace with the growing wifdom of our race; or, by fufpending all amendment, to make way for regeneration; and appoint one fet of men to affume at once the task of entire and inftantaneous reformation? to reduce things, after all, to what ftandard ?-that of opinions confelfedly variable. So that what these felf-opinionated reformers have thus, all on a fudden," thought right, and found convenient, may be found wrong and inconvenient" by fome of their defcendants :—and what remedy do these apply?

another as precipitate, and total change (bringing things back, perhaps, to their former station); effected with as much confidence, and as little reflection,

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b Rights of Man.

"Choose a firm cloud before it fall; and in it,

"Catch, ere fhe change,. the Cynthia of the minute."

"In fuch cafes, who is to decide?the living, or the dead?"-the living; profiting by the wifdom of the dead.-If you forbid all connexion and intercourfe between them, one generation will have no more experience than another; but blend them all into one com. mon mafs, and this acquires a capacity for continual improvement.

Therefore, if Paine means, that establifhments fhould be razed frequently to the ground, and new ones run up, to fuit more fashionable theories, I must dif agree with him altogether and if by change, he rather means reparation and improvement, the care of this I muft entrust to the legislature; because, to repeal its authority, is to overturn the conftitution.

By making legislative fupremacy embrace the right of introducing amendments, we escape fuch conftitutions as are recommended by Mr. Paine, and established amongst the French; which, immoveable whilft they do stand, and deftitute of all accommodating pliancy, yet fubject to be overturned if the nation will but touch them, may be compared to a fimilarly pernicious contrivance, noticed by Livy, and practiced amongst the Gauls : dextrâ lævâque circa viam, Galli arbores ita inciderant, ut

immɔtæ ftarent: momento levi impulfa occiderent."-You must not put a finger to Mr. Paine's conftitutions: they have no intrinfic force to fuftain them against attack.-Keep yourself quiet, if you wifh them to continue ftanding: a fingle touch, a loud word, may bring them to the ground.

palla."

But "a government has no right to alter itself." It has no right to overturn the conftitution. Indeed the exiftence of a right of amendment, almost infers the abfence of any right of fubverfion.The latter can exift only in the governed, as a confequence of their right to refift oppreffion. The right in the people, being a natural one, is paramount to thofe beftowed by the conftitution; but the fovereign power exercised by the legiflature, being in them an extraordinary and more pofitive right, must fuppofe the fubfiftence of that compact which gave it birth. But, by altering itfelf in certain refpects, the legiflature may ftrengthen, and not shake the conftitution (of which every amendment will encrease the vigour): and this feems the criterion of right in the legislature to

alter itself.

By the act which made the British parliament feptennial, it did not exceed its juft authority, if it be as confiftent with the principles of the conftitution, that the parliament fhould fit for seven years as for three. But, had the fame parliament enacted, that feats in the houfe of commons fhould be hereditary, and not elective, this clearly had been to pass the limits of their authority: for fuch a law would undermine the principles of the constitution.

Deriving the authority of the legiflative body, as I do, from the principles of the conftitution, I confine their authority within those principles; and if I fay they have a right to alter the conftitution, I mean only in matters which are not fundamental. For the legislature to alter these, would be to fub

its fundamental principles. To alter the conftitution, in its prefent fenfe, may fecure it from being altered, in its fimpler acceptation. To alter the appendages may help to fix the principles.

Thus the act which shortened the duration of Irish parliaments (in which theretofore each member fat for life), by altering the conftitution in one fense, measured the practice by the principle, fixed it in another. The legislature having cut away the excess of the former, and made the two commensurate.

That the popular branch of parliaments should last for this or that precife number of years, was no principle of the conftitution; but that it should have fuch duration as might reconcile a due dependence on the people, with the benefits of permanent reprefentation; and the dignity, capacity, and virtue of the reprefentative.--Here the government was warranted in altering itself.

Let us now fuppofe a change which would be unwarrantable; and the introduction of it by government, an usurpation.

It is a principle of the British constitution, that the crown fhall have no legiflative power, except a veto. Now, if the legislature pronounced, that a law should originate with the king, and that this royal bill, having paffed the lords, and received the popular affent of the commons' house, should then be deemed a ftatute, and have force as fuch, they would be changing principles; which, I apprehend, they have no right to do; and that here is an instance how far the legislature may not alter the conftitution.

Now, when the principles of the conftitution fet bound, to the right of alter

ation

watching for the like folk as you these three days I be "-and he lick'd poor Maynard with his own whip.

now.

We fha'n't have any more fanning v.—I begin to funk for collections. I blow'd amazingly, the other day, when the dean ask'd me what I fhould bring up.-Stuart is in already, and fags im menfely. He has cut tennis; and sports ftiff oak the whole of the morning They bore him monftroufly going round the pillar-Baffett expects kudos from the dean this term ; but I think he will be badger'd for not attending Hornsby.Never mind!—with half 30, and a bisk, he beats the marker :-what more would you have?-He had like to have killed me, though, forcing balls into the Dedans. The dean asked him fome queftions in trigonometry, the day we dined there; and he seem'd huftled. Juft then, old Hall whifper'd Legge, across the table" a famous pudding, Legge, by George!"-We all heard him; and began laughing and this turn'd the matter off.

We have got a new tuft at ChriftChurch I drank wine with him yefterday. He feems a beaft.--About a week ago he sent a scout, with a card, to Western-that "he could not have the honor of waiting on him to fruit and wine, as his fervant was out of the way, and he could not find a hair dreffer." What a quiz!-He had gone home to his rooms from hall, and intended to have come figg'd.-Legge has perfuaded him, that he must cap the fervitors, and wear his dress gown at furplice-prayers: -what a good one!

Farewell, my hearty!--Tom has juft ftopp'd; and I must go to chapel, or get an impofition. Befides, I am addled with writing fo much; and I don't recollect any more news - -O, by George! yes!-Martin's pun at the last Gaudy--Ward was paffing him by, and pushing the wine to Jenner, in the common room --(you know what a grave man Jenner is)-Martin feized the decanter, and faid to Ward, very deliberately--

On the Natural History of Ireland.

IT is not more extraordinary than true,

that natural history is one of the latestcultivated branches of learning in every country. We may judge of the little progrefs made in it amongst the ancients, from the works of Theophraftus, Hippocrates, and Galen; and from the large fpecimen given by Pliny. Nothing like difcrimination, or fyftematic arrangement of natural objects, appears in any of them. To the cultivation of chemiftry we owe the extenfive knowledge the moderns have acquired of mines, minerals, and foffils.

From the age of Giraldus Cambrenfis, A. D. 1185, to the end of the last century, naturalifts feem totally to have neglected this ifland, while they were carefully exploring diftant countries, in fearch of treafures which nature had plentifully ftored in the bowels of their own.

Let me afk, what enquiries have been made after our mines of copper, lead, and iron; our freeftones, marbles, flates, and coals, &c. ?—Examine that wretched production published, under the title

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* This pun was really made, while the Gleaner was at Oxford, by the humourous author of The Salmagundi.

of