are now, with due attention however to the proper sotto voce pronunciation of the parenthetical pith of the sentence Upon my word, Sir, every man The schoolmaster's abroad; but how patiently the illustrious scholar passes his examination; all hunting, except badgering, is foresworn, but with what meekness is that endured. And then what a sudden gush of the effections, which beautify every object now seen with the eyes of love, of votes, no epitaph writer ever discovered more virtues than now rise up before him, as he goes from house to house, with bated breath like a second Coriolanus, to beg their sweet voices. What paragons of wives, and how different his estimation of the "rising generation" from our naughty friend in Punch; even if their sire, like our good old friend the vicar, should not be able to prevent his youthful progeny from putting their hands into his pockets? What then? Voters have proverbially clean hands, and as the sire, so the son, for as the tree is bent, the twig's inclined. Coming events cast their shadows before, and when, as at the present moment, our great national council is approaching the period of its lawful decease, how wavering the mass, how unsteady the hand of the pilot. Even Lord John himself, for whom we have great respect, hardly dares give us good and full measure, he holds it up, alas! in the beshadowing light of an approaching election, and asks himself as anxiously as any old dowager, who tries on a new cap or ribbon, how will it look? But it is not by flattery alone that the aspirant to sanatorial renown works his sinuous way to the approaches to St. Stephen's, some men are made, if not for sterner, of more venal stuff; then must he prove that he is fitted for the highest diplomatic offices, that language, to borrow partly the favourite expression of a fox of this astute race, was given to man to express his meaning, but conceal his thought, to make no word of promise to the ear, yet keep it to the hope, for he has before his eyes the fear of bribery, that word which all eschew, yet how few reject. Of this species seem the worthy pair before us, the member in ape, sharp, promising and cunning, the sturdy labourer in his blouse calculating and reflecting. We will leave them to their bargain, for should they discover that we are listening, and electors and candidates have audient ears, their discourse might suddenly turn to high life, taste Shakspeare, Jenny Lind, and the musical glasses. Under the old fourteen days system of election, what a strange system of contradiction presented itself. How manifold were the apparent seeds of corruption and demoralization. Are we on the eve of improvement? We think so. Are we then so much better than our forefathers? That, perhaps, is not so obvious. THE ELECTOR AND CANDIDATE. When our vices leave us, we flatter ourselves that we leave them. 85 We remember the time when smuggling, and that on a wholesale scale, was considered both here and abroad, much less dishonourable than it is at present. Whence comes the change? Not, perhaps, that the present race is personally more honest than its predecessors, but public opinion has taken another and a graver direction. The sound and fundamental principles of political economy have gained ground; the rights of the state, a word little used in England forty years ago, are now more respected, people are convinced of the benefits of good government, and no longer look upon taxes as such with the same horror as before, they only exclaim against their unjust distribution. Formerly, the tax-gatherer was hated as a kind of fiscal execution, he was considered as a species of outlaw, government, with the system of profuse expenditure which prevailed during the war, was as an enemy, whose might was his right, and against whom every evasion was allowable. Have we not now demoralizing elements at work in our railway speculations, which, we fear, are already producing their bitter fruit. So also with the deep drinkers and four-bottle men of old. What every man does, is looked upon as venal. Do we then defend vice, if general. God forbid! We only wish to guard against considering that what we all do, should therefore necessarily be considered virtuous. When we thus feel the vast moral consequences of moving in masses, how important is it, that good principles should be disseminated, since we invariably attribute goodness, in a greater or less degree, to that which we, and those around us who form our world, practise. Great faults and vices still prevail at elections, and ever will prevail. Be it our object to work for their diminution. In former times, when the political business of this great country was in the hands of the Whigs and the Tories, whose system, in both parties, was distinctly marked, however ridiculous, blameable, and false were the speeches and promises of the candidate, he was fighting for a cause whose banner floated distinctly before him. Now, however, venal single voters, or sometimes considerable numbers, may still remain; there is no doubt that we are in progress, slowly perhaps, but still advancing, and there can be as little doubt that this progress has been a pressure from below upwards. The vast number of political tracts issued by the league had a wonderful effect upon men's minds, and when Sir Robert Peel, yielding to necessity, on which, with the Irish famine before us, he must now doubly congratulate himself, proclaimed the truth of the doctrines which Mr. Cobden and his friends had so unweariedly disseminated, the floodgates of party were washed away, and the Tories were scattered in weakened and disjointed isolation. Henceforth, a purer tone must be struck, the truths which have been so loudly proclaimed must be carefully preserved, purified, and extended; no VOL. III. rival parties, be their names Whig or Tory, suffered again to hold divided, or alternate sway, the remedy is in the hands of the nation, or the character of the constituents depends their treatment at the hands of the candidate. If they are men, he will not dare to treat them as children. VESUVIUS. The If we limit the sphere of our observation to Italy alone, the course of volcanic action may be assumed as commencing in the hot springs of the island of Ischia, then passing through the Italian peninsula, in which it finds its principal vent in the celebrated Mount Vesuvius, it extends to Mount Vultur in Apulia. present state of geological knowledge, and our ignorance of the internal operations in activity, at a depth which has hitherto baffled the curiosity of mankind, prevents us from pronouncing, with any certainty, on the great medium of subterranean communication which probably affects the explosion of volcanoes at an immense distance from each other. Thus we find that, during a period of four hundred years, from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries, whilst volcanic eruptions and frequent earthquakes, afflicted the Archipelago, the south of Africa and Sicily, Syria and Judea were spared; and, although it cannot be positively affirmed that the repose of the latter was a result of the more active volcanic action in the former districts, yet it is by no means improbable that the vent thus given released those lands from the portentous throes with which the pent up matter strives to expand. For, as Mr. Lyell justly observes, Ischia and Vesuvius may, at a comparatively small distance from the surface, mutually communicate with certain fissures, and thus each afford relief, generally, to elastic fluids and lava there generated. Thus southern Italy and Syria may be connected, at a much greater depth, with a lower part of the same system of fissures; in which case, any obstruction occurring in any one duct may have the effect of causing almost all the vapour and melted matter to be forced up the other; and, if they cannot get vent, they may be the cause of violent earthquakes. In the different earthquakes at Lisbon, the shocks and the first movement have been noticed at sea, in a line which would bring them in connexion with the Italian band, of which Vesuvius is the principal vent. These considerations will show the difficulty of pronouncing a positive opinion as |