governments are rival powers, who stand in competition with one another, who have different interests, and must of course have different views: that the rights and privileges of the people are so many spoils taken from the right and prerogative of the crown; and that the rules and laws, made for the exercise and security of the former, are so many diminutions of their dignity, and restraints on their power.

A patriot king will see all this in a far different and much truer light. The constitution will be considered by him as one law, consisting of two tables, containing the rule of his government, and the measure of his subjects' obedience; or as one system, composed of different parts and powers, but all duly proportioned to one another, and conspiring by their harmony to the perfection of the whole.

He will make one, and but one, distinction between his rights, and those of his people; he will look on his to be a trust, and theirs a property. He will discern, that he can have a right to no more than is trusted to him by the constitution: and that his people, who had an original right to the whole by the law of nature, can have the sole indefeazable right to any part: and really have such a right to that part which they have reserved to themselves. In fine, the constitution will be reverenced by him as the law of God and of man; the force of which binds the king as much as the meanest subjects, and the reason of which binds him much more.

Thus he will think, and on these principles he will act, whether he come to the throne by immediate or remote election. I say remote; for in hereditary monarchies, where men are not elected, families are: and therefore some authors would have it believed, that when a family has been once admitted, and an hereditary right to the crown recognized in it, that right cannot be forfeited, nor that throne become vacant, as long as any heir of the family remains.

How much more agreeably to truth and to common sense would these authors have written, if they had

maintained that every prince who comes to a crown in the course of succession, were he the last of five hundred, comes to it under the same conditions under which the first took it, whether expressed or implied; as well as under those, if any such there be, which have been since made by legal authority: and that royal blood can give no right, nor length of succession any prescription, against the constitution of a government? The first and the last hold by the same tenure.

I mention this the rather, because I have an imperfect remembrance, that some scribbler was employed, or employed himself, to assert the hereditary right of the present royal family: a task so unnecessary to any good purpose, that I believe a suspicion arose of its having been designed for a bad one. A patriot king will never countenance such impertinent fallacies, nor deign to lean on broken reeds. He knows that this right is founded in the laws of God and man, that none can shake it but himself, and that his own virtue is sufficient to maintain it against all opposition.

Bolingbroke.

GRADUATED EXERCISES FOR TRANSLATION

INTO GERMAN.

Part II.

POOR DIGGS!

The quarter-to-ten bell rang, and the small boys went off upstairs, praising their champion and counsellor, who stretched himself out on the bench before the hall fire. There he lay, a very queer specimen of boyhood, by name Diggs. He was young for his size, and very clever. His friends at home, having regard, I suppose, to his age, and not to his size and place in the school, had not put him into tails, and even his jackets were always too small, and he had a talent for destroying clothes and making himself look shabby. He was not intimate with any of the bigger boys, who were warned off by his oddnesses, for he was a very queer fellow; besides, among other failings, he had that of lack of cash in a remarkable degree. He brought as much money as other boys to school, but got rid of it in no time, no one knew how. And then, being also reckless, he borrowed from any one; and when his debts increased and creditors pressed, he would have an auction in the hall of everything he possessed in the world, selling even his school-books, candlestick, and study-table. For weeks after one of these auctions, having rendered his study uninhabitable, he would live about the school-room and hall, doing his exercises on old letter-backs and odd scraps of paper, and learning his lessons no one knew how. He never meddled with any little boy, and was popular among them, though they all looked upon him with a sort of compassion, and called him "Poor Diggs," not being able to resist appearances. However, he seemed equally indifferent

to the sneers of big boys and the pity of small ones, and lived his own queer life with much apparent enjoyment to himself.

Greatly were East and Tom drawn towards old Diggs, who, in an uncouth way, began to take a good deal of notice of them, and once or twice came to their study when Flashman, the bully of the school, was there, who immediately decamped in consequence. The boys thought that Diggs must have been watching.

When, therefore, about this time, an auction was one night announced to take place in the hall, at which, amongst the superfluities of other boys, all Diggs' household goods for the time being were going to the hammer, East and Tom devoted their ready cash (some four shillings sterling) to redeem, on behalf of their protector, such articles as that sum would cover. Accordingly, they duly attended to bid, and Tom became the owner of two lots of Diggs' things. Lot 1, price one and threepence, consisted (as the auctioneer remarked) of a "valuable assortment of old metals," in the shape of a mouse-trap, a cheese-toaster without a handle, and a saucepan; lot 2, of a dirty tablecloth and green baize curtain. East, for one and sixpence, purchased a leather paper-case, with a lock, but no key, once handsome, but now much the worse for wear. But they had still the point to settle of how to get Diggs to take the things without hurting his feelings. This they solved by leaving them in his study, which was never locked when he was out. Diggs remembered who had bought the lots, and came to their study soon after, and sat silent for some time cracking his great red finger-joints. Then he laid hold of their exercises, and began looking over and correcting them, and at last got up, and, turning his back to them, said"You're uncommon good-hearted little beggars, you two. I value that paper-case; my sister gave it me last holidays-I won't forget;" and so tumbled out into the passage, leaving them embarrassed but not sorry that he knew what they had done.

"Tom Brown's School-days."

HEROISM OF A MINER.

In a certain Cornish mine, two miners, deep down in the shaft, were engaged in putting in a shot for blasting. They had completed their affair, and were about to give the signal for being hoisted up. One at a time was all the assistant at the top could manage, and the second was to kindle the match, and then mount with all speed.

Now it chanced, while they were still below, that one of them thought the match too long. He accordingly tried to break it shorter. Taking a couple of stones, a flat and a sharp, he succeeded in cutting it the required length; but, horrible to relate, he kindled it at the same time, while both were still below! Both shouted vehemently to the man at the windlass; both sprang at the basket. The windlass man could not move it with both in it.

Here was a moment for poor Miner Jack and Miner Will! Instant, horrible death hangs over them. Will generously resigns himself. "Go aloft, Jack; sit down; away! in one minute I shall be in heaven!"

Jack bounds aloft, the explosion instantly follows, bruising his face as he looks over; but he is safe above ground.

And what of poor Will? Descending eagerly, they find him, as if by miracle, buried under rocks which had arched themselves over him. He is little injured. He too is brought up safe. Well done, brave Will!

DOTHEBOYS HALL BREAKS UP FOR EVER.

Carlyle.

The news of Mr. Squeers's downfall had reached Dotheboys, that was quite clear. To all appearance, it had very recently become known to the young gentlemen; for the rebellion had just broken out.

It was one of the brimstone-and-treacle mornings, and Mrs. Squeers had entered school according to custom with the large bowl and spoon,

followed by