Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

T. DAVISON, Lombard-street, Whitefriars, London.

CONTENTS

[ocr errors]

Page

VI. Further Inquiries into the Changes induced on Atmospheric

Air by the Germination of Seeds, the Vegetation of Plants,

and the Respiration of Animals. By Daniel Ellis.

VII. Memoirs of the Honourable Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of

State, Vice President and President of the United States of

America; containing a concise History of those States,

from the Acknowledgment of their Independence. With

a View of the Rise and Progress of French Influence and

French Principles in that Country.

VIII. An Inquiry into the Consequences of neglecting to give the

Prayer Book with the Bible. Interspersed with Remarks

on some late Speeches at Cambridge, and other important

Matter relative to the British and Foreign Bible Society.

By Herbert Marsh, D. D. F. R. S. Margaret Professor of

Divinity.

IX. Chronological Retrospect; or, Memoirs of the Principal

Events of the Mahommedan History, from the Death of

the Arabian Legislator, to the Accession of the Emperor

Akbar, and the Establishment of the Moghul Empire in

Hindustan. From original Persian Authorities. By Major

David Price, of the East India Company's Service.

X. A Series of Plays, in which it is attempted to delineate the

stronger Passions of the Mind. Volume the Third. By

Joanna Baillie.

ΧΙ. ΕΥΡΙΠΙΔΟΥ ΙΠΠΟΛΥΤΟΣ ΣΤΕΦΑΝΗΦΟΡΟΣ. Euripidis Hippolytus

Coronifer. Ad Fidem Manuscriptorum ac veterum Edi-

tionum emendavit et annotationibus instruxit, Jacobus

Henricus Monk, A. M. SS Trinitatis Collegii socius, et

Græcarum Literarum apud Cantabrigienses Professor

Regius.

[ocr errors]
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

*By mistake, this article is numbered XV. in the body of the work.

THE

BRITISH REVIEW,

AND

LONDON CRITICAL JOURNAL.

MARCH, 1812.

ART. I. Historical Reflections on the Constitution and Representative System of England, with Reference to the popular Propositions for a Reform of Parliament. By James Jopp, Esq. London: J. Hatchard. Oct. 1811.

2. Letter to Henry Brougham, Esq. M. P. on the Subject of Reform in the Representation of the People in Parliament. By William Roscoe, Esq. Liverpool. 1811.

3. Letter addressed to John Cartwright, Esq. Chairman of the Committee at the Crown and Anchor. On the Subject of Parliamentary Reform. By the Earl of Selkirk. London: Constable, Hunter, Park, and Hunter.

If the constitution of England had been planned and perfected by one extended effort of thought, like an epic poem; if it had been the bold creation of genius accomplished at its very birth, and at once displaying itself to the world as a fair, original, unblemished pattern, to adhere to the model would be the duty of succeeding ages; and the friend of his country could scarcely be more nobly and beneficially engaged than in bringing before so decisive a test the laws and practices of his own time, and in exposing and condemning each aberration from the great exemplar. But history denies the existence, at any time, of such a standing monument of political perfection; and however true it may be, that the first rudiments of what Englishmen call their constitution are to be found in the manners of our primitive ancestors, yet those perfect forms of liberty and law which some have seen, or pretended to see in that part of our history which preceded the conquest, we venture to class among the absurdities of visionary politics; unless some of our readers may think,

VOL. III. NO. V.

B

with which opinion we are not much inclined to disagree, that party prejudices and factious designs have helped greatly to promote these interesting discoveries of ancient privileges lost, and imprescriptible rights forgotten.

Now all this antiquarian research into the foundation of our liberties, we cannot help considering as productive of little advantage. What we have, we hold by a title older than antiquity itself; what we have not, are not shewn to be desirable in the present state of things by proofs that they once existed. Present institutions, if they fall short of speculative purity, are easily brought into discredit with the multitude, by being accused of wandering from a fictitious model, assigned by dreaming ignorance to unknown and unrecorded antiquity.

That there was something in the circumstances of our ancestors of the earliest age, which gave the first start to our liberties which put them into a train of involuntary progression, and imparted to them strength to survive occasional and frequent interruptions, is not meant to be denied. Still less are we disposed to deny the credit which belongs to a succeeding generation for meditated improvements of this original patrimony; though more is undoubtedly due to the operations of events evolving consequences unforeseen, independent of human contrivance, and perhaps contradicting all contemporary speculation. The price at which many of our most valuable rights have been purchased, ought never to be forgotten; but we cannot join in opinion with those who consider the struggles of our forefathers in the support of liberty, as having always in view the maintenance of a settled derivative constitution, and the restoration of definite rights. Those who through the vista of ages discern this integrity of system, called by them the constitution of England, in the composition of the Saxon Wittenagemot, deserve to be complimented as much for their perspicacity, as for their strong political faith. We admire their faculty of tracing objects with accuracy in the dark; but as our own views are confined within ordinary limits, we must found our love of the laws and institutions of our country on a narrower principle, consoled by the reflection that this narrower principle is found in practice to produce as much political integrity and public usefulness, as appears in the conduct of our reformists upon the Saxon model. It is agreeable to history and reason, to look into remote times for the elements of our national character; the research is gratifying to intelligent curiosity; but the spirit of faction must be blended with the superstition of the antiquary, to produce a politician of the nineteenth century wild

« AnteriorContinuar »