his reflections. There is a flippancy of tone, and an acrimony of personality, in the strictures, notes, and introductory addresses, which discords with the calm gravity of his plain arguments and rational temper. Lord Petre thus sums up the residual grievances of the catholics. "From this plain statement it follows, that the disabilities to which the Irish catholics still remain subjected, naturally range themselves under three several heads-first, their being disqualified from holding offices of emolument above the value of 3001. a year:-secondly, their ineligibility to the house of commons---and thirdly, the exclusion of roman catholic peers from sitting or voting in the upper house, pursuant to their hereditary rights and privileges-a right, the advantages of which have been greatly circumscribed by the late act of union. But upon this last division of the disabilities, I shall soon have occasion to offer some further observations. The great mass of the people of Ireland; namely, the lower and middle orders, possessing already so many rights of citizenship in common with their other fellow subjects, could scarcely derive any further immediate or personal benefit from more ample concessions, or even a complete emancipation of the roman catholics. Places of Ligher emolument than 300l. a year, or the exercise of legislative functions seldom, without the intervention of extraordinary qualities or uncommon good fortune, fall to the lot of those persons who, in the humble walks of life, constitute the bulk and physical force of every nation. Who then are to be benefited by a total emancipation, and what is their description? On enquiring into this, I have been informed, that there are about 150 to 200 roman catholic gentlemen in Ireland of landed or monied property sufficient to qualify them to become candidates for honours, rank, and places of superior emolument. In looking to the other branch of the legislature, it is to be observed, that by the act of union, the Irish, like the Scotch, peerage has undergone a considerable revolution in its institutional character. What was before a right and privilege from descent or by creation, is now become elective, and hence arises that diminution of privilege which I before adverted to. In Ireland there are six or seven roman catholic peers whom an emancipation would render eligible amongst the twenty-eight admitted by the act of union to be elected into the imperial house of lords, and I believe it would be thought sanguine enough to calculate that one out of the six or seven may possibly be selected as a member of that chosen corps." He proceeds to consider the obstacles to these insignificant concessions, and, among others, the coronation oath. It is thus worded. "Will you, to the utmost of your power, maintain the laws of the gospel, and the protestant reformed religion established by law? And will you preserve unto the bishops and clergy of this realm, and to the churches com mitted to their charge, all such rights and privileges as by law do, or shall appertain unto them, or any of them?" "To this division of the oath administered by the archbishop, the king answers- All this I promise to do." We do not agree with lord Petre in his plan of explanation: there is no need of casuistry. As soon as the two houses of parliament have voted any innovation whatever in the public religion, and have laid their act before the king for his con sent or signature-the signifying of his consent, or the affixing of his signature, establishes by law the change so made. The coronation oath binds the sovereign to be a conformist. He must belong to the state religion of to-day, while it continues a law of the land: he must belong to the state religion of to-morrow, as soon as he has completed the form of legalization. The church may be chang ed from trinitarian to unitarian, and the king successively conform to both, without the slightest infringement of the coronation oath: it suffices that the king's conformity to the old church should last as long as the law; and that his conformity to the new church should begin precisely with the enactment. It is an oath to comply in his magisterial capacity with the religion of the state: we doubt much, in case of his majesty's visiting Scotland, whether he could there conscientiously enter an episcopalian place of worship. ART. L. Considerations upon the Necessity of discussing the State of the Irish Catholics in the ensuing Session of Parliament. By JAMES MASON, Esq. Svo. pp. 52. THIS is a very pleasing pamphlet, and contains such observations on the catholic question as we should expect from a liberal and cultivated mind, not deeply skilled in political science, but delivering its sentiments, upon an unstudied subject, with unlaboured exer tion. Though we willingly subscribe to the doctrines, and approve the major part of the remarks, which Mr. Mason has advanced, we are not sanguine enough to expect that they will afford much effective assistance to the cause he has befriended. His reflections, in general, are above the apprehension of the vulgar, and therefore are not calculated to subdue popular prejudices; yet below the bearing of the enlightened statesman, and hence they cannot be supposed to influence his views, or alter his schemes. The faith of parliament is pledged to grant further concessions to the Irish catholics, and the faith of parliament ought not to be violated. This is easily admitted. But when Mr. Mason undertakes to argue the question of establishing the roman catholic religion in IreLand, besides granting seats in the legislature, and offices of trust in the government, to the members of that church, we certainly look for a higher strain of argument, and a more philosophical survey of society, than we have been able to discover in the pages before us; we must except, however, the quotations in the postscript from Mr. Fox's speech on the repeal of the test act. We conceive that a well-authenticated account of the present state of society in Ireland, would do more towards settling the dispates respecting the claims of the catho lies in that country, than the most ingetous and cogent arguments derived from general philanthropic principles. It is a practical question of national policy, of great importance to the empire, and must be decided by circumstances, not by feelings: and without an exact knowledge of these circumstances, it seems presumptuous to say to what extent the promised concessions should be carried. If, however, the pamphlet under review do not surprise by its profundity and acuteness, or instruct by the infor mation it conveys, it has at least the merit of being an animated statement of obvious reflexions and liberal sentiments, clothed in the easy polite language of a gentleman. We select the following passage, not as a specimen of the author's argumentative talents, but as a pleasing example of his style in writing, and of his power to interest the feelings of the reader. "If indeed we were to imagine a foreigner passing through Ireland, who had heard much of the mild, tolerating, and beneficent spirit of the British constitution, but who ministered, what would be his surprise to bewas ignorant of the mode in which it is adhold crowds of people assembled round a miserable hut, kneeling on the bare ground, with no covering but the heavens, unable to approach the minister of their faith, or catch the sound of his voice? Who are those? such a stranger would say whom or what do they adore? It must be some barbarous idolatrous devotion to a Being, whose imreligion, stained with horrid sacrifices; some puted temper is to delight in crinies and vices, and for this reason, your wise and benignant laws, whilst they mercifully tolerate the worship, refuse it their countenance, and reject its establishment. No, we must answer. These people are adoring the same jod with ourselves,-that Being, whose attributes are universal benevolence, omnipresence, omniscience; before whom the forms heart; we ascribe to him the same qualities, of prayer are as nothing; who searches the we clothe him in the same mysterious trinity, we acknowledge that he died for us, that he suffered for us the painful ignominy of the cross; we venerate him as our God, our Redeemer, as the parent, protector, and fu ture judge of us all. We differ chiefly in this-at stated periods we eat bread and drink whilst these, our unfortunate brethren, with wine as emblems of our dying Saviour; a bolder creed, imagine this ceremony not only to represent the sufferings, but to partake of the nature of the Deity." ART. LI. Observations on the Statute of the 1 William and Mary, commonly called the Toleration Act, and on the Statute of the 19 George III. entitled An Act for the further Relief of Protestant Dissenting Ministers of Congregations, and others. By JOSEPH SMITH, Barrister at Law. 8vo. pp. 50. THIS pamphlet consists of a recital, or abridgment, of the toleration-act, passed in the first year of William and Mary; and of a recital, or abridgment, of the relief act, passed in the nineteenth year of George III.; to which documents are added some commentaries, to prove that itinerant preachers are not entitled to the benefit of either of these acts; but are liable to serve in the militia, on juries, and as churchwardens and overseers, and cannot, by qualifying under these acts, escape any public burdens whatever. To us it appears that the author proves his point. The whole system of privilege and exemption is, however, an error in legislation. Why should dissenting mi nisters not serve on juries, or as over- because so many professional men are exempted from serving on juries, that a liberal education is rare in the whole class of persons summoned? Washington, after resigning the presidency of North America, served on the petty jury: it is thus that the administration of the laws may best be brought to the utmost perfection. The civic duties of men form an important part of private morality: how should this branch of duty be properly taught from the pulpit by those who are never called on to exercise it? The neologisms of theology, if prosecuted under the trinitarian statutes, ought to be tried precisely by a jury of clergy of all denominations. Cases of infanticide require medical juries. And in general the leisure and instruction of professional men adapts them pe culiarly for services, from which they have been whimsically exempted, and which their exemption tends to bring into disrepute. ART. LII. Considerations on the twofold Mode of Election adopted by the French. By the Rev. CHRISTOPHER WYVILL. 8vo. pp. 40. MR. Wyvill is deservedly revered for the integrity and fidelity of his attachment to the cause of popular liberty, and to that of parliamentary reform: his eloquence must be impressive, for it has swayed large and respectable bodies of men; but his reasoning is not close and precise enough to have a commanding weight with the philosopher. He some observations, and some technical terms. Mr. Wyvill's first period of argument occurs at p. 14. "A parliament so chosen (by successive delegations) would be bound to the peopl by ties nearly imperceptible; it would feel for them, in no sensible degree, either sympathy or responsibility." Here are two distinct propositions cluttered together: the one, that a parliament, indirectly chosen, would want sympathy with the people; the other, that a parliament, indirectly choser, could not be rendered responsible by their constituents. has here undertaken the attack of what he calls twofold representation; by which he means the double delegation, first of an electoral body, and secondly of the members of parliament. This term is incorrectly chosen, because it is not definite every shire sends two members to parliament, it has a twofold representation; every clergyman is represented Were these propositions both true, in the house of lords by his bishop, and they would prove little. It is no object in the house of commons by the county that parliament should habitually symcandidate, he enjoys a twofold repre- pathize in opinion with the people. The sentation; many a one can vote as a sway of the highest wisdom is the prefreeholder for the shire, and as a free- per aim of all governmental institution. man for some borough, every such per- Parliaments, therefore, ought to symson again possesses a twofold represen- pathize with the multitude only in as tation. We prefer the less equivocal ex- much as these are sufficiently instructed pression gradationed representation, which to decide aright: with the ignorant was first employed, we believe, in a classes they ought seldomer to sympa contribution to the theory of repre- thize, than with the informed classes of sentation, inserted in the Monthly Ma- the people. Under a gradationed regazine for January 1800, (vol. viii. p. presentation, the electoral body, or chees 953), whence we shall have to borrowers, become the real constituents: the chance, therefore, must be that parliaments will sympathize with the secondary, not with the primary assemblies; with the choosers, not with the mere voters. It will sympathise with the instructed class, and not with the numerous class, which is the desirable state of its sympathy. As to responsibility, gradationed representation has again the advantage. The choosers vary every election. If a member contravenes the instructions of his constituents, not those who sent the instructions will pronounce the verdict of acquittal or censure; but other judges, unprejudiced by their own preconceptions, unpledged by their own recorded declarations, and aware of all the subsequent instruction promulgated. A courageous independence, or a prescient sagacity, is therefore surer of being ultimately approved and recompensed by confidence, where there is a shifting intermediate body of electors, than where the same constituents remain. The representative ought to guide, not follow, the public mind: under a system of direct deputation, his interests lead him to be retrospective, and to bend toward the will of the constituents of yesterday; under a system of gradationed election, his interests lead him to be prospective, and to bend toward the will of the constituents of to-morrow. And this in practical conduct is desirable. Mr. Wyvill proceeds to contend (p. 15) that, in a rude state of society, gradationed representation is needless, because all are equally ignorant. In rude societies there is great inequality, resulting from the unequal distribution of strength of body, and strength of mind. He who unites these sources of power in the highest degree, is the natural chieftain of a savage horde. These qualities can only be judged of by servation. Those who have attended the eminent to war, are alone equal to the office of discrimination. Savages would do well to depute the right of choice to their old warriors-that is, to have an electoral body. Accordingly the wise Jethro recommended to Moses the institution of gradationed representation, as most convenient among the rude. It was tried, and it answered. Mr. Wyvill then examines its adapted. ress to a country in the second stage of advancement, like the colonies in North America; he says, that an intermediate body would there be a waste of ANS. REV. VOL. III. time and trouble to guard against evils, neither extant nor probable.' In the first place, the North Americans have recourse to an intermediate body for the appointment of the highest officers of the states: it is by the provincial legislatures surely, and not by the citizens at large, that the presidents are elected. They do not suspect the crowd of being able to appreciate justly the highest order of merit; concerning the hero painted by Apelles they would ra ther take the opinion of the connoisseur, than of the cobler. And why should they not prefer in subordinate nominations also, the opinion of the educated to the opinion of the uneducated classes? It is in order to give ascendancy to the civilized, that they exclude from suffrage the blacks and the paupers; but if they had introduced intermediate bodies, they would have no occasion for restric tions on suffrage. Slaves would elect their masters, paupers their p.iests or their employers, into the body of choosers; and instead of that contempt for the populace, which now characterizes the democratic party of Virginia, some care would be taken to conciliate their good will, by providing for their interests. Negro slavery would have disap. peared before gradationed representation; because the masters would have found it necessary to conciliate their slaves. What can Mr. Wyvill mean by a waste of time and trouble? It would clearly save cost, time, and trouble too, if each parish sent one or more choosers, instead of all its freeholders, to a county election. Mr. Wyvill inquires thirdly into the fitness of gradationed representation for an opulent and civilized community. It is allowed that elections would be less tumultuous. It is maintained (p. 20) that a lifeless and inanimate indifference would succeed; and that patriotism, and, with it, liberty, would decline; and with them, public spirit. The philosophic statesman, therefore, (in Mr. Wyvill's opinion, p. 25), "will seek for remedial reform, not in measures calcu lated to depress the minds of the lower classes, but to interest them in the public weal." The system of intermediate bodies of choosers is compatible with any increase of the original bodies of voters; by the extension of suffrage, the lower classes surely would be more generally interested in the public weal. The class of - U choosers, wholly ignorant of their coadjutors until the day of assemblage, would almost necessarily fix on public characters for their candidates: no sort of influence, but that of diffusive reputation, is likely to bend into sudden concurrence the wills of men undisciplined to party, and detached and removed from local and personal influence. It follows that public spirit would be precisely the object of notice and advancement among the intermediary bodies. How public spirit should be diminished by superadding to its extant motives this new recompence of senatorial rank, we cannot conceive. Mr. Wyvill next objects to gradationed representation (p. 26), that it would bar future improvement. Why may not that system as easily suffer change as any other; and as easily suffer change in a right direction? He objects that it would expose the bulk of the community to more severe oppression.* Why? He objects that it would throw a more deadly damp on our almost extinguished ardor for liberty; because the elections at the primary assemblies would be too unimportant to call into exercise any energy of character. And what energies are now called out? Those of the stomach chiefly. That sort of feasting, which is now collected in the shire town, would indeed be dispersed through all the villages honoured with primary assemblies; and that sort of discussion concerning the expedient candidates, which now takes place at a grand jury dinner during the county quarter sessions, would be postponed until the nomination of the electoral body was completed. The accomplished canvassers would be the appointed choosers. Each party would, in due time, learn to contest the other's superiority of number in the hundreds, instead of the shire; after three or four elections the new knack 66 would be acquired, and things would worst reassume a state very much sembling the present. The strongest piece of argument lows. "From the influence which properti stows in this country, it may be conc!.. with reason, that men in the superior middle classes, at the primary elections, w usually obtain from their inferiors a m of their votes; and men in the lowest would almost never be elevated to the e ral rank. This conclusion seems not t Britain, under the present laws of qua mit a dispute. For if the lower voter tion, are accustomed to vote as men fluence around them recommend, eve elections which confer a legislative power were highly unreasonable to expect tha same class of voters, at elections at w they could only exercise the power of for men by whom their legislators shou mind than upon an occasion far more in named, would exert greater independe tant. And this expectation would be n more contrary to reason, if universal sut: at the primary elections were established, a more numerous class of still lower pr were allowed to vote for electors. The bitual effect, therefore, of the twofold tion would be the almost entire exclusi the lower classes from the electoral by they would cease, in a great measure, to who would neither owe their seats in a any connection with their represent ment to their favour, nor would be li lose them from their displeasure, excopi' circuitous operation, and a concurrence causes which would rarely occur. "And hence, instead of inspiring the per classes with sentiments of greater re for those at the lower end of society, duce a contrary effect. For men who double mode of election would tend to not been raised to the electoral rank, c not be considered by the members of p ment as their constituents, or only indr so; and consequently those members wa generally be inclined to pay more attent to their immediate electors, to feel for In the dissertation already alluded to, (Monthly Magazine, vol. viii. p. 955), an posite inference is drawn. Supposing it safe," says the writer, "to intrust the selez of representatives to householders paying ten pounds yearly rent, and that there were Great Britain and Ireland 100,000 such householders, can it signify to the state, whe these 100,000 persons be impowered to choose by the suffrage of 3,000,000 adult males, by any other means? But it signifies much to the lower classes to have the privileg conferring this power by their suffrage. It is of importance to the comfort of a poor fam that a relation, as it were of client and patron, should subsist between it and some per surrounded by the conveniences of life, through whose exertions, in case of leisure, di culty, want or sickness, it may obtain work, advice, relief, or accommodation. With increase of luxury and taxation, with the decay of the religious spirit, charity declines selfishness spreads: some new means then of making themselves valuable to their superi must be bestowed on the poor, if they are to retain their former share of notice and p tection. The lawgiver will not easily find a better mean than universal suffrage." |