RHYMES, REASONS, AND RECOLLECTIONS.

First Series.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMICAL.

The test of Nature's own nobility
Is honest, fearless, able Industry.

ON a comparison of the "Essays" of our two illustrious Chancellors, Bacon and Clarendon, it is impossible to doubt the general superiority of Lord Bacon's; but, if (as he cites from Ovid), "abeunt studia in mores," it may well be questioned whether any single essay of Bacon's is more worthy of earnest study than Clarendon's Essay on Industry, from which I extract the following:

"Industry is the cordial that nature hath provided to cure all its own infirmities and diseases, and to supply all its defects; the weapon to preserve and defend us against all the strokes and assaults of fortune; it is that only that conducts us through any noble enterprise to a noble end; what we obtain

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without it is by chance; what we obtain with it is by virtue. There is no art or science that is too difficult for industry to attain to; it is the gift of tongues, and makes a man understood and valued in all countries, and by all nations; it is the philosopher's stone, that turns all metals, and even stones, into gold, and suffers no want to break into its dwellings; it is the north-west passage, that brings the merchant's ships as soon to him as he can desire; in a word, it conquers all enemies, and makes fortune itself pay contribution. If this omnipotent engine were applied to all virtuous and worthy purposes, it would root out all the vice from the world; for the industry of honest men is much more powerful than the industry of the wicked, which prevails not so much by its own activity, as by the remissness and supine laziness of their unwary enemies. The beauty and the brightness of it appear most powerfully to our observation, by the view of the contempt and deformity of that which is most opposite to it-idleness, which enfeebles and enervates the strength of the soundest constitutions, shrinks and stupefies the faculties of the most vigorous mind, and gives all the destroying diseases to body and mind, without the contribution from any other vice. Idleness is the sin and the purishment of beggars, and should be detested by all noble persons, as a disease pestilential to their fortune and their honour.

"I know not how it comes to pass, but the world pays dear for the folly of it, that this transcendent qualification of industry is looked upon only as an assistant fit for vulgar spirits, to which nature hath not been bountiful in the distribution of her store. If diligent and industrious men raise themselves with very ordinary assistance from nature, to a great and deserved height of reputation and honour, by their solid acquired wisdom and confessed judgment, what noble flights would such men make with equal industry who are likewise liberally endowed with the advantages of nature! And without that assistance, experience makes it manifest unto us, that those early buddings, how vigorous soever they appear, if they are neglected and uncultivated by serious labour, they wither and fade away without producing anything that is notable. Tully's rule to his orator is as true in all conditions of life,- Quantum detraxit ex studio, tantum amisit ex gloriâ.""

All that human laws can give you is SECURITY FROM WRONG:

The task of working out your welfare still must to yourselves belong.

SECURITY, that inestimable good, the distinctive index of civilization, is entirely the work of law. Without law, there is no security, and, consequently,

no abundance, and not even a certainty of subsistence, and the only equality which can exist in such a state of things is an equality of misery.

Law does not say to man, Labour, and I will reward you, but it says, Labour, and I will assure to you the enjoyment of the fruits of your labour-that natural and sufficient recompense, which without me you cannot preserve; I will insure it by arresting the hand which may seek to ravish it from you. If industry creates, it is law which preserves; if at the first moment we owe all to labour, at the second moment, and at every other, we are indebted for everything to law. BENTHAM.

The description of liberty which seems to me the most comprehensive is that of security against wrong. Liberty is therefore the object of all government.Sir JAMES MACKINTOSH.

Qu'est ce que la loi? que doit-elle être ? Quel est son domaine? Quelles sont ses limites? Où s'arrêtent, par suite, les attributions du Législateur?

Je n'hésite pas à répondre; La loi, c'est la force commune organisée pour faire obstacle à l'Injustice.BASTIAT.

While I would exhort you to impose upon the Government and the Legislature every burden that