skilled workmen, whom a very slight and temporary advance would immediately draw from their actual employments.'

pp. 14, 15.

We have seldom seen any proposition coming from so high a quarter, that more slightly bears the impress of those talents which are so generally, and we will add, so justly, ascribed to the writer. It strikes directly at the root of all improvement in mechanics and handicraft, the elementary source of which is the restriction of mind to one particular, or at least, one ascendant avocation. Into what branches of trade would the learned gentleman introduce his improvement? We know of none, where the workman of superior excellence in oné branch, is particularly conversant with any other; or where he who is the most inferior, the worst paid, and the most liable to dismissal and privation, is not generally a lecturer and an available assistant in many. In short, it is proverbial, that wherever you find an individual practising two trades he is sure to be an inferior workman; and he is rarely a degree, in point of condition, above the independence of a pauper. In case of cessation, the suggestion, if practicable, would be of no avail, and if available in some professions would certainly prove disadvantageous to the workmen themselves.

Of a far different kind are the almost prophetic admonitions of the subjoined extract. Every one who reads it must feel that it emanates from the heart. It speaks home to the passions of the deluded individuals, in a tone of ardent and yet generous reproof, which we are sure none of those who are alive to their own interests and to the duties which they owe to their country and their kind will peruse unmoved.

The worst and most fatal aggravation of the crimes of which I have been speaking, is, that they tend to bring disgrace and discredit on the whole of those important classes; and expose millions of deserving individuals to the imminent hazard of having their hard-won liberties again taken away, for the guilt and misconduct of a few thousand undeservers. I have already said, and every one that lives in society must be aware of the fact, that the frequency and extent of the shameful outrages to which I have alluded have so much disgusted and alarmed many good and reasonable men, as to make them doubt of the policy of the late abolition of the laws against combination, and to lend no unfavourable ear to the suggestions which are so eagerly made for their re-enactment, as to make them fear, in short, they had judged too favourably of the sense and virtue of the lower orders in general, and almost to make them believe that they are still unfit to be trusted with what cannot be denied to be their rights.

For my own part, I cannot part so easily with opinions that are so necessary to my comfort, and to all my happy anticipations for my country. I believe that this crisis is but temporary that the authors of the criminal acts that disgrace it are but few and that their influence arises altogether from the transitory excitement which is inseparable from the newness of liberty, and cannot continue long after it has become familiar. But I can have no assurance that this will be the belief or opinion of the legislature, or the majority of the country; and it is impossible to deny, that a little longer continuance, and a little greater

excess of these disorders, will make it difficult for any one to maintain this belief, or adhere to these opinions.'-pp. 19, 20.

We wish we could speak so favourably of all the precepts which the learned gentleman has embodied in his address. We are not hostile to the liberties of our humble countrymen when we say that, as a body, they are not morally ripe for the due exercise of the important privileges which they have had conferred on them. Yet we do not mean to insinuate that we are prepared to wish for the re-enactment, in their original shape, of those laws which have been recently repealed. All counter-revolutions are injurious when they attempt to restore things exactly to their former state. Allowance must be made for the feelings which have been generated, and the ideas which have grown up in the minds of the workmen during this period of Saturnalian liberty which they have enjoyed. Concessions should not be demanded from one side only. If the workmen should be prevented from combining together for the purpose of raising their wages, the masters should be prevented from combining together in order to depress them. Combination on either side tends to create that most odious of all nuisances in a free state -monopoly; and if it be rendered illegal on one side, it should be made equally unlawful on the other.

We are friendly to the principle of free labour. Every man should undoubtedly enjoy the right and the power of carrying his skill and industry to the best market he can find. But we cannot admit that labour is free, when it is obliged to conform itself to the arbitrary, and often extravagant rules, laid down by a confederacy of workmen. It is well known that, in many cases, numbers of individuals have felt aggrieved by being compelled to join associations and to abandon their employments, so long as the rulers of these rude assemblies thought fit to persevere in a course of hostility and defiance against their employers. We would have no power lodged in any quarter, which could thus interfere with the labour of any working man, and dictate to him when he may continue, and when he should suspend it. It is not merely the petty tyranny thus exercised that is most mischievous on these occasions, but the demoralising habits which even a few days' absence from occupation produces among men of industrious habits. The true principle of free labour is to let every individual make the best use he can of his particular handicraft; that principle is not promoted, on the contrary, it is violated, by allowing a few, or even a number of discontented men to lay down the law for the rest. We say, therefore, let combination be made criminal on all sides; for, wherever it is permitted, it is wholly inconsistent with that fair competition which the constitution of the country loves, and which is essential to its commercial freedom and prosperity.

10

ART. II. 1. An Autumn in Greece; comprising Sketches of the Character, Customs, and Scenery of the Country; with a View of its present critical State. In Letters addressed to C. B. Sheridan, Esq. By H. Lytton Bulwer, Esq. To which is subjoined, Greece to the Close of 1825; by a Resident with the Greeks recently arrived. 8vo. pp. 349. London, Ebers. 1825.

2. A Picture of Greece in 1825; as exhibited in the personal Narratives of James Emerson, Esq., Count Pecchio, and W. H. Humphreys, Esq., comprising a detailed Account of the Events of the late Campaign, and Sketches of the principal Military, Naval, and Political Chiefs. 2 Vols. 8vo. London, Colburn. 1825.

3. Select Views in Greece. By H. W. Williams, Esq. Hurst, Robinson, and Co. London; and A. Constable and Co. Edinburgh.

1825.

MESSRS. Bulwer, Emerson, Pecchio, and Humphreys seem to be all pretty well agreed, that the prospects of the Greeks are at this moment in a most lamentable condition. So long as they had to contend against their former oppressors, the Turks, alone, they seldom failed to sustain their title to that freedom for which they have so long contended; but they seem to have been wholly unprepared for the invasion from Egypt, conducted as it has been by a young and an active chieftain, and supported by troops that nearly equal European soldiers in discipline and courage. At the commencement of the present year the Greeks were undisputed masters of all the principal military stations in the Morea, with the exception of Patras; in a few weeks, we had almost said days, they were stripped of Navarino; they suffered the Egyptian to march into the heart of the peninsula, and to possess himself of Tripolizza, and they saw their sway speedily reduced to the precincts of Napoli di Romania, where it is apprehended, if vigorously attacked, that they will not be able to make any effectual resistance,

The causes of these misfortunes, for such we must deem them, are abundantly apparent from the publications before us. Intestine divisions, and personal jealousies, the bane of Greece from her earliest existence as a nation, have again operated with as much energy as ever for her destruction. That mischievous spirit of disunion and of base ostracism, which more than once in ancient times postponed the safety and honour of the country to the gratification of private animosity, has again exposed her to the arms of the stranger, and threatens the utter extinction of her nascent independence.

We confess, however, that we are not among those who despair altogether of the fortunes of Greece, and we shall state the reasons of our hopes in a few words. While the inhabitants of Western Greece, the Morea, and the islands, were engaged in combatting for their liberties against the Sultan alone, no Christian power could assist the insurgents, without violating treaties by which their faith

was solemnly pledged to the Porte, or without giving rise to jealousies, if not to remonstrances, of too serious a character to be neglected in the present state of European affairs. But the question assumes a new shape, when the Viceroy of Egypt, whose connection with the Porte is merely nominal, sends his arms into the Morea, with the express view of adding that country, and ultimately all the Greek islands, to his African dominions. No man, we suppose, can be so blind as not to see that whatever stipulations the Sultan has made for his own sovereignty, the result will enable the Viceroy to declare himself independent of the Porte, if he succeed in his designs upon the Morea. Leaving all questions of sympathy with a Christian people out of our view, it may be asked, whether England can look on at this aggrandisement of the Pacha with total indifference? Is it of no consequence to her that an enterprising and ambitious ruler should gain such an ascendancy in the neighbourhood of the Ionian isles? Can she overlook the new influence, which the possession of Greece would give to the Pacha in the Mediterranean, and the facilities which he would thus acquire for interrupting our trade to the Levant? Can she be ignorant that the thirst of empire grows with possession, and that though the father might be contented with planting the Crescent once more at Napoli di Romania, his son might, if not checked in time, acquire the means, and conceive the hope, of raising its fallen glories in India? To say, in answer to these questions, that the Pacha is the vassal of the Porte, and that he is only executing its lawful mandates, is merely putting a thin veil over the real nature of the transaction. Even if it were not so, yet there is in the whole of this proceeding a sufficient ground for jealousy and suspicion, to warrant, and indeed to call for, the interposition of England, an interposition which it is not improbable would have taken place before this time, had she not apprehended that the Egyptian expedition might have failed in its object. It is needless to add that two or three frigates manned by British seamen would chase the Egyptians and all their foreign recreant auxiliaries back to the Nile, and that the Greeks have already officially called for British protection.

Indeed, if this good fortune be not in reserve for the Greeks, and if it be not accelerated by the very event which seems pregnant with their ruin, we see no chance of safety for them. The volumes before us conspire to paint their situation in the most gloomy colours. Mr. Bulwer, who was sent out with Mr. Hamilton by the Greek committee, in August, 1824, to obtain information as to the nature and prospects of the Greek government, offers a very decided opinion on the subject.

The government,' he observes, at the time of my visit, though not what her friends might most wish, was certainly existing, and acknowledged.

Its defect appears to me, and probably not without reason, that it is formed against the nature of things in the country: the deliberative body which, under present circumstances, seems likely to have little

weight, is given too much by the constitution. Even military promotion must undergo the approbation of the senate.

I would wish to see Greece free, but free according to her means of being so.

Are the people sufficiently enlightened to have confidence in their representatives?- otherwise, one hundred armed Mainotes have thirty times the strength of three hundred deputies.

• Whether Greece can, for many years, have a good government of her own, is a political problem that I will not attempt to solve. She must wade to it through much blood, and it is for her to determine if she prefers tranquillity under foreign protection, to a greater degree of independence at the price which it must cost her. - Introduction, pp. vii. viii.

Mr. Bulwer, indeed, argues, that so many inconveniences would devolve on any European power invested with the protection of Greece, and that it would require so much severity of authority to put down the capitani, or chieftains of the country, that such a measure would be as disagreeable on one side, as it would be fruitless on the other. To this it may be answered, that the capitani have been already in a great measure subdued by the Egyptian army, and every day which prolongs the presence of the invaders in the country of those chieftains, tends very materially to reduce their influence. As to the inconvenience which our government might suffer in extending her protection to Greece, we apprehend that, unless in the way of expenditure, it would not be important. The example of the prosperity of the Ionian isles, acknowledged as it is on all hands, would be likely to render the authority of England more popular, and, therefore, more efficient in the kindred states of Greece, than any other European power could ever expect to be. Besides, it is not to be disputed, that our protection would operate only to prepare and strengthen the states of Greece, as it is now forming the Ionian isles, for the future assertion and maintenance of their independence, whereas, any other protecting sovereignty, that we know of, would teach them only to resume the fetters which they have cast away.

This question forces itself upon our attention the more strongly, as it cannot be doubted that the object of the Greek committee in Paris, is to train the people, for whom they affect so lively an interest, to a project, which they have long had in view, for placing the second son of the Duke of Orleans on the throne of a new eastern empire, which in a few years might embrace Constantinople itself within its precincts. It was with this view that General Roche was sent by the Paris committee to Greece last year; it was in order to prepare public opinion for such a measure that M. de Chateaubriand wrote his "Note sur la Grèce," which was noticed in the last Appendix of this Journal. A wilder scheme certainly never entered into the imagination, enthusiastic as it is, even of M. de Chateaubriand. Nevertheless, it should be resisted in time, as in an age of wonders like this we are not justified in predicting, that a measure will not take place, simply because it is beyond the