16 CHARACTER OPERATES IN LAWS. right in them, usually profound in its deductions, the writer, after observing that in England, l'argent décide en tout, philosophically remarks—“ De cette manière, quoique les richesses augmentent à certains égards la puissance d'un état, il arrive qu'elles ne servent qu'à le détruire sitôt qu'elles influent sur le choix de ceux qui sont à la tête du gouvernement.” In other countries poverty is a misfortune,-with us it is a crime. The familiar meaning of a word often betrays the character of a people; with the ancient Romans virtue signified valour : with the modern, a virtuoso is a collector. The inhabitants of the Tonga Islands, with whom all morals are in a state of extraordinary confusion, have no expression for virtue in a man which is not equally applicable to an axe: they recognize virtue only in what does them an evident service. An axe or a man may be the instrument of murder, but each continues to be a good axe or a good man, With us the word virtue is seldom heard, out of a moral essay; I am not sure whether it does not excite a suspicion of unorthodox signification, something heathen and in contradistinction to religion. The favourite word is "respectability"-and the current meaning of "respectability may certainly exclude virtue, but never a decent sufficiency of wealth: no wonder then that every man strives to be rich "Et propter vitam vivendi perdere causas." Through the effects they thus produce on the national character, the aristocracy have insensibly been able to react upon the laws. Poverty being associated in men's minds with something disreputable, they have had little scruple in making laws unfavourable to the poor! they have clung without shame to the severities of a barbarous criminal code-to an unequal system of civil law, which almost proscribes justice but to the wealthy-to impressment for seamen-to taxes upon knowledge and to imprisonment by mesne process. Such conse quences may be traced to such levities. The Laws of a Nation are often the terrible punishment of their foibles. Hence also arises one of the causes* for the noticeable want One of the causes. Another is in the growth of religious sectarianism; but I am apt to believe, that if amusements were within the reach of the poor, WANT OF AMUSEMENT AMONG THE POOR. 17 of amusement for the poorer classes. Where are the cheap guinguettes and gardens for the labourer, which make the boast of France? Where the consecrated greensward, formerly the theme of our own poets, "Where all the village train from labour free, Lead up their sports beneath the hawthorn tree ?" We are told that the Arcadians, as their climate was peculiarly chill and gloomy (in modern phrase "English"), sought to counteract its influence by' assemblies, music, and a gay and cheerful education. Thus did legislation conquer nature; not with unhappy effects, for the Arcadians were no less remarkable for their benevolence and piety than for their passion. for music and for their gaiety of disposition.* It is reserved". for us to counteract the gloomiest climate by the dullest customs! I do not say, however, that direct legislation should provide amusement for the poor-but at least it should never forbid it. The very essence of our laws has been against the social meetings of the humble, which have been called idleness, and against the amusements of the poor, which have been stigmatized as disorder. But what direct legislation itself cannot effect, could be effected by the spirit by which legislation is formed. That prejudice of respect for the wealthy, and contempt for the poor, which belongs to us, would probably soon close any institutions for popular amusements if established to-morrow; if they were cheap, they would be considered disreputable. In France, the humbler shopkeepers mix in festivity with the peasantry; the aristocratic spirit would forbid this condescension in England (unless an there would be far less of the gloom of fanaticism. Excitement of one sort or the other must be sought for, as a counterpoise to toil; at present the poor find it only in two sources-the conventicle or the alehouse. * Polybius. A few half-sighted politicians, like Windham, have indeed advocated popular amusements, but of what nature ?-Bull-baiting and boxing; amusements that brutalize. These are they who turn the people into swine, and then boast of their kindness in teaching them to be savage. Admirable philanthropists! the object of recreation is to soften and refine men, not to render them more ferocious. 18 WANT OF AMUSEMENT AMONG THE POOR. election were going on), and the relaxation being thus ungraced by the presence of those a little their superiors, would perhaps be despised by the labourers themselves.* It were to be wished on many accounts that this were otherwise; Amusement keeps men cheerful and contented -it engenders a spirit of urbanity-it reconciles the poor to the pleasures of their superiors, which are of the same sort, though in another sphere; it removes the sense of hardship -it brings men together in those genial moments when the heart opens and care is forgotten. Deprived of more gentle, relaxations, the poor are driven to the alehouse; they talk over their superiors-and who ever talks of others in order to praise them? they read the only cheap papers permitted them, not usually the most considerate and mild in spirit;—their minds in one respect are benefited; for they advance, even by this intercourse, in their progress to better government; but they clog this benefit by a rancour to all its obstacles, which is at once natural and to be lamented. Woe to the legislator who succeeds by vexatious laws, and petty tyrannies, in interdieting enjoyment to those who labour!—above all, in an age when they have discovered what is due to themselves; he will, indeed, expedite reform-if that to legislators be an agreeable contemplation--but it will be by souring and exacerbating the spirit which extorts it! * They might be licentious from the same cause. In France the amusements of the peasantry are so decently conducted, because the presence of some of the middle class produces an unconscious, but most salutary restraint. † All passion blinds even the best-founded opinions. A passionate indignation against the aristocracy would, if once put into action, frustrate the good objects it sought to effect. The great Marius saw all the vices of the aristocracy with the wrath of a wronged plebeian. Marius was the Incarnation of Popular Passion-he scourged the Patricians for their disorders, by committing more tumultuous and deadly disorders himself. CHAPTER III. Story of a Chinese Emperor-Applied to this work-Dislike to Foreigners, how caused-Abatement of the dislike-One cause, however, still continues -Anecdote of a Russian, and his two visits to England-National Honesty and national Honour-English Generosity-Rather a characteristic of the People than the Nobles-Chivalry, the attribute more of the former than the latter-Illustrative Anecdotes-Regard for Character-Its consequences overrated, wherefore?-Common Sense, not a characteristic of the highest and lowest Classes-Causes and Effects of that common sense among the middle class-The accusation of the Ferocity of the English refuted-Propensity to suicide not a distinction of the English-The vitality of Absurdities illustrated by the story of Archimedes-National Spirit of Industry -The last Adventure of Micromegas. THERE is a tale (your Excellency may have read it, it is to be found in the writings of a French missionary-a species of literature that must have manifold attractions for one who was once Bishop of Autun)-there is a tale of a certain Chinese emperor, who conceived great displeasure at the grand historian of the Celestial Empire, for having with too accurate and simple a fidelity, narrated in his chronicle all the errors and foibles of the prince. "I admire your effrontery," said the emperor, frowning, "you dare then to keep a diary of my offences for the benefit of posterity?" "Yes!" said the historian, boldly, "I put down faithfully all that can convey to a later age a just impression of your character; accordingly, the instant your majesty dismisses me, I shall hasten to insert in my chronicle the threats and the complaints that you have made me for telling the truth." The emperor was startled, but the Chinese have long been in the habit of enjoying very sensible monarchs-"Go," said he, after a short pause and with a frank smile, "Go, write down all you please; henceforth I will strive at least that Posterity shall have little to blame in me." Upon the principle on which the historian wrote of the 20 20 DISLIKE TO FOREIGNERS. sovereign, I now write of the people. Will they be indignant at my honesty in painting their foibles? No, they will not be less generous nor less wise than the Emperor of China; -if they are, I shall avenge myself like my model, by a supplement, containing their reproaches! I do not, like the herd of fault-finders, declaim vaguely on the faults of the people; I attempt in honesty, if in error, to trace their causes. This is the first time in which, in a detailed and connected shape, the attempt has been made; the best way to find remedies for a disease is to begin by ascertaining its origin.. I think your excellency must have perceived, since your first visit to England, there has been a great change from what formerly was a strong national charasteristic;- We no longer hate the French. We have a greater sympathy with, than an aversion to, foreigners in general. We have enlarged the boundaries of patriotism, and are becoming Citizens of the World. Our ancient dislike to foreigners was not a vague and ignorant prejudice alone, nor was it solely the growth of an insular situation in the map of the globe; it was a legacy which was bequeathed to us by our history. The ancient record of our empire is a series of foreign conquests over the natives. The Roman, the Saxon, the Dane, the Norman, successively taught to the indigenous inhabitant a tolerably well-founded antipathy to foreigners. When the soreness of a conquered people wore off, the feeling was kept alive by the jealousy of a commercial one. Foreigners settled amongst us as traders; and the industry of the Flemish monopolized for centuries, to the great disgust of the natives, a considerable portion of our domestic manufactures. National dislikes, once formed, are slow of conversion; and a jealousy of foreigners, conceived with some cause by our forefathers, was easily retained, when the cause had ceased to exist. Our warlike aristocracy found it indeed expedient to keep alive so pugnatious a characteristic: and Nelson thought the best mode of conquering the French was seriously to inculcate, as a virtue, the necessity of detesting them. This settled hatred to our neighbours began, however, to break up from its solid surface at the close of the last century. The beginning of the French revolution-an event which your Excellency has probably forgotten-taught the more liberal of |