their act of Parliament, to our own times and our present condition.' pp. 25-27.

That all holders of sinecures should be disqualified, is another proposition on which we hesitate, as on that regarding pensioners for life; but, of the gross impropriety of the measures pursued for increasing the numbers of placemen who can sit in Parliament, who can doubt? How marked a contrast does the conduct of the great authors of the Revolution present to the policy of late times in this respect! Our author shows how Mr Pitt and Lord Melville acted in the teeth of Lord Godolphin's and Mr Burke's Reform Bills; and he instances the office of Third Secretary of State, all the branches of which are new in the eye of the law, and ought to be disqualified--but all are permitted to sit in Parliament. He also gives the striking example of the Board of Controul, in which four new and lucrative offices were at once created, and their holders allowed to sit in the House of Commons, notwithstanding the salutary statute of Anne. The following remarks on this department merit attention.

The same act which created this new establishment, repealed Lord Godolphin's act as far as related to the new places. By Lord Godolphin's bill, no new placeman was ever to become a member of the House of Commons: by this bill of Lord Melville's, no less than four new placemen were qualified to become members all at once. So much for the change in the Constitution; and now for the change in the character of the House of Commons, as exhibited by their conduct towards this new establishment. Although this government for India was announced originally under the agreeable form of being purely gratuitous, yet in 1793 or 4, as we have seen, the late Lord Melville begun his system of providing for four members of Parliament out of it (himself included); in 1812, the present Lord Melville being president of the same establishment, and his father having obtained from the East India Company a pension of 20007. per annum for his lady, the present Lord, I say, brought a bill into Parliament, for raising his own salary from 2000l. per annum to 50007., and the same was enacted accordingly; and upon the conclusion of this connexion between Lord Melville's family and the Company, in 1813, the East India Company made the present Lord Melville a gift in hard money of no less a sum than 20,000. Now, I should like to know what would have been said in Lord Godolphin's time I wonder what Lord Somers would have said to a minister of the Crown taking a present of 20,000/. from the East India Company! We know that the Earl of Danby was impeached, in those days, by the House of Commons, for taking 5000/. from the East India Company. Why did not the Bank of England give 20,000l. to Mr Pitt, in return for all vices he rendered that corporation? the other; and yet when this

The one case is just

grant of 20,000l. was brought before the House of Commons by Mr Creevey in 1814, and by Lord Milton in 1815, it was considered as one of those questions called, in their own modern phraseology, personal questions-that is to say, an attack upon the profits or plunder belonging to Parliament men—and, as such, immediately resented and rejected. If the Company thus openly and shamefully gives away 20,000l. of its funds to a minister of the Crown, need one ask what it does with its patronage? Who then will say, with these facts in his recollection, that the Constitution is not changed-that the character of the House of Commons is not altered? But let us go on. After all, there is no Board of Controul for the government of India ; nor was there ever a single one since the passing of the act which made it! The whole of the business is transacted solely by the president, whose duty, or whose office it is to read and to alter, if he chuses, all the Company's political despatches to India: and this he does, without any the least connexion with the Board whatsoever; so that the other members of the Board, as they are called, are not only introduced into the House of Commons, to the great injury of the Constitution, and in direct violation of Lord Godolphin's bill, but they are brought in under false pretences as holding offices, whereas they hold now nothing but the name and their salaries. And for this reason it is we have a right to exact from the candidates, for our support, a pledge to use their utmost efforts, that no other than the President of the India government shall in future be allowed to be a member of the House of Commons. It is scarcely necessary again to observe here, that although these officers are paid by the India Company, they are named by the Crown. It is, however, necessary to state, that in addition to the two junior Commissioners having nothing in fact to do with the affairs of India, neither the President, nor they, from modern experience, have any occasion to be in the House of Commons, as, since the passing of the last act of agreement with the Company in 1813, the name of India has never been introduced into the House of Commons but once, and, on that occasion, only for a vote of thanks to Lord Hastings.

pp. 35-38. He next proposes the exclusion of all Welsh Judges and Masters in Chancery, which seems almost a corollary from the principle of excluding the twelve Judges.-They are neither fit for the place, nor is the place fit for them. They are injured both in their politick and judicial capacity-making worse judges, without becoming good members of Parliament.

Our acute and well informed author has, however, strangely omitted one fraud on Lord Godolphin's Bill most successfully practised almost ever since its enactment. Places directly appointed by the Crown are alone comprehended in practice within its operation. Thus, a Lord of the Treasury with 1500l., or of the Admiralty with 1200l., must vacate on his appointment, because he derives it immediately from the Crown-but the Se

cretaries of the Admiralty and Treasury do not vacate, though they have 4000l. a year salary, because they are appointed by the Lords of the several Commissions. So neither, we believe, does the Irish Secretary vacate, though he has six or seven thousand a year.

Another omission is that of many of the Commissioners appointed for temporary purposes-as auditing West India claims Arcot debts Danish Prize, and so forth. Temporary they may be-but to all appearance they will last our time. Thus, the Arcot commissioners have been at work (so to speak) since 1806, and received salaries of 1500l. a year-an expense in salaries altogether of above 20,000l. to the Company (that is, the country), exclusive of the Secretaries, Officers, &c.; and to their discredit be it spoken, the Ministers of 1806, disregarding Sir P. Francis's honest and constitutional remonstrances, introduced a clause contrary to the spirit of their predecessors the Whigs of the Revolution, and enabled those three new placemen to sit in Parliament.

The concluding remarks of this valuable Tract, deserve most serious attention.

It is not only that, in addition to all other sources of influence, there are seventy-six members with 156,000l. divided amongst them, who are quite certain to assist the Crown in all contests with us their constituents; but these seventy-six members are always on the SPOT; their office, as part of the House of Commons, is always within reach. There is a secretary of the Treasury in the House of Commons, who has a salary of 4000l. per annum for little else than keeping the placemen and other ministerial adherents in order; and if, by accident, a tax bill was to fail from the absence of any of these servants of the Crown, he would be severely reprimanded, and perhaps cashiered. So judge for yourselves what the state of the House of Commons must be as each Session of Parliament draws towards its close. At such a period, the patience of gentlemen from the country may very reasonably be supposed to be exhausted, and themselves to be on their return home: There are perhaps fifty. sixty, or seventy subjects to be discussed the same day, or rather night; The Minister of the Crown has the power, in the midst of all this confusion, of chusing the time he may deem most favourable for bringing on any grant of public money; and for this reason, the worst of his money jobs are generally withheld for the latter end of the session, and a late hour of the night. At such times, the guardians of the public purse have become reduced to the faithful band of seventy-six placemen, with a few India and Bank Directors; and with such a body as this to constitute the only representatives of the people, can any one be surprised at their being too many for their constituents? Or is there any one who does not demand that the

principle of Lord Godolphin's Place Bill shall be again applied to them?

Electors of Great Britain!' (he adds) 'I have stated to you faithfully the present condition of your representatives-the entire ascendancy that the Crown has acquired over them--and the means by which the purposes of the Crown are accomplished. I have stated to you, likewise, what appears to me to be the only course by which our representatives are to be rescued from their present dependence on the Crown, restored to the confidence of their country, and united in interest, again with us, the People.' pp. 40–42,

We have now made our readers acquainted with the substance, we may almost say with the contents, of this important Tract; and, we think, we have justified our general description both of its matter and its style. In truth, nothing can be more important than the subject is at the present crisis. Oppressed by burthens hardly to be borne, and aware how large a share of these is owing to continued misrule, the people of this country naturally cast their eyes towards every quarter from which real and permanent relief may be expected. In none do they find any ground of solid hope, except in the wisdom and patriotism of their representatives. If that hope fails, all are ready to exclaim, Then we are indeed undone !' But the discussions in which we have been engaged, show how many powerful causes are constantly at work to counteract the operation of whatever integrity or wisdom the Parliament may contain. To restore its integrity to the Constitution, by abridging the means of corruption, seems indispensably necessary for the salvation of the State. Nor would the improvement in the deliberations of Parliament be the work of any very long time, if the sources of evil influence were speedily dried up. Important direct effects would at once be produced; while the authoritative discouragement given to corruption by so wholesome an interposition, would less directly occasion a similar improvement, discountenancing the bad practices which have in past times proved so noxious. May the Legislature listen to such advice as the whole of this momentous inquiry presents at every stage! This is the true way to regain the confidence, and fix the affections of the Nation;-the only sovereign remedy for wild or rebellious delirium.

ART. X. 1. Plan d'Education pour les Enfans Pauvres, de près les deux Méthodes combinées de Bell et de Lancaster. Par le Comte ALEXANDRE DE LABORDE. Paris, 1816.

2. L'Enseignement Mutuel; ou Histoire de l'Introduction et de la

Propagation de cette Méthode, par les Soins du Dr Bell de J. Lancaster, et d'autres, &c. Traduit de l'Allemand de JoSEPH HAMEL. Paris, 1818.

3. Nouveau Système d'Education et d'Enseignement; ou l'Enseignement Mutuel, appliqué aux Langues, aux Sciences, et aux Arts. Par M. le COMTE DE LASTEYRIE. Paris, 1819.

4. Progrès des Ecoles d'Enseignement Mutuel en France et dans l'Etranger. Par Mr JOMARD, l'un des Secrétaires de la Societé pour l'Enseignement Elémentaire. Paris, 1819.

5. Compte rendu des Travaux de la Societé pour l'Instruction Elémentaire. Par M. le BARON DE GERANDO, SecrétaireGénéral. Paris, 1819.

IN

N the midst of great national sufferings, and of still greater apprehensions, it is some satisfaction to find, that we have been the means of diffusing, all over the world, the elements of instruction and improvement. In less than three years, the British System of Education has been spread over every part of Europe; and the first effect which followed the downfal of what Bonaparte called his Continental System, was the diffusion of light from that country which he had devoted to destruction. The methods of Bell and Lancaster have been carried from England into France, Spain, Italy, Piedmont, Greece, Switzerland, the States of Germany, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and even into the provinces of Turkey; in all of which, after various degrees and modes of opposition, they are at this hour established beyond the reach of further hostility. The works before us relate however only to France; and we shall confine ourselves, for the present, to the progress of the Lancasterian methods in that kingdom.

The Frenchman who appears first to have become sensible of the superiority of this system, and of the advantage which France might derive from adopting it, was Monsieur de la Borde. A casual visit to some country schools upon the new principle, gave him a wish to become acquainted with those of the capital; and his presence at a meeting of the British and Foreign School Society, where His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent was in the chair, and Mr Fox reported the progress of the preceding year, confirmed his desire of seeing them established in France. He informs us, that upon a motion of his, a sum of money was instantly voted to open a communication with other countries. The epithet of Foreign, however, which the Society had adopted, we do not conceive was intended to remain an empty title; neither had it waited for the motion of