tion for the benefit of the government at home (which had laid out something for them) that they complained of.

And this did not arise from comparative indifference to the welfare of our colonial fellow-subjects; for the like sort of policy has been long pursued at home. We imported timber of inferior quality from Canada, when better was to be had at a tenth part of the distance, lest saw-mills in Canada, and timberships engaged in that trade, should suffer a diminution of profit; though the total value of them all put together did not probably equal the annual loss sustained by the Public. And we prohibited the refining of sugar in the sugar colonies, and chose to import it in the most bulky and most perishable form, for the benefit of a few English sugar-bakers; whose total profits did not probably amount to as many shillings as the nation lost pounds.

And the land-owners maintained, till very lately, a monopoly against the bread-consumers, which amounted virtually to a tax on every loaf, for the sake of keeping up rents.

'Other selfishness,' says Mr. Senior, in his Lectures on Politi cal Economy, 'may be as intense, but none is so unblushing, because none so much tolerated, as that of a monopolist claiming a vested interest in a public injury.' But, doubtless, many of these claimants persuaded themselves, as well as the nation, that they were promoting the public good.

ESSAY XXIV. OF INNOVATIONS.

AS the births of living creatures at first are ill-shapen, so are all innovations, which are the births of time: yet, notwithstanding, as those that first bring honour into their family are commonly more worthy than most that succeed, so the first precedent (if it be good) is seldom attained by imitation: for ill, to man's nature as it stands perverted, hath a natural motion, strongest in continuance; but good, as a forced motion, strongest at first. Surely every medicine is an innovation, and he that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils: for time is the greatest innovator; and if time of course alters things to' the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end? It is true that what is settled by custom, though it be not good, yet at least it is fit; and those things which have long gone together, are, as it were, confederate with themselves; whereas new things piece not so well; but, though they help by their utility, yet they trouble by their inconformity; besides, they are like strangers, more admired, and less favoured. All this is true, if time stood still; which, contrariwise, moveth so round, that a froward retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as an innovation; and they that reverence too much old times, are but a scorn to the new. It were good, therefore, that men in their innovations, would follow the example of time itself, which indeed innovateth greatly, but quietly, and by degrees scarce to be perceived; for otherwise, whatsoever is new is unlooked for and ever it mends some, and pairs others; and he that is holpen takes it for a fortune, and thanks the time; and he that is hurt, for a wrong, and imputeth it to the author. It is good also not to try ex

1 To. For.

2

3

Marks and points out each man of us to slaughter.'-Ben Jonson. 2 Inconformity. Incongruity; discordance.

3 Round. Rapid. 'Sir Roger heard them on a round trot.'—Addison.

4 Pair. To impair.

"No faith so fast,' quoth he, but flesh does paire'.

'Flesh may impaire,' quoth she ‘but reason can repaire.”—Spenser. 'What profiteth it to a man if he wynne all the world, and do peyringe to his soul ?'—Wickliff's Translation of Mark viii.

periments in States, except the necessity be urgent, or the utility evident; and well to beware, that it be the reformation that draweth on the change, and not the desire of change that pretendeth' the reformation: and lastly, that the novelty, though it be not rejected, yet be held for a suspect; and, as the Scripture saith,. 'That we make a stand upon the ancient way, and then look about us, and discover what is the straight and right way, and so to walk in it."s

2

Suspect

'Lest that heavenly form, pretended

To hellish falsehood, snare them.'-Milton.

Something suspicious. 'If the king ends the difference, and takes away the suspect.'-Suckling.

Compare Jer. vi. 16.

ANNOTATIONS.

'Time is the greatest innovator.

When Bacon speaks of time as an 'innovator,' he might have remarked, by the way-what of course he well knewthat though this is an allowable and convenient form of expression, it is not literally correct. Bishop Copleston, in the remark already referred to in the notes on 'Delays,' terms the regarding time as an agent one of the commonest errors; for in reality time does nothing and is nothing. We use it,' he goes on to say, 'as a compendious expression for all those causes which act slowly and imperceptibly. But, unless some positive cause is in action, no change takes place in the lapse of one thousand years; as, for instance, in a drop of water enclosed in a cavity. of silex. The most intelligent writers are not free from this illusion. For instance, Simond, in his Switzerland, speaking of a mountain-scene, says "The quarry from which the materials of the bridge came, is just above your head, and the miners are still at work: air, water, frost, weight, and time.' Thus, too, those politicians who object to any positive enactments affecting the Constitution, and who talk of the gentle operation of time, and of our Constitution itself being the work of time, forget that it is human agency all along which is the efficient cause. Time does nothing.' Thus far Bishop Copleston.'

But we are so much influenced by our own use of language, that, though no one can doubt, when the question is put before him, that effects are produced not by time, but in time, we are accustomed to represent Time as armed with a scythe, and mowing down all before him.

New things are like strangers, more admired, and less

favoured!

Bacon has omitted to notice, in reference to this point, what nevertheless is well worth remarking as a curious circumstance, that there are in most languages proverbial sayings respecting it, apparently opposed to each other; as for instance, that men

1 Remains of Bishop Copleston.

are attached to what they have been used to; that use is a second nature; that they fondly cling to the institutions and practices they have been accustomed to, and can hardly be prevailed on to change them even for better; and then, again, on the other side, that men have a natural craving for novelty; that unvarying sameness is tiresome; that some variety-some change, even for the worse, is agreeably refreshing, &c.

The truth is, that in all the serious and important affairs of life men are attached to what they have been used to; in matters of ornament they covet novelty; in all systems and institutions—in all the ordinary business of life-in all fundamentals-they cling to what is the established course; in matters of detail-in what lies, as it were, on the surface-they seek variety. Man may, in reference to this point, be compared to a tree, whose stem and main branches stand year after year, but whose leaves and flowers are fresh every season.

In most countries people like change in the fashions of their dress and furniture; in almost all, they like new music, new poems, and novels (so called in reference to this taste), pictures, flowers, games, &c., but they are wedded to what is established in laws, institutions, systems, and in all that relates to the main business of life.

This distinction is one which it may often be of great impor tance to keep in mind. For instance, the ancient Romans and other Pagans seldom objected to the addition of a new god to their list; and it is said that some of them actually did propose to enrol Jesus among the number. This was quite consonant to the genius of their mythological system. But the overthrow of the whole system itself, and the substitution of a fundamentally different religion, was a thing they at first regarded with alarm and horror; all their feelings were enlisted against such a radical change. So also in the unreformed Churches. The enrolment from time to time of a new saint in the calender, or the promulgation of a new dogma, are acceptable novelties. But those who would abolish all saint-worship, and restore Christianity to its primitive purity, are denounced as heretical innovators. Any one, therefore, who should imagine that the Gospel may have been originally received with some degree of favour on account of its being new, because, forsooth, men like novelties, and that, therefore, something short of the most overpowering miraculous proofs night have sufficed for its in