to positive facts, that it must be admitted to have at least as valid a foundation in a broad basis of phenomena as the theory of successive creations. That we should meet with a similar gradational transition in all other cases, is assuredly what we have no right to expect, if we bear in mind the extreme imperfection of the Geological Record,-a consideration on which Mr. Darwin dwells very strongly, but not, in our estimation, one whit too strongly. "We are not only ignorant," he pithily says, "but we do not know how ignorant we are." To our minds the great wonder is, that palæontological research should have already yielded so much information as to the past life of the globe, not that it should afford so little. The indications recently afforded in regard to the antiquity of the human race,* taken in connection with the progress of discovery of the air-breathing forms of vertebrata in the earlier formations,† teach a valuable lesson of caution in drawing inferences as to the non-existence of any particular type at any period whatever, from the mere negative fact that we have not hitherto met with its remains. A considerable part of Mr. Darwin's treatise is occupied by a discussion of the principal scientific objections (he wisely refrains from taking notice of any others) that can be urged in opposition to his views. Having already noticed by anticipation the geological difficulty, we shall only say, that we think he has conclusively shown that no value whatever can be attached to the "breeding test," on which reliance is commonly placed as a means of discriminating species from varieties; and We refer, of course, to the satisfactory evidence lately obtained by Mr. Prestwich, Sir C. Lyell, and other geologists of the highest authority, as to the existence, in gravel-beds elevated a hundred feet above the level of the Somme, of large numbers of flint implements, obviously shaped by the hand of man, in association with the bones of large mammals now extinct. Notwithstanding the ingenious theories which have been invented, either to account for their production by the forces of nature rather than by human art, or, admitting them to be man's handiwork, to account for their presence in these gravel-beds on the hypothesis of the modern origin of the human race, we take upon ourselves to affirm, that no unprejudiced person can carefully examine a large series of these objects without coming to recognise them as the products of a rude handicraft directed by a definite purpose; and further, that it is an inevitable deduction from the circumstances under which they are found, that, whether or not the beings that made them were contemporaneous with the Mammoth, the Tichorhine Rhinoceros, and other great extinct mammals, with whose bones they are associated, the gravel-beds containing them must have been first covered with layers of marl, clay, and sand, in some places forty feet thick, whose slowness of deposit is attested by the perfect preservation of the delicate land-shells they contain, and must have been afterwards upheaved at least a hundred feet; whilst, subsequently to this upheaval, the present valley of the Somme must have been excavated by its stream through the elevated land which now forms its high banks. At the last meeting of the Geological Society, the discovery was announced by Dr. Dawson, of Canada, of remains of six reptiles in the trunk of one fossil tree in the celebrated section of Carboniferous strata at the "Joggins'" in Nova Scotia. that the facts of geographical distribution are, when rightly viewed, rather in his favour than otherwise. A greater difficulty than either seems to us to be presented by those cases of extraordinary aberration, whether of structure or habit, whereby particular animals are distinguished from their kind; many of which it is difficult to imagine to have been acquired gradually by any process of consecutive modification. The history of every science shows that the great epochs of its progress are those not so much of new discoveries of facts, as of those new ideas which have served for the colligation of facts previously known into general principles, and which have thenceforward given a new direction to inquiry. It is in this point of view that we attach the highest value to Mr. Darwin's work. Naturalists have gone on quite long enough on the doctrine of the "permanence of species." Their catalogues are becoming more and more encumbered with these hypothetical "distinct creations." And the difficulty of distinguishing between true species and varieties increases, instead of diminishing, with the extension of their researches. The doctrine of progressive modification by Natural Selection propounded by Mr. Darwin, will give a new direction to inquiry into the real genetic relationship of species, existing and extinct; and it has a claim to respectful consideration, not merely on account of the high value of Mr. Darwin's previous contributions to zoological science, and the thoroughly philosophical spirit in which it is put forth, but also because it brings into mutual reconciliation the antagonistic doctrines of two great schools-that of Unity of Type, as put forward by Geoffroy St. Hilaire and his followers of the Morphological School, and that of Adaptation to Conditions of Existence, which has been the leading principle of Cuvier and the Teleologists. Nor is it the least of its recommendations that it enables us to look at the War of Nature constantly going on around us as not marked only by suffering and death, but as inevitably tending towards the progressive exaltation of the races engaged in it; just as, in the world of mind, it is only by intellectual collision that Truth can become firmly established, and only by moral conflict, whether in the individual or in society, that Right can obtain an undisputed sway. ART. IX. THE HISTORY OF THE UNREFORMED The Rise and Progress of the English Constitution. By E. S. Creasy, The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland: being a History of the House of Commons, and of the Counties, Cities, and Boroughs of the United Kingdom, from the earliest Period. By T. H. B. Oldfield. In six volumes. London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1816. PERHAPS no subject of historical research should be so interesting just now as the practical working of our system of parliamentary representation before 1832. The principles of representative government are again about to be brought under discussion; a new proposal for Parliamentary Reform must be announced before many weeks are past. The more that subject is discussed, the more do all thoughtful persons wish to consult the lessons of experience with respect to it. We feel more than we used to do the difficulty of the question; we distrust more the tenets of pure democracy; we know more of the complexity of a cultivated community; we know the necessity of giving to each class the weight which it ought to have, and no greater weight: in consequence, we feel more than formerly the intellectual prudence of recurring to the facts of experience. But unfortunately there are very few such facts. Of all important political expedients, representation is by far the newest; and our experience with respect to it is therefore scanty and limited. The continental nations who have made trial of representative government, have done so almost always under exceptional circumstances, and in each case the national character of the particular nation which made the trial has very greatly affected the result of it. The experience of America is, from many causes, difficult to apply to the times in which we live. The difference of circumstances, both economical and social, is a perpetually modifying force, which tends to make a sweeping deduction almost necessarily unsound. The contrast between a new country and an old; between a state in which there is an endowed church and a landed aristocracy, and one in which there is neither; between a society in which slavery exists and one in which it does not,-is too great to be unimportant, and too pervading to be eliminated. Nor is it easy to derive effectual instruction from the working of the system which is in operation around us now. At least it is difficult to derive instruction which others will think satisfactory. We may, and do, make out points sufficiently clearly to ourselves; but in the heat of controversy, and in the confusion of contemporary events, others derive from the same data, in fact, the contrary deductions. We are therefore thrown back on our own history for such instruction as it may give us; and the break made by the Reform Act of 1832 is, at least in this respect, useful. We can draw lessons from the times preceding it with the calmness of history, and nevertheless those times may yield us instruction. They are far enough from our own age to be dispassionately considered; they resemble it enough to suggest analogies for our guidance. Nor is this history in itself uninteresting. The unreformed system of representative government is that which lasted the longest; which was contemporary with the greatest events; which has developed the greatest orators, and which has trained the most remarkable statesmen. No apology, therefore, seems to be needed for writing upon the subject at present, even if we should write at some length. To give an exact account of the old English system of representation is, however, no easy task. At present the statistical information which we possess respecting the electoral system which exists is exceedingly abundant. We can tell the number of voters in every borough and every county; we know by what right of suffrage they are entitled to vote, and how many of them have chosen in any case to exercise their right at each successive election. Compendious works specify what lord or commoner has influence in such or such a town: they say whether it is preponderant and all-powerful, or only moderate and sometimes resisted; they tell us in which town money has overwhelming influence, and enumerate the occasions upon which the use of that influence has been proved before the proper tribunal. We can hardly hope to obtain better information as to the actual working of a system than that which we have as to the system under which we are living. A hundred years ago our ancestors were nearly destitute of all such information. They had no means of telling the number of voters in any borough or county; no register existed from which they could be discovered; the right of voting in different places was exceedingly different, and the decisions of the House of Commons respecting them had been very confused. From political motives, indeed, these decisions were often contradictory; they were made to suit the requirements of the moment and the commands of the minister of the day, and a judicial spirit was, while the decision lay with a committee of the whole House of Commons, scarcely even affected. Sir Robert Walpole used to say that in election committees there ought to be "no quarter;" and the final fate of his long administration was determined by a division on an election petition from Chippenham. As the deciding power respecting electoral rights was so inconsistent, it would perhaps hardly have been worth while to collect its decisions; and no one did so. A hundred years ago, the constant reference to precise numerical data which distinguishes our present discussions was by no means in use; and even if the number of the electoral body had been more easy of ascertainment, no one probably would have ascertained it. The government had not yet established a census of its subjects, and would not perhaps have liked to have the voters who chose it counted. At any rate, no one did count them; and a very general notion respecting the practical working of our representative system was all which could be formed at the time, or that can be formed now. The representation of England and Wales was formerly, as now, in the hands of counties and boroughs. The number of counties was the same as it now is; but they were as yet undivided for the purposes of representation. The number of boroughs was very considerable, and this of itself led to a difficulty. It is evident that in early times, when population was small and trade scanty, it would be difficult to find very many boroughs that would be fit to elect proper members of parliament. We know by trial that a town constituency, to be pure and to be independent, must be of fair size, and with a considerable number of better-class inhabitants: unless it is so, it will assuredly succumb to one of two dangers; it will fall under the yoke of some proprietor who will purchase the place as a whole, or it will be purchased, vote by vote, at each election. Nothing, both experience and theory explain to us, is so futile as to expect continued purity and continued independence from a small number of persons who have something valuable to sell, and who would gain what is an object to them by selling it. But of considerable towns the number was once exceedingly few. Internal commerce and foreign trade have made such enormous strides in England recently, that we hardly realise the poverty of former times, or the small number of people who lived where we live now. Statistics, though they may give us a statement of the fact, do not, and cannot, fill our imaginations with it. We may get a better notion of what England was in numbers and wealth from travelling in the purely agricultural, the less advanced and poorer parts, of the Continent, than we can from figures and books. We shall in that way gain a vivid impression that it would be impossible in a rude age and country to find a |