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tion, and his opinion that they ought, because it would double the value of property and raise the wages of labour, extend markets and enhance prices, we feel that we cannot sufficiently thank him for this indecent exposure of his person, because in it we recognise the tone and character which he trusts will prevail in that democratic Parliament which he is labouring to bring about, because it is the plainest statement we could have had of his mean and selfish views of policy, set forth in all their undraperied enormity--naked and not ashamed. National independence will be and ought to be sacrificed for lucre:-if by its sacrifice silk can be sold for eighteenpence a yard where it now fetches only a shilling, or calico for sixpence where it now fetches only fivepence, or land made to pay four per cent where it now pays only two, then a good bargain has been struck, and every patriot must needs be delighted at the transfer. If by the annexation of England to France she could obtain a fresh market which would double the profits of her manufacturers, stimulate the demand for coal, raise the price of corn and beetroot, Mr. Bright would not only hold his countrymen fully justified in voting for the process, but would deem them chimerical and silly if they did not; since, in addition to all this material gain, they would acquire the "social liberty which France has and which they have not." Mr. Bright's argument goes this entire length of course, when the time came, he would demur to this application of his maxims, and there is little danger of his countrymen following him so far. But we entreat Englishmen to reflect for a moment on the rapid and certain degradation to be expected in our national sentiments and policy when doctrines like this are urged year after year by our ablest and most earnest demagogue on a House of Commons chosen by constituencies composed in overwhelming proportion of manufacturing operatives and the poorest class of tradesmen.

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And the "social liberty" which France has and which we have. not--what can it mean? We believe Mr. Bright to be as industriously ignorant of the real state of France as of the real state of America. Otherwise he would know that in no country of Europe is personal freedom more utterly non-existent. Is he aware that they have no Habeas Corpus in France? That no man can move about without his passport,--that even in going three miles to a picnic, you are liable to be stopped and turned back by a gendarme, as lately happened to a man of the highest rank and character? That your house can be taken from you by a simple "order," if an official should chance to want it for the enlargement of his bureau? Does he know that at any moment the police, by bringing a trivial and unfounded charge against a citizen, may render him liable to arbitrary imprison

ment or deportation to Cayenne,-and that both proceedings have been taken within a very short period? Is the power of writing and speaking what you think no portion of "social liberty"? Is there, in fact, in France any one element of "social liberty" as we understand the term? Or is Mr. Bright in very deed sunk so low and perverted so far as to hold that the mere absence of an aristocracy and of a law of primogeniture constitutes alone and per se the only social liberty worthy of the name? Certainly it is the only one which France enjoys.

And now, to sum up the main features of Mr. Bright's portrait, as we have been seeing it painted by himself,-it may be too much to affirm that he habitually permits himself to make statements which he knows to be false, in order to excite passions which he knows to be bad; but it is not too much to say-for it has been here proved to demonstration-that when he desires, as he so often does, to hound on the artisan against the landowner, or the poor against the rich, he does not scruple to make the statements which serve his purpose best, without pausing to inquire whether they are true or false;-that he systematically teaches his countrymen to be deaf to the calls, and indifferent to the sufferings, and cynical to the rights of every other people ;that he every where preaches the precedence and predominance of material interests over considerations of national morality or honour; that he values justice little and liberty less, except where wealth or prosperity can be promoted by their aid;that he teaches men to follow the gospel of public right (where he teaches it at all), solely and avowedly for the loaves and fishes-not that "they may hear the word," but that they may eat and be filled;-that when he has any favourite doctrine of low and sordid policy to promulgate, he cares not what generous feelings, what noble sympathies, what sacred principles, what moral decencies, he tramples in the mire ;-and finally, that for all these reasons he has become a fountain of demoralisation and danger, both to his class, which he discredits and misrepresents, and to his country, which he calumniates and is dragging down.

BOOKS OF THE QUARTER SUITABLE FOR READING

SOCIETIES.

Essays and Reviews. J. W. Parker.

[These are seven papers, by Mr. Jowett, Mr. Temple, Mr. Rowland Williams, Mr. Baden Powell, Mr. H. B. Wilson, Mr. Goodwin, and Mr. Pattison, on subjects connected with theological science. Mr. Jowett's masterly and characteristic essay would alone give the highest value to the volume.]

Sequel to the Inquiry, What is Revelation? in a series of Letters to a Friend, containing a Reply to Mr. Mansel's Examination of the Rev. F. D. Maurice's Strictures on the Bampton Lectures of 1858. By the Rev. F. D. Maurice. Macmillan.

[Some of Mr. Maurice's deepest and finest thoughts are powerfully expressed in this volume. The reply to Mr. Mansel is temperate and exhaustive.]

Lord Macaulay's Biographies. Contributed to the "Encyclopædia Britannica." With Notes of his Connection with Edinburgh, and Extracts from his Letters and Speeches. A. and C. Black.

[These biographies are well worthy of collection in a separate volume. That on Pitt is the best; that on Bunyan somewhat jarring.]

The Intuitions of the Mind. By Dr. M'Cosh.

Murray.

Life and Letters of Schleiermacher. Translated from the German by Frederica Rowan. Smith, Elder, and Co.

[An interesting and timely publication. The translation might with advantage have been condensed. Some of the matter interesting to a German public is repulsive to an English.]

Memoirs of Daniel Wilson, Lord Bishop of Calcutta. By the Rev. Josiah Bateman. 2 vols. Murray.

Narrative of Lord Elgin's Missions to China and Japan. By Laurence Oliphant. Blackwood.

[Noticed in Article VIII.]

Life of the Duke of Wellington. By Charles Duke Yonge. 2 vols. Chapman and Hall.

Becket: a Biography. By the Rev. J. Craigie Robertson, Canon of Canterbury. Murray.

[Noticed in Article III.]

Poems and Essays by the late William Caldwell Roscoe. Edited, with a Prefatory Memoir, by his Brother-in-law, Richard Holt Hutton. 2 vols. Chapman and Hall.

On the Philosophy of Discovery. By William Whewell, D.D., including the completion of the Third Edition of the Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences. J. W. Parker.

[Only partially new. Dr. Whewell is greater as the historian of physical science than as a philosopher.]

Ultimate Civilisation. By Isaac Taylor. Bell and Daldy.

546 Books of the Quarter suitable for Reading-Societies.

Essays and Reviews. By Margaret Fuller Ossoli. Sampson Low.
Memoirs of Thomas Assheton Smith. Murray.
Life of Malone. By Sir James Prior.

On the Authority of the New Testament.

millan.

Smith and Elder.

By C. A. Swainson. Mac

Practical Results of the Reform Act of 1832. By Sir John Walsh, M.P. Murray.

[Somewhat broken and scrappy, but containing much acute observation and important considerations for Reformers. Sir John Walsh is quite without sympathy with true Liberalism.]

Narrative of the Mutinies in Oude.

Smith and Elder.

[An interesting work.]

Autobiography of Leigh Hunt.

By Captain G. Hutchinson.

Smith and Elder.

[One of Leigh Hunt's best books, full of personal observation.]

Palæontology; or, a Systematic Summary of Extinct Animals and their Geological Relations. By Richard Owen, F.R.S. A. and C.

Black.

Travels in Eastern Africa, with the Narrative of a Residence in Mozambique. By Lyons M'Leod, Esq., late British Consul at Mozambique. 2 vols. Hurst and Blackett.

[Mr. M'Leod's experience in Mozambique was of a kind to furnish very interesting materials for this book.]

Conquest and Colonisation in North Africa. By G. W. Cooke. Blackwood.

Poems before Congress. By Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Chapman

and Hall.

[More stilted and excited, and less impressed with her peculiar power, than any of Mrs. Browning's published works, but still containing some marks of unmistakable genius.]

Transformation; or, the
Hawthorne. 3 vols.

Romance of Monte Beni. By Nathaniel
Smith and Elder.

Mademoiselle Mori: a Tale of Modern Rome. J. W. Parker.

Yes and No; or, Glimpses of the Great Conflict. Macmillan.

The Man of the People. By William Howitt. 3 vols. Hurst and Blackett.

Stretton of Ringwood Chace. 3 vols. Hurst and Blackett.

The Cousins' Courtship. By John R. Wise. 2 vols. Smith, Elder, and Co.

[There is some excellent workmanship in these volumes. The author is a fine observer, and has an imagination capable of recording what he sees. The story is not equal to its setting, though talent abounds; what is wanting is more knowledge of the world.]

Holmby House. By Captain Whyte Melville. J. W. Parker.

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