mindedness and honest independence; but also what numberless cases of hollow pretension and hypocrisy-persons affecting opinions for evidently no other object than place and pay. Judging cautiously, you will take care at the outset not to be misled by names. High-sounding phraseology about liberty and popular rights may issue from the mouths of the merest time-servers. On this account, you will find it the safest course to think lightly on the subject till you have gained a reasonable degree of experience. Exercise, then, the utmost discretion in committing yourself to any political opinion or party; and let it not be forgot that we are more liable to the error of wasting much precious time on political disquisition, than of falling into apathy upon public affairs. He is a wise man who knows how so to guide his steps as to preserve himself from falling into either extreme. Every one who for a long series of years has been politically busy, will acknowledge, that though he thinks he was right in the main-in which opinion he may be right or wrong-yet that he has spent many busy hours and anxious thoughts on subjects which, looked back upon, are seen to have been profitless and insignificant.

Eschewing political partisanship, you will, however, as already said, take a decisive course in forwarding every proper means for social advancement-the establishment and support of public libraries, benefit societies, temperance associations, and all else that seems calculated to quell ignorance and vice, and promote improved tastes and habits.

DUTIES AS SUBJECTS.

W

HATEVER be our precise opinions on political subjects, there can be no doubt that we are bound to yield obedience to the supreme power in the state. As soon as reason dawns upon us, we perceive 'that we are members of a great and enlightened community. We find ourselves subject to laws which were framed long before we were born, and that we must act in a manner not to please our own caprice, but according to the arrangements which have been instituted for the benefit of society at large. But if we thus discover that we are trammelled by certain legal restrictions, not very agreeable, perhaps, to the wildness of our untamed nature, we likewise find that we possess a great many compensating privileges. While yet opening our eyes to the light, we enter into the enjoyment of all the privileges of British subjects, and come within the protection of the laws as fully as the oldest and most honoured in the land. This is a boon of incalculable value. For us, armies have fought and bled; for us, in past times, hosts of martyrs and patriots have contended; for us, the wisest statesmen and legislators have transacted negotiations securing civil liberty; for us, the people who have gone before us have established a variety of the most excellent, the most beneficent institutions. All these things we enjoy without having been put to the smallest trouble. All that we are called on to give in return, as soon as emancipated from the inexperience and ignorance of childhood, is obedience to the laws.

A cheerful obedience to the laws is therefore a chief public

duty. Possibly some of our laws, from having been framed for a former state of society, or in order to meet particular exigencies, may not now be very judicious in their provisions; yet that forms no solid reason why we should break through them. It is always safer to obey a bad law than to oppose it by violence. Unhappily for some nations, they seem to have no accurate idea of the value of obedience to the laws. When they find themselves aggrieved by oppressive state measures, they are exceedingly apt to break into tumults, and take up arms against the officers of their governments. This is a very short-sighted policy, as the history of all nations proves; for the people are always sure to suffer far more by the coercive measures adopted to restrain them, than they would have done by submitting to the evil they originally complained of. It is the boast and glory of Britain-and long may it be so that its people know how to respect the laws, even while they consider them to be injurious, and how to correct them by quiet and orderly procedure. In this lies the important secret of their national greatness, their wealth, their public liberty. The advantages arising out of a scrupulous obedience to the laws, consist, in the first place, of social order and quietude, by which the rights of property are respected, commerce and trade permitted to flourish, and the sacred inviolability of the person preserved. The results of turbulence and civil commotion are-poverty, ruin to property, insecurity of the person, destruction of commerce and trade, and at length military oppression and barbarism. Every intelligent man, therefore, in this country yields not only a bare submission, but a becoming respect to the laws, as well as to the various institutions established by their authority.

Perfect obedience both to the letter and the spirit of the laws does not, however, imply that we should not examine whether they are in every respect answerable to the present condition of society, nor keep us from resorting to legal means

to have them corrected, or altogether rescinded. The constitution points out how this is to be done. It is illegal to conspire to overthrow the law; and to assume an attitude hostile to government is always dangerous in the extreme-treasonable if defeated, and perhaps productive of unspeakable horrors if successful. Judging from the Cromwellian and the French Revolution, besides some successful revolts of lesser note, it would appear that a revolution in general circumstances runs a certain specific course. First, the old government is overthrown, and one thought to be more liberal is established. Second, the new government, being composed of men who acted from a conscientious conviction of evils to be redressed, is soon found not to go far enough in its measures; it is accused of being too moderate, and is overthrown. Third, a violent set of men, animated by feelings of vengeance, and professing boundless liberality, construct a fresh government. Fourth, anarchy sooner or later ensues, the nation is in universal disorder, and life and property are no longer secure. Fifth, out of the convulsion arises an individual, who, by his military genius, conquers inferior demagogues, and brings back a degree of tranquillity at which every one rejoices. Sixth, this tranquillity is speedily found to be a military despotism: a Cromwell or a Napoleon is at the head of affairs. And, brought to this condition, a long course of suffering is endured before the nation returns to the constitutional point whence it set out. Varied according to circumstances, such is likely to be the progress of every revolution occurring from heedless, though well-intentioned, democratic invasion. An expectation that the original movers of a revolution will be suffered to conduct it to a conclusion, is pretty nearly hopeless. The agitation brings all sorts of wild schemers into play, and one party after another is remorselessly trampled down in the contest.

It is now a settled political principle, that for revolutions to be attended with the good results anticipated by their promoters,

they must, independently of other favouring circumstances, refer to a people who are qualified not only for self-government, but possessed of the nerve to unite and defend themselves against the forces which may be brought against them. A usual cause of failure in the revolutions of continental Europe has been the political incapacity of the people-an incapacity amounting in some instances to an ignorance even of the forms necessary for regulating public assemblages of citizens. The revolution which gave independence to the United States was successful, because, among other favourable circumstances, it was promoted by an intelligent people, accustomed to freedom through a preliminary training under a constitutional monarchy. Of what priceless value are such lessons in history!

Warned by these lessons, as well as guided by every proper feeling, you will fully comprehend that all measures designed to correct abuses, and to improve our social condition, must be conducted openly according to regular forms. The means put into our hands by the constitution for improving the law are very ample, if wielded with discretion. The people have the appointment of the men who constitute the most influential branch of the legislature; if they do not appoint individuals who will meet their views with regard to correcting or abolishing laws, they have themselves to blame: the constitution confers upon them a liberty of choice. It, besides, gives them the right to present petitions to the legislature, either individually or in bodies, praying in respectful terms for the amendment or abolition of any law which is deemed oppressive or antiquated. This right gives a vast addition to the power of the people. It is of much greater value than one would at first be inclined to suppose, and is infinitely preferable to the use of violence. The right of petition implies the right of meeting publicly to discuss the propriety of petitioning. This practice of meeting together excites the public mind to renewed efforts in the cause it undertakes. The speeches of the orators are circulated and