ing position necessary in re-ascending the steep sides exposed us to a sulphureous vapour, which was extremely annoying, and my hurry to escape made me neglect the expedient of the handkerchief. On mustering at the top, we found that one of the servants was missing, but before we could take steps for his safety, he crawled out nearly suffocated. It was a rash adventure, undertaken too precipitately to guard against danger, had there been any, of which we were ignorant.

My last expedition afforded nothing worthy of note except a scene at Salvatore's, where I arrived by night with a party of ladies, on their way to sleep at the Hermitage, preparatory to an ascent the next morning. Salvatore's house stands in a court-yard, and has the stairs on the outside. As our arrival was expected, the court was soon completely filled with asses and mules, each under the conduct of a boy carrying a torch. Salvatore posted himself at the foot of the stairs, with his jacket slung like a military pelisse, and a truncheon in his hand. The steps above him were occupied by blooming English girls, waiting their turns to be seated on such animals as he should select. The eagerness of the boys for preference-Salvatore's vehement but graceful action as he poured forth his oaths and brandished his truncheon-the passiveness of the ladies-the contrast between their complexions and the swarthy ones of the Italians, a contrast much heightened by the waving torches, the incessant vociferation, and the triumph of each successful candidate as he navigated his fair charge through yielding rivals-formed altogether a scene of such striking effect, that the lapse of thirteen years has effaced from my recollection nothing of its freshness.

LONDON:

IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.

THE ORIGINAL,

BY THOMAS WALKER, M. A.

TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,

BARRISTER AT LAW, AND ONE OF THE POLICE MAGISTRATES OF THE METROPOLIS.

PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AT 12 O'CLOCK, BY H. RENSHAW,

356, STRAND, NEARLY OPPOSITE WELLINGTON STREET.

No. V.] WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 1835.

[PRICE 3d.

PAROCHIAL GOVERNMENT.

(Continued.)

I SHALL begin this article with some explanations of my last on the same subject; and here let me advertise my readers that my plan, throughout my writings, will be to proceed in a familiar and desultory manner, rather than by formal and unconnected dissertations, and that those who wish to draw any profit from my labours, if any profit is to be drawn, must read me, not cursorily, and now and then, but regularly and with attention, and must preserve my numbers for the purpose of reference. My object is to induce my readers to put their minds in training, "by setting before them," as I expressed myself in my preliminary address, "an alterative diet of sound and comfortable doctrines." Now, it is the nature of an alterative diet to require time and perseverance. But to return to my subject.

I must repeat that good government is only to be expected from the selection of men of honourable and business-like repute in the conduct of their own affairs; and any system

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which does not produce such selection, however loudly cried up by the unthinking and their deceivers, is false and worthless. Parishes are at present too disorganized, and their powers of government are too ill directed and too limited to hold out sufficient inducement to the most fitting persons to interest themselves in the management of them. The best qualified are generally the most averse to interfere, and consequently a vast quantity of public spirit lies dormant, or is in a manner wasted on the many expedients with which this country abounds for supplying the deficiencies of local governments. Few people comprehend in their idea of parish governments any thing beyond the administration of the poorlaws; whereas, if the governments were what they ought to be, poor-laws would soon become unnecessary. Pauperism is a monster which looms large through the mist of ignorance and misconception; but I, who have grappled with and anatomized it in its various forms, agricultural, commercial, and mixed, in Devonshire, Herefordshire, Lancashire, and London, know perfectly well, that under the influence of local selfgovernments thoroughly organized, it would soon disappear from the land. To the moral cripples around us, under such governments, we should have only to take the tone of the apostle, when steadfastly beholding the cripple at Lystra, he cried out with a loud voice, "Stand upright on thy feet; and the cripple leaped and walked." So, without any miracle, would it soon be here; for poverty in England is not from physical, but solely from moral causes. Remove the multitudinous encouragements to dependence, on the one hand-open as much as possible the ways to self-advancement, on the other, and the character of those who come within the baneful influence of the poor-laws would be reversed. Parishes are little states, which ought to exhibit in finished miniature the principal features of large ones. They should be preparatory schools for the art of government, full of rivalry in themselves, and with one another, in promoting the public welfare-moral

farms, divided, drained, and tilled, so as to produce the richest harvests and the fewest weeds. At present they are little better than neglected wastes. The first division I have proposed into wards, has already a model on a larger scale in the wards of the city of London, each having an alderman, his deputy, and a certain number of common councilmen with their inferior officers-only that many modifications would be necessary. The city model did not begin low enough, that is, in the parishes throughout the land, so that the first elements of government have remained crude and disordered, affecting upwards the whole frame with the imperfections of its parts.

With respect to a "settled inhabitancy," as a qualification for voting for the head of a parish ward, or for the governors of a whole parish not large enough to be divided into wards, I should say, that having been usually resident for six months previous to the election, and having, during that time, paid, whether weekly or otherwise, and however little, for an occupancy, would be sufficient. I think the population of each ward should not much exceed a thousand, so that the number of males, of competent age, qualified as above, could not much exceed a hundred; therefore, on the score of numbers, there could be no objection to so low a qualification. Then the election would only be for a year, and each voter would have a personal interest in his choice. It is desirable to exercise as many as possible in governing themselves, or in choosing those who are to govern them; and here would be a safe approach to universal suffrage in the election of those immediately in authority over their fellow-citizens, and to be their representatives in the parish, and in higher degrees of government. Now let us suppose a parish containing thirty thousand inhabitants, divided into thirty wards, the resident males of each ward, of competent age, and paying for their occupancy, electing annually one of themselves to superintend their common interests, to keep the peace, and to represent them in the parish government; there feeling himself respon

sible for the good order and good condition of his ward, with subordinate officers elected in like manner to assist him. I apprehend, that under such a system, the moral influence created would go near to supersede the necessity of legal restraints, and that greatly increased powers of government, for the purposes of improvement, might be safely and advantageously granted under so much and such well-ordered popular control.

I proceed now to the consideration of the inducements to the most fitting persons to give up time sufficient to superintend the affairs of their respective communities; and I suppose it will be universally granted that no consideration on the subject of government can be of more importance. The principal reasons which deter men of honourable feelings and of habits of attention to their own affairs, from taking much part in public concerns, I apprehend to be—the difficulty, from want of proper organization, of effecting much good-the fleeting nature, from the same cause, of any good effected the want of co-operation on the part of others like themselves the opposition of the interested and the factious— and the grievous annoyance of popular elections. All these objections, it seems to me, would be obviated by such division as I propose. Each district would be so small that an individual could with ease comprehend and watch over its interests. Whatever good he could effect he might confidently anticipate would be preserved by the simplicity of the machinery. Uniformity of division would ensure uniformity of co-operation, whilst the interested and the factious, as I have remarked before, would be too nearly in view, and in too close contact with their fellow-citizens, to escape detection, and would consequently soon be put to silence. It is only in a state of disorganization that such people can thrive. The election, though strictly popular, would be subject to none of the disagreeable circumstances incident to unwieldy constituencies, necessarily without direct interests, and in which the