In any terms, however homely, or with any accent, however provincial. Speeches also for constituents are heard with indulgence, if not too frequent nor too long; but debate, real debate, is the characteristical eloquence of the House; and be assured, that the India-house, a vestry, a committee, and other meetings of business, are far better preparatory schools for parliament than debating societies are. these latter, self-possession and fluency may be learnt; but vicious habits of declamation, and of hunting for applause, are too often formed. I remember being told, that in the first meetings of a society at a public school, two or three evenings were consumed in debating whether the floor should be covered with a sail-cloth or a carpet; and I have no doubt that better practice was gained in these important discussions than in those that soon followed on liberty, slavery, passive obedience, and tyrannicide. It has been truly said, that nothing is so unlike a battle as a review. 'As an illustration of this spirit of serious business, I must mention a quality which, presupposing great talents and great knowledge, must always be uncommon, but which makes an irresistible impression on a public assembly of educated men-I mean the merit of stating the question in debate fairly; and I mean it as an oratorical, and not merely as a moral, superiority. Any audience, but especially an educated and impatient audience, listens with a totally different kind and degree of attention to a speaker of this character, and to one who, tempted by the dangerous facility of a feebler practice, either alters, or weakens, or exaggerates the language and sentiments of his adversary. 6 Mr. Fox was an illustrious example of this honestest, best, and bravest manner: nay, sometimes he stated the arguments of his opponents so advantageously, that his friends have been alarmed lest he should fail to answer them. His great rival formerly, and another accomplished orator now living, have seldom ventured on this hazardous candour. In truth, the last-mentioned possesses too many talents; for, betrayed by his singular powers of declamation and of sarcasm, he often produces more admiration than conviction, and rarely delivers an important speech without making an enemy for life. Had he been a less man, he would be a greater speaker and a better leader in a popular assembly.'-pp. 43-46. Mr. Sharp's criticism on the late Mr. Canning was as just, at that period of his career, as it is tersely expressed. Mr. Canning, at a subsequent stage, the happiest one of his political life, had overcome in great measure the propensity here alluded to; but it returned on him, with more than even juvenile violence, during the two or three seasons of jealousy, suspicion, and, on his part, we fear, of unworthy intrigues, that preceded the breaking up of Lord Liverpool's cabinet-and would have, of itself, been enough to turn into gall and wormwood the few tempestuous months of Mr. Canning's own premiership. Mr. Pitt is reported to have said of Mr. Canning, at a very early period of their acquaintance, 'That young man might do anything, if he would but go straight to his mark;' and this was not less true of him as an orator than as a politician. He was a man of rare genius—and he possessed many amiable and even noble feelings; but there was, we are sorry to say, one great and incurable defect in his mind he had not that high instinctive integrity without which no talents however brilliant, no impulses however generous, can win entire respect. It was said of him, with bitter spleen, but not without something like truth, by one who lived to stick his knees in his back,'Canning can never be a gentleman for more than three hours at a time.' From Mr. Sharp's opinion as to that infinitely greater man, Pitt himself, we must dissent. We venture to say, that every real argument that ever was advanced by the anti-national party during his government may be found fairly and honestly stated, as well as completely answered and refuted, in his parliamentary speeches, even as we now have them. But to return to our text: 'It is not without some misgiving that I perceive with how much more interest you talk of parliament than of chancery. It is very usual and very natural to prefer the former. Let me entreat you to consider well. I have heard one of the ablest and most efficient men in this country (actually at the time the chosen leader of the opposition, enjoying the fame of such a station, and looking forwards, doubtless, to high office) own, more than once, with much emotion, that he had made a fatal mistake in preferring parliament to the bar. At the bar he well knew that he must have risen to opulence and to rank, and he bitterly regretted having forsaken his lawful wife, the profession, for that fascinating but impoverishing harlot, politics. 'If you should abandon your Penelope and your home for Calypso, remember that I told you of the advice given, in my hearing, at different times to a young lawyer, by Mr. Windham, and by Mr. Horne Tooke-not to look for a seat till he had pretensions to be made solicitor-general.'-pp. 46, 47. The last rule must now be modified. The aspiring lawyer must henceforth be admonished not to look for the solicitor-generalship until he has more than pretensions to a seat. From another letter to the same 'law-student' we transcribe some paragraphs : 'Satirical writers and talkers are not half so clever as they think themselves, nor as they are thought to be. They do winnow the corn, 'tis true, but 'tis to feed upon the chaff. I am sorry to add, that they who are always speaking ill of others, are also very apt to be doing ill to them. It requires some talent and some generosity to find out talent and generosity in others; though nothing but selfconceit and malice are needed to discover or to imagine faults.—It is much easier for an ill-natured than for a good-natured man to be smart and witty personne, "S'il n'eut mal parlé de The most gifted men that I have known have been the least addicted to depreciate either friends or foes.-Dr. Johnson, Mr. Burke, and Mr. Fox were always more inclined to overrate them. Your shrewd, sly, evil-speaking fellow is generally a shallow personage, and frequently he is as venomous and as false when he flatters, as when he reviles-he seldom praises John but to vex Thomas. "Do not, pray do not! "sit in the seat of the scorner," whose nature it is to sneer at everything but impudent vice and successful crime. By these he is generally awed and silenced. Are these poor heartless creatures to be envied? Can you think that the Duc de Richelieu was a happier man than Fenelon? or Dean Swift than Bishop Berkeley?'-pp. 53-55. These are wise words-most of them. There is, we believe, no human being of real capacity whose opinions of his fellowcreatures, both of their moral qualities and their intellectual powers, do not grow more and more favourable as he advances in life. But we cannot think Mr. Sharp was entitled to speak of Swift as he here does. The dean was not certainly a man' to be envied '—he had in him from his birth the seeds of the insanity in which, as he himself foresaw and foretold, he was to end; but a heartless creature' he was not. He was a morbid genius; and he resented injuries, and lashed quackery, with a demoniacal zeal ; but he was a warm and stedfast friend, a most kind and generous master, and in his native character as pure and dignified as either Fenelon or Berkeley-whose talents put together and doubled would not have made the tithe of his. Rioting in his own wit, in such pieces as Gulliver, he appears to have no sympathy with mankind-but consider the facts of his life, or read his inimitable letters, the best in our language, and you will do justice to the inborn manliness and steady benevolence of Swift. That terrible epitaph of his on himself is flanked in St. Patrick's by a most touching one to the memory of an old servant! They who spend their lives in trying to make themselves appear worse, must at least be preferred to those who are always passing themselves off for better, than they are. Mr. Sharp well says, at p. 61 Oh! it is very easy to cherish, like Sterne, the sensibilities that lead to no sacrifices and to no inconvenience. Most of those that are so vain of their fine feelings are persons loving themselves very dearly, and having a violent regard for their fellow-creatures in general, though caring little or nothing for the individuals about them. Of sighs and tears they are profuse, but niggardly of their money and their time. Montaigne speaks of a man as extraordinary "Qui ait des opinions supercélestes, sans avoir des mœurs souterreines." -pp. 59-61. Another letter to the same young gentleman begins as follows:'If your low spirits arise from bodily illness (as is often the case), you must consult Dr. Baillie. I can do nothing for you. Perhaps you should fast a little, and walk and ride. But if they are caused by disappointment, by impatience, or by calamity, you can do much for yourself. The well-known worn-out topics of consolation and of encouragement are become trite, because they are reasonable; and you will soon be cured, if you steadily persevere in a course of moral alteratives. You have no right to be dispirited, possessing as you do all that one of the greatest as well as oldest sages has declared to be the only requisites for happiness-a sound mind, a sound body, and a competence. An anxious, restless temper, that runs to meet care on its way, that regrets lost opportunities too much, and that is over-painstaking in contrivances for happiness, is foolish, and should not be indulged. "On doit être heureux sans trop penser à l'être." 'If you cannot be happy in one way, be happy in another; and this facility of disposition wants but little aid from philosophy, for health and good humour are almost the whole affair. Many run about after felicity, like an absent man hunting for his hat, while it is on his head or in his hand. Though sometimes small evils, like invisible insects, inflict great pain, yet the chief secret of comfort lies in not suffering trifles to vex one, and in prudently cultivating an undergrowth of small pleasures, since very few great ones, alas! are let on long leases. I cannot help seeing that you are dissatisfied with your occupation, and that you think yourself unlucky in having been destined to take it up, before you were old enough to choose for yourself. Do not be too sure that you would have chosen well. I somewhere met with an observation, which, being true, is important-that in a masquerade, where people assume what characters they like, “how ill they often play them!" Many parts are probably preferred for the sake of the dress; and do not many young men enter into the navy or army, that they may wear a sword and a handsome uniform, and be acceptable partners at a ball? Vanity is hard-hearted, and insists upon wealth, rank, and admiration. Even so great a man as Prince Eugene owned (after gaining a useless victory) that "on travaille trop pour la Gazette." Such objects or pursuits are losing their value every day, and you must have observed that rank gives now but little precedence, except in a procession. But I am really ashamed even to hint at such endless and obvious commonplaces, and I shall only repeat the remark, which seems to have struck you that in all the professions, high stations seem to come down to us, rather than that we have got up to them. But you, forsooth, are too sensible to be ambitious; and you are, perhaps, only disheartened by some unforeseen obstacles to reasonable desires. Be it so! but this will not justify, nor even excuse, dejection. Untoward Untoward accidents will sometimes happen; but, after many, many years of thoughtful experience, I can truly say, that nearly all those who began life with me have succeeded or failed, as they deserved. "Faber quisque fortunæ propriæ." Ill fortune at your age is often good for us, both in teaching and in bracing the mind; and even in our later days it may be often turned to advantage, or overcome. Besides— trifling precautions will often prevent great mischiefs; as a slight turn of the wrist parries a mortal thrust.'--pp. 48-50. In the foregoing passage there is much that deserves reflection. Mr. Sharp, however, wrote this letter in 1817, and then assuredly there was no approach to truth in Mr. Sharp's dictum that rank now gives little precedence except in a procession!' When that is the case, the hour of processions (except those of the Unionists) will be very near its close. Far down beyond 1817 rank has continued to be of enormous importance in our country; so much so, that, without it, it has been the most difficult thing in the world for any one to do much serious mischief in any department of public life. And it is exactly this cant of the day, into which Mr. Sharp has for once given, about the nothingness of rank, that has so turned the heads of many of Mr. Sharp's young friends,' and made them, taking the homage paid to their rank for the honest tribute to their talents, indulge such egregious self-esteem and self-confidence, and convert their own rank into the lever for upturning the whole system to which that rank belongs. The men of no rank may now abide their time; they may now indeed possess their souls in patience, well knowing that the great blow has been struck—that the felled tree may put out buds and leaves for a spring or so, but will make no more timber; and that even at this hour, had the reformed constituencies sent one single young plebeian, of desperate fortunes, genius, and courage, into parliament, Lord John Russell would no more have thought of taking precedence of him in a procession, than of Mr. Gully in a prize-ring, or of Mr. Ducrow, who will, we hope, be the next member for Lambeth, in a circus. Another passage in our last quotation is not quite so clear as we could have wished. In all the professions,' says Mr. Sharp, 'high stations seem to come down to us, rather than that we have got up to them.' We think we could point out instances in which persons have mounted into very lofty stations by means of very long and very dirty ladders, and afterwards, indeed, made these high stations come down-not to, but with them. In one of his Essays we find Mr. Sharp returning to the subject of rank-the Essay bears no date, and may therefore be of 1834: 'In De Rulhiere's Anecdotes of the Revolution in Russia, there is a short |