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not man's dominion." There we beheld them all; there was a picture of their various life. How different from stuffed feathers in glass cases-though they too "shine well where they stand" in our College Museum! There many a fantastic tumbler played his strange vagaries in the air-there many a cloudcleaver swept the skies-there living gleams glanced through the forest glades-there meteor-like plumage shone in the wood-gloom-there strange shapes stalked stately along the shell-bright shores-and there, halcyons all, fair floaters hung in the sunshine on waveless seas. That all this wonderful creation should have been the unassisted work of one man-in his own country almost unknown, and by his own country wholly unbefriended, was a thought that awoke towards "the American woodsman" feelings of more than admiration, of the deepest personal interest; and the hearts of all warmed towards Audubon, who were capable of conceiving the difficulties, and dangers, and sacrifices, that must have been encountered, endured, and overcome, before genius had thus embodied these the glory of its innumerable triumphs.

interests of art as of science, that all the great public bodies, and all persons of wealth who love to enrich their libraries with works of splendour, should provide themselves with that of Audubon." "It will depend," says Swainson, in the same spirit, "on the powerful and the wealthy, whether Britain shall have the honour of fostering such a magnificent undertaking. It will be a lasting monument, not only to the memory of its author, but to those who employ their wealth in patronising genius, and in supporting the national credit. If any publication deserves such a distinction, it is surely this; inasmuch as it exhibits a perfection in the higher attributes of zoological painting, never before attempted. To represent the passions and the feelings of birds, might, until now, have been well deemed chimerical. Rarely, indeed, do we see their outward forms represented with any thing like nature. In my estimation, not more than three painters ever lived who could draw a bird. Of these, the lamented Barrabaud, of whom France may be justly proud, was the chief. He has long passed away; but his mantle has, at length, been recovered in the forests of America."

Generous and eloquent-but, in the line printed in italics, obscure as an oracle. Barrabaud and Audubon are two-why not have told us who is the third? Can Mr Swainson mean himself. We have heard as much hinted; if so we cannot but admire his modesty in thus remaining the anonymous hero of his own panegyric. If not so, then has he done himself great injustice, for he is a beautiful bird-painter and drawer, as all the world knows, though assuredly in genius far inferior to Audubon. Is the third Bewick? If so, why shun to name "the genius that dwelt on the banks of the Tyne?" If not so, MrSwainson may live and die assured, in spite of this sentence of exclusion from the trio, that Bewick will in sæcula sæculorum sit on the top of the tree of fame, on the same branch with the most illustrious, nor is there any fear of its breaking, for it is strong, and the company destined to bestride it, select.

The impression produced on all minds, learned and unlearned, by this exhibition, was such as to encourage Audubon to venture on the dangerous design of having the whole engraved. Dangerous it might well be called, seeing that the work was to contain Four Hundred Plates and Two Thousand Figures. "A work," says Cuvier, "conceived and executed on so vast a plan has but one fault, that its expense must render it inaccessible to the greatest number of those to whom it will be the most necessary. Yet is the price far from being exorbitant. One livraison of five plates costs two guineas; and thus the five livraisons can be had at Audubon speaks modestly of his no very great annual expense. Most great work, but with the enthusiasm desirable at least it is, as well for the and confidence, natural and becom

ing, in a man of such extraordinary genius. We cannot do better than employ, when they come to us, his own words. Not only, then, is every object, as a whole, of the natural size, but also every portion of each object. The compass aided him in its delineation, regulated and corrected each part, even to the very fore-shortening. The bill, feet, legs, and claws, the very feathers as they project one beyond another, have been accurately measured. The birds, almost all of them, were killed by himself, and were regularly drawn on or near the spot. The positions, he observes, may perhaps, in some instances, appear outré; but such supposed exaggerations can afford subjects of criticism only to persons unacquainted with the feathered tribes, for nothing can be more transient or varied than the attitudes of birds. For example, the heron, when warming itself in the sun, will sometimes drop its wings several inches, as if they were dislocated; the swan may often be seen floating with one foot extended from the body; and some pigeons turn quite over when playing in the air. The flowers, plants, or portions of the trees which are attached to the principal objects, have always been chosen from amongst those in the vicinity of which the birds were found, and are not, as some persons have thought, the trees or plants on which they always feed or perch. We may mention, too, that Audubon invented ways of placing birds, dead or alive, before him while he was drawing them, so that he saw them still in the very attitudes he had admired when they were free in the air, or on the bough; and, indeed, without such most ingenious apparatus of wires and threads as he employs, it was not in mortal man to have caught as he has done, and fixed

them on paper, all the characteristic but evanescent varieties of their motion and their repose. His ingenuity is equal to his genius.

It may be useful to mention here the particulars of the plan of his work. The size is double-elephant folio-as Cuvier says, "qui approche des doubles planches de la Description (Denon's) de L'Egypte." The paper being of the finest quality

the engravings are, in every instance, of the exact dimensions of the drawings, which, without any exception, represent the birds, and other objects, of their natural sizethe plates are coloured in the most careful manner from the original drawings-the work appears in numbers, of which five are published annually, each number consisting of five plates, and the price of each number is two guineas, payable on delivery. The first volume, consisting of one hundred plates, and representing ninety-nine species of birds, of many of which there are several figures, is now published, accompanied by the volume from which we have given the above interesting extracts; but which is also sold by itself, and cannot fail of finding a ready market. It is expected that other three volumes of equal size, will complete the work; and each volume of plates will, in like manner with the first, be accompanied with a volume of letterpress. These four volumes of letterpress will be most delightful reading to every body; and fit companions for those of Wilson, which we are happy to see are now in course of publication, in a cheap form, in Constable's Miscellany, under the superintendence of that eminent naturalist, Professor Jameson. In our next article on Audubon we shall speak of Wilson,

ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

No. VII.

What should the Peers do?

We have frequently had occasion to impress upon our readers the eternal, and, in days such as the present, vital importance of the observation, that all popular movements are necessarily progressive: that those who commence the agitation can maintain their ascendency only by advancing with the stream, and that the moment they attempt to coerce it, they are buried in the waves. This truth, which the dear bought experience of a revolution has rendered perfectly familiar to the French, is only beginning to be understood in this country. It was for this reason, that in the beginning of this year we commenced a series of papers "On Parliamentary Reform and the French Revolution;" foreseeing, before "the bill" was either broached or prepared, that these two subjects were inseparably connected; that the cry for Reform was nothing but the form which the revolutionary spirit had here assumed; that those who pretended to guide would speedily be mastered by it; and that the only lessons as to the mode of avoiding its fury, were to be drawn from the experience of its effects in the neighbouring kingdom.

The principles which we have endeavoured to illustrate have been these:

1. That public discontent springs from two different causes; and, according as it arises from the one or the other, requires to be met by a totally different mode of treatment. That these causes are experienced suffering, and desired power. That the first can never be effectually remedied but by the removal of the grievances which occasion the irritation; while the second can never be successfully eradicated but by the removal of the phantom which has inflamed the passion.

2. That it is impossible, therefore, to be too rapid in removing the real grievances which have excited the discontent, while it is impossible to be too slow in conceding the power

VOL, XXX, NO. CLXXXII.

which is the object of ambition. That the removal of disabilities, the repeal of obnoxious duties, the diminution of burdens, being measures of relief producing immediate benefit, may be relied on as producing beneficial consequences; while the sudden concession of power may as certainly be expected to produce the most disastrous effects.

3. That in France, at the commencement of the first revolution, both causes were in operation; but that such were the ruinous results of the sudden concession of power to the people, that it overwhelmed all the beneficial consequences of the redress of grievances, and rendered Louis XVI.—a reforming monarch, whose life was one uninterrupted series of concessions to the peoplethe immediate cause of the revolution, and the most fatal sovereign to the happiness of his country who ever sat on the French throne.

4. That in Great Britain real grievances do not exist; or, if they do, they admit, through the medium of Parliament, or of the freedom of the press, of open discussion and ultimate remedy. That the ferment, therefore, which has arisen since the last French revolution is owing entirely to the passion for power. That this passion, like every other passion, is insatiable, and increases with every successive addition made to its gratification; and unless vigorously resisted in the outset, will acquire fresh strength with every victory it gains, until at length, as under the Reign of Terror, it becomes irresistible.

5. That the appetite for power once fairly excited among a people, can never, in the present state of society, be satisfied, if once it is permitted to acquire its full strength by gratification, till universal suffrage is obtained. That in Lafayette's words, "every government is to be deemed an oligarchy where four millions of men give law to six millions," and therefore, that it is impossible to stop short of universal suffrage, either in

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point of principle or expedience, when once the precedent of yielding to the popular outcry for power is established.

6. That universal suffrage is in other words the destruction of property, order, and civilisation; impracticable in an old and highly peopled state, and necessarily destructive of capital, industry, life, and property.

7. That history convinces us, that the danger of adhering to the constitution, and resisting innovation, is incomparably less in every free state than that of concession during a period of excitement. That the exercise of social rights necessarily begets the desire of perpetuating them; and that this was in an especial manner the case in England, distinguished as it has been in every age by attachments to old institutions. That the resistance of the cry for Reform, often and vehemently raised, had never led to any convulsion; while the great rebellion, and the revolution of 1688, were owing to illegal invasion of the constitution, or the imprudent and sudden concession of power.

8. That the history of France and England in 1793 affords the most decisive proof of the truth of these observations; the former country having, under the reforming sovereign Louis XVI., and the reforming administration of Neckar, tried the system of concession, and in consequence brought on the revolution; the latter, under the non-reforming Sovereign George, and the non-reforming administration of Pitt, resisted the demands of popular ambition, and in consequence saved the constitution.

9. That the recent convulsion in France-originating in violent and illegal usurpations by the reigning sovereign, and terminating in such disastrous consequences to the finances, the industry, and the happiness of the country-should prove a lasting warning both of the ruinous consequences of deviating from the constitution, and giving any ascendant to popular violence.

Have we, or have we not, been true prophets? Has not every step which has been taken demonstrated the justice of these principles? Shall we go on in a course from which such consequences have already been experienced?

Has not the cry for Reform increased an hundred-fold since the executive took the lead in the proposal for conceding power to the people? Do not the Radicals triumphantly boast that the Tories might, three months ago, have framed a plan of moderate Reform which would have satisfied the country; but that the time for half measures is now gone by, and that they will have "the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill?"-What does this prove, but that the prospect of conceded power has inflamed the passions, and that a total change in the constitution must be made to gratify their vehemently excited expectations?

It was long ago said by Lord Burleigh, that the English constitution never could be ruined but by her Parliament; and the event has now proved the wisdom of the observation.

So long as the government remained true to itself, it shook off all the assaults of its enemies "like dew drops from the lion's mane." But that which neither the decay of a thousand years, nor the force of embattled Europe, nor the genius of Napoleon, could affect, is on the point of being accomplished by the suicidal hands of its own children.

The prophecy of Montesquieu is likely to be inverted. England is not in danger of perishing because the legislature has become more corrupt than the executive, but because the executive has become more reckless than the legislature. The poison. which is now running through the veins of the empire, has been inhaled from the most elevated sources; it has flowed down through the arteries of the state from its highest members. The "corruption" which has proved fatal to the ancient and venerable fabric, has not been the flattery of courts, the seductions of wealth, or the selfishness of prosperity; it has been the tumult of popular applause, and the vanity of plebeian adulation. Borne forward on the gales of democratic ambition, the administration have inverted the usual order of national decline.Symptoms of ruin have appeared, while yet the political body was in the vigour of youth; and long before its extremities had begun to feel the decay of Time, the whole system has been thrown into convulsions

from the vehement passions of the heart. Like the American Indians, they have lighted a forest to dress a scanty meal-but the fire has proved too strong for those who kindled it; and, like them, they are now driven before the flames, and dare not stop, lest they should be enveloped in the conflagration.

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What can be expected from a continuance of the system of concession? Where are we to stop? Observe the astonishing progress which democratic ambition has made in the last six months. What a change of ideas, of language, of expectations! Already, what a host of republican writers have sprung up, and how rapidly have the concessions which necessity has wrung out of the conservative party augmented! The Times declares, that if the House of Lords will not pass the Bill, means must be taken to make it part of the law of the land, without giving their Lordships much trouble." A new paper, "the Republican," price one halfpenny, has already a circulation of 20,000 copies; in every page of which, the cause of republican institutions is strenuously advocated. The leading Ministerial journals declare that the Cambridge election has opened the eyes of all men to the necessity of ecclesiastical reform; in other words, the confiscation of the whole property of the church. A new journal, "the Englishman," devoted apparently to writing down the national debt, vehemently urges the adoption of that "equitable adjustment" with the public creditor, which has been seriously recommended by a leading Member of Parliament, in his pamphlet on the currency. The adherents of administration make no secret of their determination, early next session, to carry the repeal of the corn laws through a reformed Parliament. Not a whisper of all this was heard of six months ago. It has all sprung up like the pestilence, that walks in darkness, since democratic ambition was excited by Reform; in other words, since the prospect of power was conceded to the people.

Where, in the name of God, is all this to terminate? By yielding to the demands of the people, we have brought them on, even faster than the fatal career of the Constituent Assembly. The doctrines broached

are now more fearful, the progress of democratic ambition more rapid, than in France in 1789. We have got, by the effect of six months' concession, farther on in the career of revolution and spoliation, than the French in many years. It was not till 1798, nine years after the revolution commenced, that the funds in that country were attacked, and an

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equitable adjustment" carried, by the confiscation of two-thirds of the public debt of the country. How long will a reformed Parliament, the delegates of the L.10 tenants, continue to pay L.29,000,000 a-year to the holders of the 3 per cents? The confiscation of ecclesiastical property was only adopted there under the pressure of immediate and overbearing necessity; the annual excess of the public expenditure over the national income, which was L.9,000,000 yearly in 1789, was increased by the deficit of the revenue, consequent on the public convulsions in 1790, to L.16,000,000, and no resource remained but to lay their hands on the property of the most defenceless parts of the community. Here the same measure is advocated without any necessity, when the late administration left a clear excess of income above expenditure of L.2,900,000; and even under the severe infliction of the Whig Budget, Lord Althorpe promises the nation a surplus reve nue of L.300,000. Titles of dignity were not assailed in France till 1791, two years after the revolution was established: the House of Peers is already threatened with destruction the moment they exercise their constitutional rights of rejecting or modifying the Reform Bill, the first step in the English changes. Utter ignorance of history, or wilful blindness to undisputed facts, can alone conceal the painful truth, that since the prospect of power excited democratic ambition in this country, the_march of revolution has been much more rapid than that which preceded the Reign of Terror.

What arrested this fatal progress in Great Britain in 1793? Was it the system of concession-the doctrine that mobs are irresistible-that the good-will of the people must be conciliated by yielding to their demands

that public opinion, in other words, the clamour of the newspapers, must finally prove triumphant? Was it

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