society would gain much if those peasants who now have their labour only partially free, were enriched by that consciousness of property which security for its fruits would give them. Thus, arriving into the ranks of property they would be in all things more worthy citizens of a free community. Soldiers of agriculture, let them become the best guardians of public order. In England, the most advanced nation in the world, there ought to be the best institutions for all. A wealthy landed aristocracy; a learned, laborious, and a commercial middle class, ought to be combined with an independent and prosperous peasantry, such as are found amongst the vine-dressers of Vevay, and the hardy mountaineers of Friburg and Berne."

Mr. Heron's work concludes with an account of Savigny, the great champion of the historical school of law, and one of the first of modern jurists.

The reader who carefully peruses Mr. Heron's book, can hardly fail, even if before indifferent to the subject, to become interested as he proceeds. In making laws, in framing systems of judicature and government, man is, as it were, imitating the great and universal Ruler, who, however, unlike His creature, ordereth all things sweetly, and while he is glorified by obedience, commands nothing which it is not man's interest to obey. Sublime, yet simple, comprehensive, yet clear, the law of God is immutable and perfect, the same in all ages and in all climes, exempting none from the obligation of its observance; it is intelligible to the poorest, and forms fit subject of meditation for the highest intellect. Nor are the rise and progress of human legislation unworthy of the deep consideration of the greatest minds. The whole framework of society, security for person and property, the common weal, rests upon the system of laws, which confer liberty while repressing licentiousness, foster enterprise while discouraging rash adventure, and whilst creating and respecting titles and honours, deal with an equal hand strict justice to the titled peer and to the humble peasant.

A perfect system of human laws is not to be looked for. Not even in the speculations of the greatest jurists has any such ever been devised; but to simplify,-to consolidate,to harmonize, to improve, should ever be the aim of the writer or speaker, of the jurist and the senator; no aim nobler or higher can be sought by the widest philanthropy, none more certain in its even partial accomplishment, to confer an honourable fame, and better still, a self-approving

content.

To Mr. Heron is due the merit of first assembling together, and, as it were, synopsising the labours of those who have been eminent in this great department of science. In the compass of a moderately sized volume, he has given to his readers a complete and compendious history of jurisprudence, and that in language distinguished for its nervousness, concentration, and lucidity.

A double meed of praise is due to him who, availing himself of that small interval of leisure from professional pursuits, which most men devote to relaxation and amusement, applies himself to the production of such a work as this under consideration. Important, as we have 'seen, in itself, the subject is one particularly suitable for the labours of a lawyer, and Mr. Heron has treated it not only as an able lawyer, but as an accomplished scholar and an acute reasoner. He has gracefully and liberally paid the debt, which every man owes to his profession, and we trust that he will go still further, and make that profession his debtor by the production of other works in the different departments of legal science.

ART. VII.-Civil Correspondence and Memoranda of Field Marshal, Arthur, Duke of Wellington, K. G. [Ireland.] Edited by his Son, the Duke of Wellington, K. G. London: John Murray, 1860.

THIS

HIS is a valuable and interesting publication. It comprises the correspondence of Sir Arthur Wellesley as Irish Secretary at a critical time. Appointed under the Duke of Portland's Premiership, in March, 1807, he held that post until his nomination to the command of the troops intended to check Napoleon Buonaparte in Portugal, in March, 1809, when he was succeeded in the Irish office by Mr. R. G. Dundas, afterwards Viscount Melville. He therefore held the post of Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant in Ireland precisely two years. Out of that period, however, are to be deducted two periods of absence, first, from 31st July 1807, to 30th Sept. 1807, when he took part in the expedition to Copenhagen, and

second, from 12th July, 1808, to 6th of October, 1808, when he paid his first brilliant campaigning visit to Portugal, for his successes during which he received the thanks and congratulations of Parliament on his return. There is perhaps nothing more remarkable in this correspondence than the calm and business-like way in which Sir Arthur Wellesley lays down his pen, and assumes his sword when called on. He seems always at his ease, never in a flurry. He entered on his duties, whether of peace or of war, with the same fixedness of purpose, the same intense concentration, the same conscientious exactitude, descending to the minutest details, the same vigour, despatch, and regularity. From the command of a brigade on the look-out for Napoleon on the Sussex coast, he steps into Parliament in 1806, as Member for Rye, under Lord Grenville's wing. When the reins of office slipped from that nobleman's fingers, Sir Arthur Wellesley suffered himself to be translated to the Irish office with the most perfect sang froid. He forthwith set about the practice of the little tricks and villanies, the dispensation of the little corrupting favours, the skilful management of the "leading persons," the perfection of the general system of espionage, the due distribution of the repressive magisterial and military force in the country, wherever the pressure of popular passion and popular grievances was greatest, and the thousand other like offices which then, and for years after, made up the sumtotal of English government in Ireland. It is curious how little the excitement of change from civil to military service had effect upon him. He took things as they came, and did his best at them all. Even when he is buckling on his soldier's toggery, to set off to Copenhagen, he has an eye on the pension list in Ireland, and has not forgotten the promises which he had made anent the same. Writing to the Lord Lieutenant, the Duke of Richmond, he reminds him that:-" Mr. M- may have £400 per annum for his life; Mrs. £400 for her life; and Mrs. £400 for her life. . . .We have charges upon our

and £500 for

Will you

next year for £400 for let and know of the favours you intend to confer upon them." Even as the ship's boat waits for him, he does not forget that proper and judicial place-andfavour giving in Ireland has claims on his thoughts. He writes to Lord Hawkesbury, (afterwards the Earl of Liver

66

pool,) who was Home Secretary under the Portland ministry, from Sheerness, on the 31st July, 1807 :-" I shall be very much obliged to you if you will urge Lord Mulgrave to make room for Lord Lecale in Ireland, by the removal of Admiral Bowen from the command of the Sea Fencibles." He has hardly had time to regain his land-legs, on his return to London, in October, when we find him making vigorous efforts to get another vote for ministers from the county of Monaghan, which is then vacant. Writing to a friend of the Government candidate, he assures Lady Clermont that " her nephew will be assisted in his views on the county so far as he and Government can help him." Again, when in July, 1808, he is about to set out for Portugal, his thoughts still fondly turn to the fulfilment of the little place-arrangements which he has entered into, doubtless for the benefit of the public, as he conceived. On the 4th July he writes to Lord Hawkesbury, recommending a Mr. Watt to his notice in London, where," he writes, "he may be useful to you until some arrangement is made in respect to this government. He has served me with diligence and fidelity." Sir Arthur then dolefully adds, that if the patronage of Ireland then was what it had previously been, there would have been no need of remitting the faithful Mr. Watt back to London. From the Cove of Cork whence he sailed for Portugal, and where he was then waiting for the wind, he reminds the Lord Lieutenant, by way of parting word, that "Lord Thomond ought to be a Privy Councillor," and that it is very desirable "to do something for Mr. O'Meara.' To Mr. Trail, who then filled the chair in Dublin Castle in which, in still darker times, Edward Cooke had planned and plotted under Lord Castlereagh's approving eye, he goes into more minute business items. To one so well up in the castle schemes of the day no great necessity for fulness of details was requisite, and so we find the epistles to Mr. Trail of a very sketchy character. A hint was enough to convey to that skilled official, how Mr. was to be dealt with, how was to be examined in secrecy, what alias should receive for his dubious services, how Lord was to be conciliated, and this or that office was to be withheld from Lady's friend, without ruffling her Ladyship's feathers too much. At length the wind favours His Majesty's ship the Donegal, which is to bear Major-General Wellesley to the scene of his

pay

early European victories. The open sea is reached, the pilot-boats are about heaving-off, and even then, when one would suppose the future Duke and Field-Marshal was pacing the quarter-deck, impatient to enter on his career of fame, or at all events was studying in his cabin, his field of coming action, he is in fact finishing off in a hurry a final letter to Mr. Trail! Thinking of glory and subtle plans of strategy, and the victorious burst of serried arrays and all the eloquence of battle-not a bit of it: he is thinking how the Irish Members, whom he has been "cultivating," will" whip-up" on the next party-division at St. Stephen's! "Off Cork, on board," under date of 12th July, he encloses for Lord Castlereagh's guidance a list of the absent Irish members, where they are, and who and what can coax them over when their votes are needed. As to Mr. Brownlow, "Tom Pakenham can write for him." Dr. Dugenan, the foul-mouthed bigot, has just been made a Privy Councillor by way of a small sop to the lowercrust Orangemen, and so he will come "when Sir Charles Saxton tells him he is wanted." Sir E. O'Brien is in a different position. "I suppose," writes Sir Arthur,“ his coming over depends on his brother getting a place. Places in esse or in posse, not patriotism, were the loadstones which attracted at this time too many of the postunion members for Ireland to London! So the list goes on: every man ear-marked: his motives guaged and carefully put in an inventory: his price fixed to a nicety-the method of Parliamentary corruption beautifully systematized and elaborated! With all his powers of "inducing" members over to England, the Irish Secretary was loth to exercise it. He knew there was a day of reckoning. But ministers, led in the Commons by Mr. Perceval, had hard work of it. Opposition was carrying on a guerilla warfare, harassing in the extreme. Government knew not when to expect a hostile move, and so were obliged to keep the friendly benches well packed. Sir Arthur writes complainingly to the Duke of Richmond, that, while ministers insist on a full attendance, they do not think of the engagements in which they involve him. A pretty picture, truly, of the Irish Representation, when the Great Measure of the Union was carried! Irish members so little believed in an actual identity of interests between the two countries that they only voted on English questions when a proper consideration moved towards