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THE GOVERNMENT OF ENGLAND.

255

government; the monarchy, residing in the king; the aristocracy in the house of lords; and the republic being represented by the house of commons. The crown of the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is hereditary, and its rightful inheritor is bound, by the conditions of his inheri tance, to the discharge of certain duties, as well as vested with certain powers and privileges. By the oath administered to the sovereign at his coronation, he solemnly engages to govern according to law, to execute judgment in mercy, and to maintain the established religion. To the king belongs the sole power of sending and receiving ambassadors; and it is his prerogative also to enter into treaties, and to form alliances with foreign princes and states, to make war or peace, to raise and regulate fleets and armies, to erect fortifications, to coin money, to regulate commerce, and to establish courts of judicature. He is the fountain of honour, office, and privilege, and he can grant letters of nobility and erect corporations. The king has an absolute negative upon the acts of parliament, his person is sacred, and he is not accountable for misconduct. It is a principle of the constitutional law that "the king can do no wrong;" but it is provided, that for all his public acts, his ministers and advisers. are responsible to the nation at large by the medium of the parliament, and other legally constituted assemblies.

The house of peers is composed of the lords spiritual and the lords temporal. The former consist of two archbishops, and twenty-four bishops, who are a kind of representatives of the clergy of England and Wales; and of four bishops, who are taken by rotation from the eighteen bishops of Ireland. With regard to England the number of temporal peers is unlimited. The Scotch peers are sixteen in number, and are elected by their own body for one parliament only. The lords temporal are divided into dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons, who hold their respective ranks in the foregoing order, by hereditary descent or by creation. In its aggregate capacity, the house of peers has a right to a negative upon all legislative proposals.

The representatives, who constitute the house of commons, or the lower house of parliament, are divided into two classes, knights of the shire, or representatives of counties; and citizens and burgesses, or representatives of cities and boroughs. The qualification for voting for county members,

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THE GOVERNMENT OF ENGLAND.

is the possession of a freehold of the value of forty shillings per annum or upwards. The right of election in boroughs is various, depending upon the charters or immemorial usage of each place, or upon decisions made by committees appointed by the house of commons. "There is nothing in the British constitution so remarkable," says Paley, "6 as the irregularity of the popular representation. If my estate be situated in one county of the kingdom, I possess the ten thousandth part of a single representative; if in another, the thousandth; if in a particular district, I may be one in twenty who choose two representatives; if in a still more favoured spot, I may enjoy the right of appointing two myself. To describe the state of national representation as it exists, in reality, it may be affirmed, I believe with truth, that about one half of the house of commons obtain their seats by the election of the people, the other half by purchase, or by the nomination of single proprietors of great estates." He acknowledges this to be a flagrant incongruity in the constitution; but he doubts whether any new scheme of representation would collect together more wisdom, or produce firmer integrity. The house of commons enjoys the privilege of a negative upon all the laws which may be proposed for its consideration, and exercises the right of originating all bills, which levy money upon the subject by way of taxes or assessments. The English regard this as the principal safeguard of their liberties, and the main barrier against the inordinate increase of the power of the crown, for the commons can at any time check measures of folly or guilt, by withholding the supplies, and without money the strength of the executive is paralyzed. The king, however, is invested with a power to dissolve the parliament, and thus, by submitting their conduct to the revision of their constituents, to appeal against them to the nation at larg

QUESTIONS. 1. How is the government of England formed? 2. What is the import of the oath which the king takes at his coronation? 3. What are some of the prerogatives of the king? 4. Describe the house of peers. 5. House of commons? 6. What are the remarks of Paley respecting the house of commons? 7. What do the English regard as the principal safeguard of their liberties?

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HERE the free spirit of mankind at length
Throws its last fetters off; and who shall place
A limit to the giant's unchained strength,
Or curb his swiftness in the forward race.
For, like the comet's way through infinite space,
Stretches the long untravell'd path of light
Into the depths of ages: we may trace,
Afar, the brightening glory of its flight,
Till the receding rays are lost to human sight.
Europe is given a prey to sterner fates,

And writhes in shackles; strong the arms that chain
To earth her struggling multitude of states;
She too is strong, and might not chafe in vain
Against them, but shake off the vampyre train
That batten on her blood, and break their net.
Yes, she shall look on brighter days, and gain
The meed of worthier deeds; the moment set
To rescue and raise up, draws near-but is not yet.
But thou, my country, thou shalt never fall,
But with thy children-thy maternal care,
Thy lavish love, thy blessings shower'd on all—
These are thy fetters-seas and stormy air
Are the wide barrier of thy borders, where
Among thy gallant sons that guard thee well,
Thou laugh'st at enemies who shall then declare
The date of thy deep-founded strength, or tell
How happy, in thy lap, the sons of men shall dwell.
BRYANT

22*

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STRUCTURE OF THE HUMAN BODY.

LESSON 117.

Structure of the Human Body.

Car'tilage, gristle. Ad'ipose, fatty,

Ten'dons, hard, insensible cords, by means of which muscular fibres are attached to bones.

DR. HUNTER gives the following beautiful representation of the structure of the human body, with reference to all the wants and requisites of such a being as man, in answer to a supposed objector, who asks why a more simple, less delicate, and less expansive frame had not been adopted. First, says he, the mind, the thinking, immaterial agent, must be provided with a place of immediate residence, which shall have all the requisites for the union of spirit and body; accordingly, she is provided with the brain, where she dwells as governor and superintendent of the whole fabric. In the next place, as she is to hold a correspondence with all the material beings around her, she must be supplied with organs fitted to receive the different kinds of impression which they will make. In fact, therefore, we see that she is provided with the organs of sense, as we call them; the eye is adapted to light; the ear to sound; the nose to smell; the mouth to taste; and the skin to touch. Further, she must be furnished with organs of communication between herself in the brain, and those organs of sense; to give her inforination of all the impressions that are made upon them; and she must have organs between herself in the brain, and every other part of the body fitted to convey her commands and influence over the whole. For these purposes the nerves are actually given. They are soft white chords which rise from the brain, the immediate residence of the mind, and disperse themselves, in branches, through all parts of the body. They convey all the different kinds of sensations to the mind in the brain; and likewise carry out of thence all her commands to the other parts of the body. They are intended to be occasional monitors against all such impressions as might endanger the well-being of the whole, or of any particular part; which vindicates the Creator of all things, in having actually subjected us to those many disagreeable and painful sensations which we are exposed to from a thousand accidents in life.

STRUCTURE OF THE HUMAN BODY.

259

The mind, in this corporeal system, must be endued with the power of moving from place to place; that she may have intercourse with a variety of objects; that she may fly from such as are disagreeable, dangerous, or hurtful; and pursue such as are pleasant and useful to her. And accordingly she is furnished with limbs, with muscles and tendons, the instruments of motion, which are found in every part of the fabric where motion is necessary. But to support, to give firmness and shape to the fabric; to keep the softer parts in their proper places; to give fixed points for, and the proper directions to, its motions, as well as to protect some of the more important and tender organs from external injuries, there must be some firm prop-work interwoven through the whole. And, in fact, for such purposes the bones are given. The prop-work is not made with one rigid fabric, for that would prevent motion. Therefore there are a number of bones. These pieces must all be firmly bound together, to prevent their dislocation. And this end is perfectly well answered by the ligaments. The extremities of these bony pieces, where they move and run one upon another, must have smooth and slippery surfaces for easy motion. This is most happily provided for, by the cartilages and mucus of the joints. The interstices of all these parts must be filled up with some soft and ductile matter, which shall keep them in their places, unite them, and at the same time allow them to move a little upon one another; these purposes are answered by the cellular membrane, or adipose substance. There must be an outward covering over the whole apparatus, both to give it compactness, and to defend it from a thousand injuries; which, in fact, are the very purposes of the skin and other integuments.

QUESTIONS.-1. How does the soul correspond with material beings? 2. What are the nerves, and their use? 3. Of what use are the bones? 4. The ligaments, cartilages, and mucus? 5. Cellular membrane? 6. Skin and other integuments?

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