calties, and that a short adjournment will not be readers one or two specimens of his gift of denied, if asked. I do not throw out this as know- drawing characters; in the exercise of which ing from any authority that it will be proposed, but he generally rises to a sort of quaint and as an idea that suggests itself to me; and in order to show that I wish to talk with you, and consult brilliant conciseness, and displays a degree with you in the same frank manner in which I of acuteness and fine observation that are not should have done before I was in this situation, so to be found in the other parts of his writing. very new to me. I have been used to think ill of His greatest fault is, that he does not abuse all the ministers whom I did know, and to suspect any body,-even where the dignity of history, those whom I did not, that when I am obliged to and of virtue, call loudly for such an infliction. call myself a minister, I feel as if I put myself into ■ very suspicious character; but I do assure you I Yet there is something in the tone of all his am the very same man, in all respects, that I was delineations, that satisfies us that there is nowhen you knew me, and honoured me with some thing worse than extreme good nature at the hare in your esteem-that I maintain the same bottom of his forbearance. Of Philip Tisdal, piuions, and act with the same people. "Pray make my best compliments to Mr. Grat. who was Attorney-general when Lord Charle tan, and tell him, that the Duke of Portland and mont first came into Parliament, he says:Fitzpatrick are thoroughly impressed with the im"He had an admirable and most superior underportance of his approbation, and will do all they can standing; an understanding matured by years-by to deserve it. I do most sincerely hope, that he long experience-by habits with the best company may hit upon some line that may be drawn honour-from his youth-with the bar, with Parliament, ably and advantageously for both countries; and with the State. To this strength of intellect was that, when that is done, he will show the world that added a constitutional philosophy, or apathy, which there may be a government in Ireland, of which he never suffered him to be carried away by attach is not ashamed to make a part. That country can never prosper, where, what should be the ambition and things so clearly; he understood so well the ment to any party, even his own. He saw men of men of honour, is considered as a disgrace." whole farce and fallacy of life, that it passed before pp. 217-219. him like a scenic representation; and, till almost the close of his days, he went through the world gravity of feature. His countenance was never gay, with a constant sunshine of soul, and an inexorable and his mind was never gloomy. He was an able speaker, as well at the bar as in the House of Com mons, though his diction was very indifferent. He did not speak so much at length as many of his parliamentary coadjutors, though he knew the whole of the subject much better than they did. He was not only a good speaker in Parliament, but an excellent manager of the House of Commons. He never said too much: and he had great merit in what he did not say; for Government was never committed by him. He plunged into no difficulty; nor did he ever suffer his antagonist to escape from one."-pp. 78, 79.

The following letter from Mr. Burke in the end of 1789, will be read with more interest, when it is recollected that he published his celebrated Reflections on the French Revolution, but a few months after.

Of Hussey Burgh, afterwards Lord Chief Baron, he observes:

My dearest Lord,-I think your Lordship has acted with your usual zeal and judgment in estab. lishing a Whig club in Dublin. These meetings prevent the evaporation of principle in individuals, and give them joint force, and enliven their exertions emulation. You see the matter in its true light; with your usual discernment. Party is absolutely necessary at this time. I thought it always so in this country, ever since I have had any thing to do in public business; and I rather fear, that there is not virtue enough in this period to support party, than that party should become necessary, on account of the want of virtue to support itself by individual exertions. As to us here, our thoughts "To those who never heard him, as the fashion of of every thing at home are suspended by our as- this world in eloquence as in all things soon passes tonishment at the wonderful spectacle which is ex-away, it may be no easy matter to convey a just hibited in a neighbouring and rival country: What idea of his style of speaking. It was sustained by spectators, and what actors! England gazing with great ingenuity, great rapidity of intellect, luminous astonishment at a French struggle for liberty, and and piercing satire; in refinement abundant, in simnot knowing whether to blame, or to applaud. The plicity sterile. The classical allusions of this orator, thing, indeed, though I thought I saw something for he was most truly one, were so apposite, they like it in progress for several years, has still some- followed each other in such bright and varied sucwhat in it paradoxical and mysterious. The spirit cession, and, at times, spread such an unexpected it is impossible not to admire; but the old Parisian and triumphant blaze around his subject, that all ferocity has broken out in a shocking manner. It persons who were in the least tinged with literais true, that this may be no more than a sudden ex- ture, could never be tired of listening to him; and plosion; if so, no indication can be taken from it; when in the splendid days of the Volunteer Assobut if it should be character, rather than accident, ciation, alluding to some coercive English laws, then that people are not fit for liberty-and must and to that institution, then in its proudest array, have a strong hand, like that of their former mas- he said, in the House of Commons, That such ters, to coerce them. Men must have a certain laws were sown like dragons' teeth,-and sprung fund of natural moderation to qualify them for free-up in armed men,' the applause which followed, dom; else it becomes noxious to themselves, and a and the glow of enthusiasm which he kindled in perfect nuisance to every body else. What will be every mind, far exceed my powers of description." the event, it is hard, I think, still to say. To form-pp. 140, 141. a solid constitution, requires wisdom as well as spirit; and whether the French have wise heads among them, or, if they possess such, whether they have authority equal to their wisdom, is yet to be seen. In the mean time, the progress of this whole affair is one of the most curious matters of specula tion that ever was exhibited."-pp. 321, 322.

We should now take our leave of Mr. Hardy: -and yet it would not be fair to dismiss him from the scene entirely, without giving our

Of Gerard Hamilton, he gives us the following characteristic anecdotes.

"The uncommon splendour of his eloquence, which was succeeded by such inflexible taciturnity in St. Stephen's Chapel, became the subject, as The truth is, that all his speeches, whether delivered might be supposed, of much, and idle speculation. in London or Dublin, were not only prepared, but studied, with a minuteness and exactitude, of which

mont, in relation to that parliamentary grant, by which an honour was conferred on an individual patriot, without place or official situa tion of any kind, and merely for his personal merits and exertions, which has in other cases been held to be the particular and appropriate reward of triumphant generals aud commanders. When the mild and equable temperament of Lord Charlemont's mind is recol lected, as well as the caution with which all his opinions were expressed, we do not know that a wise ambition would wish for a prouder or more honourable testimony than is contained in the following short sentences.

those who are only used to the carelessness of modern debating, can scarcely form any idea. Lord Charlemont, who had been long and intimately acquainted with him, previous to his coming to Ireland, often mentioned that he was the only speaker, among the many he had heard, of whom he could say, with certainty, that all his speeches, however long, were written and got by heart. A gentleman, well known to his Lordship and Hamilton, assured him, that he heard Hamilton repeat, no less than three times, an oration, which he afterwards spoke in the House of Commons, and which lasted almost three hours. As a debater, therefore, he became as useless to his political patrons as Addison was to Lord Sunderland; and, if possible, he was more scrupulous in composition than even that eminent man. Addison would stop the press to correct the most trivial error in a large publication; and Ham"Respecting the grant, I know with certainty ilton, as I can assert on indubitable authority, that Grattan, though he felt himself flattered by would recall the footman, if, on recollection, any the intention, looked upon the act with the deepest word, in his opinion, was misplaced or improper, in concern, and did all in his power to deprecale L the slightest note to a familiar acquaintance." As it was found impossible to defeat the design, all pp. 60, 61. his friends, and I among others, were employed to No name is mentioned in these pages with lessen the sum. It was accordingly decreased by higher or more uniform applause, than that one half, and that principally by his positive decla of Henry Grattan. But that distinguished ration, through us, that, if the whole were insisted on, he would refuse all but a few hundreds, which person still lives: and Mr. Hardy's delicacy he would retain as an honourable mark of the goodhas prevented him from attempting any de-ness of his country. By some, who look only into lineation, either of his character or his elo- themselves for information concerning human na quence. We respect his forbearance, and ture, this conduct will probably be construed into shall follow his example:-Yet we cannot hypocrisy. To such, the excellence and pre-eminency of virtue, and the character of Grattan, are deny ourselves the gratification of extracting as invisible and incomprehensibe, as the brightness one sentence from a letter of Lord Charle- of the sun to a man born blind."-p. 237.

(September, 1818.)

An Inquiry whether Crime and Misery are produced or prevented by our present System of Prison Discipline. Illustrated by Descriptions of the Borough Compter, Tothill Fields Prison, the Jail at St. Albans, the Jail at Guildford, the Jail at Bristol, the Jails at Bury and Ilchester, the Maison de Force at Ghent, the Philadelphia Prison, the Penitentiary at Millbank, and the Proceedings of the Ladies' Committee at Newgate. By THOMAS FOWELL BUXTON. 8vo. p. 171. London: 1818.

THERE are two classes of subjects which naturally engage the attention of public men, and divide the interest which society takes in their proceedings. The one may, in a wide sense, be called Party Politics-the other Civil or Domestic Administration. To the former belong all questions touching political rights and franchises-the principles of the Constitution-the fitness or unfitness of ministers, and the interest and honour of the country, as it may be affected by its conduct and relations to foreign powers, either in peace or war. The latter comprehends most of the branches of political economy and statistics, and all the ordinary legislation of internal police and regulation; and, besides the two great heads of Trade and Taxation, embraces the improvements of the civil Code-the care of the Poor-the interests of Education, Religion, and Morality-and the protection of Prisoners, Lunatics, and others who cannot claim protection for themselves. This distinction, we confess, is but coarsely drawn since every one of the things we have last enumerated may, in certain circumstanves, be made an occasion of party contention.

But what we mean is, that they are not its natural occasions, and do not belong to those topics, or refer to those principles, in relation to which the great Parties of a free country necessarily arise. One great part of a statesman's business may thus be considered as Polemic-and another as Deliberative; his main object in the first being to discomfit and expose his opponents-and, in the second, to discover the best means of carrying into effect ends which all agree to be desirable.

Judging à priori of the relative importance or agreeableness of these two occupations, we should certainly be apt to think that the latter was by far the most attractive and comfortable in itself, as well as the most likely to be popular with the community. The fact, however, happens to be otherwise: For such is the excitement of a public contest for influ ence and power, and so great the prize to be won in those honourable lists, that the highest talents are all put in requisition for that department, and all their force and splendour reserved for the struggle: And indeed, when we consider that the object of this struggle is nothing less than to put the whole power of

administration into the hands of the victors, |paign. The inventors of the steam-engine and thus to enable them not only to engross and the spinning-machine have, beyond all the credit of carrying through all those bene- question, done much more in our own times, ficial arrangements that may be called for by not only to increase the comforts and wealth the voice of the country, but to carry them of their country, but to multiply its resources through in their own way, we ought not per- and enlarge its power, than all the Statesmen haps to wonder, that in the eagerness of this and Warriors who have affected during the pursuit, which is truly that of the means to all same period, to direct its destiny; and yet, ends, some of the ends themselves should, while the incense of public acclamation has when separately presented, appear of inferior been lavished upon the latter while wealth moment, and excite far less interest or concern. and honours, and hereditary distinctions, have But, though this apology may be available been heaped upon them in their lives, and in some degree to the actors, it still leaves us monumental glories been devised to perpetuat a loss to account for the corresponding senate the remembrance of their services, the timents that are found in the body of the peo- former have been left undistinguished in the ple, who are but lookers on for the most part crowd of ordinary citizens, and permitted to in this great scene of contention and can close their days, unvisited by any ray of pubscarcely fail to perceive, one would imagine, lic favour or national gratitude, for no other that their immediate interests were often post-reason that can possibly be suggested, than poned to the mere gladiatorship of the parties, that their invaluable services were performed and their actual service neglected, while this without noise or contention, in the studious fierce strife was maintained as to who should privacy of benevolent meditation, and withbe allowed to serve them. In such circum- out any of those tumultuous accompaniments stances, we should naturally expect to find, that excite the imagination, or inflame the that the popular favourites would not be the passions of observant multitudes. leaders of the opposite political parties, but The case, however, is precisely the same those who, without regard to party, came for- with the different classes of those who occupy ward to suggest and promote measures of ad- themselves with public interests. He who mitted utility-and laboured directly to en- thunders in popular assemblies, and consumes large the enjoyments and advantages of the his antagonists in the blaze of his patriotic people, or to alleviate the pressure of their eloquence, or withers them with the flash of necessary sufferings. That it is not so in fact his resistless sarcasm, immediately becomes, and reality, must be ascribed, we think, partly not merely a leader in the senate, but an idol to the sympathy which, in a country like this, in the country at large;-while he who by men of all conditions take in the party feel- his sagacity discovers, by his eloquence recomings of their political favourites, and the sense mends, and by his laborious perseverance ultithey have of the great importance of their mately effects, some great improvement in success, and the general prevalence of their the condition of large classes of the commuprinciples; and partly, no doubt, and in anity, is rated, by that ungrateful community, greater degree, to that less justifiable but very familiar principle of our nature, by which we are led, on so many other occasions, to prefer splendid accomplishments to useful qualities, and to take a much greater interest in those perilous and eventful encounters, where the prowess of the champions is almost all that is to be proved by the result, than in those humbler labours of love or wisdom, by which the enjoyments of the whole society are multiplied or secured.

as a far inferior personage; and obtains, for his nights and days of successful toil, a far less share even of the cheap reward of popu lar applause than is earned by the other, merely in following the impulses of his own ambitious nature. No man in this country ever rose to a high political station, or even obtained any great personal power and influence in society, merely by originating in Parliament measures of internal regulation, or conducting with judgment and success imThere is a reason, no doubt, for this also-provements, however extensive, that did not and a wise one-as for every other general law to which its great Author has subjected our being: But it is not the less true, that it often operates irregularly, and beyond its province, as may be seen in the familiar instance of the excessive and pernicious admiration which follows all great achievements in War, and makes Military fame so dangerously seducing, both to those who give and to those who receive it. It is undeniably true, as Swift said long ago, that he who made two blades of grass to grow where one only grew before, was a greater benefactor to his country than all the heroes and conquerors with whom its annals are emblazed; and yet it would be ludicrous to compare the fame of the most successful improver in agriculture with that of the most inconsiderable soldier who ever signalised his courage in an unsuccessful cam

affect the interests of one or other of the two great parties in the state. Mr. Wilberforce may perhaps be mentioned as an exception; and certainly the greatness, the long endurance, and the difficulty of the struggle, which he at last conducted to so glorious a termination, have given him a fame and popularity which may be compared, in some respects, with that of a party leader. But even Mr. Wilberforce would be at once demolished in a contest with the leaders of party; and could do nothing, out of doors, by his own individua. exertions; while it is quite manifest, that the greatest and most meritorious exertions to ex tend the reign of Justice by the correction of our civil code-to ameliorate the condition of the Poor-to alleviate the sufferings of the Prisoner,-or, finally, to regenerate the minds of the whole people by an improved system

of Education, will never give a man half the power or celebrity that may be secured, at any time, by a brilliant speech on a motion of censure, or a flaming harangue on the boundlessness of our resources, and the glories of our arms.

tails of a painful and offensive nature; and a indolent sort of optimism, by which we natorally seek to excuse our want of activity, by charitably presuming that things are as wel as they can easily be made, and that it is inconceivable that any very flagrant abuses should be permitted by the worthy and ha mane people who are more immediately con cerned in their prevention. To this is added a fear of giving offence to those same worthy visitors and superintendants-and a still more potent fear of giving offence to his Majesty's Government;-for though no administration can really have any interest in the existence of such abuses, or can be suspected of wishing to perpetuate them from any love for them or their authors, yet it is but too true that most long-established administrations have looked with an evil eye upon the detectors and redressors of all sorts of abuses, however little connected with politics or political personsfirst, because they feel that their long and undisturbed continuance is a tacit reproach on their negligence and inactivity, in not having made use of their great opportunities to discover and correct them—secondly, because all such corrections are innovations upon old usages and establishments, and practical ad

It may be conjectured already, that with all due sense of the value of party distinctions, and all possible veneration for the talents which they call most prominently into action, we are inclined to think, that this estimate of public services might be advantageously corrected; and that the objects which would exclusively occupy our statesmen if they were all of one mind upon constitutional questions, ought more frequently to take precedence of the contentions to which those questions give rise. We think there is, of late, a tendency to such a change in public opinion. The nation, at least, seems at length heartily sick of those heroic vapourings about our efforts for the salvation of Europe,-which seem to have ended in the restoration of old abuses abroad, and the imposition of new taxes at home; and about the vigour which was required for the maintenance of our glorious constitution, which has most conspicuously displayed itself in the suspension of its best bulwarks, and the organisation of spy systems and vindictive per-missions of the flagrant imperfection of those secutions, after the worst fashion of arbitrary boasted institutions, towards which it is their governments;-and seems disposed to re- interest to maintain a blind and indiscriminate quire, at the hands of its representatives, some veneration in the body of the people--and, substantial pledge of their concern for the thirdly, because, if general abuses affecting general welfare, by an active and zealous co-large classes of the community are allowed to operation in the correction of admitted abuses, and the redress of confessed wrongs.

It is mortifying to the pride of human wisdom, to consider how much evil has resulted from the best and least exceptionable of its boasted institutions-and how those establishments that have been most carefully devised for the repression of guilt, or the relief of misery, have become themselves the fruitful and pestilent sources both of guilt and misery, in a frightful and disgusting degree. Laws, without which society could not exist, become, by their very multiplication and refinement, a snare and a burden to those they were intended to protect, and let in upon us the hateful and most intolerable plagues, of pettifogging, chicanery, and legal persecution. Institutions for the relief and prevention of Poverty have the effect of multiplying it tenfold-hospitals for the cure of Diseases become centres of infection. The very Police, which is necessary to make our cities habitable, give birth to the odious vermin of informers, thief-catchers, and suborners of treachery; -and our Prisons, which are meant chiefly to reform the guilty and secure the suspected, are converted into schools of the most atrocious corruption, and dens of the most inhuman torture.

be exposed and reformed in any one depart ment, the people might get accustomed to look for the redress of all similar abuses in other departments, and reform would cease to be a word of terror and alarm (as most ministers think it ought to be) to all loyal subjects.

These, no doubt, are formidable obstacles; and therefore it is, that gross abuses have been allowed to subsist so long. But they are so far from being insurmountable, that we are perfectly persuaded that nothing more is ne cessary to insure the effectual correction, or mitigation at least, of all the evils to which we have alluded, than to satisfy the public, 1st, of their existence and extent-and, 2dly, of there being means for their effectual redress and prevention. Evils that are directly con nected with the power of the existing administration-abuses of which they are themselves the authors or abettors, or of which they have the benefit, can only be corrected by their removal from office-and are substantially irremediable, however enormous, while they continue in power. All questions as to them, therefore, belong to the department of party politics, and fall within the province of the polemical statesman. But with regard to all other plain violations of reason, justice, of Those evils and abuses, thus arising out of humanity, it is comfortable to think that we intended benefits and remedies, are the last to live in such a stage of society as to make it which the attention of ordinary men is direct-impossible that they should be allowed to sub ed-because they arise in such unexpected quarters, and are apt to be regarded as the unavoidable accompaniments of indispensable institutions. There is a selfish delicacy which makes us at all times averse to enter into de

sist many years, after their mischief and iniquity have been made manifest to the sense of the country at large. Public opinion, which is still potent and formidable even to Ministe rial corruption, is omnipotent against ali infe

beyond all dispute a very lamentable evil; and to which no unnecessary addition can be made without the most tremendous injustice.

rior malversations-and the invaluable means | False accusation; and to condemn him who of denunciation and autl, ritative and irresis- is only suspected, is to commence his punishtible investigation which we possess in our ment while his crime is uncertain. Nay, it is representative legislature, puts it in the power not only uncertain, as to all who are untried, of any man of prudence, patience, and re- but it is the fixed presumption of the law that spectability in that House, to bring to light the the suspicion is unfounded, and that a trial most secret, and to shame the most arrogant will establish his innocence. We suppose delinquent, and to call down the steady ven- there are not less than ten or fifteen thousand geance of public execration, and the sure persons taken up yearly in Great Britain and light of public intelligence, for the repression Ireland on suspicion of crimes, of whom cerand redress of all public injustice. tainly there are not two-thirds convicted; so The charm is in the little word PUBLICITY! that, in all likelihood, there are not fewer than -And it is cheering to think how many won-seven or eight thousand innocent persons placed ders have already been wrought by that pre-annually in this painful predicament-whose cious Talisman. If the House of Commons very imprisonment, though an unavoidable, is was of no other use but as an organ for proclaiming and inquiring into all alleged abuses, and making public the results, under the sanction of names and numbers which no man The debtor, again, seems entitled to at dares to suspect of unfairness or inattention, least as much indulgence. "He may," says it would be enough to place the country in Mr. Buxton, "have been reduced to his inawhich it existed far above all terms of com- bility to satisfy his creditor by the visitation parison with any other, ancient or modern, in of God,-by disease, by personal accidents, which no such institution had been devised. by the failure of reasonable projects, by the Though the great work is done, however, by largeness or the helplessness of his family. that House and its committees-though it is His substance, and the substance of his credithere only that the mischief can be denounced tor, may have perished together in the flames, with a voice that reaches to the utmost bor- or in the waters. Human foresight cannot ders of the land-and there only that the sea! always avert, and human industry cannot alof unquestioned and unquestionable authority ways repair, the calamities to which our nacan be set to the statements which it authen- ture is subjected ;-surely, then, some debtors ticates and gives out to the world;-there is are entitled to compassion."-(p. 4.) Of the still room, and need too, for the humbler min-number of debtors at any one time in confineistry of inferior agents, to circulate and enforce, to repeat and expound, the momentous facts that have been thus collected, and upon which the public must ultimately decide. It is this unambitious, but useful function that we now propose to perform, in laying before our readers a short view of the very interesting facts which are detailed in the valuable work of which the title is prefixed, and in the parliamentary papers to which it refers.

ment in these kingdoms, we have no means of forming a conjecture; but beyond all doubt they amount to many thousands, of whom probably one half have been reduced to that state by venial errors, or innocent misfortune.

Even with regard to the convicted, we humbly conceive it to be clear, that where no special severity is enjoined by the law, any additional infliction beyond that of mere coercion, is illegal. If the greater delinquents alone were subjected to such severities, there might be a colour of equity in the practice;

cording to the state of the prison, the usage of the place, or the temper of the jailor;and, in all cases, they are inflicted indiscriminately on the whole inmates of each unhappy mansion. Even if it were otherwise, "Who," says Mr. B., "is to apportion this variety of wretchedness? The Judge, who knows nothing of the interior of the jail; or the jailor, who knows nothing of the transactions of the Court? The law can easily suit its penalties to the circumstances of the case. It can ad judge to one offender imprisonment for one day; to another for twenty years: But what ingenuity would be sufficient to devise, and what discretion could be trusted to inflict, modes of imprisonment with similar variations ?"-p. 8.

Prisons are employed for the confinement and security of at least three different descriptions of persons:-first, of those who are ac-but, in point of fact, they are inflicted accused of crimes and offences, but have not yet been brought to trial; 2d, of those who have been convicted, and are imprisoned preparatory to, or as a part of, their punishment; and 3d, of debtors, who are neither convicted nor accused of any crime whatsoever. In both the first classes, and even in that least entitled to favour, there is room for an infinity of distinctions-from the case of the boy arraigned or convicted for a slight assault or a breach of the peace, up to that of the bloody murderer or hardened depredator, or veteran leader of the house-breaking gang. All these persons must indeed be imprisoned-for so the law has declared; but, under that sentence, we humbly conceive there is no warrant to inflict on them any other punishment-any thing more than a restraint on their personal free- But the truth is, that all inflictions be "ond dom. This, we think, is strictly true of all that of mere detention, are clearly illegal.-the three classes we have mentioned; but it Take the common case of fetters - from will scarcely be disputed, at all events, that Bracton down to Blackstone, all our lawyers it is true of the first and the last. A man may declare the use of them to be contrary to law. avoid the penalties of Crime, by avoiding all The last says, in so many words, that "the criminality: But no man can be secure against | law will not justify jailors in fettering a pri