and America; " and seven millions of Catholics, in a state of the greatest fury and exasperation. We " proceed, "as if we did not owe a shilling. We spend as if we had no disaffection. This by possibility may go on, but it is dangerous walking; the chance is, there will be a fall. No wise man should take such a course; all probabilities are against it. We are astonished that Lord Lowther, and Lord Hertford, shrewed and calculating tories, do not see that it is nine to one against such a game. It is not only the event of war that we fear in the military struggle with Ireland; but the expense of war, and the expense of the English government, are paving the way for future revolutions. The world never yet saw so extravagant a government as the government of England. Not only is economy not practised, but is despised, and the idea of it connected with disaffection and jacobinism. Every rock in the ocean, where a cormorant can perch, is covered with our troops; has a governor, deputy governor, store-keeper, and deputy store-keeper, and will soon have an archdeacon, and a bishop. Military colleges, with thirty-four professors, educating seventeen ensigns per annum, being half an ensign for each professor, with every species of nonsense, athletic, sartorial, and plumigerous. A just and necessary war costs this country about one hundred pounds a minute; whip cord, fifteen thousand pounds; red tape, seven thousand pounds; lace for drummers and fifers, nineteen thousand pounds; a pension to one man who has broken his head against the north pole; to another who has shattered his leg at the equator-subsidiaries to Prussia; secret service money to Thibet; an annuity to Lady Henry Somebody, and her seven daughters, the husband being shot at some place where we never ought to have had any soldiers at all, and the elder brother returning four members to parliament. Such a scene of extravagance, corruption, and expence, must paralyse the industry, and mar the fortune of the most industrious, spirited people that ever existed. Few men consider the historical view which will be taken of past events. The bubbles of last year, the fishing for half crowns in Vigo bay, the milk, muffin and crumpet companies; the apple, pear, and plum associations, the national gooseberry and current companies, will all be remembered as creatures of that partial madness to which society is occasionally exposed." Works of the Rev. Sydney Smith, 3 vols. FUNDS.-Hume, in his "Political Essays," condemns with much earnestness paper credit, and points out the certain ruin to the state, in one way or other, from the funding system. The following extract from the "Rights of the Poor, and Christian Alms-giving Vindicated," by S. R. Bosanquet, 1841, is a view seldom noticed, self-evident and mischievous as the evil is: "There is one disease which alone must be sufficient to seal our fate. The system of public funded debts has taught the man of wealth the idea of irresponsible property; a thing which never can exist, but the very belief of which is enough to bring down a judgment on the people by whom it is entertained. The landed proprietor has tenants and labourers, and neighbours and parishioners; all of whom, within a certain district, may look to him for protection, for assistance, for advice; and, at least, for some notice and countenance. Even the tradesman and the merchant have their connexions and correspondents-their clerks, their travellers, their shopmen, their warehousemen, and apprentices, as well as their customers. But the holder of funded property, owns no claim from any one. In due time, after his name is written down in a great book, kept at the Bank of England, he receives his income at the day-or his banker receives it for him-without asking or thanking any one for it, and spends it when and how he pleases, at London, or Rome, or elsewhere. There is no one who can say, 'Sir, I am your tenant, or your tenant's labourer;' or, "I worked on your honour's estate, and recollect your father and grandfather.' No one person has any greater claim than another upon such a man; that is, no one has any claim at all. All sense of obligations and duties are forgotten; and, looking with triumph down upon the landed gentleman, who laments the low price of corn and the bad seasons, and finds that his tenants, as well as his farm-houses, must be propped, and the poor must be provided for, and happiness must be diffused over a sphere and circle to which he is bound indissolubly, he says, with exultation: There is no human being that has any claim upon me, and my income is as sure as the nation;' or, rather, should he say, as sure as the system can possibly be kept together.' Envy has naturally followed so independent a conviction; all other persons have rivalled the expenses and the habits of the fundholder; his selfishness, therefore, of necessity-his disregard for others-his separation from the lower and dependant classes his entire irresponsibility, has produced this evil. The consequence is, that the landed gentry are wholly unable to live on their landed estates, and more unable than unwilling, for they cannot afford the style and luxury which they ape, and at the same time fulfil the calls of duty; and, therefore, the claims of their station are a clog upon them. Instead of the duties and obligations of other stations being ingrafted on the funded income, the irresponsibility and selfishness of the fundholders are grafted on the landowner, and the duties and obligations are torn from the landed estate. In consequence, towns are resorted to, where your next neighbour is not known as an acquaintance; and if any per-centage, or pittance, or a solitary guinea, is given in charity, it is given to a public institution, without any knowledge of, or interest in, the particular cases, or any thanks from the persons benefited; but thanks come from the public in a laudatory advertisement, and the receipt is given in the mendacious, rich-flattering newspapers." Great Britain, for many years, has not had a minister who seemed to have any other care than how he could provide the means to pay the enormous amount of constantly accumulating interest on their debts; but there will come a time when neither ingenuity nor force can accomplish this; there must then be either an adjustment or bankruptcy. If the latter course is preferred, the following quotation, from Solomon, may be very appropriate to put into the royal speech to both houses of Parliament. "What hath pride profited us? Or what good hath riches with our vaunting brought us? All these things have passed away like a shadow, and as a post that hasted by !" There wants a minister who can carry out the following fine idea of Schiller: "When the machinist wishes to improve the action of a clock, he allows the wheels to run down-but the living clockwork of the state must be amended while the striking part, and the rolling of the wheels are changed during its revolution. Some support must therefore be brought to bear, that they may insure the continuance of society, when we wish to withdraw that of the present state!" He who can accomplish this, may very fairly be dignified with the name of a STATESMAN. |