throng his steps wherever he passes, that we are permitted to offer this tribute of a gratitude and veneration, which cannot be misinterpreted, to one, who suffered with our fathers for our sake; but we rejoice yet more for the moral effect it cannot fail to produce on us, both as individuals and as a people. For it is no common spectacle, which is now placed before each of us for our instruction. We are permitted to see one, who, by the mere force of principle, by plain and resolved integrity, has passed with perfect consistency through more remarkable extremes of fortune, than any man now alive, or, perhaps, any man on record. We are permitted to see one who has borne a leading and controlling part in two hemispheres, and in the two most important revolutions the world has yet seen, and has come forth from both of them without the touch of dishonor. We are permitted to see that man, who first put in jeopardy his rank and fortune at home, in order to serve as a volunteer in the cause of Free Institutions in America, and afterwards hazarded his life at the bar of the National Assembly, to arrest the same cause, when it was tending to excess and violence. We are permitted to see the man, who, after three years of unbroken political triumph, stood in the midst of half a million of his countrymen, comprehending whatever was great, wise, and powerful in the nation, with the oriflamme of the monarchy at his feet, and the confidence of all France following his words, as he swore on their behalf to a free constitution; and yet remained undazzled and unseduced by his vast, his irresistible popularity. We are permitted to see the man, who, for the sake of the same principles to which he had thus sworn, and in less than three years afterwards, was condemned to such obscure sufferings, that his very existence became doubtful to the world, and the place of his confinement was effectually hidden from the inquiries of his friends, who sent emissaries over half Europe to discover it; and yet remained unshaken and undismayed, constantly refusing all appearance of compromise with his persecutors and oppressors. We are, in short, permitted to see a man, who has professed, amidst glory and suffering, in triumph and in disgrace, the same principles of political freedom on both sides of the Atlantic; who has maintained the same tone, the same air, the same open confidence, amidst the ruins of the Bastille, in the Champ de Mars, under the despotism of Bonaparte, and in the dungeons of Olmütz. We rejoice, too, no less in the effect which this visit of General Lafayette is producing on us as a nation. It is doing much to unite us. It has brought those together, who have been separated by long lives of political animosity. It helps to break down the great boundaries and landmarks of party. It makes a holiday of kind and generous feelings in the hearts of the multitudes that throng his way, as he moves in triumphal procession from city to

city. It turns this whole people from the bustle and divisions of our wearisome elections, the contests of the senate-house, and the troubles and bitterness of our manifold political dissensions; and instead of all this, carries us back to that great period in our history, about which opinions have long been tranquil and settled. It offers to us, as it were, with the very costume and air appropriate to the times, one of the great actors from this most solemn passage in our national destinies; and thus enables us to transmit yet one generation further onward, a sensible impression of the times of our fathers; since we are not only permitted to witness ourselves one of their foremost leaders and champions, but can show him to our children, and thus leave in their young hearts an impression which will grow old there with their deepest and purest feelings. It brings, in fact, our revolution nearer to us, with all the high-minded patriotism and self-denying virtues of our forefathers; and therefore naturally turns our thoughts more towards our posterity, and makes us more anxious to do for them what we are so sensibly reminded was done with such perilous sacrifices for us.

We may be allowed, too, to add, that we rejoice in General Lafayette's visit on his own account. He enjoys a singular distinction; for it is a strange thing in the providence of God, one that never happened before, and will, probably, never happen again, that an individual from a remote quarter of the world, having assisted to lay the foundation of a great nation, should be permitted thus to visit the posterity of those he served, and witness on a scale so vast, the work of his own sacrifices; the result of grand principles in government for which he contended before their practical effect had been tried; the growth and maturity of institutions, which he assisted to establish, when their operation could be calculated only by the widest and most clear-sighted circumspection. We rejoice in it, for it is, we doubt not, the most gratifying and appropriate reward that could be offered to a spirit like his. In the beautiful phrase which Tacitus has applied to Germanicus, fruitur famâ; for he must be aware, that the ocean which rolls between us and Europe, operates like the grave on all feelings of passion and party, and that the voice of gratitude and admiration which now rises to greet him, from every city, every village, and every heart of this wide land, is as pure and sincere as the voice of posterity.

END OF NO. LI.

REMARK S,

&c. &c.

THE present moment is one of extreme interest.

From an increasing commerce, and a florishing state of our national concerns, the lapse of a few weeks has brought on such a state of distress, such an utter want of commercial confidence, as is said to have never before been known, even in the darkest and gloomiest moments of the late war, when "banded Europe stood our foe," and the hearts of the best friends of their country waxed faint.

It is not the object of the present writer to go into a discussion of the causes of this unfortunate change, or to add to the mass of speculations on the best mode of remedy, which are daily accumulating-and of which, if one who confesses himself no "Economist" may be allowed to judge by their contrariety, many must be at least as wild, as the "speculations" of another sort which are supposed to have had something to do with producing it. He merely wishes to take advantage of the present willingness of the nation to enquire, which unfortunately in moments of prosperity does not

exist.

Our situation is in every point of view, novel: some of the surrounding nations have materially altered their institutions, and those which yet remain unchanged in form are very different in spirit add to this, laws which for centuries have been considered the bulwarks of the national prosperity have been repealed -encouragements to our artificers, long thought necessary, have been taken away. How all this will eventuate the increased activity of foreigners on one hand, our altered laws on the other, appears to be about as uncertain as the chemical phenomena to be produced by the mixture of matters, the composition of which should be very imperfectly known. One thing probably will be allowed by all parties, that as our race is to be run under new and untried circumstances, we should come to the conflict as unem

barrassed as possible. We have been showing the world what we could do loaded with incumbrances-on which in its might the nation scarcely wasted a thought, and at the same time those with whom we struggled were bowed down. But things are changedour competitors have been gradually bringing themselves into a situation in which little of advantage is left us, except that arising from the energy of the national character. This, it is true, is inestimable; but no energy can perform impossibilities. It never was perhaps more imperatively the bounden duty of every Englishman, without distinction of party, to join in removing every unnecessary obstruction to the industry and enterprise of the nation.

The administration of law within this realm has been for a number of years the subject of continually increasing complaint, principally, it is true, from those who were, or thought they were sufferers on its account. The law itself, notwithstanding its glorious uncertainty, has been much less the subject of animadversion. Men of information have been fully aware, that in the actual—and if the expression may be allowed, highly complicated situation of society, it is impossible that any written code of laws should embrace the novel and intricate combinations continually arising-and that conflicting arguments are often so nicely balanced, that no ordinary acuteness readily discover where the preponderance ought to lie.

can

It may justly be assumed that the inconvenience suffered by those actually engaged in law-suits, great as it may be, is by no means equal to that produced by the operation of the present system on the nation at large. Trade is shackled in its remotest ramifications, by the difficulty and delay of effecting a legal adjustment of differences and disputes which must constantly arise; and then, the enormous expense, which may be as great in some cheese or butter bargain of a few pounds, as if an estate of tens of thousands were in dispute, so that an individual often finds it his interest to abandon his just right, because even with a certainty of success, his expenses and waste of time would render that success in reality a loss. The demoralising effect of all this ought not to pass unnoticed. Many a petty debt is contracted, and much unfair conduct takes place, on the speculation that the sufferer will consult his interest, and keep out of a court of law. In criminal matters, the injury is perhaps even greater. After suffering from some petty robbery, to lose time, pay solicitor's fees, &c. not to mention the money which must be distributed among the footmen of justice; it is heaping injustice on misfortune. From hence may be traced much of the dishonesty among servants, which is increasing to an alarming extent, and more especially, where according to the view here taken it might be expected, among the