tugal; Germany is now a nation as well as a name; and all these glorious effects have been produced by the efforts and by the example of our country. If to be the deliverers of Europe; if to have raised our own national character, not upon the ruins of other kingdoms; if to meet dangers without shrinking, and to possess courage rising with difficulties, be admirable, surely we may not unreasonably hope for the applause of the world. If we have founded our strength upon a rock, and possess the implicit confidence of those allies whom we have succoured when they seemed beyond relief; then, I say, that our exertions during the last year, all our efforts during the war, are cheaply purchased: If we have burdened ourselves, we have relieved others; and we have the inward, the soul-felt, the proud satisfaction of knowing that a selfish charge is that which, with the faintest shadow of justice, cannot be brought against us." Mr Canning then proceeded to applaud the system of affording aid by bills of credit, which, without danger to ourselves, mixed the credit of this country with that of our allies. He also stated his concurrence in the treaty with Sweden, to which last year had objected, in consequence of the provision regarding Norway. A majority of both houses had determined in its favour, and he was satisfied with that vote. He also approved of the continuance of the aid to that power. He congratulated the House upon the accession of Austria to the confederacy, whose aid was so necessary to its success. Next to his joy in voting these supplies, would be the indignation he should feel, if either of the three great powers were to forsake the league, and make a separate treaty to secure its own peculiar interests. He did not believe that there was the least reason to apprehend such a defection;

he

for he was convinced, that all were now sensible, that the fate of each depended upon the firm union of all at the present crisis, when the liberty of the world was the prize for which they were contending. He concluded in the following words :

"It has been often said, that the language of true poetry is the language of universal nature; but I believe, that the empress of France was little conscious when she made her speech to the senate respecting her husband, that she was employing almost the very words of our great epic poet, who put them in the mouth of the first rebel and usurper on record, when speaking of the disappointment of the followers whom he had seduced

"Ah me! They little know How dearly I abide that boast I made; Under what torments inwardly I groan, While they adore me on the throne of hell!"

"Thus have I stated a few of the remarks which press upon me in the present posture of affairs. I ardently hope, that the result will be a general pacification, in which the interests of the civilized world will be duly consulted: If it should be necessary to continue hostilities, may we contend, as we have fought during the last campaign, with matchless strength, arising from the firmness of the indissoluble union of the allies, whose cause is, and whose exertions ought to be, one. May Great Britain still maintain that dignity of station, and support that grandeur and liberality of design, upon which she has hitherto acted: May she continue the unoppressive guardian of the liberties that she has vindicated, and the disinterested protectress of the blessings that she has bestowed!"

The resolutions proposed by Lord Castlereagh were put and carried.

Parliament had met regularly from the opening of the session; and had already gone through public business

to an extent, and in a manner, unprecedented in any former session. Nothing had occurred during this period to excite a feeling of jealousy towards the conduct of government; and it was not supposed necessary, therefore, that at the present moment it should continue without intermission the exercise of its vigilance and authority. With a view to the convenience of government at this important crisis, many questions indeed had been conceded without discussion, which at other times would probably have created much difference of opinion. The state of public and private business appeared to admit of an adjournment for a certain period. If, by the adjournment, the executive government might have been placed in any situation of embarrassment or difficulty-if it could have been prevented from availing itself of the deliberative wisdom of parliament upon any great emergency occurring before the expiration of the term of adjournment, this circumstance might have afforded a fair ground of objection to the propo. al. But it is well known that an act which, in the case either of prorogation or adjournment, gives the crown power to re-assemble both houses in fourteen days, was some time ago passed, to obviate any such inconveni

ence.

On the 26th December, Lord Castlereagh moved the adjournment of the House till the 1st of March, 1814, and a similar motion was also made by ministers in the House of Lords. These motions were strenuously opposed in both houses of parliament. Granting, it was said, the propriety of an adjournment for a short space, the proposition of ministers for dispensing with the aid of parliament till the 1st of March, ought to be indignantly rejected. Before that day arrived, the condition of Europe might be wholly changed, so

momentous were the events now passing on the continent. Great Britain, as became her, stood foremost in these mighty scenes of war and negotiation, yet it was now proposed by the ministers of the crown to act the whole of the grand drama without the assistance of the legislature. The British parliament is not a mere nominal institution, to register the decrees, and to approve the measures of the executive; it is the great council which the constitution appoints for the monarch to aid the servants of the crown with its advice, and restrain them by its authority. It is not in their power to say that they will receive or dispense with this advice according to their pleasure, their caprice, or their views of policy, for the constitution has said that they are bound to take it on all great occurrences. This is actually true, let the parliament be ever so factious or ungovernable; but never was a proposal made with so bad a grace, as that which now came from government, after receiving from both houses the most zealous support, and the most unbounded confidence. The only return which parliament, after having cheerfully voted ample supplies, and evinced the most ardent patriotism, had now received from the ministers, was an open and undisguised avowal of their opinions as to its incompetence or insignifi

cance.

Sir James M'Intosh, who opposed the adjournment in the Commons, descanted at great length upon the late assumption, by the Prince of Orange, of the title of Sovereign of the Netherlands-upon the claims of the Swiss to the privilege of neutrality-upon the partition of Poland, and the recent declaration of the allied powers. These topics had no very immediate or palpable connection with the question before the House, and, notwithstanding the opposition made to it, the motion

for adjournment was carried. The ministers were thus most seasonably relieved of the fatigues of a constant attendance in parliament, and were

enabled to devote their whole atten tion to the arduous task of conduct ing the foreign affairs of the coun try.

SIR Samuel Romilly, although fre quently disappointed in his projects for reforming the jurisprudence of England, still persevered; and in the present session of parliament exerted himself with his usual zeal and assuiduity. This eminent lawyer has greatly distinguished himself, as the reader must be aware, by the repeated efforts which he has made to infuse into the more antiquated and barbarous parts of the English code, some portion of the science and refinement which characterize the present age. The criminal laws of a rude people are generally framed rather from the impulses of passion, than the dictates of the understanding, and have reference not so much to the promotion of the public welfare, as to the gratification of vengeance. It is only in an age of refinement that the true principles and the just foundations of all criminal laws can be ascertained. The light of science, like the natural light of the sun, shews every object in its real magnitude and proportions, dispels groundless and extravagant alarm, and gives that liberal and assured disposition of mind which adapts the means of defence to the danger really to be

VOL. VII. PART 1.

encountered. It thus dissipates, by a sober and just feeling of security, the idle dreams, the appalling phantoms, and the extravagant vindictiveness, equally timid and fierce, of a rude and benighted age. As the criminal laws are the proper defences of society against the internal dangers which assail it, they are at an early period always severe and vindictive beyond the necessity of the occasion which suggests them.-The obstinate, and in some instances undiscriminating attachment of the English to their ancient laws, has left ample room for the judicious interference of the hand of reform; and Sir Samuel Romilly is the most conspicuous person, who, of late years, has aspired to distinction in this extensive and neglected field. A short account of his efforts during the present session of parliament cannot fail to be interesting:

By the ancient law a man convicted of high treason forfeits all his lands, all his goods and chattels, and all his personal property; persons attainted of felony forfeit their lands for one year, and all their goods and chattels and personal effects. Whether this be a wise or just law, or whether

D

it be expedient, when the law has removed a man from society, that his property should be confiscated, and a punishment be thus inflicted on the innocent individuals whom he leaves behind, seems very questionable. But Sir Samuel Romilly at present only meant to remove what in cases of attander is known among lawyers by the term Corruption of Blood; the effect of which is, that where a man is attainted of a capital offence, he can not transmit a descent-that is to say, such a person cannot form a link by which the chain of a pedigree can be traced; and if an attainted person stand in the way of a pedigree, his descendants, however far removed, must be deprived of the means of establishing their right to lands, to which he, if alive, would have had a prior right. The consequence is, that such land must escheat to the lord of the manor, of whom it may be holden. If a man, for instance, has a son and a grandson, and his son shall be capitally convicted, his grandson will be deprived of the benefit of any real estate of which he may have been possessed; and in consequence of the attainder of his son, the chain will be broken, and the land must escheat to the lord of the manor. A punishment is thus inflicted where punishment was not intended.

On the 23d March, Sir Samuel Romilly moved for leave to bring in a bill" to take away corruption of blood in cases of attainder for felony and high treason." On this occasion Sir S. observed, that this law rested upon feudal principles, which were by no means conformable to modern ideas of justice. The punishment depended solely upon accident; for the grandfather might devise his land to his grandson, if he thought proper; and only in case of his neglecting so to do, would his grandson be punished by the confisca tion of his property, and its transmis

sion to the lord of the manor. But if this case were considered severe, how much more severe were those cases where the connection was not so immediate? In the case of a twentieth cousin, for instance: There, in tracing a pedigree, if it should be found that one of the direct heirs, however far back, had been convicted of felony, the land would in like manner escheat. And what was apparently still more unjust was, that corruption of blood only extended to personal estate, and did not at all apply to leasehold property. It was of this evil he complained; and he was most anxious that such a relic of barbarism should not be found among our laws. It was said, in the course of the discussions which took place on this bill last session, that instances, against the recurrence of which he was desirous of guarding, were not likely to happen. It so happened, however, that at the very moment these assertions were made, an instance in point had occurred; and in a few weeks afterwards it happened to be his fortune, in a professional way, to have that case intrusted to his care. In this case, a woman had been convicted of a murder: in Oxfordshire fifty years ago; and the estate to which she would have been entitled had she lived, had passed from one possessor to another, and a valuable consideration had been given for it; yet, notwithstanding that the person in possession had paid the full value of the property, information having been given that the property had escheated to the crown, by reason of corruption of blood, an inquisition was instituted, and it was found that the land did in truth belong to the crown, and it was in consequence duly claim, ed. An application had, however, been made to the court of Chancery to traverse the inquisition, for the purpose of establishing that the land had not been held of the crown, but of a mesne