018 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



in the same person, which renders the character of Park so truly great, 

 and which makes the record of his life in the highest degree interesting, 

 not merely to those who care about Africa, or the great schemes to his 

 zeal for which he fell a martyr, but to all who take delight in the spec- 

 tacle of unbounded courage and heroic ardour, unalloyed with any taint 

 of ferocity, selfishness, or bigotry." 



The book is a very suitable one for family reading, and, as such, we 

 strongly recommend it. 



Free and Safe Government. By a Cumberland Land- Owner. 1 vol. 

 Ridgway and Sons, London. 



Mr. Rooke, the Cumberland Land-owner, is a man of strong and shrewd 

 sense, holding some ultra opinions regarding the trade in corn. An able 

 pamphlet, of which the second edition is before us, on this subject, has 

 been, he says, in his preface, " insufficient to convince the landed interest 

 that Corn Laws are sure to lower the price of corn in the home-market, 

 withdraw profitable employment, augment poor-rates, and multiply 

 crime." He now attacks them in the heavier shape of a book of some 

 '300 pages, in which he proposes to show what freedom and safe govern- 

 ment really are, and how they are attained by the British Constitution. 

 This is a laudable undertaking ; and if we think the Author has not 

 altogether fulfilled his intention, he has nevertheless given us a good 

 book, and one well worth careful perusal. In the limits to which we are 

 confined, it would be a waste of time to enter into an analysis of the 

 theory and practice of Free and Safe Government, and we are therefore 

 compelled to confine ourselves to extracts, picked out to show the 

 writer's style, and some of his opinions : 



*' The form of our Constitution, therefore, as it engages all the probity 

 and talents of the nation, in upholding and preserving a pure administra- 

 tion in the public service, so have we a patriot King, able Ministers of 

 State, learned, sagacious, and upright judges, supported by a train of 

 minor officials unmatched in any other nation ; because the public service 

 is constantly watched over, checked and directed by so many national 

 trustees, each of whom is vested with an efficient power in the exercise of 

 his sacred duties, as an organ of freedom." There is something like 

 optimism here, which also strongly marks many portions of the work. 

 What is meant by trustees in the above passage is, parliament, magis- 

 trates, vestries, &c. 



Again, " We are sorry to admit, yet constrained to acknowledge the 

 fact, that the sacred duties of the ministers of the church, which call for 

 the highest official purity, cannot claim comparative excellence with 

 those offices immediately under the control of the unpaid trustees of the 

 people. The reason is obvious : were an uncomprising monitor ever at 

 hand, in a constitutional form, uttering its warning voice, a moral dread 

 of impropriety would teach them self-esteem and duty, like other public 

 servants, and in the same commanding language. Such desideratum 

 would seem capable of remedy, were those forms, on which effective and 

 good government depend, carried into active operation manifestly con- 

 tributing to augment the respectability and utility of the church, and 

 render its services more beneficial to the State by the tendencies of pure 

 religion and morals/' 



Again, "An intelligent and powerful middle rank as in London, 

 when fully organised by an official head, ascending from parts to the 

 whole, could accomplish a moral reform with ease, which would entirely 

 baffle the strongest government, as such, which could be formed. Vigilant 

 and omnipotent in the suppression of crime, they become the most loyal 

 oi subjects, devoted to public service, and ready to hunt out and to root 



