1822.] 
prised nothing has been adopted in. 
this country to prevent the frequent 
recurrence of imposition and abuse 
constantly to be met with among hack- 
ney-coach drivers. Is itimpossible to 
adopt the French mode in that parti- 
eular? At Paris you have no alterca- 
tion with the driver of a hackney- 
coach: the rule there is, the coachman 
can demand, if you take him by the 
hour, forty sous (twenty pence) for the 
first hour, and thirty sous (fifteen 
pence) for every succeeding hour. 
And, if you hire the coach for the course 
or drive, you pay thirty sous; in which 
course or drive you may make the cir- 
cuit of Paris if you do not stop; but, 
if. you order the coachman to stop, 
only for a few minutes, it is considered 
another fare, and you must pay thirty 
sous more; and so on, as often as you 
check the driver. This is all under- 
stood, and no dispute ever occurs. On 
quitting the vehicle the coachman ex- 
pects two sous to drink, and never asks 
for more.—Another excellent plan I 
1et with in France, though that is not 
a government concern here: I mean 
he numbering the places as they are 
taken in the public stages; so that he 
who is first to take his place has a 
ticket and receipt given him, with 
No.1 on it, and so on in succession 
with every passenger. VIATOR. 
Rey 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
REVOLUTION making the GRAND TOUR 
of the C1VILISED WORLD ! 
HILOSOPHERS and philanthro- 
f pists never had so great areason 
io wish to live as at this moment, in 
order to witness the progress and 
effect of the mighty machinery which 
is at present moving and operating on 
‘the whole moral world. There is 
searcely a corner of it, however remote, 
which is not more or less impregnated 
by the great principle which has called 
up social man to reflect generally, and 
in particular instances to act in a 
manner as if endowed with new 
powers, or inspired with more elevated 
sentiments, than appear to have be- 
longed to his nature for many centu- 
ries back. All this, however, has not 
arisen from any new creation; it was 
in the mind before ; but a concurrence 
of circumstances, over which power 
and cunning could not exercise their 
usual control, have brought it to light ; 
in like manner as the plough, in 
making a deeper furrow than ordi- 
nary in the soil, exposes to the air and 
Revolution making the Tour of the Civilized World. 
397 
other elements unknown, or at least 
unexpected, seeds for vegetation and 
expansion, by which a new face is, as 
it were, given to the ground. ‘The 
discovery of letters, and the conse- 
quent education, are the implements 
of culture to the mind, as the plough- 
share is to the earth. 
~ What a subject of contemplation 
and exultation to the benevolent man! 
He sees the gradual, though slow, ap- 
proach to that ameliorated condition 
of his fellow-creatures, which to the 
fanciful might justify the expectation 
of the certain approach to the new and 
delightful order of things denominated 
the Millennium. The bat-eyed politi- 
cian alone shuts his eyes or averts his 
face from the stream of light, which 
threatens an approaching eflulgence 
that his dark imagination shudders at. 
His habits, his conversations, but, 
above all, his interests, contribute to 
induce him to wish things may remain 
as they have long been. 
Self-interest is the most. powerful 
in sway of all the passions which in- 
habit the human breast; and to this im- 
pulse chiefly may be ascribed the stand 
which kings and their ministers make 
against every alteration in their go- 
vernment, which may transfer the 
smallest portion of influence or power 
from their own scale into that of the 
people. Although in theory, such per- 
sons cannot,—nay, dare not,—deny 
that a due libration of power is the 
basis on which the British Constita- 
tion is founded, yet in practice they 
are always ready to give a preponde- 
tance to the regal and aristocratical 
scale against the democratical ove. 
With all this disposition to injustice 
and partiality in the great, yet, as in 
the end numbers constitute strength, 
the people must ultimately prevail. 
The great object of the humane re- 
former is to obtain the wholesome, the 
necessary change, without those 
shocks, those convulsions, which have 
for a moment made the good man 
consider whether the new order of 
things be desirable at so dear a rate, 
There is, however, nothing in human 
experience better ascertained, than 
that abuses in government, allowed to 
accumulate, are always attended with 
greater violence in their removal. 
This was witnessed in France, and will 
be witnessed, it is to be feared, in 
other countries. 
It has been said by one of the most 
distinguished writers aud reformers of 
the 
- 
