THE 



MONTHLY MAGAZINE 



OF 



POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND THE BELLES LETTRES. 



Vol. XII.] DECEMBER, 1831. [No. 72. 



ENGLAND AT THE CLOSE OF 1831. 



It is an important advantage of works like ours, that they allow 

 time for the public passions to cool, and the public judgment to 

 decide. Journals which appear from hour to hour must go with the 

 tide ; they must be the mere organs of the immediate impulse, and 

 nothing but the clearest understanding, or the most mature knowledge, 

 can prevent their opinions from bearing every extravagant impression 

 of the hour — from being casual and heated, rash and temporary. 



But we can lie on our oars, or fairly come to an anchor, while the tide 

 runs up — wait until the natural course of things returns, and then take 

 that which sober consideration demands. We shall now say nothing 

 of the Reform BiU, for this reason, that nothing can yet be known of it. 

 The Bill of the last Session is a non-existence, the Bill of the coming 

 Session is a non-existence too. We may fairly leave more stirring 

 imaginations to discuss the merits of both, and apply ourselves to 

 ascertain the exact state of England at the present time, and the causes 

 which have changed its aspect, so lately and so extensively. We cannot 

 bring ourselves to believe that the people of England have any desire 

 to see a revolution. We cannot conceive that any honest man would 

 desire to see a revolution for its own sake. The hideous catalogue of 

 evils which are included in the name, render it impossible to think that 

 any man capable of feeling the horrors of that last and bitterest of public 

 misfortunes, would desire to inflict them on this country. No doubt, 

 there are desperate characters among us, whose beggary, habits of crime, 

 or sullen hatred of every man more fortunate or honourable than them- 

 selves, may predispose them to public violence. But this number must 

 be infinitely small, compared with the mass of English feeling. In 

 England there exists at this hour more personal and public virtue, more 

 knowledge of the principles by which states are prosperously guided, 

 more religious sincerity, and more domestic and native attachment to 

 the country, as a country, than in any other, portion of the world. 

 These are powerful influences, and not to be shaken by the changes of 

 things so temporary as parties. These, too, are noI)le foundations of 

 public strength ; almost inaccessible by the accidents of tlie hour, im- 

 bedded in the soil to a depth which not even the most trying and 

 continued circumstances of public revolution have been able to disturb; 

 and we trust, from old experience, long to last, as the basis of that 



M. M. New Series.— Vol.. XII. No. 72. 3 A 



