same,

remain at the fountain-heads of the humanities, cultivating and enlarging the knowledge already possessed, and watching over the interests of physical and moral science; being likewise the instructors of such as constituted, or were to constitute, the remaining more numerous classes of the order. This latter, and far more numerous body, were to be distributed throughout the country, so as not to leave even the smallest integral part or division without a resident guide, guardian, and instructor; the objects and final intention of the whole order being these-to preserve the stores, to guard the treasures of past civilisation, and thus to bind the present with the past; to perfect and add to the especially to diffuse through the whole community, and to and thus to connect the present with the future; but every native entitled to its laws and rights, that quantity and quality of knowledge which was indispensable both for the understanding of those rights, and the performance of the doties correspondent. Finally, to secure for the nation, if not a superiority over the neighbouring states, yet an equality at least, in that character of general civilisation which equally with, or rather more than, fleets, armies, and revenue, forms the ground of its defensive and offensive power. The object of the two former estates of the realm, which conjointly form the STATE, was to reconcile the interest of permanence with that of progression-law with liberty. The object of the National Church, the third remaining estate of the realm, was to secure and improve that civilisation, without which the nation could be neither permanent nor progressive."

right idea of the national church. These are two poles of the same magnet; the magnet itself, which is constituted by them, is the CONSTITUTION of the nation." With regard to the constitution of the state, in its narrower acceptation, as opposed to the church, he proceeds upon the principle, that, "in every country of civilized men, acknowledging the rules of property, and by means of determined boundaries and common laws united into one people and nation, the two antagonist powers, or opposite interests, of the state, under which all other state interests are comprised, are those of PERMANENCE and PROGRESSION." He points out briefly the causes which connect, on the one hand, the permanence of a state with land or landed property; and on the other, its progression with the mercantile, manufacturing, distributive, and professional classes. He thus divides the citizens of the state into two orders;-to the one, he gives the appellation of the Agricultural Interest; to the other" as the exponent of all movable and personal possessions, including skill and acquired knowledge" he gives the name of the Personal Interest. These two classes represent, and, in the national council, manage, all the interests of the state. "On these facts, which must at all times have existed, though in very different degrees of prominence or maturity, the principle of our Constitution was established. The total interests of the country, the interests of the state, were intrusted to a great Council, or Parliament, composed of of a national church. The conclusion drawn from these preThis is Mr Coleridge's view of the character and rights two houses the first consisting exclusively of the major mises by Mr Coleridge is, that there are only two things barons, who at once stood as the guardians and sentinels which disqualify a man for discharging this great naof their several estates and privileges, and the representa- tional trust ;-"The first is allegiance to a foreign power: tives of the common weal;-the minor barons, or Frank- the second, the abjuration-under the command and lins, too numerous, and yet individually too weak, to sit authority of this power, and as by the rule of their order and maintain their rights in person, were to choose, among its professed lieges (alligati)—of that bond, which, more the worthiest of their own body, representatives, and these than all other ties, connects the citizen, which, beyond in such number as to form an important, though minor, all other securities, affords the surest pledge to the state proportion of a second house-the majority of which was for the fealty of its citizens, and that which enables the formed by the representatives chosen by the cities, ports, state to calculate on their constant adhesion to its inteand boroughs." By this means, the balance was main-rests, and to rely on their faith and singleness of heart in tained between the conflicting claims of the permanent and the progressive classes.

the due execution of whatever public or national trust tue of these disqualifying circumstances, he not only demight be assigned to them-the marriage tie." In viring office in our national church, but denounces that nounces individuals of the Romish as incapable of holdchurch collectively as incapable of supplying the place of

a national church.

ted to fixing the extent of power possessed by our legisla-
The remainder of the first part of the work is dedica-
tive bodies to innovate upon the laws of the land, in which
he successfully shows the illegality of their attempting to
alter the great landmarks of the constitution.-The se-
judgment on the late Catholic bill," is occupied with an
cond part of the work, entitled "Aids towards a right
thor's approbation of that measure with the doctrines
attempt we think a successful one-to reconcile the au-
maintained in the first part. Into this question, how-
ever, we have not left ourselves room to enter.
whole, we take leave of Mr Coleridge, after a careful

On the

Turning next to consider the Church as an integral portion of the national Constitution, the author remarks: "It was common to all the primitive races, that, in taking possession of a new country, and in the division of the land into heritable estates among the individual warriors or heads of families, a reserve should be made for the nation itself. The sum total of these heritable portions, appropriated each to an individual lineage, I beg leave to name the PROPRIETY; and to call the reserve above-mentioned the NATIONALITY; and likewise to employ the term wealth, in that primary and wide sense which it retains in the term Commonwealth. In the establishment, then, of the landed proprietaries, a nationality was at the same time constituted,-as a wealth, not consisting of lands, but yet derivative from the land, and rightfully inseparable from the same." The body in whom the right to this reserve was vested-the Church Mr Coleridge calls, in the constitutional language of the country, "the third great venerable estate of the realm:"genius, although we are fully prepared to find, that, if noperusal of this volume, with renewed impressions of his "As in the first state," says Mr Coleridge, "the perma- ticed at all, the work will be noticed sneeringly or malignency of the nation was provided for, and in the second estate, its progressiveness and personal freedom; while in the nantly. king the cohesion by interdependence and the unity of the country were established; there remains for the third estate, only that interest which is the ground, the necessary autecedent condition, of both the former. Now, these depend on a continuing and progressive civilisation. But civilisation is itself but a mixed good, if not far more a corrupting influence, the hectic of disease, not the bloom of health, and a nation so distinguished ought more fitly to be called a varnished than a polished people; where this civilisation is not grounded in cultivation, in the harmonious developement of those qualities and faculties which characterise our humanity. We must be men in order to be citizens.

"The nationality, therefore, was reserved for the support and maintenance of a permanent class or order, with the following duties. A certain smaller number were to

The pamphlet, whose title we have also copied at the head of this article, is temperately and elegantly written, and will be found an interesting appendix to Mr Coleridge's work.

Three Courses and a Dessert. The Decorations by George Cruikshank. London. Vizetelly, Branston, and Co. 1830. 8vo. Pp. 432.

WILL Such of our readers as have not seen this book have the kindness to mention what they suppose its contents to be, judging by its title? "Three Courses and a Dessert, the Decorations by George Cruikshank," must

naturally be supposed to be a cookery-book, with woodcuts representing flesh, fish, and fowl; but this natural and almost inevitable supposition is a thousand miles wide of the mark. We have often been enraged at the

passengers; I am certain that our pursuers are not far behind us. The idea of having the cup of bliss dashed from my very lips,-of such beauty and affluence being snatched from me for want of a second pair of paltry posters,-drives "A Gretna Green affair, I presume, sir?' observed the inquisitive landlord.

me frantic!'

unintelligibility of a man's signature, but mere unintelligibility is a venial fault compared with the palpable mystification of this most affected title. The work en- "The gentleman made no scruple of admitting that he titled "Three Courses and a Dessert," good reader, is had run away with the fair young creature who accompaneither more nor less than a series of tales, grave and gay, nied him, and that she was entitled to a fortune of twenty English and Irish, clever and stupid. The "Decora-tleman, I would freely give, if I had it, to be at this inthousand pounds: —' :-'one-half of which,' continued the gentions" are a number of very lively caricatures, by Cruik stant behind four horses, scampering away, due north, at shank, from designs by the author himself, and give the full speed.' book a value independent of the diversified nature of the letter-press. Humour is the staple commodity of the work, and, on the whole, the article it brings to market is so good that there ought to be a demand for it. As a specimen, we select the following amusing story, not, however, because it is the best we can find, but because its length is suited to our limits:

THE DEAF POSTILION.

"I can assure you, sir,' said the landlord,' that a fresh pair of such animals as I offer you, will carry you over the ground as quick as if you had ten dozen of the regular road-hacks. No man keeps better cattle than I do, and this pair beats all the others in my stables by two miles an hour. But in ten minutes, perhaps, and certainly within half an hour'

"Half an hour! half a minute's delay might ruin me,' replied the gentleman; I hope I shall find the character you have given your cattle a correct one:-dash on, posti

The

"In the month of January 1804, Joey Duddle, a well-lion! known postilion on the north road, caught a cold through "Before this short conversation between the innkeeper sleeping without his nightcap; deafness was, eventually, the was concluded, Joey Duddle had put to his horses,—which consequence; and, as it will presently appear, a young for- were, of course, kept harnessed, and taken his seat, pretune-hunter lost twenty thousand pounds and a handsome pared to start at a moment's notice. He kept his eye upon wife, through Joey Duddle's indiscretion, in omitting, on the innkeeper, who gave the usual signal of a rapid wave of one fatal occasion, to wear his sixpenny woollen nightcap. the hand, as soon as the gentleman ceased speaking; and "Joey did not discontinue driving after his misfortune; Joey Duddle's cattle, in obedience to the whip and spur, his eyes and his spurs were, generally speaking, of more uti-hobbled off at that awkward and evidently painful pace, lity in his monotonous avocation than his ears. His stage which is, perforce, adopted by the most praiseworthy postwas, invariably, nine miles up the road, or a long fifteen' horses for the first ten minutes or so of their journey. But down towards Gretna; and he had repeated his two rides the pair over which Joey presided were, as the innkeeper so often, that he could have gone over the ground blindfold. had asserted, very speedy; and the gentleman soon felt satisPeople in chaises are rarely given to talking with their pos-fied, that it would take an extraordinary quadruple team to tilions. Joey knew, by experience, what were the two or overtake them. His hopes rose at the sight of each sucthree important questions in posting, and the usual times ceeding milestone; he ceased to put his head out of the winand places when and where they were asked; and he was dow every five minutes, and gaze anxiously up the road; always prepared with the proper answers. At those parts he already anticipated a triumph-when a crack, a crush, a of the road where objects of interest to strangers occurred, shriek from the lady, a jolt, an instant change of position, Joey faced about on his saddle, and if he perceived the eyes and a positive pause occurred, in the order in which they of his passengers fixed upon him, their lips in motion, and are stated, with such suddenness and relative rapidity, that their fingers pointing towards a gentleman's seat, a fertile the gentleman was, for a moment or two, utterly deprived valley, a beautiful stream, or a fine wood, he naturally of his presence of mind by alarm and astonishment. enough presumed that they were in the act of enquiring bolt which connects the fore wheels, splinter-bar, springs, what the seat, the valley, the stream, or the wood, was fore-bed, axletree, et cetera, with the perch that passes under called; and he replied according to the fact. The noise of the body of the chaise to the hind-wheel-springs and carthe wheels was a very good excuse for such trifling blunders riage, had snapped asunder; the whole of the fore parts, were as Joey occasionally made; and whenever he found himself instantly dragged onwards by the horses; the traces by which progressing towards a dilemma, he very dexterously con- the body was attached to the fore springs gave way; the trived, by means of a sly poke with his spur, to make his chaise fell forward, and, of course, remained stationary, with hand-horse evidently require the whole of his attention. its contents, in the middle of the road; while the deaf At the journey's end, when the gentleman he had driven postilion rode on, with his eyes intently fixed on vacuity produced a purse, Joey, without looking at his lips, knew before him, as though nothing whatever had happened. that he was asking a question, to which it was his duty to "Alarmed and indignant in the highest degree, at the reply,Nineteen and sixpence,' or Two-and-twenty shil-postilion's conduct, the gentleman shouted with all his lings,' according as the job had been the short up' or the might such exclamations as any man would naturally use on long down.' If any more questions were asked, Joey sud- such an occasion; but Joey, although still but a little disdenly recollected something that demanded his immediate tauce, took no notice of what had occurred behind his back, attention, begged pardon, promised to be back in a moment, and very complacently trotted his horses on at the rate of and disappeared, never to return. The natural expression eleven or twelve miles an hour. He thought the cattle of his features indicated a remarkably taciturn disposition: went better than ever; his mind was occupied with the almost every one with whom he came in contact, was de- prospect of a speedy termination to his journey, he felt terred, by his physiognomy, from asking him any but ne-elated at the idea of outstripping the pursuers,-for Joey cessary questions, and as he was experienced enough to an- had discrimination enough to perceive, at a glance, that his swer, or cunning enough to evade these, when he thought passengers were runaway lovers, and he went on very fit, but few travellers ever discovered that Joey Duddle was much to his own satisfaction. As he approached the inn deaf. So blind is man in some cases, even to his bodily de- which terminated the long down,' Joey, as usual, put his fects, that Joey, judging from his general success in giving horses upon their mettle, and they, having nothing but a correct replies to the queries propounded to him, almost fore carriage and a young lady's trunk behind them, rattled doubted his own infirmity, and never would admit that he up to the door at a rate unexampled ia the annals of postwas above one point beyond a little hard of hearing.' ing, with all the little boys and girls in the neighbourhood hallooing in their rear.

"On the first of June, in the year 1806, about 9 o'clock in the morning, a chaise and four was perceived approaching towards the inn kept by Joey's master, at a first-rate Gretna Green gallop. As it dashed up to the door, the postboys vociferated the usual call for two pair of horses in a hurry; but, unfortunately, the innkeeper had only Joey and his tits at home; and as the four horses which brought the chaise from the last posting-house had already done a double job that day, the lads would not ride them on through so heavy a stage as the long down.'

"Ilow excessively provoking exclaimed one of the

"It was not until he drew up to the inn door and alighted from his saddle, that Joey discovered his disaster; and nothing could equal the utter astonishment which his features then displayed. He gazed at the place where the body of his chaise, his passengers, and hind wheels ought to have been, for above a minute, and then suddenly started down the road on foot under an idea that he must very recently have dropped them. On nearing a little elevation, which commanded above two miles of the ground over which he had come, he found, to his utter dismay, that no traces of the

main body of his chaise were perceptible; nor could he discover his passengers, who had, as it appeared in the sequel, been overtaken by the young lady's friends. Poor Joey immediately ran into a neighbouring hay-loft, where he hid himself, in despair, for three days; and when discovered, he was with great difficulty persuaded by his master, who highly esteemed him, to resume his whip, and return to his saddle."

Several pieces of rhyme are scattered through the volume. The following jeu-d'esprit is not unworthy the

facetious Thomas Hood himself:

THE DOS-A-DOS TETE-A-TETE.

"My wife loathes pickled pork, and I hate ham;
I doat on pancakes-she likes fritters:
And thus, alas! just like my morning dram,
The evening of my life is dash'd with bitters!
"Old as we are, the ninnyhammer wants

To teach me French-and I won't learn it;
My nightly path, where'er I roam, she haunts,
And grudges me my glass, though well I earn it.

"The other day, while sitting back to back,

She roused me from my short sweet slumbers, By taxing me at such a rate, good lack!

And summing up her griefs in these sad numbers:

“Though you lay your head thus against mine,
You hate me, you brute, and you know it:
But why not in secret repine,

Instead of delighting to show it?-
You question my knowledge of French,
And won't believe rummage' is cheese ;-
Why can't you look cool on the wench?''
To me you're all shiver-de-freeze!
“When around you quite fondly I've clung,
You have oftentimes said in a rage,
Such folly may do for the young,

But I take it to be bad-in-age!

A reticule bag if I buy,

(A trifle becoming each belle,) At Jericho, madam,' you cry,

I wish you, and your bag-at-elle !'

"When I had in some cordials, so rich!-
With letters all labell'd quite handy;
Says you, I'll enquire, you old witch,
If O D V doesn't mean brandy!'
Whenever I wish to repose,

You rouse me, you wretch! with a sneeze;
And lastly, if I doze-a-doze,

To wex me, you just wheeze-a-wheeze."

in America; I advanced too far, was separated from my friends, and saw three Indians in pursuit of me: the bor rors of the tomahawk in the hands of angry savages, took possession of my mind; I considered for a moment what was to be done; most of us love life, and mine was both precious and useful to my family; I was swift of foot, and fear added to my speed. After looking back-for the country was an open one-I at length perceived that one of my enemies had outrun the others, and the well-known saying speed, and allowed him to come up; we engaged with muof Divide, and conquer,' occurring to me, I slackened my tual fury; I hope none here (bowing to his auditors) will doubt the result; in a few minutes he lay a corpse at my feet; in this short space of time, the two Indians had advanced upon me, so I took again to my heels,-not from cowardice, I can in truth declare,-but with the hope of reaching a neighbouring wood, where I knew dwelt a tribe friendly to the English; this hope, however, I was forced to give up; for on looking back, I saw one of my pursuers far before the other. I waited for him, recovering my almost exhausted breath, and soon this Indian shared the fate of the first. I had now only one enemy to deal with; but I felt fatigued, and being near the wood, I was more desirous to save my own life than to destroy another of my fellow-creatures; I plainly perceived smoke curling up amongst the trees, I redoubled my speed, I prayed to Heaven, I felt assured my prayer would be granted-but at this moment the yell of the Indian's voice sounded in my cars-I even thought I felt his warm breath-there was no choice-I turned round' Here the gentleman, who had related the wonderful stories at first, grew impatient past his endurance; he called out, Well, sir, and you killed him also? No, sir-he killed me.'"-Vol. i. p. 18-20. Our other extract showeth how a lady may communicate the tidings of a great victory without being believed:

6

THE FIRST NEWS of Lord RODNEY'S VICTORY. "About this time we received the news of the great victory of Lord Rodney in the West Indies. His messenger was landed near B; he sent to desire my father would meet him, without the gate of the city, in half an hour; that he was the bearer of dispatches from Lord Rodney, and must set out for London as soon as four horses could be ready for him. My father, whose heart was in his profession, did not delay a moment; the news was whispered to him, requiring secrecy for two hours, that the news he brought might not precede him to the Admiralty; my father returned home, where he found me setting out on a visit to my sister. As the two hours of restriction were past, he imparted the good news to me, allowing me to make it public at the first town where I should change horses. At this day I remember my sensations on the journey; every horseman that passed me riding fast, I thought had heard the news, and was hastening to proclaim it; it was, indeed, glorious news. His lordship had obtained a comhad taken and destroyed many of their best ships, amongst them the Ville de Paris, of 120 guns. The first town I came to was a large one, it had its mayor and alderman, the assizes were held there, and, moreover, just then some troops were quartered in it, and I was acquainted with the commanding officer. I quitted the chaise while the horses were changing, and dispatched two messengers, one to the mayor and the other to the major; both came in a few minutes. I had composed a proper speech, but my trepidation destroyed the graces of oratory; however, in a few words, I informed them of the good news I brought, naming my posed me: one said, he hoped the news was true; the other, authorities. How their composed countenances discom

We hope that this book, notwithstanding its ridiculous title, will be treated, not with three curses, but accord-plete victory over the French fleet commanded by De G—, ing to its desert.

Memoirs of a Gentlewoman of the Old School. By a Lady.
Two vols. London. Hurst, Chance, and Co. 1830.
THE lady who writes this book is in her 77th year,
and all we can say of it is, that it is a creditable enough
production for so venerable a person. It is gossipy, and
probably not unamusing; though the facts to us, grave
and reverend seignors that we are, appear too small and
unimportant to merit much consideration. The author..
ess seems to have lived, unmarried, principally in Eng-
land, but for a time also on the Continent, and has occu-parture, and I pursued my journey.
pied her age with recounting the gaieties of her youth,
and the adventures of her maturer years. We select
two extracts of rather an entertaining kind. The first is

entitled

We shall know more soon!'- You cannot know more than I tell you,' said I, rather saucily; they took their de

"Never had a prettier castle been destroyed; my fancy had pictured to me a whole town rejoicing, bells ringing, hearts of candle-merchants rejoiced by orders for candles to illuminate, and neighbours running to neighbours to spread the news. Nothing like it: it was supposed a young lady's report, which, of course, must savour of exaggeration; and to wait for confirmation was determined upon; so the bellropes were unpulled, and no more candles lighted that night than for the usual purposes; it was so provoking, too, that a piece of news almost unprecedented for its exactness, should not have produced a better and more instantaneous effect; but disappointment was then more of a novelty to me than it has been since."-Vol. i. pp. 150-2.