nd tried
reason, and that in no other way can the national resources be fully
developed. The landowners, who are as rapidly losing them, are, in part,
so paralysed by their individual embarrassments, in part so perplexed with
the intricacy of the subject, that they are incapable of making any
efforts, except on particular occasions, in their own defence, but resign
themselves quietly to the stroke of fate, as the Moslem does to the
bowstring of the Sultaun. The working classes are quiet during the brief
periods of prosperity; but nourish in their hearts at all times a profound
jealousy and hatred of the monied interest. The opinion is almost
universally diffused among them, that the gains of their employers are
scandalously great, and wrung out of their heart's blood--that they and
their masters are naturally at war with each other--and that whatever is
gained by the one is lost by the other. Meanwhile Government, obeying the
new, and, as matters stand, irresistible impulse let in upon the monarchy
by the Reform Bill, quietly, slide into the principles and measures
dictated to them by the dominant, most active, and most influential class
in the state; and, shutting their eyes to the consequences in future
times, content themselves with getting through the present with as much
practical support and as little obloquy as possible.

But although this is, generally speaking, the state of opinion on all
social questions in the British islands, it may well be imagined that they
are looked upon with very different eyes by men of intelligence out of the
whirl of passing events, and beyond the reach of the passions or interests
which mislead so many in this country. The civilization of Great Britain;
the social questions at issue amongst us; the experiment making, on so
extended a scale, of the effect of the new doctrines on the happiness of
the people in the British islands; the prodigious wealth which has been
accumulated in this country of late years; the magnitude and long duration
of our political power; and the celebrity in arts, in arms, and in
literature we have long enjoyed, have struck all surrounding nations with
astonishment, which, so far from diminishing, is hourly on the increase.
This effect appears variously, according to the temper and previous
prepossessions of those among whom it has taken place. In the French, our
ancient rivals, our persevering antagonists in the revolutionary war, it
has produced no other ef