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 ¬that free country are indiscriminately admitted, not only in carriages or on horseback, but on foot also. — Indeed, the distant view of it had so raised my desire to see it, that nothing but its real excellence could have saved me from the utmost disappointment. — As we approached the spot, I observed the most smooth and beautiful ex- panse of lawn in every direction, and quite open, except as it was bounded unseen by the general and distant enclosure, and there were tracks, winding through it, which shewed that carriages might almost every where pass. — The whole extent was most happily ornamented with groups of the finest trees, dispersed in the most fasci- nating variety, and in the full pride of all the foliage of the year. — I could not now help ex- pressing my surprize that not one carriage, though so remarkably numerous in all other quarters, nor any one individual mounted, or on foot, were to be seen in any part of this ter- restrial paradise, though our view extended above a mile all around us. — My young friend smiled at me, saying, I should very soon be ¬gratified ¬

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 ¬gratified with a sight within the Royal pre- cincts, far more inviting, which would fully ac- count for the solitude that had surprized me; he added, that there would be but little dif- ference between being buried under the turf in those solitary recesses which had filled me with such rapture, or rolling over them in the most costly equipage. — " Now, now," said he, as we rode onward, " now we come to the scene of true splendour and delight." — At this moment, being still galloping from impatience, we turned short round a dead wall, and the wind being very high, my hat was suddenly beat off, and my head entangled in what I took to be a market-woman's basket of flowers, but which turned out to be only the head-dress of a lady that had been blown out of an open car- riage just at the corner we were turning. — As soon as this wreck was cleared away by my friend's assistance, and we were preparing to move forwards, we were involved all at once in a seemingly impenetrable whirlwind of dust and gravel which when mixed with the smoke -driven ¬

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 ¬driven down from the houses just above us, would have made the blackest assemblage of steam-engines at Birmingham or Wolverhampton appear like the gayest palaces lighted up with gas. — Through this dismal medium, my half- extinguished eyes (which so filled with earth in England would have given me a vote for Middlesex) could see only by short snatches sometimes the head of one horse and sometimes the tail of another, with now and then part of a carriage moving on at the pace of a funeral procession, which my friend told me, (for I could see nothing farther,) extended about a mile, but hemmed in on each side, with people riding or rather tumbling over one another. We were now and then stopped besides by vehicles, completely jammed, out of which we could see ladies disengaging themselves, or at least their head-dresses and drapery, looming, as sailors term it, through the mist, and, to keep up the metaphor, flapping against each other like sails and colours in a gale of wind at sea. ¬My ¬

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 ¬My. friend, I could now observe, was in the highest state of enjoyment ; and his countenance being lighted up with all the animation of tri- umph, he exclaimed, with exultation — " This is life indeed! Do you now wonder that those unmeaning miles of grass which enchanted you are left to the beasts that perish ? Good Heavens ! how delightful is this moment ! — Why, Sir, almost all the rank, and wit, and beauty, not only in Swaloal but in the whole Island of Armata, are here condensed within less than three acres of ground ! — It is indeed the very otto of fashion and charms of every descrip- tion.'' " And what then, my good friend," said I, " what would signify the otto of the most delicious perfume, if the stopper were kept in the bottle? and what also can be the delight of beauty when it cannot be seen, or of wit when it cannot be heard, or of rank when all its distinctions are buried in darkness and confusion ? Would not the same assemblage of rank, wit, and beauty, if spread out upon those verdant expanses, where people could see and ¬converse ¬

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 ¬converse with one another, be far more ra- tional and delightful ?" " Not at all," answered Cathmor, " your understanding is overshadowed by the prejudices of your own country ; it is in fashionable assemblies as in war — The close column does all the execution. — Your favourite lawn is too extensive and distinct. — Nothing pleases when it is fully seen and understood." Here he added a sentence in some other lan- guage, the meaning of which I found after- wards to be, Omne ignotum pro magnifico ha- betur — " There must be light and shade, my friend, in every picture." — " Certainly, " I re- " plied, but here all is shade, and not even a glimmering of light." — " Not so," said he, in- terrupting. me, " did you not tell me but a mo- ment ago, that every now and then you could see the head of one horse and sometimes of another, and parts of carriages, as the dust swept magnificently along, some entire and some broken ? What, in the name of Heaven, would you have more? Would you see all at once ? Perhaps then you would wish the women ¬to ¬

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 ¬to go naked, though it is the very secret of love and desire, that something should always be concealed and left for the imagination to supply. Neither do you seem to take into the account that, even if you had seen nothing at all, you have still been here; you must know and feel that you have, and even if you had not, and wished to have the credit of it, who could contradict you? — all the devils in hell could not deny it. For all these reasons, my dear friend, and for a thousand others, depend upon it there can be nothing in this world, nor, without meaning to be prophane, perhaps in that hereafter, so absolutely perfect, as the scene we are now um # # # ¬The remainder of my friend's sentence, viz. the rest of the word *umbuging, which in Swaloal, it seems, means enjoying, was here unhappily broken, by his bones being nearly broken also ; for at this moment lie was knocked off his horse by another, which having thrown his ¬* In the language of Armata it is an aspiration as with us, and not a letter. ¬f rider ¬

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 ¬rider had run away, the only living thing within at least half-a-mile that was moving faster than a snail. — I was told indeed that a large sum of money had been made by an un- dertaker, when the town was healthy, or when people had not time to die, by letting out his long- tailed amblers for this slow procession, who were accustomed to a pace which other horses could not manage. My friend was not at all hurt, and with an air of the utmost satisfaction, as I was lifting him off the ground, for nobody else could see him for the dust and smoke, he said to me with a smile, " I am not sorry for what has happened ; such things give incident and anecdote to the panorama, and are its high light and finish." " Very well," said I, " put- ting light wholly out of the question, any thing certainly that finishes such a scene must be satisfactory. Believe me I should pass for a liar or a madman if I were to say in England that I had seen all this or any thing resembling it." ¬We now went home to dress, as he had before ¬promised ¬

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 ¬promised to introduce me to several great ladies, who, it seems, were to be found within their own houses once in every year, some of the greatest even twice — this phenomenon, he said, had been made known throughout the whole city, by beating against the doors of all persons of condition with an immense ham- mer that moves upon a hinge; and that his own gate having been split a week ago, when the proclamations were left at his house, he thought it was a most fortunate opportunity to present me. ¬Having heard so much of the beauty and accomplishments of the women of Armata, and this manner of approach to them being so ex- traordinary and, in point of time, so critical, I confess the hours lingered with me till mid- night, when he said it might be as well to go, as the principal lady, who lived besides at several miles distant, being a great invalid, kept very early hours. We set out, therefore, soon after twelve, and after driving through many ¬f 2 streets ¬

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 ¬streets we got into a situation to me so per- fectly new and terrific, that I suffered more from fear than I thought it manly to express ; an universal tumult and conflict having taken place, which I of course considered to be a violent sedition, if not the beginning of a revo- lution in the government. — The carriages were driven violently against each other, their drivers assaulting their opponents with the utmost fury. I can liken it indeed to nothing but what we read of in our earliest histories, when the ancient Britons used to rush to battle in their chariots. — The contest at last became so violent that I could no longer conceal my alarm, and said quite plainly to my friend, that though nothing was further from my wish than to detach him from his duty in the service of his country, yet that being myself an entire stranger to Armata and its concerns, I neither wished to take any part in its internal divisions, nor to expose my person on either side. — I en- treated therefore to be let down without delay, as I should take the chance of finding out his ¬house ¬

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 ¬house on foot. Cathmor was most highly amused with my apprehensions, telling me with a smile, and manifestly with the utmost enjoy- ment of the disorder we were involved in, that there was neither rebellion, nor sedition, nor commotion; nor any other quarrel or difference but that which was most natural and of nightly occurrence, from the desire of arriving first at scenes of extreme interest and splendour, ad- ding that I should soon be convinced the plea- sure was well worth the contest. — This declara- tion served a little to compose me, and by the spirit and dexterity of our coachman, who had laid low several of his antagonists, we arrived at a large gate in little more than an hour after- wards, with only two holes through our car- riage, which he said might be repaired at the trifling expense of only £30 of our money, and he was happy to add, that the servant's leg was not broken, but was only severely bruised, which a week or two would set to rights in the Hospital, where he had just sent him. — As we alighted, I saw him give a large coin to ¬f3 our ¬

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 ¬our coachman, who whispered him that seven carriages had been broken to pieces, and that their contents (as he called them) would be well off if they got up to the door by day-light. ¬I was now perfectly at my ease, expecting of course to be speedily repaid for all our troubles, as we had now reached the foot of a richly carpeted staircase, brilliantly illuminated, at the top of which and onwards I saw the head- dresses, and sometimes even imperfect glimpses of the faces they adorned, but which seemed to ask no ornament whatever. My impatience was now extreme, from the slowness of our ad- vance — and, on asking my friend the occasion of it, and of the thundering noise above, as if some public proclamation were making — he said it was only the announcing of a very high lady a little on before us, who had been lame with an old rheumatism for above fifty years, but, having seen in the newspapers she was re- covering, he had no doubt she would reach the top of the staircase in a quarter of an hour, ¬when ¬

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 ¬when the obstruction would cease. — We found, however, to our cost that this calculation was rather sanguine, though it is so difficult to mea- sure time when we wish it to pass quickly, that I shall content myself with saying that we ar- rived at last in the door-way of a magnificent apartment, when I overheard my friend, who was just before me, asking several persons as they passed him to give him some general idea of where the lady of the house was to be found, and so impossible was it to have approached her, wherever she might have been, that, instead of a passage being forced by any man or woman, pat- ting all ceremony out of the question, I am confi- dent, that, if we had been at the bottom of Snow- Hill, the most furious bullock, escaping out of Smithfield, would not have made an attempt upon the crowd that was before us — the in- stinctive wisdom of the brute would have pro- tected mankind in the zenith of this folly. ¬The heat now became excessive, and nobody f 4 seemed ¬ 7*) ¬seemed

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 to take any notice of each other, fur- ther than the constant repetition on every side of " Kee see ! Kee see ! Asmate ! Asmate /" which, I found afterwards, were exclamations, that the pressure of the crowd and the difficulty of respiration were intolerable. — My face was now running* down with sweat, as if I had been in a vapour-bath, but without the possibility of having recourse to my handkerchief, both my hands being as completely pinned down as if I had been on my way to Newgate under a com- mitment for murder. I will fairly own, never- theless, that amidst all this misery I was so cap- tivated with even the transient view of the most exquisitely beautiful women, that I was making a desperate and despairing effort for a nearer view of them, by an assault upon the door-way into the first apartment, when my friend, pulling me by the sreeve with one of his hands, which with great dexterity he had dis- engaged for my relief, told me that, supposing I could have succeeded, it was much too late, ¬as ¬

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 ¬as we had five other places to go to, where we might prohahly see even greater beauties than those who had attracted my admira- tion. We then retired to a small room at the bottom of the staircase, on the steps of which we had been detained two hours, and, whilst our servants were engaged in finding the car- riage, I earnestly pressed him to return home, and to find some other opportunity of present- ing me to his friends. — " Friends of mine!'*' he answered ; " Damn me ! if I ever saw one of them before to-night — nor care if they were all in hell." Encouraged by this, I now fairly owned to him that I had not the strength nor inclination to proceed any farther. — He seemed much affected with my distress, saying, at the same time, with the greatest possible kindness, that he would most willingly give up every satisfaction of his own for my accommo- dation, but that it was really not in his power — " My sister," he said, " whom you have not yet seen, having had the misfortune to lose her ¬mother ¬

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 ¬mother in her infancy, from an overturn at a horse-race, her education devolved upon my father, who is obliged on this occasion to put her under the protection of some kind female friend; now it happens most unluckily that this her Umdrumm," (pointing to a huge woman who stood near us,) " with whom she might go any where, and do any things being a martyr to corns, and somebody having trod upon them, she can accompany her no longer, and I am obliged to take care of her myself." This dilemma si- lenced, of course, all further objection, more especially when, on my speaking of another night for the remaining parties — " Another year, my friend, you must mean; to-night Witt end them all ; and, believe me, it would be little better than ruin to a young woman, after she tens once out, not to be seen every where ; — perple would naturally say she could not have been asked, and that, there must be some- ¬ thing against her character." ¬ To ¬

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 ¬To all this I could only observe, that it was inconceivable to me how a woman could possi- bly risk her character by taking natural rest in the season which Nature had universally pointed out. " Nature," replied my friend, " has pointed out no such thing — night is the season for the lower world only; — plants of all kinds, down to the grass we tread on, open their bo- soms to the rising sun, and fold them again in their mantles when he sets — Animals, in the same manner, following their brute in- stinct, rejoice in the light of day, and repose until it returns ; mankind also, taken in the mass, have the same propensities — a kind of higher instinct, for the government of those who are to live by labour, which can only be done when they can see their way to do it: — the day, therefore, my good friend, is their portion also, but night was made for their superiors. The stars of Heaven shine forth only in the dark — at day-break they disappear. — Nei- ther is the want of rest, which, from a national prejudice, you are pleased to call natural, ¬in ¬

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 ¬in any manner destructive of health and beauty ; on the contrary, I know many women of rank who began this career at seventeen, yet who now, at the age of six or seven and twenty, nay, some even at thirty, still retain a considerable share of freshness ; and, as to longevity, put- ting looks out of the question, I know fifty, aye a hundred, women who are far above eighty, and, though constantly in mobs from night to morning, without ever seeing the sun for months together, nor ever desiring to see him, yet continue to set death and disease at defiance. Fashion, therefore, my dear friend, gives birth to a species of mummy, which the Egyptians you once told me of never knew. " ¬Finding I had no chance of prevailing upon the topic of sleep, I now tried my chance by suggesting, as the truth was, that his sister's dress was rather disordered; submitting how far it might be decent that she should any longer appear in it ; here, however, I was equally unfortunate; my friend expressed the ¬utmost ¬

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 ¬utmost astonishment at this new conceit, as he termed it — exclaiming, with his hands clasped together, " What must be the condition of your vulgar country — how happy was my father's escape from it into a region of higher civiliza- tion ! You should know, Sir, if you have the organs to understand me, that there is a pic- turesque in art as well as in nature — in the arti- ficial dresses of men and women, as much as in the romantic scenery of the woods; and that the flattened head-dress and torn garment, when their gay causes become manifest, are as sub- limely beautiful in the view of sublunary fashion as the rocky fragment or ruined forest in the divine eye of philosophy, when traced back to the universal confusion of the world." I was quite overpowered with this last flight — I was igno- rant of the language of Armata, and there being nothing in our own which could do justice to my unconvinced submission, I could only say, with a most profound bow, " Vous avez raison> Monsieur." ¬. . The ¬

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 ¬The carriage was now called up, and, after passing through a similar scene of confusion, which was, however, far less alarming when I was acquainted with the causes, we arrived in the street near the house we were going to, when our coachman being thrown off his box after all his victories, from the accident of a wheel being carried away, we proceeded on foot with lights carried before us, a ceremony which cost me about fifty pounds of our money, as my clothes were entirely ruined with a mix- ture of wax and grease from the lower stars of the earth, which, in Swaloal, light up the re- sorts of fashion, when the stars of heaven are gone to bed. ¬At last we entered the proclaimed mansion, more magnificent and crowded than the first ; but how will the reader ever recover from his astonishment, when I inform him, upon my most sacred word of honour, and as I hope to dance at the next ball at Almack's, that stand- ing in just such another door-way as the iden- tical ¬

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 ¬tical one we had just come from, and sweating again like a bull, with my arms pinioned down as before, in a vain and fruitless approach to my handkerchief, I saw — may I never see an English play or opera if I deceive the reader in any thing — I saw the same individual men and women I had just before seen, and at the same inaccessible distances, unless it had pleased Heaven, for the punishment of a vain curiosity* or rather as a reward for my perseverance, to convert me into a salamander for the night. There is always, however, something to be learned, and even to be enjoyed, in this proba- tionary world from every occurrence, however painful. Seeing my friend and his sister ob- viously delighted, whilst I was literally dying, I could not help raising my mind to the con- templation of higher objects, reconciling to myself that the planets nearest the sun, and even the sun himself, might be inhabited by beings in other respects like ourselves, but with organs suited to their atmospheres, or perhaps to none at all, either of which would in a mo- ment ¬

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 ¬ment reduce us to ashes, and perhaps shrivel up like a scroll even the world which we inhabit. ¬I shall not describe the other places we went to, as they Merc all precisely the same, except that I Mas told there was at one a celebrated concert, which, being passionately fond of music, I endeavoured to approach ; but it being, it seems, a kind of mongrel, between a public subscription and a private party, all access to be within distinct hearing was impossible. — I was in the outermost room, which being open to the air of the passages, I felt myself just able to breathe, but could not possibly imagine how animal life could be sustained in those within, from whence there issued sounds so beautifully plaintive, that I began to think the story of Orpheus was not fabulous, and that he was still at the gates of hell to bring back his Eurydice to the upper world. ¬We were now on the top of the staircase, (indeed we had never got any farther,) and in ¬a state ¬

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 ¬a state of the utmost impatience, as our carriage being broken, we had places in another that- stopped the way, when we were detained for half an hour by an accident too ludicrous to be passed over. — The old woman, whom we had been stopped by at the first house going up stairs, was now just before us going down, and before she had limped half way to the street, our coachman was obliged to drive off, and we had near a quarter of a mile to walk to it in the dark. ¬Not wishing; to distress mv friend any fur- ther, who was always devoted to oblige me, nor ignorantly perhaps to interfere with his sister's advancement in the world, I suffered myself to be still carried onward, from house to house, until the sun, so odious to fashion, most rudely broke in upon us. ¬On my return home, I had, for the first time in my life, an opportunity of comparing the effect of fatigue from useful labour, or cheerful recreation, with the lassitude arising from such ¬ a night ¬
 * o ¬

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 ¬a night as I had spent. — Instead of peaceful and refreshing slumbers, the blessed refuge from painful recollections, whilst the body is wind- ing up into recruited strength, I tossed and tumbled in my bed, with shattered nerves, and a fever which consumed me; with images brought into view neither by waking remem- brance, nor the offspring of sleep, but partaking distractedly of both ; perplexing the mind with hideous phantoms in their pursuit. One distinct consoling thought only preponderated — the sweet remembrance of my own dear country. ¬It can hardly have escaped the observation of the reader, that in the course of life I have been describing, the Armatans could have no natural enjoyment of the summer, nor see much of the light of day. — Yet to assert that nature herself might be infected with this inversion, or affronted by such neglect, would, in this age of philo- sophy, be a hazardous proposition — but there can be no hazard whatever in stating a fact : if you hatch the eggs of a hen for three genera- tions, ¬

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 ¬tions, by the heat of a fire instead of by the parent's incubation, that animal instinct becomes lost for ever in the race so matured, though all the other characteristics of the species are conti- nued : but why or wherefore nobody can tell. — Just so, and without meddling with any theory, I have only to relate, that during the whole time I was in Swaloal I seldom saw the sun, nor was it to be seen any where else in Armata throughout the diurnal sphere ; their summers had entirely taken their leave, and gone over to the winter months, which were mild and de- lightful — Phoebus rejoicing in the sky till the return of spring, when he appeared, as I was told, with a P P C upon his disk. — I need hardly say, that the harvests suffered grievously by this inauspicious transition, but the artificial system of Swaloal went on just the same — Art every where supplied the place of nature, and. even excelled her in her happiest days : — the tables of the wealthy were covered with a pro- fusion of the choicest fruits, and a couple of hundred chickens were often seen upon a single ¬g 2 board ; ¬

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 ¬board ; but whether brought up by fire or by incubation I did not venture to inquire ; though I suppose that even a hen would have been laughed at for being at home upon her nest. ¬Disgusted with the preposterous scenes I have been describing, I now earnestly pressed Cathmor to exert all his influence for my in- troduction into domestic life, that I might by degrees acquire the language of Armata, and become acquainted with her unadulterated man- ners ; as I could not believe that a people who had so preeminently risen to be a proud example to all nations in a highly civilized world, could have no discourse for one another, but that it was hot to suffocation, nor any means of form- ing societies, but by treading and trampling upon one another. My request was speedily granted; but I little thought at what price I was to purchase the pleasure I sighed for. ¬To give me the entr6 I asked for, Cathmor introduced me to the fair Morvina, his sister ¬whom ¬

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 ¬whom I had never seen but on the crowded staircases, the only situations in which she could be looked at with safety. — I shall not attempt to describe her. — It was now indeed beyond conjecture that Milton must have been ship- wrecked here, before he had his blindness to lament. — In no other region could the image of female beauty have suggested the description of our first woman, whose likeness, indeed, shone every where around me in Armata; and, with- out meaning any affront to Adam, seemed to be improved by some crossing in the breed. ¬Morvina had been taught our language by her grandfather and father, and spoke it in per- fection j but though, from the first moment I saw her, I was overpowered by the charms of her person, yet I little feared any lasting im- pression, from a being so vain and so frivolous as of course I expected to find her. — How much I was deceived in her w r ill appear hereafter. ¬ g 3 CHAP- ¬

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 ¬ CHAPTER V. ¬The Author is introduced into the private Societies of the Capital. ¬I was now invited to a private dinner of only twelve covers, and remained during the evening, with a party more numerous though select. — The company at both were persons of distinction, most of whom I recognised as having been in the mobs I had passed through, and from whom, on that account, I expected also but little that could amuse me ; — but although much is lost when a foreigner can only collect what passes through interpretation, yet the conversation was most interesting and delightful. — Indeed, the whole scene, in perfect good manners, in vivacity, and useful information, surpassed what I had ever seen in Europe, many parts of which I had visited in my youth ; I can bring of course but a small part of it before the reader. ¬The conversation, as might be expected, took ¬its ¬

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 ¬its rise, on their parts, from the extraordinary circumstance of seeing among them, as a familiar guest, the inhabitant of an unknown world; and on my part, in remarks upon customs so very unaccountable, and differing so entirely from our own. There was great restraint and diffi- culty in the outset, but Morvina, having un- dertaken the office of interpretess, I ventured, after a few glasses of excellent wine, to ask this question, which, from curiosity or politeness, seemed to engage very general attention : ¬" With the means and faculties for such plea- sant and rational society as I am now enjoying, why, may I ask, arc health and enjoyment sacrificed to tumultuous and unmeaning assem- blies, which seem to form the grand business of all the rank and opulence of your great city?" ¬The fair interpretess, after having, no doubt, proposed my question, and conversed for some time with those who were to resolve it, now ad- dressed me in English, nearly as follows: — ¬c 4 " Although, ¬

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 ¬" Although, Sir, it may not always be easy to reconcile some particular customs, amongst the most civilized nations, with their general man- ners and character, yet I am charged to deliver our opinion, that they will be found, in most instances, to have had some reasonable begin- nings, though, from change of circumstances, they may appear to strangers ridiculous, or even offensive. — The nobility, and those amongst us of consideration and respect, do not consist now, as in old times, of a very few persons elevated to rank by the personal choice of the sovereign, or from having attended his person in courts or in battle, but of many others, rising to emi- nence in the various ways by which superiority and distinction may be arrived at in a free country — by eloquence and knowledge of bu- siness in the superior councils of the state, or by ability and learning in the courts of justice — by great and splendid achievements in naval or military warfare, or having been engaged in useful and perilous service — by the great in- fluence derived from the possession of great ¬landed ¬

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 ¬landed property, when in the hands of consi- derable men who have preserved and added to their inheritances from their fathers, instead of dissipating* them by negligence or excess, or by great personal fortunes acquired in trade, a source of wealth by no means to be held lightly in a nation which, without its commerce and manufactures, must instantly be overthrown. — • There are others besides, who, though not falling within any of those classes, are justly distin- guished by science or by the liberal arts, and many more by general good manners and ta- lents for conversation, having visible means to take their places in cultivated and expensive life. — All these orders, when assembled toge- ther in our capital, are naturally drawn towards each other, and distinctions of any new kind, much more exclusions, would be invidious. — Equality, properly understood, is an useful, ennobling principle, and nothing has more con- tributed to the stability of this ancient and powerful kingdom than the innumerable shades in which all her people are blended. — Our com- munity ¬

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 munity is like a changing coloured silk — the eye can perceive that there arc different colours, but cannot distinctly trace where any one of them ends or another begins. — But this is not all — if the imperial sway of this small island were circumscribed, as in old times, by the sea which surrounds it, even all those multitudes might form one society without the crowds you complain of; but you have not considered, nor perhaps even know, the almost boundless ex- tent of our dominion : — the remotest and most populous nations are our subjects — they all gra- vitate towards Armata — and, when brought within our vortex, a new gravitation commences, and our capital becomes the centre of attrac- tion. — A society so widely extended must al- ways have been rapidly increasing, and could not in the end be conveniently brought together — but greater inconvenience would attend separa- tions. — Our numerous classes, long accustomed to associate with good humour and kindness, might view each other with malignity and envy — the bundle of arrows, an ancient em- blem ¬

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 ¬blem of our nation, would be defaced, and the metropolis, where our duties compel us to con- gregate, instead of being perhaps too alluring, would become odious from defamation, conten- tion and distrust. ¬" There are other advantages besides,- to countervail defects so new to you. — Connexions formed here pervade the whole country, and the influence of the great and opulent, giving fashion to their inferiors, makes friends of many who otherwise might be jealous and adverse, binding them all together as it were by innume- rable threads of silk, nothing in effect when single, but stronger than bars of iron when combined. — A state of society so accidental and anomalous must, after all, from the most ob- vious causes be imperfect — but it contributes, not a little to make the manners of our country what they are, and which we flatter ourselves are better than any other." ¬Although this defence of the follies I had ¬witnessed ¬

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 ¬witnessed could from other lips have made no impression, yet it was delivered with so much grace that I felt myself for the moment almost convinced; and it was rather to hear again the sweet accents of Morvina, than from any hope of prevailing with so prejudiced an audience, that I asked her to make this reply : — ¬"To all that has been said I not only fully assent, but am delighted with the wise policy which unites the higher orders of your people, whose union connects the rest; and, if there were no better means of securing that friendly intercourse which you have so happily described, I should be the advocate of all I have con- demned. — The worst vices are generated in soli- tude, and the safety of public morals may be perfectly reconciled with all the pleasures which the law allows in this great city. — It would be impious indeed to believe that God had given faculties to multiply our satisfactions, yet that his gifts were only for our temptation, and could not be enjoyed without sin : — but have ¬you ¬

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 ¬you not various public places of fashionable resort, whose rules are at your command, and which you might multiply without end, making them as select or general as what you call as- semblies, though they cannot be convened? — It would be useful besides, for the encourage- ment of arts and manufactures, that such fine buildings should be erected in your city, and become rivals in taste and splendour ; where dress might be seen in all its magnificence and beauty in all its lustre — where, unsubdued by unrespirable air, the worst of all oppressions, the mind as well as the body would be free, and amusements, whatever were their descrip- tion, be enjoyed with comfort. — "When I re- commend such improvements the women surely must be on my side, for it is in such scenes that their most powerful impressions would be made; but never, never, in the haunts where even vou, divine interpretess, could be seen without emotion — why then, but from the force of truth, should I have reviled the sanctuary that saved me? — Would to God I had never ¬left ¬

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 ¬left it ! I scarcely know what I am saying — but happily our language is to ourselves." ¬Morvinu was very young and not prepared for this — she changed and re-changed colour ; she half looked at me but withdrew her eyes, and half looked at me again. — She was the first woman I had seen so closely in this other world, and I found her to be like all our own. She was not at all offended — no woman is ever offended at being admired, nor ought to be — we are irresistibly drawn towards one another by unknown sympathies, but which, like other mysteries of nature, may perhaps one day or another be understood. ¬If the fair Morvina had been obliged in the instant to resume her interpretation, our embar- rassment might have been observed, but her gay brother relieved us by interposing (as he thought) a fatal objection to public places as substitutes for the private mobs. " They might do well enough," lie said, " once a fortnight, or even once ¬a week, ¬

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 a week, but that oftener they would become C^yy^l (which translated would signify bores :) " and what, in the name of God, was to become of people all the rest of the week ? — Were they to be shut up in their own houses by themselves ? — This was a scheme quite impracticable, the af- fairs of many persons requiring insurances upon their lives, which could be done at no premium if such risques were to be run as being at home alone.'' — I was thrown out at first by this remark, but I found afterwards that suicide was not often excepted in their policies on lives as by all of ours in England. — The whole objection, however, was soon replied to and put down by a very fine young woman, who said, " that though it might be difficult to answer the ob- jection, she knew, personally, it had been car- ried too far, having been at home herself two nights following, only three years before, but that by taking a few nervous draughts and going to three balls every night for a fortnight afterwards, she got well in less than a month." This 7vas quite decisive, and as I now saw that ¬my ¬

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 ¬my opinion in favour of public places was beginning to gain ground, I desired Morvina to ¬add for nic, that we had them in the highest perfection in London, to the utter extinction of that itinerant mendicant dissipation, begging nightly at private houses for the smallest mor- sels of entertainment in every nook and corner of the town. ¬I was the friend, I said, of universal hospi- tality. — I wished to see in the spacious apart- ments of the great the most splendid festivals, and that even the most private houses should often resound with music, gaiety, and mirth. — ¦ I objected only to those cruel experiments on animal life in over-crowded parties, which, after all, could be out-done by the air-pumps of every chemist in the very same streets, but who, by the bye, would be disgraced by such practices even upon frogs or mice. ¬Here the discussion ended — ¬I was ¬

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 ¬I was the more surprized at this strange per* version of taste, and abandonment of all comfort) when I was afterwards introduced into their private societies, whieh were every where de- lightful. — I forbear to dwell upon them, lest I should seem to he casting into the shade even English accomplishments and beauty. — I shall content myself therefore with saying, that almost every woman I saw when drawn out from the confused masses where I had seen them before, or rather not seen them, appeared like the sun himself when emerged from clouds ¬ '&' ¬ that had obscured him. — From the great care, even from infancy, of their hair, their teeth, their complexions, and their whole persons, beauty had almost ceased to be a distinction* and when I afterwards became acquainted with the language, I found them so amiable in their dispositions, and captivating in their manners, so delightful in conversation, so highly accom- plished, so well instructed in all useful know- ledge, and so domestic in the midst of allure- ¬h ments ¬

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 ¬nients all around 'them, that had my heart been disengaged, it must have been at a loss where to fix. — Most of them indeed when in youth, " might have lain by an Emperor s side to com' " maud him tasks.'' — And as to those who had passed that prime season, I found them also, upon acquaintance, to be just what the wisest of us in England would wish to see in the dearest of our kindred or our friends — I met with very few who were debauched in their principles, or disqualified by habits of dissipation for the offices of domestic life ; they knew all that women ought to know ; they spoke of the scenes they mixed in very much as I have done myself, and preserved, in the midst of them, the same moral feelings, the same affection for their families, and the same attention to their duties, that the simplest times ever knew. ¬It often brought to my mind the words of Solomon, most usefully corrective of a very general disposition to lind fault with the age in ¬which ¬

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 ¬which we live : — ' Say not you that the former 1 times were better than these, you have not ' considered wisely of this.' ¬Let me hope that this sincere and affectionate tribute to the women of Armata may induce them (when our worlds shall be open to each other hereafter) to forgive the lidicule I have cast, perhaps too freely, upon the prevailing fashions of the day. — My only object was to discountenance a system which destroys their health, cuts short the fleeting period of their beauty, conceals it from universal attraction, and alarms the prudent when admiration is ripening into love. ¬I was now introduced every where, and was confirmed in my opinion that their domestic society would have been perfect, if it could have been enjoyed undisturbed ; but from feverish habits the most agreeable people were always running off to join the tumults of the night — It reminded me of our parties upon the ¬h 2 Thames, ¬

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 ¬Thames, when after we are all comfortably seated and enjoying ourselves together, we are suddenly obliged to land again, whilst the boat is shooting London-bridge. — This only draw- back to complete satisfaction would be at once removed by the substitution of public places, at reasonable intervals, for the endless and toilsome system I have described. ¬On making this remark to Morven, who was now again my companion, he said, he would carry me next day beyond the vortex which involved us; and after a drive through the park I have described and only half- a- mile beyond it, we arrived at a palace of singular architecture, the abode of distinguished men of old, but which had lost none of its lustre in its present possessor. — We passed through an antique gal- lery enriched with the learning of ages in a magnificent collection of books, and there was a calmness in the whole scene from the com- posing shadows cast all around us by the loftiest trees. — The noble host and hostess now received ¬us. ¬

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 us, when the solemn character of the place on a sudden seemed to change and to smile upon us with the warm light of hospitality and kindness.—I was charmed, on further acquaintance, to see in the same man an assemblage of qualities very rarely united—universal knowledge with the simplicity of an infant's mind; the proudest public spirit with the gentlest complacency; and a vehement Fox-like public eloquence with the most uninterrupted playfulness and gaiety in private life.—The table, which was the same throughout the year, abounded with a rich and equal repast for mind and body, being the constant resort of the most eminent and accomplished persons. I was struck with the contrast of finding myself, upon the very margin of such an immense city, amidst dark groves and gay flowering shrubberies resounding with the wild notes of the thrush and blackbird, and the song of the nightingale amongst the rest, who though he followed the fashion in keeping late hours, very wisely spent them in the woods. Rh

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 ¬I remained till it was near morning, and as the conversation became warm upon the in- teresting subject of Armatan freedom — I almost thought I heard the majestic commanding voice of Grey, enlightening our minds and compelling our conviction — the clear and ner- vous persuasion of Lansdowne— the dexterous pith and keen argumentative wit of Tierney — the comprehensive and splendid energy of Brougham — the pure and learned eloquence of Mackintosh — and all Scotland personified in the able, acute, powerful, unrelenting de- mand of Lauderdale upon our well-earned assent to what he saitl. — Nor can I thus call to mind a scene both as to time and place so distant, •without reflecting upon the Pleasures of Me- mory and the delightful talents of the author. ¬When I afterwards visited the public places for conversation and dancing, all my objections to their mistaken notions of amusement were confirmed. — Some of them, by a well-regulated ¬selection, ¬

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 ¬selection, embraced every advantage of private circles, and all the splendour of numerous as- semblies; a system that if encouraged under the patronage of rank and opulence, which lead fashions in all countries, would soon extinguish the minor dissipations, and when improved by the erection of buildings in the highest perfec- tion of architecture and sculpture, would be- come a great feature in the eyes of strangers visiting, like myself, this ancient and illustrious city. ¬In nations depending for their wealth and greatness upon arts and manufactures it is the grossest mistake to imagine that mat- ters of this kind are indifferent — They are, on the contrary, of high importance. — Folly only declaims against the luxuries of the wealthy, because it is too short-sighted to see that they relieve the necessities of the poor. Nothing impoverishes a people but what is taken, without measure, by governments from the common stock ; all other expenses, wise or ¬h 4 unwise ¬

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 ¬unwise in the individuals, soon return to it, and are sources of universal wealth. If London, "which God avert ! should decline in after-ages, and be visited like Rome in her declension, I would rather that the remains should be seen of an immense edifice where the sons and daugh- ters of England had rejoiced in the meridian of her glory, than the ruins of a disgusting Coli- seum for the savage combats of wild beasts. ¬I cannot, perhaps, find a better place for illus- trating the striking effects of public assemblies in apartments erected for the purpose, where every art is exerted to give splendour to the scene, than in what I saw at an entertainment of the Chief Magistrate of that great city. ¬We entered a magnificent hall, but which, in- stead of being lighted up, was in such a state of darkness that we could scarcely discern one another. — I was on the point of inquiring the cause of this, when in a second, and without a hand being stretched forth, I found myself in ¬the ¬

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 ¬the centre of a transeendant blaze of light, brighter than if all the whales in the South Seas and Greenland had been melted down into oil and set fire to at my feet. — I am almost afraid to express the similitude it suggested, and the sensation it produced ; though it cannot surely be prophane to feel the power of the Creator in the inventive faculties of his creatures — it ex- alted my mind to contemplate the astonishing effect of the divine word upon the universe throughout its boundless extent, when God said — Let there be light, and there was ¬LIGHT. ¬Whether this grand discovery can be brought into all the uses of man, is wbat I had neither skill nor leisure to examine. ¬I was next shewn how well they knew what concerts ought to be. — Music of every descrip- tion seemed to have reached perfection, and its characters were as various, as the nations of its authors were different. In the softer climates ¬it ¬

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 ¬it is soft and voluptuous, expressive, beyond description, of the passions, and the language of the people most happily accords with it. In other countries, where the inhabitants are more robust and intellectual, their music is corre- spondent, being animated and intensely vigo- rous, lifting the mind to Heaven when devotion is to be impressed, rousing it to battle when martial ardour is to be excited, and electrifying the whole frame of man by the endless measures of harmonious combination. Armata herself, though at the head of her world, was here, perhaps, not pre-eminent, but her wealth and her commanding station collected in her capital all vocal and instrumental talents, leaving other countries, comparatively, without chord or voice. ¬Being totally illiterate in music, though charmed by it even to rapture, I can say no more of it than that I sometimes imagined Handel himself to have been at the organ, with the Messiah spread out before him ; and some- times ¬

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 ¬times as if Mozart, and Haydn, and Paesiello having charmed the sentinels of another world, had come back again from the dead. ¬I could have wished their grand theatre had been less extensive, but as it was a mixed amusement of spectacle, conversation, and music, there was the advantage of meeting every body, without the probable disappoint- ment of missing the very people zee might the most wish to see. — Let this theatre therefore stand without rival or critic, or Lord Chamber- lains, to disturb it ; but let no apology be offered for the absurd magnitude of their play- houses, which I afterwards visited. ¬The first I went to was quite as large as our Covent Garden or Drury Lane, a very great defect. — I sat in that part of the house the most resembling our pit or front boxes, though the construction seemed to be different, and being placed as it were in the centre of vision, and -looking ¬

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 ¬looking above, below, and all around me, I was delighted to see such an immense number of well-dressed happy people, of various classes and conditions ; but all of them obvious parts of a well-adjusted harmonious whole. There was no tumult or disorder, which I was told almost never took place but when something was radi- cally wrong. As the play advanced, I became more sensible that the golden mean of magni- tude had been trangressed in the formation of the house, because, though my imperfect ac- quaintance with the language rendered it diffi- cult to take a just measure of such a defect, yet I was convinced that the more distant parts of the audience M^ere often disappointed, by their repeated calls for that degree of silence which in an extensive theatre it is impossible to command. — The scenes were beautifully painted, equal in effect to our finest panoramas, the dresses rich and appropriate, and the performers, as far as I could form a judgment of their ta- lents, were highly accomplished in their art, ¬but ¬

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 ¬but there was the same manifest imperfection as in our theatres, which are much too large for the enjoyment of exquisite acting. ¬It is not sufficient that we can see distinctly the persons of our actors, or hear their voices, however clearly, when raised to their ordinary pitch — we ought to be near enough to mark the effect of the passions, even in the most fu- gitive changes of expression, which cannot pos- sibly be within the reach of the bulk of a Lon- don audience. — If this is once felt by the most accomplished actor, if he cannot but observe that he falls short in extending the deli- cate touches of his art throughout so wide a circle, he inevitably acquires the habit of mark- ing them more strikingly than Nature dictates, which totally destroys their effect — But this im- perfection, when vision only becomes indistinct from distance, is much more destructive of fine acting if the most inxcard voice of the actor falls short of reaching the ear. — Almost all the finest parts of tragedy or comedy must be finished in -tones ¬

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 ¬tones so subdued, so transient, and so delicately expressive, that to extend the voice in them would annihilate the scene, and the very con- sciousness that its extension is necessary, dis- turbs and baulks the actor in the noblest exer- tions, and by sympathy, even in the most re- fined conceptions of his art. If this great er- ror shall remain uncorrected, acting will not only be retrograde, but a taste so vicious will be created by it, that if in another age our Gar- rick, and Siddons, and Kemble, were to re-ap- pear amongst us, their talents might be eclipsed by the mere speaking trumpets of the stage. ¬Another cause has long perhaps obstructed a more continued succession of superior actors, but, which, from the improved manners and genius of many of them, both dead and living, has been for some time insensibly wearing away — I mean the estimation in which the stage has been regarded. To secure for it a perpetual and still increasing lustre, the road should be open, as in other professions, to the most liberal consi- deration, ¬

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 ¬deration, though not to the highest distino tions — nothing else can invite its professors to learned and polished educations; without which, in the superior branches of acting, there can be no brilliant succession. — We might have self- taught genius even from the desert, but the ordinary soil of nature must be highly dressed to be eminently productive, and its culture must be encouraged by the prices of the harvest. This truth is constantly exemplified in the Lon- don theatres — we have many clowns and buf- foons, and lower characters, most admirably re- presented, because, without at all undervaluing the talents such imitations call for, the most uneducated may excel in them, nay perhaps even excel the most; but, to fill the higher parts of tragedy, where the great, the wise, and the accom- plished, have often to speak in the stately measure of sublime poetry, or, as in genteel comedy, in the language of the high and fashionable world, classical taste and high breeding are indispensa- ble, and which no genius can imitate, because manners must be insensibly worked into the ¬habit ¬

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 ¬habit by the same means that many have ac- quired them who have acquired nothing else ; and because, although they are nothing when compared with more exalted qualifications, yet people of all descriptions must be conciliated in the language they have been accustomed to hear, and their feelings prepossessed by the same kind of address which wins them in ordinary life. ¬To bring the stage, therefore, in England, and indeed every where else, to its proper bear- ings, its professors must be cherished and re- spected. -Transcendant plays, though avowedly writ- ten for public exhibition, and which if confined to the closet would lose their highest lustre, are justly ranked amongst the noblest exertions of human genius ; their authors when living have been objects of universal admiration, and their fame has become immortal; — why then should not actors, without whose aids they are compa- ratively ¬

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 ¬ratively nothing, be trained up in corresponding acquirements, and rewarded by similar applause? ¬As I had complained so much of neither see- ing nor hearing as I wished, Morven, who was now again my companion, carried me the next day to an apartment near the stage where all these defects were removed. — I was presented to the proprietor, who said there were all kind of refreshments at my command ; he was an old man of the most interesting aspect, and there was something in his manners far beyond fashion in the benignity of his whole deportment. — When the play was over, he said he would carry me to some favourite music at another theatre, where I found, to my surprize, the same accom- modation ; servants in waiting, and carriages to attend us to our houses, or wherever we chose to go : I accepted one of them, and, as we passed to a distant quarter, Morven said to me, 11 That extraordinary person, whose acquaintance you have just made, is one of the richest men in Armata, but differing from many others in ¬i the ¬

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 ¬the whole character of his mind and temper. — How often do we see the most opulent, either im- providently wasting their fortunes, or sacrificing every satisfaction to increase them ! and even in the absence of such insane propensities, how frequently do we find them entangled through- out their whole lives by senseless fashions and opinions, unconnected with either happiness or virtue, and dropping at last into their graves, weighed down by accumulated wealth, without having either enjoyed it themselves or adminis- tered it to the support of others ! — Of all this he is the very reverse; though most intelligent in every branch of business, and most carefully precise in all its multiplied concerns, he is so entirely removed from all thought of them when with his family and his friends, that you could not possibly discover he had ever spent an hour in such pursuits, and his vast fortune rolls on more rapidly, whilst he is spreading it abroad with a liberal hand for all the uses which make its possession a blessing and a trust." It brought to my mind the true but singular saying of ¬Solomon — ¬

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 y ¬Solomon — 'There is that scattered] yet in-' ' creaseth ; and there is that withholdeth more ' than enough, yet it tendeth to poverty.' ¬I thought I had now exhausted all the social satisfactions of this great city, when a new world suddenly burst upon me through my in- troduction to many philosophical and literary institutions, of some of which I was even- ad- mitted a member. — In science, they said, there were no aliens; and it was happily remarked in one of thetri, by a stranger from a distant country, that as many charitable foundations of the capital rejecting local qualifications, ex- tended their benevolence to all who were in dis- tress, so her philosophical bodies would be al- ways ready to embrace the whole intellectual world. Nothing indeed ever interested me so highly as to see, every where throughout Armata, the vigorous and capacious mind of man, cast- ing off all the fetters and entanglements which impede it in the search after truth, vindicating ¬i C the ¬

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 ¬ the belief that we are formed after the image of God. ¬ By her astronomers, I was brought to a nearer and astonishing view of the remotest planets, and her naturalists amused me with the curio- sities of their own ; tracing not only the families of all animals, but of plants, down to the grasses we tread upon, in the sexual intercourses of their tribes: whilst others again, with a skill which seemed more like magic than ordinary science, were exploring the hitherto latent characteris- tics of inanimate matter, till all the strata of their globe were laid out before me, and their struc- tures as clearly explained as if they had been the work of human hands. ¬To examine the wonders which chemistry and mechanics had accomplished amongst them would almost demand the skill that gave them birth. — They had discovered a power I am quite unable to describe, which, though when left at ¬large ¬

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 ¬large insensibly mixes itself with the air, and scarcely lifts a feather in its ascent, would, when imprisoned, unhinge a world for its freedom. — Over this subtle and almost omnipotent agent they had gained a complete dominion, and, by a limited and wisely adjusted compression, to give it a safe direction, had obtained a momen- tum for their most ponderous engines, which neither wind nor water, nor any combinations of matter could have produced. ¬May not politicians take a lesson from this? May they not learn from it that there is a re- straint of liberty, which cannot safely be im- posed ; and that man must finally be free to the extent at least which Heaven has appointed for his happiness ? — Like the constructors of those powerful engines, they may give health and vigour to their governments by the honest and judicious restraints of a liberal system of laws, but, if they transgress that just and necessary dominion, human nature, like the natural ele- ¬i 3 ments ¬

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 ¬mcnts I have spoken of, will open a passage for itself till the invaded equilibrium is restored. ¬In all the other branches of knowledge I found this highly favoured island as eminently exalted ; and, on looking into the best accounts of other countries, which were as nothing in the scale, I should have wondered at the phe- nomenon of her wisdom and greatness, were it not clear, that when Providence appoints a na- tion for extraordinary duties, she must be fur- nished with the means to fulfil them. — The lower world is left to the guidance of various in- stincts, which are sufficient for the parts to be sustained, and animals, from age to age, are there- fore every where the same; but Man has a nobler office, and is sifted according to the work which is in hand.- — This was my clue to the biography of Armata — and I thought I saw, in a long and shadowy train before me, the martyrs to her pure religion — her patriots expiring on the scaffold and in the field for her laws and ¬liberties — ¬

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 ¬liberties — her wise men deliberating in councils and courts of justice — her historians recording her virtues for universal example — her poets enshrining them in immortal numbers— and a host of heroes defending her against an en- vious world. Establishments of charity Mere numerous, but though admirable alike in their objects and administrations, I pass them by altogether as not within the scope of my re- marks. — When the twin- worlds shall become as open hereafter as the continents of our own are to each other, every hospital in Armata will be as well known in London as St. Luke's or Bride- well, and I should be sorry to see the little pocket-books of the year made up by a piracy of my work : — I have selected therefore for my objects matters that are beyond their reach. ¬ CHAP ¬

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 ¬ CHAPTER VI. ¬The Authors Remarks upon the Laus and Religion of Armata y and upon the Police of the Capital. ¬I now became anxious to be acquainted with the general character of the Armatan laws, which had acquired amongst strangers from all nations an unexampled reputation ; and I had not long been engaged in this interesting in- quiry, before 1 could see distinctly the cause of her progressive prosperity through so many ages, whilst other governments had been swept away in the storms of revolution. I deeply lament that my acquaintance with the language, though now amply sufficient for the common purposes of a traveller, was still too imperfect for the in- vestigation of so difficult a subject ; and that neither my education, nor the habits of my life in my own country, enabled me duly to com- prehend the information I received from the most accomplished lawyers to whom I had the advantage of being introduced. I shall there- fore be very short — all details indeed, had I been ¬competent ¬

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 ¬competent to embrace them, would have been beside my purpose. -The legal constitution of Armata is of a most singular character; its principal maxims, and even its minutest forms, having come down from a high antiquity, and acquired from thence a claim to reverence and attachment which the wisest institutions very seldom obtain, when men have seen their beginnings and have known their authors however wise. — The more ancient of her laws are unequalled for their clearness and precision, an excellence which may have arisen from their having been in a manner con- quered by her people from their oppressors, which made it necessary to secure indelibly the land-marks of popular independence; and the same state of society produced other cha- racteristics of her jurisprudence, which remain to this hour, and promise to be immortal. ¬The necessity of the utmost clearness in the records of customs and in the language of statutes, inculcated a corresponding strictness ¬in ¬

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 ¬in the judicial administration, so as, in some instances, even to produce injustice; an imper- fection, however, not complained of by those who were capable of weighing the advantages by which such rare evils are counterbalanced. But no precision in the records of customs nor in the enactments of statutes, though main- tained in judicial administration by a corre- sponding strictness, could have secured the liber- ties of Armata, without the grand pecu- liarity THAT HER LAWS ARE ADMINISTERED ¬by her people. — The rigid adherence to this popular jurisdiction, together with its correct limitation, are most striking instances of wisdom ; as it was to be feared that when this only security had been adopted against the abuses of fixed magistracy it might have been carried too far, and that neither property nor liberty could have been supported, when there was no fixed depo- sitary of the rules which maintained them. ¬It requires the precision of a lawyer to handle this subject, and I am almost afraid to touch it, though the principle seems to be simple. ¬The ¬

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 ¬The rules which govern property of every description through all its transmissions, and which prescribe the forms of legal remedies when it is invaded, cannot he left to the un- settled judgments of the most enlightened peo- ple, without bringing the utrfiost uncertainty upon all inheritances and titles. — These must always be the subjects of written codes, or recorded decisions, which learning alone can treasure up and apply. — The rights of indivi- duals also, and their vindications when violated, must upon the same principles be positively de- fined ; else no man could know what were his privileges, or in what manner to assert them. The people of Armata, from the very earliest times, were as well aware of this indispensable division between fact and law, as geographers are of the line by which they divide the hemi- spheres of our globe, and although invested, in many cases, with the power of deciding upon both, they uniformly respected the rules which referred the law to judicial determination, and the Judges possess all the authorities for pro- tecting their legal jurisdictions. ¬Crimes, ¬

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 ¬Crimes, in the same manner, must be defined by positive laws, or known through ancient customs which, by the force of decisions, have become equally positive ; as otherwise no man could know what course he might justly pursue, or deliver himself from any snares which might be spread in his path. In this most important branch of jurisprudence, the good sense of the Armatan nation may be said to be summed up. ¬To the definition of crimes, whether created by a written code or evidenced by the records of antiquity, they adhered with the most scru- pulous strictness; they suffered no ambiguities to prevail, and when their own security was more emphatically at stake, in the enactments of treasons against the state, there was even a curiosity in their precision ; stung with the utmost jealousy of fixed magistrates, though it was impossible with wisdom to abrogate or abridge their authorities, they repeatedly recast those tremendous statutes, reprobating their extension by constructive judgments, and al- ways bringing them back, with the recorded -disgi*ace ¬

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 i ¬disgrace of their invaders, to the very words which had been misunderstood or overborne. ¬But though the definitions of crimes are as much the province of judicial learning as the rules which govern property, and all civil rights, yet the Armatans were always alive to the clear and vital distinction hetween civil and criminal justice. — What is a crime is a question of law; but whether committed or not must always be a question of fact, which they would never trust to any decision but their own, nor permit any plea or answer to be addressed either in form or substance but to themselves. — They were, from the most ancient times, therefore, an integral part of the courts ; more independent indeed than the highest judges, whose decisions might be reviewed by superior tribunals, but no tri~ bunal could ever touch an acquitting sentence by the equals of the accused. ¬This had been the life's-blood of public freedom through all ages, yet a few years had only passed ¬since ¬

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 ¬since it was running out like water in Armata, and she was dying without attending to her com- plaint. — Her Judges, following one another, had, it seems, settled, as they called it, by a series of decisions, that writings forming an anomaly in criminal proceedings, were to be left to their cen- sureship, and that it was for them alone to decide, even when no rights of individuals were affected, in what language the opinions of mankind upon every possible subject was to be expressed ; as- suming to themselves the sole judgment of in- tention whilst they shut themselves up from all testimony by which alone it could, in many cases, be ascertained. — This blind and pre- sumptuous pretension was not only a palpable violation of the ancient law through which every popular jurisdiction might in turn have been argued away, but gave to the fixed magis- trates, appointed by the crown, the power of con- trouling the press, which is but another name for ¬AN ABSOLUTE DOMINION OVER THE PEOPLE. ¬The conflicts to resist this usurpation were -obstinate ¬

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 ¬obstinate and protracted, but common sense pre- vailed in the end, and sophistical nonsense was overthrown. ¬I wondered much when I heard this strange history, but I 'have wondered much less since I came home; because I never can admit that Armata has more public spirit or wisdom than England, yet what at this moment is our own condition, though we are in complete, unques- tioned possession of the privilege just spoken of, and which for a season only she had lost? — The subject is so clear that I enter upon it without apprehension ; though I declare, upon my honour, that I should have known nothing of the law, nor ever even thought of it, if I had not left my own country and visited the nation I have been describing. ¬The Libel Act of Mr. Fox withdrew a long- exercised jurisdiction over the qualities of wri- tings upon general subjects, even from our most exalted judges, not because their justice and in- dependence were then particularly suspected, but ¬because ¬

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 ¬because it appeared to parliament, that it never had been ; nor reasonably could be, any part of the judicial office, to judge on subjects as law- yers where the law could give them no possible rule to go by, or to exercise a boundless and dangerous dominion over the free thoughts and opinions of mankind, when no individual com- plained that his character had been invaded. ¬One would have thought it must have been held to be a mere corollary to such a proposi- tion, that a jurisdiction thus taken from the superior judges could not remain with the infe- rior magistrates, even if it had been vested in them before ; and that it never could have been thought just, nor in England practicable, to sti- mulate the most unlettered justices, without the aid of legal advisers, to act, perhaps beyond the dictates of their own opinions upon questions which no court in England, without the con- currence of a jury, could decide. — One would have thought that upon any sound construction of this modern statute, whatever might have been the practice of former times, a jurisdiction ¬to ¬

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 ¬to arrest before indictment found, must have been virtually abrogated, or, at all events, that the people of England would not have been more than ever subjected to arbitrary imprison- ments by the lower magistrates appointed and removable by the crown, after it had been de- clared by Parliament that it was not safe to confide a jurisdiction over libel, even to supe- rior and independent judges, as an abstract question of law. — It may be safely admitted, that there may be many libels so clearly mis- chievous as to require no judicial discretion ; but what can that have to do with an universal jurisdiction over every thing that is written, whatever it may be ? ¬In all other criminal cases within the power of justices to arrest before indictment, the defi- nitions of the crimes imputed are legal ques- tions, which a magistrate may therefore examine, and which are generally of a plain and simple character; but what is a libel, is not now matter of laze, nor even a fact which any tribunal but a jury is competent to decide. — This must have ¬k been ¬

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 ¬been the opinion of Parliament, when by the Statute of the 48th of the King, they gave to the justices of the King's Bench and to them only, a power to issue warrants after information filed in that court, and such must be the opinion of every man living, lawyer or no lawyer, who has read the speech of Earl Grey in the House of Lords, which, even as it is published, may range with the -most invincible arguments ever delivered from the bench or at the bar, and his opponents may well say with iEschines in doing justice to Demosthenes — What would you have said if you had heard hint ! ¬This power, nevertheless, still remains in Eng- land, and probably will for some time continue : but common sense, and the spirit of English freedom, will, in the end, be triumphant. ¬I ought not, however, to conclude this ab- stract consideration of fixed magistracy without a just homage to the judges of Armata. — I found, from all inquiries, that they were re- markable, like our own, for their integrity and ¬learning ; ¬

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 ¬learning ; that the administration of the lav/ was held in the highest reverence, and that no instance had occurred in modern times of any corrupt departure from their duties. — Their in- dependence had exalted the sacred character of their office, and had secured the confidence of the public. — I was presented to the whole bench, and found them as familiarly pleasant in private life as they were dignified in their tribunals of justice. ¬I make no apology for this long digression — I could not possibly alter the world I was cast on, nor depart with truth from what I saw in it ; but wherever the occasion offered, I have ap- plied it throughout, to the illustration of my own country, or for the reformation of what appeared to be errors and defects. — This (as the Preface has spoken for me) has been the only object of my work, and where I may be mistaken my motive should protect me. ¬I have the rather enlarged upon this mo- lt 2 mentous ¬

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 ¬mentous subject because it is so dangerously misunderstood. — They who hold high the popu- lar institutions of the country are supposed of late to be adverse to the monarchy, whereas they are its only supporters : — a revolution, and of a very different character from the last, might be the probable consequence of any attempt to bear down the trial by jury or the li- berty of the press; and whilst they remain undisturbed, and in full action, the multitude so unjustly suspected will not only be obedient, but government itself may be often saved from the fatal consequences of ignorant misrule. What spectacle indeed can be more sublime than to see a blind system of jealous and arbitrary dominion carried on through the profligate and corrupting agency of spies in every part of the kingdom, receive as it were a death- blow from twelve honest men, indifferently chosen out of the undistinguished mass of our people ! ¬ Another striking feature in the criminal law ¬of ¬

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 ¬of Armata is, that the power of accusation, in the highest offences, is vested also in a popular tribunal, which, in ancient practice, extended to inferior offences ; but summary jurisdictions had for a long- time been undermining this great security against oppression. — The creation of an immense revenue, and the powers necessary for its collection, had introduced a new system, which, extending by analogy and custom to many collateral cases, had greatly altered the condition of the Armatan people. — Their exclu- sive, dominion over the greatest offences remained inviolate, but they were subject in too many instances to the jurisdiction of the lower magis- trates, without appeal for the facts to their equals, or to their superior judges for the law. ¬This is an evil which in its beginning ought to have been zealously opposed. — When new conditions of society arise in any country, the objects of justice cannot but multiply, and many changes in ancient systems must necessa- rily follow; but the utmost caution should be ¬k 3 used ¬

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 ¬used to depart as little as possible from the principles which gave them birth, because they are the sources of obedience and contentment. — I thought I saw throughout Armata strong symptoms that this salutary precaution had been overlooked. ¬Nothing indeed is more painful than to ob- serve the inevitable difficulties and dangers at- tendant on the most perfect institutions, when cases accumulate, which demand new rules, and when the decisions upon the old ones are rapidly increasing — the science of jurisprudence then becomes abstrusely complicated, and the law, in- stead of being any longer a plain and simple rule of action for the people, becomes too difficult even for the judges to comprehend. — Expense, delay, and uncertainty, cannot but follow in proportion, till the courts, which should be looked up to as sanctuaries, are beheld only with a salu- tary year. ¬I cannot perhaps better describe the extent ¬to ¬

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 ¬to which their decisions and statutes had multi- plied, than hy relating an anecdote which, though it diverted me as a stranger, ought to be matter of painful consideration in Armata both for government and people. -Being much delighted, as I could not but be, with an outline of the law, so beautifully sim- ple, I expressed to my learned conductor the strongest desire to see the book in which their decisions and statutes were compiled and regis- tered for public instruction and the administra- tion of justice. — He smiled "very significant lyi saying he would carry me to where my curiosity should be indulged, and, in a few minutes after- wards, we arrived at a house, from whence I expected to carry home, under my arm, the volume I had been promised : — it was one of the great libraries of the country, being the property of a nobleman, in whose family books had been accumulating for centuries, and who preserved them in the utmost regularity and order. ¬k 4 We ¬

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 ¬We were shewn into a spacious apartment, handsomely fitted up and provided with ladders, such as are common in England, for reaching their highest orders. — I was greatly struck with the immense number of volumes, in the view of which, however, my learned conductor inter- rupted me, by saying, that, as our time was limited, we must not waste it in one part of the library, as it was divided into different cham- bers, in which the books were classed according to their subjects. — I was surprized at this, and told him, that though England was more fa-» mous for literature of every character and description than any nation of our world, yet I had conceived the hall we were leaving con- tained the whole collection. " The whole col- lection !" he re-echoed with the utmost seeming amazement — " why, my dear stranger, they are only his Law-books." " What do you mean ?" I answered, with equal surprize on my part, as the reader may well believe — " what law-books ? Have you communications then with the planets and fixed stars, and made a digest of all their ¬institutions?" ¬

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 ¬institutions ?" " Oh, no," he said, " they are only books of very local jurisdiction — t/ici/ are our own laws only. — Those on your right hand," pointing as far as we could see, " are our decisions — and those on your left are our statutes." I stood silent for a while, and then broke out with an astonishment I could not con- ceal — " If this be really so, how are your peo- ple to know by what rules they are to govern themselves, what duties they are to perform, or how to avoid the penalties annexed to disobe- dience ?" " Nothing so easy," replied my learned conductor; " Nothing in either of our worlds so perfectly plain and simple," laying his hand, at the same time, on what seemed to cor- respond with some of the indexes in our own books — "what shall I find for you? — I will turn to it in a second." — "Turn then," I said, " to your law for preventing infection from the plague." — For I had been told they had regula- tions for quarantine. " Here it is," said the Ar- matan counsellor, as he read the title ; but he had not proceeded ten lines in the enacting-part ¬when ¬

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 ¬when we found it principally related to the smuggling of chew-chum, a leaf resembling our tobacco. " Oh," said he, on my laughing at the discordancy, " this is a mere mistake, depend upon it, some misprinting — let me turn to another." " Well then," I said, " find me the law which regulates your marriages ;" which he turned up accordingly in a moment, and read its title with an air of triumph ; but he had not read far, when we found it mostly related to horned cattle — he was now rather discon- certed, when I laughed, and said to him, " Oh, this can only be a misprinting — try something else — let me see the act which regulates the functions of your bishops and clergy." " That I can do," he replied ; '* it is now," he said, " before you," as he read the title; but there was little in the body of it, except as to passing- women with child of bastards to their proper parishes, as we at least should call them. It was now my turn to triumph, and I could not help exclaiming, " You have found it, at last, have you ? — your women I hope don't ¬swear ¬

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 ¬swear their bastards to your bishops and clergy? I will now positively give you but one chance more, and you must find me at once something consistent, or I will go back again to England and send over Lord Stanhope to thump you" — Alas ! I little thought how soon he was to be lost to ourselves ! ¬He now turned, by my desire, and as his last effort, to an act against bribery and corruption, the title of which he was not long in finding, but so little was the concordance of the enact- ment that, on the contrary, it only continued and secured the constitutions of their rotten boroughs. ¬As he went on, referring to the decisions of their courts, he was frequently in the same manner most sorely puzzled — Sometimes he found a case settled, and told me it was un- doubted law; but on looking farther, he often in- formed me that it had been afterwards settled the other way, and in a subsequent volume, which he ¬turned ¬

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 ¬turned to, he frequently discovered that the last decision was clogged with exceptions which supported neither, but that, by still looking on- ward, he could shew me how it was settled at last; — he accordingly found some of his cases, but they had many times stood over for another argument, and had never been decided. ¬In this way he went on, until he was driven in the end to admit, that if a young man were to begin to read all the books of their laws, written and unwritten, public and private, on his first entering their courts, he would be super- annuated before he got through them. ¬I confess I retired from this scene severely mortified, because no words can convey an idea of the extreme wisdom of their whole constitu- tion; and I cannot here help imploring the par- liament of my own country to guard against this worst of evils, before it reaches, as in Ar- mata, to such a dreadful extent, that time alone, without either errors or abuses, must -destroy ¬

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 ¬destroy all the simplicity of our venerable con- stitution. ¬I am aware it must be a Master's hand that touches such a string. — It would be most difficult to make a dictionary of final decisions, abrogating all those upon which they were founded; because it would cast into the shade the history and progress of the law which preserves and consecrates its character; yet I still think that means might be found, by the aid of Parliament, to simplify its practice, leaving the ancient books as the fountains of more modern judgments, which, like statutes, might give the rule until repealed. ¬In carrying such a system into effect, the language of decisions ought of course, not even in a letter, to be touched, as it would be the parent of new litigations ; but the decisions themselves might be sanctioned, so as to prevent all resort to others more ancient, shut out by -the ¬

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 ¬the adoption of those that might be selected as law. ¬I am not prepared to say that such a plan is safely practicable, but the proper question for the legislature ought to be, Is it absolutely im- practicable and impossible ? because, when such increasing and ruinous mischiefs are in the other scale, every effort ought to be made to suppress them. ¬My own opinion is, that though mighty diffi- culties are in the way, the attempt, in some mode or other, under the sanction of the judges, ought to be made ; and my confidence in the result is founded upon the immense care and learning which distinguish the modern decisions of our courts ; and because almost all the subjects which the laws have to deal with, not only come round again in a very few years, but in a country which has reached its summit would be less likely to fluctuate, than when it was pro- gressive, ¬

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 ¬gressive, as in former times. — Why then might not the best materials in our later reports, though not established as conclusive, be held by the profession to be the order of the day, and all other arguments be excluded or abridged? — I am informed indeed by eminent lawyers, that absolute necessity is working this effect, but some authorised system is still wanting to give it continuity and force. ¬I need hardly conclude by saying that the judgments to be thus selected, must be such as are beyond all question, and which could not be reversed or shaken without bringing confusion upon the law. ¬For the reasons I have already adverted to, it would be most difficult and dangerous to recast our statute law, or even to simplify and con- dense it by enactments, because no care in their language could prevent disputes upon their con- structions, whilst those that were abrogated had finally received them in the courts. — Perhaps, ¬therefore, ¬

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 ¬therefore, the utmost that can be safely accom- plished, is most carefully to class and digest our written laws, but without alterations, and to dis- courage as much as possible that rage for legisla- tion which an eminent advocate, now dead, used to consider as an increasing disease, saying — " that no man in his time could sleep in his bed without tinkering at some act of parliament.'* — Yet here again the same question ought to be put to the legislature, and be patiently and anxiously considered — Is it certainly impracti- cable to go farther with safety, in our escape from the gulph that is hourly widening to swal- low us up ? ¬On examining the civil branch of Armatan jurisprudence, I was equally impressed with the ¬* From all accounts of this excellent and interesting person, I deeply lament that I did not know him. — He was universally beloved in the profession of the law, and I cannot give a stronger instance of it than that I have seen a bag which he gave many years ago to a young barrister, for whom he had a great friendship, who literally wore it to rags in the courts, and whom I once heard say,, that he would not sell even the tattered remnant of it for five hundred pounds. -strong ¬

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 ¬Strong intellectual powers of this highly gifted race of men, and in nothing more than in the dexterous mode of liberalising their decisions, by the equitable aids of a distinct court, a thing utterly unknown in any other country of their world. ¬I have already observed, that the jurisdictions and forms of their tribunals were derived from the most ancient customs ; that their whole law was remarkable for its precision ; and that the liberty and property of the nation were deeply involved in the preservation of that stubborn strictness. — It is obvious that such a code could not be safely engrafted on. — It might have been hazardous in the extreme to obliterate the very characteristic of so admirable a system, by making it necessary for judges to supply, by constructive judgments, any defects which ap- peared in the application of very ancient rules to the complicated concerns of a great empire, extending, or rather originating an enriching commerce, which gives an infinite variety to the ¬l trans- ¬

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 ¬transactions of mankind. — The necessity of such constructions, by unsettling the principles and practice of the law, might not only have affected the security of property, but what would have been far worse, might have sapped the very foundations of public freedom, by extending their influence to the administration of criminal justice. i ¬When equitable considerations, therefore, be- came indispensable, even beyond the natural equity comprehended in the most positive laws, it was fit that they should be confided to a separate tribunal ; and this new system, like the old one, to which it came in aid, was not enacted by any statutes, but grew up in the very teeth of them, and for a season even of the legisla- ture itself; forcing, or rather stealing its way, until it settled at last in the very station where it was wise it should remain ; becoming an useful auxiliary, equally precise and certain as that whose precision it preserved. — There is an analogy, perhaps, between the elements of the ¬natural ¬

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 ¬natural and civil world — There is a point where the first are absolutely at rest, and the second as nearly so as the condition of human affairs will admit. ¬I was most curious to arrive at some under- standing of the principles which governed this extraordinary court; but I might have long remained without a clue to it, but for a small book, not much larger than a Court Kalendar, the work, as I was told, of a most learned man, which gave me all the heads of it in a manner so brief and yet so luminous, that I shall trans- late them into English, that the people of Eng- land may feel the duty of perpetually watching over all their inestimable institutions, to prevent their becoming useless, and even mischievous, by a departure from their original designs. ¬The jurisdiction of this high court, according to the great authority above alluded to, becanje necessary : — ¬l 2 1st, ¬

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 ¬1st, When the principles of the law by which the ordinary courts were guided gave a right, but where their powers (for the reasons I have, adverted to) were not sufficient to afford a com- plete remedy. ¬2dly, Where the courts of ordinary juris- diction were made instruments of injustice. -3dly, Where they gave no right, but where, upon the principles of universal justice, the in- terference of the judicial power became neces- sary to prevent a wrong, when positive law was silent. ¬4thly, To remove impediments to the fair de- cision of a question in other courts. ¬5thly, To provide for the safety of property in dispute, pending a litigation in the ordinary courts. ¬6thly, ¬

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 ¬tfthly, To prevent the assertion of doubtful rights in a manner which might be productive of irreparable injury. ¬7thly, To prevent injury to a third person by the doubtful title of others. ¬8thly, To put a bound to vexatious and op- pressive litigation. ¬9thly, To compel a discovery, which was be- yond the customary powers of other courts. ¬JOthly, To preserve testimony. ¬These short and simple outlines were after- wards, even in this small volume, so clearly, yet so amply filled up, that I was told by the mosj eminent lawyers that none of the proper objects of this court's jurisdiction were omitted, and that a man of sound understanding, who had acquired a legal apprehension by ordinary study ¬L 3 ancj ¬

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 ¬and practice, could hardly miss his way in their application. ¬I cannot perhaps better illustrate those sepa- rate jurisdictions, than by selecting an instance of one of the highest of them, to vindicate the principle which seemed almost to govern them all. — Having carefully read the little book, and having found that there existed a power in this high forum to prevent a man from proceeding in a court of law, if it could be shewn that he contemplated injustice, and even to make him abandon the fruit of the most unimpeachable judgment, if obtained through fraud, I asked how such an interference could be necessary ; as in both cases the lower courts themselves might do equal justice— in the jirst, by repelling the fraud contemplated, by its own decisions ; and in the second, by reversing its own judgment, if its justice had been surprized; and that, in both instances, the same evidence which would war- rant the interference of an equitable tribunal, ought equally to defeat the action in a court of ¬law; ¬

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