"Gabrie!! O my beloved!" and died away into silence.

Then he beheld, in a dream, once more the home of his childhood;

Green Acadian meadows, with sylvan rivers among them,

Village, and mountain, and woodlands; and, walking under their shadow,
As in the days of her youth, Evangeline rose in his vision.
Tears came into his eyes; and as slowly he lifted his eyelids,
Vanished the vision away, but Evangeline knelt by his bedside.
Vainly he strove to whisper her name, for the accents unuttered

Died on his lips, and their motion revealed what his tongue would have spoken.
Vainly he strove to rise; and Evangeline, kneeling beside him,

Kissed his dying lips, and laid his head on her bosom.

Sweet was the light of his eyes; but it suddenly sank into darkness,

As when a lamp is blown out by a gust of wind at a casement.

All was ended now, the hope, and the fear, and the sorrow,

All the aching of heart, the restless, unsatisfied longing,

All the dull, deep pain, and constant anguish of patience!

And, as she pressed once more the lifeless head to her bosom,

Meekly she bowed her own, and murmured," Father, I thank thee!"

-pp. 117-122.

Criticism on "Evangeline" is unnecessary. It speaks, undeniably, the genuine language of poetry. It is a tale to be read and felt and remembered: full of purity, and love, and holy thought. The public are indebted to the publishers for this elegant and cheap edition.

From the Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Review.

ADDRESS TO THE QUEEN.

Draft of a Proposed National Address to the Queen, on the Present State of the Representation, and the Grievances of Misgovernment, as Affecting the People of Great Britain and Ireland.

May it please your Majesty,

We, &c.

While we condemn and deplore all appeals to violence and riotous demonstrations, and rejoice to observe that they have Believing the prosperity of all classes of been hitherto confined to a small section of the community to be inseparable from the the population, we desire to impress upon cause of peace and order, and that amidst the mind of your Majesty our strong sense the political convulsions which have rapidly of the peril to the best interests of the extended over the greater part of Europe, country, attendant upon a stationary policy order can only be maintained by the remov- at the present crisis. The efforts of your al of every just ground of dissatisfaction Majesty's loyal and peaceable subjects to with the laws and institutions of this coun try as now existing, have learned with anxiety and alarm that no measures reasonably adapted to this end have been prepared, or are in contemplation, by your Majesty's Ministers.*

reforms demanded by the Canadians, and at first formally refused.

It is unhappily not understood by ministers, that when great changes, founded in reason and justice, have been resisted till the public mind has become impatient on the subject, they cannot then be safely deferred another moment. The period for calm disIn the debate upon Mr. Hume's motion of June cussion is passed when that of universal popular 20th, Lord John Russell, while he promised inquiry excitement has arrived. The present experience into the corruption of some electoral constituencies of the continent, and the lessons of our own past with a view to its correction, added his opinion that history show, that when a government is but feebly "there were reasons for opposing at this moment supported by the middle classes of the community, any great change: reasons connected with the 'and refuses to take the initiative in the reform of events which, during the last few months, have abuses, it practically resigns its functions to the occurred on the continent." The same language populace. An interval of anarchy succeeds, and was employed in 1837, on the eve of an insurrection lasts until a new government has arisen, strong in Canada, which, after a great loss of life and trea- enough in public opinion to control and direct sure, ended in the concession of every one of the events.

prevent the outbreaks of faction are greatly | Lords, for the passing of a Reform Bill, counteracted by the apparent indifference after the resistance of that House to the of the Legislature to its most urgent duties; change desired had brought the country to and, consequent upon this neglect, a con- the brink of revolution. tinual apprehension of grave social disorders is paralyzing commercial enterprize, depriving thousands of employment and bread, and daily adding to the elements of insecurity which too generally abound throughout the United Kingdom.

The reform thus obtained the experience of sixteen years has proved to be illusory. The majority of the House of Commons continues to be returned, not by the people, but by the nobility. The patronage of every office in the state, of high station or emolument, is seized upon, as before, as the birthright of the same privileged class; and opinion, as before, can only make itself felt by public agitation.

To some extent the present system is even worse than the old, inasmuch as new constituencies have been created too narrow for independent action, and therefore open to influences of corruption which were unknown to the nomination boroughs, in which no constituencies existed. We refer your Majesty to the long and scandalous list of members unscated during the present session for bribery practised by their election committees; a list which is yet to be regarded but as the symptom only of a social disease known to exist in a far more extensive form, but of which the legal evidence has not been sought.

Your Majesty is surrounded by a rich and powerful aristocracy, separated by the privileges of their order from the mass of the people, and therefore practically unacquainted with the real state of opinion out of the immediate circle of their own friends and dependents. Among the members of that aristocracy are men of kind and generous impulse, who have often shown their willingness to lend a helping hand to the poor; but who appear to have never learned that the Divine Being has implanted in every human breast the seeds of higher aspirations than the cravings of physical wants; and that the questions which recent events and the growing intelligence of the age have now caused to engross all men's minds, are those of CIVIL RIGHTS; the rights recognized by the theory of the British Constitution (which provides that all We lament that when the defects of the men should be equal in the eye of the law), Reform Bill first became apparent, the pubbut practically existing in name only; lic desire that they might be removed was Rights not to be exchanged for charity; not at once met on the part of Government and the struggle for which must eventually by a frank and honest endeavor to carry lead to the abolition of all imperfect forms out the provisions of the measure according of social polity, sacrificing the interests of to the popular interpretation of the spirit the many to the few and violating the and meaning of the Act, and not by a rigid eternal principles of truth and justice. adherence to its letter. The confidence of the people in the wisdom of government and the progressiveness of their institutions, would then have been undisturbed, and no motive would have existed on their part for seeking new and sudden organic changes. Unhappily a contrary course was pursued; and a declaration was made by the ministers then in office, that the Reform Bill, while extending the suffrage, was intended to give a predominancy to the landed interest; and that whatever the imperfections of the Act, it was to be regarded as a final measure.

Petitions were first presented for a reform of Parliament towards the close of the last century, as a means of putting an end to the exclusive assumption, by a privileged class, of all offices in the state connected with legislative and administrative functions. Military events, and the subsequent triumph of despotism on the continent, defeated that object for the time, but the petitions were renewed on the conclusion of the war with Napoleon, during which a profligate expenditure had entailed a burden of debt upon the national industry unprecedented for its magnitude in the history of the world. Soon after the exclusion from France of the elder branch of the Bourbons, the necessity for an improvement of the representation became so urgent, that your Majesty's predecessor, King William the Fourth, was induced to exert his personal influence with the members of the House of

*The present House of Commons contains 6 marquesses, 8 earls, 27 viscounts, 32 lords, 41 Right baronets, 9 knights, 8 lord-lieutenants, 134 deputy Honorable members, 51 Honorable members, 59 and vice-lieutenants, 3 admirals, 3 lieutenant generals, 3 major generals, 23 colonels, 29 lieutenantcolonels, 13 majors, 42 captains in the army and trates, 68 placemen and pensioners, and 88 patrons navy, 16 lieutenant captains, 4 cornets, 106 magisof 207 church livings.

It is now too late to satisfy the public | We ask, as a first step, which would be mind with the amendments of registration hailed by all ranks of the people as an earclauses, and similar minor improvements. nest of a hearty desire to promote the true To avoid a principle by the discussion of interests of the nation, such an immediate details is to augment the irritation of the extension of the suffrage, and re-arrangepeople by under-rating their intelligence, ment of electoral districts, as will effect an and trifling with their wishes; and we enlargement of all narrow constituencies would humbly and respectfully but most (especially in cities and boroughs), sufficient earnestly warn your Majesty, that the to secure electoral independence; and that greatest hazard to which the Crown and the measure to be framed for this object shall Government can now be exposed is that include a fair representation of the intelliwhich may arise from the determination of gence of the working classes, and be subject ministers (which may God avert) to main- to periodical revision, with a view to its furtain the present ascendency of the landed ther improvement, and progressive adaptation interests over other interests, or exclusive to the wants of the community.* privileges of birth, over the rights and liberties of any portion of your Majesty's subjects, as men and citizens.

We now submit to your Majesty a plain statement of the public grievances which call for immediate redress; and pray that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to give an attentive and favorable consideration to these our just demands.

1. We demand A REAL REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE IN THE COMMONS HOUSE OF

PARLIAMENT.

We seek not to fetter your Majesty's councils by forcing upon them the exclusive consideration of any prepared scheme of elective organization as more complete or perfect than any that may yet be devised! Differences of opinion, which we do not seek to disguise, still prevail among the most earnest and conscientious advocates of reform upon the best modes of suffrage. But there are anomalies connected with the present system upon which no differences exist, and which are condemned alike by all honest men as rendering the existing representation a mockery of the name. These are most marked in the inequality of the existing electoral districts; placing small towns, with a population scarcely greater than that of villages, upon the same footing as Manchester and Liverpool, and so following out a similar disproportion, even in the counties, that an insignificant minority of only one-sixth of the existing body of the electors is enabled to return the majority of the members of the House of Commons.*

* An analysis made in 1836, by a Committee of the House of Commons, and presented to the House in their "Report on Election Expenses" in that year, proves that 331 members of the House of Commons were elected by 151,492 electors. The total number of electors registered that year in the United Kingdom was 956,272, and the number of adult males of 20 years and upwards, by the census

of 1831, was 6,148,468. Thus one-sixth of the electors, and less than one-fortieth of the adult male population, have the power of making laws to bind the other five-sixths of the electors, and the other 39-fortieths of the adult male population.

The number of the adult male population is about 7.500.000; and the electoral franchise is so distrib

uted that in England, 1 male adult in 7 is entitled to vote; in Scotland, 1 in 11; and in Ireland, only 1

in 17.

Sixteen small boroughs, the united population of bers to Parliament to neutralize the vote of the 32 which is only 76,179, are enabled to send 32 memmembers sent by 15 of our wealthiest cities, whose united population amounts to 3,129,517.

The question of extending the franchise, whether by universal suffrage or any other method, is important, but yet of secondary moment to that of new and large electoral districts. So long as the small boroughs, such as Harwich, Thetford, and Chippenham, continue to return as many members the right of voting to every householder, or to every to Parliament as the large towns, an extension of male of 21 years of age, would not change the character of the representation.

The existing system is without defence, because by a re-arrangement of the present electoral districts, an improvement might be effected sufficient to destroy the influences of corruption without any alteration of the present rates of qualification, and without even abandoning the principle of one standlarge number of persons who are only now disqualard for towns, and another for counties; while a ified from voting by not residing within the limits of a parliamentary borough, would at the same time

be enfranchised.

constituency should consist of a smaller number It appears to be desirable that no parliamentary than 10,000 electors; an object which might easily be attained by grouping together the small towns; including those which have not now the privilege of returning members.

The essential point in any new measure is periodical revision. No human institution can be rendered perfect at once. To be adapted to the nature of man they must be made progressive. At the census of every ten years there should be a rearrangement of electoral districts, and an amendment of all defects in the representation proved to have existed during the preceding interval.

The best qualification for electors,-the best limit, in respect to numbers for an electoral district, and for a deliberative assembly, which if too numerous (like the French National Assembly),

RIGHT OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT.

2. We demand AN EXTENSION OF THE no pains have been taken to simplify the machinery of local government throughout The House of Commons is now unequal the country, and place it upon a satisfactory to the accumulating mass of administrative footing.

details which it attempts to direct. It is We ask the consolidation, by one uniform necessary for the proper regulation of local law, of all local business for town and counbusiness, that the people should be entrust-try, in the hands of local assemblies elected ed with a larger share than heretofore in by the people, organized in constituencies of the management of their own affairs; espe- large and equal extent. And we ask the cially in Scotland, Ireland, the Colonies, consequent abolition of the powers of the and other extreme parts of the United unpaid magistracy in regard to their interKingdom but subject to such general su- ference with the rates; the abolition of the pervision on the part of the executive, as powers of all Boards of Commissioners may be required for the maintenance of appointed under local acts, and of all select fundamental laws. vestries and irresponsible public corporations.

Since the Municipal Reform Act of 1835, (a measure of but limited operation), no reasonable progress has been made in the improvement of local administration. The most flagrant abuses, entailing heavy local burdens upon the people, have been allowed to remain unreformed and unrebuked; and

may be incapacitated for calm discussion,-the best mode of returning members, so as to insure the fittest choice,-whether through the indirect medium of provincial or state assemblies, as in the case of the Senate of the United States, and the new German parliament, or by direct election, as at present applied to the House of Commons,-the best mode of ensuring a proper share of the representation to minorities, and the share of women

in the representation,-admitted by the English law to vote in parochial vestries as rated parishioners, and to wield the sceptre, as the lineal descendants of kings,-are all questions upon which unanimity is not to be expected without the further guidance of experience.

3. We demand ECONOMY AND RETRENCHMENT IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE PUB

LIC revenue.

We witness with apprehension the growing financial difficulties of government consequent upon a wasteful misapplication of the resources of the country. The promises of good and cheap government made at the time of the Reform Bill have been forgotten, or set at nought. The expenditure for the United Kingdom has been augmented within the last twelve years by the addition of eight millions sterling per annum !* The army and navy have been largely increased, and are still maintained, without any adequate necessity, upon a war-footing. Your Majesty is at peace with all the world, and the present state of Europe, in the domestic affairs of which it is our duty, as well as best policy, not to interfere, is a guarantee

£54,502,948 2 3 44,422,722 15 8 £10,080,225 67

*Public expenditure for the year ending January 5th, 1848, Public expenditure for the year ending January 5th, 1836, Difference (including the grant to Ireland of £1,525,000) The above is exclusive in both cases of the charges of collection, &c., which for the year ending January 5th, 1818, were £4,727,465 5s. 34d.; making the gross public expenditure for the last year, £59,230,413 7s. 6d.

PUBLIC EXPENDITURE FOR THE YEAR ENDING JAN. 5, 1836.

Interest and management of the permanent debt

Terminable annuities

£23,731,807 16 7
4,042,591 10 3
740,211 1 10

£28,514,610 10 8

2,082,817 4 9

Ordnance

£6,406,142 15 8
4,099,429 11 5
1,151,914 0 0

11,657,486 7 1

Miscellaneous charges upon the annual grants of parliament
Deficiencies on the balance reserved for unclaimed dividends

2,144,345 8 5

23,468 4 9

£44,422,722 15 8

The public burdens are not only greatly to a serious extent have succeeded in attainlarger than is needed for an efficient administration, and the discharge of national obligations, but the revenue is now raised upon a system of partial and unjust assessment. The land tax, the income tax, and the legacy duties, especially, are so levied as to throw upon the middle and working classes a large proportion of the burdens

PUBLIC EXPENDITURE FOR THE YEAR ENDING JAN. 5, 1848.

* Were it otherwise, and the danger of invasion, or of an attack upon our colonial dependencies imminent, the best securities of defence are a united people, and a full treasury. A nation that exhausts its resources before an attack anticipates the ruin of a defeat.

If the army and navy be maintained upon a war footing for the sake of the power of an armed intervention, the temptation to exercise such a power at the present moment, without consulting the nation, is one to which it would be well that no government should be exposed.

A stamp duty on newspapers was first imposed in 1712, by the 10 Anne, c. 19. The amount was a half penny on a half sheet; a penny if not exceeding a whole sheet. Its first effect was to extinguish the Spectator," of Addison and Steele.