and trappings; himself clad in the full costume of Arragon, and a gorgeous poncho of the most brilliant colours, which he contrived so artfully to throw around him, that not a particle of his figure was exposed to the keen air of twilight. We had proceeded two or three miles, when the animal, gifted with mettle and spirit, not unworthy of a fox-cover, having shot on some distance ahead, I suddenly saw him surrounded by a gang of suspicious-looking figures who, darting up like Roderick Dhu's men from

"Copse, and heath, and shingles grey," seized his bridle, and completely hemmed him in. Had I felt all the inclination in the world, my slow patient beast would have done little service in an attempt at flight; so putting the best face I could upon the matter, I pressed on, not however without a very clear and impressive recollection of Gil Blas' rencontre with Captain Rolando, determined at all events, whatever might be the issue of the adventure, to see it in detail from first to last; words high and harsh were exchanging, but they were in a patois quite unintelligible, though evidently of a very mandatory nature, and uttered by a set of most ill-looking fellows, peeping out from the high-peaked hoods of their Pyrenean cloaks, whilst their unshaven chins were rubbing against the muzzles of gun-barrels, concealed under the folds of their dark drapery. My companion introduced them as a party calling themselves Mountain Police, whose professed object was to detain all persons journeying towards the frontiers without a governor's authority, informing me at the same time, that he had left his permit behind, and my own passport I knew to be in the safe custody of my landlord at Luchon. After a long parley, terms were proposed, and it was hinted that a pecuniary deposit might overcome difficulties other wise formidable, and I was advised to contribute some silver pieces, which, "poco a poco, and uno a uno,' after the manner of Gil Blas to the sturdy beggar of Pennaflor, I dropped into the hands of claimants, who, receiving them much more as a due than a donation, forthwith opened

va

their ranks, and growling out a usted con dios," allowed us to pass on.

As the morning advanced, my fellow traveller was on the alert, looking up to every mountain brow, right and left, in search of his flocks; and at last he drew my attention to a ledge, on which one of these patriarchal detachments was distinguishable, but at such an elevation, that to the naked eye, this assemblage of a thousand or twelve hundred sheep appeared but as a faint thread, whose progressive motion was as little perceptible as the minute hand of a clock. A loud barking of dogs in another quarter announced the approach of a nearer party, which soon became visible, defiling from the valleys on our left towards the hospice.

These collecting herds and flocks were on their way to a rich extent of pasturage beyond the Ports of Venasque and Picade, belonging to French proprietors, who farm them out at considerable profit, more particularly to their Spanish neighbours, whose herds would soon perish without other resource than the barren tracts which alone are to be found on the lean and grassless ridges of Maladetta. A few of his avant-couriers had preceded him at the point of assignation, and in company with these I left him, eagerly devouring a water broth laddled out of a dirty cauldron, suspended in the smoke over the hospice fire. He was a man of strong natural understanding; but cast, as was his lot, in that barbarous and unenlightened country, I bade him adieu, with an earnest hope, that for the sake of his mental comfort and personal safety, the march of intellect might never make further progress: and sending off the horses to Luchon, I called the guide and bent my steps upwards towards the pass of Estouao, accessible only to foot passengers, and known only to those who, unwilling to shew themselves on more frequented routes, would cross the frontier line unobserved and unmolested; but respecting which, as it was of Venasque and Maladetta only I proposed to speak, Itrouble not the reader, though much remains to be said to such as might be inclined to listen.

E. S.

On the 4th day of February the two Houses of Parliament met, in the official language of the summons issued from the Home-office," to proceed on the dispatch of business." It would be difficult, and not germane to our present purpose, to detail the circumstances which have cast a dubious gloom over the institutions of the country, and caused the present meeting of the deliberative branches of the Legislature to be regarded with peculiar anxiety; it would be tedious to discuss the reasons which have influenced the minds of the people to regard the proceedings of the present Parliament without that fulness of hope and confidence, which ought to subsist between the representatives of the people and their constituents.

In the autumn of last year a very general opinion had been entertained, that November would have witnessed the convocation of the two Houses. The universal complaints which were heard of the existence of distress throughout the country, of an extraordinary character, and destructive pressure, fully justified this expectation. A recent precedent might have been found, to grace with the formal sanction of authority, a measure of which the propriety was sufficiently evident. In 1826, the failure of the harvest had induced the Ministers, in whose hands the reins of government were then placed, to assume the responsibility of issuing an Order in Council, authorizing the admission of foreign grain, and the Parliament was summoned in November, that this measure might receive its concurrence. The evil against which that measure was intended to provide, was, the possible privation to which the people might be subjected, in consequence of an insufficient supply of grain, and the consequent elevation of price. To avert this impending calamity, the faculties of the Administration and the Legislature were promptly exercised. In 1829, a very

large proportion of the labouring population were groaning under sufferings almost insupportable, not on account of a deficiency in the supply of food brought to market, or its extravagant price, but in consequence of a total destitution of the means of procuring provisions at any price. The commercial interests, also, were exposed to imminent ruin, from the entire cessation of demand for the commodities wherein they respectively dealt. Were not these evils requiring the application of remedies, as prompt and as efficient as were applied in 1826? Whether the people were rendered liable to the horrors of starvation by the diminished supply of food, or by inability to procure the means of buying that food, matters but little. Starvation was, in both cases, the dreaded evil, at least an equal exigency for legislative interference to guard against that evil existed, and a similar promptitude was both expected and demanded by the people at the hands of their rulers. But the measured movements of official dignity were not to be embarrassed by public necessities, or public importunity. The car of state rolled steadily onward in its track, unchecked by the prayers of the thousands who sought in the attitude of humble supplication to stay its course, to delay the progress of the vast machine beneath whose overwhelming weight they were ground into the dust.

What may be the particular claims which the month of February possesses, entitling it to be distinguished beyond its fellows, and selected as the most favourable for the annual budding forth of senatorial wisdom, it is not easy to discover. The only distinction palpable to common observation is, the termination of the shooting season. And, undoubtedly, from the mode in which the game of politics has been introduced amongst the sports of the field, these last have attained a more exalted consideration in general esteem than they for

merly held. The daily announcements of sporting occurrences and engagements, assumed, at the close of the last, and the commencement of the present year, an importance rivalling that of the sober paragraphs of the Court Circular. The sudden devotion of Ministers and Secretaries to the noble science of the trigger,* as evinced by their rapid migrations from one battue to another, was truly edifying, as contrasted with the staid demeanour formerly considered as characteristic of official personages. The formalist of the Home Department performed his various locomotions with all the velocity compatible with the preservation of his consistent gravity. But the Premier rattled about with a celerity which completely disconcerted the propriety of his calm colleague. Couriers and king's messengers, laden with dispatches, and charged with injunctions of rapidity, panted after the errant Minister in vain.

Considerable amusement was to be derived from the paragraphs of the daily recorders of Ministerial feats in the sporting or political line. In one column of a newspaper shone conspicuously an applauding account of the Duke of Wellington's performance at a Belle-Vue shooting party, with a due return of the hares and pheasants bagged. Then would follow, brevi intervallo, some sentences in a graver strain, intimating that the noble Duke at the head of the Administration had, by a recent visit, secured the support of the Furrowfield interest. And a calculation of the votes in the Upper and Lower Houses, gained by the supposed arrangements, followed the paragraphs of the latter, as regularly as the returns of killed and wounded was appended to those of the former description.

Such were the materials wherewith political speculation was nourished during the Recess. Such were the cares, and such the negotiations, which, as it would appear, engrossed the attention of the Ministers themselves, and their various subordinates after their kind, from the 24th day of June, 1829, to the 4th of February,

1830. As might have been anticipated from the manner in which the Ministers appeared to occupy their vacant time, they met Parliament as totally uninformed of the various circumstances which indicated the alarming condition of the country, of the wants of the people, and their wishes, as it would be easy to conceive men to be. Their cognisance of the state of boroughs, and of borough interests, was sufficiently accurate, and they might be expected to give a just, and probably a candid, opinion on the prospects of the empire as regarded the future supply of pheasants. In the approaching discussions on the game-laws, the extent of the Ministerial knowledge may perhaps be displayed, and will be appreciated. But so intensely had the eyes of the Ministers been fixed on, and their attention occupied with, objects of immediately personal interest, that, on the very first day of the Session of Parliament, they were rather unpleasantly made aware of a sufficiently prominent fact, which had, however, entirely escaped their notice. They discovered the existence of distress throughout the country, severe, unprecedented, and not to be endured, by finding themselves unexpectedly, as it were, almost over head and ears in it.

It is not customary to refer to the documents annually presented to the people under the appellation of King's Speeches, for any very accurate representation of the state of the nation. A King's Speech very much resembles, as far as rigid accuracy of portraiture is concerned, a painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Such features as possess any quality capable of giving grace to the picture are carefully preserved, and artfully elaborated; the more offensive points are skilfully shaded down; if the outline of the bust be good, it is exhibited to the utmost advantage, or, if defective, shrouded in a graceful drapery. Perhaps the view of the country, which has of late years been produced by the Ministerial artists, could not be more closely compared than to a flattering portrait of

a decayed beauty. The originally good features of national power, of British spirit, of extended commerce, are brought prominently forward, while a judicious colouring of soft phrases conceals the wasted and hollow cheek; the dull tone of despondency which hangs around the eyes and lips is changed to a smile of content, while the wrinkles are carefully subdued; and to the likeness thus formed is added a background, coloured ad libitum, of friendly assurances from foreign powers. In the present year, the ordinary attention to accuracy which decency required was entirely neglected. The Ministers felt that they were ignorant of the real state of the country-that, solely occupied with degrading bargains for mercenary influence, they were entirely unacquainted with the actual circumstances of the interests committed to their charge. Chance was left to superintend the work to which Vigilance alone was competent; the portrait was drawn on no other principle than that of laying on colour enough; but an incipient wrinkle was introduced to satisfy the scruples of a conscientious under-secretary, who had, in some strange way, imbibed a notion that there was some sort of distress in the country.

The Ministers presented their handywork to the House of Commons, and the House of Commons refused to sanction the production. The words which the Ministers put into the mouth of the King, the House of Commons repudiated-as untrue, in the sense in which they were intended by the Government. Save from the Treasury bench, no voice was heard in support of the expressions describing the position of the nation inserted in the King's Speech. The gentleman who was selected to second the address, a merchant of eminent reputation, came to perform his office in the costume ordinary on such an occasion. But, in assuming the habiliments of the Court, he did not assume the pliant and accommodating sentiments equally requisite. The coat was the coat of a courtier, but the voice which came from beneath it was the voice of an honest English merchant, bearing testimony,

in plain language, to the distress of his countrymen. These were the

words of Mr Ward:-*

"The next subject to which I shall allude is the distress that weighs upon our agricultural and manufacturing classes. I hope I am the last man that would seek to undervalue the real state of affairs, and I believe that distress of an extraordinary character does exist. It is not for us to content ourselves with the mere statement of the fact-it is our duty to see whether a remedy can be found."

Sir Edward Knatchbull proposed, in a speech well befitting his character as one of the leaders of the country gentlemen in the House of Commons, as an amendment, the introduction of the following paragraph into the Address:-

"That we lament the distress which your Majesty informs us prevails in some places; we are, however, in the faithful, although painful discharge of our duty, compelled to declare to your Majesty our opinion, that this distress is not confined, as your Majesty has been advised, to some particular places, but is general amongst all the productive interests of the country, which are severely suffering from its pressure. We beg further to assure your Majesty, that we will adopt the caution you have recommended in the consideration of such measures as you have proposed to us, and that our earnest endeavours will be exerted to relieve the country from its present distress."

What were the grounds on which this temperate amendment was opposed? Not because the description of the severity of the distress which oppresses the people, and of the universality of that distress, was incorrect. Because it was contended, that the phrase introduced, almost parenthetically, in the King's speech, and echoed in the responsive address, of "the distress which prevails among the manufacturing and agricultural classes, in some parts of his Majesty's dominions," might, by a felicitous duplicity of interpretation, be understood to describe a general distress. Those who asserted this, asserted neither more nor less, than that the lesser might contain the greater. Yet, on this ground,

158 Members, their mouths speaking, and their hearts approving, the sentiments expressed in the amendment of Sir Edward Knatchbull, though their feet walked the way of the Ministers, divided against 105, who supported by their votes the opinions which both parties admitted to be

correct.

The sole argument, meriting that name, to be found amidst the mass of futilities adduced by Mr Peel, in support of his address, was this: That for many years, it had not been customary to move an amendment to the Address-no member being considered as pledged to the sentiments expressed in the Address, to which he gave his silent concurrence. But did Mr Peel imagine, that a Minister is therefore to call on the House of Commons to present to his Majesty as the Address of his faith ful Commons-a document containing erroneous, or (let us assume for the sake of the argument) false, statements. Is the House of Commous, on the plea that the veracity of an individual Member is thereby unimpeached, to suffer itself to be made the unresisting organ of any mis-statements, which it may suit the purpose of a Minister to give forth with a semblance of authority? The objection to the Address submitted to the House of Commons was, that it presented to the King an incorrect account of the condition of his subjects. The argument, that it has been customary to adopt, without alteration, the Address of the Minister, could only have been rendered applicable to the case before the House, if Mr Peel had proved, that the Addresses so adopted habitually contained fallacious and unfounded representations. If it had been the practice of the House of Commons to present, by way of Address, such representations to his Majesty, though a practice "more honoured in the breach than the observance," there might have been some show of reason for not infringing it in the present instance. But how far such an argument consists with the dignity of the Body whereof Mr Peel is the professed leader, he is the better judge.

In the House of Lords, a similar amendment was moved in a powerful speech by Lord Stanhope. The Duke of Richmond ably supported

him, as did Lord Carnarvon. This respected nobleman expressed his sentiments in a speech of remarkable vigour; and his concluding words well deserve to be recorded.

"The noble Duke and his colleagues say, We admit the exist ence of distress, and are ready to administer a remedy, but we really cannot distinguish what that remedy should be.' Then, my Lords, I say that if they cannot, we must give our confidence to those who can and will."

A more appropriate opportunity will not perhaps offer, of adverting to a practice, which has crept into par liamentary usage, chiefly from ha ving been occasionally resorted to by members of the Administration, when hard pressed for means to support a frail cause. It is the practice of quoting private letters from "respectable individuals," (as they are invariably termed,) as authorities to be respected. This practice is the more to be pointed out to reprobation, as, on the faith of such precious documents, attempts have been made to contradict, as unfounded, statements of general distress. Honourable members rise behind the Treasury bench, and state, with more gravity than grace, that they have received communications from highly respectable individuals, who are anxious that their names should not be made use of,stating, that certain parishes wherein they respectively reside, are not by any means in an extraordinarily distressed condition. It would be well to insist, whenever such letters are quoted, that the names of these correspondents should be made known. It is fit to be understood who and what the men are, who attempt to expose to scorn and ridicule, the supplications of a population entreating for relief. For the authority of such letters is nought, unless the name and condition of the writers be stated. There are many very respectable men who know as little of the state of the country, or the sufferings of the people, as his Majesty's Ministers themselves. Officers of both army and navy, are, ex officio, respectable, but they have a better claim to be considered as witnesses of authority upon any other matter, than upon the question of the commercial condition of the country. Even when the fact shall prove to be correctly stated, and