powers are conditional like those of less distinguished persons. So, too, though wonderful results may be accomplished by system, it is haunted by a spectral form called routine, which, within a very recent period, has slain its thousands and its tens of thousands. It is a wholesome thing for every individual in a kingdom, for every company of individuals, to do the utmost in their power for themselves and by themselves, and to throw on the shoulders of government, such burdens only as they are absolutely unable to bear. Government is a necessity, but it is to be obtained only at a costly price; and, like law, "they that have the least of it, are the best off." On the whole, I believe our national system of poor-laws will command, in its broader features, at least, a not-reluctant homage from an impartial investigation. But think how largely the time and attention of a numerous staff of officials is consumed in writing and copying, and replying and again replying, from its central station, with all the tedious formality and endless delays and vexatious repetitions of a circumlocution office. Take an ordinary and average specimen of English citizenship; let him be a man of unblemished honor, of an energetic will, and with a capacity for the conduct of business which has ensured him success in his own,make him an overseer of the poor,-and a very short tenure of office will suffice to overturn all his preconceived notions-to convince him how widely different is public business as conducted at a central office only two hundred miles distant, from what his own may be with correspondents and connections at the antipodes; and if he have not the patience of a Job, and the resignation of a martyr, he will either sink into hopeless despair, or will sigh for the termination of his period of office, as the servan/ desireth his shadow."

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But irritating, tedious, and costly in time and attention as are these results of centralisation as experienced with us, they become of little moment

when contrasted with the huge and all powerful system which obtains in the countries of continental Europe. There the rule is, that everything shall be accomplished by the government, and nothing by the people; who can scarcely so much as breathe, and certainly cannot speak, or write, or print, or vote, or meet, or canvass, or propose one candidate or placard another, without permission first had and obtained from the departments of state. Their civil officers, their town clerks, councillors, and mayors, are chosen not by them, but for them; and the whole land is over run with a countless army of rapacious officials, who devastate it like a swarm of locusts, eat into the very heart of the people's liberties, privileges, and rights; keep up an odious and intolerable spy-system, and destroy every green and living sprout of popular freedom which may venture to obtrude from its uncongenial soil. As the natural foes to undue centralisation, so are municipal corporations the nurseries of national freedom and strength, and the best incentives to popular progress. When the Anglo-Normans descended on the Irish coast, and sought to effect there a permanent lodgment, it was essential to make the towns strong, and so they made the townsmen free. What an act of homage was this to liberty! When kings want to subjugate a people, they attack the municipalities, as though their destruction were the inevitable pre-requisite to the accomplishment of despotic ends. Municipalities are the fortresses and outworks of a country's liberty, which must be stormed and taken ere access can be gained to its sacred shrine. When James the First determined to force on Ireland the act of uniformity and the religious supremacy of the crown, how did he essay to compass his nefarious design? He sent a military commission, with power to revoke charters; to remove by force the local officials they could not convince by argument; and to nominate as councillors,

mayors, recorders, and sheriffs, such of the citizens as were base and treacherous enough to prostitute themselves to his service, and to sell the birthright of themselves, their compeers, and their children, for the wretched pottage of patronage, emolument, and place.

When modern Emperors seek to secure themselves in the eminences to which they have vaulted over the heads of their peoples, their first care is to bribe and corrupt the local and provincial dignitaries, and to suborn them to their iniquitous designs. It then becomes the function of the mayoralty to see that only candidates approved by authority solicit the suffrages of the voters-that affirmative bulletins alone are issued, and that such and such only be cast into what, with an ominous propriety, are designated electoral urns,-depositories as they are of the ashes of a great nation's liberties, the mortuary remains of her slaughtered freedom.

It is time, however, to bring these remarks to a close.

That I entertain a very high regard and veneration for the spirit of self-reliance and the ardent love of liberty in which our municipal institutions took their rise, will, I trust, have been evident. If the estimate of their value and importance which I have presented be a fair and a just one, who will not lend his willing aid, his hearty co-operation, to preserve such privileges intact, and to draw from them their full measure of social and national blessings? It is but too common an occurrence to find people justifying their apathy, by declaring that they cannot undertake the responsibility of interfering, in any degree, with public affairs. But there is a misappropriation here of a very good word. The real responsibility lies in not doing that from which they thus seek to excuse themselves. Suppose the plea to be urged not by a fourth, nor by half, but by all the constituent members of our municipalities.

What would become of public business? what irregularities would speedily occur-what gigantic evils would afflict the body politic! And yet these indifferentists would be the first to complain of the wretched condition into which things in general were running. But why? If one man has a right to decline every kind of service, every token of personal interest, so has a second, a third, and so on indefinitely. Moreover, is it honourable to accept at the hands of others, without the least co-operation on our own parts, the time, the attention, and the labour, in the good results of which we share equally with all? The offer of personal service-the mere suggestion of pecuniary aid-would be resented as an insult by not a few, who yet will receive, unacknowledged, the most lavish contributions of thought and sacrifice for public ends. Are these institutions valuable? Is it of primal consequence to preserve them in efficient operation, and so to transmit them to posterity? If so, they are valuable to all,—to me as to you, to your children as to mine. Why, then, should not all contribute some service to this end? The neglect so to do is a sin against posterity, as it is an act of ingratitude to our wise and noble forefathers. Their toils and labours, forfeitures of personal ease and comfort, loss of estate, and even of life, were not designed for a generation that would hold so cheap the blessings that cost them so dear, but for those who, receiving from their honoured hands the torch of liberty, would religiously tend the sacred flame, and transmit it, brightly burning, to illumine with its vivifying rays, a future far more glorious than yet the world has seen.

PHONOGRAPHY;

BY THE EDITOR.

[Delivered at the Manchester Mechanics' Institution.]

Mind is invisible, yet, when we write,
That world of mystery comes forth to sight;
In vocal speech the idle air breathes sense,
And empty sound becomes intelligence.
Phonetic Art hath both these modes outdone
By blending sounds and symbols into one.

JAMES MONTGOMERY.

There is no art or science more useful or more coveted by young men and students than Shorthand. Dr. Johnson says, Shorthand, on account of its great and general utility, merits a much higher rank among the arts and sciences than is commonly allotted to it. Its usefulness is not confined to any particular science or profession, but is universal." Locke, in his renowned “ Essay on Education," commends shorthand as a "useful and convenient accomplishment, and worth the learning both for despatch in what men write for their own memory, and concealment of what they would not have lie open to every eye." Similar testimonies to the value of the art may be found in the writings of many of the brightest ornaments of literature, penned either in grateful acknowledgment of its benefits, or bitterly regretting its want.

Shorthand is not a modern invention, though it has attained its great development and usefulness in