THE BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW.

Tun principle we have more than once applied to a new periodical- " Does it supply a want? "—may in an extended sense be held to em- brace the essentials requisite to success. Its due fulfilment argues a new field of labour, a definite purpose, and an adaptation to the spirit of the

age, both in general views and literary execution. These qualities are exhibited to a considerable extent in the first number of The British Quarterly Review. Whether they are carried to a sufficiently high degree, or whether the quarterly periodicals already existing are not as many as are wanted, time must decide.

The British Quarterly Review seems chiefly intended as an organ of the Congregational Dissenters or Independents ; a body whose prin- ciples are of necessity the most liberal and tolerant of any section of Christianity, and from their constitution the least disturbing to the peace of the community of any churches not controlled by the state, or perhaps of any whether so controlled or not. The object of the new review is to raise the character of the Nonconformists, by representing them in a

quarterly work which shall consider the literature and topics of the day from a more comprehensive and elevated point of observation, and treat them in a broader and less sectarian spirit, than has hitherto been the case with Dissenting periodical literature. That the learning and the abstract ability to accomplish this exist among the Nonconformists is unques- tionable, and is fairly enough displayed in the number before us. How far it may be permanently available in a marketable shape, is another

question. The ability and accomplishments that are effective in one sphere do not always tell in another. Platform and pulpit oratory, for the most part, merely echoes the sentiments and feelings of the assembly in a new or striking mode. The same arguments would not be felt convincing addressed to another kind of audience ; they might seem childish,mtd the manner offensive, if not ridiculous. EVCD the practice of addressing a religious sect through the press is by no means adapted to give that catholic air which is required in the highest kind of peri- odical writing, though the work itself should be a party organ. Hence it is possible, that with all the talent of the Nonconformists there is not enough of the sort necessary to support a quarterly review. For example, the article on the Morality of Party, in the number before us, though powerfully written, and not devoid of passages of a striking rhetoric and a sensible philosophy as regards Protestantism, is too vague and general for that part of the public which has not acquired an artificial palate for this kind of dish. " Tractarian Theology," a review of Mr. Ward's Ideal of a Christian Church, is open to a similar remark. It wants the close, trenchant, and direct character requisite to tell in peri- odical assault. The raw materials are plentiful, but better workman- ship is needed.

Another drawback, that will operate more among Nonconformists than general readers, is the Independent difficulty of avoiding discordant or contradictory views. The author of the article on Prescott's " Ferdinand and Isabella" evidently does not consider the religion of Europe for many generations as "abominable, detestable, damnable"; he can estimate even a Cardinal with a reference to his age and country; and in pointing out the evils that were springing up in Spanish society from the legalized establishment of polygamy among the Moors, he indicates that their expulsion, however politically injurious, was not mere wanton bigotry, but had its first origin at least in higher motives. On the other hand, the author of the Morality of Party seems to consider Popery as a " daimon " though now " encompass'd in an angers frame." The review, " in all political questions, without being pledged to any party, will be thoroughly Liberal." Its general tone is that of the more rational and thinking Liberalism of the present day, which looks rather to the public good than mere party interests. The notice of Lord Eldon, on the contrary, adopts the narrowest view of his character, and passes judgment on past events, which have now become history, in the style of the exploded Whiggery of the time. The article is also inferior as a mere review, considering the rich materials of Mr. Twiss's work.

The number is sufficient in variety. Besides the articles we have alluded to, which embrace general and applied theology, and literature in the shape of history and biography, chemical science is treated of in an able review of the Life and Discoveries of Dalton ; which popularly ex- pounds his atomic theory, and the fundamental laws that compound bodies obey. " The Factory System and Legislation" exhibits the favourable side of factory labour, and advocates non-interference, if not too much like a partisan, at least with the appearance of too many em- ployer's statistics, that have often been seen before. The paper on Lord John Russell takes an elaborate review of the character of the Whig leader, considers the past condition and present prospects of Liberalism and Non- conformity, and arrives at the conclusion that Lord John is not the "coming man." "The Pilgrim Fathers" makes Bancroft's History of the United States its text : but it is in reality a sketch of the origin and early history of Independency, introduced by a preface, not without merit, but somewhat too personal to the writer. Both these at tides are, like the rest, somewhat deficient in the style of work ; but their matter and spirit is very much beyond the common run of periodicals. The history of early Independency is indeed a very remarkable piece of composition. It is the best picture of Elizabeth's Protestant persecutions we ever read. The harmless character of the persecuted men—their purely conscientious motives—their calm and even dignified submission to suffering, with the total absence of all bravado and rushing into martyrdom—are admirably brought out. The opposite view is also clearly presented, in the per- secuting spirit of the age, that sprang from the mistaken notion of the State's duty, and the idea of treason connected with religious Noncon- formity. But this is done without in the least diminishing sympathy with the martyrs,

We shall take our extracts from the article on Lord John Russell, not altogether as being better than the others, but because it refers more to passing life.

DANGER AND LORD JOIN RUSSELL.

Those who have been most observant of the career of Lord John Russell, will be aware that his genius as an orator has something of the unequal and the fitful in it. It has often served him with felicitous effect in some of the critical junc- tures of debate and of affairs. On many occasions he has been seen to rise when the timid have dropped. In fact, he is never more in tone to say or do something brilliant than wheu men whisper to him from the right and left that mischief is brewing. Danger, which so completely destroys the self-possession of some men, appears to give to Win only the fuller command of his resources. It is then that even his lighter faculties, imagination and wit, come most into play. It is some- thing ominous, accordingly, to see him in much higher spirits than usual—to find him walk the room with a quicker step, talk more fluently, spout poetry, and Helm, to be in one of those happier moods which do sometimes come to mortals. When his Lordship gives forth these signs, you may be sure thataffairs have some movement in them, and that they are about to have more of it. We have sometimes thought, that had the reaction after the passing of the Reform Bill been as final to Lord John Russell as was the reaction after the loss of the Exclusion Bill to his great ancestor, there would at least have been thus much of solace left to us—that this second martyr in the cause of freedom from the house of Bedford would he sure to deliver one of the most admirably poised and admirably pointed dying speeches upou record.

WIIIG HAUTEUR.

The impression is very general among observing men, that the temper and manners ot Conservative statesmen are less open to complaint as regards attention to personal or general feeling than those of Liberal politicians. The former seem to be aware that there is a want of the popular in their principles, and that this deficiency must be supplied by a more careful attention to what is personal, and to the claims of popular feeling in other fonns. But our Whig leaders seem too often to lean on their principles with so much confidence as to be coniparatively negligent of the subordinate means of influence. It is true of statesmen, how . ever, as of other men, that nothing is lost in social life by a little considerateness, courtesy, and good temper,--especially in relation to large bodies of men, which are generally under the influence of a few minds, and take their tone from those minds. In such relations, very little forethought and effort, with a view to con- ciliate or to preserve amity, might often suffice to prevent great mischiefs. The love of freedom is inseparable from a large measure of self-esteem; and we need neither ghost nor poet to assure us that "Time proud are ever most provoked by pride,"

or by the conduct which they interpret as proceeding from that cause. What meaneth this language? Truly it hath a meaning—and a history too—which some men will readily understand.

NECESSITY AND DANGER OF UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE.

The circumstances have been long gathering strength which on the one hand render the demand of a 'ynueli more extended suffrage increasingly natural, and which on the other hand tend just as strongly to render compliance with that demand increasingly dangerous.

It was precisely thus in the later times of the Roman republic; and as it was found impossible to resist the great extension of the suffrage then demanded, the mass of voters soon became the bought menials of the patricians, being openly fed, and otherwise bribed, that their votes might be the property of their masters. To have resisted the franchise would have been to destroy the state, by surrendering it to the passions of a poor, an unprincipled, and an excited populace; to concede the franchise was to do the work of destruction no less certainly, but to bring on that event by subjecting the body politic to the influence of a lingering disease rather than to a more speedy dissolution by the hand of violence. To such pass affairs had come as the fruit of aristocratic wisdom and delay! In the reign of Augustus, two hundred thousand franchised persons are described as obtaining their food by means of corn-tickets, which gave them bread, in the manner of our soup-tickets, without cost. Cwsar, on one occasion, purchased the adhesion and the plaudits of that honourable constituency, by distributing to each man a sum of money, ten pounds of oil, and ten bushels of corn. In the struggles of factions which mark those times, the great men vied with each other in such donations to the burghers. The gratuities rose as the competition between the political leaders waxed stronger, and the votes passed as a matter of course to the highest bidder. Such a condition of rich and poor, under any signal failure of the commercial and manufacturing interests of this country:, would speedily become our own. Nothing would be more natural at such a juncture than that the loud and concentrative voice of the unfranchised for a more extended suffrage should prevail, and then, the course of baseness and ruin which have always followed in such circumstances would again follow. The many without the means of subsistence must still ob- tain subsistence; and the wealthy few, from whom alone those means could pro- ceed, would dole them out as the price of servitude.