pinionsi of t4e prefit.

WHAT MAKES AN ARISTOCRACY?

COURIER—That the power of the Aristocracy is distinct from the existence of the house of Lords, to us needs no demonstration. We may, however, ob- serve, that the House of Commons, holding the purse-strings, has really been the governing power of the country for the last century ; and prior to the passing of the Reform Act the Aristocracy governed through its means, and not through the means of the House of Lords.. The Aristocracy made its power manifest, not in the House of Lords, which is only a part of the Aristo- cracy, but in the House of Commons. It is, however, essential to remark, that in this country, and perhaps in every country and in every age, wealth or great property is the essential element of an aristocracy. In this country it is particularly the case; and we should all laugh at the idea of an aristocracy eve' s member of which might be able to trace his descent, like the Courte-

.

stays, up to the Roman Emperors, which had not a foot of land nor a pound sterling of revenue. Great property is the essential element (Amongst us rf an arktocracy ; and as there are many Commoners more wealthy than the great bulk of the Peers, it is quite clear that the power of the Aristocracy is distinct Loin the existence of the House of Lords. But this view ot the power of the Aristocracy leads to a solution of the second question, and shows us that this power, which is that of men of property, would be increased by reforming the /louse of Lords. Property is not unpopular ; it is respected, beloved, nay, alum a adored amongst us ; and it would gain still further sway over the public mind by being disconnected from an unpopular Legislature. It is plain also from experience, that sitting in the Legislature is not the best mode of acquiring wealth. The nation is naturally jealous of those who make the laws, and it will not allow them to enrich themselves by pretending to serve the public. 111ore fot tunes are spent than acquired in Parliament. Those who rely on a seat in the House of Lords to preserve or augment their family possessions, do not in general increase their wealth. We have now a large body of poor Peers. We have, however, en immense body of rich manufacturers, bankers, and merchants. Many Peers, therefore, would find it really advantageous in point of wealth to be deprived of their honouis ; and they would gain more power as members of the Aristocracy by adding to their wealth as merchants, bankers, or manufacturers, than as legislators.—Scpt. G.

IMPERFECT PUBLICITY OF THE BANK'S OPERATIONS.

Mott N IN G CHRONICLE- -During the inquiry which preceded the renewal of the Bank Charter, it was strongly urged, with a view to the security of the public, that the Bank should publish from time to time, at very short intervals. the amount of its bullion and of its liabilities, so that by coustantly looking to the account, every diligent merchant and manufacturer might have the ready means of viewing and judging accurately the operations which govern the ex- changes with foreign countries and vitally affect all contracts, and determine the value of every man's property. Lord Althorp, in the diseussion on the question for the renewal of the CharterNwelt on the importance of subjecting the Bank to the responsibility of public opinion. Well would it have been had his Lordship by a more effective publicity applied his principle of responsibility in such a manner as to enable the public to benefit by it. At present a mer- chant enters on a speculation, a manufacturer contracts to execute an order, unconscious of the danger which hangs over their heads, having before them only the imperfect information conveyed once a quarter by. the present system of publishing the averages ; the difficulty of obtaining correct m fin motion naturally leads to neglect and oversight ; and in a few weeks they find themselves stripped of their property by operations hid from their view. It is but small consola- tion to a man who has been ruined by the operations of the Money-market to discover afterwards, from the publication of the accounts of the Bank, an ex- planation of the causes of that ruin. That body, whose operations affect the property of every individual in the community, ought to have no secrets. A few ; !mons may know what is passing in the Money-market, and they can profit by their knowledge, whilst the great body of traders and manufacturers are without information by which to regulate their conduct. Were the amount of gold in the possession of the Bank, and its liabilities, to be published con- stantly, men would accustom themselves to look to the exchanges as they look to the weathercock to know the quarter from which the wind blows.— Sept. 5.

ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION OF CHURCH PROPERTY.

GLOBE—What, in fact, can he more absurd than the modern Tory or gnash- Reforming doctrine of Appropriation, when brought to the test of historical inquiry ? Many centuries ago, some pious knight or noble founded and en-

dowed with tithes a parish-church, that the scattered peasantry of his demesnes might profit by the rites of the then universally established Church, that mass might be said and prayers offered for the souls of his deceased ancestors. In the course of generations the hamlet becomes a village, the Sovereign and his Parliament abolish the old faith, and declare that the endowments of the worthy

founder must pass in conformity with his presumable intention to cherish the new religion established by the dominant party in the same place to which he originally bequeathed them. A few centuries more, and the village has grown into a thriving town, with a dozen sects dividing its population between them ; and we are told that to take the ancient founder's bequests altogether away from the soot to which he devoted them, and throw them into some common fund for t.se better repartition of Church revenues in general, is still to follow the will of that departed worthy ; but that to apply them to any other purpose for the general benefit, would be manifest robbery and injustice ! Wherever, in fact, funds have been originally given for a specific purpose, and intrusted to the care of a corporate body, we shall invariably find that, according to the English Conservative code of morals, any alteration which may be convenient to the trustees themselves, is sure to be pronounced agreeable to the will of the founder ; but any change demanded by a Reforming party ab extra is nothing less than sacrilege and spoliation. It is most eel lain that whoever does not admit, asa fundamental principle in polities, the right and duty of the State to interfere in the control of private bequests to public purposes, becomes plunged

i

in an nextricablelabytinth of perplexity whenever lie has to justify the smallest i

change whatever n the disposition of such revenues. And we are particularly disposed to rejoice in whatever steps have been taken this session towards inter- fering with the ancient distribution of Church property, pot only for the good whicli the measure itself will produce, but also because by it the principle of Appropriation has, in fact, received the sanction of the Legislature. The really great and difficult step has been taken. The hypocrites have swallowed the camel, although, we admit, not without many wry faces, and with a very reluc- tant acquiescence; and by now straining at the gnat they only augment their own eventual condemnation.—Sept. 9.

PRINCIPLE OF REPRESENTATION.

TRUE SUN—The Morning Chronicle announces, but without citing its au- thority, that the Spanish Government intends to " graft on the Constitution of 1812 ' an " Upper Chamber, the candidates to be elected, and a certain num- ber of them nominated or accepted by the Crown." And this arrangement our contemporary calls a " necessary element of any representative governs went," and only doubts whether it will be sufficient unless the selection " I a made exclusively front the higher nobles." The Chronicle must have odd notions of representative government, to make non-representation a necessary element in its construction. So far as the choice of the people is interfered with by the qualifications of the candidates and the veto or nontination of the Sovereign, it is clear that representation is extinguished. The utility of a portion of the legislature not being representative, is a different question. If the Grandees of Spain have, by their wisdom in council and their energy in action, won for themselves such confidence from the nation as to entitle them to be made a coordinate power with the nation's representatives in the framing of laws, no more can be said. We are not aware of the proofs ; but if they exist, the Spanish people cannot fail to evince the fact. For such a perilous addition as this to the Constitution, it must be presumed the sanction of the new Correa will be required, especially as they meet so speedily. Their deliberations will make the subject better understood. Any orevious attempt can only produce another revolution. And if any foreign influence, which la the must probable supposition, have suggested this clumsy contrivance, we trust the Cortes will have spirit to scout it as it deserves. So far as they are connected with other countries, the sympathy of nations will eventually aved them none than that of governments ; and we know of no nation, just now, that would very heartily sympathize in the establishment of an upper house of noble legislators.—Sept. 8.

TORY JEALOUSY OF DISSENTERS.

Times—We do not, any more than Lord Lyndhurst did, "mean to insinuate any thing against the Protestant Dissenters -" but with hint we did certainly protest against allowing Church trusts to be administered by sectarians ; and we should have continued to do so even though the Dissenters of Liverpool had allowed the Bible to be read in the schools under their control. Now, however, that it has happened that ere,: the Bible has been subjected to Mr. It ice's suite, fieial-inch scales that God's own word has been garbled, and that too by Protestant Dissenters, may we not, without reflecting on the general body, who, we lutist still be permitted to believe, will think, and feel, and speak as we do on this subject, congratulate every member of the community that is neither Whig, Whig-Radical, nor Destructive, in religion, whatever he may lw in politics upon the escape the country has had in the rescue of the charitable trusts of Corporations from persons who have proved themselves capable of acts that ought to restore them to the bosom of the Bishop of Rome? We see now but too clearly the meaning of that declaration to which Lord Lyndhurst alluded, and which, "made by the partisans of Reform," was, that "-their object was to remodel school foundations, disregarding the will of the founders, tand to form them on a plan more congenial to their own views and opinions." The Constitution has already been voted mere rubbish ; and we dare say that by the saute class of persons the Bible will share the same fate, if the Legislature give them encouragement ; but we hope and believe that on the re. assembling of Parliament and the revival of this Charitable Trustees Bill, the example of Liverpool will be productive of substantial benefit in exciting all parties in and out of Parliament to guard effectually against the rejection of the Scriptures by other Town-Cuuncils.— Sept. 9.

THE BUGBEAR OF THE LORDS.

Mor.:a INC POST—This is assuredly not the time for the adherents of Lord 'Melbourne and his colleagues to menace the house of Lords with the bugbear

of Reform. If to have advanced itself immeasurably in the general estimation of the country—if to have shown, to the full satisfaction of all sober-minded men, that it has lost none of its competency to discharge the important fun -

tions intrusted to it by the British Constitution, at a period when all sober- minded men perceive that these functions have become more essential than ever to the safe and regular working of the whole machine of government—if to have demonstrated its vigour and efficiency as the appointed guardian and pro:;- tector of all the institutions of the State against headlong innovation or trai- torous assault—if these be reasons why thellouse of Lords should be enfeebled or abolished, then, indeed, the adherents of the Melbourne Ministry who clamour for what they call Peerage Reform, are less proper objects of derision and contempt than we have hitherto considered them. The People of England are, we suspect, however, entirely of our mind—that little serious attention is due to those who insist upon a necessity of a Reform of the Peerage upon no better ground than that the Peers have reformed several of the projects which the present Ministers of the Crown have been compelled by Mr. O'Connell and his Irish 'fail to embrace. There is not much danger that 110 organic change in the constitution of the House of Lords will ever become very popu- lar in Great Britain, so long as it is known to every man of common under- standing, and acknowledged by every man of common honesty, that we must have the House of Lords as it is, if we do not desire the other alternative, viz. the absolute dominion over the whole empire, of Mr. O'Connell and the Roman Catholic priests of Ireland. In the peculiar circumstances of the present day, the House of Lords, as a component part of the Constitution, is felt to be more than usually valuable. Never was the House of Lords so popular, so power- ful, or so safe, as at the present moment. The Ministerial party in losing so many of their favourite measures, must surely have lost also, what was almost of equal value, namely, their wits, or they never would have chosen this parti- cular period for agitating the question of Peerage Reform.—Sept. 10.