NEWS OF THE WEEK.
BEFORE we begin to relate the events and discuss the business of the year 1830, we must pay the tribute of a few soothing sentences to the memory of 1829, which one of our • ablest contemporaries has as- sailed with a ruthless irreverence.
We had a sincere respect for 1829, and we love the recollection of its great deeds. Abroad and at home, the cause of liberty and hu- .manity and true wisdom has been successful. The ,.urk, who had ac- quired as it were an imperscriptible right to ignoraneid ,pivoppression, has, partly by the movine.:s- of amaster .Spirit within, `anOr,inore by sa- lutary violence from witliMit, been forded to enter on the path of po- litical and moral regeneration. The creeks, whose doubtful struggle against their tyrants.had for years .n.ttraeted the sympathy of every en- Iiihtened spirit in the Old Worldluad the New,bayeal leneth been ena- bled to lay the top-stone of their freedom with joy. Nor will the repre.‘. - sion and punishment of Mahomedan insolence, and the raising of Greece to independence, be Without its salutary influence on themig,hty power of the Nortla; rhich has been the instrument of both. "No man lighteth a lamp foOts neighbour and receivetlanot himself some benefit from its rays." The Western parts of Europe are 'full of consolation. In Prussia, political improvement is proceeding slowly, surely, and continuously. '-"Tii-Holiand, the low ambition of government to trammel the freedom of the subject., has been met by a steady spirit of resistance, not un- worthy the desceodants of the men who braved and triumphed over the power of CHARLES an,d the bigotry and brutality of ALVA. It is a fine instance of the com.pensatin$principle that is ever silently work- ing in human affe to see t',,stniitual jealousies of two territories that were forciltb e .0 ,:give consolidation to absolutism, operating to re s France, which, from her situation and her ieeo, arerful for good or for evil to the rest of Europe and e world, haitgione forth in the career of freedom, "like a strong ma, to run ai raccP The petty cabals of rulers and priests have served no otherfpurpose than to keep the attention of her patriots e awake. Her elective franchise is now finally se- cured, and has been found to work with admirable effect ; and the freedom of her press rests on the firm basis of law purely and impar- tially administered. With these two grand instruments of social improvement,—freedom to choose her legislators, and freedom to reprove, to correct, and to instruct them when chosen,—France must prosper, whatever enemies domestic or foreign may array themselves against her. On one portion of Western Europe—the Peninsula—the blackness of darkness yet broods. Yet even the Governm nts of Spain and Portugal are not without their uses. The vagaries of the drivel- ling despots that direct them present to the other princes of Europe, the same salutary lesson which the riotous extravagancies of the drunken slave presented to the youth of Sparta. Absolutism is often surrounded by a glitter of circumstance that deceives unreflecting be- holders. FERDINAlqD and MIGUEL deserve the thanks of the wise for .exhibiting it in its native loathsomeness and imbecility. When from the Old we cast westward our eyes to the New World, the same consolatory prospects still meet us. In the New States, in- ! deed, that fermentation still proceeds which seems not less essential in political than in physical mixtures for the fining and purifying of the mass. But the violence of the effervescence is now over, and much of the grosserfecula has been worked off. The process will no more be obstructed by foreign applications. The foes to improvement in ,....,Europe have essayed their last to arrest its advances in America. What has been the conduct of England while her neighbours on every. side have been up and dome? We have not, indeed, many acts of our own Government to which to point, but there-is one transcen- cussing the acts of the Government, they do not constitute the crime of dent enough to stamp a character On the year. The consecrated evil of a century and a half has been for ever wiped away. The arrow that rankled in our constitution has been plucked out. The wound is not yet cicatrized, but the cause of its irritation has been removed, and a sure and certain balm has been applied. In a few years, we shall seek or its place in vain—not without pity at the weakness that so long . pernutte.l an ulcer so deadly to continue its ravages. • e hear of moch and extended suffering throughout England—of ailing rents, diminishing profits, masters without business, labourers vithout employment. There is a good deal of exaggeration in these accounts, and a good deal of truth. We hear much of the prosperity viol former years, to which the same remark equally applies. We ympathize honestly and truly with the evils of the present time—with he prosperity of the past we sympathize very little. We have a faint mry of those high and prosperous days. We recollect something of habeas corpus suspensions,---of seditious prosecutions; and sundry other matters, by which every principle of the constitution of England was outraged. We recollect, in those prosperous days, the swelled in- solence of every man in power, from the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the exciseman of a day's creation ; the violent suppression of free discussion ; and the spies and special juries, that gave perfection to a system in which it would be hard to say whether the domineering temper of the Government or the tamed and pliant subserviency of the people constituted the most alarming feature. We should deem our present sufferings as dearly exchanged for those days of recollected prosperity. We have no doubt that the present difficulties of the country will lead to such an investigation of existing abuses, and such a reformation of existing laws, as will materially diminish the chances of their recurrence ; and that the nation will have reason in a short time to exclaiin, "t is good for us that we have been afflicted." And now, leavint directed our course east anti west and north and south, it ma btf. perniitted us to seek the resting-place of our own little ark, wineTi'floats a scarce discoverable object on the vast and ever-heaving tide of human affairs. At the close of last year, we were hardly out of swaddling-bandsour vigour and beauty were but imnerfeetiv developed—our prosperity was hidden in the shades of the Nitre. We have now waxed stoiliM,-..We not Only can ask indul- . for what we promise, we calOrartiand confideni:e for what we .i_eicaorined. We have scared a problem which was before thought to be doubtful. We have m proved that truth and moderation and jet- partiality, when accompanied by industry and talent, may safely calcu- lateon the suffrages of the public. Our failure might have been looked on as discreditable to the age—our success does more honour to it than to ,ourselves.
And now what remains for us, but to wish to each and all of our kind readers, A BLITHE 'w AR!
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