of all the provinces. To this centre flowed all the lovers of pleasure, refinement, power, riches, and luxury; and so formed, as it were, a splendid head begirt with jewels, while the body was pining and dressed in rags-a gay, gilded, glittering cupola upon a structure insecurely founded, and badly built. The splendours of our aristocracy were not like the topmost boughs of a healthy tree, glorious in the sunshine, but rather like too costly exotic flowers, forced from the soil at the expense of the nutriment which should have supplied more useful productions.

At last the people arose, and the indignation which had been gathering for many years of oppression, broke out in a terrible storm.

As the winter came on, its gloom was lit up by incendiary fires. We poured our soldiers into the country, and presented what we called justice to the country, in the shape of a host of bristling bayonets, while the maddened people armed themselves against us with the agricultural implements which we had prevented them from employing in a more peaceable way.

Meanwhile there were large and formidable bands of malcontents in our metropolis, who had only waited for a favourable opportunity of insurrection. Meetings of tens of thousands were held in the open air all over the country, to denounce the ruling policy. The miners met together in vast congregations on the moors in the north; the manufacturing people refused to labour until our government would resign; and even the peasantry caught the prevailing discontent, and met together to propose carrying out reform with scythes and pitch-forks.

Constantine was the only man in high places who had long been aware of the extent of our peril. He had attached to his views a considerable number of men of intellect and

moral influence, whom he now despatched into the disturbed parts of the country, to exhort the people to abandon all unlawful and violent measures, and to convert that which threatened to become a sanguinary contest into a moral argument. These superior and rational reformers fulfilled their duty often at the risk of their own lives; but their success was considerable, and to their efforts rather than to any measures of our government the deliverance of our country must be ascribed. The doctrines which they taught were those which Constantine maintained in his addresses to the people.

"The surest signs," said he, "of a people contending, not for wild license, but for right, are determination and patience. Lay down these rude instruments of savage warfare. Be men! Fight morally, intellectually, religiously. Arouse the consciences of your oppressors by the utterance of truth. Spread your convictions until you gain a moral and intellectual majority before which men only armed with steel and gunpowder will quail. If you contend for the right the power is yours, and the victory will surely be yours; but be patient-if the truth is in you, you will be patient-the work of an age cannot be done in a day. The work of the mind cannot be done with clubs and brick-bats. Error is hasty and violent, because it knows that its time is short truth is patient and forbearing, for it knows that the ages to come will be devoted to its triumphs. Be firm; be peaceable; and your children will live to bless the hands that sheathed the sword, and the lips that proclaimed the truth.” Constantine's speeches in the senate were as plain and bold as those which he addressed to the populace.

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"Even now it is not too late," said he; "though we have around us the elements of anarchy, I still believe in the power of honest and benevolent hearts. Let us speak to the people plainly and faithfully, as men should speak to men. Let us confess the errors of our government, and promise that they shall be speedily corrected. Let our aristocracy, if they can, renounce the conventional corruptions which threaten to involve us all in ruin, and return to

the normal relations which God has established between the rich and the poor. None will deny that the evils of our present condition are great our deliverance from them will demand great sacrifices of our selfishness and prejudices; but the way is simple. We need no new invention: we have had too many improvements upon the old laws which are the basis of that religion which we still profess. To these old laws, and to institutions in accordance with them, let us return. Reverend fathers, who sit here among us to remind us that laws from heaven should preside over all earthly politics, I pray you discharge your duty more boldly. Exhort the teachers of the people who are under you to lay aside the wordy disputes of centuries as not worth the ink in which they have been written, and to return, both in teaching and in practice, to the original faith. A dozen words out of your inspired book, thoroughly believed and put into operation, will save this nation :

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"WHATSOEVER YE WOULD THAT MEN SHOULD DO TO YOU, DO YE EVEN SO TO THEM.'

"Amen!" said a young sprig of the aristocracy, with an assumed nasal twang like that of a parish-clerk, as Constantine concluded his address. But the prospects of our aristocracy were soon too serious to admit of joking. Many of our country residences were burned and pillaged, and our standing army was insufficient to quell the universal disorder. No doubt, the exertions of Constantine in a great measure softened the violence of the popular storm that was rising; but in some parts of the country the disturbances were alarming, and especially in the district where my country residence was situated.

I have omitted to mention that my only son was betrothed to the daughter of Constantine. I had left him in our mansion, near the city where the disturbance first assumed an alarming character. Unhappily, the popular anger, from which I had made an escape into secrecy, directed itself against my son, though he had never taken any serious part

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in political affairs. An infuriated mob had taken possession of the city, and filled the streets with curses upon my name and the names of my colleagues in government. churches were demolished, houses were burned, and, at last, the whole fury of the mob gathered around the mansion in which my son had imprudently remained. Meanwhile, in the hour of peril, the daughter of Constantine had found her way to my residence, to exhort my son to flee from the danger; but her advice was too late. On all sides the house was surrounded by a gathering crowd of men, women, and children, demanding the surrender of the place, and crying fiercely, "Give up the traitor!" For a short time the few servants within the house made a show of defence; but this only more exasperated the mob: several parts of the house were soon in flames; doors and windows were crashed, and, as the fierce crowd poured into the rooms, with triumphant shouts and execrations, the daughter of Constantine, overcome with terror, died in my son's arms. The house was a smoking ruin before the military arrived to restore order in the city; and when I returned in the evening, I found my son standing, in dumb despair, beside the blackened pile. He led me to a neighbouring house, where lay the corpse his promised bride. He stooped and kissed her pallid face; then said, "See, thus mysteriously the innocent suffer for the guilty. Sir, I do not curse the miserable creatures who were her murderers; but I curse that system of policy which degraded those men and drove them to desperation."

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The death of that one good and gentle creature had a more subduing influence upon the feelings of the populace than all our military movements. As Constantine followed his daughter to the grave, many of the repentant people walked after him in sorrow. In a few days the agitation of the country subsided, and confidence and hope were restored, as it became known that the government was to be placed in the hands of Constantine.

Since then I have wandered to and fro in the earth, repenting of a career of injustice. I have one singular gift by which I can recognize, at a glance, any of the descend

ants of my once proud and worthy colleagues in the government. I have seen these sons of noble families reduced to the most degraded situations, and unconsciously bearing the burden of misery which their fathers imposed upon the people. But my experience has some consolation, as I see the spirit of Constantine still living and moving among the people, delighted with the gradual fulfilment of his benevolent designs.

CONFESSIONS OF LITERATURE.

[TO A YOUNG FRIEND.]

So, you have been writing poems, and are now beginning a story. Well, go on !-I do not know how you can spend your play-hours in a better way. I am pleased with your literary devotion; but there is one part of your letter which calls from me a few warning words, though I have no great fears for you. You say you are not discontented with your situation, but you see no hope of advancement in your present employment: you would like to have two strings to your bow; and you think you may be preparing yourself now to do something in literature. Happiness and success attend your studies!—but I have a fear that you are inclined to suppose that literature may, some day, be to you the means of living. On this hint I speak-Dear Harry, throw away this notion at once, if you have for a moment entertained it. I do not underrate your abilities; I rather express my esteem for them when I say they are too good to be thrown away in the struggle to live by literature.

I need not repeat that I would not discourage your progress in literature: but I would say that your living and your literature are two things, and the more distinct you keep them the better. I would recommend a young attorney whom I knew as a good example for you. Tom was brought up in very easy circumstances, and only touched the law

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