vice and crime. Hence demagogues, adventurers, theorists, and quacks, the tormentors of the public peace; and mobs, and combinations, and visionary schemes. Let each portion of the country be thoroughly governed, and the soundness of the whole will make those evils necessarily vanish. At present all is, as it were, chaotic, offering a fertile field to the wild and selfish, whilst the wise and good are discouraged and dismayed.

It is by the principle alone of self-government by small communities that a nation can be brought to enjoy a vigorous moral health, and its consequence-real prosperity. It is by the same principle alone that the social feelings can be duly called into action, and that men, taken in the mass, can be noble, generous, intelligent, and free. It has been from neglect of this principle that England, with all her advantages, has not made greater progress; and it will be only to its abandonment, and the substitution of a heartless system of generalization and mercenaries, that she can ever owe her decay and become fit for despotism. Put the administration of justice throughout the land, the police, the poor laws, the roads, into the hands of mere Officials placed over extended districts, with which they are to have little or no community-take from men of business and of fortune every thing but their business and their fortunes, and on the one hand will be created a race of traders in public affairs, and on the other, of selfish besotted individuals, with a government relying for its strength on an all-pervading patronage; and, in the proportion that this is done, evil will arise and good be prevented.

It is true that every thing connected with parish government has long been, with the ignorant and unthinking, as well as with many who ought to have known better, the object of ridicule and abuse; and that those whose duty it especially was to have taken office upon themselves, have diverted their attention and their efforts to private channels, or to those public institutions which at best are but inefficient expedients for

well-organized local government. They have had an excuse for their neglect in the difficulty of effecting good, and the feeling that it could only be temporary; and most of those who have made any attempt at reform have rather furnished a warning than an example for imitation, because the machinery was too defective to work well for any length of time. There have been some general acts of parliament and many local ones for the better government of parishes; but they have been called forth only to remedy evils become intolerable, and have either been in abandonment of true principles, or have very inadequately enforced them. The ancient courts too, with their inquests and fines, have fallen into disuse, and their place has not been supplied by local institutions better fitted to the times, and absolutely necessary to well ordered communities.

It is a melancholy truth that at this moment no small portion of the population through the land may be said to be out of the pale of government, unless when their crimes, the consequences of neglect, draw down its vengeance upon their heads.

It is pitiable to see wretches brought before the tribunals of justice, who never had any chance of well-doing; and the only marvel is, that with so many temptations and so little care, there is not far more of disorder and outrage. Not only in the metropolis, but in every town, nearly in every parish in the kingdom, there is a neglected population, sunk in ignorance, filth, and vice, which almost unseen, festers in the body politic, and more or less infects the health of all It is not by the efforts of individuals, or of any combinations of individuals, that this evil can be remedied, but by an improved local organization proceeding from the state—an organization required for the moral elevation and the well being of all classes, as well the governing as the governed.

The mode of reform I think desirable is briefly this. As the parishes throughout the kingdom vary so much in extent,

population, wealth, and intelligence, it would be impossible to form one constitution to suit them all; nor would it be quite practicable to meet the exigencies of each case, or of each class of cases, by separate acts of parliament; besides that amidst the rapid improvements of the age, which would become still more rapid by better local organization, no constitution could in numerous instances be long applicable without some change.

I would therefore suggest a general act of parliament, empowering commissioners to apply its provisions according to the circumstances of each parish; which being done, the commission to cease, and any future alterations, from time to time deemed requisite, to be made by the magistrates in quarter sessions assembled. All that the commissioners or magistrates should have to do, should be to adapt parochial constitutions, and then the parishioners should manage their own affairs independently of all control, except that of the legal tribunals. Any system of interference is a mockery of freedom—childish in conception, arbitrary and debasing in effect. The difference in the size of parishes I think very desirable, as affording varied scope for intelligence and exertion. At the same time there may be some so small as to require consolidation, at least for certain purposes; and others so large, and possessing such different interests, as to make division expedient. It seems to have been an universal oversight with the founders of empires and with great legislators, to have made not provision for the change of circumstances their wise institutions were sure to produce, and baneful have been the consequences to mankind.

There are three principal points to be attended to in parish government-subdivision according to extent and population -election of officers-and their powers. Division is in all things essential to order, and every parish too extensive or populous for individual superintendence, ought to be divided into wards, over each of which a warden or guardian

annually elected by the rate payers of the ward, or of the parish, according to circumstances, should preside. It should never be forgotten, that it is indispensable to every well-regulated community that there should be no part of it with which some individual superintendent should not be thoroughly acquainted. In parishes requiring no subdivision, the rate payers should annually elect a certain number of governors. In parishes containing few subdivisions, the wardens and a sufficient number elected in addition, should be governors, and where the wardens were numerous enough, they alone. In every parish there should be a principal and his deputy chosen from amongst the governors by themselves.

With respect to the powers of the governors, they should have those of peace officers, and each warden should have a subwarden and the requisite number of assistant constables, elected in the same manner as himself. When fit persons could be found, a certain portion of the governors, to be elected amongst themselves, should be magistrates within the parish. All the ancient officers of England from the sheriff downwards are supposed to have a community of interest with those over whom they are placed-the only principle for a free country. In the acts of parliament relating to the management of the poor from Elizabeth's time to that of George the First, magisterial acts are directed to be done by magistrates "residing in or near the parish," and to the nonobservance of that direction may be attributed a great deal of the mal-administration of the poor laws. The governors

should further have the power of enforcing the laws, of prosecuting such felonies or misdemeanors committed within their parish as to them should seem meet, of holding a court of requests, of abating and fining for nuisances, "of inquiring of," to use Lord Bacon's words respecting the jurisdiction of the court leet, "punishing and removing all things that may hurt or grieve the people in their health, quiet and welfare," of managing the poor and the highways, of providing school

houses and savings' banks, of making drains, public walks, bathing-places, and any other improvements for the common good, and of raising rates within certain limits for carrying the above objects into effect.

Were parishes properly constituted, it can scarcely be doubted but that the advantages of distinction, the hope of further advancement, and the desire of doing good, would be sufficient to induce the best qualified to seek office; and as the electors would come much into immediate contact with the objects of their choice, they would most likely, at least after a little experience, be more careful and discriminating than electors under other circumstances usually are. Mobflatterers, adventurers, and jobbers would be too nearly in view long to escape detection.

It would be very desirable, I think, that every parish where the means would allow, and in many parishes that every ward, or an union of wards, should possess a place of meeting for the convenience of the governors, and under their control, and that the rest of the rate payers or inhabitants should be admitted by ballot, and on payment of a certain subscription to form a sort of club. A point of union amongst different classes having a common interest must be advantageous to all, especially in the communication of information and the promotion of mutual good-will; and such institutions would be excellent objects for the munificence of public spirited individuals, either by donation or legacy.

The chief points to be attended to by the Commissioners would be, what parishes ought to be divided—what subdivided or consolidated, and in what manner. How many governors there should be in each, and the mode of election in each. What portion of the powers contained in the general act should be extended to each parish. Where there should be magistrates, and their number, and what the limits of taxation according to wealth, distribution of property, and intelligence.