unlike the inhabitant of other states; who, if humbly born, must continue in his humbleness, be his integrity never so pure, his talent never so quick, his industry never so constant. What has been the consequence of this unnatural equality? That the natural spirit of emulation, which Providence for good purposes implanted in the mind of man, has been perverted to bad purposes which Providence never intended. That humble men, finding themselves debarred from lawful advancement, resolved upon advancing themselves unlawfully. That they possessed by violence what moderation could not give them. That they grasped by rapine what they could not attain by industry. Finally, that they overturned the elevation to which they could not rise. This general subversion, however, profited little to the worthy or the industrious. It advanced only the profligate and the idle; who had neither principle nor patience to wait for honest advancement-even had the Constitution of their country placed it within their reach. Our happy Britain has been saved from these scenes; saved by that EQUALITY of her Constitution, which removed from the good all inducement of disorder, and from the bad all its power.-Among thirteen millions of people, it is not possible, that every worthy and capable person shall, for a certainty, attain eminence: but this is certain, that every man who is worthy and capable may attain it; and that no man who is unworthy and incapable can. Besides, in that enterprise to which our Constitution encourages all, every man will be the wiser and the better, and consequently the happier, if not the richer, for following its encouragement. Success has been called "a lottery :" never was simile so erroneous : it is a purchase; open to all who will pay its price-temperance, diligence, and integrity-but open to none other. The value of its proceeds may indeed be contingent; but we can lose nothing by the bargain, and something we are sure to gain. This privilege is, assuredly, the common right of mankind; and if any among us are too proud to feel indulged by or obliged to the Constitution which secures it to us, we should at least be glad enough of such a security, to regard the laws under which we possess it, and prefer them to the laws of other countries where it is not possessed. When an humble man has attained to eminence, the example operates not less beneficially for himself than for others. He is thus elevated, as a guide, and encourager, and instructor, to the class from which his virtues have raised him; but all of whose members may by equal virtue place themselves at his side. In observing their emulation, he will urge his children to persevere in his course; lest they lose the profit of his advancement by the same means that aided him in attaining it; lest the same industry that placed him above others, may place others before them. Thus the race of prosperity is kept up; in which the slothful are as sure to lose, as the diligent are sure to win; the race, which in propor tion to the speed of its competitors multiplies its prizes; and in which, provided only that all are diligent, the paradoxical yet true result must be, that none will lose and all will gain. 4 How glorious a picture is this of moral justice, as well as of constitutional equity! How convincing a proof, that the principles of morality and of the British Constitution are the same! And, being such, that the Constitution stands on as firm a basis as morality itself! Still more, it is that equality which the Divine Founder of our religion came into the world to teach. H That this is no visionary inducement, real and unquestionable facts will be the best proof. I will appeal, not to the history of past times, whereof uneducated persons may have heard little and read less; but to that of the present day; and generally of living individuals, whose eminence is known by all, respected by all, and attainable by all, if pursued with equal diligence and integrity. None of these illustrious men, or of their families, will feel displeased at our thus retracing the steps of their elevation. They will rather be gratified, at our thereby perpetuating the truly honorable title which distinguishes their prosperity. The highest office in the state, including more power and more patronage than any other known to our Constitution, the seals of chancery and the presidency of the house of peers, is at this mo ment possessed by a nobleman, who owes it entirely to his own virtue and his own diligence. John Scott, Lord Eldon, the Lord High Chancellor of England, derived no assistance from either his birth or his connections. Like his predecessor, Lord Thurlow, he raised himself to the highest eminence without any other aid than his learning, his perseverance, and his integrity. Treading in the same steps, and at the same time, his Lordship's brother, Sir William Scott, became the Chief Judge of the Ecclesiastical Court; and England, thanks to the EQUALITY of her Constitution! at this day beholds two brothers, raising themselves from the obscurer ranks of her people into the highest places of her law. But in reverence to our holy religion, its principal seat is placed above the most exalted honors of our state. During twenty-two years, the Archiepiscopal chair was filled by a man of very humble birth; the immediate predecessor of the present venerable primate. DOCTOR MOORE owed to his origin neither influence nor wealth: he was educated at Oxford, in the lowest rank of that University; where: an education was afforded him, equal to that of the highest and proudest heir. Poverty did not dismay the young and unfriended student idleness did not seduce him. His diligence, his talent, These were his and his virtue, soon called him into distinction. advancement; and by these he attained the highest place, which, under the sovereignty, is known to our Constitution. Who among that opulent and honorable body, the merchants of England, holds a rank more elevated than SIR ROBERT PEEL? Possessing a seat in the legislature, a title, and immense wealth, extending the commerce of his country, and ministering to the employment, the happiness, and the prosperity of many hundreds of her people; he beholds his son advanced to the councils of his sovereign, and knows that all these blessings are, under a good Providence, owing to himself alone, and to that Constitution which enabled him to sow in virtue, and to reap in honor. It is not possible to speak of this truly great man, without associating the recollection of SIR RICHARD ARKWRIGHT. He was one of thirteen children, born in the very humblest station of life. Without connections, or money, he acquired in the short space of twenty-two years, a fortune of nearly half a million by the simple and single exertion of unaided talent, unfriended industry, and unreproached integrity. The immense works which he established, give bread to nearly twelve hundred persons, all of whom have better opportunities of equalling him than he had of setting them the example. The late ALDERMAN BOYDELL was originally in the obscure station of a land-surveyor in Shropshire. Directed by his own genius to the science of engraving, he apprenticed himself to an artist in London, and devoted all his energy to its pursuit; until it enabled him to expend on one undertaking-the Shakspeare gallery-three hundred and fifty thousand pounds. Before his death, at the venerable age of eighty-one, he rose to the highest civic honors of his country; and bequeathed to his family an irreproachable name and a splendid fortune. Examples might easily be multiplied: but their perusal would Occupy too much of that time which would better be given to their imitation. The church, the state, the law of our country, present an abundant proof, that while the Constitution was unsettled, the poor and humbly-born had small hope of honest elevation. To this defect, the turbulent scenes which disgraced the earlier annals of England, and so long retarded her prosperity, are to be ascribed. But happily this defect no longer exists; and the EQUALITY of the Constitution has not only shown, that every Englishman was eligible to her honors, but capable of acquiring them. It was shown also, that when the peaceable road to prosperity was once opened, our countrymen preferred it to the shorter, but less certain path of violence. We have said-but so important a truth will bear repetition -- that VOL. XIV. M the dignities of England, and her opulence, are open to all; that high birth is no indispensible passport, and low birth no insurmountable barrier, to their attainment. The Englishman, who resolves to be diligent and honest, may attain them; and if he fails he has only to infer that his competitors were more diligent and more honest than himself.-But, as we have also said, the qualities and the habits, are in themselves a reward for his exertion: they will assuredly make him better, and most probably richer, than sloth and dishonesty could have rendered him. There is, however, another necessary qualification. He must respect the Constitution, which opens to him advantages, closed against the subject of almost every other state. For his own sake, he must love it; and loving it, he must become-within the sphere of his instruction and example-its protector. While he listens to the crafty demagogue or the visionary reformer, he will grow, not only to hate the Constitution, but to disbelieve the EQUALITY which it holds out to him. Discontent will lead to idleness; and idleness -so says the unerring proverb-to mischief. The general confusion may elevate, as it once did in a neighbouring country-one low man into a tyrant; but as his unhappy countrymen soon found, it only made his equals his slaves. If, when no longer industrious or honest, the poor man finds himself continuing poor, and suffers his Jacobin advisers to persuade him into the shortest means of redressing his poverty, he will meet the same result, or one to him not less injurious. The end of the struggle must be, in his being put down by the law, in his shame, and in his punishment; in the defeat of his hopes, and the ruin of his family; or in that Jacobin triumph, whereof the English poor man would find himself the victim, after he had helped to destroy THE EQUALITY OF THE CONSTITUTION. |