of policemen, yeomanry and soldiers. Divide et impera would here be a maxim as just as it would be merciful; for it would be the means of reconciling to the Law all those whose present hope is only in its overthrow.

In expressing the earnest hope that the measures we have discussed are only the beginning of a series of important changes, we lay claim to no knowledge either of the intentions of our rulers, or the combinations of their habitual supporters. Looking to the mistaken principles that have so long prevailed, the almost proverbial selfishness of bodies of men, and the timidity of short-sighted, interested classes, we could not feel much surprise at finding a serious opposition organized against Sir R. Peel among even his own so-called Conservative phalanx. Should this unhappily prove to be the case, we can only entreat all truly liberal members of Parliament to rally round him, and aid in the good work he has begun. The little party lights have waned, and paled their ineffectual fire; in the grand struggle which has now commenced, the old names and distinctions will be swept away, and new measures as well as new men will come upon the scene. If one liberal refuses his aid to a reforming Premier, because that minister was once identified with anti-reforming measures, let that man be set down as a false patriot and an enemy to his country. Be it that we should prefer to see good measures carried by our own men, (i. e. the fellowmembers of our club, those with whom we dine, vote and form ministries,) still, if the measures be good, let us rejoice to have them, without inquiring too curiously whence they come; the country is not in such a state that it can afford to ask questions, even though it may suspect the goods that are offered it to have been dishonestly come by. And in truth, we must shut our eyes very close against the light, if we would attempt to misunderstand the tendencies of the last few years and the results which they must lead to. As the substantial differences which once set party against party have gradually melted away, and larger, European interests have slowly grown up to fill their places in the minds of men, a corresponding change has taken place in the situation of those who lay claim to the direction of our national energies. The points of dissension between man and man, class and class, have become fewer and more clearly defined, and mere

personal interests, mere struggles for power between sections of the aristocracy, are losing their importance in the estimation of the country. It requires but little sagacity to foresee the total abandonment, and at no very distant period, of the old worn-out watchwords and symbols, and the construction of a new system of government upon their ruins. The commencement which has auspiciously been made, we hail with gratitude and hope: we know that what has been begun cannot stop, but must pass onward to completion; and we have but one anxiety-lest any remnant of old prepossessions should interfere with the progress of the beneficial change, and convert into a dangerous struggle what else will be a smooth and gradual advance.

But be the case as it may, within the walls of Parliament, a minister who takes his firm stand upon a broad basis of commercial reform has little to fear from the country at large. The benefits that he is prepared to confer will be accepted without any misgivings as to their source. Perhaps from a conservative statesman they would come with a better grace than from any other; since to those who think with him in minor matters of politics, he will himself be the best guarantee for the security and harmlessness of his measures, while his political opponents will not think the worse of their own plans and objects solely because they are fated to be carried out by him. It is not yet too late to set ourselves right with the other members of the European family, and with our own brethren in America; nor are our domestic interests difficult to deal with, if approached in a spirit of honesty and firmness. For one supporter that Sir R. Peel may lose by taking this manly course, he will secure the affections of hundreds; but we know that this consideration would weigh lightly with him in comparison with the approval of his own heart, and the consciousness of having done his utmost for the benefit of this country and of his race. In this career he has our hearty good wishes, and we fervently hope will have the support of every man who sees in the great events of politics and commerce something more than the weapons of a miserable party warfare, degrading to all engaged in it and ruinous to the best interests of mankind.

ARTICLE IX.

1. Statistische Uebersicht der Bevölkerung der Oesterreichschen Monarchie. Von SIEGFRIED BECHER, Doctor der Rechte.

2. Statistik des Oesterreichschen Kaiserstaates. Von JoHANN SPRINGER, Professor an der Universität zu Wien.

THE advantages which never fail to result from the publication of authentic statements of the resources of a country and of their application, appear of late years to have been appreciated by the Austrian government. Statistical surveys of

considerable value have from time to time been communicated to authors, and even to foreign travellers, with unusual liberality by a government which had the reputation of seeking to wrap its proceedings in secresy. But the step of publishing at full the details prepared and long preserved in the statistical bureau at Vienna in an authorized shape was scarcely expected by those who have not followed the recent proceedings at that capital, and who consequently are not aware that the accession of the present emperor to the throne marks an epoch in the history of the Austrian empire, of good omen for the country and for the civilized world.

The first fruits of the advance made by the government in the career which has thus been opened of a sound domestic policy, by courting the salutary influence of public opinion upon the institutions of the state and on those to whose guidance they are entrusted, are given in the works named at the head of these pages, the details furnished by which we have the means of knowing are strictly authentic. In both works it is impossible not to recognise a remnant of that timidity which the severe rules of the censorship impresses upon all writers on domestic subjects in Austria; but as there is no doubt that the government possesses the most extensive and accurate information on every point which M. Springer has left in doubt, it may be expected that future publications, similar to that of M. Becher, will clear them up.

Statistical returns have been regularly required from the

provinces of Austria by the government as long as since the middle of the last century. A census has regularly been taken, in order to form an estimate of the number of troops disposable, in all the provinces but Hungary and Transylvania. These arrangements were improved and rendered stricter by the Emperor Joseph II. But it was only as late as 1828 that a regular statistical bureau was instituted by the late Emperor Francis, with the charge to furnish him annually with an accurate survey of the population, state of agriculture, schools, clergy, and the financial resources of the empire. The first survey was prepared for 1829, with the results of twenty years preceding, and the bureau has completed a similar statement for every year since, down to the close of 1839.

To attempt to bestow due commendation on the statesmen who have adopted this truly grand measure of holding so faithful a mirror of the state up to the regards of their countrymen, would be foreign to our province as strangers and reviewers.

As Englishmen, however, who set a high value upon the natural alliance with Austria which the bond of mutual interests has so long cemented, we rejoice infinitely at seeing that fine empire, by the improvement of her domestic policy, secure the foundations of her power, and by one sole act, so consonant to the wants and wishes of the age, give a pledge that she is cultivating the means of demanding the attachment of the subject and the respect of neighbours and rivals.

M. Becher, a member of the statistical board, has received the honourable commission to publish successively a number of the most important results of the labours of that board. In every point of view these details are a most acceptable addition to our knowledge of human nature; but they must possess a peculiar interest from the condition of the inhabitants of so large a portion of eastern Europe, and respecting which so little has been written that could lay claim to authenticity, -a condition which differs so much in the different provinces from each other, and in all from the state of social life in the west, that the possibility of the continuance of such inequality forms a problem of the most difficult nature. We trust, by the collation of the facts relating to the population of the Austrian provinces, which the work named at the head of our

article contains, with other equally authentic information derived from our own peculiar sources, to be able to throw some light upon a subject both of scientific and of political import

ance.

The Austrian empire falls into two grand political divisions. The twelve German, Slavonian and Italian provinces are governed nearly according to the same principles. The emperor is absolute lord and master in these; and although the form of approving the sums demanded of them is still annually kept up by the 'Landstände,' or estates of each province, yet the sanction of these provincial representatives is never required to any other law, nor would their protest, even in this point, be of the slightest avail. Our readers do not require to be reminded that this state of things is supported by a standing army of, at the lowest figure, 470,000 men, and by the exertions of 100,000 civil servants, who count the majority of the educated classes in their ranks. If the mode of representation by estates or classes of the inhabitants (magnates, prelates, knights, burghers), in preference to the representation according to territorial divisions, which is common in the west of Europe, points to those ancient times when a caste-like association and classification was indispensable, to lend force enough to the elements of civilization to resist the influence of barbarism; the circumstance that a government, whose financial resources are not at present extraordinary, can find half a million of men not unwilling to serve with docility for the pay and immunities which it can give, would seem to indicate a low value of labour and a reduced standard for the necessities of life, which in the west of Europe belongs to a period of equal antiquity with the former.

In juxtaposition with these thirteen provinces, and almost surrounded by them, lie Hungary and Transylvania, containing one-third of the population of the empire, and presenting a different picture. The representation of the people preserves, in these provinces, the mixed character which it bears in England. The upper house, or chamber of magnates, is composed of the peers and prelates, but the lower house is formed of territorial representatives, for the limitation in the qualification for representing counties to the noblesse or lesser nobility is no restriction in a country where this title is so