an acquaintance; and if any per-centage, or pittance, or a solitary guinea, is given in charity, it is given to a public institution, without any knowledge of, or interest in, the particular cases, or any thanks from the persons benefited; but thanks come from the public in a laudatory advertisement, and the receipt is given in the mendacious, rich-flattering newspa pers. Great Britain, for many years, has not had a minister who seemed to have any other care than how he could provide the means to pay the enormous amount of constantly accumulating interest on their debts; but there will come a time when neither ingenuity nor force can accomplish this; there must then be either an adjustment or bankruptcy. If the latter course is preferred, the following quotation, from Solomon, may be very appropriate to put into the royal speech to both houses of Parliament. "What hath pride profited us? Or what good hath riches with our vaunting brought us? All these things have passed away like a shadow, and as a post that hasted by !" There wants a minister who can carry out the following fine idea of Schiller: "When the machinist wishes to improve the action of a clock, he allows the wheels to run down-but the living clockwork of the state must be amended while the striking part, and the rolling of the wheels are changed during its revolution. Some support must therefore be brought to bear, that they may insure the continuance of society, when we wish to withdraw that of the present state!" He who can accomplish this, may very fairly be dignified with the name of a STATESMAN. |