done. The wheel revolves, and yet it seems to make no progress. He, of all men, works most for great results, and of all men he is least privileged to behold them; for of him the saying is most true, that "one soweth and another reapeth." It was strong common sense which said of this profession, "I would rather have chancery suits upon my hands than the care of souls; for I do not envy a clergyman's life as an easy life, nor do I envy the clergyman who makes it an easy one."

Of course all professions and callings may be broadly placed under one of two heads those which deal with persons, and those which deal with things.

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But no strict line of demarcation can be drawn between the two. They gradually pass into each other, from the profession of the clergyman, which is purely liberal, having to do with man's spiritual wants solely; through medicine, which deals with man's health; law, his property; arms, his safety; the arts and sciences, incidentally dealing with men as men in elevating their tastes, and extending their knowledge, yet still touching a lower grade as being productive employments; down to the businesses of the world, which deal with things, and are purely selfish in their aims. But for all alike the best professional training is that which enables a man to deal successfully with men; for, whatever be his calling, it is with his fellow-man that he will have most to do throughout his life. The knowledge of chemistry, of botany, of mineralogy,-this is I suppose essentially necessary to the physician; yet, after all, in the exercise of his profession it is with living men and women that he will have to do, much more than with plants, or minerals, or drugs. And so in fact of every calling, and even of every trade. And from a worldly point of view those will ultimately be most successful in their callings whose characters have been most stiffened into self-reliance. Pure gold, Pure gold, we know, has to be mixed with a certain

amount of alloy to enable it to be worked up and to pass current in the world. And professional work of any kind, while it strengthens character, undoubtedly debases it-to the standard of the world's currency.

For the tendency of active professional life, especially under an advanced civilization, is to make men one-sided, to destroy in them the "totus teres atque rotundus" of the poet. A professional man has to cultivate one faculty at the expense of others; and, like the blacksmith's right arm, that faculty necessarily dwarfs the rest. Each man must have his speciality. We do not leave

the whole field of disease to the physician. If he is to get on in life, he must have selected one portion thereof for his special study. And even the artist, if he has once painted grapes to our liking, must devote himself to the delineation of grapes for the rest of his days. Of course a man of sense will strive against this tendency to cultivate one portion of his nature at the expense of another; will fight against, as well as for, his profession; remembering that there is something better even than success in life. Or, if his temptation lie in another direction, if he be the three-cornered peg thrust into the round hole, he will work on manfully till the angularities of his position are rubbed down. He may seem at first to be left behind in the race, and distanced by competitors whom he knows he could beat with a fair start. But, if so, he may console himself with the reflection that in many men the latent genius, like the spark in the flint, has needed to be struck out of them by the sharp and sudden blows of repeated failures. But, through failure or success, let the professional man at any rate take with him the advice of one of the most practical men that ever lived: "Sir," said Dr. Johnson to the patient and receptive Boswell, "get as much force of mind as you can, and keep within your income, and you won't go far wrong."

passing of the Reform Act, and not, as would be inferred from the following passage, after the election of the first Reformed Parliament of 1832, when three Berkeleys entered the House of Commons for Gloucester, Cheltenham, and West Gloucestershire :

"Colonel Berkeley having come to an age when the life of a strolling player and the exhibition of his fine figure in gorgeous attire upon the stage had no longer any attractions for him, by way of amusement, and, as he said, to astonish the Tories, resolved to work himself up to the creation of a peerage, his illegitimacy having been definitively settled. Towards the attainment of this object of ambition he had no assistance to look to from any of the powerful houses, he having no friends in the higher ranks of society. His hopes were based on the cupidity of the Whig Government, on their thirst for the maintenance of place and power at any cost, and on his possession of immense but usurped wealth. His wealth, the influence of his wide possessions, and the sway attendant on the castle towers as they looked over the fertile acres of the rich vale of Berkeley, that had maintained them for so many centuries, from the Severn to the Hills, in all their ancient feudalism, and the willingness of the Whig Government to barter rank for support in Parliament, formed a strong foundation for success. Unless, however, these means were skilfully brought to bear, and carried out in a popular way, so that the political support that was afforded seemed to come from the people, the Government would have been put in a difficulty as to the creation of rank, and the expenditure of money would go for nothing.

"It was therefore Colonel Berkeley's object to select one of his brothers to take the first step in political arrangement, who was popular in and around the castle, and well received by all the best residents.

"From the life Colonel Berkeley led, he was coldly regarded, not only in society generally, but by all the county families; therefore, in his new ambition of purchasing a barony through political support to the Liberal Government, it became necessary that he should indeed adopt an acceptable local leader. He therefore put me forward to propose my friend Hanbury Tracy (the late Lord Sudeley) for Tewkesbury, and the then Henry Moreton (the late Lord Ducie) for the county, prior to the passing of the Reform Bill. Tracy was rejected, but Moreton was accepted at my hands; I was not then aware that he did this, intending that I should take a decided lead. My two first public speeches were from the respective hustings I have named.

It was in the year 1832 that a letter came to me at Harrold Hall from Colonel Berkeley, in which he asked me to come forward at the next dissolution of Parliament for the western division of Gloucestershire, the county having

been divided since the Reform Bill, for the passing of which measure, I had, as I said before, proposed Henry Moreton. To this proposal I had several objections. In the first place, it would break in on my home, its retirement, and my amusements; and, in the second, occasion me such an increased expenditure as would at once force me to discontinue

my hounds. True, Berkeley Castle and Berkeley House in London could entertain me; but under Colonel Berkeley's domestic arrangements I could only go alone to the Castle, and, as the London house was my mother's, who was then living, I could not bring Mrs. Berkeley there with an establishment of my own; and of course I should have to saddle myself with the cost of a house, or apartments at some expensive hotel.

"I did not at first state these objections; I contented myself with a desire that Colonel Berkeley would apply to one of my brothers, not situated like myself, or who might not object to entering on public life.

"The answer to this from Colonel Berkeley was that, if I refused, I should upset all his arrangements, and his chance of a peerage, promised him under certain circumstances by the Liberal Government, for the western division of the county would accept at his hands only myself, but that, if I would come forward, success was perfectly certain. He also induced my mother to write to me, to implore that I would no longer refuse.

Everybody Colonel Berkeley could move urged me to consent to the change; at last, and on a guarantee being given me for the costs attendant on my election and public position, and for an annual allowance, while I had a seat in Parliament, for the lease of a house in London to which I could bring Mrs Berkeley, I consented, though with extreme reluctance, to come forward for the western division. He then sent me a list of persons for me to write to for their political interest and support; and, in full reliance on his written promise as to what he would do to enable me to bear the cost of my public position, having taken the thing in hand, I entered into it heart and soul. I not only looked to the interests of my own seat, but did all in my power to serve the interests of my younger brother, Mr. Craven Berkeley, for a seat for Cheltenham, and to secure the city of Gloucester to Captain Berkeley, who had previously represented it."

It has been already pointed out that Colonel Berkeley had been made a peer several months before the passing of the Reform Act. Mr. Grantley Berkeley says that, in a letter written to him in 1832, his brother referred to his chance of a peerage, promised him under certain circumstances by the Liberal Government. Mr. Grantley Berkeley, trusting

to memory, may have fallen into some confusion of words or dates; but, as he has distinctly referred to a letter from his brother, speaking of the promise of a peerage in return for election influence, he should vindicate the substantial accuracy of this statement. It must also be borne in mind that he who inveighs against the cupidity and unscrupulousness of the Whigs, and depicts Colonel Berkeley's unworthiness, was for fifteen years a follower of the Whig party in the House of Commons, sitting there by his brother's favour and influence. Mr. Grantley Berkeley has turned Queen's evidence, and must not expect more honour than generally waits on such witnesses.

The elevation of Lord Segrave to the earldom of Fitzhardinge, in 1841, is thus described without chronological

error :

"Another general election was not far off, and, before it took place, I found that Lord Segrave had made a bargain with the Whig Government that, if he returned four of his brothers to Parliament instead of three, all in support of what was termed the Liberal opinions, they were to promote him again, creating him earl. It was as much a matter of engagement or a case of barter as any mercantile transaction could be. Lord Segrave did return four of his brothers for the western division of the county, the city of Bristol, the city of Gloucester, and the town of Cheltenham, and was immediately created Earl Fitzhardinge."

Lord Segrave had received, in 1836, from Lord Melbourne's Government, the high and honourable appointment of Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire.

There is no need of an overt bargain to make out that Earl Fitzhardinge's heap of honours was the quid pro quo of political influence. This is a recognised and defended part and parcel of our system of government. Peerages, and promotions in the peerage, garters and thistles, appointments and dignities in Church and State for relatives and friends, are the recognised rewards of the greater units of our political system; and the prevalence of this principle of compensation among the aristocrats of politics makes it impossible with consistency to deprive electors in consti

tuencies of the benefits of patronage, and is even a serious embarrassment for severe dealing with ten-pound householders who take ten-pound notes for their votes. Let it not be supposed that Lord Grey's and Lord Melbourne's favours to Colonel Berkeley have no parallel in the acts of decorous Conservative premiers. It would be impossible for the warmest friend of Sir Robert Peel's reputation to defend, otherwise than by the customs of parliamentary government and the expediency of giving honours where there is parliamentary influence, his early selection of the Marquis of Hertford for the Garter, -that historic prize which fashion renders the prime object of ambition for the best and highest of our nobles, and which even veteran statesmen deem an honour. Lord Grey, in an elaborate work, of which he has just produced a second edition, has maintained that what he does not shrink from calling corruption is inseparable from our system of parliamentary government. Can Lord Grey be right in this opinion of the necessity of corrupt influences? We hope and believe not. "Parliamentary government," says Lord Grey, "derives its whole force and power of action from the exercise of an influence which is at least very much akin to corruption." And again the noble author writes: "A tendency to encourage corruption, and especially that kind of corruption which consists in the misuse of patronage, must be regarded as inherent in the system of parliamentary government." The late Mr. John Austin, in a very remarkable essay on the first edition of Lord Grey's book, gave the highest praise to the book in general, but declared his dissent from this particular opinion. Mr. Austin contended that Lord Grey had in this instance narrowed his view too much to what has been and what is in English government, and, disregarding even the great improvement which has taken place in the present century, thought too little of what might be and what will be. will be. The great jurist had faith in the diffusion of political knowledge and the progress of political morality. "There

is reason to hope," said Mr. Austin, "if the present constitution of Parliament should not be changed for the worse, that the improving political knowledge. and political morality of the public will gradually reduce the corruption practised by the Government to a comparatively insignificant amount, partly by restraining the Government when inclined to abuse its powers, and partly by supporting it when using them honestly and wisely. Lord Grey himself admits, in many passages of his essay, that a great amelioration has thus been brought about; and this admission conflicts with the supposition that corruption is necessarily inherent in our system of parliamentary government. The Federal Republic of Switzerland presents an example of a parliamentary government, based on a very widely diffused suffrage and a very widely diffused education, in which wise and patriotic rulers are almost invariably

chosen and toil for salaries too small to excite cupidity, which gives no temptations of rank or patronage for ambition, and in which the ingredient of corruption is an infinitesimal quantity.

Some curious revelations were not long since made, in the Times newspaper, of incidents connected with the passing of the Reform Bill. The political Secretary of the Treasury at that time was Mr. Ellice, who lately died in the fulness of years, and whose death elicited from all quarters tributes of sympathy and kindness. Mr. Ellice, as Lord Grey's chief counsellor and agent in the distribution of government patronage while the great battle of the Reform Bill was being fought, filled, in a most trying time, a post opening to the holder's view much human weakness, meanness, and baseness, and yet he retained an amiable belief in human goodness. On the occasion of Mr. Ellice's death, in the autumn of 1863, there appeared in the Times newspaper one of those able biographical sketches which it is in the habit of extemporising for the eminent deceased ; and this biography contained two noticeable statements. First, it was said, "Mr. Ellice had the credit of the princi

pal agency in the liberal addition Lord Grey, by consent of William IV., made to the grades and number of the peerage after the Reform Bill became law; some of these titles were notoriously compensations for the sacrifice of disfranchised rotten boroughs." The second statement is even more remarkable,—“ It is well known to his intimate friends that the Secretaryship of the Treasury inflicted on him a heavy loss, as he preferred to keep promises he had made in 1831-2, which the party funds could not clear." What were these promises? Promises

of pecuniary compensation for disfranchised rotten boroughs, or of pecuniary aid for elections ?

But to return to Mr. Grantley Berkeley: The promised annual allowance for which he had stipulated when he entered Parliament, in 1832, soon failed him; and we have here another distinct reference to correspondence mentioning promise or expectation of a peerage :

"When the second year of my public posi tion had come nearly to an end, I found that the promised 250l. a year had not for this, the second year, been paid into my banker's; so I wrote to Lord Segrave to tell him that it was due. From him I received a letter in reply, unintelligible in some respects to me, saying, 'If faith in regard to money matters has not been kept with you, I have no hesitation in saying that it is the greatest breach of honesty I ever knew. You distinctly declined to come forward into public life unless you had an increase of income, and I shall write to my mother to tell her so.' On receiving this strange letter, as I had never any communication with my mother on the matter, I at once wrote to Lord Segrave, and told him so, adding that I came forward at his wish, and to get him made a peer, and that I distinctly stated my disinclination to public life, as well as the terms that were absolutely necessary to enable me to meet the increased expenses, so that I should hold him to the terms agreed upon in his letter."