In 1816, when the bill to legalize the detention of Napoleon Buonaparte, as a prisoner of war, was brought before the House of Lords, Lord Holland raised his voice against it; not, it would seem, from any political motive, for he was not countenanced in his opinion by the party with which he usually acted. Though his lordship wished to aid the natives of the Peninsula, and preserve them from becoming the slaves of imperial and imperious France, yet, when the despot who threatened the world with the terror of his arms was fallen from his high estate, the noble lord advocated a more generous treatment than Napoleon received from the agents of the government at St. Helena. His motion, however, for papers connected with this subject, was, in 1817, lost by a large majority. Nevertheless, until death relieved the prisoner, his lordship never ceased to deprecate, what he deemed the unwarrantable conduct of government towards him. And while the noble lord was vehemently exposing, in the senate, the pettiness of treatment and personal inconveniences to which Napoleon was subjected, it is highly creditable to Lady Holland, that she was silently employed in bestowing those thousand little attentions which her sex alone could devise and minister. Her ladyship employed herself in forwarding to Saint Helena books, journals, and many apparently trifling articles of domestic comfort, and in this way she contributed to alleviate the captivity of the vanquished Emperor. The latter felt grateful for those little attentions, and in testimony of his gratitude, the magnificent box, with the invaluable antique gem which enriches its lid, formerly consigned by Pope Pius the Sixth to Napoleon's possession, on the signing of the treaty of Tolentino, was, under the happier influence of grateful feeling, again conveyed by the latter to Lady Holland, with these words, in his own hand-writing-"L'Empereur Napoleon à Lady Holland, temoignage de satisfaction et d'estime." Lord Holland has illustrated this memorial

in the following Latin and English lines:

Passing over some years of Lord Holland's political course, which were not marked by any events which demand a mention in this sketch, we find him, in the beginning of the year 1828, eclipsing the lustre of his former career, by his memorable efforts in the cause of civil and religious liberty. When the Protestant dissenters came to the determination of applying to parliament for the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts, they selected Lord Holland as the fittest person to advocate their claims in the upper house. His Lordship accordingly undertook the conduct of the measure through the house, and, in the execution of his engagement, took so comprehensive and enlightened a view of the whole matter, of the exclusive statutes in question, founded upon them a train of argument so constitutional and

conclusive, and drew inferences so honest and direct, as to convince the judgments and secure the acquiescence of a large majority.

It was on Thursday, April 17th, 1828, that Lord Holland 'moved the order of the day for the second reading of the bill for repealing the Corporation and Test Acts; which being done, his lordship rose, and spoke to the following effect:

"I have now, my lords, to propose the second reading of that bill, which, as I observed when it went through its first stage, is anxiously expected by large, loyal, and respectable classes of the community: a bill solicited by numerous petitions to both houses of parliament, amounting, exclusive of those laid upon the table this day, to no less than eight hundred and sixty-one a bill which has been brought up from the commons of the United Kingdom, and recommended to your adoption, in the shape in which it now stands, by a vote of that branch of the legislature almost unanimous.

"Your lordships well know, that if you give this measure a second reading, you sanction its principle; in other words, you thereby express your conviction, that it is just, expedient, or necessary, and perhaps all, to abrogate the sacramental test as a qualification for civil and temporal office, and to substitute for it a simple and plain declaration, that the powers conferred by such office shall not be employed to weaken, injure, or disturb the church established by law. Such is the principle of the bill: and although this measure, or measures of this nature, were, during the last century, frequently proposed in another place, and even more frequently agitated, and discussed in pamphlets, public meetings, and, I believe, I may add, pulpits; yet the principle was never distinctly brought under the consideration of this house of parliament since the period when our great deliverer, William the Third, recommended the adoption of the very measure now proposed, in some memorable words, to which I shall probably have occasion to advert in the course of these proceedings. It is indeed well known, that George the First, at the period of his accession, was, as well as his ministers, anxious to introduce some measure of this description, and a clause for the purpose was actually proposed to be inserted in "A Bill for strengthening the Protestant succession," but in a way so indirect and ludicrous, that we cannot wonder it was rejected.

"With that exception, no such proposal has been made to this house since the period of the Revolution: and I think it a fortunate and auspicious circumstance, that, up to the time at which I am speaking, no opinion directly hostile to the measure I recommend, has ever been expressed to a British house of lords. Here, then, is a bill, which, having glided smoothly through all those perilous passes which proved so fatal to its predecessor, has safely arrived at this

"Region, mild of air, serene, and calm,"

where, until this day, not a breath of adverse wind has blown upon itSemperque innubilus æther

66

66

Integit et largé diffuso lumine ridet."

My lords, I hail the omen: I consider it auspicious, both as to place and season. Happy indeed will it be for this house, creditable to this parliament, and glorious to the reign in which we live, if future historians shall have to record, that an act of mercy, which alike broke asunder the chains of the crown and the fetters of the people, was as obviously and undeniably the result of deliberate wisdom and dispassionate justice, as the laws impos

ing those chains and fetters had been obviously and undeniably the offspring of precipitation, fear, suspicion, and alarm."

Lord Holland then proceeded to a history of the passing of these acts, which he accompanied with an explanation of the actual state of the country in regard to matters of policy and religious parties, which indicated the most profound acquaintance with the subject before him. "The general design of the Corporation act was to effect a purpose possibly salutary, possibly necessary, but certainly of a temporary nature. Many of its provisions have expired, others are repealed; and in those points, as in others, it forms a complete contrast to the Test act, and is as much at variance with it in its original design, history, and principle.'

Dismissing the Corporation, his lordship proceeded to the passing of the Test act, which, he said, sprung from a deep-rooted suspicion, in the public, of the possessor of, and a yet deeper of the presumptive heir to, the crown. It was wrested from the king, (Charles the Second,) who had recourse to every subterfuge to avoid it. The money bill was actually withheld until the crown had given its consent to the Test act. It was, in truth, a stigma, perhaps well merited, but a stigma fixed on the reigning prince and his family; and it was known and felt to be an invasion of what had always been the true, ancient, and lawful prerogative of the crown. It followed the declaration of indulgence-it arose out of cabals, irritation, and violence scarcely paralleled in our history. His lordship thus proceeded: "But why do I argue such a point? Read the act: look to the ingredients of the drug-look to the label upon it, and doubt, if you can, what disorder it was intended to remedy. What say the title and the preamble? Do they say, the act is directed against Protestant dissenters? that it is to enforce conformity? to secure the crown? to form a bulwark for the church? to strengthen the alliance between church and state? &c. No, not a word of all this. It is "to prevent the danger arising from popish recusants, and for quieting the minds of his Majesty's subjects." After dwelling at some length in proof and illustration of the objects which the framers of the bill had in view, his lordship proceeded :

"This is the key to the whole transaction; and the Test act was consequently passed to guard against a popish prince and a popish successor, then, to all appearance, an inevitable inconvenience. But all such dangers have now vanished. We have happily got rid of the Stuarts: they, and the dangers they menaced, are buried and gone with all the Capulets. We have no dread of a popish prince, or popish successor; we have neither : the thing is impossible, and the provisions then devised against its consequences are now clearly unnecessary and inapplicable. Our laws secure us a protestant prince, and a protestant succession; and even with regard to our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, the danger, if any, of their admission to their rights, is otherwise amply provided against. I will not dwell on the terrible penalties inflicted by the Test act, not only for non-compliance, but for mere neglect of its provisions. My lords, they are terrible -loss and incapacity of office, incapacity of inheriting legacies, of acting as guardians or executors, and fines to an enormous amount; punishments, in short, equivalent almost to civil death and outlawry itself.

"What I have endeavoured to prove is that the original intention and present effect of this act are at variance; that the principles from which it sprung are almost the reverse of those which its continuance on the statute book sanctions, and on which its supporters defend that continuance, The act meant to protect, assist, and co-operate with Protestant dissenters it now oppresses or degrades them. It was directed against

Roman Catholics only- they are now excluded by the operation of other acts."

Lord Holland next proceeded to point out how the Test act interfered with the prerogative of the crown:-"What," said his lordship, "is this prerogative, but the right of the prince on the throne to call for the services of all his liege subjects, and the right of rewarding them for the honest and zealous discharge of those services? And what power more grateful to a generous mind, more congenial to the feelings of a prince of the house of Brunswick, or more conducive to the real benefit of the community? Why, then, are such portions of our fellow-subjects to be debarred from the honour of serving a monarch to whom they are attached, and why are we to withhold from him the prerogative of rewarding them?

"Reward,

The part of heaven in kings; for punishment

Is hangman's work, and drudgery for devils." Dryden.

It is that noble and godlike prerogative which this iniquitous, impious, and unnecessary law, in principle, seeks to disfigure and abridge. The principle it would establish is this-that a man's religion, not his character, his talents, or his actions, fit him for office, or entitle him to reward. The lesson it teaches is this-that the gratitude of the state shall be limited to those with whom it agrees in religion-not extended to those on whom it depends for support, or from whom it derives strength and prosperitythat the zeal, the labour, the devotions of the subject shall be checked, if he cannot, on matters purely speculative and abstract, either agree, or affect to agree, with certain dogmas and theories of authority." So successful were these glorious efforts, on the part of his lordship, that the bill was read a third time, passed, and received the royal assent on the 29th of April, 1828.

Having dwelt at so great a length on these most characteristic passages in Lord Holland's history, we must hasten to conclude this memoir by merely recording, that his efforts in the cause of civil and religious liberty were renewed with equal success in favour of the Catholics, and of the great measure of Parliamentary Reform.

Here, then, we take leave of his lordship's parliamentary career, presuming that we have traced it in a way sufficiently minute, through a period of almost forty years, to enable every reader to judge for himself of the noble lord's principles as a statesman, his accurate knowledge of the laws and constitution of his country, his love of freedom, and inflexible attachment to the cause of civil and religious liberty. Educated in the school of his immortal uncle-a man whose genius has cast so brilliant a lustre on England-his whole political life bears testimony to his proficiency as a pupil, and how much he has profited by the lessons of his instructor. The liberal principles early implanted in his mind have been strengthened and invigorated by study, and the experience acquired by an intercourse with the world, at home and abroad. He is a scholar, without the least taint of pedantry; and he possesses all the superiority of talent, and goodness of heart, which command esteem and inspire affection.

2D. SERIES, No. 35.-VOL. III.

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179.-VOL. XV.

498

ON THE NATURE AND ADVANTAGES OF THE STUDY OF PHYSICS,

In two former articles we have endeavoured to enumerate, in a general manner, the advantages deriving to individuals and to society, from the study of physics. In the prosecution of this object, we instanced, in passing, the tendency of such a study to correct the fallacious impressions transmitted to the mind through the medium of the senses. It is our purpose, in the present essay, to prosecute this subject somewhat more at large, and to shew, by some illustration, both how we are deceived in our sensations, and how such fallacies are corrected by a sound philosophy.

Man, in every period of life and in every state of society, receives his sensations from external phenomena.—Inanimate as well as animated being is constantly presenting certain appearances, which have a mysterious influence on the sentient powers of man. The majority of mankind are satisfied with the reception of the impressions which these phenomena cause, without inquiring into the agency by which they are regulated; in this respect they are distinguished from the natural philosopher.

Causes, in every meaning of the word except the metaphysical one, are beyond our powers of analysis; we may approximate to a knowledge of them, but we cannot thoroughly ascertain them. Nearly all the appearances in nature may be resolved into the production of motion, and we are capable of ascertaining its laws, but we cannot discover its origin. We may, indeed, resolve all causes into the will and power of an ultimate Being; but there is a link between the will of this Being, and the laws of nature, which our researches fail to supply.

If we examine, on the other hand, the influence of these appearances on ourselves, we are led to the same result. The sun shines, and it produces in us sensations which we call light and heat. Now, we may trace the action of a solar ray from one effect to another, until we have ascertained that it impinges upon a small fibre of the eye, called the optic nerve. By this nerve an effect is carried to the brain, and a sensation is produced, but we can neither determine how the nerve can conduct an impression to the brain, or how the brain can act upon those parts of the human constitution which are the seats of

sensation.

There are, then, boundaries to our inquiry, not arising from any want of continuity between cause and effect, but from the imperfect nature of our reason. To trace, with continuity, causes to the ultimate Cause of all, requires an order of mind higher than that possessed by man. We must satisfy ourselves with a knowledge of the laws which govern appearances, and this is one of the ultimate objects proposed by the natural philosopher.

The word law, as applied to natural objects, is evidently used in a sense somewhat different from its common acceptation. Applied to inanimate nature, it must be understood as a fixed immutable process of action, the rule by which any appearance is produced.

Now, how are these laws to be determined? Sometimes we may discover them by observation. Thus, by narrowly watching the times, circumstances, and conditions under which a body presents certain phenomena, we may ascertain the causes of those phenomena, and by a knowledge of the causes we may deduce the law or laws by which that body is governed.

But we more commonly endeavour to ascertain the laws of nature by experiment, in which we give activity to causes over which we have a positive control, and, by the results that are produced, deduce the laws by which they are governed.

Thus we observe lightning as an atmospheric appearance, but no observation upon it, or upon the phenomena which attend it, can give us any certain information as to its