of depravity and vice; that in lodging for any considerable length of time in gaol, an offender who had shown himself an ill member of society, he was leading his corruptible fellow-creature into that temptation, from which, under divine authority, he prays himself to be exempted; and was thereby incurring a grievously strong risk, that the execution of his sentence would return upon society a worse and more callous member, than had been withdrawn from it, to prison, for a time. He felt that the termination of that sentence might let loose upon the public, an adept in crime; qualified not only to perpetrate outrage, but to make proselytes to guilt; and leave heirs to his wickedness, while hurrying to capital punishment himself.

A change, in this respect, has more than begun to be effected. To imprison-will not now, in all cases, be to send a man, who has, while at large, become more or less infected, to complete and perfect his corruption, in the very focus of contagion. Indeed so prevalent seems the wish for a reform of prisons, so familiar are we grown with the terms " discipline" and " classification," and all the nomenclature of the new regime, that incentive and exhortation may seem superfluous and misapplied. Perhaps I ought rather to observe, that even in this interesting department, economy is not to be overlooked; and that est modus in rebus is a maxim of universal application; pertinent to every discussion of what is right. But I cannot prevail with myself to dwell on any thing discouraging or repressive here. In addition, therefore, to what I have already hinted on the present state of gaols, it is to be recollected that amongst their inmates, the perfectly innocent and uncorrupted often may be, and sometimes are. That to the accused, therefore, their prison ought to be made as tolerable as a prison may be; and care withal be taken, that those who are uncontaminated should neither have their feelings outraged, nor their morals endangered, by impure contact. I would therefore have the economy, which is applied to such expenditure, rather liberal than parsimonious; and will conclude this part of my charge by saying, that I hope, from my heart, this zeal for prison reform is not a fashion of the moment; doomed to pass away as soon as the novelty of the feeling is worn out; and that, connectedly with this hope, I earnestly wish and trust, that the laudable objects of the present day, may be soberly as well as zealously pursued; and plan or expenditure not proceed upon too great a scale; lest this might end in the failure or dereliction of a system, in the success of which, I should be ashamed not to feel the warmest interest.

Gentlemen, without pretending to dictate to you, on a matter not within my province, (the limits of which I never intentionally stop short of, or exceed,) I may venture to surmise that there is

an extra duty, which as Grand Jurors or as individuals, you are likely to think yourselves called upon to perform: I mean that of preparing a dutiful and loyal address to the King, on his Majesty's

accession.

In general, the commencement of the most auspicious reign is no better than a period of hope and promise; but the case of our present Monarch stands on different and higher grounds; and our towering expectations of the future, seem to repose on our solid experience of the past. For about ten years past, our Sovereign has been wielding the powers of the Crown, which it is now his right to wear; and surely we may affirm, that in the long annals of the Empire, no brighter or more glorious period, than this Decade, could be found.

With politics, as connected with party, and difference of opinion amongst public men, I feel that it is not the business of the Bench to interfere. —I am appointed to distribute justice, as well as I am able, amongst my fellow-subjects of all parties and opinions; and think I may do this with more real, and more apparent impartiality, by abstaining, as far as the thing is practicable, from political opinions of my own.. Accordingly, though I once affected to be a politician, I have long since weaned myself from all subjects of the kind. I may however say, that where so much glory has been gained, the course and councils which produced it are entitled to our praise; and the councils, thus successful, were the Regent's choice. That the efforts, which our triumphs cost us, have been productive of some exhaustion, from which the present posture of affairs may not be calculated to at once recruit us, this perhaps we may have to confess, and to deplore. But I have seldom found this part of the subject viewed with candor. We ought to look from what we suffer-to what we have escaped. The sight will silence discontent. The individual who has pur chased health, by allowing his strength to be for a time impaired, does not murmur at the weakness-which has snatched him from the grave.

A motive, which seems to have contributed to our late Regent's choice of councils, it would be injustice to overlook; and is but justice to admire. Finding himself called on to sway the sceptre of his afflicted Sovereign-and that Sovereign too his Fathercontemplating himself under the double aspect of Son and Subject, his pole stars appear to have been filial Piety and Allegiance.

It would seem as if, considering himself as a mere Lieutenant of the Realm, he had on each occasion less inquired what his own desires were, than what the wishes of his august Parent, under the circumstances, would have been. It would seem as if the hope which he fondly cherished, was, when it should please

God to restore his Father to his reason and his throne, to surrender up to him his own principles of government untarnished;-no changes made, to which he would have been violently averse,but when he awoke from the trance, in which his capacities had slumbered, his State, his System, and Advisers all presented to him, flourishing as they would have been, if he had never lost the reins of government; his throne surrounded by the measures which he himself would have pursued; but these measures now loaded with the fruits of their maturity; and crowned, for their reviving patron, with success the most resplendent.

When we behold such unblemished and high honor and punctilio, can we agree with Burke, that "the days of Chivalry are no more?" May we not rather recall the sentiments and language of John of France, when he declared, (and nobly acted as he spoke,) that " though honor and good faith should forsake every other part of the world, they ought still to be found in the breasts of princes?"-When we read of the Black Prince, attending, in the hour of victory, behind the chair of this very John, or riding unostentatiously on a small palfrey by his side, and reverently postponing his own greatness to that of Royalty in chains ;-when radiant with the glory he had just acquired, we find him on the field of Crecy, receiving on his knees the fond admiration of his heroic Father; and imploring the blessing of him, on whom he almost seemed to have bestowed a kingdom;-where is the breast that does not feel a throb ?—And shall we withhold the tribute of respect from filial piety and allegiance, and that nobleness of spirit, which bows lowest to the Majesty that is most afflicted, because these virtues are beheld in a Prince of our own day, to whom more than the plume of the illustrious Edward appears to have descended?

A due tenderness and warmth of heart I look on as the soil, congenial to all that is at once amiable and estimable in our na

Nor is this tenderness incompatible with manly fortitude and daring; I on the contrary hold it to be their natural associate and ally. Is this softness eminent, or wanting, in our King? Observe his struggling feelings at the interment of his sister; at the funeral of his mother; when he hears the fatal tidings of his child's. decease; and if you hesitate to pronounce your Sovereign a thoroughly good-natured man, it will not be that you can harbour a doubt upon the subject;-but because you feel that when applied to a personage so high, there might be something presumptuous in this homely familiarity of expression.

Before his person was yet encompassed with the Majesty that

now surrounds it, checking in some degree the approaches even of affection, for

Non bene conveniunt, nec in una sede morantur

Majestas et Amor :

before this, he stood recorded as "one of the best hearted men on earth,"-in that solemn instrument, a will; written, while the thoughts may be supposed employed, not on flattery, but on death; and written by one to whom opportunities had been long supplied, of thoroughly knowing the dispositions, which in his dying hour he eulogized.'

Further to trace particulars (all evincing a kind heart) of his Majesty's habitual conduct, within the precincts of his Royal circle, however loyal might be the motive, would be to forget the immense distance between my lowliness and the throne; and to enter on discussions, which would not be delicate enough to be respectful. I will therefore only ask, whether it be adulation, or mere justice, to proclaim the illustrious person of whom we speak, a dutiful son, a fond father, an affectionate brother, and in short a Prince, whose domestic steps have been marked by kindness, generosity, and forbearance?

Of the charm of his manner I do not speak.-Where kind deportment is but surface, it is no better than deception. When, as here, it conducts to benevolence of heart, once arrived at the cheering shrine, we think no more about the porch. Kind hearts, I know, are out of fashion : but, for that very reason, I like to see one on a throne.

The ten last years of his Majesty's life have been those, as I said before, not of promise, but of performance. But I, who am not many years younger than my King, am old enough to remem ber the days of hope and promise. During my education, at an English University, it was my lot, (perhaps too proud a one,) to associate with some of those who, partly from their rank, and partly from the Prince's condescension, were admitted to the ho... nour of his society; and I cannot forget the degree of attachment, which this approach and intercourse inspired; nor, young as 1 was, the conclusion which I drew, that after all due allowance, for the captivation which exalted rank and dignified condescension. will produce, and for the fascination which his manners were admitted to possess, it was still but candid to attribute to attractions more intrinsic, the enthusiasm which I witnessed ; and to take it as the warm voucher of amiable disposition and sterling worth.

This alludes to the will of the late Colonel Mac Mahon, long one of the Prince's household.

He was a man; and as such, could not be exempt from human frailties. He may have been betrayed into more than I know of; or than, if I knew, it would now become a liege subject to dwell upon. But Rumour, though more than

TAM ficti pravique tenax, quam nuncia veri,

never, in the midst of rank, and youth, and pleasure, and temptation, imputed to this high personage any thing grovelling or unprincely. If what his generous credulity had received as sterling, his further experience had to condemn as counterfeit and base, let us not brand as fickleness, any estrangement which may have followed such detections: and if he sometimes changed his likings, on less solid grounds, where is the young man, whose caprices have not done the same?-Or again, if his coffers might have been fuller, had he spared them more,-I will ask of any man of high and generous feeling, would he wish to see a penurious Heir Apparent to the throne?

The days, which I have been recalling, were splendid and serene. Some which followed, the passing clouds of adversity may have obscured for if no eminence of rank can exempt a man from frailty, neither can it protect him from disappointment and afflic

tion.

we

And it is well that it should be so. Adversity is a corrective : the "stern" and "rugged," but-with all its austerity-the fostering "nurse" of virtue. "From our own," says the moral poet, learn to melt at others' woe." By affliction we are taught that charitable and truly Christian justice, which, soft and lenient towards others, reserves all its wholesome rigor and severity for ourselves.

It is not for me to say whether, in times long past, his Majesty may have required the lessons which this austere preceptress gives. From the exemplary conduct which he has so long pursued, we may at least, in the alternative, conclude, that the admonitions were not wanting, or that their effect has been produced; and there is no consideration that can stint the loyal wish, which we must all be as warmly disposed, as we are strongly bound to formthat the reign of George the Fourth may be prosperous and long. The ways of Heaven are inscrutable, without doubt; and often wisely thwart and baffle the pride and confidence of human expec tation: yet may we not, in this case, to our wishes add our hopes? Our Sovereign has "honoured his Father and his Mother;" may we not humbly trust that "his days will be long in the land which the Lord hath given him?"

Gentlemen, I ask pardon for having addressed you at such length. I am well aware that your allegiance does not need to be