allies, as I think we ought to do, is true, and ought not to be disguised; that the sanguine expectations, professed by the friends of government, of a speedy settlement of the affairs of Europe, have apparently no just foundation in the present aspect of them, ought likewise, in my opinion, to be stated: but I cannot hesitate now in believing, that the determination of the French military force, and the insurrection of national spirit in the North of Germany, form a new conjuncture, in which the Whigs ought to adopt the war system, upon the very same principle which prompted them to stigmatise it as unjust in 1793, and as premature in 1803. The crisis of Spanish politics in May, 1808, seemed to me the first turn of things in a contrary direction; and I have never ceased to lament that our party took a course, so inconsistent with the true Whig principles of continental policy, so revolting to the popular feelings of the country, and to every true feeling for the liberties and independence of mankind. To own that error now, is a greater effort of magnanimity than can be asked for; but the practical effects of it will gradually be repaired, if a right line of conduct is taken with respect to German affairs. Give my kindest regards to Lady Holland. I received Lord Holland's letter. Ever faithfully yours, FRA. HORNER. LETTER CCVII. TO LORD WEBB SEYMOUR. My dear Seymour, Edinburgh, 26th Oct. 1813. I received your letter of the 14th instant, and took it very kind that you gave me some account of the proceedings of our Berkeley Street party, after I left it; in the fate of which, and all its doings, I felt so lively an interest. Those few days, and the week we passed at Cheltenham, continue to afford me much gratification in the recollection of all we enjoyed, and in the confidence that I have added to the number of my friends Lady Carnegie and one or two of her daughters. It was a very pleasing sequel to the period we had spent together, to have a couple of days at Minto, to communicate my impressions to Lady Anna Maria, and compare them with her judgments of her friends, which are so discriminating, and yet so affectionate. Your guess was correct by halves, as to my occupations at Minto; the state of Europe I discussed with William Elliot, and found we entirely coincided in our view of the new conjuncture which marks the present year, as well as of the conduct which ought to be pursued in parliament with regard to it. My notions I had imperfectly communicated to you before; it was delightful to me to have them cleared, and raised, and confirmed by Elliot's sagacious and comprehensive ideas.* I spent the best part of two days at Kinneil last week; my two sisters, Playfair, Murray, and Thomson, formed the party. You will understand that I was highly gratified; with nothing more, however, than to see them both so well, particularly Mr. Stewart, whose robust and tranquillised health makes me hope to see him live to the age of Plato, and continue writing to the last. I had 472 printed pages of his new volume † in my hands, ran through a considerable portion of it *The Right Hon. William Elliot, M. P., a relative of the Earl of Minto. He was the intimate friend of Mr. Burke, Mr. Windham, and Dr. Lawrence; and was much beloved and respected by all who knew him. When the Duke of Bedford was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1806, Mr. Elliot was Chief Secretary. ED. †The second volume of the Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind. cursorily, and read one or two chapters with ease; particularly one, in which he has placed the doctrine of the Nominalists, with regard to general ideas, in so striking and clear a light, that no conceptualist, I think, will any longer surmise that there is any shadow of a general idea; he has been remarkably fortunate in illustrating the use of signs in reasoning, by tracing the history of a student's mind, as he learns the first book of elementary geometry. We shall hear, however, what Dr. Thomas Brown has yet to say for the conceptualists; Playfair, I was surprised to find, leans to the same heresy. It seems probable that Stewart's remarks upon the writings of Aristotle, and upon the use which has been made of them in modern times, will excite a little commotion, and do a little good at Oxford. They will still make some fight for Dr. Aldrich; but he is fast on his way to the catacombs. If the Stagirite himself could be provoked to hear such things, he would, I make little doubt, be far more proud of Stewart's estimate of his merits, and of the ground on which he rests his fame, than of all the devotion of all the doctors in convocation. Yours ever affectionately, FRA. HORNER. LETTER CCVII.* TO THOMAS THOMSON, ESQ. Dear Thomson, London, November, 1813. Allen is very angry, and I own with some reason, at a typographical blunder in the first page of his review of Marina's work on the ancient legislation of Spain. His character of Mariana the historian is rendered useless and unintelligible, by the name being erroneously printed four times as if it were the same with that of the author of the work reviewed. You must set this right by putting it in as marked a manner as can be, into a table of Errata at the end of this number. I have read only Mackintosh's two articles, which contain many brilliant passages, and some original speculations. The critique on L'Allemagne is an article of much interest, not as a judgment of that work, but as a specimen of Mackintosh himself; not a favourable one, I must own, in some respects; particularly in the bad faith, which scarcely hides itself, in what is said upon the subject of religion. It is very much to be regretted that the Edinburgh Review, "that scourge of impostors, the terror of quacks," has upon this occasion laid by its thunders; when a work was before that tribunal which is calculated to make way for whatever it contains by the reputation of the author, as well as by the genius with which some parts of it are written, and which contains much that is repugnant to good sense and rational morality, as well as vicious in point of feeling. Jeffrey, however, himself set the example, in his account of the same author's work upon literature. Much and lasting injury will be done, wherever the Edinburgh Review is read, by the unqualified approbation which it will be understood to have bestowed upon a great deal of nonsense, that looks like fine writing, and a great deal of paradox, artifice, and exaggeration that pretends to the character of good feeling. Yours, my dear Thomson, in great haste, Most truly, FRA. HORNER. Parliament met on the 4th of November, and sat till the 20th of December, when an adjournment took place to the 1st of March; and on that day, in consequence of a message from the Prince Regent, there was a farther adjournment to the 21st of March. From the commencement of this session, Mr. Horner took a more active part in the business before the House. He is reported as having spoken frequently, and his speeches are given at greater length in the reports of the debates. Government brought in a bill on the 29th of November "For continuing an Act for the inflicting the punishment of death on all persons convicted of maliciously breaking lace and stocking frames, or cutting any lace or stockings in such frames." Mr. Horner strenuously opposed this measure, in several stages of the bill: he contended, "That there was no plea of necessity for the continuance of so cruel a law. There might be circumstances which would render that an offence at one time which would be quite innocent at another; as, for instance, an act had once existed against drinking healths, because that was a badge of hostility to the Crown-the sign of a disloyal conspiracy. The cutting of stockings or lace might two years back be deemed a capital offence, because such was the conduct of a dangerous combination; and yet such cutting might be consistently met at this day by a much less severe punishment, because the combination had ceased to exist. He could see no reason for retaining the capital punishment in the act under consideration in point of fact, this act had never been enforced, either at the commission or elsewhere, the delinquencies which the act professed to have in |