The Press.
London, England, 1854-01-07 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

those who knew him best in thinking that the
clergyman's gown was a wholesome restraint
on what might otherwise have been the too
riotous and rampant art of Peter Plymley. A
more exquisite flavour was thereby imparted
to his humour from the infusion of morality
and elevated purpose. But in Dean Milman's
particular case we think that he would have
written with more strength and nervous power
if his mind had not been so trammelled with
the conventions of his order.
This " Life of Horace " has been too long
published for us to criticise it at length. It is
one of his most characteristic performances,
extremely graceful, often eloquent, and some-
times just falling short of originality. As
a writer he often rocals to us the manner
of Lord Denman as an orator—rich in external
graces, fraught with learning, diction, sense,
and taste, but wanting inspiration. The Dean
of St. Paul's concentrates his talents in his
style, which ho carefully elaborates. Incorpo-
rating in his text, matter suggested by German
scholars, he rarely gives us his own thinkings,
though ho brings under our view the best sug-
gestions of the deepest commentators. He
scarcely succeeds in giving US a vividly graphic
picture of Horace, and, after all, every portrait
of the poet must appear tame and spiritless
eontrasted with his own self-portraiture in his
writings. But a more truly elegant (and we
use the word in its critical sense) life of Ho-
race than Dean Milman's we have never seen.
The present edition (separated from " the
works ") is most beautifully printed, and does
credit to British typography. Many of those
lovers of Horace who have not yet seen this
volume will, upon inspecting it, " say ditto "
to Lord Plunket, and cry, " yet Milligan's

i 00."

Minorities and Majorities ; their Relative Rights
A Letter to the Lord John Russell, M.P., on
Parliamentary Reform. By James Garth
Marshall. London : Ridgway.
THE representation of minorities is one of
those wise provisions for reconciling popular
institutions, with a just admixture of Conserva-
tive policy, which deserve more attention than
they have yet received. In the pamphlet be-
fore us this question is well treated : the
writer's tone is impartial, his style plain and
not diffuse, his arguments free from sophistry.
The fundamental truth for which he con-
tends, and which indeed is at the bottom of all
his and our political creed, is that which was
most forcibly expressed, if not first perceived,
by Burke, namely, that the principle which
makes the will of a majoiity binding on the
whole of a community is in its essence
conventional, not natural, and under many
circumstances inconvenient, if not dangerous,
to be applied. This truth is practically
recognised in the United States, where funda-
mental laws, whether federal or local, cannot
be altered by a bare plurality of suffrages. It
is also embodied in the rules of almost every
association, those rules being generally de-
clared unchangeable, except by the will of
two-thirds of the members. The principle in
each case is the same : where parties are
nearly balanced, a simple plurality of votes
having full power, all depends on the indi-
vidual decision of two or three persons, it
may be of one only. Hence arise temptations
to corruption, intrigue, and violence ; all
dangers of the greatest character, especially
where popular government leaves little coercive
power in the hands of the law.
But the cases above mentioned do not fairly
represent the position of a legislative body,
whose members are generally elected by a
majority of their constituents. Where the
constituency itself, the whole mass of persons
interested, is present bodily, as in the case of
subscribers or shareholders in a company, the
minority has the less cause to complain of
being overruled, because its arguments at
least have been heard, and its objections con-
sidered :
But when a representative assembly, like our House et
(•ommons, is to be created and invested with the supreme
and ultimate legislative power, the case becomes widely
different. The individual constituents or electors have at
the hustings but one single function, that of choosing
their representatives. That duty performed, they wholly
lose their direct legislative power, which they consign in
trust to other parties—viz., to their representatives—to be