attention to the switches or points by which two lines of railways are connected, is constantly attended with risk, and occasionally with accidents; while the power of making bylaws for regulating the conduct of passengers, possessed by the company, sometimes without the sanction of any legal authority, may prove highly injurious to the liberty of the subject. The Committee therefore recommend the appointment of a Board to protect the public against the abuse of the extensive powers vested in railway companies by their respective Acts, and to control all the arrangements by which the general interests of the community may be affected. The important evidence given before this Committee deserves the most serious attention of the Legislature during the ensuing session, when the general introduction into Ireland of this new means of communication will be under their consideration. It fully confirms our impression, that a well-combined and judicious system of railroads, which will ensure to the public all the advantages that can be derived from this mode of conveyance at the cheapest possible rate, can only be effected by government construction.

In all other undertakings into which free competition can enter, society enjoys from the legitimate exertions of private interests all the advantages derivable from them; but in a line of railway, the rivalry of competing parties would be prejudicial to the safety of the public, and a monopoly is inevitable. Some companies have already engrossed the entire of the carrying trade. The Grand Junction Company have retained to themselves the conveyance of all Birmingham and Lancashire goods. The Liverpool and Manchester Company have always been the exclusive carriers on their line. The Newcastle and Carlisle and the Leeds and Selby Companies are also the sole carriers on their line. The Bolton and Leigh Railway, communicating with the Liverpool and Manchester, have let the carrying trade to one single carrier! What powerful influence may not a monopoly so gigantic exercise in a great commercial country like this!

We have before stated the points in which we differ from the Irish Railway Commissioners: we think they underrated the profits likely to be derived from the investment of capital in these undertakings, and condemn their exclusion of the

west of Ireland from a share in their advantages. On the 1st of March, last session, a resolution proposed by Lord Morpeth was agreed to by the House of Commons, that Exchequer Bills to an amount not exceeding 2,500,000l. should be made out by direction of the Treasury, to be advanced for the construction of a railway or railways in Ireland, to be secured on the profits of the works, and the deficiency, if any, provided by an assessment on the districts through which such railway or railways might be carried. From the difficulty of reconciling private interests with any public measure, the Government scheme was abandoned last session. We trust that some means will be adopted during the next for opening to the country these great channels of intercourse, without injury to any existing rights. A Drainage Act which will remove the impediments that now exist to the cultivation of the waste lands, is another measure of essential importance to a country which requires nothing but the fostering care of a paternal government to become eminently prosperous. While the disturbers of the public peace are punished, active and honest industry should be fostered and encouraged. The exertions of the Government to work out the prosperity of Ireland, and eradicate its evils, by holding the balance equal between parties, and affording to all classes the full protection of the laws, have secured to them the co-operation of those who love justice, and are friendly to civil and religious liberty. The manners of a people follow the genius of their rulers: already the baneful habits which servitude introduced-the blind dissensions to which custom gave the force of instinct-are disappearing; and although some features of a struggle, prolonged to an extent of which history affords no parallel, must still be expected to remain, yet the country exhibits a state of perfect tranquillity, the people are obedient to the laws in which they have now an interest, and begin to feel the advantages of that constitution in which they have now a share.

ARTICLE VIII.

Della Economia Politica del Medio Evo, Libri III. che trattano della sua condizione politica morale economica del Cav. LUIGI CIBRARIO. 8° Torino: 1839.

WHEN Muratori was searching for historical documents to be inserted in his collection of writers on Italy during the middle ages (Rerum Italicarum Scriptores), he had the mortification of meeting with scarcely any success in Piedmont. It was in vain, as he says in his preface to the Chronicon Astense (R. I. S., tom. xi.), that he applied to every person likely to render him any assistance. The government, as well as private individuals, (with a very few honourable exceptions), turned a deaf ear to his entreaties, as if the history of Italy could be considered of slight importance, in a national point of view, to any of its provinces. Far different is the feeling prevalent in Piedmont at the present time. The illustration of the history, not of Italy indeed, (it is the fate of that unhappy country that nothing Italian should ever be encouraged by any of the mis-governments that oppress her,) but of the states of the king of Sardinia, during the middle ages, occupies the attention of a large number of persons distinguished for birth as well as for talents and accomplishments, urged in their studies by no other motive but love of country (unfortunately taken in too municipal a sense, and which might be more properly called love of province), and eager to leave no part of this interesting subject in total obscurity, even when no hopes remain of throwing upon it so clear a light as would enable the world to appreciate the merits of the laborious, modest and patriotic scholars who dedicate their lives to such pursuits.

The government of Sardinia has been shamed into giving some pecuniary assistance to help the publication of the documents from which such facts are drawn as form the subject of works like M. Cibrario's. The treaties of the House of Savoy are published by order of the minister for foreign affairs, in 4to; records, seals and coins illustrating the history of Savoy and of the reigning family, have been printed

Historia Patrice or the Historia Patria Monumenta, (car on dit l'un et l'autre, as the old grammarian said when dying, and as is proved by the work now mentioned, in one volume of which occurs one formula, and the other in the others,) are in course of publication, in folio, under the superintendence of a commission, of which M. Gazzera and our author are secretaries. Three volumes of this series are already before us, one of which, containing the history of the Maritime Alps, by Gioffredo, is edited by the Abbé Gazzera just mentioned, one of the keepers of the Royal Library at Turin, and one of the secretaries of the Royal Academy, distinguished alike for his various learning, kind-heartedness and unassuming manners. Conversant with the history of his own country as well as with that of foreign nations, capable of appreciating the merits and feeling the beauties of classical and modern literature, indefatigable in adding to the remains of that of the middle ages in Italy as well as in France, in prose or verse, the Abbé Gazzera seems to have no greater pleasure than that of assisting his numerous friends-and all who know him are such-in their pursuits, and enjoying in silence and unknown the glory which others reap from his generous help. His colleague is editor of several of the charters, as well as of the legislative enactments, published by the commission of which he is secretary, and they are new tokens of his talents and industry. The work which forms the subject of this article is but one of many which he has written, and which have deservedly earned for him a high name among the lovers of the literature, the history and the antiquities of Italy.

Having mentioned them, we cannot refrain from saying a few words obiter of the Monumenta Historia Patriæ. The Italians, possessing the very best model of a collection of this description, in the unrivalled one of Muratori's Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, ought to have considered it a sacrilege to depart from his plan, particularly as to the title. The Piedmontese ought to have been happy and proud to add to the store of information on Italian history, following the steps of the Italian who created that of the middle ages; for they are Italians, velint nolint,-or they are nothing in literature. Their publication ought to have been offered, and would have

this was not considered enough: a distinct title was adopted, and the publication divided into three parts,- Charta, Historia, Leges Municipales; of each of which one volume has been published. It is difficult to see the reason why the second, fourth, fifth, sixth, &c. of the documents published in the last section should not have been placed in the first; which we mention only to show the futility of such a division, for which we cannot discover even a pretext. Whether it is to have an opportunity of thrice flattering the king, to whom each volume is dedicated, and who is addressed as opTIMUS LEGUMLATOR, or whether the division is adopted because preferred by Pertz, in his Monumenta Germaniæ, we shall not stop to inquire; only wishing that the Piedmontese would bear in mind that they are Italians. But we cannot help remarking on the party-coloured dress of the notes, which even in the same volume (Leges Municipales) are Latin here and Italian there, although to Latin texts. The preface to this volume, by Count Sclopis, is in Latin, written with uncommon elegance and learning; but some of his notes to such of the statutes as he has edited are unworthy of him. For instance, (col. 46, note 2): "Savorra, recte Latine diceres saburram, Italice zavorra, Gallice lest, "sabulum scilicet vilius et crassius quo naves onerari solent 66 usque ad certam mensuram ut stabiliores sint." Savorra is just as good Italian as Zavorra; and who is the Italian that does not know its meaning? Hear Forcellini: "Saburra et "sabura, savorra; sabulum et quidquid in sentinam navis "certa mensura congeritur, ne instabilis sit et ventorum vi "evertatur." Coals, blocks of marble or other minerals, will answer as well as the "sabulum vilius crassius" of M. Sclopis, and be sometimes more profitable.

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M. Cibrario tells us (page 13) that his work is not a history, but an outline of the condition of society at different times, which must be more or less minutely drawn according to the historical materials which have been handed down to us from our forefathers. "From the very nature of this work," continues the author, "no one will be warranted in finding fault "with me for not having recorded some particular events, or "omitted to notice this or that historical point." He has