14th April, when a violent opposition was unexpectedly raised by parties, who had previously approved of the measure: this opposition was, however, patiently and successfully combated by the corporation, the clauses were debated in regular succession, and at length definitely agreed upon; and a committee was deputed to watch the progress of the bill through its different stages in parliament, the members of the county having promised their support. It was introduced into the house of commons under the most favorable auspices, and was read the first time without any opposition; its further progress was, however, suddenly arrested by the bishop, under the advice of Mr. Pickering, withholding his consent to the bill on the plea that his lordship could not, as a trustee, sanction the alienation of the land, although this part of the scheme had been previously stated to form the very basis of the whole improvement. The vicar promptly repaired to the assistance of the corporation, but their united efforts were unavailing; the bishop, or rather his professional adviser, adhered to his determination, and as the rules of the house would not admit of the bill being read a second time without his lordship's written consent, the committee, after repeated, yet fruitless, attempts to effect an amicable arrangement with the see, were compelled, most reluctantly, to abandon the whole measure; and a general feeling of disappointment and dissatisfaction pervaded the town, which will not soon be forgotten or allayed.

The arguments against the bishop giving his consent, even if they had been advanced at an earlier stage of the proceedings, which in justice to the parties should

have been the case, were not, it is conceived, founded in reason or equity: it was admitted that the bishop was a trustee, and it was the very circumstance of his being such that required the power of parliament to enable him to alien, on full compensation being awarded to him; since, if his lordship had held the property as a private individual, a treaty might have been entered into with him, in the same manner as with Mrs. Clarke, without the aid of the legislature.

We most sincerely wish that the bishop had left the question for the decision of parliament, where his interest would have been fairly watched and attended to, and his lordship, like a noble predecessor whose liberality we took so much pleasure in recording in an early part of our work, would have been the means of promoting a great public improvement in a town and in a district where his patronage is principally exercised; it would have tended to cement a kind feeling amongst a large class of persons who look with no favorable views on powers vested in high places, and particularly when those powers are exercised to check public improvements; and the inhabitants of the town would have been spared the bitter feeling of disappointment, that, after devoting their repeated and unwearied attention to the subject, and dedicating their ill-spared resources to its accomplishment, this, their favorite scheme of improvement, should be thwarted in a quarter where they had most anxiously, and reasonably looked for support.

We have now completed the narrative of the principal

* The expenses incurred by the Corporation amounted to the sum of £672. 13s. Od.

1

historical occurrences connected with the town up to the present year, and our difficulties have increased as we have approached the times in which we live, since it is impossible altogether to express our sentiments with the most quiet and well-calculated indifference* on events that are passing around us, and in which we feel a deep and daily increasing interest; indeed we should betray not only our duty to our fellow-townsmen, but to ourselves, were we to do so, since it is imperative on every member of the community, although he may not have passed the meridian of life, or however limited his talent, to protest against every dereliction from the faithful discharge of public duties on the one hand, or an undue exercise on the other, and not to remain a silent and indolent spectator until he has arrived at a period when sickness or old age, independence of fortune, or a love of retirement, may render him incapable or unwilling to take a lively interest in the municipal transactions of his native place; and we cannot estimate that man as having the least pretensions to patriotism, who is deterred from a spirit of adulation or selfinterested restraint from expressing respectfully, yet firmly, his candid opinions on questions and events that are closely interwoven with the very existence of our civil as well as religious institutions.

* ' Je sais' observes Condillac,' qu'on trouvera mes critiques bien séverès; et que la plupart des passages que je blâme ne manqueront pas de défenseurs. L'art d'écrire est un champ de disputes, parce qu'au lieu d'en chercher les principes dans le caractère des penseés, nous les prenons dans nôtre goût; (c'est-a-dire,) dans nos habitudes de sentir, de voir, et de juger; habitudes qui varient fuivant le temperament des personnes, leur condition, et leur age.

CHAPTER XII.

Biography and Conclusion.

WE have frequently had occasion during the pro

gress of this history to complain of the dearth of interest and incidents afforded by its annals; but we should have reserved our lamentation for this concluding chapter, where our last duty is to be performed in commemorating the eminent and literary characters that have been born or flourished in the town: the few names that compose the list are a sad satire on the fens, for although genius is a quality of a purely erratic nature, yet it is very sensibly acted upon by external circumstances, and much is required in fostering it to maturity.

It would be a curious and interesting* enquiry to trace the influence of climate and scenery on the intellectual capacity of man, and to observe innate talent borne down by the weight of what might truly be

* Madden has adverted to this subject, but not very successfully, in his Infirmities of Genius.'

designated as atmospheric pressure, or withering away like some neglected plant on the bleak deserts of Arabia; and again to see it occasionally struggling in the manhood and exuberance of its character against the force of surrounding objects: but there are other, and perhaps more powerful, causes than those of climate or scenery that have operated to check the growth of genius in this place; its inhabitants have for many years past, and still are, almost exclusively occupied in commerce and agriculture, and the engagements of active life, and the still more engrossing duties of domestic society leave but little leisure for the man of business to extend his reading or contemplations beyond the ordinary literature of the day; and it is in all probability, with the greater number of us, wisely so ordained, since the mind may be permitted to travel into scientific and speculative enquiries far beyond its strength, and by the fascination, and we may add the secret flattery, of such studies, may be accustomed to dwell so constantly on abstruse and metaphysical subjects, that it is gradually brought systematically to despise those simple, yet useful, interchanges of social intercourse daily presented to our notice, and which, whatever may be advanced by philosophers to the contrary, form one of the most powerful and lasting sources of this world's happiness.

The industry of the inhabitants, moreover, has almost invariably in this highly-favored part of the country been rewarded, if not with wealth, at least with competence, and they have held on the even tenor of their ways, happy in their commercial, and still more happy in their domestic, relations: but genius, let it be remembered, basks indolently beneath the sunshine of pros