numbers set forth for the admiration of the good, or held up as objects of emulation to those who would tread the same paths, and gain the steep ascent of deserved fame.

The Engravings which beautify our work being for the most part of the highest order, will not shrink from comparison with some of the most splendid specimens of the graphic art. It is not for a magazine of such a standing as ours, which has been carried along on the tide of public approbation for so many years, to resort to the common-place system of puffing, for the sake of exciting attention and notoriety; but we should be wanting in duty to ourselves and to our subscribers, were we to neglect this opportunity of announcing, that the extensive and continually increasing sale of this work has enabled the proprietors to expend large sums on highly finished plates; and they pledge themselves that the portraits and illustrations in future shall not fall short of the preceding ones in any point of excellence, if the concentrated powers of art and genius can command success.

The field of politics we never enter, nor are political discussions admissible into our columns; yet, having the heart and soul of Englishmen, we cannot avoid congratulating our readers on the late important event, so interesting to every lover of his country, and so valuable to posterity. This measure, justly termed the new Magna Charta, though not gained by the barons, as on the field of Runnymede, but half extorted from them, seems to promise purification to the source of government, and salubrity to its streams. That dark thunder-cloud which appeared big with the fate of the British empire, and threatened to spread confusion, anarchy and ruin, throughout the kingdom, has rolled heavily away, and wreaking the fury of its lightning-shaft only on barren and useless institutions, has burst in grateful showers of long-desired blessings, and shed peace, smiles, and contentment on a delighted nation.

On the subject of negro-slavery, that crime, than which a blacker never darkened the face of heaven, our opinions are too well known to need repetition. We have not treated it as a mere political question, but on the wide ground of humanity and justice, as one involving the misery of eight hundred thousand of our fellow-creatures,-bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh,-who are suffering the woes of a hopeless and interminable captivity, degraded from their rank in human nature, to a level with the beasts of the field; their spirits crushed under a weight of oppression, and their intellects buried beneath a load of chains, 'till they have nothing left but the form of men; and even that is too frequently denied repose from fierce and unmitigated torture. When the eyes of the whole country, with the exception of interested individuals, are simultaneously, and eagerly looking for the emancipation of these wretched beings, we cannot refrain from expressing our hopes, that in a reformed Parliament, the subject will meet with the consideration it imperatively demands; and that the time is not far distant, when traffic in human blood, that plague-spot on the fair fame of Britain, shall be known no longer in her dominions, and no subject of the King of England, robbed of the glory of his nature, shall be branded with the name of slave.

With these principles in operation, and with feelings of gratitude to our correspondents for their valuable communications, we again leave ourselves with the Public, confident of the same patronage that has hitherto been extended towards the IMPERIAL MAGAZINE.