(252.) In extending the foregoing reflections to the suggestion of means for obviating the evils therein complained of, and for giving to the science of the country that efficient support which it so much requires, we feel that we are entering upon a subject of difficulty and delicacy. Those who are averse to the innovation of established customs, institutions, or modes of thinking, are always more numerous than those who imagine they can be improved. This feeling is natural to the mass of mankind. Few have either the energy, or the inclination, to look deeply into things which they have been accustomed to see go on, year after year, in the same course; and which, they therefore conclude, require neither alteration nor amendment. Say what we will, the mind leans with a degree of fondness, if not of veneration, to every thing which has the authority of antiquity, or of long-continued usage; and these feelings are increased, if those whom we most esteem, and who may have to administer our ancient laws, conscientiously defend their continuance. On the other hand it is to be remembered, that all institutions, to be extensively beneficial, must be altered and modified to suit that progressive improvement which is the consequence of good government. So plain a truth as this, none can be found to deny in the abstract; but the moment we come to apply it in its particulars, — to single out any one case which, for assigned reasons.