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many. But it seems probable that a dissolute and wicked army like that of Alexander, had not murmured under the too little, but the too much of military service; not the buying a truce with gold seems to have offended them, but the having led them at all upon an enterprise of danger and hardship.

Maximin succeeded, whose feats of strength when he first courted the notice of the Emperor Severus, have been described by Gibbon. He was at that period a Thracian peasant; since then he had risen gradually to high offices; but, according to historians, he retained his Thracian brutality to the last. That may have been true; but one remark must be made upon this occasion; Maximin was especially opposed to the Senate; and, wherever that was the case, no justice was done to an Emperor. Why it was that Maximin would not ask for the confirmation of his election from the Senate, has never been explained; it is said that he anticipated a rejection. But, on the other hand, it seems probable that the Senate supposed its sanction to be despised. Nothing, apparently, but this reciprocal reserve in making approaches to each other, was the cause of all the bloodshed which followed. The two Gordians, who commanded in Africa, were set up by the Senate against the new Emperor; and the consternation of that body must have been great, when these champions were immediately overthrown and killed. They did not, however, despair: substituting the two governors of Rome, Pupienus and Balbinus, and associating to them the younger Gordian, they resolved to make a stand; for the severities of Maximin had by this time manifested that it was a contest of extermination. Meantime Maximin had broken up from Sirmium, the capital of Pannonia, and had advanced to Aquileia-that famous fortress, which in every invasion of Italy was the first object of attack. The Senate had set a price upon his head; but there was every probability that he would have triumphed, had he not disgusted his army by immoderate severities. It was, however, but reasonable that those, who would not support the strict but equitable discipline of the

mild Alexander, should suffer under the barbarous and capricious rigour of Maximin. That rigour was his ruin: sunk and degraded as the Senate was, and now but the shadow of a mighty name, it was found on this occasion to have long arms when supported by the frenzy of its opponent. Whatever might be the real weakness of this body, the rude soldiers yet felt a blind traditionary veneration for its sanction, when prompting them as patriots to an act which their own multiplied provocations had but too much recommended to their passions. A party entered the tent of Maximin, and despatched him with the same unpitying haste which he had shewn under similar circumstances to the gentle-minded Alexander. Aquileia opened her gates immediately, and thus made it evident that the war had been personal to Maximin.

A scene followed within a short time which is in the highest degree interesting. The Senate, in creating two Emperors at once (for the boy Gordian was probably associated to them only by way of masking their experiment), had made it evident that their purpose was to restore the Republic and its two Consuls. This was their meaning; and the experiment had now been twice repeated. The army saw through it: as to the double number of Emperors, that was of little consequence, farther than as it expressed their intention, viz. by bringing back the consular government, to restore the power of the Senate, and to abrogate that of the army. The Prætorian troops, who were the most deeply interested in preventing this revolution, watched their opportunity, and attacked the two Emperors in the palace. The deadly feud, which had already arisen between them, led each to suppose himself under assault from the other. The mistake was not of long duration. Carried into the streets of Rome, they were both put to death, and treated with monstrous indignities. The young Gordian was adopted by the soldiery. It seems odd that even thus far the guards should sanction the choice of the Senate, having the purposes which they had; but perhaps Gordian had recommended himself to their favour in a degree which might outweigh

what they considered the original vice of his appointment, and his youth promised them an immediate impunity. This prince, however, like so many of his predecessors, soon came to an unhappy end. Under the guardianship of the upright Misitheus, for a time he prospered; and preparations were made upon a great scale for the energetic administration of a Persian war. But Misitheus died, perhaps by poison, in the course of the campaign; and to him succeeded, as Prætorian Prefect, an Arabian officer, called Philip. The innocent boy, left without friends, was soon removed by murder; and a monument was after wards erected to his memory, at the junction of the Aboras and the Euphrates. Great obscurity, however, clouds this part of history; nor is it so much as known in what way the Persian war was conducted or terminated.

Philip, having made himself Emperor, celebrated, upon his arrival in Rome, the secular games, in the year 247 of the Christian era-that being the completion of a thousand years from the foundation of Rome. But Nemesis was already on his steps. An insurrection had broken out amongst the legions stationed in Moesia; and they had raised to the purple some officer of low rank. Philip, having occasion to notice this affair in the Senate, received for answer from Decius, that probably the pseudo-Imperator would prove a mere evanescent phantom. This conjecture was confirmed: and Philip in consequence conceived a high opinion of Decius, whom (as the insurrection still continued) he judged to be the fittest man for appeasing it. Decius accordingly went armed with the proper authority. But on his arrival he found himself compelled by the insurgent army to choose between empire and death. Thus constrained, he yielded to the wishes of the troops; and then hastening with a veteran army into Italy, he fought the battle of Verona, where Philip was defeated and kill ed; whilst the son of Philip was murdered at Rome by the Prætorian guards.

With Philip ends, according to our distribution, the second series of the Cæsars, comprehending Com

VOL. XXXVI. NO. CCXXIV.

modus, Pertinax, Didius Julianus, Septimius Severus, Caracalla, and Geta, Macrinus, Heliogabalus, Alexander Severus, Maximin, the two Gordians, Pupienus and Balbinus, the third Gordian, and Philip the Arab.

In looking back at this series of Cæsars, we are horror-struck at the blood-stained picture. Well might a foreign writer, in reviewing the same succession, declare, that it is like passing into a new world when the transition is made from this chapter of the human history to that of modern Europe. From Commodus to Decius are sixteen names, which, spread through a space of 59 years, assign to each Cæsar a reign of less than four years. And Casaubon remarks, that in one period of 160 years, there were 70 persons who assumed the Roman purple; which gives to each not much more than two years. On the other hand, in the history of France, we find that, through a period of 1200 years, there have been no more than 64 kings: upon an average, therefore, each king appears to have enjoyed a reign of nearly nineteen years. This vast difference in security is due to two great principles-that of primogeniture as between son and son, and of hereditary succession as between a son and every other pretender. Well may we hail the principle of hereditary right as realizing the praise of Burke applied to chivalry, viz. that it is "the cheap defence of nations;" for the security which is thus obtained, be it recollected, does not regard a small succession of princes, but the whole rights and interests of social man: since the contests for the rights of belligerent rivals do not respect themselves only, but very often spread ruin and proscription amongst all orders of men. The principle of hereditary succession, says one writer, had it been a discovery of any one individual, would deserve to be considered as the very greatest ever made: and he adds acutely, in answer to the obvious, but shallow objection to it (viz. its apparent assumption of equal ability for reigning in father and son for ever), that it is like the Copernican system of the heavenly bodies-contradictory to our sense and first impressions, but true notwithstanding.

F

DISSOLUTION OF THE REFORM MINISTRY-THE RADICAL RUMP.

We have now reached the second stage in révolutionary movements; the first is numbered with the things which have been. We are running the usual, the thousand-times predicted course of such changes: their first effect has destroyed the principles with which they set out; precipitated from the helm the conscientious part of the Government, who were carried away by their illusion. Purified of its constitutional supporters, deprived of its brightest talent, stript of its noblest eloquence, the Reform Cabinet has changed its character, altered its intentions, abandoned its pledges. It no longer pretends to uphold the constitution; it gives up the stale pretence of reforming, not changing, the government-it avows its inability to withstand the movement. We no longer hear of resting where we are of making a great and sweeping, but final change; of lopping off the corrupt, but retaining the sound part of the constitution. Concession to the 66 pressure from without" is now the watchword; ecclesiastical spoliation is admitted in principle; the intention is avowed of marching with the spirit of the age; the fact is assumed, but falsely assumed we trust, that that spirit is revolutionary. These vast and important announcements mark the commencement of the SECOND PERIOD of revolutionary progress, that in which the old pretences of restoring, not altering, are at length abandoned; in which the democratic influence, raised up by aristocratic ambition for its own selfish purposes, is at length openly admitted as the ruling power; and the terrified Government, virtually resigning the helm, proclaims its inability to resist the tempest, and drifts away a melancholy wreck before the fury of the winds.

To subvert a long established Government-still more to overcome the attachment to old institutions, which forms at once the glory and the security of free constitutions, can never be effected by any single party, how powerful soever in the State. In all ages, indeed, there are a certain number of decided Revolu

tionists, of men ready to go any length in measures of spoliation; and who, having little or nothing to lose themselves, are careless of the hazard in which they may place the property of others. This desperate party, it is also true, is fearfully increased by the progress of corruption, and the changes of fortune, incident to a wealthy and commercial society; for as Bacon well observes, as many as there are overthrown fortunes, are there assured votes for innovation." But great as this party sometimes becomes in the progress of wealth in the later stages of society, especially after a monetary crisis, such as we have passed through, it never can overcome the holders of property, and the men of education, if they only behave with common resolution, and remain true to themselves, their principles, their duties, and their interests. It is the defection of a portion, and it is often a noble and generous portion, of this phalanx, irresistible when united, which can alone give even a temporary ascendency to the Revolutionary party, and enable the refuse of society,-the reckless, the profligate, the desperate, the prodigals, the bankrupts, the infidels,-to usurp the dominion over the industry, the virtue, the wisdom of the State; over the religion of Christ, and the institutions of ages; over all that labour has accumulated, and all that learning has bequeathed; over the dictates of wisdom, and the efforts of genius; over all that constitutes the happiness of man here, and all that grounds his hopes hereafter. Yet such is Revolution, and such the consequence of the fatal alliance which ever marks its outset, between deluded philanthropy and artful ambition; between ardent genius and cautious calculation; between religious benevolence and infidel selfishness. We need never fear the approaches of political convulsion, where its banners are borne only by those who are ultimately to adhere to them; it is the seduction of a considerable portion of the property, talent, and enthusiasm of the nation, which alone renders them formidable; it is the support of those who

are to be its earliest victims which first intrenches Revolution in power, and enables its hardened leaders ultimately to discard their assistance, and drive its fiendlike car alike over the virtuous part of its supporters, and the courageous host of its antagonists. This frightful progress is in the main owing more to human delusion, than wickedness; its early and irretrievable successes are invariably owing to the support of the mistaken good, the unsuspecting brave; and in its most hideous consequences may be perceived an additional confirmation of the profound observation of Rochefoucauld, that Hypocrisy itself is the homage which Vice pays to Virtue."

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the gales of prosperity, those of future glory are frequently hardened in their growth by the storms of adversity. The tomb is ever to be seen beside the palace; but the palace rises as often beside the tomb. Prosperity leads to misfortune; but out of the bosom of suffering there often arise the high resolves, the noble resolutions, which are the source at once of all that dignifies and adorns the human race.

It is these principles which we apply to the present time; it is these lessons which we deduce from the crisis which the nation is now undergoing. During the triumph and glory of Conservative principles, from 1815 to 1830, when their power was thought to be perpetual, and their influence unbounded, the seeds of evil were rapidly growing, and the downfall of the Government, founded on right maxims, preparing in the supposed irresistible nature of its authority. In the plenitude of their power, they sometimes forgot these principles; in the consequences of their greatness, unknown to them, antagonist motives were acquiring an ultimately overwhelming influence. The youth of the higher ranks deserted them; they travelled abroad, and became tinged with an absurd pseudo liberality; they returned home, and joined the ranks of a supposed liberal and enlightened Opposition. Conservative principles, having been long triumphant, were supposed to be unnecessary; the brave man, having won his laurels, forgot the toils of his youth; the rich, having made his fortune, no longer remembered that it had been won by industry and exertion. The nation reposed on the recollection of its achievements, and yielded to the siren voice, which lured its youth by the voice of flattery to perdition. This state of the public mind-this ruinous departure from just principles-this destructive dereliction of right views of society, soon appeared in the successive de. falcations which took place from the Conservative ranks. A large body broke off with Mr Canning; a still larger seceded with Mr Huskisson. The Tories were at length reduced to a remnant, supported only by the recollection of their former glory: "Stabat magni nominis umbra;"

So inseparably interwoven are the contending principles of good and evil in our nature; so invariably are men destined to experience in all the stages, whether of public or private life, whether of the individual or the social system, that this is a state of probation, and not our ultimate abiding-place; that there is no state of prosperity, how great soever, arising from the steady growth of right principles, which is not liable to be speedily assailed by its own peculiar causes of corruption; nor any pitch of power from which we are not liable to be instantly dashed, by the consequences which its possession have brought forth. From the height of glory and the pinnacle of fame, from the crown of Charlemagne and the empire of Europe, Napoleon was precipitated, through the effects of his own triumphs, to the rock of St Helena. From the glories of Waterloo and Trafalgar-from the command of the ocean, and the lead of civilisation, England was plunged at once into internal agony and external weakness, divisions unprecedented since the Great Rebellion, disgrace unknown since the days of Charles II. Superficial or inconsiderate observers may conclude from these changes, that human affairs are subject to the caprice of chance, or the revolutions of destiny let us discern in them the incessant operation of general laws, and the continued existence of that mysterious union of good and evil which was the lot bequeathed to man from his first parents. If the seeds of misfortune are sown with

and with the resignation of the Duke of Wellington, rendered necessary by the coalition which jealousy, resentment, and infatuation, had formed against him, the old Government of England fell to the ground.

The present break-up of the Reform Cabinet, the resignations which have taken place, and the division of their party in the country which is in consequence going forward, are the counterpart of the same changes; indicating the arrival of the period when the tide has turned, and the opinion of the intelligent classes is rapidly returning towards the great Conservative principles, on which the welfare of society for ever depends. As the secession of the able but deluded members of the former Administration proved the force of the current which was sweeping away the settled ideas of the country, and preparing the darkness and dangers of the revolutionary Administration; so the resignations of Mr Stanley and Sir James Graham announce the approach of the period, when the danger of farther pursuing so delusive a phantom has become apparent to the men of the greatest intelligence and strongest talent in the country, and their representatives in the Government have renounced power and influence rather than persevere in the pursuit. The crisis which has occurred in the Cabinet is in reality the index merely to the crisis which is going on in the country, and indicates the arrival of the period when the unprecedented combination of worth and wickedness, genius and sophistry, benevolent intention and selfish ambition, which commenced the Revolution, is beginning to be broken up; when the unutterable horrors of farther convulsion are at length forcing themselves on the observation, not only of the Conservatives who have ever predicted, but the Liberals who have hitherto derided them, and when those who really desire reformation, and not revolution, feel, in Lord Ripon's words, that "they must at length take their stand, or they never again will find rest for their feet." Their best allies-the support ers who chiefly rendered them formidable, have already left them; and the remnant of the Cabinet, bereft of its best Conservative blood, has

sought, after a painful struggle, for momentary relief in the admission of men of more thorough revolutionary principles, and purchased a respite of a few months, by the promised sacrifice of the interest in the State which was thought to be most indefensible-the Irish Church. The war on property, therefore, has now fairly commenced; the Commission which has been issued is avowedly for the purpose of enquiring into a new distribution of it; and every man who has any thing to preserve for himself or his family, may know what side he should take, and what fate awaits his possessions, if the Rump of the Administration, who were wafted to the helm amidst the transports of the Reform mania, remain much longer in power. We do not say that the present Cabinet professedly intend to spoliate private property; what we say is, that they are pursuing measures which certainly, if persisted in, must lead to that result. They did not intend, we doubt not, when they forced through the Reform Bill, to adventure on the tremendous experiment of Negro emancipation, or commence the war on private property by destroying the Irish Establishment; but yet they have already done the one, and are about to do the other. As usual in such cases, it is not malevolent intention, but selfish ambition, and blind infatuation in the rulers of mankind, which form the real danger. They find that their maintenance in power is dependent on the prosecution of the insane revolutionary career which they have commenced; they perceive that, in attempting to restrain it, they have split, and wellnigh suffered shipwreck; and they easily persuade themselves that it is their duty to continue the movement, and peril any of all the institutions of society, rather than abandon the helm, which, in an evil hour for themselves and their country, they were permitted to seize.

The present crisis could not, by any efforts, have been averted, after the Reform Bill was passed. That fatal measure gave so perilous an ascendency to the Democratic interest in the State, that, from the moment it became a law, nothing could be more certain than that we should, sooner or later, be driven to

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