yards, stripped of their stores to make a show | less spread of religion which has been decreed of economy, and conceal a sinking revenue, by the Almighty. could no longer fit out those mighty fleets which so recently went forth from their gates, conquering and to conquer. The foreign historians of the French revolutionary war deplored the final seal it had put upon the maritime superiority of England, and declared that human sagacity could foresee no possible extrication of the seas from her resistless dominion: but how vain are the anticipations of human wisdom! The fickle change of popular opinion subverted the mighty fabric; a Whig ministry succeeded to the helm, and before men had ceased to tremble at the thunder of Trafalgar, England had become contemptible on the waves!

From this sad scene of national degradation and decay, from the melancholy spectacle of the breaking up, from revolutionary passion and innovation, of the greatest and most beneficent empire that ever existed upon earth, we turn to a more cheering prospect, and joyfully inhale from the prospects of the species those hopes which we can no longer venture to cherish for our own country.

That Russia is the power by whom this great change was to be effected, by whose arm the tribes of Asia were to be reduced to subjection, and the triumph of civilization over barbaric sway effected, has long been apparent. The gradual but unceasing pressure of the hardy races of mankind upon the effeminate, of the energy of northern poverty on the corruption of southern opulence, rendered it evident that this change must ultimately be effected. The final triumph of the Cross over the Crescent was secure from the moment that the Turcoman descended to the plains of Asia Minor, and the sway of the Czar was established in the deserts of Scythia. As certainly as water will ever descend from the mountains to the plain, so surely will the stream of permanent conquest, in every age, flow from the northern to the southern races of mankind.

But although the continued operation of these causes was evident, and the ultimate ascendent of the religion of Christ, and the institutions of civilization, over the tenets of Mohammed, and the customs of barbarism, certain; yet many different causes, till within these few years, contributed to check their effects, and to postpone, apparently, for an indefinite period, the final liberation of the

The attention of all classes in this country has been so completely absorbed of late years by the progress of domestic changes, and the march of revolution, that little notice has been bestowed on the events we have been consider-eastern world. But the weakness, insanity, ing; yet they are more important to the future fate of the species, than even the approaching dismemberment of the British empire. We are about to witness the overthrow of the Mohammedan religion; the emancipation of the cradle of civilization from Asiatic bondage; the accomplishment of that deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre, for which the Crusaders toiled and bled in vain; the elevation of the cross on the Dome of St. Sophia and the walls of Jerusalem.

That this great event was approaching has been long foreseen by the thoughtful and the philanthropic. The terrors of the Crescent have long since ceased: it first paled in the Gulf of Lepanto: it waned before the star of Sobieski under the walls of Vienna, and set in flames in the Bay of Navarino. The power which once made all Christendom tremble, which shook the imperial throne, and penetrated from the sands of Arabia to the banks of the Loire, is now in the agonies of dissolution; and that great deliverance for which the banded chivalry of Europe fought for centuries, and to attain which millions of Christian bones whitened the fields of Asia, is now about to be effected through the vacillation and indifference of their descendants. That which the courage of Richard Cœur de Lion, and the enthusiasm of Godfrey of Bouillon, could not achieve; which resisted the arms of the Templars and the Hospitallers, and rolled back from Asia the tide of European invasion, is now in the act of being accomplished. A more memorable instance was never afforded of the manner in which the passions and vices of men are made to work out the intentions of an overruling Providence, and of the vanity of all human attempts to prevent that cease

and vacillation of England and France, while they will prove fatal to them, seem destined to subject the east to the sway of Russia, and renew, in the plains of Asia, those institutions of which Europe has become unworthy. The cause of religion, the spread of the Christian faith, has received an impulse from the vices and follies, which she never received from the sword of western Europe. The infidelity and irreligion of the French philosophers have done that for the downfall of Islamism which all the enthusiasm of the Crusaders could not accomplish. Their first effect was to light up a deadly war in Europe, and array the civilized powers of the world in mortal strife against each other; but this was neither their only nor their final effect. In this contest, the arms of civilization acquired an unparalleled ascendency over those of barbarism; and at its close, the power of Russia was magnified fourfold. Turkey and Persia were unable to withstand the empire from which the arms of Napoleon rolled back. The overthrow of Mohammedanism, the liberation of the finest provinces of Europe from Turkish sway, flowed at last, directly and evidently, from the rise of the spirit which at first closed all the churches of France, and erected the altar of reason in the choir of Nôtre Dame. We are now witnessing the conclusion of the drama. When England descended from her high station, and gave way to revolutionary passions; when irreligion tainted her people, and respect for the institutions of their fathers no longer influenced her government, she, too, was abandoned to the consequences of her vices; and from her apostasy, fresh support derived to the cause of Christianity. French irreligion had quadrupled the military strength of Russia: but the English navy still

existed to uphold the tottering edifice of Turk- London, but it will resume its sway at Antioch ish power. English irreligion and infidelity Considerations of this kind are fitted, if any overturned her constitution, and the barrier can, to console us for the degradation and cawas swept away. lamities of our own country: they show, that if one nation becomes corrupted, Providence can derive, even from its vices and ingratitude, the means of raising up other states to the glory of which it has become unworthy: and that from the decay of civilization in its present seats, the eye of hope may anticipate its future resurrection in the cradle from whence it originally spread its blessings throughout

The British navy, paralysed by democracy and divisions in the British islands, can no longer resist Moscovite ambition, and the prostration of Turkey is in consequence complete. The effects will in the end be fatal to England; but they may raise up in distant lands other empires, which may one day rival even the glories of the British name. The cross may cease to be venerated at Paris, but it will be the world. elevated at St. Sophia: it may be ridiculed in

THE SPANISH REVOLUTION OF 1820.*

THERE is no subject with which we are more completely unacquainted, or which has been more perverted by artful deception on the part of the revolutionary press throughout Europe, than the convulsions, which, since the general peace, have distracted the Spanish Peninsula. Circumstances have been singularly favourable to the universal diffusion of erroneous views on this subject. The revolutionary party had a fair field for the adoption of every kind of extravagance, and the propagation of every species of falsehood, in a country where the ruling class, who opposed the movement, had committed great errors, been guilty of black ingratitude, and were totally incapable of counteracting, by means of the press, those erroneous misrepresentations, with which the indefatigable activity of the revolutionary party overwhelmed the public mind in every part of the world. Their exertions, and the success which they have met with, in this respect, have accordingly been unprecedented; and there is no subject on which historic truth will be found to be so different from journal misrepresentation, as the transactions of the Peninsula during the last fifteen years.

That Ferdinand VII. is a weak man; that, under the government of the priests, he has violated his promises, behaved cruelly towards his deliverers, and been guilty of black ingratitude towards the heroic defenders of his throne during his exile, may be considered as historically certain. How, then, has it happened that the Revolution has retrograded in a country where so much was required to be done in the way of real amelioration, and the wishes of so large a portion of its inhabitants were unanimous in favour of practical improvement? How can we explain the fact, that the French, in 1823, led by the Duke d'Angoulême, under the weak and vacillating direction of the Bourbons, traversed the Peninsula from end to end, without even the shadow of resistance, and established their standard on the walls of Cadiz, after the heroic resistance which the peasantry of the Peninsula made to Gallic aggression

* Essai Historique sur la Revolution d'Espagne, par e Vicomte de Martignac, Paris, Pinard, 1832. BlackWood's Magazine, September, 1832.

under Napoleon, and the universal hatred which their presence had excited in every part of that desolated and blood-stained country? Immense must have been the injustice, enormous the folly, ruinous the sway of the revolutionary party, when it so soon cured a whole nation of a desire for change, which all at first felt to be necessary, which so many were throughout interested in promoting, and which was begun with such unanimous support from all classes.

The Revolutionists explain this extraordinary fact, by saying that it was entirely owing to the influence of the priests, who, seeing that their power and possessions were threatened by the proposed innovations, set themselves vigorously and successfully to oppose them. But here again historical facts disprove party misrepresentations. It will be found, upon examination, that the priests at the outset made no resistance whatever to the establishment of the constitution on the most democratic basis; that the experiment of a highly popular form of government was tried with the unanimous approbation of all classes; and that the subsequent general horror at the constitutionalists, and the easy overthrow of their government, was owing to the madness of the popular rulers themselves, to the enormous injustice which they committed, the insane projects of innovation in which they indulged, and the weighty interests in all ranks, on which, in the prosecution of their frantic career, they were compelled to trench. Spain,, when the veil is drawn aside which party delusions has so long spread before its transactions, will be found to add another confirmation to the eternal truths, that the career of innovation necessarily and rapidly destroys itself; that the misery it immediately produces renders the great body of men at length deaf to the delusive promises by which its promoters never fail to bolster up its fortunes, and that there is no such fata. eremy to real freedom as the noisy supporters of democratic ambition.

The work, whose title is prefixed to this ar ticle, is well calculated to disabuse the public mind in regard to these important transactions. The author is one of the liberal party in Francė,

and bestows liberal and unqualified abuse | tivated and entranced his auditors; and who, upon all the really objectionable parts of Fer- in a time and a place where any thing ap dinand's conduct. At the same time, he un- proaching to moderation was stigmatized as folds, in clear and graphic colours, the ruinous blasphemy, had obtained the extraordinary precipitance and fatal innovations of the Re- surname of the Divine. volutionists, and distinctly demonstrates that it was not the priests nor the nobles, but their own injustice, and the wide-spread ruin produced by their own measures, which occasioned the speedy downfall of the absurd constitution which they had established.

"In the midst of these manifestations of a furious delirium, some prudent and sagacious voices were heard, and united among each other to moderate the popular effervescence, "3. It possesses alone the legislative power, which such pains had been taken to excite. which comprises the sole power of proposing Among those who executed with most success laws. It votes the taxes and the levies for the this honourable task, the voice of Arguelles army; lays down all the regulations for the was especially distinguished; of that Arguel- armed force; names the supreme judges; les, whose mind, chastened by reflection, and creates and institutes a regent, in case of minlightened by study, had subdued these ex-nority or incapacity, of which last it alone travagant ideas; whose eloquence at once cap- is the judge, and exercises a direct control

over the ministers and all other functionaries, | tionary madness, in a country so little accuswhose responsibility it alone regulates. Dur- tomed to bear the excitement, and so little ing the intervals of its sessions, it is repre- aware of the duties of freedom as Spain, might sented by a permanent deputation, charged with easily have been anticipated. Its early recepthe execution of the laws, and the power of tion in the different classes of the community convoking it, in case of necessity. is thus described by our author:

"4. The king is inviolable. He sanctions the laws; but he can only refuse his assent twice, and to different legislatures. On the third bill being presented, he must give his consent. He has the right of pardon; but that right is circumscribed within certain limits fixed by law.

"5. The king names the public functionaries, but from a list presented to him by the council of state. The whole functionaries are subject to a supreme tribunal, the members of which are all appointed by the Cortes.

"6. The king cannot leave the kingdom without the leave of the Cortes; and if he marries without their consent, he is held by that act alone to have abdicated the throne.

"7. There is to be constantly attached to the king's person a council of forty members. Three counsellors are for life, named by the king, but from a list furnished by the Cortes, in which there can only be four of the great nobles, and four ecclesiastics. It is this council which presents the lists for all employments in church and state to the king, for his selection.

"8. No part of the new constitution is to be revised in any of its parts, but by the votes of three successive legislatures, and by a decree of the Cortes, not subject to the royal sanction." I. 97-99.

"To those who are aware of the true spirit of that grave and constant nation, and who were not blinded by the passions or the excita tion of political fanaticism, it was easy to foresee the reception which a constitution would receive, by which all the habits of the nation were violated, and all their affections wounded.

"At Cadiz, Barcelona, and, in general, in all the great commercial towns, the party who had urged forward the Revolution readily prevailed over the adherents of old institutions, and these towns expressed their adhesion with enthusiasm; but in the smaller boroughs in the country, and, above all, in the provinces of the interior, where the new ideas had not yet made any progress, this total prostration of the Royalty-this substitution of a new power instead of that which had been the object of ancient veneration, was received with a coldness which soon degenerated into discontent and open complaints.

"In vain the innovators sought to persuade the people, whose dissatisfaction could no longer be concealed, that the new constitution was but a restoration of the ancient principles of the monarchy, adapted to the new wants and exigencies of society; in vain had they taken care, in destroying things, to preserve names; this deceitful address deceived no one, and abated nothing of the public discontent.

which were despoiled of their ancient jurisdictions, added to the public discontent. The creation of a direct tax, unknown till that day, appeared to the inhabitants of the country an intolerable burden-a sacrifice without any compensation; and as the burden of the war became more heavy as it continued in duration, these two causes of suffering worked the discontent of the people up to perfect fury." 100, 101.

Such was the Spanish constitution of 1812, "The clergy, discontented and disquieted at to the restoration of which, all the subsequent the prospect of a future which it was now easy convulsions of the Revolutionary party have to foresee-the great proprietors, who were been directed. It was evidently in the highest subjected to new burdens, at the same time degree democratical; so much so, indeed, that the that they were deprived of their ancient rights President of the American Congress has fully-the members of all the provincial councils as much real power. The Cortes was elected by universal suffrage; there was no upper chamber or House of Peers to restrain its excesses; it was alone invested with the right of voting the taxes, raising the army, and establishing its regulations; it controlled and directed all the public functionaries, and its powers were enjoyed, during the periods of its prorogation, by a permanent committee, which had the power at any time, of its own authority, to reassemble the whole body. By means of the Council of State substantially elected by the Cortes, and the lists which it presented to the king for the choice of all public functionaries, it was invested with the power of naming all officers, civil, military, ecclesiastical, and judicial; and, to complete this mass of democratic absurdity, this constitution could not be altered in any of its parts but by the concurring act of three successive legislatures, and a decree of the Cortes, not subject to the royal sanction. It is needless to say any thing of this constitution; it was much more democratical than the constitution of France in 1790, which was so soon overturned by the Revolutionists of that country, and was of such a kind as could not, by possibility, have failed to precipitate the Peninsula into all the horrors of anarchy.

The ultimate fate of such a mass of revolu

The universal discontent at the new constitution broke out into open expressions of detestation, when the king, liberated from the grasp of Napoleon, entered Spain in 1814.

"The king entered Spain in the midst of the transports of public joy at his deliverance, and advanced to Valencia, where he was proclaimed by the army under General Elio.

"From the frontiers to Valencia, Ferdinand heard nothing but one continued anathema and malediction against the constitution. From all sides he received petitions, memorials, addresses, in which he was besought to annul what had been done during his captivity, and to reign over Spain as his fathers had reigned. There was not a village through which he passed which did not express a similar wish, subscribed by men of all ranks, and even by the members of the municipalities created by

The cruel and unjustifiable use which the "Whilst at Madrid, the royal government, deabsolute monarch made of this violent reac-prived of all moral force, feebly struggled