"At the spectacle of the press of France, I experienced the grief of an old soldier, who sees his arms profaned. The press is no longer that sure ally of freedom, which follows, step by step, the depositories of power, but without contesting with them their necessary prerogatives, or striving to sap the foundations of the state. It is an Eumenides, a Bacchante, which agitates a torch, a hatchet, or a poniard; which insults and strikes without intermission; which applies itself incessantly, in its lucid intervals, to demolish, stone by stone, the whole social edifice; which seems tormented by a devouring fever; which requires to revenge itself for the sufferings of a consuming pride, by the unceasing work of destruction. In other states, it has been found that calumny penetrates into the field of polemical contest. But France has gone a step farther; it possesses whole workshops of calumny. Insult possesses its seats of manufacture. We have numerous journals, which live by attacking every reputation, every talent, every species of superiority. It is an artillery incessantly directed to level every thing which is elevated, or serves or honours its country. It is no wonder that the observation should be so common, that society is undergoing an incessant degradation. A society in the midst of which a disorder so frightful is daily appearing, without exciting either attention or animadversion, is on the high road to ruin. It is condemned to the chastisement of heaven."-Pp. 394-399. One would imagine that the following passage was written expressly for the state of the British revolutionary press, during the discussion of the Reform Bill.

in itself all the powers of the state, but too little to wield them with advantage. This class forms the link between the upper ranks of the Tiers Etat and the decided anarchists; and it is actuated by passion, the reverse of those of both the regions on which it borders. Sufficiently near to the latter to be not more disturbed than it at the work of destruction, it is sufficiently close to the former to be filled with animosity at its prosperity: it participates in the envy of the one, and the pride of the other in fatal union, which corrupts the mediocrity of their intelligence, their ignorance of the affairs of state, the narrow and partial view they take of every subject. Thence has sprung that jealous and turbulent spirit which can do nothing but destroy: which assails with its wrath every thing which society respects, the throne equally with the altar, power equally with distinction: a spirit equally fatal to all above and all below itself, which dries up all the sources of prosperity, by overturning the principles, the feelings, which form the counterpoise of society; and which a divine legislator has implanted on the most ancient tables of the law, the human conscience.

"Thus have we gone on for eighteen months, accumulating the principles of destruction: the more that we have need of public wisdom for support, the more have we receded from it. The evil will become irreparable, if the spirit of disorder, which has overthrown our authorities, and passed from the authorities into the laws, should find a general entrance into the minds of the people.-There lies the incurable wound of France."-P. 405.

It was in the face of such testimony to the "The more that the progress of the Revolu- tremendous effect of rousing democratic amtion produced of inevitable concessions to the bition in the lowest of the middling class of passion for democracy, the more indispen- society; it was within sight of an empire sable it was, that the press should have taken wasting away under their withering influence, an elevated ground, to withstand the torrent. that the Reformers roused them to a state of The reverse has been the case. Thence have perfect fury, by the prospect of acquiring, flowed that perpetual degradation of its ten- through the 10%. clause, an irresistible predency, that emulation in calumny and detrac- ponderance in the state. We doubt if the histion, that obstinate support of doctrines subver-tory of the world exhibits another instance of sive of society, those appeals to the passions of the multitude, that ostentatious display of the logic of brickbats, that indignation at every historic name, those assaults on every thing that is dignified or hereditary, on the throne, the peerage, property itself. Deplorable corruption! permanent corruption of talent, virtue, and genius! total abandonment of its glorious mission to enlighten, glorify, and defend its country."-P. 402.

The radical vice in the social system of France, our author considers as consisting in the overwhelming influence given to that class a little above the lowest, in other words, the 10l. householders, in whom, with unerring accuracy, the Revolutionists of England persuaded an ignorant and reckless administration to centre all the political power of this country. Listen to its practical working in France, as detailed by this liberal constitutional writer:The direct tendency of all our laws, is to deliver over the empire to one single class in society: that class, elevated just above the lowest, which has enough of independence and education to be inspired with the desire to centre

such complete infatuation.

Is the literature of France in such a state as to justify a hope, that a better day is likely to dawn on its democratic society? Let us hear what the friend of constitutional freedom says on that vital subject

"There is a moral anarchy far worse than that of society, which saps even the foundation of order, which renders it hardly consistent even with despotism: utterly inconsistent with freedom. We have seen political principles and belief often sustain the state, in default of laws and institutions; but to what are we to look for a remedy to the disorder which has its seat in the heart?

"Were literature to be regarded as the expression of thought, there is not a hope left for France. Literary talent now shows itself stained with every kind of corruption. It makes it a rule and a sport to attack every sentiment and interest of which society is composed. One would imagine that its object is to restore to French literature all the vices with which it was disgraced in the last century. If, on the faith of daily eulogiums, you

go into a theatre, you see scenes represented | lic thought in the revolutionary crucible, the where the dignity of our sex is as much out- sway of religion, of private morality, and paraged as the modesty of the other. Everywhere rental authority, could not long be expected to the same spectacles await you. Obscene ro- survive. They have all accordingly given mances are the model on which they are all way. formed. The muse now labours at what is "Possibly the revolutionary worship has indecent, as formerly it did at what would come in place of the service of the altar, melt the heart. How unhappy the young which has been destroyed. Every religious tie men, who think they ape the elegance of has long been extinguished amongst us. But now, riches by adopting its vices,-who deem them- even its semblance has been abandoned. A Chamselves original, merely because they are re-ber which boasts of having established freetrograding, and who mistake the novels of dom, has seriously entertained a project for Crebillon and Voltaire for original genius! the abolition of the Sunday, and all religious It would seem that these shameful excesses festivals. That would be the most complete are the inevitable attendant of ancient civil- of all reactions, for it would at once confound ization. How often have I myself written, all ages, and exterminate every chance of salthat that degrading literature of the last cen- vation. tury flowed from the corruptions of an absolute monarchy! And now Liberty, as if to turn into derision my worship at its altars, has taken for its model the school of Louis XV., and improved upon its infamous inspirations." -Pp. 408, 409.

This revolutionary torrent has broken into every department; it has invaded the opinions of the thoughtful, the manners of the active, the morals of the young, and the sanctity of families. The fatal doctrine of a general division of property, is spreading to an extent hardly conceivable in a state possessing much property, and great individual ability.

"When the spirit of disorder has thus taken possession of all imaginations, when the revolutionary herald knocks with redoubled strokes, not only at all the institutions, but at all the doctrines and opinions which hold together the fabric of society, can property, the cornerstone of the edifice, be respected? Let us not flatter ourselves with the hope that it can.

"Property has already ceased to be the main pillar of the social constitution. It is treated as conquered by the laws, as an enemy by the politicians. Should the present system continue, it will soon become a slave."-P. 416.

"Such is the estimation in which religion is now held, that every one hastens to clear himself from the odious aspersion of being in the least degree attached to it. The representatives in parliament, if by any chance an allusion is made to the clergy, burst out into laughter or sneer; they think they can govern a people, while they are incessantly outraging their worship-that cradle of modern civilization. If a journal accidentally mentions that a regiment has attended mass, all the generals in the kingdom hasten to repel the calumny, to protest by all that is sacred their entire innocence, to swear that the barricades have taught them to forget the lessons of Napoleon, to bow the knee at the name of God.”—P. 420.

"In this universal struggle for disorganization, the fatal ardour gains every character. The contest is, who shall demolish most effectually, and give the most vehement strokes to society. M. de Schonen sees well that less good was done by his courage in resisting the attacks on the temples of religion, than evil by the weight lent by the proposition for divorce, to the last establishment which was yet untouched, the sanctity of private life. To defend our public monuments, and overturn marriage, is a proceeding wholly for the benefit of anarchy; I say overturn it; for in the corrupted state of society where we live, to dissolve its indissolubility, is to strike it in its very essence."-Pp. 412, 413.

"The proof that the revolutionary torrent has overwhelmed us, and that we are about to retrograde for several centuries, is, that the principle of confiscation is maintained without intermission, without exciting any horror. An able young man, M. Lherminier, has lately ad- "The recent Revolution has exhibited a vanced the doctrine, that society is entitled to spectacle which was wanting in that of 1789. dispossess the minority, to make way for the Robespierre, in the Constituent Assembly, promajority. Well, a learned professor of the posed the abolition of the punishment of death: law has advanced this doctrine, and France no one then thought of death, none dreamed hears it without surprise. Nay, farther, we of bathing themselves in blood. Now, the have a public worship, an hierarchy, mission-case is widely different-we have arrived at aries-in fine, a whole corps of militia, who terror at one leap. It is while knowing it, go from town to town, incessantly preaching while viewing it full in the face, that it is seto the people the necessity of overturning the riously recommended. We have, or we affect, hereditary descent of property; and that scan- the unhappy passion for blood. The speeches dalous offence is openly tolerated. The state of Robespierre and St. Just are printed and permits a furious association to be formed in sold for a few sous, leaving out only his speech in its very bosom, to divide the property of favour of the Supreme Being. All this goes on others! Yet more-the French society as- in peaceable times, when we are all as yet in sists at that systematic destruction of its last cold blood, without the double excuse of terror pillar, as it would at a public game. Lyons and passion which palliated their enormities even cannot rouse them to their danger,-the-Poetry has taken the same line. The Consti conflagration of the second city in the empire tutionel, while publishing their revolting panefails to illuminate the public thought."-gyrics on blood, expresses no horror at this Pp. 418, 419. tendency. Incessantly we are told the reign

In the midst of this universal fusion of pub-of blood cannot be renewed; but our days

have done more, they have removed all horror it takes a pleasure in violating those august at it."-P. 421. principles which constitute the soul of society, On the dissolution of the hereditary peerage, we see an abyss begin to open; the earth the great conquest of the Revolution, the fol-quakes beneath our feet-the community is lowing striking observations are made. shaken to its very entrails. Then begins a pro"The democrats, in speaking of the destruc- found and universal sense of suffering. Capital tion of the hereditary peerage, imagine that disappears: talents retreat become irritated they have only sacrificed an institution. or corrupted. The national genius becomes There never was a more grievous mistake; intoxicated-precipitates itself into every they have destroyed a principle. They have species of disorder, and bears aloft, not as a thrown into the gulf the sole conservative light, but a torch of conflagration, its useless principle that the Revolution had left; the flame. The whole nation is seized with dissole stone in the edifice which recalls the quietude and sickness, as on the eve of those past; the sole force in the constitution which convulsions which shake the earth, and trouble subsists of itself. By that great stroke, France at once the air, the earth, and the sea. Every has violently detached itself from the Euro-one seeks the causes of this extraordinary pean continent, violently thrown itself beyond the Atlantic, violently married itself to the virgin soil of Pennsylvania, whither we bring "This is precisely the state we have been in an ancient, discontented, and divided society; for sixteen months. To conceal it is impossia population overflowing, which, having no ble. What is required is to endeavour to deserts to expand over, must recoil upon it- remedy its disorders. France is well aware self, and tear out its own entrails; in fine, the that it would be happy if it had only lost a fifth tastes of servitude, the appetite for domina-of its immense capital during that period. Every tion and anarchy, anti-religious doctrines, anti-individual in the kingdom has lost a large portion social passions, at which that young state, of his income. And yet the Revolution of 1830 which bore Washington, nourished freedom, was the most rapid and the least bloody reand believes in God, would stand aghast.

"The middling rank has this evil inherent in its composition; placed on the confines of physical struggle, the intervention of force does not surprise it; it submits to its tyranny without revolt. Has it defended France, for the last sixteen months, from the leaden sceptre which has so cruelly weighed upon her destinies? What a spectacle was exhibited when the Chamber of Peers, resplendent with talent, with virtues, with recollections dear to France, by its conscientious votes for so many years, was forced to vote against its conviction; forced, I say, to bend its powerful head before a brutal, jealous, and ignorant multitude. The class which could command such a sacrifice, enforce such a national humiliation, is incapable of governing France; and will never preserve the empire, but suffer it to fall into the jaws of the pitiless enemy, who is ever ready to devour it."-P. 487.

state; it is to be found in one alone the social state is trembling to its foundations.

corded in history. If we look nearer, we shall discover that every one of us is less secure of his property than he was before that moral earthquake. Every one is less secure of his head, though the reign of death has not yet commenced; and in that universal feeling of insecurity is to be found the source of the universal suffering."-II. 491.

But we must conclude, however reluctantly, these copious extracts. Were we to translate every passage which is striking in itself, which bears in the most extraordinary way on the present crisis in this country, we should transcribe the whole of this eloquent and profound disquisition. If it had been written in this country, it would have been set down as the work of some furious anti-reformer; of some violent Tory, blind to the progress of events, insensible to the change of society. It is the work, however, of no anti-reformer, but of a liberal Parisian historian, a decided sup"No government is possible, where the mor- porter at the time of the Revolution of July; a tal antipathy exists, which in France alienates powerful opponent of the Bourbons for fifteen the lower classes in possession of power from years in the Chamber of Deputies. He is the ascendant of education or fortune. Can commended in the highest terms by Lady any one believe that power will ultimately re- Morgan, as one of the rising lights of the main in the hands of that intermediate class age; and that stamps his character as a which is detached from the interests of pro-leader of the liberal party. But he has become perty, without being allied to the multitude? Is it not evident, that its natural tendency is to separate itself daily more and more from the first class, to unite itself to the second? Community of hatred will occasion unity of exertion; and the more that the abyss is enlarged which separates the present depositaries of power from its natural possessors, the more will the masses enter into a share, and finally the exclusive possession, of power. Thence it will proceed from demolition to demolition, from disorder to disorder, by an inevitable progress, and must at length end in the anti-social state, the rule of the multitude.

enlightened, as all the world will be, to the real tendency of the revolutionary spirit, by that most certain of all preceptors, the suffering it has occasioned.

Salvandy, like all the liberal party in France, while he clearly perceives the deplorable state to which their Revolution has brought them, and the fatal tendency of the democratic spirit which the triumph of July has so strongly developed, is unable to discover the remote cause of the disasters which overwhelm them. At this distance from the scene of action, we can clearly discern it. "Ephraim," says the Scripture, "has gone to his idols; let him

France, ii. 342.

alone." In these words is to be found the | Wellington, in coming forward at the eleventh secret of the universal suffering, the deplora- hour, to extricate the crown from the perilous ole condition, the merciless tyranny, which situation in which it was placed, and the deprevails in France. It is labouring under the grading thraldom to which it was subjected, chastisement of Heaven. An offended Deity we rejoice, from the bottom of our hearts, that has rained down upon it a worse scourge than the attempt was frustrated. Had he gone on the brimstone which destroyed the cities of the with the bill as it stood, from a sense of Jordan-the scourge of its own passions and overwhelming necessity, all its consequences vices. The terrible cruelty of the Reign of Ter- would have been laid on its opponents. The ror-the enormous injustice of the revolution- Whigs brought in the Reform Bill-let them ary rule, is registered in the book of fate; the have the dreadful celebrity of carrying it universal abandonment of religion by all the through. Let them inscribe on their banners influential classes, has led to the extirpation the overthrow of the constitution; let them go of all the barriers against anarchy which are down to posterity as the destroyers of a cenfitted to secure the well-being of society. Its tury and a half of glory; let them be stigmafate is sealed; its glories are gone; the un- tized in the page of history as the men who fettered march of passion will overthrow overthrew the liberties of England. Never every public and private virtue; and national despairing of their country, let the great and ruin will be the consequence. We are follow-noble Conservative party stand aloof from the ing in the same course, and will most certainly share in the same punishment.

In this melancholy prospect let us be thankful that the conservative party have nothing with which to reproach themselves; that though doomed to share in the punishment, they are entirely guiltless of the crime. Noble indeed as was the conduct of the Duke of

fatal career of revolution; let them remain for ever excluded from power, rather than gain it by the sacrifice of one iota of principle; and steadily resisting the march of wickedness, and all the allurements of ambition, take for their motto the words of ancient duty, Fais ce que dois: advienne ce que pourra."

DESERTION OF PORTUGAL.*

LIGHTLY as in a moment of political frenzy, | and under the influence of the passion for innovation, we may speak of the wisdom of our ancestors, their measures were founded on considerations which will survive the tempest of the present times. They arose not from any sagacity in them superior to what we possess, but from experience having forced upon them prudent measures from the pressure of necessity. As France is the power which had been found by experience to be most formidable to the liberties of Europe, and in an especial manner perilous to the independence of England, our policy for two hundred years has been founded upon the principle, that Holland on the one side, and Portugal on the other, should be supported against it. By a close alliance with these two powers, we extended our arms, as it were, around our powerful neighbour; she could not go far in any direction without encountering either the one or the other. So strongly was the necessity of this felt, that so far back as 1663, in the treaty concluded with Portugal, it was stipulated "that England should resent any insult or aggression offered to Portugal in the same way, and with the same power as if its own dominions were invaded."

The result has proved the wisdom of their stipulations. In the two greatest wars which have distracted Europe for the last two centuries, the Netherlands and the Peninsula have been the theatre where the armies of France and England have encountered each other.

Blackwood's Magazine, December, 1831.

France has never been effectually checked but when assailed in Spain and Flanders. Fiveand-twenty years' peace followed the treaty of Utrecht, and sixteen have already followed the peace of Paris. All other treaties for the last hundred and fifty years can only be considered as truces in comparison. Such is the importance of the Peninsula, that a considerable success there is almost sufficient to neutralize the greatest advantages in the central parts of Europe; the victory of Almanza had well nigh neutralized the triumphs of Oudenarde, Ramillies, and Malplaquet, and the cannon of Salamanca startled Napoleon even on the eve of the carnage of Borodino, and when almost within sight of the Kremlin.

"The sea," says General Jomini, "which is the worst possible base to every power, is the best to England. That which is but a sterile and inhospitable desert to a military power, conveys to the menaced point the fleets and the forces of Albion." It is on this principle, that the strict alliance and close connection with Portugal was formed. Its extensive sea-coast, mountainous ridges, and numerous harbours, afforded the utmost facilities for pouring into its bosom the resources and armies of England, while its own force was not so considerable as to render its people jealous of the protection, or averse to the generals, of England. The result proved the wisdom of the choice made of Portugal as the fulcrum on which the military power of England, when engaged in continental war, should be rested. It is there alone that an unconquerable stand was made against the forces of

Napoleon. That which neither the firmness of Austria, nor the valour of Prussia, nor the power of Russia could accomplish, has been achieved by this little state, backed by the might and the energy of England. Austria has to lament the defects of Ulm and Wagram; Prussia the overthrow of Jena; Russia the catastrophes of Austerlitz and Friedland; but the career of Portugal, in the same terrible strife, was one of uninterrupted success; before the rocks of Torres Vedras, the waves of Gallic aggression first permanently receded; and from the strongholds of the Tagus, the British standards advanced to a career of glory greater than ever graced the days of her Hen-ized, and our ancient and irreconcilable enerys and her Edwards. my placed on the footing of the most favoured nation!