REFLECTIONS, &c. THE futility of the human expectation was never more strictly exemplified, than by the manner in which the predictions of sundry politicians, at the conclusion of the late war, have been frustrated. Those who originally promoted that war, and who were throughout its strenuous advocates, then assumed the language of triumph and success. They exultingly pointed to the long series of glorious actions which had ended in the overthrow of Napoleon's power, and seemed to imagine that the success of our exertions was an unanswerable argument to the objections which had been raised against them by their political opponents. Europe had been emancipated by their counsels,, tyranny had been dethroned, and freedom and prosperity already began to shed their fostering influence. . And so far as these exultations related to the honors which our army obtained, and to the glorious spirit which animated this country, whilst contending single-handed against a world in arms, there can be no one who would not have readily lent his voice to swell the Pæan strain. Nor can there be many who would have refused to express their approbation of the determined resolution and the wise counsels of His Majesty's ministers. But there were not wanting at that time able statesmen who doubted the extent of the benefits which we had obtained, and who, whilst the greater part of the population were dazzled with the splendor of our recent success, entertained considerable apprehensions with respect to its ulterior consequences. That these were no idle misgivings we now feel. If it were my purpose to take a survey of our domestic condition, I should find in our declining commerce and agriculture, in our famished population, and in the embarrassed state of our our fair finances, bordering upon national bankruptcy, but faint signs of the prosperity which we were taught to anticipate. But at present my attention is directed to another object; and as prospects have not been realized at home, let us see whether we can derive any consolation from the state of affairs on the Continent. The enthusiastic ardor with which the people of the several kingdoms drove the French from their territories; the vigorous efforts with which, awakening from their lethargic slavery, they broke the bonds of their thraldom, must be fresh in every one's memory. At that time their rulers were lavish in their promises of freedom. Proclamations were circulated encouraging them to shake off their yoke, and holding out to them as an inducement, the enjoyment of free constitutions. In 1814 Lord William Bentinck addressed a Proclamation to the Italians, in which he called on them to assert their liberties, and assured them that they should be placed in the same situation as Spain then was. At that time the character of the English nation for integrity stood very high on the Continent. No doubt, therefore, was entertained of the sincerity of the pledge thus held out. But to the eternal disgrace of this country be it recorded that this, our plighted faith, was violated, and instead of receiving the Spanish constitution, the Neapolitans were placed under the sway of an absolute monarchy. In the hour of success we forgot those promises which we had previously made, and thus rewarded those who had fought by our side. England, by her Minister at the Congress of Vienna, was party to an act, which violated our faith, and tended to rivet the fetters of Italy. It was not to be supposed that such a Government could be congenial to the wishes of the people. And accordingly, in the course of the last year, the Neapolitans freed themselves from its shackles, and established in its stead the very constitution which the English appear to have proposed as not inappropriate to their nation; I mean the Spanish constitution. It is against this that the Allied Sovereigns have published their Declaration; and it is to punish a people for thus asserting their freedom, that the Emperor of Austria has made war on Naples. And here, when speaking of this Declaration, let it not be supposed that I hold any principles in common with those base and designing men, who in Italy and other countries are disgracing the sacred name of liberty, by associating it with principles which, if successful, would level with the dust every excitement to virtue, and every security of property. These licentious notions, equally repugnant to the laws of God and man, call for the decided expression of our abhorrence. If the Declaration in question were confined to a denunciation of these principles, it would not, perhaps, be liable to much objection. But, unfortunately, it is promulgated for very different objects. It denounces rational liberty. It proscribes those exalted virtues which the sages of antiquity taught, which her poets celebrated, and her statesmen and warriors practised. It is a libel upon all history; it is a libel upon all those great patriots, the adamantine pillars of whose fame have withstood the tide of time; it is a libel upon the immutable laws of justice and of reason; and even so, it is a libel upon the free Constitution of England. It charges the Carbonari with propagating the spirit of discontent and restlessness. Now, if by this is meant discontent under oppression, and restlessness against tyranny, may the efforts of the Carbonari be successful! and may such discontent never cease to exist in Italy until it has destroyed the power of foreign rulers! It appears, too, that the Carbonari exacted a constitution from their King by military force. Now all these measures may be strange and disagreeable to Their Imperial Majesties; but surely they cannot be matter of much surprise to Englishmen, who reflect that the fathers of their liberties dared to feel discontent against the King; and further dared to demand a constitution at the sword's point. Yet are these the men whom we, their posterity, look up to with respect; these are the men, at the mention of whose names every Briton feels a glow of virtuous pride; these are the men whose principles have been long reverenced amongst us; and long may they continue to be so! Far be it from me to bestow indiscriminate approbation upon revolutions. The dreadful example of France should give mankind a salutary warning, not to meddle inconsiderately or rashly with so powerful an agent as liberty. But, on the other hand, it is preposterous and absurd to indulge in sweeping anathemas against all innovations. For what at first determined the system in which we object to any change? The circumstances of the times. Now, these circumstances are constantly varying; and with their variations we ought to vary those regulations to which they originally gave birth. In an age like the present, when those who may happen to profess liberal opinions are too apt to be classed with a set of persons with whose projects and notions they hold no communion, I am happy in being able to shelter myself under the authority of the sage Bacon:-"He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator; and if time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?" But if the conduct of those who were the leaders of the late Neapolitan revolution, be so culpable, what are we to say respecting that of the English in 1814? The Neapolitans caused an innovation in a system established by the Austrian forces. The English proposed an innovation in a system established by the French forces. The Neapolitans have adopted the Spanish constitution, which the English recommended them to adopt. We |