said, that this new ecclesiastical establishment is intended only to be temporary, and preparatory to the utter abolition, under. any of its forms, of the Christian religion, whenever the minds of men are prepared for this last stroke against it, by the accomplishment of the plan for bringing its ministers into universal contempt.' The confiscation of church property is imputed by Burke to a design formed by the French men of letters to abolish the Christian religion. The literary cabal,' he says, 'had, some years ago, formed something like a regular plan for the destruction of the Christian religion. This object they pursued with a degree of zeal which hitherto had been discovered only in the propagators of some system of piety. What was not to be done towards their great end, by any direct or immediate act, might be wrought by a longer process, through the medium of opinion. To command that opinion, the first step is to establish a dominion over those who direct it. They contrived to possess themselves, with great method and

perseverance, of all the avenues to literary fame. Many of them indeed stood high in the ranks of literature and science. These atheistical fathers have a bigotry of their own; and they have learnt to talk against monks with the spirit of a monk. But in some things they are men of the world. The resources of intrigue are called in to supply the defects of argument and wit. To their system of literary monopoly was joined an unremitting industry to blacken and discredit, in every way and by every means, all those who did not hold to their faction. To those who have observed the spirit of their conduct, it has long been clear that nothing was wanted but the power of carrying the intolerance of the tongue and of the pen into a prosecution which would strike at property, liberty, and life.' Whether Voltaire, and other philosophers and literary men of France, intended to overturn the Christian religion, their writings and conduct had evidently that tendency; and where there is, in the conduct of men of talents or even men of

common understanding, a direct and constant tendency to any object, intention may be very fairly inferred. After investigating the intellectual and moral principles by which the French were directed, estimating, from history and the constitution of the human mind, their tendency, and shewing their effects in the proscription of property without any evidence of delinquency, he proceeds to the policy of the new French government in its provisions for strength and security. He considers the organization of the new legislative, executive, judicial, military, and financial establishments adopted by the National Assembly, and finding the same predilection for untried theory in their principle, the same inconsistency and inefficiency in their details, infers that they will neither be permanent, nor answer their purpose while they last.

Thus did Burke, reasoning from EXPERIENCE, an experience comprising the particular state and proceedings of France, the history of mankind, and the constitution,

moral and intellectual, of the human mind, conclude that a revolution, in its acts and principles so contrary to the lessons of that great beneficial TEACHER, would produce, as it was then producing, disorder, injustice, and misery. When it shall be proved that his deductions from particular fact, general history, and human nature, are not justified by the premises, then it must be conceded that his REFLEXIONS on the Revolution of France were ill founded. When it shall be established that mankind or individual men, disregarding religion and property, in their moral estimates, and experience, in their intellectual conclusions, have attained order, virtue, and happiness, then may it be proved that Burke's reasoning was false and sophistical. But until that theory be confirmed by a legitimate induction, the REFLEXIONS OF BURKE, GROUNDED ON EXPERIENCE, MUST BE ADMITTED TO BE JUST. From the event, indeed, we might almost ascribe to him the GIFT OF PROPHECY. He has certainly displayed that degree of divination which arises from a thorough knowledge of

the nature and relations of man, and that can from causes anticipate effects. If we examine what Burke said would be the consequence, and compare it with what is the actual state of affairs, we may at least confidently assert that he has not been mistaken: we may even affirm that his predictions have not exaggerated the irreligion, anarchy, tyranny, and injustice which they anticipated. Such a system as Burke conceives to exist, and likely to exist, in France, producing, and likely to produce, fatal effects, he naturally reprobated as a model for the imitation of England. He thought it incumbent on him to dwell on this subject, as a disposition had been manifested to assimilate the French revolution of 1789 to the English of 1688. Dr. Price had, at the anniversary of our revolution, advanced, on the great event commemorated, concerning the tenure of the Crown, and other subjects of British polity, principles which Burke thought dangerous, especially when combined with not merely an approval of the French revolution, but an exulting joy at the degra