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CH. I.] eternal laws to which human nature itself is subject. When therefore they had thrown off the bonds of external discipline, they had no guide but their own unbridled passions. And the more difficult and sublime the task which the century had to perform, the greater the number of sorrows and excesses into which it must inevitably fall. Nay more, it may be said that an historical idea, which unchecked and uncorrupted in its course should be immediately carried out by the great mass of a nation, could scarcely be one of sufficient depth and importance to become the foundation of a mighty future. The idea of modern freedom in its beneficent course has, indeed, been made to serve the passions of individuals; but as its intrinsic value can never excuse the abuses which have been carried on in its name, so, on the other hand, it would be foolish to deny its vital importanceon account of those abuses.

If these remarks are applicable to the reforms undertaken by the monarchs of the 18th century, they will have still greater force in connection with the democratic Revolution of the French people.

This latter was not, as has so often been asserted, the commencement of a new era; it is rather an integral part of a process begun three centuries before. It aimed at the abolition of obsolete institutions, which, proceeding from the ages of feudalism, answered no good purpose in the actual state of France, and only oppressed the country with arbitrarily imposed burdens. It sought to win for mankind at large freedom of intercourse and labour,-recognition of their dignity as men, and of the principle of nationality— freedom of thought, and religious liberty. Notwithstanding the difference of time and place, we recognise the same deep impulses which had once brought Germany into conflict with the Romish Hierarchy, raised Holland against Spain, England against the Stuarts, and America against England. No less clear, however, is the fatal aberration of the French Revolution, at its first entrance into practice. While the

other countries we have mentioned made it their first and foremost care to rear a new order of things amidst the ruins of the old, the French Revolution declared war, not only against pretended authority, but against all moral laws whatever; and thereby unfitted itself to fulfil its infinitely important mission. For freedom of intercourse and trade, it substituted the plunder of proprietors; for universal equality before the law, it substituted the persecution of the higher classes; and for the emancipation of the conscience in religious matters, cruel ill-treatment of the princes of the Church. It knew no other means of improving a bad government than the annihilation of every governing power; it sought to restore equality by exterminating the rich and distinguished; and thought that true freedom consisted in striking off the chains from every passion and every crime. The aim of its policy seemed not to be rapid reconstruction of the ruined fabric of the law, but the unbridled licence of every will; and thus for a space of two years there existed in France no influence and no law but that of brute violence. The sequel will shew us how this sole remaining power proceeded unchecked to the most terrible extremes, and how the greatest criminal proved on every occasion the most successful statesman. When once a state has entered upon such a path as this, it becomes irrecoverably involved in a fatal chain of consequences. Not that logical consistency of the reason, which may look down with proud contempt on those who loiter and halt between two opinions; but that moral concatenation by which-for the severer punishment of transgression-every evil deed draws after it still greater crimes.

It is true, no doubt, that in this case as in every other, a good cause is furthered by every occurrence, and that in this sense freedom was furthered by the French Revolution. A century would probably have passed over half Europe before the mouldering rubbish of feudalism could have been removed by peaceful means. But this momentary accelera

FATAL ERRORS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

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CH. I.] tion of progress is too often counterbalanced by lasting evils. The Revolution has eaten away not only the political morality of nations, but their political enthusiasm. It has scared away the governments of Europe from reforms, as well as from acts of tyranny; it has forced the Church into a false political attitude, filled the middle classes with an immoral apathy, and the proletaries with unreasonable expectations. It clearly shewed, both in its first career (beginning with the year 1789), and wherever it has again reared its head, that it can have no other result than the first Empire a military State, which grants indeed an equality of private rights, and an open career of service, but needs at the same time commercial prohibitions, the control of education, and ecclesiastical oppression; and which therefore brings with it the subjugation of labour, thought and faith, instead of freedom,-and crushes instead of fulfilling the claims of our national life.

Nor is it difficult to recognise the causes which gave that turn to French affairs, which has been so fatal to the whole succeeding century. We do not mean the errors of individuals or parties in particular emergencies, but the more general source from which, in France especially, a countless multitude of crimes and errors flowed, and irresistibly impelled the State towards the abyss of ruin. We need not look far for it, as we have said, and we shall see that it has not the least connexion with the principles of reform. It is only too terribly evident that this cause was the moral condition of France-and, indeed, of old, feudal, conservative France. We cannot wonder that the storm of freedom should level every existing institution with the ground, for they had all, for many ages past, been morally diseased and rotten to the very core. The example of the Court, from the reign of Francis I. to that of Louis XV., had poisoned the very life-blood of the higher classes. During the same period the middle classes were excluded more and more completely from all political rights, and consequently from

all political training; while the masses of the people were ground down by unceasing misery and hunger. It was a state of things which may without exaggeration be compared with that of the Byzantine Empire. There was the same moral stagnation among the ruling classes, and the same. wretchedness among the despised rabble. There was, however, this difference; that while in Rome the utterly exhausted and despairing people entirely gave up the State as lost, and threw themselves unconditionally into the arms of a charitable Church, there was still sufficient national pride in the French people to make them feel their own degradation, and seek redemption within the limits of the State by a furious outbreak of despair. Under such circumstances every movement is necessarily cramped and distorted, however sublime and pure the spiritual impulse may be; and if no one undervalues Christianity because at its summons the degraded Romans turned their backs upon the labours and duties of the world, we ought not to condemn the idea of freedom, because her image inflamed the contemporaries of a Louis XV. to ferocity and crime. In a word, the French Revolution failed, not because the destruction of the old order of things was a mistake, but because the nation entered on the work of reform under a heavy load of inveterate immorality. It was not from amid the ruins, but beneath the shelter, of feudalism, that the avarice and selfishness, the violence and barbarism, grew up, which led the nation from the rejoicings of that night in August to the horrors of the September massacres.

Closely connected with this was another error,-which also existed long before 1789-respecting the nature of freedom itself; an error, which not only marred the Revolution by the faults of the national character, but brought it into direct conflict with the very essence of that character. Men justly regarded the previous constitution of the State as the source of their sufferings, and were naturally led to set an exaggerated value on mere forms of government. They had

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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FRENCH PEOPLE.

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experienced the misery which had befallen the people under the Monarchy, and had arrived at the conclusion that the sovereignty of the people was the only antidote to that poison. In the bitterness of their hearts, rather than from a careful consideration of their wants, they accustomed themselves to consider freedom as synonymous with a democratic constitution. They were confirmed in this error, partly by general theories, and partly by the example of foreign nations; and in the consideration of these they entirely lost sight of the essential points-the interests, inclinations and capacities, of their own people. Whatever political shape the French nation may take in future times, thus much is certain, that hitherto it has never shown the slightest mark of a democratic people. If the essential characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon race is contained in the one word Self-government, that of the French people may be defined as the constant tendency to Centralization. Every great and glorious era in its history is marked by the progress, not of individual developement, but of governmental power. All its virtues and weaknesses tend towards a form of Monarchy which to other nations might almost appear a tyrannis; and in fact all its efforts to establish popular rule have only aimed at a tyrannis of the majority, and not at the liberty of the whole people. At all times, and in every class of the French nation, we see the liveliest enthusiasm for the honour of the State as a whole, but very little concern for personal and corporative independence; and notwithstanding their splendid political talents, and lofty capacity of self-sacrifice, the French are wanting in the most important elements of sound democracy-the strength which bides its time, peaceful respect for law, and patient energy. It would be highly unjust to depreciate a great nation—which under its Kings has done so much to advance the highest aims of humanity -because it happens to have no taste for a Republic; but it is not the less evident on that account, that if the freedom of a people consists in its living according to the laws of