its own nature, then the effort to establish democracy in France is antagonistic to liberty itself. This was made apparent in 1789, and has been proved again in our own times. The declaration of the "Rights of man," which, couched in almost the very same words, created in North America a flourishing Republic, became on Celtic soil the starting point of a furious Ochlocracy. For such in sober truth was the nature of the government, which, on the 10th of August 1792, marched over the smoking ruins of the ancient royal palace, and hastened with terrible energy to proclaim its character and its will to the nation at large. Only a few weak obstacles still kept it back from the conquest of the whole kingdom; and the contests by which it gained entire mastery in the land, and the measures by which it sought to rule it, will form the subject of our present consideration. Like their predecessors, who, not content with ruling France, had sought to extend their influence through neighbouring countries, they too aimed at the overthrow of all the existing systems of the world, and began their machinations for the simultaneous convulsion of East and West. This tendency too, like the communistic despotism to which they subjected their own nation, proceeded from the very nature of their govern ment. What revolution is in internal affairs, conquest is in foreign policy. They both begin by refusing to recognize established rights and vested interests. They may both be imposed as a necessity upon a nation by the duty of selfpreservation, and when confined within the limits of necessity and duty, may be productive of the best effects. Of this nature was the English Revolution of 1688, and the Prussian conquest of Silesia and West Prussia, which for the moment violated the forms of law, but immediately afterwards proclaimed the maintenance of laws and treaties as their guiding principle. But no sooner does a State make the lust of conquest its principle of action, than it also be CH. I.] ANALOGY BETWEEN REVOLUTION AND CONQUEST. 203 comes entirely revolutionary. He who refuses to be bound by any engagements abroad, will respect no rights at home. And the converse of this is also true; he who acknowledges no law but the right of insurrection and brute violence, will always settle his foreign relations by an appeal to the sword. When ancient Rome conceived the idea of universal dominion, the demagogues became mighty in the Forum; and, on the other hand, no party rose to power during the Revolution which did not immediately form plans of aggression against some distant country. Long before the Emperor Leopold had spoken of intervention to Louis XVI., Lafayette was busy with plans for revolutionising Belgium, Holland and Ireland. No sooner had Louis and Leopold acknowledged the constitution of 1791, than the Gironde began a war against Austria, Germany and Italy. Immediately after the affair of Valmy, when the Prussians were eagerly desirous of peace, Brissot, Danton and Billaud, were moving heaven and earth to throw all Europe into confusion. We are now about to observe the way in which this zeal for destruction daily increased, and gradually drew all the States of Europe into its vortex. In doing so we shall see, by the way, how completely all the other aims of the Revolution were lost sight of; and how, on this side also, all things tended towards a military dictatorship. But that which lent a peculiarly momentous character to the period that which increased tenfold the intensity of every crisis, and the terrors of every danger-was the coincidence of the French aggressions in the West, with the no less comprehensive and equally revolutionary policy of the Russian Empire in the East. It will be necessary, therefore, to bring forward the circumstances connected with this coincidence more prominently before the reader, and, in doing so, to extend the horizon of our observation to the whole of Europe. We have already referred to the policy of Russia; the effect of her war with Turkey, in 1790, upon Germany; the silent opposition of the Emperor Leopold in 1791 to her schemes for the subjection of Poland and France; and lastly, the important effect of her Polish policy on the relation between Prussia and Austria in the autumn of 1792. The more completely the attention of the States of Central Europe were occupied by the Revolution, the more boldly and vigorously did the Russian Cabinet press forward towards the fulfilment of its all-grasping ambition. The French war and the partition of Poland-events of equal importance to Europe, and exercising a reciprocal influence upon each other-were simultaneously carried into effect. While the other States of Europe became every day more and more dependent on political events, these events were more and more completely under the control of the only two great potentates, the French Committee of Public Safety and the Empress Catharine. Before entering on the details of these events, therefore, it is necessary to get as clear an idea of the internal nature and traditional policy of the great Slavonian military monarchy, as of the origin of the equally warlike government of France. It is not a little interesting to trace the internal changes of the Russian constitution, which rendered the continuance of peace in Russia simply unnatural and intolerable. From highly dissimilar causes, exactly similar results appear on the Seine and the Neva. As long as an internal condition-produced in one country by the Revolution and in the other by the events of centuries of despotism-continued, there was no hope of legal security or peace in Europe. CH. II.] CHAPTER II. POLITICAL PARTIES IN FRANCE. 205 RESOURCES of the French GOVERNMENT.-NOVEMBER 1792.-STATE of paris. A OF LOUIS XVI. WHEN Dumouriez had driven the Prussian army over the borders, the position of the Republic seemed tolerably secure. The Government was unquestionably stronger than any which had preceded it since 1789; the different parties by which it was surrounded had mutually weakened one another; and the foreign war had invested the Ministry with a hitherto unknown éclat. In spite of party feuds there were few men in France who did not rejoice at the retreat of the Prussians; and in spite of all oratorical phrases, there was not one who did not know that the enemy had been conquered, neither by the daggers of the September assassins, nor the orations of the Gironde, but by the army under Dumouriez's command. The Ministry therefore derived all the more strength from the prestige which a great military success always confers, because warlike and national honour appeared to be the only living sentiment in the public mind of France. The excitement of political contest had completely passed away. No one could now be found who would incur a danger, or who even cherished a wish, for any particular form of government, or any idea of internal political life. Since the 10th of August, when the mob had triumphed over King, Assembly and Constitution, the period of intel lectual triumphs was gone. Gone were the days in which a success in the rostra was a political act, and a movement on the part of the press, a political event! Even the struggles of parties in the Hall of the Convention had but little serious importance. They were for the most part only the official expression of resolutions taken long before by the real possessors of power; or at most a noisy signal of some impending deeds of violence. He who would attain any real success must have the disposal of the means of material power -money and the sword. The Government at this juncture had the two strongest levers of despotism in their hands-the avarice and the fear of men. They were assured of the attachment of the army, both by the party politics of the Generals, and the patriotic zeal of the troops, who were not likely to desert the colours under which they had resisted half Europe. The organization of the Home Administration was in ruins; the Departmental governments had just been submitted to a new election under revolutionary auspices; and all regular and equable influence on the country from above was out of the question. But we must remember how weak and untrustworthy were the arrangements made in 1790, and it will then be evident that their decay was rather a gain to the Government than a cause of weakness. For in all the Departments there were, by the side of the dilapidated local Authorities, Government Commissioners, into whose hands the general confusion had thrown the greater part of the local business, and who were at the same time completely above the control of the citizens, and absolutely dependent on the Ministers. From the fact that most of the offices were hereditary, even the ancient Monarchy had nothing approaching to the extent of influence now possessed by the Government; and when compared with the utter helplessness of the central Authority in 1790, the difference is immeasurable. There was, moreover, the necessity of filling up afresh all the principal posts in the Administrations themselves. Then again the great in |