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great transaction, and though its history may | ages, true at least to the general features of therefore be written with most advantage such periods, we have nothing but a tranvery long after its occurrence, it does not fol- script of the author's own most recent fanta low that such a history will not be deficient in many qualities which it would be desirable for it to possess. All we say is, that they are qualities which will generally be found incompatible with those larger and sounder views, which can hardly be matured while the subjects of them are recent. That this is an imperfection in our histories and historians, is sufficiently obvious; but it is an imperfection to which we must patiently resign ourselves, if it appear to be an unavoidable consequence of the limitation of our faculties. We cannot both enjoy the sublime effect of a vast and various landscape, and at the same time discern the form of every leaf in the forest, or the movements of every living creature that breathes within its expanse. Beings of a higher order may be capable of this; and it would be very desirable to be so: But, constituted as we are, it is impossible; and, in our delineation of such a scene, all that is minute and detached, however interesting or important to those who are at hand, must therefore be omitted-while the general effect is entrusted to masses in which nothing but the great outlines of great objects are preserved, and the details left to be inferred from the character of their results, or the larger features of their usual accompaniments.

sies and follies, ill disguised under the masquerade character of a few traditional names.-It is only necessary to call to mind such books as Zouche's Life of Sir Philip Sydney, or Godwin's Life of Chaucer, to feel this much more strongly than we can now express it. These, no doubt, are extreme cases;-but we suspect that our impressions of almost all remote characters and events, and the general notions we have of the times or societies which produced them, are much more dependent on the peculiar temper and habits of the popular writers in whom the memory of them is chiefly preserved, than it is very pleasant to think of. If we ever take the trouble of looking for ourselves into the documents and materials out of which those histories are made, we feel at once how much room there is for a very different representation of all those things from that which is current in the world: And accordingly we occasionally have very opposite representations. Compare Bossuet's Universal History with Voltaire's-Rollin with Mitford-Hume or Clarendon with Ralph or Mrs. M'Aulay; and it will be difficult to believe that these different writers are speaking of the same persons and things.

The work before us, we have already said, is singularly free from faults of this description. It is written, we do think, in the true spirit and temper of historical impartiality. But it has faults of a different character; and, with many of the merits, combines some of the appropriate defects, both of a contemporary and philosophical history. Its details are too few and too succinct for the former-they are too numerous and too rashly selected for the latter;-while the reasonings and speculations in which perhaps its chief value consists, seem already to be too often thrown away upon matters that cannot long be had in remembrance. We must take care not to get entangled too far among the anecdotes— but the general reasoning cannot detain us very long.

It is needless to apply this to the case of history; in which, when it records events of permanent interest, it is equally impossible to retain those particular details which engrossed the attention of contemporaries—both because the memory of them is necessarily lost in the course of that period which must elapse before the just value of the whole can be known-and because, even if it were otherwise, no human memory could retain, or human judgment discriminate, the infinite number of particulars which must have been presented in such an interval. We shall only observe, further, that though that which is preserved is generally the most material and truly important part of the story, it not unfrequently happens, that too little is preserved to afford materials for a satisfactory It is the scope of the book to show that narrative, or to justify any general conclu- France must have a free government-a sion; and that, in such cases, the historian limited monarchy-in express words, a conoften yields to the temptation of connecting stitution like that of England. This, Madame the scanty materials that have reached him de Staël says, was all that the body of the by a sort of general and theoretical reasoning, nation aimed at in 1789-and this she says which naturally takes its colour from the pre- the great majority of the nation are resolved vailing views and opinions of the individual to have still-undeterred by the fatal miscarwriter, or of the age to which he belongs. If riage of the last experiment, and undisgusted an author of consummate judgment, and with by the revival of ancient pretensions which a thorough knowledge of the unchangeable has signalised its close. Still, though she principles of human nature, undertake this maintains this to be the prevailing sentiment task, it is wonderful indeed to see how much of the French people, she thinks it not alto he may make of a subject that appears so un-gether unnecessary to combat this discour promising-and it is almost certain that the view he will give to his readers, of such an obscure period, will, at all events, be at least as instructive and interesting as if he had had its entire annals before him. In other hands, however, the result is very different; and, instead of a masterly picture of rude or remote

agement and this disgust;-and the great object of all that is argumentative in her book, is to show that there is nothing in the character or condition, or late or early history of her countrymen, to render this regulated freedom unattainable by them, or to disqualify them from the enjoyment of a repre

sentative government, or the functions of free consummation-and that every thing is now citizens. in the fairest train to secure it, without any great effort or hazard of disturbance.

For this purpose she takes a rapid and masterly view of the progress of the different European kingdoms, from their primitive condition of feudal aristocracies, to their present state of monarchies limited by law, or mitigated by the force of public opinion; and endeavours to show, that the course has been the same in all; and that its unavoidable termination is in a balanced constitution like that of England. The first change was the reduction of the Nobles,-chiefly by the aid which the Commons, then first pretending to wealth or intelligence, afforded to the Crown-and, on this basis, some small states, in Italy and Germany especially, erected a permanent system of freedom. But the necessities of war, and the substitution of hired forces for the feudal militia, led much more generally to the establishment of an arbitrary or des potical authority; which was accomplished in France, Spain, and England, under Louis XI., Philip II., and Henry VIII. Then came the age of commerce, luxury, and taxes,-which necessarily ripened into the age of general intelligence, individual wealth, and a sense both of right and of power in the people; and those led irresistibly to a limitation on the powers of the Crown, by a representative assembly.

England having less occasion for a land army and having been the first in the career of commercial prosperity, led the way in this great amelioration. But the same general principles have been operating in all the Continental kingdoms, and must ultimately produce the same effects. The peculiar advantages which she enjoyed did not prevent England from being enslaved by the tyranny of Henry VIII., and Mary;-and she also experienced the hazards, and paid the penalties which are perhaps inseparable from the assertion of popular rights. She also overthrew the monarchy, and sacrificed the monarch in her first attempt to set limits to his power. The English Commonwealth of 1648, originated in as wild speculations as the French of 1792-and ended, like it, in the establishment of a military tyranny, and a restoration which seemed to confound all the asserters of liberty in the general guilt of rebellion:Yet all the world is now agreed that this was but the first explosion of a flame that could neither be extinguished nor permanently repressed; and that what took place in 1688, was but the sequel and necessary consummation of what had been begun forty years before-and which might and would have been accomplished without even the slightest shock and disturbance that was then experienced, if the Court had profited as much as the leaders of the people by the lessons of that first experience. Such too, Madame de Staël assures us, is the unalterable destiny of France; and it is the great purpose of her book to show, that but for circumstances which cannot recur-mistakes that cannot be repeated, and accidents which never happened twice, even the last attempt would have led to that blessed

That these views are supported with infinite talent, spirit, and eloquence, no one who has read the book will probably dispute; and we should be sorry indeed to think that they were not substantially just. Yet we are not, we confess, quite so sanguine as the distinguished writer before us; and though we do not doubt either that her principles are true, or that her predictions will be ultimately accomplished, we fear that the period of their triumph is not yet at hand; and that it is far more doubtful than she will allow it to be, whether that triumph will be easy, peaceful, and secure. The example of England is her great, indeed her only authority; but we are afraid that she has run the parallel with more boldness than circumspection, and overlooked a variety of particulars in our case, to which she could not easily find any thing equivalent in that of her country. It might be invidious to dwell much on the opposite character and temper of the two nations; though it is no answer to say, that this character is the work of the government. But can Madame de Staël have forgotten, that England had a parliament and a representative legislature for five hundred years before 1648; and that it was by that organ, and the widely spread and deeply founded machinery of the elections on which it rested, that the struggle was made, and the victory won, which ultimately secured to us the blessings of political freedom? The least reflection upon the nature of government, and the true foundations of all liberty, will show what an immense advantage this was in the contest; and with what formidable obstacles those must have to struggle, who are obliged to engage in a similar conflict without it.

All political power, even the most despotic, rests at last, as was profoundly observed by Hume, upon Opinion. A government is Just, or otherwise, according as it promotes, more or less, the true interests of the people who live under it. But it is Stable and secure, exactly as it is directed by the opinion of those who really possess, and know that they possess, the power of enforcing it, and upon whose opinion, therefore, it constantly depends;that is, in a military despotism, on the opinion of the soldiery;-in all rude and ignorant communities, on the opinion of those who monopolise the intelligence, the wealth, or the discipline which constitute power-the priesthood-the landed proprietors--the armed and inured to war; and, in civilised societies, on the opinion of that larger proportion of the people who can bring their joint talents, wealth, and strength, to act in concert when occasion requires. A government may indeed subsist for a time, although opposed to the opinion of those classes of persons; but its existence must always be precarious, and it probably will not subsist long. The natural and appropriate Constitution, therefore, is, in every case, that which enables those who ac tually administer the government, to ascertain and conform themselves in time to the opinion of those who have the power to overturn it;

and no government whatever can possibly be | vent. In countries where there never have secure where there are no arrangements for been any political elections, and few local this purpose. Thus it is plainly for want of a magistracies, or occasions of provincial and proper Despotic Constitution-for want of a parochial assemblages for public purposes, the regular and safe way of getting at the opinions real state of opinion must be substantially of their armies, that the Sultans and other unknown even to the most observant resident Asiatic sovereigns are so frequently beheaded in each particular district;-and its general by their janissaries or insurgent soldiery: and, bearing all over the country can never possiin like manner, it was for want of a proper bly be learned by the most diligent inquiries, Feudal Constitution, that, in the decline of that or even guessed at with any reasonable desystem, the King was so often dethroned by gree of probability. The first deputies, therehis rebellious barons, or excommunicated by fore, are necessarily returned, without any an usurping priesthood. In more advanced firm or assured knowledge of the sentiments times, there is the same necessity of conform- of their constituents-and they again can ing to the prevailing opinion of those more have nothing but the most vague notions of extended and diversified descriptions of per- the temper in which these sentiments are to sons in whom the power of enforcing and re- be enforced-while the whole deputies come sisting has come to reside; and the natural together without any notion of the disposiand only safe constitution for such societies, tions, or talents, or designs of each other, and must therefore embrace a representative as- are left to scramble for distinction and influsembly. A government may no doubt go on, ence, according to the measure of their indiin opposition to the opinion of this virtual aris-vidual zeal, knowledge, or assurance. tocracy, for a long time after it has come into existence. For it is not enough that there is wealth, and intelligence, and individual influence enough in a community to overbear all pretensions opposed to them. It is necessary that the possessors of this virtual power should be aware of their own numbers, and of the conformity of their sentiments or views; and it is very late in the progress of society before the means of communication are so multiplied and improved, as to render this practicable in any tolerable degree. Trade and the press, however, have now greatly facilitated those communications; and in all the central countries of Europe, they probably exist in a degree quite sufficient to give one of the parties, at least, very decided impressions both as to its interests and its powers.

In such a situation of things, we cannot hesitate to say that a representative government is the natural, and will be the ultimate remedy; but if we find, that even where such an institution existed from antiquity, it was possible so fatally to miscalculate and misjudge the opinions of the nation, as proved to be the case in the reign of our King Charles, is it not manifest that there must be tenfold risk of such miscalculation in a country where no such constitution has been previously known, and where, from a thousand causes, the true state of the public mind is so apt to be oppositely misconceived by the opposite parties, as it is up to the present hour in France? The great and cardinal use of a representative body in the legislature is to afford a direct, safe, and legitimate channel, by which the public opinion may be brought to act on the government: But, to enable it to perform this function with success, it is by no means enough, that a certain number of deputies are sent into the legislature by a certain number of electors. Without a good deal of previous training, the public opinion itself can neither be formed, collected, nor expressed in any authentic or effectual manner; and the first establishment of the representative system must be expected to occasion very nearly as nuch disturbance as it may ultimately pre

In

England, there were no such novelties to be hazarded, either in 1640 or in 1688. The people of this country have had an elective parliament from the earliest period of their history-and, long before either of the periods in question, had been trained in every hamlet to the exercises of various political franchises, and taught to consider themselves as connected, by known and honourable ties, with all the persons of influence and consideration in their neighbourhood, and, through them, by an easy gradation with the political leaders of the State;-while, in Parliament itself, the place and pretensions of every man were pretty accurately known, and the strength of each party reasonably well ascertained by long and repeated experiments, made under all variety of circumstances. The organization and machinery, in short, for collecting the public opinion, and bringing it into contact with the administration, was perfect, and in daily operation among us, from very ancient times. The various conduits and channels by which it was to be conveyed from its first faint springs in the villages and burghs, and conducted in gradually increasing streams to the central wheels of the government, were all deep worn in the soil, and familiarly known, with all their levels and connections, to every one who could be affected by their condition. In France, when the new sluices were opened, not only were the waters universally foul and turbid, but the quantity and the currents were all irregular and unknown; and some stagnated or trickled feebly along, while others rushed and roared with the violence and the mischief of a torrent. But it is time to leave these perplexing generalities, and come a little closer to the work before us.

It was the Cardinal de Richelieu, according to Madame de Stael, who completed the degradation of the French nobility, begun by Louis XI.;-and the arrogance and Spanish gravity of Louis XIV., assumed, as she says, " pour eloigner de lui la familiarité des jugemens," fixed them in the capacity of cour tiers; and put an end to that gay and easy tone of communication, which, in the days of

Henri IV., had made the task of a courtier | try, to have been, "to persuade the King to both less wearisome and less degrading. She do of himself that justice to the people, to has no partiality, indeed, for the memory of obtain which they afterwards insisted for repthat buckram hero-and is very indignant at resentatives." Such a counsellor, of course, his being regarded as the patron of literature. had no chance in 1780; and, the year after, "persécuta Port-Royal, dont Pascal étoit le M. Necker was accordingly dismissed. The chef; il fit mourir de chagrin Racine; il exila great objection to him was, that he proposed Fénélon; il s'opposa constamment aux hon- innovations "et de toutes les innovations, neurs qu'on vouloit rendre à La Fontaine, et celle que les courtisans et les financiers dene professa de l'admiration que pour Boileau. testent le plus, c'est l'ECONOMIE." Before La littérature, en l'exaltant avec excès, a bien going out, however, he did a great deal of plus fait pour lui qu'il n'a fait pour elle."- good; and found means, while M. de Mau(Vol. i. p. 36.) In his own person, indeed, he repas had a bad fit of gout, to get M. de Saroutlived his popularity, if not his fame. The tine removed from the ministry of marine-a brilliancy of his early successes was lost in personage so extremely diligent in the studies his later reverses. The debts he had con- belonging to his department, that when M. tracted lay like a load on the nation; and the Necker went to see him soon after his appointrigour and gloominess of his devotion was one ment, he found him in a chamber all hung cause of the alacrity with which the nation round with maps; and boasting with much plunged into all the excesses and profligacy of complacency, that "he could already put his the regency and the suceeding reign. hand upon the largest of them, and point, with his eyes shut, to the four quarters of the world!”

That reign-the weakness of Louis XV.the avowed and disgusting influence of his mistresses and all their relations, and the national disasters which they occasioned-together with the general spread of intelligence among the body of the people, and the bold and vigorous spirit displayed in the writings of Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau, created a general feeling of discontent and contempt for the government, and prepared the way for those more intrepid reformers who were so soon destined to succeed.

Calonne succeeded—a frivolous, presumptuous person,-and a financier, in so far as we can judge, after the fashion of our poet-laureate: For he too, it seems, was used to call prodigality "a large economy;" and to assure the King, that the more lavish he and his court were in their expenses, so much the better would it fare with the country. The consequence was, that the disorder soon became irremediable; and this sprightly minister was forced at last to adopt Turgot's proposal of subjecting the privileged orders to their share of the burdens-and finally to ad

The Notables, however, being all privileged persons, refused to give up any of their im munities-and they and M. de Calonne were dismissed accordingly. Then came the wavering and undecided administration of M. de Brienne, which ended with the resolution to assemble the States-General ;—and this was the Revolution!

Louis XVI., says Madame de Staël, would have been the mildest and most equitable of despots, and the most constitutional of constitutional kings-had he been born to adminis-vise the convocation of the Notables, in 1787. ter either an established despotism, or a constitutional monarchy. But he was not fitted to fill the throne during the difficult and trying crisis of a transition from the one state to the other. He was sincerely anxious for the happiness and even the rights of his people; but he had a hankering after the absolute power which seemed to be his lawful inheritance; and was too easily persuaded by those Hitherto, says Madame de Staël, the nation about him to cling to it too long, for his own at large, and especially the lower orders, had safety, or that of the country. The Queen, taken no share in those discussions. The with the same amiable dispositions, had still resistance to the Court-the complaints-the more of those natural prejudices. M. de Mau- call for reformation, originated and was conrepas, a minister of the old school, was com- fined to the privileged orders-to the Parliapelled, by the growing disorders of the ments-the Nobles and the Clergy. No revfinances, to call to his aid the talents of Tur- olution indeed can succeed in a civilised got and Necker about the year 1780. We country, which does not begin at least with hear enough, of course, in this book, of the the higher orders. It was in the parliament latter: But though we can pardon the filial of Paris, in which the peers of France had piety which has led the author to discuss, at seats, and which had always been most tenaso great length, the merit of his plans of cious of the privileges of its members, that finance and government, and to dwell on the the suggestion was first made which set fire prophetic spirit in which he foresaw and fore- to the four quarters of the kingdom. In that told all the consequences that have flowed kingdom, indeed, it could hardly fail, as it from rejecting them, we have too much re- was made in the form of a pun or bon mot. gard for our readers to oppress them. at this They were clamouring against the minister time of day, with an analysis of the Compte for not exhibiting his account of the public Rendu, or the scheme for provincial assem- expenses, when the Abbé Sabatier saidblies. As an historical personage, he must "Vous demandez, messieurs, les états de recette have his due share of notice; and no fame et de depense-et ce sont les Etats-Généraux can be purer than that to which he is entitled. qu'il nous faut !"-This was eagerly repeated His daughter, we think, has truly described in every order of society; addresses to that the scope of his endeavours, in his first minis-effect were poured in, in daily heaps; and at

last M. le Brienne was obliged to promise, in | l'ignorance, l'ignorance accroît la misère; et, the King's name, that the States-General quand on se demande pourquoi le peuple françois a should assemble at the end of five years. la cause que dans l'absence de bonheur, qui conduit été si cruel dans la révolution, on ne peut en trouver This delay only inflamed the general impa- à l'absence de moralité."—Vol. i. p. 79. tience and the clergy having solemnly declaimed against it, the King was at last obliged to announce that they should meet early in the following year. M. Necker at the same time was recalled to the ministry.

very

But what made the injustice of this strange system of laying the heaviest pecuniary burdens on the poorest a thousand times more oppressive, and ten thousand times more proThe States-General were demanded by the voking, was, that the invidious right of exprivileged orders: and, if they really expect-emption came at last to be claimed, not by ed to find them as they were in 1614, which the true ancient noblesse of France, which, was their last meeting, (though it is not Madame de Staël says, did not extend to two conceivable that they should have overlooked hundred families, but by hundreds of thousands the lifference of the times,) we can under- of persons of all descriptions, who had bought stand that they might have urged this demand patents of nobility for the very purpose of obwithout any design of being very liberal to taining this exemption. There was nothing the other orders of the community. This is in the structure of French society that was the edifying abstract which Madame de Staël more revolting, or called more loudly for rehas given of the proceedings of that venerable formation, than the multitude and the pretensions of this anomalous race. They were assembly. most jealously distinguished from the true "Le Clergé demanda qu'il lui fût permis de lever original Noblesse; which guarded its purity des dîmes sur toute espèce de fruits et de grains, et indeed with such extreme rigour, that no perqu'on défendît de lui faire payer des droits à l'entrée des villes, ou de lui imposer sa part des contri- son was allowed to enter any of the royal butions pour les chemins; il réclama de nouvelles carriages whose patent of nobility was not entraves à la liberté de la presse. La Noblesse de-certified by the Court heralds to bear date manda que les principaux emplois fussent tous donnés exclusivement aux gentilshommes, qu'on interdît aux roturiers les arquebuses, les pistolets, et l'usage des chiens, à moins qu'ils n'eussent les jarrets coupés. Elle demanda de plus que les roturiers payassent de nouveaux droits seigneuriaux aux gentilshommes possesseurs de fiefs; que l'on supprimât toutes les pensions accordées aux membres du tiers état; mais que les gentilshommes fussent exempts de la contrainte par corps, et de tout subside sur les denrées de leurs terres; qu'ils pussent prendre du sel dans les greniers du roi au même prix que les marchands; enfin que le tiers état fut obligé de porter un habit différent de celui des gentilshommes."-Vol. i. p. 162.

The States-General, however, were decreed; -and, that the whole blame of innovation might still lie upon the higher orders, M. de Brienne, in the name of the King, invited all and sundry to make public their notions upon the manner in which that great body should be arranged. By the old form, the Nobles, the Clergy, and the Commons, each deliberated apart and each had but one voice in the enactment of laws;-so that the privileged orders were always two to one against the other and the course of legislation had always been to extend the privileges of the one, and increase the burdens of the other. Accordingly, the tiers état had long been defined, "la gent corvéable et taillable, à merci et à miséricorde;" -and Madame de Staël, in one of those passages that already begin to be valuable to the forgetful world, bears this striking testimony as to the effect on their actual condition.

"Les jeunes gens et les étrangers qui n'ont pas connu la France avant la révolution, et qui voient aujourd'hui le peuple enrichi par la division des propriétés et la suppression des dîmes et du régime féodal, ne peuvent avoir l'idée de la situation de ce pays, lorsque la nation portoit le poids de tous les priviléges. Les partisans de l'esclavage, dans les colonies, ont souvent dit qu'un paysan de France étoit plus malheureux qu'un nègre. C'étoit un argument pour soulager les blancs, mais non pour s'endurcir contre les noirs. La misère accroît

prior to the year 1400; and yet they not only assumed the name and title of nobles, but were admitted, as against the people, into a full participation of all their most offensive privileges. It is with justice, therefore, that Madame de Staël reckons as one great cause of the Revolution,

Cette foule de gentilshommes du second ordre. anoblis de la veille, soit par les lettres de noblesse que les rois donnoient comme faisant suite à l'atfranchissement des Gaulois, soit par les charges vénales de secrétaire du roi, etc., qui associcient de nouveaux individus aux droits et aux priviléges des anciens gentilshommes. La nation se seroit soumise volontiers à la prééminence des familles historiques; et je n'exagère pas en affirmant qu'il n'y en a pas nobles et les cent mille prêtres qui vouloient avoir plus de deux cents en France. Mais les cent mille des priviléges, à l'égal de ceux de MM. de Montmorenci, de Grammont, de Crillon, etc., révol toient généralement ; car des négocians, des hommes de lettres, des propriétaires, des capitalistes, ne pouvoient comprendre la supériorité qu'on vouloit accorder à cette noblesse acquise à prix de révérences ou d'argent, et à laquelle vingt-cinq ans de date suffisoient pour siégre dans la chambre des nobles, et pour jouir des priviléges dont les plus honorables membres du tiers état se voyoient privés.

"La chambre des pairs en Angleterre est une anciens souvenirs de la chevalerie, mais tout-à-fait magistrature patricienne, fondée sans doute sur les associée à des institutions d'une nature très-différente. Un mérite distingué dans le commerce, et surtout dans la jurisprudence, en ouvre journellement l'entrée; et les droits représentatifs que les c'est pour le bien public que leurs rangs sont instipairs exercent dans l'état, attestent à la nation que tués. Mais quel avantage les François pouvoientdans ces marquis de la Loire, qui ne payoient pas ils trouver dans ces vicomtes de la Garonne, ou seulement leur part des impôts de l'état, et que le roi lui-même ne recevoit pas à sa cour; puisqu'il falloit faire des preuves de plus de quatre siècles depuis cinquante ans? La vanité des gens de cette pour y être admis, et qu'ils étoient à peine anoblis classe ne pouvoit s'exercer que sur leurs inférieurs, et ces inférieurs, c'étoient vingt-quatre millions d'hommes."-Vol. i. p. 166-168.

Strange as it may appear, there was no law

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