rulers and the people, in almost all the civilized parts of Europe-that there would be four military revolutions, besides innumerable changes of ministry-and that discord would even throw her apple into the divine assembly of the Holy Alliancecertainly such a person would have been looked upon, to say the least, as a very bold prophet.

These unexpected events are variously explained by different persons and parties, according as they are led by their position in society, their interests, or their opinions, to approve or disapprove them. It is thought by some, and the system has even been countenanced by the public declarations of the three northern powers, that all these violent convulsive movements result from the wild and desperate coalition of a few individuals, leagued together in secret societies, and that by the detection and exemplary punishment of the ringleaders, the public tranquillity may be immediately and permanently restored. It is also stated on official authority, that by certain seizures of persons and papers in the North of Italy a clue has been obtained by which the secrets of the conspiracy will be unravelled : and, if the general idea be correct, it may be presumed that there will soon be no danger of any further revolutions.

But, in reality, it is rather a poor compliment to the stability of thrones and governments to suppose that they can be shaken by the efforts of a few obscure and unprincipled wretches, like Thistlewood and Louvel. In the moral, as in the physical sciences, we must account for effects by supposing causes adequate to their production: and, in good earnest, is it by such a machinery as this, that several important kingdoms can be revolutionised, and a general alarm spread through the whole of Europe? The very powers, which affect to hold this language, give but slender confirmation of it in their practical measures. Had they been serious in these assertions, should we have seen them holding Congress after Congress, and putting their troops in motion from Kamschatka to the borders of France? Their language is in fact as inconsistent with itself, as it is with their proceedings. While they employ at times the contemptuous tone to which I have alluded, they shew on other occasions that they have a correct perception of the character of the present agitations of Europe; and regard them in their true light, as a continuation of the great revolutionary movement, which was checked and compressed for a time by the despotism of Bonaparte, but only waited for his fall to begin its march again with a renewed impulse. This being the real state of the

case, as no reasonable man can doubt for a moment, it is quite idle to look for the root of the evil in obscure associations and treasonable plots-or in the desperate fanaticism which may have led to the assassination of a poet in one country and a prince in another. These occurrences are symptoms, slight in importance, as to their effect upon the interest at stake, but proving by their atrocity the strength of the principles which are at work; and those persons who are interested in checking the progress of political information, might think themselves very fortunate, if such obscure and feeble enemies were all they had to contend with.

The present agitations must therefore be regarded as resulting from the same general causes that produced the French revolution. It would be superfluous to investigate these causes here in detail. However individual opinions may vary as to the effect of particular measures, or accidental circumstances; as to the favourable or unfavourable influence of the prominent political characters of the time on the progress of events;—it is now generally admitted by observing men, that the revolution had been slowly and gradually brought about by the changes in the state of society resulting from the progress of industry, wealth and knowledge; or in one word, of civilization. This change in the state

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of society was the real revolution; and this had been accomplished a long time before the events occurred, to which the name is commonly affixed. The violent explosion was little else than the breaking down of antiquated and obsolete forms, from which the spirit had long since departed: and the assumption of their share in the appearances of power by a portion of society which already possessed it in reality.

The same general circumstances, which existed in France, were also to be found, with different modifications, in almost all the continental countries. In all, with unimportant exceptions, the existing forms of administration had been established at a period when the land constituted the only property; and when the human cultivators of the soil were intellectually nearly on a level with their brutal fellow labourers. That the military proprietors, who styled themselves nobles, should at that time exercise the whole political power, was a necessary consequence of the existing state of things. It was not quite so natural, that the descendants of these individuals should continue to monopolize all the power at a period when, in consequence of the rise and progress of industry and wealth, another class of proprietors had grown up in the community, generally more intelligent than the landholders, and