tlewood 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 revolutionized, 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 show, 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 interests at stake, but proving by their atrocity the strength of the principles which are at work; and those persons who are interested in cheeking the progress of political reformation 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 favorable or unfavorable 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 civilisation. This change in the state 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 that followed 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 state of circumstances which existed in France, was also to be found, with dif ferent 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 certainly as strongly interested in the proper administration of the public affairs. Had the question in dispute, however, been merely who should administer the government; and had the class of military proprietors conducted the administration with impartiality and ability, it may be doubted whether this monopoly of power would have created any considerable discontent. To administer the public affairs, like all other business, is in itself a care

and a labour; and could the mercantile and industrious proprietors have felt a complete certainty that this labour, as far as they were interested in its results, would be performed in the best possible manner, there seems no reason to suppose that they would have felt any strong desire to do it themselves. But, in reality, it is impossible that they could even feel this assurance. In public, as in private affairs, no individual willingly places his property wholly beyond his own control and inspection, whatever confidence he may place in the persons whom he employs. Hence the state of things was in itself unnatural; but independently of this, the mercantile and industrious classes had reason to be satisfied, long before they were important enough to be able to make themselves heard in society, that they should be compelled to endure not only the necessary inconveniences of this political situation, but all the multiplied and aggravated mischiefs that could possibly be made to flow from it by the most wanton abuse of power.. That they were excluded from the administration of government was a slight grievance. The evil became of more importance, when governments, instead of consulting and promoting their interest, attempted to crush and oppress them by every description of imposition and prohibition that could be imagined. Indifference itself must have given way to indignation at the revolting in

justice displayed by the landed proprietors, in exempting themselves, by their own act, from the taxes which they imposed upon the rest of the community. Not content with these arrogant and odious assumptions, they pushed their pretensions still farther; and claimed, under the name of nobility, an intrinsic and essential superiority of blood and race over their industrious fellow-citizens. To live in idleness, was to live nobly; and it was a disgrace and degradation to exercise any description of manual or intellectual labour: and it may be remarked as a proof how strongly the most unjust and absurd opinions fasten themselves upon society, by the force of habit, that this prejudice still prevails as strongly as ever in the higher classes of society.

Such a state of things necessarily established a -hostile relation between the industrious classes of the community and the landed proprietors; the result of which was of course determined by the progress of events. Had the impulse which gave a spring to commerce and industry, been less powerful and active than it was, they must have sunk under the load of so much oppression and contumely; and Europe would now have been grovelling in the barbarism of the earliest feudal times: or more probably, would have fallen still lower in the scale of degradation; and, instead of being, as it is, the light and glory of the world, would have exhibited the sad spectacle of decay and misery