the country was placed by the convocation | Parliament, after it was purged by the Indeof the States-General; but it was materially pendents, and the assemblies that met under aggravated by the presumption and improvi- that name, during the Protectorate of Cromdence of those enthusiastic legislators, and well, held the place, and enjoyed all the form tended powerfully to produce those disasters of power that had belonged to their predecesby which they were ultimately overwhelmed. sors: But as they no longer contained those No representative legislature, it appears to individuals who were able to sway and influus, can ever be respectable or secure, unless ence the opinion of the body of the people, it contain within itself a great proportion of they were without respect or authority, and those who form the natural aristocracy of the speedily came to be the objects of public dericountry, and are able, as individuals, to influ- sion and contempt. ence the conduct and opinions of the greater As the power and authority of a legislature part of its inhabitants. Unless the power and thus constituted, is perfectly secure and inweight and authority of the assembly, in alienable, on the one hand, so, on the other, the short, be really made up of the power and moderation of its proceedings is guaranteed weight and authority of the individuals who by a consciousness of the basis upon which compose it, the factitious dignity they may this authority is founded. Every individual derive from their situation can never be of being aware of the extent to which his own long endurance; and the dangerous power influence is likely to reach among his constitwith which they may be invested, will be- uents and dependants, is anxious that the come the subject of scrambling and conten-mandates of the body shall never pass beyond tion among the factions of the metropolis, and be employed for any purpose but the general good of the community. of a great living body; and are not only warned, by their own feelings, of any injury which they may be tempted to inflict on it, but would become incapable of performing their functions, if they were to proceed far in debilitating the general system. that limit, within which obedience may be easily secured. He will not hazard the loss of his own power, therefore, by any attempt In England, the House of Commons is made to enlarge that of the legislature; and feelup of the individuals who, by birth, by for- ing, at every step, the weight and resistance) tune, or by talents, possess singly the greatest of the people, the whole assembly proceeds influence over the rest of the people. The with a due regard to their opinions and premost certain and the most permanent influ- judices, and can never do any thing very inence, is that of rank and of riches; and these jurious or very distasteful to the majority.are the qualifications, accordingly, which re- From the very nature of the authority with turn the greatest number of members. Men which they are invested, they are in fact consubmit to be governed by the united will of substantiated with the people for whom they those, to whose will, as individuals, the greater are to legislate. They do not sit loose upon part of them have been previously accustomed them, like riders on inferior animals; nor to submit themselves; and an act of parlia-speculate nor project experiments upon their ment is reverenced and obeyed, not because welfare, like operators upon a foreign subthe people are impressed with a constitutional stance. They are the natural organs, in fact, veneration for an institution called a parliament, but because it has been passed by the authority of those who are recognised as their natural superiors, and by whose influence, as individuals, the same measures might have been enforced over the greater part of the kingdom. Scarcely any new power is ac- Such, it appears to us, though delivered quired, therefore, by the combination of those perhaps in too abstract and elementary a form, persons into a legislature: They carry each is the just conception of a free representative their share of influence and authority into the legislature. Neither the English House of senate along with them; and it is by adding Commons, indeed, nor any assembly of any the items of it together, that the influence other nation, ever realized it in all its perfecand authority of the senate itself is made up. tion: But it is in their approximation to such From such a senate, therefore, it is obvious a standard, we conceive, that their excellence that their power can never be wrested, and and utility will be found to consist; and where that it would not even attach to those who the conditions upon which we have insisted might succeed in supplanting them in the are absolutely wanting, the sudden institution legislature, by violence or intrigue; or by any of a representative legislature will only be a other means than those by which they them- step to the most frightful disorders. Where selves had originally secured their nomination. it has grown up in a country in which perIn such a state of representation, in short, the sonal liberty and property are tolerably secure, influence of the representatives is not borrow-it naturally assumes that form which is most ed from their office, but the influence of the favourable to its beneficial influence, and has office is supported by that which is personal a tendency to perpetual improvement, and to to its members; and parliament is chiefly the constant amelioration of the condition of regarded as the great depository of all the the whole society. The difference between authority which formerly existed, in a scat- a free government and a tyrannical one, contered state, among its members. This author-sists entirely in the different proportions of ity, therefore, belonging to the men, and not to their places, can neither be lost by them, if they are forced from their places, nor found by those who may supplant them. The Long the people that are influenced by their opinions, or subjugated by intimidation or force. In a large society, opinions can only be reunited by means of representations; and the natural representative is the individual whose that has existed in modern times, it is not to example and authority can influence the opin-be wondered at if they forgot the slender ties ions of the greater part of those in whose by which they were bound to their constitubehalf he is delegated. This is the natural ents. The powers to which they had suc aristocracy of a civilized nation; and its legis-ceeded were so infinitely beyond any thing lature is then upon the best possible footing, that they had enjoyed in their individual when it is in the hands of those who answer to that description. The whole people are then governed by the laws, exactly as each clan or district of them would have been by the patriarchal authority of an elective and unarmed chieftain; and the lawgivers are not only secure of their places while they can maintain their individual influence over the people, but are withheld from any rash or injurious measure by the consciousness and feeling of their dependence on this voluntary deference and submission. They capacity, that it is not surprising if they never thought of exerting them with the same consideration and caution. Instead of the great bases of rank and property, which cannot be transferred by the clamours of the factions, or the caprice of the inconstant, and which serve to ballast and steady the vessel of the state in all its wanderings and perils, the assembly possessed only the basis of talent or reputation; qualities which depend upon opinion and opportunity, and which may be attributed in the same proportion to an inconIf this be at all a just representation of the venient multitude at once. The whole legisconditions upon which the respectability and lature may be considered, therefore, as comsecurity of a representative legislature must posed of adventurers, who had already attained always depend, it will not be difficult to ex-a situation incalculably above their original plain how the experiment miscarried so completely, in the case of the French Constituent Assembly. That assembly, which the enthusiasm of the public, and the misconduct of the privileged orders, soon enabled to engross the whole power of the country, cousisted almost entirely of persons without name or individual influence; who owed the whole of their consequence to the situation to which they had been elevated, and were not able, as individuals, to have influenced the opinions of one-fiftieth part of their countrymen.There was in France, indeed, at this time, no legitimate, wholesome, or real aristocracy.The noblesse, who were persecuted for bearing that name, were quite disconnected from the people. Their habits of perpetual residence in the capital, and their total independence of the good opinion of their vassals, had deprived them of any real influence over the minds of the lower orders; and the organization of society had not yet enabled the rich manufacturers or proprietors to assume such an influence. The persons sent as deputies to the States-General, therefore, were those chiefly who, by intrigue and boldness, and by professions of uncommon zeal for what were then the great objects of popular pursuit, had been enabled to carry the votes of the electors. A notion of talent, and an opinion that they would be loud and vehement in supporting those requests upon which the people had already come to a decision, were their passports into that assembly. They were sent there to express the particular demands of the people, and not to give a general pledge of their acquiescence in what might there ce enacted. They were not the hereditary patrons of the people, but their hired advocates for a particular pleading.They had no general trust or authority over them, but were chosen as their special messengers, out of a multitude whose influence a. pretensions were equally powerful. When these men found themselves, as it were by accident, in possession of the whole power of the state, and invested with the absolute government of the greatest nation pretensions, and were now tempted to push In this way, the assembly, from the inherent vices of its constitution, ceased to he respectable or useful. The same causes speedily put an end to its security, and converted it into an instrument of destruction. Mere popularity was at first the instrument by which this unsteady legislature was gov erned: But when it became apparent, that whoever could obtain the direction or command of it, must possess the whole authority of the state, parties became less scrupulous about the means they employed for that pur pose, and soon found out that violence and terror were infinitely more effectual and ex- was attached, from their fortune, their age, or peditious than persuasion and eloquence. The their official station; if, in short, instead of people at large, who had no attachment to grasping presumptuously at the exclusive diany families or individuals among their dele-rection of the national councils, and arrogating gates, and who contented themselves with every thing on the credit of their zealous idolizing the assembly in general, so long as patriotism and inexperienced abilities, they it passed decrees to their liking, were passive had sought to strengthen themselves by an and indifferent spectators of the transference alliance with what was respectable in the of power which was effected by the pikes of existing establishments, and attached themthe Parisian multitude; and looked with equal selves at first as disciples to those whom they affection upon every successive junto which might fairly expect speedily to outgrow and assumed the management of its deliberations. eclipse. Having no natural representatives, they felt themselves equally connected with all who exercised the legislative function; and, being destitute of a real aristocracy, were without the means of giving effectual support even to those who might appear to deserve it. Encouraged by this situation of affairs, the most daring, unprinciples, and profligate, proceeded to seize upon the defenceless legislature, and, driving all their antagonists before them by violence or intimidation, entered without opposition upon the supreme functions of government. They soon found, however, that the arms by which they had been victorious, were capable of being turned against themselves; and those who were envious of their success, or ambitious of their distinction, easily found means to excite discontent among the multitude, now inured to insurrection, and to employ them in pulling down those very individuals whom they had so recently exalted. The disposal of the legislature thus became a prize to be fought for in the clubs and conspiracies and insurrections of a corrupted metropolis; and the institution of a national representative had no other effect, than that of laying the government open to lawless force and flagitious audacity. Upon a review of the whole matter, it seems impossible to acquit those of the revolutionary patriots, whose intentions are admitted to be pure, of great precipitation, presumption, and imprudence. Apologies may be found for them, perhaps, in the inexperience which was incident to their situation; in their constant apprehension of being sepa rated before their task was accomplished; in the exasperation which was excited by the insidious proceedings of the cabinet; and in the intoxication which naturally resulted from the magnitude of their early triumph, and the noise and resounding of their popularity. But the errors into which they fell were inex cusable, we think, in politicians of the eighteenth century; and while we pity their sufferings, and admire their genius, we cannot feel much respect for their wisdom, or any surprise at their miscarriage. The preceding train of reflection was irre sistibly suggested to us by the title and the contents of the volumes now before us. Among the virtuous members of the first Assembly, there was no one who stood higher than Bailly. As a scholar and a man of science, he had long stood in the very first rank of celebrity: His private morals were not only irreproach It is in this manner, it appears to us, that able, but exemplary; and his character and from the want of a natural and efficient aris-dispositions had always been remarkable for tocracy to exercise the functions of representative legislators, the National Assembly of France was betrayed into extravagance, and fell a prey to faction; that the institution itself became a source of public misery and disorder, and converted a civilized monarchy, first into a sanguinary democracy, and then into a military despotism. gentleness, moderation, and philanthropy. Drawn unconsciously, if we may believe his own account, iuto public life, rather than impelled into it by any movement of ambition, he participated in the enthusiasm, and in the imprudence, from which no one seemed at that time to be exempted; and in spite of an early retreat, speedily suffered that fate by which all the well nieaning were then des tined to expiate their errors. His popularity was at one time equal to that of any of the idols of the day; and if it was gained by some degree of blameable indulgence and unjustifiable zeal, it was forfeited at last (and along with his life) by a resolute opposition to disorder, and a meritorious perseverance in the discharge of his duty. It would be the excess of injustice, we have already said, to impute those disastrous consequences to the moderate and virtuous individuals who sat in the Constituent Assembly: But if it be admitted that they might have been easily foreseen, it will not be easy to exculpate them from the charge of very blameable imprudence. It would be difficult, indeed, to point out any course of conduct by which those dangers might have been entirely avoided: But they would undoubtedly have The sequel of this article, containing a full been less formidable, if the enlightened mem-abstract of the learned author's recollections bers of the Third Estate had endeavoured to of the first six months only of his mayoralty, form a party with the more liberal and popu- is now omitted; both as too minute to retain lar among the nobility; if they had associated any interest at this day, and as superseded to themselves a greater number of those to by the more comprehensive details which whose persons a certain degree of influence will be found in the succeeding article. (September, 1818.) Considérations sur les Principaux Evènemens de la Révolution Françoise. Ouvrage Posthume de Madame la Baronne de Staël. Publié par M. LE DUC DE BROGLIE et M. LE BARON A. DE STAËL. En trois tomes. 8vo. pp. 1285. Londres: 1818. No book can possibly possess a higher interest than this which is now before us. It is the last, dying bequest of the most brilliant writer that has appeared in our days; and it treats of a period of history which we already know to be the most important that has occurred for centuries; and which those who look back on it, after other centuries have elapsed, will probably consider as still more important. of thorisms: like this, we have not yet facts enough for so much philosophy; and must be contented, we fear, for a long time to come, to call maný things accidental, which it would be more satisfactory to refer to determinate causes. In her estimate of the happiness, and her notions of the wisdom of private life, we think her both unfortunate and erroneous. She makes passions and high sensibilities a great deal too indispensable; and varnishes We cannot stop now to say all that we think over all her pictures too uniformly with the of Madame de Staël :-and yet we must say, glare of an extravagant or affected enthuthat we think her the most powerful writer siasm. She represents men, in short, as a that her country has produced since the time great deal more unhappy, more depraved, of Voltaire and Rousseau-and the greatest and more energetic, than they are-and writer, of a woman, that any time or any seems to respect them the more for it. In country has produced. Her taste, perhaps, her politics she is far more unexceptionable. is not quite pure; and her style is too irregu- She is everywhere the warm friend and anilar and ambitious. These faults may even mated advocate of liberty-and of liberal, go deeper. Her passion for effect, and the practical, and philanthropic principles. On tone of exaggeration which it naturally pro- those subjects we cannot blame her enthu duces, have probably interfered occasionally siasm, which has nothing in it vindictive or with the soundness of her judgment, and provoking; and are far more inclined to envy given a suspicious colouring to some of her than to reprove that sanguine and buoyant representations of fact. At all events, they temper of mind which, after all she has seen have rendered her impatient of the humbler and suffered, still leads her to overrate, in our task of completing her explanatory details, apprehension, both the merit of past attempts the people.heir order all the premises of at political amelioration, and the chances of canital or stating in tire andves her history in their success hereafter. It is in that futurity, her reasonings. She g we fear, and in the hopes that make it preabstracts, and her theories in apnee Ovef sent, that the lovers of mankind must yet, Lassu and the greater part of her works, instead while, console themselves for the disappresenting that systematic unity from which forents which still seem to beset them. the highest degrees of strength and beauty pointme de Staël, however, predicts with and clearness must ever be derived, may be If Madame fidence, it must be admitted fairly described as a collection of striking too much conve a powerful tendency to fragments-in which a great deal of repe- that her labours ha Her writings are all tition does by no means diminish the effect realize her predictions. g views of the imof a good deal of inconsistency. In those full of the most animati ndition, and the same works, however, whether we consider provement of our social cocted-the most them as fragments or as systems, we do not means by which it may be effeng errors on hesitate to say that there are more original striking refutations of prevailist persuasive and profound observations-more new images these great subjects-and the may think their greater sagacity combined with higher im- expostulations with those whcerned in mainagination and more of the true philosophy interest or their honour coho are the least of the passions, the politics, and the literature taining them. Even they must admit that of her contemporaries-than in any other inclined to agree with her..om her writings; author we can now remember. She has great there is much to be learned higher praise than eloquence on all subjects; and a singular and we can give them no is not only to propathos in representing those bitterest agonies to say, that their tendency thropy and indeof the spirit, in which wretchedness is aggra-mote the interests of philanthan exxasperate, vated by remorse, or by regrets that partake pendence, but to soften, rather of its character. Though it is difficult to re- the prejudices to which they are sist her when she is in earnest, we cannot say that we agree in all her opinions, or approve of all her sentiments. She overrates the importance of literature, either in determining the character or affecting the happiness of mankind; and she theorises too confidently on its past and its future history. On subjects opposed. not know Of the work before us, we de os a multivery well what to say. It contai ill greater tude of admirable remarks-and a steme de number of curious details; for Ma areyo Staël was not only a contemporary, but had witness of much that she describes, and the very best access to learn what did giant outline which it traces on the sky. A traveller who wanders through a rugged and picturesque district, though struck with the beauty of every new valley, or the grandeur of every cliff that he passes, has no notion at or even of the relative situation of the objects he has been admiring; and will understand all those things, and his own route among them, a thousand times better, from a small map on a scale of half an inch to a mile, which represents neither thickets or hamlets, than from the most painful efforts to combine the indications of the strongest memory. The case is the same with those who live through periods of great historical interest. They are too near the scene-too much interested in each successive event-and too much agitated with their rapid succession, to form any just estimate of the character or result of the whole. They are like private soldiers in the middle of a great battle, or rather of a busy and complicated campaign-hardly knowing whether they have lost or won, and having but the most obscure and imperfect conception of the general movements in which their own fate has been involved. The foreigner who reads of them in the Gazette, or the peasant who sees them from the top of a distant hill or a steeple, has in fact a far better idea of them. under her immediate observation. Few persons certainly could be better qualified to appreciate the relative importance of the subjects that fell under her review; and no one, we really think, so little likely to colour and distort them, from any personal or party feel-all of the general configuration of the country, ings. With all those rare qualifications, however, and inestimable advantages for performing the task of an historian, we cannot say that she has made a good history. It is too much broken into fragments. The narrative is too much interrupted by reflections: and the reflections too much subdivided, to suit the subdivisions of the narrative. There are too many events omitted, or but cursorily noticed, to give the work the interest of a full and flowing history; and a great deal too many detailed and analyzed, to let it pass for an essay on the philosophy, or greater results of these memorable transactions. We are the most struck with this last fault-which perhaps is inseparable from the condition of a contemporary writer;-for, though the observation may sound at first like a paradox, we are rather inclined to think that the best historical compositions-not only the most pleasing to read, but the most just and instructive in themselves-must be written at a very considerable distance from the times to which they relate. When we read an eloquent and judicious account of great events transacted in other ages, our first sentiment Of the thousand or fifteen hundred names is that of regret at not being able to learn that have been connected in contemporary more of them. We wish anxiously for a fuller fame with the great events of the last twentydetail of particulars-we envy those who had five years, how many will go down to posthe good fortune to live in the time of such terity? In all probability not more than interesting occurrences, and blame them for twenty: And who shall yet venture to say having left us so brief and imperfect a me- which twenty it will be? But it is the same morial of them. But the truth is, if we may with the events as with the actors. How judge from our own experience, that the often, during that period, have we mourned greater part of those who were present to or exulted, with exaggerated emotions, over those mighty operations, were but very im- occurrences that we already discover to have perfectly aware of their importance, and con- been of no permanent importance!—how cer jectured but little of the influence they were tain is it, that the far greater proportion of to exert on future generations. Their atten- those to which we still attach an interest, will tion was successively engaged by each sepa- be viewed with the same indifference by the rate act of the great drama that was passing very next generation!-and how probable, before them; but did not extend to the con- that the whole train and tissue of the history nected effect of the whole, in which alone will appear, to a remoter posterity, under a posterity was to find the grandeur and inter- totally different character and colour from any est of the scene. The connection indeed of that the most penetrating observer of the prethose different acts is very often not then sent day has thought of ascribing to it! Was discernible. The series often stretches on, there any contemporary, do we think, of Mabeyond the reach of the generation which homet, of Gregory VII., of Faust, or Columwitnessed its beginning, and makes it impos- bus, who formed the same estimate of their sible for them to integrate what had not yet achievements that we do at this day? Were attained its completion; while, from similar the great and wise men who brought about causes, many of the terms that at first ap- the Reformation, as much aware of its impeared most important are unavoidably dis-portance as the whole world is at present? or carded, to bring the problem within a manage- does any one imagine, that, even in the later able compass. Time, in short, performs the and more domestic events of the establishsame services to events, which distance does ment of the English Commonwealth in 1648, to visible objects. It obscures and gradually or the English Revolution in 1688, the large annihilates the small, but renders those that are very great much more distinct and conceivable. If we would know the true form and bearings of an Alpine ridge, we must not grovel among the irregularities of its surface, but observe, from the distance of leagues, the direction of its ranges and peaks, and the and energetic spirits by whom those great evexts were conducted were fully sensible of their true character and bearings, or at all foresaw the mighty consequences of which they have since been prolific? But though it may thus require the lapse of ages to develope the true character of a |