a contagious disease are the precautions | versy, which may be regarded as the trial adopted against it: the first marks of the probable progress of French principles are the alarms betrayed by despots. The Courts of Europe seem to look on France, and to exclaim in their despair,—

of the French Revolution before the enlightened and independent tribunal of the English public. What its decision has been I shall not presume to decide; for it does not become an advocate to announce the deci"Hinc populum late regem, belloque superbum, mitted to remark, that the conduct of our sion of the judge. But this I may be per Venturum excidio Libya."

enemies has not resembled the usual triumph The King of Spain already seems to tremble of those who have been victorious in the war for his throne, though it be erected on so of reason. Instead of the triumphant calmfirm a basis of general ignorance and trium-ness that is ever inspired by conscious suphant priesteraft. By expelling foreigners, periority, they have betrayed the bitterness and by subjecting the entrance of travellers of defeat, and the ferocity of resentment, to such multiplied restraints, he seeks the which are peculiar to the black revenge of preservation of his despotism in a vain at- detected imposture. Priestcraft and Torytempt to convert his kingdom into a Bastile, ism have been supported only by literary adand to banish his subjects from the European vocates of the most miserable description: commonwealth. The Chinese government but they have been ably aided by auxiliaries has indeed thus maintained its permanency; of another kind. Of the two great classes but it is insulated by Nature more effectually of enemies to political reform, the interestthan by policy. Let the Court of Madrid re-ed and the prejudiced,-the activity of the call her ambassadors, shut up her ports, first usually supplies what may be wanting abandon her commerce, sever every tie that in the talents of the last. Judges have forunites her to Europe: the effect of such shallow policy must be that of all ineffectual rigour (and all rigour short of extirpation is here ineffectual), to awaken reflection,-to stimulate inquiry,-to aggravate discontent, -and to provoke convulsion. "There are no longer Pyrenees," said Louis XIV., on the accession of his grandson to the Spanish throne: "There are no longer Pyrenees," exclaimed the alarmed statesmen of Aranjuez,-"to protect our despotism from being consumed by the sun of liberty." The alarm of the Pope for the little remnant of his authority naturally increases with the probability of the diffusion of French principles. Even the mild and temperate aristocracies of Switzerland seem to apprehend the arrival of that period, when men will not be content to owe the benefits of government to the fortuitous character of their governors, but to its own intrinsic excellence. Even the unsuccessful straggle of Liege, and the theocratic insurrection of Brabant, have left behind them traces of a patriotic party, whom a more favourable moment may call into more successful action. The despotic Court of the Hague is betraying alarm that the Dutch republic may yet revive, on the destruction of a government odious and intolerable to an immense majority of the people. Every where then are those alarms discernible, which are the most evident symptoms of the approaching downfall of the European despotisms.

But the impression produced by the French Revolution in England,—in an enlightened country, which had long boasted of its freedom, merits more particular remark, Before the publication of Mr. Burke, the public were not recovered from that astonishment into which they had been plunged by unexampled events, and the general opinion could not have been collected with precision. But that performance has divided the nation into marked parties. It has produced a contro

gotten the dignity of their function,-priests the mildness of their religion; the Bench, which should have spoken with the serene temper of justice, the Pulpit, whence only should have issued the healing sounds of charity, have been prostituted to party purposes, and polluted with invectives against freedom. The churches have resounded with language at which Laud would have shuddered, and Sacheverell would have blushed: the most profane comparisons be tween our duty to the Divinity and to kings, have been unblushingly pronounced: flattery of the Ministers has been mixed with the solemnities of religion, by the servants, and in the temple of God. These profligate proceedings have not been limited to a single spot: they have been general over England. In many churches the French Revolution has been expressly named: in a majority it was the constant theme of invective for many weeks before its intended celebration. Yet these are the peaceful pastors, who so sincerely and meekly deprecate political sermons.*

Nor was this sufficient. The grossness of the popular mind, on which political invective made but a faint impression, was to be roused into action by religious fanaticism,the most intractable and domineering of all destructive passions. A clamour which had for half a century lain dormant has been revived:-the Church was in danger! The spirit of persecution against an unpopular sect has been artfully excited; and the friends of freedom, whom it might be odious and dangerous professedly to attack, are to be overwhelmed as Dissenters. That the ma

These are no vague accusations. A sermon was preached in a parish church in Middlesex on the anniversary of the Restoration, in which eterdisaffection! Persons for whose discernment and nal punishment was denounced against political veracity I can be responsible, were among the indignant auditors of this infernal homily.

The excesses of this mob of churchmen and loyalists are to be poorly expiated by the few misguided victims who are sacrificed to the vengeance of the law.

jority of the advocates for the French Revo- | by his talents and his writings, venerable lution are not Dissenters is, indeed, suffi- for the spotless purity of his life, and amiaciently known to their enemies. They are ble for the unoffending simplicity of his well known to be philosophers and friends manners. of humanity, superior to the creed of any sect, and indifferent to the dogmas of any popular faith. But it has suited the purpose of their profligate adversaries to confound them with the Dissenters, and to animate against them the fury of prejudices which those very adversaries despised.

The diffusion of these invectives has produced those obvious and. inevitable effects, which it may require something more than candour to suppose not foreseen and desired. A banditti, which had been previously stimulated, as it has since been excused and panegyrized by incendiary libellers, have wreaked their vengeance on a philosopher,* illustrious

Alluding to the destruction of Dr. Priestley's

We are, however, only concerned with these facts, as they are evidence from our enemies of the probable progress of freedom. The probability of that progress they all conspire to prove. The briefs of the Pope, and the pamphlets of Mr. Burke, the edicts of the Spanish Court, and the mandates of the Spanish inquisition, the Birmingham rioters, and the Oxford graduates, equally render to Liberty the involuntary homage of their alarm.

house in the neighbourhood of Birmingham by the mob, on the 14th of July, 1791.-ED.

REASONS

AGAINST THE FRENCH WAR OF 1793.*

AT the commencement of the year 1793 make it necessary: another means of redress the whole body of the supporters of the war is still in her power, and it is still her duty seemed unanimous; yet even then was per-to employ it. It is not either injury or inceptible the germ of a difference which time and events have since unfolded. The Minister had early and frequent recourse to the high principles of Mr. Burke, in order to adorn his orations,-to assail his antagonists in debate,—to blacken the character of the enemy, and to arouse the national spirit against them. Amid the fluctuating fortune of the war, he seemed in the moment of victory to deliver opinions scarcely distinguishable from those of Mr. Burke, and to recede from them by imperceptible degrees, as success abandoned the arms of the Allies. When the armies of the French republic were every where triumphant, and the pecuniary embarrassments of Great Britain began to be severely felt, he at length dismissed altogether the consideration of the internal state of France, and professed to view the war as merely defensive against aggressions committed on Great Britain and her allies.

That the war was not just on such principles perhaps a very short argument will be sufficient to demonstrate. War is just only to those by whom it is unavoidable; and every appeal to arms is unrighteous, except that of a nation which has no other resource for the maintenance of its security or the assertion of its honour. Injury and insult do not of themselves make it lawful for a nation to seek redress by war, because they do not

* From the Monthly Review, vol. xl. p. 435.-ED

sult; but injury for which reparation has been asked and denied, or insult for which satisfaction has been demanded and refused, that places her in a state in which, having in vain employed every other means of vindicating her rights, she may justly assert them by arms. Any commonwealth, therefore, which shuts up the channel of negotiation while disputes are depending, is the author of the war which may follow. As a perfect equality prevails in the society and intercourse of nations, no state is bound to degrade herself by submitting to unavowed and clandestine negotiation; but every government has a perfect right to be admitted to that open, avowed, authorized, honourable negotiation which in the practice of nations is employed for the pacific adjustment of their contested claims. To refuse authorized negotiation is to refuse the only negotiation to which a government is forced to submit: it is, therefore, in effect to refuse negotiation altogether; and it follows, as a necessary consequence, that they who refuse such authorized negotiation are responsible for a war which that refusal makes on their part unjust.

These principles apply with irresistible force to the conduct of the English Government in the commencement of the present war. They complained, perhaps justly, of the opening of the Scheldt,—of the Decree of Fraternity, of the countenance shown to disaffected Englishmen: but they refused

that authorised intercourse with the French Government through its ambassador, M. Chauvelin, which might have amicably terminated these disputes. It is no answer that they were ready to carry on a clandestine correspondence with that government through Noel and Maret, or any other of its secret agents. That Government was not obliged to submit to such an intercourse; and the British Government put itself in the wrong by refusing an intercourse of another

sort.

(when the Royal confederacy originated) was of such a nature as to be incapable of being so ripened and mitigated by a wise moderation in the surrounding Powers, that it might not become perfectly safe and inoffensive to the neighbouring states. Till this fact be proved, the whole reasoning of Mr. Burke appears to us inconclusive. Whatever may be done by prudence and forbearance is not to be attempted by war. Whoever, therefore, proposes war as the means of attaining any public good, or of averting any public evil, must first prove that his object is unattainable by any other means. And peculiarly heavy is the burden of proof on the man who, in such cases as the present, is the author of violent counsels,-which, even when they are most specious in promise, are hard and difficult in trial, as well as most uncertain in their issue,-which usually preclude any subsequent recurrence to milder and more moderate expedients, and from which a safe retreat is often difficult, and an honourable retreat is generally impossible.

No difficulties arising from a refusal to negotiate embarrass the system of Mr. Burke. It is founded on the principle that the nature of the French Government is a just ground of war for its destruction, and regards the particular acts of that government no farther than as they are proofs of its irreconcilable hostility to all other states and communities. We are not disposed to deny that so mighty a change in the frame of government and the state of society, of one of the greatest nations of the civilized world, as was effected by the Revolution in France,-attended by such extravagant opinions, and producing such violent passions, was of a nature to be dangerous to the several governments and to the quiet of the various communities, which compose the great commonwealth of Europe. To affirm the contrary would be in effect to maintain that man is not the creature of sympathy and imitation,-that he is not always disposed, in a greater or less degree, to catch the feelings, to imbibe the opinions, and to copy the conduct of his fellow-men. Most of the revolutions which have laid ancient systems in ruins, and changed the whole face of society, have sprung from these powerful and active principles of human nature. The remote effect of these revolutions has been sometimes beneficial and sometimes pernicious: but the evil which accompanied them has ever been great and terrible; their future tendency was necessarily ambiguous and contingent; and their ultimate consequences were always dependent on circumstances much beyond the control of the agents. With these opinions, the only question that can be at issue between Mr. Burke and ourselves is, whether a war was a just, effectual, and safe mode of averting the danger with which the French Revolution might threaten the established governments of Europe;-just in its principle,-effectual for its proposed end, and safe from the danger of collateral evil. On all the three branches of this comprehen-potism itself, and the victims of tyranny sive question we are obliged to dissent very widely from the opinions of Mr. Burke.

Great and evident indeed must be the necessity which can justify a war that in its nature must impair, and in its effects may subvert, the sacred principle of national independence, the great master-principle of public morality, from which all the rules of the law of nations flow, and which they are all framed only to defend-of which the balance of power itself (for which so many wars, in our opinion just, have been carried on) is only a safeguard and an outwork.— and of which the higher respect and the more exact observance have so happily distinguished our western parts of Europe, in these latter times, above all other ages and countries of the world. Under the guard of this venerable principle, our European societies, with the most different forms of govern ment and the greatest inequalities of strength, have subsisted and flourished in almost equal security, the character of man has been exhibited in all that variety and vigour which are necessary for the expansion and display both of his powers and of his virtues,-the spring and spirit and noble pride and generous emulation, which arise from a division of territory among a number of independent states, have been combined with a large measure of that tranquil security which has been found so rarely reconcilable with such a division,-the opinion of enlightened Europe has furnished a mild but not altogether ineffectual, control over the excesses of des

have at least found a safe and hospitable asylum in foreign countries from the rage of their native oppressors. It has alike exempted us from the lethargic quiet of extensive empire,-from the scourge of wide and rapid conquest,-and from the pest of frequent do

We are not required to affirm universally that there never are cases in which the state of the internal government of a foreign nation may become a just ground of war; and we know too well the danger of universal affir-mestic revolutions. mations to extend our line of posts farther than is absolutely necessary for our own defence. We are not convinced of the fact that the French Government in the year 1791

This excellent principle, like every other rule which governs the moral conduct of men, may be productive of occasional evil. It must be owned that the absolute indepen

dence of states, and their supreme exclusive | portunity of aggrandisement to the great jurisdiction over all acts done within their object of securing Europe from general conown territory, secure an impunity to the most fusion by re-establishing the ancient moatrocious crimes either of usurpers or of law-narchy of France. No man has proved this ful governments degenerated into tyrannies. more unanswerably than Mr. Burke himself. There is no tribunal competent to punish This moderation and this disinterestedness such crimes, because it is not for the interest were not only necessary for the union of the of mankind to vest in any tribunal an au- Allies, but for the disunion of France. thority adequate to their punishment; and it But we will venture to affirm, that the is better that these crimes should be unpun- supposition of a disinterested confederacy ished, than that nations should not be inde- of ambitious princes is as extravagant a chipendent. To admit such an authority would mera as any that can be laid to the charge only be to supply fresh incitements to am- of the wildest visionaries of democracy. bition and rapine,-to multiply the grounds The universal peace of the Abbé St. Pierre of war,―to sharpen the rage of national ani- was plausible and reasonable, when commosity, to destroy the confidence of inde-pared with this supposition. The universal pendence and internal quiet,-and to furnish republic of Anacharsis Cloots himself was new pretexts for invasion, for conquest, and not much more irreconcilable with the unifor partition. When the Roman general form experience and sober judgment of manFlaminius was accomplishing the conquest kind. We are far from confounding two of Greece, under pretence of enfranchising writers, one of whom was a benevolent the Grecian republics, he partly covered his visionary and the other a sanguinary madambitious designs under colour of punishing man,-who had nothing in common but the the atrocious crimes of the Lacedæmonian wildness of their predictions and the extravatyrant Nabis. When Catherine II. and her gance of their hopes. The Abbé St. Pierre accomplices perpetrated the greatest crime had the simplicity to mistake an ingenious which any modern government has ever raillery of the Cardinal Fleuri for a deliberate committed against another nation, it was adoption of his reveries. That minister had easy for them to pretend that the partition told him "that he had forgotten an indisof Poland was necessary for the extirpation pensable preliminary-that of sending a body of Jacobinism in the north of Europe.. of missionaries to turn the hearts and minds of the princes of Europe." Mr. Burke, with all his knowledge of human nature, and with all his experience of public affairs, has forgotten a circumstance as important as that which was overlooked by the simple and recluse speculator. He has forgotten that he must have made ambition disinterested,— power moderate,-the selfish generous,—and the short-sighted wise, before he could hope for success in the contest which he recommended.* To say that if the authors of the partition of Poland could be made perfectly wise and honest, they might prevail over the French democracy, is very little more than the most chimerical projector has to offer for his wildest scheme. Such an answer only gives us this new and important information, that impracticable projects will be realised when insurmountable obstacles are overcome. Who are you that presume to frame laws for men without taking human passions into account,-to regulate the actions of mankind

We are therefore of opinion that the war proposed by Mr. Burke is unjust, both because it has not been proved that no other means than war could have preserved us from the danger; and because war was an expedient, which it was impossible to employ for such a purpose, without shaking the authority of that great tutelary principle, under the shade of which the nations of Europe have so long flourished in security. There is no case of fact made out to which the principles of the law of vicinage are to apply. If the fact had been proved, we might confess the justice of the war; though even in that case its wisdom and policy would still remain to be considered.

The first question to be discussed in the examination of every measure of policy is, whether it is likely to be effectual for its proposed ends. That the war against France was inadequate to the attainment of its object, is a truth which is now demonstrated by fatal experience; but which, in our opinion, at the time of its commencement, was very evident to men of sagacity and foresight. The nature of the means to be employed was of itself sufficient to prove their inadequacy. The first condition essential to the success of the war was, that the confederacy of ambitious princes who were to carry it on, should become perfectly wise, moderate, and disinterested,-that they should bury in oblivion past animosities and all mutual jealousies-that they should sacrifice every view of ambition and every op

Livy, lib. xxxiv. cap. 24. The whole narrative is extremely curious, and not without resemblance and application to later events.

Perhaps something more of flexibility of character and accommodation of temper,-a mind more broken down to the practice of the world,would have fitted Mr. Burke better for the execution of that art which is the sole instrument of political wisdom, and without which the highest political wisdom is but barren speculation-we mean the art of guiding and managing mankind. How can he have forgotten that these vulgar politicians were the only tools with which he had to work in reducing his schemes to practice? These "creatures of the desk and creatures of favour" unfortunately govern Europe. The ends of generosity were to be compassed alone through the agency of the selfish; and the objects of prospective wisdom were to be attained by the exertions of the short-sighted.-Monthly Review (N. S.), vol. xix. p. 317.-ED.

without regarding the source and principle of those actions? A chemist who in his experiments should forget the power of steam or of electricity, would have no right to be surprised that his apparatus should be shivered to pieces, and his laboratory covered with the fragments.

It must be owned, indeed, that no one could have ventured to predict the extent and extravagance of that monstrous and almost incredible infatuation which has distracted the strength and palsied the arms of the Allied Powers: but it was easy to foresee, and it was in fact predicted, that a sufficient degree of that infatuation must prevail to defeat the attainment of their professed object. We cannot help expressing our surprise, that the immense difference in this respect between the present confederacy and the Grand Alliance of King William III. did not present itself to the great understanding of Mr. Burke. This is a war to avert the danger of the French Revolution, in which it is indispensably necessary to avoid all appearance of a design to aggrandise the Allies at the expense of France. The other was one designed to limit the exorbitant power of Louis, which was chiefly to be effected by diminishing his overgrown dominions. The members of that confederacy gratified their own ambition by the same means which provided for the general safety. In that contest, every conquest promoted the general object-in this, every conquest retards and tends to defeat it. No romantic moderation-no chimerical disinterestedness-no sacrifice of private aggrandisement to the cause of Europe, was required in that confederacy. Yet, with that great advantage, it is almost the only one recorded in history, which was successful. Still it required, to build it up, and hold it together, all the exalted genius, all the comprehensive wisdom, all the disinterested moderation, and all the unshaken perseverance of William*-other talents than those of petty intrigue and pompous declamation. The bitterest enemies of our present ministers could scarcely ima

gine so cruel a satire upon them, as any comparison between their talents and policy, and those of the great monarch. The disapprobation of the conduct of the British Cabinet must have arisen to an extraordinary degree of warmth in the mind of Mr. Burke, before he could have prevailed on himself to bring into view the policy of other and better times, and to awaken recollections of past wisdom and glory which must tend so much to embitter our indignation at the present mismanagement of public affairs. In a word, the success of the war required it to be felt by Frenchmen to be a war directed against the Revolution, and not against France; while the ambition of the Allies necessarily made it a war against France, and not against the Revolution. Mr. Burke, M. de Calonne, M. Mallet du Pan, and all the other distinguished writers who have appeared on behalf of the French Royalists a name which no man should pronounce without pity, and no Englishman ought to utter without shame-have acknowledged, lamented, and condemned the wretched policy of the confederates. We have still to impeach their sagacity, for not having originally foreseen what a brittle instrument such a confederacy must prove; we have still to reproach them, for not having from the first perceived, that to embark the safety of Europe on the success of such an alliance, was a most ambiguous policy,-only to be reluctantly embraced, after every other expedient was exhausted, in a case of the most imminent danger, and in circumstances of the most imperious necessity.

These reflections naturally lead us to the consideration of the safety of the war, or of the collateral evil with which it was preg nant in either alternative, of its failure or success; and we do not hesitate to affirm, that, in our umble opinion, its success was dangerous to the independence of nations, and its failure hostile to the stability of governments. The choice between two such dreadful evils is embarrassing and cruel: yet, with the warmest zeal for the tranquillity of every people, with the strongest wishes that can arise from personal habits and cha"If there be any man in the present age who racter for quiet and repose,-with all our deserves the honour of being compared with this heartfelt and deeply-rooted detestation for great prince, it is George Washington. The the crimes, calamities, and horrors of civil merit of both is more solid than dazzling. The confusion, we cannot prevail on ourselves to same plain sense, the same simplicity of character, imagine that a greater evil could befall the the same love of their country, the same unaffect human race than the partition of Europe ed heroism, distinguished both these illustrious men; and both were so highly favoured by Pro. among the spoilers of Poland. All the wild vidence as to be made its chosen instruments for freaks of popular licentiousness, all the redeeming nations from bondage. As William fantastic transformations of government,—all had to contend with greater captains, and to strug-the frantic cruelty of anarchical tyranny, gle with more complicated political difficulties, we are able more decisively to ascertain his martial prowess, and his civil prudence. It has been the fortune of Washington to give a more signal proof of his disinterestedness, as he was placed in a situation in which he could without blame resign the supreme administration of that commonwealth which his valour had guarded in infancy against a foreign force, and which his wisdom has since guided through still more formidable domestic perils."—Monthly Review, vol. xi. p. 303.-ED.

almost vanish before the terrible idea of gathering the whole civilized world under the iron yoke of military despotism. It isat least, it was an instinct of the English character, to feel more alarm and horror at despotism than at any other of those evils which afflict human society; and we own our minds to be still under the influence of this old and perhaps exploded national preju