VII. 1792. to be affected by the efforts of tyranny, and is influ- CHAP. enced by motives not likely to disappear with the fleeting changes of popular opinion. Had the English Puritans confiscated the property of the aristocracy in 1642, a hundred and fifty years of liberty and glory would never have followed the Revolution of 1688. It was not Napoleon who destroyed the elements of freedom in France : he found them extinguished to his hand-he only needed to seize the reins, so strongly bitted on the nation by his revolutionary predecessors. There never was such a pioneer for tyranny as the National Assembly. The error of the Allied sovereigns at this period—and it was one fraught with the most disastrous consequences consisted in attacking France at the period of its highest excitement, and thereby converting revolutionary frenzy into patriotic resistance, without following up their attack with such vigour as to crush the spirit which was thus awakened. France was beginning to be divided by the progress of the Revolution; the cruel injustice of the Constituent Assembly to the priests had roused the terrible war in La Vendée, when the dread of foreign invasion for a time reunited the most discordant interests. The catastrophe of the 10th August was in a great degree owing to the imprudent advance and ruinous retreat of the Allied army; the friends of order at Paris were paralysed by the danger to the national independence, the supporters of the throne ashamed of a cause which seemed leagued with the public enemies. Mr Burke had prophesied that revolutionary France would be divided into a number of federal republics; this perhaps would have happened, but for the foreign invasion which soon after took place. The unity of the republic, the triumphs of the consulate, the conquests of the empire, were accelerated by the ill-supported attacks of the Allies. France, indeed, like every other revolutionary power containing the elements of military strength, would ultimately have been driven into a system of foreign aggression, in order to find employment for the energy which the public 110. Errors of which led to the Allies, these events. VII. CHAP. convulsions had developed, and alleviation of the misery which they had created; but it is extremely doubtful 1792. whether, from this source, ever could have arisen the same military power and union of feeling which sprang up after the defeated invasion of the Allies in 1792. In combating a revolution, one of two things should be done— it should either be left to waste itself by its own divisions, which, if practicable, is the wiser course, or attacked with such vigour and such a force as may speedily lead to its subjugation. 111. of the want principle in France. If there is any one cause more than another to which Fatal effects the disastrous progress of the Revolution may justly be of religious ascribed, it is the total want of religious feeling or control in many of the ablest, and almost all the most influential, of its supporters. It was the absence of this check on the base and selfish feelings of our nature, which precipitated the revolutionary party in the outset of its career into those cruel and unjust measures against the nobles and clergy, which excited the cupidity of all the middle orders in the state, by promising them the spoils of their superiors, and laid the foundations of a lasting and interminable feud between the higher and lower ranks, by founding the interests of the latter upon the destruction of the former. The dreams of philosophy, the dictates of enthusiasm, even the feelings of virtue, were found to be but a frail safeguard to public men in the calamitous scenes to which the progress of change speedily brought them. In this respect the English Revolution affords a memorable contrast to that of France; and in its comparatively bloodless career, and the abstinence of the victorious party, save in Ireland, from any of those unjust measures of sweeping confiscation which have proved so destructive in the neighbouring kingdom, may be traced the salutary operation of that powerful restraint upon the base and selfish principles of our nature, which arises from the operation, even in its most extravagant form, of religious feeling. Mr Hume has said, that fanaticism was the disgrace of the Great VII. 1792. Rebellion, and that we shall look in vain among the CHAP. popular leaders of England at that period for the generous sentiments which animated the patriots of antiquity. But without disputing the absurdity of many of their tenets, and the ridiculous nature of much in their manners, it may safely be affirmed that such fervour was the only effectual bridle which could be imposed on human depravity, when the ordinary restraints of law and order were at an end; and that, but for that fanaticism, that revolution would have been disgraced by the proscriptions of Marius, or the executions of Robespierre. 112. of the suc Revolution characters The elevation of public characters is often not so much owing to their actual superiority to the rest of mankind, Coincidence as to their falling in with the circumstances in which they cessive leadare placed, and representing the spirit of the age in which ers of the they have arisen. The eloquence of Mirabeau would with the have failed in rousing the people on the 10th August; of its stages. the energy of Danton would have brought him to the block in the commencement of the Revolution; the ambition of Napoleon would have been shattered against the democratic spirit of 1789. These great men successively rose to eminence because their temper of mind fell in with the current of public thought, while their talents enabled them to assume its direction. Mirabeau represented the Constituent Assembly: free in thought, bold in expression, undaunted in speculation, but tinged by the remains of monarchical attachment, and fearful of the excesses the hasty measures of that body were so well calculated to produce. Vergniaud was the model of the ruling party in the Legislative Assembly: republican in wishes, philosophic in principle, humane in intention, but precipitate and reckless in conduct, blinded by ambition, infatuated by speculation, ignorant of the world and the mode of governing it, alike destitute of the firmness to command, the wickedness to insure, or the vigour to seize success. Danton was the representative of the Jacobin faction: unbounded in ambition, unfettered by principle, undeterred by blood; CHAP. rising in eminence with the public danger, because his VII. talents were fitted to direct, and his energies were never 1792. cramped by the fear of exciting popular excesses. It is, in every age, men like him who have ultimately obtained the lead in public convulsions; like the vultures, which invisible in ordinary times, are attracted by an unerring instinct to the scene of blood, and reap the last fruits of the discord and violence of others. CHAPTER VIII. FRENCH REPUBLIC-FROM THE DETHRONEMENT TO THE DEATH VIII. 1792. 1. deteriora powers in "SUBJECTS," says Tacitus, "cannot, without the greatest CHAP. danger, subvert the ruling power; for thence, in general, arises a necessity for crime: to avoid the consequences of a single rash act, men are obliged to plunge into the Progressive greatest excesses." The career of guilt is the same in tion of the nations as in individuals; when once commenced, it can- ruling not, without the utmost resolution, possibly serious imme- France. diate risk, be abandoned. The ultimate acts of atrocity in which they both terminate, are, in general, the result of necessity; of the pressure arising from excited passion, or the terror aroused by anticipated punishment. The power of repentance exists only in the commencement. If we would avoid the last deeds of blood, we must shun the first seductions of evil. France afforded a memorable example of these truths during the whole course of the Revolution. From the first commencement of the contest in Paris, each successive class that had gained the ascendency had been more violent and more tyrannical than that which preceded it. The convocation of the Statesgeneral, and the oath in the Tennis-court, represented the struggle of the nation against the privileged classes; the 14th July, and the capture of the Bastille, the insurrection of the middle class against the government; the 10th August, the revolt of the populace against the middle class and the constitutional throne. The leaders of the |