great transaction, and though its history may | ages, true at least to the general features of therefore be written with most advantage such periods, we have nothing but a tranvery long after its occurrence, it does not fol- script of the author's own most recent fantalow that such a history will not be deficient sies and follies, ill disguised under the in many qualities which it would be desira-masquerade character of a few traditional ble for it to possess. All we say is, that they names.-It is only necessary to call to mind are qualities which will generally be found such books as Zouche's Life of Sir Philip incompatible with those larger and sounder Sydney, or Godwin's Life of Chaucer, to feel views, which can hardly be matured while this much more strongly than we can now the subjects of them are recent. That this is express it. These, no doubt, are extreme an imperfection in our histories and histori- cases;-but we suspect that our impressions ans, is sufficiently obvious; but it is an im- of almost all remote characters and events, perfection to which we must patiently resign and the general notions we have of the times ourselves, if it appear to be an unavoidable or societies which produced them, are much consequence of the limitation of our faculties. more dependent on the peculiar temper and We cannot both enjoy the sublime effect of a habits of the popular writers in whom the vast and various landscape, and at the same memory of them is chiefly preserved, than it time discern the form of every leaf in the for- is very pleasant to think of. If we ever take est, or the movements of every living crea- the trouble of looking for ourselves into the ture that breathes within its expanse. Beings documents and materials out of which those of a higher order may be capable of this;- histories are made, we feel at once how much and it would be very desirable to be so: room there is for a very different representaBut, constituted as we are, it is impossible; tion of all those things from that which is and, in our delineation of such a scene, all current in the world: And accordingly we that is minute and detached, however inter- occasionally have very opposite representaesting or important to those who are at hand, tions. Compare Bossuet's Universal History must therefore be omitted-while the general with Voltaire's-Rollin with Mitford-Hume effect is entrusted to masses in which nothing or Clarendon with Ralph or Mrs. M'Aulay; but the great outlines of great objects are pre- and it will be difficult to believe that these served, and the details left to be inferred from different writers are speaking of the same the character of their results, or the larger persons and things. features of their usual accompaniments.

The work before us, we have already said, is singularly free from faults of this description. It is written, we do think, in the true spirit and temper of historical impartiality. But it has faults of a different character; and, with many of the merits, combines some of the appropriate defects, both of a contemporary and philosophical history. Its details are too few and too succinct for the former-they are too numerous and too rashly selected for the latter;-while the reasonings and speculations in which perhaps its chief value consists, seem already to be too often thrown away upon matters that cannot long be had in remembrance. We must take care not to get entangled too far among the anecdotesbut the general reasoning cannot detain us very long.

It is needless to apply this to the case of history; in which, when it records events of permanent interest, it is equally impossible to retain those particular details which engrossed the attention of contemporaries—both because the memory of them is necessarily lost in the course of that period which must elapse before the just value of the whole can be known-and because, even if it were otherwise, no human memory could retain, or human judgment discriminate, the infinite number of particulars which must have been presented in such an interval. We shall only observe, further, that though that which is preserved is generally the most material and truly important part of the story, it not unfrequently happens, that too little is preserved to afford materials for a satisfactory It is the scope of the book to show that narrative, or to justify any general conclu- France must have a free government-a sion; and that, in such cases, the historian limited monarchy-in express words, a conoften yields to the temptation of connecting stitution like that of England. This, Madame the scanty materials that have reached him de Staël says, was all that the body of the by a sort of general and theoretical reasoning, nation aimed at in 1789-and this she says which naturally takes its colour from the pre- the great majority of the nation are resolved vailing views and opinions of the individual to have still-undeterred by the fatal miscar writer, or of the age to which he belongs. If riage of the last experiment, and undisgusted an author of consummate judgment, and with by the revival of ancient pretensions which a thorough knowledge of the unchangeable has signalised its close. Still, though she principles of human nature, undertake this maintains this to be the prevailing sentiment task, it is wonderful indeed to see how much of the French people, she thinks it not altohe may make of a subject that appears so un-gether unnecessary to combat this discourpromising and it is almost certain that the view he will give to his readers, of such an obscure period, will, at all events, be at least as instructive and interesting as if he had had its entire annals before him. In other hands, however, the result is very different; and, intead of a masterly picture of rude or remote

agement and this disgust;-and the great object of all that is argumentative in her book, is to show that there is nothing in the character or condition, or late or early history of her countrymen, to render this regulated freedom unattainable by them, or to disqualify them from the enjoyment of a repre

sentative government, or the functions of free consummation-and that every thing is now citizens. in the fairest train to secure it, without any great effort or hazard of disturbance.

the

and no government whatever can possibly be | vent. In countries where there never have secure where there are no arrangements for been any political elections, and few local this purpose. Thus it is plainly for want of a magistracies, or occasions of provincial and proper Despotic Constitution-for want of a parochial assemblages for public purposes, regular and safe way of getting at the opinions real state of opinion must be substantially of their armies, that the Sultans and other unknown even to the most observant resident Asiatic sovereigns are so frequently beheaded in each particular district;-and its general by their janissaries or insurgent soldiery: and, bearing all over the country can never possiin like manner, it was for want of a proper bly be learned by the most diligent inquiries, Feudal Constitution, that, in the decline of that or even guessed at with any reasonable desystem, the King was so often dethroned by gree of probability. The first deputies, therehis rebellious barons, or excommunicated by fore, are necessarily returned, without any an usurping priesthood. In more advanced firm or assured knowledge of the sentiments times, there is the same necessity of conform- of their constituents-and they again can ing to the prevailing opinion of those more have nothing but the most vague notions of extended and diversified descriptions of per- the temper in which these sentiments are to sons in whom the power of enforcing and re- be enforced-while the whole deputies come sisting has come to reside; and the natural together without any notion of the disposi and only safe constitution for such societies, tions, or talents, or designs of each other, and must therefore embrace a representative asare left to scramble for distinction and influsembly. A government may no doubt go on, ence, according to the measure of their indiin opposition to the opinion of this virtual aris-vidual zeal, knowledge, or assurance. tocracy, for a long time after it has come into existence. For it is not enough that there is wealth, and intelligence, and individual influence enough in a community to overbear all pretensions opposed to them. It is necessary that the possessors of this virtual power should be aware of their own numbers, and of the conformity of their sentiments or views; and it is very late in the progress of society before the means of communication are so multiplied and improved, as to render this practicable in any tolerable degree. Trade and the press, however, have now greatly facilitated those communications; and in all the central countries of Europe, they probably exist in a degree quite sufficient to give one of the parties, at least, very decided impressions both as to its interests and its powers.

In

England, there were no such novelties to be hazarded, either in 1640 or in 1688. The people of this country have had an elective parliament from the earliest period of their history-and, long before either of the periods in question, had been trained in every hamlet to the exercises of various political franchises, and taught to consider themselves as connected, by known and honourable ties, with all the persons of influence and consideration in their neighbourhood, and, through them, by an easy gradation with the political leaders of the State;-while, in Parliament itself, the place and pretensions of every man were pretty accurately known, and the strength of each party reasonably well ascertained by long and repeated experiments, made under all variety of circumstances. The organizaIn such a situation of things, we cannot tion and machinery, in short, for collecting hesitate to say that a representative govern- the public opinion, and bringing it into conment is the natural, and will be the ultimate tact with the administration, was perfect, and remedy; but if we find, that even where such in daily operation among us, from very anan institution existed from antiquity, it was cient times. The various conduits and chanpossible so fatally to miscalculate and mis-nels by which it was to be conveyed from its judge the opinions of the nation, as proved to be the case in the reign of our King Charles, is it not manifest that there must be tenfold risk of such miscalculation in a country where no such constitution has been previously known, and where, from a thousand causes, the true state of the public mind is so apt to be oppositely misconceived by the opposite parties, as it is up to the present hour in France? The great and cardinal use of a representative body in the legislature is to afford a direct, safe, and legitimate channel, by which the public opinion may be brought to act on the government: But, to enable it to perform this function with success, it is by no means enough, that a certain number of deputies are sent into the legislature by a certain number of electors. Without a good deal of previous training, the public opinion itself can neither be formed, collected, nor expressed in any authentic or effectual manner; and the first establishment of the representative system must be expected to occasion very nearly as much disturbance as it may ultimately pre

first faint springs in the villages and burghs, and conducted in gradually increasing streams to the central wheels of the government, were all deep worn in the soil, and familiarly known, with all their levels and connections, to every one who could be affected by their condition. In France, when the new sluices were opened, not only were the waters universally foul and turbid, but the quantity and the currents were all irregular and unknown; and some stagnated or trickled feebly along, while others rushed and roared with the violence and the mischief of a torrent. But it is time to leave these perplexing generalities, and come a little closer to the work before us.

It was the Cardinal de Richelieu, according to Madame de Staël, who completed the degradation of the French nobility, begun by Louis XI.;-and the arrogance and Spanish gravity of Louis XIV., assumed, as she says, " pour eloigner de lui la familiarité des jugemens," fixed them in the capacity of courtiers; and put an end to that gay and easy tone of communication, which, in the days of

Henri IV., had made the task of a courtier | try, to have been, "to persuade the King to both less wearisome and less degrading. She do of himself that justice to the people, to has no partiality, indeed, for the memory of obtain which they afterwards insisted for repthat buckram hero-and is very indignant at resentatives." Such a counsellor, of course, his being regarded as the patron of literature. had no chance in 1780; and, the year after, "Il persécuta Port-Royal, dont Pascal étoit le M. Necker was accordingly dismissed. The chef; il fit mourir de chagrin Racine; il exila great objection to him was, that he proposed Fénélon; il s'opposa constamment aux hon- innovations-"et de toutes les innovations, neurs qu'on vouloit rendre à La Fontaine, et celle que les courtisans et les financiers dene professa de l'admiration que pour Boileau. testent le plus, c'est l'ECONOMIE." Before La littérature, en l'exaltant avec excès, a bien going out, however, he did a great deal of plus fait pour lui qu'il n'a fait pour elle."- good; and found means, while M. de Mau(Vol. i. p. 36.) In his own person, indeed, he repas had a bad fit of gout, to get M. de Saroutlived his popularity, if not his fame. The tine removed from the ministry of marine—a brilliancy of his early successes was lost in personage so extremely diligent in the studies his later reverses. The debts he had con- belonging to his department, that when M. tracted lay like a load on the nation; and the Necker went to see him soon after his appointrigour and gloominess of his devotion was one ment, he found him in a chamber all hung cause of the alacrity with which the nation round with maps; and boasting with much plunged into all the excesses and profligacy of complacency, that "he could already put his the and the suceeding reign. hand upon the largest of them, and point, with That reign-the weakness of Louis XV.- his eyes shut, to the four quarters of the the avowed and disgusting influence of his world!" mistresses and all their relations, and the naCalonne succeeded-a frivolous, presumptional disasters which they occasioned-to-tuous person, and a financier, in so far as we gether with the general spread of intelligence can judge, after the fashion of our poet-lauamong the body of the people, and the bold reate: For he too, it seems, was used to call and vigorous spirit displayed in the writings prodigality "a large economy;" and to assure of Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau, cre- the King, that the more lavish he and his ated a general feeling of discontent and con- court were in their expenses, so much the tempt for the government, and prepared the better would it fare with the country. The way for those more intrepid reformers who consequence was, that the disorder soon bewere so soon destined to succeed. came irremediable; and this sprightly minister was forced at last to adopt Turgot's proposal of subjecting the privileged orders to their share of the burdens-and finally to advise the convocation of the Notables, in 1787.

regency

The Notables, however, being all privileged persons, refused to give up any of their immunities--and they and M. de Calonne were dismissed accordingly. Then came the wavering and undecided administration of M. de Brienne, which ended with the resolution to assemble the States-General ;-and this was the Revolution!

Louis XVI., says Madame de Staël, would have been the mildest and most equitable of despots, and the most constitutional of constitutional kings-had he been born to administer either an established despotism, or a constitutional monarchy. But he was not fitted to fill the throne during the difficult and trying crisis of a transition from the one state to the other. He was sincerely anxious for the happiness and even the rights of his people; but he had a hankering after the absolute power which seemed to be his lawful inheritance and was too easily persuaded by those Hitherto, says Madame de Staël, the nation about him to cling to it too long, for his own at large, and especially the lower orders, had safety, or that of the country. The Queen, taken no share in those discussions. The with the same amiable dispositions, had still resistance to the Court-the complaints-the more of those natural prejudices. M. de Mau- call for reformation, originated and was conrepas, a minister of the old school, was com- fined to the privileged orders-to the Parliapelled, by the growing disorders of the ments-the Nobles and the Clergy. No revfinances, to call to his aid the talents of Tur- olution indeed can succeed in a civilised got and Necker about the year 1780. We country, which does not begin at least with hear enough, of course, in this book, of the the higher orders. It was in the parliament latter: But though we can pardon the filial of Paris, in which the peers of France had piety which has led the author to discuss, at seats, and which had always been most tenaSo great length, the merit of his plans of cious of the privileges of its members, that finance and government, and to dwell on the the suggestion was first made which set fire prophetic spirit in which he foresaw and fore- to the four quarters of the kingdom. In that told all the consequences that have flowed kingdom, indeed, it could hardly fail, as it from rejecting them, we have too much re- was made in the form of a pun or bon mot. gard for our readers to oppress them, at this They were clamouring against the minister time of day, with an analysis of the Compte for not exhibiting his account of the public Rendu, or the scheme for provincial assem- expenses, when the Abbé Sabatier saidblies. As an historical personage, he must "Vous demandez, messieurs, les états de recette have his due share of notice; and no fame et de depense-et ce sont les Etats-Généraux can be purer than that to which he is entitled. qu'il nous faut !"-This was eagerly repeated His daughter, we think, has truly described in every order of society; addresses to that scope of his endeavours, in his first minis-effect were poured in, in daily heaps; and at

the

last M. de Brienne was obliged to promise, in | l'ignorance, l'ignorance accroît la misère; et, the King's name, that the States-General quand on se demande pourquoi le peuple françois a should assemble at the end of five years. la cause que dans l'absence de bonheur, qui conduit été si cruel dans la révolution, on ne peut en trouver This delay only inflamed the general impa- à l'absence de moralité.”—Vol. i. p. 79. tience and the clergy having solemnly declaimed against it, the King was at last obliged to announce that they should meet early in the following year. M. Necker at the same time was recalled to the ministry.

But what made the injustice of this strange system of laying the heaviest pecuniary burdens on the poorest a thousand times more oppressive, and ten thousand times more proThe States-General were demanded by the voking, was, that the invidious right of exprivileged orders: and, if they really expect-emption came at last to be claimed, not by

ed to find them as they were in 1614, which was their last meeting, (though it is not very conceivable that they should have overlooked the difference of the times,) we can understand that they might have urged this demand without any design of being very liberal to the other orders of the community. This is the edifying abstract which Madame de Staël has given of the proceedings of that venerable assembly.

"Le Clergé demanda qu'il lui fût permis de lever des dîmes sur toute espèce de fruits et de grains, et qu'on défendît de lui faire payer des droits à l'entrée des villes, ou de lui imposer sa part des contributions pour les chemins; il réclama de nouvelles entraves à la liberté de la presse. La Noblesse demanda que les principaux emplois fussent tous donnés exclusivement aux gentilshommes, qu'on interdît aux roturiers les arquebuses, les pistolets, et l'usage des chiens, à moins qu'ils n'eussent les jarrets coupés. Elle demanda de plus que les roturiers payassent de nouveaux droits seigneuriaux aux gentilshommes possesseurs de fiefs; que l'on supprimât toutes les pensions accordées aux membres du tiers état; mais que les gentilshommes fussent exempts de la contrainte par corps, et de tout subside sur les denrées de leurs terres; qu'ils pussent prendre du sel dans les greniers du roi au même prix que les marchands; enfin que le tiers état fut obligé de porter un habit différent de celui des gentilshommes."-Vol. i. p. 162.

the true ancient noblesse of France, which, hundred families, but by hundreds of thousands Madame de Staël says, did not extend to two of persons of all descriptions, who had bought patents of nobility for the very purpose of obtaining this exemption. There was nothing in the structure of French society that was more revolting, or called more loudly for reformation, than the multitude and the pretensions of this anomalous race. They were most jealously distinguished from the true original Noblesse; which guarded its purity indeed with such extreme rigour, that no person was allowed to enter any of the royal carriages whose patent of nobility was Lot certified by the Court heralds to bear date prior to the year 1400; and yet they not only assumed the name and title of nobles, but full participation of all their most offensive were admitted, as against the people, into a privileges. It is with justice, therefore, that Madame de Staël reckons as one great cause of the Revolution,—

"Cette foule de gentilshommes du second ordre, anoblis de la veille, soit par les lettres de noblesse que les rois donnoient comme faisant suite à l'atvénales de secrétaire du roi, etc., qui associoient de franchissement des Gaulois, soit par les charges nouveaux individus aux droits et aux priviléges des anciens gentilshommes. La nation se seroit soumise The States-General, however, were decreed; volontiers à la prééminence des familles historiques; -and, that the whole blame of innovation et je n'exagère pas en affirmant qu'il n'y en a pas might still lie upon the higher orders, M. de plus de deux cents en France. Mais les cent mille nobles et les cent mille prêtres qui vouloient avoir Brienne, in the name of the King, invited all des priviléges, à l'égal de ceux de MM. de Montand sundry to make public their notions upon morenci, de Grammont, de Crillon, etc., révol the manner in which that great body should toient généralement; car des négocians, des hommes be arranged. By the old form, the Nobles, the de lettres, des propriétaires, des capitalistes, ne Clergy, and the Commons, each deliberated pouvoient comprendre la supériorité qu'on vouloit apart and each had but one voice in the enact-rences ou d'argent, et à laquelle vingt-cinq ans de accorder à cette noblesse acquise à prix de révé ment of laws;-so that the privileged orders date suffisoient pour siégre dans la chambre des were always two to one against the other-nobles, et pour jouir des priviléges dont les plus and the course of legislation had always been to extend the privileges of the one, and increase the burdens of the other. Accordingly, the tiers état had long been defined, "la gent corvéable et taillable, à merci et à miséricorde ;" --and Madame de Staël, in one of those passages that already begin to be valuable to the forgetful world, bears this striking testimony

as to the effect on their actual condition.

"Les jeunes gens et les étrangers qui n'ont pas connu la France avant la révolution, et qui voient aujourd'hui le peuple enrichi par la division des propriétés et la suppression des dîmes et du régime féodal, ne peuvent avoir l'idée de la situation de ce pays, lorsque la nation portoit le poids de tous les priviléges. Les partisans de l'esclavage, dans les colonies, ont souvent dit qu'un paysan de France étoit plus malheureux qu'un nègre. C'étoit un argument pour soulager les blancs, mais non pour s'endurcir contre les noirs. La misère accroît

honorables membres du tiers état se voyoient privés. "La chambre des pairs en Angleterre est une anciens souvenirs de la chevalerie, mais tout-à-fait magistrature patricienne, fondée sans doute sur les associée à des institutions d'une nature très-differente. Un mérite distingué dans le commerce, et surtout dans la jurisprudence, en ouvre journellement l'entrée; et les droits représentatifs que les pairs exercent dans l'état, attestent à la nation que c'est pour le bien public que leurs rangs sont institués. Mais quel avantage les François pouvoientdans ces marquis de la Loire, qui ne payoient pas ils trouver dans ces vicomtes de la Garonne, ou seulement leur part des impôts de l'état, et que le roi lui-même ne recevoit pas à sa cour; puisqu'il falloit faire des preuves de plus de quatre siècles depuis cinquante ans? La vanité des gens de cette pour y être admis, et qu'ils étoient à peine anoblis classe ne pouvoit s'exercer que sur leurs inférieurs, et ces inférieurs, c'étoient vingt-quatre millions d'hommes."-Vol. i. p. 166—168.

Strange as it may appear, there was no law