posite and irreconcileable extremes. Whatever is taken from the sovereign, they consider as being given to crazy republicans; and very naturally dislike all limitations of the royal power, because they are unable to distinguish them from usurpations by the avowed enemies of all subordination. That the real state of things has long been extremely different, men of reflection might have concluded from the known principles of human nature, and men of information must have learned from sources of undoubted authority: But no small proportion of our zealous politicians belong to neither of those classes; and we ought not, perhaps, to wonder, if they are slow in admitting truths which a predominating party has so long thought it for its interest to misrepresent or disguise. The time, however, seems almost come, when conviction must be forced even upon their reluctant understandings, and by the sort of evidence best suited to their capacity. They would probably be little moved by the best arguments that could be addressed to them, and might distrust the testimony of ordinary observers; but they cannot well refuse to yield to the opinions of the great Sovereigns of the Continent, and must give faith to their professions, when they find them confirmed at all points by their actions. If the establishment of a limited monarchy in France would be dangerous to sovereign authority in all the adjoining regions, it is not easy to conceive that it should have met with the cordial approbation of the Emperors of Austria and Russia, and the King of Prussia, in the day of their most brilliant success; or that that moment of triumph on the part of the old princes of Europe should have been selected as the period when the thrones of France, and Spain, and Holland, were to be surrounded with permanent limitations,-imposed with their cordial assent, and we might almost say, by their hands. Compared with acts so unequivocal, all declarations may justly be regarded as insignificant; but there are declarations also to the same purpose;-made freely and deliberately on occasions of unparalleled importance,-and for no other intelligible purpose but solemnly to announce to mankind the generous principle on which those mighty actions had been performed.

But while these authorities and these considerations may be expected, in due time, to overcome that pardonable dislike to continental liberty which arises from ignorance or natural prejudices, we will confess that we by no means reckon on the total disappearance of this illiberal jealousy. There is, and we fear there will always be, among us, a set of persons who conceive it to be for their interest to decry every thing that is favourable to liberty,-and who are guided only by a regard to their interest. In a government constituted like ours, the Court must almost

always be more or less jealous, and perhaps justly, of the encroachment of popular principles, and disposed to show favour to those who diminish their influence and authority. Without intending or wishing to render the British crown altogether arbitrary, it still seems to them to be in favour of its constitutional privileges, that arbitrary monarchies should, to a certain extent, be defended; and an artful apology for tyranny is gratefully received as an argument à fortioni in support of a vigorous prerogative. The leaders of the party, therefore, lean that way; and their baser followers rush clamorously along it, to the very brink of servile sedition and treason against the constitution. Such men no arguments will silence, and no authorities convert. It is their profession to discredit and oppose all that tends to promote the freedom of mankind; and in that vocation they will infallibly labour, so long as it yields them a profit. At the present moment too, we have no doubt that their zeal is quickened by their alarm; since, independent of the general damage which the cause of arbitrary government must sustain from the events of which we have been speaking, their immediate consequences in this country are likely to be eminently favourable to the interests of regulated liberty and temperate reform. Next to the actual cessation of bloodshed and suffering, indeed, we consider this to be the greatest domestic benefit that we are likely to reap from the peace,-and the circumstance, in our new situation, which calls the loudest for our congratulation. We are perfectly aware, that it is a subject of regret to many patriotic individuals, that the brilliant successes at which we all rejoice, should have occurred under an administration which has not manifested any extraordinary dislike to abuses, nor any very cordial attachment to the rights and liberties of the people; and we know, that it has been an opinion pretty current, both with them and their antagonists, that these successes will fix them. so firmly in power, that they will be enabled, if they should be so inclined, to deal more largely in abuses, and to press more closely on our liberties than any of their predecessors. For our own part, however, we have never been able to see things in this inauspicious light;-and having no personal or factions quarrel with our present ministers, are easily comforted for the increased chance of their continuance in office, by a consideration of those circumstances that must infallibly, and under any ministry, operate to facilitate reform, to diminish the power of the Crown, and to consolidate the liberties of the nation. It our' readers agree with us in our estimate of the importance of these circumstances, we can scarcely doubt that they will concur inour general conclusion.

In the first place then, it is obvious, that the direct patron

age and indirect influence of the Crown, must be most seriously and effectually abridged by the reduction of our army and navy, the diminution of our taxes, and, generally speaking, of all our establishments, upon the ratification of peace. We have thought it a great deal gained for the constitution of late years, when we could strike off a few hundred thousand pounds of offices in the gift of the Crown, that had become useless, or might be consolidated;-and now the peace will at one blow strike off proba bly thirty or forty millions of government expenditure. This alone might restore the balance of the constitution.

In the next place, a continuance of peace and prosperity will naturally produce a greater diffusion of wealth, and consequently a greater spirit of independence in the body of the people; which, co-operating with the diminished power of the government to provide for its baser adherents, must speedily thin the ranks of its regular supporters, and expose it far more effectually to the controul of a more impartial public opinion.

In the third place, the events to which we have alluded, and the situation in which they will leave us, will take away almost all those pretexts for resisting inquiry into abuses, and proposals for reform, by the help of which, rather than of any serious dispute on the principle, these important discussions have been waved for these last twenty years. We shall no longer be stopped with the plea of its being no fit time to quarrel about the little faults of our constitution, when we are struggling with a ferocious enemy for its very existence. It will not now do to tell us, that it is both dangerous and disgraceful to show ourselves disunited in a season of such imminent peril-or that all great and patriotic minds should be entirely engrossed with the care of our safety, and can have neither leisure nor energy to bestow upon concerns less urgent or vital. The restoration of peace, on the contrary, will soon leave us little else to do:-and when we have no invasions nor expeditions-nor coalitions nor campaigns-nor even any loans and budgets to fill the minds of our statesmen, and the cars of our idle politicians, we think it almost certain that questions of reform will rise into paramount importance, and the redress of abuses become the most interesting of public pursuits. We shall be once more entitled, too, to make a fair and natural appeal to the analogous acts or institutions of other nations, without being met with the cry of revolution and democracy, or the im putation of abetting the proceedings of a sanguinary despot. We shall again see the abuses of old hereditary power, and the evils of maladministration in legitimate hands; and be permitted to argue from them, without the reproach of disaffection to the general cause of mankind. Men and things, in short, we trust,

will again receive their true names, on a fair consideration of their merits; and our notions of political desert be no longer confounded by indiscriminate praise of all who are with us, and intolerant abuse of all who are against us, in a struggle that touches the sources of so many passions. When we plead for the emancipation of the Catholics of Ireland, we shall no longer be told, that the Pope is a mere puppet in the hands of an inveterate foe,nor be deterred from protesting against the conflagration of a friendly capital, by the suggestion, that no other means were left to prevent that same foe from possessing himself of its fleet. Exceptions and extreme cases, in short, will no longer furnish the ordinary rules of our conduct; and it will be impos sible, by extraneous arguments, to baffle every attempt at a fair estimate of our public principles and proceedings.

These, we think, are among the necessary consequences of a peace concluded in such circumstances as we have now been considering; and they are but a specimen of the kindred conse quences to which it must infallibly lead. If these ensue, however, and are allowed to produce their natural effects, it is a matter of indifference to us whether Lord Castlereagh and Lord Liverpool, or Lord Grey and Lord Grenville are at the head of the government. The former, indeed, would probably be a little uneasy in so new a posture of affairs; but they will either conform to it, or abandon their posts in despair. To control or alter it, will assuredly be beyond their power.

With these pleasing anticipations, we would willingly close this long review of the State and Prospects of the European commonwealth, in its present great crisis of restoration, or of new revolutions. But cheering and beautiful as it is, and disposed as we think we have shown ourselves to look hopefully upon it, it is impossible to shut our eyes on two dark stains that appear on the bright horizon, and seem already to tarnish the glories with which they are so sadly contrasted. One is of longerstanding, and perhaps of deeper dye.-But both are most painful deformities on the face of so fair a prospect; and may be mezatened with less scruple and greater hope, from the consideration, that those who have the power of effacing them can scarcely be charged with the guilt of their production, and have given strong indications of dispositions that must lead them to wish for their removal. We need scarcely give the key to these observations, by naming the names of Hand and of Norway. Nor do we propose, on the present occasion, to do much more than to name them. Of the latter, we shall probably contrive to speak fully in a subsequent part of this Number. Of the former, many of our readers may think we said enough in our sst. Our real in that cause, we know, has been made mat

ter of wonder, and even of derision, among certain persons who value themselves on the character of practical politicians and men of the world; and we have had the satisfaction of listening to various witty sneers on the mixed simplicity and extravagance of supposing, that the kingdom of the Poles was to be reestablished by a dissertation in an English journal. It would perhaps be enough to state, that independent of any view to an immediate or practical result in other regions, it is of some consequence to keep the observation of England alive, and its feeling awake, upon a subject of this importance; but we must beg leave to observe, that such dissertations are humbly conceived to be among the legitimate means by which the English public both instructs and expresses itself; and that the opinion of the English public is still allowed to have weight with its government, which again cannot well be supposed to be altogether without influence in the councils of its allies. Whatever becomes of Poland, it is most material, we think, that the peo ple of this country should judge soundly, and feel rightly, on a inatter that touches on principles of such general application. But every thing that has passed since the publication of our former remarks, combines to justify what we then stated; and to encourage us to make louder and more energetic appeals to the justice and prudence and magnanimity of the parties concerned in this transaction. The words and the deeds of Alexander that have, since that period, passed into the page of history-the principles he has solemnly professed, and the acts by which he has sealed that profession-entitle us to expect from him a strain of justice and generosity, which vulgar politicians may call romantic if they please, but which all men of high principles and enlarged understandings will feel to be not more heroic than judicious. While Poland remains oppressed and discontented, the peace of Europe will always be at the mercy of any ambitious or intriguing power that may think fit to rouse its vast and warlike population with the vain promise of independence; while it is perfectly manifest that those, by whom alone that promise could be effectually kept, would gain prodigiously, both in security and in substantial influence, by its faithful performance. It is not, however, for the mere name of independence, nor for the lost glories of an antient and honourable existence, that the people of Poland are thus eager to array themselves in any desperate strife of which this may be proclaimed as the prize. We have shown, in our last Number, the substantial and intolerable evils which this extinction of their national dignity-this sore and unmerited wound to their national pride, has necessarily occasioned: And thinking, as we do, that a people, without the feelings of national pride and public duty, must be a people