"Duroverai, Claviere, and myself, were | ing up their perilous and highly inflammatory named by Mirabeau to draw up that celebrated declaration, they were aware of its absurdity, declaration. During the course of that mourn- and wished to suppress the work of their ow ful compilation, reflections entered my mind hands. They could not do so, however, and which had never before found a place there. were constrained, by the dread of losing their I soon perceived the ridiculous nature of the popularity, to throw into the bosom of an exundertaking. A declaration of rights, I im- cited people a firebrand, which they themselves mediately saw, may be made after the procla- foresaw would speedily lead to a conflagration. mation of a constitution, but not before it; for Such is the desperate, the hopeless state of it is laws which give birth to rights-they do slavery, in which, during periods of excite not follow them. Such general maxims are ment, the representatives of the mob are held highly dangerous; you should never bind a by their constituents. The whole purposes legislature by general propositions, which it of a representative form of government are at afterwards becomes necessary to restrain or once destroyed; the wisdom, experience, study, modify. 'Men,' says the declaration, 'are born and reflection of the superior class of statesfree and equal;' that is not true; they are so men are trodden under foot; and the enlight far from being born free, that they are born in ened have no chance of keeping possession of a state of unavoidable weakness and depend- the reins of power, or even influencing the ence: Equal-where are they? where can they legislature, but by bending to the passions of be? It is in vain to talk of equality, when the ignorant. such extreme difference exists, and ever must This consideration affords a decisive arguexist, between the talents, fortune, virtues, in- ment in favour of the close, aye, the nomination dustry, and condition of men. In a word, I boroughs. Their existence, and their exist. was so strongly impressed with the absurdity ence in considerable numbers, is indispensable of the declaration of the Rights of Man, that for towards the voice of truth being heard in the once I carried along with me the opinions of national councils in periods of excitement, and our little committee; and Mirabeau himself, the resistance to those measures of innovation, when presenting the report to the Assembly, which threaten to destroy the liberties, and ventured to suggest difficulties, and to propose terminate the prosperity, of the people. From that the declaration of rights should be delayed the popular representatives during such pe till the constitution was completed. 'I tell riods it is in vain to expect the language of you,' said he, in his forcible style, 'that any truth; for it would be as unpalatable to the declaration of rights you may make before the sovereign multitude as to a sovereign despot. constitution is framed, will never be but a one Members of the legislature, therefore, are inyear's almanac.' Mirabeau, always satisfied dispensably necessary in considerable numwith a happy expression, never gave himself bers, who, by having no popular constituents, can the trouble to get to the bottom of any subject, venture to speak out the truth in periods of and never would go through the toil to put agitation, innovation, and alarm. The Rehimself in possession of facts sufficient to de- formers ask, what is the use of a representafend what he advanced. On this occasion he tive of a green mound, or a ruined tower, in a suffered under this: this sudden change be- popular parliament? We answer, that he is came the subject of bitter reproach. Who is more indispensable in such a parliament than this,' said the Jacobins, who seeks to employ in any other. Nay, that without such a class his ascendant over the Assembly, to make us the liberties of the nation cannot exist for any say yes and no alternately? Shall we be for long period. Representatives constantly actever the puppets of his contradictions?' There ing under the influence or dread of popular was so much reason in what he had newly constituents, never will venture, either in their advanced, that he would have triumphed if he speeches to give vent to the language of truth, had been able to bring it out; but he aban- nor in their conduct to support the cause of doned the attempt at the very time when seve- real freedom, if it interferes with the real or ral deputies were beginning to unite themselves supposed interests of their constituents. They to him. The deplorable nonsense went tri- will always be as much under the influence of umphantly on, and generated that unhappy their tyrannical task-masters, as Mirabeau and declaration of the Rights of Man which subse- Dumont were in drawing up, against their quently produced such incredible mischief. I better judgment, the Rights of Man. It is as am in possession at this moment of a complete absurd to expect rational or independent mearefutation of it, article by article, by the hand sures from such a class, in opposition to the of a great master, and it proves to demonstra- wishes or injunctions of those who returned tion the contradictions, the absurdities, the them to parliament, as it is to look for freedom dangers of that seditious composition, which of conduct from the senate of Tiberius or the of itself was sufficient to overturn the consti- council of Napoleon. We do not expect the tution of which it formed a part; like a pow-truth to be spoken by the representative of a der magazine placed below an edifice, which the first spark will blow into the air."-Pp. 141, 142. These are the words of sober and experienced wisdom; and coming, as they do, from one of the authors of this celebrated declaration, are of the very highest importance. They prove, that at the very time when Mirabeau and he popular party in the Assembly were draw mound, in a question with its owner, or his class in society, nor by the representatives of the people, in a question which interests or excites the public ambition. But we expect that truth will be spoken by the representa tives of the people, as against the interests of the owner of the mound; and by the repre sentatives of the mound, as against the pas sions of the people; and that thus, between the two, the language of reason will be raised on | rights of its own anterior to their being blended every subject, and that fatal bias the public together. mind prevented, which arises from one set of doctrines and principles being alone presented to their consideration. In the superior fearlessness and vigour of the language of the Conservative party in the House of Lords, to what is exhibited in the House of Commons, on the Reform question, is to be found decisive evidence of the truth of these principles, and their application to this country and this age. Of the fatal 4th August, "the St. Barthelemy of properties," as it was well styled by Rivarol, and its ruinous consequences upon the public welfare, we have the following striking and graphic account: "Never was such an undertaking accomplished in so short a time. That which would have required a year of care, meditation, and debate, was proposed, deliberated on, and voted by acclamation. I know not how many laws were decreed in that one sitting; the abolition of feudal rights, of the tithes, of provincial privileges; three articles, which of themselves embraced a complete system of jurisprudence and politics, with ten or twelve others, were decided in less time than would be required in England for the first reading of a bill of ordinary importance. They began with a report on the disorders of the provinces, chateaux burnt, troops of banditti who attacked the nobles and ravaged the fields. The Duke d'Aguillon, the Duke de Noailles, and several others of the democratic part of the nobility, after the most disastrous pictures of these calamities, exclaimed that nothing but a great act of generosity could calm the people, and that it was high time to abandon their odious privileges, and let the people taste the full benefits of the Revolution. An indescribable effervescence seized upon the Assembly. Every one proposed sacrifice: every one laid some offering on the altar of their country, proposing either to denude themselves or denude others; no time was allowed for reflection, objection, or argument; a sentimental contagion seized every heart. That renunciation of privileges, that abandonment of so many rights burdensome to the people, these multiplied sacrifices, had an air of magnanimity which withdrew the attention from the fatal precipitance with which they were made. I saw on that night many good and worthy deputies who literally wept for joy at seeing the work of regeneration advance so rapidly, and at feeling themselves every instant carried on the wings of enthusiasm so far beyond their most ardent hopes. The renunciation of the privileges of provinces was made by their respective representatives; those of Brittany had engaged to defend them, and therefore they were more embarrassed than the rest; but carried away by the general enthusiasm, they advanced in a body, and declared in a body, that they would use their utmost efforts with their constituents to obtain the renunciation of their privileges. That great and superb operation was necessary to confer political unity upon a monarchy which had been successively formed by the union of many independent states, every one of which had certain "On the following day, every one began to reflect on what had been done, and sinister presentiments arose on all sides. Mirabeau and Sieyes, in particular, who had not been present at that famous sitting, condemned in loud terms its enthusiastic follies. This is a true picture of France, said they; we spend a month in disputing about words, and we make sacrifices in a night which overturn every thing that is venerable in the monarchy. In the subsequent meetings, they tried to retract or modify some of these enormous concessions, but it was too late; it was impossible to withdraw what the people already looked upon as their rights. The Abbé Sieyes, in particular, made a discourse full of reason and justice against the extinction of tithes, which he looked upon with the utmost aversion. He demonstrated, that to extinguish the tithes, was to spoliate the clergy of its property, solely to enrich the proprietors of the lands; for every one having bought or inherited his estate minus the value of the tithe, found himself suddenly enriched by a tenth, which was given to him as a pure and uncalled for gratuity. It was this speech, which never can be refuted, which terminated with the well-known expression:They would be free, and they know not how to be just.' The prejudice was so strong, that Sieyes himself was not listened to; he was regarded merely as an ecclesiastic, who could not get the better of his personal interest, and paid that tribute of error to his robe. A little more would have made him be hooted and hissed. I saw him the next day, full of bitter indignation against the injustice and brutality of the Assembly, which in truth he never afterwards forgave. He gave vent to his indignation, in a conversation with Mirabeau, who replied, 'My dear Abbé, you have unchained the bull; do you expect he is not to gore with his horns?" "These decrees of Aug. 4 were so far from putting a period to the robbery and violence which desolated the country, that they only tended to make the people acquainted with their own strength, and impress them with the conviction that all their outrages against the nobility would not only not be punished, but actually rewarded. Again I say, every thing which is done from fear fails in accomplishing its object; those whom you expect to disarm by concessions, only redouble in confidence and audacity."-Pp. 146-149. Such is the conclusion of this enlightened French Reformer, as to the consequences of the innovations and concessions, in promoting which he took so large a share, and which it was then confidently expected, would not only pacify the people but regenerate the monarchy, and commence a new era in the history of the world. These opinions coming from the author of the Rights of Man, the preceptor of Mirabeau, the fellow-labourer of Bentham, should, if any thing can, open the eyes of our young enthusiasts, who are so vehement in urging the necessity of concession, avowedly from the effects of intimidation, who expect to "let loose the bull and escape his horns" It is on this question of the effects to be er pected from concession to public clamour, that the whole question of Reform hinges. The supporters of the bill in both Houses have abandoned every other argument. "Pass this bill, or anarchy will ensue," is their sole principle of action. But what says Dumont, taught by the errors of the Constituent Assembly? "Pass this bill, and anarchy will ensue." "Whatever is done," says he, "from fear, fails in its object; those whom you expect to disarm by concession, redouble in confidence and audacity." This is the true principle; the principle confirmed by universal experience, and yet the Reformers shut their eyes to its application. The events which have occurred in this age are so decisive on this subject, that nothing more convincing could be imagined, if a voice from the dead were to proclaim its truth. Concession, as Dumont tells us, and as every one acquainted with history knows, was tried by the French government and Assembly, in the hope of calming the people, and arresting the Revolution. The monarch, at the opening of the States-General, made "greater concessions than ever king made to his people;" the nobles abandoned, on their own motion, in one night, all their rights; and what was the consequence? The revolutionary fervour was urged into a fury; the torrent became a cataract, and horrors unparalleled in the history of the world ensued. Resistance to popular ambition, a firm opposition to the cry for reform, was at the same period, under a lion-hearted king and an intrepid minister, adopted in the midst of the greatest dangers by the British government. What was the consequence? Universal tranquillity-forty years of unexampled prosperity -the triumph of Trafalgar-the conquest of Waterloo. Conciliation and concession, in obedience, and with the professed design of healing the disturbances of that unhappy land, were next tried in Ireland. Universal tranquillity, contentment, and happiness, were promised from the great healing measure of emancipation. What has been the consequence? Disturbances, massacres, discord, practised sedition, threatened rebellion, which have made the old times of Protestant rule be regretted. Conciliation and concession were again put in practice by the Whig Administration of England. What was the result? Perils greater than assailed the monarchy from all the night of Napoleon; dissension, conflagration, and popular violence, unexampled since the great rebellion; a falling income and an increasing expenditure; the flames of a servile war in Jamaica; and general distress unequalled since the accession of the House of Brunswick. The character of Mirabeau, both as a writer and orator, and an individual, is sketched with no ordinary power by this author, probably better qualified than any man in existence to portray it with accuracy: "Mirabeau had within his breast a sense of the force of his mind, which sustained his courage in situations which would have crushed a person of ordinary character: his imagiDation loved the vast; his mind seized the gigantic; his taste was natural, and had been cultivated by the study of the classical authors. He knew little; but no one could make a better use of what he had acquired. During the whirlwind of his stormy life he had little leisure for study; but in his prison of Vincennes he had read extensively, and improved his style by translations, as well as extensive collections from the writings of great orators. He had little confidence in the extent of his erudition; but his eloquent and impassioned soul animat ed every feature of his countenance when he was moved, and nothing was easier than to inflame his imagination. From his youth upwards he had accustomed himself to the discussion of the great questions of erudition and government, but he was not calculated to go to the bottom of them. The labour of investigation was not adapted to his powers; he had too much warmth and vehemence of disposition for laborious application; his mind proceeded by leaps and bounds, but sometimes they were prodigious. His style abounded in vigorous expressions, of which he had made a particular study. "If we consider him as an author, we must recollect that all his writings, without one single exception, were pieces of Mosaic, in which his fellow-labourers had at least as large a share as himself, but he had the faculty of giving additional eclat to their labours, by throwing in here and there original expressions, or apostrophes, full of fire and eloquence. It is a peculiar talent, to be able in this manner to disinter obscure ability, intrust to each the department for which he is fitted, and induce them all to labour at the work of which he alone is to reap the glory. "As a political orator, he was in some respects gifted with the very highest talents-a quick eye, a sure tact, the art of discovering at once the true disposition of the assembly he was addressing, and applying all the force of his mind to overcome the point of resistance, without weakening it by the discussion of minor topics. No one knew better how to strike with a single word, or hit his mark with perfect precision; and frequently he thus carried with him the general opinion, either by a happy insinuation, or a stroke which intimidated his adversaries. In the tribune he was immovable. The waves of faction rolled around without shaking him, and he was master of his passions in the midst of the utmost vehemence of opposition. But what he wanted as a political orator, was the art of discussion on the topics on which he enlarged. He could not embrace a long series of proofs and reasonings, and was unable to refute in a logical or convincing manner. He was, in consequence, often obliged to abandon the most important motions, when hard pressed by his adversaries, from pure inability to refute their arguments. He embraced too much, and reflected too little. He plunged into a discourse made for him on a subject on which he had never reflected, and on which he had been at no pains to master the facts; and he was, in consequence, greatly inferior in that particu lar to the athlete who exhibit their pɔwers in the British parliament.”—P. 277. What led to the French Revolution? This question will be asked and discussed, with all the anxiety it deserves, to the end of the world. -Let us hear Dumont on the subject. revolution. All the miseries of that country sprung from the very principle which is in. cessantly urged as the ruling consideration in favour of the Reform Bill. "No event ever interested Europe so much No body of men ever inflicted such disasters as the meeting of the States-General. There on France, as the Constituent Assembly, by was no enlightened man who did not found the their headlong innovations and sweeping degreatest hopes upon that public struggle of molitions. Not the sword of Marlborough nor prejudices with the lights of the age, and who the victories of Wellington-not the rout of did not believe that a new moral and political Agincourt nor the carnage of Waterloo-not world was about to issue from the chaos. The the arms of Alexander nor the ambition of Nabesoin of hope was so strong, that all faults poleon, have proved so fatal to its prosperity. were pardoned, all misfortunes were represent-From the wounds they inflicted, the social sysed only as accident; in spite of all the calamities which it induced, the balance leaned always towards the Constituent Assembly. It was the struggle of humanity with despotism. "The States-General, six weeks after their convocation, was no longer the States-General, but the National Assembly. Its first calamity was to have owed its new title to a revolution; that is to say, to a vital change in its power, its essence, its name, and its means of authority. According to the constitution, the commons should have acted in conjunction with the nobles, the clergy, and the king. But the commons, in the very outset, subjugated the nobles, the clergy, and the king. It was in that, that the Revolution consisted. tem may revive-from those of their own innovators, recovery is impossible. They not only destroyed freedom in its cradle-they not only induced the most cruel and revolting tyranny; but they totally destroyed the materials from which it was to be reconstructed in future, they bequeathed slavery to their chil dren, and they prevented it from ever being shaken off by their descendants. It matters not under what name arbitrary power is adminis tered: it can be dealt out as rudely by a reform ing assembly, a dictatorial mob, a committee of Public Safety, a tyrannical Directory, a military despot, or a citizen King, as by an absolute monarch or a haughty nobility. By destroying the whole ancient institutions of Franceby annihilating the nobles and middling ranks, who stood between the people and the throne “Reasoning without end has taken place on the causes of the Revolution; there is but one, in my opinion, to which the whole is to be as--by subverting all the laws and customs of cribed; and that is, the character of the king. antiquity-by extirpating religion, and inducPut a king of character and firmness in the place ing general profligacy, they have inflicted of Louis XVI., and no revolution would have en- wounds upon their country which can never sued. His whole reign was a preparation for be healed. Called upon to revive the social it. There was not a single epoch, during the system, they destroyed it: instead of pouring whole Constituent Assembly, in which the into the decayed limbs the warm blood of youth, king, if he could only have changed his cha-they severed the head from the body, and all racter, might not have re-established his au- subsequent efforts have been unavailing to rethority, and created a mixed constitution far store animation. It is now as impossible to more solid and stable than its ancient mon- give genuine freedom, that is complete protecarchy. His indecision, his weakness, his halftion to all classes, to France, as it is to restore counsels, his want of foresight, ruined every thing. The inferior causes which have concurred were nothing but the necessary consequences of that one moving cause. When the king is known to be weak, the courtiers become intriguers, the factious insolent, the people audacious; good men are intimidated, the most faithful services go unrewarded, able men are disgusted, and ruinous councils adopted. A king possessed of dignity and firmness would have drawn to his side those who were against him; the Lafayettes, the Lameths, the Mirabeaus, the Sieyes, would never have dreamed of playing the part which they did; and, when directed to other objects, they would no longer have appeared the same men."Pp. 343, 344. These observations are of the very highest importance. The elements of discord, rebellion, and anarchy, rise into portentous energy when weakness is at the head of affairs. A reforming, in other words a democratic, administration, raise them into a perfect tempest. The progress of time, and the immense defects of the ancient monarchical system, rendered change necessary in France; but it was the weakness of the king, the concessions of the nobility and clergy, which converted it into a the vital spark to a lifeless body by the convul. sions of electricity. The balance of interests, the protecting classes, are destroyed: nothing remains but the populace and the government: Asiatic has succeeded to European civilization: and, instead of the long life of modern freedom, the brief tempests of anarchy, and the long night of despotism, are its fate. The Constituent Assembly, however, had the excuse of general delusion: they were entering on an untrodden field: the consequence of their actions were unknown: enthusiasm as irresistible as that of the theatre urged on their steps. Great reforms required to be made in the political system; they mistook the excesses of democratic ambition for the dictates of ameliorating wisdom: the corruption of a guilty court, and the vices of a degraded nobility, called loudly for amendment. But what shall we say to those who adventured on the same perilous course, with their fatal example before their eyes, in a country requiring no accession to popular power, tyrannized over by no haughty nobility, consumed by no internal vices, weakened by no foreign disasters' What shall we say to those who voluntarily shut their eyes to all the perils of the head long reformers of the neighbouring kingdom who roused passions as impetuous, proposed and virtue uncorrupted was to be found, and changes as sweeping, were actuated by ambition as perilous, as that which, under their own eyes, had torn civilization to pieces in its bleeding dominion? What shall we say to those who did this in the state where freedom had existed longer, and was at their accession more unfettered than in any other country that ever existed; where prosperity unexampled existed, glory unparalleled had been won? Who adventured on a course which threatened to tear in pieces the country of Milton and Bacon, of Scott and Newton, of Nelson and Wellington! History will judge their conduct: no tumultuous mobs will drown its voice: from its decision there will be no appeal, and its will be the voice of ages. BULWER'S ATHENS.* Ir is a remarkable fact, that so numerous | wealth, and the leaden chains of the centralized and pregnant are the proofs afforded by history government of his successors, has not blinded in all ages, of the universal and irremediable the far-seeing sagacity of Tacitus to the origin evils of democratic ascendency, that there is of all these evils in the wide-spread force of hardly an historical writer of any note, in any popular wickedness and folly, and the fatal country or period of the world, who has not overthrow of the long established sway of the concurred in condemning it as the most dan- Senate by the military talents and consummate gerous form of government, and the most fatal address of the first emperor of the world. enemy of that freedom which it professes to In modern times the same striking characsupport. In the classical writers, indeed, are teristic of all the greatest observers of human to be found numerous and impassioned, as events is equally conspicuous. Five hundred well as perfectly just eulogies on the ennobling years ago Machiavel deduced from a careful effects of civil liberty; but it is liberty, as con- retrospect of Roman history, not less than the tradistinguished from slavery, which is the ob- experience of the Republican States with which ject of their encomium: and none felt so strong- he was surrounded, the clearest views of the ly, or have expressed so forcibly, the pernicious enormous perils of unbridled democracy: and tendency of unbridled democracy to undermine he has left in his Discourses on Livy and and destroy the civil freedom and general pro- "Principe," maxims of government essentially tection of all classes, which is unquestionably adverse to democratic establishments, which, the first of human blessings. Thucydides, in depth of thought and justice of observation, whose profound mind was forcibly attracted have never been surpassed. Bacon clearly by the varied operations of the aristocratic and perceived, even amidst all the servility of the democratic factions, which in his age distract-nation, and tyranny of the government of Enged Greece, and whose conflict forms the sub- land under the Tudor princes, the opposite ject of his immortal work, has told us, that "in- dangers of republican rule, and his celebrated variably in civil contests it was found at apophthegm, that political changes, to be safe, Athens that the worst and most abandoned "should resemble those of nature, which albeit public characters obtained the ascendency." the greatest in the end, are imperceptible in Aristotle has condensed in six words the ever- their progress," has passed into a consuetudilasting characteristic of democratic govern-nary maxim, to which, to the end of the world, ment—τυττών των τυραννίδων τελευταιὴ ἡ δημοκρατια. Sallust has pointed to the "Egestas cupida novarum rerum," as the most prolific source of the evils which first undermined, and at last overthrew the solid foundations of Roman liberty; and left in his Catiline conspiracy a picture of the demagogue, so just and true in all its touches, that in every age it has the air of having been drawn from the existing popular idol; and the phrase “Alieni appetens, sui profusus," has passed into a proverbial characteristic of that mixture of rapacity and insolvency which ever forms the basis of the characters who attain to democratic ascendency. Livy, amidst the majestic and heart-stirring narrative of Roman victories, never loses an opportunity of throwing in a reflection on the mingled instability and tyranny of popular assemblies; and all the experience of the woful tyranny which the triumph of democracy under Cæsar brought upon the Roman common Athens, its Rise and Fall. By E. L. Bulwer, Esq. Saunders and Otley: London, 1837. Blackwood's Magatine, July, 1837. the wise will never cease to refer, and against which the rash and reckless will never cease to chafe. The profound mind of Hume, it is well known, beheld the long and varied story of England's existence with perhaps too great a bias in favour of monarchical institutions; and Gibbon, even amidst the long series of calamities which accumulated round the sinking fortunes of the empire, has sufficiently evinced his strong sense of the impracticable nature, and tyrannic tendency of democratic institutions. Sir James Mackintosh, in his maturer years, strongly supported the same sound and rational principles; and all the fervour and energy of the youthful author of the Vindicia Gallica could not blind his better informed judgment later in life, to the frightful dangers of democratic ascendency, and the ultimate conclusion "that the only government which offers a rational prospect of establishing or preserving freedom, is that where the power In his letters and and miscellaneous works, his opinions on this subject are clearly expressed. |