Volume IV Part 18 (1/2)

They all have some sort of communication, just as much or as little as they please, with the centre. By this confinement of all communication to the ruling faction, any combination, grounded on the abuses and discontents in one, scarcely can reach the other. There is not one man, in any one place, to head them. The old government had so much abstracted the n.o.bility from the cultivation of provincial interest, that no man in France exists, whose power, credit, or consequence extends to two districts, or who is capable of uniting them in any design, even if any man could a.s.semble ten men together without being sure of a speedy lodging in a prison. One must not judge of the state of France by what has been observed elsewhere. It does not in the least resemble any other country. a.n.a.logical reasoning from history or from recent experience in other places is wholly delusive.

In my opinion, there never was seen so strong a government internally as that of the French munic.i.p.alities. If ever any rebellion can arise against the present system, it must begin, where the Revolution which gave birth to it did, at the capital. Paris is the only place in which there is the least freedom of intercourse. But even there, so many servants as any man has, so many spies and irreconcilable domestic enemies.

[Sidenote: Gentlemen are fugitives.]

But that place being the chief seat of the power and intelligence of the ruling faction, and the place of occasional resort for their fiercest spirits, even there a revolution is not likely to have anything to feed it. The leaders of the aristocratic party have been drawn out of the kingdom by order of the princes, on the hopes held out by the Emperor and the king of Prussia at Pilnitz; and as to the democratic factions in Paris, amongst them there are no leaders possessed of an influence for any other purpose but that of maintaining the present state of things.

The moment they are seen to warp, they are reduced to nothing. They have no attached army,--no party that is at all personal.

It is not to be imagined, because a political system is, under certain aspects, very unwise in its contrivance, and very mischievous in its effects, that it therefore can have no long duration. Its very defects may tend to its stability, because they are agreeable to its nature. The very faults in the Const.i.tution of Poland made it last; the _veto_ which destroyed all its energy preserved its life. What can be conceived so monstrous as the republic of Algiers, and that no less strange republic of the Mamelukes in Egypt? They are of the worst form imaginable, and exercised in the worst manner, yet they have existed as a nuisance on the earth for several hundred years.

[Sidenote: Conclusions.]

From all these considerations, and many more that crowd upon me, three conclusions have long since arisen in my mind.

First, that no counter revolution is to be expected in France from internal causes solely.

Secondly, that, the longer the present system exists, the greater will be its strength, the greater its power to destroy discontents at home, and to resist all foreign attempts in favor of these discontents.

Thirdly, that, as long as it exists in France, it will be the interest of the managers there, and it is in the very essence of their plan, to disturb and distract all other governments, and their endless succession of restless politicians will continually stimulate them to new attempts.

[Sidenote: Proceedings of princes; defensive plans.]

Princes are generally sensible that this is their common cause; and two of them have made a public declaration of their opinion to this effect.

Against this common danger, some of them, such as the king of Spain, the king of Sardinia, and the republic of Bern, are very diligent in using defensive measures.

If they were to guard against an invasion from France, the merits of this plan of a merely defensive resistance might be supported by plausible topics; but as the attack does not operate against these countries externally, but by an internal corruption, (a sort of dry rot,) they who pursue this merely defensive plan against a danger which the plan itself supposes to be serious cannot possibly escape it. For it is in the nature of all defensive measures to be sharp and vigorous under the impressions of the first alarm, and to relax by degrees, until at length the danger, by not operating instantly, comes to appear as a false alarm,--so much so, that the next menacing appearance will look less formidable, and will be less provided against. But to those who are on the offensive it is not necessary to be always alert. Possibly it is more their interest not to be so. For their unforeseen attacks contribute to their success.

[Sidenote: The French party how composed.]

In the mean time a system of French conspiracy is gaining ground in every country. This system, happening to be founded on principles the most delusive indeed, but the most flattering to the natural propensities of the unthinking mult.i.tude, and to the speculations of all those who think, without thinking very profoundly, must daily extend its influence. A predominant inclination towards it appears in all those who have no religion, when otherwise their disposition leads them to be advocates even for despotism. Hence Hume, though I cannot say that he does not throw out some expressions of disapprobation on the proceedings of the levellers in the reign of Richard the Second, yet affirms that the doctrines of John Ball were ”conformable to the ideas of primitive equality _which are engraven in the hearts of all men_.”

Boldness formerly was not the character of atheists as such. They were even of a character nearly the reverse; they were formerly like the old Epicureans, rather an unenterprising race. But of late they are grown active, designing, turbulent, and seditious. They are sworn enemies to kings, n.o.bility, and priesthood. We have seen all the Academicians at Paris, with Condorcet, the friend and correspondent of Priestley, at their head, the most furious of the extravagant republicans.

[Sidenote: Condorcet.]

The late a.s.sembly, after the last captivity of the king, had actually chosen this Condorcet, by a majority on the ballot, for preceptor to the Dauphin, who was to be taken out of the hands and direction of his parents, and to be delivered over to this fanatic atheist and furious democratic republican. His untractability to these leaders, and his figure in the club of Jacobins, which at that time they wished to bring under, alone prevented that part of the arrangement, and others in the same style, from being carried into execution. Whilst he was candidate for this office, he produced his t.i.tle to it by promulgating the following ideas of the t.i.tle of his royal pupil to the crown. In a paper written by him, and published with his name, against the reestablishment even of the appearance of monarchy under any qualifications, he says:--

[Sidenote: Doctrine of the French.]

”Jusqu'a ce moment, ils [l'a.s.semblee Nationale] n'ont rien prejuge encore. En se reservant de nommer un gouverneur au Dauphin, ils n'ont pas p.r.o.nonce _que cet enfant dut regner_, mais seulement qu'il _etait possible_ que la Const.i.tution l'y destinat; ils ont voulu que l'education effacat tout ce que _les prestiges du trone_ ont pu lui inspirer de prejuges sur les droits pretendus de sa naissance; qu'elle lui fit connaitre de bonne heure et _l'egalite naturelle des hommes et la souverainete du peuple_; qu'elle lui apprit a ne pas...o...b..ier que c'est _du peuple_ qu'il tiendra le t.i.tre de Roi, et que _le peuple n'a pas meme le droit de renoncer a celui de l'en depouiller_.

”Ils ont voulu que cette education le rendit egalement digne, par ses lumieres et ses vertus, de recevoir _avec resignation_ le fardeau dangereux d'une couronne, ou de la _deposer avec joie_ entre les mains de ses freres; qu'il sent.i.t que le devoir et la gloire du roi d'un peuple libre sont de hater le moment de n'etre plus qu'un citoyen ordinaire.

”Ils ont voulu que _l'inutilite d'un roi_, la necessite de chercher les moyens de remplacer _un pouvoir fonde sur des illusions_, fut une des premieres verites offertes a sa raison; _l'obligation d'y concourir lui-meme, un des premiers devoirs de sa morale; et le desir de n'etre plus affranchi du joug de la loi par une injurieuse inviolabilite, le premier sentiment de son cur_. Ils n'ignorent pas que dans ce moment il s'agit bien moins de former un roi que de lui apprendre _a savoir a vouloir ne plus l'etre_.”[32]

Such are the sentiments of the man who has occasionally filled the chair of the National a.s.sembly, who is their perpetual secretary, their only standing officer, and the most important by far. He leads them to peace or war. He is the great theme of the republican faction in England.

These ideas of M. Condorcet are the principles of those to whom kings are to intrust their successors and the interests of their succession.

This man would be ready to plunge the poniard in the heart of his pupil, or to whet the axe for his neck. Of all men, the most dangerous is a warm, hot-headed, zealous atheist. This sort of man aims at dominion, and his means are the words he always has in his mouth,--”_L'egalite naturelle des hommes, et la souverainete du peuple_.”

All former attempts, grounded on these rights of men, had proved unfortunate. The success of this last makes a mighty difference in the effect of the doctrine. Here is a principle of a nature to the mult.i.tude the most seductive, always existing before their eyes _as a thing feasible in practice_. After so many failures, such an enterprise, previous to the French experiment, carried ruin to the contrivers, on the face of it; and if any enthusiast was so wild as to wish to engage in a scheme of that nature, it was not easy for him to find followers: now there is a party almost in all countries, ready-made, animated with success, with a sure ally in the very centre of Europe. There is no cabal so obscure in any place, that they do not protect, cherish, foster, and endeavor to raise it into importance at home and abroad.

From the lowest, this intrigue will creep up to the highest. Ambition, as well as enthusiasm, may find its account in the party and in the principle.