ment.' It is absurd to expect, but it is not absurd to pursue, perfection. It is absurd to acquiesce in evils, of which the remedy is obvious, because they are less grievous than those which are endured by others. To suppose the social order is not capable of improvement from the progress of human understanding, is to betray the inconsistent absurdity of an arrogant confidence in our attainment, and an abject distrust of our powers. If indeed the sum of evil produced by political institutions, even in the least imperfect Governments, were small, there might be some pretence for this dread of innovation, this horror at remedy, which has raised such a clamour over Europe: but, on the contrary, in an estimate of the sources of human misery, after granting that one portion is to be attributed to disease, and another to private vices, it might perhaps be found that a third equal part arose from the oppressions and corruptions of Government, disguised under various forms. All the Governments that now exist in the world (except the United States of America) have been fortuitously formed. They are the produce of chance, not the work of art. They have been altered, impaired, improved, and destroyed, by accidental circumstances, beyond the foresight or controul of wisdom. Their parts, thrown up against present emergencies, formed no systematic whole. It was certainly not to have been

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been presumed, that these fortuitous Governments should have surpassed the works of intellect, and precluded all nearer approaches to perfection. Their origin without doubt furnishes a strong presumption of an opposite nature. It might teach us to expect in them many discordant principles, many jarring forms, much unmixed evil, and much imperfect good; many institutions which had long survived their motive, and many of which reason had never been the author, nor utility the object. Experience, even in the best of these Governments, accords with such expectations.

"A Government of art, the work of legislative intellect, reared on the immutable basis of natural right and general happiness, which should combine the excellencies and exclude the defects of the various Constitutions which chance had scattered over the world, instead of being precluded by the perfection of any of those forms, was loudly demanded by the injustice and absurdity of them all. It was time that men should learn to tolerate nothing antient that reason does not respect, and to shrink from no novelty to which reason may conduct. It was time that the human powers, so long occupied by subordinate objects, and inferior arts, should mark the commencement of a new era in history, by giving birth to the art of improving Government, and increasing the civil happiness of man. It was time, as it

has

has been wisely and eloquently said, that Legisla tors, instead of that narrow and dastardly coasting, which never ventures to lose sight of usage and precedent, should, guided by the polarity of reason, hazard a bolder navigation, and discover, in unexplored regions, the treasure of public felicity."

Such assertions are now so completely exploded, that it would be absurd to combat them, -Oh! what rivers of blood they have cost before they were exploded!

Mr. Mackintosh forgets his usual correct mode of reasoning here, for, though often misinformed, he seldom commits such mistakes. Mr. Burke had expressly accused the French of not combining the excellencies and excluding the defects; and had they only deviated where they found it necessary, they would not have erred as they did; but, on the contrary, they spurned at example, and with them novelty, if not the greatest merit, was at least indispensable to the attainment of approbation.In this we hear the sum of all that Mr. Mackintosh said, or, indeed, all that the defenders of the Revolution could say. They could only defend the French on the principle upon which the French acted, namely, that of being guided by the POLARITY of reason, instead of the narrow and dastardly coasting which never ventures to lose sight of usage and precedent. -The regions of public felicity, that country of Eldarado, is, however, still unexplored; and the

needle

needle has lost its polarity; or rather France may be likened to the seaman, in the Arabian Tale, who sailed so near the Pole, that all the nails were attracted out of the ship, which tumbled to pieces, and the crew was lost. This Indian allegory, and the Grecian story of Icarus with his wings, have much the appearance of alluding to the adventures and the tale of some bold men of antiquity who quitted the coast-who despising the lights of experience brought on themselves destruction.

Mr. Mackintosh wrote with the genius and enthusiasm of a young mind in a good cause; he was misinformed and must therefore draw wrong conclusions. The attractions of his style, and the felicity of his reasoning powers, were subjects of general admiration when his work made its appearance; and although subsequent events produced an extraordinary change of public opinion, yet an increase of years served as an increase of fame to a writer whose first efforts excited the highest expectations. It is no small praise that Mr. Burke himself became his warmest panegyrist, generously acknowledging that Mr. Mackintosh was not only the most eloquent, but the most liberal and most ingenious of his opponents, never forgetting the characteristics of a scholar and a gentleman.

MR. PAINE.

MR. PAINE.

Of this gentleman so much is known and so much has been said, that a bare analysis of himself and of his work will be sufficient; for of himself we must speak as he was from the beginning, an adventurer in the Revolution, who became the English Agent of the Jacobin Club of Paris.

With respect to the historical part of the Work, Paine seems to be better informed than most of the others, and certainly he does not see the leaders of the Revolution quite so favourably as Mr. Mackintosh. Paine had a scheme for erecting an Iron Bridge, and was trying to get the French Government to support his plan, when the Revolution broke out. La Fayette, the patron of the people from America in France received him at his table, and, when the Propagand was established, the republican principles of Paine, his necessities, his speaking English, but, above all, the reputation he had fairly obtained for his publication of Common Sense, during the Revolution in America, made him be chosen as a fit agent. Paine was taciturn and plausible, and at that time his conduct tolerably correct. He wrote his Rights of Man as an Explanatory Commentary on the motion made by La Fayette, to whom it was dedicated. His abuse of General Washington af

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