three livres (half a crown) a year direct taxes was to have a vote-This was a qualification; and as Mr. Burke very properly said at the time was a barrier against the free exercise of the Rights of Man, such as they had been sealed and settledMr. Burke saw this early; but the French Nation found it out before the 10th of August 1792, and the sans-culottes just spoke as well and truly in regard to this particular as Mr. Burke. "What!" said they?"A man who pays sixty sols a year taxes is to have a vote, and a man who pays only fifty-nine has no vote, yet men are free and equal! Down with restrictions and qualifications of this sort; let us look at Nature, and the Rights of Man; let us look at Equality, and let every man vote!" Now it must be confessed, that if the Rights of Man are not to be exploded, this conclusion was just; and that no qualification was necessary, or even admissible; and as this conclusion, just in itself, led to the most terrible consequences, it is a most impressive lesson of the danger of laying down abstract principles which admit of no compromise. Universal suffrage led to the mi. series of France, and the abstract principles of the Rights of Man led to universal suffrage.

Now, as practical utility is the intention of this Review, let us apply the same principle to Eng. land, and inquire, whether it would not be likely to produce a similar effect:

It will be said by many, that the English are a different people from the French, and fortu, nately so they are; but not so different that. they can with safety attempt to do what was so fatal to France.

Radical reform appears to be another way of expressing universal suffrage; and though the reformers will not tell people what they exactly wish for, though it is probable that they do not agree amongst themselves, yet it would to a certainty happen as it did in France.-If they stop at some particular point, the question will be afterwards, Why stop here?"-The question of the fifty-nine sols and the sixty is quite similar, and it is one that does not admit of a proper answer.

Whenever experience and expediency are out of the question, and abstract principles are taken as guides, there is no means of giving satisfaction till the principle is fully adhered to.

Rotten boroughs are at first complained of; but suppose the extreme of the grievance, as it is called, to be done away, that could never satisfy reformers; for still there would be some Boroughs twice as large as others; and whether twice or ten times, it equally violates the princi. ple, and the partial reform would only be a step to a greater one.

The progress of the human mind during a revolution is curious, and its investigation important, inasmuch as men grow more difficult to be satisfied as they become more successful. The

VOL. III.

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same

same thing looks different before and after its attainment. Thus it was in France, and thus it was in England, in the time of Charles I. The first demands made were reasonable; but as those who made them felt their power, they became more ambitious, and despised what they had obtained. This has been the case in all contests between parties in every country; there is not that moderation as between different nations, when a certain object once obtained the business is settled, or when frequently peace and friendship are restored without the object being attained.

What would we not deserve of blame, if, with the example of France before us, we were to launch out into the ocean of reform, when some of those who demand it tell us plainly, that they aim at radical reform, and when those who do not go so far as that, either cannot or will not tell us where they are inclined to stop; but, above all, when we know, that the will to stop does not give the means of stopping, and when, moreover, we know that the will changes as matters proceed when we consider also, that the same arguments which are now used will apply to any point at which a stop may be made, until universal suffrage and equal representation are obtained.

* The able but sophistical pamphlet of the Abbé Sieyes, written at the beginning of the Revolution, greatly assisted the mind in this progressive ambition.

Let

Let us see how this is to be considered as re

garding this country

If men are satisfied with what they find prac tically good, taking experience for their guide, then to speak of radical reform is absurd,, because that signifies the sort of representation that was tried in France, and ended so unfortu nately, and therefore cannot be sought for on the principle of practicability and success. Again, if pure theoretical representation be meant, as it undoubtedly must be, we risk all the evils suffered by the French; and, in commotions, the most violent always triumph over those who are less so; or, if a partial reform in the representation were once admitted, upon what the reformers call principle, there is no point to stop at till the principle is fully adopted.

The French themselves all know well the ab surdity and the impracticability of the plan on which they first set out, and bitterly do they lament the day when first they launched out into the visionary and impracticable theories that are connected with the Rights of Man; but in this country we are not all yet converted.The French are more frank and fair than their friends in this country-they admit that the Revolution was commenced on a bad and mistaken plan, though with good intentions, and they do not accuse other nations of its failure; that is reserved for the ingenuity of a certain set amongst

T2

amongst ourselves, wlto still maintain that we began the war without provocation or necessity, and that the French were right.

Britain had no hand in the Revolution at first, therefore it is not necessary to trace its origin, which, however, is pretty well understood; but let it never be forgotten, that, in a very early stage, the French professed principles and adopted practices which endangered all the nations around! Hatred to kings, and a new system of liberty, which wise and considerate men knew was only calculated to mislead, were inculcated with an energy and boldness to which other nations could not well shut their eyes: nevertheless, so great a reluctance had England to oppose a people who pretended to be fighting for liberty, that, when the treaty of Pilnitz was entered into, which commenced the Continental Coalition, England not only refused to join in the league, but Sweden, one of the parties, stipulated to send her contingent by land, expressly because she believed that Eng land would not allow it to proceed by sea.

Not only was this a proof of the determina tion of England in 1791 to avoid joining in an attack on France, but, even in the year 1792, when hostilities were actually begun, the navy and army of Britain were reduced to the lowest peace-establishment.

Those persons whose memories are as treache rous as their assertions are bold, and who accuse

the