cumulation of abuse. It is hence that the most enlightened politicians have recognized the necessity of frequently recalling governments to their first principles; a truth equally suggested to the penetrating intellect of Machiavel, by his experience of the Florentine democracy, and by his research into the history of antient commonwealths. Whatever is good ought to be pursued the moment it is attainable. The public voice, irresistible in a period of convulsion, is contemned with impunity, when dictated by that lethargy into which nations are lulled by the tranquil course of their ordinary affairs. The ardour of reform languishes in unsupported tediousness. It perishes in an impotent struggle with adversaries who receive new strength from the progress of the day. No hope of great political improvement (let us repeat it) is to be entertained from tranquillity, for its natural operation is to strengthen all those who are interested in perpetuating abuse. The National Assembly seized the moment of eradicating the corruptions and abuses which afflicted their country. Their reform was total, that it might be commensurate with the evil, and no part of it was delayed, because to spare an abuse at such a period was to consecrate it; because the enthusiasm which carries nations to such enterprizes is short-lived, and the opportunity of reform, if once neglected, might be irrevocably fled.

VOL. III.

H

"But

"But let us ascend to more general principles, and hazard bolder opinions. Let us grant that the state of France was not so desperately incorrigible. Let us suppose that changes far more gentle, innovations far less extensive, would have remedied the grosser evils of her Government, and place it almost on a level with free and celebrated constitutions. These concessions, though too large for truth, will not convict the Assembly. By what principle of reason, or of justice, were they precluded from aspiring to give France a Government less imperfect, than accident had formed in other States ?-Who will be hardy enough to assert, that a better Constitution is not attainable than any which has hitherto åppeared? Is the limit of human wis dom to be estimated in the science of politics alone, by the extent of its present attainments ? Is the most sublime and difficult of all arts, the improvement of the social order, the alleviation of the miseries of the civil condition of man, to be alone stationary, amid the rapid progress of every other art, liberal and vulgar, to perfection? Where would be the atrocious guilt of a grand experiment, to ascertain the portion of freedom and happiness that can be created by political institutions?

66

Legislators are under no obligation to retain a Constitution, because it has been found 'tolerably to answer the common purposes of Govern

ment.'

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

H 2

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 nó 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 Legislators, instead of that narrow and dastardly coasting, which never ventures to lose sight of usage and precedenf, 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