deny. When all else in this country could foresee nothing but good to France, from the great improvement so suddenly wrought in her institutions, he plainly told them that what they were pleased with viewing as the lambent flame of a fire-work was the glare of a volcanic explosion which would cover France and Europe with the ruins of all their institutions, and fill the air with Cimmerian darkness, through the confusion of which neither the useful light of day nor the cheering prospect of heaven could be descried. The suddenness of the improvement which delighted all else, to his sagacious and far-sighted eye, aided doubtless by the reflecting glass of past experience and strengthened by the wisdom of other days in which it had been steeped, presented the very cause of distrust, and foreboding, and alarm. It was because his habit of mind was cautious and calculating, not easily led away by a fair outside, not apt to run into extremes, given to sober reflection, and fond of correcting, by practical views and by the lessons of actual observation, the plausible suggestions of theory, that he beheld, with doubt and apprehension, Governments pulled down and set up in a day-Constitutions, the slow work of centuries, taken to pieces and re-constructed like an eight-day clock. He is not without materials, were he to retort the charge of easily running into extremes and knowing not where to stop, upon those who were instantly fascinated with the work of 1789, and could not look forward to the consequences of letting loose four-andtwenty millions of people from the control under which ages of submission to arbitrary rule and total disuse of civil rights had kept them. They are assuredly without the means of demonstrating his want of reflection and foresight. For nearly the whole period during which he survived the commencement of the Revolution-for five of those seven years-all his predictions, save one momentary expression, had

been more than fulfilled; anarchy and bloodshed haď borne sway in France; conquest and convulsion had desolated Europe; and even when he closed his eyes upon earthly prospects, he left this portentous meteor "with fear of change perplexing monarchs.' The providence of mortals is not often able to penetrate so far as this into futurity. Nor can he whose mind was filled with such well-grounded alarms be justly impeached of violence, and held up as unsoundly given to extremes of opinion, if he betrayed an invincible repugnance to sudden revolutions in the system of policy by which nations are governed, and an earnest desire to see the restoration of the old state of things in France, as the harbinger of repose for the rest of the world.

That Mr. Burke did, however, err, and err widely, in the estimate which he formed of the merits of a Restored Government, no one now can doubt. His mistake was in comparing the old régime with the anarchy of the Revolution; to which not only the monarchy of France, but the despotism of Turkey was preferable. He never could get rid of the belief that because the change had been effected with a violence which produced, and inevitably produced, the consequences foreseen by himself, and by him alone, therefore the tree so planted must for ever prove incapable of bearing good fruit. He forgot

that after the violence, in its nature temporary, should subside, it might be both quite impossible to restore the old monarchy, and very possible to form a new and orderly and profitable government upon the ruins. of the Republic. Above all, he had seen so much present mischief wrought to France during the convulsive struggle which was not over before his death, that he could not persuade himself of any possible good arising to her from the mighty change she had undergone. All this we now see clearly enough; having survived Mr. Burke nearly fifty years, and

witnessed events which the hardiest dealers in prophecy assuredly could never have ventured to foretell. But we who were so blind to the early consequences of the Revolution, and who really did suffer ourselves to be carried away by extreme opinions, deaf to all Mr. Burke's warnings; we surely have little right to charge him with blind violence, unreflecting devotion to his fancy, and a disposition to run into extremes. At one time they who opposed his views were by many, perhaps by the majority of men, accused of this propensity. After the events in France had begun to affright the people of this country, when Mr. Burke's opinions were found to have been well grounded, the friends of liberty would not give up their fond belief that all must soon come right. that time we find Dean Milner writing to Mr. Wilberforce from Cambridge, that "Mr. Fox's old friends there all gave him up, and most of them said he was mad."

At

In the imperfect estimate of this great man's character and genius which we have now concluded, let it not be thought that we have made any very large exceptions to the praise unquestionably his due. We have only abated claims preferred by his unheeding worshippers to more than mortal endowments -worshippers who with the true fanatical spirit adore their idol the more, as he proves the more unsafe guide; and who chiefly valued his peculiarities when he happened to err on the great question that filled the latter years of his life. Enough will remain to

*Life of Wilberforce, ii. p 3.-This was written early in the year 1793, when most men thought Mr. Burke both moderate and right. "There is scarce one of his (Mr. Fox's) old friends here at Cambridge who is not disposed to give him up, and most say he is mad. I think of him much as I always did; I still doubt whether he has bad principles, but I think it pretty plain he has none; and I suppose he is ready for whatever turns up." See, too, Lord Wellesley's justly celebrated speech, two years later, on French affairs. It is re-published in Mr. Martin's edition of that great statesman's Despatches.

command our admiration, after it shall be admitted that he who possessed the finest fancy and the rarest knowledge did not equally excel other men in retaining his sound and calm judgment at a season of peculiar emergency; enough to excite our wonder at the degree in which he was gifted with most parts of genius, though our credulity be not staggered by the assertion of a miraculous union of them all. We have been contemplating a great marvel certainly, not gazing on a supernatural sight; and we retire from it with the belief, that if acuteness, learning, imagination, so unmeasured, were never before combined, yet have there been occasionally witnessed in eminent men greater powers of close reasoning and fervid declamation, oftentimes a more correct taste, and, on the question to which his mind was last and most earnestly applied, a safer judgment.

262

MR. FOX.

THE glory of Mr. Burke's career certainly was the American war, during which he led the Opposition in the House of Commons; until, having formed a successor more renowned than himself, he was succeeded rather than superseded in the command of that victorious band of the champions of freedom. This disciple, as he was proud to acknowledge himself, was Charles, James Fox, one of the greatest statesmen, had not his religion been party, and if not the greatest orator, certainly the most accomplished debater, that ever appeared upon the theatre of public affairs in any age of the world. To the profuse, the various learning of his master; to his exuberant fancy, to his profound and mature philosophy, he had no pretensions. His knowledge was confined to the ordinary accomplishments of an English education-intimate acquaintance with the classics; the exquisite taste which that familiarity bestows; and a sufficient knowledge of history. These stores he afterwards increased rather than diminished; for he continued to delight in classical reading; and added a minute and profound knowledge of modern languages, with a deep and accurate study of our own history and the history of other modern states; insomuch that it may be questioned if any politician in any age ever knew so thoroughly the various interests and the exact position of all the countries with which his own had dealings to conduct or relations to maintain. Beyond these solid foundations of oratory and ample stores of political information his range did not extend. Of natural science, of metaphysical philo