If, on the contrary, peace be disturbed-if the passion for glory be again found leading the people of France to Moscow or the Pyramids-the reverse must be the case. The productive power must be diminished, and taxes must be increased. The political power of the many must diminish with the one, while that of the few must increase with the other.

We have endeavoured, on various occasions, to show that, if man were governed by no other motive than that of self-interest, it would lead him to obey the command to do unto others as he would have others do unto him, and have shown that the physical and moral evil of the various nations of the world, is clearly traceable to their own disobedience-to their disregard of the rights of others. In the case of France, we have a strong exemplification of the political disadvantage that results from the same cause, affording a warning to the world at large, that if they wish an improvement of their political condition, the price at which it is to be purchased is a strict and undeviating regard for the rights of others. Charlemagne and the French people wasted their energies in attempting to establish their dominion over Germany and Italy, and the consequence was, that the sons of Charlemagne were stripped of power, and the people became slaves. Under Philip of Valois we find the same effort and the same result. The throne of France was occupied by an English sovereign, and the people were reduced to the last extremity of misery.

Under Charles VIII. and his two successors, we find it repeated, and followed by a similar degradation of both sovereign and people, whose rights were trampled upon by petty tyrants, the natural growth of a state of war. Undeterred by the example of his predecessors, we find Louis XIV. wasting the energies of the nation in the attempt to extend his dominion, and, instead of showing that true glory was to be acquired by the application of talent and of capital to the improvement of the condition of the people, he prevented improvement by employing large armies in plundering and laying waste Holland, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Had he pursued a different course, tending to the gradual amelioration of physical, moral, and political condition, Louis XVI. would not have lost his head. Na

poleon followed in the same course, and closed his career at St. Helena. Charles X. trampled upon the rights of the Spanish people, and ended his life in exile. Louis Phillippe maintains large fleets and armies. Algiers and Switzerland-Mexico and Buenos Ayres-Portugal and Chili-are in turn invaded or menaced. He desires power. To accomplish that object, the people are loaded with taxes and restrictions, while the youth of France are compelled to spend the most important portion of their lives in barracks, instead of fitting themselves to perform their parts in life. The power of production is diminished. Capital is acquired with difficulty. Physical and moral improvement is slow. The people are poor, turbulent, and fond of glory.† His life is constantly at risk, and the succession of his son is doubtful. Were he to take warning from the past, and devote his energies to diminishing the burthens of the people, and the restrictions upon their actions, the increase of wealth would bring with it rapid improvement of condition, and he would find himself safely established on the throne. Divesting himself, by degrees, of the power now exercised, he would be subject to less responsibility. The machine of state would gradually acquire power to move of itself, instead of requiring, as at present, the constant superintendence of the chief engineer. The people would acquire the habit of managing their own affairs

* Nothing tends so much to maintain the warlike feeling in France as the small cost at which the rulers can make war. Were it once established that the state is bound to pay men for their services at the same rate as individuals, the tax-payers of France would find it expedient to diminish the army. With every such diminution there would be an increase of production and of the labourer's proportion, manifested by a rise of wages; and thus every year the cost of maintaining armies would be increased, and the disposition to maintain them would be diminished. Nothing is necessary to secure peace throughout Europe but the abolition of the right of the state to claim the services of individuals at less than the ordinary rate of wages.

+ "Dans ce pays [France] abonde une jeunesse passionnée, pleine d'audace et d'ambition, préte a s'exalter pour tons les fantomes qu'on lui présente, avide de mouvement et de dangers, tourmentée du besoin des fortes émotions, et les cherchant partout où il peut s'en rencontrer, jusqu'à dans les conspirations et la guerre civile. Dans ce pays, une douzaine de métamorphoses gouvernementales, accomplies dans le cours de quarante ans, ont detruit le respect dû au pouvoir, ont déprecié l'expérience, ont semé l'inquietude et l'agitation dans les ames.-Chevalier, Lettres sur l'Amerique du Nord, tom. i., p. 215.

in their own way. The system of self-government would be established, while the form of monarchy would remain; and if at any future time it should be deemed necessary to alter the form, the alteration would be effected without lessening the public tranquillity.*

* As this sheet is passing through the press, we meet with the following passage, confirming the views we have submitted to the reader.

"It is a singular and a striking fact, but a fact about which there can be no dispute, that the French always occupy themselves most about politics, and prepare to introduce changes and effect revolutions, in the days of their prosperity. When trade is bad and commerce low, when manufactures are in a state of stagnation, and public credit has greatly fallen, when the working classes are starving, when the looms are unemployed, when the shops are deserted, and misery and want are staring the population in the face, then the French rouse themselves, cry for 'order,' support the government, put down anarchy, and rally round those who are the conservatives of the day. Soon trade improves, because confidence returns-soon public credit rises, because private individuals feel assured —and in a very little time the poverty and wretchedness of the time past are forgotten in the affluence and comfort of the hour. That moment is precisely the one when the French turn to politics.”—Blackwood's Magazine, April, 1839, p. 438.

Every increase of security, producing an increase of the productive power, necessarily produces a demand for an extension of political rights—for further security in the enjoyment of the rights of person and property. The tendency thereto is not greater in France than in England, but the unyielding character of the government has made it necessary to proceed by revolutions, causing a waste of life and of property: diminishing security, and consequently diminishing production. The many feel the effect of internal discord in a diminution of the power of obtaining the necessaries of life, and the few are, consequently, enabled with the restoration of " order," to re-enter upon the enjoyment of many of the privileges, the pressure of which caused the outbreak. Such would not be the case were the change gradual, as it has been, and probably will continue to be, in England.

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE INFLUENCE OF WEALTH ON THE POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE people of

DENMARK.-NORWAY.-GERMANY.-POLAND.

In the early period of DANISH history we find a free people, under powerful sovereigns, constantly warring with their neighbours, for plunder and dominion. Under Canute, in the eleventh century, England was subjugated. In the following century, Valdemar was the most potent monarch of the north, and his empire was more extensive than that of any who had occupied the throne since the division of that of Canute. The usual effect of long continued wars is here found in the constantly increasing power of the nobles, and diminution of that of the people and sovereign. By degrees the fiefs of the former had become hereditary, and they had obtained immunity from contributions for the public service. Following their example, the prelates and monasteries had obtained for themselves and their vassals, grants of similar privileges, the effect of which was to diminish the number of those who were liable to contribution, and thus increase the burthens upon the free peasantry. The latter, originally independent proprietors of the soil, and having an equal suffrage with the highest nobles, were now compelled to become vassals to the neighbouring lord, or bishop, sinking into hopeless bondage, while the power of the king was eclipsed by that of the nobility and priesthood. After a succession of civil wars, during which agriculture was neglected, and commerce destroyed, the power of the latter was fully established, while the king retained scarcely a shadow of authority.

Continual wars, foreign and domestic, prevented the restoration of security. Sweden was subjugated, and treated as a conquered province, but the condition of the people of Denmark was constantly deteriorating, and at the termination of the union of Calmar, the nobles possessed the power of life and

death over their vassals. The accession of the house of Oldenburgh, which followed immediately after, was marked by an admission of the rights and privileges of the aristocracy, whose consent was made necessary to every important act of sovereignty.

With the exception of the first few years, the reign of Christian III., which endured above a quarter of a century, was peaceful. His successor, Christian IV., was for a short period involved disastrous thirty years' war, by which Germany was desolated, but withdrew from it, and afterwards, although courted by both parties, persisted in the maintenance of peace. His reign was tranquil, and he was enabled to devote his attention to lightening the burthens of the people, to the promotion of agriculture, the arts, and commerce. The effect of this long continuance of peace was shown in his adventuring the proposition to abolish the feudal militia; to establish a general system of taxation, by which all would contribute in the ratio of their interests; and to farm the crown lands to the highest bidder, instead of leaving them in the hands of the nobles, exempt from contribution. The attempt was unsuccessful, but the fact of it being made, is evidence of the change produced by peace and increased production, in the relative positions of the sovereign and people on one side, and the nobles on the other.

At the accession of Frederic III., the Senate, representing the aristocracy, endeavoured to impose restrictions that would have reduced him nearly to a level with the Doge of Venice; but the attempt was successfully resisted, the king being seconded by the deputies of the clergy, burghers, and peasants, who were greatly discontented with being compelled to bear the whole burthen of taxation for the support of the recent defensive war with Sweden. Another attack from that power tended to increase this feeling, and enabled the king in 1660, in a single day, and without shedding a drop of blood, to put an end to the powers so long exercised by the aristocracy. The nation, glad to escape from the domination of numerous petty tyrants, hastened to confirm the authority assumed by the king, who was declared absolute sovereign. All property now became liable for contributions, and thus it became the interest of all VOL. III.-21