262 The French Revolution of July, 1830. 



with vengeance. The French were thus compelled to resist,, or be 

 trampled on. They fought for no fancied freedom, as in the old revolu- 

 tionary day ; but they fought to restrain what they justly looked on as 

 an act of danger to every man among them, as the forerunner of exile, 

 confiscations, banishments and deaths. The people had not declared 

 .war upon the King, until the King had first waved the scourge, and 

 pointed the sword against the public breast. It was this feeling of 

 undoubted right and indignant justice that armed the French against 

 the Bourbons, and made them victors in the struggle. 



If any continental government shall hazard the same treachery, then 

 will the people have the same right ; and if they will vindicate it, they 

 will have the .same success. But not till then. 



Yet it must be acknowledged that popular opinion has acquired an 

 extraordinary vigour in every country by the success of the French. 

 Men will no longer feel the same awe of government. The notions of 

 republicanism will grow more attractive, and changes must take place. 

 But we think that our speculators look for those changes too soon. 

 They must take time to ripen. 



France is already a virtual republic. The King is only a president 

 for life ; and probably in the passing of a few years, we shall see his 

 tenure curtailed, and a French president rise and descend every five 

 years. France has now, except in the Tuilleries, all the features of a 

 republic ; no national religion ; all religions paid by the public purse ; 

 a peerage equivalent to none, or merely to the better classes of 

 .America, and likely to melt down into poverty and obscurity, by the 

 abolition of the law of primogeniture ; a powerful commonalty, which 

 legislates, and actually commands the state ; and an immense militia, 

 officered by itself, and under the command of the popular body. 

 , If France do not take the name of a republic as well as the reality, it 

 is merely through regard for the present King. But his successor may see 

 the change. Then indeed universal war would not be incredible. Kings 

 would be either overthrown by their subjects, in imitation of France, or 

 be forced to guard against French doctrines and political missionaries, 

 with a vigilance which must produce bickering, and from this the next 

 step is war. 



To us this seems the probable catastrophe; but it probably will 

 be remote. France has much to do before she can think of her neigh- 

 bours; she too may have grown wiser from the terrible lessons of war. 

 A patriot king may turn her ambition to industry, commerce, and the 

 arts. Her growing prosperity and her better knowledge may make her 

 at once dread the losses of all wars, and disdain the worthless and crimi- 

 nal glory of conquest. Thus years may pass before Europe is compelled 

 to a struggle for her existence. 



In England, we want no revolution ; we want nothing but quiet, and 

 the dismissal of men odious to the nation for blundering its interests at 

 home and abroad, and suspected of mixing themselves with Foreign 

 Politics of a mysterious kind; we want the restoration of the old laws of 

 trade, of currency, of the press, and of the finances. With the King, the 

 empire is evidently pleased ; his honesty of manner, his jovial good 

 humour, and his evident desire to make himself acceptable to the people, 

 have done more for William the Fourth's popularity in a couple of 

 months, than all the costly fetes and building expenditures of the palace 

 had done within twenty years. England wants no revolution, and will 



