1830.] Affairs in General. *691 



If men are ever to be taught by the example of others, the late 

 career of the unfortunate Prince Polignac ought to give a lesson to 

 ambition. A year ago he was in England leading a quiet and pleasant 

 life, as Ambassador, in which he might have remained undisturbed till 

 this hour. But he must be Prime Minister of France, and now he is the 

 most miserable man in France, and in peril of his life by public execu- 

 tion. Not but that his execution, if it shall occur, will be an act of 

 useless bloodshed, a piece of national cruelty, which without any con- 

 ceivable good, will add to the national guilt, and alienate the entire good 

 will with which rational men throughout Europe have hitherto looked 

 on the late French revolution. The blood of Polignac and his fellow 

 ministers, instead of cementing French liberty, will dissolve it, turn the 

 revolution into a resemblance of the old days of terror ; and bring down 

 the still higher vengeance that is always visited on the wanton shedding 

 of blood by a people. In the death of Polignac the French can con- 

 template no future good, no present use, nothing but revenge. The 

 thirst of blood, is a principle which in every instance is forbidden 

 equally to nations and individuals. 



The course which will be adopted by the counsel for Polignac and 

 his colleagues, upon their trial, before the Chamber of Peers, will be to 

 shew that the crime with which they are charged is not high treason. 

 It is said that, notwithstanding the express terras of the Charter, there 

 are lawyers in France, and even in this country, who have shewn a 

 leaning to give an opinion something to that effect. Witnesses will be 

 examined from all parts of France for the prosecution. They will be, 

 it is said, between 200 and 300. 



If King Philip shall suffer this execution to take place, he is a King 

 of Gotham, he is a King of Moonshine, and the sooner he sells his 

 estates and transfers himself and his family to New South Wales the 

 wiser he will be. Europe expects him to shew his firmness in this 

 point, and if he hesitates for a moment between resigning his crown, 

 and giving his sanction to a judicial murder, he is undone ; undone in 

 reputation first, and then undone even in the object for which he shall 

 have sacrificed that reputation : his diadem will not be a twelvemonth on 

 his brow. 



The last news from the Spanish frontier is like all that came before, 

 totally disastrous. One of the letters mentions, of the date of Nov. 13th, 

 that Vigo, who was supposed to be at Lharens Sallens, had not, on the 

 contrary, been able to advance a step beyond the frontiers, and that 

 Gurrea, who had penetrated as far as Barbastro, had been beaten and 

 driven back on the French territory, leaving nineteen of his followers 

 in the hands of the Royalists. Those unfortunate men were shot on the 

 spot. All the villages were in motion at the sound of the tocsin, asking 

 for arms to repel further invasions. Thus the cause of the refugees is 

 irretrievably lost at all points of attack. 



The French authorities have been called on by the Spanish Govern- 

 ment to keep the insurgents within their frontier, which the French 

 are doing in mere mercy to the poor devils of refugees, who, if they 

 attempted any more expeditions like the last, must be undone. The 

 obvious fact is, they have no force to effect any thing. Let them wait 

 till the French Republic takes them under its wing. 



What a capital collection of pleasantries might be made out of those 



4 *S 2 



