THE 



MONTHLY MAGAZINE 



OP 

 POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND THE BELLES LETTRES. 



VOL. XL] JUNE, 1831. [No. 66. 



THE STATE OF EUROPE. 



THE great powers are not yet^ plunged into a general war; the 

 kingdoms of the continent are not yet turned into republics, and the 

 British Empire is not yet revolutionized ; but the time for all will come. 

 At this moment Europe presents the most singular anomaly ; all safe on 

 the surface, and all notoriously hollow below it ; the standing armies of 

 the continent augmented and augmenting ; horse, foot, and dragoons, the 

 universal produce, yet every cabinet protesting its most profound reliance 

 on peace ; discontent in every nation, and dread on every throne, yet 

 all professing the utmost complacency ; and the spirit of overthrow 

 sharpening and strengthening by circles of longitude and latitude, yet 

 no explosion, or none which has not been speedily extinguished by a few 

 gensdarmes, or the march of a troop of Austrian hussars. 



The changes of France, Belgium, and Poland are of a higher character, 

 and already belong to history. 



The Poles have certainly made a most extraordinary and most honour- 

 able campaign. To have even dared to think of rising against Russia 

 was a conception of heroism. Europe was already either trembling at 

 the colossal power of Russia, or preparing to summon its whole strength 

 to resist it. The remotest corner of the continent, a year ago, would have 

 dreaded to hear that a Russian army was on its march, let its direction 

 be where it would; while Poland, a broken state, depressed in its 

 resources, with all its public employments in Russian hands, with Russian 

 armies equal to the invasion of Europe, on its borders, with Russian 

 troops and governors in its bosom, had the gallantry to rise, defy the 

 danger, in which every eye must have contemplated utter ruin, and face 

 the incalculable military force of the oppressor on his own frontier. It 

 did more ; with every bond of its administration cast loose, it formed a 

 government, reconciled parties, and wisely and vigorously conducting its 

 energies in a period when we might have expected nothing but treachery, 

 timidity, inexperience, and confusion, presented to Russia a popular 

 force equal to contest with its most distinguished generals and its most 

 victorious and disciplined troops in the field. It is impossible to confound 

 those noble efforts with the frenzy and riot of revolution. Poland has 

 exhibited none of the features which have characterized the triumphs of 

 democracy from the beginning of the world. It has confiscated no pro- 

 perty of the helpless and unoffending, it has driven none of its people 



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