' Retrospect of the last Twenty-five Years. 
clamour and violence, assumed the sem- 
blance and efficacy of the whole,) waged 
a war of desolation against every art and 
every refinement connected with the 
progress and elevation of man; and 
seemed likely to have verified even the 
extravagant hyperbole of Burke, and to 
have slain the very mind of the nation. 
If the voice of the people be the voice 
of God, itis not that voice which mani- 
festsitself ina shout and a roar ; for these 
can accompany pillage and massacre, 
and are then likely to be loudest and 
most vehement ; but'it must be the'voice 
that is deliberately given through some 
organized medium. In short, the sove- 
reignty of the people is the sovereignty 
of the intellect of the nation; and all 
that the Progressive System requires, is 
that every arbitrary restriction should be 
removed from the course of its deve- 
lopment and manifestation. 
The adversaries of this party have op- 
posed to this opinion, that of Legitimacy, 
upon which they pretended to rest the 
sovereign authority. But it is not the 
object of every upholder of this system 
to rear the standard of the retrograde 
party. They have- thought only of 
France, and the example of her days of 
violence; and, regarding allrevolutionary 
power as necessarily connected with 
headlong violence, they sought for jus- 
tice in the concentration of force ; and 
hoped to secure this justice by acknow- 
ledging in the sovereign, as in the sub- 
ject, an indefeasible right, sanctioned by 
regular transmission, and the prescrip- 
tion of many generations, The retro- 
gradeparty, however, have availed them- 
selves of the term in avery different sense. 
But have those, who talk of “ Legiti- 
macy,” looked either to the genuine sig- 
nification of the term, or to the history 
of the states and governments to which 
it is applied ?—to the legitimacy of Ger- 
many and of Italy, for example! Have 
they forgotten the nature of the le- 
gitimate order in the Sacred Roman 
and Germanic empires, as they. existed 
prior to the French revolution, and to 
the revolutions that have been made 
under the pretence of putting that re- 
-volution down? Established legitimate 
usage, sanctioned by long prescription, 
and regular and quiet conveyance from 
generation to generation, gave to each 
of these two countries an elective chief ; 
electors, of whom three were elective 
in their turns; and a constitution, which 
_the present pretended Legitimates have 
destroyed from beginning to end : whilst 
all the rights and titles, they at present 
589. 
claim, are derived from that revolution 
which they proscribe, and which their 
own equally flagrant revolutions have 
superseded. 
The rest of Europe (as now legiti- 
mately—or mock-legitimately constitut- 
ed) will be no less puzzled to show, in the 
power to which they are subjected, the 
proofs of a legitimacy, of which almost 
every ancient law (those laws upon 
which the governments of those respec- 
tive states were founded) is abolished. 
Witness Genoa, Venice, the Ionian 
Isles, Malta, part of Saxony, Poland, 
Sweden, Holland, Belgium, &c. 
But the partizans of the Retrograde 
System have no need of established prin- 
ciples ; it is sufficient for them that they 
have established terms. : 
The partizans of the Progressive Sys- 
tem are called upon for more precision. 
The duties of those who maintain the 
Sovereignty of the People, are the ad- 
vancement of the ends of human so- 
ciety—above all, its happiness: and it 
is incumbent upon them to shew, that 
its improvement in this depends upon, 
or, at least, is necessarily connected with, 
its progress in virtue; and that moral 
melioration must depend upon the dif- 
fusion of knowledge and liberty. The 
accomplishment of these ends legitima- 
tizes a government, whatever be its 
form; and is, at once, its most glorious 
title, and its best security. : 
Every form of government is not in- 
deed equally suited to the accomplish- 
ment of this end; but we must be con- 
tent with what we have,— provided it 
does its best: for a perfect form of 
government, suited to all nations, and 
accommodated to all circumstances, has 
not yet been found; and something 
must be conceded to the preposses- 
sions that result from habitude. 
Having endeavoured to show what is 
the object of the struggle that has so 
long occupied the attention of the hu- 
man race, let us also consider the result. 
Notwithstanding the changes and 
disastrous catastrophies which have 
occurred during the last quarter of a 
century, mankind may yet be proud of 
the progress they have made. , 
FRANCE. 
France, who gave the impulse to all 
other nations, though she has paid 
dearly for her inexperience — alter- 
nately conquering, conquered and re- 
conquered, — subject to the wildest 
transitions and extremes,—and retracing 
many, even ofher very best steps, with too 
evident 
