590 
evident a retrograde movement — even 
France has gained, during this’ period 
Gf she can but. retain even what. re- 
mains,) much more than she has lost. 
Napoleon retrograded most when 
France, under his dominion, appeared 
most splendid and formidable; and the 
restoration of the Bourbons has, as might 
naturally be expected, restored, together 
with the superstitious veneration for 
ancient dynasties, the propensity, on 
the part of the rulers, to reeur to the 
arbitrary maxims and usages associated 
with Bourbon remembrances. | Those 
who pride themselves in the descent of 
their title from le Grand Monarque, 
Louis XIV., will be naturally disposed 
to play the monarch, as nearly as pos- 
sible, in the same despotic style; and, 
in such a drama, there will never be any 
want of actors, who are eager enough to 
support the secondary and subordinate 
parts. 
The instances are sufficiently nu- 
merous, in which this spirit has been 
manifested ; and the steps sufficiently 
notorious, and sufficiently important, m 
which its operations have been effec- 
tive. The priesthood has regained a 
considerable portion of its influence, 
and some of its power :—and in propor- 
tion to the political influence and the 
power of any priesthood, will be the 
retrogression and abasement of the 
human mind. But all has not yet 
been undone; and much of what re- 
tnains, it is not, perhaps, in the nature 
of things that it should be practicable 
for effort or machination to undo. 
The ideas of order and justice are un- 
folded and fixed; knowledge is uni- 
versally diffused; and both parties, ge- 
nérally speaking, have relinquished 
some portion of their prejudices. Mo- 
rals, indeed, have suffered alike from 
the progress of hypocrisy and venality ; 
knowledge, from opposition to the best 
methods of instruction; liberty, from 
invasions, which it would be useless to 
recapitulate; and symptoms are but 
too apparent of the progress of ava- 
rice, or lust of accumulation, which 
was not, heretofore, a characteristic 
‘vice of France. But the progress of 
prosperity is indisputable; and na- 
tional wealth has elevated, in some re- 
spects, the national character: for the 
citizen feels his independence, when he 
is above the reach of want; and ex- 
tended ease and affluence have given to 
every class a greater thirst for instruc- 
tion. In compensation for some of its 
lost rights, France has gained, at least, 
Retrospect of the last Twenty-five Years. 
an extended liberty of the press ; the 
most effectual guarantee of elevated 
sentiments, and the most powerful in- 
strument of human improyability. 
GERMANY. 
Germany, no less shaken than France, 
—the theatre of war during the greatest 
part of the period we are treating of — 
has seen all its institutions overthrown 
—its sovereignties changed, either in 
titles, in laws, or in circumscription. 
Prior to the late violent convulsions, it 
had the name of alegitimate government; 
but it has not now, if the term have any 
meaning, even that. France has caused 
her own revolutions, but Germany has 
fallen a victim to those of other na- 
tions; and, instead of improving, has 
gone back. At the beginning of this 
century, every state endeavoured to 
improve its. institutions, and to imtro- 
duce some modifications of liberty. The 
respective governments sought to merit, 
from their subjects, some portion of that 
love which, in times of public danger, 
is their only surety. The people, rely- 
ing with confidence on their princes, 
and obtaining their confidence in re- 
turn, went hand in hand with them, 
with a slow but certain pace. The 
greatest freedom was allowed to litera- 
ture; new life seemed to animate their 
universities; and, what is more, those 
incorporated seminaries possessed, effi- 
ciently, a political power ; and the spirit 
of association, which took its rise in 
Germany, and which the | sovereigns 
strongly encouraged, gave the philo- 
sophers an immediate ascendancy over 
the multitude. 
But every thing, now again, is changed: 
fear is substituted for love, as the prim- 
ciple of obedience ; morality is invaded 
by the encouragement given to informers 
and spies; and, still more, by the no- 
torious examples of want of faith, in 
the breach of every promise made to 
the people, in the hour when the now- 
dominant governors stood most peri- 
lously in need of their assistance.. In- 
tellect is checked—the universities are 
shackled and degraded—and the light 
of science is forbidden to shine, but 
upon such objects, and through such 
discoloured mediums, as suit the pas- 
sions. and the prejudices of rulers. The 
press is enslaved, and club-meetings are 
punished as if they were state crimes. 
The ancient constitution (rude and 
semi-barbarous as it was, yet limiting, 
in some degree, despotic power), has 
been suppressed, without compensation : 
there 
