| Retrospect of the last Twenty-five Years. 
It is strange that the Church of 
Rome has not protested against this 
sacrilege; for a more dangerous blow 
has never been aimed at her power. 
ENGLAND. 
“* But, whatever pain the fate of those 
three illustrious nations must cause us, let 
us not,” says M. de Sismondi, “despair of 
the human race :—do not let us despair of 
these very nations. The aggregate of man- 
kind advances, whilst these recede. It will 
continue to advance, and ultimately draw 
them also into its course. 
“ And, first, England alone,”’ continues 
our liberal panegyrist, ‘‘ may suffice to re- 
animate our hopes :— England! which has 
nobly placed itself at the head of those who 
are advancing in the march of human intel- 
lect !—England ! avhich teaches us how the 
development of liberty may be united with 
morality, and the cultivation of the mind; 
and with all its ancient institutions, and its 
deep-rooted habits of subordination. Do 
not let us listen to morose satirists—men 
who, amidst a thousand shining qualities, 
can only find out faults; neither let us 
listen to those who, mistaking their jealousy 
for patriotism, think to exalt France by 
abasing its rival) We have profited very 
little from the events of which we have been 
witnesses, if we have not learnt that the 
nations have ceased to be rivals—that we 
have now one interest, and one only strag- 
gle :—it is with those who wish to induce 
us to go backward. The progress of our 
neighbours is a beginning of triumph for 
ourselves. 
“England, indeed, Jearnt this lesson of 
the age somewhat tardily. Its cabinet, 
attached to the old system of policy, of which 
many able men are yet scarcely divested, 
nearly lost the advantage of this ascendancy, 
by consulting the absurd and demoralizing 
maxims of rivalry. For a long time, it 
acted in the persuasion, that the enemies 
of its enemies were its friends—and saw, 
at Waterloo, the reins of Europe escaping 
from its hold. Previous to that battle, the 
English were the chiefs of the coalition— 
immediately afterwards, they were only its 
paymasters. The allies of twenty years 
gave the British Cabinet to understand, 
that, haying no longer any occasion for its 
maintain and teach a school in the parish, 
or district in which he discharges the duty 
of receiving the eight, ten, or twelve hun- 
dred a-year attached to his pastoral office ? 
—Epi. 
Mowruty Maa. No. 412.— Supp. 
993 
assistance, they no longer esteemed its 
counsels. 
* Then it was, (under the weight of an 
enernious debt, contracted for others more 
than for herself—in the midst of a commer- 
cial revolution which threatened to destroy 
her riches,) that England shewed the re- 
sources of a nation, which has never failed, 
at the.same time, to unfold its knowledge, 
its liberties, and its virtues. The sceptre 
of Europe, which England thought she 
held fast, was broken in her hands; but, in 
its place, she seized the torch by which 
she has enlightened the rest of the world. 
Asia, Africa and America are approaching 
the era of civilization—and it is to the 
English that they owe their progress. 
“We might object to England, the ex- 
cessive inequality of rank and fortune—the 
corruption of her elections—the growing in- 
fluence of Ministers—the enormous expense 
of law-suits, which, in some degree, shut 
out the poor* from the courts of justice : but 
we cannot say that England loses her liber-” 
ty.+ We are far from denying the existence 
of - 
* And eyen those of moderate fortunes ;, 
or involve them, frequently, in ruin, even 
by the attainment of their suits. —Enrr. 
+ Her liberties are, however, in a variety 
of insidious, and in some sufficiently open 
and glaring ways, invaded. Act after act is 
passed, abridging or abolishing some ancient 
constitutional right, or traditionary privi-_ 
lege. Fortunately, at the same time, the 
diffusion of knowledge, ‘at least, keeps pace 
with the encroachments and the pretensions 
of power. The sphere of intelligence is 
constantly and rapidly extending, in num- 
bers as well as objects; and we have still 
some portion of that best modification of 
the sovereignty of the people,—the sove- 
reignty of the opinion of the informed: % 
description now no longer confined to the 
opulent and privileged few; but extended, 
in no small degree, even to the working - 
classes. If the mouth is less free in 
the choice of popular opportunities, and 
popular association more restrained, the 
press is infinitely more diffused—and opi- 
nion, thus enlightened, is a sort of para~ 
mount law. Acts of Parliament become, 
in some degree, dead letter, when incon- 
sistent with the general sentiment and 
feeling of the nation. At least, we could 
enumerate several which it is never thought 
prudent to act upon—that have been 
carried rather for the name, than the exer- 
tion, of power; or which are hung up tr 
petto, for a time, should it ever come, when 
necessity and expediency should go hand in 
hand for their enforcement. 
New expedients are found, through the 
4G medium 
