594 Retrospect of the last 
of errors: We are far from desiring the ad- 
journment of reforms. Those which haye 
been effected, render others stillmoreneces- 
sary—they make the contrast more shock- 
ing, between the remains of ancient bar- 
barism and the improvements of an en- 
lightened age. But, such as she is, Eng- 
land holds the first rank among nations, by 
the combination of liberty, knowledge and 
virtue—by the continued enjoyment of 
these advantages—by the progress which 
she continues to make in them all—by that 
empire of opinion, which every day becomes 
more powerful—by that extension of -na- 
tional education, which diffuses knowledge 
among the most numerous classes of the 
people, which causes them to understand the 
interests of their country, and to act up to 
the dictates of reason and morality. 
_ “ Not only is England freer than she was 
five-and-twenty years ago, but she under- 
stands the principles of liberty much better :* 
she makes a better use of it; and she is 
always willing to receive more.’’ + 
SWEDEN, &c. 
The Lesser States of Europe may be 
more briefly dismissed. Of Sweden, 
suffice it to say—that its government, 
from its novelty, can only be sustained 
by an intimate union with the interests 
of the people. Holland is endeavour- 
ing to combine the advantages of re- 
cent experience with the exemplary 
medium of this growing intelligence, in 
proportion as old privileges are abridged, 
and means are multiplied for the asser- 
tion and maintenance of our rights. The 
government and the people seem to run 
a race; in which, upon the whole, the 
latter contrive somehow to keep the start; 
and, speaking generally, it perhaps may be 
true, that we are advancing, rather than 
Tetrograding, in actual liberty. Nor is it 
more than justice to say, that, atleast, seve- 
ral of the members of the Government seem 
actuated by liberal principles, upon many 
important points, which, though they have 
not popular liberty for their object, cannot 
fail, eventually, to conduct towards that 
goal.—Epir. 
* This, at least, isa great and cogent 
truth: and that, which a nation under- 
stands, she will ultimately attain.—Epir. 
+ We have taken no liberties with the 
passage that relates to England. We wish 
our countrymen to see how a writer in a 
French Review can speak of our once 
calumniated and hostile country; and that 
writer no less a star in the hemisphere of 
Gallic literature than J. C. L. de Sismondi. 
— Epi. 
Twenty-five Years. 
remembrances of antiquity. Switzer- 
land, astonished to find that, after so 
many noble efforts, she has slumbered 
for five generations, is also awakened 
to a progressive movement. Bat it is 
not, perhaps, ‘desirable that we should 
show wherein, the weak haye the van- 
tage-ground, of the, strong; or how 
much their example proves that liberty, 
knowledge and. virtue are intimately 
connected; and that, when, one deve- 
lopes itself, the progress of the two 
others is inevitable. They can ill de- 
fend themselves against the jealousy 
and the hostility their example is cal- 
culated to awaken. The evil eye of 
Austria is already on the free insti- 
tutions of the Swiss Cantons, Even 
their simple poverty cannot be regarded 
without envious rancour. . They are 
republican :—a sound ungracious to the 
ears of retrograding despotism. 
RUSSIA, 
Even the colossus, which stretches 
its oppressive stride over. Europe, is 
itself in a state of progression, 
Russia beholds not only the number of 
its inhabitants daily increasing, with as- 
tonishing rapidity; but their riches, their 
knowledge, their moral feelings, andeven 
their rights, extending also. In the state 
of absolute. barbarism and ignorance 
in which this nation was plunged, it 
could not, all at once, enjoy the pre- 
rogatives of a civilized community. 
Precipitation, in the concession:of privi- 
leges, would have been dangerous to the 
people. But this is a reproach which 
few governments will merit. Never- 
theless, instruction spreads rapidly in 
Russia, and the government favours it ; 
the nobility co-operate, by their pa- 
tronage, by their reading, and by their 
travels, in the progress of Europe. The 
peasantry, in their turn, have been en- 
lightened by a collision which could not 
fail to awaken their sluggish sensibilities. 
They have spread over Europe as sol- 
diers, and learned to estimate the advan- 
tages enjoyed by more civilized people. 
On their return to their fire-sides, they 
brought with them thousands of French, 
Italian and German prisoners, who filled 
their ears with the name of liberty ; 
while the government, on the other 
hand, by a hazardous experiment, in its 
military colonies, constituted a class 
who not only had rights, but have the 
strength that may render them ayail- 
able. 
Morality ought to keep pace with 
the promulgation of knowledge. It is, 
without 
