THE 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
New Serics, 
Vou. VII.] FEBRUARY, 1829. [ No. 38. 
ENGLAND AND EUROPE, 
AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE SESSION. 
ENGLAND, by a course of yalour exerted in a righteous cause, by 
councils manly and wise, by a national spirit unequalled for the love of 
freedom, for energy, and for generosity, and lastly and chiefly, by the 
possession of the purest form of the purest religion, stands at this hour 
in the foremost place of the civilized world. ‘ 
Where is her rival now to be found? Russia, the only power whose 
influence might have seemed to menace her supremacy, has been taught 
in a single campaign the feebleness of an empire whose strength is 
founded upon the brute force of armies. That she has been taught this 
lesson no lover of the peace of Europe, or the true interests of mankind, 
ean regret. Wherever grasping and insolent ambition receives its chas- 
tisement, a great good is done to the cause of justice ; and wherever the 
true weakness and fragility of despotism can be contrasted with the 
intrinsic and inexhaustible vigour of a government of freedom, there 
human rights have made a progress, and the victory is gained for human 
nature. Whether the next Russian campaign will be more successful 
than that which has now closed in such signal disgrace to the osten- 
tatious and unjustifiable spirit of aggression, which urged the emperor 
into the Turkish war; or whether the first campaign shall be the 
last, is of no importance to the main question. The Russians have been 
defeated, and that too under the most humiliating circumstances—not at 
the close of a long struggle, where their troops, discipline, and spirit, 
might be supposed equally broken down; but with the most com- 
pletely picked army that the empire ever sent into the field; with all 
the advantages of discipline and equipment in the troops, and experience 
in the generals ; with anational and superstitious enthusiasm to stimulate 
them to efforts even beyond the exploits of soldiership, and with the 
whole temptation of the opulence of European and Asiatic Turkey to 
reward their easy march over the bodies of the enemy. 
In this struggle too they were not to contend with the organized and 
iron power of the great European kingdoms; Austrian discipline, 
French activity, and British courage, were not to turn the bayonets of 
the grenadier-army of all the Russias. Nicholas was to march against 
M.M. New Series —Vou. VI. No. 38. 
