HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



69 



case of France, the raising of the 

 people ill a mass* : but those who 

 were so weak and dehided by their 

 icrnorance, as to recommend such 

 an attempt, soon found it imprac- 

 ticable. The French were be- 

 come a nation of enthusiasts ; the 

 Spaniards still remained a nation of 

 bigots. The French, however 

 they might be mistaken in their 

 object, had now risen above all 

 principle but that of a violent at- 

 tachment to the constitutions esta- 

 blished ill their country, and as 

 violent a hatred to that which had 

 been abolished. But the Spaniards, 

 though desirous to reform the de- 

 fects in their government, still 

 maintained an implicit devotion 

 to the absurdest tenets of the reli- 

 gious system so long prevailing 

 among them. Hence their minds 

 were debilitated by superstition, 

 and unable to rise to that height of 



comprehension and vigour which 

 adds so powerfully to manliness 

 and courage, and without which 

 mere bravery loses half its effect. 

 The attempts which were made to 

 disseminate among the people a 

 spirit of universal resistance to the 

 enemy, failed everywhere, to the 

 great mortification of the court, 

 which had not expected to be re- 

 linquished in so marked a manner 

 by the nation at large. Other me- 

 thods of encountering the ap- 

 proaching danger were now to be 

 provided with the utmost expedi- 

 tion ; and it was hoped that by ap- 

 pealing to those who were most 

 interested in the support of go- 

 vernment, it woiild be able to 

 maintain its ground, and if not to 

 overcome, still to prevent the 

 enemy from extending his con- 

 quests into, the interior parts of 

 the kingdom. The nobility, the 



• * This expression of raising the people in a mass is vague, and neither conveys 

 any precise idea, nor refirrs to any fact or event from which any clear idea may 

 b£ formed. At ihe famous epochs of 1789, the I4th of July, and the 5th of Oc- 

 tober, the people of I'ansasseniblei! in an immense body for a short space of lime. 

 But if it had been necessary for this immense body to march out of Paris, it would 

 soon have found that they ncichtr would nor could march to any great distance. 

 In France, sir.ce the commencement of the revolution, the natier.al guards have 

 been formed into military bodies, as the volunteers have been since in England ; 

 but this organization requires time. And it i; only after any number of men, 

 armed for the defence of their conntiy, have been duly traiiied and disciplined, 

 that they can be of any material service, either by recruiting the old armies, or by 

 foinins; new ones. If whole nations of men were to rise in masses, and to remain 

 for such a len^'lh of time ts would be necessary for the purposes of war v/bether 

 oH^nsive or defensive, how are they to be fed? how cloUied? how armed? Who 

 i> to establish magazines for them? to provide lodgings ? to furnish camp-cquipage 

 and necessary carriHgCi ? Tlicre have ajipeared several quacks in Germany, Italy, 

 and Spain, who have talked much of the people rising iii amass; and periodical 

 pubhcations have reechoed the sound. But there is no man versed in even the 

 rudiments of the military ait, who wi.l lay any stress on the pos«ibil.ty of a nation 

 carrying on wwr in a mass, and who will not consider the idea as absurd and ridi- 

 culous. — The counrry pcojile somcumes assemble in muUitudes, for the purpose of 

 attacking the remnants or wrecks of a conquered army; but the effects of such 

 risings are momentary, ;idvcntltinus, of little consequence, and never to be much 

 reckoned upon. 'l"o build any hopes of either subverting or restoring cmi)irts by 

 suc)i mtar.s, in soeiilightencd a quarter of the world, and so skilful in all milnitry 

 arts as Europe, is cxticuie ignoiance and folly. 



F 3 clergy, 



