It  is  a  conflagration,  in  which  the
flame  throws  into  equal  light  tho&e
who  wuuld  raise  and  those  who  would
extinguish  the  blaze :  a  scene  of  plun-
der, iu  which  its  very  excess  confers
something  of  a  character  of  right,
a  rapine  legitimattug  robbery,  aoJ  a
viuience  by  habit  adopted  as  a  privilege
of  nature:  the  whole,  a  vast  general
convuUion  of  morals,  in  whicti,  like
the  eunvulsions  of  the  soil,  the  struug
est  fabrics  are  the  first  stricken,  and
men  begin  at  once  to  believe  that  no-
thing is  to  be  built  fur  posterity,  and
that  a  power  of  such  irresistit>le  force
is  let  loose,  that  all  defence  is  pre-
sumptuous and  impracticable*  That
those  things  may  be,  we  have  had
fearful  experience ;  that  those  things
may  he  agate,  we  see  palpable  pruuf
in  the  eager  perversions  of  the  multi-
tude. But  if  they  shall  be  suffered,
it  must  be  by  our  own  fault,  by  the
willing  corruption  of  the  popular
mind,  seconded  by  the  iuduieoce,  the
obstinacy,  or  the  seldshness  of  tiie
leading  men  of  the  country.  But  the
course  of  safety  is  as  plain  as  the
course  of  danger.  Uemocrac^  must
not  be  tampered  withs  it  must  be
trampled  on.  It  must  be  mtt  by  au
open,  unhesitating,  uncompromi&iug
resistance.  The  man  who  in  Parlia-
ment avows  himself  a  democrat,  ought
to  be  instantly  driven  out  by  impeach-
ment :  the  mau  who  in  print  dares
to  insult  the  ears  of  England  with  the
doctrine,  ought  to  be  instantly  sent  to
take  his  trial  at  the  Old  Bailey ;  the
man  who  attempts  to  poison  the  rabble
with  this  most  deadly  of  all  nostrums,
ought  to  be  instantly  sent  to  work  out
his  guilty  life,  in  chains,  at  the  anti-
podes. The  doctrine  should  be  dt*-
dared  to  be  treason,  and  the  teacher
punished  as  a  traitor.  If  there  ever
was  a  pet  iod  when  the  very  principle
of  evil  was  suffered  to  ascend  em-
bodied on  earth,  to  bewilder  the  hu-
man brain  with  his  blackest  treach-
eries, and  make  tbe  tremendous  expe-
riment bow  far  man  is  capable  of
imbibing  a  malignity,  and  inflicting  a
misery,  and  incurringa  guilt  like  bis  own,
it  is  in  the  passions,  the  profligacy,  and


1842.]  European  History,

the  havoc   of  a  democratic  reyelu-


433


tioo.
