swept away the privileges of some of their fellow-creatures, which stood in their way; they have to encounter

barrier has changed its When men are nearly

When men

the competition of all. The shape rather than its place. alike, and all follow the same track, it is very difficult for any one individual to get on fast, and to cleave a way through the homogeneous throng which surrounds and presses upon him. This constant strife between the wishes springing from the equality of conditions, and the means it supplies to satisfy them, harasses and wearies the mind.

ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE,

"De la Démocratie en Amérique."

RICHELIEU.

All the social ameliorations that could possibly be made applicable to his time were effected by Richelieu, whose intellect embraced everything, whose practical genius omitted nothing, while, with a marvellous ability, he passed from generals to particulars, and from theory to practice. Conducting a multitude of affairs, both great and small, at the same time, and with the same zeal, everywhere present in person or in thought, he possessed, in an unique degree, universality and freedom of mind. Though a prince of the Roman Church, he was desirous that the clergy should be national; though a conqueror of the Calvinists, he struck the blow only at the rebellion, and respected the rights of conscience. Of noble birth, and imbued with the pride of his order, he acted as if he had received a commission to prepare the way for the reign of the Tiers-Etat. The ultimate

aim of his domestic policy was that which aggrandized and tended to unclass the bourgeoisie-namely, the progress of commerce and literature, the encouragement both of manual and intellectual labour. Richelieu did not recognise below the Crown any position equal to his own, save that of the writer or the thinker; he wished that a Chapelain or a Gombauld should converse with him on terms of equality. But while, by grand commercial schemes and a noble literary institution, he was multiplying places in the State, besides appointments in the courts, in favour of the commoners, he depressed below the level of an unlimited power the ancient liberties of the cities and provinces. Individual states, municipal constitutions, all that the countries annexed to the Crown had stipulated for as their rights, all that the bourgeoisie had created in its heroic days-he trod them all down lower than ever. This was not effected

without sufferings to the people-sufferings unfortunately inevitable, but not the less acutely felt on this account-which accompanied, from crisis to crisis, the birth of our modern centralization.

With regard to the foreign policy of the great minister, this part of his work, which is not less admirable than the other, has, in addition, the singular merit of never having lost any of its virtue by the lapse of time or the revolutions of Europe-of being as vigorous and as national after two centuries as on its first day. It is the very policy which, since the fall of the Empire and the restoration of constitutional France, has not ceased to form, if I may use the expression, a part of the conscience of the country. The maintenance of independent nationalities, the enfranchisement of those which are oppressed, respect for the natural ties which spring from

the community of race and of language, peace and friendship with the weak, war with the oppressors of general freedom and civilization, all those duties which our democratic liberalism imposes on itself, were implicitly comprised in the plan of foreign policy which was dictated to a king, by a statesman whose ideal of domestic policy was absolute power.

AUGUSTIN THIERRY, "Histoire du Tiers-Etat."

THE ELOQUENCE OF IMAGERY.

There are several modes of acting powerfully upon public assemblies. The speaker may address himself, either to their logic, by the vigour and conclusiveness of his reasonings; or to their wit, by the vivacity and piquancy of his expressions, allusions, and repartees; or to their hearts, by the emotions of sensibility; or to their passions, by vehemence of invective; or to their imagination, by the splendour of rhetorical figures. But most frequently it is by means of figures of imagery that eloquence produces its greatest effects. The prosopopæia of the warriors who fell at Marathon, by Demosthenes-the Roman citizens affixed to the infamous gibbet of Verres, by Cicero-the night, the terrible night when the death of Henrietta broke upon two kingdoms like a thunder-clap, by Bossuet-the avenging dust of Marius, the apostrophe of the bayonets and the Tarpeian rock, by Mirabeau-the "audacity, audacity, always audacity," by Danton-the Republic that, like Saturn, is devouring its own children, by Vergniaud— the voice of liberty re-echoed from the lakes and mountains, by O'Connell-the car which conveys the remains

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367

of Ireland to the grave, by Grattan-the turban which marks on the map the place of the Turkish empire, by Lamartine-Algeria, of which the fruit does not present itself, even in blossom, upon the tree so copiously watered with our blood, by Berryer-the fathers of the Revolution, those noble spirits looking down upon us from the heights of heaven, by Guizot-all this is the eloquence of imagery.

CORMENIN.

MARTIN LUTHER.

Luther is a Lollard, the singer, not of a smothered song, in a low voice, but of a song louder than thunder a singer in whose heroic voice sun and joy shine forth. Oh well-deserved joy! and how justified this great man was in being joyful! What revolution ever had a more noble origin? He himself tells how the thing came upon him, and how he had the courage to accomplish that which his education made him consider as the "most extreme misery." He was moved with pity for the people. He saw them eaten up by their priests, devoured by their nobles, and sucked by their kings, looking forward to nothing beyond this life of sufferings but an eternity of sufferings, and taking the bread out of their very mouths to purchase of scoundrels their redemption from hell. He was moved with pity for the people, and found again in the tenderness of his heart the old song of the Lollard, and the consolation : Sing, poor man, all is forgiven thee."

MICHELET," Histoire de France."

THE GRADUAL PROGRESS OF ENGLISH LIBERTY.

It is but little more than a century that modern England has enjoyed that plenitude of liberty which her constitution was preparing for her. Through what bloody struggles, through what long eclipses, through what cruel misgivings, has she not passed before arriving at that full and peaceful possession of herself! How often, from the reign of King John to that of George II., has not the honest and patriotic Englishman had to doubt of the future destinies of his country, of the triumph of right, and of the maintenance of his dearest liberties! Those who have persevered—who have trusted -who have hoped against hope, have been finally right; but it has been only by dint of courage, of patience, and a robust faith in the good cause, and in good sense, that they have been justified, and enabled to enjoy that constitution which has cost them so dear, but which is worth all it has cost, and which has won the admiration of the most elevated and the most varied minds, from Montesquieu to the Count de Maistre.

Such is the supreme lesson which English society offers to those who might feel their faith in liberty, and their confidence in a limited government, shaken by recent events. Such, also, is the consolation which those should derive from it who prefer the proud and patient resignation of a defeat to a dishonourable complicity in the triumph of what they have all their life long either fought against or despised.

MONTALEMBERT, "Avenir Politique de l'Angleterre."