be raised as cheap in the old state as the yoimg
one, the consequence is, that free importation is
first called for, and at last admitted. The mo-
ment this takes place, to any great extent, the
limits of national progress have been reached,
population declines, emigration increases, and
the sinews of the state are transferred to distant
lands. How clearly is the operation of this law
of nature exemplified in the recent history of
Great Britain, where the nation has been con-
vulsed with the fierce demand for free trade in
corn, first raised in the manufacturing towns ;
and, as a consequence of its concession, it now
finds ten millions of quarters of foreign grain an-
nually imported, three hundred thousand culti-
vators annually exported, and the chief market
for its manufactures in the inhabitants of its own
fields daily declining.
But if this law of nature, acting as it does upon
the selfish dispositions and grasping ^g.
propensities of mankind, has thus Great effect
affixed an everlasting bar to the "pon the for-
progress of particular nations, it is ^"cfes!"^ "'^
attended with very diflerent results
upon the general fortunes of the species. If the
first leads to melancholy, the last inspires the
most consolatory reflections. It is constantly to
be recollected, that the designs of Providence
are not limited to the growth of any particular
people, but extend to the general extension and
dispersion of the species. To people the earth
and subdue it is the first duty, as it was the first
command to mankind, in the last ages of the
world as in the first. When, from the causes
which have been mentioned, the progress of a
particular state is arrested by the indulgence of
the selfish passions of its own people, the sinews
of its strength, the seeds of its greatness, are
not lost ; they are only transferred to distant
realms, where a wider field is prepared for their
reception, and the means of safe and unbounded
multiplication are afforded. Sometimes this great
migration of mankind takes place from the lust
of foreign conquest, sometimes from the impa-
tience of internal passion. In one age it appears
in the fierce tempest of Scythian conquest; in
anothei", in the ceaseless inroad of pacific im-
migration ; at one time it implants the Gothic
swarm in the destined fields of European enter-
terprise ; at another, spreads the Anglo-Saxon
race over the boundless regions of Transatlantic
or Australian freedom.
"Knowledge,"' says Lord Bacon, "is Pnccr.'''
He has not said it is either wisdom 4-
or virtue. In this respect a capital Effect of gen-
mistake has been committed both eral education
by the speculative and active part ^or^aln*}^
of mankind of late years; and, what
is very remarkable, by the religious teachers,
whose principles should have led them most f!
distrust the elficaey of intellectual cultivation ii'
CUAP. I.]
arresting the corruption of mankind. They for-
g'ot that it was eating of the fruit of the tree of
knowledge which expelled our first parents from
Paradise — that the precept of our Saviour was
to preach the gospel to all nations, not to educate
all nations. Experience has now abundantly
verified the melancholy truth so often enforced
in Scripture, so constantly forgotten by mankind,
that intellectual cultivation has no eliect in ar-
resting the sources of evil in the human heart ;
that it alters the direction of crime, but does not
■'er its amount. The poet has said —
" Dedicisse fideliter artes,
Emollit mores, nee sinit esse feros."
And that is undoubtedly true. But observe, he
has not said, "nee sinit esse ^Jravos." Education
and civilization, generally diffused, have a pow-
erful effect in softening the savage passions of
the human breast, and checking the crimes of
violence which originate in their indulgence ;
but they tend rather to increase than diminish
those of fraud and gain, because they add strength
to the desires, by multiplying the pleasures which
can be attained only by the acquisition of pro-
perty. Then is indeed experienced the truth
of the saying of the wise man, that " the love of
money is the root of all evil."
This is a melancholy truth : so melancholy,
4g indeed, that it is far from being gen-
Proof of this erally admitted even by the best in-
from various formed persons ; andit is so mortify-
countnes. ^^„ ^^ ^^^ p^^jg ^j- human intellect,
that it is probably the last one which will be gen-
erally admitted by mankind. Nevertheless, there
is none which is supported by a more wide-
spread and unvarying mass of proofs, or which,
when rightl}' considered, might more naturally
be anticipated from the structure of the human
mind. The utmost efforts have, for a quarter
of a century, been made in various countries to
extend the blessings of education to the laboring
classes; but not only has no diminution in con-
sequence been perceptible in the amount of
crime and the turbulence of mankind, but the
effect has been just the reverse; they have both
signally and alarmingly increased. Education
has been made a matter of state policy in Prus-
sia, and every child is, by the compulsion of gov-
ernment, sent to school ; but so far has this uni-
versal spread of instruction been from eradicat-
ing the seeds of evil, that serious crime is four-
tcen times as prevalent, in proportion to the popu-
lation in Prussia, as it is in France, where about
two-thirds of the whole inhabitants can neither
read nor write.* In France itself, it has been
ascertained, from the returns collected in the
" Statistique Morale dc la France," of commit-
ments for crimes tried at the assizes, and the
number of children at school, that the amount
of crime in all the eighty-three Departments is,
without one single exception, in proportion to
the amount of instruction received ; and accord-
ingly, in the very curious and interesting tables
constructed by M. Guerry, the lightest Depart-
ments in the map showing the amount of edu-
cation, are the darkest in that showing the
* In France and Prussia there were respectively in 1826,
l'rii-«ia. Frnnro.
Crimes against the person .... I In .■?•}, 122 I 1 in 32,41 1
Do. property . . 1 in i")!*" 1 in U,.'!'J2
On the whole 1 in 5b7 | ] in 7,265
•Sb« Allscn's Essays, i. 558.
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
13
amount of crime.* By far the greater propor-
tion of the ladies of pleasure in Paris come from
the districts to the north of the Loire, the most
highly educated in France. In Scotlanu, the
educated criminals are to the uneducated as -li
to 1 ; in England, as 2 to 1 nearly; in Ireland
they are about equal. t In America, the educated
criminals are in most of the States of the Union
three times the uneducated, and some double
only; in all, greatly superior in number. J These
facts, to all persons capable of yielding assent to
evidence in opposition to prejudice, completely
settle the question ; but the conclusion to which
they lead is so adverse to general opinion, that
probably more than one generation must descend
to their graves before they are generally ad-
mitted.
And yet, although the pride of intellect is so
reluctant to admit this all-important
truth, there is none which in reali- Reascms of
ty is so entirely conformable to the this peculiar-
known dispositions of the human ity in human
mind, or which is so frequently and "^'"'■''•
loudly announced in Scripture. That the heart
is "deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked," we know from the very highest author-
ity ; and pi'obably there is no man whose ex-
perience of himself, as well as others, will not
confirm the truth of the saying. But education
has no tendency to weaken the influence of these
secret tempters which every one finds in his own
bosom ; on the contrary, it has often a tendency to
increase their power, by inflaming the imagina-
tion with pictui^es of enjoyment, which is not to
be attained, at least in any short-hand method,
but by crime or injustice. Discontent with our
present lot is too often the result of highly-
wrought, and often exaggerated pictures of the
lot of others ; thence the experienced and in-
creasing difiiculty of maintaining government,
restraining turbulence, and preserving property
from spoliation in the states and cities where in-
struction is most generally diffused. The com-
mon idea, that education, by rendering the
pleasures of intellect accessible to the multitude,
will provide an antidote and counterpoise to the
seductions of sense, though plausible, is entirel}'
fallacious. The powers of intellect — the capa-
city of feeling its enjoyments — is given to a
small fraction only of the human race : the vast
majority of men in every rank, are, and ever will
be, hewers of wood and drawers of water.
Physical excitement, animal pleasure, the thirst
for gain, to be able to enjoy them, constitute the
active principles of nine-tenths of mankind, in
all ages and ranks of life. Increase their ma-
terial well being, multiply their means of ob-
taining these enjoyments, render them, so far as
possible, easy and comfortable in their circum-
stances, and you make a mighty step in adding
to the sum of human felicity, because you open
avenues to it froin which none are excluded.
Augment to any conceivable extent their means
of instruction ; establish schools in every street,
* See " Satistlque Morale do la France," par M. Guerry,
Paris, 1834 — a most interesting work, the re.sults of which
arc well abridged in Bulwer's '* France," vol. i. p. 173-178.
t 1841— Kn^liiiid. SL-oth,ii,l. Irfhiiid.
Uneducated 9,220 I f)i)6 I 8,735
Educated 18,111 | 2,834 | 7,l.'i2
— Portek's Progress of the Kation, and Parliamrntarj
Tables.
i See Buckingham's "Travels," vol. i. pp.47?, 515.
?f
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
[CUAP. 1
UVmrirs in every villnfr<", ""il you il» iiirmilo
things, imicctl, lor jIhj lliiiikini^ lew, but liltlc
for llie iinlliiiikini; iniiiiy.
Uul ihis virv oiii'iiinsliuu'O of the extreme
y, naiiowiK'ss of the circle to which
Oriiornl pow- lilcriirv |ilensures can by possibility
rr oi" iliouKlit bo extciuicil. ami of the limited
OV.T nmiikuiJ. sphere over which its diicet en-
joyments spreaii, only renders the {greater and
the move enduring; the sway of intelligence and
inlellect over mankind, and the permanent di-
rection of human destinies by the power of thought.
However much men, in troubled times, may
Aspire to self-government — however long and
fiercely they may contend for it — there is nothing
more certain, than that they can never enjoy it,
not even for an hour. They are disqualified for
it bv the decided inferiority of the general mind.
The first and most urnrent necessity of mankind
is to be iroverned. JNlan can exist for days to-
gether without food, for months without shelter;
but not for an hour without a government. The
first act of successful insurrection, as of victo-
rious mutiny, invariably is to appoint 3 new set
of rulers, who shall discharge the duties, and
who never fail to render more stringent the
))owers of the old ones. Mankind does not by
revolution escape from government; it only
changes its governors. Monarchy was as really
established in France under Robespierre, Napo-
leon, Louis Philippe, and Louis Napoleon, as
ever it was under Louis XIV. : the only differ-
ence was in the person or party who wielded
the sovr, reign powers. The English soon dis-
covered whe!iier the executive was less strin-
gent or cosily under the Long Parliament,
Cromwell, or William IIP, than it had been under
the princes of the Stuart line. Rousseau has
affirmed, that the origin of government is to be
looked for in the social contract ; other political
dreamers have sought it in the ruthless power of
primeval conquests ; but its real source is to be
found in a cause of more general and lasting
operation than either. It consists in the expe-
rienced inability of mankind to govern themselves.
It is this circumstance which has so immense-
ly extended the influence of mind,
Great con- ^"'^ augmented, in so fearl'ul a de-
sequent influ- pree, the responsibilit}' of those
ence of mind who direct its powers. The ihink-
fairs"â„¢'*" ^^' ^"" '^^^ govern the unthinking
many ; and they are themselves di-
rected by the still smaller number to whom
Providence has unlocked the fountains of origin-
al thought. If we would discover the real
rulers of mankind in civilized states, and in this
age, we must look for them, not in the cabinets
of princes, but in the closet of the sage. There
is only this difference between them, that the
sway of the latter does not arise till long after
he has been mouldering in his grave. It does
not commence till the third or fourth generation.
That time is required for thought to descend from
the pinnacles where it is first evolved, to the
inferior regions, where it must spread before it
U carried into effect. But though slew, the ef-
fect is not the less certain. Who brought about
the French Revoljtion, and all the countless
changes and convulsions to which it has given
rise? It was neither Calonne nor Brienne,
Neckar nor Mirabeau ; they only moved with
the stream when put in motion : it was Voltaire
and Rousseau that unlocked the original fount-
ains ; it is genius alone that can unlock the
cavern of ihc winils. Who was the real author of
free trade, and of a change of polic)', the clliscts
of which are incalculable upon the British em-
jiirc? It was neither Sir Robert Peel nor Mr.
Huskisson ; it was not Cobden nor Bright : it is
Adam Smith and (iuesnay who stand forth as
the autluirs of this mighty innovation. All that
the sub^cijuent statesmen did was to elaborate
and cany into execution what they had an-
nounced and recommended. Even the reaction
against innovation, and the frequent return, after
an experience of the storms of revolution, to the
stillness of despotism, or the sternness of mili-
tary power, is owing to the powers of thought.
It is they which enlbrce the lessons of experi.
ence, because they point out to what cause prioi
suffering had been owing. What a vail dropped
from bel'ore the British eyes, when the Icon Basi-
like appeared ! And even the arms of the Allies
were less efllcacious than the genius of Chateau-
briand in procuring the restoration of the Bour-
bons.
It is generally supposed that the powers of
thought, if allowed free expression,
are the best guarantee against the „ ^^
encroachments of despotism ; and which the
that the loss of freedom is never to press may be
be apprehended as long as the perverted to
liberty of the press is preserved. '^^^^^
But though that is olten, it js by no
means always true ; on the contrary, the sefish
measures of class government, and the destruc-
tion of free privileges by military jiower, are
never so effectually secured as by the support of
a corrupted or hireling press. Beyond all ques-
tion, the rude despotism of Cromwell in England,
the nicely-constructed chains of imperial power
in the hands of Napoleon in France, never could
have existed, but for the cordial and interested
support of an impassioned press in both coun-
tries. The utter ruin of the West India colonies
— the deep depression of agricultural industry
in Great Britain and Ireland, in consequence of
the free-trade system — the general and long-
continued distress of the whole class of producers
in both countries, from the monetary laws —
never could have been effected, if these meas-
ures had not been advocated by able and inde-
fatigable journals in the interest of the moneyed
ela.ss and the consumers. Those who lay the
flattering unction to their souls that genius is
the eternal enemy of oppression, and that libeity
is safe if its expression is secured, would do well
to look at the condition of Rome, when every suc-
cessive emperor was lauded in the eloquent
strains of servile panegyrists; of England, when
the mighty genius of Milton was devoted to de-
fending the measures of the regicide and Long
Parliament ; or of France, when the sonorous
periods of Fontanes celebrated, in graceful flat-
tery, the despotism of Napoleon.
The communication of thought over the whole
world, and the consequent inter- 53.
change of ideas and feelings be- Great eflrct
tween nations, has become infinite- °oyer*y*of
ly more rapid since the powers of steam and
steam were applied to the means electric conv
of conveyance by sea and land, municaiion.
That marvelous discovery, which has quadru-
pled the powers of industrv and halved the dis
>KP. I.j
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
n
tance of empires, has been greatly enhanced by
the still more wonderful powers of the electric
telegraph, which will soon, to all appearance,
render all the civilized world one great com-
munity, over which the communication of intel-
ligence and thought will be as rapid as over the
i/treets of a single capital. With what import-
ant eflects these great discoveries will be here-
after attended, may be judged of by the rapidity
with which the electric shock, communicated
fiom Paris, spread over Europe in IS-IS. Great
consequences must inevitably result from this
prodigiously enhanced rapidity of communica-
tion ; but it is hard to say whether the con-
sequences will be for good or for evil. Vigor
of thought, spread of ideas, interchange of
knowledge, have been immensely enhanced ;
but is it quite certain that these powers will
be exclusivel}' applied to good ends ? Are the
powers of evii not capable of taking advantage
of the means of enhanced rapidity of communi-
cation thus put into their hands ? Is not the
spread of evil, and falsehood, and exaggeration,
in the first instance at least, more rapid and
certain than that of reason and truth, just in
proportion as works of imagination are more
eagerly sought after than those which depict
reality ? And is not the unexampled rapidity
with which Europe took fire in 1848, a decisive
proof that the increased rapidity in the com-
munication of thought among nations tends to
convert society into a huge powder-magazine,
liable to blow up on the first spark falling into
it?
That there is much truth in these apprehen-
54. sions, it is in vain to deny; but.
Increased happily for mankind, the remedy is
correspond- as swift as the disease. "Experi-
tlie principles ence," says Dr. Johnson, '-is the
which count- great test of truth, and is pcrpetu-
uract evil. a^jiy contradicting the theories of
men." Suffering, we may add, is the great,
and perhaps the only effectuai monitor of na-
tions. In vain do men seek to elude its admoni-
tions, to forget its lessons; it comes with unerr-
ing certainty when the paths of evil have been
trod; and not now, as of old, on the third and
fourth generation, but upon the very generation
which has committed the forfeit. So sv/ift is
the communication of thought, that changes
])roduce their inevitable results with unheard-
of rapidity; and the cycle of excitement, folly,
crime, and punishment is run out in a few years.
Decisive proof of this has been afforded within
the memory of many of the present generation ;
if the records of the past are referred to, the
illustrations of it are innumerable. Eighty
years elapsed, in ancient Rome, from the time
when democratic ambition was first excited by
the proposals of Tiberius Gracchus, till the
period when the wounds of the Republic were
stanched, and its peace restored, by the despot-
ism of Augustus Ca3sar ; eleven years passed
away, in modern times, before the passions of
France, in 1789, were stilled by tie sword of
Napoleon ; ten years marked the jnterval be-
tween the commencement of the troubles in lOn-
gland, and the contirmcd military government
of Cromwell. But in France, in recent times,
before four years had elapsed, the dreams ot
" Liberie, Egalitc, Fraternite" were superseded
bv the general deinaml lor a string govern-
B
ment, and the establishment of the rude but
effective military despotism of Louis Napoleon ;
and befoi'e the cry for Italian nationality, Ger«
man unity, and Hungarian independence had
ceased to resound on the banks of the Rhine,
the Po, and the Danube, the ominous sounds
were hushed by the force of arras on the Hun-
garian plains.
The reason of this superior rapidity, both in
the transmission of danger and the
extrication of its remedies, in mod- -yy^y j„'
ern times, is very apparent. The which this
laws of nature, in all ages and w_as brought
under all circumstances, are ad-
verse to crime, iniquity, and injustice ; they are
calculated to foster only justice, industry, chai-
ity. But there is now no special interposition of
Divine power, to enforce the laws of the Divine
administration ; the agents in this mighty system
of wisdom, folly, crime, retribution, and punish
ment, are men themselves. The extension of
the power of reading, the enhanced rapidity in
the communication of thought, bring the lessons
of experience more swiftly home to mankind ;
they cause both the seeds of evil, and the prin-
ciples of good, to bring earlier forth their appro-
priate fruits. Such is the rapidity with which
ideas are now communicated, that it resembles
rather an electric shock than any of the ordinary
means by which thought was formerly diffused ;
and as thought is directed by experience and
sufiering, not less than by passion and desire,
the eradication or limitation of evil has become
as rapid as its extension.
The desire of all civilized nations, during the
last half-century, has been for re-
• • 56
presentative institutions; every at- General' lon"-
tempted convulsion has had this oh- ing after
ject — every successful revolution representa-
has immediately been followed by [|of,s"""""
its accomplishment. The exam-
ples of England and America, where they
have been found to have been attended by rapid
increase of wealth and population, a vast devel-
opment of intellectual power, and a proportional
extension of political influence, have been deem-
ed decisive; and other nations considered them-
selves secure of the same advantages, if they
obtained the same form of government. At
ditferent periods — in 1820, 1830, 1834, and 1848
— their efforts proved successful, their desires
were accomplished. Piedmont, Naples, Spain,
Portugal, Belgium, France. Austria, Prussia,
have successively obtained this mueh-eovetcd
blessing ; and the sequel of this history will
show whether it has iinmedkitcly, or genei ally
been followed by the advantages which A'ere
anticipated. Certain it is, that at this moment
(February, 1852) representative institutions are,
with a few trifling exceptions, virtually extin-
guished on the Continent, and the despotic pow
er of sovereigns re-estublished and supported by
1,500,000 armed men. And in South America,
where royalty has been every where abolished,
and republics established in its stead, the con-
sequences have been so dreadful that popula-
tion has generally declined a third, in .some
places a half, during the last thirty years, and
a series of revolutions have succeeded each
other, so rapid and destructive that history, in
despair, has ceased to attempt to record their
thread.
i8
HISTORY OF EUROPE,
[Chap. I.
ft?.
which Itif ir
p-iirral f;nl-
un- lias rvcit-
rtl nmuiig
UH
These ilisnstrons resulls, so ilifllTent fmni
wliiit weie nntiiMpiitoii iViPin the
spifud 1)1' inslitiitioiis iiiuk-r which
Kii<;h»iul ami America hiive risen
to such an iincxnnipled pitch of
prospciit}' anil jrloiv, have
eil a very general doubt amonjT
thoii^jhtfiil men. whether tho whole represent-
Hiive system is not a ilohision, anil whether its
penerui esiahlishmenl would not be one of the
•;rentcst curses which eould be inflicted on man-
kind. They have been wei
iinee, it is said, and found a-wantin
not every where concur in abolishing institu-
tions which are really beneficial in their tend-
ency, or in recurring to those which are perni-
cious. The example of Spain and Portugal, re-
iluced to political nullity by the action of repre-
seniaiive institutions; of Piedmont, driven into
iiujiist and ruinous agcression by the same
cause; of the splendid regions of South Amer-
ica, rendered desolate by their efleots, are sufli-
fieni to demonstrate to what they lead in states
not fitted for their reception, and the wisdom
of (he efibrt so generally made in continental
Kuropa by military power to counteract their
lemlency. It is in vain to say that this reaction
lins been owing to the interposition of an armed