ART. VII. 1. The Jurisdiction of the Lords' House of Par liament considered, according to Ancient Records. By Sir Matthew Hale: To which is prefixed, by the Editor, F. Hargrave, Esq., an Introductory Preface, including a Narrative of the same isdiction, from the Accession of James I. 2. Observations on the Delays complained of in the Court of Chancery and House of Lords VIII. Observations on the Trade with China p. 432 458 IX. Toly Alliance versus Spain; containing the Notes X. An Elementary Introduction to the Knowledge of Mi- Quarterly List of New Publications 467 488 502 .519 ERRATA IN No. 77. Page 202, 1. 6, from bottom, for vehicles' read' vesicles.' 204, 1. 3, for easily' read rarely.' 205, 1. 5, from bottom, dele the words and tested by him.' 215, last line note, for construction' read destruction.' 218, l. 5, for tabular' read' tubular.' 228, 1. 24, for concurrence' read occurrence. ' dation.' 1. 28, for but to a certain proportion,' read' but a certain proportion.' THE EDINBURGH REVIEW, JANUARY, 1824 N°. LXXVIII. ART. I. 1. Remarks on the Declarations of the Allied Powers from Verona. By an ENGLISHMAN. 8vo. London, 1823. 2. Britannia's Letters to a British Prince, on the Holy Alliance. 8vo. London, 1823. 3. The Domestic Policy of the British Empire, viewed in connexion with its Foreign Interests. 8vo. London, 1823. IT T is curious, for middle-aged persons like us, to look back on the public history of the last thirty or thirty-five yearson the hopes and disappointments, the fears and deliverances, the revolutions and restorations, which have filled that eventful period-and on the strange concatenation and dependency of events by which these results have, in so many instances, been effected the fatal triumphs, the glorious disgraces, the disasters that have proved the means of unexampled prosperity! We suppose it is the close of another year which has led us into this vein of meditation ;-and, though it is to the present condition and immediate prospects of the world, rather than to its recent history, that we now wish to call the attention of our readers, we cannot well enter on the subject without indulging ourselves in a brief retrospect of the causes which have brought us into this condition, and set these prospects before us. The drama opened, it must be confessed, with a brilliant and startling flourish-the new series of the world's annals was ushered in with a most captivating prospectus-all old prejudices to be dispelled, and all old tyrannies overthrown-the whole race of man to be emancipated and regenerated--all formal distinctions and fantastic privileges to be abolished, and every one made free to enter on the open career of honour, on the strength T VOL. XXXIX. No. 78. of his virtues and talents alone! The work began, too, with intrepidity and vigour enough-and there was as little want of energy in the execution, as there had been of boldness in the design. But the scene was soon overcast. Rash and extravagant experiments were made in all the branches of legislationa passionate and presumptuous spirit of innovation took place of the sober spirit of reform-old principles were brought into question, as well as old prejudices-and the best established maxims of morality and religion were treated with the same irreverence as the mere arbitrary institutions of less instructed men. Where all standards of opinion were thus destroyed, and all authority exploded, there could, of course, be no umpire in the disputes which ensued, but force. Men's doubts, accordingly, were first solved by their passions or their interest,-and then their dogmas were imposed on others by violence and terror. The most atrocious crimes were committed with the most revolting effrontery-and the effects of mutual distrust and apprehension were to render all alike cruel and perfidious. They proscribed that they might be safe from proscription-and set the example of treachery as their only chance of not being betrayed. Obscure men were thus raised, one after another, and at least as much by their fears as their ambition, to precarious and lawless power, from which they were successively swept down, unlamented, by the turning of the bloody tide:-till at last a more vigorous system of military rule overawed the sanguinary factions, and imposed silence on their crude and turbulent speculations. Still there remained the force and the talent that had been sublimed from the heated multitude in the course of the great experiment; and the scene, though it had lost much of its attraction, had certainly lost nothing of its terror. The revolutionary armies overran the world-and her diplomatic agents overreached it. The old tyrannies, nearly as hateful, and far less strong, crumbled before their blows, or melted in their lightnings. Some truckled, and were insulted-others bullied, and were trampled out of existence-and the greater part ended with courting the alliance, and receiving the contemptuous mercy of that more potent and enlightened tyranny, which cither swallowed up all the rest, or spared them at its pleasure. The whole Continent of Europe then presented a spectacle at once humiliating and frightful-unbounded insolence on the one hand, and unmeasured servility on the other;-while all the talents and energies which had been conjured up by the revolutionary crisis, and fostered by its incredible successes, were turned entirely to the purposes of a cold-hearted and remorseless ambition. An immense power-intellectual and physical had been generated in the course of these contentions-in the first place undoubtedly by the sudden liberation and expansion of plebeian talent and ambition in the revolutionary countries, and afterwards by the audacity which was inspired by the spirit of the times-leading men every where to cast off the trammels of old opinions, and to venture on new and bolder methods, with an assurance that nothing was impossible to the daring. But this mighty power was from the beginning more terrible than majestic; and, it is miserable to think, was never once employed in any noble or generous cause. Its aspect from first to last was rapacious, insolent, vindictive--and, with the means of regenerating the world, contemplated no higher end than that of subduing it. Nothing was safe from its violence, nothing sacred from its injustice. The wrongs it did were aggravated by insult-and the complaints they provoked answered by mockery and derision;-national independence was trampled on, and national honour profaned. At last vaulting ambition overleaped itself,' and the scorner of mankind found, that intimidation had not extinguished the thirst for revenge. The giant who brooded over the centre of Europe could not grasp both the South and the North with the utmost stretch of his hands. The obstinate valour of England, with Spain, yet unspoiled of her spirit by Legitimacy, baffled him in the one-the elements, with the stars in their courses, fought against him in the other. The love of national independence, the sense of national honour, revived in the intermediate regions. The downcast Sovereigns took advantage of the season-and, recollecting how their subjects had been beguiled by the fair promises of the first revolutionists, and how bitterly they had resented the breach of them, addressed themselves at once to their pride and their hopes,-protested against the despotism of the prevailing system, and held out its continuance as the only bar to the universal adoption of liberal institutions. The appeal was not made in vain. There was no longer disaffection in their armies, or deficiencies in their contingents. One spirit of zeal animated all parties. For the first time there was an honest concert among the Sovereigns themselves, who had at last discovered, that it was their first interest to put down the common foe, and that by nothing but a sincere union could this be effected. They banded, therefore, against him from the East and from the West; and at length succeeded in bearing to the earth that enormous fabric of military power by which they had so long been oppressed. Then, for a brief season, there was exultation, and good humour, and symptoms of cordiality between subjects and rulers, -charters were granted, and constitutions promised; and professions zealously made of a design to separate the gold that had been brought to light, and tried in the fires of the Revolution, from the dross with which it had been debased. But this was a transient and deceitful gleam; and a deeper darkness soon settled on the world. The restored Governments, forgetting how much of what they deplored had been owing to their own vices and misconduct, manifested a vindictive jealousy of all that had been done against them; and seemed inclined to provoke a repetition of the insurrections by which they had suffered, by returning to the very follies and abuses by which they had been mainly produced. The dread, however, of the past—the ultimate bad success of the former experiment, and their own continued concert, enabled them to do this with safety; and they used the power which they had thus regained neither with moderation nor mercy. Their charters were revoked-their promises broken-their amnesties violated--the most offensive pretensions were openly put forward-the most revolting prejudices countenanced the smaller states were relentlessly sacrificedand the greater ones, made more formidable by their union, assumed a tone of dictation unknown in the history of the world -and used it to proclaim the most slavish doctrines, and to announce their purpose to maintain them at the point of the sword. Upon this system they have since acted-and, so far as they have gone, they have been successful. Arbitrary government is now maintained all over the Continent of Europe, more openly in theory, and more rigorously in practice, than it was before the French Revolution was heard of;-and political freedom is more jealously proscribed, and liberal opinions more vindictively repressed, than in any period of modern history. The wheel has come full circle:-and after the speculations and experience of thirty-five years, we seem at least as far from political improvement as we were at the beginning! And is this indeed so? Has the troubled and bloody scene passed before us but as a pageant, to excite our wonder and be forgotten? Has this great and agitating drama no moral? Have the errors, and crimes, and sufferings of thirty years taught no lessons?-have the costly experiments in which they have been consumed ascertained no truths? Have the statesmen and plrilosophers who directed the stormy scene, or the heroes who gave it movement and glory, lived and died in vain? Is political truth a chimera, and political science a dream? Are the civilized nations of Europe in reality unteachable?-or has the progress by which they have advanced beyond the condition of barbarians, already attained' its limits-and is what remains of |