Alphonse Beauchamp, and which we regard as the best of the productions of the Parisian press, in relation to the affairs of the Revolution.-The narrative is drawn from the most authentic documents, and highly commendable in every respect. The French revolution affords, without doubt, the finest historical theme that ever excercised the powers of man, the most fruitful in instructive lessons, and magnificent pictures,the most interesting from the variety, and magnitude of the events. Some time, however, may probably elapse, before it will be treated, in a manner, suitable to its extraordinary character, and unrivalled importance. This awful drama is not, in all likelihood, yet brought to a conclusion;-the sword of civil discord, whatever may be the language of the Institute, or of their fellow-courtiers, is, perhaps, not yet sheathed;-the task of promulging the truth without disguise or colouring, -while the supreme power is in the hands of one, who is himself the offspring, and in some sort the champion of faction, -is too dangerous to be attempted.*

We are not sure that it is to France, that we can ever look, for a good history of her revolution. Elsewhere it will be difficult to obtain the proper materials, and to imbibe the congenial spirit;-a spirit not indeed of party, of national prejudice, of political enthusiasm, or of private resentment, but still by no means one of personal indifference, or of cold neutrality.— Wherever the subject is undertaken, to be successfully managed, it will require the sognararos,-the most skilful of historians; a writer combining all the great qualities, which have shone separately in the most illustrious of his predecessors.He must be exempt not only from all undue bias, but from fear of every kind;-and be either the citizen of a free government, or the subject of a monarch like Trajan. "History," says the Report, "who is no longer herself, when she ceases to be free, was silent for several years during the revolution." She was then even still less miserably enslaved, than she is at this moment in France, and is likely to be for a long futurity. We cannot therefore expect, that she should be otherwise than mute in that unhappy country, and must consider the voice now ascribed to her as a mere counterfeit.-Keeping in view the

The French historian of the unfinished convulsions of his country, may still be suitably apostrophized in the verses which Horace addresses to Asinius Pollio, in reference to the history of the civil wars of Rome, undertaken by the latter.

sound aphorism of the Institute, we should not wonder, if, as is really the case, France be now utterly incapable of producing, not merely a good history of her revolution, but any truly valuable historical work whatever.

The Report is wholly silent with respect to the English works in modern history published since 1789. Yet certainly the works of Roscoe, to which however, we are far from attaching any very great value, deserve as honourable mention as those of Gaillard; and the labours of Russel are not less meritorious, than the last productions of Anquetil. The life of Catherine by Castera, so highly extolled by the Institute, is far inferior to that of Tooke, whose history of Russia is likewise a work of no inconsiderable worth. We prefer Bryan Edwards to Raynal,—and Belsham or Bisset, defective as they are, to Lacretelle and Toulongeon. In what may be termed historical biography, English literature has been, since 1789, much more fruitful than that of France, and has produced a number of volumes of distinguished merit.

In this department, our own country can boast of having enriched the world, with a work superior in value, to any other of the kind extant:—we mean the Life of Washington by Marshall. Whatever may be its defects as a literary composition, (and these are greatly exaggerated by the foreign critics,) it is inestimable, as a most ample and well-digested collection of perfectly authentic documents, concerning our revolution,—a revolution among the most interesting in itself, and perhaps the most important in its consequences, that has ever occurred.Gifford's Life of Pitt, which has received a flattering welcome from the British public, is not without intrinsic price, and some attraction in point of style, but who will venture to assert its pre-eminence in any one respect, over the great national memorial of which we are speaking? "My relation because quite clear of fable," says Thucydides in his introduction to his history, "may prove less delightful to the ears-But it will afford sufficient scope to those who love a sincere account of past transactions. I give it to the public as an everlasting possession, and not as a contentious instrument of temporary applause." Such may be in truth and without ostentation, the language of chief justice Marshall on the subject of his work.We cannot say as much in relation to Mr. Fox's fragment of English history.

Whatever respect we may entertain for the English works we have mentioned, and for many others, such as the history of the House of Austria, by Coxe, and of the Brazils, by Southey, we must confess, that history does not appear to us, to have been cultivated in England, by the present generation, with as

much success, as, under all circumstances, might have been expected. The freedom of the press in that country, the flourishing condition of the moral sciences generally, the skill of her literati in the arts of composition, the solidity of judgment and patience of research which mark the national character, would justify the world, in looking to her, for a more considerable number of able works in that department. This com parative deficiency may, perhaps, be ascribed, to the strong attraction which politics have had of late, for almost all minds of a speculative cast, and to the deep interest which the melancholy state of the world, compels every Englishman to take, in the public concerns, both foreign and domestic, of his country. Hence also, on the other hand, the multitude of able disquisitions issued almost daily from the British press, on the science of government, on all the branches of political economy, and on cotemporary politics.

The last sections of the "Report" are devoted to legislation and metaphysics. Pastoret, the writer of the article on the progress of legislation, is a person of ability, and well known as a most zealous republican, in the revolutionary annals of France. He is however, transformed into an obsequious courtier, and divides his labours in this volume, between the celebration of the quondam merits of France in the science of jurisprudence, and a pompous eulogium on the excellence of the Napoleon code.-L'Hopital, Cujas, Lamoignon, D'Aguesseau and Montesquieu are introduced in solemn procession, with all their attributes, but we are not made acquainted, with the name of a single French jurist, or writer on legislation, of a more modern date. This may indeed, be accounted for, by what is said, in the course of his remarks on the Napoleon code," that if the progress made in the other sciences during the last twenty years, is owing to the many distinguished men whom France possesses,-in the science of legislation, almost every thing is due to the active foresight and firm will of the government;"-although it is indeed at the same time. alleged "that even in those legislative labours, which, from their nature and character, belong to the government, some writers have usefully seconded the meditations of the supreme chief of the empire."

With the exception of the new system of Bonaparte, which throws the ci-devant republican almost into an ecstacy, and chiefly occupies his thoughts, the only works cited by Pastoret, are French translations of Beccaria and Filangieri, of Machiavel and Harrington, of Blackstone, and some parts of Heineccius, of the politics of Aristotle, and the Republic of Cicero, and an original commentary on the twelve tables, first

published in 1787, but reprinted with additions in 1803! We are told, however, that in Germany as well as in France, and also in England and in Italy, several treatises have appeared upon different branches of legislation;-that the civil and political laws of the Romans have been the particular subject of several works in Germany, in Italy, and in England, but principally in France; and that the principles and laws relative to property, to commerce, to taxation, have been explored and discussed in some works on political economy, in France and in England, but eminently in France, (en France surtout.*)No foreign work, in any of these departments of knowledge, is specified, nor have we any other proofs, of the greater, and more successful attention, given to them of late in France, than the ex parte dictum of the Report, and the list of translations which we have copied above.

It is indeed true, as is said by M. Pastoret, "that of all the periods of French history," (or, we may add, of the history of the world)"none was so fruitful in writings and projects on legislation, as the year 1789 and the following one" in France. -He unfolds, however, the true character and tendency of these speculations, when he subjoins, that the whole of the edifice of the French laws in all its parts, relations and details, was attacked and overthrown;-that ranks, dignities, privileges, taxes, revenue, the rights of property, the security of persons, the subordination of classes, the most venerable customs, the most ancient institutions, the most redoubtable tribunals,—all yielded at once, to a flood of exterminating doctrines, so impetuous, that what had taken the deepest root, seemed to be most easily extirpated. The spirit of inquiry and reformation, as it was then falsely called, or rather, to speak in a language now universally acknowledged to be just,

the mania of innovation and impiety, seized upon the unhappy people of France, and became, more or less, the epidemical malady of the civilized world. The faction of unbelievers with Voltaire, "the arch Theomachist," at their head, and the sect of Encyclopedists with the Economists as their auxiliaries, led the way in this mad debauchery of the human mind, and contributed indirectly to form the Jacobin pandæmonium of Paris, together with the host of demoniac levellers that sprung up in almost every country, and among whom our own Tom Paine held so conspicuous a station. Had it not been for

M. Pastoret was probably ignorant of the existence of such works as Malthus' Essay on Population, Brougham's Colonial Policy, Jeremy Bentham's Principles of Legislation, &c. &c., in the same manner that M. Visconti had probably never heard of such philologists as Bryant, Lowth, Markland, &c.

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the illuminating, admonitory eloquence of Mr. Burke, and the heroic steadiness of Mr. Pitt,-names which we utter with the most intense emotions of gratitude and veneration,-England herself, the seat of liberty, of sound morals, of true political wisdom, might have fallen a prey to the powers of anarchy and infidelity in the counterfeit shape of "regenerated reason," and the whole of Europe might, at this moment, exhibit, what France presents to the philosophic eye;-but one wretched contrast, the ferocious arrogance of the despot, and the miserable abjection of the slave.-The vertigo of speculation and change was felt even here; and if we too, had not possessed a tutelary genius in the leader of our public councils, the United States, instead of continuing to enjoy, that plenitude of freedom and happiness, with which they are still blessed, through the efficacy of their political institutions, and their domestic virtue, might now be only less miserable, vicious and grovelling, than the nations of the European continent.

Among the multitude of French writers on legislation and political economy, who undertook to enlighten and purify the world, at the commencement of their revolution, we know of none that has materially contributed to enlarge the sphere, or to explain the true principles, of these important sciences.-From this remark we do not except the manufacturers of the Encyclopedia, even D'Alembert, Turgot, Condorcet, Rousseau, Mirabeau, or any of the great authorities of the revolutionary school. Whoever has recourse to their works, in the hope of adding to his stock of solid information, on the subjects of which they treat, will, like ourselves, find that he does but waste his time on a mass of empty, though pompous declamation, of crude novelties, and visionary projects. Happily for mankind, they have lost their influence, and are now rarely or ever consulted, but with the view of gratifying curiosity.

We are willing to admit with M. Pastoret, that many of the productions of the day, to which he alludes, exhibited great ingenuity, much opulence of imagination, and beauty of style; but they were, for the most part, as he himself acknowledges, fitted rather to mislead and demoralize, than to instruct or reform.-There can be no doubt, moreover, that the National assemblies contained several men of splendid genius and profound sagacity, who, under more favourable circumstances, might have legislated to the most salutary effect; and that the labours and reports, of the committees of those assemblies, in relation to various branches of public economy, are not without an ample share of merit.

The present government of France has availed itself largely, in the formation of the new code, and in its regulations concern