vances exist in 1830 than in 1789,there is to be found among the French people an hundred times more of the true revolutionary spirit; that is, of the ambition to have all the powers of government practically vested in the populace.

The people were taught, by the Constituent Assembly, to taste the sweets of popular sovereignty. This was not a mere high-sounding name, it brought an immediate accession of consequence, and a deluge of flattery, to the very lowest classes of the state. The right of voting for the national representation was conferred upon every man in France who was worth the price of three days' labour; that is, every body but paupers and children were admitted. The people elected their own magistrates, clergy, bishops, and intendants; the judges of the courts of law, the municipality of towns, the officers of the national guards, were in their nomination. The practical result of this was, not only that vast numbers of the lower orders rose into situations of importance and emolument, but that the whole of them were continually exposed to the flattery and attentions of the demagogues. The adulation lavished upon the multitude was at least equal to any which is bestowed on an Eastern despot. "The people alone are virtuous, free, and incorruptible: Sovereignty resides in them: The majesty of the people : Tyrants may tremble before the newly roused voice of the multitude;"were the expressions constantly used by their orators, and without which no one had a chance of success. Flattery of this description is agreeable to all: To persons in the lower walks of life it is irresistible.

Nor was this all. The lower classes were incessantly beset with competitions for the offices in their nomination; generals, colonels, clergymen, statesmen, judges, magistrates, prefects, constantly attended at their doors, soliciting their votes, and praying for their patronage. Hardly a week elapsed, without some canvass going forward, and the rabble being brought into immediate enjoyment of their powers of sovereignty. The exercise of such powers is indescribably fascinating to the lower orders. Its influence may be seen in every city, borough, and village, where the

utmost ambition will always be seen to exercise the patronage which is in the gift of the people. The rich neglect such canvasses; the thoughtful despise them; but the vulgar catch at them with the utmost avidity, and swell up at the idea of their newlyacquired importance.

This is the circumstance which renders the present French Revolu tion so formidable, and is likely to stir up the spirit of Jacobinism, even without any serious cause of complaint. Many, no doubt, may be influenced by the genuine love of freedom; the wish to exercise their industry without vexatious fetters, and to enjoy, in security, the fruits of their toil. But many more are influenced by a different motive; by the passion for power; the desire of exercising the force of sovereignty; the vanity of being courted by their superiors, and made the object of flattery. It is not surprising that the people should love the exercise of such prerogatives; but experience has proved that they are inconsistent with the wellbeing of the state, and the higher classes may rest assured, that, when once the lower have tasted their sweets, they will never cease longing to regain them.

The influence of this desire may be distinctly perceived in the language which is at present held by the popular writers and orators at Paris. The maxim that all sovereignty not only flows from the people, but is to be constantly exercised by them, is of new inculcated, and embraced with the utmost avidity. The innumerable journals which deluge the metropolis, incessantly propagate that principle: any one which should oppose it would immediately lose its whole circulation. The people are now the masters, and they will bear no control upon their newborn sovereignty.

It is to no purpose to say that the deputies in the Chamber are inclined to moderate measures, and that they are returned by 80,000 proprietors in France, who are interested in the preservation of order. No doubt they are; and these 80,000 men may be relied on as likely to resist any revolutionary measures. But the question is, Will they be able to do so? Is it not likely that this body of electors will be stigmatized as an oligarchy,

inclined to tyrannize over their fellow-citizens, and that the tide of revolutionary fury will overthrow them, as it has overthrown the throne?

No imagination can figure the impulse which a successful revolution, like that in France, gives to the factious, the turbulent, the ambitious among the people. Their numbers are quadrupled, their strength augmented tenfold by such an occurrence. The friends of order, panicstruck and divided in opinion how the evil is to be resisted, become incapable of any united effort, while their antagonists, elated by success, and strong in anticipation of victory, speedily acquire the self-confidence which ensures it.

All the most fatal changes which took place in the first French Revolution, were the result of insurrections of the populace against the Legislature. The Legislative Assembly, albeit chosen by the universal suffrage of the people, soon became so obnoxious from not going the utmost length of their wishes, that a new legislature was loudly called for, and the revolt of August 10, which brought Louis to the scaffold, was not less against the National Assembly than the throne. The arrest and condemnation of the thirtyone illustrious deputies of the Gironde, on 31st May, 1793, was occasioned by the insurrection of the Fauxbourgs, and the imprisonment of the National Assembly in the midst of 40,000 rebellious citizens. In vain the president sought to overawe the insurgents by the majesty of the legislature, and set forth at the head of the members to force a passage; the stern order of Henriot, Canoniers à vos pieces, drove them back in dismay, and the captive legislature was compelled to obey the mandates of the sovereign people.

Nor is the National Guard any effectual security against the occur rence of such disasters. Those who rest on this armed force as an effectual check on the madness of the populace, forget that the National Guard was organized in August 1789, and continued in full activity through all the subsequent changes of the Revolution, without being ever able to moderate its fury. They forget that the National Guard, feeble and irresolute, were unable to control the

excesses of the populace at Versailles on October 5, 1789; that they witnessed without a struggle the dethronement and captivity of the king on August 10, 1792; that they be held the legislature enthralled by an armed mob, and the thirty-one republican leaders of the Gironde conducted to prison and the scaffold, on 31st May, 1793; that they were passive spectators of the murder of the King and Queen, of the Princess Elizabeth, and Madame Roland; that they crouched and trembled beneath the reign of terror, and saw eighty wretched captives daily led out to execution, when the beat of their generale could have summoned 40,000 disciplined men to resist the murders; that they bent beneath the despotic yoke of the Directory, and fawned under the iron sceptre of Napoleon.

In truth, it is impossible to expect any considerable or sustained exertions from a civic force, composed as the National Guard of Paris at present is. Burghers and shopkeepers will turn out, and resist the multitude, so long as they retain the conviction that they are supporting the dominant and prevailing power. But no sooner does public opinion or public terror incline to the other side -no sooner does the conviction gain ground that they are to be required to combat a force which is likely to prove VICTORIOUS, than they rapidly melt away, and the civic force, lately so numerous, is reduced to a handful of men.

The great body of men in all civil convulsions are inclined to be passive: to side with the current, and range themselves with the party which is likely to prove successful in the strife. No reliance can be placed for any length of time on any thing but regular soldiers, during the political divisions which distract a country in civil war. Public opinion varies so rapidly; the shades of difference are so endless, that when a crisis arrives, it is ten to one that the whole body is paralysed and incapable of rendering any effectual service to the state.

A signal proof of the truth of these principles occurred in France during the first Revolution :-For a long time the National Guard, under Lafayette, opposed a steady front to the fury of the multitude; and the same

predictions were made which are now repeated as to the efficiency of this force in checking all the excesses consequent on civil dissensions. They even went so far, that when an insurrection was attempted on occasion of the return of the King from Varennes, a large body, under Lafayette, fired on the mob in the Champ de Mars, and brought down 120 of the Jacobins on the first discharge. But no sooner did the danger become more urgent, than the inherent weakness of a volunteer force appeared. The tumult of June 20th, 1792, when a lawless rabble invaded the palace of the Tuileries, brought Lafayette from the armies on the frontier back to Paris he made an energetic speech at the bar of the Assembly, and obtained from that body a decree, ordering the arrest of the authors of these disorders: he reviewed the National Guard, of which he had so long been the adored commander, and appointed a rendezvous at his hotel in the evening of the most trusty battalions, with the design of marching against the Club of the Jacobins, and closing that great focus of sedition. But scarce thirty men obeyed the summons; and Lafayette, seeing the task hopeless, set off in the night for the army, and was shortly after denounced at the Jacobin Club, burnt in effigy in the Palais Royal, and compelled to seek safety by surrendering himself a prisoner to the Austrian forces.

The National Guard have already evinced symptoms of the same vacillating disposition. It is understood that the corps destined for the protection of the Luxemburg, during the trial of Polignac, have declared that they are willing to go every length in resisting the populace, short of actually firing on them. In other words, when matters come to a crisis they will do nothing.

For these reasons, we regard the present juncture as fraught with the utmost peril to France and to Europe. Those who will attentively consider the history of the first Revolution, will not, we are persuaded, form an opposite opinion.

The supposed difference between the two cases vanishes when the real

facts which have occurred, and the chronological order of events, are brought into view. It is by confounding the beginning with the middle of the Revolution: by supposing that 1789 was 1793, that the general delusion which exists has arisen. We much fear, before many years, perhaps many months are over, the reality of the resemblance between the two convulsions, will be proved in characters of blood.

No truth is so strongly impressed on the mind by the history of the French Revolution, and none is so little attended to by the unthinking part of mankind, as that the ultimate effect of public measures, is neither to be judged of by their first consequences, nor the character of their original promoters. The material thing to look to, in periods of excitement, is not what measures are, but what they will lead to-not their present effects, but the spirit they are likely to produce. Concessions, which would be safe and expedient in moments of tranquillity, become to the last degree dangerous in moments of excitement. When the point of the wedge is once introduced, in such circumstances, popular violence will soon drive it home. It is to no purpose to say, in these moments, the proposed measures are in themselves reasonable: they are brought forward by public men, who have a great stake in the country; reformation can never be dangerous when placed in such hands. The regimen which is salutary in ordinary health, is fatal amidst the flames of a fever. "No revolution in a great state," says Madame de Stael, "can arise, unless it is commenced and headed by the higher classes. The lower seize possession of the current when it is set a-going, but they cannot put it in motion."* The French Revolution itself was commenced by the resistance of the nobles, magistrates, and Parliament of France. Yet, how soon were its early leaders cast down and forgotten, in the strife; how soon did the wave of popular ambition overwhelm its first supporters; how speedily did virtuous intention fall beneath the vigour of democratic audacity. These lessons are still re

cent; the blood of the victims of insurgent violence is yet reeking; a generation has not passed away since all was accomplished; and yet all is already forgotten; measures are judged of by the men who propose, not those who are about to follow them; the danger of concession to

public excitement is overlooked, and the partisans of the people, like the courtiers of Canute the Dane, flatter their leaders with the vain hope, that they shall be able to say to the waves of popular ambition, "Hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther; and here shall thy proud waves be stilled."

A SCENE ON THE

I WAS awakened by the low growl ing, and short bark of the dog. The night was far spent; the tiny sparks of the fire-flies that were glancing in the door-way, began to grow pale; the chirping of the crickets and lizards, and the snore of the tree-toad waxed fainter, and the wild cry of the tiger-cat was no longer heard. The terral, or land wind, which is usually strongest towards morning, moaned loudly on the hillside, and came rushing past with a melancholy sough, through the brushwood that surrounded the hut, shaking off the heavy dew from the palm and cocoanut trees, like large drops of rain.

The hollow tap of the wood-pecker; the clear flute note of the Pavo del monte; the discordant shriek of the macaw; the shrill chirr of the wild Guinea fowl; and the chattering of the paroquets, began to be heard from the wood. The ill-omened gallinaso was sailing and circling round the hut, and the tall flamingo was stalking on the shallows of the lagoon, the haunt of the disgusting alligator, that lay beneath, divided from the sea by a narrow mud-bank, where a group of pelicans, perched on the wreck of one of our boats, were pluming themselves before taking wing. In the east, the deep blue of the firmament, from which the lesser stars were fast fading, all but the "Eye of Morn," was warming into magnificent purple, and the amber rays of the yet unrisen sun were shooting up, streamer-like, with intervals between, through the parting clouds, as they broke away with a passing shower, that fell like a veil of silver gauze between us and the first primrose-coloured streaks of a tropical dawn.

"That's a musket shot," said the Lieutenant. The Indian crept on his

COSTA FIRME.'

belly to the door, dropped his chin on the ground, and placed his open palms behind his ears. The distant wail of a bugle was heard, then three or four dropping shots again, in rapid succession. Mr Splinter stooped to go forth, but the Indian caught him by the leg, uttering the single word "Espanoles."

On the instant, a young Indian woman, with a shrieking infant in her arms, rushed to the door. There was a blue gunshot wound in her neck, from which two or three large black clotting gouts of blood were trickling. Her long black hair was streaming in coarse braids, and her features were pinched and sharpened, as in the agony of death. She glanced wildly behind, and gasped out, "Escapa, Oreeque, escapa, para mi soi, muerto ya.' Another shot, and the miserable creature convulsively clasped her child, whose small shrill cry I often fancy I hear to this hour, blending with its mother's death-shriek, and, falling backwards, rolled over the brow of the hill out of sight. The ball had pierced the heart of the parent through the body of her offspring. By this time a party of Spanish soldiers had surrounded the hut, one of whom kneeling before the low door, pointed his musket into it. The Indian, who had seen his wife and child thus cruelly shot down before his face, now fired his rifle, and the man fell dead. Siga mi Querida Bondia-maldito." Then springing to his feet, and stretching himself to his full height, with his arms extended towards heaven, while a strong shiver shook him like an ague fit, he yelled forth the last words he ever uttered," Venga la suerte, ya soi listo," and resumed his squatting position on the ground. Half a dozen musket balls were now fired at ran

dom through the wattles, while the Lieutenant, who spoke Spanish well, sung out lustily, that we were English officers who had been shipwrecked. Mentira," growled the officer of the party, "Piratas son ustedes." "Pirates leagued with Indian bravoes; fire the hut, soldiers, and burn the scoundrels!" There was no time to be lost; Mr Splinter made a vigorous attempt to get out, in which I seconded him, with all the strength that remained to me, but they beat us back again with the buts of their muskets.

"Where are your commissions, your uniforms, if you be British officers?" -We had neither, and our fate appeared inevitable.

The doorway was filled with brushwood, fire was set to the hut, and we heard the crackling of the palm thatch, while thick stifling wreaths of white smoke burst in upon us through the roof.

"Lend a hand, Tom, now or never, and kick up the dark man there," but he sat still as a statue. We laid our shoulders to the end wall, and heaved at it with all our might; when we were nearly at the last gasp it gave way, and we rushed headlong into the middle of the party, followed by Sneezer with his shaggy coat, that was full of clots of tar blazing like a torch. He unceremoniously seized "par le queue," the soldier who had throttled me, setting fire to the skirts of his coat, and blowing up his cartouch box. I believe, under Providence, that the ludicrousness of this attack saved us from being bayoneted on the spot. It gave time for Mr Splinter to recover his breath, when, being a powerful man, he shook off the two soldiers who had seized him, and dashed into the burning hut again. I thought he was mad, especially when I saw him return with his clothes and hair on fire, dragging out the body of the captain. He unfolded the sail it was wrapped in, and pointing to the remains of the naval uniform in which the mutilated and putrifying corpse was dressed, he said sternly to the officer,-"We are in your power, and you may murder us if you will; but that was my captain four days ago, and you see, he at least was a British officer -satisfy yourself." The person he addressed, a handsome young Spa

niard, with a clear olive complexion, oval face, small brown mustachios, and large black eyes, shuddered at the horrible spectacle, but did as he was requested.

When he saw the crown and anchor, and his Majesty's cipher on the appointments of the dead officer, he became convinced of our quality, and changed his tone-" Es verdad, son de la marina Englesa ;" "But, gentlemen, were there not three persons in the hut?" There were indeed-the flames had consumed the dry roof and walls with incredible rapidity, and by this time they had fallen in, but Oreeque was no where to be seen. I thought I saw something move in the midst of the fire, but it might have been fancy. Again the white ashes heaved, and a half-consumed hand and arm were thrust through the smouldering mass, then a human head, with the scalp burnt from the skull, and the flesh from the chaps and cheek-bones; the trunk next appeared, the bleeding ribs laid bare, and the miserable Indian, with his limbs like scorched rafters, stood upright before us, like a demon in the midst of the fire. He made no attempt to escape, but reeling to and fro like a drunken man, fell headlong, raising clouds of smoke and a shower of sparks in his fall. Alas! poor Oreeque, the newly risen sun was now shining on your ashes, and on the dead bodies of the illstarred Bonda and her child, whose bones, ere his setting, the birds of the air, and beasts of the forest, will leave as white and fleshless as your own. The officer, who belonged to the army investing Carthagena, now treated us with great civility; he heard our story, and desired his men to assist us in burying the remains of our late commander.

We remained all day on the same part of the coast, but towards evening the party fell back on the outpost to which they belonged-after travelling an hour or so we emerged from a dry river course, in which the night had overtaken us, and came suddenly on a small plateau, where the post was established on the promontory of " Punto Canoa." There may be braver soldiers at a charge, but none more picturesque in a bivouac than the Spanish. A gigantic wild cotton-tree, to which our largest