Advérting to the revolution in France, Fox considered that event as a reason for rendering a smaller military establishment necessary on our part. The new form,' he said, 'that the government of France was likely to assume would, he was persuaded, make her a better neighbour, and less propense to hostility, than when she was subject to the cabal and intrigues of ambitious and interested statesmen.' The opinion, that the new order in France was likely to produce more happiness to the inhabitants and more tranquillity to adjoining states, especially to this country, seems to have been one of the principal causes that rendered this philanthropic and patriotic personage favourable to the French revolution. The anticipation of happiness to the French themselves seems to have arisen from the attention of his great mind being turned more to the general effects of liberty than to the contemplation of the particular characters of its new votaries; and to the principles and views of its most active supporters, as manifested in their declarations and conduct. The anticipation of

tranquillity to other states, from the prevalence of freedom in France, even had there been nothing peculiar in the nature of that freedom and the habits and dispositions of its votaries, seems to have arisen more froin theory than from the actual review of the history of free countries. Had the comprehensive and full mind of Fox called before him his own extensive knowledge of the actions of mankind, he would have immediately perceived that free nations have been as propense to hostility as the subjects of an arbitrary Prince; and, as he himself will readily admit, to much more effect, because with much more energy. The reasonings of the great orator seem to be, on this subject, derived from abstract principles much more than experience. This was, indeed, the case with Mr. Sheridan and other eminent men friendly to the French revolu

tion.

Burke soon after delivered his sentiments on the subject: entertaining the very highest opinion of the genius and wisdom of his

friend, he expressed his anxiety lest the approbation of the French by a man to whose authority so much weight was due, should be misunderstood to hold up the transactions in that country as a fit object of our imitation. After expressnig his thorough conviction that nothing could be farther from the intentions of so able and uniformly patriotic a champion of the British constitution, he entered upon the merits of his arguments, and of the question from which they had arisen. Fully coinciding with Fox respecting the evils of the old despotism, and the dangers that accrued from it to this country, and concerning the wisdom of our ancestors in preventing its contagion, as well as their vigour in resisting its ambitious projects, he thought very differently of the tranquillity to neighbours and happiness to themselves, likely to ensue from the late proceedings of France. In the last age (he said) we had been in danger of being entangled, by the example of France, in the net of relentless despotism. Our present danger, from the model of a people whose

character knew no medium, was that of being led, through an admiration of successful fraud and violence, to imitate the excesses of an irrational, unprincipled, proscribing, confiscating, plundering, ferocious, bloody, and tyrannical democracy. The ardent sensibility of Burke's mind often transported him, as I have repeatedly remarked, into very violent expressions. Impartial investigators, however, of his conduct will attend less to incidental warmth of language than to the series of opinion, relatively to its grounds; and of action, relatively to its causes and cir

cumstances.

The more completely we examine Burke's intellectual operations and political exertions. in detail, and the more full and accurate our induction of their principles is, the more clearly shall we see that his arguments and proceedings on the French revolution were on the same broad grounds as in the former parts of his life. I do not hesitate to say, that the very same process of understanding produced opposition to the ministerial plans

respecting America and reprobation of the French principles of legislation; and I refer to his chief writings and speeches on both for the proof of my assertion. His reasoning during the American contest was this :— You have derived great benefit from the colonies under the constitution by which they have been hitherto managed: in attempting to establish a different constitution, you are neither sure of the practicability nor of the effect.

His reasoning on the principle of the French revolution was:-They have before them a balance of estates, a controul of powers, into which their own, after the Assembly of the States-General, might have been easily modelled, and from which a great share of actual liberty and happiness has been derived. BE GUIDED BY EXPERIENCE, AND NOT BY UNTRIED THEORIES. He was apprehensive of the consequences of the French system to the constitution of England. As in his Vindication of Natural Society, he had shewn the probable effects of the