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MONTHLY RETROSPECT of PUBLIC AFFAIRS; OR, The Christian's Survey of the Political World.
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Untitled Article
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Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Monthly Retrospect Of Public Affairs; Or, The Christian's Survey Of The Political World.
MONTHLY RETROSPECT of PUBLIC AFFAIRS ; OR , The Christian ' s Survey of the Political World .
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THE physicians of Europe have declared their patient to be convalescent , and in a condition to be freed from the guardianship oT his keepers . At this time the troops of many nations are marching * home , carrying- with them into their respective countries the Jessons they have learned
daring * a time of unexampled warfare . The principles that have been discussed in this eventful period , which atone time they have been engaged in supporting , at others in opposing , cannot fail of making * an impression on a soldier ' s mind ; and when
lie merges in the decline of life into the civil state , his natural garrulity will bring * them forward , and awaken in the minds of the new generation thoughts to which , hut for this tempest of war , they might long have been unaccustomed .
Our eyes are naturally turned to that country , which at one time gave , and now receives , the law from the rest of Europe . What will be its future state ? What will he the result of its wonderful energies ? One thing seems to be certain , that it can Btever "be brought into the state in which it was before the Revolution . The
displaced elements can never be brought again into their former condition . The present generation , nurtured in the storms of revolution , can never think as its predecessors did , can never be brought under the same
trammels of oppression . Every thing is changed since 1789 , from what it was before that memorable era , and the mixture of new and old will subside , probably , into something , of which we cannot at present form any idea .
Before the Revolution , France was governed by a monarchy , which had overcome all the barriers to its power , established 1 > y the constitution of France in the time of Henry the Fourth . It had just obtained
the victory and established a military government , "when unforeseen events produced its downfal . With the monarchy felt the nobility , the priesthood , monkery , the barbarism of the law , feudality , tithes . Steven thousand names of men were
destroyed in an instant ; but the agents of destruction were not skilled in the art of rebuilding , and the mighty arm of power , with gigantic force , destroyed the tyrants and established a tyranny with greater hor ~ rors and left * refinements than ( hat which preceded it . The tyrant was himself at lilt htirled from his throne , and now , on a dittafii bland ot the Atlantic , is fretting
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away his hours , and affording another instance to the moralist of the vanity of human ambition . France has passed through a terrible state of discipline , but the country remains improved rather than deteriorated in its powers of fertility , and its population is not
decreased . It has now , as before , a sovereign at its head , but that sovereign had been declared a traitor , and his way to the throne was prepared hy the arms of foreigners ; It has now , as before , a body of nobility , bat composed of very different materials : there is the old and the new nobility , and
to amalgamate them will be a task of no small difficulty ; for the old nobility is itself divided , and if it boasts of the renown of its ancestors , the new can , in their own persons , claim as much'distinction for what are called glorious actions , as the founders of the ancient families .
The old nobility consists of those whose fidelity remained inviolate to the exiled family daring the long * course of its mis . fortunes , and of those who gave way to circumstances , and did not disdain to make part of the court of Bonaparte . The former returned in general with all the
folly and pride attached to its former state , few of them instructed by their misfortunes , and capable of appreciating the change in the class below them , which had been the objects of their contempt . They have now to mix not only with their equals , whom they deem inferior to them for returning home and accepting places under
the old government , but also with the new nobility , whose titles were conferred by ; him whom they deem to have been an usurper . All are equally capable of holding * places j and in the house of peers , old and new nobility are juml > led together ,, and the collision will gradually wear out prejudice .
A nother shock to the ancient nehility is , in the constitution of the representative body , a place in which will be an object of ambition . There the head perhaps of one of the most ancient families ^ become a representative , must associate not ojajy
with the new nobles , but with commoners . His family gives him no pre-eminence * and by associating with the heads of Kiq p $ . rty , who may he of ignoble birth , he wlflJeam that respect to talent , of which he coiitejh ^ ve no conception whilst he felt himself connected with his own cast only , and itfrt a cast nliicb was assuredly immictdto the country .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1818, page 660, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2481/page/60/
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