assertion of its own dignity, and is hastening forward to the
fulfillment of its own destiny; it is not content with toleration, it
demands an acknowledgment of freedom; and whatever restrains beyond
the necessity of government--of self-government--is regarded as an
infringement of rights; and the more delicate the perception, the
greater is the intolerance of the wrong.

Austria proper has made a strong and a long stride toward _freedom_.
Comparatively she is yet in the dark, but her face is set toward the
coming light, and year after year will show her progress toward it,
and the effect of that light upon her institutions. It is now too late
for tyrants to doubt that their true interests will be found in
graceful, moderate concessions; to _give_ a little, rather than to
have much _taken_; and with all the restlessness of the people, they
seem to be disposed to remain content with a moderate progress of
improvement; but wo to those who would stay the motion of that to
which the spirit of the age has imparted the means of progress.

The spirit of revolution has been rife along the shores of the Danube,
and the numerous states, provinces, and dependencies, that lie toward
the Black Sea, have formed alliances, and will assert their rights.

The city of Prague, famous in story and in song, has been laid in
ashes, as a punishment for its oppugnation against the emperor; but
the ashes of a favorite city may be as powerful a stimulant to the
spirit of injured man as to the best portion of the vegetable
world--and power may find itself injured by a conflagration as well as
its dependence.

Russia, amidst all this confusion among the nations of the Continent,
has been able to maintain her apparent quiet. But she has felt that
the experience of Austria was soon to be understood by herself; and
when light should have pierced into the almost impervious recesses of
that kingdom, her subjects would be able to discover not only the
chains upon their limbs, but those who placed them there. Her time is
at hand. She may yield, but the empire is too large to be conciliated
by concessions. Interest and feeling are opposite, and it is probable
that the only point upon which the whole can agree will be that of
immitigable hostility to the ruling powers. She will attempt to seize
upon the revolted provinces of other powers, and jeopard her central
position by the miserable attempt to keep truth and its enjoyment from
the extremities.