side, while
there was a remaining hope that France might still be free. But the
combined powers, though beaten in every field, were still able to
protract the war, until all the bloom and beauty of the revolution were
gone, and, what was worse, until its very object was lost sight of and
exchanged for a deadly thirst of vengeance, and a proud passion for
the glory of the arms of France. It was this moral transition in the
sentiments of the people, which ultimately defeated the great purpose
of the revolution. For it conducted Napoleon to an imperial throne;
and his ambition, grown frantic with success, urged him to those rash
measures which resulted in the restoration of the Bourbons, and thus
brought back the revolution to the point from which it had started.

This sketch, imperfect as it necessarily is, will enable us to
institute a comparison between the former revolution and the present.
And we cannot but see that it was the slow, lingering, fluctuating
course of the former revolution, and the repeated intervals in which
there was, virtually, no government at all, that gave time for the
demoralization of the people, and for the formation of those terrible
factions within, and those powerful combinations without, which
finally ended in its discomfiture. But here the blow has been struck,
and the whole revolution rounded off and finished in three days. No
time has been afforded for the demoralization of the people; none for
the formation of factions within, or combinations without. The first
intelligence that Europe, or even the remote provinces of France have
of the affair is, that it is finished. It is this celerity, and the
constant presence of an efficient government, which distinguish this
revolution from the former and constitute its safety. The men who head
this movement are practical men, with strong common sense, (the best
of all sense) and with honest intentions. With the former revolution
full in their view, and a thorough knowledge of all the causes of its
miscarriage, they have gone to work in this case with the decision
and despatch of men of business. They change their monarch, limit his
powers, and there they stop. And what power in Europe can complain?

Can England? She has saved us the trouble of a speculation on this
subject by a prompt acknowledgment of the existing government.

Can Austria or Prussia complain of it, as breaking the line of
legitimate succession, while acknowledging Michael on th