ermined croaker. In 1808 he
suspects that Bonaparte will be in Dublin in about fifteen months, when
he, if he survives, will try to go to America. In 1811 he expects
Bonaparte to be in Ireland in eighteen months, and asks how England can
then be kept, and whether it would be worth keeping? France is certain
to conquer the Continent, and our interference will only 'exasperate and
accelerate.' Bonaparte's invasion of Russia in 1813 made him still more
gloomy. He rejoiced at the French defeat as one delivered from a great
terror, but the return of the Emperor dejects him again. All he can say
of the war (just before Waterloo) is that he is 'mortally afraid of it,'
and that he hates Bonaparte 'because he makes me more afraid than
anybody else.' In 1829 he anticipates 'tragical scenes' and a sanguinary
revolution; in 1821 he thinks as ill as ever 'of the state and prospects
of the country,' though with less alarm of speedy mischief; and in 1822
he looks forward to revolutionary wars all over the Continent, from
which we may possibly escape by reason of our 'miserable poverty;'
whilst it is probable that our old tyrannies and corruptions will last
for some 4,000 or 5,000 years longer.

A stalwart politician, Whig or Tory, is rarely developed out of a Mr.
Much-Afraid or a Mr. Despondency; they are too closely related to Mr.
Facing-both-Ways. Jeffrey thinks it generally a duty to conceal his
fears and affect a confidence which he does not feel; but perhaps the
best piece of writing in his essays is that in which he for once gives
full expression to his pessimist sentiment. It occurs in a review of a
book in which Madame de Stael maintains the doctrine of human
perfectibility. Jeffrey explains his more despondent view in a really
eloquent passage. He thinks that the increase of educated intelligence
will not diminish the permanent causes of human misery. War will be as
common as ever, wealth will be used with at least equal selfishness,
luxury and dissipation will increase, enthusiasm will diminish,
intellectual originality will become rarer, the division of labour will
make men's lives pettier and more mechanical, and pauperism grow with
the development of manufactures. When republishing his essays Jeffrey
expresses his continued adherence to these views, and they are more
interesting than most of his work, because they have at least the merits
of originality and sincerity. Still, one cannot help observing that if
the 'Edinburg