The Press.
London, England, 1855-04-07 00:00:00

to popular passions, and the pompous and
hollow generalities which are regarded as elo-
quence in France ; and has always, on the
other hand, been as chaste in style as Cicero,
with no little of the old Roman's power of rea-
soning and some of his fire ; and as politician
and statesman, he can boldly assert, and find
none to deny, that in the midst of fearful cor-
ruption he was pure ; and that when almost
every other man pushed his private fortune at
the expense of the publio weal, he, like another
Pitt, left power poor as when he entered it—
nay, he may even plead, in extenuation of his
responsibility for the great disaster which
overwhelmed the monarchy under him, that it
was his lot to rule a

painper'd people, whom, debauch'd with ease,
No King could govern, nor no God could please !"

When such a personage as this takes pen in
hand to treat of any subject he is sure of
general and respectful attention. But when,
as in the last number of the Revue Contempo-
rains, now before us, he discusses such a
theme as the " disappointments " and the
" hopes " of the great political party of which
he is the distinguished chief, his lucubration
assumes all the importance of a great political
event ; and as such it cannot fail, in addition
to its literary interest, to excite profound sen-
sation in Europe. A brief notice of its more
important features will, therefore, be certainly
most acceptable to our readers.
The illustrious writer begins by noticing the
profourul error committed by the philoso-
phers, statesmen, and others, who took part in
the revolution of 1789, in supposing that man
is essentially good, and that they had power
to model society in such a way as to enable
that good to develop itself freely, and thereby
cause universal happiness. Man having, as
religion teaches, "an innate inclination to
" disobedience and license," and having, there-
fore, need of being held in check both by
moral and human laws, this error, says M.
Guizot produced the most disastrous results;
it caused all the frightful horrors of the revo-
lution, and condemned " our fathers of 1789 to
" pass from the perspective of paradise to the
" scenes of hell !" No such foolish illusions,
he proceeds to say, existed when the revolu-
tion of 1830 was accomplished; and the estab-
lishment of the constitutional regime which then
took place seemed of a nature to satisfy all
the legitimate expectations that were formed,
or that could be realised. Why, then, did that
regime fail so disastrously ? It is thus that
M. Guizot explains its "disappointments" and
overthrow :
We are in France much less advanced in virtue, and
political aptitude, and enlightenment, than we fancy. We
incessantly flatter ourselves, and flatter one another, to the
great injury of all.
Liberty has need of virtue. Nations are not capable of
governing themselves except when men govern their own
hearts firmly. Ido not think that I calumniate my epoch
in saying that what it needs is precisely the firm govern-
mentof the heart. Moral good has not perished amongst
us, but moral faith is wavering We did not
take sufficiently into account this moral evil of our times ;
we had too much confidence in the empire of habit, of in-
terest, of legal repression, of all external checks. . . We
left the public too much exposed to the contagion of cor-
rupt ideas, bad spectacles, bad books, bad examples, bad
influences of all kinds. We counted too much on the
national morality, and at the same time did too little to
defend and strengthen it.
We had also too much confidence in our aptitude and
enlightenment for a regime of political liberty. The politi-
cal , education of France has hitherto been made only in
two schools—books and revolutions—two very bad and
Insufficient masters to teach a people to govern themselves.
Books give political intelligence which is always vague and
presumptuous, and cause a disposition to dogmatise and
criticise, rather than decide and act. Books, besides, do
not penetrate to the masses ; so that sympathy and intel-
lectual equilibrium are broken off between the higher
classes and the people—they cease to understand each
other and to think in common. Revolutions give a more
general and more efficacious political instruction ; but they
throw men's minds out of the right path; they corrupt,
freeze, or enervate hearts ; they spread the worship of force
and fraud, instead of that of right and liberty ; they create
libertines skilful in profiting by all that happens, poltroons
docile to all, and plunge honest people into discourage-
ment
We also entertained illusions II S to the conditions of our
government. Immediately after a revolution, and in an
access of revolutionary power, we attempted to found a
monarchy, a free monarchy—and yet :he monarchical
party was profoundly divided; we had, to enable us to
defend the Government and the laws, only a portion of the
national army of the Government and the laws.
Another cause of " nos rnecomptes " is that
the middle classes,