The National Register.
London, England, 1809-04-02 00:00:00

POLITICAL DISQUISITION.

NUMBER SIXTY-FOUR.
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THE SPT!UT OF TILE TIME; AND SOME HINTS TO

PRINCES AND THEIR ADVISERS.
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The ivorst and the most obvious evil of the French revolution
is, that it has considerably undermined the confidence anti vene-
ration of mankind for their institutions and princes. The stabi-
lity of governments rests exclusively on the :respectful attach-
ments they inspire : as soon as that foundation is removed, the
artificial props of standing armies, a vigilant police, and the
geverest legal restrictions, will not be able to protect them a
moment against the first violent passion which ruffles the com-
munity. They are torn away by the storm, and the edifice
crumbles to pieces.
This great political convulsion has left another fatal conse-
quence behind it. It wound up the feelings and passions of
mankind to too high a tone ; and the ardour of enthusiasm has
been followed by the frigid indifference of scepticism ;—the
ravings of the fever, as soon as the paroxism was over; were
followed by langour acd stppefaction. In political, as in phy-
sical, maladies this is, unquestionably, the most desperate stage,
the most dangerous symptom of the disorder; and all the art
of the statesman is requisite to resuscitate, by gentle stimula-
tive, the community to a sense of life and feeling.

These phenomena are accompanied by signs equally alarming.
The individuals, whose virtue and talents should aftbrd a remedy
to these complicated evils, display a degree of levity and' weak-
ness even superior to the danger which menaces them in parti-
cular. In this tremendous crisis, the higher classes are the mast
insensible and vitiated part of the social body. We shrink back
with horror and disgust from fife contemplation of their low and
groveling vices ; and, though the very ground they stand on
trembles under their feet, they pursue, with insatiable avidity,
the same despicable gratifications which plunged the nobility
and princes of the continent into an abyss of misery and ruin.
All the signs which preceded revolutions in any age or country,
accumulate in ours; they terrify from abroad; they multiply at
home; and whilst the closest confederacy of the good and in-
telligent can scarce prevent the explosion, those who pOSSebS
qualities of that description, remain isolated and inactive, or
encourage, through mistaken heal, and misunderstood patriotism„
the very evils it is so much their duty and interest to repress.
Men, who love their country, look *out them with despon-
dency; they find nothing to encourage; every thing to depress.
On the one side, an inexorable, bold, and inveterate enemy,
wielding the immense resources of twenty kingdoms, and sue-
ported by great genius, greater villainy, and more intense
hatred, is preparing, with unremitting perseverance, to accom-
plish our destruction. On the other, our own vices and folly
are labouring incessantly tto accelerate au event, the most dis-
astrous that ever occurred in the annals of the world;—if
England, that last mid favourite sojourn of liberty and laws.
stoop to a ruthless tyrant, freedom and humanity tly from our
distracted hemisphere f►►r ever.
Our primitive manners are gone, and with them our energy
and love of country. To re-establish them in a soil, where they
formerly shot out with so much luxuriance, they must be re-
planted, and nurtured by the domestic virtues. As soon as the
parental and conjugal duties are revered and exercised by the
higher classes, the lower v ill imitate the example. The fotriner
Lt.-3.0. LAI.I.