The Sun.
London, England, 1835-09-28 00:00:00

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sions between the great-fioWei. . here we pay 'little attention
to the polltical specstifit'l.l%-.,'ns of the press ; we are convinced
that they 'for the most part rest on false assumptions, and es-
pecially endeavour to misrepresent the affairs of the East."
VIENNA, 19.—Five per Cents., 10:2i ; Four per Cents.
; Bank Shares, 132.5.—Allgemeine Zeitung, Sept. 23.

QUARTERLY REVIEW. No. CVIII:
J. Murray. London. 1835.
It is not ohe of the least ominous signs of the times
in Fratitc, that ptiblicatiorts have lately issued from the
Press; in Whieh the character and actions of Robes-
pierre, so far front dwelt Oil With that feeling of disgust
which they are so well calculated to provoke, are ac-
tually attempted td be dossed oteri and even made the
tileiild ri eulogy. this strange ileiVetsity dt jthignietiti
which a few years since would have called forth expres-
sions of indignation from one end of the lc;:,1,;(.10ni to
the other, is only to be accounted for by tilt; inflexibly
devetic eiiribet 18 daily reit,
during himself so odious to his sUbjeCtt, l?y his s 1 iiteiri
of fines, imprisonments, aggressions on the liberty of
the Press, and indeed on all the great fundamental
titiittipieg "off 'die diarter, that they lt3 0.144,
even of Robespierrre with mitigated feelings, as of
one who no longer occupies the foremost place in the
annals of tyrawuy, Lot the perfidious Klug of the
nArtic.a.des continue his present system much longer,
and the Reign of Terror will cease to be, by the force of
contrast, the bug-bear that it has been for so many
years in France. Danton—Marat—Collot D'Herbois
—Hebert--and nobespierre—will all find apologists,
even among those who, till lately, most execrated their
names; for they will say, " why should these men,
cruel and tyrannical as we acknowledge them to have
been, be held up to exclusive abhorrence, when in the
person of Louis Phillippe, we find a despot who only
bides his time to become every way their equal. Our
present tyrant has not half so many excuses to offer for
his conduct, as our past had ; they lived in unsettled
times, when France was all earthquake, and men's judg-
ments everywhere succumbed to their passions ; but he
rules over us at a period of comparative tranquillity,
when we have, or bad, a charter to define our liberties ;
he therefore can in no way justify his conduct, conse-
quently is nearly, if not quite so bad, as the wretches
whose names we have been taught from our cradle to
hold in abhorrence." Reasoning like this, however
remote from the truth, is nothing more than is to be
expected from men, when smarting under an acute sense
of present injury ; and doubless it was some such feel-
ing that originated the laudatory memoir of Robespierre
which the Quarterly has here made the theme of an
elaborate historical essay, which, while it comments on
the French Nero, in just such terms as he deserves, is
still more envenomed in its attacks on the Girondists,
for no other reason that we can see—for assuredly his-
tory gives no warrant for such severity—than because
that ill-fated party happened to be among the first who
gave a decided impulse to the' revolution.
" It is the fashion of late," says the Reviewer, " to extol
the Girondists, and particularly Roland, and that maitresse
femme his wife ; but any one who will read impartially, and
with a careful reference to dates, their own account of these
transactions, must see that during the long preparation for the
September massacre, and the height and fury of its execution,
the Minister and his colleagues exhibited the basest apathy,
and that it was not till the second and third days, when they
found themselves in danger, that they took those measures—
not of repression, but of complaint—on the evidence of which
their eulogists now deny their participation in this tremendou
guilt."
This statement, however plausible, is one deliberate
falsehood from first to last. In the first place, the
Girondists exhibited no " base apathy" during the
" long preparation for the massacre ;" for this reason,
that as it was expressly got up to influence the elec-
tions against them, by the Jacobins, so it was kept
concealed from them till the very moment when it
broke out; consequently they could not provide against
a peril, of the existence of which they were ignorant ;
secondly, it was not " on the second and third days "
that the Girondists found themselves in danger ; they
were in danger—imminent danger—on the very first
outburst of the conspiracy, for it was not only against
their majority in the convention, but also against
themselves personally, that it was directed ; lastly, so
far from resting content with a mere expression of dis-
satisfaction, they put an end to the massacre, notwith-
standing all the efforts of the men of the Mountain,
backed by the lower orders, to extend its fury. Com-
mon sense, to say nothing of facts, might have shown
the Reviewer the utter absurdity of his assertions ; for
it is incredible any party of men should be found
capable of exhibiting " base apathy." at a crisis when
not only their fortunes, but their very lives, are at
stake. Had the massacre been favourable to the inte-
rests of the Girondists, then indeed—so benumbing at
times are the effects of party spirit—they might with
some show of reason have been accused of indifference ;
but certainly not when it was the first great blow
aimed at their power, from the effects of which they
never recovered, by a party who were as much opposed
to them as light to darkness. As Ministers, the
Girondists had but one fault. They were too much
given to theory. Though enlightened, benevolent, and
patriotic, there was scarcely one among them all who
could strictly be called a man of the world. They
might know human nature in the abstract, through the
medium of books and philosophical speculation, but
they were ignorant of it in practice ; this was the first
cause of their downfall, but the immediate one was the
disastrous march of the Duke of Brunswick, which,
by quickening the apprehensions of the French, threw
the whole powers of the State into the hands of the
bloody-thirsty, but energetic Jacobins. History has
few sadder pages in her records than those which re-
cord the downfall of the Girondists, which, however,
the Reviewer exults in, evidently because he fancies he
finds in them—and wishes his readers to find also—
the prototype of the present Whigs.
" Ion" is a notice of an unpublished tragedy by
Sergeant Talfourd, which, from the extracts adduced
by the Reviewer, appears to possess considerable merit.
We fear, however, that it is a composition of too ima-
ginative and abstract a nature to succeed on the stage.
The characters are not real, but ideal ; and the refined,
elaborate, but highly poetic structure of the language,
with its constant play of imagery, and Wordsworthiau
depth and purity of sentiment, are such as, however
they may please in the closet, must be caviare to a
motley English audience. In the notice of " Cooke's
Memoirs of Bolingbroke," we have one of those slash-
ing, tomahawk attacks in which the Quarterly so much
delights. The Reviewer very properly defends Dean
Swift from the charge of " infidelity" brought against
him by the biographer, who would never have dreamed
of making such a charge, had he read Hawkesworth's
Life of the Dean of St. Patrick, where it is expressly
mentioned that twice every day he read prayers (frequently
his own composition) to his household, but this with so
little parade or affectation of devotion, that one of his
English guests, recommended to his notice by Pope,
had actually been three weeks in his house before
he was aware of the circumstance. Infidelity and
hypocrisy are the two most absurd accusations that
Mr. Cooke could possibly have brought against Swift.
He was frank and communicative to a degree, and as
strict a Churchman, in the most enlightened sense of
the term, as any Bishop that ever sat on the Episcopal
Bench. Had he been a hypocrite, or any thing ap-
proaching to it, he would never have written the " Tale
of a Tub," which was his chief obstacle to a Bishopric.
" Tours in America" is an amusing Review
of some books of travels that have lately
been published. It is characterized by a juster
and more liberal tone of thinking than usual.
In the Review of the " Worthies of Yorkshire and
Lancashire,a sophism of it's author (Mr. Hartley
Coleridge) that " it is a great error in a Monarch to
his domintons so long in peace that
keep the art mili-

We have just received d the Ocibber number
of Bletaw.464t Mttgar:in6 «Mich `Contaiti.S ai% article
on " the late CrisiS tvlia of PailiaMent,"
eharactecd by it More than ordinarily intemperate
rbttsc ol` Ministers. " What," asks the Wfitei.,Of this
rabid diatribe, 44 have ...\f'sy actect, o account for the
longest $.6--.;ion on record in Parliament, with the
exception of that which sat in judgment on the
Constitution ? What have they done ?” This)
we should have supposed, weuld have abottt
the last questkm that 0, Toiy would ever have
dreamed rt ratting, for the answer is one that
tells with irresistible force against his own party. If
Ministers have not done all that could he't
wished, who but the CottletiYatiVeS arc to blame ?
They paralpted the litst halt of the Session by their
mal-administration, and the last half of it by theit
opposition. Under such circumstaticcs---------eVeclallY
when the marked hostility of the Tory Lords to the
Municipal Reform Bill, at every stage o its progress,
is tAken into consideration—it is not surprising that
Ministers have done so little, but that they have
done so much. The writer proceeds to state,
that Government was the cause of the Irish
_Tithe
Bill being thrown out—an assertion so absurd, 40
monstrous, that it scarcely merits even the compliment
of a moment's notice. Thia rest of the article is penned
precisely in this reckless, calumnious spirit, and can
serve no ether purpose than to furnish food for ridicule.

It has been remarked that the state of civilization
of any country may be inferred from the means of in-
ternal communication which it possesses. The remark
is founded on experience. What is it that civilizes
mankind but sock' intercourse—that interchange of
thought aila feeling by which the improvement of one
pbrtion of the community is conveyed to another, and
the whole gradually raised in the scale of being ?
If we look at the countries which are at this moment
most sunk in ignorance and barbarism, we shall find
that they are those in which the different portions of
the population are insulated and detached from each
other, continuing from age to age unacquainted with
everything that has been passing beyond their own narrow
circle. These reflections have been suggested by the im-
mense improvements which have lately taken place in
this country in the means of internal transport. We
have not only had the remotest parts of the kingdom
pierced by excellent roads, but:the rapidity of our commu-
nication has:been increased, and is increasing, in an incal-
culable degree through the all-powerful agency of steam.
We find that railways have either been established, or
are in course of formation, on all the principal lines of
road in the kingdom. The Metropolis is of course
the central point from which most of them issue. In
all directions, east, west, north, and south, the engineer
is at work. There arc no fewer than three distinct
railways at this moment projected between London
and Brighton. We are glad to see this competition,
and trust it will lead to the advantage of the public.
Sure we are that there is no road, if the line is judici-
ously selected, which holds out greater encouragement
for the investment of capital. We have not the least
doubt that in passengers alone it would make an am-
ple return.