New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1842-08-04
From the Foreign Quarterly for July
rHE REIGN OF TERROR.

the prejudices (so let them be called) with which
human nature must regard the revolving incidents
and details-we must still find it matter OF grave
astonishment, that violent CONFUSION shoulo
have produced such insignificant benefits. 10
those who read history with the eyes OF Mlgnet
and Of Theirs (rhe great masters of the school SO
well entitled the Fa.alist) history may interest
but il never warns-oace grant that events are the
things OF destiny, and what signify the faults or
virtues Of the actors. This is indeed TO make
history an almanac, and TO place the horoscope OIL
nations under the fabulous influence OF the stars
Blu, they who sec in the chronicles OF State, mat.
Ter to make succeeding times profit by the disaster
and emulate the triumph must ever ask themselves
tina, question, on the answer 10 which, so much to
de,hrone Law or TO legalize Force must rest
IWhat has France gained by her Revolution
And we think it might be satisfactorily shown
that whatever benefit France has derived from the
Revolution itself ia wretched recompense tor the
crimes through which she waded to obtain 1t. Do
not let us be misunderstood. We grant, at once
that if we compare the Of the people and the
nature of the laws. in 1885, with their ex-
istence in 1872 there in great and vital respects
q considerable improvement; that Improvement,
however, is not to be ascribed to the Revolution,
1utto the spirit that preceded the Revolution and
coad hare sufieed for all beneficial changes,
the Populace were permitted to take the law IN
their own hands, there was no fear for the safe
progress of Opinion; and the events of l709-9G
would have changed their character, and been
known By the name not of Revolution, but he
FORM Popular principles had only to be temper
ate TO be permanently successful. The king was
prepared to yield; the state Of the tnunces placed
him and his hostile court at the irresistible COM
rnand of tho Assembly; the mobiles, the church,
and the men of letters, were on the whole perva-
ded by the spirit Of the time. Nothing could have
prevented the most lasting compromise of all in
terests, had, what is properly Revolution, namely
Illegal Violence, not usurFed the place of Cons'i-
tu,ional Improvement. At this period, the tenn
per of the times so far from being yet sangunary,
was for the extinction of capital punishNent.-
We repeat and insist upon the truth that the Move
ment had only to abstain from violence in order to
have carried reform to the highest point which the
liberty and enlightenment of the Age could have de-
sired: the moment that movement passed into rev.
olution; the moment LAW, Instead OF being cor
rected, was resisted; the moment the pspuiace
were permitted to indulge passion and to taste
blood the momest, in fact Force began,-Reforn
ceased. We coucede all that the apoIosists for
fhe excess of the Revolution have demanded. We
allow the unhappy influences of Marie Antoinette
and the courtiers, the impoiitic intrigues OF the
enigrants, and the unjusti6able aggression OF the
allies But these are but the ordinary obstacles
with which liberty has to contend In ali
stages Of conflict and transition. And never, per-
haps, had liberty advantages great as those
which France possessed, and threw away VIZ,
population of one mind, and king whose heart
was with his country. Deseze. in his defence OF
Louis XVI before the Assembly thus summed up.
and not voice could contradict: At the age
of twenty, Louis in ascending the throne, carried
with him the example of moral excelleace-oi
Justice and economy. Tie people wished the abo-
lition of an onerous impost-Louis destroyed it,
the abolition Of servitude-Louis abolished it,
The people asked reforms-he made them their
righis-he restored them; their liberty-he gave
it. No one can deny to Louis the glory of having
been in advance of the people by his sacrifices,
and it is him whom they propose to-Citizens
/ will not conclude the sentence-l pause before
that History-which, remember, shall judge your
judgement-and hers is the verdict that endures
for centuries
Yes, no man denied this praise to Louis, and
2 hat hopes would such king have afforded to a
People, wise to ask and patent to abide What
better chief has been gained for liberty-n Robes
pierre, in Napoleon, in Louis XVIII, in Charles
X in Louis Philippe? With. revolution, unless
the mere assembling of the IiersEs is so to
be called, without, in shert (and to avoid miscon-
CeFt3On,) Violence, anu CONFUSION, uHuri
Louis XVI, and his noble son Tortured to death
by the cobbler, Simon,) would have had Repre-.
sentative Assembly on the broadcast basis, Gov
ernment managed with the severest economy.
Press carried on by the freest regulations,-and
more than all, the hearty sympathy and love OF
every land where Civilization free the limbs or
elevate the mind Has she ever had them since
has she got them now
Unquestionably the abolition of privileges, the
publication Of the church, the amendment of tae
laws, have been great boons to France, but those
were predestined from the FIRST meeting of the
ITers-Etdt. For those no massacres, no guillo-
tine, no regicde, reign of terror, no revolution
(such as we mean by the revolution of France,
were required 1t was not for those real benefits
to France that her streets were to swim With blood.
Revolutions sang,,inary 10 be palliated only
Excused they never be-, either By such results
as secure permanent ard practical constitutional
liberty to the masses, thorough social regener-
elton in the neral life of the citizens With re-
gard TO the last, we must touch delicately on in-
vdous ground. 1t is true that the gay prodiga
ty the witty galantries, the polished vices of the
old French gentilhomme, arc exchanged ior the
proud exclusiveness of the Carlist macontents OF
the Faubourg St. German; the ancient noblesse
are no dolb. Improved and sobered by reverses,
aud poverty has heightened their Gallo vanity into
something of Spanish pride. But are the vices
themselves extinct. have they not merely changed
their place of residence TO be found under less
graceful garb, amongst the new erissocracy of
wealth. the gaudy parvenus of the Chaussee d An
tnf If we are 10 regard Literature as the glass
OF the manners and morals of the time, what ter
rible corrrpsion-nore dangerous because more
grave aud thoughtful than the light hcence. of the
old Crcbllons and Marivaux -Pollu,es those pic
tsres Of modern life, which the astonishing variety
L.
faint the Young and shock the old Turn to the
Stac. and how innocent seem the pieasantries OF