, 1880-08-11

who are rather amused and interested by the
slow play of Parliamentary forces. who believe
In discussion as an interesting as well as advan-
tageous mode of evolving opinion, and who
bold that the catastrophe method is safe only
In the hands of Omnisoience, very rarely like
the French Revolution. They accept it and
study il, as they might accept and study a
food, and sometimes, after much Investigation,
pronounce it's effects good, but they never
give it their cordial admiration. On the other
hand. men who are impatient, who long for
DELIVERIES. who think discussion only a tolera-
bic way of eliciting truth, and who, if they
spoke out. would acknowledg &c a feeling Of irri-
tation against Providencef for making oaks grow
80 slowly, always, even when they are Tories,
feel an attraction for the cataclysmal develop
ments of the French Revelation. It is difficult
again. for US at least, to understand, though we
admit it sometimes happens, bow sincere
Catholics can approve a Revolution which in
it's very principle is fatal to their great p,eoc-
cupation, the supremacy of the Church in the
region of faith and morals. The Divine Right
of the priest and of the ruler were attacked
together, and only those who thoroughly detest
both can heartily love their gigantic and furious
assailant. It is difficult 10 comprehend, what
also happens. how sincere Liberals can fail to
appreciate the political victories the Revolu-
tion has secured. Nor is it easy even for pas
sioDless historians to forget that il to the Revo-
luton We owe all Continental Parliaments and
the more equal diffusion Of property, we owe to
1t also universal oonscriptioD, heavier taxation,
and the nearly total extinction Of the ancient,
r%estfol, unburried, contemplative ideal of bu-
man life, perhaps the greatest loss European
society has sustain ed.
Nevertheless. there is one ground upon
which all reasonable men, or, if that is too wide
an expression, all reasonable Protestant Liber-
ais, may, we thinB, unite with the French in
hon0uring the 18th of July, and that is the
immensely of the burden from which the Revo-
luton relieved mankind. 1t did not, as we all
know, abolish or limit war on the contrary,
its FIRST result was Napoleon. It did not abolish
or limit 'militari.m.n the idea that soldering
is the noblest and most rightful Of careers on
the contrary, it made it universal. 1t did not
abolish or limit the Pagan as opposed to the
Christian spirit in Western Europe; on the
contrary, except in the single groove of sym
patty for human suffering, we should say it
had developed, as it has certainly released,
the Pagan spirit. It did not abolish or limit
despOtism; on the contrary, one Of its results
was TO to revive C8saris,U, that awful form of
tyranny iu which the will of tho tyrant has
behind it the irresistible strength of a multi
tude, released even from the check of ~assassi-
nation. But it did, for the first time in Euro
pean history, strike down privilege; did es-
tablish the equality of mems right to act,-did,
that is. open the path of the world to the peo-
pies. instead of to minute castles. The present
generation does not realise how terrible this
burden of privilege once was. When the Bas-
tile fell. throughout the Continent save Swift
zerland, only kings and mobiles and great ~clerics.
and those whom they favoured, we're in
any complete sense alive at all. The
body of each people were not deprived
of, rights, so much as devoid of them.
They might be, and in some places, as
the Tyrol, they we're, most kindly treated,
but their only right twas the horses right
the right of kicking. or n~eighing, or of showing
vice 80 incurable that no task could be impos-
ed-and even this was not always allowed.
They had not a clear right of petition, for if
the King chose he could treat petitioning as
rebellion, and he often did choose, hanging in
France, for example, forty persons at once for
setting forth their grievance, which happened
TO be hunger. The masses of the people had
no rightful control over their Governments at
all. They had no right to refuse any taxes
demanded. They could not, save by royal
favour, rise In their own armies and fleets.
They GOULD not, save by entering the circle Of
the privileged Corporations, engage in any
commerce. or practise any trade, or enter on
any pursuit, even agriculture. except in the
s~trictest subordination to men who wers their
supsliors only because they were privileged.
Every, road Of life, every path to comfort,
even the way TO- she Courts ofiJustice, was
barred by privilege, by the right of castes.