332
THOUGHTS
ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
Edmund Burke
Let us, therefore, a little consider the true nature and probable effects of the Revolution which, in such a very unusual manner, has been twice diplomatically announced to his Majesty.
Difference There have been many internal revolubetween this
Revolution tions in the government of countries, both
as to persons and forms, in which the neighboring states have had little or no concern. Whatever the government might be with respect to those persons and those forms, the stationary interests of
the nation concerned have most commonly influenced
the new governments in the same manner in which
they influenced the old; and the revolution, turning
on matter of local grievance or of local accommodation, did not extend beyond its territory.
Nature of The present Revolution in France seems
the French
Revolution. to me to be quite of another character and
description, and to bear little resemblance or analogy to any of those which have been brought about
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 319
in Europe, upon principles merely political. It is a
Revolution of doctrine and theoretic dogma. It has a
much greater resemblance to those changes which
have been made upon religious grounds, in which a
spirit of proselytism makes an essential part.
The last revolution of doctrine and theory which
has happened in Europe is the Refdrmation. It is
not for my purpose to take any notice here of the
merits of that revolution, but to state one only of its
effects.
That effect was, to introduce other interests
into all countries than those which arose from Its ef
their locality and natural circumstances. The principle of the Reformation was such as, by its essences could not be local or confined to the country in
which it had its origin. For instance, the doctrine
of " Justification by Faith or by Works," which was
the original basis of the Reformation, could not have
one of its alternatives true as to Germany and false
as to every other country. Neither are questions
of theoretic truth and falsehood governed by circumstances any more than by places. On that occasion, therefore, the spirit of proselytism expanded itself
with great elasticity upon all sides: and great divisions were everywhere the result.
These divisions, however in appearance merely
dogmatic, soon became mixed with the political;
and their effects were rendered much more intense
from this combination. Europe was for a long time
divided into two great factions, under the name of
Catholic and Protestant, which not only often alien --
ated state from state, but also divided almost every'
state within itself. The warm parties in each state
were more affectionately attached to those of their
? ? ? ? 320 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
own doctrinal interest in some other country than
to their fellow-citizens or to their natural government, when they or either of them happened to be of a different persuasion. These factions, wherever they
prevailed, if they did not absolutely destroy, at least
weakened and distracted the locality of patriotism.
The public affections came to have other motives and
other ties.
It would be to repeat the history of the two last
centuries to exemplify the effects of this revolution.
Although the principles to which it gave rise did
not operate with a perfect regularity and constancy,
they. never wholly ceased to operate. Few wars were
made, and few treaties were entered into, in which
they did not come in for some part. They gave a
color, a character, and direction to all the politics
of Europe.
New system These principles of internal as well as
of politics. external division and coalition are but just
now extinguished. But they who will examine into the true character and genius of some late events must be satisfied that other sources of faction, combining parties among the inhabitants of different countries into one connection, are opened, and that
from these sources are likely to arise effects full as
important as those which had formerly arisen from
the jarring interests of the religious sects. The intention of the several actors in the change in France is not a matter of doubt. It is very openly professed.
In the modern world, before this time, there has
been no instance of this spirit of general political
faction, separated from religion, pervading several
countries, and forming a principle of union between
the partisans in each. But the thing is not less in
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 321
human nature. The ancient world has furnished a
strong and striking instance of such a ground for
faction, full as powerful and full as mischievous as
our spirit of religious system had ever been, exciting in all the states of Greece (Europealln and
Asiatic) the most violent animosities and the most
cruel and bloody persecutions and proscriptions.
These ancient factions in each commonwealth of
Greece connected themselves with those of the same
description in some other states; and secret cabals
and public alliances were carried on and made, not
upon a conformity of general political interests, but
for the support and aggrandizement of the two leading states which headed the aristocratic and democratic factions. For as, in later times, the king of Spain was at the head of a Catholic, and the king
of Sweden of a Protestant interest, (France, though
Catholic, acting subordinately to the latter,) in the
like manner the Lacedemonians were everywhere at
the head of the aristocratic interests, and the Athenians of the democratic. The two leading powers kept
alive a constant cabal and conspiracy in every state,
and the political dogmas concerning the constitution
of a republic were the great instruments by which
these leading states chose to aggrandize themselves.
Their choice was not unwise; because the interest
in opinions, (merely as opinions, and without any
experimental reference to their effects,) when once
they take strong hold of the mind, become the most
operative of all interests, and indeed very often supersede every other.
I might further exemplify the possibility of a political sentiment running through various states, and
combining factions in them, from the history of the
VOL. IV. 21
? ? ? ? 322 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
Middle Ages in the Guelfs and Ghibellines. These
were political factions originally in favor of the Emperor and the Pope, with no mixture of religious dogmas: or if anything religiously doctrinal they had in them originally, it very soon disappeared; as their
first political objects disappeared also, though the
spirit remained. They became no more than names
to distinguish factions: but they were not the less
powerful in their operation, when they had no direct
point of doctrine, either religious or civil, to assert.
For a long time, however, those factions gave no
small degree of influence to the foreign chiefs in
every commonwealth in which they existed. I do
not mean to pursue further the track of these parties.
I allude to this part of history only as it furnishes an
instance of that species of faction which broke the
locality of public affections, and united descriptions
of citizens m6re with strangers than with their countrymen of different opinions.
French fun- The political dogma, which, upon the new
damental
principle. French system, is to unite the factions of
different nations, is this: " That the majority, told by
the head, of the taxable people in every country, is
the perpetual, natural, unceasing, indefeasible sovereign; that this majority is perfectly master of the
form as well as the administration of the state, and
that the magistrates, under whatever names they are
called, are only functionaries to obey the orders (general as laws or particular as decrees) which that
majority may make; that this is the only natural
government; that all others are tyranny and usurpation. "
Practical In order to reduce this dogma into pracproject. tice,. the republicans in France, and their
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 323
associates in other countries, make it always their
business, and often their public profession, to destroy
all traces of ancient establishments, and to form a
new commonwealth in each country, upon the basis
of the French Rights of Men. On the principle of
these rights, they mean to institute in every country,
and as it were the germ of the whole, parochial governments, for the purpose of what they call equal
representation. From them is to grow, by some media, a general council and representative of all the
parochial governments. In that representative is to
be vested the whole national power, -- totally abolishing hereditary name and office, levelling all conditions of men, (except where money must make a difference,) breaking all connection between territory
and dignity, and abolishing every species of nobility,
gentry, and Church establishments: all their priests
and all their magistrates being only creatures of
election and pensioners at will.
Knowing how opposite a permanent landed interest is to that scheme, they have resolved, and it is
the great drift of all their regulations, to reduce that
description of men to a mere peasantry for the sustenance of the towns, and to place the true effective
government in cities, among the tradesmen, bankers,
and voluntary clubs of bold, presuming young persons, -- advocates, attorneys, notaries, managers of
newspapers, and those cabals of literary men called
academies. Their republic is to have a first functionary, (as they call him,) under the name of King,
or not, as they think fit. This officer, when such
an officer is permitted, is, however, neither in fact
nor name to be considered as sovereign, nor the people as his subjects. The very use of these appellations is offensive to their ears.
? ? ? ? 324 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
Partisans of This system, as it has filst been realthe French
system. ized, dogmatically as well as practically, in
France, makes France the natural head of all factions
formed on a similar principle, wherever they may prevail, as much as Athens was the head and settled ally of all democratic factions, wherever they existed.
The other system has no head.
This system has very many partisans in every
country in Europe, but particularly in England,
where they are already formed into a body, comprehending most of the Dissenters of the three leading denominations. To these are readily aggregated
all who are Dissenters in character, temper, and disposition, though not belonging to any of their congregations: that is, all the restless people who resemble them, of all ranks and all parties, - Whigs, and even Tories; the whole race of half-bred speculators; all the Atheists, Deists, and Socinians; all
those who hate the clergy and envy the nobility; a
good many among the moneyed people; the East Indians almost to a man, who cannot bear to find that
their present importance does not bear a proportion
to their wealth. These latter have united themselves
into one great, and, in my opinion, formidable club,*
which, though now quiet, may be brought into action
with considerable unanimity and force.
Formerly, few, except the ambitious great or the
desperate and indigent, were to be feared as instruments in revolutions. What has happened in France
teaches us, with many other things, that there are
more causes than have commonly been taken into
* Originally called the Bengal Club; but since opened to persons
from the other Presidencies, for the purpose of consolidating the whole
Indian interest.
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 325
our consideration, by which government may be subverted. The moneyed men, merchants, principal
tradesmen, and men of letters (hitherto generally
thought the peaceable and even timid part of society) are the chief actors in the French Revolution. But the fact is, that, as money increases and circulates, and as the circulation of news in politics
and letters becomes more and more diffused, the persons who diffuse this money and this intelligence
become more and more important. This was not
long undiscovered. Views of ambition were in
France, for the first time, presented to these classes
of men: objects in the state, in the army, in the system of civil offices of every kind. Their eyes were
dazzled with this new prospect. They were, as it
were, electrified, and made to lose the natural spirit
of their situation. A bribe, great without example
in the history of the world, was held out to them, --
the whole government of a very large kingdom.
There are several who are persuaded that Grounds of
ity supthe same thing cannot happen in England, posed for
because here (they say) the occupations of England
merchants, tradesmen, and manufacturers are not
held as degrading situations. I once thought that
the low estimation in which commerce was held in
France might be reckoned among the causes of the
late Revolution; and I am still of opinion that the
exclusive spirit of the French nobility did irritate the
wealthy of other classes. But I found long since,
that persons in trade and business were by no means
despised in France in the manner I had been taught
to believ. As to men of letters, they were Literary
interest.
so far from being despised or neglected,
that there was no country, perhaps, in the universe,
? ? ? ? 826 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
in which they were so highly esteemed, courted, caressed, and even feared: tradesmen naturally were
not so much sought in society, (as not furnishing
so largely to the fund of conversation as they do to
the revenues of the state,) but the latter description
got forward every day. M. Bailly, who made hinmself the popular mayor on the rebellion of the Bastile, and is a principal actor in the revolt, before the change possessed a pension or office under the crown
of six hundred pound English a year, -- for that
country, no contemptible provision; and this he obtained solely as a man of letters, and on no other
Moneyed title. As to the moneyed men, whilst the
interest.
monarchly continued, there is no doubt,
that, merely as such, they did not enjoy the privileges
of nobility; but nobility was of so easy an acquisition, that it was the fault or neglect of all of that
description who did not obtain its privileges, for
their lives at least, in virtue of office. It attached
under the royal government to an' innumerable multitude of places, real and nominal, that were vendible; and such nobility were as capable of everything as their degree of influence or interest could make
them, - that is, as nobility of no considerable rank
or consequence. M. Necker, so far from being a
French gentleman, was not so much as a Frenchman
born, and yet we all know the rank in which he stood
on the day of the meeting of the States.
Mercantile As to the mere matter of estimation of
interest.
the mercantile or any other class, this is
regulated by opinion and prejudice. In England, a
security against the envy of men in these classes is
not so very complete as we may imagine. We must
not impose upon ourselves. What institutions and
? ? ? ? THOUGHTi ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 327
manners together had done in France manners alone
do here. It is the natural operation of things, where
there exists a crown, a court, splendid orders of
knighthood, and an hereditary nobility, - where
there exists a fixed, permanent, landed gentry, continued in greatness and opulence by the law of primogeniture, and by a protection given to family settlements,- where there exists a standing army and navy,- where there exists a Church establishment,
which bestows on learning and parts an interest combined with that of religion and the state; -- in a
country where such things exist, wealth, new in its
acquisition, and precarious in its duration, call never
rank first, or even near the first: though wealth has
its natural weight further than as it is balanced and
even preponderated amongst us, as amongst other nations, by artificial institutions and opinions growing
out of them. At no period in the history of England
have so few peers been taken out of trade or from
families newly created by commerce. In no period
has so small a number of noble families entered into
the counting-house. I can call to mind but one in
all England, and'his is of near fifty years' standing.
Be that as it may, it appears plain to me, from my
best observation, that envy and ambition may, by art,
managerrelt, and disposition, be as much excited
amongst these descriptions of men in England as in
any otheri. country, and that they are just as capable
of cting a part in any great change.
What direction the French spirit of pros- Progress of
the French
elytism is likely to take, and in what order spirit. -Its
it is likely to prevail in the several parts of
Europe, it is not easy to determine. The seeds are
sown almost everywhere, chiefly by newspaper circu
? ? ? ? 328 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
lations, infinitely more efficacious and extensive than
ever they were. And they are a more important instrument than generally is imagined. They are a
part of the reading of all; they are the whole of
the reading of the far greater number. There are
thirty of them in Paris alone. The language diffuses
them more widely than the English, -- though the
English, too, are much read. The writers of these
papers, indeed, for the greater part, are either unknown or in contempt, but they are like a battery,
in which the stroke of any one ball produces no great
effect, but the amount of continual repetition is decisive. Let us only suffer any person to tell us
his story, morning and evening, but for one twelvemonth, and he will become our master.
All those countries in which several states are
comprehended under some general geographical description, and loosely united by some federal consti tution, - countries of which the members are small,
and greatly diversified in their forms of government,
and in the titles by which they are held, -these
countries, as it might be well expected, are the principal objects of their hopes and machinations. Of these, the chief are Germany and Switzerland; after
them, Italy has its place, as in circumstances somewhat similar.
As to Germany, (in which, from their reGermany.
lation to the Emperor, I comprehend the
Belgic Provinces,) it appears to mte to be, from several circumstances, internal and external, in a very critical situation; and the laws and liberties of the
Empire are by no means secure from the contagion
of the French doctrines and the effect of French intrigues, or from the use which two of the greater
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 329
German powers may make of a general derangement
to the general detriment. I do not say that the
French do not mean to bestow on these German
states liberties, and laws too, after their mode; but
those are not what have hitherto been understood
as the laws and liberties of the Empire. These exist
and have always existed under the principles of feodal tenure and succession, under imperial constitutions, grants and concessions of sovereigns, family compacts, and public treaties, made under the sanction, and some of them guarantied by the sovereign
powers of other nations, and particularly the old government of France, the author and natural support
of the Treaty of Westphalia.
In short, the Germanic body is a vast mass of heterogeneous states, held together by that heterogeneous body of old principles which formed the public law positive and doctrinal. The modern laws and
liberties, which the new power in France proposes
to introduce into Germany, and to support with all
its force of intrigue and of arms, is of a very different nature, utterly irreconcilable with the first, and
indeed fundamentally the reverse of it: I mean the
rights and liberties of the man, the droit de 1'hoznme.
That this doctrine has made an amazing progress
in Germany there cannot be a shadow of doubt.
They are infected by it along the whole course of
the Rhine, the Maese, the Moselle, and in the greater part of Suabia and Franconia. It is particularly
prevalent amongst all the lower people, churchmen
and laity, in the dominions of the Ecclesias- Ecclesiasti.
tical Electors. It is not easy to find or to
conceive governments more mild and indulgent than
these Church sovereignties; but good government
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is as nothing, when the rights of man take possession of the mind. Indeed, the loose rein held over
the people in these provinces must be considered as
one cause of the facility with which they lend themselves to any schemes of innovation, by inducing them to think lightly of their governments, and to
judge of grievances, not by feeling, but by imagination.
Balance of It is in these Electorates that the first imGermany. pressions of France are likely to be made; and if they succeed, it is over with the Germanic
body, as it stands at present. A great revolution
is preparing in Germany, and a revolution, in my
opinion, likely to be more decisive upon the general
fate of nations than that of France itself, -- other
than as in France is to be found the first source of
all the principles which are in any way likely to distinguish the troubles and convulsions of our age. If Europe does not conceive the independence and the
equilibrium of the Empire to be in the very essence
of the system of balanced power in Europe, and if
the scheme of public law, or mass of laws, upon which
that independence and equilibrium are founded, be
of no leading consequence as they are preserved or
destroyed, all the politics of Europe for more than
two centuries have been miserably erroneous.
Prussia and If the two great leading powers of GerEmperor.
many do not regard this danger (as apparently they do not) in the light in which it presents
itself so naturally, it is because they are powers too
great to have a social interest. That sort of interest
belongs only to those whose state of weakness or
mediocrity is such as to give them greater cause of
apprehension from what may destroy them than of
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 331
hope from anything by which they may be aggrandized.
As long as those two princes are at variance, so
long the liberties of Germany are safe. But if ever
they should so far understand one another as to be
persuaded that they have a more direct and more
certainly defined interest in a proportioned mutual
aggrandizement than in a reciprocal reduction, that
is, if they come to think that they are more likely to
be enriched by a division of spoil than to be rendered
secure by keeping to the old policy of preventing others from being spoiled by either of them, from that
moment the liberties of Germany are no more.
That a junction of two in such a scheme is neither
impossible nor improbable is evident from the partition of Poland in 1773, which was effected by such a
junction as made the interposition of other nations
to prevent it not easy. Their circumstances at that
time hindered any other three states, or indeed any
two, from taking measures in common to prevent it,
though France was at that time an existing power,
and had not yet learned to act upon a system of politics of her own invention. The geographical position of Poland was a great obstacle to any movements of France in opposition to this, at that time, unparalleled league. To my certain knowledge, if Great
Britain had at that time been willing to concur in
preventing the execution of a project so dangerous in
the example, even exhausted as France then was by
the preceding war, and under a lazy and unenterlrising prince, she would have at every risk taken an
active part in this business. But a languor with
regard to so remote an interest, and the principles
and passions which were then strongly at work at
? ? ? ?
332 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
home, were the causes why Great Britain would not
give France any encouragement in such an enterprise. At that time, however, and with regard to
that object, in my opinion, Great Britain and France
had a common interest.
Possible But the position of Germany is not like
project of
the Emper6r that of Poland, with regard to France, either
and king of
Prussia. for good or for evil. If a conjunction between Prussia and the Emperor should be formed for the purpose of secularizing and rendering hereditary
the Ecclesiastical Electorates and the Bishopric of
Miinster, for settling two of them on the children of
the Emperor, and uniting Cologne and Miinster to the
dominions of the king of Prussia on the Rhine, or if
any other project of mutual aggrandizement should
be in prospect, and that, to facilitate such a scheme,
the modern French should be permitted and encouraged to shake the internal and external security of these Ecclesiastical Electorates, Great Britain is so
situated that she could not with any effect set herself
in opposition to such a design. Her principal arm,
her marine, could here be of no sort of use.
To be re- France, the author of the Treaty of Westsisted only
by France. phalia, is the natural guardian of the independence and balance of Germany. Great Britain (to say nothing of the king's concern as one of that
august body) has a serious interest in preserving it;
but, except through the power of France, acting upon
the common old principles of state policy, in the case we
have supposed, she has no sort of means of supporting that interest. It is always the interest of Great Britain that the power of France should be kept within the bounds of moderation. It is not her interest that that power should be wholly annihilated in the
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 333
system of Europe. Though at one time through
France the independence of Europe was endangered,
it is, and ever was, through her alone that the common liberty of Germany can be secured against the
single or the combined ambition of any other power.
In truth, within this century the aggrandizement of
other sovereign houses has been such that there has
been a great change in the whole state of Europe;
and other nations as well as France may become objects of jealousy and apprehension.
In this state of things, a new principle of New principles of
alliances and wars is opened. The Treaty alliance.
of Westphalia is, with France, an antiquated fable.
The rights and liberties she was bound to maintain
are now a system of wrong and tyranny which she is
bound to destroy. Her good and ill dispositions are
shown by the same means. To communicate peaceably the rights of men is the true mode of her showing her friendship; to force sovereigns to submit to those rights is her mode of hostility. So that, either
as friend or foe, her whole scheme has been, and is,
to throw the Empire into confusion; and those statesmen who follow the old routine of politics may see
in this general confusion, and in the danger of the
lesser princes, an occasion, as protectors or enemies,
of connecting their territories to one or the other of
the two great German powers. They do not take into
consideration that the means which they encourage,
as leading to the event they desire, will with certainty
not only ravage and destroy the Empire, but, if they
should for a moment seem to aggrandize the two
great houses, will also establish principles and confirm tempers amongst the people which will preclude
the two sovereigns from the possibility of holding
? ? ? ? 334 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
what they acquire, or even the dominions which they
have inherited. It is on the side of the Ecclesiastical
Electorates that the dikes raised to support the German liberty first will give way.
The French have begun their general operations
by seizing upon those territories of the Pope the
situation of which was the most inviting to the enterprise. Their method of doing it was by exciting sedition and spreading massacre and desolation through these unfortunate places,-and then, under
an idea of kindness and protection, bringing forward
an antiquated title of the crown of France, and annexing Avignon and the two cities of the Comtat,
with their territory, to the French republic. They
have made an attempt on Geneva, in which
Geneva.
they very narrowly failed of success. It is
known that they hold out from time to time the idea
of uniting all the other provinces of which Gaul was
anciently composed, including Savoy on the
other side, and on this side bounding themselves by the Rhine.
As to Switzerland, it is a country whose
Switzerland.
long union, rather than its possible division,
is the matter of wonder. Here I know they entertain
very sanguine hopes. The aggregation to France of
the democratic Swiss republics appears to them to be
a work half done by their very form; and it might
seem to them rather an increase of importance to
these little commonwealths than a derogation from
their independency or a change in the manner of
their government. Upon any quarrel amongst the
Cantons, nothing is more likely than such an event.
As to the aristocratic republics, the general clamor
and hatred which the French excite against the very
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 335
name, (and with more facility and success than
against monarchs,) and the utter impossibility of
their government making any sort of resistance
against an insurrection, where they have no troops,
and the people are all armed and trained, render
their hopes in that quarter far indeed from unfounded. It is certain that the republic of Bern
thinks itself obliged to a vigilance next to hostile,
and to imprison or expel all the French whom it
finds in its territories. But, indeed, those aristocracies, which comprehend whatever is considerable, wealthy, and valuable in Switzerland, do now so
wholly depend upon opinion, and the hu- Old French
maxims
mor of their multitude, that the lightest tle security
vI~~~~ ~ ~of its inde
puff of wind is sufficient to blow them pendence.
down. If France, under its ancient regimen, and
upon the ancient principles of policy, was the sup
port of the Germanic Constitution, it was much more
so of that of Switzerland, which almost from the very
origin of that confederacy rested upon the closeness
of its connection with France, on which the Swiss
Cantons wholly reposed themselves for the preservation of the parts of their body in their respective rights and permanent forms, as well as for the maintenance of all in their general independency. Switzerland and Germany are the first objects of
the new French politicians. When I contemplate
what they have done at home, which is, in effect,
little less than an amazing conquest, wrought by a
change of opinion, in a great part (to be sure far
from altogether) very sudden, I cannot help letting
my thoughts run along with their designs, and, without attending to geographical order, to consider the other states of Europe, so far as they may be any way
? ? ? ? 336 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
affected by this astonishing Revolution. If early
steps are not taken in some way or other to prevent the spreading of this influence, I scarcely
think any of them perfectly secure.
Italy is divided, as Germany and SwitzerItaly.
land are, into many smaller states, and with
some considerable diversity as to forms of government; but as these divisions and varieties inll Italy are not so considerable, so neither do I think the
danger altogether so imminent there as in Germany
and Switzerland. Savoy I know that the French
consider as in a very hopeful way, and I believe not
at all without reason. They view it as an old member of the kingdom of France, which may be easily reunited in the manner and on the principles of the
reunion of Avignon. This country communicates
with Piedmont; and as the king of Sardinia's dominions were long the key of Italy, and as such long regarded bv France, whilst France acted on her old
maxims, and with views on Italy, - so, in this new
French empire of sedition, if once she gets that key
into her hands, she can easily lay open the barrier
which hinders the entrance of her present politics into that inviting region. Milan, I am sure, nourishes great disquiets; and if Milan should stir, no part
of Lombardy is secure to the present posLombardy.
sessors, -whether the Venetian or the Austrian. Genoa is closely connected with France.
Bourbon The first prince of the House of. Bourbon
princes in
Italy. has been obliged to give himself up entirely
to the new system, and to pretend even to propagate
it with all zeal: at least, that club of intriguers who
assemble at the Feuillants, and whose cabinet meets
at Madame de Stail's, and makes and directs all the
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 337
ministers, is the real executive government of France.
The Emperor is perfectly in concert, and they will not
long suffer any prince of the House of Bourbon to
keep by force the French emissaries out of their dominions; nor whilst France has a commerce with them, especially through Marseilles, (the hottest focus of sedition in France,) will it be long possible to prevent the intercourse or the effects.
Naples has an old, inveterate disposition to republicanism, and ( however for some time past quiet) is as liable to explosion as its own Vesuvius. Sicily, I
think, has these dispositions in full as strong a degree. In neither of these countries exists anything; which very well deserves the name of government or
exact police.
In the States of the Church, notwith- Ecclesiaststanding their strictness in banishing the
French out of that country, there are not wanting the
seeds of a revolution. The spirit of nepotism prevails
there nearly as strong as ever. Every Pope of course
is to give origin or restoration to a great family by
the means of large donations. The foreign revenues
have long been gradually on the decline, and seem
now in a manner dried up. To supply this defect,
the resource of vexatious and impolitic jobbing at
home, if anything, is rather increased than lessened;.
Various well-intended, but ill-understood practices,
some of them existing, in their spirit at least, from
the time of the old Roman Empire, still prevail; and
that government is as blindly attached to old abusive
customs as others are wildly disposed to all sorts
of innovations and experiments. These abuses were
less felt whilst the Pontificate drew riches from abroad,.
which in some measure counterbalanced the evils of'
VOL. IV. 22
? ? ? ? 338 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
their remiss and jobbish government at home. But
now it can subsist only on the resources of domestic
management; and abuses in that management of
course will be more intimately and more severely
felt.
In the midst of the apparently torpid languor of
the Ecclesiastical State, those who have had opportu
nlity of a near observation have seen a little rippling
in that smooth water, which indicates something alive
under it. There is in the Ecclesiastical State a personage who seems capable of acting ( but with more
force and steadiness) the part of the tribune Rienzi.
The people, once inflamed, will not be destitute of a
leader. They have such an one already in the Cardinal or Archbishop Boncompagni. He is, of all
men, if I am not ill-informed, the most turbulent,
seditious, intriguing, bold, and desperate. He is not
at all made for a Roman of the present day. I think
he lately held the first office of their state, that of
Great Chamberlain, which is equivalent to High Treasurer. At present he is out of employment, and in
disgrace. If he should be elected Pope, or even come
to have any weight with a new Pope, he will infallibly conjure up a democratic spirit in that country.
He may, indeed, be able to effect it without these
advantages. The next interregnum will probably
show more of him. There may be others of the
same character, who have not come to my knowledge. This much is certain, - that the Roman people, if once the blind reverence they bear to the sanctity of the Pope, which is their only bridle, should relax, are naturally turbulent, ferocious, and headlong, whilst the police is defective, and the government feeble and resourceless beyond all imagination.
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 339
As to Spain, it is a nerveless country. It
does not possess the use, it only suffers the
abuse, of a nobility. For some time, and even before the settlement of the Bourbon dynasty, that body has been systematically lowered, and rendered incapable by exclusion, and for incapacity excluded from affairs. In this circle the body is in a manner annihilated;
and so little means have they of any weighty exertion either to control or to support the crown, that, if they at all interfere, it is only by abetting desperate and mobbish insurrections, like that at Madrid, which drove Squillace from his place. Florida Blanca is
a creature of office, and has little connection and no
sympathy with that body.
As to the clergy, they are the only thing in Spain
that looks like an independent order; and they are
kept in some respect by the Inquisition, the sole, but
unhappy resource of public tranquillity and order now
remaining in Spain. As in Venice, it is become mostly an engine of state, - which, indeed, to a degree, it has always been in Spain. It wars no longer with
Jews and heretics: it has no such war to carry on.
Its great object is, to keep atheistic and republican doctrines from making their way in that kingdom.
No French book upon any subject can enter there which does not contain such matter. In Spain, the clergy are of moment from their influence, but at
the same time with the envy and jealousy that attend great riches and power. Though the crown has by management with the Pope got a very great share of the ecclesiastical revenues into its own hands, much still remains to them. There will always be about
that court those who look out to a farther division
of the Church property as a resource, and to be ob
? ? ? ? 340 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
tained by shorter methods than those of negotiations
with the clergy and their chief. But at present I
think it likely that they will stop, lest the business
should be taken out of their hands, -- and lest that
body, in which remains the only life that exists in
Spain, and is not a fever, may with their property
lose all the influence necessary to preserve the monarchy, or, being poor and desperate, may employ
whatever influence remains to them as active agents
iln its destruction.
Castile dif- The Castilians have still remaining a
ferent from
catalonia good deal of their old character, their graand Aragon.
a vedad, lealtad, and el temor de Dios; but
that character neither is, nor ever was, exactly true,
except of the Castilians only. The several kingdoms
which compose Spain have, perhaps, some features
which run through the whole; but they are in many
particulars as different as nations who go by different names: the Catalans, for instance, and the Aragonians too, in a great measure, have the spirit of the Miquelets, and much more of republicanism than of
an attachment to royalty. They are more in the
way of trade and intercourse with France, and, upon
the least internal movement, will disclose and probably let loose a spirit that may throw the whole Spanish monarchy into convulsions.
It is a mlelancholy reflection, that the spirit of
melioration which has been going on in that part of
Europe, more or less, during this century, and the
various schemes very lately on foot for filrther advancement, are all put a stop to at once. Reformation certainly is nearly connected with innovation;
and where tllat latter comes in for too large a share,
those who undertake to improve their country may
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 341
risk their own safety. In times where the correction,
which includes the confession, of an abuse, is turned
to criminate the authority which has long suffered
it, rather than to honor those who would amend it,
(which is the spirit of this malignant French distemnper,) every step out of the common course becomes critical, and renders it a task full of peril for princes
of moderate talents to engage in great undertakings.
At present the only safety of Spaill is the old national
hatred to the French. How far that can be depended
upon, if any great ferments should be excited, it is
impossible to say.
As to Portugal, she is out of the high-road of these
politics. I shall, therefore, not divert my thoughts
that way, but return again to the North of Europe,
which at present seems the part most interested, and
there it appears to me that the French speculation on
the Northern countries may be valued in the following or some such manner.
Denmark and Norway do not appear to
Denmark.
furnish any of the materials of a democratic revolution, or the dispositions to it. Denmark
can only be consequentially affected by anything
done in France; but of Sweden I think quite otherwise. The present power in Sweden is too
Sweden.
new a system, and too green and too sore
from its late Revolution, to be considered as perfectly assured. The king, by his astonishing activity,
his boldness, his decision, his ready versatility, and
by rousing and employing the old military spirit of
Sweden, keeps up the top with continual agitation
and lashing. The moment it ceases to spin, the
royalty is a dead bit of box. Whenever Sweden
is quiet externally for some time, there is great dan.
? ? ? ? 342 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
ger that all the republican elements she contains will
be animated by the new French spirit, and of this I
believe the king is very sensible.
The Russian government is of all others
the most liable to be subverted by military
seditions, by court conspiracies, and sometimes by
headlong rebellions of the people, such as the turbinating movement of Pugatchef. It is not quite so probable that in any of these changes the spirit of
system may mingle, in the manner it has done in
France. The Muscovites are no great speculators;
but I should not much rely on their uninquisitive
disposition, if any of their ordinary motives to sedition should arise. The little catechism of the Rights of Men is soon learned; and the inferences are in the
passions.
Poland, from one cause or other, is always unquiet. The new Constitution only
serves to supply that restless people with new means,
at least new modes, of cherishing their turbulent disposition. The bottom of the character is the same. It is a great question, whether the joining that crown
with the Electorate of Saxony will contribaxony. ute most to strengthen the royal authority
of Poland or to shake the ducal in Saxony. The
Elector is a Catholic; the people of Saxony are, six
sevenths at the very least, Protestants. He must
continue a Catholic, according to the Polish law, if
he accepts that crown. The pride of the Saxons,
formerly flattered by having a crown in the house
of their prince, though an honor which cost them
dear, - the German probity, fidelity, and loyalty, -
the weight of the Constitution of the Empire under
the Treaty of Westphalia, -- the good temper and
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 343
good-nature of the princes of the House of Saxony,
had formerly removed from the people all apprehension with regard to their religion, and kept them perfectly quiet, obedient, and even affectionate. The Seven Years' War made some change in the. minds of
the Saxons. They did not, I believe, regret the loss
of what might be considered almost as the succession to the crown of Poland, the possession of which,
by annexing them to a foreign interest, had often
obliged them to act an arduous part, towards the
support of which that foreign interest afforded no
proportionable strength. In this very delicate situation of their political interests, the speculations of
the French and German -Economists, and the cabals,
and the secret, as well as public doctrines of the
JIlluminatenorden and Freemasons, have made a considerable progress in that country; and a turbulent
spirit, under color of religion, but in reality arising
from the French rights of man, has already shown
itself, and is ready on every occasion to blaze out.
The present Elector is a prince of a safe and quiet
temper, of great prudence and goodness. He knows,
that, in the actual state of things, not the power and
respect belonging to sovereigns, but their very existence, depends on a reasonable frugality. It is very
certain that not one sovereign in Europe can either
promise for the continuance of his authority in a
state of indigence and insolvency, or dares to venture on a new imposition to relieve himself. Without abandoning wholly the ancient magnificence of
his court, the Elector has conducted his affairs with
infinitely more economy than any of his predecessors, so as to restore his finances beyond what was
thought possible from the state in which the Seven
? ? ? ? 344 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
Years' War had left Saxony. Saxony, during the
whole of that dreadful period, having been in the
hands of an exasperated enemy, rigorous by resentment, by nature, and by necessity, was obliged to
bear in a manner the whole burden of the war; in
the intervals when their allies prevailed, the inhabit
ants of that country were not better treated.
The moderation and prudence of the present Elector, in my opinion, rather, perhaps, respites the trou
bles than secures the peace of the Electorate. The
offer of the succession to the crown of Poland is
truly critical, whether he accepts or whether he declines it. If the States will consent to his acceptance, it will add to the difficulties, already great, of his situation between the king of Prussia and the
Emperor. -But these thoughts lead me too far, when
I mean to speak only of the interior condition of these
princes. It has always, however, some necessary connection with their foreign politics.
With regard' to Holland, and the ruling
Holland.
Difference There have been many internal revolubetween this
Revolution tions in the government of countries, both
as to persons and forms, in which the neighboring states have had little or no concern. Whatever the government might be with respect to those persons and those forms, the stationary interests of
the nation concerned have most commonly influenced
the new governments in the same manner in which
they influenced the old; and the revolution, turning
on matter of local grievance or of local accommodation, did not extend beyond its territory.
Nature of The present Revolution in France seems
the French
Revolution. to me to be quite of another character and
description, and to bear little resemblance or analogy to any of those which have been brought about
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 319
in Europe, upon principles merely political. It is a
Revolution of doctrine and theoretic dogma. It has a
much greater resemblance to those changes which
have been made upon religious grounds, in which a
spirit of proselytism makes an essential part.
The last revolution of doctrine and theory which
has happened in Europe is the Refdrmation. It is
not for my purpose to take any notice here of the
merits of that revolution, but to state one only of its
effects.
That effect was, to introduce other interests
into all countries than those which arose from Its ef
their locality and natural circumstances. The principle of the Reformation was such as, by its essences could not be local or confined to the country in
which it had its origin. For instance, the doctrine
of " Justification by Faith or by Works," which was
the original basis of the Reformation, could not have
one of its alternatives true as to Germany and false
as to every other country. Neither are questions
of theoretic truth and falsehood governed by circumstances any more than by places. On that occasion, therefore, the spirit of proselytism expanded itself
with great elasticity upon all sides: and great divisions were everywhere the result.
These divisions, however in appearance merely
dogmatic, soon became mixed with the political;
and their effects were rendered much more intense
from this combination. Europe was for a long time
divided into two great factions, under the name of
Catholic and Protestant, which not only often alien --
ated state from state, but also divided almost every'
state within itself. The warm parties in each state
were more affectionately attached to those of their
? ? ? ? 320 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
own doctrinal interest in some other country than
to their fellow-citizens or to their natural government, when they or either of them happened to be of a different persuasion. These factions, wherever they
prevailed, if they did not absolutely destroy, at least
weakened and distracted the locality of patriotism.
The public affections came to have other motives and
other ties.
It would be to repeat the history of the two last
centuries to exemplify the effects of this revolution.
Although the principles to which it gave rise did
not operate with a perfect regularity and constancy,
they. never wholly ceased to operate. Few wars were
made, and few treaties were entered into, in which
they did not come in for some part. They gave a
color, a character, and direction to all the politics
of Europe.
New system These principles of internal as well as
of politics. external division and coalition are but just
now extinguished. But they who will examine into the true character and genius of some late events must be satisfied that other sources of faction, combining parties among the inhabitants of different countries into one connection, are opened, and that
from these sources are likely to arise effects full as
important as those which had formerly arisen from
the jarring interests of the religious sects. The intention of the several actors in the change in France is not a matter of doubt. It is very openly professed.
In the modern world, before this time, there has
been no instance of this spirit of general political
faction, separated from religion, pervading several
countries, and forming a principle of union between
the partisans in each. But the thing is not less in
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 321
human nature. The ancient world has furnished a
strong and striking instance of such a ground for
faction, full as powerful and full as mischievous as
our spirit of religious system had ever been, exciting in all the states of Greece (Europealln and
Asiatic) the most violent animosities and the most
cruel and bloody persecutions and proscriptions.
These ancient factions in each commonwealth of
Greece connected themselves with those of the same
description in some other states; and secret cabals
and public alliances were carried on and made, not
upon a conformity of general political interests, but
for the support and aggrandizement of the two leading states which headed the aristocratic and democratic factions. For as, in later times, the king of Spain was at the head of a Catholic, and the king
of Sweden of a Protestant interest, (France, though
Catholic, acting subordinately to the latter,) in the
like manner the Lacedemonians were everywhere at
the head of the aristocratic interests, and the Athenians of the democratic. The two leading powers kept
alive a constant cabal and conspiracy in every state,
and the political dogmas concerning the constitution
of a republic were the great instruments by which
these leading states chose to aggrandize themselves.
Their choice was not unwise; because the interest
in opinions, (merely as opinions, and without any
experimental reference to their effects,) when once
they take strong hold of the mind, become the most
operative of all interests, and indeed very often supersede every other.
I might further exemplify the possibility of a political sentiment running through various states, and
combining factions in them, from the history of the
VOL. IV. 21
? ? ? ? 322 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
Middle Ages in the Guelfs and Ghibellines. These
were political factions originally in favor of the Emperor and the Pope, with no mixture of religious dogmas: or if anything religiously doctrinal they had in them originally, it very soon disappeared; as their
first political objects disappeared also, though the
spirit remained. They became no more than names
to distinguish factions: but they were not the less
powerful in their operation, when they had no direct
point of doctrine, either religious or civil, to assert.
For a long time, however, those factions gave no
small degree of influence to the foreign chiefs in
every commonwealth in which they existed. I do
not mean to pursue further the track of these parties.
I allude to this part of history only as it furnishes an
instance of that species of faction which broke the
locality of public affections, and united descriptions
of citizens m6re with strangers than with their countrymen of different opinions.
French fun- The political dogma, which, upon the new
damental
principle. French system, is to unite the factions of
different nations, is this: " That the majority, told by
the head, of the taxable people in every country, is
the perpetual, natural, unceasing, indefeasible sovereign; that this majority is perfectly master of the
form as well as the administration of the state, and
that the magistrates, under whatever names they are
called, are only functionaries to obey the orders (general as laws or particular as decrees) which that
majority may make; that this is the only natural
government; that all others are tyranny and usurpation. "
Practical In order to reduce this dogma into pracproject. tice,. the republicans in France, and their
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 323
associates in other countries, make it always their
business, and often their public profession, to destroy
all traces of ancient establishments, and to form a
new commonwealth in each country, upon the basis
of the French Rights of Men. On the principle of
these rights, they mean to institute in every country,
and as it were the germ of the whole, parochial governments, for the purpose of what they call equal
representation. From them is to grow, by some media, a general council and representative of all the
parochial governments. In that representative is to
be vested the whole national power, -- totally abolishing hereditary name and office, levelling all conditions of men, (except where money must make a difference,) breaking all connection between territory
and dignity, and abolishing every species of nobility,
gentry, and Church establishments: all their priests
and all their magistrates being only creatures of
election and pensioners at will.
Knowing how opposite a permanent landed interest is to that scheme, they have resolved, and it is
the great drift of all their regulations, to reduce that
description of men to a mere peasantry for the sustenance of the towns, and to place the true effective
government in cities, among the tradesmen, bankers,
and voluntary clubs of bold, presuming young persons, -- advocates, attorneys, notaries, managers of
newspapers, and those cabals of literary men called
academies. Their republic is to have a first functionary, (as they call him,) under the name of King,
or not, as they think fit. This officer, when such
an officer is permitted, is, however, neither in fact
nor name to be considered as sovereign, nor the people as his subjects. The very use of these appellations is offensive to their ears.
? ? ? ? 324 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
Partisans of This system, as it has filst been realthe French
system. ized, dogmatically as well as practically, in
France, makes France the natural head of all factions
formed on a similar principle, wherever they may prevail, as much as Athens was the head and settled ally of all democratic factions, wherever they existed.
The other system has no head.
This system has very many partisans in every
country in Europe, but particularly in England,
where they are already formed into a body, comprehending most of the Dissenters of the three leading denominations. To these are readily aggregated
all who are Dissenters in character, temper, and disposition, though not belonging to any of their congregations: that is, all the restless people who resemble them, of all ranks and all parties, - Whigs, and even Tories; the whole race of half-bred speculators; all the Atheists, Deists, and Socinians; all
those who hate the clergy and envy the nobility; a
good many among the moneyed people; the East Indians almost to a man, who cannot bear to find that
their present importance does not bear a proportion
to their wealth. These latter have united themselves
into one great, and, in my opinion, formidable club,*
which, though now quiet, may be brought into action
with considerable unanimity and force.
Formerly, few, except the ambitious great or the
desperate and indigent, were to be feared as instruments in revolutions. What has happened in France
teaches us, with many other things, that there are
more causes than have commonly been taken into
* Originally called the Bengal Club; but since opened to persons
from the other Presidencies, for the purpose of consolidating the whole
Indian interest.
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 325
our consideration, by which government may be subverted. The moneyed men, merchants, principal
tradesmen, and men of letters (hitherto generally
thought the peaceable and even timid part of society) are the chief actors in the French Revolution. But the fact is, that, as money increases and circulates, and as the circulation of news in politics
and letters becomes more and more diffused, the persons who diffuse this money and this intelligence
become more and more important. This was not
long undiscovered. Views of ambition were in
France, for the first time, presented to these classes
of men: objects in the state, in the army, in the system of civil offices of every kind. Their eyes were
dazzled with this new prospect. They were, as it
were, electrified, and made to lose the natural spirit
of their situation. A bribe, great without example
in the history of the world, was held out to them, --
the whole government of a very large kingdom.
There are several who are persuaded that Grounds of
ity supthe same thing cannot happen in England, posed for
because here (they say) the occupations of England
merchants, tradesmen, and manufacturers are not
held as degrading situations. I once thought that
the low estimation in which commerce was held in
France might be reckoned among the causes of the
late Revolution; and I am still of opinion that the
exclusive spirit of the French nobility did irritate the
wealthy of other classes. But I found long since,
that persons in trade and business were by no means
despised in France in the manner I had been taught
to believ. As to men of letters, they were Literary
interest.
so far from being despised or neglected,
that there was no country, perhaps, in the universe,
? ? ? ? 826 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
in which they were so highly esteemed, courted, caressed, and even feared: tradesmen naturally were
not so much sought in society, (as not furnishing
so largely to the fund of conversation as they do to
the revenues of the state,) but the latter description
got forward every day. M. Bailly, who made hinmself the popular mayor on the rebellion of the Bastile, and is a principal actor in the revolt, before the change possessed a pension or office under the crown
of six hundred pound English a year, -- for that
country, no contemptible provision; and this he obtained solely as a man of letters, and on no other
Moneyed title. As to the moneyed men, whilst the
interest.
monarchly continued, there is no doubt,
that, merely as such, they did not enjoy the privileges
of nobility; but nobility was of so easy an acquisition, that it was the fault or neglect of all of that
description who did not obtain its privileges, for
their lives at least, in virtue of office. It attached
under the royal government to an' innumerable multitude of places, real and nominal, that were vendible; and such nobility were as capable of everything as their degree of influence or interest could make
them, - that is, as nobility of no considerable rank
or consequence. M. Necker, so far from being a
French gentleman, was not so much as a Frenchman
born, and yet we all know the rank in which he stood
on the day of the meeting of the States.
Mercantile As to the mere matter of estimation of
interest.
the mercantile or any other class, this is
regulated by opinion and prejudice. In England, a
security against the envy of men in these classes is
not so very complete as we may imagine. We must
not impose upon ourselves. What institutions and
? ? ? ? THOUGHTi ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 327
manners together had done in France manners alone
do here. It is the natural operation of things, where
there exists a crown, a court, splendid orders of
knighthood, and an hereditary nobility, - where
there exists a fixed, permanent, landed gentry, continued in greatness and opulence by the law of primogeniture, and by a protection given to family settlements,- where there exists a standing army and navy,- where there exists a Church establishment,
which bestows on learning and parts an interest combined with that of religion and the state; -- in a
country where such things exist, wealth, new in its
acquisition, and precarious in its duration, call never
rank first, or even near the first: though wealth has
its natural weight further than as it is balanced and
even preponderated amongst us, as amongst other nations, by artificial institutions and opinions growing
out of them. At no period in the history of England
have so few peers been taken out of trade or from
families newly created by commerce. In no period
has so small a number of noble families entered into
the counting-house. I can call to mind but one in
all England, and'his is of near fifty years' standing.
Be that as it may, it appears plain to me, from my
best observation, that envy and ambition may, by art,
managerrelt, and disposition, be as much excited
amongst these descriptions of men in England as in
any otheri. country, and that they are just as capable
of cting a part in any great change.
What direction the French spirit of pros- Progress of
the French
elytism is likely to take, and in what order spirit. -Its
it is likely to prevail in the several parts of
Europe, it is not easy to determine. The seeds are
sown almost everywhere, chiefly by newspaper circu
? ? ? ? 328 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
lations, infinitely more efficacious and extensive than
ever they were. And they are a more important instrument than generally is imagined. They are a
part of the reading of all; they are the whole of
the reading of the far greater number. There are
thirty of them in Paris alone. The language diffuses
them more widely than the English, -- though the
English, too, are much read. The writers of these
papers, indeed, for the greater part, are either unknown or in contempt, but they are like a battery,
in which the stroke of any one ball produces no great
effect, but the amount of continual repetition is decisive. Let us only suffer any person to tell us
his story, morning and evening, but for one twelvemonth, and he will become our master.
All those countries in which several states are
comprehended under some general geographical description, and loosely united by some federal consti tution, - countries of which the members are small,
and greatly diversified in their forms of government,
and in the titles by which they are held, -these
countries, as it might be well expected, are the principal objects of their hopes and machinations. Of these, the chief are Germany and Switzerland; after
them, Italy has its place, as in circumstances somewhat similar.
As to Germany, (in which, from their reGermany.
lation to the Emperor, I comprehend the
Belgic Provinces,) it appears to mte to be, from several circumstances, internal and external, in a very critical situation; and the laws and liberties of the
Empire are by no means secure from the contagion
of the French doctrines and the effect of French intrigues, or from the use which two of the greater
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 329
German powers may make of a general derangement
to the general detriment. I do not say that the
French do not mean to bestow on these German
states liberties, and laws too, after their mode; but
those are not what have hitherto been understood
as the laws and liberties of the Empire. These exist
and have always existed under the principles of feodal tenure and succession, under imperial constitutions, grants and concessions of sovereigns, family compacts, and public treaties, made under the sanction, and some of them guarantied by the sovereign
powers of other nations, and particularly the old government of France, the author and natural support
of the Treaty of Westphalia.
In short, the Germanic body is a vast mass of heterogeneous states, held together by that heterogeneous body of old principles which formed the public law positive and doctrinal. The modern laws and
liberties, which the new power in France proposes
to introduce into Germany, and to support with all
its force of intrigue and of arms, is of a very different nature, utterly irreconcilable with the first, and
indeed fundamentally the reverse of it: I mean the
rights and liberties of the man, the droit de 1'hoznme.
That this doctrine has made an amazing progress
in Germany there cannot be a shadow of doubt.
They are infected by it along the whole course of
the Rhine, the Maese, the Moselle, and in the greater part of Suabia and Franconia. It is particularly
prevalent amongst all the lower people, churchmen
and laity, in the dominions of the Ecclesias- Ecclesiasti.
tical Electors. It is not easy to find or to
conceive governments more mild and indulgent than
these Church sovereignties; but good government
? ? ? ? 330 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
is as nothing, when the rights of man take possession of the mind. Indeed, the loose rein held over
the people in these provinces must be considered as
one cause of the facility with which they lend themselves to any schemes of innovation, by inducing them to think lightly of their governments, and to
judge of grievances, not by feeling, but by imagination.
Balance of It is in these Electorates that the first imGermany. pressions of France are likely to be made; and if they succeed, it is over with the Germanic
body, as it stands at present. A great revolution
is preparing in Germany, and a revolution, in my
opinion, likely to be more decisive upon the general
fate of nations than that of France itself, -- other
than as in France is to be found the first source of
all the principles which are in any way likely to distinguish the troubles and convulsions of our age. If Europe does not conceive the independence and the
equilibrium of the Empire to be in the very essence
of the system of balanced power in Europe, and if
the scheme of public law, or mass of laws, upon which
that independence and equilibrium are founded, be
of no leading consequence as they are preserved or
destroyed, all the politics of Europe for more than
two centuries have been miserably erroneous.
Prussia and If the two great leading powers of GerEmperor.
many do not regard this danger (as apparently they do not) in the light in which it presents
itself so naturally, it is because they are powers too
great to have a social interest. That sort of interest
belongs only to those whose state of weakness or
mediocrity is such as to give them greater cause of
apprehension from what may destroy them than of
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 331
hope from anything by which they may be aggrandized.
As long as those two princes are at variance, so
long the liberties of Germany are safe. But if ever
they should so far understand one another as to be
persuaded that they have a more direct and more
certainly defined interest in a proportioned mutual
aggrandizement than in a reciprocal reduction, that
is, if they come to think that they are more likely to
be enriched by a division of spoil than to be rendered
secure by keeping to the old policy of preventing others from being spoiled by either of them, from that
moment the liberties of Germany are no more.
That a junction of two in such a scheme is neither
impossible nor improbable is evident from the partition of Poland in 1773, which was effected by such a
junction as made the interposition of other nations
to prevent it not easy. Their circumstances at that
time hindered any other three states, or indeed any
two, from taking measures in common to prevent it,
though France was at that time an existing power,
and had not yet learned to act upon a system of politics of her own invention. The geographical position of Poland was a great obstacle to any movements of France in opposition to this, at that time, unparalleled league. To my certain knowledge, if Great
Britain had at that time been willing to concur in
preventing the execution of a project so dangerous in
the example, even exhausted as France then was by
the preceding war, and under a lazy and unenterlrising prince, she would have at every risk taken an
active part in this business. But a languor with
regard to so remote an interest, and the principles
and passions which were then strongly at work at
? ? ? ?
332 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
home, were the causes why Great Britain would not
give France any encouragement in such an enterprise. At that time, however, and with regard to
that object, in my opinion, Great Britain and France
had a common interest.
Possible But the position of Germany is not like
project of
the Emper6r that of Poland, with regard to France, either
and king of
Prussia. for good or for evil. If a conjunction between Prussia and the Emperor should be formed for the purpose of secularizing and rendering hereditary
the Ecclesiastical Electorates and the Bishopric of
Miinster, for settling two of them on the children of
the Emperor, and uniting Cologne and Miinster to the
dominions of the king of Prussia on the Rhine, or if
any other project of mutual aggrandizement should
be in prospect, and that, to facilitate such a scheme,
the modern French should be permitted and encouraged to shake the internal and external security of these Ecclesiastical Electorates, Great Britain is so
situated that she could not with any effect set herself
in opposition to such a design. Her principal arm,
her marine, could here be of no sort of use.
To be re- France, the author of the Treaty of Westsisted only
by France. phalia, is the natural guardian of the independence and balance of Germany. Great Britain (to say nothing of the king's concern as one of that
august body) has a serious interest in preserving it;
but, except through the power of France, acting upon
the common old principles of state policy, in the case we
have supposed, she has no sort of means of supporting that interest. It is always the interest of Great Britain that the power of France should be kept within the bounds of moderation. It is not her interest that that power should be wholly annihilated in the
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 333
system of Europe. Though at one time through
France the independence of Europe was endangered,
it is, and ever was, through her alone that the common liberty of Germany can be secured against the
single or the combined ambition of any other power.
In truth, within this century the aggrandizement of
other sovereign houses has been such that there has
been a great change in the whole state of Europe;
and other nations as well as France may become objects of jealousy and apprehension.
In this state of things, a new principle of New principles of
alliances and wars is opened. The Treaty alliance.
of Westphalia is, with France, an antiquated fable.
The rights and liberties she was bound to maintain
are now a system of wrong and tyranny which she is
bound to destroy. Her good and ill dispositions are
shown by the same means. To communicate peaceably the rights of men is the true mode of her showing her friendship; to force sovereigns to submit to those rights is her mode of hostility. So that, either
as friend or foe, her whole scheme has been, and is,
to throw the Empire into confusion; and those statesmen who follow the old routine of politics may see
in this general confusion, and in the danger of the
lesser princes, an occasion, as protectors or enemies,
of connecting their territories to one or the other of
the two great German powers. They do not take into
consideration that the means which they encourage,
as leading to the event they desire, will with certainty
not only ravage and destroy the Empire, but, if they
should for a moment seem to aggrandize the two
great houses, will also establish principles and confirm tempers amongst the people which will preclude
the two sovereigns from the possibility of holding
? ? ? ? 334 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
what they acquire, or even the dominions which they
have inherited. It is on the side of the Ecclesiastical
Electorates that the dikes raised to support the German liberty first will give way.
The French have begun their general operations
by seizing upon those territories of the Pope the
situation of which was the most inviting to the enterprise. Their method of doing it was by exciting sedition and spreading massacre and desolation through these unfortunate places,-and then, under
an idea of kindness and protection, bringing forward
an antiquated title of the crown of France, and annexing Avignon and the two cities of the Comtat,
with their territory, to the French republic. They
have made an attempt on Geneva, in which
Geneva.
they very narrowly failed of success. It is
known that they hold out from time to time the idea
of uniting all the other provinces of which Gaul was
anciently composed, including Savoy on the
other side, and on this side bounding themselves by the Rhine.
As to Switzerland, it is a country whose
Switzerland.
long union, rather than its possible division,
is the matter of wonder. Here I know they entertain
very sanguine hopes. The aggregation to France of
the democratic Swiss republics appears to them to be
a work half done by their very form; and it might
seem to them rather an increase of importance to
these little commonwealths than a derogation from
their independency or a change in the manner of
their government. Upon any quarrel amongst the
Cantons, nothing is more likely than such an event.
As to the aristocratic republics, the general clamor
and hatred which the French excite against the very
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 335
name, (and with more facility and success than
against monarchs,) and the utter impossibility of
their government making any sort of resistance
against an insurrection, where they have no troops,
and the people are all armed and trained, render
their hopes in that quarter far indeed from unfounded. It is certain that the republic of Bern
thinks itself obliged to a vigilance next to hostile,
and to imprison or expel all the French whom it
finds in its territories. But, indeed, those aristocracies, which comprehend whatever is considerable, wealthy, and valuable in Switzerland, do now so
wholly depend upon opinion, and the hu- Old French
maxims
mor of their multitude, that the lightest tle security
vI~~~~ ~ ~of its inde
puff of wind is sufficient to blow them pendence.
down. If France, under its ancient regimen, and
upon the ancient principles of policy, was the sup
port of the Germanic Constitution, it was much more
so of that of Switzerland, which almost from the very
origin of that confederacy rested upon the closeness
of its connection with France, on which the Swiss
Cantons wholly reposed themselves for the preservation of the parts of their body in their respective rights and permanent forms, as well as for the maintenance of all in their general independency. Switzerland and Germany are the first objects of
the new French politicians. When I contemplate
what they have done at home, which is, in effect,
little less than an amazing conquest, wrought by a
change of opinion, in a great part (to be sure far
from altogether) very sudden, I cannot help letting
my thoughts run along with their designs, and, without attending to geographical order, to consider the other states of Europe, so far as they may be any way
? ? ? ? 336 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
affected by this astonishing Revolution. If early
steps are not taken in some way or other to prevent the spreading of this influence, I scarcely
think any of them perfectly secure.
Italy is divided, as Germany and SwitzerItaly.
land are, into many smaller states, and with
some considerable diversity as to forms of government; but as these divisions and varieties inll Italy are not so considerable, so neither do I think the
danger altogether so imminent there as in Germany
and Switzerland. Savoy I know that the French
consider as in a very hopeful way, and I believe not
at all without reason. They view it as an old member of the kingdom of France, which may be easily reunited in the manner and on the principles of the
reunion of Avignon. This country communicates
with Piedmont; and as the king of Sardinia's dominions were long the key of Italy, and as such long regarded bv France, whilst France acted on her old
maxims, and with views on Italy, - so, in this new
French empire of sedition, if once she gets that key
into her hands, she can easily lay open the barrier
which hinders the entrance of her present politics into that inviting region. Milan, I am sure, nourishes great disquiets; and if Milan should stir, no part
of Lombardy is secure to the present posLombardy.
sessors, -whether the Venetian or the Austrian. Genoa is closely connected with France.
Bourbon The first prince of the House of. Bourbon
princes in
Italy. has been obliged to give himself up entirely
to the new system, and to pretend even to propagate
it with all zeal: at least, that club of intriguers who
assemble at the Feuillants, and whose cabinet meets
at Madame de Stail's, and makes and directs all the
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 337
ministers, is the real executive government of France.
The Emperor is perfectly in concert, and they will not
long suffer any prince of the House of Bourbon to
keep by force the French emissaries out of their dominions; nor whilst France has a commerce with them, especially through Marseilles, (the hottest focus of sedition in France,) will it be long possible to prevent the intercourse or the effects.
Naples has an old, inveterate disposition to republicanism, and ( however for some time past quiet) is as liable to explosion as its own Vesuvius. Sicily, I
think, has these dispositions in full as strong a degree. In neither of these countries exists anything; which very well deserves the name of government or
exact police.
In the States of the Church, notwith- Ecclesiaststanding their strictness in banishing the
French out of that country, there are not wanting the
seeds of a revolution. The spirit of nepotism prevails
there nearly as strong as ever. Every Pope of course
is to give origin or restoration to a great family by
the means of large donations. The foreign revenues
have long been gradually on the decline, and seem
now in a manner dried up. To supply this defect,
the resource of vexatious and impolitic jobbing at
home, if anything, is rather increased than lessened;.
Various well-intended, but ill-understood practices,
some of them existing, in their spirit at least, from
the time of the old Roman Empire, still prevail; and
that government is as blindly attached to old abusive
customs as others are wildly disposed to all sorts
of innovations and experiments. These abuses were
less felt whilst the Pontificate drew riches from abroad,.
which in some measure counterbalanced the evils of'
VOL. IV. 22
? ? ? ? 338 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
their remiss and jobbish government at home. But
now it can subsist only on the resources of domestic
management; and abuses in that management of
course will be more intimately and more severely
felt.
In the midst of the apparently torpid languor of
the Ecclesiastical State, those who have had opportu
nlity of a near observation have seen a little rippling
in that smooth water, which indicates something alive
under it. There is in the Ecclesiastical State a personage who seems capable of acting ( but with more
force and steadiness) the part of the tribune Rienzi.
The people, once inflamed, will not be destitute of a
leader. They have such an one already in the Cardinal or Archbishop Boncompagni. He is, of all
men, if I am not ill-informed, the most turbulent,
seditious, intriguing, bold, and desperate. He is not
at all made for a Roman of the present day. I think
he lately held the first office of their state, that of
Great Chamberlain, which is equivalent to High Treasurer. At present he is out of employment, and in
disgrace. If he should be elected Pope, or even come
to have any weight with a new Pope, he will infallibly conjure up a democratic spirit in that country.
He may, indeed, be able to effect it without these
advantages. The next interregnum will probably
show more of him. There may be others of the
same character, who have not come to my knowledge. This much is certain, - that the Roman people, if once the blind reverence they bear to the sanctity of the Pope, which is their only bridle, should relax, are naturally turbulent, ferocious, and headlong, whilst the police is defective, and the government feeble and resourceless beyond all imagination.
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 339
As to Spain, it is a nerveless country. It
does not possess the use, it only suffers the
abuse, of a nobility. For some time, and even before the settlement of the Bourbon dynasty, that body has been systematically lowered, and rendered incapable by exclusion, and for incapacity excluded from affairs. In this circle the body is in a manner annihilated;
and so little means have they of any weighty exertion either to control or to support the crown, that, if they at all interfere, it is only by abetting desperate and mobbish insurrections, like that at Madrid, which drove Squillace from his place. Florida Blanca is
a creature of office, and has little connection and no
sympathy with that body.
As to the clergy, they are the only thing in Spain
that looks like an independent order; and they are
kept in some respect by the Inquisition, the sole, but
unhappy resource of public tranquillity and order now
remaining in Spain. As in Venice, it is become mostly an engine of state, - which, indeed, to a degree, it has always been in Spain. It wars no longer with
Jews and heretics: it has no such war to carry on.
Its great object is, to keep atheistic and republican doctrines from making their way in that kingdom.
No French book upon any subject can enter there which does not contain such matter. In Spain, the clergy are of moment from their influence, but at
the same time with the envy and jealousy that attend great riches and power. Though the crown has by management with the Pope got a very great share of the ecclesiastical revenues into its own hands, much still remains to them. There will always be about
that court those who look out to a farther division
of the Church property as a resource, and to be ob
? ? ? ? 340 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
tained by shorter methods than those of negotiations
with the clergy and their chief. But at present I
think it likely that they will stop, lest the business
should be taken out of their hands, -- and lest that
body, in which remains the only life that exists in
Spain, and is not a fever, may with their property
lose all the influence necessary to preserve the monarchy, or, being poor and desperate, may employ
whatever influence remains to them as active agents
iln its destruction.
Castile dif- The Castilians have still remaining a
ferent from
catalonia good deal of their old character, their graand Aragon.
a vedad, lealtad, and el temor de Dios; but
that character neither is, nor ever was, exactly true,
except of the Castilians only. The several kingdoms
which compose Spain have, perhaps, some features
which run through the whole; but they are in many
particulars as different as nations who go by different names: the Catalans, for instance, and the Aragonians too, in a great measure, have the spirit of the Miquelets, and much more of republicanism than of
an attachment to royalty. They are more in the
way of trade and intercourse with France, and, upon
the least internal movement, will disclose and probably let loose a spirit that may throw the whole Spanish monarchy into convulsions.
It is a mlelancholy reflection, that the spirit of
melioration which has been going on in that part of
Europe, more or less, during this century, and the
various schemes very lately on foot for filrther advancement, are all put a stop to at once. Reformation certainly is nearly connected with innovation;
and where tllat latter comes in for too large a share,
those who undertake to improve their country may
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 341
risk their own safety. In times where the correction,
which includes the confession, of an abuse, is turned
to criminate the authority which has long suffered
it, rather than to honor those who would amend it,
(which is the spirit of this malignant French distemnper,) every step out of the common course becomes critical, and renders it a task full of peril for princes
of moderate talents to engage in great undertakings.
At present the only safety of Spaill is the old national
hatred to the French. How far that can be depended
upon, if any great ferments should be excited, it is
impossible to say.
As to Portugal, she is out of the high-road of these
politics. I shall, therefore, not divert my thoughts
that way, but return again to the North of Europe,
which at present seems the part most interested, and
there it appears to me that the French speculation on
the Northern countries may be valued in the following or some such manner.
Denmark and Norway do not appear to
Denmark.
furnish any of the materials of a democratic revolution, or the dispositions to it. Denmark
can only be consequentially affected by anything
done in France; but of Sweden I think quite otherwise. The present power in Sweden is too
Sweden.
new a system, and too green and too sore
from its late Revolution, to be considered as perfectly assured. The king, by his astonishing activity,
his boldness, his decision, his ready versatility, and
by rousing and employing the old military spirit of
Sweden, keeps up the top with continual agitation
and lashing. The moment it ceases to spin, the
royalty is a dead bit of box. Whenever Sweden
is quiet externally for some time, there is great dan.
? ? ? ? 342 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
ger that all the republican elements she contains will
be animated by the new French spirit, and of this I
believe the king is very sensible.
The Russian government is of all others
the most liable to be subverted by military
seditions, by court conspiracies, and sometimes by
headlong rebellions of the people, such as the turbinating movement of Pugatchef. It is not quite so probable that in any of these changes the spirit of
system may mingle, in the manner it has done in
France. The Muscovites are no great speculators;
but I should not much rely on their uninquisitive
disposition, if any of their ordinary motives to sedition should arise. The little catechism of the Rights of Men is soon learned; and the inferences are in the
passions.
Poland, from one cause or other, is always unquiet. The new Constitution only
serves to supply that restless people with new means,
at least new modes, of cherishing their turbulent disposition. The bottom of the character is the same. It is a great question, whether the joining that crown
with the Electorate of Saxony will contribaxony. ute most to strengthen the royal authority
of Poland or to shake the ducal in Saxony. The
Elector is a Catholic; the people of Saxony are, six
sevenths at the very least, Protestants. He must
continue a Catholic, according to the Polish law, if
he accepts that crown. The pride of the Saxons,
formerly flattered by having a crown in the house
of their prince, though an honor which cost them
dear, - the German probity, fidelity, and loyalty, -
the weight of the Constitution of the Empire under
the Treaty of Westphalia, -- the good temper and
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 343
good-nature of the princes of the House of Saxony,
had formerly removed from the people all apprehension with regard to their religion, and kept them perfectly quiet, obedient, and even affectionate. The Seven Years' War made some change in the. minds of
the Saxons. They did not, I believe, regret the loss
of what might be considered almost as the succession to the crown of Poland, the possession of which,
by annexing them to a foreign interest, had often
obliged them to act an arduous part, towards the
support of which that foreign interest afforded no
proportionable strength. In this very delicate situation of their political interests, the speculations of
the French and German -Economists, and the cabals,
and the secret, as well as public doctrines of the
JIlluminatenorden and Freemasons, have made a considerable progress in that country; and a turbulent
spirit, under color of religion, but in reality arising
from the French rights of man, has already shown
itself, and is ready on every occasion to blaze out.
The present Elector is a prince of a safe and quiet
temper, of great prudence and goodness. He knows,
that, in the actual state of things, not the power and
respect belonging to sovereigns, but their very existence, depends on a reasonable frugality. It is very
certain that not one sovereign in Europe can either
promise for the continuance of his authority in a
state of indigence and insolvency, or dares to venture on a new imposition to relieve himself. Without abandoning wholly the ancient magnificence of
his court, the Elector has conducted his affairs with
infinitely more economy than any of his predecessors, so as to restore his finances beyond what was
thought possible from the state in which the Seven
? ? ? ? 344 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
Years' War had left Saxony. Saxony, during the
whole of that dreadful period, having been in the
hands of an exasperated enemy, rigorous by resentment, by nature, and by necessity, was obliged to
bear in a manner the whole burden of the war; in
the intervals when their allies prevailed, the inhabit
ants of that country were not better treated.
The moderation and prudence of the present Elector, in my opinion, rather, perhaps, respites the trou
bles than secures the peace of the Electorate. The
offer of the succession to the crown of Poland is
truly critical, whether he accepts or whether he declines it. If the States will consent to his acceptance, it will add to the difficulties, already great, of his situation between the king of Prussia and the
Emperor. -But these thoughts lead me too far, when
I mean to speak only of the interior condition of these
princes. It has always, however, some necessary connection with their foreign politics.
With regard' to Holland, and the ruling
Holland.
