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number of voters is too large, and the patronage of government too small, to admit of reourse to the expedients by which the control of boroughs is obtained in England. It may be confidently asserted, that no country possesses a more independent body of electors, or men more thoroughly determined to assert what they believe to be their rights, than the members of the col. leges by which the French deputies are chosen. As to what their constitutional rights are, there is undoubt. edly much more abstract discussion in France, as has been hinted, than accords with the practical character of Englishmen, but the general dissemination of the principles of liberty has within a few years been unprecedently rapid there.From what has been observed, it is evident that encroachments are scarcely to be apprehended from the aristocracy. On the contrary, as at present constituted, it is difficult to perceive how the house of peers will be able, even to maintain their chartered rights.

The sovereign, is viewed with less jealousy by the people, than the aristocracy are; and as he is, by circumstances, far removed from the mass of his subjects, and therefore not exposed, in ordinary cases, to direct collisions with them, he might, were he prudent, by giving to the merchants, agriculturists, and manufacturers of France, represented in the chamber of deputies,

the same power with respect to a ministry, which is virtually exercised by the aristocracy of England, long retain his rank and revenues.

But religion has probably had as much influence as politics in the recent ministerial changes in France. The revolution not only freed the minds of the people from the superstition and bigotry by which they were once enslaved, but the mass of the population, with the corruptions, rejected even the essential observances of the christian dispensation; nor has religion been since presented to them in a form calculated to command their ready acceptance. The royal fa mily, on the other hand, probably clung to all the distinctive peculiarities of the catholic faith with the more earnestness, from the connexion which the revolutionists themselves recognised between the altar and the throne. Louis XVIII. a man of learning and judgment, overcame, as far as he was capa ble, the prejudices imbibed in exile; but his successor, Charles X., like James II. of England, between whose situation and that of the present sovereign of France a parallel has frequently been drawn, seems to have benefited but little by the experience of history. Himself an affiliated Jesuit, he is governed by the counsels of that renovated society, whom the laws of France exclude from the kingdom, but

who enjoy the friendship and protection of the monarch, and of his responsible advisers.

How it will be possible for the government, as at present constituted, to obtain a majority in any chamber, convened under existing laws-what would be the result of a coup d'etat, if the deputies should refuse the necessary appropria. tions are questions which we shall not attempt to solve. There are, certainly, many acute observers, as well in other parts of Europe as in France, who confidently believe that the parallels between the Eng. lish and French revolutions are not

yet brought to a termination. As, however, our business is to record events, not to predict them, we shall not further dilate on this topic, but merely observe, that the late ministerial arrangements seem eminently calculated to promote the views of those who desire a change in the monarchical and aristocratical branches of the French institutions, or at least in the reigning dynasty. At the same time, it is to be remarked that no country of Europe, can be considered as more generally prosperous than France at the present day.

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CHAPTER X.

Russia.-Christianity contrasted with Islamism-British Empire in India-Holy Alliance-Russian and Ottoman Empires-Peter the GreatCatharine-Alexander-Peace of Paris-Sultan Mahmoud-Alexander Ypsilanti-Insurrection of Greece-Death of Alexander-Acces sion of the Emperor Nicholas-Insurrection in the army-Persian invasion-Campaign of 1827-8-Conclusion of peace-Treaty of Turkmantchai.

In the reign of Octavius Cæsar, master of Rome, then mistress of the world, there appeared in a small and obscure province of the Roman empire, a man of humble birth, yet lineally descended from the kings of Judea; born in the stable of an inn, yet born of a virgin, and an nounced to the world by the voice of angels as the saviour of mankind. The result of his appearance upon earth, was then declared by a multitude of the heavenly host, to be "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward man."

This man was the mediator of a new covenant between God and man. He was the founder of a new religion.

He proclaimed by a special revelation from Heaven, the immortality of the human soul, a future state of retribution, and the responsibility of man hereafter, for the deeds done in the body.

And he declared, that the enjoy. ment of felicity in the world here. after, would be the reward of the practice of benevolence here. His whole law was resolvable into the precept of love; peace on earthgood will toward man, was the earthly object of his mission; and the authoritative demonstration of the immortality of man, was that, which constituted the more than earthly tribute of glory to God in the highest.

Such was the doctrine destined by its internal power, to subdue the masters of this world. Such was the kingdom founded upon a rock, against which he declared, that the gates of hell should not prevail.

But by what means, to what extent, through what vicissitudes, against what obstructions, and within the compass of what time, the Christian dispensation is to have its entire sway upon the moral and religious condition of the human fa

mily, it was not within the purpo. ses of Divine Providence to reveal. The prediction, that the gates of hell should not prevail, was a prophesy no less clear, that the gates of hell should be armed against it. That it should make its way against all the powers of earth, as well as against Beelzebub, the prince of devils, was with equal explicitness announced. Persecution, sufferance, and death, were freely held out, as the destiny of those, who should devote themselves to preach the gospel of glad tidings to man. The Lord of glory was himself a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. So little in harmony were his doctrines, and their first fruits, that he expressly warned his disciples, that he came not to send peace on earth, but a sword; and the first pledge of the universal triumph of his religion, was his own ignominious death upon the cross. The first conquest of the religion of Jesus, was over the unsocial passions of his disciples. It elevated the standard of the human character in the scale of existence. The Christian was taught, that the end of his being on earth, was the salvation of his soul hereafter, Compounded of never-dying spirit, and of perishable matter, he was taught to subdue his earthly pas. sions; to purify his spirit by repentance; to give his immortal part entire control over the lusts of the flesh to overcome the world of his

own vices, and to sacrifice the earthly pleasures of sense to the spirit. ual joys of eternity. On the Chris. tian system of morals, man is an immortal spirit, confined for a short space of time, in an earthly tabernacle. Kindness to his fellow mortals embraces the whole compass of his duties upon earth, and the whole promise of happiness to his spirit hereafter. THE ESSENCE OF THIS DOCTRINE IS, TO EXALT THE SPIRITUAL OVER THE BRUTAL PART OF HIS NATURE.

Such was the doctrine of Jesus. But in revealing this system of morals to man, it was not the design of Providence to change his nature. It left him, as he had been created, a little lower than the angels. Left him with all the passions and propensities of his degenerate condi. tion, since the fall. It was consistent with the divine purpose, that the operation of this system should be slow and gradual. That its conflict with the powers of the earth, and the gates of hell, should be long protracted; that it should be perverted by heresies and schisms ; that it should be encumbered with the most portentous and incredible absurdities; that it should be for centuries oppressed and persecuted, by the dominion of the heathens; and that after having overcome principalities and powers, and in defiance of the Roman despotism, seated itself upon the throne of the Cæsars, it should encounter

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