contrast in which the present Government in this respect stand in relation to their predecessors, are so obvious as to require no proof or illustration.

5. The new Ministry will be strong in the uprightness and simplicity of the course which its members pursued while in opposition. Never in the annals of Parliament were the opponents of Government possessed of such power of annoyance and embarrassment as Sir Robert Peel's party might have displayed while the Whigs held office, and never was the giant's strength less tyrannously used, or so as less to justify a course of factious attack now that parties have changed places. Further, the Conservatives come into power without having held out any promises or professions that are likely to occasion inconvenience to themselves or disappointment to the country. They have given no pledges-except in general terms, that they will preserve our national institutions, and do justice among the various classes of the community. The attempts of their opponents to compel an indication of their future policy have been ludicrously eager and signally unsuccessful. It is the observation of the Whigs themselves, that Sir Robert Peel is at this moment free to do any thing that he pleases; and although this is only true under certain honourable limitations, it sufficiently serves to express the generous confidence which the constituencies of the country have reposed in the general principles and character of the Conservative party. In this state of things there is no risk of that reaction which springs from overexcited hopes, or of that resentment which is due to violated engagements. The nation would have no specific cause of complaint, even if Peel should do little more than Melbourne, and no human contrivance could possibly bring it about that he should do less.

characterized as resembling a restoration. It has been occasioned not by an effort, but by the cessation of all effort by the operation of natural forces which have for a time been suspended or overpowered by extraordinary interference. The bent bow returns with eagerness to its ordinary laxity. The uplifted weight rushes back, when it can, to its proper level. These processes are emblems of what is now going on. The nation is falling again into its ordinary condition, in which its natural tendencies will, without difficulty, retain it until some extraordinary cause shall excite it once more to act in contradiction to its ordinary laws of cohesion and gravitation. As an additional ground on which the present position of things may be contemplated as permanent, it may be observed, that many irritating causes of disturbance are wholly at an end. The Reform Bill, and the Catholic Relief Bill, have removed occasions of agitation and collision of influence, which no remaining question, as far as we can at present see, is likely to renew.

We are firmly persuaded that the sources of strength and stability which the Peel Ministry enjoy are not likely to be thrown away or forfeited by their conduct in office. The first principle by which they will be regulated, is the preservation of our great institutions in Church and State. The second will be the due and firm enforcement of the law, without distinction of parties or persons.

But combined with those principles, we may expect a scrupulous regard for the fights of civil and religious freedom-a mild and equitable moderation in the adjustment of all matters of administrative regulation, or not involving a fixed constitutional truth-an anxious desire to amend practical abuses, and to remove just grounds of cavil and complaint against the laws or government of the country-a dignified but conciliatory vindication of the national honour abroad-a careful and comprehensive revision of our financial system at home-a vigorous assertion of the authority of Government over the individual or sectional objects of its supporters-and a resolute determination to preserve its authority by the surest of all means, a readiness to surrender office when it can no longer be held without a sacrifice of honour and inte

grity. Under a government of this kind we may look for many signal blessings to our beloved country, of which, during the last ten years of trouble and turmoil, we have been deprived. A feeling of security will be produced, which in itself is of the utmost value, and without which there can neither be enterprize nor credit. Men will know, with some certainty, the worth both of their own property and of that of their neighbours; and will thus have a standard for fixing both what they may expend on themselves, and what they may invest in the hands of others. The distractions arising from political hopes and fears being removed, will make way for better feelings and pursuits, for practical questions of public improvement, and for the free cultivation of science, of art, and of literature. Leisure and encouragement will also be afforded for extending to our vast and inexhaustible possessions abroad, a larger share of that improvement and assistance which colonies deserve from their mother country, and which, under proper management, they are sure so amply to repay. England will thus go forward more fearlessly and faithfully than ever, in her great mission as the chief dispenser of civilization and Christianity over the world.

In conclusion, it will not be overlooked-and this we might have added to our enumeration, as a separate source of strength to the present Minis. try-that their expulsion from office

would, in all probability, not merely restore the state of things which preceded their accession. The desperate and distracted condition of the liberal party would, in the event of their return to power, involve the ascendency of the most revolutionary doctrines and would certainly lead to a violent struggle of extreme opinions, which, even if confined to commercial questions merely, would, in its very agitation, shake credit and confidence to their foundations, and might ultimately terminate in the subversion of all existing patrimonial relations, in wide-spread misery and suffering, and in almost universal insolvency, public and personal.

From such a result, nothing can protect us but a calm confidence in the government now appointed, the existence of which it is no exaggeration to describe as the only strong barrier which we possess against the advance of revolution and rum. The same good sense and reflection which have been providentially kept alive in the English nation during its past difficulties, will, we most firmly anticipate, still guide it in the path of prudence and moderation, and protect it from those dangers which, by assailing its present peace and prosperity, threaten to overturn the noblest monument of religious civilization, of enlightened government, and of well-ordered liberty, that has ever been reared by the hand of Heaven for the admiration and imitation of mankind.

We have followed Mr Alison's progress through the events of the great Jacobin convulsion with unremitting interest; but we feel this interest increasing as he approaches the close of his vigorous and vivid narrative. We feel like those who, after having heard the ravings of some tremendous tempest through the night, rejoice at the first broken gleams of day, to tell them what those roaring thunders and sulphurous flashings-those bursts of whirlwind and cataracts of rain-have done among the forests, and churches, and villages of the horizon ;-what devastation they have wrought among the labours of man, and with what havoc they have swept the face of nature. From the period now commenced all is comparatively calm. Desperate acts, it is true, are done from time to time, and blood is destined to flow in torrents-fit to consummate the last sufferings of an empire reared in perfidy, sustained by violence, and destined to fall, like some great criminal, amid the gaze of assembled Europe-die by the axe of general justice, and saturate with its own gore the colossal scaffold to which it had dragged so many kingdoms of the world.

But the character of events is subsiding gradually into the ordinary course of human things. Statesmen

negotiate and soldiers fight after the manner of ages gone by. The cabinet is not a conclave of minds whose energy and wickedness might have held council in pandemonium. The field is not a bottomless gulf in which whole armies are swept down by the wand of the necromancer, or driven like dust before the fiery breath of his indignation. There is a returning proportion of results to means. The chances of victory or ruin come within human calculation. It is evident that the mystery is passing away; and that the era of common light and natural things is advancing again.

But there are still higher announcements than the overthrow of the tyrant, and his subtle and powerWe are sumful agencies of ill. moned by the historian to trace the revival of good; to mark the progress of that new existence of morals, physical nerve, and public principles, without which the overthrow would be more than incomplete; to see the magnificent faculties in operation, which have been given to man to restore the balance beat down by his crimes; and to receive the solemn conviction that, if the triumph of the righteous cause be delayed, it is not the less splendidly secure.

In one of the noblest passages of

VOL. L. NO. CCCXIII.

20

reign wars of the empire, must form her advanced guard, and in all her invasions must constitute her unrivalled But the rich arable plains defence. in the heart of the empire, are capable of producing an inexhaustible quantity of corn, fruits, and every other vegetable wealth that the earth can offer to the necessity or the luxury of man.

The variety of climate in this vast empire includes almost every temperature, and consequently almost every product of the globe. As Mr Alison, with his usual grace of language, tells us, in its northern extremities the cold is so intense, and vegetation so stunted, that a birch-tree, full grown and of perfect form, can be carried in the palm of the hand. In its southern latitudes the richest fruits of the vine, the apricot, and the peach, ripen on the sunny slopes of the Crimea: and fields of roses, which perfume the air

At his command the uprooted hills retired,

Each to his place, they heard his voice, and went

Obsequious. Heaven his wonted face renew'd,

And with fresh flow'rets rill and valley smiled."

The blow which France had struck on Russia recoiled upon herself; and the effect of the blow on Russia was like that of an insult to a powerful man unacquainted with his own strength. It awoke her to energies of which she was unaware; put weapons into her hands of which she had no previous knowledge; and, having forced her into a commanding position, impelled her to new and gigantic efforts, to uphold the rank which she had thus involuntarily gained.

Mr Alison details, with great minuteness and great interest, the physical and moral capacities of Russia for extended empire. European Russia-that is, Russia to the westward of the Ural mountains contains 1,500,000 of square geographical miles, or sixteen times the surface of the British islands, which contain 91,000; and though a vast extent of this territory is covered with forest, or lies so far to the northward as to be almost unproductive of food, those deserts contain vast ranges of pasture, the natural seat of those tribes of horsemen, who, in all the fo

beauty on the shores of the Danube. But it is only when approaching the latitude of Moscow that green crops are general; thence to the south, vast extents of pasturage intervene, arid in the height of summer, but in spring covered with innumerable flowers. Going deeper still, the traveller reaches the shores of the Black Sea, where among spots, some unwholesome and some savagely sterile, are to be found scenes of exquisite beauty. The southern extremity of the Crimea is painted as a terrestial paradise. In the description of Pallas, high hills, masses of rock, streams and cataracts, verdant fields and woods, and the sea that bounds the landscape, render the view equal to any thing imagined or described by the poets. The simple life of the people-their cottages cut in the rock, and concealed by the foliage of the surrounding gardens-the shepherd's fruit and his flocks scattered on the hills-remind the traveller of the golden age. But we have other means of ascertaining the comparative powers of so vast a territory. Russia in Europe contains a twenty-eighth part of the terrestrial surface. If this territory were peopled but as Great Britain is, it would contain 311,000,000 of souls. Its present population is about 60,000,000, and it is computed to double in about half a century. Thus, in about a hundred years from the present time, Russia may have 200,000,000. Yet even those im

mense extents are narrow to the Asiatic portion of the empire, which amounts to no less than 5,250,000 square miles, or above an eighth of the whole surface of the globe. This portion, now occupied by about 11,000,000 of souls, if peopled as England is, would have 500,000,000, or about half the present inhabitants of the globe. We fully agree with Mr Alison, that this is an extraordinary dominion to be placed under one diadem; but we have the consolation of believing that its very magnitude diminishes its peril and its power. What may be done by a sovereign commanding seven hundred millions of men, with firm and forcible supremacy, is yet to be told. But the world has never yet seen its example; and China, with her three hundred millions, is the slave of those fierce beggars of the desert, who bake their dinners under their saddles, and boil the thistle that their horses eat. And we may fairly conceive that the mere administration of an empire, thus scattered over an eighth of the earth, and among whose chill and melancholy barbarians administration must do every thing, may fully occupy a large share of that time which more leisure and less reluctant means might devote to glory and slaughter in Eu

горе.

Still it must be acknowledged that her force is prodigious. Russia has on paper 850,000 infantry, and 250,000 cavalry; but continental muster-rolls are proverbially fallacious, and fact deals worse with them than pitched battles. A sweep of the pen lays them low by hundreds of thousands; and Mr Alison computes that the true estimate of the Russian army for offensive war would be 400,000 infantry, 100,000 horse, and 50,000 artillerymen in the field. We entirely agree with this eloquent writer, that a force of this order, if it could be gathered at the moment, flung into the heart of Europe, and manoeuvred there with the rapidity of European tactics, might produce terrible effects; but if it is our part not to be rash, it is also our part not to be desponding. We altogether doubt the power of Russia in committal with European hostility. She has occupied a hundred years in making the experiment of European conquest, and has never beaten any body but the Poles and the Turks,

the only two powers of Europe more barbarian than herself. In the Seven Years' War, with the aid of Maria Theresa, and under the daring and reckless government of that shedragon, Catharine, she could not conquer a single province of the least of European kingdoms, Prussia. Even Poland she could conquer only by partition, and that partition she could accomplish only by conspiracy. France, within memory, brought her to the ground in a single campaign, and was prevented from dismembering her only by the infatuation which marked that the days of that fierce and bloody empire were numbered. Napoleon, standing on the Polish border, had his choice which of her arteries he should sluice; and she would have perished of the flow of imperial blood from Moscow, if he had waited to strike the blow in spring instead of winter. St Petersburg was as open to him as Moscow; and if he had fixed even his winter-quarters in the palace of the Czars, the Neva would long since have been a French river, and Russia only a fragment of Tartary.

Do we say this to affront a powerful empire? No. But we hate and execrate the passion for conquest. It is the accursed thing. We can comprehend the love of power, the passion for enjoyment, the eagerness for the possession of wealth, even the royal vanity of glittering in the diamonds and embroidery of ornaments and orders. But we cannot comprehend in any but the spirit of darkness himself, the passion for power whose every step must be purchased with blood; the thirst of territory which the sword has made only a grave for its brave possessors; the insensate and callous selfishness which can force thousands of faithful and gallant subjects into the field to slaughter thousands as faithful and gallant as themselves; and while whole plains and mountains are covered with mutilated forms-dead, or dying in agony, and thousands of orphaned hearts are breaking at their loss-can coolly receive the bulletin on his sofa, talk of himself as a conqueror, and call this comprehensive and unutterable crime against God and nature, fame. If this be the spirit of any nation existing, Europe cannot too vigilantly watch, too boldly resist, too condignly punish, or too totally exter