felt themselves raised, as their tyrants were depressed, by his powerful hand. And was it so? Yet did Napoleon fail to receive himself the lesson. We know that his civil administration was an advance upon that of any preceding emperor. It was, nevertheless, on the same system of rule which has no reference to public justice, being simply for the preservation of public order; in other words, the continuation of submittance. It was the fortune of his power to win the admiration even of the oppressed. Ask, says Lamartine, the patriot, philanthropist, statesman, philosopher and poet, "Ask of the round world! Read it where'er thou seest a nation's flag unfurled, From Russia to the Syrian zone ! Read it in marble column and in marvel story! Yea, in the hearts of those who, slave-like, deemed it glory To spend their blood to rear his throne!" To the good he wrought, his position held no other relation than that of an opportunity. It resulted from his capacity to discern how far, with safety to his own authority, he might gratify the nation's need; to embrace at once the interests and views of what concerned the state, in their various bearings, relations, and dependencies, and in the development of his project to descend to the minutiae of details and an exactitude of calculation; being enabled thus to provide for every emergency as far as the limits of human prescience would admit. The people of France who sacrifice, as we have seen, domestic comfort to nightly assemblings in public gardens and streets, might easily have been beguiled to other important sacrifices, even that of liberty, for world-renown. Mark the scene presented to Mr. B. at a ball-room, and his suggested thoughts: "It is now eleven o'clock, the hour at which the police regulations require that these places of amusement be closed. Suddenly marches in a squad of soldiersthey scatter around the room; when, down with a clang, come the butt-ends of their muskets upon the floor. The lights begin to disappear-the music ceasesthe dancers hastily commence moving towards the door--behind each group silently and promptly falls into line a soldier with his bayoneted musket shouldered; not one group or individual of the crowd of pleasuring men and women, but is within reach of a bayonet's point. Ah! this is stern-it is a history-what a revelation! a revolution! What a police-what a people-what precautions-what smouldering fires are here!" So complete is the manifested thraldom as to suggest an insurrection of human intelligence-an insurrection from the same necessity that has ever rendered political experiments in France bolder than in other countries. Some one principle there has ever had extreme ascendancy, and been followed up to its utmost consequences; while in England, for instance, there has been a simultaneous development of different social elements which, if not finding a common level, and so like the waves of ocean kept in constant motion, yet obtained a government more regular and free. They extended with and modified each other, and probably without serious disorganization, will enable England now to array herself in unison with surrounding sentiments. The present revolution in France, as founded on better and truer views of human rights and the purposes of human existence, and by adapting itself to those great and powerful interests, the co-operation of which is essential to the welfare of nations, has proved itself equal to the diversities of situation and all the inequalities of chance. Mr. Barhydt remarks "France cannot be the most highly civilized, morally; her civilizations must lie in the externals, in the superiority attained in outward polish, and its concomitants, in the luxuries and their consequent depravities, for underneath all is a certain ferocity that is not the offspring of enlightenment." But in proportion as social life is better regulated, individual life is more refined: all its advances profit humanity. A reformation of the French heart, and manner as its exponent, may ere long be expected. Mr. B. establishes the proposition, that in proportion as a people govern themselves, so will they be truly civilized. "There is a principle of inter-reproduction of intelligence growing out of the operation of the self-governing power turned in upon itself. It produces the effect, that the more and longer they govern themselves, the better qualified a people become for doing so; for they are constantly becoming more enlightened." This is a fine passage; and like a philosopher, he in another letter thus speaks: "Civilization will not be as far advanced here as it is with us, until they also shall govern themselves. Are they yet fitted for it? Perhaps not; and before they will be, perhaps there must be a protracted struggle against the unequal, and a succession of revolutions. Educate them; give them the press exercised without restriction as with us. Those liberal spirits here who pray fervently and labor perseveringly for the social and political regeneration of the people, shake their heads and sigh, as they express their doubts, their conviction, that education is wanting, and their fears that it will be a long time before this want is supplied. But then they cast their eyes toward the west, and a new hope beams through the mists of doubt." Mr. Barhydt is, as we have said, a clear-headed and observant man. What can prove this more than the following passage, considering the time at which it was written. "Revolution is a word of much signification here in Europe. Louis Phillippe is the present France-Metternich is the present Austria-Austria, whom one class of teachers would probably style the rational liberty, for with such, free republicanism is an irrational condition of disorder. Let these two old men slide off the stage, and there will probably be another France-another Austria. Through the openings created by the removal of these two barriers, what floods of revolution may rush-what changes throughout political Europe may ensue! The king of this country is evidently very unpopular. He moves in the midst of an army, or stealthily at night surrounded by his guards. One feels here as if a volcano was glowing underneath, ready at the slightest collision of the various discordant political elements to burst forth in all the fury of a bloody revolution." The notice of the National Guard of Paris, in the time of Louis Phillippe, is not uninteresting: "It numbers sixty thousand; a large part are on duty constantly, and the remainder are ready to appear armed for action at any hour. They are composed of the citizens, who are required in turn to spare only a short time each month from their avocations. Then the shop-keeper leaves his citizen suit behind his counter, the artisan lays down his tools, the book-keeper closes his ledger, and all donning the blue coat and red pants, the hat with the frontispiece, and taking sword or gun, each becomes a citizen soldier, ready to do battle valiantly against another allied army, or the actors in an emeute." With the renovating influence of the fine arts on the minds, disposition. and energies of a people, the rulers of France have long been conversant. We could wish we had space to bring the reader, by these letters, to Versailles, "where the history of France is written in all the gorgeous beauties of sculptured marble, and fine paintings of gilded fret-work and |