the name of liberty. It neither secured the lives, the properties, nor the honour of the citizens; nor did it promote their peace and happiness, nor guarantee to them even the freedom of debate. Their liberty could ally itself to the most cruel tyranny; it was nothing but absolute power taken from the hands of one, and placed in those of the many. Of passive or civil liberty they had no idea. Are these merely our own assertions? No! they are copied almost word for word from M. Sismondi's concluding chapter of his "History of the Italian Republics." We recommend this chapter to the attentive perusal of the reader.

"The liberty of the ancients," he thus proceeds, "being the property of the citizens, it was not necessary to examine how far it contributed to the general happiness..... The liberty of the moderns being understood to be a means by which governments attain the object for which they are instituted, namely, the happiness of all, it has been thought fit to examine in what manner liberty constitutes happiness, or how far it contributes to it. The result of this investigation has been a conviction that the object of men united into society being that of securing to each other the protection of their persons, property and honour, and respect for their moral sentiments, any government which should wantonly sacrifice or expose the same, which should offend against justice, humanity or public decency, would be utterly deficient in its object, and ought to be considered as a tyranny, even if established by the will or caprice of the whole community." -c. cxxvi.

The exclusive admirers of the Italian republics appear to us to have fallen into the error of viewing that which was only a stage in the progress of society as its ultimate end, which ought to have been, like that of every other nation, the consolidation of the country either by an union, or by a permanent and well-poised confederacy. Twice has Italy seemed to approach this term ; once in the fifteenth century, and again in the eighteenth. On both occasions foreign invasion has rushed in, and throwing the elements of society into confusion, has removed the prospect. When a third opportunity may offer itself, we cannot venture to predict; but it would be highly impolitic to hold up to the Italians of the present day a return to the democratic spirit of the middle ages as the best means of consolidating them into a nation, all experience having proved that it is in the very nature of democracy to produce a contrary effect.

ART. III.-La Grande-Bretagne en Mil Huit Cent Trente-Trois. Par M. le Baron d'Haussez, Dernier Ministre de la Marine sous le Roi Charles X. 2 tom. 8vo. Paris. 1833. THIS work forcibly reminds us of the well-known passage in Oxenstiern's letter to his son-" You know not by how little wisdom the world is governed." We have only to substitute "was" for "is," and "France" for "the world," and we shall find a similar intimation indirectly afforded by the work before us. M. d'Haussez was one of those colleagues of Prince Polignac who governed France under Charles X., and he has produced a work which we must regret should ever have been published. We regret it, not on account of his readers, for some among them may be amused; or of the publishers in France or in England, (for we doubt not the work will excite sufficient curiosity); or of either of those countries generally, or of any particular class which either of them contain; but simply on account of M. d'Haussez himself. His having been a member of the Polignac ministry was a circumstance calculated to have produced, not an impression favourable to him, but decidedly the reverse. Why should he have confirmed this unfavourable impression by sending forth a work like this? Was it not enough that his participation in the ill-starred" ordonnances" should have exhibited a fatal ignorance of the state of France? Must he also exhibit a written proof of consummate ignorance with respect to England? That a man is untaught may be the unhappy consequence of adverse circumstances; but if he values public opinion, he will, indeed, act very unwisely in allowing the world to believe that he is unteachable.

M. d'Haussez appears by his own account to have enjoyed peculiar advantages for the composition of his work. During a residence in this kingdom of more than two years, he tells us that

une alternative continuelle de fréquentation d'une société nombreuse et distinguée, et qui paraissait vouloir se livrer à mon observation, et d'un isolement complet, mettait à ma disposition des matériaux précieux, du temps et de la solitude pour les étudier et les classer. J'étais dans une situation nouvelle, stimulé par je ne sais quoi d'inaccoutumé, qui s'étendait à mon économie morale et physique.

"Tout cela agissait avec force sur mes sens, réveillait mes esprits, leur imprimait une direction et un élan qu'ils n'avaient jamais eus. Mes sensations partaient d'un coin de mon imagination où il me semblait que je n'avais pas encore fouillé. Il en sortait des pensées, des idées que je ne connaissais pas."*-vol. ii. p. 242.

We are, therefore, not required to grant the indulgence demanded

* As an English translation of the book has appeared simultaneously with the original, we have preferred making our extracts from the latter.

for works composed under circumstances of difficulty; neither need we make any allowance for the embarrassing novelty of an altered and a fallen position. This, the author says, is an advantage. Hitherto he has always been placed too high to take an accurate view of the details of life.

"Jusque-là, placé dans des situations élevées, je ne les avais considérées que comme des moyens de voir plus loin, d'embrasser de plus vastes perspectives.

"J'étais alors aux premières loges du grand spectacle du monde. Je voyais plus à l'aise: peut-être n'observais-je pas si bien. Descendu au parterre, confondu dans la foule, coudoyé, pressé à mon tour, regardant d'en bas la scène sur laquelle naguère je plongeais d'en haut, les objets m'apparaissaient sous un autre aspect, sans que le drame perdît de son intérêt."-vol. ii. pp. 242, 243.

M. d'Haussez does not enter into any detailed account of the situations he has filled; and as the above passage contains such allusion to long continuance in high station as might almost suggest the idea of his having been born a minister of state, and as moreover such allusions may perchance have piqued the curiosity of our readers, we will therefore give what the author has failed to supply a very brief abstract of such particulars as we have been able to collect respecting him. It appears that he was born at Neufchatel, in Normandy, in 1778: that in 1796, he, being then only eighteen years of age, commenced his political career as a secret agent of the exiled Bourbons. Becoming suspected, he was obliged to fly in 1799, but subsequently returned to France, where, in 1804, he was again suspected of being implicated in the conspiracy of Georges and Pichegru. Participation, however, was not proved, and his only punishment was being placed under surveillance. He afterwards attached himself to the service of Napoleon, and as a reward for this transfer of loyalty was created Baron and appointed Mayor of Neufchatel. On the first restoration of the Bourbons he returned to his former party, and remained faithful to Louis XVIII. during the Hundred Days. On the second restoration, in 1815, he was nominated President of the Electoral College of Lower Seine; was elected a Deputy to the famous Chambre Introuvable; and when the division took place between the Chamber and M. Decazes, he adhered to the latter. As a reward for this adhesion, he was appointed to the prefecture of the Gard, and was found so useful in that capacity, that during the various changes of ministry that took place between 1817 and 1829, he never ceased to be "Monsieur le Préfet" of that or one or other of three other departments-the Landes, the Isère, and the Gironde. In August, 1829, on the refusal of M. de Rigny, M. d'Haussez was appointed to his last and highest post, the office

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of Ministre de la Marine, which he retained not quite a year. These are the " situations élevées" in which M. d'Haussez had been" jusque-là placé." We fear our readers will be disappointed, and may consider that the situation of préfet, albeit respectable, is hardly entitled to the magnificent designation of a place aux premières loges du grand spectacle du monde," and is by no means to be regarded as a moyen d'embrasser de vastes perspectives." Besides, granting the position to be as elevated as he pleases, and admitting that in its unmetaphorical sense a high position naturally commands an extensive view, we fear the assertion is not transferable by any strict analogy to official life. The routine of office is commonly, and we apprehend is justly, held to have a tendency to narrow rather than to enlarge the mental vision. Official meu do not necessarily see more of the circumstances of life because more is laid before them. That which they see for themselves may in amount and value be very little: that which they see through the eyes of others may be only error and delusion. It may instruct; but it may mislead them. They may ground their judgments upon the partial representations of official underlings; they may acquire a contracted mode of viewing affairs; may set up a self-constituted official rule of right, and insist upon approving or condemning, solely according to conformity with, or deviation from, a standard of their own. But though official habits may have tended to contract the mind of M. d'Haussez, we are bound to say that in his observations upon the administrative part of our system, he shows more good sense and liberality than in his remarks upon other matters-a difference which we are perhaps justified in attributing to the circumstance of his better understanding what he writes about. Though he is surprised at the unmeddling character of our government, and seems to wonder that even the breeding of horses is not made a state concern, yet he is willing to admit that some how or other matters go on as well as if the government pried into everything, and interfered at every step. After noticing the neglect of the government in the metropolis respecting" une infinité d'objets qui dans les autres pays attirent à bon droit l'attention de l'administration," he adds

"En revanche, il y a peu de capitales où les vols soient moins nombreux, où les voleurs soient plus promptement découverts et punis, où les mouvemens populaires opérés, il est vrai, par une populace sans courage et sans habitude des armes, soient plus efficacement réprimés; où il y ait moins d'événemens fâcheux et moins de collisions entre les diverses classes de la société, et où tous ces résultats soient obtenus avec moins de gêne, de vexations et de bruit."

Here, we should have supposed, was a subject deserving the

inquiry of a philosophic traveller. He might have sought to learn under what singular and happy combination of circumstances apparent neglect could have produced results such as might have been expected only from unremitting and well-directed care. He might have sought to learn whether the neglect was real, or only apparent; and, if real, what resources were substituted, for the preservation of order, by the efforts of individuals, or the peculiarities of the national character. The problem was curious and important; but M. d'Haussez, who devotes eight pages to cock-fighting, and a separate chapter to each of the following subjects-" Steeple-Chase," "Le Dîner," "Un Salon," "Un Bal," " Un Concert de Société," and "Une Soirée au Vauxhall" has not attempted to solve it. It may, however, be observed, that something which may serve as a clue is dexterously insinuated in the foregoing passage. Our people are easily kept in order because they have not the courage to resist! Though the results may appear favourable, they must not be allowed to redound to the honour of England. M. d'Haussez has here shown much ingenuity. He is compelled in the course of his work to adduce many circumstances which tend to exhibit in an honourable light the country which afforded him an asylum when ejected from his own. He must know, that whether he gives or withholds his sanction from the unwelcome truth, we are still generally acknowledged to be a great and powerful nation. That circumstance cannot be denied. All that can be done is to prove that it is not a circumstance of which we have any reason to be proud that it is produced by no merits of ours; it is the result, not of our virtues, but of our vices. That we may not be supposed to misrepresent M. d'Haussez, we shall gladly allow him to speak for himself.

"Le caractère Anglais a cela de particulier, que les défauts des individus ou des classes, loin de tirer à conséquence contre l'intérêt général, tournent à son profit. Ainsi, de la lâcheté de la populace résulte le maintien de l'ordre; de l'orgueil des gens bien élevés, la fierté nationale; de la soif de l'or, la richesse publique; de la paresse d'imagination, la haine du changement et la stabilité des institutions; de la manie de se singulariser, de bizarres mais d'utiles établissemens; du rigorisme religieux, des mœurs sévères; du propagandisme, l'extension du commerce sur tous les points du globe; du malaise dans le pays natal, des colonies utiles à la métropole; de la vénalité des emplois, de celle même de la représentation nationale, plus d'aptitude, plus de garantie chez ceux qui y consacrent leur fortune; de la choquante inégalité dans la division de la propriété, une hiérarchie qui remonte de la famille à l'état.

"Cette disposition réagit de l'ensemble de l'ordre social sur ses spécialités, et fait que, malgré l'incohérence de ses institutions, et les vices très-réels et très-apparens de son organisation, l'Angleterre occupe un