extreme of presumption in the Reminiscent to pretend to answer any of these questions. The last is the most important;-and unfortunately, the solution of it appears to baffle the wisest men.

Unfortunately, however, for Great Britain, another state of things may arise which may be still more unpropitious to her than the present. The exhaustion and distress, which she now experiences are felt, in a high degree at least, by every European nation. Should they as

universally subside, and agriculture and commerce as universally revive, will the consequence verify the prediction of Napoléon*, that “such "then must be the pressure on England from "her immense national debt, and such the necessary decrease of her trade, from the " stimulus given to the commerce of other con"tinental nations, that her descent into the "rank of secondary states must be near at "hand."

It was the good fortune of the Reminiscent to have the honour of spending a day tête-à-tête with Mr. Fox at St. Ann's Hill. The Reminiscent mentioned, what certainly was of no consequence, that "he had never read Adam Smith's "celebrated work on the Wealth of Nations." "To tell you the truth," said Mr. Fox, “nor "I either. There is something in all these sub'jects, which passes my comprehension;-some

* Ante, p. 175.

"thing so wide,-that I could never embrace "them myself, or find any one who did."

"Peace to the strepent horn!”

"SHENSTONE."

Is it not, at this time, lawful to express a wish, that all discussions, which have a tendency to degrade either of these great men should now be closed? that their failings should remain interred with their bones, and the good only of each remembered after him? The talents and integrity of both are unimpeached; both loved their country, and both rendered her essential services; both, in private life, were most amiable; there was nothing sordid in their hostility; the powers which they displayed in it did honour to England: and she has an interest in the brightness and permanence of their reputation. To establish the fame of either, it is not necessary to detract from that of the other. As each would be the first, England could not admit both into her government. Nothing now remains to either but his fame,—and England is sufficiently large to hold the fame of both.

A view of Mr. Pitt's political life written by the pen of a friend, and with great ability, may be seen in the critique of " Mr. Gifford's Life of Pitt," inserted in the "Quarterly Review," for the month of August 1810.-While the transactions, in which a great political character has

been engaged, are yet recent; this is perhaps, the best mode in which a view of his public life can be communicated: the events themselves are generally known; all therefore to be done is to clear up a few doubtful facts, and to lead the reader to form a proper judgment on the merits of the principal performer. This is done in a masterly manner, in the critique to which we have referred. Has Mr. Fox,-has Mr. Burke,no surviving friend, who will do the same justice to his memory?

Those, who have perused the excellent critique. of Mr. Burke's "Letters on a Regicide Peace,' in the Monthly Review, which we have mentioned in our last note, must wish for a similar discussion of that great man's character and writings from the same pen.

XII. 6.

The Holy Alliance.

WHO now pretends to foresee the consequences likely to result from this extraordinary. event?

1. During the Assyrian, Persian, Macedonian and Roman empires, the grand political division of the world was, into the states within their sway, and the states beyond it. At the end of the fifth century of the christian era, by far the greater part of Europe was Roman; after the death of Trajan, the Romans ceased to be con

1

querors; and soon afterwards, the barbarians of the north and north-east began to invade their territories on every side, and to erect on their ruins a multitude of principalities, independent on each other, but united by the profession of a common religion, by a common regard for its interests, and by a common submission, in religious concerns, to the pope, as their common head.

2. By degrees, Austria, France, Spain, and England, became the European powers of the first order. The union of the Imperial and Spanish crowns on the head of Charles the fifth, produced confederacies against him. The French monarch was always at their head; and Europe thus became divided into two new parties, the Austrian and the French.

3. The reformation arrived: and then, according to Schiller*,-" The whole of Europe became "divided into a catholic and a protestant party. "The interests of the European states, which, "till that time, had been national, ceased to be "such; and the interests of religion formed a "bond of union, among subjects of different

*Histoire de la Guerre de trente ans,-cited by M. de Bonald, in his interesting essay, "De l'Unité Religieuse dans "Europe;" inserted in the Ambigu of Peltier, No. cxxv.This journal contains several other essays of Bonald, on subjects of literature and history, which show great learning, an excellent taste, and profound observation. See also" Les "véritables Auteurs de la Révolution de France de 1789," 8vo. Neufchatel, 1797.

governments, who, till this time, had been "unknown to each other. A sentiment more "powerful in the heart of man than even the "love of his country, rendered him capable of "perceptions and feelings which reached beyond "its limits the French calvinist found himself "more in contact with a calvinist in England, Germany, Holland, or Geneva, than with a "catholic in his own country." This effected a new political division of Europe: France siding with the separatists from the church of Rome, and introducing to the aid of their common cause, the Ottoman power, became the real head of one party; Austria was the head of the other. But when, upon the abdication of Charles the fifth, his German were divided from his Spanish states, and the civil wars of France weakened her connections with the protestant powers and the Porte, Elizabeth of England, and Philip the second of Spain, became the conspicuous characters.-Elizabeth, with the United Provinces at her disposal, was the centre of the protestant system; Philip with the aid of Bavaria, was the centre of the catholic; and all the temporal, and, (which was of much greater consequence), all the spiritual power of Rome, co-operated with the Spaniard, and placed the pope in the van of the catholic array. Then, if Schiller's remarks be just, the protestants in every country subject to the Spanish sway, would be partizans of Elizabeth, and every catholic in the territories subject to her dominion or control, would be