pire, too eloquent to have taken the mace from the table of a House of Commons. Fond of honour, he would have sacrificed it to liberty; fond of liberty, he might have sacrificed it to glory; the statesman, he would have been the soldier; but in the camp he would not have resigned the Chamber.

was

Fortunate in most things, Gen. — more especially fortunate in living at the moment most favourable to his genius, and in dying at the moment most susceptible to his loss.

These are characters taken from the society of France, and thus we see now in the journalist with the sword in his hand-now in the General delivering his speech-the same influence still predominating ;-and let it be so!

There are political truths equally applicable to all States arrived at a similar epoch of civilization; but they will vary in their application according to the history, the customs, the ideas, they meet with among the people to whom they are applied. To these variations give a full and unlimited scope; it is the only method by which you can blend the

ideas of the few with the habits of the many, and give the life which you derive from ancient customs to a new constitution.

Where the same species of government finds a new soil, a different genius presides over its foundations. Thus may we see two oaks, whose height and grandeur are nearly the same, lifting with equal majesty their heads to heaven, but their roots will all the while be taking a different course; for in nature and society there is a secret sympathy-and as the fibres of the tree will, if they meet a stone or a ditch, strike under it, in order to escape the obstacle or avoid the cold;-so the interior course of institutions, regulated by obscure causes, is oftentimes shaped in darkness, and, escaping your observation, defies your control.

France, then, may yet be able to blend a military spirit with a free constitution, and the sword which, appearing as an accident in England, banished the mace of civil authority from the House of Commons, seen here as a custom, may lie side by side with it in the Chamber of Deputies. This idea, as it seems to me, should be present to the Monarch who governs the French; the people who have just mourned Lamarque and Lafayette, saw in the

General and the Legislator the type of their own mind.*

* Time that France has passed in war from the Thirteenth to the Eighteenth Century.

In the fourteenth century, forty-three years of war: i. e. five of civil war, thirteen of war off the territory, twenty-five of war on the territory, of France. In this period there were fourteen great battles, among others, that of Courtrai, where the Flemish won four hundred pair of spurs from the French knights; and that of Poictiers, where the King of France was taken prisoner.

In the fifteenth century, seventy-one years of war : i. e. thirteen of civil war, forty-three of war on the territory, and fifteen of war carried out of the territory, of France. In this period there were eleven great battles -Agincourt, Castillon, and Montlhéry were among the number.

In the sixteenth century, eighty-five years of war: i. e. forty-four of war off the French territory, eight of war on the French territory, and thirty-three of civil and religious war.— -In this period there were twentyseven great battles.

In the seventeenth century, sixty-nine years of war: i. e. eleven of civil war, fifty-two of war carried off the French territory, and six of religious war.-In this period there were thirty-nine great battles.

In the eighteenth century, fifty-eight years of war: i. e. one of religious war, six of civil war, and fifty-one of war off the French territory.

Thus in the space of five centuries we have

Civil war

Religious war

35 years.

40 years.

On the French territory 76 years.

Off the French territory.

175 years.

326 years

During which time were fought one hundred and eighty

four great battles.

LITERARY INFLUENCE.

The anniversary of Molière-Speech of M. Thiers-The man of letters is what the Baron and the Courtier were-The literary man in France is what he is not in America, Germany, and England - Election of Finsbury-The false conclusions drawn during the reform bill, as to the respect which would be afterwards felt for men of letters-How a love of letters grew up in France-The causes that extend a power need not be those which have created it-If you wish to create a love for the arts, and for science, in England, how you must do it - Dr. Bowring's evidence on silk trade What are the advantages that England would derive from a taste for the arts-How men of science and letters have been encouraged in France-List-Public establishments in France-Ecole des Arts et Métiers -What is honoured by the state is honoured in society-Situation of literary men in France and literary men in England-Unhappy situation of the latter -Causes-The French might even derive more advantages than they have yet done from their national love of science and letters-New aristocracy that might be based upon it.

16th January, 1832.—It is the anniversary of Molière. "Le Théâtre Français