PREFACE. SOME years ago, when the feelings of the people were strongly disturbed by theories of political change, a considerable number of works were issued from the press, with the object of allaying the public excitement. Among the rest the following pages appeared. It was thought, that, in a period singularly resembling that which immediately preceded the French Revolution of 1789, there might be some advantage in laying before the public, in a more succinct and accessible form than in his volumes, the opinions of that extraordinary and powerful mind, which had acted so large a part in saving England and her monarchy from the errors of the French throne, and the crimes of the Republic. The rank of Burke, as a writer of consummate eloquence, had been decided from the beginning of his career; the progress of the Revolution placed him in equal eminence as a Statesman; and every year since has added to his renown as a prophet. While the works of this admirable mind are left to us, the country is in possession of a storehouse of political wisdom, from which she cannot supply herself too largely, or too often; she has a great Oracle, to whose responses she cannot trust with a too solemn reliance; for the peculiar and pre-eminent character of Burke's genius was its love of reality. With the most palpable powers for reaching the loftiest heights of speculation, he is the least abstract of all speculators. With the poetic fancy which so strongly tempts its possessor to spurn the ground, Among the colours of the rain bow live, and with an opulence of language that, like the tissues thrown on the road of an oriental prince, covered the wild and the thorny before him with richness and beauty, he never suffers himself to forget the value of things. The application of reason to the purposes of life; the study of the sources of moral strength; the inquiry into that true" wealth of nations," which makes men safer from the shocks of society, are his perpetual object. He pours his river through the moral landscape, not to astonish by its rapidity and volume, or delight by its picturesque windings, but to carry fertility on its surface, and gold in its sands. The papers which form the present publica tion originally appeared in Blackwood's Magazine, a work which, by the constitutional truth and manliness of its principles, had acquired extensive credit with a people, who love fairdealing and fearlessness like their own. The republicanism which they then offered their contribution to oppose, has since broken out, with still more formidable menace to the State. The boldest pretext of overthrow had hitherto never gone beyond the "improvement of the Constitution." But, we now hear a demand for a new fabric. What was once Reform, is now Revolution; Monarchy, once admitted by all parties to be the natural Government of the State, is now pronounced a prejudice, and the popular aspiration is Democracy. And this new terror is no dream of the study; no thin shape of mysticism floating before the eyes of visionaries; Ribandism and Chartism are its substantial forms. However widely differing in their origin, their determination is the same. Travelling by different routes, they march to the same point; and whether hatred of the Church leads them to subvert the Throne, or hatred of the Throne, to subvert the Church, neither will have achieved its object, until both meet on the ruins of the Constitution. the property and intelligence of the Empire, when once roused, will resist courageously, and if roused early enough will resist triumphantly, is beyond question. But it will be too late, when the twin conspiracies shall have become one, and when the people of England shall see some new and monstrous shape of govern That ment demanding their submission; some huge, crude, and presumptuous Babel of Society, at once threatening Earth, and insulting Heaven; some new" City and Tower" of infidel building; where the Democratic Principle, known only by its evil attributes; like an Indian Idol, with its hundred hands grasping only swords and serpents; shall sit to be worshipped with the horrid and sanguinary rites of superstition, or the still more horrid impurities of popular passion, let loose to riot without fear of God or man. That the nation may yet emerge from those trials; we may be justified in believing, for she had emerged before. But it is equally evident, that if she does, it must be by the same vigour, and virtue, which then ensured her safety. When Burke wrote his immortal" Reflections on the French Revolution," there were thousands in England as full of frenzy, as ever were the wearers of crowns of straw. Every public sense was in a state of illusion, France was the great |