gradually extended until they became universal. The current of public opinion was thus silently undermining the foundations of hereditary authority. At last every thing was prepared for a crisis, when the revolution in France gave the signal for change. Humanity throughout the continent uttered its voice. The system of prescriptive right and kingly prerogative tottered but for a moment, and then sank into the abyss like lead in the mighty waters. Thus ought to perish, and thus must perish, every institution, whether at home or abroad, at variance with the freedom with which God has endowed the intellect and the conscience of man.

It may be well, in closing, to glance for a moment at those proximate causes which, at this particular time, have quickened into action the elements of revolution.

Among the earlier causes we may, I think, assign the most important place to the reformation by Martin Luther. Then, first, in later times, was successfully asserted the right of every human being to interpret the Scriptures for himself. But the acknowledgment of this right involves also the acknowledg ment of every other kindred right; and thus the mind of man was placed in that line of progress which must lead to civil liberty as its necessary result. In fact, wherever the Bible is read, and man learns the nature of his responsibility to God, he learns, at the same time, his right to do as he pleases, provided he violate the rights of no other human being.

But even the promulgation of the doctrines of the reformation would have been of little avail, had not the art of printing been at the same period invented. By this art, unlimited power is given to human thought, and the conceptions of one mind are almost simultaneously transferred to the minds of millions. He who can utter the voice of human nature has mankind for his audience, and his winged words find a home in every man's bosom. Thus whole nations are aroused from their slumbers at the announcement of an elementary truth. Physical force becomes paralyzed in the presence of reason; "powers, and dominions, and potentates are arraigned at the

bar of eternal justice, and stand or fall by the decision of the universal reason and conscience of mankind.

But even this advantage to the cause of truth could scarcely have been gained, had not other events conspired to give authority to its lessons of instruction. After men are thoroughly convinced, they for a long time hesitate before they dare to carry their convictions into practice. They prefer to bear the ills they have, rather than fly to others that they know not of." Hence an important point is gained when they can see the theory which they all believe to be true, reduced to the test of successful experiment. These views of the rights of man had been first practically exemplified in the adoption of our own constitution. The experience of half a century had demonstrated that it was possible for mankind to live in unbounded prosperity, and that the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, might be amply secured to every individual, under a purely elective government, with perfect freedom of political and religious opinions; that religion might exert its appropriate influence over the minds of men wholly unsupported by the civil authority; and, in a word, that a people could govern themselves, and accomplish all the purposes of a civil society, without the aid of military force, and unencumbered with those expensive establishments which seem necessary to the existence of hereditary authority. The knowledge of the working of our experiment thus brought the peasantry of Europe by thousands to our shores, and the correspondence of these emigrants with their friends at home diffused republican opinions among every people on the continent. Men thus became generally convinced that not only universal freedom was demanded by the laws of our spiritual nature, but that a system of government might be framed, in accordance with those laws, fraught with richer blessings to humanity than had been even hoped for under any of the forms of ancient civilization. That I do not overstate the influence of this country in creating this change of opinion is, I think, evident from the fact that in every nation the friends of freedom have

instinctively turned to us as their example; and the question which they have asked is, not whether our social principles are true, but whether their own condition will justify the attempt to carry them at once to their legitimate results.

These various causes have, as I apprehend, derived increased efficacy from the results of the peace which the civilized world has enjoyed since the battle of Waterloo. There can be small opportunity for deliberate thought amidst the turmoil of war; much less can the love of right be cultivated by the habitual perpetration of atrocious wrong. Peace, on the contrary, directs the minds of men to reflection, and naturally disposes them to yield obedience to law, and to examine the nature of the law to which they acknowledge subjection. Hence I think it will be found that those changes of public opinion, from which all social improvement emanates, are the result of long-continued peace. It would be strange if it were otherwise. We could hardly expect that liberty, the greatest of sublunary blessings, should spring from a soil reddened with slaughter, or be cherished in bosoms maddened by passions, stimulated to ferocity by uncontrolled gratification.

And, besides this, the development of national resources, and the consequent improvement of the condition of the industrial classes during a period of peace, effect important changes in the relative position of the different orders of society. A middle class is thus created, vieing in intelligence with the higher ranks in the state, and yet allied by their pursuits to the great masses of the population. Such men become easily capable of observing, with the chancellor of Sweden, "By how little wisdom the world is governed!" Their sturdy common sense comes in conflict with the dogmas of prescriptive authority; they feel the practical evils of misgovernment and oppression, and they trace them to their sources; and, although their opinions, by a blind fatality, are always unheeded by the few who rule, they spread with electric rapidity among the millions who are ruled. In this

manner, the public sentiment of a nation is created, and nothing is wanting but some occurrence which shall call it into action, and, by arousing the universal will, transform into its own likeness the elements of social organization. Such an event, to the continent of Europe, was the late revolution in France. It dissipated the darkness in which the nations were enveloped, and revealed to the world the true state of public opinion on the subject of government. The fact was at once disclosed, that no divine ordinance hedges about the majesty of thrones, but that they are really and of right dependent for their existence on the will of the people. It was seen, by repeated experiments, that a few men, representing the sentiments of the whole, were clothed with a might which no government could resist. The claims of humanity were thus urged in capital after capital, and every where they have been urged successfully; until, at the present moment, society on the continent is in a state of fusion, and every thoughtful man is asking himself what are the forms which these elements will assume, when they shall crystallize into permanent and well-defined masses.

THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN EUROPE.

PART II.

"BE WISE NOW, THEREFORE, O YE KINGS; BE INSTRUCTED, YE JUDGES OF THE EARTH. SERVE THE LORD WITH FEAR, AND REJOICE WITH TREMBLING. KISS THE SON, LEST HE BE ANGRY, AND YE PERISH FROM THE WAY, WHEN HIS WRATH IS KINDLED BUT A LITTLE. BLESSED ARE ALL THEY THAT PUT THEIR TRUST IN HIM."

Psalm ii. 10-12.

In the preceding discourse from these words, I endeavored briefly to recall the events which, within a few months, have transpired on the continent of Europe, and to indicate the causes in which they had their origin. I propose, this afternoon, to suggest some of the results to which they tend, and some of the lessons which they may be supposed to inculcate.

We naturally inquire, in the first place, What are the forms which European institutions are henceforth to assume? and what are the channels which society will mark out for itself, after the waters of the present deluge shall have subsided?

On this subject it would be evidently vain to hazard any thing more than a conditional opinion. No one can possibly foresee the direction in which nations thus excited will move, unless he can lay claim to a knowledge of their intellectual and moral character, such as cannot be possessed by a created understanding. Every thing now, for the first time, will depend upon the ability which the people possess to avail themselves of the advantages thus unexpectedly placed at their disposal. But what that ability is, I think we cannot