known old people who remember cannon being placed at Whitehall to awe the people, and prevent George the First from being insulted when he went to Parliament. The Restoration of Charles II. was easy, because the law remaining unaltered, of which the King was the life and soul, and he being absent and not replaced, all was confusion and anarchy. Nothing can be more impudently false than what Mr. Burke says of the Government of Oliver and Richard Cromwell, as is proved by Whitelocke's Memorials, the Parliamentary History, and Cromwell's Speeches to his different Parliaments and Assemblies where he states, I believe truly and sincerely, the difficulties of the times.[1] But in France it is just the reverse of all this. The law has been changed in the first instance, and the proceedings rendered independent, and a great majority of the people are in favour of the Revolution.
"If danger is to be apprehended, it can only be from without. This is improbable, because, the body of aristocrats under the Princes can make no effort, however secretly assisted by any Power, which will not strengthen the Revolution; the reasons are too obvious to be worth detailing. No Power of any consequence will venture to interfere, without a general junction of the Continental Powers (for England will and must be out of the question), which is highly improbable. First, it is unprecedented. No such thing took place when Holland threw off the Spanish yoke, or in favour of Charles or James II., which two last instances called for it much more than that which now exists in France. The Emperor is a politic person, and under some concealment an ambitious prince. What inducement can he have to resign his alliance with France, by which the House of Austria always has and always must be gainers? What can justify him in risking his possession of the Low Countries, and the quiet of his dominions, particularly Hungary? The House of Austria have hitherto rejected all private understanding with Prussia. What reason is there to suppose that the
- ↑ "On the policy of the allies," Burke, Collected Works, iv. 467; "Letter to a member of the National Assembly," ib. iv. 37, where Burke overestimates the degree of consent which the Government of Cromwell received from the majority of the people.
