faction, revolt, and bloodshed ensued. In order to unite the people by one common interest, a foreign war was advocated as the only means of union. The result was that the army was rendered completely unserviceable, so far as the suppression of town or country riots were concerned, and the French people had no other choice left them than that between military defencelessness and military dictatorship.

Matters continued as bad as they possibly could be; the national debt still increased; outrage, bloodshed, and incendiarism were not abated. It was all in vain to distribute bread gratuitously to the people. The workmen formed TradesUnions, and insisted on an increase of wages from the Government, which had provided national workshops for them. In vain the landowners were excessively taxed, in vain fresh property of the Church was sold. In fact, it was absolutely impossible to supply with food a nation who either would not, or dared not, work. In truth, their recent tutelage had made them impatient of labour, and the public workshops were at length closed, not for want of hands, but because the men would not work. At the same time, large grants were made for the relief of the distressed.

Let us now turn our attention to the position of the King. Mirabeau appears to have been his most faithful and wise adviser, and, in all the fluctuations of fortune which swept over his unfortunate master, to have rendered the most disinterested advice and unflinching adherence. But on the 4th of April, 1791, Louis lost one of his best friends in Mirabeau, who died, M. Von Sybel affirms, worn out by over-exertion, excitement, and voluptuous pleasure.

Mirabeau, it must be remembered, had used every effort to create a parliamentary and constitutional government, in which the voice of the people might be fully and clearly heard. On his death Robespierre again convulsed the nation with the wildest democratic dreams; and vent was again given to the most brutal passions. Lafayette, however willing, was unable to secure to the King the slightest independence or liberty. Indeed, the General's power and popularity were waning. The Lameths and Duport, the leaders of the Left, now had a fair prospect of directing the Government. All parties saw, from the ungovernable fury of the mob, that it was necessary to form a ministry, and that it was necessary for one and all to yield some points of their political creed. While, to shew how completely Louis was under the influence of political leaders, we need but quote the following sentence: Montmorin sent a circular note to all the Courts of Europe, in which the King expressed his warm admiration of the constitution, and assured them of his personal freedom."

66

This is perhaps a fair specimen of the liberty with which democracy endows it representatives.

This was too much even for Louis, and he resolved on flight, -or, to speak more correctly, his queen, Marie Antoinette, decided for him,-and on the night of the 20th of June, 1790, he fled to the Belgian frontiers. Revolutionary France was now in a state of the most abject fear; it dreaded lest the monarchs of Europe should side with Louis, and on all sides attack the kingdom; and in the course of a few days four millions of Frenchmen were in arms for the defence, as they supposed, of their homes and their existence. But their alarm was unnecessary, for the Royal Family were recaptured, and once more brought to Paris. The rabble now wished to murder the King and his family, but the National Assembly would not permit it. But to give a fair specimen of M. Von Sybel's trite and nervous style, we will make the following quotation :

"On the King's return, a Republican Constitution was formally proposed; and Brissot, the editor of The French Patriot,' zealously supported the movement." M. Von Sybel describes him as having "been for many years one of those literary adventurers, of whom this age produced so many. He had written abusive articles against the Court in London; studied republicanism in America; and, since 1789, played an important part in the municipality of Paris. He had an easy and plausible style, great activity in business, kindheartedness and unselfishness in his private relationships: but in public affairs he was driven by a restless ambition, and the shallower his character and acquirements, the more numerous and extensive were the plans he set on foot. He was one of those men who find pleasure in mere excitement, irrespective of results; and though unmoved by any other passion, he recognised no moral restraint which could moderate his ambition. He therefore played the demagogue in earnest; flattered the mob" (as many of our own radicals now do) "by representing property as a hateful privilege, and the needy as the only true champions of freedom. He declared that he saw no other means of salvation, than in a thorough sweeping away of obsolete institutions, and a removal of an hereditary throne from the State, as the last remnant of Feudalism.

"Robespierre pursued the same object with more caution; and while he almost contemptuously repudiated the word Republic, he endeavoured to clear the way to it of every hinderance and danger. Among the Jacobins he made a general accusation against his colleagues in the National Assembly, who were almost all, he said, hostile to the Revolution. When he came to speak of his own merits, and declared that by his liberality and frankness he had sharpened a thousand daggers against his own breast, every member of the club took an oath to defend the life of Robespierre. He then called upon the National Assembly to bring the King and Queen to trial; and to consult the wishes of the country with respect to the future form of government. But of all the plans proposed, that of Marat

was the shortest and simplest. He declared there was but one means of rescue from the wide-spread treason, viz. to appoint a military tribune with absolute power, who would forthwith make an end of all traitors and semi-traitors, among whom he and his associates more especially reckoned those who were at present in power, -Lafayette, Bailly, Barnave, and the Lameths. The National Guard, cried Desmoulins, 'in its present organization, is a dead weight on the breast of the people; we may gather their sentiments from the bleu-de-roi colour of their uniforms, and there will be no improvement until their shakos have been superseded by the woollen caps of the people.' We cannot but call to mind, at this point, that Bailly and the Lameths had, four weeks before, dispersed the associations of workmen, closed the public workshops, and removed the strange workmen from Paris by the aid of the National Guard. Exactly the same measure was in 1848 the signal for the most terrible contests-the street-fights of June. Yet, in 1791, the distress of the workmen was greater; their irritation was more recent and deeper, and their demands equally extensive. If their numbers and discipline were weaker than in 1848, this disadvantage was fully outweighed by the more complete derangement of all the ordinary relations of life. Whoever was not willing to give up rights and property, law and morals, was obliged to take the side of the King, whether they regarded him as worthy of honour or contempt as a suffering martyr or an unmasked conspirator.

"Those who had hitherto formed the majority of the National Assembly, were thoroughly convinced of this, and therefore entered into a still closer union with one another. The Right scarcely took any part in the deliberations, but the Club of 1789 made common cause with the Lameths, Barnave, and their adherents. The latter were only pursuing the course which they had entered upon in April. Barnave exactly expressed their sentiments when he said on the 15th, that whoever, after the overthrow of every species of aristocracy, was desirous of further revolutionary changes, could only be aiming at the ruin of all proprietors. Lafayette also declared, on hearing_sentiments of a republican tendency expressed in his presence,If you kill the King to-day, I will place the Dauphin on the throne tomorrow, with the aid of the National Guard.' In the National Assembly, the moderate party had nearly a tenfold majority over the extreme Left; the National Guard in Paris was at their disposal against every attack of the Democrats; and in the country at large, the predominance of the monarchial party was beyond a doubt. In short, there was no lack either of good-will or of external means; but they wanted the most essential things of all-good conscience and firmness of purpose."

We have already exceeded our prescribed limits, and must, therefore, postpone the remainder of this paper till the issue of the October Number of our Magazine.

LIFE OF BARON BUNSEN.

A Memoir of Baron Bunsen.

Drawn chiefly from Family Papers. By his Widow, Frances Baroness Bunsen. In Tro Volumes. Longmans & Co. 1868.

WE think we shall do a useful work in making this memoir known to our readers. In selecting it, we must not be understood as approving all Bunsen's opinions, still less of sharing them. But how limited would be our knowledge, and how narrow our fellowship, if we only learned from those with whom we were entirely agreed. Or if we refused to read or weigh the opinions of men who did not hold on all points orthodox views of Religion, how broken would be our circle of knowledge, and, still more, our charity. We hold, on the contrary, and earnestly contend, that it becomes a Christian man, whose feet are fixed on the Rock of Truth, to look out with a kindly fellow feeling on others perhaps less happily circumstanced; and, as he sees their struggles, dangers, escapes, and sometimes heavy falls, to observe well their course, and to draw from it instruction or warning. Such a life as Bunsen's supplies us with materials for this. We are far from implying that his theology was sound. It had much of the mistiness, the speculativeness, and the unsoundness of German theology. He would have been a marvel, had he not shared the opinions of his country and his age. For he lived in the fermentation of the German mind, when it was working off some of its errors, but when it retained many: when there still hung round it imaginations, such as we see in Dean Stanley's writings, of visionary progress and impossible perfection. Bunsen, besides, was a layman, not devoted to the special profession of theology; and, though a man of rare attainments, yet he blended his theological pursuits with others that engrossed his time and thought. His learning, though large, had not the exactness or the depth of one trained in a theological school. We cannot wonder, therefore, that, where biblical knowledge and criticism would have restrained the student, his fancy wandered and went astray. This ought in fairness to be stated as explaining, almost excusing, his errors.

But, with all these abatements, we turn, and we ought to turn, with affectionate remembrance to his many qualities. For the genial feeling, the play of kindly affection, the warm sympathy with others, the fervent reverence with which he regarded the ways and works of God, the constraining principle

of duty, the wish to serve his God and his fellow men, the sacrifice of self, the cheerful hope, and the joyful trust in God,— these qualities, which characterised him from the outset to the end of life, challenge our confidence and esteem. We should blush for ourselves and for our readers, if, when such a character is pourtrayed in a truthful memoir, we were to shrink from noticing it, with a fear that in some way it might shake our principles or impair our faith. On the contrary, we draw from it very different lessons. If, in the mists of German theology and the confusion of an imperfect creed, a character so loving and loveable, a course of life so pure, were matured, how much more should we advance under a purer light? what fruits should we bear to Him who has given us what Bunsen so earnestly sought-a true creed in a Reformed Church? What the infirmities were which accompanied these qualities, will appear in the course of our review.

Christian Carl Josias Bunsen was born on the 25th August, 1791, at Corbach, in the principality of Waldeck. The family were of the middle class, farmers or yeomen, as indicated by the ears of corn in their escutcheon. His father had served for some time in the army, but, crossed in his hopes of promotion by officers who had family interest, he left it in disgust, and settled in his native town. Decided, hot-tempered, but of unbending integrity, he had married a second time, and his wife presented him with this boy, who was the object of her special love, both parents living in the fear of God and in habits of prayer. It was a simple household life to which the boy was introduced. A thatched house in a side street of Corbach; a pipe smoked by the old soldier in the chimney corner; a poultry yard into which he strolled to feed his fowls; a small garden wrought by his hands; an upper story, from which the child's bedroom looked on the flowers and vegetables of the garden this was the scene presented to his earliest years. The boy was sent to school early, and in 1808 to the University of Marburg; and, as that was then in decay, a relative, a man of some note in a neighbouring town, franked him, in 1809, to the University of Göttingen, then known and noted by the labours of Heyne. There, very diligent and active, he was soon recommended as tutor to young Astor, and thenceforward financial difficulties ceased to assail him.

Through the warm interest of Heyne, and his own assiduity, he was promoted to be teacher of Hebrew and of Greek; and an essay, which he wrote in 1812, brought him the distinction of a diploma of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Jena. At the same time, his genial nature, and his love of all that was good, drew round him the young men of his time who were most to be esteemed. Many of them, such as Brandis