7 AUGUST 1830, Page 11

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

TWO POINTS OF ADMIRATION.

THERE are two points in the French Revolution of 1830 that are specially worthy of notice—the despatch with which it has been gone about ; its completeness. " If 'twere done, 'twere well 'twere quickly done," says Macbeth; and the same thought will rise in the mind of most persons who have an act of great difficulty and. daring before them. But the gallant Parisians have improved on the idea of the tyrant ; and not content with kicking CHARLES out of France with the speed of light, they have determined to leave not even the skirt of his garment behind him. The speed of the Revolution, and the completeness of the Revolution, are of

great importance to France itself. Had there been any lingering —any delay—had they hesitated but for a day to strike in the sacred name of Freedom, it is impossible to calculate what that delay might have caused ; how many lukewarm friends it might have lost, how many wavering enemies it might have con- firmed ; how many might have held back, how many might have opposed in consequence ; what sinking of the hearts in the true man, what elevation of spirits in the false it might have occasioned ; what a handle to the enemies of the popular cause it might have supplied, what a source of _grieving to its friends. The rapidity and decision of the Parisians cut short all nice balancings of danger and damage, and drew a broad and

marked line between CHARLES and his Ordinances and the People and their Charter, which no man could- pretend to mistake.

This division, entire and instantaneous, between the Tyrant and his minions and Libeety and her adherents, pointed out at once the in- conceivable imbecility and insignificance of the former, the gigantic force and irresistible numbers of the latter. In most cases, little else is required to the settlement of a battle than a correct know- ledge of the power of resistance and offence of the opposite parties. The first appeal to the people, showed all that were not military resolved on the one side, a part of those that were military unresolved on the other: who was to doubt of the result?

Having gone in, the Parisians were determined to go through. They did not pause to pick their steps, or to parley, or to make terms : no, they went on driving the tools of the Tyrant before them, from square to square, from street to street, from the Louvre to the Tuileries, from the Tuileries to the Champs Elysees, from Paris to St. Cloud. Had the Royalists been of compact enough materials, the People would have kicked them to Brest, and frorit Brest into the Atlantic ere they left them. The King had a little faction in Paris, he had a little faction in perhaps every town of

France ; all those little factions, infinimens petits as they were

in their separate state, had they been gathered. into one body might have formed a nice little body. But they cannot congre- gate now ; they want a nucleus to which to adhere ; they circle in the surroundime mass, unseen and unfelt, like salt in watet, for want of a stick to shoot upon. The little faction in Paris is pounded to dust, impalpable dust ; the triton of the minnows,

the maxinzus minimorum, is perished, and the rest of the fry must Skulk in nooks and shallows in all time coming. Thus

the rapidity and the completeness of the Revolution secures its permanence, by removing all causes of inward disturbance. With respect to Europe, the Grande Nation is equally secure. All the crowned heads of the Continent hate her. There may be shades in their hatred, but the least inclined hates her with great honesty and intensity. They would.have liked to have an oppor- tunity of a sly hit at her. They would not have proceeded as the

Duke of BetneswicK did in 1793, in an open blundering way. That was the age of brass, ye live now in the age of polished steel.

Our deepest wounds are unaccompanied with mangling, we commit our crimes genteelly. Power forty or fifty years ago was like a Crusa- der's mace, it required nothing but a bold heart and a vigorous arm, Power now is like a Turkish scimitar, it asks skill and dexterity to use it with effect. A nice little civil war was precisely the point at which these great men aimed. A little stand, and a little retreat, a little negotiation, any little thing to prolong the dispute between the King and the People, and in came the polished gentlemen of the long hands to lend their little aid to their little brother. This is impossible now; they must be quiet. Nay, not only will they be quiet—we have small hesitation in saying that in a few weeks, with the exception perhaps of Austria, which is very slow in doing anything, the whole of them will be crowding round PHILIP of Orleans, striving who shall be first to congratulate him on his accession.