LETTERS FROM PARIS, BY o. F. Q. No. XXX1.

IT IS TOO LATE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.

Paris, 26th November 1834.

Sta—There are times when nations must suffer, as well as indivi- duals—as there are national, as well as personal crimes. It is so ordered by a wise and superintending Providence, that individual offences shall generally carry along with them their own punishment : and the history of the world is sufficiently known and understood by your readers, to have taught them this lesson, that national cowardice will be punished by foreign invasion, or domestic tyranny—that national indifference will be punished by oppressive vexation on the part of the nation's governors— that national selfishness, avarice, and indifference to the happiness and interests of others, will necessarily entail national degradation, and an unfavourable reaction against the country which has acted thus culpably. The first book of my prophecies (to make use of a figurative mode of expression), was closed when the Revolution of July broke out in i

France n 1830. The second was proved to be as correct, when France under the guidance of the Doctrinaires, and Great Britain under the fatal direction of the Whigs, renounced the principle of Reform and of Popular Sovereignty, and sought, from March 1831 to November 1834, to stand well with the Courts of the North of Europe—to

prevent the realization by the French and English People of the con. sequences of their Revolution and of their Reform Bill—and to restore the Treaties of Vienna, make a league with the principles of despotism and absolute governments, and ratnin to the "good old days" of legi- timate monarchies and of ancient institutions.

The third book of my prophecies (to make use of the same figurative

phrase), is now fulfilling. The Duke of WELLINGTON has returned to office. Lord LYNDHURST again sits in the Court of Chancery. The King of Great Britain is surrrounded by his former servants. The Tories are in power. The once united friends of liberty are divided.

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There s no longer one banner and one army, but there are two banners and two armies ; and I know of a truth and for a fact, that the Northampton Herald, was right when it said—" We state from un- questionable authority, that several Whig Members of Parliament have intimated to the Duke of Wellington their intention of supporting his Government." As in England, so in France, the once united blends of freedom are divided. Those who threw up together the same bar. ricades in July 1830, to oppose their common enemy, are now engaged in war-tostlie-knife discussions and contests amongst each other. The Revolution of July cannot now be restored, as the Duke of BassAxo expressed his intention of doing at the end of last month; and the very same shopkeeping Juste Milieu National Guards of Paris, who from July 1830 to October 1834, have been saying—" We hope Louts PHILIP will be the end of all Revolutions : we trust he will be able to arrange with Europe—to disarm, to cause Europe to di-arm, and to get back to the times of the Restoration except the mere change of dynasty :" they now openly declare in their guard-houses, at their places of assembly, in their private conferences, and at their elections- " That if LOUIS PHILIP cannot please Europe—if Europe will not be satisfied with him—if peace and a disarming cannot:be obtained—and if because they, the National Guards of Paris, consented to change the eldest for the youngest branch of the house of Bourbon, therefore that France is to be put to the ban by all European Powers—why, that they, the National Guards of Paris, are prepared to take back the eldest branch, and HENRY the Fifth; for that they are resolved to

finish!" The fourth book of my prophecies has still to be fulfilled; but it will be fulfilled, even to the letter. I told you all, years ago, and marly twelve months since I repeated it in my first letter to the Spectator, that France was marching with rapidity towards a Titian RESTORA- TION. Even you, Mr. Editor, even you could not believe me : but, if your eyes are not now opened to the truth of my predictions, they very soon will be, by the evidence of astounding facts.

Time great EUROPEAN RISING or THE PEOPLE in 1830 and 1831 has been crushed by the pretended friends, more than it has been by the avowed enemies of the popular party. The Whigs have ruined, for the time, the cause of civil and religious liberty in England. The Juste Milieu and Doctrinaires have effected the same result in France. Their journals have in both countries ridiculed the one great salutary principle of Popular Sovereignty. Their journals have libelled and traduced the great popular leaders of the Movement in both countries. Their diplomatists have leagued with those of absolute monarchical governments to arrest the friends of liberty—to expel from France, Belgium, and Switzerland, all German, Polish, Spanish, and Portu- guese Liberals. Their Ministers have supported to the utmost the egotism and avarice of those who ad the Royal and Stock Exchanges of London and at the Bourse at Paris have laboured to substitute an animal and material principle of government, for one of a moral and a "spirituel "character. The Governments of France and of England have, from March 1831 to October 1834, preached to the People, that liberty was but a name—that freedom was but an imaginary good— that the Prussians are happier than the English or the French—and that the great end of all government should be to maintain order. It 1S false that Earl GREY, Lord PAtaiEnsTori, or Lord Briouunnat, have been favourable to the progress of liberty or to the advancement of Reform. They were not, are not, and never can be Reformers. So in France, from the time of CASIMIR PERIER downwards, the men who one after the other have been called upon to conduct the affairs of the State, have hated the French Revolution—have cursed the prin- ciple of Popular Sovereignty—have seen nothing in the events of 1830 but a mere change in the "personnel " of the dynasty—and have

even vindicated in open court, and at the tribunes of the Chambers, the period of the Bourbon Restoration. The result of all this, both in Great Britain and in France, has been just such as it must be, ought to be, and could not fail of being. The people have shrugged their shoulders and shaken their heads, and said a thousand times, both here

and in England—" Well, one thing we see very clearly, and that is, that we the people have gained nothing by those changes ; we the people are in nowise benefited by all these alterations : BROUGHAM has got the seals instead of LYNDHURST, and PERSIL instead of CHAUTELAUZE, and the taxes are higher, and the wine dearer,. and the press more persecuted, and monopolies and sinecures are maintained; and the only difference is that they all come to be Kings in thew turns." Do not deceive yourselves. The cause of REFORM IN .ENGLAND, and of the REVOLUTION of 1830 IN FRANCE, is at least adjourned for years to come ! The people have been deceived.. The people have been cajoled ! The people have been trifled with. The word of promise has not even been kept to the ear, much more to.the heart. The people cannot be put into movement at a moment's notice. The rople trusted in the Chronicle in England, and in the Constitutionnel in France ; but the people have been deceived. The people trusted in the Globe in England, and in the Debats in France ; but the people have again been deceived. The people trusted in HENRY BROUGHAM in England, and in DUPIN and PERIER in France ; but again also the people have been deceived. The people believed that there was such a thing as a programme of the Hotel de Ville in France, and that there was such a thing as a plan of the results to be gained by the passing of the Reform Bill ; but they were deceived. And now—when the Whigs are ousted from office, and are endeavouring to raise a cry in their own favour—what say the people in reply ? Why, " Thank God, the Whigs are out ! now we must wait and see " IT is Too LATE!" At Paris, an attempt is now making " to revive or restore the spirit of the Revolution of July." Jr IS TOO LATE! It is impossible ! There is such a thing as principle, and there is such a thing as the operation of a principle. You cannot labour by your activity or iv your supine- ness—by your sneers or by your bribes—by your ridicule or by your bayonets—by your diplomacy or by your Chambers—by your journals or by your agents—and so labour without ceasing, to discredit a great principle in the eyes and opinions of the mass, and that for four years —and then turn round and preach, by the same organs and means, that you must restore that principle and bring it into play. The Chronicle and the Globe the Dania and the Constitutionnel, have been so acting from March ;831 to October 1834; and now they have rendered the mass less confiding ; and now they have disgusted public opinion by their baseness, and by the baseness of the 1Vhigs and the Juste Milieu : they are for "turning their backs upon themselves "—they are fir "calling spirits from the vasty deep "—they are for reviving the Movement and the spirit of 1830 and 1832. But IT Is TOO LATE!

The next Revolution which will be made in Europe, and above all in France and in England, will be a revolution of principles. It is all very well, and even all very necessary, to rally at present round Lord Dcarram and his standard ; but Lord Duarram is not the end, but only the means. When another national movement shall be made in England and in France, it will not be compromised by men, or by leaders, or by false friends ; but it will be a movement of principles, and all which stands in its way will be swept from before it with a ter- rible and destructive blast. But now—at this moment—IT Is Too LATE!

Nor are the Patriots and Reformers of France, or of England, ex- empt from blame. Quite the contrary. They have talked too much of men, and too little of principles—too much of things and circum- qances.—and have thought too little of those great doctrines of all governments which are philosophical and just. The Patriots and Re- formers of France and of England ought to have known, that it was quite impossible to remain stationary in politics; that those who were not for the doctrine of Popular Sovereignty Were its enemies ; that those who were not supporters of the measures proposed in France for free- ing the press, for extending the electoral suffrages, for destroying mo- nopolies, sinecures, and a profligate expenditure of the public money, were necessarily the friends of corruption and tyranny ; and in England the Reformers were bound to have known (and their ignorance, if pleaded, is not an apology, but a crime)—I say their ignorance of the fact, as well as the principle that all Whigs are at heart despots, and that no real reform ever can be devised by the Aristocracy—has led to the evils we now contemplate, and the results we now witness. The Reformers never ought to have trusted Lord GREY. The Reformers never ought to have believed HENRY BROUGHAM. The Reformers never ought to have tolerated even for a moment, that cold and cruel enemy both of French, Belgian, Polish, German, Italian, and Spanish inde- pendence, Lord PALMERSTON. No man has a right to take his basket in his band and go out on a common to gather figs from thorns or rapes from thistles. The Patriots of France and the Reformers of England are therefore much to blame for what is now going on with Rich fearful rapidity in both countries ; and they must take to them- ;elves a portion of the reproach which attaches to the declaration, that "IT IS TOO LATE!

The FRENCH and ENGLISH ALLIANCE is at an end ! and it is now TOO LATE to restore it. The negotiations for a TREATY of COMMERCE between these two countries is at an end, and it is TOO LATE to renew them. France cannot love a country which has her worst enemies as their governors. England cannot love a country which she insults by the very fact of WELLINGTON being at the head of affairs. The CAUSE of LIBERTY in SPAIN is lost, and it is TOO LATE to save it. Mind what !tell you! If such men as WELLINGTON, ABERDEEN, and COWLEY, re placed at the head of the British Government,—not only the muse of CHRISTINA and IsABELLa, but of liberty in Spain' is lost ; rod, I repeat, it is Too LATE to save it. BELGIUM is exposed to a war with HOLLAND, or to an occupation by a French army, unless she will throw herself into the arms of France. GERMANY will protest in vain against the resolutions of the Diet just passed for establishing arbitral power to put down the liberty of the Chambers in each ftichy or kingdom ; and it is TOO LATE to help the cause of freedom in ne Fatherlard. POLAND is blotted out beforehand by the pen of Toryism from the map of Europe, and it is TOO LATE to aid her. It is TOO LATE to talk of liberty for ITALY, or a new federal pact for kITZERLAND. The Duke and his dragoons march over the people, lad }ears must elarge ere those per pie will again be roused to eser. hit and rebellion. BUT THAT DAY WILL COME! We must tarry for —wait for it—labour for it—endeavour to be prepared against its Rival—and devote all our energies and talents to hastening it on the !uid. When that day shall come, it will be Too LATE for all but the No, le ! they ALO ;in will then have dominion ; and that day of yen-

!ance and of movement will be terrible. - hi the mean time, no Union with the Whigs/no attendance at Whig inners or Whig meetings—no addresses of regret, or symptoms of vrow ! Stand aloof from them all ! Touch not the unclean thing. id though it is " too late" now to do any thing at this moment but to iffer--prepare the people by books, tracts, and newspapers, by bob, magazines, and addresses, for the hour when their turn shall Re, and when it shall be "too late" no longer.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 0. P. Q.