When I reflect on the event which these men have so indecently commemorated, and the horrors which succeeded it, I feel something more than a detestation for republicanism.  The undefined notions of liberty imbibed from poets and historians, fade away—­my reverence for names long consecrated in our annals abates—­and the sole object of my political attachment is the English constitution, as tried by time and undeformed by the experiments of visionaries and impostors.  I begin to doubt either the sense or honesty of most of those men who are celebrated as the promoters of changes of government which have chiefly been adopted rather with a view to indulge a favourite theory, than to relieve a people from any acknowledged oppression.  A wise or good man would distrust his judgment on a subject so momentous, and perhaps the best of such reformers were but enthusiasts.  Shaftesbury calls enthusiasm an honest passion; yet we have seen it is a very dangerous one:  and we may perhaps learn, from the example of France, not to venerate principles which we do not admire in practice.*

* I do not imply that the French Revolution was the work of enthusiasts, but that the enthusiasm of Rousseau produced a horde of Brissots, Marats, Robespierres, &c. who speculated on the affectation of it.  The Abbe Sieyes, whose views were directed to a change of Monarchs, not a dissolution of the monarchy, and who in promoting a revolution did not mean to found a republic, has ventured to doubt both the political genius of Rousseau, and the honesty of his sectaries.  These truths from the Abbe are not the less so for our knowing they would not be avowed if it answered his purpose to conceal them.—­"Helas! un ecrivain justement celebre qui seroit mort de douleur s’il avoit connu ses disciples; un philosophe aussi parfait de sentiment que foible de vues, n’a-t-il pas dans ses pages eloquentes, riches en detail, pauvre au fond, confondu lui-meme les principes de l’art social avec les commencemens de la societe humaine?  Que dire si l’on voyait dans un autre genre de mechaniques, entreprendre le radoub ou la construction d’un vaisseau de ligne avec la seule theorie, avec les seules resources des Sauvages dans la construction de leurs Pirogues!"—­“Alas! has not a justly-celebrated writer, who would have died with grief, could he have known what disciples he was destined to have;—­a philosopher as perfect in sentiment as feeble in his views,—­confounded, in his eloquent pages—­pages which are as rich in matter as poor in substance—­the principles of the social system with the commencement of human society?  What should we say to a mechanic of a different description, who should undertake the repair or construction of a ship of the line, without any practical knowledge of the art, on mere theory, and with no other resources than those which the savage employs in the construction of his canoe?”
                        Notices sur la Vie de Sieyes.

What had France, already possessed of a constitution capable of rendering her prosperous and happy, to do with the adoration of Rousseau’s speculative systems?  Or why are the English encouraged in a traditional respect for the manes of republicans, whom, if living, we might not improbably consider as factious and turbulent fanatics?*