DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

ees, equality, and fraternity. To us it might appear as if these boons were dearly purchased. For twenty- three years France remained engaged in a war in which the best blood of the country was squandered, and the worst military despotism was established which the world has ever known. The despotism of Napoleon was succeeded by the restoration of the formerly detested Bourbon monarchy; this was followed by a second revolution, which gave place to a short period of constitutional monarchy. This collapsed in a third revolution, which resulted in another military despotism, which culminated in a disastrous war, and terminated in a fourth revolution and the Commune. You, too, have had your revolution—in fact, at this very moment, we are silently living through the bi-cen- tenary of the year which gave you your liberties. The English nation may be congratulated on the dignity of its silence, for revolutions, however legitimate in their origin, mild in their process and beneficent in their results, cannot be accomplished without violence and injustice. Historians and statesmen have devoted much time and sagacity to the investigation of the causes of the French Revolution, and to the devices by which it could have been avoided. Yes! Had Louis XIV. been less despotic, had Louis XV. been less depraved, had Louis XVI.