The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 1, April, 1851Various
History
The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 1, April, 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
And _The Times_ intimates elsewhere that Lord Holland is alone among
reputable authors in condemning the Queen. How _The Times_ regards
THOMAS JEFFERSON, we cannot tell, but certainly it is claimed by our
democracy that he was a witness with a character. Jefferson says of
Marie Antoinette:
"The King was now become a passive machine in the hands of the
National Assembly, and had he been left to himself, he would
have willingly acquiesced in whatever they should devise as
best for the nation. A wise constitution would have been
formed, hereditary in his line, himself placed at its head,
with powers so large, as to enable him to do all the good of
his station, and so limited, as to restrain him from its abuse.
This he would have faithfully administered, and more than this,
I do not believe, he ever wished. But he had a Queen of
absolute sway over his weak mind, and timid virtue, and of a
character, the reverse of his in all points. This angel, as
gaudily painted in the rhapsodies of Burke, with some smartness
of fancy, but no sound sense, was proud, disdainful of
restraint, indignant at all obstacles to her will, eager in the
pursuit of pleasure, and firm enough to hold to her desires, or
perish in their wreck. Her inordinate gambling and
dissipations, with those of the Count d'Artois, and others of
her _clique_, had been a sensible item in the exhaustion of the
treasury, which called into action the reforming hand of the
nation; and her opposition to it, her inflexible perverseness,
and dauntless spirit, led herself to the guillotine, drew the
King on with her, and plunged the world into crimes and
calamities which will for ever stain the pages of modern
history. I have ever believed, that had there been no Queen,
there would have been no revolution. No force would have been
provoked, nor exercised. The King would have gone hand in hand
with the wisdom of his sounder counsellors, who, guided by the
increased lights of the age, wished only, with the same pace,
to advance the principles of their social constitution. The
deed which closed the mortal course of these sovereigns, I
shall neither approve nor condemn. I am not prepared to say,
that the first magistrate of a nation cannot commit treason
against his country, or is unamenable to its punishment; nor
yet, that where there is no written law, no regulated tribunal,
there is not a law in our hearts, and a power in our hands,
given for righteous employment in maintaining right, and
redressing wrong. Of those who judged the King, many thought
him wilfully criminal; many, that his existence would keep the
nation in perpetual conflict with the horde of Kings, who would
war against a regeneration which might come home to themselves,
and that it were better that one should die than all. I should
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