Beneath the whole surface of European society are smouldering fires, which threaten to break forth in some terrible volcano, that may spread desolation and destruction far and wide. The privileged few are marshalling themselves against the oppressed many, and the many are preparing for a conflict with the few, and their several pretensions must at length be put to issue. The monarchs of Europe, supported by the prescription of ages, and surrounded by powerful aristocracies, as so many body-guards, may refuse to listen to retrenchment and reform, and set themselves in array against the rights of the people. With the means at their command, they may oppose powerful obstructions to the progress of civil liberty; but it will be like damming up a mighty river, the force of which will be augmented by the resistance with which it is opposed, and which must at length break loose, and bear all before it. Revolutions in European governments are as sure as the progress of time; and the increasing intelligence of the people affords reason to expect that their result will be the more firm establishment of human rights. A great intellectual and moral training is necessary, to prepare a people for freedom; and a great change must take place in regard to the intelligence and virtue of every nation in Europe, before an entirely free government would be to them a blessing. LAFAYETTE, though a republican in principle, judged, and no doubt correctly, that a limited monarchy was the best government which France is prepared at present to enjoy, and to the erection and support of such a government he contributed his influence. The advancing cause of education, however, is preparing Europe for a higher destiny; and there is reason to hope that she will not stop in her career of improvement, until the intelligence and virtue of her population shall prepare them for the full enjoyment of freedom, and put them in possession of its substantial blessings. How long it will be before such an event will occur, no human sagacity can precisely predict. The struggle of freedom may be protracted and arduous, but her ultimate triumph is certain; and even the distant prospect of it will be cheering to every friend of human rights. H. OLD AGE. BY REV. C. C. COLTON, AUTHOR OF 'LACON.' THOU anti-climax in life's wrinkled page, Worst end of bad beginning--helpless Age! Thou sow'st the thorn, though long the flower hath fled; Alive to torment, but to transport dead; Imposing still, through time's still rough'ning road, With strength diminish'd, an augmented load: Slow herald of the tomb! sent but to make Man curse that giftless gift thou wilt not take; When hope and patience both give up the strife, Death is thy cure--for thy disease is life! HUNTING SONG. I.