Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/379

 BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 337 showed mankind that the mere want of such a CHAP. XIV hero as will answer the purpose is a want which L_ can be compensated by a little ingenuity. She taught the world that when a mighty nation is under a democracy, and is threatened with doc- trines which challenge the ownership and enjoy- ment of property, any knot of men who can get trusted with a momentary hold of the engine of State (and somebody must be so trusted), may take one of their number who never made a cam- paign except with counterfeit soldiers, and never fired a shot except when he fired by mistake, and may make him a dictator, a lawgiver, and an absolute monarch, with the acquiescence, if not with the approval, of a vast proportion of the people. Moreover, France proved that the tran- sition is not of necessity a slow one ; and that, when the perils of a high centralisation and a great standing army are added to the perils of a sheer democracy, then freedom, although it be hedged round and guarded by all the contrivances which clever, thoughtful, and honest Republicans can devise, may be stolen and made away with in one dark winter night, as though it were a purse or a trinket. XXIV. Although France lost her freedom, it would be Thegenti.- . n lnen °f an error to imagine that upon the ruins of the France standing commonwealth there was founded a monarchy aiooffrom ° the Govern like that, for instance, which governs the people ment - of Russia. In empires of that kind the Sovereign VOL. I. Y