d how strikingly and honorably does it distinguish the
present revolution from the vindictive and sanguinary proceedings of
that of 1789. Is it not manifest that every man who has had any thing
to do with this affair, is acting with direct reference to the former
revolution, and with a settled determination to avoid the false steps
which led to its miscarriage? And is not this determination a most
propitious pledge of the stability and success of the present
revolution?

After all--in a case so dependent on the crooked policy of princes,
and on the wayward and turbulent passions of man--it is possible
that our hopes may be disappointed. Judging, however, by general
appearances both in France and out of it, (so far as any authentic
information has reached us) we have reason to cherish the hope that
that beautiful country is at length as free as she chooses to be,
and that the genius and taste, the fine sensibilities and generous
affections which so pre-eminently distinguish her, will now have
genial skies and full scope for their cultivation and expansion. Sure
I am that I speak the sentiments, not only of this city but of the
whole United States, when I say, that no nation will hail her success
with a truer heart of joy than ours, and that there is none on which
we believe that liberty will sit more gracefully and attractively
than on hers.

Never has her character appeared in a form so captivating as in the
late movement. It has brought forward, among her people, a new class
of candidates for foreign respect and admiration: that class which her
nobles, in haughty contempt, were wont to style the _canaille_, but
who proved themselves, on that occasion, the true noblemen of France,
the noblemen of nature. Their conduct throughout the whole movement
was marked with the noblest lineaments, and their sudden transition
from the shock of arms to the stillness of peace, was sublime. In this
they proved their perfect title to liberty by their fitness to enjoy
it, and, on a most trying occasion, have presented a model of prudence
and wisdom worthy of the remembrance and imitation of us all.

Among the youth of the Polytechnic school, too, there was a
beautiful little incident, so characteristic of the fine and delicate
sensibility of the French, that I cannot forbear adverting to it.
When those boys were required by the present king to designate from
among their number the twelve most distinguished in the late conflict,
with