what will be the means and capacities of
government, when the time arrives which shall call for remedies
commensurate to enormous evils.

It is an obvious truth, that no constitution can defend itself: it must
be defended by the wisdom and fortitude of men. These are what no
constitution can give: they are the gifts of God; and He alone knows
whether we shall possess such gifts at the time we stand in need of
them. Constitutions furnish the civil means of getting at the natural:
it is all that in this case they can do. But our Constitution has more
impediments than helps. Its excellencies, when they come to be put to
this sort of proof, may be found among its defects.

Nothing looks more awful and imposing than an ancient fortification. Its
lofty, embattled walls, its bold, projecting, rounded towers, that
pierce the sky, strike the imagination and promise inexpugnable
strength. But they are the very things that make its weakness. You may
as well think of opposing one of these old fortresses to the mass of
artillery brought by a French irruption into the field as to think of
resisting by your old laws and your old forms the new destruction which
the corps of Jacobin engineers of to-day prepare for all such forms and
all such laws. Besides the debility and false principle of their
construction to resist the present modes of attack, the fortress itself
is in ruinous repair, and there is a practicable breach in every part of
it.

Such is the work. But miserable works have been defended by the
constancy of the garrison. Weather-beaten ships have been brought safe
to port by the spirit and alertness of the crew. But it is here that we
shall eminently fail. The day that, by their consent, the seat of
Regicide has its place among the thrones of Europe, there is no longer a
motive for zeal in their favor; it will at best be cold, unimpassioned,
dejected, melancholy duty. The glory will seem all on the other side.
The friends of the crown will appear, not as champions, but as victims;
discountenanced, mortified, lowered, defeated, they will fall into
listlessness and indifference. They will leave things to take their
course, enjoy the present hour, and submit to the common fate.

Is it only an oppressive nightmare with which we have been loaded? Is
it, then, all a frightful dream, and are there no regicides in the
world? Have we not heard of that prodigy of a ruffian who would not
suffer his benignant sovereign, with his ha