, and allowing the
French armies and navies (I may say the people of France _en masse_) to
be imbued with the same principles of equality, that they were sowing
the seeds of a revolution in their own country which was to bring the
king, as well as the major part of the nobility, to the scaffold.

"There, again, the events did not turn out according to expectation, and
you will observe that in every attempt made by either party, the result
was, that the blow fell upon their own heads, and not upon that of the
party which it was intended to crush."

"I remember," said Alfred, after Mr Campbell had finished speaking,
"having somewhere read a story of an Eastern king who purchased a
proverb of a dervish, which he ordered to be engraven on all the gold
and silver utensils in the palace. The proverb was, `Never undertake
anything until you have well considered the end.' It so happened, that
there was a conspiracy against the king, and it was arranged that his
surgeon should bleed him with a poisoned lancet. The surgeon agreed,
the king's arm was bound up, and one of the silver basins was held to
receive the blood. The surgeon read the inscription, and was so struck
with the force of it, that he threw down the lancet, confessed the plot,
and thus was the life of the king preserved."

"A very apt story, Alfred," said Mrs Campbell.

"The question now is," continued Alfred, "as two of the parties, France
and England, have proved so short-sighted, whether the Americans, having
thrown off their allegiance, have not been equally so in their choice of
a democratical government?"

"How far a modern democracy may succeed, I am not prepared to say,"
replied Mr Campbell; "but this I do know, that in ancient times, their
duration was generally very short, and continually changing to oligarchy
and tyranny. One thing is certain, that there is no form of government
under which the people become so rapidly vicious, or where those who
benefit them are treated with such ingratitude."

"How do you account for that, sir?" said Alfred.

"There are two principal causes. One is, that where all men are
declared to be equal (which man never will permit his fellow to be if he
can prevent it), the only source of distinction is wealth, and thus the
desire of wealth becomes the ruling passion of the whole body, and there
is no passion so demoralising. The other is, that where the people, or,
more properly speaking, the mob govern, they must