" (Ibid. Chap. 54.) Take
with this Turner on France under the old _regime_ and the many and
serious grievances of the people: "The Church, whose duty it was to
inculcate justice and forbearance, was identified, in the minds of the
people, with the Monarchy which they feared and detested." (_History of
Philosophy_, Chap. 59.) The moral is that when injustice and evil are
rampant, let us have no palliation, no weakness disguising itself as a
virtue. What we cannot at once resist, we can always repudiate. To
ignore these things is the worst form of imprudence--an imprudence which
we, for our part at least, take the occasion here heartily to disclaim.
III
There is so much ill-considered use of the word revolutionist, we should
bear in mind it is a strictly relative term. If the freedom of a people
is overthrown by treachery and violence, and oppression practised on
their once thriving land, that is a revolution, and a bad revolution.
If, with tyranny enthroned and a land wasting under oppression, the
people rise and by their native courage, resource and patience
re-establish in their original independence a just government, that is a
revolution, and a good revolution. The revolutionist is to be judged by
his motives, methods and ends; and, when found true, his insurrection,
in the words of Mackintosh, is "an act of public virtue." It is the
restoration of, Truth to its place of honour among men.
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