ABSTRACT
The internal constitution of a state which, from its geographical situation, its natural or acquired advantages, its relation to the neighbouring states, or from the general situation of Europe, has a visible tendency to aggrandizement and overpoise, or which has already attained a degree of overpoise, will, on this very account, be a fair object of anxiety, of sedulous enquiry and the most attentive observation. Burke said in the year 1791 that France was 'a chasm in the map of Europe'. This great man well knew that in this chasm might exist not only all the infernal apparatus of bloody anarchy, but that a monstrous tyrannical government which would make Europe tremble, might arise out of it. He even foresaw, with wonderful sagacity, that things would take this turn when all the imaginary wise-heads of the time held such a result to be absurd, and even sometimes ridiculed the prediction.
