tive blood ; with every atom of so- when, both within and without, the ciety out of its proper place; in a state appeared to be rushing furiously state of absolute bankruptcy; with to destruction ; when, to use the phe. no regular system of finance; with a torical language of one of her reprepaper currency incalculable in a- sentatives, the sons of freedom were mount, and at the last ebb of depre- encountering all the malignity of forciation ; yet still maintaining, with tune abroad, and the revolution, like unexampled success, a war which Saturn, was devouring her own chilcost more blood and treasure than any dren at home, not a single indication ever known in modern times; sup- of despondency was given by her porting, at different periods, fourteen rulers ; nor, during the various dedifferent armies on a vast establish- volutions of publick authority, did ment; lavishing great sums in lar. there seem to be any abatement of gesses at home and subsidies abroad; enthusiasm, or any remission of enerand, finally, triumphing over all gy in furnishing the means of resisther continental enemies, and settling ance to foreign aggression. The fordown in an organization civil and mi- tune of the republick was never once litary, which threatens the subjuga. intrusted to the issue of a single tion of the world.* During a crisis battle; nor was the execution of their

plans either relinquished or adjourne * “ The republick maintained fourteen ed in consequence of new appearances different armies. The troops paid were

of danger, or an increase in the numestimated at fourteen hundred thousand. The front of the troops defending her on

ber of their opponents. The senate the east occupied a line of five hundred of Rome, under the pressure of adleagues, extending from the Adriatick to versity, never displayed a more magthe mouth of the Ems in the North Sea. nanimous feeling, nor assumed a Forty sous were paid, for some time, to the individuals who frequented the popu- defiance in a prouder tone, than the

more imposing attitude, nor hurled lar societies. The theatres of Paris were hired to give gratuitous exhibitions [de revolutionary government in a season part et pour le peuple.] Succours were of the most alarming disasters. given to large districts. Bread, which While we bitterly deplore the excess, cost eight sous per pound, in hard money, es of a people intoxicated with the was distributed, almost for nothing, to the first draughts of anarchy, and express inhabitants of Paris. The national con

our detestation for the crimes of the vention, in the midst of the revolutionary whirlwind, had no system of finance, and most horrible of all despotisms, that could have none." [Řamel, Histoire des Fin. which wears the mask of liberty, it de la Republique.] This writer was him. is impossible not to admire the splenself minister of finance at the period of did military achievements of that pewhich he speaks. He states the issue of riod, the steady confidence in ne assignats to have amounted to 40,000,000, 000, of which 12,000,000,000 were with cause, and the ardent attachment to drawn from circulation; and at the epoch liberty manifested on the scaffold of their cessation, 100 francs, in assig- even by those who fell victims to the nats, were valued at 3 sous in coin! a abuse of her name; the numerous proportion of 1-666. The manufacture instances of heroick death afforded of this paper currency, the history of both by royalists and republicans not which is unparalleled, occupied eight inferiour to those upon which the hishundred workmen, who sometimes printed, numbered, and stamped, from 2 to 3

torians of antiquity dwell with so millions of francs a day. During the six much delight. " Laudatis antiquoyears of their currency, the annual reve- rum mortibus pares exitus.” We nue was about 300 million francs. These

even the members of that school confident of their security, and more have occasionally displayed a spirit attentive to the progress of publick which confers dignity on human na- opinion ; if the privileged orders had ture. If France had, after all, worked discarded in time, their habits of lux. out her salvation ; if liberty had sur. urious indolence, and zealously covived these furious struggles, we operated to ease the burdens, and to should consider mankind as gainers. ameliorate the condition of the lower , Her own losses would have been re. classes ; to promote economical retrieved ; her crimes might have been forms ; to restore order to the finan. forgotten ; but it is of all reflections ces ; to purify the civil list ; and to the most lamentable, that the issue restrain the cupidity of courtiers ;* which is now before our eyes, has if the royal princes had not, by their not only rendered her redemption prodigality and their excesses, offend. hopeless, but has dishonoured the ed even the decorum of vice ; if the

; cause of freedom, which is now experiment had been fully tried, of throughout the universe made respon- a popular minister seconded by a pa. sible for her miscarriage.

triotick king, they might have stood In this country, it has been but firm upon the basis of their own too much the fashion to point the authority, in spite of all the machi. moral of this revolution one way, nations of philosophers and deists, without adverting to the awful warn- encyclopedists and levellers, to whom ing which it holds out, as well to their misfortunes are so piously and rulers as to subjects. The pride of loyally ascribed. When Lepelletier, the patrician may be instructed by president of the parliament of Paris, this catastrophe, no less than the advised the recall of Necker, it was jealousy of the plebeian. In the ut- with this exclamation : Representons ter annihilation of the old hereditary le peuple, de peur qu'il ne se repre. distinctions, and the ruin of the great sente lui même! “Let us represent proprietaries of France, there is assu- the people, lest they should represent redly something fitted to alarm and themselves.” to improve the aristocracy of rank One of the chief causes of the and wealth of all countries. Necker atrocious character which the revostates in his book on finance, that lution assumed, is to be found in the there were seven thousand pedigrees apathy or pusillanimity of those who carefully deposited in the Royal Li- were most deeply interested in the brary of Paris ; and we will not un- preservation of order, and best able dertake to conjecture how many title- to fashion publick sentiment. The deeds of extensive patrimony might greater part of these men, at the have been found upon the judicial re- commencement of the contest, either cords. If we should ask, why it is, looked on with indifference, or that these no longer exist ?we must shrunk back in dismay, or consented not be told, that the wreck of title, of fortune, and of royal power, was * “ Le livre rouge, la prodigalité des owing to the mere perversity of the princes, --l'énormité de la liste civile, people, or to the unprovoked spirit l'insatiable cupidité des courtisans et des of faction. The people may injust du mal,” &c. [Observ. sur la Rev.] “I

agens des menus plaisirs, voila la racine ly and capriciously desert an indivi

am convinced,” says Necker, dual contending against the power of habitual residence at Versailles weakens, a government; but will never aban- in an administration of the finances, the don a government which has honestly inclination and ambition to undertake laboured to deserve and to secure

great things ;--there he sees vanities rated their affections. If those who were

80 high, and such a deep interest taken in

the game of ambition and intrigue, that he upon “the slippery heights" of the loses sight of the true value of every thing kingdom of France, had been less that is worthy of asteem.”

" that a

to purchase a momentary security at waged in the bosom of France, yield the expense of honour and conscience. one salutary caution to all orders of Had the men of moderate views and men, it is, that they should be spalocal influence, when the dangers of ring in the application of general anarchy were but too apparent, stood terms of reproach or contumelious bravely forward, and united to com- epithets of party. The use made in bat the designs of faction, they might that unfortunate country of the words have set bounds to the fury of a tem- jacobin and aristocrat, abundantly pest which they could not wholly proves, that what at first is but loosely avert. Their irresolution served only or petulantly thrown out as a mark to embolden the audacity of the tur- of ridicule or distinction, not only bulent, and their precipitate flight serves to swell the number, and exasto confirm the dominion of the inob.* perate the resentment of parties, but The law of Solon, which enacted, may be converted into an engine of that the citizen who, in a period of the most furious and sanguinary civil commotion, did not side with proscription.* one or other of the contending par- Among the most striking lessons ties, should forfeit his estate, and be which are taught by the history of for ever banished the commonwealth, this revolution, is the profound obliextraordinary as it may at first appear, vion into which multitudes have alis, nevertheless, founded in correct ready fallen, who were once objects views of human nature, and has a either of terrour or pity to the whole tendency, not to foment, but to ap- nation. These volumes contain, not pease dissension. In such a conjunc- only the catalogue of those who, in ture, an attention to petty interests the face of the world, swore eternal leads to total ruin ; and the neutrality hatred to royalty, and are now the of the good only widens the field for most prominent agents of despotism, those profligate passions, and despe- but the names also of a host of clarate projects, which the ferment of morous politicians and writers of vast discontent naturally calls into action. importance in their day, whose inThat ferment can, however, in no de- fluence and notoriety are now buried, gree, be allayed by an obstinate adhe- without the possibility of resuscitarence to palpable corruptions. When tion. It is remarkable also, how acwe inculcate the necessity of a prompt tive a share was taken in the tumults and persevering exertion of that in. of the time by the mere men of fluence which always accompanies science and letters, and to what “ilprescriptive authority, personal cha- lustrious dignities" many of them racter, and honest intentions, it is have attained under the auspices of a with a full persuasion, that they ne- martial monarch. Doubtless, the ver can be successful over the unre- nature of their pursuits inclined them mitting activity of the fiends of dis- to espouse, with eagerness, the cause cord, unless attended by a ready con- of freedom ; but the part they have currence in the reformation of abuses, by timely concessions, and by tem- * The list of political denominations perate and conciliatory language. introduced during the conflict of parties, If the war of extermination so long destruction, deserves to be reported.

and employed for the purpose of mutual

Anarchistes, Aristocrates, Babouvistes,. # Vide Aul. Gel. in Noct. Attic. lib. 2.

Brissotines, Chouans, Clichiens, Contre6. 12.—“Boni nescio,” says Cicero, “quo- revolutionaires, Cordeliers, Dantonistes, modo tardiores sunt et principiis rerum

Federalistes, Teuillans, Girondins, Hebaneglectis ad extremum ipsa denique ne.

tistes, Jacobins, Maratistes, Modérés, cessitate excitantur-ita ut nonnunquam Montagnards, Orleanistes, Reactionnaires, cunctatione ac tarditate, dum otium volunt, etiam sine dignitate retinere, ipsi lantropes, Terroristes, Thermidoriens,

Sansculottes, Septembriseurs, Theophiutrumque amittant."--[Pro Sectio.]

Suc. нь

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Vendéens,

VOL. II.

ultimately chosen leads us to suspect, the first usurpation, the forms of a that their zeal was animated by a wish free constitution were preserved; and to govern, worléveofas, in the first it was even deemed expedient, to ininstance, and that, in the miscarri- troduce into the new legislative bodies age of their hopes, they have not been the leading republicans of the old. insensible to the consolations of what To make this, however, as little Mr. Burke so emphatically terms dangerous as possible, it was pro“the gross lucre and fat emoluments vided, that one fifth of the members of servitude.”

of the legislative assembly should be In the number of distinguished annually replaced. The process of royalists who have returned to excluding this proportion is entitled breathe the air of their native country, elimination ; and we observe, that we observe but few, however, who during the first years, the lot reguhold any publick trusts. Their situa- larly fell upon those who continued lion necessarily exacts the affectation to assert their original doctrines, or at least of a cheerful acquiescence in who indicated a disposition to scruthe present order of things; those tinize the views, and resist the enwho are in the capital, either from croachments, of the first consul. The fear or inclination, contribute to swell tribunate, which was found the most zhe pomp of the imperial court, and democratical and restive branch of to enliven the drawing rooms of the the legislature, was soon pared down new nobility. But in the merit of to the number of fifty, and finally consistency, they are certainly supe- abolished. Still, however, the legisriour to their republican antagonists. lature, the great offices of state, the The apostacy of the latter might, prefectures of the departments, and nevertheless, admit of many pallia- the judicial employments, particulartives. Those who once wore the ly, are filled by men who took an bonnet rouge should not, indeed, os- active part in promoting the revolutentatiously display the livery of a tion. Their enmity might have endespot; but it must be acknowledged, dangered the stability of the new that the establishment of his power sovereign ; their influence and their was beyond their control. France talents were necessary for the erection had reached a crisis, when the abso- of that vast and regular system of lute sway of an individual was ren- administration which was projected ; dered necessary, and perhaps desira- their dissensions, and their venality, ble, even for such as sighed, with rendered them an easy conquest. (lisinterested zeal, after the blessings Under a general view of human naof freedom. Every man of judgment ture, the policy was wise ; for men, had become sensible of the hopeless- who, in the commencement of a ness of their first pursuit: and it reigri, believe themselves suspected, must be needless to suggest, that the would naturally wish to blazon their preponderance of the military, left fidelity; to counteract the prejudice no choice, even of evils, to the civil arising from their character, by parauthority. During the paroxysms of ticular zeal and activity in the disthe revolution, the officers of the charge of their new functions. The army either caught the contagion of event at least, has, in this instance, republican sentiments, or saw the justified this supposition. necessity of professing them ; but Wherever disaffection was openly their allegiance was much more na- expressed, the individual was either turally and readily paid to a victorious exiled into the remote departments, general, than to the bloody phantom or placed under the particular superof a republick.

vision of the police. This plan is

. At the establishment of the consu- still pursued. An austere and jeaiar government, in order to colour lous vigilance is now exercised over

а

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the unreclaimed republicans, and par testable monster might not have been ticularly over the royalists, who are prolonged, had he not driven his owa objects of much greater suspicion and instruments to desperation, by his in. apprehension. Although a system satiable thirst for blood. of intimidation, beyond our powers It is easy to imagine, that the despota of description, is extended over all ism of Buonaparte, notwithstanding the subjects of the empire, the in- the misery of which it must be prostances of studied oppression, or of ductive, must have other supports immoderate rigour, in the civil admi• than that of the military force. We nistration, have certainly been few; cannot find colours sufficiently vivid, much fewer, indeed, than might have to paint the appalling image which been expected, when we consider how the revolution has left in the minds fierce and delirious was the anarchy of the moderate and timid portion of to which this formal and omni. the community. There is a morbid potent despotism has succeeded. sensibility on this head, which astoWithin the last three or four years, nishes even those who give full credit since the leading patriots, either cor- to every disastrous tale of suffering rupted by the fortune, or overawed and barbarity to which this event has by the power, of their new ruler, given birth. For multitudes, therehave consummated their apostacy, his fore, the actual exemption from refavour has been somewhat diverted volutionary massacres and alarms is to those who adhered, as far as the a state of comparative beatitude ; and temper of the revolution would allow, the possibility of their recurrence to the mezzo termine, or whose revo. far more formidable than any existing lutionary career was marked by a de- evil. The minute subdivision of gree of moderation. Some expan- property, which we noticed in a forsion, too, is occasionally permitted to mer number, has created a great those bitter enmities which still ran- body of new proprietaries, who would kle

among the victims and agents of hazard more than they could hope to party violence, and every indulgence gain by any change. The governfor the disclosure of such traits as ment, moreover, has studiously mulserve to aggravate the infamy, and tiplied offices, to a degree highly burelucidate the views of the factions thensome, no doubt, to the people, into which the convention was divided. but which interests in its support, a The policy of indulging, to a certain host of dependants, whose allegiance extent, this war of recrimination, is is secured by present benefits, and obvious, and highly serviceable. The whose zeal is stimulated by the hope prostration of all the adverse parties of future rewards. . The additional is a triumph for each : the humilia- splendour with which the new destion of their adversaries gratifies potism is daily invested; the stately their private hate, and reconciles them affectation and ostentatious pageantry to the evils of their own condition. of the imperial court, are not to be It is worthy of remark, that this ascribed to the workings of mere vafeeling of our nature operated to nity, but to views of profound policy. strengthen even the dominion of By the formation of a numerous Robespierre France, rent and ex- state hierarchy; by lengthening the hausted by the conflicts of the dif- chain of subordination ; by multiferent factions, seemed to be less mi- plying the titles, and dividing the serable under one tyrant, and to re- substance of power; new ties and injoice at a tyranny which was indis- terests are produced, which augment criminately exercised. The royalists the influence and enlarge the foundaappeared grateful for the vengeance

tions of the throne. Such a system which he inflicted on his revolutiona- is every way adapted to the temper ry colleagues; and it is doubtful of the people. The more ceremowhether the savage reign of this de. nious the servitude, the sooner wil.