the fceptre of the Bourbons? No, fire, no: calumny, at leaft, is not abfurd: fhe endeavours to give to her afperfions fome appearance of probability. Your majesty has lately feen your influence over the people: fubordi. nation has been re-established in your distracted capital; the prifoners, liberated by the multitude, have refumed their fetters, of their own accord; and a fingle word from your mouth has restored that public order, which might have coft torrents of blood, had force been employed. But that word was the word of peace: it was the expreffion of your heart, and your fubjects glory in never refifting it. What a noble empire is this! It is that of Lewis IX. of Lewis XII. of Henry IV. It is the only empire that can be worthy of you. We should deceive you, fire, if, compelled by the exigency of affairs, we did not add, that this is the only empire, which it is now poffible to exercife in France. France will never fuffer the best of kings to be deceived, nor to be diverted, by finifter views, from the noble plan which he himself has formed. You have convoked us, in order to fettle, in concert with you, the conftitution, and thus to effect the regeneration of the kingdom. The national affembly appears before you, with the most folemn declaration, that your wifles fhall be accomplished; that your promifes hall not be ineffectual; that neither fnares, nor difficulties, nor terrors, fhall retard its progrefs, nor intimidate its courage. Where then is the danger of the troops our enemies will affect to fay what mean thefe complaints, fince they are inacceffible to difcouragement? The danger, fire, is preffing; it is univerfal, it is beyond all the calculations of human prudence. The danger is great with respect to the people in the country. Once alarmed for our liberty, and it is impoffible to fay what can reftrain them. Distance magnifies and exaggerates every thing, doubles the anxiety of all, and tends ftill more to exafperate and inflame. The danger is great with refpect to the capital. How will the people, funk in wretchednefs, and la bouring under the most cruel fufferings, behold the remnant of their fubfiftence difputed by a multitude of threatening foldiers? The prefence of the troops will exafperate; it will excite infurrection; it will produce an univerfal fermentation ; and the first act of violence, exercifed under the pretext of police, may be the commencement of a dreadful fucceffion of calamities. The danger is great with refpect to the army. French foldiers drawn hither to the centre of difcuffion, participating in the paffions as well as in the interefts of the people, may forget the engagement that made them foldiers, in order to remember that nature had formed them men. The danger, fire, threatens the deliberations which are our first duty, and which will not be crowned with fuccefs, nor acquire the certainty of duration, but in proportion as the people regard them as entirely free. There is, moreover, a contagion in the fallies of paffion. We are but men: diftruft of ourfelves, the fear of appearing weak, may hurry us beyond the mark. We fhall be befieged, moreover, by violent and intemperate counfels; and calm reafon, and tranquil wifdom, deliver not their oracles in the midst of tumultuous and factious fcenes. The (H 3) · The danger, fire, is more dreadful ftill; and judge of its extent by the apprehenfions that bring us be fore you. Great revolutions have had lefs confpicuous caufes: more than one enterprife, fatal to nations, has been announced in a lefs inaufpicious and less formidable manuer, Believe not thofe who fpeak lightly of the nation, and who reprefent it to you, according to their views; fometimes, infolent, rebelli ous, feditious; fometimes fubmiffive, obedient to the yoke, and ready to bend the neck to receive it. Thefe two pictures are equally unfaithful.. Ever ready to obey you, fire, because you govern in the name of the laws, our fidelity is boundless as well as irreproachable. Ready to refift all the arbitrary mandates of thofe who abuse your name, because they are enemies of the laws, our very fidelity commands this refififtance, and we fhall be ever proud to merit the reproaches which our firmnefs may excite. 1 Sire, we conjure you in the name of our country, of our happiness, and of your glory, to fend back your foldiers to the pofts whence your counfellors have drawn them. Send back that artillery deftined to cover your frontiers; fend back, particularly, thofe foreign troops, thofe allies of the nation, whom we pay to defend, not to difturb our dwellings. Your majefty has no occafion for them. Why fhould a king, adored by twenty-five millions of Frenchmen, crowd about his throne, at a great expenfe, fome thoufands of foreigners? Sire, in the midst of your children, be guarded by their love the deputies of the nation are convoked, to confecrate with you the eminent prerogatives of royalty on the immutable foundation of the liberty of the people. But when they fulfil their duty, when they obey the dictates of their reason, the impulfe of their feelings, would you expofe them to the fufpicion of having acted under the influence of terror only? The only pure authority, that authority alone which can never be fhaken, is what our hearts univerfally tender to you. It is the juft return for the bleffings you beftow, and the immortal inheritance of thofe princes, of whom you, fire, will be the model. His Majefty's Anfier. No perfon is ignorant of the diforderly and fcandalous fcenes that. have been repeatedly exhibited at Paris and Verfailles, under my eyes, and thofe of the ftates-generaĺ. It is neceffary that I fhould have recourfe to the means in my power, to reflore and maintain order in the capital and its environs. One of my principal duties is to watch over the public fafety. Thefe are the motives which have induced me to order troops to affemble in the vicinity of Paris. You may affure the affembly of the ftates-general, that they are deftined only to reprefs, or rather to prevent, new difturbances; to preferve good order and the exercise of the laws; to fecure and to protect that very liberty which should reign in your deliberations. Every kind of reftraint fhould be banished from them, as well as every apprehenfion of tumult and violence. None but ill-intentioned perfons could iniflead my people with refpect to the real motives of the preventive measures I have taken. I have conftantly endeavoured to do every thing that could tend to their felicity; and I have ever had reafon to be certain of their affection and their fidelity. If, however, the neceffary prefence of the troops fhould still give umbrage, I fhall confent, at the request request of the affembly, to remove the ftates general to Noyon, or to Soiffons; and then I fhall repair to Compeigne, to preferve the neceffary communication between the affembly and me. Anfver of the King of France to a fecond Deputation on the fame Subject, July 13. I have already declared my intentions refpecting the meafures which the disturbances at Paris have compelled me to take. It belongs to me alone to judge of their neceffity, and I cannot recede from the refolution I have taken. Some towns may guard themselves; but the extert of my capital will not admit a protection of that kind. I doub not the purity of the motives which have induced you to offer me your affiftance in this diftreffing exigency; but your prefence at Paris can be of no fervice: it is neceffary here, in order to accelerate the important affairs which I do not ceafe to recommend to your immediate confideration. Speech of the King of France to the National Affembly, July 15. I have assembled you together, in order to confult on the most import. ant affairs of the ftate; it is a matter that affects me more fenfibly than the tumult which afflicts the capital. The chief of the nation comes with confidence among its reprefentatives to teftify his diftrefs, and invite them to affift in finding the means of restoring public order and tranquillity. I am not ignorant that there are men who have excited the most unjust prejudices, and who have dared to affert that even you had reafon to be apprehen five for your own perfonal fafety. Will it, therefore, be necessary to reaffure you on the subject of reports fo reprehenfible, that they are totally unfounded, and falfify their known character? Indeed, I feel my interest to be the intereft of the nation; I call upon you to aid me at this crifis, for the purpose of preferving the fafety of the state. I depend on the national affembly; and the zeal of the representatives of my people, here convened for the common fafety, will be my fure pledge that I truft not in vain. Relying on the affection and fidelity of n y fubjects, I have ordered the troops to be removed from Paris and Versailles ; and I authorize and even request you to make known this my difpo fition to the capital. Speech of M. Bailly, the new Prevot des Marchands, at Paris, to the King of France, on the Entrance of his Majefty into the Horel de Ville, July 17. I bring your majesty the keys of the good city of Paris; they are the fame that were prefented to Henry IV. He had regained his people; here the people have regained their king. Your majefty comes to rejoice in the peace that you have re-establifhed in your capital; to rejoice in the love of your faithful subjects. It is for their happiness that your majefty has re-affembled the repre fentatives of the nation, and that you are engaged with them in lay ing the foundations of liberty and public profperity. What a memorable day is this, in which your majesty has come to fit as a father in the midft of his re-united fami ly, in which you have been con ducted back to your palace by the (H 4) whole : whole national affembly, guarded by the reprefentatives of the kingdom, furrounded by an immenfe concourse of people. You carried in your auguft countenance the expreffions of fenfibility and happinefs, while around you heard nothing but exclamations of joy, faw nothing but tears of tenderness and love. Sire! neither your people nor your majefty will ever forget this great day it is the happieft of the monarchy, it is the epoch of an auguft and eternal alliance between the monarch and the people. This circumftance, peculiar to your reign, immortalizes your majefty. I have feen this happy day; and, as if all good fortune were referved for me, the first function of the office to which the fuffrages of my fellow-citizens have raised me, is to communicate to your majefty the expreffions of their refpect and of their love. Liancourt, Prefident of the Natio Verfailles, 27th of July, 1789. The ambaffador of England has intreated to have the honour, with: out lofs of time, to communicate the following letter to you. I have thought it fo much lefs in my power to refift his application, as it is certain that he apprized me, verbally, in the beginning of June laft, of a plot against the port of Breft. Thofe who meditated this scheme defired certain fuccours for the expedition, and to have an afylum in England. The ambaffador did not give me any indication relative to the authors of this project, and he affured me that they were abfolutely unknown to him. The enquiries that I have been able to make, after machinations fo uncertain, have been as fruitlefs as expected to be; and I have been obliged to confine myself to engage the count de Luzerne to give the commandant of Breft precautions to double his vigilance and activity. I have the honour to be, &c. His majefly being feated on the throne, M. Bailly prefented him 2 blue and red cockade, the cockade of the militia, which his majesty graciously received, and placed in his hat. When calm was re-eftablifhed, after the joy occafioned by the king's appearance, Mr. Moreau de St. Merry, prefident of the af fembly of the electors of Paris, ad- To the duke of LIAN COUrt. dreffed his majefty; and after ob. ferving how little the people merited the calumniesraised against them, faid, fire, you have nothing more to do than to remember this great and powerful truth, that the thrones of kings are never more firmly fix ed than when they have for a bafis the love and fidelity of the people: with thefe titles they are impreg nable. Paris, the 26th of July, 1789. Sir, It has been communicated to me from divers quarters, that endeavours have been made to infinuate that my court had fomented in part the troubles that have afflicted the capital for fome time paft; that fhe had taken advantage of the prefent opportunity to take up arms against France; and that even a fleet was upon the coaft to co-operate with the difcontented party. Totally deftitute of truth as these rumours are, they appear to me to have reached reached the national affembly: and the Courier National, which gives an account of the fittings of the 23d and 24th of this month, leaves fufpicions which give me fo much more pain, as you know, fir, how far my court, is from deferving them. only to my personal character, but to ' I have the honour to be, &c. Your excellency will call to mind To the count de MONTMORIN. feveral converfations which I had with you in the beginning of June inft, concerning the horrid plot that had been propofed relative to the port of Breft, the anxiety that I felt to put the king and his minifters upon their guard, the anfwer of my court which correfponds fo ftrongly with my fentiments, and which revolts with horror from the propofition that was made.-In fine, the affurances of attachment which it repeated to the king and the nation, enabled you to make known to his majefty how much I participated in the emotion which the treachery must give him. Verfailles, the 27th of July. I have received the letter your excellency has done me the honour of writing to me, as likewife that of the ambalador of England, which was annexed to it, and immediately communicated both one and th other to the national affembly. As my court has infinitely at heart to preferve the good harmony which fubfifts between the two nations, and to remove all contrary fufpicious, I entreat you, fir, to fubmit this letter, without delay, to the prefident of the national affembly. You are aware how effen. tial it is to me to justify my own conduct, and that of my court, and to do my utmost to destroy the effect of the infidious infinuations which have been fo industriously propagated. It is of infinite importance to me that the national affembly should know my fentiments, that they fhould do juftice to thofe of my nation, and the open conduct which fhe has conftantly held toward France, fince I had the honour to be her organ. I have it so much more at heart, that you fhould not lofe a moment in making this known, as I owe not The affembly order me to have the honour of informing you, that they heard them read with the greateft fatisfaction, to thank you for having transmitted them, and to requeft you to be fo good as to exprefs to his excellency the duke of Dorfet their thanks for the anxiety he expreffes in quality of ambaffador, to have his fentiments, and those of his nation, declared to the national affembly. The affembly have refolved, that this letter fhall be sent instantly to Paris, and made public throughout the kingdom, by impreffion. I have the honour to be, &c. To the count de MONTMORIN. Letter from the Count de Montmorin to M. le Chapeliere, Prefident of the National Affembly, inclofing a Second Letter from the Duke of Dorfet. Sir, Verfailles, 4th August. The English ambaffador intreats me again to make known to the national affembly a letter which he has written to me. As this letter is the fequel of that which I had the honour |