honour to communicate to the af- I have the honour to be, &c. To M. le CHAPELIERE. Sir, Paris, Auguft 3, 1789. My court, to which I gave an account of the letter that I had the honour to write to your excellency on the 26th of July, and which you had the goodness to come unicate to the national affembly, has, by a difpatch of the ft ult. which I have received this inftant, not only approved of my conduct, but fpecially authorifed me to exprefs again to you, in the maft pofitive terms, the ardent defire of his Britannic majefty and his minifters, to culti-, vate and encourage the friendship and harmony which fubfifts fo happily between the two nations. It is fo much the more pleafant to me to announce to you thefe renewed affurances of harmony and good understanding, as it cannot fail but that the greateft good must refult from a permanent friendflip between the two nations. And that is to be defired ftill the more, as nothing can contribute fo much to the tranquillity of Europe, as the Co-operation of these two powers. I fhall be obliged to you to communicate to the prefident of the national affembly, this confirmation of the fentiments of the king and his minifters. I have the honour to be, &c. DORSET. To the count de MONTMORIN. Addrefs of the National Affembly of Sire, The national affembly bring to your majefty an offering truly wor thy of your heart. It is a monument raifed by the patriotism and generofity of all your people. The privileges, the particular rights, the diftinétions injurious to the public good, have difappeared. Provinces, cities, ecek fiaftic, nobles, commons, all have, in noble emulation, made the most noble facrifices. All have abandoned their ancient ufages, even with more joy than vanity itfelf ver ardently claimed them. You fee n he now before you, fire, but Frenchmen obedient to the fame laws, governed by the fame pinciples, penetrated by the fame fentiments, and all equally ready to give up life for the inter-fts of the nation, and of their king. Shall not this fpirit, fo noble and pure, be yet more animated by the expr: ffion of your confidence, by the affecting promife of that confiant and amicable harmony, which till now but few of our kings have afcertained to their fubjects, but which your majefty feels that Frenchmen fo truly deferve. Your choice, fire, orers to the nation minifters that they them-. felves prefented to you. It is from among the depofitories of the public interefts that you have chofen the depofitories of your authority. You are defirous that the national affembly fhould unite itfelf with your majefty for the re-establishment of public order and general tranquillity. You facrifice to the good of the people your perfonal pleafures. Accept then, fire, our refpectful acknowledgment, the homage of our love,, and bear in all ages, the only title that can add to the dignity of royal najefty, the title that our unanimous acclama tions have deereed you." The Re- ready to contend, belong equally to ftorer of French liberty." His Majefly's Answer. I accept with gratitude, the title I accept with gratitude, the title you confer. It correfponds with the motives by which I was directed, when I affembled the reprefentatives of my nation. It is my wifh, in the mean time, to fecure, with your allittance, the public liberty, by the restoration of order and tranquillity, fo neceffary at prefent. From your knowledge and intentions, I look forward with confidence to the refult of your delibe. rations. Let us go and addrefs our pray ers to Almighty God to grant us his affiftance, and to return thanks for the generous fentiments that reign in our affembly. The Speech of Monfieur Rabaud de Saint Etienne, a Proteftant Minfier, and one of the Deputies in the National Alembly of France, on Thursday, the 27th of Auguft, 1789, on the Quellion, "Whether any Perfon ought either to be moleft ted on Account of his Religious Opinions, or debarred from his Adherence to that Form of Worship of which he most approves? I rife, as the delegate of a numerous and refpectable body of conftituents. The bailiwick which I have the honour to reprefent contains five hundred thousand inhabitants, amongst whom one hundred and twenty thousand are Proteftants; and, in this multitude I have the pleafure to be included. They have inftructed me to ask for an impartial code; and, upon this occafion, I am confident that I can unanfwerably establish the juftice and the propriety of their requeft. The rights which I claim, and in the fupport of which I am, now, you and to ourselves. They are The laft edict which profeffes to be in favour of those who are not within the pale of the catholic church, grants to them only fuch indulgences as it was impoffible to refufe. This is, word for word, word, the language of the king, who, in his edict, uses these terms : "I fpeak of the right of legalifing their marriages and their baptifms, and of the permiffion to bury their dead." O humiliating conceffions! O degraded Frenchmen! and is it in this enlightened country, and during the eighteenth century, that the nation remains divided into two claffes, one of which has long groaned under prefcriptions fhocking in the extreme? I will fpeak out at once, and tell this affembly, that the pretended gift of the laft year was received with fhame and with concern. We scorn to prove guilty of hypocrify at leaft, we will not degrade ourselves into the objects of your difdain; but, if it be our hard fate ftill to experience your jealoufy and your perfecution, we will maintain unfullied the true principle of French honour, one great criterion of which is a contempt for that diffimulation which would debafe the intention of the legiflature. We do not folicit favours; we afk only for juftice: and, doubtlefs, that impartial liberty which reigns in this affembly will never fuffer juftice to be difpenfed by partial diftributions. The proteftants are, all, for their country; and, yet, this country has not granted to them any benefits: they have no motive to excite their emulation; nor are they permitted to enjoy the rewards of either their civil or their military virtues. It is not for toleration that I plead: (as to intolerance, that favage word, I hope that it is expunged, for ever, from our aunals). Toleration fuggefts the idea of pity, which de grades the dignity of man; but liberty ought to be the fame in favour of all the world. I demand liberty for thofe profcribed people; for those wretched wanderers, from place to place, over the whole furface of the globe; for these numer ous victims to humiliation: I mean the perfecuted Jews. It may, perhaps, be answered, that the ftates which furround you have an exception to those who do not profefs the religion of the majority. Natives of France! you were made, not to receive, but to afford examples. And, yet, if you delight in imitation, copy the Americans!-They have excepted no perfon whatfoever. The follower of that kind of religion which inculcates the true priciples of liberty, is entitled to enjoy all the facred privileges which are attached to human nature. But, I return to my principles, or, rather, to your own, when I declare that all men are born and remain free. Is not this the proper confecration of the liberty of the human race? Every exclufive privilege in matters of religion deftroys your principles. Your law is only the law which the ftrongest arm maintains: and, could I not, for the purposes of juftifying an act of difobedience, avail myfelf, against your own authority, of thofe very principles which have fo ftrongly marked the recent regulation of your conduct? A long and bloody epoch has made us learn experience. Is it not, therefore, full time totally to demolish those abominable barriers which feparate man from man; which ditunite the French from the French? My country is free! let her difcover that the merits this felicity by equally dividing her privileges aniongft all her children! Until the conftitution fhall have established that equality which I demand, I vote entirely in favour of the propofition of Monfieur de Caftellane: that that no perfon fhould be either molested on account of his religious opinions, or debarred from an adherence to that form of worship of which he most approves! The Declaration of Rights, which has been agreed to by the National Af fembly of France, and fanctioned by the King, and which forms the Bafis of the new Conftitution of France. The reprefentatives of the people of France, formed into a national affembly, confidering that ignorance, neglect, or contempt of human rights, are the fole caufes of public misfortunes and corruptions of government, have refolved to let forth in a folemn declaration, thefe natural, imprefcriptible, and unalienable rights: that this declaration being conftantly prefent to the minds of the members of the body focial, they may be ever kept attentive to their rights and their duties: that the acts of the legislative and executive powers of government being capable of being every moment compared with the end of political inftitutions, may be more refpected; and alfo, that the future claims of the citizens, being directed by fimple and inconteftible principles, may always tend to the maintenance of the conftitution, and the general happiness. For thefe reafons the national afsembly doth recognize and declare, in the prefence of the fupreme Being and with the hope of his bleffing and favour, the following facred rights of men and of citizens. I. Men weie born and always continue free, and equal in refpect of their rights. Civil diftinctions, therefore, can be founded only on puelic utility. II. The end of all political affo ciations is the prefervation of the natural and imprefcriptible rights of man; and thefe rights are liberty, property, fecurity, and resistance, of oppreffion. III. The nation is effentially the fource of all fovereignty; nor can any individual, or any body of men, be entitled to any authority which is not exprefsly derived from it. IV. Political liberty confifts in the power of doing whatever does not injure another. The exercise of the natural rights of every man, has no other limits than thofe which are neceffary to fecure to every other man the free exercife of the fame rights; and thefe limits are determinable only by the law. V. The law ought to prohibit only actions hurtful to fociety. What is not prohibited by the law fhould not be hindered; nor fhould any one be compelled to that which the law does not require. VI. The law is an expreffion of the will of the community. All citizens have a right to concur, either perfonally or by their reprefentatives, in its formation, It should be the fame to all, whether it protects or punishes; and all being equal in its fight, are equally eligible to all honours, places, and employments, according to their different abilities, without any other diftinction than that created by their virtues and talents. VII. No man fhould be accufed, arrefted, or held in confinement, except in cafes determined by the law, and according to the forms which it has prefcribed. All who promote, folicit, execute, or caufe to be executed, arbitrary orders, ought to be punished: and every citizen called upon or apprehended by virtue of the law, ought immediately to obey, and renders himself culpable by refiftance. VIII. The VIII. The law ought to impofe no other penalties than fuch as are abfolutely and evidently neceffary; and no one ought to be punished but in virtue of a law promulgated before the offence, and legally applied. IX. Every man being prefumed innocent till he has been convicted, whenever his detention becomes indifpenfable, all rigour to him, more than is neceflary to fecure his perfon, ought to be provided againft by the law. X. No man ought to be molefted on account of his opinions, not even on account of his religious opinions, provided his avowal of them does not difturb the public order established by the law. XI.The unrestrained communication of thoughts and opinions being one of the most precious rights of man, every citizen may fpeak, write, and publifh freely, provided he is refponfible for the abufe of this liberty in cafes determined by the law. XII. A public force being neceffary to give fecurity to the rights of men and of citizens, that force is instituted for the benefit of the community, and not for the particular benefit of the persons to whom it is entrusted. XIII. A common contribution be ing necessary for the support of the public force, and for defraying the other expences of government, it ought to be divided equally among the members of the community, according to their abilities. XIV. Every citizen has a right, either by himself or his reprefentative, to a free voice in determining the neceffity of public contributions, the appropriation of them, and their amount, mode of affeffinent, and duration. XV. Every community has a right to demand of all its agents an account of their conduct. XVI. Every community in which a feparation of powers and a fecurity of rights is not provided for, wants a conftitution. XVII. The right to property being inviolable and facred, no one ought to be deprived of it, except in cafes of evident public neceflity legally afcertained, and on condition of a previous juft indemnity. Proceedings of the Revolution Society of London, Nov. 4. At the anniversary meeting of the Society for commemorating the Revolution in Great Britain, held at the London Tavern, Nov. 4.- 789, Dr Price moved, and it was unanimoufly refolved, that the following congratulatory addrefs to the National Aflembly of France, be tranfmitted to them, figned by the chair man: The fociety for commemorating the Revolution in Great Britain, difdaining national partialities, and rejoicing in every triumph of liberty and juftice over arbitrary power, offer to the national affembly of France their congratulations on the revolution in that country, and on the profpect it gives to the two first kingdoms in the world, of a common participation in the bleffings of civil and religious liberty. They cannot help adding their ardent wishes of a happy fettlement of fo important a revolution, and at the fame time expreffing the particular fatisfaction, with which they reflect on the tendency of the glorious example given in France to encourage other nations to affert the unalienable rights of mankind, and thereby to introduce a general reformation in the governments of Europe, |