Paris, destined for the scaffold, from which she was faved by the death of Robespierre. There are feveral other curious circumftances in the story; but we forbear from ftating them at prefent, recommending to Mifs Williams, who may have better means of afcertaining the truth, to infert it in her next work, as a specimen of the honesty and humanity of modern philanthropists.

ART. V. Hiftoire générale et impartiale des Erreurs, des Fauts, et des Crimes, commis pendant la Révolution Française. Par L. Prudhomme. Six Volumes. 8vo. Paris, 1797.

THIS

HIS work is one of the moft fingular that have perhaps ever appeared. The author is well known to thofe, who are familiar with the early part of the French revolution. He was the intimate friend of Camille Demouflins, the Attorney General of the Lamp-poft. From 1789 to 1793, he published an incendiary journal, called "the Revolutions of Paris," which rivalled the productions of Marat and Hebert in ferocity and democratical phrenzy. How he efcaped under the reign of Robespierre, he has not explained. He now lays before the public a very full account of thofe crimes which arofe from the principles which he formerly contributed to spread, and (what is yet more extraordinary) which he ftill profeffes to hold. The prefent work, like his former productions, is utterly void of all literary merit. It is unmethodical, ungrammatical, and abounds with words that are not French. But his ftyle poffeffes a fort of coarse vigour, which eafily accounts for its effect on the vulgar. He has not renounced any of his demagogical abfurdities. He neglects all confiftency, being in one article reafonable and humane, in another abfurd and furious, on the very fame topics. His declamations are infufferably tedious. But with all these defects, the merit of this work, as a collection of facts, is very great. It is the most complete difplay which has yet been given of the guilt and mifery which has prevailed in France fince the regenerating year 1789. No other writer has fo completely laid open the interior of that horrible dungeon, which ignorance and villainy have painted to

It forms a peculiarly excellent comment on the palliations of French enormities, published by Mifs Williams, and therefore we are happy to place them together.

foreign

foreign nations as a temple of liberty. The truth of his ftatements cannot be difputed. They are in general founded on the republican ftate papers themfelves. Where they have not that fupport, they are fo precife in names, dates, and circumstances, that it would be eafy to contradict them if they were false; and as they are uncontradicted by those who had the greatest intereft to contradict them, we must conclude that they are true. Nor would the ordinary allowance for exaggeration much affect the general refult in fuch a vaft body of crimes. It would amount to little more than the error of a few miles in a calculation of the distance of a fixed star. And as a further fupport of this writer's veracity, it is to be remembered, that he is always a witnefs against those democratical opinions which he himself ftill entertains. Upon the whole, the facts of this collection will be very valuable to the hiftorian; and if some fenfible man were to feparate them from the declamations, they might at prefent be made useful for undeceiving fome of the ignorant worshippers of French liberty.

Our limits will admit only a very thort summary of so voiuminous a work. The two first volumes consist of a dictionary of perfons condemned to death during the revolution. The lift is confelfedly very imperfect, for it was utterly impoffible to collect the names of all those who were put to death by the revolutionary tribunals, military commiffions, &c. who filled every village in France. But imperfect as it is, and exclufive of aflaffination and massacre without forms, this lift of judicial murders amounts to 12,000! Be it remembered, that every one of these TWELVE THOUSAND CONDEMNATIONS was for a pretended state crime, and that not one had any relation to any of the ordinary of-. fences that disturb fociety. If we add the colonies, which are not included in this lift, and thofe obfcure condemnations which no industry could collect, the number of pretended ftate criminals put to death cannot be less than 20,000! the whole of whom perifhed within fix years, and the far greater part within two. Let the apologifts of the French Revolution produce any fact like this in hiftory. After fo horrible a catalogue, it is no wonder that even this writer begins his third volume with the following words: "I have dared-Let the impartial read— They will be convinced of the neceffity of no longer revolutionizing." The third volume contains a narrative of the crimes committed under the government of the Conftituent Affembly during a period celebrated by the advocates of France, as the peaceful reign of philofophy and humanity. It appears that under thefe philofophic lawgivers there were at leaft 3500 perfons affaffinated or maffacred (independent of the judicial murders) during a period of less than two years and a half;

that

that among these, there were twelve women and TWENTYTWO CHILDREN; and that there are judicial proofs of the murder of many of them having been attended with circumftances of cannibalism, which we have too much respect for the feelings of our readers to attempt to ftate. To complete our idea of this philofophical government, we have only to add, that not one of thefe THREE THOUSAND murders was punished. This impunity is not, however, to be ascribed to the inactivity of the Affembly. For, during the fame period, they detected fixty-fix pretended royalift confpirac es, and paffed 2,557 laws. It is almoft unnecessary to speak of inferior crimes. As a fpecimen of them, however, we may state, that in one fmall province of France (the Maçonnais) during the month of Auguft, 1789, feventy country feats were burnt! Such then was the condition of France during the golden age of the revolution, before the genius of liberty had been exafperated by any foreign war; fuch were the crimes perpetrated at a period, when they could be afcribed to no cause but to the anarchical and immoral maxims of the new philofophy, and o the wickedness of thofe governors who were thoroughly imbued with that deteftable fyftem. This period of the French Revolution is of great importance to the formation of a right judgment of the tendency of what is now called philofophy. A fair experiment was then made on its principles. They were unmixed in their operation with any other caufe. They were undisturbed by any foreign force. They produced, in thirty months, THREE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED UNPUNISHED MURDERS, Committed on political pretexts, by private individuals, without any fhow of judicial forms. A refult unparalleled in the hiftory of the weakest government in the moft barbarous age or country of the world. After fuch a refult, we cannot but congratulate those gentlemen who still boaft of their adherence to the original principles of the French Re

volution.

The fourth volume contains the crimes of the fecond, or Legislative Affembly. It is not very neceffary to enlarge on this part of the fubject, as there are not many Englishmen, at leaft among those who can read, who carry their infatuation or effrontery fo far, as to profefs any reverence for that banditti who difgraced the name of a Legislative Affembly. As there are ftill, however, a few who admire the Briffatins, and who reverence the memory of the virtuous Roland and his immaculate wife, it may be fit to apprize them of the true character of the objects of their worship. During the eleven months' reign of the Brissotin faction who prevailed in the Aflembly, called Le

giflative,

giflative, 8,000 perfons were affaffinated or malfacred*, exclufive of those who fell in war, or who were put to death under judicial forms by pretended tribunals. Far from punithing any one of thefe EIGHT THOUSAND MURDERS perpetrated within eleven months, the philanthropic faction of the Brifftins, after long investigation, and with a full knowledge of the facts, pardoned the affaffins of the Glaciere of Avignon, whom they afterwards brought to Paris to be employed in the butchery of the 10th of Auguft.

The fifth and fixth volumes are employed on the crimes of the National Convention. Here the infinite multitude bids defiance to calculation. A few well-attefted examples will give fome faint idea of the whole. The crimes of Carrier are among the best authenticated of the Revolution, because he underwent a long trial, in the course of which his atrocities were fully and minutely proved. During his miffion at Nantz, it appeared that he ordered to be fhot or drowned 32,000 perfons within the fpace of four or five months; of whom, 264 women and 500 children were fhot, 500 women and 1,500 children were drowned! In the unhappy city of Lyons, 1,674 houses were demolished, and about 31,000 perfons of all ages and fexes put to death. One of the deputies in million to that wretched city was Fouché; now Bonaparte's minifter of police, whofe anti-chamber muft fuggeft many pleafing recollec tions to the furviving merchants of Lyons, who may be oblige d. to attend his levees for the protection of what yet remains of their commerce. It is ufelefs to pursue this detail of blood. any further. If we had not already done enough, we should have laid before our readers the hiftory of Tallien, who has, it feems, accumulated an immenfe fortune from the spoils of those whom he caused to be murdered, and from the bribes of those to whom he fold their lives; and who, after having proceeded from the mallacres of Paris to the mallacres of Bourdeaux, and from the malfacres of Bourdeaux to the maffacres of Quiberon, was at length received by perfons of confiderable ftation in England, as a foreigner entitled to respect and hofpitality from the Englith nation! Upon the whole, the number of perfons who perifhed by affaffination and maffacre, under the National Convention, is ftated by this writer to be about.

The maffacres in the prifons of Paris, in the first week of September, 1792, are in Prudhomme's calculation taken at 1400. Much more accurate accounts make them 40co. Prudhomme had an interest to understate them, for he had praised them in his Journal when they were committed.

100,000

100.000 in Europe, and in the Colonies * 14,000 whites. In La Vendee, which was too bloody not to form a separate article, the whole number of human beings deftroyed is fuppofed by him to be 900,000. To fuppofe that 800,000 of these perifhed in the field of battle, or in the heat of purfuit, is a very large calculation. One hundred thousand perfons, therefore, may reasonably be fuppofed to have been put to death in cold blood in La Vendée, befides thofe who fuffered by the judgment of pretended tribunals. The general refult therefore is, that

THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE THOUSAND PERSONS

were put to death in France without any form of trial, and not in battle or purfuit; confequently in the way which the judgment and feelings of all mankind acknowledge to be MURDER; that a very great proportion of this vaft multitude of human beings murdered, were old men, women, and children; that a majority of them were members of thofe unarmed and inoffenfive profeffions, who are even fpared by the humanity of civilized war; that many of thefe murders were aggravated by the most favage cannibalism; that all these cruel and ag. gravated murders are ftill unpunished, and fome of their inftigators are now in stations of great power under the prefent French government; and that the whole of this unparalleled flaughter paffed within fix years and a half, between the aft of May, 1789, and the 1st of October, 1795.

We cannot conclude this horrible, but inftructive furvey, without again expreffing our with that this book may be abridged, which may be done without much labour, by the omiffion of the impertinent and infufferable declamations with which it abounds, that the facts which it contains may warn all nations against the arts of those whofe language is liberty and humanity, but whofe object is tyranny and murder.

ART. VI. Poems. By George Dyer. 8vo. 7s. Longman and Rees. 1801.

WE E have borne frequent and willing teftimony to the poetical taste and talents of Mr. Dyer. To many of his fentiments we avow the most open and direct hoftility, but we are nevertheless zealous to do him ample justice. This volume

Those who read Mr. B. Edwards's account of St. Domingo, will not think this calculation exaggerated,