what has been observed elsewhere. It does not in the least resemble any other country. Analogical reasoning from history or from recent experience in other places is wholly delusive. In my opinion there never was seen so strong a government internally as that of the French municipalities. If ever any rebellion can arise against the present system, it must begin, where the Revolution which gave birth to it did, at the capital. Paris is the only place in which there is the least freedom of intercourse. But even there, so many servants as any man has, so many spies and irreconcilable domestick enemies. Gentlemen are But that place being the chief seat fugitives. of the power and intelligence of the ruling faction, and the place of occasional resort for their fiercest spirits, even there a revolution is not likely to have any thing to feed it. The leaders of the aristocratick party have been drawn out of the kingdom by order of the princes, on the hopes held out by the emperour and the king of Prussia at Pilnitz; and as to the democratick factions in Paris, amongst them there are no leaders possessed of an influence for any other purpose but that of maintaining the present state of things. The moment they are seen to warp, they are reduced to nothing. They have no attached armyno party that is at all personal. of Spain, the king of Sardinia, and the republik of Berne, are very diligent in using defensive measures. If they were to guard against an invasion from France, the merits of this plan of a merely defezsive resistance might be supported by plaus topicks; but as the attack does not operate aga these countries externally, but by an internal cor ruption (a sort of dry rot); they, who pursue the merely defensive plan, against a danger which plan itself supposes to be serious, cannot possia escape it. For it is in the nature of all defensive measures to be sharp and vigorous under the pressions of the first alarm, and to relax by a grees; until at length the danger, by not operatio instantly, comes to appear as a false alarm; s much so that the next menacing appearance look less formidable, and will be less provided against. But to those who are on the offensive! is not necessary to be always alert. Possibly: more their interest not to be so. For their unseen attacks contribute to their success. In the mean time a system of French conspiracy is gaining ground in every country. This system happening to be founded on principles the most delusive inde but the most flattering to the natural propens of the unthinking multitude, and to the spect tions of all those who think, without thinking profoundly, must daily extend its influence predominant inclination towards it appears. those who have no religion, when otherwise the disposition leads them to be advocates even despotism. Hence Hume, though I cannot = that he does not throw out some expressi disapprobation on the proceedings of the leve in the reign of Richard the Second, yet affirms the doctrines of John Ball were “conforma "the ideas of primitive equality, which are graven in the hearts of all men." It is not to be imagined because a political system is, under certain aspects, very unwise in its contrivance, and very mischievous in its effects, that it therefore can have no long duration. Its very defects may tend to its stability, because they are agreeable to its nature. The very faults in the constitution of Poland made it last; the veto which destroyed all its energy preserved its life. What can be conceived so monstrous as the republick of Algiers? and that no less strange republick of the Mamalukes in Egypt? They are of the worst form imaginable, and exercised in the worst" manner, yet they have existed as a nuisance on the earth for several hundred years. From all these considerations, and many more that crowd upon me, three conclusions have long since arisen in my mind First, that no counter-revolution is Conclusions. to be expected in France, from internal causes solely. Secondly, that the longer the present system exists, the greater will be its strength; the greater its power to destroy discontents at home, and to resist all foreign attempts in favour of these dis contents. Thirdly, that as long as it exists in France, it will be the interest of the managers there, and it is in the very essence of their plan, to disturb and distract all other governments, and their endless succession of restless politicians will continually stimulate them to new attempts. Proceeding of Princes are generally sensible that princes; de- this is their common cause; and two fensive plans. of them have made a publick declaration of their opinion to this effect. Against this common danger, some of them, such as the king The Fran party сотро Boldness formerly was not the characte atheists as such. They were even of a chara nearly the reverse: they were formerly like 'old Epicureans, rather an unenterprising But of late they are grown active, designing, bulent, and seditious. They are sworn ener kings, nobility, and priesthood. We have see the academicians at Paris, with Condorcet. = friend and correspondent of Priestley, at head, the most furious of the extravagant re licans. The late Assembly, after the last captivity of the king, had actually chosen this Condorcet by a majority in the ba for preceptor to the dauphin, who was to be out of the hands and direction of his parents to be delivered over to this fanatick athes furious democratick republican. His urs • bility to these leaders, and his figure in the of jacobins, which at that time they w bring under, alone prevented that part arrangement, and others in the same style, being carried into execution. Whilst he was didate for this office he produced his title t promulgating the following ideas of the title of his royal pupil to the crown. In a paper written by him, and published with his name, against the reestablishment, even of the appearance of monarchy under any qualifications, he says: "Jusqu'à ce "moment ils [l'Assemblée Nationale] n'ont rien "préjugé encore. En se reservant de nommer un gouverneur au dauphin, ils n'ont pas proDoctrine of "noncé que cet enfant dût regner; the French. "mais seulement qu'il étoit possible que la constitution l'y destinat; ils ont voulu que l'éducation, effaçant tout ce que les prestiges du Trône ont pu lui inspirer de préjugés sur les droits prétendus de sa naissance, qu'elle lui fit connoître de bonne heure, et l'Egalité 'naturelle des hommes, et la Souveraineté du * peuple; qu'elle lui apprit à ne pas oublier que 'c'est du peuple qu'il tiendra le titre de roi, et que le peuple n'a pas même le droit de renoncer à celui de l'en depouiller. 16 16 "Ils ont voulu que cette éducation le rendit 'également digne, par ses lumières, et ses vertus, 'de recevoir avec resignation, le fardeau dange'reux d'une couronne, ou de la déposer avec joie entre le mains de ses frères, qu'il sentit que le devoir, et la gloire du roi d'un peuple libre, est de háter le moment de n'être plus qu'un citoyen 'ordinaire. All former attempts, grounded on these rights of men, had proved unfortunate. The success of this last makes a mighty difference in the effect of the doctrine. Here is a principle of a nature, to the multitude, the most seductive, always existing before their eyes, as a thing feasible in practice. After so many failures, such an enterprise, previous to the French experiment, carried ruin to the contrivers, on the face of it; and if any enthusiast was so wild as to wish to engage in a scheme of that nature, it was not easy for him to find followers now there is a party almost in all countries, ready made, animated with success, with a sure ally in the very centre of Europe. There is no cabal so obscure in any place, that they do not protect, cherish, foster, and endeavour to raise it into importance at home and abroad. From the lowest, this intrigue will creep up to the highest. Ambition, as well as enthusiasm, may find its account in the party and in the principle. ministers. The ministers of other kings, like Character of those of the king of France, (not one of whom was perfectly free from this guilt, and some of whom were very deep in it,) may themselves be the persons to foment such a disposition and such a faction. Hertzberg, the king of Prussia's late minister, is so much of what is called a philosopher, that he was "Ils ont voulu que l'inutilité d'un roi, la né- of a faction with that sort of politicians in 'cessité de chercher les moyens de remplacer un every thing, and in every place. Even when he pouvoir fondé sur les illusions, fut une des pre- defends himself from the imputation of giving mières vérités offertes à sa raison; l'obligation extravagantly into these principles, he still cond'y concourir luimême un des premières devoirs siders the Revolution of France as a great publick de sa morale; et le desir de n'être plus affran- good, by giving credit to their fraudulent declachi du joug de la loi, par une injurieuse invio-ration of their universal benevolence, and love of labilité, le premier sentiment de son cœur. Ils n'ignorent pas que dans ce moment il s'agit bien moins de former un roi que de lui apprendre à savoir, à vouloir ne plus l'être."* Such are the sentiments of the man who has ocasionally filled the chair of the National Assemly, who is their perpetual secretary, their only anding officer, and the most important by far. de leads them to peace or war. He is the great eme of the republican faction in England. hese ideas of M. Condorcet, are the principles of hose to whom kings are to entrust their successors, nd the interests of their succession. This man ould be ready to plunge the poniard in the heart f his pupil, or to whet the axe for his neck. Of I men, the most dangerous is a warm, hot-headed, alous atheist. This sort of man aims at domion, and his means are, the words he always has his mouth," L'égalité naturelle des hommes, et la souveraineté du peuple." Until now, they (the National Assembly) have prejudged thing Reserving to themselves a right to appoint a precep to the dauphin, they did not declare that this child was to n, but only that possibly the constitution might destine him it they willed that while education should efface from his and all the prejudices arising from the delusions of the throne specting his pretended birth-right, it should also teach him t to forget, that it is from the people he is to receive the title of g and that the people do not even possess the right of giving up ir power to take it from him. They willed that this education should render him worthy his knowledge, and by his virtues, both to receive with mission the dangerous burden of a crown, and to resign it peace. Nor are his Prussian majesty's present ministers at all disinclined to the same system. Their ostentatious preamble to certain late edicts demonstrates (if their actions had not been sufficiently explanatory of their cast of mind) that they are deeply infected with the same distemper of dangerous, because plausible, though trivial and shallow speculation. Ministers, turning their backs on the reputation which properly belongs to them, aspire at the glory of being speculative writers. The duties of these two situations are, in general, directly opposite to each other. Speculators ought to be neutral. A minister cannot be so. He is to support the interest of the publick as connected with that of his master. He is his master's trustee, advocate, attorney, and steward—and he is not to indulge in any speculation which contradicts that character, or even detracts from its efficacy. Necker had an extreme thirst for this with pleasure into the hands of his brethren: that he should be conscious that the hastening of that moment when he is to be only a common citizen constitutes the duty and the glory of a free people. They willed that the uselessness of a king, the necessity of seeking means to establish something in lieu of a power founded on illusions, should be one of the first truths offered to his reason; the obligation of conforming himself to this, the first of his moral duties; and the desire of no longer being freed from the yoke of the law, by an injurious inviolability, the first and chief sentiment of his heart. They are not ignorant that in the present moment the object is less to form a king than to teach him that he should know how to wish no longer to be such, sort of glory; so had others; and this pursuit of a misplaced and misunderstood reputation was one of the causes of the ruin of these ministers, and of their unhappy master. The Prussian ministers in foreign courts have (at least not long since) talked the most democratick language with regard to France, and in the most unmanaged terms. Corps diplo- The whole corps diplomatique, with matique. very few exceptions, leans that way. What cause produces in them a turn of mind, which at first one would think unnatural to their situation, it is not impossible to explain. The discussion would however be somewhat long and somewhat invidious. The fact itself is indisputable, however they may disguise it to their several courts. This disposition is gone to so very great a length in that corps, in itself so important, and so important as furnishing the intelligence which sways all cabinets, that if princes and states do not very speedily attend with a vigorous controul to that source of direction and information, very serious evils are likely to befall them. Sovereigns tions. But indeed kings are to guard their disposi- against the same sort of dispositions in themselves. They are very easily alienated from all the higher orders of their subjects, whether civil or military, laick or ecclesiastical. It is with persons of condition that sovereigns chiefly come into contact. It is from them that they generally experience opposition to their will. It is with their pride and impracticability, that princes are most hurt; it is with their servility and baseness, that they are most commonly disgusted; it is from their humours and cabals, that they find their affairs most frequently troubled and distracted. But of the common people, in pure monarchical governments, kings know little or nothing; and therefore being unacquainted with their faults, (which are as many as those of the great, and much more decisive in their effects when accompanied with power,) kings generally regard them with tenderness and favour, and turn their eyes towards that description of their subjects, particularly when hurt by opposition from the higher orders. It was thus that the king of France (a perpetual example to all sovereigns) was ruined. I have it from very sure information (and indeed it was obvious enough from the measures which were taken previous to the assembly of the states, and afterwards,) that the king's counsellors had filled him with a strong dislike to his nobility, his clergy, and the corps of his magistracy. They represented to him, that he had tried them all severally, in several ways, and found them all untractable. That he had twice called an assembly, (the notables,) composed of the first men of the clergy, the nobility, and the magistrates; that he had himself named every one member in those assemblies, and that, though so picked out, he had not, in this their collective state, found them more disposed to a compliance with his will than they had been separately. That there remained for him, with the least prospect of advantage to his authority in the states general, which were to be composed of the same sorts of men, but not chosen by him, only the tiers état. In this alone he could repose any hope of extrcating himself from his difficulties, and of setting him in a clear and permanent authority. Ther represented, (these are the words of one of my formants,)"That the royal authority compressed "with the weight of these aristocratick bodas, "full of ambition, and of faction, when once unloaded, would rise of itself, and occupy it "natural place without disturbance or control: that the common people would protect, cherish. and support, instead of crushing it. 'The per 66 66 ple" (it was said) "could entertain no objects "of ambition;" they were out of the road intrigue and cabal; and could possibly have a other view than the support of the mild and pe rental authority by which they were invested, ir the first time collectively, with real importance the state, and protected in their peaceable and useful employments. This unfortunate king (not without King of a large share of blame to himself) France was deluded to his ruin by a desire to humble and reduce his nobility, clergy, and his corpora magistracy; not that I suppose he meant whoi to eradicate these bodies, in the manner since effected by the democratick power; I rather b lieve that even Necker's designs did not go to the extent. With his own hand, however, Louis XVIth pulled down the pillars which upheld is throne; and this he did, because he could s bear the inconveniences which are attached >> every thing human; because he found his cooped up, and in durance, by those limits whe nature prescribes to desire and imagination; & was taught to consider as low and degrade, I that mutual dependence which Providence ordained that all men should have on one anothe He is not at this minute perhaps cured of dread of the power and credit likely to be acques by those who would save and rescue him. leaves those who suffer in his cause to their f and hopes by various, mean, delusive intrigues in which I am afraid he is encouraged f abroad, to regain, among traitors and rega the power he has joined to take from his o family, whom he quietly sees proscribed be his eyes, and called to answer to the lowest of s rebels, as the vilest of all criminals. Emperat It is to be hoped that the emperour may be taught better things by this fatal example. But it is sure that he has adve who endeavour to fill him with the ideas wat have brought his brother-in-law to his pres situation. Joseph the Second was far gone in philosophy, and some, if not most, who serve emperour, would kindly initiate him into all e mysteries of this free-masonry. They would suade him to look on the National Assembly 4 with the hatred of an enemy, but with the jeal of a rival. They would make him destros doing, in his own dominions, by a royal despotism what has been done in France by a democrats I their plan with regard to the French nation. believe that the chiefs of the Revolution (those who led the constituting assembly) have contrived, as far as they can do it, to give the emperour satisfaction on this head. He keeps a continual tone and posture of menace to secure this his only point. But it must be observed, that he all along grounds his departure from the engagement at Pilnitz to the princes, on the will and actions of the king and the majority of the people, without any regard to the natural and constitutional orders of the state, or to the opinions of the whole house of Bourbon. Though it is manifestly under the constraint of imprisonment and the fear of death, that this unhappy man has been guilty of all those humilities which have astonished mankind, the advisers of the emperour will consider nothing but the physical person of Louis, which, even in his present degraded and infamous state, they regard as of sufficient authority to give a compleat sanction to the persecution and utter ruin of all his family, and of every person who has shewn any degree of attachment or fidelity to him, or to his cause; as well as competent to destroy the whole ancient constitution and frame of the French monarchy. Rather than abandon such enterprises, they would persuade him to a strange alliance between those extremes. Their grand object being now, as in his brother's time, at any rate to destroy the higher orders, they think he cannot compass this end, as certainly he cannot, without elevating the lower. By depressing the one and by raising the other, they hope in the first place to encrease his treasures and his army; and with these common instruments of royal power they flatter him that the democracy which they help, in his name, to create, will give him but little trouble. In defiance of the freshest experience, which might shew him that old impossibilities are become modern probabilities, and that the extent to which evil principles may go, when left to their own operation, is beyond the power of calculation, they will endeavour to persuade him that such a democracy is a thing which cannot subsist by itself; that in whose hands soever the military command is placed, he must be, in the necessary course of affairs, sooner or later the master; and that, being the master of various unconnected countries, he may keep them all in order by employing a military force, which to each of them is foreign. This maxim too, however formerly plausible, will not now hold water. This The present policy, therefore, of the Austrian scheme is full of intricacy, and may cause him politicians is to recover despotism through demoevery where to lose the hearts of his people. | cracy; or, at least, at any expence, every where These counsellors forget that a corrupted army to ruin the description of men who are every where was the very cause of the ruin of his brother-in- the objects of their settled and systematick averlaw; and that he is himself far from secure from sion, but more especially in the Netherlands. a similar corruption. Compare this with the emperour's refusing at first. Instead of reconciling himself heart- all intercourse with the present powers in France, ily and bona fide according to the with his endeavouring to excite all Europe against most obvious rules of policy to the states of Bra- them, and then, his not only withdrawing all bant, as they are constituted, and who in the pre-assistance and all countenance from the fugitives sent state of things stand on the same foundation with the monarchy itself, and who might have been gained with the greatest facility, they have advised him to the most unkingly proceeding which, either in a good or in a bad light, has ever been attempted. Under a pretext taken from the spirit of the lowest chicane, they have counselled him wholly to break the publick faith, to annul the amnesty, as well as the other conditions through which he obtained an entrance into the provinces of the Netherlands, under the guarantee of Great Britain and Prussia. He is made to declare his adherence to the indemnity in a criminal sense, but he is to keep alive in his own name, and to encourage in others, a civil process in the nature of an action of damages for what has been suffered during the troubles. Whilst he keeps up this hopeful law-suit in view of the damages he may recover against individuals, he loses the hearts of a whole people, and the vast subsidies which his ancestors had been used to receive from them. Brabant. who had been drawn by his declarations from their houses, situations, and military commissions, many even from the means of their very existence, but treating them with every species of insult and | outrage. Combining this unexampled conduct in the emperour's advisers, with the timidity (operating as perfidy) of the king of France, a fatal example is held out to all subjects, tending to shew what little support, or even countenance, they are to expect from those for whom their principle of fidelity may induce them to risk life and fortune. The emperour's advisers would not for the world rescind one of the acts of this or of the late French Assembly; nor do they wish any thing better at present for their master's brother of France, than that he should really be, as he is nominally, at the head of the system of persecution of religion and good order, and of all descriptions of dignity, natural and instituted; they only wish all this done with a little more respect to the king's person, and with more appearance of consideration for his new subordinate office; in hopes, that, yielding himself, for the present, to the persons who have effected these changes, he may be able to game for the rest hereafter. On no other principles than these, can the conduct of the court of Vienna be ac Moderate party. counted for. The subordinate court of Brussels talks the language of a club of Feuillans and Jacobins. In this state of general rottenness among subjects, and of delusion and false politicks in princes, comes a new experiment. The king of France is in the hands of the chiefs of the regicide faction, the Barnaves, Lameths, Fayettes, Perigords, Duports, Robespierres, Camus's, &c. &c. &c. They who had imprisoned, suspended, and conditionally deposed him, are his confidential counsellors. The next desperate of the desperate rebels call themselves the moderate party. They are the chiefs of the first assembly, who are confederated to support their power during their suspension from the present, and to govern the existent body with as sovereign a sway as they had done the last. They have, for the greater part, succeeded; and they have many advantages towards procuring their success in future. Just before the close of their regular power, they bestowed some appearance of prerogatives on the king, which in their first plans they had refused to him; particularly the mischievous, and, in his situation, dreadful, prerogative of a Veto. This prerogative, (which they hold as their bit in the mouth of the National Assembly for the time being,) without the direct assistance of their club, it was impossible for the king to shew even the desire of exerting with the smallest effect, or even with safety to his person. However, by playing through this Veto, the Assembly against the king, and the king against the Assembly, they have made themselves masters of both. In this situation, having destroyed the old government by their sedition, they would preserve as much of order as is necessary for the support of their own usurpation. French ambas- It is believed that this, by far the worst sador. party of the miscreants of France, has received direct encouragement from the counsellors who betray the emperour. Thus strengthened by the possession of the captive king, (now captive in his mind as well as in body,) and by a good hope of the emperour, they intend to send their ministers to every court in Europe; having sent before them such a denunciation of terror and superiority to every nation without exception, as has no example in the diplomatick world. Hitherto the ministers to foreign courts had been of the appointment of the sovereign of France previous to the Revolution; and, either from inclination, duty, or decorum, most of them were contented with a merely passive obedience to the new power. At present, the king, being entirely in the hands of his jailors, and his mind broken to his situation, can send none but the enthusiasts of the system-men framed by the secret committee of the Feuillans, who meet in the house of Madame de Stahl, M. Necker's daughter. Such is every man whom they have talked of sending hither. These ministers will be so many spies and incendiaries; so many active emissaries of democracy. Their houses will become places of rendezvous here, as every where else, and centers of cabal for whatever is mischievous and malignant in this country, particularly among those of rank and fashion. As the minister of the National Assembly will be admitted at this court, at least with his usual rank, and as entertainments will be naturally given and received by the king's own minister, any attempt to discountenance the resort of other people to that minister would be ineffectual, and indeed absurd, and full of contradiction. The women who come with these ambassadors wil assist in fomenting factions amongst ours, when cannot fail of extending the evil. Some of them I hear are already arrived. There is no dou they will do as much mischief as they can. clubs Whilst the publick ministers are re- Connexion d ceived under the general law of the communication between nations, the correspondences between the factious clubs in France and ours will be, as they now are, kept up: but the pretended embassy will be a closer, more steady, and more effectual link between the partisans f the new system on both sides of the water. Io not mean that these Anglo-Gallick clubs a London, Manchester, &c. are not dangerous a a high degree. The appointment of festive & niversaries has ever in the sense of mank been held the best method of keeping alive the spirit of any institution. We have one sett in London; and at the last of them, that f the 14th of July, the strong discountenance government, the unfavourable time of the year and the then uncertainty of the disposition foreign powers, did not hinder the meeting at least nine hundred people, with good on their backs, who could afford to pay baf guinea a head to shew their zeal for the new pre ciples. They were with great difficulty, and a possible address, hindered from inviting the Fren ambassador. His real indisposition, besides t fear of offending any party, sent him out of tor But when our court shall have recognised a vernment in France, founded on the principes announced in Montmorin's letter, how can French ambassador be frowned upon for an att ance on those meetings, wherein the establist ment of the government he represents is cer brated? An event happened a few days a which in many particulars was very ridiculcs yet, even from the ridicule and absurdity of the proceedings, it marks the more strongly th spirit of the French Assembly. I mean the ception they have given to the Frith-street liance. This, though the delirium of a low drunken alehouse club, they have publickly nounced as a formal alliance with the people England, as such ordered it to be presented their king, and to be published in every p vince in France. This leads more directly, an with much greater force, than any proces with a regular and rational appearance, to very material considerations. First, it shows the they are of opinion that the current opinions of English have the greatest influence on the m of the people in France, and indeed of ail |