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which was fpread-about against Monf. de Mefmay, " of his having caused a great number of the common people to be invited into a room in his houfe, that had been undermined with gunpowder, in order that they should then be all blown-up at once;" and which for a confiderable time excited against him, in the minds of all the world, the indignation and horror that fuch an action ought to produce; I fay, why was this most abominable calumny, when it was discovered to be but a calumny, fuffered by the National Affembly to die-away in filence and neglect; inftead of being fifted to the bottom, in order to find-out and punish the villains who had invented it, against whom all the indignation, that had before been felt against Monj. de Mejmay, ought then to have been directed? And have I not reafon to complain, that, when I have expreffed, in the National Affembly, the indignation and horror with which both the commiffion of fo many horrid crimes, and the impunity that attended them, had filled me, my fentiments fhould be confidered, at fome times, as a mark of a weak and effeminate fpirit, and, at others, as an indication of luke-warmness in the cause of Liberty?—They little know the temper of my mind who put these interpretations on my conduct. No man is more inflamed with zeal for that nobleft of all caufes in which men of spirit can be engaged, than I am: No man can more admire the heroic conduct of the English NorthAmericans, in their late refiftance to the endeavours of Great-Britain to enslave them, or that of the Dutch, of the century before laft, when they freed themfelves from the ty ranny of the King of Spain, than I do: No man can more fympathize with both those nations in the various events of those two noble struggles for Liberty, nor more fincerely rejoice at the final happy fuccefs of them, But to fee downright robberies juftified by quibbling pretenders to reafon ! to fee the poor peasants excited to go-about and burn honeft men's houses,

houfes, by a fet of rogues, that forge pretended orders from their Sovereign for fo doing! to fee affaffinations of the Nobility encouraged by declaiming orators, that fet-up for the patrons of Liberty! and this, when the Nobility made no oppofition to the meafures which the publick welfare made neceffary;-when they confented to every propofal ;-when it was not in their power to oppofe any thing;when a confiderable part of them had zealously embraced the interefts and defigns of the commonalty, and all of them had agreed to give-up their exemption from taxes, and other pecuniary, or profitable, privileges, and would have been contented with retaining only their honorary diftinctions!-To fee fuch things done and encouraged, and not to be fhocked and difgufted, and difpirited, at the fight, is, I confefs, above my pitch of firmnefs, and, as I fuppofe, above that of any other man, who is not totally divefted of every fentiment of juftice and humanity.

End of the Translation of the Note, in Count Lally's Letter,

IT is much to be lamented that, after thefe atrocious actions had been committed in France and were well known in England, that eminent member of the English House of Commons, the late Mr. Charles James Fox, did not join with Mr. Burke, (his former great affociate in politicks,) in expreffing a proper deteftation of them and of the wild and extravagant Revolution in the French Government to which they were intended to be fubfervient. If he, and all his numerous partizans, (who were in the habit of adopting his opinions upon political fubjects,) had confidered that dreadful event in the true light in which it had been reprefented by Mr. Burke, as being, from the very begin

ning, a system of Robbery and Murder directed against the owners of Landed property in France, both of the Clergy and the Laity, which threatened to over-throw the most powerful and best-established monarchy in Europe, and ultimately to deftroy every trace of the people's former Liberties and Privileges, and reduce them to a state of complete slavery under the abfolute and arbitrary rule of fome upftart Military Defpot (which is the ftate in which we now behold them,) there is reafon to think that a declaration made by him and his friends, in their fpeeches in parliament, of fuch a disapprobation of the violent meafures of the first National Affembly of France and of the riotous mobs of Paris in fupport of them, would have checked them in their career of Injustice and Folly, or, at leaft, would have prevented their falling into the mistaken opinion that the great body of the English Nation were full of Admiration of the new and bold changes which they had made in their Government, and were wifhing and preparing to imitate their noble example, by making fimilar changes in the Government of England. But, instead of joining with Mr. Burke in this prudent and patriotick conduct, Mr. Fox, long after the abominable outrages, described above in Count Lally's note, were known in England, declared in the Houfe of Commons, "that be looked-upon the French Revolution as the highest effort of buman Wisdom, for the promotion of buman Happiness that be had ever heard-of." And many other persons in England feemed to entertain the fame opinion of it for more than three years together, or till September, 1792; when the cruel maffacres of great numbers of inoffenfive priefts and laymen (who were confined in the prisons of Paris), perpetrated with the knowledge and confent, or, rather, by the direction, of Danton, then newly-appointed Minifter of Juftice, and the numerous fubfequent, almoft daily, murders

of

of innocent perfons by the guillotine during what is called the reign of Terror, under the new republican Government, during the power of Robespierre,-opened their eyes to the miferable confequences of those mad innovations, and taught them to know and to value the more certain and fober fort of Liberty which they themselves had conftantly enjoyed under the protection of the limited Monarchy of England. There were, however, feveral noblemen and gentlemen of rank and confequence, in both Houfes of Parliament, who, (though they had acted in conjunction with Mr. Fox for fome years before the breaking-out of the difaftrous French Revolution,) thought fit to differ from him upon this great occafion, and to declare, even in the beginning of the French Revolution, that they agreed with Mr. Burke in his opinions upon this fubject. Of thefe judicious and patriotick perfons, one of the most eminent in the Houfe of Lords was the duke of Portland, and one of the most distinguished in the Houfe of Commons was Mr. William Windham, who has fince been one of the King's Secretaries of ftate. It is, perhaps, owing to the efforts of thefe worthy perfons who adopted Mr. Burke's opinions upon this fubject, that England has not been thrown into confufion and mifery by a change of our happy form of Government into a Republick in imita tion of the French Revolution.

ANECDOTES

AN ACCOUNT OF THE OPINIONS OF THE LATE ADAM SMITH, LL. D. AUTHOR OF THE WEALTH OF NA

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TIONS," CONCERNING THE WORKS OF SEVERAL ENGLISH AUTHORS.

To the PRINTER of the WHITEHALL EVENING Posr.

SIR,

IN the year 1780, I had frequent occafion to be in com→ pany with the late well-known Dr. Adam Smith. When bufinefs ended, our converfation took a literary turn; I was then young, inquifitive, and full of refpect for his abilities as an author. On his part he was extremely communicative, and delivered himself, on every subject, with a freedom, and even boldnefs, quite oppofite to the apparent referve of his appearance. I took-down notes of his converfation, and have here fent you an abstract of them. I have neither added, altered, nor diminished them, but merely put them into fuch a fhape as may fit them for the eye of your readers.

Of the late Dr. Samuel Johnfon, Dr. Smith had a very contemptuous opinion. "I have feen that creature," faid he, "bolt-up in the midst of a mixed company; and, without any previous notice, fall upon his knees behind a chair, repeat the Lord's Prayer, and then refume his feat at table. He has played this freak over and over, perhaps five or fix times, in the courfe of an evening. It is not hypocrify, but madness. Though an honest sort of man himself, he is always patronising fcoundrels. Savage, for inftance, whom he fo loudly praifes, was but a worthless fellow; his penfion of fifty

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