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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m6thode. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Jt i MiyH MW"MMWimi| iwtwiiwii RWIH X \ . . Tb /^?^ M .6r it^' K ■■-#' THE ;&^AMPLE OF FRANCE, ^AtrUNG to BRITAI'N. r ff . v -^i, «««<«"Wmi:. .«t,^,»fcii. Sk(sii^;^i,v,t.s*-i«-;iR,,iS„^,^;^;j^ ■.^ -*:. ' ffl ' *" -/ m THE EXAMPLE OF FRANCE, WARNING TO BRITAIN. \* 1 THE writers who have publiflied their fentiments on the events which have pafled in France fince the Revolu- tion, have been fo lavifli of argument, (o exuberant in theory, that they feem to have relied for fuccefs with their readers, not fo much on force of fadts, as on ingenuity in weaving curious webs of reafoning. We have had, upon one hand, panegyrics on Gallic freedom, with enthuflaftic calls to purfue the fame fyftem in order to arrive at the fame happineft ; on the other hand, every circumftancc of the Revolution, from the original wifh for liberty, has been condemned and fatirizcd with more wit than truth. To plain men thefe writers feem equally removed from that examination, which, ai tend- ing folely to facts, and their immediate or more remote con- fcqucnces, is not apt to truft to cunning of argument, but looks on every fide for the more folid fupport of experiment. 6 lam ■ U i-.. WKmKBmss^immismr^'S •^ [ 1 ] •. .., I am inclined f thinic the application of theory to matteri of jfovernnjent, -. .urpnzing imbecilitj in the human rr.ind j for mrn (o br ready to truft to reafon in enquiricswhere ex- periment is tquaily at hand for their guide, hai been pro- nounced by various great authorities to be in every other fcience the grofleft folIy_why the obfervation fliould not equally extend to the fcience of legiHation, will ndt eafily appear. ' My perfonal pii> fuit for a long feries of years has confirmed me in the habit of experimental enquiry : I have obferved on fo many occafions the fallacy of reafoning, even when exert- ed with great force of talents, that I am apt, whenever f»€^% are not clearly difcerncd, to qucftion rather than decide •, to doubt much readier than to deliberate } and to value the cita- tion of one new experimented cafe in point, more than an hundred brilliant declamations. Having refided a good deal in France during the progrefs of the Revolution, to which I was, for fome time, a warm friend ; having paffed through every province of the kingdom ; examined all her principal manuf..aures ; gained much inftruaion relative to the ftate of her commerce, and attended minutely to the fituation of her people, it was natural on my return to England toconfult with attention the legiflative ads of the new government, and to procure by correfpondence and converfation, with perfons on whom I could depend, fuch intelligence as was n.-tlTary to enable me to fatisfy my curiofity concerning the refult of the moil fingular Revolution recorded in the annals of mankind. I fliouId confider myfelf as a bad fubjed of Britain, if I did not ufe every endeavour to render the know- ledge thus acquired, of ufe to my countrymen ; and it is folely vfUh this view that I now throw together a few (hort eflays, inferted originally in the Annals of Agriculture, fome- what improved in form, and with fuch additions as the events of the period afford. But in attempting to give expreffions inadequate to the in- dignation every one muft feel at the horrible events now paffing in France, I am fenfible that I maybe reproached with changing my politic?, my « principles," as ic has been ex- prefled.— My principles I certainly have not changed, be- caufc if there is one principle more predominant than another in my politics, it is tht principle of change. 1 have been too -Jong ■1 • 'he danger of «rn.,, isc»r;.,i„drihr oiiVc'inh^d "';; """'■5" ^^^'^^i^':;^^^^^^^^-'"'^^ b,.d, ■h= .).«„; of"; i°' , ■'^«.^'« ."""""l, an account if il { "*''*r mmmfmimmmim' '"*s 3f date — But let u» iithority. >e curioudy attended t> of September ij, '* i-et us not lofe a »rures, the danger of with impunity, the be infpircd with the lafc decrees rxprefs, '/ CtHV/HtioHy for tbt ntmhn at may i« th4ir primary affmbliti." len who complain of it reformed f— Here republicans f The Jof of more deter- ? of anarthy. For under the controul fliall take their feat le cleared conviiJli- Jrunfwick to be the 'an be fuch adepts tional ruin, as the "■f> with iingular l> regulation (hall That the people cannot be doubt- no power, but an vho will accept or > a fovercign b( dy nvention decreed, this wasdire(9!y Sedions," fa^, 'd an account of iolatcd that law; red, fhuuld their armed." Oaober f s J ' O(ltober 5th, a deputation from that city, thus fpeak at the bar, demanding the fpced/ trial of the King. *< 'J'he men of the loth of Augurt will never fulTcr, that thoic they have, inverted with their confidence, (hall defp (e for an inftant the fovereignty of the people ; courage is the virtue of a free people { and we will not depart from the principle, that if it is juft to obey laws, it is jufl alfo torcfirt defpots, under whatever mafque they may conceal thcmfeivcs : we think it for our intercft to make our elections viva vat (a bautt voix)." The tninifter of the interior is forced to write the fame day to the Convention, " I pray you to take meafures, to prevent being null and without cfFedl all the demands and requifitions which 1 dailv make, is the name or thk law, to the commons of Paris." The minifter, in the nume of the Convention, applied for law ; but found the commons of Paris Wronger than both. " 1 have fecn," fays Cambon, Sep:. 25th, •* thefe commons rob the national edifices of all their moll precious effects, without the leaft n-gifter, or note ; and when we decreed that thefe eiFedts (hould be carried to the national treafure, that decree remained without execution. " The council general of the commons of Paris," fays Barrere, Nov. 10, " has fought to deprcfs, by every poflible means, the national reprefentation. The le,>iflative body faid, that that gtrm efntw revolutions ought todtfajptar^ and the next day it was obliged to withdraw its deciee. It faid alio, that the gates of Paris ought to he opened that every man might travel f re, 'v through the interior of the empire ; but ilie council general cidered them to be lliut. 'I he iegifla- ture decreed that no more pajlp'^rts flyjuld he necfjfary. The council general diretitly ordeicd that nunc fhould Itir without a pallport. * That the municipalities are in a ftate of real snarchy ap- pears clearly from difterent bodies aflumiiif^ tlie fame power, while the municipalities of Paris were litiDinding one run of the Convention, la commune proprement dite^ or nincty-li^ commiflioners of fedtions were demanding another, which induced Kerfaint to explain. In what anarchy is cur adminiflra- tion plunged. Ought there to be two boJics cf reprrfirttativts of • Monitcur, 0&, 28. UiS ••^rft^tfrn 1 \ It] tit tminiHt of Paris ? thi law prthibili It. • Thh* it turieui; n Itgal vt/lry mttts in tut churchy and is tppjfid ky tntthur in an aUhwJt kitchen^ who tirm themfilva tht vt/lry ^ priptrly calltd \ ;iiiJ one having a tafte of public plunder, the other petition iilf fuch reprefentativei than, in- toxicated with power, they declare their deputies things of ftraw, and their decrees null till fandtioned by the people themfelves I What a leflbn ! to the friends of reform ! /« all tht public f tacts., fays Louvet f at tht 7huitltrits^ in tht Palais at la Rtvolutien, and tlftwhtrty you htar thtm ^rtach con- tinually infurriifion againji tht National Convtnttsn. It is high timtfor us to know^ lays Cambon, that tht Convtntion it abfolutily defpiftd %. Anarchy^ faid Baurere H, is at its Ztnith : and Berbaroux ^, Anarchy riigns around us, and wt hatt dtnt nothing to rtprtfs iU 7hoft who provokt to murdtr art yit triumphant. Anarthy it tht cau/t of all our tvils ! Says the Prcsidknt of ths Convention to the deputation for the department of Indre and Loire •*. Thefe are the accounts and the words of the members ot the Convention openly delivered ; but wc have a reformer in England, who charaderizes the French government with the epithets of, ** the ere£t mien and heavenly dignity of afpedt— the fair and enchitnting form — the vifion fo delight- ful." — It is whimfical enough, that while the French find their government a mere anarchy of murderers and banditti } our Knglifti reformers fliould drlineate it as the peculiar dii- penfation of Providence fliowering bleHings on mankind. 'J'hat while the adniiniftrators of the departnunt of Calvados, tell the Convention that Paris is tht focus of infurreiiion, vtn- gtancty and prefer iption : that innoctnt blad has flowidy that • Monit. on tl I 0,\. 30. f 00. 39. S oa. io. \ Monit Dec. »J. •• Monit. Dec. 4. villains [ 8 J villains who are the dett/f alien »f the natioUy and willbt the tp' frobrium of pojlirity^ Jiill calculate in criminal fttence the life and death of citizens ^^ an Engliniman can be found to de- clare fuch a government fo beneficent, that he can refer it only to the firft great caufe of all :t^ ! From fuch a polluted fountain, it is eafy to fuppofe what ftreams mull flow ; and that all parts of France have been fcenes cither of infurredion, of plunder, or of blood ; the inftances of iVIarfeilles, Lyons, Avignon, Aries, Rouen, Caen, Bourdeaux, Nancy, Liile, and a long lift of other cities, are notorious : it may pot be fo generally known that at Charleville the colonel commandant was murdered *. That at CrefTy all was riot and violence f. That at Cam- bray the lieutenant-colonel Befombre was murdered by the Gens d'armes, and captain Logros' head was on a bayo- nette %. That the rebellion in Poitou was of 10,000 ||, and that of Chartres double. More fingular than thefe is the cafe of D*Hot6, who being condemned only to the ftocks for four hours by the jury de jugementy for. crimes that me- rited an hundred deaths, being expofed on the Place de Greve, demanded of the populace Liberty or death', the mob, in fpite of the Gens d'armes, mounted the fcafFold, cut the cords of the criminal, and carried him ofF in triumph. When, fays the editor of the Moniteur, report- ing if, tt/iV' the people feel the necejftty of refpeiiing the laws ? § Such is the refult of that tonftitution, founded on per- fcnal reprefentation, which has been boafted as the pride and glory of legiflation. Such are the eiFe£ls that form the comment on fo many hundred books and pamphlets publifhed in praife of an edifice ereded on the Rights of Man ! — And of which we may fay, with truth and moderation, that ;t has brought more mifery, poverty, devaftation, im- prifonment, bloodshed, and ruin on France, in four years, ^han the old government did in a century. 5uch is the government that has been contrafted by Paine ,to the no conllitution of England. Everything with us, + Oa oo. \ Major Cartwright ta the Duke of N«wc»ftU. " Sept. 4. f (jc'\. 17, X Oa. 10. it Mbait. Oi). 15. S l^^n'o- Of^. «9. , ,, according :. .■1 . 1 mgK ' 'i fs«ii '■ i f i h i ij tt i - .-T^ ~.a- im- ./ £ 9 ] ft'ccordlng to him, has a conflitution except the nation ; and, if we had a conftitution, we Ihould be able to produce it. The French, on the contrary, formed one which they could produce, printed on vellum, and bound in morocco } carried by every one in his pocket, as the charter of his Rights ; but unfortunately for theories of government, this great effort of legiflation ; this boail of French, and eiivy of Englifh Jacobins, this mafter-piece of the metaphyfical Altf of Abbe Siey^s ; this quintefcence of what ought to be^ \ii oppofition to what is* ; this fine machine pronounced by io many pens immortal ; producible to the meafure of Paine, antecedtnl to the governmtnty and diJlinSl from it\ this capitd production uf CJallic genius endured fcarcely two years. The freedom it afforded was not fufKcient for adepts it) thfe Rights of Man : The exiftence of a King, becaufe ofFenfive to the new lights by which they were illumined, infui*- ,re£tion was pronounced a facred duty )— revolt followed ; — > and the horrors that will for ever ftain the annals of mankind, . —the dttp damnation that cnfued — are written in every heart from which Jacobinifm has not eradicated all traces of feel- ing and humanity. Such has been the practice of the French revolution \ for its theory go to Rights of Man. Yet thefe infamies of abflrad and ideal perfe^ion are not .black enough to deter men from boldly, in the full face of government and of day, fetting their names to fuch fentiments as thefe, in which the Britifh conflicution and its friends are thus charaflerifed : *• The mad councils of rage and defperation." — " Maimed: mutilated, mangled, and wretched condition." — ** Scanty fragments, loathfome . ofFals are all of freedom that the people of England tafte." -— " Mendicants fubfifling on crumbs." — Vifions of flaughtered citizens and a pillaged nation." — *' Happy Frenchmen ! How long will Engliflimen endure the fhame of feeing their houfe of reprefentatives a fhocking cbntraft to models fo pure ! — Not even plaufible cenctjjian will now, in my humble opinion, put people ofF their guard, and compromife will be received as infult. Their demand is their rights. They are uking their caufe in their own hand^ They want no patrons ; and their friends will be thsir * La phyfique ne peut ewe que It (.onnoiftiince dc'iKt demiMde ct qui diit ttre pour I'utihts dei hooimet. L'trt {dtt9 htrdi fervani^.. '• ">**. f IW' II iimri I I iiTrr-TWffiiiir-iiiiriiir'" ■■■••■••■•'' ■fJnvWt' ^. -— 't ^, il ^11 ; 1: '^ 'i ' lervartts. 'IVir opeMtioiis nrc inlalllb!-, fficfr ffrengtji Will fooii It invinC;b!e.»-Among the dircov^rKii of thefe •prrgnant tim(is, it has been found out that ri,en may l.vc irtd fhrfve Without lords ; that the fun W.U flt.ne and the ■SUM "*W!J#*n.I, ' ,(:, ■'i 9 ; s' 1 ' A. fatiated, they decreed the removal of the criminals frofw Orleans to Paris, that is, from the legally eftabiifhed judi- cature, where there was a chance of juftice, to an illegal one, where there was no fuch chance j and they did this in confequence of fuch addreffcs as thefe from the deputation of the commons of Paris. It is time that the criminals^ at Or- Uans^ be transferred to Paris, there to reteive the punijhment «f their crimes. 1/ you do not agree to this demand we cannot mftuer for the vengeance of the people, You have heard «;, end you know that infurreOion is a facred duty ! Invited to the llonours of the meeting ! ! ! The fate of thefe prifoners is known to every one. The declaration fays, that no man can be ^niflsed hut in virtue of a law eftablijhed^ and promulgated prior to the offence, ^nd legally applied. The amplication, " difobedience" in the polonies, " Ihall be regarded as high treafon, and thofe who (hall render themlelves guilty fliall be fent to France to be tried according to the rigour of the law." The liberty of the prefs was provided for in the declaration. Such thp theory. The pradice was filencing all that were not Jet' fobin pipers, and behrading the authors. No wonder, with fuch fp^cies pf government, that prifons (hould be emptied by malfacre, and fil'ed again by arbitrary arrefts. Sept. i6, the minifter writes thus to the Afl'embly : " The natural, icivil, and political liberty of the nation is inqueftion ; fince the 5rh, above five hundred perfnns have been arrcfted, fp that the prifons are as full as ever • j no fatisfailory account is given of the authority} they have been imprifo«ed by orders given by 'he municipality by feitions, by the people, and even by individu-^ls : emprifonnees par ordre, foit de la munitipaliti, foit des fe£iions/foit du peuple, SOlT MtME D•1^D1VIUUS^ and \m reafons of very few pf thefe orders are given." The jegiflaturc thus Informed of the abufe, may be pre- sumed on the wing to remedy it. The progrefs of the bufmefs is curipus :--Oa. 8. Decree—'* The National Convention decree.', that citizens detained ii> houfes, which are neither prifons nor houfes pf aireft, (hall be removed • Comr«ft thii whh fhe »it»» prtloneri (four ef iherp tvtflatt onet), ••>• whole number found in the Battile when forced by the racb 1 1 1 within %\ »f«^,- lals from hed judi- in illegal d this in itation of >, at Or- lunijhment w* cannot htard us^ ted to the rifqners is /hed but h hi offence^ ence" in and thofe France to he liberty Such the s not Ra- ider, with le emptied Sept. i6t le natural, on ; fincc rrcfted, fp y account irifoned by ic people, pit de h • MEME v pf thefc lay be pre- efs of I he ! National fc's, which te removed i<« one«}« the within ■. •taki.-'w^-T- - - ^ C 13 ] within fifteen days into legal prifons ; after which timecverf citizen, againft whom there appears neither warrant of ar- reft, nor decree of accufation, ftiail be fet at liberty*." If any doubts could remain of the real tyranny under which France groans, fuch a dec:ci- would be fuiBcient to remove them :— the fad of citizens being thus illrgally confined, without warrant, and not in legal priCon?, is here admitted ; and men SO treated may be kept fifteen days longer before they are fctfree ! Sept. 16, the Convention receives the no- tice officially, and 0(5l. 8, they decree a power of arbitrary imprlfonme;it fifteen days longer ! !— Nor does it end here i for Nov. II, compl -int is heard in the Aflembly, that no rt- fort is made ioncerning the prij'oners f ; and it merits great at- tention, that during this long period of the imprifoument of fo many unhappy people, Paris was inceflanily convuUed ; and every day brougnt reafon to expe<£l, that imprifonment and (laughter would prove fynbnimous terms. To imprffon whom they pleafed on fufpicion, as a means of taking of" thofe they dared nof, or could not publicly accufe, was a convenient mode of tyranny, not unworthy of the wretch^ a member of their Pandemonium, who, Ipeaking to the tqueftion of trying the unhappy King, affigned h.m to tor- ments in the hearing of thofe tribunes, who might foon be the executioners of his bloody wiAies. MmiJJon^ «' the lirft and moft natural of all my afFedtions would be to fee, that faiiguinary monfter (Louis XVI.) expiate his guilt bv the otofl cruel torments :): : and another ((^^Mf^n, Dec. 12.) fays. Kings will fafs away ! but the declaration ef rigktt and pikes will never pajs away. Here let the tyrant Ijear his can- f/emnatiortt as if the declaration of rights was not laid in the duft, when fuch language could be fpokenof a prifoner un- heard ; and amidft unanimous and reiterated appleufesl The iipplaufes of thofe whofe pikes were ready. In the full teeth of fuch authentic fafls, given on the au- thority of their own minifters and friends, we read, in the Political State ef Europe^ priatcd by Jordan, and written by paine and Co. No. 6, p. 435, that in Paris a refpeft is paid to the facred prefervation of property, and that the laws are po where fo univtrfally refpeaedand obeyed! 1 1 What will not Jacobin impudence reacn I m. * Monit. 0^« 9. f ,M»i)it. Nw.^13. X Menit. «*."-.^_ Nov. 14, Such j|«a.-! <«MHII MUlArMTrtiiTW NOMi ■MK m " *••■ s f ■ , (l it :•' C H J . Such Iia? been the attciiiiou to prrfonal lilxrrtv, under thp reign of philofophers, eilablifiied on the ruins of the miWeft jinJ molt benignant government in Kuropc, our own only fxceptcJ i -JL government crutlly libelled in the character given by one of PMr reforming orators, who thus defcribe» )t) '* afpecies of government that trampled on ihe property^ the liberty, and thp lives of its fubjedls ; that dealt in extor- fions, dungeon?, and tortures : and that prepared, before- hand, a day of fjnguinary vengeance*." Kpithcts and ex- preffions To fingularly applicable tp the fabric ereikd by the Revolution^ that one can with difficulty believe it podiblt; that they were meant for any other. ^ ■■■4 . . ' ■ :$ Stcurity of Prtperty. - A ■*■% If I had npt heard Jacobin converfation in England, there would have bicen little occafion for this paragraph ; tu a leader that reflefts, it muft at once be apparent that where there i» no perfpnal freedom, there canbeno fecure property: it wfould be an infult to .common fenfc to fuppofe, that a ty^ j-annical mob woulcj refpedl the property of thofe whofe throats they cut : ar,bitrary imprifonment and mafl'acre muft be inevitably fpllowed by diretSt attacks on property. Con^ trary however to thefe plain deductions of common fenfe, it has been repeatedly afferted, that the government of France has done nothing in violation of the rights of property, ex- cept with relation to emigrants, who were confider^d as guilty for the aiS of flying : But is it not palpable, at the fir^ bJuOi, that filling prifons on fufpicion, by arbitrary commit- ments and emptying ihem by maOacre — that the perpetual din of pillage jvnd afl'affinarion— are calculated to fill men with alarm and terror — and to drive them to fly not tiirough guilt, but horror ? l&y your murders you drive them away ; and then pronouncing them emigrants, confifcate their ellatcs ! And this is called the fccurity of property. The try of ariftocrate or traitor is followed by immediate impri- fojimcnt or death, and has been found an eafy way of paying (debts; Enquiring of a correfpondent what was become of a gentleman I.h;\d known at Paris j the anfwer was, that h« fvas met in the (Ircet by a perfon confiderably in his debt. • Mr. $htrd»n'i Speech.' who tj^^i^.ti, h under thp ie mildeft )wn pnly character defcribe» property, ill cxtor- I, bcfore- s and ex- Lci by the c po(Sibl<; EnglanJ, »raph ; to hat where property : that a ty- tfe whofe lac re muft y. Corii- n fenfe, U of France petty, ex- ifider^ a^ at the fir^ y commit- pcrpetuil o 611 men ot tiirough em away i fcate their rty. The ate imprl- of paying ;conie of a s, that he w his debt) who I 15 1 who no fooner faw than he attacked him as a traitor, and or- dered him to goal. No known mafl'acre Was committed in that prifon, but my acquaintance was heard of no more. It is eafy to conjeflure what became of the debt. Should the demons of dilcord effe£l a revolution in this kingdom, and bring Mr. Legiflator Paine once more to Thctford, Sand- wich, or Lewes, he would not lind it difficult thus to fatisfy all his creditors, however numerous — he would come well prepared with a French recipe for wiping ofF all their /cores. In a country where fuch things are poflible, every tie that binds property is broken. To imagine its fecurity is a folly too grols to be endured, and to aflert it a falfehood tha: ihould excite no emotion but contempt. In a parilh in the Clermontois (Crete -It- Roy) the ftcward of a gentleman refiding at a diftance, came to receive the fcnt of ihiee ^onfiderable farmers. He was told that the Contention had decreed equality, and that paying rent was the mofi; unequal thing in the wo. Id ; for it was a man who did much to receive a little, paying to one, who receivinz much, did nothing at all. 1 he (leward replied, that their joke might poffibly be good, but that he came not for wiij but money ; and money he muit have ; he was ordered inftantly to depart dr to Hay and be handed. Thg proprietor demanded judicc, but in vain ; the municipality was applied to ; and the only refult was-, that body (iIk- vellry; ordering the tarmers to yield up the land ; tliey were Uikeii poflcffiofi t)t by themfelves in depolit redeemable for the nation ; anJ ailually divided in portions among the labouring poor that is among themfelves. What the evuit may' be is no'thin^ to the purpole : What becomes in the mean time of the Right of Property I The pro6abie event however is, th -c the proprietor will be driven to emigration, for the'mere convenience of retaining their plunder. it can hardly be doubted but that robbery, even of laml itfelf< muft fprcad all the kingdom whui the committee of general fecurity could thus report to the Convention :~^7%e national refiutrts may be augmented by impojing csntributiom upon ferfinsef fortune, per i\mne$ i^iie^s and the ob/iinaie zu/m WMt naHfMiily at hon,e the event of the Revoiut:an *, ConirJba- ' • Oa. i8, K^oni'-. ' • ■ - "'^^':' tions '»^» i »- l I IMH mm ■^r f^mtM i". i I -1 #i> [ 16 ] Horn impofcd on pcrfons for two rcafons ; firill, for the crimd orbcrrm.n of fortune i and, fccondly, for remammg m -tranqulty ! With fuch a Icginaiion can property be yefpe£leJ i ■ With fuch a principle, recognized in thf Convention, we reed not S how taxes arc fevied. The poor a.d fmall '^^'oT each municTpaliiyrefcape'LlTtaxat.on, but are SInt n o ci,7 1 ofe ofmorc 'confidcr.blc property to periy than a diredt agrarian law would be. Let the farmers of this kingdom reprefent to themfelvrs a niclu e of what their f.tuation woul^l be. i the.r labourers, fhdr fervan*; and the paupers wlu.m they fupport by poors- a« were all armed, and, in fome meafure. reg.mented f * l(V.ain,^ of the veftrv, voting not only the money 10 ^ ri-Jed b at 3. but tie dLif.on of it amo/g the.nfelves ; 5!c«einK what the price of all the farmer's products Ihou d ie whit wages Ihould be paid to fervants. and what pay to be, •'""^.^ , f u a fvftem of government I beg to ITwh ; fe?.^ -odd remain for I fingle ihilling in the noc Jts of thofe who are at prefent in a ttate of cafe and >fflu«ce ? And whether fach a tyranny would not be worfe ;Sn"h"t of iSe moft determined de.potifni at prelent .n Europe i While the farmer is thus expofcd to parochial oppreffion, at the merrf of thofe who were fo lately his mter.ors, and who arTe^n fed and fupported by him, he .s not ex.mp cd r ^!,!Ik. «t a very different nature: to authorize the fe^ure of ho^ s andlLs was, in the National Aflembly, I Su« of vi..lc, ce and tyranny ; but as 't 'fl-"* ^^m !h, Wifl.ture //f fnffo, »t had the authority of admitted J the cf'mi naining iit roperty be rntion, we and fmall m the ma- ll, but are )roperty to (Tcffcd and h all rcl'ort, I, and have ion of pro- hemfelvcs a r labourers, rt by poors- • regimented, he nnoney lo theinfelves ; duiSts (hould what pay to fit I beg to lilling in the of eafe and not be worfij t pre lent in i] oppreilion, nferiors, and not exempted authorize the lal Aflcmbly, t ifliicd from of admitted gone much ne department ioners of the itry with fuch arbitrary wi Kraiif:' ' ^ ». * » [• -7 J arbitrary orderi ai ire utterly inconfiftcnt with his own relponfibility j their orders arc figned by four of the admi-' niltiators of the public fafcty, for fcizing fufpeded perfons and precious effcas. Pour s'emparer da ptrfonnisfufptila tf (i"tfttsprtatux*. Seizing fufpedUd pcrions and pr-cious citcdts I A commiflioii in a land of liberty ; and givrn, not by the Icgiflativc body, but by a corporation I Tiie corporation of a town fends commiflloners, in other words, Oc'potic monarch*, into the country, toarreftand to plunder, and this under the nofe of the legiflature. When the repub- lican reader of Mr. Haine, on corporations in, England, n well fatiated with rightSy it would do him good to take the actions of French municipalities as a comment on the text. The watchJword, from one end «f France to the other, IS tqualtt^i they join liberty with it, as mountebanks annex a favourite epithet to the noftrum, whofe only objcft is the money in the pockets of the credulous. But after all rank, title, nobility, and diftindiion have been aboliftjed, what do ihey mean by equality ? The word is abfurd, if it attaches not to property, for there can be no equality while one man \$ rich and another poor. But the preceding fafts fpeak what the new equality is in terms too clear to be mifunderftood. / «m not ajlonijhed tofeey fays Buzor, an arret comt to us under tht name of Momoroy who /, as preftdent in the department of Eure^ heard preaching thi divifion of ejiates\ but I am truly fi tofindfuch a man prefiding in one of thefe£lions of Paris f. We hear it aflertcd in England, that property is not attacked in France : There you hear no fuch aflertions : \n the return of the commiffioners, members of the Convention, from the riots at Chartres, where they were nearly deftroyed, it was aflerted on fafls in the Convention itfelf, 'that all the principles of an Agrarian law were in agitation^' mis en avanc^ %. i . ■ ■ • i Before we quit this fubjeS of the fecurity of property at prefent in France,' let us examine (hortly the cafe of that moft interefting portion of'property, the crop in the handj of the farmer: we know well in England, from the con- * Mnnit. Stpi. 1 4. t Mooit. oa. 11. D \ Moait. Dec. t. viction '**"'^HP"iiw»-**™ «MH'"euMM %.. ; [ iM virion of long, experience, that if thii fj)eciei of property ii not f.>crcd, all the clafTt* of the focicty in«antly fuller} it it a vital wound that affeds the whole fyftem. The late crop in that kinpdom il faid to be plentiful i but natural plenty, under a government ot anarchy, «vail» little j the mob prohibiting the free tranfport of corn, the im- mediate confcquence wan fo high a price in many diftridt*, that the people Jound it more convenient to fat* the corn than to^rty for It : thin, of courfc, added every where to the irifchief I for the farmers wete not ready to carry their pro- duel* into the jaws of plunder. Thefe diftradtions— thefe bleffings of a government that had the power of converting even good crops into the means of famine, drew from the ipinifler of the home department threats even of violence ; he wrote to a variety of cities, from all which papers it would be too tedious to give cxtraiks. He thusexpreflcs himfelf to Tours : " The municipalities ought to ufe all tooflible means of perfuafion with the farmers »or c.igaging them to fupjily the^marlcetl i for 1 muft tell you, that it tnc poflfcffors of corn telift thcfc pattrnal invitatations mbaks or EXTREMITY mufl be ulVd againft them : enftrabitn cen- tra'mt d'mployer tnvtrs lux Itt meyens txtrmtt*." it is worth the attention of Englifh farmers, to refledt well oil the nature of this cafe : their brethren in France, content with a moderate and fair price for their corn, carry it freely to market j the operations of the people raife this price ; and then, to revenge the rcfult of their own violence, they plun- der Such a condua is fure to create, at leaft, apprehen- fions of famine; and to obviate it, the minifter dues not threaten the mob, from whom a'r«»'^'"'f«.»''%^»"tmflI 1 ifcb, as a punlfhment for having bten plundered by the rabble— -by the nation, if the farmer, thus robbed, has the mislprtunc to be a proprietor, and particularly a large proprietor, he has firft the oppreffion of paying thofe taxis which an armed, populace will not pay j and, ibit he may be able to do this, hs corn is feized bv the cnnfumer, and ho is threatened wiiji extremities by the' minillcrj as if anv cxtiemitics could be greater than taking his crops by vicjcnce : if more; how- ever, was not meant, the folly of the denunciation was Monit. Sept. 17. eqtial if propfrty I (ufCeti it itiful i but mU little ( I, the im- ly diftridtt, :t the corn here to the ' their pro- ions— thefe converting V from the f violence; :h papers it ut cxpreHcs to ufe all >r ciifjaginij; , that it tne ms MBANS ira bitn cen- t«." Jt is irdt well oil ice, content irry it freely price : and , theyplun- f, apprehen- er does not rifec, but the tJ^lTIES, e rabble — by B iriittprtune ropiietor, he ich an armed. )le to du'thii) reatcned wiiji itics could be more', how« Delation was eqiiat ' L 19 J equal to the knavery of it. Thofe infellciSli which c n fee any diff fence t>ctwc».n (nth a government aiul the cudgel of A i 'jrka haiha, arc much nigre acute lh.111 iinue. The fdmc minidi-r writ" to the Convention, 0«5t. 15.— •• I am ink»rn»«(l thai the .ivei( rrs of the ni litary rublillciici-s do not tCrtre to fly ihroujj^ii the country, and to lotce, with arms in their h.iiiii>, tltc larmt-rs to hnnilh their co.nnioJi- tits. Such practice!) dritray every mcalure of order, and inli.iitcly iin^cdi.' the free circul .tion of corn. 1 ca .not dif- femblt wit.) theConvcntiun, that this c.nduct of th«- military contrjiitors tu d>> to IpnaJ dilDrJer cvciy where, and ihut if they continue to take Oy (01 ce, or at their own price, pr >vi- fion Irum the larnurs, it will be impuililiic to inlure the fup(>ly oJ Pans.' Now thi», if poHible, cxcerds every thing the Jacobin adrniniftration, actiiiit on theidcaiof Jacobin iiucity, could • devifcioihew their jKrfed com- inpt ot the whole Miming race. He tUtts the glami^ magnitude of the evil to the Convention i and wh.jt no exemptioits, no fuch favours will prove a recpinpenlc, for being forced, the pike or broad- fwurd in hand, co fell at .he price offered by thoie who brandiih the weapon over their heads. No won'er that fuch mealuics ihouiu Ibivc the towns, as well-as ruin the country i and that the commitJion- .ers of fubAiHnce (hould report, that theptuury of grain in tht grtat eitiit is txtrme *. * Monit. Nov. itf, ¥ D 2 In ■^"'-%'- H i I ii H1 | |- )^- •! )f %v i 1 [ 20 ] In all thefe and a thoufand other inftances, wr fee the llv» ing and efFcftive confequences of Paine's doftrincs j he ex- patiated on the luxury of great eftates, and recommended thciir feizure; French pradtice realized the do6lrine, and doubtlefs there were French farmers, who rejoiced at the fpedacle of all the great properties of the kingdom being le- velled by the nation; they did not however U)rf fee, that it would be their own turn next} that the principle of equa- lity being once abroad, would infallibly level all property } and would give to the beggar, without a loaf, but with a pike on his flioulder, the means of levelling the enormous inequality between his own wallet without a kernel, and the well-ftored granary of a warm farmer. Let ours, there- fore, never forget, that the f^me principle which attacks ^ property of 40,0001. a year, becaufe it is too large relatively to other properties, attacks alfo a farm of 2C0I. a year, for the fame reafon } nay, of 501. a year, becaufe that alfo is large, when compared with the property of thofe who have little. And let us all be well perfuaded, that the fearful events at prefent pafling in France, with a celerity of mif? chief that furpafles equally all that hiftory has to oiFcr, or fancy, to conceive, afford a fpe£lacle intereiling to every man who poirefles PROPERTy } and to none more than to farmers. The quarrel how raging in that once flourifhing kingdom, i$ not between liberty and tyranny, or between protedting and oppre/Hve fyftems of government ; it is, on the t;ontrary, colltidted to a fihgle point, — it is alone a queftion of prpperty ; it is a trial at arms, whether thofe whohave nothing (ball noc fcize and poflefs the prbperty of thofe who have fomething. A dreadful queftion — a horrid flruggte, which can never end but in the |Squal and univerfal rum of all ; in which, be Avho gains by the lofs of his neighbour,, gains but to lofe, in his turn, to fome flurdier robber, till riot, confufion, and anarchy render property but the fignal of invafion, and po- verty the befl fbield againft the attacks and tyrapny of the mob*. » ■ - Such * Porrue the dcclirttipa of rigbti through every article, tnd it will be (bond ihlt thcie it not » fifigle article regiftered as an iirprefcriptible right of man, that hat not beeo yiolated under circumliuicc« of tiie moft odioat and a|)omint« \)\* cruelty. AH' \\> fgland alune excepted ; but there were many faults in it which every clafs of the people wi(hed to remedy : Tbis natural ant) laudable wi(h m?.de Democrates in every An Engl fliman ia proud of the id^a of his hoi/fe being his caftle; Ice the praaice of facthm government in thic relpea I " Decreed, (hat t^e mmiicips* iitiei are anihorized to itarch the houfes ut all perlom tor armt, and to take aa fccouDt of hurfei and carriages applicatic lu the v. jr." And looa after thair ^blblBte feitgre decretd. Tbis wt( founding the aiatm beli, io order to give «p ttie houles /? - ;«• % t n- I . ' ' e [ 22 ] order, ar.iongft ihc pofleffors of property, as well as among thbfe who had none. At the commencement of the K-rvo- lution, France poflVfffd a very flourifhmg commnxe -, the richeft "colonies in the world ; the gn-atell currency of fond money in Europe ; her agriculture was impro* inu; ; and her people, tho' from too great population much tco numeroiB for the highell degiees of national prolptnty, yet were more at ihcrr cafe than in many other countries of Europe ; the governoient was regular and n.iKl -, and what was of as much confequence as all tne reft, her benignant fovereign, with a patriotifm unc.|UjlKd, was xeallv wiiliog to improve, by any re'ioiiabK' m.ans, the conftitution of the kingdom. All tliete circumftantes, if compared with England, would not make the proper im- preffion. They are to be compared alone with what has finceeofued ; and her prcfent ftate,m:iy thus with truth, be correaiy defcrib-d.--.Her governm-nt an anarchy, that values neither life nor property. Her agrirulture fait fink- ing, her farmers the flaves of all ; and her people ftarving. Her manufaaures atinihiJaied. Her ^commerce dcftroyed j and her colonics abfoluttly ruined. Her gold and iilver dif- appeared, and her currency paper fo depreciated, by its ^ enormous amount of 3000 milliom,, befides inc.edjble for- geries, that it advances, wiih rapid ftrides, to the entire ftagnation of every fpecies of induUry and circulation. Her naMonal revenue d.miniftied thrte-fourths. Her cities fcencs of revolt of maffacre and ftarvation ; and her provinces plundered bygangs of banditti. Her future profjjfca of peace and fctilcment, depending on a conftitution V»»t is to be formtd by a convention of rabble, and faSiiontd by the fans culottts of the kennel. It is not a few infulated crin.es on fome undeferving men i it is a feries ot horrid profcnp- tion, fpreading far and near i it is the annihilation of rank, . of right, of property ; it is the deftruftion of the poffcHors of more than half France j it is the legiflation of wolves, that eovtrnonly in deftruaion : and all thefe maffacrts, and plonJeriogs, arid burning*, and horrors of every denomina- tion, are fo farfrom being neceHary for the eftablilhment of liberty, that they have moft efFoaually dcftroyed it. In one word, France is at prefent abfoluttly without government j anarchy reigns ; vhe poniard and the pike of thtf mob give the law to all that once formed the higher claflcs, apd to all that at prefent mocks with the Ihew ot legillation, 1 he mob *^ '01 «^s. '.•sAnj : r as among :he K-rvo- ^t<.e i t!ie rreiicy of fiproving y much ico jrolptrity, couiuries id iTi'.lii i reft, her Hid, was i.ans, the ftantes, if iroper im- what has truth, be chy, thilt fjlt fink- e ftdrving. Icftroyed j iilver dif- ed, by its rdjble for- the entire ion. Her ities fcenes provinces (rofjfttt of Vi^t is to ntd by the ted crimes \ profcrip- n of rank, ! poiTelibrs of wolves, Facrcs, and denomina-' ifhment of t. In one irernment } i mob give ^ apd to alt I'he mob ' of ^ C 23 ] of Paris have been long in the aftua! po/Teffion of unrivalled power; they will never freely relinqurli it: if the Con- vention prcKumes to be free, it will be mafTacred ; and, after a circle of new horrors, will fiiik ((hould foreign aid fail) into the dLfpotifm of triumvirs or didtators : the change will be a Buurbun to a butcher ! ** All former Revolutions," fays Paine, *' till the Ameri- can had been worked within the atmofpher^ of a court, and never on the great floor ,of a nation ; "* unfortunately for this miferable copy, fhe worked on a floor broad enough ; her biifis was the blood and property of France. 'J he piiS^ure has no refemblahce in •' the injipid ftate of heredi- tary government." "* She found in " fcenes of horror and perft-dtion of iniquity," what " man is up to." It is Cjai'y to fee what they have loft ; as to their gains, they have affignats, cockades, and the mufic oi ca ira ; it may be truly faid, that they have made a wile barter: they have given their gold for paper ; th^ir bread for a rihbon, and their blood for a ioiig. Heaven preferve us from the phreiisy of fuch exchanges ! and leave .Revolutions for the " order of the day," for " the morning of reafun rifing upon man" f •» France. II. Such are the confequenccs of the the French Revolution ; oiir next enquiry is, from what have .thefe evils arifen f They may be attributed to three prominent feature* in the new fyftem of their Jhi-difent philofophers — i. Perfon^ Heprefentation.— 2. The Rights of Man.— 3. iCquality. * • Rights of Man. t Tbe Cootrntion HecUrci, in the n«m* of the French nMlon, tlut tjMf will grant afliftaoce lu al: pennte th t «'il>i to r<'cnver their Jiberiy. and cbatgM the execmi' v po»/er with fiving the nectfla.j- orders to the i;eneralt for.givicg fuccour to tuch people, Mov. i$. ordered to be printed io all lingutgea. ■f Paiac. "»• , If m: mur immmmtam ' I ^yif^HK " "''I" "'< • IWIH, 1,11 ■■XK»- J ii M— n-Vu Mi M i K rtl 'li iwHl y lS •'■} I \'^ i^ [ 24 ] If there is any on? circumftance to which all the horrors that have paffed in France may be more properly attriDoted than to'any other, it is the double reprefentation given to the tiers etat by Mr. Neckar, diieaiy contrary to every refpedta- ble authority. The preponderancy of the people withm the walls, united with the fpirit of revolt without, was mam- fcft in a moment ; the court divided ; and the Kmg, con- fcieniious and honeft ; thefe were not, arms to meet the preffure of the moment. The mob triumphed : and all the world knows what followed. If a tree is to be judged by its fruits, we may fairly affert. that perfoRal rcpicfcntation, which gives to the lowed of the people a dired mfluence m the government, muft lead in a great capital to abfolute anarchy, fuch as has ruined France. In any reprefcntative government, if perfons only are re- prcfented, - that is to fay, if a man without a {hillmg deputes equally with another who has property, and if men in the former fituation are ten times more numerous than thofe in the latter } an Hi'^ i^-.. e horrors ittriboted iren to the r refpedli- within the vas mani- rg, con- meet the ind all the ved by its frntation, fluence in } abfolute ily are re- a (hilling nd if men srous than chofen, At eir confti- le property i nothing ; fuppofe for How power prove what f all ideas, ever, have k cannot be an of other dmittcd are ; — but im- sams ; they ognize and rnment ac- ^ngland for jrpfratien af ; and wove s, to fccure Is ^ i V V- r 25 J h this cafe in point? Is this a great political cxperiir.ent till perfonal reprefentation ? Let the works of Mr. Maclcintofh, Mr. Chriftie, and many other able writers, who have printed warm panegyric? on the French conftitution, anfwer this queftion. They have anfwered it decifively ; for the faults foitnd, if any are that the reprefentation was not perfonal enough i the re- lult h.s {hewn it/fl perfona*, as to have annihilated property : this part of the qucftioii therefore is decided as foon as pro- pofed, ' There is a party in this kingdom who call loudly for a re- form in the reprefentation of the people, and who would have fuch reformation give a right of ele^ion indifcrimi- nately lo all mankind : I am myMf in the number of ihofe who wifli a reform, but not of fuch a complexion, nor at a moment like thisj I wifli the middlt claffes of landed pro- perty better reprefented ,, I wifh a new member foi every county, eleaed by men who poffefs not lefs than an hundred a year in land, and not more than a thoufand ; and an equal number of members deducted from the moft objection . ble boroughs. But i would live at Conftantinople rather than' at Bradfield, if the wild and prepofterous propofaions founded on the Rights of Man, were to become effedive in this kingdom, in other words, I have- property; and I do not choofc to live where thefirft beggar 1 met may, the fabre in one hand, and Rights ef Man in the other, demand a (hare of that which a good government tells me is my own. The faft is, that the French conftitution was fojnded abfolutily on perfonal reprefentation. ^y the letter of the law, certain perfjns were excluded, but by collateral parts of the fame fyftem, the mob was armed ; and the authors of the Revolution nrght not perhaps forefee the evt-nt that cledlions made at th? point of the bayonet, would be at the power of the bayonet. Examine not the letter of a vifion- arycode, but fxperiment, in the hiftary of Parish Mar- feillcs, &c. from the firft moment of the troubles. That many who wifh the reform, on popular principles, of that parliament i under the aufpices of which we enjoy ^ the «r ftj TiT' i i -BTS aaMi—i^iaMi m-.t exilts at prclent, with the temple of Dagon, by the Samplon «4 the mob. However rcfp.a.blo, well-mtaning, hut wrong- headed, men may be for their motives, Ut it not be ima- cined for a moment that there is any thing tefpeeiable in tnc levellers, your fellowsof the Rights of Man, whole princi- pies are not a jot better ^han ihok of highwaymen and houlc- brcakers i for the objed'i of both is equalizing property. * Of fnch men, confilled many of the Conrtituert AfTemWy in Trtnce 5 but the .bfolute foUy of the idea i« now a matter of txperm cnt : ih.t »<'^"'»jy made the iri.l. They fo.med a goveroirent on il . l^'gho '/ ^'■•' ''"^ '^ foundation the, bu,lt upon wa. fo (l.piHiry, that ihr wl'ole ed.fi.e h*; '"-"bl^d •bout iheir ear' in a fm^lc year. I b.rdly know any th.nR mure naulecu. than the converra.i..n one now and ihen hears ai preltni an ih<.;€ l.«e iht-rit.. farmers, r.gaid ex(.«iionce only ; ai'd witn thele clernat theoritts Hill retur lo iitw vifion. of their htattd ^r^n'S lit "' f'^'y. tbt lti»gtt I'i'J; il'«t ""W 'f Jriltini^ ha, ht, rxt>in"tnuH .i»,l /»««./ f-.n» *«« R»Pk»- atHTKD, mopaRTY iiDKSTauvip. We know then what to think ol the prn|wlal» for reform hitherio node in' this kingdom. f The firft Icuderi, in the Revulutinn faid this, ani they now feci the conie- quence. Ntckn, who gave the diuHt'litn, bar.iftiid with li>e lof- of an hiin- ilred ihoufand pounds; Seven who faid U //"•» fjl n>l in drgrace; snd Unr- n«ve, whi> aiked li the fii It blood fpilled was fo. pure, in a rluneeon ; /e **.;• pur ol Bailly fl>iiie« at prefent in a gir:et at London ; La I'liyilie teelt in tl'c prilun 01 We«el, that inlurreaion is iiut la ,"/ i fai»t Jet devtin ; and had Mi- r\l)eau tieen now alive, his head wuul.i iiavc been on a pike. Sec tbefe tlianK< s ad-nirably touched in vaiicus pjtTa^ies of La Dcruitrt 'I'uh'tau iii Paiih |'*r M- Peltier. ■ , Mr. "\: \ an.irchy in -that many ivc?, 1 have tonal rcprc- )f property j ;ir error was far i would going U* fit which alone ,ilc (urihtr ; , who drive liKt exiUs at ipfon oi the but wrong- not be ima- ,Slable in thp whole princi- rn and houfe- opcrty. f in frtnce ; buj nt: ihtt alTcmbly if Man, (nd the ifii e ha> tumblrit ure hiu!eon« than ■e ihti/fits. riel'- j, « work iit>iiii, bc- (our tmployment ? nt, and wriUen in NS ASB RrPkli- bai to ihink of the )w feci the confe- liie !ol- of.»n hiin- ii'.grace; snH Uiir- r!ungc-un \ It ifiit ajfilie te«lt in tbc iiri ; and hid Mi- Stc theft tliaiK"*' » <<» i'afi'i, |>*r M. . Mr. M mat'ton^ rouli [27 ] • At. Wyvil, in his Ijte pamphlet, talks of tempernt* refgr- lofiy anti ..f pointing the zeal of the ptopli to a mderiitt cor- lon of gritvamesy (p. 89.) As i»" it was poilible, alter ...-iing, by inflammatory publications, the mnbbiih fpirit, that you could draw the line of moderation, beyond which the populace fhould not paU ! Yft havt betHtar*ful to tnauirt tbt caufi^ and have httn affurtd, thatthi only rtafon is, that nom had th*powir of fn,ljtxfrt][mg thttr opinion without running tht grtattji dangtr : fFe artjhochd t$ k nk if fuch a popular dtfpotifm •. H perfonal reprefentation ba .. «n 'he Oiort period of four years, given the government of France into the hands of the mob— with two legiflative bodies in fucceffion moft compleatJy devoid of property j and, if the confequence has been the deftruaion of property, and delivery of its pofleffor$, to be butchered or banilhed, wc are furcly juftified in afferting that THI experiment OF PERSONAL REPRESENTATION HAS BEEN MADE AND Totally failed +. _,. + The iicobins bo«ft ihf governmeBt of Arneric*. too Toon to have txptri- „,ent for Aeir fupport, all coomrie. fully fetiW mnft h».e . nomcrou. .od in- Bo"ndliNlt ,»ort« govern : fl.e I., therefore, exempt from the gre.t d.fficultv of 111 government-bot the time will come when (he I. no longer ^«*.»~'» '» preffure-when Ihe hei « numerqut and indigent poor, pnifoned or enl.gtaeneU by a Itcentiou. nreli, it will then be found whether her lyrtem i> fo pcricCtM I Jne pretCDd. " The t.utl. is." fay. Dr. Wilfon, " th*t id our goveromenta m -> -■■ Mii ; . ii a fe-iw i i iilfft''"' ' w»3 «'>gw#^jt!ifr'- policical \g' C ^9 J to fall in^o nd profligate Irangely re- ere are about n brought to s, therefore, ig ihey could tall. What tob, who fc- hey diflribute the purpofes iind in every tt it the chief niftere, at the Paris an htld a facility per- rlitn, wthavi fund, that tht txfrtffmg thtir ^t artjhthd t$ reptefentation le government two legiflative trf property i m of property, d or baniihed, BXPBRIMBNT N MADE AND The rooa to have txptri- • numcroHt aiMl in* id at command, ha* n the great difficulty I looRtr free tram it* foBed or enlightened iem i> fo pcrfM^ai , in our iNivernnienta the ir. The Rights of Man were the next pillar of the French fyftem, and proved, in this eventful experiment, as vif'onary and mifchievous as perfonal rcprcfcntation. I'he conOitu- tion was built on a declaration of thefe rights \ and, as if every paragraph of the code had been formed only to be broken, practice has torn the whole into flitters, or trampled it under feet, with a contempt it never rx)K'rienceU in any other country. So that a man would go much readier to Conftantinople than to Pari;, for the exercife. Its com- mentator calls out for anfwers to his performance. The French Revolution is an anfwer round and complete ; there is not a page it does not reply to — there is not a pofition it does not damn : and the author has the daily mortification to fee his marvellous efforts furpafled by His colleagues in the legiflative banditti, who arrive at the la. : end by a (horter road -f by engraving the Rights of Man, with poniards, dipt in the beft blood in f^Vance. When that prince of incendiaries, reviewing a train of hit projefts, afks, with an air of triumph, after each, wmU ntt this bi a geed thing f This funly would L* a good thing t In like manner, take the French declaration of the Rignn of Man, and there is hardly an article to be found, to which the fuprtme, abrolute, and uncontronUble power remiint in tlic people : at aar conftitutioni are fuperior lo our legiflalttrr, fo the |>eof and the right to life became the power to cut throats. ARE THKi^r. GOOD THINGS f If declarations of right and govern- ments, founded on lem are really good, the relult muft be good alfo. But .hrfe arc the good things in praauc, that flow in a dirt-a line from the good things of Ticiich theory. The madnefs of tramferring fuch rights to Britain belongs to the mechanics and labourers at Stockport, •—who, com- plaining that the ufeful fcienrt of politics is r.egle£itd, aflVmble to diftufe it } they rcfolve that all men arc born equal in their rights, that the fovcreignty of every nation ouj^ht to be invcfted in the people as their birth-right } who have the chief right to poflefs all that labour products : and it is a very curious circumftance in thefe refplutions, that though they relblve that the liberty of the prefs ought to be inviola- ble, yet do they not give one atom of a relolution, that any man has a right to property, except the right of the mechanic and the labourer to all that labour produces. Thefe arc refolutions perfedtly congenial in their purview, to that de- gree of fccurity to property which the revolution produced m France. Thefe labourers and mechanics may tell us that tbtj dtttjl riots % but as they are fo deep in the/i«rr of poli- tics, they ought to know that their objed and their refoluti- ons fend pointedly and dire£ily to the utter ruin and dcftruc- tion of all government, peace, and fecurity of cither life or property. So alfo in the refolutions of a fimilar fociety at Derby, t tl^ey fpe=»k of tmptratt and hmeji difcujjiom^ and call on other focieties to adt with unanimity andfirmnefs^ un- til the peoplt bt too wi/t to bi imptfed upon \ and thtir infiutnct in tbe gevtrnmtnt be commtnfurati with thtir dignity and im- portance. Can any perfon, warai from the recital of the *' Miochcfler Herild, Sept. i. t MiiKbener Hntid, Aug. 18. horrors 7'i*, ■»iai-i«>i^>i»' I not annex fthisf H'lt iiid givin;^; it ible right of mc the power y priloii on point of the ijcr ) aiiil the I and govern- : relult muft I in pradlicc, s of I'lcnch ritain belongs — who, com« is ntgUniif ire born equal nation oui^ht tit } who have ;is : and it is ;, that though to be inviula- tion, that an/ ' the mechanic $, Thefe arc tf, to that dc- ition produced lay tell us thac fcltnct of poli- I their refoluti- inanddeftruc- f cither life or nilar fociety at difcujjtons.^ and xdfirmnifst un- ci thtir tnflutnc€ dignity and im- recital of the horrors ••^iw ^ia»j"" "'' ' "if*"** itefT' -J [ 3' ] hoffflrs committed hy the " fwiiii.'h mn!tiru>t*'* In France ~by the moll enli^hteri'd of all thr mob, of France — who have m»(t (ludied \.h^: filencf of politicly iind moft frequented focieties fimilar to tnclc — cjn jny m^n of pio|>eify, ac- qu.iintcil wiih thcfe ahom'n^tion^ — ri ad fuch rclolution without indignation? Tcmptratt and Imitji (lij'cujjion ! Why the dilcullion* of tht Jacubios were doubtlcis oi.ce icmpc- r4tc \ their honcfty is another qu«(iioii. Hut let us not be «'icccivrd bv finooth words at the outlet, 'f h»rf» men demand THAT which they cannot hiive without prir-ffing the power of feiziiig our property and cutting our throats — ihcy ail'oci- atcand combine, in order to attain their end. To fupprcfs at once, by vigorous and dccifive mcafures, fuch hot-bids of foditiui and plunder, \% the firH duty of p4rliam?nt ; rcfolu- tions lifs cfFcnhve than thefe began the bufinefs in France j we have fecn the event. Temperate rejdutions were the theory j plunder, rapine, and murder the practice. Give ui cur rights^ is an expreffion which has been ufed with a fingular cmphufis j the reply once proper, was an abftradt rcafoning on ihe nature of thofe rights : we have no>; fomething mucli furcr to direiSl our judgments ; andean anfwer with Itrill reference to the fa:ts that govern the pucftioii, " you have your rights ; ^ m arc in pofl'eflion of every ri^ht that is confident with fatcty to the life and pro- perty of oihers ; — lo give yon more will endanger both, — to give you mitch more will infallibly dcftroy ihcm, and even- tually yoi;rielves. You h^ve, therefore, aul your rights, foi you have alt that are confKt-nt with your happiriefs •, aiwJ th for there is no provifion whatever to fecure to the reprefentatives of the people the obedience of the people ; and we accord- incly fin.l, that all is anarchy, on their own jacobin autho- ritv; in the firft experiment there was no fecurity againlt the perfidy of a court ; and in the fecond, none againft the violence of the people ; to get rid of one evil they plunge into another, till, in the accumulation of oppontcmirchiets, there is no better relief than Marat's grand fpecific of cutting off 1 50,000 heads. In this argument, I take the jacobin around of fuppofing the court perfidious ; wluch is an im- pudent lye, for a prifoner, deprived of his rights, cannot be perfidious. ■ Perhaps it will be faid the prefent experiment is not finiflied, and that when a better executive powe. •seflablito- ed, things will go well ; but this is abfoluely inadmiiribl* i fol the whole force and colour of Jacobin argument in bng- land is, that the legiflative power is too weak, and the exe- cutive too ftrong i and that the remedy of this ey.l is to let the Commons be really the reprefentativc of the people : Now this is the cafe in France-and what is the evil ? Why, precifely, that the people will not obey the men chofen by themfelves j-they do not love the Convention enough to have confidence in it ; this is an incurable evil, which no modification of the executive can affcd j it ftrikes at the heart of perfonal rcprefentation-the mob ck-as, and the mob does not know how to chufe, and ftill kfs to obey. i •-., I As ■*i ' ..I ' Jlti^ i WjK ?""* ** if you mud fecond cx- jually i for prefentatives we accord - ubin autho- irity againft ; againft tiie they plunge tc mifchiefs, lie of cutting the jacobin :h is an im- s, cannot be ment is not isedablifh- nadmiiriblc i uent in fcng- and the cxe- evil is to let the people : evil? Why, en chofen by n enough to ,'il, which no Irikes at the t'ds, and the to obey, f 33 ) III. As to equality, the laft fupport of the French fyftcm, it is too farcical anijj'idiculoiui to merit a ferious obf;;rvation.— it is worthy only of Monfieur Egatiti ! who has wafted three hundred thoufand pounds a year, in order to ftiind on record the firft fool in turopr, and to give the belter part of his countrymen occafion locall that alfumption great impudence} for he who was below all, could bi.- <'jm<*/ to none. A genius, who facriiiced the firft property of any fubjf^il in Europe, and the name of Bourbon, to become the fubjetSl of debate inanaiTembly of taylors, ftay-makers, barbers and butchers, whether he (boold not be baniihed from that country which he had difgraced by his crimes ! The equal right of all citizens to equal laws, was declared in the firit conllitutioii ; the new equality of the Conven- tion, therefore, means fomcthing more. Equality of right to equal juftice, — that in the law all ire equal j — this equality was decreed by the Conftituent Afiembly, and clearly afcer- tained to be the law of the land ; the new declaration of equality muft therefore mean fomething more, or it meant nothing ; if equality of rights were only in conten'plat on, why call the year 1702 the firft year of equality? the fourth of liberty and firft of equality ? A clearer proof can- not be defired, that the equality of 1792 was not the equality of 1789 ; let the writers and fpeakers who aft'ett the term in the two points to mean the fame thing, reconcile the abfurdity if they arc able. . To the apprehenfion of common under- ftanding, property was glanced at ; — that the French popu- lace fo underftood it, there is abundant proof indeed, for propofitions were immediately made for the equal divifion of wealth, and received in a manner that left no doubt cf the meafure being perfedly to their taite ; and thefe propofitions have been carried into execution much more than commonly admitted into England. The peafantry paying no taxes, while they force their richer neighbours to pay to the laft fiiilline, -is diredly in point. 'iW As 'J [ 34 J - • : But the curfcof thefe principles of equality is, that they never can allow tranquility to be the inheritance of a people j fuppofing it poflible for a country, infefted wilh fuch doc- trines, to be well governed, fuch good government will in- fallibly generate, wealth and inequality j and by confequence the neceffity of new civil wars and confufion to reftore the equality which would forever tend to variation'; thus, under iuch fine fpun principles, peKC could never inhabit j tran- quility would be banifhed, even by the merits, fuppofing there were any, of the fyftem 5 and new arrangements of property would be periodically to make, at the caprice and tyraimy of thofe who, pofleffing nothing, would look to confuhon as their fupport, and to anarchy as their birth- right. Such have been the three leading principles of the French Revolution j perfonal reprefentation, the rights of man and equality j and the queftion for us to decide upon (a greater queftion never was before a nation,) is this : Shall we imi- tate the example of France, and by umpering with that Conftitutron to which we owe all our profperity, haaard fo immenfe a flake of happinefsf There are men to be found who demand this, and even fooietiet aflbchited to enforce Rtftrm* As the queftion has been difcufled to fatiety, the obfervfe- tion& that follow (hall be brief :— It is not uncommon to hear the expreffion of rearing tht C$Hftihaim U itt ttigimalfmr'aj. ^Xwo words (I) this purity will not be entirely mifplaced. This is an expreifion we ofwn meet wHb in the v^ritings and fpeeches of men, who appiircntly are not very intimately ac- quainted with the ftate of reprefentation in former .periods. It tends ftrongly to give an idea to the ignorant and unwary^ that the conftitution has declined. ariH is at prefcnt in a worfo ftate for the liberty of the people than it was ia foruier periods ; and that the evib now complained of wece not t* be found in its praflice or principles at timet alluded M. There is no oiiin acquaintf^d with the hiftory. of England who does not know that this is agrdii error, and that the cir- cumftances now moft complained of, fuch as inequality of repteieatation f is, that they iceofa people i ith fuch doc- nment will in- by confequence I to reftore the nT) thus, under inhabit} tran- ifits, fuppoftng rangements of the caprice and would look to as tbsir birth- s of the French ;hts of man and upon (a greater Shall we imi- !ring with that lerity, hazard fo nen to be found ed to enforce !ty, the:obf»vii- coannon to hear ts t/tigimalfmritf. tirely mifplaced. the writings and ry intimately ac» former .periods, ant and unwary;, trefcnt in aworfo it was in foruier d of wece not t* tnes alluded to. kiry.of Englamd , aM that the cir« as inequality of reptelcaution leprcfcntation and burgage tenures, took place ages before the Revolution, and were eflabliihed before we had any re- gular conftitution at all. Let us throw a rapid eye over a Kw inftances, which will be fufficient to (hew that there ne- ver was, even in idea, fuch a principle as equal reprefenta- tion, and that as to the pradiice, no reformer has yet been able to fbew its exiltence. Camden, who wrote in Quren Elizabeth's reign, fpeak« ing of Dunwich, fays, that it lits in folitude and defalation. Orford, he fays, was once populous. At Eye, he nnds no- thing but the rubbifl) of an old monaftery, and the ruins of a caltle. He fays of Caftle-Rifing, it it ruinattd^ and as it W«ri expiring for ago. Yet this place had its charter to fend members the laft year of Philip and Mary ; and Eye, the 13th of Elizabeth. This looks very little like any intention to give places of confequence only that privilege. Camel- ford, in CornwaH, he lays, is a little village. Leftwitfaiel is a little town^ and not at all populous. 6t. Germains, he calls a fmall village of nothing but fijhermen's huts^ yet this charter was no older than Eli^pitbeth. I have no time, at prefent, to fearch for the ftate of many boroughs in a former age, but thefe inftances are fuf- ficient to fliew, not only that tne cuntlitution ftood in this refpc£t on as rotten a foundation in the reign of 1 lizabeth, as at prefent, but that charters for lending members to the Houfe of Commons were aduaily granted to places of no kind of confideratton. To what period then are we to look for that ideal perfedion in this part of the conftitution, which it not to be found in it at prelent ? fliftorians are agreed in the Parliament of 1265, fum- monsd by a ufurpvr, being the origin of the Houfe of Com- mons '.* the Earl of Lcicefter ordered the attendance of re- prefentatives, from fuch places only as he thought proper, that is, from fuch as were knowvn to be in his incereft ; and it is now unknown whether the knights of (hires weie not • I tinaw k hM b«ei» very W<1ly •fferteJ, that f me boroughs, particularly St. Altwn't, f«at iMmbeit in the reign «>f King joh:,— but it is i j,/>/>oJittw, and founded on the impttcation ut a fingle \voi>l : U i» a grali er>JMMU rights from the fword of a conqueror: Nobly extorted ; but deriving from no other right. It is now ie- eally cftablifoed, and has the fanflion of ages to give u the venerut on that, with wife men, belongs to ant.enl efta- blifemcms i and thofe pcrfons who demand the conftitution of fome preceding age, (which they ught to demand, when they fpealc of ^«r/0', greater tbap ...at of the PrcJen? aae) as a fvftem better than what we enjoy, are bound to nime the period, when the liberty of the fuheut was in theory better defined, or in pradicc better prptedted. There is indeed a period to which our reformers allude with l.neular pleafu.e, and which is in their contemplation oftener t.^ian thev name it ;— the republic in the middle of the laft century ; there was th« purtty admired by fo many } a period, that bore fome refemblan^e to the prefent in trance. The parliament which met in 1640, arc termed by a female hiftorian, '^Pat.iots whofe number, virtues, and abilities, were greater than had ever been convened in any age or country." If fuch men were guilty of enormities and ty- ranny, it muft .rife from the f.tuation, and not from the peculiar ftrudurc of their bofoms. Two words will d.f- patch their aaions : they palled a triennial bill, and fat them- leives 13 years. They quarrelled with the fC.ng for levying ■" • aoojoool. ^■T^i^^'i^ followed thU haiever towni fes, in whom brtning writer r of centuries {ifted, for one if the people ? mt by the ori- iilly formed m v«d the name only of fa^ls -, that great xra, hem'i to term s or beautiful, iry we demand) f England wac udal fovereigns qaeror: Nobly It is now le- ss to give ii the antient efta- he conftitution ht to demand, of the prcfent fy are bound to fubje6t was in jtcued. eformers allude r contemplation le midUle of the by fo nnany } a ;fent in France. ned by a female ;s, and abilities, in any age or rmities and ty- nd not from the words will (hf- 11, and fat thcm- ^ing for levying aoojoool. [ 37 J ' ' aoo,oool. a year illegally, and in five years they raifed, by their own fingle authority, FORTY MULiONS, fully equal to one hundred millions at prcfent— They were accufed bf one of their own party of dividing 300,000!. among their own members— An accufation highly probable, when it it upon record, that in tlic affeffments of ihofe infinite bur- thens they laid «n the people, their own memberG were excmpte guifli them from the Hode of Lords. If they were rtsUf the reprefentatives of tkt ptoplty they might in theory be good, or better ', but diey would be fomething elfe thah what tbty artt and confequently difiercnt from that which has rendered us a great, a free, and a happy nation. But there is not the ieaft reafon to think that tfiry were ever deemed the reprefentatives of the people ; certainly not the Knights for the 40s. qualification of dehors, the value of money confidered, was nearer 40I. of prefent money. The r « at tc tht ilcely to lofc wevcr, is of e admitted i mierancy of the changes population I lo argue for^ the Englifli. Commons, f tf tht pet' o purport te no other si- Hoitfe realfy inft ratiuna'l ere is a fern- neceflary te Aippofe that sfentatives of Being once Phey purport I («nate, and en by certain ;ge c^ ele^f- vrthout ufing station. To a very inac- be called by IS, to diftin- they were ;ht in theory ling elfe thati n that which ion. lat they were certain!] not irs, the value :fent money. The C 39 ] The notion of reprefentation and delegation of riahts and privileges from the clears, has vitiated and turned to con- fufton fo many ideas on the fubjefl, becaufe writers and par- liaments themfelvea, to fuit the purpofes of a moment, have (bought it for their intereft to be efteemed fomething different froin what they really are. Theelcaors of members of parliament do not delegate powers, nor entrufl privileges, if, by delegation, is meant the transfer of fomething pof- feflcd by thofe who depute } for the electors have neither thofe powers nor thofe privileges, and therefore cannot dele- gate them. Hut the members when eleded, and in combi- nation with the other branches of the legiflature, afltmw. and poflefs, and give themfelves fuch powers and privileges, which thofe did not poffcfs who fent them. Hence, then, the frptennial a£i was juft as confiitutional as the biennial. But, on the other hand, fuppofe a nation in any period of Confufion or anarchy, or all conftituted powers, ■flioald, hj nniverfal confent and fufFrage, t\t€t a convention or parlia^ men;, fur the purpofe of declaring what in future (hall be the Naticnal Will; here you have palpably all the ideas of reprefentation realtzcdj and fuch deputies ought to fpeak the dirence with fuch an aifembly in its origin, its progrefs, or its fundions. It is not neceflary to charaflerife fuch a goverament, the csrfc of France is di- re^ly in point. If the Houfe of Commons were fuch reprefeirtatives, and renewed in ftiort parliaments, they would be guided by the pafltons, folly, and madnefs of the people; we fee ia France what that leads to : at prefent they are guided "by their own wifdom. But tity art ctrrupt and bribtd. If they ^e bribed tn order to ttti wifely, it is an argument direftly againft you, a*»d tends to prove that there is fomething on the virge of danger in all numerous alfemblies, which, if not contiouled by prerogative or influence, would hazard the public peace. We know, on experience, that rhey do ad Wifely, for nothing but a wife government can mrice a happy |i«Qy>le. If the nature of f ch an aflembly dctnand* J- ■*M*i> cheaper if tons to a£l aa ■ the vice* of made to con- je infinity to ) depend only T light you of the purfti les of the le« vents it from Isilneccflary ceflfary, how e popular re - in which all affible? The )in fadty and Bui grant nt, and fup- on what will virtue: but ried. If the )ecuUtien of a build on as-. ) agree, that ofuive poiTef* and expefta- have only to To which th the philo" ' charge, and oes not fpeak nonont ought one for thofe ntrary line of enjoyed for a ring preciTely to f 4» ] !• lh« Ke«ro voices having driven, by menaces and G blooJ, !'! •MiM ^. 'H mm Ui\\ HI [ ♦» J dethroned hr King, and "O' "\" ' . rj,^ Convention. yoic in P»rit .« the org.ii of l S°'°°° •»«" ' ' ,. ", Jou y mat. rotien borough., aie th.y a. bad a. ih.. ( The abfoluK nonftnfeof .11 >ha. Paine fay'«".'5'„''";»* (which w« 'i'V"'''''T ^.hlr u'^if .narchy) to make a ment of J day affembliJg at FarU. to deftroy that »llo. A.V argument I have heard much urged in thi«-;h»t f^e- obftinacy of the leginaiure grantmg nothing, <'^''«* '"^"'* . and the violent party would f.nk for v»ant of notice. InrcDivinKtothi* common olj*aion, I do not mean Jo ^ir'lt,!h7t all innovation (hould always be rrjedcd i I would ...A-'..Ji. -..I. ^, . c« or fiiencei ;ion, which all ! Convention, iiine fpe^cle, 1 the galleriet, I exifted in the id no lonsrer. vcreign will of ,ich it liberty, 1 ! Reprefen- llible certainty, , of all other e people : 280 e } anH 1 i.<^oo « n Ba«) •• »ad M this i ton thediftinft ■pplied not to a erica, but con- conftitution of lional Aflembly, • Conftitution i chy) to "lake a f tquti rtpriftn- ., had tbi fewer tern if by ti'^ \ conftitMtion be of the goverii- roy that alfo. this — that fome- , in order to fe- it urged that the , drives modeiatc loderate in their cffeaed or ev.en : at prefenl with n the reformers, ,f notice. [ do not mean to rjeacd i I would ( 43 3 only bring to the recolleaion of moderate men, certain circumftancet which it it fair to weigh. The dubs, aiTocittiont, and focieties, who aflcmble with viewi of enforcing reformation, on certain plant projifled by various writers, fome moderate, fome violent, have publifhed repeatedly to the world the principle* on which they would found the national freedom, and the mulnf^rious charges they would make in the conftitution j thefe very ffcnerilly go to great Ifngthi. While iinaginationt are heated by the example of France ; while the moft unlimited panrgyric it profufely lavifhcd on the Revolution \ while The demandi made are of a nature that threaten «>!«/"«''« overthrow of our government \ while thofe Righti of Man, which have deluged France in blood, are openly proftflcd at leading principles in the improvement* called for hrre, it may furelv be admitted in candour, at a fair reply to the moderate-That to give a little, when a great deal it de- manded, doet not feem the way to quiet clamour y and when, by a thoufand publicationt and refolutiont, it it de- clared, that Personal Reprkiintation it the panacea for our evils, (though under a hundred variout names,) and demanded even with threats and menacet, it muft be palpabltf to every confiderate man, that fmall conceffiont to fatiffy the moderate would be lott in the agitation of the moment— defpifed as the coiiccffions of timidity i wrelted from fear not granted by conviftion. They would be tnade a vam. gc ground for new demands ; and clamour, inftead of being lilenccd, would vociferate with renewed vigour. All demands, therefore, that come under the theory or prac- tice of perfonal rcprcfentation, fliould be rcliUed on principle with ftrmnefs, and a determined refolution never to take that firft Itfp to anarchy, confufion, bloodfhtd, and Jasobinilm, which, in one word, fums up all that is atrocious in political depravity. This ought to be conGdered as the only l.ne .ut demarcation clearly defined, that feparaies moderation of ' fentimcnta from infanity of innovation. «» When the right," fays Paine, •' to m«ke a conftltutioii is cnabliftied in a nation, there i* no fear that it will be em- ployed to its owp inmry. A nation can have no iiiierelt in ^ ^ Cj * bc»»i ,innui^^jtKf'--i-. ^^V^^0H»4fWi : JHNfeaiS; . ■. will appear from . th« ^afe, happinefs, and fecurity of all the lower claiTes, hence poiltbly virtual reprcfentation takes place,, even where the real fecms moll remote. If virtual reprcfentation is good, would not real reprefen- vstion be bettc;r ?— -No, replies experiment ; it has been tried in France, and failed entirely ; real perfonal reprcfentation is not a people well governed, but the government of the people ; thf his fedition. it was the con- he ri^ht to cut Lch more than er deftru£tion> ig wrong is a zTtRy (he chofe 'orth of fuch a u^ht to the teft prefentation qf ly in praAice; ;rhaps» are dif- both landed^ nted i and that rill appear from lower claiTeSf ce. even where t real reprefen^ t has been tried eprefentation is rnment of the if parliament , and it can a£k the wifdom of it. While ex- I .to this prin- profperity that infaniiy to ritk he crude deduc- Dvement ; ideal i this IS pleaded Jn grounds of not change the >> on no better t>Ql?nt thitt has n equal friends ly and they are Itcadiiy ■ C 45 J .ftcadily foat this moment ; under the Conflituent Anerrbly they approved, and publiflfied panegyrics on the annihil.uion of orders : under the next aff.mbiy they rejoiced at the de- ■oiolition of royalty; and under the Convention all the hor- .rors we have feen are infufficient to remove their approbation- Does not this conduit prove clearly, that when thefe politi- cians tell us they mean and wifh only moderate and tem- perate reform, they infult our underftandings ? If they really defired any tbir ; Abort of the total overthrow of our government, would they contimie to enlift, to fpeak, anench events, cf- fedled as they have been by profcriptions and mai&cre f You want only temperate reform ? — I will tell you what you want by the company you keep— if you are a party in aflbcia- tions, you want that for which thofe aflbciations com- bine :— if you call for perfonal reprefentation, you call for THAT which perfonal reprefentation has given to France j if you demand a popular Aflembly, fubjeftcd to popular phrenzy, you demand the cfFeds which fuch an Alfenibly {iroduced with our neighbours. You would go only cetuin engths— butyou herd with thofe, and give them your coun- tenance who you know would pufti events much further ; •have we not, therefore, reafon for judging diredtly from your actions, that you mean more than you think political to avow ? It is curious to remark the conduft of certain men, cas- ing themfelves moderate, who make the tour of reforming focieties, but quit them when th^y go too far, Theie are fuch now clamorous amoogft the Friends of the PeapUy who have ftruck their names out of the Conjiitutional Satiety, as they found their views too bold : this is the exact miniature of a Revolution; the iirll inftigators want, perhaps, a mo- derate reform of abufes, and when their companions diivc at more, they feparate ; but fuch companions do not ftop their purfuit for want of moderate men, who, by their coiuitenance, brought, the ill- dcfjgning into coniequencc, aiid it 1$ then no longer in their power to fupprels them. Thu» the Con/litMtictnil $otietj, though quitted bv the re- foeiaahle, were not therefore filent, but at the bar ot the C^atvtotiftQ qf France.hail th« coming Convention of £ng- ... land : !■ 1 i -— il.rt— J g i i,;..--r -T li j« i I&.J, **iij,. ■; ''^^^IfWl 4l»~ass»sj«l< m.&..^..,^ ff^ 'Hi A t 46 ] land: theie men will do the fame with the fritnds of the teople: wdcn they have nurfcd upmifchievous men into a lo- ciety of importance, they will be driven out if they refufe to go all lengths, and will find that the only refult oy"*'^ moderate views has been to promote and brmg into efficacy the immoderate dcfigns of thofe who think our Conftitution the temple of Dagon, and that to level it in the dult is a duty, in order that out of its ruins may arife the " heavenly form" and " delightful vifion" of a Fiench Convention. What is theconclulion ?— That the firft linrs of difcontent are in faa the moft dangerous ; that moderate reto;'"> «« any reform at all, on principle, is a fure ftep to all that followed reform in France; jacobinifm, anarchy, ana blood. If any attempts, at fo perilous a feafon, to reform the conftitution, muft be attended with fuch unqueftionable danger, reafoning as we may juftly do on 'he experimwit of France 5 it will follow, that tVERY INT bREST m this kingdom is bound torefift, .with the utmoft folicitude, fuch mifchievous projeds, the execution of whit! r.monetl our neighbour?, has deluged a great kingdom v/:t,. ^tvcrJal ruin. THE LANDED INTEREST is immediately aiid moft eOentially concerned; for the poifon of equality in principle and in French practice tends dircdly to their rum : ihe fat* of landlords in France is too well known to want repetition ; their eftatcs fe.zed ; their chiteaus plundered and burnt; their wives and daughters violated ; and them- selves either murdered or driven into exile ; and this to an almoft incredible extent, i have feen details which Ihew. that the landed property of more than half the kingdom has changed hands. The farmers have not much more to boalt of, for they have paid dearly for their exempt-on from tythes in the violent attacks made on the fize gf farms and conle- cucnt divifioM ; the hard filver which, under the »ld govern- ment, was the price of thtir produfts, is become paper de- preciated to half its value under the new; and even this wretched fubftitute th=y aie not allowed to receive at a tair market ; their trtatment in this refped has been already de- tailed : fut-v,;ted, and confequenily cheated m "»"on = at market p!unde;ed by the mob ; ax home plundered by the military. ■1HH- fritndi of the ncn into a fo- if they refufe efult of their g into efficacy r Conftitution I the duft is a he " heavenly i Convention. [ of difcontent ite reform, or :p to all that anarchy, and to reform the unqueftionable experiment of 1 tREST in noft folicitude, i\az\ rmongft v/itl. iivcrfal mediately and of equality in f to their ruin : nown to want aus plundered sd i and them- and this to an s which (hew, e kingdom has h more to boafl; •on from tythes ms and confe- the old govern- ;come paper de- i and even this receive at a fair been alrcadjr dc- ;d in taxation : ilundered by the miliury. t 47 J ■ tnilitary. Are thefe faas to make our Englilh yeomemy and farmers wiOi to try their fkill at mending the conftitu- tion ? Are they calculated to give us any relpect for clubs andfocieties, whofe objea is the reform of that conftitution which has rendered our fituation directly the rcverfe of France ? Do fuch fafls give us reafon to love the men who want to convert your plough-fllares into pikes, and your coulters into daggers? Who would recommend you to change your fickles for the fabres of a company of patriot contraftors? Gentlemen who have {hewn ihemfelves ex- ceedingly adroit in cutting down fields of French corn. I wi(h you to make experiments in hulbandry, but do not let them be of this complexion : do not let other men, and ef- pecially reformers, make experiments on your property, your bread, and your blood ; three objeas upon which many experiments have been tried in France, and we have feen that the fuccefs has not been fuch as gives us reafon to try our hands at the fame work : for, in one word, their pro- perty is gone J for bread they have the bark of treetj and as to blopd, it is the only manure the fields of France have feen, from the firft moment (he lifiened to wformers. Is fhe then \x> us an example or a warning I Traders and manufafturers can pr«fently convert their wealth into money, ?nd fly with it oh paper wings wherever property remains fecure ; but the farmer is chained to a fpor, his property is invefted in the foil he cultivates ;— he has no power of movement }— he muft abide the beating of the ftorm, be itpitjlcfs as it may.— To him, therefore, the new fanned doArines of equality ought to appear in all their native deformity j for they arc doftrines that tend direftly to his dcftruftion j and from whofe peftilenlial influence h^ cannot, like oiKers, ^y. THE MONIpD INTEREST, in moments of ccn- vulfion, have fome advantages from the jnore portable na- ture of their wealth, but, the warning of France may in- ftiua, that nothing can efcape the depredations flowing Jrom the Rights of Man. Their national debt, amounting to 300 millions, fterling, has been treated not altogether with the delicacy (hewn to the public creditors of England, for every fort of bankruptcy, but a nominal and declared one bas been committed j «nd the intercft on funds and mortgages <§•#.■«•» ij- \ iim C 48 J mortgages paiJ> has been in aflignats : if a man (bill jftock, he receives aflignats, and though aflignats are Crtable, what is their value on the exchange of >ndon, or the Stadt-houfe at Aniftndam * ? Of ninety millions ilerling of former currency, eighteeh twentieths have difappeared. The monied men have, there- fore, lod Aock and ca(h } credit has followed ; To, without funds, credit or ca(h, and nothing feen in the immenfe vacuity but ailignats, the monied interefl of France muft flourift maryelloufly. Is there anything in this pit^ure thatfliould Bake the monied intereft of England fotid of revolutrdns ? ' Unite thefe circumftances with the horrible deficiency of the prefent year's revenue ; the cxpence they are at in bard eaflt for purchafing foreign corn, to prevent their ftarving; the immenfe efFortt they muft make for the next $:ampaign ; the growing habit of the people not to pay taxes ', and the ttoivcrfal decline of both manufactures and commerce i it oiuft then be apparent to every eye that tlieir gafconading decree of war againft the conflitutions of all their neigh- bours, is an effort of defpair ; ihould rebellions faril them, — ihould they mifs the fafety which I^aine befpoke for them, ** when France ihall be furroundfid with Revolutions^ fiie win be »o peace and fafety ;" they will find internal ruin of erery fort diAeminating too fad to be fupported : The people will had them(«lve» in a fituation helple(i, proportioned to their fuccefs i for their paper, on the frontier, is not of half the valite it bears in the interior of the kingdom. This is their real fource of weakncfs, and it is abfolutely irre- mediable i nor will the farmers continue to cultivate the ,* The •(IrniQiine tnd daily ceinage of tftigiitt;, by the Coavention, muft fi»»e effe£)t which they do not leetn clearly 10 hn'.»e ; fforfi their readineft to jftuc paper, k flionlil I'eem that they expir d'rfart ; Cc difcredit vi*nkde ce fjae lea eirttgrta en odt ic^jndu na m^ltirode tie 'JUL M.>i.)!. Dec 14. ground *.»ltl!«— ^ a mjin (bill aflignats are exchange of n ♦ ? Of 7, eighteeh have, there- fo, without ncnfe vacuity nuft flourim e thatfliould volutions ? deficiencj of ire at in bard icir ftarving; t campaign ; xes } and the ommerce ; it gafconading their neigh- - fail them, — Ice for them, olutions) (he ernal ruin of : The people oportioned to is not of half m. This is rolutely irre- cultivate the roavention, mud their reMtineft (e ip>.'e of the r«me ed. The lOMant fergtrt of ftlfe ige is not by men > ar.4 ail the cne- culatiun irrmririe ideri, 4nd 90 ti.e >t well provided : Micrt, who were "his txceflive in- uiely relufin^ to e vetilknt (Mt re- n odt rc^jndu fitf ground -limtm [ 49 ] ground for more than the phyfical ncccffaries of their fami- Jies, i( paid only in a currency continually depreciated; — annual famines enfue ; — in a word the feeds of ruin lie fcar- tered fo thickly that the moft carelefs attention mult recog- nize them. The nation feeling feverely that equality meain but equal mifcry \ and that the Rights of Man produce only the right to be ftarved — will revolt, and call in, Ihould they not he too much prejfed from without, their lawful fovereign as the beft and readiell means of fafety. THE COMMERCIAL INTEREST of France ha$ been completely laid in the duft. Her colonies, by far the greatell fource of her trade, have been totally ruined. Equality and the Rights of Man have, to the fugar of Ame- rica, been as propitious as to the wheat of France. Aflig- nats (Iruck with a paify all the imports of the kingdom, and her exports, after the deflruction of St. Domingo, were a handful. 'I'he horrible convulfions in the great tov/ns drove the merchants, and mafter manufacturers, with the remnant of their wealth, into other countries, or funk them in ruin at home. We have been told indeed, with fome degree of confi- dence, that the French fabrics are not at prefent in fuch a fiate of depredion as fome have reprcfented. As I bavc very late intelligence from that kingdom, and on which I can rely, I may venture to afiert with confidence, and I could confirm it by referring to many reprefentations made to government by the municipalities of the manufadturin;^ towns, that every one wrought from foreign materials, fuch as the whole bufinefs of Lyons, and a confiderable portion of the woollen fabrics are in abfolutc uin ; the maflers and undertakers, bankrupts or fled, and the workmen begging-, in the llreets, fubfifting by charity, or wandering vagabond banditti — the brigands that infe«St the country, by en- deavouring to wring from the peafantry a portion 6f that bread they are unable fairly to earn ; fuch is the lot which the new doftrines of equality have produced for Lyons, the frcond city in France, as well as numerous other places thac once were flourifhing. The governing party in fuch towns have nothing to give the people but the flattery of equal rights ; they ftarve on equality till the number, in the fame dtl'perate fituation becomes grent enough for their /acred duiv H " «f .1 |! W i II m p ' , ' [ 50 J r • . ♦ . — of infurrc>S\ion, then ihcy rife, knock their governors on the head, anJ are themfclvts eUSkd into their places \ but this cures the evil fcarceiy for one in - tive which induces maUer manufacturers to continue (heir bufinefs is x\iv^X oi getting rid of Jjftgnats \ they fold their ilock in trade when paper was a belter commodity, and ac- cumulating, by degrees, what grew every day worCe and wcrfe, alarm incited thtm to do any thing rather than keep in their poffcfrion fuch a dcprtciatcd currency i dreading ihe iiievitrtble momcru v/hen it would be worthlcl?, they feared to ketp what a breath might diiTipate ; ihey rcg.^rded it as iHi object of terror, and employed their workmen merely as a means of getting rid of what they knew carried a value merely nominal ; and paid leadily what ihey kept infe- curely. , Turn your eyes from Frisnce and vie'w the commercial flate of Kngland. Contemplate the immenfe — language canuoi. fwell beyond the magnitude of reality,— the gigantic fabric reared on the induftry of this kingdom : Throw into one vail: amount the public funds, — the paper circulation of every fpecie*, — the gold and iilvcr, whether money or plate, — thi nianufailuri'ig eftabliftiments that have railed new ciiii*, ;is it were, by enchantn-i nt, — the capitals invtfted in ro.ids, ca!;>.ls, and o:hcr public works, — the fl;ipping, ma- gazines, ;!t'.d mercantile wealth c.f a thoufand kinds, and J^uead throiglout the globe. How would this enormous ti/tal v.hich, in Lngland, has been nurfed to maturity by the fond tendtriiers of partnlal protedion— how would it fup- port the fiorm which the Rights of Man have kindled ui France? Mortal would be the blow. To touch on fuch a Ijippoliiion is ciiough j evtry reader can piiluie the univcrful fecj.e i'lffill lIllMIT Wl.JL'L ill-lHij. i - ..^•*- pvernors on the laces i but this d; the mafs re- in foy for fuch es : Knocking i the cxercifc of rmcii bring lla- crs. * up native com- aecaule there is ine a little more I informed, and iat the «inly mo- o continue their they fold their nodity, and ac- day worCe and rather than keep ency i dreading worthlcl?, they ; ihey regarded vorkmen merely f carried a value hey kept inl'c- the commercial lenfe — languai»e i',— the gigantic n : Throw into »cr circulation of money or plate, avc raifed new iitaU invtfted in e ft;ipping, ma- fand kinds, and d this enormous 5 maturity by the w would it fup- have kindled in touch on fuch a Eurc the univcrfiil feci.e [ 5' J fcenc of ruin that would blot fo fair a canvas. Rut how h-'S this prndif;ious capi::;l, iiriiig much above five hun.ir.-d mil- lions (IcriiiiL.,, bcui formt-d ? HY THK SKCURITY WHICH 'I'ldK imn ISIl CONSTITUTION (iiVKS TO PKOPhRTY: Not by equality, ju-rfonid rtpr.. nla- tifjn, Kiglits of iVtan, Jacohinifcn, and the vile tiK'orir-. by which poor pri>fli^",:\(cs, wanting to be rich rcij^ues, become practical robbcis ! Such weic not tlie paths of the commer- cial profpc.ity of Britain ! THE LAIIOURING INTEREST; the pcifonal in- v, trrelt of ttin iahcujr; , , -r has been afitked in an in- Ifancr, theninre remai.. .oje as it wasagrouiiil cf ncculati.m aiiaihU the old government. Thofc who ncoll ct tl^e cnm- pUints ao.iinit it, on account of cnunti) nen being tnrr,j|,.d for the miiiti;i, and conO {[u^'ntly liaMe lo be clied intoicr- vicc, have probably rt;;.i much, in the |/ui'i'" prints, of ilic; number of voluntmrs, which floci: f.om ail j. ins of France to the Trn ies on the frontiers. Until within ihele few d^vF, I uas ignorant and fuol.fh enough to b. 'i-.-.e th;it thcfc were rcW/y Volunteers J but an Eni^lifh libourcr, rctiirr.iiijr fr(;ni a fann in France, to which 1 had fent him, h. s txjhlaiiicd to me the nature ot this voluntary ft-rvicc. All rhe men in the parilh, able to ferve, were enroliiJ, a:)! '.I'en drvw lutp to lee who fliculd ;:o to form tl;e nun-.be ■ d mrai.dtd ; and, though an *::.n;;liflimrn, mv informant bimfcif drew. Siicii is the mode of c.ilbm^ funh VOI.UN TIMERS, an4 U> groAly e deceived by names, which cndcr a fembUnce of treedoni, cover th'; vt^iicfl tyranny th.in can dii'-race a people, and jiri'tifely in thofe articles w^iiib, unJrt the old fovemment, were made the fobj'^dl of the l-nidflt complaint. Vhen we (hall read in future of the ea?jrn!js with whicrx citizens yfy to the fionticrs, Verrprcjfenunt avcc Ic^ueitous Us ' citofem Vutent anx fronUeres^ we ihill know. what it means. Ma.y not fuch niiferabL'i all;, ''What induccr.uMt has the ■ fariher, while following the plough, to l.^y alidc his }>eaco- i'ul purfaits, and go lo war with the farmer of anotlicr f country ?" * At firft fight it (hould appear that a Revolution in Em^- land, ill favour cf principles of equality, would be moil: fa- H 2 , vouid',i:ilc KlJ MMai^Hi .."*-■ i. I m m '>>]i\ , % L 52 ] vnurable to the poor clafles, the labouring part of the fo- cicty, — and yet, perhaps, in fad, being ftill governed by the experiment of France, there is no clafs in the ftatc, the great landed poflcflbrs alone excepted, to whom it would prove fo completely mifchievous. There is every reafon to have confidence in the honefly, moral feelings and good intentions of the great mafs ol our lower and poorer cUffes, and to be rationally certain, that in cafe of general confulion, like that which has mined France, they would abfolutdy re- fufe to become cut throats, blood hounds, and alViffms : The mafs in France weie honift alfo, but they were driven like (heepbyforwaid determined wretches who, getting to- g(?«hcr in arms, ftiaed on the power which ihi-y pretended to i«Hign to the people ; plunder followed this and the great body of the nation found, dreadfully to their coft, that they had only changed mafters ; but this change from a king tu bands of ruffian?, brought with it fruits of fore digeftion -, money abfoluttly difappeared } the rich, who formerly gave employment, were hunted down, and dcflroyed like wild beafts i the convulfions of the nntomcnt banifticd the rich mcrchanis and manufadturers i employment, which con- verted labour into bread, was dried up with the fprings that ted it. Amidft the mockery of pay, if the poor workman cannot eat his affignats he ftarves--hc has but one lefource — he dips them in blood ;— with pike in hand he attacks the corn dettined to faiisfy the hunger of others; and the tragedy fo often afted in that miferable kingdom, is again performed till equality ends as every where elfc, in equality ' of ruin. " The manufadturers make nothing; nothing is bought ; commerce is alive only in foldiers. 1 fee nothing in trade but our imprudence and our blood. Nothing will loon be fccn in France but mifery and paper*." This from the mouth of a Jacobin in the Contention ! Can any doubt lenuin ? f ■ . . Nov. • St. Juft. Monit. Dee i. + The pi ice of wheat now, in mtnjr of the Hepiriment', i« 41. io«. • quMter Englifli ; but m lliat price it ptid in iflignitu, men not well informed, miy imagine that the poor being themff Ivei pad in paper, might be propsr- ^ionaljly able to buy ; but the reverfe it the cale ; the paper while it h»» lai ed ths piiee or" bread hts dellroyed both m«nufa£ture> am) commerce, and is now auickmg igriculture illelt'; the people are abfolutely withotit employment, and have no more the means to procure an afllgnat than a lonli. Thia degree of irility is not yei of a year ilioding, for maaufaOareg were ^ivc in fome parte or ■M"^ » ■ irt of the fo- govcrncd by I the ftate, the ^hom it would :vcry rcafon to ig•• * not well informed, r, might be propsr- uhili: it hit rtied nmerce, and is n6w at employment, «nJ ail. Thit degree of (fkivc in fomc pan* of [ S3 ] Nov. 26, at the bar the deputation from Loire antf Flure tell the Convention : 7he laws art without tittrgy, bnd without vigour. Tht priit of brtad renders it inacejjiblt to the poor. Misery is at ns height. Jf the deamtfs continues the greateji misfortunes may be expelled. With troops marchmg about the countryto fuice the farmers to fell their coin at half the current price, and yet half paid with aflignats, nay, who feize it at any price.— " Ille;;al troops of men in many departments feize the corn in the markets without paying for it *." At Louviers 5 or 6000 workmen arofe to force the magiftrates to go at their head to feek corn in the granaries of the far- mers. Laft week, at Pafly, they feized all that was in the market, while 600 others fprcad devaAation through the forefts t." The flate of the roads (under the old government, the envy of Europe) is fuch as would alone, without other addition, very much impede the tranfport of corn, and add to the fcarcity in many fituations. I am informed by a pcr- fon who lately travelled acrofs the kingdom, that no repairs whatever have been done for three years paft, and that he was infornted, on enquiry, in fcvcral diftridls, that the people abfolutely rcfufi'd tocontribue either money or labour to mend them. The minider of the Interior, Jan. 6> com- plains to the Convention, that thtfy arc in a (nocking date of ruin ; dans u» etat de delabrtment epmvantable. In a ftate of anarchy, the object of roads may be thought fmall, but it fhews that in a point where the people themfelves are fo intimately concerned, government for every purDofe of doing good is abfolutely at an end, and that it remains for evils only. You abolifh tythes, and feudal payments ; the next ftep is the people will not pay the land tax, and then will not repair the roads that are for their own uft. Such is the (tate, and there are politicians in England who tell us, all will end well in France, as if it were poffibleto remedy fuchevilsby new experiments. Theabfoluteand unequivo- cal reftoration of the eld government, with terrors in its I of France Itft fpring. The afiiirs of thit kioRd'jm demand an attention that n«. ver lleepa, or we ate Aire to be diccived. The upcraiion of ihe pyper raoqey hii been vrry fingulir, for, to a certain period, it appeared to be beneficial t bui itt liHt titce p» now to be MENT ; but iiilUr oF the iiing of the >e are ready to declamation tt r all a berrlble i dif.ippcarcd, riicru, in two and Cher at n infurrcciion ce of corn.— lough in the o;)lc orcafion of rHovieat children ! ind even at the doors [ 55 3 doors of thp fanflnary of the lawj, miftrablcs who want both bread * and cloathing." " Our lltuatinn is furh," fays a member of tiie Convention, •' that tyraiin/ will fpiiti;,' with vidlory and vcnL^cancc from popular commo- tions } and if the Rights of Maii (luU continue to rxift, they will be written with the bloo'l of the people ul/i'd in darkiiffs as en th,- \Oih of Avgnji. '1 bus calling; for new revolts — t(;r new m-iiiacres— — The Rij«,ht» of \A,\\\ arc wftiTTr.N in their hlood ! 'I'his, the prefcnt Ianguaf,e of i'rcnchmcn, even in the Nati'-nal Convention. Here is experience of what thofc bb (led ri^'us are which our Englifli reformers are fo defirnii5 f>f cfUblifn- inw in this kinsidoin as the brft boon of heaven ! What a change have the pr,aPLE of that unhappy country experi- enced in the (hort period of four years ? To contrail this with the (ituation of the working poor in the manufaclnring towns of England, would be an infuk ko your underflandings. You know, and what is n.ucK better you feel, that induftry here meets its reward j that " ou arc paid in hard cafh every Saturday night ; that you ,ave fomething better, for your Sunday dinner than an ijfignat ; that a warm houfe covers you better than a branch of the tree of liberty j that a good coat, or ihnii pair of fhocs, would be ill exchanged for a three coloured cockaile ; and ladly, that whaiever evil you have to complain of would be very ill remedied by any rncafurcs that tetided fooner or later to change your beef and pudding for frogs and fi)up meagre ; your coal fires, for the pillaged fticks of a nitinnul foreit i your Ihuttles far a hatchet; or your hinimer frr a pike ; and the (hillings and guineas of Old England (or the paper affignats of Jacobin philofophers. Before I finifli the detail of that unhappy and ruIncJ country, it will not be un;imufing to contriitt the regal tvili of France, with the republican cures. i • Monii. Dec. 1 1 , t S.iin' Juft. Mon. Dei. Land '/- ■4 ,ps(« n [ 56 ] Land taxei, the tvil j /««i/i for leading prifoners to flaughter. The arbitrary government of Louis XVL— fW^/rf— for the defpotilm of Mara:.— — Drawing men for the militia, the cruelty \ — forcing them into volunteer corpt, x\\c favour. Lawyers and fuits, the misfortune }——«>-/— the fummarjr jurifdidion of the lanthorn.— — Twenty-five millions, the expence of one king, the iurthtn J 150 millioiu ihc charge of 700 kings, the taft. Seven prifoners in the Dadile, xYit gritvance \ the municipal dungeons, ihernr*. Trial by jury, in/lit uUd ;■ night, in trial by pike. -7000 in and I2C0 throats in one Militia. ;fi*«*- tnd that paiJ people, the of the nobi« miifartunt \ —three thou- j one of ' a necklace, ing prifonert :hangtd — for arcing them the fummarjr ! king, the gj, the taft. 7000 in uats in one Afilitia, '■"■■ ill • ■' MttUt I. ., f 57 ) , s Militia. In the preceding pages I have faiJ little of innovation: to declnrc a.;ainlt any nieafure, bccaufe an innovation, it a conduiSt worthy of children, there arc, in every period, moft valuable innovations } Mr. Grcnvill<''s bill for trying contefh'd iledtons was an innovation ; the halras corput wai an innovation; the U( ifc of Cnoimon* iifclf was an in- . novation. The quellion now is nor ,jenerj| ; it it not for oragainft all innovation ; but what the nature of the inno- vation ih^ll be ^ rh:re are foaic uni^ueilionably wanted'— whiliV the fpirit of cqualitv it abro << — while 'M pro;, Tty— ^ while life itfelf are menaced j — can it remain -1 doubi whac thofe innovations (liould be I Exifts there at. 1 of property ftupid enough lu queftion whether the innr ^t ods of this pe- 'S^ ' riod (hnuid not he dirctSied to its f«-"urity ? Whether, i (lead of bringing forward the many-he -.>u^ murtiicrinto cLL.oi* riot, and aflbciations of con fu I on I -whether, inliead of nurftng a fpirit, and cherifhing a principle that has laid France in the duft, we ought not to ip^editate innovations, that fliall provide a mound againft the hJlowa when they (ball flow } a (helter againA the violent Vropofitioai cter mofl to their tafte: th' y think that they have nothing to lore— i here li tl>e pivot on whiih I'uch iiiretiii{[|^) titii, (ruin, pcrhap* original good inteatiAoi to ullin9«te dr< Urp^iion. Popular w ■'' •Y" .y E&kSSS. \ r fi'« . >W h Popular tvranny is a catching phrenzy ; that will furely fpread, if efteitive meaiures be not Liken in time to pif vent it. Every country in Europe depends, in the laft rei<)rt, on aVuldiery taken from the dregs of the people, whofe imagi- nary interefi: is to join infuruents of whatever complexion. Such a reliance is, to the plaineft apprehenfion, prcpoftcrr ous, and muft, in the nature of things, fail in the long lun. While dan-er, too manifcft to queftion, arjJ too formidable to palliate, Vs'*^"'^ itfelf on every fide, nothing but infatua- tion can prevent fomedecifive and efficient meafurc from being embraced ; feme fyflem of defence and fecnrity to property. Were fuch a militia eflabli(hed, property would be fccure j and thofe who poflefs it might view, with a more calm patience, the attacks, whether inftdious or open, of men who poflcfling nothing from the arts of peace and tranqui- lity, feck public conf-^Uon, and to kindle the ftorm ori which to mount by the fall and ruin of others, But, after all thai, can be faid, this idea of the divifion of property is fo fweet a medicine to the great mafs of mankind, that it will find enthufiaftic followers in every country, and no vybere more than in the ranks of an army ; hence the neceffity of i:iOperty fccuring itfelf, by being armed in a militia. A regiment of a thoufand cavalry in every county of moderate extent, juft difciplined en6ugh to obey orders and keep their ranks, might be enrolled and affembled in companies three days in every year, and in regiments once in feven, at a very moderate expcnce to the public : fuch an .«ftabli{b'A»ent would give certain jind permanent fecurity ■.^ 7^5^ ! i^r,^'. >kUb,« je. ;hat will furely time to pif vent e laft reiort, on ;, whofe imagi- :r complexion, fion, prcpoftcfr in the long lun. too formidable ing but infatua- ifure from being ity to property. irould be fccu'ej h a more calm ■ open, of men ice and tranqui- i ftorm on which »f the divifion of nafs of mankind, sry country, and rmy ; hence the eing armed in a in every county 'Jti to obey orders ind afiembled in I regiments unce ; public : fuch an rmanent fccuriiy , and the equally England, which I bioodOied, that ( defperate fitua- impra^icable : I but we may ven- and regulates the he kingdom, who tution, under the ' aflemble, armed, fe the friends of anarchy ; i $9 ] nnarchy J I fay that a law which prepares the means of ffcurity ani defence, while the rage of attack unites and eledirines the enemies of peace and order, muft be good, and may be eflential to the fulvation of the community. All reference to former militia laws isbefide the queftion — it was not of capital confequence whether executed or n')t, but the prelent moment is perilous, the danger is too imminent to be trifled with ; while anarchy is at our duors, determined meafures can alone prefcrve us. ^aciatitni. Next to the eftablifliment of fuch a militia, the prefcnt fpirit of aflnciation amongft the friends of the conftitution, is a noble and genuine etfbit of feeling tfuly worthy Britons. There is no real friend to hit country thiit docs not rejoit* to fee this eleftric ftroke of true patriotifm fpread with vital energy through the empire : it carries confufion to Jaco- binifm : it gives confidence in a jufl c^uie, and fecurity to every generous bofom. Rujiidty as the effort has (hot, .with genial influence through our counties, it could not be ex* pc£led that the views would be uniformly directed to the fame determinate obje^^s. In a little time the fcope and meaning will be well imprelfed, and then it will doubtlefs be found ncceflary to fix on places of rendezvous to which honc(t men may refnrt when the wicked are abroad. The national fpirit is at lall roufed } it has ften long enough the defperate and abominable aflbciations of thofe, who (Jo wifli and did openly demand the overthrow of our excellent Conditution, under pretences of Jacobin reformation : we have feen the danger— we have been [hocked at the infolcnt threats of ** Invincible mobs," we have fought the right means of lafety ; with a vigour of defence equal to the malignity of at- tack, a gieat nation will prove that (he is not to' be infulted with impunity. Had fuch afl'ociations exifted in France, or any thing tending to them at the early ftage of the Revolu- tion, all the horrois that flowed from it might have been prevented } but the higher orders of fociety knew not their danger — Here the cafe is diretflly contrary. — We are in- I 2 l^ruasd ..^.--'jessik wujjuiL- m» ". y% I ! M hA ftruftea by their calamitous experience— and of all effeaive means to be ready to meet a florm, this of affociation »$ (next to a militia of property) the moft dired. It may be faid with truth, that a moment never yet oc- curred, which demanded equally the united, firm, and de- termined affiftancv. — the heart and hand of men, friends of peace, to prevent, while yet it is pofllble to prevent, the horrors that fo lately awaited us. It is a moment that ought to bring political agitation to every bofom — The quifticn concerns not empire?, kings 3"^ minifters alone— it comes home to our fortunes, our houfes, our families : Will you, by the nerve and vigour of your meafures, by the broad bafis of univerfal property, on which you build the affociations, by the prudence of the refolutions, and the energy of their execution, will you avoid the miferits of France ? Liften not to the infidious pretences of Jacobin reformers— there is no medium n moments like thefe.— With the example of France in full difplay, propofitions of reform, whi«h in that kingdom produced only conflagration and maflacre, will, in this, have the cfFecl of putting the nation on its guard againft men, who fo openly proJefs a readinefs to flake all we enjoy, on the defperate throw of a new Revolution. This is the queftion that ought to colledt the enemies of Jacobinifm, and which ought to have ftafonable infiutme on all the orders of So- cietyy by which they may know and Itarn that we jhall ever rally round the conptution* ^ uncontamioated by reformSy or the tree of lihrty, the true fymbol of Jacobin confufion. The danger has Icflened fiiice eovernment has awakened to the na- ture of the prefent crifi*, and fmce the admirable fpirit of the people has manifefted itlelf, the enemies of the public peace will not dare now to profcfs thole Jacobin tenets, which, till lately, met us in fuch a multitude of ihapes ; They will put on the garb of more moderate and more tem- perate meafures— they will now appear merely in the charac- ter of reformers— a character more dangerous perhaps, br- caufe more maflced and infidious : not lefs pointed in cfFeit to equality and fedition ; for thefe men know fuflicichtly. by the great eX|*eriment of France, that an equal perfonal rie- prcfentation of the people would infallibly produce here, as U did there, the abfolute ruin of all legal authorities. Ibis • Mr. Fox's SpMch w ihi Vfhig Clob.--RiftO* *%•>. chara£ler iS-ii-i^fi^i.^^'fe-p'^ -* ■fore to the Jacobins, and, as an enemy, an objecl of terror. The queftion, then, is the means thefc cunning leaders are taking to fpread the fame confufion through this country, that has ruined theirs ; mod (liluredly they wilj not open mops, and write JACOBIN over the doors— No j they know their bufinrfs better — they find materials much more to their purpofe ; they find half their work done to their hands by our Oppsfition -mtn^ and our reformen of the con- (litution. beeing that the refult of the Lbours of fuch men anfwers exailiy their own wVwj, they chime in, and cry re- form ! with a more energetic vociferation than ever they did a la lanterne in F"rance. Their views, and this union of the Jacobin dcftroyers, with the Englifh reformers, ought to open the eycs of honed men, and make them, one and all, unite in the firmed aflbciations. Not in the milk and wnter declarations of loyalty*, that mean any thing or nothin;^^ ar J will be forgotten in fix months, but in the moft vigorous oppofition to every idea of reform on principles of giving more power to the people : — Here lies our danger in the pre- * In great number* of the t(Tociiitiaiis, iheie liceiin to hs'clieent mirkeit attention indrawiiig up their decUrationt of loytliy and vetieraiio.i :or the o.o- rtitution, either to oCe phrxieii of e()uivoc»l nieliiiiiK, < r th»i might be put^tabtb io refoioiers, a^ i> it vvai a \vi/h to incli'de all defcripiions of men, whatcvtr (heir poliiicai feniiments: If fucli manaftcment hid bten carried a little further, dcclaralionii would have beeii pt^odoce^*. Which diiefl Jacobins waViM hjvh tigned ; but the original intention was v roiig, and tended (Iroogly to U'eiiti«o th>* fori* and vifoor or alTocijition. In the ration al terror of a pt-rilout. nioineni, and (Iruck with a common fenl'ation ot common danger, men fly to afTociJiinr, to I'ecure them aijainll the atiitUs of men klteidjr alluviated to dtltrov them : At Inch an inlUnt, whit can he fo fiit'le, what can be fuch irnl'etiiiijr, as to leek, by an ill-umed coropUitince of candouri fo to expreft their feci ngs, that aHuciatois of a dire£t conttmy complexion, tnco who prufelTeJI)' fcek to changa th'.' connUutioii on Fi'ench pirncif>le>, (for there hai not been a (ingle pr»p6fitiJ.i of reforro that irnot < n ihoiie principles) that fuch m*n ih»y be indttled hyf*- crititally to unite with you? Tlie weaknel't of fuch a proceeding is inexcufable. On tiie C'lnfrary, ibele dcclarationi ought all of them to have been fo fr,imed, ai expr£f''ly And pur|i6r%Iy to exclude i union witli Mien fo dangetous, ab ihofe «/ho Wonid ti6t feel a horror at the idea of tiiVprring with the con(\iiuti<,ii, at ftich a feafon •» this :— By fuch an eiclufion, it would be found, that, however numerous the reformert were belorc the loih ot Augult, that at piefcnt not ona 'm.in in a thdu'and WooM I.Oen, with patience, tn hear the word ReTrtrm Tell- oufly pronounced ; nor fail to de;>rccaie the idea, as pregnant with oatioaal ruin. fent I i nil I ; [ 62 j fent moment i it is not the rank Jacobin with Ware and b)oo(!y arms, pike in hanJ, and ready for your throat; it is his gen- tleman ulber, your modeft reformer, who, meaning a great dea), afks a little, and knows how to make that little much. but be not fo cajoled — refift ^Lt changes in that conftitu« tion, which gives you the rtieans of wealth, and prottits you in the enjoyment. Come to refolutions declaratory of the abhorrence of changes j and of every propofition for fuch that docs not originate in the legiflature ; and petition Parliament to render illegal all meetings and clubs, whole ob. jed is to make experiments on Britifh hzppincfs ; todifcover rights better than thofe of an Englifhman } to change your laws, religion, and government j and give you, in lieu of them, the NEW LIGHTS OF french philosophy. If any man doubts whether I have reafon for thefe afler- tions, let him confider the tranfadion of the Society that call themielves the Conftitutional Society of London. Here is the French regifter of their application to the Convention, Nov. 27. Similar Societies with turs are a£lually forming in all parts of England. Applaufes. Alter the example which France has given Revolutions become eafy : It ivill not be extraor- Unary., in a Jhort jpace of time ^ if it Jhould happen^ that feli- citations fhould arrive to a National Convention in England. New applaufes*. It has been faid, even in Parliament, fincc Government was fufficiently alarmed to call cut the militia, and put the nation on her guard, that the King's Minifters ought to be impeached for their conduft. Can any one doubt whether the men who fent that infamous de- putation, and the men who compofed it, would not avow diredly the fame opinion f But let the people at large know, by ihefc abominable fa£ts, the unqueflionable reality of their danger. Let them here difcovcr — their intellects niuft be weak indeed, if they cannot difcover, in this deputation, what thofc men mean who drink equal liberty to all mankind— National Conventions equally evert WH&&E ! ! is ihefentimcnt of their bofoms, and would have been fung about the flrcets, had Government flept fix weeks longer. Who can read without horror the following Addrefs to the Volunteer Corps of Ireland, from an IriOi Society of the fame complexion, fo lately as Dec. 20. • Moaiteur, Not. 19. *' Citizsn --*^«^?ai*6fea^^£^^:;«*S^W^;-.Si3't = 'VfS^Sfi*5 ir ii pi l l Ill wmmmmm^mmfi re and bjoodjr it is his gen- ining a great t little much, hat conrtit«» and proti'^ts leclaratory of :)porition for and petition •s, whole ob. i ; to difcovcr change your III, in lieu of lY. jr thcfc afl'er* i:ieiy that call uii. Here is Convention, ly forming in Komple which not leextraor- perif thatfeli- n in England. \ Parliament, ) call cut the the King's ^ndu£t. Can infamous de« Id not avow t large know, eality of their le^ts niuft be is deputation, liberty to all VLLV EVERT nd would have ent flept fix the following Vom an Irifli as Dec. 20. ** Citizsn [ 63 J f' Citizen fjlJiers to arms. When your couiifr} has been declared in danger, we conjure you liy your glory to ftand to your arms, and in fpitc of a pr.lice, in fp te of a rencibie mi- litia, to maintain good order : it is onlv by military array that you can obtain the fpecdy refurrcdlion of liberty and equality" Here is abundant proof that we arc far dillant from entire fafeiy ; and that the leaft rrhtxaiion in that aflo- ciated preparation, which is now our only falvaiion, would give new animation to thefe Societies of defperatc men with dcfperate views ; to thefe enemies of jjovernmcnt, of order, and of property. While thefpirit of the people is alert and animated with duezeal in defence of their lives and properfies both may be fafe; but this exertion is not likely to be durable ; and (hould that languor and indolence, thechildren of a foolifh fecurity, oncemore Hacken the tenfjon which rcfults from the prefcni impreflion; the courage of our enemies will revive} and thofe execrable focietirs, whofe aim is plunder, and the jneansconfufion, will relume the fame pernicious adiivity in mifchitf that has eifcftcd the ruin of France, and had brought England aln^oft to the brink of the fame precipice down which her neighbour has been hurled. To guard agaipft a negled fo fatal, becomes the firft and greateft duty pf government. It is firmnefs, energy, and vigour, againlt our domeftic foes that can alone preferve the conftilution uncontaminated by Jacobin reform ; moderation, lenity, and the mild virtuts of one man, have deluged France in blood j fuch are not weapons with which to combat in. an hour like this : while the lamp-poft, or the pike, is the i;n- primaur on the prefs in France; while fufpicion fills the prilpns, and m^flacre is the gaol delivery— if the Legiflaturc »i England dpes not take prccautioiw, energic and cfFedlivc, bu: trufts too much to private efforts, we ni^ay, in the event, amidft confufion and terror, have reafon to regret a want of policy, wiJich an example fo pregnant ought to have in- Ipired. Nor ought either government or the public to be driven from their purpofe by the aniwcr not uncommonly heard, which accules the afl'ociators of going to the contrary ex- treme, and endangering ihe liberty of the people by profelH- •ons of loyalty ; mis accufation niay b- Ci/nf-dcred as the lull effort .4 teach fhe exertion of capabilitic?, and to point out th.'- glorious ca- rter of France as an obj xt of imitation for England ; the {^oifon thus expanded, does not render the vehicle mofe re^ peflable. I do not lind on my fai'iii, in the village, or its vicinity, that thofe ,ii-c the btit jilMiirtrhmcn and carrcr* who are thedeepeft adepts in the Rights oV ivLui. IF there mufl be hewers of wood and drawers of water, why preacii cqaa- jfity ? Will not French horrors tell us, that to teach, is to bewilder ; that tbCnlighren, is to dcHrcy ? ^ Buf, contrary to aU this, with a prefs regulated for the bc- hefit of focicty, and not vomiting forth poifon for irs de- nru(?tion', (he lower claffcs cannot Well be injured by in^ ftrudlion : what a duty then devolves on government to guard againft abufe?, the negledt of which may be attended t^th danger, and even ruin to the virhole cottirttanity \ I feel but one gr^at olijeition that miry probably tie irtadc to the general conclufions 1 hav^e drav^rt frciVh th6 ex- atnpl^ of France : it may befaid that rny reafoninggoes to6 fer, becaulli if jiift, a nation hpwcver di^flrtved, and hovi«^ ever miferable, fliould fubmit to all evil* rather than attempt the gr^atir evil of a Re'volutiort. The irgumeiit is common, afnd, difle.y— the boneft workman equally with the prince-~a horror at the idea of revolutions ; will teach men rather to bear the ills they have, than fly to others that they know not of; and con- fequently has done more againft the caufe of that real and fafe liberty which was gradually pervading the world, thau any other event in the ^ow«r of mifchief to effea. A re- fledtion that ought to make us loathe a Jacobin with the fame deteftation as noxious animals of hideous deformity. Take the worft of the German military governments, and compare tin: fituation of the people in any point whatever, anc u may be afferted truly that they are in a happier and bet- ter fitiiatlon than the French under the anarchy given them by the Rights of Man : to anfwcr ih..t this anarchy may fubfide and produce a good government at laft, is fo coui- plcaily btfide tne quetlion, reafoning on fads, that 1 ani aftonifned to hear it fo often recurred to ; the experitncnt ot the new government in Fiance was compleat—it was finiftied-^ecrecd and accepted— It is farcical to fuppofe ■•^N(«i.)si m •Umt-'T* I true in almoft vorld a conftitu- States i 1 think, >r, for the plain langcr now moft rpotifm of a mo* al appn-hpiifion } icwn itC'-lf in the )rc rohid than the fore, the people t whatever might y place them in a only to Ameiica. hu telt themfelves effe difarmed Icing, but had m^de none againll an armed mob : this mob broke into the fanc- tuary and kickfd the conftitution out of doors. Maflacres followed, Mil no man felt his head more fafe on his fhoul- ders than the fubjeds of Achen or Aliiiers ; at;c, a<« to pro- perty. It was given to the winds : where are the fubjcdts of a Uerman defpot whofe fituation matches thi> ? And .$ to the bopt of feeing fomething better ; the hope of the German it more likely to be realized than that of the Frenchman, who has nothing in perfpeiftive but new evils and new revolutions to cure them. A German, therefore, would be wife to re- nounce the thought* of liberty, rather than purfue the idea of It through a revolution fimilar to that of France. Time and a happy coincidence of events may give them fuch an opportunity as France, worfe than loft. They have her example to inftruft them. . * The plain conclufion to be drawn is thin; nations Ihould ?ji?u"*'*' l" '"'""'''"als; rely only on experimented cafes. AVhen philofophersadvifed the French to feek fome fyftem of freedom better than experiment (Grtat Britain) offered, they advifed a truft in theory j and at this moment when Ja- cobins and rcfarmiftsadvifeusto/w^rw/ourconftitution, is It not a queftion directly in point to aflc them, whether the experimented freedom we enjoy at prefent ought to be ha- zarded on projeas of theory ? An unequal reprefentation, rotten boroughs, long parliaments, extravagant courts, fel- nlh miniiters, and corrupt majorities, are fo intimately in- terwoven with our practical freedom, that it would require better political anatomifts than our modern reformers, to Inew on h& that we did not owe our liberty to the identical evils which they want to expunge. In France none of thefe are to be found, a reprefentation equal, no burgage tenures, biennial parliaments, no court, miniftcrsof fVraw, and ma- jorities corrupted only by themfelves, but with tliefe envied tJlellings is France free ?- Here is an equal reprefentation of the people— an experiment compleat— and the refult '* hea- venly" in the eye of Engl ifli reformers} but not fo in the mouths even of Jacobins in the Conventian— riuv teThyou Ka thac **---»-•' mm • I , u [ h^ ] that it U anarchy, bIoo(J(hcd, and fwinf; " Th? ^MiHOn of formal government brings fociety cioCpr together, if on« of Paine's mountebank maxims ; his tbeorits flxould »lwayf be broucht to the teft of French pr^aice ; th»s compreftiir, jh.s contact of fociely, is there well underftood i ii it th« pike of one man in the belly of another. Is this fo very ent coui'acing as to induce an imitation in *-ogUnd f It is not, however, f^fficient to fatisfy thofe who demand a reform j np flight reafon for fuppofuig they look further-^wid that through the obfcurc of fuch a foreground, there is » profpefi behind, bright enough to fix attention, and allure bop?^ih« nrofpeaof copying in England the example of France itl»« regal, noble, ecclcliaftical, national properties, the Ipoil Q\ equal c'ltlxtm ! There is in Monf. Mounier's Uft admirable ptrformRnc* an obfervatioii which merits great attention i that when PUce a kingdom poficfles a free aflembly, with the power of the purfe, the real appr^henfion is not lor liberty, but fox thf exiftcnce of the crown. And again, ♦' in England the number of rcprefentatives of the people is very unequally divided : Simple boroughs, which contain few inhabitants, have, from cuftom, the right of deputing i while diftria», very populous, do not participate in eledtions. This irre- gulariiy appears contrary to many inconteftiblc principles ; but it could not be rcflificd without augmenting the force of the dcmocratical part of the government, without danger of breaking the equilibrium, which has been (o well prelcrvtd fyr a century » and if ever they confent to render the repre- fcntation more equal, it would be mdifpenfable to ftrengthen the other two branches. Inequality of rcprcfcntation, above all, produres this advantage j that a great part of the people idinttfy theinfclves much lels with the deputies of the com- qions, and the public opinion is lefs corrupted by the paffions that may agitate ihe lower houfe *." There is deep fenfe in this rcmai! The ituthor, who is o. : of the belt of men, and moll hontfl of politicians whp was* leader in the con-; ftituent aflembiy, and maiked, with great acumen, their er. ♦ Recherche! fut l«s Cmfipt qui ontempeche lei Pr»ocoi» de devtnir Libie*, ^'^ rors. gether," ii onf t» (hould (ilwayf Its comprdbiir* Rood i it it thf this fo very cD* Und i It is nptt tnd a reform ( n9 rtbtr-^wid that tere is » profpc^ lUure bop^-^thf of France I tb« ieS| the fpoil of ible performttnct tion i that when itb the power of >erty, but fox tbt in England the very uacqiully few inhabitants, i while diftri£ls, ions. Thi» irre- ftible principles; nting the force of without danger of I fo well prefcrved render (he repre- able to ftrengthen refentation, tibove part of the people uties of the com> )trd by the paffions :re is deep fenfe in the belt of men, leader in the conr acumen, their er-* acei* de devcnir Libcet, rors, t 69 ) rprs, felt the (ruth |ie Ure delineates, and faw the overtkrow of their conftilutiof) in the eagernefs with which the people, incorporated as it were, with the deputies, till thofe without tflf nU bec«nie a» corrupt as thofe whofe only talent was cor. rupting the hearts of others. What fait, what experirocoi, do our reformers pretend to, on which to ground the ccj- tftioty* that if thofe apparent defeats of tlte conftitutiooi were removed, the power 0/ the people, without propertj^ would not, in coufcqucnce, gain enoughs— .: enable ihe« to gain mora and to advance by means of thofe ftcps till they gained Uf The cafe of the French revolution is much fironget m the affirmative than any other to be pr«- du^cd in the negative ; but to fpeak of cafes is ubfurd, with the reformers, for they proceed ahfolutely on theory an^ Rights of Man } thofe well adapted foundations tot arer>ub» )ic in 3«dlain> There appears to me to be a fingular propriety in the aflL. ciations which are at prcfent fprcading through tkekixigdo'-^ petitioning parliament to pafs an adt to declare all dub«, aflbciations, focieties and meetings of men, that afTemblc for the purpofe of obtaining changes in the conftitution, illegal* and that no meeting can legally correfpotid, either ii) their own name, or in the names of their fecretary, or other officer, with any foreign body or government, unld« fuch meeting isOmdioned by charter. The friends of ordea- and good government are now colledted, the time is precious, »nd ought not to be loit } and while we arc threatened with the horrors of anarchy, it behoves us to have as mucli a^ivity and energy in our defence as the violators of alj human rights have exerted in their attack : for iren to till us in fuch a moment as this, and iituated as we are with the enemy of mankind, trium|>!iant on one llde, and the torch of revolt lighting in Ireland on another fide — that they aie not Jacobins, but moderate men, wilhing reform^ is as impudejit as it would be for a thict to iay that he i.s nut aa afiaffin, bccRufe he only held a caudle while arioiher cut niy throat. That governments Cinnrit be improved, and that legifla- tion (hould be the only fcie/ice 10 Itand Itill, by no me<)ns follows : experiment yrcfcnbts oiily {^rcat changes \ U\.M. and gradual advances, in times cf Ilrtnity \ fuch advaiicen i » * m • i 7« ] it put nothing to hazard, mud be good. It it eafy to lay the finger on gricv4ncea in England, which every honeft and moderate man would wifli removed \ but it ii not when much it demanded, that little (hould be given j for the plain reafon that the little will not thbn fatiify. 1 fhall not be furpeAed of thinking ty theti a light grievance \ but they are a grievance that would be ill remedied by the lofaof the crops that pty them \ the enormity of the taxes I pay is known to every man that reads the tradh I publiOi \ heavy as they are, let them remain rather than be changed for a (tntribution fencitrt\ the little left me is my own, which might not be the cafe under the pure difpenfations of Jacobin equality. Evils certainly exift in our fyftem, and they are fuch as will, I truft, be remedied, gradually, by the legiflaturc, acting from its own impulfe i and not from the influence of clubs and reforming focieties. It was an old obfervation, that a republic could fubfift on the trappings of a monarchy. The I rench have fet the feal of experience here, as in every other cafe, and have (hewn that citizen Rjberfpicrre, and citizen Holland, can out-do Emptrtr Jtfiph^ and King Geergt, in extravagance j the moft enonncus expenccs, that ever any nation was deluged with, are the prcfent in France ; a fingle month's OErici- ENcy is 176 miiJiitns, or 7,700,000/. fterlina i this is fpeniling at the rate of qo millions a year. Paine fays, ** It is cruel to think of a million a year to a king »" but it is not a brcakfalt to an aflcmbly ot citizens. There is a great deal in the civil lift of England that does not concern trappings. The payment, for the fupport of thofe trappings, do not probably anount to fixpence a head upon the popula- tion of Great Bntain, for which fixpence every man has the fupport of a chief conflable that keeps all the other confta- bles to their Juty. Inftead of fixpence a head paid for tran- ^juiiiiy i the Krench now pay five (hillings a head for keeping a gang of cot throat?, and an affcmbly of mad dogs. A fpKntlid imjurial court might be fupported out of fomelhing worfc than trappings of the French republic. If France ftioald ever again poflefs the precious moment of improving her government without convulfions, which spportunity I eafy to lay every honeic ; ii not when for the plain ht grievance I led led by the »r the taxes I U I publiOi I n be changed ii my own, penfationi of fyftem, and ;raduaUy, by nd not from uld fubfift on ve fet the feal I have (hewn , can out'do agance ; the was deluged th'f DEFICI- inc i this is Paine fays, cingi" but it There is a not concern ofe trappings, n the popula- ' man has the other confta* paid for tran- id for keeping lad dogs. A of (omething :ious moment ilfions, which •pportunity C 7' J opportunity (he had, and ln(\ ; or if any other great country, having an indiginr poor, (hould inert (ucb u moment—— experiment fpeak^ to them but onela.iguau;e. 'I'AKr thi British Con'stitution, not bcc«ul.- it is theoretically the belt, but becaufc it is practically good ^ but tike (pecial care not to miltakc th.ir conlhtution, and give the poilon of nrrfonal reprefentat'on, for in fuch an error your import of Britifh liberty would become the eftabliihment of French anarchy. The conciufion of the whole may be comprefled in a few lines I the danger of the moment is gre. t indeed i and only to be guarded againft by the mod unremitted dili^fence and activity :— Exert that diligence, and bring that adivity into play by a unanimous fupport of theadminiftration,entrulted at prefent with the public fafety : The queftion is not whether you are a friend or an enemy of that adminiftration » you are are certainly a friend to the lives and properties of mankind. Join in aifociations for our defence againft banditti, cut> throats, and Jacobins ; join againft an enemy more fubtlr, and, therefore, more dangerous, the friends of reform ) th« afTociators who would plant the tree of equal liberty ; the mountebanks who have a French noftrum, and Birmingham daggers, for the difeafes of our £ngliih conftitution. Guard againft fuch mifcreant attempts by pointed refolu- tions t and call, with une voice, on the leeiflature to fup- prefs, by vigorous and decifive laws, the clubs of fedition ; the aftbciations that call themfelves our ** conftitutional" inftrutStors and our '* friends ;" whofe leflbns are inftitutes of anarchy i and whofe friendihip, fhould their tenets prevail,— —would cement with our beft blood, that National Convention of Britain witb which thofe fo«ieties have fo lately threatened us. H niu! mil itfinr -^-'•¥— — ■ ' " ' '1! f. S--3 . i «>«'•»* A 5'^ ir.>>tii^iitd*,ti5 aft; :•'.'- »vj . -jIw- « . > , 'fens rorr.' ' '»:«b«»i.'5'i ^•;''" "»' » -'a *^-' £-"! - S<1? i Ift' ' ' ' • it) 'II < I ' ' ,i ■ J« 1 "■-• I Jic! ..( • >« f. ... .• . it Ho , " 1 '^•j rtK ""^ •'" • t , ■way •!■•' ' -vs-M— •■"■^.•■■*i**w ■ s ..... .- i.v- ; .| ' ,q Mw t «'"'w> r ^w tf» iM ii w¥Bi gK'3g ^affl : i: : am''tf < ^wiW i ti ' iiuiJWii,Z 3HBW APPENDIX. IN a period fo abounding with events, or rather with atrocuies, like the prefent, it is Icarcely pofiible for the moft rapid pen to keep pace with the new efforts which are making tor the introdudion of real French honors, as remedies to the imaginary evils of the(e kingdoms. The " Proceedings of the JJociutkn cf the Friends of the Conptution. Dublin. 1 he Duke of Leinfter ! ! in the chair," is a publication that dcferves notice ; becaufe it Droves, too clearly to be doubted, that our dangers are not at an end. Jacobinifm hardly deeps, in fpite of all our aiVociations ; the enemies of law and of order nc-ver relax their efforts ; Ireland is their favourite ground j and fhoulil fhefer;ew principles of equality, the new French " light<," b« there eltabliftied. it will not be long before they are raging in our own vitals. ' Thefe " friends" call on the people to " SUUDUE the corruption," " the infamy," " the fouleft adis under the foulefl names," which form the •' regular fvUeni of governmentj" by " a radical kf- L FOllMi" ffS:^^Tr- ■■H '\ C 74 ] roRM }" by a body of " reprefentatives, an integral and eflential mrt of the cnhftitution, derived from the people by GENERAL eieaion." Ihe Englifli language could fcarcely^ in an equal number of words, paint |in ftronger terms the fire-brands of fedition. To call on the people not to crave, or pray, or petition, but to subdul the errors of government,— to svbdue them by a radical reform, and GENERAL rfrprefentation, is, in other words, todismand a Convention, the King at Tyburn, the Lords annihilated, and Property the reward of new Roberfpieres, Briflbts and Marats. But thefe expreffions are too remarkable to be accidental ; they coincide too exactly with the theatre of the Jacubins in France, to allow us, for one moment, to be- lieve that there is not a clear intelligence and union between them. The minifter of the marine, to the friends of liberty and equality in the maritime cities : *< Will the English REPUBLICANS SUFFER the King and his Parliament to make war ? Already thefe free men teftify their difcon- tent and their repugnance to carry arms againft their French brothers. Well ; we will fly to tkbir assistance ; we will invade that iflr, and fend 50,000 caps of liberty to plant the sacred tree, and to offer our open arms to our RRPUBLiCAN BROTHERS, to PURIFY Englith liberty, and REFORM the vices of the government.'* Here the Jacobins threaten tt purify our Itbtrty^ in eanjundion with Englijh rtpuUitans, and reform our vices with 50,000 bajmets. What this is but to fubdue us by a radical reform \ // If any doubt could remain of the tendency of the operations of our reformers, furrly fuch declarations are fufficient to remove them ? To open our eyes to the horrible fttuation we fliould be in, if .o^r legiflature were abfurd enough to liflcn to fuch incendiaries ;or weak enough not to take effective meafures to controul their treafonable practices. > ' Very much in the fame fpiriis, as the IriOi Friends, is Lord bempil, D. Adams, Joe! barlow, and J. Froft", in the name cf the London L'onftitutional Society, congra^ tulating the Convention on the revolution of the ad of 4>cptember, and hoping that other nations would ipon follow I their ,#: ■ n int^ral and n the people by anguage could nt|in ftronger on the people }DUb the errors Die A I. reform, }rds, to demand rds annihilated, es, Briflbts and narkable to be e theatre of the noment, to be- I union between s of liberty aod i the English Parliament to y their difcon- [ift their French bisTANCE ; we >s of liberty to r open arms to EngliOi liberty, nt.'* Here the canjutUlieH with t with 50,000 s by a radital }f the tendency jch declarations our eyes to the legiflaturc were or weak enough :heir treafonable riOi Friends, is )d J. Frofti in society, congra» n of the ad of ould ipon follow their f[ 75 ] their example •, prefenting their cut>throats at the fame time with looo pair of ftiocs, and. looo/. in money'. To give fuch friicitations and hopt;s, the 28th of November was approbation direct of the ad of September. Page •j.—InfurrtilloH againJI the Natttnal Cenventitn, The deputies of the department of Loire, tell the Con- vention at the h.ir. Tour fcandakus debates are known in every earner of France. The afflt£ied people fent you to make laws, and you knojn uot how to mftke a regulation * they fent you to render France refpeXfedy an4 you know not hew to rifpetl it ysur /'elves ; the; fent you to ejiablijh liberty-, and you have not known how to maintain your own, Tau tremble beftre tbefe tribunes f. Piine is of an opinion dire^ly contrary, " they fprang not from the filth of rot'.en boroughs — thcv debate in the language of gentlemen— their dignity is feren*- — 'hey pre- ferve the right angled charader of man." We well know what their language is ; and if a right angled charader produces right angled adTtions, we know whai thole arc alio. For the frenity of theii dignit) ! ! ! — it is a fit fub- jsA for mirth )iut not for argument. • M &a«, No. U. j Monit. Jut. 10, 1793. La Pag« .^:mm , »■ a: fi [ 76 ] Page 8. — FWJl gnat caufe of all. Tan. 16, The minifter of the interior to the committee of general fafety ; every dayfgr a month pajl, they have talked cf renewing the profcripttom ; I have, for many Jays, received and laid before you afurances of proj.-as of mafjuire and murder^ publickly preached. P»gt^.—Refpt£!ing the laws. What multiplied proofs of that faft, that without a king, and fome body between the king and the people, where there is an indigent poor, all falls to confuiion. The Jacobin Rabbeau once knew this ; «« Dans un grand empire il faut abfolumcnt des hommes d^cor65, fans quoi I'ctat tombera ilans una vafte popularity, dans une immenfe democratic, qui doit finir par 1 anarchic, ou par le defpotifme felon que Ic prince ou le pcuple feront I'un ou I'autrc, le plus fore." ♦ The Nation, fays Paine, not Parliament, Jlmld reform ahufes : the idta of vitiated bodies reforming themfelves is a paradox. Exaftly in proportion then to a nation 'ntertenng and taking the remedy of abufes into its own hands Ihould be the efiea in wiping them out. Apply to France for a * Ccr/,derati,n! fur k, hurit, d» T,trt Elat. P»r Rabbeto St. Eiienne. 178a id edit. P. £41. commentary /. ) the committee they have talked nj clays, received Jacre and murder^ t without a king, iple, where there 1. The Jacobin nent des hommes : valle popularity, lir par I'anarchic, u le peuple feronc nit Jlsould reform ng thenifelves is a nation interfering iwu hands (hould to France for a Rabbeto St. Etienne. cotnmentary [ 77 ] commentary on this text. Has it been fo ? As// advanced in rtfortiiy did abuCes difappear ? Never was doariue f« belied by events as the dodrine of this great politician. Page 9. — Go to the Rights of Man. Perhaps experience will juflify us in afTerting, that that government isbeft which is beft calculated to ftand ftill and do nothing ; becaule the thing wanted in government is not activity, but repofe ; and to do nothing is nineteen times in twenty better than readily to du any thing. The vetos of different orders, or houfes, therefore muft be good, as they are fo many impediments to action. No government is fo reftlefsly active as a pure democracy, voting in a fingle afl'embly ; the mob arc lacisfied no longer than a torrent of events kcrps them in breathkfs expectation. We fee^ in the cafe of France, that fuch buttle is the energy of mifchief, the motion of defpotifm. Their late fucceffes, fo unlocked for and furprifing, made them fpeak commonly, in theftreets of Paris, of conquering Europe ; fhould farther fuccefs attend their arms, they will infallibly attempt it. The leaders, who owe their importance to the prefent hurricane of events, would fink too lovy in a calm, for fuch men to allov/ the ftorm to fubilde. Page 17. — Comment on the text. The abufes and plunder in the fale of the poffeffions of the emigrants, may be eafily conceived from the complaint which m UiMli / I ■ i 78 ] vhich Sillery makes in the Convention :— ** The furniture of the chateau of Nangus, belonging to the Baron de Bretufil, was worth at Uati: 1,500,000 Iw. and has produced fcaroly any thing. Six tapeftries of ttie viubelin*, which coft ;}0,ooo liv. in money, were fold for ^800 I v. n aiTig- nats. Aclock, that coft 24,000 liv. in nioi.ey, fold tor 800 in paper *." Such is the virtuous adminilttatioa ut the rti-publiea among republicans ! Page a6. — His btad en a pike. And the minifter RoUand, who, in his impudent letter to the King, (aid, that «.? the voice 0/ truth is not heard ih courts^ revolutions become necejary^ now, crouiii ng uder the upliftcu p'kc, finds, in the difpenlafons or Jacobin juf- ticc, that thr voice of fruih is heard i^ l>tie m conventions as in courts, and curfes the folly mat called tor revolu- tions. Page 2i''~'Pepular dtfpatlfm* f The federates at the bar, January 13th :•— <* Tie public fore* is dijorganixtdy and poniards intimidate the good ci' tiztns* * Moolt. Dec. 31, 1 791. Sport \ ..ifsm«imi£rMlUm^3 le furniture Baron de as produced J ins, which V. .11 ailig- folti tor 800 tioa ut the indent letter not heard in t.ii.n^ uJer Jacobin juf- I cunvcniiuns I tor revolu- .«« The puUic th* good (i- [ 79 ] Sfart »3t the Uherticidt mtmiers, whs vote in favour «f Louisy wt dtVQtt thtm to iw/Jiwy.— Marfeillcs to the Seiaions •i Paris. Page 30. — French theory. The declarations of rights^ fays Paine, is of more value ta the world than all the laws and Jiatutes that have yet teen pro- mulgated. It flares corruption in the face The venal tribe are all alarmed: from fuch eppofttion the revolution receives an homage. The mart it is Jlruck^ the mare fparks it will emit j «aiTHP FtAR IS IT WILL NOT Ba S • RUCK liNOUGH. I copy this infanity to bring to the reader's recolleaioii the confidence with which this chartHlan prediatd in oppofition to the prediftions of Mr. huke; whoft ideas^ he fays, tumbled over and defrayed on* ansther^ for want of a polar truth. The polar truths, by which Paine fteercd acrofs the boundlefs and unfathomable ocean of the French revolution, make one fmile ; he now finds, fordy to the coft of his reputed penetration, that all the polarity which guided him was a wilt-o'-the-wifp meteor, that led his frail bark o'er rocks and quick-fands :— yet ingulphed as he is, he fays, Mr. Burke takes a ground of fand. Events have amply told us which of them was upon land. Bpatt Page 4 1 .—DireSl defiance. I mean in the fundamentals of the conftltution, fuch as maintaining the monarchy, &c. ; in many fecondary obje:b of 5 II i im m . .^ ■ ■. -mi i.i i 'i:*#* '«.<-•-<, J .-t-* MMH r 80 ] of importtnce, the Conftitucnt Aflcmbly obeyed their ca- hiers. as I htve Ihewn in another place ^h»' *»»« Affcmbly did that was good, is however of the Icaft pofiible confequence, for the plained of all reafons ; they formed at the fame time, a Conftitution that could not fupport itfelf, and confcquently the g«od things they did w"e com- mitted to the winds. Whatever has appeared re pejStable in reprefentation in France, was in that firft AHembly i the fecond was mob; and for the third the kennels were fwept. The fecond. at one ftroke, knocked down all that was built by the firft. It remains yet to be fctn whether the third will not do the fame by the fecond i every ftcp they have hitherto taken has been a page from the code ot anarchy. m Vi m :-ii Page 42. — Dethroned the K'tngl And murdered him by a majority of five voices, though their law required three-fourths at leaft for declaring guilt, . or for pronouncing death; and the majority obtained by the menaces of the aflaffins paid by Egalite, The confumma- tion of political infamy 1 The murder of thebeft prince that ever fat upon the throne of France: the only monarch that country ever knew, that was a real friend to liberty, or that ever fincerely wifhed to render his people truly happy. A ereat and awful Icffon to all the princes of the world ;— not iUflbn teaching mildncfs ; attention to complaints ; an ear to the friends of innovation; a protedion «.f arts, and lite- rature, and philofopby ; fiot an inftrudtion to enlighten ; not a call to teach the ignorant j not a wi(h to foften power into perfuafion, or to change the f«rn didates off utbority for the mild voice of humanity and feeling. NO : this great abomination demands other fentiments ; and ought to gene- rate (tor the real felicity of the human rate) a tighter rem m the iaws of that n^.onfter,- the worft and moft hideous carica- ture of human depravity, the metaphyfical, ph.lofoph.cal, aibciftical, Jacobin republican i-abhorred ior ^^J^^^ °^ '. -v<-.^-i. iim^.^ ''mm 0i m\ ^>--- d their ca- What that leaft poflible ley formed, not fupport d were coni- 1 rifpedable lembly ; the i were fwept. kU that was whether the ery ftep they the code of 'oiccs, though sclaring guilt, btained by the e confumma- icft prince that monarch that liberty, or that jly happy. A e world ; — not jlaints } an ear arts, and litc- enlighten ; not Ften power into f authority for O : this great ought to gene- a tighter rein iti hideous carica- , philofophical, , for ever,,, fof holding '• • I "ifiiiMliVi '»t [ 8i ] holding out to all the fovereignft of the earth, that the only princp who ever vojjntaiily placed bounds to his own power,_OIED FOR IT ON THE SCAFFOLD ; and ruincH his people, while he deftroycd himfelf. He gave ear to thofe who told him of abiifc-i ; he wifhed to tafe h.s peo- ple ; he fought popuIari:y; he allowed the liberty of tha prcfs, and would not reftrain even its liccntioufncfs ; he cheriflicd the arts, to produce a David, aod nourifhcd, iti the bofom oC piotcded fcience, a Condoicet • ; he would not (hcd the blond of traitors, confpirators, and rebels f ; who petitioned for a REFOR»VI.— VVk vho demand a REFORM : — and when the ncv jm, unwarned by this great example, (I ti les that have drenched France with fpc(5lacles too horrid now to thmlc ofj did not t'c iats i a;:cdy tell us, that no iniquity is tou black for republican reformation. he littencd t ALSO have il legifl^ture ot ihiill liften t( blood, wc This damned event, deep written in the charaiSers of hell, has thrown a ftupor over mankind : when the princes and legiflators of the world recover from it, the obfervation of Machiavelli, will not probably be forgotten : Percht con pochijjimi ijftmpi farai piti pietofoy che quclli li quali per troppa pieta lafciano Jeguirt i dij'ordini ande nafchino eccifioni o rapint. * That il to uy, the virtuous meritorjoui chamJtrr, of whom we hav« pf em who h»i'e puhljckly decbrcil ihcml'dves pnuH of In ccrrtl/iindeott. Ltt thofp who would wiih to know him wtll, re»d h f charafterin I.a Methrii'jtur. nui njftqut, and the memoir., of ihe alfuJioation of the Duke de la Ro«he;ou- <;auid. + And thii humanity called on.hii memory the abominab'jr unfeeling rem«rk, whith 1 have lomtwhcre re»i), in the regilter, I lupiioie, oi lome nijclit crlUr, thai the ply ficol pain be fuftrid in bit extcuiiot viai Ujs tlan ibejlcv) Itrntnil »/ La Pajiiit. Did the inncieiii Louii declare th« iiitu*reclion, by which th«y bull tell, to be iht mtji jacred if Juiiti T And are ihe children of Ihe author of that Icntiment clinging to the knees of a father leadiug lo rxe«ulion ? The more Jacobijilm we reaJ, the more amiable ii appear*. M H ^.'Jfik'tW.: - f 82 ] It ift well enough imongft men who never fee a remote ^h*Zh^ .0 .mn,.dutt c^ i. iHfore them. «• Jtinbu • 35; dcp ft,i« in human .uin»ls to the J«!«»««'« «!^ *'•*• Sr Convention I In likfl mani|er the .mb.t.on f \^;'"r!» Z* tkf dir.6t UMfc of th« dwth of Ch«k. \. but Ihefc IT preceding evciiH. ll U not Robrifpiere and bgalitfthal VorriWc9r.,>e, ,r««.4.d (aui» which w.U «»* ^o"'^^ ^V^ many others. i« »lwe t« be atliibuted. Anu ftP««^ e«W ftraiUc (kcd» 9Min blot the national chara^er of th»» k»ng- 4^^ U U ^fSe ^ceiche* who (hall form fo.-o *•»••>««"»' vTntU of 4«»rchy, to whom th. a.»fch«f ^l;J. *»• . JJ; H^Xtt hi improving out tt?tt(fi\UV9n i for wng »«t M'o wi^cb h«» tWIuged Fr»i\«e ia her b«& blood. ■ ■ t II I W| H I Page /^S.— Multitude de faux. They have their owjj ^«w/ forgeries ^t well a» others, for'it is a curious circumftance that the new afig- jiatsare ifliied without bring numbered, and confcqucntly may bf by nilUafds In/kad of mi!lio*»s: tl*'* has been afierted in the Convention, and yet uncontradiaed. Ot the fame complexion is the f^^,. ^hac in the Moniteur |he National Giactte i the price of the louis d or in afligiiat*, has not been publiflied for fpme months paft, whicn was al- ways regularly done before. Page fee a remote , t» attribuM ipt wKo arc ia of CromwcU \. : but Ihefe natutal refuU td tgalit^ th»l til «'<'ii^/« /i«t-« i to 1 -h (hit nlljwi. .. by to u (]M>>tM evcf ef thia king" (tediftantcoo'* (hovl4 b« a^o Jaoohift ad<(an >ing that hero ries 9)t well aa the new adig- id confcqucntly tikis Ims been ntradifted. Of 1^ Moniw^r |hc 'or in. alTignats, , which was «I- Page JiMittM r ,.^„.. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) A O .^% r/, ^ % MniJ 1.0 I.I 11.25 IA4I2.8 12.5 Sii» ■■ £ US 12.0 u I' 3 L4 11.6 Fhotograiiiic Sciences Corporation 23 WIST MAIN STRIfT WIBSTIR.N.Y. 14SM (716) •72-4503 CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques iMiTi 111 riawnr- C 83 J v:r ^; J»agfr ^t.'»-Ktpl tnjt(»tlj. . There is a jMnffage, in Swift's Draper's I-enfS, w»»ich »cco*»nts fully for gold and f.lvcr fo a(>folute)y d'faPPf"^?« in France i i chaagc only irfl^-Ti penct for affignaU.-^^ For jnvowivMtt I am already refolvcd what to do^i i have a 4,re«y good fl»op <*f ftufTs and lilks, a«d inftead of taking dHziMiU, i inwnd to truck wish my neighbours, the but- 2^er, and biken, and.bfewcr. and thr r'-^, f^U'lTt Ws, and the little goldind f»y5;, ^ »»=*,^ J \^^)f tb.tP BY ME LiKt MY ai^ART'S fiLOUP, TlUv BK FTER TlMtS, tiU I tm fuft reidy to ftatvci aa4 then I will buy aftgnais." t \'n Page 52.— C^ ifjH^i* f««H w««'7' win be left U ttie eWjWrtienrcJf tHai a*^«2!!!S' « ,^1','^'^ U i now dep.iviid"-f ht ab^rtdance pro*drcferf by rc^dlu. tiotU is a tfext for JFitittllftien to pttacft onv ^ M a P«8« ;*«;: [ 84 ] Page g.~C» to Rights of Man. :i| • The authority of future ajfemblies, fays Paine, xvill be it Ugiflatt according to the prinaplts prefcribed in the conjiitution ; and if experience Jhouid flnWy teat alterations are nece^arjy they will net be left to the difcretionary power of the govern- ment. Before his book was well circulated, that future government pulled down the conftitution. He goes on : — A government ariftng out of fociety^ cannot have the right of altering itfelf\ if it had^ tt would be arbitrary. Here he levels point blank the fyftem he wrote five hundred pages to Aipport. Then the French government IS arbi- trary. Page so.— Religion. ^ The point of itVigion^ polititalfy conildered, Is a great and arduous queftion, which demands talents fully to exa- mine and arrange, greater perhaps than any other branch cf legiflation. The ableft men of the age feem rather to fplit on this rock than to efcape it. When I read tri a traA ^ a com- ^1% - '■ V 1 ',1 line, tvill be t« the conjiitutkn j (J are netejfarjy of the govern- ;d, that future ^c goes on :■ — w«* the right of 'ary. Here he hundred pages nent IS arbi- ed, Is a great s fu|]y to exa- r other branch feem rather to read tri a tra^ a com- [ 8s ] . a complaint of the autlior, that, becaufe he objelts to particular religious tenets, he has bun reprefcnted as an enemy of order and *f \overnment ; and in the lame tract meet with the afiertton, that the revolution cf the i oth of AuguJ}^ was a happy and ne- cejfary completion of that of the Xi^th of July^ I fee an inftance which affords a proof of this. The latter fentiment makes one's blood run cold, for it implies more than it profefies. Freezing with its effedt, I turned haftily to the end of the woik, to fee if it was not explained (as the publication took place after the death of the King) in a chapter of additions and corredions } but no fuch matter. The queftion comes furely with force ; is fuch a man repre- fented as an enemy of government, on account of his religious tenets^ or on account of his political opinions ? ^ When fuch fentimcnts are abroad, and even gloried in, and found mod wonderfully connected, one knows not how, with religious tenets, infinitely difficult becomes the bufmefs, I will not fay of toleration, but of the whole fyftem of legiflation, fo far as it connedls with religion. Would you have a unitarian take a feat on the bench of bifliops ? Religious reafons have not yet been given why they ftiould not. But would you have a man there who publickly declares, that the revolution ot the loth of Augurt was a happy one ? No ; mod afiurcdiy. ticnce then, in the repeal of tefts and fubfcriptions, are they to be confidered as levelled againft heterodox doctrines of religion ; or, as political fecurities, that the power and emoluments of the church (hall be lodged with men whofe opinions do not tend to the utter deftrudion of our admi- rable conftitution IN S fATE ? And further, if there are any particular fedts of religion, whofe profeflbrs are ge- nerally tin£lured with republicanifm and Jacobinifm, will any man of common fenfe fuppofe, that the non-repeal of tefts and reftriflions arepcrfifted in merely on religious mo- tives ? ^ Page C 86 3 Page 59. — J^Mtationt. Tlitfrt is one objeft in affociations wh.rt h" hot bert thouchTof. but which would, perhaps, be . "i^f"! anj effeaivi as anv other, and that is, for aflbcutors to xtUA.t •Sinft dealtng wth 'any fort of Jacbn, tr-^' «^-J» ; '^ 'J« ilSof attlnpw 10 alter a conttiwr on, whici io effeau- Ify^t^fihpr^Sy.as that of tngla.v.i does. on c«t;PjnfoA W?h7nr othe/that E«.ope fees, be ^Hl conf.de red the Sienrf. of mankind, in giving ^'^".f'^"* ?S brother citizens of equality} to f"5f'="^^^ Jkra^e deaths and arms for the alTaffins and Y^f^^t^v'^^o} to wablc them, by (ucccfs « home, to fubduc the vua 0^ -W***^ ^i'^ -jx'.^s» .^..^ .^■•me-.^—.tim ri '-^ni.^ ■ h has hot beWi : n ufcful and aiors to rtUAvt d.fmcrt : if the hicifo effcfitu- ,on comfrarifort confKtered, the tement to thofe tton, will fardy ?hr>, arquamtUfa 1 cnglaiTd* dfft's aed made a ho** c»l princtpW of daitned, HmvP jins f Mri ihry ity have a Hake ', wefot* the «aA* )n Bttt#hencfe , the l«i'*ed-i»ieft other prrt»ctp*e», at prefcnt tt\\A^ ftich difailFefted ihte th« wealth He hands of ifieti make upon it to land, loconfift of be money, food, jicides of France, ibdue the vUis of th [ 87 ] tht hritijh eonflitutton by a radical rtftrm. This fnplne ioat- tenlion, v^h.ch turns a man's money to his owndeUrudtioM, is l.iehly reiirehcnfib!.-. Let «h !-• who are real friends to the cociftitution expend their income with men whofc principles ^te known— and not become, unthinkingly, pro- motes of fedition, i.nd rncouragers of republicanilm. Uo amon'^ft feaaries of variout depend on a people being at their eafc,— that i , having few or no indigent poor. This alTertion will fceii a paradox only to the ignorant. That ability depends on the quantity of mney exchanget \ in other words, 011 concentrated circulation. 1 he cafe, the plenty, and happincfs of the people have nothing to do in this bufuufs; fur give a man a thoufand acres of rich land, which produces beef, mutton, pork, wheat, wool, hemp, flax, &c. to profufion ; let the fanvly that nodds it, live in the utnioft conceivable plenty, there docs not rcfult from this outline the capability of paying on«t fliillinir of taxes. Kven taxes on folid property, lilte land-taxes, muft be paid by (ajh in circulation . land does not pav a land-tax, but motuy. it is not, therefore, the eajeot the people that enables them to pay, but thefuperfluity that Eocs beyond that cafe In the confumption ol a thouland pounds worth of produas forming the cafe, the phyfica " ability" mentioned by Paine, what is the taxable amount l Poffiblv not a jn-nnv beyond the confumption of foreign wine, coftee, fpiccs,'e-ic. I ufed the cxpreffion conctntraUd circulation ; America, if Hic wanted hcavy taxes, would fell what it means : let a fettler in the woods, two hun- tired miles from a city, f II his hemp or his wool to a Hore keeper for moncv, there is a ftep in circulation where the ttate might levy a tax i but in a wild ceuntry, it would coft ten times more to levy it, than the tax vvouU be worth. We know wliat diftilltries are in the Higti- lands of Scotland i the Americans have that tax alfp, but ^r'lmtatSf'KS^^^'t'f^ " ire mofl men '« The gcne- efpecially the generality of • unites with lion llerling, icrica, which rrany writers :h multitudes ace with this a people being ndiginl poor. the ignorant. exchange i \ in ATION. The ; have nothing thoufand acres pork, whear, le family that ity, there does of paying one propi riy, like ion . land does fore, the eafe of "operfluity that uf a thoufand fe, the phyfical ixable amount f tion of foreign fion concentrated y taxes, would oods, two hun- his wool to a irculation where (ild ceuntry, it 111 the tax ttoulJ : in the High- tiat tax alfp, but ihey .A •Km can lew it onK in peopled diftria*; nay, ihrre trft iiSiarin America.' whcrV. he iand-.ax wil "ot pjy or the culleSip,. I ! ! It would be eafy to v»'f^c .hcfc ob- tv.tl. todemon«r.tion» .nd to (hew. tl«»^.»»^« '-=;'! l!f hi» oropofition ii true, and that the people of hng- f/nd and of France (bi/crl tbi nvolutitn, for nothmg fine, . «,u »;>«e< than thofe of America, for tm« piai«» ;:.,■;,:: .hrA* hav. . circuWoo i.6«i»ly mo,. rapid. ; When I confider the boundlefs wealth of thU king- .i^m • iti enormous confumption ; its rapid circwiaxon oHo millions ftcrling, in gold and f.lver, and of paper ?„tnTnEely greatc^ amount > it« exportation and i') - ;or atiinrwhfch', if valued truly, --''^ «-« 5° .T.! .' lions fterline; the facilities of movement, exchange, t a n i f« of Ifl if I may ufe the exprcffion, arif.nj from ih. 5*e of oJr c ties and the ma»« of our circulation •, I £lS thmk itV moderate calculation to fay t at in c.^ of any unforefcen emergency of the Kate, "»^« " than U would be to raife 5s. a head m America: form Lot vtriy far from the fad of ^'ng'a"\'"/*/."?;f'^~: Kt dis this prove? J»^"f4?£„ ^tt ' nql^ their pockets after the tax is paid ? There 'j/'l'^ '"f '^V. and in the inglilhman's pocket you would find a purtt of guineas and fliillings^i i« the Henchman s, the ^^ The n,.,^ of our ,„.. i. not (o gre« .n •{ < ";J-; J^^^^l '*'''^'^'» then. p«id by • country gentlem.n, ol mtll elUe, »«« mot u , him, JiUe ihe Fr«nchm»o, wiih tmpty poclceti. iT^ V; v»t.f.iU k'". nMladit -^wa m m\ r 90 1 maUit dt U ptchi, v«cuity. Perhtpi the h«pp»«ft «nd m<»ll rnviable pmple in America, the tom/orttittt free- holder, in the back country, i«, of all the men in Eu- ropr or America, the one le. ft able t« pav taxei. What doi deduce from ihiif I hat the comparilon of the tng- li(h civil lift of i.98,4681.*. amiHinting to it. 7\d. t ht-ad ik not at all unreafonable, when compared with the Ame- rican civil lilt of 300,000 dollars (66,oool), or 5;d a head. But no compinfon can be drawn juftly, between a new country that did not form itfelf and an «**iaw*f**, ■■■'■Ill " iappi«ft tnd rtvbit free- «n in Eu- Kci. What >f the Eng- 7;d. a h«ad I the Ame- . or 5;d a tly, bfcweea an old one ig that new vrth the ex. nillioni, and Paine's prin« ' anarchy, it tntiiiig for thi ltd by thi ma- direct revolt nt it againft |ualiy againfl: P»g« i. p. 7ff. .. / C 91 J 5 Page ^%,'^Abuftt. Smi if thi, maxim had alwa,, -^ovirntd, uhir, ^fd'ur prLiLrt, havi bunf It wa, reforming abufn that gavi K'urpr'f'ntconjhtution. Adm. able ,og,c ! W-'^'';"^ ^^^^^J you hHd a bad conrt.tution you ''^''^i'^'\^'\\f^J. Li r/;/r,/.r. having a good on.-. V^" ^^^^ ^ *£ to *b^ a belie. ? The Italian, who being well, took phyfic to be belter, fecms a cale in point. ' Page 3. — Expirimentcr. This circumftance of «her« being men who havmg been friends to the revolution, before the .cth "f ^"5^;^;: continue friends to it, proves clearly onj of t^^"J^J'"f ' that they are either republicans, and therefore only ap- [ 9» *] proved of the revolution before the iO^^ /)f Auguft as a Sep 10 the 2ift of January, rhmkmg, with Dr. i'rieftley, he revolution of the ,0th «'^#a 2?^^ HAPPV|-or, th t they have changed their principles. The revolution before ne^.oth of Auguft, was as different from 'f'^ revo ut on after that day, as light from darkncfs •, r.s clearly dittintt u pr nciple^anJ pr.aice, as liberty and fl'^ery; for the fame man to approve therefore of both, he muft either be unct-did or'Shangeable; uncandid in ^.s approbation before that period ; changeable in his approbauon after it How lit Ic reafon therefore for reproaching me with fentimel' contrary to thofe I P"blill«'l b^'ore the ,0 h of Auguft ! 1 am not changeable but fteady and con- f, tent^the fame principles which direfted me to approve h revision, in' its commencement (.he principles of real liberty), led me to detdt it alter the 1 0th of Auguft. The reproach of changeablenefs or fcmetkng ^''A btlongs entirely to thofe who did not then change 'h«:. opinion but approve the upublU, as they had approved the imtUi m8nar(hy. . . . , , ..^ :■■? %^ m Monf. de Mounier's juft charaaer of Louis XVI. here .rrrit. ouotlnt — " The abufes in France were prior to The eig" of' Louis XVL : a debt of five mi hards ki8,750,oool.) exifted when he mounted the throne, y ve? was the crown of France worn by a ?;•"« whj v.as mo.e the friend of humanity. A te;*^"./"'^" »"J hulband; an enemy of all faft and Pr«d-g'" X ;. ^"" ^^ refpea for public law, he was anxious to do all vh« g""^ that was in his power. 1 he ccrvees ^bol'.hed i the to - ture iui^prelledj the miferable condition of 'bole m h°fp " tais and prifons eafedj the reformation of our abfurd^cn- ' Auguft as a Dr. Prieftley, »Y } — or, that ilution before he revolution learly diftinft very; for the t miift either IS approbation robation after :hing me with :tore the lOth ady and con- ne to approve principles • of th of Auguft. worfe^ belongs their opinion, ircd the iimitti ouis XVI. here : were prior to ■ five milliards sd the throne. y a p'ince who nder f.ither and ligality; full of Jo all vhe good iliihed i the tor- if thole in hofpi- ■ our abfurd cri- minal [ 93 3 „i„al3unfprudence begun; the pro^^^^^^^^^^ inftituted; th^.^/^'^^^* ^VJ" fhofe who do not profef. mains} civil "gh«/*'«°'«'i,*,°/'° ftd from annihifation, the catholic '^^'^)^''j:J'r^ll\JZ^A by the moft ufeful new ports created; "^O"?!"" f-l" jjefe for the gratitude publiEeftabifcments What .^^^^ gj^,, b, of his people £;*"•".**•' 5"? is hatred againft abufes, the love of h.s .f"bj«as ; jmd >y* !'«[ j^^^,! him from t^^ *i' r ft U S£g to bfnlc. ;hat with a mind his throne. It « y<^'"»S * . ^aps have found lefs beneficent, anothepr.nce m^htp V . ^^ the mean, of prefervmg h.s power j ^\^;j!p{^^ % ;rceVenT/{.i to the block. THE END. • t