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An Impartial Hiftory of the late Revolution in France, from its Commencement to the Death of the Queen, and the Execution of the Deputies of the Gironde Party. 2 Vols. 8vo. 123. Robinfons,

THERE is not one among the numerous publications which have appeared in England on the fubject of the French Revolution that deferves the name of Hiftory. The fketch which has been tranflated from the Almanach Hiftorique of Mr. Rabaut is fo extremely brief that it does not even narrate the principal facts; and from the fituation of the Author it cannot be fuppofed to be, in any tolerable degree, impartial, The Hiftory of Baron Dillon proceeds no farther than the taking of the Baftille; and a work published in the year 1792, under the title of an Hiftorical Sketch of the French Revolution, ends with the diffolution of the firft Affembly. A confiderable portion of the work before us, the Authors [for it feems there are more than one] candidly inform us, has already appeared in the New Annual Regifter. The Hiftory of the French Revolution in that work [with which the writer of this article was ftruck in the perufal of the Regifter, as a compofition a good deal above the level of anonymous and periodical publication] was originally written with a view to a feparate performance, and in the prefent volumes it appears in an improved and

1794.

corrected state. The caufes of the Revolution are alfo developed in an introductory chapter; and the narrative is continued to the prefent time, as well as the fcattered and imperfect materials which have lately reached this country, would permit.

The Authors align the reafon why they have prefumed to affix to their title the epithet Impartial. They car not, they declare," charge themfelves with feeling the fmalleft bias to any party but that of truth and liberty; and they flatter themselves that their readers will find not only every circumftance fairly reprefented, but every cenfurable tranfaction, whoever were the authors or actors, marked in its proper colours. If it were neceffary to make a declaration of their own principles, they would fay they are neither TORY NOR REPUBLICAN. They love Liberty as English Whigs, and execrate every criminal act by which fo noble a caufe is endangered or difgraced.Though candid and fincere, they do not pretend to infallibility; they therefore earneftly entreat that should thefe volumes fall into the hands of any per fons who are capable of correcting any Q 2

part

part of the narrative, or of imparting any information of importance, they will communicate it to the publisher, and they may depend upon it that the earliest opportunity will be taken to print the corrections, and bring them forward in the most convenient form to the public!"

In a work compiled from fo many different fources, it was found impoffible to quote diftinctly the authorities at the bottom of the page: to fupply, in fome measure, that defect, a list of authorities is fubjoined; befides a confi. derable mafs of authentic original information, and the oral teftimony of eye witneffes.

The following deduction of the principal circumstances that led to the French Revolution will ferve as a fpccimen of thofe abilities, and that turn of thinking and obfervation that predominate in the refpectable and feafonable publication of which we have just given fome profpectus.

"It would be a fource of confolation to mankind, if we could lay it down as a maxim, that the extreme of tyranny is always productive of liberty; but the long depreffion of enslaved Rome; as well as more modern examples, forbid us to indulge the flattering fpeculation. It is however fome difcourage. ment to defpotifm, that, in certain circumftances, a revolution is commonly the confequence of great oppreffion; and that it is difficult, if not impoffible, for a monarch to guard, by any artificial arrangements, the fanctuaries of arbitrary power.

"History ancient or modern affords no inftance of a country, in which defpotifm was reduced to fo complete a fyftem as in France. The King levied taxes, by his fole authority, to a greater annual amount than are raised by the whole of thofe immenfe territories which compofe the Germanic body. The people were ftudiously depreffed by poverty, ignorance, and extortion. They had no rights, or were carefully inftructed never to claim them. Every private citizen was liable to be forced by the officers of government from his ftarving family to work in fome corvée of public concern, or of abfurd magnificence-He was taxed to more than half the amount of his income; andamong thefe one of themoft oppreffive was the gabelle or falt-tax, by which he was forced to pay at an exorbitant rate for that neceffary commodity, while he was neither allowed to purchase

when he pleased, nor to afcertain the quantity, but both were left at the dif cretion of the farmers of the revenue.

"Tyranny exercifed upon the property of a nation must ever be accompanied with a tyranny against their perfons. The king and his minifters poffeffed an unlimited power of imprisonment.Under the pretence of preferving the public tranquillity against traitors and infurgents, the deteftable invention of lettres de cachet was contrived: and this practice was carried to such a dreadful excefs, that they were notoriously fold by the miftreffes and favourites of the monarch, and even by their fubordinate agents; by which any person of the higher claffes, for a pecuniary confideration, might gratify, to the full extent, his envy,his caprice, or his revenge.

"The chain of defpotism descended, The privileged orders, as they were called, the nobility and clergy, participated in the rapine and injustice of the

court.

The nobility were bribed to the fupport of this immenfe fabric of corruption and mifery, by a complete ex emption from all public contributions; and their paffions were gratified with the privilege of procuring lettres de cachet, upon moft occafions, against thofe who offended or difpleafed them. The clergy are faid to have been invefted with nearly a fifth of the net produce of the whole kingdom, exclufive of eftates of immenfe value.

"The adminiftration of justice was well calculated to affimilate with the reft of the fyftem. The criminal trials were generally fecret, the ftate trials always fo-But the most complete abfurdity was, that men were not elevated to the bench of justice for their talents or their integrity, but the feats on those venerable tribunals were publickly and notoriously fold to the highest bidder; and it is affirmed, that the decifions of the courts were fcarcely lefs venal.

"Grofs and audacious as were these abufes, the authority by which they were fupported was too well guarded to be easily overturned. A numerous mercenary army was always at the dif pofal of the king and his favourites; a fyftem of police, at once the moft per fect and the most arbitrary that ever was devifed, pervaded every part of the kingdom; and a host of fpies and informers, difperfed throughout the nation, rendered more effectual fervice to the caufe of defpotism than even the janizaries of the menarch.

"That

"That fo ftupendous an edifice of tyranny fhould ever be brought to deftruction, is the circumstance which ought chiefly to excite our furprife. It was formed for duration, and must have been permanent, had not the ambition of fucceffive monarchs counteracted the arrangements of the corrupt but inge nious authors of the fyftom. The paffon for war, and the practice of funding (which fooner or later muft effect a violent change in all the Governments of Europe), brought that of France to a premature deftruction. Speculative men attribute too much to the diffufion of knowledge, when they afcribe to this caufe the French Revolution. The diffufion of knowledge may teach men to feel their wrongs, but it is the painful fenfe of oppreffion that will ftimulate to refent them. The people in all countries are timid, patient, fubmiffive; the flaves of habit, of intereft, and of prejudice; and will endure much rather than risk every thing.

"The prodigality of Louis XIV, was united with a magnificence which dazzled Europe by its fplendour, and gratified that national vanity which has been confidered for ages as characteristic of the French, He was fucceeded by a prince who united in himself the oppolite vices of avarice and prodigality. While immenfe fums were expended on the fruitless wars of the court, and fcarcely lets on that fyftem of intrigue by which the cabinet of France affected to direct the affairs of Europe; while the public treasure was lavifhed upon proffitutes and pandars; the king had private treafury of his own, in which he gratified his avarice with contemplating an accumulation of property, extorted by the moft unjust means from the wretched peafantry of France.

tenacious of power, and never parted with it but with extreme reluctance. This remark will meet with frequent confirmation in the courfe of this Hiftory; and indeed the misfortunes of his concluding years appear to have been greatly aggravated, if not in a measure created, by the circumftance.

"The difgraceful fyftem which had darkened the annals of France during the latter years of his grandfather's reign, though it might be fupported under an aged monarch, to whom habit had reconciled his fubjects, and whose declining years afforded a hope of a fpeedy change, could not be endured under a young king; and Louis had the fenfe to fee that a change of meafures was neceffary, and the ipirit to en ter upon fuch a change. The duke d'Aiguillon, and all the faction of the countefs du Barré, were filently removed; and the young king immediately recalled the count de Maurepas, the friend and confidant of his father, whom the vicious policy of the late reign had banished from the court. cient ftatesman declined to accept of any oftenfible office, but contented himself with a feat in the privy council, while the affairs of France were administered under his direction. The oftenfible minifters were, M. Miromefnil, who was appointed keeper of the feals; the count de Vergennes, who prefided over the foreign department, and the count De Muy over that of war.

This an

"The recall and re-establishment of the parliaments, whom the fears or the refentment of the late government had banished, was rather a facrifice to popularity than a fpontaneous measure of the king; but the goodness of his heart was evidenced by his abolishing the horrid engine of tyranny, the queftion by torture; by the edict which commuted: the punishment of deferters from death to flavery; and by the abolition of moft of the oppreffive, feudal privileges within his own domains.

"Nature had formed the heart of Louis XVI. of the beft materials, and from his firft acceffion to power he appeared to make the happiness of his people, if not the principal, at least one of the great objects of his government: and "A ftill bolder and more hazardous inhad the Itate of the finances not been novation was the disbanding of the irretrievably bad, the reforms in admi- moufquetaires, a corps felected from the niftration which he effected would have moft illuftrious families for the guard immortalized his name. By difpofition of the royal perfon, but the infolence or by habit averfe to pomp and parade, and expence of which were ill compenhe could part without reluctance with fated by the appearance of fuperior digevery thing which had no farther object nity. This meafure is commonly attri than to gratify thofe puerile paffions. buted to the advice of the count De St. Yet the character of Louis has been ge- Germains, and might be the dictate cinerally mistaken, and one feature has ther of expedience or of policy. It, been conftantly overlooked. He was however, indicated the spirit of reform "The pomp of the court of Louis XIV," fays M, Rabaut, was parfimony when compared with that of Louis XV."

by

by which the government was actuated, and which, commencing with the court, was afterwards to be carried to an enthufiaftical excefs by the nation.

"The diforder in which three fatal wars had involved the finances of the nation, and which the unexampled prodigality of his predeceffor had increafed, was, however, an evil not cafily to be repaired. Nor was a rigid conomy the characteristic of the court even of Louis XVI. However little difpofed to habits of profusion the king might be in his own perfon, the expen-, five pleatures of the queen, and the uncommon fplendour of the court, ferved rather to promote than to diminith the general diftrefs. "Under thirty fucceffive minifters," fays Rabaut," the court, ever craving and ever poo, had invented new refources. To imagine a new tax was confidered as a troke of genius, and the art of difguifing it Thewed the adroitnefs of the financier. We had already imported from Italy, under the auspices of our Regents of the houfe of Medicis, the celebrate! refource of farming out the taxes, the fcience of which confifts in giving as little as you can to the State, in order to levy as much as you can upon the people, The fale of offices and commithions was likewife a tax levied upon pride and upon folly: their number increased every day. It is neceffary to acquaint foreigners, that among us was fold the exclufive right of exercising fuch or fuch profeffions, and that this right be came a titic. Patents were made out for carrying on the trade of a peruke. maker, of a coal-meter, of a fearcher of hogs' tongues; and thefe callings became exclufive; they were termed privileges. The rich purchased them as a fpeculation, and fold them to advantage., A certain financier had in his port-folio thirty patents for peruke-makers, which were bought of him at a high price by perfons dwelling in the remoteft provinces. Befides that this low kind of fpeculation changed the character of a people, where every thing, even honour, was become venal, thefe new-created offices were all fo many indirect taxes; for the purchafer never failed to make the public reimburse him. It was inju rious to induftry, fince, in order to exercife a profeffion, it was not neceffary to have talents for it, but to be either rich already, or to borrow in order to become rich. In fine, it was an additional bur. den to the State, which paid the falary or the intereft of every office that was

fold. The number of them was enor mous, A perfon who was employed to count them, and who grew weary of the task, ventured to eftimate them at above three hundred thoufand. Another calculated, that in the space of two centuries the people had been burdened with more than a hundred millions of new taxes, folely for the purpose of paying the intereft of thofe offees,

"In the appointment of M, Turgot to the department of Finance, the king evinced his difcernment or his docility, The commercial arrangements of the kingdom received the most valuable improvements under the guidance of this upright and able statesman; but his integrity was too inflexible, and hir projets too extenfive, not to excite the ever. wakeful jealoufy of the farmers general; and an accidental or artificial famine was made the inftrument for depriving him of the public confidence. On his refignation he was fucceeded by a M. Cugny, on whofe death M, Taboreau des Reaux was appointed to the vacant post; and in a short time after, the king, whofe attention appears to have been particularly directed to this object, affociated with him M. Neckar, by birth a Swifs, and the firft proteftant, who, from the time of the revocation of the edict of Nantz, had ever been elevated to an official fituation of any confequence in France. M. Neckar had rendered himfelf confpicuous by feveral commercial plans, which he had fuccefs, fully recommended to the mercantile part of the nation, and particularly by the adjustment of foine differences which had taken place between the India company and the crown.

"In the mean time a circumftauce occurred, which, to a country burdened with debts and taxes, could only be productive of total ruin. The year 1774 will be memorable for the unfor tunate war which the weakness and wickedness of a depraved and incapable miniftry wantonly kindled between Great Britain and her North American colonies-a war excited for the enforcing of a tax which would not have paid for collecting it; and levied under the abfurd and fantastical plea, that the colonies were virtually reprefented in the British Parliament, as by the ancient grants and charters they were conftituted a portion of the manor of Eaft Greenwich in Kent! If any thing could exceed the folly of the English miniftry in commencing the war, it was that of France in engaging in it-Such,

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The old and deteftable prejudice which taught the uninformed part of the people to regard a neighbouring nation as their natural enemies, was not lefs prevalent in France than in England; and the notion of diftrefling a rival whiic embarraffed with a domeftic difpute, might in fuch circumftances be cafily made popular. The old ftatefien of France, accustomed to that meddling and intriguing fcheme of politics which sever defirous to interfere in the internal concerns of other nations, could not overlook the opportunity which the American war afforded. The queen, edutated from infancy in an hereditary hatred to the English nation, and flat tered by the glory which the French mght atchieve in the conteft, foon embraced the American caufe. The enlightened part of the nation were actuated by a more generous enthufiafm. Among all who read, and all who reflected in France, the caufe of America appeared the caufe of Liberty; and the efforts of fome of the moft illuftrious individuals anticipated the arrangements of the court. The marquis de la Fayette, a young nobleman nearly allied to the illuftrious houfe of Noailles, of large property, and not lefs remarkable for his accomplishments than his rank, fitted out, in an early stage of the difpute, a veffel at his own expence, and embarked for America, where he afterwards obtained a high station and confiderable eminence and reputation in the Continental army."

The profeffions of impartiality, and a diligent inveftigation of the truth, which introduce thefe volumes are well fuftained by the tenor or train that runs throughout the whole. No elaburate defence or ftudied, accufation of

Al

any perfon or any party; no difinelination to record the truth where it appears; or to fupply any links in the historic chain by vague reports or fic. tions; particular attention is paid to dates as well as facts; and, on the whole, although it be fcarcely poffible that amongst fo confiderable a mass of recent facts, fome errors and mistakes should not have been occafionally inferted, we confider this as a book of facts that may occafionally be referred to with not a little confidence. though, as the Authors in their preface justly obferve, it is not to be expected that a work of this kind will be acceptabie to zealots of any party, yet it will gain efteem in proportion as it is known; and even zealots themfelves, although it fall fhort of the warmth and heat of their feelings, may yet occafionally take fhelter under its authority, when they have occafion to verify facts. It is really aftonishing how great a portion of readers avoid and efchew all books that do not re-ccho at leaft, if they do not ferve to heighten and fwell the language of prejudice and paffion. Moft writers, efpecially writers in periodical publications, and on temporary fubje&ts, adapt their tone to that of particular fects, parties, and factions, whom they regard as the patrons of their literary labours; and thus, books, in too many inftances, instead of being lights in the midft of darkness, are made the means of perpetuating error. To fuch a compofition or compilation of interefting facts as that now under confideration, which not only difavows all connection and all fubferviency to parties, but invites information and correction, we think it our duty to give our hearty approbation and applaufe, with good wishes of fuccefs.

Some Account of the Deans of Canterbury, from the new Foundation of that Church, by Henry the Eighth, to the prefent Time. To which is added, a Catalogue of the Manufcripts in the Church Library. By Henry John Todd, M. A. Minor Canon of the Church. 8vo. gs. Cadell.

FEW Cathedrals have been fo well fupplied with Hiftorians and Ciceroni's as the Metropolitan Church of this kingdom. Though we do not agree with Mr. Todd to the full extent of Eis obfervation, that "whatever relates to the characters of diftinguished Ecclefiaftics is generally thought deferving of attention, yet we are not difpofed to refuse our affent to his expectation,

that the prefent work will not be thought wholly uninterefting. Thefe Memoirs of the Deans of Canterbury, "tho' they are offered to the world only as humble sketches," add fomething to the stock of Biography of this country, and must afford inuch fatisfaction to thofe who live on the fpot where the eminent perfons here commemorated enjoyed their preferments. Of one of the number

we

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