unjustifiable aggression on the rights of independent powers, not only excited the indignant resentment of the princes who were actually despoiled, but the displeasure and apprehension of others. The emperor remonstrated on the violation of existing treaties, requiring compensation for the past, and security for the future. The National Assembly imputed this requisition to hostile intentions, and affirmed that there was a concert of foreign sovereigns, French princes, and aristocrats, to effect a counter-revolution. They asserted that Lewis had acceded to this confederation, and was preparing to escape from France.

The king, though invested by the constitution, with no inconsiderable share of power, might be considered from the time of his arrival at Paris, as in the virtual custody of the National Assembly. The Thuilleries was both his palace and his prison; and the troops, by which he was surrounded, were rather spies on his actions than the guards of his person. Under these circumstances a plan was formed for setting the king at liberty, and by conveying him to some place on the German frontiers, where he might place himself at the head of a strong body of troops to enable him to dictate reasonable terms to the assembly. The marquis de Bouille, governor of Metz, was prepared to become the chief agent in the enterprise, but he wanted an able colleague in the capital. Mirabeau, whose talents and address peculiarly qualified him for such a task, was now no more. La Fayette was too enthusiastic and too eagerly desirous of popular applause to be entrusted with the execution of a scheme so important and so difficult; and the king was too irresolute and possessed too little firmness of mind to bear his part in the transaction,

even beneath the conduct of others.

On the 18th of April his majesty intended to repair with his family to St. Cloud, a palace about three miles from the city. In the morning, as the family were stepping into their carriages, they were surrounded by an immense crowd, who compelled them to return. The marquis de la Fayette

in vain interposed to procure him a passage, and was so much insensed at the disregard shewn to his admonitions, that he instantly resigned the command of the national troops, and was with difficulty persuaded to resume it. His majesty, repairing to the assembly, laid before it his complaints. of the insult offered to his person, which were coolly received. After giving and receiving assurances of fidelity and loyalty to the state, and formally notifying to foreign powers his acceptance of the constitution, he proceeded with his family to St. Cloud. The interruption of his visit to that place proved very unfavourable to the execution of his project of escape, as it increased the vigilance of the populace, But the mortification which he suffered from being despoiled of his prerogatives, was so much aggravated by the humiliating thraldom to which he was reduced, that he resolved to attempt his own extrication at any hazard, and in defiance of every obstacle. Montmedi, a fortress on the borders of Luxemburg, was chosen as the place of his majesty's residence; and the marquis de Bouille had prepared to facilitate his escape, by placing relays of horses at proper places, and had secured his protection in case of resistance, by posting parties of dragoons under various pretexts, on the road. On the 18th of June the Russian ambassador procured a passport for a Russian lady, whom he described as about to set out for Germany with a 1791. specified number of attendants and two children. On the 20th, the royal party left Paris about midnight, having escaped the vigilance of the guard, and took the road of Chalons sur Marne, and St. Menehond. At the latter of these places the postillion, recognizing Lewis from his resemblance to his picture, informed the postmaster, who dispatched his son to Varennes the next stage, to inform the magistrates. He was there detained till some of the national guards could be assembled, by the preconcerted overturning of a waggon loaded with furniture, upon a bridge which led towards Montmedi. Parties of dragoons were stationed at St. Menehond and Varennes, but were seduced from their

duty. On information of the disaster, de Bouille used all possible dispatch to rescue his sovereign; hastening with a regiment of dragoons to Varennes for that purpose. But he arrived too late; his majesty had been placed under an arrest, and was instantly carried back to Paris, under an escort of the national guards. The king's flight having been discovered about eight in the morning, filled the city with the greatest consternation. To overtake him was impracticable, as Paris was not 200 miles from the frontiers, and he must have already effected one third of his journey. It was universally believed that measures had been concerted between the king and his partizans on the frontiers of the kingdom, where he was to collect all the force which he could assemble and invade France. The National Assembly having met, directed that the people should take up arms to repel the expected attempts of the king's party. Lewis had left particular directions that no use should be made of the seals of office during his absence; but the assembly decreed that the king, having absented himself, the business of the nation ought, notwithstanding, to proceed, and that the seals of the state should, in virtue of their authority as representatives of the nation, be affixed as usual to their decrees by the chief minister. On the following day intelligence arriving of the king's detention excited the most general exultation. After investigating the conduct of various suspected persons, the assembly at last determined to subject the sovereign himself to judicial examination. A deputation of three members was appointed to receive his deposition. He refused to answer any interrogatories, but avowed his willingness to disclose the motives of his departure. He declared that he was induced to leave his capital by his apprehension of danger to the royal family, especially her majesty, excited by the insults of the populace, and the threats conveyed in various inflammatory pamphlets which were circulated with impunity; that he meant not to leave the kingdom, but only to repair to Montmedi, where he would have been better situated

than at the capital for opposing the attempts of foreign powers; that he wished to ascertain by his absence from Paris the real wishes of the nation respecting the constitution, and that he wished to prove to France and to Europe that he was at liberty and not a prisoner, as was believed by many.

The majority of the people were of opinion that the king having abandoned them, could no longer claim their attachment or obedience, and ought to be tried and punished for his violation of his public duty but the assembly acted upon this occasion with unusual magnanimity, and passed an act of oblivion. In order to prevent farther tumult, it declared that the revolution was complete. The committee for compiling and digesting their decrees, was enabled to produce the new constitutional code on the fourth day of August. Each article having been separately debated in the assembly, the code was presented to his majesty, and consecrated by his acceptance, accompanied by an oath that he would employ the powers vested in him, for the maintenance of the constitution and the due execution of the law. Soon after the occurrence of this solemnity the constituent assembly, having accom plished the objects of its mission, dissolved itself on the 30th of September, after a session of two years and four months. From this moment the balance of power among the several parties of the state was entirely lost. The most violent measures of the majority in the National Assembly had been modified in their tendency, or counteracted in their object, by the influence of several enlightened and independent members; but on the dissolution of that body nothing was wanting to the success, and the predominance of the partizans of unlimited democracy. The democrats were favoured by the proceedings of the foreign prinees, whose rights the assembly had invaded and whose property they had sequestrated. The congresses held at Mantua and at Pilnitz, to consider of the most effectual measures by which restitution might be obtained, excited a suspicion that their secret objects were the invasion

of France, the suoversion of its new constitution, and the dismemberment of the kingdom.

It is impossible o retrace the events of the preceding year without lamenting the untimely fate of the accomplished but unprincipled Mirabeau. Possessing the most commanding eloquence, a gift derived from nature alone, he exhibited the rare example of a man, without any previous study, displaying all the promptitude, the boldness, the variety, and the graces of a veteran and accomplished orator. Born a noble but excluded by his own order, he became a deputy from the third estate, and for some time sustained the popular cause with a fluency that charmed, with a genius that astonished, with an enthusiasm that animated and enraptured the minds of his hearers. Such was the magic of his oratory, that while he spoke his auditory forgot the scandalous imm rality of his life; such was his good fortune, that, a few short intervals excepted, he retained his celebrity, even after he had been corrupted by the court; and such his confidence in his own powers, that with a voice enfeebled by disease, and in the agonies of death, he bequeathed his opinions on the formation of a new constitution, as

his last and most valuable legacy to a mourning and applauding people.

As an author he exhibited more zeal than genius, and more industry than talent; he declaimed rather than argued, he surprised rather than convinced. Though his time had been devoted to licentious pleasures, his writings were always dedicated to the cause of honour, humanity, and virtue. It was as an orator, alone, however, that he stood, unrivalled. Το conceive a just idea of the effects. he produced, it would have been necessary to witness the lofty and continued flights of his eloquence on great occasions, or the majestic cadence of his language, and the varied intonations of his voice on unimportant subjects. portant subjects. Nor were the features of his countenance or the gesticulations of his person, although the one was devoid of elegance, and the other of beauty, deficient in interest or unsuitable to his purpose; the frown upon his ample forehead, the lightning of his eye, and the thunder of his voice, well accorded with the other characteristics of his eloquence, and impressed with involuntary admiration the individuals who detested his private vices, aud suspected his public principles..

THE

HE important_revolution which had occurred in France could not but be viewed with anxiety by the neighbouring nations. Some men, actuated by the love of novelty or an aversion to legal restraint, hailed the approach of those days when mankind would be blest with the full enjoyment of liberty; and others, from interested motives, were desirous of any change that might afford them an opportunity of improving their condition, or repairing their broken fortunes. Many were affrighted by the progress of principles, which gave to the people the power of new modelling their forms of government, while in England the sincere wellwishers to the established constitution, looked forward to the result of the changes in France with extreme solicitude; apprehensive that the glorious system of government under which the British people had so long flourished, might be undermined in its principles by designing men, or might be reduced to ruin amidst the crash of empires. Those who considered France as the rival of our commercial prosperity and political grandeur, who had observed with regret the struggles made by that kingdom to augment its naval force, even during its decline, and thought, with Mr. Burke, that the works constructed at Cherburg, for the security of that fortress and the accommodation of their navy, were more vast in their

design than the pyramids of Egypt, were relieved from their apprehensions, when they saw that powerful rival disabled from contending with England by her domestic troubles. Among the British subjects who declared themselves the friends of liberty, there were undoubtedly a few who wished for a republican government, and others who were inflamed with a spirit of violent Jacobinism; but no man of candor will deny that many of them were sincerely attached to the principles of that constitution which was improved and secured under the sway of William III. Individuals of these different descriptions celebrated the anniversary of the French revolution in convivial meetings at London, Norwich, Manchester, Liverpool, and other towns. At Birmingham a similar meeting took place but did not end without disturbances. An appeal had been previously made to the people in a printed bill, complaining, in strong terms, of political abuses and general grievances, yet recommending order and forbearance till the majority should be disposed to resist oppression As a riot appears to have been preconcerted, some zealous partizans of the civil and religious establishment might have circulated this paper, that, being regarded as the production of the discontented party, it might excite odium against them; but this is merely the cursory surmise of a partial

historian, and cannot be stated as an historical fact.

The populace assembling near the hotel at which the festive party dined, gave various signs of disapprobation. After the celebrators of the anniversary had retired, the windows of the house were broken, and the rioters proceeded to more serious mischief. They set the new meeting-house on fire, nearly demolished the old one, and destroyed the house, library, and philosophical apparatus of Dr. Priestley, who was particularly obnoxious to these turbulent champions of church and state. Several other houses near the town were burned, because they belonged to dissenters, and in one of these some of the incendiaries lost their lives. The civil power being unable to prevent the continuance of tumult, depredation, and havoc, troops were sent into the town and ordered to scour the country. Four of the offenders were condemned at Warwick, two were hanged, and the county, being sued by Dr. Priestley and others who had suffered the loss of property, compensation was awarded by the jury.

The malice of party was exercised on this occasion in various animadversions. Some accused the magistrates of having connived at the proceedings of the rioters against individuals, who were suspected of a want of attachment to the government. Others affirmed with equal injustice, that the dissenters and their friends deserved these attacks for presuming to express their joy at the triumph of the French revolutionists. The former party were of opinion that too few were punished for delinquency so outrageous, while the latter seemed to consider it as an act of cruelty to put any of the rioters to death.

The contrast of sentiment on the subject of the French revolution, was manifested in the speeches of several members of the lower house of parliament in the present and preceding year. When a report respecting the military estimates was made from the committee on the 9th of February, 1790. a further debate occurred, in which Mr. Fox expressed his ardent admiration of the revolutionists. Mr.

Burke replied by adverting with considerable vehemence to the internal state of France. That country, he observed, from the single circumstance of its vicinity, ought to call forth our vigilence in the first instance, not merely on account of her actual power, but on account of her influence and example, which once had been and might yet become, more dangerous than her determined hostility. He mentioned the more early part of the reign of Lewis XIV. and with what difficulty the patriots of that day struggled in our country against the influence of an example, of which the success and splendor not only captivated our kings, Charles and James, but made some impression on all ranks and denominations of people. The danger in the last age arose from 1790. an example of despotism in government and intolerance in religion; but the present disease was of a character directly opposite, and still more likely to be contagious. On the side of religion it was atheism, and anarchy with respect to government. We were in danger of being led to imitate the excesses of an irrational, unprincipled, plundering, ferocious, and tyrannical democracy, through a foolish admiration of successful fraud and violence. He considered the late assumption of citizenship by the army as the worst part of the example set by France, and in animadverting on the sentiments of Mr. Fox, so contrary to his own, expressed his regret in differing from his valuable friend. Having pronounced a beautiful panygeric on his superior talents, and having borne testimony to the natural moderation, disinterestedness and benevolence of his disposition, he entreated the house, from his coming forward to notice an expression or two of his best friend, to judge of his extreme anxiety to prevent the contagion of French principles from the slightest dif fusion in Great Britain, where he well knew that some wicked persons had ar dently wished to recommend an imitation of the French spirit of reform; so strongly would he oppose the least tendency to wards the means of introducing a democracy like theirs, as well as the end itself,