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opposition amounted, declining their attendance. After the renewal of the oath, with solemn thanks and addresses to Heaven for the prosperity of the new constitution, it was announced to the public by a discharge of all the artillery in the metropolis. The minority in the mean time, though unable to oppose these proceedings, resolved to discountenance them to the utmost of their power. They drew up a protest against them, which they published in the form of a manifesto. But their conduct excited universal dissatisfaction; and though, through the moderation of the patriotic party, no insult was offered to their persons, yet the people could not forbear to view them with an eye of indignation.

Great and unfeigned was the joy expressed by all orders of men at this change in the constitution. It evidently tended to meliorate the condition of all classes indiscriminately, and to place the nation on such a prosperous footing, as in a short time to command the respect of their neighbours, and to bid defiance to their secret machinations to disturb the internal peace of the kingdom, as well as to their open attempts to tyrannize over it. It was not, therefore, without the most incessant and indefatigable struggles to prevent this alteration in the Polish system, that those who had so much benefited by the divisions they had fomented in that country, beheld its deliverance from their ruinous interference. So keen and persevering had their efforts been to obstruct the plans of the patriotic party, that on the very eve of the memorable third of May, a foreign minister at the court of Warsaw had, it was reported, and firmly be

lieved, distributed 50,000 ducats among those whom he imagined of sufficient weight and influence to impede the measures in agitation. But the patriotic party were too vigilant to be taken by surprize. It discovered his intrigues, and obviated them, to his great disappointment and mortification.

A confirmation took place on the 5th of May, of what had been transacted on the third. The constitution was again read over to the diet, and received the signatures of all the members present, after every sentence had been solemnly revised. and examined with the strictest attention. By this constitution, the sovereignty was formally recognized to reside in the nation, acting by its supreme will, expressed by its representatives. The government consisted of three distinct powers, the legislative, the judicial, and the executive. The first exercised by the diet, which was to be elected every two years out of the order of nobles, and divided into two houses, the one of Nuncios, or deputies, and the other of senators. The former of these houses to possess the pre-eminent prerogative of framing laws, which, when accepted by the latter, became valid and binding: but if negatived, remained suspended till re-enacted by the house of nuncios at the next diet; when, without consent of the senate, they became of force.

The crown was declared hereditary respecting individuals, but elective as to families. That of Saxony was elected to the succession, at the demise of the reigning monarch. The execution of the laws was assigned to the King and his council. The royal person to be inviolable. He was vested with

the

the privilege of pardoning all offences but those against the state. He commanded the military force of the kingdom, and appointed the generals and officers in the army. He nominated ministers, bishops, and senators. But no minister or senator could be elected a Nuncio.

The judicial power consisted of primary courts in every separate district, courts of appeal from the former in each province, and of a supreme tribunal for the trial of crimes and misdemeanors committed against the state.

Estates and possessions in land were purchasable by all citizens indiscriminately; and whoever purchased a village or township, paying two hundred florins land-tax, was ennobled. Thirty citizens were to receive the same honour at every new diet: and all citizens, without exception, were admissible to all preferments in the law, the church, and the army. Foreigners were allowed to settle in any part of the kingdom without restraint, and with the fullest security to their persons and property; and the same liberty was extended to those natives who had emigrated.

The peasants were declared entitled to every benefit of the law, and to claim the punctual performance of every contract between them and the proprietors of the lands which they cultivated -and they were no longer to be considered or treated as in a state of slavish subjection to the will of the lords of the manor, and owners of the estates where they resided.

A perfect freedom of religious

opinions, and an entire and complete toleration of every mode of worship, was permitted to all sects and persuasions. This will appear an act of singular beneficence, when the barbarous zeal of the professors of the Romish faith on many occasions is duly recollected: it showed how essentially altered they were at the present, from what they had been at a former period, not very distant; and that the dictates of humanity had obtained the ascendant over those of religion ill understood.

The happiest circumstance attending this revolution, was the peaceable manner in which it was effected. The dismemberment of the British colonies in America from their parent state, was accompanied with great bloodshed and devastation; and the subversion of despotism in France has been followed by the most sanguinary and lamentable consequences. Poland had the honour, and seemed to have the felicity, of attaining the end it proposed, without the loss of a single life. Whether the constitution it embraced was the best that could be framed, has been a matter of doubt and dispute among politicians; but this was certain, that on a retrospect of the situation of the Poles, antecedently to this constitution, it wrought a most advantageous and desirable change in their circumstances, and was calculated, if foreign violence had not intervened, gradually to produce most of those national improvements and benefits that can only be expected from the progress of time.

СНАР.

CHAP. VII.

Exultation of the French at the Confederation. Satisfaction of the Assembly at the Applause it meets with from the Popular Clubs and Societies in England. Suspicions occasioned in France by the English Armaments against Spain. Jealousy entertained against the Emperor. Deliberations in the Assembly concerning_an Alliance with Spain. Domestic confusions. Continuation of Disturbances in the Colonies. Several Regulations for the Internal Government of the Kingdom. Disorders in the Navy. Discontents in the Army. Motion in the Assembly by Mr. Duval. Its Consequences. Critical Situation of the King. Designs imputed to the Heads of the Popular Party. Charges against the Duke of Orleans and M. Mirabeau. Both acquitted. Coalition of the Parliaments with the Noblesse against the Assembly. Resistance of the Parliament of Toulouse. Compelled to submit. Zeal of the Parisians for the New Constitution. Confirmation of the Decrees relating to the Civic Oath. Refractory Disposition of the Noblesse. Pecuniary Embarrassments. Fabrication of Assignats. Researches into the Civil and Religious Establishments in France. Number of Seminaries and Convents belonging to the English Roman Catholics in that Kingdom. Discovery of the Profusions under the late Government. Efforts of the Court-Party to procure a Junction with Spain against England. Debility of that Party. Decrees in favour of the Descendants of French Protestant Refugees in Foreign Parts. Resolute Behaviour of the Adherents to the Noblesse and Clergy. Conspiracy at Lyons. Anxiety of the Court of Rome at the Transactions in France. Decree of the Assembly concerning Episcopal Elections. Opposition of the Court Clergy to this and other Decrees. Address of the University of Paris to the Assembly. Attachment of the French in Foreign Countries to the New Constitution. Zealous Perseverance of its Enemies in opposing it. Duel between M. Lameth and M. Castries. Other Quarrels and violent Proceedings. Reforms in the Administration of Justice. Public Revenues before and since the Revolution. Satisfaction of the Popular Party at the present situation of Affairs.

No event in the French history

was ever attended with SO much exultation in every part of the kingdom as the National Confederation of the 14th of July 1790. It seemed to the generality of people, an epoch from whence they were to date uninterrupted happiness. France was now represented as perfectly regenerated; the fetters by which it had so long been bound were entirely broken; the

genius of the nation was set free;

and the French might indulge the hope of becoming as flourishing a people as any recorded in ancient or modern ages.

England, it was now said, would no longer boast its pre-eminence over its ancient rival, France, in asserting the cause of human freedom, and teaching nations their just rights. The French, after a long period of ignorance and sla

very,

very, had at length profited by the salutary lessons and noble examples set them by the English; and had imitated with a spirit and success that had excited the admiration of all Europe; and would probably kindle an emulation of so illustrious a precedent in all enlightened people, and rouze them in due time to a laudable imitation of the two first nations in the universe. Such was the opinion entertained at this time of the French revolution, not only by a majority of the French nation, but by many people in every nation in Europe.

The National Assembly received with uncommon applause the intelligence of the warm participation in this formal establishment of liberty in France, expressed by the various clubs and societies in England, instituted for the support and propagation of the principles of freedom. The sentiments contained in the several discourses delivered in these meetings, were, by the majority of the assembly, declared to be congenial with their own, and to form the truest motives of a solid amity and conciliation between the people of England and France. There were others, however, who alleged that the armaments fitting out by the English were objects of too much magnitude to be viewed with tranquillity. The old enmity, so long subsisting between both nations, was not so far extinguished as to have eradicated the inclination of the English to act an hostile part to France when opportunities invited them to do it effectually. Ideas of this nature were suggested by a report, which had been industriously circulated, that the fleets equipped in England, on the pretence of a war with Spain, were intended for a far different purpose; which was, to

unite with the naval force of Spain, and to act jointly for the restoration of the royal authority in France to the exercise of its former prerogatives. This strange report gained such credit, that it influenced the conduct of multitudes in all classes. It raised a strong spirit of jealousy in the seafaring people, who warmly manifested their resolution to oppose with all their might any enterprize that tended to injure the constitution established by the National Assembly. Besides the designs imputed to England and Spain, others were suspected on the part of the Emperor. The conduct of Prussia was recollected on this occasion. As the Prussian monarch had espoused the cause of his sister in Holland during the disputes between the Stadtholder and the party that opposed him, so it was affirmed the Emperor had secretly resolved to act in the present conflict in France between the royal and the constitutional parties. What in some measure corroborated these surmises, a body of Austrian troops, on its march to the Low Countries, had demanded and obtained a free passage through some French towns on the frontiers of the kingdom, which happened at this time to be in a situation wholly defenceless. Another circumstance contributed to the confirmation of these alarms.-The Prince of Condé had published a manifesto, directed to the malcontents in France, inviting them to take up arms against the National Assembly, and assuring them of being speedily and strongly supported. These incidents appeared so menacing, that it was moved in the National Assembly to call the Minister at War to account for the permission granted to the Austrian

troops;

troops; and to sequestrate the estates of the Prince of Condé, un less he disavowed the manifesto imputed to him*. Both these proposals, however, were negatived, to the extreme indignation of the popular party; which complained that an undue influence subsisted in the assembly in favour of the partizans of the ancient government, and defeated every measure that was necessary for the safety of the present constitution.

In the mean time the assembly was occupied with deliberations on the propriety of assisting Spain in the contest wherein that kingdom was involved with England. After a variety of debates, it was at length determined that the fleet should be augmented to forty-five ships of the line. The motives on which this determination was formed, were at the same time conceived in such terms, as to leave it undecided whether France meant to espouse explicitly the cause of Spain or no. The preservation and security of the French commerce and colonies in the critical situation of Europe, were assigned as the chief reasons: all views of conquest and aggrandizement were utterly disclaimed in the connexion that was allowed to remain between France and Spain, and which was specified to be merely defensive, and contracted for the sole end of promoting general peace on the strictest principles of equity.

Such was the purport of the ce

lebrated declaration made by the National Assembly on this occasion. It was received with much satisfaction by the temperate part of the French, and at that time form ing a great majority of the French nation, which was totally averse to a war with England. Exclusively of the mischiefs unavoidably attending hostilities, the majority dreaded the authority which would necessarily accrue to the court from the immense patronage that must of course be lodged in the royal hands. The power of bestowing so many commissions and places in the navy and the army, would infallibly prove such a temptation in the present circumstances of the kingdom, as would not be resisted by those who disapproved of the revolution, and who could not, therefore, consistently with its preservation, be intrusted with so many means of bringing it into the most imminent danger. There were also other serious causes that militated against a rupture with England, or indeed with any other power. The kingdom still continued to be agitated with internal commotions of the most sanguinary nature. They were chiefly occasioned by the continual suspicions that subsisted between the royal and popular parties, and which broke out into disputes that were frequently attended with great bloodshed. The jealousy between, the royal and popular parties communicateditself to such of the lower classes

Ideas of liberty were so universally diffused at this time among all ranks, that the Prince of Condé, in a reply which he made to these proceedings, protested, the the love of liberty was in his blood; in allusion to the revolt of his great-grandfather. The friends of monarchy were anxious to disclaim any inclination to despotism. In fact, there was nothing more at heart with the King and Royal Family, than to satisfy the people by every reasonable concession.

VOL. XXXIII.

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