classes as were, through the tempestuousness of the times, reduced to penury and hardships. A disorderly spirit arose, which became so outrageous, that in several parts mobs were collected by ill designing people, for the purposes of riot and plunder; and would have carried their designs into execution, had not timely succours arrived for the protection of those places exposed to their depredations. These domestic confusions were aggravated by the intelligence brought to the National Assembly of the continual disturbances still prevail ing in the French islands in the West Indies. The people of colour, who formed a large portion of the inhabitants, were determined to throw off the yoke of that absolute power which was exercised over them by the white people. But those who were the chief proprietors of the estates in those settlements, dreading the result of such an emancipation, were resolutely bent to oppose any innovations: hence arose disputes that terminated in the bloodiest hostilities.

In the midst of these disorders the National Assembly was taken up with consultations how to remedy the various complaints that were occasioned by the stagnation of business in many parts of the kingdom, and in perfecting the regulations for an impartial administration of justice, and the enforcement of the police. Among the many decrees that were enacted for this end, that which best deserves to be recorded, is the abrogation of that oppressive law by which the effects of foreigners dying in France were appropriated to the crown*, August 1790.

Meanwhile the armament voted by the assembly was carried on at Brest with as much diligence as the pecuniary circumstances of the kingdom would admit; but it was accompanied with continual murmurs and tokens of discontent among the seamen; who conceived that their officers were too much inclined to the royal party to be trusted at a time when every measure inimical to the present government, ought to be guarded against with the utmost vigilance.

The National Assembly could not be displeased at these proofs of attachment from a class of people whose numbers and utility rendered them of the highest importance. But the necessity of having a pow. erful fleet, occasioned on the other hand no small anxiety at the tumultuous and turbulent proceedings resulting from such a disposition. The friends to the old government insisted that nothing would restore order and obedience in the navy, but the re-establishment of the royal power in its former plenitude; but they were vehemently opposed by the popular party; which proposed that, in compliance with the temper of the times, the national colours should henceforth be hoisted in the navy in lieu of the white flag. This proposal occasioned one of the most violent debates that ever was known in the assembly. M. Mirabeau, who supported the introduction of the national colours, was loaded with reproaches by his adversaries; but the popular party prevailed: and it was decreed at his instigation, that not only those colours should be used, but that the sailors should hereafter

unite

unite with their other countrymen in the acclamation of "Live the Nation, the Law, and the King." This was one of the most remarkable triumphs of the popular over the royal party. It was attended with salutary consequences in the navy, where the seamen shortly after returned to their duty, and cherfully complied with the regulations that had been enacted; to which others were added for a more regular and speedy payment of their wages, and a larger allowance of provisions.

During the agitation of this business, another took place of no less consequence, and which seemed to revive the drooping spirits of the opposite party. The royalists, far from being discouraged at the immense majority that approved of the revolution, had resolved to omit no exertions that might in any shape thwart the measures of their antagonists. To this end their friends and emissaries were employed in disseminating throughout the kingdom a spirit of opposition to the ruling powers. It was chiefly among the military that they were solicitous to spread it; and they succeeded so far, that numbers of regiments refused to admit persons reputed friendly to the revolution; discharging at the same time all those whom they suspected of such an attachment. The number of individuals dismissed on this account, amounted to near thirty thousand; as appeared by a representation laid before the National Assembly. As a circumstance of this nature was a strong proof of the great interest the royal party retained in the army, it was determined by its principal supporters in the assembly, to make trial how far a spirited at

tempt in its favour might be attended with success. With this design it was moved by M. Duval Depresminil, one of the warmest adherents to the court, that the King should be restored to his former power; that the princes of the blood, and all who were in exile in consequence of the revolution, should forthwith be recalled; and that the proceedings against the enemies of the constitution should be annulled. For this purpose the King should be supplicated to grant a general amnesty for all that was past; and to give his royal assent to those proposals, which should be laid before him by the whole assembly. So sudden and extraordinary a motion could not fail to excite the utmost astonishment in all but those who were privy to it. An universal cry of wrath and indignation burst from the popular side of the assembly. An immedi ate arrest and imprisonment was threatened to M. Depresminil, and he was represented as an incendiary, furious through despair, and resolved at any rate to throw the house into confusion. Some of the members considering, or affecting to consider him as out of his senses, moved that his proposal should be regarded as proceeding from insanity, and as such consigned to oblivion. Depresminil's friends took fire at this insinuation; aud, not content with words, had recourse to violence. They rushed in a body upon the President, whom they treated with great indignity, tearing off his robes, and insulting him in the grossest manner. Never had the assembly witnessed a greater scene of confusion: it lasted above an hour; and it was with much difficulty that the moderate K 2

among

among the members could prevail on the others to break up the meeting with any remains of decency. The consequence of this riot was a duel between M. Cazales, its principal promoter, and M. Barnave, one of the staunchest friends to the popular party; and who wounded his antagonist in a dangerous manner. Great was the alarm excited in the public mind by this event. It exhibited the invincible determination of the royal party to persist at all hazards in the prosecution of every possible plan for the restoration of the former government; and it operated as a warning to the popular party to remain incessantly on its guard against the intrigues of enemies who were not to be deterred by threats or dangers, nor to be allured by invitations or promises, from abiding by their resolution never to accept of any terms of reconciliation. Nor indeed was it to be expected, that men, who had lost not only their privileges, and part of their fortune, by the suppression of feu dal duties, but employments either in the church or the law, could be easily reconciled to the revolution. Such was the idea now more than ever entertained of the royal party throughout France. Every man suspected of favouring it was viewed with additional hatred by the popular party his conduct was watched as that of an insidious enemy, and no reliance placed on his warmest professions of amity or submission to the present constitution. But the most pernicious consequence of this unseasonable proposal was, that it raised a strong mistrust and jealousy of the King's ministers, who were by numbers represented as privy to this trans

action, and therefore undeserving of the confidence of the nation, and unfit to occupy their stations. A motion was even made in the National Assembly for their removal; and though negatived, it left a powerful impression to their prejudice in the minds of multitudes.

As M. Neckar, the chief member of the ministry, had already resigned his employment, stung by neglect, and despairing probably of ever being able to accomplish the restoration of the finances, his coadjutors in office were now no less desirous of relinquishing their places. When they found themselves liable to imputations injurious to their character, they addressed a letter to the King, wherein they complained of the suspicions under which they laboured, and requested him to accept their resignation. The situation of the King was peculiarly critical. The present ministry, which he had formed at the æra of the revolution, had acted with so much circumspection as to have hitherto retained at once the good opinion of the public, and the royal approbation. To change it at a crisis of discontent and turbulence was highly dangerous, from the obvious difficulty of doing it in such a manner as to please all parties. The popular party were shrewdly suspected of intending to substitute the committee of finance, composed entirely of its most devoted members, to the department intrusted with the administration of the finances. The object of this measure was, to pave the way for a substitution of all the committees in the National Assembly to the other departments in the state, by

which means all official as well as legislative power, would ultimately centre in that body. A scheme of this nature was however so unpopular, as being evidently repugnant to the fundamental principles of the constitution, that if it was in the contemplation of the leading men of the popular party, they were too prudent to manifest it. Suspecting the ministry of too much condescendence for the royal party, they rather sought to obviate the consequences of such a disposition, than openly to invade the ministerial functions; which would in fact have been a direct invasion of the executive power.

It behoved them now to proceed with the more caution, that heavy charges were brought against their partizans. A strict and minute inquiry had been instituted respecting the transactions of the 5th and 6th of October the preceding year. Upwards of 300 depositions had been made relative to that affair. Several of them tended strongly to criminate the Duke of Orleans and M. Mirabeau, as principal authors and promoters of the disorders that had been committed on those two days. The Duke of Orleans was represented as aspiring to the sovereign authority in the state*; and M. Mirabeau as the instigator and abettor of his crimi

nal design. The investigation of this matter was referred to the committee of reports; which, after a long examination, declared, that neither the Duke of Orleans nor M. Mirabeau had incurred any criminality by their respective conduct on that occasion. The propriety of this verdict was warmly contested by their adversaries; but the Duke of Orleans insisted, that the chief cause of the outrageous behaviour of the mob of those two days, was their persuasion of a plot to carry off the Kingt. This, he alleged, together with the wretched condition to which they were reduced by the scarcity of provisions at that disastrous time, which they attributed to the machinations of the Court-party, had rendered them desperate, and fitted them for any mischief. He threatened, at the same time, to prosecute his accusers as guilty of perjury.

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The suspicions thrown against the heads of the popular party, were further aided by the spirit of discontent that actuated many parts of the kingdom. The dissolution of the parliaments, and the suppression of the nobility were severely complained of by the aggrieved parties. Their numbers and influence were still dreaded, though they were deprived of ostensible power; nor did they omit

any

any occasion of venting their dissatisfaction, and of expressing their readiness to concur in any project that might replace them in their lost situation. The National Assembly were thoroughly aware of this disposition; but as it aimed at a conciliation of all parties, without recurring to violent methods, it silently connived at the complaints of these two orders of men; leaving to time the cure of the mortification they felt at the loss of their authority and privileges.

But while the majority seemed to acquiesce in what they could not prevent, numbers boldly asserted their former rights. Among these the parliament of Toulouse signalized itself in the most conspicuous and spirited manner. In defiance of the danger to which it would be exposed by such an act of temerity, it ventured explicitly to condemn, in the most pointed and harshest terms, the proceedings of the National Assembly. Such, however, was the attachment of the people to the Assembly, that a great number of the municipalities in the neighbourhood of Toulouse, embodied their militia with a determination to inflict the heaviest chastisements on the parliament of that city. Nor was it without the strongest remonstrances of the more considerate among them, that they were prevailed on to desist from such a resolution, and to leave the decision of so weighty a matter to the National Assembly. This body, equally astonished and incensed at such a manifest contempt of its authority, thought it necessary to make an example of the most refractory. A tribunal was immediately formed for the trial of crimi

nals guilty of high treason; and a decree passed to arrest the members of the parliament of Toulouse concerned in the declarations. against the National Assembly, and to bring them before this tribunal. This determination was highly applauded by the popular party. The city of Paris took this occasion to request the assembly to inform the King that his ministers no longer possessed the confidence of the nation, and that it would at the same time appoint a special court for the examination of offenders against the constitution, and restrain ministers from quitting the realm, or even the metropolis, until their conduct in office had been duly investigated.

Encouraged by these testimonies of the general determination to support them, the Assembly embraced this opportunity to confirm their decrees relating to the civic oath. It ordained, that all persons employed in the public service abroad, should transmit to the Assembly, certificates of their having taken that oath, under the penalty of dismission from their places. But notwithstanding the irresistible hand with which the National Assembly carried all its measures, various individuals had the courage openly to resist them. That loftiness of spirit which had so long characterized the French nobility prompted numbers of them to declare their sentiments with no less explicitness than the parliaments of Toulouse. This was the more deserving of notice, that they acted singly and without that reciprocal encouragement which is found in a body of men formally concurring in the same opinion, Among those

noblemen