on their departure had given notice of it to the assembly, expressing bis expectation that their journey would meet with no obstructions; but they were thrice stopped by the magistrates of the places through which they were travelling, and twice liberated by the intervention of some officers and soldiers. This flight of the king's aunts, as it was térmed, was taken up very seriously by the Assembly; where it was proposed to pass a law, to determine how far it might be the right of royal personages to travel out of the kingdom. It was while they were deliberating on this matter that intelligence was brought that the princesses had, by a party of the military, been released from those who had arrested them, and were continuing their journey. Fired at this contempt of the civil authority, they ordered a prosecution of the offenders, and passed a formal censure on the secretary of state who had countersigned the king's passport to his aunts, as he knew the case was under deliberation. They did not however think proper to authorize the detention of those princesses; and it was at length declared, though not without a violent and tumultuous debate, that no law existed, empowering any person to detain them. In consequence of this declaration they were permitted to leave the kingdom.

This was one of the most critical occurrences that had fallen out since the revolution. Though numbers suspected those ladies of being privy and aiding to the conspiracy at Lyons, yet respect for their high rank and sex induced people to wish them safe out of the king VOL. XXXIII.

dom; where, if proofs had been brought of their participating in that affair, it might have proved difficult to preserve them from the ill treatment of the multitude. So great, in fact, was the fury of the populace at Paris on the first news of their setting out, that they crowded into the garden of the Thuilleries, and demanded of the king that he would send immediate orders for their return. They grew at length so outrageous, that the magistracy of Paris was obliged to call in the national guards, in order to disperse it.

(February 20th, 1791). This incident was succeeded by another still more alarming. Some repairs being ordered to the castle of Vincennes, in the neighbourhood of Paris, the multitude were seized with an apprehension that it was to be converted into another Bastile. They repared thither in crowds, fully determined to demolish it, when the national guards arrived in time to quell the insurrection. As soon,however, as the peoplewere informed of their mistake, they desisted and withdrew; but when that body of national guards, which had been dispatched from the Thuilleries to Vincennes, returned, the gates. were shut against them. They quickly however forced them open, and found the place filled with persons armed with swords and pistols, and who said they were come to protect the royal family. This allegation did not prevent the national guards from insisting they should immediately withdraw, and resign the king to their own protection. The consequence of this transaction was, that none but the officers of the royal household and L

their

their attendants were afterwards admitted into the palace, until the time when the constitution was completely formed and accepted.

The assembly were in the mean time deliberating on the means of putting a stop to the emigrations that were the continual subject of complaint. But however desirous to accomplish this object, it appeared so inimical to personal liberty, that it met with an unsurmountable opposition.

Tidings of a more serious nature were now laid before them. The province of Britanny was represented as in a state of actual rebellion. The decrees relating to the clergy were insulted and opposed with the utmost rancour; consider able sums had been subscribed, in favour of those clergymen who declared against the acts of the National Assembly and crowds had gathered in several places, reprobating them as impious and clamouring for their repeal. They insisted at the same time on the supremacy of the pope, and denounced all purchasers of church-property, as guilty of sacrilege. But their fury was not exhaled in words alone:Priests, it was said, having in the warmth of infatuation exhorted the inhabitants of the district to revenge the cause of religion on those who had profaned it, a deluded mob proceeded towards the town of Vannes with the most fatal intentions; but they were happily repulsed by a body of national guards, assisted by a regiment of regulars fortunately at hand. As disorders of this kind were threatened in many places, the Assembly resolved to adopt the speediest methods of prevention, as from the enthusiasm

which actuated numbers, the most terrible effects were to be apprehended. A temporary tribunal was therefore instituted for the immediate trial of those who should be guilty of rebellious acts against government.

The suspicions that were daily increasing, and from which none of the royal blood were exempt, afforded an opportunity to the enemies of the prerogatives hitherto exercised by the crown, to propose that the king should be limited to the nomination of six ministers only, who were to be the ostensible depositaries of his authority, and answerable for his public conduct. In order to prevent unnecessary procrastination in passing judgment on their merits or delinquencies, they were to be accountable during the space of a year only, after quitting their respective offices. This latter regulation was framed with a view to bring the guilty to justice as expeditiously as possible. These ministers were to be placed at the head of six different departments. The first was that of justice, which was to preside over all the others. It was afterwards settled, that the oldest minister should preside as premier of the departments; and not the minister of justice exclu sively: the possessor of this office was to act as prime minister, and to enjoy a larger salary than the rest. The other departments were, the internal government of the kingdom, colonies, marine finance, and foreign business. This proposal was received with great approbation by the popular party, but warmly opposed by those who disapproved of any further limitation of the royal preroga

tive in the appointment of ministers. It appeared indeed of so much importance, that its supporters did not insist on its passing until it had evidently obtained the concurrence of the public at large. This, however, was soon after so strongly manifested in its favour, that it was adopted and carried into execution without delay.

In the mean time, great apprehensions were entertained on the side of the empire. The Emperor, it was well known, beheld with unrestrained indignation, all that had been done in France in favour of the revolution. Nothing, it was firmly believed, prevented him from entering immediately into active measures against France, but the consciousness of the danger that would attend them. His subjects in the Netherlands had been reduced to obedience; but this was in a great measure owing to their own dissentions: had the nobility and clergy united cordially with the other orders, they would, it has been thought by able judges, have formed such a union of force as would have effectually resisted all efforts. Pondering on these circumstances, and fearful of giving an exasperated people any opportunity of resentment, he wisely abstained from hostilities with a nation newly emancipated from despotism, andfull of the animation which usually accompanies men under that circumstance. Nor was it improbable that, in case of a rupture with the French, these would instantly have invited the inhabitants of the Austrian provinces in the low countries to unite with them, and to make one common cause against him.

Surmises of this sort were

widely diffused, and were so acceptable to his enemies in those' countries, that they seemed earnestly desirous of such a quarrel breaking out, not doubting that it would produce the effects above mentioned.

But the emperor was not the only potentate inimical to the system prevailing in France. The other princes in Germany viewed it no less with an hateful eye; as it held up to their own people an example which, it was apprehended, they might imitate. Hence they were anxious to co-operate for the extinction of a spirit so dangerous to their personal interests; and which, if not suppressed in time, would probably, sooner or later, find its way into Germany, and be productive of the same consequences as in France itself.

The French were intimately persuaded of the aversion borne them by every arbitrary prince in Europe. The proximity of their country to those under absolute governments, its extensiveness, strength and celebrity, the long established custom among Europeans of making it the chief object of their travels, and its ways and fashions the model of their imita tion,-all these motives combined, rendered them the most dangerous of neighbours to the despotic rulers of the surrounding nations. The example of the English had undoubtedly long been highly odious to these but the situation of England was not sufficiently centrical to cause much alarm among them. Its insular position on the extremity of Europe diminished the influence of its affairs on those of other countries, and rendered the L 2

:

character

character of its inhabitants less liable to be copied. The English were, during a long time, considered as a peculiar and extraordinary people, and their government as a singularity, which was indeed a natural subject of speculation, but not an example to be imitated in prac

tice.

Such was the idea entertained formerly by most foreigners, and carefully propagated by those who disapproved of the English constitution. But the case of France being evidently quite different, the impressions resulting from the changes in that Kingdom were justly dreaded; and it was not surprising that those who reprobated them should exert their utmost vigilance to arrest their progress.

Aware of this hostile disposition in most of their neighbours, the National Assembly was deeply solicitous to put the frontiers of France in a defensible condition, particularly towards Germany; and to require at the same time, with proper spirit, that the Emperor should assign the reason for his assembling such a number of troops in those parts.

So fully satisfied were the French of an intended attack from that prince, as soon as he thought himself duly prepared, that no sort of precautions were omitted for defence. Peculiar signals were invented, by which it was reported that intelligence in twelve hours could be received from, or forwarded to the extremities of the kingdom. The partisans of the revolution displayed on this occasion much alacrity and promptitude in coming forward to action; the

numbers of those who offered themselves for the public service were immense. Notwithstanding that their discipline was not comparable to that of the imperial troops, yet experience has shewn that those who place their chief reliance upon that circumstance are frequently disappointed. But had only the regular forces in France been employed, they were sufficiently numerous to face those of its enemies. They amounted at this time to about two hundred thousand men; the half of which was stationed on the frontiers towards Alsatia and the Low Countries.

Whether it was with a design to put the French off their guard, or that no hostilities were intended against them, the National Assembly received an official information from the ministry, that such pacific assurances were given by the foreign courts as appeared deserving of trust; but the assembly did not seem inclined to build upon them, and determined not to relax in the vigilance with which it watched the motions of its enemies abroad, and the more dangerous machinations of those at home.

Meanwhile 'the decree of the National Assembly enjoining the civic oath to be administered to ecclesiastics, occasioned many of them to be deprived of their livings. It had been so framed as to affect only clergymen doing public duty; no others were obliged to take it, nor was any other punishment inflicted on recusants than a simple deprivation of their office, of which their disobedience of the injunction was construed into a formal resignation. What is very remarkable, though it may be easily accounted

accounted for, the resistance of the clergy was far less, and their ready compliance with the ruling power greater in the metropolis than in any other part of the kingdom; so that while the purest and most zealous Catholics most earnestly exhorted every soul to be subject to the higher powers (*) the clergy of the most pliant principles were the readiest to recommend "obedience to the powers that be, by their example." The people of Paris were also the most determined of any in carrying the decree into the strictest execution. The truth was, that being the most enlightened of all the French, and therefore the least subservient to the doctrine of passive obedience, they readily perceived the inutility, or rather the impropriety of leaving either temporal or spiritual matters to the jurisdiction of a foreign tribunal; nor did the municipality of Paris consider the parochial government of the city as any ways independent of the civil magistrates: on this principle it reduced the number of parishes from sixty to about thirty, forming them nearly into equal divisions. To the credit of the inhabitants, the rectorships and clerical functions were placed on a liberal and munificent footing. The most conspicuous of those dignitaries in the Gallican church who rejected the civic oath, was Cardinal Bernis, celebrated for his ministry under Lewis XV. He was at this time ambassador at the court of Rome, and in high favour with the Pope and the grandees of the Roman church, as well as justly esteemed by all classes for the excellence of his personal character,

and the dignity with which he filled his station. As soon as it was apprehended at Rome that his disobedience of the National Assembly's decree would occasion a dismission from his employments, it was resolved at a meeting of cardinals to indemnify him for the loss he might incur through such a deprivation, by a pension of adequate amount. Many other dig nified clergymen were sentenced to deprivation for a like refusal; and nearly all the episcopal sees being vacated in this manner, they were in consequence filled up by popu lar elections, on the same principle as the parishes. This was certainly an innovation of the most decisive nature, as it altered the whole system of the hierarchy, and tended, from the most submissive adherents to courts and princes, to render them the firmest assertors of the people's liberties.

In this light the policy of the National Assembly operated more for the interest of the popular party than any measure it had yet adopted. It gained the concurrence of a body of men, whose influence would hence forward be necessarily directed to the maintenance of the constitution; and, what was no less essential, it weakened proportionably the adverse party, by detaching from it those who otherwise would have proved its very warmest supporters. It ought however to be noticed, that in this objection of the non-complying clergy, they were not bereft of the means of subsistence: an allowance was assigned to them, which, though not plentiful, still preserved them from want. This was the more deserv