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against his own. He then adverted to the Assembly's denying him the right of sanctioning the fundamental laws of the constitution, and their assuming the power of deciding which were to be considered of that class, and their limiting the royal prerogative of suspending decrees as to the third legislature. Thus, in fact, he asserted that royalty was no longer a part of the constitution. He lamented in bitter terms his deprivation of the hereditary estates and possessions of his family, and the mediocrity of the sum allowed for the royal expences, which was no more than twenty-five millions of livres : a revenue far inferior to what he had a right to expect. He represented the royal functions and privileges as reduced to the mere office of calling the attention of the Assembly to those objects that required it. In the administration of justice he did no more than order the execution of the decrees issued by the courts of judicature; and had lost the most honourable of all the royal prerogatives that of pardoning criminals, and mitigating judicial severity. Juries, he noticed, were now to interpret the sense of the law: societies and clubs governed, he said, the whole kingdom. He had been declared supreme chief of the army; but his authority was perpetually obstructed by the illicit interference of those seditious combinations of men, who made it their business to excite the soldiery to disloyalty and contempt of their Sovereign. He had been invested with the right of nominating ambassadors, and of negotiating with foreign powers: but what power would enter into engagements with him, when, by the deprivation of

the crown's ancient prerogative of making peace or war, the observance of treaties no longer depended on his good faith, but on the option of others. He charged the Assembly with the usurpation of illegal powers, by interposing in civil affairs, noways subject to their administration, and with exercising despotic sway by their committee of researches. And yet, with all the power they had assumed, it could not be affirmed that they had put a stop to disorders, or dared even to attempt to remedy them and their government had lost all strength and credit.

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He then reverted to the scenes of the 5th and 6th of October 1789, and to those that accompanied the revolution. He complained that at the time of the Confederation in July 1790, the National Assembly had declared him chief of the nation; thereby implying that they had a right of naming another. He stated the disrespect shewn to his two aunts, the contempt of his orders to release them, and the ready compliance with those of the Assembly. During the tumult of Vincennes, those he said, who had repaired to him were ill-used, and their arms broken in his presence. He had been forcibly prevented from going to the country on his recovery from illness; he had been compelled to dismiss his confessor, and to be present at the celebration of mass by the new rector of the royal parish; and he had latterly found himself under the necessity of writing to his ministers abroad, aletter contradictory to his real sentiments. Unwilling any longer tamely to submit to so many indignities, and conscious of having lost all authority and influence,

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he was prompted, he said, by his natural feelings to seek refuge in some place where he might perform, without control, the duties of his station, and consult with due propriety the welfare of his people. He finally admonished his subjects, the citizens of Paris especially, to be on their guard against the suggestions of his enemies, and to restore him to their confidence and loyalty:-they would find him their best friend as well as their King. He pledged himself for the preservation of religion, an equitable government, and the security of national freedom and liberty.

This manifesto was received with great applause by the royal party, and as violently censured by the other. The former contended that it contained a fair and impartial representation of the actual state of affairs; the latter, that it aimed at distorting facts, and misguiding the unwary and inattentive.

The Assembly did not fail to make a circumstantial reply to all the preceding charges, and to publish it as an appeal to the nation at large. It stated, that the enemies to the liberty of France, irritated at the prosperous issue of the labours undergone to procure a free constitution, had resolved to frustrate them by the attempt that had been made. But the Assembly would shew itself equal to the trust reposed in their courage and fidelity, and would maintain against all attempts to overthrow them, the principles of liberty established by the revolution: it was necessary, they said, to adapt the exercise of government to the situation of the kingdom. The King was appointed by the constitution, head of the executive power, and to sanc

tion the decrees of the legislature; but having quitted his post, it was the nation's right to supply it. Herein, it was affirmed, they were warranted by the laws relating to cases that required a regency, and which empowered them to assume the exercise of the executive power until a regent was appointed. The public, in the meanwhile, might rest secure that good order was duly provided for within the kingdom, and that in case of danger from without, an addition of 300,000 men were in readiness for the army: a strength that would completely enable France to oppose all its enemies. The National Assembly had indeed, in the warmth of its zeal for the public welfare, asserted such rights, and published such truths as ought to be known for the benefit of mankind. True it was, that disorders had accompanied the revolution that had ensued; but those who brought it about were not to be accused of promoting confusions, which, in the ́nature of things, they could not possibly obviate, and the authors of which had remained concealed, in the turbulence and tempestuousness of the times. They reminded the King of the solemn oath he had taken on the day of the Confederation, to maintain the constitution; adding, that it was incumbent on him in order to clear himself from the charge of perjury, to declare that he had been deceived and mis. led in the step he had now taken. They animadverted on the reproach of factiousness, by demanding whether the adherence of more than twenty-four millions of men, and their open protestations of fidelity and obedience to the decrees of the National Assembly, could in com

mon

mon reason be terined a faction? Were the representatives of such a nation to sacrifice its interest to that of a single family? Royalty, they asserted, was instituted for the sole good of the people. When nations adopted it, they acted from a persuasion of its utility. But absolute monarchy was oppression; it considered the state as a mere family inheritance, and converted the revenues of the public into a private patrimony. The National Assembly had obviated this abuse, but it had also consulted the dignity of the crown, by a most ample and splendid provision: thirty millions of livres had been appropriated to that purpose; and yet the King complained of the mediocrity of such asum. The King, they said, lamented the loss of that prerogative which placed in his hands the power of making peace and war: but was it a hardship to consult the inclination of those who were to sacrifice their fortunes and expose their lives? Could he be better acquainted with their opinions and their interests than their representatives, elected out of their own body? The ambition of Kings and of ministers was too well known to trust them with so power. Respecting the administration of justice, they affirmed, that a King ought to interfere no otherwise than by causing it to be strictly executed. Experience had long shewn in what manner the right of forgiving criminals had been exercised, both by Kings and those who used their The National Assembly had occasionally interposed in the execution of the executive administration of affairs; but the tardiness and neglect of those to whom

name.

they were committed, rendered such an interposition necessary. The clubs and societies of which the King complained, had, it was alleged, proved the faithful supporters of the revolution; and had deservedly obtained a good opinion of the people. But would any one presume to say, that because they spoke the sense of the public, they were the deliberative powers of the state?

The appeal concluded, by exhorting the nation to confide in the diligence and zeal of the Assembly in detecting and defeating the machinations of the enemies to the constitution. Notwithstanding their efforts and inveteracy, they must finally yield to the spirit and perseverance of so mighty a people as the French, if they continued faithful and unanimous in their own defence. The preservation of liberty in France now chiefly depended on the steady maintenance of good order. The malevolent would strive to introduce confusion; it was their last and only resource; and if they failed in this attempt, little was to be dreaded from their enmity.

This reply to the King's charges was by the popular party considered as a complete refutation of them. The Assembly were indeed so persuaded of the national prepossession in favour of what they alleged, that they closed their reply, by explicitly avowing their belief, that to reduce France to its former yoke, the nation itself must be first destroyed. So powerful in fact, at this time, was the attachment of the French to the Assembly, and so little their regard for the King, that they scrupled not to call his flight from Paris a desertion of government,

vernment, and to assert that the Assembly were thereby duly authorized to provide for the safety and welfare of the people without consulting him, and in defiance of ridiculous punctilios and absurd injunctions on his part to the contrary.

Sentiments of this nature were now so prevalent, and their sup porters so resolute and vehement, that it was become dangerous to contradict them.

The discontents of France, especially of Paris, with the royal family, were so great, that it would have been very possible to have established a republic. But the leaders of the popular party at that crisis, consisted of men who were friends to a limited monarchy and

As to

a national representation; and who
wished therefore to save the King,
whose natural bent and way of
thinking, they believed to coincide
perfectly with their own.
the Queen, whatever opinions they
may have entertained of her Ma-
jesty's views, they had no reason to
consider her as formidable; well
knowing that she was embroiled in
disputes and jealousies with the
Count d'Artois and the Prince of
Condé. Perhaps, too, they might
have been of opinion that the pre-
mature establishment of a republic,
might have exposed the country to
the horrors of a civil war: from
which, when it was in fact after-
wards established, France was saved
only by the interference of fa-
reigners.

CHA P. IX.

M. Bouille's Letter to the French National Assembly. Commissioners sent to inspect the Frontiers. Violent Feuds in Paris. State of the Public Mind at this Juncture in France, and in other Countries. Foreign Princes deeply interested in the King of France's Situation. Apprehensions entertained by the Emperor and other Sovereigns. Interference of the King of Spain in behalf of the King of France. Slighted by the Assembly. State of Parties at Paris. Progress of Republican Principles in France. Charges against the Royal Party. Conduct of the Assembly. Ill Consequences of the King's Flight to the Royal Cause, and to his Adherents. Deliberations in the Assembly on the Constitutional Code. Decrees against the Emigrants. Insurrection of the Republican Party quelled. Inviolability of the King's Person confirmed. Threats of the German Princes. Rumours of a formidable Combination against France. French Preparations for Defence. Various Orders of Knighthood abolished. Signature of former Titles prohibited. Decree for appointing a Governor to the King's Son. Expectations of the Popular Party from the Publication of the Constitutional Code. Effects produced by the French Revolution in various Parts of Europe. Constitutional Code completed. Endeavours to divide the Assembly into different Houses, after the Model of the English Parliament. Unsuccessful. Respective Arguments adduced by the Supporters of the Royal Prerogatives, and by their Opponents. Ideas entertained by the violent Republicans, and by the Partizans of the old Govern Character and Conduct of the Abbé Maury. Ecclesiastical

ment.

Matters.

Matters. Honours paid to the Memory and the Remains of Voltaire and Rousseau. Scarcity of Specie and Depreciation of Paper Money. French Princes and Emigrants. Plan for the Deliverance of the King-Fails. Divisions in the Assembly. Various Decrees.

TH

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HE attention of Europe was fixed upon these two celebrated memorials, when a third, still more singular though of less importance, made its appearance. This was a letter written to the National Assembly by the Marquis of Bouillé, accusing them of detaining and treating the King and Queen as prisoners; and of having by their detestable maxims, rendered the French a barbarous and inhuman people, and exposed them to the scorn and execration of mankind. He charged a number of them, particularly M. La Fayette, with a design to establish a republic. He described the King as despoiled of all authority, the army as without subordination, and the state itself as destitute of means to restore order to its various parts. In such a situation, he thought it his duty to invite the King and Queen to repair to the frontiers, in order to concert measures for the preservation of the kingdom: they were both, he said, averse to the proposal; alleging their engagement to remain with the Assembly; but M. Bouillé strongly urged the nullity of a promise extorted by force; he was the more earnest in his solicitations, as he knew that a combination of foreign powers was forming against France, and that its condition was totally defenceless. The King, said M. Bouillé, was at length overcome by his entreaties, and his remonstrances of the danger that France was in, and consented to withdraw to Montmedy here his intention was to have convoked a new Assembly,

according to the ancient forms, in order to put a stop to the tyranny of the popular party, and render the interposition of foreign powers unnecessary.

This design having miscarried, continued M. Bouillé, the destruction of the French empire would certainly be the consequence; the princes of Europe considered themselves as threatened by the monster which the Assembly had cherished (to use M. Bouillé's own expression) and France would meet with a chastisement that would become a warning to all other nations.

The conclusion of this letter was particularly remarkable. M. Bouillé told the Assembly, that he equally despised and detested both them and all those who paid them obedience; and on the constitution they had framed, he bestowed the appellation of infernal: he dared them to do their worst against him, either by poison or assassination; he threatened, if any violence were offered to the royal personages, that not one stone should remain upon another in Paris; he would lead against it the armies of the Sovereigns of Europe, who were shortly, he asserted, to address the Assembly in more decisive language. This letter, though it occasioned much conversation among the public, excited very little notice in the Assembly. It was considered by the popular party, as the effusions of an angry mind, stung with disappointment, and hopeless of those ends it had expected so quickly to compass. A consciousness of power

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