BOOK XXIV, 1791. . In consequence of the repeated perfidies of the king, it was proposed by some of the bolder, per ing letter was instantly dispatched to all the different courts of Europe: CIRCULAR OF PADUA, issued July 6, 1791. Before the king's acceptance of the constitution, France presents to Europe the spectacle of a legitimate king compelled by atrocious violence to fly, solemnly protesting against the concessions which had been extorted from him, and soon after arrested and detained prisoner by the people. His imperial majesty therefore invites the powers of Europe to declare : "1. That they all regard the cause of his Most Christian majesty as their own. "2. They demand that the king and his family may be instantly set at liberty, and the inviolability and respect may be observed towards them which the rights of nature and the institutions of man loudly call for from subjects towards their sovereigns. "3. That they will unite for the purpose of inflicting dreadful vengeance, in case of any future restraint being imposed, or any farther indignity offered to the king or the royal family. "4. That they will acknowledge no laws to be established in France, unless sanctioned by the voluntary consent of the king in a state of perfect and absolute freedom. "5. If these proposals are not acceded to by France, that they will employ every means in their power to put an end to the existence of the evil in France, and to prevent its spreading into their own dominions." This CIRCULAR is noticed and acknowledged in the official letter of prince Kaunitz to M. Blumendorf, envoy at Paris, dated February 17, 1792, which also avows the convention agreed to between Austria and Prussia, at Pilnitz, August 1791. The manifesto of the duke of Brunswic has a specific and unequivocal mention likewise both of the circular letter and conventional treaty. XXIV. 1791. haps the wiser, members of the Assembly, to de- BOOK clare an abdication, and to place the dauphin on the throne. On the question being agitated in the Assembly, it was asked, what could be done with the king in case of a deposition? to which one of the members replied, "Let him go and keep school at Corinth." But the milder and more moderate counsels prevailed. The king remained at the Tuilleries, vigilantly guarded, till the fabric of the constitution was completed. On the third of September, the cONSTITUTIONAL ACT was presented to the king, who signified his acceptance of it in writing, September 13; and on the following day he appeared at the Assembly, introduced by a grand deputation of sixty members, solemnly to consecrate the assent he had given; concluding with an oath "to be faithful to the nation and to the law, and to employ the powers vested in him for the maintenance of the constitution." of the Na sembly. On the 30th of September (1791) the Consti- Dissolution tuent National Assembly, after an uninterrupted tional Consession of two years and four months, terminated stituent As its existence by a spontaneous dissolution; leaving behind it, notwithstanding some human errors and frailties, an illustrious and never-dying fame. Under whatever varying form freedom may subsist in France, the primary establishment of it must doubtless be ascribed to the heroic courage XXIV. 1791. BOOK and enlightened patriotism of this assembly: and in the emphatic words of the Roman orator it may with propriety be asked, " Quæ enim res unquam, proh sancte Jupiter! in omnibus terris est gesta major, quæ gloriosior, quæ commendatior hominum memoria sempiternæ ?" In England the anniversary of the revolution in France was again celebrated, not without a certain mixture of indiscretion, considering the lowering aspect of the political horizon in France, contrasted with the brilliant prospect of last year, and the odium it had incurred in consequence of the events which had since taken place in both kingdoms. Party spirit at this period raged throughout England in a more violent degree than had been known since the days of Sacheverel; and in Church and no place more than in the great and opulent town at Birming-of Birmingham, distinguished by the residence of the celebrated PRIESTLEY, equally famous in the different capacities of philosopher and divine. As a theologian he had signalized himself as the grand restorer of the antient Unitarian system, as maintained at the era of the Reformation by Socinus and other learned men of the Polish or Cracovian school; and which, refusing divine honors to the founder of the Christian Religion, acknowledged him merely in the character of a teacher and prophet sent from GOD, and demon King riots ham. strating the authenticity of his mission by signs and BOOK wonders, which God did by him.* The extraordinary and transcendant ability with which this simple but obnoxious system was vindicated by Dr. Priestley, as the genuine unadulterated doctrine of primitive Christianity, had brought over to his opinions numerous converts, and had excited against him still more numerous enemies. Regarding civil establishments of Christianity as the grand barrier to the propagation of the truth, he had in various publications argued against them with great force, inveighing against the corruptions to which they had given rise, though otherwise of a disposition mild and beneficent, with extreme bitterness and acrimony, He had on all occasions expressed himself on the subject of government as an intrepid and zealous defender of the civil and religious rights of man. The system of Unitarianism, previous to its revival by Priestley and his learned co-adjutors, Lindsey, Wakefield, and Jebb, names of distinguished eminence and respectability in the established church, was maintained in this country by NEWTON, LOCKE, and LARDNER-the first the greatest of natural, the second of moral, philosophers; and the last the most profound and illustrious theologian which modern ages have produced. If this were a question to be determined by authority, what authorities has Christendom to boast which merit higher reverence than these? And how can that country escape the imputation of BARBARISM, in which the opinions of such men are still the objects of legal persecution? XXIV. 1791. XXIV. BOOK kind; of this he had given a recent proof in a most able and masterly reply to Mr. Burke's famous book on the French Revolution. 1791. It is superfluous to say that he was, under these circumstances, the object of detestation to the bigoted, of wonder to the ignorant, and of dread to the interested and the artful. Every possible artifice having been put in practice to excite the passions of the populace against him, the day of the commemoration of Gallic liberty was deemed a fit occasion to carry the nefarious designs previously concerted into execution. The friends of liberty, assembled for that purpose at an hotel in the town, were, during the dinner, insulted by a furious mob without, shouting, with the occasional intermixture of horrid imprecations, CHURCH and KING! which words, it may be observed, however innocent or venerable in their unconnected state, are, when conjoined, the symbol of all mischief. At five o'clock the company dispersed; but the windows of the hotel were nevertheless broken by the mob, who seemed then inclined to separate. But this would have been a petty and common revenge. Incited and inflamed anew by their leaders, they bent their course to the chapel where Dr. Priestley usually officiated; this they set on fire, and afterwards proceeded to the Old Meeting, which they demolished in the same manner. At |