XXIV. 1792. King of sassinated. the demands and expectations of the king were BOOK by no means answered; and the Diet was finally dissolved in anger. On his return to Stockholm he was assassinated at a masquerade by an officer Sweden asof the name of Engerstrom, actuated by the enthusiasm of public, and the rancor of personal, revenge. He was succeeded by his son Gustavus IV. a youth of fourteen years of age: and the regency was vested in the hands of the duke of Sudermania, brother to the late king, who conducted himself in his high office with singular prudence and propriety. It was perfectly understood that Gustavus III. had acceded to the CONSPIRACY of SOVEREIGNS against France, and had even proposed to take the command of the combined armies in person. This monarch had been frequently accustomed to declare," that a war was necessary to characterize a reign," but the regent his brother, with a just abhorrence of this infamous maxim, maintained a strict and scrupulous neutrality. The same wise plan was also steadily pursued by Wise conDenmark, under the excellent and admirable ad-Danish goministration of count Bernstorf, the invariable friend of peace, economy, aud reform. The Italian and Helvetic republics adopted the same safe and salutary system. Spain alone appeared wavering and indecisive, agitated by the alternate Auctuations of policy and passion. duct of the vernment. BOOK XXIV. English am recalled from France, In consequence of the transactions of the roth August, and the virtual deposition of the French 1792. monarch, lord Gower, the English ambassador at bassador Paris, received orders from the court of London to quit the kingdom on the slight and frivolous pretext, that, the functions of royalty being suspended, his mission was at an end. This recall was considered by the leading men in France as a certain and very ominous indication of the enmity of the British court: nevertheless, as a demonstration of their moderation and solicitude for peace, M. Chauvelin, the French ambassador, still remained in London, though from this period unacknowledged in any public or authorised capacity. The recall of the English ambassador at this critical moment, on the ground stated by the English court, seemed to imply that appointments of this nature are a mere matter of form and compliment between sovereigns. But if ambassadors are considered in a higher and juster light, as the necessary means of intercourse between nation and nation, never could the recall of an ambassador take place at a period when his presence and services were more indispensable.* * The government of France at this period will scarcely be pronounced worse than it was during the reign of Charles IX. under the guidance of Catherine de Medicis, and subsequent to the massacre of St. Bartholomew. But in those circumstances XXIV. 1792. sionate On the success of the French arms in Flanders BOOK the court of London gave a still farther proof of its inimical disposition, by making, seven days Impolitic only after the battle of Gemappe, an eager, offi- and pascious, and unsolicited offer of assistance to the conduct of the English States General, in case of need. But their High court. Mightinesses declared themselves under no apprehension of attack. They even affirmed that there is not the least reason to attribute to any of the belligerent powers hostile intentions against the republic. The causes of the deposition of the French monarch, and the nature of the provocations and injuries which preceded and produced that event, not being sufficiently understood in England, it did queen Elizabeth refuse to maintain any farther political correspondence with that infamous government? No; she received Fenelon, the French ambassador, in such a manner as denoted indeed her indignation and horror at their proceedings, but without supposing his functions suspended by these enormities. Nay, as there existed strong and weighty reasons of state for not breaking with France, she appointed one of the first noblemen in the kingdom, the earl of Worcester, as her ambassador at that court, with an express commission to renew the negotiations which had been previously depending; and, as Mr. Hume justly observes, " cautiously avoided coming to extremities with Charles, though she had sufficient ground to regard him in the light of a most dangerous enemy." Is it possible that any one can imagine or will affirm the spirit of Burleigh and Walsingham to have actuated the British cabinet at this crisis? BOOK made an impression very unfavorable upon the XXIV. minds of the generality of the people, already bi 1792. assed and perverted by the inflammatory declamations of Mr. Burke and his partizans. And the horrid massacres of September, perpetrated when France was shaken to her centre with civil and political convulsions, and no regular or efficient authority, such as might restrain the rage of vengeance or awe the audacity of guilt, existed in the country, completely alienated their minds from the revolution; although these detestable enormi. ties could not in any rational sense be said to originate in the revolution, but merely and solely in Terrors of the opposition made to its establishment.* The nation was on a sudden struck with terror at the idea of any political innovation of any kind; and the very name of REFORM became the subject of violent and indiscriminate reprobation, innovation. "Comment a pu être fait (says M. Garat) cette grande plaie à l'humanité au milieu d'un peuple où toute lumière et toute pitié n'etoient pas éteintes? Par quoi, par qui étoient réduits à cette désastreuse impuissance, tant de répresentans de la puissance nationale, tant d'organes des loix, tant de dépositaires de la force publique?-Comment l'expliquer autrement que par l'insurrection qui, en frappant une autorité perfide et coupable, s'étoit mise au-dessus des autorités les plus pure et les plus fidelles ?-Comment l'expliquer qu'en avouant que les législateurs, les ministres, et les magistrats, de la nation, n'avoient pu réprendre encore les rènes destinées de la France, et que l'insurrection seule commandoit encore aux événemens ?" Memoires de la Révolution de la France, XXIV. 1792. Loyal asso Under the impression of this prevailing pre- BOOK possession, an association, openly countenanced by government, was formed in London for the protection of liberty and property against republicans ciations. and levellers; and an innumerable multitude of pamphlets, in the popular form of letters, dialogues, and narratives, were circulated by this means throughout the country, inculcating an unreserved submission to government on the old exploded principles of Toryism and High-churchism. In one of the most notorious of these tracts it was urged in favor of monarchy, "that the king is in Scripture called the LORD'S ANOINTED; but who (say these profound politico-logicians) ever heard of an ANOINTED REPUBLIC?" The rage of associating spread rapidly through the kingdom; and in every county, and almost every town, resolutions were subscribed strongly expressive of loyalty and attachment to the king and constitution, of their dread of innovation, and abhorrence of all levelling and republican doctrines. The populace entering with violence into these sentiments, and their passions being, by the methods now put in practice, dangerously excited, the cry of CHURCH and KING was vociferated with tremendous clamors from the Tamar to the Tweed -from the white cliffs of Dover to the verdant hills of Cheviot. In this paroxysm of the public mind all power of discrimination and ratiocination 1 |