the famine, was in fome degree realifed. The abundance and profufion which always accompany a court, procured fome relief to the indigent; and the consciousness of the fupply that would be neceffary, ferved to replenish the impoverished markets. The aristocratic party, connected with the court, were the only per fons who manifefted any degree of regret. The prefence of the king in Paris gave a fatal blow to their hopes and defigns; and they had in reality fome caufe to be apprehenfive of the fury of the populace, fhould any incident happen to excite their ardent and fanguinary refentment. In the affembly itfelf, notwithftanding the vote which declared the national affembly to be infeparable from the perfon of the monarch, fome objections were ftrongly infifted on against the projected removal. It was faid, that the deputies would no longer be the legiflators of the nation; they must obey the arbitrary mandates of the populace, and even the freedom of debate would be annihilated. To remove their fcruples, a letter was directed to them by the king, inviting them to refume their feflion in the metropolis; and this was powerfully feconded by a deputation from the citizens of Paris.-By the mouth of their fpeaker, M. Briffot, the citizens "profeffed their joy at the expected removal of the reprefentative body; they pledged themfelves by a folemn oath to protect the perfons of the deputies, and the freedom of debate; they intimated that they had forwarded an addrefs to all the provinces and communities of France to fatisfy them relative to the late proceedings, to affure them that the commune of Paris was actuated by the most perfect loyalty to the king, the most inviolable obes dience to the national affembly, and a fincere paternal regard to all the municipalities of the kingdom." Though this addrefs might probably diminish the fears of a part of the affembly, and certainly haftened their removal; yet the apprehenfions of the ariftocratic part of that body, on the eve of their departure, are fcarcely to be imagined. Numberlefs pallports were folicited on various excuses; and among thefe fome deferters from the popular caufe were obferved with regret. M. Mounier, defpairing of meeting in Paris a full toleration of his political opinions, retired into Dauphiné to fearch for auxiliaries to fupport the abfolute veto of his projected fenate and of the king. Count Lally Tolendal, equally bigoted to the vifionary balance of powers in the conftitution, retired alfo in difguft. Many of the high aristocratic members took refuge in foreign countries, where they applied themfelves indefatigably to the laudable purpose of exciting war against their country. To prevent however as much as poffible fimilar emigrations, the national affembly decreed, "that paffports to the members fhould be only granted for a fhort and limited period; and that as to unlimited paffports on account of ill health, they fhould not be granted till fubftitutes were elected; that in future all fubftitutes fhould be elected by the citizens at large, or by their reprefentatives, without any regard to orders; and that eight days after the firft feffion at Paris, a call of the houfe fhould be inftituted." A proclamation ascertaining the rights of citizens was next decreed; the power of originating laws was exclufively confined to the affembly; and the executive power was prohibited prohibited the liberty of creating or fuppreffing pofts or offices without an act of the legislature. The power of laying taxes was alfo vefted exclusively in the reprefentatives of the people; the refponfibility of minifters was established; and the pernicious phrafeology in the proclamations and other acts of the king,fuch is our pleafure," &c. was abolished. The title of the king was changed from " the king of France" to that of "king of the French," as more expreffive of the office, which is a king or ruler of men, and not of the foil or territory. Some difficulty arofe refpecting the title of king of Navarre; for that petty ftate, confidering itfelf rather as the ally than as a part of the empire, had not fent reprefentatives to the national affembly. The deputies of the great provinces, howevever, ftrenuouЛly oppofed this title, and afferted that the king might as well be styled count of Provence, duke of Brittany, king of Corfica, as king of Navarre: it was therefore agreed to expunge the title. Tranquillity however was by no means perfectly restored, and to repeat the vague and idle reports that every day were fpread, to the alarm of the citizens, would require volumes: for feveral nights the houfes of individuals were marked with chalk, and the colours, it was faid, denoted whether they were to be plundered, burnt, or the inhabitants murdered. In this ftate of fufpicion and ferment, the most injurious reports were spread to the difadvantage even of the moft diftinguished friends of liberty among others, the duke d'Orleans was calumniated as harbouring criminal defigns upon the crown, or the regency at leaft. The marquis de la Fayette, who was always forward in every thing that might contribute to the union of order and good government with the bleflings of liberty, undertook to perfuade the duke to withdraw himself from the public for a fhort time at leaft. He was invefted with fome public commiffion, rather nominal than real, and folicited from the affembly a paffport for England. The count de Mirabeau, and fome other of the more intimate friends of the duke, oppofed ftrenuously his retiring, as more likely to give credit to the calumnies which were fabricated against him than to difprove them; but he chofe to facrifice his private intereft to what the known friends of the people confidered as the public good. At Boulogne his highnefs was ftopped by the municipality, notwithstanding his paffport, and detained till fet free by a subsequent order of the affembly. On the 19th of October the reprefentatives of the French nation held their first feffion at Paris. A deputation from the commune waited on them immediately with the congratulations of the city, at the head of which were M. Bailly the mayor, and the marquis de la Fayette. After the answer of the prefident, which was interrupted by peals of applaufe, the count de Mirabeau embraced the opportunity to prefs a vote of thanks for their effential fervices to the nation, and "thus (he faid) to fignalize their firft feffion in the metropolis, by a public act of juftice, which was calculated to confirm the authority of the civil powers, and to reprefs the falfe zeal of imprudent friends, as well as the malignant defigns of the enemies of freedom." The vote of thanks was decreed amidst the loudeft acclamations, and the feffion of that day concluded, contrary to general expectation, without the fmalleft difturbance. Neither fury, on their deliverance from def potifm, might feem excufable; but the populace of Paris had now reached the fummit of licentioufnefs and injuftice. They had erected themfelves into a power fuperior to the magiftrates; and unless fome decifive measure was taken, there was danger that the reprefentative body itfelf would no longer be able to maintain its authority. An act was immediately paffed for the preven tion and the difperfion of riots, which authorifed the magiftrates, on any number of perfons affembling, to call in the aid of the military, and to proclaim martial law. A red flag was to be difplayed from the principal window of the townhoufe; and from that moment all aflemblies of the populace, with or without arms, were to be confi dered as criminal. Should the mob refufe to difperfe on being required by the magiflrates, the military were then to act on the offenfive; thofe who efcaped might be arrested; and if unarmed, and they had been guilty of no act of violence, they were to be imprifoned for one year 15 Neither this act of refpect towards the magistracy of the city, however, nor the departure of the duke d'Orleans, could entirely prevent the horrors of maffacre and infurrection; and the aflembly had fcarcely been established two days at Paris, before a moft atrocious murder, committed almoft in its very prefence, obliged them to adopt a ftronger meafure to prevent civil outrage and bloodshed. On the 21st of October an unfortunate baker, of the name of François, who refided in the ftreet Marche Palu, dofeto the Archeveche, where the affembly at that period was convened, was fingled out as the victim of popular phrenfy, After having ferved out his ufual quantity of bread in the morning, he found his door ftill befieged by feveral perfons who had not yet been able to obtain a fupply. Among thefe was a woman, who is faid to have borne a particular enmity against the unfortunate baker, and who infifted on fearching the houfe for bread. On entering, fhe found three loaves which the journeymen had referved for their own if found in arms, they were declared afe; and fnatching up one of them in her hand, the raifed the injurious outery, that François had referved a part of the provifion which ought to have been diftributed for the afe of the poor, and that he was a monopolift and a monster. The complaint was no fooner made publie than an immenfe mob was collected; the baker was dragged forcibly to the Grève; and there, notwithstanding all the efforts of the municipality in his favour, he was hanged. So outrageous a defiance of au thority, fo complete a fubverfion of law and juftice, could not efcape the pointed notice of the legislature. The first movements of popular 5 liable to three years imprisonment; and if they had committed any vio lence, were judged guilty of a capir tal offence. To give effect and vir gour to this law, the committee of refearch was ordered to make all neceflary enquiries into treafonable offences; and the conftitutional committee to form a plan as foon as poffible of a tribunal for the trial of all crimes of lege-nation; and in the mean time this power was for the prefent velted in the court of the Chatelet. Thefe efforts of the affembly were vigorously feconded by the municipality. The murderer of François was arrefted on the very day on which he committed the crime; crime; and on the following day was executed, with another unfortu nate person who was also convicted of exciting fedition. The king and queen fympathifed in the diftrefs of the unfortunate widow of François by the hands of the duke de Liancourt they fent her 2000 crowns; the commune alfo fent a deputation with a prefent to her; his remains were decently interred at the public expence; and the king and queen undertook to be come the fponfors at the baptifm of the child with which his widow was pregnant at the time of his death. provifions incurred a fimilar danger with M. Planter. A detachment, however, of the national guard from Breft foon reftored order and tranquillity, and obliged the inhabitants of Lanion to make fatisfaction for the outrages they had committed. The fame difpofition to violence, the fame proneness to fufpicion, that appeared in the capital, was no lefs active in the provinces. At Alençon, the viscount Caraman, who had been fent thither by marshal Contades with a detachment of horfe, was on the point of being deftroyed by the populace, on a moft improbable rumour that he was inimical to the revolution. And at Vernon, a M. Planter, deputy of the commune at Paris, who had been fent by the magiftrates to purchase corn, was feized by the mob, and, after a mock trial, the fatal cord was twice fixed round his neck; when Mr. Nefham, a young Englishman who happened to be in the town, opposed himself fingly to the violence of the populace, and rescued from inftant death a refpectable member of fociety. For this noble act of courage and humanity, Mr. Nefham was honoured with the firft civic crown which was ever decreed in France; and was presented by the magiftrates of Paris with a fword, on which was engraven the honourable teftimony of having faved the life of a French citizen. At Lanion, a town in Brittany, alfo, fome gentlemen who had been fent from Breft for the purchase of 1791. The next important object which occupied the attention of the legiflative body, was to reform and organize the reprefentation of the kingdom. A plan was proposed by the abbé Sieyes, in which the profoundeft policy was united with the fairest and moft equitable principles. The ancient divifion of the kingdom into provinces, each poffeffing what it termed its pecu liar rights, each governed by peculiar laws, and each forming in itself a little kingdom, with its own parliament, its own metropolis, its own jurifdiction, was found to be productive of a rivalship and jealousy, which nothing but the ftrong arm of defpotifm could coerce. In the prefent glow of patriotifm, the prefent tranfport of liberty, the minds of men were difpofed to facrifices and renunciations; but there was the utmost reafon to apprehend, that should this aufpicious crifis not be improved, fhould the generous feelings of the moment be fuffered to fubfide, thofe petty local preju dices which weaken and disjoint a ftate would again revive; and as every government which approaches the republican form is naturally weaker than that which partakes of abfolute monarchy, they could only revive to distract, and perhaps difmember, the empire. Befides the radical divifion into provinces, the kingdom was alfo divided fantastically and irregularly upon other principles. It was divided into govern. ments, agreeably to the military order; into generalities, according to the order of adminiftration; into E diocefes, diocefes, according to the ecclefiaftical order; and alfo fubdivided in the judicial order into bailiwicks, fenefchals, &c. The divifions and fubdivifions were all without regularity, conformity, or proportion; neither adapted to population nor territory. A new arrangement was therefore not only effential to an equal reprefentation of the people, but to the uniformity of government, and the fecurity and permaBence of the conftitution. Three principles were attended to in forming the new reprefentative fyftem: territory, population, and taxation; and it was fuppofed that, by the combination of these three elementary principles, they would ferve mutually to correct each other. According to the new fcheme of the reprefentation, therefore, "the whole kingdom was divided into 83 larger fections, which are called departments, and each of which comprehends a space of about 324 fquare leagues; each department was divided into districts, the number of which were not to be lefs than 3, nor more than 9; each diftrict was again fubdivided into cantons of 4 fquare leagues in extent. Three degrees were preferved in the adminiftrative affemblies; but only two in the elective. The first were the affemblies of the canton, which were called primary, and which choose the electors for the department; the fecond were the elec toral affemblies, which return the reprefentatives to the national affembly. The whole number of reprefentatives was to be 745; of which 247 are attached to the territory, and of which each department nominates 3, except that of Paris, which nominates only one.-249 are attributed to population, each department nominating in proportion to its population; and 249 are at tributed to direct contribution, anë each department is to nominate reprefentatives in proportion to the contribution which it pays to the tate. The functions of the elective affemblies were limited entirely to the right of election. The admini ftrative body was to be elected by the electoral affemblies; and in each department was conftituted a fuperior board of administration; in each diftrict, an inferior or fubordinate administration; and to these were committed the fuperintendance of the collection of the revenue, and all the details of interier administration." On this great and alle system of interior policy we have only to remark, that the divifion of the kingdom into parts too fmall to act offenfively in a feparate ftate, was, for the reafons which we have already affigned, a meafure fraught with wifdom, and. favourable to liberty. The preferve ing diftinct the electoral and admi niftrative powers was equally judicious. The mode of electing by primary and fecondary affemblies, was affuredly the only adequate means of obviating the fatal effects. of faction and venality. As to the bafis on which the reprefentation is formed, many doubts will be entertained by politicians concerning its expediency: the adjusting of it to three principles is certainly a complex mode of proceeding; nor will. it be eafy to affign a reafon why it fhould not have been inftituted on the fimple and obvious principle of population alone. After all that had been performed by the affembly, the utter derange ment of the finances, and actual deficiency of means to fupply the exi gencies of the nation, threatened loudly the deftruction of the state. In this difficult and hazardous predicament, the popular party resolved |