tally innocent, and undoubtedly affording much fatisfaction to the members of that fraternity, fome of whom it may poffibly ftimulate to fimilar deeds of chivalry, it has the pofitive merit of being an unique in that fpecies of compofition. It affords, however, an important and happy fecurity to the veracity and purity of future hiftory, that as fuch productions can feldom laft long enough to reach pofterity, there is no great danger of their hereafter contaminating the clear ftream in which it fhould flow.

charge of the continued fabrication and propagation of public falfehoods has been more or lefs confirmed or acknowledged, by perhaps every writer who has given a nárrative, with any appearance of impartiality, of the progefs of the revolution. Certain authors, or publishers, however, of cur own country, have adopted fome of the groffeft and moft abfurd falfehoods, fome of the most ridiculous tales, which had been fabricated for the rabble in Paris during the first paroxisms of confufion, tumult, and madness, and to which they have endeavoured, fo far as they were capable, to give the character, rank, and weight of hiftorical facts. Of this class is particularly to be confidered the injurious and cruel falsehood, that the unfortunate and murdered Launay, had treacheroufly enticed a number of Parifians into one of the courts of the Baftile, where he then had them maffacred in cold blood. This horrible and wicked invention produced (as we have formerly fhewn) its odious purposes at the time; in the first inftance, by exciting the animofity of the populace, and fpurring them on to that pitch of outrage and cruelty which was intended; and in the fecond, by holding out fome palliation for the inhuman murder of the governor, and reprefenting it to the world as an act of juft retribution for his treachery. The pleafant tale of the heroic barber, who found himself fo deeply involved in the weighty concerns of empire, that he attempted to blow the Baftile and himself up together, though it feems intended only as a companion to the former, certainly poffeffes many advantages over it; for befides its being to

Paris had ever been noted for the blind credulity, and at the fame time the fufpicious nature of its inhabitants. Thefe qualities, fo directly oppofite, feemed undoubtedly to be oddly joined in the fame perfons; but yet the fact is faid to be fo; and those who knew them well have afferted, that while, from time immemorial, they had fwallowed, and feemed nearly to live upon, an eternal fucceffion of the moft abfurd and improbable tales and ftories, plain undifguifed truth was always received with caution and doubt, and fuppofed to conceal fome guile, deception, or danger. The extreme general ignorance of thefe people, with respect to every thing beyond their own walls, (which was perhaps without example in any country of equal civilization, and fo productive of men eminent in arts, fciences, and learning, as France) had long afforded matter of obfervation to travellers, and of ridicule to poets and fatyrifts. A confideration of thefe circumftances will tend much to account for and throw light upon many parts of the prefent and future conduct of that extraordinary people, which would otherwife have

appeared

appeared inconfiftent or unintelligible.

It must, however, be acknowledged, that the fame blind credulity, and the fame vitious natural fufpicioulness of temper, prevailed throughout every part of the kingdom, and must be afcribed to the fame caufe, the extreme ignorance of the people. Some inftances in proof are at all times neceffary to fupport general obfervation; and a few out of a great number will fuffice for the prefent purpose. The first the impoffible charge laid against the queen, that the had procured the conftruction of a wellcharged mine under the hall of the national affembly, in order to blow the ftates, without diftinction, at once into the air; this ridiculous fory was not only verbally propagated throughout the kingdom, but a letter afferting the fact, and faid to have been written by one of the deputies to the states, was, at about 300 miles diftance from Paris, publicly averred by feveral perfons to have been seen and read by them. The fact was believed by all who heard it; which drew the following obfervation, in his own peculiar way, from our countryman Arthur Young, who was prefent at the recital, and the autho-, rity given: "Thus it is in revolutions, one rafcal writes, and 100,000 fools believe." Another inftance was, the rifque which the fame writer, and an old woman, his guide, encountered, on a fufpicion that they were combined with the queen in a confpiracy against the volcanic rocks and mountains of Auvergne, and that he was the acting agent for blowing up the town of Clermont. The danger at this time, however ridiculous, was

only trifling when compared with that which he fuftained fhortly after; he being then feized in bed at midnight by a party of armed militia, on the very ferious and alarming charge, of his being party in the confpiracy formed by the queen, the count d'Artois, and (their own lord) the count d'Entragues, against the territory of the Vivarois. The fortune he had of being extricated from this difficulty and danger, does not at all weaken the evidence which it affords of the extraordinary ignorance, credulity, and the unaccountably fufpicious nature of the people. Such inftances would have excited fome furprize if they had occurred in the interior and lefs frequented parts of Arabia; but that they fhould be difplayed in the center of Europe, in its oldeft monarchy, and in a country long and defervedly eminent for information and knowledge, can fcarcely be confidered as less than wonderful. They however afford full demonftration, that no great portion of art or address was neceffary to the endowment of thofe who were deftined to play upon fuch inftruments.

The unbounded licentioufnefs of the prefs, which was carried to an extreme before unknown under any government, was a moft potent inftrument of the revolution. Nor was its licentiousness more extraordinary, than the unceafing industry with which it was eternally fupplied with an inexhaustible fource of the most dangerous and inflammatory matter, fubverfive of all order and government, was aftonishing. For amidst the general darkness and ignorance which involved the people at large, there was a numerous portion of men who dedicated, or feemed

to dedicate their lives to the purfuit of literature. Of these the capital alone was computed to contain twenty thoufand; including no doubt a confiderable number of those persons who affumed the name of literati, because they had nothing to do, and could not clafs under any other defcription. This 20,000, however, from the advantage of their being concentrated in the capital, gave the law in matter of opinion, or at leaft in whatever related to government and the new philofophy to the whole na

tion.

The theories now published were derived from the tenets of Rouffeau, Voltaire, and the other fathers of that philofophy. They were in general abftract, vifionary, unintelligible, or impracticable; and the authors feemed to have run wildly in the purfuit of an imaginary phantom of perfection, which neither did nor could exift. They went not only to the fubverfion of government under all its known forms, but to the loofening all the bands of civil fociety, and deftroying its harmony, beauty and order. All the wisdom of past fages, philofophers, and legislators, all that could be derived from the practical experience of unnumbered ages and nations, in their exertions to promote or fecure the felicity of mankind, were now fet at nought, to make way for the reveries of the new illuminators, who defpifed all experience, and difdained all wifdom but their own. It feemed as if the pages of past history had been for ever closed, and that their knowledge was totally forgotten, or that a new generation of men was just created, who were to be

gin every thing in this world a

new.

Of all the heavy charges which have been laid against thofe minifters to whom the king had the irretrievable misfortune of entrusting the administration of public affairs, in none were they more faulty, nor in no inftances, excepting only the affair of the double reprefentation, and the abforption of the three ørders into one, were their errors or conduct more fatally ruinous, than in the fhameful and unaccountable fupinenefs with which they beheld the flame which was fpreading from the licentioufnels of the prefs through every part of the kingdom, without their uling a fingle exertion to correct the caule, or to counterac the effect.

The enormity was accordingly carried to an extent beyond all example in any country. The numerous preffes in Paris hourly groaned under the number of feditious and levelling pamphlets which they were continually bringing forth. Indeed their number was fcarcely credible; 13, and even 16 different pamphlets in one day, were no matter of furprize; and 92 came out in one week; while the avidity for reading and procuring them was fo great, that it was a matter of fome difficulty to enter the bookfellers fhops they were fo conftantly crowded. The price, of printing had accordingly rifen in the capital to fomething near three times its cuftomary rate per sheet; and yet the preffes in every part of France were faid to be at the fame time equally occupied. But the most extraordi nary circumstances were the amazing difpatch with which thefe innumerable productions were spread

from

from the capital through every part of the kingdom, and the unknown fund by which the vaft expences of the diftribution were fupported; the great body of the people being fupplied with them gra

tis.

While thefe poured forth an unceafing torrent of abuse upon government, and were continually dif. feminating principles which went equally to the overthrow of the monarchy, and to the utter annihilation of the two first orders of the ftate, the three parties whofe exiftence were at ftake, the court, the nobles, and the clergy, feemed as if they had been involved in a general Stupor, without action, feeling, or life. Not a fingle writer of ability or eminence was engaged to refute the doctrines which were thus affiduously spread, or to counteract the poifon which they fo widely diffused. The few folitary volunteer pamphlets which appeared on that fide, being written by men without parts or information, poffeffed no intereft or fpirit to allure readers, and could have produced no effect if they had. That written by the bishop of Meaux, and perhaps fome one or two more of character, being too few to be confidered as an exception.

The famine, which was forely felt, though in a lefs or greater degree, in every part of the kingdom, may be confidered as a main fpring in accelerating all the movements of this fingular revolution. Men in want of bread, neceffarily .exe-. crate and abhor that ftate of things which produces their mifery. They are little difpofed to enquire into natural, or to trace remote caufes, as the fource of their diftrefs; they find less trouble in charging it di

rectly upon their rulers, and fancy fome alleviation to their mifery in venting their indignation and malevolence against them, even in words. The prefent ftate of things in the other countries in Europe having prevented thofe fupplies from without, which would, in other cafes, have been procurable, and the internal ftock of provifion being deemed infufficient for the fubfiftence of the inhabitants, the most alert and wifeft government, fuppofing it to be otherwife at ease, and entirely unembarraffed by faction or danger, would have found it a matter of great difficulty to apply any effectual remedy to the evil. But as things ftood, the hafty illjudged regulations, founded upon error, and ignorance of a fubject generally ill understood, which were adopted, inftead of good, produced the moft unfortunate effects. Thefe, however, might have been palliated, if the ungovernable violence of the people, in obftructing the free fale of the markets, and compelling the proprietors to fell their grain at whatever prices they pleased to give, had not completed the evil, and produced an artificial famine while plenty ftill fubfifted. It has been even afferted, that the stock of corn produced this year in the kingdom would have been fufficient under due regulation, management, and diftribution, if not to afford abfolute plenty, at least to have prevented any great and pinching