ever, took place for a few minutes, which was fuddenly interrupted by an univerfal cry, directed to the royal pair, "To Paris, to Paris!" There was no refufing nor remonftrating; the whole royal family were at the mercy of the rabble; nor could Fayette have infured, their lives for a moment, if they appeared only to hefitate.

The king's affent was foon notified to all the parts of the crowd by papers immediately difperfed for the purpofe; and after a preparation not much longer than that of changing horfes on an English poft road, one of the mot degrading and melancholy proceffions commenced, of which there is any record in hiftory. The fovereign of one of the greateft, moft powerful, and moft fplendid monarchies in the univerfe, governing a people long and far renowned for arriving near the fummit of civilization, learning, arts, and fcience, a nation likewife particularly renowned for the valour, generofity, and nice attention to honour which has diftinguished its nobility through a courfe of ages; and yet this fovereign, without foreign invafion or war, without any avowed domeftic competitor for his throne, and even without any acknowledged rebellion of his fubjects, is, in the face of day, with his queen and family, dragged from their palace, and led captives in favage triumph, by bands of the meanest and most contemptible ruf fans in his dominions, and by thofe modern furies the abandoned women of Paris, who, for every degree of infamy and wickednefs, but particularly for ferocity and thirft of blood, have not, moft fortunately for mankind, their fimilitudes upon any part of the face of the globe. To render the triumph more complete, or,

as if it were to infult fallen greatnefs by mockery, a party of the obnoxious life guards, deprived of their arms, and treated as prisoners of war, were, with drooping heads, and revolting hearts, appointed, under the name of an efcort, to attend their fovereigns. That the proceffion, however deplorable, might, in all its parts be characteristic, the mangled and bloody heads of the two guards who had been murdered in the morning were carried along on pikes to grace the fpectacle; and, it is faid, were frequently and defignedly exhibited before the windows of the carriage which conveyed the royal captives. We fhall not defile our page, nor infult the delicacy, or fhock the feelings of our readers, by repeating any of the obfcene, favage, and horrid expreffions, which the beats of women ufed in the hearing of the queen, and directed to her hearing.

Oct. 6th,

Such was the mournful proceffion, which attended the removal of Louis XVI. 1789. King of France, from his palace at Verfailles, to his prifon in Paris.

As time brings out many of thofe hidden circumftances, in cafes of plots and confpiracies, which are not at firit known, or perhaps fufpected, fo it has for fome time been reported, both on the continent and here, and we find is credited by perfons who have more than comnon means of information, that the too great and overgrown fubject, who is now confidered as the principal author and caufe of thofe dif. turbances which have ruined France, was himself prefent in difguife among the mob who were destined in the morning to the attack of the palace; that he was revealed, notwith landing his diguife, to the [D4]

leaders,

leaders, by certain prefixed marks or fignals; that the principal fervice which he intended was, from his intimate knowledge of the interior of the palace, to lead the banditti by the nearest way to the royal apartments, in which cafe it is fuppofed, that all that part of the royal family would have been inftantly facrificed. That fortunately his heart, according to its ufual cuftom, failed when he arrived at the scene of action; and that he accordingly flunk away from his affociates, whofe numbers, violence, and ferocity, were poffibly among the caufes of his terror. It is likewife told, as a part and confirmation of the fame ftory, that Mirabeau, in his rage at what he confidered fuch fha neful conduct, threw out the following extraordinary farcafm: That man conftantly carries a cocked pistol loaded with mischief. in his hand, but his cowardice is "fo extreme that he never can draw "the trigger."

Mounier, who had relied too much upon La Fayette's vigilance, and upon the order of fafety which had he established for the night, when awakened late by an account of the horrid tranfactions which were taking place, at once augured the downfall both of liberty and monarchy, to each of which he was moft zealously attached. He haftened to the affembly, and propofed that they should immediately proceed to the palace, hold their meeting in the grand faloon of Verfailles, and affift the king with their advice, as well as with their affiftance and protection, at this momentous crifis. But it did not at all fuit the views of the patriots in any degree to impede, much lefs to prevent, the difmal proceffion to Paris: Mi

rabeau answered, in his ufual character, that it was beneath their dignity to meet in the king's palace; and this anfwer was received by the reft of the party, as a full and fufficient reafon for continuing as they were. Mounier declares, that the joy of Mirabeau, Barnave, and others of the most violent leaders, was fo extreme, as to become indecently apparent; whilst the members on the other fide, expecting every moment to be furrounded by an armed rabble, trembled for their lives, and dared not utter a word. while away time it was voted, that the national affembly was infeparable from the king; after which any trifling bufinefs that could be thought of was brought forward, to afford fome appearance of debating until the bufinefs at the palace was entirely over.

To

The broken remnants of the middle or moderate party, of whom Mounier was the head, and who had ever endeavoured to eftablish, what they conceived to be the fafest and moft permanent fyftem of liberty for the people, under the form of a limited monarchy, to be regulated and kept within proper bounds by a conftitution fomewhat refembling that of England, held a meeting in the evening, at which it was ftated, that having long, with great peril to themfelves, difcharged their duty as honeft men, in endeavouring to ftem the torrent of republicanifm, to defeat the unavowed, and therefore more dangerous defigns of fome of the factious leaders, to establish the liberty of the people, and at the fame time to preferve the proper and neceffary rights of the monarchy inviolate; that after this long and virtuous ftruggle, it was now a matter of

grievous

grievous reflection to perceive, not only that all their efforts were fruitlefs, but that a directly contrary and moft dangerous ftate of affairs had taken place. They faw the monarchy overthrown; the king a prifoner, not merely to his own fubjects, confidered generally as fuch, but to the rabble of Paris; while his life hung fufpended by a hair, which it was in the power of every ruffian to fnap or to cut in a moment. They faw that liberty for which they had fo much contended, now placed in such a train, that if caufes produced their proper effects, it was likely to be deftroyed before it was formed. The national affembly must now remove to Paris, which had for fome time been the prime with, and chief object in view, with fome of the most dangerous of the factious leaders who ruled that body. In Paris, the representatives of the people would become as abfolute prifoners as the king; and France would be governed by laws, framed by thefe leaders, and enforced on the affembly by the terror of their instruments, the cabals and mobs of the capital. As for themselves, the purity of their views and the integrity of their conduct could not preferve them from continual danger and menace to their lives; indeed it was unhappily too clearly fhewn, that these were qualities now fo little regarded, that they could procure neither cfteem nor fafety. The queftion now for them to confider was, Whether, having fulfilled the duty which they owed to the public to the utmoft ⚫ of their power, but without effect, and finding affairs now in a ftate which not only rendered them totally useless for the prefent, but which cut off all hope of their ever

;

being otherwise under the present fyftem, they should, notwithstanding, perfevere in the fame fruitless toil, and devote their lives, without a competent object, by placing them in the hands of the Parifians or whether they should at once se, cede from the affembly, and fubmit their conduct in every thing, along with the causes of this procedure, to their conftituents, as well as to the public at large?

The greater part of the members prefent, notwithstanding thefe reafons, in the veracity of which they all equally agreed, were yet unwilling to abandon their feats. Mounier and Lally Tolendal were at the head of the feceders.

But before Mounier had quitted the prefident's chair, he had the addrefs, with the fervent aid of his friends, to carry a very important refolution, and which there was little reafon to expect could have been paffed. This was an order for an enquiry into the horrid maffacre, intended and actually commenced on the 6th of October, and for profecuting the authors thereof. This was the foundation of all the proceedings which were conducted in the chatelet upon the subject; and though fubftantial justice was not obtained, nor probably could be expected, yet it could not be without fome good effect, by letting wanton murderers fee, that they might not always be fafe in the gratification of that horrid propenfity; and reminding them, that public enquiries, and public profecutions, were not pleasant matters to play with. It would have done much honour to the national affembly, would have prevented much well-founded reproach, which will not wear off while the memory of

any

any of their acts continue, and would have prevented acts which will be an eternal ftain to their country, if they had paffed, and fupported with vigour, many fimilar refolutions; inftead of turning accounts of the moft inhuman murders to ridicule, and fhamefully joking upon the purity or impurity of the blood thus fhed.

Nothing at the fame time can afford a ftronger demonftration of the homage paid to Mounier's character, and of the awful afcendancy which virtue holds over those even who abhor its name, than that he thould have been able to carry a resolution so abhorent to the likings of all the principal leaders of the factions; they evidently shrunk before it. He has declared himself, that the reflection of his having carried this measure of humanity and juftice, was no fmall folace to him in his fubfequent troubles and misfortunes. This was his laft public act and he, who had not long fince been one of the most popular men in the kingdom, was, at no diftant period, deftined to fly from his country, and to retire to Geneva for the prefervation of his life. This obligation he owed to Barnave and others of his brother deputies, who, unable to refift or endure his virtue when prefent, took care to prepoffefs the minds of the people fo effectually against him, as to prevent the poffibility of his being ever again troublefome. Mounier was, with refpect to ftrictnefs of integrity, purity of principle, love and admiration of virtue, undoubtedly the firft man in the affembly, and feemed to belong to another age rather than to the prefent. In talents and abilities he was fecond to none in that body; but they were

not fhowy, nor calculated to catch the vulgar; fo that his popularity arofe from the general fenfe entertained of his virtue. He was an enthufiaftic lover of liberty, and as determined a foe to tyranny in every thape and form; but the liberty which he adored, and wished to establish, was a rational and regular one, fenced in with infuperable retraints against its degenerating into licentioufnefs and anarchy, as well as with impaffable mounds against the inroads of defpotism. In political affairs his faults were, being too refined and fpeculative, and fometimes being immoveable in his opinions.

We thought it both becoming and a part of our duty, to fay thus much of a fallen and unfortunate, but a very eminent man; and the more fo, as there is little probability that he will ever again come within our obfervation.

Mounier declared to a few particular friends, at his quitting Paris, how much he was oppreffed by the melancholy reflection, that all his efforts in favour of liberty had only ended in enflaving France to the defpotifm of faction, inftead of the defpotifm of royalty.

Two factions, with views totally. different and incompatible, had an equal share in promoting the late diforders and violence. The republican levellers intended, by the removal to Paris, to place the unhappy fovereign fo entirely in their own power, and by the aid of the Parifians to purge the affembly fo totally of all who oppofed them, that neither the king, the nobles, nor the clergy, could find it poffible afterwards to defend any of their rights, not only by arms, but even by legal refiftance. And they well

faw

faw that the bare name of the king, which did not produce the fmallest benefit to himself, might be turned to great account by affording fome fanction to their proceedings, and thereby become a moft ufeful inftrument in the confirmation of their power. Upon thefe principles no defigns that affected the king's life could originate or be received in this party.

The other faction, of which Mirabeau was, at least, the oftenfible head, and the leaders of which were generally called the cabal, held very different views, though they purfued the fame means, and used the fame inftruments, the mobs of Paris, for their attainment. The firft, as we have seen, wished to confine the king, perhaps for life, within the walls of that capital; but the fecond hoped to terrify him into a flight; in which cafe they would have proceeded to depofition; and poffibly the circumftances of the flight might have afforded an opportunity for greater and more decifive violence. Though thefe affumed the character of republicans, and generally acted along with them, yet fo far were they from wishing the overthrow of the fovereignty, that they very reluctantly admitted even the reductions that were made in its authority; they wifhed it to continue perfect and whole, but wanted to change the hands in which it was placed; fo that having fet up a phantom of power, which, from its weakness, they knew they could manage as they pleafed, a very few of their principal leaders would be enabled afterwards to govern with fupreme authority. This party was from two caules particularly dangerous; one was the extreme profligacy, and

total want of principle, joined with uncommon abilities, of fome of its leaders; the other was the profound fecrecy with which its ultimate views were kept concealed, to that the real objects of its purfuit and conduct were never apparent.

The republican party were triumphant upon this occafion; and the views of the cabal, if not entirely feen through, were at least to far underflood, as to excite much miftruft, and draw no fmall degree of odium upon their leaders.

Though the revolution was now completed, and no visible obitacle remaining which could check the republicans in their future career, yet the idea of fhutting themselves up within the walls of the turbulent city of Paris, where 100,000 pair of jealous and fufpicious eyes were to be an eternal watch upon their conduct and actions; where they were to be fubjected to the caprice of a frantic and bloody populace, who had conftituted themfelves both judges and executioners of the law in all cafes of life and death; and where the most zealous patriot was liable to become an inflantaneous victim to the falfeft report, or to the most unfounded fufpicion; thefe confiderations, acting altogether, could not but ftrike a great part of the affembly with the mot ferious and alarming apprehenfions, and thereby ferve much to leffen that fatisfaction and exultation of pride and fuccefs, which their fignal triumph over the crown, and that extreme and abject ftate of degradation to which it was reduced, might otherwife have afforded.

In order, by every means in their power, to guard against this danger, which, however unavowed, was equally obvious to all, the aflembly immediately