the most notorious of their brethren, who were concerned in the late tumult and murder, publicly hanged. These vigorous meafures produced an immediate happy effect; and order and quiet were for fome time established.

An event now took place which could not fail to aftonish all thofe who were not admitted deeply into the secrets of affairs. This was the extraordinary measure of fending the duke of Orleans out of the kingdom. To understand this we are to obferve, that nothing could exceed the indignation of La Fayette at the unexpected difobedience which he experienced from his troops on the 5th of October. All the mutual ties which fhould unite a general and his army feemed at once diffolved; and, befides the difappointment, and wound to his pride, the perfonal fecurity of a commander feemed in a very precarious state, whofe troops difdained to obey, and who made no fcruple of flying in the face of his authority and command. He well knew that their disobedience and mutiny did not originate with themfelves, but were produced by the machinations of the cabal; and he directed all his indignation and refentment to their proper object, the fuppofed father of that faction. For, whatever La Fayette's private political views might have been, there certainly was nothing farther removed from them, or which he abhorred more, even in idea, than that the duke of Orleans, through any conyulfion, or change of circumftances, or under any denomination, of regent or otherwife, fhould ever be placed at the head of public affairs. He faw that the feafon was highly favourable to the gratification of his

enmity; that the views of the cabal were thoroughly feen through, and they had confequently loft all ins fluence, weight, and confidence in the affembly; that Mirabeau had not been more unfortunate in his views to aggrandize his principal than himself; and that his late defign of forcing himself into the royal adminiftration, was fo well understood, that his preparatory motion was rejected, with every mark not only of difguft but abhor rence.

It is faid, that the leading party in the affembly had already derived all the benefits from the duke which they wished, or at any time intended: his pecuniary aid had from the beginning been indifpenfably neceflary to their fuccefs, without it they could have done nothing; but now things were totally changed: if his treasures had not even been pretty well. exhaufted, they were not, however, in that ftate of neceffity which rendered them once indifpenfable; he had been as long the inftrument to their purposes as was neceffary, to continue it longer would be folly. Befides that his fervices were no longer wanted, hiş prefence was becoming troublefome; and might, under certain circumftances, through his influence with the rabble, poffibly prove dangerous.

Whether the opinion that thefe motives operated upon the affembly be well founded or not, it feems evident that La Fayette must have had a certainty of being well fupported when he ventured upon fo bold, and feemingly fo dangerous a measure. He fettled the bufinefs. like a foldier, with little ceremony but peremptory effect. In a fhort and fudden conference with the

duke,

IT

Twas impoffible that tranfactions of the kind we have just been relating, fhould not, in every point of view, forcibly attract the attention of all the furrounding nations of Europe. But, to the people of thefe kingdoms, they became, at an early period, from feveral peculiar circumftances, a fubject matter of a more direct, as well as ferious intereft. Before we proceed, therefore, to the detail of our parliamentary proceedings, it will be neceffary to give a fhort account of the general impreffion which the tranfactions of France made upon the public mind; to point out the different views they fuggefted to political parties, and the first appearance of a defign to form a common caufe between the fpeculative reformers of our own nation, and the levelling party, which foon became all-powerful, in France. The reader will have remarked the many favourable circumflances, under which the ftates-general of France were at firft affembled, and which feemed to require but an ordinary degree of public virtue and political prudence to improve them into the most important advantages. With a fpirit of conceffion tending to facility, the reprefentatives of the two first orders, the clergy and the nobility, were empowered, by the inftructions of their respective conftituents, to concede upon almoft all the points, which had ever been confidered as invidious, or were then in difpute, and particularly those of pecuniary privileges. Every thing that could be required from a prince, to whom the happiness of his people had ever been the object nearest his heart, was to be reckoned upon as certain; and, amongst the reft, the future periodical meetings of the ftates, by which the gradual improvement of

the conftitution, without convulfion, perhaps without conteft, was almost a neceffary confequence:

Whilft the affairs of France wore this promifing afpect, the English nation feemed difpofed to congratu late, with fincerity, its ancient rival upon the dawn of its liberty. A laudable partiality for their own country had, indeed, excited apprehenfions in fome, that France, by availing itteif of the advantages of a free conflitution, might become a more powerful, and confequently a more dangerous neighbour: whilft others, led away by the fashionable theories of the day, conceived, that whatever temptations to ambition France might derive from its future profperity, they would be more than counterbalanced by thofe principles of equity and moderation, which might be expected to prevail under its new fyltem of government, in proportion to the predominance of the popular interefts in it. This latter opinion had its advocates particularly amongst thofe, who were admirers of republican forms of government, and willing to caft an odium upon monarchy by attributing all the wars which have defolated the world, to the ambition and avarice of princes.

Such, in general, were the opti ons which floated upon the public mind; and rather as matter of curious fpeculation, than of national concern. But upon what a fuperficial view of things thefe opinions were formed, in all their parts, the events, that have fince happened, have fully evinced. The evils, however, which at that time existed only in their principles, or in fuch effects as might be fuppofed occafional or collateral, did not even then efcape more experienced ob fervers. They were developed and

purfued

purfued to the dreadful confequences, which have fince enfued. Before the clofe of the year 1789, a celebrated member of the British parliament, in a work, which will remain to the latest pofterity as a monument of enlightened patriotifm and unrivalled political judgment, not only warned the French nation of the dreadful precipice, upon which it flood, but foretold, with a circumftantial exactnefs, thefe horrors, which, though fince acted almost under our eyes, we hesitate to believe. At the fame time, he laid open to the view of all Europe, the defigns of a faction, which aimed directly, both from policy and upon principle, at the total fubverfion of all its eftablished governments.

It was evident to the projectors of the French revolution, that their plan must neceflarily exceed the limits of their own territory. Confcious of the defperate lengths to which their fyftem led, and refolved to push it to its utmost extent, they could not expect, that either the policy or generofity of the neighbouring ftates would fuffer them to re. main unconcerned fpectators of the fcenes they were preparing to act, or inattentive to the principles eftablished, in order to justify or produce them. They faw, that it was not lefs neceffary to the fuccefs of the general plan, than to the execution of that part, in which they were immediately engaged, to involve the other nations, without delay, in the fame diftractions. And notwith flanding they failed, for the moft part, in this attempt, yet it is not to be doubted, but that the countenance they received amongst individuals in foreign countries, though not attended with fatal confequences to thofe countries themselves, yet by

the credit it gave to the exaggerated accounts given by their journalists of the general prevalence of their principles, contributed, in no small degree, to encourage the prevalent faction to the perpetration of thofe dreadful exceffes, which they were afterwards wrought up to commit.

Such were the zeal and activity of the French agitators, and fuch the extent and boldness of their plans, that it is notorious, that there was no part of Europe in which their agents were not established for the purpofe of diffeminating their pernicious principles. Great-Britain and Ireland offered, upon niany obvious accounts, the fairest field to the induftry of these democratic miffionaries. It was not neglected, and was cultivated not without fuccefs. Active and zealous partizans were found ready to co-operate with them. Nor was this confined to individuals: but various political fo cieties, of more or less ancient de nomination, made it their business to propagate their principles, and recommend their example. The nobility of France had not been long profcribed and the church plunderel, nor the king many days led cap tive to Paris, before letters of congratulation were sent from several of thele focieties in both kingdoms, and a regular official correfpondence opened between them and the leaders in France. In the tranfactions of thefe focieties, the means by which the revolution was carried on and effected, if not always praifed, were yet pronounced to be fanctified by the end; the example was recommended as a glorious pattern for the imitation of mankind, and fanguine expectations were held out, that it was but the firft, though an effential and leading step to the gene

ral