In the review of the interior state of France, it is neceffary to mention, that the infant Capet, only son of the late king, expired June 9 (1795,) in the prifon of the Temple, where he had been confined fince the fatal 10th of August, 1792. His habit was fickly, and his ill health was no doubt increased by the want of proper exercise; but it does not appear that he fuffered under any peculiar harfhnefs of treatment. The princefs, his fifter and companion, was in a fhort time released, being exchanged with the court of Vienna for the deputies delivered up by the treachery of Dumouriez, and for the two ambassadors, Semonville and Maret, who had been bafely feized on neutral ground, contrary to the law of nations, and detained prifoners by the Auftrian government.

The plan of the new conftitution was prefented by the Committee of Eleven, on the 23d of June, the report being made by Boily D'Anglas. After much difcuffion, and

various

of prejudice and paffion, confpicuously difcovers itself. He obferves truly, That a valt army might have been maintained in La Vendée at a far lefs expense than has been thrown away upon tropical adventures. We fhould have had an ally in the heart of the country, who, at one time, would have added 80,000 men to whatever force we had fent thither, all auimated by principle, by enthufiafm, and vengeance,-motives which fecured them to the cause in a very different manner from fome of those allies whom we fubfidized with millions. Warring there, we should have led our arms to the capital of wrong; an impregnable rampart would have been formed between the enemy and his naval power. We are probably the only nation who have declined to act against an enemy when it might have been done in his own country; and who, having an armed, a powerful, and a long-victorious ally in that country, declined all effectual cooperation, and fuffered him to perifh for want of fupport. Had we brought the main of our force to bear upon that quarter, all the operations of the Eritish and Imperial crowns would have been combined; the war would have had fyftem, correfpondence, and a certain direction: but, as the war has been pursued, the operations of the two crowns, have not the fmallest degree of mutual bearing or relation." Thoughts on a Regicide Peace, p. 155. -Fortunately for France, the counfels of this Ahitophel were neglected; for which he would, in the opinion of many, have done well to follow the example of his prototype.

-

various alterations, the Conftitutional Act was, on the 23d of Auguft, declared complete, and referred to the primary affemblies for their approbation and acceptance. The principal features of this conftitution were these :— The legiflative power was vefted in two councils, chofen through the medium of the electoral affemblies; the one confifting of 500, the other of 250 members. To the former, ftyled the Legislative Council, belonged the propofing, to the latter, ftyled the Senate or Council of Elders, the confirming of laws; and no perfon could be a member of the senate who had not completed his fortieth year-One-third of the members of each council to be rechofen every year. The executive power was delegated to a DIRECTORY of five members, to be partially renewed by the election of one member in regular rotation. The mode of election was for the Council of Five Hundred to make out, by secret scrutiny, a lift of ten persons, from which the fenate by secret fcrutiny alfo should select one. The judicial power to reside in judges of department and district, chofen by the electoral affemblies, and an high tribunal of appeal and capation, or annulment, eftablished by the fame. mode of election for the whole kingdom. This was certainly the outline of a free and noble conftitution; but the beneficial effect of it was entirely counteracted by one egregious and fatal error. The two councils were virtually rendered permanent, the Directory not being invested with the effentially neceffary power of convening and proroguing thofe formidable bodies agreeably to their difcretion: and as the minifters of the executive government were, by another error of great though fecondary magnitude, not admitted to feats in the legiflative affemblies, an oppofition of interefls was inftantly and inevitably created. The councils were irrefiftibly tempted to encroach upon the functions of the executive power; and in effect two diftinct governments were established by the fame act. To this added, that the executive authority was much weakened

may

be

VOL. III.

by

by being committed to five perfons, between whom differences and divifions might be expected to arife, instead of a fingle individual, under whatever name.

any

On the 5th Fructidor (August 22), previous to the tranfmiffion of the Conftitutional Act to the primary af femblies, the Convention decreed that the elective bodies fhould, in appointing the deputies to the legislative body, choose two-thirds from amongst the members of the prefent Convention; and by another decree it was enacted, that, in default of fuch election, the Convention should fill up the vacancies themfelves. Thefe decrees formed a curious contraft to that famous felf-denying ordinance of the Constituent Affembly, which prohibited the re-election of of its members. The prefent Convention were probably impreffed very ftrongly with the recollection of the ill effects resulting from that romantic though noble act of difinterestedness, and wandered into the oppofite and less pardonable extreme. The decrees now paft were obviously liable to the imputation of ambition and selfishness; but they were unquestionably deemed by many politically expedient, from the predominance of Jacobinism in various parts of the country, and from the apprehenfion that, in confequence of the well-known activity and addrefs of that fallen though still formidable party in popular elections, a majority of the Jacobine or Mountain faction would be returned members of the new legislature. It would, however, as the event proved, have been better and wiser to have acted upon the broad and fimple principles of universal liberty; for the Jacobins availed themfelves with fuch dexterity of the discontent occafioned by this unexpected and unconftitutional restraint upon the public freedom of choice, that the whole nation was thrown into a state of confufion scarcely fhort of a temporary anarchy. The forty-eight fections of Paris, who had ufually given the tone to the nation at large, while they unanimously accepted the Conftitutional Act, as firmly rejected

the

the law for the re-election of the two-thirds. In the majority of primary affemblies throughout the country, the decrees of the Affembly, having been tranfmitted to the departments with the Conftitutional Act, were, in conjunction with the act, accepted and confirmed, notwithstanding the violence of the oppofing party. But the fections of Paris, who had fo often, in their outrageous proceedings, fet all law and all government at defiance, after fome infolent and unavailing applications to the Convention to refcind the obnoxious decrees, proclaimed openly that means more forcible than mere remonstrances were neceffary to bring the Convention to reafon, and that they ought to be driven from their feats with ignominy. Several of the sections had already proceeded to open and daring acts of hostility. On the 12th Vendemaire (October 4), general Menou, commander of the military force of Paris, was fent to the chief place of their affembly, to disarm and disperse the infurgents: but this officer executed his commiffion so little to the fatisfaction of the Convention, that he was feverely reprchended, and Barras appointed in his room. In the dead of night the cry was heard-To ARMS! TO ARMS! LIBERTY or DEATH! and at the early dawn of day, the fections having drawn out their forces, intending to march them, as ufual, to the hall of the Convention, a regular and bloody battle took place; and the different avenues of the Tuilleries being planted with cannon, great flaughter was made amongst the infurgents, who repeatedly railied, and returned to the charge with incredible obftinacy; but, being overpowered, they were, at the clofe of the day, and not till then, driven by the Conventional troops from all their pofts, with the lofs, as fome accounts ftate, of five hundred, and others of no lefs than two thousand, men.

The extreme violence of the oppofition to the decrees of the Convention undoubtedly arofe from the temporary junction, on this, as on other occafions, of the royalift and Jacobine parties, aided by many well-meaning but mistaken

perfons, indignant at the flagrant violation of those abstract principles of liberty, which they attended to much more than their practical confequences, being thus in perpetual danger of facrificing the end to the means. General principles of liberty are valuable only because they are generally beneficial: neceffity may enforce, and then it will justify, a deviation, in particular cafes, from thofe general principles; if real, it is the plea of the patriot; if pretended, of the tyrant. Although the neceffity of the decrees of Fructidor might previously be regarded as doubtful, yet, when once paffed, all refiftance to them by force was in the highest degree unjustifiable. These decrees might be productive of great national utility, in preventing the political evils too likely to refult from a sudden transition of power; and no real danger to the state could, with any fhadow of reafon, be apprehended from them, when it was confidered that one-third of the members of the Convéntion were to vacate their feats immediately, and another third at the expiration of one year after the establishment of the new constitution; and that the Convention, as now conftituted, had governed France with glory and fuccefs fince the period of the fall of the tyrant Robespierre.* The infurrection was confined to Paris, for some of the neighbouring communes were disarmed as they were on their march to join the fections. The Convention, now triumphant, declared that the majority of votes in the departments were in favor of the laws of Fructidor.

Alarmed, notwithstanding, at the spirit and strength of the oppofition they had just overcome, many of the members

It was affirmed at the time, in divers of the Paris journals connected with the government, particularly in that of Louvet, " that the cabinet of St. James's was deeply concerned in these infurrections, and that Mr. Pitt himself was the chief confpirator."-The declaration of the younger Jenkinfon in the house of commons, April 10, 1794, uncontradicted by Mr. Pitt, gives at leaft fome color and countenance to this charge." It is," faid Mr. Jenkinfon, "the duty of his majesty's minifters to affift every party in France that fhould arife to overturn the prefent government, if it deferves the name."