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longer; that France must have a king :" adding, “ that, fince the battle of Gemappe, he had wept over his fuccefs in fo bad a caufe."

On the return of the commissioners to Paris, fufpicion being converted into certainty, general Dumouriez was summoned to appear at the bar of the Convention, and M. Bournonville' appointed to fuperfede him. Four new commiffioners alfo were deputed to the army of the north, with powers to fufpend and arreft all officers who should fall under their fufpicion. On their arrival at Lifle, March 28, the commiffioners tranfmitted their orders to general Dumouriez, to appear before them, and anfwer the charges against him. But the general had already fully arranged his plan, and the Rubicon was paffed. He replied, therefore, "that, in the prefent exigent circumftances, he could not leave the army for a moment; that when he did enter Lifle, it would be in order to purge it of traitors; and that he valued his head too much to fubmit to an arbitrary tribunal."

The commiffioners now adopted the daring refolution to proceed to the camp; but they found by experience how dangerous was the attempt to feize the person of a general at the head of his army. On the 1st of April they arrived, in company with M. Bournonville, at St. Amand, the headquarters of general Dumouriez ; and, being admitted to his prefence, explained to him the object of their miffion. After a long conference, the general, finding them inflexible in their purpose, gave the fignal for a body of foldiers who were in waiting, and ordered M. Bournonville and the four commiffioners, in the number of whom was the noted M. Camus, immediately to be conveyed to general Clairfait's head-quarters at Tournay, to be kept as hostages for the fafety of the royal family.

Notwithstanding the great popularity of general Dumouriez, fymptoms foon appeared in the army of extreme difsatisfaction at this act of treachery and violence. On the morn

ing of the 3d, Dumouriez repaired to the camp of Maulde, and harangued the troops, amidst the murmurs of many of the battalions. On the next day he departed with his fuite for Condé, which fortress, with Valenciennes, he had engaged to put into the hands of the Auftrians: but on the road he received intelligence that it would not be safe for him to enter the place; and, in making his retreat, he fell in with a column of volunteer guards, who called to him to furrender but the general, trufting to the fwiftness of his horse, made, with great difficulty, his escape to the quarters of general Mack, through a dreadful difcharge of mufquetry. His example was followed by general Lamorlière, the duc de Chartres, fon of the duke of Orléans, and a few hundreds of private foldiers only out of the numerous army which he had commanded with fuch brilliant fuccefs. On the very next day appeared a proclamation from general Dumouriez, containing a recapitulation of his fervices to the French republic, a glowing picture of the outrages of the jacobins, and of the mischiefs to be apprehended from a continuation of anarchy in France; concluding with an exhortation to the French to reftore the conftitution of 1791, and a declaration on oath that he bore arms only for that purpofe.

This proclamation was accompanied by a very judicious manifefto on the part of the prince of Cobourg, now commander-in-chief of the armies of Auftria. After paffing fome encomiums on the patriotic views of general Dumouriez, it announced, "that the allied powers were no longer to be confidered as principals, but merely as auxiliaries, in the war; that they had no other object than to co-operate with the general in giving to France her conftitutional king, and the conflitution fhe formed for herself." On his word of honour he pledged himself, " that he would not come upon the French territory to make conquefts, but folely for the ends above fpecified :" and his ferene highnefs declared further," that any ftrong places which

fhould

fhould be put into his hands would be confidered as facred depofits, to be delivered up when the conftitutional government in France fhould be restored.”

Such was the wife and generous policy of this heroic commander. But, by this time, Antwerp, Breda, and the other conquests of France on the Dutch frontier were evacuated; and a new and dazzling scene of ambition and aggrandisement began once more to open to the view of the allied powers. On the 8th of April a grand council was held at Antwerp, at which were present the prince of Orange, accompanied by the grand-pensionary Vander Spiegel, the prince of Cobourg, counts Metternich, Staremberg, &c. with the Pruffian, Spanish, and Neapolitan ambaffadors. Here the whole plan of operations was completely changed, and the prince of Cobourg was most reluctantly compelled to give the fanction of his name to a proclamation of the 9th of April, virtually refcinding all which was contained in that of the 5th.

France appeared at this time, it must be confeffed, in a Situation truly dangerous. She was now in a state of open war with Austria, Pruffia, Great Britain, Holland, Spain, Sardinia, and the Sicilies: her principal army had been driven, by a series of unsuccessful attacks, from all her recent conquefts; and was now, by defection of its commander, in a state of complete diforganization: the Imperialists, affifted by the efforts of England and Holland, were established in great force on the frontier. On the fide of the Rhine, the Pruffians, under the duke of Brunswic, threatened the important city of Mentz: and, what was perhaps still more alarming to the French government, a most formidable infurrection at this period broke out in the ancient provinces of Britanny and Poitou, now distinguished by the names of the departments of La Vendée and La Loire. After gaining various advantages over the troops fent against them by the Convention, the infurgents, who professed to act under the authority of Monfieur (the count

Provence,)

Provence,) as regent of France, they held the city of Nantz itself in a state of ficge; and the fituation of the revolted provinces being highly favorable to their defigns, and enabling them to receive fupplies to any amount, and with the utmost facility, from England there appeared little probability of their fuppreffion.

The extreme elation of the court of London in particular, at this moment, displayed itself most conspicuously in a fingular memorial prefented by lord Aukland, April the 5th, to the States General, in which his lordship stated, in allufion to the capture of M. Camus and the other Conventional commiffioners, that the divine vengeance, for the atrocious crime which had been by their High Mightineffes with horror forefeen, feemed not to have been tardy. "Some of thefe deteftable regicides are now," faid his lordship, " in fuch a fituation, that they can be fubjected to the fword of the law; the rest are ftill in the midst of a people whom they have plunged into an abyfs of evils, and for whom famine, anarchy, and civil war, are about to prepare new calamities. In short, every thing that we fee happen induces us to confider as not far diftant the end of thefe wretches, whofe madness and atrocitics have filled with terror and indignation all those who refpect the principles of religion, morality, and humanity, The undersigned, therefore, fubmit to the enlightened judgment and wisdom of your High Mightineffes, whether it would not be proper to employ all the means in your power to prohibit from entering your states in Europe, or your colonies, all thofe members of the pretended National Convention, or of the pretended Executive Council, who have, directly or indirectly, participated in the faid crime; and, if they should be difcovered

and

It is true that count Staremberg, the Imperial ambaffador at the Hague, alfo figned the memorial; but, from the shortness of the interval that had elapfcd, it evidently could not have been in confequence of orders from his court.

and arrested, to deliver them up to juftice, that they may ferve as a leffon and example to mankind."-To this fanguinary memorial the fuperior wifdom and humanity of the Dutch government declined any reply; but it remains a ftriking hiftoric proof of the fimilar temper and difpofition which frequently actuates those who appear to differ moft widely in their principles. The spirit of Popery is not confined to those who bear the name of Papifts, nor the fpirit of Jacobinifm to those who are branded with the appellation of Jacobins.

The political creed of the court of London at this period may be clearly traced in a fermon preached before the houfe of Lords, January 30, 1793, by Dr. Horseley, bishop of St. David's, containing fentiments for which, in the reign of William III. he would have been deprived of his bishopric; but for which, in that of George III. he was shortly after promoted to the fuperior fee of Rochester." God, to his own fecret purpose," fays this genuine fucceffor of Sibthorp and Manwaring, " directs the worst actions of tyrants no lefs than the best of godly princes: man's abufe, therefore, of his delegated authority, is to be borne by refignation, like any other of God's judgments. The oppofition of the individual to the fovereign power is an oppofition to God's providential arrangements. In governments which are the worft administered, the fovereign power, for the most part, is a terror not to good works, but to the evil; and, upon the whole, far more beneficial than detrimental to the fubject. But this general good of government cannot be fecured upon any other terms than the fubmiffion of the individual to what may be called its extraordinary evils. St. Paul represents the earthly fovereign as the viceregent of God, accountable for mifconduct to his heavenly mafter, but entitled to obedience from the fubjects."

The energy of the French Convention displayed itself in a most extraordinary manner in the midft of the present circumstances of embarraffment and diftrefs. New com

miffioners

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