tion; and finally, that the constitution guaranties to the whole people of France, liberty, safety, property, the publick debt, the free exercise of religious worship, the right of petitioning, and the right of assembling in popular societies." And for the better security of the people against any violation of these rights and privileges, it was declared, "that the oppression of a single member of the society was to be deemed the oppression of the whole body; and that whenever the government should violate the rights of the people, insurrection became both the most sacred right, and the most indispensable duty not only of the people at large, but of every portion and division of them."

This formal recognition of some principles of incontestable truth, mingled with many of the most incoherent dreams, and many of the most pernicious doctrines which ever occurred to the most enthusiastick zealot, or to the most wicked conspirator in the cause of absolute and unqualified democracy, was tendered to the people in the several departments for their acceptance; and, if we are to believe the reports made to the convention, was actually accepted by a large majority. The acceptance of this model of perfection which was to secure for ever the happiness and prosperity of France, was solemnly celebrated by a civick feast on a day aptly chosen for such a ceremony, on the anniversary of the massacre of the 10th of August, when the last constitution to which the people of France had sworn was overthrown by force, when magistrates were murdered for executing the laws, citizens for defending property, and troops for obeying the orders of those to whom by law they owed obedience. But mark the sequel of this solemnity. The dissolution of the convention, the necessary and immediate consequence of this new constitution, would have destroyed the power of the now reigning party; many other branches of this constitution would have been equally incompatible with the duration of their authority; not only therefore those articles which related to the form of the executive

power and to the election of the legislature were left unexecuted, but the whole municipal constitution, and every article in any degree favourable to personal liberty, to life, or to property, were continually violated without scruple, and without disguise; until on the 10th of October the entire system of the indefeisible, inalienable rights of man, from which nothing can derogate, which admit of no modifications of expediency, which neither bend to times nor circumstances, nor even to the practical happiness of society, was formally and openly suspended; and in defiance of the sovereign people a new and unheard of species of government was established, which, growing out of the theory of impracticable liberty, was to be maintained by the practice of the most unmitigated tyranny. A decree was passed, by which the whole executive authority of the state was drawn into the hands of the committee of publick welfare. Provision was made for the rapid execution of what are termed revolutionary laws; and for the direction and employment of a revolutionary army in order to repress every symptom of a counter-revolutionary spirit; and among the great fundamental articles of this counter-constitution it was decreed, that the corn and grain in the several departments should be seized at the discretion of the new government; and that garrisons should be placed in all counter-revolutionary towns, to be paid and maintained at the sole charge of persons of property. This decree was proposed expressly for the purpose of punishing "not traitors only, but even those who dared to be indifferent to the cause of the existing government, who had the audacity to be passive, and to do nothing for the sovereignty of the people." It was said, "that such persons must be governed by the sword, since it was impossible to govern them by the maxims of justice. It was said, "that the constitution of the 10th of August, 1793, was not sufficiently violent to repress such dangerous attempts against liberty;" it was said, that revolutionary laws could never be executed, unless the government itself was constituted in

Such was the origin,

a revolutionary manner." and such is the form of that monster in politicks, of which, as the very notion involves a contradiction of ideas, the name cannot be expressed without a contradiction in terms-a revolutionary government! a government which, for the ordinary administration of affairs resorts to those means of violence and outrage which had been hitherto considered, even in France, as being exclusively appropriated to the laudable and sacred purpose of subverting all lawful and regular authority. The sense of the epithet revolutionary, which is so lavishly applied by the convention to every part of this new system, requires some explanation. An extract from the proceedings of the National Convention will serve to exemplify the manner in which that singular phrase is understood and admired by the most unquestionable authority in the science of revolutions. Barriere makes a report rerespecting the situation of the republick in the month of December; he reads a variety of despatches from the national commissioners in various parts of the republick; and at length he produces a letter from Carrier, one of the commissioners of the convention, dated Nantz, December the 10th. This letter, after giving an account of a successful attack against the royalists, concludes with the following remarkable words: "This event has been followed by another which has however nothing new in its nature. Fiftyeight individuals known by the name of refractory priests arrived at Nantz from Angers. They were shut up in a barge on the river Loire, and last night they were all sunk to the bottom of that river.-What a revolutionary torrent is the Loire !"-You expect perhaps to hear, that the disgusting relation of this inhuman action raised some emotions of horrour, if not of compassion in the audience; you expect to hear, that the convention manifested their resentment at this abuse of the revolutionary language; but does any symptom of such sentiments appear?-No! after having listened to this interesting report, the convention votes the following resolution: "The na

tional convention, highly satisfied with the report of Barrere, orders it to be printed, inserted in the votes, and sent to all the armies."

Highly satisfied with this figurative illustration of the style and title of that gracious and mild government which they had so lately instituted, they order it to be proclaimed and published over the whole territory of the republick, to conciliate the affections of a free people, and to animate the enthusiasm of a brave and generous army. Here you learn the full force and energy of their new phraseology. The Loire is a revolutionary torrent, because it has been found a useful and expeditious instrument of massacre, because it has destroyed by a sudden and violent death fifty-eight men, against whom no crime was alleged but the venerable character of their sacred function, and their faithful adherence to the principles of their religion. But this event is truly said to have nothing new in its nature. I dwell upon it for the application of the phrase, not for the singularity of the fact. Every proceeding since the commencement of the troubles in France which has been dignified by the title of revolutionary, is marked with similar characters of violence or blood. The seizure of the property of the clergy and of the nobility was a revolutionary measure. The assassinations of Foulon and Berthier at Paris, and of the king's guards at Versailles in the the year 1789, were revolutionary measures. All the succeeding outrages, the burning of the title deeds and country houses of all gentlemen of landed property, the numberless confiscations, banishments, proscriptions, and murders of innocent persons-all these were revolutionary measures. The massacres of the tenth of August, and of the second of September -the attempt to extend the miseries of civil discord over the whole world, the more successful project of involving all Europe in the calamities of a general war, were truly revolutionary measures. The insulting mockery of a pretended trial, to which they subjected their humane and benevolent sovereign, and the horrid cruelty of his unjust, precipitate, and exe

crable murder, were most revolutionary measures. It has been the art of the ruling faction of the presen hour to compound and to consolidate the substance of all these dreadful transactions in one mass; to concentrate all their noxious principles; and by a new process to extract from them a spirit, which combines the malignity of each with the violence of all; and that is the true spirit of a revolutionary govern

ment.

Some of the general principles and fundamental maxims maintained by the founders of this government are so curious, that it is impossible to pass them over in silence. They represent, that in a revolutionary state, civil liberty, (including the personal freedom, the interests, and the happiness of individuals) is but a secondary object, the principal end of such a government being (what they call) publick liberty, which, according to their definition, does not consist in the personal freedom of individuals, but in the unrestrained and arbitrary exercise of the supreme executive power. They assert that under the existing circumstances liberty must be considered to be in a state of war, not with foreign powers merely, but with her numerous enemies in the bosom of the republick. It follows as a consequence of this principle, that those who act under the commission of liberty may for her sake imprison, plunder, and destroy by the sword the inhabitants of France, according to the rights of war as exercised by belligerent powers in an enemy's country. This abstract idea of liberty at war with the properties, the lives, and the personal freedom of the people, however incomprehensible to a nation accustomed to feel the practical and substantial advantages of a free constitution, is the favourite doctrine of Robespierre, to which the convention has subscribed with the warmest zeal. Connected with this is the main and leading maxim upon which their whole system turns. It is expressed in terms which, although originally derived from the proceedings of this house, will appear to you, sir, somewhat singular in their application. It is, "that terrour should be