which were afterwards, upon cool recollection, forely regretted; and it is pofitively afferted, that feveral of the nobility, who had from the beginning been eminent for their patriotifm, and for the fhare they had taken in forwarding a reform of the old government, were, notwithstanding, fo much difgufted by the proceedings of this night, that they immediately abandoned the popular fide and party, and ranked from thence among the most violent aristocrates. The affembly, however, confidering this as a complete regeneration of France, decreed that a medal fhould be ftruck, in order to immortalize the acts of that great and glorious night; and, tranfported by the warmth of their paffions, and the eagernefs of their zeal, they conferred upon the king the flattering and glorious, but fhortlived title of Reftorer of the Liberty of France; and ordered a deputation to prefent him with the decrees, with the homage of his regenerated kingdom, and to address him by his new title. When La Chapelier, the prefident, and the deputation, had addreffed the king, he concluded his answer to them with the following words; "Let us go and return "thanks to God, for the generous "fentiments which prevail in your affembly." A folemn Te Deum was accordingly celebrated, and attended by the whole affembly, La Chapelier, (the leader and founder of the famous Breton club, fo determinedly inimical to monarchy) walking as prefident, though a commoner, by the fide of the king, and thus, it is obferved, properly fupporting the majesty of the people. It is likewife obferved by the fame writ er *, that this was the firft benediction of religion over the birth of liberty. It is remarkable that the conceffions made by the clergy, confiderable as they were, and freely offered, did not procure them the fmallest mark of favour or acknowledgment, fome noify and tranfitory marks of immediate approbation excepted,. from either the nobles or the commons. On the contrary, there were ftrong indications, both then and after, that they were deftined outcalls from both parties; and all the joy, triumph, and good-humour of the 4th of Auguft was wound up by a motion, fucceeded by an carneft debate which lafted till morning, for the fuppreffion of their tithes. This debate was refumed on the next day, and continued on the fucceeding, and the motion opposed with great vigour. The celebrated Abbe Sieyes, with all his abftra&t notions of government, was, however, a firm adherent to the rights of the church, at leaft in thofe things that related to her establishment and independence, and he opposed this violent invafion of both with great vigour and ability. He had not been prefent at the firft debate,. but hearing that it was intended to feize the tithes without an indemnification, he rapidly compofed an elaborate written fpeech, which he carried to the affembly, full fraught with argument, but not more argumentative than acrimonious, ftrongly urging the violence, oppreffion, and injuftice of the propofed measure, as well as the infecurity and danger to which the precedent would expofe all other property; and infifting Rabaut. that that the cause he was fupporting was not merely that of the church, but of all property whatever. We are to obferve that it was the general mode adopted in the affembly, for the members to write their speeches at home, and to read them in their places, there being as yet very few, not above three or four in the whole, who were capable of delivering their fentiments in an extempore public fpeech. The abbé, who was u.ually collected and compofed, upon this occafion afcended the tribune in great and vifible wrath; but this only ferved to increase the animation and vehemence with which he urged his arguments. He concluded a very forcible fpeech by boldly telling the affembly, that "if they " wished to be free, they should begin by being just.” Though the abbé had been no fmall favourite with the affembly, and his fpeeches upon other occafions were particularly well attended to, yet his arguments now, intead of producing effect or conviction, were heard with the utmoft impatience, and with marks of difapprobation which amounted even to interruption, both by the nobility and commons. Whether his reafonings were fo ftrongly founded, or not, as to afford no room for controverting them, it is certain that the conduct on the other fide gave no little countenance to the affirmative opinion, not the fmaileft attempt being made to refute or to answer any one of his pofitions. The abbé was fo much difgufted, and felt himfelf fo deeply infulted by what he deemed this unworthy treatment, that, if we are rightly informed, he never after took that cager and active part in public affairs which he had previoufly done. We are to obferve, that through. the unaccountable and unexampled rapidity with which fuch a vast mafs of bufinefs, had been carried through in the night of the 4th of Auguft, fixteen refolutions of the greatest importance being paffed in a few hours, most of which fingly would require the cool deliberation of more than one day, aflifted by much knowledge and judgment, for its due determination, from this circumftance, as well as from the continual difar-. rangement of thought, occafioned. by the general clamour and acclamation, it became extremely difficult for the most comprehenfive mind to catch the nature or object of the fubjects which were unexpectedly brought on, and hurried through with little difcuffion or explanation. The clergy are reprefented as hav-, ing been in this ftate of blindness or ignorance, when the question in which they were so much interested relative to tithes was on that night brought forward. They had generally conceived, from whatever cause it proceeded, that they were to receive a juft, or at least a reasonable pecuniary compenfation, an idea which afforded the highest gratification to them, as they would thereby be relieved from that odious necefity of taking tithes in kind, which above all things they wifhed to be exonerated from, and for that purpofe would willingly have submitted to no fmall fubftraction from their value on the fuppofition of a commutation. But when they found that they were to be fripped of their only means of living, and destined to look for fome undefined compenfation, which was to depend entirely upon the future degree of benevo[B 3] lence lence that might happen to operate upon the nation or affembly, nothing could exceed their fenfe of the wrong, or their indignation at the injury. Nor did the contemptuous treatment which the abbé Sieyes had just experienced, nor the clamour which was oppofed to their own arguments and remonftrances, nor even the galling ridicule which occafionally intervened, and would pafs a fubject, to them much too ferious for merriment, off as a jeft, at all deter them from contending vigorously for their rights, and fturdily defending their daily bread. It was upon this occafion that one of the country vicars, in the bitterness of his heart, addreffed himself to the commons; and calling out, with the highest and most marked indignation, afked, "Was it then to "devour us, that you invited us to "join you in the name of the God "of peace?" It cannot be doubted that a fenfe of their own conduct in abandoning the nobility, with a recollection of the means ufed to draw them to that measure, and a galling comparison between the fraternal embraces, along with the flattering title of faviours of their country, which they had fo lately received, and the immediate ingratitude of thofe very men by whom they had been fo highly careffed and bepraifed, and to whom they had in reality done fuch effential fervice, muft all together have ferved to embitter the present scene in the most extreme degree. The debate, if a continued fcene of tumult, noife and confufion might be allowed to ufurp that name, was continued through the whole day. In vain did a number of the deputies, who wished to get quit of fo tirefome a difcuffion, by that short decifion which confifted only in the counting of heads, and in which they were certain of a majority of two or three to one, call loudly and rẹpeatedly for the question. The diforder was too great, and the paffions on both fides too much inflamed, to admit of the coolness and regularity neceffary even for a divifion; fo that the bufinefs was by common confent adjourned to the following day. The popular writers not only acknowledge, but feem to mention it as an instance of the activity and ability of the leaders on their fide, that the night of the 5th of Auguft; which was that immediately fucceeding the debate on tithes, was by no means idly or ineffectively fpent. Every engine was fet to work, to overcome the obstinacy, or to mollify the minds of the clergy. Hope, terror, and flattery were alternately tried, and each in its turn found a foil fit for its reception, and produced its proper effect. The object in view was to obtain from themselves a formal, and at the fame time an apparently voluntary furrender of tithes. In fact, the clergy could not but fee, that the union of the nobles and commons against them muft of neceffity render alltheir efforts abortive; and it required no great trouble to determine, whether it was not better to submit with a good grace to an inevitable evil, than by a vain, and what would be deemed a pertinacious refiftance, to exafperate that power on which they were still deftined to rely for fupport and protection. In these circumstances, and under thefe and fimilar impreffions, the point was gained in the course of the night; and at the commencement of of the fitting on the next morning, the archbishop of Paris, in the name of his brethren, furrendered all the tithes of the church into the hands of the nation; accompanying the surrender with the following fhort fpeech: "Let the gofpel be "preached; let divine worship be "celebrated with decency and dig"nity; let the church be provided "with virtuous and zealous paftors; "let the poor amongst the people "be fuccoured. This is the defti"nation of our riches; these are "the objects of our ministry, and "of our wishes: we truft ourselves, "without referve, to a juft and geer nerous nation." This facrifice was received with an affected acclamation of applaufe, as if any one could be perfuaded that it was a free and voluntary gift. It was not an incurious circumftance to obferve the fudden change which took place in the countenance and manner of the affembly. That body, fo agitated, fo noify, fo tumultuous and violent on the preceding day and night, was now fo calm, fo tranquil and placid, that it was difficult to fuppofe it compofed of the fime men. It cost the affembly feveral days to digeft and frame into laws the refolutions paffed on the night of the 4th of Auguft and the tranfactions and debates of that night are fo intermixed, in the publifhed relations, with those which fucceeded, and that without any mark of diftinction, that it is not eafy to affign their proper time or place to fome of them. It seems, however, to have been on that night that the deputies from Dauphiny reminded the affembly of the wifh declared by that province, that France fhould no longer remain parcelled out amongft Bretons, Dauphinois, and Provençaux, but fhould for the future be inhabited by French citizens only. It was ftated, in support of this proposal, that the French had not hitherto been properly a nation, but rather an incoherent and fantaftical affemblage of different people, who had fortuitoufly paffed under the fame monarchy; fome, by virtue of a will, bequeathing them as property; others, in confequence of a marriage, which transferred them as a daughter's portion; and all by different titles, and upon different conditions; all preferving their diftinct laws and cuftoms, and having nothing in common, but the difadvantage of fuffering all the miseries of fervitude, without the folitary recompence of poffeffing uniform laws and fimilar interefts. This application was received with great and univerfal applaufe; this ocand it was probably upon cafion that the deputies of several privileged towns and districts made a furrender, as we have already feen, of the charters and municipal documents of the places they reprefented. But many other of the deputies, being more fcrupulous, did not choose to furrender the local from the constituents fhould be con- fhould fhould be admitted to obftruct the attainment of that defired object, The final refult was, that every exclufive right and privilege throughout the kingdom was at length refigned. The provinces which poffelfed a right of taxing themselves, renounced that right, and their ftates, together; and the parliaments, which had fo long been the boaft of France, and confidered as the able and inflexible guardians of the public rights, were foon annihilated, as well as the provincial ftatcs. All the ancient systems of theology and of the fchools, together with the canon, political, and ecclefiaflical bodies of law, were fwept away like cobwebs ; as were, with ftill greater eafe, all the claims or fuppofed rights of the court of Rome, and all fees or taxes heretofore paid to it for ever abolished. In a word, every thing changed its ancient form and afpect. It was obferved, by men of fhrewd obfervation, that however brilliant the generous enthufiafm of the 4th of Auguft appeared, and whatever honour the great facrifices made by the nobility and clergy to the people conferred on the parties, yet that this new mode of haftily paffing the most important laws by acclamation, was fraught with much inconvenience and evil; that it took away from that refpect, from that opinion of wifdom, which ever fhould attend the proceedings of a great deliberative affembly; more particularly the prefent, engaged as it was in the most arduous task that ever had been committed to the hands of a fimilar body of men, that of correcting all the abufes accumulated in the courfe of a long ferics of paft ages, and of framing a new and perfect conftitution for the government of a great and powerful empire, as if it had now been only commencing its exiftence. They held, that one effential law coolly paffed in favour of the people, marked with its proper characterifticks of due deliberation, difcuffion and enquiry, would have produced better effects upon their temper and difpofition, and inspired them with higher fentiments of gratitude, than the whole bundle of laws thus precipitately hurried through by the voice of clamour and acclamation. That fuch a torrent of benefits coming upon them at once, was more culculated to turn their heads, to loofen all the bands of fubordination, to eradicate every fenfe of their respective duties, and to indifpose them to every form whatever of government, than to render them good citizens, and useful members of the fociety, in their proper fphere of life. That these laws fhould have been promulged and these benefits communicated gradually, to give them proper effeet, and thereby to render them ufeful; but that in the prefent illchofen feafon of paffing the one, and no lefs ill mode of difpenfing the other, the people muft naturally attribute them either to a fudden paroxyfm of fear or of madness ; and that under this impreffion, their gratitude on the one hand, and all the good effects which were hoped to proceed from thefe prodigious conceffions, on the other, would be equally fuperfeded. They farther infifted, that independently of all extrinfic confiderations, fo important and fo intricate a body of laws, which went to change the whole law and policy of the nation, to difarrange or difpofe of near half its property, and to draw eternal X lines |