body of electors had either fome previous notice that the tide was beginning to turn, or that they had fo perfect a knowledge of the temper and difpofition of their new mafters, that they forefaw to a degree of certainty the event which was to take place; for, fome days before this final ifiue, while they were yet loaded with praife, and that all feemed to acknowledge the importance of their fervices, they called a meeting of the feveral diftricts, and propofed to, and fucceeded in perfuading them, to elect 120 deputies, who fhould conftitute a temporary adminiftration, and who might in the mean time form a fcheme for a future permanent municipal government. Nothing could have been more judicious or more fortunate than this measure. When the day of evil and of danger arrived, the new administration filled up the chafm which their fudden dereliction of office would have made, and by obviating the confufion which must otherwise have taken place, afforded the electors an opportunity to retire with the lefs notice or obfervation, and to feek for shelter and oblivion in the mafs of the people. But neither their prudence, caution, nor the timely and fignal proof which they had given of their difintereftedness, were fufficient to preferve them from the mot virulent invective and abuse, nor from the dangerous charge of ambitious defigns, which they directed to the prolongation and increase of their power. Among the novelties for which the late elections of deputies to the fates had given occafion, one of the most effential, and which was indeed productive of confequences that were at the time little thought means of, was the new divifion of Paris into fixty districts, which then took place. This measure, which was intended merely to facilitate the elections, held out an outline of form and order which could not be overlooked, and which was turned to great account in the fucceeding convulfions. The eafy which it afforded of fummoning the people of each district to conference or action upon the shortest notice was inftantly perceived; and the committee of electors which, in the beginning, prefided in each, befides introducing habits of regularity and order, were the means of paffing refolutions, or decrees, for the prefervation of internal quiet, and the fecurity of perfon and property. By this much of the violence and confufion which must otherwife have taken place was prevented; and to this caufe, and not to any fuperior virtue in the people, (to which it has been caufelefsly affigned) we are to look for that appearance of order and government which was obfervable at the commencement of the revolution, and for fome time after. means of a moft teazing and vexatious inquifition, which reached to every thing, and which nothing could evade or refift. But the abfence or lofs of influence of the electors was foon followed by the departure of every degree of decency and decorum from thefe meetings. It has been afferted by creditable obfervers, that it would be impoffible for a native of any other country to form even a remote conception of the noife and tumult which prevailed in thefe affemblies; and that the foreigner who could for any length of time withstand the preffure of the former upon his fenfes, need never give any other demonftration of the foundnefs of his head, or the firmnefs of his nerves. All the boldeft and most impetuous of the fpeakers, to the amount fometimes of a hundred, were to be feen at the fame inftant, ftraining their lungs together, each endeavouring to drown the voices of his competitors, and hoping that he alone would be heard. Yet this contention of noife, this confufion of voices, fo totally unintelligible to all strangers, was fo far understood by the furround ing crowd, whofe organs of hearing and perception feemed endued with powers calculated for the purpofe, that the general clamour was frequently increafed, or the jarring difcord of the haranguers entirely interrupted, by the loud fhouts of approbation, or the deep roar of execration and threat, which they occafionally drew forth. The ingenious device of one of the prefidents of thefe affemblies, will perhaps afford a clearer idea of the diforder which prevailed in them than any defcription. This man had a drummer conftantly ftation ed at the back of his chair, and when the noife and tumult rose to fuch a pitch as to be infupportable, and that all his efforts to produce order and filence were totally difregarded, he gave the fignal for beating the drum, which was done with fuch vigour and effect, as foon to overpower all other noifes; and this was continued, until the people fhewed fome figns of recovering their temper and reafon. In this ftate of things, Paris was rather to be confidered as a confederacy between fixty diftinct democratical republics, than as one commonwealth, or as acting under one fimple form of government. Each individual diftrict was independent in its own adminiftration, and allowed no fuperiority of distinction or authority to any other. Upon fending deputies from one of thefe departments to confer with or make any propofal to another, it was laughable, if not ridiculous, to behold the mimick forms of state ceremonial which were observed on both fides, the deputies being treated with all the obfervance and honours which could have been shewn by one fovereign power to the amIn probaffadors from another, cefs of time, a few of the most turbulent, noify, and generally profigate demagogues, became the leaders in every affembly, and leading the multitude as they pleased, all power in every department came by degrees to be virtually lodged in their hands; while the ferious and better part of the citizens abstained from going to thefe tumultuous meetings, where, befides being ftunned by the noise and clamour, they were expofed to the groffeft infults from the loweft of the rabble. Thus, by degrees, the govern ment ment of a million of people, who, having thrown off all established authority and fubordination, fancied themselves free, and who, it might without much hyperbole be faid, kad gone mad in their purfuit of liberty, became placed in the hands of a few hundreds of the moft worthless among themfelves; men equally deftitute of character, property, principle, and the most common portion of moral, political, or general knowledge. Thefe, however, naturally became the inftruments of men of much greater knowledge and capacity, but as little troubled with fcruples or principle as themselves. The new republican clubs, of which the Jacobins became the inoft noted, and who had their dependent focieties, ready to execute their orders upon the shorteft notice, in every town of France, were compofed of the moft turbulent, daring, and hot headed men in the kingdom, or perhaps that exifted in any country. Many of these were adepts in the new philofophy, and all of them fufficiently learned in the new vifionary theories of government, as to be capable of spreading confufion and anarchy through all mankind, fo far as their influence or communication could poffibly be extended. All the republican party, the most vifionary theorists, and the boldest innovators in the national affembly, became members of this club; and it foon became the fafhion that all laws, all measures, and all business brought forward in that body, were firft difcuffed, prepared, and digested by the Jacobins, whofe fanction was the fure paffport to fuccefs. Being thus doubly fortified, ruling the tumultuous rabble in the fixty departments of Paris through the inftrumentality of the demagogues, who excited them to whatever pitch of outrage and violence they were directed, on the one hand; and governing the national affembly itself by a decided majority, as well as by the terror with which they ftruck the moderate party, on the other, their power feemed to be unbounded; the more especially, as it was extended through every part of the nation by their deputies and emiffaries. Thofe of the club, whether members of the aflembly or not, who were the most violent in their republican principles, and the most distinguished for their invincible animofity to monarchy in all its forms and relations, which they detested so much as not to endure even the name of king, but fubftituted the terms defpot and tyrant in its ftead, held the first place among the Jacobins, and gave the tone to all the reft. It may be eafily judged how fmall and precarious a fhare of authority the new temporary municipality could hold in such a state of things, and with fuch a people. Nor have any of the changes which have fince taken place in that capital, in any degree bettered its condition, either with refpect to general government, to private happinefs, or to perfonal fecurity. On the contrary, the ancient order of things has not been more completely fubverted with refpe&t to public affairs, than to domestic con.. cerns, to the government and order of families, and to the feveral duties and relations by which their members were connected. Men and women feemed to have changed their nature; and both fexes, with [4] 4 all all ages and conditions, to be thrown into one undiftinguifhed mafs of general confufion. It appears from the letters published under the name of Groenvelt, who fays he was prefent when many of the tranfactions which he relates took place, (and who, though profeffedly a German, was a great admirer of the revolution, as well as a strong democrate in principle) that falsehoods and forgeries were the conftant resources and favourite weapons of the cabals in Paris. Some of the inftances which he mentions in fupport of this affertion are fo curious, and at the fame time throw fo much light upon the hiftory of the time, that we fhall infert them. In writing to his fuppofed friend he fays, You cannot form an idea of the impudence, with which the moft palpable lies are published and propagated among the people. The moft pofitive affertions, the moft minute detail of facts, the ftrongeft appearances of probability, are made to accompany the groffeft falfehoods. Fleffelles was the victim of a pretended letter, which every body could repeat by heart, but which no body has ever feen. Of the letter which is the only evidence againft Bezenval, there are in Paris a thoufand copies, but no original. No fooner is it whifpered in fome obfcure corner, that a certain monastery is a magazine of arms, or of corn, than the report fpreads with rapidity, gathers ftrength, becomes a matter of certainty, and yet the moment the houfe is examined the whole is found to be groundlefs. The con * See Groenvelt, English tranflation, August 15th, 1789. vent of Montmartre has been twice And again, Many of these falfehoods have certainly been deliberately fabricated to ferve party purposes; and fome men, who probably mistake a difregard of all moral obligations for profound policy, have been audacious and infamous enough to publish falfehoods with the folemnities of laws. Letters have been forged in the name of the national affembly, and edicts in that of the king, exhorting the pealants to deftroy the patents and pedigrees of the nobility, and to burn their caftles. The effect of thefe forgeries is already feen in the ruins and afhes to which fome of the finest buildings in Dauphiny, Franche Compte, Britainy and Burgundy, have been reduced *." Thus far Groenvelt; and this p.p. 209, 210, and 211; letter dated charge or charge of the continued fabrication and propagation of public falfehoods has been more or lefs confirmed or acknowledged, by perhaps every writer who has given a narrative, with any appearance of impartiality, of the progefs of the revolution. Certain authors, publishers, however, of our own country, have adopted fome of the groffeft and moft abfurd falfehoods, fome of the moft ridiculous tales, which had been fabricated for the rabble in Paris during the first paroxisms of confufion, tumult, and madnefs, and to which they have endeavoured, fo far as they were capable, to give the character, rank, and weight of historical facts. Of this clafs is particularly to be confidered the injurious and cruel falfehood, that the unfortunate and murdered Launay, had treacherously enticed a number of Parifians into one of the courts of the Baftile, where he then had them mafiacred in cold blood. This horrible and wicked invention produced (as we have formerly fhewn) its odious purposes at the time; in the first inftance, by exciting the animofity of the populace, and fpurring them on to that pitch of outrage and cruelty which was intended; and the fecond, by holding out fome palliation for the inhuman murder of the governor, and reprefenting it to the world as an act of juft retribution for his treachery. The pleasant tale of the heroic barber, who found himself fo deeply involved in the weighty concerns of empire, that he attempted to blow the Baftile and himself up together, though it feems intended only as a companion to the former, certainly poffeffes many advantages over it; for befides its being to tally innocent, and undoubtedly affording much fatisfaction to the members of that fraternity, fome of whom it may poffibly ftimulate to fimilar deeds of chivalry, it has the pofitive merit of being an unique in that species of compofition. It affords, however, an important and happy fecurity to the veracity and purity of future hiftory, that as fuch productions can feldom laft long enough to reach pofterity, there is no great danger of their hereafter contaminating the clear ftream in which it fhould flow. Paris had ever been noted for the blind credulity, and at the fame time the fufpicious nature of its inhabitants, Thefe qualities, fo directly oppofite, feemed undoubtedly to be oddly joined in the fame perfons; but yet the fact is faid to be fo; and those who knew them well have afferted, that while, from time immemorial, they had fwallowed, and feemed nearly to live upon, an eternal fucceffion of the moft abfurd and improbable tales and ftories, plain undifguifed truth was always received with caution and doubt, and fuppofed to conceal fome guile, deception, or danger. The extreme general ignorance of thefe people, with refpect to every thing beyond their own own walls, (which was perhaps without example in any country of equal civilization, and fo productive of men eminent in arts, sciences, and learning, as France) had long afforded matter of obfervation to travellers, and of ridicule to poets and fatyrifts. A confideration of thefe circumstances will tend much to account for and throw light upon many parts of the prefent and future conduct of that extraordinary people, which would otherwife have appeared |