Other regulations, though lower in degree, were ftill of great public utility. Of thefe was the removal of the barriers between the different provinces, and the abolition of all internal taxes, duties, and reftrictions upon the tranfit of commodities from one to another, which had ever been fo pernicious a check to the internal commerce of the country. The decree for laying open and free the commerce of grain throughout the kingdom, may perhaps be confidered of ftill greater importance. Though we have already mentioned the relief afforded to the proteftants, yet a meafure which afforded fecurity and happiness to fo confiderable a portion of the people, fhould not be overlooked in this enumerations of public benefits. The affembly of the notables, fcarcely to be any longer confiderwhatever were its defects, had done ed as a burthen. great things towards meliorating the government, and bettering the condition of the lower orders of the people. In the performance of thefe beneficial acts they were much indebted, not only to the prompt operation of the court and minifters, but to their inceffantly pointing out abufes, and propofing reforms; so that it would not be easy to determine on which fide many of the measures of improvement originated. The enormities which prevailed in the mode of levying the taxes, and the boundlefs peculation which attended the collection, befides being ruinous to the state, had, from the days of Sully, been a conftant fource of the most intollerable grievance and, oppreffion to the people. This fubject the notables entered deeply into, traced various evils to their fource, and recommended judicious remedies, which were immediately adopted. The abolition of the corvée, in kind, which had for ages been a fource of conftant oppreffion to the country people, through the partial and unjuftifiable manner in which the compulfion to labour upon the roads had been frequently exercised, was an act fcarcely of greater utility than of mercy with refpect to that most useful clafs of mankind. The commutation of money for perfonal service, at the option of the farmer, and thereby freeing him from the tyranny of petty officers, along with other regulations which went to guard against oppreffion in any flape or cafe, rendered the duty fo comparatively light, that it feemed To thole benefits actually conferred, may be fairly and without violence added, that greatcft of all which was yet only in contemplation, it being at the prefent impoflible to be carried into execution. This was no lefs than the total abolition of the gabelles throughout the kingdom, which had ever been the opprobrium of. the French government, and the moft odious and intolerable of all fchemes of taxation to the people. This fublime idea, as it was defervedly termed in the affembly, was communicated to the notables on the day of their rifing, by Monfieur, the king's brother, who declared, that it was his majefty's first wifh and most earnest intention, and that he should ever confider the moment of its accomplifhment as the happiest of his life. This declaration undoubtedly and refpofible council of finance, contributed to the extraordinary adulation which marked the fpeeches of that day, when the mayor, or chief magiftrate of Paris, feeking not to be outdone in that figure of fpeech called the hyperbole, imade ufe of the following expreffions: That Louis XVI. would have been the exemplar " and model upon which Henry "the Great would have formed "himself, if the partial deftiny of "the prefert generation of Frenchmen had not referved him to complete their happiness."-It was at no very diftant period that the king was to be taught experimentally the true value of adulation and compliments. It may, however, with truth and juftice be affirmed, that few long reigns in any country, even among those confidered as the beft and moft glorious, have through their whole courfe been adorned with fo many patriotic and beneficent acts, as had within a fhort space of time been communicated to the public in the prefent. And it is evident, that if Louis XVI. had lived at any other period, fince the foundation of the French monarchy, his name would have been now idolized, and that he would have been univerfally confidered as the father of his people. So much may a man's fortune and fame depend upon the period as well as the country in which he is born. compofed of feveral of the great officers of ftate, was inftituted, immediately after the rifing of that body; a meafure which they had indeed recommended, but was not at the time abfolutely agreed to. This council was bound to publifi annually a clear statement of the receipts and expenditure of the preceding year, fo that the balance, which had long been, and for the prefent muft be the deficiency of the former, might be feen at a fingle view, and all the particulars on both sides of the account were open to public infpection and examination. No meafure could have afforded greater fatisfaction, or have been more generally popular, than the inftitution of this council, if time had been afforded for its effect to operate. For the whole bufinefs of finance being before lodged (with fcarcely any check upon him) in the hands of a comptroller general, thefe minifters were univerfally fufpected and charged with the most unbounded and profligate wafte of the public treafure: and thefe accufations having been in many inftances ftrongly fupported by concurrent circumftances, much of the public diftrefs, had, at various times, and probably with too much reafon, been attributed to this caufe. But thefe reforms and improvements, however excellent in their defign, and however beneficial they might hereafter prove in their ef To render the great improve- fect, could afford no prefent relief ments which, in conformity with to government. The notables, therethe advice of the notables, had fore, recommended to the king, been made in the management and after all the retrenchments which collection of the public revenue he had already made, a ftill farthoroughly effective, a new, efficient, ther reduction in the royal and public public expenfes, to the extraordinary amount of 40 millions of livres annually. Though this propofal was complied with, that aflembly were ftill fenfible, that this faving, great as it was, could in no degree fupply the immediate exigencies of the ftate, by enabling government to fulfil the public engagements to its creditors, and at the fame time to provide for the unavoidable civil and military eliablishments. For thefe purpofes, a tax or taxes were indifpenfably neceflary, upon the fecurity of which fuch a loan could be raised, as would be fufficient to extricate the ftate from its prefent difficulties, and thereby afford time for the fyftem of reform and economy now adopted, as well as the unexampled prefents made by the fovereign to the public, to operate in producing their proper effects. Though the notables had difclaimed all authority in themfelves to grant fupplies, and only affumed to advife or recommend, yet their sanction, first in thewing the abfolute neceffity of laying on new taxes to carry on the public bufinefs, and then in recommending or approving those which were intended, was reasonably deemed by government a matter of great importance, confidering the difficulties which the parliament threw in the way of all its operations. The first was completely afforded by that affembly, who examining carefully the whole fyftem of finance, fhewed the exact amount of the revenue, and excefs of the expenditure, rendering it fo clear as not to admit of a queftion, that it was impoffible to conduct government without additional fupplies. They in general approved, though with fome difference of degree in refpect to its parts, of that fcheme of taxation propofed by the minifters for fupplying the prefent emergencies, by which the burthen was to be laid upon thofe parts of the nation, which were the beft able to fupport its weight, upon the great commercial and landed interefts. The intended tax upon ftamps, which was afterwards defcribed in fuch odious colours, not only received the moft unqualified approbation from the notables, but they feemed to fep beyond the lines which they had prefcribed to themfelves, by recommending its extenfion with refpect both to objects and duty, farther than either the original defign or the adopted fcheme reached; declaring that it would be little burthenfome to the people, and particularly fo to the laborious countryman, to whose condition they, upon every occafion, paid the greatest attention. But with respect to the act for the territorial revenue, or landtax, which would have fallen upon the nobility and clergy, and thereby removed, fo far as it went, thofe exemptions which had been fo· long confidered as an intolerable grievance, here it would feem that the patriotifm of the aflembly began to fail, or that they were awed by the potent bodies whole interefts were concerned. Upon this fubject, the notables were guarded, cautious, and indecifive; and though they could not confiftently with their own avowed lentiment but approve the principle of the tax, they did it hesitatingly, and to get entirely quit of the queftion, flew off fuddenly to the old plea of total incompetency with respect to taxation, a bufinefs, they faid, which refted folely folely with the fovereign, and to whofe prudence and difcretion it must be entirely referred. It was rather a curious circumftance of obfervation, that a little before this difplay of extreme delicacy, they had ftrongly recommended a tax upon the city of Paris, whofe vaft increase of population, they reprefented as extremely injurious to the kingdom at large, and whofe inhabitants fhould therefore be more heavily taxed than the laborious countrymen. The territorial revenue act, upon the whole, received their tacit approbation; they owned the juftnefs of the principle, made no objection to any of the parts, and only recommended, or hinted at, fome doubtful improvement in the mode of regulation. These two taxes would have been fufficient to remove all the diftreffes, and to afford energy and eafe to all the operations of government. The king had folemnly engaged, that if their produce exceeded the neceflary public demands, or with out that, as the neceflities of the ftate were diminished by favings and the difcharge of debts, he would, in either cafe, remit the overplus, and continually leffen as much as poffible the burthen to the people. Nor could he recede from this engagement, if he was even fo inclined, (which was, however, little to be fuppofed) as the ftate of the public accounts, which was to be publifhed every year by the new council of finance, must have effectually bound him to the perfor mance. The people being now relieved from a number of their most crying grievances, and having full room to hope, and rational grounds for expectation, that what was al ready done was only introductory to a progreffive courfe of measures for the melioration of the conftitution, and the improvement of all the departments of government, it might feem that little more was wanting than an accommodating and conciliatory difpofition in the parliament of Paris, by filling up the line already traced by the notables. to have eftablished the profperity of the prefent reign upon the firmeft bafis, that of the happiness and confequent affection of the people. But the public diforders were too deep and too firmly fixed to be eradicated, and too vigorous and rapid in their growth to be checked by any common restraints or impediments. The nation was split into violent factions; and thefe, however various and diftin&t their views might be in other things, were all agreed in one point, which was, to reduce the king to fuch a ftate of weaknefs and diftrefs for want of money, that finding it impoffible to conduct the bufinels of government otherwise, he thould be compelled by neceflity to adopt their favourite measure of convoking the ftates general. None of the parliaments, any more than that of Paris, could efcape being influenced by thefe powerful parties, and of courfe adopted their political opinions and principles. In the mean time the cabals of the innovators began about this time to be regularly formed and embodied, and to fpread through every part of France, who, instead of looking with other parties to changes of men, or to an alteration of meafures in the adminiftration of public affairs, directed their views to the utter fubverfion of government. government. If the parliament was not immediately under the influence of thefe cabals, they at leaft prepared the way for the confufion that followed, by their conduct and proceedings in the violent contests with the king fince the rejection of the two money bills. For the paper war, as it may juftly be termed, which they inceflantly carried on, and took fo much care to publish, and which was in a great measure directly and perfonally pointed against the king, could not but tend in a great degree to render the fovereign odious, as well as contemptible. Indeed, many of their publifhed documents, exclufive of their reproach and invective, bore. rather the character of manifeftos, than of refolutions and remonftrances, as they were called. Their effect went far beyond the original defign. For, while they were intended only to render certain modes or forms of authority odious or ridiculous, they equally affected all; and loofening all thofe bonds of opinion, which are the great cement of mankind, made way for that general contempt of all orders, eftablishments, and authorities, which the parliaments theafelves have fince fo bitterly experienced. Diforder, confufion, and anarchy (pread through the kingdom; and they found, too late, that they had railed a spirit which they could never be able to lay. On Sunday, the 13th of July, 1788, about nine in the morning, without any eclipfe, a dreadful and almost total darknefs fuddenly overfpread the face of the earth, in feveral parts of France, and this awful gloom was the prelude to a tempeft or hurricane, fuppofed to be without example in the temperate climates of Euope. During this violent concuffion of the elements, wind, rain, hail, thunder, and lightning, feemed to contend in impetuofity: but the hail was the great inftrument of ruin and destruction. The whole face of nature was fo totally changed in about an hour, that no person who had flept during the tempeft could have believed himself in the fame part of the world when he awoke. Inftead of the fmiling bloom of fummer, and the rich profpects of forward autumn, which were just before spread over the face of that fertile and beautiful country, it now prefented the dreary aspect of univerfal winter, in the most fterile and gloomy of the arctic regions. The foil was changed into a morafs, the ftanding corn beaten into the quagmire, the vines broken to pieces, and their branches buried in the fame manner, the fruit-trees of every kind demolifhed, and the hail lying unmelted in heaps, like rocks of folid ice. The hail The country people, on their way to church, beaten down in the fields by the fury of the tempeft, and nearly fuffocated as they lay by the water and mud, concluding it to be the laft day, and expecting the immediate diffolution of all things, fearcely attempted to extricate themselves. was faid to be compofed of enormous folid and angular pieces of ice, fome of them weighing from eight to ten ounces, and were reported to be as hard as diamonds. Even the robuft foreft trees were incapable of withstanding the fury of the tempeft: and a large wood of cheftnut-trees, in particular, was fo dilapidated, that it prefented |