1789 of 215 to 142 votes: || and his subsequent demeanour in the discharge of all the duties of his office did honour to the patronage of his friend, and credit to the judgment of those who made choice of him for that important. station. 1789 FRANCE. THOSE who have seen the most ancient monarchy in Europe at once dissolved, have witnessed the disastrous scenes which attended its last convulsions, and the destructive and calamitous war which it occasioned in Europe, cannot but contemplate the approaching crisis with an awful sense of its consequences; and every friend to monarchic government will regret that the French nation had not availed themselves of their sovereign's patriotism, and the disposition which the privileged orders had discovered to cede their most obnoxious privilege of exemption from equal taxation, to accomplish a reform of the monarchy. But the existing generation. could not anticipate the evils which would ensue: on the contrary, the objects presented to their imagination were seen in the pleasing colours in which hope represented them. The nobles and other men of property hoped for the more tranquil enjoyment of their possessions. The factious leaders hoped to establish their own power on the ruin of that of their adversaries. And the commonalty looked forward to the assembly of the states general with sanguine hopes of being raised from that degraded condition to which the artifices of arbitrary monarchs and statesmen had reduced them; of being restored to that freedom to which the human mind owes all its force and elevation, and by which society is enabled to derive the greatest possible benefit from the talents and the virtues of its members. -Unfortunately, a violent spirit of faction accompanied the first efforts of the commons for the recovery of their rights. Not content with a participation of power with the privileged orders, they were beat on the absolute destruction of all peculiar privileges. This determination, which had a June 10. baneful baneful influence on the proceedings of the assembly, discovered itself before its convention.-It had been the practice of the French nation on former occasions, for each order in the several districts to present memorials, called cahiers, to their respective deputies, containing instructions with regard to the matters to be deliberated on in the approaching assembly, and any grievance which they wished to have redressed.-In those now delivered by the tiers etats, their representatives were instructed to insist peremptorily on the amalgamation of orders, or voting in one assembly, as the certain means of accomplishing every further object which they had in view.-Those of the nobles, on the other hand, were instructed to maintain the distinction of orders, as the only remaining barrier against the encroachment of the commons after the double representation was granted them.-On this occasion were seen the fatal effects resulting, to any order in a state, from their not having such functions to perform, and their not possessing such personal dignity and importance, as may render their existence essential to the public welfare. The French nobility, on the contrary, enervated by voluptuousness, devoted to the pleasures of the court, unused to every kind of exertion, and strangers even to their own tenants, dared not to demand, could scarcely presume to ask, that support from the commons which they were unconscious of meriting, and at length yielded to a stream which they had not strength or courage to resist.* During the transactions preparatory to the meeting of the states, great discontent was occasioned by the high price of grain; and a disposition to tumult was discovered in various parts of the kingdom.—The first open act of violence was committed in the capital.† Monsieur Reveillon, a papermaker, who had incurred the displeasure of the populace by a difference of political opinion discovered at the election of deputies in the primary assemblies, was falsely charged with an intention to diminish the wages of * † April 27. his Rabaut de St. Etienne, speaking of Lewis the Fourteenth, says, "He it was who, paved "the way for the downfal of the nobles, by enticing them from their castles, in order to amuse "and degrade them with ribands, and stars, and stools of honour; and when once this title to "glory became venal, and that illustriousness was to be had for money, opinion asserted her prero"gative, and the nobility of France hath been considered all over Europe, in the same light in "which it hath been considered amongst us."-Rabaut de St. Etienne's History of the French Revolution. p. 9. 1789 1789 his workmen and the enraged populace, after burning him in effigy, demolished his house, in defiance of the troops sent to suppress the` tumult. These were at last driven to the desperate expedient of firing among the mob: and the slaughter of several of the rioters, exasperating their minds, prepared them for every kind of outrage. Under these evil auspices the king opened the assembly of the STATES GENERAL with great solemnity at Versailles. Addressing the members in a speech adapted to the occasion, after declaring his resolution to maintain the principles of the constitution inviolate, he concluded by saying, that they might and ought to expect from him all that could be expected from the most tender attachment to the national happiness, all that could be asked from a sovereign who was the friend of his people; a declaration that perfectly corresponded with his general conduct; which, although it discovered in some instances a culpable irresoluteness, was distinguished by goodness of heart, and appears to have had the public welfare for its governing principle.*-This was followed by the more diffuse orations of monsieur Barentin, keeper of the seals, and monsieur Necker, which were rather calculated to dispose the different orders to mutual concession, than to gratify the nation, anxious to know their sentiments relative to the important points in dispute. It soon appeared how ill-prepared their audience were to follow their temperate counsels. The assembly was instantly seen to be divided into various descriptions of delegates, marshalled under their respective chiefs, and ready to combat their antagonists in political principles.**—The a Sketch. 86. * May 4. b Annual Register. 220. strenuous "His heart," says Rabaut de St. Etienne, "was good; he felt an attachment to his people, " and a repugnance at being a tyrant, proofs of which he hath shewn, as often as he hath spoken "and acted for himself. From his youth he had declared his taste for the reformation of abuses, "and the courtiers trembled at the idea of it. But the custom of the court of France was, to "keep the heirs to the throne at a distance from all knowledge of affairs of state, in order to "impose on them the more easily, and to govern in their name. Such hath been the chief cause "of the troubles which have afflicted Lewis the Sixteenth. With proper instruction, he might "have saved the state; for he was naturally an economist, and it was to the depredations on the "royal treasury that the public indignation was principally directed."-[Rabaut. p. 20.]-These sentiments come with double force from a warm partisan of free government. We have the following account of the constituents of this celebrated assembly in a note to the marquis de Bouille's Memoirs. "Of three hundred members which represented the clergy, two strenuous aristocrats, who insisted on the separation of the assembly into three chambers, each of which should have a veto on the other, had for their leaders messieurs d'Espresmesnil and Cazales among the nobles, and the abbé Maury among the clergy; and were supposed to be connected. with the favourites of her majesty, the count d'Artois, the Polignacs, the princes of Conde and Conti.-Their determined opponents were ranged under the banners of Mirabeau, the bishop of Autun, the curate Gregoire, Chapelier, Barnave, Rabaut de St. Etienne, Petion, Lameth, and Roberspierre: and these were known to be patronised by the duke of Orleans.-There was also a moderate party; the leaders of which were Mounier, Bergasse, Malouet, Lally Tolendal, the count de Clermont Tonnere, and the bishop of Langres. These wished for a constitution resembling that of England; wherein the legislature should consist of two houses, that should have a mutual control on each other, by means of which the interests and independency of the whole nation should be secured. But these, though most reputable in point of character, were fewest in number, and of least political importance. The proceedings of the assembly soon evinced how erroneously Necker had judged, when he rested the success of his scheme for a reform of the monarchy on the disinterestedness of the commons, their good disposition towards the existing government, and his influence over them.-When we hear a statesman reasoning with an assembly of persons who were actuated by passion, and prejudice, and self-interest, in such words as these, "what man "two hundred and eight were possessed of no ecclesiastical dignity; of six hundred members who represented the tiers etat, three hundred and seventy-four were professors of the law. In this "number there were certainly some known before the revolution for their merit and abilities, of "whom were M. Mounier and M. Malouet, both distinguished for their wisdom and moderation." —[Bouille's Memoirs. 89.]—A further account of the members of it is given us by Soulavie. "The "bishops, comparatively few in number, found themselves soon set aside by a mass of self-elected "curés, who, from every quarter of the French nation, carried to the states general their private "jealousy, their discontent, their levelling principles, their imaginary wrongs, their irritated poverty, and their various pretences against the dignified clergy. In the second order of the state, the inferior nobility carried to the national assembly their hatred and jealousies against "those of superior rank, with the hope of humiliating them, and the ambition of establishing a "perfect equality. These very curés, and this nobility, sprung from the inferior ranks, and who were the nearest to the tiers etat, were themselves borne down by an equal number of roturiers, "determined to extirpate so debasing a term, and to overthrow the privileged orders and the "hierarchy."-Soulavie. 6. 281. 66 66 C Historical Sketch. 71. 1789 1789 man would charge his conscience with all the evils that may result from the schism which your first steps seem to indicate?" However we may respect him for his virtue, we must pity his ignorance of human nature, and lament that such a man should have been at the helm in so tempestuous a period.* In the verification of the writs of return, by which the grand point was to be decided respecting the number of chambers, the nobles and dignified clergy maintained the distinction of chambers, as essential to a monarchic constitution. The commons, on the contrary, inflexibly insisted on a union of chambers; and these, having the advantage of unanimity, which the other orders had not, at length prevailed. After repeated conferences and much altercation, being joined by some of the clergy, they assumed the legislative power by the style of the ASSEMBLEE NATIONALE, || and proceeded to the exercise of it in the important business of financial regulation, without the concurrence of the nobles.**c Such was the temper and moderation which might have been expected from an assembly of national representatives, as soon as they became sensible of their strength. We must now prepare to see the mournful consequences of the minister's ill-judged confidence; to see the torrent, which had been confined to its channel by the restraints of civil government, breaking down, its banks and deluging the whole country; to see the lessons which the French nation had been taught by their democratic writers reduced to practice in the proceedings of the national assembly; whilst the feeble government, balancing between June 17. * 66 The duke de Bouillé, a man of judgment, experience, and integrity, admonished Necker of the danger of assembling the states general in the manner he intended: "he coldly answered me,'' says the duke, raising his eyes to Heaven, that it was necessary to rely on the moral virtue of "mankind. I replied, that this was a fine romance, but he would see a horrible and bloody "tragedy, of which I advised him to avoid the catastrophe."-Bouille's Memoirs. 85. ** This name was chosen by the commons to conciliate the good-will of the people, or confirm themselves in it. "The most resolute amongst the commons, deeming the representatives of "the people to be the true representatives of the nation; but knowing likewise what assaults they "should have to sustain, sought for a term which might preserve their own idea, without exaspe "rating the court. They were not certain that the nation was sufficiently advanced, to second "them with all the force of public will; they were apprehensive, on that account, of consequences which might lead to the most violent measures, on the part of those in authority.". Rabaut. 65. |