There's not an English heart that would not leap To hear that ye were fallen at last. The baftille at that period was ftanding; fince then it has been deftroyed! With respect to Paine's book, Mr. Fox obferved, it was a libel, but not an infamous one; it was a libel on the conftitution of Great Britain; the right hon. gentleman's book was a libel on every fiee conftitution in the world. The French revolution he had particularly avoided touching on. He knew not why Dr. Prieftley, because he approved of the French revolution, fhould be liable to punishment from the circumftance of his being an Unitarian, and that he (Mr. Fox) fhould be exempted from punishment who was of the fame opinion, but was a Trinitarian. He had never before heard the Birmingham riot defended. Mr. Taylor and other gentlemen prefent at the meeting at Birmingham, were enemies to Dr. Priestley's politics. He did not think, he faid, that the merits of any question ought to be decided by the conduct of an individual. Some of Dr. Priefley's works he had read, and in his religious writings he had found nothing of politics, and his political works feemed free from religion. He noticed the circumftance of Mr. Burke's having, he believed, laft feffion, on the Catholic bill, declared a wifh that all the fanguinary laws inflicting death in matters of religion, were repealed, yet he objected to thofe very acts which he had treated fo ca AFFAIRS valierly. The right hon. gentleman indeed might have altered his opinion, as he had lately done very fuddenly on various topics. Mr. Fox faid, that he had, within thefe laft three years paid particular attention to the fubject, and had read confiderably upon it, and he was, from the compleatet conviction, a firm friend to religious eftablifhments. With regard to the times, he did not think that popular prejudice should deter the houfe from giving their opinion on the fubject; the houfe, he obferved, of late feemed inclined to become the flave of popularity.—When he confidered the various books that had been published, and reflected on the manner in which the Birmingham rioters had been punished, be thought there appeared to be a violent high church fpirit in the country. If gentlemen faw danger abroad, he thought they ought to ftep forward and endeavour to crush it; for his part, he feared none. And he concluded with declaring that he hoped and trufted that the fubject of toleration would be renewed as often as could be, convinced as he was that the more it was difcuffed, the more its juftice would be perceived and acknowledged. Mr. Dundas, Sir R. Lawley, the attorney general, and Mr. Finch, spoke feverally again't the motion. The queftion being at length put, was negatived by a divifion, Ayes Noes [To be continued. ] FRANCE, OF BEFORE we proceed to relate the fatal events that followed the extraordinary revolution of the 10th of Auguft, it is requifite to take a retrospect of the previous proceedings of the commonalty of Paris. When M. Petion appeared to demand the depofition of the king, he addreffed the national assembly in the following speech: LEGISLATORS, It is at the moment when the country is in danger, that ali her children fhould prefs round her. Never was it threatened with a greater danger than at prefent. The commons of Pars have fent us to you. We bring into the fanctuary of the laws the wishes of an immenfe city. Full of refpect for the reprefentatives of the nation, and of confidence in their courage and pi 63 142 triotifm, the citizens of Paris have not for a moment defpaired of the public fafety. But they think, that to cure the disorders of France, you ought, without an inftant's delay, to attack them at the root. It is with heart-felt grief that they have found it neceffary to commiffion us to appear before you this day, as accufers of the head of the executive power. The people know that they might with juttice ufe against him the language of indignation. But expreffions of anger become not men of ftrong. minds. Compelled as we are to impeach Louis XVI, before you, and before all France, we will do it, on the one band without afperity, and, on the other, without mincing the charge, which would betray a pufillanimity unworthy of our character, This is not a time to lillen to the voice voice of that long indulgence, which, however it may become a generous nation, never fails to encourage kings to commit perjury. When the falvation of the state is in queftion, even the finer feelings of the heart and the more amiable paffions fhould be fufpended. 'We will not recal to your recollection the whole of the conduct of Louis XVI, from the first day of the revolution; his bloody projects against the city of Paris; his predilection for priefts and nobles; his averfion to the main body of the people; the national affembly infulted by the fervants of the court, furrounded by armed men, wandering through a royal city, and unable to find an afylum but in a tennis court. We will not recal to your recollection oaths fo often broken, proteftations daily made, and daily violated, till the moment when a perfidious flight opened the eyes even of thofe citizens who were most blinded by the fanat cism of flavery. We will not bring forth to view whatever the people were pleased to bury under the veil of pardon, which they granted him on that occafion. But to forgive is not to forget. In vain fhould we strive to forget all thofe crimes; they will fully the page of biftory, and the memory of them will be handed down to pofterity. But we feel it a duty incumbent upon us to lay before you a concife enumeration of the acts of kindness done by the nation to Louis XVI, and to contraft them with the ingratitude of that prince. How many reafons might have been affigned for removing him from the throne, when the people afferted by force their fovereignty! The memory of an imperious and all-devouring dynasty, which for one king, had given us twenty tyrants; hereditary def- potifm increafing from reign to reign with the mifery of the people; the public finances completely destroyed by Louis XVI, and his two immediate predeceffors; infamous treaties, for which the national honour was facrificed; the eternal enemies of France becoming her allies and her mafters. Such, were the rights which Louis XVI could plead to a conflitutional fceptre. The nation, faithful to its character, purfued the dictates of generofity rather than thofe of prudence. The defpot of an enslaved foil became the king of a free people.After having endeavoured to efcape from France, that he might reign at Coblentz, he was placed again upon the throne, perhaps contrary to the with of the nation, which ought so have been confulted upon the occafion. This great act of kindness to the king was followed by a thousand others. Toward the clofe of the laft affembly we faw the rights of the people weakened, that the power of the crown might be strengthened; the first officer of the public made the hereditary reprefentative of the nation; a military household establishment formed for the purpose of adding splendour to his throne; and his legal authority fupported by a civil lift, to which no other bounds were given than those which he himself was pleased to fet to it. 'Soon did we behold the kindness of the nation turned against herself. The power with which Louis XVI was armed for the defence of liberty, he employed against it. Let us take a view of the internal parts of the kingdom. Wicked minifters are removed by the irrefiftible force of public. contempt; yet thefe are the men whose removal he regrets. Their fucceffors warn the nation and the king of the dangers that furiound the country; Lou's XVI difmiffes them, because they fhewed themselves honett citizens. The inviolability of the king, and the perpetual change of minifters, elude the laws annexing refponfibility to the agents of the executive power. A body of life guards, hoftile to liberty, is dif folved in appearance, but is still fuffered to exift in reality. Forced to accufe Louis XVI, we shall do it without paffion and without artifice. We fhall not retrace his whole conduct from the first inftant of the revolution, his plans against the city of Paris, his attachment to the nobleffe, the outrages offered to the constituent affembly by the valets of the court, when that body was furrounded by armed men, and forced to take refuge in a tennis-court. We do not refer to his oaths fo often violated; we pass over all that has been covered by the pardon of the people. But it is proper to notice the kindness of the nation to its king, and the ingratitude which he has fhewn to it. Let us examine alfo what were the rights of Louis XVI to the conftitutional throne. The despotism of a dynafty, which in twenty kings fcarcely reckons a good one, the ruin of our finances, and the completion of treaties burthenfome to the nation, thefe were his rights. After having endeavoured to leave France, for the purpose of reigning at Coblentz, he was replaced upon the throne, perhaps, against the wish of the nation, which should have been confulted. From this moment he has continually forgotten his duties. Treacherous minifters have been removed by the public contempt; he has has testified to them his regrets. Patriot ministers have been removed by him, and they carried with them the regret of the country. A guard of confpirators has been in appearance diffolved, but exifts in reality, fince it continues to be paid by the king. 'Priests endeavour to arm children against their fathers in an interior war; without, the armies of the enemy menace our territory, and traitors, led by the bro, thers and relatives of the king, are ready to enter the country. It is to avenge Louis XVI that the execrable houfe of Auftria would add another page to the hiftory of its enormities; and, having conceived the wifh of Caligula, would at one blow cut off the heads of all good French citizens. Flanders called us into its bafom; our troops entered, but the orders of the king recalled them. 'The head of the executive power is the chief link in the counter-revolution chain. He has feparated his interetts from thofe of the nation; we alfo feparate ours from his. His conduct is a feries of acts of difobedience to the conftitution. While the king fhall be at the head of the nation, we cannot be free. Louis XVI invokes the conftitution; we invoke it alfo, and demand his depofition. As we have not confidence in this dynalty, we demand its exclufion. When the perjured and the flavifh fhall approach, they will then find ten millions of citizens, friends to liberty, ready to receive them. to you. • This great measure being once adopted, as it is doubtful whether the nation can place any confidence in the reigning djnafty, we define that minifters really refponfible, appointed by the national affembly, but out of your own body, according to the law of the conftitution, and chofen openly, not by ballot, may in the interim exercise the functions of the executive power, until fuch time as the will of the people, our fovereign and yours, fhall have been legally declared in a national convention, to be affembled as foon as the fafety of the ftate will admit. In the mean time let our enemies, be they who they may, go beyond our frontiers; let the bafe and the perjured quit the land of liberty; let three hundred thousand flaves advance, they will find on their way ten millions of freemen, prepared for either death or victory, fighting for equality, for their houses, for their wives, and for their children. Let every one of us be a foldier in his turn; and if we must have the honour of dying for our country, let each of us, before he breathes his laft, render his memory illuftrious, by the death of a slave or a tyrant.' writing to the prefident. But the affembly This fpeech was delivered afterward in came to no refolution upon it. Soon after M. Petion (who had been detained fome time at the Thuilleries as a kind of hostage) had appeared at the bar of the national affembly, their hall was The head of the executive power is the furrounded by an immenfe crowd of people, first link in the great chain of the counter- fome of whom called out that the -revolution; he seems to have had his fhare court had become the focus of a counterin the plots at Pilnitz, the existence of revolution; and that the palace was anowhich he fo long delayed to communicate ther Coblentz. If the people had at last His name is every day found in refolved to punish their enemies, it was not oppofition to the nation; it is a fignal of till they had been forced to it. If they difcord between the people and their magi- were determined to take into their own ftrates, between the foldiers and their ge- hands the vengeance of the law, it was, nerals. He has feparated his intereft from becaufe the law was flow in punishing those that of the nation. Let us do lo too. So traitors who were conftantly attempting to far from having opposed, by any formal overthrow the conftitution. That every act, the enemies either abroad or at home, law ought to be fufpended, and give place his conduct is one continued act of difobe- to that fupreme law-the fafety of the dience to the constitution. As long as we people.' have fuch a king, liberty cannot take root among us. Feeling fome little remains of indulgence, we could have wifhed it had been in our power to call upon you only to fufpend the exercife of his authority, for as long as the country fhall be in danger. But the conftitution ftands in the way of fuch a wish. Louis XVI is ever appealing to that constitution; we appeal to it allo in our turn, and call upon you to declare, that he has foi feited the crown. 5 As day-light approached, the minifter of juice entered the hall, imploring for the king that protection from the affembly, which, from the outrageous conduct of the mob in the Thulleries, he had no reafon to expect from the affections of the people. While they were deliberating upon the most proper meafures to be adopted in this alarming crifis, fome municipal officers an nounced, that a new provifionary adminiftration had been formed at the common'shall; that the people, affembled in their different different feions, had named commiffion. ers, who, in virtue of their powers, had denominated themfelves a general council of the community; and that the munici pality had been fufpended during the continuance of this temporary authority, of which Petion was the head." About nine in the morning, almost every perfon who could procure arms, hurried.toward the Thuilleries, calling out for the dethronement of the king-adding, that he was a traitor, and had forfeited the confidence of the nation. The king, alarmed at the furious difpofition of the people, left the Thuilleries; and, attended by the Swifs regiment of guards, proceeded to the national affembly, accompanied by the queen, his filter, and the royal children. He first placed him felf by the fide of the prefident, and after ward retired to the bar with his family; but as, according to the terms of the conftitution, the affembly could not perform the functions of a deliberative body while he was prefent, he was defired to move into one of the boxes fet apart for the ufe of the editors of newspapers. He was afterward conducted to an apartment belonging to the affembly. When his majefty feated himself by the fide of the prefident, he said, I am come among you to prevent the commission of a horrid cime, convinced, that, while here, I am fafe.' The affembly then fent ten commiffioners to endeavour to appease the people. In the mean time, detachments from the national guard, citizens armed with pikes, and a number of the marfeillefe and federates, ranged themselves in the place de Carouzel, and proceeded to attack the palace, which was guarded by a body of Swifs. The Swifs having fired upon the mob, they were put to flight; but being reinforced by the Marseillese and federates from Breft, as well as by a great number of parifians, they rallied again, and commenced a heavy fire against their opponents. The gates being at lalt forced by the mob, an obftinate combat enfued; the Swifs defending themselves with bravery, and the populace continuing their attack with fury! At laft, the Swifs were obliged to yield to fuperior force, and, almost to a man, were butchered! They, however, fold their lives dear, and did not yield till they had killed feveral hundreds of their opponents! After the mob had got poffeffion of the palace, an immenfe crowd burtt into the different apartments; fome of whom carried to the affeinbly the queen's jewels, va 8 luable effects, money, and important papers. The furniture was taken to the fections, after an inventory had been made, and the papers were fent to the committee of fafety. The ftatues of Louis XIV and XV were destroyed. The king declared to the prefident, that he had left orders for the Swifs not to fire upon the people. During this tumult, while the noise of cannon was heard in the affembly, and fe veral shots even entered the windows, the members ftill continued their deliberations; the Jacobin party exclaiming, liberty! equality!' and raifing their hands to hea ven, fwore they would die to fave their country. It was obferved, that many members, through fear, or some other motive, were abfent: It was, therefore, deemed neceffary to make a call of the house. This being decreed, each member took the following oath: 'I fwear, in the name of the nation, to maintain liberty and equality, or to die at my post!' The following decree was then proposed by M. Vergniaud, in the name of the Extraordinary Commission, and adopted by the affembly: The national affembly, confidering that the want of confidence in the executive power, is the cause of all our evils, and that this want of confidence has called forth, from all parts of the kingdom, a with, that the authority entrusted by the conftitution to Louis XV fhould be revoked, and that the only means of reconciling what they owe to the fafety of the people, with their own oath, of not increating their own power, are to submit to the fovereign will of the nation,-decree as follows: 1. The French people are invited to form a national convention. The committee will propofe to-morrow a plan for pointing out the time and mode of this prefent a plan for appointing a governor to the prince royal. 5. The king and royal family fhall remain under the protection of the legislative body till the department fhall prepare apartments for them at the Luxembourg palace. 6. The king and royal family are under the fafeguard of the law, and their pro tection is entrusted to the national guard of Paris. '7. All magiftrates, officers, and foldiers, who fhall quit their poft, fhall be declared infamous, and traitors to their country. 8. The department of Paris fhall this day cause the prefent decree to be pro claimed. On Sunday the affembly decreed, that fearch fhall be made to find out the widows and children of all the citizens, who perifhed in the affair of the 10th, in order that they may be indemnified in the fame manner the widows and children of the conquerors of the Baftille were.'They likewife decreed, first, that the hotel of the minifter of juftice fhall be inhabited by the king-fecondly, he thall be furnished with a guard, fubordinate to the mayor of Paris, and to the commandant of the national guard, who fhall be anfwerable for his fafety, and that of his family-third, the fum of 500,000 livres fhall be allowed to pay his expences, until the meeting of the national convention.-The decree, fufpending the king, was in the following form: The national affembly declares, that the king is fufpended; and that both him felf and family remain as hoftages; that the prefent minittry have not the confidence of the nation, and that the affembly proceed to replace them. That the civil lift is fufpended.' On Monday it was decreed, that inftead of the hotel of the minifter of juftice, the refidence of the king and his family fhould be in a house called the Temple,' as a place of greater fecurity. In the mean time, the ftatues of all the kings (not excepting that of Henry IV, the once great favourite of the French) were thrown down and deftroyed; and fome of the former minifters, and many other fufpected perfons, were arrested, and imprisoned. Nothing can give a greater idea of the fpirit which actuated the people at this awful crifis, than the following proclamation of the provisional magiftracy of Paris, on the 10th of August: Citizens, the people reduced to the alternative of death or flavery, have prevented the ruin of their country, by refuming their rights a fecond time. The fovereign has fpoken; magiftrates nominated by the majority of the fections, have taken their feats at the common hall. This meafure, rendered neceffary by circumflances, will break all the threads of intrigue. It will throw light on the chain of treafons which have brought liberty into fuch imminent danger. The people will not this time have rifen in vain. Magiftrates full of zeal will fecond their efforts. They have connected their operations with those of your former magiftrates, who are most worthy of public confidence. Petion is ftill chief of the commons, and Manuel and Danton are at their posts. 'Citizens, Maudat is at this moment in irons, and the law will foon punish his treafons. Santerre is your commandantgeneral. (Signed) Huguenin, Prefident. Leonard, Bourdon, and Martin, Secretaries. And the following is the addrefs of the national affembly to the French, agreed on the 10th of Auguft: For a long time the most eager inquietudes have agitated all the departments; the people have expected from its reprefentative alone the measure which might fave them. This day, the citizens of Pa ris have declared to the reprefentative body, that their authority alone preferved the confidence of the people. The members of the national affembly have individually worn, in the name of the nation, to maintain liberty and equality, or to die at their poft; they will be faithful to their oath. The national affembly is about to prepare thofe laws, which extraordinary cir cumftances have rendered neceffary; and invites the citizens, in the name of the country, to provide, that the rights of man fhould be refpected, and properties affured. They invite them to affift in faving the public caufe, and not to aggravate, by un Ff happy |