ART. VII. An Hiftorical and Political Delineation of the Adminiftration of the French Republic, during the Year 1797: and of the Caufes which produced the Revolution of September the 4th, with its Confequences. By Sir Francis D'Ivernois. Vol. 1. 8vo. 358 pp. 5s. Both French and English, fold by Elmily, Debrett, Deboffe, &c. 1798. THE `HE individual whose paffions are violent, and who indulges all of them to the utmost, will waste in a few months the wealth or vigour which thould fupply the temperate expence of years; and, in a fhort time, his fufferings will be propor tioned to the unrestrained violence of his courfe. It is with ftates, in this refpect, as with individuals: diftempered exertion, when violent in its degree, and of any duration, destroys the vital ftamina of the greatest nations. The example of France, delineated by Sir Francis D'Ivernois in this work, is a leffon formed to inculcate this awful truth. We here fee the contest of public profufion on one fide, and the denial of fupply to the neceffities of the state, until they had involved themfelves in ruin on the other-of the ufurious extortion of creditors, with the unprincipled breach of faith of fenates; and, in conclufion, the crifis when a fyftem of taxes, rafhly renounced, was to be restored*: and the convulfion of the legislative and executive powers, terminating in a victory of the army over the latter, which must ultimately establish its controul over both. If we This is not the whole of the portrait here exhibited. caft our eyes over the face of the country, we behold every accommodation which the induftry of ages had added to the gifts of nature rapidly perifhing; all the ufeful regulations for fecurity loft, poverty, fickness, and infancy, left to die unaided; magiftracy compelled by want to defert its duties; agents of the public, and officers of an honourable clafs among the defenders of their country, to whom other refources than those of their profeffion are not permitted, deprived of the fupport due to them, and ending their lives by their own hands.. Such is the firft re-action of the crimes of France upon herfelf; thofe crimes, which have destroyed so many of her inhabitants, and defolated and afflicted the continent. We fhall now proceed to give a methodized analysis of the important matter of this work. The documents on which We look here at the fact only, not the motive of the councils. Sir F. D'I. writes, are of the most authentic nature, and até every where clearly explained. They are the ftate papers of the Republic, and the beft printed account of the debates of the Councils. To his former works on this fubject, which brought down the prefent hiftory to the end of 1796, we gave the praife it fo eminently deferved; which we are happy in thus recalling to general attention. He begins the prefent work by refuting a charge of error against a point he had formerly advanced. The paper money, or affignats and mandats, with which the French had fupported the war, was a mere bubble. He had demonftrated it to be fuch, and drew the following confequences from it. That if the original grand alliance thould not be diffolved until the credit of that paper was annihilated, all the refources of France. failing, the republic muft ultimately fall. His opponents have dropped the condition, and cenfured his prediction; as if this was not made by him a neceffary circumstance to that event taking place. The following is a fummary of the embarraffment of the public accounts of the Republic, fully flated in this work. The charge of the war increafed with fuch rapidity, that the plunder and tribute of the conquered provinces were unequal to the augmentation (p, 85). In the fummer of 1797, its monthly expence was 65 millions, and the receipt 30 millions, leaving a deficit of 35 millions*. Placemen were multiplied beyond the extravagance of any former period: in the office of La Croix there were 80; though even in the time of the Duke of Choifcul, when its bulinefs was three times as much, the whole number was only 42t. Never prevailed a ufury fo devouringt; the Minister of the Marine was obliged to give a premium of 240,000l. for the advance of 420,050. for fo fhort a period, as to exceed the rate of cent. per cent. We have the evidence of General Jourdan, to the peculations of the army accountants. He was nearly two years at the head of 150,000 men, on whofe account the government paid for an equal number of rations a day, of which his army never received more than 10,000. If the frauds of the flate did not equal thofe of its fervants, they stand without a parallel in the tranfactions of any other perfons, both in violence and impolicy. The con * P. 131, Lauffat. When the authority we refer to is a fpeech in the councils, the name of the fpeaker is quoted: when the report of a commiffion, the letter R is added after the name of the reporter. + P. 204, Barbé. P. 188, Gibert. Ufura vorax, Lucan. tractors tractors for public fervices, had been paid by Ordonnances, or bills on the treasury; thefe were fubjected to a fevere liquidation, and, without confent of the holders, converted into infcriptions on the great bookt. They had been only at 56 per cent, difcount in the fpring (p. 117) but prior to the time of their converfion, a rapid decline had commenced. As far as this extended, it was an act of national bankruptcy; but the year was diftinguithed by four others, two of which may be called partial, and two general (p. 353). The first, of the fmall affignats, which, circulating among the lower claffes, were to be paid off in metallic money, on the coining of the bells (p. 27). This coinage was required for the current fervice, and they were paid off in mandats, the lofs upon which was 99 per cent.; the fecond, that of the part of the forced loan (coupons) annually receivable in payment of the forced loan; the third, the annihilation of the mandats; and the fourth, the general bankruptcy; of which Sir F. D'I. purpofes to treat in his next volume. This fcene of ruin was also embittered by the pangs of the difappointed hope, conceived from the ftoppage of money payments at the Bank of England. The adminiftrators of the republic, exulted in the profpect of a total fall of our credit and commerce in fix months. Much hypocritical pity and fentiment was drivelled out, at the career of calamities upon which we were fuppofed to be entering; and Barbé, with the hypocrify of the new blubbering philanthropy, bade forrow's molt copious fhowers defcend, to fee the fcourge impending over "a great nation," the government of which wanted that firmness their own had poffeffed, to bear up against fuch calamities. For thefe mourners we have now abundance of confolation; and the view given in the councils of the event itfelf, is here finely refuted. If the circumstances which have occurred fince this author wrote, had not added new and more weighty arguments to thofe he has brought forward, we hould have here stated them. These annual accounts, hitherto publifhed by Sir F. D'I. from which political philofophy may, in future, deduce many an ufeful chapter in the natural hiftory of radical reforms, pretended There were alfo Ordonnances, on other fecurities, not so payable. P. 158, decreed July 30. Monitor. + P. 27, Vernier. When the levellers in the time of Charles began their attack on the three eftates of the land, they demanded the Ecclefiaftical Estate Should be removed "root and branch." This metaphorical expreffion tended to be fought for by fome few perfons of diftinction here. Of the greater confequences of this diforder in the finances which they preferve, it is but few we can felect, and these must be passed in review with rapidity; yet the utility of the matter ⚫ will not fuffer us to omit fome of its effects, on the interior of the country, and on its conftitution of government. We have here the reprefentation made by the great cities, that the public roads are in fuch a ftate, that the traveller finds deep pits in them at every step; that the cities themselves are not lighted by night, and there are no watch or peace-officers, because they cannot be paid*; that the wolves have defolated feveral departmentst. The troops, after the truce with the Emperor, were left to encounter with hunger and thirst, without clothes, without pay, and without medicinest. We shall fee this mifery prepare them to bury their fwords in the bowels of their country; and they state themselves to have fubfifted by plunder (p. 219 and 23). What must have been the mortality among them, when the groffeft intemperance at every opportunity, was joined to these privations? Yet the diftress of the marine exceeded that of the army, "Defertion and mifery were there ready to exercise their last ravages§.” If we look now to the cruel and criminal administration, we fee the magiftracy fome dying of hunger, others abdicating through diftrefs, and many of the remainder fubfifting by the fale of injuftice. The Marechauffèe, whofe office it is to arreft criminals in the country, almost disbanded¶; and thofe to whofe cuftody they are committed, for want of falary, fuffering them to escape for the flightest bribe**. But nothing can be more afflicting, than the fall of the inftitutions of public charity. At the revolution, the eftates of the hofpitals had been seized as national property; but an equivalent annuity had been promised to each; instead of which, they had obtained only a few fmall and temporary aids, totally inadequate to their fupport. Thus the hofpital at Bourdeaux, the annual neceflary fupport of which is estimated at 390,000l. had received of fuch fuccours, in eight months, terminating in being polifhed and modernized, and the latter part or branch thus lopped off, is now applied against another eftate, the Commons; but by this transformation, being left indefinite, it is equally hoftile to all three, and their legitimate head the king. P. 183, La Broufte, December 31. + P. 48, le Marchand. P. 22 and 218, declaration of army of Hoche and others. P. 21, Admiral Villaret Joyeuse. P. 174, Barbé, Directory. P. 172, Directory. ** Ibid. Gauthier. November November, 1797, in effective money, 20.000l. only*. The two hofpitals of Thouloufe, containing 3,000 patients, by the fale of all their move bles, have not been able to fupply one half of their neceffiticst. But this is not the moft deplorable scene of calamity, in that charnel houfe, which once was France. There were many foundations for the fupport of illegitimate children, and others deferted by their parents; of these, seven eighths at this juncture perifh in the year they are received. Of children fo fupported, the number remaining in December 1796, were about 55,000: if the proportion dying in the year be compared with the latter. number, it will be evident that it does not equal half the annual admiffions, or that they confiderably exceed 110.000; and there is only one eighth of the children who attain one year; and the rate of mortality among them is fuch, that few or none will complete the fecond; fome time before the end of which, the annual deaths will equal the number of children yearly received, and the number of furvivors become nearly fixed; certainly not much exceeding 55,000. Yet this does not include Paris, and many of its neighbouring departments, the children of which, abandoned by their parents, are carried thither. It is fuppofed in this work, that the lofs fhown above is hereby increafed one half; if it were admitted to be one fourth only, the fum of both will form a lofs of population never before equalled, from fuch a cause. But to pafs from thefe melancholy refearches to our further. account of the work. It is clearly difcerned here, that such deftitution of fupplies for the fervice of the interior muft, by its operation, increafe itself, and go on further to annihilate the revenue from which every other fervice must be supported. From feventy-three departments of the Republic, no accounts of taxes could be delivered; " becaufe, having no money to pay the perfons employed, they could not be made out." The number of thefe tax-rolls, not delivered, amounted to 56,000§. To proceed now to the effect of the diforder of the finances on the governing powers. No ftate, thus circumftanced, with the most thorough union of all its conftituent parts, could remain + P. 180. Pérès. + P. 164' P. 182, La Broufte. Jóhannot. P. 167, Directory. And if we should adinit that there is an error in the printed copy of the report of the special committee of accounts, quoted p. 200; and that (million) should be fubftitated for (milliard) there remains in the pay-office 20 millions of bills, against the state, which cannot be verified. Report of Paris of January 14, 1797. U u BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XII, DEC. 1798. long |