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1796.] Original Anecdotes.-Dumont... Laclos... Degrave, &c. 479

is likely to become a member of the Di- land, there is fome reafon to fuppofe, rectory.

DUMONT,

A native of Geneva, and, confequently, a republican by birth, was the editor of a newspaper, termed "Le Republicain." It was published on the king's flight to Varennes, and confidered, on account of the title, as a phenomenon. At that period there were but eight republicans in France-I mean eight native citizens ! Here follow the names of four of them : Petion, mayor of Paris; Condorcet, fo celebrated for his attainments in the fciences; Briffot, who died in an honourable poverty, a martyr to his principles; and Du Chatelet, whom Louis XVI, in vain, endeavoured to convert by all the blandishments of royal favour. Robespierre, on being entrusted with their fecret defign, afked, with a fneer, "Ce que c'étoit qu'une république ?"

LACLOS,

A man of extraordinary talents, great vices, and the author of Les Liaisons dangereufes, was the bofom friend, and conftant companion, of M. d'Egalité, the ci-devant duke of Orleans. On the flight of the king, he repaired to the fociety of Jacobins, and endeavoured to procure a petition from them, requesting the National Affembly to dethrone Louis, and declare Philip conftitutional monarch of France. Being defeated in this attempt, by Briffot, he tried to gain over the people, whom he had affembled for that purpofe and it was this circumstance that induced Bailly, then mayor of Paris, to proclaim martial law, and Le Fayette to give orders for what has ever fince been termed the maffacre of the Champ de Mars.

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that her opinion refpecting this gentleman was fomewhat tinctured by party prejudice.

M. Degrave lives in the neighbourhood of Kenfington, and confoles himself, amidst his misfortunes, by means of his books. It is but juftice to fay, that the French bear calamity with a fortitude truly heroic: if they are apt to triumph, perhaps, a little too much, in profperity, they evince a noble conftancy in adverfity,

that would have reflected honour on the ftoics of ancient times!

SAINT-JUST

Was firft a deputy for the department of L'Aifne, and afterwards a reprefentative of Nievre. He was one of the most violent of the mountain-party, and, during the trial of Louis XVI, made a very celebrated fpeech on the 13th November, 1792; in the courfe of which, he inculcated the extraordinary maxim, that it was criminal to be a king; " On ne peut point regner innocement.”

Hitherto, St. Juft had maintained the reputation of virtue, but his conduct towards the Gironde, and during his misfion into the fouth, rendered his name

at once odious and terrible. After this

period, he was ufually termed l'ame damnée de Robespierre. When the Thermidoreans overcame the Terrorifts, St. Juft, who had, of courfe, taken part with the latter, was outlawed, arrested, and put to death, in the Place de la Revolution, on the 10th Thermidor, (28th July) 1794, as one of the accomplices of the tyrant.

M. DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

LIANCOURT.

This nobleman, acknowledged formerly by the title of Duc de Liancourt, although he does not now claim it, even by courtefy, for he is a modeft, as well as a good man, was one of the members of the States-General, and joined the majority of the clergy, and the minority of the nobles, when they met-for they never united with the tiers état or Commons. Notwithstanding this, the duke was perfonally attached to the king; and it was he who, at one o'clock of the morning, of the 14th of July 1789, firft informed Louis XVI of the capture of the Baftille! His majefty was abfolutely ignorant of the event, when his minifters left him,at eleven o'clock on the preceding evening; they carefully concealed it (for it is ridiculous to fuppofe them unacquainted with fo important a tranfaction) from

the

the deluded monarch. The duke having learned the particulars, by means of two deputies, who had been prefent, infantly flew from the Affembly to the palace, and entering the privy chamber, difclofed the fatal fecret to the king. "Qu'ai-je donc fait pour que le peuple s'élève contre moi ?" dit-il avec une douleur profonde mais calme, Qu'il life avec moi dans ma confcience, & verra fi jamais il a eu un meilleur ami, fi depuis que j'ai le droit de m'occuper de fon bonheur, mon coeur a jamais eu une autre penfee."

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This would have done great honour to his majesty's heart, were it not one of the beft afcertained facts in hiftory, that he had prepared an army, at this very moment, under M. de Broglio, on purpose to chaftife the Parifians, and stifle the infánt cry of liberty.

On being brought back a prisoner, after his flight to Varennes, he exclaimed, in the fame ftrain, to the duke, "Ab! fi j'eus atteint le but de mon voyage, le peuple auroit vu fi je meritois fes joupçons & fon injuftice Now, it feems evident, that le but de voyage was to throw himself into the hands of the Auftrians and Emi

grants, as his brother, Monfieur, did, who fed at the fame time, and escaped by taking a different road.

M. de la Rochefoucauld Liancourt foon after left France, and was lucky enough to arrive fafe in England. Preferring the country to the capital, he took up his refidence at Bury St. Edmund's, in Suffolk; but he has fince gone over to America, whence a publication of his has appeared, on the improvement of the Criminal code in Pennsylvania.

When Louis XVI, like our Charles I, was doomed to undergo a public trial, the duke addreffed a letter to Barrere, then prefident of the Affembly, dated November 19th, in which he offered to become his defender, at the bar of the National Tribunal. On the 20th of December, 1792, he wrote a letter to M.Malesherbes, who had been chofen, by Louis, as his advocate, in which he endeavoured to depict his character, as that of an amiable and philanthropic fovereign; exclaiming at the fame time, "Ab! fila facrifice de ma vie eft utile au bonheur de la France, j'y fuis preparé!" The truth is, that Henrietta Maria, confort of Charles I, and Maria Antoinette, the partner, not only of the bed, but the occupier of the throne of Louis XVI, occafioned the catastrophe of both. Louis was not unacquainted with his own foibles, for the duc de Liancourt has feen a MS. in his majefty's

hand-writing, in which he freely depicted his own character, and particularifed his good qualities, and even his faults; in which he recounted the obftacles he had met with, and endeavoured to furmount, in his own difpofition; the views with which he afcended the throne; the plans he had refisted; those he was enabled to execute, and thofe he did not dare to undertake. To fuch a difpofition, had he either added fortitude, or been lucky enough to have been furrounded by a prudent confort and virtuous counsellors, he might have rivalled the only two good princes of his family, Henry IV and Louis XII; while all the crimes of the other Bourbons would have been effaced by his glory.

LINDET.

The fecond edition of the Jacobins, and the first edition of the Emigrants, were proverbially violent. Robert Lindet appertained to the former clafs, and was one of the most clamorous members in the Convention for the arreft of the thirty-two Girondift deputies.

In the committee of public fafety, he difplayed great energy of character: and it must be acknowledged, notwithstanding the odium still attached to their name, that the Jacobins faved France, and establifhed the foundation of the republic. Les Philofophes, as the Briffotins were termed, entertained a laudable abhorrence of bloodshed, rapine, and injuftice; eloquent, metaphyfical, dilatory, timid-they were not calculated to

"Ride in the whirlwind, and direct the form!" They were admirably fitted, however, to fucceed the tempeft; and those who have furvived it, after forming a junction with Carnot, the ableft man France-perhaps Europe, has ever produced, they feem prepared to alter the lot of nations, and the deftiny of mankind !

By fome of the fouthern departments, whither he was fent on miffion, Robert Lindet has been accufed of fanguinary proceedings, but, by others, his innocence has been afferted, even after the 10th Thermidor, when the colleagues of Robefpierre were arrested.

He fat in the Convention, as a deputy from the departmment of Eure; but was not one of the two-thirds, or in other words, he was not re-elected.

He has lately been implicated in the confpiracy faid to have been meditated by Baboeuf, Drouet, &c. and is now in confinement.

CHAMPFORT

1796.] Original Anecdotes.-Champfort... Carra... Babœuf.

CHAMPFORT

Is one of the men of letters of the old jchool, who declared themselves, from the very beginning, for the revolution. On the difmiffion of M. d'Ormeffon, who had been appointed by the king, he was made one of the joint keepers of the national library, with a falary of 1661. 10s. 4d. per annum; and put himself to death, in the old Roman manner, foon after, to avoid the tyranny of Robfpierre.-His colleague,

CARRA,

Nominated at the fame time with himself, by Roland, had formerly been one of the affiftants in this grand establishment. He conducted a fmall quarto journal, entitled Les Annales Politiques & Littéraires, along with Mercier. Its circulation was infihitely greater than that of any of our English newfpapers: it became popular in the provinces, owing to a certain prophetic caft which he contrived to infufe into it; and, in the armies, in confequence of that fpirit of equality which it conftantly breathed.

While Champfort judged very wifely of the outrages of the Jacobins, and was accustomed to exclaim, "ces gens-là fe perdent par leurs propres excès!" Carra beheld every thing en colour de rofe, and boldly prognofticated the future happinefs of his country, and the fpeedy enfranchisement of all Europe, by their means. In the midft of this dream, engendered by the union of a warm head and a good heart, he was arrested by order of king Robespierre, and executed, with the twenty-one Girondift deputies, on the 31ft of October, 1793.

BABOEUF.

Revolutions produce extraordinary characters, and elevate fometimes great, and

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fometimes worthlefs men, to the highest and moft eminent fituations. A prove b, well known to the aristocracy of every country, although illiberal, and, in general, unjust, is nevertheless, on fome particular occafions, true: "When the pot boils, the fcum gets to the top." Colonel Pride, born in a church-porch, is a familiar inftance of the juftice of this, in our own hiftory; and Babœuf, perhaps, in that of France. The firft, who was bred a drayman, actually diffolved that houfe of commons which bridled Europe, and punifhed its own king; the fecond, who, under the old government, wore a fhoulderknot, was but lately the leader of a formidable confpiracy, whofe object is faid to have been, to murder the Directory, difolve the Legislature, and new model France!

Baboeuf is a native of one of the diftant provinces; from a footman he be came clerk to a procureur; and from a clerk rofe to be an attorney. His wife, at the fame time, accompanied him from the kitchen to the parlour; and as she had fhared in his indigence, fo the very juftly partook of his profpefity. He practifed in the country for fome time; and if we are to give implicit credit to his enemies, exhibited all the little tricks of a petty-fogger. Certain it is, however, that he was fitted, by a feries of imprifonments, and a long and intimate acquaintance with all the minute particulars of the Revolution, both to act and to fuffer; and there cannot be a doubt but that he must have poffeffed some extraordinary talents, either in council, or in action, else it is not to be fuppofed that fuch men as Drouet, Robert Lindet, Antonelle, and Felix Lepelletier, would have chofen him for their leader. [To be continued.]

A BRIEF RETROSPECT
OF THE STATE OF

neceffarily be curfory-a fort of bird's. eye view of the British land of letters; but, we truft, it will not be altogether unacceptable to our readers.

THEOLOGY.

DOMESTIC LITERATURE. [To be continued every Six Months.] LTHOUGH we have not attempted in our Mifcellany to unite the two characters of a Magazine and a Review an attempt which has never yet been made with fuccefs, and which, in the prefent ftate of official criticism, is altogether unneceffary; it may, perhaps, be ufeful, or, at leaft, amufing, if, according to our propofal, at the commencement of our labours, we, at regular intervals, take a general retrofpect of the ftate of literature. Our furvey muft MONTHLY MAG. NO. VI.

In THEOLOGY, new difcoveries, or great improvements, are not perhaps, to be expected; yet all the labourers in this vineyard have not been idle. The indefatigable induftry of Dr. Macknight, has added to the immense mass of biblical commentaries before extant, four

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large

large volumes, containing a "Tranfla- from whofe talents much might have tion of all the Apoftolic Epiftles, with been expected, has, in his "Chriftian Notes, Commentaries, and Differta- Philofophy," abandoned the evidences of tions" a learned but heavy work, of hiftorical teftimony, as infufficient; and, which it will, probably, foon be faid with more zeal than judgment (as every "ruit mole fuâ.' Though, after Mr. rational Chriftian muft think) has rested Porfon's decifive publication, on the long the belief of Chriftianity on the fanatidifputed verfe, John, v. 7. to at- cal ground of immediate divine impulfe. tempt any farther reply to the defenders The reft of Mr. Paine's refpondents of its authenticity, is, "to flay the have, however, adhered to the old meflain," Mr. Marth's "Letter to Arch- thod of defence; and, while Dr. Audeacon Travis," does great credit to the chinclofs and Mr. Melham have difcrewriter; and will be very ufeful to the dited themselves more than their cause scholar, as a guide in the study of ancient the former, by a weak, vulgar, and MSS. The perfevering labour of Dr. blundering-the latter, by a flippant, Holmes, of Oxford, in collating the hafty, and ceremonious, defence; and the MSS. of the Septuagint, of which a re- author of the "Age of Infidelity," has port and fpecimen have lately been given, injudiciously embarraffed the general in a "Latin Letter to the Bishop of Dur- queftion, by involving with it points of ham," affords ground to expect, in due Polemic theology-Mr. Winchester, in time, a correct edition of that valuable his "Defence of Revelation," has given a verfion of the Hebrew fcriptures; and, plain view of the arguments by which it unless it be prevented by the pertinacity is fupported; Mr. Eftlin, in a "Serof bigots, of which Mr. Burges's late mon on the Evidences of revealed Reli"Letter to the Bishop of Ely," fur- gion," has treated the fubject with pernishes a ftriking example, an accurate fpicuity, animation, and liberality; Mr. translation of the bible, may, perhaps, Wakefield, in a "Reply," too much in procefs of time, rife out of the joint- loaded with virtuperative language, and labours of our learned divines. At pre- not fufficiently accommodated to the unfent, however, the attention of the derftandings of the unlearned, but ably clergy, of all denominations, is turned and ingeniously written, has detected towards an object of ftill more immediate and expofed many of his antagonist's erurgency the defence of the common rors and mifreprefentations; and Bishop cause of revelation against the attacks of Watfon, in his excellent "Apology for infidels. The Unitarian controverfy is the Bible," without exhaufting the fubterminated, or left fub judice; and while, ject, or encumbering his work with in the established church, Mr. Veyfie, in learned citation, has provided the public capacity of " Bampton Lecturer," has with an elegant and popular answer to been combating herefy without an op- Mr. Paine, well adapted to counteract ponent; and, among the fectaries, a the effect of his publication on that class little parring has paffed between the of readers on whom it was likely to Pædo-baptifts, and the Antipædo-bap- make the deepeft impreffion. We should tifts, the more general and fundamental mention, in this connection, Mr. Bryqueftion has been revived, whether the ant's elaborate "Obfervations on the fupernatural facts related in the Jewish Plagues inflicted upon Egypt," if we and Chriftian fcriptures, be entitled to did not confider this as a work more credit? On the negative fide of this im- adapted to eftablifh the writer's reputaportant queftion, Mr. Paine, with ex- tion for erudition and ingenuity, than to treme deficiency in learning and modefty, obviate the difficulties which confeffedly but with talents well fuited to catch the hang upon this part of the Mofaic hifpopular ear, has attracted much atten- tory. To counteract the unpleafant imtion, by his " "Age of Reafon." This preffion which the fpread of infidelity attack upon revelation has been fup- must have made upon the minds of beported with fome degree of fhrewdnefs lievers in revelation, Dr. Priestley has in Dutton's "Vindication of Paine;" published "Obfervations" on this fuband followed up by a modeft expofition ject, rather confolatory than argumenof certain difficulties attending this fub- tative; the work is written with the ject, in Mr. Hollis's "Sober and feri- author's ufual perfpicuity, fincerity, and ous Reasons of Scepticifm." On the zeal. Of the fermons of this period, affirmative fide, numerous advocates have few are entitled to particular attention. appeared, but with very different de- The Faft Sermons of the prefent year grees of ability and fkill. Dr. Knox, have been uncommonly languid; per

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Half Yearly Retrofpect of English Literature.

haps, from the disheartening ftate of public affairs. The Pofthumous Sermons of Dr. Savage are fenfible, methodical, and evangelical; thofe of Mr. Toller plain and ferious, but without any marks of fuperior talents: a volume of neat Dif. courfes on Practical Subjects has been published by Mr. Draper; but the moderate merit of these publications has been eclipfed by the fplendid excellence of Mr. Fawcett's Lectures at the Old Jewry," in which, without the aid of fyftematic theology, moral truths are exhibited with uncommon force, and adorned with all the graces which a fertitle imagination could fupply: if the ftyle be fometimes diffufe, it is the amplification not of dulnefs, but of genius.

POLITICS.

In POLITICS, the most important publications have been those which cannot come under critical animadverfion; the daily Registers and Chronicles of the times. On general queftions of policy, Mr. Malkin's "Effays on Subjects connected with Civilization," are entitled to diftinguished notice: the writer is an ardent lover of liberty, and cenfures, with great freedom, but without acri. mony, numerous errors at prefent exift, ing in fociety. As nearly allied to this work, may be mentioned, Watkins's "Reflections on Government,' a fmall tract, which clearly and forcibly inculcates principles favourable to liberty and happiness. "Principles of Legiflation" have been published by Mr. Michel, which contain many juft obfervations; but the writer is too much an alarmist to be capable, at prefent, of pursuing his own ideas into their obvious confequences. British politics, befides much ephemeral trafh, have furnished feveral interefting publications. Of these, unqueftionably, the work which has the moft imperious demand upon public attention, is Mr. Morgan's "Facts," in which is exhibited, not in loofe declamation, but in calculations, made by a mafter of political arithmetic, from the moft authentic documents, a statement of the public expenditure and refources. This pamphlet has, perhaps, done more than all other late publications to open the eyes of the nation to its real condition, and to demonftrate the impolicy of perfifting in the prefent ruinous fyftem. Mr. Vanfittart's artful, but vague and unfuccefsful attempt to show that we are not quite ruined, even though fupported by Lord Auckland, whofe fpeech upon the fubject has been published, has only

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served to give Mr. Morgan an opportunity of confirming his first reprefentation by "Additional Facts." Mr. Morgan's true alarm has been increased by Mr. Paine's lefs accurate, but ftrongly impreffive, account of the perpetually accelerated progrefs of this nation towards ruin, from the inevitable operation of the funding fyftem, given in his "Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance." The great question concerning a reform in the parliamentary reprefentation of this country, has not been fuffered, entirely, to fleep. A very fenfible and spirited "Letter" has appeared, addreffed to Dr. Paley, on his objections to this reform; and Mr. Wyvill, that upright, judicious, and, fteady advocate for peaceable reform, has effectually expofed minifterial inconfiftency, by publishing the first part of his correfpondence with Mr. Pitt. "A Hiftory of the Two Acts" (Mr. Pitt's, and Lord Grenville's) is a very copious and accurate compilation of all the tranfactions, both in and out of parliament, refpecting thofe celebrated reftrictions on English liberty, which may, hereafter, be of confiderable use to the political hif torian of the prefent time. Its value is much augmented by the excellent and masterly preface by which the matter of the work is introduced. The difpute with France is now almost wholly left to be fettled by the ultima ratio regum; and few publications worth mentioning have appeared on this fubject. Among the more interesting political pamphlets, may be mentioned, Confiderations on the State of Public Affairs;" "Hints addreffed to the Electors of Great-Britain, by Charles Faulkener, containing a Review of Mr. Pitt's Adminiftration ;' "D'Ivernois's State of the Finances and Refources of France;" and "A Whig's Apology for his Confiftency." To thefe we muft add, more on account of the talents difplayed in the controversy, than the importance of the fubject, Mr. Burke's" Letter to a Noble Lord," with the replies of his numerous refpondents. When the queftion of Mr. Burke's claim to a penfion fhall ceafe to intereft the public, it will not be forgotten, that Mr. Burke, at a period of life when genius commonly becomes languid, difplayed the full vigour of his uncommon powers, and was even capable of hunting metaphors, as playtully as fchool boys hunt butterflies: nor will it be forgotten, that he was able, as on a former more important occafion, to call forth a host of able com

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