The conduct of the Directory with regard to the Exiled Deputies, had been objected to by some persons, on the score of a pretended rigour. For his part, he should only say, that having been, as he had been, both a Soldier and a Sailor, if it had been his fortune to have stood in either of those two relations to the Directory-as a Man, and as a Major-General, he should not have scrupled to direct his artillery against the National Representation:as a Naval Officer, he would undoubtedly have undertaken for the removal of the Exiled Deputies; admitting the exigency, under all its relations, as it appeared to him to exist, and the then circumstances of the times, with all their bearings and dependencies, branching out into an infinity of collateral considerations, and involving in each a variety of objects, political, physical, and moral; and these again under their distinct and separate heads, ramifying into endless subdivisions, which it was foreign to his purpose to consider.

Having thus disposed of this part of his subject, Mr. ERSKINE passed, in a strain of rapid and brilliant allusion, over a variety of points characteristic of the conduct and disposition of the present Ministry: Mr. BURKE'S metaphor of " the Swinish Multitude;" Mr. REEVES'S metaphor of the " Tree of Monarchy;" "the Battle of Tranent;" and "the March to Paris ;" the phrase of "Acquitted Felons ;" and the exclamation of "Perish Commerce"-which last expression he declared he should never cease to attribute to Mr. WINDHAM; so long at least, as it should please the Sovereign Dispenser to continue to him the power of utterance, and the enjoyment of his present faculties. He condemned the "Expedition to Quiberon; " he regretted

the

the "Fate of Messrs. MUIR and PALMER;" he exulted in the "Acquital of Citizens ToOKE, HARDY, THEL"WALL, HOLCROFT, and others;" and he blessed that Providence to which (as it had originally allotted to him (Mr. ERSKINE) the talents which had been exerted in their defence) the preservation of those Citizens might perhaps be indirectly attributed. He then descanted upon the captivity of LA FAYETTE, and the Dividend on the Imperial Loan.

After fully exhausting these subjects, Mr. ERSKINE resumed a topic on which he had only slightly glanced before. In a most delicate and sportive vein of humour, he contended, that if the People were a Swinish Multitude, those who represented them must necessarily be a Swinish representation. It would be in vain to attempt to do justice to the polite and easy pleasantry which pervaded this part of Mr. ERSKINE'S Speech. Suffice it to say, that the taste of the Audience shewed itself in complete unison with the genius. of the Orator; and the whole of this passage was crowned with loud and reiterated plaudits.

After a speech of unexampled exertion, Mr. ERSKINE now began to enter much at length into a recital of select passages from our most approved English Authors; concluding with a copious Extract from the several Publications of the late Mr. BURKE; but such were the variety and richness of his quotations, which he continued to an extent far exceeding the limits of this Paper; that we found ourselves under the necessity, either of consider ably abridging our original matter, or of omitting them altogether, which latter alternative we adopted the more readily as the greater part of these brilliant citations have already past through the ordeal of a public and patriotic Auditory;

YOL. I.

K

Auditory; and as there is every probability that the circumstances of the times will again call them forth on some future emergency.

Mr. ERSKINE concluded by recapitulating, in a strain of agonizing and impressive eloquence, the several more prominent heads of his Speech:-He had been a Soldier and a Sailor, and had a Son at WinchesterSchool-he had been called by Special Retainers, during the Summer, into many different and distant parts of the Country-travelling chiefly in Post-chaises-He felt himself called upon to declare that his poor faculties were at the service of his Country-of the free and enlightened part of it at least-He stood here as a Man-He stood in the Eye, indeed in the Hand of God-to whom (in the presence of the Company and Waiters), he solemnly appealed-He was of Noble, perhaps, Royal Blood-He had a house at Hampstead-was convinced of the necessity of a thorough and radical Reform-His Pamphlet had gone through Thirty Editions-fkipping alternately the odd and even numbers-He loved the Constitution, to which he would cling and grapple-And he was clothed with the infirmities of man's nature-He would apply to the present French Rulers (particularly BARRAS and REUBEL) the words of the poet :

And for these reasons, thanking the Gentlemen who had done him the honour to drink his Health, he should propose "MERLIN, the late Minister of Justice, and "Trial by Jury!”

Mr.

Mr. ERSKINE here concluded a Speech which had occupied the attention, and excited the applause of his Audience during a space of little less than three hours, allowing for about three quarters of an hour, which were occupied by successive fits of fainting, between the principal subdivisions of his discourse.-Mr. ERSKINE descended from the Table, and was conveyed down stairs by the assistance of his friends. On arriving at the corner of the Piazzas, they were surprized by a very unexpected embarrassment. Mr. ERSKINE's horses had been taken from the Carriage, and a number of able Chairmen engaged to supply their place; but these fellows having contrived to intoxicate themselves with the money which the Coachman had advanced to them upon account, were become so restive and unruly, and withal so exorbitant in their demands (positively refusing to abide by their former engagement,) that Mr. ERSKINE deemed it unsafe to trust himself in their hands, and determined to wait the return of his own more tractable and less chargeable animals. This unpleasant scene continued for above an hour.

Mr. SHERIDAN's Health was now drank in his absence, and received with an appearance of general approbation; —when, in the midst of the applause Mr. Fox arose, in apparent agitation, and directed the attention of the Company to the rising, manly virtues of Mr. MACFUNGUS.

Mr. MACFUNGUS declared, that to pretend that he was not elated by the encomiums with which Mr. Fox had honoured him, was an affectation which he disdained;such encomiums would ever form the proudest recompense of his patriotic labours;-he confessed they were chearing to him he felt them warm at his heart-and while a single fibre of his frame preserved its vibration, it would

throb in unison to the approbation of that Honourable Gentlemen.-The applause of the Company was no less flattering to him he felt his faculties invigorated by it, and stimulated to the exertion of new energies in the race of mind. Every other sensation was obliterated and absorbed by it; for the present, however, he would endeavour to suppress his feelings, and concentre his energies, for the purpose of explaining to the Company why he assisted now, for the first time, at the celebration of the Fifth Revolution which had been effected in regenerated France. The various and extraordiany talents of the Right Hon. Gentleman-his vehement and overpowering perception, his vigorous and splendid intuition, would for ever attract the admiration of all those who were in any degree endowed with those faculties themselves, or capable of estimating them in others; as such, he had ever been among the most ardent admirers, and, on many occasions, among the most ardent supporters, of the Right Hon. Gentlemen-he agreed with him in many points— in his general love of Liberty and Revolution; in his execration of the War; in his detestation of Ministers; but he entertained his doubts, and till those doubts were cleared up, he could not, consistently with his principles, attend at the celebration of any Revolution whatever

These doubts, however, were now satisfactorily done away. A pledge had been entered into for accomplishing an effectual radical Revolution; not for the mere overthrow of the present System, nor for the establishment of any other in its place; but for the effecting such a series of Revolutions, as might be sufficient for the establishment of a Free System.

Mr. MACFUNGUS continued-He was incapable of compromising with first principles of acquiescing in 6

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