But as it appeared to both parties the fpeedieft means of attaining the event which they equally defired, they longed and clamoured for war, which was at laft decreed in the Jacobin Club! As many of our writers of the fame party with this author have contended that, in the revolutionary war of France, the allied powers were the aggreffors, we shall give his account of that matter in his own words.

"Negociations with Leopold were ftill proceeding; they were ftill, however, myfterious, and the affembly, urged by its moft vehement orators, inceffantly demanded an explanation of the intentions of the court of Vienna, and ftill more imperiously the dispersion of the emigrants affembling on the imperial frontiers. Deleffart promifed a speedy anfwer, and an anfwer, which was fuppofed (it is not clear on what grounds) to have been concerted between the Auftrian and the French minifter, was at last delivered; the Emperor promised to diffolve the armaments of the emigrants; but it was under this condition, that the king should be refpected, and delivered from the afcendancy of clubs. If this fhould be refused, war was to be denounced. The affembly feemed to feel a fentiment of acknowledgment for the moderation of Leopold; he spoke of the new conftitution with refpect; he abfolved the people of France of the late horrors, and laid them all on the Jacobins. In the gloomy hall where thofe demou Jacobins were affembled, a gleam of joy and pride was feen on their countenances, when they were hailed as the mafters of her revo. lution.

"Had the Girondifts, by one act of that virtue, which it muft be owned they difplayed in fome inftances amidst all the wildness of their baneful policy; had they, at this moment, fevered themfelves from the bloody connection of the Jacobin club, the history of Europe might have been aufpicioufly changed. But, alas! thofe philofophers, thofe men of lamentable genius, were yet grovelling for popularity in the common den of pollution. Briffot demanded of the Jacobins, if they would not accept the challenge of Leopold? The cry was for war. Roberfpierre, for once, flood vanquished in his oppofition; nothing remained to Roberfpierre for the fupport of his popularity, but to turn his fury against the minifters and the court." P. 376.

The death of the pacific Leopold, which followed foon after; and the defigns of the republicans, who overpowered the conftitutionifts in the affembly, produced a decree of war again the King of Hungary and Bohemia, on the 20th of April, 1792; though the unhappy Louis did what he could to prevent it. The hiftory of that war is faithfully related by this author; but, as it is univerfatly known, we mean not jo follow him through the detail.

War

War did not commence between Great Britain and France until after the affembling of the Convention, and the murder of the King; but the author is not fo candid to the court of his own fovereign as to that of the Emperor Leopold. Leopold, he fays, wifhed to avoid the horrors of war if poffible; while Mr. Pitt and his affociates hurried Great Britain into a war, which might have been fafely and honourably avoided! Yet he allows that war was actually declared by the convention against England and Holland, before either of thefe powers had aimed a single blow at the infant republic; and, as if he had been retained to plead the cause of the enemies of his country, he re-echoes on this fubject the arguments and declamations of Mr. Fox, who feems indeed to have been the god of his political idolatry: The replies of Meffrs. Pitt, Burke and Windham are feldom quoted, or quoted in fuch a manner as to deprive them of all their force. According to him the convention was forced to declare war against us by our recalling Lord Gower from Paris when the King was fufpended from his office; by our refufing to recognize the public character of the French Ambaffador after the trial and execution of the Sovereign whofe minifter he was; and by our afterwards ordering that Ambaffador to quit the kingdom in eight days!

But it is obvious that Great Britain could not continue an Ambaffador at Paris to tranfact bufinefs with the convention, or its agents after the fufpenfion of the King, without giving her fanction to the violent measures of that affembly, and taking the part of rebels against their legitimate, though degraded Sovereign. After the murder of the King, the French Ambaffador had no public character that could be acknowledged at the Court of London: for the fovereign, by whom he had been accredited was no more, and we had not refolved to recognize the fovereignty of thofe to whom the executive power was entrusted by the convention, and who are defcribed by this author himself as a crew of the most faithlefs and bloody-minded wretches that ever lived. Chauvelin the late Ambaffador was not ordered to quit England until two days after the convention had declared war; and even then he was not difmiffed, until he was discovered to be fowing difcontent in the nation and conducting himself a fpy for the Convention! But this was not all. The Convention had paffed a decree againft all the legitimate governments on earth; and promised French aid and fraternity to the people of every kingdom-we believe of every nation, who fhould rife in rebellion against their governors! And was this an affembly with which the court of St. James's

as

could maintain the relations of amity and peace? Mr. Fox faid it was; and because he faid fo, this annalift fays it likewife.

The feeds of difcontent had by the arts of factious and defigning men, been fown with no fparing hand, among the lower orders of the people, in every corner of the British Empire; fecret meetings were held for the oftenfible purpose of procuring a reform in the Coinmons-house of Parliament, but in reality for exciting the rancour of the low and the poor against the high and the opulent; thefe meetings carried on a regular correfpondence with each other and likewife with the French Convention; and the object of the whole was to revolutionize Great Britain. Mr. Fox denied all this, contending that the people were never more univerfally loyal then in the years 1793 and 1794; and whatever he maintained, this author maintains likewife! Yet, when the spirit of party for a moment quits its hold of him, the native candour of his mind, (for we are convinced that it is candid) impels him to confefs (vol. iii. p. 156) that "the political principles of the times were deeply tainted with the fpirit of infubordination." Of this he gives a remarkable instance in the following words, which we quote for a purpose that will be seen by and by.

"The state of the nation appeared fo critical, that it was judged neceffary to call parliament together at an earlier period than ufual. It met on the 29th of October 1795, a day remarkable for the difagreeable events that attended it. In the park, through which his Majefty had to pass to the Houfe of Lords, there was an unusual concourfe of people. The ftate coach was befet by perfons demanding peace, and the difmiffion of Mr. Pitt. Some voices were heard exclaiming No King;' and ftones were thrown at the carriage as it drew near to the horse-guards. Thefe outrages were repeated on the King's return from the houfe; and his Majefty narrowly efcaped the fury of the populace, in his way back from St. James's Palace to Buckingham House. All reasonable men were deeply affected at this outrage. a brutal ebullition of popular rage, and tended only to justify fuch reftrictive measures as would abridge the liberties of the loyal fubject." P. 115.

It was

This is a very foftened account of one of the most treasonable outrages that ever difgraced a civilized nation; but it is, even as here detailed, a fufficient reafon for the introduction into parliament of the two bills which immediately followed it, and were, by the partizans of Mr. Fox, denominated the Pitt and Grenville Acts, because they were introduced, on the fame

day,

day, the one by the minifter into the House of Commons, and the other by Lord Grenville into the Houfe of Lords. The object of the former was to reftrain feditious meetings. of the people, and, of the other to explain the treafon laws. Thy were, of courfe, oppofed by Mr. Fox and his adherents, but paffed into laws by great majorities, on which our author affirms, that

"Never was a law enacted by the British Legislature received by the nation with fuch evident marks of difapprobation as the above bills. During their progrefs through parliament the meetings which were held to petition against them, were compofed, not of the ordinary votaries of reform, but of nearly the WHOLE INDEPENDENT POPULATION of the country. The Whig Club pre. fented a fpirited remonftrance to both houfes on this occafion. The livery of London, the electors of Weftminifter, and the freeholders of Middlefex, fent petitions of the fame nature, and were followed by a number of counties, and by almoft every town of note through. out the kingdom. The agents of ministry, with all their influence exerted to procure petitions of an oppofite tendency, and after procuring the fignatures of all the officers of the customs, the excife-men, the military-men, and even the children at school belonging to their dependents, could not mufter above 30,000 petitioners. The petitions against the bills were computed at 400,000 fignatures." P. 122.

This is indeed one inftance, but we think it is the only one of importance, in which the author has fuffered his party-prejudices to mislead him with refpect to a matter of fact. The Whig Club; the livery of London, or rather those who meet and vote as livery on fuch factious occafions; the electors of Weftminifter; and the freeholders of Middlefex, can excite only the fmile of contempt among men of understanding, when thus brought pompously forward as THE INDEPENDENT POPULATION of the country! The Whig Club was one of thofe unconftitutional focieties, in which was held the very language, to which Lord Grenville juftly attributed the in fults that had been recently offered to the fovereign: it was one of thofe popular meetings affembled profeffedly for the object of reform, in which the orators took care, by their violent declamations and toafting the Majefty of the people, to exafperate the minds of the rebels against the King and the government; and we should as foon think of applying to a felon, condemned at the bar of a court of law, for a character of the Judge and Jury which condemned him, as of quoting the remonftrance of the Whig Club as a proof that the Pitt and Grenville acts were difagreeable to the independent po

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pulation

pulation of the country! What the livery, or pretended livery, of London, the electors of Weftminifter, and the freeholders of Middlefex, are, was feen long ago in the mobs of Wilkes and liberty, and has been recently difplayed in the triumphs of Burdett! Such demagogues will always remonftrate against laws enacted to filence the clamours of licentioufnefs and quell the tumults of fedition: but we must take the liberty to deny, with as much confidence as this author affirms, that the independent population of the country ANY WHERE difapproved of the law in queftion. On the contrary the authors of thofe laws were hailed by the intelligent part of every county and every town of note, as the Prefervers of the conftitution; and though interefted and ambitious perfons of this author's party were able, by fuch arts as he attributes to the miniftry, to procure a great number of petitions against them, thofe petitions were fo far from proving that the laws in queftion were received with general difapprobation, that they proved, to the conviction of every man who could think without prejudice, the abfolute neceffity of fuch laws. No loyal fubject was or could be, in the fmallest degree affected by them; they laid no reftraint whatever on the genuine liberty of the prefs, or on the freedom of debate in any conftitutional affembly; and that they put an end to the meetings of porters, coblers, and blacksmiths for the reforming of the ftate, could be regretted by no man, who had not fome purpofe, to ferve by the aid of fuch political quacks, which he was afraid avow. That Lord Grenville and Mr. Pitt did not defcend to fuch arts as they are charged with by this author, no other proof can be requifite than that unbending pride, of which they were both accufed by their enemies, and which their fondeft friends could not deny to belong, more or lefs, to both their characters. The miniftry indeed, at the head of which they were, trufted fo much to their own powers and the goodness of their caufe, as to neglect that aid which no miniftry need be afhamed to derive from a well regulated prefs; they neither rewarded thofe who wrote in their defence, nor bribed to filence their moft venal opponents.

But, though the party man appears when the annalift writes of the affairs of his own country, his account of the fuccef five revolutions of France; and of the principles of the revolutionifts, is candid and animating. He fets before the very eyes of his readers the different crews of mifcreants, debating in their refpective halls, like Satan and his angels in the pandemonium of Milton; and Roberfpierre and his gang, though not fo formidable, are in the dens of jacobinilm certainly more dif guiling, than thofe first revolutionifts when deliberating

how