4th, 5th, or 6th brother of his refpective branch. Mr. D. indeed gives fome inftances, in which the endeavours of the heralds to produce uniformity and regularity in these matters were counteracted by the whimsicality of individuals, who, of their own authority, made alterations in the tinctures, lines, or charges of their paternal coats: but even then it appeared, notwithstanding the alterations, that they were radically the same,

Now that we are on this point, we will just notice the whimfical origin of a name at prefent illuftrious in this kingdom, being borne by the Marquis of Bath. An ancestor of this noble lord, whofe family name was Boteville or Bouteville, was called Thinne or Thynne, by which his defcendants have ever fince been known. Some fay it was a nick-name given to him, on account of his extreme flenderness; which made the people call him le Thynne :-but a quotation given by Mr. D. page 224, from Athen. Oxon. vol. 1ft, p. 319, accounts for this appellation very differently. It is there ftated that Francis Thynne, otherwife Bottevyle, who, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was Lancafter herald, was lineally defcended from Thom. at the Inne, other wife Thynne of Stretton, in Shropshire. So that it would appear that the name was not derived from his want of em bon point, but from the place of his refidence "the Inne," contracted by the Salopian mode of fpeaking into one fyllable th`Inne, undé Thomas Th’inne, now Thynne.

Mr. D. notices the introduction of the rebus or armes parlantes into this country, and marks the æra as a period of degeneracy from the purity of antient heraldry. These speaking arms, which were to the old arms what the pun is to genuine wit, were introduced into England from Picardy, by the English who had ferved in the garrifons of Calais and the neighbouring caftles. Monkifh invention (fays Mr. D.) seems never to have had a more ample space, than in applying these rebuffes to proper names. Sometimes the analogy was very remote, and required interpretation. If the name ended inton," the tun or veffel was usually fubftituted, of which very numerous inftances are found in ftained glass, and carved upon cornices in wood or ftone. So much approved was this practice by ecclefiaftics, that almost every bithop and abbot had his rebus, although intitled to hereditary coat armour. John Newland, or Naileheart, abbot of St. Auguftine's, near Bristol, in 1510, bore upon the efcocheon in his feal a human heart proper, pierced with five nails, in allufion both to the "quinque vulnera," (or the five chief wounds of our Saviour,) and his own furname; and Thomas Compton, abbot of Cirencester, in 1480, in a window of stained glass, which he contributed

L 4

contributed to our lady's chapel at St. Peter's in Gloucester, has his rebus (a comb and tun) very frequently repeated."

From this we may prefume that the inn in the city of London, known by the name of the "Bolt and Tun," was originally kept by one Bolton, who fet up the rebus of his name for a fign. [To be concluded.]

ART. III. Coup d'Qeil fur les Affignats, &c. i. e. A View of the Affignats, and of the Condition in which the present Convention leaves the Finances to its Succeffors, 6th September 1795. Taken from the Debates of the Convention. By M. d'Ivernois. 8vo. PP. 91. 1s. 6d. Elmfly.

EVEN those who differ from M. d'Ivernois in politics muft acknowlege that he poffeffes induftry and perfeverance; that he watches with indefatigable attention the movements of the convention, particularly in its financial operations; and that he ftates them with fidelity from the documents laid before that aflembly. We muft obferve, however, that there is an effential difference between the authorities which he quotes on the occafion. The reports from the various committees,which are made the ground-work of legislative acts, may well be confidered as conclufive evidence when their authenticity is not queftioned: -but the fpeeches of members are undoubtedly of a very different nature they are at beft only the opinions of individuals, and are entitled to credit and importance merely according to the circumftances under which they are delivered. In England, it often happens that a minifterial member of parliament reprefents, in debate, the fituation of the country as most flourishing but then, to deftroy the effect of this representation, an oppofition member maintains that the nation is within an inch of ruin. The man who takes the fpeech of either for his premifes will most probably draw very erroneous conclufions. We must allow, however, that, in France, where ministerial and oppofition parties are not yet quite fo fyftematic as with us, the fpeeches of the members of the convention may be fuppofed to be lefs influenced by the confideration of felf, and may therefore be thought to carry more weight. The statements of fuch of them as are on miffion in the departments, or returned to the affembly to give an account of their adminiftration, come under the defcription of ftate papers, and, when they fand un.contradicted in the convention, may be cited as authorities: but to the loofe opinions of private members, we think, the fame degree of importance ought by no means to be attached.

Having made thefe preliminary obfervations, which will be found to be applicable to M. d'Ivernois' performance, we

proceed

proceed to ftate that the work confifts of two chapters, one onlyof which is new to our readers, viz. the 2d, the first having already appeared in the author's anfwer to Madame de Stael's "Thoughts on Peace." In that answer, Mr. d'I. has devoted a chapter to the confideration of the ftate of the French finances: it feems that it found its way into France, and not a little mortified the ruling men in the convention; for Thibault, having been commiffioned by the committee of finances to make a report on the ftate of the revenues and expenditure of the republic, prefented it on the 30th of June laft, and prefaced it with several angry obfervations on the pamphlet publifhed by M. d'I.; who, he boldly afferted, was paid by Mr. Pitt to write down the affignats. To a charge of fuch a nature, the author fays he will not stoop to make any reply. Neither will I, (fays he,) take any notice of the appellation of French emigrant, Lo gratuitously beftowed on me by the committee: but it fhall be otherwife with the challenge which it threw out to me by the mouth of its chairman, to continue to follow all its steps, and watch all its actions." I accept the challenge without hesitation; and I am now going to follow its fteps; that is to fay, to collect its own declarations, and contraft them with each other.'

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The fucceeding paragraph will fhew how fanguine our author is in his opinion of the approaching downfall of the paper money of France, and, with it, of the downfall of the republic, which has hitherto been maintained by it.

I engage (fays he) with the lefs reluctance in this undertaking, as I ftrongly fufpect that it will not be of long duration; that the revolutionary money, and the committee that coins it, will foon disappear; and that I may already congratulate France on the committee's having, of itfelf, by fmothering fo expeditiously the hydra of affignatsgiven the last blow to the last head of the rebellion.'

The world will probably think the author extremely rafh, if not more than rafh, for entertaining fo fanguine a hope of the diffolution of the republic: but ftill we must confefs that we were staggered by his facts, taken chiefly from the acts of the convention, which appear to warrant the inferences which he draws from them. For our part, we find it no eafy task for any man to prove the probability of the downfall of a republic that is on every fide either intimidating its enemies into fupplications for peace, or advancing with gigantic steps into the territories of those who still attempt to make head against it: but ftill we must own that it will appear, to an impartial reader of the work before us, a no lefs difficult task for any man to point out how, with its paper money, the chief means of its fupport, fo prodigiously depreciated and ftill daily falling, the republic can be able to ftand its ground, and preferve itself from deftruction.

deftruction. This however is an age of prodigies; and wonders, by having loft their ordinary effect of exciting surprise, have ceased to be wonders.

The author reprints chap. 1ft, that the 2d may be more intelligible. To the affertions made in the former, he fubjoins in the latter the proofs, all taken from the vouchers furnished by his adverfaries. His firft affertion was-" that the whole power or force of the republic refted exclufively on its affignats." He fupports this by the following declaration made in the convention, on the 7th of April.laft, by one of its members, Dupuis:

The plate for ftriking off affignats was found to be infinitely more. commodious than a book of rates or affeffments; and from that moment the constituent affembly, no longer calculating nor fetting bounds to the public expences, tranfmitted this fruitful place to the legislative affembly, who handed it over to us. These affemblies at the fame time transferred to us the burden of the public debt, greatly increased and infinitely heavier than they found it; they alfo left us as a legacy, the prefent war, with all its expences, and responsibility for their er

rors.

Our predeceffors, in creating new money, thought only of the means of beginning the revolution, and not of those of finishing it.'

Here M. d'I. obferves, that it is now five months fince the convention found itself reduced to the neceffity of devifing fome other means of terminating the revolution, than the emiffion of affignats.

Our author's fecord affertion was that, "by means of the affignats, all the private interefts of individuals had been gained over to, by being taken into the pay of, the republic, that it was by hiring and employing in civil functions a million of men, in other words, a million of priests of this new religion, that they fucceeded in extending it all over France." His proof of this affertion he takes from Johannot; who, on the 14th of April laft, addreffing the convention in the name of the committee of finances, ufed thefe memorable expreflions: "The revolutionary movement has led us to give falaries to a greater number of individuals than would fuffice for, or than are employed in, the adminiftration of all the ftates in Europe." This declaration is illuftrated by another, made in the convention on the 5th of May, by Dubois-Crance, who faid that "the commiffion of trade alone had 35,000 perfons in its fervice;" and still more by what was advanced on the 7th of July by Defermont, who flated that "the expences of the adminiftrations of the diflricts exceeded the amount of the whole produce of the foil.”

The author's third affertion, after having expatiated on the depreciation of the affignats, was that it was probable they would continue to fall 50 per cent. every two months." The proof of this, which was faid in the month of March last,

when

when they were worth ten per cent. of their nominal value, is that at the end of May they were worth no more than five per cent.; and that at this moment they are fallen to two and a half per cent. To ftrengthen himself on this ground, M.d'I. quotes a letter published on the 14th of Auguft in a paper called Le Batave, from the perfon employed in fuperintending the fupplies of provifions for the troops in the department of the North, who thus expreffes himself: "Nothing can give you an adequate idea of the difcredit into which our paper money is fallen; in this country it is confidered as downright illufory; at Ghent they would demand for a plain fupper for myfelf, my fervant, and two horfes, 1125 livres in affignats, paid before hand, or 18 livres in money." The Courier François of the 20th of Auguft fays-" Our affignats are falling into the moft alarining difcredit; in many places they are taken for no more than the fortieth part of their nominal value. In Weft Flanders, Brabant, &c. &c. they have no value at all in trade, which is there carried on folely with hard cash. If the convention does not take fome fteps for fupporting the credit of affignats, we shall foon be charged, as formerly in America, 1800 livres. for an omelet." To come to a ftill more authentic and less exceptionable piece of information; Roux, a member of the convention, informed the affembly that "the watermen, at a particular paffage over the Seine, who laft year asked no more than 100 livres for taking a large boat across the river, and which did not require more than two hours' work, now demand 40,000 livres !" It is faid that the convention, on hearing this fact, rofe with indignation. It was not, however, less a fact for that movement.

Our author's fourth affertion was a fort of prediction, adverting to the decree of the 13th of January laft for doubling the daily ftipend of the members of the convention; he faid

it would not be surprising if it should not be long able to avoid doubling alfo the pay of its fourteen armies." This kind of prediction has been more than fulfilled; for it seems that the just complaints of the troops, and the frequent defertions among them, obliged the convention to pafs a decree on the 23d of July, for granting to every private and non-commiffioned officer two fous per day, to be paid in fpecie. Now it seems, if we may take our author's calculation, that two fous in money are equal to eighty fous in paper; it follows, then, that this increase has raised the original pay of fifteen fous in paper, not merely to twice, but to fix times what it was before. M. d'I. here makes this remark: If it be true, as the convention boafts, that it has a million of men in arms, this increase of pay would amount to three millions of livres in fpecie per

month :