verfal medicine made of church mummy is to cure all the evils of the ftate. These gentlemen perhaps do not believe a great deal in the miracles of piety; but it cannot be queftioned, that they have an undoubting faith in the prodigies of facrilege. Is there a debt which preffes them-Iffue affignats. Are compenfations to be made, or a maintenance decreed to those whom they have robbed of their freehold in their office, or expelled from their profeflionAffignats. Is a fleet to be fitted out-Aignats. If fixteen millions fterling of thefe affignats, forced on the people, leave the wants of the ftate as urgent as ever-illue, fays one, thirty-millions fterling of affignats-fays another, iffue fourfcore millions more of affignats. The only difference among their financial factions is on the greater or the leffer quantity of affignats to be impofed on the publick fufferance. They are all profeffors of affignats. Even thofe, whofe natural good fenfe and knowledge of commerce, not obliterated by philofophy, furnish decifive arguments againft this delufion, conclude their arguments, by propofing the emiffion of affignats. I fuppofe they must talk of affignats, as no other language would be understood. All experience of their inefficacy does not in the leaft difcourage them. Are the old affignats depreciated at market? What is the remedy? Iffue new affignats.-Mais fi maladia, opiniatria, non vult fe garire, quid illi facere? affignare -poftea affignare, enfuita affignare. The word is a trifle altered. The Latin of your prefent doctors may be better than that of your old comedy; their wifdom, and the variety of their refources, are the fame. They have not more notes in their fong than the cuckow; though, far from the foftnefs of that harbinger of fummer and plenty, their voice is as harfh and as ominous as that of the raven.

Who but the most defperate adventurers in philofophy and finance could at all have thought of deftroying

deftroying the fettled revenue of the ftate, the fole fecurity for the public credit, in the hope of rebuilding it with the materials of confifcated property? If, however, an exceffive zeal for the state fhould have led a pious and venerable prelate (by anticipation a father of the church t) to pillage his own order, and, for the good of the church and people, to take upon himself the place of grand financier of confifcation, and comptroller general of facrilege, he and his coadjutors were, in my opinion, bound to fhew, by their fubfequent conduct, that they knew fomething of the office they affumed. Wher they had refolved to appropriate to the Fife, a certain portion of the landed property of their conquered country, it was their bufinefs to render their bank a real fund of credit; as far as fuch a bank was capable of becoming fo.

To eftablifh a current circulating credit upon any Land-bank, under any circumftance whatfoever, has hitherto proved difficult at the very leaft. The attempt has commonly ended in bankruptcy. But when the affembly were led, through a contempt of moral, to a defiance of economical principles, it might at least have been expected, that nothing would be omitted on their part to leffen this difficulty, to prevent any aggravation of this bankruptcy. It might be expected that to render your Land-bank tolerable, every means would be adopted that could difplay openness and candour in the statement of the fecurity; every thing which could aid the recovery of the demand. To take things in their moft favourable point of view, your condition was that of a man of a large landed estate, which he wished to difpofe of for the discharge of a debt, and the fupply of certain fervices. Not being able instantly to fell, you wished to mortgage.

La Bruyere of Boffuef

mortgage. What would a man of fair intentions, and a commonly clear understanding, do in fuch circumftances? Ought he not firft to afcertain the grofs. value of the eftate; the charges of its managementand difpofition; the encumbrances perpetual and temporary of all kinds that affect it; then, ftriking a net furplus, to calculate the juft value of the fecurity? When that furplus (the only fecurity to the creditor) had been clearly ascertained, and properly vested in the hands of trustees; then he would indicate the parcels to be fold, and the time, and conditions of fale; after this, he would admit the public creditor, if he chofe it, to fubfcribe his ftock into this new fund; or he might receive propofals for an affignat from those who would advance money to purchase this fpecies of fecurity.

This would be to proceed like men of business, methodically and rationally; and on the only principles of public and private credit that have an existence. The dealer would then know exactly what he purchased; and the only doubt which could hang upon his mind would be, the dread of the refumption of the fpoil, which one day might be made (perhaps with an addition of punishment) from the facrilegiousgripe of thofe execiable wretche who could become purchafers at the auction of their innocent fellowcitizens.

An open and exact ftatement of the clear value of the property, and of the time, the circunftances, and the place of fale, were all neceffary, to efface as much as poflible the ftigma that has hitherto been branded on every kind of Land bank. It became neceffary on another principle, that is, on account of a pledge of faith previously given on that fubject, that their future fidelity in a flippery con cern might be established by their adherence to their firft engagement. When they had finally determined on a ftate refource from church booty, they

came,

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came, on the 14th of April 1790, to a folemn refolution on the fubject; and pledged themselves to their country, "that in the flatement of the public char. ges for each year there fhould be brought to ac count a fum fufficient for defraying the expences "of the R. C. A. religion, the fupport of the ministers at the altars, the relief of the poor, the penfions to the ecclefiaftics, fecular as well as regular, of the one and of the other fex, in order that the eftates and goods which are at the difpofal of the na<< tion may be difengaged of all charges, and employed by "the reprefentatives, or the legislative body, to the great " and most preffing exigencies of the ftate." They further engaged, on the fame day, that the fum neceffary for the year 1791 fhould be forthwith determined.

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In this refolution they admit it their duty to fhew diftinctly the expence of the above objects, which, by other refolutions, they had before engaged fhould be first in the order of provifion. They admit that they ought to fhew the eftate clear and difengaged of all charges, and that they fhould fhew it immediately. Have they done this immediately, or at any time? Have they ever furnished a rent-roll of the immoveable eftates, or given in an inventory of the moveable effects which they confifcate to their affignats? In what manner they can fulfil their engagemen's of holding out to public fervice "an eftate difengaged of all charges," without authenticating the value of the eftate, or the quantum of the charges, I leave it to their English admirers to explain. Inftantly upon this affurance, and previously to any one ftep towards making it good, they iffue, on the credit of fo handfome a declaration, fixteen millions fterling of their paper. This was manly. Who, after this masterly stroke, can doubt of their abilities in finance?-But then, before any other emiffion of thefe financial indulgences,

they

they took care at least to make good their original promife! If fuch eftimate, either of the va lue of the eftate, or the amount of the incumbrances, has been made, it has escaped me. I never

heard of it.

At length they have spoken out, and they have made a full difcovery of their abominable fraud, in holding out the church lands as a fecurity for any debts or any fervice whatsoever. They rob only to enable them to cheat, but in a very fhort time they defeat the ends both of the robbery and the fraud, by making out accounts for other purposes, which blow up their whole apparatus of force and of deception. I am obliged to M. de Calonne for his reference to the document which proves this extraordinary fact it had, by fome means, efcaped me. Indeed it was not neceffary to make out my affertion as to the breach of faith on the declaration of the 14th of April 1790. By a report of their committee it now appears, that the charge of keeping up the reduced ecclefiaftical establishments, and other expences attendant on religion, and maintaining the religious of both fexes, retained or penfioned, and the other concomitant expences of the fame nature, which they have brought upon themfelves by this convulfion in property, exceeds the income of the estates acquired by it in the enormous fum of two millions fterling annually; befides a debt of feven millions and upwards. Thefe are the calculating powers of impofture! This is the finance of philofophy! This is the refult of all the delufions held out to engage a miferable people in rebellion, murder, and facrilege, and to make them prompt and zealous inftruments in the ruin of their country! Never did a state, in any cafe, enrich itself by the confifcations of the citizens. This new experiment has fucceeded like all the reft. Every honeft mind, every true lover of liberty and humanity muft rejoice to find that

injustice