'I returned home, and immediately examined the papers, which I found to my great surprise and satisfaction, contained documents discovered by the secret cabinet of Vienna, which was the best served in Europe. This cabinet, by an understanding with the foreign post offices, habitually obtained copies of all the important papers that passed through them, and it had the means of decyphering them, however complicated and difficult the cypher might be. Among the papers handed me were copies of the despatches of M. de Vergennes, our ambassador at Stockholm, of the Marquis du Pons at Berlin, and of the private correspondence of the King of Prussia with his secret agents at Paris and Vienna, to whom he communicated his real views, and whose mission was wholly unknown to his ostensible ministers. This cabinet had also discovered the private correspondence of Louis XV with his secret agents at foreign courts, which was also entirely unknown to his ministers, especially to the minister of foreign affairs. This correspondence was under the direction of the Prince de Conti, and afterwards of the Count de Broglie, who employed as secretaries, Favier, well known for his political writings, and Dumouriez. The ambassadors were not all in the secret, and the Prince de Rohan was of this number, being a personal enemy of the Count de Broglie. But among the papers delivered, I found copies of the Count's correspondence with M. de Vergennes decyphered.

"I made haste to inform the ambassador of these important discoveries, and laid before him the specimens I had received. He was quite delighted, as may well be supposed, more especially as he labored at court under the suspicion of being more intent upon pleasure than business. The next day, I repaired again to the rendezvous with the man in the mask, and gave him the thousand ducats. He handed me other papers, still more interesting than the first; and during the whole period of my stay at Vienna, he continued to supply me with information. I met him regularly twice every week, and always at midnight. The affair was kept an entire secret between the ambassador, myself, and a single secretary of tried discretion, who copied the papers. These were afterwards returned to our friend in the mask.'

The first partition of Poland took place during the embassy of the Cardinal de Rohan at Vienna; and as it was so clearly the interest of France to oppose this measure, if necessary, by actual force, it has sometimes been thought, that the French cabinet could not have been made acquainted with the negotiations, that were privately carried on between the three powers upon this subject; and the blame has been thrown upon the Cardinal, who being a young and dissolute

nobleman, has been supposed not to have supplied his court with proper information. The question, whether or not the French government were really apprized of the plot in season to defeat it, is discussed by Schoell in his History of Treaties, vol. xiv. p. 72; and is touched upon by the writer of a late very able article on the partition of Poland in the Edinburgh Review. It is rather remarkable, however, that neither of these writers adverts, in connexion with this subject, to the singular circumstance, described in the above extract from the Abbé Georgel, although they mention the Abbé's Memoirs. It is known that the Cardinal himself, at a subsequent period of his life, declared that he was constantly, and accurately informed of the most secret transactions of the Austrian cabinet, at the time of the partition, and regularly transmitted the information to the Duke d'Aiguillon, whose imbecility and ignorance of business prevented him from taking advantage of it. This statement of the Cardinal, of the extent of his intelligence, seems to agree very well with the description given by Georgel, of the nature of the communications made to him by his friend in the mask, and would lead us to suppose, that he was in possession of this source of information at the time of the partition. In this case there would be no doubt, that the Cardinal was fully and accurately informed upon the matter. Soulaviè also affirms expressly, that the Cardinal, by means of his secret agents in the Austrian cabinet, transmitted to his government the most authentic and important documents respecting the first negotiations about the partition of Poland.

On the other hand, it may be remarked, that the Cardinal did not arrive at Vienna as ambassador, till the 6th of January 1772; that the Austrian cabinet gave their formal assent to the partition, by an act signed the 19th of February of the same year; and that the first treaty of partition, between the three Powers, was signed at St Petersburgh, on the 5th of August next following. Now the Cardinal was recalled from Vienna in July 1774, and the Abbé Georgel mentions, in the above extract, that the communication with his friend in the mask began some time before the Cardinal's departure, a designation of time, which can hardly be supposed to allude to the first six months of his residence. It remains, the matter of doubt, whether the Cardinal obtained hi

of the partitioning intrigue through the channel of the man in the mask. Schoell states, that a certain Mr Barth, at that time attached to the embassy, took the credit of the discovery, and pretended that he had communicated it to the ambassador. Schoell, also, states that he had seen letters written by this Barth, from Vienna, to his private correspondents, under date of February and March 1772, in which the particulars of the negotiations are mentioned. On the strength of these letters, both Schoell, and the writer in the Edinburgh Review, seem disposed to allow Barth the credit he claimed. It may be remarked, however, that as Barth was probably the person mentioned by Georgel, as employed in copying the communications of the man in the mask, he might have obtained from them the information which he gave to his correspondents, if we suppose these communications to have taken place as early as the partition.

The claim of Barth to the honor of the discovery, therefore, rests, after all, in a great measure, upon the degree of credit that may attach to his own assertion, which is in some degree inconsistent with the combined statements of Georgel and Soulaviè. As to the general question, there is very little doubt, that the court of France were fully informed on the subject, while the negotiations were still pending. Dumouriez, who was about this time employed as a French agent in Poland, states in his Memoirs, that he learnt, as early as the year 1770, from intercepted letters, that a partition was in agitation, and transmitted the information to his court, accompanied by a map of Poland, in which the shares of the three Powers were marked out in colors, nearly in the manner in which they were afterwards actually limited. He supposes, that this measure was agreed upon in general terms at the personal interviews of the Emperor Joseph II and Frederick, at Neisse and Neustadt, in 1769 and 1770; and this supposition has certainly great internal probability; although Dohm, in his very candid and judicious Memoirs, attempts to invalidate it, and attaches but little importance to the evidence of Dumouriez. We have been led to make these remarks, by the connexion between the subject, and the curious incident related in the above extract from Georgel. We may add, that the corruption and imbecility of the French government at this time, are too notorious to make it neces

sary to account for their obvious neglect of their own interest, by supposing their ignorance of the pending negotiations, which, if real, would only have been another result of the same general cause. The administration of the Duke de Choiseul formed, to a certain extent, an exception to this remark; and it is well known, that when Louis XV heard of the partition, he said to those about him, in reference to this minister, If the other had been here now, we should not have seen this.'

We have dwelt principally on the part of the work before us, which describes the earlier events of the life and reign of the Queen of France, because they are less publicly known, and are also more agreeable to contemplate, than the bloody scenes of the revolution. The work forms, however, a very valuable addition to the history of this latter period, and will be regarded by the future historian, as the most authentic source of information upon the private character and conduct of Marie Antoinette. Madame Campan continued with her royal mistress, till the tenth of August; and after the emigration of the nobility had removed from about the person of the king and queen almost all their immediate attendants of a higher rank, she, with her family, took their places, and associated upon a footing of the most unreserved confidence with the royal family. She was, therefore, able to give a complete picture of the interior of the Tuilleries at this interesting crisis; and as she has judiciously omitted, in a great measure, the detail of facts before publicly known, the narrative is almost wholly new.

It is impossible to read the accounts of this period, without feeling the fullest conviction, that, whatever may have been the general and remote causes of the revolution, the immediate form of it was determined by the personal weakness of the king. Occasions repeatedly offered themselves, when a slight exertion of vigor on his part, would have given an entirely different turn to subsequent events. To mention only one of the more remarkable; if the king had n his escort of cavalry to charge the populace, wh attempted to arrest him at Varennes, he mi least question, have effected his escape, would have taken another course. Wh to him, he inquired whether the actio

being told that it would, refused to allow the charge, having resolved from the beginning, that the blood of his subjects should never be shed on his account. The queen, whose character was of a higher order, felt, and lamented, the want of energy in the king, but could do nothing to remedy the evil. The occasional attempts, which she made for this purpose, only rendered her the peculiar object of the popular odium; and sometimes precipitated the progress of events. Thus, by persuading the king to put his veto upon the banishment of the priests, a measure which, under the circumstances, could not possibly do any real good, she in fact gave occasion to the resignation of the ministers that followed, and to the subsequent bursts of popular fury, on the 20th of July, and 10th of August. The following very just remarks were addressed to Madame Campan, by the queen herself, in relation to the king's character, and her own position, and show how correct a judgment she had formed of both.

'The king, said she, is no coward; on the contrary, he has a great deal of passive courage; but he is crushed to the earth by a mauvaise honte, a distrust of himself, which proceeds as much from education as character. He is afraid to give orders, and especially to address a number of persons together. He lived to the age of twenty one under the eye of Louis XV, and in a state of constraint and uneasiness. This circumstance augmented his natural timidity. As things now stand, an occasional address to the Parisians, well timed, and well spoken, would have a most beneficial effect; but the king cannot bring himself to articulate a word. The printed addresses, which they advise us to circulate, only make matters worse. For myself, I could act with vigor; I could shew myself, if necessary, on horseback; but to what effect? There would be at once a general cry of Austrian influence, and female management; and by exhibiting myself, I should make the king appear insignificant. In a case like this, a queen consort must be quiet, and prepare to die.'

At this disastrous epoch, the king sunk at times into complete discouragement. Once he passed ten days in succession without uttering a word, even to his family, excepting the few that were necessary in a game of trictrac, which he played every day after dinner with his sister, Madame Elizabeth. The queen finally roused him from this lethargy of despair, by throwing herself at his feet, and suggesting every motive that could alarm and affect him. She reminded him of the New Series, No. 17.

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