precipitancy or enthusiasm of conception and imagination. It is feldom that our firft thought, even upon any fubject, is fufficiently just." Admirable difcovery! Yet this mongrel patriot was equally loud in his praises of the former conftitution of France, which admitted but of one chamber; and has been invariably virulent in his abuse of the British conftitution, in which all the advantages which he defcribes, as refulting from a divifion of chambers, are poffeffed in an infinitely greater degree.

PAINE fuffers no opportunity to escape of gratifying his malignant hatred of the form of government under which he was born; and if it were not for the rancour of his heart, which is ftrongly manifefted in every line, his monkey-like jargon-if we may be allowed to ufe fuch an expreffionwould excite laughter.

"As an hereditary executive, called a King, is a perfect abfurdity in itself, any attachment to it is equally abfurd. It is neither inftin&t nor reafon : and if this attachment is what is called royalifm in France, then is a royalist inferior in character to every fpecies of the animal world; for what can that being be, who acts neither by instinct nor by reafon? Such a being merits rather our derifion than our pity; and it is only when it affumes to act its folly, that it becomes capable of provoking republican indignation. In every other cafe it is too contemptible to excite anger. For my own part, when I contemplate the self-evident abfurdity of the thing, I can fcarcely permit myself to believe that there exifts in the highminded nation of France, fuch a mean and filly animal as a royalift."-The high-minded nation of France!!!-Well done, Thomas! We shall next be told of the free Algerines, and the independent inhabitants of Turkey!

It is truly curious to fee what ingenuity this wretched mortal exerts in the mode of introducing his panegyric on the number fixed by the conftitution to form the Executive Directory. Like a true fyftem-monger, he makes every thing, even reafon and common fenfe, bend to his fyftem; and, after ringing the changes, for fome time, on what he calls an individual and a plural executive, deciding, of course, in favour of the latter, he feeks to justify the preference which he gives to the number five, in the following extraordinary manner;

"I have no magical partiality to any particular number, but whenever an obfervation can be drawn from the economy of nature, it is worth attending to; and the more fo, as it has been customary to make comparisons between the body politic and the natural body. Following then this idea, we fee that nature, in the construction of the human frame, has acted by the number five. There are nomi. nally five fenfes. Had more been neceffary, the would have given

C4

them.

them. Each of the extremities alfo terminates in that number of fingers or toes, and we cannot conceive the usefulness or the want of more. It is also worth obferving that nature appears to have been ftudious in exploding individuality or the number one. She has not committed the prefervation of any of the fenfes to a fingle organ. Seeing and hearing, the two principal fenfes, have double organs; fo alfo has tafte for fmelling, though a different modification, is the forerunner of tafte; and as to feeling, it exifts in every part of the body. If it fhould be objected that fmelling is abfolutely a distinct fenfe, and not a diftinct modification, and that it has but one organ, the noftril, it may be remarked that this fenfe is the most inferior, the leaft neceffary, and the eafieft difpenfed with, of all the fenfes. If then we take nature for our guide in conftructing a government, we muft, in the first place, explode individuality, or the number one, from all the upper works of government at leaft; and as to plurality, we may as well follow her method as invent another. This is done in conftituting a directory of five members, though it is most probable the idea of copying nature did not occur at the time. The reason why the two councils are numerous is not from the neceffity of their being fo, on account of business, but because that every part of the republic fhall find and feel itself in the national reprefentation."

After the pompous panegyric fo emphatically pronounced by this ardent republican, (who feveral years ago, publicly declared war against the whole hell of monarchy,") on the conftitution of 1795, it might naturally be fuppofed that any attack upon that conftitution would draw forth his utmost indignation; and that he would ftand forward as a voluntary champion to defend it against every affailant.-But, it appears, that none but the advocates for monarchy can excite the wrath of Thomas, and that, all irafcible as he is, the venom of his pen is never directed against republicans, (at least in France,) particularly when thofe republicans are his patrons and his paymasters, however flagrant their vices, however enormous their crimes.

(To be continued.)

ART. IV. Confiderations upon the State of Public Affairs, at the Beginning of the Year 1798. Part the Firft. By the Author of "Confiderations, &c. at the Beginning of the Year, 1796." Pp. 69. Price 1s. 6d. Rivingtons.

THE

HE unprecedented calamities which at this moment afflict a very large part of Europe, and the ftill greater dangers to which the reft of it is expofed, may be afcribed chiefly to the erroneous ideas which have prevailed refpecting the nature of the fubfifting conteft. The combined powers have confidered the war as an ordinary war, the refult of which would

depend

depend upon the comparative force of the contending parties, upon the number of their respective armies and fleets, the fkill and experience of their commanders, the discipline and bravery of their troops, and the extent and folidity of their refourées. Relying upon fuch calculations, which were decidedly in their favour, thofe powers altogether overlooked the extraordinary means on which the enemy placed his chief dependence. They faw, indeed, and refifted the physical force which was opposed to them; but they were not at all aware of that moral that revolutionary force, which has enabled France to set at nought all the rules of military tactics, and, in fpite of every apparent difadvantage-of internal weakness and difunion-of domeftic convulfions of famine and bankruptcy-to vanquish the most difciplined armies, and to reduce a great part of Europe to a state of unparalleled subjection and debasement.

To promote the continuance of an error which has already produced fuch mischievous effects, and which, if perfifted in, threatens to be fatal to civilized fociety, feems to be the main object of the work before us. In the most explicit terms the author avows his design to be to draw off the attention of his readers from the revolutionary "tenets and principles," to which, in the opinion of many perfons of the moft respectable talents, France is chiefly indebted for her fucceffes, and to confider her "greatnefs" and her "ambition" as the only things we have either to dread or guard against. Referring to a work which he published two years ago, he says that he then

"Attempted to difentangle the war from that labyrinth of fanaricifm and folly, in which its caufses and its objects were loft and confounded, and to bring back the minds of men to the plain trodden path of common fenfe and experience. It appeared defirable at that time to feparate the caufes of the war from the doctrines of the French revolution, and the objects of it from the establishment of any parti

cular

The work here alluded to by the author, is entitled, "Confiderations upon the State of Public Affairs, at the Beginning of the Year, 1796." In that, as, indeed, in every production of his pen, the author is betrayed, by the want of a fixed principle, into the most palpable contradictions. In proof of this affertion, we shall quote two short paffages, on the very point in queftion. "In the course of these enquiries, it become neceffary for me to connect the war with the principle of the French revolution; and that I may do so with more accuracy, I fhall first treat of them feparately, and afterwards combine them together, as far as they appear to me to act upon one another, and to be reciprocally causes and effects of our prefent dangers, apprehenfions, or difficulties." P. 6. "It is in pursuance of the plan

I have

cular form of government in France. It appeared important to fhew, that we were struggling for power inftead of opinions, and for our commerce and marine, to which our independence is attached, inftead of fanciful fpeculations, and notions of piety and abstract virtue, to which it is impoffible for two men to attach the fame ideas of right or importance. I wished to fhew the earth rather over-run than corrupted, and the fences of nations thrown down by cannon and foldiers, inftead of governments difturbed by novelties and philofophers; to dif perfe the fog and vapour of metaphyfics, and let the light fall upon the real barriers of Europe, thrown down or removed by the perfidy of treaties, and the violence of arms; to remind men of ancient limits, of territorial rights, of national liberty and national character; and to hold up to view the monftrous ambition of the enemy, which has drugged every folly, and pointed every crime."

This recapitulation is intended not merely as an avowal of his former fentiments, but as a declaration of his prefent creed. Notwithstanding all the additional light which has been fo dearly purchafed by experience, he informs us that he "cannot fee any reafon to induce him to change his opinion." "I confefs (fays he) it is not now the French revolution that I dread, but the French greatnefs." P. 3. As he still continues wedded to these opinions, we fear that his attachment to them is indiffoluble, and we should therefore think it a hopeless task to endeavour to prevail on him to repudiate them. But we feel ourfelves bound to enter our proteft against the promulgation of fuch opinions, because we are convinced that they have a moft pernicious tendency. A work profeffedly jacobinical we confider as lefs mifchievous, than one which inculcates fuch notions. The former is not calculated to operate on thofe upon whofe exertions the fate of fociety depends. The latter tends to prolong the charm which has hitherto infatuated the guardians of regular government and of focial order, and to prevent them from abandoning that delufive courfe, of which the next step may plunge them into the gulph of deftruction.

That the author fhould think it "defirable" or even practicable to separate the causes of the war and the doctrines of the French revolution, is to us matter of astonishment. Never

I have laid down that I am thus careful to feparate the principle of the French revolution from the caufe of the war, though I have no fcruple to affert, that nothing but the war could have turned the course, and eluded the violence of the revolution." P. 15.-And he declares in P. 46, that if he did not believe that the principles of the French revolutionary fyftem were very generally and effectually exploded in France, he "would never advife nor confent to a pacification with that country, in any cafe short of an abfolute neceffity.”

before

before did fo ftrong a chain of evidence connect a war with its causes, as that which proves the prefent war to have been produced by the doctrines and principles of the French revofution. It would far exceed the limits we are obliged to obferve to go fully into this demonftration. It will, we trust, be amply fufficient for our purpofe, to remind our readers that the doctrines and principles in queftion had for their object, not merely the revolution of France, but that of the whole world-That the ufurping rulers of France have laboured, with unremitting affiduity, for the accomplishment of this object-That the war was entered into with the Emperor in order to complete the overthrow of the French monarchy, according to the well-known declaration of Briffot, "It was the abolition of royalty I had in vfew in caufing the war to be declared!"-That hoftilities were afterwards extended to other countries in purfuance of the impious defign, announced by the decree of fraternity, of affording military affiftance to the difaffected of all countries-And that, in furtherance of the fame scheme of universal revolution, France has had her emiffaries in every ftate, to inculcate her doctrines, and to excite the people to infurrection. The author, indeed, admits (P. 22) that "the moft active of the Jacobins were employed in the heart of those states at war with France;" and we conceive that no doubt can exift, even in his mind, refpecting the nature of their employment. The whole conduct of France during the war has been in perfect conformity to the above statement of her views. Her victories, her conquefts, her pacifications, nay, even her treatment of neutral powers, all concur in manifefting a fettled defign of giving effect to her revolutionary doctrines, by fubverting every established government, and by diforganizing every civilized ftate. The connection, therefore, which the author denies between the caufes of the war and the doctrines of the French revolution, is proved by the beft poffible evidence that of fact and experience.

To

But this view of the fubject, which the author has thought proper to defcribe as "a labyrinth of fanaticifm and folly," explains not only the caufes but the events of the war. the doctrines and principles of the French revolution, and to exertions which have been made through their influence to ftir up revolt, and to enlift the profligate, the difcontented, and the difaffected in every ftate, under the wide-fpreading banners of liberty, equality, and the rights of man, may be afcribed the aftonishing fucceffes of France, as well as her numberless aggrefions. By fuch means fhe has weakened the bond of focial union in the ftates which fhe has attacked by her arms, the has palfied the energy and destroyed the confidence of their governments, and the has even infufed treachery into their

armies;