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and Punishments, are fent down to the foldiers along with their civic oaths. Of this I have no doubt; as I understand, that a certain defcription of read. ing makes no inconfiderable part of their mili tary exercises, and that they are full as well fup. plied with the ammunition of pamphlets as of cartridges.

To prevent the mischiefs arifing from confpira cies, irregular confultations, feditious committees, and monftrous democratic affemblies [ comitia, comices'] of the foldiers, and all the diforders arifing from idlenefs, luxury, diffipation, and infubordination, I believe the most astonishing means have been used, that ever occurred to men, even in all the inventions of this prolific age. It is no lefs than this:-The King has promulgated in circular letters to all the regiments his direct authority and encouragement, that the feveral corps fhould join themselves with the clubs and confederations in the feveral municipalities, and mix with them in their feafts and civic entertainments! This jolly discipline, it seems, is to foften the ferocity of their minds; to reconcile them to their bottle companions of other defcriptions; and to merge particular confpiracies in more general affociations*. That this remedy would be pleasing to the foldiers,

Comme fa Majefté y a reconnu, non une systême d'associations particulières, mais une réunion de volontés de tous les François pour la liberté et la profperité communes, ainfi pour le maintien de l'ordre publique; il a penfé qu'il convenoit que chaque regiment prit part a ces fêtes civiques pour multiplier les rapports, et referrer les liens d'union entre les citoyens et les troupes.-Left I should not be credited, I infert the words, authorising the troops to feast with the popular confederacies.

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as they are described by Mr. de la Tour du Pin, I can readily believe; and that, however mutinous otherwife, they will dutifully fubmit themfelves to these royal proclamations. But I fhould queftion whether all this civic fwearing, clubbing, and feafting, would difpofe them more than at prefent they are difpofed, to an obedience to their officers; or teach them better to fubmit to the auftere rules of military difcipline. It will make them admirable citizens after the French mode, but not quite fo good foldiers after any mode. A doubt might well arife, whether the converfations at these good tables, would fit them a great deal the better for the character of mere inftruments, which this veteran officer and statesman juftly obferves, the nature of things always requires an army to be.

Concerning the likelihood of this improvement in difcipline, by the free converfation of the foldiers with the municipal feftive focieties, which is thus officially encouraged by royal authority and fanction, we may judge by the ftate of the municipalities themselves, furnifhed to us by the war minister in this very fpeech. He conceives good hopes of the fuccefs of his endeavours towards reftoring order for the prefent from the good difpofition of certain regiments; but he finds fomething cloudy with regard to the future. As to preventing the return of confusion" for this, the administra"tion (fays he) cannot be answerable to you, as long as they fee the municipalities arrogate to "themselves an authority over the troops, which your inftitutions have referved wholly to the mo"narch.

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"narch. You have fixed the limits of the military authority and the municipal authority. You "have bounded the action, which you have per"mitted to the latter over the former, to the right "of requifition; but never did the letter or the fpirit of your decrees authorise the commons in "these municipalities to break the officers, to try "them, to give orders to the foldiers, to drive "them from the posts committed to their guard, to stop them in their marches ordered by the King,

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or, in a word, to enflave the troops to the caprice "of each of the cities or even market towns "through which they are to pafs."

Such is the character and difpofition of the municipal fociety which is to reclaim the foldiery, to bring them back to the true principles of military fubordination, and to render them machines in the hands of the fupreme power of the country! Such are the distempers of the French troops! Such is their cure! As the army is, fo is the navy. The municipalities fuperfede the orders of the affembly, and the feamen in their turn fuperfede the or→ ders of the municipalities. From my heart I pity the condition of a refpectable fervant of the public, like this war minifter, obliged in his old age to pledge the affembly in their civic cups, and to enter with an hoary head into all the fantaftick vagaries of thefe juvenile politicians. Such schemes are not like propofitions coming from a man of fifty years wear and tear amongst mankind. They seem rather fuch as ought to be expected from thofe grand compounders in politics, who fhorten the road to their degrees in the

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ftate; and have a certain inward fanatical affurance and illumination upon all fubjects; upon the credit of which one of their doctors has thought fit, with great applause, and greater fuccefs, to caution the affembly not to attend to old men, or to any perfons who valued themfelves upon their experience. I fuppofe all the minifters of ftate muft qualify, and take this teft; wholly abjuring the errors and herefies of experience and obfervation. Every man has his own relifh. But I think, if I could not attain to the wifdom, I would at least preferve fomething of the ftiff and peremptory dignity of age. These gentlemen deal in regeneration; but at any price I should hardly yield my rigid fibres to be regenerated by them; nor begin, in my grand climacteric, to fquall in their new accents, or to ftammer, in my fecond cradle, the elemental founds of their barbarous metaphyfics *. Si ifti mihi largiantur ut repuerifcam, et in eorum cunis vagiam, valde recufem!

The imbecility of any part of the puerile and pedantic fyftem, which they call a conftitution, cannot be laid open without discovering the utter infufficiency and mischief of every other part with which it comes in contact, or that bears any the remotest relation to it. You cannot propofe a remedy for the incompetence of the crown, without displaying the debility of the affembly. You cannot deliberate on the confufion of the army of the state, without disclosing the worse disorders of the armed municipalities. The military lays open the civil,

❤ This war-minifter has fince quitted the fchool and refigned his office.

and the civil betrays the military anarchy. I with every body carefully to perufe the eloquent speech (fuch it is) of Monf. de la Tour du Pin. He attributes the falvation of the municipalities to the good behaviour of fome of the troops. Thefe troops are to preferve the well-difpofed part of those municipalities, which is confeffed to be the weakeft, from the pillage of the worst disposed, which is the ftrongeft. But the municipalities affect a fovereignty and will command thofe troops which are neceffary for their protection. Indeed they must command them or court them. The municipalities, by the neceffity of their fituation, and by the republican powers they have obtained, muft, with relation to the mili tary, be the mafters, or the fervants, or the confederates, or each fucceffively; or they must make a jumble of all together, according to circumstances. What government is there to coerce the army but the municipality, or the municipality but the army? To preserve concord where authority is extinguished, at the hazard of all confequences, the affembly attempts to cure the diftempers by the distempers themselves; and they hope to preferve themselves from a purely military democracy, by giving it a debauched interest in the municipal.

If the foldiers, once come to mix for any time in the municipal clubs, cabals, and confederacies, an elective attraction will draw them the lowest and most desperate part. With them will be their habits, affections, and fympathies. The military confpiracies, which are to be remedied by civic confederacies; the rebellious municipalities, which are to be rendered obedient by furnishing them with the

means

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