perfon appointed to fhew them, we came to a very low wall, with a little wicket which was locked. After waiting fome time, and calling to no purpose, I propofed ftepping over the wall, which was not three feet high; but our guide darted with horror, and told me I fhould certainly be fhot bp the game-keeper. I inquired whether my appearance as an English traveller, this man's prefence, and the errand we were evidently come on to fee the grounds, would not protect me. He answered in the negative; which the game-keeper, when he came, very ferioufly and pofitively confirmed.

The infolent airs of all these servants and hangers-on exceeded imagination, but they were proportionably fervile to all who they had reafon to think had any intereft with their lords. Not that they were capable of the manly attention, the generous relpectful benevolence, which beams from the countenances of honeft English domeftics, on all thofe whom they know to be valued by their good mafter; the cringing of a Parifian was ever precifely the fame in all ranks, from a fhoe-black on the Pont Neuf to a Duke in the drawing-room.

The most truly refpectable people, as Mercier well obferves in his Tableau de Paris, were thofe of the middle ranks of life, people of trade or profeffions. Among thefe was to be found a great deal of principie, and much domeftic felicity, with fome fhare of information. This rank was the most free from the general ipirit of artifice and chicanery which made a ftriking part of the Paritan character. But it mu be confeffed that among this order of men originated that fpirit of enquiry and juigment, and the confequent indignation, that have led to the wonderful convulfions which now engage the attention of Europe, and which have run to the lengths they have, in confequence of the lowelt orders of fociety not being proportionably informed or virtuous.

I was fu pr fed, on being introduced into various Parian circles in 1786, to hear much unreferved political talk, and that of a nature which I had fuppofed would infallibly lead to the Baitile. Its prevailing tenour was, that neither the finances nor the authority of government could long be fupported; that the people would not long bear the exceffive taxes and exceffive oppreffion under which they groaned; and that the French in general were ardently defirous, and trongly flattered themfelves with the hopes of being, in a very few years, governed as we are. This was the converfation of people of confideration and property, even connected with the court, and thining in the elevated walks of 1fe. The prevailing fentiments of moft ranks were much in favour of the Englith, as the wonderful adoption of our tales and fashions of late years, and the avidity with which our publications were read, abundantly evince. I conceive the works of Mr. Mercier, efpecially his Tableau de Paris, have contributed to the prevalence of these featiments more than most books.

In October 1787, the public fentiments began to be greatly agitated. The banishment of the Parliament of Touloufe was much talked of; and when people's tongues were once let loofe, they began with one accord to hunt out all perfons fufpected of being fpies of government, and to treat them with jult indignity. One of thefe people being in the Caffé de Chartres leaning his head and arms upon a marble table, was known to a gentleman, who believed him to be liftening to the converfation of the place, and without any ceremony gave him a violent blow on the back of his head,

which drove his nofe against the table, and fent him bleeding out of the room. The company starting with furprife and indignation, the perion who gave the blow coolly faid, Ce n'eft qu'une moucle. It is but a fly. Alluding to the term mouchard, by which fuch people were dininguished, from their manner of blowing the nofe as a fignal to each other. Upon this the company were perfectly fatish d, and the poor muchord never returned.

Such occurrences however were but trifles compared with what happened in the next and the following years. Thofe events it would be fuperfluous to detail. Their great features are fufficiently well known, though a little distorted one way or other by party mifreprefentation. They exhibit, I conceive, in the beginning, one of the noblett fpectacles the world ever beheld. A great, rich, and powerful people, burting indignant from their long-oppreffive chains, with a fincere defire to learn to be what God and Nature intended they fhould be. Such I doubt not was their prevailing impulfe, and fuch, I will fill farther venture to fay, was the aim of the first leaders of this vat undertaking. I am authorifed to think fo by the almot unanimous declarations of better judges than myself, who now fay, that if the French had contented themselves with the conftitution they firit established, nobody could have objefted to it, as they had an undoubted right to amend a government which wanted it fo much as their old one did. Such perfons indeed did not make this declaration in 1789 or 1790. They inveighed then against every thing that was doing in France, as much as they do againit all the fucceeding horrors. But I fpeak of their judgment, not of their confiftency.

A much more refpectable set of politicians think the French revolution is nothing more than the refult of the chemes of a fet of defigning men, who for the last thirty years have been deliberately undermining all principle whatever; first preaching fine-fpun

fyftems of morality and fentiment; then gently infinuating that fuch fyftems wanted not the aid of religion, or at leaft of revelation; and in the end finally aiming to overturn all subordination, all regular government, and it feems all regular fociety, along with every thing mankind had hitherto held mott facred. Accordingly the ingenious perfonage who faid in a public affembly there is no God,' was a legitimate defcendant of others who had fome time before faid it in their hearts.' Heaven knows how many pretended philofophers may have come under this defcription! but Heaven forbid that all who have endeavoured to inftruct mankind, and who have notwithstanding been mistaken in fome points, thould be branded with it! Those who live in a country of free difcuffion, under a tolerant and rational religion, can form but inadequate conceptions of the indignant ftruggles of a manly and honeft mind, labouring to fhake off fhackles rivetted on in early youth, whofe mifchiefs are interwoven with all the private vices, and all the public abuses continually before his eyes. Who fhall fay for himself he could in fuch circumftances difcriminate truth from the multiplicity of falsehood fo artfully connected with it? Who could truft his mind, when fo mifled from the beginning to perceive and to love truth itself when difcovered? It furely becomes the friends of true chriftian piety to have great indulgence for thofe who have not been favoured with candid rational inftruction, like themfelves perhaps, but on the contrary have always been furrounded with perfons evidently impofing upon others more than their own hearts believed, while their manners difcredited every thing they pretended to reverence. The most honest and fagacious enquirer might not always be able to avoid fuch ftumbling-blocks." A fincere lover of truth, firm in his own principles, will refpect those who honeftly feek it, whether they meet his conclufions or not.

firmness with rectitude, he would neither have deferted his honour and his people, nor they perhaps have difappointed him! Interested and ferocious parties would in vain have tried to turn the popular tide against him, had he not, at fo critical a period, been induced, by evil counfellors, to for feit the confidence of his fubjects, and feparate their interet from his own. But how dearly has he paid for the guilt and folly of others! How de rly has the partner of his fate paid for her faults, let them have been what they would! May the error of this mot wretched princess be remembered only as a warning; and may her fuffering, have corrected and atoned for them! Of her political faults, during her profperity, I prefume not to form an idea; for who could dive into the intricacies of one of the most intriguing of all courts? Her fubfequent conduct, her plots as they are called, her treafon agaist her oppreffo:s, none that can put themfelves in her fituation will wonder at or blame. Her private faults I will not palliate. They were but too well known when fhe was in a fituation that might be fuppofed out of the reach of all juice, except the divine; but they will not fail now to be blackened, no doubt, where that can be done. Let it however be remembered, that the itate prisons revealed no fecrets to the difhonour of this unfortunate Queen, no victims of her jealoufy or retentment, though they were often filled with thofe of the worthless mistresses of former kings. The canting Madame Maintenon fpared no pains to entrap and to confine for life a Duch bookfeller who had expofed her character; but Marie Antoinette took not the leaft vengeance of the moft abufive things written and published by perfons within her own power.

The French appear to have a great many faults of their own to purge off before they are capable of fettling into a well-regulated itate-faults which I am ready to allow in a great meafure originated from their former bad

government. It has of late been a favourite idea, borrowed from one of their fatirifts, that a Frenchman is like an animal begotten between a monkey and a tyger. If this illiberat reflection were juft, could it be expected that fuch an animal, having been long chained up, goaded, and half-itarved, thould not be a little unruly when he had broke from his confinement? Nor would the goaders deferve a great deal of pity if they felt his fangs. His wounds indeed are dreadful, and no wonder honeft John Bul is easily made to believe him as bad as a fiery dragon, and to brandish his horns a little in his own defence; but when he thall find this monitor keeps at home, and has perhaps chafed and fretted himself a-leep, or, which is rather to be hoped, has lain down quietly, defiring only to eat and drink in peace without a chain, his own generous nature will furely not grudge fuch comforts, even to his pretended natural enemy,' but will rather regret that the poor animal has found himfelf obliged to take fo much trouble to obtain them, He may also thankfully learn from this example, to eat his own grafs in quiet, without running at any body that does not offend him, but to beware of a chain, even though it were of filk or gold.

To drop allegory, let us, as I have unawares been led fo far into this fubject, confider a little the applications to be made from it. I have always wondered at thofe who made the cafe of the French fo much our own, whether they thought our government wanted a reform, or not. It feems more peculiarly injudicious in the latter class to have done fo, as the neceffity for the French to amend their condition was undoubted, and we had long held them in contempt for not attempting it. Exclamations of danger to ourselves from their attempt (fo long as they kept to their own affairs) implied therefore a confcious weakness and error at home. On the contrary, I believe fome of the first Englishmen who exulted with manly

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