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averse to it, from his innate repugnance to the shedding of they had the power to do this magnificently, and they must blood, and because it was now directed against his own do it! This speech was received by a tempest of acclamation brothers, his most ardent friends, and against those powers from all sides. Robespierre alone stood forth to call in who were anxious to liberate him from his thraldom and question this universal feeling. He was for a time overhis degradation, and once more re-establish his throne on its whelmed by clamour; but, with the unconquerable perancient foundation. But Louis, thinking thus, dared not tinacity of his character, he rose above all the tumult, and, reveal his genuine sentiments; he was compelled to pretend instead of being dry, didactic, and merely pompous in his to go along with the desires of the nation. The other man speeches, he now became animated and eloquent. The very who was opposed to war, and who dared to express his men who resisted him became admirers, and Fréron, in his opinion openly and boldly, was Robespierre. The minister Orateur du Peuple, said, "Preserve these speeches; they are Narbonne wished for war, because the party which had masterpieces of eloquence that should be preserved in every elevated him had made him believe that it would enable family, in order to reach future generations." At first, him to restore the monarchy to its pristine vigour. The Robespierre rejected bluntly the idea of war, but at length Girondists and the jacobins wished for it, because they he exclaimed, "I am conquered; I also demand war! What believed that it would put arms into the hands of the nation, do I say? I demand a war more terrible, more implacable which would, in its enthusiasm, beat down foreign despots, than you demand! I demand it, not as an act of prudence, and lead the French nation to develop itself into a of reason, of policy, but as an act of despair. I demand republic. This republic was the especial idolatry of the that it shall be deadly, heroic, such as the genius of Liberty Gironde and of the vehement journalists, as Marat, Brissot, declares against all despotism; such as the people of the Fréron, and the like. There were certain of them that revolution under their own leaders would render it; not feared, at the same time, that it might lead to a military such as intriguing cowards would have it, or as the amdictatorship in the hands of La Fayette, whom they hated, bitious generals and traitorous ministers would carry it on. amongst whom was Camille Desmoulins. Danton, too, Frenchmen! heroes of the 14th of July! who, without guide went for a time with the court, because, most mercenary of or commander, yet acquired your liberty, come forth, and men, he was in its pay. But Robespierre was the most let us form that army which you tell us is destined to sagacious of them all. This man, who was now rising fast conquer the universe. But where is the general-where into a dictatorship himself, saw clearly that a war, success- that imperturbable defender of the rights of the people, ful or unsuccessful, must ultimately annihilate the popular who, born with a hatred to tyrants, has never breathed the power, on which he was building his ascendancy, poisonous air of courts, whose virtue is attested by the and inaugurate a military despotism. If the war was hatred and disgrace of palaces; this general, whose hands, unsuccessful, foreign armies would overrun France, and guiltless of our blood, are worthy to bear before us the tread into the earth the new liberty; if successful, it banner of freedom; where is he, this new Cato, this third would give the favour of the nation to aspiring military Brutus, this unknown hero? Let him appear, he shall be men. He knew that martial glory and ideas of aristocracy our leader; but where is he? Where are the soldiers of the are inseparable; that the people, in their moments of grate- 14th of July, who laid down, in the presence of the people, ful and proud excitement for victories, are always ready to the arms furnished them by despotism? Soldiers of Châteausacrifice their wealth and their privileges to conquerors; Vieux, where are you? Come and direct our efforts. Alas! that their national exultation is the most fatal of snares, and it is easier to rob death of his prey than despotism of its almost always puts their necks under the yoke of martial victims! Citizens! conquerors of the Bastille, come! dominance, making all peaceful and civil virtues poor and Liberty summons you, and assigns you the honour of pale in appearance; that England had had her Cromwell, the first rank. Ye are mute. Misery, ingratitude, and the and, far worse, her Monk, and a great and successful war hatred of the aristocracy have dispersed you. For whole by France would be the tomb of the constitution. Had years you have demanded arms; you have been refused Robespierre been as humane and noble a man as he was far- uniforms; you have been condemned to wander from seeing, he would have been one of the greatest instead of one department to department, the derision of ministers, the of the most detestable of mankind. How entirely he was contempt of patricians, who see you only to enjoy your right history has now taught us. This war, moreover, was distress." Continuing in this strain, he again demanded destined, by the different views which they took, to break up where was the minister worthy to conduct this war, the the connection of Robespierre and the Girondists, and ulti-general to command in it? Were they Narbonne and la mately of the Girondists and the jacobins. Still more, to Fayette? "The very word," he exclaimed, "has broken terminate in the destruction of both parties. all the charm! Adieu, victory and independence of the people! if the sceptres of Europe shall ever be broken, it will not be by such hands."

The question was debated at the jacobin club on the 12th of December. Brissot, the leader of the Gironde, declared absolutely and ardently for war. He declared that war was necessary to consolidate liberty, and to clear the constitution of all taint of despotism; that the reputation of France demanded that she should chastise and disperse that congregation of brigands at Coblentz,which kept alive the insolence of the aristocrats, and that she should humble those foreign despots who were perpetually menacing French liberty; that

Robespierre, by this ruse of rhetoric, had brought the people to that point where he was so omnipotent. He thus enabled himself to cast the most deadly suspicions on all who were to work out this war. He declared all these heroic illusions deadly pitfalls. That war was the mortal foe of liberty; that those who recommended it sought in it only treasonable plots against the revolution, for not all the

A.D. 1791.]

ATTEMPT TO RECONCILE ORLEANS AND THE COURT.

patriotism in the world, all the subtlest political commonplaces, could alter the nature of things. He called upon all true patriots to measure with a steady eye the depth of the abyss to which they were approaching; and he finished by declaring that, with the palatine of Posnia, he preferred the storms of liberty to the serenity of slavery.

Louvet and Brissot strove to move Robespierre, but in vain. There ensued a rupture betwixt the Girondists and Robespierre, whilst Marat and Desmoulins seized the opportunity to reopen the past life of Brissot, and to embitter the discussion. The cordeliers supported Robespierre, for they were, like Desmoulins, afraid of La Fayette's rising, through war, into a military dictatorship, and crushing both jacobins and cordeliers. Danton, in the pay of the court, vacillated betwixt the two parties. He declared that he was not against war, but against the men who were to manage it; that the policy of the kings would drive them into war, so that war France must have; but he desired the people not to precipitate it till they were sure of the fitness of the executive and the commanders.

At this moment, the duke of Orleans, seeing the dangerous lengths to which the jacobins, and especially the Girondists, were driving, and that there was little disguise as to the preparations for a republic, endeavoured to reconcile himself to the court, and to assist in checking the rapid tendency to the destruction of the monarchy. He had made a similar endeavour under the constituent assembly; his present attempt was doomed to be still more disastrous. This is Bertrand de Molleville's account of the circumstance:-"I made a report on the same day to the council of the visit paid me by the duke of Orleans, and of our conversation. The king determined to receive him; and, on the next day, he had a conversation with him of more than half an hour, with which his majesty appeared to be much pleased. 'I think, like you,' said the king, 'that he is perfectly sincere, and that he will do all that lies in his power to repair the mischief which he has done, and in which it is possible that he may not have taken so large a part as we have imagined.' "On the following Sunday he came to the king's levée, where he met with the most humiliating reception from the courtiers, who were ignorant of what had passed, and from the royalists, who were in the habit of repairing to the palace in great numbers on that day, to pay their court to the royal family. They crowded around him, making believe to tread upon his toes, and to thrust him towards the door, so as to prevent his entering. He went down stairs to the queen, whose table was already spread. The moment that he appeared, a cry was raised, on all sides, of 'Gentlemen, take care of the dishes!' as though they had been sure that his pockets were full of poison. The insulting murmurs which his presence everywhere excited forced him to retire without seeing the royal family. He was pursued to the queen's staircase, where some one spat upon his head, and several times upon his coat. Rage and vexation were depicted in his countenance, and he left the palace convinced that the instigators of the outrages which he had received were the king and queen, who knew nothing of the matter, and who, indeed, were extremely angry about it. He swore implacable hatred against them, and but too faithfully kept this horrible oath. I was at the palace that day, and

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witnessed all that I have here related." Thus did the imbecile aristocrats who surrounded Louis continually destroy every chance of his better fortunes.

Whilst the king's friends were thus every day ruining him by their mad acts, the clubs and the assembly were urging on the war spirit. In the assembly the Girondists carried the sway; but in the clubs the supporters of Robespierre ruled, and they were hostile to almost every man in the executive or at the head of the army. They relied on the support of the mob, now called the sansculottes, men without breeches; and this ragged party, detesting everything of an orderly or aristocratic stamp, were urged on by Marat, Prudhomme, and Desmoulins, in their journals. They all agreed in denouncing Brissot, the opponent of Robespierre; but Brissot, on the other hand, was supported by Guadet, Gensonné, Vergniaud, Condorcet, and all the Gironde party. This party laboured incessantly for the war; and, on the 21st of December, Leopold, the emperor of Austria, furnished them with an excellent pretext for demanding an instant declaration. Leopold had declared, in reply to the request of Louis, that all menaces against France should cease, "that the sovereigns had united for the maintenance of public tranquillity, and the honour and safety of the crowns." On this there was a loud outcry in the assembly amongst the Girondists. It was thus clear, they said, that there was a conspiracy of the monarchs against France; that the ministers knew of it, and had concealed it. On the 25th Louvet demanded that the emigrant princes should be condemned for contumacy, since they had refused the king's request, that they should lay down their arms and return to France; and that war should be declared against all the enemies of the revolution. He was supported by Isnard; but Guadet thought they had better wait a week longer; and the question was adjourned to the 1st of January. On the 29th Brissot asserted that the kings were afraid of commencing war with France, and that, therefore, the emigrants might be at once dispersed, and that it ought to be done. On the 31st, the last day of the year, Louis sent his minister for foreign affairs, Duport, to communicate a message from the emperor, stating that the elector of Treves, alarmed at the menaces of France, had consulted him, and that he had ordered marshal Bender to advance with his army to the elector's defence. Louis professed to be greatly indignant at this reply, but, instead of admitting that it justified an immediate declaration of war, he said he would make one more energetic protest, and that, in case it did not produce the desired effect, he would be ready-in rather vague language-to maintain the dignity and security of the nation. The Feuillants raised some sounds of applause, but the Gironde expressed extreme disgust, and the abbé Fauchet and Goupilleau proposed that, on the coming new year's day, the usual visits of felicitation and compliment to the king should be omitted. Even the moderate Pastoret coincided with this, and it was accordingly decreed. With the abolition of this last token of respect towards the monarch, and with renewed preparations for war, the generals each hastening to their respective commands, closed the year 1791.

The year 1792 opened in England with a state of intense

anxiety regarding the menacing attitude of affairs in was about to burst forth on the most wholesale scale of France. There were all the signs of a great rupture with aggrandisement that the world had ever seen! Two days the other continental nations; yet the king, in opening afterwards, Mr. Whitbread introduced a string of resolutions parliament, on the 31st of January, did not even allude to in the commons, condemning the interference of ministers these ominous circumstances, but held out the hope of betwixt Russia and Turkey, and the needless expenditure continued peace. George III. stated that he had been thus incurred, going over much the same ground. A engaged with some of his allies in endeavouring to bring strenuous debate followed, in which Grey, Fox, Wyndham, about a pacification betwixt the Russians and Austrians Francis, Sheridan, and the whole whig phalanx, took part. with Turkey, and that he hoped for the conclusion of the On this occasion, Mr. Jenkinson, afterwards earl of Liverwar in India against Tippoo Sahib, ere long, through the pool, first appeared, and made his maiden speech in defence able management of lord Cornwallis. He also announced of ministers. He showed that the system of aggression had the approaching marriage of the duke of York with the commenced with Russia, and menaced the profoundest eldest daughter of the king of Prussia. dangers to all Europe; that Britain had wisely made alliance with Prussia to stem the evil, and he utterly repudiated all the ideas of the moderation of the czarina, whose ambition he truly asserted to be of the most unscrupulous kind.

Grey and Fox, in the debate upon the address, condemned strongly our interference on behalf of Turkey-a state which, from its corruption, they contended, ought to be allowed to disappear. They also expressed a strong Prussia being introduced into the debate, on the 1st of opinion that the war in India would not be so soon termi- March it was renewed by Mr. Martin, followed by Francis, nated. Fox was very severe on the treatment of Dr. Fox, and others, who represented that the secret was thus Priestly and the dissenters at Birmingham, declaring the out; we were fighting again on account of the old mischiet injuries done to Dr. Priestly and his friends equally dis--German alliances. Pitt ably defended the policy of graceful to the nation and to the national church. He ministers. He asked whether Russia was to be quietly passed the highest encomiums on the loyalty of the dissenters. Pitt regretted the outrages at Birmingham, but slid easily over them to defend the support of Turkey as necessary to the maintenance of the balance of power in Europe; and he concluded the debate by stating that the revenue of the last year had been sixteen million seven hundred and seventy thousand pounds, and that it left nine hundred thousand pounds towards the liquidation of the national debt.

The opposition, headed by Fox and Grey, determined to attack the ministry on the score of their Indian policy. They allied themselves with Sir Philip Francis, and at their suggestion major Maitland, on the 9th of February, moved for papers regarding the war with Tippoo, and the conduct of this war by lord Cornwallis. Francis seconded him. These being produced, Maitland and Francis strongly condemned both the war and the conduct of it by lord Cornwallis. Ministers defended the war on the ground of Tippoo recommencing hostilities, and they carried a resolution in commendation of the conduct of lord Cornwallis.

Grey and Fox then made an equally brisk attack on the support of Turkey by ministers. They greatly applauded the czarina, and Fox affirmed that, so far from Turkey soliciting our interference, it had objected to it. On the same day, in the lords, the earl Fitzwilliam opened the same question. He contended that we had fitted out an expensive armament to prevent the conquest by Russia of Oczakoff, and yet had not done it, but had ended in accepting the very terms that the czarina had offered in 1790. Ministers replied that, though we had not saved Oczakoff, we had prevented, by terror of our fleet, still more extensive attempts by Russia. Though the opposition, in both cases, was defeated, the attack was renewed on the 27th, when the earl Stanhope—an enthusiastic worshipper of the French revolution—recommended, as the best means of preventing aggression by continental monarchs, a close alliance on our part with France, which had sworn to renounce all projects of aggrandisement, and this at the very moment that France

permitted to drive the Turks from Europe, and plant herself in Constantinople, with Greece as part of her empire? In that case, Russia would become the first maritime power in the world, for her situation in the heart of the Mediterranean, and with Greeks for her sailors-the best sailors in that sea-would give her unrivalled advantages, and make her the most destructive opponent of English interests that had ever arisen. Pitt drew a dark character of the czarina-the Messalina of the North; reminded the house of her endeavours to strike a mortal blow at us during the American war; of her arrogance and insolence on many occasions, and said that he did not envy Fox the honour of having his bust ordered by this notorious woman from Nollekens, the sculptor. Fox well deserved this hard blow, for he had shown a strange blindness to the grasping designs of Russia, and confessed that, whilst in office, he had refused to concur in remonstrances to Russia against the seizure of the Crimea. The motion of Whitbread was rejected by a majority of two hundred and forty-four against one hundred and sixteen.

On the 7th of March the house of commons went into committee on the establishment of the duke of York, on account of his marriage. On this occasion Fox united with Pitt in supporting the recommendation that twenty-five thousand pounds a-year should be added to the twelve thousand pounds which the duke already had; besides this the duke had a private revenue of four thousand pounds a-year, making altogether forty-one thousand pounds a-year, besides the bishopric of Osnaburg, in Germany, which had been conferred on the duke, though a layman and a soldier. Notwithstanding the union of whigs and tories on this occasion, the vote did not pass without some sharp remarks on the miserable stinginess of the king of Prussia, who only gave his daughter the paltry sum of twenty-five thousand pounds as a dowry, and stipulated that even that should be returned in case of the duke's death, though in that case his daughter was to have a permanent allowance of eight thousand pounds a-year.

A.D. 1792.]

ATTEMPTS TO REFORM THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT.

593 Fox, on this occasion, also introduced the subject of the and passed both houses, for the improvement of the police, prince of Wales's allowance, who, he contended, had far less and the administration of justice in London. The old than had been allowed to a prince of Wales since the acces-unpaid and very corrupt magistrates were set aside. The sion of the house of Hanover, that allowance being one metropolis was divided into five districts, each having its hundred thousand pounds a-year; and the present parsi-police-office, at which three justices were to sit, each having mony towards the prince being grossly aggravated by the a salary of three hundred pounds per annum. They were royal civil list having been raised, in this reign, from six not allowed to take fees in their own persons, and all fines hundred thousand pounds to nine hundred thousand pounds, paid in the courts were to be put in a box towards defrayand the privy purse from six thousand pounds to sixty ing the salaries and other official expenses. Constables and thousand pounds. Fox's remarks were rendered all the magistrates were empowered to take up persons who could not more telling because, when the house went into committee give a good account of themselves, and commit them as on the finances, Pitt had made a most flourishing statement vagabonds. of the condition of the exchequer. He professed to take off the taxes which pressed most on the poorer portion of the population, namely, on servants, the late augmentations on malt, on wagons, on inhabited houses, &c., to the amount of two hundred thousand pounds, and to appropriate four hundred thousand pounds towards the reduction of the national debt. Still blind to the storm rising across the straits of Dover, he declared that these were mere trifles compared with what we should be able to do shortly, for never was there a time when a more durable peace might be expected!

But besides nascent war, the anti-slavery movements of Wilberforce, Pitt's friend, were decidedly adverse to the expected increase of income. The abolitionists had now begun to abandon the use of slave-grown sugar, and they proposed to extend this to all the produce of the West India islands, till the slave trade should be abolished. This alarmed Pitt, as chancellor of the exchequer, and he prevailed on Wilberforce to discourage this project for awhile. The abolition cause received serious injury from the frightful insurrection which had broken out in St. Domingo, and from the outrages which the insurgent blacks had perpetrated on the whites. These were held up by the friends of slavery as the legitimate consequences of these novel doctrines of philanthropy. What made the matter more serious was, that Brissot and the worst of the jacobins were the authors of these bloody tragedies, by their violent advocacy of the universal adoption of the Rights of Man. All these men were enthusiastic applauders of the English abolitionists. Paine was a prominent abolitionist; and Clarkson, the great right-hand of Wilberforce, was an equal admirer of the French revolution, and gave serious offence by attending a great dinner at the Crown and Anchor, to celebrate the taking of the Bastille. These circumstances had a great effect when Wilberforce, on the 2nd of April, brought in his annual motion for the immediate abolition of the slave-trade. Fox and Pitt eloquently supported him; but Dundas, now become secretary of state, prevailed to introduce into the motion the words "gradual abolition." The Wilberforce party managed to carry a motion in the commons, for the abolition of the trade to the West Indies, on the 1st of January, 1796; but this was thrown out in the lords, where it was opposed by the duke of Clarence, who had been in the West Indies, and thought the descriptions of the condition of the slaves overdrawn. It was also opposed by Thurlow, by Horsley, bishop of St. David's, and a considerable majority.

A great raid of reform was made in the opposition, and it fell first on the corruption of the boroughs, both in Scotland and England. The subject was brought on, as it were, incidentally. An inclosure bill, affecting some parts of the New Forest, Hampshire, was attacked, as a job intended to benefit Pitt's stanch supporter, George Rose, who had rapidly risen, from an unknown personage, to the post of secretary to the treasury. Rose had a house and small estate in the forest, and there was a universal outcry, both in parliament and in the public press, that, in addition to the many sinecures of the fortunate Rose, there was also a sop intended for him at the cost of the crown lands. The reformers were successful in casting much blame on ministers, and they followed it up, by charging Rose with bribing one Thomas Smith, a publican in Westminster, to procure votes for the ministerial candidate, lord Hood. Though the motion for a committee of the house to inquire into the particulars of this case was defeated, yet the debates turned the attention of the country on the scandalous bribery going on in boroughs. The Scotch, the countrymen of Rose, petitioned for an inquiry into the condition of their boroughs. Of the sixty-six boroughs, petitions for such inquiry came from fifty. They complained that the members and magistrates of those corporations were self-elected, and by these means the rights and property of the inhabitants were grievously invaded.

Sheridan introduced the subject on the 18th of April, and Fox ably supported him; but the motion was negatived. But this defeat only appeared to stimulate the reformers to higher exertions. On the 28th of April, a new reform society, entitled the Society of the Friends of the People, was formally inaugurated by the issue of an address, which was signed by no less than twenty-eight members of the house of commons, and a considerable number of lords, amongst them, the lords Lauderdale, John Russell, Dair, Stanhope, and Fitzgerald. Their title was unfortunate, for, though they were united only for parliamentary reform, this cognomen was so much in the French style, as to create suspicion and alarm. Many of the members were known to be warm admirers of the French revolution, and about the same time, another and decidedly French-admiring society started, calling itself the Corresponding Society, and prosecuting a zealous intercourse with the Girondists and jacobins. The admiration of French political principles rendered the conservative portion of the population quite determined to resist all innovations; and, as this Society of the Friends of the People was regarded as a direct During this session, a very important bill was introduced, imitation of the jacobin club, it was violently opposed and

stigmatised. On the 30th of April, Mr. Grey, as repre- the state of things in France, and to the effervescence which sentative of this society, rose to announce that in the next those principles of anarchy had produced here, to show the session he meant to introduce a regular measure for the necessity of remaining quiet for the present; neither did

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