LIBERTY AND PROPERTY

PRESERVED AGAINST

REPUBLICANS AND LEVELLERS:

A COLLECTION OF TRACTS.

NUMBER XII.

CONTAINING

The Character and Reign of Louis XVI. with a Tranflation of bis Will and Poor Richard; or, the Way to Wealth and Content in thefe Troublesome Times.

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THE

CHARACTER AND REIGN

LOUIS

XVI.

WITH A TRANSLATION OF HIS LAST WILL.

T HE enemies of this unfortunate Prince, thinking it

neceffary to make him odious, before they could venture, powerful as they were, to murder him, repre fented him to the people as a tyrant; as one, whofe confant endeavour it had been, to obftruct, retard, or deftroy their iberty. If indeed this character had belonged to him, though his condemnation would ftill have been unjust, by their own laws which they had fworn to obferve, there

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would be lefs reafon to regret him; he might have failert wrongfully, but not innocent. But if he was, in all things, the very reverfe of that defcription; if he was of a mild and generous difpofition, ready at all times to make any facrifice, however great, for the good of his people; if he made fuch facrifices willingly, when no men had the power to force him; if he was, in all fituations, anxious for their fafety, carelefs of his own, unwilling that a fingle drop of blood fhould be shed on his account, even in the moft juft defence; if this was his true character, and can be proved by all the actions of his reign, the hateful name of Tyrant must belong moft properly to them who, in defiance of all juftice, dared to brand him. with it.

As we have heard, from the beginning of the troubles of his kingdom in 1789, that he gave way on almost every occafion, and fometimes to demands fo very extravagant, that it might naturally be thought no King would ever have affented to them, it has been generally fuppofed, till lately, that he was weak and timid. In this refpect, the dreadful clofe of his mild reign and blameless life has but too fully juftified him. He has difplayed, at this period, a courage not to be shaken by the moft tremendous fituations, a prefence of mind not to be put off its guard by the moft enfnaring queftions. Knowing this, we now find it neceffary to believe, that every facrifice he made of his own interefts, rights, and happinefs, was made fincerely, though not always prudently, with the hope of giving happinefs to all his people.

To give a general view of the character of this worthy monarch, this good-hearted confcientious man, we may ufe the words of thofe who knew him beft. M. Necker, for seven years his Minifter, and part of the time forced upon him, in a way which could produce no great affection between them, thus writes of him :-" I doubt whether among the public men, alas now left alive, there is one who had more means of knowing him than myfelf; not only because I ferved him feven years, but allo, because the nature of my miniftry obliged me to fubmit to him the greateft number of affairs: and I here declare, to the face of his enemies, and in all the fincerity of my heart, that I have never obfer ved, that I have never seen, even by furprife, in this monarch treated with fuch cruelty, a fingle voluntary movement, a fingle fentiment derived from his own foul, and properly his own, which was not exactly conformable

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to the laws of morality and honour; and which did not difplay to an attentive obferver his defire of doing good, his compaffion for the people, the natural fweetness and moderation of his temper. Let the teftimony of a man be believed, who, though long about the King, is now connected with him neither by gratitude nor hope. I never fuffered him to gratify himfelf by beftowing on me a favour, and I am now retired for ever from the world."-Reflections prefentées à la Nation Francaise, p. 17.

But the evidence of a violent Revolutionift, and determined enemy to the Royal power, may also be produced in favour of Louis XVI. The teftimony of one who, as he hated the authority, would probably have hated alfo the person of the King, could he have discovered in his character any thing to justify fuch an enmity. This is M. Rabaud de St. Etienne, author of a Republican Hiftory of the Revolution of France:

In June 1789, when the Duke de Liancourt went in private to the King, to perfuade him to difmifs the troops which then furrounded Paris, he fucceeded, by reprefenting to him the mifery and flaughter likely to be produced by violent meafures. On this occafion, M. Rabaud thus expreffes himself in his Hiftory: All that Louis requires is to have counfellors who are worthy of his heart, that heart naturally inclined to benevolence." In another paffage he describes him in these words: "A Prince whofe manners were naturally fimple and correct, who took no delight in pomp, whose wants were limited, and who had no other wish than to fee his people happy." After defcribing the King's flight, his being taken at Varennes, and brought back a prifoner to Paris, the fame hiftorian thus speaks of him : "The King declared among other things, that his intention had been to go to Montmedy (a French town on the frontier), in order to prove to all the world that he was free; to fecure the kingdom from foreign invafion by a vigilant attention to the frontiers, and to vifit every place where he might confider his prefence to be neceffary." ઠંડ Several," he adds, "were convinced of the fincerity of the King, to whom no fcheme bath ever been propofed, which was not calculated to intereft his heart. His advifers would not have prefumed to own to him, that he was going to make war upon his people."

Many more teftimonies from very competent and refpectable

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fpectable witneffes, fuch as M. Lally Tollendal, &c. might eafily be collected; but this extorted by the mere force of truth from an enemy to Royalty, must be more convincing than a thousand others, which might perhaps be fufpected of partiality.

But of all proofs, thofe drawn from facts are most decifive. A short sketch, therefore, of fuch actions of the reign of Louis XVI. as mark beyond a doubt his genuine difpofition and character, will refute and put to everlasting fhame, the malice of thofe enemies who have described him by the name of Tyrant. A tyrant whose whole reign confifted of endeavours to relieve the fufferings of his people, and of facrifices to comply with their defires !

Louis XVI. fucceeded to the crown of his grandfather Louis XV. in 1774, at the age of twenty. His firft feelings and conduct, on coming to the throne, proved the integrity and candour of his mind. Inftead of being intoxicated, as youth might naturally be, with fuch an elevation, he was only ftruck with dread and diffidence at the weight of duties belonging to his crown. In the firft edict of his reign this feeling was thus expreffed: "Seated on the throne to which it has pleafed God to raise me, I truft his goodness will fupport my youth, and guide me to the means by which I may make my people happy." In the fame edict he declared, what, to the last moment of his life, his actions proved, "that for the fake of his people, no facrifice would ever feem to him too great." [Edi& June 1774-1

His father the Dauphin, who died in 1765, has long been juftly celebrated as a man of fingular virtue and religious goodness. While he lived he attended moft strictly to the education of his children, and to the care of filling them with pious and benevolent difpofitions. Louis XVI. though he had fo early loft this excellent father, loft not the refpect due to his great goodnefs; and one of the firft Minifters appointed by him was M. du Muy, whom his father had ftrongly recommended. The others were fuch as only a virtuous Prince would choose, men known to the public for their talents, or particularly diftinguished by popular favour. Of thefe, M. Turgot, whom he long honoured with the name of Friend, 'was in his heart a democrat; M. de Mirofmenil was then actually in banishment for oppofition to the court.

His reign was immediately marked by acts of justice and utility.

utility. The purpose of an edict in November of the fame year 1774, was to lower the price of corn, by making the circulation of it within the kingdom more eafy. His next step was to recal the Parlemens, or chief courts of juftice throughout the kingdom, which Louis XV. had lately banished for oppofition to his measures; but Louis XVÍ. haftened to fhow that he preferred juftice to power. On the 3d of January 1775 he abolished the oppreffive mode of collecting taxes, by confolidating a certain fum upon a certain diftrict, by which the honeft and induftrious had been forced to pay for the idle and dishonest. About the same time some wicked people, who found their private intereft hurt by his regulations concerning corn, contrived, by various arts, to ftir up infurrections. Here the goodnefs of the King was ftrikingly difplayed, His procla mations were full of affection and mercy; and when he fent M. Turgot to Paris, to quell the tumult there, his words were fuch as were much celebrated then, and deserve for ever to be remembered: "Go, my friend," said he, whoever has a confcience as clear as yours and mine,

can have no fear of men."

The formidable power of iffuing the lettres de cachet he entrusted to the most upright magiftrate that could be found, and one moft famous for perfevering oppofition to oppreffive measures, M. de Malefherbes. At the fame time he caused an entire reform to be made in the ftateprisons, and fet at liberty all perfons unjustly confined; and fo little was he inclined to any harshness of that kind, that many years after, when the Baftile was deftroyed, there were found in it only fix prifoners. Louis endea voured next to abolish the flavifh right of perfonal fervice, exacted by the proprietors of land from their tenants, under the old laws. But here his benevolent defigns were defeated, by the very Parlemens he had fo lately recalled from banishment. On the failure of this measure his Minifter, Turgot, was obliged to refign; and M. de Malefherbes requested his difmiffion alfo; but the King very ftrongly refifted the departure of this worthy man. When he ftill perfifted in defiring it, and alledged as his reafon, "that he found it impoffible to do good;""Well, Sir,' replied the King, "muft I then alfo refign my place ?" evidently meaning, that as he could not give up his throne on account of fuch difappointments, it was the duty of an honeft man to fhare them with him, and to bear his part

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