214 FRIENDS OF THE PEOPLE-SEDITIOUS WRITINGS. [1792. in the constitution of the country. . He would ask all moderate men what were their feelings on this subject at this moment? He believed he could anticipate the answer- This is not a time to make hazardous experiments.' Could we forget what lessons had been given to the world within a few years?" Mr. Pitt made some pointed allusions to the Declaration of "The Friends of the People," and a heated debate followed, in which Mr. Fox supported Mr. Grey, but intimated his opinion of the impolicy of joining an Association for Reform. On the 21st of May, a Royal Proclamation was issued, against the publication and dispersion of seditious writings. On the 25th, an Address to the king was proposed, expressing the determination of the Commons to support his majesty in the resolution which he had adopted. Mr. Grey moved an amendment, in which he brought forward Mr. Pitt's former opinions on the subject of Reform; described his conduct as that of an apostate; and treated the Proclamation and the proposed Address as calculated to throw odium upon a Society that had been formed with the purest intentions. The Proclamation, he said, was intended to separate the Whig party. There were, indeed, many signs that a separation of old political friends was inevitable. In the House of Lords, the prince of Wales, always hitherto associated in politics with Mr. Fox, Mr. Sheridan, and The Prince of Wales. From a Painting by Sir William Beechey. the Opposition, spoke, for the first time, on this subject of the king's Proclamation. The matter in question was, he said, whether the constitution was or was not to be maintained; whether the wild ideas of theory were to conquer the wholesome maxims of established practice; and whether those laws under which we had flourished for such a series of years were to be subverted by a reform unsanctioned by the people. "I exist," exclaimed his royal highness, "by the love, the friendship, and the benevolence of the people, and their cause I will never forsake as long as I live."* The Proclamation against Seditious Writings stated that "we have reason to believe that correspondences have been entered into with sundry persons "Parliamentary History," vol. xxix. col. 1517. 1792.] CHAUVELIN AND LORD GRENVILLE. 215 in foreign parts, with a view to forward the criminal and wicked purposes alluded to. M. Chauvelin, the French minister plenipotentiary, upon the appearance of this Proclamation, addressed a note to lord Grenville, in which he says, "If certain individuals of this country have established a correspondence abroad, tending to excite troubles therein, and if, as the proclamation seems to insinuate, certain Frenchmen have come into their views, that is a proceeding wholly foreign to the French nation, to the legislative body, to the king, and to his ministers; it is a proceeding of which they are entirely ignorant, which militates against every principle of justice, and which, whenever it became known, would be universally condemned in France. Independently of these principles of justice, from which a free people ought never to deviate, is it not evident, from a due consideration of the true interests of the French nation, that she ought to desire the interior tranquillity, the continuance and the force of the constitution, of a country which she already looks upon as her natural ally ?" Arguing thus, at considerable length, M. Chauvelin requests that the Secretary of State would communicate his note to both Houses of Parliament previous to their deliberations upon the proposed Address. Lord Grenville administered a dignified rebuke to the French ambassador: "The deliberations of the two Houses of Parliament, as well as the communications which his majesty shall be pleased to make to them, relative to the affairs of the kingdom, are objects absolutely foreign to all diplomatic correspondence, and upon which it is impossible for me to enter into any discussion whatever with the ministers of other courts." It is clear that there could not be any very cordial communication between the French envoy and the English ministers, although the forms of diplomatic courtesy were sedulously preserved. On the 18th of June, M. Chauvelin, having previously announced the commencement of hostilities, invites his Britannic majesty, in the name of the king of the French, to use his influence. "to stop, whilst it is still time, the progress of a confederacy, which equally affects the peace, the liberty, and the happiness of Europe." Lord Grenville, coldly answering this impassioned exhortation, says, "the same sentiments which have determined the king not to take part in the internal affairs of France, ought equally to induce him to respect the rights and the independence of other sovereigns, and especially those of the allies; and his majesty has thought that, in the existing circumstances of the war now begun, the intervention of his counsels, or of his good offices, cannot be of use, unless they should be desired by all the parties interested." The Parliament was prorogued on the 16th of June. In his speech on closing the Session the king said, "I have seen with great concern the commencement of hostilities in several parts of Europe." The war between Turkey and Russia was at an end. The disciplined armies of Austria had scarcely yet come into conflict with the raw levies of France. But if there were evils to be dreaded from the progress of democratic opinions, there was no less a danger to be apprehended from the daring ambition of absolute monarchs. There was another Revolution upon which those who feared anarchy but loved liberty looked without apprehension. In 1791 a great change had been effected in the government of Poland. The tyranny of the nobles had been abolished, with the entire concurrence of the king and the people. A new Constitution 216 PARTITION OF POLAND. [1792. was established, which provided for an hereditary Crown; a Legislature consisting of two Houses; equality of civil rights; a complete toleration of all religions. This rational system was offensive to the despotic empress of Russia; and she sent an army into Poland to destroy the new liberties of the country. The king of Poland appealed to his ally the king of Prussia, to send him that aid which Prussia was bound by treaty to render. The tricky court of Berlin replied that the change in the government of Poland had cancelled the obligation. Such were the Allies to whom Great Britain had to look, if she was to take any hostile proceedings against the revolutionary government of France. Some enthusiasts in England thought, in the summer of 1792, that it would be a wise policy for our country to make common cause with France in resisting the despots who were crushing the independence of Poland. Against this scheme, Burke was indignant. He applauded the Revolution of Poland; he hated that of France, He lamented the fate of Poland; but he would sooner let affairs there take their course than enter "into a confederacy with the horror, turpitude, baseness, and wickedness of the French Revolution." Things in Poland did take their course. The crimes of monarchy were at hand to make men careful not to exhaust all their indignation against the crimes of democracy. * "Correspondence of Burke," vol. iii. p. 472. Deaths of the emperor and the king of Sweden-The Girondin Ministry-French declaration of war against the king of Hungary and Bohemia-The Veto-Roland, and two other ministers, dismissed-Insurrection of the 20th of June--The Country in Danger proclaimed-Arrival of the Marsellais-Proclamation of the Duke of Brunswick-Insurrection of the 10th of August-Attack on the Tuileries-Royal family removed to the Temple-Longwy taken by the Prussians-The Massacres of September. IN March, 1792, two of the crowned heads of Europe who were meditating upon the great question of a war with France were removed by death. Leopold, the emperor, died on the 1st of March. He was succeeded as king of Hungary and Bohemia by his eldest son, Francis II. Gustavus III., king of Sweden, was shot on the 6th of March, at a masked ball, by Ankerstroem, one of the nobles whose privileges he had abrogated in 1789 to establish his own absolute power. He was succeeded by his son, a boy of thirteen years of age. The successor of Leopold was not yet elected emperor, when France declared war against him on the 20th of April. This declaration was the act of the Girondin ministry. The administration which represented the Feuillans, or party of the Constitution, of whom Bertrand de Moleville and Narbonne were leading members and political rivals, was broken up by VOL. VIL 218 THE GIRONDIN MINISTRY. [1792. its own differences. The king had now to look to a party of greater power in the Assembly, but more likely to precipitate the Court into dangerous measures. On the 15th of March, general Dumouriez was offered the ministry of Foreign Affairs. By the 23d a new administration was formed. Clavière was appointed minister of finance; and Roland de Platière was appointed minister of the interior; he, of whom Arthur Young writes, in 1789, as "a gentleman somewhat advanced in life, who has a young and beautiful wife," and who then filled the humble office of inspector of fabrics at Lyons. Roland has now brought to Paris his beautiful wife, the daughter of an engraver, to aid him in weightier matters than such as he discussed with the English agriculturist. The grave man goes to Court in plain black, with strings in his shoes; and the horrified master of the ceremonies points to him; and ejaculates to Dumouriez-" Quoi!-no buckles!" "All is lost," said the sarcastic general. Madame Roland, an enthusiastic republican, was admitted to the political meetings of her husband and the men of his party. Dumont says of these committees of ministers and the principal Girondins, at which he was sometimes present and saw Madame Roland, "a woman might appear there somewhat out of place, but she took no part in the discussions. She sat at her own writing-table, busy over letters, but she lost not a word of what was going forward." Madame Roland, he says, "who had an easy and energetic style, was too fond of writing, and engaged her husband in writing unceasingly. It was the ministry of writers." He conceived that they were too much occupied in labouring to influence the opinions of the moment, not to sacrifice too much to a vulgar policy, instead of rising above the dominion of prejudices. Brissot, equally active in the Assembly, and in the Jacobins' Club, was the head of a faction sufficiently powerful to make himself feared by the ministry. Brissot had strong pre "Travels in France," 4to., p. 262. |