to know our enemies. If fome of us have gone too far, that is no reafon for blaming a grand Inftitution, which was as neceffary against our internal enemies, as our armies against the coalefced powers. Art. 35. Letters which paffed between General Dumourier and Pache, Minifter at War to the French Republic, during the Campaign in the Netherlands, in 1792. Tranflated from the original French by Robert Heron. 12mo. pp. 230. 28, fewed. Vernor. 1794. These letters, publifhed originally by Dumouriez himself, are valuable documents, enabling the public to judge of the character and conduct of that General and other leading men, and of the causes which co-operated to produce the great events of the campaign of 1792. The future hiftorian of the French revolution will collect important materials from thefe letters. The ufe which the enemies of France may at prefent make of them is forcibly ftated by the author, in his introductory remarks:

If thefe Letters should happen to fall into the hands of our enemies; they may learn from them, how to judge of the probable iffue of their projects. Comparing the fuccefs of our armies, with the fcanty means which thofe armies had, to enfure fuccefs: They will fee, that undifciplined Frenchmen, led by inexperienced Generals, in want of clothes, and often in want of bread, have, under all these difadvantages, proved invincible: They will tremble for the fafety of their own lands and houses, who lately threatened ours. Their eyes open to difcern that principle of human action, to which we owe our victories. They will fee, that the greatest of miracles are wrought by LIBERTY.'

will

Art. 36. Relation du Siege de Lyon, &c. i. e. An Account of the Siege of Lyons, containing a Detail of the Tranfactions that took place there under the Eyes and by the exprefs Orders of the Reprefen tatives of the French People. 8vo. pp. 68. Is. 6d. Haymarket. 1794.

Stace,

The fiege of Lyons may be juftly termed one of the most memorable events of this century, whether we confider it as a political or a military operation; whether with refpect to the number of forces employed in the attack and defence, and of the lives loft on both fides; or whether with respect to the confequences that it produced from the extinction of a party, which, if it did not aim at overturning the French revolution, would most certainly, had Lyons been able to beat off the befieging army, have feparated the fouth from the north of France, and have established in it a federative republic.

What were the real intentions of the Lyonefe, in case of success, cannot easily be afcertained. During the whole courfe of the events which preceded, attended, and followed the fiege, they never once in their collective capacity fo much as hinted at the restoration of monarchy, nor made even the most diftant approach to a complaint about the treatment which the King and his family had experienced. On the contrary, the grievances which they ftated were all of a republican complexion; they protested, it is true, against all laws or decrees of the Convention, paffed or to be paffed after a certain period, but it was not the period of the king's condemnation, but that of the imprison

215

of

ment of the members of the Girondift party. This measure, they louc complained, was an attack on the fovereignty of the people; whofe reprefentatives, being clothed with the exercise of that fovereignty, were and

,ht to be confidered as facred in their perfons, and amenable only to ofe from whom they had derived their authority. To imprison perfons b circumftanced, they faid, was not only a violation of the respect hich the Convention owed to its conftituents, but also a direct attack their fovereignty: every member of the Convention being in the ye of the law an integral part of the whole; and to proceed to make decrees, during the confinement of a great number of fuch integral parts, was to exclude the departments which they reprefented from all share in that fovereignty, which the conftitution allowed to be fundamentally inherent in them. The Lyonefe therefore defired that the reprefentatives fhould be restored to their functions; declaring that, until the latter should have full liberty, as ufual, to take their feats and vote and act in the Convention, they would not fubmit to the authority of, nor hold any communication with, that affembly. Nothing in favour of royalty conld be deduced from all this reasoning and conduct; except that the imprifoned members, with all the rest of the Girondit party, had voted against the immediate execution of the King, and for taking the fenfe of the people by departments and districts, relative to his fate.

On the other hand, it is certain that fome of the most determined royalists were employed by the Lyonefe in the defence of their city, and that they were every where fupported by fuch of that defcription of men, as had the means of acting up to their inclination and principles. Whether they thus gave their affiftance, and the others received it, under any declared or implied opinion that they were ferving one common caufe, viz. the cause of monarchy; or whether the Lyonefe, on the point of being attacked by the whole force of the Convention, were glad to accept of aid from any quarter,- while the royalifts, fighting against republicans of any fide, were fure that they were fighting against enemies whom it was their intereft to weaken; are questions which it is not in our power to answer. If, however, we may venture to hazard a conjecture, we would fay it was likely that the people of Lyons were not at bottom very friendly to the revolution; which had, no matter how, been the means of producing a complete ftagnation of trade in that city, the fecond in all France in point of fize and population, and the first in point of manufactures; its thousands of looms were all stopped, and the inhabitants were reduced to very great diftrefs;-circumftances which could not be supposed to make them, at least the principal manufacturers, very heartily attached to the new order of things that had made them fuch fufferers.

Be this as it may, whatever the Lyonefe might have been at the period to which we refer, whether republicans of either school, namely federalifts or one-and-indivifiblifts, or whether concealed friends of monarchy, certain it is that the author of the pamphlet now before us is a royalist; and, therefore, when he inveighs against the cruelties of the befiegers in language glowing with indignation, his teftimony ought to be received with caution, like the evidence of a man who is

known

to own to be the determined enemy of the party accused. We muft allow, however, that the moft atrocious acts of barbarity, with which he charges the befiegers, have been fince ftated in full Convention, in crimination of fome of those who were principally concerned in them; and that the military operations of the fiege appear to be detailed with accuracy and fidelity.

He divides his account into four epochs; in the firft, he makes his readers acquainted with the events that took place at Lyons from Feb. 6, 1793, to May 29 following; the fecond gives a relation of thofe which occurred between this latter date and the commencement of the fiege; the third includes what happened during the fiege, until the remains of the garrifon marched out and endeavoured to escape on the 8th of October; and the fourth comprehends a shocking detail of the barbarities exercised at Lyons by order of deputies from the Convention, after the reduction of the city.

Our readers already know that the buildings of Lyons were as little fpared as their owners; the fquare of Louis XIV., one of the finest in Europe, was demolished; the houses of all the principal traders and manufacturers were pulled down, as were those which were fuch ornaments to the quays along the banks of the Rhone and the Saône ; nay the very name of Lyons was profcribed, and that of Ville Affranchie given to its fad remains: this latter, however, has been fince fuppreffed, and the former name restored, under the auspices of the prefent fyftem of moderation.

In the fiege of Lyons, all Europe was deeply interested. While it was able to withstand its befiegers, Toulon was fafe in our hands, Marseilles could not be kept in awe, the whole South of France would have looked to it as a rallying point, and the Northern departments of that vait country would have been in the most imminent danger of being ftarved, as the principal fupplies of corn, which they received from abroad, arrived from Italy in the ports of the Mediterranean; and fhould the cities to which thefe ports belong be adverfe to the Convention, one of thefe two confequences must have inevitably followed, that the Convention must have been diffolved, or France fplit into two separate and hottile ftates; and either revolution would have given a new turn to the affairs of Europe. From the fate of Lyons, nations may learn this falutary leffon; as one of the greatest fcourges with which mankind can poffibly be afflicted is a civil war, fo it is the duty of thofe who are placed at the helm of the state so to govern, that the people fhould have no grounds for feeking a redress of grievances in a revolution ;-and the people should on the other hand be convinced that there can fcarcely exist a grievance, which would not appear trivial when compared to that kind of revolution which changes all the elements of the government of a country, deftroys all land-marks, and places the citizens under no other guidance than that of the effervefcence of the human paffions. May our rulers and our fellow-fubjects bear this deeply in their minds; and then we may hope that they will both meet in the wish to effect, peaceably and coolly, fuch a reformation in our conftitution, as may bring it as near to perfection in practice, as it is in theory; and render it at once the

happiness

happiness of Englishmen, the pride of reason, and the admiration of all Europe.

Art. 37. Narrative of the Events of the Siege of Lyons. Tranflated from the French. 8vo. pp. 97. 1s. 6d. Vernor and Hood. This Speedy tranflation feems generally faithful, though, as the tranflator confeffes, not very correct and elegant. Dubois Crancé is every where printed without the accent, Crance; p. 54, the famous Chevalier Bayard is called Bargard; p. 13, pulling the firing of the guillotine is termed drawing a flender bolt: p. 56, they quickly feized-or occupied -the Ile of Perrache, is rendered they foon urged into the ifle, &c. &c., Some Scotticisms alfo occur.

THEOLOGY, POLEMICS, &c.

ART. 38. A Free Enquiry into the Authenticity of the First and Second Chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel: with a new Preface, containing an Account of fome MSS. in the British Museum: and a Differtation on the original Language of that Gofpel. The fecond Edition, corrected, improved, and much enlarged. By John Williams, LL.D. 8vo. pp. 173. 4s. Boards. White. 1789.

As we do not always notice new editions of works, we have long overlooked this publication; not being aware that it was fo much enlarged. It is indeed fo expreffed in the title-page: but we have been too often deceived by this ftale language of the trade to give much credit to profeffions of this kind. Had we been fully apprized of our error at the time of the republication, we should have paid that attention to the work which, in confequence of its additions and improvements, it deferves. All that we can now do is to say that these additions are really important, and add confiderable weight of evidence against the genuineness of the chapters in queftion. Whether this evidence will convince many perfons that the chapters are fpurious, we know not: but however it turn out, no pious Christian ought to be in the leaft alarmed at the inquiry; for, let the event be what it will, Christianity, and all its important truths, will ftand juft where they did before the inquiry was inftituted.

For an account of the first edition, which was anonymous, and for the replies to it, the curious may confült our General Index. Art. 39. Dogmatifm expofed, and Sophiftry detected: or a Confutation of Paine's "Age of Reafon." To which is prefixed a brief Account of the Replies already published. By Daniel M'Neille, A. M. 8vo. pp. 70. Is. 6d. Chapman. 1794 ·

Though we do not fubfcribe to every affertion contained in this pamphlet, and cannot poffibly agree with its author in what he advances concerning the apocalypfe, that it is now well understood;" -though we cannot applaud the review which he has made (in his preface) of the former replies to the Age of Reafon, and feel ourselves bound to cenfure the low and illiberal pun refpecting Mr. Wakefield, who, from his refiding at Hackney, is defcribed as a gentleman hackneyed in the tenets of Priestley;'-we would not with-hold from this writer the praife due to a strenuous and manly defender of Chriftianity. Mr. M'Neille fairly meets the objections of the Deift, and convicts REV. FEB. 1795.

6

him,

him, in several instances, of ignorance, puerility, and mis-statemenɛ. He defires the reader of the low witticifms, in the Age of Reafon, to recollect that levity is not reafoning; and, to oppofe Mr. Paine's general conclufion, he briefly defcants on the mafs of evidence on which the belief of revelation is founded, particularly noticing that fingular political phænomenon, the prefent ftate of the Jews.

Against the all-fufficiency of Mr. Paine's word of God, viz. " the creation," as a volume of religious inftruction, he observes; to the reflecting mind, the creation exhibits aftonifhing proofs of the power, wisdom, and beneficence of God; but it does not by any means convey to the mafs of mankind any one idea [this is more ftrongly expreffed than the argument required] with regard to religious know lege; if it did, the South Sea iflander, the American Indian, or the Hottentot, would be as enlightened on this fubject as the most learned European. All nations would poffefs the fame portion of divine knowledge, and the worship of the Deity would be equally pure among all people. According to Mr. Paine a man has merely to look around him to have a knowlege of the word of God. But we have only to confult the account of voyagers and travellers to be convinced thas this word of God, appointed by Mr. Paine, is a very infufficient guide in religious concerns, and far inferior to Chriftianity, the great doctrines and precepts of which cannot be mistaken even by the most in attentive.'

Mr. McNeille has gone a little too far in the conclufion of this paragragh; for, if the doctrines and precepts of Chriflianity cannot be mistaken, how can he account for the existence of fo much religious controversy?

Art. 40. Letters to Edward Gibbon, Efq. Author of the Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. By George Travis, A. M. Archdeacon of Chester. The third Edition, corrected and confiderably enlarged. 8vo. pp. 570. 9s. Boards. Rivingtons. 1794

Mr. Travis has at leaft the merit of having expended much labour and ingenuity on the subject of this work. His letters to Mr. Gibbon, which first appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, were afterward collected and enlarged into a quarto volume, which was published in the year 1784-another edition, farther improved, appeared in the following year; and now, after an interval during which the subject has undergone farther difcuffion, a third edition comes forth in a much more elegant form. We are affured that, though this edition. is built generally on the bafis of that which immediately preceded it. many parts of the fuperftructure are enlarged by the ufe of new and (as it feems) valuable materials. When we recollect how intimately the point here difcuffed is connected with the general fyftem of cfta. blished belief, and what weighty interefts are in fome measure dependant on the folution, we feel no furprife that a question which, in a distant view, appears fimple, fhould (to borrow our author's words) expand itself on a nearer approach into so many complicated branches,

*See Rev. vol. lxxi. p. 341.

and