the writer, look into the rights of men, at they are described in the French constitution; we fhall there fee what thofe rights are fuppofed to be; we shall be enabled, by an examination of them, to determine how far they are reconcilable to reafon and common fenfe; and finally, by tracing the progrefs of the French revolution, we fhall perceive whether thofe rights, in the whole detail of them, can exist in practice. Accordingly, the author enters (not fuperficially) into this investigation; he treats the fubject with confiderable ability; and he determines that the conftitution of France is effentially founded in error: that the people neither legislate for themselves, nor is it poffible, in the nature of things, that they fhould do fo.'

In the course of his obfervations on this very interefting and much agitated question, he frequently relieves the drynefs and difficulty of the inquiry, by references and details refpecting the principal unhappy confequences and viciffitudes that have attended the prevalence of democratic principles in France, fince the year 1789. He is a zealous Royalift: but he is not to be ranked among thofe warmheaded politicians whofe zeal is very often found to be without knowlege.

Art. 32. A Dialogue between a corrupt Burgess and a Patriotic Knight, on the Expediency of War or Peace, 8vo.

1794.

1s. 6d. Stockdale.

Were there a fcarcity of political pamphlets, the prefent dialogue, might attract the notice of fuch readers as hunger and thirst after fomething new of this kind: but, as we have fo many productions of more importance in this clafs, it will probably excite little attention. Art. 33. An Appeal to the People of England, on the Subject of the French Revolution; after a three Years Experiment of its Effects: With a particular Address to the Orthodox Diffenters, and to the Clergy of the Establishment. Svo. 1s. Vernor. 1794.

The author of this appeal, we fincerely hope, and firmly believe, is encountering a phantom. Many people of this kingdom may be defirous of a peaceable reform: but the number, we are perfuaded, is fmall indeed of those who wish to fee this country involved in the confufion and calamity of a violent revolution. This writer, however, partaking of the general alarm which has been fo induftriously raised, has thought it neceffary to addrefs the people of England, to diffuade them from attempting fuch a fudden violent alteration as has taken place in France. For this purpose, he defcribes in ftrong colours the prefent ftate of that nation. His opinion is, that there is not an individual in France who does not fecretly with that the revolution had never taken place. The diffimilarity between the late condition of that country, and the present state of this kingdom, is fairly urged as a reason against any violent proceedings: but the argument by ne means goes fo far as to fupercede the neceflity of vigorous exertions for the correction of political abufes, fo univerfally acknowleged to exift...

A confiderable part of this pamphlet is written under a strong impreffion that the prefent calamities of France are a vifitation from God; and it is intended as a warning to Britons to prepare for

the

the judgments which hang over their heads. The orthodox diffenters, with whom it is fuppofed this confideration will have peculiar weight, are exhorted to be cheerfully acquiefcent in the prefent ftate of ecclefiaftical affairs, and not to trouble their governors, in thefe perilous times, with applications for a repeal of the teft law-while the clergy of the establishment are ftimulated to greater zeal in fupport of the gospel, and advised to discontinue the difgraceful practice of fubftituting the morality of Epictetus in the room of evangelical truth.

AFFAIRS OF FRANCE.

Art. 34. Prefent State of France. Report of the Committees of Public and General Safety and of Legiflation, on the State of the Nation Prefented to the National Convention, September zoth, 1794. By Robert Lindet. 8vo. IS. Bell. 1794

This report frikingly difplays the prodigious energies of a great nation called forth by a powerful combination of circumftances, and celebrates, in dignified langunge, the triumphs of France over the formidable confederacy by which the has been affailed:-but the philofopher, who, undazzled by the glare of military fplendour, and the glory of martial atchievements, looks into the interior receffes of the country, muft fee that it is in nothing enviable but its great renown, to the acquifition of which have been facrificed thofe things which in other states adorn civil life, and ferve as the foundations of wealth, comfort, and greatnefs. The powers of the late leaders in the convention appear, except only in arms, to have been calculated rather for pulling down than building up. The reporter acknowleges that the sciences and arts have been perfecuted, though they had contributed to the fucceffes of the republic.' The once flourishing trade of France, he tells us, exhibits only ruins and fragments: commerce too has been perfecuted by Robespierre; a destroying genius hovered over France and committed devaftations every where.'. ... Let Marseilles recollect the means which formed her glory and her profperity; paffion has made her forget the advantages of her fituation, her interefts, and her wants. This commune, whofe commerce was fo flourishing and fo ufeful, who prided herself on fupplying all her own wants, and contributing to fupply thofe of the whole South of France, fubfifts at prefent on the aids granted by government.' The Convention waged a direct war on the manufactures of Lyons, the fecond city in France. It was undoubtedly neceffary to befiege the place, and to drive out of it the people who refufed to acknowlege the authority of the legislature: but the houses, the looms, the shops, were not rebels, and yet a blind rage devoted them to one common deftruction. Lindet fufficiently condemns this mad act, as appears from the following extract: Turn your attention to Lyons; put a ftop to the demolition of buildings; make their citizens return to their manufactories. They were born to create, not to deftroy. It is not regulations that we require. Secure the freedom of exportation, and a fufficient number of citizens will foon appear to collect filk, to manufacture and to fell it. Other manufactures will be refumed with the fame fuccefs; and Lyons will yet rife from her ruins.'

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The ruin of trade and manufactures which he laments is not imputed by him to the power of the enemy, but to the want of policy in thofe who had lately been at the head of affairs. Reftore that vigour to commerce which error and ignorance have fufpended! declare fo◄ lemnly that every citizen who employs his time ufefully in agriculture, fcience, arts or commerce, fhall neither be molested nor treated as a fufpected perfon. Reftore to manufacturers all the commodities that are now under feals; put in circulation all the commodities that have been dispatched to different places, but stopped and detained in confequence of the decree which orders the confifcation of every thing fent to places in a state of rebellion.'

What was the power of the royalists of la Vendée we may collect from the following paffage :

The evils fuffered by the commune of Nantes refonnd in every ear. What can commerce do amid fuch calamities and perfecutions ? This citadel of the weft fuftained a fiege of more than fifteen months ;. it combated the rebels and the banditti; it preserved to the republic an important place and the navigation of the Loire. Its fidelity and its misfortunes call for a recompence. If the unfortunate inhabitants of Nantes unite, their city will foon become the greatest magazine of Europe, and affure the circulation of the commodities of the interior of France.'

With respect to the exertions made in agriculture, and the plenty produced by them, he speaks thus:

"

The arts of war have employed fo many hands, have taken away fo great a number of citizens from the other arts, that it was apprehended agriculture, commerce, and manufactures must be abandoned. The French found refources in their activity. Perfevering labour preferved us from the evils which there was fo much reafon to fear. Never before was fuch an extent of land cultivated and fown. The foil of France was covered with productions the moft various. No part was neglected. Some fpots, curfed as it. were with fterility, defpoiled before the time of harvest, experienced the fevereft proof of the activity of the cultivator, and prefented the fpectacle of man fubduing the obftacles of nature. These labours were crowned with correfponding fuccefs. But you will fend to places: where the foil has been ungrateful, or the climate unpropitious, aids, in proportion to their wants. How much have useful profeffions been neglected; how much have the manufactories and workshops been deferted! and yet the labours and efforts of a small number of citizens have been fufficient. We have had lefs reason to obferve the diminution of articles of confumption, than to admire a whole people in the activity that circumftances required, and a fmall number of induftrious and laborious citizens doing what the majority of the nation had been formerly employed to do-supplying all the articles necessary to fubfiftence.'

Such exertions must be allowed to be aftonishing, if we may credit the account of them given by the reporter: but we are rather fceptical on this head; for we cannot conceive it poffible that agriculture should not fuffer, and that proportionably diminished harvests should not enfue, when we find fo immenfe a number as 1,200,000 men taken from the working or laborious claffes of the community, and converted

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converted into foldiers; while another immenfe number of perfons muft be employed in providing them with clothes, arms, ammunition, tents, camp equipage, &c. and while the horfes neceffary to hufbandry are frequently employed in drawing artillery or the baggage and ftores of 15 different armies feveral hundred miles afunder.

Our readers will find, in the following extract, à fplendid picture of the fucceffes, as rapid as they have been general and aftonishing, that have attended the French arms:

"Frenchmen, who have cause of complaint, read over the immortal pages of our history; examine all the events which have fignalized the courage, and eternized the glory of the nation. Inhabitants of the North, with what fentiments are you not penetrated, when you fix your eyes upon Lifle; what impreffion is not made upon you by the recollection of that memorable fiege, during which the inhabitants of Life difplayed fuch firmnels. Conftancy is the true beroiím of Frenchmen. The citizens of Thionville exhibited the fame example, amid the fame dangers. View that army of heroes, rufhing into the fire of batteries, carrying redoubts, and gaining the bloody battle of Jemappe; fee it attack the enemy before Bruffells, and make the first conqueft of Belgium! A new fcene opens; the French have to defend their own frontiers; the English are beaten at Dunkirk, the Auftrians before Maubeuge. The army advances into Weft Flanders; this country, full of fortrefes, is covered by the whole force of the Allied Powers. All the fortreffles fall into the Aands of the French, and the capitulations of Oftend and Nieuport deprive the English of every communication with Belgium. Mark with what courage the defenders of their country prepared before Charleroi, the fuccefs which was to crown them next day in the plains of Fleurus. A proud Monarch publifhed by found of trumpet, the capture of Namur. A new mode of tactics, which other nations will never appropriate, and which defpotifm will never introduce into its armies, reftores Namur to the French. They pursue the Auftrians, they force them to retreat. They enter Liege, where they make the moft glorious and the moft ufeful of conquefts. They break the fceptre of a priest, and the chains with which a defpot bound his fellowmen. The induftrious inhabitants of Liege quit the land of bondage, and feek the foil of the Republic, to enjoy liberty, and establish new manufactures of arms, to complete the deftruction of tyrants. Inhabitants of our Eaftern countries, what tranfports have you not felt, when you were spectators of thofe encampments, marches, battles, and victories, which opened to your brothers the gates of Spires, Worms, and Mentz? All the banks of the Rhine refound with the victories of our armies. The armies of the Mofelle and the Rhine unite, put the Auftrains and Pruffians to flight; reflore the commurication of Landau, and fcour the Palatinate. Inhabitants of the South, you know whether the fruits of victory have been useful to France. The conqueft of Savoy gave to the Republic the Department of Mont Blanc. Mount Cenis now affures the conqueft and the liberty of our brethren. Nice and Villefranche fecure to us mapazines which we could not do without. The capture of Saorgio guarantees the union of the Maritime Alps. Cravella has feen the

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Croats and Auftrians flying before Republicans, whofe orders were to preferve the free countries of Italy from the yoke of a foreign domination. Collioure and Port Vendre were occupied by the Spaniards for a moment, only to give new eclat to the arms of the Republic, and exhibit the spectacle of the best troops of Spain compelled to renounce the Honours of War, and lay down their arms. The vallies of Baffan and Lerain have fupplied the army for feveral months. Fontarabia and St. Sebagian give us ports that fecure the navigation of the Gulf. Spain has loft founderies and manufactories of arms, which would have been an eternal fource of jealoufy if they had been preferved.

"Such is this day the fituation of France. Could it be grander, Aronger, or more formidable ?".

Citizen Lindet, we believe, was one of the 12 clergymen who received episcopal confecration from the hands of the famous Bishop of Autun, when they were nominated to fill the fees vacated by the prelates who refused to take the oaths to maintain the new conftitution of the clergy. To thofe of our countrymen who are willing to make peace, but who nevertheless are for carrying on the war, because, as they fay, the French have no government with which we can treat, we earnestly recommend the following obfervation of the reporter, page 4:

The Nations who have maintained peace, the Governments who have been wife enongh to refift the infinuations of the courts of Vienna and London, hear and repeat the accounts of your victories. You have done every thing for Liberty, by infpiring fo high an opinion of her defenders. You have conquered the opinion of nations. They no longer afk whether you have a government; they know that to maintain the most numerous land armies, to cover the Ocean with fhips of war, to fight and vanquish by fea and land, to bring into your ports the commerce of the world, is to govern. This fentiment with which you have infpired the people of the North, of Africa, America, and those bordering on your frontiers, is too evident to be difputed. Your enemies can neither veil nor obfcure your glory. They cannot ravish from you the confidence, and the esteem of other nations.'

In the following paffage, he alludes to the 20,000 committees, the annual expence of which is generally eftimated at fome millions more than the whole royal naval and military establishments of France before the revolution; he labours to prove that the utility of thefe bodies of men greatly overbalances the expence which attends them, for, in his opinion, they have faved the Republic and fettled it on a folid foundation;

If it should be afked why the Convention organized a plan of vi- ; gilance, requiring fuch a prodigious number of functionaries that all Europe could not furnish a fufficient number of well informed men to fill all the places, the French will anfwer, that the plan was wife, and necessary. Our enemies were fo numerous, fo widely spread, had fo many modes and means of infinuating themfelves into the adminiftrations, the popular focieties, and even into our families, that every Citizen was obliged to confider himself as a centinel ftationed at a poft. Our experience and the mischiefs we had fuffered, had inftructed us