The rich peasants are bribed with Church lands; and the
poorer of that description are, and can be, counted
for nothing.
poorer of that description are, and can be, counted
for nothing.
Edmund Burke
?
338 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
their remiss and jobbish government at home. But
now it can subsist only on the resources of domestic
management; and abuses in that management of
course will be more intimately and more severely
felt.
In the midst of the apparently torpid languor of
the Ecclesiastical State, those who have had opportu
nlity of a near observation have seen a little rippling
in that smooth water, which indicates something alive
under it. There is in the Ecclesiastical State a personage who seems capable of acting ( but with more
force and steadiness) the part of the tribune Rienzi.
The people, once inflamed, will not be destitute of a
leader. They have such an one already in the Cardinal or Archbishop Boncompagni. He is, of all
men, if I am not ill-informed, the most turbulent,
seditious, intriguing, bold, and desperate. He is not
at all made for a Roman of the present day. I think
he lately held the first office of their state, that of
Great Chamberlain, which is equivalent to High Treasurer. At present he is out of employment, and in
disgrace. If he should be elected Pope, or even come
to have any weight with a new Pope, he will infallibly conjure up a democratic spirit in that country.
He may, indeed, be able to effect it without these
advantages. The next interregnum will probably
show more of him. There may be others of the
same character, who have not come to my knowledge. This much is certain, - that the Roman people, if once the blind reverence they bear to the sanctity of the Pope, which is their only bridle, should relax, are naturally turbulent, ferocious, and headlong, whilst the police is defective, and the government feeble and resourceless beyond all imagination.
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 339
As to Spain, it is a nerveless country. It
does not possess the use, it only suffers the
abuse, of a nobility. For some time, and even before the settlement of the Bourbon dynasty, that body has been systematically lowered, and rendered incapable by exclusion, and for incapacity excluded from affairs. In this circle the body is in a manner annihilated;
and so little means have they of any weighty exertion either to control or to support the crown, that, if they at all interfere, it is only by abetting desperate and mobbish insurrections, like that at Madrid, which drove Squillace from his place. Florida Blanca is
a creature of office, and has little connection and no
sympathy with that body.
As to the clergy, they are the only thing in Spain
that looks like an independent order; and they are
kept in some respect by the Inquisition, the sole, but
unhappy resource of public tranquillity and order now
remaining in Spain. As in Venice, it is become mostly an engine of state, - which, indeed, to a degree, it has always been in Spain. It wars no longer with
Jews and heretics: it has no such war to carry on.
Its great object is, to keep atheistic and republican doctrines from making their way in that kingdom.
No French book upon any subject can enter there which does not contain such matter. In Spain, the clergy are of moment from their influence, but at
the same time with the envy and jealousy that attend great riches and power. Though the crown has by management with the Pope got a very great share of the ecclesiastical revenues into its own hands, much still remains to them. There will always be about
that court those who look out to a farther division
of the Church property as a resource, and to be ob
? ? ? ? 340 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
tained by shorter methods than those of negotiations
with the clergy and their chief. But at present I
think it likely that they will stop, lest the business
should be taken out of their hands, -- and lest that
body, in which remains the only life that exists in
Spain, and is not a fever, may with their property
lose all the influence necessary to preserve the monarchy, or, being poor and desperate, may employ
whatever influence remains to them as active agents
iln its destruction.
Castile dif- The Castilians have still remaining a
ferent from
catalonia good deal of their old character, their graand Aragon.
a vedad, lealtad, and el temor de Dios; but
that character neither is, nor ever was, exactly true,
except of the Castilians only. The several kingdoms
which compose Spain have, perhaps, some features
which run through the whole; but they are in many
particulars as different as nations who go by different names: the Catalans, for instance, and the Aragonians too, in a great measure, have the spirit of the Miquelets, and much more of republicanism than of
an attachment to royalty. They are more in the
way of trade and intercourse with France, and, upon
the least internal movement, will disclose and probably let loose a spirit that may throw the whole Spanish monarchy into convulsions.
It is a mlelancholy reflection, that the spirit of
melioration which has been going on in that part of
Europe, more or less, during this century, and the
various schemes very lately on foot for filrther advancement, are all put a stop to at once. Reformation certainly is nearly connected with innovation;
and where tllat latter comes in for too large a share,
those who undertake to improve their country may
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 341
risk their own safety. In times where the correction,
which includes the confession, of an abuse, is turned
to criminate the authority which has long suffered
it, rather than to honor those who would amend it,
(which is the spirit of this malignant French distemnper,) every step out of the common course becomes critical, and renders it a task full of peril for princes
of moderate talents to engage in great undertakings.
At present the only safety of Spaill is the old national
hatred to the French. How far that can be depended
upon, if any great ferments should be excited, it is
impossible to say.
As to Portugal, she is out of the high-road of these
politics. I shall, therefore, not divert my thoughts
that way, but return again to the North of Europe,
which at present seems the part most interested, and
there it appears to me that the French speculation on
the Northern countries may be valued in the following or some such manner.
Denmark and Norway do not appear to
Denmark.
furnish any of the materials of a democratic revolution, or the dispositions to it. Denmark
can only be consequentially affected by anything
done in France; but of Sweden I think quite otherwise. The present power in Sweden is too
Sweden.
new a system, and too green and too sore
from its late Revolution, to be considered as perfectly assured. The king, by his astonishing activity,
his boldness, his decision, his ready versatility, and
by rousing and employing the old military spirit of
Sweden, keeps up the top with continual agitation
and lashing. The moment it ceases to spin, the
royalty is a dead bit of box. Whenever Sweden
is quiet externally for some time, there is great dan.
? ? ? ? 342 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
ger that all the republican elements she contains will
be animated by the new French spirit, and of this I
believe the king is very sensible.
The Russian government is of all others
the most liable to be subverted by military
seditions, by court conspiracies, and sometimes by
headlong rebellions of the people, such as the turbinating movement of Pugatchef. It is not quite so probable that in any of these changes the spirit of
system may mingle, in the manner it has done in
France. The Muscovites are no great speculators;
but I should not much rely on their uninquisitive
disposition, if any of their ordinary motives to sedition should arise. The little catechism of the Rights of Men is soon learned; and the inferences are in the
passions.
Poland, from one cause or other, is always unquiet. The new Constitution only
serves to supply that restless people with new means,
at least new modes, of cherishing their turbulent disposition. The bottom of the character is the same. It is a great question, whether the joining that crown
with the Electorate of Saxony will contribaxony. ute most to strengthen the royal authority
of Poland or to shake the ducal in Saxony. The
Elector is a Catholic; the people of Saxony are, six
sevenths at the very least, Protestants. He must
continue a Catholic, according to the Polish law, if
he accepts that crown. The pride of the Saxons,
formerly flattered by having a crown in the house
of their prince, though an honor which cost them
dear, - the German probity, fidelity, and loyalty, -
the weight of the Constitution of the Empire under
the Treaty of Westphalia, -- the good temper and
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 343
good-nature of the princes of the House of Saxony,
had formerly removed from the people all apprehension with regard to their religion, and kept them perfectly quiet, obedient, and even affectionate. The Seven Years' War made some change in the. minds of
the Saxons. They did not, I believe, regret the loss
of what might be considered almost as the succession to the crown of Poland, the possession of which,
by annexing them to a foreign interest, had often
obliged them to act an arduous part, towards the
support of which that foreign interest afforded no
proportionable strength. In this very delicate situation of their political interests, the speculations of
the French and German -Economists, and the cabals,
and the secret, as well as public doctrines of the
JIlluminatenorden and Freemasons, have made a considerable progress in that country; and a turbulent
spirit, under color of religion, but in reality arising
from the French rights of man, has already shown
itself, and is ready on every occasion to blaze out.
The present Elector is a prince of a safe and quiet
temper, of great prudence and goodness. He knows,
that, in the actual state of things, not the power and
respect belonging to sovereigns, but their very existence, depends on a reasonable frugality. It is very
certain that not one sovereign in Europe can either
promise for the continuance of his authority in a
state of indigence and insolvency, or dares to venture on a new imposition to relieve himself. Without abandoning wholly the ancient magnificence of
his court, the Elector has conducted his affairs with
infinitely more economy than any of his predecessors, so as to restore his finances beyond what was
thought possible from the state in which the Seven
? ? ? ? 344 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
Years' War had left Saxony. Saxony, during the
whole of that dreadful period, having been in the
hands of an exasperated enemy, rigorous by resentment, by nature, and by necessity, was obliged to
bear in a manner the whole burden of the war; in
the intervals when their allies prevailed, the inhabit
ants of that country were not better treated.
The moderation and prudence of the present Elector, in my opinion, rather, perhaps, respites the trou
bles than secures the peace of the Electorate. The
offer of the succession to the crown of Poland is
truly critical, whether he accepts or whether he declines it. If the States will consent to his acceptance, it will add to the difficulties, already great, of his situation between the king of Prussia and the
Emperor. -But these thoughts lead me too far, when
I mean to speak only of the interior condition of these
princes. It has always, however, some necessary connection with their foreign politics.
With regard' to Holland, and the ruling
Holland.
party there, I do not think it at all tainted,
or likely to be so, except by fear, -or that it is likely
to be misled, unless indirectly and circuitously. But
the predominant party in Holland is not Holland.
The suppressed faction, though suppressed, exists.
Under the ashes, the embers of the late commotions
are still warm. The anti-Orange party has from the
day of its origin been French, though alienated in
some degree for some time, through the pride and
folly of Louis the Fourteenth. It will ever hanker
after a French connection; and now that the internal government in France has been assimilated in so
considerable a degree to that which the immoderate
republicans began so very lately to introduce into
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 345
Holland, their connection, as still more natural, will
be more desired. I do not well understand the present exterior politics of the Stadtholder, nor the treaty into which the newspapers say he has entered for the
States with the Emperor. But the Emperor's own
politics with regard to the Netherlands seem to me
to be exactly calculated to answer the purpose of the
French Revolutionists. He endeavors to crush the
aristocratic party, and to nourish one in avowed
connection with the most furious democratists in
France.
These Provinces in which the French game is so
well played they consider as part of the old French
Empire: certainly they were amongst the oldest parts
of it. These they think very well situated, as their
party is well disposed to a reunion. As to the
greater nations, they do not aim at making a direct
conquest of them, but, by disturbing them through a
propagation of their principles, they hope to weaken,
as they will weaken them, and to keep them in perpetual alarm and agitation, and thus render all their efforts against them utterly impracticable, whilst they
extend the dominion of their sovereign anarchy on all
sides.
As to England, there may be some appre- E
hension from vicinity, from constant communication, and from the very name of liberty, which,
as it ought to be very dear to us, in its worst abuses
carries something seductive. It is the abuse of the
first and best of the objects which we cherish. I
know that many, who sufficiently dislike the system
of France, have yet no apprehensions of its prevalence
here. I say nothing to the ground of this security
ill the ttthm th t heir Cnstit0on,
? ? ? ? 346 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
and their satisfaction in the discreet portion of liberty
which it measures out to them. Upon this I have
said all I have to say, in the Appeal I have published.
That security is Something, and not inconsiderable;
but if a storm arises, I should not much rely upon it.
Objection There are other views of things which
to the stability of may be used to give us a perfect (though
the French
system. in my opinion a delusive) assurance of our
own security. The first of these is from the weakness and rickety nature of the new system in the place of its first formation. It is thought that the
monster of a commonwealth cannot possibly live,that at any rate the ill contrivance of their fabric will make it fall in pieces of itself, - that the Assembly
must be bankrupt, - and that this bankruptcy will
totally destroy that system from the contagion of
which apprehensions are entertained.
For my part I have long thought that one great
cause of the stability of this wretched scheme of
things in France was an opinion that it could not
stand, and therefore that all external measures to
destroy it were wholly useless.
As to the bankruptcy, that event has hapBankruptcy.
Bankruptcy. pened long ago, as much as it is ever likely
to happen. As soon as a nation compels a creditor
to take paper currency in discharge of his debt, there
is a bankruptcy. The compulsory paper has in some
degree answered, - not because there was a surplus
from Church lands, but because faith has not been
kept with the clergy. As to the holders of the old
funds, to them the payments will be dilatory, but
they will be made; and whatever may be the discount on paper, whilst paper is taken, paper will be issued.
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 347
As to the rest, they have shot out three
Resources.
branches of revenue to supply all those
which they have destroyed: that is, the Universal Register of all Transactions, the heavy and universal Stamp -Duty, and the new Territorial Impost, levied chiefly on the reduced estates of the gentlemen. These branches of the revenue, especially as they take assignats in payment, answer their purpose in
a considerable degree, and keep up the credit of their paper: for, as they receive it in their treasury, it is
in reality funded upon all their taxes and future resources of all kinds, as well as upon the Church estates. As this paper is become in a manner the only visible maintenance of the whole people, the dread
of a bankruptcy is more apparently connected with
the delay of a counter-revolution than with the duration of this republic; because the interest of the
new republic manifestly leans upon it, and, in my
opinion, the counter-revolution cannot exist along
with it. The above three projects ruined some ministers under the old government, merely for having conceived them. They are the salvation of the present rulers.
As the Assembly has laid a most unsparing and
cruel hand on all men who have lived by the bounty, the justice, or the abuses of the old government, they have lessened many expenses. The royal establishment, though excessively and ridiculously great for their scheme of things, is reduced at least one
half; the estates of the king's brothers, which under
the ancient government had been in truth royal revenues, go to the general stock of the confiscation; and as to the crown lands, though under the monarchy they never yielded two hundred and fifty
? ? ? ? 348 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
thousand a year, by many they are thought at least
worth three times as much.
As to the ecclesiastical charge. whether as a com
pensation for losses, or a provision for religion, of
which they made at first a great parade, and entered
into a solemn engagement in favor of it, it was estimated at a much larger sum than they could expect
from the Church property, movable or immovable:
they are completely bankrupt as to that article. It
is just what they wish; and it is not productive of
any serious inconvenience. The non-payment produces discontent and occasional sedition; but is only
by fits and spasms, and amongst the country people,
who are of no consequence. These seditions furnish new pretexts for non-payment to the Church
establishment, and help the Assembly wholly to
get rid of the clergy, and indeed of any form of
religion, which is not only their real, but avowed
object.
Want of They are embarrassed, indeed, in the highmoney how
supplied. est degree, but not wholly resourceless.
They are without the species of money. Circulation of money is a great convenience, but a substitute for it may be found. Whilst the great objects of production and consumption, corn, cattle, wine,
and the like, exist in a country, the means of giving
them circulation, with more or less convenience, calnnot be wholly wanting. The great confiscation of the
Church and of the crown lands, and of the appanages of the princes, for the purchase of all which
their paper is always received at par, gives means of
continually destroying and contillnually creating; and
this perpetual destruction and renovation feeds the
speculative market, and prevents, and will prevent,
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 349
till that fund of confiscation begins to fail, a total
depreciation.
But all consideration of public credit in Moneyedinterest not
France is of little avail at present. The necessary
action, indeed, of the moneyed interest was
of absolute necessity at the beginning of this Revolution; but the French republic can stand without any
assistance from that description of men, which, as
things are now circumstanced, rather stands in need
of assistance itself from the power which alone substantially exists in France: I mean the several districts and municipal republics, and the several clubs which direct all their affairs and appoint all their
magistrates. This is the power now paramount to
everything, even to the Assembly itself called National and that to which tribunals, priesthood, laws,
finances, and both descriptions of military power are
wholly subservient, so far as the military power of
either description yields obedience to any name of
authority.
The world of contingency and political combination is much larger than we are apt to imagine. We
never can say what may or may not happen, without a view to all the actual circumstances. Experience, upon other data than those, is of all things
the most delusive. Prudence in new cases can do
nothing on grounds of retrospect. A constant vigilance and attention to the train of things as they
successively emerge, and to act on what they direct,
are the only sure courses. The physician that let
blood, and by blood-letting cured one kind of plague,
in the next added to its ravages. That power goes
with property is not universally true, and the idea
that the operation of it is certain and invariable
may mislead us very fatally.
? ? ? ? 350 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
Power sep- Whoever will take an accurate view of
arated from
property. the state of those republics, and of the composition of the present Assembly deputed by them, (in which Assembly there are not quite fifty persons
possessed of an income amounting to 1001. sterling
yearly,) must discern clearly, that the political and
civil power of Erance is wholly separated from its property of every description, and of course that neither the landed nor the moneyed interest possesses the
smallest weight or consideration in the direction of
any public concern. The whole kingdom is directed
by the refuse of its chicane, with the aid of the bustling, presumptuous young clerks of counting-houses and shops, and some intermixture of young gentlemen of the same character in the several towns.
The rich peasants are bribed with Church lands; and the
poorer of that description are, and can be, counted
for nothing. They may rise in ferocious, ill-directed
tumults, - but they can only disgrace themselves and
signalize the triumph of their adversaries.
Effect of The truly active citizens, that is, the
the rota.
above descriptions, are all concerned in
intrigue respecting the various objects in their local or their general government. The rota, which
the French have established for their National Assembly, holds out the highest objects of ambition to such vast multitudes as in an unexampled measure
to widen the bottom of a new species of interest
merely political, and wholly unconnected with birth
or property. This scheme of a rota, though it enfeebles the state, considered as one solid body, and indeed wholly disables it from acting as such, gives
a great, an equal, and a diffusive strength to the
democratic scheme. Seven hundred and fifty peo
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 351
ple, every two years raised to the supreme power,
has already produced at least fifteen hundred bold,
acting politicians: a great number for even so great
a country as France. These men never will quietly settle in ordinary occupations, nor submit to any
scheme which must reduce them to an entirely private condition, or to the exercise of a steady, peaceful, but obscure and unimportant industry. Whilst they sit in the Assembly, they are denied offices of
trust and profit, -- but their short duration makes
this no restraint: during their probation and apprenticeship they are all salaried with an income to
the greatest part of them immense; and after they
have passed the novitiate, those who take any sort
of lead are placed in very lucrative offices, according to their influence and credit, or appoint those
who divide their profits with them.
This supply of recruits to the corps of the highest
civil ambition goes on with a regular progression.
In very few years it must amount to many thousands.
These, however, will be as nothing in comparison to
the multitude of municipal officers, and officers of
district and department, of all sorts, who have tasted
of power and profit, and who hunger for the periodical return of the meal. To these needy agitators,
the glory of the state, the general wealth and prosperity of the nation, and the rise or fall of public
credit are as dreams; nor have arguments deduced
from these topics any sort of weight with them. The
indifference with which the Assembly regards the
state of their colonies, the only valuable part of the
French commerce, is a full proof how little they are
likely to be affected by anything but the selfish game
of their own ambition, now universally diffused.
? ? ? ? 352 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
linpractica- It is true, amidst all these turbulent
bility of
resisbance. means of security to their system, very
great discontents everywhere prevail. But they only
produce misery to those who nurse them at home, or
exile, beggary, and in the end confiscation, to those
who are so impatient as to remove from them. Each
municipal republic has a Committee, or something in
the nature of a Committee of Research. In these petty
republics the tyranny is so near its object that it
becomes instantly acquainted with every act of every
man. It stifles conspiracy in its very first movements. Their power is absolute and uncontrollable.
No stand can be made against it. These republics are
besides so disconnected, that very little intelligence
of what happens in them is to be obtained beyond
their own bounds, except by the means of their clubs,
who keep up a constant correspondence, and who give
what color they please to such facts as they choose
to communicate out of the track of their correspondence. They all have some sort of communication, just as much or as little as they please, with the
centre. By this confinement of all communication
to the ruling faction, any combination, grounded on
the abuses and discontents in one, scarcely can reach
the other. There is not one man, in any one place,
to head them. The old government had so much
abstracted the nobility from the cultivation of provincial interest, that no man in France exists, whose power, credit, or consequence extends to two districts, or who is capable of uniting them in any design, even if any man could assemble ten men
together without being sure of a speedy lodging
in a prison. One must not judge of the state of
France by what has been observed elsewhere. It
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 353
does not in the least resemble any other country.
Analogical reasoning from history or from recent
experience in other places is wholly delusive.
In my opinion, there never was seen so strong a
government internally as that of the French municipalities. If ever any rebellion can arise against
the present system, it must begin, where the Revolution which gave birth to it did, at the capital.
Paris is the only place in which there is the least
freedom of intercourse. But even there, so many
servants as any man has, so many spies and irreconcilable domestic enemies.
But that place being the chief seat of the Gentlemen
power and intelligence of the ruling faction,
and the place of occasional resort for their fiercest
spirits, even there a revolution is not likely to have
anything to feed it. The leaders of the aristocratic
party have been drawn out of the kingdom by order
of the princes, on the hopes held out by the Emperor
and the king of Prussia at Pilnitz; and as to the
democratic factions in Paris, amongst them there are
no leaders possessed of an influence for any other
purpose but that of maintaining the present state of
things. The moment they are seen to warp, they
are reduced to nothing. They have no attached army, - no party that is at all personal.
It is not to be imagined, because a political system
is, under certain aspects, very unwise in its contrivance, and very mischievous in its effects, that it therefore can have no long duration. Its very defects may tend to its stability, because they are agreeable to its
nature. The very faults in the Constitution of Po --
land made it last; the veto which destroyed all its,
energy preserved its life. What can be conceived so
VOL. 1V. 23
? ? ? ? 354 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
monstrous as the republic of Algiers, and that no
less strange republic of the Mamelukes in Egypt?
They are of the worst form imaginable, and exercised
in the worst manner, yet they have existed as a nuisance on the earth for several hundred years.
From all these considerations, and many
Conclusions.
more that crowd upon me, three conclusions
have long since arisen in my mind.
First, that no counter revolution is to be expected
in France from internal causes solely.
Secondly, that, the longer the present system exists,
the greater will be its strength, the greater its power
to destroy discontents at home, and to resist all foreign attempts in favor of these discontents.
Thirdly, that, as long as it exists in France, it will
be the interest of the managers there, and it is in the
very essence of their plan, to disturb and distract all
other governments, and their endless succession of
restless politicians will continually stimulate them to
new attempts.
Proceedings Princes are generally sensible that this is
of princes:
defensive their common cause; and two of them have
plans. made a public declaration of their opinion
to this effect. Against this common danger, some,of them, such as the king of Spain, the king of Sardinia, and the republic of Bern, are very diligent in using defensive measures.
If they were to guard against an invasion from
France, the merits of this plan of a merely defensive
resistance might be supported by plausible topics;
but as the attack does not operate against these countries externally, but by an internal corruption, (a sort
of dry rot,) they who pursue this merely defensive
plan against a danger which the plan itself suppose,
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 355
to be serious cannot possibly escape it. For it is in
the nature of all defensive measures to be sharp and
vigorous under the impressions of the first alarm, and
to relax by degrees, until at length the danger, by
not operating instantly, comes to appear as a false
alarm, - so much so, that the next menacing appearance will look less formidable, and will be less provided against. But to those who are on the offensive it is not necessary to be always alert. Possibly it is
more their interest not to be so. For their unforeseen attacks contribute to their success.
In the mean time a system of French con- The French
party how
spiracy is gaining ground in every country. composed.
This system, happening to be founded on principles
the most delusive indeed, but the most flattering to
the natural propensities of the unthinking multitude,
and to the speculations of all those who think, without thinking very profoundly, must daily extend its
influence. A predominant inclination towards it appears in all those who have no religion, when otherwise their disposition leads them to be advocates even for despotism. Hence iume, though I cannot say
that he does not throw out some expressions of disapprobation on the proceedings of the levellers in the
reign of Richard the Second, yet affirms that the doctrines of John Ball were " conformable to the ideas
of primitive equality which are engraven in the hearts
of all men. "
Boldness formerly was not the character of athe
ists as such. They were even of a character nearly
the reverse; they were formerly like the old Epicureans, rather an unenterprising race. But of late they
are grown active, designing, turbulent, and seditious.
They are sworn enemies to kings, nobility, and priest
? ? ? ? 356 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
hood. We have seen all the Academicians at Paris,
with Condorcet, the friend and correspondent of
Priestley, at their head, the most furious of the extravagant republicans.
Condorcet. The late Assembly, after the last captivity
of the king, had actually chosen this Condorcet, by a majority on the ballot, for preceptor to the
Dauphin, who was to be taken out of the hands and
direction of his parents, and to be delivered over to
this fanatic atheist and furious democratic republican.
His untractability to these leaders, and his figure in
the club of Jacobins, which at that time they wished
to bring under, alone prevented that part of the arrangement, and others in the same style, from being
carried into execution. Whilst he was candidate for
this office, he produced his title to it by promulgating
the following ideas of the title of his royal pupil to
the crown. In a paper written by him, and published
with his name, against the reestablishment even of
the appearance of monarchy under any qualifications,
he says: --
" Jusqu'a ce moment, ils [l'Assemblee Nationale]
n'ont rien pr4jug6 encore. En se r4servant de nommer un gouverneur au Dauphin, ils n'ont pas proDoctrine of nonc6 que cet enfant ddt rigner, mais seulethe French. ment qu'il etait possible que la Constitution
l'y destinat; ils ont voulu que l'dducation effavat
tout ce que les prestiges du trsne ont pu lui inspirer
de pr jugds sur les droits pr6tendlis de sa naissance;
qu'elle lui fit connaitre de bonne heure et l'egalite
naturelle des hommes et la souverainet9 du peuple;
qu'elle lui apprit i ne pas oublier que c'est du peuple
qu'il tiendra le titre de Roi, et que le peuple n'a pas
mdme le droit de renoncer d celui de l'en depouiller.
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 357
"Ils ont voulu que cette education le rendlt 6galement digne, par ses lumieres et ses vertus, de recevoir avec resignation le fardeau dangereux d'une couronne, ou de la deposer avee joie entre les mains de ses freres; qu'il sentit que le devoir et la gloire du
roi d'un peuple libre. sont de hater le moment de
n'etre plus qu'un citoyen ordinaire.
"Ils ont voulu que l'inutilite' d'un roi, la ndcessite
de chercher les moyens de remplacer un pouvoir fondd
sur des illusions, fft une des premieres v6ritds offertes
a sa raison; l'obligation d'y concourir lui-meme, un des
premiers devoirs de sa morale; et le desir de n'etre
plus affranchi du joug de la loi par une injurieuse
inviolabilite, le premier sentiment de son coeur. Ils
n'ignorent pas que dans ce moment il s'agit bien
moins de former un roi que de lui apprendre a savoir a vouloir ne plus l'etre. " *
Such are the sentiments of the man who has occasionally filled the chair of the National Assembly,
who is their perpetual secretary, their only standing
officer, and the most important by far. He leads
them to peace or war. He is the great theme of the
republican faction in England. These ideas of M.
Condorcet are the principles of those to whom kings
* (' Until now, they [the National Assembly] have prejudged nothing. Reserving to themselves a right to appoint a preceptor to the
Dauphin, they did not declare that this child was to reign, but only
that possibly the Constitution might destine him to it: they willed,
that, while education should efface from his mind all the prejudices
arising from the delusions of the throne respecting his pretended birthright, it should also teach him not to forget that it is from the people
he is to receive the title of King, and that the people do not even possess
the right of giving up their power to take it from him. ," They willed that this education should render him worthy, by his
knowledge and by his virtues, both to receive with submission the dan
? ? ? ? 358 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
are to intrust their successors and the interests of
their succession. This man would be ready to plunge
the poniard in the heart of his pupil, or to whet the
axe for his neck. Of all men, the most dangerous
is a warm, hot-headed, zealous atheist. This sort of
man aims at dominion, and his means are the words
he always has in his mouth, --'"L'ygaitte naturelle
des homnoes, et la souverainete' diu peuple. "
All former attempts, grounded on these rights of
men, had proved unfortunate. The success of this
last makes a mighty difference in the effect of the
doctrine. Here is a principle of a nature to the multitude the most seductive, always existing before their
eyes as a thing feasible in practice. After so many
failures, such an enterprise, previous to the French
experiment, carried ruin to the contrivers, on the
face of it; and if any enthusiast was so wild as to
wish to engage in a scheme of that nature, it was not
easy for him to find followers: now there is a party
almost in all countries, ready-made, animated with
success, with a sure ally in the very centre of Europe. There is no cabal so obscure in any place, that
they do not protect, cherish, foster, and endeavor to
gerous burden of a crown, and to resign it with pleasure into the hands
of his brethren; that he should be conscious that the hastening of
that moment when he is to be only a common citizen constitutes the
duty and the glory of a king of a free people.
"They willed that the uselessness of a king, the necessity of seeking
means to establish something in lieu of a power founded on illusions,
should be one of the first truths offered to his reason; the obligation
of conforming himself to this, the first of his moral duties; and the desire
of no longer being freed from the yoke of the law by an injurious inviolability, the first and chief sentiment of his heart. They are not ignorant that in the present moment the object is less to form a king than to
teach him that he should know how to wish no longer to be such. "
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 359
raise it into importance at home and abroad. From
the lowest, this intrigue will creep up to the highest.
Ambition, as well as enthusiasm, may find its account in the party and in the principle.
The ministers of other kings, like those Character
of ministers.
of the king of France, (not one of whom
was perfectly free from this guilt, and some of whom
were very deep in it,) may themselves be the persons
to foment such a disposition and such a faction.
Hiertzberg, the king of Prussia's late minister, is so
much of what is called a philosopher, that he was of
a faction with that sort of politicians in everything,
and in every place. Even when he defends himself
from the imputation of giving extravagantly into
these principles, he still considers the Revolution of
France as a great public good, by giving credit to
their fraudulent declaration of their universal benevolence and love of peace. Nor are his Prussian Majesty's present ministers at all disinclined to the same system. Their ostentatious preamble to certain late
edicts demonstrates (if their actions had not been
sufficiently explanatory of their cast of mind) that
they are deeply infected with the same distemper of
dangerous, because plausible, though trivial and shallow, speculation.
Ministers, turning their backs on the reputation
which properly belongs to them, aspire at the glory
of being speculative writers. The duties of these two
situations are in general directly opposite to each
other. Speculators ought to be neutral. A minister
cannot be so. He is to support the interest of the
public as connected with that of his master. He is
his master's trustee, advocate, attorney, and steward,
- and he is not to indulge in any speculation which
? ? ? ? 360 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
contradicts that character, or even detracts from its
efficacy. Necker had an extreme thirst for this sort
of glory; so had others; and this pursuit of a misplaced and misunderstood reputation was one of the
causes of the ruin of these ministers, and of their unhappy master. The Prussian ministers in foreign
courts have (at least not long since) talked the most
democratic language with regard to France, and in
the most unmanaged terms.
Corps diplo- The whole corps diplomatique, with very
matique.
few exceptions, leans that way. What cause
produces in them a turn of mind which at first one
would think unnatural to their situation it is not
impossible to explain. The discussion would, however, be somewhat long and somewhat invidious.
The fact itself is indisputable, however they may
disguise it to their several courts. This disposition
is gone to so very great a length in that corps, in
itself so important, and so important as furnishing the
intelligence which sways all cabinets, that, if princes
and states do not very speedily attend with a vigorous
control to that source of direction and information,
very serious evils are likely to befall them.
sovereigns But, indeed, kings are to guard against
positions. the same sort of dispositions in themselves.
They are very easily alienated from all the higher
orders of their subjects, whether civil or military,
laic or ecclesiastical. It is with persons of condition'that sovereigns chiefly come into contact. It is from
them that they generally experience opposition to
their will. It is with their pride and impracticability that princes are most hurt. It is with their servilit;y and baseness that they are most commonly disgusted. It is from their humors and cabals that
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 361
they find their affairs most frequently troubled and
distracted. But of the common people, in pure monarchical governments, kings know little or nothing;
and therefore being unacquainted with their faults,
(which are as many as those of the great, and much
more decisive in their effects, when accompanied with
lpower,) kings generally regard them with tenderness
and favor, and turn their eyes towards that description of their subjects, particularly when hurt by
opposition from the higher orders. It was thus that
the king of France (a perpetual example to all sovereigns) was ruined. I have it from very sure information, (and it was, indeed, obvious enough, from the measures which were taken previous to the assembly of the States and afterwards,) that the king's
counsellors had filled him with a strong dislike to his
nobility, his clergy, and the corps of his magistracy.
They represented to him, that he had tried them
all severally, in several ways, and found them all
untractable: that he had twice called an assembly
(the Notables) composed of the first men of the clergy, the nobility, and the magistrates; that he had
himself named every one member in those assemblies, and that, though so picked out, he had not,
in this their collective state, found them more disposed to a compliance with his will than they had
been separately; that there remained for him, with
the least prospect of advantage to his authority in
the States-General, which were to be composed of the
same sorts of men, but not chosen by him, only the
Tiers ]Itat: in this alone he could repose any hope
of extricating himself from his difficulties, and of
settling him in a clear and permanent authority.
They represented, (these are the words of olie of my
? ? ? ? 362 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
informants,) "that the royal authority, compressed
with the weight of these aristocratic bodies, full of
ambition and of faction, when once unloaded, would
rise of itself, and occupy its natural place without
disturbance or control"; that the common people
would protect, cherish, and support, instead of crushing it. "The people" (it was said) "could entertain no objects of ambition"; they were out of the road of intrigue and cabal, and could possibly have
no other view than the support of the mild and parental authority by which they were invested, for
the first time collectively, with real importance in. the state, and protected in their peaceable and useful employments.
King of This unfortunate king (not without a
France.
large share of blame to himself) was deluded to his ruin by a desire to humble and reduce
his nobility, clergy, and his corporate magistracy:
not that I suppose he meant wholly to eradicate
these bodies, in the manner since effected by the
democratic power; I rather believe that even Necker's designs did not go to that extent. With his own
hand, however, Louis the Sixteenth pulled down the
pillars which upheld his throne; and this he did, because he could not bear the inconveniences which are
attached to everything human,- because he found,
himself cooped up, and in durance, by those limits
which Nature prescribes to desire and imagination,
and was taught to consider as low and degrading
that mutual dependence which Providence has ordained that all men should have on one another.
HIe is not at this minute, perhaps, cured of the dread
of the power and credit like to be acquired by those
who would save and rescue him. He leaves those
? ? ?
their remiss and jobbish government at home. But
now it can subsist only on the resources of domestic
management; and abuses in that management of
course will be more intimately and more severely
felt.
In the midst of the apparently torpid languor of
the Ecclesiastical State, those who have had opportu
nlity of a near observation have seen a little rippling
in that smooth water, which indicates something alive
under it. There is in the Ecclesiastical State a personage who seems capable of acting ( but with more
force and steadiness) the part of the tribune Rienzi.
The people, once inflamed, will not be destitute of a
leader. They have such an one already in the Cardinal or Archbishop Boncompagni. He is, of all
men, if I am not ill-informed, the most turbulent,
seditious, intriguing, bold, and desperate. He is not
at all made for a Roman of the present day. I think
he lately held the first office of their state, that of
Great Chamberlain, which is equivalent to High Treasurer. At present he is out of employment, and in
disgrace. If he should be elected Pope, or even come
to have any weight with a new Pope, he will infallibly conjure up a democratic spirit in that country.
He may, indeed, be able to effect it without these
advantages. The next interregnum will probably
show more of him. There may be others of the
same character, who have not come to my knowledge. This much is certain, - that the Roman people, if once the blind reverence they bear to the sanctity of the Pope, which is their only bridle, should relax, are naturally turbulent, ferocious, and headlong, whilst the police is defective, and the government feeble and resourceless beyond all imagination.
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 339
As to Spain, it is a nerveless country. It
does not possess the use, it only suffers the
abuse, of a nobility. For some time, and even before the settlement of the Bourbon dynasty, that body has been systematically lowered, and rendered incapable by exclusion, and for incapacity excluded from affairs. In this circle the body is in a manner annihilated;
and so little means have they of any weighty exertion either to control or to support the crown, that, if they at all interfere, it is only by abetting desperate and mobbish insurrections, like that at Madrid, which drove Squillace from his place. Florida Blanca is
a creature of office, and has little connection and no
sympathy with that body.
As to the clergy, they are the only thing in Spain
that looks like an independent order; and they are
kept in some respect by the Inquisition, the sole, but
unhappy resource of public tranquillity and order now
remaining in Spain. As in Venice, it is become mostly an engine of state, - which, indeed, to a degree, it has always been in Spain. It wars no longer with
Jews and heretics: it has no such war to carry on.
Its great object is, to keep atheistic and republican doctrines from making their way in that kingdom.
No French book upon any subject can enter there which does not contain such matter. In Spain, the clergy are of moment from their influence, but at
the same time with the envy and jealousy that attend great riches and power. Though the crown has by management with the Pope got a very great share of the ecclesiastical revenues into its own hands, much still remains to them. There will always be about
that court those who look out to a farther division
of the Church property as a resource, and to be ob
? ? ? ? 340 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
tained by shorter methods than those of negotiations
with the clergy and their chief. But at present I
think it likely that they will stop, lest the business
should be taken out of their hands, -- and lest that
body, in which remains the only life that exists in
Spain, and is not a fever, may with their property
lose all the influence necessary to preserve the monarchy, or, being poor and desperate, may employ
whatever influence remains to them as active agents
iln its destruction.
Castile dif- The Castilians have still remaining a
ferent from
catalonia good deal of their old character, their graand Aragon.
a vedad, lealtad, and el temor de Dios; but
that character neither is, nor ever was, exactly true,
except of the Castilians only. The several kingdoms
which compose Spain have, perhaps, some features
which run through the whole; but they are in many
particulars as different as nations who go by different names: the Catalans, for instance, and the Aragonians too, in a great measure, have the spirit of the Miquelets, and much more of republicanism than of
an attachment to royalty. They are more in the
way of trade and intercourse with France, and, upon
the least internal movement, will disclose and probably let loose a spirit that may throw the whole Spanish monarchy into convulsions.
It is a mlelancholy reflection, that the spirit of
melioration which has been going on in that part of
Europe, more or less, during this century, and the
various schemes very lately on foot for filrther advancement, are all put a stop to at once. Reformation certainly is nearly connected with innovation;
and where tllat latter comes in for too large a share,
those who undertake to improve their country may
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 341
risk their own safety. In times where the correction,
which includes the confession, of an abuse, is turned
to criminate the authority which has long suffered
it, rather than to honor those who would amend it,
(which is the spirit of this malignant French distemnper,) every step out of the common course becomes critical, and renders it a task full of peril for princes
of moderate talents to engage in great undertakings.
At present the only safety of Spaill is the old national
hatred to the French. How far that can be depended
upon, if any great ferments should be excited, it is
impossible to say.
As to Portugal, she is out of the high-road of these
politics. I shall, therefore, not divert my thoughts
that way, but return again to the North of Europe,
which at present seems the part most interested, and
there it appears to me that the French speculation on
the Northern countries may be valued in the following or some such manner.
Denmark and Norway do not appear to
Denmark.
furnish any of the materials of a democratic revolution, or the dispositions to it. Denmark
can only be consequentially affected by anything
done in France; but of Sweden I think quite otherwise. The present power in Sweden is too
Sweden.
new a system, and too green and too sore
from its late Revolution, to be considered as perfectly assured. The king, by his astonishing activity,
his boldness, his decision, his ready versatility, and
by rousing and employing the old military spirit of
Sweden, keeps up the top with continual agitation
and lashing. The moment it ceases to spin, the
royalty is a dead bit of box. Whenever Sweden
is quiet externally for some time, there is great dan.
? ? ? ? 342 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
ger that all the republican elements she contains will
be animated by the new French spirit, and of this I
believe the king is very sensible.
The Russian government is of all others
the most liable to be subverted by military
seditions, by court conspiracies, and sometimes by
headlong rebellions of the people, such as the turbinating movement of Pugatchef. It is not quite so probable that in any of these changes the spirit of
system may mingle, in the manner it has done in
France. The Muscovites are no great speculators;
but I should not much rely on their uninquisitive
disposition, if any of their ordinary motives to sedition should arise. The little catechism of the Rights of Men is soon learned; and the inferences are in the
passions.
Poland, from one cause or other, is always unquiet. The new Constitution only
serves to supply that restless people with new means,
at least new modes, of cherishing their turbulent disposition. The bottom of the character is the same. It is a great question, whether the joining that crown
with the Electorate of Saxony will contribaxony. ute most to strengthen the royal authority
of Poland or to shake the ducal in Saxony. The
Elector is a Catholic; the people of Saxony are, six
sevenths at the very least, Protestants. He must
continue a Catholic, according to the Polish law, if
he accepts that crown. The pride of the Saxons,
formerly flattered by having a crown in the house
of their prince, though an honor which cost them
dear, - the German probity, fidelity, and loyalty, -
the weight of the Constitution of the Empire under
the Treaty of Westphalia, -- the good temper and
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 343
good-nature of the princes of the House of Saxony,
had formerly removed from the people all apprehension with regard to their religion, and kept them perfectly quiet, obedient, and even affectionate. The Seven Years' War made some change in the. minds of
the Saxons. They did not, I believe, regret the loss
of what might be considered almost as the succession to the crown of Poland, the possession of which,
by annexing them to a foreign interest, had often
obliged them to act an arduous part, towards the
support of which that foreign interest afforded no
proportionable strength. In this very delicate situation of their political interests, the speculations of
the French and German -Economists, and the cabals,
and the secret, as well as public doctrines of the
JIlluminatenorden and Freemasons, have made a considerable progress in that country; and a turbulent
spirit, under color of religion, but in reality arising
from the French rights of man, has already shown
itself, and is ready on every occasion to blaze out.
The present Elector is a prince of a safe and quiet
temper, of great prudence and goodness. He knows,
that, in the actual state of things, not the power and
respect belonging to sovereigns, but their very existence, depends on a reasonable frugality. It is very
certain that not one sovereign in Europe can either
promise for the continuance of his authority in a
state of indigence and insolvency, or dares to venture on a new imposition to relieve himself. Without abandoning wholly the ancient magnificence of
his court, the Elector has conducted his affairs with
infinitely more economy than any of his predecessors, so as to restore his finances beyond what was
thought possible from the state in which the Seven
? ? ? ? 344 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
Years' War had left Saxony. Saxony, during the
whole of that dreadful period, having been in the
hands of an exasperated enemy, rigorous by resentment, by nature, and by necessity, was obliged to
bear in a manner the whole burden of the war; in
the intervals when their allies prevailed, the inhabit
ants of that country were not better treated.
The moderation and prudence of the present Elector, in my opinion, rather, perhaps, respites the trou
bles than secures the peace of the Electorate. The
offer of the succession to the crown of Poland is
truly critical, whether he accepts or whether he declines it. If the States will consent to his acceptance, it will add to the difficulties, already great, of his situation between the king of Prussia and the
Emperor. -But these thoughts lead me too far, when
I mean to speak only of the interior condition of these
princes. It has always, however, some necessary connection with their foreign politics.
With regard' to Holland, and the ruling
Holland.
party there, I do not think it at all tainted,
or likely to be so, except by fear, -or that it is likely
to be misled, unless indirectly and circuitously. But
the predominant party in Holland is not Holland.
The suppressed faction, though suppressed, exists.
Under the ashes, the embers of the late commotions
are still warm. The anti-Orange party has from the
day of its origin been French, though alienated in
some degree for some time, through the pride and
folly of Louis the Fourteenth. It will ever hanker
after a French connection; and now that the internal government in France has been assimilated in so
considerable a degree to that which the immoderate
republicans began so very lately to introduce into
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 345
Holland, their connection, as still more natural, will
be more desired. I do not well understand the present exterior politics of the Stadtholder, nor the treaty into which the newspapers say he has entered for the
States with the Emperor. But the Emperor's own
politics with regard to the Netherlands seem to me
to be exactly calculated to answer the purpose of the
French Revolutionists. He endeavors to crush the
aristocratic party, and to nourish one in avowed
connection with the most furious democratists in
France.
These Provinces in which the French game is so
well played they consider as part of the old French
Empire: certainly they were amongst the oldest parts
of it. These they think very well situated, as their
party is well disposed to a reunion. As to the
greater nations, they do not aim at making a direct
conquest of them, but, by disturbing them through a
propagation of their principles, they hope to weaken,
as they will weaken them, and to keep them in perpetual alarm and agitation, and thus render all their efforts against them utterly impracticable, whilst they
extend the dominion of their sovereign anarchy on all
sides.
As to England, there may be some appre- E
hension from vicinity, from constant communication, and from the very name of liberty, which,
as it ought to be very dear to us, in its worst abuses
carries something seductive. It is the abuse of the
first and best of the objects which we cherish. I
know that many, who sufficiently dislike the system
of France, have yet no apprehensions of its prevalence
here. I say nothing to the ground of this security
ill the ttthm th t heir Cnstit0on,
? ? ? ? 346 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
and their satisfaction in the discreet portion of liberty
which it measures out to them. Upon this I have
said all I have to say, in the Appeal I have published.
That security is Something, and not inconsiderable;
but if a storm arises, I should not much rely upon it.
Objection There are other views of things which
to the stability of may be used to give us a perfect (though
the French
system. in my opinion a delusive) assurance of our
own security. The first of these is from the weakness and rickety nature of the new system in the place of its first formation. It is thought that the
monster of a commonwealth cannot possibly live,that at any rate the ill contrivance of their fabric will make it fall in pieces of itself, - that the Assembly
must be bankrupt, - and that this bankruptcy will
totally destroy that system from the contagion of
which apprehensions are entertained.
For my part I have long thought that one great
cause of the stability of this wretched scheme of
things in France was an opinion that it could not
stand, and therefore that all external measures to
destroy it were wholly useless.
As to the bankruptcy, that event has hapBankruptcy.
Bankruptcy. pened long ago, as much as it is ever likely
to happen. As soon as a nation compels a creditor
to take paper currency in discharge of his debt, there
is a bankruptcy. The compulsory paper has in some
degree answered, - not because there was a surplus
from Church lands, but because faith has not been
kept with the clergy. As to the holders of the old
funds, to them the payments will be dilatory, but
they will be made; and whatever may be the discount on paper, whilst paper is taken, paper will be issued.
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 347
As to the rest, they have shot out three
Resources.
branches of revenue to supply all those
which they have destroyed: that is, the Universal Register of all Transactions, the heavy and universal Stamp -Duty, and the new Territorial Impost, levied chiefly on the reduced estates of the gentlemen. These branches of the revenue, especially as they take assignats in payment, answer their purpose in
a considerable degree, and keep up the credit of their paper: for, as they receive it in their treasury, it is
in reality funded upon all their taxes and future resources of all kinds, as well as upon the Church estates. As this paper is become in a manner the only visible maintenance of the whole people, the dread
of a bankruptcy is more apparently connected with
the delay of a counter-revolution than with the duration of this republic; because the interest of the
new republic manifestly leans upon it, and, in my
opinion, the counter-revolution cannot exist along
with it. The above three projects ruined some ministers under the old government, merely for having conceived them. They are the salvation of the present rulers.
As the Assembly has laid a most unsparing and
cruel hand on all men who have lived by the bounty, the justice, or the abuses of the old government, they have lessened many expenses. The royal establishment, though excessively and ridiculously great for their scheme of things, is reduced at least one
half; the estates of the king's brothers, which under
the ancient government had been in truth royal revenues, go to the general stock of the confiscation; and as to the crown lands, though under the monarchy they never yielded two hundred and fifty
? ? ? ? 348 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
thousand a year, by many they are thought at least
worth three times as much.
As to the ecclesiastical charge. whether as a com
pensation for losses, or a provision for religion, of
which they made at first a great parade, and entered
into a solemn engagement in favor of it, it was estimated at a much larger sum than they could expect
from the Church property, movable or immovable:
they are completely bankrupt as to that article. It
is just what they wish; and it is not productive of
any serious inconvenience. The non-payment produces discontent and occasional sedition; but is only
by fits and spasms, and amongst the country people,
who are of no consequence. These seditions furnish new pretexts for non-payment to the Church
establishment, and help the Assembly wholly to
get rid of the clergy, and indeed of any form of
religion, which is not only their real, but avowed
object.
Want of They are embarrassed, indeed, in the highmoney how
supplied. est degree, but not wholly resourceless.
They are without the species of money. Circulation of money is a great convenience, but a substitute for it may be found. Whilst the great objects of production and consumption, corn, cattle, wine,
and the like, exist in a country, the means of giving
them circulation, with more or less convenience, calnnot be wholly wanting. The great confiscation of the
Church and of the crown lands, and of the appanages of the princes, for the purchase of all which
their paper is always received at par, gives means of
continually destroying and contillnually creating; and
this perpetual destruction and renovation feeds the
speculative market, and prevents, and will prevent,
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 349
till that fund of confiscation begins to fail, a total
depreciation.
But all consideration of public credit in Moneyedinterest not
France is of little avail at present. The necessary
action, indeed, of the moneyed interest was
of absolute necessity at the beginning of this Revolution; but the French republic can stand without any
assistance from that description of men, which, as
things are now circumstanced, rather stands in need
of assistance itself from the power which alone substantially exists in France: I mean the several districts and municipal republics, and the several clubs which direct all their affairs and appoint all their
magistrates. This is the power now paramount to
everything, even to the Assembly itself called National and that to which tribunals, priesthood, laws,
finances, and both descriptions of military power are
wholly subservient, so far as the military power of
either description yields obedience to any name of
authority.
The world of contingency and political combination is much larger than we are apt to imagine. We
never can say what may or may not happen, without a view to all the actual circumstances. Experience, upon other data than those, is of all things
the most delusive. Prudence in new cases can do
nothing on grounds of retrospect. A constant vigilance and attention to the train of things as they
successively emerge, and to act on what they direct,
are the only sure courses. The physician that let
blood, and by blood-letting cured one kind of plague,
in the next added to its ravages. That power goes
with property is not universally true, and the idea
that the operation of it is certain and invariable
may mislead us very fatally.
? ? ? ? 350 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
Power sep- Whoever will take an accurate view of
arated from
property. the state of those republics, and of the composition of the present Assembly deputed by them, (in which Assembly there are not quite fifty persons
possessed of an income amounting to 1001. sterling
yearly,) must discern clearly, that the political and
civil power of Erance is wholly separated from its property of every description, and of course that neither the landed nor the moneyed interest possesses the
smallest weight or consideration in the direction of
any public concern. The whole kingdom is directed
by the refuse of its chicane, with the aid of the bustling, presumptuous young clerks of counting-houses and shops, and some intermixture of young gentlemen of the same character in the several towns.
The rich peasants are bribed with Church lands; and the
poorer of that description are, and can be, counted
for nothing. They may rise in ferocious, ill-directed
tumults, - but they can only disgrace themselves and
signalize the triumph of their adversaries.
Effect of The truly active citizens, that is, the
the rota.
above descriptions, are all concerned in
intrigue respecting the various objects in their local or their general government. The rota, which
the French have established for their National Assembly, holds out the highest objects of ambition to such vast multitudes as in an unexampled measure
to widen the bottom of a new species of interest
merely political, and wholly unconnected with birth
or property. This scheme of a rota, though it enfeebles the state, considered as one solid body, and indeed wholly disables it from acting as such, gives
a great, an equal, and a diffusive strength to the
democratic scheme. Seven hundred and fifty peo
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 351
ple, every two years raised to the supreme power,
has already produced at least fifteen hundred bold,
acting politicians: a great number for even so great
a country as France. These men never will quietly settle in ordinary occupations, nor submit to any
scheme which must reduce them to an entirely private condition, or to the exercise of a steady, peaceful, but obscure and unimportant industry. Whilst they sit in the Assembly, they are denied offices of
trust and profit, -- but their short duration makes
this no restraint: during their probation and apprenticeship they are all salaried with an income to
the greatest part of them immense; and after they
have passed the novitiate, those who take any sort
of lead are placed in very lucrative offices, according to their influence and credit, or appoint those
who divide their profits with them.
This supply of recruits to the corps of the highest
civil ambition goes on with a regular progression.
In very few years it must amount to many thousands.
These, however, will be as nothing in comparison to
the multitude of municipal officers, and officers of
district and department, of all sorts, who have tasted
of power and profit, and who hunger for the periodical return of the meal. To these needy agitators,
the glory of the state, the general wealth and prosperity of the nation, and the rise or fall of public
credit are as dreams; nor have arguments deduced
from these topics any sort of weight with them. The
indifference with which the Assembly regards the
state of their colonies, the only valuable part of the
French commerce, is a full proof how little they are
likely to be affected by anything but the selfish game
of their own ambition, now universally diffused.
? ? ? ? 352 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
linpractica- It is true, amidst all these turbulent
bility of
resisbance. means of security to their system, very
great discontents everywhere prevail. But they only
produce misery to those who nurse them at home, or
exile, beggary, and in the end confiscation, to those
who are so impatient as to remove from them. Each
municipal republic has a Committee, or something in
the nature of a Committee of Research. In these petty
republics the tyranny is so near its object that it
becomes instantly acquainted with every act of every
man. It stifles conspiracy in its very first movements. Their power is absolute and uncontrollable.
No stand can be made against it. These republics are
besides so disconnected, that very little intelligence
of what happens in them is to be obtained beyond
their own bounds, except by the means of their clubs,
who keep up a constant correspondence, and who give
what color they please to such facts as they choose
to communicate out of the track of their correspondence. They all have some sort of communication, just as much or as little as they please, with the
centre. By this confinement of all communication
to the ruling faction, any combination, grounded on
the abuses and discontents in one, scarcely can reach
the other. There is not one man, in any one place,
to head them. The old government had so much
abstracted the nobility from the cultivation of provincial interest, that no man in France exists, whose power, credit, or consequence extends to two districts, or who is capable of uniting them in any design, even if any man could assemble ten men
together without being sure of a speedy lodging
in a prison. One must not judge of the state of
France by what has been observed elsewhere. It
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 353
does not in the least resemble any other country.
Analogical reasoning from history or from recent
experience in other places is wholly delusive.
In my opinion, there never was seen so strong a
government internally as that of the French municipalities. If ever any rebellion can arise against
the present system, it must begin, where the Revolution which gave birth to it did, at the capital.
Paris is the only place in which there is the least
freedom of intercourse. But even there, so many
servants as any man has, so many spies and irreconcilable domestic enemies.
But that place being the chief seat of the Gentlemen
power and intelligence of the ruling faction,
and the place of occasional resort for their fiercest
spirits, even there a revolution is not likely to have
anything to feed it. The leaders of the aristocratic
party have been drawn out of the kingdom by order
of the princes, on the hopes held out by the Emperor
and the king of Prussia at Pilnitz; and as to the
democratic factions in Paris, amongst them there are
no leaders possessed of an influence for any other
purpose but that of maintaining the present state of
things. The moment they are seen to warp, they
are reduced to nothing. They have no attached army, - no party that is at all personal.
It is not to be imagined, because a political system
is, under certain aspects, very unwise in its contrivance, and very mischievous in its effects, that it therefore can have no long duration. Its very defects may tend to its stability, because they are agreeable to its
nature. The very faults in the Constitution of Po --
land made it last; the veto which destroyed all its,
energy preserved its life. What can be conceived so
VOL. 1V. 23
? ? ? ? 354 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
monstrous as the republic of Algiers, and that no
less strange republic of the Mamelukes in Egypt?
They are of the worst form imaginable, and exercised
in the worst manner, yet they have existed as a nuisance on the earth for several hundred years.
From all these considerations, and many
Conclusions.
more that crowd upon me, three conclusions
have long since arisen in my mind.
First, that no counter revolution is to be expected
in France from internal causes solely.
Secondly, that, the longer the present system exists,
the greater will be its strength, the greater its power
to destroy discontents at home, and to resist all foreign attempts in favor of these discontents.
Thirdly, that, as long as it exists in France, it will
be the interest of the managers there, and it is in the
very essence of their plan, to disturb and distract all
other governments, and their endless succession of
restless politicians will continually stimulate them to
new attempts.
Proceedings Princes are generally sensible that this is
of princes:
defensive their common cause; and two of them have
plans. made a public declaration of their opinion
to this effect. Against this common danger, some,of them, such as the king of Spain, the king of Sardinia, and the republic of Bern, are very diligent in using defensive measures.
If they were to guard against an invasion from
France, the merits of this plan of a merely defensive
resistance might be supported by plausible topics;
but as the attack does not operate against these countries externally, but by an internal corruption, (a sort
of dry rot,) they who pursue this merely defensive
plan against a danger which the plan itself suppose,
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 355
to be serious cannot possibly escape it. For it is in
the nature of all defensive measures to be sharp and
vigorous under the impressions of the first alarm, and
to relax by degrees, until at length the danger, by
not operating instantly, comes to appear as a false
alarm, - so much so, that the next menacing appearance will look less formidable, and will be less provided against. But to those who are on the offensive it is not necessary to be always alert. Possibly it is
more their interest not to be so. For their unforeseen attacks contribute to their success.
In the mean time a system of French con- The French
party how
spiracy is gaining ground in every country. composed.
This system, happening to be founded on principles
the most delusive indeed, but the most flattering to
the natural propensities of the unthinking multitude,
and to the speculations of all those who think, without thinking very profoundly, must daily extend its
influence. A predominant inclination towards it appears in all those who have no religion, when otherwise their disposition leads them to be advocates even for despotism. Hence iume, though I cannot say
that he does not throw out some expressions of disapprobation on the proceedings of the levellers in the
reign of Richard the Second, yet affirms that the doctrines of John Ball were " conformable to the ideas
of primitive equality which are engraven in the hearts
of all men. "
Boldness formerly was not the character of athe
ists as such. They were even of a character nearly
the reverse; they were formerly like the old Epicureans, rather an unenterprising race. But of late they
are grown active, designing, turbulent, and seditious.
They are sworn enemies to kings, nobility, and priest
? ? ? ? 356 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
hood. We have seen all the Academicians at Paris,
with Condorcet, the friend and correspondent of
Priestley, at their head, the most furious of the extravagant republicans.
Condorcet. The late Assembly, after the last captivity
of the king, had actually chosen this Condorcet, by a majority on the ballot, for preceptor to the
Dauphin, who was to be taken out of the hands and
direction of his parents, and to be delivered over to
this fanatic atheist and furious democratic republican.
His untractability to these leaders, and his figure in
the club of Jacobins, which at that time they wished
to bring under, alone prevented that part of the arrangement, and others in the same style, from being
carried into execution. Whilst he was candidate for
this office, he produced his title to it by promulgating
the following ideas of the title of his royal pupil to
the crown. In a paper written by him, and published
with his name, against the reestablishment even of
the appearance of monarchy under any qualifications,
he says: --
" Jusqu'a ce moment, ils [l'Assemblee Nationale]
n'ont rien pr4jug6 encore. En se r4servant de nommer un gouverneur au Dauphin, ils n'ont pas proDoctrine of nonc6 que cet enfant ddt rigner, mais seulethe French. ment qu'il etait possible que la Constitution
l'y destinat; ils ont voulu que l'dducation effavat
tout ce que les prestiges du trsne ont pu lui inspirer
de pr jugds sur les droits pr6tendlis de sa naissance;
qu'elle lui fit connaitre de bonne heure et l'egalite
naturelle des hommes et la souverainet9 du peuple;
qu'elle lui apprit i ne pas oublier que c'est du peuple
qu'il tiendra le titre de Roi, et que le peuple n'a pas
mdme le droit de renoncer d celui de l'en depouiller.
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 357
"Ils ont voulu que cette education le rendlt 6galement digne, par ses lumieres et ses vertus, de recevoir avec resignation le fardeau dangereux d'une couronne, ou de la deposer avee joie entre les mains de ses freres; qu'il sentit que le devoir et la gloire du
roi d'un peuple libre. sont de hater le moment de
n'etre plus qu'un citoyen ordinaire.
"Ils ont voulu que l'inutilite' d'un roi, la ndcessite
de chercher les moyens de remplacer un pouvoir fondd
sur des illusions, fft une des premieres v6ritds offertes
a sa raison; l'obligation d'y concourir lui-meme, un des
premiers devoirs de sa morale; et le desir de n'etre
plus affranchi du joug de la loi par une injurieuse
inviolabilite, le premier sentiment de son coeur. Ils
n'ignorent pas que dans ce moment il s'agit bien
moins de former un roi que de lui apprendre a savoir a vouloir ne plus l'etre. " *
Such are the sentiments of the man who has occasionally filled the chair of the National Assembly,
who is their perpetual secretary, their only standing
officer, and the most important by far. He leads
them to peace or war. He is the great theme of the
republican faction in England. These ideas of M.
Condorcet are the principles of those to whom kings
* (' Until now, they [the National Assembly] have prejudged nothing. Reserving to themselves a right to appoint a preceptor to the
Dauphin, they did not declare that this child was to reign, but only
that possibly the Constitution might destine him to it: they willed,
that, while education should efface from his mind all the prejudices
arising from the delusions of the throne respecting his pretended birthright, it should also teach him not to forget that it is from the people
he is to receive the title of King, and that the people do not even possess
the right of giving up their power to take it from him. ," They willed that this education should render him worthy, by his
knowledge and by his virtues, both to receive with submission the dan
? ? ? ? 358 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
are to intrust their successors and the interests of
their succession. This man would be ready to plunge
the poniard in the heart of his pupil, or to whet the
axe for his neck. Of all men, the most dangerous
is a warm, hot-headed, zealous atheist. This sort of
man aims at dominion, and his means are the words
he always has in his mouth, --'"L'ygaitte naturelle
des homnoes, et la souverainete' diu peuple. "
All former attempts, grounded on these rights of
men, had proved unfortunate. The success of this
last makes a mighty difference in the effect of the
doctrine. Here is a principle of a nature to the multitude the most seductive, always existing before their
eyes as a thing feasible in practice. After so many
failures, such an enterprise, previous to the French
experiment, carried ruin to the contrivers, on the
face of it; and if any enthusiast was so wild as to
wish to engage in a scheme of that nature, it was not
easy for him to find followers: now there is a party
almost in all countries, ready-made, animated with
success, with a sure ally in the very centre of Europe. There is no cabal so obscure in any place, that
they do not protect, cherish, foster, and endeavor to
gerous burden of a crown, and to resign it with pleasure into the hands
of his brethren; that he should be conscious that the hastening of
that moment when he is to be only a common citizen constitutes the
duty and the glory of a king of a free people.
"They willed that the uselessness of a king, the necessity of seeking
means to establish something in lieu of a power founded on illusions,
should be one of the first truths offered to his reason; the obligation
of conforming himself to this, the first of his moral duties; and the desire
of no longer being freed from the yoke of the law by an injurious inviolability, the first and chief sentiment of his heart. They are not ignorant that in the present moment the object is less to form a king than to
teach him that he should know how to wish no longer to be such. "
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 359
raise it into importance at home and abroad. From
the lowest, this intrigue will creep up to the highest.
Ambition, as well as enthusiasm, may find its account in the party and in the principle.
The ministers of other kings, like those Character
of ministers.
of the king of France, (not one of whom
was perfectly free from this guilt, and some of whom
were very deep in it,) may themselves be the persons
to foment such a disposition and such a faction.
Hiertzberg, the king of Prussia's late minister, is so
much of what is called a philosopher, that he was of
a faction with that sort of politicians in everything,
and in every place. Even when he defends himself
from the imputation of giving extravagantly into
these principles, he still considers the Revolution of
France as a great public good, by giving credit to
their fraudulent declaration of their universal benevolence and love of peace. Nor are his Prussian Majesty's present ministers at all disinclined to the same system. Their ostentatious preamble to certain late
edicts demonstrates (if their actions had not been
sufficiently explanatory of their cast of mind) that
they are deeply infected with the same distemper of
dangerous, because plausible, though trivial and shallow, speculation.
Ministers, turning their backs on the reputation
which properly belongs to them, aspire at the glory
of being speculative writers. The duties of these two
situations are in general directly opposite to each
other. Speculators ought to be neutral. A minister
cannot be so. He is to support the interest of the
public as connected with that of his master. He is
his master's trustee, advocate, attorney, and steward,
- and he is not to indulge in any speculation which
? ? ? ? 360 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
contradicts that character, or even detracts from its
efficacy. Necker had an extreme thirst for this sort
of glory; so had others; and this pursuit of a misplaced and misunderstood reputation was one of the
causes of the ruin of these ministers, and of their unhappy master. The Prussian ministers in foreign
courts have (at least not long since) talked the most
democratic language with regard to France, and in
the most unmanaged terms.
Corps diplo- The whole corps diplomatique, with very
matique.
few exceptions, leans that way. What cause
produces in them a turn of mind which at first one
would think unnatural to their situation it is not
impossible to explain. The discussion would, however, be somewhat long and somewhat invidious.
The fact itself is indisputable, however they may
disguise it to their several courts. This disposition
is gone to so very great a length in that corps, in
itself so important, and so important as furnishing the
intelligence which sways all cabinets, that, if princes
and states do not very speedily attend with a vigorous
control to that source of direction and information,
very serious evils are likely to befall them.
sovereigns But, indeed, kings are to guard against
positions. the same sort of dispositions in themselves.
They are very easily alienated from all the higher
orders of their subjects, whether civil or military,
laic or ecclesiastical. It is with persons of condition'that sovereigns chiefly come into contact. It is from
them that they generally experience opposition to
their will. It is with their pride and impracticability that princes are most hurt. It is with their servilit;y and baseness that they are most commonly disgusted. It is from their humors and cabals that
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 361
they find their affairs most frequently troubled and
distracted. But of the common people, in pure monarchical governments, kings know little or nothing;
and therefore being unacquainted with their faults,
(which are as many as those of the great, and much
more decisive in their effects, when accompanied with
lpower,) kings generally regard them with tenderness
and favor, and turn their eyes towards that description of their subjects, particularly when hurt by
opposition from the higher orders. It was thus that
the king of France (a perpetual example to all sovereigns) was ruined. I have it from very sure information, (and it was, indeed, obvious enough, from the measures which were taken previous to the assembly of the States and afterwards,) that the king's
counsellors had filled him with a strong dislike to his
nobility, his clergy, and the corps of his magistracy.
They represented to him, that he had tried them
all severally, in several ways, and found them all
untractable: that he had twice called an assembly
(the Notables) composed of the first men of the clergy, the nobility, and the magistrates; that he had
himself named every one member in those assemblies, and that, though so picked out, he had not,
in this their collective state, found them more disposed to a compliance with his will than they had
been separately; that there remained for him, with
the least prospect of advantage to his authority in
the States-General, which were to be composed of the
same sorts of men, but not chosen by him, only the
Tiers ]Itat: in this alone he could repose any hope
of extricating himself from his difficulties, and of
settling him in a clear and permanent authority.
They represented, (these are the words of olie of my
? ? ? ? 362 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
informants,) "that the royal authority, compressed
with the weight of these aristocratic bodies, full of
ambition and of faction, when once unloaded, would
rise of itself, and occupy its natural place without
disturbance or control"; that the common people
would protect, cherish, and support, instead of crushing it. "The people" (it was said) "could entertain no objects of ambition"; they were out of the road of intrigue and cabal, and could possibly have
no other view than the support of the mild and parental authority by which they were invested, for
the first time collectively, with real importance in. the state, and protected in their peaceable and useful employments.
King of This unfortunate king (not without a
France.
large share of blame to himself) was deluded to his ruin by a desire to humble and reduce
his nobility, clergy, and his corporate magistracy:
not that I suppose he meant wholly to eradicate
these bodies, in the manner since effected by the
democratic power; I rather believe that even Necker's designs did not go to that extent. With his own
hand, however, Louis the Sixteenth pulled down the
pillars which upheld his throne; and this he did, because he could not bear the inconveniences which are
attached to everything human,- because he found,
himself cooped up, and in durance, by those limits
which Nature prescribes to desire and imagination,
and was taught to consider as low and degrading
that mutual dependence which Providence has ordained that all men should have on one another.
HIe is not at this minute, perhaps, cured of the dread
of the power and credit like to be acquired by those
who would save and rescue him. He leaves those
? ? ?
