No More Learning

destroy such beautiful countries as that of Avignon,
lest he should call to their assistance that great deliverer of nations, Jourdan Coupe-tete? What lesson
does it give of mnoderation to the Emperor, whose
predecessor never put one man to death after a general rebellion of the Low Countries, that the Regicides never spared man, woman, or child, whom they but suspected of dislike to their usurpations? What,
then, are all these lessons about the softening the
character of sovereigns by this Regicide peace? On
reading thifs section, one would imagine that the poor
tame sovereigns of Europe had been a sort of furious wild beasts, that stood in need of some uncommonly rough discipline to subdue the ferocity of their savage nature.
As to the example to be learnt from the murder
of Louis the Sixteenth, if a lesson to kings is not
derived from his fate, I do not know whence it can
come. The author, however, ought not to have left
us in the dark upon that subject, to break our shins
over his hints and insinuations. Is it, then, true, that
this unfortunate monarch drew his punishment upon
himself by his want of moderation, and his oppressing the liberties of which he had found his people
in possession? Is not the direct contrary the fact?
And is not the example of this Revolution the very
reverse of anything which can lead to that softening
of character in princes which the author supposes as
a security to the people, and has broughllt forward as
a recommendation to fraternity with those who have
administered that happy emollient in the murder
of their king and the slavery and desolation of their
country?
But the author does not confine the benefit of the
? ? ? ? LETTER IV. 39
Regicide lesson to kings alone. He has a diffusive
bounty. Nobles, and men of property, will likewise
be greatly reformed. They, too, will be led to a review of their social situation and duties, --" and will
reflect, that their large allotment of worldly advantages is for the aid and benefit of the whole. " Is it,
then, from the fate of Juign6, Archbishop of Paris,
or of the Cardinal de Rochefoucault, and of so many
others, who gave their fortunes, and, I may say, their
very beings, to the poor, that the rich are to learn
that their "fortunes are for the aid and benefit of
the whole"? I say nothing of the liberal persons
of great rank and property, lay and ecclesiastic, men
and women, to whom we have had the honor and
happiness of affording an asylum: I pass by these,
lest I should never have done, or lest I should omit
some as deserving as any I might mention. Why
will the author, then. suppose that the nobles and
men of property in France have been banished, confiscated, and murdered, on account of the savageness
and ferocity of their character, and their being tainted with vices beyond those of the same order and
description in other countries? No judge of a revolutionary tribunal, with his hands dipped in their
blood and his maw gorged with their property, has
yet dared to assert what this author has been pleased,
by way of a moral lesson, to insinuate.
Their nobility, and their men of property, in a
mass, had the very same virtues, and the very same
vices, and in the very same proportions, with the
same description of men in this and in other nations. I must do justice to suffering honor, generosity, and integrity. I do not know that any time or any country has furnished more splendid exam
? ? ? ? 40 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
ples of every virtue, domestic and public. I do not
enter into the councils of Providence; but, humanly
speaking, many of these nobles and men of property,
from whose disastrous fate we are, it seems, to learn
a general softening of character, and a revision of our
social situations and duties, appear to me full as little deserving of that fate as the author, whoever he
is, can be. Many of them, I am sure, were such
as I should be proud indeed to be able to compare
myself with, in knowledge, in integrity, and in every other virtue. My feeble nature might shrink,
though theirs did not, from the proof; but my reason and my ambition tell me that it would be a good bargain to purchase their merits'with their fate.
For which of his vices did that great magistrate,
D'Esprdmenil, lose his fortune and his head? What
were the abominations of Malesherbes, that other excellent magistrate, whose sixty Oyears of uniform virtue was acknowledged, in the very act of his murder, by
the judicial butchers who condemned him? On account of what misdemeanors was he robbed of his property, and slaughtered with two generations of
his offspring, -- and the remains of the third race,
with a refinement of cruelty, and lest they should
appear to reclaim the property forfeited by the virtues of their ancestor, confounded in an hospital with
the thousands of those unhappy foundling infants
who are abandoned, without relation and without
name, by the wretchedness or by the profligacy of
their parents?
Is the fate of the Queen of France to produce this
softening of character? Was she a person so very
ferocious and cruel, as, by the example of her death,
to frighten us into common humanity? Is there no
? ? ? ? LETTER IV. 41
way to teach the Emperor a softening of character,
and a review of his social situation and duty, but
his consent, by an infamous accord with Regicide,
to drive a second coach with the Austrian arms
through the. streets of Paris, along which, after a
series of preparatory horrors exceeding the atrocities
of the bloody execution itself, the glory of the Imperial race had been carried to an ignominious death?
Is this a lesson of moderation to a descendant of
Maria Theresa, drawn from the fate of the daughter of that incomparable woman and sovereign? If
he learns this lesson from such an object, and from
such teachers, the man may remain, but the king is
deposed. If he does not carry quite another memory
of that transaction in the inmost recesses of his heart,
he is unworthy to reign, he is unworthy to live. In
the chronicle of disgrace he will have but this short
tale told of him: " Ha was the first emperor of his
house that embraced a regicide; he was the last that
wore the imperial purple. " Far am I from thinking
so ill of this august sovereign, who is at the head of
the monarchies of Europe, and who is the trustee of
their dignities and his own.
What ferocity of character drew on the fate of
Elizabeth, the sister of King Louis the Sixteenth?
For which of the vices of that pattern of benevolence, of piety, and of all the virtues, did they put
her to death? For which of her vices did they put
to death the mildest of all human creatures, the Duchess of Biron? What were the crimes of those crowds of matrons and virgins of condition, whom they mas
sacred, with their juries of blood, in prisons and on
scaffolds? What were the enormities of the infant
king, whom they caused, by lingering tortures, to
? ? ? ? 42 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
perish in their dungeon, and whom if at last they
dispatched by poison, it was in that detestable crime
the only act of mercy they have ever shown?
What softening of character is to be had, what
review of their social situations and duties is to be
taught by these examples to kings, to nobles, to men
of property, to women, and to infants? The royal
family perished because it was royal. The nobles
perished because they were noble. The men, women, and children, who had property, because they
had property to be robbed of. The priests were punished, after they had been robbed of their all, not
for their vices, but for their virtues and their piety,
which made them an honor to their sacred profession,
and to that nature of which we ought to be proud,
since they belollg to it. My Lord, nothing can be
learned from such examples, except the danger of
being kings, queens, nobles, priests, and children, to
be butchered on account of their inheritance. These
are things at which not vice, not crime, not folly,
but wisdom, goodness, learning, justice, probity, beneficence, stand aghast. By these examples our reason and our moral sense are not enlightened, but confounded; and there is no refuge for astonished and affrighted virtue, but being annihilated in humility
and submission, sinking into a silent adoration of
the inscrutable dispensations of Providence, and flying with trembling wings from this world of daring
crimes, and feeble, pusillanimous, half-bred, bastard
justice, to the asylum of another order of things, in
an unknown form, but in a better life.
Whatever the politician or preacher of September or of October may think of the matter, it is a
most comfortless, disheartening, desolating example.
? ? ? ? LETTER IV. 43
Dreadful is the example of ruined innocence and
virtte, and the completest triumph of the completest villany that ever vexed and disgraced mankind! The example is ruinous in every point of view, religious, moral, civil, political. It establishes that dreadful maxim of Machlliavel, that in great affairs
men are not to be wicked by halves. This maxim is
not made for a middle sort of beings, who, because
they cannot be angels, ought to thwart their ambition, and not endeavor to become infernal spirits. It is too well exemplified in the present time, where the
faults and errors of humanity, checked by the imperfect, timorous virtues, have been overpowered by those who have stopped at no crime. It is a dreadful part of the example, that infernal malevolence has had pious apologists, who read their lectures on
frailties in favor of crimes, - who abandon the weak,
and court the friendship of the wicked. To root out
these maxims, and the examples that support them,
is a wise object of years of war. This is that war.
This is that moral war. It was said by old Trivulzio,
that the Battle of Marignano was the Battle of the
Giants, -that all the rest of the mally lie lad seen
were those of the Cranes and Pygmies. This is true
of the objects, at least, of the contest: for the greater part of those which we have hitlerto contended for, in comparison, were the toys of children.
The October politician is so full of charity and
good-nature, that lie supposes that these very robbers
and murderers themselves are in a course of melioration: on what ground I cannot conceive, except on the long practice of every crime, and by its complete
success. He is an Origenist, and believes in the conversion of the Devil. All that runs in the place of
? ? ? ? 44 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
blood in his veins is nothing but the milk of human
kindness. He is as soft as a curd, - though, as a politician, he might be supposed to be made of sterner
stuff. HIe supposes (to use his own expression)
"that the salltary truths which lie inculcates are
making their way into their bosoms. " Their bosom
is a rock of granite, on which Falsehood has long
since built her stronghold. Poor Truth has had a
hard work of it, with her little pickaxe. Nothing
but gunpowder will do.
As a proof, however, of the progress of this sap of
Truth, lie gives us a confession they had made not
long before he wrote. "'Their fraternity' (as was
lately stated by themselves in a solemn report)'has
been the brotherllood of Cain and Abel,' and'they
have organized nothing but bankruptcy and famine. ' "
A very honest confession, truly, - and much in the
spirit of their oracle, Rousseau. Yet, what is still
more marvellous than the confession, this is the very
fraternity to which our author gives us such an obliging invitation to accede. There is, indeed, a, vacancy in the fraternal corps: a brother and a partner is
wanted. If we please, we may fill up the place of
the butchered Abel; and whilst we wait the destiny
of the departed brother, we may enjoy the advantages
of the partnership, by entering without delay into a
shop of ready-made bankruptcy and familne. These
are the douceurs by which we are invited to Regicide
fraternity and friendship. But still our author considers the confession as a proof that " truth is making its way into their bosoms. " No! It is not making its way into their bosoms. It llas forced its way into their mouths! The evil spirit by which they
are possessed, though essentially a liar, is forced by
? ? ? ? LETTER IV. 45
the tortures of conscience to confess the truth, - to
confess enough for their condemnation, but not for
their amendment. Shakspeare very aptly expresses
this kind of confession, devoid of repentance, from the
mouth of an usurper, a murderer, and a regicide: --
",,e are ourselves compelled,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. "
Whence is their amendment? Why, the author
writes, that, on their murderous insurrectionary systenl, their own lives are not sure for an hour; nor
has their power a greater stability. True. They are
convinced of it; and accordingly the wretches have
done all they can to preserve their lives, and to secure their power; but not one step have they taken
to amend the one or to make a more just use of the
other. Their wicked policy has obliged them to make
a pause in the only massacres in which their treachery and cruelty had operated as a kind of savage justice, - that is, the massacre of the accomplices of their crimes: they liave ceased to shed the inhuman
blood of their fellow-murderers; but when they take
any of those persons who contend for their lawful
government, their property, and their religion, notwithstanding the truth which this author says is making its way into their bosoms, it has not taught them the least tincture of mercy. This we plainly see by
their massacre at Quiberon, where they put to death,
with every species of contumely, and without any exception, every prisoner of war who did not escape out
of their hands. To have had property, to have been
robbed of it, and to endeavor to regain it, - these are
crimes irremissible, to which every man who regards
his property or his life, in every country, ought well
? ? ? ? 46 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
to look in all connection with those with whom to
have had property was an offence, to endeavor to keep
it a second offence, to attempt to regain it a crime
that puts the offender out of all the laws of peace or
war. You cannot see one of those wretclhes without
all alarm for your life as well as your goods. Tlley
are like the worst of the French and Italian banditti,
who, whenever they robbed, were sure to murder. . Are they not the very same ruffians, thieves, assassins, and regicides that they were from the beginning? Have they diversified the scene by the least variety, or produced the face of a single new villany?
Tedet harum quotidianarum formarumn. Oh! but I
shall be answered, " It is now quite another thing;
-they are all changed. You have not seen them ill
their state dresses;-this makes an amaziing difference. The new habit of the Directory is so clharmingly fancied, that it is impossible not to fall in love
with so well-dressed a Constitution; -- the costume
of the sans-culotte Constitution of 1793 was absolutely
insufferable. The Committee for Foreign Affairs were
such slovens, and stunk so abominably, that no inuscadin ambassador of the smallest degree of delicacy
of nerves could come within ten yards of them; but
now they are so powdered, and perfnlued, and ribanded, and sashed, and plumed, that, though they are
grown infinitely more insolent in their fine clothes
even than they were in their rags, (and that was
enough,) as they now appear, there is somethinlg in
it more grand and noble, something more suitable
to an awful Roman Senate receiving the homage of
dependent tetrarchs. Like that Senate, (their perpetual model for conduct towards other nations,)
they permit their vassals (during their good pleas
? ? ? ? LETTER IV. 47
ure) to assume the name of kings, in order to bestow
more dignity on tile suite and retinue of the sovereign Republic by the nominal rank of their slaves:
Ut habeant instrumenta servitutis et ree. s. " All this
is very fine, undoubtedly; and ambassadors whose
hands are almost out for want of employment may
long to have their part in this august ceremony of
the Republic one and indivisible. But, with great
deference to the new diplomatic taste, we old people
must retain some square-toed predilection for the
fashions of our youth.
I am afraid you will find me, my Lord, again falling into my usual vanity, in valuing myself on thle
eminent men whose society I once enjoyed. I remember, in a conversation I once had with my ever dear friend Garrick, who was the first of actors, because
he was tile most acute observer of Nature I ever
knew, I asked him how it happened, that, whenever
a senate appeared on the stage, the audience seemed
always disposed to laughter. HIe said, tile reason
was plain: the audience was well acquainted with
the faces of most of the senators. They knew that
they were no other than candle-snuffers, revolutionary scene-shifters, second and third nmob, prompters, clerks, executionlers, who stand with tlleir axe on
their shoulders by the wheel, grinners in the pantomime, murderers in tragedies, who make ugly faces under black wigs, -- in short, tile very scum and
refilse of the theatre; and it was of course that the
contrast of the vileness of the actors with the pomp
of their habits naturally excited ideas of contempt
and ridicule.
So it was at Paris on the inaugural day of the Constitution for the present year. The foreign ministers
? ? ? ? 48 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
were ordered to attend at this investiture of the
Directory; -- for so they call the managers of their
burlesque government. The diplomacy, who were
a sort of strangers, were quite awe-struck with the
"pride, pomp, and circumstance" of this majestic
senate; whilst the sanls-culotte gallery instantly recognized their old insurrectionary acquaintance, burst
out into a horse-laugh at their absurd finery, and
held them in infinitely greater contempt than whilst
they prowled about the streets in the pantaloons of
the last year's Constitution, when their legislators
appeared honestly, with their daggers in their belts,
and their pistols peeping out of their side-pocketholes, like a bold, brave banditti, as they are. The
Parisians (and I am much of their mind) think that
a thief with a crape on his visage is much worse than
a barefaced knave, and that such robbers richly deserve all the penalties of all the black acts. In this
their thin disguise, their comrades of the late abdicated sovereign canaille hooted and hissed them, and
from that day have no other name for them than
what is not quite so easy to render into English,
impossible to make it very civil English: it belongs,
indeed, to the language of the halles but, without being instructed in. that dialect, it was the opinion of
the polite Lord Chesterfield that no man could be a
complete master of French. Their Parisian brethren called them gueux plumes, which, though not elegant, is expressive and characteristic: feathered scoundrels, I think, comes the nearest to it in that kind of English. But we are now to understand that
these gueux, for no other reason, that I can divine,
except their red and white clothes, form at last a
state with which we may cultivate amity, and have a
? ? ? ? LETTER IV. 49
prospect of the blessings of a secure and permanent
peace. In effect, then, it was not with the men, or
their principles, or their politics, that we quarrelled:
our sole dislike was to the cut of their clothes.
But to pass over their dresses, -- good God! in
what habits did the representatives of the crowned
heads of Europe appear, when they came to swell the
pomp of their humiliation, and attended in solemn
function this inauguration of Regicide? That would
be the curiosity. Under what robes did they cover
the disgrace and degradation of the whole college
of kings? What warehouses of masks and dominoes
furnished a cover to the nakedness of their shame?
The shop ought to be knownl; it will soon have a
good trade. Were the dresses of the ministers of
those lately called potentates, who attended on that
occasion, taken from the wardrobe of that propertyman at the opera, from whence my old acquaintance, Anacharsis Clootz, some years ago equipped a body
of ambassadors, whom he conducted, as from all the
nations of the world, to the bar of what was called
the Constituent Assembly? Among those mock ministers, one of the most conspicuous figures was the representative of the British nation, who unluckily
was wanting at the late ceremony. In the face of all
the real ambassadors of the sovereigns of Europe was
this ludicrous representation of their several subjects,
under the name of oppressed sovereigns,* exhibited to
the Assembly. That Assembly received an harangue,
in the name of those sovereigns, against their kings,
delivered by this Clootz, actually a subject of Prussia,
under the name of Ambassador of the Human Race.
* Sourerains opprinmes. - See the whole proceeding in the ProcesVerbal of the National Assembly.
VOL. VI. 4
? ? ? ? 50 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
At that time there was only a feeble reclamation fromr
one of the ambassadors of these tyrants and oppressors. A most gracious answer was given to the ministers of the oppressed sovereigns; and they went so far on that occasion as to assign them, in that assumed character, a box at one of their festivals.
I was willing to indulge myself in an hope that this
second appearance of ambassadors was only an insolent mummery of the same kind; but, alas! Anacharsis himself, all fanatic as he was, could not have imagined that his opera procession should have been
the prototype of the real appearance of the representatives of all the sovereigns of Europe themselves, to
make the same prostration that was made by those
who dared to represent their people in a complaint
against them. But in this the French Republic has
followed, as they always affect to do, and have hitherto done with success, the example of the ancient Romans, who shook all governments by listening to the complaints of their subjects, and soon after brought
the kings themselves to answer at their bar. At this
last ceremony the ambassadors had not Clootz for
their Cotterel. Pity that Clootz had not had a reprieve from the guillotine till he had completed his
work! But that engine fell before thi curtain had
fallen upon all the dignity of the earth.
On this their gaudy day the new Regicide Directory sent for that diplomatic rabble, as bad as themselves in principle, but infinitely worse in degradation.
They called them out by a sort of roll of their nations,
one after another, much in the manner in which they
called wretches out of their prison to the guillotine.
When these ambassadors of infamy appeared before
them, the chief Director, in the name: of the rest,
? ? ? ? LETTER IV. 51
treated each of them with a short, affected, pedantic,
insolent, theatric laconium, -- a sort of epigram of
contempt. When they had thus insulted them in a
style and language which never before was heard, and
which no sovereign would for a moment endure from
another, supposing any of them frantic enough to use
it, to finish their outrage, they drummed and trumpeted the wretches out of their hall of audience.
Among the objects of this insolent buffoonery was
a person supposed to represent the King of Prussia.
To this worthy representative they did not so much as
condescend to mention his master; they did not seem
to know that he had one; they addressed themselves
solely to Prussia in the abstract, notwithstanding the
infinite obligation they owed to their early protector
for their first recognition and alliance, and for the
part of his territory he gave into their hands for the
first-fruits of his homage. None but dead monarchs
are so much as mentioned by them, and those only to
insult the living by an invidious comparison. They
told the Prussians they ought to learn, after the
example of Frederick the Great, a love for France.
What a pity it is, that he, who loved France so well
as to chastise it, was not now alive, by an unsparing
use of the rod (which, indeed, he would have spared
little) to give them another instance of his paternal
affection! But the Directory were mistaken. These
are not days in which monarchs value themselves upon the title of great: they are grown philosophic: they are satisfied to be good.
Your Lordship will pardon me for this no very long
reflection on the short, but excellent speech of the
plumed Director to the ambassador of Cappadocia.
The Imperial ambassador was not in waiting, but they
? ? ? ? 52 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
found for Austria a good Judean representation.
With great judgment, his Highness, the Grand Duke,
had sent the most atheistic coxcomb to be found in
Florence, to represent at the bar of impiety the House
of Apostolic Majesty, and the descendants of the pious,
though high-minded, Maria Theresa. He was sent to
humble the whole race of Austria before those grim
assassins, reeking with the blood of the daughter of
Maria Theresa, whom they sent half dead, in a dungcart, to a cruel execution; and this true-born son of apostasy and infidelity, this renegado from the faith
and from all honor and all humanity, drove an Austrian coach over the stones which were yet wet with her blood, -- with that blood which dropped every
step through her tumbrel, all the way she was drawn
from the horrid prison, in which they had finished all
the cruelty and horrors not executed in the face of
the sun. The Hungarian subjects of Maria Theresa,
when they drew their swords to defend her rights
against France, called her, with correctness of truth,
though not with the same correctness, perhaps, of
grammar, a king: "l Moriamur pro rege nostro, Maria
Theresa. " SHE lived and died a king; and others will
have subjects ready to make the same vow, when, in
either sex, they show themselves real kings.
When the Directory came to this miserable fop,
they bestowed a compliment on his matriculation
into their philosophy; but as to his master, they
made to him, as was reasonable, a reprimand, not
without a pardon, and an oblique hint at the whole
family. What indignities have been offered through
this wretch to his master, and how well borne, it is
not necessary that I should dwell on at present. I
hope that those who yet wear royal, imperial, and
? ? ? ? LETTER IV. 03
ducal crowns will learn to feel as men and as kings:
if not, I predict to them, they will not long exist as
kings or as men.
Great Britain was not there. Almost in despair,
I hope she will never, in any rags and coversluts of
infamy, be seen at such an exhibition. The hour of
her filnal degradation is not yet come; she did not herself appear in the Regicide presence, to be the sport
and mockery of those bloody buffoons, who, in the merriment of their pride, were insulting with every species of contumely the fallen dignity of the rest of Europe. But Britaill, though not personally appearing to bear her part ill this monstrous tragi-comedy, was
very far from being forgotten. The new-robed regicides found a representative for her. And who was
this representative? Without a previous knowledge,
any one would have given a thousand guesses before
lie could arrive at a tolerable divination of their rancorous insolence. They chose to address what they
had to say concerning this nation to the ambassador
of America. They did not apply to this ambassador
for a mediation: that, indeed, would have indicated
a want of every kind of decency; but it would have
indicated nothiig more. But in this their American
apostrophe, your Lordship will observe, they did not
so much as pretend to hold out to us directly, or
through any mediator, though in the most hlumiliating manner, any idea whatsoever of peace, or the
smallest desire of reconciliation. To the States of
America themselves they paid no compliment. They
paid their compliment to Washington solely: and on
what ground? This most respectable commander
and magistrate might deserve commendation onl very
many of those qualities which they who most disap
? ? ? ? 54 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
prove some part of his proceedings, not more justly
than freely, attribute to him; but they found nothing
to commend in him " but the hatred he bore to Great
Britain. " I verily believe, that, in the whole history
of our European wars, there never was such a conlpliment paid from the sovereign of one state to a
great chief of another. Not one ambassador from
any one of those powers who pretend to live in amity
with this kingdom took the least notice of that unheard-of declaration; nor will Great Britain, till she
is known with certainty to be true to her ownl dignity, find any one disposed to feel for the indignities
that are offered to her. To say the truth, those miserable creatures were all silent under the insults that
were offered to themselves. They pocketed their
epigrams, as ambassadors formerly took the gold
boxes and miniature pictures set in diamonds presented them by sovereigns at whose courts they had
resided. It is to be presumed that by the next post
they faithfully and promptly transmitted to their masters the honors they had received. I can easily conceive the epigram which will be presented to Lord
Auckland, or to the Duke of Bedford, as hereafter,
according to circumstances, they may happen to represent this kingdom. Few can have so little imagination as not readily to conceive the nature of the boxes of epigrammratic lozenges that will b6 presented to them.
But hce nugce seria ducunt in mala. The conduct
of the Regicide faction is perfectly systematic in every
particular, and it appears absurd only as it is strange
and uncouth, not as it has an application to the ends
and objects of their policy. When by insult after
insult they have rendered the character of sovereigns
? ? ? ? LETTER IV. 55
vile in the eyes of their subjects, they know there
is but one step more to their utter destruction. All
authority, in a great degree, exists in opinion: royal
authority most of all. The supreme majesty of a
monarch cannot be allied with contempt. Men would
reason, not unplausibly, that it would be better to get
rid of the monarchy at once than to suffer that which
was instituted, and well instituted, to support the
glory of the nation, to become the instrument of its
degradation and disgrace.
A good many reflections will arise in your Lordship's mind upon the time and circumstances of that
most insulting and atrocious declaration of hostility
against this kingdom. The declaration was made
subsequent to the noble lord's encomium on the
new Regicide Constitution, - after the pamphlet had
made something more than advances towards a reconciliation with that ungracious race, and had directly disowned all those who adhered to the original declaration in favor of monarchy. It was even subsequent to the ulnfoi'tunate declaration in the
speech from the throne (which this pamphlet but
too truly announced) of the readiness of our government to enter into connections of friendship with
that faction. Here was the answer from the throne
of Regicide to the speech from the throne of Great
Britain. They go out of their way to compliment
General Washington on the supposed rancor of his
heart towards this country. It is very remarkable,
that they make this compliment of malice to the
chief of the United States, who had first signed a
treaty of peace, amity, and commerce with this kingdom. This radical hatred, according to their way of
thinking, the most recent, solemn compacts of friend
? ? ? ? 56 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
ship cannot or ought not to remove. In this malice
to Enllgland, as in the one great comprehensive virtue,
all other merits of this illustrious person are entirely
merged. For my part, I do not believe the fact to be
so as they represent it. Certainly it is not for Mr.
Washington's honor as a gentleman, a Christian, or a
President of the United States, after the treaty he has
signed, to entertain such sentiments. I have a moral
assurance that the representation of the Regicide Directory is absolutely false and groundless. If it be, it is a stronger mark of their audacity and insolence,
and still a stronger proof of the support they mean to
give to the mischievous faction they are known to
nourish there, to the ruin of those States, and to the
end that no British affections should ever arise in
that important part of the world, which would naturally lead to a cordial, hearty British alliance, upon the bottom of mutual interest and ancient affection.
It shows in what part it is, and with what a weapon,
they mean a deadly blow at the heart of Great Britain. One really would have expected, from this new Constitution of theirs, which had been announced as
a great reform, and which was to be, more than any
of their former experimental schemes, alliable with
other nations, that they would, in their very first
public act, and their declaration to the collected representation of Europe and America, have affected some degree of moderation, or, at least, have observed a guarded silence with regard to their temper and their views. No such thing: they were in haste
to declare the principles which are spun into the
primitive staple of their frame. They were afraid
that a moment's doubt should exist about them. In
their very infancy they were in haste to put their
? ? ? ? LETTER IV. 57
hand on their infernal altar, and to swear the same
immortal hatred to England which was sworn in the
succession of all the short-lived constitutions that
preceded it. With them everything else perishes
almost as soon as it is formed; this hatred alone is
immortal. This. is their impure Vestal fire that never is extinguished: and never will it be extinguished, whilst the system of Regicide exists in France. What!
are we not to believe them? Men are too apt to be
deceitful enough in their professions of friendship,
and this makes a wise man walk with some caution
through life. Such professions, in some cases, may
be even a ground of further distrust. But when a
man declares himself your unalterable enemy! No
man ever declared to another a rancor towards him
which he did not feel. Etalsos in amore'odia non fingere, said an author who points his observations so as to make them remembered.
Observe, my Lord, that, from their invasion of
Flanders and Holland to this hour, they have never
made the smallest signification of a desire of peace
with this kingdom, with Austria, or, indeed, with any
other power that I know of. As superiors, they expect others to begin. We have complied, as you
may see. The hostile insolence with which they
gave such a rebuff to our first overture, in the speech
from the throne, did not hinder us from making,
from the same throne, a second advance. The two
Houses a second time coincided in the same sentiinents, with a degree of apparent unanimity, (for
there was no dissentient voice but yours,) with
which, when they reflect on it, they will be as much
ashamed as I am. To this our new humiliating overture (such, at whatever hazard, I must call it) what
? ? ? ? 58 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACL.
did the Regicide Directory answer? Not one public
word of a readiness to treat. No,- they feel their
proud situation too well. They never declared wheth
or they would grant peace to you or not. They only signlified to you their pleasure as to the terms on
which alone they would in any case admit you to it.
You showed your general disposition to peace, and,
to forward it, you left everything open to negotiations. As to any terms you can possibly obtain, they
shut out all negotiation at the very commencement.
They declared that they never would make a peace
by which anything that ever belonged to France
should be ceded. We would not treat with the monarchy, weakened as it must obviously be in any circumstance of restoration, without a reservation of something for indemnity and security, - and that,
too, in words of the largest comprehension. You
treat with the Regicides without any reservation at
all. On their part, they assure you formally and
publicly, that they will give you nothing in the name
of indemnity or security, or for any other purpose.
It is impossible not to pause here for a moment,
and to consider the manner in which such declarations would have been taken by your ancestors from
a monarch distinguished for his arrogance, -- an
arrogance whllich, even more than his ambition, incensed and combined all Europe agaifist him. Whatever his inward intentions may have been, did Louis the Fourteenth ever make a declaration that the
true bounds of France were the ocean, the Mediterranean, and the Rhine? In any overtures for peace,
did he ever declare that lie would make no sacrifices
to promote it? His declarations were always directly
to the contrary; and at the Peace of Ryswick his
? ? ? ? LETTER IV. 59
actions were to the contrary. At the close of the
war, almost in every instance victorious, all Europe
was astonished, even those who received them were
astonished, at his concessions. Let those who have a
mind to see how little, in comparison, the most powerful and ambitious of all monarchs is to he dreaded consult the very judicious critical observations on the
politics of that reign, inserted in the military treatise
of the Marquis de Montalembert. Let those who
wish to know what is to be dreaded from all anlbitious republic consult no autlhor, no military critic,
no historical critic. Let them open their own eyes,
which degeneracy and pusillanimity have shut from
the light that pains them, and let them not vainly
seek their security in a voluntary ignorance of their
danger.
To dispose us towards this peace, - an attempt in
which our author has, I do not know whether to call
it the good or ill fortune to agree with whatever is
most seditious, factious, and treasonable in this country,- we are told by many dealers in speculation, but not so distinctly by the author himself, (too great
distinctness of affirmation not being his fault,) - but
we are told, that the French have lately obtained a
very pretty sort of Constitution, and that it resembles
the British Constitution as if they had been twinned
together in the womb, - mire sagaces fallere hospites
discrimen obscurum. It may be so: but I confess I
am not yet made to it: nor is the noble author. He
finds the': elements" excellent, but the disposition
very inartificial indeed. Contrary to what we might
expect at Paris, the meat is good, the cookery abominable. I agree withll him fully in the last; and if
I were forced to allow the first, I should still think,
? ? ? ? 0 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
with our old coarse by-word, that the same power
which furnished all their former restaurateurs sent
also their present cooks. I have a great opinion of
Thomas Paine, and of all his productions: I remember his having been one of the committee for forming
one of their annual Constitutions, I mean the admirable Constitution of 1793, after having been a chamber council to the no less admirable Constitution of 1791. This pious patriot has his eyes still directed
to his dear native country, notwithstanding her ingratitude to so kind a benefactor. This outlaw of
England, and lawgiver to France, is now, in secret
probably, trying his hand again, and inviting us to
him by making his Constitution such as may give
his disciples in England some plausible pretext for
going into the house that lie has opened. We have
discovered, it seems, that all which the boasted wisdom of our ancestors has labored to bring to perfection for six or seven centuries is nearly, or altogether, matched in six or seven days, at the leisure hours and
sober intervals of Citizen Thomas Paine.
",But though the treacherous tapster, Thomas,
Hangs a new Angel two doors from us,
As fine as dauber's hands can make it,
In hopes that strangers may mistake it,
We think it both a shame and sin
To quit the good old Angel Inn. "
Indeed, in this good old house, where everything at
least is well aired, I shall be content to put up my
fatigued horses, and here take a bed for the long
night that begins to darken upon me. Had I, however, the honor (I must now call it so) of being a
member of any of the constitutional clubs, I should
think I had carried my point most completely. It is
? ? ? ? LETTER IV. 61
clear, by the applauses bestowed on what the author
calls this new Constitution, a mixed oligarchy, that
the difference between the clubbists and the old adherents to the monarchy of this country is hardly
worth a scuffle. Let it depart in peace, and light
lie the earth on the British Constitution! By this
easy manner of treating the most difficult of all subjects, the constitution for a great kingdom, and by
letting loose an opinion that they may be made by
any adventurers in speculation in a small given time,
and for any country, all the ties, which, whether of
reason or prejudice, attach mankind to their old, habitual, domestic governments, are not a little loosened; all communion, which the similarity of the basis has produced between all the governments that
compose what we call'the Christian world and the
republic of Europe, would be dissolved. By these
hazarded speculations France is more approximated
to us in constitution than in situation; and in proportion as we recede from the ancient system of Europe, we approach to that connection which alone can remain to us, a close alliance with the new-discovered moral and political world in France.
These theories would be of little importance, if
we did not only know, but sorely feel, that there is
a strong Jacobin faction in this country, which has
long employed itself in speculating upon constitutions, and to whom the circumstance of their government being home-bred and prescriptive seems no sort of recommendation. What seemed to us to be
the best system of liberty that a nation ever enjoyed
to them seems the yoke of an intolerable slavery.
This speculative faction had long been at work. The
French Revolution did not cause it: it only discov
? ? ? ? 62 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
ered it, increased it, and gave fresh vigor to its operations. I have reason to be persuaded that it was in
this country, and from English writers and English
caballers, that France herself was instituted ill this
revolutionary fury. The communion of these two
factions upon any pretended basis of similarity is
a matter of very serious consideration. They are
always considering the formal distributions of power in a constitution: the moral basis they consider
as nothing. Very different is my opinion: I consider the moral basis as everything, - the formal arrangements, further than as they promote the moral principles of government, and the keeping desperately wicked persons as the subjects of laws and
not the makers of them, to be of little importance.
What signifies the cutting and shuffling of cards,
while the pack still remains the same? As a basis for such a connection as lias subsisted between
the powers of Europe, we had nothing to fear, but
from the lapses and frailties of men, - and that was
enough; but this new pretended republic has given
us more to apprehend from what they call their virtues than. we had to dread from the vices of other
men. Avowedly and systematically, they have given
the upperhand to all the vicious and degenerate part
of human nature. It is from their lapses and deviations from their principle that alone we have anything
to hope.
I hear another inducement to fraternity with the
present rulers. They have murdered one Robespierre. This Robespierre, they tell us, was a cruel
tyrant, and now that he is put out of the way, all will
go well in France. Astraea will again return to that
earth from which she has been an emigrant, and all
? ? ? ? LETTER IV. 63
nations will resort to her goldenl scales. It is very
extraordinary, that, the very instant the mode of
Paris is known here, it becomes all the fashion ill
London. This is their jargon. It is the old bon-ton
of robbers, who cast their common crimes on the
wickedness of their departed associates. I care little
about the memory of this same Robespierre. I am
sure lie was an execrable villain. I rejoiced at llis
punishment neither more nor less than I should at
the execution of the present Directory, or any of its
members.