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 OOTIOOS THGOOe 
 
 HISTORICAL 
 
 REPRESENTING THE MOST 
 
 REMARKABLE EVENTS 
 
 WHICH OCCURRED. DURING 
 
 THE EARLY PERIGD OF 
 
 au ¥ 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 
 With. A PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF 
 
 THGSE IMPORTA A ,CTIONS; 
 
 A SEPLES 
 
 » have been most 
 
 and picturesque 
 
 eminent for their Virtues or Vices ; with Vignette Prinis, representing in-G 5] 
 Manner the most remarkable Event which distinguished each Person's Character 
 
 TRANSLAFED FROM THER FRENCH 
 
 OP 
 
 M. CHAMPORT, 
 AND OTHER DISTINGUISHED WRITERS 
 
 THe ORIGINAL DE IGNS AND ENGRAVINGS from which these ifupressions are now taken were 
 
 executed by Durvessr Buntsvx, Coreny, Fraconarn, Matar u, Vexy, Grrarpor; 
 Niquer, Derarc,: 1d Meuniz 
 
 PARIS, 
 Printed by J, Cuarues snegaud, under f.” inspection o: 
 
 'BER, Ogi °’ proprietor, 
 Rue St.- "8. 
 
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HISTORICAL PICTURES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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HISTORICAL PICTURES, 
 
 REPRESENTING THE MOST 
 
 
 
 REMARKABLE EVENTS 
 
 WHICH OCCURRED DURING 
 
 ees Get ena LOE Ta 
 
 THE “FRENCH REVOLUTION, 
 WITH A PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF 
 
 THOSE IMPORTANT TRANSACTIONS; 
 
 AND A SERIES OF DISCOURSES ELUCIDATING THE CAUSES 
 WHLCH LED TO THAT EVENT 
 
 With Portraits and Historical Memoirs of some of the principal Persons engaged, who have been most 
 eminent for their Virtues or Vices; with Vignette Prints, representing in a spirited and picturesque 
 
 Manner the most remarkable Event which distinguished each Persons Character 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF 
 M. CHAMPORT, 
 
 AND OTHER DISTINGUISHED WRITERS. 
 
 Tue ORIGINAL DESIGNS AND ENGRAVINGS from which these impressions are now taken were 
 executed by Dupiesst Berraux, Corcny, Fraconarp, Mataprau, Veny, Grrarpol 
 Nrevet, Duparc, and Meunier 
 
 Peak 13S, 
 Printed by J. CHARLES, rue Guenegaud, under the inspection of AuBER, original proprietor, 
 Rue St.-Lazare. 
 
 1803. 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 TO THE 
 
 HISTORICAL PICTURES 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 "Tue revolution of 1789 is the result of causes which haye been in operation for many 
 ages, the action of which, increased and accelerated in these latter times, has at | 
 arrived at its catastrophe , assisted by a concurrence of circumst 
 confessed to be miraculous. 
 
 ength 
 ances which must he 
 A slight survey of our history will sufficiently shew t 
 accumulation of eyils under which the people suffered, and it will be 
 nishment to many , how, groaning under such calamities 
 
 1e 
 a subject of asto- 
 , they could so long be 
 patient. But it is to the patience of their ancestors that succeeding gener 
 
 ations will be 
 indebted for their happiness. 
 
 Had the revolution taken place at an earlier period, and 
 
 the ancient edifice been destroyed before the nation , enlightened by its recent luminarie 
 
 
 
 was possessed of the capacity and power of rebuilding 
 
 iton a plan of equal grandeur 
 wisdom , and 1 
 
 gularity , France, in the following ages , would not have enjoyed t 
 
 
 
 
 
 1e 
 ved for her , and the happiness of posterity would not haye been pro- 
 portioned to the sufferings of their ancestors. 
 
 prosperity re 
 
 
 
 After the emancipation of the commons (for we need not ascend to a higher period, when 
 the people were in the most abject servitude) the french emerged from the state of brutal 
 slavery in which the 
 
 
 
 were sunk, but were , nevertheless , in a comparative bondage. 
 Though less oppressed , andless miserable than before , they were not the less constrained 
 to cringe before their ty 
 
 
 
 ants called nobles and priests, who had so long constituted the 
 two privileged orders of the state. Some few individuals might perhaps raise themselves 
 from the lower classes by the purchase of nobility ,and sometimes the necessity of the 
 
 a 
 
 
 

 
 ij INTRODUCTION. 
 
 government , butmore frequently the ayarice of the kings sold to many of their subjects , 
 
 
 
 
 
 who were called roturiers , a portion of the rights and privileges of the higher orders. An 
 
 aature was the chief of these 
 
 
 
 exemption from many of the taxes and services of a debasing 
 privileges ,the great mass of which, increasing by degrees , fell upon the contributable 
 part of the nation, which beheld its oppressors recruited in its bosom, and the most 
 distinguished of its offspring pass over to its adversaries. ‘The right of conferring nobility, 
 and the abuse attending it , was for many ages, the most galling yoke to the people. The 
 constant wars , and the heavy impositions which were the consequence, made it yet more 
 insupportable. But the most fatal evil was, that they lengthened the reign of ignorance 
 
 and barbarism. 
 
 The revival of letters in the 16‘ century was unhappily but little favorable to the 
 liberties of mankind; learning, in its second infancy , consumed its benefits in the barren 
 disputes of religion and the schools; and served little to advance the progress of society. 
 Fifty years of civil war, of which the ambition of the great was the cause, and religion 
 the pretext, plunged France into a state of misery and desolation , from which she 
 did not begin to emerge until the close of the reign of Henry IV. The regency of 
 Mary of Medicis was a scene of weakness , disorder and depredation. At length , under 
 
 Richelieu, feudal aristocracy fell at the foot-stool of the throne. The veople a little 
 
 relieved, but still enslaved, reckoned upon revenge, and regarded as the happiest event in 
 
 veir favour the fall of those subaltern tyrants under the weight of royal authority. 
 
 t was doubtless good policy in the minister thus to put an end to the many conyulsions 
 which for ages had distracted France , but what was the result ? the nobles , no longer 
 
 formidable to the monarch, were the contented props of his despotism ; they were 
 
 1e partners of his power , and exercised the whole authority of the state. Richelieu 
 
 y0rn in their order , and tainted with all its prejudices , believed that in thus giving 
 
 
 
 them a preference in all offices, he made but a slight compensation for the many 
 adyantages of which he had deprived their principal members. They blocked up every 
 avenue to the throne, became masters of the person of the monarch , and the 
 education of his children ; and in both they never ceased to instil the principles of 
 
 
 
 ne feudal system, connected with a superstitious reverence for ecclesiastics. Thus the 
 
 
 
 commons gained few advantages from these changes , and the priests and nobles were 
 
 g 
 as powerful as before. The dignities , the places and the employments, which more 
 
 
 
 particularly influenced the mamners , and gave a direction to the sentiments of the 
 people, were shared by the tools of the nobility. It seemed as if Richelieu had destroyed 
 aristocracy as a rival to monarchy, but had suffered it to exist to the destruction of 
 national prosperity. That haughty spirit of rank , before which the ideas of man and 
 of citizen , have so long vanished in Europe , that spirit , destructive of every social tie, 
 nay of all morality , received then new strength, and penctrated into all classes : it was the 
 empoisoned spring which Richelieu had just divided into many streams. At that period 
 therefore may be remarked a rage for nobility bordering on madness; a political disorder, 
 a national vanity that must finally sap the basis of monarchy, and which we behold at 
 last accomplished. 
 
 The enemies of the revolution never cease to applaud the splendor and glory 
 of France under this minister, and the still greater lustre which the victories 
 of the great Conde reflected upon the administration of Mazarin. They see nothing 
 in this but a glory for which they cannot account; but where is the wonder that a 
 
EN DeRsOe PD Ur 2 ON, iij 
 
 nation though sunk in slavery and misery , should, under the administration of 
 a Richelieu , become formidable to spain and Germany, kindoms yet more oppressed 
 and unhappy than herself? With respect to the victories of Conde, we know that he was 
 a more able general than any that opposed him. But that which is a subject of 
 triumph to the enemies of the revolution, is the glory of Louis XTV, a man whom 
 a. favorable train 
 of the splendid and 
 disastrous reign , in which we behold an entire nation , alternately vanquished and 
 
 of circumstances surrounded with the most illustrious characters 
 
 age. Such is the language which has been held of that 
 victorious , but always miserable , deifying a monarch who sacrifised his nation to his 
 court , and his court to himself. The bankruptey which succeeded this reign did not 
 open the eyes of the people , whose genius had been directed to the cultiyation of the 
 fine arts for more than halfa century , and who remained still captivated with exterior 
 pomp , and the charms of that luxury which had so long been buried. ‘Titles , honours , 
 and ve the subject of their idolatry , even under the same 
 government in which these very idols neglected nothing to debase them. 
 
 the Great continued to 
 j A servitude , 
 no less disgraceful than ridiculous , continued adding to the weight of public grievances , 
 till the middle of the reign of Louis XV. 
 
 
 
 At length a new spirit appeared in France; the attention was now directed to 
 objects of utility; and the sciences , the seeds of which had been sown in the preceding 
 
 age , began to produce some happy fruits. 
 The celebrated Encyclopedia was now published *, a work which , as far as regards 
 the sciences, was doubtless never equalled , and is so far equally honorable to the national 
 
 talents and national industry. 
 
 Voltaire, after having run through the circle of the arts , attacked those superstitious 
 
 
 
 prejudices , the ruin of which he thought necessary to pave the way to that of political 
 truth. A new class of philosophers , disciples of the preceding , directed their labours 
 to the study of social economy , and entered into a profound investigation of those 
 subjects , which had ney 
 
 
 
 
 
 France was at that time a 
 , where 
 
 r yet been submitted to enquiry. 
 
 singular spectacle ; it was the country of futilities reason came to look 
 
 1e contest was between modern discoveries , and ancient errors 
 strengthened by the authority of a weak and falling government. Two different parties 
 
 for an establishment. T 
 
 divided the kingdom, o 
 political economists , and 
 
 n one side were the philosophers, on the other monks, the 
 
 the jansenists , the followers of Rousseau , and the episcopal 
 
 mandates , the social contract , and proscribed jesuits , exiled parliaments, and persecuted 
 
 philosophers, such was t 
 
 
 
 ie chaos from which issued the revolution. 
 
 Louis XV died, not less in debt than Louis XIV , and was succeeded by a young 
 monarch of upright intentions , but ignorant of the snares which were laid for him. 
 
 
 
 He called to his assistance the experience of a minister who had been disgraced , but 
 
 Maurepas in his dotage governed as he lived, for his amusement. Economy and the 
 
 
 
 * As it was under the direction of a malevolent party, a party equally disposed against order in government and 
 
 religion in society, itis but little to be depended upon where either of these are concerned; it is in a word one of 
 those works, w 
 
 
 
 h a man of science may consult with profit in the immediate article of his science, but which no good 
 man Will either read or commend. 
 
 ay 
 
 
 

 
 hy LONE Ly ROR DGG ie Onin 
 
 reform of abuses, were the only means of re storing the finances. He had recourse 
 to them, and selected a man whom the public voice pointed out as most capable *; 
 but he checked in the course of reform which be gan to operate, a minister whose 
 misfortune it was to be called to govern fifteen years too soon, Maurepas sacrificed 
 
 ‘ity , whom he 
 
 him , and appointed as his suceessor a man of equal industry and intee 
 clogged , restrained , and inte rrupted in all his efforts , and , averse to all amelioration, 
 
 
 
 kept in the most submissive dependance. Mean time, he involved France in a 
 , which compelled the minister of finance either to 
 
 encrease the public burden by new imposts , or haye recourse to loans. The last. was 
 
 foreign alliance , and a foreign war 
 
 
 
 the only method of continuing in his office a man, as little agreable to the court as to the 
 
 
 
 prime minister himself. The loans were multip ied , and no economy could pay their 
 interest , M. Necker was dismissed , and an ¢ mployment no less difficult than perilous 
 
 passed successively into hands unequal to its duties, which scarcely received before 
 they abandoned the burden 
 
 M. Calonne , distinguished for brilliant talents and active industry , undertook: the 
 
 office, but sunk under its we ight; he had to contend with the jealousy of the parliaments 
 
 and was no less embarrassed by the obstacles which a party threw in his way. His 
 
 scene of action however was brilliant, and by a ha ypy device he revived public 
 
 
 
 credit for a time; but exhausted by its new efforts , and worn out by its labours , it 
 completed its long course in final destruction. He took the desperate but courageous 
 resolution of convoking an assembly of the notables , in order to lay before them the 
 necessities of the state. The annual deficiency of the inances was then declared SO) 
 famous under the name of the 
 
 
 
 if, aterm which passed from the bureaus of the 
 financiers into general use A loud and general clamour now pursued the minister into 
 his most sacred retreat; he was considered as the first 
 
 
 
 ause of the impending ruin ; 
 ipations of the court, and his own private dilapidations 
 were equally the subject of general censure. M. Calonne had endeavoured to subject 
 
 
 
 
 
 his concurrence in the dis 
 
 the two orders of the clergy and the noblesse to the commun contribution , these two 
 
 orders therefore united with the people, and the kingdom resounded with their concurrent 
 clamour. 
 
 It was at this period that the irresistible force of public opinion was first seen in 
 action; it had already obtained a double triumph , that of compelling M. de Maurepas 
 to take a part in the american war , and that of obtaining in the subsequent treaty 
 with the americans the royal acknowledgement of the popular principles of liberty. It 
 was thus that the rights of man may be considered as having first proceeded from the 
 royal chancery itself: and it is thus that despotism is not unfrequently annihilated by 
 itself and its own ministers 
 
 Tt should not be here omitted , that besides the num rous class of citizens whom the 
 principles of the new philosophy had inspired with an abhorrence to the ancient 
 establishment , there was still another class equally numerous and equally restless. This 
 was the class of politicians , a class of men, whom rather the vanity of 
 
 “bearing a part 
 in great affairs, than any immed 
 
 ite or even most distant interest of their own engaged 
 to become judges of the affairs of state. The works of M. Necker , his 
 
 
 
 Compte rendu 
 
 
 
 * M, Turgot. 
 
DMR OD U Gf PON v 
 
 and his history of the administration of the finances , had given, if not birth, at least 
 activity to this restless species : every one now imagined himself a minister , or intendant 
 of the finances , and every one became indignant at the continuance of the abuses in 
 the administration. It was thus that the vanity of M. Necker supplied with arms a 
 multitude whose malice would otherwise have been rendered ineffectual by their 
 ignorance ; but he lived to repent the imprudence of which himself at length experienced 
 the effects. 
 
 M. de Calonne was dismissed: an intrigue of the court raised his enemy, the archbishop 
 of Sens, to the vacant administration, who had long sought the direction of the finances, an 
 office for which of all others he was least adapted. He carried into his administration , 
 principles which would have well suited France a century ago, but which could now only 
 render himself ridiculous. He had hitherto employed the parliaments as an instrument to 
 ruin his rival Calonne,and now proposed to the same parliaments the projects which they 
 had already rejected when proposed by Calonne himself; but the parliaments refused to 
 register them, and the archbishop banished them. The people, with little regard for them , 
 
 
 
 still considered them as the only remaining barrier against the encroachments of 
 despotism , the people therefore ranged themselves upon their side , and the parliament 
 little understanding the secret motives , actually believed themselves possessed of the 
 popular love. ‘They had in fact obtained this temporary favour by the demand they had 
 made for the convocation of the States-general. The archbishop of Sens had been 
 imprudent enough to promise this conyocation; he even acknowledged , under the royal 
 
 
 
 seal, the exclusive right of the nation to impose new taxes. In the present situation, 
 and present spirit of the times this blindness of the minister could have been but 
 the effect of divine wrath, which indignant with the general depravity , was now hastening 
 the moment of punishment , and which employed the nation itself as a secondary 
 means to this purpose. 
 
 This ministerial declaration of the rights of the nation , though given but as in word , 
 was understood as in deed , and the eyes of the minister were awakened to something 
 of a sense of their true situation by the general clamour excited by the project of 
 the plenary-court. Tt was necessary to support this absurd invention by the aid of 
 the military , the military however in several provinces , were insufficient against the 
 people, secretly excited by the nobles, the priests, and the parliaments. The nation 
 now exerted against one branch of despotism that force which was soon after found 
 equal to contend with the whole; the result was what might have been expected , the 
 archbishop of Sens was compelled to retire , and M. Necker was again called to the 
 ministry. The government saw that nothing could be done without the convocation 
 of the states , every day, every hour, every moment, proyed the force of the people , 
 and the weakness of the government. 
 
 
 
 M. Necker signalized his entrance upon administration by the recall of the parliaments 
 which the archbishop of Sens had exiled. He called a second assembly of the notables , 
 who undid in 1788 , what they had before done in 1787 , giving thus a proof that they 
 hated Calonne more than they loved the nation. In vain , however, did the notables A 
 and the parliament unite to render the convocation of the states ineffectual by confining 
 them to the forms of 1614: public opinion , and the persevering ardour of men of 
 letters through the medium of the press , prevailed over every thing. The day on 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 vj PNG BR OsDeU Ce mOmN: 
 
 which M. Necker procured for the people a representation equa 
 united orders , gave him greater eclat than the day of public 
 
 he 
 
 a great stride, he had accompanied , or at least followed it! 
 
 recalled to the ministry. Happy if, after having aided 
 
 
 
 was 
 
 and it continued its march. In the midst of confusion , such as 
 
 of the government occasioned , tbe national assembly continuec 
 labours ; 
 
 immense and notwithstanding the fury of their numc 
 
 and ayowed , in little more than two years accomplish¢ d their 
 
 the sudden downfall 
 with courage their 
 -rous enemies secret 
 
 
 
 people took their rank among free nations , and hence overthrew t 
 
 admitted even by philosophers of our day , that a nation so. long sunk in corruptio 
 
 cannot regain its liberty, an odious maxim, and which condemns almost the whok 
 
 human race to eternal slavery ! 
 
 to that of the two 
 rejoicing on whie 
 the to 
 Sut he stopt short 
 
 nation such 
 
 The 
 
 iat political prejudice 
 
 work. french 
 
 n 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 HISTORIGAL PICTURES 
 Oo Ff 
 
 iE eee ONGerEles 
 
 OOF 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 FIRST PRELIMI? 
 
 
 
 VARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 
 
 ASSEMBLY OF THE NOTABLES HELD AT VERSAILLES , 
 
 FEBRUARY 2 1785. 
 
 As the first assembly of the notables , in the month of February 1787, may justly be 
 considered as the commencement of the french revolution , it is n¢ cessary to ascend to that 
 period , and to enter upon the detail of those events which were the cause of whatever 
 followed. Upon the death of Louis the XV the crown descended upon the head of 
 the last king of the French , a youth without experience , and a king without any 
 of the talents of reigning. He resolved to supply this defect by a selection of mi- 
 nisters whom his judgment represented as the most able , and of the greatest probity 
 of their age and country ; but he unfortunately trusted to his own judgment , and 
 was therefore deceived in his choice. The count de Maurepas , at once the most 
 corrupt and the greastet corrupter of his age, became his tutor and minister , and 
 recalled the parliaments which Maupeou had exiled. The count de Muy , more suited 
 for the cloister than the cabinet , was promoted to the department of War ; and with 
 equal ignorance of his proper talent, Sartines was persuaded to accept the Marine. 
 The finances were commited to M. de Clugny, but upon suflicient proofs of his inca- 
 pacity he was succeeded by Turgot, who had acquired a great and merited reputation 
 as intendant of Limousin; the extent of his views, and the multitude of his projects of 
 reform exposed him to the opposition of a powerful party ; his inflexible probity and 
 severity of ceconomy hastened his fall. M. Necker, already celebrated as , a Banker ‘ 
 became director - general of the finances. It was the singularity of this minister to 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 > HIiSTORD GAL PLOT RE 
 
 be at once persecuted by flattery and detraction , and what perhaps was more sin- 
 gular — to merit neither ; with the ostentatious promise of a new system , and some thing 
 of the affectation of stoicism, Necker was still unequal to his situation ; but he enjoyed 
 the contidence of the nation, and his probity was admitted even by his enemies. He 
 introduced the system of loans , and governed the finances of a great empire in the 
 spirit and by the maxims of a provincial yanker: like Turgot, he may boast as his 
 greatest elogium his dismissal from a court too prodigal to endure his calculation; both 
 the sacrifice of the queen and the count d’Artois. 
 
 led by M. Joly de Fleury , who imposed a tax of ten sous per 
 
 were alil 
 M. Necker was succee 
 d indiscriminately upon all the former taxes. He was dismissed with 
 
 
 
 
 
 livre to be charg 
 contempt and a pension. M. d’Ormesson , of some repute for his probity and candour , 
 
 compelled to assume , and with still more abruptness to lay down , a burden 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Was 
 beyond his strength. [le was replaced by M. de Calonne , who though branded by the 
 public opin as an object of distrust , had exerted his wit, and talent of profusion 
 with su in gaining the favour of the court. The notables , however, rejected his 
 projects , and he was compelled to resign lis oflice. 
 
 Che archbishop of Toulouse , of inferior talents , but of equal profusion, and equal 
 
 
 
 
 
 enterprise , proposed to the parliament the same imposts, that of stamps , and the 
 still more obnoxious imposts territorial. The Magistrates availed themselves of the popular 
 clamour against the latter to obtain the rejection of both. Hence the contests of the par- 
 liamei ind the court, and the long succession of injunctions , remonstrances , and 
 arrests , which only terminated by the exile of the parliament to Troyes. The parliament 
 
 compell to enter upon its defence by 
 confessed to the astonishment of the nation , that they had 
 
 
 
 ration of its true constitution , and the 
 
 
 
 avowal its former abuses , 
 not the 
 
 States-general. The ministers were disconcerted by a demand , the effects of which have 
 
 ht of consenting to new imposts , and they demanded the convocation of the 
 
 
 
 tal to the monarchy ; it was received, however, with such ardour amongst 
 
 been so f 
 
 seated by the parliament with such undeviating firmness , that the 
 
 the people , and re} 
 
 
 
 was compelled to consent. The parliaments expected to enjoy the same influence 
 the in 1614. It was their secret purpose to transfer upon the people the 
 imposts with which they beheld themselves menaced. 
 
 ave ever been too forward in 
 
 It cannot be objected to the parliaments that they | 
 srosecuting: the defrauders of the finances. When have they ever interposed their autho- 
 I 5 A I 
 rity to arrest the ruinous progress of taxation? Have they not openly abused and 
 exercised a public traflic of what is justly held as most sacred amongst men , justice 
 and the laws? Did they not oppose the establishment of the provincial assemblies ? The 
 
 PI I 
 idols of early times, these ancient corporations , long enjoyed an habitual respect of 
 
 the people but this respect was lost , and the abuses of the parliam< nts appeared in 
 
 
 
 full li , When er haying declared their constitutional incompetency to enregister 
 the ec of imposition , they had the inconsistency to purchase their return from 
 Troyes tering the edict for the continuance of the vinetiemes. 
 
 
 
 The minister resolved to seize this opportunity of establishing a plenary court of 
 
 general. He 
 
 
 
 taxation , and at once relieve himself both of the parliaments , and states 
 
 proposed , as its component parts, the Princes , Peers , and Marshals of France ; tog ther 
 trates who were wholly devoted to the court. Louis XVI held 
 
 
 
 
 
 with those of the Ma 
 a royal sitting in the parliament , M. d’Espremesnil , one of the counsellors , poured 
 forth a torrent of eloque nee, and animated his audience to an enthusiasm of oppositio 1 
 against the court. The palace was invested with troops. Brienne and Lamoignon were 
 
 publickly insulted. A new Bussy-le-Clerc, le siew d’Agoust, ente red into the assembly , 
 
Of Vii 2 REN GED REY Onli ON: 3 
 
 > 
 
 and demanded their victims: « We are all Goislards , and d’Epremesnils , answered the 
 
 
 
 magistrates ». The french , indeed , of this day 
 
 , were all for d’Epremesnil: they as 
 
 yet knew not that he was rather the enemy of the minister than the friend of the 
 people , that the sanctuary of justice might not be defiled by any of the excesses , or 
 even by the entrance of the soldiers of the court ; two magistrates surrendered them- 
 selves voluntarily to the officers. The duke d’Orleans had been previously exiled. 
 
 2 
 
 A few days after this sitting appeared the celebrated edicts of the 8 May 178 
 
 
 
 At any other period the people would doubtless have received with pleasure the 
 establishment of the greater bailliages as fixed by these edicts ; but the general abhorrence 
 of the plenary court united the nation and parliament in one cause. The courageous 
 resistance of the people of Rennes, the eloquent remonstrances of the intermediate chamber 
 of the states of Britanny ; the firm, unyeilding, and truly patriotic spirit of the states of 
 Dauphiny , obtained a final triumph oyer the royal power , and overthrew the plenary 
 court, Lamoignon and Brienne its authors, and the greater bailliages which sprung 
 from the same source 3 the parliaments were restored to their forme Yr powers, 
 
 But all this was not without its effect. The frequency of beds of justice , the exile and 
 imprisonment of the parliaments , the confinement of twelve gentlemen of Britanny in 
 the bastille , 
 magistracy by armed force , excited that general discontent in Paris , and still more in 
 
 and finally , the establishment of the plenary court, and the arrest of the 
 
 > 
 
 
 
 the provinces , which was no uncertain presage of what followed. The citizens had already 
 taken arms at Grenoble. 
 
 On the other side , such were the frauds in the finances , that the annals of history 
 can produce few similar examples. The notables contented themselves with stating that 
 
 is they found it: they had 
 
 
 
 
 
 the deficit was 140 millions; they separated, and left every thing ; 
 proposed every thing and adopted nothing. This assembly was composed of 136 members , 
 but had not been conyoked since 1696. It was composed of the princes , the oflicers 
 of the crown 5 the secretaries of state ; the peers of the realm - and masters , of the 
 requests ; together with the marshals of France , the bishops, and archbishops, the 
 presidents of the parliaments , the municipal officers , and deputies of the state. It has 
 been mentioned above that the territorial imposts , and that of stamps were here proposed. 
 The king presided in person at the first , sixth, and last sitting , which was on the 
 25 May 1787. (1) 
 
 M. Necker and the states-general , were the two objects which now solely occupied 
 
 
 
 the public attention , they were regarded as the only instruments of recovering the 
 
 nation from impendent ruin. It was only the superior reason of the former which could 
 
 
 
 dissipate the darkness , and animate to new life and order , the financial adminis- 
 tration; it was only he who could revive confidence , and save the state; the national 
 
 voice is at length heard, and at length invites the people to liberty. M. Necker re-enters 
 
 
 
 upon his ministry. The states-general are demanded , and the king promises their 
 
 convocation. The parliaments who had consulted only their own interest , and sought 
 
 
 
 popularity only to augment their own power , now repented their imprudent declaration ; 
 but as it was no longer in their power to retard the convocation , they decreed that 
 they could only assemble and deliberate according to the forms of the former assembly 
 of the states in 1614. This completed the ruin of their popularity. 
 
 
 
 (1) It must have been evident , however, that the former States- ge neral had been but of very 
 little use. Voltaire has said in his Henriade : 
 These states but met as law or Custom pressed , 
 
 Saw all our Wrongs, but never one redressed. 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 The noblesse , the higher clergy , and the court , made no secret of their purpose to 
 
 seek a predominant influence in the states 5 thus to amass , already about to explode 
 from the action of the contrary pring iples of its composition , were added the contest 
 of diversity of opinion, of opposed passions 
 
 , and rival interest, a certain presage of 
 
 
 
 the storm which was about to burst. 
 
 Amongst this general contest of opinion, M. Necker as unwilling that the forms 
 
 of the assemblage of the states should be decided by the counsels of the king. Ie again 
 
 
 
 conyoked the assembly of the notables ; from their former firmness he presumed on their 
 future impartiality. He knew not that the greater purposes of the soul had their periods, 
 
 and were but seldom repeated; the false reasoning of the minister was pregnant with 
 
 
 
 the most fatal effects. The party of the privileged united together , and such was the 
 
 effect « 
 
 
 
 their union, that M. Necker was compelled to content himself with obtaining 
 
 for the people such an equality of representation , that the number of the deputies of 
 the tiers-etat should be equal to that of the two other orders together, and the taxes 
 hould be equally levied without regard to exemptions. 
 
 It was at first believed that the King haying conyoked the states , and having granted 
 
 them this equal representation , the Clergy and Noble would have renounced their 
 
 
 
 pecuniary privileges , and only haye contended for those of a more honorary nature ; 
 but this 
 
 
 
 or eyen com- 
 
 want of knowledge of mankind. Nothing was in fact donc 
 menced , which had any thing of the harmony of a plan Whether from de ign, or more 
 
 ulpable negligence , M. Necker had left almost every thing undetermined. In the letters 
 
 
 
 of convocation no method of election was mentioned; a certain number of deputies , 
 
 indeed , were to be elected by each order , but the three orders were still left the 
 
 
 
 power of contradicting the spirit even of this regulation. In a word, in this concurrence 
 
 f 
 
 of the abuses of government , and the general reception of a new and false philosophy 
 
 nothing could for a moment arrest the progress of the Revolution 
 
 
 
 lowing is the inscription un 
 
 the plate of the first Table. 
 
 
 
 ASSEMBLY OF THE NOTABLES HELD AT VERSAILLES THE 22 FEBRUARY 1787. 
 
 This assembly was composed of the Princes , the Officers of the crown, the Secretaries 
 of state, the Peers of the Kingdom , Counsellors of state , Masters of the requests , the 
 Marshals of France, Archbishops and Bishops, Presidents of the parliaments , Sovereign 
 counsels , and finally of the Municipal officers of cities , and Deputies of state. 
 
 In the different sittings were discussed , amongst other proposals , those of the stamp-act 
 and the territorial impost. The king presided in the first , sixth , and last sitting ; the 
 latter was the 25 May 1787. This assembly had no other effect than that of hastening 
 the call of the states 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 LY Idk JUSTIC! rin A VERSAILLES, 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 TORICAL PICTURES 
 O F 
 Pie EP OGHS 
 
 Oo Tr 
 
 (CH REVOLUTION. 
 
 
 
 SECOND PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 
 
 BED OF JUSTICE HELD AT VERSAILLES, 
 AUG US 6 1789. 
 
 low culpable are those ministers , who, abusing the confidence of a Monarch whose 
 good intentions merit a better fate , lead him finally to a violence of conduct, as fatal 
 as unnatural to his character! The commencement of the reign of Louis XVI will be 
 known to posterity but by its acts of beneficence. But when ministers abused his authority 
 to an excess which no history can paraliel, he was compelled to those fatal means of 
 which despotism has ever ayailed itself in its purpose of oppression. Such was the Bed 
 of justice held at Versailles. 
 
 This must not be considered as one of those minute events of temporary interest, it 
 is worthy the reflection of legislators, and will fix the attention of posterity. It is true 
 indeed that the attention of distant ages will chiefly attach to the greater causes , and 
 more signal effects , which have produced or followed the French revolution; but when 
 they shall repeat the names of those citizens by whose virtue the Republic was founded , 
 they may wish to follow despotism in its progress , to behold its efforts , and triumph in 
 its impotence. 
 
 It not unfrequently happens in human affairs , that circumstances of little individual 
 interest assume a character of importance from the dignity of the events which they 
 produce. Ina revolution somemorable as that of France , even the most trivial of cireum- 
 stances will be seized with avidity. Should such details lose something of their estimation 
 as they become remote from the xra of their occurrence , they must still be 
 regarded with interest by contemporaries. Itis not however to this rank that the Bed of 
 
 
 
 
 
6 SOR A eo ree es 
 
 justice held at Versailles in August 1787, belongs; it is one of the most important events, 
 ct contributed to weaken the authority of the ministers. 
 
 
 
 and in its immediate eff 
 
 Tt is from this epoch that those scenes commence , which are at once the terror, and 
 admiration of mankind. And can history produce a greater spectacle than that of an 
 immense empire aspiring to its regeneration, and seeking to renew the basis of that 
 social fabric which might at once shelter and protect twenty-five millions of men? If 
 there can exist a picture which may justly summon the attention of the world, is it 
 
 not that which can thus present an a 
 
 
 
 embled nation , compelled to withdraw from 
 
 
 
 a form of government es 
 
 ablished by a long succession of ages, to a form in principle 
 
 and pretension exactly opposed to the former ? compelled to defend the new fabric of its 
 liberty against the attack of despotism; the contention of riyal factions, and the united 
 yin 
 
 efforts of all the ministers , clergy , nobility, and parliameuts , who lost everythit 
 
 
 
 
 
 the change! It is to the nation alone that the revolution owes both its origin and esta- 
 
 
 
 age of the nation 
 
 
 
 blishment. During the long course of the revolutionary storms the langu 
 was the same: « 1 am equally at War with those who govern, and who aspire to govern 
 me, and eyen with those whom myself have chosen. I watch over every thing , and rely 
 only upon myself. » Ttis thus that it has seen so many factions alternately rise , govern, 
 and fall; these again replaced by other factions , who have suffered the same fate. 
 It has been its fate to contend equally against the open and secret attacks of the despotism 
 of ministers ; it has been persecuted to the full extent of that atrocity which the nature 
 of Wickedness is capable ; and in the midst of a deficit of finances beyond the powers 
 
 of calculation has been compelled to support a war as bloody as expensive, 
 
 M. Necker had already proposed means to the amount of twenty-five millions , these 
 
 means were yery insufficient ; M. Calonne imposed in turn the territorial impost , this 
 
 
 
 was doubtless a great resource, but the notables and the pa liament united in its rejection. 
 It is our purpose, to enter here into some examination of the conduct of two ministers 
 who acted so principal a part in the events which immediately preceded the revolution. 
 
 This review will lead to observations of some importance, and will unfold to the 
 
 
 
 
 
 reader the true state of the public treasure at this period. 
 
 
 
 It is easier to form a judgement of M. Calonne than of his predecessor ; and it is agreed 
 
 
 
 great talents , but that they were rendered 
 
 by all parties that Calonne was possessed 
 ineffectual by his immorality and extravagance. With regard to M. Necker , if he 
 sometimes appear unequal to his situation, and sink, in a comparison with the 
 greater luminaries of his age , it must be confessed that his integrity was beyond 
 a doubt ,and that he never deviated from those princip es of probity which should equally 
 govern the minister and the citizen. He rejected in his writings , as in his conduct, any 
 
 distinction with regard to the obligations of morality betwen public and private life 
 
 
 
 between the man and the minister. It is thus in his address to the state s-general against 
 the infamy of a proposed state-bankruptey , he exclaimed with ardour , yes gentlemen, 
 I declare , to you by the command of the sovereign , and under the sanction of his 
 express authority , that there is but one principle of ardour , one principle of national 
 
 and that this is an unyeilding morality. 
 
 policy , of real effect, and permanent fruits , 
 
 Such principles in a minister should secure him the public veneration , in Necker they 
 
 were principles of conduct, and not the common-place of declamation. A suitable 
 
 
 
 é 5 5 foe e . ee) 
 gravity of manners and deportment accompanied this purity of morals. In a word 
 
 the character of Necker was greater than his genius , and his sou! was more elevated 
 
 
 
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 7 
 
 than his projects. This judgement is rather a tribute of homm 
 than a censure upon his defects : 
 
 to his virtues 
 
 
 
 > 
 in the history of nations will be found fewer 
 
 
 
 examples of ministers who have obtainec the public esteem by their virtues , than 
 of those who have procured it by the splendor of their genius. If in some of his 
 discourses to the states-general his principles appear to relax something of their stoic 
 severity , it can be imputed only to the singular difficulty of his situation. He had to 
 make his way through the contending pretentions of the three orders : a minister 
 of the king it was not his duty to sacrifice the rights of the throne, as the minister 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 of popular favour how could he withhold those rights which the people demanded 
 with such increasing clamour. 
 
 Tt is to one of these causes we must attribute that apparent contradiction between the 
 first explanations which M. Necker gave on the question of the deficit , and those which 
 
 
 
 were afterwards added in his discourse upon the subject. He ascended to a period 
 and differed little from the system of M. Calonne, in a 
 pamphlet which that minister had published as well to expose the errors of the compte 
 
 prior to his compte rendu , 
 
 rendu , as to justify himself. The unexpected conformity of these celebrated adversaries 
 astonished all who had read their contradictory publications. Possibly M. Necker was 
 unwilling to interrupt the tranquillity of so solemn a day , as that on which he had 
 invited all the orders to concord and unity of opinion , by opening subjects of dispute 
 
 before them, or calling their attention to questions of private misunderstanding. 
 
 Those who took any side in this dispute , may be said only to have hazarded a judgement ; 
 since the origin of the deficit is a question, which we want materials to examine , 
 before we can decide with impartiality. Posterity alone must be heard on this subject. 
 
 
 
 
 
 The discourse of M. Necker explains the means he proposed to remedy the deficit ; and 
 in the regeneration of public credit were seen the astonishing resources of France. 
 
 The obstacles of a great minister , struggling to save a nation, may be conceived not 
 to have been few ; they retarded , indeed , for sometime the progress of his work 
 He only proposed proyisionary arrangements. « The simple abolition of the tax corvée, 
 said he, will give an era to the States of r789 ». He enforced the necessity of being on 
 guard against new opinions, but what did he mean by new opinions? If he meant the 
 
 extravagant declamations of fanatic writers which tended to confound the proper subor- 
 
 
 
 dinations of society , we agree with him that they merited public disapprobation ; but 
 if he meant in that class of new opinions , the sacred principles which restrain authority 
 within proper bounds , which leave the citizen no power to fear but the law; these 
 opinions , far from being new, are the most ancient , since they are founded on reason 
 which has been the same at all times, and in all places. 
 
 
 
 Weakness and imbecillity affix the reproach of novelty to the best improvements 
 of the age. Custom and establishment are the common arguments of tyranny and igno- 
 rance. Thus M. Necker is reproached with only walking in the ancient track and never 
 raising himself to the level of his situation. It is certain that he had nothing of that 
 genius which can at once embrace both the general and minute details , and that even 
 his greatest views were marked with a timidity which sufficiently demonstrated the 
 narrow limits of his mind. 
 
 But should this reproach be just , and that minister only be allowed to possess talents 
 
 
 

 
 aR Sh ab LO) a AN (Gy ON The ARUN (Gah (UP RY 15) 
 
 etc 
 
 
 
 of a secondary order , in times of so much difficulty and danger he was only the more 
 
 useful on that account. Genius of an enterprising nature is dangerous at the eve and 
 
 dawn of great revolutions. Enthusiasm is naturally joined with genius , which knows not 
 
 
 
 how to direct, to treat w 
 
 
 
 th or compose the various passions of mankind. With an 
 
 imprudent contidence it rushes against every obstacle , and hurried too far by its natural 
 
 vigour , renders even its best efforts ineffectual. 
 
 We have sufficiently explained in the preceding table all that occurred in the assembly 
 
 ef the notables , of whom it was composed , and on what account it rejected the 
 
 
 
 plans of M. Calonne. The notables spent time in vain projects disbursed great sums without 
 any service to the state, and returned to their provinces with unfavourable prejudices 
 against the court, without deserving to be thought better of themselves. The cardinal 
 Lomenie de Brienne archbishop of Sens , after the expulsion of M. Calonne , was 
 appointed super-intendant of the finances. He was a minister of the same character ith 
 
 il, and devoted to the court ; bold in 
 
 him he displaced , conceited , immoral , prodi 
 
 
 
 his resources , and not without talents. J amoignon , preside nt of the parliame nt of Paris , 
 s, and succeded Hue Miromesnil. These two men joined 
 
 
 
 was named keeper of the sea 
 together to supply the deficit , and finished by adopting the same imposts which Calonne 
 
 had fruitle 
 
 
 
 ly endeayoured to get passed , those upon stamps, and the territorial act 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The enregistering of these edicts being opposed by the obstinacy of the parliament 
 
 the king held a bed of justice at Versailles , August 5 1 , where they were mi: in his 
 presence after the usual forms , but the parliament immediately protested against these 
 acts. ‘The consequences of this protestation are shewn in our other tables; we shall 
 
 finish this with an observation , which does not seem indifferent , and which results from 
 
 the curious resemblance between the discourses pronounced in the bed of justice , and 
 
 those at the opening of the States-General. In \ugu , the laneuage of the king was 
 
 
 
 
 
 arbitrary to excess; in May 1789 , it was moderate , paternal , and full of the principles 
 of good government. In the bed of justice the king rendered himself odious from an 
 
 gnorance too common among monarchs , that of not considering as their worst enemies 
 
 
 
 le ministers who persuade them to excesses which alienate the affections of their people, 
 At the States-General , on the contrary , Louis XVI appeared with the majesty of a 
 
 king 
 
 and the tenderness of a father. Let us foreet the discourse of 1787 , and exhibit a 
 
 ge of that of 1789. « A general inquietude ( we quote his own ¢ xpressions )a boundless 
 
 
 
 desire of innovations , have taken possession of all minds , and will end in the total 
 
 
 
 estruction of all opinions , if we do not hasten to fix it by a union of wise and moderate 
 
 councils. » 
 
 
 
 
 
 To front the Plate of the second Ta 
 
 BED OF JUSTICE HELD AT VERSAILLES AUGUST 6 1787 
 The enregistering of the edicts of stamps and territorial aid proposed by the minister 
 
 Calonne being rejected by the osbtinacy of the parliament , the king held his bed of 
 
 
 
 justice at Versailles August 6 178 after the usual forms , and the registrations wer 
 
 
 
 made in his presence ; but immediately afterwards the parliament protested against 
 these acts. 
 

 

 
 (ame (es 
 
 baean 
 
 mm un ern) cert 
 
 
 
 
 
 HWARLES-PHILIPPE D’ARTOIS, SORTA Y DE } ce 
 
 
 

 

 
a eg SSE PY EST HY EECCA PETRA SS 
 
 
 
 HISTORICAL PICTURES 
 
 THE EPOCHS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 THE THIRD PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 
 
 CH.-PHILIP D’ARTOIS COMING OUT OF THE COURT OF AIDS. 
 
 PA WG, OPS 0) 1787. 
 
 aliens depredation of the finances was one of the chief causes of the French revolution, 
 and dug the abyss which finally ingulphed her monarchy. Extravagance , folly, and dissi- 
 pation, were carried to a most unexampled height, it is necessary to our present purpose 
 to ascend to the causes of this abuse. 
 
 During the reign of Louis XIV every thing was in the hands of the chiefs of the French 
 noblesse, who constituted his court : they dismissed ministers , nominated generals, 
 disposed of places, and directed all affairs. ‘The power of this faction was supported by 
 their coalition with the nobility in the provinces; it was thus that all the offices of the state , 
 the ministry , foreign embassies, and the household, were solely occupied by them. 
 These intriguers commanded the armies , governed the provinces, and engrossed all the 
 favours, pensions, and dignities of the court. The inferior part of the nobility concurred 
 in the support of this general aggrandisement of their order ; they saw nothing more 
 in this monopoly of all the honors and offices of the state, but the means of raising 
 themselves in their turn to greater distinction and opulence. 
 
 In a memorial , in 1614 , the Noblesse dared among other things to demand that 
 of a general precedence over all the officers of the court , and the presidents of the 
 supreme tribunals not of their own order ; and that all embassies should be confined 
 exclusively to themselves. They demanded, in the same memorial , that 4 distinction 
 should be made between such as were ennobled by offices , and such as were noble through 
 generations; that none but the latter should be permitted the use of arms; that the 
 daughters of the Nobility should be prohibited marrying persons of mean and abject 
 condition , without the consent of four of their principal relations; and that all pensions to 
 
 3 
 
 
 

 
 10 Tai diy AT CO Tal Te G) isc lig 1 A Ge ARS UL I 1, 
 
 
 
 persons of the Tiers-Itat should be suppressed. It concluded with a demand that the 
 noblesse should be exempt from arrestation in tr ials lost against plebeians; and that they 
 
 should establish a distinction of dress according to conditions , ete. 
 
 These claims were more humiliating to the national pride than any way burdensome to 
 the state. The Nobility , however , soon procured a power and influence still more fatal ; 
 not only considering themselves as a privileged class , but as constituting the nation in 
 their own body: they exerted themselyes only in the discovery of new channels to 
 dissipate the public treasure , and to preserve their unjust monopoly of all civil, 
 
 military , and ecclesiastical offices of the state. 
 
 Thus was France plunged into a real state of anarchy. In spite of the wise laws and good 
 Louis XTV produced 
 
 enorial claims, nor did the evil stop there; the same persons , and property were 
 
 
 
 yolice which the reign of every district, every village was harrassed 
 I f 3 > 5 i 
 by these 
 
 frequently the subject of a multitude of these claims, and the weight of the yoke was 
 I : ) > ‘ a 
 
 
 
 thus doubled , or trebled upon the neck of the passive vassal. The french nation under 
 this despotism of a thousand tyrants presented a sorrowful spectacle : a great and brilliant 
 empire, it is true, but w ithout harmony in the different classes of citizens that composed 
 it; and in which two such opposite orders of men were established , that the one seemed, 
 by their prerogatives to stand in the rank of sovereigns , while the others appeared degraded 
 in the most humiliating characters of servitude. From the moment a man ¢ ntered the 
 class of nobles, the state became his debtor , and he owed nothing further to the state 
 
 > 
 offices, pensions , and com t-favours were for him alone. ‘To such a point was corruption 
 
 
 
 grown that nobles were continually demanding one or other of these — without caring 
 whether the downfal of the state might not one day be the result of their extravagant 
 petitions. W hen every place was occupied , new ones were created for them —or ancient 
 placemen retired w ith a pension equivalent , to make room for their importuning succes- 
 sors. And the same office though frequently an useless one , was shared among many titles, 
 
 Under the regency, and the r« mainder of the reign of Louis the XV , the evil increased; 
 and, notwithstanding the economical character of Louis XVI, the abuse gaine d its utmost 
 height during his reign. Every examen of the causes of this enormous deficit availed 
 ‘ret pensioners 
 
 
 
 nothing but to reveal new crimes: it was discovered that the list of these s 
 
 and the national assembly at lc ngth 
 
 
 
 was preserved in a court-register , or livre rouge , 
 demanded its being exposed to public view. Their sollicitations were at first fruitless, for 
 the livre rouge contained exact accounts of the fatal and profligate extravagance of Louis 
 XV. The King was unwilling to raise the veil which covered the vices of his grand- 
 father ; but the assembly at length prevailed , and the livre rouge was produced to their 
 committee , on condition that their inquiries should extend no further back than to the 
 
 commencement of his own reign. It was thus delivered to the commissioners at the house 
 
 
 
 of M Necker , and in the presence of M. Montmorin. F ithful to the principles of the 
 
 
 
 
 
 constituent assembly who had appointed them upon this committee of inquiry, the 
 commissioners accepted the condition , and commenced their examen of the livre rouge 
 
 from the beginning of the reign of Louis XVI. 
 
 This famous book is a register of court expences , containing 122 leaves of dutch imperial 
 paper, the make of D. and C. Blaauw, having for device Pro patria et libertate , and bound in 
 red morocco. Hach article of expence is written by the hand of the comptroller-general , 
 and confirmed by the king’s initial, L.... in his own hand. ‘Thus appeared in the same book 
 
 
 
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. Ut 
 
 the signatures of the seyeral succeeding ministers, Terray , Turgot, Clugny , Necker, 
 Fleury , Ormesson , Calonne, Forqueux , Lambert, and Necker again. The amount of the 
 several articles upon the livre rouge from 1774 to 1789, was 227,285,517 livres, about ten 
 million pounds sterling. Under the ministry of Calonne only, Monsieur had received 
 13,824,000 livres , and M. d’Artois 14,550,000. This latter prince had moreover received 
 7,500,000 livres for the payment of his debts , independent of an annual revenue of another 
 million. M. de Polignac in recompense of his services received a gift of 1,200,000 livres ; 
 and it contained another grant somewhat singular , of 44 livres, 4 sous, to a sergeant in 
 the regiment of Flanders, for having contributed by his valour to the taking of Uderstalt. 
 
 M. Necker and M. Calonne asserted that the amount of the annual pensions was short of 
 28 millions of livres; they amounted however to jo millions: and it appeared , from the 
 publication of the royal-register that 860 millions had been dissipated in gratuitous grants 
 within the space of eight years. To support the fabric of public credit, sinking beneath 
 this incumbent load of debt, M. Necker saw no other resource than the formation of 
 anew treasury of the Household, which might at once fix the daily expenditure , and 
 preside over the receipt and administration of the civil list. This plan however was 
 deemed insufficient and therefore rejected. M. Necker proposed but without success , 
 a general and voluntary gift of the fourth of the national income. It was then that 
 the assembly decreed the issue of four hundred millions of assignats. It is not without 
 malignity that this species of currency has been confounded with that paper money so 
 justly obnoxious to the most celebrated writers upon finance; the assignats had a security 
 peculiar to themselve: 
 
 
 
 , and though the circumstances of the war, and the frauds of the 
 administrators , caused an emission of them to an amount which terminated in their fatal 
 depreciation , the safety of the state must be imputed to this sole cause. It is a just 
 subject of reproach to M. Necker, that he neither proposed , nor supported, what was thus 
 doubtless of public benefit ; he forgot that there are moments in the fortune of states , 
 as in that of individuals, when prudence requires that every thing must be hazarded. 
 
 
 
 We allow that his situation was of singular difficulty , but it is in such difficulties only 
 that ability is displayed in the invention of suitable resources. 
 
 The above circumstances are all posterior to the event which is the subject of our historic 
 
 
 
 picture; they were all connected however with the subject of the finances , and thus 
 united under the same point of yiew exhibit the whole of this important affair in a clearer 
 light. A reflection of some importance here suggests itself; it was the boast of Calonne 
 that the several parts of his system for the liquidation of the state-d 
 
 
 
 bt were so well 
 
 connected with each other, that the omission of any one part would destroy the whole, 
 and in this he did not deceive the king. His system was indeed so well comected, and 
 intimately blended 4 that had the notables adopted the whole, the par iaments would have 
 assaulted it in vain: it would haye beena rock against which all their efforts could only 
 have beat with impotent fury. The component parts of the assembly of notables ensured 
 the rejection of this system. The princes 5 the peers , the prelates 5 were not such as were 
 likely to adopt a plan, the first object of which was the sacrifice of the privileges of the 
 nobility. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cardinal de Brienne, archbishop of Sens , succeeding to Calonne , had the title of super- 
 intendantof the finances , and thus the inspection over the comptrollers-general. Lamoignon 
 president of the parliament of Paris, had been previously advanced to the office of keeper 
 of the seals, as successor to Hue Miromesnil. They both united in the same purpose, that 
 
 
 

 
 12 Hist Ou Cai Se Gen UeReB Sey etc, 
 
 of proposing for the support of public credita project which might be supported by public 
 opinion. It must be confessed that their part was not without difficulty : Brienne , who 
 possessed some reputation for ability in political economy, though he had written nothing 
 
 upon the subject, borrowed all the plans of Calonne, and presented them to the parliament. 
 
 The parliament however rejected them, and published its declaration , that the right of 
 imposing new taxes belonged only to the states-general. In a bed of justice held for the 
 
 purpose, the king caused the edicts to be registered, and banished the parliament of 
 
 Paris to Troyes 
 
 The second brother of the king was charged with the office of procuring the same 
 registration at the court of Aids, and departed upon this commission the 17 August 
 
 
 
 I The people, who saw, in this act of royal authority, an infringement of the rights 
 
 of the mz 
 
 
 
 istracy , who at that period enjoyed their fayour, expressed their resentment 
 
 
 
 
 
 in the court of the palace, and but for the numerous guard which attended him, the 
 
 
 
 count d’Artois might haye fallen a victim to this popular insurrection. 
 
 We shall not here enter into a detail of all the effects which were produced by these 
 imprudent acts , and which the government was not in a situation to support. We shall at 
 present content ourse Ives with mentioning the more immediate events which were caused 
 by this contest of the court and parliament. All the efforts of the falling government not 
 only failed of their effect , but concurred to precipitate it with still greater velocity towards 
 its ruin. Such was the projet of the plenary-court and the six greater bailiwicks to limit 
 the power of the parliaments. Brienne and Lamoignon laboured jointly at this great work. 
 Epremesnil , a counsellor of the parliaments of Paris, obtained by a bribe the copy of the 
 edicts , and revealed the secret of the ministers. The parliaments throughout the kingdom 
 united in a common cause. The plenary-court, and the grand bailiwicks vanished : the 
 first fell a victim to the general clamour of the people , the second to the universal 
 resistance of the whole profession of the Law. Brienne abandoned the ministry ,and Necker 
 was his successor in the finances. It was this minister, or rather the concurrence of 
 insuperable difficulties which determined the court to conyoke the states. From thismoment 
 new opposition begot new contest ,and the storm was thus prepat ed, the explosion of which 
 involved every thing ina common ruin. The clouds were already collected, and through 
 the discord of mutual attraction, and mutual repulsion, were already approaching to that 
 encounter , the effect of which was to pervade the world, and rend asunder that sacred 
 
 veil with which the prejudice of ages had concealed the innate deformity of despotism. 
 
 
 
 To front the third Table. 
 CHARLES PHILIP D’ARTOIS COMING OUT OF THE COURT OF AIDS, 
 August 17 1787. 
 
 The count d’Artois in his return from the court of Aids , where he had attended to 
 
 , 
 register the two edicts of the territorial impost ,and the stamp-tax , is pursued by the clamour 
 
 of the people , who seeing , in this act of royal authority, a violence upon a magistracy at 
 
 
 
 
 
 that time in their favour , express their resentment in the court of the palace. 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 K PAR LOUIS XNvt,AU PALAIS, 
 
 
 
 ue 19 Novembre 1-8 
 
 
 

 

 
a a 
 
 
 
 ir Ser Onsen ary Pere TURES 
 oO F 
 THE EPOCHS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 FOURTH PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 
 
 EXTRAORDINARY SITTING HELD BY LOUIS XVI, 
 AT THE PALACE OF JUSTICE, 
 
 IN PARIS NOVEMBER 19, 1787 
 
 7 
 
 "Tur event which is the subject of this tablet , is one of the most important of the reign 
 of Louis XVI; it is one of those which hastened the approach of that revolution, the 
 history of which we here describe. The abuse of the royal authority, which was in 
 some measure made necessary by the disorders of the finances, alienated the minds, and 
 added to the discontent of those who would otherwise have rallied to the support of the 
 monarchy. 
 
 It was in this extraordinary siting that the duke of Orléans first began to grow popular ; 
 but in order to understand the temper of the times, and to pronounce upon the conduct 
 of Louis XVI with candour and circumspection, it is necessary to trace events of a 
 higher period. 
 
 Louis XTV ascended the throne at a time when the civil wars had inflamed the minds 
 of all his subjects , and his reign forms a remarkable epoch in the history of the 
 world: the french lost all thoughts of their own slavery in the lustre of their conquests , 
 in the charms of the fine arts, and in the pleasures which opulence and luxury bestow. 
 Louis XIV was carried away by the love of splendour, and a passion for conquest. 
 It was under his reign that pride and a propensity to expences, succeeded the loyalty 
 and simplicity of our ancestors ; the prodigality of the king and court ruined the nation; 
 but there was a species of grandeur even in this profusion. The national sense of the 
 foibles of Louis XIV were lost in admiration of his greatness — in the remembrance of 
 feudal chains — and horrors of the civil wars. The nation was intoxicated with his 
 success; it was, however, the intoxication of glory, for such is the name which the 
 prejudices of mankind have attached to the barbarous folly of conquest. 
 
 4 
 
 
 

 
 tf HISTORICAL P 
 
 eC Uke ies 
 
 The ambition of giving laws to Europe led him into endless wars ; he forgot that wars 
 
 were only just when they could not be avoided 
 
 The regent appears to have exceeded in audacity 
 
 the one, even in the midst of his foibles had causec 
 
 
 
 saded it in the eyes of Europe. In the stews o 
 
 eg 
 
 * 
 
 whose very name shocks the imagination , * and mac 
 
 he crowned him with the vacant mitre of Fenelon 
 
 
 
 was under his regency that the idea of starving the 
 
 
 
 The support of the armies exhausted 
 
 the treasury, and forty years of false glory were expiated only by such calamitous events 
 as were calculated to humble both the people and the monarch. 
 
 the folly and profusion of Louis XTV: 
 the nation to be respected; the other 
 P yulgar debauchery he sought a man 
 e hima pontiff! canit be believed, that 
 ? He considered the nation but asa fit 
 
 appendage to complete his suite of prostitutes: his government was one continued Reyel. It 
 
 neople was first conceived ; it was that 
 
 pe riod which gave rise to those monopolists whom succeeding monarchs have enrolled 
 
 into a company , and, as the purposes of their tyra 
 active instruments. It was this era that completed 
 mencing at the court, as its source , the stream o 
 channels, and, with the precipitate force of a to 
 
 and deluged the nation. ‘The altars themselves we 
 
 the flood; the sanctity of Priests, the chastity of 
 
 nny required , employed as their most 
 the corruption of public morals : com- 
 * dissolution divided into innumerable 
 rrent, bore every restraint before it, 
 
 re no security against the violence of 
 
 
 
 
 
 women, and patriotism of citizens , 
 
 were all inyolyed ina common ruin. The regent was desirous of averting public bank- 
 ruptey; and Law attacked the disease of the times with his creation of Paper; it is 
 needless to say he wanted the necessary vigour to restore the machine to its original 
 
 sufliciency. 
 
 The disease encreased during the reign of Louis XV; voluptuous , and indolent , he 
 
 at length was wholly surrendered to debauchery ; his harlots made or un-made his 
 
 
 
 generals and ministers; and the state was the common prey of all. The chancellor Maupeou 
 so far forgot all shame and decency that he adopted as his cousin a prostitute of the meanest 
 
 birth. The duke de Choiseuil had subdued the king , and even madam de Pompadour to his 
 
 
 
 ascendency ; madam Dubarri and M.d’Aiguillon leagued against him; the duke de Choiseul 
 was not without talents, and though a courtier , had something of elev ation ofmind; he was 
 dation. 
 
 
 
 expelled the ministry , and the government then reached its lowest point of deg 
 
 The abbey Terray, not having the power of raising money, plundered the nation 
 in the name of the king; his exactions were only less odious than himself. France was 
 thena prey to the despotism of many masters; to the ministers and their subalterns , the 
 
 clei nobility and the lawyers 
 
 F But the nation wearied with such abuse and contempt 
 
 of its sufferings, and indignant at a luxury which grew from its calamities , began to 
 shake off its profound and inveterate lethargy , and awoke from a dream of a thousand 
 
 years ; and the tomb of Louis XV was inscribed with the contempt of that nation which 
 
 
 
 had so long cherished him as an idol. 
 
 He died May 10, 1774. Louis XVI received on the same day the homage of the 
 princes of the blood: a deputation of the parliament went to him at the chateau of 
 Muette, 5" June, 
 
 
 
 to assure him of the devotion of the court of peers. The king, by an 
 edict of the same month , remitted the tax called accession-right, ( joyeux avenement ) and 
 promised to pay the debts contracted by his predecessors. His intentions were just and 
 
 paternal , but he knew not at that time the immense debts of the crown. On the 
 
 
 
 * Cardinal Dubois. 
 
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. t 
 
 twelfth of November , the same year he re-established in their functions the magistrates 
 who composed the parliament of Paris before the wra of 1771. The same change was 
 made the following year in the parliaments of the provinces, and the great courts 
 of the ancient magistracy. November 12, 1776, the king held a bed of justice at 
 Versailles , in which he enregistered the edict for suppressing the corvée , and that 
 of purveyance for the high ways; and converted this tax, which fell upon the 
 poorest classes , into a pecuniary impost, charged without distinction upon all the 
 people. The execution of this law excited a universal appeal from the superior courts , 
 who claimed an exemption from all taxes : the clamour was so great, that Louis XVI 
 was compelled to withdraw an edict, so truly just , by a declaration of the ri 
 August, following, and registered in parliament the 19" of the same month. At that 
 period the monarch was known only by acts of justice and benevolence ; whilst the 
 
 5 
 
 superior courts alone opposed the execution of his good intentions. The revolution 
 which punished such men can never be too much applauded. In following the course 
 of this reign to the states-general of 1789, we shall every where find the courts persisting 
 in a conduct no less culpable than imprudent: but let us resume the thread of our 
 narrative. 
 
 
 
 War was not openly declared between France and England till in the beginning of 
 1778; butarupture was unavoidable. Captain Tronjoly , commander of le brillant, a ship 
 of the line, had been attacked in the month of April, by two english frigates and 
 had beat them off: England had taken Pondichery 
 
 and seized the property of many 
 French merchants. The cabinet of S 
 
 . James justified itself on the score of France 
 
 
 
 
 
 haying assisted the american revolters. 
 
 Silas Dean was then residing at Paris, as envoy from the congress of Philadelphia ; 
 but the court of Versailles did not openly acknowledge him. Doctor Franklin arrived in 
 France with the secret intention of supporting the rights of the Colonies — rights, which 
 
 
 
 had not yet been recognized in their metropolis. He appeared to all men a worthy citizen, 
 overwhelmed with the misfortunes of his country , and seeking a peaceful asylum 
 in which he might deplore them in safety. He lived in Paris with philosophic dignity , and 
 in all the simplicity of a patriarch : he excited a lively interest ; but the french court , 
 far from treating him as a man invested with a public charge , in compliance with the 
 representations of lord Stormont, the english ambassador, had laid a heavy restraint upon 
 the commerce of the Americans in the ports of France , which , any wise permitted , 
 had been the subject of loud complaint on the part of England , and who, at that very 
 time had dared to insult french merchant-men, insight of their own coast. 
 
 Louis XVI, exempt from ambition, and conyinced that a war even though successful , 
 would present an invincible obstacle to the restoration of the finances , declared hostilities 
 with repugnance , and embraced with reluctance the cause of the Americans. But the 
 greatness of their cause of contest spread an enthusiasm of admiration throughout the 
 nation. The reyolters, whose affairs carried them to France , were received with over- 
 flowing affection; the openness, the simplicity of their manners won upon the confidence 
 of the French , and every thing was offered them which the subsisting treaties between 
 France and England could admit. They were supplied with the necessaries of war , 
 arms , ammunition, expert Engineers, and officers of approved talents and high reputation 
 to discipline their own less experienced and newly levied soldiery. At length , France 
 openly acknowledged the independance of America, and the consequence was immediate war 
 with England: incredible was the influence of this transaction upon the french revolution, 
 
 
 

 
 16 HISTORICAL PICTURES, ete. 
 
 The death of M. de Vergennes, happening at a time when the first Symptoms of 
 dissolution appeared in the machine of government , charged the king with an office the 
 most difficult, for he left it in the most critical state. The council of the king was 
 composed of Tonnelier de Breteuil , minister of Paris; Montmorin, minister of foreign affairs; 
 Lomenie , minister of war; Luzerne, minister of the marine; and Calonne, minister of the 
 finances : Hue Miromesnil was entrusted with the seals. During the four years in which 
 Calonne had succeded d’Ormesson , the disorder of the finances had rapidly increased ; 
 nevertheless , by different and secret methods , the taxes had been augmented more than 
 
 a hundred millions , and were raised to 560 millions; but the expences still exceeded 
 
 
 
 the receipts by a hundred and ten millions at the end of 17 The ministers could no 
 
 
 
 
 
 longer obtain loans ; they were conyinced that there was no resource for the government 
 but in a new distribution of taxes , without any augmentation , which had now become 
 
 impossible. 
 
 To attain this object M. de Calonne only augmented the number of provincial assem- 
 blies, for this was an idea of Turgot, but in their composition , he gave the commons the 
 principal influence , which might be the means of showing them the way to equalize the 
 
 taxes , and provide that the burthen should fall upon the nobles as well as on themselves. 
 
 It was feared , and the event has justified the apprehension, that the parliaments would 
 oppose this innovation, and which was the true cause of conyoking the notables, who 
 were to discuss matters of the utmost importance — and many of whom were already in 
 public favour. It was proposed to grant an equality of rights, to non-catholics as well as 
 catholics. The stamp-tax, and the suppression of the taille, replaced by the territorial 
 
 aid , charged upon all property , as well on that of the lord as of his vassal. 
 
 The parliament rejected the territorial impost and the edict for stamps: they were 
 enregistered in the bed of justice , but the provincial parliaments , without exception , 
 refused them. The parliament of Paris was banished to Troyes. The king declared that 
 he would conyoke the States - general, but as if desirous to elude this promise , he 
 commanded the creation of successive loans to the amount of four hundred and tw enty 
 millions for five years. The parliament of Paris was recalled, after having promised to 
 enregister the loans in the royal sitting. It was this that gave rise to the extraordinary 
 sitting , the subject of this tablet. When Louis XVI had pronounced the order of regis- 
 tration , the duke of Orleans rose, and demanded of the king, if he then held a bed of 
 
 5> 
 
 
 
 justice or a royal sitting? hewas answered a royal sitting : he then protested against the 
 
 registration as illegal : he was banished to his own estate , and the vengeance which he 
 
 
 
 
 
 vowed on the occasion was what induced him to form that yast and powerful faction 
 
 
 
 which deluged France with blood , and disgraced that zra of the revolution. 
 
 
 
 To front the fourth Table. 
 
 EXTRAORDI 
 
 
 
 ARY SITTING HELD BY LOUIS XVI AT THE PALACE, 
 November 19, 1787 
 
 The king requires the enregistering of an edict for creating a loan for five years: 
 when he had pronounced the order of registration , the duke of Orleans rose , and 
 demanded of the king , if he held a bed of justice or a royal sitting ? on being answered 
 a royal sitting, he protested agasint the registration as illegal. 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kt GOISLARD,O 
 
 
 
 
 | Sac Cle (i Ge. 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 rs 
 
 HISTORLIGAL PICTURES 
 
 THE EPOCHS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 FIFTH PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 
 
 ARRESTATION OF D’EPREMESNIL AND GOISLARD, COUNSELLORS 
 OF THE PARLIAMENT OF PARIS , 
 
 MAY 6, 1788, 
 
 Tus subject of this plate, on several 
 
 It belongs to the first events of the revolution, and as it is one of its causes » May serve 
 in a great measure as a clue to the rest. 
 
 accounts , deserves the notice of the historian. 
 
 Tt will equally interest the pl 
 
 hilosopher and the observer , by its political connection, 
 as just hinted, or byt 
 
 1e singular contrasts , and curious anecdotes in the life of ’@E 
 aman who used so many efforts to obtain celebrit 
 means of immortalizing himself , 
 
 premesnil; 
 y, and who in reality had abundant 
 had he been firm and undeviating in his political career. 
 In considering him as an author and a magistrate 
 
 , it will not for a moment be disputed 
 that he had great ta 
 
 ents and much knowledge : he attracted public attention , and well 
 isputes between the parliaments and ministers. And it must also be 
 isplayed an energy of character in circumstances of the greatest 
 : it was then his voice thundered against the abuses of authority. 
 Far from being intimidated by ministerial venge 
 
 deserved it, in the ¢ 
 observed, that he ¢ 
 difficulty and dange 
 
 
 
 ance, he faced every danger for the 
 love of liberty , and joined his courage to those who dared to defend it. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Banishment , which was the reward of his virtuous conduct , was to him a glorious 
 triumph, and till then he justly deserved it : he rejoiced therefore at being a victim in so 
 goodacause. Thus, when he was afterwards recalled from his exile, all the towns tl 
 
 ° 
 
 1rough 
 
 
 

 
 18 igi 1S) DE Op RT Gp Ay Ty 12 th ©) Wy BS 
 
 which he passed on his return to Paris, gave him the most honorable and flattering 
 
 reception. 
 
 This first view of the political life of d’Epremesnil would encourage us to hope , that in 
 becoming a member of the States-general of 17809 , liberty would find in him one of her 
 most ardent defenders ; nevertheless, by a fatality which cannot be explained , but by 
 attributing it to those base and fluctuating passions , to vanity, or self-interest, he appeared 
 on a sudden one of the warmest partisans of despotism , and liberty had no enemy more 
 decided than himself, at the same time none more impotent. It is necessary to observe 
 that he had not published at that time any of those discourses, in which we may 
 discover those talents of oratory , and that vehemence of eloquence , W hich were admired 
 
 in him during the first commotions of the state. 
 
 
 
 Before we retrace his conduct during the constituent assembly , we shall ascend to the 
 
 first circumstances which made him known. 
 
 Jacques Duval d'Epremesnil was a native of Pondichery, and had an uncle in India 
 much distinguished in the affair of general Lally , who was condemned to death on 
 
 the charge of treason against his country. The efforts of the son of that general , before 
 
 
 
 the late parliament of Rouen, in order to wipe out the stain from his father’s memory , 
 are not forgotten. ‘Two champions mounted on the stage and prepared for combat: on 
 one side appeared the son of the unfortunate general who perished on the scaffold; on 
 
 the other the nephew of the man who had called down the vengeance of his country 
 
 
 
 upon the unhappy victim, ‘The situation of the two combattants inte rested the public 
 differently; the first had the best cause to defend, fiilial piety re presented him in a 
 view which seized upon the hearts and feelings of all , and the impression he made 
 surpassed the effects of the best oratory. But the case of the second , d’Epremesnil , was 
 less interesting ; he had to repel the calumnies which were thrown upon the memory of 
 his uncle , who was the aceuser of Lally , and who had brought a general officier to the 
 sealfold. It certainly required great talents to lessen the odium of such conduct, and 
 d Epremesnil collected all the vigour of his mind, and all the powers of eloquence in the 
 defence of his cause: he painted Lally as a traitor to the country which adopted him, as 
 arice : the frightful 
 
 
 
 stained with unexampled cruelties ,and devoured by insatiable a 
 picture which he drew of his conduct in India excited the detestation of his auditors : 
 
 
 
 But wheu they heard Lally-Tolendal enter upon the justification of his father with the 
 
 most ravishing eloquence , the accents of nature , and feelings the most acutely sensible , 
 
 
 
 their prayers were again offered up for his success, so true it is, that whatever bears 
 the mark of honorable sentiments excites the most lively impression in feeling souls. 
 
 Although , on many accounts , this contest was unequal , it convinced the world of the 
 talents of d’Epremesnil : from that time he was admitted to the rank of the most 
 distinguished magistrates ; nothing of importance was transacted in the parliament of 
 Paris in which ne was not principally concerned , and he laboured incessantly in opposing 
 
 the court and its acts of authority. 
 
 The eyents which took place upon the registration of many of the obnoxious edicts 
 are already known, but we must here recall some of the circumstances to enable us 
 
 to judge what d’Epremesnil was , and what he afterwards became. 
 
 
 
 The remembrance of the disastrous epochs of the ministry of the archbishop of Sens 
 I : I > 
 
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 19 
 
 Brienne , and his confederacy with Lamoignon, the keeper of the seals , will never be 
 forgotten by frenchmen; they will recollect with horror the efforts of these two parti- 
 sans of the throne to rivet the chains of slavery upon a nation which had groaned under 
 them through such a series of ages. With this view they established a private press at 
 versailles ,from which proceeded all the projects esteemed necessary to the success of 
 their machiayilian cause. D’Epremesnil was most active in discovering the plots of these 
 ministers, as well as of those who were accessaries in their projects, and in spite of the 
 mysteriousness with which Brienne and Lamoignon carried on their operations , and 
 the military foree which was employed to intimidate , he gradually came to the knowledge 
 of their secret, and, in one of the assemblies of the chambers of the late parliament , 
 he tore away the yeil, and showed the deep abyss into which the court was about to 
 plunge the nation. « Let us all swear , he exclaimed, adressing himself to his colleagues, 
 « to reject every thing which bears the stamp of these ministerial presses , and perish 
 « rather than suffer their execution ». 
 
 This oath was pronounced by all the members of the parliament ; and in order to excite 
 a storm, they decreed that the assembly of the chambers should be permanent. ‘This 
 conduct alarmed the two ministers , in their rage they resolved to make an example. A 
 lettre de cachet was issued against d’Epremesnil , and another magistrate , Goislard , w ho had 
 exposed their vexations and misconduct in the receipt of the vingtiemes. Their satellites 
 were sent to arrest the two counsellors, and to conduct them by order of the court, 
 d'Epremesnil to St. Marguerite , and Goislard to the chateau of Pierre in Cise at Lyons, 
 The arrest was executed in the following manner : they first tried to seize them at their 
 own houses, or in those they were known to frequent in Paris; but missing them there , 
 they repaired to the palace , where they had taken refuge , and where the parliament 
 declared them under the protection of the law. The chambers were then assembled and 
 they sent a deputation to Versailles. The day was past in yain expectation; the ministers, 
 perceiving that the parliament remained assembled , and braved their authority , had 
 recourse to violence. At midnight several battalions in arms , preceded by their pioneers , 
 with axes mounted, advanced towards the palace ; their commander d’Agoust , entered 
 the great chamber, and demanded the surrender of the two victims marked out by the 
 court: « We are all d’Epremesnil and Goislard , answer d the magistrates ». At length 
 about five in the morning these two counsellors , in order to preyent violence , delivered 
 
 
 
 nemeslyes into the hands of the satellites of despotism. 
 
 This firm and courageous conduct endeared d’Epremesnil to all the friends of liberty. 
 During his exile his name was mentioned with every wish that was expressed for the 
 ownfall of tyranny , and it must be confessed appearances were in his favour. It is 
 
 only in his subsequent conduct that we sec he was more the enemy of the ministers than 
 
 
 
 the friend of the people; and that his attack upon them was in order to fix the attention 
 ofthe court , and thus pave the way to his own power: a plan which frequently succeeds 
 with the opposition members in the parliament of England. These remarks are sufficient 
 for us to form an opinion upon this epoch of his life. 
 
 We have considered d’Epremesnil as an orator and a magistrate ; and we must now 
 recount his conduct as a deputy to the first constituant assembly. 
 
 Till then he had vigorously opposed every excess of power , but , from the first day of 
 his appearance in the national assembly , it was perceived that his principles were changed, 
 
 
 

 
 20 BES TORUG AL PTE WT wim wy S, ete. 
 
 or rather that in the bottom of his heart he had alw ays been a partisan of despotism. The 
 motion which he made at the end of the session of the constituant assembly will be long 
 remembered ; it had for its object the se nding of a deputation to the court , to implore , 
 in effect , pardon of the king for their atte mpts to weaken his authority. Sihea then he 
 never ceased to be the champion of the counter-reyolutionists; he often mixed in their 
 groups and made the most se ditious proposals , during the sitting of the legislative assembly. 
 He was perceived in one of these groups, out of which he was drageed in a violent 
 
 
 
 manner , and covered with wounds. He was rescued only by being conducted to the 
 prison of the Abbaye, from which he was released in a few days. 
 
 D'Epremesnil, seeing himself the object of public hatred, retired to an estate which 
 le possessed in the commune of havre. His name was too famous, not to su yjyect him to 
 
 the law passed against the suspected: he was arrested, and conducted to one of the 
 
 
 
 srisons of Paris, where he was detained until the month of May 1793,and then carried 
 to the revolutionary tribunal with Thouret and ( Jhapelier. The stre ingeness of his destiny 
 is worthy remark, when we behold him in the same prison with Chapelier his zealous 
 
 antagonist , during the constituant assembly. By a sequel of that destiny which had 
 
 ritherto comprehe ended both in one common calamity through all its gradations, they 
 
 
 
 ound themselyes placed side by side in the same cart, « wah of us, saic Chapelier, 
 as they were getting up, will the people hoot at now? « At both, replied d Epremesnil, 
 and he was perfectly right. 
 
 
 
 Thus perished d’Epremesnil, at the age of 48, after having first acted a brilliant 
 and concluding by a conduct 
 
 
 
 character, and afterwards its most ridiculous contrast 3 
 worse than imprudent ; changing all at once the principles that directe al his career, and 
 
 showing himself one of the most decided enemies of the revolution , without any déore e 
 
 
 
 
 
 of care, or any hope of success. We may hence conclude, that he had one of those 
 heated imaginations which generally bewilder and lead to excess, and terminate in the 
 
 ruin of those who are thus unhappily organized. 
 
 
 
 Inscription under the plate. 
 ARRESTATION OF DEPREMESNIL AND GOISLARD : 
 
 May 8, 178. 
 The counsellor d’Epremesnil having discovered the project of the edict of cardinal de 
 Lomenie, conce rning the plenary-court , and havi ing denounced it to the parliament who 
 annulled it by the pee decree of the 3 May, was arrested by Vincent d \goust 
 with his colleague Goislard , and conducted by order of the court, the former to one 
 of the isles of St. Marguerite, the latter to the chateau of Pierre ie Cise. 
 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 
 Hi Se O het Ceaels PCT ORES 
 OF 
 THE EPOCHS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 SIXTH PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 
 
 BURNING OF THE CORPS DE GARDE UPON THE PONT-NEUF , 
 AT PARIS 
 
 AUGUST a9, 1788. 
 
 W E must ascend to an early period in tracing the cause of this insurrectional event. 
 
 Before the french had succeeded in throwing off the yoke which long habit had taught 
 them to idolize 5 the 2y had passed through every gradation of Oppression. For whee 
 indeed do the annals of the french monarchy present to the attentive reader of its 
 history, but a long succession, a melancholy series of public calamities, from the 
 Increasing power on despotism, ‘ont the proc ligality of the government ? ‘The kingdom 
 changed masters ; but administration and ministers neither changed principles nor 
 method : > momentary success , and long disasters ; ruinous measures adopted ; or 
 wise plans abandoned on the slightest pretext; such is the summary of its gloomy 
 history. 
 
 Clovis , notwithstanding his great qualities , was a tyrant and a barbarian. THis 
 descendants had merely the shadow of power; for the sce ptre in reality was in the hands 
 of the mayors of the palace. Among these mayors Pepin became distinguished , who 
 availing himself of the nullity of the king , and the dreadful anarchy into which the 
 nation was plunged , easily seized a crown which seemed to be long to any one who was 
 bold enough to lay hands on it. The re igning family , and not the Reape , suffered from 
 this vaoneluiiava , which transfered the throne to Pepin the father of Charles Martel , and 
 the grand-father of Charlemagne. It was in fact indifferent to the people whether they 
 
 were governed by the powerful mayors under nominal kings, or by the mayors under a 
 new dynasty , as Baie in their own person. 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 

 
 9. HisTUORI Calan PIiGr Un Es 
 
 Charlemagne established a government which had but one defect, that of the mixture 
 of two powers, the civiland military , which should ever be kept asunder. This confusion 
 existed till the final ruin of the feudal government , that is to say , till the ministry of 
 
 cardinal Richelieu. 
 
 The successors of Charlemagne suffered the nobility to govern on the ruins of roya 
 power; and it may easily be conceived that the nation was then more oppressed , anc 
 more wretched in eyery point of view. The few good laws still existing soon disappearec 
 amidst the wantonness of so many different despots; the people were held in bondage 
 by 
 
 a multitude of laws equally barbarous and absurd: such was the feudal government 
 
 yin hac 
 
 Hugh Capet seized the throne from the descendants of Charlemagne , as Pe 
 usurped it from those of Clovis; but there was little harmony between the king and his 
 
 greater vassals for the purposes of government; for every baron considered himself as 
 
 
 
 absolute upon his own territories. ‘Two laws of the ancient constitution however stil 
 
 continued , that of the gene ral homage due to the king , and that of making a fina appea 
 
 
 
 
 
 to the monarch in person. These two laws drew after them the whole fc udal system ; 0 
 
 
 
 such consequence is that imprudence , which upon felling the trunk has the weakness to 
 
 > 
 leave the sprouts 
 
 The minister Suger first taught Louis the wise lesson , that the fewer slaves he could 
 reckon, the more subjects he might boast; and that he should consider himself as | ing of 
 France, and not of this or that order of citizens. He persuaded him to establish the 
 communes, and emancipate the inhabitants of the cities, as the only effectual barrier 
 against the power of the nobles, now become the rivals of the throne , Louis le Gros 
 gave the serfs of his domains the rights of burgage tenure, and the priv ileve of el cting 
 mayors and sheriffs. By slow degrees the municipal government of cities was introduced. 
 Under Philip Augustus France resumed its rank among nations , for the first time since 
 
 Charlemagne , a rank it ought never to have lost. 
 
 St. Louis may be justly represented upon the throne, between justice and wisdom. 
 The principles of the government were as yet unempoisoned by the infusion of that 
 italian policy which Charles VII] introduced. 
 
 Philip le Bel, a dissipated prince , in order to obtain money to supply his necessities , 
 introduced the expedient of conyoking the states-general. Indeed , to confess the truth, 
 
 of 
 
 till the memorable 
 
 
 
 89, the states were seldom convyoked for any other 
 
 
 
 purpose. 
 
 Louis, surnamed le Hutin, will be for ever celebrated in french history for having 
 passed that memorable law by which he declared, that nature having made all men free , 
 and his kingdom being called the kingdom of franks, they should be in reality what 
 they were in name. 
 
 Under Philip de Valois arose the rival claims to the throne of two princes, each 
 supported by the salique law. The true sense of that law has been long determined. But 
 Edward the third seized every opportunity of gratifying his revenge: hence began 
 the fatal rivality between France and England, and which caused six hundred years of 
 
 
 
 murder and pillage. The government was nearly the same under Charles the wise; but 
 
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 20 
 
 the derangement of Charles VI plunged the state into all the horrors of intestine wars, 
 and France was deluged in blood. 
 
 Louis XT, Richelieu, and Louis XTV demonstrated that nobles are not a sufficient 
 barrier against the designs of despotism; and the people were again the victims of new 
 struggles ihe ‘tween kings and lords. Louis XI reigned with as much ferocity as nero, 
 and died as miserable as that emperor, or Charles IX: thus should all tyrants perish! 
 
 
 
 Jnder Frangois I, the restoration of the arts and sciences introduced a spirit of lite- 
 rature , which gave Init to that of philosophy, and to which succeeded a spirit of 
 legislation. But we only consider here whatever may be connected with the state of 
 the nation under each reign, or at least at eve 
 
 
 
 ‘y remarkable period. 
 
 France was then in a most wretched state, both from waste and civil wars; and the 
 still more deplorable reigns which followed that of Francois 1, until the death of 
 Louis XIV, present nothing but shocking examples of the evils that spring from the 
 ambition of the great , and the 1 rage of superstition. It was under Francois I , and 
 
 Henry his successor that those civil wars began which desolated the kingdom, until 
 the reign of Henry IV. 
 
 From the reunion of the great fiefs of the crown, the feudal government no longer 
 existed, or at least had ceased to be dangerous. But if the barons were no longer a species 
 of sovereig¢ 
 
 
 
 is , they were nevertheless too powerful. They gave rise to the league, and 
 that long war , in which one half of France destroyed the other; in which we behold 
 a king *, ferocious by instinct, and in the flower of his age, at the voice of a queen 
 equally barbarous ** , murdering in one night a hundred thousand of his subjects ! 
 
 
 
 Sully, under Henry TV , resisted the insatiable avidity of the nobles, and the victories of 
 his master paved the way for theirruin. Richelieu under Louis XII completely humbled 
 their power. The government became firm and vigorous , but still despotic ; this was 
 to the nation no more than a chang; 
 
 
 
 of masters , and a source of oppression of another 
 kind. From that time we date "he commencement of ministerial despotism , the most 
 burdensome , and perhaps, the most fatal of any; this it was that caused so many wars 
 and the final destruction of the finance 
 
 s; this it was , which by violent acts of author ity 
 hastened the revolution , and in that the ruin of the throne. The event , which this plate 
 represents , is a proof of what we have just affirmed : we perceive in it the manner in which 
 the ministers sported with the lives of the citizens. France was deprived for five months of 
 her tribunals and magistrates. The terror of the public force still withheld the people of 
 Paris; but the imprudenc e, and cruelty of the ministers ,in whose department the city was, 
 and the violence of the commander of the watch , removed the last restraint which was 
 opposed to their power, in making the day of a patriotic festival the scene of blood and 
 carnage. The youths of the capital had asked permission of the lieutenant of the police 
 to express public marks of joy, which they felt upon the dismission of Brienne and 
 Lamoignon ; they assembled at the place Dauphine , and paraded with a figure repre- 
 senting one of the disgraced ministers , Brienne , which they burnt with certain cere- 
 monies. They attempted to assemble next day , but the cheyalier Dubois, commander of 
 the watch , opposed their mecting: he ordered an attack upon the people , and to fire 
 upon all that presented themselves. M any were wounded and a few lost their lives. The 
 
 
 
 
 
 * Charles IX. 
 ** Catherine de Medicis, 
 
 
 

 
 > TEE ILS) AW (Oy 1k ih <6 IN TE, 2 EG WFR YE Sis etc 
 
 > 
 people rallied , disarmed and stript the soldiers , burnt their regimentals ; and , with 
 sentiments of commiseration which did them honour, sent them home in safety. It may be 
 
 seen by this that the people are never ferocious, but when headed by wicked men 
 
 This crime could only be supported by a still greater: the provoked youths entering the 
 
 place de Greve , where some of the troops were post d,and whom the night concealed 4 
 
 were attacked by redoubled charges zs and many were left dead on the ground. 
 
 The retreat of M. de Lamoignon led to the re-commencement of the same scenes. 
 Two bodies of troops entered at the same time by the two extremities of St. Denis street 
 
 and made a horrible slaughter. A similar massacre took place in Meélée-street where 
 
 
 
 the chevalier Dubois lived. He was ordered before the parliament , the major appeared 
 
 
 
 in his name, and presented an order from superior authority. ‘The parliament decreed 
 
 an information against the authors of the massacre ; but under the pretext of prudence, 
 
 
 
 which could not justi ‘y the weakness of the mag istrates, they did not prosecute their 
 
 
 
 decree. It was thus thata mad government accustomed the people torevenge themselves 
 for want of laws, taking blood for blood. The french guards reflected upon the cruel 
 orders that they had been forced to execute ; they felt that their oath engaged them to 
 defend the country , and not to oppress it. 
 
 Tt was another dispute of the same nature , between the people and the horse patrole , 
 
 
 
 s de garde on the new bridge. The people were 
 
 
 
 which produced the burning of the 
 resolyed to revenge themselves for the cruelty with which the patrole had fired upon the 
 crowds of harmless passengers , from the mere wantonness of petty power. They 
 proceeded to burn in efligy the person of the chevalier Dubois, the commander of that 
 guard, together with those of the ministers Brieme and Lamoignon, and formed their pile 
 
 for this purpose with the centry-boxes of the watch, and the coops of the poulterer Sh 
 
 From this moment commenced the war between the people and their governors 5 
 and from that day the former knew their force , and the latter had a presentiment of 
 those terrible periods which have annihilated the ministers and their power, the monarch 
 
 and the monarchy. The burning of the corps de garde set fire to that train which in a 
 
 
 
 short time was to destroy those who imprudently excited popular fury. They prepared 
 
 
 
 with their own hands, the bolts that fell upon their heads,and they might have considered 
 the first insurrection, of the people like the roaring of the troubled waves, which portend 
 
 to the terrified pilot, the tempest , shipwreck and death 
 
 
 
 Picture. 
 BURNING OF THE CORPS DE GARDE UPON THE PONT-NEUF. 
 August 29 , 1788. 
 
 This burning was occasioned by a dispute between the people, and the horse and foot 
 
 
 
 watch, who had imprudently charged upon the foot-paths in the different streets. The 
 
 sde garde. The persons of Brienne 
 
 
 
 people revenged themselves by setting fire to the cor 
 and Lamoignon were burned in effigy , anda pile was formed for this purpose , with the 
 
 centry-boxes of the watch and the coops of the poulterers. 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 RASS (BL \ “id | SUR [4 PON’ NEC 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 HISTORICAL PICTURES 
 
 THE EPOCHS 
 
 Oo fF 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 SEVENTH PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 
 
 THE PEOPLE COMPEL ALL WHO PASS OVER THE PONT-NEUF 
 TO SALUTE THE STATUE OF HENRY IY. 
 
 SEPTEMBER 16, 1788, 
 
 mm 
 I 1s plate presents one of the grandest lessons which history can offer to governments. 
 
 1ould any one demand ,in what circumstances the people of Paris assembled on the Pont- 
 
 kings, this would be the answer: it was at the eve of that tremenduous revolution which 
 abolished monarchy in France , and in that place destroyed that very statue, where it 
 had so lately been an object of veneration. In fine , it was at a period when the finances 
 
 were ruined , and the powers of despotism swelled to an intolerable height; when the 
 
 »xile of the parliaments, and the commencement of disorders of every kind , rendered 
 the yoke still heayier upon the people , and iinished in alienating and exasperating their 
 
 
 
 the people to their governors: « Authority is committed to you for the good of those whom 
 
 
 
 «you call subjects; the people are just , and will be your willing support, so long 
 «as you deserve their love: but if you abandon them, they will abandon you. » ‘This 
 great and important truth is the basis of that veneration w hich the people entertained for 
 the memory of Henry LV, w lich no vicissitudes of time, no revolutions of government 
 will ever diminish. But to place this truth in a clearer light, and render it yet more 
 instructive, we shall proceed further to develop, and strengthen it by the incontes- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 table facts which the history of nations records , and particularly that of the french 
 
 government. 
 
 Se) 
 
 Ss 
 Neuf , compelling the passengers to fall on their knees before the statue of the best of 
 
 minds. Such were the sentiments of the times; and such appeared to be the language of 
 
 
 

 
 6 Heo. Orn foe ie ee ie lee ens 
 
 Did not the tyranny of the Arabians excite the spaniards to shake off the yoke? did 
 not the yexatious oppressions of Philipp IH, give to Holland her liberty? would not the 
 swedes have languished in the mines of Dalecarlia , if the kings of Denmark had not 
 
 imprudently displayed the standard of arbitrary power ? was it not in the bosom of 
 slavery that the swiss recovered their freedom? or would America ever have rebelled 
 but for the oppression of the mother country? Thus because Frenchmen were oppressed , 
 vexed, and pillaged in a thousand different ways ,and with an insolence of scorn without 
 example, they sprung up , like a giant from his sleep , for the recovery of their long 
 lost rights. The peopl most distinguishe d for their loyalty have thrown off their yoke, 
 given to despotism its 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 and broken their chains with the most furious impetuosity , and 
 
 
 
 
 
 most irrecoyerable blow. The history of this ancient government is inseparably connected 
 
 
 
 
 
 with that of the reyolution which has destroyed it. 
 
 It is necessary for posterity to know what was the fate of the nation for near fourteen 
 hundred years; it thus becomes essential to follow despotism through its long course ; 
 
 and the history of the French revolution must thus ascend to the first era of the 
 
 monarchy. 
 
 The most ancient states were those in 499, which Clovis assembled for the esta- 
 blishment of christianity; whatever related to the government was there discussed, but 
 the great barons and the bishops alone were summoned to these states. The people , in 
 
 which term we comprehend the immense majority of the nation, was reckoned as 
 
 
 
 nothing. Clotaire If held a species of parliament, or moveable assemblies , sole master 
 of the monarchy ; after the civil wars which had taken place under the Children of 
 ( lovis, it was he that gave to the government that despotic character and di trous 
 tendency , which hastened the ruin of the first race. The usurper of the inheritance 
 
 
 
 of his nephe ws , and the murderer of a queen at that time celebrated, * he beheld 
 increase of authority in the mayors of the palace, whom he had made his accomplices , 
 and was obli 
 but the shadow of royalty , and the people still enslaved , oppressed and degraded , 
 suffered the yoke though under different masters. In these unhappy times, and under 
 
 these ignominious reigns, man was debased , as well as the ground he trod upon. Such 
 
 dto suffer and grant every thing. ‘The descendants of Cloyis soon possessed 
 
 
 
 
 
 was the commencement of that feudal government , which we shall often haye occasion 
 to remark in the sequel. France had never any written constitution , a military 
 democracy was transformed into an aristocracy ; the kings drew from the people all 
 authority to themselyes , and the aristocracy was changed into absolute and arbitrary 
 
 monarchy. 
 
 Charlemagne who eclipsed Pepin and Charles Martel, before whom the glory even of 
 
 Louis XIV fades, showed himself worthy of the throne by restoring tranquility to his 
 
 states , and enriching them with elory , justice , and happiness , notwithstanding hi 
 numberless wars. He gave almost wholly to the nation the legislative power , 
 
 which is in fact the right and authority to compel men to be just, and to obey those 
 laws which provide for their security , and protect their property. The people for the 
 first time partook of this power , but did not as yet forma separate order of the state 
 
 The sons of Charlemagne were equally weak, cruel , and unjust. France was oppressed 
 
 
 
 by them ; and Charles the Bald , who succeeded them, gave the last blow to the authority 
 
 
 

 
 OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 
 
 of the government , for to extreme weakness he joined the most bare faced injustice , he 
 
 
 
 was in fact a second Clotaire. The nobles raised themselves upon the wreck of the royal 
 authority , and the nation was only the more to be pitied on that account. By new 
 crimes the state was plunged into new misfortunes. At length the sceptre of Char emagne 
 escaped his descendant, and passed into the hands of Hugh Capet, one of the most 
 powerful vassals of the crown; and the nation saw the change of the dynasty with as 
 much indifference , as it beheld the sceptre ravished from the last branch of the first 
 race: for being constantly trodden upon and disregarded , it was of little cons 
 
 
 
 equence 
 whether it were enslaved by one master or another. The people , indeed, rather flattered 
 themselves with hopes of benefit from a change , and wearied by frequent disappoint- 
 ment , at length abandoned themselves to despair. 
 
 
 
 The public spirit of the nation disappeared in the midst of such oppressions, followed 
 by such deplorable weakness. The people were enslaved to customs no less barbarous 
 than ridiculous , in proportion as their governors were more or less capricious , or more 
 or less tyrannical. ‘This is the kind of government which is called feudal. ‘The states- 
 general were varied according to the prevailing spirit of the age,and t 
 
 he reign, in which 
 they were convoked. Under the first race the military composed the 
 
 m, and the church 
 predominated under the second. Clovis consulted and governed the army, to which he 
 
 owed his conquests; Pepin the priest-hood , to whom he was indebted for his usurpation 
 and Philip the handsome supported himself by a new prop in the parliaments. 
 
 A new order of things commenced under lugh Capet, or rather the destruction of 
 
 all public order. The nation became a prey to a band of feudal lords , who oppressed 
 
 
 
 it in yarious manners ; the weakness of these little despots attached them to those of 
 
 higher authority ; such was the origin of mesne fees and yassallage. Thus the people bore 
 the weight of the different powers , Hugh Capet and his successors assembled the nation 
 no longer : there were but two orders , the clergy and nobles. 
 
 Under Louis le Gros as we have before had occasion to remark , the government 
 of municipal towns and boroughs was revived, the most paternal of all governments 
 The lords who in the time of the crusades had need of money for their voyages , sold 
 certain privileges to their vassals; thus the crusades produced some liberty to the people. 
 ‘The reign of Philip the August is one of the principal epochs of the monarchy. France 
 revived and re-ascended to the rank of a powerful state, a rank which she had lost 
 from the time of Charlemagne. Louis IX, or St. Louis was still greater than his father 
 Philip , he added power to wisdom and legislative justice : but it was not till the reign 
 
 
 
 
 
 of Philip the handsome that the people formed an order of the state: it was under his 
 
 
 
 reign, in 1314, that the imposts were granted by the three orders. The fiefs had by 
 degrees become hereditary , nevertheless , Louis XI, Richelieu and Louis XIV ; have 
 proved that the power of the nobility may be restrained though not without difficulty 
 and a long struggle. The government was nearly the same under Charles the wise: but the 
 
 reign of Charles the sixth , whose insanity caused a long minority, plunged the nation 
 
 
 
 into all those miseries which arise from the dissention of princes , the ambition of the 
 eat , and the incapacity of the soverei 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 The throne under Louis XT seemed the very nursery of crimes. Never was there 
 a prince more weak and ferocious , more barbarous and superstitious. Neyer were a 
 people more enslaved and debased than under that tyrant. The reign of Fra 
 
 
 
 igois I 
 
 
 
HiSTORTCAL POU BES. ee 
 
 hough distantly , the regeneration of the french , the States-general assembled 
 
 28 
 
 prepared , t 
 at Tours ,at length consecrated the trust of public liberty: they were the most memorable 
 
 of any before those of 1789 
 
 The deplorable reigns which followed that of Francois I, and even the latter years of 
 Louis XIV, present us with a uniform spectac le of misery, produced by ambition and 
 fanaticism. ‘The civil wars had almost destroyed the kingdom till the reign of Henri 1V : 
 Sully applied a remedy to the wounds of the state; Richelieu followed him, and destroyed 
 
 the power of the nobles — then commenced the age of Louis XIV. 
 
 Thus we haye run over times of oppression, civil discord , desolation and carnage - 
 during which the voice of the nation was not heard. Under Louis XLV, France was 
 not less enslaved, but however it was quite another administration. 
 better preserved at home, nor war more vigorously pursued abroad ; whilst commerce 
 ection which had neyer been 
 
 Peace was never 
 
 enriched the nation , and the arts attained a splendor of per 
 
 equalled. But ministerial despotism had neyer risen to a greater height than during the 
 
 last years of Louis XIV , anc sors 
 
 under his immediate succes 
 
 From what we have related above, it is evident that the nation has been trampled 
 
 upon and despised for near 
 greatest freedom it has scarce 
 
 fourteen hundred years , anc 
 
 y been less oppressed. Tht 
 
 1 during the intervals of its 
 
 is if the people are charged 
 
 
 
 with haying abandoned their kings, they may reply, that for centuries they haye been 
 
 
 
 abandoned by them and their ministers. The reign of Henry the fourth could not 
 strictly be called happy for the nation, for notwithstanding his good intentions, and the 
 
 
 
 wisdom of the frugal Sully , he did not live long enough to see his paternal wishes 
 
 had tended to nothing less , to use his very expression , than that 
 
 realized : wishes t 
 A sentiment of homely 
 
 every one of his subjects might put a fowl in his pot on sundays. 
 
 benevolence, which at the same time does honour to his heart, and advances his name 
 
 above the glories of a Cesar and an Alexander 
 event which makes the subject of this tablet, proves how dear to the people 
 
 The 
 > Henry the fourth, for a wish so simple, and benevolent, though so ill 
 
 was the memory o 
 Ina word, the result of all our reviews of the epochs of the french reyo- 
 
 
 
 accomplished 
 lution is the same, its origin and excesses are only to be imputed to the imprudence of 
 
 successive ministers. 
 
 
 
 Inscription under the plate. 
 
 ASSEMBLAGE OF THE PEOPLE ON THE PONT-NEUF. 
 
 
 
 September 16, 17 
 
 For many days the people assembled upon the Pont-neuf, and compelled the passengers 
 
 to fall upon their knees , and salute the statue of Henry the fourth 
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 HISTORICAL PICTURES 
 
 THE EPOCH 
 
 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 EIGHTH PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 
 
 RIOT I 
 
 
 
 THE FAUBOURG ANTOINE, 
 
 APRIL 28, 15789 
 
 D 
 
 narrative of the usurpations of power, the efforts of the oppressed, and the revenge of 
 
 
 
 spoTism is cceval with society itself, and the history of revolutions is but a 
 
 the strongest. In every nation upon earth vexations have produced resistance , and 
 resistance gives birth to revolutions. In republics as in monarchies, the patience of the 
 people has been exhausted by their oppressors; for to a certain point they never resist , 
 but beyond that, they break from their restraint , and are as despotic in the use of their 
 recovered power as their governors themselves. In all climates anarchy and disorder 
 are the consequences of a struggle against oppression; but their duration is short , 
 for either liberty is soon triumphant, or despotism regains its authority and commences 
 
 its new course of crimes. 
 
 The revolution of which we propose to give the history, has been caused rather 
 by the despotism of ministers than kings; and here we may observe that this is the 
 most oppressive of all tyranny, because a minister may offend with more impunity 
 than his master; what does a bad minister hazard? his place. The history of the 
 ministers of France with the exception of Amboise , Suger, Sully, Colbert , Turgot, 
 and perhaps Necker ; presents an unvaried scene of compulsion, plunder, and intrigue; 
 under such ministers nothing was seen but proscriptions and lettres de cachets of which 
 we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. Under the ministers of Louis XV the 
 
 8 
 
 
 

 
 30 ES AOR Ceara Caer Ce TES 
 
 government was weakened and degraded ; the abbc Terray unable to procure money 
 plundered it in the king’s name ; and it is impossible to express the odium with which 
 his exactions loaded him. Under Louis XVI the dissipations and prodigalities of Calonne 
 ruined the finances, and exhausted the wealth of the nation 
 
 
 
 The accumulation of so many evils, and the magnitude of the abuse excited a general 
 discontent , and lastly a general insurrection. Instead of prudently yielding to the 
 storm and averting its effects by mild concessions , the ministers and the court did all 
 in their power to exasperate the minds of the people , by a conduct more oppressive 
 than ever. They had recourse to the means familiar with despotic governments ; they 
 resolved to oppose public opinion with the point of the bayonet, and to collect 
 sufficient troops in Paris for the purpose of overawing the citizens. A pretext was soon 
 found: it was resolyed to stir up that immense body of workmen and day labourers 
 who inhabited the faubourg Antome and the faubourg Marceau ; these people removed 
 from all knowledge of public affairs, were most easy to seduce and mislead. For 
 this purpose it was nece ssary to sacrifice an honest man, and to find a wretch who 
 would undertake to accuse him; the abbé Roi seized with avidity the occasion of 
 committing a useful crime. He had been secretary to the count d’Artois, and had abused 
 the protection of M. de Charost who had recommended him to M. Re veillon ,a worthy 
 citizen of the faubourg Antoine , who employed at his paper manufactory a great 
 
 number of workmen, to whom he was a father and benefactor 
 
 
 
 
 
 This merchant had made considerable advances to the abbé Roi which had never 
 been repaid M. Reveillon wrote to M. de Charost to entreat his interference for 
 the payment. M. de Charost sent his letter to the abbé, who cut off the signature and 
 wrote aboye it an obligation for six thousand livres in his own favour. ‘The enraged 
 merchant threatened to prosecute the affair in a court of law. The abbé Roi took 
 
 adyantage of these circumstances to destroy him. On a sudden a report was spread that 
 Reveillon had lowered the wages of his workmen fifteen sous a day ; that he had declared 
 bread was too good for them, and that he had been driven from his district for his 
 inhumanity. Government had been informed that a multitude of the lowest orders of the 
 people had for some days past entered the city without having any apparent business , 
 
 but paid no attention to this information. The people did not take the trouble to examine 
 
 
 
 the report, but deceived by the calumny, the inhabitants of the two aubourgs Marceau 
 and Antoine collected together. A mob, none of whom had ever been seen before , whose 
 persons were even unknown to the inspector of the police , burnt an image to which 
 
 they gave the name of Reyeillon, and condemned him to death under a pretended order 
 of the Tiers-Etat. 
 
 M. Reycillon ran to implore the assistance of the lieutenant of police : the horse and 
 foot watch were elsewhere employed. They referred him to the commander of the frenc h 
 guards , and after some difficulty M. Reyeillon obtained an audience of him. 
 
 mised instant succour, but they only sent a few solc 
 
 
 
 [He was pro- 
 
 
 
 
 
 iers, though any one of the battalions 
 of the french guards who were then in Paris might instantly have quelled the disturbance 
 The rioters passed the night in the public houses, and seemed preparing by intoxication 
 for the crimes of the next day. While the inspectors of the police slept, money was 
 every where distributed to hire accomplices. They entered the hou 
 
 of Reveillon , from 
 which he had fortunately escaped with his wife 
 
 , where they pillaged and destroyed 
 every thing. Many of the miserable wretches who had entered the cellars in searchof 
 
OF THE FREM CH (REVOLT TRON 3 
 
 wine and strong liquors , deservedly met their fate by swallowing draughts of nitrous 
 acids , and drugs which were used in dying and colouring 
 
 
 
 At length a body of the military appeared, and the mob supplied themselves with arms 
 from every thing they could find. The french and Swiss guards sustained for a long time 
 the blows and provocations of this mad multitude ; at length a det 
 
 
 
 chment of Royal 
 Cravate received orders to fire. Their vengeance was dreadful; all who were on the 
 roofs of the houses they shot; the people were pursued with the bayonet; the cavalry 
 
 and infantry were now brought up, and the street lined with cannon. The mob was 
 
 at length dispersed and many were delivered up to punishment. ‘The people are always 
 
 the instrument and the victim ; Paris beheld with terror its liberty openly threatenec 
 by the military. The soldiers could scarcely be compelled to the services which were 
 required of them, and the court unknown to iltelf concurred in uniting the very agents 
 of its despotism to the common cause. ‘This lesson is of importance to all goy 
 
 
 
 ernments 
 and proves that the excesses of tyranny will deprive it of its stay and sup 
 
 Ort, and 
 leave it naked and defenceless in the hour of attack. 
 
 The government had before committed an error of the same kind. The dismission of 
 
 M. Lamoignon had excited universal joy in Paris , and the young men of the city 
 
 
 
 
 
 burnt that magistrate in effigy. None of the instruments of the court interrupted 
 them, but a few brigands and mercenaries mixed in the mob. M. de Brienne minister 
 of war and brother of the prime minister, arrived from Versailles at the moment 
 when these youths were proceeding to fire his house; it was necessary to resist the 
 multitude by an armec force , this was the only way to prevent the effusion of blood, 
 and put a stop to the riot. But it was agreed that the shortest way would be to 
 
 massacre the people without taking the trouble to apprehend any, or distinguish between 
 
 
 
 
 
 the innocent and the guilty. It is thus that under arbitrary government, or rather 
 during the influence of obstinate and ignorant ministers a sport is made of the lives of 
 
 
 
 the citizens. The same events followed by the same imprudence took place on account 
 of the joy the people manifested at the dismissal of M. de Brienne the principal 
 minister. 
 
 Meantime the nation was in a general ferment , never more enslaved than at this 
 period ; she at length awoke to a true knowledge of her servitude , and made her first 
 ef ‘orts to regain her freedom. During the long course of monarchy the people had 
 scarcely respired one moment from oppression , and the progress of despotism was 
 marked by an unvaried prodigality of the public treasure At the commencement 
 of the reign of Louis XVI, hopes were entertained that the government haying passed 
 from mixed to feudal, and from feudal to absolute , would at length assume the character 
 of a popular and paternal monarchy. But the weakness of the king, the fatal influence 
 of the queen , of the count d’Artois, and madame Polignac ; together with the avidity 
 
 of a crowd of courtiers; the folly of the ministers whose power was only to do evil, 
 
 (for Turgot and Necker were not long retained in their places ) in short the numerous 
 
 
 
 obstacles which frustrated the plans of the best intentioned ministers , and finally the 
 
 
 
 injudicious measures pursued by the government, plunged the nation into those convul- 
 
 sions of rage and indignation , which have caused such scenes of horror. 
 
 
 
 Such was the disposition of the public mind when government had the imprudence to 
 render the evil worse by firing on the people , and taking such severe measures as we 
 have just dessribed. 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 3a HeSh Ee OPRs CHARI) Gruen UmnnbyGematcs 
 
 Numerous were the manly and generous writings which now appeared and which 
 raised the public expectation to its height. They endeavoured to stop the torrent of 
 light and effervescence; but the books seemed to spring out of the earth. These w ritings 
 had a popular turn, and forced their way to readers of all descriptions ; the government 
 was obliged to permit the perfect freedom of the press. It was now that the public 
 discontents were spread throughout France. ‘lhe yoice of liberty reached even the 
 foot of the throne, and the general wishes of the nation were thus directed as to its 
 
 objects to a government less oppressive than the one which existed 
 
 The faction of Orleans took advantage of these circumstances, and received in its paya 
 band of profligate writers, who hastened the progress of the revolution , and gave it the 
 most fatal direction. On them may be charged the miseries of France, and that profusion 
 of blood which stains the early annals of the republic 
 
 The ministers , the noblesse , the clergy , the parliaments expressed a contempt for 
 the spirit of the nation. They were only employed in augmenting their prerogatives , and 
 supporting their interest , and thus by their negligence concurred blindly to their own 
 
 destruction. ‘I hey had abandoned the people, and the people at length abandoned them 
 
 
 
 May this example long remain present to the minds both of soverc igns and their subjects! 
 that the one may learn that power is ruined by its abuse , and the other be convinced 
 that true liberty consists only in submission to the laws , and that licentiousness is worse 
 
 than despotism. 
 
 Such is the true moral of the french revolution ; such are the causes which produced, 
 and the events which followed it 
 
 
 
 RIOT IN THE FAUBOURG ANTOINE 
 Feb. 28, 1789 
 
 A report being spread in this fauboure 
 I & 4 
 
 S> 
 
 that the wages of the labourers of 
 M. Reveillon’s paper manufactory were to be lowered 15 sous a day, and that he had 
 said Bread was too good for them,a mob collected in the faubourg , sacked his houses , 
 and burnt the furniture in the courts 
 
POR TRATIS 
 
 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS 
 
 OF SOME OF 
 THE PRINCIPAL PERSONS 
 
 ENGAGED IN THE EARLY PERIOD OF THE 
 
 FRENCH REVOLUTION, 
 
 WHO HAVE BEEN MOST EMINENT FOR THEIR VIRTUES OR VICES 
 wir 
 VIGNETTE PRINTS, 
 
 REPRESENTING, IN A SPIRITED AND PICTURESQUE MANNER, THE PRINCIPAL EVENT 
 
 WHICH DISTINGUISHED EACH PERSON’S CHARACTER 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 TALS GENWRAUX DE 17 0 
 
 e& mock Le 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 JEAN 
 
 DEPUTY 
 
 SYLVATI 
 
 
 
 BALEEY, 
 
 TO THE STATES-GENERAL 
 
 
 
 MAYOR OF PARIS, 
 
 Sentenced to death November 12 1795. 
 
 
 
 Ir AN SyLvAin Bariny was well deserving the hatred which revolutionary tyrants bear 
 
 to honest and enlig 
 circumstances , mak« 
 the celebrated sitting 
 assembly , proved te 
 rigid performance o 
 time of his mayora 
 the 
 
 broken loose from < 
 
 and in midst 
 
 racter dignified and 
 
 ie 
 
 itened men; and was distinguished aboye all those who, in al 
 » known their ahorrence of every species of tyranny. Bailly, at 
 
 of the tennis-court , at which period he presided in the nationa 
 » the eyes of t 
 A 
 
 1e world that every thing should give way to the 
 “his duties. 
 
 stranger to all intrigues and factions, during the 
 ty he confined himself to the legitimate functions of his office , 
 of the commotions of a great revolution, when passions hac 
 ill restaint , anc 
 
 tl 
 
 party was opposed to party, he presented a cha- 
 
 uncommon 
 
 , that of a magistrate , a philsosopher , and a man 
 
 
 
 whose line of conc 
 himself immortal by 
 sacrficed by its tyra 
 assassins with the ca 
 astronomy went to t 
 calumny. 
 idol, and he was int 
 as always to have | 
 the revolution was he 
 
 man of Plato, overw 
 
 his face; they insulted him; and coyered him with ¢ 
 
 philosophers , the 
 had ever the lot to i 
 
 He appeased the fury of that populace of which he had so long been the 
 
 
 
 uct was invariably just and honorable. Like Cicero he renderec 
 
 uis writings; like him too he deyoted himself to his country , and was 
 its. The orator, the consul of 
 
 Xome , presented his head to the 
 
 alm serenity of a philopher : the brilliant author of the history of 
 
 1e scaffold with the composure of a man above being wounded by 
 ie end regretted by the same people whom he had so well served , 
 
 The 
 painful. He |died like the Gooe 
 
 yeen an Object of their esteem. honorable founder of 
 
 1 
 
 Chey burnt the red flag before 
 
 most 
 » that underwent a death the most 
 
 1elmed with ignominious sulfering. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 irt. Thus perished the first 0 
 nost virtuous of magistrats , the best of citizens whom any nation 
 
 mmortalize. 
 
 
 
 In. 
 
 scription: Oath of the tennis-court, at Versailles June 20 1789. 
 
 
 

 

 

 
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 PORTRAIT IL 
 
 GILBERT MOTTHIER LAFAYETTE, 
 DEPUTY FROM AUVERGNE TO THE STATES-GENERAL 1789; 
 
 Commander of the National guard of Paris 
 
 Tue man who at the age of nineteen had embraced with such warmth the cause of 
 the Americans ; who by his military and civil talents , had contributed to establish the 
 Trans-atlantic republic , must of necessity have found in the french revolution a 
 fit occasion to promulgate his love of glory, and gratify his ardour for lib« rty. I afayette, 
 called in 1787 to the assembly of the notables , attacked with vigour the abuses of 
 
 the government , demanded the abolition of the lettres-de-cachet , the convocation of 
 
 
 
 the national assembly, and supported with stubborn firnmess the interest of the Tiers- 
 Etat. In July 1789, the constitutional assembly was surrounded by troops , anc 
 Lafayette seconded the motion of Mirabeau for remoying them. He proposed on the 
 11“ of the same month the first declaration of the rights of man, and which was orderec 
 to be published throughout all Europe. He presided at the assembly Beas vice-president 3 
 in the famous continued sitting , which did not terminate till after the taking of the 
 
 Bastille , which was demolished on the 16". — Having accepted the office of commander- 
 
 
 
 
 
 general of the national guard of Paris , he organised it, and made it a formidable 
 corps 3 compelled by the people to march to Versailles, he saved the lives of the 
 royal family on the night of the 5 and 6 of October. It was he who upon the first 
 federation in 1790, pronounced , upon the altar of his country , the civie oath , in 
 the name of an armed nation. The labours of the constitutional assembly being 
 terminated , he returned to the rank of simple citizen , but he was soon recalled from 
 his retreat to command an army where he had to contend as well against foreign as 
 domestic enemies. Out-lawed , because he refused to submit to the revolution of 
 the 10%. of August , he endeayoured to escape to a neutral country, after having taken 
 every precaution for the safety of his troops and the frontiers; but he fell into the 
 hands of the Austrians who reduced him , for five years, to the most severe captivity. * 
 Lafayette, in his imprisonment , maintained a firm and inflexible character. He 
 obtained his liberty at the request of Bonaparte, and retired to the Batavian republic. 
 Tt was not until the epoch of the 18 Brumaire that he revisited France , where he 
 obtained a tranquil and honourable retreat in the department of Leine and Marne. 
 
 
 
 *He was confined alternately in the fortresses of Vesel, Mabourg, Neisse , and Olmutz. 
 
 Inscription : The general federation in the Champ-de-Mars , July 14 1790. 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 PORTRAIT IIL 
 
 
 
 CAMILLE DESMOUJLIN 
 
 
 
 DEPUTY FROM PARIS TO THE NATIONAL CONVENTION, 
 
 Sentenced to death, April 6 1794. 
 
 Gi Mitte Desmoutrins, a profound and ingenious writer , taught in the School 
 of Tacitus and Suetonius , distinguished for the originality of his manner, and the 
 dexterity of his ridicule , contributed greatly to the revolution by his Journal entitled 
 the Revolution of France and Brabant. He was a fanatical demagogue, and assumed the title 
 of Procurator-general to the Lanterne; a title which rather belonged to Marat or Hebert. 
 Desmoulins might be called a mad-man in his writings , for when he had spread abroad his 
 revolutionary dogmas, his wickedness was laid aside with his pen; and by one of those 
 common contradictions in character which genius can alone atone for, in some of his 
 writings he called for vengeance on the heads of many , and carried to an extreme his 
 indulgence for others. His friends looked upon him as a man of genuine simplicity 
 and great humanity , and named him the Lafontaine of the revolution, But these virtues 
 hastened his destruction. 
 They pretended that he was sold to Orleans, and that he supposed the revolution 
 could not be carried on but by a change in the dynasty. We must forget his crimes in the 
 courage with which he braved death, as he was the first to recommend clemency , in a new 
 
 Journal entitled the old Cordelier, and by which he exposed himself to a worse than 
 
 
 
 decemyiral tyranny. It proposed the establishment of a committee of indulgence , at a 
 time when terror had effaced that word from the french language: every man of 
 humanity applauded those efforts of his generosity. Although Robespierre had from 
 infancy been brought up with Desmoulins, although the closest friendship had long 
 subsisted between them , that monster , not only deserted his ancient friend , but was 
 the first to advise his punishment. 
 
 
 
 The unhappy Camille Desmoulins was condemned as a conspirator by the tribunal 
 of Fouquier-Thinyille: thus perished the man, who, on the 14 July, was the first that 
 mounted the national cocade , and who was the first in 1794, to unmask that execrable 
 and monstrous tyranny , which crushed and degraded France. 
 
 
 
 Inscription ; Motion of Camille Desmoulins in the Palais-Royal. 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 LT IMRECTEOR GENLRAL DES FINANCES LN 1700, 
 
 
 
 Mittwlee A’Ctat el premten meutloe des [reatce dt eu igo 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ce 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 NECKER, 
 
 MINISTER OF STATE , AND DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF FINANCE IN 1788; 
 
 Minister of state , and first minister of Finance in 1790. 
 
 
 
 Sx oULD we present the history of ministers from the commencement of the mo- 
 narchy , if we except d’Amboise , Sugerz, Sulli, Turgot and Necker, what will our 
 annals exhibit but a frightthful combination of force , robbery and intrigue? In the first 
 years of the reign of Louis XVI , Turgot discovered in the administration of the 
 finances the most useful and noble projects; his probity and economy hastened his fall. 
 M. Necker known by his ability asa banker , was appointed director-general of the 
 finances , announcing a new system, and affecting a degree of stoicism, he connected 
 himself with the most eminent writers of his age ; he was equally the object of 
 
 
 
 flattery and detraction, and merited neither ; he was unequal to his place and the 
 circumstances of the times; but possessed the public confidence. It was he who 
 determined Louis to conyoke the states. 
 
 M. Necker never presented to that assembly any of those grand projects , or plans 
 of reform which the exigencies of the times demanded. A great effect was to be 
 produced , and the minister possessed great powers ; such as a degree of public 
 confidence which had never before fallen to the lot of any one: but he knew not how 
 to apply his levers ; in a word, he knew nothing but the system of loans. His greatest 
 praise is his dismission from court; he had this boast in common with Turgot ; but the 
 king was compelled to recall him, and the constituent assembly added to the letter 
 of the king another not less expressive. Thus by one of those caprices of fortune , 
 or rather of public opinion not unfrequent in history , Necker returned triumphant ; 
 but indifference soon succeeded the idolatry of the people ; he demanded his dismission, 
 Decembre 4 1790, and returned to Geneve. And it may be said of him that he 
 as little merited their idolatry as their neglect. 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 PORTRATIT VY. 
 
 
 
 HONORE GABRIEL RIQUETTI MIRABEAU, 
 
 DEPUTY FROM PROVENCE TO THE STATES-GENERAL 1789, 
 
 
 
 led, April 2 1791. 
 
 
 
 Mir ABEAU was one of those extraordinary men born to influence the age in which 
 he lived , and the generations which were to succeed him; he was adapte .d equally to 
 raise the storm of public opinion , and, when events concurred , to direct its operation, 
 Before the conyocation of the States-general , seeing himself ignominiously repulsed from 
 the order of the noblesse , assembled at Aix his natiye province, he attached himself 
 wholly to the side of the commons. Scareely did the States-general appear upon the 
 stage , when the popularity of Mirabeau was unbounded, and which he owed to the firm 
 answer he gave to the master of the ceremonies, the marquis de Breze , when at the end 
 of the 23 June, he intimated to the deputies the royal order to depart, « Slave, said 
 he, tell thy master, we are here by the voice of the people , and it is only at the point of the 
 bayonet we can be driven hence. » A robust health, a manly addr 
 
 
 
 , a sonorous voice, great 
 audacity , much knowledge , and the art of speaking promptly, gave him all the predo- 
 minance of genius over the national assembly. He dazzled ey ery imagination, gave 
 a generous impulse to every mind, and wz 
 
 
 
 s another Demosthenes against another Philip. 
 
 Death surprised him in the midst of his glory , and the man of the people received 
 funeral honours hitherto unknown. In the rage of subsequent parties he was accused of 
 having formed a secret connection with the court; and ingratitude pursuing him to the 
 tomb dispersed his ashes, without affecting his well-earned fame. The splendor which 
 surrounds him will long remain with posterity. Future ages only will be able to judge him 
 with that impartiality which so great a character expects from his cotemporaries. It is 
 thus that the memory of Bacon has been calumniated, and it is thus that it has become daily 
 more pure. National pride , superior to all prejudice of party, only employs itself at 
 present in removing those aspersions , with which the envy of cotemporaries blackens 
 the most eminent of men. 
 
 
 
 
 
 tic answer of Mirabeau to the master of the ceremonies, 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 PORTRAIT VL 
 DUMOURTIER, 
 MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, AFTERWARDS MINISTER OF WAR, 
 
 And lastly, General of the french armies in the North, in 1792 and 1795. 
 
 
 
 
 
 De MOURIER was neither an open royalist , nor an open republican ; he was one of 
 those tumultuous and enterprising spirits who would make themselves conspicuous 
 by any means , and who are prepared to sacrifice every thing to their ambition. Attache d, 
 for some time, to the party of Orleans , he had stirred up Normandy to insurrection 
 for them, and had persecuted there the duke d'Harcourt , and the marquis de Beuvron his 
 
 benefactors. His intrigues successively paved his way , in the month of February 1792 
 
 to the department of foreign affairs , and three months afterwards to the war-department. 
 Enlisted with the jacobins , he mounted the bonnet rouge, which he wore during his own 
 administration , and even in the presence of Louis XVI. After he had gained the battle 
 of Gemappe, he pronounced such an Eulogium over the sons of the duke d’Orleans that it 
 seemed as if he were presenting to France another Germanicus. After his brilliant victory, 
 Dumourier marched conqueror towards Brabant and Belgium. But the day of Nerwinde 
 was the limit of his success. It was after that defeat , that he conceived the design of 
 betraying his country to the Austrians, and made a secret treaty with the Prince of 
 Cobourg , March 22 1792, when a decree of the convention of the 30 demanded him to 
 present himself before the bar , to account for his conduct. The deputies Camus, Lamarque , 
 Quinette , and Bancal, with the minister of war Beurnonville , were charged to 
 sroceed to the army of the north , to put the decree in execution. Dumourier delivered 
 them over to the enemy , — had afterwards a new conference with the Generals of the 
 Emperor, and promised them Lille and Valenciennes. His army abandoning him, he was 
 
 compelled to take refuge with the Imperialists ; but the officer who expected to signalize 
 
 
 
 
 
 himself by the perfidious design , was taught that he would every where be regarded 
 
 
 
 as dangerous and unsafe to trust. 
 
 Dumourier , condemned to an obscurity , intolerable for an ambitious man, has published 
 some memoirs , in which he represents himself as the great partisan of Louis XVI, and in 
 the same manner as he formerly declared himself a republican ; but this mask which 
 he took was only to court favour ; and far from obtaining him celebrity , will never 
 again raise him from the deep oblivion in which he has so long been buried. 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 CHALE Re 
 ADVOCATE OF THE COMMUNE OF LYONS; 
 
 Condemned to death, May 29, 1795. 
 
 
 
 Ons of the great projects of the revolutionary tyrants , in order to strengthen their 
 party , was to establish a jacobin club at Lyons , ike that of Paris , under the reign 
 of Robespierr 
 
 
 
 and Marat. At the same time in which the sanguinary principles of 
 jacobinism were spreac ing in the North , Lyons had propagated the same maxims in 
 the south. After the massacre of the 2 and 3 September , the authors of that horrible 
 butchery sent to that city many of their agents , at the head of whom was Chalier , 
 by birth a Piemontese , a diciple well worthy of such masters. He commenced the 
 exe 
 
 
 
 cise of his mission by cutting the throats of five prisoners , who were committed 
 for slight misdemeanours. He instituted a popular assem bly under the name of the 
 
 Central-Club. February 6 1793 ,* he proposed to that assembly , consisting of about Goo 
 
 
 
 members , that they should seize the artillery , and pillage the town. His pretence 
 
 was the discovery of a conspiracy. All the prisoners were yeheaded , and their bodies 
 
 
 
 thrown into the Rhone. Their want of secrecy defeated their project , and the club 
 was dispersed. The committee of public safety had dispached to Lyons a part 
 of the revolutionary army of Paris ; which re-estab ished the Central-Club: the muni- 
 pality was restored , and Chalier was appointed advocate of the commune. There were 
 in Lyons two contending parties , that of the club and the municipality on one 
 
 side, and the sections on the other. One of these parties was intent only to rob and 
 
 
 
 
 
 murder , the other to defend their lives and properties. They learnt , May 29, that , 
 
 
 
 by order of the municipa ity ; in concert with the club ; more than a hundred fathers of 
 
 
 
 families had been thrown into chains during the night , and were to be put to death 
 on the next day. The sections seized the arsenals and the arms; the combat 
 commenced , and was supported on both sides with equal obstinacy; but the sections 
 prevailed. Chalier was yrought to trial, and condemned to death by the tribunal of 
 the department , after a regular trial. Thus terminated the life of a monster , who 
 cannot be better described than by the term of the Marat of Lyons. And that the 
 resemblance might be completer , like the other Marat , after the bombardment of 
 
 
 
 that unfortunate city , he was honoured with an apotheosis. 
 
 
 
 * He presided at that assembly with a sword by his side , and a pistol in each hand. 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 MEAN PAUL MARAT 
 
 ) 
 
 DEPULE Dis PARTS A LA CONVENTION NATION LTE ; 
 
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 Ofsassuce le 4 Suillet ig 
 
 fallow’ abathce deuw ceuly uulle tétec, 42a jit ON, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 JEAN PAUL MARAT, 
 DEPUTY OF PARIS TO THE NATIONAL CONVENTION, 
 
 Assassinated , July 14. 1799. 
 
 
 
 Manav , what a name, what a man, or rather what a monster ! How many afflicting 
 images does his ferocity recall! He was only drawn from his native obscurity by the 
 commotion of the revolution, and crimes hitherto esteemed yeyond the reach of human 
 depravity. But since history is compelled to sully its page with the name of Marat, it 
 is necessary to exhibit the portrait of this prodigy of wickedness. He was not five feet 
 in stature , and joined to a form the most hideous, passions the most base and ungovern- 
 able. He had the cunning of an intriguer , the imagination of a madman , and a soul 
 
 only suited to the lowest of criminals. Born in the county of Neufchatel in Switzerland , 
 he came to Paris to provide for his indigence, and turned ountebank. The faction of 
 Orléans needed one of this kind. Marat had his price , and it was paid him. Those who 
 have read his sanguinary journal , The friend of the People , need not be told the character 
 ofa man who could at one time call for two hundred thousand heads , and at another for a 
 
 
 
 dictator. He was the cause of those inhuman butcheries which were to be seen in every 
 
 
 
 part of our cities. He presided at the massacre of thes, and 3 of Sep* 1792. The convention 
 had decreed his accusation, but he was acquitted by the revolutionary tribunal , and 
 brought back in triumph by his satellites to the bosom of the national Conyention. He was 
 
 almost sinking under the weight of civic crowns. His vengeance ors 
 
 
 
 nized the proceedings 
 of the 31 May. And it is impossible to say how far his thirst of blood would have carried 
 him : but a heroine ( Charlotte Corday ) delivered the earth of this monster, by stabbing 
 him with a poignard while in his bath, July 14 1793. 
 
 He was decreed the honour of an apotheosis , * but this usurped glory disappeared ; for 
 when the opinions of good men again prevailed, his statues , his tomb , his trophies became 
 the objects of horror and execration. A decree gave his body the honours of the pantheon; 
 another decree removed it thence; and his putrid remains were thrown into the common 
 sewer in Montmartre. 
 
 
 
 * Marat was publickly deified, in a festival given to his manes in the Luxembourg gardens. One of his high-priests 
 1 
 was a prophet , Marat W 
 
 on the occasion compared him to Jesus Christ , and exclaimed in these Words : O heart of Jesus! O heart. of Marat! Jesus 
 
 
 
 
 
 God. The abominable discourse was printed ! 
 
 it 
 
 
 
 ription ; Marat brought in triumph after having been acquitted by the revolutior 
 
 
 
 ry tribunal. 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ETO PRS TRA ie TXe 
 
 
 
 MARTE ANNE CHARLOTTE CORDAY DARMANS, 
 NATIVE OF THE PARISH OF S'. SATURNIN OF LIGNERETS, 
 
 In the Department of Calvados , sentenced July 17 1798. 
 
 
 
 = 
 Guantorre Corpay had a soul of sensibility, of quick passion, and capable of a 
 manly determination. She had received an education suitable to her birth *. Formed 
 by the writings of ancient and modern philosophers , such was her ardour for 
 freedom and independance , that she would not even subject herself to her lovers, but 
 resolutely refused their homage. Her great and generous soul was no less affected by 
 the misfortunes of the unhappy, than roused and irritated by a sense of injustice. 
 Looking upon Marat as the principal author of the revolutionary crimes under which 
 
 her country groaned, she conceived the design of assassinating him; and departed from 
 
 
 
 Caen, July 19 1793. She arrived at Paris , and wrote to Marat that she was desirous 
 of revealing to him secrets which concerned the safety of the republic. At the time he 
 received her he was in his bath. He demanded of her the names of the deputies pros- 
 cribed on the 31 May, who were at Caen. Whilst he wrote their names in_ his 
 tablets , she drew a knife from her bosom, and plunged it in the heart of Marat. She 
 was arrested , and conducted to the Abbaye. A decree of the convention removed her 
 to the Conciergerie. She appeared before her judges in the presence of a multitude of 
 
 
 
 
 
 spectators. She answered their interrogations with the greatest calmness and presence 
 
 of mind. Perceiving that one of the auditors was employed in taking her portrait, sh 
 
 
 
 turned aside. While sentence was pronouncing she was unmoved, nor did the terrific 
 decree which devoted her to death, nor the dead silence which prevailed throughout 
 the court , disturb that profound serenity which reigned in her countenance. About half 
 past seven in the same evening she appeared in the cart, which was to conyey her 
 to execution, with the same calmness, and intrepidity. Her manner was majestic without 
 
 
 
 haughtiness , her looks free without disdain, her features expressive and animated 
 without fierceness. Her name will be delivered down to posterity as one of those who 
 have been greatly criminal, for even the assassination of a Marat cannot be pardoned. 
 
 
 
 * She was 25 years of age, the daughter of Jacques Francis Corday d’Armans, a noble inhabitant of Caen. 
 
 Inscription under the portrait ; Charlotte Corday assassinating Marat in his bath. 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 CARITAT DE CONDORCET, 
 
 PEEULY LO THE NATIONAL Cony EW Tt 
 
 
 
 Died March 28 1794. 
 
 
 
 No sight is more offensive to the wicked than that of a good man ; nothing is more 
 
 
 
 dreaded by tyrants than the existence of a philosopher , the character of whose mind 
 is a virtuous independance. ‘The more exalted the soul, the more resolutely does it 
 spurn against tyranny. It was on this account that Condorcet became hateful to 
 Robespierre. But the dictator had other motives for proscribing so illustrious a man: 
 the latter was charged with presenting a project for a constitution ; this was in 
 opposition to the designs of the revolutionary tyrants, which , had it been ¢ 
 
 
 
 lopted 2 
 wou d haye saved us from those heavy y calamities that fell upon France. Condorcet 
 was in the number of the first deputies proscribed after the 31 May. He was 
 
 comprehended in the act of accusation which was carried against Rabaut , Brissot, 
 
 
 
 Vergniaud , Fauchet , etc. etc. The witnesses to the charge were almost all the chiefs 
 
 of the municipality of Paris, at a time full of conspiracy and accusation. But the 
 defence of the accused removed completely eyery charge. The president of the 
 tribunal , seeing that sentiments of justice prevailed, wrote to the conyention , that if 
 
 the instructions for the process against them were suffered to be lengthened, the law 
 
 
 
 would throw great embarrassments in their way. This was to demand an order for 
 cutting the throats of his victims. ‘This letter was accompanied by a deputation of 
 Jacobins. The decree which authorized the jury to put an end to the instructions 
 
 for the process , on the plea that they were sufficiently instructed , was in facia 
 
 
 
 sentence of death. The jury, without further formalities , yoted condemnation of 
 the deputies most distinguished by their talents and virtue. 
 
 Condorcet had made his escape ; but they discovered his asylum and arrested him. He 
 
 
 
 
 
 and which he took in the prison where he 
 was confined. Thus perished an author , and a scholar, who, in both respects had 
 not his equal in Europe, if we except the unfortunate Bailly. 
 
 had furnished himself, however , with poison 
 
 
 
 Inscription: The death of Condorcet in prison. 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 — 1UX BATS GENER WX DI 17Oy, bt DEPCTE DE: P. IRIS A LA CONFENT” yt" = 
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 MAXIMILIE 
 
 
 
 LOBESPIERRE, DEPUTY OF ARTOS, 
 
 To the States-general of 1789, and Deputy of Paris to the national Convention. 
 
 
 
 ccuted July 27 1794. 
 
 
 
 Ts tracing the portraiture of the most execrable of tyrants , our heart is frozen with 
 horror , and the pen almost falls from our hand. It is nevertheless necessary to 
 describe to posterity the man who exterminated one part of France , and who 
 had he lived long 
 Arras 
 
 
 
 r would have destroyed the other. Robespierre was a native of 
 
 , an adyoeate of no shining talents , and was appointed by his intrigues deputy 
 to the states-general in 1 
 
 
 
 89. From the moment of his installation , he devotec 
 himself to the cause of the people , whom he was one day to massacre. The inflexible 
 
 
 
 patriotism which he affected until the division in the constituent assembly, obtained 
 him the name of the incorruptible. 
 
 Being chosen anew to the national convention, he attached himeelf to the party of 
 Orleans , and vowed to him an inviolable friendship. But when this last was ruined , 
 he abandoned him to strengthen his own party , and conceived the design of raising 
 himself to the dictatorship. His profound hypocrisy made him attain it; a genera 
 terror maintained him in it; the destructive rapidity of a thunderbolt can alone convey 
 
 an idea of the abuses of his enormous power. France was another large Bastille ; the 
 
 
 
 guillotines were not equal to the sacrifice of so many victims. Recourse was had to 
 (fusillades , noiades , and mitraillades ) means of destruction as new as the crimes 
 they were intended to punish. Infatuated by his power and the popular incense , it 
 was his ambition to be at the same time sovereign Pontilf and dictator. He had the 
 audacity , at the festival to the supreme Being at which he presided , to raise his 
 hands stained with the blood of citizens towards the beneficent author of nature. But 
 God rejected his execrable hommage , the fall of the tyrant was the almost immediate 
 consequence of this audacity. He was decreed to be arrested on that very daywhich 
 he had chosen to declare himself dictator. 
 
 He fled for refuge to that commune which ad conspired against him ; he was 
 out-lawed , arrested , and brought to the scé 
 
 
 
 ffold , after having in vain tried to 
 kill himself with a pistol. This monster was 35 years of age , in stature about five feet 
 
 two inches. He had a countenance coarse and repulsive , a complexion livid and sallow. 
 
 
 
 His prevailing passions were pride , hatred, and jealousy : nothing could quench his 
 thirst of human blood. Heseemed as if desirous to reign alone, in a general deyastation— 
 in a desert—or among the dead. 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 [EE GRECILE RENAUD, 
 
 CONDEMNED PRAIRIAL 29 1795 
 
 Jearovusy was one of the most predominant passions of Robespierre ; he beheld with 
 chagrin the general alarm which the attempted assassination of Collot-d’Herbois had 
 excited. He resolved to return to the attack whatever it might cost him, and it was in these 
 circumstances that the singular visit of a young girl accelerated his purpose. Robespierre 
 was surrounded day andnight with his jacobin friends , who served him instead of guards. 
 It is to their officious zeal that the misfortunes of the young Renaud and her family must 
 be imputed. She w 
 
 
 
 s about twenty years of age, and kept her Father’s shop , 
 who was a stationer in Paris. Nature had endowed her with one of those figures which 
 by a peculiar air of vivacity pleases still more than beauty. It was said that Robes- 
 pierre had causec the death of her lover; but that conjecture is without foundation. 
 In the evening of the 4 Prairial 1793 , she presented herself at the house of Robes- 
 pierre : what is your purpose > demanded the satellites of the dictator: I am come , 
 said she, to see what the figure of a tyrant is. Being immediately conducted to the 
 committee of public safety she was asked why she had provided herself with clothes ; 
 to which she boldly replied: to live decently in the prison, to which I know, T must be 
 sent , and to die decently upon the scaffold, which I know awaits me. A small knife was 
 found upon her person ; but she denied that she had any purpose beyond what she had 
 confessed. ‘The revolutionary tribunal condemned her to death; her father , her aunt 
 and the greater part of her family , shared her fate. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Nor was this enough : six months after , sixty persons were arrested and condemned 
 as the accomplices of one whom they had never seen. The unfortunate Renaud was 
 placed by the side of the young St. Amaranthe. Eight 
 
 
 
 rts were filled with these 
 victims to the horrible tyranny of Robespierre. But the vengeance of the great being of 
 nature — that providence who permits wickedness its course , for some wise purpose , 
 was suspended only to fall with a more terrible effect. 
 
 
 
 Inscription ; Aimée Cécile Renaud arrested at the house of Robespierre 4 Prairial 1794. 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 
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