dices, as well as the prince by his passions, generally soon lead themselves into some misfortune; and as soon as this happens, the parasite, in both cases, becomes hateful and contemptible."

This extract I made many years ago from a speech in a debate on the pension bill. If popularity is acquired by such means (and I am not prepared from experience to contradict it), it shews a radical defect in the constitution of all representative assemblies; for, as the purity of representation must depend on the suffrage of the people being influenced only by their opinion of the candidates, if their opinion is liable to be so biassed, the popular favourite, and not the firm patriot, an Alcibiades, and not an Aristides, will most likely be the object of their choice. This is a consideration well worth the attention of our modern reformers of the representation of the commons of Great Britain in parliament.

There cannot be a more honourable situation than that of a county member. What can be a greater honour, than to be selected by neighbours, friends, and equals, to watch over their political interests? But honourable as this trust is, it is also a trust attended with much personal inconvenience to him who is invested with it; and it is a mark of vanity and weak ambition rating its own abilities too high, or grasping too eagerly at provincial consequence, to be very solicitous for the attainment of it, especially as the honour of the situation entirely depends on the means by which it is acquired. A man who is very anxious for this situation, gives up his independence the moment he is declared a candidate. He must court every freeholder; he must attend every county meeting, either of business or pleasure; and as those voters on whose influence the election must chiefly depend, are his friends and companions, he must give up the frank manners of social life, in the common intercourse of friendship and hospitality, for the most guarded and cautious behaviour, as an excess of attention to one person is often considered as something worse than neglect to another. Who can reasonably suppose, that the man who gives up his own independence, to attain an honour which loses its finest polish by being too eagerly grasped, will be conscientiously solicitous to preserve the independence of others?

Shenstone observes twice in his essays, that a love of popularity is only a love of being beloved. But popularity is rarely considered as an end, but as a mean of obtaining some other end. A man who courts popularity generally resembles a venal beauty, who considers the power she has of making herself beloved, as subservient only to her avarice or her ambition. H. J. P.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE.

Qui monet quasi adjuvat.

The History of France, from the Year 1790, to the Peace concluded at Amiens in 1802, by John Adolphus, Esq. F. A. S. 8vo. 2 Vols. Kearsly.

AMID the dearth of literary excellence, which, notwithstanding the vast number of publications which daily issue from the press, we are sorry to see so generally prevalent; the volumes before us, from the pen of an author whose deep research, distinguished talent, and unwearied industry are never to be sufficiently applauded and admired, will be found to contain peculiar claims to attention and respect.

In the course of our literary labours it has been frequently our lot to peruse volumes, which embrace partial periods of that momentous era distinguished by the name of the French revolution: still, however, a work was wanting, which, at one view, should detail the particulars of, and delineate the characters of the actors in, those times of turbulence and anarchy, and, blending the materials to be derived from a variety of sources, present us with a clear and copious body of information, on scenes the most interesting, and events the most important.

To supply this desideratum appears to have been Mr. Adolphus's motive for undertaking the present work, in which no pains have been spared, no source of information neglected, to render it worthy of public patronage; and which, for depth of research, and soundness of judgment; perspicuity of narrative, and power of illustration, has rarely been equalled, and, perhaps, never surpassed.

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After noticing, in his introduction, a variety of fanciful opinions with respect to the general circumstances from which the French revolution derived its origin, he proceeds to ascribe it to a faction long nourished in the academies and cities of France, connected with numerous societies through all parts of Europe, meditating a total change in manners, laws, and the course of public worship, and projecting an entirely new distribution of power among nations, with a general overthrow of all established authorities? The pernicious maxims of this sect (the actual existence of which, the researches of modern authors have rendered indisputable) were destined to commence their active operations during the reign of Louis XVI. whose virtues as well as errors, by a remarkable fatality, contributed equally to his overthrow.

D-VOL. XVII.

His marriage with a princess of the house of Austria, who was supposed, by her influence in the cabinet, to favour her native country at the expence of France; the impolitic measure of espousing the cause of the Americans in their contest with great Britain; the conduct of the Finance being entrusted to an empiric minister, an alien to the land, and a republican by birth; but, above all, the centre and supplies the antireligious and antimonarchical party found at Paris, in the wealth, rank, profligacy, and turbulence of Orleans, tended to hasten the event, and blacken the crimes which marked its terrible career. Still, however, when, by a temporary exertion of firmness, La Fayette had compelled the Duke of Orleans to retire, tranquillity might have been restored, if Bailly, by propo sing the solemn foppery of a confederation, had not revived the means and motives of insurrection, and furnished the leader of the principal faction with a pretext for revisiting his native country.

At this period Mr. Adolphus commences his history, with noticing the effects of the solemn oath taken by the French on the 14th of July, (1790); in which, (however it might have been hailed as the dawn of peace by the ignorant or the credulous) the more penetrating anticipated only one vast scene of unqualified perjury, and mutual distrust. The public tranquillity was first disturbed by the revólt at Nancy; and the rage for innovation was amply gratified by the free discussion of the political clubs, the origin of which are clearly detailed, and the characters of their respective orators drawn with vigour and discrimination. As first in rank, the monarch and his consort were honoured with the largest share of their abuse; and the rancour with which calumnies were propagated against him, and his ministers, could be equalled alone by the avidity with which the populace received them.

If virtue and real merit sunk under such attacks, how, says Mr. Adolphus, could factitious celebrity, and reputation founded merely on the basis of chicane and delusion, hope to survive; the popularity of M. Necker had long been declining, and the publication of the red book gave it the finishing blow. He announced his resignation to the national assembly on the 4th of September, and in a few days after was permitted to retire to Switzerland, loaded with insult and obloquy, though, but a short time before his exile, had driven the people to despair and revolt.

During these transactions, Orleans, whose conduct had at first been influenced by motives of personal animosity, his overtures at court having been coolly received, had grown desperate and determined to persevere; and the services of Mirabeau, by whose co-ope

ac

ration the king had hoped to regain some portion of his lost authority, were suspended by the report of Chatelet on the transactions of the 5th and 6th of October, which he erroneously supposed were di rected by the court against him. Orleans, through the medium of Biron, made a poor and unmeaning defence, and promised a full count of his conduct on the next day, which, however, was never produced; whilst Mirabeau defended himself with equal eloquence and audacity, treating their report as a mere intrigue, and threaten ing the framers of it with never-ceasing vengeance. Prosecutions were then commenced against some inferior agents, which at length were wholly superseded by a decree, depriving the Chatelet of its jurisdiction over criminal offences.

The legislature, in the mean time, not content with the plunder already acquired from the clergy, by the seizure of clerical property, framed an oath, which their fidelity to the pope, as head of the church, would not suffer the consciencious to take, with a view to render them contemptible; and to enforce this measure with greater certainty, a day was fixed (Jan. 4, 1791), on which every ecclesiastical member of their body must peremptorily take the oath, or resign his benefices. This, to their immortal honour be it spoken, was almost universally rejected. The purity of their principles could be no longer questioned, and the triumphant party gnashed their teeth with rage at the eloquent expression of M. de Montlosier, respecting the ejected bishops: "If they are driven from their episcopal palaces," he said, "they will retire to the huts of the cottagers who have been fed by their bounty. If deprived of their golden crosses, they will find wooden ones; and it was a cross of wood that saved the world."

Mirabeau, whose negociation with the court had been successfully renewed, saw with regret these attacks on the clergy; but as the difference between his former principles and his present practice would, in fhat case, have been too glaring, he did not dare openly to oppose them. He took, however, an active part in the debates on emigration; but, notwithstanding his exertions, had the mortifi cation to see the motion adopted. But whilst faithful to his new engagements, employed in a plan to restore a constitutional monar chy, and compensate for his former attacks on royal authority, he was seized with spasms in his chest, and, after enduring excruciating tortures for two days, expired at Paris on the 2nd of April.

Lament not me, my friends, but lament the monarchy which with me descends to the grave," were among the last words of Miras

beau, and were unhappily too prophetic; the unfortunate monarch's situation was daily growing worse. His journey to St. Cloud having been prevented by the mob, he was compelled to do violence to his conscience in hearing mass performed by a constitutional priest, and the impolitic measure, adopted by the advice of the Lameths, of writing to his ministers at foreign courts, to apnounce his entire ap. probation of the revolution, with an avowal that he considered him self perfectly free and happy, put it out of the power of his friends to assist him.

The issue of the flight from Paris, on the 20th of June, is but too well known; his route was intercepted, and himself brought back to Paris, with every studied mark of disrespect; and the family, on their first day's journey, had the horror of seeing M. de Dampiere, murdered by the side of their coach, for merely endeavouring to shew them some trifling marks of respect.

Commissioners were now appointed from the assembly, and from the section of the Thuilleries, to take the examinations of the king, queen, and persons arrested; and the exertions of the republican faction evidently aimed at the abolition of royalty. The public mind, however, was not yet sufficiently prepared for this new doctrine. The reporter from the committees replied to the question, whether the king should be brought to trial? in the negative; and after a fierce debate of two days, a decree was adopted, providing, "that if, after having sworn to the constitution, he should retract, or put himself at the head of a military force, or direct his generals to act against the nation, or forbear opposing any such attempt by an authentic act, he should be judged to have abdicated the throne, and should be considered as a simple citizen, and subject to impeachment, in the ordinary forms, for crimes committed after his abdication. ebo.

The constitution (till the completion of which the king had been suspended from his functions) being at length decided upon, he first accepted it in writing, and then took an oath to maintain it, and on the 30th of September, after a final harangue, the president proclaimed the dissolution of the national assembly. The result of their labours is given by Poud 'Homme in the following terms: "The duration of this assembly was two years and four months, in which period three thousand five hundred and forty persons were put to death, one hundred and twenty-three chateaux burnt, fifty-six supposed conspiracies detected, seventy-one insurrections broke out, and two thousand five hundred and fifty-seven laws were enacted."