for that reason were by no means disheartened. What principally confirmed them in this expectation, was the party spirit that reigned in the National Assembly, and the obstructions to a reunion of sentiments among them. These were represented by the zealous royalists as circumstances that must soon or late operate to the total ruin of the present constitution, and as an inducement to its enemies never to despair of overthrowing it.

There was doubtless some cause for the indulgence of such an idea. The National Assembly was evidently split into various parties. The warm republicans composed a large division, and the royalists another; though not so numerous, yet equally violent. There was another party, consisting of such as wavered in their intentions what measures to embrace, determined probably to side with the strongest. These were in fact a sort of neutrals: but those who supported the present constitution were more in number than all the rest together, and in right of their majority of votes, possessed the supreme power. The whole kingdom, with little exception, adhered to them, as plainly appeared by the readiness of their decrees being complied with, and their orders instantly obeyed, however active the friends of the other parties showed themselves in raising every species of difficulty and opposition. The constitutionalists relied so confidently on this attachment, and were so convinced they had nothing to apprehend from the enmity of the other parties, that they paid no regard either to the clamours of those who inclined to a commonwealth, or to the favourers of the old system. In order to

prove themselves unbiassed by any prejudice against the friends of monarchy, they passed a decree enabling the princes of the royal blood to be raised at the king's request, and with the assent of the legislature, to the command of fleets or armies; excluding them however from ministerial employments, and from promotions dependent on the suffrages of the people. This exclusion was thought necessary, to prevent the republicans from complaining that the interests of the crown were too much consulted, and that the royal family was invested with too many privileges and means of arriving at improper power. Apprehensive at the same time of the vicissitudes to which the system they were establishing was liable, they determined to secure its duration long enough to afford it a trial of its propriety. With this view the assembly decreed, that the constitution should remain unchanged till the meeting of the third legislature: before this period all revision should be suspended, that experience might come in aid of whatever alterations might be proposed.

In order also to obviate any changes or modifications that might be suggested to the king as conditions of his assent to the constitution, the Assembly resolved that his acceptance or refusal should be a simple affirmative or negative. The principle on which they grounded this resolution was, that the nation alone was competent to decide on what conditions it was willing to pay obedience to the chief by whom it chose to be governed. While thus intent on circumscrib

ing the royal prerogative, they judged it proper, in order to avoid the imputation

imputation of partiality, to limit the power of all persons in places of great trust. The most remarkable of the decrees enacted to this end, was that which appointed the commanding officers of the sixty divisions of the national guards in Paris; each in his turn commander in chief of the whole body, and who were to be elected in the same manner as the members of the National Assembly in that arduous and important office, which had hitherto been discharged by M. de la Fayette. His known attachment to the principles of the revolution had procured him great popularity; and the devotion to his person on that account had rendered his exercise of that employment less difficult than if it had been confided to another more liable to suspicions: but even he himself had not escaped them; and the power annexed to his place appeared too dangerous to be trusted for any length of time to any single individual. His popularity, indeed, was not a little shaken at the time of the flight of the king, and afterwards, on account of the part he took against the Jacobins in the affair of Nancy, as well as his conduct in that of the Champ de Mars after the king's return from Varennes.

These proceedings were preparatory to the great event in universal contemplation-the King's acceptance or rejection of the constitutional code, and his consequent treatment. Nothing therefore was to be omitted on the part of the Assembly that could conduce to the establishment of

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their character for judiciousness? moderation, and a desire to giv general contentment. On thesd depended the confirmation an stability of their decrees, as th measure both of strength and sup port which they expected to de rive from the public, could be proportioned only to the degree of approbation wherein their transactions would be held. In order to put the finishing hand, as it were, to their popularity, they now finally resolved on the complete removal of that universal complaint of all liberal minded men, persecution on account of religious opinions. They directed the decrees to this intent to be enforced with particular energy; and that all dissenters from the established church should accordingly be protected in the full enjoyment of their respective persuasions, and in the unrestrained liberty of erecting places of worship, and of conforming, without molestation, to the rites and discipline enjoined by their religion. Though such a spirit of toleration was disapproved by the rigid assertors of the necessity of religious uniformity, far greater was the majority in its favour. Few of the measures adopted by the Assembly did them more service. In France it procured them the firm adherence of those numerous Protestants whom persecution had not been able to overcome, and in other parts it raised them innumerable friends in the foes to the church of Rome, and to those maxims of intolerance that are such a disgrace to the profession of Christianity,

CHAP.

THE

HE liberality of sentiments entertained by the Assembly in religious matters availed them little with those Protestant states, of which the political interests did not accord with the ideas prevailing among the French. The republic of Berne, the chief and most powerful of all the Cantons in Swisserland, declared itself explicitly against the measures pursued by the Assembly. As the government of that republic is an aristocracy as absolute as any in Europe, it could not fail to reprobate that equality of freedom among all classes, established by the French revolution. The great council was convened, consisting of those families wherein the sovereignty resides; and it came to the resolution of investing the secret council, somewhat resembling the Venetian council of ten, with supreme power in both civil and military affairs. This, like the dictatorial commission at Rome, subjected all men to their immediate and arbitrary controul: they employed the severest measures to enforce their authority, and set a species of inquisition on foot, for the discovery of those conspiracies against the aristocracy of

which they suspected the formation, in the intercourse between the French and their own people. These precautions, however, could not stifle that spirit of democracy which had seized those classes that were denied a participation in go vernment, and which maintained a right thereto in every order of society without exception. They, carried their boldness so far, as to assume a cockade with the French motto, "Freedom or Death." In some places, they rose in large bodies against the magistracy that op posed their proceedings. The en mity of the Swiss Cantons, and of that of Berne in particular, was an object of no small concern to the Assembly, from the multitude of excellent soldiers with whom they have so long supplied France; and, might, in case of an alteration, furnish its enemies, by withdrawing the great numbers already in the service of that kingdom, and per mitting them, as well as further levies, to be employed against it. Other enemies had also risen, as above mentioned, in the person of Gustavus, King of Sweden, and their Imperial and Prussian majesties. Spain expressed the most

marked

marked solicitude, in taking every preventive measure that could possibly be enforced, against the introduction of any tenets that might disturb the established government. In addition to the orders given out for a strict examination of every individual coming from France, the Spanish ministry issued a requisition from all foreigners settled in Spain, to take an oath of adherence to the Roman Catholic religion, and of fidelity to the King; to abjure all future connexion with their own country, and all claims of protection from its Ambassadors or agents in the Spanish dominions. Such as refused to take this oath, had no other alternative but to quit their place of abode in fifteen days, and the kingdom in thirty, or to incur the confiscation of their property, and be sentenced to the galleys. All Europe concurred in reprobating this tyrannical edict; and it was resisted with a courageous indignation by many of those whom it immediately affected, as equally absurd and oppressive. It exacted, what in the nature of things could not with any appearance of reason be expected; and it was a manifest contravention of the stipulations in force with other nations. The Spanish ministry were soon made sensible of the error it had committed, to persist in so dangerous a measure. This edict was in fact chiefly, if not solely levelled at the great number of Frenchmen resident in Spain. They were considered as so many emissaries of the ruling powers in France; and the boldness with which they avowed and defended the principles of the revolution, marked them out as individuals who would not scruple

to use every effort for their dissemination.

The National Assembly paid very little regard, either to this transaction, or to the many other proofs which they daily experienced, of the inimical intentions of the European powers. The main object of their politics was, to re-unite the different parties, into which the revolutionists were now divided; fully convinced, that were this to be accomplished, they would have no cause to dread the exertions of any foreign powers in behalf of the royalists. The strength and credit of these were daily diminishing in the most obvious manner, while the popular party were everywhere gaining ground, The people in the country of Avignon, after a violent and bloody struggle with what they termed the aristocratic party bad at length totally subdued it; and what was no less satisfactory to them, had succeeded in their earnest wishes to be incorporated with the French nation. The Assembly formally acceded to them; and passed a decree to that purpose, providing however for a due compensation to the court of Rome. The same success had attended the partizans of the revolution in Corsica. The municipality of the city of Bastia, the capital of the island, consisting chiefly of ecclesiastics and nobles deprived of their titles, had the temerity to engage in a plot against the revolutionists, notwithstanding their great superiority. The issue was, that on the discovery of their designs, they were immediately compelled to abandon them, and to provide for their own safety, by flying over to Italy. The celebrated General Paoli was principally