ly saluted by three hundred discharges of cannon; and a grand musical composition was prepared for the occasion. The vocal performers alone consisted of more than two thousand voices, and were accompanied by a proportionable band of instruments: nothing that French ingenuity could devise was wanting to the magnificence of this celebrated festival. All ranks joined in the festivity and what was peculiarly characteristic of Frenchmen, 100,000 citizens danced on the occasion. And on a tree planted on the old scite of the Bastile, was an inscription; which, being translated, runs in English thus:-we DANCE ON THE RUINS OF DES POTISM THE CONSTITUTION IS FINISHED-LONG LIVE PATRIOT ISM. The festival concluded with every species of rejoicings; to which the liberality of the King and Queen largely contributed. The proclamation made on this occasion was, in substance, that the important work of the constitution being at length perfected by the Assembly, and accepted by the King, it was now entrusted to the protection of the legislature, the crown, and the law; to the affection and fidelity of fathers of families, wives and mothers, to the zeal and attachment of the young citizens, and to the spirit of the French nation. In the midst of the applause which attended this long-desired promulgation of the new constitution, it was condemned with no less acrimony by its opponents. One hundred and twenty members of the Assembly entered a solemn protest against it, the day after it had been accepted; and their example was soon followed by other members. The person principally instrumental in this bold transaction was M. Depresminil, who had so much distinguished himself in opposing the revolution, and still continued its inflexible enemy in the face of every discouragement and danger. The party of which this gentleman shewed himself on this occasion so resolute an abettor, expressed an unqualified disapprobation of the King's conduct, which they attributed to the pusillanimous councils of those whom he honoured with his confidence. They did not even refrain from blaming the Queen as having advised the King to close the contest, by yield. ing to the popular demands. This they represented as an ungenerous desertion of those who stood by them with so much constancy, and who had so greatly suffered for their loyalty. But the public were now more than ever severe on that party; accusing it of covering, under the specious pretence of adhering to the throne, a restless determination to restore the old go. vernment, for the personal advantages which they hoped to derive from it; and by no means from any affection to the King, or any view to benefit the public. Hence, as that party consisted chiefly of nobles and of church dignitaries, it was considered as harbouring the very worst maxims of an aristocracy, and unworthy of being styled the friends of the King, whose real well-wishers were those who sought to pacify the kingdom, by giving it a constitution of which it evidently approved, and not such as would involve it in bloodshed, for the recovery of the power of which they had been deprived. Such were the recriminations on both sides. They were urged with equal vehemence, both in the Na tional Assembly and in all public and private meetings. It was often -apprehended that they would not -terminate in words alone, so violent was the animosity of both parties, and so ready to run into extremities. Notwithstanding the depression of those who were denominated aristocrats, they boldly and vigorously seized every occasion of maintaining their opinions in the Assembly. The nearer it approached to the term of its dissolution, the more determination they displayed in thwarting and embarrassing every measure that was proposed by the popular party. Next to the Abbé Maury, they had not a more resoJute and indefatigable opponent than M. Malouet. This gentleman was remarkable for his acuteness in bringing forwards such questions as he knew would perplex his antagonists, and in framing arguments that would require much Jabour and time to answer them. He persisted to the last in exerting his abilities against them, upon every subject that afforded him an opportunity. In the last investigation of the finances, previous to the Assembly's dissolution, he represented all who had been employed in that department as guilty of gross mistakes, and incompetent to the task they had assumed; and he explicitly denied the authenticity of their accounts. It was with much difficulty that matter was finally adjusted. The greatest efforts had been made to prejudice the public against the Assembly, and to detain it by force in the metropolis, till everyallegation respect ing the public revenue had undergone the strictest and most minute discussion. Happily for the Assembly, however, it found means to produce vouchers and documents for the propriety of its conduct in pecuniary matters, that proved satisfactory to the public, notwithstanding the vehement allegations of those who reprobated them, and who still resolutely continued to deny their validity, until they were compelled to desist by the obvious necessity of yielding to that deter mination which was enforced by such a majority of suffrages. This was the last effort of the aristocratic party before the final dissolution of the Assembly. In order to remove the suspicions that had been circulated to their disadvantage, they laid before the public a minute specification of all the money that had been levied and brought into the treasury, stating the amount, the disbursement, and the remainder. In confirmation of this statement, the committee of finance undertook to be responsible for its exactness to the ensuing legislature. According to the calculations that were published, the revenue of the kingdom, during the years 1789 and 1790, and the first half of the present year 1791, had produced a total of seventeen hundred and fifty-six millions of livres, of which seventeen hundred and nineteen had been expended. On the 30th of September, fixed for the dissolution of the Assembly, the King came to the House and took leave of them, in a very gracious and friendly speech, wherein he solemnly repeated his promises to maintain the constitution with inviolable fidelity. In consequence of this, a proclamation was issued the following day, enjoining in his name a steady and regular observance of the established constitution, that Europe might be convinced the French were de serving serving to be a free people. Thus, to speak as the revolutionists, ended the first true National Assemblythat ever sat in France since the foundation of the monarchy: all the Assemblies that had gone before, did by no means merit that honourable appellation in so perfect and complete a sense as the present. The proof that it was truly national was, that it did more for the good of the nation in the short space of little more than two years, than all the antecedent meetings had done in the course of fourteen centuries. It had destroyed despotism, and erected in its room a lawful monarchy; it had framed a constitution, founded on principles which provided equally for the happiness of every part of society. But their antagonists represented it as a factious assemblage of turbulent and ambitious individuals; who, to promote the scheme they had formed of seizing the government into their own hands, had thrown the kingdom into a state of anarchy; and, under the pretence of reforming abuses, had introduced the most unwarrantable and ruinous insurrections. France, from the most respectable and powerful monarchy in Europe, was now become the derision of its neigh bours: its credit was lost, and its strength existed no more: its new constitution was an illusive theory, which experience had already shown to be unreducible to practice: it had eradicated all subordination by consecrating the principle of insurrection, and, instead of a regular system of public freedom, had established only popular licentiousness. Such were the contradictory opinions touching this great revolution. Few persons were neutral in a business of so much importance to all, and fewer still impartial enough to consider it with coolness and candour. It was either applauded or condemned with a heat and violence that excluded all temperance of argument and liberality of discussion. The most judicious seemed to be those who, waving all reasonings, appealed to time as the only decider of the controversy; convinced that, in all political questions of such magnitude, as experience alone adduces the ultimate proof of what is pernicious or beneficial, it would be unpardonable temerity to judge by anticipation of an event that was little more than commencing, and had not therefore attained a state of maturitysufficient to induce prudent men to venture their opinions. СНАР. XI. The Chancellor of the Exchequer announces the prosperous State of the Finances of Great Britain. This Statement followed immediately by a Declararation of the Necessity of preparing for war with Spain. Reflections on tha annual Million for liquidating the National Debt. The Spaniards seize English Trading Vessels on the North-West Coast of America. Circumstances that induced and encouraged them to take that bold Step. Preparations for War on the Part of both Spain and Great Britain. Arguments for the Universal Liberty of that Commerce, and Freedom of the Ocean; and for a right of appropriating unoccupied Land, by Occupancy and Labour. Opposite Sentiments concerning Colonization at the Conclusion Conclusion of the American War, and in the present Period. A Vote of One Million for Military Preparations. Tone of the British Nation at the General Election for a New Parliament, 1790. N the 15th of April 1790, Mr. Pitt, Chancellor of the Exchequer, congratulated the British House of Commons on the prosperous state of the finance of the country, which he was that day enabled to lay before it, not upon speculation and conjecture, but from facts. We continued, he observed, to enjoy the blessing of profound peace and flourishing commerce. By the end of the current year, the annual income would be fully equal to the annual expenditure; while an accumulating sinking fund would, by a rapid operation, liquidate the public debt, already contracted. Scarcely were the panegyrics on the minister in consequence of such glad tidings pronounced, when he again came to parliament (5th) announced the probability of a war with Spain, and demanded a supply of money for the purpose of making the necessary preparations for that event, if it could not be avoided. The fair prospects held out by the mi nister began already to vanish; the efficacy of the annual million for a sinking fund, depended on the perpetuity of peace, or at least a peace of about half a century.* But wars, or alarms of war from that period to the present, have mocked the visionary plan of reducing so enormous a debt, by robbing Peter to pay Paul: making the public both debtor and creditor, and taking from the one hand to give to the other; while additional burthens, compared with which the operation of the sinking fund is only as a drop in the bucket, have from year to year pressed harder and harder. The armament against Spain was followed by an armament against Russia; and scarcely was the Russian armament dissolved, when we were involved in new armaments, on a greater and more expensive scale than ever. The cession of Minorca, the Floridas, and the whole Mosquito Shore, inflamed the pride of a nation that rested the glory of their monarchy At the time when Mr. Pitt established the sinking fund, a spirit of innovation and restlessness had gone forth into all civilized nations; and no minister could gain, or long preserve, any degree of popularity without doing, or seeming to do, or intend something in the way of reformation and improvement. It was probably in compliance with this spirit, that Mr. Pitt adopted the expedient of a sinking fund. As the French constitutionalists were led into an error by over-rating the virtue of their countrymen, so Mr. Pitt seems to have been led into a hopeless project by overrating the moderation and just and pacific dispositions of nations. Yet it is to be considered, that although this mode of liquidating the national debt be nugatory with respect to its professed object, and in fact a juggle, or, if we may say so, a financial sophism, yet it has had a substantial effect in propping public credit. This, from being the great medium of transferring property, has become a kind of money or property of itself. Its existence and value depends on an act of the mind; on belief, or faith and as it is thus of a metaphysical (and not like other kinds of money, a physical nature) it may be continued and multiplied as long as it is possible to operate on the human mind, either by the conclusions of reason, or the illusions of the imagination. monarch very much on the boundless extent of their territory, and who, with arms in their own hands, saw the British nation immersed in commerce, and her minister placing his stability chiefly in the accumulation of revenue: an object from which they imagined he would not be easily diverted. By seizing certain trading vessels, with their cargoes, in 1789, they took an emphatic protest against the settlement of the English at Nootka Sound, a portion of that coast, of which, in consequence of a famous paper bull, they claimed the exclusive property. The English had established a colony at Botany Bay, and a fishery near the coasts of Chili. They had now taken possession of Nootka Sound; nor would this, the Spaniards naturally supposed, be the last of their enterprizes in those quarters. Other nations (as the Dutch, Danes, and Swedes) if a timely check should not be given to the growing evil, might follow the example. The Spaniards, surrounded and intermixed with so many maritime powers, would lose their authority in South America; without which, since the decline of their industry and population, they would not possess any great weight in the scale of nations. The king of Spain was therefore induced to take the most vigorous measures, and run the risk of a war with a power much superior to his own, particularly on the element where the contest must be decided by a naval force, for maintaining an exclusive right to what was little better to him than a terra incognita, or than those regions in the heavens + which the bountiful complaisance of the first discoverers bestows not unfrequently on their respective sovereigns: but, perhaps, he could not have ventured on so bòld a line of conduct, if he had not been encouraged by a prospect of foreign assistance, arising out of the political circumstances of the grand European republic. It is certainly the interest of Portugal to remain a single and independent kingdom. The treatment which it experienced after it had fallen under the dominion of Philip II. of Spain, two centuries ago, has made an impression on the Portuguese nation, which would resist any design that might be formed by kings or courtiers for a second reunion of the two kingdoms. Such aprospect, however, must be highly pleasing, and therefore readily indulged by the court of Spain: which, being the larger beyond comparison of the two kingdoms, would of course become the sole ruler of both, according to the invariable rule that governs such connexions between superior and inferior states. Under such views, the marriage of the Infanta of Spain with the prince of Brazil, which was concluded in April, 1790, gave uncommon satisfaction to the court of Madrid; as it powerfully cemented a friendship, from which it might not only derive many present advantages, but which might be improved into the means of reuniting the whole Spanish peninsula into one noble empire. The * Plus Ultra, inscribed on a globe, the Spanish metto. +Such as the Georgium Sidus, &c. VOL. XXXIII. P situation |