hall once more be the wretched victim of faction, and perhaps of civil war.

To thefe errors may be added another scarcely lefs fatal, the feffion of the legislature in the metropolis, that dreadful theatre of fedition and tumult, that vortex of diffipation, vice, and corruption. The propenfity of the Parisians alfo to political difcuffion, and to political affociations, is an ill-boding circumftance. The government of clubs has before, and may again, fuperfede that of the conftitution.

Should the prefent conftitution of France be fubverted, the change will probably be an advance towards its former defpotifm, rather than an enlargement of that liberty which the people have endeavoured to establish. The changes, on the contrary, which may be expected in other countries, will certainly, in the prefent temper of mankind, be fuch as fhall relax the bands of oppreffion, arreft the progrefs of cruelty, and in fome refpect improve the condition of man. Thefe changes will first take place in the fmaller ftates, where the people naturally maintain a clofer intercourfe, and have fentiments more in common and better known to each other than in larger communities, where, confequently, the difcontented party will be able to form itself into a more compact and more efficient body. Yet the combinations which we have intimated to have been formed among the more powerful states, and which, in our next volume, we fhall be able more diftinctly to explain, may perhaps precipitate even their own fate, and produce an effect directly oppofite to the intention of their framers.

In the mean time, that fupreme invifible Providence, whofe omni1796.

fcience mocks the fhort-fighted policy of men, may interpofe fuch events as fhall render abortive the fond vifions of the most accomplished statefman. Such an event we have flightly noticed in the course of this chapter, the death of the emprefs of Ruffia. This extraordinary woman terminated a life of fixty-feven years, and a reign of forty-four, on the 6th of November, 1796. Her death was generally afcribed to an apoplexy, attended with an extravafation of olood; for, on the morning of the 5th, fhe was found by her attendants fenfelefs on the floor of her private clofet. To enter into the detail of her hiftory, would be to narrate the principal political tranfactions that have convulfed the European world for a series of years; and, yet it is from her life that her character would be best appreciated. The means by which fhe afcended the throne are well known: they are written in blood, and bear that hideous character, by which the voice of God and na ture has defignated the most flagrant of human offences. Yet if ambition prompted her to crimes, we must in candour allow that wan ton cruelty was not one of her, vices; and that, if she was an ufurper and a defpot, fhe ftill was not a tyrant.

The adherents of her husband found their fidelity to their mafter overlooked by the clemency of her whofe defigns they had oppofed; and fome, whom a mind of lefs compafs and generofity would have facrificed to its refentments, were attached by honours and rewards.

Unfortunately, ambition in a sovereign is commonly more fruitful of human mifery than the most frightful tyranny; and the blood which was fhed by Catherine T

during

during a reign of almost uninterrupted warfare, bears a more decided teftimony to the natural or habitual depravity of her heart, than the moft capricious exceffes of the worst of the Roman tyrants. To accomplish her ends, too, fhe feldom hesitated with refpect to the means with her, weakness was always a crime; and to want the means of defence was fufficient at all times to excite her rapacity. In common with her affociates, the defpots of Austria and Pruffia, her memory muft fhare in all the infamy attendant on the plunder of Poland; and while the approved the horrid and difgufting maffacres of Ifmael and Warfaw, fhe becomes an acceffary in the crime.

Of her talents the world have conceived much more favourably, than of her principles; and with juftice. Yet he was a perfon of more ability than of wifdom; and her conduct evinced that he was either deficient in found information, or that her judgment was the dupe of her paffions. It was not an acceffion of territory that Ruffia wanted; it was population, induftry, and the arts of civilized lite, all of which the military fyftem is directly calculated to retard. Though the acted, however, upon a mittaken fyftem, yet it must be confeffed that her meafures were not purfued upon the fame weak, narrow, and indecifive principles, which characterize those of the other courts of Europe; and her policy in engaging the neighbouring potentates in an abfurd and abortive league against the French republic, while fe ftood aloof herfelf at a moft cautious diftance, if it was not great and honourable, was certainly not unwife. She, indeed, prided herfelf upon her di

plomatic abilities, and regarded with contempt the majority of modern facefmen. For the talents of the prefent minifter of Great Britain, fhe is well known to have entertained no degree of refpect; and this humble opinion of the capacity of the perfon with whom the had to contend, may be feen in the whole of the negotiations refpecting Oczakow.

Of her internal regulations, fome are highly deferving of commendation, fuch as the reform which was undertaken at her command in the Ruffian system of jurifprudence; but in her arrangements in general there was more of oftentation than of utility. Her patronage of letters proceeded more from the love of flattery than of fcience : and (fo delufive is felf-love) while fhe expected, by her munificence to those whofe labours guide the fentiments and govern the opinions of mankind, to fecure herself a fituation high in the records of fame, it is by literary men that her character will be tranfmitted to pofterity as an object of execration.

Her death muft caufe a material alteration in the politics of Europe. It is probable that her ambitious fpirit would not much longer have regarded with quietnefs the aggrandizement of the French; unless that crooked policy, which he always purfued, had induced her to take advantage of the troubles of Europe, to crush and plunder fome of her exhaufted neighbours. The prince by whom he is fucceeded, has hitherto evinced in his conduct none of his mother's difpofitions, but her clemency and munificence. He appears to be a lover of peace, and has rendered himself dear to the friends of justice and humanity by his liberation of

the

the gallant Kofciufko, and the other brave but unfortunate patriots of Poland.

In reviewing the state of Europe at this eventful crifis, it would be a matter of ferious exultation to us, if we could difcover any thing which promised to restore to our depreffed country her ancient profperity, and to repair the injuries and mutilations which her ancient conftitution has fuftained. But the profpect is only pregnant with humiliation and with forrow. We fhall therefore content ourselves with once more ftrenuously entreating every Englishman to think (for it is his duty to think), and to examine the facts for himself. He who determines to act upon the judgment of others, is at leaft in danger of acting wrong; but he who weighs with an impartial mind the evidence on both fides, whatever may be his talents, will, in political affairs, feldom fail of forming a juft conclufion. Nothing in deed can be more injurious than that defpicable empiricifm which would perfuade the people that fuch an examination is above their capacities, or that politics is a science removed out of the vortex of common fenfe; and the maxim is the more abfurd and pernicious, when we reflect that the active powers of government are often exercifed by men whofe abilities and whofe in formation are even inferior to those of others who dare not perhaps reafon on their conduct. The evidence to which we refer will be found in the debates of parliament; there, every argument is urged by the ableft advocates on both fides; there, every falfe affertion may refuted; there, every dubious principle is acutely inveftigated. On this account we have always been particularly attentive to this de

be

partment of our work; fince no man can be well and accurately, informed on the ftate of public affairs, who has not carefully perufed and impartially examined the tranfactions of parliament.

Though, however, we wifh not to influence the judgment of any. reader, we may yet be permitted to direct his attention to certain points, as more interefting in the inveftigation than others, and indeed as abfolutely neceffary to the forming of a correct judgment on the prefent ftate of this country.

The most immediate and preffing object of inquiry undoubtedly refpects the origin and caufes of the prefent war, and whether it was in its commencement neceffary or not. As the first excute for interfering in the difpute with France was the propofal for opening the Scheldt to the Low Countries, the fair inquirer will firft afk, whether the fecuring to the Dutch the exclufive navigation of that river was a reasonable object on which to lavish millions of British treafure, and to shed occans of Britifh blood? The next pretext was the decree of the 19th of November 1792; and the natural inquiry will be, why we were more immediately interested in that decree, than other nations which happily 'contented themfelves with a prudent neutrality? He will next afk, whether on thefe topics every reafonabile fatisfaction was not offered by M. M. Chauvelin and Le Brun? whe-_ ther M. Maret's million was not to put into the hands of the British minifter a fecure and valuable pledge of peace? and why the humble folicitations of Le Brun, after hoftilities had commenced, were reiccted with a childish arrogance, almoft bordering on infanity?

Thefe

Thefe are facts, and to facts only, on fuch an occafion, it can be right to appeal. But it is moft ftrangely alleged further, that we were befet at this unfortunate crifis by a number of domeftic enemies, and that thefe could only be fubdued by a foreign warfare. The argument is worthy of the cause, and of its author; for it needs only to be fairly ftated, to appear ridiculous. We confefs that to us the answer of M. Le Brun always appeared to fuggeft a much easier and more rational remedy:-"If you have bad citizens among you (faid he) have you not laws to coerce them?" The candid inquirer will, however, not fatisfy himself either with the affertion or with the reply. He will require clear and decifive information refpecting the real ground of apprehenfion from domeftic enemies. He will afk, whether minifters might not be deceived themfelves, or whether they might not conceive it their intereft to deceive others? He will ask who were thefe domeftic enemies, and of what defcription? He will find, on inveftigating evidence, that, in the latter end of 1792, fome tradefmen and mechanics in the metropolis, not exceeding a thoufand, and fcarcely amounting to that number, affociated together for the purpose of promoting a parliamentary reform; and about half the number in Sheffield and its vicinity. That fome fpeculative republicans might mingle in thefe focieties, is poffible; yet he will remember that the most furious republican fentiments generally proceeded from the fpies whom adminiftration thought proper to employ in thofe focieties. He will find that

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Yet let us not be hafty in our conclufions, let us weigh the arguments on every fide. It has been afferted that enough was proved to evince the dangerous designs of thefe anti-conftitutional focieties*:

it has been proved that they fought a parliamentary reform;and a parliamentary reform, it is alleged, is the next step to a revolution. This is indeed a wide and ferious topic of difcuffion; but it is not neceffary to investigate it here. The project of parliamentary reform, whatever it be, is the child of Mr. Pit,-if not the natural, at leaft the adopted offspring of that minifter; he introduced it into public notice, he brought it into fafhion. For its merits or demerits he is refponfible. He has not yet formally difclaimed it; he has quibbled about the time, but he has not manfully retracted his error, if it be one; and let it not be faid that what was wholesome, nu. tritive, and pleasant, in 1782, could be poisonous and fatal in 1793. If a parliamentary reform lead to a republic, if its natural tendency be to that form of government, in

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