Previous to the year 1789, from the extreme disorder of the finances, it became neceffary to raise money by extraordinary taxes, which the common powers of the parliament were deemed infufficient to authorise; and afraid, in the prefent temper of the people, to impofe upon them unusual burthens, minifters looked with folicitude for Some other fanctions.

Monf de Calonne was unwilling to adopt fo dangerous an expedient as affembling the ftates general*; he therefore adopted the expedient of fummoning an affembly of notables, or eminent perfons, chofen by the king from the different parts of the kingdom.

This affembly did not prove fo favourable to the meafures of the minister as he expected. M. de la Calonne was difplaced, and the affembly was foon after diffolved, having declared itfelf incompetent to decide on the taxes propofed. The king then commanded the parliament of Paris to regifler his edicts for fucceffive loans to the government; but his commands were rejected.

In the mean time, that spirit of difcuffing philofophical fubjects, which we have before mentioned, now fixed itself on politics. The people exclaimed against the weight of taxes, and the extravagance of courtiers; they complained of peculiar exemptions from the general burthens, and of grievances which arose from lettres-de-cachet, and other defpotic powers of the government.

The king, defirous of yielding to the wishes of the people, recalled M. Neckar to the adminiftration; and, in conformity to his advice, his majesty declared his refolution of convening the States General. But, in order to regulate all matters relative to the meeting of this important affembly, it was refolved to convoke the notables a fecond time. Among thefe a diverfity of opinion ap peared refpecting the comparative number of deputies to be fent by the commons, and the two other orders; the cardinal point on which the whole fuccefs of the revolution eventually turned. All the claffes into which the notables were divided, decided for an equality of deputies, except thofe in which Monfieur and the Duke of Orleans prefided.

In these it was agreed that the reprefentatives of the commons fhould be equal in number to those of the other two ftates. The miniftry were of opinion, that this double reprefentation was adviseable, and perfuaded themfelves that, through their weight and influence, they should be able to prevent any mifchief to be apprehended from this preponderance of the tiers-etat. By their advice the king iffued an ordinance, in January 1789, throughout the whole kingdom, commanding the people to affemble in their bailiwicks, and to nominate deputies to reprefent them in the States General, viz. 300 for the clergy, 300 for the nobility, and 600 for the commons.

* An affembly confifting of deputies from the three orders of citizens in France; namely, the clergy, the nobility, and the tiers etat; which laft included every French citizen who was not of the clergy or nobility.

N. B. The firft legislature, which was called the National Affembly,' has now the name of the Conftituent Affembly.'-The fecond is called the Legislative Affembly;' and the third legislature is called the National Convention.'

The journal, or hiftorical epochs, recorded as fummarily as thofe in common almanacs, takes up 143 pages of the volume before us; nor, fo pregnant was the period in extraordinary events, following each other in rapid fucceffion, are there many of the facts or events, all of them related in due chronological order, if any at all, that one could wish to have been omitted.

This part of the work before us is divided into four chapters: the first comprehending the space from March 1787 when the Affembly of Notables first convened under the miniftry of M. de Calonne, comptroller-general of the finances, to the 4th of October 1791, when the fecond affembly, confifting of 700 members, took the name of the National Affembly, and was opened by the king in perfon. The fecond, from that period to the 20th Sept. 1792, the first fitting of the third legislature, confifting of 745 members, which took the title of National Convention. The third chapter extending from thence to November 1795; when the new legislature, or fourth affembly of the French, entered upon its office. It was compofed of a legiflative body of 500 members; of a council of ancients of 250; of an executive directory of five members; and of fix minifters, viz. for the interior department, for the war, for juftice, for the admiralty, for foreign affairs, and for finances. The fourth chapter, reaching from thence to the end of 1795, records the first acts of the new legiflature. The laft here recorded, of that period, is, 'Cambon, to exculpate himself from charges of mifconduct, publishes an account, fetting forth that, during forty-four months of his adminiftration, there were iffued only 11,578,056,623 livres in affignats, and in the ten months and a half after him there were iffued, t 17,852,226,000 livres in affignats.'

The JUDGMENT of Louis XVI. &c. takes up the remaining 113 pages, and may be confidered as the fecond part of this volume.

In the National Convention of France, on the 17th, 18th, and 19th days of January 1793, the three following questions were fucceffively put to the vote.

Question the First.

Is Louis guilty or not

• Of the 745 members of the Convention, 20 were absent, 5 fick, 37 gave modified opinions, 693 voted in the affirmative.

Prefident.

Prefident. I declare, in the name of the National Convention, Louis Capet to be found guilty of a confpiracy against the liberty of. the nation, and of an attempt to disturb the public fecurity.

" Question the Second.

• Shall the fentence to be paffed upon Louis be referred to the fan&tion of the people?

The refult of the appeal nominal on this question was, 3 fick, 20 abfent, 10 refufed to vote, 283 voted for and 224 against it.

Prefident. I declare, in the name of the National Convention, that its fentence fhall not be fubmitted to an appeal to the people.

Question the Third.

• What punishment shall be inflicted upon Louis?

The appeal nominal for the definitive fentence by departments.

N. B. The first column expreffes the name and quality of the voters; the fecond, the manner in which they gave their votes; in the third, thofe who voted for death abfolutely are distinguished by the mark t; thofe for death with reftrictions as to the time, by O; abfentees (a); not voted (nv); fick by (m): the fourth column fhews the fate or punishment of many of the members; A fignifying affaffinated; G guillotined; I imprisoned; M maffacred; P profcribed; and S fuicides.'

This collection of bare facts, of naked and unadorned, but alfo unwarped and unperverted truths, is the jufteft picture that has yet been exhibited of the French revolution. It is interefting to the present generation, and gratifies curiofity at a very fmall expence; not of money only, but, what is of more value, of time. It is unencumbered with the eloquence, the paffions, the prejudices, and, we may add, with the philofophy, of journalifts and more legitimate hiftorians. It is the fkeleton, the anatomy, of the French revolution. To the future hiftorian it will be highly useful, by ascertaining both facts and dates, and indeed by marking out the natural and just courfe of narration. The author has been fcrupulously attentive to truth, diligent, accurate, and, in his felection and enumeration of facts, judicious. In a word, this manual fhould be in the hand of every one who wishes to have a clear idea of that torrent of events which make up the French revolution; and in every library that pretends to be a repofitory of what is moft memorable and interesting to mankind. It is printed for the author; and we wish and pray that it may have as good a fale as it deferves.

ART. XI. Sketch of a Political Tour through Rochester, Chatham, Maidstone, Gravefend, &c. Including Reflections on the Tempers and Difpofitions of the Inhabitants of thefe Places, and on the Progress of the Societies inftituted for the Purpose of obtaining a Parliamentary Reform. By John Gale Jones. pp. 120. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Jordan. London, 1796.

I

Fear,' fays Mr. Jones, in a letter fubjoined to his tour, I poffefs fufficient vanity to acquit me of incapacity, and have experienced too much flattery to be capable of forming a proper judgment.' Difficult, indeed, it is for youth to withstand the luxury of praife; and hardly is it feen that the exultation of inexperience perceives and cherishes the fuggeftions of judgment. And though we are not difpofed wholly to confirm the first part of this writer's obfervations on himself, we fear there is too much juftice in his conclufion. A few years reflection will probably convince him of the intemperance of this remark, when, on vifiting the French prifoners, who were about to bow on his departure, he prevented them by faying, a freeman fhould never bow to a flave. Much as we reprehend this obfervation, the reader fhould be told that we have not put it in italics. No: Mr. Jones has done it, left-what other reafon could he have?-it fhould lofe its proper force. So, an Englishman is a flave. But the author might mean to caprice and diffipation: to thofe, awful as the times are, he ap pears to be under a very melancholy fubjection. There are numerous other affertions which Mr. Jones may, hereafter, fee the propriety of retracting. From this Tour we learn, that univerfal fuffrage, and annual parliaments, are the profeffed objects which the London Correfponding Society, and their friends, propofe to obtain, even though it should be at the bazard of their lives!! Truly, this is a ftrong determination. When Mr. Jones fhall have formed a clofer intimacy with the beft writers on ethics and government, we hope to find less to object, both to his political and religious tenets. He is now an amufing, though not an inftructive author: in ftyle, free from affectation; which is, at prefent, no fmall praise, and may become, with diligence and ftudy, worthy of higher attention.

ART.

ART. XII. Obfervations upon Military and Political Affairs. Written by General George Monk, afterwards created Duke of Albemarle. Illuftrated with engraved Plates. pp. 222. 8vo. White. London, 1796.

OF this republication of General Monk's Obfervations the following account is given in an introduction:

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The editor, who refcued from obfcurity and oblivion General Lloyd's celebrated Rhapfody on the Invafion and Defence of Great Britain and Ireland,' has the pleasure of conferring upon his country another obligation of the fame fort, of refloring to it another loft treafure. General Monk, a character more confpicuous than even General Lloyd, acted his brilliant part on the theatre of British politics and warfare during the most turbulent period of the feventeenth century, and about one hundred years earlier than Lloyd. The prefent military and political compendium was published, as appears by the dedication, fome years after the author's death. The manufcript feems to have been completed and tranfmitted, with his laft corrections, to the care of Lord Lifle, during the General's two years confinement in the Tower, by the republican and triumphant faction, with whom he afterwards, in appearance, coalefced. He was then arrived at a stage of life when the judgment is mature, and had been initiated in the rudiments and practice of the military art in Spain, Flanders, and Ireland. This treatife is quoted in Walpole's collection; but its merits were not fufficiently known nor appre ciated.'

The editor goes on to trace feveral features of fimilitude be tween Monk and Lloyd:

Both had raised themselves by merit alone to the command of armies, and, as it were, to legislate, in a military capacity, to ftatefmen. Both are equally ftrenuous in recommending pikes to defend infantry against cavalry, and to cover the flanks of the latter on the wings of an army; both direct the combination of hand and miffile weapons, pikes, and mufkets, and inculcate the neceffity of defenfive armour. But there is a material difference between thofe two authors in their plans for profecuting an offenfive war, and for the conqueft of any hoftile country. Monk advises, after fecuring a convenient frontier poft, or a good fea-port and depot, if you approach by fea, a prompt attack on the metropolis; Lloyd, on one of the enemy's remote provinces, fuited for fubfiftence, defence, and communication, and to proceed by wary approaches to the capital.Much, I think, might be alleged from hiftory, fcience, and the

relative

The editor might have illuftrated the wifdom of MoNK's fyftem by two ftriking events. King William III. by marching 'directly