My motive for referring to this difhonourable contest is not for the purpofe, &c. p. 63. The political fituation of Ruffia is very different to what it was,' p. 127. This perverfion of the natural meaning of the word to in connexion with different, he invariably ufes.-Is it neceffary to inform this voluminous writer, that we fay, one thing is like, or like to, or like unto another; but that a thing is different from another?

On the whole, Mr. Miles is not fo much deficient in natural quickness, comprehenfion, and vigour of mind, as in found judgment and tafte: which laft quality is feldom acquired but by a liberal and learned education; an advantage that our author does not appear to us to poffefs.

He talks, in different parts, of fettling accounts, and retiring from the world; but in others he fpeaks of a temporary retreat, preparing him to return to the field of politics with recruited trength-fo that it is not wholly improbable that we may have more laft words of Mr. Baxter.

ART. XIV. The Hiftory of Jacobinifm, its Crimes, Cruelties, and Perfidies: comprising an Inquiry into the Manner of diffe minating, under the Appearance of Philofophy and Virtue, Principles which are equally fubverfive of Order, Virtue, Religion, Liberty, and Happiness. By William Playfair, Author of the Commercial and Political Atlas, &c. pp. 814. 8vo. 10s. 6d. boards. Debrett. London, 1796.

INDER the title of a Hiftory of Jacobinifm we have here the hiftory of the French revolution, beginning with those remote caufes which undermined the ancient monarchy, until the fall of Robe.pierre.

I nere have been feveral hiftories of the French revolution already written; and though the tranfactions to which it has given birth are too recent to be recorded with that regularity, and with the other advantages, which time procures; yet they are too important to be left entirely to the care of diurnal prints, or other periodical publications.

The evidence of cotemporary hiftorians, as well as their opinions, are liable, it is certain, to fufpicion, on many occafions; yet, without them, what fort of a figure would the remote historian make? We must in justice allow, that if time clears up many facts, and gives us a more general view of things, it alfo dims many objects, particularly in what relates to perfonal cha racters, and thofe minute traits which can be feen and known only by those who live at the time, and most perfectly by those

who

who have been witneffes to fome of the tranfactions, and acquainted with fome of the perfons who have played an active part.

The prefent revolution is more favourable to the cotemporary hiftorian than the ordinary tranfactions of nations; because, fo far as they relate what the French themfelves have done, they find that there has not been much attention paid to fecrecy in any cafe, and that, in most, the greateft publicity has been courted and employed.

The fecrets of cabinets envelope the caufes of events from the hiftorical obferver on many occafions; and, as diplomatic manœuvres are often very artfully managed, nations refemble two antagonists playing with fmall fwords in an obfcure chamber. The thruft that does the bufinefs is unperceived by the parties themselves, and the precife truth is never known. But the bafis of the French revolution being public difcuffion, and agents having been selected without caution or difcrimination; in a word, as it has been the publication of the many, and not the private artifices of the few, this revolution is not difficult to be underftood; and therefore historians will have a great advantage, both in the number and diftin&tnefs of the documents which ferve them for materials.

This hiftory feems evidently written with the intention of fhewing, that the miftaken theories and falfe rules and maxims adopted by the French have led to thofe crimes, extravagancies, and miferies, which that unfortunate nation has experienced.

Our author, who appears to be a great enemy to arbitrary monarchy. is not lefs fo to that exercited by the reprefentatives of the people under a republican form. He appeals to facts to prove, that, fince the revolution began, the nation at large has been the flave of clubs, or of the tyrants exalted by clubs; and he infifts upon the danger to real liberty, when any feif-elected portion of a nation forms itself into a confederation, as the clubs have done, in order to control government. All conftitutional and fair control muft emanate from the people at large; 'and it is evident the people at large can never be members of daily correfponding focieties; and therefore, if thofe daily corresponding focieties have any power, that power is, in its principle, contrary to true liberty.

Upon this important fubject let the author speak for himself:

In the first moments of the revolution, when the Affembly was only occupied in pulling down the ancient fyftem, the emiffaries of the clubs were every where much more popular than the magistrates, who were fufpected of attachment to the ancient government; and as the Affembly proceeded in organifing the new government, care

was

was taken to preferve the power of the clubs, by putting fo many forms and delays in the way of the executive government, that it was impoffible for it to put in force any measures that were not agreeable to the clubs. The king, according to the conftitution which was afterwards made, could not fend any orders directly to those who were to execute them; the minifter for the home department must correfpond with the directors of the department into eighty-three, of which France was divided; thofe directors, when affembled, muft apply to directors of districts, which were fubdivifions of the departments; and, laftly, these were to give their orders to the municipalities. The time for putting in execution fuch orders was more or lefs, according to circumstances, but was in all cafes confiderable; whereas the Jacobin club of Paris could write directly to the club in the municipality, and either be prepared to fupport or oppofe the measure in quellion. Thus it was that the failing of troops from Breft, to protect the proprietors of St. Domingo, was prevented, by an order of the Abbé Gregoire and M. Briffot, who excited the municipality to disobedience before the orders of the minifter could arrive. Thus M. Necker was ftopped by the Jacobin club at d'Arcy fur Aube, when he left France in 1790; and in the fame manner, every day, there were acts of oppofition to the established government in different parts of the kingdom.

It would be very difficult to conceive any method of more effectually governing defpotically a people under the appearance of liberty, than this: it is true, that there is no great depth of judgment neceffary to see through it; and nothing is more certain, than that vaft numbers of people did fee through it; that even the lower class was not entirely deceived; but then it was too late. What remedy could be applied? The many-headed monfter had fwallowed up the monarchy, and covered the whole of France; and what could the opinion even of 1 majority of individuals do against it, when unconnected, and without any poffibility of uniting? Before any party could obtain a fufficient degree of ftrength to make head against the Jacobins, they could eaf y be crushed, as, indeed, the moderates and the conftitutionalifts always were; for the Jacobins kept the correfpondence and the place of meeting to themselves, and were by that infinitely removed from any danger from other clubs.

The government of the Jacobins was certainly strongest when it acted in concert with the Affembly, which it had, in general, the method of governing alfo, as we fhall prefently fee: but in fuch cafes as the Affembly did not agree with the club, the latter had a great advantage, becaufe the power of the Affembly, till after the King was entirely dethroned in 1792, was obliged to have recourfe to the circuitous mode, already defcribed, of the minifer, the departments, districts, and municipalities.

As long as there remained any regular form of government in France, under the King, the club was all-powerful, and was out of the reach of any danger, except that of a revolt in Paris, to which fort of events, all governments, whether defpotic or not, must be liable, in a greater or lefs degree. The Jacobin club, it is true, loft

a great

a great part of its importance and power, when the King being dethroned, the Affembly became a fort of club itself, and expedited its orders in the fame prompt manner: it was then, indeed, a different cafe; and had not the principles of the Affembly and of the Jacobins been the fame, the club must have fallen fooner than it did. It ought here to be obferved, that till the club had fairly brought the revolution to that pitch, that the Affembly became a club, it did not lofe either its power or importance; and when it did, it was rather a change of name than of nature that took place; for, at prefent, the neceffity of going on as they have begun, and of fupporting measures fo long adopted and applied, has rendered it unneceffary to continue with all that energy and force that was indifpenfable in the first moments of the revolution.

Such then was the organisation of the Jacobin club, which took its origin from Mirabeau, and its name from the convent of Jacobin monks, where the affemblies were held: and certainly whoever are its advocates in other nations, muft either be the friends of defpotism and anarchy joined together, or they must be totally ignorant of the real Jacobin government.

If there are any men who have been betrayed into an approba tion of the revolution by the appearance of liberty and philanthropy, which an affectation of philofophy and virtue gave to the decrees of the firft Affembly, and who are unwilling to believe that France groaned under fuch a great degree of delpotifm as that which we have been defcribing, let them fay, whether they have found any of the decrees adhered to, except when it fuited the general fyftem of deftruction and plunder. Individual liberty, and the protection of property, decreed by the Affembly, and included in their famous rights of man, were they ever attended to? and yet they are effential to liberty and order in fociety.

Will the greatest friend of the revolution fay, that it was entirely through ignorance that the conftitution was fo conftructed, as neither to be capable of being executed, nor of affording force to protect itself? No, that would not pafs; men who fucceeded fo well in most of their endeavours, could not be fo weak. They calculated that it was impoffible to be always reprefentatives of the people, but they might always be members of the club: it was therefore their intereft to have a feeble government, that they might have a powerful club; and the calculation had but one fault, which was, that in a ftate of confufion, fuch as they were creating, nothing could be permanent, every thing must be progreffive; and that though the club was the chef d'œuvre of the revolution, both for permanence and for power, ftill it must partake of the nature of the foundation on which it was built.’

The great importance of the connexion between caufes and effects, where the former feem to confift of the purest principles of philanthropy and philofophy, and where the latter turn out to be the degradation and mifery of the human race, will

6

induce

induce us to return to this fubject; for though Mr. Playfair may not have made fufficient allowance for the difficulty of eftablishing a new order of things, he very clearly traces the greater part of the evils that have come upon the French to the loofe and imprudent declaration of rights, which led the people at large into errors, and to the establishment of clubs, which enabled interested and intriguing men to govern their fellowcitizens, and to prompt them to crimes which are as ruinous as they are difgraceful. To appreciate the revolution fo as not to be led aftray by the falfe philofophy of the first National Affembly, is a matter of great importance: and it is evident, that a history upon the plan of that we are now reviewing, is the most likely to bring about that end; which we therefore recommend equally to the admirers of liberty and equality, and the partifans of courts, who are treated by the author with as little ceremony as the partifans of Robespierre. The eternal revolutions which a fyftem of infurrection brings on, are very properly contrafted with that uneafinefs and discontent which arife in thofe regular governments which allow abuses to multipy for fear of innovation, and which give no hopes of a change or diminution of the evils which naturally arise in old eftablished focieties, from the intricacies of law, and the neverceafing appeals to precedent, as if any thing merited to be preferved merely because it does exist; or as if precedent should ftand in place of law: evils which, we are forry to obferve, augment the difcontents of the most reasonable and peaceable fubjects of established governments.

[To be continued. ]

ART. XV. Obfervations on Mr. Paine's Pamphlet, entitled, The Decline and Fall of the English Syftem of Finance.' In a Letter to a Friend, June 4, 1796. By Ralph Broome, Esq. pp. 73. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Debrett. London, 1796.

IT

T has of late become quite the fashion for pamphleteers to convey their opinions upon fubjects of general concern to the public, under the form of a letter to a friend, or to fome indifferent gentleman who has nothing to do with the matter. Thus it was that Mr. Miles contrived to lug Mr. Duncomb into his charges against Mr. Burke, by interfperfing all his fcurrility with you and I, and my dear fir; which no doubt he confidered as a fort of counterpoife to thofe inimical expreffions