rendu sur la proposition formelle et nécessaire du roi, et ensuite sanctionné par sa majesté.'

As this decree left to the king the prerogative of announcing to the national assembly the necessity of war and peace, which could not be at all deliberated on by them until he laid it before them; and as, after the government came to be in some degree settled, it was naturally supposed that his majesty would have considerable influence on the decision of the question; those who supported the royal prerogative were not so completely defeated on this occasion as the populace imagined; who, as soon as the decree was passed, celebrated it as a victory with all their usual demonstrations of joy. Some thought the joy ridiculous, and considered those as a parcel of dupes who looked on this as a triumph.

Without examining whether the popular party had gained a victory or not, we cannot think the people were duped who rejoiced as if they had; for, as the only enjoyment which the people of any nation derive from the most indisputed victories they ever obtain consists in the exultation, illumination, and intoxication of a public rejoicing, it does not seem to be ill judged in them to secure these at all events.

Even the English people, though not so apt as the French to be thrown into transports of joy, are sensible of this, and never allow any thing that can be construed into a victory to escape without a public rejoicing. And as real victories have not occurred of late so often as could be wished, if such an account has sometimes been given of defeats that they passed for victories, and made the people rejoice, who can blame the fabricators of so benevolent a fraud?

The right of declaring war and concluding peace belongs to the nation; war cannot be decided on but by a decree of the legislative body, in consequence of a formal and necessary proposition made to them by the king, which must be afterwards sanctioned by him

CHAPTER XX.

Preparations for the Ceremony of the Confederation-Duke of Orleans returns to Paris-Offence taken at the manner of distributing Tickets-Ceremony-Jealousy and Misunderstanding between the Officers of the Troops of the Line and the National Guards-An Insurrection at Nancy-M. de Bouillé ordered to march to that Town-Heroic Action of a young Officer-Dreadful Scene of Slaughter-Effect it produced at the Capital.

WITH a view to make a deep and lasting impression on the public mind, and to connect the revolution with agreeable, magnificent, and religious sentiments, a great public ceremony had been in preparation for some time. On this occasion the king, the national assembly, and the people were to take an oath to maintain the cause of liberty and the constitution, of which the chief articles were already known.

Another reason for this ceremony was, that those provinces which had enjoyed peculiar privileges were supposed to be irritated at their being deprived of them, and in hopes of having them restored provided the new division of France into departments could be overset: it was therefore thought that so remarkable a ceremony, being performed in each separate department, would mark the division with force in the minds of the people; while making them all take the oaths to maintain the constitution, of which the division into departments was an article, would render them averse to any attempt that might be made to alter that arrangement.

The 14th of July 1790, on account of its being the anniversary of the taking of the Bastile, was fixed upon for the day of this ceremony, and the extensive plain of the Champ-de-Mars for the place in which it was to be celebrated. It was thought expedient to shape the ground into an amphitheatre of such prodigious extent as should admit the multitude who were to be spectators of, or, ac

cording to the French phrase, to assist at, the ceremony.

Expectation was wound up to a height that attracted numbers not only from the distant provinces of France, but strangers from many other countries of Europe: among others the duke of Orleans, to whom a spectacle of this kind was a matter of the first importance. The idea of being absent from such an exhibition becoming insupportable, he wrote a letter to the president, which was read in the national assembly, announcing that, the object of his mission to England being now ended, he had informed the king of his intention to return-that he had thought it proper to give the assembly the same noticeadding that, if they should not think it necessary to deliberate on the subject, he should consider that as a permission for him to return. The assembly threw their eyes on M. La Fayette; but although he had privately used means to prevent the duke from this step, he did not think proper to oppose it openly, and therefore he declared that the reasons which had rendered the duke's absence from France expedient did not any longer exist.

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The partisans of the duke of Orleans had been for some time pressing him to return, and were prepared to raise an outcry if it should be resisted the court therefore declined any contest which might be attended with more troublesome consequences than could result from the duke's presence, especially as his popularity was considerably diminished; and many believed that the eagerness he shewed for returning had no motive more profound or dangerous than his passion for seeing a fine show. No objection being made, the assembly passed to the order of the day, which was construed into a permission for his returning to Paris, and he returned accordingly.

But the formation of the amphitheatre for the confedertion being a work of immense labour, the Parisians began to be afraid, a month or three weeks previous to the 14th of July, that it would not be ready so soon. The inhabitants of Vienna or London might have been con

soled under the apprehension of a similar misfortune by the reflection, that, if it should not be ready by the 14th of July, it would by the 14th of August: but such a consideration afforded no comfort to the Parisians; they lost all patience at the bare mention of it; it was like telling a company of children, when a feast of fruit and sweet-meats is ready to be served up to them, that they should have them on some future day. To prevent so dreadful a calamity, some of the most zealous citizens of fered their gratuitous labour to accelerate the work; the applause they met with excited others to follow their example; and in a short time the same desire glowed in every breast, of both sexes, every condition, and all ages. The field of the confederation became the only place of public resort all amusements and employments were neglected for those of wielding the spade and the pick-axe, and the most dissipated town in the world became at once the most laborious. Every district and corporation marshalled the volunteers belonging to them under their respective banners, and marched them daily to the field. Various clubs, societies, and associations, in fancy dresses suitable to the work they were to be employed in, went also in procession, preceded by musicians. Individuals in all situations in life, and of all religious persuasions, Jews as well as Christians, soldiers and priests, sailors and monks, judges and dancing-masters, bankers and beggars, poets, advocates, painters, actors, and tradesmen of every kind were seen working cordially together. There was as great a confusion of professions and trades at the forming of this same amphitheatre, as there was of tongues at the rearing of the tower of Babel, but the first, instead of preventing, promoted the work. Young women also of every denomination were daily seen tripping to the field with their gowns tucked, and belts of the national ribbon a round their waists. There the lover wrought by the side of his mistress, enlivened by her smiles, and encouraged by the tune of Ca ira.

The day of such vast expectation at last arrived; the

amphitheatre was formed with the altar in the middle; the throne of the king, a magnificent pavilion, and commodious seats for the queen and royal family, and the triumphal arches through which the various processions were to pass, were finished only two hours before the processions began.

At daybreak the citizens began to flock to the amphi- · theatre, which, it was said, was of sufficient extent to contain above three hundred thousand.

On the preceding night some of the districts had distributed tickets of admission to the wives and daughters of the most distinguished or most favoured citizens; and no less than four thousand of the national guards were ordered on duty at the field of confederation.

This produced discontent and murmurs. It was said that all the citizens had an equal claim to a place in the amphitheatre; that those who went first had a right to their choice of every place, except such as were destined for the persons in some public office; and the guards appointed on service at the Champ-de-Mars declared, that they would not oppose the entrance of any citizen whether he had a ticket or not.

When these declarations were known, the municipality thought proper to order it to be proclaimed in the middle of the night of the 13th, that the tickets which had been distributed were entirely useless; which made great numbers resort to the amphitheatre by break of day; and the guards, instead of opposing their entrance, endeavoured to amuse them during the long interval till the ceremony should begin, by military evolutions and dancing the carmagnole on the plain.

The great procession consisted of a band of music, a body of the national guards, cavalry as well as infantry, led by M. La Fayette, and followed by the electors of the city of Paris-the principal members of the municipality -the deputies to the national assembly-the deputies from one-half of the departments into which France had been divided-a deputation from the army and fleet,