T was not to be expected, that Mr. Daubeny's great work fhould pafs unnoticed, or unattacked. The writer of the prefent letter appears to be a Clergyman of the Church of England, of the Calviniftic perfuafion; he begins his letter with fome temper and moderation, but concludes it by feverely cenfuring Mr. D. for his cenfures on Mr. Wilberforce, and Mrs. H. More, malignant in their tendency, however pure in their motive (p. 42.) We have always understood that whatever. is pure in the motive will be benevolent in its tendency if proper means are used.

As this gentleman is a Calvinift, we are not furprised that he lays uncommon stress on the 17th Article, as his grand favourite, as holding an equal authority with the holy fcriptures, if not as fuperior to them.

The fact is, at the time of the reformation, fome of the compilers of the articles were Calvinifts, others were Armenians; with much temper and judgment they fo framed the articles as to embrace both, well knowing that a national church ought to ftand on a broad foundation. The original fortytwo articles were foon reduced to thirty-nine: had they been fewer still, more fimple, and more fcriptural, we know not that any one could have caufe to complain. The 17th Article has obviously been mifreprefented, has been perverted to purposes which the compilers never intended: it afferts nothing of unconditional election; it is totally filent about reprobation; and after all, it appeals to fcripture, and to fcripture alone, as the fountain of divine truth, and as the ftandard by which this and every other article must be meafured. If there be an apparent tendency to Calvinism in one part of the article, or rather in the title of it, there are other articles, which, as well as the general tendency of the liturgy, are pointedly on the oppofite fide. On the 31st. Article, we would put the fame question to this Minifter, which he puts to Mr. Daubeny, "How you furmount the difficulty which this article throws in your way, as a fubfcriber to its truth, while you feek to overthrow it from its bafis, is not my bufinefs to furmife." P. 4. This Minifter muft at times adminifter the holy facrament of the Lord's Supper. He fays to every individual communicant, the body of Chrift, which was given for thee: now, he believing the doctrines of "Predeftination and perfonal Election," how can he, with a fafe confcience, deliver the confecrated elements, and addrefs those words to every indivdiual, though he knows, to

the

the best of his judgment and belief, that the perfon is no one of the elect? But to bear and forbear is the wisdom of our church. The peculiar opinions of any individual, though fair objects of animadverfion, are not to be made the bed of Procruftes. Rafh men, of fallible judgment, and of narrow views, dare to affume the office of judgment and “deal damnation through the land" on all who differ from the little Pope which they have fet up for themselves.

The motive affigned by the author of this tract, for the concealment of his name, is wholly infufficient to couns terbalance the very ftrong reafons, which feem to us to dictate the neceffity of annexing it to fuch an attack.

ART. IX. Annals of the French Revolution; or a Chronological Account of its principal Events; with a Variety of Anecdotes and Characters hitherto unpublished. By A. F. Bertrand De Molville, Minifter of State. Tranflated by R. C. Dallas, Efq. from the original Manufcript of the Author, which has never been published. In four Vols. 8vo. 1. ros. in Boards. Cadell and Davis. 1800.

RECENT as are the events of the Revolution, they have

been in many inftances mifreprefented, their caufes investigated upon erroneous fuppofitions, and the authenticity of feveral interefting facts feemed to be loft with the lives of fome eminent ftatefmen under the Monarchy. The author of the work before us, from his connection with thofe Minifters, and from his own fituation in the Government, was one of the few to whom the public could look with confidence for complete information; and, indeed, it became incumbent upon him to throw every light in his power upon the hiftory of a period, which is deftined to form the most extraordinary portion of the annals of the human race, and to fix the attention of pofterity to the end of time. Nor has M. De Bertrand been infenfible of this duty. Upon his arrival in this country, having been forced from his own, by the events of the 10th of Auguft 1792, we find his first care was to addrefs letters and vouchers refpecting the innocence of Louis XVI. to the Prefident of the National Affembly. But as the fate of that unfortunate Monarch did not depend upon proofs of innocence, upon reafon or fenfibility; as the Na

* Avenou aтCHOU.

tional embly devoted him to death, and the Revolutionifts endeavouring to flain his memory by the moft atrocious calumnies. M. De Bertrand turned his thoughts from the ufelefs attempt of arguing with his delirious countrymen to the rational employment of his time and talents in repelling the odious charges brought againft his beloved Sovereign, and in defending the virtues and fame of the Royal Martyr,

With this view he arranged the events and anecdotes relative to the laft year of the reign of Louis XVI. during which period he was Minifter, and gave them to the public under the title of Private Memoirs.

From fuch an authority the hiftory of the preceding years of the Revolution could not but be extremely defirable, and it is with great pleasure we announce it in the volumes before us, which we do not hesitate to fay form the most complete and interefting, as well as the most authentic and elegant, work on the fubject of the Revolution, comprizing, with the Private Memoirs, a portion of hiftory unparalleled for the magnitude and rapidity of the events, for the intoxication of the chief actors in the fcenes it prefents, and for the eagernefs with which the most erroneous and deftructive principles were diffeminated and fupported, not only by thofe who had nothing to lose by them, but even by thofe whom they were formed to destroy.

As the title of the work informs us, the narrative confifts of a continued feries of facts in chronological order; and on thofe facts the author makes comments and obfervations, the juftnefs and acutenefs of which entitle him to a very high rank as a statesman and hiftorian. As the period of time he has prefented to his readers reaches no farther than to the death of the King, he has, in a fpirited introduction, given a rapid sketch of the fucceffive revolutions which have taken place fince that mournful catastrophe. He begins by thewing the difference between the French Revolution and all preceding ones. Formerly the deftruction of one government was followed by the establishment of another, more or lefs defpotic, but fettled, vigorous, and abfolute: in France, though at every change the fupreme power was completely fuperfeded, there was no ftability in the fucceeding government, fo that in fact the French revolution is a series of revolutions. Again, formerly popular infurrections and armies were the ufual means of a revolution, and they were machines in the hands of fome ambitious leader, who made ufe of them to put an end to revolutionary diforders and crimes as foon as his object was attained: in France the revolution

NO, XIX, VOL. V.

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was

was not the refult of any regular confpiracy or preconcerted plan to overturn the throne, or to place an ufurper upon it: but," fays M. De Bertrand, " it was unexpectedly engendered, if I may fo express myself, by a commixture of weaknefs, ignorance, negligence, and numberlefs errors of the government." From the fituation of the kingdom and the convention of the States-General, the public mind, previously disposed to fermentation by the licentious writings of fome eccentric men, was easily worked up to an explosion by the more artful, who began to perceive the probability of a change, though they neither planned the nature nor conceived the extent of any hence the clubs and affociations that took the direction of events: hence the Orleans' faction ; hence Necker's vain ambition, and La Fayette's three-coloured plume, white horfe, and famous revolutionary axiom, l'infurrection eft le plus faint des devoirs, quand l'oppreffion eft à fon comble, a faying fo miftimed under the mild monarch in whofe fervice he was, that one wonders how it could ever have been uttered by a man of common fenfe. The want of a regular plan and of a fpirited leader made way for that monfter which foon bore down all before it with its bloody talons and envenomed fangs need we add its name. But let us hear the birth of Jacobinifin from M. De Bertrand himself.

The revolution, at the period when the faction that had begun it for the Duke of Orleans became fenfible that he was too much a coward to be the leader of it, and when La Fayette difcovered his inability to conduct it, was too far advanced to recede or to stop; and it continued its progrefs, but in a line that no other revolution had taken--I mean, without a military chief, without the intervention of the army, and to gain triumphs, not for any ambitious confpirator, but for political and moral innovations of the moft dangerous nature; the most fuited to mislead the multitude, incapable of comprehending them, and to let loose all the paffions. The more violent combined to destroy every thing, and their fatal coalition gave birth to Jacob. inifm, that terrible monster till then unknown, and till now not fufs ficiently unmasked. This monfter took upon itself alone to carry on our revolution; it directed, it executed all the operations of it, all the explosions, all the outrages: it every where appointed the most active leaders, aud, as inftruments, employed the profligates of every country. Its power far furpaffed that which has been attributed to the inquifition, and other fiery tribunals, by those who have spoken of them with the greateft exaggeration. Its centre was at Paris; and its rays, formed by particular clubs in every town, in every little borough, overspread the whole furface of the kingdom. The conftant correfpondence kept up between thofe clubs and that of the capital, or, to ufe their own expreffion, des Sociétés populaires affiliées avec la Société mere between the affiliated popular focieties, and

F

the

the parent fociety,' was as fecret and as fpeedy as that of Freemafons. In a word, the Jacobin clubs had prevailed in caufing themfelves to be looked up to as the real national reprefentation. Under that pretence they cenfured all the authorities in the most imperious manner ; and whenever their denunciations, petitions, or addreffes, failed to produce an immediate effect, they gained their point by having recourfe to infurrection, affaffination, and fire. While Ja cobinifm thus fubjected all France to its controul, an immense number of emiffaries propagated its doctrines among foreign nations, and prepared new conquefts for it."

This fpirited sketch of the origin and nature of Jacobinifm is but an earnest of what the reader of the Annals may expect on that fubject as he proceeds in the hiftory, and fome portions of which we fhall, in the courfe of this Review, extract as happy fpecimens of the author's judgment and eloquence. After having, in an elegant manner, reduced into a narrow compafs the causes of the commencement and termination of the feveral revolutions; namely, ift. that which changed the government by the Conftitution of 1791; 2dly, that which took place in confequence of the 10th of Auguft 1792, and the dethroning the King, and to whom fucceeded the Committee of Public Safety; 3dly the defpotifm of Robespierre; 4thly. the Conftitution of 1795; 5thly. the defpotifm of the Directory; the author concludes his introduction with the prediction of other revolutions. As this prediction must have been written many months ago, as it is already in part verified by the entry of the new military monarch into the poffeffion of the palace laft occupied by Louis XVI. and as we fincerely hope that the reft of it will be fulfilled ere long, we will here prefent it to our readers.

"Though, in violating the most effential regulations of the Con ftitution, the Directory obtained a temporary confirmation of their power, their example has pointed out to thofe who wish to put an end to it, the path they muft purfue, as has the example of the two Councils, that which they must avoid. The factions adverfe to the prevailing one are crushed and intimidated, but not destroyed; and the annual change of a third of the Legislative Body, and of a member of the Directory, will produce new parties or invigorate the old. Thus the catastrophe of the 5th of September, far from having confolidated the Republic, or rather the defpotic Oligarchy that reigns in France, may be confidered as one ftep more towards monarchy. In fact, the country draws nearer to it in proportion as the public power becomes more concentrated, and it is at prefent more concentrated than ever it was. It is now no longer to be wrefted from the Popular Societies, from the Departments, from the Munici

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palities