ing battery; that he had informed him verbally and in writing, of the number of batteries in the ifland, their guns, their weight of metal, and by how many officers and men they were guarded; that he had given him a final chart of the island, in which the fand-banks, flats and depth of water were incorrectly pointed out, and had promifed to furnish him with one more accurate at the fame time he ftrenuoufly denied his having any accomplices. In confequence of this confeflion, the court found him guilty, and proceeded to pafs fentence on their prifoner.

In this stage of the bufinefs the matter was taken up by the states of Holland and Weft Friefland. In the night of the 26th of December, 1782, the unfortunate officer was fecretly removed from the prifon of the court of war to the prifon of the civil department. And on the 4th of May following, after that tedioufnefs of deliberation, which cha racterifes the government of this country, they abrogated the fentence, and fufpended the high court of war, in confideration of various inftances in which they had intrenched upon the civil jurifdletion, from the exercife of their functions, till the pleasure of the states general thould be known upon the fubject. This determination was particularly of fenfive to the stadtholder, who prefented a very pointed remonftrance upon the fubject. In the mean time it is not a little fingular, that this confpiracy, which gave occafion to fuch important proceedings, has at length appeared by the confeffion of the informer, to be purely his own invention; he having inveigled the young officer in hopes of the reward promised to the difcovery of trea, on, who on his fide incurred all the

guilt of a traitor to his country in per fect impotency and inconfequence.

The tranfactions of Holland were not beheld with an eye of indifference by the neighbouring powers. The king of Pruffia in particular repeatedly interfered in behalf of his nephew the ftadtholder, and was defirous, by the weight of his authority, perhaps by the terror of his arms, to mollify the apparent determination which the affemblies exhibited to diminish the prerogatives of their fovereign. A riot had hap pened in November 1782, in favour of the prince of Orange: for the populace were ftill attached to that illuftrious houfe, who had been fuch eminent benefactors to their country; and fome of the delinquents having taken refuge in the duchy. of Cleves, the ftates complained to the king of Pruffia of the protection extended to them. But that monarch, far from vouchfafing them the aufwer they defired, embraced this new opportunity, to exhort them "not to fuffer themfelves by groundlefs jealoufies to be precipitated into hafty refolutions, but on the contrary, to exert themselves to oppofe a dangerous and factious fpirit of innovation.”

In the midst of thefe convulfions of two old and rooted parties in the republic, a third party has arifen, animated by the example of North America, and by that fpirit of li berty and independence, which has lately diffufed itfelf in the world, in favour of democracy. The language of pure republicanifm has been held by its citizens. They have publicly talked of chufing delegates, and afferting the rights of nature. Their merchants and manufacturers have taken to the ufe of arms, and are daily improving themfelves in military difcipline. To judge from

the aufpicious contagion that has been caught from the revolution in America, we should be almost ready

to fay, one more fuch revolution would give freedom to the world.

XXII.

HE principal event in the hif tory of France for the year 1783 is the failure of the celebrated caiffe d'efcompte. This has been generally contidered as and object of the highest importance, and little lefs than equivalent to a national bankruptcy. We had heard much of late years of the good order of the French finances: and the praifes of Necker, the director general, had been founded from one end of the globe to the other. The fudden and unexpected reverfe has but ftruck mankind with fo much the greater force: they have imputed to this diftinguifhed ftatefiman the arts of a mountebank, have fufpected his moft boafted improvements of being vifionary and unreal, and inferred from this event a new cenfure of that pacification, upon which fo many of our countrymen have been folicitous to faften an indeliable odium. The event we have mentioned is of confiderable moment: and were it of much less, thefe circumftances would have tendered it extremely proper for us to go into fome detail upon the fubject. The news of the day is commonly fuccessful enough in communicating to us unreasonable alarms and temporary panics, without being afterwards extremely affiduous to draw afide the veil of error, or diffipate the mist of aftonishment. We will enter into a flight retrofpect in our elucidation of the subject,

ap

M. Necker merited all the plaufes he received. He was appointed to the fuperintendance of the finances in the clofe of the year 1776, and, though the government had then enjoyed an entire peace of thirteen years, he did not find them in a very flourishing fituation. Public credit had received a fevere fhock from fome tranfactions of the last years of Louis XV. and in the very year that was terminated by putting the adminiftration into the hands of Necker, the receipts of the treafury royal fell fhort of the difbürlements by one million fterl ing. The year 1777 was in fact a year of war to the treasury by the great preparations that were made for that purpofe, and the following years of administration were years of actual war.

In this fituation, M. Necker was the first to apply that most respectable of all maxims of finance, that economy is the fareft fource of abundance, He found in Louis XVI.

prince ready to fecond his patriotic views; and by operations of this and other kinds, which cannot here be detailed, he was able to change the excefs of disbursements of the year 1776 into an excess of revenue in the year 1786, to the amount of 445,00cl. And, though in 1776, in full peace, a four per cent. ftock fold at fixty, producing of courfe to the ftockholders an intereft of fix and five eighths per

cent.

equivalent to the notes in circulation. There was befides this the 500,000l. originally advanced by the projectors and never withdrawn; and there was a part of the dividends, which the proprietors had chofen to leave in the caiffe for the purpose of accumulation. Thefe circumstances had given the bank the highest degree of reputation, and caufed its flock to fell greatly above par But notwithstanding thefe appearances, to the aftonifh ment of the public, on the fecond day of October 1783, the caiffe d'efcompte ftopped payment. The affigned caufe was an uncommon fcarcity of fpecie; and it cannot be denied but that there is that in the nature of the caufe, which renders it capable of producing the effect afcribed to it. The public however imagined that the failure originated in a loan fecretly made to government by the caille d'efcompte. What confirmed them in the fufpicion of fuch a connection was, that about the fame time, the government themselves ftopped payment of the bills drawn upon them by their army in America. We are unable either to confirm or refute this idea.

The

Louis XVI. extended his protection to the falling company. Four edicts were published by adminiftra tion, tending to relieve the diftrefs under which it laboured. edicts bear date refpe&ively, September 27th, September the 30th, October the 4th, and October the 10th. By the first, the state of accounts of the caifle d'efcompte being affirmed to be as we have above related, this bank is authorised to pay its notes in bills of exchange with beneficial discount; the notes are ordered to have currency in the banks of Paris only; and all pro

fecution is forbidden, of the caiffe for payment in fpecie, and of individuals for debts, the payment of which has been tendered in notes of the caiffe d'efcompte: the edict is to be in force till the firit of January 1784. By the fecond, the ordinances against the exportation of fpecie are renewed; the transport of fpecie from province to province is fubjected to infpection and a fee; the bills with which the caiffe is permitted to pay its notes are fpecified to be bills payable in three months; and the caife is allowed the option of paying its notes in fpecie. By the third, an estimate is declared to have been taken by the king's command, which confirms the declaration of the first edict; the caiffe is allowed an option of discounting bills as hereto. fore, whenever they judge convenient; and as a farther encourage, ment, a lottery, with a stock of one million fterling, redeemable in eight years, being established, the tickets are made purchafeable in notes of the caiffe d'efcompte. In each of thefe edicts there is much repetition, and the fourth contains no original matter. Ta the circumstances they contain we have only to add, that the payment of the notes in fpecie appears never to have been entirely ftopped.

Nothing has ufually been found more fatal to commerce than the interference of government. But the caiffe d'efcompte was referved for a fortunate inftance, that this maxim is not univerfal. Though taken under the tuition of a king, it furvived the operation. By degrees it refumed thofe functions which had lately been fufpended. Its bufinefs has increased, its credit has rifen, and it feems to be now in as flourishing a ftate as ever. On

the