an endowment peculiar to his nature, did not intend to bar his application of it to the regulation of Society, in which his first wants, his molt univerfal interefts, are comprehended.

"It is impoffible," fome have faid, "to regenerate an old and corrupted Nation." Let us then teach them, that none are corrupted but thofe who wish the perpetuity of abuses which tend to corrupt; and that a nation renews her youth the very day in which fhe refolves to revive to Liberty.

Behold the new generation! How their hearts beat with joy and hope! How pure, how noble and patriotic, are their fentiments! With what enthufiafm do they prefs for the hogour of being admitted to take the Civic Oath!-But why should we answer fo wretched a reproach? Shall the National Affembly be reduced to excule itfelf for having not defpaired of the People of France?

66

Nothing has yet been done for the People," fome have dared to fay; yet it is the People's caufe which triumphs in every change. Nothing done for the People! Does not every abuse which has been destroyed, prepare, does it not fecure, eafe and relief to the People! Was there a fingle abufe that did not prefs upon them?

But they complained not." It was, because the excess of their ills ftifled their complaints.

"But their condition is now wretched." Say rather, it is ftill wretched. But it fhall not be fo long; WE SWEAR IT SHALL

NOT.

"We have deftroyed the executive power." No; fay rather the power of the Minifter; and it was that which destroyed, which often degraded, the executive power. The executive power is enlightened by us; we have pointed out its rights: above all, we have ennobled it by tracing them to their real fource, the People.

"It is now without force"-again ft the Conftitution and the Law. This is true; but in their favour it will be more powerful than ever.

"The People are armed." Yes, for their defence; this was neceffary." But from this, evils have in many places refulted." Can thefe evils be imputed to the National Affembly? Can it be reproached for difafters which it laments, which it would have prevented by all the force of its decrees, and which will foon" ceafe by the union of the two powers, from henceforward indiffoluble, and by the irresistible action of the united strength of the Nation?

"We have exceeded our powers." The answer to this is fimple. We were inconteftibly fent to make a Conftitution: this was the defire, this was the want, of all France.-Now, was it poffible to create this Conftitution, to form a whole, even an imperfect whole, by conftitutional decrees, without the plenitude of powers which we have exercifed?-But let us add: without the National Affembly, France had been ruined; without the principle which fubmits every thing to a plurality of free fuffrages, and which has governed all our decrees, it is impoffible to conceive a National Affembly; it is impoffible to conceive, we will not fay a Conftitution,

5

Conftitution, but even the hope of irrevocably destroying the fmalleft abuse. This principle is an eternal truth; and it has been acknowledged throughout all France; it has been expreffed in a thousand different ways in the numerous addreffes of adhesion, which ran counter to that crowd of libels in which we are re

proached with having exceeded our powers. Thofe addreffes, thofe avowals of homage, thofe patriotic oaths; what a confirmation are they of the powers of which our enemies would conteft with us!

Such, Frenchmen, are the reproaches caft on us in those numerous and criminal publications, which affect the tone of patriotic affliction. Ah! in vain do they flatter themfelves with the hope of difcouraging us: our refolution is only the more confirmed, and you will foon experience its effects.'

The address then enumerates what was farther purposed to be done; and concludes with the following generous, liberal, and virtuous exhortations:

Behold, People of France, the profpect of happiness which lies before you!-Some ground yet remains to be gained; and there the detractors of the Revolution lie in wait for you. Guard against that impetuous vivacity fo natural to you: above all things, dread the commiffion of violences; for any kind of diforder may prove fatal to Liberty. This Liberty is dear to you; you are in poffeffion of it; fhew yourfelves capable of preferving it; be faithful to the fpirit, and even to the letter of the decrees of your Reprefentatives, accepted or fanétioned by the King; diftinguifh between the feudal rights abolished freely and without redemption, and thofe redeemable and which are ftill in force. Let the first be no longer exacted, nor the fecond refufed. Bear in mind the three facred words which guard thele decrees, the NATION, the LAW, the KING. The NATION; that is, yourselves. The Law, that is alfo you; it is your will. The KING; that is, the guardian of the Law.

Whatever false reports may be industriously propagated, reckon always upon this union. It was the King they deceived formerly; now it is you; and the fenfibility of the King is afflicted by their fuccefs: he wishes to preferve his people from the arts of those flatterers, whom he has driven from his throne, and from whom he will defend the cradle of his fon; for he has declared in the midst of your Reprefentatives, that he will make the Heir of the Crown the guardian of the Constitution.

Hearken not to those who speak of two parties; there is but one; we have all fworn it; and it is that of Liberty. Her victory is fecure, attested by new conquefts every day: let obfcure detractors pour out their injurious calumnies against us; reflect only, that if they praised us, France would be undone. Be on your guard how you awaken their hopes, by diforders and trefpaffes against the Law. See how they triumph at a few delays in the collection of the impofts! Ah! furnish not food for this cruel joy! Think that this debt-No, it is no longer a debt; it is a facred

tribute,

tribute, and it is your Country that now receives it for you, and for your children: fhe will no longer fuffer it to be prodigally confumed on depredators, who would, without remorfe, fee the fource of the public treasure dried up, now that its ftream is turned afide from them: they aim at mifchief, which the goodness and magnanimity of the King have prevented and rendered impoffible.

Frenchmen, fecond your King; by a facred and unfhaken respect for the Law, defend his happiness, his virtues, his real glory, against the defigns of his and your enemies; fhew that he never had any enemies but thofe of Liberty; in the maintenance of her, and the fupport of him, fhew that your conftancy equals your courage; that in the caufe of Liberty, of which he is the guardian, you can never be weary, you will be indefatigable. Your laffitude was the last hope of the enemies of the Revolution: they now lose that; pardon them their groans, and without hating them, deplore thefe remains of weakness, thefe infirmities of humanity; feek, we will even fay, excufes for them. Obferve the concurrence of caufes which would naturally prolong, nourish, and almost eternife their illufion. Time is neceflary to chafe from their memory the phantoms of a long dream, the dreams of a long life. Who is able to triumph in a moment over fixed habits of the mind, over opinions inculcated in infancy, cherished by the exterior forms of fociety, favoured by the public flavery, which they imagined to be eternal, dear to a fpecies of pride, impofed on them as a duty; habits in fine, which flattered perfonal intereft in a thousand different ways? To lofe at once their illufions, their hopes, their moft favourite ideas, and a part of their fortune; to expect they fhould fuffer this without regret, without efforts, without that refiftance which is at the beginning natural, and which afterwards a falfe point of honour impofes as a duty, is to expect too much from humanity!-Alas! if among this clafs of men, lately fo favoured, fome are found unable to bear fo many loffes at once, be generous; remember, that in this clafs have been found alfo men who have dared to raise themfelves to the rank of Citizens, intrepid defenders of our common rights; and, in the bofom even of their families, oppofing the noble enthusiasm of Liberty to the tendereft fentiments of Nature.

Lament, Frenchmen, the blind victims of fo many deplorable prejudices! but living under the empire of the Laws, let not the word Vengeance be any more pronounced. Courage, perseverance, generofity, thefe, the virtues of free men, we expect of you, and demand it in the name of that facred Liberty, the only conquest worthy of man, worthy of you; by the efforts, by the facrifices which you have made for her, by the virtues mingled with the miffortunes infeparable from a great Revolution, we call upon you not to retard, not to dishonour the fairest work that the annals of the world have tranfmitted to memory.-What have you to fear?Nothing; no, nothing, but a fatal impatience. Yet a few momentsIt is for Liberty! So many ages that you have given to defpotifm! Friends, Citizens-a generous, in lieu of a fervile patience!-this is what we afk of you. We afk it in the name of your

Country;

Country; you have one now: in the name of your King; you have a King now; he is devoted to you; no longer the King of a few thousands of men, but the King of the French of all Frenchmen! KING OF A FREE PEOPLE!'

After the extracts which we have made, to launch forth in praife of Mr. Chriftie's moderation, manly fenfe, and extenfive information, would, we apprehend, be fuperfluous. No impartial perfon, we prefume, who reads what we have tranfcribed, will need any farther recommendation to make him confult that more inftructive part of the work which we could not, from its nature, produce. We fhall only add that we wait with impatience for the fecond part of Mr. Chriftie's labours; which, he tells us, is foon to make its appearance, accompanied with a map of France according to the new divifion. of the kingdom.

Pear.

MONTHLY CATALOGUE, For AUGUST, 1791.

EAST INDIES.

Art. 17. A Differtation concerning the Landed Property of Bengal. By Charles William Boughton Roufe, Efq. * 8vo. pp. 322. 6s. Boards. Stockdale. 1791.

SINCE it has happened that this our northern ifend can reckon

Hindoo and Mohammedan fubjects in its remote dependences, it behoves us to adminifter government to them on temperate Eastern maxims; and to this falutary end, Mr. Roufe has done a very acceptable fervice, in thus explaining the general tenures of land in Hindoftan, having also perhaps an oblique reference to particular depending occurrences here +. He very justly obfervesIt is to be lamented, that almost every fubject of Indian adminiftration for feveral years paft, has, in its difcuffion, been perverted by the fpirit of party, or received its complexion from the perfonal connections and attachments of the authors: which, though laudable in common life, and fuitable to the conftitution of our government, is to the last degree pernicious in every confideration of abstract right, or municipal juftice.' P. 18. This, nevertheless, being our bewildered fituation, the only clue for those who are folicitous to find out truth, must be to study and compare the reprefentations on both sides; by which, if performed with due perfeverance, we may, perchance, trace the intricate path between them.

The queftion, however, as to the tenure of land in Bengal, particularly with regard to thofe confiderable landholders called Ze

Since the publication of this work, the author has received the honour of a Baronetcy.

The volume is dedicated to the Right Hon. Henry Dundas. REV. AUG. 1791. mindars,

I i

mindars, is an abstract question of fact, that we may furely hope would not be warped in the refolution, by the gentleman who has prefixed his name to the difcuffion. His object is to inquire, whether thefe Zeminders are to be regarded as perfons holding financial offices merely; or as enjoying a proprietary right to their lands; and whether that right was likewife of a hereditary nature.'

The event of his refearches in hiftorical authorities, of careful queftions addreffed to proper perfons, together with his own obfervations and inferences, are thus briefly fummed up:

For my own part, the farther I have carried my inquiries, the more firmly I am convinced, that the ftate in which we received the rich provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Oriffa, was a general ftate of hereditary property; modified certainly according to the nature and customs of the government which has prevailed there; but nevertheless exifting, with important benefits to the poffeffors, according to the univerfal fenfe of the people, fanctioned by the conftant practice of the native princes, and established by immemorial usage from one end of the country to another.' P. 20.

This differtation is clearly conducted, and correctly written; it is alfo, as it deferves to be, neatly printed, of a large fize, and on very good paper.

For Mr. Grant's elaborate Inquiry into the Zemindary Tenures in the Landed Property of Bengal, fee our laft Review, p. 336.

MEDICA L.

Art. 18. A fhort Inquiry into the Merits of "A new discovered Fact of a relative Nature in the Venereal Poifon." To which are added, curfory Remarks on a difeafed change of Structure in the Human Ovarium. By Thomas Ogle, junior, Surgeon Extraordinary to his R. H. the Prince of Wales. 8vo. pp. 32. 18. Johnfon. 1791.

Notwithstanding the frequent and wretched examples, which the immorality of the prefent age affords, of the diforder which is the fubject of this pamphlet, there remain many parts of the pathology of the Lues venerea, of which no fatisfactory explanation has been offered.

In examining the new fact alleged to be difcovered by Mr. Foot, Mr. Ogle endeavours to fhew that it is not moft probable that the foreign virus acts only locally, and that the matter fecreted is the caufe of the fubfequent difeafe:" but his fuccefs in the maintenance of this doctrine feems rather doubtful; for, in his inftance of Hydrophobia, we can affure him, from our own experience, that this difeafe takes place without any previous or attending local inflammation, except that from the wound inflicted; and we likewife are firmly of opinion, that the venereal poifon is fometimes abforbed, and produces the difeafe in the conflitution, independently of any previous local inflammation and fecretion. Allowing, however,

with Mr. Ogle, that the matter of the local affection always produces the difeafe in the conftitution, he has not refuted Mr. Foot's hypothefis to explain why the Gonorrhoeal fluid feldom produces a fubfequent difcafe; he has only offered another conjecture, viz. that

not