tutional throne. The defpotifm of a dynafty, which in twenty kings fcarcely reckons a good one, the ruin of our finances, and the completion of treaties burthenfome to the nation, thefe were his rights. After having endeavoured to leave France, for the purpose of reigning at Coblentz, he was replaced upon the throne, perhans, against the with of the nation, which should have been confulted. From this moment he has continually forgotten his duties. Treacherous minifters have been removed by the public contempt; he has teftified to them his regrets. Patriot ministers have been removed by him, and they carried with them the regret of the country. A guard of confpirators has been in appearance diffolved, but exifts in reality, fince it continues to be paid by the king.

Priefts endeavour to arm children against their fathers in an interior war; without, the armies of the enemy menace our territory, and traitors, led by the brothers and relatives of the king, are ready to enter the country. It is to avenge Louis XVI that the execrable houfe of Auftria would add another page to the history of its enormities; and, having conceived the with of Caligula, would at one blow cut off the heads of all good French citizens. Flanders called us into its bofom; our troops entered, but the orders of the king recalled them.

The head of the executive power is the chief link in the counter-revolution chain. He has feparated his interests from those of the nation; we also feparate ours from his. His conduct is a feries of acts of difobedience to the constitution. While the king fhall be at the head of the nation, we cannot be free. Louis XVI invokes the conftitution; we invoke it alfo, and demand his depofition. As we have not confidence in this dynaty, we demand its exclufion. When the perjured and the flavish fhall approach, they will then find ten millions of citizens, friends to liberty, ready to receive them.

The head of the executive power is the first link in the great chain of the counter-revolution; he feems to have had his thare in the plots at Pilnitz, the existence of which he fo long delayed to communicate to you. His name is every day found in oppofition to the nation; it is a fignal of difcord between the people and their magiftrates, between the foldiers and their generals. He has feparated his intereft from that of the nation. Let us do fo too. So far from having oppofed, by any formal act, the enemies either abroad or at home, his conduct is one continued act of difobedience to the conftitution. As long as we have fuch a king, liberty cannot take root among

fidence in the reigning dynafty, we defire that minifters really refponfible, appointed by the national affembly, but out of your own body according to the law of the conititution, ani chosen openly, not by ballot, may in the interim exercife the functions of the executive power, until fuch time as the will of the people, our fovereign and yours, fhall have been legally declared in a mational convention, to be affembled as foon as the fafety of the ftate will admit. In the mean time let our enemies, be they who they may, go beyond our frontiers; let the bafe and the perjured quit the land of liberty; and if three hundred thoufand flaves advance, they will find on their way ten millions of freemen, prepared for either death or victory, fighting for equality, for their houses, for their wives, and for their children. Let every one of us be a foldier in his turn; and if we mat have the honour of dying for our country, let each of us, before he breathes his last, render his memory illuftrious, by the death of a flave or a tyrant."

This fpeech was delivered afterward in writing to the prefident. But the affembly came to no refois. tion upon it.

Soon after M. Petion (who had been detained fome time at the Thuilleries as a kind of hoty:) had appeared at the bar of the national affembly, their hall was furrounded by an immenfe crowd of people, fome of whom called out that the court had become the focus of a counter-revolution; and that the palace was another Coblentz. If the people had at laft refolved to punish their enemies, it was not till they had been forced to it. If they were determined to take into their own hands the vengeance of the law, it was, because the law was flow in punishing thofe traitors who were conftantly attempting to overthrow the constitution. That every law ought to be fufpended, and give place to that fupreme law-the fafety of the people.'

As day-light approached, the minister of justice entered the hall, imploring for the king that protection from the affembly, which, from the outrageous conduct of the mob in the Thuilleries, be had no reafon to expect from the affections of the people. While they were deliberating upon the most proper measures to be adopted in this alarming ciifis, fome municipal officers announced, that a new provifionary administration had been formed at the common's-hall; that the people, affembled in their different feAions, had named commiffioners, who, in virtue of their powers, had denominated themfolves a general council of the community; and that the municipality had been fufpended during the continuance of this temporary authority, of which Petion was the head.

About nine in the morning, almost every perfon who could procure arms, hurried toward the Thuilleries, calling out for the dethronement of the king-adding, that he was a traitor, and had forfeited the confidence of the nation.

The king, alarmed at the furious difpofition of the people, left the Thuilleries; and, attended by the Swif's regiment of guards, proceeded to the na tional affembly, accompanied by the queen, his fifter, and the royal children. He finit plced himself by the fide of the prefident, and after

hotel of the minifter of justice, the refidence of the king and his family fhould be in a houfe called the Temple,' as a place of greater fecurity. In the mean time, the ftatues of all the kings (not excepting that of Henry IV, the once great favourite of the French) were thrown down and deftroyed; and fome of the former minifters, and many other fufpe&ted perfons, were arrested, and imprifoned.

Nothing can give a greater idea of the fpirit which actuated, the people at this awful crifis, than the following proclimation of the provifional magiftracy of Paris, on the 10th of Auguft:

Citizens, the people reduced to the alternative of death or flavery, have prevented the ruin of their country, by refuming their rights a fecond time. The fovereign has fpoken; magiftrates nominated by the majority of the fections, have taken their feats at the common hall. This meafure, rendered neceffary by circumstances, will break all the threads of intrigue. It will throw light on the chain of treafons which have brought liberty into fuch imminent danger. The people will not this time have rifen in vain. Magiftrates full of zeal will fecond their efforts. They have connected their operations with thofe of your former magiftrites, who are moft worthy of publie confidence. Petion is fill chief of the commons, and Manuel and Danton are at their pofts.

is

Citizens, Maudat is at this moment in irons, and the law will foon punish his treatons. Santerre your commandant-general. (Signed) Huguenin, Prefident, Leonard, Bourdon, and Martin, Secretaries.' And the following is the addrefs of the national affembly to the French, agreed on the 10th of August:

For a long time the most eager inquietudes have gained all the departments; the people have expected from its reprefentatives alone the meafare which might fave them. This day, the citizens of Paris have declared to the reprefentative body, that their authority alone preferved the confidence of the people. The members of the national fembly have individe. lly fworn, in the name of the natier, to maintain liberty and equality, or to die at deir poft; they will be faithful to their oath.

The national affembly is about to prepare thofe laws, which extraordinary circumstances have rendered neceflity; and invites the citizens, in the name of the country, to provide that the rights fhould be refpected, and properties affured. They invite them to affift in faving the public caufe, and not to aggravate, by unhappy divifions, the calamities and dangers of the empire.

The national affenbly declares infamous and traiterous to the country, every public functionary, every officer and foldier, who shall defert his poft, and shall not expect with fubmiffion the orders of the nation, expreffed by its reprefenta

tives.'

It was on the Icth of August too that the commiffioners of the community at Paris, met at the Hotel de Ville, and publifhed the following no

The public is informed, that the fieur Maudat, chef de legion, fuffered the punishment doe to his treafons, as he was conducting to the abbey prifon, by order of the general affembly of the reprefentatives of the forty-feven fections. (Signed) Huguenin, &c.

Mauda was, by rotation, commandant-general of the national guard; and his treafons confited in fome refolutions to call out the national guard against the people.

at

When the king and his family left their asylum at the Feuillans, near the national affembly, three o'clock, on Monday afternoon, the multitude that furrounded the royal caringe was immenfe. The proceflion was ftopt by the crowd at the place Vendome, that his majefty, fays the vehement Gorfas, might contemplate the fate of his tyrant ancestors in the overthrow of the equeftrian ftatue of Louis XIV;, a ftatue inaugu rated on the 10th of Auguft, 1692, and overthrown on the roth of Auguft, 1792. It will fhew the fpirit of the day, if we copy the words with which Gorfas concludes his account of this removal of the royal family to their new abode:

Oh! Louis XVI, thou haft forced Frenchmen to hate thee! Thou haft thed their blood! Tisu haft coolly given orders for murder and car! Thou art now unfortunate, and honeft men pity thee! They wish that thy crimes would permit them to pardon thee !-During the proceffioa ta the temple, M. Petion was obliged to warn the queen not to look at the people with so confident an air (de regarder le peuple avec moins d'afurance). You fee,' faid the to him, that the people are calm.' I know, madam,' faid he, that they are very much the contrary, and may at this inftant be provoked by a glance.'

The fame day, the national affembly published a declaration written by M. Condorcet. It is entitled,An explanation of the motives on which the French national affembly have proclaimed the convocation of a national convention, and pronounced the fufpenfion of the executive power in hands of the king.'

It is as follows:

The national affembly owe to the nation, to Europe, and to pofterity, an exact account of the motives which have determined their late refolu tions.

Placed between the duty of remaining faithful to their oaths, and that of faving their country, they wished to fulfil both at the fame time, and to do all that the public fafety required, witheat ufurping powers with which the people had not entrusted them.

At the opening of their feflion, an affemblage of emigrants, formed on the frontiers, kept up a correfpondence with all the enemies of liberty that were fill to be found in the departments, or among the troops of the line and fanatical priests, infufing alarm into fuperftitious minds, fought to perfuade thofe deluded citizens, that the contin tion wounded the rights of confcience, and that the law had confided the functions of religion to fchifmatical and facrilegious períons.

Finally, a league formed among powerful kings, men.ced the liberty of France. They fancied that they had a tight to fix to what degree

the intereft of their defpotifm permitted us to be free; and they flattered themfelves, that they fhould fee the fovereignty of the people, and the Independence of the French empire, proftrate before the arms of their faves.

Thus every thing announced a civil and reigious war, of which a foreign war would foon ncrease the danger.

The national affembly thought it their duty to eprefs the emigrants, and the factious priefts, by evere decrees; and the king employed against hofe decrees the fufpenfive refufal of function, thich the conftitution granted him. In the mean ime, thofe emigrants and thofe pricfts were bufily Cing in the name of the king; it was to re-efa ith him in what they called his lawful' authority hat the former had taken up arms, and the latter vere preaching affffination and treafon. Thefe migrants were the brothers of the king, his reations, his former body guards. And while the arrefpondence of thefe facts, with the conduct of he king, authorized, nay, enjoined diftruft, this efufal of the function applied to decries that ould not be fufpended without being annihilated, hewed dearly how the veto, fufpenfive according as he law, rendered definitive by the manner of emdoying it, gave to the king the unlimited and aritrary power of rendering null.all the meafures which the legislative body might think neceffary for mintaining liberty.

From that moment, from one end of the kingdom to the other, the people fhewed thofe gloomy difcontents that announced impending torms, and fufpicions of the executive power were played with energy.

The national affembly were not difcouraged, Princes who profefled themfelves the allies of France, had given to the emigrants not an afylum, out the liberty of arming, of forming themfelves nto military bodies, of levying foldiers, of providing warlike ftores; and the king was invited, ya folemn meffage, to break, on this violation of the rights of nations, a filence that had been kept too long. He feemed to yield to the nationwifh; preparations for war were ordered; but it was foon perceived, that the negotiations conduced by a weak or treacherous miniftry were confined to obtaining vain promifes, which remining unexecuted, could not be regarded but as a fnare or an infult. The league of kings affumed, in the mean time, a new activity; and at the head of this league appeared the emperor, brother-in law to the king of the French, united to the nation by a treaty ufeful to himself alone. The national affembly thought it neceffary for the fafety of France, to oblige the emperor to declare whether he would be her ally or her enemy, and to pronounce between two contradictesy treaties, of which the one bound him to give fuccours to France, and the other engaged him to attack her; treaties which he could not reconcile, Without avowing the intention of feparating the king from the nation, and of reprefenting a war gainst the French people, as fuccours granted to is ally. The emperor's anfwer augmented the abruft which this combination of circumftances rendered fo natural. In it he repeated the abfurd charges against the affembly of the reprefentatives of the French people, against the popular focie.

ties eftablished in our cities, with which the partizans of the French ministry had long wearied the counter-revolution preffes. He made proteftations of his defire to continue the ally of the king, and he had just figned a new league against France, in favour of the authority of the king of the French.

Thefe leagues, thefe treaties, the intrigues of the emigrants, who had folicited them in the name of the king, had been concealed by the minifters from the reprefentatives of the people. No public difavowal of thefe intrigues, no effort to prevent or diffolve this confpiracy of monarchs, had skewn either to the citizens of France, or the nations of Europe, that the king had finterely united his own caufe to that of the nation.

This apparent connivance between the cabinet of the Thuilleries and that of Vienna, ftruck every mind; the national affembly thought it ther duty to examine with vigour the conduct of the minifter for foreign affrirs; and a decree of accufation was the refult of this examination. His colleagus difappeared with him, and the king's council was formed of patriot minifters.

The fucceffor of Leopold followed the courfe of his father. He thought proper to require for the princes, formerly poffelfing fiefs in Alface, indemnifications incompatible with the French constitution, and derogatory to the independence of the nation. He wanted France to betray the confidence, and violate the rights of the people of Avignon. At length, he announced other caufes of complaint, which could not, he faid, be difcuffed without having recourfe to arms.

The king feemed to feel, that this provocation to war could not be borne patiently without betraying a fhameful weaknefs; he feemed to feel how perfidious was this language of any enemy who pretended to take an intereft in his fate, and to defire his alliance, for no purpose bu to fow the feeds of difcord between him and his people, calculated to enervate our strength, and to stop or difconcert our motions; he propofed war by the unan mous advice of his council, and war was decreed.

By protecting the affemblages of the emigrants, by permitting them to menace our frontiers, by fhewing troops in readiness to fecond them on the first fuccefs. by preparing a retreat for them, by perfifting in a threatening league, the king of Hungary obliged France to make preparations of defence, ruinous in their expence, exhaufted her finances, encouraged the audacity of the confpirators difperfed through the departments, excited uneafinefs among the citizens, and thus fomented in them, and perpetuated trouble. Never did hoftilities more really juftify war, and to declare was only to repel it.

The national aflembly were then able to judge to what degree, notwithstanding premifes fo often repeated, all the preparations of defence had been neglected. Nevertheless, their uneafinefs, their diftruft, ftill refted on the former ministers, on the fecret councils of the king; but they foon faw the patriotic minifters croffed in their operations, attacked with rancour by the partizans of the royal authority, by thofe who made a parade of perfonal attachment to the king.

Our armies were tormented with political divifions; difcord was fown among the commanders of the troops, as well as between the generals and the miniftry. Attempts were made to transform into the inftruments of a party, which concealed not its defire of fubftituting its will for that of the reprefentatives of the nation, thofe very armies that were deftined to the external defence of the French territory, and to maintain the natienal independence.

The machinations of the priests becoming more active in the moment of war, made a reftraining law indifpenfable-one was paffed.

The formation of a camp between Paris and the frontiers was a difpofition happily calculated for external defence, while at the fame time, it ferved to give fecurity to the internal departments, and to prevent the troubles which their difquiets might have produced; the formation of fuch a camp was ordered, but thefe two decrees were rejected by the king, and the patriotic minifters 'were difmiffed.

The conftitution had granted to the king a guard of 1800 metr, and this guard audaciously manifefted a contempt of civic duties, which infpired the citizens with indignation, or with terror; hatred of the conftitution, and above all, of liberty and equality, were the best titles for being admitted into it.

The affembly was forced to diffolve this guard, to prevent both the troubles which it could not fail foon to occafion, and the plots of a counterrevolution, of which but too many indications were already manifeft. The decree was fanctioned; but a proclamation by the king bestowed praifes on thofe very men, whofe difmiffion from his fervice he had juft pronounced, to those whom he had admitted to be men justly accufed of being the enemies of liberty.

The new minifters excited well-founded diftruft; and as this diftruft could not stop at them, it fell on the king himself.

The application of the refufal of fanction to decrees, rendered neceffary by circumstances, of which the execution ought to have been prompt, and must stop with the decrees, was regarded in the general opinion, as an interpretation of the conftitutional act, contrary to liberty, and even to the fpirit of the conftitution. The agitation of the people of Paris became extreme; an immenfe crowd of citizens joined to form a petition; in it, they folicited the recal of the patriotic minifters, and the retraction of the refufal to fanction the decrees in favour of which the public opinion had been loudly declared. They defired leave to pafs in arms before the national affembly, after their deputies had read their petition. This lewe, which other armed bodies had before obtained, was granted them. They defired to prefent it under the forms established by the law; but at the moment when municipal officers were coming to inform them, that their deputies, who had been refused at firft, were going to be admitted, the gate was opened, and the crowd rushed into the palace. The zeal of the mayor of Paris, the afcendency which his virtues and his patriotifm give him over the minds of the citizens, the efence of the reprefentatives of the people, of

whom fucceffive deputations conftantly furrounded the king, prevented all ferious diforder, and few affemblages fo numerous ever gave occafion to lefs diforder of any kind.

The king had mounted the enfigns of liberty, he had done justice to the citizens, by declaring, that he thought himself in fafety in the mid of them; the day of the federation was approach. ing; citizens from all the departments were to repair to Paris, there to fwear to maintain the liberty for which they were going to fight on the frontiers; and all might still have been repaired. But the minifters faw nothing in the events of the 20th of June, but a favourable occafion for fowing divifion between the inhabitants of Paris, and thofe of the departments; between the people and the army; between the feveral portions of the national guard; between the citizens who remained at their homes, and those who were fiying to the defence of the state. The very next day the king changed his language a procla mation, full of calumny, was profufely dif buted among the armies; one of their generas came in the name of that which he commanded, to demand vengeance, and to point out his victims. A confiderable number of directories of department by unconftitutional refolution, difclofed the plan they had long before formed, of railing themfelves into a fort of intermediate power between the people and their representstives; between the national affembly and the king, Juftices of the peace commenced, in the very palace of the Thuilleries, a dark procedure, in which it was hoped to involve those of the patriots, whofe vigilance and talents were the mo dreaded. Already one of thefe juftices had attempted to infringe the inviolability of the reprefentatives of the people, and every thing announced a plan dextrously concerted for finding in the jocial order, the means of giving an arbitrary extenfion to the royal authority. Letters were fest from the minifter for the home department, direûting the employing of force against the federates, who might wish to take at Paris the oath to fight for liberty, and it required all the activity of the national affembly, all the patriotism of the army, all the zeal of the enlightened citizens, to prevent the fatal effects of this plan of diforganization, which might have lighted up the flames of civil war. An emotion of patriotifm had extinguished in fraternal union, the divifions that had appeared but too often in the national affembly, and from this alfo the means of fafety might have fprung. The profecutions commenced by the king's order, at the inftance of the intendant of the civil lift, might have been stopped. The virtuous Petion, punished by an unjust fufpenfon, for having fpared the blood of the people, might have been reinftated by the king; and it was poffible, that this long feries of faults and treafons, might have fallen again entirely upon those perfidious counfellors, to whom a confiding people had the long habit of attributing all the crimes of our kings.

The national affembly then faw, that the fafety of the country required extraordinary meafures.