Queen spoke oftener, and with more complacency to the new guards than them.

This new guard became an object of suspicion and terror to the inhabitants of Paris, who considered them as aristocrats in disguise. The jealousies and squabbles between this body and the national guards, added to the fable of the Austrian Committee, encouraged the Assembly to persevere in throwing out and circulating suspicions against the intentions of the King and the civism of his guards. When vague rumours and accusations had thus worked up the minds of the populace to a state of anger and inquietude, the legislative assembly, under pretence of a plot that threatened its existence, with the safety of the country, declared itself permanent. By a decree of the assembly, the whole body of the life guards were dismissed, May 20, 1792; and their commander, the Duke de Brissac, sent to the prison at Orleans. The Duke was unalterably attached to his Majesty: and it was a double advantage to send this gentleman to a distance; and by confining him in prison to be tried at a future day, to keep up an appearance that some charges could actually be brought against him. The King was perfectly sensible that the motive of the decree for disbanding his guard was no other than to deprive him of the protection of men who would defend his life, at the hazard of their own. He was extremely agitated; and the morning after the decree passed, he sent for his ministers at an early hour, and communicated a letter to them, which he intended to send to the Assembly, announcing his refusal to sanction the deVOL. XXXIV.

cree: but they all refused to countersign his letter; which consequently could not be sent. His Majesty then proposed to go in person to the Assembly, and pronounce a discourse, in which he would give his reasons for not sanctioning the decree. But the ministers assured him that the ferment of the people was so violent, that the sanction could not be deferred without exposing the guards and every person in the palace to the greatest danger. The unhappy prince, without farther resistance, consented to sanction that fatal decree. Nor was the Assembly satisfied with disbanding the bodyguards, and dispersing the Swiss regiments of guards among the troops of the line. As it was possible that the Parisian guards might be headed by a moderate man, a decree had been passed that the commandant of the guard should be renewed every two months; so that there might be no time for any commander to gain any dangerous ascendancy over the minds of the officers and soldiers. Accordingly (after La Fayette quitted the command of the Parisian guard for that of the army) six commandants were appointed to relieve each other at the periods just mentioned, instead of one.

The fund of the civil list was divided into twelve equal payments, and placed in the chest of M. de Septreuil who was at once the King's valet de chambre and treasurer of the civil list. These payments were made in assignats, except the sum of seventy-five thousand livres, which the King desired he might have in specie. But towards the end of 1791, the commissioners of the national trea

sury informed M. de Septreuil, that on account of the extreme scarcity of money, they could no longer give the above sum to his Majesty in specie; and that it must in future be paid in assignats. The King was no longer able to pay in specie several expences foreign to his personal service, which he was used to draw from his private purse :— and he was thus cut off from all means of exercising what was so pleasing to him, any act of gratitude, of kindness, or compassion. The scanty spring of any little influence that might have arisen from the exercise of the social and benevolent virtues, with such limited means, was thus almost totally dried up by the inhuman and unrelenting severity of the Jacobins, as they were called, or democratical party; which now ruled public affairs with despotic sway. The king was much affected at this ungenerous and cruel act, and mentioned it in the council.--A member of the council found means of procuring a sum of which his Majesty was in want. The King accepted it with a smile, saying, "It is not for myself that I want it, for my expences are paid in assignats; but it is for old servants whom I have always paid in money;-also for charitable uses, and to enable me occasionally to furnish the Queen and my sister with a few Louis, in exchange for their assignats.

Having thus given some account of the measures taken by the Assembly for overturning the throne, we shall here enumerate the principal of those that were pursued or advised by his ministers for their counteraction. The ministers of the King, or rather some of them, proposed measures for saving the

royal family and the constitution. M. de Moleville, minister of marine, had planned a scheme for obtaining a minute knowledge of the public disposition, by means of certain persons called Observers, who were chosen and employed for that purpose, in nutaber thirty-five: some attended the tribunes of the Assembly, others the Jacobin club, and that of the Cordeliers; while others were ordered to mix in the various groups that attended the palace royal, the Thuilleries, the principal coffee-houses, and the carbarets. Their business was to support by their applause all constitutional and royal motions, and to kiss, and even insult whoever should propose a measure contrary to the interest of the King and the constitution. Their custom was to give a daily report of whatever they saw or heard. The King by this means knew all that passed in Paris, and might have derived advantages from it, at least equal to the whole expences of the plan, which amounted to 8000 livres a month, had it not been for his aversion to those vigorous measures which the present emergency required; but that aversion was so great, that the information which he received, only served to alarm and torment him. It was not pursued con amore, and came to nothing:-nor was the result more fortunate of another establishment, more expensive, intended for the same purpose, A person of great subtlety, dexterity, and insinuation; always of the opinion of the person he conversed with, but, in reality, attached to no party, persuaded M. Montmorin, that from his intimacy with the popular characters of the revolution, it was in his power to be of

essential

essential service to the King, especially by inspiring and keeping up a spirit of loyalty in the national guards of Paris, by associating himself with the officers and soldiers who had the greatest influence in their particular battalions. The expence of his scheme was 34,000 livres a month. The ministers, so far from hesitating to grant him the sum demanded, were convinced that they had made a very advantageous bargain; and, in order to remove any suspicion that might be occasioned by his expensive manner of living (for he invited about twenty persons every day to dinner) M. de Lessart, who had succeeded to M. de Montmorin, as minister of the home department, appointed him to a place of 16,000 livres a year; which, together with his own personal property, might be supposed to enable him to support the expence which his place required him to keep up. No advantage resulted from this measure, either by conciliating the national guards or the sections, who continued to be as ill disposed as ever. It may appear astonishing that the noisy patriot, Danton, through the means of this very agent, received more than a hundred thousand crowns at different times, under the ministry of M. de Montmorin, for proposing or supporting various motions in the Jacobin club. His usual method was to season these with violent declamations against the court and ministers, that he might not be suspected of being sold to them. The terms of Danton being judged extravagant, certain motions suggested by ministry were made and carried in the club on easier terms, by Dubois Crance.

The same agent, towards the end of December, 1791, was missioned by M. de Lessart to make proposals to the deputies Brissot, Vergniaud, and Gaudet. The Abbé Fauchet and other members of the Assembly, had agreed to give their voices and influence in the Assembly to the minister, for the sum of 6,000 livres a month each. Their price was thought too high: and as they would not abate in the least in their demand, the negociation ended, and only produced the effect of irritating these five deputies against the minister. Attempts were also made to gain the galleries; and vast sums were expended in these, without effect. The persons entrusted with that business turned it to their own profit. Spies and agents were also hired, who should mix in all popular meetings; who should endeavour to manage the public spirit, and qualify the motions made in those assemblies in miniature, in such a manner as that they might be the least injurious, if they could not be so modified as to be of benefit to the royal cause.

A prosecution was carried on before a court of justice against. certain journalists who maintained the existence, and even charged several individuals with being members of the Austrian Committee, above mentioned. The futility of this story was clearly exposed: but the calumniators were screened from punishment by the interference of the Assembly, of which they were members; and the judge La Riviere, who had the fortitude to arrest, and would have had the justice to punlish them, was sent to the prison of Orleans. Different plans were concerted [C] 2

for

for the escape of the royal family from the Thuilleries: particularly one for their retreat to the castle of Gallion, in Normandy, near Rouen. The building was spacious, and the park very extensive: it was exactly at the distance prescribed by the constitution for the royal residence, being just twenty leagues from Paris; and presented in its moderate distance from the sea, the loyalty of the inhabitants of that part of Normandy, as well as of the commander of the troops, the Duke of Liancourt, and of the commissary of marine at Havre de Grace, a secure retreat, if necessary, from the pursuit of the Jacobins. The Duke of Liancourt, who had on former occasions given the strongest proofs of attachment to his Majesty's person, made a tender to the King, on the present occasion, of all his interest and fortune. The plan for escaping was as plausibly arranged as the place of retreat was well chosen: but the King, always averse to active measures, and more passive than ever since his arrest at Varennes, refused to adopt it. The objection of the Queen, who was very far from being deficient in either decision or energy, deserves to be recorded; it opens a clear vista into the mind of her Majesty, from which it may be presumed, that of the King was not very dissonant on the subject of the new constitution; and indicates an unfortunate inveteracy against even the friends of limited monarchy.-Her Majesty, speaking of this plan that had been

adopted by M. de Montmorin, and supported by M. Bertrand, said, "They do not consider that they are throwing us into the hands of the constitutionalists." It is in truth to this unrelenting pride and rangour against correction of abuses and improvement in the constitution, on the part of the court, and its adherents, as well as to the ungovernable and base passions of the people, that the calamities of France are partly to be ascribed. It would appear that the hatred of the court towards the constitutionalists was even greater than that which it bore to the republican party. From the violence of the latter, it looked for a confusion that should involve in its consequences a restoration of the ancient monarchy: from the stability of the constitution it saw nothing but vexation, and royalty in fetters. There was a party about court, of whom the chief was the celebrated Abbé Maury, one of the greatest favourites at court, who were of opinion that the best way for re storing the power and dignity of the crown, was, to permit, and even to encourage and forward the eruption of those evils which they were convinced must sooner or later arise from the constitution. In the Constituent Assembly, on the question for the abolition of tythes, the Abbé Maury, in opposition to Tallyrand Perigord, then bishop of Aulun, and the Abbé Sieyes, voted for the abolition!* On the same principle, when a new mayor of Paris was to be elected in

the

the room of Bailly, the court bribed a majority of the electors of Paris to vote for Petion, in preference to La Fayette; in the hope that the violence of the former would eventually overthrow the new order of affairs, and bring back the old. It was suspected that there was a collusion between the friends of the pessimum* and Marat, who had been in the service of the Count d'Artois, and who was suspected of being still in that prince's interest. It was the constant business, as is well known, of Marat, to pour forth the bitterest invectives against Mirabeau, Lameth, La Fayette, and all whom he supposed to be of greatest credit with the people. Marat did not, like Robespierre, despise money; it was in truth necessary to his luxurious manner of living.

The only scheme of defence and counteraction approved by the King, was a fête in honour of the mayor of Destampes. The fête of Chateau Veux, celebrated on the 19th of June, 1791, in honour of the soldiers who had revolted at that place, and had been condemned to the gallies, but released by the absurd populace as martyrs to liberty, and carried in triumph through the Champ de Mars, had all the success which the contrivers of it intended. It familiarized the people with ideas of revolt, and entirely extinguished the faint remains of respect they had still retained for the King and his authority. A plan for counteracting this impression, proposed by one Buob, an honest Alsacian, whose zealous endeavours for turning the popular tide in favour of royalty were eminently signalized in other instances, was highly approved by

his Majesty, and adopted. By the address of Buob, and means of his adherents, a fête in honour of the mayor, who had just been massacred in a popular insurrection, while discharging the duties of his office, and who was very generally regretted, was voted by the sections and municipality of Paris, in spite of all the manœuvres of the Jacobins to prevent it. For encouraging this, the sum of 10000 livres, contributed from the civil list, was prepared as the produce of an anonymous subscription. Nothing was omitted to render the celebration of the fête splendid and affecting; and numerous pamphlets were distributed, execrating the plots and crimes of the factions. But such resources produced only a momentary effect, and were but feeble barriers against the superior energy of the Jacobins, and the strong current of public prejudice.

The King was now in a deplorable situation. The nobility and clergy, the natural pillars of the royal authority, had emigrated, or continued to emigrate; he was deserted or forced to part with the servants in whom he could confide, and compelled to receive in their stead, Roland, Servan, Claviere, of the Jacobin club, and Dumouriez, who had no fixed principle but that of sailing with the tide, and making the most of circumstances for his own advantage. He was personally insulted, deprived of his guards, and reduced with his family literally to boardwages. The grand principles and pillars of the monarchy; the power of coining and collecting money, and that of directing the public spirit or tone of France, were over

thrown