nature of enthusiasm, that, on the lable and disorderly movements. The moment when the genius of liberty extinguishes empire, offers something analogous which philosophy alone can calculate.-But the light is made :-its shining rays animate and give colour to objects. Royalty is proscribed, and the reign of equality begins." very first meeting of an assembly chosen by the whole people of France, without any consideration of property or rank, when mutual confidence might be supposed, if ever to reign (and immediately after the abolition of royalty, and an oath of eternal hatred to kings) such sentiments should be avowed by so eminent and popular a leader in the revolution. The ground of virtue, the basis of republican gogernment, was abandoned, and an asylum sought within the precincts of despotism. But Roland, with his friends and adherents, though he distrusted the present generation, anticipated the virtue of future times, the happy and glorious fruit of the new form of government. In a letter which the minister of the interior sent, nearly at the same time, to the administrative bodies, he says, "Hideous egotism, which would walk tranquilly amidst ruin, to search after what it could appropriate to itself; jealous and bold ambition, always ready to shoot up in minds heated and unruly, the unthinking and immoral habits of so many men vitiated by tyranny,-all these kept up a focus of corruption, the effects of which have appeared to tarnish some epochs of the constitution. It would be as great injustice to applaud as to be astonished at them. The instant at which the elements, confused in chaos, came into regular union, must have been that of an agitation in which none but the Creator could perceive the incalcu If ever there existed a chaos, or abyss of disorder, there could have been no such thing in its agitation as disorderly motion, since every motion from a state of disorder must have been a motion towards the establishment of order and harmony. But it would be idle to waste time in exposing the inaptitude, as well as extravagance of a comparison, between the creation of the universe and the French revolution. This scene does not so naturally recall to a dispassionate mind, light and order springing, at the Almighty fiat, out of darkness and confusion*, as the whole creation groaning and int pain, in consequence of the disorders introduced into the world by sin. But it is not wholly foreign to our purpose to give a specimen of those flowers of rhetoric which accorded so well with the genius of France; particulaly at this time, and were considered as very convincing arguments by so great a portion of the nation. The weight of this observation is not lessened but rather encreased, if the letters and other compositions of Roland were written, as is generally believed, by his wife. M. Roland, in a letter to the departments, on the subject of the * M. Roland alludes to the justly admired passage in the first chapter of Genesis, "And God said, let there be light and there was light." + Rom. viii. 22. VOL. XXXIV. [F] massacres, massacres, dated the 4th of Sep- comes a matter of habit and custom; tember, uses other similitudes. I if men, zealous, but without knowknow that revolutions are not to be ledge and skill, pretend to mix percalculated by common rules: but petually with administration, and I know likewise, that the power to stop its course; if, supported by which makes them, ought soon to some popular favour, obtained by a arrange itself under obedience to great degree of ardour, and mainthe law, if total destruction be not tained by a still greater facility intended. The anger of the people, of making harangues, they spread and the movement of insurrection, abroad mistrust, and sow calumny are comparable to the action of a and accusation, excite fury and torrent which overturns obstacles dictate proscriptions, the governthat no other power is able to de- ment is then only a shadow*.” stroy; but which, spreading wider Though these remarks may have an and wider in its progress, will carry appearance of criticism rather than ravage and devastation far and wide, of narration, yet nothing is more to if it does not soon return to its our purpose than to trace the great usual course. It is in the nature of cause amidst all the symptoms of things, and of the human heart, the disease. For light on this subthat victory should always be fol- ject, we cannot but acknowledge lowed by a certain degree of ex- our obligations to a publication by cess: the sea, agitated by a tempest, one of our countrymen, who witroars after the tempest is over; but nessed the volcano in its most vioevery thing has its bounds where lent eruptions, and marked with it ought at last to be terminated.” * accuracy and penetration, the strata Even in these sublime and gentle disclosed, of moral nature. On admonitions to the people, we dis- the passage just quoted from the cover the latent principle of all the Letters of Roland, the author of evil; which ought not to be com- the History of Jacobinism observes, pared to a torrent which ceases "Those who patronize revolt, with the rains, or the dissolution of should not liken it, when supported the snow by which it is occasioned, by principle, to a river that is to but to a well of bitter waters con- return to its bed: it should be stantly springing up into poisonous likened to a fire that never ceases streams of misery and death. The till all is consumed. Have not all French nation are admonished of those who have witnessed the rewhat they ought to do, or not to do; volution, seen that the habit of rebut the grand principle of insurrec- volt was subversive of order, law, tion and revolt is still approved, and liberty, as Roland says? And held sacred still, and compared to is it not evident, that what men are whatever is grand and affecting in taught to consider as a duty, is very the course of nature. Yet it is al- likely to become a habit? Why lowed that insurrection may be too then, instead of preaching eternally long continued. "If," M. Roland against revolt carried too far, and continues," disorganization be- continued too long, do not they at * History of Jacobinism, page 516. once once declare that revolt is illegal, and, instead of being a duty, is a crime? This is the language that ought to be spoke; but every one willing to reserve to himself and friends the privilege of revolting, when to them it seems proper, refuses to make this declaration, and each has, in the end, fallen a sacrifice to this terrible article of the declaration of rights *." Roland, and the other reformers of France, were sensible that the French character was not adapted to a republic; but they reckoned upon the change that would be introduced into that character by the institutions of a free form of government; not recollecting that written laws are, in themselves, but lifeless things; and that they derive their whole energy from the activity of the human passions that carries them into execution. Where the morals of men are grossly depraved, they either suffer equal and just law to become obsolete, or use their liberty only as a cloke of licentiousness. Not only did the passions and immoral habits of men hurry them on, in the progress of revolution and anarchy, to greater and greater ex cesses and crimes, but also blinded their understandings, contracted their views, and involved them in continued contradictions. Though the primary movers and leaders of revolution, agreeably to the genius of the French nation, entertained the same projects of national aggrandizement with their successors, they intended, at least professed to pursue great and glorious ends, by wise and virtuous means. Mirabeau's plan was to produce a change of manners in his countrymen, by altering the system of education, in a space of time not less than fifteen years; and to extend the influence of France, by enlarging that of other nations. Had Mirabeau lived, the vices and defects of the constitution of 1795, would, perhaps, have been corrected by appeals to the primary, whose rights had been usurped by the Constituent Assembly, and by restoring the King to liberty and political importance. In other countries as well as France, there were many men who abhorred the crimes of the 10th of August and 2d of September, yet still thought it expedient to adopt the principles from which they flowed. Had Mr. Playfair attended more than he has done to arrangement and to dates, his work might be considered as incomparably the best account of the French Revolution that has yet been published; the most profound, satisfactory, and entertaining. While the phenomena of the revolution, in its different stages, are traced with great perspicuity to the French doctrines concerning the rights of man, and particularly the duty of insurrection, the excesses, inconsistencies, and absurdities of both the people and those who assumed the reins of government, are painted with great force of ridicule; which, however, seems not at all to arise from any design of displaying wit and humour on the part of the author, but to be the natural and unavoidable result of a clear and just view of his subject. Mr. Playfair unites a fine genius and turn for speculation with great knowledge of the world, political, commercial, and financial; and has shewn, by other publications besides the present, how much he is capable, especially in times like the present, of being of service to his country. boast but little of their freedom and independence; they groaned under despotism in all its rigours. The government was administered by a governor general, and an intendant named by the King of France, whose power was absolute in their respective colonies. They framed laws, imposed taxes, and commanded the military. An appeal lay to them from all the courts of justice; and they were even shamefully open to bribery and corruption. The victory of the prosecutor or defender depended more upon the weight of their purses than the justice of their cause. Thus, no man's property or his life could be said to be secure. He was even exposed to the effects of envy and malice, of rapacity and violence; and as the fountains of justice were poisoned, he could not hope for redress. Under a system thus unreasonable and oppressive, the colonies remained in tranquillity till the year 1789. But though this was the case, and though they gave ample proofs of public prosperity, we are not to suppose thar they remained in contentment; that there were no secret murmurings against slavery, no longings after change. Not withstanding this seeming acquiescence in the system, it might have been easily foreseen that dreadful convulsions would attend its dis solution. All usurped authority is temporary, and the confusion which attends a revolution, is always great in proportion to the former deviation from the principles of liberty. Though till 1789 the political fabric gave no external signs of decay, yet it had been secretly undermined for years; and now it tottered to its fall. The hardships and sufferings endured by every rank in society, had generated discontent in all, and. all were impatient for reform. The negroes, uncultivated and insensible, continued to ply their laborious task without thinking much of the justice with which it was inflicted. But even among them a spirit of insubordination began to appear. Books calculated for their low capacities, tending to inflame their minds against their masters,and to excite them to revolt, had been industriously circulated amongst them. Medals were struck for the benefit of those who could not read, representing their degraded situation, and instructing them in their violated rights. The people of colour, many of whom were men of liberal fortune and good education, had become enlightened upon the subject of politics. They were unhappy at their lot before; they now knew that it was unjust; they knew that they were aggrieved, and were exasperated, to a man, against the whites, who thus cruelly oppressed them. The writings of the French philosophers had found their way to the West Indies; and here they produced their natural effect. The planters kept pace with their brethren in the mother country, in their detestation of arbitrary power. They were filled with indignation at the thought of the despotism under which they had hitherto groaned. They entertained high ideas of colonial independence, and considered themselves as forming an integral part of the French empire, and bound to obey no laws but what they themselves had framed. Thus a revolution was wished for by all, and by all it was considered as the certain harbinger of un bounded misery and devastation. The bands of society were loosened ;-the different orders of the state rose in arms against each other:-the most cruel civil war was carried on; the most dreadful atrocities were perpetrated:-human blood was shed in torrents. The French colonies were not plunged into this deplorable situation at once: they were reduced to it by a long course of calamitous events; many of which took place several years previous to 1792. None of these have we yet mentioned in any former volume: partly because we could receive no information but what was confused and contradictory; and partly because, by waiting a little, we hoped to present our readers with a clear and uninterrupted view of the whole. Accounts have become more fully authentic, now that the spirit of faction has in some measure subsided, and time has begun to clear away the mist of prejudice. We shall, therefore, proceed to delineate a short sketch of the history of those islands during the years 1789, 90, 91, and 92. All the inhabitants were ranged under three great classes. These were the whites, the negroes, and the sang melees or gens de couleur. The first, it is scarcely necessary to remark, was composed of Europeans who had been attracted by hopes of security and gain, to settle in the new world: the second of those unhappy Africans, who had been dragged from their native s' ore, deprived of their liberty, and obliged to spend their lives in the cultivation of the soil; the third, or people of colour, of the offspring from an intermixture betwixt the other two. As the descendants always inherited the lot of their fathers, these three classes comprehend every inhabitant of the island; and betwixt the three there was drawn an impassable line. The system of internal government which prevailed in those islands, was as bad as the imagination of man can well conceive:-it was monstrous and unnatural: it had slavery for its basis, and the most dreadful oppression was its fruits. No order of the community could be said to be free:-their chief privilege consisted in insulting and injuring their inferiors. The negroes who were subjected to the arbitrary will of a master, were in a situation scarcely more deplorable than the gens de couleur. The unfortunate mulattoes (tho' not absolutely private property) had often reason to envy the lot of those that were: they were not only to every generation deprived of all shadow of political liberty, and prohibited from exercising any liberal profession,-but they were considered as belonging to an inferior species, as bordering on the brutes. They were subjected to the most intolerable grievances; they were permitted by the laws to be insulted, and even beat with impunity. As it was not in their case as in that of the negroes, the interest of any one to protect them, so they were cruelly oppressed by all. The brutish uncultivated negro, suffers only from the pain a stripe inflicts upon his nerves:-to the mulattoes this treatment was torture. From being in easy circumstances, and from having received a good education, many of them were possessed of fine feelings and acute sensibility. The whites themselves could [F] 3 boast |