mencement of that quarrel which, in involuntary inclination, nevertheless, its confequences, produced the abolition led him to meditation. He was much of that fociety. The father of Sieyes attached to works of metaphyfics and refifted the advice of the reverend fa- morality; and has often faid, that no thers, and the bishop of the place, who books had ever afforded him more joined them. He fent his fon to finish lively fatisfaction than thofe of Locke, his claffes at the College des Doctri- Condillac, and Bonnet. In them he naires, at Draguignan, a town of fome faw men having the fame intereft, the note in the fame department. fame inftinét, and bufied upon one common object. Sieyes faw the greater number of his companions leave the college, to enter His fuperiors had, according to their into the fchools of artillery or military cuftom, infpected his reading and his engineering. He longed to follow the writings. They had found among his fame courfe, and wrote to his parents papers fome fcientific projects of conwith all the ardour of youthful paffion. fiderable novelty. They configned in In answer he was recalled home: he their regifter the following note: was deftined to the ecclefiaftic ftate. Sieyes fhews a difpofition of fome The bishop of Frejus had feduced his "ftrength for the fciences; but it father with the promise of speedy ad- " is to be feared, that his private vancement. This induced him to confider the weak state of health of the boy which feemed to justify the project. Young Sieyes was lent to Paris, to the feminary of St. Sulpice, to go through the courfes of philofophy and theology. He was then in his fourteenth year; but in a fituation fo contrary to his natural difpofition, it is not extraordinary that he thould have contracted a fort of favage melancholy, accompanied with the moft ftoic indifference as to his perfon and his future fituation. He was defined to bid farewell to happiness ; he was out of nature; the love of fudy only could charm him. His attention became ftrongly directed to books and the sciences. In this manner paffed, without interruption, ten years in his life, till the expiration of what, in the Sorbonne, is called the courfe of fcience. reading may give him a tafte for "the new philofophical principles." They comforted themfelves, however, by obferving his decided love of retirement and ftudy, the fimplicity of his manners and his character, which even then appeared to be practically philofophical. "You may make him, they once wrote to his bishop, "a canon, "as he is a gentleman, and a man of "information. But we muft advise "you, that he is by no means fit for the "ecclefiaftical ministry." Sieyes, having finished his licence in the Sorbonne, neglected the form lity of the doctor's bonnet, and entered the world at the age of twenty-four. Part of the year 1773 and 1774 was employed in cultivating mufic, then at the period of a revolution at Paris, and partly in refuting the fyftem of the Economifts. He made, or fuppofed he had made, in thofe years, important refearches concerning the irregular proceedings of the human mind, in philofophy, metaphyfics, language, and intellectual methods. During this long interval, he had not attended to the theological and pretended philofophical ftudies of the univerfity of Paris, more than was neceffary to pass the ordinary examinations and thefes. Urged by his difpofiton, He departed in 1775 for Brittany, or perhaps in compliance with the mere with a bithop who was going to be inwant of entertainment to fill his time, ftalled, and who, in order to carry and exert his activity, he ran through, Sieyes with him, had procured him without diftinction or regularity, every the Brevet de joyeux avenement on his department of literature, ftudied the cathedral. A thort time after taking mathematics and natural philofophy, poffeffion of his canonicate, he was at and endeavoured to initiate himself in- liberty to return to Paris. He was to the arts, particularly mufic. An indebted for this to one of the titles or brevets given at Versailles, by virtue of which the revenues of his benefice could be received at Paris. An op portunity prefented of changing his fituation. He became fucceffively vicar general, canon, and chancellor of the Church of Chartres. In the midft of thefe mutations there is nothing worthy of remark, except his extreme care to avoid interfering in any minifterial duty. He never preached; he never took confeffion; he avoided all the functions, and all the occafions which might hold him forward manifeftly as a clergyman. At that time the clergy of France was divided into two kinds or claffes of individuals: the ecclefiaftics preachers, and the ecclefiaftics adminiftrators. Sieyes was at most of the fecond clafs. He was deputy to the States of Bretagne, for the diocefe where he had his firft bene fice; and on this occafion we may remark, that nothing could equal the indignation he brought from this affembly, against the fhameful oppreffion in which the nobleffe held the unhappy third ftate of the people. At that time he had a permanent adminiftrative employment at Paris. He was counsellor commiffary nominated by the diocefe of Chartres to the fuperior chamber of the clergy of France. When the provincial affembly of Orleans was formed, Sieyes had fome reputation for his adminiftrative knowledge. He was nominated a member, not by the advice of the Minifter, but of thofe already elected. He gave proofs of fome capacity for bufinefs, and a patriotic difpofition: fo that he was ftrongly invited by the affembly to take the precidency of the intermediary commiftion. He performed the functions for a fhort time. On the day when the chambers were exiled to Troyes, Sieyes gave the adwice to go inftantly to the palace, to arreft and hang the Minifter who figned arders evidently arbitrary, illegal, and profcribed by the people. But his advice did not prevail. It was during his leifure in the country, where he was in the habit of paffing two thirds of the year, that he compofed, in the fummer of 1788, to wards the end of the miniftry of Cardinal Loménie, his Vues fur les Moyens d'Exécution dont les Reprefentans de la France pourront difpofer in 1789", with this infcription, calculated to thew his intention: "We may elevate our defires to the extent of our rights; but our projects must be measured by our means. This pamphlet was delivered to the printer, and was advancing towards publication, when, on his return to Paris, he thought fit to fufpend its appearance. The political queftion which interefted and employed the minds of all France; feemed already to have changed its nature; it was forced to yield to the modifications which the pretenfions of the different claffes had urged. It was no longer the whole nation, defirous of afferting its rights against the abfolute power of royalty; it was the nobility, ever ready to form combinations; who, taking advantage of the reunion and difpleasure of the Notables, had no other aim than that of urging their own interefts against those of the people, with the hope, likewife, of caufing the minifter to confirm their account, as well as their new pretenfions, fimply by putting him in fear. This was the circumftance which led Sieyes to write his Effai fur les Privileges t, and immediately afterwards his work entitled, Qu' eft-ceque le Tiers, Etat t. It is ealy, by comparing thefe two publications with the former, to fhew how different, though not oppofite, their fpirit is to that in which he traced his Vues fur les Moyens d'Exécu tion. Thefe three pamphlets appeared immediately following each other, at the end of 1788, and the beginning of 1789. The Tiers-Etat of Paris, which the minifters had thought fit to convene very late, had to nominate twenty deputies to the States General. It was agreed by the electoral affembly, that neither a noble nor à prieft fhould be eligible. After the nineteenth fcrutiny, N 0 TE S. * Views of the Executive Means which are at the Difpofal of the Reprefentatives of France, in 1789. Effay on Privileges. What is this Third Estate? the the vote of exclufion was refcinded, and the majority of votes, at the laft ballot, were in favour of the author of Qu'est-ce que le Tiers ? The States General were affembled, and feveral weeks were confumed in vain difputes refpecting the verification of the powers. The public, all France, expected, with impatience, the firft efforts of the reprefentatives of the people. Sieyes dared to cut the cable which ftill confined the veffel near the fhore. He thought it became him to endeaFour to put in practice the principles which had made him known, and procured him the truft he poffeffed; opiLions which became every day more decidedly those of the people at large. No man had more openly and decidedly fhewn his manner of thinking, and the principles of his conduct. He spoke with fuccefs to the national affembly, on the 10th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 20th, and 23d of June. But our prefent intens tion is not to give à detail of fuch objects as come under the province of bittory. We may diftinguish the political career of Sieyes into three intervals; from the opening of the ftates general to that of the convention. The first dates from the day wherein he uttered these words: -They wish to be free; but they know not how to be juft. These words escaped him-and they were received by the ear of Paffion. Hatred and the fpirit of faction was earneftly difpofed to preferve them: and falfehood added its commentaries. Under their united efforts, that which was improperly called his influence difappeared. In the fufpicions exhibited around him, he obferved the work of calumny. iis determination was foon made; to neglect the remarks af folly; to profit by this miftruft, by bdiminishing his labours; to appear feldom in the tribune, for which, in other refpects, he found himself little fuited; but he continued to work ufefully in the committees, and the more fo, as he did not there meet with a kind of obftacie he found it impoffible to combat; namely, that of treachery, applauded and fupported by thofe very men who have the greateft intereft in unmasking it. In this manner he bore a more or lefs confiderable share in the great la. bours and important queftions which occupied the Affembly, though it is proper to fay, if for no other purpose. than that of accuracy, that none of his plans were adopted without mutilation, and a mixture of other matter, more or lefs foreign to the object. A part of his projects and memoirs has remained behind, if it be not loft, among the papers of the committees, and by himfelf they are fcarcely ever remembered. This compofed the fecond period of his political life, lefs active, lefs public, but often as laborious as the former, and which ended in June 1791. After a certain length of time, Sieyes had reafon to fufpect the preparatives for a coalition of certain parties. They fpoke of the neceffity of a fecond chamher, in the English mode, rendered more perfect according to a French fathion, which, they faid, ought neceffarily to be the portion of the minority of the nobleffe," because they were the effective caufe of the revolution," Already had certain members of the affembly, far from being leaders of the intention, but acquainted with all the intrigues, made a motion to divide the legiflative body into two fections; a motion admitted by many good deputies, but very different from the nobilitary project of two chambers, though caculated to facilitate its admiffion during the heat or the wandering of debate. It became Sieyes to confider the proceeding with anxiety; Sieyes, who had first held out the diftinction of orders in a ftate as a political monfter, and had placed among the fosial principles, the unity and equality of the people, and the unity and equality of its legislative reprefentation. He addreffed himself to various chiefs of the parties, to clear up his doubts. They had the duplicity to affure, and to fwear to him, th no with was entertained to impair or diminish the prin ciple of equality. He was not convinced, and therefore adopted the defign to compel them to exhibit their fentiments in more open day. He compofed, with another, another, a project of a declaration to be voluntarily fubfcribed, the object of which was, in fact, no more than the oath of equality decreed fifteen months after by the legiflative body, fubfequent to the 10th of Auguft 1792. It contained befides an engagement to maintain the unity and equality of the reprefentation charged to vote the law; and that in all cafes, not excepting that of the motion already made for two fections, if decreed by the affembly. It is to be remarked, that Sieyes received, on all hands, the higheft en couragement, and the most preffing inftances to the fpeedy accomplishment of his defign. The writing here mentioned was fcarcely gone to prefs, before thefe men procured a copy. A moft virulent defamatory libel was put into the hands of a dangerous ignorant man, Salles, who was charged to commence the attack, by reading it at the Jacobins. It was previously adjusted, that this was to be received with the moft violent applaufe. Such meafures being taken, then followed a manoeuvre of the moft extraordinary kind of calumny on the one part, and grofs ignorance on the other. The declaration was not yet publifhed, a few proofs only having been first intrufted to thofe only who had engaged to collect fignatures, when Sieyes was folemnly denounced on the 19th June, 1791, from the tribune of the Jacobins, as having formed the counter-revolutionary project, 1ft, Of reviving the nobility; 2d, Of inftituting two legiflative chambers; and, 4th, Of having inundated the 83 departments with a formulary for fignature for this criminal purpofe. As a proof of this, a cory of the ftill unpublished declaration was prefented, a declaration compofed, ex profo, against the two fuppofed projects. But it was the fupporters of the nobility and of the two chambers who managed this denunciation, and conducted all the detail of this ftrange hoftility! It must be efpecially remarked, that the king was to take his flight the following day, in the night between the 20th and 21ft, and that the mafters of this Jacobin convulfion were accomplices in that act. Time, which has unveiled the whole of this manoeuvre, has equally discovered the intention of the coalitionary leaders. They fuppofed they could much more effectually infure the fuccefs of their odious defigns, if they could facrifice Sieyes, or at leaft render him fo far fufpected, that it fhould be impoffible for him to gain attention at the firft eclat of this meditated flight; for they were well acquainted with his opinion of the ab. furdity of acknowledging, as a reprefentative, any one who fhould not have been freely elected by the body reprefented. This accounts for the precipitation in denouncing a work not yet publifhed, and the page of the libel, where too early mention is made of fending it into the departments. This anecdote, the developement of which to the Jacobins, in the midst of ftudied rage, lafted three days, was fo difgufting to the few impartial honeft men of that fociety, that they returned thither no more. In its detail, as well as in the difavowals, both fucceffive and combined, of many of thofe who figned, and of fome others who were not in the fecret, it exhibits a mass of little vile paffions, a combination of wickedness and treachery. As to Sieyes, he was not aware of his danger. He prepared to reply. On the day after the 20th June, he had already annexed, in print, to the calumniated declaration, a narrative of the extraordinary scene which had paffed at the Jacobins. He was about to publish this, but the general inquietude on the 21ft June; the delufion of the public, fo eafily led to act upon the nearest and moft ftriking objects, the great mafs of incidents and abominable attempts, ftill little known, which filled that and the following days; the fmall, and almoft imperceptible number of deputies who had remained faithful and pure; and, laftly, the unfteady, fhameless, and utterly unprincipled reign of the famous revifing coalition, infpired Sieyes with his ultimate determination. It was to fhut himfelf up decidedly in a philofophical filence. The German Story. (Continued from page. 419, of our Magazue for December.) "NOW I come to the incident which gave you and your friend an opportunity of feeing me in my real character, and of detecting my juggling cheating tricks. Every thing has been carried on and executed under my direction, here is the key to it." "Ever fince the H-n recruiting officer had known me at Frankfort, I vifited that town very feldom, though I poffeffed a houfe there, and was ef teemed by my neighbours and fellow citizens.". "An acquaintance of mine who kept a public houfe within a small diftance from Frankfort, took a large Inn at that town, and expected to do very well, but an adjacent Inn which was in great renown, difappointed all his hopes, and reduced him foon to very diftreffing circumftances. He difclof ed his diftreffes to me as I once happened to come to Frankfort, and I advifed him to ruin the neighbouring Inn by the introduction of a ghoft." "The owner of the houfe had died a little time ago, and his fon, a young unexperienced and fimple lad, carried on the bufinefs. We bribed fome of his fervants to make a noife in the night, and to fpread the rumour about, that the houfe was haunted, and that the late poffeffor of it appeared at midnight, frightening the guests in a terrible manner." "This artifice fucceeded to the utmost of our wifhes, and when I left Frankfort, a few months after, the Inn of my friend, which always had been empty, was crowded with travellers, while that of his neighbour was the lonely haunt of the difguifed fpectres." "Having great reafon to apprehend that our machination would be detected, fooner or later, I promifed my friend, who dreaded the fame, to return within a twelvemonth, and to procure him an opportunity of purchafing the haunted Inn, on reafonable Hib. Mag, Jan. 1796. terms. I was as good as my word, returned to Frankfort, and what farther happened you know." 66 At first I was rather uneafy that the foreign officer had taken lodgings at the haunted Inn, and prohibited every nocturnal disturbance, appre hending the whole artifice would be detected, but juft as I was going to leave Frankfort, without having attempted any thing, the cowardice of that officer gave me an opportunity of executing my defign." "His comrades, chicken-hearted like himself, propofed to watch with him in the haunted houfe, and their imagi nation played them a trick which, moft unexpectedly, favoured the execu tion of my plan." "They had watched already three fucceffive nights, without either hearing or feeing any thing uncommon; the fourth night a tempeft was raging, without their perceiving it, being prevented from doing it by the great quantity of punch they had fwallowed, and the roaring noife which was the natu ral confequence of their inebriation." "When they entered the room, after having been frightened by the howling of the ftorm, on their return from the fearch they had been making, the tempeft ceafed a few feconds, and it was natural that one of them, who ve ry wifely looked out of the window, could perceive nothing. Being shilled with dread and apprehenfion, he forgot to bolt the window; his com. panions had, from like reafons, neglected to fhut the door, and the first guft of wind finding no refiftance, threw the window and the door fuddenly open, the lights were extinguithed, and their difordered fancy effected now, what I perhaps would have attempted in vain, with all my juggling kill. Flashes of lightning illuminated the room, the tremenduous roaring of thunder fhook the houfe, one of the compa ny overturned the table, in his fright, and they really fancied to fee a phantom, which only exifted in their dif ordered imagination, harrowed up by fearful apprehenfions and fuperftitious terror. What farther happened I need not tell you." B |