be adjudged guilty of the fame crime; that fuch as fhould be convicted during their abfence, fhould forfeit their eftates and property during their own lives, but not to the prejudice of their children; that all fuch perfons holding offices fhould be adjudged to have forfeited the fame: that all fuch being officers in the army and navy, fhould be confidered as deferters; and that Frenchmen, enlifting men to attack the frontiers, fhould be adjudged guilty of high treafon. It could not be expected that the King fhould ratify a decree fo fevere against men who had been guilty of no other crime than that of faithfully adhering to the monarchy and the monarch. He withheld his fanction for the prefent, and did that which any other juft and humane prince would have done in fimilar circumftances. Determined to fupport the conftitution, to which he had fworn, he would not encourage or connive at preparations for war against it; but, concerned for the perfonal rights and fafety of men whom he efteemed and loved, he refolved to attempt a reconciliation between the French government and the emigrants, by the mild method of admonition and perfuafion. He had difpatched letters again and again, even before the violent decree of the affembly, to all the princes, earneftly entreating them to return; and ufed all his endeavours by a public proclamation, as well as by all the private influence he poffeffed, to recall the emigrants to the bofom of their country, and to retain those who were inclined to emigrate. Dec. 14, 1791. The King, on the fame day that he refufed his fanction to the decree against the emigrants, had previously given it to another decree of the affembly, requiring the Count of Provence, his eldest brother, to return to the kingom within the space of two months. The French princes, in anfwer to the King's repeated letters, perfifted in their refusal to acknowledge the conftitution accepted by his Majefty, and declared their views to be the re-establishment and refpect of the Roman catholic religion and its minifters, and to restore to the King his liberty and legiflative authority. The King would probably have approved heartily of the conftitution, had a few modifications been made to fatisfy his confcience as to religion, and his feelings.with regard to his family and the nobles. But ftil!, harfh as it was in thefe refpects, there was not any reason to doubt of his fincerity in his earneft and repeated letters to the princes. His piety, the facrifices he had often made to humanity, the gentlenefs and the timid hefitation and irrefolution of his character, all confpire to preclude every idea of duplicity on the part of the King on this occafion. It is alfo to be obferved, that whatever repugnance may have been felt by their Majefties to fo great a retrenchment of the royal authority, it could not be, and in fact it is well enough known, that it was not their with that the ancient monarchy should be restored by external force, under the direction and aufpices of the princes; whofe victorious eng trance and re-establishment in The Prince of Condé, the Count de Provence, and the Count d'Artois. France French; of whom it is a notable France must eclipfe what remained In this qualified acceptance, the republicans imagined that they faw hypocrity,--and the conftitutionaliits, a King protefting against laws entrusted to his execution. It would be hard to cenfure with feverity the conduct of the King at this crifis: he was fincere, but deficient in decifion and vigour: he had penetration to discover the de A measure not altogether diffimilar to that of James II. of England, who, before his flight into France, caufed the great feal to be thrown into the river Thames, fects fects of the conftitution; but not to foresee the confequence of his ftrictures. There are fome other circumstances naturally tending to produce a fufpicion of the fincerity of the King, which it may be natu ral in this place to mention. It was a common thing for the emigrants to pafs and repafs publicly between Coblentz and the Thuilleries; and it became quite a matter of fashion for the young men when they had got into their chaifes in the court of the palace, to call out to their poftillions, "To Coblentz." It was very common for thofe about the perfons of the King and Queen to fpeak with contempt and derifion both of the new conftitution and all those who were entrusted with the execution of it. The people could not eafily be induced to believe that the mafter was cordial in a caufe which the fervants without restraint made an object of ridicule. by all means to get rid of the ufual marks of refpect to his Majesty's perfon: in which infoience they were encouraged by diffentions and even bickerings in the cabinet. Feb. 6, 1792. Condorcet, appointed prefident, was ordered to write a letter to the King, in which he was directed to lay afide the title of your Majefty, and to obferve the fame formula ufually adopted by the King in writing to the national aflembly. Condorcet wrote the letter according to the form prefcribed: which, after being fubmitted to the aflembly, was fent to the King by. one of their ufhers. This pailed on the first day of their fittings.On the fecond, it was decreed that when the King fhould come to the aflembly, he fhould place himfelf in an arm-chair, on the left hand of the prefident, exactly alike and on the fame level with that on which the prefident himself was feated. As nothing had been fixed by the conftitution with refpect to the King's and the prefident's chairs, and as the former aflembly had never thought of refusing the most honourable place to his Majefty, this infolent pretenfion of the new deputies excited without doors a very general indignation. Whe ther it was ftill thought proper by the French nation that the King New circumstances of fufpicion fhould be honoured; or that the fprung up before the jaundiced eye ufual odium was excited against of jealousy every day; and, in the upftart vanity and eminence; it was midft of this general miftruft and the general with that the King on difaffection, the predominant party this occafion fhould firmly aflert his in the affembly were encouraged to dignity. The matter being difcuffed proceed in the execution of their in the council, the King himself defign of leffening the power of the found means of eluding the intendKing, and exalting their own on its ed humiliation in the conftitution, which did not oblige him to open the feffions in perfon. The affembly perceiving the public voice to It was farther obferved, that the King was more inclined to admit in to his familiarity and confidence the zealous partizans of the ancient monarchy, tho' of obfcure fituations, than any of the conftitutionalifts; even of thofe who had rifen to the moft elevated fituations in the military or other departments in the public fervice. ruins. The first step they took for the accomplishment of this end, was, be be against them, repealed their odious decree; and the King then confented to go to the opening of the affembly. The external figns of good-will and refpect are of great importance in fociety, as they not only tend to reftrain the expreffions, but in fome measure the growth of difcordant paffions. Bertrand de Moleville, minifter of the marine, declared his opinion in council, that the infult offered by the affembly ought not to be paffed unnoticed: but the King was on all occafions averfe to vigorous measures. About this time the Jacobins, both in and out of the affenbly, began to be very fparing in the application of the titles of King and Queen. Circumlocutions were ufed; fuch as "the executive power and his wife." By the mob they were commonly ftiled, "Monfieur and Madame Veto." Though the act of degradation was repealed, the example of infolence was fet; and the viler fort of the populace reforting in crowds to the places under the walls of the Thuilleries, gave vent to their malignant paffions, in revilings of the whole royal family, not to be repeated. The Queen was infulted in one of the walks. The ungenerous mob appeared continually under the windows of the King's apartments, loading him with infults and injuries; and no perfon of either fex, attached to the royal family, could vifit the palace in fafety. On this account it was determined to fhut up the garden of the Thuilleries;-but the affem bly decreed that tho' the garden be longed to his Majefty, the terrace on the fide next to the affembly belonged to the nation. The mob, or, as they ftiled themfelves, the nation, were freely adinitted to their own terrace. The royal refidence was expofed to any outrage they might be induced to commit: and a diflike and diftruft of the King, by this ridiculous diftinction between a right of property in one part of the garden, and that of another, nourished in the breafts of the people. March 17, 1792. The tide of the public fpirit running ftrong against the court, three of the minifters, Duport, Cahier, and Farbé, refigned their offices; and Garnier, Roland, and Claviere, agreeably to the defire of the affembly, were appointed in their ftead: Garnier, minifter of war; Roland, for the interior; and Claviere for contributions. Dumouriez was no minated to the department of foreign affairs, and de la Cofte, in the room of Bertrand de Moleville, to the marine. De Leffart, to whom Dumouriez fucceeded, had been accufed on the first of March, of having de ceived the nation; of having omitted to give information to the af fembly of a concert formed among foreign powers, against the liberty and independence of France; of not having preffed the meafures proper for the defence and safety of the nation; of having given to Prince Kaunitz details improper to be communicated, on the fituation of the kingdom; of having meanly One of their methods of infult confifted in accufing the Queen of every abomidable crime: another, in finging fongs, in which the King was treated with ndicale, infolence, and even with menaces of violence. fued fued for peace, and having refufed lift, and wearing an uniform different from that of the national affembly. The neceffity of making great facrifices to popularity, conftrained the King to compofe this body of officers and foldiers, taken half from the national guards and half from the line-But instead of chufing that half which was to be taken from the national guards, out of the body of the national guards of Paris, among whom it was of great importance that he fhould be popular, and where the character of those chofen could be better known, his Majefty was prevailed on to allow a certain number to be named by each department of France. Thofe departments in which men of character prefided, fent very good men; but others fent a fet of worthlefs fellows; who, foon after their arrival at Paris, were received in the Jacobin clubs; where they were prompted to make daily accufations, ridiculous indeed, but well adapted to excite the animofity of the people against their comrades of the King's guards;against whom a lively jealoufy was excited among the whole of the national guards at Paris. Continual difputes took place between the two corps; which would certainly have occafioned bloodshed, had not the King ordained that they fhould do duty at the palace alternately; affuring them, at the fame time, that the higheft proof they could give him of their attachment, would be to live amicably together. The new guards did every thing in their power to cement an union: but it happened too often, that fome of the national guards, more envious or irritable than the reft, complained, that the King and Queen |