earth, and long dormant or concealed, collecting force with the progrefs of Time, Commerce, and Knowledge, burst at length into a flame in the capital of the French monarchy. Foftered in that exuberant foil, fanned by ambitious and difcontented men of every rank, and (preading with velocity through all the channels of the ftate, it could neither be fmothered nor extinguifhed. Neither the laple of fourteen ages, nor the veneration which the French had always nourished for their princes, could protect the perfon of Louis XVI. The barriers which Richelieu and Louis XIV. had oppofed to popular violence and innovation, were too feeble to prevent the conflagration; and some of them contributed to its excitement. After laying the ancient laws, conftitution, and order of things in ruins, it ftill conti nues to blaze, and to devour every thing with which it comes in contact, with unabated violence. The anxious and terrified attention of mankind is directed towards it, wherever it fpreads. The old and the new world are both of them menaced by its progrefs.

Instead, therefore, of looking to individual agents, or their measures, we confider the revolution itself as the bea con by whose awful corufcations we are to lead our readers through the hiftory of the eventful year 1792. A retrospect of the events which have already been detailed in this

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Work, will aid us in our undertaking. They affumed an alarming appearance in 1791; and as Great Britain became a principal party in the war as early as February 1793, the impartial hiftory of the preceding year, 1792, is peculiarly nteresting as well as important. A conteft then commenced, which has already extended its bloody and convulfive struggles to the oppofite fides of the globe; which fill fubfifts in all its force, and which has threatened, in their turn, the fubverfion of every ftate and every religion. It is by examining its commencement, and the fprings that gave it activity, that its progrefs can be best estimated, and the period of its duration most probably ascertained.

Inftead of fatiguing our reader with a detail of the incidents that occafioned the publication of the prefent volume, before that for 1791, we fhall only fay, that this laft is now in the prefs, and that it will be published in the courfe of a few months.

For the fate appearance of these volumes it will, we hope, be deemed fome compenfation by our intelligent readers, that we have availed ourfelves of thofe lights which have been thrown on our fubject by the progrefs of time: which has alfo prefented opportunities of enquiring and obtaining new information, from the most authentic fources, respecting the original springs of the great drama of Europe.

AS new terms are, from time to time, introduced with new ideas and new objects, living languages are subject to constant change; and fucceffive barbarifms, derived from temporary and local circumftances, render them in fome meafure unintelligible to all, befides thofe to whom fuch circumftances are familiar. It is impoffible for a foreigner, by any knowledge or analogy of language, to know what we mean in this country by Whig, Tory, the Minifter's Budget, and fo on. None but a Frenchman, or one acquainted with France, can be supposed to know that a Swifs means a porter, or a Savoyard a chimney-fweep. Of late years, amidst other changes and novelties in France, a very confiderable degree of innovation has taken place in the French language. Although, for our own parts, we ftudioufly avoid the ufe of the new phraseology of our neighbours, as being equally offenfive against purity, perfpicuity, and dignity of ftyle; yet, as this, in fome inftances, may find its way into the papers, to which we give a place in our record, or to which we may occafionally refer, we thought it nor altogether unneceffary to give an explanation of the following words:

The NEW or MODERN PHILOSOPHY. The doctrines of Rouffeau, Voltaire, Hume, Diderot, and others, who, exceeding the zeal as well as boldness of their fceptical predeceffors, have devoted, or continue to devote their lives to the feduction of mankind, into a mockery of the chriftian religion, and the adoption of a fyftem

a fyftem of atheism and licentioufnefs. As the writers juft mentioned outdid, in point of extravagance, the philofophers who had gone before them; fo they themselves were, in their turn, outdone by Condorcet, Briffot, Sieyes, Mr. Paine, and a whole herd of other philofophers, who actually attempted to carry the dreams of metaphyficians, on political fubjects, into practice.

The STATES-GENERAL of France affembled at Versailles, by the authority of the King, affumed the name and the powers of

THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY; or, an Assembly for the purpose of forming a new conftitution. This was alfo called the firft National Assembly. A new conftitution being formed, and accepted by the King and a great majority of the French nation, under the folemnity of an oath, the Conftituent Assembly, in September 1791, gave way to

The LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY; which was alfo called the Second National Affembly. A convention of the nation being called after the maffacres of August 1792, and the imprisonment of the King,

The NATIONAL CONVENTION met in September, 1792. This was alfo called the Third National Affembly.

The MOUNTAIN. The higher or moft elevated feats in the hall of the Affembly; occupied by the violent revolutionists, or democrats.

The VALLEY. The lower feats; and thefe in the middle of the hall of the Affembly,-bearing fome refemblance to the pit in a play-houfe. This part of the hall was occupied by a more moderate party among whom there were many well-meaning men, diftinguished more by probity than by talents. It was at one

time very commonly called Les bas Cotés. It is now commonly called Le Ventre.

COTE DROIT, The right fide, or that on the right hand of the prefident: correfponding with our fpeaker in the House of Commons. It was here that those members who fet their faces against democratical violence took their feats from the firft fittings of the Conftituent Affembly at Verfailles. The moft diftinguished of that party were Mounier, Bergaffe, and Lally Tollendall. These gentlemen quitted the Affembly, after the royal family were constrained to remove, on the 6th of October, 1789, to Paris; and were fucceeded by Maury, Caffales, Malouet, and Montlofier.

After the election of the fecond, or Legislative Affembly, among the most ftrenuous fupporters of the feeble conftitutional powers of the King, we find the names of Dumas, Theodore la Meth, Rochegude, and Jaucourt,

CorE GAUCHE, the left fide, or that on the left hand of the prefident; where the violent adverfaries of monarchy were feated. Of this party Robespierre had been a very active and confpicuous leader in the Conftituent Affembly. In the Legislative Affembly, zmong the moft diftinguished leaders of the Republican party, was Briffot. The chiefs of that party were for the moft part destroyed by Robespierre, elected a member of the Third Affembly, or National Convention. It is worthy of remark, that, amidst all the various changes of power and parties, from the commencement of the revolution till the prefent time, a majority was always found on the left fide of the houfe. The famous Abbé Sieyes was always to be found on that fide, during the Conftituent Affembly, even when he maintained an obftinate filence. Thofe who had been members of the Conftituent, could not be elected members of the Legiflative Affembly, which immediately followed it. But the violent promoters of revolutions, like the Abbé, preferved