money they had earned, and complaining of not having received what had been promised them."

There is no part of the present volume more interesting than the conversations between M. Hue and the great and good Malesherbes, whose loyalty made him a volunteer in de fence of his king, and whose magnanimity enabled to effect his wishes. Though he perished on the scaffold for his generous conduct, yet he has left a name behind him dear to posterity. M. Hue was confined in the same prison [Port Royal] with this venerable man, and they solaced their confinement by discoursing upon the sufferings and virtues of Louis. M. Hue has preserved the conversations of Malesherbes, with the apparent accuracy of a Boswell; and we wish we had room to extract them all. We shall select, however, some of them. 'My friend,' said he to me one day, 'You, I hope, will long survive the death which awaits me. Store up then in your memory, what you deserve to hear. To the points of view in which you have beheld the most virtuous, the most undaunted of men, add those which I shall describe to you.' Some days after, M. de Malesherbes, yielding to my entreaties, had the goodness to give me a manuscript containing in substance the different conversations I am going to report.

"I saw Louis mount the throne,' said M. de Malesherbes to me, and though at an age when the passions are strongest, and the illusions of the imagination most powerful, he carried with him pure morals, a contempt of pomp, a wise bias to toleration, and an inexhaustible desire of doing good. His respect for religion was equal

to the firmness of his belief. More than once expressing to me, how much he wished me to be of his religious opinions, he said: Without religion, my dear Malesherbes, there is no true happiness for men, either in society, or as individuals. Religion is the strongest bond between man and man. It prevents the abuse of power and strength, protects the weak, Consoles the unhappy, and ensures, in the

* Those municipals of the commune of Paris, who more particularly exercised the power, had agreed with the men who massacred in the prisons, to pay them a stated sum in money.

social system, reciprocal duties. Believe me, it is impossible to govern the people by the principles of philosophy.' This conviction was the firm basis of the vir tues of Louis XVI. It made him a king rendered him a faithful husband, a tender just, clement, humane, and beneficent: it father, an affectionate brother, a good master; in a word, a paragon of moral and domestick virtues.

"At my introduction into the ministry, wishing to ascertain the motives of the lettres de cachet, previously issued, I conceived the plan of visiting the state prisons. I wanted the king himself to visit some of them, and that he should become acquainted with their situation and internal government and I was particularly desirous that such prisoners as had been too lightly or too long confined, should receive the news of their liberty, from the mouth of the monarch himself. The king was highly delighted with the object of my plan, ordered me to put it in execu tion, and to employ in it the intendants of he, I will not visit any prison. Let us do the provinces. But as for me,' added good, M. de Malesherbes; but let us do it without ostentation.'

"Thus did the king throw over his vir. tues a veil which he even extended to his

understanding. This was wrong. A king should display both. One day, being with his majesty on business, I was surprised at the extent of the knowledge he discovered. The king perceived it. I was sensible,' said he to me, at the finishing of my education, that I was far from having completed it; and I resolved to acquire the instruction I wanted. I wished to know the English, Italian, and Spanish languages. I learned them by myself. I made a sufficient progress in the Latin to translate the most difficult authors. Then, diving into history, I went back to the earliest ages of the world, and, descending from century to century to our own times, I applied myself more particularly to the history of France. I undertook as a task to clear up its obscurities. I studied the laws and customs of the kingdom; I compared the measures of the dif ferent reigns; I investigated the causes of their prosperity and of their disasters. With this regular study, I united the pe rusal of all works of merit that appeared: particularly those on government and politicks; on which I made my own remarks.'

"This avowal of the king's,' continued M. de Malesherbes, 'gave me a high opi. nion of the steadiness of his disposition, and of his capacity. While I was in the

ministry I daily had occasion to observe, that the timidity habitual to this prince was owing to too great a share of diffidence, which kept him constantly on guard against presumption, and made him think that, in business, his ministers possessed discernment superiour to his own. It was this that made him so easily give up his opinion to that of his council. He was also apprehensive that he did not express his thoughts clearly. He said to me one day I would rather leave my silence to be interpreted than my words.' "To the same stock of diffidence, is to be attributed the undecisive character which you have perhaps sometimes heard mentioned as a reproach to him. I was a daily witness of it in the council, and saw that it arose from his balancing what part was best to be taken, and from the many difficulties that occurred. He often said: 'What a responsibility! every step I take affects the fate of five-and-twenty millions of men.' If, in the course of the revolution, it has sometimes happened that he decided wrongly, it was upon grounds, as he has said to me, which would have rendered his decision right, had it not been for acts of treachery, against which the most consummate prudence could be of no avail.

"The king was particularly pleased at the contempt I had for those outward forms which the world call graces, but which are too often the masks of deceit. 'M. de Malesherbes,' said he to me, you and I are ridiculed here for adhering to the manners of old times; but are not they better than the present fine airs? There are often vile things under their varnish.' The king was not ignorant of the jokes which the youth at the court took the li. berty of casting on his manners; but he despised their opinion.

"While I was in the ministry, I never knew him order or approve any superflu. ous expense. He used to say to his ministers: Let us be frugal dispensers of the publick treasure. It is the product of the sweat, and sometimes of the tears, of the people.' Unfortunately, all his ministers were not of that opinion.

"The first time that, as his counsel, I was admitted into the tower of the temple, the king no sooner saw me, than he came up to me, and, without giving me time to finish my bow, took me into his arms: Ah! is it you, my friend?' said he, with the tears in his eyes: 'You see to what the excess of my love for the people, and that self-renunciation which induced me to consent to the removal of the troops intended for the defence of my power and

person against the enterprises of a factious assembly, have brought me to. You are come to assist me with your advice. You are not afraid of exposing your life to save mine; but it will be all in vain!'-' No, sire,' replied I; I do not expose my life, and I even hope that your majesty's is in no danger: your cause is so just, and the means of your defence so clear!'-' No; they will put me to death. But no matter; it will be gaining my cause to leave a spotless name. Let us occupy ourselves OR my means of defence. The king afterwards spoke to me about M. Tronchet and M. de Sèze, my coadjutors. former, having been a member and presi. dent of the constituent assembly, was known to him. He asked me for some account of M. de Sèze, whom he knew only as a celebrated lawyer.

The

M.

"When the king was taken before the assembly, called the National Convention, to be examined, he was made to wait three-and-twenty minutes in a hall leading to the bar of the assembly. His majesty walked backwards and forwards: Tronchet and M. de Sèze, as well as my self, kept at a little distance from the king. As he spoke to me at times, in my answers I made use of the words, Sire, Your Majesty.-Treilhard, one of the deputies, came suddenly in, and, enraged on hearing the expressions I used in speaking to the king, put himself between his majesty and me: And what makes you so hardy,' said he to me as to utter, in this place, words proscribed by the convention? Contempt for you,' I replied, ' and a contempt of death."

"I, at first, thought that the national convention, not daring to pronounce a sentence of death upon the king, would banish him. On that supposition, I asked him what country he would prefer for his residence. Switzerland,' replied he: what history reports of the lot of fugitive kings... But, sire,' said I, if the French people, coming to themselves, should recall you, would your majesty return? Not to please myself; but as a duty, I would. In that case, however, I should stipulate for two conditions on my return: the one, that the Apostolick and Roman Catholick religion should continue to be the religion of the state, not excluding, however, other modes of worship; the other, that if a national bankruptcy were inevitable, it should be declared by the usurping power; for that power ha ving made it necessary, should bear the shame of it.'

"One day, the conversation turning upon the different parties in the conven

tion: Most of the deputies,' said the king, might have been easily purchased.' What, sire, could have been your reason for not doing it? Were the means wanting - No; I had the means; the money was lent me; but it must, one day, have been repaid from the publick stock. I could not prevail upon myself to use it for corruption. The funds of the civil list, being the substitute for the funds from my own domains, left me, perhaps, more at liberty; but the irregularity of the pay. ments, and my necessary expenses, would not allow of it.'

"Another day, the king mentioned to me the total want of money in which he had been kept since his imprisonment. 'Your two colleagues,' said he, 'have de voted themselves entirely to my defence. They give me all their time and attention, and, in the situation in which I am, I have not the means to remunerate them. I thought of leaving them a legacy; but would it be paid? It is paid, sire....! By choosing them for your defenders, you have immortalized their names.'

"Finding, in this conversation, that the king was very much affected at not having it in his power to bestow the slightest bounty on any person whatever, I went to the temple, the next day, with a purse full of gold. 'Sire,' said I, presenting it to him, permit a family, whose riches are partly owing to the bounty of yourself and of your ancestors, to lay this offering at your feet.' The king, at first, refused it; but yielded to my entreaties. I have since learned that, after his death, the purse was found unopened among his effects. He had taken the precaution to affix to it a label, on which was written, in his own hand, Money to be returned to M. de Malesherbes.' A notice that was not attended to.

"One day, when I went to the temple, after having passed, with scarce any intermission, six-and-thirty hours in several committees of the convention, the king reproved me. My friend,' said he, 'why exhaust yourself thus? Even were this labour sure to gain my cause, I would forbid it, though you would not obey me. But when I am convinced that it is unavailing, I beg you to be more prudent. The sacrifice of my life is doomed; preserve yours for a family that love you.'

"The king was so persuaded that he was to die, that on the very first day I was admitted to him, he took me aside, and said: 'My sister has given me the name and place of abode of a non-juring priest, whom I wish to assist me in my last moments. Go and see him for me,

VOL. II.

For me, nothing is more pressing,' said he. Some days after the king showed me his will and a codicil, both written by his own hand. His majesty allowed me to take a copy, on which there are some corrections in his own writing. I took these papers away with me, and sent them out of France, and I have heard of their safe arrival.

"From the first of my going to the temple, the king had expressed a wish to read some journals. I took the earliest opportunity to gratify his desire. I often witnessed the coolness with which he read the motions that were made against him in the tribune. However, among the many epithets bestowed upon him, that of tyrant always hurt him. I a tyrant!" said he. The whole concern of a tyrant is for himself. Has not my concern been always for my people? Do they or I hate tyranny most? They call me tyrant; yet know as well as you what I am.' I likewise carried him a copy of the ballad composed at that time and sung in every part of Paris. It was called: Louis XVI to the French; and was a parody of the passage in Jeremiah, beginning, Popule meus! quid feci tibi....? O my people! what have I done to you....? In the peru sal of it, the king experienced some mo ments of consolation.

"One morning, as I was waiting in the council-room till I could be admitted into the tower, I looked over some periodical papers; on which a municipal, addressing himself to me, said: "How can you, a friend of Louis, think of showing him papers in which he is always so ill treated?

Louis XVI.' I replied, 'is not a man like many others.' This municipal had been a gentleman.

"The king saw, with a mixture of surprise and pain, persons of noble descent meanly serving the enemies of the throne and of the nobility. That men,' said he to me, who are born in an obscure condition, that even they who were nobly de. scended, but who had never had an oppor tunity of knowing me, should have trusted and blindly followed the enemies of my authority, does not astonish me. But that men placed about my person, and loaded with my favours, should have increased the number of my persecutors, is what I

M

cannot comprehend. God is my witness, that I cherish no hatred towards them, and even, that if it were in my power to do them any good, I still would.'

"I have not yet spoken to you,' said M. de Malesherbes, upon a cruel subject, which went to the king's heart; the injustice of the French towards the queen.' Did they know her value,' has he often repeated to me, did they know to what perfection she has exalted herself since our misfortunes, they would revere, they would cherish her; but, even before the period of our adversity, her enemies and mine had the art, by sowing calumnies among the people, to change to hatred that love of which she was so long the object.' Then entering into a detail of the things that were imputed to her, he defended the queen.

"You saw her,' said he to me, 'arrive at court. She was little more than a child. My mother and grandmother were both dead. She had, indeed, my aunts; but their rights over her were not of the same nature. Placed amidst a brilliant court, and having before her eyes a woman maintained there by intrigue, the queen, then dauphiness, was the daily witness of her pomp and prodigality. What must not she, who united in her own person so many advantages, have conceived of her own power and rights!'

"To have associated with the favourite, would have been unworthy of the dauphiness. Compelled to enter into a kind of retirement, she adopted a mode of life exempt from ceremony and constraint, and continued in the habit of it after she came to the throne. Those manners, new at court, were too suitable to my own taste to be opposed by me. I was not, at that time, aware how dangerous it is for sovereigns to allow themselves to be seen too nearly. Familiarity banishes the respect which is necessary to those who govern. At first, the publick applauded the dropping of the old customs, and afterwards made it a crime.

"It was natural for the queen to wish to have friends. She distinguished the princess de Lamballe most. Her conduct, during our misfortunes, has fully justified that choice. The countess Jules de Polignac pleased her; she made her also her friend. At the request of the queen, I bestowed upon the countess, since dutchess of Polignac, and her family, favours that excited envy. The queen and her friend became the objects of the most unjust censure.

There was nothing,' added the king, ⚫ not even her affection for the emperour

Joseph II. her brother, that calumny did not attack. At first, it was whispered, then printed in several journals, and, at last, confidently asserted in the tribune of the national assembly, that the queen had sent to Vienna, and given to the emperour innumerable millions. An atrocious assertion, which the abbé Maury clearly refuted.

"The factious,' continued the king, are thus inveterate in decrying and blackening the queen, only to prepare the people to see her perish. Her death is determined. They fear that, if she lives, she will vindicate me. Unfortunate princess! My marriage promised her a throne. Now, what a prospect does it offer her! Saying these words, the king pressed my hand, and shed tears.

"The day before this, the king asked me, if I had met the white woman in the temple. No, sire,' answered I. 'What,' replied he, smiling, do not you know that, according to vulgar tradition, when any prince of my house is going to die, a woman, dressed in white, wanders about the palace?'

For

"When, in spite of the exertions of my colleagues and myself, the fatal sentence was pronounced, they entreated me to take upon me the mournful commission of breaking it to the king. I see him still. His back was turned to the door: his elbows rested on a table: and his face was covered with his hand. At the noise I made in entering, his majesty rose. two hours,' said he, looking stedfastly at me, I have been endeavouring to recollect if, in the course of my reign, I have willingly given my subjects any just cause of complaint against me: and I protest to you, from the bottom of my heart, that I do not deserve any reproach from the French. I never had a wish but for their happiness.'

"I then disclosed to the king the sen tence passed by the convention; and, repressing the grief with which I was penetrated- One hope,' said I to him, yet remains-An appeal to the nation.' A motion of his head expressed to me, that he expected nothing from that. His resignation and his courage made a very strong impression upon me. The king perceiv ed it. The queen and my sister,' said he to me, will not show less fortitude and resignation than I do. Death is preferable to their lot.'

"In spite of the king's opinion,' continued M. de Malesherbes, I had still some hope in an appeal to the nation; but his majesty knew his implacable enemies better than I did. I depended, likewise,

upon some favourable commotion. In returning with my colleagues from the assembly, where we had been to give notice of the king's appeal, several persons, with whom I was acquainted, surrounded me in the lobby of the hall, and assured me, that some faithful subjects would rescue the king from his executioners, or perish with him. Do you know them?' said he. No, sire; but I may meet them again.' 'Do endeavour to find them out; and tell them, that I thank them for the zeal they show for me, but that they must repress it. Any attempt would expose their lives, without saving mine. When the use of force might have preserved my throne and life, I refused to resort to it; and shall I now cause French blood to be shed?" "After this painful interview, I had the honour of one more conversation with the

king. In taking leave of him, I could not restrain my tears. Tender hearted old man,' said his majesty, pressing my

hand, do not weep. We shall meet in a better world. I grieve to part with such a friend as you. Adieu! When you leave my room, restrain your feelings-You must. Consider that you will be observed.―― Adieu!Adieu!"

"I left the temple with a broken heart. An Englishman of my acquaintance, meeting me the day before the sentence was passed by the convention, said to me: Good citizens have yet some hope, as the most unfortunate of kings has a defender in the most virtuous of men.'—' If Louis XVI. falls,' I replied, the defender of the most virtuous of kings will be the most unhappy of men.' My reply has been realized."

The translation is not well executed. There are many errours of grammar and inelegancies, such as justest, p. 25, and "had broke up" for broken, p. 62.

VERY different accounts have been given of the conduct and character of the exalted but unfortunate subject of the present work. Some have charged her with gross and open profligacy; others have been contented to impute to her those irregularities only which were but too common among the higher ranks in France; while a few have contended for the correctness of her private deportment. In this class stands the writer now before us; who, it cannot be disputed, had means of information not inferiour to those of any of her panegyrists, or of her accusers. A great part of his life was spent near her person; he appears to have been honoured in a considerable degree with her regard, and to have mixed in her private societies; and though he writes under a strong bias, and his

enthusiasm seems to acknowledge no bounds, his relations have a simplicity and a consistency which speak strongly in favour of their authenti city. In his pages, the actions of the ill fated princess prove her to have been compassionate, placable, beneficent, and generous; an affectionate wife, a tender parent, and a gentle mistress. The attachment shown to the queen in adverse fortune, by those who had shared her protection in her prosperous days, is urged by the author as a proof of the fidelity of the picture which he has drawn of her; and in support also of this representation, he addresses to his readers the following interrogatory :

friend of that princess so virtuous, mild, "She was," he tells us, "the bosom and pure, who seemed to be an angel, stationed by Heaven amidst the royal fa