Mr. Cox, printer of the Courier de l'Europe, arrested him for the expenses of printing a Journal of Arts and Sciences. He was liberated in a few hours upon paying half the sum, and faithfully promising to discharge the remainder of the demand; but, instead of fulfilling his engagement, he immediately escaped to France, where, in consequence of his friend Lefit comte Pelport having been arrested some time before, and a letter of Brissot being found upon him, he also was imprisoned in the Bastile, but was liberated through the interest of the duke de Chartres.

Condorcet, one of the forty members of the royal academy, was equally distinguished as a man of letters and a politician. Though born a noble, he was an active and determined enemy of nobility. His name conferred a lustre on the party, and his writings greatly contributed to the changes that ensued.

The triumph of the Jacobins, however, over every rival society, and their influence on the public mind and on the conduct of the monarch, was decisive and conspicuous. The king, though decidedly adverse to a change of ministers, found it necessary to consult their wishes relative to the formation of a new cabinet. The place of minister of justice was conferred on Duranton, an advocate of Bourdeaux; the administration of the finances was again committed to a banker and a citizen of Geneva, in the person of Claviere.

Roland, the minister of the home department, united an intimate knowledge of commerce with a devotion to literary pursuits. He had acted at the same time as inspector-general of the manufactures of Arras, a writer in the Eucyclopædia, and a member of all the learned societies in the south of France. His talents were respectable, his views moderate, and his habits simple and austere. It was his fortune to be united to a female of singular accomplishments, who, after assisting him in his academical pursuits, became at once his amanuensis and his adviser.

Dumouriez, the minister for foreign af fairs, had been a soldier of fortune; he was employed in 1757 as a commissary at war,

in the army of M. d'Etrees, and having conceived an attachment to a military life, procured a cornetcy of horse, and was wounded at the battle of Emstetten. After having obtained the rank of a captain, he was dismissed, at the end of the war, with the cross of St. Lewis, which he had merited by his bravery, and a pension, which remained unpaid. Of a restless temper and in embarrassed circumstances, he repaired to Italy, where he offered his sword and his services to any state or party that would employ him. His offers being rejected by Paoli and the Genoese, who were fighting for the possession of Corsica, he returned home and visited Spain and Portugal, the latter of which he was secretly commissioned to survey, by the French minister, with a view to a future invasion. Having been recalled and employed in the reduction of Corsica, with the rank of colonel, he was afterwards sent to Poland, and assisted the confederation at Bar, sometimes with his advice and sometimes by his personal services. In consequence of a change in the ministry, he was seized and confined in the Bastile, but on the death of Lewis XV. regained his freedom. He was successively promoted, commandant of Cherburgh, governor of Lower Normandy, and major-general. At the commencement of the revolution he displayed his enthusiasm in favour of the king, and drew up a plan for the preservation of the Bastile and the subjection of Paris. On learning the flight of Lewis, he transmitted a letter to Barrere, then president of the assembly, stating his attachment to that body and his determi nation to defend it, by hastening to its assistance with a considerable force. While Dumouriez commanded in la Vendée, he formed an intimacy with Gensonné, and being introduced by him to the patriots of the legislative assembly, they procured his nomination to the office of foreign affairs, vacant by the confinement of his predecessor Delessart, who had been sent a prisoner to Orleans. By the introduction of Dumouriez into one of the first offices of the state, and the other changes which accompanied his accession, Lewis

consented to deprive himself of every. minister in whom he placed his confidence. But the effects of these sacrifices were lost in the eyes of the nation, who were more strongly impressed by the suggestions of bis enemies than by his professions of attachment to the constitution, and would probably have respected him more for his firm and intrepid resistance than for his temporizing policy. Deserted by those on whom he had heaped his favors, deprived of his faithful guards, and insulted by the populace, this virtuous and benevolent monarch exhibited a striking example of the unhappy effects arising from the want of firmness, vigor, and decision.

After Dumouriez was chosen minister, he received orders to wait upon the queen. He found her majesty alone, and in a state of great agitation. Approaching the minister she appeared to be much irritated, and addressed him in the following words. "Sir, you are all-powerful at this moment, but it is through the favor of the people who soon demolish their idols. Your situation depends upon your conduct. It is said that you possess great talents. You ought to know that neither the king nor myself will suffer the prevailing novelties, or the constitution. I declare it frankly to you. Choose therefore the part you are to act." M. Dumouriez represented how necessary it was that the king should give his cordial concurrence in establishing the constitution; to which the queen passionately replied, in a still louder tone, "It will not last, therefore take care of your self." Thus did the infatuated Marie Antoinette rush on with blindness and precipitation in the very path which led to destruction.

The emperor Leopold II. died suddenly on the 1st of March, 1792, of a malignant fever, and was succeeded by his son Francis II. under the appellation of king of Hungary. No sooner had he ascended the throne, than he informed the court of Berlin, that he was fully resolved to adhere most scrupulously to the ternus of the convention of Pilnitz, so that his coronation produced no change, except by adding fresh violence to the system of Austrian policy.

The ultimate objects of the court of Vienna were the establishment of monarchy, in' conformity to the royal session of Lewis XVI. which was held on the 23rd of June, 1789, and the re-establishment of the nobility and clergy as distinct orders. The restitution of the property of the clergy, of the lands in Alsace to the German princes, and of every right of sovereignty and feudal power, as well as the possession of Avignon and the Vendissin. It is remarked by M. Dumouriez, that if the court of Vienna had remained in a torpid state during the thirty-three months which had passed away since the royal session, and dictated this note on the resumption of activity, it could not have proposed any terms more inimical to the spirit of the revolution. Every hope of reconciliation appeared to be terminated; and, although the new administration were sincere lovers of peace, they found it prudent to yield to the clamours of their friends the democrats, and in virtue of a message from the king, war was declared against Austria on the 20th of April. They found it necessary to employ all their efforts in rendering an accommodation with Francis, the successor of Leopold, impossible; they treated his dispatches as evasive, and submitting them, without discrimination, to the assembly, and through them to the press, occasioned such a series of intemperate reflections on his conduct and sentiments, that they found themselves, in a month after their nomination, enabled to issue a declaration of war with the approbation of the people and the enthusiastic support of their adherents.

This measure was utterly repugnant to the inclinations of the king. He had issued his orders and employed his entreaties to prevent the emigrants from committing any act of hostility, and expressed, in the strongest terms, his disapprobation at the arming of the French nobles. Even after the declaration of war, he was so apprehensive that his subjects should suffer from the incursions of the enemy, that he sent a message to the emperor and the king of Prussia, requesting that they would not act offensively against France, without the most imperious necessity, and that even

then they would not in ade the country without publishing an auxiliary manifesto, distinguishing the king and the people from a faction who were careless about the ruin of both.

At the period when France was thus eager to rush into war, without any immediate motive or ulterior object, the state of the kingdom required the utmost caution and prudence, to prevent the total dissolut on of all social order. Anarchy prevailed in every department of the state and every class of society. The members of the assembly disgraced their sittings by tumultuous debates, unmanly reproaches, and manual contentions. Unaccustomed to the manners or feelings of polished life, they indulged in the unlimitted licence of vulgar brutality; and, "Silence that bell!" "Off with your hat, Mr. President!" were among the frequent exclamations in the hall. The tumultuous senators were themselves beneath the influence of the galleries; for, as they aimed only at popular acclamation, without any expectation of respect, they were obliged to submit, without resistance, to all the caprices of the mob, who, without ceremony or constraint, overawed, controlled, and interrupted their proceedings. The clubs and the multitude, knowing themselves to be the sources of political influence and

popularity, and dignified by the ludicrous epithet of the sovereign people, knew no bounds to their insolence. They were subject only to the mandates of a few factious leaders, who, by the distribution of money and liquor, knew how to move, impel, and govern them. The payment of taxes was entirely superseded, convoys of grain and specie destined for the supply of distant parts were stopped and plundered, to satisfy the exigencies of those who had been formerly relieved by the bounty of the great. The freedom of worship was every where violated; several constituted authorities shut up the churches, though the king had not sanctioned the decree against the priests, while the injured individuals, who applied to the constitution for protection, found no resource but in flight, and numbers were daily added to the list of emigrants. The assignants or government securities issued ou the credit of the lands of the church, already circulated at a loss of forty per cent; business stagnated for want of capital and encouragement, and every impartial observer, who speculated on the state of France, was convinced that nothing less than madness could impel a declaration of war amidst domestic weakness, ju solvency, and distress.

IM

MMEDIATELY after the declaration of war the troops of France proceeded to their respective places of destination. Of four armies, the first was assembled on the northern confines of France, under the command of the marshal de Rochambea.. an experienced officer, who had served in the French armies during the American war. This force was destined to cover the fron tier towards the Austrian Netherlands, from the German Ocean at Dunkirk, to Maubeuge in French Hainault, with their right extending to the Meuse. The marquis de la Fayette, appointed to command the second army, fixed his head quarters at Metz, and occupied Nancy, Thionville, and Luneville. The cordon, or line of communication, was thus extended from the banks of the Meuse to the Moselle, and retained in check the important fortress of Luxemburgh. The third army was formed on the Rhine under Luckner, and extended from Landau by Strasburg, towards Mont Belliard, and the pass of Porentrui into Switzerland. The possession of this important defile, aided by the favourable positions of the mountains of Jura, rendered the extensive frontier of Franche Compte perfectly secure. A fourth army was assembled on the side of Savoy, to watch the motions of the king of Sardinia, who was expected to join the hostile confederacy. The army of the north, commanded by

Rochambeau, amounted to 15,000 men ; the army of the centre, commanded by la Fayette, to 17,000; the army of the Rhine, under Luckner, to 22,000; and the army of observation to 12,000 men. The plan f the campaign was to penetrate into the Austrian Low Countries, before the emeror was prepared for defence, and capture his fortresses by surprise. The war was begun by an attack on the cities of Mons and Tournay, but the soldiers being impressed with a persuasion that they were betrayed by their generals, retreated in great confusion; in the blindness of their rage they murdered several officers, and among the rest Dillon, their lieutenantgeneral. They trampled upon his body, and, having lighted a fire, threw the corpse into the flames. The infuriated soldiers danced around the remains of their coinmander, so ferocious and brutal had they become; Rochambeau resigned in disgust, and Luckner, removed to the command of the army of the north, found the troops in a situation much more turbulent and insubordinate than they had been represented by his predecessor. La Fayette made the same complaints of the unprovided state of the forces, as deficient in camp-equipage, stores, ammunition, and artillery. equipment of the armies was so incomplete that their distresses were attributed to the treachery of the government, an-imputation

The