and Merlin de Douay* were raised to the vacant situations in the directory.

On the 21st of Fructidor (September 7th, 1797) the council of five hundred issued an address to the departments, wherein they explicitly charged the royalists with the "resolution to assassinate every man whom they suspected of republicanism; to light

periods of the revolution, he wrote several patriotic pieces for the stage, among which, the tragedy of SPARTACUS met with the highest approbation. He was afterwards appointed a deputy in the second assembly. He did not escape the persecutions of the indiscriminating tyrant Robespierre. We are informed by the report of Gregoire, of the 9th Vendemaire, third year, that he had been confined upwards of eight months, and was delivered at the opening of the prisons after the 9th of Thermidor.

* Merlin's father was a cottager at Ancheim, a village about seven miles from Douay. In the abbey of Ancheim, Merlin, when a boy, was placed as a servant. He attended the monks when performing mass, and was also a chorister. He, however, resided among the servants, and on extraordinary occasions, waited on company in the dining-room. Being a smart, ready boy, a monk kindly undertook to teach him to read; and soon perceiving that he had a great inclination to improve himself, the monk persuaded the brotherhood to send him to college at Douay. In this seminary he soon distinguished himself in the most honorable manner among his fellow students. The monks of Ancheim wished to make a priest of him; he however intreated that they would permit him to study law. The brotherhood allowed him to follow his inclination; and supported him during the period of his studies, supplying him with whatever money he wanted. At the election of the states-general, he was returned a deputy for the TIERS ETAT of French Flanders. When he first arrived at Paris, he took a second floor for himself and his wife, in one of the streets which are near the palace royal.

up the flames of civil war; and to destroy internal safety, by intercepting all necessary communications, and infesting the roads in every part of the country."

The proceedings of the French government were not only pleasing to the people of that country, but gave satisfaction to all well wishers of the republic; and it must be confessed, that the directory proved itself disposed to avoid those scenes of blood, which had so scandalously disgraced the progress of the revolution. Even their bitterest enemies could only assert, that as the accused had never been brought to trial, the conspiracy was not legally proved, and that in consequence, the forms of the republican constitution were violated. In answer to which, the opposite party asserted, that if the conspirators had been formally tried, they must inevitably have been found guilty, and condemned to die; in which case, it would not have been in the power of government to remit the sentence.-It was therefore more humane to banish them, which prevented an effusion of blood, and the odium thereto attached.

But the republic lost a stable prop. Towards the latter end of this year, general Hoche died suddenly at Wetzlaer, aged thirty. He was a zealous republican, a man of extraordinary talents, and, as a general, had perhaps no superior. Suspicions were entertained that the royalists had caused his death by poison; but, on opening his body, it was ascertained that he had died of " a species of convulsive asthma, and a polypus formed on one of the great arteries,

which had caused an inflammation that had reached

the lungs."

We shall finish the present chapter by noticing the death of Frederic William II. king of Prussia, who departed for that "bourne whence no traveller returns," on the 10th of November (1797) about nine o'clock in the morning-his death was occasioned by a dropsy. He was born on the 25th of September, 1744, was consequently fifty-three years of age, eleven of which he had fantastically swayed the Prussian sceptre. This man considered (at least if we judge from his actions) his fellow-creatures as so many play-things to be bandied about at royal pleasure, and exhibits in himself a striking instance of the chances and accidents of this life, as well as the forbearance of human nature, or how could he have plagued Europe for eleven years? If, however, Frederic William was not the best man in the world, will not his memory be rendered immortal by the treaty of Pilnitz, the partition of Poland, and his separate treaties with the French republic, to say nothing of his infamous debauchery, and scandalous treatment of an amiable wife?

CHAP. XI.

Comparative State of France and England.---Mr. Pitt's Budgets.---Motions in Parliament.---Its Dissolution.---Piratical Warfare of the French. ---Expedition against Ireland.---Extraordinary Descent in Wales.---Meeting of the New Parliament.---Capture of Trinidad.---Victory over the Spanish Fleet off Cape St. Vincent.---Unsuccessful Attack of Santa Cruz.---Mutiny in the English Fleet.---Marriage of the Princess Royal.--Second Mutiny.---Admiral Duncan's Victory over the Dutch, &c.

NOTWITHSTANDING the agitated state of France, the government of that country had assumed a milder, as well as a more stable form, and to judge from its appearance at the end of 1797, it might have been supposed that it had nearly arrived at that settled state, so as to bid defiance to the malignant exertions of royalists, or other sinister parties. If in England we experienced less of internal broils, the evils resulting from a state of external warfare were severely felt, the most prominent feature of which was the scarcity and consequent high price of provisions. The distresses of the poor were paid but little attention to by the British ministry, and Mr. Pitt

exerted the utmost of his eloquent powers to drown the cries of the widow and orphan, and dazzle the giddy part of the nation. When, in the house of commons, a Fox or a Whitbread drew a melancholy and just picture of the state of things, as well as of the future evils to be apprehended, they were desired, by the contemptible hirelings of administration, to look at the present state of France, which, they asserted, was in the very gulph of bankruptcy," and the brink of ruin-similar consolation to that which the client received from his attorney, who, after complaining of the length of his suit, and that he was reduced to the last guinea, was told that he ought to be very well satisfied, since his opponent was brought to the last farthing!

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At the latter end of the year 1795, Mr. Pitt, after expatiating at great length on the mischiefs of the French paper currency, observed, that "these resources might last a longer or a shorter time before they produced their final effect; but they had in themselves the seeds of their own decay, and the inevitable cause of a violent dissolution!" What shall be said of the paper currency of Great Britain, the offspring of the very man, who exultingly made the foregoing observations? Why, that it flourished! that it has "transmuted the real opulence of the country into imaginary wealth!" and will most likely immortalize the memory of that truly great statesman, the pilot that weathered the

storm.