XXXIX

CHAP. ed. Prorogued after a feffion of only fourteen days, it was re-affembled in the January of 1791, when the oppofitionists were found fomewhat diminished in number, but in the vigour and pertinacity of their warfare, which they renewed on the same subjects; while discontent encreased in the public mind, and political affairs took a new complexion from a furprifing revolution in the most powerful kingdom on the European continent.

CHAP.

CHAP. XL.

Revolution of France-Its influence on BritainAnd on Ireland-Fiats-Anniversary of the revolution celebrated at Belfast-United Irishmen -National guards-Rowan-Catholic conventionCatholic deputation-Catholic declaration-Oppofition to catholics-Parliamentary tranfactions-Catholic bill-Other popular bills-Gunpowder bill, &c.Peep of day boys and Defenders-Attack of Wexford -Reports of the catholic committees.

THE

HE government of the mighty nation of the CHAP. French had, under the latter fovereigns of the long XL. race of Hugh Capet, fettled into an abfolute mo- Revolution narchy, combined with a fubfervient feudal arifto- of France. cracy, and fupported by a vast military force. Long might it have fo continued without interruption, if the monarchs had acted with prudence: but, by the mad ambition of Lewis the fourteenth, who, in extending the surface, exhaufted the strength of his kingdom; by the wars waged by his fucceffors, with fimilar views, but inferior fortune; and by the inordinate expenfes of a profligate court, the debt of the crown became fo enormous, that the prodigious

taxes,

CHAP. taxes, impofed with the most unjuft and impoli XL. tic inequality, scarcely felt by nobles or clergy,

but preffing with intolerable weight on the poor peasants, were at length infufficient to pay the intereft of the debt, and other demands of the state and royal houfhold. From a vast complication of grievances, partly inherent in the political fyftem, ftill more occafioned by mifgovernment, discontentment with their governors pervaded the people, and, when the genuine liberty of the English, difplayed in their neighbourhood, was contemplated, and the revolt of the British colonies afforded an ample field of difcufion, a hatred of the constitution itself, under which they felt oppreffion, was diffused at first in filence, and afterwards more openly. Thus a republican faction, fmall in its commencement, but active and fanguine, gained gradually many profelytes; and, as men, who run into any one extreme, are always capable of running into the opposite, the nation, who had paid a kind of idolatrous adoration to their fovereigns, were in a fhort time led to act with atrocious licence, on the principles of a leveling democracy, to the abolition of monarchy and even murder of the monarch.

The clouds, which had been collecting in the reigns of his predeceffors, were deftined to discharge their thunder on Lewis the fixteenth, who acceded to the throne in 1774, a prince mild and pacific, worthy of better fortune than to fuffer for the crimes of his ancestors, but not endued with a fufficient capacity and firmness of refolution to repress on one fide the

arbitrary

For

XL.

arbitrary fchemes of a court faction headed by the CHAP. queen, and on the other the projects of popular leaders, fome of which were of a dangerous tendency. In the perplexed fituation to which the kingdom had been reduced when to impofe new taxes appeared impoffible, to continue the mode of borrowing was to run swiftly into ruin, and to have recourfe to œconomical reforms alone feemed altogether infufficient to remedy the evil, Calonne, the comptrollergeneral of the finances, conceived the patriotic and fublime scheme of augmenting the revenue by a new modification of the taxes, particularly by an equa lization of the land-tax, extended to all denominations, nobility and clergy as well as commons. this purpose was convened, in the February of 1787, an affembly of notables, men of diftinction, convoked from all parts of the kingdom, but selected chiefly from the higher orders, and nominated by the king. Of this affembly, confidered as in fome degree reprefentative of the nation, and intended to fanction by its authority the new financial scheme, the members, more anxious for their feveral privileges than for the public profperity, objected with acrimony against the minifter's views, whom they hated for his attack on their privileges, and at length separated on the twenty-fifth of May, leaving the government ftill more embarraffed than it had been before.

Calonne was disgraced, and fucceded by the archbishop of Toloufe, much inferior in understanding, perhaps alfo in honefty, and utterly unable to maintain a contest with the parliaments, which in France

were

XL.

CHAP. were courts of judicature, where, to receive the formal ftamp of law, the edicts of the king were registered. So determinate and ftrenuous was the oppofition of these courts, feconded by the general fpirit of the nation, which was falling faft into a state of anarchy and infurrection, that the king at length found himfelf neceffitated to declare in favour of a convocation of the states general, a measure suggested by the notables, and demanded by the parliaments. On the fifth of May 1789 was convened, at Verfailles, amid a tumult of joy and anxiety, this famous 'affembly, which had not been held fince the year 1614. In the election of members from the nobility, clergy, and commons, the deputies of the third had been made equal in number to thofe of the two former orders taken together; but whether the deputies of the three orders were to form indifcriminately one affembly, or three feparate chambers, each of which fhould have a negative on the refolutions of the other two, was a question undecided. As the former mode alone could give preponderance to the commons, that body determined to admit no other, and, ftyling themselves the National Affembly, accomplished their purpose through the mifconduct of the regal faction, who irritated them by wanton infult into defperate refolution, and afterwards yielded to the fury of a torrent which they had fo unwifely aug

mented.

Alarmed by indications of a design to diffolve the affembly and coerce the nation by military force, the citizens of Paris rofe in a tumult, and, joined by

deferters