would have made them univerfal: and the armies of the allies on the borders, being fuperior to thofe of France, the reftoration of a monarchy, and the termination of his new power, muft have been its probable confequence. We fhall felect only two traits of his character, deduced from his conduct at the time of the revolution; proving his utter contempt of the opinion of mankind, refpecting his moft When this fcourge and fubverter of public declarations. France and of Europe entered at the head of a military force, to announce his will, into the Council of Five Hundred on the morning of that event, he was charged by Linglet with the fubverfion of the conflitution: on which he exclaimed, "the conftitution! you violated it on the 18th of Fructidor, on the 22nd of Floreal, and on the 30th of Prairial." The first of thefe violations, Sir F. D'I. obferves, was his own work and his own victory (p. 144) and in the laft his brother took the lead. The revolution of Prairial had terminated in an unprecedented manner; none of the vanquished party fuffered either exile or death. Perhaps in this revolutionary warfare the hoftile parties had, by a tacit convention, adopted the principle laid down by an officer, which appeared in the papers at that time; that as political catastrophes were now very frequent, the laws of revolution fhould be eftablished, as well as laws of war; and quarters ought to be given to an enemy who lays The first orders of Bonaparte, when Conful, down his arms. were infractions of this public law; but, after mature reflection, he recalled them (pp. 58, 59 Some measures following his affumption of power, tended to reconcile many to it. The law of the progreffive loan was repealed (p. 233) that which exacted hoftages of the nobility mitigated, fecurities were only demanded of them (p. 99). He reduced the leaders of the Jacobins to the most abject fubmiffions, which, to deftroy their credit (p. 229) he published; and, to counterbalance their remaining power, recalled the exiles of the revolution of Fructidor (p. 230) and with them the partifans of the first conflitution. (ib.) He clofed the lift of emigrants (p. 233) and endeavoured to form his council of the ableft men of all parties (p. 230). The expectation of the ftability of his government, drawn from his firmness and afcendancy of character, raifed the 5 per cent. fund, called the confolidated third, to double its former price, or 21 per cent. (p. 165); and even the royalists were not averfe to his exaltation; they faw in it the ruin of the Jacobin party, in which they willingly affifted, and in the fetting up of the effective go vernment vernment of a fingle perfon, no obfcure way opened to the reftoration of the law ful king (p. 232). Bu many of his measures were of a very different caft. On the fuppreffion of eighty newfp.pers, with an infolent hypocrify, he affirmed, that now the liberty of the prefs had fucceeded to its licence." P. 237. The nomination of mayors, and all officers of corporations, he has confided to his confular præfects; and by them they are removable (p. 238). He has had the 'weakness or wickedness to promifs liberty to the negroes; and he has ufurped many of the powers, vefted in the deliberative bodies (p. 239) of the new conftitution by himself. The following is a moft flagitions inftance of one of these acts. The depofed government had obtained eighty millions of livres, by transferring the receipts of the taxes of certain departments to the advances. This debt, in the fhort fitting of St. Cloud, on the day of the revolution, was declared facred. There remained due feventy millions, when the Corful seized the revenues fo pledged; his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gaudin, affuring the creditors, that the measure was by no means hoftile" to their intereft, properly understood." P 215, &c. It appears alfo, that more political courage, or at least conftancy, has been attributed to him than he poffeffes; nothing can be more fluctuating and wavering than his meafures, with refpect to the emigrants, have been (p. 246). This was the twelfth of Gaudin's plans to fill the treasury of the Conful, and the only effective one; the other eleven deferve no notice: all failed, and the deficit appears more threatening than ever*. Hence, when his power fhall come to depend on what revenue he can raife by taxation, it must fall: it appears, however, hitherto to have fufficed to clothe, arm, and fubfift great bodies of men, until he can precipitate them on the neighbouring ftates, where they are paid and fed by them; and they have, without doubt, made him fome lucrative returns for the charge of their first fitting out. Poffeffed only of fuch a feeble and decreafing revenue, Bonaparte has founded his new conftitution on two principles, which jointly multiply public expences indefinitely: the first is that of abfolute equality, which the original experimentalifts in government dared not to venture to adopt. Every man is thereby equally eligible to every function in the ftate, and even to the Confu fhip, whether poffeffed of an income or not, all pecuniary qualifications for any public truft being difavowed by Average of first nine months of the feventh year, 343 millions per month; of the first four of the eighth year, 15 millions only. it. (p. 311): and the fecond is, that the falary of every public agent must be fuch, as to support himself and his family in a manner equal to the dignity of the office he fills, not to difhonour merit in poverty (p. 317). How profound a gulf of revenue these principles open, may be easily conceived, if to our ordinary expences of government we add falaries to our two Houfes of Parliament, to the total magiltracy of the realm, and all inferior officers now a&ing without pay; equal to the charge of maintaining themfelves and families, in a manner fuitable to the dignity thofe offices confer. Bonaparte having thus involved himself under the neceffity of impofing taxes almoft without limit, has involved himself alfo under a fecond neceffity, of excluding the first and fecond claffes of proprietors from all power; for none but men relatively without property will confent to a fpoliation of it, adequate to his future preffing demands. Thus we understand how his declaration of the 29th of October following his acceffion is to be conftrued; that the only diftinction to direct the choice of the new government to places of truft, will be probity, talents, and patriotifm. Probity and patriotifm, he will difcern only in those men, and those acts, which fecond his views in unreferved dependence. As much of talents and information of this defcription as can be found, will be brought forward probably by him; and the power of the ftate, with high emoluments, will be enjoyed by perfons of a lower class, but of venal and intriguing ability, convertible to every purpose of its employer. Every nation in Europe now abounds with men of this defcription, in the middle rank; what a fpur muft the acquifitions of authority and wealth, b their own order in France, be to their ambition and defire of gratification! These are the effective agitators of every country; and no revolution, which has of late years taken place; no principle, which has been promulged by the chaotic republic, has yet held out fuch an excitement to them, to proceed in their efforts for general ruin. In fine, we muft obferve, that the revolutionary principle is a cancer in the bofom of Europe; it has almost entirely eaten away the fubftance of the part it first seized upon. This is evident from the detached notices contained in this work, of the interior state of the country. France has not been able to defray above a fixth part of the neceffary charge of the police; her artizans have perifhed for want of employment, or by war, executions, and banishment, and none trained up to replace them; there are in that country many hofpitals for the reception of children deferted by their parents, but for want of Cc BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XVII, APRIL, 1801. being being able to hire nurses for them, eleven twelfths of them die. (p. 362); the bye-roads are, by the ftate, put up to fale; the bye-roads are to the circulation of the commodities of the firft neceffity, what the ultimate fubdivifions of the veins and arteries are to that of the blood; the greater neither transmit or receive any thing but through the lefs: the public edifices, for want of repairs, are rapidly falling into ruin; and, to make up the deficiency of the requifition of horses, the Conful has been obliged to feize them from the plough. Many and miferable are the inftances we have, in our former accounts of the works of this writer, given of the acrid and devouring internal power of this virus; by the unprecedented, unqualified adoption, of the principle of equality, it has been fhown that it is greatly exalted; and its deftructive powers being hereby acceFerated in their operation, muft foon complete the erosion of the old fubftance remaining; and being propagated with new vigour to new and feemingly found parts, muft work the fame ravages in them. This danger never menaced fo strongly the parts of Europe, hitherto apparently the fafeft from this cauftic and irrefiftible ferment. Such are the effects which the new practical fyftem of equality has the strongest tendency to produce. We thall only notice another confequence of the new conftitution. It takes away from France the poffibility of difengaging herfelf ultimately from every war, or laying down her arms; for Sir F. D'Ivernois here affirms, that THE FOUNDERS OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION HAVE, IN THE 86th ARTICLE, HAD THE UNPARALLELED EFFRONTERY TO RENEW THE PROMISE OF THE MILLIARD OR DONATIVE OF 413 MILLIONS STERLING TO THE ARMY, AT THE CONCLUSION OF SUCH A PEACE (p. 364). After this folemn renewal of that fatal engagement by the exifting government, the world muft wait for peace until its fall, or until it be accomplished. Though this article has extended to a great length, it is but a fmall part of its important details contained in this work, to which we have been able to give a place, and even a small part of what we had noted for that purpose. All the reflections of this writer on the errors of the former monarchy are here paffed over; and the comparison of the economy of the peace establishments of Great Britain and Pruffia, the charges of which are more frugally ordered than that of any other power on the continent, which is determined in favour of that of the former, although on each of thefe heads we find much to commend. The ftyle of a work, the principal fubject of which is the finances of a state, muft be marked by a general uniformity = there are parts, however, even in fuch compofitions, which of 3 neceflity heceffity must be raised above that level. Of fuch, we could felect paffages which would meet, we doubt not, with general approbation; our attention to the main fubject has drawn us to a length which obliges us to decline it; but we think the effect of Sir F. D'I.'s important tracts would be increased; if he adopted a manner fomewhat more compreffed. ART. III. Lettres fur l'Education Religieufe de l'Enfance. Précédés et fuivies de details Hiftoriques. Dediées au Rai. Par J. A. De Luc, Lecteur de fa Majefté la Reine de la Grande Bretagne, &c. &c. &c. 8vo. 219 pp. Berlin. 1800. Letters on the Religious Education of Children, &c. Sc. By J. A. De Luc, Fc. Sc. THE fagacious and respectable author of this work is indefatigable in his endeavours to ftem the torrent of infidelity, which has long threatened to overwhelm the whole of Europe. The artful and infidious methods adopted by the Illuminés to accomplish their grand defign of extirpating religion, have ferved in fo many ways to unfettle the minds of men, that though in fome places the evil may now feem to be happily abating, from an experience of its effects (fee pp. 129, 130, &c. of this work) yet in others, at the fame time, it is continually breaking out in fome new fhape or other. A ftrong inftance of this we have in that very extraordinary memoir prefented by certain Jews to M. Teller of Berlin, which this author, in another publication, has fo ably answered (See Brit. Crit. vol. xiv. p. 575). The real object is to lop off gradually all the doctrinal and ceremonial parts of religion, as likely to bewilder the weak, confound the diffident, and keep afunder thofe that might otherwise be united, till by reciprocal facrifices on the part of all that at prefent differ, nothing effential fhall be left, or at leaft nothing but the mere practical part; which is in itself fo fimple (though truly fublime) and fo level to the capacity of all claffes of people, that it is foon found easy to proceed one step further, and perfuade men, that the human understanding alone has always been adequate to the invention and eftablishment of this part of the fyftem. Revelation of courfe appearing unneceffary is eafily abandoned; then follows too late the discovery, that human laws have no fanction to restrain the inward device, or fecret injury. Injustice, fraud, treachery, and every other evil, deftructive of the peace of fociety, prevail Cc & without |