the maffacre of innocents. What The firft grand proceeding of the National Affembly, an investigation of which Mr. Burke enters into, is, the confifcation of the poffeffions of the church, which he very properly ftyles a, robbery; it is indeed a robbery, in the worft fenfe of the word; and when we confider the relative fituations of the plunderers, and the objects of plunder, we do not believe that the hiftory of any country,even in the most barbarous times, is difgraced with to foul an act. He begins by an eloquent differtation on the ftate of religion and its minifters in Eng land. Religion is certainly the bafis of civil fociety, and the source of all good and of all comfort; impreffed with this idea, which gives rife to all focial juftice and morality, we have made an ample provifion for its minifters, which is incorporated into the mafs of private property, and not only rendered facred by the influence of opinion, but exprefsly fecured by the laws and conftitution of the realm. Befides thefe religious confiderations, the independence of our clergy is founded alfo on conftitutional motives; were our clergy dependent on the crown, our liberty might be endangered from their influence; and the public tranquillity might be expofed to interruption from the diforders of a factious clergy, if it were made to depend upon any other than the crown; we have, therefore, made our church, like our king and our nobility, independent. "Our provident conftitution," fays Mr. Burke," has taken care that thofe who are to inftruct prefumptuous ignorance, thofe who are to be cenfors over infolent vice, fhould neither incur their contempt, nor live upon their alms; nor will it tempt the rich to a neglect of the true medicine of their minds. For these reasons, whilst we provide first for the poor, and with a parental folicitude, we have not relegated religion (like fomething we were afhamed to fhew) to obfcure municipalities or ruftic villages. No! We will have her to exalt her mitred front in courts and parliaments. We will have her mixed throughout the whole mafs of life, and blended with all the claffes of fociety. The people of England will fhew to the haughty potentates of the world, and to their talking fophifters, that a free, a generous, an informed nation, honours the high magiftates of its church; that it will not fuffer the infolence of wealth and titles, or any other fpecies of proud pretenfion, to look down with scorn upon what they look up to with reverence; nor prefume to trample on that acquired perfonal nobility, which they intend always to be, and which often is the fruit, not the reward, (for what can be the reward?) of learning, piety, and virtue. They can fee, without pain or grudging, an archbishop precede a duke. They can fee a bishop of Durham, or a bishop of Winchester, in poffeffion of ten thou fand a year; and cannot conceive why it is in worse hands than eftates to the like amount in the hands of this carl, or that fquire; although it may be true, that fo many dogs and horfes are not kept by the former, and fed with the victuals which ought to nourish the children of the people. It is true, the whole church revenue is not always employed, and to every fhilling, in charity; nor perhaps ought it; but fomething is generally fo employed. It is better to cherish virtue and humanity, by leaving much to free will, even with fome lofs to the object, than to attempt to make men mere machines and inftruments of a political benevolence. The world on the whole will gain by a liberty, with out which virtue cannot exist." Mr. Burke attempts to account for the caufe of that eager rapacity which the National Affembly displayed in their feizure of the church poffeffions; by afcribing it to a junction between the literary atheists of the kingdom, who have been long attempting to unde: mine the fundamental principles of religion; and the monied men, who, ever envious of that power and rank from whence theywere excluded themfelves, were glad to enter into any plan for the humiliation of of the nobility, among whom the ecclefiaftical benefices were chiefly diftributed. He maintains the impoffibility of accounting on any other principles, for the application of the church revenues, which had ftood fo many fucceffions of ages, and fhocks of civil violences, and were guarded at once by juftice and by prejudice, to the payment of national debts, comparatively recent, invidious, and contracted by a decried and fubverted government.-The body of confifcators, true to that monied intereft for which they were falfe to every other, have found the clergy competent to incur a legal debt. Of course they declared them legally entitled to the property which the power of incurring the debt and mortgaging the eftate implied; recognizing the rights of thofe perfecuted citizens, in the very act in which they were thus grofsly violated. -Such are the inconfiftencies into which thofe men will ever be led, who, fpurning the wifdom of experience, and the received maxims of justice, fet up a new fyftem of equity, and a new moral doctrine of their own. Nor can thefe fhameful depredations be justified even on the tyrant's plea of neceffity, as Mr. Neckar, on the opening of the States General, delivered an account of the ftate of the finances, wherein he fhewed that though there was an actual deficit of two millions fterling and upwards, yet at the fame time he produced a plan of faving and improvements of revenue (confidered as entirely certain) to rather more than the amount of that deficiency. In short, under whatever point of view this tranfaction be confidered, it muft reflect eternal infamy on all who were concerned in it. The characters of the nobility, the elergy, and the National Affembly, come next under the notice of our author, "On my best obfervation, compared with my best enquiries, I found your nobility for the greater part compofed of men of an high spirit, and of a delicate fenfe of honour, both with regard to themselves individually, and with regard to their whole corps, over whom they kept, beyond what is common in other countries, a cenforial eye. They were tolerably well-bred; very officious, humane, and hospitable; in their converfation frank and open; with a good military tone; reasonably tinctured with literature, particularly of the authors in their own language. Many had pretenfions far above this defcription. I fpeak of those who were generally met with. "As to their behaviour to the inferior claffes, they appeared to me to comport themfelves towards them with good-nature, and with fomething more nearly approaching to familiarity, than is generally practifed with us in the intercourfe between the higher and lower ranks of life. To ftrike any perfon, even in the most abject condition, was a thing in a manner unknown, and would be highly difgraceful. Inftances of other ill-treatment of the humble part of the community were rare; and as to attacks made upon the property or the perfonal liberty of the com mons, I never heard of any whatsoever from them; nor, whilft the laws were in vigour under the antient government, would fuch tyranny in fubjects have been permitted. As men of landed eftates, I had no fault to find with their conduct, though much to reprehend, and much to with changed, in many of the old tenures. Where the letting of their land was by rent, I could not discover that their agreements with their farmers were oppreffive; nor when they were in partnerfhip with the farmer, as often was the cafe, have I heard that they had taken the lion's fhare. The proportions feemed not inequitable. There might be exceptions; but certainly they were exceptions only. I have no reason to believe that in these refpects the landed nobleffe of France were worse than the landed gentry of this country; certainly in no refpect more vexatious than the land-holders, not noble, of their own nation. In cities the nobility had no manner of power; in the country very little. You know, Sir, that much of the civil government, and the police in the most effential parts, was not in the hands of that nobility which prefents itself first to our confideration. The revenue, the fyftem and collection of which were the most grievous parts of the French government, was not administered by the men of the fword; nor were they answerable for for the vices of its principle, or the vexations, where any fuch exifted, in its management. Denying, as I am well warranted to do, that the nobility had any confiderable fhare in the oppreffion of the people, in cafes in which real oppreffion existed, I am ready to admit that they were not without confiderable faults and errors. A foolish imitation of the worst part of the manners of England, which impaired their natural character without fubftituting in its place what perhaps they meant, has certainly rendered them worfe than formerly they were. Habitual diffoluteness of manners continued beyond the pardonable period of life, was more common amongst them than it is with us; and it reigned with the lefs hope of remedy, though poffibly with fomething of lefs mifchief, by being covered with more exterior decorum. They countenanced too much that licentious philofophy which has helped to bring on their ruin. There was another error amongst them more fatal. Thofe of the commons, who approached to or exceeded many of the nobility in point of wealth, were not fully admitted to the rank and eftimation which wealth, in reafon and good policy, ought to bestow in every country; though I think not equally with that of other nobility. The two kinds of aristocracy were too punctilioufly kept afunder; Jefs fo, however, than in Germany and fome other nations. "This feparation, as I have already taken the liberty of suggesting to you, I conceive to be one principal caufe of the deftruction of the old nobility. The military, particularly, was too exclufively referved for men of family. But, after all, this was an error of opinion, which a conflicting opinion would have rectified. A permanent affembly, in which the commons had their share of power, would foon abolith whatever was too invidious and infulting in these diftinctions; and even the faults in the morals of the nobility would have been probably corrected by the greater va rieties of occupation and purfuit to which a conftitution by orders would have given rife. "I found the clergy in general, perfons of moderate minds and deco rous manners; I include the feculars, and the regulars of both fexes, I had not the good fortune to know a great many of the parochial clergy; but in general I received a perfectly good account of their morals, and of their attention to their duties. With fome of the higher clergy I had a personal acquaintance; and of the reft in that clafs, very good means of information. They were, almost all of them, perfons of noble birth. They resembled others of their own rank; and where there was any difference, it was in their favour. They were more fully educated than the military nobleffe; fo as by no means to difgrace their profeffion by ignorance, or by want of fitness for the exercife of their authority. They feemed to me, beyond the clerical character, liberal and open; with the hearts of gentlemen, and men of honour; neither infolent nor fervile in their manners and conduct. They feemed to me rather a fuperior class; a fet of men, amongst whom you would not be furprised to find a Fenelon. Į faw among the clergy in Paris (many of the defcription are not to be met with any where) men of great learning and candour; and I had reason to believe, that this defcription was not confined to Paris. What I found in other places, I know was accidental; and therefore to be prefumed a fair sample. I spent a few days in a provincial town, where, in the abfence of the bishop, I paffed my evenings with three clergymen, his vicars general, perfons who would have done honour to any church. They were all well informed; two of them of deep, general, and extenfive erudition, antient and modern, oriental and weftern; particularly in their own profeffion. They had a more extenfive knowledge of our English divines than I expected; and they entered into the genius of those writers with a critical accuracy. One of thefe gentlemen is fince dead, the abbé Morangis. I pay this tribute, without reluctance, to the memory of that noble, reverend, learned, and excellent perfon; and I fhould do the fame, with equal cheerfulness, to the merits of the others, who I believe are ftill living, if I did not fear to hurt those whom I am unable to serve. "Some "Some of these ecclesiastics of rank, are, by all titles, perfons deferving of general refpect. They are deferving of gratitude from me, and from many English. If this letter fhould ever come into their hands, I hope they will believe there are thofe of our nation who feel for their unmerited fall, and for the cruel confifcation of their fortunes, with no common fenfibility. What I fay of them is a teftimony, as far as one feeble voice can go, which I owe to truth. Whenever the question of this unnatural perfecution is concerned, I will pay it. No one fhall prevent me from being juft and grate ful. The time is fitted for the duty; and it is particularly becoming to thew our juftice and gratitude, when thofe who have deferved well of us and of mankind, are labouring under popular obloquy and the perfecutions of oppreffive power. "You had before your revolution about an hundred and twenty bishops. A few of them were men of eminent fanctity, and charity without limit. When we talk of the heroic, of courfe we talk of rare, virtue. I believe the inftances of eminent depravity may be as rare amongst them as thofe of tranfcendent goodness. Examples of avarice and of licentiousness may be picked out, I do not queftion it, by thofe who delight in the investigation which leads to fuch discoveries. A man, as old as I am, will not be aftonished that feveral, in every defcription, do not lead that perfect life of felf-denial, with regard to wealth or to pleasure, which is wifhed for by all, by fome expected, but by none exacted with more rigour, than by thofe who are the most attentive to their own interefts, or the moft indulgent to their own paffions. When I was in France, I am certain that the number of vicious prelates was not great. Certain individuals among them not diftinguishable for the regularity of. their lives, made fome amends for their want of the fevere virtues, in their poffeffion of the liberal; and were endowed with qualities which made them ufeful in the church and state. I am told, that with few exceptions, Louis the Sixteenth had been more attentive to character, in his promotions to that rank, than his immediate predeceffor; and I believe, (as some spirit of reform has prevailed through the whole reign) that it may be true. "There appears a poverty of conception, a coarfenefs and vulgarity in all the proceedings of the Affembly, and of all their inftructors. Their liberty is not liberal. Their science is prefumptuous ignorance. Their humanity is favage and brutal." Mr. Burke next proceeds to comment on the ideas entertained, by the National Assembly, of their right to difpofe of the property of individuals, and even bodies. "Flushed with the infolence of their first inglorious victories, and preffed by the diftreffes caused by their luft of unhallowed lucre, disappointed but not difcouraged, they have at length ventured completely to fubvert all property of all defcriptions throughout the extent of a great kingdom. They have compelled all men, in all trantactions of commerce, in the difpofal of lands, in civil dealing, and through the whole communion of life, to accept as perfect payment and good and lawful tender, the fymbols of their fpeculations on a projected fale of their plun der. What veftiges of liberty or property have they left? The tenant-right of a cabbage-garden, a year's intereft in a hovel, the good-will of an alehouse, or a baker's thop, the very fhadow of a conftructive property, are more ceremoniously treated in our parliament than with you the oldeft and most valuable landed poffeffions, in the hands of the moft refpectable perfonages, or than the whole body of the monied and commercial intereft of your country. We entertain an high opinion of the legislative authority; but we have never dreamt that parliaments had any right whatever to violate property, to over-rule prescription, or to force a cur. rency of their own fiction in the place of that which is real, and recognized by the law of nations. But you, who began with refufing to fubmit to the most moderate reftraints, have ended by eftablishing an unheard of despotifm. I find the ground upon which your confifcators go, is this; that indeed their proceedings could not be fupported in a court of juftice; but that the rules of prefcription cannot bind a lc. a legiflative affembly. So that this legislative affembly of a free nation fits, not for the fecurity, but for the deftruction of property, and not of property only, but of every rule and maxim which can give it ftability, and of thofe inftruments which can alone give it circulation. "When the Anabaptifts of Mun fter, in the fixteenth century, had filled Germany with confufion by their fyftem of levelling and their wild opinions concerning property, to what country in Europe did not the progrefs of their fury furnish just cause of alarm? Of all things, wifdom is the most terrified with epidemical fanaticifm, becaufe of all enemies it is that against which the is the leaft able to furnish any kind of refource. We cannot be ignorant of the spirit of atheistical fanaticism, that is inipired by a multitude of writings, difperfed with incredible affiduity and expence, and by fermons delivered in all the streets and places of public refort in Paris. Thefe writings and fermons have filled the populace with a black and Savage atrocity of mind, which fuperfedes in them the common feelings of nature, as well as all fentiments of morality and religion, infomuch that thefe wretches are induced to bear with a fullen patience the intolerable diftreffes brought upon them by the violent convulfions and permutations that have been made in property. The fpirit of profelytifm attends this spirit of fanaticifm. They have focieties to cabal and correfpond at home and abroad for the propagation of their tenets. The republic of Berne, one of the happieft, the most profperous, and the best governed countries upon earth, is one of the great objects, at the destruction of which they aim. I am told they have in fome measure fucceeded in fowing there the feeds of difcontent. They are bufy throughout Germany. Spain and Italy have not been untried. England is not left out of the comprehenfive scheme of their malignant charity; and in England we find those who Atretch out their arms to them, who recommend their examples from more than one pulpit, and who choose, in more than one periodical meeting, pub*Speech of Mr. Camus, published by erder of the National Affembly. licly to correfpond with them, to ape plaud them, and to hold them up as objects for imitation; who receive from them tokens of confraternity, and standards confecrated amidft their rites and mysteriest; who suggest to them leagues of perpetual amity, at the very time when the power, to which our conftitution has exclufively delegated the federative capacity of this kingdom, may find it expedient to make war upon them. "It is not my fear of the confifca. tion of our church property from this example in France that I dread, though I think this would be no trifling evil. The great fource of my folicitude is, leaft it fhould ever be confidered in England as the policy of a state, to seek a refource in confifcations of any kind; or that any one defcription of citizens thould be brought to regard any of the others as their proper prey "It will be argued, that this confifcation in France ought not to alarm other nations. They fay it is not made from wanton rapacity; that it is a great meafure of national policy, adopt. ed to remove an extenfive, inveterate, fuperftitious mischief. It is with the greatest difficulty that I am able to fe parate policy from juftice. Juftice is itself the great ftanding policy of civil fociety; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumftances, lies under the fufpicion of being no policy at all. "When men are encouraged to go into a certain mode of life by the exifting laws, and protected in that mode as in a lawful occupation-when they have accommodated all their ideas, and all their habits to it-when the law had long made their adherence to its rules a ground of reputation, and their depar ture from them a ground of difgrace and even of penalty-I am fure it is unjuft in the legislature, by an arbitrary act, to offer a fudden violence to their minds and their feelings; forcibly to degrade them from their ftate and condition, and to ftigmatize with fhame and infamy that character and thofe cuftoms which before had been made the mea fure of their happiness and honour. If to this be added an expulfion from + See the proceedings of the confede ration at Nantz. |