will cheerfully submit to be despised and hated by mankind. But as I can honestly pass through the ordeal of my own scrutiny, I shall be as deaf to abuse and obloquy as the prejudiced are to fact and reason. The man who cannot smile at calumny, does not deserve the sunshine of a guiltless conscience; and he must be little calculated for public researches, who, on the discovery of truth, is afraid to support her through falsehood and misinterpretation. If I should have erred in my general politics, or have drawn the picture of partial horrors in colours which digust humanity, I shall not, I trust, be accused of a seditious temper in the one, or of a sanguinary disposition in the other. When the character of Lady Macbeth, with all its concomitants of bloodshed and remorse, is exhibited before the public, it is to deter mankind from the commission of murder; but the arguments which are used by the female instigator do not inculpate the writer?-If decency had permitted me, I would have displayed (from a positive and undisputed knowledge of the facts through the best local information), the most melancholy excess of savage indulgence upon the devoted Princess de Lamballe, after her decease, that ever marked barbarity! I would have done it, not only to excite the indignation of all Europe-had I talents to deserve attention-against the most diabolical faction in Paris, but likewise to shew to what lamentable purposes an enraged multitude may be rendered subservient, under a con

viction

viction of certain wrongs and probable treachery*. The amiableness of virtue and humanity is frequently better shewn through the deformity of vice and barbarity, than by the most beautiful display of all their attributes; and a good government dérives its stability as much from the exhibited fluctuations of a bad one, as it can by the most unbounded commendation on its own advantages.

"The rock on which imprudence splits should be the mark by which experience steers towards security. From motives of general philanthropy, I have perhaps been partially severe ;-but as opinion, authorized by facts, can seldom be erroneous, severity, although disgusting, should never be misconstrued. Of the late unfortunate victim to ambitious intrigues, I can only say, that I lament his fate, because his crimes, (if crimes there were) could never be his own. When the tumults of national convulsion shall have gradually subsided, justice, (which, however long protracted, always strikes at last), will, in the vengeance of awakened honour and humanity, rescue his me mory from all its present load of credited abuse. Sublatam virtutem quærimus invidi! will be the cry of the people, whilst truth, unmasked and

* Let it never be erased from the minds of Englishmen, that all mobs are alike. If the excesses of Windsor or Carleton House were ever to equal those of Versailles, &c. and a successful insurrection were to grow out of the art and ingenuity of any daring faction, murder, plunder, and desolation, must ensue.

undisguised

undisguised, shall point to the pusillanimous instigator, and exclaim-Hic niger est-hunc tu, Romane, caveto.

Posterity alone will see those mystical spells unravelled, which at this moment deceive and puzzle all conjecture-But whether the unfortunate Louis were guilty, from personal design, or misled by others, is a question too intricate to solve. The curtain of a reigning and detested faction is as yet too firmly held, for truth and justice to lift it up; and however strongly circumstances may confirm belief, rigorous history, gathering facts from time, can only prove them by degrees."

VOL. III.

R

THE

THE REV. HERBERT MARSH.

As this Review commenced with the Work of Mr. Arthur Young, owing to his being more attentive to true statements of facts than any of the other Writers, it may properly be concluded with a very able Work published in Germany by Mr. Herbert Marsh, now Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge*, an English Gentleman, who had resided (it is said) in that country a few years for his health, and acquired the German language so well as to write it not only correctly, but elegantly, in which language the Work was written and printed.

Astonished and concerned at the misrepresentations that were propagated over the Continent by French emissaries relative to the conduct of Britain, Dr. Marsh, like a true Englishman, and a friend to truth, wrote his "Politique Devoilee de la France vis-a-vis l'Angleterre," &c. drawn from Authentic Documents, which cannot be contested.

It is the excellent arrangement and choice of those documents that gives to this work its greatest value; and, had the British Government but half that attention to public opinion that it deserves,

* We universally find theorists quote Writers partially, and distort facts; Mr. Marsh and Mr. Young, who were observers, not political schemers, sought truth wherever they could, and gave it as they found it.

this Work would have been distributed in such numbers as to have undeceived all the world. The French are not more superior to the Russians and Germans in military skill and activity than they are to the British in cultivating public opinion, and spreading such reports and opinions as are favourable to their own views, The conduct of the French is not indeed to be imitated in regard to their actions or the veracity of their details, but their energy in spreading falsehoods ought to be copied in repelling them.

OPINION, INCLINATION, and NECESSITY, govern mankind in all their actions; but, in most important events, opinion governs; and, when it does not entirely govern, it always has a great influence-How necessary then to prevent false opinions from being propagated! The former Government of France neglected this; its enemies were active in bringing it into contempt, and it vanished like a shadow, so will every Government not supported by public opinion, as soon as that opinion has the means of operating-so will the present despotism of France terminate, the first moment that is favourable for the will of the people to operate.

"It is become," says Mr. Marsh," so general a custom in Germany to accuse England of having excited the War, that no one asks whether the accusation is well founded. Repeated so often by able writers, and so little contradicted by others, those who have not leisure nor means to examine

* ;

R 2