a 
HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
eharge of the continued fabrication 
and propagation of public falfe- 
hoods has been more or lefs con- 
firmed or acknowledged, by perhaps 
every writer who has given a nar- 
rative, with any appearance of im- 
partiality, of the progefs of the 
revolution. Certain authors, or 
publifhers, however, of our own 
country, have adopted fome of the 
groffeft and moft abfurd falfehoods, 
Yome of the moft ridiculous tales, 
which had been fabricated for the 
rabble m~ Paris during the firft 
‘paroxifms of confufion, tumult, and 
‘madnefs, and to which they have 
endeavoured, fo far as they were 
capable, to give the character, rank, 
and weight of hiftorical fats. Of 
this clafs is particularly to be con- 
fidered the -injuricus and cruel 
falfehood, that the unfortunate and 
murdered Launay, had _treacher- 
~ oufly enticed a number of Parifians 
into one of the courts of the Battile, 
where he then had them maffacred 
in cold blocd. This horrible and 
wicked invention produced (as we 
have formerly fhewn) its odious 
purpofes at the time; in the firft in- 
_ftance, by exciting the animofity 
_of the populace, and fpurring them 
on to that pitch of outrage and 
¢ruelty which was intended; and 
an the fecond, by holding out 
fome’ palliation for the inhuman 
murder of the governor, and repre- 
fenting it to the world as an act of 
juit retribution for his treachery. 
‘The pleafant tale of the heroic bar- 
ber, who found himfelf fo deeply 
involved in the weighty concerns 
of empire, that he attempted to 
blow the Baftile and himfelf up to- 
‘gether, though it feems intended 
‘only as a companion to the former, 
certainly poffefies many advantages 
Over it; for befides its being to- 
[9 
tally innocent, and undoubtedly af- 
fording much fatisfaction to the 
members of that fraternity, fome of 
whom it may poflibly ftimulate to 
fimilar deeds of chivalry, it has the 
pofitive merit of being an unique 
in that {pecies of compofition, It 
affords, however, an important and 
happy fecurity to the vergcjty and 
purity of fwture hiftory, that as fuch 
produétions can feldom laft long 
enough to reach pofterity, there is 
no great danger of their hereafter 
contaminating the clear ftream in 
which it fhouid flow. : 
Paris had ever been noted for the 
blind credulity, and, at the fame 
time the fufpicious nature of its 
inhabitants, Thefe qualities, fo 
directly oppofite, feemed undcubt- 
edly to be oddly joined in the fame 
perfons ; but yet the faét is faid to 
be fo; and thofe who knew them 
well have afferted, that while, from 
time immemorial, they had {wal- 
lowed, and feemed nearly to live 
upon, an eternal fucceffion of the 
moft abfurd and improbable tales 
and ftories, plain undifguifed truth 
was always received with caution 
and doubt, and fuppofed to conceal 
fome guile, deception, or danger. 
‘The extreme general ignorance of 
thefe people, with refpect to every 
thing beyond their own wails, 
(which was perhaps without exam- 
ple in any country of equal civilt- 
zation, and fo produétive of men 
eminent in arts, {clences, and Jearn- 
ing, as France) had long afforded 
matter of obfervation to travellers, 
and of ridicule to poets and faty- 
rifts; A confideration of thefe 
circumftances will tend much to 
account for and throw light upon 
many parts Of the prefent and fu- 
ture conduct of that extraordinary 
people, which would otherwife have 
appeared, 
