10} 
appeared inconfiftent or unintelli- 
ible. 
It muft, however, ‘be acknow- 
ledged, that the fame blind credu- 
lity, an@ the fame vitious natural 
fufpiciouf{nefs of temper, prevailed 
throughout every part of the king- 
dom, and muft be afcribed to the 
fame caufe, the extreme ignorance 
of the people. Some initances in 
proof are at all times neceflary to {up- 
port general obfervation; and a few 
out of a great. number will fuffice 
for the prefent purpofe. The firft 
was the impoflible charge laid 
againft the queen, that fhe had pro- 
cured the conftru€tion of a well- 
charged mine under the hall of the 
national affembly, in order to blow 
the ftates, without diftinétion, at 
once into the air; this ridiculous 
ftory was not only verbally propa- 
gated throughout the kingdom, 
but a letter afferting the fact, and 
faid to have been written by one of 
the deputies to the ftates, was, at 
about 300 miles diftance from Paris, 
publicly averred by feveral perfons 
to have been feen and read by 
them. The faét was believed by 
all who heard it; which drew the 
following obfervation, in his own 
peculiar way, from our country- 
man Arthur Young, who was pre- 
fent at the recital, and the autho- 
rity given: “Thus it is in revo- 
lutions, one ‘rafcal writes, and 
100,000 fools believe.’? Another 
inftance was, the rifque which the 
fame writer, and an old woman, 
his guide, encountered, on a fufpi- 
cion that they were combined with 
the queen in a confpiracy againft 
the volcanic rocks and mountains 
of Auvergne, and that he was the 
acting agent for blowing up the 
town of Clermont. The danger at 
this time, however ridiculous, was 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1790. 
only trifling when compared with 
that which he fuftained fhortly af- 
ter; he being then feized in bed 
at midnight by a party of armed 
militia, ‘on the very ferious and 
alarming charge, of his being a 
party in the confpiracy formed by 
the queen, the count d’Artois, and 
(their own lerd) the count d’En- 
tragues, againit the territory of the 
Vivarois. ‘The fortune he had of 
being extricated from this difficulty 
and danger, does not at all weaken 
the evidence which it affords of 
the extraordinary ignorance, credu- 
lity, and the unaccountably fufpi- 
cious nature of the people. Such 
inftances would have excited fome 
furprize if they had occurred in the 
interior and lefs frequented parts of 
Arabia; but that they fhould be 
‘difplayed in the center of Europe, 
in its oldeft monarchy, and in a 
country long and defervedly emi- 
nent for information and know- 
‘ledge, can fcarcely be confidered 
as lefs than wonderful. They how- 
ever afford full demonftration, that 
no great portion of art or addrefs 
was neceflary-to the endowment of 
thofe who were deftined to. play 
upon fuch inftruments. 
The unbounded licentioufnefs of 
the prefs, which was carried to an 
extreme before unknown under any 
government, was a moft potent in- 
ftrument of the revolution. Nor 
was its licentioufnefs more extraor- 
dinary, than the unceafing induftry 
with which it was eternally fupplied 
with an inexhauftible fource of the 
moft dangerous and inflammatory 
matter, fubverfive of all order and 
government, was aftonifhing. For 
amidft the general darknefs andigno- 
rance which involved the people at 
large, there was a numerous por- 
tion of men who dedicated, or feemed 
st] 
