14] 
feveral of the principal orators and 
moft popular demagogues in the 
néw clubs were retained; and thefe 
clubs, as we have feen, by their de- 
pendant and correfponding focieties, 
which were eftablifhed in eyery 
town of the kingdom, foon gave the 
law to the whole nation. Nor was 
the national aflembly by any means 
free from the operation of the fame 
caufe, nor was the effect it pro- 
duced on many of its members lefs 
known. 
As the duke’s annual revenues, 
great and royal as they were, and 
his fund of ready money, which was 
probably confiderable, were #till un- 
equal to the fupply of thefe number- 
lefs drains, he deemed it neceffary 
to apply to other fources. Indeed, 
with fuch vaft objeéts in view, and 
after the facrifice of fo much 
wealth as was already expended, it 
feemed upon the principles of gam- 
ing that it was better to encounter 
any rifque of future evil, than to 
‘ftop fhort in fuch a ftate of things, 
and when fo much was already 
flaked. Holland always affords 
money,.as well as numberlefs fpecu- 
lators who wifhto turn it to ac- 
count, and the duke’s vait eftates 
feemed to hold out ample fecurity for 
aloan. The amount of the fums he 
borrowed is uncertain, and has been 
rated from £.300,000 to half a 
million fterling. ‘The niceft and 
moft difficult calculatson would be to 
eftimate the exact quantum of moral 
and political evil which fuch a fum, 
in fuch hands, was then capable of 
producing in France, 
It is evident that the duke not 
only totally miftook his own abilities, 
but that he was as little fenfible of 
the ill effets which his unfortunate 
character could not but produce, 
when he adopted the wild idea of 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1990. | 
being able to fubvert or circumvent 
all other fa€tions, and of being able 
to rife upon the fhoulders of men, 
poffeffing talents infinitely fuperior 
to his own, and of rendering them 
the inftruments to the accomplifh- 
ment of his ambitious views. The 
natural deficiency of refolution and 
courage, with which every body, 
knew he was curfed, was, inde- 
pendant of all others, an infuperable 
bar to his ever becoming, under any 
change of circumiftances, or in any 
courfe of events, the ruler of fo un- 
governable and fo outrageous a peo- 
ple. Yetin this blind purfuit he la« 
vifhed treafures, which, in many 
paft periods, might, by proper ap- 
plication, have amounted in effect to 
the purchafe or gaining of a king~ 
dom. 
The juftnefs of an opinion which 
had been held by many, even early 
in the revolution, feems. to have. 
been much confirmed by the courfe 
of fubfequent events; viz. that the 
French, as a nation, were not yet in 
a ftate capable of receiving liberty ; 
and that many intermediate prepa- 
ratory fteps would have been ne- 
ceflary to qualify them for fo new 
and fo great a bleffing. Even Ra- 
baid de St. Etienne, the eloquent 
apologift for, and advocate of the 
revolution, amidft all his fins of fup- 
preffion and mifreprefentation, and 
all the artful colouring which he 
gives to facts and circumftances, ac- 
knowledges, ‘“ That the people, 
« aftonifhed at feeing their chains 
« broken with fuch facility, and at 
« feeling their own ftrength, abufed 
« that ftrength in taking vengeance 
«* of their oppreffors ; and their new 
« liberty was, as yet, but licentiouf- 
-«¢ nefs, General hatred, in its blind 
« rage, fought every where to pu- 
«© nifh enemies, pointed out to it by 
** chance 
