a “Pr: 
HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
* chance or by prejudice. A ne- 
“« ver-ceafing inquietude tormented 
“© thofe freemen born of yefterday ; 
“< in their neceffity for a new order 
“« of things, and for a fovereign ju- 
« rifdiction, they feized and engroff- 
« ed all jurifdiction to themfelves ; 
“and feveral tumultuous affaflina- 
“ tions were the fruit of this deliri- 
« um.”—And a little after, in treat- 
ing of the two parties which divided 
the national affembly, he obierves, 
« that one fentiment, however, pre- 
*¢ dominated there, and that was, 
« the dread of the effects which 
“anarchy, too long continued, might 
« occafion.”’ 
We have marked the words 4c 
long continued as applied to anarchy, 
from the relation which this paflage 
feems to bear to a ferious charge 
_ brought againft feveral of the leaders 
of the national affembly, that they 
_ had been the inftigators, and in fact” 
the authors, of many of the diftrac- 
tions and enormities which took 
place in the provinces. Ofa num- 
ber of circumitances and facts from 
different quarters, and given by dif- 
ferent narrators, in corroboration 
of this point, we fhall felect one 
which occurred in Paris, in the be- 
' ginning of the year 1790, and which 
is fapported by teftimony that can- 
not be called in queftion. At that 
time the Count de Marguerite af-' 
_ ferted publickly at the Duke of Li- 
_ ancourt’s table, and in a numerous 
_cémpany, where near thirty mem- 
bers of the aflembly were prefent, 
that the late revolt at Toulon had 
been inftigated or fupported by 
members of that body, who acted 
therein upon the principle « rhat 
“ more infurrecions were neceffary;” 
and this extraordinary charge was 
liftened to by all the deputies pre- 
[rs 
fent, without a fingle word in denial, 
refutation, or excufe being offered 
by any of them*. 
The outrages, conflagrations, and 
maffacres which were {preading 
defolation through feveral parts of 
the kingdom, had, in a fhorter {pace 
of time than could have been well 
conceived, rifen to fuch a pitch ef 
enormity, as to communicate alarm 
and difmay to the national affem- 
bly, fortified as it was by the fuf- 
frages of the nation, and fupported 
by the numerous army formed in the 
capital. For in confequence of the 
forged orders and falfe intelligence 
which had been fo villainoufly con- 
veyed to the peafantry, the whole 
nation was inftantly in arms, and 
thefe operating upon the ill difpo- 
fition of the people, and the abhor- 
rence in which they held their an- 
cient mafters, it feemed as if ne 
bounds could limit their violence, 
and no excefs of cruelty fatiate their 
revenge. ‘Thus the nobility were 
in many places hunted down like 
wild beafts, their family feats or 
caftles demolithed, and their patents, 
pedigrees, title deeds, family fettle- 
ments, court rolls, and all records of 
paft tranfactions, deftroyed by fire. 
Happy were thofe, who even in this 
flate, plundered of every thing, 
could efcape half naked from, the 
flames, without perfonal injury. 
But in too many inftances fuch 
atrocious aéts were committed, that 
nature fhudders’ and recoils at» the 
recital, ‘The wives of the nobility, 
it is afferted, were in féveral in- 
ftances violated, and their daughters 
deflowered, in the prefence of the 
unhappy fathers and hufbands; and 
the horrid tragedy frequently con- 
cluded by the moft inhuman mur- 
ders, aggravated by circumftances 
of 
* See Young’s Tour, p. 276. 
