24] 
fhould be admitted to obftruét the 
attainment of that defired «bject. 
The final refult was, that every ex- 
clufive right and privilege through- 
out the kingdom was at length re- 
figned. 'The provinces which pof- 
feifed a right of taxing themfelves, 
renounced that right, and their 
ftates, together; and the parlia- 
ments, which had fo long been the 
boait of France, and confidered as 
the able and inflexible guardians of 
the public rights, were {oon anni- 
hilated, as well as the provincial 
ftates. Al] the ancient fyftems of 
theology and of the {chools, toge- 
ther with the canon, political, and 
_ecclefiaftical bodies cf law, were 
fwept away like cobwehs ; as were, 
with ftill greater eafe, all the claims 
er fuppofed rights of the court of 
Rome, and all fees or taxes here- 
tofore paid to it for ever abolifhed. 
In a word, every thing changed its 
ancient form and afpect. 
It was oblerved, by men of 
fhrewd obfervation, that however 
brilliant the generous enthufiafm of 
the 4th of Auguft appeared, and 
whatever honour the great facrifices 
made by the nobility and clergy to 
the people conferred on the parties, 
yet that this new mode of hattily 
pafling the moft important laws by 
acclamation, was fraught with much 
inconvenience and evil; that it 
took away from that refpeét, from 
that opinion of wifdom, which ever 
fhould attend the proceedings of a 
great deliberative aflembly ; more 
particularly the prefent, engaged 
as it was in the moft arduous tafk 
that ever had been committed to 
the hands of a fimilar body of men, 
that of correcting all the abufes 
accumulated in the courfé of a long 
series of paft ages, and of framing a 
new and perfect conftitution for the 
ANNUAL - REGISTER, 1790. 
government of a great and power~ 
ful empire, gs if it had now been 
only commencing its exiftence. 
They held, that one effential law 
coolly paffed in favour of the people, 
marked with its proper character- 
ifticks of due deliberation, difcuf- 
fion and enquiry, would have pro- 
duced better effects upon their tem- 
per and dijpofition, and inipired 
them with .higher fentiments of 
gratitude, than the’ whole bundle of 
laws thus precipitately hurried 
through by the voice of clamour 
and acclamation. ‘That fuch ator. 
rent of benefits coming upon them 
at once, was more culculated to turn 
theirheads, to loofen all the bands 
of {ubordination, to eradicate every 
fenfe of their re{pective duties, and 
to indifpofe them to every form 
‘whatever of government, than to 
render them good citizens, and ufe- 
ful members of the fociety, in their 
proper iphere of life. That thefe 
laws fhould have been promulged, 
and thefe benefits communicated ” 
gradually, to give them proper ef- 
tect, and thereby to render them 
ufeful; but that in the prefent ill- 
chofen feaion of pafling the one, 
and no lefs ill: mode of-difpenfing 
the other, the people mutt naturally 
attribute them either to a fudden 
paroxyim of fear or of madnefs ; 
and that under this impreffion, their 
gratitude on the one hand, and all 
the good effeéts which were hoped 
‘to proceed from theie prodigious 
conceffions, on the other, wouid be 
equally fuperfeded. They fartne 
infifted, that independently ofall ex- 
trinfic confiderations, fo important 
and fo intricate a body of laws, 
which went to change the whole 
law and policy of the nation, to 
difarrange or difpofe of near half 
its property, and to draw eternal 
a ; lines 
t 
