| 
might well have proved a perma- 
nent body of magiftracy. ‘There 
were fuflicient caufes on which to 
found this expectation of perma- 
Nence; for the eleftors were in 
faa, in “their feveral diftricts, the 
direét reprefentatives of the people, 
being elected by them, which the 
deputies at Verfailles were not, they 
being created by the three hundred, 
and holding a very remote connee- 
tion with the people at large, to 
whom they were but little known, 
and to whom they were not bound 
by any obligation. It was however 
happy, that thefe confiderations ope- 
rated powerfully upon the bulk of 
the people in the firft inftance, thro’ 
which the government of the capi- 
tal was for fome days carried on 
{moothly enough, and the authority 
of the new magiitracy would have 
feemed complete, if it had not been 
for thofe occafions of murder or 
maflacre which called forth the fe- 
rocity of the rabble, when all laws, 
government, and authority, and all 
refpe&t to perfons, were trampled 
under fodt. 
The electors were too fenfible of 
the critical fituation of affairs, and 
too well acquainted with the cifpo- 
fition of the people for whom they 
were to aét, to be at all folicitous 
for the pre-eminence to which they 
were Called; on the contrary, it 
was at the earneft folicitation and 
repeated entreaties of the moft va- 
luable part of their fellow-citizens, 
that they ventured upon the arduous 
tatk of governing the capital. ‘Their 
conduct was fuch, during the fhort 
continuance of their power, as to 
gain the approbation of all the fo- 
ber part of the citizens; and for a 
few days, the applaufe which they 
received even from the rabble was 
boundlefs, and the merit and im- 
3 
ANNUAL REGISTER; 
17 90. 
portance of their fervices were uni- 
verfally acknowledged; nor did 
their fubfequent conduct afford any 
fair ground of cenfure. : 
But the natural levity and incon- 
ftancy of the Parifians, their grofs 
ignorance, their mortal abhorrence 
of fubordination, and above all, 
that horrid fufpicioufnefs of temper, 
which induces them to imagine 
treachery or villainy in the moft 
indifferent, the moft innocent, or the 
moft praife-worthy aétions, render+ 
ed it impoflible for any man or fet 
of men long to preferve their fa- 
vour, or to conduét their bufinefs in 
any manner which could afford fa- 
tisfa@ion, and which would not 
even in the conclufion be attended 
with imminent danger. We have 
fhewn in our laft volume the narrow 
efcape which the electors had from 
the fufpigious rage of the multitude, 
when, on account of the impreffion 
made on theirhumanity by Neckar’s 
eloquence in favour of Bezenval, 
and of a fimilar difpofition operat- 
ing on themfelves to endeavour to 
heal the bleeding wounds of the 
nation by a general amnefty, the 
rabble conceived thefe aéts of wif- 
dom and virtue to be fo flagrant an 
invafion of their new fevereignty, 
and like other defpots not enduring 
any partners in power, that they 
were on the point of carrying their 
refentment to the extremity of pu- 
nifhment. Indeed, it feemed clear, 
that nothing lefs than the fortunate 
and inftantaneous perception of their 
danger, which ftruck the electors, 
and the confequent immediate de- 
reli€tion of their feats and autho- 
rity, was likely to preferve their 
perfons from the fummary execu- 
tion of the lanthorn, or their houfes 
and property from deftruction. 
It feemed, however, as if the 
body 
