HISTORY OF EUROPE. f3 
frates aetier 3 and the parliaments were annihilated as well as the pro- 
wincial fates. All fees and taxes to the court of Rome for ever abolifbed, 
Some obfervations on the precipitancy, with which fixteen laws of the utmoft 
moment were burried through in one night; as well as on the bad effe@ 9 
paffing laws by acclamation. Nobility and clergy in the provinxs highly 
difcontented with the condud of their delegates on the 4th of Auguft, in mak- 
ing fuch vaft facrifices without their confent. Several members of the 
affembly likewife repent their own conceffions, and become equally diffatisfied. 
Landed proprietaries at length take up arms in their own defence, and re- 
prefs the barbarous ravages of the peafantry. King appoints a new minif- 
try, with the approbation of the affembly. Diftrefed ftate of the publics 
through the failure of the taxes. Loans attempted and fail. Scheme of pa 
triotic contributions adopted, 
S the city of Paris already 
A poffefied, or was faft advanc- 
ng to the poffeffion of the real power 
and authority of the nation, without 
_ a direét nominal affumption of its 
goverrment, and the exercife of that 
power was rendered lefs diftafteful 
_ and invidious to the provinces and 
to the people at large, by its paf- 
fing through the medium of the na- 
tional affembly, which was appa- 
rently refponfible for meafures in 
which it acted little more than a fe- 
condary part; it may not perhaps 
be uocneceflary to make fome in- 
quiry, how that authority, which 
was thus paremount to all others in 
fo great and extenfive an empire, 
and fo immenfe a population, was 
itfelf conftru@ted, reculated, and di- 
rected. We shall likewife take no- 
tice of fome corre{ponding circum- 
flances and caufés, which were ci- 
ther overlooked in our lait volume, 
or did not at the time come within 
our knowledge, but which tended 
in a lefs or greater degree to faci- 
litate the accomplifhment of a re- 
volution, which, taken in all its 
parts, is without example in the 
hiftory of cultivated nations, and 
of long-eftablifhed governments. 
Inthe courfe of about three weeks, 
that vaft and turbulent metropolis, 
which was deftined to give the law 
to a whole empire, had undergone 
no lefs than three revolutions in its 
own conttitution of government. 
Having in the firft inftance thrown 
off all eftablifhed authority, whether 
derived from the fovereign or from 
their own municipal inftitutions, the 
capital feemed expofed a prey to 
every fpecies of diforder, violence, 
and of the moft unbounded anarchy. 
In this alarming and dangerous ftate, 
it happened moft fortunately for that 
city, and probably faved’ it from 
continual fcenes of plunder and 
maflacre, that the better order of ci- 
tizens perceived within their reach 
the means of eftablifhing, at leaft, 
a temporary authority, which might 
tend to preferve order and to afford 
fecurity. The body of conftituent 
electors, who returned the deputies 
from Paris to the ftate, were of 
courfe compofed of the principa 
citizens in their refpective diftriéts; 
they amounted to about three hun- 
dred, and luckily for the. capital, 
pofieffed in a high degree the good 
opinion and confidence of the peo- 
ple. On thefe the opulent and bet- 
ter part of the citizens immediately 
ca{t their eyes, as capable of form- 
ing a central, effective, and what, 
with any other people to manage, 
[4] z might 
