58] 
any of their aéts continue, and 
would have prevented atts which 
will be an eternal ftain to their 
country, if they had pafied, and 
fupported with vigour, many fimi- 
lar refolytions ; initead of turning 
accounts of the moft inhuman mur- 
ders to, ridicule, and fhamefully 
joking upon the purity or impurity, 
of the blood thus fhed. 
Nothing at the fame time can af- 
ford a itronger demonttration of the 
homage paid to’ Mounier’s charac- 
ter, and of the awful afcendancy 
which virtue holds over thoie even 
who abhor its namé, than that he 
fhould have been able to carry a 
refolution fo abherent to. the likings 
of all the principal leaders of the 
faGions; — they evidently fhrunk 
before it. Hehas declared himfelf, 
that the reflection of his having 
carried this meafure of humanity 
and juftice, was no {mall folace to 
him in his fubfequent troubles and 
misfortunes. This was his laft 
public at: and he, who had not 
long fince been one of the mott 
popular men in the kingdom, was, 
at no diftant period, deftined to fly 
from his country, and to retire to 
Geneva for the prefervation of his 
life. ‘This obligation he owed to 
Barnave and others of his brother 
deputies, who, unable to refift or en- 
dure his virtue when prefent, took 
care to prepoffefs the minds of the 
people fo effectually againft him, as 
to prevent the poflibility of his being 
ever again troublefome. Mounier 
was, with refped to ftri€tnefs of in- 
tegrity, purity of principle, love 
ani admiration of virtue, undoubt- 
edly the fir’ man in the affembly, 
and féemed to belong to another 
age rather than to the prefent. In 
talents and abilities he was fecond 
to none in that body; but they were 
ANNUAL REGFSTER, 
regular one, fenced in with infu. 
diforders and violence. 
1790. 
not fhowy, nor calculated to catch 
the vulgar; fo that his popularity 
arofe from the general fenfe enter- 
tained of his virtue. He was an 
enthufiaftic lover of liberty, and 
as determined a foe to tyranny in 
every thape and form; but the li- © 
berty which he adored, and wifhed . © 
to eftablifh, was a rational and © 
perable reftraints againft its dege- 
nerating into licention{nefs and a- | 
narchy, as well as with impaffable q 
mounds againft the inroads of def- ~ 
potifm. In political affairs his | 
faults were, being too refined and © 
fpeculative, and fometimes being | 
immoveable in his opinions, o 
We thought it both becoming 
and a part of our duty, to fay thus © 
much ofa fallen and unfortunate, | 
but a very eminent man; and the ~ 
more {o, as there is little probabilt- 
ty that he will ever again come ~ 
within our obfervation. 
Mounier declared to a few par- — 
ticular friends, at his quitting Paris, — 
how much he was opprefled by the 
melancholy reflection, that all his — 
efforts in favour of liberty had only 
ended in enflaving France to the — 
defpotifm of faction, inftead. of the 
defpotifm of royalty. 
"Two factions, with views totally 
different and incompatible, had an 
equal fhare in promoting the late — 
The re-— 
publican levellers intended, by the 
removal to Paris, to place the un- 
happy fovereign {o entirely im their — 
own power, and by the aid of th 
Parifians to purge the affembly f 
totally of all who oppofed them, 
that neither the king, the nebles, 
nor the clergy, could find it poflibh 
afterwards to defend any of their 
rights, not only, by arms, but even 
by legal refiltance. And they be 
aw 
