np fed — 
HISTORY O 
than they are in totally fhaking off 
all ideas, natural or acquired; of or- 
der and juftice. We {ee in the pre- 
fent inftance, mifrule and diforder 
producing a jumble of all the paf- 
fions, of almoft all orders, parties, 
colours, and degrees of men, which 
are thrown into a ftate of the moft 
violent fermentation; and yet we 
fee, that it required fome confider- 
able courfe of practice in the com- 
miffion of crimes, and no {mall ex- 
tent of time, before this chaos of 
anarchy and confufion could produce 
its ultimate effect, and plunge, even 
the moft depraved, or moft ignorant 
of mankind, into the laft poffible de- 
gree of atrocity and guilt. 
As the feries of calamity and ruin 
which fell upon the French colonies 
are itll fcarcely clofed, it muft fufiice 
for us at the prefent to obferve, that 
the mulattoes were the firft, in St. 
Domingo, who had recourfe to arms; 
that numbers of negroes were by 
degrees armed and drawn in as 
euxiliaries; that aftet dreadful 
fcenes of devaftation, flaughter, and 
horror, the flaves being trained to 
Jofe all refpe&t for, and dread of their 
matters, rofe upon their own ac- 
count in rebellion, to the number of 
‘a hundred thotfand or more, with a 
view of totally exterminating the 
whites. And that thus, though by 
flow degrees, the aid of artillery, 
and the benefit of fortifications long 
preferving fome degree of balance, 
the final ruin of that fine ifland was - 
preceded and accompanied by fuch 
horiid fcenes of cruelty, murder, 
maflacre, conflagration, and general 
defolation, as have feldom diigraced 
the page of hiftory, or equally 
_ Wrung the hearts of mankind in the 
recital. 
While the colonies were thus 
_ Wommencing, or already in the course 
i: 
of their ‘difaitrous career, that plots; 
con{piracies, and infurreétions, were 
the conftant fubjects of difcourfe and 
apprelénfion at home; and that the 
{mothering feeds of foreign war 
were ill covered in Germany, the 
ftate of the army, which had in a 
great meafure thrown off all fubor- 
dination and difcipline, was a fource 
of much uneafinefs to the national 
affembly. 'The troops had been’ 
guilty of great outrages in different 
parts of the kingdom; but tumult 
and outrage were things now {fa 
common, that thefe might have 
pafled without much notice, if it 
had not been for the uncertainty 
frem what {fpirit they proceeded, 
anid of the political fentiments which 
operated on the foldiers. Proper 
means were ufed to found the prin- 
ciples both of officers and private 
mens and the refult of the enquiry 
was faid to be, that the former were 
very generally ariftocrates, and were 
fuppofed to have been. already cor- 
rupted by that party; but that the 
foidiers were as generally well dif- 
pofed to the revolution, and might 
without much dificulty be firmly fe- 
cured ‘to it. This objec being ac- 
cordingly eafily attained, the army 
became, like the nation, ‘divided 
into two great parties. But the 
means thus ufed for gaining or fe- 
curing the foldiers, however necef:' 
_fary it might have been on the pre- 
fent voecafion, had the ill effect of 
deitroying all remains of {ubordina= 
tion and difcipline in the army; the 
foldiers, {welling with the import= 
ance which they found they poflef- 
fed, and thereby fecure of fupport 
and protection in all cafes, now adds 
ed contempt and party animofity to - 
‘that diflike, arifing only from an 
averfion to command, which they 
had before eatertained for their of- 
ficers, 
