HISTORY OF EUROPE, 
snheatly if not quite concluded, the 
court of Spain received fuch terrible 
accounts of the incorrigible fpirit of 
diforder and mutiny which prevail- 
ed in the French fleet, that it is faid 
“to have been impreffed with the 
one dread, of engaging, with 
efach conforts; in a doubtful war 
»with' a moft formidable enemy ; the 
«whole fortune and fuccefs of which 
-muft almoft entirely depend upon 
*the joint and great naval exertions 
of the united nations. This impref- 
-fion was fuppofed and believed to 
be the principal operative motive 
swith Spain, in inducing her fud- 
+denly to conclude the convention 
>with England, which fettled the dif- 
ferences bétween the two nations. 
- Thus was prevented a war, which 
“Might, poffibly, in its courfe and 
~ confequences, have greatly changed, 
_ 4 not totally altered, the ftate of in- 
_ ternal affairs in France. It is no 
- great prefumption then to’ fuppofe, 
-or even conclude, that neither the 
- King; the court, nor the royalifts in 
general, could have been by any 
-Means averfe to the war’s taking 
» place at this juncture. 
During thefe tranfactions the vio- 
‘tent republican party found them- 
elves fo much increafed in ftrength - 
and in’ number, both within and 
without the/affernbly, and believing 
»thé’new fyftem to! be fo firmly efta- 
- blithed as to bid defiance to all das- 
+ ger, did not deem it neceffary to 
ubniit any longer to the reftraint of 
_ obferving any terms with the nobi- 
» lity, but thought they might venture 
béldly to bring forward their grand 
and long-concerted fcheme for the 
- total extirpation of that‘body ; and 
even, fo far as it was.poffiblé to be 
» done, to erafe and obliterate the very 
mame, along with» all memorials and 
* gemembrance of their paft exiftence. 
— 
[147 
We are to obferve; that many of the 
moft eminent of the French, nobi- 
lity, whethér with refp2é to family, 
fortune, character; or influence, (a- 
mong whom, we fhall only mention 
as inftances, the dukes de Roche- 
foucault and de Liancourt) although 
‘they abhorred. fome of the..violeat 
acts of the affembly, were ftill,zea- 
lous adherents to the revolution, fo 
far as its originally avowed -prin- 
ciples went; for they. were no Jlefs 
averfe to the ancient’ defpotifm of 
the crown, than the democrates, but 
then they idetefted republicanifm, 
‘perhaps, even more than;déf{potifm, 
as the greater evil of the,two.. Their 
object was a rational, moderate, li- 
mited) monarchy, . whofe .. powers 
fhould be precifely defined, which, 
with full fecurity to the perfons.and 
property of the people, with all the 
liberty that was compatible with 
good government, fhould at the fame 
time have its own rights as firmly 
fecured, and as well guarded, as 
theirs. It will be eafily drawn from 
a recollection of paft circumftances, 
that had it not been for the fupport 
and influence of fuch men as théfe, 
in different feafons of great difficul-. 
ty, the bufinefs of the revolution 
could fearcely, if at all, have been 
_accomplifhed.. But they were now 
no longer deemied neceflary, and 
they experienced, to their grief and 
coft, that from the beginning they 
had been made inftruments and tools 
to the defigns of that faftion, which 
they abhorred and detefted beyond 
all others. ; , 
This occafion obliges us to brin 
forward an adventurer with a ftrange 
name, and of a {till ftranger charac- 
ter, AnacharGis Clootz, a malcon- 
tent Pruffian; who wanted to com- 
municate the’ .knowledge of that lie 
berty_to the French, which He dared 
[X 2] net 
