2] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1792. 
to return within the Bosom of France. The Royalists of France, after 
the Retreat of the Princes, divided into two Parties; the Queen’s and 
that of the Princes. Circumstances that fermented a preconceived Jealousy 
of ithe King. Plan of the Assembly for lessening the Power of the King, 
and establishing their own on its Ruins. The various Steps taken in the 
Prosecution of this Plan, Those taken by the Court for their Ccunterac- 
tion. Change of Ministry. Internal Contests and Dissentions. Declara- 
tion of War against the Emperor. The King refuses to sanction Decrees 
or a Camp near Paris, and against the Refractory Priests. A furious 
Multitude breaks intothe Palace of the Thuilleries, Remonstrance against 
this Outrage by the General La Fayette. Decree announcing the Country 
.t9 be in Danger. 
& LTHOUGH in all well esta- 
blished governments, and par- 
ticularly those of the monarchical 
kind, many important events may 
be traced to the intrigues of courts, 
and characters, and views of parti- 
cular persons, yet there is atide in 
the affairs of nations, as well as in 
those of individuals, operating with 
an uniformity which excludes the 
possibility of chance, and flowing 
from permanent principles. The 
constant change in the opinions, 
passions, and characters of nations, 
ds not readily perceived in the mo- 
notony of peaceable times; but 
sooner or later it tends to some im- 
portant crisis, and is found to be 
the grand engine that governs the 
world. It is this that exercises a 
sovereign influence on the great 
movements of the human drama: 
the rise, the convulsions, and the 
fall of empires. 
The characters of nations are not 
formed entirely by moral, but part- 
ly by the physical causes of extrac- 
tion, climate, soil, and other cir- 
cumstances. The character given 
of the French nation by Koman 
historians, men of intelligence and 
penctration, and who had the best 
opportunities of knowing it, be- 
jongs to them at this day.* They 
are restless, impatient, and desirous 
of change: they are the most uni- 
versally, and the most sensibly and 
suddenly alive to the spirit and pas- 
sion of the times, whatever that 
may be: religion, war, gallantry, 
colonization, and commerce; or 
refinement and the advancement of 
knowledge. Whatever they desire, 
they pursue with ardour, and ina 
body. Distinction and pre-emi- 
nence is always their aim, whether 
in gaiety and frivolity, or arts and 
arms, Ifthe genius of the times be 
an ambition of conquest, and an at- 
tachment to warlike chiefs and he- 
reditary sovereign princes, they 
convert their king almost literally 
into an idol: + if that of piety and 
devotion, they are the foremost in 
the crusade, and the most liberal in 
their donations to the church: and, 
* Cesar tells that the Gauls were fickle, given to innovation, and so turbulent 
and seditious, that factions existed not only in every principality and state, but 
almost in every house, 
character. 
Polybius, Tacitus, and other writers, give them the same 
+ The statue of Louis XLV. was set up in the place de Victoire in Paris ; and the 
¥rench officers and others took off their hats, and bowed to it as they passed, 
as 
