66] 
massacres, dated the 4th of Sep- 
tember, uses other similitudes. ‘‘ I 
know that revolutions are not to be 
ealculated by common rules: but 
I know likewise, that the power 
which makes them, ought ‘soon to 
arrange itself under obedience to 
the law, if total destruction be not 
intended. ‘The anger of the people, 
and the movement of insurrection, 
are comparable to the action of a 
torrent. which overturns obstacles 
that no other power is able to de- 
stroy; but which, spreading wider 
and wider in its progress, will carry 
ravage und devastation far and wide, 
if it does not soon return to its 
usual course. It is in the nature of 
things, and of the human heart, 
that victory should always be fol- 
lowed by a certain degree of ex- 
cess: the'sea, agitated by a tempest, 
roars after the tempest is over; but 
every thing has its bounds where 
it ought at last to be terminated.”’ 
Even in'these sublime and gentle 
admonitions to the people, we dis- 
cover the latent principle of all the 
evil; which ought not to be com- 
pared to’ a torrent which ceases 
with the rains, or the dissolution of 
the snow by which it is occasioned, 
but to a well of bitter waters con- 
stantly springing up into poisonous 
streams of misery and death. The 
French nation are admonished of 
what they ought to do, or not to do; 
but the grand principle of insurrec- 
tion and revolt js still approved, 
held sacred still, and compared to 
whatever is grand and affecting in 
the course of nature. Yet it is al- 
lowed that insurrection may be too 
long continued. ‘If,’ M. Roland 
continues, ‘“ disorganization be- 
* History of Jacobinism, page 516. © _ 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1792. 
comesa matter of habit and custom; 
if men, zealous, but without know- — 
ledge and skill, pretend to mix per- — 
petually with administration, and 
to stop its course; if, supported by 
some popular favour, obtained by a 
great degree of ardour, and main- — 
tained by a still greater’ facility 
of making harangues, they spread — 
abroad mistrust, and sow calumny — 
and accusation, excite fury and 
dictate proscriptions,—the govern- 
ment is then only a shadow *.? 
Though these remarks may havean 
appearance of criticism rather than — 
of narration, yet nothing is more to 
our purpose than to trace the great 
cause amidst all the symptoms: of — 
the disease. For light on this sub- 
ject, we cannot but acknowledge 
our obligations to a publication by — 
one of our countrymen, who wit- 
nessed the volcano in its most vio- 
lent eruptions, and marked with — 
accuracy and penetration, the strata 
disclosed, of moral nature. (On 
the passage just quoted from the — 
Letters of Roland, the author of 
the History of Jacobinism observes, — 
“Those who patronize revolt, — 
should not liken it, when supported 
by principle, to a river that is to — 
return to its bed: it should bé~ 
likened to a fire that never ceases — 
till all is consumed. Have not all 
those’ who have witnessed the re~ — 
volution, seen that the habit’ of re- 
volt was subversive of order, law, 
and liberty, as Roland says? And 
is it not evident, that what menare — 
taught to consider as a duty, is very — 
likely to become a habit? Why 
then, instead of preaching eternally — 
against revolt carried too far, and — 
continued too long, do not they at — 
—— 
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