HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
But above all, it has reason to re- 
gret its situation in times of difficul- 
ty and disturbance. If it possessed 
sovereign power within itself, it 
might, by active measures and pru- 
dent regulations, succeed in pre- 
serving or restoring tranquillity. 
But the powers of the government 
are limited and circumscribed: it 
must remain inactive, and wait for 
instructions from abroad :—these 
instructions, when they arrive, are 
perhaps fraught with destruction. 
Laws calculated for the good of 
the colony, in the circumstances in 
which it was seen by the legislature 
at home, by the time they have tra- 
velled three or four thousand miles, 
may have become, instead of salu- 
tary, pernicious and destructive. 
These truths were now fatally 
experienced by St. Domingo. 
M. Blanchelande, the governor 
general of Cape Francois, a few 
days after the arrival of the decree 
for the affranchisement of the mu- 
lattoes, had dispatched intelligence 
to France of the effect which it had 
produced upon the whites. He ac- 
quainted the king’s ministers with 
the general discontent and violent 
fermentation it had exacted; and 
predicied that it would prove the 
death-warrant of thousands, and the 
loss to France of the colonies for 
ever. Immediately the Jacobin 
leaders, who had procured its en- 
actment, sunk into disgrace; they 
were loaded with reproaches, and 
almost treated with outrage. Peti- 
tions poured in from every quarter, 
beseeching the National Assembly 
to reverse every decree which was 
Prejudicial to the interests of the 
ters; and to leave no method 
untried to soothe their minds, and 
to regain their affections, At length 
-& motion was made (24th Septem- 
Vou, XXXIV. 
[s2 
ber) to annul the obnoxious decree: 
—the Constitutional Assembly a- 
bout to dissolve, wished to leave 
every thing in tranquillity ; and its 
repeal was actually voted by a large 
majority. 
No sooner was intelligence of this 
event received in St. Domingo, than 
civil war was renewed with all its 
former horrors. The people of co- 
lour had, ere this, begun to enter- 
tain doubts of the sincerity of the 
white people. Convinced that they 
had been instrumental in procuring 
the repeal, they accused them of 
the most horrid duplicity, faithless- 
ness, and treachery. Exasperated 
to madness, they every-where flew 
to arms, and swore that they would 
never lay them down till either 
themselves or the whites were ut- 
terly exterminated. 
And a war of extermination it 
became. Every movement of com- 
passion, every feeling of humanity, 
was banished from the breasts of 
the bloody combatants. Both par- 
ties were animated with the most 
fierce and savage phrenzy ; and there 
was a keen emulation betwixt the 
two, which should excel in inflicting: 
cruelties upon the other, A pitched 
battle was fought at a place called 
Cul de Sac, but which was not de- 
cisive, though the whites had rather 
the advantage; they killed 2000 of 
the negroes on the field, and made 
several prisoners. Upon the bodies 
of these unhappy men they prac- 
tised every refinement of cruelty 
which the most depraved imagina- 
tion could suggest. Some they 
broke upon the wheel, others they 
threw alive into the flames, It is 
needless to mention that the mu- 
Jattoes were actuated by equal re- 
venge and ferocity. 
Terrified at the alarming state of 
[G] St. 
