STATE PAPERS. 25 
of order and the laws, like him we 
will execute this divine task, with 
the assistance of our faithful sub- 
jets, by uniting kindness with 
justice. 
Your minds have, by dreadful 
experience, been sufficiently in- 
formed of the extent and origin of 
your misfortunes, Impious and 
fa&tious men, after having seduced 
you by lying declamations, and by 
deceitful promises, hurried you into 
irreligion and revolt. Since that 
time a torrent of calamities has 
rushed in upon you from every side. 
You proved faithless to the God of 
your forefathers; and that God, 
justly offended, has made you feel 
the weight of his anger; you re- 
belled against the authority which 
he had established, and a sanguin- 
ary despotism, and an anarchy no 
~dess fatal, have alternately continued 
to harass you with incessant rage. 
Consider an instant the origin 
and progress of the evils with which 
you are overwhelmed, You first 
~ consigned your interests to faithless 
wepresentatives, who, betraying 
the confidence which you had re- 
posed in them, and violating the 
oaths which they had taken, paved 
the way for their rebellion against 
their king, by treachery and per- 
jury towards you: and they ren- 
dered you the instraments of their 
passions, and of your own ruin. 
- You next submitted to the despotic 
sway of gloomy and austere tyrants, 
who contested with each other, 
while the contest was marked by 
mutual massacres, the right of op. 
pressing the nation; and they im- 
posed upon you an iron yoke. You 
afterwards permitted their blood. 
stained sceptre to pass into the 
hands of a rival faétion, which, in 
order to secure their power, and to 
reap the fruits bf their crimes, 
assumed the mask of moderation, 
whith “sometimes it lifts up, but 
which it dares not yet venture 
wholly to throw aside; and you 
have changed sanguinary despots, 
whom you abhorred, for hypocriticat 
despots whom you despise; They 
conceal their weakness beneath am 
appearance of mildness, bat they 
are a€tuated by the same ambition 
which influenced the conduét of 
their predecessors. The reign of 
terror has suspended its ravages, | 
but they have been replaced by the 
disorders of anarchy. Less blood is 
shed in France, but greater misery 
prevails. In short, your slavery 
only changed its form, and your 
disasters have been aggravated. 
You have Jent a favourable ear to 
the calumnious reports that have 
been propagated against that an. 
cient race which, during so long a 
period, reigned as much in your 
hearts as over France: and your 
blind credulity has increased the 
weight of your chains, and pros 
longed the term of your misfor- 
tunes. In a word, your tyrants , 
have overthrown the altars of your 
God and the throne of your king, 
and have completed the sum of. 
your wretchedness. — 
Thus impiety and révolt have 
been the cause of all the torments 
you experience: in order to stap 
their progress you must dry up 
their source. You must renounce’ 
the dominion of those treacherous 
and cruel usurpets who promhised 
you.happiness, but who have given 
you only famine and death: we 
wish to relieve you from their ty- 
ranny, which has go much injured 
you, to inspire you with the re- 
solution of shaking it off. You - 
must teturn to that holy religion 
which 
