266 
made at the time most impression on 
the generality of observers. The style 
is spirited and unaffected; but in the 
use of auxiliaries there are occasional 
symptoms of a northern education. It 
is agreeable that events so recent, and 
Arr. XI. 
Amiens in 1802. By Joun Avorpuus, Lsq. 
TO commence this article with any 
general remarks on the duties of an his- 
torian, or on the qualifications of Mr. 
Adolphus for the laborious and respon. 
sible task he has undertaken, were alike 
superfluous. As to the first, they have 
long since been agreed on; diligence in 
exploring every repository wherein in- 
formation may be obtained, and plain 
honesty in the communication of it: 
an historian should take for his motto, 
*“‘ Truth and the whole Truth.” As to 
the second, namely, thé qualifications of 
Mr. Adolphus, he has already delivered 
his credentials, if we may use the phrase: 
his History of the Reigu of George the 
Third has the rare merit of estimating 
living characters with freedom and im- 
partiality, and of recording contempo- 
rary facts unmutilated and undisguised. 
‘«¢ Opinions vary, fade, and are forgot- 
ten; applause and blame are transferred 
from public characters, according to 
the mutability of general opinion, but 
the narrative of facts will ever claim 
attention; and the historian who has 
hestowed the greatest portion of dili- 
gence and judgment on this part of his 
subject, will be most permanently es- 
teemed.”” Much has been said on the 
difficulty of composing an history of our 
own time; it is obvious, that the prin- 
eipal difficulty is that of restraining 
within due bounds those prejudices and 
partialities, which all of us feel with 
respect to particular measures and 
particular characters. The materials 
for history are not likely to be more 
abundant or authentic at a remote pe- 
riod; no future writer could have had 
better sources of information on the 
events of their respective histories than 
Thucydides, Xenophon, and Czsar, each 
of whom could exclaim concerning 
them—queque ipse... vidi, & quorum 
pars magna fui. As Mr. Adolphus had 
succeeded in acquitting himself with 
respectability as the historian of the 
passing events of his own country, we 
augured favourably of his success when 
HISTORY, POLITICS, AND STATISTICS. 
so frequently alluded to, should be rer 
traced on the memory; and that a book 
of reference should be provided, in 
which the order and dates of the suc- 
cessive incidents should be easily found. 
The History of France from the Year 1790 to the Peace concluded at 
8vo. 2 vols. pp. 1311. 
the recent occurrences of! a foreign na- 
tion became the subject of his pen; he 
now enjoys all the advantages of a con- 
temporary historian, and is in a great 
measure relieved from those restraints 
which delicacy and an amiable tender- 
ness towards living characters unite to 
impose. We shall examine his merits 
with freedom and impartiality. 
These volumes embrace a short but 
eventful period: they begin with the 
state of the public mind in France dur- 
ing the summer of the year 1790. The 
habits of obedience which had long cha 
racterized the nation, were universally 
relaxed, the laws no longer reverenced, 
the duties of sovereignty no more re- 
garded. The contagious spirit of re- 
volt had been communicated to the 
troops, and the garrison of Nancy, open- 
ly supported by the jacobin club at 
Paris, now demanded in so loud and 
peremptory a tone some arrears which 
it was asserted were due to them, that 
the national assembly, foreseeing the 
dangerous consequences which would 
ensue were not some vigorous and ef- 
fective measures immediately adopted, 
passed a decree on the 16th of August, 
ordering the soldiers to return to their ~ 
duty, and the inhabitants of Nancy to 
their obedience to the laws, under pain 
of being treated as rebels. 
Mr. Adolphus begins his history with 
an account of the afair* at Nancy, and 
to our great surprise we found that he 
had dismissed it in four pages! That 
an event of such intrinsic importance, 
one which implicated the humanity of 
an officer who acted so considerable a 
part in the revolution, the Marquis de 
Bouillé, and who, in order to vindicate 
his character, published in his memoirs 
a detailed account of the affair, that it 
should have been thus cursorily glanced 
at, is perfectly unaccountable. Even 
the brief and insufficient relation which 
Mr. Adolphus has given, is not strictly 
accurate; he says, that after the arres- 
tation of the deputies from Nancy, the 
* This has generally been called the massacre at Nancy.—lev. 
. 
