tion: but to have recourse to clubs and 
societies of infidels and anarchists, in or- 
‘der to account for it, does appear unne- 
cessary; and if Mr. Adolphus, and those 
who think with him on this subject, had 
tions on each Letier. 
in each volume. 
_. THESE three volumes are unusually 
gratifying. The private confidential cor- 
respondence of any man of talent has a 
value. That of a man connected with 
the leading characters of his age, and the 
pivot of events, to which his commentary 
relates, is still more curious. When to 
both these sources of interest are super- 
added the sympathies of the heart, an 
extraordinary solicitude must be felt in 
behalf of a writer, whom his suavity of 
nature and his pre-eminence in misfor- 
tune, no less than the established super- 
stitions of rank, contribute to endear to 
our affections. 
From a note in the third volume (p. 
* 163) itappears that the French editor of 
this correspondence had been commis- 
sioned by the minister Roland to examine 
the papers of Lewis XVI. (which were 
deposited at his office after being seized 
at the Tuileries, on the tenth of August) 
d to fit the more interesting portion of 
em for publication. The papers them- 
elves offer, for the most part, a con- 
incing internal evidence of their authen- 
ity ; and betray few marks“of being 
rarbled or inflected.. Yet the letters, 
previous to the revolution, appear written 
rs with less talent than those during the 
revolution; and so many of them dis- 
y the refinements and artifices of com- 
‘position, that one cannot help suspecting 
Pe private secretary of Lewis to have 
drawn up the greater part of these let- 
ters; although, from motives of polite- 
ness or propriety, they were perhaps 
transcribed by the king’s own hand. 
In- the first volume. are chiefly con- 
tained letters previous to the revolu- 
tionary period, which display much the 
personal and natural character of the 
monarch, In the second volume are 
those which relate to the more stormy 
periods of his public and political life ; 
se letters have not so unaffected, un- 
red, undictated an appearance as the 
er. ‘They display a sagacity and 
évolution de France. 
WILLIAMS’S CORRESPONDENCE OF LEWIS XVIe 
read+the able work of Mounier,* we are 
inclined to believe that he and they 
would themselves be surprised at their 
own credulity. 
Art. XII. The Political and Confidential Correspondence of Lewis XVI. with Observa- 
By Heven Maria Wittiams. .dyo. 3 vols. pp. about 320 
penetration, which the personal conduct 
of the writer was far from. realising. 
They mention living individuals, whom 
there may be many motives for helping 
up or down'in reputation ; and are there- 
fore not unlikely to have been partially 
interpolated. ‘They resemble in charac- 
ter of style and opinion the annals of 
Bertrand de Moleyille. . These circum- 
stances somewhat tend to invalidate (as 
the theologians would phrase it,) not 
their authenticity but their genuineness, 
not their emanating from the hand but 
from the head of Lewis. [In the third — 
volume occur many essays, maxims, and 
other original compositions, the amuse- , 
ments of the monarch’s leisure: these: 
again are surely inferior to the demi-of- 
ficial letters of the second volume. 
A letter, characteristic of the king’s+ 
humanity, is the seventeenth: it is ac- 
companied, as is each groupe of letters, 
with a commentary by the translator. 
‘© TO M. BERTHIER, INTENDANT OF PARIS. 
** Paris, October 28, 1781. 
«© You have presented to my council of 
state a plan dictated by the purest philan- 
thropy; and I approve highly the means 
you suggest of extirpating mendicity from 
my states. To render the poor useful witli- 
out increasing their misfortunes, to estabiisty 
places ef retreat with humane regulations, 
and under wise direction, where the love of 
labour shall be encouraged, where active 
youth shall be occupied, and infirm old age 
comforted, such are the motives, and such the 
aim, of your project. "Phe corvée is abolish- 
ed: but the highways. require continual and 
expensive repairs : mi your hospitals 
ofanendicants en tio mtnd and 
whole.armies of 
endic 
; r 
et roads §, pl see 
cons 
pioneers formed in these asylums, scouring . 
the country, and stationed on the high-ways, 
where they will provide against accidents, 
and the ravages of the seasons, and maintain 
3 free’ circulation throughout ail France. You 
scem to me, however, not to have paid suf 
ficient attention to the means the least, bur- 
densome to the people, of furnishing what 
~<* DeVinfluence attribuve aux philosophes, aux francs-magons & aux illuminés sur la 
T2 
