1 88 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



gabble. It begins and must end in nonsense ; 

 and I suspect that many of the long, wearisome 

 speeches and debatings carried on for such a 

 number of years in the Houses of Lords and 

 Commons, as well as many of the innumerable 

 weekly or daily essays, and some of the pamphlets 

 which the revolution and the war gave rise to, 

 were devoid of a right principle a principle of 

 rectitude to guide them. The causes of this Revo- 

 lution, and the horrible war which ended it, will 

 form a most interesting subject for the head and 

 pen of some future historian of a bold and en- 

 lightened mind truly to depicture it in all its 

 bearings, perhaps long after the animosity of 

 party feelings and the parties themselves have 

 passed away. 



From the best consideration I have been able 

 to give to the question, I cannot help viewing it 

 otherwise than in this way. In the year 1789, 

 the French Revolution broke out, first of all from 

 the income of the government not being sufficient 

 to defray its expenditure, or in other words, from 

 its finances having become deranged for want of 

 money, which the people, having been taxed to 

 the utmost and brought down to poverty, could 

 no longer supply. The aristocracy and the priest- 

 hood (the privileged orders, as they were called) 

 contributed little or nothing to support the state; 

 and, instead of being the natural guardians or 

 depositories of the honour and virtue of the nation, 

 they were chiefly known as its oppressors. By 

 exaction, cruelty, and tyranny, the people had 

 long been borne down to the lowest pitch of 

 degradation. They were considered, not as rational 

 human beings, equal in mind and intellect to their 



