FRA 
though the churches were plundered, and divine fervice 
prohibited, yet the people were more led ite, and the bulk 
of them retained in private their attachments to the ca¬ 
tholic faith. Atheifm for a time made ghadly drides ; 
but deifm was more generally received. Pagan idolatry, 
though it was actually fet up by the convention, and the 
goddefs of Reason worfhipped and adored in the cathe¬ 
dral of Paris, yet it was only the farce of a day, which 
ended in the difgrace and fliame of its votaries: fee p.795. 
During this degraded date of affairs in France, there was 
not a church in Paris that did not exhibit the moft af¬ 
fecting marks of facrilegious violence. Every fragment 
that was fufpeCted to contain the {'mailed particle of gold 
or diver, was feized by order of the convention ; while the 
enemies of God and religion wantonly mutilated and de- 
flroyed every monumental figure devoted either to the 
memory of the dead, or that had been erected to celebrate 
the achievements of their kings and princes. The difor- 
ders which followed from this deplorable date of irreli- 
gion, pervaded all orders and ranks in fociety ; the folem- 
nity of the matrimonial contract was dillolved ; modedy 
and virtue among females of all ages was defpifed ; and 
the contadt and union of the fexes was left to their own 
premature gratification and indulgence. 
No event contributed more effectually to fecure Napo¬ 
leon in the fovereignty of France, than his timely redoration 
of the catholic religion, though under great and unufual 
redriCtions. This meafure, however, was not univerfally 
relifhed ; feveral feCtaries had fprung up ; the protedant 
perluafion had gained confiderable ground ; and the phi- 
lofophy of reajon had been introduced with a view to flip- 
plant the doCtrine of revelation. Few of the modern phi- 
lofophers in France have any faith in revealed religion; 
not perhaps becaufe they are philofophers, but becaufe 
they have never dudied the quedion, or have thought it be¬ 
neath their dudy. In the edablifhed dogmas of the Romidi 
faith, they have beheld things which they deem abfurd 
or unintelligible, and rejeCt all further examination. The 
genuine doCtrines of Chridianity, and thofe of the church, 
are fo infeparably connected in their minds, that they do 
not perceive the didinCtion, and wonder that any Ihould 
be made. In the higher daffies of fociety, fentiments of 
honour, and a regard to the decencies of life, may fill 
the void of more fixed and determined principles; but 
the diort interregnum of jacobin impiety and paganifm 
produced many ill effeCts on the ignorant and depraved 
amongd the lower orders of the people. Since the eda- 
—blifhment of order under a tolerating government, the 
people have returned to the obfervance of religious du¬ 
ties : and if their minds be but little illumined, their 
conduCl is become more methodized and regular. If re¬ 
ligion be the fird corrective of the diforders of the heart, 
it is the intered of every government to rank its protec¬ 
tion among the mod important of its duties. Although 
Chridianity inditutes no exclufive form of government, 
they have difeerned that it promotes that fpirit of equa¬ 
lity, which Aiders 11s to call no man mader on earth ; not 
that levelling fydem, which, under pretence oF dedroy- 
ing didinClions, degrades genius and debafes virtue ; but 
that equality which, while it teaches man his rights, in- 
ftruCts him better in his duties, and becomes the firmed 
guarantee of the new commandment left by the Saviour 
of the world, and which has hitherto unhappily retained 
its novelty,— that zveJhould love one another. —See the article 
Equality, vol. vi. p. 874—878. 
PUBLIC REVENUE, POPULATION, ARMY; 
and NAVY. 
The public revenue of France, in the lad year of Louis 
XVI. was computed at about 30,000,0001. derling ; from 
which, after deducting the expence of collection, and 
the intered of the then national debt, there remained a 
clear income to the date of about i8,ooo,oool. The old 
national debt may be regarded as fpunged or extingtiifhed ; 
but any attempt to calculate the prefent date oi the re- 
Vol. VII. No. 477. 
N C E. 8[)7 
venue and public debt with accuracy or precifion, would 
prove in a great meafure abortive. Yet there are docu¬ 
ments, both official and imaginary, whereon calculations 
have been hazarded, and the income and expenditure 
compared, to as late a date as the year 1804. Thefe are 
dated by fir Francis d’lvernois, as follows: 
“ At the clofe of the year 8 of the revolution, there 
was a deficit of twenty millions, with a prior Boating debt 
of feventy millions. This it was propofed to fund; but 
the operation was conducted in a manner truly arbitrary. 
The creditor was not to receive as much dock as the fum 
due to him would purchafe, but he was compelled to take 
it at par. The creditor of the year 8 was to receive five 
per cent, intered; and one hundred livres dock fetched 
in the market fifty five livres, which occalioned a lofs of 
forty five per cent. The older creditors, whofe claims 
had been confidered as lefs legitimate, were allowed three 
per cent, intered, and their dock was at thirty three, 
which occafioned to them a lofs of fixty feven per cent, 
Bonaparte obliged the hofpitals to receive fick and infirm 
foldiers, and incurred a debt to thefe foundations of twen¬ 
ty-nine millions; and he paid them with paper which, at 
the very moment when it was ilfued, fell to a fifth of its 
nominal value. By thefe feveral methods, he difeharged 
date engagements to the amount of 282! millions, with a 
fum rather diort of 100 millions. Rochambeau, in order 
to fubfid his army and fieet at St. Domingo, drew bills on 
Paris; on the credit of which he received fupplies from 
the Americans, Spaniards, and Englifh : but the greater 
part of thefe fecurities were didionored, by the orders of 
the then chief conful.” 
The anticipations are next claffied by fir Francis un¬ 
der four heads. 1. The fale of the national property. 2. 
The redemption of the land tax. 3. The fale of the forefts 
of the communes, which were feized to the ufe of govern, 
ment by an arbitrary decree of the confulate ; and of thofe 
belonging to the reindated emigrants, which, by a like 
decree, were ordered not to be redored to them with their 
other property. 4. The films advanced by perfons hold¬ 
ing places under the government as fecurities, and for 
which fix per cent, intered was paid. Thefe advances, 
under the old government, had fwelled to the enormous 
fum of two hundred millions, and were the caufe which 
prevented numerous ufelefs places from being abolilhed. 
Napoleon has fixed his peace-edablifhment at fix hun¬ 
dred and forty fix millions, but in this calculation the fa- 
lariesof the clergy are not included; and thedifburfement 
will, as fir Francis thinks, much exceed this fum, becaufe 
the French emperor is condantly creating fome new object 
of expenditure. His own falary of 500,000 livres, has been 
converted into an imperial civil lid of twenty-fix millions, 
without any obvious provifion being made for it. He next 
quotes the tribune Berenger, fince raifed to be a counfellor 
oF date, w ho afferted that the refources of the republic 
were dilapidated to an extreme degree; the confumer 
ruined, the manufaidurer abandoning hisenterprizes, and 
the labourer without employ; and the author hence con¬ 
cluded that France has not the means of filling up the deficit 
which annually grows more confiderable. Napoleon, he 
fays, mud either place the army and navy on their former 
footing, or he mud reckon on condant wv: but it is clear, 
he remarks, that Ire has adopted the latter alternative ; by 
attacking fome of the remote regions in Alia or South Ame¬ 
rica, as he did Egypt for plunder—Such feems to have 
been the policy fet on foot by the inifiion of Sebaliiani. 
See p. 852. Loans he cannot make, nor is it in his power, 
in the prefent date of things, to impofeany new prodindive 
taxes. If the accounts of this writer deferve to be trulted, 
there never was a lefs fkilful financier than the Napoleon. 
It is dated that he has tried three new taxes; the fird, 
which attaches to the tranfport of goods in the interior, 
has had the efiedb of nearly annihilating all inland traffic; 
the fecond, on fnuff, has materially injured the homema- 
nufadlure, and occafioned fmuggling to an unufual extent; 
the third is a tax of fo much per bottle on all wines, be 
10 T their 
