t Y 
was already a fiourifliing ftate, when lutejia, or Paris, could 
claim but a feeble exigence. Auguftus proclaimed it the 
metropolis of Celtic Gaul; Claudius was born here, and 
gave it the name of a Roman city ; it was reduced to 
allies in the time of Nero ; but was foon reftored, flou- 
rifhed by the liberality of many princes, and became at 
length the Second city of France, thanks to its vaft com¬ 
merce, its favourable fituation, and the induftry of its inha¬ 
bitants'. It contains a vaft number of ancient infcriptions, 
which were firft properly explained by M. Millin, Voyage 
dans le Midi de la France, z vols. 8 vo. Paris, 1806. In the 
5th century Lyons was taken bythe Burgundians, whofe 
king became feudatory to Clovis. The fons of Clovis 
afterwards deftroyed the power of the Burgundians, and 
rendered themfelves mafters of Lyons. In the divifion of 
the dominions of Louis the Debonnaire, Lyons, with the 
greateft part of Burgundy, came to Lothaire. Lyons is 
the feeond city of France, in point of fize and population, 
but fuperior to Paris in trade, commerce, and manufac¬ 
tures. They reckon eleven parifhes, fix gates, and four 
fauxbourgs; and it is divided into thirty-five quarters, 
named penonages. It was the fee of an archbilhop, who 
was primate or France, and had formerly great political 
power over Lyonnois. The cathedral church was a vaft 
Gothic building, yet majeftic in its appearance. The 
town-houfe is efteemed one of the molt beautiful in Eu¬ 
rope j other public buildings were, before the revolution, 
four abbeys, fifty convents, three public fchools, a col¬ 
lege of phyfic, two general liofpitals, See. Here were, be- 
fides, an academy of arts and fciences and belles lettres, 
a fociety of agriculture, a veterinary lchool, a theatre, 
public library, feventy companies of tradefmen and artifts, 
three forts, an arfenal well fupplied, and arranged with 
care; magnificent quays, &e. The trade of Lyons is im- 
menfe with Spain, Italy, Swiflerland, Germany, Holland, 
England, Sec. From Spain they receive wool, filk, drugs, 
f iiatters, and ingots of gold and filver ; in return for cloth, 
inen, fultian, faffron, paper, Sec. To Italy they fend 
cloth, linen, filk fluffs, lace, books, mercery, and milli¬ 
nery; and receive in return filk, velvet, damalk, fatins, 
taffaties, and rice. To Swiflerland they fend coarfe cloth, 
hats, faffron, wine, oil, foap, and mercery; and receive 
from thence cheefe, linen, and, in war-time, horfes. The 
great towns of Germany purchafe from Lyons, befides the 
fame merchandife as the Swifs, fluffs of gold and filver. 
From Holland Lyons takes more merchandife than it 
fends in return. 
Early in the French revolution, an union was formed 
between the towns of Lyons, Marfeilles, and Toulon, 
under the title of “Federal Republicanifm,” contrary to 
the general fenfe of the nation, which was for a republic 
one and indivifible. Lyons contained a great number of 
difaffeCted citizens of every clafs, Royalifts and Girondifts, 
and was declared to be in a ftate of rebellion. After a 
fiege of two months, in which the Lyonefe were computed 
to have loft two thoufand men, and great part of the city 
was reduced tp afhes, it furrendered. The chiefs of the 
rebels had fled, but feveral of them were afterwards taken 
and executed. By a decree of the convention, the walls 
and public buildings of Lyons were ordered to be de¬ 
ftroyed, and the name of the city itfelf direfted to be 
changed to that of Ville Ajfranchie, (fee the article France, 
vol. vii. p.792.) but this decree was afterwards repealed. 
The fiege of Lyons may be juttly termed one of the molt 
memorable events of the revolution, whether we confider 
it as a political or a military operation ; whether with re- 
fpeCt to the number of forces employed in the attack and 
defence, and of the lives loft on both fides; or whether 
with refpeCt to the confequences that it produced from the 
extinction of a party, which, if it did not aim at over¬ 
turning the’republic, would moft certainly, had Lyons 
been able to beat off the befieging army, have feparated 
the forth from the north of France, and have eftablifhed 
in it a feparate government. What were the real inten¬ 
sions of the Lyonele, in cafe of lyjccefs, capn.ot eafilv be 
O N S. 8$> 
afeertained. Duving the whole cotirfe of fhe events which 
preceded, attended, and followed, the fiege, they never 
once in their collective capacity fo much as hinted at the> 
reftoration of monarchy, nor made even the moft diftant 
approach to a complaint about the treatment which the 
king and his family had experienced. On the contrary, 
the grievances which they Hated were all of a republican 
complexion. They protefted, it is true, againft all laws or 
decrees of the convention, parted or to be parted after a- 
certain period; but it was not the period of the king’s 
condemnation, but that of the imprilonment of the mem¬ 
bers of the Girondift party. This- meafure,- they loudly 
complained, was an attack on the fovereignty of the people •? 
wdiofe reprefentatives, being clothed with the exercile o5 
that fovereignty, were and ought to be confidered as fa- 
cred in their perfons, and amenable only to thofe from, 
whom they derived their authority. To imprifon perfons 
fo circumftanced, they faid, was not only a violation eft 
the refpeCt which the convention owed to its conftituents, 
but alio a direCt attack on their fovereignty: every mem¬ 
ber of the convention being in the eye of the law an 
integral part of the whole ; and to proceed to make de¬ 
crees, during thfe confinement of a great number of Inch 
integral parts, was to exclude the .departments which, 
they reprefented from all fhare in that fovereignty, which 
the conftitution allowed to be fundamentally inherent in 
them. The Lyonefe therefore deiired that the reprefen- 
tatiyes fliould be reftored to their functions; declaring 
that, until the latter fliould have full liberty, as ufual, 
to take their feats and vote and afl: in the convention, 
they would not fubmit to the authority of, nor hold any- 
communication with, that aflembly. Nothing in favour 
cf royalty could be deduced from all this reasoning and 
conduct ; except that the imprifoned members, with all 
the reft of^the Girondift party, had voted againft the im¬ 
mediate execution, of the king, and for taking the fenfe oft 
the people, by departments and diftrifts,. relative to his 
fate. On the other hand, it is certain that fome of the 
moft determined royalifts were employed by the Lyonefe 
in the defence of their city, and that they were ever y 
where fupported by fuch of that defeription of men as- 
had the means of acting up to their inclination and prin¬ 
ciples. Whether they thus gave their alTiftance, and the 
others received it, under any declared or implied opinion 
that they were ferving one common caufe, viz. the caufe 
of monarchy ; or whether the Lyonefe, on the point of 
being attacked by the whole force of the convention, 
were glad to accept of aid from any quarter, while the 
royalifts, fighting againft republicans of any fide, were 
fure that they were fighting againft enemies whom it was 
their intereft to weaken ; are queftions which now perhaps 
will never be anfwered. If, however, we may venture to 
hazard a conjecture, we would fay it was likely that the 
people of Lyons were not at bottom very friendly to the- 
revolution ; which had, no matter how, been the means 
of producing a complete ftagnation of trade in that city, 
the feeond in all France in point of fize and population, 
and the firft in point of manufactures ; its thouiands of 
looms were all flopped, and the inhabitants were reduced 
to very great diftreis 5—circumftances which dould not bs 
fuppoled to make them, at leaf! the principal manufactu¬ 
rers, very Heartily attached to the new order of things 
that had made them fuch fufferers. 
“ In the fiege of Lyons, all Europe was deeply inte- 
relled. While it was able to withftand its befiegers, Tou¬ 
lon was fafe in our hands, Marfeilles could not be kept in. 
awe, the whole fouth of France would have looked to li¬ 
as a rallying point, and the northern departments of that 
vaft country would have been in the moft imminent dan¬ 
ger of being ftarved, as the principal fupplies of corn, 
which they received from abroad, arrived from Italy in 
the ports of the Mediterranean ; and, fuould the cities to 
which thefe ports belong be adverfe to the convention,, 
one of thefe two confequences rnuft have inevitably fol¬ 
lowed,. tlut the oojBvemkm mult have been diffolved, os 
Tranche 
