ftrate. If this man had ever read any thing beyond the Rights of Man, the Reports of the Spies of the Police, or the Tyburn Chronicle of the Revolution (which alone indeed would furnish ample occupation for a life of ordinary length) he could not have forgotten the Colignis, the Tremouilles, the Montmorencis, the Bayards, the Turennes, the Condés, and a long train of illuftrious heroes not less renowned for their attachment to their country, than for their military talents and courage. But a French citizen knows nothing of his country but her crimes, and efteems none but her criminals. Hence he is more able to appreciate the ftate of the Republic than that of the Monarchy.

"It must be acknowledged, then, that our fituation is mixed and cannot laft for any length of time; that our military principles are at direct variance with our civil principles; that the end to which our efforts are directed is not fufficiently diftin&t; that the French people are not inftituted; that there is no moral force to make them follow a regular and uniform courfe; and that, in this fenfe, the revolution is not yet begun.

"Never will the male-contents who reflect be reconciled to the Republic fo lg as they perceive, at the head of affairs, the objects of their juft hatred and contempt. The infamy - will they fay-the grofs blunders, which thefe men have committed, they may commit again; having come forward under finifter aufpices, they are undeferving of the leaft confidence. If we only faw in fuch places men of information and fpotlefs purity, who had, in the eyes of the whole nation, been paffed through the fieve of a fevere examination; fpite of our little prejudices, in fpite of the refiftance of our vanity, in fpite of the piercing cries of our private intereft, tired, as we are, of the to and fro movements of hope, we fhould become feriously and fincerely attached to the new order of things. But this will never be the cafe, fo long as we fhall witnefs the triumph of folicitation, and of petticoat-influence; and fo long as the affociates in law-making, in dilapidation; in killing, in demo alization, or in nullity, fhall obtain the preference. --This is what all France whispers; I am only her echo."

So much for the virtuous rulers of the incorruptible Republic; and fo much for the author's preface, to which we have allotted fo large a portion of room, that our limits will not allow us to expatiate as we intended on the body of the book;-which is divided into three fections. The author compofd it, it feems, for the ufe only of those claffes of fociety, who, moft affuredly, will not put themfelves to the expence of purchafing it; nor, in all probability, to the trouble of reading it. "I only write for the instruction of the poor and of men of moderate incomes;-whenever I fhall have occasion to speak of the rich, it will only be for the purpose of pointing out the abuses which, are infeparable from their existence."

His first grand object of reform, is the eftablishment of what he alls Scenical Schools. "I wifh to fubftantiate theatres in the place f churches; theatrical reprefentations in the place of fermons; and o transform actors and actreffes into minifters of morality."-No efs than fifteen chapters are devoted to the developement of this

notable

notable plan; all of them, more or lefs, interfperfed with fuch upright fentiments and fuch fhrewd remarks as thofe which we have quoted above. He gives a most woeful account of the existing

theatres at Paris.

"An unlettered and ftupid race of young men whofe honour confifts in ignorance and cowardice; fervum pecus; whofe knowledge is confined to an imitation of the impure relics of an order whofe only merit is to be found in the cold infolence of Anglican manners, and in the folly of an inarticulate jargon; this race, I fay, gives approbation and fuccefs to a thoufand rhapfodies whofe ftupidity forms their least defect; to those indigested and difguftful farces, which the mob of former times would fcarcely tolerate, but which now conftitute the delight of a populace decorated with the title of decent people."

So that a monarchial mob, it seems, by the confeffion of this French citizen, is more decent and virtuous than a republican gentry! It was worth while, for the production of this effect, to murder a king, to rob a nation, and to cut the throats of three million of men !

"It is not to be wondered at that all the filth delivered at Montanfier's theatre, is liftened to with pleasure by the crowd of prostitutes who frequent it; but that mothers of families fhould take their children there, as if fearful that they should not become depraved fufficiently foon, enrages though it does not astonish me, becaufe, unfortunately, I know full well, that the mul titude when left to itself is most vile and contemptible."

Surely this is a libel not only upon the fovereignty of the people, but on the great conful himself who derives his fovereignty from their fovereignty. When the fource is thus impure what must the fream be? The certain confequence of the continuance of the prefent fyftem of theatrical amusements, and of taking money for admiffion (his fcenical fchools are to be all free,) he afferts will be highly deftructive. " At the opera will always be feen fhameless nymphs affuming, in their dances, the moft lafcivious attitudes, and difplaying the whole of their fine legs, and all the reft to any body who will pay for it.”

"Vice of every defcription will remain facred."

In contending for the indifpenfible neceffity of his proposed reform, he makes the following fapient remarks.

"We undertook to perform what no Legiflator had ever dared to attempt. By the aid of reafon alone, and without employing any celeftial machine, we conftructed a political edifice; but the people who had only been accustomed to receive morality through the medium of fuperftition, found no fubftiture for that medium in the new fyftem. They confequently have remained unprovided with any means of inftruction, and have preferved, from habit, many fuperftitious practices which have no connection with good manners, nor with their prefent fituation."

This is a direct confeffion that republicanifm, at least French repub-licanifm, has no kind of connection with religion.

"In order to render men happy and free, it was not fufficient to remove from their minds the chimeras of another world; not to acknowledge two chiefs, two Legiflators, two countries; to emancipate them from their fubjection to contradictory duties which prevent them from being, at the fame time, devotees and citizens; to relieve them, in fhort, from the tutelage of priefts who only governed them to brutalize them; it was farther neceffary to fubftitute for vain ceremonies, an inftitution capable of making them feel their futility; and to establish immediately an object of comparison more ufeful, more agreeable, and, confequently, more worthy of esteem. Then political unity would have been reftored; without which no ftate nor govern ment will ever be well conftituted.”

Again

"The ancient Romans required Panem et Circenfes, which fignifies, for the moderns, fup and mafs. The people are fond of fhews, but, in order to render them agreeable, they must be given gratis. On this condition, every thing is well received. Now, the people are made to fing Latin which they do not understand; to mutter homelies the moft tiresome and infignificant ; to repeat the litany, the rofary, and the chaplet; and, they take nearly as much pleafure in all this, as in feeing Punch. What a reception will they give to fubjects of morality well chofen; reduced to action, and fometimes adorned with dances and embellished with mufic? The croud will be much greater at the doors of the Scenic fchools than it is now at the churchdoors."

That it may very eafily be, without any danger of an over-flowing houfe; but enough of this impious ribaldry, which we fhould not have quoted, but to fhew with what coolness these minions of the Firft Conful fit down to propofe means for fuppreffing every principle of Chriftianity in the minds of his flaves; and to convince thofe, who foolishly believe that Bonaparte is favorable to the restoration of religion in his Republic, that they are egregiously deceived. For, it muft never be forgotten, that he is the tyrant of the prefs, and that no man dare publish in France a fingle line which does not perfectly meet with his approbation. Thus while he encourages the most impious attacks on religion and royalty, the leaft reflection on his own. perfon and government is punifhed with the utmost severity, and even without the form of trial, or a compliance with any of the rules prefcribed by the law. One, among a thousand inftances of this fort which have come within our own knowledge, we fhall take this opportunity of relating. In September laft, a French gentleman, who had commenced the trade of a bookfeller in London, where he had refided fince the beginning of the revolution, went to France, to make a purchase of books, under the protection of a regular paffport which had been fent him for the purpose. On his arrival at Beauvais, he was ftopped by a municipal officer, who interrogated him very closely, when the gentleman produced his paffport, but the other charged him with having publifhed a book which contained a violent attack on Buonaparte; he protested, and with great truth, that he

had

had neither feen nor heard of the book; this, however, did not fatisfy the officer who fent him a prifoner to Paris. He was there examined by the Police, who, being convinced of his ignorance of the book in queftion, observed that the house in London, in which he was a partner, had publifhed the works of Sir FRANCIS D'IVERNOIS, who had reflected very strongly both on the First Conful and on the French Republic; in vain did the other alledge that the house had no intereft whatever in the book, and that their names had been inferted in the title-page, even without their knowledge-he was committed a close prifoner to the Temple, where he remains in cuftody to this day! Such is the freedom which prevails in the free Republic of France; and fuch is the greatness of mind difplayed by the Great Conful of the Great Nation. Turkish tyranny, we venture to affert, is preferable to fuch freedom. What degree of refpect is paid to the liberty of the prefs in particular, may eafily be collected from the following propofition of our author, for defraying the expences of his fcenical fchools.

"The government, harraffed by the journalists, of whom one part preached anarchy and the other royalty, have deftroyed the writing-defks of a great number of them, and thrown their pens into the fire; but they are ftill obliged to watch the remainder of them very clofely, and their utmost exertions are not more than fufficient to prevent them from doing harm. The good which ought to refult from the action of fo powerful a political fpring as the journals is not produced. This fpring has becomerufty in the hands of individuals, who, making their journals a means of fubfiftance, are only intent on increafing their circulation, and, in order to promote their own interest, Hatter the opinions of their readers, whofe curiofity they excite by calumny, and whofe folly they nourish with fabricated news, and fictitious anec dotes.

"Since, then, the government is under the neceffity of directing the journals in a great meafure, would it not be much better for the public good, to take them entirely into their own hands? This would be the more agreeable to the public as they now efteem none but fuch journals as they regard as official."

In the eighth chapter the author propofes, as another resource, to rob the purchasers of all the church property which has been fold fince the revolution, and he fupports this propofition by much ingenious argument; for inftance;

"It cannot be denied that the property of the Monks and the clergy was appropriated to the purposes of public inftruction; it is equally certain, that, in felling it with a view to prevent the poffibility of its return to fuperftition, the produce of it ought exclufively to have been devoted to the fupport and melioration of morals; it is true alfo, that in giving it up to a horde of banditti a manifeft robbery and a crime of leze-nation was committed; it is inconteftibly true, that the fovereign people are always in their minority, and confequently, that reftitution may at all times be claimed of whatever has been stolen from them; and no law, no constitutional article can render that lawful which is effentially unlawful and subverfive of morality," &c. &c.

From

From this curious train of reafoning the citizen infers the right of the fovereign people to rob there perfons of all the property which they have fo acquired; but, as he profeffes himfelf to be a ftrenuous advocate for moderation, in all things, he will content himself with exacting only a fifth part of the produce of fuch purchases!

The tenth chapter exhibits a new difcovery, and a fresh inftance of the author's ingenuity.

The word religion is derived from the Latin word religare, which fignifies to rally, to bind again, to re-affemble. True religion is that which, without having recourfe to falfhood, rallies the citizens, and re-affembies them, in order to bind them again to morality. Now, the Scenical schools will produce this effect, by limiting their attention to this life: confequently they will contain within themselves the true religion, very different from those falfe religions, whofe minifters, affembling men together in order to talk to them of a future life, establish a connection between falfhood and truth, between fuppofition and evidence.

"Long have our minds been called upon to attend, at once, to this life, and to a future life; what has been the confequence? The hope of reward and the fear of punishment, in the supposed life, did not render the real life more advantageous as it was pretended they would; becaufe, in general, our belief in the one was very faint, and we neglected to ufe with prudence the means which the other fupplied; no guard against the paffions was found, which was the object of the moralifts, but an ample field was opened to hypocrify, which was the object of the knaves.

"We must therefore return to fimple reality, to this life; and the people not being able to difpenfe with religion, in the fenfe which I give to this word, they will eafily conclude that the true is the only religion capable of promoting their happinefs, because it is not, like all false religions, contrary to reafon. It does not alienate the hearts of citizens from the State, by feeking to divert their attention from all earthly things; because, in fhort, it does not break the focial unity, nor make man in contradiction to himself, by fubjecting him to oppofite duties, the one temporal and useful, the other fpiritual and illufive,"

In what does this doctrine differ from the eternal fleep of Robefpierre? It is a doctrine perfectly characteristic of the genius, confonant with the principles, and illuftrative of the character, of the French Republic.

In the fourteenth chapter, the author gives a plan of a theatrical reprefentation, to be exhibited in his new fchools; upon which he fhrewdly remarks,

"I have made all my vicious characters royalifts, because I feel it to be of the first confequence forcibly to refcue all our peafantry and farmers from the fangs of Chouannerie and from the remains of fuperftition, which render a very great number of them bad citizens. The dread of offending any received opinions appears to me to be highly dangerous and extremely impolitic; and indifference on this point is a ferious fault, for honeft republicans dare not any where avow their real fentiments, while Royalifts, male and female, infolently proclaim their opinions wherever they go.

"The Monarchy was destroyed in confequence of having fuffered the mani

festation