parish? But-" fools rub in where angels fear to "tread." In fuch a state of unbounded power, for undefined and undefinable purpofes, the evil of a moral and almoft phyfical inaptitude of the man to the function must be the greateft we can conceive to happen in the management of human affairs. Having confidered the compofition of the third eftate as it ftood in its original frame, I took a view of the reprefentatives of the clergy. There too it appeared, that full as little regard was had to the general fecurity of property, or to the aptitude of the deputies for their public purpofes, in the principles of their election. That election was fo contrived as to fend a very large proportion of mere country curates to the great and arduous work of new-modelling a ftate; men who never had feen the ftate fo much as in a picture; men who knew nothing of the world beyond the bounds of an obfcure village; who, immerfed in hopeless poverty, could regard all property, whether fecular or ecclefiaftical, with no other eye than that of envy; among whom must be many, who, for the smallest hope of the meanest dividend in plunder, would readily join in any attempts upon a body of wealth, in which they could hardly look to have have any fhare, except in a general fcramble. Inftead of balancing the power of the active chicaners in the other affembly, these curates must neceffarily become the active coadjutors, or at beft the paffive inftruments of those with whom they had been habitually guided in their petty village con cerns. They too could hardly be the most conscientious of their kind, who, prefuming upon their incompetent understanding, could intrigue for a truft which led them from their natural relation to their flocks, and their natural fpheres of action, to undertake the regeneration of kingdoms. This preponderating weight being added to the force of the body of chicane in the Tiers Etat, compleated that momentum of ignorance, rashness, prefumption, and luft of plunder, which nothing has been able to resist. To obferving men it must have appeared from the beginning, that the majority of the Third Eftate, in conjunction with fuch a deputation from the clergy as I have defcribed, whilft it pursued the deftruction of the nobility, would inevitably become fubfervient to the worst defigns of individuals in that clafs. In the fpoil and humiliation of their own order these individuals would poffefs a fure fund for the pay of their new followers. To fquander away the objects which made the happiness of their fellows, would be to them no facrifice at all. Turbulent, difcontented men of quality, in proportion as they are puffed up with perfonal pride and arrogance, generally defpife their own order. One of the firft fymptoms they discover of a selfish and mifchievous ambition, is a profligate difregard of a dignity which they partake with others. To be attached to the fubdivifion, to love the little platoon we belong to in fociety, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections. It is the first link in the fe ries by which we proceed towards a love to our country and to mankind. The interefts of that portion of focial arrangement is a truft in the hands of all thofe who compofe it; and as none but bad men would juftify it in abufe, none but traitors would barter it away for their own personal advantage. There were, in the time of our civil troubles in England (I do not know whether you have any fuch in your Affembly in France) several perfons, like the then Earl of Holland, who by themfelves or their families had brought an odium on the throne, by the prodigal difpenfation of its bounties towards them, who afterwards joined in the rebellions arifing from the discontents of which they were themfelves the caufe; men who helped to fubvert that throne to which they owed, fome of them, their existence, others all that power which they employed to ruin their benefactor. If any bounds are fet to the rapacious demands of that fort of people, or that others are permitted to partake in the objects they would engrofs, revenge and envy foon fill up the craving void that is left in their avarice. Confounded by the complication of distempered paffions, their reafon is disturbed; their views become vaft and perplexed; to others inexplicable; to themselves uncertain. They find, on all fides, bounds to their unprincipled ambition in any fixed order of things. But in the fog and haze of confufion all is enlarged, and appears without any limit. F 3 When When men of rank facrifice all ideas of dignity to an ambition without a diftinét object, and work with low inftruments and for low ends, the whole compofition becomes low and base, Does not fomething like this now appear in France ? Does it not produce fomething ignoble and inglorious? a kind of meannefs in all the prevalent policy? a tendency in all that is done to lower along with individuals all the dignity and importance of the ftate? Other revolutions have been conducted by perfons, who whilst they attempted or effected changes in the commonwealth, fanctified their ambition by advancing the dignity of the people whofe peace they troubled, They had long views. They aimed at the rule, not at the deftruction of their country. They were men of great civil, and great military talents, and if the terror, the ornament of their age. They were not like Jew brokers contending with each other who could beft remedy with fraudulent circulation and depreciated paper the wretchedness and ruin brought on their country by their degenerate councils. The compliment made to one of the great bad men of the old ftamp (Cromwell) by his kinfman, a favourite poet of that time, fhews what it was he propofed, and what indeed to a great degree he accomplished in the fuccefs of his ambition: "Still as you rife, the ftate, exalted too, "Finds no diftemper whilft 'tis chang'd by you; These Thefe difturbers were not fo much like men ufurping power, as afferting their natural place in foeiety. Their rifing was to illuminate and beautify the world. Their conqueft over their competitors was by outfhining them. The hand that, like a destroying angel, fmote the country, communicated to it the force and energy under which it suffered. I do not fay (God forbid) I do not fay, that the virtues of fuch men were to be taken as a balance to their crimes; but they were fome corrective to their effects. Such was, as I faid, our Cromwell. Such were your whole race of Guifes, Condés, and Colignis. Such the Richlieus, who in more quiet times acted in the fpirit of a civil war. Such, as better men, and in a lefs dubious caufe, were your Henry the 4th and your Sully, though nurfed in civil confufions, and not wholly without fome of their taint. It is a thing to be wondered at, to see how very foon France, when fhe had a moment to refpire, recovered and emerged from the longest and moft dreadful civil war that ever was known in any nation. Why? Because, among all their maffacres, they had not flain the mind in their country. A confcious dignity, a noble pride, a generous fenfe of glory and emulation, was not extinguished. On the contrary, it was kindled and inflamed. The organs also of the state, however fhattered, exifted. All the prizes of honour and virtue, all the rewards, all the diftinctions, remained. But your prefent confufion, like a palfy, has attacked the fountain |