ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

sense; but when he advances into a region to which he never can or never ought to have turned his enquiries, he writes with about as much information, as a politician would display upon the subject of surgery. Ne sutor ultra crepidam.

The usage of Indian terms, arising probably more from a long residence in the country than from pedantry or affectation, is much too frequent; Dr. Heyne forgets, that to an English ear these names are generally unintelligible, and that where necessity forces their introduction, they should be attended with more frequent explanations than he has thought proper to give.

The maps appear to be sufficiently accurate, and will prove generally useful; the various statistical tables also will be a valuable addition to those who are desirous of seeing the results of scientific research.

ART. V. Mémoire addressé au Roi, en Juillet 1814. Pur M. Carnot, Lieutenant-General, Chevalier de l'Ordre Royal et Militaire de St. Louis, Membre de la Legion d'Honneur, de l'Institut de Franc, &c. A Bruxelles, chez tous les Libraires. A Londres, chez Johnson. pp. 39.

WE expected, after the re-establishment of peace between this country and France, to acquire a more intimate acquaintance with our lively and versatile neighbours. We anticipated the hard trial of our patience by many publications to inform us of things which we already knew, and about which we are indifferent. We foresaw that many travellers would recount the peculiarities of the French cookery, and the variety of their fine flavoured wines, the decorations of their theatres, and the orna ments of their churches; the magnificence of their triumphal arches, and the loftiness of Buonaparte's pillar; the grandeur of the Façade of the Tuilleries, and the treasures of art accumu lated at the Louvre: with these things our English travellers have gratified the appetite even to satiety. Mr. Eustace has told us something more, but indeed far less than might have been expected by those who remember his classical and most interesting account of the Tour which he made in Italy. Except from him we have learnt nothing. The meagre performances of our other travellers published since the road to Paris was laid open, are too mean for critical notice.

We hoped that some of our countrymen would have made more useful observations, and by this time have given them publication, that they would have afforded us some insight into the moral character of regenerated France. We wished to ascertain

whether

a

whether twenty-five years of unmitigated sorrow had created in the public mind universal and sincere compunction, not only for the crimes of the revolution, but for the principles from which such crimes naturally proceed: whether the restoration of their lawful government was merely the result of circumstances which the revolutionary power could not controul, or whether the people were convinced, by sad experience, not only of the evil effects, but of the guilt of Jacobinical commotion: whether they were desirous not only to re-establish the throne, but to adopt practically and loyally the duties which strengthen the throne; not only to restore the persecuted priesthood, but to give energy to their christian institution by moral conformity; to gather the fragments of their ancient law out of the ruins of impiety and treason, and to superadd the sanction of public principle and manners to the renovated power of the magistrate. But truly we learn little of these things from our English tra vellers; we must cast about for other means of information.

The extraordinary publication which gives title to this article, we select from many others, because in France, and in this country also, it has been considered as the manifesto of a party, which though weakened and reduced is always formidable, which gave to the revolution its peculiar character, which seized the helm of the state when the philosophical speculators were busy in their fanciful structure of a commonwealth without civil gradations, and a monarchy without a chief, which made the French nation apparently unanimous in crime and confiscation, and which organized the mighty force created only by themselves to subdue civilised Europe. This party Buonaparte had cheated and deceived when he founded his own personal despotism. His gigantic power he established by adopting their plans of internal terror and foreign aggrandisement; but he acquired temporary popularity by crushing them, and putting an end to anarchy. Those who remained of that savage party could not delight in the happy events which terminated in the expulsion of the usurper, and the restoration of the rightful hereditary line. We have here that which is esteemed their judgment of the practical result of those glorious events. M. Carnot delivers their common sentiment.

During the years of difficulty and wild discussion which preceded the storm of the revolution, M. Carnot does not appear to have distinguished himself as a public character. He had chosen the military profession. Having none of the advantages of birth or fortune, his advancement was of course not rapid in the time of peace. But he enjoyed the favour of the family of Conde, and by their patronage he obtained the rank of captain of artillery.

But

But Carnot had made himself remarkable for great scientific researches, and to that circumstance was attributed the favour of his illustrious patrons, which was always bestowed on men of literature and science. The time at last came when statesmen and legislators were sought in the schools and academies. All the establishments of France, civil, political, and religious, were subverted. Speculative philosophy, where every thing ancient was reprobated, because it was ancient, gave a better title to the public confidence than prudence or experience. Carnot was known to be a philosopher and a speculator. He obtained a seat in the legislative assembly, which was convened in the autumn of 1791.

As As a member of that body, forgetting all his obligations to the family of Conde, the honour of his profession, and all the duties connected with it, he became clamorous in pursuing that course which made rebellion permanently triumphant on the 10th of August. So high was he in the estimation of the conspirators of that day, that he was selected as a commissioner to announce to the armies, that their sovereign was dethroned, that the royal family were imprisoned, and that their future obedience was claimed by those who had usurped all power over the destinies of France. The zeal with which he performed his mission, determined the fate of Europe at that awful crisis.

Carnot was also elected by the town of Calais a member of the national convention, which abolished the royalty altogether, and brought the king to the scaffold. He was a leader among the regicides. Upon the Appel Nominal he said,

"Dans mon opinion, la justice veut que Louis meure, et la politique le veut également. Jamais, je l'avoue, devoir ne pesa davantage sur mon cœur, que celui qui m'est imposé; mais je pense que pour prouver vôtre attachement aux lois de l'égalité, pour prouver que les ambitieux ne vous effraient point, vous devez frapper de mort le tyran. Je vote pour le mort."

After the death of the king, he became one of that ferocious party which instituted the reign of terror. He proceeded to organize the armies, and undoubtedly, by his vigour in that duty, he established the revolution. He became a member of that committee of public safety, the existence of which posterity will hardly credit, for every thing venerable they attempted to destroy, all virtuous principle they denounced, and all that the social man in his lowest state regards as fundamental, they persecuted and overwhelmed. He was the champion of Jacobinism. After the fall of Robespierre, he contrived to escape the public vengeance. He acquired power in the succeeding tyranny, and in 1795 was one of the directors. He remained in that office till

[ocr errors]

1797, and then being in disgrace with the party which prevailed, he went into voluntary exile. He was recalled by Buonaparte in 1800, and placed again at the head of the military department. Carnot accepted that function under the first consul, though his assumption of power was a violation of all the principles which the Jacobins had eulogised and acted on during the last ten years; but at first the establishment of Buonaparte was too orderly, it resembled lawful government too nearly to secure the steady support of this conspirator. He opposed the consulship for life, which was then deemed the first symptom shewn by the ruling powers and people of France of a return to ordinary principles. In 1804, when Buonaparte became emperor, Carnot again spoke in favour of republican institutions, and desired, like the dog, to return to his vomit. But he remained a member of the tribunate till it was suppressed in 1806, and came no more into notice till the close of the revolution. When the oppressions of the usurper were become intolerable to Europe and to France, he solicited command in the service of the expiring dynasty. To Buonaparte, who had become the murderer of the duke d'Enghein, the son of his first patron, and the hope of the royal line, he applied again for command, and obtained it. He adhered to the revolution to the last moment, and was the last person in employment that submitted to the authority of the king.

Carnot, the regicide, availed himself of the gracious amnesty which was granted by Louis XVIII. to all without exception; but he is a man whom no graces win, and who never will be reconciled to princely power. In July, not three months after the happy restoration of royalty, he addressed this memoir to the king. We have no doubt that he expresses the unalterable sentiments of the Jacobins whom he served so faithfully; and we are sure that those on both sides the channel, who lament the failure of that bold experiment, the temporary success of which had almost brought civilized man to destruction, and perpetuated the triumph of impiety and crime, will receive favourably this effusion of incurable treason. They cannot indeed level their deadly principles against the person of the king of France, but they wish to blast his reputation, and may have a latent hope that the flame of revolution will even again revive.

Let us pass to the principal points of argument and accusation advanced by this conspirator,

He begins by telling his sovereign that the civil commotions were merely a conflict of opinions; but he adds his testimony to a fact of which we never doubted, though the Jacobins in all countries have almost uniformly denied it, and alledges, not that the insurrection of the people of France was occasioned by the pressure of any public grievances, but that it proceeded from M abstract

VOL. III, FEBRUARY, 1815,

..

abstract theories, which he admits to be almost always erroneons, "La revolution en fournit de funestes preuves aux générations futures: elle fut préparée par une foule d'ecrits purement philo. sophiques." May this important truth be eugraven on the heart of every prince and every legislator!

The old conspirator justifies himself for the part which he bore in the martyrdom of his former sovereign, and transfers the guilt of it to the steady and persecuted loyalists. "Les regicides sont ceux qui ont pris les armes contre leur mère patrie; les autres l'ont votée comme juges constitués par la nation, et qui ne doivent compte a persoune de leur jugement." This new effusion of pure unaltered Jacobinism, subversive of all government, and recognizing the sovereignty of the people even in matters of the highest crime, is the offering of Carnot to Louis XVIII.

The guilt of the revolution, he says, arises only from its failure. Its ultimate success would have sanctified its motives and its

icans.

"Si le système de la liberté eut prévalu, les dures eussent portês de noms bien différens; car dans les annales du monde, le meme fait, suivant les circonstances, est tantot un crime, tantot un acte d'heroisme: le meme homme est tantot Claude, et tantot Marc Aurèle."

He proceeds to justify the murder of the king by a wicked and blasphemous allusion to philosophy and holy writ.

"Il n'est pas difficile de faire voir que ce vole est absolument conforme à la doctrine enseignée dans nos ecoles, sous l'autorisation du gouvernement, preconisée comme la doctrine par excellence: puisque c'est celle des livres saints, appuyée sur l'opinion des moralistes, que l'on considère les plus sages de l'antiquité, et les plus dignes de faire autorité dans tous les temps. Si nous voulons paiser nos maximes de gouvernement dans les livres saints on y trouvera la doctrine de regicide établie par les prophètes, les rois rejetés comme les fleaux de Dicu, les familles égorgées, les peuples exterminés, par l'ordre du tout-puissant, l'intolérance furieuse prechées par les ministres du Seigneur plein de miséricorde.”

We have here again the accustomed union of impiety and

#reason.

Having laid his foundation in these sentiments, Carnot proceeds to the crimination of his sovereign;-first, because he acknowledged that it was to the Prince Regent, and to the English nation, that under Providence he attributed the reestablishment of his house; and secondly, because he assumed the throne not as the gift of the people, but as the heritage of his fathers.

The

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »