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after, he was dismissed into eternity—and then his whole family!

Quel est donc ce vieillard?..et par quelle injustice... Quoi! Malesherbes, c'est toi qu'on entraîne au supplice!

Ta fille y marche aussi; son époux, ses enfans
Sont frappés à la fois, l'un sur l'autre expirans!
Trois générations s'éteignent comme une ombre!
Homme pur, calme-toi dans ta demeure sombre:
Qui connut tes vertus, pour toujours est en deuil;
La tendre humanité gémit sur ton cercueil.
Tes bourreaux sont flétris; ta mémoire est chérie!
L'honneur de ton supplice a couronné ta vie.

Malesherbes was aged seventy-two years, four months, and fifteen days. He was perhaps, one of the best men of his time, and his character will descend without a stain to posterity.

M. de Malesherbes had attached himself to the sect of the Economistes and had written entirely on their principles, which contributed much to bring about the revolution, although that was never his intention. In the notes which he left on the death of Louis XVI is the following remarkable passage: "M. Turgot et moi étions de forts honnêtes gens, très instruits, passionnés pour le bien; qui n'eût pas pensé qu'on ne pouvoit pas mieux faire que de nous choisir? Cependant nous avons mal administré. Ne connoissant les hommes que par les livres, manquant d'ha bileté pour les affaires, nous avons laissé diriger le Roi par M. de Maurepas, qui ajouta toute sa foiblesse à celle de son élève, et sans le vouloir, ni le prévoir, nous avons contribué à

la révolution."

The celebrated M. de Chateaubriand, author of Atala and le Génie du Christianisme, was nephew of M. de Malesherbes; and his brother and sister were guillotined with M. de Malesherbes, but M. de C. had the good luck to make his escape to England, where he resided some time, and was personally known to the writer of this article. He is now pensioned by Buonaparte, and writes for the Mercure.

MARIE-JEAN-ANTOINE-NICOLAS CARITAT,

MARQUIS DE CONDORCET,

Was born September 17th, 1743, at Ribaumont, in Picardy, where his father, the Chevalier Condorcet, had married the daughter of the deputy-comptroller of Amiens. He soon lost him and his uncle, then bishop : of Gap, in Dauphiné, took charge of his education. He was designed for the church, but the Countess of Gruel-d'Ussays, his first cousin, thinking his disposition more suitable to a military life, persuaded the prelate to consent to his entering the army. He was then sent to the siege of Auxerre, and the young Condorcet was nominated to a lieutenancy in a regiment of dragoons, which

he never joined, in consequence of a dispute he had with the Chevalier d'Abon, who publicly gave him a blow, which he never resented. The bishop and his relations then advised him to apply to literature, for which he shewed great taste.

After this adventure, by no means honourable to his courage, he manifested a desire to become chancellor of the order of SaintLazare du Mont-Carmel. He consulted Cherin, the genealogist, on the subject, who advised him not to make application, there being no prospect of success, as he could not produce certain proofs that would be required of him by Monsieur the King's brother, who of which, he swore eternal hatred to the was the chief of the order. In consequence against those ministers who had rendered him court and the nobility, and wrote continually great services.

Gronichy, by the interference of the Duke de He married a young lady of the name of la Rochefoucault, who generously gave him an hundred thousand livres for the marriage portion, and who afterwards introduced him into high life, and obtained him several pensions. Although the Duke was so great much appearance of truth, that he directed a friend to him, yet it is asserted, and with his assassination* in the month of September,

Louis-Alexandre, duc de la Rochefoucault et de la Roche-Guyon, peer of France, fomerly member of the constituent assembly, distinguished himself equally by his indefatigable application to the sciences, and by his strict virtue. He accepted the office signed the decree for superseding Petion and of President of the department of Paris, and Manuel after the 20th of June. tional assembly having re-instated them, he foresaw that great calamities would in conquitting Paris, to avoid being a witness of take place, and determined on land, but filial and conjugal piety prevented its effects. He was advised to retire to Enghim.

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It is said, that Santerre, at the solicitation of Condorcet, took advantage of the fury of the populace to sign an order for arresting the Duke. A commissary of the commune was appointed and sent to Forges for this purpose; but being more humane than his confederates, he apprised the Duke of his danger, and made him consent to go to his estate, at Roche-Guyon, to which place he offered to take and keep him under his care. They set off together in the same carriage. In passing. through Gisors, they were met, as if by chance, on the 14th, by a detachment of cut-throats, purposely sent from Paris, who demanded with excessive fury the head of the Duke: an immense number of na

tional guards came suddenly to his assist

1792; as Condorcet and the rest of the Brissotins never forgave the Duke for signing the decree for superseding their creatures, Petion and Manuel. To convince our readers what interest this faction took in the success of their intrigues subsequent to the 10th of August, we shall extract a passage from Condorcet's speech, delivered some time after:

"Si quelques vengeances ont éclaté, on "peut dire que le peuple ne s'est point

trompé dans le choix des victimes." "If some vengeances have burst forth, it may be said the people were not mistaken in the choice of their victims."

Some of Condorcet's friends, who detested Louis XVth's Queen, wished him to put his wife in the way of the King, that she might become his mistress. The Marquis was base enough to accede to the plan, although he has since declared that he could not intrigue: it was agreed that the Mar

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ance; he crossed the town in the middle of a quadruple line of national guards, their commandant and mayor. A cart stood across the way in a narrow road leading out of Gisors; an assassin darted at the duke, and threw a large stone (which he tore from the pavement) at him, with such foree as killed him instantly, and he fell in the arms of Madame d'Arville, his mother, who was 93 years of age.

In the first assembly he demanded the liberty of the press, the King's veto, the suppression of the order of monks, and wished to establish the English government, with certain modifications.

He was the fourth of his family assassinated in that month, reckoning the two Bishops of Beauvais and Saintes, who were murdered in the Carmes at Paris; and Charles de Rohan Chabot, his brother-in-law, who was -killed at l'Abbaye. We have a letter now before us acquainting us with the death of his aunt, the particulars of which will be found in our Obituary for this month.

M. de Condorcet says, in his eulogies of some of his fellow academicians, that literary men were very proper to have the government of states; but," added he, "the

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evil is, that the literati are not fitted for intrigue." However, to remedy that inconvenience in himself, he formed a little intrigue against the revenues of the Academy of Sciences, by which he proposed nothing less than to appropriate half the income to himself. The fact was as follows:-The Academy of Sciences had asked the King to restore twelve thousand livres (£500) a year, which the Abbé Terray had taken away from thein. M. d'Alembert and the Marquis de Condorcet had signed the resolution which had been adopted for appropriating these funds to the encouragement of the arts and

chioness should shew herself alone in the theatre at Versailles some night when the Queen could not be present; accordingly, one evening, when they were assured that her Majesty would be at Grand Trianon, the Marchioness appeared in the Count d'Angivilliers's box. The King particularly noticed her, seemed much pleased, and was bestowing great encomiums upon her; when the Queen, who had been apprised of the plan, suddenly entered the King's box, and, darting a look of contempt upon his

sciences. Notwithstanding this, M. Turgot, when he granted the request, disposed of five thousand livres (£208) a year in favour of the Marquis, to the great astonishment of the Academy; who complained that a sum originally destined to the use of the company for the public benefit, should be thus employed, and without any authority, to favour an individual. It happened that about this time, M. d'Alembert having borrowed the registers of the Academy from M. de Fouchy, perpetual secretary to the Academy of Sciences, the latter, after having frequently asked for them in vain, sent for them one morning in a very peremptory manner. In sending them back in such haste, M. d'Alem bert unwarily left among them the sketch of a memorial to the controleur-general, begging him to appropriate five thousand of the twelve thousand livres which were to be restored to the Academy, to the use of the Marquis de Condorcet, joint secretary of the Academy; and "to give only one thousand "to that poor creature de Fouchy, who "ought to be dismissed, as a man no longer "capable of performing the duties of his "office." M. de Fouchy, who found the paper, surprised at seeing himself treated as a weak man, and indignant at the plot which had been secretly formed against him, denounced M. d'Alembert to the Academy, as guilty of having converted the funds destined for the use of the company, to the advantage of his creature and friend, the Marquis de Condorcet. As for the incapacity of which he had been accused, he demanded that a committee should be appointed to judge of the extract he made from the memorial of the Academy, and that his continuance in office should depend upon the issue. M. d'Alembert and the Marquis saw that it would be prudent to stifle the affair: and in spite of the just clamours which had been raised against them, some honorary academicians, and among others M. de Trudaine, being concerned in it, the rising storm was appeased; and nothing remained but the impression which was made upon the mind, that, notwithstanding Condorcet's assertion, men of letters are as well adapted for intrigues as men of the world.-Ďutens' Mmoirs of a Traveller, now in Retirement, vol. iii. p. 156

Majesty and those who were with him, demanded, in a haughty tone, who that woman was? and observed, that if she was not worthy to be presented at court, she ought not to be there.

Condorcet and his Marchioness now found it necessary to retire into private life for some time, and ever after he continued a most inveterate enemy of the King and Queen. He afterwards became connected with the Voltaires, d'Alemberts, &c. and was. of course one of the officiating priests of the new* doctrines raised against the Christian religion and lawful monarchy. Addressing himself to the Academy in 1783,† Condorcet thus spoke concerning Christianity-" En

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core quelques années, et le monstre qui "dévore la terre depuis dix-huit siècles, ne sera plus. A few years more, and the monster who devours the earth for these 18 centuries, shall be no more." Strange to say, while he was upholding such doctrines, the King of Prussia (Frederick the Great, as he was called) did not scruple to correspond with him, and nominate him member of his Academy; the Empress of Russia likewise made him member of the Imperial Academy of Russia. When he entered into the revolution, which he did from the very beginning, and was putting into practice what he had before only preached, the Empress, and the last King of Prussia, (not his friend Frederick) ordered his name to be erased from the registers of both_academies, which was a very severe wound to his ambition and pride.

The spirit of the revolution had got such possession of him, that he neglected the Royal Academies of Paris for the tribune of the Jacobins. He was elected one of the legislative assembly, and of the convention which succeeded it, where he voted for the King's being kept in irons during the "remainder of his life;" a punishment, as He expressed himself," the strongest next to "that of death."

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He continued one of the most active partisans of the Brissotin faction, till Robespierre's revolution of the 31st May, 1793, overturned them and their projects. When they were sent to prison, he had the good luck to escape, and found a temporary refuge in the house of Garat. He afterwards was secreted by a lady of his acquaintance, until the domiciliary visits took place in April,

A fatal and destructive doctrine, which tears from misery its consolation, from virtue its immortality; freezes the heart of the good man, by depriving him of his witness and friend; and renders justice only to the wicked, whom it annihilates.M. de la Harpe's Works, Panorama, p. 781.

+ Discours de l'Ouverture de l'Académie en 1783.-Vide L'Année Littéraire for 1783.

1794, when he was obliged to retire from his abode, and he left Paris disguised as an old woman. Afterwards, dressed like one of the lowest class of the people, he I went to a friend's house at Sceaux who was absent from home. Obliged to hide himself by day, and to wander by night, he secreted himself for some time in the quarries at Gentile near Sceaux, till hunger forced him from his concealment. At length he went to a public house at Clamart, where he was remarked by the voracity with which he devoured the food that was set before him, by his very long beard, by the wretchedness, and by the melancholy disquiet manifest in his countenance. He was in consequence taken before the revolutionary committee sitting there, (Clamart) where he declared he was a servant, and that his name was Simon*; but, upon being examined and searched, he was found to possess a Horace, with manuscript notes; they therefore ordered him to be imprisoned at Bourg-la-Reine, until the committee received instructions from Paris for future proceedings against him. In going there he fainted away, and could not walk any farther than Chatillon, from whence he was conducted on horseback. He was safely lodged in prison; but the next morning when the gaoler went to visit him, he found him dead, prostrate on the floor.-It is generally believed that his death was occasioned by poison, as he always carried it about him for that purpose, to use at the last extremity.

Our readers will judge, when they consider the dreadful state Condorcet was reduced to, whether he could leave the world without some pangs of conscience, without some remorse, for his past actions, as he boasted he should do, in the speech he delivered for dethroning the King, (his benefactor; as well as the Duke de la Rochefoucault). It is not unworthy remark, that in the same speech he should have boasted of the ascendancy of Pethion's virtues, and of his unbounded patriotism; and that Pethion should have, like him, escaped from decapitation: should have hid himself by day, and wandered by night,

"Ay, ay, you may tell us you are a servant," said the countryman that interrogated him," but I believe you are more likely to be one of the ci-devants who used to keep servants."

† Quelque jugement que nos contemporains ou la postérité puissent porter de nous, nous n'aurons pas à craindre celui de notre conscience; à quelque danger que nous soyons exposés, nous échapperons du moins aux remords.-Exposition des motifs d'après les quels l'assemblée nationale a proclamé la convocation d'une convention nationale, et pro.. nonce la suspension du pouvoir-exécutif danɛ les mains du Roi,

till he met with the horrid fate of being starved to death; his body was found, with Buzot's, another of his friends, in a field in the department of Gironde, half devoured by animals.

Condorcet's writings were various: he had a remarkable memory, and possessed great talent for argument and discussion. His friend d'Alembert described him as a volcano covered with snow-he was called les humeurs froides de la philosophie, by several distinguished members of the legislative assembly; by others, he was known under the appellation of Je mouton enragé. He never appeared vain of his abilities, and although he must certainly be classed among men of genius, yet he was a false wit; false and ungrateful to his best friend, and a corrupt husband. He was a republican without possessing a spark of that virtue which some philosophers pretend belongs to the name; his affected philosophy was a mask to conceal his thirst after power, to attain which he did not scruple to shed the blood of his patrons and friends.

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To the Editor of the LITERARY PANORAMA. SIR;-My curiosity was considerably exeited by an article, in the last number of your excellent publication, denominated: "Jewish prophecy the sole-criterion to distinguish "between genuine and spurious Christian "Scripture, &c. a discourse preached before "the Rev. Dr. W. Gretton, Archdeacon of Essex, at Danbury, July 8, 1806, by Franeis Stone, M. A. F.S.A. Rector of Cold "Norton, Essex."

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In consequence of your report upon some of the extraordinary tenets laid down in this discourse, I was desirous to satisfy my own mind on the subject, and sent to my bookseller's for a copy. A perusal of it too soon convinced me of the justness of your statement; but you must allow me to add, it also led me, in some measure, to condemn the manner in which you had treated it. Irony, Sir, is, no doubt, on many occasions, an admirable weapon, skilfully employed, to mark vanity and presumption with derision and contempt. But the unexampled circumstance, that a minister of our excellent establishment-who must have repeatedly declared his assent to its Articles-who holds a situation of emolument in the church by that assent-and who had been " nominated by the favour of archidiaconal appointment"pointment that surely implies the most sacred confidence-to the high and honourable office of addressing his clerical brethren at a visitation -had actually embraced that solemn occasion to abuse the sacred trust reposed in him, and to insult such an audience, by denouncing as

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false many of the most awful doctrines he had been thus called upon to defend; and afterwards, with an unblushing and persevering self-confidence had proclaimed his principles to the world-I say, such a fact bespeaks a species and a degree of effrontery, that overpowers every other feeling by the astonish ment and indignation it excites. Such senti ments, Sir, I conceive, must be still more deeply impressed on the mind of every man who shall pursue the unconnected series of false and unwarrantable conclusions; of unsupported and contradictory assertions; of absurd and irreverent arguments; with which this epitome of Mr. Stone's divinity abounds.

In what manner the preaching of this new apostle was received by his auditors, I have never heard; nor do I know whether the publication of his tenets has been discussed by any able pen. I therefore beg leave, in the mean time, to suggest, that whoever will examine what Mr. S. calls his "five synonimous citations," including his text, as they are found in the Gospels, and compare them respectively with the context (a trouble which, from his not thinking it " necessary to cite chapter and verse," Mr. Stone evidently intended his readers should not take), will easily and immediately detect the false and daring conclusion he has drawn.

I would also, in refutation of Mr. Stone's sophistry upon the subject, recommend any fences of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, one of the sound, learned, and ingenious de as founded upon and proved by Scripture, with which our church happily abounds. and, in reply to his absurd cavils and remarks on the awful doctrines of the Atonement and Intercession made by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and in complete vindication of our faith in those doctrines, I would refer the reader, as grounds of immediate ard entire conviction, to the concluding verses of the 9th chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the. Hebrews, and the eighteen first verses of the 10th-passages which, from his professed veneration for that great Apostle, Mr. S. must, at least, adinit to be high authority; but which, upon his present principles, he will find it impossible to understand or explain,→ unless he should suddenly discover, by the mere strength of his own penetration (as in another instance), that the above passages are

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a corruption," "foisted in,"-or that the two whole chapters (like others in which he has found insurmountable objections to his system), are interpolated forgeries." In deed, upon this principle, and with the licence he has assumed of cutting and paring

Since writing the above, I have been, informed, on indisputable authority, that some of the clergy rose up and left the church during the delivery of this sermon.

down the Gospels to the standard of his own faith (since what he has spared is equally subversive of his arguments and his assertions), it is almost surprising he should have denounced so little.

Allow me now, Mr. Editor, through the channel of your publication, and not without an expression of sincere concern, to suggest two questions for the serious consideration of Mr. Stone himself:-First, whether, admitting his own entire conviction (upon whatever groundless reasoning and perverted misconception it may rest) of his own principles, he does conscientiously imagine, that he has adopted the most decent and becoming node of declaring his utter renunciation of some of the fundamental Articles of that Church, to which, in consequence of his former assent, and by his present office, he belongs? And next, whether the anxious desire he professes for the conversion of Jews, Deists, and Mahometans, really justifies, even to his own mind, the means he has taken the arguments he has used—and the great offence he has given.—I am,Sir, &c. A.E.

We are much obliged to the writer of the foregoing letter; to another correspondent, who signs Christianus; and to several other friends, who have hinted their fears that the irony we employed as the most effectual manner of exposing the doctrines avowed by Mr. Stone, should be misunderstood, and offence be taken at it.

If any offence really has been taken, we are truly sorry; for we think the present circumstances of the Church of England imperiously demand a decided avowal from every friend to the truths of the Gospel: and we say explicitly, let the Church either suppress (which God forbid !) the doctrines of the Articles, of the Homilies, those too much neglected documents, and of the most venerable the Reformers, or suppress, effectually too, such , doctrines as her degenerate sons disseminate.

Ignavum fucos pecus à præsepibus arcent. As things stand, we see no other alternative : the essence of Christianity is at stake; the subject is truly serious, and the information which from our office has reached us, imparts a consequence to it, much beyond what appears on the mere surface of the thing.

We can only account for the total absence of notice (in every letter we have received) of an argument against Mr. S's. sentiments, inserted in Panorama, p. 543; by supposing, that our third Number had not then reached our worthy correspondents. They will see in that page, that we have not omitted a serious view

of the subject. Will they also pardon us, if we assume just so much knowledge of the human heart, as might induce us to adopt that method of rendering the subject notorious, which appeared to be best adapted to its end: and which, in fact, has answered its purpose most effectually.

DIDASCALIA.

DRURY-LANE THEATRE.

A new melo-drama, in three acts, called Tekeli, or the Siege of Montgatz, ap peared on the 25th November, it is the production of Mr. Hook, jun.; the musick composed by his father. The scene lies in Hungary, and the story relates chiefly to the hard fortunes of Count Tekeli, who, op pressed by the Emperor, is obliged to fly into Turkey, in hopes of assistance from the Grand Signior, leaving the castle of Montgatz to the care of Alexina his wife, who, for a time, makes an heroic stand against the Imperialists; but pressed by the want of stores, ammunition, &c is on the point of surrendering, when a hope arises that her husband is on his return. Tekeli, attended by his trusty friend Woolf, reaches, indeed, the forest near Montgatz, which is strictly guarded by the Imperial troops, where at length, worn out with hunger and fatigue, they are wedding, who convey them to a neighbouring relieved by some peasants going to celebrate a mill. The miller receives them warmly, but a detachment of guards arriving, Tekeli discovers himself to the miller, who, though a large reward is offered for the apprehension of Tekeli, remains faithful to his promise of concealing him. Various stratagems are devised for that purpose, and for conveying Tekeli into the castle; which they at length succeed in, by conveying him in a sack over the Torsa. The Austrian General, Count Caraffa arrives at the mill soon after, and the miller discloses the whole truth in defiance of all punishment. The return of Tekeli reani mates the spirits of Alexina, a sally is made against the enemy, and the piece concludes with a grand engagement of the armies, in which Caraffa is defeated.

The stratagems to favour the escape of Tekeli from the search of the Austrians, are well managed and afford much interest, and combined with the pleasing scenery are likely to make the piece a favorite with the public.

On Wednesday, Dec. 11, a new farce, under the title of Mr. H-, was brought forward at this Theatre; the principal wit of which consists in Mr. H's endeavouring to conceal his name upon all occasions, from an affectation of modesty, and at last inadvertently letting it out to be Mr. Hogsflesh!

We shall make ho remarks on this unlucky

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