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mense.

such a wish and a persuasive to murder is imSuch a wish for a man's death is very often little more than a strong, though, I admit, not a very decent way of expressing detestation for his character.

But without pursuing this argument any further, I think myself entitled to apply to these verses the same reasoning which I have already applied to the first supposed libel on Bonaparte. If they be the real composition of a pretended Dutch patriot, Mr. Peltier may republish them innocently. If they be a satire on such pretended Dutch patriots, they are not a libel on Bonaparte. Granting, for the sake of argument, that they did entertain a serious exhortation to assassinate, is there any thing in such an exhortation inconsistent with the character of these pretended patriots ?

Character of
Jacobins.

all the horrible crimes and horrible retaliations of the last calamity that can befall society-a servile revolt. They sought the worst of ends by the most abominable of means. They labored for the subjugation of the world at the expense of crimes and miseries which men of humanity and conscience would have thought too great & price for the deliverance of mankind.

of Lepidus.

The last of these supposed libels is the parody on the speech of Lepidus, in the frag-. Parody on ments of Sallust. It is certainly a very the speech ingenious and happy parody of an original, attended with some historical obscurity and difficulty, which it is no part of our present business to examine. This parody is said to have been clandestinely placed among the papers of one of the most amiable and respectable men in France, M. Camille Jordan, in order to furnish a pretext for involving that excellent person in a charge of conspiracy. This is said to have been done by a spy of Fouché. Now, gentlemen, I take this to be a satire on Fouché, on Applied w his manufacture of plots-on his contrivances for the destruction of innocent and virtuous men-and I should admit it to be a libel on Fouché, if it were possible to libel him. I own that I should like to see Fouché appear as a plaintiff, seeking reparation for his injured character, before any tribunal safe from his fangs, where he had not the power of sending the judges

Fouché

They who were disaffected to the mild and tolerant government of their flourishthe Dutch ing country, because it did not exactly square with all their theoretical whimsies; they who revolted from that administration as tyrannical, which made Holland one of the wonders of the world for protected industry, for liberty of action and opinion, and for a prosperity which I may venture to call the greatest victory of man over hostile elements; they who called in the aid of the fiercest tyrants that Europe ever saw, who served in the armies of Robespierre, under the impudent pretext of giving lib-to Guiana or Madagascar. It happens that we erty to their country, and who have finally buried in the same grave its liberty, its independence, and perhaps its national existence, they are not men entitled to much tenderness from a political satirist, and he will scarcely violate dramatic propriety if he impute to them any language, however criminal and detestable. They who could not brook the authority of their old, lazy, good-natured government, are not likely to endure with patience the yoke of that stern domination which they have brought upon themselves, and which, as far as relates to them, is only the just punishment of their crimes. They who call in tyrants to establish liberty, who sacrifice the independence of their country under pretense of reforming its internal constitution, are capable of every thing.

than any, ex

I know nothing more odious than their charMore odious acter, unless it be that of those who to invoked the aid of the oppressors of Ireland. Switzerland to be the deliverers of Ireland! Their guilt has, indeed, peculiar aggravations. In the name of liberty, they were willing to surrender their country into the hands of tyrants, the most lawless, faithless, and merciless that ever scourged Europe; who, at the very moment of their negotiation, were covered with the blood of the unhappy Swiss, the martyrs of real independence and of real liberty. Their success would have been the destruction of the only free community remaining in Europe of England, the only bulwark of the remains of European independence. Their means were the passions of an ignorant and barbarous peasantry, and a civil war, which could not fail to produce

know something of the history of M. Fouché from a very credible witness against him-from himself. You will perhaps excuse me for read. ing to you some passages of his letters in the year 1793, from which you will judge whether any satire can be so severe as the portrait he draws of himself.

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24

"Convinced that there are no innocent men in this infamous city, 23 but those who Quotations from are opposed and loaded with irons by his letters. the assassins of the people, we are on our guard against the tears of repentance! nothing can disarm our severity. They have not yet dared to solicit the repeal of our first decree for the an nihilation of the city of Lyons! but scarcely any thing has yet been done to carry it into execution." (Pathetic!) The demolitions are too slow. More rapid means are necessary to republican impatience. The explosion of the mine and the devouring activity of the flames can alone adequately represent the omnipotence of the people." (Unhappy populace, always the pretext, the instrument, and the victim of political crimes!) "Their will can not be checked like that of tyrants. It ought to have the effects of thunder!" The next specimen of this worthy gentleman which I shall give, is in a speech te the Jacobin Club of Paris, on the 21st of De

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cember, 1793, by his worthy colleague in the mission to Lyons, Collot d'Herbois :

"We are accused" (you, gentlemen, will soon see how unjustly) "of being cannibals, men of blood; but it is in counter-revolutionary petitions, hawked about for signature by aristocrats, that this charge is made against us. They examine with the most scrupulous attention how the counter-revolutionists are put to death, and they affect to say that they are not killed at one stroke." (He speaks for himself and his coileague Fouché, and one would suppose that he was going to deny the fact-but nothing like it.) "Ah! Jacobins, did Chalier die at the first stroke, &c.? A drop of blood poured from generous veins goes to my heart" (humane creature!), "but I have no pity for conspirators." (He, however, proceeds to state a most undeniable proof of his compassion.) "We caused two hundred to be shot at once, and it is charged upon us as a crime !" (Astonishing! that such an act of humanity should be called a crime !) | They do not know that it is a proof of our sensibility! When twenty criminals are guillotined, the last of them dies twenty deaths; but these two hundred conspirators perished at once. They speak of sensibility, we also are full of sensibility! The Jacobins have all the virtues! They are compassionate, humane, generous!" (This is somewhat hard to be understood, but it is perfectly explained by what follows.) "But they reserve these sentiments for the patriots who are their brethren, which the aristocrats never will be."

The only remaining document with which I shall trouble you is a letter from Fouché to his amiabie colleague Collot d'Herbois, which, as might be expected in a confidential communication, breathes all the native tenderness of his soul.

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"Let us be terrible, that we may run no risk of being feeble or cruel. Let us annihilate in our wrath, at a single blow, all rebels, all conspirators, all traitors" (comprehensive words in his vocabulary), "to spare ourselves the pain, the long agony of punishing like kings!" (Nothing but philanthropy in this worthy man's heart.) Let us exercise justice after the example of nature. Let us avenge ourselves like a people. Let us strike like the thunder-bolt; and let even the ashes of our enemies disappear from the soil of liberty! Let the perfidious and ferocious English be attacked from every side. Let the whole republic form a volcano to pour devouring lava upon them. May the infamous island which produced these monsters, who no longer belong to humanity, be forever buried under the waves of the ocean! Farewell, my friend! Tears of joy stream from my eyes" (we shall soon see for what), "they deluge my soul."

[Then follows a little postscript, which explains the cause of this excessive joy, so hyperbolical in its language, and which fully justifies the indignation of the humane writer against the "ferocious English," who are so stupid and so cruel as never to have thought of a benevolent

23 This Chalier was the Marat of Lyons.

massacre, by way of sparing themselves the pair of punishing individual criminals.]

"We have only one way of celebrating victo ries. We send this evening t:eo hundred and thirteen rebels to be shot!"

Such, gentlemen, is M. Fouché, who is said to have procured this parody to be nixed with the papers of my excellent friend, Camille Jordan, to serve as a pretext for his destruction. Fab. ricated plots are among the most usual means of such tyrants for such purposes; and if Mr. Peltier intended to libel (shall I say?) Fouché by this composition, I can easily understand both the parody and the history of its origin. But if it be directed against Bonaparte to serve Royalist purposes, I must confess myself wholly unable to conceive why Mr. Peltier should have stigmatized his work and deprived it of all authority and power of persuasion, by prefixing to it the infamous name of Fouché.

Peltier's paper

On the same principle, I think one of the ob servations of my learned friend, on the Comments os title of this publication, may be re- the title of Mr torted on him. He has called your attention to the title, "L'Ambigu, ou Variétés atroces et amusantes." Now, gentlemen, 1 must ask whether, had these been Mr. Peltier's own invectives against Bonaparte, he would him. self have branded them as "atrocious." But if they be specimens of the opinions and invectives of a French faction, the title is very natural, and the epithets are perfectly intelligible. Indeed, I scarce know a more appropriate title for the whole tragic comedy of the Revolution than that of “atrocious and amusing varieties."

us.

In other parts

of his paper be flippant or se ere, but he has us.

may have been

not been libel

My learned friend has made some observations on other parts of this publication, to show the spirit which animates the author, but they do not seem to be very material to the question between It is no part of my case that Mr. Peltier has spoken with some unpoliteness, with some flippancy, with more severity than my learned friend may approve, of factions and of administrations in France. Mr. Peltier can not love the Revolution, or any government that has grown out of it and maintains it. The Revolu tionists have destroyed his family, they have seized his inheritance, they have beggared, exiled, and proscribed himself. If he did not detest them he would be unworthy of living, and he would be a base hypocrite if he were to con ceal his sentiments. But I must again remind you that this is not an information for not sufficiently honoring the French Revolution, for not showing sufficient reverence for the consular government. These are no crimes among us. England is not yet reduced to such an ignominious dependence. Our hearts and consciences are not yet in the bonds of so wretched a slavery. This is an information for a libel on Bonaparte, and if you believe the principal intention of Mr. Peltier to have been to republish the writings or to satirize the character of other individuals. you must acquit him of a libel on the First Con sul.

excited and Spanish arms harpported in France, and after a long reign of various fortune in which she preserved her unconquered spirit through great calamities and still greater dan

Here, gentlemen, I think I might stop, if I had only to consider the defense of Mr. Peltier. I trust that you are already convinced of his innocence. I fear I have exhausted your patience, as I am sure I have very nearly exhaust-gers, she at length broke the strength of the ened my own strength. But so much seems to me to depend on your verdict, that I can not forbear from laying before you some considerations of a more general nature.

Appeal to the examples of former tanes

coming the

emy, and reduced his power within such limits as to be compatible with the safety of England and of all Europe. Her only effectual ally was the spirit of her people, and her policy flowed from that magnanimous nature which in the hour of peril teaches better lessons than those of cold Her great heart inspired her with a

affections of her people which alone teach boldness, constancy, and foresight, and which are therefore the only safe guardians of the lowest as well as the highest interests of a nation. In her memorable address to her army, when the invasion of the kingdom was threatened by Spain, this woman of heroic spirit disdained to speak to them of their ease and their commerce, and their wealth and their safety. No! She touched another chord-she spoke of their na tional honor, of their dignity as Englishmen, of "the foul scorn that Parma or Spain should dare to invade the borders of her realms." breathed into them those grand and powerfu sentiments which exalt vulgar men into heroes, which led them into the battle of their country, armed with holy and irresistible enthusiasm ; which even cover with their shield all the igno

She

Believing, as I do, that we are on the eve of a Part Fourth great struggle; that this is only the first battle between reason and pow-reason. as showing the er; that you have now in your hands, higher and a nobler wisdom-which disdained to sentiments be committed to your trust, the only re-appeal to the low and sordid passions of her peo. present crisis. mains of free discussion in Europe, ple even for the protection of their low and sor now confined to this kingdom-addressing you, did interests, because she knew, or, rather, she therefore, as the guardians of the most important felt, that these are effeminate, creeping, cowardinterests of mankind; convinced that the unfet-ly, short-sighted passions, which shrink from contered exercise of reason depends more on your flict even in defense of their own mean objects. present verdict than on any other that was ever | In a righteous cause, she roused those generous delivered by a jury, I can not conclude without bringing before you the sentiments and examples of our ancestors in some of those awful and perilous situations by which Divine Providence has in former ages tried the virtue of the English nation. We are fallen upon times in which it behooves us to strengthen our spirits by the contemplation of great examples of constancy. Let us seek for them in the annals of our forefathers. The reign of Queen Elizabeth may be consid(1) Te age of ered as the opening of the modern Elizabeta. history of England, especially in its connection with the modern system of Europe, which began about that time to assume the form that i preserved till the French Revolution. It was a very memorable period, of which the maxims ought to be engraven on the head and heart of every Englishman. Philip II., at the head of the greatest empire then in the world, was open-ble interests that base calculation and cowardly ly aiming at universal domination, and his proj- selfishness tremble to hazard, but shrink from deect was so far from being thought chimerical by fending." A sort of prophetic instinct, if I may the wisest of his cotemporaries that, in the opin- so speak, seems to have revealed to her the imion of the great Duke of Sully, he must have portance of that great instrument for rousing and been successful, “if, by a most singular combina- guiding the minds of men, of the effects of which tion of circumstances, he had not at the same she had no experience, which, since her time, has time been resisted by two such strong heads as changed the condition of the world, but which those of Henry IV. and Queen Elizabeth." To few modern statesmen have thoroughly underthe most extensive and opulent dominions, the stood or wisely employed; which is, no doubt, most numerous and disciplined armies, the most connected with many ridiculous and degrading renowned captains, the greatest revenue, he add- details, which has produced, and which may ed also the most formidable power over opinion. again produce terrible mischiefs, but of which He was the chief of a religious faction, animated the influence must, after all, be considered as by the most atrocious fanaticism, prepared to the most certain effect and the most efficacious second his ambition by rebellion, anarchy, and cause of civilization, and which, whether it be a regicide in every Protestant state. Elizabeth blessing or a curse, is the most powerful engine was among the first objects of his hostility. That that a politician can move-I mean the press. wise and magnanimous Princess placed herself It is a curious fact that in the year of the Arin the front of the battle for the liberties of Eu- | mada, Queen Elizabeth caused to be She was the first rope. Though she had to contend at home with printed the first gazettes that ever of the press to his fanatical faction, which almost occupied Ire- appeared in England; and I own, it of the coun land, which divided Scotland, and was not of con- when I consider that this mode of try. temptible strength in England, she aided the op- rousing a national spirit was then absolutely unpressed inhabitants of the Netherlands in their exampled, that she could have no assurance of just and glorious resistance to his tyranny; she 26 We have but few strains of eloquence in our aided Henry the Great in suppressing the abom-language more noble or more inspiring for a people inable rebellion which anarchical principles had like the English than this passage.

to avail herself

awaken the spir

Its efficacy from the precedents of former times, | ants on our shores. They were receiv I am disposed to regard her having recourse to trust the victims of tyranny ever will be this it as one of the most sagacious experiments, one land, which seems chosen by Providence to be of the greatest discoveries of political genius, one the home of the exile, the refuge of the oppressed. of the most striking anticipations of future expe- They were welcomed by a people high-spirited rience that we find in history. I mention it to as well as humane, who did not insult them by you to justify the opinion that I have ventured to clandestine charity; who did not give alms in state of the close connection of our national spir-secret lest their charity should be detected by the it with our press, even our periodical press. I neighboring tyrants! No! They were publiccan not quit the reign of Elizabeth without lay-ly and nationally welcomed and relieved. They ing before you the maxims of her policy, in the were bid to raise their voice against their oplanguage of the greatest and wisest of men. pressor, and to proclaim their wrongs to all Lord Bacon, in one part of his discourse on her mankind. They did so. They were joined in reign, speaks thus of her support of Holland: the cry of just indignation by every Englishman "But let me rest upon the honorable and con-worthy of the name. It was a fruitful indignatinual aid and relief she hath given to the dis- tion, which soon produced the successful resisttressed and desolate people of the Low Coun-ance of Europe to the common enemy. Even tries-a people recommended unto her by ancient confederacy and daily intercourse, by their cause so innocent and their fortune so lamentable !" In another passage of the same discourse, he thus speaks of the general system of her foreign policy as the protector of Europe, in words too remarkable to require any commentary. "Then it is her government, and her government alone, that hath been the sconce and fort of all Europe, which hath let this proud nation from overrunning all. If any state be yet free from his factions erected in the bowels thereof; if there be any state wherein this faction is erected that is not yet fired with civil troubles; if there be any state under his protection that enjoyeth moderate liberty, upon whom he tyrannizeth not, it is the mercy of this renowned Queen that standeth between them and their misfortunes !"

the Huguenots

Louis XIV.

then, when Jeffreys disgraced the bench which his Lordship [Lord Ellenborough] now adorns, no refugee was deterred by prosecution for libel from giving vent to his feelings, from arraigning the oppressor in the face of all Europe.

Holland when

During this ignominious period of our history, a war arose on the Continent, which (3) Aid given tr can not but present itself to the mind isded by the on such an occasion as this; the only same monarch. war that was ever made on the avowed ground of attacking a free press. I speak of the invasion of Holland by Louis XIV. The liberties which the Dutch gazettes had taken in discussing his conduct were the sole cause of this very extraordinary and memorable war, which was of short duration, unprecedented in its avowed principle, and most glorious in its event for the liberties of mankind. That republic, at all times so interesting to Englishmen in the worst times of both countries our brave enemies; in their best times our most faithful and valuable friends -was then charged with the defense of a free press against the oppressor of Europe, as a sacred trust for the benefit of all generations. They felt the sacredness of the deposit, they felt the dignity of the station in which they were placed, and though deserted by the un-English government of England, they asserted their own ancient character, and drove out the great armies and great captains of the oppressor with defeat and disgrace. Such was the result of the only war hitherto avowedly undertaken to op

The next great conspirator against the rights (2) Succor of of men and of nations, against the sein the days of curity and independence of all European states, against every kind and degree of civil and religious liberty, was Louis XIV. In his time the character of the English nation was the more remarkably displayed, because it was counteracted by an apostate and perfidious government. During great part of his reign, you know that the throne of England was filled by princes who deserted the cause of their country and of Europe, who were the accomplices and the tools of the oppressor of the world,27 who were even so unmanly, so unprince-press a free country because she allowed the free ly, so base, as to have sold themselves to his am- and public exercise of reason. And may the bition; who were content that he should enslave God of justice and liberty grant that such may the Continent, if he enabled them to enslave ever be the result of wars made by tyrants Great Britain. These princes, traitors to their against the rights of mankind, especially against own royal dignity and to the feelings of the gen- that right which is the guardian of every other. erous people whom they ruled, preferred the con- This war, gentlemen, had the effect of raising dition of the first slave of Louis XIV. to the dig-up from obscurity the great Prince of (4) Support of nity of the first freemen of England; yet even un- Orange, afterward King William III., in fighting the der these princes, the feelings of the people of the deliverer of Holland, the deliverer battle of Eathis kingdom were displayed, on a most memor- of England, the deliverer of Europe; Louis XIV. able occasion, toward foreign sufferers and for- the only hero who was distinguished by such a eign oppressors. The Revocation of the Edict happy union of fortune and virtue that the obof Nantes threw fifty thousand French Protest- jects of his ambition were always the same with the interests of humanity; perhaps the only man who devoted the whole of his life exclusively to the service of mankind. This mest illustrious

* Charles II. and James II. They both reveived regular pensions from the French Monarcl

King William

rope against

newspapers

subjects.

benefactor of Europe, this "hero without vanity | no period were the system and projects of Louis or passion," as he has been justly and beauti-XIV. animadverted on with more freedom and fully called by a venerable prelate [Dr. Shipley, boldness than during that interval. Our ances Bishop of St. Asaph], who never made a step to- tors and the heroic Prince who governed them. ward greatness without securing or advancing did not deem it wise policy to disarm the national uberty, who had been made Stadtholder of Hol- mind for the sake of prolonging a truce. They and for the salvation of his own country, was were both too proud and too wise to pay so great soon after made King of England for the deliv- a price for so small a benefit. erance of ours. When the people of Great Britain had once more a government worthy of them, they returned to the feelings and principles of their ancestors, and resumed their former station and their former duties as protectors of the independence of nations. The people of England, delivered from a government which disgraced, oppressed, and betrayed them, fought under William as their forefathers had fought under Elizabeth, and after an almost uninterrupted struggle of more than twenty years, in which they were often abandoned by fortune, but never by their own constancy and magnanimity, they at length once more defeated those projects of guilty ambition, boundless aggrandizement, and universal domination, which had a second time threatened to overwhelm the whole civilized world. They rescued Europe from being swallowed up in the gulf of extensive empire, which the experience of all times points out as the grave of civilization; where men are driven by violent conquest and military oppression into lethargy and slavishness of heart; where, after their arts have perished with the mental vigor from which they spring, they are plunged by the combined power of effeminacy and ferocity into irreclaimable and hopeless barbarism. Our ancestors established the safety of their own country by providing for that of others, and rebuilt the European system upon such firm foundations that nothing less than the tempest of the French Revolution could have shaken it.

versions of the English press on Louis XIV. in time of peace with France.

This arduous struggle was suspended for a (5) Bold animad- short time by the peace of Ryswick. The interval between that treaty and the war of the succession enables us to judge how our ancestors acted in a very peculiar situation, which requires maxims of policy very different from those which usually govern states. The treaty which they had concluded was in truth and substance only a truce. The ambition and the power of the enemy were such as to render real peace impossible. And t was perfectly obvious that the disputed succession of the Spanish Monarch would soon render it no longer practicable to preserve even the appearance of amity. It was desirable, however, not to provoke the enemy by unseasonable hostility; but it was still more desirable, it was absolutely necessary, to keep up the national jealousy and indignation against him who was soon to be their open enemy. It might naturally have been apprehended that the press might have driven into premature war a Prince who, not long before, had been violently exasperated by the press of another free country. I have locked over the political publications of that time with some care, and I can venture to say that at

In the course of the eighteenth century, a great change took place in the state of po- Increased litical discussion in this country. I influence of speak of the multiplication of news- on political papers. I know that newspapers are not very popular in this place, which is, indeed, not very surprising, because they are known here only by their faults. Their publishers come here only to receive the chastisement due to their offenses. With all their faults, I own I can not help feeling some respect for whatever is a proof of the increased curiosity and increased knowledge of mankind; and I can not help thinking that if somewhat more indulgence and consideration were shown for the difficulties of their situation, it might prove one of the best correctives of their faults, by teaching them that selfrespect which is the best security for liberal conduct toward others. But however that may be, it is very certain that the multiplication of these channels of popular information has produced a great change in the state of our domestic and foreign politics. At home, it has, in truth, produced a gradual revolution in our government. By increasing the number of those who exercise some sort of judgment on public affairs, it has created a substantial democracy, infinitely more important than those democratical forms which have been the subject of so much contest. that I may venture to say, England has not only in its forms the most democratical government that ever existed in a great country, but in substance has the most democratical government that ever existed in any country; if the most substantial democracy be that state in which the greatest number of men feel an interest and express an opinion upon political questions, and in which the greatest number of judgments and wills concur in influencing public measures.

tone as t

ments.

So

The same circumstances gave great additional importance to our discussion of con- Increased hold tinental politics. That discussion ness of th was no longer, as in the preceding eign gover century, confined to a few pamphlets, written and read only by men of education and rank, which reached the multitude very slowly and rarely. In newspapers an almost daily appeal was made, directly or indirectly, to the judg. ment and passions of almost every individual in the kingdom, upon the measures and principles not only of his own country, but of every state in Europe. Under such circumstances, the tone of these publications, in speaking of foreign gov. ernments, became a matter of importance. You will excuse me, therefore, if, before I conclude, I remind you of the general nature of their language on one or two very remarkable occasions, and of the boldness with which they arraigned

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