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bled on this occafion" to celebrate the emancipa "tion of a neighbouring nation from tyranny, "without intimating a defire of any thing more than

an improvement of their own conflitution." Excelfive modefty! Nothing but an improvement? A LA FRANÇOISE, of courfe? However, with refpect to the church, as it was a point of confcience, the club do not feem to have been altogether fo moderate in their defigns. "Believe me," fays the Doctor, in the fame letter, "the Church of England, which you think you are fupporting, has received a

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greater blow by this conduct of yours, than I and "all my friends have ever aimed at it." They had then, it seems, aimed a blow at the established church, and were forming a plan for improving the conftitution; and yet the Doctor, in the fame letter, twice expreffes his aftonishment at their being treated as the enemies of church and ftate. In a letter to the ftudents of the College of Hackney, he fays, "a hierarchy, equally the bane of Chriftianity and ra"tional liberty, now confeffes its weaknefs; and "be affured, that you will fee its complete re"formation, or its fall." And yet he has the affurance to tell the people of Birmingham, that their fuperiors have deceived them in reprefenting him and his fect as the enemies of church and state.

But, fay they, we certainly exercised the right of freemen in affembling together; and even if our meeting had been unlawful, cognizance should have been taken of it by the magiftracy: there can be no liberty where a ferocious mob is suffered to supersede the law. Very true. This is what the Doctor has been told a thoufand times, but he never would believe it. He ftill continued to bawl out, “The fun"fhine of reafon will affuredly chafe away and diffipate the mists of darkness and error; and when "the majefty of the people is infulted, or they feel "themfelves

VOL. I.

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"themselves oppreffed by any fet of men, they "have the power to redrefs the grievance." So the people of Birmingham, feeling their majefty infulted by a set of men (and a very impudent fet of men too), who audaciously attempted to perfuade them that they were" all flaves and idolaters," and to feduce them from their duty to God and their country, rofe" to redrefs the grievance." And yet he complains? Ah! fays he, but, my good townfmen,

-you mistake the matter:

"For, in all fcruples of this nature,
"No man includes himself, nor turns
"The point upon his own concerns.'

And therefore he fays to the people of Birming ham, "You have been misled." But had they fuffered themselves to be mifled by himself into an infurrection against the Government; had they burnt ⚫ the churches, cut the throats of the clergy, and hung the magiftrates, military officers, and nobility, to the lamp-pofts, would he not have faid that they exercifed a facred right? Nay, was not the very feftival, which was the immediate cause of the riots, held exprefsly to celebrate scenes like these? to celebrate the inglorious triumphs of a mob? The 14th of July was a day marked with the blood of the innocent, and eventually the deftruction of an empire. The events of that day muft ftrike horror to every heart except that of a deistical philofopher, and would brand with eternal infamy any other nation but France; which, thanks to the benign influence of the Rights of Man, has made fuch a progrefs in ferocioufnefs, murder, facrilege, and every species of infamy, that the horrors of the 14th of July are already forgotten.

What we celebrate, we must approve; and does not the man, who approved of the events of the 14th of July, blufh to complain of the Birming

ham

ham riots? 66.

Happily," fays he to the people of Birmingham, "happily the minds of English"men have a horror for murder, and therefore you "did not, I hope, think of that; though, by your "clamorous demanding me at the hotel, it is pro"bable that, at that time, fome of you intended " me fome perfonal injury." Yes, Sir, happily the minds of Englishmen have a horror for murder; but who will fay that the minds of English men, or English women either, would have a horror for murder, if you had fucceeded in overturning their religion and conftitution, and introducing your Frenchified fyftem of liberty? The French were acknowledged to be the most polite and amiable people in all Europe: what are they now? Let La Fayette, Briffot, Anacharfis Cloots, or Thomas Paine himfelf, answer this question.

Let us fee, a little, how mobs have acted under the famous government that the Doctor fo much admires.

I shall not attempt a detail of the horrors committed by the cut-throat Jourdan and his associates in Provence, Avignon, Languedoc, and Roufillontowns and villages facked, gentlemen's feats and caftles burnt, and their inhabitants maffacred; magiftrates infulted, beat, and imprifoned, fometimes killed; prisoners fet at liberty, to cut the throats of those they had already robbed. The exploits of this band of patriots would fill whole volumes. They reduced a great part of the inhabitants of the finest and moft fertile country in the whole world, to a degree of mifery and ruin that would never have been forgotten, had it not been fo far eclipfed fince, by the operation of what is, in " that devoted country," called the law. The amount of the damages fuftained in property, was perhaps a hundred thoufand times as great as that fuftained by the revolutionifts at Birmingham. When repeated accounts

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of these murderous fcenes were laid before the National Affembly, what was the confequence? what the redrefs?"We had our fears," fays Monfieur Gentil," for the prifoners of Avignon, and for the "lives and property of the inhabitants of that unhappy country; but these fears are now changed "into a certainty: the prifoners are released; the "country-feats are burnt, and"-Monfieur Gentil was called to order, and not fuffered to proceed; after which these precious "Guardians of the Rights of Man" paffed a cenfure on him, for having flandered the patriots. It is notorious, that the chief of these cut-throats, Jourdan, has fince produced his butcheries in Avignon, as a proof of his civifm, and that he is now a diftinguished character among the real friends of the revolution.

Does the Doctor remember having heard any thing about the glorious achievements of the 10th of Auguft, 1792? Has he ever made an estimate of the property destroyed in Paris on that and the following days? Let him compare the deftruction that followed the fteps of that mob, with the lofs of his boasted apparatus; and when he has done this, let him tell us, if he can, where he would now be, if the Government of England had treated him and his friends, as the National Affembly did the fufferers in the riots of the 10th of Auguft. But, perhaps, he looks upon the events of that day as a glorious victory, a new emancipation, and of course will fay, that I degrade the heroes in calling them a mob. I am not for difputing with him about a name; he may call them the heroes of the 10th of Auguft, if he will: "The heroes of the 14th of July," has always been underfiocd to mean, a gang of bloodthirsty cannibals, and I would by no means with to withhold the title from thofe of the 10th of Auguft.

Will the Doctor allow, that it was a mob that murdered the ftate prifoners from Orleans? or does

he

he infift upon calling that maffacre an act of civifm, and the actors in it the heroes of the 12th of September? But whether it was an act of civism, a maffacre, or a victory, or whatever it was, I cannot help giving it a place here, as I find it recorded by his countryman, Doctor Moore. "The mangled bo"dies," fays he, "were lying in the street, on the " left hand, as you go to the Chateau, from Paris. "Some of the lower fort of the inhabitants of Ver"failles were looking on; the reft, ftruck with ter"ror, were fhut up in their fhops and houses. The

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body of the Duke of Briffac was pointed out, the "head and one of the hands was cut off: a man "ftood near fmoking tobacco, with his fword 66 drawn, and a human hand stuck on the point: "another fellow walked carelessly among the bodies "with an entire arm of another of the prisoners "fixed to the point of his fword. A waggon af"terwards arrived, into which were thrown as many "of the slaughtered bodies as the horses could draw: "a boy of about fifteen years of age was in the waggon, affifting to receive the bodies as they were put in, and packing them in the most con"venient manner, with an air of as much in"difference as if they had been fo many parcels "of goods. One of the wretches who threw in "the bodies, and who, probably, had affifted in the "maffacre, faid to the fpectators in praife of the boy's activity, See that little fellow there; how "bold he is !

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"The affaffins of the prifoners were a party who came from Paris the preceding evening, moft of "them in post-chaifes, for that purpofe, and who "attacked thofe unhappy men while they remained "in the street, waiting till the gate of the prifon, "which was prepared for their reception, fhould be "opened. The detachment which had guarded the prifoners from Orleans, ftood fhameful and paffive "fpectators

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