"I could not long," says the minister, "support this affecting scene; I left the palace, my eyes running over with tears; yet I was far from imagining, at that moment, that I had seen the royal family for the last time." But it was, alas! the last time that he ever saw the royal family or that they were ever seen but amid terror, distraction, and sorrow; amid the insults of the populace, the triumph of their enemies, the dungeons of imprisonment, and the ministers of death.

The crisis of their fate, as you already see, was fast approaching. They could not be persuaded by Bertrand de Moleville to attempt flight even on the 6th; they preferred the chance of the interference of the allied powers. These allied powers were as yet only approaching. The Jacobins and Girondists had been, in the meantime, through all the month of July, preparing their insurrection; the Duke of Brunswick's manifesto showed them that no time was to be lost. All was now ready; and on the 10th, exactly as it had been announced, the insurrection broke out. It is to this insurrection that I must, in the lecture of to-mor row, entirely direct your attention.

In the remainder of this lecture, therefore, of to-day, I shall mention some books and memoirs that may be consulted and read. We naturally, in the first place, turn to the Memoirs of Barbaroux; and the recital of Barbaroux will, on the whole, disappoint you. It is chiefly valuable, as showing the manner in which the mind, in pursuit of its end, may become unconscious, or at least frightfully insensible to the horrors by which that end is to be attained. This is always the case with these enthusiastic, dangerous men, on great public occasions; and such examples should be held up and remembered, that men may be taught to pause in time, and to see crimes at a distance, while they are as yet not under the supposed necessity of committing them.

Barbaroux was (and the character in all its points is by no means an uncommon one) a young man of genius, and fine affections, and noble sentiments; yet from the first he seems never to have hesitated at the expedient of an insurrection, the expedient of letting loose the savage populace of Paris, bringing up five hundred desperate men from the other end of the kingdom, and entering upon a scene of bloodshed, where his fellowcreatures were to perish, their wives to be widows, their children to be fatherless, and no one competent to say where the commotion was to end, or when the blood was to cease to flow. No present terrors, no possible consequences, appear to have

affected his imagination; every thought, feeling, and wish, was occupied and absorbed by one great leading idea, the idea of liberty; and his mind, as is always the case in instances of enthusiasm, was incapable of estimating the relative importance of any other consideration, however weighty, however sacred. Some traces of humanity indeed appear in his account, when instances of the sufferings of particular persons are alluded to, when he is writing as a private individual; but the description given of this insurrection in these Memoirs by the patriot, is much what would be given of a battle by a military commander. The wounds and death are of course, the field is the bed of honour, and the victory is glory and renown. The nature of the cause, the motives of the combatants, "nil horum," not a word of these.

We see in the narrative the palace carried by assault, the king deposed, the three ministers recalled: and in the next chapter Barbaroux returns to his family and the acclamations of Marseilles, for "his mission," he says, "was ended, tyranny being now put down."

I must again observe to you, as I leave, for the present, these Memoirs, that I consider them valuable, not only as connected with the 10th of August, but as a specimen of the nature of political enthusiasm, not only in Barbaroux, but in others; and, therefore, as a specimen of the men and the times in which he lived, and of all such revolutionary men and such revolutionary

times.

Observe the narrative for one moment more.

"The news of my return," he says, "being everywhere spread, the best patriots hastened to embrace me. My house was surrounded and crowded with citizens; a band of music was brought, Provençal songs were sung that had been made in my honour, and the Marseillois Hymn. I often think," he says, "and am quite melted when I think of the last couplet, and the manner in which the citizens dropped upon their knees in the house and in the street. I was standing on a chair, where they forced me to remain. Good God! what a spectacle! The tears started to my eyes. If indeed, I really did at that moment serve them for a statue of Liberty, certainly I may at least take to myself the honour of having defended liberty with all my courage."

What a spectacle! as Barbaroux truly says; but what a spectacle of political enthusiasm! a man worshipped in the streets as a statue of Liberty!

VOL. II.

P

Something, however, remains to be told. Barbaroux, you will observe, was a Girondist, and the party were all, like the king, in their turn, afterwards deposed, and had to fly or perish on the scaffold. The next words that follow this passage in the Memoirs, are, therefore (as the Memoirs were subsequently written), these: "Liberty, virtue, sacred rights of men! to-day you are but empty names." And how had they become empty names? Others had been, it seems, as ready with measures of insurrection and violence, as were before Barbaroux and the Girondists; and they had, therefore, to fall by the example they had set, and see, not themselves, but their opponents, now worshipped in the streets, while they themelves were led along to execution.

Turning now from the Memoirs of Barbaroux, and always, if possible, to the accounts of those who have been eye-witnesses or actors in the scene, we may read about thirty pages, on the subject of the 10th of August, in the Memoirs of François Hue. He was in the palace during the attack, and afterwards attended the king and the royal family in their imprisonment. At the moment when the defence was no longer possible, and when the carnage began, he jumped out of one of the windows of the palace, as did many others, crossed the gardens amid the fire of the musketry, and having no other resource, threw himself into the Seine. Just as his strength was exhausted, he reached one of the boats on the river, and the waterman being a man of humanity, he escaped.

Weber, in like manner, must be read. His account is very interesting, from his deep attachment to the royal sufferers. He accompanied them to the Legislative Assembly, and was honoured with many marks of their personal regard. But the notes given at the end of the volume are particularly deserving of attention. In one of these notes there is a good description of the courts and terraces of the Tuileries as they then stood, and other local circumstances, necessary to those who would understand the detail; but, above all, a very good narrative of the whole affair is to be found at page 352, drawn up by one of the Swiss officers who was actively engaged. This narrative is on every account extremely valuable; it was published at Lucerne in 1819, and must be read.

In the twenty-first chapter of her second volume, M. Campan, who was also in the palace, gives some very interesting particulars, and an extract in one of the notes from the history of the queen by Montjoie.

I forgot to mention, that in the notes to the Memoirs of Barbaroux is given an account of the honours paid by the National Assembly to those who fell on the 10th of August; and again, of the honours paid by the Swiss cantons to the Swiss guards and officers who perished and who survived.

The Marquis de Ferrieres dedicates about thirty pages, the close of the twelfth book, to the 10th of August. His observations are sometimes checked, and often assisted, by valuable notes from the editors, at the bottom of the page; but in the notes at the end of the volume are given, 1st, a very full recital of the events by the Royalist Peltier, which you must consider, and which seems to offer much the same account that is found in Bertrand de Moleville; 2ndly, a very curious account, by Carra, of the first organization of the insurrection, and for the merit of which insurrection he claims his share.

Afterwards, in page 501, is given another very curious extract from a work of Pétion on Robespierre and Marat. "The men," says Pétion, "who have attributed to themselves the glory of this day, of the 10th of August, are those to whom it belongs the least; it is due to those who have prepared it, to the imperious nature of things, to the brave Fédérés and their secret directory, who had so long concerted the plan of the insurrection; it is due to the people, and, in short, to the tutelary genius which has so long presided over the destinies of France from the first meeting of its representatives." Such is the avowal of Pétion.

I have been furnished, by the kindness of M. Mallet, with some narratives that were sent his father by three of the different Swiss officers who survived. They sufficiently agree with the narrative of the Swiss officer furnished in the notes to Weber. The author of this last narrative in Weber, was by the side of M. Durler, M. Mallet du Pan's correspondent, all the time of the action, and engaged in defence of the great court before the palace. There is an account of the 10th of August by St. Croix: it is referred to in the Annual Register. I inquired for it in vain in Paris, and I afterwards found it in the Lansdowne collection in the library in the city of London. The author was a minister at the time, but he afterwards became an émigré, published his account in London, and the book, representing rather his own national feelings on the Revolution than the scenes of the 10th of August, quite disappointed me. If we look at the histories of the French Revolution that have as yet appeared, we shall find some very good remarks, and a short

and fair account of the 10th of August, in the history of Toulongeon.

Again. There is a very full and very good account in the history by the Two Friends of Liberty. The account given by Montgaillard, in the third volume of his late history, should be read: the abbé is more angry with the poor king than is exactly necessary. You will, of course, read the history of Thiers, and you will find the part of it relative to the 10th of August very fair and good. The detail given by Bertrand de Moleville is very full, and not unfair; he was not in the palace, but must have had ample opportunities of receiving information. But the account given by the historian Mignet appears to me the most remarkable; it is so very short, and yet so comprehensive. Read everything you can meet with on the subject elsewhere, and then turn to Mignet, and you will find all your main impressions revived by the brief, accurate statement of a few pages: were they written in a dark, sententious manner, they would constitute the best imitation of Tacitus that could be either found or well conceived.

Among our English writers, the account given by the Annual Register is full, and, on the whole, reasonable and fair. It is the conclusion of that part of the history of the French Revolution which was furnished by Dr. Lawrence. The reader sees here the conclusion, and he sees it with regret. He has lost the assistance of a diligent inquirer, and the instruction of an elegant and intelligent writer; in general, and, on the whole, a faithful guide; and though not sufficiently on the popular side, always friendly to the best interests of mankind.

Dr. Moore published the journal he made during his residence in France, from the beginning of August to the middle of December, 1792. It is worth your reading. Dr. Moore was an agreeable companion; lived as a man of letters in London; had seen much of the world; was shrewd, and very competent to make proper inquiries, and very likely to receive extensive and good information. His account seems confirmed by such subsequent books and memoirs as I have been able to consult. Being naturally of a sarcastic turn, and meaning his publication to sell, he is too much disposed to be pleasant and to amuse, and he makes remarks that do not always harmonize with the areadful scene before him.

These parts of the books and memoirs which I have recommended will not occupy much time. Each supplies some particulars not mentioned by the rest; and on a subject like this,