The Works of John Moore with memoirs of his life and writings by R. Anderson

Front matter

THE WORKS os JOHN MOORE, M.D. WITH MEMOIRS 0_f HIS LIFE AND WRITINGS, BV ROBERT ANDERSON, M.D. IN SEVEN VOLUMES. VOLUME IV. EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR STIRLING & SLADE, EDINBURGH; LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, & BROWN ; LACKINGTON, HARDING, HUGHES, MAVOR, & LAPARD ; G. & W. B. WHITTAKER ; AND RODWELL & MARTIN, LONDON. ' * 1820. A VIEW OF THE CAUSES AND PROGRESS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. Opus opimum casibus, atrox pi æliis, discors scditionibus, ipsa etiam pace sœvum. tacit. TACIT. TO HIS GRA£.E THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. MY LORD DUKE, It is very difficult to write on the subject of the French Revolution without being accused of partiality. I endeavoured to avoid that imputation in my Journal; but a very near connection of yours told me, that, when she was abroad, those who are called Democrates, and had read the book, declared that, with other faults, it had an intolerable leaning towards aristocracy.

Those, on the other hand, who are denominated Aristocrates, were of opinion, that its greatest fault was a strong bias to demo cracy. In the writer's mind, however, there is no more inclination to either than is to be sound in the Constitu tion of Great Britain, as it was established by the efforts of your Grace's ancestor, in conjunction with those of other patriots, at the Revolution in the year 1688. The present work has been executed in the same disposition, and will be exposed to the same censure. At a period when prejudices operate with unusual acri mony; when, merely from viewing a particular object in different lights, two sets of men in this country reciprocal ly accuse each other of designs, of which, I am convinced, DEDICATION. neither are capable ; when that spirit of hatred which ali enated the minds of men from their countrymen, and even relations, on account of a difference of religious opinions, about the middle of the sixteenth century, seems to re vive on account of political ones at the end of the eigh teenth ; at such a time, the qualities of moderation, of candour, and benevolence, under the direction of a good understanding and scrupulous integrity, derive uncom mon lustre from their uncommon rarity.

This consideration induced me to address the following Work to your Grace. I remain, my Lord Duke, your most obedient and obliged humble servant, J. MOORE. Cliffoiu. Street, May 6, 1795. CONTENTS OF THE FOURTH VOLUME. Chip. I. The Resources of France— Henry IV— Lewis XIV — The Love of our Country — Loyalty — The Regent — Lewis XV 1 II. Lewis XVI — Diffusion of Knowledge — of Riches— The Bourgeoisie of France — The Ancient Noblesse — The Modern — The Courtiers The Queen — American War— Abolition of Household Troops — German Discipline — Practice and Theory 9 III. The Notables— M. de Calonne— The Clergy — The Archbishop of Toulouse Minister — Abbe Vernon — A Bed of Justice — Parliament of Paris refuse to register the King's Edicts — Parliament banished— Duke of Orleans — Two Counsellors of the Parliament sent to Prison 21 IV.

Chapter I

The Resources of France — Henry IV — Lewis XIV — The Love of our Country — Loyalty — The Regent — Lewis XV. A. he present revolution in France is one of the most aw ful events of which history affords any record. The crimes with which it has been accompanied will remain a stain on the national character, which all the perseverance and intrepidity with which France has re pelled external attack cannot efface. The misery which the revolution has already produced, is of a nature so extensive and so acute, as no rational hope of future prosperity can compensate. The only way we have to judge of the probability of what is to happen, is by reflecting on what has happened ; and the surest means of avoiding evil of any kind is by discovering the causes which lead to it. To enumerate some of the circumstances which tended to hasten, and are reckoned among the remote causes of the French revolution, may be useful.

Many imagine, that it will be a very long time before the finances of France can recover the extraordinary VOL. IV. A drains they have of late undergone ; it must be remem bered, however, that her resources are prodigious, of which nothing can afford more convincing proofs than the rapidity with which, on former occasions, she acquired riches and prosperity, after being exhausted by civil dissensions or foreign wars. She revived from all the disasters of the bloody civil war of the league, with wonderful quickness, and acquired new dignity and unprecedented prosperity under Henry IV. A very short time after the civil dissensions and war of the Fronde, her greatness and wealth excited" the jea lousy, and resisted tbe force, of several powerful states which combined against her. The sudden recovery from the disastrous condition to which France was reduced at the two epochs above men tioned, was partly owing to the talents of tbe two princes who reigned immediately after them.

The first, being blessed with benevolence and genius, had at once tbe inclination to raise his country from the calamitous state in which she was, and the power to exe cute it — he was in reality a great king. The second has been called the best actor of a great king that ever lived. The fine person, dignified deportment, and imposing manners of Lewis XIV commanded the admiration, and even the awe, of his generals, ministers, and courtiers ; and towards the end of his reign, when he was at once assailed by domestic and public misfortunes, the attach ment of his subjects seemed to make them feel the sor rows of their king as their own, and submit with alacrity to heavier exactions than were ever wrung by tyranny from men. Mankind are governed by force and by opinion. Lewis made use of both these .agents in a supreme degree.

Be sides the immense army which he kept up, in peace as well as war, he also kept in action all those springs which have been found friendly to the maintenance of implicit obedience in the subject, and arbitrary power in the mo narch. By various means he kept his nobility entirely dependent on his favour. Jealous of allowing the princes of the blood occasions of acquiring military fame, he sel dom gave them the command of armies, and never for a long time. He commanded in person only when con quest was secure ; and without being exposed to hardship or danger, he claimed the merit of having reduced every fortress, which was either bought by his money, or sub dued by the skill of his engineers : even in his cabinet at Versailles he affected to direct the operations of his generals in the field, and vainly expected that, their vic tories being imputed to his military skill, the greater share of the glory would remain with himself.

He was taught that he had a right to controul the con sciences and seize the money of his subjects ; and, as he was at once superstitious and haughty, he revived the spirit of persecution, partly from zeal for the religion which he himself professed, and partly to punish the ar rogance of those who dared to entertain opinions different from his. Compensating the difference in quantity by that of qua lity, he seems to have thought himself and family, includ ing his illegitimate children, of more value than all his subjects together. Other monarchs have rated themselves and subjects in the same manner ; but Lewis XIV is perhaps the only king who ever brought his subjects to the same way of thinking. He and his glory occupied their thoughts more than their own welfare, or that of tlieir country.

Those endearing ideas, which are connected with the ex pression our country, roused his jealousy ; at least, pains were taken, in his time, to root them out of their native soil, and transplant them around the word King: the ex pression laPatrie fell out of use during his reign, and con tinued so for a long time afterwards ; — le Roi supplied its place. That men should reverence the chief magistrate of d a a constitution, where power is limited and prerogative ascertained, is highly rational and becoming ; that subjects should admire a great king, and love a benevolent one, is natural and just. The heart owns, and the Understanding approves, those sentiments. There is nothing in them, however, to fire the imagination, or greatly to captivate the affections. But the expression native country presents itself to the mind, decorated with many ideas from the wardrobe of imagination.

To tell men they have disgraced tlieir country, is the most bitter of all reproaches ; to say that they have done it honour, is the most soothing of all praises. The officer on tbe day of battle is sensible of this ; and that he may inspire those under his command with additional courage, and rouse them to the utmost efforts, he reminds them that they are fighting for their country. That simple sentence contains all the magic of eloquence. Conjuring up the ideas of protecting our property, our homes, the abodes of our forefathers, the beloved scenes of our earliest pleasures and first affections, it implies defending from outrage our constitution, our religion, all that is valuable and endearing, our friends, parents, wives, and children. The love of our country is mentioned with the love of fame by the Roman poet, as the feeling of a noble mind. — ' Vincit amor patriæ, laudumque immensa cupido.* It not only excites to virtuous exertions during life, but a soothing recollection in death. — * — —^ dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos.* The Romans, fond of fighting as they were, would not have unsheathed a sword for the greatest man their country ever produced, if he had insinuated that they were to fight for his glory, and not for their country.

But the French, in Lewis XIV's time, seem to have thought of nothing but the monarch. When a battle was lost, their greatest concern was the affliction it would occasion to him — they rejoiced in victory, because it would afford him pleasure, and increase his glory. The great empire of France, and all which it inherit, seemed to have been concentrated in the person of the grand monarque — as if there had been a general conviction of the absurd doctrine, that the people were made for the king, and not the king for the people ; which has a bad effect on the minds of both, rendering the one more proud, and the other more servile. This was the case in France during the reign of this arrogant monarch, whose affected grandeur imposed on the whole nation ; and who, whether he was a hero in the eyes of his valet de chambre or not, certainly was admired as a great monarch, even by the truly great men of his own time.

His generals talked of the honour of shedding their blood for his glory. The proudest of his nobility solicited offices, some of them almost menial, near his per son ; and the great Conde himself dwindled into a mere courtier, to satisfy the vanity of the inflated monarch. Considerations of policy and selfishness intermingled, in these instances, with that foolish wonder with which the nation at that t' ne looked up to their monarch ; the generals probably thought a little of commands and regiments, the courtiers of places and pensions, and the prince of mitigating that jealousy which, he well knew, Lewis bore him. It is impossible to imagine, that they had any affectionate attachment to his person. How could a reserved, yet ostentatious tyrant, who con tinually sacrificed the feelings of all around him to his own caprice and conveniency, excite affectionate attachment ?

A king of such a character as Henry IV would cer tainly carry men a great length in the most cordial loyalty ; but let those who wish to embody patriotism, and many of the sentiments which beautify and harmonize so ciety, with whoever inherits the office of king, recollect the characters of all Henry's successors, except the last ; let them also reflect, that if Lewis XV had died before his marriage, then all the loyalty of the French nation, with all the duty and affection which belong to it, and that ardour to shed their blood for their king's glory, which the French of those days were so fond of professing, would have been the lawful inheritance of Philip Egalite. The impression which the long reign of Lewis XIV made on the minds of his subjects, continued during the government of the regent, whose character and conduct were in many respects the reverse.

Naturally of a com passionate disposition, and a lover of justice, if wishes could have done it, he would have made the people happy ; but indolence and the inordinate pursuit of pleasure prevented him from the exertions necessary for that purpose, or from controlling the conduct of unfeeling and ra pacious ministers. Endowed with courage and wit, he despised, as dull and superfluous, the formalities which politicians have found useful in government ; he scorned that affected dignity and reserve, by which imbecility so often gains respect, and ignorance is so often concealed ; and falling in to the opposite extreme, he introduced a laxity of manners, which rejected all the restraints of polished society, wounded decency, and revived that profligacy which had been banished from the court of France since the days of Ca-. tharine of Medicis and her son Henry III.

Nothing can be a stronger proof of the submissive spirit which prevailed at this period in France, than that the game system of government continued, in spite of the wanton imprudence of the regent, the fraudulent scheme by which so many thousand individuals were ruined, and the despicable character and nauseous manners of his prime minister, who was at once a disgrace to the priest hood, to the nation, and even to the court. Instead of wishing for any alteration in their govern ment, the French of those days were proud of the unlimit ed nature of their monarchy, with all its crimes broad blown; and, after they had despaired of the regent, they centered their hopes of a redress of grievances in the youno prince, who had now attained the age at which he could assume the government. No maxim of holy writ seems to have made less impres-, sion on mankind than this, Put not your trust in Princes.

In spite of their numerous disappointments, the highest expectations are always formed by the populace of the heir apparent of the throne. History hardly makes mention of one who died young, who is not said to have possessed all the virtues of humanity. Of how many Marcelli have we heard, each more blooming than the other, whose wonder ful spring of talents promised the most astonishing harvest! Even the moster Caligula was, when a boy, the favourite of the Roman army ; and if, for the good of mankind, he had died then, the world would probably have been told by some poet or historian, that he was just shewn to the earth,* which being unworthy of him, he was soon carried to heaven. If, however, among those born the immediate heirs of empire, so many are endowed in this extraordinary manner, whose virtues would add splendour to the throne, and diffuse happiness among their subjects, how infinitely is it to be lamented, that they should be so early cut off, rather than their survivors !

Many circumstances united in Lewis XV to conciliate the affections and raise the hopes of the nation. He was the only child of the virtuous duke of Burgun dy (the pupil of Fenelon) and Adelaide of Savoy, whose playful character is painted in such amiable colours by the writers of that age. The duke fell a sacrifice to the grief he felt for the untimely death of this princess ; and the loss of both filled France, not only with that external mourning which is equally worn for princes at whose death the public rejoice, as for thpse they lament, but also with real sorrow. The young king possessed likewise all the charms of comeliness of countenance and symmetry of person : to these the people added, of course, all the best qualities of the head and heart. Whatever share of the latter he had was soon rendered useless by indolence, and perverted by the corruptions of Ostendent terris hunc tantum fata. a court.

He possessed not, like his great-grandfather, that lofty reserve, which keeps men at too great a distance to judge of the real worth of the object they contemplate.— With more weaknesses to conceal, he had less the power of concealing them ; and the more the man was seen, the less was the monarch esteemed. He appeared at the head of his armies, without endea vouring to acquire any knowledge in the art of war. They gained victories, and his general had the glory. In peace, he became devoted to an artful woman, who governed the state with as unlimited sway, as his general had done the army. Even when she had lost the charms by which his affections had been seduced ; abandoning his person to others, she kept what she most valued in the connection, by maintaining her power until her death. She who succeeded the marchioness of Pompadour, as the acknowledged mistress of Lewis XV, was not so haugh ty and ambitious as her predecessor.

Intermeddling less with the affairs of state, she was at more pains to amuse and entertain her lover. With all her good-humour and gaiety, she found it impossible, however, entirely to ward off the tedium to which a vacant mind is peculiarly exposed. Although no man was ever more oppressed with mental indolence than Lewis XV, he was fond to excess of bodily exercise, and passed great part of his time in hunting, from which he derived the double advantage of repelling the intrusions of reflection, and obtaining sleep. The wretched monarch was relieved from the burden of existence, by a disease which he had taken great pains to avoid through the whole of his past life, and which he caught wantonly in his old age.* He died a memorable proof, that the united advantages of external gracefulness, riches, high birth, quickness of apprehension, and even • Lewis XV died at the age of sixty-five, of the small pox, which he caught from a young woman, on whom that disease appeared soon after she had been with the king. benevolence, cannot preclude tedium or misery, and se cure public esteem to those whose minds are incapable of laudable exertion.

The death of this prince, who at the beginning of his reign had received the appellation of Lewis the Well-Be loved, was heard at Paris with satisfaction rather than sorrow. It had been the custom, in times of public danger, to make a procession of the shrine of St. Genevieve, the pa troness of that city, in the hopes that by the saint's in tercession the threatened calamity might be averted. This ceremony was performed during the last illness of Lewis XV. He expired notwithstanding. When his death was announced in a certain company, one observed that the procession of the shrine seemed to have lost its efficacy. * What happier effect could it have produced,' said ano ther, ' Is he not dead V

Chapter II

Lewis XVI — Diffusion of Knowledge — Of Riches — Tke Bourgeoisie of France — Tke Ancient Noblesse — Tke Modern — Tke Courtiers — Tke Queen — American Wa> — Abolition of Household Troops — German Discipline — Practice and Theory. J.T was not possible for the personal character of the king to be seen, during the greater part of a long reign, in this degrading point of view, without diminishing, in a considerable degreee, the national veneration for royalty. At the accession of Lewis XVI, however, the public opinion seemed to have a tendency to return to its ancient bias. In the candour, affability, and love of justice, which appeared in the young king, the nation found a resemblance with the character of its last Henry, whose memo ry was cherished with filial veneration. The young queen united in her person' many qualities, which might have been expected to render her popular in any country, but peculiarly so in France — beauty, goodhumour, gaiety, and a great desire of pleasing ; preferring affability to etiquette, and the manners of the nation to which she had come, to those of that which she had left ; and forming a bond of union between the two, which pro mised a termination to long rivalship, and a commence-? ment of mutual support and prosperity.

Those circumstances certainly had a tendency to remove the impressions which the conduct of Lewis XV might have made, aud to revive the languishing loyalty of the nation. At this time, however, the spirit of philosophical discussion prevailed very much in France. The English writers pn the subject of government were more read and relished than they had ever been before. The works of Montes quieu, Rousseau, Raynal, were universally admired. Many old prejudices, hurtful to society, though sup ported by the self-interest of a few, and the ignorance of the multitude, were combated by the authors above men tioned, and others. The writings of Voltaire, distinguished for wit, and a happiness of expression which baffles i mitation, contributed more than, all the rest to form the taste and bias the opinions of the age.

They were more universally read than the works of any other author; be cause, to borrow the words of one who knew him well, they possessed ' le precieux avantage d'etre toujours clair et simple, sans jamais etre insipide, et d'etre lu avec un, <jgal plaisir, et par le peuple des lectures et par l'elite des philosophes.'* While the edge of his ridicule is turned against per secution and hypocrisy, the most virtuous applaud ; but Voltaire was not a believer in Christianity — that was his misfortune ; but it cannot excuse his attempts to turn in to ridicule the established religion of his country. One among many peculiarities of this author is, that he treats Christianity with becoming respect in his dramas, and * The precious advantage of being always clear and simple, without ever being insipid, and of being read with equal pleasure by a person, oS plain common sense and by a philosopher. that some of his plays are at once the most moral and re« ligious of his works.

The Encyclopædia, that great monument of universal science, was finished about this period. The avowed ob ject of this work was the promotion of general knowledge, and men distinguished in every branch of science had been employed in it ; but what some of the principal un dertakers are supposed to have had chiefly in view, was to promulgate certain free notions on the subjects of go vernment and religiou, in which there is no doubt they succeeded, not only in France but jn other countries of Europe. As by these means, and the increasing commerce of the nation, literature and riches became more diffused a mong the middle and inferior orders of society, many an cient prejudices were weakened and effaced. That haughty superiority, which the meanest of the noblesse assumed over their fellow-citizens, became more intolerable to the bour geoisie than before : what had been submitted to by men when poor and ignorant, was not so easily brooked by the same class when they found themselves richer, and thought themselves wiser, than many of those who were ranked their superiors.

That Russian, Polish, and Bohemian peasants, who are attached to the lands, and have no means of improv ing either their minds or fortunes, should continue to bear insult and oppression from those whom they look up to as superior beings, is not wonderful : neither is it sur prising that the Turks continue slaves, because what knowledge exists among them belongs to their rulers : but if a gradual progression of industry and knowledge takes place in that part of any nation which is most op pressed, while dissipation and effeminacy prevail in that part which is most privileged, a speedy revolution in such a nation may with certainty be predicted. This alteration had, in a great measure, taken place iij France. The better sort of the bourgeoisie had gained what a great portion of the noblesse had lost ; and that elevation of mind, sense of honour, and spirit of enter prise, which in the days of yore belonged exclusively to the latter, was now extended, in a great degree, to the former.

A claim of superiority is irksome to many people, even when they are conscious that the claimant excels them in natural qualities and attainments. A considerable de gree of deference, however, will be spontaneously paid to these, by the best part of mankind, and will be greatly increased, wherever to such attainments the circumstance of high birth is added ; but a continued assumption of superiority in those who are inferior in every praise worthy quality except that of birth, is always felt with indignation and treated with contempt, when the open display of that sentiment is not restrained by interested motives. In ancient times, the power of the state and the whole spirit of the French armies depended on the noblesse, as gallant a class of men as the world ever produced. The Greek and Roman histories exhibit not brighter examples of generous intrepidity than the annals of France.

The noblesse therefore were at once respected by the sovereign and by the people. But because a race of men, distinguished for the vir tues of the age in which they lived, who were always foremost in the ranks of battle, their sons fighting by their sides, were respected and admired, and had privileges granted to them, does it follow, it was asked, that the same are due to men bred in effeminate luxury, distinguished for their follies and debasing amusements, who, childishly fond of the trappings of a soldier and the pomp of war, shrink from its real dangers, and are equally devoid of the hardihood of ancient times, and of taste for the elegance of modern refinement ? The following is the description which Montesquieu gives of that part of the nobility of France which formed the court. — * L'ambaion dans l'oisivite, la bassesse dans I'orgueil, le desir de s'enricher sans travail, l'aversion pour la veri te, la flatterie, la trahison, la perfidie, l'abandon de tous ses engagemens, le mepris des devoirs du citoyen, la crainte de la vertu du prince, l'esperance de ses foiblesses, et, plus que tout cela, le ridicule perpetuel jette sur la vertu, forment, je crois, le caractere du plus grand nom bre des courtisans.' * The general alteration of manners which Europe has sustained of late, produced, in the opinion of many of their countrymen, a most striking alteration in the cha racter of the noblesse of France.

The opportunities of distinguishing themselves in the field more rarely occur red ; and when they did, it was generally in distant cli mates, to which those of the higher rank seldom like to go, and therefore are not sent. Riches and promotion at home were obtained by court intrigue more than military merit, or merit of any kind ; and the favours of the crown, being too often distributed by the princes, by their minions and their mistresses, occasioned much in dignation. Many of the noblesse, who came from the distant provinces, were treated so superciliously by the assiduous and favoured courtiers at Versailles, that they were greatly disgusted with the present system, and as ardently desired a change in it as any roturier in the nation. Many officers of the army, after having long served a broad, when they came to Versailles, found their services forgotten ; and the neglect which they experienced was rendered more poignant by the attention which they saw paid to courtiers, such as Montesquieu describes.

This accounts for the cold support which, at the beginning of the revolution, the king and the court party received from some of the nobility, and a considerable num ber of the officers of the army. • Ambition with indolence ; meanness with pride ; desire of enriching themselves without labour; aversion for truth; flattery, peril. y; con tempt for the duty of a citizen ; fear of the (Virtues of their sovereign, and hope from his foibles; and, above all, a continual attempt to turn virtue into ridicule, form the character of the majority of courtiers. At the same time the conduct and deportment of the queen were different from what long-established forms dictated. So far from wishing to impress a continual re collection of the distance between herself and the courtiers, that distance was to her irksome.

Her natural im pressions as a woman had more influence on her conduct, than the artificial deportment dictated to her as a queen. She loved to descend from the throne, that she might en joy the comfort of society. However necessary the pomp of etiquette and the frigidity of reserve may be to high born dulness and insipid vanity, they were tasteless and fatiguing to a beautiful and lively woman, inspired with the desire, and conscious of the power, of pleasing. Her heart delighted in the confidences of friendship, and pre ferred that style of society where there was at least an ap pearance of equality. She gradually introduced, there fore, a familiarity of intercourse between the king and subject, unknown before at the court of Versailles. There are people however in every court who, being conscious that they can derive importance or attention from no source but that of birth, are infinitely observant of the degrees of rank, and anxious that each' individual should receive the precise portion of respect to which birth gives him a claim ; but while the various gradations and shades of heraldry were distinctly perceived by many per sons of this description, the daughter of Maria Theresa was by birth raised so high above them all, that to her they all seemed ou a level.