[No. no,—Vol. If.] To the EDITOR ofthe GAZETTEER Please to insert the following extrail of a letter from Paris, dated February 2sth, I 790. I pledge my felf ta you that it is genuine, and that the writer is a man of condition, and veracity. AConstant Reader. " HPHE National Aflembly have made fitch pro- X grefs in the constitution, that I cannot im mediately comply with the you make me, to inform you of all that they have done.—l am however, collecting those fundamental articles, which may, with propriety, be termed constitu tional. But, as these will form aparcel much too large to fend by the post, I shall embrace the firft private conveyance that offers to forward thein to you. At present, I have the fatisfaclion to as. sure you, that notwithstanding what so many E ditors of English nevvfpapers funnile, or their cor respondents affirm to the contrary, the revoluti on moves on rapidly to completion, and in aright line. Since my arrival, the Aflembly have been much occupied in fixing what they have just now finiffied, the territorial and other divisions ofthe kingdom. The Municipalities, which are form ed in every village ofit, are to be the basis ofthe new order of things. These are comprehended in the eighty three departments, which are the wider diltributions of the country. These de partments are divided into diftrkis, and these fubdividedinto cantons. The number of repre sentatives which each of these eighty three de partments will be entitled to fend to the Nation al Aflembly, is to be decided by the extent of their forface, the degree of their population, and the amount of their contributions. First, each depart ment is allowed three members for its furface, and then, its population and contribution bein<? ascertained, a proportional number of represent atives in a just ratio to both, is to be fuperadded. According to these criterions, it has been ellima ted that the whole number ofthe next National Aflembly may amount to about icven hundred afld twenty. All citoyens a!tifs throughout Fiance are to enjoy the rights of voters. They are defcri bedtobe—Frenchmen, or such as have become Frenchmen, who have paid a tax equal to three days labour, and resided one year in ihe canton where their votes are given. These voters choose a certain number of electors, who meet together in each department, and chool'eits proportion of members to the National Aflembly. Any citizen is qualified to be a member who adds to the above requilites of a voter—that of discharging a dired: taxaf the value of a tuarc d' argent :—about fifty four livres. It is only a few days since the Military Com mittee made their report ( which lias not yet ob tained the form of a decree,) concerning the num ber of which the army ought to confilt, and the mode of its appointment. The present pay of the troops it is said will be augmented. The peace establishment will Hot excced one hundred and forty thousand men. To these, in time of war one hundred thousand are to be added. But arrangements are likewise taking to eitablifh a well organized militia, who, if they be but to lerably trained in the use of arms, will probably compose a body of men formidable indeed on any emergency, especially for operations of internal defence. And this for the plained of all poflible reasons ; —becaufe, under the new constitution, they will habitually consider thenifelves as the free defenders of a country, in the government and welfare of which they reallv and bona fide participate. It is not yet known precisely when this Nati onal Aflembly will rife. Though it is said by many, that their important work will be concluded prior to the firft of May. Should this be the cafe, I will then endeavour to procure for you an ac curate copy ot the entire conftitiuion. Mean while you may reft fatisfied, and may likewifeaf fure our mutual friends in London, that the late commotions in some of the provinces were foment ed, and accounts ol what happened much mifre prefcnted by the oppofers of the present reiorm. Those tumults have now subsided into tranquilli ty, and wife uieafures are purluing to prevent or punifli all future difcurbers of the' public repose. As to farig, I do allure you, I have seldom seen it so gay, and never more quiet. In a word, as have too high an opinion of your benevolence not to believe that yon, and indeed every -rood man, mull wiib well ro a cause, which has for its objeOl h>e happiness ol'three and twenty millions of people, lo it aftords me fincerc pleafr.rc to tell PUBLISHED WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS RV 'IWI- rcu -13 SAIUKDA\S B\ JOHN FENNO, No. & MAIDEN-LANE, NEW-YORK LONDON. SATURDAY, MAY i, 1790. you, that the French Ftsvolution proceeds better than you could reasonably expert, and, I had al molt laid, as well as you ought towifh : For ifli bei ty be a gem of fuca vast value, that whatever a community barters for it, still they are great gainers if they get it, perhaps one ought not to dehre to fee that which Is intrinsically ineftima be obtained with facility, a U d at a price too cheap. In perusing several of those constitutional de crees of the AHemhly, ch I shall firft forward, 1 think itmnft strike you with surprize, to remark how many of them militate with the personal in rerelts of a majority of the members. I niyfelf know individuals ps that body, who have mani feited a zeal for msafures, not only difmterefledly patriotic, but absolutely repugnant to that fort of felfifhnel's, Which in ordinary times, and in common cases, clings most closely to human na ture. In rheinftances to which I allude, fmifter and fordid views <"-em to have become dormant and extinc r tin an a dent pursuit of public prospe rity ; and different orders of citizens, in their ca reer for the palm of pre-eminent patriotism, for getful of private interest and separate aims, seem to have united in p efering the glory and happiness of their country, not merely as an ob ject, but as the sole objeß of their ambition. Since I came hither, I had frequent opportu nities to fee and converse with that truly great young man the Marquis de la Fayette. I did not think he could be lb popular as 1 find he is. He is almost idolized by his countrymen. Nor is this admiration of hint confined to persons of mean condition. Dining the other day in a large party, with the Count De E , the Count began on a warm eulogiuni 'jn the courage, skill, and virtue, with which, he said, from the com mencement of the Revolution, the Marquis had uniformly conducted, as well on common occa sions as in situations the molt trying and critical. I alked the Count if he knew how old the Mar quis de la Fayette was ? V. ith that lively euthu nafin so natural so the French, he replied, " were we to calculate his years by his works' it might beallc rted that he has lived centuries • —bur, in fart, he is but three and thirty." A rare instance of character, in which the bloom ing vivacity of youth has been united to the ripe wisdom of experience ! FOR THE GAZETTE OF THE UN/TED STATES. Extract of a letter from a gentleman in London, to his friend in Ncw-Tork, dated March 20. " YOU will not fail to remark, when you peruse the Parliamentary debates of this na tion, how much the arijlocracy dread the in fluence of a luccefsful struggle for liberty in France, or the people of Britain. There seems to be a complete combination of the Nobility, Gentry, Clergy, aiid Crown Officers, to decry, ftifle,or calumniate every meafure,that has been pursued by the National AlTembly in France. Hence that bitter Phillippic pronounced by Mr. Burke, in the debate, concerning the ar my estimates, which 110 report has ltated in terms acrid or angry enough todojufticeto the sentiments he that day delivered, and which extorted from his great political foe, Mr. Pitt, such warm eulogium ; and has sim e been follow ed by the unanimous approbation of all those who are called the better fort of people. I listen ed on that occasion with utter aftonilhment, beingin the gallery of the Commons from the beginning of the debate to the end of it—as soon as 1 came to my lodgings I took a minute from memory of the following paflage of his Anti-Gallican eloquence." (Part of Mr. BURKE's Speech.) " * I "HE French have proved themselves the a- A blest architects of ruin that ever existed in the world. In one lununer they have done their business for us, as rivals, in a way more def tru&ive than twenty Ramillier, or Blenheims. In this very fliort space of time they have complete ly pulled down to the ground their monarchy their church—their nobility—their laws their revenue—their army—their navy—their com merce—their arts—and their manufactures. They are now lying in a fort of trance—an epi leptic sit—exposed tothepity orderifion of man kind, in wild misrule, and ridiculous convulsive movements—impotent to every purpose but that of dashing out their brains again it the pavement. Yet they are so very nnwife as to glory in a revo lution which is a lhame and disgrace to them. 437 PRICE THKEE DOLLARS. PH. ANN. They have made their way to the veuy worlt con- Ititution iu the world, by the dertructr&tfcof their country. They were in pofi'effion of a good con, ititution, on the very firlt clay when the States met 111 separate orders. Had they been either vir t,uou® ° r ,. wir P» their bulineft then was to iecure the ltabiljty and independence of the -State ac cording to those orders under the Monarch on the throne and afterwards to redrels grievances. Inftcad ot this, they fiill deltroyed all the balan ces and counterpoises which serve to fix a State and give it afteady direction, and then they melt ed clown the whole into 0.,e incongruous mass ot" mob and democracy. And when they had done this with a perhdy moll unexampled and atrocious they laid the axe to the root of all property, of all national profpeiit/, by confifcatingthe poffef lions ot the Church. They next proceeded fyf teniatically to destroy every hold of authority civil or religious, on the minds of the people by making and recording a fort of Institute or di'.elt of anarchy, called the rights of man, in such dantic abuse of elementary principles, as would disgrace the imbecility of school-boys. But the worst effect of all their proceedings is on their military—rendering them fit instruments of every infamous purpose— without even the chance of any check or controul. Not converting soldiers into citizens, but into bafsj hireling mutineers mercenary, fordid deserters, wholly deflitute of any one honorable principle. Their conduct is one of the fruits of that anarchic spirit, from the evils of which even democracy itlclf is received andcheriihedby those who are molt averse from .thatform as a cure. This army is not an army in corps, and with discipline, embodied under the refpec r table patriot citizens of the State. Noth ing like it. No, it is the cafe of common soldiers deferring from their officers, to join the banditti ot a furious and unbridled populace. It is ade fertion to a cause, the real object of which is hof t!llt/' 110l 10 " 0 ferv "ude,but to lociety—levelline all those institutions—breaking all those connec tions, natural and civil, that regulate and hold together communities by one chain and fubordi. nation—railing soldiers against their officers servants againlt their masters-tradesmen aeainft their cuftoniers—artificers against their employ, ers—tenants against their landlords— curates a gainst their bishops, and children against their parents. How would you, Mr. Speaker, and how would any of you gentlemen like to have your inanfions pulled down and pillaged—your title deeds brought out and burnt before your faces— your persons abused, insulted and destroyed— and families driven tofeek refuge in every cor ner of Lurope—and all this without any fault of yours or any other leafon than this—that you were torn gentlemen and men of property—and were fufpeded of a desire to preserve your es tates and your consideration. Sir, this deser tion of the French military was to aid the molt execrable, the most detestable sedition, the ve ry open profefled abominable principle of which is an implacable hostility to nobility and gentry Their lavage war whoop is " a /'Arittocrat"— and by this senseless bloody cry they animate one another to rapine and to murder— -while a betted by ambitious men of another class they are crufliingall that is virtuous or respectable in the nation-apd to the utmost of their power, dishonoring and disgracing every name by which we formerly knew that there was such a country m the world as France. In a former century we were in danger from emulating, or wishing to emulate their Iplendid despotism. But the op posite peril now awaits us. Let us ffiudder at our present danger of being influenced by a people whose character knows no medium between des potism and anarchy—no medium between the bie otry of superstition, and the madness of Atheism. —Atheism that foul unnatural vice, foe to ali the dignity and consolation of man—which hav ing for a long time been embodied into a faction in rrance, is now accredited and almost avowed by its votaries. Let us beware of being led thro an illegitimate admiration of fuccefsful fraud and outrageous violence to an imitation of the excefles of an irrational, unprincipled, profcrib mg, confifcating, plundering, ferocious, bloody and tyrannical democracy." MR. HOWARD. TT is with regret we inform our readers, that A the benevolent and philanthropic John Howard, is no more. lie fell a victim to the warmth ot his benevolence in the service of mankind. He died at Cherfon on the 20th of January lalt, af ter an illness of twelve days. &tfso
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