[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