PUBLISHED WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS BY JOHN FENNO, No. 69, HIGH-STREET, BETWEEN SECOND AND THIRD STREETS, PHILADELPHIA
[No. 55, of Vol. lII.]
LONDON, July 7
ESCAPE of the ROYAL fAMILY from PARIS
THE eft:ape of (he Royal Family was made at
one o'clock on Tuelday morning, June 21,
Jior was it dilcovered until between seven and
eight, wlien the Commandant of the Caflle of
the Thuilleries went towards the King's apart
ment, to fee whether his Majelty was stirring.
He was met by one of the houfbold, who told
him that neither the King, Queen, the Dauphin,
hoi the Princess Elizabeth, were to be found.
I he ili ess in which ihey efeaped is not so well
authenticated, nor do we believe that it is pre
cilely known to any one.
It was at ti. It 1 ulpetfted that M. de la Fayette
was p: ivy m the design, for no sooner was the
King's el'cape known, than he and Monf. Cazales
e Seized and held in confinement, until a
deputation from the National Aflerably rescued
them The people talked of no less than hang
ing rhein, and would have kept their resolution,
had not the pretence of the troops protected
them.
The Duke d'Aumont was likewise flopped by
the people, and the clothes torn offhis back. The
people were conducting hi in to the Plaa de Crevt,
with an intention of hanging him a la lanterne,
but he was fortunately rescued by the National
guard, and conducted to the guard house, though
not without (bine refinance, for the people re
fufed to give him up. He had been on duty the
preceding evening, and it is (ufpecfted he favor
ed the Royal escape. He has demanded to be
tried by a Court Martial
The escape was certainly made through one
jf the piivate doors of the Palace ; it is believed
through a pallage leading from (lie pavillion in
which the slept, and from which theie is
a private communication to rlie garden. This
avenue had 110 fen .ry pi.iced over it. It is said
that the Royal family got into 1 heir carriages at
the Pont Royal, a ihort diltance from the Palace.
The carriages confided of a be 11 in drawn by fix
horses, and two diligences. The berlin had been
made some time before for an officer of the Roy
al Guard, and held fix persons very coinmodioufly.
The pollill ions who drove the Royal Family from
Paris fay, that in the berlin were two women,
and two children, and in one of the chaises two
men of a swarthy complexion. They drove them
as far as Senlis. Several otficers of the King's
former body-guard attended at the efcapc, and
foine of them followed the Royal carriages at a
• . - ■» r*
little diltance drellea in liveries. About fifty
persons immediately in the confidence of their
Majelties are milling.
It is fufpe<fted that M. de Bouille, who com
mand!! in French Flanders, alfifted the escape
through the garrison towns under his authority.
The news of the escape became generally known
through Paris about nine in the morning, and,
as it in ly be supposed, created great confufion ;
the National guards were immediately ordered
mi !er arms, and double sentries ported at all
the ga es of i he ci y, with orders to prevent any
pe.fon from palling or repafling.
Many faces wore a countenance of surprise,
several car ied vjfible marks of terror, and a ge
neral difiiKty prevailed. The people, made amock
parade of t lie King's Arms in the Marketplaces,
and, dafliing them and the figure of a crown to
the ground, they trampled upon them, crying
out—" Since the King has abandoned what he
owed to his high situation, let us trample upon
the ensigns of royalty !"
The King on rhe preceding; clay had mritten
:i letter with Iris own hand, addrefled to M.de la
Porte, one of the Ministers of Slate. This let
ter contains the reasons which induced his Ma
jelly and the Royal Family to make their escape,
Copy of the King's 1 rodamation to all the French,
rj'i his departure frotn Paris
" Whilfl the Kingconld hope to fee order and
happiness reilored by the means employed by
the National AflVtnbly, and by his own residence
rear that Alfembly, he fubniined to every (aeri
fied ; he was even content to bear the loss of his
liberty, of which he lias been deprived since the
month of October i 7P9 ; but now, when the re
fill! of all these operations is found to be the de-
Ururtion of royalty, the violation of property,
the wvafion of pei fonal security, the ellahlifli
mentof a compleie anarchy in every part of the
cmpiie, without any appearance of authority
Saturday, August 27, 1791*
fuffieient Co restrain it ; the King, afcer proteft
iug against all the adts extorted-from him during
liis captivity, thinks proper to submit to the eyes
of Frenchmen an accounc of his conduct.
" In the month of July, 1789, the King, rely
ing on his own integrity, came, without any ap
prehensions, among the Parisians. In the month
of Olftober of ilie fame year, fully informed of
the intentions of the factious, he dreaded left a
handle should be made of his departure, in order
to foment a civil war. ft is universally known
with what impunity crimes were then commit
ted.
" The King yielded to the wifli cxpreffed by
the army of Parisians ; came, with his family,
to reside in the palace of the Thuilleries ; no
thing was prepared for his reception ; and the
King, far from meeting with the accommodati
ons to which in his other palaces he was accus
tomed, did not even poflefs common convenien
ces. In spite of every constraint, he thought
proper, the day after his arrival, to give the pro
vinces assurances of his residence at Paris. A
more painful facrifice was Hill exacted ; he was
obliged to remove his Gardes du Corps, of whose
fidelity he was allured ; two of them weremallh
cred, and several wounded in executing the or
ders, which they had received, not to fire all
the art of the factious was employed toiGprefent
in the worfl light a faithful Queen, whose con
duel had been uniformly unexceptionable ; it is
even evident that all these machinations were di
rected againfl the King hiinfelf. It is to the sol
diers of the French Guards, and theParifian Na
tional Guard, that the care of the King's person
has been committed under the command of the
Municipality of Paris, froin whom the Comman
der General derives his authority. The King
thus has found him felt a prisoner in his own Hate
for what other name cm be given to him, who
is forcibly surrounded by persons whom he sus
pects. It is not in order to criminate the Parisi
an National Guard that I repeat this detail, but
in order to slate the real facts ; on the contrary,
I am ready to do juflice to their attachment,when
not under the influence of the factious. The
King ordered the Convocation of the States Ge
neral ; to the Third Estate he granted the privi
lege of a double reprefentatioo ; the re-union
of the Orders ; the Sacrifices of the 23d of June
—all have been his works, but his efforts have
been flighted and perverted. When the States
General aflumed the name of the National Afli. ni
bly, they revived the plots of the factious in se
veral provinces ; they revived those attempts
that had been made to reverse the inftrinftions of
their conflituents, which appointed laws to be
enacted in concert with the King. The Aflem
bly have removed the King from the Conftituti
on, by denying him the privilege of fandtioning
tonftitutional acts ; in which class they ranked
whatever acts they thought proper, restricting
to the third legislative body the privilege of re
fufing its fancftion. They have given him twen
ty-five millions which %re entirely absorbed by
the neceflary cxpences of his lioufehold. They
have left him the profits only ofcertain domains,
saddled with oppreflive forms : and have depriv
ed him of the patrimony of his ancestors ; they
took care not to comprehend, in the article of
expence, those services done to the King, as if
they were not inseparable from those of the slate.
1 Let the different parts of the adminiflration be
examined, it will be found that the King has no
longer a fliare ; he has 110 part ill enacting laws ;
he can only intreat the Aflembly to dirert their
attention to fnch and such subjects. In the ad
miniflration ofjuftice, nothing is left for him,
but to dispatch the commiflions ofthe judges,and
to name the coinmiflaries of the King, whose
functions are much less considerable than those
of the ancient Procnratoi s-general- The public
part has been committed to new officers ; and
one prerogative flill remaining, the niofl valua
ble of all, that of pardoning and remitting pu
nishments, has been taken away from the Kings,
and is now veftc-d in juries, in consequence of
their of explaining, according to their
pleafurp, the sense of the law. Thus the Royal
Majeftv is impaired, to which the people former
ly had recourse, as to the common centre of
goodnefi and beneficence. The internal admi
niftratjon of the departments is embarrafled by
wheels which obflruct- the motion of the ma
chine ; and the fuperimendance of ministers is
1 educed to nothing.
137
[Whole No. 245.].
'• The Societies of Friends of the Constitution,
are mucli more powerful, and engrofsevery part
of the adlive adminiltratioii. The king lias been
declared supreme head of the army ; however,
every thing has been done by the Committees of
the National rtflembly, without my participation ;
they have granted to the King ihe nomination
of some places, yet the choice which lie has made,
has experienced contradiction ; lie has been
obliged to revise the operations of the General
officers of the army, because their choice displeas
ed clubs ; to them only are to be attributed the
greater number of the revolis of the regiments ;
when an army no longer refpedts it officers, ic
becomes the terror and firebrand of the ftaie:
the King has always been of opinion that officers
ought to be puniflied as well as soldiers, and that
the road to promotion ought no less to be open
to the latter according to their desert. As to
the foreign affairs, they have granted to the
King the nomination of Ambafladors, and the
conducfl of negociations ; but they have taken
from him the right of making war ; they ought
not however to have fufpedted that lie would e
ver declare war without special reason. Ihe
right of making peace is of a different foit. Ihe
King wishes only to a(ft in concert with the nati
on, but what power will enter into negociations,
when the right of reviling them (hall belong to
the National Aflembly,
" Independently of the necefTary secrecy,
vliich it is impofiible to preserve in an AHembly
vhofe deliberations are public, who would choose
o stipulate engagements, except the persons with
vhom they were formed had the power of rati
"ying them ? With refpeft to finances, the King
iad recognized before the States General the
ight which the nation has of granting fubfidics,
tnd in this refpecl he complied 011 the 23d June
ivith every thing that had been demanded. On
lie 4th February the King requested the Nati
jnal AfTembly to rake into conlideration the state
as the finances ; they deferred it too long ; they
have not yet a just statement of the receipt and
expenditure ; they allowed themselves to go in
to hypothetical calculations ; the ordinary taxes
are in arrear, and the resource which has been
employed of the twelve hundred millions of af
fignats is almost exhaufled ; they have left to
the King nothing upon this occasion but a barren
nomination ; he knew the difficulty of this part
of the administration ; and if it were pofiible
that this machine could have been put in motion
without his direcft fuperintendance, his Majesty
would only have regretted that there was no di
minution of the imports ; an object which he de
sired, and in which, had it not been for the Ame
rican war,he fliould most certainly have succeeded.
" The King has been declared Supreme Head
of the Administration of the kingdom, and he
has been able to change nothing without the de
cision of the AfTembly. The chiefs of the pre
vailing party have thrown out such defiance a
gainst the agents of the King, and the penalties
denounced against prevarications have occasioned
so much alarm, that thefe'agents have remained
without force. The form of government is in
two refpetfs particularly faulty ; the Aflembly
exceeds the limits of its power in interfering in
justice and the internal administration ; by its
Committee of Researches, it exercises the most
barbarous of all despotisms. It has established
afl'ociarions, known by the name of Friends of
the Constitution, which present corporations in
fini:ely more dangerous than the ancient; they
deliberate 011 every part of the government, and
exercise a power of such preponderance, that all
the bodies, and even the Aflembly itfelf, can do
nothing except by their order. The King does
not think it possible to preserve such a Govern
ment. In proportion as the period of the la
bours of the Aflembly approaches, the sages of
whom it is conipofed lose their credit. The new
regulations, instead of pouring balm upou the
fores, on the contrary inflame their malignity ;
a thousand journals and libellous pamphlets per
petuate the difordc, which the Aflembly is un
able to remedy ; their labours tend only to a go
vernment, meraphyficnl in its principles, and im
practicable in its execution.
" Frenchmen, Is it this which you intended
by fendingvour Representatives ? Did yon defile
that the defpotifni of clubs should replace the
monarchy under which the kingdom has pros
pered during fourteen hundred years? The at
tachment of Frenchmen to their monarch is rank-