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, ud nakedness , amoi < S thc JeoKf-^ aUV T (« ir , 1784 . Pp . 176 , 7 Yet Mr Burke , 1 recollect , in his Reflections , represents the government of Louis XVIth , who had now reigned inOre than tea years , as constantly tending to reform . What then must have been the nnreformcd government of the Bourbons !
lam here reminded of a very modem authority which may be considered as opposing the testimony of the eye-witnesses I have mentioned . That justly -esteemed classical tourist ,
Mr , Eustace , in his " Letter from Paris , " written in July last , appears never to have suspected that the French peasant , under the feudal domination of the noblesse , might see
with dissatisfaction — - " The contiguous mansion rear its head , To scorn the meanness of his humble shed . " On the contrary , he thus complains ( p # 7 «) " The chateuas have , in many places ,. shared the fate of their contemporary abbeys , and like them , have been destroyed , or left to moulder in gradual
decay . The villages , formerly enlivened by the presence of their Lords , whether laymen or monks , and enriched by their expenditure , now pine in want and silence . " But it appears , from several passage * in this Letter , that the accomplished writer occasionally wandered nfancy $ maze . Thus , like a zealous
son of the Roman Church , he persuades himself ( p . 76 ) that , " if a Frenchman be a Christian he must naturally be a Catholic ; " among other reasons , because the « Catholic Religion combines its influence with
toe glory of the French arms—the feme of French heroes . Had Mr . jj |* tace forgotten the first Conde and Marshal Saxe , or that Henry the b «^ and Turenne , though they *<* e at length reconciled to the Ca-Wjjjc Church , Jiad acquired all their Wary renown as Protestants ?
il i ?? l g . uess to wli 9 Lt historical ^ « Wis writer would refer for the wftfc * ry benevolence a / the Bourbons , Z !* ^ Scribes ( p . 91 ) as having JJfwW tp Louis XVIIIth . Nor rti V Sf the discrimination with H Wr . JEustace , a scholar and an 5 S 9 % 2 ^ «* W *» t of history , con * J ^ ted the ^ cn ^ p ^ s ^ n g before tim ^^^^ V ^ m , Hi * obs ^ va&ous ZffijrpBgw t ^ mrer bcei * quite « - ****? « e say * ( p . 94 ) «? The army ,
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though discontented and ferocious are commanded by officers who are loyal—the people are decidedly for the Bourbons and manifest their attachment unequivocally and unanimously /' The head of that unfortunate
family , after a long exile from his country , had a most unexpected ofi ' tr of a crown , with at least the sembhuiee of a popular choice . This he rejected
upon such terms , and claimed to have been a king for nineteen years by thc divine right of decent , thus reminding the people of his royal ancestors , the grands monarques , who appeared to have dreamed as our Thomson
sang , — That toiling * millioDS must resig-n their weal , And all the honey of their search , to such As for themselves alone themselves had rais'd .
And could that people forbear to apprehend the possible return of such scenes as Lord Corke and Sir N . W . Wraxall have described ? Yet , I perceive that the wise men and scribes at Vienna , are still determined , according to their Second Declaration , to restore Louis XVIIIth , if not to punish those who have declined his government . Ocalumniated crusaders ' might Mr . Fox again exclaim , could lie arise from the tomb . I question indeed , if even the rival of his
political life and his near neighbour in the grave , Mr . Pitt , could have profited so little by experience , as now to sanction the projects which are advocated by the puny disciples of his school .
The muse of Young was , generally courtly , yet the poet has sometimes forgotten himself . Thus , in the ninth of his Night Thoughts , apostrophizing the inhabitants of other worlds , he inquires— Know you disease ? Or horrid war ? with war , this fatal hour , Europe g-roaws , so call we a small field , Where kings run mad .
I presume not to conjecture * haw contemporary or future poets will describe the modern potentates at whoso sovereign pleasure ( a prerogative of dreadftU responsibility ) the confused wise of the battle of the warrior may again be heard throughout Europe , and the acenery be displayed of ^ wrmmts . rolled in bh > od . I would rather adept the benevolent supplication ^
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graded Condition af the French Peasantry under Louis X V . and XVI . 285
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1815, page 285, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1760/page/21/
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