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REVIEW. €t Still pieasetf to praise, yet not afraid to blame."-—Pore.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Art . I . — Lettre avae Electeurs du Departement de I'I sere . Par i \ I . Gre ' goire , Ancien Ev £ que de Blois . Paris . 1819 . Seconde JLettr * aux Electet ( rsy Sfc . Par M . Gregoire . Paris . 1820 . JLettres de M . Greg-oire , Ancien Eveque de Blots , adressees rune a tons les Journalistes V autre a M . de Richelieu * prictde . es et Steivies de Considerations sur P Ouvrage de M . Guizoty intitulde , du Gouvernement de la France deputs la Restauration , 8 fC Par Benjamin La Roche . Troisieme edition . Paris .
1820 . IN recalling to our memories the numerous actors in the scenes of the French Revolution , it is satisfactory to linger on the traces of a few moderate men , who were at once the firm assertors of their country ' s rights , and the resolute opposers of that spirit of desolation which so soon and so
fatally betrayed itself in the councils and examples of many of the Revolutionary Leaders . It was their misfortune , and the misfortune was doubly felt b y their country , that in the early periods of that tremendous civil commotion , the greater number of these consistent and unshaken friends , of
freedom , fell the victims of their endeavours to stem that tide of political fanaticism which they but too plainly foresaw would overwhelm every prospect of rational liberty . This faithful band of Moderns thus thinned by party
hostility , and by the slower ravages of time , has now left but few of its members , who have preserved a high-toned independence of character through the various changes of despotism , which succeeded the vain efforts of their
party : but to the honout of human nature there are a few , who , ungiwed by the frantic violence of anarchists , and proof against all temptations to abuse the powers with which they were
entrusted , have held on , and still persevere in a steady course , the unwearied advocates of universal liberty , the constant enemies alike of democratic , as of regal tyranny . Of this number is the Abbe * Gre-
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goire . But . while he partakes , with his remaining associates , the obloquy which is cast upon all who have shewn their hostility to the ancient Regime , he stands unfortunately alone in the treatment he has experienced from too many from whom different conduct
might have been anticipated . I * a Fayette , Lanjuinais and others share with him , indeed , the eahiinaious outrages of the open advocates of slavish and corrupt principles ; but they have not shared with him that neglect and indifference from men wbo call
themselves the partisans of freedom , which it has been his lot to encounter . Those illustrious patriots are still looked up to as the apostles of freedom by an enslaved and impatient world—while Gre * goire , whose career has been one of moral , rather than of military or
political glory , was , in the moment of trial , abandoned ( witli one honourable exception ) to all the fury of an assembly of political fanatics and religious bigots , miscalled the representatives of the French people ; miscalled , we say ,
for France is too just to recognise their dishonest , their wilfully dishonest decision . We deem the reputation of the Bishop of Blois perfectly secure in the hands of posterity , but , at the same time , consider it as an act of
justice to this venerable patriot to give his contemporaries a sketch of his purely benevolent mind b y enumerating some of Ms principal efforts for the improvement of his fellow-men . Even in this country , where it might
be supposed that our neighbours would be judged with that impartiality which , if unattainable amidst contending factions , ought at least to distinguish those who judge of notorious events from a distance , ( for a remoteness from the scene , of action , whether
of space or time , seems necessary to correct and candid infereaeea , ) this good man has not escaped the slanders of misrepresentation and falsehood ; and this poison has been spread even by what is called the liberal part . of the English press . One might have expected that at the Court of France , distinguished as it is again become for
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Review. €T Still Pieasetf To Praise, Yet Not Afraid To Blame."-—Pore.
REVIEW . € t Still pieasetf to praise , yet not afraid to blame . " - —Pore .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1821, page 34, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2496/page/34/
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