Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution and the Effect It Has Produced in Europe

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1794 edition. Excerpt: ...sturdy champion of rea son; even when, lay ing down his club, he loitered to dally with the imagination. Whilst therefore Mirabeau was teaching the national assembly dignity, the resentment of the vain-glorious Calonne, sharpened to the keenest edge by disappointment, made him suggest to those crest-fallen princes, the necessity of engaging foreign aid, to reinstate the king in his former plenitude of power, and to heal their wounded pride. Unfortunately, the plausibility of his manners, and the ingenuity of his arguments, awakened their fears, and nourished their prejudices; and quickly persuaded to assert what they wished to believe, they protested against the conduct of the national assembly; insinuating, that the body of the people did not support their pretensions. The delusion, however, did not rest here; for he even convinced them, that, if the appeal made to the national honour of the french did not recall crowds to their chivalrous allegiance, it would not be a difficult task to engage all the powers of Europe in behalf of his most christian majesty, by showing them, that, Mirabeau appears to have been continually hurt by the want of dignity in the assembly.--By the inconsistency, which made them stalk as heroes one moment, with a true theatrical stride, and the next cringe with the flexible backs of habitual slaves. that, if freedom were once established In France, it would soon extend beyond it's confines, bounding over the Alps and Pyrenees. Such are the opposite sentiments, or rather conduct of court parasites, and men struggling to be free, that it is sufficient to contrast them. The deputies, whose lives had been threatened, and their persons grossly insulted, not ouly excused the ill advised monarch for the countenance...