on the authority of Pelet, that if they are, the French, whether we confider them at home or abroad, in their own country or in Holland, have, unquestionably, the beft Government in the world; for (to ufe the words of the Prophet) "The land is as the Garden of Eden before "them, but behind them a defolate wilderness.”

But, after all, it must be acknowledged that the Tree of French Liberty has by no means thriven fo well in Holland as it has done elsewhere. If we wish to see it, as Wolfey fays, in Shakspeare,

bearing its blushing honours thick upon it," we must take a view of it in Spain: and here again we will admit no partial, prejudiced reporters; we will confult the fame honeft Oppofition paper (fince it is fo ufual to believe, that-whatever opposes the British Government muft be honeft,) that we did before.

In the Courier of April 27th we are told, that on the 15th of the fame month, Tallien made the following statement in the Convention: "In the σε Provinces of Guipufcoa and Bifcay," faid he, "the inhabitants, friends to liberty, were ready to receive the French as brethren; St. Se"baftian opened its gates with acclamations of joy; but the entrance of the French troops was diftinguished by pillage, and the most "unheard

unheard-of cruelties. The Priefts have been "arrefted, the Monks and Nuns have been 66 torn from their cloisters, have been heaped "in carts and dragged to Bayonne, where they "were made to fuffer the most unheard-of treat"ment. In Bifcay, columns of troops had ad"vanced, carrying devaftation and death with "them; towns and villages have been laid in "afhes; thofe vales where peace and fecurity had, "TILL THEN, inhabited, are become scenes of the "most atrocious barbarity. The women are ravished: and thofe who, on their knees, afked for "their lives, were barbarously massacred."

And now, whether we contemplate democra tic liberty in France, in Holland, or in Spain, is it not a moft delightful and most alluring thing? In France, it dupes with words, and its fruits are oppreffion, Scarcity of provifions, languifhment of manufacture, deftruction of trade. In Holland, it ftrips the people of their gold and filver; and, if it continues, will ftrip the country of its commerce, its riches, and its beauty. And in Spain, amid thofe vales in which, TILL THEN, (mark till then, i. e. till French generofity came to free them from Spanish defpotifm,) PEACE AND SECURITY had dwelt ; it triumphs over all juftice, decency, and humanity; out-doing Tiberius in luft, and Nero in cruelty.

Mr.

Mr. Pitt," fays a Francis Street declaimer, 66 commenced the war to curtail and weaken the

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principles of liberty, and the principles of liberty have been extended and fortified." What this Gentleman means by the principles of liberty, we can be at no lofs to determine. How much reafon he has to glory in their being extended, and fortified, let duped and beggared France, let Holland, once rich and beautiful, now robbed and likely to be ruined, let the lately secure and peaceful, but now bloody and depopulated, plains of Biscay, declare to an aftonished world.

miferable

People of Ireland! are you not very that you have not yet participated in these invaluable bleffings? Have you not reason to lament that your friends in this city were not able to lay their schemes better, and that the English Fleet was not a little weaker, and the French Fleet fomewhat ftronger? Then you, too, might have been enriched like the Dutch, and made happy like the Bifcayans? Then, in truth, you would have been greatly emancipated: your country would have been emancipated from its wealth; your wives and daughters would have been emancipated from their chastity; and yourselves, perhaps, as the laft bleffing of which you would have been capable, would have been emancipated from existence.

ESSAY

ESSAY V.

DEMOCRATIC LIBERTY CONTINUED.

Sept. 10, 1795

MONTESQUIEU has obferved, that the political liberty of the fubject confifts "in a tran66 quillity of mind arifing from the opinion each "perfon has of his own fafety," and, he adds, that, "in order to have this liberty, it is requi"fite the Government be fo conftituted as that "one perfon need not be afraid of another.",

This is plain common fenfe, obvious to every man's reason, and correfponding with every man's feelings; but, if so, what estimate are we to form of the effects of French Democracy?

The statements made daily in the Convention are indifputable, because the Convention itself authenticates them, by making them the ground of its decrees. But if these accounts are authentic, may it not fairly be afked, in what country, or at what period, has the very reverfe of political liberty been fo completely exemplified as in France,

France, fince its adoption of the democratic fyftem?

Where, or when, had individuals fo little ground to reckon upon their own personal safety? Where, or when, had every one man so much reason to be afraid of every other man?

What, by its own confeffion, has been the Convention? Has it been the temple of rational liberty, the bright focus of national light, the terror of the oppreffor, the afylum of the wretched? Has it not, on the contrary, been at one period the mean unrefifting inftrument of a Robefpierre, at another, the weak, hood-winked dupe of its own villainous Commiffioners; blind as a mole to the mischiefs of the hour, and fharpfighted as the eagle to those that had gone by; a giant in theory and a pigmy in practice?" We "were forced," fays Pouzalles, "to fubmit to "the empire of an execrable faction, which shed "our blood, and afterwards extended its ravages "to every part of the Republic; the fignal of "diftrefs was given, but we had no fuccour.” An honourable acknowledgement from a body calling itself a Legiflature! Is it not strange that, though none could difprove this miferable confeffion, fome fhould not have objected to its being handed down as an hiftorical document to pofterity?

But