and military, not less expensive than those which exist; and he would have an additional establishment, which does not press on the republican government; namely, the ecclesiastical; which would require some millions sterling for its support. The reasoning, of which so much has been thrown away on this subject, if it proves any thing, goes to shew that France can no longer subsist as a state: but that she will crumble to the ground, and become the property of surrounding powers. This work is very much occupied by tedious disquisitions on French finance, in which the terrific and the ludicrous are curiously intermingled: but we do not think that our enemies are here fairly treated. The author strings together, and exhibits in one whole, hints, observations, and proposals, collected from all sorts of sources, from official communications, speeches in the councils, pamphlets, newspapers, and placards. Allowing ourselves such liberties, it is no difficult task to work up a picture so as to be more conformable to our fancies and views than to reality. The author's observations on the forced loan, however, merit the attention of every statesman. The conjuncture, of which Bonaparte profited to place himself at the helm of government, is fully and ably discussed. The present constitution, we are told, actually came from one of the Abbé Sieyes's pigeon-holes; and it had been long a favorite plan with him, which he anxiously wished to see realized. We own that we had considered it as too military in its structure, to have been the production of the ingenious Abbé; and we thought that it bore marks of the temper and views of Bonaparte, The first six months of the Chief Consul's administration here pass in review before us; and the account is by no means favorable to the ruling powers. We wish that facts,-alas! too prominent, and too important, did not war against the writer's conclusions! When party views do not mislead his judgment, Sir FRANCIS D'IVERNOIS appears to great advantage. His disquisition on the several expenditures of a government founded on equality, and of another which rests on property and allows of privileges, contains observations of considerable importance, not elsewhere to be found. Foreigners, and our countrymen, will feel obliged to him for his account of the administrative part of our government; which is worthy of forming atr appendix to the admirable chapters of Montesquieu. ART. ART. VIII. Correspondance de Louis-Philippe-Joseph d'Orléans, &c. The Correspondence of Louis-Philippe-Joseph d'Orléans, with Louis XVI, the Queen, Montmorin, Liancourt, Biron, La Fayette, &c. &c. With Details respecting his Exile to Villers-Cotterets, and his Conduct on the 5th and 6th of October, 1789, written by himself: followed by Letters to his Wife, his Children, and those of Madame de Genlis; to which is added an Extract from the Journal of the eldest Son of d'Orléans, daily kept by himself. Published by L. C. R. 8vo. pp. 282. Paris. 1800. London, De Boffe. Price 6s. TH HESE Communications will be less regarded for any intrin sic value which they can boast, than on account of the light which they throw on the French revolution; and even in this respect their pretensions are more humble than they might have been expected to be. They do not, in any degree, clear upthe horrible transactions of the 5th and 6th of October, 1789: but they tend, as far as they go, rather to confirm than to weaken the suspicions entertained by many, that these proceedings were excited by the Orleans party with a view to the massacre of the royal family, and the exaltation of their chief to the throne. The letters shew the extreme anxiety of the French ministry, and of La Fayette, to remove this prince from Paris, and to prevent his return to that capital. His diplomatic mission to England, the ostensible object of which -namely, that of sounding the dispositions of the British cabinet towards France, and respecting the troubles of the Low Countries, was a mere pretext, seems to have been arranged solely for this purpose. With regard to the former of those points, the French court knew that it could rely with safety. on its ambassador M. de la Luzerne; and, with respect to the latter, the idea of erecting the Austrian Netherlands into an independent state, at the head of which the Duke D'Orléans was to be placed, was abundantly too chimerical ever to have been seriously contemplated by the ministers of Louis XVI.; though the Duke was weak enough to be highly pleased with it. In some of these letters, we find the Duke treated on the part of his sovereign with more consideration than is due to a subject; and, in his turn, assuming more than became one. The correspondence between M. de Montmorin and M. D'Orléans manifests the good sense of the former, and the de-. ficiency of the latter; and the whole of it (in this respect in harmony with all the other transactions of his life) exhibits his *The title-page adds that the originals of this work are deposited in the hands of the printer, until the 1st of Brumaire, 9th year. APP. REV. VOL. XXXIII. Kk meddling, meddling, mischievous, and unmanageable disposition. Insatiably greedy of distinction, but incapable of either meriting or retaining it, he had no faculties but for mischief, and shewed no ability but in the commission of crimes. The Duke assures the French minister that he may rely on the pacific dispositions of the court of St. James's, because he (the Duke) had received the most positive and frank assurances on that head from Mr. Pitt and the Duke of Leeds. Of Mr. Pitt, he says, it is his custom not to engage hastily in foreign matters, but to wait the event in order to take advantage of it. At that time, wiser men than the Duke D'Orleans might have entertained this sentiment: but very different circumstances have since occurred. The letters of Madame D'Orléans place her in the most amiable light as a wife, a mother, and a christian; though her letter to the Duke respecting his mistress, Madame de Buffon, shews that French wives carried their complaisance towards their husbands much farther than it is extended by the respectable matrons of this island. The enthusiastic glow and ardent temper of youth, apparent in the journal of the Duke de Chartres (now Duke D'Orléans), are highly creditable to him; and they evince how much we lose on the score of pleasurable sensations, when we exchange the intoxication of our early days for the sobriety of more mature years. His false notions and views belong not in any degree to him, but wholly to those by whom they were infused into him. As far as the late unfortunate monarch appears in these papers, he supports his usual character for uprightness and strict propriety of conduct. It would seem that, the more the actions and behaviour of this ill-fated Prince are developed, the more cruel and unmerited his lot must be regarded! ART. IX. Voyage en Grèce, &c. i. e. Travels in Greece, by XAVIER SCROFANI, a Sicilian, in 1794 and 1795. Translated from the Italian by J. F. C. Blanvillain. With a general Chart of antient and modern Greece, and ten Tables of the Commerce of the Venetian Isles, of the Morea, and of southern Romelia. 8vo. 3 Vols. pp. 160 each. Paris and Strasburgh. 1801. Imported by De Boffe, London. THE HE pleasure which this work cannot fail to dispense to every admirer of antient Greece,-which designation includes all scholars and lovers of excellence,-disarms criticism, and disposes us rather to apologise for occasional extravagancies, than officiously to point them out, and severely to censure them. Persons of a liberal turn will feel indebted to the the writer who rekindles their enthusiasm in favour of Greece; who inspires them with a veneration for its antient inhabitants, similar to that which glows in his own bosom; who induces them to enrich their shelves with the precious reliques of its literature; and who incites them again to consult the matchless models which engaged the attention of their happy puerile days, and which imperceptibly formed their taste, and regulated their sentiments. Sensibility is doubtless the trait which most distinguishes Signior SCROFANI: but we do not by any means deem him deficient in information. He betrays no want of a competent acquaintance with his subject, but seems master of all that is to be collected relating to it, either from antient topography or modern travels; and he appears sufficiently skilled in the history and mythology which furnish the topics for his animated effusions. Had he referred us to his authorities, indeed, he would have rendered his pages far more valuable. The reader will observe that we derive our conceptions of this work from a translation, of the fidelity of which we cannot speak, not being possessed of the original: but which certainly claims the merit of being spirited and easy, and which (we think) cannot fail to afford gratification to all who are not fastidious. We see no reason for suspecting the judgment of the translator: who, speaking of the original work, says that these travels prove how far Italian prose is capable of being the vehicle of sentiment; and that the volumes furnish a model of a new kind of style, which their author has created. Born under a burning sun, and finding himself amid the speaking ruins of antient Greece, his imagination transports him to the ages of its glory, and carries with him the fancy of his readers. His letters on Thermopyla, Athens, Salamis, Olympia, Elis, and Parnassus, express elevation of thought in energetic and animated language; and the whole has also the merit of retracing, in an interesting manner, the most striking facts of Grecian history. Had the original fallen into our hands, we should have made liberal extracts from it: but our readers will discern our reasons for not translating from the translation of a work, much of the merit of which is stated to arise from its style. In the third volume, which contains a statistical account of the Morea, and of the Ionian islands, the author descends from the tight rope of sentiment and the clouds of Grecian antiquity, to the humble surface of the existing soil; and this object, which amid his flights he seemed wholly to overlook, now engages all his attention. He notes its actual state, surveys the beings who occupy it, the produce which it yields, and the economy Kk 2 economy which regulates its aspect. If we find him less amus ing in his new capacity, his labours are certainly not less instructive and useful. He marks out his course with judgment, moves with a cautious step, examines the scene with a penetrating eye, and his conceptions seem to be founded on careful observations made from the best points of view. As, however, his results do not materially vary from the ideas generally entertained on the subject, we shall refer those who love details to the work itself; whence the editors of elementary statistical books may enrich their compilatious. Many important observations with regard to the present state of Greece, and which strike us as new, occur in these volumes; and none occasioned us more surprise than those which relate to the infidelity which, according to the author, gains considerable ground among both Turks and Greeks. Indeed, there is no part of his relation which we feel so much disposed to call in question yet he speaks with confidence; and it must be owned that he had sufficient opportunities for gaining information, having resided four years in the country. Still this account ill agrees with the abject state in which he, every where, represents the Turks in general to be; and in one place, in particular, speaking of them, he says, I do not know whether, living as they do, they are happy: but this I do know, that, dwelling amid the ruins of antient Greece, and possessing the finest soil in Europe, they are ignorant of those arts of the first importance, with which the Spaniards and Dutch found the inhabitants of Mexico and Peru, and even those of the Cape of Good Hope, previously acquainted.' Several works of this kind, containing information relative to Greece, and other parts of Turkey in Europe, have of late made their appearance in France. We leave politicians to divine what this circumstance portends.-That the Chief Consul has Jong cast a wishful eye towards Greece, and that the invasion of that country is an enterprize which he would gladly encourage, cannot be doubted: but, (as we have already observed +) fervently as we wish for its liberation, we trust that Providence will make use of some other instrument for the purpose than France. Many considerations intimate that Greece will not long remain in the state in which it is at present; and the friendship now forming between powers, which lately were sp much at variance, may ultimately have an influence on its destiny. Many, also, are the circumstances which have recently See pages 482-492 of this Appendix. arisen |
