the Laws, without putting it in the power of neighbouring nations to say a word on the subjects. In a storm a vessel moored on a dangerous coast, cuts her cables when she cannot get up her anchors. Thus the Nation, to save the national body, has cut asunder the yoke of prejudice which was dragging her to destruction, and which she had neither skill nor leisure to disentangle.

How many great Princes have attempted to do as much, and durst not, not being seconded by the popular power! The Emperor Joseph II. attempted similar reforms in Brabant, and failed. Can our emigrated Nobility believe that his august successor, the sage Leopold, that new Marcus Aurelius, that friend of Mankind, who in his Tuscan dominions had opened every road to merit; that a King of Prussia, who has himself passed through every military rank when Prince Royal; that the Empress of Russia herself, that rival of Peter the Great who stripped his Nobility of the preroga tives of their birth, and exhibited the example of it, by relinquishing that of the throne, and by sinking himself into a drummer and a carpenter; can they believe, I say, that all these Sovereigns are to coalesce for the purpose of forcing the French to re-establish their ancient abuses, and to give, as in times past, all employments to venality, to intrigue and to birth? It is absolutely impossible. If neighbouring Princes keep up considerable armies on their frontiers, it is simply to prevent the French Revolution from penetrating too rapidly into their dominions, in order to shun the disorders which have accompanied it. If the Empress of Russia is making to our emigrated Nobility

particular tenders of service, and is supplying them with money, it appears extremely probable that she wishes rather to allure them to settle in her States, than that she means herself to make an impression upon ours. In truth the French Noblemen, instructed by calamity, would contribute not a little to the civilization of her' Country, just as the Swedish officers did, who were transported into Siberia after the battle of Pultowa.

But the homage which I owe to truth, and the pity which I feel for the unfortunate, constrain me here to warn our exiled nobless, that most of them would be objects of great compassion in Russia; first, from their peculiar mode of education, which, arming them from infancy against each other, would not afford then among their compatriots themselves that support which the unfortunate of the same Nation might expect, especially when expatriated. I had the experience of this oftener than once. The greatest enemies which Frenchmen have in foreign countries, are Frenchmen; their jealousy is a result from their ambitious education, which, from childhood, says to each of them, but especially to men of noble birth, Be foremost. It is true the necessity of living with men, and especially with women, spreads a varnish of politeness over this maleficent instinct, and obliges a Frenchman of family, who is inwardly burning with a desire to domineer, to appear continually animated with a desire of pleasing; but his brilliant talents only excite against him the jealousy of foreigners, whose vices shew themselves undisguised. They detest equally his gal lantry and his point of honour, his dancing and

his duelling. It is therefore a melancholy prospect for a Gentleman to pass his life in a strange land, an object of jealousy to his compatriots, and of hatred to the natives. I say nothing of the rigour of the military service in Russia, where subordination is such, that a Lieutenant must not sit down in presence of his Captain without permission; nor of the mediocrity of the appointments in a climate where civilized man has so many wants. These inconveniences, which I myself have experienced, are so insupportable, that most of the Officers whom I have seen pass into that country, of noble extraction or not, have been rereduced to the situation of Ochitels, or governnors to children in the families of Russian Noblemen. It is of a truth one of the least wretched resources of that country but can it be palatable to a man of noble birth, who left his Country merely because he could not domineer over his compatriots at home? Must he imitate Dionysius the tyrant of Syracuse, who stripped of his sovereignty, assumed the employment of school-master at Corinth, and having lost his Empire over men contrived to acquire one over children.

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Neither shall I say any thing respecting the severity of the climate in Russia, for it is a consider tion of no weight with the ambitious; to live at St. Petersburg or in St. Domingo, to serve under Russians or to tyrannize over Negroes, is all one to most men, provided they are in the road to fortune. It deceives us frequently in these countries as in others. But when a man, to indemnify himself for the injustice of fortune, wishes to

throw

throw himself into the arms of Nature, it must be peculiarly hard upon a Frenchman expatriated in Russia, to compare winters of six tedious months, during which the whole face of the Earth is covered with snow and dusky fir trees, with the mild climate of France, and her fertile plains clothed with orchards, vineyards and meadows. It is painful, on seeing enslaved peasants driven to labour by the rod, to call to remembrance the gaiety and the liberty of his compatriots; to talk of love to shepherdesses who understand not what you say, and whose hearts feel no reciprocal emotion. It is a gloomy reflection that his own posterity will one day be blasted by the same slavery, and that he himself must never more see the places where he learnt to feel and to love. I have seen Frenchmen in Russia, of a superior rank in the army, so struck with recollections of this kind, that they said to me: "I would rather be a com- . "mon soldier in France than Colonel of a regiment "here."

Not that civilized countries are exempted from. suffering, and this of the most painful sort. Philosophy undoubtedly is able to dwell any where, and, if good laws are wanting, may enjoy more happiness in the marches of Kamtschatka, in the midst of a dog-kennel, than in the bosom of cities. become a prey to anarchy.

But, noble Frenchmen, wherefore add to the evils which men may occasion, those which Nature has not inflicted upon you? The Nation, you say, has been guilty of injustice to you: Why punish yourselves for this? She has deprived you of

your

your prerogatives, but she has not taken away from you her climate, her productions, her arts, her illumination, nor any one of her most valuable possessions. You mean, to avenge yourselves for the injuries you have sustained; your countryseats have been burnt to the ground: Will the burning of villages rebuild them for you? Men of family have been massacred; Will the slaughter of citizens restore them to life? Believe no longer the false promises of your orators. Your hostilities will only serve to aggravate your distresses, just as your resistance has done. A corps cannot successfully oppose a whole Nation. Do not imagine it is in your power to excite civil war in France: there are abundance of patriotic Nobles in the Kingdom to combat the aristocratic Nobility. Are you going besides to take up arms against that Royalty from which your privileges are derived, and against a King, who in compliance to the general wish of France, has sanctioned the Constitution to which you refuse submission? The second National Assembly has proved the lawfulness of the first. You owe more to your Nation than your Order; the maxim of the sage Fenelon is not a factious sophism: "A man oweş "more to his Country than to his Family." Will you call in the powers of Europe to attack yours? They will not espouse your quarrel. First, they do nothing for nothing, and you are without money and without credit. Will you promise them to dismember France in their favour, where you had not the power of maintaining your own ground? They would be much more afraid of seeing their own subjects adopting the French

laws,