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though in different degrees, are all of moment; and that amongst them there is, as amongst all things of value, a juft ground of preference. They favour, therefore, and they tolerate. They tolerate, not because they defpife opinions, but because they refpect juftice. They would reverently and affectionately protect all religions, because they love and venerate the great principle upon which they all agree, and the great object to which they are all directed. They begin more and more plainly to difcern, that we have all a common caufe, as againft a common enemy. They will not be fo mifled by the fpirit of faction, as not to diftinguish what is done in favour of their subdivision, from those acts of hoftility, which, through fome particular defcription, are aimed at the whole corps, in which they themselves, under another denomination, are included. It is impoffible for me to say what may be the character of every defcription of men amongst But I fpeak for the greater part; and for them, I must tell you, that facrilege is no part of their doctrine of good works; that, fo far from calling you into their fellowship on fuch title, if your profeffors are admitted to their communion, they must carefully conceal their doctrine of the lawfulness of the profcription of innocent men; and that they must make reftitution of all ftolen goods whatfoever. Till then they are none of

as.

ours.

You may suppose that we do not approve your confifcation of the revenues of bishops, and deans, and chapters, and parochial clergy poffeffing independent

dependent estates arifing from land, because we have the fame fort of establishment in England. That objection, you will fay, cannot hold as to the confiscation of the goods of monks and nuns, and the abolition of their order. It is true, that this particular part of your general confifcation does not affect England, as a precedent in point: but the reafon applies; and it goes a great way. The long parliament confifcated the lands of deans and chapters in England on the fame ideas upon which your affembly fet to fale the lands of the monaftic orders. But it is in the principle of injustice that the danger lies, and not in the defcription of perfons on whom it is firft exercised. I fee, in a country very near us, a course of policy purfued, which fets justice, the common concern of mankind, at defiance. With the national affembly of France, poffeffion is nothing; law and usage are nothing. I fee the national affembly openly reprobate the doctrine of prescription, which one of the greatest of their own lawyers tells us, with great truth, is a part of the law of nature. He tells us, that the pofitive afcertainmennt of its limits, and its fecurity from invafion, were among the caufes for which civil fociety itself has been instituted. If prescription be once shaken, no fpecies of property is secure, when it once becomes an object large enough to tempt the cupidity of indigent power. I fee a practice perfectly correspondent to their contempt of this great fundamental part of natural law. I see the confifcators begin with bishops, and chapters, and monafte

*

* Domat.

ries; but I do not fee them end there. I fee the princes of the blood, who, by the oldeft ufages of that kingdom, held large landed eftates, (hardly with the compliment of a debate) deprived of their poffeffions, and in lieu of their ftable independent property, reduced to the hope of fome precarious, charitable penfion, at the pleasure of an affembly, which of course will pay little regard to the rights of penfioners at pleasure, when it defpifes thofe of legal proprietors. Flushed with the infolence of their firft inglorious victories, and preffed by the diftreffes caused by their luft of unhallowed lucre, difappointed but not difcouraged, they have at length ventured completely to fubvert all property of all defcriptions throughout the extent of a great kingdom. They have compelled all men, in all transactions of commerce, in the difpofal of lands, in civil dealing, and through the whole communion of life, to accept as perfect payment and good and lawful tender, the fymbols of their fpeculations on a projected fale of their plunder. What veftiges of liberty or property have they left? The tenant-right of a cabbage-garden, a year's interest in a hovel, the good-will of an alehouse, or a baker's shop, the very shadow of a conftructive property, are more ceremoniously treated in our parliament than with you the oldest and most valuable landed poffeffions, in the hands of the moft refpectable perfonages, or than the whole body of the monied and commercial interest of your country. We entertain an high opinion of the legislative authority; but we have never dreamt that parliaments had any right whatever to violate property, to

over

over-rule prefcription or to force a currency of their own fiction in the place of that which is real, and recognized by the law of nations. But you, who began with refufing to fubmit to the most moderate restraints, have ended by establishing an unheard of defpotifm. I find the ground upon which your confifcators go is this; that indeed their proceedings could not be fupported in a court of juftice; but that the rules of prefcription cannot bind a legislative affembly *. So that this legislative affembly of a free nation fits, not for the fecurity, but for the deftruction of property, and not of property only, but of every rule and maxim which can give it ftability, and of those instruments which can alone give it circulation.

When the Anabaptists of Munster, in the fixteenth century, had filled Germany with confufion by their fyftem of levelling and their wild opinions concerning property, to what country in Europe did not the progrefs of their fury furnish juft caufe of alarm? Of all things, wisdom is the moft terrified with epidemical fanaticism, because of all enemies it is that againft which fhe is the leaft able to furnish any kind of refource. We cannot be ignorant of the spirit of atheistical fanaticism, that is inspired by a multitude of writings, dispersed with incredible affiduity and expence, and by fermons delivered in all the streets and places of public refort in Paris. Thefe writings and fermons have filled the populace with a

* Speech of Mr. Camus, published by order of the Na tional Affembly.

black

black and favage atrocity of mind, which fuperfedes in them the common feelings of nature, as well as all fentiments of morality and religion; infomuch that these wretches are induced to bear with a fullen patience the intolerable diftreffes brought upon them by the violent convulfions and permutations that have been made in property * ? The spirit of profelytism attends this spirit of fanaticifm. They have focieties to cabal and correfpond at home and abroad for the propagation of their tenets. The republic of Berne, one of

* Whether the following description is strictly true I know not; but it is what the publishers would have pass for true, in order to animate others. In a letter from Toul, given in one of their papers, is the following paffage concerning the people of that district : "Dans la Révolution actuelle, ils "ont réfifté à toutes les féductions du bigotisme, aux perfecutions et aux tracafferies des Ennemis de la Révolu"tion. Oubliant leurs plus grands intérêts pour rendre hom

mage aux vues d'ordre général qui ont determiné l'Af"femblée Nationale, ils voient, fans fe plaindre, fupprimer "cette foule d'établiffemens eccléfiaftiques par lesquels ils "fubfiftoient; et même, en perdant leur fiège épifcopal, la feule "de toutes ces reffources qui pouvoit, ou plutôt qui de-voit, en " toute équité, leur être confervée; condamnés à la plus effray"ante misère, fans avoir été ni pu être entendus, ils ne murmurent "point, ils reftent fidèles aux principes du plus pur patriotisme; "ils font encore prêts à verfer leur fang pour le maintien de "la Constitution, qui va reduire leur Ville à la plus déplorable "nullité." Thefe people are not fuppofed to have endured thofe fufferings and injuftices in a struggle for liberty, for the fame account ftates truly that they had been always free; their patience in beggary and ruin, and their fuffering, without remonftrance, the most flagrant and confeffed injuftice, if ftrictly true, can be nothing but the effect of this dire fanaticism. A great multitude all over France is in the fame condition and the fame temper.

the