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MUSES’ RETREAT.
RE-PUBLISHED BY DESIRE.
A SONG,
Sung at Liverpool, on the commemoration of the
French revolution, litfh July, 1 79 1 *
i.
O’er the vinc-covcr’d hills, and gay region* of
See the day-star of liberty rife; [France,
Thro’ clouds of detra&ion,unwearied, advance.
And hold its new courfethro’ the Ikies.
An effulgence so mild, with a luftre so bright,
All Europe with wonder surveys :
And from defarts of darkness, and dungeons of
Contend for a fliarc of the blaze. [night,
11.
Let Burke, like a bat, from its fplendour retire,
A fplendour too strong for his eyes ;
Let pedants and fools his effulions admire,
Enwrap’d in his cob-web, like flies:
Shall phrenZy and sophistry hope to prevail
Where reason opposes her weight ;
When the welfare of millions is hung in thefcale
And the balance yet trembles with fate ?
111.
Ah, who’midftthc horrorsof night would abide,
That can taste the pure breezes of morn;
Or, who that hasdrankof the chryftalline tide,
To the feculent flood would return ?
When the bofomof beauty the throbbing heart
Ah ! who can the transport decline ? [meets,
Or, who that has tailed fair liberty’s fvvects,
The prize but with life would resign ?
IV.
—But ’tis over—high heav’n the decision ap-
Oppreflion has ftrugglcd in vain : [proves —
To the hell flie has form’d superstition removes;
And tyranny bites his own chain.
In the records of time anew era unfolds—
All nature exults in its birth—
His creation, benign, the Creator beholds,
And gives anew charter to earth.
V.
0 catch its high import, ye winds,as ye blow !
O bear it, ye waves, as ye roll!
From regions that feel the fun’s vertical glow,
To the fat theft extremes of the pole.
Equal rights, equal law, to the nations around,
Peace and friendlhip its precepts impart,
And wherever the footfteps of man fliall be
May he bind the decree on hisheart. [found,
SMP CT
From the -[London) Morning Chronicle,
af September 3.
BRISSO7 TO HIS CONSTITUENTS, toV.
Public curioflty mud be in no small
degree interelled about a. pamphlet
which nir. Eurke has declared to be
“ one of the mod able and rascally pro
ductions that ever appeared.”—There
are only two copies of it in England,
and having procured a reading of one,
we subjoin such extrails as the fliort
time allowed for a haffy pcrufal would
peinnt us to make. It appeared on the
| 23d of May, eight days before the final
defeat of the Gircndilt party, of whom
it may be corifidered as the concluding
j manifefto. It is written with great
force of reason and eloquence. Its ob
ject is to prove, that all the misfortune
sos the republic arc- to be ascribed to the
■ anarchic failion at Paris.
i He begins with an avowal of feme
importance to the future hiflorians of
j 1 the revolution.
“ The whole truth,” fays he, “ has
l never been spoken at any time since the
commencement of the revolution ; we
| were afraid by expressing it of injuring
| and difhonouring the cause of liberty,
li of difeouraging the people, and of im-
I peding the progress of public business.
L ‘1 his circumfpeilion is right and even
v neceftary when nations are to be saved
1 by individuals or bodies of men ; but
I it is deftrmtive when the nation alone
r can save herfelf. To diiremhle her
ittuationy is to prolong her lethargy,
no great popular efforts can be pro
| vluccd or well dire&ed without inform
g *he people of their fituatiod. Such
|fc:s our pofitioh, and such are the mo
| N’ -es which induce me to tear asunder
I ha v“il that hides from us the source
f t o.\ misfortunes.”
It.
He proceeds to establish three posi
tions.
< |ft. That the party of anarchists
has governed and does govern all the
deliberations of the executive council.
2d. That that party has beenand is still
the foie cause of all the evils, internal
and external, which afflid f ranee. 3d.
That the republic cannot be saved,
without a rigourous measure which
(hall refeue the representatives of the
nation from the despotism ot that fac
tion.”
He afterwards presents us with ade
feription of anarchy, contrasted with
the creed of the genuine republicans.
“ I believe,” fays he, “ that the
people will now regret the lethargic
tranquility of its ancient servitude, if
we do not procure it a republican tran
quility ; because the people desire to be
happy ; because they mult desire it still
more after such great and continued
facrifices; because their happiness does
not confilt in the eternal repetition of
violent convulsions; because if ruffians
live by sedition, the pepple live by re
pose. I believe that the establishment
of order is a truly revolutionary mea
sure ; because it firengthens the revo
lution within ; because it furnifhes re
sources against our enemies without;
and above all, because it will conciliate
the refped and confidence of the na
tions of Euifope. I believe this dodrine
as salutary to the non-proprietor as the
proprietor, because he can only fubfilt
by confiant labour, and there can be no
constant labour for the poor where thfcre
is no constant security for the lives and
properties of the rich. I believe that
this dodrine of eternal infurredion,
will produce pillage and maft'acre,
which muff difgufl and fatigue the na
tion at a republican form of govern
ment. Such are the opinions of those
courageous patriots, who have been
devoted to ignominy, and to the dag
ger of aftaifii.s, by the names'of Giron
dins, Rolandins, Briffotins &c.”
The majority of the convention,
are, according to him, pure and uncor
rupt, but feeble and domineered over
by a handful of anarchists, who rule by
terror.. If they unani motifly agree to
proted their independence by a depart
mental guard, if they decree the pun
ishment of death against the instigators
of murder, if they hear accusations
against Roberfpierte, and order thepro
fecution ci theaflaffins of September, ,
they are speedily forced by the clamours j
and the menaces of anarchists to revoke ;
all these salutary measures, Burrere, j
Le Pelletiere, and Danton, had all pri- I
vately declar.cd their opinion for the ap j
peal to the people, in the case of the •
king- Danton had repeatedly (aid, i
that the imprisonment of Louis, was
the only measure didated by justice and
policy; and these very men now dired
the vengeance of the populace against
theGirondifls for supporting what they
themselves had contended for.
The following confelfion is so- re
markable that we mult recommend it!
to the notice of our readers :
“ One word compotes the greater
part of the history of the three aftem
blies, and that word is fear!”
Avery able account follows of the
address with which the anarchists go
verned the neutral and independent
party in the convention, sometimes by
the terror of their mobs, and sometimes
by inspiring them with jealousy of the
Girondifts. To those who refufed to
petition for the expulsion ot that party,
the commune of Paris refufed certificates
of patriotism, which, in the then cir
cumrtances, were fafeguards of life. By
such meanswas prepared that revolution
of the 31st May, which Briffot seems
clearly to have torefeen, and which he
justly compares to colonel f title's purge.
A dreadful pidure is presented of the
revolutionary tribunal, in which a body
of men, whom in defiance of common
sense they called a jury (though it be
pefmanent, and the accused has no
right tochallenge) delivertheirfnffrages
openly, under the menaces of galleries
filled with hired ruffians.
“ A tribunal, adapted indeed to make
us regret monarchy and her baftiles.
A tribunal in which two directors of the
majjacres of the 2 and of September , fit as
judges !! —The triumphal acquittal of
Marat, does it not prove that the con
vention and the tribunals are the inflru
ments of aiTaffins. That wretch, whose
foul is made up of filth and gore,
4< H'jfftulus ex cruore ctluto •** Cic.
“ The opprobrium of the revolution
and of humanity.” Two days before
his trial, Roufillon.oneof hisjurors, said
in the club of the Cordeliers, “ Fear
nothing for his head ! They speak of
arresting him ; I invite you to poignard
the man Vvho should dare to lay his sa
crilegious hands on the friend of the
people to arrest him. Let the people fend
us the Girondifts, you will fte who w ill
preserve their heads on their shoulders.”
The despotism of this anarchic fac
tion was not less conspicuous over the
miniflers than over the convention, It
appeared in the horrible perfection of
the virtuous Roland ; it appeared in the
tame and pusillanimous submission of
Garat, to men whom he muff detest ;
it appeared in the impunity with which
Pache plundered the treasures and dis
organized the armie c , with no other
protection than his jacobinifm ; it ap
peared in the protection given by the
fame fadion to Monge, corvided of
the mod scandalous incapacity and
negligence in the adminiftution of the
marine.
To the fame execrable faction ought
in fome measure to be aferibed the de
fection of Dumourier.
“ I know,” fays BrifTot, “ his am
bition, his immorality, and his indif
ference for libeity. He never sincerely
wilhed a republic, He dtfired a mo
narchy tempered by democratic forms.
That form of government bed suits
men who join great talents to violent
paflions. But I w’ill venture to fay,
that the calumny which pursued even
the triumphs of Dumourier, has preci
pirated his treachery, and by confe
quence our misfortunes.”
The fame fadion has exercised its
despotism over the departments by those
execrable commifiaries with w hich they
have deluged France. 1
“ Leonard Bourdon, one of them,
produces a tumult at Orleans, which
until his arrival had, during the whole
revolution, been tranquil.
“ He fills the prisons of that unfor
tunate city wiih his viCtim o , and when
the wives and children ot the prifor.ers
come to him to expostulate, he compels
them at the point of the bayonet, to
dance and drink, as if displaying savage
triumph at the miseries of their hus
bands and fathers. A few are provoked
to give this Bourdon a drubbing. This
is called the affaflination of a deputy,
and they have expiated their offence on
the fcaffold.”
To the fame faction he aferibes the
war with Spain, England, and Hoi
land.
“ Hostilities with Austria were ine
vitable ; insult and injury had been too
long and too tamely endured from that
power. She meditated attack, and
only waited a favourable moment. It
was the policy of France net to permit
her to choose her own time of attack,
and France declared war.
“ But the war With the maritime
powers may be ascribed to three causes:
The decree of fraternity of the 19th of
November, extorted from the conven
tion by the clamours of the anarchists ;
the useless and impolitic death of Louis,
which afforded to the miniders of these
countries the means of fanatic: [mg the
people against France ; and the ge
neral horror against the unpunished
maftacres of September.
Os thelaft, Thomas Paine, in a work
about to be publilhed, speaks thus :
“ I was in England at the time of the
maflacres of September. Before that
fatal event the principles of
revolution had made rapid progress ;
scarce had the news of those maflacres
arrived, when a general change took
place in the public mind ; all the friends
of France mourned ; they shunned
each other ; they dreaded the melan
choly of each others afpc6f ; they
shrunk from the insolent triumph of
their enemies, and from the exultation
of aristocracy, disguised by a mafic of
lamentation and horror. Thus did all
France; thus did all the principles
and all the friends of the revolution
fuffer from the wickedness of a few p in
dividuals. In vain was it said, that
those who futfered were guilty ! it was
answered that a prison was as sacred as
an altar, and that he who could violate
a prison, is capable of betraying his
country.”—Thus far Thomas Paine.
It was not enough for them, how
ever, thus to second the views of Piq,
and to furnifti him with the means of
alarming and maddening the people of
England into a war. They muff do
the fame service to the ftadholder, and
to the aristocracy of Holland
“ Cambon said to Abbem, (the
Dutch banker, a patriotic refugee at
Paris) “ You have no church lands
to confifcate in Holland, as we found
in Flanders—when we get to Amfler
dam, we muff make a revolution of
port-folios!” Muff not such language
reach Holland, and was it not worth
the ltadtholder an army r”
The war which their absurdities and
crimes provoked has in its conduct been
every where palsied by their incapacity,
and the diftradions which they have
created.
“ A defencelefs frontier and a dis
contented people seemed to invite the
invasion of Spain ; her opulent and
unarmed colonies presented an easy
prey to our marine ; to Louifiana,w hich
had been fold to the Spandh court, we
seemed to owe conquest as a repara
tion ; the Dutch colonies in India
might have been enabled to throw off
the yoke of Holland ; and on the con
tinent a powerful prince, the Mithri
dates of India, vanquiflicd, but n>t
deffroyed, animated wi h an implaca
ble animosity to the Englilh name,
needed only the of a French
force, again to take up arms against
the objeds of his hereditary detestation.
“ In Europe too there are ciicum
(lances, of which ftatefn en of adaii g
and comprehensive genius might have
improved. The obitinate ignorance of
y*coV>uvif v vi f ru'tttod tR> rut]-* o£
Sardinia, that fleet under Truguer,
which, if it had appeared in the Archi
pelago, would have emboldened the
Porte again to arm against Ruflia; to
support Poland; to attempt the re
capture of the Crimea ; and would
thu> have lighted a flame in the east of
Europe which all the efforts of our
enemies would have been scarce able to
extinguish.
“ The Weft India colonies of our ene
mies would have been fufficiently an
noyed by an improvement in the in
ternal regimen of.our own island:.”
This alludes, we presume, to the
cheme for emancipating and arming
their slaves, which was agitated about
nine months ago.
“ Sometime ago Buzot proposed a
aw, that every deputy should give an
account of his fortune, and of the ad
ditions which he had made to it during
the condiment assembly, the legislative
aflembly, and the convention. Had
such a law been pasted, when it came ‘
to my turn, I must have anfwered,—
nothing. It is thus that I would re
fute the calumniator who called me the
illy of Pitt. —An incorruptible charac
ter, evidenced by this honourable po
verty, is the only patrimony I fhali be
queath to my children. This proposi
tion of Buzot was, however, evaded by
the anarchists, and indeed, such an en
quiry would have proved embarrafling
to them. Fabre d’Eglantine, in the
lowed state of indigence before the maf*
facres of September, how came he to
acquire a landed estate of 12,000 livres
a year, and how does he support his
hotel, his carriage, and his fervantsr—
Whence are the sudden fortunes of
Panis, of Sergant, and of so many
others of the ailalTinating commune of 1
Paris ? How fhali we account for the
large eflateslately purchased in the name
of the father-in law of Danton ?”
He concludes in these words,
“ Anarchids, robbers, you may no#
strike—l have done my duty, I have
spoken truths ufeful to my country*
land they will survive me !”