rectory, who, by their ambaffador, demanded the immediate difmiffion of the magiftracy, the fecret council, and that of war; and the eftablishment of a provifional government, in which none of their members fhould be admiffible; with many other degrading requifitions. The feeble party of the temporizers for a while loft their afcendancy in the Swifs councils, and 25,000 men were marched to the frontiers of Berne, in three bodies.

General Menard had been fucceeded in the command of the invading army by Brune; difciplined in treachery and crime, by the part he had acted in all the French revolutions. It was the determination of the Directory to augment their force, to be put under him, to 45,000 men, by a detachment of the army of the Rhine. He found means to infpire the government of Berne with the confidence, that peace might be obtained by the conceffions they had already made, and artfully procured a truce of 15 days, to procure the approbation of the Directory to them, in which he affected to intereft himself much. was too late when this fatal error was perceived; but Brune, and the infamous Mengaud, employed the interval in a new fpecies of treachery, to which their fubfequent fuccefs is in great measure perhaps to be afcribed. They circulated reports, they diftributed printed papers every where, among the foldiery and common people, importing that the government were determined upon a revolution; that they had called in the French, and had delivered the people up to them.

It

The danger to which they had betrayed themselves, and the view of the treacherous ufe made of their imbecility, procured another short return of spirit in the measures of their council. General d'Erlach, who commanded the army, was permitted to attack the French at the expiration of the time; but by his departure, and that of his officers, the oppofite faction became the majority in the council, and recalled the powers they had given him. A vote was now paffed, that the government fhould abdicate, and a provifional regency be appointed, according to the declared ultimatum of Brune. When this was fignified to him by an envoy, he added to it a new demand, that the army of Berne fhould be alfo difbanded. The orders for the attack were then renewed, and in two hours recalled again by the council of war. This change had for its cause a new and unparalleled perfidy of the French General: determined to furprise the Swifs before the expiration of the first truce, for which his difpofitions were already making, to lull them entirely afleep, he pretended to prolong it 30 hours. A provifional government, now haftily elected, offered that the Swifs army fhould be difbanded, provided that France should

not

not advance beyond the posts it already occupied ; and Brune, in infwer, demanded that a French garrifon fhould be admitted into Berne.

Twelve hours before the expiration of the first truce, the caftle of Dornach was taken. Thus the French were enabled to turn the right flank of the Swifs army; the carrying of Fribourg, which alfo covered their left, forced them to fall back. At that period, Mr. M. du P. thus ftrongly paints the ftate of the city and the camp, which may fhow, though tranflated, the energy of his ftyle.

"Every hour increafed the public fermentation; the rage of the foldiers increased continually; the cry of treafon spread in the camp, and among the people. The miffionaries of France diffeminated terrors, and inflamed fufpicion. Every one seized his arms, no one knew where to turn them. The army added their officers to the number of their enemies: the officers, victims to the fluctuations of government, had at once to fear the fwords of their troops, and of the affaffins Brune had mingled with them. The nation feemed as in infurrection against the new regency, their military chiefs, and the invader; the tempeft burft from every quarter of the horizon, the capital was menaced within by the Jacobins, and from without by her revolted troops, and thofe of the enemy."

We shall not stop to defcribe the crimes and affaffinations into which the defenders of their country were betrayed; the defeat of one party of them by fuperior numbers alone, or the happier exertions of courage in another, which though glorious, were unavailing; the noble efforts of Steiguer, or thofe of Erlach, and his unfortunate end. Berne was obliged to open its gates to Brune, under a promife of protection to perfons and property; which he fulfilled, by putting the country, for fome leagues round, under more than military execution. Zurich, Lucerne, Fribourg, and Soleure, experienced the fate of Berne; and a contribution of 13,750,000 livres was impofed upon thefe countries. Nothing was able to stop the tide of conqueft, until it was oppofed by the little cantons of the upper Alps, the inhabitants of which fubfift by pafturage. After a war of three weeks, and the lofs of 3000 men, Schawenbourg made a retreat, which he feems to have purchafed by a treaty, by which an entrance into their territory is in future interdicted to all Frenchmen.

The picture of the calamities and errors in Switzerland, Mr. M. du P. juftly fays, in his Preface, is one of the most inftructive that history prefents: and it has found a painter equal to the fubject. The misfortunes of the age. had given him an opportunity of making many previous, ftudies

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BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XIII, FEB. 1799.

ftudies from nature, in order to execute it. He had been not an inactive spectator of the French revolution; and he was a victim to one of Geneva, which preceded it fome years. Hence he was a master of all the fprings and wheels of the modern mechanifm for the fubverfion of legal conftitutions: he had lived among many, and obtained a complete knowledge of most of the actors in the events he defcribes. Poffeffed befide of a penetrating genius, he has delineated each of them with a particularity proportioned to its confequences: his colouring is warm and masculine, but never overcharged.

This hiftory is a complete publication, although given to his fubfcribers as an equivalent for the three first numbers of a periodical work. Of the numbers which fucceeded it, we fhall fo far deviate from our plan of not noticing works of that defcription, as to fay, that they are compofed with the fame ftrength, acutenefs, and research and to the whole we give our Arongest recommendation, as a moft able periodical hiftory, of the most interefting and alarming feries of events and Situations in which polifhed fociety has ever been placed.

ART. VIII. Subftance of Mr. Canning's Speech in the Houfe of Commons, Tuesday, December 11, 1798, on Mr. Tierney's Motion refpecting Continental Alliances. 8vo. 70 pp. Is. 6d. Wright, Piccadilly. 1799.

WE

E have long been among thofe who wifh (and their num ber is not fmall) that the most important Speeches in Parliament were more frequently given to the public on good authority, than has ufually been the practice. The fpeeches of a Minifter, and thofe in his immediate confidence, have this particulas advantage, that they may contain information to which the country at large could have no previous accefs; information often neceflary to remove prejudices, and give their genuine force to truth and to found policy. When we heard, from perfons prefent, of the powerful effect produced in the House by this anfwer of Mr. Canning to Mr. Tierney's propofition, we were among the first to wifh for fuch a publication as the prefent; and were prevented only by an accident from announcing its appearance laft month.

The question, however, though it may pass a little from the minds of the public, after having thus been laid at reft, is not of fo tranfient a nature as to lofe its importance after the first difcuffion. It goes to principles of conduct which must be

permanent, if right; or ought to be wholly discarded, if erroneous. For this reason, we fhall not confider it even now as too late to give a view of the plan and tendency of this speech, with fome fpecimens of its execution.

The motion of Mr. Tierney, againft which Mr. Canning's fpeech was urged, was conceived in the following terms:

"That it is the Duty of his Majefty's Minifters to advise His Majefty, in the present Crifis, againft entering into Engagements which may prevent or impede a Negotiation for Peace, whenever a Difpofition fhall be fhewn on the Part of the French Republic to treat, on Terms confiftent with the Security and Interefts of the British Empire." P. 1.

In answer to this motion, and the fpeech made in fupport of it, Mr. C. begins with a pointed obfervation on the manner in which the latter had been received, even by the friends of the mover; modestly adding, that he fhould not have preffed forward to give the anfwer, had he conceived that the task required the higher abilities of fome who had offered. He obferves, that the mover had not stated any advantages to be expected from his motion, but only employed himself in obviating objections which he anticipated. Mr. Canning allows it to be constitutional for the House of Commons to offer advice to his Majefty, in fuch matters, but fhows that the chief inftances, between the Revolution and the prefent time, were unfavourable to the policy of it. He then enquires into the neceffity of fuch an interference at prefent, and concludes against it from various confiderations, particularly this, that it would be favourable to the interefts, and flattering to the pride of France.

"The declaration conveyed to France by this Motion, that we are ¿determined at all events to treat fingly, would naturally inflame her pride, and increase her demands. The declaration, that we make no common caufe with other nations, would neceffarily place these nations at her mercy, or on her fide." P. 15.

Mr. C. then adverts to the confequences of feparate war, or feparate peace, as propofed by fome politicians; and combats the idea thrown out by others, that however bad France may be, the other continental powers are as bad. The remarks in this place on the practice of thus pairing off enor mities, are pointed and full of wit; nor are thofe lefs fo which follow, against the propofal for a National Seceffion from the caufe of Europe. To the queftion, fo often afked, What is the object of the war? Mr. C. anfwers, the Deliverance of Europe. If they require an explanation of that term, he refers them for it to the Map of Europe; adding, “I do not admire that man's intellects, and I do not envy that man's

But
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feelings, who can look over that map without gathering fome notion of what is meant by the deliverance of Europe." it is contended, that we cannot effect that point alone. which it is anfwered, if other powers will not co-operate with us, what is the ufe of the motion; and if they will, why prevent them? Mr. C. then proceeds to refute the arguments of those who pretend that no continental powers deferve our confidence. It fome have done amifs, he fays, muft all therefore be fufpected: 'or, if fome among them once thought they could confide in France, is it not poffible that they may now be undeceived? On this fubject, the following paffage contains a very ingenious aliufion; the meaning of which it will scarcely be neceffary to point out to any reader.

"I proteft, for one, that if the minifters whom I have mentioned, Baron Thugut, and Count Haugwitz,-nay, if even their mafters, the Emperor and the King of Pruffia, had pledged themselves yet deeper to a miftaken opinion of France; if the forms of the Houfe had admitted of their being brought to your bar, and there, Sir, before God and the Country, fwearing upon their oaths and upon their honour, that they believed-nay, fwearing that they always would continue to believe, that the Government of France was the gentleft, quietest, pureft, nobleft, faithfuleft, beft of Governments;-that It abhorred and detefted above all things, the idea of foreign interference with the goverment of other Countries;-that the character of the Directory had fomething in it of peculiar candour, ingenuity, and openness ;—that they (the witnefles) fpoke to these facts from their own certain knowledge,-for that they had lived upon terms of the most confidential intercourfe with the Directory, and their communication had been almost entirely upon fubje&s of a political nature:-If, I fay, Sir, fuch had been the teftimony in favour of France, given with all the folemnity of an oath, by the great perfonages to whom I have referred;-I fhould yet be willing to allow fome credit to their affeveration, if they were now to come forward and tell us, that the circumftances of the conduct of France fince the time when this teftimony was given,-that, above all, the declarations and confions of France herself, had completely changed their opinion; had detected the fraud which had been practifed upon their judgment, and had convinced them of the profligacy, the atrocity, and the bypocrify of the Directory.

"I fay, Sir, I fhould be willing to give full credit to this penitent retractation. I fhould be willing even to profit by their offers of future co-operation against France. Nor do I well fee on what ground the Hon. Gentlemen could reject fuch offers, unless they are prepared to argue (which if they are, on their own judgments be the refponfibility, I do not prefume to give any opinion for or against fuch a propofition) that no man who has once been contaminated by the communion of French principles,-who has been drawn, however innocently or mistakenly, into an approbation and encouragement of perfons acting upon thefe principles,-can ever again be a found man.'

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