says that the pretended succours of men from the departments of the north, consist only of old men and children, who, so far from being useful, serve only to increase the confusion and consume the provisions. He declares, that if order and discipline be not restored-that if fifty authorities, each more absurd than the other, continue to direct all political and military operations, France is lost; he declares, that he, with a small number of brave men, would bury themselves under the ruins of their country. He affirms that it is impofsible for him to stop the progress of the enemy, who, without amusing themselves with sieges, may, with an army of 20,000 cavalry, lay waste and reduce to ashes all that part of the country which is in the neigh‐ bourhood of Paris. Dumourier concludes this melancholy representation of the state of affairs, with bestowing eulogiums on the clemency and moderation of the Austrians, which were entitled to the more praise, as from the example of cruelty and outrage which the French had exhibited, a very different conduct on their part might have been expected. I, (says he,) have always affirmed, and I repeat it, that a Republic can only be founded on virtue, and that freedom can be maintained only by order and wisdom. These letters, conjoined with the news of successive defeats, and the retreat of the army, occasioned great discontents, and excited much distrust against Dumourier and his officers. An order was issued to bring General Miranda to answer at the bar of the National Convention. Which summons he immediately obeyed; but on the arrival of the Commissioners from Belgium, they represented the conduct of Dumourier in such terms as set the whole Convention in a blaze.

CAMBACERES gave an account of the proceedings of the Commifsioners of the Executive Power. Arrived at Valenciennes, they learned that General Dumourier was at Tournay. They repaired thither, and found him with Madame Sillery, with Pamela Egalite, and Valence. He was surrounded with deputations from the district of Cambrai. The inter view was violent. Dumourier expressed himself in terms of invective against the Jacobins, "They will ruin France, (said he,) but I will save it, though they fhould call me a Cæsar, a Cromwell, a Monk." The Commifsioners carried the conversation no further. They departed, and returned next day, determined to dissemble, in order the better to discover the extent of his views. Encouraged by their overtures, Dumourier no longer kept any bounds. He said that the Convention were a herd of ruffians, whom he all equally held in abhorrence. That all the volunteers were poltroons; but all their efforts would be in vain. "As for the rest,

(added he,) there still remains a party-the Jacobins have only to cover with their bodies the survivors of the royal family, and to dismifs the Convention. If the queen and her children are threatened, I will march to Paris; it is my fixed intention; and the Convention will not exist three weeks longer." He then details a great many questions and answers in which Dumourier is represented as speaking of the Convention in terms of the highest contempt, and treating the Commissioners with the most haughty insolence. The Convention instantly took fire at this, and proposed that Dumourier should be put under arrest; but before that time he had arranged matters with some of his officers, and carried his army back into France, where

he soon received intimation from his friends of the plots laid to ruin him A decree ordering him to appear at the bar was carried against him in the Convention, and Bournonville, with five of its members, accompanied by a Secretary, were ordered to bring him a prisoner to Paris.

Of this he was informed before the Commifsioners reached his army, and took measures accordingly.

It was the opinion of his friends, that, even independently of the intelligence he had received, the Convention, as a body, had shewn an imbecility and weakness on almost every occasion, that proved them altogether unqualified to legislate for France, which they had brought to the brink of destruction. It was agreed that means should be followed to impress the army with proper sentiments respecting the conduct of the Convention, in numerous instances, and particularly towards their General, who had shared every danger with them, whose valour they had all witnessed, and whose good conduct alone had preserved them from entire destruction, and enabled them to make a good retreat from a country which had received them as friends and brothers, but which had become their enemy by the exactions levied by order of the Convention, and the constraints put upon their freedom, after the honour of the French nation had been pledged that they fhould be left at free liberty to choose their own form of government.

The army, by the readiness with which they agreed to support their General, fhewed, that before it was proposed they were almost to a man inclined to put an end to the tyranny of the Convention. Want of individual.confidence alone had prevented them from proclaiming their sentiments to each other before.

The general voice was for restoring, with a few modifications, the constitution decreed by the first or constituent assembly, viz. a limited monarchy.

It is even believed that some of the Commissioners themselves approved of the measure.

When the Commissioners, on the 1st of April, reached the army, they were put under arrest, and sent next day with an escort to the Austrian army, as prisoners of war, and hostages for the safety of the royal family.

In the letter which Dumourier sent with them to General Clairfait, he calls the dauphin the young king, and offers some of the frontier towns as a security that he would perform the promise he had made, to overthrow the Convention, and restore a monarchical government,- -The following letter puts this transaction beyond a doubt,

Copy of a letter from his Excellency General Clairfait to M. Comte Starenberg, imperial minister at the Hague, dated Tournay, April 2.

"I lose not a moment in communicating to your Excellency what M. Dumourier has just written to me, when he sent to our camp eight or nine prisoners this morning, four of whom, with General Bournonville, he says, were specially commifsioned by the National Convention to arrest and con

duct him a prisoner to their bar, and, on any resistance on the part of Du mourier, to have him afsafsinated on the road :-"But (adds the writer,) "I bave been before hand with them, in securng these commissioners and their deputies as MY prisoners." These he has sent under a strong escort to the Prince de Coburg, after having put seals on their papers, &c.

"M. Dumourier transmitted me at the same time the inclosed list of the prisoners, and concludes by saying, "That he was that instant about to move with this trusty part of his army, in order to destroy all those who may further oppose themselves to the public good of France, and to give to that distracted kingdom permanent peace and tranquillity.'

"I have the honour to be your Excellency's, &c.

CLAIRFAIT."

List of prisoners referred to above: Bournonville, a General in the army, and War Minister. Memoire, a captain of Hufsars, his aid-du-camp. Villemure, Secretary Commifsioner of the War Office, Camus,-Lamarque,→ Quinette,-- Henri Brucal, ditto.-Faucard, Secretary of the Commission. These prisoners have been since lodged in the citadel of Maistrecht.

It is believed that Dumourier marched directly for Paris, and that Valenciennes and Lille are put into the possession of the Austrians, who are said to wait there in readiness to act as occasion fhall seem to require.

It has been confidently reported that Dumourier was fired upon by some unknown person among his own troops, and narrowly escaped being shot, on which he went off with a single regiment of horse, as was supposed, to join the Austrian army. It now appears that he joined the Austrians at Mons, accompanied with young EGALITE, who has now afsumed the title of the duke of Chartres. Dumourier, though deserted by his own army, proposes still to raise another army of royalists in France; but whether he may not here also be disappointed a little time will show.

A better idea may be obtained of the present state of mens minds, and the actual state of things in Paris from the proceedings of the Convention, and Clubs, than from any accounts transmitted by individuals. The following particulars are selected with that view; and exhibit a most striking picture of the horrible state of desperation that there prevails,

National Convention-March 30th.

DANTON" The patriots are opprefsed by the aristocracy. It is meant to murder them, by making the people believe that they have been tampering in Dumourier's plot. (He was interrupted by a vehement agitation in the Convention, and afterwards proceeded)-You reproach me, you who sit on the mountain, with not exerting all the energy of character which nature hath bestowed upon me. You accuse me of weakness. Very well! I confess my error, and I proclaim before all France that those who through stupidity or weaknefs meant to withdraw the tyrant from the sword of the law, are the same men who indulge in the insolent practice of calumny. I am reproached with not repairing to the Committee at the moment of my return from Belgium-How could I?-Overpowered with fatigue, after pafsing several nights without rest, was it not natural to yield to this first call? Scarcely had I obtained a few hours of repose, when I repaired to the Com mittee, and I call to witnefs all who were present what were my first words,

** Dumourier must be watched. Dumourier is a traitor. Dumourier bas said that the Convention consists of four hundred fools, led by three hundred ruffians.

*But Dumourier wishes for a king, and Danton is suspected of having been his partner in this audacious, this criminal idea-Danton, who, if I may say so, led the tyrant to the scaffold. But let us cease to impute to innocence a crime, of which those only who had the wickedness to keep terms. with Louis can alone be reasonably suspected,-those who endeavoured to exasperate Dumourier against the popular societies-those who wished to punish the civism of Paris,, by arming the departments against it-those who at clandestine suppers concerted plans of conspiracy with him. I defy. the traitor to produce a single line of mine that can compromise me with him. If he can, let my head pay the forfeit." He concluded with propo.. sing to levy fifty thousand men for the protection of Paris; and that the commifsion above decreed should take cognizance of all the deputies since the opening of the Convention, and of all publications against the unity of the Republic, &c.

OSSELIN, from the Committee of Surveillance, announced that a great number of deserters were flocking to Paris. He read a declaration of the Commandant of the light cavalry of Calvados, denouncing Dumourier and his aid du camp Baptiste, formerly his valet de chambre. The Convention passed a decree for apprehending at the barriers of Paris all military men who fhould not produce leave of absence.

Decree that Baptiste be put under arrest.

Commune of Paris.

On the 25th of March, Chaumet informed the Council General of the Commune that the prisoners in the Temple being asked if they had any complaint to make against the persons who attended them, said that they had great reason to be satisfied with the conduct of the Commifsioners in the Tower; and that they wished only for a door of communication between their apartments. A person was appointed to examine whether or not this request could be granted. On the 26th, one of the Commifsioners accused his colleagues of conversing familiarly with the prisoners; and on the 1st of April, the Council General ordered that none of the Commissioners at the Temple should hold familar conversation with the prisoners, nor execute any commifsion for them; that two Commifsioners fhould be constantly with them; that no Commifsioner should read or receive any letters from them, which had not been previously read to the Council of the Temple; and that when the prisoners should walk on the platform of the tower, they should always be accompanied by three Commifsioners and the Commandant of the post.

The clubs now exercise both the legislative and executive functions of government, and while they dictate to the deliberations of the Convention, ifsue their mandates with all the imperiousness of constituted authorities. In the club of the CORDELIERS, it was resolved on the 26th of March that DuMOURIER and the other commanders of the army fhould be brought to Paris in order to be tried; "and if, (cried some of those present,) they escape the tribunal, they shall not escape us.

Sitting of the Jacobins --March 25.

A violent debate arose on the question, Whether the Society ought not to send Commifsioners chosen from its own members to accompany those of the Convention into the departments?

BENTABOLE Communicated to the Society the bad news received from Belgium: 800 million of

1

An administrator of the department of Deaux Severes, after mention ing the troubles by which the territories of the Republic are desolated, cried out, "Rise! your enemies are in the midst of you-crush them, or they will crush you! The people can only save themselves. Let them then-it is time !-Remember the 10th of August-March! You have not a moment to lose."

HERBERT." The counter revolution is in the Convention. Your Legis. lators are your tyrants-they are in concert with the Generals and the Executive power. Let the people then rise. The Convention, instead of saving, mean to betray us." [Several voices from the galleries here cried out, No more quarter-let us rise and strike !]

Let the Mountain

Another member.-Let us proceed to the Convention be in force, and let them say to the people, here are your friends-there are your tyrants. This insurrection must be the last, for such fhocks exhaust the machine; the blood of your enemies must run in large streams. At the same hour, on the same day, in all the towns, in all the villages, all the hamlets, and all the cottages throughout the kingdom, the heads of conspirators must roll in the dust."-Applauded with much transport.

March 27.

ROBERSPIERRE." The only means of saving ourselves are to declare war against our enemies, as they have declared war against us. Let us remember the 10th of August. Let us not go to ask the Convention whether it will save us -Yes, it will, but we must second it. I propose then, that all foreigners be banished-all the agents of the cabinets of Vienna and Berlin-all suspected persons.-You will afk me how they are to be discovered? Let a Revolutionary Committee, composed of warm patriots, be established in each Section. Banish from these Sections all the ci-devant nobles, priests, &c."-Applauded.

Several members proposed different measures of general safety, but all agreed on the necessity of a new insurrection.

BorssEL." As the law is not executed, the people must do justice to themselves."

can.

March 31.

MARAT." Act with energy and courage. Behave like a true republiDo as I fhall do. If the enemy enter France, I fhall draw my poignard and fall upon the traitors. [Here Marat drawing a dagger from his bosom, brandifhed it in his hand.] I am determined to die rather than bend the knee. The despair of liberty will give me death. I propose that a considerable number of such arms fhall be manufactured and given to all citizens of known patriotism, who are not aquainted with military evolutiOns. Let us set on foot a subscription for this purpose. I myself fhall make. the first sacrifice to it."-This was adopted, and the subscription agreed

to.

April 1.

ROBERSPIERRE made a long speech on the conduct of Dumourier, and mentioned the dangers to which liberty was exposed; but which, however, he observed, would appear more glorious after the severe proofs to which it had been put. "Some speak of giving you a king, (said he,) but it is not known that the fairest laurels which bind your brows, were plucked from the grave of the last of the Capets? and certainly no one will tear from you that mark of triumph, but with your lives."-He concluded with moving, that all the members of the family of Capet, as well as all the -devant nobles and priests, fhould be expelled.-Adopted.