we think only on the means which ought moft powerfully to unite all parties, to restore confidence, and bring back abundance and peace; we will fecond the withes of the true citizens, in caufing the laws to be executed with the greatest firmness and activity. REWBELL, prefident. dom in a flourishing condition; but above all, to restore to them the precious gift of faith. Wherewith, I pray to God, my coufin, to hold you in his holy and worthy keeping. At Verona, the 15th of June, 1795. (Signed) LOUIS. Letter from Louis XVIII. so the arch- Letter from Louis XVIII. to the Pope. bishop of Paris, refiding in Switzerland. My coufin, I have received the letter, which in conjunction with the bishops of Langres, Nifmes, and St. Malo, you have written me in the name of the faithful part of my clergy, refiding at Conftance. I gratefully acknowledge the concern you take in my grief, on account of the deceafe of the king, my nephew; and the attachment you profefs for my perfon. I accept with fubmiffion the burthen which Providence has been pleafed to charge me with; and I thould even accept it with joy, if I might hope to become the inftrument of its mercy, for restoring to the Chriftian kingdom its religion, fo cruelly perfecuted by thofe who ufurp my throne. I charge you to return my thanks to the three bishops, as well as to all the clergy who have expreffed their kindness towards me through you; and tell them, in my name, Verona, 24th June. IT is with the mott lively forrow I inform your holiness of the death of king Louis XVII. my honoured lord and nephew, who on the 8th of this month funk under the preffure of the rigorous treatment which he inceflantly experienced from the affaflins of his auguft father. Become by his death mott Chriftian king, I am fenfible of the obligations which fuch a title impofes upon me; and the first of my cares will be, to make the Roman Catholic religion flourish in my kingdom. Your holiness has long been acquainted with my fentiments of veneration for your perfon, and attachment to the holy fee. You will always find them in the eldest fon of the church, who implores your apoftolic bene-diction. I am, moft holy father, your holiness's very zealous fon, (Signed) Louis XVIII. to offer up the most ardent prayers Anfwer of the Pope to the Letter of to that God, through whom monarchs reign, that he may condefcend to restore to my love my fubjects, and to my fubjects, by my intervention, thofe laws which have fo long maintained my king Pius VI. to our very dear fon in Jefus Christ, Louis XVIII. of France and Navarre, the most . Chriftian king. My My very dear fon, IT was with real regret that we learned the premature death of your illuftrious and unfortunate nephew, with the melancholy circumftances attending it. We have not ceased to invoke Divine Providence, that he may deign to fortify and encourage your majesty, that you may be enabled in thefe times of calamity to fupport the burthen of the crown of your anceflors. The misfortunes and adverfities that have inceffantly preffed upon you fince your departure from France, have been intimately felt by every one. But to thefe misfortunes there is an end Confide then in the infinite mercy of the Almighty; he alone will decide between you and the French people, whether they ought to be republicans, or whether they fhall be fubject to a king. His will, which fhall be freely made known by the people in the new national organization, thall undoubtedly decide upon that heroic facrifice which is worthy to be made by a foul like yours in favour of the repofe of human kind. The unequivocal principles of equity which have fuperfeded the barbarous fyftem of terror under , which France has groaned, give us the reafon to hope that pacific refolutions will be the fulfilment of the defigns of the Almighty. Very dear fon, whatever thefe may be, conftantly depend upon our paternal folicitude, and the tender interest we fhall not ceafe to take in the concerns of the eldest fon of the church. We give your majefty our apoftolical benediction, and pray to God that he will protect your law. Pius VI. PROCLAMATION OF LOUIS XVIII. LOUIS, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, To all our fubjects, greeting. IN depriving you of a king, whofe whole reign was paffed in captivity, but whose infancy even afforded fufficient grounds for be lieving that he would prove a worthy fucceffor to the best of kings, the impenetrable decrees of Providence, at the fame time that they have tranfmitted his crown to us, have impofed on us the neceflity of tearing it from the hands of revolt, and the duty of faving the country, reduced, by a difaftrous revolution, to the brink of ruin. The fatal conformity which subfifts between the commencement of our reign and the commencement of the reign of the Fourth Henry, operates as an additional inducement with us to take that monarch for our model, and imitating, in the first instance, his noble candour, we thall now lay open our whole foul before you. Long, too long, have we had to deplore those fatal circumftances which imperioufly prefcribed the neceffity of filence; but now that we are allowed to exert our voice, attend to it. Our love for you is the only fentiment by which we are actuated; our heart obeys with de. light the dictates of clemency; and fince it has pleafed Heaven to referve us, like Henry the Great, to re-establifh in our empire the reign of 1 of order and the laws, like him we will execute this divine tafk, with the afliftance of our faithful fubjects, by uniting kindness with juftice. Your minds have, by dreadful, experience, been fufficiently informed of the extent and origin of your misfortunes. Impious and factious men, after having feduced you by lying declamations, and by deceitful promifes, hurried you into irreligion and revolt. Since that time a torrent of calamities has rushed in upon you from every fide. You proved faithlefs to the God of your forefathers; and that God, juftly offended, has made you feel the weight of his anger; you rebelled against the authority which he had established, and a fanguinary defpotifm, and an anarchy no lefs fatal have alternately continued to harafs you with inceflant rage. Confider an inftant the origin and progrefs of the evils with which you are overwhelmed. You first configned your interefts to faithlefs reprefentatives, who, betraying the confidence which you had repofed in them, and violating the oaths which they had taken, paved the way for their rebellion against their king, by treachery and perjury towards you: and they rendered you the inftruments of their paflions, and of your own ruin. You next fubmitted to the defpotic fway of gloomy and auftere tyrants, who contested with each other, while the conteft was marked by mutual maffacres, the right of op preffing the nation; and they impofed upon you an iron yoke. You afterwards permitted their blood ftained fceptre to pafs into the hands of a rival faction, which, in order to fecure their power, and to reap the fruits of their crimes, affumed the matk of moderation, which fometimes it lifts up, but which it dares not yet venture wholly to throw afide; and you have changed fanguinary defpots, whom you abhorred for hypocritical defpots whom you defpife. They conceal their weakness beneath an appearance of mildness, but they are actuated by the fame ambition which influenced the conduct of their predeceffors. The reign of terror has fufpended its ravages, but they have been replaced by the diforders of anarchy. Lefs blood is thed in France, but greater mifery prevails. In fhort, your flavery only changed its form, and yourdifafters have been aggravated. You have lent a favourable ear to the calumnious reports that have been propagated againft that antient race which, during fo long a period, reigned as much in your hearts as over France: and your blind credulity has increased the weight of your chains, and prolonged the term of your misfortunes. In a word, your tyrants have overthrown the altars of your God and the throne of your king, and have completed the fum of your wretchedness. Thus impiety and revolt have been the caufe of all the torments you experience in order to stop their progrefs you must dry up their fource. You must renounce the dominion of those treacherous and cruel ufurpers who promised you happiness, but who have given you only famine and death: we with to relieve you from their tyranny, which has fo much injured you, to inspire you with the refolution of fhaking it off. You must return to that holy religion which which had flowered down upon France the bleffings of Heaven. We wish to reftore its altars; by prefcribing juftice to fovereigns and fidelity to fubje&s, it maintains good order, enfures the triumph of the laws, and produces the felicity of empires. You must restore that government which, for fourteen centuries, conftituted the glory of France and the delight of her inbabitants; which rendered our country the moft flourishing of ftates, and yourselves the happiest of people it is our with to reftore it. Have not the various revolutions which have occurred augmented your diftrefs, fince the period of its deftruction, and convinced you that it is the only government that is fit for you? Give no credit to thofe rapacious and ambitious men, who, in order to violate your property and to engrofs all power, have told you that France had no conftitution, or, at leaft, that its conftitution was defpotic. Its existence is as antient as the monarchy of the Franks; it is the produce of genius, the mafterpiece of wisdom, and the fruit of experience. In compofing the body of the French people of three diftinét orders, it traced with precision that fcale of fubordination, without which fociety cannot exift. But it gives to neither of the three orders any political right which is not common to all. It leaves all employments open to Frenchmen of every clafs; it affords equal protection to all perfons and to all property; and by this means, in the eye of the law, and in the temple of justice, all thofe inequalities of rank and fortune difappear, which civil order neceffarily introduces among the inhabitants of the fame empire. Thefe are great advantages; but there are others ftill more effential. It fubjects the laws to certain fpecific forms prefcribed by itself, and the fovereign himself is equally bound to the obfervance of the laws, in order to guard the wildom of the legislature againft the fares of feduction, and to defend the liberty of the fubject against the abufe of authority. It prefcribes conditions to the establishment of impofts, in order to fatisfy the people that the tributes which they pay are neceffary for the prefervation of the ftate; it confides to the first body of the magifiracy the care of enforcing the execution of the laws, and of undeceiving the monarch, if he fhould chance to be impofed upon; it places the fundamental laws under the protection of the king and of the three orders, for the purpose of preventing revolutions, which are the greatest calamities that the people can poffibly fuftain; it bas adopted a multiplicity of precautions in order to fecure to you the advantages of a monarchical government, and to fcreen you from its dangers. Do not your unexampled misfortunes, as much as its venerable an tiquity, bear teftimony of its wifdom? Did your ancestors ever experience the evils which you have borne,fince the hands of ignorant and obftinate innovators have overthrown their conftitution? It was the common fupport of the cottage of the poor, and the palace of the rich; of perfonal freedom, and of public fafety; of the rights of the throne, and of the profperity of the ftate. The moment it was overthrown, property, fafety, freedom, all all ceafed to exift. No fooner did the throne become a prey to ufurpers, than your fortunes were feized by plunderers; the inftant the shield of royal authority ceased to protect you, you were oppreffed by defpotifm and funk into flavery. To that antient and wife conftitution, whofe fall has proved your ruin, we wished to reftore all its purity which time had corrupted; all its vigour, which time had impaired: but it has itfelf fortunately deprived us of the ability to change it. It is our holy ark; we are forbidden to lay rath hands upon it; it is your happiness and our glory; it is the with of all true Frenchmen; and the knowledge we have acquired in the school of misfortune, all tend to confirm in our mind the neceflity of reftoring it entire. It is because France is dear to us, that we are anxious to replace her under the beneficent protection of a government, the excellence of which has been proved by fo long a continuance of profperity. It is because we feel it to be our duty to quell that fpirit of fyftem making, that rage for innovation which has been the cause of your ruin, that we are anxious to renovate and confirm thofe falutary laws which are alone capable of promoting a general unity of fentiment; of fixing the general opinion, and of oppofing an infurmountable barrier to the revolutionary rage, which every plan of a change in the conftitution of our kingdom would again let loofe upon the public. But while the hand of time gives the ftamp of wisdom to the inftitutions of man, his paffions are fudious to degrade them; and they ace either their own work on the VOL. XXXVII. fide of the laws, with a view to weaken their effect, or make it ufurp the place of the laws in order to render them ufelefs. In thofe empires which have attained the highest pitch of glory and profperity, abufes moft generally prevail; because in fuch ftates they are the leaft likely to attract the attention of those who govern. Some abufes had therefore crept into the government of France, which were not only felt by the lower class of people, but by every order of the ftate. The deceafed monarch, our brother and fovereign lord and matter, had perceived and was anxious to remove them; in his laft moments he charged his fucceffor to execute the plans which he had in his witdom conceived, for promoting the happiness of that very people who fuffered him to perifh on the fcaffold. On quitting. the throne, from which crime and impiety had hurled him, to afcend that which Heaven had reserved for his virtues, he pointed out to us our duties in that immortal will, the inexhauftible fource of admiration and regret. The king! that martyr! fubmiffive to the God who had made him a king, followed his example without a murmar, in rendering the inftrument of his punishment a trophy of his glory, and in attending to the welfare of his people at the very time when they were completing the fum of his misfortunes! What Louis XVI. could not effect, we will accomplish! But though plans of reform may be conceived in the midft of confufion, they can only be executed in the bofom of tranquillity. To replace upon its ancient bafis the conftitution of the kingdom, to |