may have been the dupe of a party, or the victim of neceffity; his apparent conduct, we therefore fay, juftifies what our author has fubjoined. He is faid to be plaufible, florid, indecifive, and weak. Two years of adminiftration has not yet furnished one inftance of fuccefs, one concerted plan: perhaps, our author fatirically adds, he was unwilling to make a gap in hiftory,' by foaring above his predeceffors.

The vulgar imagine, that to fill certain pofts nothing is neceffary but to give audiences, to have intelligent clerks and a feat in his majesty's council. It is true that if the emperor could not boast of a Kaunitz, Pruffra of a Hertfberg, Naples of an Acton and England of a Pitt, affairs might ftill proceed without confiderable injury; but to place in the fcale against fuch men, a little, impertinent, ignorant, fuperficial Frenchman, a courtier, fkilled in twifting and untwisting the thread of an intrigue, who changes his opinions every day because he has in reality no opinions at all; fuch a proceeding is one of thofe folemn jefts, to which nations would frequently fall a victim, were it not well known that Providence mends more blots, than knaves and fools are accustomed to commit."

We have admired the force of M. Baillie's imagination, the extent of his knowledge, and the brilliancy of his language; but he is accufed of coldnefs, timid apprehenfion, inequality. Yet his conduct, at a fubfequent æra, was decifive; and a cool obferver cannot forgive the infult of offering the national cockade to the king: this was not a mark of timidity, nor certainly a proof of refpectable attention even to the first magiftrate of a kingdom.

The marquis de la Fayette was the hero of America, and he may perhaps be flattered by the name of the Washington of France. Our author, though a demagogue, does not employ flattering colours in the portrait: Philaretas, fays the portraitpainter, has great pretenfions and trite ideas: he declaims as he conquers; mistakes clamour for glory; the furprise of a cottage for martial victory; the compliment of a fword for an undecaying monument; the language of ceremony for the breath of immortal fame; the routine of promotion for the reward of virtue; and the display of constitutional valour for the confummation of heroifm.' His conduct towards England was, we think, neither honourable por respectful; and, if he wants force of mind, as our author infinuates, England will in the end be fufficiently avenged, for he will fink in the vortex which he has fet in motion. In a word, our author paints Fayette as the flave of caprice, acting without malice or without friendship; bufy without plans, and futile without reflection. His military talents are left in doubt: they certainly were not developed in America.

The

The author foon afterwards draws his own picture; and his glass is not unfaithful: we have already taken his outlines, and they are not very diffimilar from his own sketch. His mind is faid to feize at once the idea from amidst the torrent of declamation, logical diftinctions, or the routine of official phraseology:

• Men's minds are as various as their faces. This man takes his departure from a fingle idea; but he modifies it in a thousand ways, he applies it to a thoufand fubjects, he builds upon it a fyftem of the mosft extenfive application. That man has a strict and fevere logic, he connects diffevered principles, he hangs upon them important confequences, he constantly gives to the truth he would inforce the most irresistible evidence. A third is gifted with a continual flow of ufeful conceptions, that he brings in, as a tribute to the general weal; he enlarges his talent by the honesty of his zeal, and he inforces his zeal by the refpectability of his eloquence. Still another has made mankind his study, in the world, in books, in the midst of important action; habituated to contemplate, he fees the characters of men under all their different appearances; endowed with a felicity of defcription, he paints the most striking likenefies. Iramba identifies himself with thefe four perfonages; he appropriates their facul ties, he increases them from his own ftock, he appears a coloflus. There are many men in Iramba, but you never fee any thing but himself. Surely he, who poffeffes the talent of engroffing human understanding, is entitled to fill the firft fituation! Accordingly his rivals yield to him the palm, and are contented to occupy the fecond place.'

M. Bergaffe was one of the supporters of animal magnetism, and we have occafionally laughed at his creduilty. His character is faid to confift in an anxious defire to be talked of, a wish to be thought eloquent, and this leads him to trifling dif cuffions, in which he difplays little judgment and lefs energy.

But we admire a picture of Titian or Vandyke, though we know not the person; so we are pleased with sound sense, accurate difcrimination, and just reflection, wherever they occur. Before we difmifs this volume, therefore, let us turn it over once more, and point out a few paffages of real merit.

It is not an improper remark, when the count de Mirabeau fpeaks of the abbé Sieyes, one of his chief favourites, whose ftyle is nervous, whofe tone decifive, and whofe thoughts are new, that it would be barbarous' to arraign our first judgment, and enquire whether the ftyle was also clear, the tone kept pace with reason and truth, and the thoughts were just as well as new. The count feems to fneer by employing the word barbarous; but it is to our purpose to remark, that minds of this

0 3

caf

caft are those which are particularly qualified to calm the tumults of a mob, to wield the vast and cumbersome machine of a democracy; to act with firmnefs, decifion, and ability. Thefe qualities formed the most powerful part of Cromwell's character, and their operations were affifted by the most confummate hypocrify it gave to the late lord Chatham the decifive line which he poffeffed, and they were fupported by the undeviating confidence of the public in his integrity. In the following paffage our author is, perhaps, a little fatirical; yet there is much force and propriety in it.

"We never have and never fhall place probity in the list of qualities entitled to our eulogium in this Gallery. We think it proper to fuppofe that all men poffefs it; and we acknowledge, that to us the word fuggefts no diftinct idea, in an age, when probity is become compatible with a total indifference to morals; with the most undisguised and odious felfishness; with a scepticifm, that is perhaps worse than irreligion, fince the former may degenerate into a fyftem, and the latter is at worst but an error of the understanding; with the most unbounded avarice which feeks its gratification in intrigue, and indifferently employs the leaft refpectable means.'

We find it impoffible to purfue our extracts farther; while it is also neceffary to give fome account of the fecond volume. It is a fubfequent publication, and whoever was the author of the former, this fecond we fufpect to be by another hand; or the count, if the first be his, wishes to conceal the share which he had in the fecond. The character of Cneis, fuppofed to be that of the author, is weakly drawn, and has none of the beauties of the count de Mirabeau: we think, indeed, the volume, on the whole, inferior to the first. It contains fome facts so far down as the end of September laft.

The author, in the introduction to the second volume, which probably contains the count's fentiments, and ftrongly resembles his manner, tells us, that the most interesting object of the prefent moment is to have a wife legislation, and this will be facilitated by developing the characters of the legislators. The national affembly confifts of 1200; and, to choofe legiflators, we muft ftrike off from these as many as are only recommended by their violence and the ftrength of their lungs; the interested and eager leaders of either party; the timid, the unftable, the fluctuating, and the rafh. Few perhaps will remain; and from among thefe, which are ftruck off, there will doubtless bé men of found judgment, whofe eagerness may be checked by experience, whofe confidence may be increased by fuccefs; and who may become steady, confiftent, and mild. If an impartial obferver furveys this Gallery, he will fee what we alluded to în

the

the beginning of the article; he will discover the reafon of the irrefolution of the affembly, from the complexion of the members. The outline of the majority fhows timidity, apprehension, and instability: unable to decide, they are the flaves of circumftances; unwilling to direct the veffel, they fuffer her to be carried by winds and currents, careful only left a fudden fquall fhould overfet her, The author afterwards defends his plan of drawing the different portraits; and, while critics are combating the accuracy of the likeness, they add, he thinks, what he had omitted, or correct what he had mistaken, and contribute to the fidelity of the whole.

The characters noticed in the fecond volume are, Mr. de Maupeou, Mr. de Sartine, Mr. le Noir, Mr. de Calonne, maréchal de Caftries, cardinal de Loménie, archbishop of Sens, Baron Breteuil, de Cicé, archbishop of Bourdeaux, count de Saint Priest, marshal de Beauveau, cardinal de Rohan, archbishop of Strafbourg, de la Luzerne, bishop and duke of Langres, abbé Gregoire, duke d'Orleans, duke de Biron, duke de Coigny, marquis du Creft, marquis de Montefquieu, count d'Estaing, count de Lalli Tollendal, vifcount de Mirabeau, Mr. Mounier, Mr. de Chapelier, Mr. Canzalés, Mr. Demeunier, Mr. Pifon du Galand, Mr. de Gouy d'Arcy, Mr. Claviere, Mr. Biozat, Mr. de Volney, Mr. Briffot de Warville, Mr. de Beaumarchais.

M. de Sartine was at the head of the marine-department in the last war; but of his conduct in this respect our author is almoft filent. As lieutenant of the police, the picture is uniformly blackened: venal, fevere, deceitful, unfeeling; the worft administrator of the worst department. His fucceffor in the naval department, M. Caftries, is reprefented as weak, plaufible, and ungrateful; yet, under their management, the fleets of France oppofed thofe of England, not always with fuccefs, but not with the ufual difgrace. Tell us, ye portraitpainters, or ye who are admitted into the interior cabinets, tell us what is the reason that even fuccessful minifters are fometimes weak men? Is it that the oftenfible head of any department has fometimes the least connection with the business? And that their fignature is only neceffary to what is tranfacted by more able fubalterns, in the regular routine of office?

The hiftory of M. de Calonne's early life is only of local importance: his character is drawn with spirit, with energy, and ability:

• Chabrias was qualified, to explain himself with perfpicuity and ease, to infinuate a wholesome and a just opinion without appearing to fuggeft it. He knew the value of temporary expedi

04

ents

ents, and he perceived at a fingle glance the excellencies and the defects of any project that was fubmitted to him. He was one of thofe minifters, whom you may perfuade, but whom you cannot deceive. His coadjutors had fufficient proof of his penetration and his genius. How then did it happen, with all these advantages, that Chabrias did not give birth to the profperity of France? It was because he was a man of urbanity, and de! fired to be at the fame time agreeable and useful.

The man of urbanity is he, who is unwilling to lofe a single fuffrage, who is anxious to be panegyrifed by the women, to be fung by the poets, to be carved by the flatuaries, and to be loved by men of wit. All the fe fucceffes were obtained by Chabrias; but to gain and to fecure them it was neceffary to grant more than he ought to have granted: hence his prodigality. Prodigality forces us upon expedients; expedients give birth to projects; projects are the offspring of excentric minds; and to fuch minds it becomes neceffary to have recourse.'

- Uneconomical in matters of detail, he repaired thefe faults with intereft, by the moti brilliant operations. A bad steward, a good financier, an able minifter, a true statesman; fuch is what he was, and what his country would have found him. But his levity continually expofed him to the adopting without examination men, operations and plans, that tarnifl the glory of thofe wifer meafures, which fprung from his own reflexion and were the children of his own understanding.

What then is the nature of this unfortunate quality, this levity? It is that a man divides his attention between bufinefs and pleasure; it is, that a man gives to affairs a fingle moment, to intrigue whole hours of his time, and devotes his evenings to the fex. It is, that he reads without ftudying, lif tens without reflecting, and argues without judgment and determination. It is, that he prefers the most expeditious methods, that he is disheartened by objections and difficulty, that he dreads to confult men of fevere argument and nice calculation. Witamufes him, gaiety allures, experience tires, timidity fhocks, precautions difguft. He judges with precipitation, he yields to importunity, he is inacceffible to merit. What we call levity is made up of rafh promises, lavish hopes, and vague and incons fiderate propofals.'

The character of the count de St. Prieft, the translator fuppofes to be an ill-managed irony, or an amende honorable, for the accufation of the fecretary before the national affembly. We think otherwife; for the character, we have reason to believe, is not exaggerated in many points, and it is drawn feemingly with the warmth of friendship: this is one of the inftances which occurred to us, when we expreffed our doubts of the fecond volume having been written by the author of the first.

The portrait of the cardinal de Rohan is in a great measure a copy