Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366, April, 1846Various
History
Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366, April, 1846
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
"I am charged to notify to you, sir, that the character with which
you have been vested at this court, and the functions of which have
been so long suspended, being now utterly terminated by the fatal
death of his most Christian Majesty, you have no more any public
character here, the King can no longer, after such an event, permit
your residence here; his Majesty has thought fit to order that you
should retire from this kingdom within the term of eight days. And
I herewith transmit to you a copy of the order, which his Majesty,
in his Privy Council, has given to this effect. I send you a
passport for yourself and your suite, and I shall not fail to take
all the necessary steps, in order that you may return to France
with all the attentions which are due to the character of
minister-plenipotentiary, which you have exercised at this court. I
have the honour to be, &c.
"GRENVILLE.
"Dated Whitehall, Jan. 4, 1793."
On the opening of Parliament, in January 1794, a debate of great
importance commenced on the policy of the war. On this occasion, Lord
Mornington and Sheridan took the lead in the debate, and both made
speeches of great effect. Lord Mornington's speech was published under
his own inspection immediately after, and it still remains among the
most striking records of the republican opinions, and the mingled
follies and blasphemies of a populace suddenly affecting the powers of a
legislature. Every thing in France, at this period, was robbery; but
even the robbery exhibited the national taste for "sentiment." Their
confiscation of property was pronounced to be, "not for the sake of its
possession," but for their abhorrence of the precious metals. Lord
Mornington, in the course of his speech, read extracts of a letter from
Fouche, afterwards so well known as the minister of imperial police, but
then commissioner in the central and western departments. In this
sublime display of hypocrisy, Fouche pronounces gold and silver to have
been the causes of all the calamities of the republic. "I know not,"
says he, "by what weak compliance those metals are suffered to remain in
the hands of suspected persons. Let us degrade and vilify gold and
silver, let us fling those deities of monarchy in the dirt, and
establish the worship of the austere virtues of the republic," adding,
by way of exemplification of his virtuous abhorrence, "I send you
seventeen chests filled with gold, silver, and plate of all sorts, the
spoil of churches and castles. You will see with peculiar pleasure, two
beautiful crosiers and a ducal coronet of silver, gilt." But the portion
of his speech which attracted, and justly, the deepest attention, was
that in which he gave the proofs of the dreadful spirit of infidelity,
so long fostered in the bosom of the Gallican church. An address, dated
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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