The life of Napoleon Buonaparte, emperor of the French. By Sir Walter Scott.

LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 49
proper to the class whose costume they had thus own rights-in vain that they resounded in the hall
adopted. Above all, when this sacrifice was made the declaration solemnly adopted, that property was
to the very taste and phraseology of that class (the inviolable, save upon full compensation. It was to
last points in which one would think them deserv- as little purpose that Mirabeau was reminded of his
ing of imitation), it appeared to intimate the pro- language, addressed to the Emperor Joseph upon a
gressive strength of the revolutionary tide, which, similar occasion.-" Despise the monks," he had
sweeping before it all distinctions, trivial as well as said, " as much as you will, but do not rob them.
important, seemed soon destined to overthrow the Robbery is equally a crime, whether perpetrated
throne, now isolated and well nigh undefended. on the most profligate atheist, or the most bigoted
The next step was necessary to fix the executive capuchin.'' The clergy were told with insulting
government in the same body which enjoyed the gravity, that the property belonging to a community
powers of legislation,-the surest of all roads to was upon a different footing fi-om that belonging to
tyranny. But although the doctrine of equality, individuals, because the state might dissolve the
thus understood, is absurd in theory and impossible community or body-corporate, and resume the proin practice, yet it will always find willing listeners perty attached to it; and, under this sophism, they
when preached to the lower classes, whose prac- assumed for the benefit of the public the whole
tical view of it results into an. agrarian law, or a ge- right of property belonging to the Church of/France.
neral division of property. As it was impossible to bring these immense subThere was one order yet remained, however, jects at once to sale, the assembly adopted a system
which was to be leveled, —the destruction of the of paper-money called assigsats, which were sechurch was still to be accomplished; and: the re- cured or hypothecated upon the church-lands. The
publican party proceeded in the work of demolition fluctuation of this paper, which was adopted against
with infinite address, by including the great object Necker's earnest cautions, created a spirit of stockin a plan for restoring finance, and providing for the jobbing and gambling, nearly resembling that which
expenses of the state, without imposing further distinguished the famous scheme of the Mississippi.
burthens on the people. Spelman would have argued, that the taint of saIt must be remembered that the States-general crilege attached to funds raised upon the spoils of
had been summoned to restore the finances of the the church; yet it must be admitted that these
country. This was the cause of their convocation. supplies enabled the National Assembly not only to
But although they had exercised almost every spe- avoid the gulph of general bankruptcy, but to discies of power-had- thrown down and rebuilt pense with many territorial exactions which pressed
every constituted authority in the kingdom, still the hard on the lower orders, and to give relief and
finances were as much embarrassed as ever, or breath to that most useful portion of the community.
much more so; since most men in France judged These desirable results, however, flowed from
the privilege of refusing to pay taxes, the most un- that divine alchemy which calls good out of evil,
equivocal, and not the least pleasing part, of their without affording a justification to the perpetrators
newly-acquired fireedom. of the latter.
Necker, so often received among the populace as Shortly after the adoption of this plan, embraced
a saviour of the country, was here totally at a loss. against his opinion and his remonstrances, Necker
The whole relative associations which bind men to- saw his services were no longer acceptable to the
gether in the social contract, seemed to be rent assembly, and that he could not be useful to the
asunder; and where public credit is destroyed, a king. He tendered his resignation, which was refinancier, however able, resembles Prospero, after ceived with cold indifference by the assembly; and
his wand is broken, and his book sunk in the deep even his safety was endangered, on his return to his
sea. Accordingly, Necker in vain importuned the as- native country, by the very people who had twice
sembly, by representing the pressure of the finances. hailed him as their deliverer. This accomplished
They became wearied with his remonstrances, and statesman discovered too late, that public opinion
received them with manifest symptoms of coldness requires to be guided and directed towards the
and disrespect. What service, indeed, could the ends of public good, which it will not reach by its
regulated advice, and deep-calculated and combined own unassisted and misdirected efforts; and that his
schemes of a financier, have rendered to men, who own popularity had only been the stalking-horse,
had already their resources in their eye, and were through means of which, men less honest, and more
determined that no idle scruple should prevent their subtle than himself, had taken aim at their own
pouncing upon them'? Necker's expostulations, objects.
addressed to their ears, were like a lecture upon But the majority of the National Assembly had
thrift and industry to Robin Hood and his merry- yet another and even a more violent experiment to
men, when they were setting forth to rob the rich in try upon the Gallican Church establishment. It was
the name dof the poor. one w.hich touched the conscieDces of the French
The assembly had determined, that, all preju- clergy in the same degree as the former affected
dices apart, the property of the church should- their fortunes, and was so much the less justifiable,
come under confiscation for the benefit of the aa- that it is difficult to suggest any motive except the
tion. It was in vain that the clergy exclaimed sweeping desire to introduce novelty in every deagainst,these acts of rapine and extortion-in vain- partment of the state, and to have a constitutional
that they stated themeslves as an existing part of the clergy as they had a constitutional king, which should
nation, and that as such they had coalesced with have instigated them to such a measure.
i the assembly under the implied ratification of their Wher the assembly had decreed the assumption
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