What hardy pencil of a great master from the school of
the rights of man will finish it is to be seen hereafter. The age
has not yet the complete benefit of that diffusion of knowledge that
has undermined superstition and error; and the king of France wants
another object or two to consign to oblivion, in consideration of
all the good which is to arise from his own sufferings and the
patriotic crimes of an enlightened age.*
* It is proper here to refer to a letter written upon this subject
by an eye witness. That eye witness was one of the most honest,
intelligent, and eloquent members of the National Assembly, one of the
most active and zealous reformers of the state. He was obliged to
secede from the Assembly; and he afterwards became a voluntary
exile, on account of the horrors of this pious triumph and the
dispositions of men who, profiting of crimes, if not causing them,
have taken the lead in public affairs.
EXTRACT of M. de Lally Tollendal's Second Letter to a Friend.
"Parlons du parti que j'ai pris; il est bien justifie dans ma
conscience.- Ni cette ville coupable, ni cette assemblee plus coupable
encore, ne meritoient que je me justifie; mais j'ai a coeur que
vous, et les personnes qui pensent comme vous, ne me condamnent
pas.- Ma sante, je vous jure, me rendoit mes fonctions impossibles;
mais meme en les mettant de cote il a ete au-dessus de mes forces de
supporter plus long-tems l'horreur que me causoit ce sang,- ces tetes-
cette reine presque egorgee,- ce roi,- amene esclave,- entrant a
Paris, au milieu de ses assassins, et precede des tetes de ses
malheureux gardes.
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