tive anniversaries
has ever in the sense of mankind been held the best method of keeping
alive the spirit of any institution. We have one settled in London; and
at the last of them, that of the 14th of July, the strong discountenance
of government, the unfavorable time of the year, and the then
uncertainty of the disposition of foreign powers, did not hinder the
meeting of at least nine hundred people, with good coats on their backs,
who could afford to pay half a guinea a head to show their zeal for the
new principles. They were with great difficulty, and all possible
address, hindered from inviting the French ambassador. His real
indisposition, besides the fear of offending any party, sent him out of
town. But when our court shall have recognized a government in France
founded on the principles announced in Montmorin's letter, how can the
French ambassador be frowned upon for an attendance on those meetings
wherein the establishment of the government he represents is celebrated?
An event happened a few days ago, which in many particulars was very
ridiculous; yet, even from the ridicule and absurdity of the
proceedings, it marks the more strongly the spirit of the French
Assembly: I mean the reception they have given to the Frith Street
Alliance. This, though the delirium of a low, drunken alehouse club,
they have publicly announced as a formal alliance with the people of
England, as such ordered it to be presented to their king, and to be
published in every province in France. This leads, more directly and
with much greater force than any proceeding with a regular and rational
appearance, to two very material considerations. First, it shows that
they are of opinion that the current opinions of the English have the
greatest influence on the minds of the people in France, and indeed of
all the people in Europe, since they catch with such astonishing
eagerness at every the most trifling show of such opinions in their
favor. Next, and what appears to me to be full as important, it shows
that they are willing publicly to countenance, and even to adopt, every
factious conspiracy that can be formed in this nation, however low and
base in itself, in order to excite in the most miserable wretches here
an idea of their own sovereign importance, and to encourage them to look
up to France, whenever they may be matured into something of more force,
for assistance in the subversion of their domestic government. This
address of the a