“The event which has pressed upon me with more weight than
almost any other I ever as yet experienced, either of a public or private
nature, is the execution of the Deputies in France,—
LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. | 111 |
“Wherever the sense of a whole community can be peaceably taken, the insurrection of a part is treason. This forms the distinction between the destroyers of the Bastile and the heroes of the 10th of August, or their rivals of the 2d of September.
112 | LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. |
“As to the great point which the French think they have
gained by the destruction of their monarchy, I think it of little consequence;
not that I am become a believer in the maxim, that ‘whate’er is
best administered is best,’ but because I think that a monarchy
is capable of being as well constituted for the happiness of a people as a
republic. And though, I hope, not superstitious, I cannot help thinking that
the voluntary and solemn oath of a whole nation, to abide by a constitution
which they took three years in framing, ought, if there be any thing serious or
binding in human affairs, to have some weight. I will not trouble your Lordship
with my feelings on the conduct of the French rulers subsequent to this
shocking event. The horrid industry employed in the discovery of the other
proscribed Deputies, the deliberate mockery of their trial, and the bloody
indifference of the people at large, on the execution of such men as Rabaut, who first rescued them from despotism,
freezes my affections, and gives me a dislike, not only to the French, but to
my species. Sorry am I to say, that this dislike is not much removed by any
thing I can see in my own country, where the same selfish and slavish spirit
that has contributed to bring on the enormities of France is apparent in the
prosecution of all those who aim, by a cool, rational, and deliberate reform,
to prevent a similar catastrophe here. With
LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. | 113 |
“I cannot conceive what can be the views of the people
assembled in Edinburgh, under the name of the British Convention; but the whole
is so ill-timed, and so ill-conducted, that I should easily be persuaded it was
intended to bring additional odium on the cause of reform, did I not know, that
one person appeared amongst them whose motives are beyond suspicion. I mean
Lord Daer, whom I have seen in
Liverpool, and whose heart, I am sure, is right. Why has he committed himself
in such a business, and nipt his usefulness in the bud? Great harm has been
done by the doctrine, so industriously inculcated by a sect of which I am a
professing member, that whatever is ultimately right is to be pursued at all
times. Perhaps, however, this arises rather from a misapprehension of the
precept, than from the precept itself. It might be admitted in its general
purport, but then, what-
114 | LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. |