The American herald of liberty — Exeter, N.H., 1794-08-12 00:00:00, page 1

one! after the two campaigns of
176810^1769.
In 1770, the Duc de Choifeui
sent me to Poland, Minister to the
Confederates; and 1 was in two
campaigns, and in negotiations,
of no small magnitude, I was the
hsder, with various success. As
th« affairs of Poland were ill co te
ndered, that revolution ended ill!
a partition of that country epfu
ed.
In 1772, the Marquis de Mon
tignard,.the War Minifter,empldy/
ed me in his department; and at
the end of that year sent me by the
order of Louis XV. to Sweden* on
the Revolution which had happen
* This employment, on which!
had my orders diredly ftgtn the
King himfelf, was known to the
Duc d’Agguillon the Miniftet for
. Foreign Affairs. He had me ar
rested at Hamburg, and conduced
to the'Baftile in 1773 !
Louis XV. naturally weak and
incidentally weakened more by his
mistress La Dubary, and his Min
ister, disgraced the virtuous Mon
tignard j concealed the part he
himfelf had taken in fending ine to
[ The following is the brief, but com
prehensive &etch of M. DuMourier^
Life, made yet more interesting, as being
written by hirnfelf—for few men have
filled a larger space in human attention,
and fewer Rill can have agitated ipore
the various and opposite emotions of
4 hope and fear, of admiration and con
tempt ?—Gallant he undoubtedly was,
and with an enviable disdain of personal
danger^ he never failed to exemplify, un
til his fallj resources no less rare of firft
raVe intellectual parts.^
THE following month (April
1794) my age will be 55.—
Is it immaginable chat 1 can wi(h,
by concealment perhaps scanda
lous, to gee a few days more of
uneafmefs, of bicternefs and (hame.
I was born at Cambray, in the
year ^739. My family were no
ble, but not rich.- My father was
a very knowing, a very virtuous
man. My education was right,
both as to ftri&nefs and extent ;
and when 18 years old, in 1757,
1 went into the army as my trade.
There I was di ft inguifhed without
delay !—when £ was 22 years old,
1 had the military order fLa Croix
de St. Louis) and my wounds like
my years, were 22.
I n 1763 was the peace. Then
I began to travel, with a view for
languages and manners; for mor
al philosophy ever was my favor
ite theme. Thence the vagabond
French fugitives have imagined
that I was occupied as a soy for
the then Adminiftrationof France,
as if there had been in Greece such
vermin as them, {les Marquis) they
would hot have said the fame of
Pythagoras and Plato.
In 176 ft, I was recalled from
Spain and lent toCorfica, where I
was railed to rhe rank of Col-
Volume IX.]
M. Dumourier’s Life.
From a late Englijh paper.
American Herald of Liberty.
Publijbed on Tuesdays, by Stearns Winslow, in Main-Street, Exeter, (New-Hampjbire) at 6^ per annum.
In 1774, Louis XV, died. D’
Agguillon was disgraced. I wrote
to Louis XVI, desiring to be remo
ved from Gagen to the Baftile, and
to be tried The three Ministers,
de Muy, de Vergennes, and de
Sartines, were my Judges,and they
attested the hardship of my case,
that 1 had been per fee need unjust
ly.
As Col. I ■ was sent to Lille,>
with the new military manoeuvres
the Baron de Perich had brought
from Pruflia—with a project of
reform for the river Lys—and a
nother plan then in agitation, for
a port at Ambleteufe. On these
occupations I palled 1774 and
075-
The year 1777 £ lived in the
country, 80 miles from Paris. It
is the only year of repose I have
had. At the end of ic there hap- »
pened the American war, as I had
foretold. And I was according
ly sent for by the war Minister, M.
de Montbakez.
In 1778 I had the command at
Cherbourg, which appeared to me
most favourable for a port on the
channel; and aided by the zeal,
the a&ivity, and the known char
adier of the due d’Harcourt, who
had the government of the prov
ince, we decided the point, above
a hundred years cifputed, viz.-—
That for a military port Cherbourg
was preferable to La Hogue.^-
From that time to 1789, 1 was
wholly occupied there, and never
more than three times at Paris.
Cherbourg, when f found it,
had but 7,300 inhabitants I When
I left it, the population was sq,
obo*
Thb Vagabond^French fugitives
have dared to add, to the former
calumny of my being a spy, anoth
er impdted infamy, viz—-of in
trigues in the war office ! Though
in the whole period of a dozen
years; arid all my journos taken
together* hiy stay at Paris did not •
amount to fix months; and dur/
ing that time I had very little re
forc io Ver failles*
Thus, to fecapkulate* the account
is so;
Twenty two wounds in battle;
Six campaigns in Germany ;
Two ditto in Corsica.
Two ditto in Poland;
Some important negociations.
The creation of a town and
poru
And twenty years (pent in trav-
in >776 I wa§ King’s Commifia
ry with the Chevalier D’Oify, a
Capt. of a (hip, and Field Mar
(hal de Rozicre, a celebrated mili
tary Engineer, on a survey of the
Channel, for the conftru&idn of a
new port.
Sweden, and left me exposed to a
criminal process, which the Duc d’
Agguillon had began ; bur doubt
ing of its being tenable, had not
dared to try. At fix months end
f was exiled to Gaen for three
months !
TUE 8 D A Y, August 12, 1794.
my study. The Princes, by run
ning away had hurt the King’s
cause. The Veto 1 saw would be
ufeiefs, and might be fatal. Though
not a Legiilator, I endeavoured
to undo it, as far as I could.
In 1791, I had the command
from Mentz to Bordeaux. The
war, a war of religion, then raged
*in the Vendee. The refigionifts
’ were burning all before them; I
saved every thing; 1 quieted all
till February 1792, when I was
| called to Paris, and named Lieut.
Gen. and Minister for foreign af
fairs. $
With the war, they reproach
1 me. It was inevitable. Ithadex
ifted long before- ;
For the rest, my opinion* was
for declaring war; The Kkig was
for ft too I The King not only read
my report to the assembly, but he
correded it i the corredions are
in his own hand writing; and his
? Avn speech was written by Him
feV. ' ' '
At three months end, confound
ed by the fadions which raged*
and failing of the King in coun
cil to fan&ion two decrees; I wilh
ed to retire. Retirement was re
fufed. I changed the administra
tion by the King^ order and I took
the department of war.
? But finding that the court had
deceived me, I. would not be the
Minister of intrigue : t foretold to
Louis and his wife every evil which
awaited them, and in three days f
el, and in the study of languages
and politics.
And he then adds a wifb, which
may extend rather wholefomdy to
some other countries on the con
tinent, where there have been cer
tain ingenious gentleman, at the
top of life, with such a ft ate of
talents and accomplishments to
earn a mental livelihood, that they
would not have been certain inge
nious gentleman at the bottom of
life. The wifti is that every man,
who, by birth of wealth, of place,
may be called to support the fame
and welfare of a country, may ren
der hirnfelf qualified, by similar
studies and by similar labours; and
then Revolutions will be no more.
Dumourier thus continues:
Personally I have gained noth
ing—l was among the field
Marshals. I was fureof being
Lieut. Gen. of having a red ribon
was altogether rational and mild ;
for, without intrenching upon liber
ty every excess of liberty into licenti
ousness was punished by law, even
unto death.
On the fuppreflion of the Mili
tary Commandants 1 went to Par
is. There I made the Revolution
The year 1789 was glorious by
the Revolution! Where J was,it
and a command. I had 20,000
livres(800I. sterling; a year. That
was enough for me. But I saw
the (late of France difhonoured
without, ruined within. A destiny
of which Ministers, by my memo
rials had been long forewarned I
Guadaloupe.
OUR readers will remember that the
latell intelligence from this iftand,
was by a letter from Antigua of the 2y\h
of June, which slated the British troops
had taken poiTelhbn of the heights com
manding the Fleur d’Ep?e (in which rhe
French were entrenched) ifeer a dreadful
flaughrer. Bat by Mr. Robert Meafe,
who arrived on Friday, in the brig Betley*
froin Martinico, tihich he left rhe 4th of
July, we learn that two days before the
Ktxbuck of 44 guns, with 175 men, all
of whom had been wounded rn the back,
except one officer in the face, with the
bayonet, in a forte made by the French
from fort Fleur d’Epee, on the 29th June,
upon the Euglifh, who had begun to erett
fortifications on the heights that com
manded' the fort.-—The French troops
maftbed out at 4 o’dock in the morning,
and reserved their fire until- they came
within a few yarEs of the Britilh guns,
when they difeharged their pieces, and
forced their way, under a ih^Wer of bullets.
No accurate accounts had arrived at Mari
tini^ue relpe^iing r-he Joffes on either fide,
bpt the Daughter was immense, and ended,
in the total defeat of the Englilh who
would certaUly have Recaptured.the island,
had they been ablq to have kept their
ground. Thb Roebuck arietta nd ing her
. wounded men, immediately, returned to
' Guadaldupe ^i<h a vaii number of cra
dles, for another Cargo ; many it was said
had been fen rto the military hospitals at
BafTeterre* Guadaloupe and Foit Royal,
Martihito, in a frigate. Gen* Grey had
sent the most prefling demand for a rein
forcement to the British commander at
Martinico, but he could muster but 25 of*
ficers and As many privates. The French
had two fail of the line and threejbr lout
frigates at Poitft Petre, and it Wat univ<fr^
sally fuppoled, that owing to their deter
mined’ perfeverence and the approach of
the hurricanes, the B itifh would rot
succeed in their attempt to capture the Ifl*
and.
Capt. Lawson, in the bfig Fanny, from
Cape Kichola Mole, arrived on Friday left
in 17 days, and brings intelligehce that
markets were low, except for fielh provi
sions, which were extremely fcarc* ; beef
could not be procured, and flour was a gluts
owing to the immense influx from the U
nited Staves. The British troopshad pol
feflion of the town, but the Republicans
The war has been splendidly
fuccefsful to the French. If the
French had shewn equal wisdom
and virtue, peace would have re
turned long ago, Louis would have
lived ; there had been no anarchy,
but France had been glorious and
happy in her constitution.
Such is the rapid (ketch of my
existence ; a (ketch which may fuf
fice, if I cannot finifh the work
and give it to the public. Adieu !
my worthy friend. This is an
important letter $ and as such ic
soothes me; here it is, I wait with
out inquietude, the wilLes of the
Emperor, and decisions of my fate.
My character (ball aflert idelf, and
infteadof weakening,(hall ftrengtb
en by mishap. 1 shall be at all
times, rtiyfelf.
resigned. The vagabond fugitives
(Lej Emigres) have laid that I was
turned out; it is a lie. I resigned
my place, though Louis was ur
gent that it might be otherwift;
though for two days together he
oppoled my rtfignation; and fhu’
when 1 departed, he mingled his
tears with mine.
Domestic Intelligence.
PHILADELPHIA, JULY 26.
[Num be