Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1819-03-18

sion OF their sentFnenfs ON questions SUD-
mitted to them BY The ministry. They
were ii adapted, as Madame de Stae' pro-
foundry remarks, "to time Of pubic agl-
ta.ion, because their opinions. finding no
issue, were carried to a higher state OF ex-
citemeni." The next probationer to NJ.
de Calonne, was the archbishop of Thou
louise, who seems to have been sciolous
and unsteady politician When the par.
lament demanded his account OF the ma
tional receipt and expenditure, The Able
Sabatier exclaimed, ''you demand, gen.
tlemen, the states of receipt and oxpendi-
ture, (etats de recette ct de depence) when
it is the states general tetots generaHr) that
you ought to call for" The author of this
obnoxious remark was imprisoned, but it
served to embody the floating wishes OF the
nation into universal and irresistible de-
sire that the states general should be con-
voked. This assembly not having met
since the year 1914, it became necessary
10 decide whether he orders comprising it,
namely, the clergy, the nobility, and the
tiers etat, should be consolidated, or should
| adopt the practice of that year, by forming
themselves into separate chambers. Ano-
ther important question was, whether the
deputies from each order should be 800, as
in 1914, or the clergy and mobiles retaining
their former number, that OF the tiers etat
should be doubled. To determine these
preparatory points, on which. ifjustice in
stead of precedent lad been Needed, 10
doubt could have rested, Necker now mi
mister again, re-assembed the norables.--
The only division of that body which re-
commended doubling the representatives of
the tiers etat, as that under the presidency
!, of the kings brother, now Louis XVIII.
The opposing opinion of the arstocraticAl
orders was echoed by the parliament Of
Paris.
On the 9Th OF May, 1889, the deputies
of France assembled at Versailles. The
immoralities of many of the clergy having
lessened the public respect for that order;
long peace having rusted the martial
splenior of the nobility; many OF whom
too having been elected deputies q, the
Tiers Etut This portion Of the assembly
possessed decided preponderance. Among
those TO. sakers ef their class, the most re-
markable was the comie de Mirabeau. This
celebrated demagogue, after suffering three
years Imprisonment for a criminal amour,
and consequentially the contempt Of the
nobility of Provence, now brought to the
revolution mind exascerbated by punish
ed guilt, a mortified pride. His portrait
is thus sketched by the eloquent Baroness.
" The opinion entertained of his talents
was remarkably increased by the dread
excited by his immortality ;yel it was that
very immortality that lessened the influence
which his surp ising abilities ought to have
obtained for him. The eye that was once
fixed on bis countenance was notlikely tn lie
soon ithdrawn--his immense head of hair
distinguished him from amongst The rest,
and suggested the idea that like Sampson,
his strength depended on it; bi, counle-
nance derived expression even from its
ugliness and his whole person conveyed
the idea of irregular power but still such
power as we should expect to ,6nd in tri-
bune OF the people. y When Mirabeau
appeared. "a low murrnur was heard Il rough
out the Assembly. He understood its
meaning but stepping along the hall to his
seat with lofty air, he seemed as if
he were preparing to produce sufficient
trouble in the country to confound the dis
tinctions of esteem as well as all others"
vol. Up Ie9-lI0.
At the opening of the States General the
personal virtues Of the king had procured
to him so Obvious popularity, that the
violent derogations from bis authority after
terward enforced by the revolutionary lea
ders, would, perhaps, have been prevent
ed, if the reasonable claims Of the Tiers
Etat b ID BEEN Immediately and sincerely
granted. But the jealous folly Of the aris-
tocrats persuaded Lonis to procrastinate the
order which he baG promised to Necker,
that the three classes of the assembly should
coalesce. This order was at length pub
lished, but after delay long enough for
the indictments to ascertain their strength;
for the Tiers Etat to receive formidable
secessio,, from The clergy and nnhlesse tor