the country to avoid the mortifications which he must have hourly experienced in that capital. On its room. a furvey of affairs in all parts of Europe, on the whole, appearances are pacific. CHA P. II. Diffolution of the parliament of Brittany; a new commiffion appointed in French King goes to Paris, and holds a bed of justice; annuls the arrets in favour of the parliament of Brittany. Execution of Lally. Commotion in Sweden, occafioned by Hoffman. Proceedings of the diet in that country, &c. Affairs of Poland. Great powers, guarantees of the treaty of Oliva, interpofe in favour of the diffi. dents. Violent heats in the diet upon that fubject. Ruffian troops enter the kingdom. The diet breaks up without making the conceffions required. T HE difputes which have fo long fubfifted between the French king and his parliaments, feem nearly fubfided; at leaft they lie dormant for the prefent. The unfortunate parliament of Brittany has been the victim to thefe difputes, having fuffered an entire diffolution. A new commiffion, confifting of fixty members, has been appointed by the King's authority in its room. A fevere profecution was, at the fame time, carried on against the degraded members. However, in the inftant when fentence was to have been paffed against them, the king himself thought proper, by a politic lenity, to put a stop to the procefs, and to publifh letters of amnefty in their favour. By thefe letters they have leave to retire to their own eftates, except M. de Chalotais, and his fon, who are exiled to Saintez, The other parliaments of the kingdom were far from being indifferent fpectators of the fate of their brethren of Brittany; they made use of the most unwearied applications, and the most fpirited remonftrances in their favour. During the vigorous exertions that were made on this occafion by the parliament of Paris, the fudden and unexpected 3d March, arrival of the king in that metropolis, gave 1765. fufficient caufe of furprife and alarm, as well to them, as to the Parifians in general. He was no fooner arrived in that city, than he immediately went to the grand chamber of the parliament, to hold a bed of justice; when the chambers being affembled, he told them, "He was come himself to answer all their remonftrances; that what had paffed in his parliaments of Pau and Rennes, did not any ways relate to his other parlia ments; that he had acted in regard to those two courts, as from his authority it behoved him, and was accountable to nobody. That he fhould not have had any other answer to make to the remon ftrances which had been made to him on the fubject, if their reunion, the indecency of ftyle, the temerity of the moft erroneous principles, and the affectation of [B] 4 new new expreffions to characterife them, did not manifeft the pernicious confequences of that fy item of unity, which he had already prescribed; and which they wanted to eftablish in principle, at the fame time they were bold enough to put it in practice. I will not fuffer (faid his Majesty) an affociation to be formed in my kingdom, which might grow into a confederacy of refistance," &c. March 4. The parliament of Rouen fent a grand 1766. deputation to the king upon the fame occafion. In their remonftrance which accompanied it, they strongly reminded his Majefty of his coronation-oath; from which they infinuated a compact between the king and the people. In the king's anfwer to which, he made ufe of the follow. ing remarkable diftinction, viz. The cath which I have made, not to the nation, as you take upon you to fay, but to God alone, obliges He at the fame time annulled all the arrets that had been made by that parliament, upon the fubject of thofe of Pau and Brit me, &c. to join their respective battalions, and the reft employed in forming the city guard. It remains to be feen, in what manner the Bretons will acquiefce in the jurifdiction of the new commiffion, and what farther effects it may produce in the temper of the parliaments of that kingdom. In the midst of these agitations, the unfortunate Count Lally was tried and condemned by the parliament of Paris, for faults laid to his charge during his command in the Eaft Indies. The affairs of this extraordinary man had engaged much of the public attention. The ruin of the French power in the Eaft-Indies, had involved all who were concerned in their affairs in that part of the world, in the most furious difputes. Things were come to that pass, that either Lally muft fuffer, or many confiderable perfons, the moft ftrongly allied, and the most powerfully protected in France, be exposed to infamy and ruin. This was a bad fituation for an unpopular man and a stranger. This officer petitioned to put off the trial for only eight days, to give his judges time to read his defence, which was refufed, to one who had been kept a prifoner near three years. Sentence was paffed on him the day May 6, after his trial. In three days after he was executed. He was not apprised of the fen- May 9. tence which was paffed against him, till within a few hours of his death. By the arret which the parliament paffed on that occafion, his effects were confifcated to the king ; except the fum of three hundred thousand livres, which was ordered to be distributed among the the poor inhabitants of Pondicherry; and ten thousand more that were to be laid out in bread, for the prifoners in the Conciergerie. This unfortunate victim of his own pride and rafhnefs, and of party-refentment, was gagged at the place of execution, under pretence, that he had attempted to choke himself with his tongue. He had indeed made fome fruitlefs attempts upon his life, which might have given fome colour to this proceeding; but it was fuppofed the real motive to this extraordinary act, was to prevent his attefting his innocence to the people; who were much affected, as well at his fentence, as the manner of executing it. The rage of the parliament purfued him even after death, and would not fuffer his being buried according to his rank. They alfo iffued a fevere arret against those who should conceal any part of his effects. It was remarkable upon this occafion, that no particular crime was fpecified in the fentence against Lally, but a general accumulative charge, in which treafon was comprehended, but the particular overt acts not specified. He made his defence with great prefence of mind, eloquence, and precifion. The public, though far from exculpating this unfortunate gentleman, thought they faw many circumstances attending his trial and execution, which it was impoffible not to object to. The incompetency of the judges, is among this number; as decifions upon the merits of military opera tions, feem to be entirely out of the sphere of the gentlemen of the long robe. The precipitancy alfo of his fentence and execution, the circumstances of cruelty that at tended them, and the violent fpirit of party which appeared thro' the whole profecution, do not ferve to improve our opinion of the coolness or temper of the tribunal which condemned him. Upon the whole, while this trial, as well as fome others, which late years have produced in France, give but very indifferent ideas of the ftate of juftice in that kingdom, they ferve to make us more fenfible of the bleflings of a free conftitution, where the meanest perfon must be tried, for every crime, by his peers, and no fentence can pafs, without fome particular crime is fully proved, the degree of punishment for which is affixed by fome known and pofitive law. An odd commotion happened this year in Sweden; which as it was begun without any feeming plan or defign, so it ended without any other confequence than the execution of a few of the ringleaders. One Hoffman, who was what they call, in that country, a rufthalter, that is, a peafant who occupies a farm belonging to the crown, and is thereby obliged to maintain a trooper and his horse, had been elected by the peafants of the diftrict of Weden, in the government of Elfsbourgh, as their deputy, to represent them at the diet. The order of Peasants refufed to admit him, because they knew he was of a reftleís difpofition and turbulent fpirit. It is impoffible to fay how far this reafon (the only one aligned in the public accounts) was valid, (agreeably to the Swedish conftitution), to exclude him from the feat to which he had been elected. It is certain that he thought himfelf highly injured, and determined on on revenge. For this purpofe he affembled fix hundred peafants, with defign to march directly to Stockholm. On his arrival before Boras with his troops, he wrote a letter to the regency of that town, in the fame terms which a general makes ufe of when he fummons a fortress. But when he heard that troops were in march against him, and had cut off all hopes of a communication with Stockholm, his heart failing him all at once, he ftole away from his company in a cowardly manner, and hid himself in a wood. The peasants whom he had feduced, irritated at his abandoning them on the first glimpfe of danger, and being now fenfible of the illufion, feized, and delivered him into the hands of the Baron de Poffe, the governor of thofe quarters. That nobleman having made a proper inquiry into the affair, fecured twelve of the ringleaders, and fuffered the reft to return quietly to their habitations. An extraordinary commiffion was eftablifhed at Stockholm, to try the delinquents. Hoffman was feveral times put to the torture, which could extort no difcovery of accomplices from him; though it is faid he confeffed, that his defign was to overturn the whole frame of government. At length he and two more of the ringleaders were hanged; fome of the rest were fent to work on the fortifications, and others whipt. A general pardon was granted to the reft of the peafants, many of whom, the account fays, were drawn to affemble themfeives without well knowing what purpose was intended. The diet of this year was full of vigour. They attended with un common diligence to the interior affairs of their country. They made feveral economical regulations of great confequence. One of the most confiderable fell upon the revenues of the church. This regulation deprived the clergy of a tenth, which they had raised for time immemorial on fome of the king's eftates. This tenth had been originally granted, to enable the clergy to exercife hofpitality; but the other three orders of the diet, being now of opinion that it was not applied to that purpofe, or that the purpose itself was longer of national importance, they united this revenue to the other funds of the flate. no They alfo recalled a great numher of penfions which had been granted by former diets. But œconomy like all other virtues, when carried to an extreme, may degenerate into a vice. The diet reduced to a thousand crowns, per annum, the penfion that had been granted to the celebrated Count Teflin, who is now in the 74th year of his age; had been governor to the prince royal, ambaffador to feveral courts, prime minifter, and was twice marshal of the diet; all which offices he had difcharged with the greatest honour, and was equally eminent for his talents and integrity. This circumftance is however (it is hoped) fome proof of the overthrow of the French faction in that kingdom, as the Count had been always the great fupporter of that party and fyftem. A remarkable incident happened at the breaking up of this active dict. One of the deputies of the order of pealants, who had af fifted fifted at it, was on his return home arrefted by his conflituents, in order to bring him to an account, how he became poffeffed of a large fum of money, amounting to feveral thousand dollars, which were found in his cheft. This manner of process feems very extraordinary, and tends to excite in a native of this country, an odd opinion of the fpirit of the laws and conftitution of Sweden. ing powers wanted to go back to the spirit of the treaty, without any regard to thofe intermediate conftitutions, which were not only in direct violation of it, but had been made in troublesome and unfettled times; while, on the other hand, the Poles infifted on the strict obfervance of their laws, of which the conftitutions are now a part. 1766. The memorials we have taken notice of, were unfortunately far from producing the defired effect. On the opening of the ift Sept. diet, the Bishop of Cracovia (or, as latter accounts fay, the Bishop of Wilna) declared in an inflammatory fpeech, "That the first point of the Pacta conventa, ordains the maintenance of the Catholic religion that, according to the laws of the kingdom, nothing could be granted to the diffidents; not even the toleration of their worship; and that they had violated the laws of the republic, by applying to foreign powers for protection. He then read a plan for a law, enjoining that the republic fhould never grant to the diffidents any other privileges than what they now enjoy; aad demanded, whether the two chambers unanimously agreed thereto. The ftates answered him by a general acclamation. The king, however, found means to fufpend the execution of this plan for the prefent, and had it deferred, till it fhould come in due course, along with the other new laws that were to be proposed to the diet. The diffidents of the kingdom of Poland, by which name are diftinguished the members of the Greek and reformed churches in that country, having laboured under divers oppreffions and difcouragements, applied to the great powers, who are guarantees of the treaty of Oliva, to ufe their mediation with the king and republic in their favour. In confequence of these applications, the courts of Petersburg, Berlin, Great Britain, and Denmark, prefented memorials ftrongly in their favour, to be laid before the diet at its opening. It may not be unneceffary to premife, for the better underftanding of the following debates, that, by the treaty of Õliva, the diffidents, who are a numerous body in that kingdom, were to be fecured in the free exercise of their religious rites, and in the poffeffion of all fuch privileges as they had enjoyed before that time. In the changes which have fince happened, in that fo often unfettled kingdom, various conftitutions, according to the temper of the times, have been paffed against the diffidents, which have been more or lefs enforced, in proportion as In the mean time, fome Ruffian the fame temper happened to be vi- troops advanced within a few miles plent or moderate. The mediat- of Warfaw; and new declarations were |