To the Printer of the PUBLIC ADVERTISER.

SIR,

Feb. 25, 1790.

HEREWITH I send you a tranflation of a long note in the account lately published by the Count of Lally TOLENDAHL, a very eminent Member of the National Affembly of France, of his conduct in that capacity, and of his reasons for refigning his feat in that affembly in October laft, when the King of France was forcibly taken from Versailles by the democratic party now prevailing in France, and was carried to Paris. This gentleman was a deputy of the nobility of the district of Dourdans, and feems to be a very fincere lover of his country, and of a moderate and well-regulated system of liberty, as well as to be a man of great abilities, and very extenfive information on political fubjects. His work is exceedingly curious, and very worthy of the perufal of every person who has any defire of being informed of the proceedings of the French National Affembly; and it seems to me to prove, that the account given of the late proceedings in France by Mr. Burke, in the Houfe of Commons, a few days* ago, is agreeable to the truth; a highly democratical fpirit does prevail there, and the Members of the National Affembly are overawed by it, and dare not act in oppofition to it; and too many acts of a bloody, ferocious, and tyrannical nature, have been committed by the common people against the Nobility, or rather, Gentry, of the country, in many different provinces of the kingdom. Some of the most remarkable of thefe acts are specified in the note of which I herewith fend you a tranflation, the infertion of which, in your useful * On the 9th of February, 1790.

paper,

paper, may not only ferve as a vindication of Mr. Burke's affertion, but will convey fome important and entertaining information on this interefting fubject to your numerous readers.

I am, Sir,

Your humble fervant,

VERUS.

F. M.

Tranflation of a Note in the Letter of the Count of LALLY TOLENDAHL, a late Reprefentative of the Nobility in the French NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, to his Constituents in the Bailiwick of Dourdans, giving an Account of his Conduct in the faid National Affembly, and the Reasons that induced him to refign his Seat in it, in the Month of October, 1789.

THE Count of Mirabeau, at that time, threw-out a cenfure upon me for having reprefented, (as he expreffed it)" a' few irregular and unfortunate proceedings that had lately happened," as being great and horrible calamities, and" a few Steps that had been taken as neceffary precautions in the then unfettled state of our country, from a want of confidence in the intentions of the Court," as being acts of inbuman ferocity.

This accufation, it behoves me to refute; and I, therefore, appeal to any impartial perfons to be informed, whether, in their opinion," the destroying of houses, and laying-waste of lands, and the murdering innocent and helpless perfons in many parts of the kingdom,without the smallest provocation; —as, for instance, the deftruction, burning, or plundering of no fewer than thirty-fix gentlemen's feats, (of which I had a lift in my hand at the time I used the words objected to me) in only a single province of the kingdom," might not

juftly

justly be confidered as public and dreadful calamities, inftead of being treated as trifling and excufable irregularities, as Monfieur de Mirabeau is pleafed to call them.

And, as to the other acts of violence which Monfieur de Mirabeau chooses to confider as necessary or prudential meafures, arifing from a want of confidence in the intentions of the Court; thefe, alfo, I prefume, ought rather to be called by the name that I have given them, of acts of inhuman ferocity, or I know not what can ever deferve to be fo entitled. Some of these acts are as follows; to wit, in the first place, in the Province of Languedoc, Monfieur de Barras was cut to pieces by the mob in the prefence of his wife, who was big with child, and ready to lie-in, and who died afterwards of the fhock it gave her:-2dly, In the city of Mans, Monf. de Monteffon was hot to death, after having been a fpectator of the cutting of his father-in-law's throat -3dly, In Normandy, a poor, helpless, old man, who was a cripple with the palfy, was put upon a pile of faggots, which were set on fire under him, and was afterwards left by his tormentors in that condition, and then removed from it by his friends, after his hands had been burnt-off:-and, 4thly, in the fame province of Normandy, a nobleman's landfteward had his feet burnt by the people, in order to force him to deliver-up his master's title-deeds;—and, 5thly, in the fame province, the unhappy Monsieur de Balzunce, (who had, with a generous and noble confidence, put himself into the hands of the people who came to attack him, inftead of endeavouring to escape from them,) was neverthelefs put to death by them with so much eagerness and impatience, that, in fhooting at him in oppofite directions at the fame time, his murderers killed fome of themselves :and, 6thly, in the province of Franche-Comté, Madame de Battilly was compelled by threats of inftant death, and with a hatchet held over her head, to give-up her title-deeds, and

even her land:—and, 7thly, in the fame province, Madame de Liftenay was forced to make the fame furrender of her property, with a halter round her neck, and her two daughters lying near her in a ftate of infenfibility, having faintedaway with terror at the fight :-and, 8thly, the very respectable Marquis of Ormenan, an old gentleman, trembling with the palfy, was forced to fly from his country-seat in the middle of the night, to avoid being murdered by the mob, and was afterwards purfued by them from town to town, till he got out of the province, and arrived at Bafle, in Switzerland, almost dead with fatigue and terror, with his daughters, who had accompanied him, and reduced to a ftate of defpair:-and, 9thly, the Count of Montefu and his wife, were kept by the mob in a state of continual terror, with piftols held to their breafts, for three hours together, (during which time they defired the people, as a favour, to put them to death without delay,) and were at laft dragged out of their carriage in order to be thrown into a pond and drowned, when they were faved by the interpofition of a regiment of foldiers, who happened to come-by at that inftant:-and, 1othly, the Baron of Mont Juftin was taken by a mob, and kept in a ftate of continual terror under the apprehenfion of inftant death, for the fpace of an hour and a half, by being held on the top of a well, while they deliberated, in his hearing, whether they fhould put him to death by letting him drop into the well, (where he would have been drowned,) or fhould deftroy him in fome other manner:and, 11thly, Count Lallemand and the Duchefs of Tonnerre were treated with great cruelty; and the Chevalier d'Ambli was taken by force from his country-house, and barbaroufly dragged, naked, along the village that belonged to him, and then thrown upon a dunghill, after having had his eye-brows, and the hair of his head, plucked-out by the roots, while the people who were fpectators of this

cruelty,

cruelty, amufed themiclves with dancing round him; be fides a number of the like cruel outrages, committed in the provinces of Alface and Dauphiny, and the city of Troyes in Champagne, and alfo in the neighbourhood of Paris, almost within fight of the National Affembly. This is a fhort account of the actions which the Count de Mirabeau has called necessary precautions, arifing from a want of confidence, and which he cenfures me for having unjustly mifreprefented as acts of inhuman ferocity. I leave the reader to determine which of us has denoted them by the more proper appellation.

And, upon this occafion, I cannot forbear asking thofe gentlemen who talk of the want of confidence in the intentions of the Court, and the Nobility, as having been the motive that urged the people to commit thefe acts of violence, as prudential measures neceffary to their own fafety ;, -I fay, I muft afk thefe gentlemen, who it was that infpired the people with this want of confidence, and thereby became the first authors of the mifchiefs it occafioned ? Who was it that encouraged the people to rife in a feditious manner, both in the open countries, and great towns of the kingdom?-Who was it that wrote letters to the people at Vefoul, to inform them that the reprefentatives of the Nobility, who had been fent to the National Affembly, had formed a plot to blow-up with gunpowder the great room in which the Affembly met, at a time when only the reprefentatives of the Third Eftate, or Commonalty, were affembled in it?-Who was it that perfuaded the peafantry of the province of Franche-Comté, that the Nobility were the King's enemies? Who was it that forged thofe pretended orders from the King to authorize and encourage the common people to fall upon the Nobility, or Gentry, whereever they met them, and to demolish and lay-wafte their houfes and poffeffions? Why was that moft diabolical lie