nations, who had been horrified by the awful catastrophes of the Reign of Terror, had seen with undisguised satisfaction the execution of Danton and his party, who had commenced the Revolution, and brought the King to the scaffold; and of Hébert and the Anarchists, who had carried its atrocities and impiety to their most dreadful length. When, therefore, they beheld the government which had effected their destruction expressing such humane sentiments in such beautiful language, the hope became general that a reaction had at length set in-that Robespierre had acquired the mastery of the Revolution, and that out of the excess of anarchy had arisen the power which could coerce it. Foreign powers, accordingly, began to entertain sanguine hopes that the Revolution had reached its limit, and that a government had at last arisen with which it might be practicable to negotiate, and possibly conclude a durable peace.

ensigns of sovereignty. But they had
the good sense to perceive that the people
were not yet prepared for this change,
and that the sight of guards or a throne
might shake a power against which two
hundred thousand captives in chains
could not arouse resistance. "The mem-
bers of the Committee," said Couthon,
"have no desire to be assimilated to des-
pots; they have no need of guards for
their defence; their own virtue, the love
of the people, Providence, watch over
their days; they have no occasion for any
other protection. When necessary, they
will know how to die at their post in de-
fence of freedom." Even as it was, the
jealousy of the people was aroused by
the undisguised supremacy assigned to
Robespierre at the ceremony; whispers
were heard, that "he would be a god."
"He is only teaching the Republic to
adore another, that its members may one
day adore himself," said one.
"He has
invented God, because he is the supreme
tyrant," said another; "he would be his
high-priest."

*

31. But the retreat from crime is not to nations, any more than individuals, on a path strewed with flowers; and many and woeful were the calamities through which France had to pass, before it regained the peace and security of a settled government. This was speedily demonstrated. The bloody intentions announced by Robespierre were too effectually carried into execution on the third day following the fête of the Supreme Being, by the decree of the 22d Prairial, for increasing the powers of the Revolutionary Tribunal, passed on the motion of Couthon. By this sanguinary law, every form, privilege, or usage, calculated to protect the accused, were swept away. Every postponement of justice," said Couthon, "is a crime; every formality indulgent to the accused is a crime: the delay in punishing the enemies of the country should not be greater than the time requisite for identifying them." The

30. The effect of these steps was not less remarkable in France itself. At the fête of the Supreme Being, on 7th June, the power of Robespierre appeared to have reached such a point, that, far beyond that of any king, it more nearly resembled that of a god upon earth. Never," says an eyewitness, "had the sun shone with a brighter radiance: never was a more joyous and enthusiastic concourse of spectators assembled. Robespierre himself was astonished at the immense crowd of people who filled the gardens of the Tuileries. Hope and gaiety beamed from every countenance; the smiling looks and elegant costume of the women diffused a universal enchantment. As he marched along, overshadowed by his plumes, adorned with his tricolor scarf, the air resounded with cries of 'Vive Robespierre!' and his countenance was radiant with joyfulness. Alexander, when declared the son of Jupiter by the oracle of Ammon, was not more proud. 'See how they applaud him!' said his colleagues. 'He would become a god! he is no longer the highpriest of the Supreme Being." Committee of Public Salvation being now avowedly in possession of supreme power, their adulators in the Convention and Jacobin Club offered them the | Dévoilées, 32.

The

66

"I have the following energetic denunciation from one who heard it uttered at the Tuileries on the day of the fête by a veritable Sans-culotte-Look at that tent with being master, he must be a god too.'"-VILLATE, Mystères de la Mère de Dieu

! not con

*

right of prosecution was extended to | liberty; the other is the cowardly and the Convention, the Committee of Pub- criminal opinion of the aristocracy, who lic Salvation, the Committee of General have never ceased since the commenceSafety, the commissioners of the Con- ment of the Revolution to demand, vention, and the public accuser; no directly or indirectly, an amnesty for distinction was to be made between the conspirators and enemies of the members of the Convention and ordi- country. For two months the Connary individuals. The right of insisting vention has sat under the sword of for an individual investigation, and of assassins; and the very moment when being defended by counsel, had been liberty appears to have gained its greatwithdrawn by a previous decree on the est triumph, is precisely the one when 2d June. In addition to those struck the conspirators against the country act at by former laws, there were included with most audacity. Citizens, be asin this new decree, "all those who have sured the conspirators wish to divide-— seconded the projects of the enemies of they wish to intimidate us! Have we France, either by favouring the retreat not defended a part of the Assembly of, or shielding from punishment, the against the poniards which wickedness aristocracy or conspirators; or by per- and a false zeal would have drawn secuting and calumniating the patriots; against them? We expose ourselves to or by corrupting the mandatories of the individual assassins to destroy those people; or by abusing the principles of who would ruin the Republic. the Revolution, of the laws, or of the know how to die, provided the Convengovernment, by false or perfidious ap- tion and the country are saved. I deplications; or by deceiving the repre- mand that the project be discussed, sentatives of the people; or by spread- article by article, and without an ading discouragement or false intelligence; journment. I have observed that for or by misleading the public by false long the Convention has discussed and instructions or depraved example." The decreed at once, because a great majoproof requisite to convict of these mul- rity were really intent on the public tifarious offences was declared to be- good. I demand that, instead of pausing "Every piece of evidence, material, on the proposal for adjournment, we moral, verbal, or written, which is suf- sit till eight at night, if necessary, to ficient to convince a reasonable under- discuss the project of the law which standing." The Revolutionary Tribunal has now been submitted to it." The was divided into four separate courts, Convention knew their master, and in each possessing the same powers as the thirty minutes the law was passed. original, a public accuser, and a sufficient number of judges and jurymen awarded to each, to enable them to proceed with rapidity in the work of extermination.

32. Accustomed as the Convention was to blind obedience, they were startled by this project. "I demand an adjournment. If this law passes, nothing remains," said Ruamps, "but to blow out our brains." Alarmed at the agitation which prevailed, Robespierre mounted the Tribune. "For long," said he, "the Assembly has argued and decided on the same day, because for long it has been liberated from the empire of faction. Two opinions, strongly pronounced, divide the Republic. The one is to punish severely and inexorably all attempts against

We

33. On the following day some members, chiefly adherents of the old party of Danton, endeavoured to overthrow this sanguinary decree of the Assembly. Bourdon de l'Oise proposed that the safety of the members of the Convention should be provided for by a special enactment, to the effect that they should not be indicted but in pursuance of a decree of that body. He was ably supported by Merlin; and the legislature seemed inclined to adopt the proposal. Couthon attacked the Mountain, from which the opposition seemed chiefly to emanate. Bourdon replied " Let the members of the Committee know," said he, "that if they are patriots, so are we.

The seventy-three arrested Girondists, who had not been tried with their leaders in the October preceding.

I esteem Couthon, I esteem the Committee; but, more than all, I esteem the unconquerable Mountain, which has saved the public freedom."-"The Convention, the Committee, the Mountain," said Robespierre, "are the same thing. Every representative who loves liberty, every representative who is resolved to die for his country, is part of the Mountain. Woe to those who would assassinate the people, by permitting some miserable intriguers to divide the patriots, in order to elevate themselves on the public ruin !" The imperious tone of Robespierre, the menaces of his colleagues, again overawed the Assem-tration of affairs. He constantly said, bly, and the law passed without the protecting clause proposed by Bourdon. Every individual in the Convention was now at the mercy of the Dictators; and the daily spectacle of fifty persons executed, was enough to subdue more undaunted spirits.

|stration, civil and military. Universal suffrage and self-government, instead of having produced a better set of public functionaries than those who had owed their appointment to the nobility, had brought up one so infinitely worse that Robespierre, the incarnation of the democratic principle, felt that the first step in social regeneration must be to destroy them all. He was overwhelmed with horror at the situation of the commonwealth, and the total failure of the vast streams of blood he had caused to flow to produce any, even the slightest, practical amelioration in the adminis

34. It is not surprising that the Convention, in this manner, made an unwonted effort to avert the passing of this terrible law; for the consciences of many told them, what is now known to have been the case, that its almost unlimited powers were mainly directed against themselves. From the invaluable papers found in Robespierre's possession after his death, by Courtois, and first published in 1828,* it is now known that the secret views of Robespierre, in proposing this sanguinary law, were to destroy a large portion of the Convention. He had great confidence in himself and the influence of his eloquence with the people; and he still clung with fanatical obstinacy to the belief in their virtue. But he had seen enough to distrust the integrity of nearly all who had risen to power, or were intrusted with office. The idol of public opinion, he desired to rule by it alone, and had no doubt of his ability to do so. He was in despair at the universal profligacy, selfishness, and corruption with which he was surrounded in all the branches of admini

*Papiers inédits trouvés chez Robespierre, St Just, Payan, &c. Paris, 1828. 3 vols.' They had been in great part, in the first instance, suppressed by Courtois; and a complete set was first published by the French government on his death, in 1828.

"All is lost; we have no longer any resource: I see no one to save the country." He often said, "Woe to those who deem the country centred in themselves, and who make use of liberty

"His mind was much distracted: alChaumette, a crowd of men well worthy of though, in the trial of Hebert, Danton, and the scaffold had been justly stricken, he deplored nevertheless that base passions, hatred, and vengeance, not love of country and jus tice, had selected the heads that were to fall. He saw that the executions had in no degree diminished the dangers. Around him, in the

principal offices of the Republic, he beheld men without probity, without morals, stained for the most part with infamous crimes, but protected by a popularity which rendered it impossible to touch them. He beheld group

ed around these, other men who had never means, and who employed, to defend themaided the good cause unless by disgraceful selves, every art of intrigue, lying, and calumny, with the ability acquired by six years' practice. Thus he was a prey to disgust and despair. What availed it that our arms were successful against foreigners? In the very heart of its power, the nation was in the hands of miscreants. Was it not clear that anarchy, counter-revolution, and the restoration of the ancient régime, must be the result of such a state of things? During the last days that he visited the committees, Robespierre exclaimed habitually, All is lost: there is no help for it: I no longer see a man who can save the country. He proposed the law of the 22d Prairial with the sole purpose intended to make use at the right time for of creating a controlling power, of which he purifying the Convention. St Just was absent; he communicated his plan to Couthon alone, and he took charge of drawing up the measure. Billaud, Collot, Barère, and Vadier, only obtained their knowledge of it through Couthon's report, and they flung back the bill upon the committee with more decided energy than the Assembly had shown in discussing it."- Histoire Parlementaire, xxxiii. 182, 183.

as of their own property. Their country | infamous set of scoundrels, whom unidies with them; and the revolutions versal suffrage had brought up to the which they have appropriated are but head of affairs, that they could see no a change of servitude. No Cromwell chance for the Republic but in extendfor France not even myself." But ing extermination to nearly the whole meanwhile a very formidable opposition persons in authority in the state.† was secretly organising itself in the 35. Armed by this accession of power, Convention. The project of this law, the proscriptions proceeded during the as it struck at nearly all the members next six weeks with redoubled violence. both of the government and the Con- The power of the Committee of Public vention, was accordingly warmly com-Salvation was prodigious, and wielded bated in both the Committees and the with an energy to which there is nolatter. It was brought forward in the thing comparable in the history of molatter with the knowledge only of Cou-dern Europe. The ruling principle of thon, and, as soon as the discussion was that extraordinary government was to over, it was vehemently assailed in the destroy the whole aristocracy both of Committee of Public Salvation.* The rank and talent. Power of intellect, truth was, that Robespierre, St Just, independence of thought, was in an and Couthon, now stood nearly alone especial manner the object of the Dicthere: they beheld the legislature and tator's jealousy; he regarded it with whole offices of government, from the more aversion than the aristocracy either highest to the lowest, filled by such an of birth or wealth.‡

* "The day following the 22d Prairial, Billaud Varennes loudly accused Robespierre the moment he entered the Committee, and upbraided him and Couthon with having brought before the Convention the abominable decree which filled all true patriots with horror. When a member of the Committee,' added Billaud, 'presumes on his own sole responsibility to introduce a decree to the Convention, liberty is sacrificed to the will of an individual.' 'I see perfectly,' said Robespierre, that I am alone, and that no one supports me;' and forthwith declaimed furiously. His tones were so loud that many citizens assembled in the terrace of the Tuileries. They closed the windows, and the discussion went on with the same fervour. 'I know,' said Robespierre, that there is a faction in the Convention who wish to destroy me, and you are here defending Ruamps.' 'It must be said,' replied Billaud, 'after your decree, that you wish to guillotine the Convention. Robespierre replied excitedly, 'You are all witnesses that I do not say that I wish to guillotine the National Convention. I know thee now,' he added, turning to Billaud. 'And I also know thee for an anti-revolutionist,' replied the latter. Robespierre became much agitated, walking up and down the committee; he even carried his hypocrisy the length of shedding tears.". LECOINTRE de Versailles, Réponse des deux Membres des Comités, Nov. 8; Hist. Parl. xxxiii. 184, 185. Among the very interesting papers found in Robespierre's house after his death, was the following note in his own handwriting, as to the character of some of the leading members of the Convention, whose coalition soon after produced his overthrow: "All the chiefs of the Revolution are scoundrels, already stained by infamy and crime. Thuriot was never more than a partisan of Orleans:

It was on this

his silence since the fall of Danton, and his own expulsion from the Jacobins, is in striking contrast with his eternal talk before that time. He confines himself to silent intrigues and agitation among the Mountain, when the Committee of Public Safety proposes any measure fatal to the factions. Bourdon de l'Oise has covered himself with crime in La Vendée, where he delighted, in his orgies with the traitor Tunk, to slay the volunteers with his own hand. He unites treachery with savage fury. He has been the most violent defender of atheism. He has never ceased striving to make the decree proclaiming the existence of the Supreme Being a means of raising up enemies to the government among the Mountain

and he has succeeded. The day of the fête, in presence of the people, he permitted himself to indulge in the grossest and most indecent sarcasms on this subject. Léonard Bourdon-a despicable intriguer at all times-was one of the principal accomplices and the inseparable friend of Clootz; he was a party to the conspiracy planned at Gobel's. Nothing can equal the baseness of the intrigues he sets on foot to swell the number of his stipendiaries. At the Jacobins he was the orator most indefatigable in propagating the doctrines of Hébert."-Notes écrites de la main de Robespierre; Papiers inedits de Robespierre, ii. 37, iii. 111; and Hist. Parl. xxxiii. 168, 172.

"What is our object? The carrying out of the constitution in favour of the people.Who are our enemies? The wicked and the rich.-The people must be enlightened: but what are the obstacles to the enlightenment of the people? Mercenary writers, who deceive them by impudent daily impostures.What are we to conclude from this? That literary men must be proscribed as the most dangerous enemies of the country.-How is the civil

foundation that his authority rested; | mained to contest his authority, but the mass of the people ardently sup- the remnants of the Constitutional and ported a government which was rapidly Girondist parties, who still lingered in destroying everything which was above the Convention. them in station, or superior in ability. Every man felt his own consequence increased, and his own prospects improved, by the destruction of his more able or more fortunate rivals. Inexorable towards individuals or leaders, Robespierre was careful of protecting the masses of the community; and the lower orders, who always have a secret pleasure in the depression of their superiors, beheld with satisfaction the thunder which rolled innocuous over their heads, striking every one who could by possibility stand in their way. The whole physical strength of the Republic, which must always be drawn from the labouring classes, was thus devoted to his will. The armed force of Paris, under the orders of Henriot, and formed of the lowest of the rabble, was at his disposal; the Club of the Jacobins, purified and composed according to his orders, was ready to support all his projects; the Revolutionary Tribunal blindly obeyed his commands; the new municipality, with Henriot at its head, was devoted to his will. By the activity of the Jacobin clubs, and the universal maintenance of the same interests, a similar state of things prevailed in every department of France. Universally the lowest class considered Robespierre as identified with the Revolution, and as centring in his person all the projects of aggrandisement which were afloat in their minds. His speeches and measures breathed that ardent wish for the amelioration of the working classes, by the division of property and extirpation of capital, which afterwards, under the name of socialism and communism, and guided by the genius of Lamartine and Louis Blanc, so strongly agitated France and Europe. None re

36. In pursuance of these principles, the government of Robespierre, amidst all its severity to those who were either elevated by birth, possessed of fortune, distinguished by talent, or allied by habit or inclination to any of these higher classes, had made several steps towards the establishment of institutions designed for the elevation and relief of the labouring poor, and which, if combined with a just and rational government in other respects, might have been attended with the most salutary effects. "Education," said Barère, in the name of the Committee of Public Salvation, "is the greatest blessing which man can receive: it is the only one which the vicissitudes of time cannot take away. The incalculable advantage of revolutions is, that merit obtains the rank which is due to it, and that each citizen fills the situation for which he is qualified by the species of talent which he possesses. The republican, therefore, should be instructed in such a manner as to be prepared for every situation either of peace or of war." In pursuance of these principles, it was decreed that six young men should be sent to Paris from every district in the Republic, to be educated at the public expense in the Ecole de Mars, and placed under the immediate direction of the Committee of Public Salvation, to be instructed in the art of war and fortification. This was immediately carried into effect, and became the foundation of the far-famed Polytechnic School, which furnished such an inexhaustible supply of skilled officers for the armies of the empire.

37. The frightful misery in the interior of the empire, the natural result of the Revolution, at the same time attracted the attention of government, and they prepared to meet it in a noble spirit.

"While the cannon," said Carnot, in the name of the Committee of Public Salvation, "thunders on the frontier, mendicity, that scourge of monarchies, has made frightful progress

in the interior. Yet it is an evil dis