XIV. 1793. 1 Deux 413. Lac. iv. 279. Sept. 9. CHAP. for the soldiers, by whom many of the finest of them were shamefully destroyed. Straw bivouacs were strewed, wood fires lighted on the marble floors of the royal apartments; the soldiers amused themselves with discharging their loaded muskets at the paintings of Le Brun on the walls.1. Not78. Hist. withstanding the vigour and unrelenting severity of the Parl. xxviii. Revolutionary Tribunal at Paris, it was far from answering ii. 84. Toul. the views of its founders, or the expectations of the multitude. On the 9th September, accordingly, it was remodelled, and its powers enlarged by a decree of the Convention, which is singularly instructive as to the rapid progress in the thirst for blood in the metropolis. By this decree the Revolutionary Tribunal was divided into four chambers, each with co-ordinate powers, and all sitting at the same time. Each was to have its public accuser, judges, and juries. This was avowedly based on the necessity of proceeding at once against the moderates, who formed a numerous portion of the community. "The time has now arrived," said Chaumette, at the Jacobins, "when the "Journ.de la moderates must undergo the same fate as the aristocrats."2 In the midst of these domestic changes, the Committee of Public Salvation did not lose sight of their inveterate hostility against England. On the 21st September, Barère, in the name of that body, brought forward a long and impassioned report, characterised by more than the usual amount of animosity against this country. "The hatred of kings and of Carthage," said he, "founded the Roman constitution; the hatred of kings, of emigrants, of nobles, and of the English, ought to consolidate the French Republic. Frenchmen, Europeans, Neutral Powers, Northern Powers, you have the same interest as we in the safety of France. Carthage tormented Italy; London torments Europe; it is a wolf placed on the side of the Continent to devour it, a political excrescence which it is the first duty of liberty to destroy." In pursuance of these principles, the Convention passed two decrees, the first declaring that no goods or merchandise were, sub Montagne, Hist. Parl. xxix. 52. Mig. ii, 298. Sept. 21. 1 XIV. 1793. Decree, sequent to 1st January 1794, to be imported into any CHAP. harbours or colonies of the Republic, except directly, and in French vessels; the second totally prohibiting all coasting trade in France, or colonial trade between France and her colonies, but in French vessels, under Hist. Parl. pain of a fine of 3000 francs and confiscation of the vessel 481. and cargo.1 This 21st Sept. xxxii. 469, 21. Report of St Just on the state of the Just Oct. 10. But all these changes, important as they were, yielded in magnitude to the decree of the Convention on October 10, on the new organisation of the government. decree was based on a minute and able report by St in the name of the Committee of Public Salvation, which fully admitted the deplorable internal state of the Republic, and the total inefficacy of all the measures hitherto taken for the establishment of a regular government, in lieu of the monarchy which had been overthrown. "The administration of the armies," said he, "is overrun by brigands. They sell the rations of the horses; the battalions are in want of cannon and draught animals to draw them ; subordination is at an end; all the world robs and sets the government at defiance. The law of the maximum has proved entirely nugatory; the enemies of the people, more rich than they, buy the provisions above the maximum ; the markets are overruled by the cupidity of sellers the price of provisions is lowered, but the provisions themselves have disappeared. The cultivators, wherever they could, have sold their produce to our enemies in preference to ourselves. The commissaries of the armies, the agents of all kinds, have pillaged at least three milliards, (£120,000,000,) and from the very enormity of their gains they have derived additional means of corrupting the people. The rich have become richer in spite of the taxes laid on them ; the dreadful misery of the people has improved their relative situation. Every one has pillaged the state. There is not a single military commander who is not, at this moment, founding his fortune on treachery in favour of the cause of kings. The highest officers of government are Republic. XIV. 1793. CHAP. still worse. All places are bought, and it is no longer men of property who buy them. Scoundrels purchase on the prospect of plunder: if you chase one from one place, ten enter in at another. The agents of the hospitals have sold their provisions to la Vendée. The commissaries for the armies have become the worst of monopolisers. The assignats have hitherto constituted the strength of the state, but let us not deceive ourselves; if they are not withdrawn from circulation, their holders will enter into competition with the cultivators and the producers, and industry will be ruined. The government has lost half their value in the sale of the national domains; the Republic is the prey of twenty thousand fools or villains who corrupt or cheat it. Government is overwhelmed with correspondence; the bureaux have succeeded to the monarchy; the demon of writing has invaded the state, and subordination is at an end. I understand now the wisdom of the Egyptians and the Romans; they wrote little and thought much: government cannot exist without laconism in style. The public service has ceased to be a Rapport profession, it has become a trade. The government is a 10 Oct. hierarchy of errors and crimes." Such is a picture of rexxix. 159, volutionary France drawn by one of the most ardent of the teur, 11 Oct, revolutionists. Contrast it with the worst periods of the monarchy, as drawn by the bitterest of its opponents.1 de St Just, Hist. Parl. 167. Moni 22. The remedy proposed by St Just, and adopted by the Decree vest- Convention, for these disastrous evils, consisted in a proing supreme digious increase of the power of the executive. By the Committee decree which passed on his motion, the government of Salvation. France was declared revolutionary till peace; and the power in the of Public Oct. 10. executive council, the ministers, the generals, the whole constituted bodies, were placed under the direction of the Committee of Public Salvation, which was to render an account of its proceedings every eight days to the Convention. The revolutionary laws were to be executed rapidly; the government was to correspond directly with the districts; all the generals were to be nominated by the Con XIV. 1793. vention, on the recommendation of the Committee of CHAP. Public Salvation. The grain produced in every district was to be calculated, the amount needed for the subsistence of its inhabitants ascertained, and the remainder subjected to requisition for the public service. Paris was to be provisioned in this way for a year. A revolutionary army was to be raised to enforce these requisitions, and repress all counter-revolutionary movements, which was to be under the direction of the Committee of Public Salvation; a new court was to be established, named by the Convention, to punish embezzlers of the public money, and make public officers render an account of their fortunes. It may safely be affirmed that this decree, coupled with that of suspected persons which had been passed a few weeks before, vested more absolute power in the Committee of Public Salvation than had ever before been wielded any government upon earth.1 1 Oct. 10. Decree, Hist. Parl. by 174. xxix. 173, 23. nary spec sented by Meanwhile the prisons of Paris exhibited an extraordinary spectacle. Filled at once with ordinary male- Extraordifactors, and with all that yet remained of dignity, tacle prebeauty, or virtue in the Republic, they presented the the prisons most unparalleled assemblage that modern Europe had of Paris. yet seen of unblushing guilt and unbending virtue, of dignified manners and revolutionary vulgarity, of splendid talent and frightful atrocity. In some, where the rich were allowed to provide for their own comforts, a singular degree of affluence and even elegance for some time prevailed; in others, the most noble captives were weeping on a couch of straw, with no other covering than a few filthy rags. The French character, imbued beyond any other in Europe with elasticity, and capability to endure misfortunes, in many instances rose superior to all the horrors with which the jails were surrounded. From the multitude and lustre of their fellow-sufferers, every one felt his own calamities sensibly softened. By degrees the ordinary interests of life began to exert their influence even on the verge of the tomb. Poetry enchanted the XIV. 1793. CHAP. crowded cells by touching strains, eloquence exerted its fascinating ascendant, beauty renewed its silken chains. The female captives of rank became attentive to their dress; intimacies and attachments were formed; and, amidst all the agitation and agony consequent on their protracted sufferings, the excitements of a happier existence were felt even to the foot of the scaffold. By degrees, as the prosecutions became more frequent, and numbers were daily led out to execution, the sense of des Prisons common danger united them in the bonds of the strongest affection; they rejoiced and wept together; and the 51, 60, 68. constant thinning of their number produced a sympathy among the survivors, which outlived every other feeling of existence.1 1 Tableau de Paris, i. 16, 24. Riouffe, 46, Th. v. 362, 364. 24. Trial of General Custine, who commanded the army of Flanders at the time of the capture of Valenciennes by the English, was denounced by the agents of the Convention, and shortly after brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal, charged with having entered into treacherous correspondence with the Allies, and of having been the means of causing Frankfort, Mayence, and Valenciennes, to fall into the hands of the enemy. When the state of the armies, described in the report already quoted by St Just, is considered, it will not be deemed surprising that disasters befell the forces of the Republic. The only thing really surprising is, that France was not conquered. The prosecutors entirely failed in adducing any satisfactory evidence against him. His beautiful and gifted daughterin-law in vain sat daily by his side, and exerted herself to the utmost in his behalf; General Baraguay d' Hilliers, with generous courage, supported him by his military knowledge and experience. Her grace, and the obvious Trib. Rev. injustice of the accusation, produced some impression on Hist. Parl. the judges, and a few inclined to an acquittal; immediately the Revolutionary Tribunal itself was complained of at the Jacobin Club.2 2 Bull. du Nos. 83, 84. xxviii. 254, 259. "It gives me great pain," said Hébert, at that great |