preparation for republican equality and virtue. But they were equally inexorable against the atheism which would corrupt, the vices which would degrade it. In their mistaken views of human nature they believed that, when the leaders of both were guillotined, nothing would remain to prevent the general establishment of republican principles, simplicity, virtue and happiness.* CHAP. XIV. 1793. 83. speech on the Jaco Though ignorant that his destruction had been resolved on by the all-powerful Committee of Public Sal- Danton's vation, Danton was aware that for some months his returning to popularity had been waning; and he returned to Paris, bins. and loudly demanded at the Jacobins that the grounds Dec. 3. of complaint should be exhibited against him. "I have heard," said he "of rumours of accusations directed against me. I demand an opportunity of justifying myself in the eyes of the people. It will not be a difficult task. I call upon those who have been murmuring against me to specify their charges, for I will answer them in public. I perceived, when I ascended the tribune, a murmur of dissatisfaction prevail. Have I then lost the characteristics of a free man? Am I not the same as I was at your side in the days of alarm? Have you not all frequently embraced me as a friend who was ready to die with you? ? For For your sake have I not been overwhelmed by persecutions? I have been one of the most intrepid supporters of Marat; I invoke the shade of the Friend of the people to bear witness in my behalf. You would be astonished if you knew my private affairs; and the colossal fortune which my enemies and yours ascribe to me, is found to be reduced Journal to the slender patrimony I have always possessed. defy my detractors to prove against me any crime. their efforts will be unable to shake me: I remain before the people. You will judge me in their presence.1 1 des Jaco I bins, No. All Hist. Parl. erect 328. 550, 3 Déc. In Robespierre's speeches, and those of St Just, in November and December 1793, at the Jacobins and in the Convention, the clearest proof of their being actuated by these principles is to be found.-See Histoire Parlementaire, XXX. 209-468. Xxx. 327, XIV. CHAP. I cannot tear a page from my history, without tearing a page from theirs; and that too from the most glorious 1793. period of the annals of liberty." 84. Robes pierre's perfidious speech in regard to him. Robespierre instantly ascended the tribune. "Danton," said he, "demands a commission to examine into his conduct I consent to it, if he thinks it can be of any service to him. He demands a statement of the grounds of complaint against him: I agree to it. Danton, you are accused of being an emigrant; of having retired to Switzerland; of having feigned illness to conceal your flight; of being desirous to become Regent under Louis XVII.; of having made arrangements at a fixed time to proclaim that remnant of the Capets; of being the chief of a counterrevolutionary conspiracy; of being a worse enemy to France than either Pitt or Cobourg, England, Austria, or Prussia; of having filled the Mountain with your creatures. It is said that we need not disquiet ourselves about the inferior agents of foreign powers; that their conspiracies merit only contempt; but you, you alone, should be led out to the scaffold!" Loud applauses followed this bold declaration; when they had subsided, he continued, turning to his astonished rival-" Do you not know, Danton, that the more a man is gifted with energy and public spirit, the more the public enemies conspire for his overthrow? Do you not know, does not every one who hears me know, that that is an infallible test of real virtue? If the defender of liberty was not calumniated, it would be a proof that we had no longer either generals, or priests, or nobles to fear." He then demanded that all those who had any thing to allege against Danton should come forward; but none, after such a declaration, ventured to say a word. Upon that, amidst the applause Hist, Parl. of the meeting, Danton received the fraternal embrace from the president. By this hypocritical conduct, RobesJourn, des pierre both ascertained the extent of the public feeling against his great rival, and threw him off his guard by feigned expressions of regard.1 xxx. 328, 329. Th. vi. 21, 22. Jacobins, No. 550. 66 XIV. 1793. 85. of govern On the very next day, a new decree, augmenting the CHAP. despotic powers of the Committee of Public Salvation, was passed. Anarchy," said Billaud Varennes, in the preamble of the report on which the decree was founded, Increase of "menaces every republic, alike in its cradle and its old the powers age. Our part is to strive against it." On this preamble, ment. the decree enacted that a bulletin of the laws should be drawn up; that four individuals should have the exclusive right of framing it; that it should be printed on a particular paper and type, and sent down to the provinces by post. The Convention was at the same time declared Dec. 4. the "Centre of Impulsion of Government,"-a dubious phrase, under which was veiled the despotic authority of the committees. The authority of the departmental assemblies was abolished for every thing except matters of local administration; and they were forbidden, under pain of death, to correspond on any political matter with each other, raise forces or taxes of their own authority, or correspond with or receive instructions from any body but the committees at Paris. Thus the liberties of the provinces were rapidly perishing under the despotic sway of the Committee of Public Salvation. All the powers of government, which by former decrees were vested in different bodies, were by this decree centred in that terrible committee. It alone was directed to conduct the foreign diplomacy, to appoint generals, admirals, and ambassadors, and the whole constituted authorities were ordered to correspond with it, and receive their instructions from it alone. Supported by the Jacobin Club, of which Robespierre had now got the entire direction, and by all the affiliated clubs over France, this despotic power was now established on a solid basis: for it rested on the ardent democrats, who at once directed the magistracies and influenced the armies. The government was powerful, for Hist. Parl. the time irresistible; for the executive was in harmony 263, Deux both with the legislature and the whole depositaries of 192, 207. local popular power.1 A despotism had grown up out of xxx. 254, Amis, xi. CHAP. XIV. the very excess of liberty. France was already beginning to enter the bloody path which leads from democratic 1793. anarchy to regular government. 86. Meanwhile, the strife of the Dantonists and Anarchists Attacks of became daily more conspicuous, and the sanguinary disists on the position of the latter seemed, if possible, to increase in Anarchists. violence. One of their number, Ronsin, had affixed over the Danton the walls of Paris a placard, in which he declared, that out of a hundred and forty thousand souls in Lyons, fifteen hundred only were not accomplices of the revolt in that city, and that before February all the guilty should perish, and their bodies be floated by the Rhone to Toulon. Chaumette loudly maintained that the gangrened part of the Convention should be lopped off, and sent numerous petitioners with demands to that effect to the Assembly. Camille Desmoulins vigorously attacked this atrocious faction, and in an especial manner fastened on the infamous Hébert, whom he accused of being "a miserable intriguer, a caterer for the guillotine, a traitor paid by Pitt; a wretch who had received 200,000 francs at different times, from almost all the factions in the Republic, to calumniate their adversaries; a thief and robber, who had been expelled from being a lackey in the theatre for theft, and now aimed at drenching France with blood by means of his prostituted journal." Such was the man, on the testimony of the Revolutionists themselves, on whose evidence Marie Antoinette had been condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal. "It is vain," he added, "to think of stifling my voice by threats of arrest. We all know that the Anarchists are preparing a new revolt, like the 31st May; but we may say with Brutus and Cicero, 'We too much fear exile, poverty, and death."1 When delier, Nos. our soldiers are daily braving death in sight of the enemy's Hist. Parl. batteries in the cause of freedom, shall we, their unwor232. Lam. thy leaders, be intimidated by the menaces of the Père Gir. vii. 398. Duchesne, or prevented by him from achieving a still greater victory over the ultra-Revolutionists, who would 1 Vieux Cor 3, 4, and 5. xxxi. 202, Hist. des ruin the Revolution, by staining every step it makes with CHAP. gore ?" XIV. 1793. 87. agreement Robespierre While the parties were in this state of exasperation at each other, the Committee of Public Salvation boldly Secret interposed between them, and resolved to make their dis- between cord the means of destroying both. Profiting with poli- and the mutical dexterity by this singular situation of the parties, nicipality. Robespierre and the members of the municipality came to an understanding, the condition of which was the mutual abandonment of their personal friends. Robespierre gave up Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and their supporters, to the vengeance of the municipality; and they surrendered Hébert, Chaumette, Ronsin, Clootz, and their party, to the Decemvirs. By this arrangement more than one important object was gained two formidable factions were destroyed, and a rival to the reputation of the dictator was removed. It seemed impossible to accuse the government of tending towards anarchy, when it had destroyed the atheistical faction in the municipality; and equally hopeless to charge it with moderation, when it had struck down, for leaning towards a return to humanity, the authors of the massacres of September. In this way they proposed to tread the narrow and perilous path between two equally powerful parties, and realise their favourite expression of making terror and virtue the order of the day. But Hébert and the Anarchists were still powerful, and the Committee of Public Salvation had need of support to effect their overthrow. With this view, they allowed Danton and Camille Desmoulins to imagine they were approximating to their principles, to gain their support in the destruction of the Anarchists, having previously Amis, xii. resolved to follow it up by the ruin of themselves. This 102, 105, Mig. ii. 306. perfidious policy proved entirely successful, and this it Th. vi. 186, was which afterwards drew from Danton the bitter excla- ii.139. Lam. mation-"To die is nothing; but to die the dupe of Gir. vii. 398. Robespierre !"1 The Committee of Public Salvation proceeded with 1 Deux 187. Lac. Hist. des |