CHAP. XV. 1794. 7. submission death of Danton. to justify their executions, to vindicate their tyranny, to prolong a power founded on the agony of the people. Yet, so firmly was their power established that the Universal death of Danton was followed by immediate and unqualifollowed the fied submission from every part of France. Legendre himself, his old friend, said at the Jacobin Club—“ I am bound to declare before the people, that I am fully convinced, by the documents I have inspected, of Danton's guilt. Before his accusation I was his intimate friend; I would have answered for his patriotism with my head ; but his conduct, and that of his accomplices, at their trial, leaves no doubt of their intentions." Robespierre made a laboured harangue, interrupted at every moment by applauses, against his unfortunate rival. "It is evident," said Arthur, one of his own party, "that Danton was led to engage Dumourier to march to Paris. The money which Danton possessed was offered to Santerre, but not quickly enough to produce an insurrection."* The same sentiments were re-echoed from every part of France. From all the departments arrived a crowd of addresses, congratulating the Committee of Public Salvation and the Convention on their energy. Every one hastened to make his submission to the government, and to admit the justice of its proceedings. But while approbation was in 1 Journal de every mouth, submission in every countenance, terror in 145, 1173. every heart, hatred at the oppressors was secretly spreadTh. vi. 223, 225. ing, and the downfall of democratic tyranny preparing amidst the acclamations of its triumph.1 la Mont. No. *It clearly appears that Danton had at one period received large sums of money from the court. In addition to the evidence on this subject furnished by Bertrand de Molleville, already referred to, (ante, chap. VII. § 24,) it appears from a note of Lafayette's that he had previously agreed to sell himself to the court. "Danton s'était vendu à condition qu'on lui achèterait pour 100,000 livres, (£4000,) sa charge d'avocat au conseil, dont le remboursement d'après la suppression n'était que de 10,000 livres. Quant à Danton il était prêt à se vendre à tous les partis. Lorsqu'il faisait des motions incendiaires aux Jacobins, il était leur espion auprès de la Cour, à laquelle il rendait compte régulièrement de ce qui s'y passait. Plus tard il reçut beaucoup d'argent : le Vendredi avant le 10 Août, on lui donna 100,000 écus. Madame Elizabeth disait avant cette journée-Nous sommes tranquilles; nous pouvons compter sur XV. 1794. 8. fanaticism of The political fanaticism of that extraordinary period CHAP. exceeded the religious fervour of the age of Cromwell. Posterity will find it as difficult to credit the one as the other. "Plus le corps social transpire," said Collot Political d'Herbois, "plus il devient sain."-" Il n'y a que les morts the period. qui ne reviennent pas," exclaimed Barère. "Le vaisseau de la Révolution ne peut arriver au port que sur une mer rougie de flots de sang," said St Just. "Une nation ne se régénère que sur des monceaux de cadavres," rejoined Robespierre.* Such were the principles daily carried into practice for months together in every town in France. Alone and unrestrained the Committee of Public Salvation struck repeated and resistless blows from one end of the kingdom to the other. Fertile in crime, abounding in wretchedness, that eventful reign was not wanting in the most heroic examples of virtue. "Non tamen adeo virtutum sterile seculum, ut non et bona exempla prodiderit. Comitata profugos liberos matres, secutæ maritos in exilia conjuges, propinqui audentes, Mig.ii.317. constantes generi, contumax etiam adversus tormenta 181-186. servorum fides, supremæ clarorum virorum necessitates, xlii. 186. ipsa necessitas fortiter tolerata, et laudatis antiquorum i. 2. mortibus pares exitus."1+ The professed object of the Decemvirs was to establish Danton.""-Note trouvée dans les papiers du Général Lafayette; Hist. Parl. Xxxii. 105, 106. * "Si l'on veut sauver le vaisseau de la République, point de pitié; du sang! du sang! Que tous les Capétiens ou autres dénominations Royales périssent. Ni César ni Pompée ! voilà ma profession de foi.”—ACHARD à GraVIER, juré national, 10 Ther. Ann. 2; Papiers trouvés chez ROBESPIERRE, ii. 225. These expressions, to which hundreds of others might be added, prove how true to nature the great Scottish novelist was in his delineation of the Covenanters. "We must smite them hip and thigh, even from the rising to the going down of the sun. It is our commission to slay them like Amalek, and utterly destroy all they have, and spare neither man nor woman, infant nor suckling; therefore hinder me not," said Burley, "for this must not be done negligently."-Old Mortality, chap. ix. "Yet the age was not so sterile in virtue as to be destitute of great examples. Mothers attended their flying children, wives followed their exiled husbands, relations were undaunted, sons-in-law unshaken, the fidelity of slaves firm even against the utmost tortures, the illustrious subjected to the utmost hardships and that hardship itself bravely endured, and death, equal to the most renowned of antiquity, of daily occurrence." 1 Riouffe, Rév. Mém. Tac. Hist. CHAP. XV. 1794. a republic in France after the model of the ancients, to change the manners, the habits, the public spirit of the country. Sovereignty in the people, magistrates without Professed pride, citizens without vice, simplicity of manners, fraterobject of the Decemvirs, nity of relations, austerity of character; such was the basis on which their institutions were to rest. 9. 1 See Rap. de St Just, April 13, 303, 353. Robes pierre, May 7. Hist. Parl. xxxii. p. 353. There was one objection to them, that they were utterly impracticable, from the character of the great body of mankind. Camille Desmoulins saw this, when in a letter to his wife, the night before his execution, he said "I had dreamt of a republic which all the world would have adored. I could not have believed that men were so ferocious and so unjust." "I knew well the great," said Alfieri, after witnessing at Paris the 10th August, "but I did not know the little."* Such were the errors which ruined France -a mistaken idea of the virtue of unsophisticated man, unbounded confidence in social regeneration, utopian expectations of human perfectibility were the root of all the errors which prevailed. To accomplish these chimerical projects, it was indispensable to destroy the whole superior classes of society, to cut off all those who were pre-eminent among their neighbours, either for fortune, rank, talent, or acquirement. These, they seriously believed, were the only wicked men in the world. To destroy them, was the end, accordingly, proposed in the indiscriminate massacres which were put in execution. And what would have been its consequence if completely carried into effect? To sink the whole human race to the level of the lowest classes, to annihilate all superiority in virtue, knowledge, or acquirement, and destroy every thing which dignifies or adorns human nature. Such was the chimera which they followed through these oceans of blood. Politicians have no right, after such proceedings, to reproach religious enthusiasm with the reign of saints, or the expected approach of the millennium.1 * "Je connais bien les grands, mais je ne connaissais pas les petits."— ALFIERI, Vita, i. 374 ad fin. XV. 10. the state public. In pursuance of these views, St Just made a laboured CHAP. report on the general police of the commonwealth, in which he recapitulated all the fabulous stories of con- 1794. spiracies against the Republic; explaining them as efforts St Just's of every species of vice against the austere rule of the report on people; and concluding with holding out the necessity of of the Rethe government striking without intermission, till it had cut off all those whose corruption opposed itself to the establishment of virtue. "You have been severe; you were right to be so, but you have acted judiciously. It was necessary to resist crime by inflexible justice, to destroy conspiracies, and to punish the sanguinary hypocrisy of those who, without courage, seek to restore the throne and destroy the Republic. The foundation of all great states has been laid in storms. The basis of all great institutions is terror. Where would now have been an indulgent Republic? We have opposed the sword to the sword, and its power is in consequence established. It has emerged from the storm, and its origin is like that of the earth out of the confusion of Chaos, and of man who weeps in the hour of nativity." As a consequence of these principles, he proposed a general measure of proscription against all the nobles as the irreconcilable opponents of the Revolution. "You will never," said he, "satisfy the enemies of the people, till you have re-established tyranny in all its horrors. They can never be at peace with you; you do not speak the same language; you will never understand each other. Banish them by an inexorable law; the universe may receive them; and the public safety is our justification.” He then proposed a decree which banished all the ex-nobles, all strangers from Paris, the fortified towns, and seaports April 13. of France; and declared hors la loi whoever did not 'Hist. Parl. yield obedience in ten hours to the order. It was 312, 324. received with applause by the Convention, and like all the decrees of government at that time, without iv. 36, 39. coming to a vote.1 VOL. III. R passed, xxxii. 311, Th. vi. 228, 230. Hist. de la Conv. CHAP. XV. 1794. 11. Closing of all clubs The Committee of Public Salvation, now confident in its own strength, and strong in the universal submission of France, adopted several measures calculated to strengthen its own power, and subvert that of the The situations of the different ministers of state were abolished, and twelve committees appointed to carry on the details of government. These commis in France people. except the Jacobins. April 24. sions, entirely appointed by the Committee of Public Salvation, and dependent on the will of its members, were, in fact, nothing but the offices in which they exercised their mighty and despotic powers. Shortly after, steps were taken to extinguish all the popular societies which did not immediately depend on the great parent club of the Jacobins. It was resolved at that society that they would no longer receive any deputation from bodies formed since the 10th August, or keep up any correspondence with them; and that a committee should be appointed, to consider whether it should be maintained with those which were formed before that event. This measure, directed in an especial manner against the club of the Cordeliers, the centre of the influence of Danton, soon produced the desired effect. Intimidated by the destruction of the leaders of that great society, the whole other clubs in France, to avoid the coming storm, dissolved themselves; and in less than ten days after the promulgation of this resolution, there remained no secondary club in France, but those which were affiliated with the Jacobins at Paris. That body thenceforward became the sole organ of government in regulating public opinion. It was next proposed to close the sittings of the Cordeliers; but this was unnecessary; that club, once so terrible, rapidly declined, and soon died a natural death. The Jacobins, swayed with 1 Decree, absolute power by the Committee of Public Salvation, April 24,27, 1793. Hist. with its affiliated societies, alone remained of all the Parl. xxxvi. innumerable clubs which had sprung up in France.1 352, 353. Thus, on all sides, the anarchy of the Revolution was |