XV. 1794. CHAP. atrocities of the Revolution as the work merely of the guilty men who were at its head. It is evident, from every page of its annals, that these men rose to eminence Real cause of only because they were the representatives of its spirit, the atroci and resolutely determined to do its work. Equally with Revolution. Napoleon, during his career of foreign conquest, Robes 99. ties of the But pierre always marched with the opinions of five millions CHAP. XV. 1794. 100. points of the bins. There is no character, however, which has not some redeeming points; pure unmixed wickedness is the creation of romance, but never yet appeared in real life.* Even the Jacobins of Paris were not destitute of good Elevated qualities; history would deviate equally from its first character of duty, and its chief usefulness, if it did not bring them the Jacoprominently forward. With the exception of some atrocious men, such as Collot d'Herbois, Fouché, Carrier, and a few others, who were villains as base as they were inhuman, almost entirely guided by selfish motives, they were, for the most part, possessed of some qualities in which the seeds of a noble character are to be found. In moral courage, energy of mind, and decision of conduct, they yielded to none in ancient or modern times their heroic resolution to maintain, amidst unexampled perils, the independence of their country, was worthy of the best days of Roman patriotism. They possessed in the highest degree the quality so finely described by the poet : "The unconquerable will And study of revenge, immortal hate, If this strenuous will could be separated from the obvious necessity of repelling the Allies to avoid punishment for the numberless crimes which they had committed, it would be deserving of the highest admiration : mingled, as it necessarily was in their case, with a large portion of that baser alloy, it is still a redeeming point in their character. Some of them, doubtless, were selfish or * At the trial of Burke in Edinburgh, on December 24, 1828, a remarkable instance of this occurred. He was indicted for three cold-blooded murders, perpetrated on unsuspecting victims, whom he lured into his den, to sell their bodies. Subsequently, it was ascertained he had murdered sixteen in this way. Yet this monster, who was tried along with a young woman, his associate, with whom he lived, no sooner heard the verdict of the jury, which found him guilty and acquitted her, than he threw his arms around her neck and kissed her, saying "Thank God! Mary, you are saved." It occurred to the author at the moment, who conducted the prosecution on the part of the crown-" How many are there among his judges, jury, or accusers, who, in similar circumstances, would have done the same?" XV. 1794. CHAP. rapacious, and used their power for the purposes of individual lust or private emolument. But others, among whom we must number Robespierre and St Just, were entirely free from this degrading contamination, and, in the atrocities they committed, were governed, if not by public principle, at least by private ambition. Even the blood which they shed was often the result, in their estimation, not so much of terror or danger, as of overbearing necessity. They deemed it essential to the success of freedom; and regarded the victims, who perished under the guillotine, as the melancholy sacrifice which required to be laid on its altar. 101. the revolu In arriving at this frightful conclusion, they were, Similarity of doubtless, mainly influenced by the perils of their own situationary to tion. They massacred others because they were conscious fanaticism. that death, were they vanquished, justly awaited themselves. religious But still the weakness of humanity in their, as in many similar cases, deluded them by the magic of words, or the supposed influence of purer motives, and led them to commit the greatest crimes, while constantly professing, and often feeling, the noblest intentions. There is nothing surprising or incredible in this we have only to recollect, that all France joined in a crusade against the Albigeois, and that its bravest warriors deemed themselves secure from eternal, by consigning thousands of wretches to temporal flames; we have only to go back, in imagination, to Godfrey of Bouillon and the Christian warriors putting forty thousand unresisting citizens to death on the storming of Jerusalem, and wading to the Holy Sepulchre ankle-deep in human gore-to be convinced that such delusions are not peculiar to any particular age or country, but that they are the universal offspring of fanaticism, whether in political or religious contests. The writers who represent the Jacobins as mere bloodthirsty wretches, vultures insatiate in their passion for destruction, are wellmeaning and amiable, but weak and ignorant men, unacquainted with the real working of delusion or wickedness CHAP. XV. 1794. in the human heart, and calculated to mislead, rather than direct, future ages on the approach of times similar to that in which these obtain the ascendency. Vice never appears in such colours: it invariably conceals its real deformity. It is by borrowing the language and assuming the garb of virtue, that its greatest triumphs are gained. It is the "deceitfulness of sin" which constitutes its greatest danger; its worst excesses ever attest the truth of Rochefoucault's maxim, that "hypocrisy is the homage which vice pays to virtue." If other states are ever to be ruled by a Jacobin faction, the advent of their power will not be marked by sanguinary professions, or the hideous display of heartless atrocity. It will be ushered in by the warmest expressions of philanthropy, by boundless hopes of felicity, and professions of the utmost regard for the great principles of public justice and 164, 226. general happiness.1* 1 Levasseur de la Sarthe, i. 24, 80; iii. 102. of the revo historians There is no opinion more frequently stated by the annalists and historians of the Revolution on the popular Great error side in France, than that the march of the Revolution lutionary was inevitable; that an invincible fatality attends all such on this subconvulsions; and that by no human exertions could its ject. progress have been changed, or its horrors averted.+ The able works of Thiers, Mignet, and many others, are * The ablest and most interesting apology for the Jacobins is to be found in the Memoirs of Levasseur de la Sarthe, himself no inconsiderable actor in their sanguinary deeds. It is highly satisfactory to have such a work to do justice to their intentions; and it is a favourable symptom of the love of impartiality in the human heart, that even Robespierre and St Just have had their defenders. Whatever opinions may be entertained on this point, one thing seems very clear, that Robespierre's abilities were of the highest order, and that the contrary opinions expressed by so many of his contemporaries, were suggested by envy or horror. It is impossible in any other way to account for his long dominion over France, at a period when talent of every sort was hurled forth in wild confusion to the great central arena at Paris. His speeches are a sufficient indication of the vigour of his mind; they are distinguished in many instances by a nervous eloquence, a fearless energy, a simple and manly cast of thought, very different from most of the frothy declamations at the tribune. + This doctrine is the one put by Corneille into the mouth of Theseus :--"L'âme est donc tout esclave: une loi souveraine Vers le bien ou le mal incessamment l'entraîne; XV. 1794. CHAP. mainly directed to this end; and it constitutes, in their estimation, the best apology for the Revolution. Never was an opinion more erroneous. There is nothing in the annals of human affairs which warrants the conclusion, that improvement necessarily leads to revolution; and that in revolution, a succession of rulers, each more sanguinary and atrocious than the preceding, must be endured before the order of society is restored. It is not the career of reform, it is the career of guilt, which leads to these consequences: this deplorable succession took place in France, not because changes were made, but because boundless crimes in the course of these changes were committed. The partisans of liberal institutions have fallen into a capital error, when, in their anxiety to exculpate the actors in the Revolution, they have laid its horrors on the cause of the Revolution itself: to do so, was to brand the cause of freedom with infamy, when that infamy should have been confined to its wicked supporters. It was the early commission of crime by the leaders of the movement which precipitated and rendered irretrievable its subsequent scenes; the career of passion in nations is precisely similar to its excesses in individuals, and subject to the same moral laws. If we would seek the key to the frightful aberrations of the Revolution, we have only to turn to the exposition, by the great English divines, of the progress of guilty passions in the individual. The description of the one might pass for a faithful portrait of the other. There is a necessity to which both are sub Et nous ne recevons ni crainte ni désir * Take, for example, the following passage from Archbishop Tillotson;"All vice stands upon a precipice; to engage in any sinful course is to run down the hill. If we once let loose the propensities of our nature, we cannot gather in the reins and govern them as we please; it is much easier not to begin a bad course, than to stop it when begun. "Tis a good thing for a man |