THE GIRONDISTS AND THE JACOBINS.

341

A. D.

moved many great and glaring evils. It abolished torture, the Ch.27 lettres de cachet, the most oppressive duties, the privileges of the nobility, and feudal burdens. It established National 1791. Guards, a uniform system of jurisprudence, and an equal system of finance. "It opened the army to men of merit, and divided the landed possessions of the aristocracy among the laboring classes; which, though a violation of the rights of property, enabled the nation to bear the burdens which were subsequently imposed, and to prosper under evils so terrible as national bankruptcy, depreciated assignats, the Reign of Terror, the conscription of Napoleon, and the subjugation of Europe."

lative

The Legislative Assembly, composed for the most part of Legis country attorneys and clerks, among whom there were not Assemfifty persons possessed of one hundred pounds a year, took the bly. place of the Constituent Assembly, and opened its sittings on

the 1st of October.

The members on the right, called Feuillants, from the Club which formed the centre of their power, were friends to the limited monarchy which the Constituent Assembly had established. The National Guard, the magistrates, and all the constituted authorities, were the supporters of this party. The Girondists, comprehending the more respectable of the Republicans, formed a second party, among whom were numbered the ablest men in the Assembly. Brissot, Vergniaud, Condorcet, Guadet, and Isnard, were leading members of it.

ties.

A third party, headed by Chabot, Bazin, and Merlin, was Politisupported by the Clubs of the Jacobins and the Cordeliers. cal parThe great oracles of the Jacobins were Robespierre, Varennes, and Collot d'Herbois; while the leaders of the Cordeliers were Danton and Desmoulins. Robespierre was excluded from the Assembly, by a sort of self-denying ordinance which he himself had proposed. His influence, at that time, was immense, from the extravagance of his opinions, the vehemence of his language, and the reputation he had acquired for integrity.

Between these three parties there were violent contentions,

342

PREPARATIONS FOR WAR.

Ch. 27 and a struggle for ascendency commenced, which was soon to end in the complete triumph of the Jacobins.

A. D. 1792.

rations

In the mean time, the condition of the King, who scarcely possessed the shadow of authority, the extent of popular exPrepa- cesses, and the diffusion of revolutionary principles, induced the for war, leading Monarchs of Europe to combine together, in order to suppress disturbances in France. In July, the Emperor Leopold appealed to the Sovereigns of Europe to unite for the deliverance of Louis XVI. Austria collected her troops; the emigrants at Coblentz made warlike demonstrations; and preparations were made for the commencement of a contest, which, before it was finished, proved the most bloody and extensive that has desolated the world since the fall of the Roman Empire.

Inva

France.

The Constituent Assembly rejected with disdain the dietasion of tion of the European Powers; and the new ministry, of which Dumourier and Roland were the most prominent members, prepared for war. All classes in France were anxious for the struggle, so hostilities were not long delayed. On the 25th of July, the Duke of Brunswick, with an army of one hundred and forty-eight thousand Prussians, Austrians, and Hessians, entered the French territory. The spirit of resistance animated all classes, and the ardor of the multitude was without a parallel. The Manifesto of the Allied Powers indicated the dispositions of the Court and of the emigrants. Revolt against the throne was now openly declared. On the 25th of July, the Marseillais arrived in Paris, and augmented the strength and confidence of the insurgents. Popular commotions increased, and the Clubs became unmanageable. On the 10th of August, 1792, the tocsin sounded, the générale beat in every quarter of Paris, and an insurrection took place; the Hotel de Ville was seized by the insurgents, the Tuileries was Massa- stormed, and the Swiss Guards were massacred. The last cre of chance for the King to regain his power was lost; Paris was Swiss Guards. in the hands of an infuriated mob.

The confinement of the King in the Temple, the departure

THE NATIONAL CONVENTION.

343

of the foreign ambassadors, the flight of emigrants, the confis- Ch. 27 cation of their estates, the massacres in the prisons, the sack A. D. of palaces, the fall and flight of La Fayette, and the dissolution 1792. of the Legislative Assembly, rapidly succeeded.

and

On the 21st of September, the National Convention, composed of the most violent advocates of revolution, commenced its sittings. It was ruled by the popular orators who happened to have the greatest influence in the Clubs. The most influential of these leaders were Danton, Marat, and Robes- Danton, pierre. Danton was a lawyer, a man of brutal courage, the Marat, slave of sensual passions, and the idol of the Parisian mob. RobesHe, as minister of justice, was the ferocious author of the pierre. massacres in the prisons. Marat was a journalist, the president of the Jacobin Club, and a violent advocate of all excesses. His bloody career was prematurely cut short by the hand of Charlotte Corday, who offered up her own life to rid the country of the greatest monster which the annals of crime have ever consigned to an infamous immortality.

Robespierre was a sentimentalist, and concealed, under the mask of patriotism and philanthropy, an insatiable ambition, inordinate vanity, and implacable revenge. He despised money, and, when he had at his disposal the lives and fortunes of his countrymen, lived upon a few francs a day. It is usual to deny him any extraordinary talent; but that he was a man of domineering will, of invincible courage, and of austere enthusiasm, appears from nearly all the actions of his hateful career.

Con

It was in the midst of the awful massacre in the prisons, Sittings where more than five thousand perished to appease the infatu- of the ated vengeance of the Parisian mob, that the Convention veution. opened its proceedings. Its first measure was, to abolish the monarchy, and to proclaim a republic; the next, to issue new assignats. The two preceding assemblies had authorized the fabrication of twenty-seven hundred millions of francs, and the Convention added several millions more, on the security of the national domains.

On the 7th of November, 1792, the trial of the King

344

A. D.

TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF THE KING.

Ch. 27 was decreed; and, on the 11th of December, his examination commenced. As he appeared at the bar of the Convention, 1798, the president, Barrere, exclaimed, "Louis, the French nation accuses you; you are about to hear the charges that are to be preferred. Louis, be seated."

Trial

cution

XVI.

The charges having been read, the King replied with dignity, and exe- simplicity, and directness. He was defended, in this mock of Louis trial, by Desèze, Tronchet, and Malesherbes; but his blood was demanded, and the Assembly unanimously pronounced the condemnation of their King. On the 20th of January, Santerre appeared in the royal prison, and read the sentence of death; three days only were allowed to prepare for the last hour of anguish. On the 24th of January, 1793, the Monarch mounted the scaffold, erected between the garden of the Tuileries and the Champs Elysées, and the fatal axe soon separated his head from his body. His remains were buried in the ancient cemetery of the Madeleine, over which Napoleon commenced, after the battle of Jena, a splendid temple of glory; but as the building was not finished until the restoration of the Bourbons, it was then converted into the beautiful church which now bears the name of the ancient cemetery. The spot where Louis XVI. offered up his life, in expiation of the crimes of his ancestors, is marked by the colossal obelisk of red granite, which the French Government, in 1831, brought from Egypt,- —a monument which witnessed the march of Cambyses, and may perhaps survive the glory of the French nation itself.

Effects

of his martyrdom.

The execution of Louis XVI. was the signal for a general war. All the Powers of Europe instantly united in opposition to the principles and proceedings of the French revolutionists. The Convention, after declaring war against England, Holland, Spain, Austria, Prussia, Portugal, the Two Sicilies, the Roman States, Sardinia, and Piedmont,-ordered a levy of three hundred thousand men; instituted a military tribunal; imposed a forced loan of one thousand millions; and prepared, with unparalleled energy, to defend the soil of France.

COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY.

345

A Committee of Public Safety was appointed, and the dic- Ch.27 tatorship of Danton, Marat, and Robespierre commenced, A. D. marked by great horrors and barbarities, but signalized also 1793. by wonderful successes in war, and by exertions which, under common circumstances, would scarcely be credited.

mittee

This committee was at first composed of twenty-five per- Comsons, then of twelve; but Robespierre and Marat were, from of the first, the leading members. The different departments of Safety. the government were of course assigned to ruling Jacobins. St. Just was entrusted with the duty of denouncing enemies; Couthon brought forward general measures; Billaud Varennes and Collot d'Herbois managed the departments; Carnot was made minister of war; and Robespierre, general dictator. In this body, as the supreme authority, really vested all the power of government. "It named and dismissed generals, judges, and juries; brought forward all public measures in the Convention; ruled provinces and armies; controlled the Revolutionary Tribunal; made requisitions of men and money; and appointed revolutionary committees, which sprang up in every part of the kingdom, to the frightful number of fifty thousand. It was the object of the Committee of Public Safety to destroy all who opposed the most violent revolutionary measures. Marat had declared that two hundred and sixty thousand heads must fall before freedom was secure; the revolutionary committees discovered that seven hundred thousand persons must be sacrificed."

of

Then commenced the Reign of Terror, when all the prisons Reign of France were filled with victims, whose only crime was Terror. being obnoxious to the reigning powers. The suspected, if possible, fled, but were generally unable to carry away their property, which was immediately confiscated; thousands were guillotined; anarchy and fear reigned without a rival. Deputies, even those who had been most instrumental in bringing on the revolution, were sacrificed by the triumphant Jacobins. Women and retired citizens were not permitted to escape their fear and vengeance.