every sentence, the signal of attack on the Mountain, by designating their intrigues and carelessness as the sole sources of the evil, and demanding hired troops for the protection of the Convention and the Government. On the following day Kersaint and Buzot, in accordance with the suggestions of Roland, brought forward motions-the former for the enactment of a penal law against the instigators of murder and homicide, and the latter, for the formation of a guard for the Convention raised from all the Departments. Both proposals were referred to a Committee. An attack was then made on individuals: Barbaroux and Buzot resuscitated the story that Robespierre, on the 9th August, had had himself proposed to the Marseilles Fédérés as Dictator. The Girondists, in their turn, were accused of wishing to cut up France into a number of independent States, on the American pattern. They replied that the Parisians were striving to domineer over the Departments, as Rome had formerly done over the Provinces; and then they themselves caused the unity and indivisibility of the Republic to be formally decreed. These contentions had no other result than to increase the general exasperation; and the attention of each and all was soon solely directed to the material forces of either party. On the one side was the Commune of Paris -whose zealous proletaries were greatly dreaded by the mass of the Deputies-and on the other, the Guard of the Convention, by means of which the Gironde hoped to gain, in the first instance, security of voting, and as a natural consequence, to effect the complete overthrow of their opponents. Buzot brought up the report on this question on the 8th October; it was ordered to be printed and was then dropped. The Gironde had observed that a great number of Deputies feared to vote for this measure, which was execrated in Paris; they therefore had recourse to the expedient of sending-without the sanction of the law-for armed troops from the Departments friendly to them, by whose protection they sought to encourage their adherents.

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It was Marseilles again which took the lead, and now raised soldiers for the Government in October, as it had done for the Revolution in July. Meanwhile the Municipality of Paris was tormented in every way; an inquiry was ordered into its enormous robberies and embezzlements; the Minister of Justice was commissioned to institute a general investigation respecting the September massacre, and in the new elections of the Commune, the principle of secret voting was strictly carried out. Péthion was actually chosen Mayor by a large majority, and when he preferred to keep his seat in the Convention, another candidate of the Girondist party, the Physician Chambon, was elected in opposition to the Jacobin Lhuillier. Nine-tenths of the citizens, however, abstained from voting.

And thus the Gironde up to the end of October made continual progress; but they had not gained any success of such importance as to guarantee the future. That which aided them most effectually was the arrival of the new Fédérés; for such a listless indifference prevailed about internal politics, that a few thousand sturdy arms sufficed to inspire respect into the Jacobin bands. But what a melancholy expedient was it to have to defend the cause of order by such purely anarchical means! Roland was well aware of this, and aimed at the very centre of the evil by repeatedly demanding that the powers of the Ministry should be increased, and the Municipality deprived of the right of calling out the military. But his colleagues considered these measures either unattainable in the Convention, or inconsistent with their previous political attitude; at all events no proposition on the subject was ever brought forward.

The Jacobins were, therefore, doubly glad that the finances of the State continued to be administered as heretofore. Clavière was once more Finance Minister; and although, like his Girondist friends, he would not hear of any formal abolition of property, or of fixed prices, forced currency, and prehensions (arbitrary exactions from French citizens by Civil

authorities)—yet he did everything else in his power to shake the influence of property, and to lead the State by constantly increasing demands on the public resources, into the paths of wholesale robbery. On the 19th of October, the plunder of the Emigrés was continued, with the unanimous consent of the Convention, by an order to all bankers and notaries, on pain of death, to hand over all the money and valuable papers entrusted to them by the exiles to the Public Exchequer. All the public Civil authorities had already, on the 30th of September, been made answerable for the sale of the confiscated estates; and when, a little later (17th Nov.), Manuel suggested that a difference ought to be made between the Cavaliers of the Court of Coblenz, and those who had fled on the 2nd of September, he was told that it was now a question of the necessities of war, in which it was impossible to attend to mere distinctions of law and justice. For the better security of the booty, it was ordained (Oct. 23rd,) according to the proposition of Buzot, that the punishment of death should be inflicted on every Emigré who was caught upon the soil of France. The application of the wealth thus gained was analogous to the course pursued in the financial administration of the former Assemblies. The city of Paris received first six, and then three millions, for the support of the needy classes. Clavière increased the number of small assignats; and the Convention decreed a new issue of 400 millions. The Girondists could make no objection to these measures, because they knew of no other means of meeting the ever-increasing expenditure. There was, it is true, one expedient by which the State could be freed from a monthly outlay of 100 millions; and this was the conclusion of peace-an expedient which, since the 20th of September, the inclinations of the King of Prussia placed entirely within their power. But on this point the Mountain and the Gironde were fully agreed; for they all had the same ardent impulse towards universal freedom and universal conquest. It is evident that a party

PLANS FOR REVOLUTIONISING EUROPE.

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CH. V.] which was at that time preaching about order and property in France, was only digging its own grave by endeavouring to spread anarchy and financial exhaustion through the whole of Europe.

As we have said above, there was no difference of opinion among the parties on this head. Danton and his associates, the Girondists Brissot and Clavière, and Dumouriez's friend Lebrun, had all the same ideas respecting the revolutionary metamorphosis of Europe, as the demagogues of the Hôtel de Ville, and the fanatics of the Jacobin club. The annihilation of all Kings, the republicanising of all countries, and their union with France, were the only political views which could safely he expressed in Paris. These ambitious ideas of taking the world by storm were universally diffused. If Prussia could be lulled to sleep, the overthrow of the German Empire was considered as secured. On the appearance of a French army and fleet, a revolution might be expected to break out in Switzerland and Italy. By a second naval force it was hoped that the Turks might be roused to a fresh war against the two Imperial Courts. England shewed herself at present cautious and desirous of peace; and, at the worst, the French reckoned even there on the aid of a republican party, and above all of oppressed and agitated Ireland. What would then be left in our quarter of the world of the old state of things?

The first steps in this direction were taken as early as September. Since the 10th of August, the Ministry had been constantly urging General Montesquiou to put into execution the long-planned attack on Savoy, by which the flames of war were to be kindled at once through the length and breadth of the Alps and Appenines. The most encouraging intelligence was received from all parts of Italy. The diplomatic agents whom Dumouriez had sent out in Spring were indefatigable at their respective posts. Henin wrote from Venice that an obstinate resistance would be met with in Germany, and that the Germans would after all only be

conquered in Italy. He said that a French fleet ought to sail for Spezzia, from which it should send an army by way of Sestri to Parma, Modena and Piacenza; that Parma would furnish supplies in abundance, Piacenza heavy artillery, and Modena treasure to the amount of several millions; that neither Milan nor Mantua could resist such a plan of operations, if rapidly executed, and that the Papal towns of Bologna and Ferrara would hail the French as liberators. He added that if a second fleet were to make itself master of the mouths of the Po, it might occupy Ravenna and Ancona, and overpower weakly-defended Venice, almost without a blow; and that though this plan would be costly in the first instance, the French armies would subsequently be plentifully supplied by Italy, and the fate of Europe be at once decided.

While reading these schemes, we fancy ourselves transported into the year 1796, and the head-quarters of the youthful General Buonaparte. Proposals and reports of a similar nature were sent in by Salicetti from Corsica respecting the Island of Sardinia, by Semonville from Genoa respecting Piedmont, and by Chateauneuf from Geneva respecting Savoy. In all quarters they were canvassing the native population for the liberation of the people by means of a French invasion. Henin reported on the 18th August, that he had formed bands of trustworthy and zealous adherents in several parts of Italy, who only waited for the signal to raise the standard of revolt. A secret understanding was maintained with a party in most of the towns of Savoy; and in Geneva Clavière's correspondents Dassier and Flournoy2 were actively engaged in raising the enfranchised citizens, and other inhabitants, against the Patricians. This was a favourite object with Clavière, as he, a native of Geneva, had been expelled from that city in 1782 by the

All in the Military archives in Paris; Armée du Midi. 2 Montesquiou, Mémoire justificatif. Clavière's answer to it.