CH. III.] FAILURE OF BEVOLUTIONARY PROPAGANDA.

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logne, on account of the impossibility of provisioning his army. The Ministers in return gave up the idea of holding a court-martial, and resolved that both Dumouriez and Beurnonville should enter into winter quarters. But the Parisian party was already so confident of its own strength, that, in the face of this ministerial resolution, Pache announced to the General that the Council insisted on the occupation of the Rhine: whereupon Dumouriez, who, in spite of his exasperation, was bound to obey, sent on his van-guard to Aix-la-Chapelle, but halted there on receiving the intelligence that Beurnonville was in full retreat. This time Pache did not venture to repeat the violation of the decree, and a complete cessation of arms took place from Antwerp to Basle. The universal revolutionary propaganda paused for a moment in its headlong course.

But if any one founded thereon a hope of seeing the zeal of the Revolution flag, he was destined to be bitterly disappointed.. The Republic had entered too far into the path of violence. The only effect of the failure of the plan of fraternizing with the peoples, was to direct the fury of the Revolution against the peoples as well as their rulers, and to substitute for the Girondists' smile of freedom, the plundering schemes of Danton. The French Ministers even regarded it as a compensation for the overthrow of their plans, that they were no longer checked in the open display of their rapacity, by any consideration for the fraternal union of all nations which they had hitherto so loudly preached. If the peoples in their blindness took offence at the punishment of a despot, so much the better for the Revolution, which did not increase its dangers, by increasing the number of its enemies, but only its booty and glory. If they rejected the brotherly hand which was held out to them, let them feel the wrath of offended Liberty, and let their goods be employed in feeding their conquerors. They had reasons enough in Paris to be satisfied with such a turn of affairs. The month of November produced only 28 millions of revenue

against 138 millions outlay, 122 of which were spent in the war. Clavière considered that this was of itself sufficient to render it impossible any longer to keep up the pretence of unselfish brotherhood in foreign countries; and Cambon frankly told the Belgian patriots, that France needed their Church property to keep up the value of the assignats; and that, consequently, Belgium must become a French province. They therefore contracted the Propaganda's sphere of operations, in order to carry out their schemes of conquest more completely, within narrower limits.

These new views were soon officially expressed. On the 15th of December-two days after the opening of the English Parliament, and the decree of the French Council respecting the winter quarters of the army-Cambon proposed to the Convention, that the neighbouring countries, whom they had hitherto invited to freedom and self-government, should henceforward be made to bear the rule of the sansculottes and the cost of the assignats. "The object of the war," he said, "is destruction to the palace, and peace to the cottage; hitherto our troops have expelled the tyrants, but class privileges still exist; if any nation wishes to deserve liberty and our friendship, it must do what we have done; it must overthrow the privileged classes and give the sansculottes a share in the government. You cannot allow any half-measures; a people which does not choose to be entirely free, is your enemy; wherever we appear, we must constitute ourselves as a revolutionary power. The property of our enemies" he continued "i. e. of all tyrants, churches, noblemen, corporations and rich egoists-should be seized as a pledge for the future liquidation of the expenses of war. We shall relieve the poor by the abolition of all taxes, and supply the deficiency thus caused from our own treasury, by means of our assignats, which will gain a fresh security in the sequestrated property. Their circulation in the districts occupied by us will be in this manner secured, and we shall be spared the costly purchase of silver money for our armies."

CH. III.]

THE REVOLUTION DROPS ITS MASK.

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These propositions were loudly cheered by the Convention. Robespierre and his party, who took little part in warlike matters, remained passive, or were rather perhaps inclined to disapprove. Danton's associates warned the Convention against the alienation of the neighbouring peoples, which might be the consequence of this decree; but they too were fated to see themselves outstripped by their own disciples, and the great mass of the ministerialists with noisy impatience decreed as follows.

"Wherever the French armies shall come, all taxes, tithes, and privileges of rank, are to be abolished; all existing Authorities annulled, and provisional Administrators elected by universal suffrage; the property of the fallen Government, of the privileged classes and their adherents, is to be placed under French protection; and, lastly, Conventional Commissioners are to be sent into the country to fraternize with the people; and Commissioners from the Government, to provide for the maintenance of French 'troops."

This decree needs no comment. Wherever it was executed, it subjected the occupied country at a single blow to the dominion of Paris; it overturned all the internal relations of life, confiscated the property of the richer classes, and robbed even the poor by the ever-increasing depreciation of the assignats. It was answered therefore from all sides by a cry of horror and disgust. The Belgian provinces sent up an energetic protest, the Dutch patriots were reduced to silence, and among the Germans and the English the last remnant of that sympathy vanished, which the remembrance of the spring of 1789 had awakened, and which had partially survived the September massacres. By this decree, France gave up her attempt to seduce the nations by a shadowy image of liberty; not however with the intention. of returning to the paths of peace and international law, but of declaring open war on the whole system of social order, in the name of mob rule.

CHAPTER IV.

TRIAL OF LOUIS XVI.

IZE FOREIGN

COMPETENCE OF THE CONVENTION.-REVIEW OF THE EFFORTS TO REVOLUTIONCOUNTRIES. PRIVATE PAPERS OF THE KING.-FERMENT IN PARIS. COMMUNISTIC PROPOSALS.-THEIR REJECTION.-COMMENCEMENT OF THE TRIAL.-CHANGE IN THE VIEWS OF THE GIRONDE CONSEQUENT ON ENGLAND'S PREPARATIONS FOR WAR.-PLAN OF APPEALING TO THE NATION. EXAMINATION AND DEFENCE OF LOUIS. DEBATE ON THE SENTENCE.PREDOMINANCE OF THE GIRONDE.-THREATENING ATTITUDE OF THE DEMOCRATS. AGITATION OF THE LOWER CLASSES IN PARIS.-DESERTION OF THE TROOPS TO THE DEMOCRATS.-SENTENCE OF DEATH AGAINST LOUIS EXTORTED BY FEAR.-EXECUTION OF THE KING.

In undertaking to relate the last days and sufferings of King Louis XVI., we feel that we are still more exposed, than in other portions of our history, to the objection, that after the countless recitals that have been given of them, it is impossible to furnish any thing worthy the attention of the reader. In respect to certain phases of the events to be described, we are deeply convinced of the force of the objection; and shall therefore speak of these only so far as is absolutely necessary to preserve the connexion of our story. To this category belongs more especially the pourtrayal of the personal sufferings, of which the dungeons of the Temple were the scene in those horrible days-the series of brutalities which were heaped upon the heads of the Royal Family-the cruelties which each of the persecuted ones experienced in his own person, and-far worse-was obliged to see inflicted on the nearest to his heart. We may further omit to speak of those parliamentary contests in which each party endeavoured to obtain for their actions, not the meed of success-for this depended upon quite dif

1 Conf. the Journals of the Princess Maria Theresa and Cléry.

CH. IV.]

COULD LOUIS BE LAWFULLY TRIED?

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ferent things-but the assent and approbation of their contemporaries and their posterity. And, lastly, we may pass over a number of subordinate intrigues, which, though of little importance, have nevertheless claimed a large share of curiosity and interest. We have no intention of adorning or encumbering our story with any of these things; remembering that the catastrophe offers other, less known but not less essential points, the clearer understanding of which may, perhaps for the first time, enable us to pronounce an historical and moral judgment. For it was not the intrigues of impotent compassion, nor the speeches of criminal judges, nor the sufferings of the victims, which determined the issue of this great contest; and it will be our task, as far as our sources allow, to point out and establish the true causes and the essential character of the events which followed. If therefore our recital cannot hope to affect, excite and agitate, the reader, like those of many of our predecessors, yet we trust that the tragic lessons, which the event in its purely historical nature is calculated to teach, will not be altogether lost.

After Valazé, a zealous Girondist, had prepared the Convention on the 3rd of November, by a brutal and turgid description of all the crimes of the King, Mailhe, a member of the Centre, proceeded, on the 7th, to ventilate the legal question, whether a criminal procedure against Louis could be lawfully commenced, and what tribunal was competent to try him. There was reason enough for such a preliminary question, even for those who regarded the sanctity of ancient royalty as obsolete, and wished to treat Louis solely according to the usual principles of the criminal law. They were prevented from founding their charges against him on earlier occurrences, by the general amnesty with which the Constituent Assembly had concluded its labours in September 1791. For the following period, of course, the standard of law was to be sought in the Constitution, which plainly declared the person of the King inviolable, since it held the Ministry responsible for all the acts of the Government.