1794.

BOOK II. at a procession in honor of the Supreme Being. And the aukward joy which he shewed in return CHAP. I. for this flattery, gave the malevolent an opportunity of calling him an ambitious conspirator, who meant to usurp the sovereign power. Attempts Attempts were soon made to assassinate some of his party, and he was foolish enough to exalt himself into a servant of the Most High, and mounted the tribune to thank God that he and his party, as faithful servants to their country, were accounted worthy of the daggers of tyrants.

After he had butchered thousands to his own safety, being tormented by unceasing suspicion and remorse, he in vain sought to convert his couch of thorns into a bed of roses. That terror at last took possession of his own guilty mind, which he had infused into the minds of all. He was perpetually haunted with the dread of approaching death. Solitary and abstracted in the midst of company, he seemed to hear nothing but the cries of the victims whom he had sacrificed to his insatiable ambition and vindictive cruelty.

One of the members of the convention, whose name was Bourdon de l'Oise, was bold enough to demand, that the decree should be re-established, which affirmed the persons of the representatives to be inviolable; and that none should be brought before the revolutionary tribunal, but by virtue of a decree of accusation from the convention itself, not from the committee of safety, in which Robespierre, together with Couthon and St. Just, the execrable instruments of his infamous tyranny, carried every thing before them; which decree passed before the sanguinary despot could recover from his astonishment. After this event, the party formed against him increased with great rapidity; and even Barrère, his celebrated and artful colleague, had a secret but effectual hand in the accomplishment of his destruction. It was evident that he plotted the overthrow of all whom he considered as his enemies, and it was believed that he intended openly to assume the office of dictator of the French republic. It is uncertain whether he looked upon Barrère as among the number of his enemies; but, on the 23d of July, that wonderful man delivered a speech in the convention, which was admirably calculated to plunge him into a fatal security. "This government," said he, "is odious on account of its energy. Let me conjure the convention not to sleep on its victories, but to strike terror among its conspirators." A speech which Robespierre delivered in the convention, on the 25th of July, gave clear indications of his future designs. What a terrible use," said he, "have our enemies made of a word which at

Rome was applied only to a public function!"
Every thing now conspired to prove, that his in-
fluence in the convention was entirely gone.
This of course was the critical moment. He had

still the armed force of Paris at his command; but his sagacity and resolution appeared to fail him; his popularity was declining fast, and the galleries were only attentive to the speeches of his enemies.

Billaud Varennes openly complained, in the sitting of the 27th of July, "That the armed force of Paris was entrusted to paricidal hands. Henriot was denounced as the accomplice of Hebert. One man alone had the audacity to support him. Need I name him?-Robespierre. In order to effect his purpose, he has resolved to mutilate the convention, to leave there only men as vile as himself, and to inflict a fatal blow on the representatives of the people. I proclaim-1 proclaim the tyranny of Robespierre.' Bursts of applause resounded from every part of the hall, and Robespierre, turning red with fury, darted towards the tribune, while vast numbers of voices exclaimed, "Down with the tyrant! Down with the tyrant!" He had now to encounter universal imprecations; was not permitted to speak in his own defence; and Tallien rose "to congratulate the convention that the veil was at length withdrawn, and the real conspirators unmasked. Every thing announces that the enemy of the nation is about to fall. In the house of that guilty man, who now stands humbled with the consciousness of detected crimes, and overwhelmed with that detestation which his infamous designs against liberty have so justly merited, were formed those lists of proscription which have stained with so much blood the altars of rising liberty. He copied the example of the detestable Sylla. His proscriptions were intended only to prepare the way for his own power, and the establishment of a perpetual dictatorship.-Was it to subject ourselves to so abject and degrading a tyranny, that we brought to the scaffold the last of the Capets, that we declared eternal war against kings, and swore to establish liberty as the price of life? No! the spirit of liberty has not sunk so low. I invoke the shade of the virtuous Brutus; like him, I have a poniard to rid my country of the tyrant, if the convention do not deliver him to the sword of justice. Let us, republicans, accuse him with the courage which springs from loyalty in the presence of the French people: and, as it is of the utmost importance that the chiefs of the armed force do no mischief, I move that Henriot and all his staff be arrested. I move that our sittings be permanent, until the sword of the law has secured to us this revolution. I also move, that Robespierre and his creatures be immediately arrested."

These motions passed amidst thunders of applause. Barrére was now desired to speak in the name of the committee of public safety; and after making a proposition that the national guard should resume its primary organization, and that

the mayor of Paris should be made responsible for the safety of the convention, he freely and ardently joined against the fallen tyrant, who had exhibited the art of wearing so many different masks; and when he had no farther occasion for his creatures, never failed to send them to the bloody guillotine.

Being overwhelmed with astonishment, Robespierre submitted to the decree of the convention without any farther opposition, and the proper officers conducted him to the prison of the Luxembourg; but the governor would not receive him, being one of his creatures, in consequence of which he was conveyed to the Hotelde-Ville.

In the mean time Herbert effected his escape, and collected his adherents with that astonishing rapidity which desperation inspires. Having made three divisions of the troops under his command, he resolved at once to attack the Hotel-de-Ville, the committee of public safety, and the convention. An high degree of courage and presence of mind was exhibited by the legislative body at this very critical juncture; for they were no sooner made acquainted with the situation of affairs, than they pronounced Robespierre and his associates to be outlaws and traitors. Barras was chosen to the chief command of the troops; and the people were exhorted by proclamation, to assert their own liberty, and prove the defenders of the national convention. The sections of Paris appeared at the bar, one after another, swearing to be sub ject to no other authority than that of the convention. When the president, Collot d'Herbois, returned them thanks in the name of the convention, he expressed a hope that the heads of the traitors would fall before the setting of the sun. These measures induced nearly the whole of the troops under Henriot to abandon him, while he himself, and a few who remained with him, took possession of the Hotel-de-Ville. Here they were resolutely attacked by a party of the conventional guards, with Bourdon de l'Oise and some other commissioners at their head, who rushed with impetuosity into the hall of the commune. The insurgents made a short but unsuccessful resistance, after which they endeavoured to make away with themselves. Robespierre, who had been previously wounded in the side by a sabre, discharged a pistol in his mouth, which produced no other effect than to add fresh horrors to his ghastly countenance. Le Bas shot himself dead on the spot, and Couthon terminated his wretched existence by means of a poniard. While Henriot, from an upper window, delivered an oration to the people, he was precipitated to the street by their desire, by the violence of which he was dreadfully wounded.

The convention put an end to its sitting about six in the morning, victory having declared in

their favor, in consequence of which Robespierre, BOOK II. and the other criminals who had been outlawed, were instantly conveyed to the revolutionary tri- CHAP. I. bunal, for no other purpose than to identify their 1794-5. persons, and then conveyed back to the palace of justice, being on the evening of the same day (July 28th,) executed in the Place de Revolution, to the number of twenty-one, the multitude expressing their joy and transport in a more tumultuous manner than was perhaps ever known. The eyes of the populace were particularly fixed on Robespierre, Couthon, and Henriot, who were covered with wounds, and blood mingled with dust. The last who fell under the axe of the guillotine was Robespierre, having remained on the scaffold the whole time in a state of stupefaction, speechless, and petrified with horror.

Such was the merited fate of a tyrant, whose memory is devoted to the execration of all mankind, and who was perhaps superior in ferocious wickedness, to even the Neroes, the Domitians, and the Catilines. Not long after this great and memorable event, a very general alteration for the better took place in the different branches of the government of France. The Jacobin club, that sink of tyranny and barbarity, was completely abolished, and seventy-one members of the proscribed Gironde party were restored to their seats in the national convention. Hundreds were liberated from various state prisons, most of whom would no doubt have fallen a sacrifice to the implacable cruelty of Robespierre, had it not been for this revolution.

The different parties into which the convention was at one time divided, united for the purpose of accomplishing the overthrow of the infamous Robespierre; yet when the danger was over, the former animosity of the several factions began again to display itself. Those who formerly acted with Robespierre, wished to mitigate, but not to abolish the cruelties of the revolutionary government; while others were anxious not only to establish a regular constitution, but to bring to punishment all the advocates of his monstrous tyranny. Merlin of Douay, on the 27th of December, said there was just reason for examining into the conduct of Barrère, Billaud Varennes, Collot D'Herbois, and Vadier. The accusation of Barrère was extremely unpopular, because he had been frequently known to exert all his influence in diminishing the horrors of that remorseless tyrant, joining the combination formed against him, even at a time when ultimate success was extremely doubtful; and because he delivered a very animated speech, to rouse the people of France to rise as one man to banish despotic hirelings from the territories of the republic, the importance of which advice was still gratefully remembered.

On March 2, 1795, M. Saladin made the report

BOOK II. concerning the committee of twenty-one, who said that the guilt of the accused was very apparent. CHAP. 1. The 22d of the month was fixed for their trial, before which Vadier found means to escape in 1795. the disguise of a courier. Lindet and Carnot made a very able defence in their behalf, although two members of the same committee of safety, but under the influence of compulsion, during the reign of Robespierre, whom none durst oppose without inevitable destruction. On the 1st of April, a prodigious number of the lower classes in Paris went to the hall of the convention, declaring that the accused patriots should not fall a sacrifice to the passions of the other party. Dumont observed," That all these tumults were excited only to prevent the trials of the three great criminals. Let us abolish the pain of death, but cast out these monsters from our society." It was in consequence decreed, that Barrère, Collot, and Billaud Varennes, should be immediately transported to Guiana. As General Pichegru was at this time in the capital, the convention made choice of him to command the armed force of that extensive city. By his authority and exertions tranquillity was happily restored, and the opportunity embraced of arresting several other leaders of the Jacobin faction, who were conveyed to the castle of Ham in Picardy.

The convention certainly punished the abuses of arbitrary power upon arbitrary principles, combining in their own persons the heterogeneous characters of accusers, witnesses, and judges; and the establishment of a regular constitution of government became more and more the object of the general wish. For this important purpose a committee of eleven was made choice of, that they might frame a constitutional code for the examination of the convention.

The trial of the notorious Foquier Tainville, who had sustained the office of public accuser, with the ex-judges and jurors of the late revolutionary tribunal, was deferred till the 8th of May, from a variety of causes. It was no difficult matter to substantiate the most abominable crimes against this abandoned court, completely subversive of all public justice, in the room of which was substituted a kind of judicial assassination. Next morning Fouquier, and fifteen others, either formerly judges or jurors, were executed amidst the hisses and execrations of the multitude.

The deputies of the Jacobin faction under sentence of transportation for Guiana had been embarked on board different vessels; but Cambon and Thuriot having effected their escape, reached Paris with great secrecy, and found means to excite a most dangerous insurrection. Hand-bills were previously posted up in different parts of the city, in which a degree of scarcity prevailed little short of famine. The tocsin was sounded at an early hour on the 20th of May, in the suburb of

St. Antoine, and the générale beaten. A decree passed as soon as the convention met, which commanded all citizens to repair to their respective sections, declaring their sitting permanent, and pronouncing sentence of outlawry against all those who should appear at the head of the insurgents.. Disregarding these injunctions, however, vast multitudes even surrounded the hall of the convention, when the gendarmes were summoned to defend the persons of the deputies, and a terrible conflict took place between the military and insurgents. General Hoche was chosen to the command of the military force of Paris, but the tumults and disorders in the hall were still continued. One of the representatives, called Ferrand, was butchered by the rabble with the repeated strokes of a sabre, after which his head was severed from his body, and brought into the hall exhibited on a pike. The president contiuued uncommonly firm and undaunted during this horrible scene of violence, while the convention had much more the appearance of a camp of military men than an assembly of legislators. Many of the Girondists having left the hall, this opportunity was eagerly embraced by the Jacobin party, to repeal several decrees which had been levelled against themselves, which they accomplished, at this moment of consternation and terror, amidst the applauding shouts of a misguided multitude. The military having made their appearance in great force, together with a number of citizens in arms, the mob hurried with the utmost rapidity through doors and windows. The pretended decrees of repeal were themselves repealed, or rather annulled, on the motion of Bourdon de l'Oise, and many of the Jacobin members who were concerned in this horrid transaction, were put under arrest.

Next day, however, the convention was again surrounded by the multitude, and a deputation from the insurgents was reluctantly admitted. The president was under the necessity of returning a favorable answer to their demands, and submitted to the mortifying deed of giving its members the fraternal einbrace, who were likewise invited to the honors of the sitting. The convention resumed on the third day the exercise of their functions, but on the fourth, the inhabitants of the suburbs were again preparing to assault the hall of the convention, and the citizens of Paris arose to defend their representatives, filling every avenue which led to the Tuilleries. The convention resumed courage when they found themselves thus supported, and declared the suburb of St. Antoine to be in a state of rebellion; giving orders at the same time to the sections of Paris to march immediately against them, sustained by the skill and energy of the regular troops. The wretched, the deluded multitude, finding themselves surrounded on all hands, and

exposed to an immediate cannonade, surrendered at discretion. A decree then passed the convention, ordering all the Jacobins to be disarmed, abolishing the use of pikes, and by order of the legislature, the cannon of the different sections were delivered up. When this dreadful insurrection was finally suppressed, several of the leaders of it were arrested and executed. Collot D'Herbois, Billaud Varennes, and Barrère, were ordered back to stand their trial; but the two former had sailed already, and Barrère was committed to close imprisonment.

While thus reviewing the internal state of France, it will here be proper to mention, that the infant Capet, the only son of Louis XVI. died on the 9th of June, 1795, in the prison of the Temple, where he had been confined since the unfortunate 10th of August, 1792. He was a boy of a sickly habit of body, and his valetudinarian state of health was in all probability augmented by the want of proper exercise.

The committee of eleven presented, on the 23d of June, the plan of the new constitution, the report concerning which was made by Boissy D'Anglas. After much discussion, and a number of changes, the constitutional act was pronounced complete on the 23d of August, and referred to the primary assemblies, for the purpose of obtaining the sanction of their approbation. It may here be proper to present our readers with the principal features of this constitution. The legislative power was to consist of two assemblies, the members of which were to be nominated by the electoral assemblies; the one was to consist of 500 members, and the other of half that number; the former were to propose, and the latter to confirm the laws. The executive power was to be lodged in the hands of a directory of five members, to be in part renewed by the election of one member in regular rotation. The council of five hundred were to propose a list of ten persons by secret scrutiny, out of whom the senate was to choose one in a similar manner. The judges of department and district were to have committed to them the judicial power, and these judges were to be elected by the electoral assemblies, and a tribunal of appeal and annulment established for the whole republic by a similar mode of election. It would be extremely uncandid to deny that this was unquestionably the outline of a free constitution; but one egregious blunder entirely destroyed its beneficial effects. The two councils were in some respects rendered permanent, since the directory had not the power of convening and dismissing those formidable bodies in conformity to its discretion, which ought always to be the case, and as the ministers of the executive government could not sit in the legislative assemblies, which unavoidably created an opposition of interests. The functions of the executive power were neces

1795.

sarily encroached on by the councils; and the BOOK II. same act in reality established two distinct governments. The authority of the executive CHAP. I. power was likewise very much weakened by being put into the hands of five persons, who, it was natural to think, would be actuated by different interests; and it was believed that it would have been more conducive to the general welfare to lodge it in the hands of a single person, under whatever name.

On the 22d of August, before the constitutional act was sent to the primary assemblies, it was decreed by the convention, that in choosing the deputies, the electors should return two-thirds from among the members of the present convention; and, if a deficiency happened, the members wanting were to be nominated by the legislative body itself. The sections of Paris were much displeased with this decree, which they in vain endeavoured to have rescinded, and therefore declared openly, that means more forcible than remonstrances were necessary to bring the convention to reason. On the 4th of October, at midnight, the insurgents were heard to exclaim, "To arms! to arms! liberty or death!" By the dawn of day a bloody battle commenced, the insurgents having drawn out their forces to march against the convention. They suffered very severely from the cannon which were planted in the avenues of the Tuilleries, yet they often rallied, and returned to the charge with determined obstinacy, fighting the whole day before they were completely vanquished, with the loss, it has been said, of nearly 2000 men.

When the new legislature met, they first proceeded to the election of five men to constitute the executive directory; viz. Reveilliere Lepaux, Reubel, Letourneur de la Manche, Barras, and the celebrated Carnot, the last of them being chosen instead of the profound Lieyes, who saw too clearly the radical defects of the new constitution to have any concern with the execution of it. It deserves notice, that these men were inclined to the mountain or jacobin party, although certainly inimical to the horrid tyranny of Robespierre; but the late violent proceedings had made such an impression, that a majority of the two councils were unhappily disposed to elect men of ardent minds, possessing more courage and vigour than wisdom and moderation. Barras was. formerly a viscount, trained from his early youth to the military service, and had very much distinguished himself in the suppression of riots, at the head of the conventional troops. Letourneur de la Manche was a man of abilities, whose character was unexceptionable, and he was an officer of engineers before the revolution. Carnot was formerly minister of war, and a member of the execrable committee of public safety, during the tyranny of Robespierre; but he had wholly con

1795.

BOOK II. fined himself to the duties of his peculiar department, and the success of his measures was CHAP. I. perhaps the most splendid in the annals of history. Reubel had been bred a lawyer, and was employed in negociating the treaty with Holland; and Reveilliere Lepaux was likewise a lawyer, one of the deputies of the Gironde, proscribed by virtue of the revolution of the 31st of May, 1793. A treaty of defensive alliance was concluded, in the month of February, 1795, with the Empress of Russia, which was certainly not very favorable to the interests of Great Britain. If his Britannic majesty should be attacked by any power whatever, the empress, by the fourth article of the treaty, was to assist him with 10,000 infantry and 2000 cavalry; and, should Russia be attacked by any European power, Britain was to send twelve sail of the line, to continue in the Baltic from the beginning of May to the month of October.

Notwithstanding the agitated state of the government of France at this period, yet the repeated successes of her arms rendered her so formidable, that the coalition which had been formed against her began to dissolve; and most of the neighbouring powers were ready to acknowledge the republic in the beginning of 1795. A treaty of peace was concluded between France and Tuscany on the 9th of February. The King of Prussia, also, entered into a negociation with the committee of public safety, and at length con

cluded a treaty, April 5, by means of his minister, Baron de Hardenberg, with Citizen Barthelemy, the French ambassador, at Basle. While this pacification, without surrendering any of the acquisitions on the left bank of the Rhine, withdrew a powerful enemy from the alliance against France, it also contributed greatly to the aggrandizement of Prussia; and, by admitting a number of states in the north of Germany to the benefits of neutrality, added greatly to the influence of Frederick-William II. in the empire. The mediation of this sovereign also procured an opportunity for the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel to retire from the war; and the latter prince not only agreed that the French should still occupy one of his fortresses, Rheinfeldt, but also stipulated neither to prolong nor renew the two subsidiary treaties with the court of Great Britain.

A treaty of peace was likewise concluded between France and Spain, July 22. The Regent of Sweden not only sent an ambassador to Paris, to compliment the convention in the name of his nephew, Gustavus Adolphus IV. but is also reported to have signified a wish to enter into a close alliance with the republic of France.

England, however, persevered in the struggle, Mr. Pitt having declared that the necessity and policy of the war were very apparent; the arguments of this able statesman, however, could not open the eyes of those who were advocates for a pacification.

LA VENDÉE being in a state of insurrection, as mentioned in the preceding Book, Chapter VII. Canclaux and Hoche were employed to counteract the horrors of a civil war, which at this time seemed inevitable; the Vendéan chiefs were suspected, and a correspondence with the English had been intercepted.

Some of the regiments, which had been sent by the convention against the Vendéans, began to imbibe their principles; many of the troops of the line deserted to them, and the foreigners in the French service went over in large bodies; the legion of Rosental, in particular, repaired in crowds to the white standard; while the greater part of the Germanic legion, especially the ca

66

valry, withdrew in a body within their limits. A corps of infantry, of this description, assumed the appellation of " Avengers of the crown;" and, conscious that no mercy could be expected from their enemy, they neither gave nor received quarter, but fought with an uncommon degree of valor.

The catholic and royal army, as it was called among the Vendéans, besides other valiant achievments, took possession of Fontenay-le-peuple, the chief town in the department, which continued to be their head-quarters for some time. The Vendéan war now began to exhibit a degree of regularity which threatened the downfall of the republic. A sovereign council, consisting of ge