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ruffles of the corrupt Danton. Nothing the populace quietly withdrew at his pacould soften, nothing humanize, but noth-ternal remonstrances-the orators, Verging could intimidate, nothing bribe. For niaud and Isnard, opposing conspiracies a time Marat was the peuple and the peuple Marat.

by sentences-Barbaroux and the fair Roland imagining a government of federalisms, that in fact would have divided France into small republics, under the control of the bourgeoisie and the lawyers

were equally the types of a class trained to respect for law, but thoroughly impo tent at a time when law needs other force than its own. In such a crisis, an active Aristocracy has its defence in soldiers-a Democracy in mobs-a Middle Class has nothing but an exhorting mayor and a decorous orator!

Against such a spirit that now pervaded the great masses, what were all attempts at moderation and compromise. In vain has curiosity speculated upon what had been the results, had Mirabeau lived and struggled for the preservation of the monarchy. Monarchy had no materials for preservation left it. The weakness of the nobles as an order had become so manifest from the first, so thoroughly rotted away from amongst them was the spirit whether of cavalier or of patriot, that they had nei- We have said that the Girondins were ther the courage to defend themselves, the representatives of the Middle Class :— nor the ambition to save their country. so far their position has been recognized. As the ancient warrior, who having once But here follows a truth of mighty importlost his shield, felt spirit and valour gone, ance which we do not remember to have and took to his heels at once, so as soon seen sufficiently noticed: As long as as the nobles lost that mere appendage of they kept apart from the inultitude they power, their titles,-they began to enter- were safe and respected; when they calltain no higher aspirations than those of ed in the multitude to their aid they rapidphysical safety. The first wind that shook ly became insecure and despised. We do the trunk scattered the leaves. The igno- not mean by keeping apart from the mulble prematurity of their emigration was titude that they neglected the legitimate the basest feature in the whole revolution, means of popularity, on the contrary, and the surest sign that the noblesse as a they were eminently popular until they body had lost even the elements for the connived at the popular excesses,-we restoration of aristocracy. What then mean simply their avoidance of using the could Mirabeau have done for a throne multitude as an instrument to obtain pow. surrounded by democratic institutions, for er. In their first position, as men desiring a head destined to be crowned by the bon-reform, not violence, they carried the net rouge? What man can protect, amidst election of Péthion against Lafayette as the war of public passions, what public mayor of Paris-they drove out the less respect and public opinion have deserted? liberal administration-they forced their It was easy, we say, to see that where own government, under Roland, Dumoupower had grown the monopoly of the as-riez, and Clavière, upon the king. The sailants, there was no longer the hope of unhappy suspicions of Louis, and the incompromise with the assailed. That time trigues of Dumouriez, who deserted his passed when the moderate men incurred party, led to the dissolution of their ministhe guilt of cheering the populace on to try. They retired "with the regrets of the siege of the Bastille and the murder the nation," according to the declaration of its defenders. At a later period the of the Assembly. Their position as yet Girondins vainly sought to be the Re- was strong and noble; with patience and storers of Reason; in the midst of the moderation their return to power was sure. frenzy they had encouraged, to weigh out But they formed the resolution of defeated drachms and scruples for the adjustment placemen-they began to excite the popu of scales into which a heavier svord than lace against the throne;-not that they that of Brennus was already thrown. wished as yet France to be a republicThe Girondins may be considered the no, but that French monarchy might be representatives of the Middle Classes. their appanage and patent. They became Their leaders belonged principally to that traitors to law by their palterings with order-they had their respectability, their force-palterings, for they still affected athonesty, their prejudices, and their fears. tachment only to constitutional measures. The Girondin mayor of Paris, Péthion, They would trust to the petitions of the riding amidst the riots, and weeping virtu- people; nothing more legitimate !—but ous tears (he was le vertueux Pethion), be- they suffered the petitioners to present cause, after having murdered their victim, themselves armed before the National As

sembly; nothing more fatal!-the speeches of Vergniaud while insidious became inflammatory: he would not call Louis a tyrant, but he supposed a case in which every one would call Louis traitor and ty rant both. Brissot, more bold, exclaimed that "one man paralyzed France!"-and that man her king. And all the while they set the populace on fire, they seemed to have little other design in the conflagration than the roasting of their own eggs. Their ambition prevailed-a second and a more fatal time, they came into power; no longer as ministers of a king, but as delegates of a mob; no longer merely as representatives of the middle class, but as destroyers of the class above, and as mouthpieces of the class below. The date of this second rule of the Girondins commences from the celebrated 10th of August, the day of the invasion and massacre of the Tuileries. M. Duval, who was a witness and actor, describes this scene with great effect and truth.

seasoned imprudence in these words, a rumour was spread that the queen had said, "They will but it sufficed as a pretext for the disaffected, give-not take-orders.' This was a falsehood, and instantly two battalions of the national guard who had just arrived, broke rank, and marched off to take position on the Carrousel with two cannon. There they stopped the fresh battalions arriving to the succour of the chateau, and forced them to take part in their revolt. From that moment expired all hope in the National Guard.

"Such was the sad and first effect of the apparition of these two hundred gentilhommes. Most of them very aged, they seemed scarcely to bear the weight of the sword, which was their only weapon. Like the unhappy Louis, they had only snatched a few moments of repose upon benches and sofas, and their hair, like his, was in disorder. Nearly all, in embroidered coats, satin waistcoats, and white silk stockings, a few only in uniform, their faces pale and haggard, they rather resembled men for whom sleep was necessary than champions for their imperilled king. God forbid that I should ridicule fidelity and devotion, but the truth is that their costume, so little appropriate to the occasion, their pretensions of exclusive loyalty, made them regarded with so unfavourable an eye that their succour brought less utility than danger. And it was not with this handful of aged gentlemen, however honourable and loyal, that Pergamus could be saved

'Non tali auxilio, non defensoribus istis.'

"To complete all, one of these personages thought fit in a swaggering tone to say to the National Guard, 'Now, Messieurs of the National Guard, now is the moment to display courage.'-'We shall not fail in that,' cried an officer in an extreme rage, but it is not by your side that we shall give the proof of it.' And instantly he went off, and carried with him his company to join the cannon already pointed against the chateau."

"Péthion, the mayor, had been at the chateau at midnight, and had assured the king that the menaced insurrection should be pacified. Scarcely had the king repeated this assurance to the guard, than the sound of the tocsin-the roll of the drum were heard. Instantly the great gate toward the Carrousel is closed. To your posts!' is the cry. They make us take our arms-then lay them down to pile them en faisceau. The greatest confusion reigns in all the courts-everywhere we hear the cannoniers of the guard venting imprecations on the king and queen, and declaring they will rather point their pieces against the chateau than against the peuple. A little before five in the morning Roederer comes to us, and says: Gentlemen, a troop of misled citizens menace this house and its inhabitants; if they resort to violence it is your duty to repel force by force. Here is the law, I will read it to you;' and he takes a little book, bound in tri-colour paper, reads us the law, puts up the little book again, and is off. A quarter of an hour after the king visits our posts-in a violetcoloured coat, his hat under his arm, his sword at his side-he passes before our ranks, and addresses us d'une voix altérée: Well, they come, I don't know what they want, but my cause is that of good citizens, we will make a good front, eh? (nous ferons bonne countenance, n'est pas?' and in thus speaking to us he had the tears in his eyes, and his air and carriage were such as to take all courage from the intrepid. The and banner that very space of the Carrouqueen also said a few words, scarcely articulate, sel when it first received its name, from struggling in vain to suppress her sobs. In this the latest tournament held in France in moment arrived the two hundred gentlemen the gorgeous youth of the fourteenth (rather gentilhommes, men of noble birth,) who Louis! There now were the ashes and had kept in that part of the Louvre which now tinder of that aristocracy! What could forms the museum. The queen presented them

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And yet, alas, "this handful of gentlemen " in satin vests, and court swords, aad silk stockings, were all the last relics of that gallant chivalry, who had rushed against the lion of England to the cry of Mountjoie St. Denis, who had followed St. Louis to the Holy Land, who had tracked through the battle-field the white plume of Henri of Navarre, who had shaken the throne under Louis XIII., who had met the charge of Marlborough at Ramillies and Blenheim, who had filled with lance

to us: Messieurs, these are our friends, they a thousand Mirabeaus do to restore the will take orders, and show you how to die for departed glory; and what, without a noyour king.' As if there were not enough of ill- bility, amidst such a national guard, with

such a mayoralty, invaded by such a popu- | bins, Danton and Robespierre, were comlace, what hope for such a king! The bined for the destruction of the Girondins. rest is well known-Louis surrendered Danton, aware of the sinister and jealous himself to the Assembly. This was the hatred even at this time conceived against last day of nobility and royalty, the first him by Robespierre, indeed hesitated; but unhallowed union between the middle class his indecision was brief. He saw the imand the populace-the Dantonists who had possibility of allying the unscrupulous led the movement, and the Girondins who principle on which rested his power, his had intrigued for it. In the midst of the popularity, his safety, with the scholastic pæeans of the Marseillaise, and the shrieks formula of the Girondins. "No," he said of massacre, arose the dynasty of Vergni. justly, "the moderates will not trust me, aud and the Talkers! and I should lose myself in confiding in them." And from that moment, uniting with his serpent foe, Maximilien the Incorruptible, he planned the ruin of the Girondins,-and went blindfold to his own grave.

Truly, says M. Duval (vol. iii., p. 242.)

"Scarcely had the sceptre, so long coveted, devolved on them, than their feebleness and

hesitation made their dethronement certain.

men to intimidate the hardy conspirators with whom they had to contend."

With more of that

The massacres of September take place under their eyes, they are silent, or but falter out a It was on seeing the dangers that surfeeble voice. From the installation of the Con- rounded them, on feeling that the sole vention, the reins of government float in their power of the state was rapidly passing hands, and they remain impotent witnesses of the into the hands of the mob of Paris, that crimes of the commune, the Jacobins, the popu- the Girondins began seriously to put into lar societies! Members of all the committees, practice a theory that they had long bepossessing majorities in every commission, they know neither to foresee nor to prevent. If some-fore discussed and approved in the saloons times they were roused into a sudden energy, it of Madame Roland. passed like a lightning, it vanished like a smoke. statesmanship which belongs to thought, Gladly in a critical moment would they have ad- if less of that which developes itself in opted some vigorous measure, but it was enough action, than the rival parties, they had to induce them to relinquish it, if the Commune the intelligence to foresee that France appeared angry, or the roar of Danton was heard from the tribune. These were not the stateswas too vast a territory for prolonged duration to one single republic. A sound and effective central government is not compatible with a turbulent democracy, Such are the hackneyed complaints extending through an immense territory. against this ill-fated party and yet it is But if France could be divided into disrather just to blame the Girondins for the tricts, each district a republic-if out of truckling to the mass by which they ob- the provinces of the defunct monarchy a tained power, than for the feebleness dis- republican federacy could be formedplayed when they had won it. In the each state thus constituted could obtain latter instance the want of vigour was the submission for the laws it enacted. The proof of virtue. The principles most dear power in each, now that aristocracy was to them forbade the energy which was in. extinguished, must gradually and quietly herent in the Democracy of the Mountain. settle in the middle classes-the mob of They were still the Representatives of Paris would cease to command the destiwhat little was left of order, of law, of de- nies of the nation-one republic would corum, of education, of the MIDDLE CLASS counterbalance the other. No scheme in short their virtues forbade the vigour could be better for the restraint of pure of butchers and assassins. And without a democracy, none better suited to the doruthless execution of criminals, in whom mination of the middle classes. These the public saw only patriots, they could views were powerfully cherished and ennot have punished crime. In a revolution, forced by certain Protestants of the party, reasonable men must always appear to who probably foresaw the establishment of want vigour. He who shares the passions their faith in some of the departments of the mob, ever seems most in ear- over which they might preside. Gradunest. But the school of Vergniaud and ally the principal leaders of the party were Isnard was one to make instruments of a brought to the same policy; and preparapopulace, and to despise the very instru- tions were being made to effect it, when ments they used. These sages of the the Girondins fell: this very policy being closet had no more sympathy with the one main cause of their ruin, because they mob than Faustus with the fiend he had in- forgot one slight reason against ever havvoked. Already the Cordeliers and Jaco-ing entertained it-namely, that it was

impracticable; impracticable because unpopular; for in a popular revolution, what that is unpopular can succeed!*

increased fire and indomitable vigour. The foreign enemy was on the frontiers; and the same spirit that rendered life inNo sooner did Robespierre publicly ar- tolerable to the peaceful civilian, made the raign and denounce this "phantom of fierce soldier irresistible. The new leaders federacy," than the whole populace be- of the state-that is, the chiefs of the came furious against the insult of being mountain, who had supplanted the Gironparcelled out and frittered away. And dins-carried into full action not only the with justice, not only as a populace, but vices, but equally this one virtue of the as a people. At that moment, surrounded Mob. It is literally startling to see the by the armed powers of Europe, had the sudden and brilliant contrast which their integrity of France been once lost-had energetic policy presented to the oscillathe national spirit been exchanged for the tion of their predecessors. These butchdepartmental-had the legions of Chris- ers, so atrocious in the city, were magnifitendom found, instead of a mighty com- cent as statesmen and heroes, the moment munity animated by one passion, a nest of their minds flew to the borders of invaded little republics squabbling with each other, France. There, the iron will of Robesand settling the affairs of their several mu- pierre, the savage genius of St. Just, the nicipalities-the independence of France reckless daring of Danton, changed at had been gone for ever. And the sense of once from vices into virtues. this it was, that gave value and zeal to that bloody phrase now originated as a battlecry by Robespierre: "La République Une et Indivisible!"

Much must be excused in the Girondins. If much to be blamed, for much also they are to be admired, for much pitied; but their fall was necessary to the nation. Girondism would have rotted the nation itself away.

We hear it often said that the French republic would not have been so disastrous a failure in the experiments of liberty, had it not been for the frenzy produced by the invasion of the allies. On the contrary, to that invasion alone France owed its reentrance into civilisation. Left to waste all the strength of the new passions upon internal contest, to proscriptions would have succeeded civil war; and the wild With them passed the dynasty of the democracy of old Corcyra would have been Middle Class, and rose that of the Mob- a heaven to the Pandemonium of a society the true Reign of Terror. The tone of to the evil spirit of which there would manners became still more gross and re- have been no vent. The superior sagacity volting. The words "Fraternity or Death," of Mr. Pitt was never more displayed than written upon all the prisons, gave the ex- in his reluctance to enter into the war act idea of the ferocious philanthropy forced on him at last; a reluctance for which then denounced as an aristocrat any which the Royalists never forgave him. one who used the pronoun you instead of From wrong into right-from the hell of thou. Then Atheism, the rankest and Paris into the daylight of truth and liberty most intolerable, grew at once the safest broke the youth of France in the just and the most fashionable creed. Whatever was most ignorant, most absurd, most brutal in human folly, ascended into despotism:-naturally; for it was the most ignorant and the most passionate class, in a moment of general frenzy, that ruled all France. But force and passion are never enthroned utterly in vain. Amidst all the crimes of the period, one virtue of immense importance when acting upon large communities was unquestionable-PATRIOTISM. The principle of nationality endangered by the Girondins blazed up with

Many historians have, it is true, disputed the justice of this charge against the Girondins, and have considered their scheme for Federacy to be indeed a Phantom.-M. Duval gives very curious and minute details on the reality of their project, and it is entirely conformable to the character and objects of their party.

and holy cause of Independence and SelfDefence. From the bosom of the Mountain, Fourteen Armies poured the spirit that never fails to conquer against the lukewarm hirelings of invading sovereigns. From the fires of the Mountain flashed the enthusiastic heroism of Jourdan, Hoche, Pichegru, and Moreau. Liberty common to all-promotion the right of each-every soldier was a hero:-no matter the rawness of the recruits, the inexperience of the generals,-it was as the strife of the young man against the old, of vigour against decrepitude, when a whole population, drunk with liberty, marched against the time-worn sovereignties of the sober world. Well may M. Duval exclaim,

Oh, if the convention could be considered

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A faction so characterized was but the representative of the ignorance and folly its interests or wield its passions; it had of the mob; it could obviously not secure not one element of duration, one quality for the acquisition of solid power. And

every

Meanwhile at Paris three great factions were struggling for power. The impracticable enthusiasts of brotherhood and atheism under Clootz, Chaumette, and Hébert; the Cordeliers, under Danton and real strife for the mastery of France lay observer must have seen that the Desmoulins; the Jacobins, under Robes- between Robespierre and Danton. Of pierre. The time for the first was gone these two men, amongst most historians, by. No sooner had the vigorous measures especially in England, Danton is the faof the Mountain arrayed the ardour of vourite. There is indeed to a vulgar gaze, France against the whole of Europe, than something almost captivating in this Mirapoor Baron Clootz's declamations upon beau of the Mob, despite his horrible exUniversal Love, upon the superiority of cesses. He was free from all personal Philanthropy to Patriotism, were not only vindictiveness, he was not naturally cruel; impertinent but treasonable. These men he spilt, as M. Duval well observes, blood (the Atheist-Philanthropists) had nothing in torrents, but always for a purpose and in their minds or their policy that could from policy; he could not be sanguinary command more than momentary success; in detail; he had no cowardice in him, they appear for the most part to have been no envy. About his character was a large honest in their belief in the wickedness rough good nature; he was affectionate and absurdity that made up their creed, and loyal to those he loved (for he did but their very fanaticism was the proof of love and he was loved, this master butcher their inability to govern. They were to who could order the massacre of 2000 the more practical and robust demagoguy, prisoners in cold blood). He had no reliwhether of Robespierre or Danton, what gion, even of atheism; for atheism is not the Socialists of our day are to the Char-like scepticism, lukewarm and hesitating, tists. Most of them desired the entire but is ardent and intolerant in its creed; abolition of private property, "La richesse he laughed at the Goddess of Reason: he nuit à la sant et conduit rarement à la vertu." The tribunes might applaud these sentiments, but how were they to be practised? Such doctrines preluded the Procession (under the management of Chaumette) of the Goddess of Reason. Was it possible that a faction, declaring He was profligate, lustful, and corrupt in the sole Deity of the Universe was an abstract Word, represented by an immodest undisguisedly, that the vulgar, who like a money matters, but he was all these so Harlot, could exist long in any community frank villain, ranked them amongst his however besotted? The most striking merits. On the other hand, Robespierre feature in that farce was the man ordained was a personal coward, and hence arose, perhaps, all his crimes. He, too, certainly was not by nature cruel, nor even vindictive, whatever has been said to the contrary; for it is a fact that he took no notice of many of his early personal enemies when their lives were in his power; but he never spared one man who could be an obstacle to his ambition, or who could endanger his safety. He, like Danton, was sanguinary only on a system, but his system was one of private fear as well as pub. lic interest. He was essentially an egotist. Danton lived for the circle, not from faith in its interests, but from his joyous temper; Robespierre sat wrapt in himself. The same cause that made Maximilien cruel, made him treacherous; for personal cowardice, combined with moral energy, (which last Robespierre possessed to the

to convert it into a great and awful tragedy, Maximilien Robespierre. He, the formal, the moral, the precise; he the educated, thoughtful, cynic; with what hate. and scorn must he have regarded such a spectacle of human folly! M. Duval describes him graphically.

"Among the numerous deputies, resting in disdain on their curule chairs, I will cite Robespierre. He took off, replaced, his spectacles, wiping the glasses, beat a tattoo with his feet, shrugged his shoulders, yawned, took notes, and from time to time whispered to St. Just seated by his side. I have not seen the notes that passed between them, but I am free to think that they furnished the exordium of the famous report on the faction of Atheists which St. Just recited four months later at the tribune, and which served as a footstool for Chaumette to ascend the

scaffold."

had therefore no vestige of hypocrisy or cant. Frankly he confessed his total infidelity, candidly he owned his theories of Revolutions, " things not made with rose water," in which (as he said) the boldest scoundrel was the most successful actor.

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