whose projects he condemned, and who, as he said, | the 20th of January prayed Robespierre to terminate had hurried out of the kingdom in consequence of the, "a struggle so scandalous, which only gave an division of opinions.

advantage to the enemies of the public weal." Dussault made the two rivals embrace, and the revolutionary journals inferred that the struggle was at an end; but Robespierre declared that his personal affection for Brissot would not prevent him from combating his opinions. Robespierre did not like Brissot nor anybody else he liked his own opinion, and he maintained with an invincible obstinacy the cause of peace against war, which he could not have done without risk of his popularity, if he had not justified his opposition by arguments well adapted to popular suspicion and mistrust.

It was supposed by the Girondins that the Duke

The king had refused to sanction the decree against the emigrants, and yet he was ready to declare war against the elector of Trèves, in whose territory the emigrants were said to be making hostile preparations. But this was a manifest inconsistency. If there was ground for making war on the elector, it could only be because he was abetting rebels; and if the emigrants were rebels, the king should have treated them as such by sanctioning the decree against them. This is what Robespierre showed; and he concluded that the proposal of the king to declare war should therefore be suspected; there was some concealed design of making the war result in an anti-revolutionary move-of Orleans was leagued with the peace party, in order ment. Robespierre was suspicious: timidity and sus- to deprive Lafayette of the honour that he might win picion were part of his character. Lafayette in com- in the war. The ground for the supposition might be mand of the army which Bouillé had held, the man the fact that the duke was highly incensed against the who had directed "the massacre" in the Champ-de- court. After the meeting of the Legislative Assembly, Mars, was to Robespierre an object of suspicion and he had obtained an interview with the king, and they fear. Robespierre first spoke at the Jacobins on the were reconciled. On the following Sunday he came 12th ;* and again on the 18th, in reply to a speech of to the palace, but he experienced a most insulting Brissot. In this second speech his dislike of Brissot reception from the courtiers, who did not know what is already apparent: he was probably jealous of had passed between the king and him, and from the Brissot's influence in the Legislative Assembly. Robes-royalists who were in the habit of going to the Tuileries pierre ridiculed very effectively the notions of conquests in Germany, conquests to be made easy, as the war party supposed, by the enthusiasm with which the Germans would receive French ideas and French constitutional forms: "The most extravagant idea that can spring up in the head of a politician," said Robespierre, "is to believe that it is sufficient for a people to enter with arms in their hands the territory of another nation, in order to compel them to adopt their laws and constitution: no man loves armed missionaries; and the first counsel which nature and prudence give, is to repel them as enemies." His conclusion was this: "I have proved that war was only a means in the hands of the executive of overthrowing the constitution, only the catastrophe of a profound plot framed for the destruction of liberty." The struggle which Robespierre maintained at the Jacobins kept opinion in suspense. Louvet, who was in favour of a declaration of war, admitted this; it was an acknowledgment of the influence of Robespierre's name. Brissot on

According to the 'Hist. Parlem.,' xii., 406.

+ There are at least three printed discourses of Robespierre against the war one delivered the 18th December, 1791, a second delivered on the 2nd January, 1792, and a third delivered on the 26th January, 1792, all printed by order of the society. These discourses prove that Robespierre had great talent in handling a party question. His method is clear, his language perspicuous, his conclusions from his assumed premises just and undeniable. But he is tedious; he spins his thread too fine. Those who have denied the abilities of Robespierre would find it somewhat difficult to write a better discourse on the same side of the question. The discourse of the 2nd of January is printed entire in the 'Histoire Parlementaire,' xiii., 122–141, 146–164.

on that day to pay their respects to the royal family. They thronged round the duke, they made a show of treading on his feet and of pushing him towards the door. He went down to the queen's apartment, where the covers were already laid on the table, but as soon as he appeared, there was a general cry, "Gentlemen, look to the plates," as if the duke had his pockets full of poison. These insults compelled him to retire without seeing the royal family. He was pursued even to the staircase, and as he was going down, he received a discharge of spittle on his head and dress. Rage was depicted on his countenance; he left the Tuileries convinced that the instigators of these outrages were the king and queen, who, however, had no knowledge of them, and who were even much annoyed at what took place. The duke swore against them implacable hatred, and he only showed himself too faithful to this horrible oath (Bertrand de Moleville.) "I was," says Bertrand de Moleville, "at the palace this day, and I was witness of all the facts which I have related." The duke never received any satisfaction for this insult, a circumstance disgraceful both to the king and his ministers. Louis could not keep even his own house in decent order. He had both enemies and friends to deal with; and friends, as is often the case, were the more dangerous. Such friends as he had about him were. enough to ruin any man.

The Assembly began the new year (1792) with decreeing that there were sufficient grounds for proceeding criminally against the king's two brothers, the Prince of Condé, Calonne, and the Comte Mirabeau. This was a measure which did not require the king's sanction.

The Assembly resumed the discussion on the war,

M

and on the 25th of January passed a decree, proposed | maintain himself in the ministry if he could, and to by Hérault-Séchelles, with the following preamble: drive his colleagues away. The National Assembly considered that the emperor by his circular of the 25th of November, 1791, by the conclusion of a new treaty made between him and the King of Prussia the 25th July, 1791, and notified to the diet of Ratisbon on the 6th of December, by his answer to the king of the French upon the notification made to him of the acceptation of the constitutional act, and by the office of his chancellor, dated the 21st of December, 1791, had infringed the treaty of the 1st of May, 1756, and sought to effect among different powers a union hostile to the sovereignty and the security of the nation; whereupon the Assembly decreed by the third article that if the emperor did not, through the king, give the nation, before the 1st of March following, full and entire satisfaction on all the points above mentioned, his silence, as well as any answer evasive or dilatory should be considered as a declaration of war.*

On the 28th the king by letter briefly and modestly reminded the Assembly that they could not by the constitution deliberate upon war, "except upon the king's formal and necessary proposition;" but he waived this matter for the present, and informed them that he had written to the emperor fifteen days ago for a positive explanation on the chief matters contained in the decree of the Assembly.

Bertrand de Moleville resigned; and on the 9th of March Narbonne was dismissed by the king. Delessart was accused by Brissot of having neglected his duties, of having compromised the independence, the dignity, the security, and the constitution of France, in his negociations with Vienna, and generally in his capacity of minister for foreign affairs. Vergniaud supported Brissot: he also charged Delessart with keeping in his portfolio for two months the decree which united Avignon and the Comtat to France, and of thus having caused the massacres at Avignon. A decree for prosecuting him was carried on the 10th of March, and Delessart was handed over to the high court of Orleans, which had been created by the constitution for the trial of political offences. The king, who was much attached to Delessart, was grieved to part with him. Duport-Dutertre resigned; De Gerville, the only member of the ministry who had any influence with the Assembly, left the king also.

the

Early in March Louis received intelligence of the death of the emperor. Leopold died suddenly, on the 1st of March, and was succeeded as king of Hungary and Bohemia by his eldest son, Francis II. On the 16th of March Gustavus III., the chivalrous king of Sweden, himself a royal revolutionist, who had crushed power of the nobility to increase his own, was shot by Ankarstroem, one of the nobles, at a masked ball. He who had humbled his own nobles was meditating an anti-revolutionary expedition to the coast of France, to which the Empress Catherine and the King of Spain were to contribute their aid. Gustavus, who was in correspondence with Bouillé, relied on having Bouillé with him, who, he said, would be as good as ten thousand men. But this projected invasion would probably never have taken place; and the death of Gustavus had not the slightest influence on the affairs of Europe. Leopold's death was an event of importance: he did not wish for war, as Bouillé says, who had seen him privately, and knew his opinions.

As early as the 6th of January the Assembly had been informed of the answer of the Elector of Trèves, which declared that he engaged himself to compel, within eight days, all military bodies to quit his states, and to take other measures to prevent hostile demonstrations by the emigrants. Brissot, in the Patriote Français,' said, in commenting on the elector's answer, that the court had called for war or rather seemed to call for it; but never really desired it: according to him the elector's answer was a mere trick to soften or alarm the Assembly, to divert it from a vigorous resolution. Brissot and his party were resolved to have a war. The ministry was divided. Bertrand de Moleville was jealous of Narbonne's popularity, as his own memoirs clearly show; and Narbonne complained of Moleville's hostility to the constitution. Brissot and the Gironde defended Narbonne; and the three generals who had been summoned to Paris by Narbonne to *The Acte d'Accusation was presented to the Assembly by explain the condition of their armies, wrote a letter to Brissot on the 14th of March. It is printed in the 'Hist. him, each to the same effect, in which they declared Parlem.,' xiii., 399. Bertrand de Moleville ‘Annals,' &c., that if he retired from office they must resign. v., c. 11, has remarked on the various heads of the charges. Delessart was never tried: he was kept in prison till he bonne published the letters. His design was to perished in the massacres of September.

Nar

*Hist. Parlem.,' xiii., 61. The points above mentioned,' that is, the second and third articles contain nothing specific.

In the midst of the confusion caused by the prospect of war and the internal disorganization of France, the king had to choose a new ministry.

Lamartine, 'Histoire des Girondins,' Liv. xii., 3, &c., has collected the scandals of Leopold's private life.

See the Memoirs of Bouillé,' chap. 13. In the fourteenth chapter he speaks of the death of Gustavus, whose service he had entered, and to whom he was strongly attached:

↑ Bertrand de Moleville is not consistent in his account of these letters. He says, "these letters had been written at" His projects," says Bouillé, "perished with him: we lost the request of M. de Narbonne himself; they were all three to the same effect, and very nearly in the same words.". Shortly after he says, "the publication of these letters opened the eyes of the three generals, who had probably written them unknown to each other."

a useful friend rather than a powerful ally." The last years of Bouillé's life were spent in England, where he wrote the small volume of his Memoirs, which are worth reading. He died at London, in November, 1800, and was buried in the cemetery of St. Pancras.

On the 5th of February the criminal tribunal of the | the doctrine of physical force, because he saw that this department of Paris was established, and Robespierre was the doctrine which, in the end, would prevail. He received an appointment in it, with the title of public recapitulated some of the proposals which he had made accuser, whose functions were to "prosecute before in the Constituent a year before; one proposal was this court in the name of the nation those who were "for the fabrication of pikes, and that the National guilty of crimes which disturbed society." Robespierre Assembly should recommend to the citizens this arm, was fond of writing addresses, and on the occasion of which is in a sense sacred, and exhort them never to his appointment he delivered (5th of February) a dis- forget the interesting part (le role interessant) which course at the club of the Jacobins which was ordered it had played in our revolution." These appeals to to be printed.* Ever since the close of the year 1791, force, to violence and bloodshed-it seems at first sight disorder made rapid progress in the kingdom: it would somewhat singular-do not come from men who have be tedious to enumerate the particulars. Dusaillant, been trained to arms, but from those who wield the the commander of a regiment at Perpignan, and many pen; they are not the evidence of courage and of resoofficers of another regiment, with some citizens of Per-lution, but of a morbid, distempered brain. Robespignan, were charged with a plot to deliver up Perpig-pierre was undoubtedly a coward, timorous to excess; nan to the enemies of France. At Caen violent disturbances arose in consequence of the disputes between the priests who had taken the oath and those who had not. In La Vendée, and in the mountainous districts of the south, which were far removed from Paris and had little communication with other parts of France, the people were roused to anti-revolutionary movements by their priests and their gentry. The little town of Mende, buried in the deep valley of the Cévennes, was the centre of this anti-revolutionary movement. Théroigne de Méricourt, who had left Paris in consequence of a deeree of the Châtelet against her on account of her participation in the affairs of the 5th and 6th of October, and who had been imprisoned in Belgium, made her appearance at the Jacobins in the month of February, where she had a place by the side of the president, and received the honours of the sitting. On the 10th of February Robespierre read a long address at the Jacobins on the means of saving the state and liberty;t he was now making progress in

* "Discours prononcé par Max. Robespierre, à la société des amis de la Constitution le jour de l'installation du tribunal criminel du départment de Paris." He did not hold his office long. Those who are curious to trace this man's progress, will find all that he has written worth reading. His character, after all, remains somewhat of a mystery, for he was extremely cautious and reserved. But extreme caution and reserve are an element of character from which a good deal may be inferred.

† Discours de Max. Robespierre, sur les moyens de sauver l'Etat et la Liberté, prononcé à la société, le 10 Février, 1792, l'an 4e de la liberté.

This discourse is worth a careful perusal; full of maudling sentimentality, inapt classical allusions, and dangerous notions, yet it developes clearly the revolutionary progress. Robespierre saw how the Revolution had been accomplished, and how it would be continued. This speech seems to mark a decided epoch in his career; nobody who reads it can doubt that Robespierre was then ready to shed blood, if he had the

power.

But Robespierre believed in the existence of the Deity and his providence in human affairs. He maintained this opinion resolutely and obstinately at the Jacobins, in answer to the objections made by Guadet to an address of Robespierre, because it contained the words "God and Providence." A notice of this extraordinary scene is given in the 'Hist. Parlem.,' xiii., 442, from the journal of the club.

"To

yet he had the courage of strong convictions, a moral
resolution with an infirm hand; a furious fanaticism,
restrained by a lively apprehension of personal danger.
Though he preached violence, he kept out of harm's
way: when he saw no danger near, his language was bold
and threatening. He says that he further proposed
the honourable recall of all soldiers who had been dis-
missed with infamy (avec des cartouches infamantes),
because of their civism and their intelligence.
these legions of soldiers, martyrs of liberty," he said
in his discourse of the 10th, "we must join the brave
French Guards; we must at once avenge and restore
to their honours these heroes of liberty, who have been
persecuted since the first days of the revolution by the
criminal policy of their enemies." He recommended
that the sections of Paris should be ever vigilant, that
the Assembly should request them to meet without
any restraint, "as in the glorious days of the revolu-
tion." He recommended a confederation, civic and
fraternal, of all the National Guards of France, accom-
panied by the sacred emblems of liberty; and that the
high national court should be removed from Orleans to
Paris: it was not enough, he said, to pass decrees
of accusation; they must watch with strictness the new
court, and order their procurators to give an exact
account, at least once a week, of the progress and the
state of the proceedings: "why cannot you recall to
the bosom of the capital this court which ought to act
before the eyes of the whole nation, and which has
been removed from your presence and the centre of
public opinion? Make our enemies tremble, if you
do not wish to fear them." Thus it appears that the
"whole nation" was Paris, and the inspectors of the
conduct of the court would be the pikemen. Another
passage of the address developed an important principle
of government according to the system of Robespierre

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There is a matter much more interesting which has not yet attracted public attention; I mean the publicity of the proceedings of the National Assembly. I speak of a publicity such as the interest of the nation requires; and I am far from thinking that the small space reserved for the citizens in the inconvenient and mean Salle du Manège (the riding-school) is sufficient to secure this essential object, at least in the opinion of all those who have well considered the causes of M 2

re-echo to Metz and to Nancy; let public honours be paid to the memory of their unfortunate companions; let innocent blood cease to cry out; from one extremity of the empire to the other let the voice of humanity and patriotism resound; let the genius of liberty rouse itself, and terrified despots learn that the French of the 14th of July still exist.";

the revolution: the animated and imposing spectacle | at Brest; let them receive from the hands of their of six thousand spectators who surrounded us at country and of beauty the reward of their long sufferVersailles, contributed in no small degree to inspire ings; let the cries of joy excited by this happy event us with the courage and the energy which we required for action. If we attribute to the Constituent Assembly the glory of having laid despotism prostrate, we must admit that the Assembly shared this glory with the galleries (les tribunes)." In the presence of the numerous assemblage of citizens, by which we were happily surrounded at Versailles, who would have dared to vote for the martial law which the commandant of the National Guard and his staff wrested from us by repeated instances-under the eyes of the people shame at least does not permit a man audaciously to betray the cause of justice and of humanity; patriotism feels its strength and its courage increase, and intrigue loses its audacity and its activity."-" Legislators, hasten then to surround yourselves with this imposing protection; let there rise on the ruins of the Bastille or else where, for you and by your orders, a majestic edifice large enough to hold at least ten thousand spectators, where the people can come conveniently and freely hear their interests discussed, and keep their eyes on their agents (mandataires). The court has a number of palaces; let the people at least have theirs. Let this useful work be executed at least with the speed which we have seen exhibited in the construction of an opera, or of a villa designed to gratify the caprice of a woman or of a citizen."

Robespierre said in his address, "Legislators come; you have also to make amends for some weaknesses of your predecessors: in the place which you occupy, deceived by intrigue they honoured with their presence a funeral ceremonial intended to cover the crimes of Nancy, and which was only an insult to the manes of the soldiers who were sacrificed by a perfidious general; come and avenge innocence and patriotism by the most imposing of all homages; let the irons fall from the hands of the soldiers of Château-vieux

* This number is a great exaggeration. In an article in the Quarterly Review,' (vol. 54, Robespierre, p. 531,) by a gentleman well acquainted with the history of the Revolution, the influence of the galleries on the French Assemblies is rated very high; and undoubtedly this influence was considerable. Madame Roland (Mémoires, ii., p. 10) says of David Williams, an Englishman, who had become a French citizen: "I saw him, from the time when he first began to attend the sittings of the Assembly, much concerned about the little order that was observed in the discussions, and troubled at the influence which the galleries affected to exercise; he doubted if it was possible for such men in such a situation ever to make a reasonable constitution. I think that the knowledge which he then acquired of what we already were, attached him still more to his own country, whither he has been glad to return. 'How,' said he to me, 'can men discuss who do not know how to listen? You Frenchmen do not take even the trouble to preserve that decent exterior which commands such authority in Assemblies."" But things grew much worse afterwards, as Madame Roland goes on to observe.

On the 14th of February, Collot d'Herbois announced to the Jacobins that the executive power had sanctioned the decree which restored liberty to the wretched victims of Nancy, the soldiers of Châteauvieux. A member of the club announced that the National Assembly had just decreed that the French Guards, who had been arbitrarily disbanded, should enjoy their pay until their destination was determined upon. The Jacobins were evidently directing the Assembly.

In the month of March, some of the women of Paris petitioned the Assembly to allow them to arm themselves with pikes to defend the constitution; the form of decapitation was settled in the manner recommended by a minute of the Academy of Surgery; the abbé Chappe made the Assembly a present of his invention of the Telegraph; and the Girondins in the Assembly made the king a present of a new ministry.

The last ministry had been given to Louis by the Feuillans, and he had now no strong party to look to except the Gironde. There was a man ready, whom Narbonne and Delessart had already employed in Normandy and La Vendée, General Dumouriez.† He was fifty-two years of age, still healthy and vigorous, a man of tried courage, of undoubted military talent; and he possessed political talent too. With no parti. cular attachment to any party, with restless ambition hitherto unsatisfied, he was offered by Louis XVI. the ministry of foreign affairs, which he gladly accepted. He had gained the good opinion of Gensonné, who had been sent by the Constituent into La Vendée to inquire into the cause of the troubles; and Gensonné was one of the most powerful among the Girondins. Dumouriez saw that the Jacobins also were a power in the state, and he paid his homage to the club by reading

papers

several
there, which were well received. He was
on good terms with Laporte, the intendant of the civil
list, and a personal friend of the king. With such power-
ful assistance his elevation to the ministry (15th of
March) was not a difficult matter. On the 19th of March,
after his appointment, Dumouriez appeared at the Jaco-
bins, the minister of foreign affairs, with the red cap
(bonnet rouge) on his head, which several speakers of the

*Some of the soldiers of this regiment had been sent to Brest after the affair of Nancy.

† See La Vie et les Mémoires de Dumouriez,' in the Collection of Berville et Barrière, written by himself in the third person. He wrote well. His style has something of the vigorous and rapid movement of his character.