text of obviating dangers and dif. ficulties, to perpetuate their power against the sense and consent of their constituents, over whom they assumed the most despotic sway that could be exercised; but of requiring them, without the least authority for such an act, to pay implicit obedi. ence to the will and pleasure of an assembly, that was, by that very deed, subverting the fundamental laws of the republic.

The Parisians were so exasperated at this illegal assumption of power, that they seemed to have lost all respect for the convention, and to consider it as having forfeited all title to any farther obedience. In de. fiance of the orders it had issued, the electors of Paris assembled, by their own appointment, before the day fixed upon for that purpose. The primary assemblies at Paris insisted, that having chosen their electors, these being the direct re. presentatives of the people, had a right to consult together as soon as they judged it necessary. About one hundred of them assembled accordingly. The convention, alarm ed at this bold step, and fearing that if it seemed intimidated, and suffered a measure of such audacity to pass unnoticed, the Parisians might next proceed to pronounce the convention no longer the representatives of the nation, resolved to strike at once such a blow, as might terrify all that were inclined to be refrac tory: it immediately ordered military force to disperse this meeting. From the discontent which had been expressed by the Parisians, it had been expected that they would have made resistance; but the most prudent advised an ac. quiescence in the orders of the con vention, and their advice prevailed.

a

The example of the capital did not fail to influence other places, where the conventional decrees, relating to the elections, were condemned in unqualified terms. The majority, in the mean time, were not explicit and precise in their acceptance of either the constitution or the decrees. The former was universally received by the capital and the whole nation; but the latter met with many dissentient voices. The convention carefully published every day the majorities that appeared in their favour: but the citizens of Paris asserted that from an inspection of the records sent up from the dif ferent places of election, it would appear that the real meaning of the majority extended to an entire renovation of the legislative body. The want of perspicuity in the accounts transmitted from the various depart. ments, was, it has been said, favour able to the pretensions of the convention. Irritated by the attempts of the Parisians to disparage them by invalidating their credit, this assembly treated them with much slight and contempt, frequently refusing to give audience to their deputies. Provoked at this saage, from those whom they had rescued from the ty ranny of Roberspierre, and had lately saved from the fury of the jacobins, the citizens vented their indignation in the bitterest terms, and uttered menaces of resentment and revenge that indicated a de. termined resolution to resist the measures intended by the conven. tion.

This body of members was now in as critical a position as it had ever experienced. It had lost the affection of those who had constantly proved their firmest friends, and had carried them successfully through [H 3]

all

all their difficulties. These friends were now become their most de cided enemies, and alleged such reasons for their enmity, as the con. vention found it not easy to invali. date. It resolved, in this extremity, to have recourse to the military stationed at Paris. Between these and the Parisians there subsisted, however, such a fraternal intimacy, that those members of the convention, who guided its motives on this perilous emergency, soon found that other auxiliaries would be wanted. It behoved them to be expeditious. The language of their opponents in the capital breathed the worst of menaces, and it was evident that either the city or the convention must give the law without controul. Nothing was omitted by the citizens, that could render the majority of that body odious or despicable. Murderers, despots, or sycophants, were the terms in which they described them. The authors of the assassinations in September, 1792, and of the judicial murders of the Gironde party in , OЯober, 1793, the remnants of the mountain and of Roberspierre's faction, with the approvers and abettors of all their enormities: these, and such as these, the Parisians said, still retained their seats in the convention. Were such men, sullied with crimes and infa. mies, fit to preside over a nation?, What must the enemies of France, what must Europe, think of the French, if they submitted to be governed by such men? National jus. tice required that they should forthwith be dismissed from the seat of authority. This was the least punish ment that could be inflicted upon men who deserved so much greater. The utmost they could expect from

the lenity of the nation was, to be sheltered, with other criminals, un. der a general act of amnesty. But if they persisted in the refusal to resign their power, such additional guilt ought to be punished with un. relenting severity. It excluded them at once from all hopes of mer. cy; and the public would be justi. fied in carrying their vengeance to the utmost extremes.

The obstinacy of the citizens, in requiring the deputies to surrender their authority, and the determina. tion of these to retain it, had kin. dled the wrath and indignation of both parties to the highest pitch. Numbers of the former would listen to nothing short of the most inexorable treatment of that body. It was obeying the laws of impar. tial justice, they said, to retaliate upon every one of them. The con. duct of each, throughout the whole revolution, ought to be scrutinized in open court, and no subterfuges allowed, or exculpations admitted for the enormities in which they had participated, or had not the courage to discountenance. It was incum. bent on the French to clear up their character to the world, by executing the rigour of the law upon men who deserved no pardon, who had embrued their hands in the blood of innocent multitudes, after shedding that of worthy patriots; and who had, by a series of horrors, brought the cause of liberty into disgrace, and empowered its enemies to a perse its met upright friends and assertors. Till justice was done upon such men, the surrounding nations would have a right to consider the French as a savage and sanguinary people, enslaved by the successive factions of the day,

and

and become the base instruments of their reciprocal barbarities.

The convention sheltered their conduct under the necessity of providing for the public safety, by securing the election of a due number of men experienced in public business. Conscious, however, how little this apology would avail, they determined to accelerate their vengeance upon their opponents; lest by spreading their opinions, their numbers should increase in the departments, where they had already gained ground. No time was now to be lost on either side. If the convention did not immediately suppress the spirit of insurrection that began to shew itself, their existence would be at stake, and the hourly arrival in Paris of large bodies of troops from the armies, was a sufficient warning to the inhabitants, not to delay the execution of their designs against the convention, till it was become superior to all their attempts.

Unhappily for the citizens, they confided so strongly in the attach. ment of the soldier that they were persuaded ne ager needed to be apprehended from them, and that as they had done at the first breaking out of the revolution, they would refuse to fire upon men whom they had so much reason to consider as friends and fellow-citizens. It seems, the convention were also ap. prehensive that the general good will of the troops to the Parisians would render them unwilling to act against these. But there was at this time, in the prisons of Paris, a great number of those who went by the name of terrorists, full of rancour at the Parisians, for having so reso lutely assisted in quelling the insur

rections they had raised. To these men those who directed the motions of the convention did not scruple to make application on this emergency.

The truth was, that the most active men in the convention, were, if not avowed terrorists, yet closely connected with them, and actuated, in a great measure, by their principles. The ground on which they proceeded in the business of the reelection was clearly that of fear, lest tired of the bloodshed that had so frequently recurred in the repeated contests for power between the ri val parties, the people of France might exclude from the legislature all those individuals who had either excited or given occasion for contests, and elect none but men of pacific dispositions, who would make it their duty to silence all disputes for pre-eminence, and re establish a cordial concord among all citizens, by espousing no party, and directing all their labours to the tranquillity and welfare of the pub lic. Certain it is, that the conven. tion was chiefy governed by the most ambitious among them. They thought possibly that having steered the vessel of the state through so many storms, and escaped so many dangers, they ought not to be laid aside after bringing it safe into port; and, to continue the metaphor, that if unforeseen storms should again arise, which was far from improbable, they surely were the best qualified to weather them. Doubtless they reasoned justly upon this suppo sition, which also was well founded: but it was not the mere re-election of able men, against which the me. tropolis protested, or would have ob jetted; it was the great dispropor. [H4]

tion

tion of two-thirds that alarmed the friends to a legislature, that should chiefly consist of new men, obnoxious to no party, and irreproachable in their personal conduct. These requisites could be found in few of the convention. They had almost all been violent party men, and suspicions of the worst kind lay heavy on the characters of many. Allowing their abilities and resolution to have been often displayed in the cause of the public, they had also, it was justly observed, been exerted for very unwrran able purposes: and, taking them all together, the virtues and vices of the most conspicuous members of the con. vention, were, to speak the most favourable language, equally balanced at best. France was at present desirous of rest. Enough had been done for its glory: it was now time to consult its repose. With all the praise that might be due to the present convention, the leading men among them were so habitu. ated to the tempestuous scenes in which they had made so remark. able a figure, that they had not had any opportunity of displaying those talents which would be chiefly required in peaceable times.

Ene.

mies abroad, and factions at home, had been the element in which they had hitherto constantly moved. They were undisputably well qualifed to encounter trials of this kind: but however great they had shewn themselves in the day of danger, they ought to be sensible that those qualities which tend to make them dreaded, are not those which procure them affection. The conduct of those who had acted the greatest parts, throughout the revolution, might command admiration; but these parts had been so blended with evil as well as good, that it

was difficult to tell which was most predominant. The highest obligations were due to those intrepid agents by the many; but many also had ample cause to rue the part they had acted.

Discourses of this tendency filled the mouths of all men at this critical epoch. The dread of seeing those men invested with power, who had acted with Roberspierre, and had in some respects been his colleagues and coadjutors in office, threw a gloom on the expectations that had been formed from the new constitu tion, and excited the most melan. choly presages. The Parisians knew no bounds in their complaints : they repeatedly assailed the conven. tion with the boldest remonstrances on their conduct, which they styled a manifest and barefaced usurpation. But this assembly confiding in the preparations it was secretly making, set them openly at defiance, and refused at last to listen to their repre sentations, which they branded with the name of seditious, and cal. culated to throw the republic into confusion. Were they ever so well inclined, said the members of the convention, to gratify the Parisians, they ought no less to consult the circumstances of the times. Nu. merous were those who waited with impatience for a total dissolution of the present legislature, in order to avail themselves of the new opini. ons and inclinations of those who were to succeed it. Good policy required they should be disappoint ed; but the only sure method to perpetuate the republican spirit now existing, was to continue in power those who had always shewn themselves its staunch supporters, those who had been its champions in the worst of times, and had opposed despotism at the risk of their