country-by an oppofite conduct have they not paid their ranfom in patriotifm?

We mean not to propofe to you fuch measures as may appear to partake of immorality-we therefore wifh not blindly to break the chains of all the flaves at Toulon.-But has not the love of their country purified their hearts, which might have been corrupted by the vices of the old fyftem, might have been produced by misfortune, and perhaps by thofe defpotic laws which you have repealed?

May we not inftitute an inquiry into the nature of those crimes which occafioned their condemnation to the galleys? May we not restore to fociety, men who may again become citizens, and who did not forget their country when it was in danger? Your deputies have written to the Convention, that the galleyflaves were the only patriots in Toulon. Suffer therefore public gratitude to confole thefe unfortunate people, and to prove that the Republic is not infenfible to the manner in which they have devoted themselves to her service.

The lofs of the Republic in the arfenal is trifling-every thing is preferved, except the general magazine and the ftorehoufe for mafts. By an attentive confideration of the force of our enemies and the valuable articles they have left us, we shall be convinced that this victory is fo aftonifhing, that pofterity will scarce be able to credit it. It is only fuch foldiers as fight for their country who could have dared to attempt fuch an enterprize, and who could have gained fuch a victory.

Barrere then propofed and the Convention paffed the following decree :

I. The minifter of the marine is ordered to iffue immediate orders for building as many fhips as can be built in the docks of port de la Montagne, (formerly Toulon,)

11. Orders in the mean time fhall be fent to all the other ports in the Mediterranean for the building of as many fhips as the docks will hold.

III. The minister of the marine is to order all those estab- · lithments of Toulon which are connected with his office to be repaired; and in order to produce this effect, he is ordered to put in a state of requifition all masons and other artificers be longing to the department of Var and the neighbouring de

partments.

IV. The national reprefentatives in the Southern departments fhall fend to Marfeillés and Toulon, as foon as they receive this decree, all the fhip timber, and every other article neceffary to the building and equipping of ships.

V. The adminiftrative bodies are ordered to use the greatest activity in the conveyance of the neceffary articles for the fervice of the marine,

G 2

VI. The

VI. The national reprefentatives in the department of Mont Blanc are defired to accelerate the execution of the decree for the felling of timber in that department. The timber when felled, is immediately to be fent to Marseilles and Toulon.

VII. The neceffary artificers for the fervice of the marine, and who have hitherto belonged to the first armed requifition, are required by the prefent decree to proceed to Toulon, in order to aflift in the works, which are about to be begun.-The war and marine minifters are ordered to give the neceffary directions. The marine minifter is to fend to the Convention a printed lift of fuch citizens as may be drafted from the first requifition for the service of the marine.

VIII. Carpenters, caulkers, fail-makers, and all perfons who have been employed in ship building, are put in a state of requifition by the prefent decree, and are to be employed in the feveral arfenals and ports of the Republic, by an order from the marine minifter.

IX. The minifter fhall make fuch a difpofition in the service of the marine, that the feamen at prefent employed in the maritime ports of the North and the Weft fhall be employed in the Southern ports.

X. All the civil and military agents of the marine, and all others employed in this fervice, who fhall neglect or delay, or who fhall refufe to aflift by all means in their power, the naval operations, fhall be difmiffed by the minifter, and taken up as fufpected perfons.

XI. The representatives of the people at Toulon are authorized to name a committee, confifting of three perfons, who fhall examine the registers of the galleys in which perfons have been confined, the nature of their crimes, and the fentences which have been paffed upon the galley-flaves.

The opinion of the commiffioners fhall be fent to the Convention, as well as the nature of their determination on the state of these flaves.

XII. All the petitions, &c. which have been addreffed to the legiflators and minifters by the galley-flaves detained in the port of Toulon and other places, fhall be tranfmitted to the commiffioners within 24 hours. The moft fcrupulous examination fhall immediately be made of all the papers in the different offices.

XIII. The National Convention decrees, that the galleyflave who burnt his hand in extinguishing the pitch and tar which was near burning one of the dock-yards, fhall be immediately fet at liberty. There fhall be prefented to him by the reprefentatives of the people, a fum of 600 livres by way of aid.

In confequence of a representation of the miferable condition of 1000 French prifoners detained in Mentz, the National Convention decreed on the 9 Pluviofe, Monday, Jan. 27, 1794.

•T

1. HE minifter at war fhall be bound to anfwer in writing, in the course of 24 hours, whether he has put into execution the decree of Sept. 7, relative to the French detained at Mentz.

2. That he be alfo obliged to declare, whether the afflicted fitua tion of those citizens, which ought to have been delivered to him by Chaney, commiffary at war, has been received by him, and if he paid attention to it.

3. That the reprefentatives of the people with the army of the Rhine and the Mozelle fhall be charged to write to Oberndorf (Count) the principal minifter of the Palatine defpot, and to the regency of that bafe wretch crowned with an electoral mitre, that if, in the courfe of twenty-four hours, the bankers of their master at Frankfort fhall not have paid to the King of Pruffia the fum which he demands for the Frenchmen detained at Mentz, the town, burghs, villages, and hamlets of the great bailiwicks of Creutznach and Alzey, which are in the hands of the Republic, fhall be reduced to ashes. 4. That the reprefentatives of the people fhall alfo be charged with removing to the interior of the Republic,. all the provifions and effects of value in the great bailiwicks of Lauterecken, Kayferflautern, and Neustadt.

5. That this measure be extended to all the other territories of the German petty princes, nobles, &c. efpecially to the county of Falckenftein, belonging now to the Emperor. 6. That the great bailiwick of Germerfheim be immediately municipalized, and embodied with the district of Landau. 7. That the national vengeance be difplayed in fetting fire to all the caftles and palaces of thofe countries, to begin with that of the Elector of Mentz at Worms, which has long enough ferved as a fhelter to the infamous Conde and his accomplices.

Report on the Revolutionary Governments, made in the name of the Committee of Public Safety, on the 31ft January 1774, by Maximilian Robespierre.

Citizens, Reprefentatives of the People,

SUCC

UCCESS, whilft it ferves only to relax the efforts of the weak, ftimulates to more active exertions men of superior

Be it the talk of hiftory and of Europe to boaft of the miracles of Toulon-Let us prepare new triumphs for Liberty. The defenders of the Republic have adopted the maxim of Cæsar. They believe that nothing is done whilft any thing remains to be accomplished. Sufficient dangers ftill exift to excite our utmost zeal. The valour of our Republican foldiers renders it an eafy talk to conquer the English and overcome traitors; an undertaking, however, not lefs important, though more arduous, till remains to be accomplished. We must fruftrate, by an anfhaken energy, the perpetual intrigues of all the enemies of our liberty, and render triumphant thofe principles on which alone the public profperity can be established. Thefe are the most important duties which you have impofed on your committee of public fafety.

We will now, firft, explain the principles and the neceffity of a Revolutionary Government, and then proceed to point out the caufes which have tended to ftifle it in its birth.

The theory of a Revolutionary Government is as new as the revolution that produced it. It would be in vain to fearch for it in the books of political writers, by whom it was not forefeen, or in the laws of tyrants, who, content with abufing, are not very folicitous to inquire into the legitimacy of their power.- -To the aristocracy alfo this word is either the object of terror or a fubject for calumny; to tyrants a high offence; to many perfons a complete enigma: it is therefore neceffary to explain it to all, that the good citizens, at least, may rally round the standard of the public welfare.

The office of government is to direct the moral and phyfical force of the nation to the end of its inftitution. The aim of the conftitutional government is to preferve the Republic: that of the revolutionary government to lay its foundation. The revolution is the war of liberty against its enemies; the conftitution is the government of liberty, at once victorious and at peace. The revolutionary government ftands in need of extraordinary activity, because it is in a ftate of war. It is fubject to rules lefs uniform and exact, because the circumftances, under which it exifts, are unfettled and tempeftuous, and above all, because it is perpetually obliged to provide uncommon and immediate resources for new and preffing dangers.-Civil liberty occupies chiefly the attention of the conftitutional government; public liberty, that of the revolutionary government. Under the conftitutional government, almost all that is required is the protection of individuals against the public power; under the revolutionary government, the public power itself is to be defended against all the factions that affail it. The revolutionary government owes to good citizens, all the protection which the

nation:

nation can give; the enemies of the people have nothing to expect from it but death.

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This is fufficient to explain the origin and nature of thofe laws which we call revolutionary. Thofe who pronounce them arbitrary or tyrannical, are either ftupid or obftinate fophifts, who endeavour to confound things which are oppofite in their nature. They with peace and war, health and fickness to be fubmitted to the fame regimen; or rather, they defire only the refurrection of tyranny, and the death of their country. If they are clamorous for the literal execution of the conftitutional laws, it is only to violate them with impunity. Thefe are the cowardly affaflins, who, to deftroy the Republic in its cradle, endeavour to fetter it with vague maxims, from which they well know how to difengage themfelves.

The conftitutional veffel has not been conftructed to remain always on the ftocks; but would it have been proper to have launched it in a ftorm, and under the influence of contrary winds-This was what the tyrants and flaves, who oppofed its conftruction, wifhed; the French people, however, have directed you to wait the return of a calm. Their unanimous withes drowning, at once, the clamours of aristocracy and of federalism have commanded you, firit, to deliver them from all their enemies. The temples of the gods are not built to ferve as an afylum for facrilegifts, who come to prophane them; nor was the constitution framed to countenance the plots of tyrants, who endeavour to deftroy it.

If the revolutionary government be more active in its career, more free in its movements, is it lefs juft or lefs legal? No! It is fupported by the most facred of all laws-the welfare of the people; by the most irrefragable of rights-necefity. Its principles are founded on juftice and public order: it has nothing in common with anarchy or confufion; on the contrary, its aim is to reprefs them, for the purpose of establishing the reign of laws-neither has it any thing in common with what is arbitrary-it is not directed by particular paffion, but by the public welfare.

It is its duty to act on general principles in all cafes when they can be applied without endangering the public liberty. The extent of its force ought to be proportioned to the perfidy and audacity of the confpirators. The more it appears terrible to bad men, the more will it protect and favour the good. The oftener we are compelled under particular circumftances to adopt rigorous measures, the more cautious we fhould be to avoid fuch measures when they unneceffarily injure liberty, and are hurtful to the interefts of individuals, without any advantage to the public. We have to fteer between two rocks-imbecility and temerity--moderantifm and excefs-moderantiẩm, which is

to