"The Convention, called by a law of the Legislative Assembly to give a
new constitution to France, decreed the Republic; not that the most
enlightened did not think the republican system incompatible with the
existing state of manners in France, but because the Monarchy could not
be continued without placing the Duke of Orleans on the throne, which
would have alienated a great part of the nation.
"An executive power, consisting of five ministers, was established by
the Convention for conducting the affairs of the republic.
"Two parties contended for the ascendancy in the National Convention:
that of the _Girondists_, composed of men who had influenced the
Legislative Assembly, and that of the _Mountain_, formed by the Commune
of Paris, which had directed the atrocities of the 10th of August and
the 2d of September, and commanded the population of the capital.
"Vergniaud, Brissot, Condorcet, Guadet, and Roland, were the leaders of
the Girondists; Danton, Robespierre, Marat, Collot d’Herbois, and
Billaud-Varennes, headed the Mountain. These two parties were alike
indebted for their rise to the principles of the revolution. Their
conductors sprang out of the popular societies which they had
successively rendered subservient to their views.
"The party of the Girondists was more powerful in talents, and was
eminently popular in the great provincial towns, particularly at
Bourdeaux, Montpellier, Marseilles, Caen, Lyons, &:c.
"The party of the Mountain possessed more energy and enthusiasm, and was
not less popular in the capital and among the clubs of the departments.
"The Girondist party, which, in the Legislative Assembly, had been the
most ardent for the Revolution, became, in the Convention, the most
moderate; because it had to contend there with a faction much more
violent than itself, which had not found its way into the Assembly.
"The Girondists called their adversaries the faction of September, and
constantly reproached them with the horrible massacre of which they were
guilty. They accused them of being hostile to a national assembly, and
of endeavouring to transfer the government of France to the Commune of
Paris; but by these means the Girondists only excited against themselves
the Jacobins of all the departments.
"On its side, the Commune of Paris (the Mountaineers) stigmatized the
Girondists by the name of the federalists, and charged them with the
design of establishing a federative system in France similar to that of
Switzerland. They also accused them of endeavouring to stir up the
provinces against the capital, and thus held them up to the detestation
of the people of Paris, which could maintain its splendour only by the
union and unity of the whole of the territory. When the Girondists
inveighed against the Mountaineers for the massacres of the 2nd of
September, the latter reproached the former with having, during the
Legislative Assembly, rashly and without cause, declared war against all
Europe.
"The Girondists, at first, appeared to have the upper hand in the
Convention, and they directed that Marat should be brought to trial, and
that proceedings should be instituted against the assassins of
September. But Marat, supported by the Jacobins and the Commune of
Paris, was acquitted by the revolutionary tribunal, and returned in
triumph to the bosom of the assembly.
"The trial of the King had been another apple of discord. The two
parties seemed to proceed in unison, and voted, it is true, for his
death; but the greater part of the Girondists also voted for an appeal
to the people; and here it is difficult to comprehend the reason of
their conduct during that crisis. If they wished to save the king, they
were at liberty to do so; they had only to vote for deportation, exile,
or the adjournment of the question; but to sentence him to death and
make his fate depend upon the will of the people, was, in the highest
degree, absurd and impolitic. They seemed to be desirous, that after the
extinction of the monarchy, France should be torn to pieces by civil
war.
"The general opinion ever since the commencement of the revolution, that
the most audacious and unreasonable faction would always predominate,
was from that moment verified. The Girondists, however, maintained the
contest with courage, and very often had majorities in the assembly
during all the months of March, April, and May. But the party of the
Mountaineers had recourse, in these circumstances, to an expedient which
it had constantly employed. On the 31st of May, the fate of the
Girondists was decided by an insurrection of the sections of Paris.
Twenty-seven were arrested, brought before the revolutionary tribunal,
and sentenced to death; seventy-three were thrown into prison, and from
that period the triumphant Mountain had no obstacles to encounter in the
Convention. Several Girondist deputies took refuge, however, at Caen,
and there raised the standard of insurrection. Lyons, Marseilles,
Bordeaux, Montpellier, and several towns of Brittany, embraced cause of
this party, and also took up arms against the the Convention.
"All these unconnected efforts were of no avail against the capital, and
the Mountain remained in tranquil possession of the national tribune. A
circumstance altogether singular contributed to confirm the
preponderance of Paris. It was the assignats, then the only resource for
supplying the treasury; not a single tax was then paid.
"The provinces learnt with considerable emotion the event of the 31st of
May, and the death of the most celebrated of the Girondist party. The
armies were not agitated by these results; they took no share in the
insurrections of some provinces, and remained all attached to the
Convention and the dominant party at Paris.
"When the partial insurrection of certain towns in favour of the
Girondists was known, all the armies had already taken the oath and
testified their adhesion to the Mountain; besides, in the eyes of
Frenchmen, Paris was France. Neither did the departments of Alsace, la
Moselle, Flanders, Franche Comté, and Dauphiné, where the principal
forces of the republic were quartered, sympathize in the feelings of the
federalist towns.
“The 31st of May deprived France of men of great talents, zealously
attached to liberty, and the principles of the revolution. The
catastrophe might afflict the well disposed, but could not surprise
them. It was impossible for an assembly, which had extricated France
from the critical situation to which she was reduced, to carry on public
business with two parties so inveterately and irreconcileably opposed.
It was necessary for the safety of the republic that one should
extinguish the other, and there can be no doubt that, had the Girondists
obtained the victory, they would have consigned their adversaries to the
scaffold.”
Here the Emperor, who had dictated in his usual way, from memory alone,
without any research, whether he was dissatisfied with the task he had
executed, or for some other reason, stopped short, for the purpose, as
he said, of recommencing a new dictation on the same subject.