THE REACTION.
With the fall of Robespierre the Terror came to an end. The men who
overthrew him were many of them worse men than he. They did not intend
to repudiate his system. They had acted from personal motives, from
a desire to save their lives and to maintain themselves in power.
But without Robespierre the Terror could not continue. It was his
reputation for moral earnestness and for disinterested conviction which
alone had reconciled to it many honest, narrow-minded men, who accepted
his theory, believed in his sincerity, and had not the capacity to
criticise his actions. In him and his associates the principles of the
Terror perished. There remained no one to throw over the system the
veil of sentimental virtue, and without that veil its uglier aspects
stood disclosed. Men who to the last had respected Robespierre could
not respect Collot d'Herbois or Billaud-Varennes. The Convention which
had revolted against Robespierre was not likely, when once it had
tasted freedom, to replace on its neck the yoke of his colleagues. The
Committee of Public Safety had appeared irresistible so long as it
was undivided. But when it broke up into parties and appealed to the
Convention to protect it, its dictatorship necessarily expired.
Accordingly, in the weeks which followed the 9th Thermidor, a number
of measures testified to the growing reaction. The Committee of Public
Safety was remodelled, and a system was enforced under which three of
its members retired, without the right of re-election, every month.
The Convention and its Committees resumed the powers of government.
The Revolutionary Tribunal was reconstituted and the law of the 22nd
Prairial repealed. The redoubtable Commune was abolished, and for
purposes of local government Paris was placed under the authority
of the Department of the Seine. The staff of the National Guard was
reorganised. The Revolutionary Committees in Paris and elsewhere were
reduced in number and shorn of their powers. The meetings of the
Sections were limited to three a month, and the decree which provided a
payment of forty sous for all citizens who attended them was repealed.
In the departments the officials of the Communes and of the Clubs
were sifted and replaced. Everywhere the prison doors were opened and
hundreds of prisoners were set free. Before the end of August, voices
were raised in the Convention against the Terrorists who continued in
the Government, and at the beginning of September, Billaud-Varennes,
Collot d'Herbois and the remaining Terrorists retired.
As the autumn went on, the pace of the reaction increased. The
Jacobins, it is true, were still numerous and active. Although the
reputation of the leading Terrorists was shaken, the Mountain was
still a force in the Convention. Besides the members of the old
Committees, many deputies, like Romme and Soubrany, Goujon and
Bourbotte, maintained without flinching extreme Jacobin views.
Others, like Thuriot and Cambon, were not prepared to go too far
with the reaction. The Jacobin Club, though weakened by the fall of
Robespierre, had resumed its old activity, and, supported by some of
its confederates in the provinces, determined not to surrender its
power without a struggle. Billaud-Varennes declared passionately that
the old lion was not dead. But the tide flowed heavily against the
Mountain. The majority of the Convention was determined at all costs
to break with the system of the Terror. The deputies of the Right and
of the Centre recovered their voices under the courageous leadership
of Boissy-d'Anglas and Thibeaudeau. The Thermidorians, under Tallien
and Fréron, rallied to the side of the moderate members, and gathered
round them many old Dantonists and many old adherents of the Mountain,
Legendre, Lecointre and Bourdon de l'Oise, Merlin of Thionville and
Merlin of Douai, Cambacères, and André Dumont. Sieyès, released from
the necessity of silence, brought to the same side his affectation
of inscrutable wisdom. Encouraged by the divisions in the Assembly,
public opinion expressed itself outside. The independence of the Press
revived. Fréron's paper, the _Orateur du Peuple_ boldly took the lead
of the reactionary journals. The trial of the prisoners sent up from
Nantes to be tried at Paris revealed for the first time to the public
the worst iniquities of Carrier's rule, and in the weeks and months
which followed, evidence began to pour in against the agents of the
Terror. The indignation against the Terrorists in Paris increased
every day. Reactionary feeling showed itself overwhelmingly strong in
the Sections, in the cafés, in the streets. Bodies of young men, some
of them men of family and wealth, but most of them drawn from the ranks
of tradesmen, clerks and artisans, representing the great majority
of respectable people which had allowed itself to be tyrannised
over so long, and which had shown its readiness to rise as early as
May, 1793, gathering in the Palais Royal, once the headquarters of
revolutionary agitation, organised themselves into an effective force,
armed themselves with short and heavy sticks, and led by Lacretelle
and encouraged by Fréron and Tallien, began to parade the streets, to
suppress Jacobin speakers and meetings, to pour contempt on Jacobin
opinions, and to wage war against Jacobinism in whatever shape it might
be found. Extravagant and ridiculous in some respects the 'Jeunes
Gens' were, and in later days it suited the Thermidorians to turn
their affectation into ridicule, and to denounce them as 'Jeunesse
Dorée,' as 'Elégants' and Muscadins.' But in their origin at any rate
they represented a genuine popular movement, and up to April, 1795,
they acted cordially with the moderate party, and rendered valuable
service in destroying the terrorism which the Jacobins had established
in Paris. With the new movement a new song came into fashion, and
the Jeunes Gens, rejecting the Marseillaise, sang in the streets the
'Réveil du Peuple':--
'Quelle est cette lenteur barbare?
Hâte-toi, peuple souverain,
De rendre aux monstres de Ténare
Tous ces buveurs de sang humain.'
The reaction in Paris soon made itself felt in the Assembly. The
attacks upon the Terrorists and their supporters redoubled. In October
a law was passed forbidding the federation of popular clubs. On the
12th November, the Committee of Public Safety announced that it had
closed the Jacobin Club. In the same month Carrier was arrested. He
was sent for trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal and a few weeks
later to the scaffold. On the 8th December, the seventy-three deputies
who had been imprisoned for protesting against the expulsion of the
Gironde, were readmitted to their places in the Convention. At the
end of that month the Assembly decided that there was ground for
investigating the charges against Billaud-Varennes, Collot d'Herbois,
Vadier and Barère. As the winter went on, the members of the Right,
reinforced by the seventy-three, and determined to undo the work of the
Terror, demanded a reconsideration of the laws against Emigrants and
priests, and the restoration in certain cases of property confiscated
for political offences. In February, 1795, the Convention decreed
the freedom of all forms of religious opinion; but at the same
time it continued the penal enactments against non-juring priests,
imposed a variety of restrictions on the exercise of public worship,
and, while refusing to contribute towards the maintenance of any
religion, retained its hold upon the buildings and property of the
old Church. A further advance made in June towards the principles of
complete toleration was afterwards repealed by the influence of the
Left. On the 2nd March, Legendre carried a motion for the arrest of
Billaud-Varennes, Collot d'Herbois, Vadier and Barère. On the 8th,
the survivors of the Girondist leaders proscribed on the 31st May,
including Isnard, Lanjuinais and Louvet, were recalled to their seats
in the Assembly. The triumph of the reaction seemed to be assured.
But the Jacobins were not to fall without a struggle. They had more
than once secured the victory by appealing to the physical necessities
of the poor, and it was by that means that they endeavoured to conquer
again. In the spring of 1795 the distress in Paris was exceptionally
keen. With the political reaction an economic reaction had begun. After
Thermidor it became evident that the economic system of the Terror
could not stand. Its drastic laws were on all sides disregarded. No
penalties or prohibitions could force men to observe laws which they
were resolutely determined to infringe. The State might fix the price
of food, but the producers would not produce it at that price, and
when the guillotine had ceased to compel submission, the vain attempts
of the State to fix prices broke down. Economic causes more powerful
than any laws overthrew the Maximum, and at last, towards the end of
December, the Convention recognised the fact and repealed the Maximum
decrees. With the repeal of the Maximum the whole system of Terrorist
finance collapsed. The practice of requisition was abandoned. The
restrictions upon foreign trade and upon the exportation of specie
were removed. In a short time the Bourse was reopened. The intrepid
experiment by which the economists of the Terror had endeavoured to
concentrate in the hands of the Government the whole commercial system
of the country, fell to the ground, and the old methods of monopoly
and competition, which the Terrorists had so constantly denounced, and
which they had so boldly but recklessly attacked, reasserted their
sway and exacted their penalty. The financial system of the Terror was
ruinously mistaken, but by its draconian methods it had to some extent
checked the rise in prices, and had perhaps saved from extinction
the vanishing credit of the Assignats. Yet even under the Terror the
Assignats had deteriorated in value. In spite of the imperious demands
of the Terrorist Exchequer, in spite of its forced loans and wholesale
confiscations, in spite of the plunder which it drew from its victims
and of the money which, as Barère boasted, it coined on the Place
de la Révolution, the Jacobin Government had never been free from
financial troubles. The non-payment of taxes, the peculation of local
authorities, the failure of the forced loans to bring in anything like
the sum expected, the depreciation in value of national property, the
ignorance of economics which prevailed among the ruling party, and
above all the enormous expenses of the war, of the administration,
and of supplying Paris and the great towns with food, had created a
perpetual deficit. 'The Revolution and the war,' said Cambon, the chief
financier of the Terror, in a report of January, 1795, 'have cost in
four years five thousand three hundred and fifty millions above the
ordinary expenses;' and Cambon's estimate was probably much below the
fact. In vain had Cambon by a partial bankruptcy put out of circulation
fifteen hundred million francs of Assignats which bore the image of the
King. In vain had the Convention, in August 1794, decreed, on Cambon's
proposal, the Republicanisation of the National Debt, ordered all the
creditors of the State to send in their claims, entered their titles in
a Great Ledger of the Public Debt, declared the capital borrowed by the
State to be irrecoverable, and, regardless of all engagements entered
into and of all promises of high interest previously made, informed
them that in future the State would pay five per cent interest to all
its creditors alike. This summary method of escaping liabilities had
introduced, it is true, some order into the finances, but it had not
improved the credit of the State. The chief resource of the Government
had continued to be the Assignats, and not even the drastic legislation
of the Terror had been able to keep their credit up.
The repeal of that drastic legislation and the financial policy of the
Convention in the winter of 1794-95 accelerated their decline[13].
Prices, no longer fixed by law, rose rapidly, as the value of the paper
money fell. The Government, no longer able to rely on the methods which
the Terrorists had used to swell their income, and face to face with
high prices and diminishing credit, could think of no better resource
than to issue Assignats faster than before; and of course with every
fresh issue the depreciation increased. At the end of 1794, some seven
thousand million francs of Assignats were in circulation. In May, 1795,
these had risen to ten thousand millions, in the August following, to
sixteen thousand millions, and in the October following that, to many
thousand millions more. In proportion to these enormous issues, the
value of the currency declined. At the end of the reign of Terror,
Assignats had been worth 33 or 34 per cent of their nominal value.
In December, 1794, they had fallen to 22 per cent. In the ensuing
May they stood at 7 per cent, and in the months which followed they
fell to 4, to 2, and even to less than 1 per cent. In vain different
members of the Convention proposed schemes for diminishing the number.
The Government had no other resource to look to, and its expenses
seemed daily to increase, as claims for compensation poured in upon
it from those who had suffered under the Terror. With the fall of
the Assignats, prices rose to an alarming height. All wage-earners
who could not raise their wages in proportion to the rapid rise in
prices, all who lived upon fixed incomes, all who depended on the
paper-money and whose small savings consisted of Assignats, suffered
acutely from the economic crisis. A certain number of people, tenant
farmers for instance, who paid their rent in Assignats, and who made it
many times over by the high prices fetched by corn, debtors who could
pay off long-standing debts in Assignats at their nominal value, and
speculators, who sprang up on all sides to traffic in the fluctuations
of the currency, made heavy profits and enriched themselves. But to
the great majority of people the fall of the Assignats meant grave
distress. The prices of bread, of meat, of fuel, of all the necessaries
of life, rose as in a siege. One reads of the most fantastic payments,
of thousands of francs paid for a dinner, a cab-fare or a load of wood.
The sense of the value of money vanished, when its purchasing power
declined every day. But it was only those who had plenty of it who
possessed the power to purchase at all.
There is overwhelming evidence of the general distress in the winter of
1794-95. From all sides complaints came in of the exorbitant dearness
of food, and that trouble was aggravated by the intense cold. In Paris
and many great cities the authorities bought up food at ruinous prices
and distributed it in meagre rations to the poor. But as the year
advanced, these rations constantly diminished. The country districts
bitterly complained that they were starved in order that the big towns
might be fed. 'Many families, entire communes,' wrote an official from
Laon, in the summer of 1795, 'have been without bread two or three
months and are living on bran or herbs.' Around Caen the peasants
were living on unripe peas, beans and green barley. In Picardy 'the
great majority of people' overran the woods for food. From all sides
the same reports poured in upon the Government. 'Yesterday,' wrote
the authorities of Montreuil-sur-Mer, 'more than two hundred of our
citizens set out to beg in the country;' and those who could not get
food in other ways took it by force. Nor, in spite of the efforts of
the authorities, were the large towns better off. Lyons, in January,
was without bread 'for five full days.' At Troyes, in March, the public
distribution of bread fell to two ounces a day. At Amiens, a few months
later, it ceased altogether. At Nancy a traveller noticed a crowd of
'three thousand persons imploring in vain a few pounds of flour.' In
Paris the police reported case after case of misery and starvation.
'Every day,' wrote a friend to Mallet du Pan, 'I see people of the
poorer class dying of starvation in the streets.... Workmen generally
have to work short time, owing to the weakness and exhaustion caused by
want of food.'
It is no wonder if this acute distress resulted in an outbreak. Many
of those who suffered the most had sympathised with the Jacobin party,
and the arrest of the Terrorist leaders gave a certain political
colour to the agitation which famine had produced. But in the main the
insurrection which broke out on the 12th Germinal (1st April), which
for a time threatened the safety of the Convention, and which joined
to its demand for bread a demand for the Constitution of '93, was a
spontaneous movement due to the pressure of starvation rather than to
political intrigue. The leaders of the Mountain failed to turn it to
account. The Jeunes Gens and the battalions of the Sections enabled the
Government to win an easy victory, and the failure of the rising helped
the reaction on. Motions were quickly passed for the transportation
of Billaud-Varennes, Collot d'Herbois, Vadier and Barère, and for
the arrest of Cambon, Thuriot, Amar, and other prominent members of
the Mountain. Pichegru restored order in the streets. The Convention
decreed the disarming of the Terrorists and the reorganisation of the
National Guard. The officials of the Departments and of the Districts
were restored to their old authority. The State, which had already
undertaken to pay the debts of Emigrants whose possessions it had
confiscated, now resolved to restore to the families of the victims
the property of all persons who had been executed for political
offences since the 10th March, 1793. A commission of eleven members was
appointed to consider the bases of a new constitution. Early in May,
Fouquier-Tinville and several of his associates in the old Tribunal
were sent to the guillotine.
But the Jacobins were not yet silenced. The rapid progress of the
reaction disquieted many. The reappearance of Emigrants and of
non-juring priests, the extravagance of the Jeunes Gens, the revival
of Royalist opinions in Paris, the terrible excesses which began to
stain the reaction in the South-East of France, and which, under the
direction of the 'Compagnies de Jésus' and the 'Compagnies du Sol,' had
already made Lyons the scene of murder and of civil war, alarmed the
Thermidorians and many other members of the Convention. The majority
oscillated from day to day between their fear of the Mountain and
their fear of a Royalist reaction, and displayed to all the world
the vacillation and weakness of the ruling powers in France. At the
beginning of May, the Jacobins so far prevailed as to carry a decree
for the immediate arrest of returned Emigrants and refractory priests,
and for the prosecution of Royalist publications. The disarming of
Terrorists practically ceased. The high prices of food and the distress
which they occasioned became more serious every day, and Jacobin agents
laboured persistently to rouse the workmen to another insurrection. On
the 1st Prairial (20th May), their efforts succeeded. A second rising,
more formidable and better organised than that of Germinal, confronted
the Government, and the Convention, after a sharp struggle, only saved
itself by yielding to the demands of the insurrectionary leaders.
Fair promises, however, gained the Assembly time to bring up troops
for its defence. On the evening of the 22nd May, a strong force of
cavalry and infantry arrived in Paris. The next day, the Faubourg St.
Antoine was besieged and compelled to surrender at discretion. Numerous
arrests were made. The disarming of the Terrorists was completed.
All pikes were seized. The reorganisation of the National Guard was
accomplished, and the right of serving in it was once more restricted
to members of the bourgeois class. A temporary military commission was
established to try those accused of complicity in the insurrection,
and the Revolutionary Tribunal was abolished. Six prominent deputies
of the Mountain, including Goujon, Romme, Soubrany and Bourbotte,
were sent to the scaffold. Lebon, long since put under arrest, Panis,
almost forgotten, Lindet, Jean Bon St. André, Guffroy and Rühl, all
except three of the members of the two redoubtable Committees, Pache,
Bouchotte, and several of their associates in the former Ministry of
War, shared in the proscription of their party. The influence of the
extreme Jacobins was finally destroyed, and once again the policy of
the reaction triumphed.
The decisive success of the moderate party was not without its effect
upon European politics. At the time of the insurrection of Prairial,
the French arms were completely victorious and many had begun to hope
for the cessation of the war. The history of the revolutionary armies
is the finest part of the French Revolution. There the spirit which
the Revolution had inspired, and which had spent itself so fruitlessly
in Paris, was seen at its best in the enthusiasm, the devotion and the
gallantry of the troops. There too the high qualities of the Jacobin
administrators appeared, their determined patriotism, their dauntless
vigour and resource. There the Government which in Paris seemed to
be only a Government of tyrants, revealed itself as a Government of
heroes. There the politicians and intriguers of the Terror turned to
the nobler work of national defence. Carnot and St. Just, Merlin of
Thionville, Rewbell and Barras, Milhaud and Soubrany, Richard, Drouet,
Cavaignac and Fabre d'Hérault are only some among the many brave men
who, as Representatives on Mission with the armies, inspired the
French troops with their own lofty courage, and both by precept and
example taught them the impossibility of defeat. The enthusiasm which
political intrigues had wasted found a deeper expression in the war,
and the levelling freedom of the Republic threw open to all ranks
alike the prospects of a great career. In the campaigns of 1793-94,
Hoche, Pichegru and Jourdan had already reached the highest place,
and Moreau and Kléber, Bernadotte, Ney, Davoût, Augereau and Victor,
Soult, Masséna, Bonaparte were winning their way to notice and command.
It is true that at the first the French levies were ill-organised and
ill-disciplined, and that their earlier successes were due chiefly to
the disunion or incapacity of their opponents. But the progress of the
war and the vigorous measures of the Jacobin Government soon produced a
remarkable change. There was no lack of material upon which to draw.
To the old royal army there had in turn been added the battalions of
national guards, the volunteers raised in 1792, the _levée en masse_
of the same year, which was, however, of very little use, the levy of
300,000 men formed, largely by conscription, in the spring of 1793, and
the forces raised in the following summer by the imperious decrees of
the Government, which claimed the services of all men between the ages
of eighteen and twenty-five. On this material the Convention set to
work, and the efforts of Dubois-Crancé and Carnot, seconded by their
able advisers, and perfected by the strenuous action and wide powers
of the great Committee, met with complete success. To Dubois-Crancé
especially belongs the credit. It was he who, in the winter of
1793-94, at last carried through the Convention the great scheme for
the reorganisation of the army which he had advocated so long, who
committed the Government to the principle of conscription and to the
amalgamation of the regulars with the volunteers, and who fused the two
elements together by dividing the army into demi-brigades made up of
one battalion of regulars and four of volunteers. The result of these
measures appeared before long in the formation of a magnificent army,
which for numbers, discipline and the spirit of its troops, was a match
for the united forces of Europe.
The campaign of 1793, which at one time threatened France with serious
danger, ended in complete success. The valuable victories of Houchard
and of Jourdan on the North-Eastern frontier in September and October,
drove the Allies back upon Belgium. The equally notable successes of
Hoche and Pichegru, which followed in Alsace, drove the victorious
Austrians and Prussians again across the Rhine. The brave insurgents
of La Vendée found themselves at last opposed by a powerful army under
a general of high ability, and were defeated by Kléber at Chollet in
October, and subsequently routed at Le Mans. By the end of the year
France had ten armies for service in the field and an effective force
of some six hundred thousand men. On the North-East, four armies,
those of the Rhine, of the Moselle, of the Ardennes, and of the North,
stretched from Strasbourg to the sea. Further to the South, the army of
the Alps occupied Savoy, and the army of Italy, which had just reduced
Toulon, waited for a new commander to launch it on an illustrious
career. In the West, two more armies held the Pyrenees, and a third
watched the insurgents of La Vendée; while on the Northern coast, the
army of Normandy, not yet organised into a definite force, guarded the
sea-board and dreamed vainly of invading England.
With these resources the Allies could not compete. But even had the
troops been forthcoming, their disunion would have rendered victory
impossible. In 1794, when France was preparing with the brightest
prospects to reopen the campaign, the long-standing jealousy between
Austria and Prussia reached its climax. Thugut, the Austrian minister,
disliked his Prussian allies even more than his French enemies, and
carrying to an extreme pitch the traditional selfishness of Austrian
policy, intrigued on all sides for territorial aggrandisement, and
meditated schemes for extending the Austrian dominions in every
quarter of Europe, in Flanders and Alsace, in Turkey and Poland, in
Bavaria and Venice. In the North, Russia drew nearer every day to the
completion of her long-prepared attack on Polish freedom, and Prussia,
determined not to be left aside when her rivals shared the spoils of
Poland, turned her attention and her energies towards the Vistula, when
the sympathies of her king would gladly have turned towards the Rhine.
In vain the English Government threw itself with fresh energy into the
war, laboured to draw the coalition together, and promised generous
supplies. In April, 1794, at the very moment when Malmesbury, the
English envoy at the Hague, was pledging England, Holland and Prussia
to renewed efforts in the war with France, the Polish revolt broke
out at Warsaw, and Kosciusko's brave struggle for freedom diverted
the attention of the Central Powers. It was evident that until the
Polish question was settled, neither Prussia nor Austria would act
with vigour against the French. Accordingly, the French armies on the
North-Eastern frontier, now under the command of Pichegru and Jourdan,
advanced against the divided Allies, defeated them at Turcoign and
Fleurus, and entered Brussels on the 11th July. The conquest of Belgium
and the invasion of Holland followed. While Suvórof stamped out the
insurrection in Poland, and Austria and Russia drew up plans for the
partition of that unhappy country, to which Prussia was afterwards
compelled to accede, the French troops advanced into Holland, drove the
Prince of Orange into flight and occupied the Hague and Amsterdam. At
last Prussia, isolated and alarmed, consented to open negotiations,
and on the 5th April, she definitely separated herself from Austria,
and made peace with France in the Treaty of Bâle.
There were many who hoped that the Treaty of Bâle might prove the
beginning of a general peace, and so prepare the way for a Royalist
restoration. The fresh disturbances among the peasants of La Vendée and
their allies the Chouans of Brittany, which had been provoked in 1794
by the merciless policy of the Republic, by Turreau's 'Hellish Columns'
and by Carrier's tyranny at Nantes, had been quieted, in the spring
of 1795, by the conciliatory policy of the Republican generals, and
the long struggle in the West seemed to be drawing to a close. In the
Pyrenees the advance of the French brought the Spanish Government to
terms, and a peace between France and Spain was concluded in July. In
Paris the suppression of the insurrection of Prairial had raised very
high the hopes of the Royalists. Many things seemed to point towards
the restoration of the Constitution of '91, which at that time, as
at an earlier date, would probably have satisfied the wishes of the
majority of the nation. But events ordered otherwise. The high demands
of the French Government, the vigour of English diplomacy, and the
settlement of the Polish difficulty, which left the Emperor free to
act, disappointed the expectations of a general peace. In the summer
of 1795, England, Russia and Austria drew closer together and formed
a fresh alliance for the prosecution of the war. Early in June, the
unhappy little Dauphin died in prison, and his death dealt a heavy blow
to the hopes of the Constitutional party. Many who would have welcomed
the son of Louis XVI as Constitutional King, could not reconcile
themselves to the restoration of the Comte de Provence, the chief of
the Emigrants in arms against France, the prince who, learning nothing
from adversity, still condemned in the bitterest language all the
changes which the Revolution had introduced, and still denounced as an
enemy of the Bourbons every advocate of moderation or of liberal ideas.
The French people had not made the Revolution in order to restore the
Ancien Régime. The attempt of the Emigrants to renew the war in the
West by an ill-timed descent upon Quiberon, although stamped out by
Hoche in July, and punished with terrible severity by the Convention,
revived the deep-seated hostility which all friends of the Revolution
entertained towards the Emigrants. The fresh tidings which came in from
the South of terrible excesses committed in the name of the reaction
at Marseilles and Avignon, Tarascon and Aix, tended to check the
flowing tide. The rapid advance of Royalist opinions in Paris, and the
threatening demeanour of the Jeunes Gens and of the Sections at length
alarmed the Thermidorians. The members of the Convention recalled to
themselves that they were committed to the measures of the Revolution,
and began to fear lest the march of events should carry them too far
and involve them in a policy perilous to themselves.
Finally the Convention chose a middle course. The Constitution of 1795
retained the Republican form, and divided the supreme executive power
among a Directory of five persons. The legislative power it committed
to a Parliament consisting of two Houses, a Council of Five Hundred,
who must be over thirty years of age, and a Council of Ancients, who
must be over forty. The Parliament was to elect the Directory, but
the functions of each were strictly defined; the legislative and the
executive powers were kept jealously distinct, and cordial co-operation
between them was rendered almost impossible. The Convention had learned
from the experience of the past the necessity of making the Executive
strong, but it had not yet learned the folly of making the legislature
and the Executive independent rivals instead of harmonious allies.
The new Parliament was to last for three years, but one-third of its
members were renewable yearly. Apart from these new regulations, the
Convention, rejecting a series of fantastic proposals brought forward
by Sieyès, adhered to the main lines of the Constitution of 1791. The
system of double election was re-established. The franchise was limited
by a slight property qualification. In the local administration the
division into Departments and Communes was retained. But the Communes
were strictly subordinated to the Departments, the Districts were
abolished altogether, and the numbers and powers of the officials
were so reduced, as to simplify the whole system, and to increase the
authority of the central Government. Other articles established freedom
of worship, the freedom of labour, and the freedom of the Press,
prohibited political clubs and federations, and forbade the return of
the Emigrants to France.
But although the majority of the Convention yielded to the demand
for the establishment of a settled Government, they had no wish to
extinguish themselves. They knew that in the existing temper of the
nation they had little chance of being returned to power, and they
feared the lengths to which the reaction might run. Accordingly,
they proceeded to apply at once the principles laid down by the new
constitution for the renewal of the legislative body, and by the
decrees of the 5th and 13th Fructidor (22nd and 30th August), they
declared that two-thirds of the new Councils must be composed of
members of the Convention, and that only the remaining third should be
chosen from new men at the General Election. These decrees, which were
ratified by the primary assemblies and confirmed by the Convention in
September, aroused general indignation in Paris. The numerous partisans
of the reaction, already long impatient, and bitterly resenting the
device by which the Convention proposed to continue its power in
defiance of the sentiment of the nation, burst into premature revolt.
The Lepelletier Section took the lead of the movement, called out the
National Guards, and summoned the other Sections to rise against the
tyranny of the Convention. On the 13th Vendémiaire (5th October) the
insurrection broke out. The insurgent forces marched upon the Assembly,
to find themselves confronted by the troops of Barras and by the
artillery of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the triumph of the Government was
assured.
With the futile insurrection of Vendémiaire the history of the
Revolution ends. The failure of the rising in the Sections dealt a
sharp blow to the hopes of the reaction. It determined the character
of the new Directory. It installed in power a Government of men chosen
exclusively from the advanced Republicans, never in harmony with their
own Parliament, out of sympathy with the great mass of the nation,
relying on violence to maintain their authority, trusted by few and
respected by none. The Directory rested on the army for support. It
taught the troops what the Jacobins had never admitted, that they
could dispose of the fortunes of the State, and when the occasion and
the leader offered, the troops responded by choosing a ruler of their
own. That ruler all parties welcomed with relief. He accepted at once
the position of head of the nation, for he knew that the nation wanted
rest. 'Now,' said the peasantry of France, as they recounted the
stirring adventures of the past, 'now we are quiet, thanks to God and
to Bonaparte.'
The lessons of the French Revolution it is for others than historians
to point. Even at this distance we are perhaps hardly qualified to
read them. With all its errors and its disappointments, it marks an
epoch in the advance of men, for it assailed and uprooted for ever a
system of privilege and social wrong, based on intellectual bondage
and on the pitiless degradation of the poor. It destroyed that system
not in France alone, but in many parts and principalities of Europe.
It gained for Frenchmen some approach towards equality. It would
have gained them freedom, had they known what freedom was. None can
deny that the Revolution, at its outset, was welcomed in France with
unsurpassed enthusiasm, and that as a whole it has been ratified by
every generation of French people since. But in face of the evidence
before us, it is no longer possible to doubt that the conduct of its
later phases fell into the hands of a well-organised minority, who,
although conspicuous in courage, were in character unworthy of the
trust, whose methods Frenchmen never sanctioned, and whose crimes they
never have condoned. No doubt, in that minority examples may be found
of fine qualities and high desires, of firm if narrow principles, of
pure enthusiasm for social reformation, of staunch devotion to the
public service, of a love of country rarely matched. In summaries of
history the exceptions are too often overlooked, and in classifying men
together it is not easy to be just to all. It may be that some of the
experiments of the Terror are even now destined to awaken the growing
sympathy and interest of the world; and those experiments will not
have been made in vain, if they bring home the inexorable maxim that
no country can be regenerated by bad men, and that noble impulses are
waste and fruitless without the reasoned sense of what is feasible and
just, which nations honour and by which they live.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 13: The Maximum laws were practically repealed by public
opinion after Thermidor. It does not appear that their actual
repeal at the end of December had any marked or immediate effect in
depressing the value of the Assignats. It was rather the new issues
which completed the Assignats' decline. That decline had been going on
steadily since 1791, and was not stopped, though it may very probably
have been delayed, by the legislation of the Terror.]
TABLE
OF THE PRINCIPAL DATES IN THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
1774. Accession of Louis XVI.
1774-76. Ministry of Turgot.
1776-81. First Ministry of Necker. Alliance with America,
and War with England.
1783-87. Ministry of Calonne.
1787. _Feb._ Convocation of the Notables.
_April._ Dismissal of Calonne.
1787-88. Ministry of Loménie de Brienne. Struggle with
the Parlements. Louis promises to summon
the States-General.
1788. _Aug._ Return and second Ministry of Necker.
_Nov._ Second convocation of the Notables.
1789. _Apl._ 28. The Réveillon riot, the first serious riot in Paris.
_May_ 5. Meeting of the States-General at Versailles.
_June_ 17. The States-General assume the title of National
Assembly.
" 20. The Oath in the Tennis Court.
" 23. The Royal Sitting. The Commons defy the Crown.
Union of the Three Estates. Reactionary plans
at Court.
_July_ 11. Dismissal of Necker. Appointment of a reactionary
Ministry, supported by a strong display
of troops.
1789. _July_ 14. Rising in Paris and capture of the Bastille. The
King's submission and the recall of Necker.
" 17. Louis' visit of conciliation to Paris. Establishment
of the Parisian Municipality and of the National
Guard.
The Emigration begins.
Risings and disorder begin in different parts of
France.
_Aug._ 4. Summary abolition of feudal rights, of tithes, and
of all kinds of privileges.
_Sept._ Increasing distress and excitement in Paris.
_Oct._ 1. Military banquet and Royalist demonstration at
Versailles.
" 5-6. March of the Parisian women to Versailles, and
their return with the Royal family to Paris.
_Nov._ 2. A decree of the Assembly declares the goods of
the Church to be the property of the Nation.
" 7. A decree of the Assembly renders it impossible for
Ministers to be Members of the House.
1790. _May_ 10. Mirabeau's Notes for the Court begin.
_July_ 12. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy adopted by
the Assembly.
" 14. Feast of the Federation, to celebrate the fall of
the Bastille.
_Aug._ Serious mutiny in the army of Nancy suppressed
by Bouillé.
_Sept._ 10. Resignation of Necker.
_Nov._ 27. A decree of the Assembly compels the Clergy,
under pain of dismissal, to take the oath to
observe the new Constitution (sanctioned by
the King on December 26).
_Dec._ Mirabeau President of the Jacobin Club.
1791. _Jan._ 30. Mirabeau elected President of the Assembly.
_April_ 2. Death of Mirabeau.
" 18. The King attempts to leave Paris for St. Cloud,
but is stopped by a mob.
_June_ 20. The flight to Varennes.
_July_ 17. The Republican demonstration and the Massacre
of the Champ de Mars.
Rally of the Constitutional Party, and re-establishment
of the King.
_Aug._ 27. The Emperor Leopold and the King of Prussia
meet the French emigrant Princes and issue the
Declaration of Pillnitz.
_Sept._ 4. Louis publicly accepts the new Constitution.
" 30. Last sitting of the Constituent Assembly.
_Oct._ 1. First sitting of the Legislative Assembly.
_Nov._ 1. The Emperor Leopold issues a circular to the
Powers against interference in France.
" 9. A decree of the Assembly orders the Emigrants,
under the severest penalties, to return to France
(vetoed by the King).
" 17. Pétion elected Mayor of Paris over Lafayette's head.
" 29. A decree of the Assembly orders the expulsion of
priests who will not take the oath to the Constitution
(vetoed by the King).
_Dec._ 7. Narbonne appointed Minister of War.
1792. _Mar._ 1. Death of the Emperor Leopold.
" 9. Dismissal of Narbonne.
Formation of a Girondist Government.
_Apl._ 20. France declares war against Austria.
The French troops cross the Belgian frontier, but
meet with reverses.
_May_ 27. Decree authorising the banishment of refractory
priests (vetoed by the King).
" 30. Dismissal of the King's Constitutional Guard.
_June_ 8. Decree for assembling a force of 20,000 Fédérés at
Paris (vetoed by the King).
" 12. Louis dismisses his Girondist Ministers.
" 20. Invasion of the Tuileries by a mob.
_July_ 11. The country declared to be in danger.
" 25. Prussia declares war on France.
Manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick.
" 30. The Fédérés from Marseilles arrive in Paris.
_Aug._ 10. Capture of the Tuileries and overthrow of the
Monarchy.
" 20. Desertion of Lafayette.
" 23. Surrender of Longwy.
" 28. Search for arms and arrest of suspects in Paris.
_Sept._ 2. The Prison Massacres begin in Paris. Surrender
of Verdun.
" 20. Dumouriez at Valmy checks the advance of the
Allies.
" 21. Meeting of the National Convention.
Proclamation of the Republic.
_Oct._ 20. The French under Custine capture Mayence.
_Nov._ 6. Dumouriez wins the battle of Jemappes, and conquers
Belgium.
" 18. Decree offering the assistance of France to all
nations desirous of freedom (withdrawn in the
following spring).
_Dec._ The King's trial begins.
1793. _Jan._ 21. Execution of Louis.
_Feb._ 1. France declares war against England and Holland.
Reverses of the French army; the invasion of
Holland abandoned.
_Mar._ 9. Formation of the Revolutionary Tribunal.
" 10. Abortive Jacobin rising in Paris.
" 18. Defeat of Dumouriez at Neerwinden, and loss of
Belgium.
_April_ 3. Desertion of Dumouriez.
" 6. Establishment of the Committee of Public Safety.
First important successes of the insurgents in La
Vendée.
_May_ 31. Jacobin rising against the Girondists.
_June_ 2. Final victory of the insurrection and proscription
of the Girondist leaders.
_July_ 13. Assassination of Marat.
Advance of the Allies; the French lose Condé,
Valenciennes, and Mayence.
_Sept._ 5. Terror decreed to be the order of the day.
_Sept._ 5. Houchard wins the battle of Hondschöten, and
gains other successes, which compel the Allies
to retreat.
" 17. Establishment of the Maximum and of the Law
against Suspected Persons.
The Austrians invade Alsace.
_Oct._ 15-16. Jourdan, having superseded Houchard, wins the
battle of Wattignies.
" 16. Execution of Marie Antoinette.
" 17. Decisive defeat of the Vendéans at Chollet.
" 31. Execution of the Girondist leaders in Paris.
_Nov._ 10. Establishment of the worship of Reason, and
ascendency of the party of the Commune.
_Dec._ Camille Desmoulins starts the Vieux Cordelier.
Struggle of parties at the Jacobin Club.
Destruction of the Vendéan army at Le Mans.
Hoche and Pichegru, by a series of successes,
drive the Austrians out of Alsace.
1794. _Mar._ 24. Execution of Hébert and the leaders of the Commune.
_April_ 5. Execution of Danton, Desmoulins and their
friends.
Outbreak of Kosciusko's revolt in Poland.
_May_ 18. Pichegru, having superseded Jourdan, defeats the
Allies in the battle of Turcoign.
_June_ 1. Lord Howe defeats the French fleet in a great
battle at sea.
" 8. (20th Prairial). Festival of the Supreme Being.
" 10. (22nd Prairial). Law reconstituting the Revolutionary
Tribunal.
" 26. Jourdan, having superseded Hoche, wins the battle
of Fleurus. The French re-occupy Belgium.
_July_ 27. (9th Thermidor). Fall of Robespierre.
_Sept._ Successes of Suvórof in Poland.
_Oct._ 10. Crushing defeat of the Poles at Maciejowice.
_Nov._ 7. Capitulation of Warsaw to the Russians.
" 12. Closing of the Jacobin Club in Paris.
_Dec._ 8. The seventy-three Girondist Deputies recalled to
the Convention.
" 23. Repeal of the Maximum Laws.
Decisive movement of the French troops against
Holland.
1795. _Jan._ 3. Russia and Austria in the Treaty of St. Petersburg
settle the terms of the final partition of Poland.
The French enter Utrecht, Amsterdam and the
Hague, and the Stadtholder flies. The complete
conquest of Holland follows.
_Feb._ Truces between the Republican generals and the
Vendéan chiefs.
_Mar._ 2. Arrest of Billaud-Varennes, Collot d'Herbois,
Barère and Vadier decreed by the Convention.
" 8. The survivors of the Girondists proscribed on the
31st May recalled to the Assembly.
_April_ 1. (12th Germinal). Bread riots and attack on the
Convention.
" 5. Treaty of Bâle between France and Prussia.
_May_ 20. (1st Prairial). Jacobin rising and attack on the
Convention.
_June_ 8. Death of the Dauphin in prison.
_July._ Peace between France and Spain.
Failure of the Emigrants' expedition to Quiberon.
_Aug._ In the debates on the new Constitution, the Convention,
by the decrees of the 5th and 13th
Fructidor (August 22 and 30), secures the re-election
to the legislature of two-thirds of its
own body.
_Sept._ 23. Proclamation of the Constitution of the Year III,
and of the electoral decrees.
Fresh coalition between England, Austria and
Russia against France.
_Oct._ 5. (13th Vendémiaire). Rising of the reactionary
Sections against the Convention, defeated by
Bonaparte.
" 26. Close of the National Convention.
APPENDIX.
NOTE.--_The following list of books does not profess to be
comprehensive. It is a selection of some of the most important for the
use of students. Those marked with an asterisk ought alone to give a
fairly accurate knowledge of the period._
I. Text-book.
* Mrs. Gardiner's _French Revolution_ (Longmans' Epoch Series,
two shillings and sixpence) is decidedly the best and most useful
text-book.
II. Complete Histories.
*Carlyle's _French Revolution_ is still unapproached for the dramatic
splendour of its narrative and the brilliant portraits which it
contains.
Von Sybel's _History of the French Revolution_ (4 vols. tr.) is
perhaps the most valuable of the many large histories, but is severely
critical, and sometimes unfair to the advanced Revolutionists. It
is largely occupied with the history of Germany, Poland and other
countries at the time.
Louis Blanc's _Histoire de la Révolution Française_ (12 vols.) is
a long and eloquent defence of the Revolution, and especially of
Robespierre.
Michelet's _Histoire de la Revolution Française_ (7 vols.) is a
brilliant and sympathetic work, rather more critical than that of
Louis Blanc.
*Morse Stephens' _History of the French Revolution_ (3 vols.--the
last as yet unpublished) is the latest English narrative of the
period, and has much valuable biographical information. In tone it is
favourable to the Jacobin party.
(The histories of Mignet, of Thiers, of Quinet, of the 'Deux Amis de
la Liberté,' and of others are also of considerable value.)
III. Critical and Illustrative Works.
*Rousseau's _Contrat Social_; published at 25 centimes in the
Bibliothèque Nationale.
Arthur Young's _Tour in France_.
*De Tocqueville's _L'Ancien Régime_ (tr. as _France before the
Revolution_); of the greatest value in studying the condition of
France in the eighteenth century.
*Taine's _Les Origines de la France Contemporaine_ (4 vols.); a
brilliant work, long, diffuse, and severely critical in its judgments,
but, in spite of its bias, full of valuable information, especially in
the notes. The first volume deals with the 'Ancien Régime,' the next
three with 'La Révolution.'
Burke's _Reflections on the French Revolution_.
Sorel's _L'Europe et la Révolution Française_ (2 vols.); a very able
and recent work on the foreign aspects of the Revolution.
Schmidt's _Tableaux de la Révolution Française_ (3 vols.); a
collection of papers relating largely to the secret police of Paris,
some of which are of great value.
Mortimer-Ternaux's _Histoire de la Terreur_ (8 vols.); a long and
careful work, written with great minuteness, and very critical in tone
towards the Revolutionary leaders.
IV. Biographies, Memoirs and Correspondence.
Voltaire, Life, by John Morley.
Diderot, Life, by John Morley (2 vols.).
Rousseau, Life, by John Morley (2 vols.). The second volume contains
an admirable account of the Social Contract.
*Turgot, an Essay by John Morley (Miscellanies, vol. II).
Bailly, _Mémoires_ (3 vols.); the best original account of the first
five months of the Revolution.
*Mirabeau, _Correspondance avec La Marek_ (3 vols.); by far the most
important book on Mirabeau's policy and views. Dumont's _Souvenirs sur
Mirabeau_ are personal and very interesting.
Ferrières, _Mémoires_ (3 vols.); a good account of events down to the
10th August, from the point of view of an independent Conservative.
*Madame Roland, _Mémoires_.
Marat, Life, by Chèvremont.
Danton, Lives, by Bougeart and Robinet.
*Robespierre, an Essay by John Morley (Miscellanies, vol. I). M.
Hamel has published in three long volumes an elaborate _Histoire de
Robespierre_, which contains an enthusiastic panegyric of his hero.
St. Just, Life, by Hamel.
Pontécoulant, _Souvenirs historiques et parlementaires_ (4 vols.);
valuable for the period after Robespierre's fall.
(The Memoirs of Malouet, Bouillé, Dumouriez, Madame de Campan,
Bertrand de Molleville, Mallet du Pan, Garat, Barère and very many
others are all of interest and value.)
INDEX.
A.
_Actes des Apôtres_, Royalist newspaper, 111.
Aiguillon, Duc d', 104.
Aix, Archbishop of, 99;
reaction at, 279.
Aix-la-Chapelle, Emigrants at, 160.
Albitte, 216.
Allies, Louis' dealings with the, 173-174;
advance of, in 1792, 177;
retreat of, 180;
renewed advance of, in 1793, 194, 205;
retreat of, 206, 275-277.
Alsace, war in, 276.
Amar, 212, 271.
America, sympathy with, in Europe, 42;
expenses of alliance with, 48;
Lafayette in, 116.
_Ami du Peuple_, Marat's newspaper, 109-111.
_Ami du Roi_, Royalist newspaper, 111.
Amiens, relief works in, 134;
distress at, in 1795, 270.
Amsterdam, French conquest of, 277.
Anjou, Métayers in, 20.
Aranda, 42.
Army, disorderly state of, 80-83, 170;
reorganisation of, under the Terror, 273-276;
power of, 282.
_See_ War.
Arras, Lebon at, 217;
Robespierre at, 249.
Artisans, position of, before the Revolution, 17-18;
distress of, in 1789, 58-61, 68-69;
disappointment of, 131-134, 136-137, 197;
under the Terror, 217, 226, 269, 271.
Artois, one of the Pays d'État, 6;
Comte d', 116, 160, 161.
Assignats, origin of, 90-91;
depreciation of, 91-92, 196-197, 224, 267-270.
Augereau, 274.
Austria, Joseph's reforms in, 156;
policy of, 276-278.
_See_ Leopold _and_ Allies.
Autun, Talleyrand bishop of, 102.
Auvergne, Malouet's fame in, 100.
Avignon, revolutionary excesses at, 141;
reaction at, 279.
B.
Babœuf, 220.
Bailly, Mayor of Paris, 67, 68, 145;
character of, 102;
political views of, 135;
action of, on the 17th July, 1791, 151;
retirement of, 165;
death of, 207.
Bâle, Peace of, 278.
Barbaroux, 184.
Barère, in the Constituent Assembly, 104;
as a journalist, 108;
in the Committee of Public Safety, 214, 220, 221;
fall of, 265, 271.
Barnave, in the Constituent Assembly, 104;
at the Jacobins, 106;
political views of, 126, 135, 150, 152;
death of, 207.
Barras, 217, 274, 281.
Bassano, Maret, Duc de, 108.
Bastille, destruction of, 58, 89.
Bazire, 237.
Béarn, one of the Pays d'État, 6.
Beauharnais, Madame de, 185.
Belgium, war in, 170, 180, 194, 275, 277.
Bernadotte, 274.
Bernard de Saintes, 217.
Besançon, rising at, 61;
relief-works at, 134.
Billaud-Varennes, at the Jacobins, 150, 167;
in the Committee of Public Safety, 214, 215, 234, 240, 259;
retirement of, 262;
fall of, 265, 271.
Bô, 216
Boissy d'Anglas, 263.
Bonaparte, 274, 281, 282.
Bordeaux, trade of, before the Revolution, 43;
connection of, with the Gironde, 184, 205;
under the Terror, 217, 224, 225.
Borie, 217.
Bouchotte, 236, 273.
Bouillé, 82.
Bourbon, Duchesse de, 44.
Bourbotte, 263, 273.
Bourdon, Léonard, 217;
de l'Oise, 237, 259, 263.
Bourgeois. _See_ Middle Class.
Bourges, suggested as meeting-place for Convention, 201.
Brienne, Loménie de, Archbishop of Toulouse, 15;
Comptroller-General, 49-51.
Brissot, as a journalist, 107-108;
political influence of, 150, 164, 167, 184;
death of, 207.
Brittany, one of the Pays d'-État, 6;
the Chouans in, 278.
Broglie, Maréchal de, 58;
Madame de, 185.
Brumaire, 227.
Brunswick, Duke of, 173, 174, 180.
Brussels, journalism in, 107;
taken by the French, 277.
Buffon, 34.
Burgundy, one of the Pays d'État, 6.
Burke, 64, 194.
Buzot, 105, 184.
C.
Cadillac, dearth in, 225.
Caen, rising at, in 1789, 61;
connection with the Gironde, 205, 206;
distress in, in 1795, 270.
Cahiers, the, 51.
Caisse d'Escompte, Necker's loans from the, 88.
Calendar, the New, 227, 228.
Calonne, 48, 160.
Cambacères, 263.
Cambon, 233, 263, 267, 271.
Camus, 103.
Capitaineries, the, 21, 22.
Carnot, in the Committee of Public Safety, 214, 215, 234, 241;
representative on mission with the Army, 274.
Carrier, at Nantes, 217, 232, 236, 278;
Robespierre and, 250;
arrest of, 265.
Catherine of Russia, 42, 156;
designs of, on Turkey, 157, 159;
negotiations with the Comte d'Artois, 160.
_See_ Russia.
Cavaignac, 274.
Cazalés, 99.
Chabot, 143, 237.
Chambon, 190, 193.
Chambonas, Madame de, 185.
Champ de Mars, Massacre of, 151;
Feast of Supreme Being in, 257.
Chaumette, among the Jacobin leaders, 143;
in the Commune of Paris, 190, 212, 227, 229, 236.
Chollet, Battle of, 276.
Chouans, the, in Brittany, 278.
Church, jealousy of local Parlements towards, 6;
relations of, to State under Ancien Régime, 6, 15;
privileges and dignitaries of, 15, 16;
poverty of parish priests in, 16;
tyranny of, 28, 33;
attack on by Encyclopaedists, 33, 34;
property of, declared to belong to the nation, 83, 84;
reorganisation of, by Constituent Assembly, 84-87;
sale of lands of, 90, 132, 133, 140;
disorder caused by attack on, 141;
attitude of Legislative Assembly towards, 165;
attitude of Convention towards, 265.
Civil Code, the, 211.
Civil Constitution of Clergy, the, 84-87.
_See_ Church.
Classical spirit, influence of the, 29.
Clermont-Tonnerre, Comte de, 100, 126.
Clootz, Anacharsis, 143, 236.
Club, des Impartiaux, 106;
Monarchique, 106;
of 1789, 106;
Feuillant, 152;
clubs prohibited by Convention, 280.
_See_ Cordeliers _and_ Jacobin Club.
Coblentz, emigrants at, 161.
Coffinhal, 212.
Collot d'Herbois, among the Jacobin leaders, 143;
elected to Convention, 182;
at Lyons, 217, 232, 241;
in the Committee of Public Safety, 214, 215, 234, 236, 240, 244, 246;
retirement of, 262;
fall of, 265, 271.
Commission of Twelve, appointed, 201;
cancelled, 205.
Committee of General Security, appointed by Convention, 195;
functions of, 212;
Commune and, 236.
Committee of Public Safety, appointed by Convention, 195;
powers and members of, 212-215;
Convention and, 236, 242, 244, 246;
Danton and, 245-247;
Robespierre and, 255, 259;
remodelled in 1794, 262.
Committees of the Convention, work of, 210, 211.
Committees, Revolutionary, in Sections of Paris, 200, 212, 262;
in the provinces, 213.
Commune of Paris, organisation of, 145;
Sections of, 145-147;
Insurrectionary Commune of the 10th August, 174-178;
its attitude towards the September Massacres, 178, 179;
its leaders elected to the Convention, 182, 183;
its dissolution, 189, 190;
the Jacobins regain control of, 193;
action of, in 1793, 197, 199, 202;
Insurrectionary Commune of the 31st May, 204, 205;
power of, under the Terror, 212, 218, 227, 229, 231, 236, 237, 241;
reaction against, 240-245;
fall of, 245, 246;
supports Robespierre, 255, 259, 260;
abolition of, 262.
Compagnies de Jésus, 272.
Compagnies du Sol, 272.
Comptroller-General, powers of, 7, 9, 10.
Condé, Fortress of, taken by the Allies, 205;
Prince of, at Worms, 161.
Condorcet, Madame de, 185, 186;
Marquis de, 184, 193.
Constituent Assembly, constituted, 57;
character of, 64;
early history of, 65-72;
jealous of executive, 71-74;
new system of Local Government, 75-79;
judicial reforms, 79, 80;
passion for electoral contrivances, 74, 75, 79, 82, 83, 85;
military reforms, 80-83;
church reforms, 83-87;
confiscation of church property, 84, 90;
finance, 87-96;
parties in, 98-105;
close of, 153.
Constitution, of 1791, 71-87, 131, 132, 152-154, 278;
of 1793, 208-210, 271;
of 1795, 279-281.
Constitutional Party, the, 135, 150-154.
Contrat Social, doctrine of the, 39-41, 137-140.
Convention, meeting of, 182;
early parties in, 183, 186-190;
demoralisation of, 192;
decrees of, early in 1793, 195, 196-198;
defeat of Girondists in, 201-205;
the rule of the Jacobins in, 208-235;
reforms of, 210, 211;
representatives of, on mission, 215-217;
Jacobin schisms in, 236-260;
struggle with the Commune, 237, 242-246;
struggle with Robespierre, 259, 260;
reaction in, 261-273;
finance of, 218-223, 266-270;
close of, 279-281.
Corday, Charlotte, 186, 206.
Cordeliers Club, 105, 150, 236, 246.
Corvée, the, 22, 45.
Côte-d'Or, the Terror in the, 217.
Council, of the King at Versailles, 7;
of the Ancients and of the Five Hundred, 279-281.
_Courrier de Provence_, Mirabeau's paper, 107.
Couthon, 213, 214, 217, 241, 255.
Custine, 255.
D.
D'Alembert, 34.
Danton, rise of, 105, 143;
in July, 1791, 150, 151;
protests against war, 167;
on the 20th June, 172;
on the overthrow of the Monarchy, 175-180;
views on the September Massacres, 179;
elected to Convention, 182;
policy in Legislative Assembly, 193-201;
during the Terror, 237-241;
final struggle and fall, 242-248.
Dartigoyte, 217, 231.
Dauphin, death of the, 278.
Dauphiné, popular movement in, 50, 100.
Davoût, 274.
De Lessart, 166.
Departments, created by Constituent Assembly, 75;
under Constitution of 1795, 280.
D'Eprémesnil, 99.
Desfieux, 237.
Desmoulins, Camille, rise of, 109, 143;
attacks the Terror, 237-244;
arrest of, 247;
Lucile, 185-186.
Diderot, 31, 34.
Dijon, rising in, 61.
Directory, establishment of, 279-282.
Districts, division of France into, 75,
abolished, 280.
Dom Gerle, 103.
D'Ormesson, 190.
Drouet, 274.
Dubarry, Madame, execution of, 207.
Dubois-Crancé, 275.
Dumont, André, 216, 263.
Dumouriez, Minister of Foreign Affairs, 167-171;
Lafayette and, 171;
wins the battles of Valmy and Jemappes, 180;
defeat of, at Neerwinden, 194;
desertion of, to Austrians, 195.
Duport, 104, 106, 113.
Dutard, reports of, 202-204.
E.
Economists, the, 36.
Elections, of 1789, 52, 53;
small polls at, in 1790 and 1791, 130, 131, 153, 154;
of Mayors of Paris, 165, 190, 193;
to the Legislative Assembly, 153, 154;
to the Convention, 182, 183;
under the Constitution of 1795, 280, 281.
Elégants, the, 264.
Elsinore, sympathy for American Revolution at, 42.
Emigrants, selfish policy of, 159-163, 174, 279;
decrees against, in 1791, 165;
the Reaction and the, 265, 271, 279, 280.
Encylopaedia, the, 33-36.
England, policy of, 194, 277, 278.
Evêché, Section of the, 204.
F.
Fabre d'Églantine, 237, 245.
Fabre d'Hérault, 274.
Farming, system of, before Revolution, 19, 20.
Faubourg St. Antoine, 174, 273.
Fédérés, the, 173, 174, 190.
Fernig, Demoiselles de, 186.
Feudal Privileges, 11, 21, 22;
attacks on, 61, 67.
Feuillants, club of the, 152.
Finance, of the Ancien Régime, 7, 12, 15, 23-25, 45, 48, 49;
of the Constituent Assembly, 87-96;
of the Terror, 266-268.
_See_ Assignats and Taxes.
Fleuriot, 256.
Floréal, 228.
Fouché, 217, 232, 236.
Foulon, murder of, 67.
Fouquier-Tinville, 212, 232, 272.
Fox, 42.
Francis, Emperor, 168.
Frederick the Great, 42.
Frederick William, King of Prussia, 156.
Fréron, 143, 217, 232, 263, 264.
Frimaire, 227.
Fructidor, 228.
G.
Gabelle, the, 24, 25;
abolition of, 94.
Garat, 103, 193, 201, 202, 254.
Gard, District of the, 217.
Gardes Françaises, the, 60, 68.
_Gazette de France_, the, 106, 107.
Geneva, Journalism at, 107.
Genlis, Madame de, 185.
Gensonné, 164, 184.
German Empire, foundation of, ultimately due to the Wars of the
Revolution, 181.
Germinal, 228.
_See_ Insurrection.
Gers, District of the, 217.
Girondists, the, in the Legislative Assembly, 163, 164, 165;
war policy of, 166-168;
attitude of, towards king, 171, 172, 174, 175, 191;
and towards the Prison Massacres, 179;
in the Convention, 183, 184;
principles of, contrasted with those of the Jacobins, 187-189;
struggle of, with the Jacobins, 189-204;
fall of, 204-207;
recall of, 265, 266.
Gorsas, 184.
Gouges, Olympe de, 186.
Goujon, 263, 273.
Gouly, 216.
Grégoire, 103, 143.
Guadet, 164, 184.
Guffroy, 231, 273.
Guilds, monopoly of, in eighteenth century, 17, 18;
suppression of, 45, 46, 95.
Gustavus III, King of Sweden, 156, 160.
Guyardin, 217.
H.
Hague, Treaty of the, 277.
Hanriot, 204, 205, 212, 256, 260.
Haute Loire, District of the, 217.
Hébert, rise of, 143, 178, 190;
attack on, by Girondists, 204;
under the Terror, 212, 222, 227;
character of, 231;
as a journalist, 231, 236;
attack on, by Robespierre and others, 241-245;
fall of, 246.
Helvetius, 35, 110.
Hérault de Séchelles, 208, 214, 241.
Herman, 212.
Hoche, 255, 276, 279.
Holbach, 35.
Holland, invasion of, 194, 277.
Hondschöten, Battle of, 206.
Houchard, 206, 207, 255, 275.
I.
Illuminati, the, 42.
Indre, Districts of the, 225, 226.
Insurrection, of 14th July, 1789, 58;
of 5th and 6th October, 1789, 69;
of 20th June, 1792, 172;
of 10th August, 1792, 174, 175;
of 31st May, 1793, 204, 205;
of Robespierre, 260;
of Germinal, 271;
of Prairial, 272;
of Vendémiaire, 281.
Intendants, position of, 7-10;
decline of, 47;
fall of, 62.
Isnard, 184, 266.
Issy l'Evêque, priest of, 138.
J.
Jacobin Club, origin of, 105,106;
organisation of, 142-145;
attitude of, in summer of 1791, 150-154;
protests against war, 167;
share of, in elections of 1792, 182, 183;
under the Terror, 213;
parties at, in 1793-94, 241-246;
under Robespierre, 255, 259;
close of, 263, 265.
Jacobins, rise of the, 129-154;
theory of the, 137-140, 209;
numbers and organisation of the, 142-147, 199;
leaders of the, 143, 229-235;
in the Constituent, 105, 149-153;
in the Legislative, 163, 164;
opposed to war, 166, 167;
attitude of, towards Prison Massacres, 178, 179;
in the Convention, 182-183;
attitude of, on question of Louis' death, 191;
struggle with Girondists, 189-206;
Government of, 212-216;
principles applied, 218-229;
character of, 187, 216, 217, 229-235, 283;
schisms and struggles among, 237-260, 262-273.
Jansenists, the, 103.
Javogues, 217, 231.
Jemappes, Battle of, 180.
Jeunes Gens, the, 264, 272, 279.
Jeunesse Dorée, the, 264.
Jews, attacks on the, 61.
Joseph, Emperor, 42, 156-158.
Jourdan, 206, 274, 275.
_Journal de Paris_, the, 106.
_Journal des Débats_, 108.
_Journal des Etats-Généraux_, Mirabeau's journal, 107.
_Journal Général de la Cour et de la Ville_, Reactionary journal, 112.
K.
Kellermann, 255.
King. _See_ Louis XVI.
Kléber, 274, 276.
Kosciusko, 277.
L.
Labourers. _See_ Peasants and Artisans.
Laclos, 113, 144.
Lacombe, Proconsul in Bordeaux, 217;
Rose, 186.
Lacretelle, 264.
Lacroix, 237.
Lafayette, and the National Guard, 67, 68, 118, 153;
on 5th October, 70;
Marat and, 111;
Orleans and, 114;
character and views of, 116-118;
Mirabeau and, 73, 121, 122;
party of, 131, 135, 150, 153, 163;
at Massacre of Champ de Mars, 151;
not elected Mayor, 165;
policy of, in spring and summer, 1792, 166-173;
flight of, 177.
Lakanal, 216.
Lally-Tollendal, 100.
La Marck, 121, 123.
Lameths, the, in the Constituent, 104;
party of, 131, 135, 150.
Landes, District of the, 217.
Languedoc, one of the Pays d'État, 6.
Lanjuinais, 103, 184, 266.
Laon, distress in, 270.
Laplanche, 231.
Lebon, 143, 217, 232, 273.
Lecarpentier, 216.
Lecointre, 237, 263.
Legendre, 237, 263, 265.
Legislative Assembly, meeting of, 163;
parties in, 163, 164;
policy of, 165, 167, 168, 169, 171, 172, 173, 178, 179.
Le Mans, Battle of, 276.
Leopold II, succeeds Emperor Joseph, 157, 158;
policy of, 159-163;
death of, 168.
Lepelletier Section, the, 281.
Lindet, 214, 215, 234, 273.
Linguet, 107.
Local Government, new system of, 75-79.
Locke, 110
Loire, war on the, 205.
London, Journalism in, 107.
Longwy, surrender of, 177.
Louis XI, 5.
Louis XIV, 14.
Louis XVI, Court of, 44;
emancipates serfs, 44;
charities of, 44, 45;
character of, 45;
early reforms of, 45-47;
States-General and, 53, 55, 57, 58, 67;
visit to Paris, 67;
on 5th and 6th October, 69, 70;
Constituent Assembly and, 73, 74, 87, 150, 152;
flight to Varennes, 149;
army under, 81;
deposition demanded, 150;
Legislative Assembly and, 165-173;
Lafayette and, 70, 172;
the Allies and, 173, 174;
Girondists and, 167, 171, 174, 175, 191;
dethroned, 175;
executed, 191, 194.
Loustallot, 108, 109.
Louvet, 184, 266.
Lyons, troubles at, 61, 134, 141;
declares against Jacobin Government, 205, 216, 217;
trade of, ruined by Revolution, 224;
distress in, 225, 270.
M.
Maignet, 217, 258.
Mallet du Pan, 107, 112, 173, 174.
Malmesbury, 277.
Malouet in Constituent Assembly, 64, 100, 101, 152;
his estimate of the Jacobins, 143;
Louis and, 173.
Manfredini, 42.
Marat, editor of _Ami du Peuple_, 109;
early career and character of, 109-111;
in July, 1791, 150, 151;
protests against war, 167;
approves, September Massacres, 178;
in the Convention, 182, 190, 197, 210;
assassination of, 206.
Maréchaussée, the, 8.
Maret, 108.
Marie Antoinette, character of, 48;
political influence of, 48, 58, 125, 162, 165, 186;
execution of, 207.
Marseilles, disorder in, 141;
declares against Jacobin Government, 205;
under the Terror, 216, 217, 225;
reaction at, 279.
Massacre, of Champ de Mars, 151;
of September, in the prisons, 178.
Masséna, 274.
Maury, 99.
Maximum, the, established, 198, 222, 223;
repealed, 266-270.
Mayence, emigrants at, 159;
retaken by Allies, 205.
_Mercure_, Constitutional journal, 106, 112.
Méricourt, Théroigne de, 186.
Merlin, of Douai, 105, 263;
of Thionville, 263, 274.
Mesmerists, the, 42.
Messidor, 228.
Métayers, position of the, 20, 21, 132.
Middle classes, under Ancien Régime, 16, 17, 18, 43;
gainers by Revolution, 132;
cease to support Revolution, 202, 203;
Jacobin measures against, 222, 223;
in the Reaction, 264.
Milhaud, 274.
Militia, the, 22, 23.
Mirabeau, Comte de, in the Constituent Assembly, 57, 63, 64, 65, 72, 73,
74, 84, 89, 90, 91, 92, 103, 106, 122, 123;
as journalist, 107;
political aims, 118, 119, 120;
Lafayette and, 121, 122;
notes for the Court, 123-127;
pensioned by the Court, 127, 128;
character of, 128;
death of, 128, 147;
Marquis de, 44;
Vicomte de, 99.
Molleville, Bertrand de, 166.
Momoro, 237;
Sophie, 186.
Monasteries, abolition of the, 84, 85.
Monciel, Terrier de, 172, 173.
_Moniteur_, the, 107, 108.
Monsieur. _See_ Provence.
Montaubon, religious troubles at, 141.
Montesquieu, 31, 32.
Montmartre, relief works at, 69.
Montmorin, 122, 126, 166, 173.
Montreuil-sur-Mer, distress at, 270.
Moreau, 274.
Morelly, 36.
Mounier, 50, 100, 101.
Mountain, the, 197, 198;
after Thermidor, 262, 263, 271.
_See_ Jacobins.
Municipality of Paris. _See_ Commune.
Muscadins, the, 220, 264.
Mysticism, revival of, in eighteenth century, 42.
N.
Nancy, mutiny at, 82;
distress at, 270, 271.
Nantes, Vendéans at, 206;
Carrier at, 217;
decline of commerce at, 224.
Napoleon, at the capture of the Tuileries, 175.
_See_ Bonaparte.
Narbonne, 166, 167.
National Agents, 213.
National Assembly, title taken by Commons, 57.
_See_ Constituent Assembly.
National Debt. _See_ Finance.
National Guard, creation of the, 62, 76, 78;
Lafayette and the, 67, 68, 118, 153, 172;
action of the, 136, 140, 141, 179;
reorganised as battalions of the Sections, 199;
under Hanriot, 204, 205, 212, 256, 260;
changes in the, after Thermidor, 262, 271, 273;
on 13th Vendémiaire, 281.
Necker, reforming ministry of, 14, 42, 46;
fall of, 47, 48;
recall of, 51;
vacillation of, 53, 56;
dismissed again, 58;
finance of, 88, 89;
failure of, 114, 115;
Madame, 185.
Neerwinden, defeat of Dumouriez at, 194.
Newton, 110.
Ney, 274.
Nice, French successes at, 194.
Nîmes, religious troubles at, 141.
Nivôse, 227.
Noailles, Vicomte de, 104.
Nobles, under the Ancien Régime, 11-14, 44;
in States-General, 56, 57.
Notables, of 1787, 49;
of 1788, 53.
Notre Dame, Goddess of Reason installed in, 227.
O.
Orange, tribunal of, 258;
Prince of, 277.
_Orateur du Peuple_, Fréron's journal, 263.
Orleans, high court at, 80;
Duke of, 12, 14, 69, 112-114, 150, 207.
P.
Pache, minister of war, 190, 192, 193;
Mayor of Paris, 193, 212, 236;
proscription of, 273.
Palais Royal, meetings in, 60, 69, 113, 264.
Panckoucke, 106, 107.
Panis, 178, 212, 273.
Paris, excitement and distress in, 26, 51, 58, 59, 60, 67, 68, 69, 133,
136, 171, 173;
influence of, on finance of Constituent Assembly, 89, 95;
clubs in, 105, 106, 144;
numbers of Jacobins in, 143;
government of, 145-147;
Prison Massacres in, 175-179;
agitation against Louis, 171, 173, 191;
the Girondists and, 193, 196-205;
under the Terror, 222-228, 242, 260;
Reaction in, 263, 264, 271, 272, 273, 279, 281.
Paris, Parlement of, 49, 50.
Parlements, the local, 6, 7, 79.
Parties, in Constituent Assembly, 98-105;
in Legislative Assembly, 163, 164;
in Convention, 183, 184, 237, 240, 259, 262, 263, 273, 279.
_Patriote Français_, Brissot's journal, 108.
Payan, 256.
Pays d'Élection, provincial assemblies created in, 46.
Pays d'État, the, 6.
Peasantry, condition of, under Ancien Régime, 19-27;
outbreak of, in 1789, 58-62;
disappointed with the Revolution, 132, 133, 136, 137, 139, 141;
under the Terror, 217, 219, 220, 223, 224, 225;
in the Reaction, 270, 282.
_Père Duchesne_, Hébert's journal, 231.
Pétion, in Constituent Assembly, 105, 106, 153;
Mayor of Paris, 165, 179, 184, 190.
Petit Gautier. _See_ _Journal Général de la Cour et de la Ville_.
Philippe Egalité. _See_ Orleans.
Philippeaux, 237, 245.
Philosophers, the, in eighteenth century, 28-36.
Physiocrats, the, 36.
Picardy, distress in, 270.
Pichegru, 271, 274, 275, 276.
Pillnitz, conference of, 159-162.
Pitt, policy of, 42, 156, 157, 194;
Robespierre on, 252.
_See_ England.
Pluviôse, 228.
_Point du Jour_, Barère's paper, 108.
Poland, influence of, on European politics, 157-159, 277;
Kosciusko's revolt in, 277.
Police of Paris, under Ancien Régime, 60;
during Revolution, 199, 200, 202.
Poll-tax, 12, 24, 95.
Pombal, 42.
Pope, the, alienated by Constituent Assembly, 86, 87;
rule of, at Avignon, 141.
Prairial, 228.
_See_ Insurrection.
Press, the, controlled by Church, 15, 33;
new power of, 106-112;
during the Reaction, 263.
Prieur (of the Côte-d'Or), 214, 215.
Prieur (of the Marne), 214, 215.
Provence, Comte de, policy of, 115, 116;
Mirabeau and, 126;
Emigrants and, 161, 165, 279.
Provincial Assemblies, in 1787, 46.
Prudhomme, 106, 107.
Prussia, policy of, 156-162, 276-278.
_See_ Allies.
Q.
Queen. _See_ Marie Antoinette.
Quesnai, 36.
Quiberon, Emigrants at, 279.
R.
Rabaut de St. Etienne, 103.
Reason, worship of, 186, 227, 237.
Representatives on mission, 195, 213, 215-217, 274.
Republic, talk of, 150;
proclamation of, 189.
_Réveil du Peuple_, Reactionary song, 264.
_Révolutions de France et de Brabant_, Desmoulins' paper, 109.
_Révolutions de Paris_, Democratic paper, 107, 108.
Revolutionary Army, the, 199, 212, 233.
Revolutionary Government, the, 212-217.
Revolutionary Tribunal, the, established, 195;
reorganised, 212, 257, 258;
abolished, 273.
Rewbell, 105, 274.
Reynaud, 217.
Rhine, war on the, 194, 276, 277.
Richard, 274.
Richelieu, policy of, 5.
Rights of Man, declaration of the, 66.
Robespierre, in the Constituent Assembly, 105, 106, 147-153;
the typical Jacobin, 41, 143, 147;
policy and position of, in 1791, 147-153;
opposes war, 167;
action on the 20th June, 172;
elected to the Convention, 182;
attacks of Girondists on, 190;
in Committee of Public Safety, 213, 214, 220, 221, 226, 228, 229, 230, 234;
attacks the Commune, 241-246;
deserts Danton, 247;
ascendency of, 248-260;
character of, 148, 248-255;
review of his career, 249-255;
power of, in 1794, 255, 256;
his belief in the Terror, 255-257;
his action when in power, 257, 258;
his fall, 259, 260.
Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Duc de, 100.
Rohan, Cardinal de, 16.
Roland, Minister of the Interior, 167;
dismissal of, 171;
return of, to office, 175;
and September Massacres, 179;
carries dissolution of Insurrectionary Commune, 189;
resignation of, 192;
Madame, 164, 171, 184, 185, 207.
Romme, 263, 273.
Ronsin, 232, 236, 243.
Rosicrucians, the, 42.
Rouen, Archbishop of, 15, 99;
rising at, 61;
Mirabeau advises the King to retire to, 121;
distress at, 225.
Rousseau, influence of, 31, 34, 36-41.
_See_ Contrat Social.
Rühl, 212, 273.
Russia, policy of, 156-159, 277, 278.
_See_ Catherine _and_ Allies.
S.
Sabran, Madame de, 185.
Sainte-Amaranthe, Mme de, 185.
Santerre, 172.
Sardinia, policy of, 160.
Saverne, Cardinal de Rohan's palace at, 16.
Savoy, war in, 194.
Sections, organisation of the Parisian, 145-147, 199, 200, 212, 213, 242;
insurrections prepared in the, 174, 175, 198, 201, 203, 204, 205, 260, 281;
committees in the, 146, 195, 200, 212, 213;
battalions of the, 199;
police of the, 146, 199, 200;
reaction in the, 264, 271.
Seigneur, rights of. _See_ Feudal.
Sémonville, 126.
_Sentinelle du Peuple_, Democratic paper, 107.
Serfdom, extinction of, 20, 44.
Sergent, 178.
Servan, 170, 171, 254.
Sieyès, Abbé, writings of, 51;
in the Constituent Assembly, 84, 102;
the Girondists and, 164;
in the Convention, 211;
during the Reaction, 263, 280.
Social Compact. _See_ Contrat Social.
Socialism, beginnings of, 36, 218-226.
Soho, Marat in, 110.
Soubrany, 263, 273.
Soult, 274.
Spain, policy of, 156, 160, 278.
St. André, Jean Bon, 214, 234, 273.
St. Antoine, Faubourg, insurrection of, 174;
disarmed, 273.
St. Domingo, trouble in, 71.
St. Etienne, Terror at, 217.
St. Hurugues, Marquis de, 113.
St. Just, among the Jacobin leaders, 143;
in Committee of Public Safety and Convention, 213, 214, 220, 221,
222, 226, 229, 234, 241;
on mission, 216, 274;
relations with Danton and Robespierre, 245, 246, 255, 256, 257,
259, 260.
Staël, Madame de, 166, 185.
States-General, elections to the, 31-54;
opening of the, 55-57.
_See_ Constituent Assembly.
Strasbourg, Bishop of, 16;
rising at, 61;
plots at, 161;
decline of trade in, 224;
working men imprisoned in, 225.
Subdelegates, powers of, 9, 47.
Suvórof, 277.
Sweden, policy of, 156, 160.
_See_ Gustavus.
Swedenborgians, the, 42.
T.
Taille, the, 23, 24.
Talleyrand, 102, 106.
Tallien, on mission, 216;
in Thermidor, 259;
during the
Reaction, 263, 264;
Madame, 186.
Talma, Madame, 185.
Talon, 126.
Tarascon, Reaction at, 279.
Target, 103.
Taxes, under Ancien Régime, 23-25;
of the Constituent Assembly, 93-96;
resistance to, 139, 196, 267;
on the rich, 198, 220.
_See_ Finance.
Tennis Court Oath, the, 57.
Tenures, of the Ancien Régime, 19-21.
Terror, establishment of the, 170, 195, 206, 212;
government of the, 212-217;
principles of the, 218-230;
character of the leaders of the, 230-235, 283;
Danton and the, 238, 240, 242;
Robespierre and the, 256, 257, 258, 261;
end of the, 261, 262, 273.
Thermidor, 228;
insurrection of, 259, 260.
Thermidorians, the, 263, 279.
Thibeaudeau, 263.
Thouret, 103, 126.
Three Hundred, the, 145.
Thugut, 276.
Thuriot, 263, 271.
Tiers-État, importance of the, 51, 52, 53;
constitutes itself the National Assembly, 57.
Toulon, declares against Jacobin government, 205, 216, 217;
capture of, 244.
Toulouse, Archbishop of, 15, 49;
distress in, 134.
Trèves, Emigrants at, 159.
Trianon, the Queen at, 44.
Tronchet, 103.
Troyes, Bishop of, 15;
rising at, 61;
distress in, 270.
Tuileries, attacks on, 172, 175.
Turgot, observations of, 23, 26;
contributes to Encyclopaedia, 34;
one of the economists, 36;
Comptroller-General, 45;
fall of, 47.
Turkey, critical position of, 157.
Turreau, 'Hellish Columns' of, 278.
V.
Vacheron, 231.
Vadier, in Constituent Assembly, 105;
in Committee of General Security, 212, 232;
fall of, 265, 271.
Valenciennes, captured, 205.
Valmy, Battle of, 180.
Varennes, Louis' flight to, 149.
Vaucluse, Terror in the, 217.
Vendée, la, nobles of, 13;
rising in, 199, 205, 206, 276, 278, 279.
Vendémiaire, 227;
insurrection of, 281.
Ventôse, 228.
Verdun, surrender of, 177, 178.
Vergniaud, in the Legislative, 164;
in the Convention, 183, 184;
on the execution of the King, 191;
death of, 207.
Versailles, King's Council at, 7, 9;
Court at, 12, 13;
States General at, 55-58, 63-67;
Parisian mob at, 69;
suggested meeting of Convention at, 201.
Veto, debates on the, 67.
Victor, 274.
_Vieux Cordelier_, Desmoulins' paper, 242-245.
Vincent, 236, 243.
Vingtièmes, the, 12, 24.
Vizille, Assembly of, 50.
Volney, 107.
Voltaire, 31-33, 110.
W.
War, desired by Girondists, 164;
opposed by Jacobins, 166, 167;
declared against Austria, 168;
effects of, 168, 169, 170, 181, 224;
progress of, 170, 173, 177, 180, 181, 194, 205, 206, 235, 273-279;
in La Vendée, 199, 205, 206, 276, 278, 279.
Warsaw, Polish revolt at, 277.
Wattignies, Battle of, 206.
Westermann, 237.
West Indies, trade of, affected, 224.
Women, part played by, in the Revolution, 184-186.
Worms, Emigrants at, 161.
Y.
Young, Arthur, observations of, 19, 43, 224.
Ysabeau, 216.
THE END.