At a time when the necessities of the state had been great enough to be

made the pretext of a dreadful revolution, they were not only almost

exempt from contributing to its relief, but were enriched by the common

distress; and while the rest of their countrymen beheld with unavailing

regret their property gradually replaced by scraps of paper, the peasants

became insolent and daring by impunity, refused to sell but for specie,

and were daily amassing wealth. It is not therefore to be wondered at,

that they were partial to the new order of things. The prisons might

have overflowed or been thinned by the miseries of those with whom they

had been crowded--the Revolutionary Tribunal might have sacrificed half

France, and these selfish citizens, I fear, would have beheld it

tranquilly, had not the requisition forced their labourers to the army,

and the "maximum" lowered the price of their corn. The exigency of the

war, and an internal scarcity, having rendered these measures necessary,

and it being found impossible to persuade the farmers into a peaceful

compliance with them, the government has had recourse to its usual

summary mode of expostulation--a prison or the Guillotine.*

* The avarice of the farmers was doubtless to be condemned, but the

cruel despotism of the government almost weakened our sense of

rectitude; for by confounding error with guilt, and guilt with

innocence, they habituated us to indiscriminate pity, and obliged us

to transfer our hatred of a crime to those who in punishing it,

observed neither mercy nor justice. A farmer was guillotined,

because some blades of corn appeared growing in one of his ponds;

from which circumstance it was inferred, he had thrown in a large

quantity, in order to promote a scarcity--though it was

substantially proved on his trial, that at the preceding harvest the

grain of an adjoining field had been got in during a high wind, and

that in all probability some scattered ears which reached the water

had produced what was deemed sufficient testimony to convict him.--

Another underwent the same punishment for pursuing his usual course

of tillage, and sowing part of his ground with lucerne, instead of

employing the whole for wheat; and every where these people became

the objects of persecution, both in their persons and property.

"Almost all our considerable farmers have been thrown into prison;

the consequence is, that their capital is eat up, their stock gone

to ruin, and our lands have lost the almost incalculable effect of

their industry. In La Vendee six million acres of land lie

uncultivated, and five hundred thousand oxen have been turned

astray, without shelter and without an owner."

Speech of Dubois Crance, Sept. 22, 1794.

--Amazed to find themselves the objects of a tyranny they had hitherto

contributed to support, and sharing the misfortune of their Lords and

Clergy, these ignorant and mistaken people wander up and down with a

vacant sort of ruefulness, which seems to bespeak that they are far from

comprehending or being satisfied with this new specimen of

republicanism.--It has been a fatality attending the French through the

whole revolution, that the different classes have too readily facilitated

the sacrifice of each other; and the Nobility, the Clergy, the Merchant,

and the Farmer, have the mortification of experiencing, that their

selfish and illiberal policy has answered no purpose but to involve all

in one common ruin.

Angelique has contrived to-day to negotiate the sale of some bracelets,

which a lady, with whom I was acquainted previous to our detention, has

very obligingly given almost half their value for, though not without

many injunctions to secresy, and as many implied panegyrics on her

benevolence, in risking the odium of affording assistance to a foreigner.

We are, I assure you, under the necessity of being oeconomists, where the

most abundant wealth could not render us externally comfortable: and the

little we procure, by a clandestine disposal of my unnecessary trinkets,

is considerably diminished,* by arbitrary impositions of the guard and

the poor,** and a voluntary tax from the misery that surrounds us.

* I am aware of Mr. Burke's pleasantry on the expression of very

little, being greatly diminished; but my exchequer at this time was

as well calculated to prove the infinite divisibility of matter, as

that of the Welch principality.

** The guards of the republican Bastilles were paid by the prisoners

they contained; and, in many places, the tax for this purpose was

levied with indecent rigour. It might indeed be supposed, that

people already in prison could have little to apprehend from an

inability or unwillingness to submit to such an imposition; yet

those who refused were menaced with a dungeon; and I was informed,

from undoubted authority, of two instances of the sort among the

English--the one a young woman, the other a person with a large

family of children, who were on the point of suffering this

treatment, but that the humanity of some of their companions

interfered and paid the sum exacted of them. The tax for supporting

the imprisoned poor was more willingly complied with, though not

less iniquitous in its principle; numbers of inoffensive and

industrious people were taken from their homes on account of their

religion, or other frivolous pretexts, and not having the

wherewithal to maintain themselves in confinement, instead of being

kept by the republic, were supported by their fellow-prisoners, in

consequence of a decree to that purpose. Families who inherited

nothing from their noble ancestors but their names, were dragged

from obscurity only to become objects of persecution; and one in

particular, consisting of nine persons, who lived in extreme

indigence, but were notwithstanding of the proscribed class; the

sons were brought wounded from the army and lodged with the father,

mother, and five younger children in a prison, where they had

scarcely food to support, or clothing to cover them.

I take this opportunity of doing justice to the Comte d'Artois,

whose youthful errors did not extinguish his benevolence--the

unfortunate people in question having enjoyed a pension from him

until the revolution deprived them of it.

Our male companions are for the most part transferred to other prisons,

and among the number are two young Englishmen, with whom I used sometimes

to converse in French, without acknowledging our compatriotism. They

have told me, that when the decree for arresting the English was received

at Amiens, they happened to be on a visit, a few miles from the town; and

having notice that a party of horse were on the road to take them,

willing to gain time at least, they escaped by another route, and got

home. The republican constables, for I can call the military employed in

the interior by no better appellation, finding their prey had taken

flight, adopted the impartial justice of the men of Charles Town,* and

carried off the old couple (both above seventy) at whose house they had

been.

* "But they maturely having weigh'd

"They had no more but him o'th'trade,

"Resolved to spare him, yet to do

"The Indian Hoghan-Moghan too

"Impartial justice--in his stead did

"Hang an old weaver that was bed-rid."

The good man, who was probably not versed in the etiquette of the

revolution, conceived nothing of the matter, and when at the end of their

journey they were deposited at the Bicetre, his head was so totally

deranged, that he imagined himself still in his own house, and continued

for some days addressing all the prisoners as though they were his

guests--at one moment congratulating them on their arrival, the next

apologizing for want of room and accommodation.--The evasion of the young

men, as you will conclude, availed them nothing, except a delay of their

captivity for a few hours.

A report has circulated amongst us to-day, that all who are not detained

on specific charges are soon to be liberated. This is eagerly believed

by the new-comers, and those who are not the "pale converts of

experience." I am myself so far from crediting it, that I dread lest it

should be the harbinger of some new evil, for I know not whether it be

from the effect of chance, or a refinement in atrocity, but I have

generally found every measure which tended to make our situation more

miserable preceded by these flattering rumours.

You would smile to see with what anxious credulity intelligence of this

sort is propagated: we stop each other on the stairs and listen while our

palled dinner, just arrived from the traiteur, is cooling; and the bucket

of the draw-well hangs suspended while a history is finished, of which

the relator knows as little as the hearer, and which, after all, proves

to have originated in some ambiguous phrase of our keeper, uttered in a

good-humoured paroxysm while receiving a douceur.

We occasionally lose some of our associates, who, having obtained their

discharge, _depart a la Francaise,_ forget their suffering, and praise the

clemency of Dumont, and the virtue of the Convention; while those who

remain still unconverted amuse themselves in conjecturing the channel

through which such favours were solicited, and alleging reasons why such

preferences were partial and unjust.

Dumont visits us, as usual, receives an hundred or two of petitions,

which he does not deign to read, and reserves his indulgence for those

who have the means of assailing him through the smiles of a favourite

mistress, or propitiating him by more substantial advantages.--Many of

the emigrants' wives have procured their liberty by being divorced, and

in this there is nothing blameable, for I imagine the greater number

consider it only as a temporary expedient, indifferent in itself, and

which they are justified in having recourse to for the protection of

their persons and property. But these domestic alienations are not

confined to those who once moved in the higher orders of society--the

monthly registers announce almost as many divorces as marriages, and the

facility of separation has rendered the one little more than a licentious

compact, which the other is considered as a means of dissolving. The

effect of the revolution has in this, as in many other cases, been to

make the little emulate the vices of the great, and to introduce a more

gross and destructive policy among the people at large, than existed in

the narrow circle of courtiers, imitators of the Regent, or Louis the

fifteenth. Immorality, now consecrated as a principle, is far more

pernicious than when, though practised, it was condemned, and, though

suffered, not sanctioned.

You must forgive me if I ennuye you a little sententiously--I was more

partial to the lower ranks of life in France, than to those who were

deemed their superiors; and I cannot help beholding with indignant regret

the last asylums of national morals thus invaded by the general

corruption.--I believe no one will dispute that the revolution has

rendered the people more vicious; and, without considering the matter

either in a moral or religious point of view, it is impossible to assert

that they are not less happy. How many times, when I was at liberty,

have I heard the old wish for an accession of years, or envy those yet

too young to be sensible of "the miseries of a revolution!"--Were the

vanity of the self-sufficient philosopher susceptible of remorse, would

he not, when he beholds this country, lament his presumption, in

supposing he had a right to cancel the wisdom of past ages; or that the

happiness of mankind might be promoted by the destruction of their

morals, and the depravation of their social affections?--Yours, &c.

April 30, 1794.

For some years previous to the revolution, there were several points in

which the French ascribed to themselves a superiority not very distant

from perfection. Amongst these were philosophy, politeness, the

refinements of society, and, above all, the art of living.--I have

sometimes, as you know, been inclined to dispute these claims; yet, if it

be true that in our sublunary career perfection is not stationary, and

that, having reached the apex of the pyramid on one side, we must

necessarily descend on the other, I might, on this ground, allow such

pretensions to be more reasonable than I then thought them. Whatever

progress might have been attained in these respects, or however near our

neighbours might have approached to one extreme, it is but too certain

they are now rapidly declining to the other. This boasted philosophy is

become a horrid compound of all that is offensive to Heaven, and

disgraceful to man--this politeness, a ferocious incivility--and this

social elegance and exclusive science in the enjoyment of life, are now

reduced to suspicious intercourse, and the want of common necessaries.

If the national vanity only were wounded, perhaps I might smile, though I

hope I should not triumph; but when I see so much misery accompany so

profound a degradation, my heart does not accord with my language, if I

seem to do either one or the other.

I should ineffectually attempt to describe the circumstances and

situation which have given rise to these reflections. Imagine to

yourself whatever tyranny can inflict, or human nature submit to--

whatever can be the result of unrestrained wickedness and unresisting

despair--all that can scourge or disgrace a people--and you may form some

idea of the actual state of this country: but do not search your books

for comparisons, or expect to find in the proscriptions and

extravagancies of former periods any examples by which to judge the

present.--Tiberius and Nero are on the road to oblivion, and the subjects

of the Lama may boast comparative pretensions to rank as a free and

enlightened nation.

The frantic ebullitions of the revolutionary government are now as it

were subsided, and instead of appearing the temporary resources of

"despotism in distress," [Burke.] have assumed the form of a permanent

and regular system. The agitation occasioned by so many unexampled

scenes is succeeded by an habitual terror, and this depressing sentiment

has so pervaded all ranks, that it would be difficult to find an

individual, however obscure or inoffensive, who deems his property, or

even his existence, secure only for a moment. The sound of a bell or a

knocker at the close of the evening is the signal of dismay. The

inhabitants of the house regard each other with looks of fearful

interrogation--all the precautions hitherto taken appear insufficient--

every one recollects something yet to be secreted--a prayer-book, an

unburied silver spoon, or a few assignats "a face royale," are hastily

scrambled together, and if the visit prove nothing more than an amicable

domiciliary one, in search of arms and corn, it forms matter of

congratulation for a week after. Yet such is the submission of the

people to a government they abhor, that it is scarcely thought requisite

now to arrest any person formally: those whom it is intended to secure

often receive nothing more than a written mandate* to betake themselves

to a certain prison, and such unpleasant rendezvous are attended with

more punctuality than the most ceremonious visit, or the most gallant

assignation.

* These rescripts were usually couched in the following terms:--

"Citizen, you are desired to betake yourself immediately to ------,

(naming the prison,) under pain of being conveyed there by an armed

force in case of delay."

--A few necessaries are hastily packed together, the adieus are made,

and, after a walk to their prison, they lay their beds down in the corner

allotted, just as if it were a thing of course.

It was a general observation with travellers, that the roads in France

were solitary, and had rather the deserted appearance of the route of a

caravan, than of the communications between different parts of a rich and

populous kingdom. This, however, is no longer true, and, as far as I can

learn, they are now sufficiently crowded--not, indeed, by curious

itinerants, parties of pleasure, or commercial industry, but by Deputies

of the Convention,* agents of subsistence,** committee men, Jacobin

missionaries,*** troops posting from places where insurrection is just

quelled to where it has just begun, besides the great and never-failing

source of activity, that of conveying suspected people from their homes

to prison, and from one prison to another.--

* Every department was infested by one, two, or more of these

strolling Deputies; and, it must be confessed, the constant tendency

of the people to revolt in many places afforded them sufficient

employment. Sometimes they acted as legislators, making laws on the

spot--sometimes, both as judges and constables--or, if occasion

required, they amused themselves in assisting the executioner.--The

migrations of obscure men, armed with unlimited powers, and whose

persons were unknown, was a strong temptation to imposture, and in

several places adventurers were detected assuming the character of

Deputies, for various purposes of fraud and depredation.--The

following instance may appear ludicrous, but I shall be excused

mentioning it, as it is a fact on record, and conveys an idea of

what the people supposed a Deputy might do, consistent with the

"dignity" of his executive functions.

An itinerant of this sort, whose object seems to have been no more

than to procure a daily maintenance, arriving hungry in a village,

entered the first farm-house that presented itself, and immediately

put a pig in requisition, ordered it to be killed, and some sausages

to be made, with all speed. In the meanwhile our mock-legislator,

who seems to have acted his part perfectly well, talked of liberty,

l'amour de la Patrie, of Pitt and the coalesced tyrants, of

arresting suspicious people and rewarding patriots; so that the

whole village thought themselves highly fortunate in the presence of

a Deputy who did no worse than harangue and put their pork in

requisiton.--Unfortunately, however, before the repast of sausages

could be prepared, a hue and cry reached the place, that this

gracious Representant was an impostor! He was bereft of his

dignities, conveyed to prison, and afterwards tried by the Tribunal

Revolutionnaire at Paris; but his Counsel, by insisting on the

mildness with which he had "borne his faculties," contrived to get

his punishment mitigated to a short imprisonment.--Another suffered

death on a somewhat similar account; or, as the sentence expressed

it, for degrading the character of a National Representative.--Just

Heaven! for degrading the character of a National Representative!!!

--and this too after the return of Carrier from Nantes, and the

publication of Collot d'Herbois' massacres at Lyons!

**The agents employed by government in the purchase of subsistence

amounted, by official confession, to ten thousand. In all parts

they were to be seen, rivalling each other, and creating scarcity

and famine, by requisitions and exactions, which they did not

convert to the profit of the republic, but to their own.--These

privileged locusts, besides what they seized upon, occasioned a

total stagnation of commerce, by laying embargoes on what they did

not want; so that it frequently occurred that an unfortunate

tradesman might have half the articles in his shop under requisition

for a month together, and sometimes under different requisitions

from deputies, commissaries of war, and agents of subsistence, all

at once; nor could any thing be disposed of till such claims were

satisfied or relinquished.

*** Jacobin missionaries were sent from Paris, and other great

towns, to keep up the spirits of the people, to explain the benefits

of the revolution, (which, indeed, were not very apparent,) and to

maintain the connection between the provincial and metropolitan

societies.--I remember the Deputies on mission at Perpignan writing

to the Club at Paris for a reinforcement of civic apostles, _"pour

evangeliser les habitans et les mettre dans la voie de salut"_--("to

convert the inhabitants, and put them in the road to salvation").

--These movements are almost entirely confined to the official travellers

of the republic; for, besides the scarcity of horses, the increase of

expence, and the diminution of means, few people are willing to incur the

suspicion or hazard* attendant on quitting their homes, and every

possible obstacle is thrown in the way of a too general intercourse

between the inhabitants of large towns.

* There were moments when an application for a passport was certain

of being followed by a mandat d'arret--(a writ of arrest). The

applicant was examined minutely as to the business he was going

upon, the persons he was to transact it with, and whether the

journey was to be performed on horseback or in a carriage, and any

signs of impatience or distaste at those democratic ceremonies were

sufficient to constitute _"un homme suspect"_--("a suspicious

person"), or at least one _"soupconne d'etre suspect,"_ that is, a man

suspected of being suspicious. In either case it was usually deemed

expedient to prevent the dissemination of his supposed principles,

by laying an embargo on his person.--I knew a man under persecution

six months together, for having gone from one department to another

to see his family.

The committee of Public Welfare is making rapid advances to an absolute

concentration of the supreme power, and the convention, while they are

the instruments of oppressing the whole country, are themselves become

insignificant, and, perhaps, less secure than those over whom they

tyrannize. They cease to debate, or even to speak; but if a member of

the Committee ascends the tribune, they overwhelm him with applauses

before they know what he has to say, and then pass all the decrees

presented to them more implicitly than the most obsequious Parliament

ever enregistered an arrete of the Court; happy if, by way of

compensation, they attract a smile from Barrere, or escape the ominous

glances of Robespierre.*

* When a member of the committee looked inauspiciously at a

subordinate accomplice, the latter scarce ventured to approach his

home for some time.--Legendre, who has since boasted so continually

about his courage, is said to have kept his bed, and Bourdon de

l'Oise, to have lost his senses for a considerable time, from

frights, the consequence of such menaces.

Having so far described the situation of public affairs, I proceed as

usual, and for which I have the example of Pope, who never quits a

subject without introducing himself, to some notice of my own. It is not

only bad in itself, but worse in perspective than ever: yet I learn not

to murmur, and derive patience from the certainty, that almost every part

of France is more oppressed and wretched than we are.--Yours, etc.

June 3, 1794.

The individual sufferings of the French may perhaps yet admit of

increase; but their humiliation as a people can go no farther; and if it

were not certain that the acts of the government are congenial to its

principles, one might suppose this tyranny rather a moral experiment on

the extent of human endurance, than a political system.

Either the vanity or cowardice of Robespierre is continually suggesting

to him plots for his assassination; and on pretexts, at once absurd and

atrocious, a whole family, with near seventy other innocent people as

accomplices, have been sentenced to death by a formal decree of the

convention.

One might be inclined to pity a people obliged to suppress their

indignation on such an event, but the mind revolts when addresses are

presented from all quarters to congratulate this monster's pretended

escape, and to solicit a farther sacrifice of victims to his revenge.--

The assassins of Henry the Fourth had all the benefit of the laws, and

suffered only after a legal condemnation; yet the unfortunate Cecilia

Renaud, though evidently in a state of mental derangement, was hurried to

the scaffold without a hearing, for the vague utterance of a truth, to

which every heart in France, not lost to humanity, must assent. Brooding

over the miseries of her country, till her imagination became heated and

disordered, this young woman seems to have conceived some hopeless plan

of redress from expostulation with Robespierre, whom she regarded as a

principal in all the evils she deplored. The difficulty of obtaining an

audience of him irritated her to make some comparison between an

hereditary sovereign and a republican despot; and she avowed, that, in

desiring to see Robespierre, she was actuated only by a curiosity to

"contemplate the features of a tyrant."--On being examined by the

Committee, she still persisted that her design was "seulement pour voir

comment etoit fait un tyrant;" and no instrument nor possible means of

destruction was found upon her to justify a charge of any thing more than

the wild and enthusiastic attachment to royalism, which she did not

attempt to disguise. The influence of a feminine propensity, which often

survives even the wreck of reason and beauty, had induced her to dress

with peculiar neatness, when she went in search of Robespierre; and, from

the complexion of the times, supposing it very probable a visit of this

nature might end in imprisonment and death, she had also provided herself

with a change of clothes to wear in her last moments.

Such an attention in a beautiful girl of eighteen was not very unnatural;

yet the mean and cruel wretches who were her judges, had the littleness

to endeavour at mortifying, by divesting her of her ornaments, and

covering her with the most loathsome rags. But a mind tortured to

madness by the sufferings of her country, was not likely to be shaken by

such puerile malice; and, when interrogated under this disguise, she

still preserved the same firmness, mingled with contempt, which she had

displayed when first apprehended. No accusation, nor even implication,

of any person could be drawn from her, and her only confession was that

of a passionate loyalty: yet an universal conspiracy was nevertheless

decreed by the Convention to exist, and Miss Renaud, with sixty-nine

others,* were sentenced to the guillotine, without farther trial than

merely calling over their names.

* It is worthy of remark, that the sixty-nine people executed as

accomplices of Miss Renaud, except her father, mother, and aunt,

were totally unconnected with her, or with each other, and had been

collected from different prisons, between which no communication

could have subsisted.

--They were conducted to the scaffold in a sort of red frocks, intended,

as was alleged, to mark them as assassins--but, in reality, to prevent

the crowd from distinguishing or receiving any impression from the number

of young and interesting females who were comprised in this dreadful

slaughter.--They met death with a courage which seemed almost to

disappoint the malice of their tyrants, who, in an original excess of

barbarity, are said to have lamented that their power of inflicting could

not reach those mental faculties which enabled their victims to suffer

with fortitude.*

* Fouquier Tinville, public accuser of the Revolutionary Tribunal,

enraged at the courage with which his victims submitted to their

fate, had formed the design of having them bled previous to their

execution; hoping by this means to weaken their spirits, and that

they might, by a pusillanimous behaviour in their last moments,

appear less interesting to the people.

Such are the horrors now common to almost every part of France: the

prisons are daily thinned by the ravages of the executioner, and again

repeopled by inhabitants destined to the fate of their predecessors. A

gloomy reserve, and a sort of uncertain foreboding, have taken possession

of every body--no one ventures to communicate his thoughts, even to his

nearest friend--relations avoid each other--and the whole social system

seems on the point of being dissolved. Those who have yet preserved

their freedom take the longest circuit, rather than pass a republican

Bastille; or, if obliged by necessity to approach one, it is with

downcast or averted looks, which bespeak their dread of incurring the

suspicion of humanity.

I say little of my own feelings; they are not of a nature to be relieved

by pathetic expressions: "I am e'en sick at heart." For some time I have

struggled both against my own evils, and the share I take in the general

calamity, but my mortal part gives way, and I can no longer resist the

despondency which at times depresses me, and which indeed, more than the

danger attending it, has occasioned my abandoning my pen for the last

month.--Several circumstances have occurred within these few days, to add

to the uneasiness of our situation, and my own apprehensions. Le Bon,*

whose cruelties at Arras seem to have endeared him to his colleagues in

the Convention, has had his powers extended to this department, and Andre

Dumont is recalled; so that we are hourly menaced with the presence of a

monster, compared to whom our own representative is amiable.--

* I have already noticed the cruel and ferocious temper of Le Bon,

and the massacres of his tribunals are already well known. I will

only add some circumstances which not only may be considered as

characteristic of this tyrant, but of the times--and I fear I may

add of the people, who suffered and even applauded them. They are

selected from many others not susceptible of being described in

language fit for an English reader.

As he was one day enjoying his customary amusement of superintending

an execution, where several had already suffered, one of the victims

having, from a very natural emotion, averted his eyes while he

placed his body in the posture required, the executioner perceived

it, and going to the sack which contained the heads of those just

sacrificed, took one out, and with the most horrible imprecations

obliged the unhappy wretch to kiss it: yet Le Bon not only

permitted, but sanctioned this, by dining daily with the hangman.

He was afterwards reproached with this familiarity in the

Convention, but defended himself by saying, "A similar act of

Lequinio's was inserted by your orders in the bulletin with

'honourable mention;' and your decrees have invariably consecrated

the principles on which I acted." They all felt for a moment the

dominion of conscience, and were silent.--On another occasion he

suspended an execution, while the savages he kept in pay threw dirt

on the prisoners, and even got on the scaffold and insulted them

previous to their suffering.

When any of his colleagues passed through Arras, he always proposed

their joining with him in a _"partie de Guillotine,"_ and the

executions were perpetrated on a small square at Arras, rather than

the great one, that he, his wife, and relations might more

commodiously enjoy the spectacle from the balcony of the theatre,

where they took their coffee, attended by a band of music, which

played while this human butchery lasted.

The following circumstance, though something less horrid, yet

sufficiently so to excite the indignation of feeling people,

happened to some friends of my own.--They had been brought with many

others from a distant town in open carts to Arras, and, worn out

with fatigue, were going to be deposited in the prison to which they

were destined. At the moment of their arrival several persons were

on the point of being executed. Le Bon, presiding as usual at the

spectacle, observed the cavalcade passing, and ordered it to stop,

that the prisoners might likewise be witnesses. He was, of course,

obeyed; and my terrified friends and their companions were obliged

not only to appear attentive to the scene before them, but to join

in the cry of _"Vive la Republique!"_ at the severing of each head.--

One of them, a young lady, did not recover the shock she received

for months.

The Convention, the Committees, all France, were well acquainted

with the conduct of Le Bon. He himself began to fear he might have

exceeded the limits of his commission; and, upon communicating some

scruples of this kind to his employers, received the following

letters, which, though they do not exculpate him, certainly render

the Committee of Public Welfare more criminal than himself.

"Citizen,

"The Committee of Public Welfare approve the measures you have

adopted, at the same time that they judge the warrant you solicit

unnecessary--such measures being not only allowable, but enjoined by

the very nature of your mission. No consideration ought to stand in

the way of your revolutionary progress--give free scope therefore to

your energy; the powers you are invested with are unlimited, and

whatever you may deem conducive to the public good, you are free,

you are even called upon by duty, to carry into execution without

delay.--We here transmit you an order of the Committee, by which

your powers are extended to the neighbouring departments. Armed

with such means, and with your energy, you will go on to confound

the enemies of the republic, with the very schemes they have

projected for its destruction.

"Carnot.

"Barrere.

"R. Lindet."

Extract from another letter, signed Billaud Varenne, Carnot,

Barrere.

"There is no commutation for offences against a republic. Death

alone can expiate them!--Pursue the traitors with fire and sword,

and continue to march with courage in the revolutionary track you

have described."

--Merciful Heaven! are there yet positive distinctions betwixt bad and

worse that we thus regret a Dumont, and deem ourselves fortunate in being

at the mercy of a tyrant who is only brutal and profligate? But so it

is; and Dumont himself, fearful that he has not exercised his mission

with sufficient severity, has ordered every kind of indulgence to cease,

the prisons to be more strictly guarded, and, if possible, more crowded;

and he is now gone to Paris, trembling lest he should be accused of

justice or moderation!

The pretended plots for assassinating Robespierre are, as usual,

attributed to Mr. Pitt; and a decree has just passed, that no quarter

shall be given to English prisoners. I know not what such inhuman

politics tend to, but my contempt, and the conscious pride of national

superiority; certain, that when Providence sees fit to vindicate itself,

by bestowing victory on our countrymen, the most welcome

"Laurels that adorn their brows

"Will be from living, not dead boughs."

The recollection of England, and its generous inhabitants, has animated

me with pleasure; yet I must for the present quit this agreeable

contemplation, to take precautions which remind me that I am separated

from both, and in a land of despotism and misery!

--Yours affectionately.

June 11, 1794.

The immorality of Hebert, and the base compliances of the Convention, for

some months turned the churches into "temples of reason."--The ambition,

perhaps the vanity, of Robespierre, has now permitted them to be

dedicated to the "Supreme Being," and the people, under such auspices,

are to be conducted from atheism to deism. Desirous of distinguishing

his presidency, and of exhibiting himself in a conspicuous and

interesting light, Robespierre, on the last decade, appeared as the hero

of a ceremony which we are told is to restore morals, destroy all the

mischiefs introduced by the abolition of religion, and finally to defeat

the machinations of Mr. Pitt. A gay and splendid festival has been

exhibited at Paris, and imitated in the provinces: flags of the

republican colours, branches of trees, and wreaths of flowers, were

ordered to be suspended from the houses--every countenance was to wear

the prescribed smile, and the whole country, forgetting the pressure of

sorrow and famine, was to rejoice. A sort of monster was prepared,

which, by some unaccountable ingenuity, at once represented Atheism and

the English, Cobourg and the Austrians--in short, all the enemies of the

Convention.--This external phantom, being burned with proper form,

discovered a statue, which was understood to be that of Liberty, and the

inauguration of this divinity, with placing the busts of Chalier* and

Marat in the temple of the Supreme Being, by way of attendant saints,

concluded the ceremony.--

* Chalier had been sent from the municipality of Paris after the

dethronement of the King, to revolutionize the people of Lyons, and

to excite a massacre. In consequence, the first days of September

presented the same scenes at Lyons as were presented in the capital.

For near a year he continued to scourge this unfortunate city, by

urging the lower classes of people to murder and pillage; till, at

the insurrection which took place in the spring of 1793, he was

arrested by the insurgents, tried, and sentenced to the guillotine.

--The Convention, however, whose calendar of saints is as

extraordinary as their criminal code, chose to beatify Chalier,

while they executed Malesherbes; and, accordingly, decreed him a

lodging in the Pantheon, pensioning his mistress, and set up his

bust in their own Hall as an associate for Brutus, whom, by the way,

one should not have expected to find in such company.

The good citizens of the republic, not to be behind hand with their

representatives, placed Chalier in the cathedrals, in their

public-houses, on fans and snuff-boxes--in short, wherever they thought

his appearance would proclaim their patriotism.--I can only exclaim as

Poultier, a deputy, did, on a similar occasion--"Francais, Francais,

serez vous toujours Francais?"--(Frenchmen, Frenchmen, will you never

cease to be Frenchmen?)

--But the mandates for such celebrations reach not the heart: flowers

were gathered, and flags planted, with the scrupulous exactitude of

fear;* yet all was cold and heavy, and a discerning government must have

read in this anxious and literal obedience the indication of terror and

hatred.

* I have more than once had occasion to remark the singularity of

popular festivities solemnized on the part of the people with no

other intention but that of exact obedience to the edicts of

government. This is so generally understood, that Richard, a deputy

on mission at Lyons, writes to the Convention, as a circumstance

extraordinary, and worthy of remark, that, at the repeal of a decree

which was to have razed their city to the ground, a rejoicing took

place, _"dirigee et executee par le peuple, les autorites

constitutees n'ayant fait en quelque sorte qu'y assister,"_--

(directed and executed by the people, the constituted authorities

having merely assisted at the ceremony).

--Even the prisons were insultingly decorated with the mockery of

colours, which, we are told, are the emblems of freedom; and those whose

relations have expired on the scaffold, or who are pining in dungeons for

having heard a mass, were obliged to listen with apparent admiration to a

discourse on the charms of religious liberty.--The people, who, for the

most part, took little interest in the rest of this pantomime, and

insensible of the national disgrace it implied, beheld with stupid

satisfaction* the inscription on the temple of reason replaced by a

legend, signifying that, in this age of science and information, the

French find it necessary to declare their acknowledgment of a God, and

their belief in the immortality of the soul.

* Much has been said of the partial ignorance of the unfortunate

inhabitants of La Vendee, and divers republican scribblers attribute

their attachment to religion and monarchy to that cause: yet at

Havre, a sea-port, where, from commercial communication, I should

suppose the people as informed and civilized as in any other part of

France, the ears of piety and decency were assailed, during the

celebration above-mentioned, by the acclamations of, _"Vive le Pere

Eternel!"--"Vive l'etre Supreme!"_--(I entreat that I may not be

suspected of levity when I translate this; in English it would be

"God Almighty for ever! The Supreme Being for ever!")

--At Avignon the public understanding seems to have been equally

enlightened, if we may judge from the report of a Paris missionary, who

writes in these terms:--"The celebration in honour of the Supreme Being

was performed here yesterday with all possible pomp: all our

country-folks were present, and unspeakably content that there was still

a God--What a fine decree (cried they all) is this!"

My last letter was a record of the most odious barbarities--to-day I am

describing a festival. At one period I have to remark the destruction of

the saints--at another the adoration of Marat. One half of the newspaper

is filled with a list of names of the guillotined, and the other with

that of places of amusement; and every thing now more than ever marks

that detestable association of cruelty and levity, of impiety and

absurdity, which has uniformly characterized the French revolution. It

is become a crime to feel, and a mode to affect a brutality incapable of

feeling--the persecution of Christianity has made atheism a boast, and

the danger of respecting traditional virtues has hurried the weak and

timid into the apotheosis of the most abominable vices. Conscious that

they are no longer animated by enthusiasm,* the Parisians hope to imitate

it by savage fury or ferocious mirth--their patriotism is signalized only

by their zeal to destroy, and their attachment to their government only

by applauding its cruelties.--If Robespierre, St. Just, Collot d'Herbois,

and the Convention as their instruments, desolate and massacre half

France, we may lament, but we can scarcely wonder at it. How should a

set of base and needy adventurers refrain from an abuse of power more

unlimited than that of the most despotic monarch; or how distinguish the

general abhorrence, amid addresses of adulation, which Louis the

Fourteenth would have blushed to appropriate?*

* Louis the Fourteenth, aguerri (steeled) as he was by sixty years

of adulation and prosperity, had yet modesty sufficient to reject a

"dose of incense which he thought too strong." (See D'Alembert's

Apology for Clermont Tonnerre.) Republicanism, it should seem, has

not diminished the national compliasance for men in power, thought

it has lessened the modesty of those who exercise it.--If Louis the

Fourteenth repressed the zeal of the academicians, the Convention

publish, without scruple, addresses more hyperbolical than the

praises that monarch refused.--Letters are addressed to Robespierre

under the appellation of the Messiah, sent by the almighty for the

reform of all things! He is the apostle of one, and the tutelar

deity of another. He is by turns the representative of the virtues

individually, and a compendium of them altogether: and this monster,

whose features are the counterpart of his soul, find republican

parasites who congratulate themselves on resembling him.

The bulletins of the Convention announce, that the whole republic is in a

sort of revolutionary transport at the escape of Robespierre and his

colleague, Collot d'Herbois, from assassination; and that we may not

suppose the legislators at large deficient in sensibility, we learn also

that they not only shed their grateful tears on this affecting occasion,

but have settled a pension on the man who was instrumental in rescuing

the benign Collot.

The members of the Committee are not, however, the exclusive objects of

public adoration--the whole Convention are at times incensed in a style

truly oriental; and if this be sometimes done with more zeal than

judgment, it does not appear to be less acceptable on that account. A

petition from an incarcerated poet assimilates the mountain of the

Jacobins to that of Parnassus--a state-creditor importunes for a small

payment from the Gods of Olympus--and congratulations on the abolition of

Christianity are offered to the legislators of Mount Sinai! Every

instance of baseness calls forth an eulogium on their magnanimity. A

score of orators harangue them daily on their courage, while they are

over-awed by despots as mean as themselves and whom they continue to

reinstal at the stated period with clamorous approbation. They

proscribe, devastate, burn, and massacre--and permit themselves to be

addressed by the title of "Fathers of their Country!"

All this would be inexplicable, if we did not contemplate in the French a

nation where every faculty is absorbed by a terror which involves a

thousand contradictions. The rich now seek protection by becoming

members of clubs,* and are happy if, after various mortifications, they

are finally admitted by the mob who compose them; while families, that

heretofore piqued themselves on a voluminous and illustrious genealogy,**

eagerly endeavour to prove they have no claim to either.

* _Le diplome de Jacobin etait une espece d'amulette, dont les

inities etaient jaloux, et qui frappoit de prestiges ceux qui ne

l'etaient pas_--"The Jacobin diploma was a kind of amulet, which the

initiated were jealous of preserving, and which struck as it were

with witchcraft, those who were not of the number."

Rapport de Courtois sur les Papiers de Robespierre.

** Besides those who, being really noble, were anxious to procure

certificates of sans-cullotism, many who had assumed such honours

without pretensions now relinquished them, except indeed some few,

whose vanity even surmounted their fears. But an express law

included all these seceders in the general proscription; alledging,

with a candour not usual, that those who assumed rank were, in fact,

more criminal than such as were guilty of being born to it.

--Places and employments, which are in most countries the objects of

intrigue and ambition, are here refused or relinquished with such

perfect sincerity, that a decree became requisite to oblige every

one, under pain of durance, to preserve the station to which his ill

stars, mistaken politics, or affectation of patriotism, had called

him. Were it not for this law, such is the dreadful responsibility

and danger attending offices under the government, that even low and

ignorant people, who have got possession of them merely for support,

would prefer their original poverty to emoluments which are

perpetually liable to the commutation of the guillotine.--Some

members of a neighbouring district told me to-day, when I asked them

if they came to release any of our fellow-prisoners, that so far

from it, they had not only brought more, but were not certain twelve

hours together of not being brought themselves.

The visionary equality of metaphysical impostors is become a substantial

one--not constituted by abundance and freedom, but by want and

oppression. The disparities of nature are not repaired, but its whole

surface is levelled by a storm. The rich are become poor, but the poor

still remain so; and both are conducted indiscriminately to the scaffold.

The prisons of the former government were "petty to the ends" of this.

Convents, colleges, palaces, and every building which could any how be

adapted to such a purpose, have been filled with people deemed

suspicious;* and a plan of destruction seems resolved on, more certain

and more execrable than even the general massacre of September 1792.

* Now multiplied to more than four hundred thousand!--The prisons of

Paris and the environs were supposed to contain twenty-seven

thousand. The public papers stated but about seven thousand,

because they included the official returns of Paris only.

--Agents of the police are, under some pretended accusation, sent to the

different prisons; and, from lists previously furnished them, make daily

information of plots and conspiracies, which they alledge to be carrying

on by the persons confined. This charge and this evidence suffice: the

prisoners are sent to the tribunal, their names read over, and they are

conveyed by cart's-full to the republican butchery. Many whom I have

known, and been in habits of intimacy with, have perished in this manner;

and the expectation of Le Bon,* with our numbers which make us of too

much consequence to be forgotten, all contribute to depress and alarm me.

* Le Bon had at this period sent for lists of the prisoners in the

department of the Somme--which lists are said to have been since

found, and many of the names in them marked for destruction.

--Even the levity of the French character yields to this terrible

despotism, and nothing is observed but weariness, silence, and sorrow:--

_"O triste loisir, poids affreux du tems."_ [St. Lambert.] The season

returns with the year, but not to us--the sun shines, but to add to our

miseries that of insupportable heat--and the vicissitudes of nature only

awaken our regret that we cannot enjoy them--

"Now gentle gales o'er all the vallies play,

"Breathe on each flow'r, and bear their sweets away."

[Collins.]

Yet what are fresh air and green fields to us, who are immured amidst a

thousand ill scents, and have no prospect but filth and stone walls? It

is difficult to describe how much the mind is depressed by this state of

passive suffering. In common evils, the necessity of action half

relieves them, as a vessel may reach her port by the agitation of a

storm; but this stagnant listless existence is terrible.

Those most to be envied here are the victims of their religious opinions.

The nuns, who are more distressed than any of us,* employ themselves

patiently, and seem to look beyond this world; whilst the once gay deist

wanders about with a volume of philosophy in his hand, unable to endure

the present, and dreading still more the future.

* These poor women, deprived of the little which the rapacity of the

Convention had left them, by it subordinate agents, were in want of

every thing; and though in most prisons they were employed for the

republican armies, they could scarcely procure more than bread and

water. Yet this was not all: they were objects of the meanest and

most cruel persecution.--I knew one who was put in a dungeon, up to

her waist in putrid water, for twelve hours altogether, without

losing her resolution or serenity.

I have already written you a long letter, and bid you adieu with the

reluctance which precedes an uncertain separation. Uneasiness, ill

health, and confinement, besides the danger I am exposed to, render my

life at present more precarious than "the ordinary of nature's tenures."

--God knows when I may address you again!--My friend Mad. de ____ is

returned from the hospital, and I yield to her fears by ceasing to write,

though I am nevertheless determined not to part with what I have hitherto

preserved; being convinced, that if evil be intended us, it will be as

soon without a pretext as with one.--Adieu.

Providence, Aug. 11, 1794.

I have for some days contemplated the fall of Robespierre and his

adherents, only as one of those dispensations of Providence, which were

gradually to pursue all who had engaged in the French revolution. The

late change of parties has, however, taken a turn I did not expect; and,

contrary to what has hitherto occurred, there is a manifest disposition

in the people to avail themselves of the weakness which is necessarily

occasioned by the contentions of their governors.

When the news of this extraordinary event first became public, it was

ever where received with great gravity--I might say, coldness.--Not a

comment was uttered, nor a glance of approbation seen. Things might be

yet in equilibrium, and popular commotions are always uncertain.

Prudence was, therefore, deemed, indispensable; and, until the contest

was finally decided, no one ventured to give an opinion; and many, to be

certain of guarding against verbal indiscretion, abstained from all

intercourse whatever.

By degrees, the execution of Robespierre and above an hundred of his

partizans, convinced even the most timid; the murmurs of suppressed

discontent began to be heard; and all thought they might now with safety

relieve their fears and their sufferings, by execrating the memory of the

departed tyrants. The prisons, which had hitherto been avoided as

endangering all who approached them, were soon visited with less

apprehension; and friendship or affection, no longer exanimate by terror,

solicited, though still with trepidation, the release of those for whom

they were interested. Some of our associates have already left us in

consequence of such intercessions, and we all hope that the tide of

opinion, now avowedly inimical to the detestable system to which we are

victims, will enforce a general liberation.--We are guarded but slightly;

and I think I perceive in the behaviour of the Jacobin Commissaries

something of civility and respect not usual.

Thus an event, which I beheld merely as the justice which one set of

banditti were made the instruments of exercising upon another, may

finally tend to introduce a more humane system of government; or, at

least, suspend proscription and massacre, and give this harassed country

a little repose.

I am in arrears with my epistolary chronicle, and the hope of so

desirable a change will now give me courage to resume it from the

conclusion of my last. To-morrow shall be dedicated to this purpose.--

Yours.

August 12.

My letters, previous to the time when I judged it necessary to desist

from writing, will have given you some faint sketch of the situation of

the country, and the sufferings of its inhabitants--I say a faint sketch,

because a thousand horrors and iniquities, which are now daily

disclosing, were then confined to the scenes where they were perpetrated;

and we knew little more of them than what we collected from the reports

of the Convention, where they excited a laugh as pleasantries, or

applause as acts of patriotism.

France had become one vast prison, executions were daily multiplied, and

a minute and comprehensive oppression seemed to have placed the lives,

liberty, and fortune of all within the grasp of the single Committee.

Despair itself was subdued, and the people were gradually sinking into a

gloomy and stupid obedience.

* The words despotism and tyranny are sufficiently expressive of the

nature of the government to which they are applied; yet still they

are words rendered familiar to us only by history, and convey no

precise idea, except that of a bad political system. The condition

of the French at this time, besides its wretchedness, had something

so strange, so original in it, that even those who beheld it with

attention must be content to wonder, without pretending to offer any

description as adequate.

--The following extract from a speech of Bailleul, a member of the

Convention, exhibits a picture nearer the original than I have yet seen--

_"La terreur dominait tous les esprits, comprimait tous les couers--

elle etait la force du gouvernement, et ce gouvernement etait tel,

que les nombreux habitans d'un vaste territoire semblaient avoir

perdu les qualites qui distinguent l'homme de l'animal domestique:

ils semblaient meme n'avoir de vie que ce que le gouvernement

voulait bien leur en accorder.--Le moi humain n'existoit plus;

chaque individu n'etait qu'une machine, allant, venant, pensant ou

ne pensant pas, felon que la tyrannie le pressait ou l'animait."_

Discours de Bailleul, 19 March 1795.

"The minds of all were subdued by terror, and every heart was

compressed beneath its influence.--In this consisted the strength of

the government; and that government was such, that the immense

population of a vast territory, seemed to have lost all the

qualities which distinguish man from the animals attached to him.--

They appeared to exhibit no signs of life but such as their rulers

condescended to permit--the very sense of existence seemed doubtful

or extinct, and each individual was reduced to a mere machine, going

or coming, thinking or not thinking, according as the impulse of

tyranny gave him force or animation."

Speech of Bailleul, 19 March 1795.

On the twenty-second of Prairial, (June 10,) a law, consisting of a

variety of articles for the regulation of the Revolutionary Tribunal, was

introduced to the convention by Couthon, a member of the government; and,

as usual adopted with very little previous discussion.--Though there was

no clause of this act but ought to have given the alarm to humanity,

"knocked at the heart, and bid it not be quiet;" yet the whole appeared

perfectly unexceptionable to the Assembly in general: till, on farther

examination, they found it contained an implied repeal of the law

hitherto observed, according to which, no representative could be

arrested without a preliminary decree for that purpose.--This discovery

awakened their suspicions, and the next day Bourdon de l'Oise, a man of

unsteady principles, (even as a revolutionist,) was spirited up to demand

an explicit renunciation of any power in the Committee to attack the

legislative inviolability except in the accustomed forms.--The clauses

which elected a jury of murderers, that bereft all but guilt of hope, and

offered no prospect to innocence but death, were passed with no other

comment than the usual one of applause.*--

* The baseness, cruelty, and cowardice of the Convention are neither

to be denied, nor palliated. For several months they not only

passed decrees of proscription and murder which might reach every

individual in France except themselves, but they even sacrificed

numbers of their own body; and if, instead of proposing an article

affecting the whole Convention, the Committee had demanded the heads

of as many Deputies as they had occasion for by name, I am persuaded

they would have met no resistance.--This single example of

opposition only renders the convention still more an object of

abhorrence, because it marks that they could subdue their

pusillanimity when their own safety was menaced, and that their

previous acquiescence was voluntary.

--This, and this only, by involving their personal safety, excited their

courage through their fears.--Merlin de Douay, originally a worthless

character, and become yet more so by way of obviating the imputation of

bribery from the court, seconded Bourdon's motion, and the obnoxious

article was repealed instantaneously.

This first and only instance of opposition was highly displeasing to the

Committee, and, on the twenty-fourth, Robespierre, Barrere, Couthon, and

Billaud, animadverted with such severity on the promoters of it, that the

terrified Bourdon* declared, the repeal he had solicited was unnecessary,

and that he believed the Committee were destined to be the saviours of

the country; while Merlin de Douay disclaimed all share in the business--

and, in fine, it was determined, that the law of the twenty-second of

Prairial should remain as first presented to the Convention, and that the

qualification of the succeeding day was void.

* It was on this occasion that the "intrepid" Bourdon kept his bed a

whole month with fear.

So dangerous an infringement on the privileges of the representative

body, dwelt on minds insensible to every other consideration; the

principal members caballed secretly on the perils by which they were

surrounded; and the sullen concord which now marked their deliberations,

was beheld by the Committee rather as the prelude to revolt, than the

indication of continued obedience. In the mean while it was openly

proposed to concentrate still more the functions of government. The

circulation of newspapers was insinuated to be useless; and Robespierre

gave some hints of suppressing all but one, which should be under

particular and official controul.*

* This intended restriction was unnecessary; for the newspapers were

all, not indeed paid by government, but so much subject to the

censure of the guillotine, that they had become, under an "unlimited

freedom of the press," more cautious and insipid than the gazettes

of the proscribed court. Poor Duplain, editor of the "Petit

Courier," and subsequently of the "Echo," whom I remember one of the

first partizans of the revolution, narrowly escaped the massacre of

August 1792, and was afterwards guillotined for publishing the

surrender of Landrecy three days before it was announced officially.

A rumour prevailed, that the refractory members who had excited the late

rebellion were to be sacrificed, a general purification of the Assembly

to take place, and that the committee and a few select adherents were to

be invested with the whole national authority. Lists of proscription

were said to be made; and one of them was secretly communicated as having

been found among the papers of a juryman of the Revolutionary Tribunal

lately arrested.--These apprehensions left the members implicated no

alternative but to anticipate hostilities, or fall a sacrifice; for they

knew the instant of attack would be that of destruction, and that the

people were too indifferent to take any part in the contest.

Things were in this state, when two circumstances of a very different

nature assisted in promoting the final explosion, which so much

astonished, not only the rest of Europe, but France itself.

It is rare that a number of men, however well meaning, perfectly agree in

the exercise of power; and the combinations of the selfish and wicked

must be peculiarly subject to discord and dissolution. The Committee of

Public Welfare, while it enslaved the convention and the people, was torn

by feuds, and undermined by the jealousies of its members. Robespierre,

Couthon, and St. Just, were opposed by Collot and Billaud Varennes; while

Barrere endeavoured to deceive both parties; and Carnot, Lindet, the two

Prieurs, and St. Andre, laboured in the cause of the common tyranny, in

the hope of still dividing it with the conquerors.

For some months this enmity was restrained, by the necessity of

preserving appearances, and conciliated, by a general agreement in the

principles of administration, till Robespierre, relying on his superior

popularity, began to take an ascendant, which alarmed such of his

colleagues as were not his partisans, both for their power and their

safety. Animosities daily increased, and their debates at length became

so violent and noisy, that it was found necessary to remove the business

of the Committee to an upper room, lest people passing under the windows

should overhear these scandalous scenes. Every means were taken to keep

these disputes a profound secret--the revilings which accompanied their

private conferences were turned into smooth panegyrics of each other when

they ascended the tribune, and their unanimity was a favourite theme in

all their reports to the Convention.*

* So late as on the seventh of Thermidor, (25th July,) Barrere made

a pompous eulogium on the virtues of Robespierre; and, in a long

account of the state of the country, he acknowledges "some little

clouds hang over the political horizon, but they will soon be

dispersed, by the union which subsists in the Committees;--above

all, by a more speedy trial and execution of revolutionary

criminals." It is difficult to imagine what new means of dispatch

this airy barbarian had contrived, for in the six weeks preceding

this harangue, twelve hundred and fifty had been guillotined in

Paris only.

The impatience of Robespierre to be released from associates whose views

too much resembled his own to leave him an undivided authority, at length

overcame his prudence; and, after absenting himself for six weeks from

the Committee, on the 8th of Thermidor, (26th July,) he threw off the

mask, and in a speech full of mystery and implications, but containing no

direct charges, proclaimed the divisions which existed in the

government.--On the same evening he repeated this harangue at the

Jacobins, while St. Just, by his orders, menaced the obnoxious part of

the Committee with a formal denunciation to the Convention.--From this

moment Billaud Varennes and Collot d'Herbois concluded their destruction

to be certain. In vain they soothed, expostulated with, and endeavoured

to mollify St. Just, so as to avert an open rupture. The latter, who

probably knew it was not Robespierre's intention to accede to any

arrangement, left them to make his report.

On the morning of the ninth the Convention met, and with internal dread

and affected composure proceeded to their ordinary business.--St. Just

then ascended the tribune, and the curiosity or indecision of the greater

number permitted him to expatiate at large on the intrigues and guilt of

every kind which he imputed to a "part" of the Committee.--At the

conclusion of this speech, Tallien, one of the devoted members, and

Billaud Varennes, the leader of the rival party, opened the trenches, by

some severe remarks on the oration of St. Just, and the conduct of those

with whom he was leagued. This attack encouraged others: the whole

Convention joined in accusing Robespierre of tyranny; and Barrere, who

perceived the business now deciding, ranged himself on the side of the

strongest, though the remaining members of the Committee still appeared

to preserve their neutrality. Robespierre was, for the first time,

refused a hearing, yet, the influence he so lately possessed still seemed

to protect him. The Assembly launched decrees against various of his

subordinate agents, without daring to proceed against himself; and had

not the indignant fury with which he was seized, at the desertion of

those by whom he had been most flattered, urged him to call for arrest

and death, it is probable the whole would have ended in the punishment of

his enemies, and a greater accession of power to himself.

But at this crisis all Robespierre's circumspection abandoned him.

Having provoked the decree for arresting his person, instead of

submitting to it until his party should be able to rally, he resisted;

and by so doing gave the Convention a pretext for putting him out of the

law; or, in other words, to destroy him, without the delay or hazard of a

previous trial.

Having been rescued from the Gens d'Armes, and taken in triumph to the

municipality, the news spread, the Jacobins assembled, and Henriot, the

commander of the National Guard, (who had likewise been arrested, and

again set at liberty by force,) all prepared to act in his defence. But

while they should have secured the Convention, they employed themselves

at the Hotel de Ville in passing frivolous resolutions; and Henriot, with

all the cannoneers decidedly in his favour, exhibited an useless

defiance, by stalking before the windows of the Committee of General

Safety, when he should have been engaged in arresting its members.

All these imprudences gave the Convention time to proclaim that

Robespierre, the municipality, and their adherents, were decreed out of

the protection of the laws, and in circumstances of this nature such a

step has usually been decisive--for however odious a government, if it

does but seem to act on a presumption of its own strength, it has always

an advantage over its enemies; and the timid, the doubtful, or

indifferent, for the most part, determine in favour of whatever wears the

appearance of established authority. The people, indeed, remained

perfectly neuter; but the Jacobins, the Committees of the Sections, and

their dependents, might have composed a force more than sufficient to

oppose the few guards which surrounded the National Palace, had not the

publication of this summary outlawry at once paralyzed all their hopes

and efforts.--They had seen multitudes hurried to the Guillotine, because

they were "hors de la loi;" and this impression now operated so forcibly,

that the cannoneers, the national guard, and those who before were most

devoted to the cause, laid down their arms, and precipitately abandoned

their chiefs to the fate which awaited them. Robespierre was taken at

the Hotel de Ville, after being severely wounded in the face; his brother

broke his thigh, in attempting to escape from a window; Henriot was

dragged from concealment, deprived of an eye; and Couthon, whom nature

had before rendered a cripple, now exhibited a most hideous spectacle,

from an ineffectual effort to shoot himself.--Their wounds were dressed

to prolong their suffering, and their sentence being contained in the

decree that outlawed them, their persons were identified by the same

tribunal which had been the instrument of their crimes.

--On the night of the tenth they were conveyed to the scaffold, amidst

the insults and execrations of a mob, which a few hours before beheld

them with trembling and adoration.--Lebas, also a member of the

convention, and a principal agent of Robespierre, fell by his own hand;

and Couthon, St. Just, and seventeen others, suffered with the two

Robespierres.--The municipality of Paris, &c. to the number of

seventy-two, were guillotined the succeeding day, and about twelve

more the day after.

The fate of these men may be ranked as one of the most dreadful of those

examples which history vainly transmits to discourage the pursuits of

ambition. The tyrant who perishes amidst the imposing fallaciousness of

military glory, mingles admiration with abhorrence, and rescues his

memory from contempt, if not from hatred. Even he who expiates his

crimes on the scaffold, if he die with fortitude, becomes the object of

involuntary compassion, and the award of justice is not often rendered

more terrible by popular outrage. But the fall of Robespierre and his

accomplices was accompanied by every circumstance that could add

poignancy to suffering, or dread to death. The ambitious spirit which

had impelled them to tyrannize over a submissive and defenceless people,

abandoned them in their last moments. Depressed by anguish, exhausted by

fatigue, and without courage, religion, or virtue, to support them, they

were dragged through the savage multitude, wounded and helpless, to

receive that stroke, from which even the pious and the brave sometimes

shrink with dismay.

Robespierre possessed neither the talents nor merits of Nicolas Riezi;

but they are both conspicuous instances of the mutability of popular

support, and there is a striking similitude in the last events of their

history. They both degraded their ambition by cowardice--they were both

deserted by the populace, whom they began by flattering, and ended by

oppressing; and the death of both was painful and ignominious--borne

without dignity, and embittered by reproach and insult.*

* Robespierre lay for some hours in one of the committee-rooms,

writhing with the pain of his wound, and abandoned to despair; while

many of his colleagues, perhaps those who had been the particular

agents and applauders of his crimes, passed and repassed him,

glorying and jesting at his sufferings. The reader may compare the

death of Robespierre with that of Rienzi; but if the people of Rome

revenged the tyranny of the Tribune, they were neither so mean nor

so ferocious as the Parisians.

You will perceive by this summary that the overthrow of Robespierre was

chiefly occasioned by the rivalship of his colleagues in the Committee,

assisted by the fears of the Convention at large for themselves.--Another

circumstance, at which I have already hinted, as having some share in

this event, shall be the subject of my next letter.

Providence, Aug. 13, 1794.

_Amour, tu perdis Troye_ [Love! thou occasionedst the destruction of

Troy.]:--yet, among the various mischiefs ascribed to the influence of

this capricious Sovereign, amidst the wrecks of sieges, and the slaughter

of battles, perhaps we may not unjustly record in his praise, that he was

instrumental to the solace of humanity, by contributing to the overthrow

of Robespierre. It is at least pleasing to turn from the general horrors

of the revolution, and suppose, for a moment, that the social affections

were not yet entirely banished, and that gallantry still retained some

empire, when every other vestige of civilization was almost annihilated.

After such an exordium, I feel a little ashamed of my hero, and could

wish, for the credit of my tale, it were not more necessary to invoke the

historic muse of Fielding, than that of Homer or Tasso; but imperious

Truth obliges me to confess, that Tallien, who is to be the subject of

this letter, was first introduced to celebrity by circumstances not

favourable for the comment of my poetical text.

At the beginning of the revolution he was known only as an eminent orator

en plain vent; that is, as a preacher of sedition to the mob, whom he

used to harangue with great applause at the Palais Royal. Having no

profession or means of subsistence, he, as Dr. Johnson observes of one of

our poets, necessarily became an author. He was, however, no farther

entitled to this appellation, than as a periodical scribbler in the cause

of insurrection; but in this he was so successful, that it recommended

him to the care of Petion and the municipality, to whom his talents and

principles were so acceptable, that they made him Secretary to the

Committee.

On the second and third of September 1792, he superintended the massacre

of the prisons, and is alledged to have paid the assassins according to

the number of victims they dispatched with great regularity; and he

himself seems to have little to say in his defence, except that he acted

officially. Yet even the imputation of such a claim could not be

overlooked by the citizens of Paris; and at the election of the

Convention he was distinguished by being chosen one of their

representatives.

It is needless to describe his political career in the Assembly otherwise

than by adding, that when the revolutionary furor was at its acme, he was

deemed by the Committee of Public Welfare worthy of an important mission

in the South. The people of Bourdeaux were, accordingly, for some time

harassed by the usual effects of these visitations--imprisonments and the

Guillotine; and Tallien, though eclipsed by Maignet and Carrier, was by

no means deficient in the patriotic energies of the day.

I think I must before have mentioned to you a Madame de Fontenay, the

wife of an emigrant, whom I occasionally saw at Mad. de C____'s. I then

remarked her for the uncommon attraction of her features, and the

elegance of her person; but was so much disgusted at a tendency to

republicanism I observed in her, and which, in a young woman, I thought

unbecoming, that I did not promote the acquaintance, and our different

pursuits soon separated us entirely. Since this period I have learned,

that her conduct became exceedingly imprudent, or at least suspicious,

and that at the general persecution, finding her republicanism would not

protect her, she fled to Bourdeaux, with the hope of being able to

proceed to Spain. Here, however, being a Spaniard by birth, and the wife

of an emigrant, she was arrested and thrown into prison, where she

remained till the arrival of Tallien on his mission.

The miscellaneous occupations of a deputy-errant, naturally include an

introduction to the female prisoners; and Tallien's presence afforded

Mad. de Fontenay an occasion of pleading her cause with all the success

which such a pleader might, in other times, be supposed to obtain from a

judge of Tallien's age. The effect of the scenes Tallien had been an

actor in, was counteracted by youth, and his heart was not yet

indifferent to the charms of beauty--Mad. de Fontenay was released by the

captivation of her liberator, and a reciprocal attachment ensued.

We must not, however, conclude, all this merely a business of romance.

Mad. de Fontenay was rich, and had connexions in Spain, which might

hereafter procure an asylum, when a regicide may with difficulty find

one: and on the part of the lady, though Tallien's person is agreeable, a

desire of protecting herself and her fortune might be allowed to have

some influence.

From this time the revolutionist is said to have given way: Bourdeaux

became the Capua of Tallien; and its inhabitants were, perhaps, indebted

for a more moderate exercise of his power, to the smiles of Mad. de

Fontenay.--From hanging loose on society, he had now the prospect of

marrying a wife with a large fortune; and Tallien very wisely considered,

that having something at stake, a sort of comparative reputation among

the higher class of people at Bourdeaux, might be of more importance to

him in future, than all the applause the Convention could bestow on a

liberal use of the Guillotine.--The relaxed system which was the

consequence of such policy, soon reached the Committee of Public Welfare,

to whom it was highly displeasing, and Tallien was recalled.

A youth of the name of Julien, particularly in the confidence of

Robespierre, was then sent to Bourdeaux, not officially as his successor,

but as a spy, to collect information concerning him, as well as to watch

the operations of other missionaries, and prevent their imitating

Tallien's schemes of personal advantage, at the expence of scandalizing

the republic by an appearance of lenity.--The disastrous state of Lyons,

the persecutions of Carrier, the conflagrations of Maignet, and the

crimes of various other Deputies, had obliterated the minor

revolutionisms of Tallien:* The citizens of Bourdeaux spoke of him

without horror, which in these times was equal to eulogium; and Julien

transmitted such accounts of his conduct to Robespierre,** as were

equally alarming to the jealousy of his spirit, and repugnant to the

cruelty of his principles.

* It was Tallien's boast to have guillotined only aristocrats, and

of this part of his merit I am willing to leave him in possession.

At Toulon he was charged with the punishment of those who had given

up the town to the English; but finding, as he alledged, nearly all

the inhabitants involved, he selected about two hundred of the

richest, and that the horrid business might wear an appearance of

regularity, the patriots, that is, the most notorious Jacobins, were

ordered to give their opinion on the guilt of these victims, who

were brought out into an open field for that purpose. With such

judges the sentence was soon passed, and a fusillade took place on

the spot.--It was on this occasion that Tallien made particular

boast of his humanity; and in the same publication where he relates

the circumstance, he exposes the "atrocious conduct" of the English

at the surrender of Toulon. The cruelty of these barbarians not

being sufficiently gratified by dispatching the patriots the

shortest way, they hung up many of them by their chins on hooks at

the shambles, and left them to die at their leisure.--See

"Mitraillades, Fusillades," a recriminating pamphlet, addressed by

Tallien to Collot d'Herbois.--The title alludes to Collot's exploits

at Lyons.

** It is not out of the usual course of things that Tallien's

moderation at Bourdeaux might have been profitable; and the wife or

mistress of a Deputy was, on such occasions, a useful medium,

through which the grateful offerings of a rich and favoured

aristocrat might be conveyed, without committing the legislative

reputation.--The following passage from Julien's correspondence with

Robespierre seems to allude to some little arrangements of this

nature:

"I think it my duty to transmit you an extract from a letter of

Tallien's, [Which had been intercepted.] to the National Club.--It

coincides with the departure of La Fontenay, whom the Committee of

General Safety have doubtless had arrested. I find some very

curious political details regarding her; and Bourdeaux seems to have

been, until this moment, a labyrinth of intrigue and peculation."

It appears from Robespierre's papers, that not only Tallien, but

Legendre, Bourdon de l'Oise, Thuriot, and others, were incessantly

watched by the spies of the Committee. The profession must have improved

wonderfully under the auspices of the republic, for I doubt if _Mons. le

Noir's Mouchards_ [The spies of the old police, so called in derision.--

Brissot, in this act of accusation, is described as having been an agent

of the Police under the monarchy.--I cannot decide on the certainty of

this, or whether his occupation was immediately that of a spy, but I have

respectable authority for saying, that antecedent to the revolution, his

character was very slightly estimated, and himself considered as "hanging

loose on society."] were as able as Robespierre's.--The reader may judge

from the following specimens:

"The 6th instant, the deputy Thuriot, on quitting the Convention,

went to No. 35, Rue Jaques, section of the Pantheon, to the house of

a pocket-book maker, where he staid talking with a female about ten

minutes. He then went to No. 1220, Rue Fosse St. Bernard, section

of the Sans-Culottes, and dined there at a quarter past two. At a

quarter past seven he left the last place, and meeting a citizen on

the Quay de l'Ecole, section of the Museum, near le Cafe Manoury,

they went in there together, and drank a bottle of beer. From

thence he proceeded to la Maison Memblee de la Providence, No. 16,

Rue d'Orleans Honore, section de la Halle au Bled, whence, after

staying about five-and-twenty minutes, he came out with a citoyenne,

who had on a puce Levite, a great bordered shawl of Japan cotton,

and on her head a white handkerchief, made to look like a cap. They

went together to No. 163, Place Egalite, where after stopping an

instant, they took a turn in the galleries, and then returned to

sup.--They went in at half past nine, and were still there at eleven

o'clock, when we came away, not being certain if they would come out

again.

"Bourdon de l'Oise, on entering the Assembly, shook hands with four

or five Deputies. He was observed to gape while good news was

announcing."

Tallien was already popular among the Jacobins of Paris; and his

connexion with a beautiful woman, who might enable him to keep a domestic

establishment, and to display any wealth he had acquired, without

endangering his reputation, was a circumstance not to be overlooked; for

Robespierre well knew the efficacy of female intrigue, and dinners,* in

gaining partizans among the subordinate members of the Convention.

* Whoever reads attentively, and in detail, the debates of the

Convention, will observe the influence and envy created by a

superior style of living in any particular member. His dress, his

lodging, or dinners, are a perpetual subject of malignant reproach.

--This is not to be wondered at, when we consider the description of

men the Convention is composed of;--men who, never having been

accustomed to the elegancies of life, behold with a grudging eye the

gay apparel or luxurious table of a colleague, who arrived at Paris

with no other treasure but his patriotism, and has no ostensible

means beyond his eighteen livres a day, now increased to thirty-six.

Mad. de Fontenay, was, therefore, on her arrival at Paris, whither she

had followed Tallien, (probably in order to procure a divorce and marry

him,) arrested, and conveyed to prison.

An injury of this kind was not to be forgiven; and Robespierre seems to

have acted on the presumption that it could not. He beset Tallien with

spies, menaced him in the Convention, and made Mad. de Fontenay an offer

of liberty, if she would produce a substantial charge against him, which

he imagined her knowledge of his conduct at Bourdeaux might furnish her

grounds for doing. A refusal must doubtless have irritated the tyrant;

and Tallien had every reason to fear she would soon be included in one of

the lists of victims who were daily sacrificed as conspirators in the

prisons. He was himself in continual expectation of being arrested; and

it was generally believed Robespierre would soon openly accuse him.--Thus

situated, he eagerly embraced the opportunity which the schism in the

Committee presented of attacking his adversary, and we certainly must

allow him the merit of being the first who dared to move for the arrest

of Robespierre.--I need not add, that la belle was one of the first whose

prison doors were opened; and I understand that, being divorced from

Mons. de Fontenay, she is either married, or on the point of being so, to

Tallien.

This conclusion spoils my story as a moral one; and had I been the

disposer of events, the Septembriser, the regicide, and the cold assassin

of the Toulonais, should have found other rewards than affluence, and a

wife who might represent one of Mahomet's Houris. Yet, surely, "the time

will come, though it come ne'er so slowly," when Heaven shall separate

guilt from prosperity, and when Tallien and his accomplices shall be

remembered only as monuments of eternal justice. For the lady, her

faults are amply punished in the disgrace of such an alliance--

"A cut-purse of the empire and the rule;

"____ a King of shreds and patches."

Providence, Aug. 14, 1794.

The thirty members whom Robespierre intended to sacrifice, might perhaps

have formed some design of resisting, but it appears evident that the

Convention in general acted without plan, union, or confidence.*--

* The base and selfish timidity of the Convention is strongly

evinced by their suffering fifty innocent people to be guillotined

on the very ninth of Thermidor, for a pretended conspiracy in the

prison of St. Lazare.--A single word from any member might at this

crisis have suspended the execution of the sentence, but that word

no one had the courage or the humanity to utter.

--Tallien and Billaud were rendered desperate by their situation, and it

is likely that, when they ventured to attack Robespierre, they did not

themselves expect to be successful--it was the consternation of the

latter which encouraged them to persist, and the Assembly to support

them:

"There is a tide in the affairs of men,

"Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune."

And to have been lucky enough to seize on this crisis, is, doubtless, the

whole merit of the convention. There has, it is true, been many

allusions to the dagger of Brutus, and several Deputies are said to have

conceived very heroic projects for the destruction of the tyrant; but as

he was dead before these projects were brought to light, we cannot justly

ascribe any effect to them.

The remains of the Brissotin faction, still at liberty, from whom some

exertions might have been expected, were cautiously inactive; and those

who had been most in the habit of appreciating themselves for their

valour, were now conspicuous only for that discretion which Falstaff

calls the better part of it.--Dubois Crance, who had been at the expence

of buying a Spanish poniard at St. Malo, for the purpose of assassinating

Robespierre, seems to have been calmed by the journey, and to have

finally recovered his temper, before he reached the Convention.--Merlin

de Thionville, Merlin de Douay, and others of equal note, were among the

"passive valiant;" and Bourdon de l'Oise had already experienced such

disastrous effects from inconsiderate exhibitions of courage, that he now

restrained his ardour till the victory should be determined. Even

Legendre, who is occasionally the Brutus, the Curtius, and all the

patriots whose names he has been able to learn, confined his prowess to

an assault on the club-room of the Jacobins, when it was empty, and

carrying off the key, which no one disputed with him, so that he can at

most claim an ovation. It is, in short, remarkable, that all the members

who at present affect to be most vehement against Robespierre's

principles, [And where was the all-politic Sieyes?--At home, writing his

own eulogium.] were the least active in attacking his person; and it is

indisputable, that to Tallien, Billaud, Louchet, Elie Lacoste, Collot

d'Herbois, and a few of the more violent Jacobins, were due those first

efforts which determined his fall.--Had Robespierre, instead of a

querelous harangue, addressed the convention in his usual tone of

authority, and ended by moving for a decree against a few only of those

obnoxious to him, the rest might have been glad to compound for their own

safety, by abandoning a cause no longer personal: but his impolicy, not

his wickedness, hastened his fate; and it is so far fortunate for France,

that it has at least suspended the system of government which is ascribed

to him.

The first days of victory were passed in receiving congratulations, and

taking precautions; and though men do not often adapt their claims to

their merits, yet the members of the Convention seemed in general to be

conscious that none amongst them had very decided pretensions to the

spoils of the vanquished.--Of twelve, which originally composed the

Committee of Public Welfare, seven only remained; yet no one ventured to

suggest a completion of the number, till Barrere, after previously

insinuating how adequate he and his colleagues were to the task of

"saving the country," proposed, in his flippant way, and merely as a

matter of form, that certain persons whom he recommended, should fill up

the vacancies in the government.

This modest Carmagnole* was received with great coolness; the late

implicit acquiescence was changed to demur, and an adjournment

unanimously called for.

* A ludicrous appellation, which Barrere used to give to his reports

in the presence of those who were in the secret of his Charlatanry.

The air of "La Carmagnole" was originally composed when the town of

that name was taken by Prince Eugene, and was adapted to the

indecent words now sung by the French after the 10th of August 1792.

--Such unusual temerity susprised and alarmed the remains of the

Committee, and Billaud Varennes sternly reminded the Convention of the

abject state they were so lately released from. This produced retort and

replication, and the partners of Robespierre's enormities, who had hoped

to be the tranquil inheritors of his power, found, that in destroying a

rival, they had raised themselves masters.

The Assembly persisted in not adopting the members offered to be imposed

upon them; but, as it was easier to reject than to choose, the Committee

were ordered to present a new plan for this part of the executive branch,

and the election of those to be entrusted with it was postponed for

farther consideration.

Having now felt their strength, they next proceeded to renew a part of

the committee of General Safety, several of its members being inculpated

as partizans of Robespierre, and though this Committee had become

entirely subordinate to that of Public Welfare, yet its functions were

too important for it to be neglected, more especially as they comprised a

very favourite branch of the republican government, that of issuing writs

of arrest at pleasure.--The law of the twenty-second of Prairial is also

repealed, but the Revolutionary Tribunal is preserved, and the necessity

of suspending the old jury, as being the creatures of Robespierre, has

not prevented the tender solicitude of the Convention for a renovated

activity in the establishment itself.

This assumption of power has become every day more confirmed, and the

addresses which are received by the Assembly, though yet in a strain of

gross adulation,* express such an abhorrence of the late system, as must

suffice to convince them the people are not disposed to see such a system

continued.

* A collection of addresses, presented to the Convention at various

periods, might form a curious history of the progress of despotism.

These effusions of zeal were not, however, all in the "sublime"

style: the legislative dignity sometimes condescended to unbend

itself, and listen to metrical compositions, enlivened by the

accompaniment of fiddles; but the manly and ferocious Danton, to

whom such sprightly interruptions were not congenial, proposed a

decree, that the citizens should, in future, express their

adorations in plain prose, and without any musical accessories.

Billaud Varennes, Collot, and other members of the old Committee, view

these innovations with sullen acquiescence; but Barrere, whose frivolous

and facile spirit is incapable of consistency, even in wickedness,

perseveres and flourishes at the tribune as gaily as ever.--Unabashed by

detection, insensible to contempt, he details his epigrams and antitheses

against Catilines and Cromwells with as much self-sufficiency as when, in

the same tinsel eloquence, he promulgated the murderous edicts of

Robespierre.

Many of the prisoners at Paris continue daily to obtain their release,

and, by the exertions of his personal enemies, particularly of our

quondam sovereign, Andre Dumont, (now a member of the Committee of

General Safety,) an examination into the atrocities committed by Le Bon

is decreed.--But, amidst these appearances of justice, a versatility of

principle, or rather an evident tendency to the decried system, is

perceptible. Upon the slightest allusion to the revolutionary

government, the whole Convention rise in a mass to vociferate their

adherence to it:* the tribunal, which was its offspring and support, is

anxiously reinstalled; and the low insolence with which Barrere announces

their victories in the Netherlands, is, as usual, loudly applauded.

* The most moderate, as well as the most violent, were always united

on the subject of this irrational tyranny.--_"Toujours en menageant,

comme la prunelle de ses yeux, le gouvernement revolutionnaire."_--

"Careful always of the revolutionary government, as of the apple of

their eye." _Fragment pour servir a l'Hist. de la Convention, par

J. J. Dussault_.

The brothers of Cecile Renaud, who were sent for by Robespierre from the

army to Paris, in order to follow her to the scaffold, did not arrive

until their persecutor was no more, and a change of government was

avowed. They have presented themselves at the bar of the Convention, to

entreat a revisal of their father's sentence, and some compensation for

his property, so unjustly confiscated.--You will, perhaps, imagine, that,

at the name of these unfortunate young men, every heart anticipated a

consent to their claims, even before the mind could examine the justice

of them, and that one of those bursts of sensibility for which this

legislature is so remarkable instantaneously accorded the petition.

Alas! this was not an occasion to excite the enthusiasm of the

Convention: Coupilleau de Fontenay, one of the "mild and moderate party",

repulsed the petitioners with harshness, and their claim was silenced by

a call for the order of the day. The poor Renauds were afterwards coldly

referred to the Committee of Relief, for a pittance, by way of charity,

instead of the property they have a right to, and which they have been

deprived of, by the base compliance of the Convention with the caprice of

a monster.

Such relapses and aberrations are not consolatory, but the times and

circumstances seem to oppose them--the whole fabric of despotism is

shaken, and we have reason to hope the efforts of tyranny will be

counteracted by its weakness.

We do not yet derive any advantage from the early maturity of the

harvest, and it is still with difficulty we obtain a limited portion of

bad bread. Severe decrees are enacted to defeat the avarice of the

farmers, and prevent monopolies of the new corn; but these people are

invulnerable: they have already been at issue with the system of terror--

and it was found necessary, even before the death of Robespierre, to

release them from prison, or risk the destruction of the harvest for want

of hands to get it in. It is now discovered, that natural causes, and

the selfishness of individuals, are adequate to the creation of a

temporary scarcity; yet when this happened under the King, it was always

ascribed to the machinations of government.--How have the people been

deceived, irritated, and driven to rebellion, by a degree of want, less,

much less, insupportable than that they are obliged to suffer at present,

without daring even to complain!

I have now been in confinement almost twelve months, and my health is

considerably impaired. The weather is oppressively warm, and we have no

shade in the garden but under a mulberry-tree, which is so surrounded by

filth, that it is not approachable. I am, however, told, that in a few

days, on account of my indisposition, I shall be permitted to go home,

though with a proviso of being guarded at my own expence.--My friends are

still at Arras; and if this indulgence be extended to Mad. de la F____,

she will accompany me. Personal accommodation, and an opportunity of

restoring my health, render this desirable; but I associate no idea of

freedom with my residence in this country. The boundary may be extended,

but it is still a prison.--Yours.

Providence, Aug. 15, 1794.

To-morrow I expect to quit this place, and have been wandering over it

for the last time. You will imagine I can have no attachment to it: yet

a retrospect of my sensations when I first arrived, of all I have

experienced, and still more of what I have apprehended since that period,

makes me look forward to my departure with a satisfaction that I might

almost call melancholy. This cell, where I have shivered through the

winter--the long passages, which I have so often traversed in bitter

rumination--the garden, where I have painfully breathed a purer air, at

the risk of sinking beneath the fervid rays of an unmitigated sun, are

not scenes to excite regret; but when I think that I am still subject to

the tyranny which has so long condemned me to them, this reflection, with

a sentiment perhaps of national pride, which is wounded by accepting as a

favour what I have been unjustly deprived of, renders me composed, if not

indifferent, at the prospect of my release.

This dreary epoch of my life has not been without its alleviations. I

have found a chearful companion in Mad. de M____, who, at sixty, was

brought here, because she happened to be the daughter of Count L____, who

has been dead these thirty years!--The graces and silver accents of

Madame de B____, might have assisted in beguiling severer captivity; and

the Countess de C____, and her charming daughters (the eldest of whom is

not to be described in the common place of panegyric), who, though they

have borne their own afflictions with dignity, have been sensible to the

misfortunes of others, and whom I must, in justice, except from all the

imputations of meanness or levity, which I have sometimes had occasion to

notice in those who, like themselves, were objects of republican

persecution, have essentially contributed to diminish the horrors of

confinement.--I reckon it likewise among my satisfactions, that, with the

exception of the Marechalle de Biron,* and General O'Moran, none of our

fellow-prisoners have suffered on the scaffold.--

* The Marechalle de Biron, a very old and infirm woman, was taken

from hence to the Luxembourg at Paris, where her daughter-in-law,

the Duchess, was also confined. A cart arriving at that prison to

convey a number of victims to the tribunal, the list, in the coarse

dialect of republicanism, contained the name of la femme Biron. "But

there are two of them," said the keeper. "Then bring them both."--

The aged Marechalle, who was at supper, finished her meal while the

rest were preparing, then took up her book of devotion, and departed

chearfully.--The next day both mother and daughter were guillotined.

--Dumont has, indeed, virtually occasioned the death of several; in

particular the Duc du Chatelet, the Comte de Bethune, Mons. de

Mancheville, &c.--and it is no merit in him that Mr. Luttrell, with a

poor nun of the name of Pitt,* whom he took from hence to Paris, as a

capture which might give him importance, were not massacred either by the

mob or the tribunal.

* This poor woman, whose intellects, as I am informed, appeared in a

state of derangement, was taken from a convent at Abbeville, and

brought to the Providence, as a relation of Mr. Pitt, though I

believe she has no pretensions to that honour. But the name of Pitt

gave her importance; she was sent to Paris under a military escort,

and Dumont announced the arrival of this miserable victim with all

the airs of a conqueror. I have been since told, she was lodged at

St. Pelagie, where she suffered innumerable hardships, and did not

recover her liberty for many months after the fall of Robespierre.

--If the persecution of this department has not been sanguinary,* it

should be remembered, that it has been covered with prisons; and that the

extreme submission of its inhabitants would scarcely have furnished the

most merciless tyrant with a pretext for a severer regimen.--

* There were some priests guillotined at Amiens, but the

circumstance was concealed from me for some months after it

happened.

--Dumont, I know, expects to establish a reputation by not having

guillotined as an amusement, and hopes that he may here find a retreat

when his revolutionary labours shall be finished.

The Convention have not yet chosen the members who are to form the new

Committee. They were yesterday solemnly employed in receiving the

American Ambassador; likewise a brass medal of the tyrant Louis the

Fourteenth, and some marvellous information about the unfortunate

Princess' having dressed herself in mourning at the death of Robespierre.

These legislators remind me of one of Swift's female attendants, who, in

spite of the literary taste he endeavoured to inspire her with, never

could be divested of her original housewifely propensities, but would

quit the most curious anecdote, as he expresses it, "to go seek an old

rag in a closet." Their projects for the revival of their navy seldom go

farther than a transposal in the stripes of the flag, and their vengeance

against regal anthropophagi, and proud islanders, is infallibly diverted

by a denunciation of an aristocratic quartrain, or some new mode, whose

general adoption renders it suspected as the badge of a party.--If,

according to Cardinal de Retz' opinion, elaborate attention to trifles

denote a little mind, these are true Lilliputian sages.--Yours, &c.

August, 1794.

I did not leave the Providence until some days after the date of my last:

there were so many precautions to be taken, and so many formalities to be

observed--such references from the municipality to the district, and from

the district to the Revolutionary Committee, that it is evident

Robespierre's death has not banished the usual apprehension of danger

from the minds of those who became responsible for acts of justice or

humanity. At length, after procuring a house-keeper to answer with his

life and property for our re-appearance, and for our attempting nothing

against the "unity and indivisibility" of the republic, we bade (I hope)

a long adieu to our prison.

Madame de ____ is to remain with me till her house can be repaired; for

it has been in requisition so often, that there is now, we are told,

scarcely a bed left, or a room habitable. We have an old man placed with

us by way of a guard, but he is civil, and is not intended to be a

restraint upon us. In fact, he has a son, a member of the Jacobin club,

and this opportunity is taken to compliment him, by taxing us with the

maintenance of his father. It does not prevent us from seeing our

acquaintance, and we might, I suppose, go out, though we have not yet

ventured.

The politics of the Convention are fluctuating and versatile, as will

ever be the case where men are impelled by necessity to act in opposition

to their principles. In their eagerness to attribute all the past

excesses to Robespierre, they have, unawares, involved themselves in the

obligation of not continuing the same system. They doubtless expected,

by the fall of the tyrant, to become his successors; but the people,

weary of being dupes, and of hearing that tyrants were fallen, without

feeling any diminution of tyranny, have every where manifested a temper,

which the Convention, in the present relaxed state of its power, is

fearful of making experiments upon. Hence, great numbers of prisoners

are liberated, those that remain are treated more indulgently, and the

fury of revolutionary despotism is in general abated.

The Deputies who most readily assent to these changes have assumed the

appellation of Moderates; (Heaven knows how much they are indebted to

comparison;) and the popularity they have acquired has both offended and

alarmed the more inflexible Jacobins. A motion has just been made by one

Louchet, that a list of all persons lately enlarged should be printed,

with the names of those Deputies who solicited in their favour, annexed;

and that such aristocrats as were thus discovered to have regained their

liberty, should be re-imprisoned.--The decree passed, but was so ill

received by the people, that it was judged prudent to repeal it the next

day.

This circumstance seems to be the signal of dissention between the

Assembly and the Club: the former, apprehensive of revolting the public

opinion on the one hand, and desirous of conciliating the Jacobins on the

other, waver between indulgence and severity; but it is easy to discover,

that their variance with the Jacobins is more a matter of expediency than

principle, and that, were it not for other considerations, they would not

suffer the imprisonment of a few thousand harmless people to interrupt

the amity which has so long subsisted between themselves and their

ancient allies.--It is written, "from their works you shall know them;"

and reasoning from this tenet, which is our best authority, (for who can

boast a science in the human heart?) I am justified in my opinion, and I

know it to be that of many persons more competent to decide than myself.

If I could have had doubts on the subject, the occurrences of the last

few days would have amply satisfied them.

However rejoiced the nation at large might be at the overthrow of

Robespierre, no one was deceived as to the motives which actuated his

colleagues in the Committee. Every day produced new indications not only

of their general concurrence in the enormities of the government, but of

their own personal guilt. The Convention, though it could not be

insensible of this, was willing, with a complaisant prudence, to avoid

the scandal of a public discussion, which must irritate the Jacobins, and

expose its own weakness by a retrospect of the crimes it had applauded

and supported. Laurent Lecointre,* alone, and apparently unconnected

with party, has had the courage to exhibit an accusation against Billaud,

Collot, Barrere, and those of Robespierre's accomplices who were members

of the Committee of General Safety. He gave notice of his design on the

eleventh of Fructidor (28th of August).

* Lecointre is a linen-draper at Versailles, an original

revolutionist, and I believe of more decent character than most

included in that description. If we could be persuaded that there

were any real fanatics in the Convention, I should give Lecointre

the credit of being among the number. He seems, at least, to have

some material circumstances in his favour--such as possessing the

means of living; of not having, in appearance, enriched himself by

the revolution; and, of being the only member who, after a score of

decrees to that purpose, has ventured to produce an account of his

fortune to the public.

--It was received everywhere but in the Convention with applause; and the

public was flattered with the hope that justice would attain another

faction of its oppressors. On the succeeding day, Lecointre appeared at

the tribune to read his charges. They conveyed, even to the most

prejudiced mind, an entire conviction, that the members he accused were

sole authors of a part, and accomplices in all the crimes which had

desolated their country. Each charge was supported by material proof,

which he deposited for the information of his colleagues. But this was

unnecessary--his colleagues had no desire to be convinced; and, after

overpowering him with ridicule and insult, they declared, without

entering into any discussion, that they rejected the charges with

indignation, and that the members implicated had uniformly acted

according to their [own] wishes, and those of the nation.

As soon as this result was known in Paris, the people became enraged and

disgusted, the public walks resounded with murmurs, the fermentation grew

general, and some menaces were uttered of forcing the Convention to give

Lecointre a more respectful hearing.--Intimidated by such unequivocal

proofs of disapprobation, when the Assembly met on the thirteenth, it was

decreed, after much opposition from Tallien, that Lecointre should be

allowed to reproduce his charges, and that they should be solemnly

examined.

After all this, Lecointre, whose figure is almost ludicrous, and who is

no orator, was to repeat a voluminous denunciation, amidst the clamour,

abuse, chicane, and derision of the whole Convention. But there are

occasions when the keenest ridicule is pointless; when the mind, armed by

truth and elevated by humanity, rejects its insidious efforts--and,

absorbed by more laudable feelings, despises even the smile of contempt.

The justice of Lecointre's cause supplied his want of external

advantages: and his arguments were so clear and so unanswerable, that the

plain diction in which they were conveyed was more impressive than the

most finished eloquence; and neither the malice nor sarcasms of his

enemies had any effect but on those who were interested in silencing or

confounding him. Yet, in proportion as the force of Lecointre's

denunciation became evident, the Assembly appeared anxious to suppress

it; and, after some hours' scandalous debate, during which it was

frequently asserted that these charges could not be encouraged without

criminating the entire legislative body, they decreed the whole to be

false and defamatory.

The accused members defended themselves with the assurance of delinquents

tried by their avowed accomplices, and who are previously certain of

favour and acquittal; while Lecointre's conduct in the business seems to

have been that of a man determined to persevere in an act of duty, which

he has little reason to hope will be successful.*

* It is said, that, at the conclusion of this disgraceful business,

the members of the convention crouded about the delinquents with

their habitual servility, and appeared gratified that their services

on the occasion had given them a claim to notice and familiarity.

Though the galleries of the Convention were more than usually furnished

on the day with applauders, yet this decision has been universally ill

received. The time is passed when the voice of reason could be silenced

by decrees. The stupendous tyranny of the government, though not

meliorated in principle, is relaxed in practice; and this vote, far from

operating in favour of the culprits, has only served to excite the public

indignation, and to render them more odious. Those who cannot judge of

the logical precision of Lecointre's arguments, or the justness of his

inferences, can feel that his charges are merited. Every heart, every

tongue, acknowledges the guilt of those he has attacked. They are

certain France has been the prey of numberless atrocities--they are

certain, that these were perpetrated by order of the committee; that

eleven members composed it; and that Robespierre and his associates being

but three, did not constitute a majority.

These facts are now commented on with as much freedom as can be expected

among a people whose imaginations are yet haunted by revolutionary

tribunals and Bastilles, and the conclusions are not favourable to the

Convention. The national discontent is, however, suspended by the

hostilities between the legislature and the Jacobin club: the latter

still persists in demanding the revolutionary system in its primitive

severity, while the former are restrained from compliance, not only by

the odium it must draw on them, but from a certainty that it cannot be

supported but through the agency of the popular societies, who would thus

again become their dictators. I believe it is not unlikely that the

people and the Convention are both endeavouring to make instruments of

each other to destroy the common enemy; for the little popularity the

Convention enjoy is doubtless owing to a superior hatred of the Jacobins:

and the moderation which the former affect towards the people, is equally

influenced by a view of forming a powerful balance against these

obnoxious societies.--While a sort of necessity for this temporizing

continues, we shall go on very tranquilly, and it is become a mode to say

the Convention is "adorable."

Tallien, who has been wrestling with his ill fame for a transient

popularity, has thought it advisable to revive the public attention by

the farce of Pisistratus--at least, an attempt to assassinate him, in

which there seems to have been more eclat than danger, has given rise to

such an opinion. Bulletins of his health are delivered every day in form

to the Convention, and some of the provincial clubs have sent

congratulations on his escape. But the sneers of the incredulous, and

perhaps an internal admonition of the ridicule and disgrace attendant on

the worship of an idol whose reputation is so unpropitious, have much

repressed the customary ardour, and will, I think, prevent these

"hair-breadth 'scapes" from continuing fashionable.--Yours, &c.

[No Date Given]

When I describe the French as a people bending meekly beneath the most

absurd and cruel oppression, transmitted from one set of tyrants to

another, without personal security, without commerce--menaced by famine,

and desolated by a government whose ordinary resources are pillage and

murder; you may perhaps read with some surprize the progress and

successes of their armies. But, divest yourself of the notions you may

have imbibed from interested misrepresentations--forget the revolutionary

common-place of "enthusiams", "soldiers of freedom," and "defenders of

their country"--examine the French armies as acting under the motives

which usually influence such bodies, and I am inclined to believe you

will see nothing very wonderful or supernatural in their victories.

The greater part of the French troops are now composed of young men taken

indiscriminately from all classes, and forced into the service by the

first requisition. They arrive at the army ill-disposed, or at best

indifferent, for it must not be forgotten, that all who could be

prevailed on to go voluntarily had departed before recourse was had to

the measure of a general levy. They are then distributed into different

corps, so that no local connections remain: the natives of the North are

mingled with those of the South, and all provincial combinations are

interdicted.

It is well known that the military branch of espionage is as extended as

the civil, and the certainty of this destroys confidence, and leaves even

the unwilling soldier no resource but to go through his professional duty

with as much zeal as though it were his choice. On the one hand, the

discipline is severe--on the other, licentiousness is permitted beyond

all example; and, half-terrified, half-seduced, principles the most

inimical, and morals the least corrupt, become habituated to fear nothing

but the government, and to relish a life of military indulgence.--The

armies were some time since ill clothed, and often ill fed; but the

requisitions, which are the scourge of the country, supply them, for the

moment, with profusion: the manufacturers, the shops, and the private

individual, are robbed to keep them in good humour--the best wines, the

best clothes, the prime of every thing, is destined to their use; and

men, who before laboured hard to procure a scanty subsistence, now revel

in luxury and comparative idleness.

The rapid promotion acquired in the French army is likewise another cause

of its adherence to the government. Every one is eager to be advanced;

for, by means of requisitions, pillage and perquisites, the most trifling

command is very lucrative.--Vast sums of money are expended in supplying

the camps with newspapers written nearly for that purpose, and no others

are permitted to be publicly circulated.--When troops are quartered in a

town, instead of that cold reception which it is usual to accord such

inmates, the system of terror acts as an excellent Marechal de Logis, and

procures them, if not a cordial, at least a substantial one; and it is

indubitable, that they are no where so well entertained as at the houses

of professed aristocrats. The officers and men live in a familiarity

highly gratifying to the latter; and, indeed, neither are distinguishable

by their language, manners, or appearance. There is, properly speaking,

no subordination except in the field, and a soldier has only to avoid

politics, and cry "Vive la Convention!" to secure plenary indulgence on

all other occasions.--Many who entered the army with regret, continue

there willingly for the sake of a maintenance; besides that a decree

exists, which subjects the parents of those who return, to heavy

punishments. In a word, whatever can operate on the fears, or interests,

or passions, is employed to preserve the allegiance of the armies to the

government, and attach them to their profession.

I am far from intending to detract from the national bravery--the annals

of the French Monarchy abound with the most splendid instances of it--I

only wish you to understand, what I am fully convinced of myself, that

liberty and republicanism have no share in the present successes. The

battle of Gemappe was gained when the Brissotin faction had enthroned

itself on the ruins of a constitution, which the armies were said to

adore with enthusiasm: by what sudden inspiration were their affections

transferred to another form of government? or will any one pretend that

they really understood the democratic Machiavelism which they were to

propagate in Brabant? At the battle of Maubeuge, France was in the first

paroxysm of revolutionary terror--at that of Fleurus, she had become a

scene of carnage and proscription, at once the most wretched and the most

detestable of nations, the sport and the prey of despots so contemptible,

that neither the excess of their crimes, nor the sufferings they

inflicted, could efface the ridicule which was incurred by a submission

to them. Were the French then fighting for liberty, or did they only

move on professionally, with the enemy in front, the Guillotine in the

rear, and the intermediate space filled up with the licentiousness of a

camp?--If the name alone of liberty suffices to animate the French troops

to conquest, and they could imagine it was enjoyed under Brissot or

Robespierre, this is at least a proof that they are rather amateurs than

connoisseurs; and I see no reason why the same impulse might not be given

to an army of Janizaries, or the the legions of Tippoo Saib.