appeared undecided how it would terminate, the public was agitated with the most serious fears of feeing a renovation of the horrors from which they hoped to have efcaped. The fpirit of moderation, which had, frce the fall of Robespierre, been predominant, was fo unacceptable to the Jacobin party, which, though checked, was not fupprefled, that, railing themfelves of the lenity pro feled by government, they aflembled in various places, and held difcourfes of a tendency to roufe into an infurrection all that were difpofed to join them. The pretence, by means of which they excited the populace to difcontent, was the fcarcity of bread. Whether this was real or effected, through their machinations, an immenfe crowd arole on the first of April, and proceeded to the hall of the convention, demanding bread, and the conftitution of 1793. The latter of these demands plainly thewed who were the inftigators of this infurrection. The Jacobin members of the convention explicitly abetted thefe demands. Emboldened by this fupport, the fpokefman of the infurgents told the convention, that thofe in whose name he addressed them were the men of the fourteenth of July, the tenth of Auguft, and the thirty-firft of May; that they would not fuffer the accufed members to be facrificed to their enemies; and expected the convention would alter its measures.

When the infurgents broke into the hall, the convention was employed in a difcuffion how to remedy the fcarcity that was complained of; but this fudden interruption forced them to have recourfe to immediate means, for their prefervation from the fury

of the mob. They directed the alarm bells to be rung through all Paris, and the citizens to be called to the aid of the convention. They readily obeyed the fummons, and affembled to the number of twenty thousand. But, from two in the afternoon till fix in the evening, the convention was in the power of the infurgents, from whom, as they had forcibly entered the hall, danger was reafonable apprehended; their words and demeanour being full of infolence and menaces.

The city was no lefs alarmed than the convention. Knowing the number and refolution of the Jacobins, and dreading a return of their tyranny, they took up arms with the utinoft zeal in every fection; and, by this demonftration of adherence to the convention, intimidated the infurgents, who, finding themselves unequal to the force that oppofed them, were compelled to difperfe. What highly contributed to the fuppreffion of this tumult was the prefence of Pichegru, who happened aufpiciously to be at Paris. He took the command of the Paris military, and quickly restored the public tranquillity. Delivered from their perilous fituation, the convention pafled a decree for the punishment of the authors of this riot. As it had evidenly been excited to prevent the trial of the denounced members, it was moved by Dumont, a popular member, of noted firmness, that they should immediately be fentenced to punishment. In order to foften the rigour of a condemnation that might appear precipitate, their lives were fpared; but they were banished to Guiana, and ordered to be tranfported thither without delay. [G3]

us

us, faid he, without dooming them to death, caft away thefe monsters from our fociety. In this manner terminated the career of Barrere, Collot d'Herbois, and Billaud Varrennes, after having made fo confpicuous a figure during the two first years of the republic. Vaudier, their affociate, had found means to make his efcape.

The party of the moderates refolved to improve this opportuity of ridding the convention of fome of thofe turbulent fpirits that ftill 'guided the motions of the remaining members of the mountain. That bold and reftlefs faction, though fubdued, was not deftroyed, and loft no occafion of reviving and enforcing its atrocious maxims. A bout twenty of the principal among them were put under arreft, and imprifoned in the caftle of Ham, in the province formerly called Picardy. Had they acted in the fame manner against the government of Robespierre, as they had done against the prefent, no one doubted that they would have to fuffer death. The fyftem of moderation, against which they fo violently declaimed, was the fole caufe of their prefervation; and yet individuals arose who, with that philofophic coolnefs which, however praiseworthy in its principle, is too prone to require the fame regularity of proceeding in tempeftuous as in peacable times, took upon them to defcribe the conduct of the moderate party as deferving of cenfure, on this occafion, for having neglected the formalities of a regular trial. Without entirely abfolving this party, the univerfal affent of all thofe who dreaded the renovation of the jacobin fyftem a fufficient juftification of the

they took to prevent it.

Many of their leaft partial friends heavily cenfured them for not ha ving adopted a line of more fecurity, against men who would have fhewed them no mercy, and who, by the cleareft laws of retaliation, were entitled to no more lenity than they had themselves difplayed, whenever the evil destiny of their country had thrown its government into their hands.

As foon as this dangerous infur rection had fubfided, the convention determined to enter on the longdefired, though highly arduous, undertaking, of forming a conftitution that might be acceptable to all reafonable people, and thereby bid fair to be more permanent than the preceding. A committee was appointed to prepare the method of carrying this plan into execution. The refult of its confultations was, that a commiffion of eleven members of the convention fhould be authorised to draw up a fyftem of government, comprehending cumftantial organization of all its parts. All men were invited to communicate their fentiments on thefe fubjects. The commiffioners felected for this great work were Languinais, Lareveillere Lepaux, Thibaudeau, Boifly D'Anglas, Le Sage, Latouche, Louvet, Bertier, Daunou, Durand, Baudin. A provifional system of government was, in the mean while, established, and to remain in force till the conftitution had been completed and accepted. It was framed on prin ciples confiftent with thofe of the moderate party, and calculated to maintain à ftrict concord and correfpondence between all the departments of government. These proceedings took place in the course of May,

An

An object of no lefs importance to France, in its critical fituation refpecting foreign powers, was the providing means to carry on the war with fo many potent enemies. Cambon, the financier, fo long celebrated for his labours in the department of finance, had been difmifled by the convention, and fucceeded by Johannot, a man of established reputation in that branch of political knowledge. In a report which he prefented on the fixth of May to the convention, upon the fituation of the rational finances, he propofed two regalations to be observed, with inviolable fidelity: the one was a firit and punctual payment of the intereft due on the national debt; the other was the establishment of a finking fund, to pay off the principal. Allowing the war to continue two years longer, ftill, he contended, money enough would remain, after defraying all other expences, to answer the purposes of fuch a fund. According to his ftatements, the property of the nation, in lands and forefts, eftates of the emigrants, royal palaces, and domains, together with the produce of the fame nature in Belgium, were valued altogether at a fum equal to more than 11,00007. fterling per annum. This, he afferted, was an amount amply fufficient for the expences of the war, on a fuppofition of its lafting a much longer space than probable, and for a complete liquidation of the whole debt. After entering into various calculations, to prove the juftnefs of his ideas, he concluded by aflerting, that, after defraying all charges, there would remain, clear and unappropriated, according to the accounts and valuations referred to,

no lefs a fum than feven thousand millions of livres.

This enumeration of the refources remaining to France afforded great fatisfaction to the public; but the deeper clafs of fpeculators could not refrain from hinting their doubts of the folidity of the multifarious objects on which his calculations were founded. Admitting their exactness, ftill the uncertainty of thofe amounts, which were to arife from affets existing only in expectation, was alone a defect, that reduced his fyftem to a mere poffibility. But this, in pecuniary matters, was no foundation to build upon; efpecially in a country, the government of which was liable to fo many viciffitudes, and the finances of which could not, of course, be confidered in a fituation of stability.

The late commotions had left an impreffion on the public mind, fo inimical to the jacobins, that the convention, no lefs defirous of depreffing that turbulent party, and punishing the chief agents in its enormities, refolved, in compliance with the reiterated defire of the majority, to bring to justice, conformably to their promife, the execrated inftruments of Robespierre's cruelties, the prefident and judges of the revolutionary tribunal. The multiplicity of crimes they were accufed of required fome time to be arranged: they were accufed of having proftituted the adminiftration of juftice, in the moft fcandalous and infolent manner, to ferve the purpofes of oppreffion and cruelty; and of having made out lifts of perfons to be fentenced to death, under juridical forms, merely to gratify private enmity. Contrarily [G4]

all civilized countries, pregnant women had been ordered for execution, Such was their thirft of blood, that they had been known to take no longer a space of time than three hours to try and condemn fixty in dividuals. They were so hardened and unfeeling in this work of death, and their conduct fo carelefs and inattentive, that the father had been executed for the son, and the son for the father Frequently they had refufed copies of indictments to prifoners. Inftead of a legal felection of juries by lot, out of the body of citizens, they had packed and chofen them as they thought proper. At the head of these accufations ftood the name of Fouquier Tainville, a man as much detefted as his patron Robefpierre. Fifteen others were comprehended in the lift, either judges or jurors of the revolutionary tribunal. They were condemned and executed on the ninth of May, to the univerfal fatiffaction of the humane and equitable part of fociety.

There ftill remained a man equally guilty with the worft of those who had fuffered, and who had fignalized himfelf by his barbarities as copiously as Robespierre himself. This was Jofeph Lebon, already mentioned. Loaded as he was with crimes and murders, the convention allowed him to fpeak in his own defence. He was one of thofe men, whom nature, in an evil hour for the community, endows with a firewed head and a wicked heart. He pleaded his cause eight or nine fucceffive days, with as much coolnefs and refolution as if his confcience had been wholly clear of all offence. But though his audience might be aftonished at his abilities, they were

fuffer him to go unpunished. He was unanimously delivered up to a court of juftice, in that city, where he had exercised most of his enormities, and there brought to a trial, which terminated in his execution fome time in July.

This marked fpirit of vengeance, on the jacobin party, roufed its abettors in every quarter; and they too determined to feize the firft moment of revenge. They loudly accufed the moderate party of fielding themselves under that denomination, the more fecurely to conceal the plots they were contriving for the restoration of royalty. But the falfity of thefe accufations was fo manifeft, that they passed unheeded by the more cool republicans. The convention did not feem in the leaft inclined to favour the royalifts. It enacted at this very time some fevere regulations to prevent their return into France, without lawful permiffion. It foftened, indeed, the unneceffary rigour with which they had hitherto been treated. The property of none was confifcated, but actual emigrants: the estates of fuch as had fuffered during the late tyranny, were restored to the lawful heirs: and the relations, and even the creditors of known emigrants were excepted from the severity of the laws against them.

But the lenity which the convention feemed evidently inclined to adopt, whenever occafion offered, could not fail to procure them the ill-will of thofe unruly multitudes, whofe minds had been perverted by the inexorable maxims of the terrorifts. They watched in filence for another opportunity of rifing against the convention; and a favourable one foon recurred. The

fcarcity

karcity of bread in the late commotion, whether real or artificial, was now become too true. The principal of the remaining leaders of the jacobins, who lay concealed in the obfcureft parts of Paris, availed themfelves of the ill-temper of the hungry populace, and perfuaded them that the want of provifions was due to the indolence of the convention, and their neglecting the proper means of providing fupplies for the metropolis. Among thofe leaders were two members of the convention, whom it had sentenced to imprisonment with feveral others: but they contrived to escape, and were now concealed in that moft turbulent faction of all the metropolis, the fuburb of St. Antoine. Thefe were Cambon, the financier, and Thurot, men equally dangerous through their abilities, their refolution, and their influence over the multitude. Through their machinations the people were excited to the moft outrageous complaints and menaces again the government, and a determination taken to rife in arms against the convention.

The day chofen for this purpole was the twentieth of May. They prepared it on the preceding day, by diftributing papers in the feveral fections full of the most rancorous charges against the convention, and of exhortations to fubmit no longer to fo weak and incapable a govern

Those measures produced their intended effect; the members of the convention were openly reviled in the streets, and compelled to withdraw to places of thelter; but this manifeftation of popular fury, contributed in the iffue to their Jafety. Forewarned thereby of what was preparing, they had time for the taking of fome precautions.

In the inflammatory papers, circulated by the exciters of the infurrection, they recommended it unequivocally, as the duty of the people when they were aggrieved. They advised the citizens of Paris, without diftinction, of age or fex, to repair to the convention, there to demand bread and the conftitution of 1793, the diffolution of the convention, and the arreft of all its mem bers, and the immediate convocation of the primary aflemblies for the election of another. After these arrangements had taken place, and the multitude had been provided with pikes and other weapons, at the dawn of day the alarm bell was rung, and the drums beat to arms in the fuburbs of St. Antoine. The convention had, in the meanwhile, affembled; and after ifluing a proclamation to the citizens, to arm in their defence, paffed a decree to out-law every one that beaded the infurgents: but thele now furrounded the hall of the convention, and numbers of them ruthing in, loaded the deputies with abule and infult. The tribunes being in poffeflion of the populous, force became neceflary to expel them, and a fierce conteft eniued between them, and the conventional guards. The crowd was every moment burfing into the hall, exclaiming bread and the conflitution of 1793. It was with extreme difficulty the prefident could obtain a few minutes of ulence. He told the crowd that the convention was anxioully deliberating on the means of fupplying them with bread; but, that unlcfs they defifted from riot and diforder, none could be procured. He firmly affured them, that the convention was not to be intimidated, and would refolutely

encounter