probation; and, that atheism was openly professed. But, while the people were indulging themselves in all the caprices of the wildest licentiousness, a power was silently forming, that not long after subjected both them and the rest of France to one of the most severe and unrelenting tyrannies that has ever existed. Popular commotions are terrible in their explosions, but transient in their exertions; after their labours the people often fall into a sleep, from which they are long in awaking; and sometimes into a lethargy, from which they never recover. For a short time after the 31st of May, the sections of Paris did dictate to the convention, and to such executive power as there was in the state. It appears probable, that Danton, who acted a principal part in conducting them to their present elevation, had formed the design of establishing some solid and lasting power through their means; for, not long after, he moved in the convention, that the whole authority of the state, by the name of a provisional government, should be vested in the committee of public safety: it was referred by the convention to that committee itself, whose report, to the astonishment of, I believe, all the by-standers, gave it a negative; but, the members of which, judged more correctly, for it was not supported by the sections. As their authority over the convention was still great, it is not improbable, that they had perceived the drift of that motion; for about this time Danton's popularity received a shock, which it never after recovered in spite of all his endeavours to regain it. Some time after, the city, in consequence of a scarcity of provisions principally occasioned by the absurd law of the maximum, demanded of the convention that a revolutionary army should be formed, which should travel with a guillotine in its train, to compel the rich to support the poor: the convention did not dare to refuse it. Notwithstanding the convention submitted so often to the sections, the Committee of public safety, and the party connected with them, rapidly extended their power. On the motion of Danton forty sols a day, bad been granted to the poor citizens, while attending the meetings of the sections; but, the convention tacked to the decree a clause, restricting their meetings to twice in a week; some of them presented a petition against that clause, but it was refused, and not long after it was decreed; that their meetings should be reduced to once in ten days. The convention had been called to form a constitution; the first constitution had employed the constituent assembly more than two years, the convention dis

patches them in little more than as many months. Whether any of the great parties ever intended that it should be put in prac tice is to be doubted; for, no, sooner had some of the members suggested, that the object of their meeting was fulfilled, and that they should dissolve themselves as the constituent assembly had done, than addresses were procured requesting them to continue at their post, which they so readily complied with, that they resolved not to abandon it, till the dangers of the revolution were past. Not long after the revolutionary government was decreed, on the motion of the prevailing faction. It was, in fact, the same as that moved for by Danton, but the power fell into other hands. So much had the face of affairs changed in so short a time, that an arrêt of the council of Paris, declaring themselves the center of the existing revolutionary committees, was then annulled, and the constituted authorities ordered, under severe penalties, not to assemble them. Among the importations of the Anglomania into France, was that of clubs. Clubs are a plant of English growth: notwithstanding the fac titious manners of the present times, the national character operates so strongly, that they still tend to diffuse the unconstrained ease of social intercourse; and, in those of a political nature, to soften the asperity of party; but, in France, where the habits, the manners, and the taste were formed for living. in a crowd, they were merely debating societies, and only heightened the virulence of faction. There were several clubs in France before any of the dissentions that led to the, revolution began; they then gave umbrage to the government, and were ordered to be suppressed. Among the various clubs produced by the revolution, was that of the friends of the constitution, better known by the name of the Jacobins. That club was at first a meeting of some of the members of the tiers état of Brittany, where the disputes between the noblesse and them, had been more marked than in any of the other provinces. I believe, the principle by which they were distinguished at first, was, that they decided upon every question as it occurred, upon its own merits alone, without fettering themselves by any forms, or considering it as part of any predetermined system. Another club, which did not give so great latitude to their opinics upon every, occasion, or, who were, in short, more attached to some general principles of government, at first opposed them, and for a short time had great weight in the constituent assembly; but, the tenets of the Jacobins were so congenial with the principles and progress

of the revolution, that they soon acquired a great ascendant in the assembly. Many persons, who were not members of the assembly, were admitted into the society: though the original members had been intlined, to what were at that time the most popular opinions, they were soon outstripped in that particular by the foreign members, if that expression may be used; and, not Jong after their institution, the members of the assembly male a secession, with an intention of again constituting themselves the chab on its original footing; but, it was then 'too late, the foreign members were so great a body, and so far retained the weight of the society, that the original members thought it prudent to return to them. From that time most of the questions that came before the assembly were discussed there, and in a few months their infinence over it was so great, that petitions and applications were made to them respecting legislative, and sometimes executive affairs. Societies on the same principles were formed in almost every part of the country, with which that in Paris corresponded, and the opinions and resolutions of the parent, had considerable weight with the affiliations. The Jacobins, however, far from directing, had hitherto had very little share in any of the great movements that were æras in the French revolution they were not connected with any efficient force, that could give effect to their resolutions. They detested the confederates. Though some of the principal movers of the populace or sections of Paris, were members of the society, as a body they had very little if any influence over them. As they both had the same object-n view, to level ail distinctions and all authority but their own, they generally acted in concert, but they were sometimes at variance. The 6th of October was passed before the jacobins were known; the 10th of August was so little their work, that all the members who had taken an active part in it, except those who were at the head of the sections of Paris, we.e immediately after proscribed by themselves; and, the 31st of May was planned, not among the Jacobins, but in the electoral assembly of Paris. What share they had in forming the public opinions is difficult to say; but, that hey did not direct, it is evident. When Barnave, Lameth, &c. thought that the roal to distinction was by courting the populace, and took the direction of the club from Chapelier and the other founders of the society, they outran the pullie opini and the Jacobins were obliged to assu the character of friends of order and gov.rament, to recover their influence; the

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same happened after the 28th of February, when they declared in favour of the sections of Faris; they were then obliged to do a longer perance of the same sort. Like every other part of the nation, they were theruselves subjected to every great change in the state: there were several secessions from them: by a scrutiny after the 10th of August, the Girondists with many other persons were expelled; by another, after the revolutionary government was decreed, they expelled many of the most popular members belonging to the cy of Paris. After the members of the constituent assembly, and these connected with them had either seceded or were expelled, the jacobius might be defined, a body of political adventurers who hampered every department of govern ment which they did not direct, and who would engage in any political enterprise from which they could derive power of ad· vantage. In addition to those who were members of that club, there was at Paris a vast collection, not only of natives, but of foreigners of desperate fortunes, who were ready for any undertaking, and who became the instruments of the revolutionary government. Before that government was declared, the convention for the ostensible purpose of quelling revolts, and enforcing the requisitions of men and provisions, commissioners of their own members into many parts of the country, who assumed an unlimited power, changing the constituted authorities, and arresting whomsoever they pleased; after that government was esta blished, they exercised the same power every where. So sudden and so great are the changes that depend upon popular opi nion, that if it had not passed almost before our eyes, it would hardly have been credible, that fom the extreme of licentiousness, a na tion should in a few months, bow their necks to a tyranny so despotic and so sanginary, as rarely to have had an equal. Wi bout the compulsion of any great armed force, they allowed themselves to be seized and draca to execution by thousands, Lot only u light pretences, and upon an unfair trial, but upon the mandate of a comissioner, which but a short time befo.c they hat treated with conten pt. Thstranny did not bear only upon the parusa of the old government. the le ders of th dif ferent revolutionary parties that preceded it. or even the founders of the Jacobinlaby who almost all perished under it; but, at last extended likewise to the populace themselves, who had overthrown the throne, the noblesse, and the clergy, think it was not till the reign of Caracalia, for I speak

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'strongest party, that he might either join, or at least not give it offence. Barrère, and his testimony is strongly corroborated by Robespierre not being absent at that time, declared, that so far from being the author of the revolutionary government, he opposed it; but, that when it was adopted, he filled as many of the departments with his creatures as he could. That he was a man of blood, who shed it without hesitation, when that could promote his views, there can be no doubt; but, he on many occasions made attempts, I mean such feeble attempts as were suitable to his character, to stop the wanton effusion of it. He hinted at saving the Princess Elizabeth; when the revolutionary axe began to fall on the populace, he suggested that it was necessary to lop off only the highest heads. After he was executed, the remaining members made use of the apothegm of Barrère, that dead men tell no tales, and threw all the obloquy of the bloodshed upon him; but, I know of no reason to think, that it was the tyranny either of him or any other individual, but of a gang of hardened and unprincipled adventurers, who dealt destruction both individually and collectively, on every thing that gave them umbrage.- -The club of the Cordeliers was but little known, till after the execution of the King; composed chiefly of the leaders of the sections of Paris, it then rose into consequence. Had the revolutionary government been carried into effect, when it was first proposed by Danton, it is probable, from the murders in the beginning of the revolution, the massacres of September, and from the revolutionary tribunal being created at their instance, that the sections would not have been more merciful than the Jacobins, into whose hands it fell. Resenting, however, the success of the latter, and feeling the pressure of their power, a plot was some months after formed for overturning, or more properly, taking it out of their hands. The Jacobins were alarmed, and sent a deputation to the Cordeliers, offering them the fraternal embrace, and to become thereafter friends and brethren; the Cordeliers were the dupes of these professions; it was the kiss of Judas; the ferment was no sooner allayed, than the most noisy members of the Cordeliers were arrested; the sections taken by surprise, far from attempting to relieve them by force, sunk under the terror of the revolutionary tribunal; even Danton and the rest of the leaders declared against those that had been arrested, who were immediately tried and executed: they were no sooner disposed of, than those of greater consequence, and Dan

ton himself shared the same fate. Thus far the principal members of the revolutionary government appear to have acted in concert, but, having then overcome all opposition, a contest for power arose among themselves. The possession of the revolutionary government was contested by Robespierre, Couthen and St. Just on one part, and by Billatd, Collot, &c. on the other; for Barrère was merely a weather-cock to point out the strongest side. While the popular leaders of Paris were in existence, Robespierre and his party were at variance with the constituted authorities of the city, but after they had fallen on the scaffold, he insinuated himself into the confidence of the common council, he had a majority of the jacobin club in his favour, he had likewise secured the revolutionary tribunal, and the commauder of the armed force of Paris, whose obedience that commander thought he could answer for; but, they were far from being popular among the sections, because they had been active in cutting off the principal members of the Cordeliers; the latter party were at the head of the other departments of the government. The convention had been so long a passive instrument in their hands, that no important business was there agitated, unless brought forward by members or connexions of the committee of public safety; but an incident occurred which alarmed the members for their own safety, and induced them to take a decided part. The committee of public safety had procured a decree, by which they were empowered to arrest all suspected persons, and bring them before the revolutionary tribunal; but, either from an exception in the law, or from practice, they had only arrested the members of the convention whom they chose to include in the number of the suspicious, but had not brought them to trial without a decrce of accusation from the convention. In the beginning of June a decree was passed, granting them the same powers, in which no mention was made of the members of the convention. That decree appears to have had the approbation of both those parties; and, probably, was intended by both to be made use of against their antagonists, when they found it practicable. Though the members of the convention did not chuse to dispute with them the lives of the rest of the nation, they had some regard for their own. Next day, when several zealous revolutionists required that the members of the convention should be expressly exempt ed from being brought to trial, without a decree of accusation; a decree to that effect was passed. Robespierre by hints in the in