jeft of fufficient weight to balance the general inconveniences ariling from their long duration. Among the feverities of this decree, perfons convicted of holding difcourfes inimical to the revolution, were to be denounced by thofe who heard them; and who, in cafe of omition, were punishable themfelves. The offenders were to be tried by the conftituted authorities of their district; and, if under fixty years of age, and enjoying health, they were then to be fentenced to tranfportation to Guiana, a French colony on the northern coast of South America. This decree was looked upon by the generality of the people as too harfh, as it tended to convert familiar acquaintances into fpies upon each other, by the punishment it threatened to thofe who, from fentiments of generofity, would wish to conceal the unguarded effufions to which men are liable in the warmth of conversation. A few days after, an act took place, by which all aged and nonjuring ecclefiaftics were ordered to refide in the departments to which they belonged, in houfes appropriated for their future abode. The punishment of exile was enacted for concealing or entertaining clergynien condemned to punishment or confinement. The occafion of this act was the dread of that fpiritual influence which the ecclefiaftical order exerted fo diffufely throughout France, efpecially over the ruftic claffes, who still remained fas entirely devoted to them as ever. The jurifdiction they exercised was the more difficult to be prevented, that it arose from the fole confent of those who fubmitted to it, and who thought themfelves bound in confcience to fuch a fubmiflion in whatever related to religion. The powers thus poffeffed by the ecclefiaftics, were, through the zeal of their numerous adherents, exerted not only in fpiritual cafes, but in temporal matters of the highest importance. They were, not without caufe, reputed the movers, or the abettors at least, of every infurrection and attempt that had been made in favour of royalty. As they had been deprived of their poffeffions by the ruling powers, it could not be expected that they fhould bear them no refentment. Actuated thus by private motives, no less than public principles, they were confidered as domestic enemies; the more dangerous that, under the appearance of performing ecclefiaftical duties, they governed the minds of multitudes with the moft abfolute fway; and could at any time impel them to execute whatever was propofed to them, by reprefenting it as a duty, which to neglect would be highly finful. The more orderly clergy were the most active and zealous. Long habituated to the maxims and doc trines of former times, they viewed and reprefented the revolution and its confequences in the most odious light. As their age and long stand ing procured them proportionable attachment and refpect, their influ◄ ence was much greater than that of their juniors; and they were lif tened to with more attention and deference. Neither was it to be expected that men, grown grey in the belief and profeffion of the doctrines they had been accustomed to inculcate with fo much care, and to maintain with so much zeal from their youth, would be prevailed upon to remain filently paffive amidst the daily wrecks they wit nefed effed of religion, and of thofe politics, of both which they had fo long been the avowed and the offi. cial propagators; and from which they had, during a long courfe of years, derived fo honourable a maintenance, and fo extenfive a credit and influence over every clafs of fociety. These were motives too powerful, in men ftrongly perfuaded of the rectitude of their principles, and feeling fo keenly the injurious treatment they had received, to fuffer them, while they had the liberty of acting, to let país any opportunity of following their inclinations. The tempestuoufnefs of the times, and the neceffity of taking every precaution to prevent infurrections against the established government, were no improper plea for this decree; though it was greatly difpleading even to many who were wellwithers to the republican fyftem. They were of opinion that conciliation would effect more than terror; and that, by treating the clergy with lenity, thofe over whofe confciences they had fo much in fluence, would the more readily be reconciled to the prefent meafures; that their fpiritual directors, find ing themselves humanely ufed, would feel the lefs propenfity to excite the difcontent of their fol. lowers, the dangerous confequences of which would fall on themfelves. The foregoing decree was fpeedily followed by another of a fingular nature, and which strongly in dicated the rancour of the republicans towards the royalists. The wives of thofe that had emigrated, weary of their forlorn and unprotected state, and defirous of being with their husbands, found it how VOL. XXXVI. ever extremely difficult to escape from the involuntary detainment they were held in, and which was accompanied with so much peril. They were looked upon as pledges for the peaceable behaviour of their husbands, on account of whofe hoftile attempts against the republican government, the ferocious refentment of its rulers might easily find pretexts to facrifice their wives. Urged by these motives they employed every method that female dexterity could devife, in order to forward their evafion; but they were fo narrowly watched, that their endeavours were ufually fruitless. An expedient was at length fuggefted, which they readily embraced; and which for a time proved fuccefsful. They contracted pretended marriages with foreigners who were in the fecret ; and by whom they were carried out of the country as their hufbands. This contrivance did not long remain concealed; and as foon as it was known, a determination was taken to frustrate it. With this view, a decree was made, prohibiting the marriage of the wives of emigrants with foreigners, under the heaviest penalties. To this rancour against the partizans of royalty, was farther added the hatred that purfued the memory of its last poffeffor. On the 27th of April the Convention was informed that François Gemain, locksmith to the late King, had de clared that he had conftructed, by his orders; a fecret clofet, in a wall of his apartment in the Thuilleries, with an iron-door. In this closet were depofited thofe papers, of which he gave information after the 10th of August 1792, and of which fuch ufe had been made against the K King King. This man alfo declared, that while he was at work, the King brought him a bottle of wine: after drinking which he was feized in a few hours with violent pains, which terminated in an illness that Jated fourteen months, and rendered him unable, ever fince, to follow his bufinefs. In confequence of his patriotism, in difcovering the papers thus conecaled, and of his fufferings and inability to work at his trade, he petitioned for a fupport from the Convention. The Convention readily admitted this man's application, and decreed that the depolitions he had made, after due examination, fhould be preferved in the archives of the Convention, as lafting proofs of the wickednefs of the late King, and fhould alfo be made public to the world, in order to fhew him in his proper colours. This decree proved highly offenfive to the difcerning, as well as humane, part of fociety. The former reprobated it, as founded folely on the teftimony of an individual interested in framing fuch a declaration. But it accorded fo little with the character of that unhapyy monarch, that it was even deititute of plaufibility, and carried all the marks of a forgery, either proceeding from Gemain himself, or fuggetted to him by others who fought, by his means, to vilify the late King. The compaffionate and humane thought, that having expiated .all his errors on the icaffold, it was ungenerous and inhuman to call them back to remembrance. But the ruling powers felt no remorfe in puriaing with the utmot virulence, not only monarchy, but every offence committed under that form of government. One of the chief abuses that had character ized the three laft reigns, was the oppreffion of the people by the far mers-general. The extortions, of which fome of them had been guilty, were undeniable, and had been duly proved by a strict examination of their proceedings. Still however it appeared inequitable to the moderate to call them to ac count for misdemeanours committed under a fyftem of government that was no more; and of which the delinquencies ought, in good policy, to be forgotten, as the too merciless profecution of them might probably tend to make enemies of many, who but for the feverities they dreaded, were their past con duct too ftrictly fcrutinized, would warmly fupport revolutionary meafures. But the enmity of the peo ple to the very name of Farmers. General, pointed out a road to popularity, which was too inviting for the ruling party not to follow, when they felt to deeply the need of the multitude. In compliance with thofe clamours against the farmersgeneral, which had been fo loud and io univerfal in France for a number of years, and were become in a mauner traditional, the Convention, on the 5th of May, paffed a decree by which they were configned to the revolutionary tribunal, where many of them were condemned to die, and executed accordingly.. But thefe were only ordinary victims of that strict and neceflary juf tice, as it was now called, which vi ted with unbiaffed impartiality the iniquities of the past as well as of the prefent day. In order to exhibit the moft ftriking fpecimen of that equality in the inflicting of pu nifhments, to which it was determined to reduce all individuals without without diftinction, Fouquier Tin-ville, the public accufer, a man well fitted for the bloody office with which he was invefted, formally -demanded that the Princefs Eliza. beth, fifter to the late King, fhould be cited to appear before the revolutionary tribunal, on a fufpicion of being concerned in counter-revolutionary practices. The utter impoffibility that a woman under the ftrict confinement in which fhe was held, fhould be acceffary to any proceedings of fuch a tendency, was fo obvious, that all Paris was ftruck with amazement when told that he was to undergo a trial. Her character was in every fenfe unimpeachable. Her piety and refignation to the hard and undeferved treatment she had fo long endured, had rendered her an object even of popular commiferation. When brought before the revolutionary tribunal, fhe replied to the questions put to her with fuch unaffectedness, calmness, and precifion, that every one prefent was convinced that the fpoke the strictest truth. To the various charges urged against her, fhe made the most appofite and fatisfactory anfwers, and completely cleared herfelf of every accufation. To that of having encouraged her nephew to hope that he would be one day King of France, fhe frankly and innocently replied, that in the familiar intercourfe between them, the had employed every motive to comfort him in his melancholy fituation. This ingenuous anfwer was immediately interpreted as an ac knowledgment that he had really encouraged him in that expectation; and fentence of death was paffed upon her. She fuffered, in company with twenty-fix others; and was executed the laft. She behaved in her laft moments with great dignity and decency. Thefe numerous and merciless executions filled all France with terror. This was the very end in view. But this terror was accompanied with equal horror; and prepared all men to look with impatience and anxiety for an alteration of affairs. The fentiments of the public were not kept in fuch fecrecy as not in fome meature to transpire. In order to preferve, in the meau time, the attachment of the multitude by that oftentatious difplay of religion which is fo captivating to the unreflecting and the unwary, Robefpierre now adopted an idea which he doubted not would be of the highest utility to his defigns. This was to fet apart the tenth day for religious and moral obfervance, in imitation of the feventh in the Chriftian fyftem. He refolved therefore, without delay, to increase the popularity he had already acquired, by introducing the fubject of religion into the Convention, as a point of the greatest importance, and making fuch additional regu lations in the matters relating to it, as might imprefs the people with a conviction that he was fincere in his profeffions. Full of this project, on the 7th of May he afcended the tribune, and made a long and elaborate fpeech, replete with the moft turgid and fulfome defcription of the fame and grandeur which the French nation had attained. The victories of the republic, he faid, were celebrated in every quarter of the univerfe. An entire revolution, had, taken place in the phyfical order of things, which would indubitably produce another in the moral and political. One half of the globe had already felt this change, and the other would foon feel it. The French nation had anticipated the rest of the world by 2000 years, and might be confidered as confifting of a new fpecies of men. He was warm and enthufiaftic in the praise of republican morality and a democratical government, defcribing every other form of government and fpecies of morality as deferving of deteftation. He juftified the fanguinary measures which had produced the prefent fyftem, and that now fupported it. After this prefatory difcourfe, he brought forward the religious and moral plan he had prepared; which, being laid before the Convention, was digefted in the following heads, and formed into a folemn decree. The French nation thereby acknowledged the existence of a Supreme Being, and the immortality of the foul. It acknowleged that the worship of the Supreme Being confifted in the practice of the duties of man to man. It ranked among thofe duties the deteftation of treachery and tyranny, the pu nifliment of tyrants and traitors, relieving the unfortunate, affisting the weak, the defence of the oppreft, the doing to others all pofible good, and the avoiding of injuftice towards all men. Festivals were to be inftituted, in order to recall men to a recollection of the Divinity, and the dignity of his own exiftence. Thefe feftivals were to be named either after the most fignal events of the French revolution, thofe of the virtues the most dear to mankind, or the most confpicuous benefits of nature. The following days were annually to be celebrated as feftivals: the 14th of July, the 10th of Auguft, the 21st of January, and the 31st of May. Every tenth day of the month was alfo to be celebrated as a feftival. The objects of these festivals were to be the Supreme Being, nature, the hu man race, the French nation, benefactors of mankind, martyrs of liberty, liberty and equality, the French republic, the freedom of the world, patriotifm, the punish The diftinguished excellence and glory of the French, was a very favourite and popular topic of declamation. On the 6th of September, 1794, the deputy Geraud, in a long harangue in the Convention, infifted on the glory of educating a whole nation, fo as to render them worthy of liberty. France, he obferved, was elevated to the very pinnacle of earthly fplendor; the eyes of mankind were fixed upon her doctrines, and fourteen centuries of ignorance, degradation, and flavery were now effaced. The flaves of defpotifm had been ftruck with a mortal terror; a protecting Divinity had elevated her empire on the finoking ruins of a throne, and on the bloody remnants of expiring factions. "Mandatories of a great nation," said he," let us confecrate a durable monument to the rifing generation; the Areopagus of Europe ought now to confolidate the majeftic edifice of our immortal revolution on the immoveable bafis of public inftruction. Before we abandon the helm of public afairs, let us announce to our conftituents with a true republican boldness, to France, and to all Europe, that we contemplate with enthufiafm one inviolable 'maxim, without puplic education, the empire of morals must be destroyed. And if the fury of new Vandals fhall aim at the deftruction of the republic; if the dread of this horrible calamity diffufes confternation among the paffionate friends of liberty-but I here paufe, and confign my reflections to virtue, to the principles of the French fenate, to the cogitations of the learned, and to the meditations of philoLophy." ment |