by the guillotine. The only won der is, that his, friend, through whom this fact afterwards tranf pired, was not included in the number. In the mind of Robespierre, all the fentiments of nature were fo overborne and fuperfeded by po... litical fanaticifm and phrenzy, that he regarded human beings merely as geometrical figures on which he could form fyftematic reafonings by abftraction, without the smalleft einotion of humanity.

The confpiracies continually imputed to the unfortunate individuals hut up in the numerous prifons in Paris, afforded a fresh opportunity and pretence to treat them with the utmost rigour and barbarity that malice and inhumanity could jointly invent. They were deprived of every comfort of life. The more exalted and elegant their ftyle of living had been, the more ready were their oppreflors to make them feel the reverse of their condition. They were, without difcrimination of rank or fex, thruft into the most horrid dungeons,fed with the coarseft and moft loathfome food, -expofed to the vileft taunts, railleries, and reproaches of their infolent and pitylefs keepers. There was not, in fhort, a fpecies of mifery and horror left uncontrived and unexercised over the victims condemned by the cruelty of the ruling powers to thofe lamentable abodes. Every affliction that can

befal human nature, and render death preferable to life, was here daily and hourly experienced; and the reality of that vulgar but fignificant expreffion, a hell upon earth, was here exhibited in the moft horrible extent.

While thefe tragic scenes were acted within the prifons of the metropolis, the reign of terror was fpreading its baleful influence without, and filling all claffes of the community with confternation. As party and principle were daily ceafing to be fafeguards to the warmeft partizans of liberty, people hardly knew what maxims to avow, and what political perfuafion to embrace. They were all equally dangerous, unless they were accompa nied with an unreserved fubmiffion to the governing power, and an implicit acquiefcence in the rectitude of all its measures. The ter ror infufed by thofe atrocities be gan however to be attended with commiferation. The prodigious increase of the number of prifoners was a fufficient motive for general alarm,-no one knowing how foon his name might be added to the lift. It was at this time enor mous, amounting to near 8000 perfons, inclosed within the jails of Paris only. Hence may be conjectured what the number muft have been of those confined in all the prifons of France!

URING the campaign of 1:99, and the firft months of that of 1794, the uncertainty of the good or bad fortune ultimately awaiting the arms of France, fufpended all fenfations and fears but thofe which related to the fubjuga tion orindependence of the French. Refolved not to impede thofe plans that had been formed, and were now in the ftage of execution for the common defence, they felt only for the fafety of the country; convinced that any domeftic, however fevere, was preferable to a foreign tyranny. To this motive, aided by the enfuing profperity of their armies, may be attributed the patience with which they submitted to the load of hardships and inconveniences of all kinds oppreffing them at home, and particularly to the extreme feverity of their government. But when the dangers they apprehended from a foreign eremy began to vanish, and they were totally delivered from the dread of becoming a conquered nation, they began alfo to turn their attention to their domestic fituation; and though they continued their obedience to the ruling powers that had fteered them through the ftorm, they likewife viewed

their conduct at home with a more obfervant

and criticifing eve. Though this change in the difpofition of the public did not imme. diately manifeft itfelf in a glaring manner, yet it was very perceptible to attentive obfervers, and accelerated those measures that had been fome time in preparation among that party which, though checked and intimidated by the fall of feve ral on whofe co-operation they had depended, still continued in the determination to put a stop to the progrefs of the prefent fyftem, as foon as an opportunity offered of attempting it without evident haz ard of rain.

This party confifted of the most able and refolute men in the Covention; they read their own deftiny in that of Danton, Camille Defmoulins, and Fabre d'Eglantine. No members of that body had ferv. ed him with more efficacy. To the firft he owed his primary elevation to power; and had long been fupported by his great courage and capacity. The wit and addrefs of the fecond, and the unwearied aċtivity of the third, were well known, and had occafionally enabled him to overcome great oppofition, and to overthrow very dangerous ene

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mies. Nevertheless, he deftroyed them on fufpicion of their feeking to relax the fyftem of terror; by which only, it feems, he thought himself fecure. The deftruction of three fuch men, convinced their friends that no fafety remained but in the removal of Robefpierre; and that if they were not expeditious, he would anticipate them. Full of this conviction, they deter mined, at all events, to carry their point, and, if neceffary, to put him to death in the Convention, and truft to their country for an approbation of the deed.

This however seems to have been the last remedy they propofed to apply to, for a cure of the evils refulting from his tyranny. They refolved in the mean time, before coming to this extremity, to undermine his influence gradually, and to place him in fuch a fituation, as to render him amenable to the formal justice of his country. They had vigilantly waited for an occafion of doing this with propriety, and without feeming to intend a rupture with him. One at length prefented itself, precifely of fuch a nature. Whether Robespierre had any particular meafure in contemplation, to the execution of which he might not think the .powers of the two committees of public and general fafety fully adequate; or whether he only intended to fupply them with additional powers for any occafion that might occur, he thought it neceffary they fhould be enlarged. With this view he procured a decree, by which they were empowered to confign to the revolutionary tribunal whomfoever they might think fit objects of national feverity. This decree was made on the 9th

of June, the day after the grand feftival, wherein he had made fo pompous a figure; and it paffed, as many other decrees of his propofing had done, without contradiction, and with very little deliberation.

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But the following day opened a new scene. This decree was fo clearly intended to rivet the chains of the Convention, that the party in oppofition to Robefpierre, felt the neceffity of repelling it immediately they faw no lefs an opportunity of expofing the unwarrantable defigns he was purfuing against the authority of the Convention. A man of great intrepidity undertook, on this occafion, to ftand forward in afferting the rights and the dignity of the Convention. This was Bourdon de L'Oife, whose firmnefs had already been difplayed in fome very critical inftances. He demanded of the president whether, by the power vefted in the committces, they were authorized to bring the national deputies before the revolutionary tribunal?

This queftion rouzed at once the whole Convention. Surprize and indignation at the treatment preparing for them was expreft by numbers, who had not poffibly attended at firft to the confequences involved in that decree. Bourdon de L'Oife did not neglect to encourage the fpirit that he had revived in the Convention. He congratulated the members on the proof they had given of the fenfe which they entertained of their privileges and of their liberty. Prefuming, therefore, that they could never have intended to inveft the committees with the right of bringing the national deputies before the revolutionary tribunal,

he

We proposed, that the Convention fhould formally decree, that the committees, while they preferve the right of arrefting the members of the Convention, should not however confign them to the revolutionary tribunal until a decree of accufation had been paffed against them by their fellow-deputies. It was additionally moved by another member, of great confpicuity and importance, Merlin of Douai, that the right of paffing acts of accufation against its own members, and of directing the tribunals to try them, was exclusively lodged in the Convention.

The paffing of these motions was the first check to the power of Robespierre that he had ever experienced in the Convention. It was a mortification which, from the recent difplay of his confequence two days before, he had little expected. He feemed, from this day, to have loft much of his confidence. He neither fhewed himself in the committees, nor in the Convention. Here a large and fpirited party was decidedly forming against him. The committee of general fecurity was no less hoftile; and in that of public fafety, the most confiderable part of the members were no less his enemies.

This was a mortifying reverte of his former situation. He bore it, however, with great coolnefs of temper, and employed himfelf in devifing means to counteract the fchemes of his adverfaries; of which, through the numerous tribes of fpies and informers at his command, he had fufficient intelligence. Tho' perfonally abfent from the Convention, he was highly folicitous, through the medium of his two poft intimate and trufty agents,

St. Juft and Couthon, to labourfor the prefervation of his. popu larity, by procuring a number of falutary laws to be paffed. Thofe which principally deferve mention, were the regulations in favour of feamen entitled to prize-money; the equitable diftribution of which was very judicioufly provided for. Another national fervice of importance, was the prevention of the pernicious effects to the public finances, fo much dreaded and expected from the deluge of counter-" feit affignats now poured into France from foreign parts. Thro' the arrangements made to obviate their circulation, they proved of little detriment where it was intended they should have done moft. Not more than 60001. fterling of thefe forged notes found their way to the treafury. The remainder fell upon the people at large.

A decree was passed for the regulation of military promotions. One-third of the pofts, from a fublieutenant to a chief of battalion, were, by this decree, appropriated to thofe who had fignalized themfelves by their bravery; one-third was to be conferred according to feniority; and another third by election. By this arrangement the first vacancy in every corps was given to feniority, the fecond by election, and the third was difpofed of by the Convention. A lift of thofe preferred for their valour and fervices was ordered to be published every decade, and diftributed throughout the army. The effect of this regulation was prodigious: it inftantly excited a spirit of emulation, that pervaded all the armies of the republic. To the enthufiafm that already animated them, the profpect of remuneration was