"J'aime la vertu guerrière Mais soyons toujours aimables On my return, the Reveil d'Epimenide was no longer to be heard of; and if the verse had been sung, the author would have suffered for it. Charles IX. had prevailed. It was principally the circumstances of the time which caused such a mania for this piece; the tocsin, a people armed with daggers, the hatred of kings and priests, offered a private repetition of the tragedy which was being publicly enacted. Talma, then a débutant, continued to succeed. The While tragedy was staining the streets, pastorals flourished at the theatres; there, one was greeted only by innocent shepherds and modest shepherdesses; fields, brooks, meadows, lambs, doves, the age of gold in the hut, were revived to the sight of the shepherd's pipe before the cooing Tircis and the naïve tricotteuses, who had just come from watching the guillotine. If Samson had had time, he would have played the part of Colin, and Mademoiselle Théroigne de Méricourt that of Babet. Conventionalists piqued themselves on being the most benign of men; good fathers, good sons, good husbands; they took their little children out to walk; filled the place of nurses to them; wept with tenderness at their simple games; and took these little lambs gently in their arms to show them the dada of the guillotine-carts taking his victims to execution. They sang of nature, peace, pity, beneficence, candour, and the domestic virtues -these saintly philanthropists cut their neighbours' throats with extreme sensibility, for the supreme happiness and welfare of the human race. C. WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE, STRAND. CHANGE IN THE APPEARANCE OF PARIS-CLUB OF THE CORDELIERS MARAT. IN 1792, Paris no longer exhibited the same appearance as in 1789 and 1790; it was no longer the new-born Revolution, but a people intoxicated, rushing on to fulfil its destiny, across abysses, and by devious ways. The appearance of the people was no longer tumultuous, curious, and eager; but threatening. Terrified or fierce men were to be met in every street, persons who stole quietly along close by the houses, in order to escape notice, or who were roaming about in search of their prey: their timid and downcast looks were either turned away from you, or fixed upon yours in order to scrutinise and thoroughly penetrate you. All variety of costume had disappeared; the dress of former times was wholly displaced, and every one had adopted the uniform apparel of the new social condition-even apparel which was then only the latest clothing of those destined to future condemnation. The social license manifested at the regeneration of France, the liberties of 1789-those fantastic and wild liberties of an order of things which is self-destructive and nothing better than anarchy-had already brought everything VOL. I. 2 B to the same level under the sway of the empire of the people. There was on all hands abundant evidence of the approach of a young plebeian tyranny, fertile it is true, and filled with hopes, but in other respects as much to be dreaded as the fallen despotism of the old royalty. The sovereign people being everywhere, when it becomes a tyrant, the tyrant is everywhere it is the universal presence of a universal Tiberius. The population of Paris was mixed up with a strange population of cut-throats from the south: the advanced guard of the Marseillais, whom Danton was drawing together in Paris for the 10th of August, and the massacres of September. These new comers were easily known by their rags, their bronzed faces, and the appearance of idleness and crime, but the crimes of a different climate; in vultu vitium, wickedness in their countenances. In the Legislative Assembly I recognised no one; Mirabeau and the first idols of our disturbances were either no longer in existence, or had lost their altars. In order, however, to resume the thread of history, broken by my voyage to America, I must revert to things of a somewhat earlier date. RETROSPECT. THE king's flight on the 21st of June, 1791, gave an immense impulse to the revolution. Having been brought back to Paris on the 25th of the same month, he was dethroned for the first time, in consequence of the declaration of the National Assembly, that all its decrees should have the force of law, without the king's concurrence or assent. A high court of justice, intended to replace the revolutionary tribunal, had been established at Orleans. From that time forth, Madame Roland was urgent for the beheading of the queen, in anticipation of the time when the revolution should demand her own. The Assembly in the Champ de Mars had taken place to protest against the decrees which suspended the king from the exercise of his functions instead of bringing him to trial. The acceptance of the Constitution on the 14th of September had no effect in calming the storm. The question then was the deposition of Louis XVI., which, if it had taken place, would have spared the crime of the 21st of January. The condition of the French people was changed in relation to the monarchy and to posterity. The members of the Constituent Assembly, who opposed the king's deposition, thought to save his crown, and they lost it; those who thought to destroy it, by demanding his deposition, would have saved it. So it is almost always in politics; the result is contrary to the anticipation. On the 30th of the same month of September, 1791, the Constituent Assembly held its last sitting; the unwise decree of the 17th of the preceding May, which rendered the retiring members ineligible for the subsequent Assembly, begot the Convention. Nothing can be more dangerous, more unsuitable, or more inapplicable to public affairs, than resolutions directed against individuals or bodies, even when these resolutions are themselves honourable. The decree of the 29th of September, for the regulation of popular assemblies, only served to render them more violent. This was the last act of the Constituent Assembly; it separated on the next day, and left to France a Revolution. THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY-CLUBS. THE Legislative Assembly, which was installed on the 1st of October, 1791, was carried along by the whirlwind which was about to sweep away the living and the dead. Popular commotions led to shedding of blood in the departments; at Caen the people were gorged with massacre, and devoured the heart of M. de Belzunce. The decree against the émigrés, and that against the nonjuring clergy, which deprived them of all rights, were vetoed by the king. These legal acts increased the agitation. Pétion had become Mayor of Paris. On the 1st of January, 1792, the deputies passed a decree for the trial of the emigrated princes; and on the 2nd they resolved, that this same 1st of January was to be reckoned as the first day of the year of Liberty IV. About the 13th of February, the red caps made their appearance in the streets of Paris, and the municipality caused pikes to be fabricated. The manifesto of the émigrés was issued on the 1st of March. Austria had recourse to arms. Paris was divided into sections more or less hostile to one another. On the 20th of March, 1792, the Legislative Assembly adopted that sepulchral machine without which the judgments of the reign of terror could not have been carried into effect; the instrument was first tried upon dead bodies, in order to learn from them the execution of its work. This machine may indeed be spoken of as an executioner, since persons, delighted with its valuable services, dedicated sums of money for its support, as testimonies of their respect. The invention of such a murderous instrument at the very moment in which its services became so necessary to crime, is a memorable proof of the mode in which events are co-ordinate to one another, or rather a proof of those hidden means employed by Providence, when the whole face of empires is destined to be changed. At the instigation of the Girondins, Roland was called to be minister and member of the king's council. On the 20th of April, war was declared against the King of Hungary and Bohemia. Marat published the Ami du Peuple, in spite of the decree specially directed against him. The royal German regiment and that of Berchini deserted. Isnard was busy speaking about the treachery of the court, while Gensonné and Brissot denounced the Austrian Committee. An insurrection broke out in reference to the royal guard, which was disbanded. On the 28th of May, the Assembly declared its sittings permanent. The palace of the Tuileries was forced by the masses of the faubourgs St. Antoine and Marceau on the 20th of June, on pretext of Louis XVI.'s refusal to sanction the proscription of the priests; the king's life was exposed to peril. The country was declared to be in danger. M. de Lafayette was burned in effigy. The confederates of the second federation were arriving; the Marseillais, on the invitation of Danton, were on their march; they entered Paris on the 30th of July, and were lodged by Pétion in the convent of the Cordeliers. |