PROGRESS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
During this year the principles of the French revolution were more clearly manifested to the world. Early in the year the state of foreign affairs assumed a more menacing aspect. Austria was collecting troops, and the only ultimatum on which the emperor would agree to discontinue preparations, was the re-establishment of the French constitution on the basis of the declaration of June, 1789; the restitution of their property to the clergy; and the cession of Alsace to the German princes, and of Avignon to the pope. But these terms were “like a summons directed to the torrent, or a command to the whirlwind:” the assembly replied to them by a declaration of war, to which Louis was compelled to assent. Nor was this the only effect produced by the demands of the Emperor of Austria. The assembly required of Louis that he should freely resign himself to the current of the revolution, or be dethroned. Influenced, however, by the queen and by Dumouriez, who finding himself in office broke with the Girondists as he had previously with the Constitutionalists, he fearlessly resisted their counsels. The friendship of Dumouriez raised the drooping spirits of the old royalist party, and Louis was once more induced to listen to their plans for the restoration of the former government. But this party was now a broken reed, on which no hope of support could be placed. Events on the frontiers conduced likewise to render the cause of Louis and the Royalists more hopeless. In their first action the revolutionary soldiers were defeated, and on the news of this reverse the populace turned their rage against the monarch. Orders were issued by the assembly for the disbanding of his guard, by which he was at all times exposed to the irruptions of the rabble; and two decrees were likewise issued in opposition to the royal will: one for the exile of the refractory priests, and another for the establishment of a camp of 20,000 men under the walls of Paris. This was another crisis in the reign of Louis, and had he made proper use of it he might have prevented the supremacy of the populace. Aroused by a sense of danger from this federal camp, thousands of the national guards and of the respectable citizens petitioned against it; at the same time exhibiting an inclination to rally round the throne. Dumouriez advised the monarch to throw his whole influence into the scale of this party, and he was about to act upon this advice, when he was prevented by a deep laid stratagem of the Girondists. Being assured that he would resist the decree relative to the nonjuring and seditious priesthood, they sent it to him for the purpose of provoking his resistance, that the citizens might see his lack of cordiality towards the revolution. This scheme succeeded. Exasperated by the insults daily heaped upon him and his family, he defied the Girondists, and yet at the same time neglected to rally round him either the national guards or the citizens. The Girondist ministers were now dismissed, and both their decrees were rejected, all which tended to accelerate the fearful catastrophe which had been long hovering over the throne of France, and the nation at large. The new administration was chosen from among the Feuillants, but it possessed no weight either with their own party or the people. The Feuillants joined with the royalists to repress the growing spirit of insubordination, but all their exertions were vain. Lafayette also wrote an energetic letter to the assembly, denouncing the Jacobin faction, and demanding the dissolution of the clubs, but he only stirred up the rage of the populace against himself, without curbing their evil passions. The Girondists, moreover, became as dangerous a set of men as were the hot-headed and cold-blooded Jacobins. Chagrined at the loss of place and power, they allied themselves with the mob, and inflamed them by petitions and harangues. Nay more: by direction of the Girondists, a general insurrection was prepared in the fauxbourgs, and a body of ten thousand men organised in the quarter of St. Antoine. A pretext for arming was found in the non-success already mentioned, of the revolutionary forces on the frontier. Under the pretence of fear of the Austrians and Prussians, pikes were forged, and distributed among men who thirsted to commit outrage and wrong on their monarch and their fellow-citizens. Revolt broke out on the 20th of June: pikemen from the suburbs of St. Antoine and St. Marceau marched from the place of the Bastille towards the Tuilleries. At their head was the ferocious Santerre, a brewer, who proved himself to be the worthy hero of this horrible day. Their approach was made known by shouts of “Down with the Veto,” and by the revolutionary chorus of Caira. The “Tree of Liberty,” and the “Rights of Man” were borne before them as banners, and in this manner they forced an entrance into the palace. On discovering the monarch, some of them exclaimed that they had a petition, and Louis led the way to the largest saloon of the suite. The petition was not forthcoming, but placing the “Rights of Man” before the king they demanded his assent to the decrees for the federal camp and the transportation of the priests. Never did the unhappy Louis exhibit so much fortitude as on this trying occasion. He bore all their insults with calmness, and to their reiterated demands, merely replied; “This is neither the time nor the way to obtain them from me.” This storm passed by: the Girondists, on hearing that the insurrection was likely to prove serious, persuaded the rabble to retire. All good citizens manifested abhorrence at the outrage committed, and indignation was exhibited in the provinces and among the armies. His admirable coolness extorted admiration even from his enemies. The Duke de la Rochefaucault, who commanded at Rouen, offered him an asylum there; Lafayette implored him to throw himself into the arms of the constitutional forces; and the national guard offered to protect his person. Louis, however, declined all these proposals, for he still hoped that the allied powers would deliver him from his rebellious subjects. Lafayette made a last effort to save the throne, by appearing in person before the legislative assembly, and demanding, in his own name and in that of the army, the rights of constitutional royalty; but the Jacobins threatened him with destruction, and Louis refused to be saved by a person whom he considered as the author of his misfortunes, and Lafayette returned to his troops with the loss of both influence and popularity. The situation of Louis became daily and hourly more critical. Emboldened by Lafayette’s failure, the Girondists and Jacobins aimed at the monarch’s dethronement. The minds of men were inflamed by the harangues of demagogues, and it was proclaimed that the country was in danger. The contest of parties was fierce in the extreme; their madness being heightened by the collection of formidable masses of hostile armies on the frontiers. The approach of a crisis became evident on the 14th of July, when a fête was held in commemoration of the destruction of the Bastille. On that day the king with the queen and dauphin went to the Champ de Mars, and it was with difficulty that the soldiers saved them from the rage of the rabble. The fermentation of the public mind received a fearful acceleration, when it was discovered that the Prussians and Austrians were advancing upon the capital, under the command of the Duke of Brunswick. All France was put in motion thereby, and thousands of hot-brained youth resorted to the capital to join the already overwhelming rabble there. Thus supported the legislative assembly determined on the deposition of the king, having first appointed a commission to examine what grounds could justify such a step, and whether such grounds existed. The blow was struck on the 10th of August. On the preceding day the popular excitement was extreme, and at midnight the tocsin for a scene of wild fury was sounded throughout Paris. Obeying its horrid summons, the self-called patriots poured into the fauxbourg Saint Antoine, the centre of the insurrection, from the different rallying points; and by the dawn of day their columns, which had been organized under the direction of the assembly, were ready for the work of destruction. The palace of the Tuilleries was in vain defended by some Swiss and royalist troops; after a great slaughter on both sides it fell into the hands of the rabble. Before the combat took place the king had fled to the legislative assembly, to place himself under their protection. He imagined that he would there be safe, but the first act of the assembly told him that his hopes were fallacious: under the plea that his presence marred the freedom of debate, he was removed from the side of Vergniaud, the president of the chamber, where he instinctively took his seat, to the box reserved for the reporters. This was the last day of the monarchy. The assembly concluded the crimes of that day by a decree suspending Louis from his kingly functions, by ordering the formation of a national convention, and by the appointment of a new ministry, the members of which were taken conjointly from the ranks of the Girondists and Jacobins. The national convention was to have unlimited authority to decide in the name of the people upon all the interests of the country, and its session was to commence on the 20th of September. In the meantime several important events took place. Lafayette, having in vain endeavoured to re-establish the constitutional throne, fled with his staff over the frontier, and was arrested in Liege by an Austrian general, and thrown into prison. The allied armies had taken Longwy and Verdun, and a report was spread that they were advancing upon the capital. These successes alarmed the patriots, and made them turn their rage upon each other. The Girondists conceived the plan of abandoning the capital and defending the country behind the Loire; but the Jacobins opposed this, and it was resolved that, rather than surrender the capital, the population should be buried beneath its ruins. Division was in the camp, and blood-thirsty men were now to rule. Thousands suspected of being unfavourable to the principles of the revolution were thrown into prison, and thousands were barbarously massacred. The Jacobin faction of Paris ruled France; and such sanginuary fanatics as Robespierre and Marat carried the sway. The guillotine was declared permanent, and many members of the legislative assembly were themselves menaced by the fatal axe. At length this assembly, after having passed a great many decrees—decrees which were partly fanatical and partly inefficacious—closed its session, and the national convention rose upon its ruins. This new assembly was principally composed of the Jacobin or republican party; the elections preponderating in their favour. This spirit was manifested almost in the first hour of its session; the legislative assembly had transferred the king and his family to the prison of the Temple; the national convention came to a speedy and unanimous resolution that royalty should be for ever abolished, and that France should henceforth be a republic. But, although united in this principle tendency, this assembly, like the one which preceded it, was divided into two hostile parties; the moderates, or Girondists, and the Republicans, or Jacobins. In the national convention these two parties took the names of the Mountain and the Plain; and from the very commencement of its sitting the assembly was threatened with new convulsions, through the struggles of these parties. But the populace now, in reality, possessed the power, and they naturally permitted themselves to be led only by men whose character and principles were in accordance with their own; hence the triumph of the Mountain, or the Jacobins. On one point, however, both parties came to a perfect agreement. Encouraged by recent successes over the allied armies—for the French generals had everywhere defeated them—the Parisian populace loudly demanded the blood of their monarch; and, after violent contests, it was resolved that the inviolability of Louis was forfeited, and that the convention had power to decide on his life or death. These resolutions were passed on the 3rd of December, and on the 11th of that month, an act of accusation was drawn up, and the King of France was brought before the bar of his revolutionary subjects. His trial and death will be noticed in a future page.
GEORGE III. 1792-1793