These demands were in direct contradiction to the free trade principles maintained by a large majority of deputies. Laws for the suppression of speculation and for the regulation of the corn trade were held by the Girondists as an unjustifiable interference with individual liberty, and as calculated to produce the contrary effect to that which their proposers intended. ‘Do you wish,’ said Vergniaud, ‘to decree famine?’ They ascribed the scarcity of corn solely to fear of pillage, and had the temerity to denounce the system of supplying Paris with cheap bread as demoralising the inhabitants of the city and as unjust to those of the country, who received lower wages but had to pay the market price of the commodity. To the demand for a maximum price and the punishment of forestallers and speculators, there was added soon the demand for sending the Girondists before the revolutionary court, as standing in the way of the popular remedies becoming law. The Montagnards supported a coercive policy. The large issue of assignats and the consequent breakdown of ordinary commercial relations appeared to some to justify exceptional legislation. But the preponderating motive, leading the Mountain, as a body, to support propositions for maximum laws, was the dread of an insurrection directed against the entire Convention, and the desire of maintaining against the Commune the leadership of the populace. Several members of the centre, under the influence of fear, and regarding as impracticable the policy of the right, seceded to the Mountain. The Girondists had eloquence and courage, but no practical programme able to rally supporters round them. They had no means of protecting the Convention, yet it was impossible to abandon the existing system of supplying cheap bread to Paris without having to face an immediate insurrection. They were unable to set a limit to the issue of assignats, yet it was evident that if the notes went on falling in value, there must before long be famine prices in Paris. Most deputies of the centre, though they still held the same opinions as the Girondists, dared not emulate their courage. The exchange of assignats for silver at less than their nominal value was prohibited, under penalty of six years’ imprisonment (April 11). Restrictions upon the corn trade, which had been in force under the monarchy, were revived, and a variable maximum for corn was fixed, to be regulated in each department by the local authorities (May 3). To provide for the war expenses, a forced loan was to be raised of more than forty-three millions (May 20). These concessions, however, failed to satisfy the populace, while on the point which the leaders of the agitation had most in view, the expulsion of the Girondists, the Convention stood firm, and refused to proscribe its members. Plotting went on openly. The Convention had lately instituted special committees to put in force police laws regarding foreigners residing in France (March 21). There was one in every section of Paris, and ultimately in most municipalities in the country. These committees, which usurped the functions of the ordinary or civil committees of the sections, became agents for the execution of the police laws generally, and soon acquired celebrity under the name of revolutionary committees. Nobles and ecclesiastics were excluded from sitting on them, and they were most often composed of ruffianly and dissolute adventurers. One insurrectionary committee was now formed at Paris of delegates from these revolutionary committees; a second of delegates from the sections. The Commune, under the leadership of its mayor, Pache, and its two law officers, Hébert and Chaumette, set itself at the head of the movement. Some Montagnards, including Robespierre, Marat, Collot d’Herbois, Chabot, Tallien, and Desmoulins gave it undisguised support. But those whose hostility was less, hesitated. For if the Mountain had to call in the aid of the Commune in order to obtain victory over the Girondists, what security was there that after their expulsion it would be able to maintain its own independence? And what influence could Danton hope to exercise over a brow-beaten and intimidated body of men, in fear for their lives? Compromise with the Girondists was, however, impracticable, and the Committee of Public Safety, in place of taking active measures against the conspirators, sought merely to moderate their violence.
June 23.
While their enemies plotted the Girondists made no efforts to secure the Convention against attack, or to form a party in Paris for its defence. They relied on their eloquence and the goodness of their cause to keep the centre true to them. They made the useless proposition that the primary assemblies should meet and decide which deputies should be ejected, and which keep their seats. They obtained addresses from the departments promising armed intervention in their support, and in case of insurrection threatened Paris with annihilation. ‘If ever,’ said the unrestrainable Isnard, when President of the Convention, to a deputation from the Commune, ‘it should happen that violence were offered to the national representatives, I declare to you, in the name of the whole of France, that Paris would be destroyed, and grass would grow on the banks of the Seine.’ Such words were far more hurtful to the Girondists themselves than to those whom they threatened. They sounded in men’s ears like an echo of Brunswick’s proclamation, and made the inhabitants of Paris fear more the consequences of the success of the Girondists, in case of a collision between the two parties, than those of submission to the one which posed itself as the defender of Paris from violence. Meanwhile the enemies of the Girondists lost no opportunity of turning opinion against them. They accused them, not only of seeking to excite civil war, but also of being Federalists, and of plotting to destroy the unity of the republic by making the departments independent of the capital. Marat and his murderous followers were ready to execute a second massacre, whilst amongst the people propositions were heard for a redistribution of property. Such ideas were not countenanced either by the Jacobins or the Commune. Bloodshed might lead the departments to rise, and it was possible that the middle classes in Paris might move for the defence of the Girondists if they thought the city was to be given over to assassins and assailants of the rights of property. Meanwhile the Convention, encouraged by some movements in the sections against the tyranny of the Commune, assumed a bolder attitude, and appointed a commission of twelve deputies to investigate the conspiracies (May 18). Hébert and other agitators were arrested. But these acts of vigour hastened the crisis. To quiet the apprehensions of the middle classes the Commune and the Jacobins made public declaration of their respect for property and of their intention to maintain order.
The Convention a few days previously had removed from the Riding School to a spacious hall in the Palace of the Tuileries, capable of holding more than a thousand persons. On May 31 armed bands streamed through the streets to impose their will on the representatives of the nation. The terrorised Convention decreed the suppression of the Commission of Twelve, but refused to proscribe its members. It was not allowed to escape without bending its neck yet more beneath the yoke. On June 2 many thousand insurgents flooded the Chamber, demanding, with threats, the arrest of the leaders of the right. The alarmed and indignant deputies, with the exception of some thirty on the left rose in a body and left the hall. But all issues out of the palace courts and garden were closely guarded, and passage refused with insult. They returned, and while intruders sat on the benches and voted with them, a decree was carried that thirty-one deputies, including Vergniaud, Gensonné, Guadet, Brissot, and other leading Girondists, should be kept under arrest at their own houses.
CHAPTER VII
THE COMMUNE AND THE TERROR.
The fall of the Girondists was the necessary result of their unfitness to govern France in the midst of war and revolution. The constitutionalists had been overthrown, because they refused to recognise that Louis desired the triumph of the invaders. The Girondists were overthrown because they refused to recognise the insurrection of August 10 under its real aspect. After that event it was inevitable that France should for a time be governed by the minority which, aided by the populace, had swept away the throne of the weak and incapable King. Not only had the people of France no attachment to a republican form of government, and therefore no readiness to move forward actively in support of the Girondists against the Mountain; but also the great majority of the population, through dread of reaction in favour of the privileged classes, had no will or policy of their own. The Girondists had been incapable of evolving a policy which could rouse enthusiasm in their cause or give confidence in their guidance. Their ideal republic was fitted for some ideal nation, not for the French people, torn by factions and involved in war with half Europe. Yet it was all they had to offer to France, and hence it happened that when the Commune of Paris rose against them, not an arm had been raised in their behalf.
If, however, the Girondists had failed in solving the problem of giving France a government, their ejection from the Convention was none the less a catastrophe, fraught with most evil consequences. They had put themselves forward as representatives not merely of the departments against Paris, but also of principles of individual liberty, of justice, and of humanity. The Montagnards used the same words, but meant by them very different things. By the sovereignty of the people they meant the domination of their own party; by justice and humanity the sacrifice of the opponents of their own ideas. ‘Others have sought,’ Vergniaud had said in one of his finest speeches, ‘to complete the revolution by aid of terror; I would have wished to complete it by aid of love.’
Submission of the Departments.
Though in the departments there was no popular movement in favour of the Girondists, yet they had more supporters there than in the capital. In Paris all authorities, with the exception of the Convention, were on the side of the conspirators. In the departments the administrative bodies, which had all been re-elected since the autumn, resembled closely in constitution the Convention itself. As a rule, in these bodies supporters of the Girondists were in a majority, supporters of the Mountain in a minority. In more than sixty departments administrative bodies contested the authority of the Convention, and threatened to resort to arms in favour of the expelled deputies. The chief centres of resistance were, in the north-west, Rennes and Caen; in the south-west, Bordeaux. The danger of a general insurrection seemed greater, owing to the fact that royalists at the same time were raising the standard of revolt. In the important industrial town of Lyons they gained the entire direction of affairs. The leaders of the Jacobins were put to death, and active preparations were taken to resist by force the authority of the Convention. At Toulon like dispositions were manifested and the same course was pursued. In the departments of Ardéche and Lozère royalist conspirators had already been in arms before the expulsion of the Girondists; while in La Vendée and Deux Sèvres the peasants since March were in open rebellion. The task, however, of quelling resistance under these circumstances was, in reality, less formidable than at first sight appeared. There could be no alliance between royalist and Girondist insurgents, and the mere fact that royalists were in arms increased the reluctance of the population to dispute the authority of the mutilated Convention. Hence the opposition raised by the supporters of the Girondists was vacillating and weak. The administrative bodies could not rely on any class for hearty support. Even amongst the proscribed deputies themselves union was wanting. While some fled to Normandy, others remained in Paris, prepared to suffer whatever fate awaited them rather than bring upon themselves the guilt of exciting civil war. On the other side, the party victorious in Paris was for the time thoroughly united, and acted with caution and decision. The Committee of Public Safety, under Danton’s guidance, sought to pursue a policy of conciliation, and the supporters of the Commune, aware of the insecurity of their position, held themselves under restraint. The charge of socialism and tyranny made by the Girondists was repudiated by the adoption of a new constitution, based upon individual liberty and democratic principles. There was indeed not the smallest intention of putting this constitution in force, but its promulgation held out promise to the country of a speedy return to normal modes of government. The phrase ‘The Republic, one and indivisible,’ was adopted by the Montagnards to signify the national cause, while they accused the Girondists of seeking to destroy the possibility of defence against the foreigner by the establishment of a loosely organised federal state, and even of being in alliance with the enemy, and of seeking to betray France to England. In the course of a few weeks the administrative authorities abandoned the attitude of even passive resistance against the Convention. A few hundred men advancing from Caen to Paris were defeated at Vernon on the Seine. Bordeaux, starved out, surrendered at discretion, and thus before the end of August there were none but royalists who continued to contest the authority of the Convention.
War in La Vendée.