* The words deſpotiſm and tyranny are ſufficiently expreſſive of the nature of the government to which they are applied; yet ſtill they are words rendered familiar to us only by hiſtory, and convey no preciſe idea, except that of a bad political ſyſtem. The condition of the French at this time, beſides its wretchedneſs, had ſomething ſo ſtrange, ſo original in it, that even thoſe who beheld it with attention muſt be content to wonder, without pretending to offer any deſcription as adequate.
—The following extract from a ſpeech of Bailleul, a member of the Convention, exhibits a picture nearer the original than I have yet ſeen—
"La terreur dominait tous les eſprits, comprimait tous les couerſ— elle etait la force du gouvernement, et ce gouvernement etait tel, que les nombreux habitans d'un vaſte territoire ſemblaient avoir perdu les qualites qui diſtinguent l'homme de l'animal domeſtique: ils ſemblaient meme n'avoir de vie que ce que le gouvernement voulait bien leur en accorder.—Le moi humain n'exiſtoit plus; chaque individu n'etait qu'une machine, allant, venant, penſant ou ne penſant pas, felon que la tyrannie le preſſait ou l'animait." Diſcours de Bailleul, 19 March 1795. "The minds of all were ſubdued by terror, and every heart waſ compreſſed beneath its influence.—In this conſiſted the ſtrength of the government; and that government was ſuch, that the immenſe population of a vaſt territory, ſeemed to have loſt all the qualities which diſtinguiſh man from the animals attached to him.— They appeared to exhibit no ſigns of life but ſuch as their rulerſ condeſcended to permit—the very ſenſe of exiſtence ſeemed doubtful or extinct, and each individual was reduced to a mere machine, going or coming, thinking or not thinking, according as the impulſe of tyranny gave him force or animation." Speech of Bailleul, 19 March 1795.
On the twenty-ſecond of Prairial, (June 10,) a law, conſiſting of a variety of articles for the regulation of the Revolutionary Tribunal, waſ introduced to the convention by Couthon, a member of the government; and, as uſual adopted with very little previous diſcuſſion.—Though there waſ no clauſe of this act but ought to have given the alarm to humanity, "knocked at the heart, and bid it not be quiet;" yet the whole appeared perfectly unexceptionable to the Aſſembly in general: till, on farther examination, they found it contained an implied repeal of the law hitherto obſerved, according to which, no repreſentative could be arreſted without a preliminary decree for that purpoſe.—This diſcovery awakened their ſuſpicions, and the next day Bourdon de l'Oiſe, a man of unſteady principles, (even as a revolutioniſt,) was ſpirited up to demand an explicit renunciation of any power in the Committee to attack the legiſlative inviolability except in the accuſtomed forms.—The clauſeſ which elected a jury of murderers, that bereft all but guilt of hope, and offered no proſpect to innocence but death, were paſſed with no other comment than the uſual one of applauſe.*—
* The baſeneſs, cruelty, and cowardice of the Convention are neither to be denied, nor palliated. For ſeveral months they not only paſſed decrees of proſcription and murder which might reach every individual in France except themſelves, but they even ſacrificed numbers of their own body; and if, inſtead of propoſing an article affecting the whole Convention, the Committee had demanded the headſ of as many Deputies as they had occaſion for by name, I am perſuaded they would have met no reſiſtance.—This ſingle example of oppoſition only renders the convention ſtill more an object of abhorrence, becauſe it marks that they could ſubdue their puſillanimity when their own ſafety was menaced, and that their previous acquieſcence was voluntary.
—This, and this only, by involving their perſonal ſafety, excited their courage through their fears.—Merlin de Douay, originally a worthleſſ character, and become yet more ſo by way of obviating the imputation of bribery from the court, ſeconded Bourdon's motion, and the obnoxiouſ article was repealed inſtantaneouſly.
This firſt and only inſtance of oppoſition was highly diſpleaſing to the Committee, and, on the twenty-fourth, Robeſpierre, Barrere, Couthon, and Billaud, animadverted with ſuch ſeverity on the promoters of it, that the terrified Bourdon* declared, the repeal he had ſolicited was unneceſſary, and that he believed the Committee were deſtined to be the ſaviours of the country; while Merlin de Douay diſclaimed all ſhare in the buſineſſ— and, in fine, it was determined, that the law of the twenty-ſecond of Prairial ſhould remain as firſt preſented to the Convention, and that the qualification of the ſucceeding day was void.
* It was on this occaſion that the "intrepid" Bourdon kept his bed a whole month with fear.
So dangerous an infringement on the privileges of the repreſentative body, dwelt on minds inſenſible to every other conſideration; the principal members caballed ſecretly on the perils by which they were ſurrounded; and the ſullen concord which now marked their deliberations, was beheld by the Committee rather as the prelude to revolt, than the indication of continued obedience. In the mean while it was openly propoſed to concentrate ſtill more the functions of government. The circulation of newſpapers was inſinuated to be uſeleſs; and Robeſpierre gave ſome hints of ſuppreſſing all but one, which ſhould be under particular and official controul.*
* This intended reſtriction was unneceſſary; for the newſpapers were all, not indeed paid by government, but ſo much ſubject to the cenſure of the guillotine, that they had become, under an "unlimited freedom of the preſs," more cautious and inſipid than the gazetteſ of the proſcribed court. Poor Duplain, editor of the "Petit Courier," and ſubſequently of the "Echo," whom I remember one of the firſt partizans of the revolution, narrowly eſcaped the maſſacre of Auguſt 1792, and was afterwards guillotined for publiſhing the ſurrender of Landrecy three days before it was announced officially.