But this, as well as the taking of the Baſtille, and other revolutionary falſehoods, will, I truſt, be elucidated. The people are now undeceived only by their calamitieſ—the time may come, when it will be ſafe to produce their conviction by truth. Heroes of the fourteenth of July, and patriots of the tenth of Auguſt, how will ye ſhrink from it!—Yours, &c.
Amiens, Nov. 2, 1794.
Every poſt now brings me letters from England; but I perceive, by the ſuppreſſed congratulations of my friends, that, though they rejoice to find I am ſtill alive, they are far from thinking me in a ſtate of ſecurity. You, my dear Brother, muſt more particularly have lamented the tedious confinement I have endured, and the inconveniencies to which I have been ſubjected; I am, however, perſuaded that you would not wiſh me to have been exempt from a perſecution in which all the natives of England, who are not a diſgrace to their country, as well as ſome that are ſo, have ſhared. Such an exemption would now be deemed a reproach; for, though it muſt be confeſſed that few of us have been voluntary ſufferers, we ſtill claim the honour of martyrdom, and are not very tolerant towards thoſe who, expoſed by their ſituation, may be ſuppoſed to have owed their protection to their principles.
There are, indeed, many known revolutioniſts and republicans, who, from party diſputes, perſonal jealouſies, or from being compriſed in ſome general meaſure, have undergone a ſhort impriſonment; and theſe men now wiſh to be confounded with their companions who are of a different deſcription. But ſuch perſons are carefully diſtinguiſhed;* and the ariſtocrats have, in their turn, a catalogue of ſuſpicious people—that is, of people ſuſpected of not having been ſuſpicious.
* Mr. Thomas Paine, for inſtance, notwithſtanding his ſufferings, iſ ſtill thought more worthy of a ſeat in the Convention or the Jacobins, than of an apartment in the Luxembourg.—Indeed I have generally remarked, that the French of all parties hold an Engliſh republican in peculiar abhorrence.
It is now the faſhion to talk of a ſojourn in a maiſon d'arret with triumph; and the more decent people, who from prudence or fear had been forced to ſeek refuge in the Jacobin clubs, are now ſolicitous to proclaim their real motives. The red cap no longer "rears its hideouſ front" by day, but is modeſtly converted into a night-cap; and the bearer of a diplome de Jacobin, inſtead of ſwinging along, to the annoyance of all the paſſengers he meets, paces ſoberly with a diminiſhed height, and an air not unlike what in England we call ſneaking. The bonnet rouge begins likewiſe to be effaced from flags at the doors; and, as though this emblem of liberty were a very bad neighbour to property, itſ relegation ſeems to encourage the re-appearance of ſilver forks and ſpoons, which are gradually drawn forth from their hiding-places, and reſume their ſtations at table. The Jacobins repreſent themſelves aſ being under the moſt cruel oppreſſion, declare that the members of the Convention are ariſtocrats and royaliſts, and lament bitterly, that, inſtead of fiſh-women, or female patriots of republican external, the galleries are filled with auditors in flounces and anti-civic top-knots, femmes a fontanges.
Theſe imputations and grievances of the Jacobins are not altogether without foundation. People in general are ſtrongly impreſſed with an idea that the Aſſembly are veering towards royaliſm; and it is equally true, that the ſpeeches of Tallien and Freron are occaſionally heard and applauded by fair elegantes, who, two years ago, would have recoiled at the name of either. It is not that their former deeds are forgotten, but the French are grown wiſe by ſuffering; and it is politic, when bad men act well, whatever the motive, to give them credit for it, as nothing iſ ſo likely to make them perſevere, as the hope that their reputation iſ yet retrievable. On this principle the ariſtocrats are the eulogiſts of Tallien, while the Jacobins remind him hourly of the maſſacres of the prieſts, and his official conduct as Secretary to the municipality or Paris.*
* Tallien was Seecretary to the Commune of Paris in 1792, and on the thirty-firſt of Auguſt he appeared at the bar of the Legiſlative Aſſembly with an addreſs, in which he told them "he had cauſed the refractory prieſts to be arreſted and confined, and that in a few days the Land of Liberty ſhould be freed of them."—The maſſacres of the priſons began two days after!
As ſoon as a Repreſentative is convicted of harbouring an opinion unfavourable to pillage or murder, he is immediately declared an ariſtocrat; or, if the Convention happen for a moment to be influenced by reaſon or juſtice, the hopes and fears of both parties are awakened by ſuſpicions that the members are converts to royaliſm.—For my own part, I believe they are and will be juſt what their perſonal ſecurity and perſonal intereſt may ſuggeſt, though it is but a ſorry ſort of panegyric on republican ethics to conclude, that every one who manifeſts the leaſt ſymptom of probity or decency, muſt of courſe be a royaliſt or an ariſtocrat.