Amiens, Dec. 16, 1794.
The ſeventy-three Deputies who have been ſo long confined are now liberated, and have reſumed their ſeats. Jealouſy and fear for ſome time rendered the Convention averſe from the adoption of this meaſure; but the public opinion was ſo determined in favour of it, that farther reſiſtance might not have been prudent. The ſatiſfaction created by this event iſ general, though the ſame ſentiment is the reſult of various concluſions, which, however, all tend to one object—the re-eſtabliſhment of monarchy.
The idea moſt prevalent is, that theſe deputies, when arreſted, were royaliſts.*
* This opinion prevailed in many places where the proſcribed deputies took refuge. "The Normans (ſays Louvet) deceived by the imputations in the newſpapers, aſſiſted us, under the idea that we were royaliſts: but abandoned us when they found themſelveſ miſtaken." In the ſame manner, on the appearance of theſe Deputieſ in other departments, armies were collecting very faſt, but diſperſed when they perceived theſe men were actuated only by perſonal fear or perſonal ambition, and that no one talked of reſtoring the monarchy.
—By ſome it is thought, perſecution may have converted them; but the reflecting part of the nation look on the greater number as adherents of the Girondiſts, whom the fortunate violence of Robeſpierre excluded from participating in many of the paſt crimes of their colleagues, and who have, in that alone, a reaſon for not becoming accomplices in thoſe which may be attempted in future.
It is aſtoniſhing to ſee with what facility people daily take on truſt things which they have it in their power to aſcertain. The ſeventy-three owe a great part of the intereſt they have excited to a perſuaſion of their having voted either for a mild ſentence on the King, or an appeal to the nation: yet this is ſo far from being true, that many of them were unfavourable to him on every queſtion. But ſuppoſing it to have been otherwiſe, their merit is in reality little enhanced: they all voted him guilty, without examining whether he was ſo or not; and in affecting mercy while they refuſed juſtice, they only aimed at conciliating their preſent views with their future ſafety.
The whole claim of this party, who are now the Moderates of the Convention, is reducible to their having oppoſed the commiſſion of crimeſ which were intended to ſerve their adverſaries, rather than themſelves. To effect the dethronement of the King, and the deſtruction of thoſe obnoxious to them, they approved of popular inſurrections; but expected that the people whom they had rendered proficients in cruelty, ſhould become gentle and obedient when urged to reſiſt their own authority; yet they now come forth as victims of their patriotiſm, and call the heads of the faction who are fallen—martyrs to liberty! But if they are victims, it is to their folly or wickedneſs in becoming members of ſuch an aſſembly; and if their chiefs were martyrs, it was to the principles they inculcated.
The trial of the Briſſotins was juſtice, compared with that of the King. If the former were condemned without proof, their partizans ſhould remember, that the revolutionary jury pretended to be influenced by the ſame moral evidence they had themſelves urged as the ground on which they condemned the King; and if the people beheld with applauſe or indifference the execution of their once-popular idols, they only put in practice the barbarous leſſons which thoſe idols had taught them;—they were forbidden to lament the fate of their Sovereign, and they rejoiced in that of Briſſot and his confederates.—Theſe men, then, only found the juſt retribution of their own guilt; and though it may be politic to forget that their ſurvivors were alſo their accomplices, they are not objects of eſteem—and the contemporary popularity, which a long ſecluſion has obtained for them, will vaniſh, if their future conduct ſhould be directed by their original principles.*
* Louvet's pamphlet had not at this time appeared, and the ſubſequent events proved, that the intereſt taken in theſe Deputieſ was founded on a ſuppoſition they had changed their principles; for before the cloſe of the Convention they were as much objects of hatred and contempt as their colleagues.