An apprehenſion of ſome attempt from the Jacobins, and the diſcontentſ which the ſcarcity of bread give riſe to among the people, have produced a private order from the Committees of government for arming and re-organizing the National Guard.*
* Though I have often had occaſion to uſe the term National Guard, it is to be underſtood only as citizens armed for ſome temporary purpoſe, whoſe arms were taken from them as ſoon as that ſervice waſ performed. The Garde Nationale, as a regular inſtitution, had been in a great meaſure ſuppreſſed ſince the ſummer of 1793, and thoſe who compoſed it gradually diſarmed. The uſual ſervice of mounting guard was ſtill continued, but the citizens, with very few exceptions, were armed only with pikes, and even thoſe were not entruſted to their own care, each delivering up his arms when he retired more exactly than if it were an article of capitulation with a ſucceſſful enemy.
—I remember, in 1789 and 1790, when this popular militia was firſt inſtituted, every one, either from policy or inclination, appeared eager to promote it; and nothing was diſcuſſed but military fetes, balls, exerciſe, and uniforms. Theſe patriotic levities have now entirely vaniſhed, and the buſineſs proceeds with languor and difficulty. One dreads the preſent expence, another future perſecution, and all are ſolicitous to find cauſe for exemption.
This reluctance, though perhaps to be regretted, is in a great meaſure juſtifiable. Where the lives and fortunes of a whole nation are dependent on the changes of party, obſcurity becomes the ſureſt protection, and thoſe who are zealous now, may be the firſt ſacrificeſ hereafter. Nor is it encouraging to arm for the defence of the Convention, which is deſpiſed, or to oppoſe the violence of a populace, who, however miſguided, are more objects of compaſſion than of puniſhment.
Fouquier Tinville, with ſixteen revolutionary Judges and Jurymen, have been tried and executed, at the moment when the inſtigators of their crimes, Billaud-Varennes, Collot, &c. were ſentenced by the Convention to a baniſhment, which is probably the object of their wiſhes. Thiſ Tinville and his accomplices, who condemned thouſands with ſuch ferociouſ gaiety, beheld the approach of death themſelves with a mixture of rage and terror, that even cowardice and guilt do not always exhibit. It ſeems an awful diſpenſation of Providence, that they who were inhuman enough to wiſh to deprive their victims of the courage which enabled them to ſubmit to their fate with reſignation, ſhould in their laſt momentſ want that courage, and die deſpairing, furious, and uttering imprecations, which were returned by the enraged multitude.*
—Yours, &c.
* Some of the Jurymen were in the habit of taking caricatures of the priſoners while they condemned them. Among the papers of the Revolutionary Tribunal were found blank ſentences, which were occaſionally ſent to the Committee of Public Safety, to be filled up with the names of thoſe intended to be ſacrificed.—The name of one of the Jurymen executed on this occaſion was Leroi, but being a very ardent republican, he had changed it for that of Citizen Tenth of Auguſt.
Amiens, May 26, 1795.
Our journey to Paris has been poſtponed by the inſurrection which occurred on the firſt and ſecond of Prairial, (20th and 21ſt of May,) and which was not like that of Germinal, fabricated—but a real and violent attempt of the Jacobins to regain their power. Of this event it is to be remarked, that the people of Paris were at firſt merely ſpectators, and that the Convention were at length defended by the very claſſes which they have ſo long oppreſſed under the denomination of ariſtocrats. For ſeveral hours the Aſſembly was ſurrounded, and in the power of itſ enemies; the head of Ferraud, a deputy, was borne in triumph to the hall;* and but for the impolitic precipitation of the Jacobins, the preſent government might have been deſtroyed.