CHAP. VI. Regulations refpecting the Election of Deputies to the New National Assem bly. Confidered by many as Infringements on the Privileges of the Peo ple.-Contentions on this Subject, between the Convention on the one Part, and the Citizens of Paris, and other Cities on the other. Ambitious Views of the Leaders of the Convention.—A gloom caft on the Expectations that had been formed from the New Conflitution.—Allegations in Favour of the Convention.-Action between the Parifians and the Regular Troops, who took Part with the Convention.-Complete Defeat of the Parifians.—Artifices of the Convention in order to glofs this Injurrection.—Refentment against the Parifians feverely exercifed by the Convention.—Now released from all Refraint.-Disappointment and Sufpicions of neighbouring Nations, concerning the New Conflitution, and Regulation of Elections in France. Plans of the Convention, for firengthening and perpetuating its Authority.-A Commiffion of Eive appointed to confult on Meafures for Saving the Country.-A l'ote for the Annulment of the Commission of Five confirming the Confiitution agreed on, and the Diffolution of the Af fembly.-The Moderates prevail.-Reflections on the Temper and Conduct of the Convention. I that if ambition T cannot be denied, however, the prefent fyftem, it prompted the convention to establish it in fuch a manner as fuited the views of the moft ambitious among them. Previously to the oftenfible depofition of their authority in the hands of the nation, they refolved to provide for the renewal of it by a measure which, to the generality of men, appeared highly unjuftifiable. They pafled a decree, enjoining the electoral bodies to choose two-thirds of the deputies of the nation that were to be elected on this occafion, out of the members of the prefent convention, and ordaining that in default of an election of thofe two-thirds, in the manner prefcribed, the convention should fill up the vacancies themfelves. The two decrees, was formally trans mitted to the primary affemblies, and every fpecies of intrigue was fet on foot to procure them a favourable reception. So fingular a firctch of power, from a body that profeffed fo warm and patriotic an adherence to the intereft of the nation, and fo much refpect for the rights of the people, did not fail to ftrike the public with the greateft aftonifhment. In Paris, the complaints against the convention were loud and vehement. They were explicitly accufed of a heinous violation of the undoubted privileges of the people, and of a manifeft defign under the fpecious pre text of obviating dangers and difficulties, to perpetuate their power ft the fenfe and confent of their Catituents, over whom they affazed the most defpotic fway that ould be exercised; but of requiring them, without the leaft authority for fach an act, to pay implicit obedience to the will and pleasure of an alembly, that was, by that very deed, fubverting the fundamental laws of the republic. The Parifians were fo exafperated at this illegal aflumption of power, that they feemed to have loft all refpect for the convention, and to confider it as having forfeited all title to any farther obedience. In defance of the orders it had iflued, the electors of Paris affembled, by their own appointment, before the day fixed upon for that purpofe. The primary affemblies at Paris, infifted, that having chofen their electors, thefe being the direct reprefentatives of the people, had a right to confult together as foon as they judged it neceflary. About one hundred of them affembled accordingly. The convention, alarmed at this bold ftep, and fearing that if it feemed intimidated, and fuffered a measure of fuch audacity to pals unnoticed, the Parifians might next proceed to pronounce the convention no longer the reprefentatives of the nation, refolved to ftrike at once fuch a blow, as might terrify all that were inclined to be refractory: it immediately ordered a military force to difperfe this meeting. From the difcontent which had been expreffed by the Parifians, it had been expected that they would have made refiftance; but the moft prudent advifed an acquiefcence in the orders of the con, vention, and their advice prevailed, The example of the capital did not fail to influence other places, where the conventional decrees, relating to the elections, were condemned in unqualified terms. The majority, in the mean time, were not explicit and precife in their acceptance of either the conftitution or the decrees. The former was univerfally received by the capital and the whole nation; but the latter met with many diffentient voices. The convention carefully published every day the majorities that appeared in their favour: but the citizens of Paris afferted that from an infpection of the records fent up from the different places of election, it would appear that the real meaning of the majority extended to an entire renovation of the legislative body. The want of perfpicuity in the accounts, tranfmitted from the various departments, was, it has been faid, favourable to the pretenfions of the convention. Irritated by the attempts of the Parifians to difparage them by invalidating their credit, this aflembly treated them with much flight and contempt, frequently relufing to give audience to their deputies. Provoked at this ufage, from thofe whom they had refcued from the ty ranny of Robefpierre, and had lately faved from the fury of the jacobins, the citizens vented their indignation in the bittereft terms, and uttered menaces of refentment and revenge that indicated a determined refolution to refift the measures intended by the conven tion. This body of members was now in as critical a pofition as it had ever experienced. It had loft thẹ affection of thofe who had conftantly proved their firmest friends, and had carried them fuccefsfully through [H 3] all all their difficulties. These friends were now become their moft decided enemies, and alleged fuch reasons for their enmity, as the convention found it not eafy to invalidate. It refolved, in this extremity, to have recourfe to the military ftationed at Paris. Between these and the Parifians there fubfifted, however, fuch a fraternal intimacy, that those members of the convention, who guided its motives on this perilous emergency, foon found that other auxiliaries would be wanted. It behoved them to be expeditious. The language of their opponents in the capital breathed the worst of menaces, and it was evident that either the city or the convention must give the law without controul. Nothing was omitted by the citizens that could render the majority of that body odious or defpicable. Murderers, defpots, or fycophants, were the terms in which they defcribed them. The authors of the affaffinations in September, 1792, and of the judicial murders of the Gironde party in October, 1793, the remnants of the mountain and of Robefpierre's faction, with the approvers and abettors of all their enormities: these, and fuch as thefe, the Parifians faid, ftill retained their feats in the convention. Were fuch men, fullied with crimes and infamies, fit to prefide over a nation? What must the enemies of France, what muft Europe, think of the French, if they fubmitted to be governed by fuch men? National juftice required that they fhould forth with be difinifled from the feat of authority. This was the leaft punih ment that could be inflicted upon ho deferved fo much greater. soft they could expect from the lenity of the nation was, to be fheltered, with other criminals, under a general act of amnefty. But if they perfifted in the refufal to refign their power, fuch additional guilt ought to be punished with unrelenting feverity. It excluded them at once from all hopes of mercy; and the public would be justi fied in carrying their vengeance to the utmost extremes. The obftinacy of the citizens, in requiring the deputies to furrender their authority, and the determination of these to retain it, had kindled the wrath and indignation of both parties to the highest pitch. Numbers of the former would liften to nothing fhort of the most inexorable treatment of that body, It was obeying the laws of impartial juftice, they faid, to retaliate upon every one of them. The conduct of each, throughout the whole revolution, ought to be fcrutinized in open court, and no fubterfuges allowed, or exculpations admitted for the enormities in which they had participated, or had not the courage to discountenance. It was incumbent on the French to clear up their character to the world, by ex ecuting the rigour of the law upon men who deferved no pardon, who had embrued their hands in the blood of innocent multitudes, after fliedding that of worthy patriots and who had, by a series of horrors, brought the cause of liberty into difgrace, and empowered its ene mies to afperfe its moft upright friends and affertors. Till juftice was done upon fuch men, the fur rounding nations would have a right to confider the French as a favage and fanguinary people, enflaved by the fucceffive factions of the day and and become the base instruments of their reciprocal barbarities. The convention feltered their conduct under the neceflity of proriding for the public fafety, by fecaring the election of a due number of men experienced in public bufirefs. Confcious, however, how little this apology would avail, they determined to accelerate their vengeance upon their opponents; left by fpreading their opinions, their numbers fhould increase in the departments, where they had already gained ground. No time was now to be loft on either fide. If the convention did not immediately fupprefs the fpirit of infurrection that began to fhew itfelf, their exiftence would be at ftake, and the hourly arrival in Paris of large bodies of troops from the armies, was a fufficient warning to the inhabitants, not to delay the execution of their defigns against the convention, till it was become fuperior to all their attempts. rections they had raised. To these men those who directed the motions of the convention did not scruple to make application on this cmergency. The truth was, that the mot active men in the convention, were, if not avowed terrorists, yet closely connected with them, and actuated, in a great meafure, by their princi ples. The ground on which they proceeded in the bufinefs of the re election was clearly that of fear, leaft tired of the bloodthed that had fo frequently recurred in the repeated contefts for power between the rival parties, the people of France might exclude from the legislature all thofe individuals who had either excited or given occafion for contefts, and elect none but men of pacific difpofitions, who would make it their duty to filence all difputes for pre-eminence, and reeftablith a cordial concord among all citizens, by efpouting no party, and directing all their labours to the Unhappily for the citizens, they tranquillity and welfare of the pubconfided to ftrongly in the attach- lic. Certain it is, that the convenment of the foldiery, that they tion was chiefly governed by the were perfuaded no danger needed moft ambitious among them. They to be apprehended from them, and thought poffibly that having fieered that as they had done at the first the vellel of the ftate through lo breaking out of the revolution, they many ftorms, and efcaped fo many would refute to fire upon men whoin dangers, they ought not to be laid they had fo much reafon to confider afide after bringing it fafe into port; as friends and fellow-citizens. It and, to continue the metaphor, that feems, the convention were alfo ap- if unforeseen forms fhould again aprehenfive that the general good rife, which was far from improbable, will of the troops to the Parifians they furely were the best qualified would render them unwilling to act to weather them. Doubtlefs they against thefe. But there was at this reafoned juitly upon this fuppotime, in the prifons of Paris, a great fition, which alfo was well founded: number of those who went by the but it was not the mere re-election name of terrorifts, full of rancour of able men, against which the meat the Parifians, for having fo refo- tropolis proteited, or would have oblately affifted in quelling the infur- jetted: it was the great difpropor[14] tion tion of two-thirds that alarmed the friends to a legiflature, that fhould chiefly confift of new men, obnoxious to no party, and irreprochable in their perfonal conduct. Thefe requifites could be found in few of the convention. They had almoft all been violent party men, and fufpicions of the worst kind lay heavy on the characters of many. Allowing their abilities and refolution to have been often difplayed in the caufe of the public, they had alfo, it was juftly obferved, been exerted for very unwarrantable purposes; and, taking them all together, the virtues and vices of the most confpicuous members of the convention, were, to speak the most favourable language, equally balanced at beft. France was at prefent defirous of reft. Enough had been done for its glory: it was now time to confult its repofe. With all the praise that might be due to the prefent convention, the leading men among them were fo habituated to the tempeftuous fcenes in which they had made fo remarkable a figure, that they had not had any opportunity of difplaying thofe talents which would be chiefly required in peaceable times. Enemies abroad, and factions at home, had been the element in which they had hitherto conftantly moved. They were undifputably well qualified to encounter trials of this kind: but however great they had fhewn themselves in the day of danger, they ought to be fenfible that thofe qualities, which tend to make them dreaded, are not thofe which procure them affection. The conduct of those who had acted the greatest parts, throughout the revolution, might command admiration; but thefe parts had been fo blended with evil as well as good, that it was difficult to tell which was most predominant. The higheft obliga tions were due to thofe intrepid agents by the but many; many alfo had ample caufe to rue the part they had acted. Difcourfes of this tendency filled the mouths of all men at this critical epoch. The dread of feeing those men in efted with power, who had acted with Robefpierre, and had in fome refpects been his, colleagues. and coadjators in office, threw a gloom on the expectations that had been formed from the new conftitution, and excited the most melancholy prefages. The Parifians knew no bounds in their complaints: they repeatedly affailed the convention with the boldeft remonftrances on their conduct, which they ftyled a manifeft and barefaced ufurpation. But this affembly confiding in the preparations it was fecretly making, fet them openly at defiance, and refufed at laft to liften to their reprefentations, which they branded with the name of feditious, and calculated to throw the republic into confufion. Were they ever fo well inclined, faid the members of the convention, to gratify the Parifians, they ought no lefs to confult the circumftances of the times. Numerous were those who waited with impatience for a total diffolution of the prefent legiflature, in order to avail themfelves of the new opinions and inclinations of those who were to fucceed it. Good policy required they fhould be disappoint ed; but the only fure method, to perpetuate the republican fpirit now exifting, was to continue in power thofe who had always fhewn themfelves its ftaunch fupporters, thofe who had been its champions in the worst of times, and had oppofed defpotifm at the rifk of their |