THE NATIONAL CONVENTION.

ATTACKS ON THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC WELFARE-INSTITUTION OF THE REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT-ORDERS TO THE ARMIES TO CONQUER BEFORE THE TWENTIETH OF OCTOBER-TRIAL AND DEATH OF CUSTINE-ARREST OF SEVENTY-THREE MEMBERS OF THE CONVENTION.

THE inconceivable rout at Menin, the useless and sanguinary attempt on Pirmasens, the defeats in the Eastern Pyrenees, the disastrous issue of the new expedition against La Vendée, were known in Paris, almost all at the same time, and produced a most painful impression there. The tidings of these events arrived in succession from the 18th to the 25th of September, and, as usual, fear excited violence. We have already seen that the most vehement agitators met at the Cordeliers, the members of which society imposed less reserve upon themselves than the Jacobins, and that they governed the war department under the weak Bouchotte. Vincent was their head in Paris, as Ronsin was in La Vendée; and they seized this occasion to renew their customary complaints. Placed beneath the Convention, they would fain have got rid of its inconvenient authority, which they encountered in the armies in the person of the representatives, and in Paris in the committee of public welfare. The representatives on mission did not allow them to carry the revolutionary measures into execution with all the violence that they could have wished. The committee of public welfare, directing with sovereign authority all operations agreeably to the most lofty and the most impartial views, continually thwarted them, and of all the obstacles which they met with, this annoyed them most: hence they frequently thought of affecting the establishment of the new executive power, as it was organized by the constitution.

The enforcing of the constitution, repeatedly and maliciously demanded by the aristocrats, would have been attended with great dangers. It would have required new elections, superseded the Convention by another assembly, necessarily inexperienced, unknown, and comprehending all the factions at once. The enthusiastic revolutionists, aware of this danger, did not demand the renewal of the representation, but claimed the execution of the constitution in so far as it chimed in with their views. Being almost all of them placed in the public offices, they merely desired the formation of the constitutional ministry, which was to be independent of the legislative power, and consequently of the committee of public welfare. Vincent had, therefore, the boldness to cause a petition to be addressed to the Cordeliers, demanding the organization of the constitutional ministry, and the recall of the deputies on mission. The agitation was extreme. Legendre, the friend of Danton, and already ranked among those whose energy seemed to relax, in vain opposed this petition, which was adopted, with the exception of one clause, that which demanded the recall of the representatives on mission. The utility of these representatives was so evident, and there was in this demand something so personal against the members of the Convention, that those who brought it forward dared not persist in it. This petition produced great tumult in Paris, and seriously compromised the nascent authority of the committee of public welfare.

Besides these violent adversaries, this committee had others, namely, the new moderates, who were accused of reviving the system of the Girondins and thwarting the revolutionary energy. Decidedly hostile to the Cordeliers, the Jacobins, and the disorganizers of the armies, they were constantly preferring their complaints to the committee, and even reproached it for not declaring itself forcibly enough against the anarchists.

The committee had therefore against it the two new parties that began to be formed. As usual, these parties laid hold of disastrous events to accuse it, and both joining to condemn its operations, criticised them each in its own way.

The rout of the 15th at Menin was already known; confused accounts of the late reverses in La Vendée began to be received. There were vague rumours of defeats at Coron, Torfou, and Montaigu. Thuriot, who had refused to be a member of the committee of public welfare, and who was accused of being one of the new noderates, inveighed, at the commencement of the sitting, against the intriguers, the disorganizers, who had just made new and extremely violent propositions relative to articles of consumption. "Our committees and the executive council," said he, "are harassed, surrounded by a gang of intriguers, who make pretensions to extraordinary patriotism solely because it is productive to them. Yes, it is high time to drive out those men of rapine and of conflagration, who conceive that the revolution was made for them, while the upright and the pure uphold it solely for the welfare of mankind." The propositions attacked by Thuriot were rejected. Briez, then one of the commissioners to Valenciennes, read a critical memorial on the military operations; he insisted that the war hitherto carried on had been slow and ill-suited to the French character; that the operations had always been upon a small scale and executed by small masses, and that in this system was to be sought the cause of the reverses which had been sustained. Then, without openly attacking the committee of public welfare, he appeared to insinuate that this committee had not communicated all that it knew to the Convention, and that, for instance, there had been near Douai a corps of six thousand Austrians which might have been taken.

The Convention, after hearing Briez, added him to the committee of public welfare. At this moment detailed accounts arrived from La Vendée, contained in a letter from Montaigu. These alarming particulars produced a general excitement. "Instead of being intimidated," cried one of the members, " let us swear to save the republic!" At these words the whole Assembly rose, and once more swore to save the republic, be the perils that threatened it what they might. The members of the committee of public welfare, who had not yet arrived, entered at this moment. Barrère, the ordinary reporter, addressed the Assembly. "Every suspicion directed against the committee of public welfare," said he, " would be a victory won by Pitt. It is not right to give our enemies the too great advantage of throwing discredit ourselves on the power instituted to save us." Barrère then communicated the measures adopted by the committee. "For some days past," continued he, "the committee has had reason to suspect that serious blunders weré committed at Dunkirk, where the English might have been exterminated to the last man, and at Menin, where no effort was made to check the strange effects of panic terror. The committee has removed Houchard, as well as the divisionary general, Hedouville, who did not behave as he ought to have done at Menin. The conduct of those two generals will be immediately investigated; the committee will then cause all the staffs and all the administrations of the armies to be purified; it has placed our fleets on such a footing as will enable them to cope with our enemies: it has just raised eighteen thousand men; it has ordered a new system of attack en masse; lastly, it is in Rome itself that it purposes to attack Rome, and one hundred thousand men, landing in England, will march to London and strangle the system of Pitt. The committee of public welfare, then, is wrongfully accused. It has never ceased to merit the confidence which the Convention has hitherto testified towards it." Robespierre then spoke. "For a long time," said he, "people have been intent on defaming the Convention and the committee, the depository of its power. Briez, who ought to have died at Valenciennes, left the place like a coward, to come to Paris to serve Pitt and the coalition by throwing discredit upon the government. It is not enough," added he, "that the Convention continues to repose confidence in us. It is requisite that it should solemnly proclaim this, and that it should make known its decision in regard to Briez, whom it has just added to our number." This demand was greeted with applause; it was decided that Briez should not be joined to the committee of public welfare, and it was declared by acclamation that this committee still possessed the entire confidence of the National Convention.

The moderates were in the Convention, and they had just been defeated; but

the most formidable adversaries of the committee, that is the ardent revolutionists, were among the Jacobins and the Cordeliers. It was against the latter, in particular, that it behoved the committee to defend itself. Robespierre repaired to the Jacobins, and exercised his ascendency over them: he explained the conduct of the committee; he justified it against the twofold attacks of the moderates and the enthusiasts, and expatiated on the danger of petitions tending to demand the formation of the constitutional ministry. "A government of some sort," said he, "must succeed that which we have destroyed. The system of organizing at this moment the constitutional ministry is no other than that of ousting the Convention itself, and breaking up the supreme power in presence of the hostile armies. Pitt alone can be the author of that idea. His agents have propagated it; they have seduced the sincere patriots; and the credulous and suffering people, always inclined to complain of the government, which is not able to remedy all these evils, have become the faithful echo of their calumnies and their propositions. You Jacobins," exclaimed Robespierre, "too sincere to be gained, too enlightened to be seduced, will defend the Mountain, which is attacked; you will support the committee of public welfare, which men strive to calumniate in order to ruin you, and thus with you it will triumph over all the secret intrigues of the enemies of the people."

Robespierre was applauded, and the whole committee in his person. The Cordeliers were brought back to order, their petition was forgotten, and the attack of Vincent, victoriously repelled, had no result.

It became a matter of urgent necessity, however, to adopt some course in regard to the new constitution. To give up the place to new revolutionists, equivocal, unknown, probably divided, because they would be the offspring of all the factions subsisting below the Convention, would be dangerous. It was therefore necessary to declare to all the parties that the government would retain the supreme power, and that before it left the republic to itself and to the effect of the laws which had been given to it, it should be governed revolutionarily till it should be saved. Numerous petitions had already prayed the Convention to continue at its post. On the 10th of October, St. Just, speaking in the name of the committee of public welfare, proposed new measures of government. He drew a most melancholy picture of France; he overspread this picture with the sombre colours of his gloomy imagination: and, by means of his rare talent and facts otherwise perfectly authentic, he produced a sort of terror in the minds of his auditors. He presented, therefore, and procured the adoption of, a decree containing the following resolutions. By the first clause, the government of France was declared revolutionary till the peace: which signified that the constitution was temporarily suspended, and that an extraordinary dictatorship should be instituted till the expiration of all dangers. This dictatorship was conferred on the Convention and on the committee of publie welfare. "The executive council," said the decree, "the ministers, the generals, the constituted bodies, are placed under the superintendence of the committee of public welfare, which will render an account of it every week to the Convention."

We have already explained how the superintendence was transformed into supreme authority, because the ministers, the generals, the functionaries, obliged to submit their operations to the committee, had at length no longer dared to act of their own motion, but waited for the orders of the committee itself. It was then said: "The revolutionary laws ought to be rapidly executed. The inertness of the government being the cause of the reverses, the delays for the execution of these laws shall be fixed. The violation of these terms shall be punished as a crime against liberty." Measures relative to articles of consumption were added to these measures of government, for bread is the right of the people, observed St. Just. The general statement of articles of consumption, when definitively completed, was to be sent to all the authorities. The stock of necessaries in the departments was to be approximatively estimated and guaranteed; as to the surplus of each of them, it was subjected to requisitions either for the armies or for the provinces which had not sufficient for their consumption. These requisitions had been regulated by a committee of consumption. Paris was to be provisioned, like a fortress, for a year, from the Ist of the ensuing March. Lastly, it was decreed that a tribunal should be instituted to investigate the conduct and the property of all those who had had the management of the public money.

By this grand and important declaration, the government, composed of the committee of public welfare, the committee of general safety, and the extraordinary tribunal, found itself completed and maintained while the danger lasted. It was declaring the Revolution in a state of siege, and applying to it the extraordinary laws of that state, during the whole time that it should last. To this government were added various institutions, which had long been called for and had become inevitable. A revolutionary army, that is, a force specially charged with carrying into execution the orders of the government in the interior, was demanded. It had long since been decreed; it was at length organized by a new decree. It was to consist of six thousand men and twelve hundred artillery; to repair from Paris to any town where its presence might be necessary, and to remain there in garrison at the cost of the wealthiest inhabitants. The Cordeliers wanted to have one in each department, but this was opposed, on the ground that it would be reverting to federalism to give an individual force to each department. The same Cordeliers desired, moreover, that the detachments of the revolutionary army should be accompanied by a moveable guillotine upon wheels. All sorts of ideas float in the mind of the populace when it gains the upper hand. The Convention rejected all these suggestions, and adhered to its decree. Bouchotte, who was directed to raise this army, composed it of the greatest vagabonds in Paris, and who were ready to become the satellites of the ruling power. He filled the staff with Jacobins and more especially with Cordeliers; he took Ronsin away from Rossignol and La Vendée, to put him at the head of this revolutionary army. He submitted the list of this staff to the Jacobins, and made each officer undergo the test of the ballot. None of them in fact was confirmed by the minister, until he had been approved by the society.

To the institution of the revolutionary army was at length added the law against suspected persons, so frequently demanded, and resolved upon in principle on the same day as the levy en masse. The extraordinary tribunal, though instituted in such a manner as to strike upon mere probabilities, was not sufficiently satisfactory to the revolutionary imagination. It desired the power of confining those who could not be sent to death, and demanded decrees which should permit their persons to be secured. The decree which outlawed the aristocrats was too vague, and required a trial. It was desired that, on the mere denunciation of the revolutionary committees, a person declared suspected might be immediately thrown into prison. The provisional detention till the peace of all suspected persons was at length decreed. As such were considered, 1stly, those who, either by their conduct or by their connexions, or by their language or their writings, had shown themselves partisans of tyranny and of federalism, and enemies of liberty; 2dly, those who could not certify, in the manner prescribed by the law of the 20th of March last, their means of subsistence and the performance of their civic duties; 3dly, those to whom certificates of civism had been refused; 4thly, the public functionaries suspended or removed from their functions by the National Convention, and by its commissioners; 5thly, the ci-devant nobles, the husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons or daughters, brothers or sisters, and agents, of emigrants who had not constantly manifested their attachment to the Revolution; 6thly, those who had emigrated in the interval between the 1st of July, 1789, and the publication of the law of the 8th of April, 1792, though they might have returned to France within the specified time.

The detained persons were to be confined in the national houses, and guarded at their own cost. They were allowed to remove to these houses such furniture as they needed. The committees authorised to issue orders for apprehension could only do so by a majority, and on condition of transmitting to the committee of general safety the list of the motives of each apprehension. Their functions, becoming from that moment extremely arduous and almost incessant, constituted a sort of profession which it was requisite to pay. A salary was therefore allowed them by way of indemnity.

To these resolutions was added a last, which rendered this law against suspected persons still more formidable, and which was adopted on the urgent demand of the commune of Paris; this was to revoke the decree which forbade domiciliary visits during the night. From that moment, every citizen who was sought after was threatened at all hours, and had not a moment's rest. By shutting themselves up in the daytime in very narrow places of concealment, ingeniously contrived at the suggestion of necessity, suspected persons had at least enjoyed the faculty of breathing during the night; but, from this moment, they could no longer do so, and arrests, multiplied day and night, soon filled all the prisons of France.

The sectional assemblies were held daily; but people of the lower classes had no time to attend them, and, in their absence, the revolutionary motions were no longer supported. It was decided, at the express proposition of the Jacobins and of the commune, that these assemblies should be held only twice a week, and that every citizen who attended them should be paid forty sous per sitting. The surest way of having the people was not to call them together too often, and to pay them for their presence. The ardent revolutionists were angry, because bounds were set to their zeal by this limitation of the meetings of sections to two in a week. They therefore drew up a very warm petition, complaining that attacks were made on the rights of the sovereign people, inasmuch as they were prevented from assembling as often as they pleased. Young Varlet was the author of this new petition; which was rejected, and no more attention paid to it than to all the demands suggested by the revolutionary ferment.

Thus the machine was complete in the two points most necessary to a threatened state-war and police. In the Convention, a committee directed the military operations, appointed the generals, and the agents of all kinds, and was empowered by the decree of permanent requisition to dispose alike of men and things. All this it did, either of itself, or by the representatives sent on missions. This committee had under it another, that of general safety, which exercised the high police, and caused it to be exercised by the revolutionary committees* instituted in each commune. Persons slightly suspected of hostility, or even of indifference, were confined; those who were more seriously compromised were punished by the extraordinary tribunal, but, fortunately as yet, in small number, for that tribunal had, up to this time, pronounced but few condemnations. A special army, a real moveable column or gendarmerie of this system, enforced the execution of the orders of government; and lastly, the populace, paid for attending at the sections, was always ready to support it. Thus war and police both centred in the committee of public welfare. Absolute master, having the means of putting in requisition all the wealth of the country, being empowered to send the citizens either to the field of battle, to the scaffold, or to prison, it possessed for the defence of the Revolution a sovereign and terrible dictatorship. It was, indeed, obliged to render a weekly account of its proceedings to the Convention, but this account was always approved, for critical opinion was exercised only at the Jacobins, and of them it had been master ever since Robespierre had become one of its members. There was nothing in opposition to this power but the moderates, who did not go so far, and the new enthusiasts, who went farther, but who were neither of them much to be feared.

We have already seen that Robespierre and Carnot had been attached to the committee of public welfare as successors to Gasparin and Thuriot, who were both ill. Robespierre had brought with him his powerful influence, and Carnot his military science. The Convention would have joined with Robespierre Danton, his colleague, and his rival in renown; but the latter, weary of toil, little qualified for the details of administration, disgusted, moreover, by the calumnies of the parties, had resolved not to be on any committee. He had already done a great deal for the Revolution; he had supported flagging courage on all the days of danger; he

* "The revolutionary committees were declared the judges of the persons liable to arrest. Their number augmented with frightful rapidity. Paris had soon forty-eight. Every village throughout the country followed its example. Fifty thousand were soon in operation from Calais to Bayonne."

-Alison. E.