Page:Babeuf's Conspiracy.djvu/12

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF BUONARROTI.
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patriotic journal, entitled, "L'Amico della Libertà Italica." (The Friend of Italian Liberty.) This journal, which breathed the true spirit of a patriot, besides attaching to him a host of admirers of the new principles, attracted the notice of Salicetti the Deputy, to whom Buonarroti had been formerly known; and the Constituent Assembly having finished its functions, and the Corsican Deputies being returned from Paris, Salicetti was rejoiced to find an old friend in his native country—a friend rendered doubly dear to him by his recent writings and services in the popular cause.

Not long after (in 1792) the second legislature was dissolved, and a National Convention summoned, to which Salicetti was elected by the Corsicans. Reluctant to leave so valuable a coadjutor behind, Salicetti prevailed on Buonarroti to accompany him to Paris, where he would have a wider field for the exercise of his talents and labours in support of the Revolution. He accordingly repaired thither, was received by the Republicans with the highest marks of esteem, and adopted into the famous popular society of the Friends of Liberty, better known under the name of the "Jacobin Club." In this situation he became acquainted with all the great leaders of the Mountain party, and it was probably from what he observed there, that he was subsequently enabled to distinguish so shrewdly between the generous and comprehensive policy of Robespierre's party, and the selfish and hollow character of those sham-Radical Mountainists, who then co-operated with Robespierre for their own ends, but who afterwards immolated him on the 9th Thermidor, after those ends had been attained.

Some few months after the Convocation of the National Convention (in the winter of 1792), an aristocratic insurrection broke out in Corsica, and it being necessary to send a Commissioner there with full powers, the choice fell on Buonarroti, who possessed all the personal and local requisites for the mission. Having repaired to that island he made every possible exertion to restore order, but being badly supported by the people, who had been seduced by the Royalists, he not only proved unsuccessful, but well nigh lost his life as well. The Corsican Aristocrats resolved to throw off their al-