had refused its support to all forms of worship alike. If those who had wished to cashier the constitutional monarchy for their own profit, assumed the guise of Republicans to that end, they were to be found in open opposition to the more ardent defenders of the Republic, from the instant that the people seemed eager for the Republic as the most desirable of all things.
In the midst of the storms thus necessarily produced by the mixture of so many discordant elements, those individuals who, from the commencement of the Revolution, had conceived the hope of establishing in France the empire of true justice, seized with eagerness the frequent occasions which so great a fermentation presented, to habituate their fellow citizens to reflect on their rights, and to lead them gradually to desire the overthrow of all vicious institutions which interdicted the enjoyment of them.
The useful or dangerous passions that agitated Frenchmen in one sense or the other, were in some measure represented in the Assemblies, which during the Revolution exercised the supreme power. In these were developed the most abject vices and the most sublime virtues. In these was the signal given of so many combats. It was here that the members of the different political sects, laid hold on, and gave birth to those crises by which they sought to give prevalence to their respective systems and interests.
The party which remained firm to the cause of the people, saw itself, at distinct epochs, treacherously abandoned and threatened with destruction, by the very factions that had assisted in the triumph of its projects, up to the moment when those projects began to clash with their own selfish views. Whilst the Monarchy existed, the Republican party appeared very numerous; and although for a long time one might have perceived essential shades of difference amongst those that were then ranged under the banners of the Republic, the 10th of August, 1792, witnessed a multitude of men combating against the Court, who afterwards became divided, and amongst whom were many that have since espoused the cause of kings. Indeed, amongst these combatants, as well as amongst those that applauded their triumph,
