rejected all advances. The Commune of Paris and the journalists
Fall of the Girondins.
who were its mouthpieces, Hébert and Marat, aimed frankly
at destroying the Girondins. In April the Girondins
carried a decree that Marat should be sent before the
Revolutionary Tribunal for incendiary writings, but
his acquittal showed that a Jacobin leader was above the law.
In May they proposed that the Commune of Paris should be
dissolved, and that the suppléants, the persons elected to fill
vacancies occurring in the Convention, should assemble at
Bourges, where they would be safe from that violence which
might be applied to the Convention itself. Barère, who was
rising into notice by the skill with which he trimmed between
parties, opposed this motion, and carried a decree appointing a
Committee of Twelve to watch over the safety of the Convention.
Then the Commune named as commandant of the National
Guard, Hanriot, a man concerned in the September massacres.
It raised an insurrection on the 31st of May. On Barère’s proposal
the Convention stooped to dissolving the Committee of
Twelve. The Commune, which had hoped for the arrest of the
Girondin leaders, was not satisfied. It undertook a new and
more formidable outbreak on the 2nd of June. Enclosed by
Hanriot’s troops and thoroughly cowed, the Convention decreed
the arrest of the Committee of Twelve and of twenty-two
principal Girondins. They were put under confinement in their
own houses. Thus the Jacobins became all-powerful.
A tremor of revolt ran through the cities of the south which chafed under the despotism of the Parisian mob. These cities had their own grievances. The Jacobin clubs menaced the lives and properties of all who were guilty of wealth or of moderate opinions, while the representatives on Revolt of the provinces. mission deposed the municipal authorities and placed their own creatures in power. At the end of April the citizens of Marseilles closed the Jacobin club, put its chiefs on their trial and drove out the representatives on mission. In May Lyons rose. The Jacobin municipality was overturned, and Challier, their fiercest demagogue, was arrested. In June the citizens of Bordeaux declared that they would not acknowledge the authority of the Convention until the imprisoned deputies were set free. In July Toulon rebelled. But in the north the appeals of such Girondins as escaped from Paris were of no avail. Even the southern uprising proved far less dangerous than might have been expected. The peasants, who had gained more by the Revolution than any other class, held aloof from the citizens. The citizens lacked the qualities necessary for the successful conduct of civil war. Bordeaux surrendered almost without waiting to be summoned. Marseilles was taken in August and treated with great cruelty. Lyons, where the Royalists were strong, defended itself with courage, for the trial and execution of Challier made the townsmen hopeless of pardon. Toulon, also largely Royalist, invited the English and Spanish admirals, Hood and Langara, who occupied the port and garrisoned the town. At the same time the Vendean War continued formidable. In June the insurgents took the important town of Saumur, although they failed in an attempt upon Nantes. At the end of July the Republicans were still unable to make any impression upon the revolted territory.
Thus in the summer of 1793 France seemed to be falling to pieces. It was saved by the imbecility and disunion of the hostile powers. In the north the French army after the treason of Dumouriez could only attempt to cover the frontier. The Austrians were joined by British, Disunion of the allied powers. Dutch and Prussian forces. Had the Allies pushed straight upon Paris, they might have ended the war. But the desire of each ally to make conquests on his own account led them to spend time and strength in sieges. When Condé and Valenciennes had been taken, the British went off to assail Dunkirk and the Prussians retired into Luxemburg. In the east the Prussians and Austrians took Mainz at the end of July, allowing the garrison to depart on condition of not serving against the Allies for a year. Then they invaded Alsace, but their mutual jealousy prevented them from going farther. Thus the summer passed away without any decisive achievement of the coalition. Meanwhile the Committee of Public Safety, inspired by Danton, strove to rebuild the French administrative system. In July the Committee was renewed and Danton fell out; but soon afterwards it was reinforced by two officers, Carnot, who undertook the organization of the army, and Prieur of the Côte d’Or, who undertook its equipment. Administrators of the first rank, these men renovated the warlike power of France, and enabled her to deal those crushing blows which broke up the coalition.
The Royalist and Girondin insurrections and the critical
aspect of the war favoured the establishment of what is known
as the reign of terror. Terrorism had prevailed more
or less since the beginning of the Revolution, but it was
the work of those who desired to rule, not of the
The reign
of terror.
nominal rulers. It had been lawless and rebellious. It ended by
becoming legal and official. While Danton kept power Terrorism
remained imperfect, for Danton, although unscrupulous, did not
love cruelty and kept in view a return to normal government.
But soon after Danton had ceased to be a member of the Committee
of Public Safety Robespierre was elected, and now became
the most powerful man in France. Robespierre was an acrid
fanatic, and unlike Danton, who only cared to secure the practical
results of the Revolution, he had a moral and religious ideal
which he intended to force on the nation. All who rejected his
ideal were corrupt; all who resented his ascendancy were
traitors. The death of Marat, who was stabbed by
Charlotte Corday (q.v.) to avenge the Girondins, gave yet another pretext
for terrible measures of repression. In Paris the armed ruffians
who had long preyed upon respectable citizens were organized
as a revolutionary army, and other revolutionary armies were
established in the provinces. Two new laws placed almost
everybody at the mercy of the government. The Law of the
Maximum, passed on the 17th of September, fixed the price of
food and made it capital to ask for more. The Law of Suspects,
passed at the same time, declared suspect every person who was
of noble birth, or had held office before the Revolution, or had any
connexion with an émigré, or could not produce a card of civisme
granted by the local authority, which had full discretion to refuse.
Any suspect might be arrested and imprisoned until the peace
or sent before the Revolutionary Tribunal. An earlier law had
established in every commune an elective committee of surveillance.
These bodies, better known as revolutionary committees,
were charged with the enforcement of the Law of Suspects.
On the 10th of October the new constitution was suspended
and the government declared revolutionary until the peace.
The spirit of those in power was shown by the massacres which followed on the surrender of Lyons in that month. In Paris the slaughter of distinguished victims began with the trial of Marie Antoinette, who was guillotined on the 16th. Twenty-one Girondin deputies were next Execution of the queen. brought to the bar and, with the exception of Valazé who stabbed himself, were beheaded on the last day of October, Madame Roland and other Girondins of note suffered later. In November the duke of Orleans, who had styled himself Philippe Égalité, had sat in the Convention, and had voted for the king’s death, went to the scaffold. Bailly, Barnave and many others of note followed before the end of the year. As the bloody work went on the pretence of trial became more and more hollow, the chance of acquittal fainter and fainter. The Revolutionary Tribunal was a mere instrument of state. Knowing the slight foundation of its power the government deliberately sought to destroy all whose birth, political connexions or past career might mark them out as leaders of opposition. At the same time it took care to show that none was so obscure or so impotent as to be safe when its policy was to destroy.
The disastrous effects of the Terror were heightened by the financial mismanagement of the Jacobins. Assignats were issued with such reckless profusion that the total for the three years of the Convention has been estimated at 7250 millions of francs. Enormous depreciation ensued and, although penalties rising to death itself were denounced against all who should refuse to take them at par, they fell to little more than 1% of their
