Security which sat beside it was also strengthened and given the entire management of the internal police of the country. It was not until Robespierre was elected to the Committee that he became one of the actual rulers of France. Indeed, the Committee was not finally constituted until the 13th of September, when the last two of the “great” twelve who held office until July 1794 were elected. Of these twelve at least seven — Lazare Carnot, Billaud-Varenne, Collot d'Herbois, Prieur Duvernois (of the Marne), Prieur (of the Côte d'Or), Jean Bon Saint-André and Robert Lindet — were essentially men of action, and were entirely free from the influence of Robespierre. Of the other four, Hérault de Séchelles was a professed adherent of Danton, Barère de Vieuzac was an eloquent Provençal, who was ready to be the spokesman to the Convention of any view which the majority of the Committee might adopt; and only Georges Couthon and Saint-Just, devoted to Robespierre, adroitly sustained his policy. It is necessary to dwell upon the fact that Robespierre was always in a minority in the great Committee in order to absolve him from the blame of being the inventor of the Terror, as well as to deprive him of the glory of the gallant stand made against Europe in arms.
After this examination of Robespierre's position it is not necessary to investigate closely every act of the great Committee during the year which was pre-eminently the year of the Terror; the biographer is rather called upon to examine his personal position with regard to the establishment of the Terror and the fall of the Hébertists and Dantonists, and then to dwell upon the last three months in which he stood almost alone trying to work up an effective counterbalance to the power of the majority of the great Committee. The Terror was the embodiment of the idea of Danton, that it was necessary to have resort to extreme measures to keep France united and strong at home in order to meet successfully her enemies upon the frontier. This idea was systematized by the Committee of Public Safety. With the actual organization of the Terror Robespierre had little or nothing to do; its two great engines, the revolutionary tribunal and the almost absolute power in the provinces of the representatives on mission, were in existence before he joined the Committee of Public Safety, and the laws of the maximum and of the suspects were by no means of his creation. The reason why he is almost universally regarded as its creator and the dominant spirit in the Committee is not hard to discover. Men like Lazare Carnot and Billaud-Varenne were not conspicuous speakers in the Convention, nor were they the idols of any section of the populace; but Robespierre had a fanatical following among the Jacobins and was one of the most popular orators in the Convention, on which his carefully prepared addresses often made a deep impression. His panegyrics on the system of revolutionary government and his praise of virtue led his hearers to believe that the system of the Terror, instead of being monstrous, was absolutely laudable; his pure life and admitted incorruptibility threw a lustre on the Committee of which he was a member; and his colleagues offered no opposition to his posing as their representative and reflecting some of his personal popularity upon them so long as he did not interfere with their work. Moreover, he alone never left Paris, whilst all the others, except Barère, were constantly engaged on missions to the armies, the navy and the provinces. It has been asserted that Robespierre, Couthon and Saint-Just took upon themselves the direction of “la haute politique,” while the other members acted only in subordinate capacities; undoubtedly it would have suited Robespierre to have had this believed, but as a matter of fact he was in no way especially trusted in matters of supreme importance.
After this explanation it may be said at once that Robespierre was not the sole author of the overthrow of the Dantonists and the Hébertists, though he thoroughly agreed with the majority and had no desire to save them, the principles of both parties being obnoxious to him. The Hébertists were communists in the true meaning of the word. They held that each commune should be self-governing, and, while admitting the right of a central authority to levy men and money for the purposes of the state, they believed that in purely internal matters, as well as in determining the mode in which men and money were to be raised, the local government ought to be supreme. This position of the Hébertists was of course obnoxious to the Committee, who believed that success could only be won by their retention of absolute power; and in the winter of 1794-1795 it became obvious that the Hébertist party must perish, or its opposition to the Committee would grow too formidable owing to its paramount influence in the Commune of Paris. Robespierre shared his colleagues' fear of the Hébertist opinions, and he had a personal reason for disliking that party of atheists and sansculottes, since he believed in the necessity of religious faith, and detested their imitation of the grossness that belongs to the lowest class of the populace. In 1792 he had indignantly thrown from him the cap of liberty which an ardent admirer had placed upon his head; he had never pandered to the depraved tastes of the mob by using their language; and to the last day of his life he wore knee-breeches and silk stockings and wore his hair powdered. His position towards the Dantonist party was of a different character. After having seen established the strong executive he had laboured for, and having moved the resolutions which finally consolidated the power of the Committee of Public Safety in September 1793, Danton retired to his country house. But to his retreat came the news of the means the Committee used to maintain their supremacy. Danton did not believe that this continuous series of sacrifices under the guillotine was necessary, especially since the danger to the country had passed away with the victories of the revolutionary army; hence he inspired Camille Desmoulins to protest against the Terror in the Vieux Cordelier. Where is this system of terror to end? What is the good of a tyranny comparable only to that of the Roman emperors as described by Tacitus? Such were the questions which Camille Desmoulins asked under Danton's inspiration. This “moderantism,” as it was called, was as objectionable to the members of the Committee as the doctrines of the Hébertists. Both parties must be crushed. Before the blows at the leaders of those two parties were struck, Robespierre retired for a month (from 13th February to 13th March 1794) from active business in the Convention and the Committee, apparently to consider his position; but he came to the conclusion that the cessation of the Reign of Terror would mean the loss of that supremacy by which he hoped to establish the ideal of Rousseau; for Danton, he knew, was essentially a practical statesman and laughed at his ideas and especially his politico-religious projects. He must have considered too that the result of his siding with Danton would probably have been fatal to himself. The result of his deliberations was that he abandoned Danton and co-operated in the attacks of the Committee on the two parties. On the 15th of March he reappeared in the Convention; on the 19th Hébert and his friends were arrested; and on the 24th they were guillotined. On the 30th of March Danton, Camille Desmoulins and their friends were arrested, and on the 5th of April they too were guillotined.
It was not until after the execution of Danton that Robespierre began to develop a policy distinct from that of his colleagues in the Committee, an opposition which ended in his downfall. He began by using his influence over the Jacobin Club to dominate the Commune of Paris through his devoted adherents, two of whom, Fleuriot-Lescot and C. F. de Payan, were elected respectively mayor and procureur of the Commune. He also attempted to usurp the influence of the other members of the Committee over the armies by getting his young adherent, Saint-Just, sent on a mission to the frontier. In Paris Robespierre determined to increase the pressure of the Terror: no one should accuse him of moderantism; through the increased efficiency of the revolutionary tribunal Paris should tremble before him as the chief member of the Committee; and the Convention should pass whatever measures he might dictate. To secure his aims, Couthon, his other ally in the Committee,
