XI. 1793. CHAP. the massacres of September; but the vehement passions now abroad gave the Jacobins the entire command of the Convention. This tribunal, as proposed to be re-established, differed in one important particular from the former. The judges and public officers were to be nominated, not by the sections of Paris, but by the Executive Council, and the juries by the Convention. Thus the court was nothing but an engine of awful power put into the hands of the Executive Council of government, resting on the majority of the Convention, to exterminate their opponents. It was empowered to take cognisance of every anti-revolutionary enterprise, every attempt against liberty, equality, the unity or indivisibility of the Republic, the internal or external security of the state, and of all conspiracies tending to re-establish royalty, or any authority derogatory to freedom, equality, or the sovereignty of the people, whether the accused were civil or military functionaries or simple citizens. The judgments of the court were final, and to be instantly executed, and the whole estates, heritable and movable, of those condemned to death, were to be confiscated to the public treasury.1 1 Decree, March 9. Moniteur, March 10 Hist. Parl. xxv. 54, 60. 29. Vehement debate on sembly. March 16. Agitation, as usual, was resorted to, to insure the success of this sanguinary project. A repast was prothis project vided for the people at the Halle-au-Blé; and the galleries in the As of the Convention were filled with the partisans of the Jacobins, heated with wine, and prepared to applaud every extravagance of their leaders. Lindet read the projet of the law for the regulation of the new tribunal. It bore that it should be "composed of nine members appointed by the Convention, liberated from all legal forms, authorised to convict on any evidence, divided into two permanent divisions, and entitled to prosecute either on the requisition of the Convention, or of their own authority, all those who either by their opinions misled the people, or, by the situations they occupied under the old regime, recalled the usurped privileges of despots." When this appalling projet was read, the most violent XI. 1793. murmurs broke out on the right, which were speedily CHAP. drowned in the loud applauses of the galleries and the left. "I would rather die," exclaimed Vergniaud, "than consent to the establishment of a tribunal worse than the Venetian Inquisition."-"Take your choice," answered Amar, "between such a measure and an insurrection.""My inclination for revolutionary power," said Cambon, "is sufficiently known; but if the people may be deceived in their elections, are not we equally likely to be mistaken in the choice we make of the judges? and if so, what insupportable tyrants shall we then have created for ourselves!" The tumult became frightful; the evening approached; the Convention, worn out with exertion, was yielding to violence-the members of the Plain were beginning to retire, and the Jacobins loudly calling for a decision by open vote, when Féraud exclaimed, "Yes! let us give our votes publicly, in order that we may make known to the world the men who would assassinate inno Moniteur, cence under cover of the law." This bold apostrophe recalled the yielding centre to their post; and, contrary 1 Hist. Parl. to all expectation, it was resolved that the trials should xxv. 51, 53. take place by jury; that the jurors should be chosen March 11. from the departments; and that they should be named 72. by the Convention.1 Th. iv. 71, 30. lutionary Tribunal is March 10. After this unexpected success, the Girondists proposed that the Convention should adjourn for an hour; but The RevoDanton, who was fearful lest the influence of terror and agitation should subside even in that short interval, raised established, his powerful voice. "I summon," said he, in a voice of thunder, "all good citizens to their places." The members who had risen instantly sat down. "What, citizens !" he continued, "can you separate without having adopted the measures requisite for the safety of the Republic? I feel how indispensable it is to adopt such measures as may strike terror into the counter revolutionists; for it is they who have rendered a revolutionary tribunal necessary. It is for their interest that it should exist, for it XI. 1793. CHAP. will supersede the last appeal to the vengeance of the people. Snatch them yourselves from public indignation; humanity demands, policy counsels it. Nothing is more difficult than to define a political crime; but is it not indispensable that extraordinary laws, beyond the pale of social institutions, should overawe the wicked, and for ever crush the efforts of the rebels? The public safety requires great measures and terrible instruments. I see no medium between ordinary forms and a revolutionary tribunal. We must instantly complete the formation of these laws, destined to strike terror into the internal enemies of the Revolution. They must be arbitrary, because they cannot be precise; because, how terrible soever they may be, they are preferable to those popular executions which now, as in September, would be the consequence of any delay in the execution of justice. After having established this tribunal, we must organise an energetic executive power, which may be in immediate contact with you, and put at your disposal all your resources in men and money. Let us profit by the errors of our predecessors, and do that which the Legislative Assembly has not ventured to do. There is no medium. between ordinary forms and a revolutionary tribunal. Let us be terrible, to prevent the people from becoming let us organise a tribunal, not which shall do goodthat is impossible; but which shall do the least evil that is possible, to the effect that the sword of the law may descend upon all its enemies. To-day, then, let us complete the revolutionary tribunal, to-morrow the executive power, and the day after, the departure of our commissioners for the departments. Calumniate me if you will, but let my memory perish, provided the Republic is de la Conv. saved." "I demand the appel nominal," cried Vergniaud, Hist. Parl." that we may know who are the men who continually Lam. Hist. make use of the name of liberty to destroy it." But it 343. was all in vain. The Convention, overwhelmed by terror, passed the decree as proposed by Lindet, investing the 1 Lac. ii. 202. Hist. ii. 209, 210. xxv. 54, 59. des Gir. v. XI. new tribunal with the despotic powers which were after- CHAP. wards exercised with such ruinous effect on many of its own members.* 1793. 31. public ac Fouquier Tinville was the public accuser in the Revolutionary Tribunal; and his name soon became as ter- Character of rible as that of Robespierre to all France. He was Tinville, its Fouquier born in Picardy, and exhibited a combination of qualities user. so extraordinary that, if it had not been established by undoubted testimony, it would have been deemed fabulous. Sombre, cruel, suspicious, the implacable enemy of merit or virtue of any kind, ever ready to aggravate the sufferings of innocence, he appeared insensible to every sentiment of compassion or equity. Justice in his eyes consisted in condemning; an acquittal was the source of profound vexation: he was never happy unless he had secured the conviction of all the accused. He exhibited in the pursuit of this object an extraordinary degree of ardour. He seemed to consider his personal credit as involved in the decision on their guilt; their firmness and calm demeanour in presence of their judges inspired him with transports of rage. But with all this hatred for all that is most esteemed among men, he showed himself equally insensible to the attractions of fortune, or the sweetness of domestic life. He required no species of recreation women, the pleasures of the table, of the theatre, were alike indifferent to him. Sober and sparing *The decree of the Convention was in these terms:-"There shall be established at Paris an Extraordinary Criminal Revolutionary Tribunal. It shall take cognisance of every attempt against liberty, equality, the unity or indivisibility of the Republic, the internal or external security of the state, of all conspiracies tending to the re-establishment of royalty, or hostile to the sovereignty of the people, whether the accused are public functionaries, civil or military, or private individuals. The members of the jury shall be chosen by the Convention; the judges, the public accuser, the two substitutes, shall be named by it; the tribunal shall decide on the opinion of the majority of the jury; the decision of the Court shall be without appeal, and the effects of the condemned shall be confiscated to the Republic." The Girondists laboured hard to introduce the clause allowing the members of the Convention to be tried in that court, with a view to the trial of Marat before it; the same clause was afterwards made the means of conducting almost all of themselves to the scaffold. See Hist. de la Conv. ii. 209, 210; and Moniteur, March 11, 1793. XI. 1793. CHAP. in diet, he never indulged in any bacchanalian excess, excepting when with the Judges of the Revolutionary Tribunal he celebrated what they termed a feu de file— that was, a sitting at which all the accused were condemned he then gave way to intemperance. : His power of undergoing fatigue was unbounded: he was seldom to be seen at the clubs or any public meeting: the Revolutionary Tribunal was the theatre of all his exertions. The sole recreation which he allowed himself was to behold his victims perish on the scaffold: he confessed that that spectacle had great attractions. He might, during the period of his power, have amassed an immense fortune he remained to the last poor; and his wife is said to have died of famine. His lodgings were destitute of every comfort; their whole furniture after his death did not sell for twenty pounds. No seduction could influence him; he was literally inaccessible to all the ordinary desires of men. Nothing roused his mind 1 Hist. de la but the prospect of inflicting death, and then his anima215, 217. tion was such that his countenance became radiant and Conv. ii. 32. Vendée expressive.1 The Jacobins were for a moment disconcerted by the War in La failure of their conspiracy: but the war in La Vendée, breaks out. Which broke out about this period, and rapidly made the March 10. most alarming progress, soon reinvested them with their former ascendancy over the populace. The peculiar circumstances of this district, its simple manners, patriarchal habits, remote situation, and resident proprietors, rendered it the natural centre of the royalist spirit, which the execution of Louis had roused to the highest degree throughout all France. The nobles and clergy not having emigrated from its provinces, were there in sufficient force to counterbalance the influence of the 2 Hist. Parl, towns, and raise the standard of revolt. The two most xxv. 190. powerful passions of the human mind, religious fervour and popular ambition, were rapidly brought into collision;2 a war of extermination was the result, and a million of Frenchmen perished in the strife of the factions ii. 63, 64, Mig. i. 252, 253. |