established at Brussels. When it was too late, the English
army was reinforced. ... It now only remained for the French
to recapture the fortresses on their own frontier which had
been taken from them in the last campaign. ...
{1304}
Landrecy ... fell without a struggle. Quesnoy ... made a
gallant [but vain] resistance. ... Valenciennes and Condé ...
opened their gates. ... The victorious armies of the Republic
were thus prepared for the conquest of Holland. ... The Prince
of Orange made an appeal to the patriotism of his countrymen;
but the republicans preferred the ascendancy of their faction
to the liberties of their country. ... The other military
operation's of the year, in which England was engaged, do not
require prolonged notice. The Corsicans, under the guidance of
their veteran chief, Paoli, ... sought the aid of England to
throw off the French yoke, and offered in return allegiance of
his countrymen to the British Crown. ... A small force was
despatched, and, after a series of petty operations, Corsica
was occupied by British troops, and proclaimed a part of the
British dominions. An expedition on a greater scale was sent
to the West Indies. Martinique, St. Lucie and Guadaloupe were
easily taken; but the large island of St. Domingo, relieved by
a timely arrival of succours from France, offered a formidable
[and successful] resistance. ... The campaign on the Rhine was
undertaken by the Allies under auspices ill calculated to
inspire confidence, or even hope. The King of Prussia, not
content with abandoning the cause, had done everything in his
power to thwart and defeat the operations of the Allies. ...
On the 22d of May, the Austrians crossed the Rhine and
attacked the French in their intrenchments without success. On
the same day, the Prussians defeated a division of the Republican
army [at Kaiserslautern], and advanced their head-quarters to
Deux-Ponts. Content with this achievement, the German armies
remained inactive for several weeks, when the French, having
obtained reinforcements, attacked the whole line of the German
posts. ... Before the end of the year the Allies were in full
retreat, and the Republicans in their turn had become the
invaders of Germany. They occupied the Electorate of Treves,
and they captured the important fort of Mannheim. Mentz also
was placed under a close blockade. ... At sea, England
maintained her ancient reputation. The French had made great
exertions to fit out a fleet, and 26 ships of the line were
assembled in the port of Brest," for the protecting of a
merchant fleet, laden with much needed food-supplies, expected
from America. Lord Howe, with an English fleet of 25 ships of
the line, was on the watch for the Brest fleet when it put to
sea. On the 1st of June he sighted and attacked it off Ushant,
performing the celebrated manœuvre of breaking the enemy's
line. Seven of the French ships were taken, one was sunk
during the battle, and 18, much crippled, escaped. The victory
caused great exultation in England, but it was fruitless, for
the American convoy was brought safely into Brest.
W. Massey,
History of England during the reign of George III.,
chapter 35 (volume 3).
ALSO IN
Sir A. Alison,
History of Europe, 1789-1815,
chapter 16 (volume 4).
F. C. Schlosser,
History of the 18th Century,
volume 6, division 2, chapter 2, section 3.
Capt. A. T. Mahan,
Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution
and Empire, chapter 8 (volume 1).
FRANCE: A. D. 1794 (June-July).
The monstrous Law of the 22d Prairial.
The climax of the Reign of Terror.
A summary of its horrors.
"On the day of the Feast of the Supreme Being, the guillotine
was concealed in the folds of rich hangings. It was the 20th
of Prairial. Two days later Couthon proposed to the Convention
the memorable Law of the 22d Prairial [June 10]. Robespierre
was the draftsman, and the text of it still remains in his own
writing. This monstrous law is simply the complete abrogation
of all law. Of all laws ever passed in the world it is the
most nakedly iniquitous. ... After the probity and good
judgment of the tribunal, the two cardinal guarantees in state
trials are accurate definition, and proof. The offence must be
capable of precise description, and the proof against an
offender must conform to strict rule. The Law of Prairial
violently infringed all three of these essential conditions of
judicial equity. First, the number of the jury who had power
to convict was reduced. Second, treason was made to consist in
such vague and infinitely elastic kinds of action as inspiring
discouragement, misleading opinion, depraving manners,
corrupting patriots, abusing the principles of the Revolution
by perfidious applications. Third, proof was to lie in the
conscience of the jury; there was an end of preliminary
inquiry, of witnesses in defence, and of counsel for the
accused. Any kind of testimony was evidence, whether material
or moral, verbal or written, if it was of a kind 'likely to
gain the assent of a man of reasonable mind.' Now, what was
Robespierre's motive in devising this infernal instrument? ...
To us the answer seems clear. We know what was the general aim
in Robespierre's mind at this point in the history of the
Revolution. His brother Augustin was then the representative
of the Convention with the army of Italy, and General
Bonaparte was on terms of close intimacy with him. Bonaparte
said long afterwards ... that he saw long letters from
Maximilian to Augustin Robespierre, all blaming the
Conventional Commissioners [sent to the provinces]--Tallien,
Fouché, Barras, Collot, and the rest--for the horrors they
perpetrated, and accusing them of ruining the Revolution by
their atrocities. Again, there is abundant testimony that
Robespierre did his best to induce the Committee of Public
Safety to bring those odious malefactors to justice. The text
of the Law ... discloses the same object. The vague phrases of
depraving manners and applying revolutionary principles
perfidiously, were exactly calculated to smite the band of
violent men whose conduct was to Robespierre the scandal of
the Revolution. And there was a curious clause in the law as
originally presented, which deprived the Convention of the
right of preventing measures against its own members.
Robespierre's general design in short was to effect a further
purgation of the Convention. ... If Robespierre's design was
what we believe it to have been, the result was a ghastly
failure. The Committee of Public Safety would not consent to
apply his law against the men for whom he had specially
designed it. The frightful weapon which he had forged was
seized by the Committee of General Security, and Paris was
plunged into the fearful days of the Great Terror. The number
of persons put to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal before
the Law of Prairial had been comparatively moderate. From the
creation of the Tribunal in April 1793, down to the execution
of the Hébertists in March 1794, the number of persons
condemned to death was 505.
{1305}
From the death of the Hébertists down to the death of
Robespierre, the number of the condemned was 2,158. One-half
of the entire number of victims, namely, 1,356, were
guillotined after the Law of Prairial. ... A man was informed
against; he was seized in his bed at five in the morning; at
seven he was taken to the Conciergerie; at nine he received
information of the charge against him; at ten he went into the
dock; by two in the afternoon he was condemned; by four his
head lay in the executioner's basket."
J. Morley,
Robespierre
(Critical Miscellanies: Second Series).
"Single indictments comprehended 20 or 30 people taken
promiscuously--great noblemen from Paris, day labourers from
Marseilles, sailors from Brest, peasants from Alsace--who were
accused of conspiring together to destroy the Republic. All
examination, discussion, and evidence were dispensed with; the
names of the victims were hardly read out to the jury, and it
happened, more than once, that the son was mistaken for the
father--an entirely innocent person for the one really
charged--and sent to the guillotine. The judges urged the jury
to pass sentences of death, with loud threats; members of the
Government committees attended daily, and applauded the bloody
verdicts with ribald jests. On this spot at least the strife
of parties was hushed."
H. von Sybel,
History of the French Revolution,
book 10, chapter 1 (volume 4).
"The first murders committed in 1793 proceeded from a real
irritation caused by danger. Such perils had now ceased; the
republic was victorious; people now slaughtered not from
indignation, but from the atrocious habit which they had
contracted. ... According to the law, the testimony of
witnesses was to be dispensed with only when there existed
material or moral proofs; nevertheless no witnesses were
called, as it was alleged that proofs of this kind existed in
every case. The jurors did not take the trouble to retire to
the consultation room. They gave their opinions before the
audience, and sentence was immediately pronounced. The accused
had scarcely time to rise and to mention their names. One day,
there was a prisoner whose name was not upon the list of the
accused, and who said to the Court, 'I am not accused; my name
is not on your list.' 'What signifies that?' said Fouquier,
'give it quick!' He gave it, and was sent to the scaffold like
the others. ... The most extraordinary blunders were
committed. ... More than once victims were called long after
they had perished. There were hundreds of acts of accusation
quite ready, to which there was nothing to add but the
designation of the individuals. ... The printing-office was
contiguous to the hall of the tribunal: the forms were kept
standing, the title, the motives, were ready composed; there
was nothing but the names to be added. These were handed
through a small loop-hole to the overseer. Thousands of copies
were immediately worked off and plunged families into mourning
and struck terror into the prisons. The hawkers came to sell
the bulletin of the tribunal under the prisoners' windows,
crying, 'Here are the names of those who have gained prizes in
the lottery of St. Guillotine.' The accused were executed on
the breaking up of the court, or at latest on the morrow, if
the day was too far advanced. Ever since the passing of the
Law of the 22d of Prairial, victims perished at the rate of 50
or 60 a day. 'That goes well,' said Fouquier-Tinville; 'heads
fall like tiles:' and he added, 'It must go better still next
decade; I must have 450 at least.'"
A. Thiers,
History of the French Revolution
(American edition), volume 3, pages 63-66.
"One hundred and seventy-eight tribunals, of which 40 are
ambulatory, pronounce in every part of the territory sentences
of death which are immediately executed on the spot. Between
April 6, 1793, and Thermidor 9, year II. [July 27, 1794], that
of Paris has 2,625 persons guillotined, while the provincial
judges do as much work as the Paris judges. In the small town
of Orange alone, they guillotine 331 persons. In the single
town of Arras they have 299 men and 93 women guillotined. At
Nantes, the revolutionary tribunals and military committees
have, on the average, 100 persons a day guillotined, or shot,
in all 1971. In the city of Lyons the revolutionary committee
admit 1684 executions, while Cadillot, one of Robespierre's
correspondents, advises him of 6,000.--The statement of these
murders is not complete, but 17,000 have been enumerated. ...
Even excepting those who had died fighting or who, taken with
arms in their hands, were shot down or sabred on the spot,
there were 10,000 persons slaughtered without trial in the
province of Anjou alone. ... It is estimated that, in the
eleven western departments, the dead of both sexes and of all
ages exceeded 400,000.--Considering the programme and
principles of the Jacobin sect, this is no great number; they
might have killed a good many more. But time was wanting;
during their short reign they did what they could with the
instrument in their hands. Look at their machine. ...
Organised March 30 and April 6,1793, the Revolutionary
Committees and the Revolutionary Tribunal had but seventeen
months in which to do their work. They did not drive ahead
with all their might until after the fall of the Girondists,
and especially after September, 1793, that is to say for a
period of eleven months. Its loose wheels were not screwed up
and the whole was not in running order under the impulse of
the central motor until after December, 1793, that is to say
during eight months. Perfected by the Law of Prairial 22, it
works for the past two months faster and better than before.
... Baudot and Jean Bon St. Andre, Carrier, Antonelle and
Guffroy had already estimated the lives to be taken at several
millions, and, according to Collot d'Herbois, who had a lively
imagination, 'the political perspiration should go on freely,
and not stop until from twelve to fifteen million Frenchmen
had been destroyed.'"
H. A. Taine,
The French Revolution,
book 8, chapter 1 (volume 3).
ALSO IN
W. Smyth,
Lectures on the History of the French Revolution,
Lectures 39-42 (volume 2).
Abbé Dumesnil,
Recollections of the Reign of Terror.
Count Beugnot,
Life,
volume 1, chapters 7-8.
J. Wilson,
The Reign of Terror and its Secret Police
(Studies in Modern Mind, etc.), chapter 7.
The Reign of Terror:
A collection of authentic narratives,
2 volumes.
{1306}
FRANCE: A. D. 1794 (July).
The Fall of Robespierre.
End of the Reign of Terror.
Robespierre "was already feeling himself unequal to the task
laid upon him. He said himself on one occasion: 'I was not
made to rule, I was made to combat the enemies of the
Revolution;' and so the possession of supreme power produced
in him no feeling of exultation. On the contrary, it preyed
upon his spirits, and made him fancy himself the object of
universal hatred. A guard now slept nightly at his house, and
followed him in all his walks. Two pistols lay ever at his
side. He would not eat food till some one else had tasted from
the dish. His jealous fears were awakened by every sign of
popularity in another. Even the successes of his generals
filled him with anxiety, lest they should raise up dangerous
rivals. He had, indeed ... grounds enough for anxiety. In the
Committee of Public Safety every member, except St. Just and
Couthon, viewed him with hatred and suspicion. Carnot resented
his interferences. The Terrorists were contemptuous of his
religious festivals, and disliked his decided supremacy. The
friends of Mercy saw with indignation that the number of
victims was increasing. The friends of Disorder found
themselves restrained, and were bored by his long speeches
about virtue and simplicity of life. He was hated for what was
good and for what was evil in his government; and meanwhile
the national distress was growing, and the cry of starvation
was heard louder than ever. Fortunately there was a splendid
harvest in 1794; but before it was gathered in Robespierre had
fallen. A somewhat frivolous incident did much to discredit
him. A certain old woman named Catherine Théot, living in an
obscure part of Paris, had taken to seeing visions. Some of
the Terrorists produced a paper, purporting to be written by
her, and declaring that Robespierre was the Messiah. The paper
was a forgery, but it served to cover Robespierre with
ridicule, and to rouse in him a fierce determination to
suppress those whom he considered his enemies in the Committee
and the Convention. For some time he had taken little part in
the proceedings of either of these bodies. His reliance was
chiefly on the Jacobin Club, the reorganized Commune, and the
National Guards, still under the command of Henriot. But on
July 26th [8th Thermidor] Robespierre came to the Convention
and delivered one of his most elaborate speeches, maintaining
that the affairs of France had been mismanaged; that the army
had been allowed to become dangerously independent; that the
Government must be strengthened and simplified; and that
traitors must be punished. He made no definite proposals, and
did not name his intended victims. The real meaning of the
speech was evidently that he ought to be made Dictator, but
that in order to obtain his end, it was necessary to conceal
the use he meant to make of his power. The members of the
Convention naturally felt that some of themselves were aimed
at. Few felt themselves safe; but Robespierre's dominance had
become so established that no one ventured at first to
criticize. It was proposed, and carried unanimously, that the
speech should be printed and circulated throughout France.
Then at length a deputy named Cambon rose to answer
Robespierre's attacks on the recent management of the
finances. Finding himself favourably listened to, he went on
to attack Robespierre himself. Other members of the hitherto
docile Convention now took courage; and it was decided that
the speech should be referred to the Committees before it was
printed. The crisis was now at hand. Robespierre went down as
usual to the Jacobin Club, where he was received with the
usual enthusiasm. The members swore to die with their leader,
or to suppress his enemies. On the following day [9th
Thermidor] St. Just attacked Billaud and Collot. Billaud
[followed and supported by Tallien] replied by asserting that
on the previous night the Jacobins had pledged themselves to
massacre the deputies. Then the storm burst. A cry of horror
and indignation arose; and as Billaud proceeded to give
details of the alleged conspiracy, shouts of 'Down with the
tyrant!' began to rise from the benches. Robespierre vainly
strove to obtain a hearing. He rushed about the chamber,
appealing to the several groups. As he went up to the higher
benches on the Left, he was met with the cry, 'Back, tyrant,
the shade of Danton repels you!' and when he sought shelter
among the deputies on the Right, and actually sat down in
their midst, they indignantly exclaimed, 'Wretch, that was
Vergniaud's seat!' Baited on all sides, his attempts to speak
became shrieks, which were scarcely audible, however, amid the
shouts and interruptions that rose from all the groups. His
voice grew hoarser ... till at length it failed him
altogether. Then one of the Mountain cried, 'The blood of
Danton chokes him!' Amid a scene of indescribable excitement
and uproar, a decree was passed that Robespierre and some of
his leading followers should be arrested. They were seized by
the officers of the Convention, and hurried off to different
prisons; so that, in case of a rescue, only one of them might
be released. There was room enough for fear. The Commune
organized an insurrection, as soon as they heard what the
Convention had done; and by a sudden attack the prisoners were
all delivered from the hands of their guards. Both parties now
hastily gathered armed forces. Those of the municipality were
by far the most numerous, and Henriot confidently ordered them
to advance. But the men refused to obey. The Sections mostly
declared for the Convention, and thus by an unexpected
reaction the Robespierian leaders found themselves almost
deserted. A detachment of soldiers forced their way into the
room where the small band of fanatics were drawing up a
Proclamation. A pistol was fired; and no one knows with
certainty whether Robespierre attempted suicide, or was shot
by one of his opponents. At any rate his jaw was fractured,
and he was laid out, a ghastly spectacle, on an adjacent
table. The room was soon crowded. Some spat at the prostrate
form. Others stabbed him with their knives. Soon he was
dragged [along with Couthon, St. Just, Henriot, and others]
before the Tribunal which he himself had instituted. The,
necessary formalities were hurried through, and the mangled
body was borne to the guillotine, where what remained to him
of life was quickly extinguished. Then, from the crowd, a man
stepped quickly up to the blood-stained corpse, and uttered
over him the words, 'Yes, Robespierre, there is a God!'"
J. E. Symes.
The French Revolution,
chapter 13.
{1307}
"Samson's work done, there bursts forth shout on shout of
applause. Shout, which prolongs itself not only over Paris,
but over France, but over Europe, and down to this generation.
Deservedly, and also undeservedly. O unhappiest Advocate of
Arras, wert thou worse than other Advocates? Stricter man,
according to his Formula, to his Credo and his Cant, of
probities, benevolences, pleasures-of-virtue, and suchlike,
lived not in that age. A man fitted, in some luckier settled
age, to have become one of those incorruptible barren
Pattern-Figures, and have had marble-tablets and
funeral-sermons. His poor landlord, the Cabinet-maker in the
Rue Saint-Honorè, loved him; his Brother died for him. May God
be merciful to him and to us! This is the end of the Reign of
Terror; new glorious Revolution named 'of Thermidor'; of
Thermidor 9th, year 2; which being interpreted into old
slave-style means 27th of July, 1794."
T. Carlyle,
The French Revolution,
book 6, chapter 7 (volume 3).
"He [Robespierre] had qualities, it is true, which we must
respect; he was honest, sincere, self-denying and consistent.
But he was cowardly, relentless, pedantic, unloving, intensely
vain and morbidly envious. ... He has not left the legacy to
mankind of one grand thought, nor the example of one generous
and exalted action."
G. H. Lewes,
Life of Robespierre.
Conclusion.
"The ninth of Thermidor is one of the great epochs in the
history of Europe. It is true that the three members of the
Committee of Public Safety [Billaud, Collot, and Barère],
who triumphed were by no means better men than the three
[Robespierre, Couthon, and St. Just], who fell. Indeed, we are
inclined to think that of these six statesmen the least bad
were Robespierre and St. Just, whose cruelty was the effect of
sincere fanaticism operating on narrow understandings and
acrimonious tempers. The worst of the six was, beyond all
doubt, Barère, who had no faith in any part of the system
which he upheld by persecution."
Lord Macaulay,
Barère's Memoirs
(Essays, volume 5).
ALSO IN
G. Everitt,
Guillotine the Great,
chapter 2.
J. W. Croker,
Robespierre (Quarterly Review,
September, 1835, volume 34).
W. Chambers,
Robespierre
(Chambers' Edin. Journal, 1852).
FRANCE: A. D. 1794-1795 (July-April).
Reaction against the Reign of Terror.
The Thermidorians and the Jeunesse Doree.
End of the Jacobin Club.
Insurrection of Germinal 12.
Fall of the Montagnards.
The White Terror in the Provinces.
"On the morning of the 10th of Thermidor all the people who
lived near the prisons of Paris crowded on the roofs of their
houses and cried, 'All is over! Robespierre is dead!' The
thousands of prisoners, who had believed themselves doomed to
death, imagined themselves rescued from the tomb. Many were
set free the same day, and all the rest regained hope and
confidence. Their feeling of deliverance was shared throughout
France. The Reign of Terror had become a sort of nightmare
that stifled the nation, and the Reign of Terror and
Robespierre were identical in the sight of the great majority.
... The Convention presented a strange aspect. Party remnants
were united in the coalition party called the 'Thermidorians.'
Many of the Mountaineers and of those who had been fiercest in
their missions presently took seats with the Right or Centre;
and the periodic change of Committees, so long contested, was
determined upon. Lots were drawn, and Barère, Lindet, and
Prieur went out; Carnot, indispensable in the war, was
re-elected until the coming spring; Billaud and Collot,
feeling out of place in the new order of things, resigned.
Danton's friends now prevailed; but, alas! the Dantonists were
not Danton."
H. Martin,
Popular History of France from the First Revolution,
chapter 22 (volume l).
"The Reign of Terror was practically over, but the
ground-swell which follows a storm continued for some time
longer. Twenty-one victims suffered on the same day with
Robespierre, 70 on the next; altogether 114 were condemned and
executed in the three days which followed his death. ... A
strong reaction against the 'Terreur' now set in. Upwards of
10,000 'suspects' were set free, and Robespierre's law of the
22 Prairial was abolished. Fréron, a leading Thermidorien,
organized a band of young men who called themselves the
Jeunesse Dorée [gilded youth], or Muscadins, and chiefly
frequented the Palais Royal. They wore a ridiculous dress, 'a
la Victime' [large cravat, black or green collar, and crape
around the arm, signifying relationship to some of the victims
of the revolutionary tribunal.--Thiers], and devoted
themselves to punishing the Jacobins. They had their hymn, 'Le
réveil du Peuple.' which they sang about the street, often
coming into collision with the sans-culottes shouting the
Marseillaise. On the 11th of November the Muscadins broke open
the hall of the celebrated club, turned out the members, and
shut it up for ever. ... The committees of Salut Public and
Sureté Générale were entirely remodelled and their powers much
restrained; also the Revolutionary Tribunal was reorganized on
the lines advocated by Camille Desmoulins in his proposal for
a Comité de Clémence--which cost him his life. Carrier and
Lebon suffered death for their atrocious conduct in La Vendée
and [Arras]; 73 members who had protested against the arrest
of the Girondins were recalled, and the survivors of the
leading Girondists, Louvet, Lanjuinais, Isnard,
Larévillière-Lépeaux and others, 22 in number, were restored
to their seats in the Convention."
Sergent Marceau,
Reminiscences of a Regicide,
part 2, chapter 12.
"Billaud, Collot, and other marked Terrorists, already
denounced in the Convention by Danton's friends, felt that
danger was every day drawing nearer to themselves. Their fate
was to all appearance sealed by the readmission to the
Convention (December 8) of the 73 deputies of the right,
imprisoned in 1793 for signing protests against the expulsion
of the Girondists. By the return of these deputies the
complexion of the Assembly was entirely altered. ... They now
sought to undo the work of the Convention since the
insurrection by which their party had been overwhelmed. They
demanded that confiscated property should be restored to the
relatives of persons condemned by the revolutionary courts;
that emigrants who had fled in consequence of Terrorist
persecutions should be allowed to return; that those deputies
proscribed on June 2,1793, who yet survived, should be
recalled to their seats. The Mountain, as a body, violently
opposed even the discussion of such questions. The
Thermidorians split into two divisions. Some in alarm rejoined
the Mountain; while others, headed by Tallien and Fréron,
sought their safety by coalescing with the returned members of
the right. A committee was appointed to report on accusations
brought against Collot, Billaud, Barère, and Vadier (December
27, 1794). In a few weeks the survivors of the proscribed
deputies entered the Convention amidst applause (March 8,
1795). ... There was at this time great misery prevalent in
Paris, and imminent peril of insurrection.
{1308}
After Robespierre's fall, maximum prices were no longer
observed, and assignats were only accepted in payment of goods
at their real value compared with coin. The result was a rapid
rise in prices, so that in December prices were double what
they had been in July, and were continuing to rise in
proportion as assignats decreased in value. ... The maximum
laws, already a dead letter, were repealed (December 24). The
abolition of maximum prices and requisitions increased the
already lavish expenditure of the Government, which, to meet
the deficit in its revenues, had no resource but to create
more assignats, and the faster these were issued the faster
they fell in value and the higher prices rose. In July 1794,
they had been worth 34 per cent. of their nominal value. In
December they were worth 22 per cent., and in May 1795 they
were worth only 7 per cent. ... At this time a pound of bread
cost eight shillings, of rice thirteen, of sugar seventeen,
and other articles were all proportionately dear. It is
literally true that more than half the population of Paris was
only kept alive by occasional distributions of meat and other
articles at low prices, and the daily distribution of bread at
three half-pence a pound. In February, however, this source of
relief threatened to fail. ... On April 1, or Germinal 12,
bread riots, begun by women, broke out in every section. Bands
collected and forced their way into the Convention, shouting
for bread, but offering no violence to the deputies. ... The
crowd was already dispersing when forces arrived from the
sections and cleared the House. The insurrection was a
spontaneous rising for bread, without method or combination.
The Terrorists had sought, but vainly, to obtain direction of
it. Had they succeeded, the Mountain would have had an
opportunity of proscribing the right. Their failure gave the
right the opportunity of proscribing the left. The
transportation to Cayenne of Billaud, Collot, Barère, and
Vadier was decreed, and the arrest of fifteen other
Montagnards, accused without proof, in several cases without
probability, of having been accomplices of the insurgents. ...
The insurrection of Germinal 12 gave increased strength to the
party of reaction. The Convention, in dread of the Terrorists,
was compelled to look to it for support. ... In the
departments famine, disorder, and crime prevailed, as well as
in Paris. ... From the first the reaction proceeded in the
departments with a more rapid step and in bolder form than in
Paris. ... In the departments of the south-east, where the
Royalists had always possessed a strong following, emigrants
of all descriptions readily made their way back; and here the
opponents of the Republic, instigated by a desire for
vengeance, or merely by party spirit, commenced a reaction
stained by crimes as atrocious as any committed during the
course of the revolution. Young men belonging to the upper and
middle classes were organised in bands bearing the names of
companies of Jesus and companies of the Sun, and first at
Lyons, then at Aix, Toulon, Marseilles, and other towns, they
broke into the prisons and murdered their inmates without
distinction of age or sex. Besides the Terrorist and the
Jacobin, neither the Republican nor the purchaser of State
lands was safe from their knives; and in the country numerous
isolated murders were committed. This lawless and brutal
movement, called the White Terror in distinction to the Red
Terror preceding Thermidor 9, was suffered for weeks to run
its course unchecked, and counted its victims by many
hundreds, spreading over the whole of Provence, besides the
departments of Rhone, Gard, Loire, Ain, and Jura."
B. M. Gardiner,
The French Revolution,
chapter 10.
ALSO IN
A. Thiers,
History of the French Revolution (American edition),
volume 3, pages 109-136; 149-175; 193-225.
H. von Sybel,
History of the French Revolution,
book 12, chapters 1-3.
J. Mallet du Pan,
Memoirs and Correspondence,
volume 2, chapters 5.
A. des Echerolles,
Early Life,
volume 2, chapter 8.
FRANCE: A. D. 1794-1795 (October-May).
Subjugation of Holland.
Overthrow of the Stadtholdership.
Establishment of the Batavian Republic.
Peace of Basle with Prussia.
Successes on the Spanish and Italian frontiers.
Crumbling of the Coalition.
"Pichegru having taken Bois le Duc, October 9th, the Duke of
York retreated to the Ar, and thence beyond the Waal. Venloo
fell October 27th, Maestricht November 4th, and the capture of
Nimeguen on the 9th, which the English abandoned after the
fall of Maestricht, opened to the French the road into
Holland. The Duke of York resigned the command to General
Walmoden, December 2nd, and returned into England. His
departure showed that the English government had abandoned all
hope of saving Holland. It had, indeed, consented that the
States-General should propose terms of accommodation to the
French; and two Dutch envoys had been despatched to Paris to
offer to the Committee of Public Welfare the recognition by
their government of the French Republic, and the payment of
200,000,000 florins within a year. But the Committee,
suspecting that these offers were made only with the view of
gaining time, paid no attention to them. The French were
repulsed in their first attempt to cross the Waal by General
Duncan with 8,000 English; but a severe frost enabled them to
pass over on the ice, January 11th, 1795. Nothing but a
victory could now save Holland. But Walmoden, instead of
concentrating his troops for the purpose of giving battle,
retreated over the Yssel, and finally over the Ems into
Westphalia, whence the troops were carried to England by sea
from Bremen. ... General Alvinzi, who held the Rhine between
Emmerich and Arnheim, having retired upon Wesel, Pichegru had
only to advance. On entering Holland, he called upon the
patriots to rise, and his occupation of the Dutch towns was
immediately followed by a revolution. The Prince of Orange,
the hereditary Stadtholder, embarked for England, January
19th, on which day Pichegru's advanced columns entered
Amsterdam. Next day the Dutch fleet, frozen up in the Texel,
was captured by the French hussars. Before the end of January
the reduction of Holland had been completed, and a provincial
[provisional?] government established at the Hague. The
States-General, assembled February 24th, 1795, having
received, through French influence, a new infusion of the
patriot party, pronounced the abolition of the Stadtholderate,
proclaimed the sovereignty of the people and the establishment
of the Batavian Republic. A treaty of Peace with France
followed, May 16th, and an-offensive alliance against all
enemies whatsoever till the end of the war, and against
England for ever.
{1309}
The sea and land forces to be provided by the Dutch were to
serve under French commanders. Thus the new republic became a
mere dependency of France. Dutch Flanders, the district on the
left bank of the Hondt, Maestricht, Venloo, were retained by
the French as a just indemnity for the expenses of the war, on
which account the Dutch were also to pay 100,000,000 florins;
but they were to receive, at the general peace, an equivalent
for the ceded territories. By secret articles, the Dutch were
to lend the French seven ships of war, to support a French
army of 25,000 men, &c. Over and above the requisitions of the
treaty, they were also called upon to reclothe the French
troops, and to furnish them with provisions. In short, though
the Dutch patriots had 'fraternised' with the French, and
received them with open arms, they were treated little better
than a conquered people. Secret negotiations had been for some
time going on between France and Prussia for a peace. ...
Frederick William II., ... satisfied with his acquisitions in
Poland, to which the English and Dutch subsidies had helped
him, ... abandoned himself to his voluptuous habits," and made
overtures to the French. "Perhaps not the least influential
among Frederick William's motives, was the refusal of the
maritime Powers any longer to subsidise him for doing nothing.
... The Peace of Basle, between the French Republic and the
King of Prussia, was signed April 5th 1795. The French troops
were allowed to continue the occupation of the Rhenish
provinces on the left bank. An article, that neither party
should permit troops of the enemies of either to pass over its
territories, was calculated to embarrass the Austrians. France
agreed to accept the mediation of Prussia for princes of the
Empire. ... Prussia should engage in no hostile enterprise
against Holland, or any other country occupied by French
troops; while the French agreed not to push their enterprises
in Germany beyond a certain line of demarcation, including the
Circles of Westphalia, Higher and Lower Saxony; Franconia, and
that part of the two Circles of the Rhine situate on the right
bank of the Main. ... Thus the King of Prussia, originally the
most ardent promoter of the Coalition, was one of the first to
desert it. By signing the Peace of Basle, he sacrificed
Holland, facilitated the invasion of the Empire by the French,
and thus prepared the ruin of the ancient German
constitution." In the meantime the French had been pushing war
with success on their Spanish frontier, recovering the ground
which they had lost in the early part of 1794. In the eastern
Pyrenees, Dugommier "retook Bellegarde in September, the last
position held by the Spaniards in France, and by the battle of
the Montagne Noire, which lasted from November 17th to the
20th, opened the way into Catalonia. But at the beginning of
this battle Dugommier was killed. Figuières surrendered
November 24th, through the influence of the French democratic
propaganda. On the west, Moncey captured St. Sebastian and
Fuentarabia in August, and was preparing to attack Pampeluna,
when terrible storms ... compelled him to retreat on the
Bidassoa, and closed the campaign in that quarter. On the side
of Piedmont, the French, after some reverses, succeeded in
making themselves masters of Mont Cenis and the passes of the
Maritime Alps, thus holding the keys of Italy; but the
Government, content with this success, ventured not at present
to undertake the invasion of that country." The King of
Sardinia, Victor Amadeus, remained faithful to his engagements
with Austria, although the French tempted him with an offer of
the Milanese, "and the exchange of the island of Sardinia for
territory more conveniently situated. With the Grand Duke of
Tuscany they were more successful. ... On February 9th 1795, a
treaty was signed by which the Grand Duke revoked his adhesion
to the Coalition. ... Thus Ferdinand was the first to desert
the Emperor, his brother. The example of Tuscany was followed
by the Regent of Sweden."
T. H. Dyer,
History of Modern Europe,
book 7, chapter 7 (volume 4).
ALSO IN
C. M. Davies,
History of Holland,
part 4, chapter 3 (volume 3).
L. P. Segur,
History of the Reign of Frederick William II. of Prussia,
volume 3.
FRANCE: A. D. 1794-1796.
Brigandage in La Vendée.
Chouannerie in Brittany.
The Disastrous Quiberon expedition.
End of the Vendean War.
"Since the defeat at Savenay, the Vendée was no longer the
scene of grand operations, but of brigandage and atrocities
without result. The peasants, though detesting the Revolution,
were anxious for peace; but, as there were still two chiefs,
Charette and Stoffiet, in the field, who hated each other,
this wish could scarcely be gratified. General Thurieu, sent
by the former Revolutionary Committee, had but increased this
detestation by allowing pillage and incendiarism. After the
death of Robespierre he was replaced by General Clancaux, who
had orders to employ more conciliatory measures. The defeat of
the rebel troops at Savenay, and their subsequent dispersion,
had led to a kind of guerilla warfare throughout the whole of
Brittany, known by the name of Chouannerie. ['A poor peasant,
named Jean Cottereau, had distinguished himself in this
movement above all his companions, and his family bore the
name of Chouans (Chat-huans) or night-owls. ... The name of
Chouan passed from him to all the insurgents of Bretagne,
although he himself never led more than a few hundred
peasants, who obeyed him, as they said, out of friendship.']
H. Von Sybel,
History of the French Revolution,
volume 4, page 238.
The Chouans attacked the public conveyances, infested the high
roads, murdered isolated bands of soldiers and functionaries.
Their chiefs were Scepeaux, Bourmont, Cadoudal, but especially
Puisaye ... formerly general of the Girondins, and who wanted
to raise a more formidable insurrection than had hitherto been
organised. Against them was sent Hoche [September, 1794], who
accustomed his soldiers to pacify rather than destroy, and
taught them to respect the habits, but above all the religion,
of the inhabitants. After some difficult negotiations with
Charette peace was concluded (15th February), but the
suppression of the Chouans was more difficult still, and Hoche
... displayed in this ungrateful mission all the talents and
humanity for which he was ever celebrated. Puisaye himself was
in England, having obtained Pitt's promise of a fleet and an
army, but his aide-de-camp concluded in his absence a treaty
similar to that of Charette. ... Stoffiet surrendered the
last.
{1310}
Not much dependence could be placed on either of these
pacifications, Charette himself having confessed in a letter
to the Count de Provence that they were but a trap for the
Republicans; but they proved useful, nevertheless, by
accustoming the country to peace." This deceptive state of
peace came to an end early in the summer of 1795. "The
conspiracy organised in London by Puisaye, assisted and
subsidised by Pitt, ... fitted out a fleet, which harassed the
French naval squadron, and then set sail for Brittany, where
the expedition made itself master of the peninsula of Quiberon
and the fort Penthièvre (27th June). The Brittany peasants,
suspicious of the Vendeans and hating the English, did not
respond to the call for revolt, and occasioned a loss of time
to the invaders, of which Hoche took advantage to bring
together his troops and to march on Quiberon, where he
defeated the vanguard of the émigrés, and surrounded them in
the peninsula. Puisaye [who had, it is said, about 10,000 men,
émigrés and Chouans] attempted to crush Hoche by an attack in
the rear, but was eventually out-manœuvred, Fort Penthièvre
was scaled during the night, and the émigrés were routed;
whilst the English squadron was caught in a hurricane and
could not come to their assistance, save with one ship, which
fired indiscriminately on friend and foe alike. Most of the
Royalists rushed into the sea, where nearly all of them
perished. Scarcely a thousand men remained, and these fought
heroically. It is said that a promise was given to them that
if they surrendered their lives should be spared, and,
accordingly, 711 laid down their arms (21st July). By order of
the Convention ... these 711 émigrés were shot. ... From his
camp at Belleville, Charette, one of the insurgent generals,
responded to this execution by the massacre of 2,000
Republican prisoners." In the following October another
expedition of Royalists, fitted out in England under the
auspices of Pitt, "landed at the Ile Dieu ... a small island
about eight miles from the mainland of Poitou, and was
composed of 2,500 men, who were destined to be the nucleus of
several regiments; it also had on board a large store of arms,
ammunition, and the Count d'Artois. Charette, named general
commander of the Catholic forces, was awaiting him with 10,000
men. The whole of the Vendée was ready to rise the moment the
prince touched French soil, but frivolous and undecided, he
waited six weeks in idleness, endeavouring to obtain from
England his recall. Hoche, to whom the command of the
Republican forces had been entrusted, took advantage of this
delay to cut off Charette from his communications, while he
held Stoffiet and the rest of the Brittany chiefs in check,
and occupied the coast with 30,000 men. The Count d'Artois,
whom Pitt would not recall, entreated the English commander to
set sail for England (December 17th, 1795), and the latter,
unable to manage his fleet on a coast without shelter,
complied with his request, leaving the prince on his arrival
to the deserved contempt of even his own partisans. Charette
in despair attempted another rising, hoping to be seconded by
Stofflet, but he was beaten on all sides by Hoche. This
general, who combined the astuteness of the statesman with the
valour of the soldier, succeeded in a short time in pacifying
the country by his generous but firm behaviour towards the
inhabitants. Charette, tracked from shelter to shelter, was
finally compelled to surrender, brought to Nantes, and shot
(March 24th). The same lot had befallen Stofflet a month
before at Angers. After these events Hoche led his troops into
Brittany, where he succeeded in putting an end to the
'Chouannerie.' The west returned to its normal condition."
H. Van Laun,
The French Revolutionary Epoch,
book 2, chapter 2, and book 3, chapter 1 (volume 1).
ALSO IN:
A. Thiers,
History of the French Revolution
(American edition), volume 3, pages 144-145; 188-193;
230-240; 281-305; 343-345; 358-363; 384-389.
FRANCE: A. D. 1795 (April).
The question of the Constitution.
Insurrection of the 1st Prairial and its failure.
Disarming of the Faubourgs.
End of Sansculottism.
Bourgeoisie dominant again.
"The events of the 12th of Germinal decided nothing. The
faubourgs had been repulsed, but not conquered. ... After so
many questions decided against the democratists, there still
remained one of the utmost importance--the constitution. On
this depended the ascendancy of the multitude or of the
bourgeoisie. The supporters of the revolutionary government
then fell back on the democratic constitution of '93, which
presented to them the means of resuming the authority they had
lost. Their opponents, on the other hand, endeavoured to
replace it by a constitution which would secure all the
advantage to them, by concentrating the government a little
more, and giving it to the middle class. For a month, both
parties were preparing for this last contest. The constitution
of 1793, having been sanctioned by the people, enjoyed a great
prestige. It was accordingly attacked with infinite
precaution. At first its assailants engaged to carry it into
execution without restriction; next they appointed a
commission of eleven members to prepare the 'lois organiques'
which were to render it practicable; by and by, they ventured
to suggest objections to it on the ground that it distributed
power too loosely, and only recognised one assembly dependent
on the people, even in its measures of legislation. At last, a
sectionary deputation went so far as to term the constitution
of '93 a decemviral constitution, dictated by terror. All its
partisans, at once indignant and filled with fears, organized
an insurrection to maintain it. ... The conspirators, warned
by the failure of the risings of the 1st and 12th Germinal,
omitted nothing to make up for their want of direct object and
of organization. On the 1st Prairial (20th of May) in the name
of the people, insurgent for the purpose of obtaining bread
and their rights, they decreed the abolition of the
revolutionary government, the establishment of the democratic
constitution of '93, the dismissal and arrest of the members
of the existing government, the liberation of the patriots,
the convocation of the primary assemblies on the 25th
Prairial, the convocation of the legislative assembly,
destined to replace the convention, on the 25th Messidor, and
the suspension of all authority not emanating from the people.
They determined on forming a new municipality, to serve as a
common centre; to seize on the barriers, telegraph, cannon,
tocsins, drums, and not to rest till they had secured repose,
happiness, liberty, and means of subsistence for all the
French nation. They invited the artillery, gendarmes, horse
and foot soldiers, to join the banners of the people, and
marched on the convention. Meantime, the latter was
deliberating on the means of preventing the insurrection. ...
{1311}
The committees came in all haste to apprise it of its danger;
it immediately declared its sitting permanent, voted Paris
responsible for the safety of the representatives of the
republic, closed its doors, outlawed all the leaders of the
mob, summoned the citizens of the sections to arms, and
appointed as their leaders eight commissioners, among whom
were Legendre, Henri la Riviere, Kervelegan, &c. These
deputies had scarcely gone, when a loud noise was heard
without. An outer door had been forced, and numbers of women
rushed into the galleries, crying 'Bread and the constitution
of '93!' ... The galleries were ... cleared; but the
insurgents of the faubourgs soon reached the inner doors, and,
finding them closed, forced them with hatchets and hammers,
and then rushed in amidst the convention. The Hall now became
a field of battle. The veterans and gendarmes, to whom the
guard of the assembly was confided, cried 'To arms!' The
deputy Auguis, sword in hand, headed them, and succeeded in
repelling the assailants, and even made a few of them
prisoners. But the insurgents, more numerous, returned to the
charge, and again rushed into the house. The deputy Feraud
entered precipitately, pursued by the insurgents, who fired
some shots in the house. They took aim at Boissy d'Anglas, who
was occupying the president's chair. ... Feraud ran to the
tribune, to shield him with his body; he was struck at with
pikes and sabres, and fell dangerously wounded. The insurgents
dragged him into the lobby, and, mistaking him for Freron, cut
off his head and placed it on a pike. After this skirmish they
became masters of the Hall. Most of the deputies had taken
flight. There only remained the members of the Crête [the
'Crest'--a name now given to the remnant of the party of 'The
Mountain'] and Boissy d'Anglas, who, calm, his hat on,
heedless of threat and insult, protested in the name of the
convention against this popular violence. They held out to him
the bleeding head of Feraud; he bowed respectfully before it.
They tried to force him, by placing pikes at his breast, to
put the propositions of the insurgents to the vote; he
steadily and courageously refused. But the Crêtois, who
approved of the insurrection, took possession of the bureaux
and of the tribune, and decreed, amidst the applause of the
multitude, all the articles contained in the manifesto of the
insurrection." Meantime "the commissioners despatched to the
sections had quickly gathered them together. ... The aspect of
affairs then underwent a change; Legendre, Kervelagan, and
Auguis besieged the insurgents, in their turn, at the head of
the sectionaries," and drove them at last from the hall of the
convention. "The assembly again became complete; the sections
received a vote of thanks, and the deliberations were resumed.
All the measures adopted in the interim were annulled, and
fourteen representatives, to whom were afterwards joined
fourteen others, were arrested, for organizing the
insurrection or approving it in their speeches. It was then
midnight; at five in the morning the prisoners were already
six leagues from Paris. Despite this defeat, the Faubourgs did
not consider themselves beaten; and the next day they advanced
en masse with their cannon against the convention. The
sections, on their side, marched for its defence." But a
collision was averted by negotiations, and the insurgents
withdrew, "after having received an assurance that the
Convention would assiduously attend to the question of
provisions, and would soon publish the organic laws of the
constitution of '93. ... Six democratic Mountaineers, Goujon,
Bourbotte, Romme, Duroy, Duquesnoy, and Soubrany were brought
before a military commission ... and ... condemned to death.
They all stabbed themselves with the same knife, which was
transferred from one to the other, exclaiming, 'Vive la
République!' Romme, Goujon, and Duquesnoy were fortunate
enough to wound themselves fatally; the other three were
conducted to the scaffold in a dying state, but faced death
with serene countenances. Meantime, the Faubourgs, though
repelled on the 1st, and diverted from their object on the 2nd
of Prairial, still had the means of rising," and the
convention ordered them to be disarmed. "They were encompassed
by all the interior sections. After attempting to resist, they
yielded, giving up some of their leaders, their arms, and
artillery. ... The inferior class was entirely excluded from
the government of the state; the revolutionary committees
which formed its assemblies were destroyed; the cannoneers
forming its armed force were disarmed; the constitution of
'93, which was its code, was abolished; and here the rule of
the multitude terminated. ... From that period, the middle
class resumed the management of the revolution without, and
the assembly was as united under the Girondists as it had
been, after the 2nd of June, under the Mountaineers."
F. A. Mignet,
History of the French Revolution,
chapter 10.
ALSO IN:
Duchesse d'Abrantes,
Memoirs,
chapters 12-14 (volume l).
T. Carlyle,
The French Revolution,
volume 3, book 7, chapters 4-6.
G. Long,
France and its Revolutions,
chapter 53.
FRANCE: A. D. 1795 (June-September).
Framing and adoption of the Constitution of the Year III.
Self-renewing decrees of the Convention.
Hostility in Paris to them.
Intrigues of the Royalists.
"The royalist party, beaten on the frontiers, and deserted by
the court of Spain, on which it placed most reliance, was now
obliged to confine itself to intrigues in the interior; and it
must be confessed that, at this moment, Paris offered a wide
field for such intrigues. The work of the constitution was
advancing; the time when the Convention was to resign its
powers, when France should meet to elect fresh
representatives, when a new Assembly should succeed that which
had so long reigned, was more favourable than any other for
counter-revolutionary manœuvres. The most vehement passions
were in agitation in the sections of Paris. The members of
them were not royalists, but they served the cause of royalty
without being aware of it. They had made a point of opposing
the Terrorists; they had animated themselves by the conflict;
they wished to persecute also; and they were exasperated
against the Convention, which would not permit this
persecution to be carried too far. They were always ready to
remember that Terror had sprung from its bosom; they demanded
of it a constitution and laws, and the end of the long
dictatorship which it had exercised. ... Behind this mass the
royalists concealed themselves. ... The constitution had been
presented by the commission of eleven. It was discussed during
the three months of Messidor, Thermidor, and Fructidor