JA'COBINS, in French history, a po litical club, which bore a well-known part in the first revolution. It was first form ed by some distinguished members of the First Assembly, particularly from Brit tany, where revolutionary sentiments ran high. They took, at first, the name of Friends of the Revolution; but as, at the end of 1789, they held their meetings in the hall of a suppressed Jacobin monas tery in the Rue Saint Honore, the name of Jacobins, at first familiarly given them, was finally assumed by themselves. The history of the Jacobin club is, in effect, the history of the Revolution. It con tained at one time more than 2,500 mem bers, and corresponded with more than 400 affiliated societies in France. The club of the Cordeliers, formed by a small and more violent party out of the general body of Jacobins, was reunited with the parent society in June, 1791 ; but con tinued to form a separate section within its limits. The Jacobin club, which had almost controlled the first assembly, was thus, during the continuance of the sec ond, itself divided between two contend ing parties ; although the name of Jaco bins, as a political party, is commonly given to that section which oppose] the Girondists or less moderate in the club no less than in the assembly. After the destruction of the latter under the Con vention, the club was again exclusively governed by the more violent among its own members, until the downfall of Robes pierre. After that period it became
unpopular; and its members having at tempted an insurrection on behalf of the subdued Terrorists, November 11, 1794, the meeting was dispersed by force, and the club finally suppressed. Some wri ters, such as Barrue, nave seen in the first formation of this and similar soce ties, the long-concocted operations of cm conspiracy against legitimate govern me:, t and religion throughout Europe. The Jacobins, and the other principal clubs of the Revolution, adopted all the forms of a legislative assembly. In the consti tution of 1792, their legal existence was recognized. See the historians of the French Revolution, especially Carlyle, Mignet, and Tillers, for general views ; Bnehez et Roux, Histoire Parlemen taire de la Rerotatioa F•ancuise, for the most complete series of details respecting the Jacobins and their meetings which has yet been made public.—Jocobins, in ecclesiastical history, the religious of the order of St. Dominic were so called in France, from the situation of the princi pal convent at Paris, near the Rue St. J aeques.