We have already alluded to the means by which the French armies were supplied with such a great numerical superiority, as to compensate, in some degree, for their of experience and discipline : it will now be proper to explain them. As the Convention had completed the business for which they had been elected, viz. the forma tion of a constitution, they ought to have dissolved them selves ; but under the pretext, that, in the state of France, their dissolution, and the election of a new assembly, might be dangerous, the Mountain party, which was still triumph ant, determined that it should continue till tl end of the war. They also succeeded in establishing what was called a revolutionary government, the principal engines of which was the committee of public safety. This superintended a number of inferior committees ; and united in itself a wonderful degree of secrecy, dispatch, skill, and energy. It corresponded with all the jacobin clubs throughout :France, and sent commissioners, with unlimited powers, into all parts of the kingdom. It is evident that this kiln of government possessed wonderful means of carrying all its measures into complete effect ; and, as its members were actuated by one sole motive—that of establishing their peculiar principles,—these means were never ne glected through inattention, or sacrificed to interest. In at this period, the whole population of France, with all its corporeal and mental powers, stimulated by the most wild and energetic enthusiasm, was directed by a body of men, who knew all the resources of the state, and who exercised their unlimited and almost unquestioned autho rity, with a degree of talent, vigilance, secrecy, activity, and zeal, never perhaps before combined. They were despotic, not less by the power which they actually possess ed, than by the feeling which actuated France ; for such was the abhorrence of seeing their country overrun by loreigners, such the desire of rendering what they con ceived to be liberty triumphant, that the people almost of fered themselves to the operation of those measures, which, with different feelings, and under different circum stances, they would have opposed as arbitrary and tyranni cal. Thus the decree for placing France in a state of re quisition, by which all unmarried citizens, from 18 to 25, were ordered to join the armies ; while the married, the aged, and even the women and children, were to be employ ed in various ways in the service of their country, by forg ing arms, making tents and clothes, attending the hospi tals, preaching hatred against the enemies of the republic, &c. was not opposed ; so far from this, it produced all the effects which the committee of public safety, (from which it originated.) anticipated and expected.
The Mountain party having thus succeeded in raising the whole population of France against their enemies, and in securing victory by the numbers and enthusiasm of the armies, resolved to destroy the Queen and the Girondist party. Against the former accusations were brought so abhorrent to human nature, that even the most depraved of the Mountain party were shocked at their tendency after a mock trial, she was executed on the 16th of Octo ber. On the 30th of the same month, Brissot and 20 others of his party were executed ; and the Duke of Orleans, who united perhaps a greater degree of personal and poli tical depravity, than any man with whom the revolution has cursed France, was afterwards put to death, by that very party whom he had materially contributed to bring forward to serve his own purposes, and who now accused him of having aspired to the sovereignty from the com mencement of the revolution.
As soon as the Mountain party had got rid of their oppo nents, they abandoned themselves to the most extravagant and most dreadful excesses. It seemed, in their mad and
blind rage for innovation, as if they thought they could ut terly alter, not only the constitution of society, but also the very structure of the human mind ; and that they were re solved not to rest from their labours, till they had peopled France with a race of beings devoid of every feeling, prin ciple, or habit, which can dignify or console mankind. On the 7th of November, Gobet, archbishop of Paris, with se veral other clergymen, renounced the Christian religion in the hall of the Convention ; and a decree was afterwards passed, that the onlv French deities should hereafter be Liberty, Equality, and Reason. The Parisians, however, were not so utterly profligate as to go along with the Con vention in this respect ; and Roberspierre increased his po pularity, by supporting religious worship.
In the beginning of 1794, the proposition of the allies provisionally to acknowledge the French republic, was re jected by the Convention. Possessed of such an immense machine as the whole population of France, which they *wielded at their pleasure with most wonderful talent, and which they had already seen produce the most astonishing effects, it was not to be supposed that, in the moment of victory, the Convention would be disposed to treat with the allies, on the ambiguous condition of provisionally ac knowledging the republic. Resolved therefore to perse vere in the war, and having completely succeeded in re cruiting the armies, the Convention turned their thoughts to the state of the finances. Soon after the commencement of the revolution, paper money, called assignats, had been issued ; but as these had suffered depreciation, both from the uncertainty with respect to the fate of France, and from the immense issues of them, a law was passed establishing a maximum. This, however, it was soon discovered, in creased the evil; it then became necessary to support the value and credit of the assignats, by the sale of the lands belonging to the church, and to the emigrants and persons condemned by the revolutionary tribunals. The churches were plundered of their gold and silver ; even their bells were melted and cast into cannon. In order still farther to supply the want of money, the personal labours of al most all classes were put in requisition. The materials for making gunpowder were perfected and supplied by the chemists : immense numbers of muskets and cannon were manufactured and cast. The whole agricultural produce of the country was seized by the government, who dis tributed it to each district according to its population.
Yet these very men, who seemed to have but one soul when they acted for the defence of France, were divided into two most implacable parties. Roberspierre was at the head of one ; Danton of the other. Roberspierre tri umphed, and by the middle of April all his most active op ponents had suffered death. His own fate, however, was not far distant ; for, on the 27th of July, several members of the Convention whom he meant to have sacrificed, (among whom the most enterprising was Tallien,) accused him of tyranny : his arrest was decreed, and on the next day he was seized and executed. To him the Moderate party, as they were termed, succeeded ; who, at the same_ time that they stopt short of his atrocities, were undoubt edly inferior to him in talent, activity, and vigour ; so that had not the great machine of the army been so admirably constructed, and so well supplied by Roberspierre and his party, it must have fallen in pieces, or at least worked with diminished effect under his successors.