CONVENTION, NATIONAL (Fr. convention Nationale). The third assembly of the deputies of the French people chosen after 1789, and the which assumed the government of France on the overthrow of the throne in 1792. After the Legislative Assembly had decreed the suspen sion of the King, August 10, 1792, it voted the election of a National Convention, which com menced its sittings on September 21, immediately after the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly. Its first act was to declare the abolition of the kingship, and to make France a republic. Upon this followed the trial and condemnation of the King. Through the support of excited mobs, the extreme Jacobin Party became pre dominant in the Convention, where, from the elevated seats on which its members sat, it re ceived the name of the Mountain. (See MoN TAG:CARDS.) The Revolutionary Tribunal and the Committee of Public Safety were created by this party. The Girondists (q.v.), at first a powerful party, were destroyed, many of them perishing by the guillotine: and a new Constitu tion, thoroughly democratic, was adopted August 10, 179:3. Its operation, however, was suspended until peace should he restored. Meanwhile the rulers in the Convention displayed marvelous energy, almost a million citizens being placed under arms, and immense supplies of military stores being raised by means of continual requisi tions. By order of the majority of the Conven
tion, thousands of its political opponents were thrown into prison. and the number who died by the guillotine increased daily both in Paris and throughout France. In the end the National Convention became subject to the dictatorial power of Robespierre, and independent opinion was no longer expressed. The overthrow of Robespierre was followed by a great reaction; the Jacobins were suppressed: and finally, the remnant of the Convention. after concluding peace with Prussia and Spain, dissolved itself, October 26, 1795, leaving to the nation a new Constitution, which placed the Government in the hands of the Directory (q.v.). During its long lease of life the National Convention had passed over eight thousand decrees and acts, and had set into motion forces which profoundly in fluenced the history of France and of Europe. Consult Barante, Histoire de la con rention na tional(' (2 vols., Paris, 1851-53). See FRANCE; DANTON: HEBERT; MARAT; LOBESMERRE; etc.