XIX BOOK be removed to Bourges, and all the constituted authorities of Paris should be broken and dis1793. solved. M. Barrère recommended the appoint ment of a committee to inquire into the evils complained of, which was, by the pusillanimous compromise of the Girondists, decreed by the Convention. These half measures of the Brissotine party only increased the rage and excited the contempt of the Jacobins-accelerating, in all probability, the catastrophe which almost immediately ensued. The city of Paris, in consequence of the violence of the two parties in the Convention, was kept in a state of extreme agitation, and scarcely could the inhabitants of that lawless metropolis be restrained from a renewal of the dreadful scenes lately acted there. The successive sittings of the Convention till the 31st exhibited a shocking picture of tumult and confusion. Very early on the morning of that day the tocsin was sounded, the générale beaten, and the alarm-gun fired. Terror pervaded every breast. At seven o'clock the Convention met, and soon a deputation appeared at the bar from the Revolutionary Committees, demanding, among various other things, the immediate arrest of Clavière, minister of finance, and Le Brun, of foreign affairs. The departBrissotines. ment of Paris next appeared, and demanded a Fall of the XIX. decree of accusation against Brissot, Guadet, BOOK Roland, Isnard, Vergniaud, and many others of the most distinguished note in the Gironde 1793. party. M. Barrère, who had, with infinite art and address, vibrated between the two factions, now took a decided part with the Jacobins, and, in the name of the Committee of Public Safety, proposed that the accused deputies should be invited to suspend themselves from their functions. With this the major part of them complied; and in a short time, being invested with an armed force, and cannon planted at the avenues, a decree passed the Convention, ordering the arrest of the deputies, with the ministers Clavière and Le Brun. After the public commotions had in some degree subsided, the first step of the triumphant party was to frame the model of a new constitution, which those who were in the actual possession of power, as might also be suspected of the Brissotines, would probably not appear in too much haste to carry into effect. In about a month the completion of the expected constitution was announced, consisting of no less than 124 articles, which, after a very slight discussion, were recognised by the Convention as the Constitutional Act. But as the execution of this act was suspended during the revolutionary crisis, and never subsequently revived, XIX. BOOK it may, like the former, be suffered quietly to pass into oblivion. Yet was this Jacobin con1793. stitution generally regarded as less essentially defective than that of M. Condorcet. Population was, agreeable to the principles of it, the sole basis of representation, the election of members annual, and the right of suffrage universal. The Legislative Body proposes the plan of laws, which are transmitted for confirmation or rejection to the several departments. The Executive Council, consisting of twenty-four members, is chosen by the legislature from a list composed of one nominee from each department; and half the number is renewed by each legislature in the last month of the session. The judicial power to be exercised by persons to be elected yearly by the Electoral Assemblies. Internal commotions The transactions of the 31st of May caused in France, a great shock throughout the nation, and France seemed ready to fall a prey to the distractions which, at this fatal period, afflicted the newcreated republic. Various of the accused deputies effected their escape to different parts of the country which seemed well disposed to rise in support of the authority of the Convention; but the city of Paris and the soldiery remained firm to the government party. The department of Calvados was the first in arms; and, about the XIX. beginning of July, a considerable force had BOOK assembled, which assumed the appellation of the Departmental Army, under the direction of the 1793. fugitive deputies, Petion, Buzot, Barbaroux, &c.; but on their approach to Evreux, they were encountered by the national troops, and soon broken and dispersed, most of the deputies being made prisoners. An insurrection also took place in the department of the Gironde, excited by their own proscribed representatives, Vergniaud, Gensonné, Guadet, &c. which was also quickly suppressed. But by far the most formidable resistance to the reigning faction took place in the south, where the three great cities, Lyons, Marseilles, and Toulon, entered into a sort of federal league, and seemed to menace the dissolution of the existing authorities. A strong force was dispatched against them, under general Carteaux, about the end of July; and in the beginning of August the Marseillois were driven from the department of Vaucluse, and on the 24th the republicans captured the town of Aix; after which Marseilles threw open its gates and submitted. But the people of Toulon surToulon and the French admiral Trugoff entered rendered in into a negotiation with the English admiral, English. lord Hood, who was then cruising in the Mediterranean; and he took possession both of the town and the shipping, in the name of Louis XVII. trust to the BOOK and under the express and positive stipulation XIX. that he was to assist in restoring the constitu 1793. tion of 1789. Siege of Lyons. In the mean time general Kellerman, who commanded the army of the Alps, was dispatched against Lyons, which contained an immense and motley multitude of disaffected citizens of all classes-Girondists, royalists, and constitutional monarchists. The city sustained, for more than seven weeks, a close and vigilant blockade, and was gradually reduced to a state of extreme distress. Kellerman, not being deemed sufficiently zealous in the cause, was superseded by a general Doppet, to whom the eity, now become a heap of ruins, surrendered on the 8th of October. The barbarities exercommitted cised upon the inhabitants after the surrender, Jacobins. by order of the Conventional commissioners, Barbarities by the Collot d'Herbois and Fouche, shock all the feelings of humanity, and almost surpass the limits of credibility. The guillotine was considered as an instrument of too slow an operation; numbers were destroyed by grape-shot discharged from artillery; and others crowded together in barks, and sunk in the river, which, in Jacobin language, was styled "the revolutionary torrent of the Rhone." The following extract from a letter addressed to the Convention, by the commissioners, November 16, breathes rather the |