Chapter 6

at the torch of love, ever presents to me his sweet image." Letter of Potowski after his marriage. "Lucile now grants to love all that modesty permits... enjoying such transports of bliss, I believe that the gods are jealous of my lot."]

[Footnote 3106: Preface, XX. "Descartes, Helvetius, Haller, Lelat all ignored great principles; Man, with them, is an enigma, an impenetrable secret." He says in a foot-note, "We find evidence of this in the works of Hume, Voltaire, Bonnet, Racine and Pascal."]

[Footnote 3107: "Mémoires Académiques sur la Lumière," pref., VII.--He especially opposes "the differential refrangibility of heterogeneous rays" which is "the basis of Newton's theory."]

[Footnote 3108: Chevremont, I., 74. (See the testimony of Arago, Feb.24, 1844).]

[Footnote 3109: Ibid., I., 104. (Sketch of a declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen).]

[Footnote 3110: See the epigraph of his "Mémoires sur la Lumiere." "They will force their way against wind and tide."--Ibid., preface, VII. "Déconvertes de Monsieur Marat," 1780, 2nd ed., p. 140.]

[Footnote 3111: "Recherches physiques sur l'electricité," 1782, pp.13, 17.]

[Footnote 3112: Chevremont, I., 59.]

[Footnote 3113: "De l'Homme," preface VII. and book IV.]

[Footnote 3114: "Journal de la République Française," No 98.]

[Footnote 3115: "Journal de la République Française," by Marat, No. I.]

[Footnote 3116: "L'Ami du Peuple" No. 173. (July 26, 1790). The memories of conceited persons, given to immoderate self-expansion, are largely at fault. I have seen patients in asylums who, believing in their exalted position, have recounted their successes in about the same vein as Marat. (Chevremont, I., 40, 47, 54). "The reports of extraordinary cures effected by me brought me a great crowd of the sick. The street in front of my door was blocked with carriages. People came to consult me from all quarters.... The abstract of my experiments on Light finally appeared and it created a prodigious sensation throughout Europe; the newspapers were all filled with it. I had the court and the town in my house for six months.... The Academy, finding that it could not stifle my discoveries tried to make it appear that they had emanated from its body." Three academic bodies came in turn the same day to see if he would not present himself as a candidate.--"Up to the present time several crowned heads have sought me and always on account of the fame of my works."]

[Footnote 3117: "Journal de la République Française," July 6 1793.]

[Footnote 3118: Moniteur, (Session of the Convention, Sep.25, 1792). Marat, indeed, is constantly claiming the post of temporary dictator. ("L'Ami du peuple," Nos. 258, 268, 466, 668 and "Appel à la nation," p.53).]

[Footnote 3119: Moniteur, (Session of the Convention, Sep.25, 1792). Marat, indeed, is constantly claiming the post of temporary dictator. ("L'Ami du peuple," Nos. 258, 268, 466, 668 and "Appel à la nation," p.53).]

[Footnote 3120: Moniteur, (Session of the Convention, Sep.25, 1792). Marat, indeed, is constantly claiming the post of temporary dictator. ("L'Ami du peuple," Nos. 258, 268, 466, 668 and "Appel à la nation," p.53).]

[Footnote 3121: Chevremont, I., 40. (Marat's letters, 1793).]

[Footnote 3122: Journal de la Republique Française, No.98.]

[Footnote 3123: The words of Marat and Panes. (Chevremont, I., 197, 203; also "The Revolution" II., 290, 2nd note).]

[Footnote 3124: Michelet, "Histoire de la Révolution," II., 89. (Narrated by M. Bourdier, Marat's physician, to M. Serre, the physiologist). Barbaroux, "Mémoires," 355, (after a visit to Marat): "You should see how superficially Marat composed his articles. Without any knowledge of a public man he would ask the first person he met what he thought of him and this he wrote down, exclaiming 'I'll crush the rascal!'"]

[Footnote 3125: Chevremont, I., 361. (From a pamphlet against Necker, by Marat, July, 1790).]

[Footnote 3126: "L'Ami du Peuple," No.552. (August 30, 1791).]

[Footnote 3127: Ibid., No.626. (Dec. 15, 1791). Cf. "The Revolution," II., 129, on the number of armed emigrés. At this date the authorized number as published is four thousand.]

[Footnote 3128: His filthy imputations cannot be quoted. See in Buchez et Roux, IX., 419 (April 26, 1791), and X., 220 (Nos. for June 17, 19 and 21), his statement against Lafayette; again, his list with its vile qualifications of "rascals and rogues," who are canvassing for election, and his letters on the Academicians.]

[Footnote 3129: Buchez et Roux, X., 407 (Sept., 1791).--Cf. ibid., 473. According to Marat, "it is useless to measure a degree of the meridian; the Egyptians having already given this measure. The Academicians obtained an appropriation of one thousand crowns for the expenses of this undertaking, a small cake which they have fraternally divided amongst themselves."]

[Footnote 3130: Chevremont, I., 238-249. "L'Ami du peuple," Nos. 419, 519, 543, 608, 641. Other falsehoods just as extravagant are nearly all grotesque. No.630, (April 15, 1792). "Simonneau, mayor of d'Etampes, is an infamous ministerial monopolizer."--No. 627, (April 12, 1792). Delessart, the minister, "accepts gold to let a got-up decree be passed against him." No. 650, (May 10, 1792). "Louis XVI. desired war only to establish his despotism on an indestructible foundation."]

[Footnote 3131: Chevremont, I., 106. (Draft of a declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen, 1789).--Ibid., I., 196.]

[Footnote 3132: "L'Ami du peuple," Nos. 24 and 274.--Cf. "Placard de Marat," Sept. 18, 1792. "The National Convention should always be under the eye of the people, so that the people may stone it if it neglects its duty."]

[Footnote 3133: "L'Ami du peuple," Nos. 108-111. (May 20-23, 1790).]

[Footnote 3134: Ibid., No. 258. (Oct. 22, 1790).]

[Footnote 3135: Ibid., No. 286 (Nov. 20, 1790).]

[Footnote 3136: Ibid., No. 198 (August 22, 1790).]

[Footnote 3137: Ibid., Nos. 523 and 524 (July 19 and 20, 1791).]

[Footnote 3138: Ibid., No.626 (Dec. 15, 1791).]

[Footnote 3139: Ibid., No.668 (July 8, 1792).--Cf. No. 649 (May 6, 1792). He approves of the murder of General Dillon by his men, and recommends the troops everywhere to do the same thing.]

[Footnote 3140: Ibid., No.677 (August 10, 1792). See also subsequent numbers, especially No. 680, Aug. 19th, for hastening on the massacre of the Abbaye prisoners. And Aug. 21st: "As to the officers, they deserve to be quartered like Louis Capet and his manège toadies."]

[Footnote 3141: Buchez et Roux, XXVIII., 105. (Letter of Chevalier Saint-Dizier, member of the first committee of Surveillance, Sep.10, 1792.)--Michelet, II., 94. (In December, 1790, he already demands twenty thousand heads).]

[Footnote 3142: Moniteur, Oct. 26, 1792. (Session of the Convention, Oct. 24th.) "N--: I know a member of the convention, who heard Marat say that, to ensure public tranquility, two hundred and seventy thousand heads more should fall."

Vermont: "I declare that Marat made that statement in my presence."]

Marat: "Well, I did say so; that's my opinion and I say it again."--

Up to the last he advocates surgical operations. (No. for July 12, 1793, the eve of his death.) Observe what he says on the anti-revolutionaries. "To prevent them from entering into any new military body I had proposed at that time, as an indispensable prudent measure, cutting off their ears, or rather their thumbs." He likewise had his imitators. (Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 186, Session of the Convention, April 4, 1796.) Deputies from the popular club of Cette "regret that they had not followed his advice and cut off three hundred thousand heads."]

[Footnote 3143: Danton never wrote or printed a speech. "I am no writer," he says. (Garat, Memoires, 31.)]

[Footnote 3144: Garat, "Memoires," III.: "Danton had given no serious study to those philosophers who, for a century past, had detected the principles of social art in human nature. He had not sought in his own organization for the vast and simple combinations which a great empire demands. He had that instinct for the grand which constitutes genius and that silent circumspection which constitutes judgment."]

[Footnote 3145: Garat, ibid., 311, 312.]

[Footnote 3146: The head of a State may be considered in the same light as the superintendent of an asylum for the sick, the demented and the infirm. In the government of his asylum he undoubtedly does well to consult the moralist and the physiologist; but, before following out their instructions he must remember that in his asylum its inmates, including the keepers and himself, are more or less ill, demented or infirm.]

[Footnote 3147: De Sybel: "Histoire de l'Europe pendant la Revolution Française," (Dosquet's translation from the German) II., 303. "It can now be stated that it was the active operations of Danton and the first committee of Public Safety which divided the coalition and gave the Republic the power of opposing Europe... We shall soon see, on the contrary, that the measures of the "Mountain" party, far from hastening the armaments, hindered them."]

[Footnote 3148: Ibid., I., 558, 562, 585. (The intermediaries were Westermann and Dumouriez.)]

[Footnote 3149: 2 Ibid., II., 28, 290, 291, 293.]

[Footnote 3150: Buchez et Roux, XXV., 445. (Session of April 13, 1793.)]

[Footnote 3151: According to a statement made by Count Theodore de Lameth, the eldest of the four brothers Lameth and a colonel and also deputy in the Legislative Assembly. During the Assembly he was well acquainted with Danton. After the September massacre he took refuge in Switzerland and was put on the list of emigrants. About a month before the King's death he was desirous of making a last effort and came to Paris. "I went straight to Danton's house, and, without giving my name, insisted on seeing him immediately. Finally, I was admitted and I found Danton in a bath-tub. "You here!" he exclaimed. "Do you know that I have only to say the word and send you to the guillotine?" "Danton," I replied, "you are a great criminal, but there are some vile things you cannot do, and one of them is to denounce me." "You come to save the King?" "Yes." We then began to talk in a friendly and confidential way. "I am willing," said Danton, "to try and save the King, but I must have a million to buy up the necessary votes and the money must be on hand in eight days. I warn you that although I may save his life I shall vote for his death; I am quite willing to save his head but not to lose mine." M. de Lameth set about raising the money; he saw the Spanish ambassador and had the matter broached to Pitt who refused. Danton, as he said he would, voted for the King's death, and then aided or allowed the return of M. de Lameth to Switzerland. (I have this account through M (probably Pasquier).... who had it from count Theodore de Lameth's own lips.)]

[Footnote 3152: Garat. "Memoires," 317. "Twenty times, he said to me one day, I offered them peace. They did not want it. They refused to believe me in order to reserve the right of ruining me."]

[Footnote 3153: Cf. the "Ancient Regime," p. 501.]

[Footnote 3154: "Danton," by Dr. Robinet, passim. (Notices by Béon, one of Danton's fellow-disciples.--Fragment by Saint-Albin.)--"The Revolution," II., p.35, foot-note.]

[Footnote 3155: Emile Bos, "Les Avocats du conseil du Roi," 515, 520. (See Danton's marriage-contract and the discussions about his fortune. From 1787 to 1791, he is found engaged as counsel only in three cases.)]

[Footnote 3156: Madame Roland, "Memoires." (Statement of Madame Danton to Madame Roland.)]

[Footnote 3157: Expressions used by Garat and Roederer.--Larévilliere-Lepaux calls him "the Cyclop."]

[Footnote 3158: Fauchet describes him as "the Pluto of Eloquence."]

[Footnote 3159: Riouffe, "Mémoires sur les prisons." "In prison every utterance was mingled with oaths and gross expressions."]

[Footnote 3160: Terms used by Fabre d'Eglantine and Garat.--Beugnot, a very good observer, had an accurate impression of Danton ("Mémoires", I, 249-252).--M. Dufort de Cheverney, (manuscript memoirs published by M. Robert de Crèveceur), after the execution of Babeuf, in 1797, had an opportunity to hear Samson, the executioner, talk with a war commissary, in an inn between Vendôme and Blois. Samson recounted the last moments of Danton and Fabre d'Églantine. Danton, on the way to the scaffold, asked if he might sing. "There is nothing to hinder," said Samson. "All right. Try to remember the verses I have just composed," and he sang the following to a tune in vogue:

Nous sommes menés au trépas We are led to our death Par quantité de scélérats, by a gang of scoundrels c'est ce qui nous désole. that makes us sad. Mais bientot le moment viendra But soon the time shall come Où chacun d'eux y passera, when all of them shall follow c'est ce qui nous console." that's our consolation.]

[Footnote 3161: Buchez et Roux, XXI., 108. Speech (printed) by Pétion: "Marat embraced Danton and Danton embraced him. I certify that this took place in my presence."]

[Footnote 3162: Buchez et Roux, XXI., 126. ("To Maximilian Robespierre and his royalists," a pamphlet by Louvet.)--Beugnot, "Mémoires," I., 250, "On arriving in Paris as deputy from my department (to the Legislative Assembly) Danton sought me and wanted me to join his party. I dined with him three times, in the Cour du Commerce, and always went away frightened at his plans and energy.... He contented himself by remarking to his friend Courtois and my colleague: 'Thy big Beugnot is nothing but a devotee--you can do nothing with him.'"]

[Footnote 3163: The Cordeliers district. (Buchez et Roux, IV., 27.) Assembly meeting of the Cordeliers district, November 11th, 1789, to sanction Danton's permanent presidency. He is always re-elected, and unanimously. This is the first sign of his ascendancy, although sometimes, to save the appearance of his dictatorship, he has his chief clerk Paré elected, whom he subsequently made minister.]

[Footnote 3164: Buchez et Roux, IV., 295, 298, 401; V., 140.]

[Footnote 3165: Ibid., VIII., 28 (October, 1790).]

[Footnote 3166: Ibid., IX., 408: X., 144, 234, 297, 417.--Lafayette "Mémoires," I., 359, 366. Immediately after Mirabeau's death (April, 1791) Danton's plans are apparent, and his initiative is of the highest importance.]

[Footnote 3167: "The Revolution," II., 238 (Note) and 283.--Garat, 309: "After the 20th of June everybody made mischief at the chateau; the power of which was daily increasing. Danton arranged the 10th of August and the chateau was thunderstruck."--Robinet: "Le Procès des Dantonistes," 224, 229. ("Journal de la Societé des amis de la Constitution," No. 214, June 5, 1792.) Danton proposes "the law of Valerius Publicola, passed in Rome after the expulsion of the Tarquins, permitting every citizen to kill any man convicted of having expressed opinions opposed to the law of the State, except in case of proof of the crime." (Ibid., Nos. 230 and 231, July 13, 1792.) Danton induces the federals present "to swear that they will not leave the capital until liberty is established, and before the will of the department is made known on the fate of the executive power." Such are the principles and the instruments, of "August 10th" and "September 2nd."]

[Footnote 3168: Garat, 314. "He was present for a moment on the committee of Public Safety. The outbreaks of May 31st and June 2nd occurred; he was the author of both these days."]

[Footnote 3169: Decrees of April 6 and 7, 1793.]

[Footnote 3170: Decree of September 5, 1793.]

[Footnote 3171: Decree of March 10, 1793.]

[Footnote 3172: August 1 and 12, 1793.]

[Footnote 3173: See "The Revolution," vol. III., ch. I.-Buchez et Roux, XXV., 285. (Meeting of Nov.26, 1793.)--Moniteur, XIX., 726. Danton (March 16, 1794) secures the passing of a decree that "hereafter prose only shall be heard at the rostrum of the house."]

[Footnote 3174: Archives Nationales, Papers of the committee of General Security, No 134.--Letter of Delacroix to Danton, Lille, March 25, 1793, on the situation in Belgium, and the retreat of Dumouriez.... "My letter is so long I fear that you will not read it to the end... .Oblige me by forgetting your usual indolence."--Letter of Chabot to Danton, Frimaire 12, year II. "I know your genius, my dear colleague, and consequently your natural indolent disposition. I was afraid that you would not read me through if I wrote a long letter. Nevertheless I rely on your friendship to make an exception in my favor."]

[Footnote 3175: Lagrange, the mathematician, and senator under the empire, was asked how it was that he voted for the terrible annual conscriptions. "It had no sensible effect on the tables of mortality," he replied.]

[Footnote 3176: Garat, 305, 310, 313. "His friends almost worshipped him."]

[Footnote 3177: Ibid., 317.--Thibeaudeau, "Mémoires," I., 59.]

[Footnote 3178: Quinet, "La Révolution," II., 304. (According to the unpublished memoirs of Baudot.) These expressions by Danton's friends all bear the mark of Danton himself. At all events they express exactly his ideas.]

[Footnote 3179: Riouffe, 67.]

[Footnote 3180: Miot de Melito, "Mémoires," I., 40, 42.--Michelet, "Histoire de la Révolution Française," VI., 34; V. 178, 184. (On the second marriage of Danton in June, 1793, to a young girl of sixteen. On his journey to Arcis, March, 1794.)--Riouffe, 68. In prison "He talked constantly about trees, the country and nature."]

[Footnote 3181: We can trace the effect of his attitude on the public in the police reports, especially at the end of 1793, and beginning of the year 1794. (Archives Nationales, F 7, 31167 report of Charmont, Nivôse 6, year II.) "Robespierre gains singularly in public estimation, especially since his speech in the Convention, calling on his colleagues to rally and crush out the monsters in the interior, also in which he calls on all to support the new revolutionary government with their intelligence and talents.... I have to state that I have everywhere heard his name mentioned with admiration. They wound up by saying that it would be well for all members of the Convention to adopt the measures presented by Robespierre."--(Report of Robin, Nivôse 8.) "Citizen Robespierre is honored everywhere, in all groupes and in the cafe's. At the Café Manouri it was given out that his views of the government were the only ones which, like the magnet, would attract all citizens to the Revolution. It is not the same with citizen Billaud-Varennes." (Report of the Purveyor, Nivôse 9.) "In certain clubs and groups there is a rumor that Robespierre is to be appointed dictator..... The people do justice to his austere virtues; it is noticed that he has never changed his opinions since the Revolution began."]

[Footnote 3182: "Souvenirs d'un déporté." by P. Villiers, (Robespierre's secretary for seven months in 1790,) p. 2. "Of painstaking cleanliness."--Buchez et Roux, XXXIV., 94. Description of Robespierre, published in the newspapers after his death: "His clothes were exquisitely clean and his hair always carefully brushed."]

[Footnote 3183: D'Hericault, "La Revolution du 9 Thermidor," (as stated by Daunou).--Meillan, "Mémoires," p.4. "His eloquence was nothing but diffusive declamation without order or method, and especially with no conclusions. Every time he spoke we were obliged to ask him what he was driving at..... Never did he propose any remedy. He left the task of finding expedients to others, and especially to Danton."]

[Footnote 3184: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 437, 438, 440, 442. (Speech by Robespierre, Thermidor 8, year II.)]

[Footnote 3185: Ibid., XXX., 225, 226, 227, 228 (Speech, Nov. 17, 1793), and XXXI., 255 (Speech, Jan.26, '794). "The policy of the London Cabinet largely contributed to the first movement of our Revolution.... Taking advantage of political tempests (the cabinet) aimed to effect in exhausted and dismembered France a change of dynasty and to place the Duke of York on the throne of Louis XVI.... Pitt....is an imbecile, whatever may be said of a reputation that has been much too greatly puffed up. A man who, abusing the influence acquired by him on an island placed haphazard in the ocean, is desirous of contending with the French people, could not have conceived of such an absurd plan elsewhere than in a madhouse."--Cf. Ibid., XXX., 465.]

[Footnote 3186: Ibid., XXVI., 433, 441, (Speech on the Constitution, May 10, 1793); XXXI., 275. "Goodness consists in the people preferring itself to what is not itself; the magistrate, to be good, must sacrifice himself to the people.".... "Let this maxim be first adopted that the people are good and that its delegates are corruptible.".. . XXX., 464. (Speech, Dec.25, 1793): "The virtues are the appanages of the unfortunate and the patrimony of the people."]

[Footnote 3187: Cf. passim, Hamel, "Histoire de Robespierre," 3 vols. An elaborate panegyric full of details. Although eighty years have elapsed, Robespierre still makes dupes of people through his attitudes and rhetorical flourishes. M. Hamel twice intimates his resemblance to Jesus Christ. The resemblance, indeed, is that of Pascal's Jesuits to the Jesus of the Gospel.]

[Footnote 3188: "The Ancient Regime," p.262.]

[Footnote 3189: Garat, "Mémoires," 84. Garat who is himself an ideologist, notes "his eternal twadle about the rights of man, the sovereignty of the people, and other principles which he was always talking about, and on which he never gave utterance to one precise or fresh idea."]

[Footnote 3190: Read especially his speech on the constitution, (May 10, 1793), his report on the principles of Republican Government, (Dec.15, 1793), his speech on the relationship between religious and national ideas and republican principles (May 7, 1794) and speech of Thermidor 8.-Carnot: "Memoires," II., 512. "In all deliberations on affairs he contributed nothing but vague generalities."]

[Footnote 3191: During this century all important Jacobin leaders, Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin, Stalin, Castro etc. have in their turn followed robespierre's example and bored their captive audiences with their interminable speeches. (SR).]

[Footnote 3192: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 406. (Speech delivered Thermidor 8th.) The printed copy of the manuscript with corrections and erasures.]

[Footnote 3193: Ibid., 420, 422, 427.]

[Footnote 3194: Ibid., 428, 435, 436. "O day forever blessed! What a sight to behold, the entire French people assembled together and rendering to the author of nature the only homage worthy of him! How affecting each object that enchants the eye and touches the heart of man! O honored old age! O generous ardor of the young of our country! O the innocent, pure joy of youthful citizens! O the exquisite tears of tender mothers! O the divine charms of innocence and beauty! What majesty in a great people happy in its strength, power and virtue!"--"No, Charmette, No, death is not the sleep of eternity!"--"Remember, O, People, that in a republic, etc."--"If such truths must be dissembled then bring me the hemlock!"]

[Footnote 3195: Speech, May 7, 1794. (On moral and religious ideas in relation to republican principles.)]

[Footnote 3196: Personifications. From Greek to make persons. (SR).]

[Footnote 3197: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 436. "The verres and Catilines of our country." (Speech of Thermidor 8th.)--Note especially the speech delivered March 7, 1794, crammed full of classical reminiscences.]

[Footnote 3198: Ibid., XXXIII., 421. "Truth has touching and terrible accents which reverberate powerfully in pure hearts as in guilty consciences, and which falsehood can no more counterfeit than Salome can counterfeit the thunders of heaven."--437: "Why do those who yesterday predicted such frightful tempests now gaze only on the fleeciest clouds? Why do those who but lately exclaimed 'I affirm that we are treading on a volcano' now behold themselves sleeping on a bed of roses?"]

[Footnote 3199: Ibid., XXXII., 360, 361. (Portraits of the encyclopaedists and Hébertists.)]

[Footnote 31100: Ibid., XXXIII., 408. "Here, I have to open my heart."--XXXII., 475-478, the concluding part.]

[Footnote 31101: Hamel: "Histoire de Robespierre," I., 34-76. An attorney at 23, a member of the Rosati club at Arras at 24, a member of the Arras Academy at 25. The Royal Society of Metz awarded him a second prize for his discourse against the prejudice which regards the relatives of condemned criminals as infamous. His eulogy of Gresset is not crowned by the Amiens Academy. He reads before the Academy of Arras a discourse against the civil incapacities of illegitimate children, and then another on reforms in criminal jurisprudence. In 1789, he is president of the Arras Academy, and publishes an eulogy of Dupaty and an address to the people from Artois on the qualities necessary for future deputies.]

[Footnote 31102: See his eulogy of Rousseau in the speech of May 7, 1794. (Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 369.--Garat, 85. "I hoped that his selection of Rousseau for a model of style and the constant reading of his works would exert some good influence on his character."]

[Footnote 31103: Fievée, "correspondance" (introduction). Fievée, who heard him at the Jacobin Club, said that he resembled a "tailor of the ancient regime." La Réeveillère-Lepeaux, ´"Memoires."--Buchez et Roux, XXXIV., 94.--Malouet, "Mémoires," II., 135. (Session of May 31, 1791, after the delivery of Abbé Raynal's address.) "This is the first and only time I found Robespierre clear and even eloquent.... He spun out his opening phrases as usual, which contained the spirit of his discourse, and which, in spite of his accustomed rigmarole, produced the effect he intended."]

[Footnote 31104: Courrier de Provence, III., No. 52, (Oct. 7 and 8, 1789).--Buchez et Roux, VI., 372. (Session of July 10, 1790.) Another similar blunder was committed by him on the occasion of an American deputation. The president had made his response, which was "unanimously applauded." Robespierre wanted to have his say notwithstanding the objections of the Assembly, impatient at his verbiage, and which finally put him down. Amidst the laughter, "M. l'Abbé Maury demands ironically the printing of M. Robespierre's discourse."]

[Footnote 31105: L. Villiers, 2.]

[Footnote 31106: Cf. his principal speeches in the constituent Assembly;--against martial law; against the veto, even suspensive; against the qualification of the silver marc and in favor of universal suffrage; in favor of admitting into the National Guard non-acting citizens; of the marriage of priests; of the abolition of the death penalty; of granting political rights to colored men; of interdicting the father from favoring any one of his children; of declaring the "Constituants" ineligible to the Legislative Assembly, etc. On royalty: "The King is not the representative but the clerk of the nation." On the danger of allowing political rights to colored men: "Let the colonies perish if they cost you your honor, your glory, your liberty!"]

[Footnote 31107: Hamel, I., 76.77, (March, 1789). "My heart is an honest one and I stand firm; I have never bowed beneath the yoke of baseness and corruption." He enumerates the virtues that a representative of the Third Estate should possess (26, 83). He already shows his blubbering capacity and his disposition to regard himself as a victim: "They undertake making martyrs of the people's defenders. Had they the power to deprive me of the advantages they envy, could they snatch from me my soul and the consciousness of the benefits I desire to confer on them."]

[Footnote 31108: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII. "Who am I that am thus accused? The slave of freedom, a living martyr to the Republic, at once the victim and the enemy of crime!" See this speech in full.]

[Footnote 31109: Especially in his address to the French people, (Aug., 1791), which, in a justificatory form, is his apotheosis.--Cf. Hamel, II., 212; Speech in the Jacobin club, (April 27, 1792).]

[Footnote 31110: Hamel, I., 517, 532, 559; II., 5.]

[Footnote 31111: Laréveillère-Lepeaux," Mémoires."--Barbaroux, "Mémoires," 358. (Both, after a visit to him.)]

[Footnote 31112: Robespierre's devotees constantly attend at the Jacobin club and in the convention to hear him speak and applaud him, and are called, from their condition and dress, "the fat petticoats."]

[Footnote 31113: Buchez et Roux, XX., 197. (Meeting of Nov. I, 1792.)--"Chronique de Paris," Nov. 9, 1792, article by Condorcet. With the keen insight of the man of the world, he saw clearly into Robespierre's character. "Robespierre preaches, Robespierre censures; he is animated, grave, melancholy, deliberately enthusiastic and systematic in his ideas, and conduct. He thunders against the rich and the great; he lives on nothing and has no physical necessities. His sole mission is to talk, and this he does almost constantly... His characteristics are not those of a religious reformer, but of the chief of a sect. He has won a reputation for austerity approaching sanctity. He jumps up on a bench and talks about God and Providence. He styles himself the friend of the poor; he attracts around him a crowd of women and 'the poor in spirit, and gravely accepts their homage and worship.... Robespierre is a priest and never will be anything else." Among Robespierre's devotees Madame de Chalabre must be mentioned, (Hamel, I., 525), a young widow (Hamel, III., 524), who offers him her hand with an income of forty thousand francs. "Thou art my supreme deity," she writes to him, "and I know no other on this earth! I regard thee as my guardian angel, and would live only under thy laws."]

[Footnote 31114: Fievée, "Correspondance," (introduction).]

[Footnote 31115: Report of Courtois on the papers found in Robespierre's domicile. Justificatory documents No.20, letter of the Secretary of the Committee of Surveillance of Saint Calais, Nivôse 15, year II.]

[Footnote 31116: Ibid., No. 18. Letter of V--, former inspector of "droits reservés," Feb. 5, 1792.]

[Footnote 31117: Ibid., No.8. Letter of P. Brincourt, Sedan, Aug.29, 1793.]

[Footnote 31118: Ibid., No. I. Letter of Besson, with an address of the popular club of Menosque, Prairial 23, year II]

[Footnote 31119: Ibid., No.14. Letter of D--, member of the Cordeliers Club, and former mercer, Jan.31, 1792]

[Footnote 31120: Ibid., No.12. Letter by C--, Chateau Thierry, Prairial 30, year II.]

[Footnote 31121: Hamel, III., 682. (Copied from Billaud-Varennes' manuscripts, in the Archives Nationales).]

[Footnote 31122: Moniteur, XXII., '75. (Session of Vendémiaire i8, year III. Speech by Laignelot.) "Robespierre had all the popular clubs under his thumb."]

[Footnote 31123: Garat, 85. "The most conspicuous sentiment with Robespierre, and one, indeed, of which he made no mystery, was that the defender of the people could never see amiss."--(Bailleul, quoted in Carnot's Memoirs, I. 516.) "He regarded himself as a privileged being, destined to become the people's regenerator and instructor."]

[Footnote 31124: Speech of May 16, 1794, and of Thermidor 8, year II.]

[Footnote 31125: Buchez et Roux, X., 295, 296. (Session June 22, 1791, of the Jacobin Club.)--Ibid., 294.--Marat spoke in the same vein: "I have made myself a curse for all good people in France." He writes, the same date: "Writers in behalf of the people will be dragged to dungeons. 'The friend of the people,' whose last sigh is given for his country, and whose faithful voice still summons you to freedom, is to find his grave in a fiery furnace." The last expression shows the difference in their imaginations.]

[Footnote 31126: Hamel, II., 122. (Meeting of the Jacobin Club, Feb.10, 1792.) "To obtain death at the hands of tyrants is not enough--one must deserve death. If it be true that the earliest defenders of liberty became its martyrs they should not suffer death without bearing tyranny along with them into the grave."--Cf., ibid., II., 215. (Meeting of April 27, 1792.)]

[Footnote 31127: Hamel, II., 513. (Speech in the Convention, Prairial 7, year II.)]

[Footnote 31128: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 422, 445, 447, 457. (Speech in the Convention, Thermidor 8, year II.)]

[Footnote 31129: Buchez et Roux, XX., 11, 18. (Meeting of the Jacobin Club, Oct.29, 1792.) Speech on Lafayette, the Feuillants and Girondists. XXXI., 360, 363. (Meeting of the Convention, May 7, 1794.) On Lafayette, the Girondists, Dantonists and Hébertists.--XXXIII., 427. (Speech of Thermidor 8, year II.)]

[Footnote 31130: Garat, "Mémoires," 87, 88.]

[Footnote 31131: Buchez et Roux, XXI., 107. (Speech of Pétion on the charges made against him by Robespierre.) Petion justly objects that "Brunswick would be the first to cut off Brissot's head, and Brissot is not fool enough to doubt it."]

[Footnote 31132: Garat, 94. (After the King's death and a little before the 10th of March, 1793.)]

[Footnote 31133: Ibid., 97. In 1789 Robespierre assured Garat that Necker was plundering the Treasury, and that people had seen mules loaded with the gold and silver he was sending off by millions to Geneva.--Carnot, "Mémoires," I. 512. "Robespierre," say Carnot and Prieur, "paid very little attention to public business, but a good deal to public officers; he made himself intolerable with his perpetual mistrust of these, never seeing any but traitors and conspirators."]

[Footnote 31134: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 417. (Speech of Thermidor 8, year II.)]

[Footnote 31135: Ibid., XXXII., 361, (Speech May 7, '794,) and 359. "Immorality is the basis of despotism, as virtue is the essence of the Republic."]

[Footnote 31136: Ibid., 371.]

[Footnote 31137: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 195. (Report of Couthon and decree in conformity therewith, Prairial 22, year II.) "The revolutionary tribunal is organised for the punishment of the people's enemies.. .. The penalty for all offences within its jurisdiction is death. Those are held to be enemies of the people who shall have misled the people, or the representatives of the people, into measures opposed to the interests of liberty; those who shall have sought to create discouragement by favoring the undertakings of tyrants leagued against the Republic; those who shall have spread false reports to divide or disturb the people; those who shall have sought to misdirect opinion and impede popular instruction, produce depravity and corrupt the public conscience, diminish the energy and purity of revolutionary and republican principles, or stay their progress Those who, charged with public functions, abuse them to serve the enemies of the Revolution, vex patriots, oppress the people, etc."]

[Footnote 31138: Buchez et Roux, XXXV., 290. (" Institutions," by Saint-Just.) "The Revolution is chilled. Principles have lost their vigor. Nothing remains but red-caps worn by intrigue."--Report by Courtois, "Pièces justificatives" No.20. (Letter of Pays and Rompillon, president and secretary of the committee of Surveillance of Saint-Calais, to Robespierre, Nivôse 15, year II.) "The Mountain here is composed of only a dozen or fifteen men on whom you can rely as on yourself; the rest are either deceived, seduced, corrupted or enticed away. Public opinion is debauched by the gold and intrigues of honest folks."]

[Footnote 31139: Report by Courtois, N. 43.--Cf. Hamel, III., 43, 71.--(The following important document is on file in the Archives Nationales, F 7, 4446, and consists of two notes written by Robespierre in June and July, 1793): "Who are our enemies? The vicious and the rich.... How may the civil war be stopped? Punish traitors and conspirators, especially guilty deputies and administrators.... make terrible examples.... proscribe perfidious writers and anti-revolutionaries.... Internal danger comes from the bourgeois; to overcome the bourgeois, rally the people. The present insurrection must be kept up.... The insurrection should gradually continue to spread out... The sans-culottes should be paid and remain in the towns. They ought to be armed, worked up, taught."]

[Footnote 31140: The committee of Public Safety, and Robespierre especially, knew of and commanded the drownings of Nantes, as well as the principal massacres by Carrier, Turreau, etc. (De Martel, "Etude sur Fouché," 257-265.)--Ibid., ("Types revolutionnaires," 41-49.)--Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 101 (May 26, 1794.) Report by Barère and decree of the convention ordering that "No English prisoners should be taken." Robespierre afterwards speaks in the same sense. Ibid., 458. After the capture of Newport, where they took five thousand English prisoners, the French soldiers were unwilling to execute the convention's decree, on which Robespierre (speech of Thermidor 8) said: "I warn you that your decree against the English has constantly been violated; England, so ill-treated in our speeches, is spared by our arms."]

[Footnote 31141: On the Girondists, Cf. "The Revolution," II., 216.]

[Footnote 31142: Buchez et Roux, XXX., 157. Sketch of a speech on the Fabre d'Eglantine factim.--Ibid., 336, Speech at the Jacobin Club against Clootz.--XXXII., abstract of a report on the Chabot affair, 18.-Ibid., 69, Speech on maintaining Danton's arrest.]

[Footnote 31143: Ibid., XXX., 378. (Dec.10, 1793.) With respect to the women who crowd the Convention in order to secure the liberty of their husbands: "Should the republican women forget their virtues as citizens whenever they remembering that they are wives?"]

[Footnote 31144: Hamel, III., 196.--Michelet, V., 394, abstract of the judicial debates on the disposition of the Girondists: "The minutes of this decree are found in Robespierre's handwriting."]

[Footnote 31145: De Martel, "Types revolutionnaires," 44. The instructions sent to the Revolutionary Tribunal at Orange are in Robespierre's handwriting.--(Archives Nationales, F7 4439.)]

[Footnote 31146: Merlin de Thionville.]

[Footnote 31147: Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 71. (On Danton.) "Before the day is over we shall see whether the convention will shatter an idol a long time rotten.... In what respect is Danton superior to his fellow-citizens?.... I say that the man who now hesitates is guilty..... The debate, just begun, is a danger to the country."--Also the speech in full, against Clootz.]

[Footnote 31148: Ibid., XXX., 338. "Alas, suffering patriots, what can we do, surrounded by enemies fighting in our own ranks!... Let us watch, for the fall of our country is not far off," etc.--These cantatas, with the accompaniments of the celestial harp, are terrible if we consider the circumstances. For instance, on the 3rd of September, 1792, in the electoral assembly while the massacres are going on: "M. Robespierre climbs up on the tribune and declares that he will calmly face the steel of the enemies of public good, and carry with him to his grave the satisfaction of having served his country, the certainty of France having preserved its liberty".--(Archives Nationales, C. II., 58-76.)]

[Footnote 31149: Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 360, 371. (Speech of May 7, 1794.) "Danton! the most dangerous, if he had not been the most cowardly, of the enemies of his country.... Danton, the coldest, the most indifferent, during his country's greatest peril."]

[Footnote 31150: Ibid., XXXIV.,--Cf. the description of him by Fievée, who saw him in the tribune at the Jacobin Club.]

[Footnote 31151: Merlin de Thionville "A vague, painful anxiety, due to his temperament, was the sole source of his activity."]

[Footnote 31152: Barère, "Mémoires." "He wanted to rule France influentially rather than directly."--Buchez et Roux, XIV., 188. (Article by Marat.) During the early sessions of the Legislative Assembly, Marat saw Robespierre on one occasion, and explained to him his plans for exciting popular outbreaks, and for his purifying massacres. "Robespierre listened to me with dismay, turned pale and kept silent for some moments. This interview confirmed me in the idea I always had of him, that he combined the enlightenment of a wise senator with the uprightness of a genuine good man and the zeal of a true patriot, but that he equally lacked the views and boldness of a statesman."--Thibaudeau, "Mémoires," 58.--He was the only member of the committee of Public Safety who did not join the department missions.]

[Footnote 31153: Someone is "grandisonian" when he is like the novelist Richardson's hero, Sir Walter Grandison, beneficient, polite and chivalrous. (SR).]

[Footnote 31154: Buchez et Roux XX., 198. (Speech of Robespierre in the Convention, November 5, 1792.)]

[Footnote 31155: All these statements by Robespierre are opposed to the truth.--("Procés-verbaux des Séances de la Commune de Paris.") Sep. 1, 1792, Robespierre speaks twice at the evening session.--The testimony of two persons, both agreeing, indicate, moreover, that he spoke at the morning session, the names of the speakers not being given. "The question," says Pétion (Buchez et Roux, XXI., 103), "was the decree opening the barriers." This decree is under discussion at the Commune at the morning session of September 1: "Robespierre, on this question, spoke in the most animated manner, wandering off in sombre flights of imagination; he saw precipices at his feet and plots of liberticides; he designated the pretended conspirators."--Louvet (ibid., 130), assigns the same date, (except that he takes the evening for the morning session), for Robespierre's first denunciation of the Girondists: "Nobody, then," says Robespierre, "dare name the traitors? Very well, I denounce them. I denounce them for the security of the people. I denounce the liberticide Brissot, the Girondist faction, the villainous committee of twenty-one in the National Assembly. I denounce them for having sold France to Brunswick and for having received pay in advance for their baseness."--Sep. 2, ("Procès verbaux de la Commune," evening session), "MM. Billaud-Varennes and Robespierre, in developing their civic sentiments,.. denounce to the Conseil-Général the conspirators in favor of the Duke of Brunswick, whom a powerful party want to put on the throne of France."--September 3, at 6 o'clock in the morning, (Buchez et Roux, 16, 132, letter of Louvet), commissioners of the Commune present themselves at Brissot's house with an order to inspect his papers; one of them says to Brissot that he has eight similar orders against the Gironde deputies and that he is to begin with Guadet. (Letter of Brissot complaining of this visit, Monitur, Sep. 7, 1792.) This same day, Sep. 31 Robespierre presides at the Commune. (Granier de Cassagnac, "Les Girondins" II., 63.) It is here that a deputation of the Mauconseil section comes to find him, and he is charged by the "Conseil" with a commission at the Temple.--Sept. 4 (Buchez et Roux, XXI., 106, Speech of Petion), the Commune issues a warrant of arrest against Roland; Danton comes to the Mayoralty with Robespierre and has the warrant revoked; Robespierre ends by telling Petion: "I believe that Brissot belongs to Brunswick."--Ibid., 506. "Robespierre (before Sept. 2), took the lead in the Conseil"--Ibid., 107. "Robespierre," I said, "you are making a good deal of mischief. Your denunciations, your fears, hatreds and suspicions, excite the people."]

[Footnote 31156: Garat, 86.-Cf. Hamel, I., 264. (Speech, June 9, 1791.)]

[Footnote 31157: "The Revolution," II., 338, 339. (Speech. Aug. 3, 1792.)]

[Footnote 31158: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 420. (Speech, Thermidor 8.)]

[Footnote 31159: Ibid., XXXII., 71. (Speech against Danton.) "What have you done that you have not done freely?"]

[Footnote 31160: Ibid., XXXIII., 199 and 221. (Speech on the law of Prairial 22.)]

[Footnote 31161: Mirabeau said of Robespierre: "Whatever that man has said, he believes in it.--Robespierre, Duplay's guest, dined every day with Duplay, a juryman in the revolutionary tribunal and co-operator for the guillotine, at eighteen francs a day. The talk at the table probably turned on the current abstractions; but there must have been frequent allusions to the condemnations of the day, and, even when not mentioned, they were in their minds. Only Robert Browning, at the present day, could imagine and revive what was spoken and thought in those evening conversations before the mother and daughters."]

[Footnote 31162: Today, more than 100 years later, where are we? Is it possible that man can thus lie to himself and hence to others? Robert Wright, in his book "The Moral Animal", describing "The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology", writes (page 280): "The proposition here is that the human brain is, in large part, a machine for winning arguments, a machine for convincing others that its owner is in the right--and thus a machine for convincing its owner of the same thing. The brain is like a good lawyer: given any set of interests to defend, its sets about convincing the world of their moral and logical worth, regardless of whether they in fact have any of either. Like a lawyer, it is sometimes more admirable for skill than for virtue." (SR).]

[Footnote 31163: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 151.--Cf.. Dauban, "Paris en 1794," p.386 (engraving) and 392, "Fête de l'Être Suprême à Sceaux," according to the programme drawn up by the patriot Palloy. "All citizens are requested to be at their windows or doors, even those occupying the rear part of the main buildings."--Ibid., 399. "Youthful citizens will strew flowers at each station, fathers will embrace their children and mothers turn their eyes upward to heaven."--Moniteur, XXX., 653. "Plan of the fête in honor of the Supreme Being, drawn up by David, and decreed by the National Convention."]

[Footnote 31164: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 176. (Narrative by Valate.)]

[Footnote 31165: Hamel, III., 541.]

[Footnote 31166: Buchez et Roux, XXVIII., 178, 180.]

[Footnote 31167: Ibid., 177 (Narrative by Vilate.) Ibid., 170, Notes by Robespierre on Bourdon (de l'Oise) 417. Passages erased by Robespierre in the manuscript of his speech of Thermidor 8.--249. Analogous passages in his speech as delivered,--all these indications enable us to trace the depths of his resentment.]

[Footnote 31168: Ibid., 183. Memoirs of Billaud-Varennes, Collot d'Herbois, Vadier and Barère. "The next day after Prairial 22, at the morning session (of the committee of Public Safety).... I now see, says Robespierre, that I stand alone, with nobody to support me, and, getting violently excited, he launched out against the members of the committee who had conspired against him. He shouted so loud as to collect together a number of citizens on the Tuileries terrace." Finally, "he pushed hypocrisy so far as to shed tears." The nervous machine, I imagine, broke down.--Another member of the committee, Prieur, (Carnot, "Mémoires," II., 525), relates that, in the month of Floréal, after another equally long and violent session, "Robespierre, exhausted, became ill."]

[Footnote 31169: Carnot, "Mémoires," II. 526. "As his bureau was in a separate place, where none of us set foot, he could retire to it without coming in contact with any of us, as in effect, he did. He even made a pretence of passing through the committee rooms, after the session was over, and he signed some papers; but he really neglected nothing, except our common discussions. He held frequent conferences in his house with the presidents of the revolutionary tribunals, over which his influence was greater than ever."]

[Footnote 31170: Dauban, "Paris en 1794," 563.--Archives Nationales, AF.II., 58. The signature of Robespierre, in his own handwriting, is found affixed to many of the resolutions of the Committee of Public Safety, passed Thermidor 5 and 7, and those of St. Just and Couthon after this, up to Thermidor 3, 6 and 7. On the register of the minutes of the Committee of Public Safety, Robespierre is always recorded as present at all meetings between Messidor 1 and Thermidor 8, inclusive.]

[Footnote 31171: Archives Nationales, F.7, 4438. Report to the Committee of Public Safety by Herman, Commissioner of the civil and Police administrations and of the Courts, Messidor 3, year II. "The committee charged with a general supervision of the prisons, and obliged to recognize that all the rascals mostly concerned with liberticide plots are.... still in the prisons, forming a band apart, and rendering surveillance very troublesome; they are a constant source of disorder, always getting up attempts to escape, being a daily assemblage of persons devoting themselves wholly to imprecations against liberty and its defenders.... It would be easy to point out in each prison, those who have served, and are to serve, the diverse factions, the diverse conspiracies.... It may be necessary, perhaps, to purge the prisons at once and free the soil of liberty of their filth, the refuse of humanity." The Committee of Public Safety consequently "charges the commission to ascertain in the prisons of Paris... who have been more specially concerned in the diverse factions and conspiracies that the National convention has destroyed." The word "approved" appears at the foot of the resolution in Robespierre's handwriting, then the signature of Robespierre, and lower down, those of Billaud and Barère. A similar resolution providing for the 7th of Messidor, signed by the same parties and five others, is dispatched the same day. (M. de Martel came across and made use of this conclusive document before I did, most of it being quoted in "Les Types Revolutionnaires.")]

[Footnote 31172: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 434.]