XX. BOOK of St. Domingo, one of whom was a negro, and the others gens-de-couleur, were received by 1794. the Convention as the representatives of the colony. On the succeeding day one of the deputies gave an affecting account of the troubles of this island; and they had no sooner concluded than La Croix eagerly moved the entire abolition of slavery within the dominions of France. The National Convention rose spontaneously to decree the proposition, and the men of colour were all adopted into the number of French citizens. The prodigies of valor performed by the republican armies, and the successes achieved by them during the latter months of the preceding campaign, in some degree opened the eyes of the confederate princes; and from the proceedings of the Convention at this period it appears that some secret advances had been made on the part of the allies to establish a truce for two years between the belligerent powers. In a report made by Barrere, early in the month of February, from the committee of Public Safety, he declared, "that the coalesced kings were willing provisionally to acknowledge the French republic." This was followed by loud bursts of laughter. "Well," said the orator, "let us provisionally destroy all tyrannical govern ments." The bursts of laughter changed to acclamations of applause. A few days after XX. wards the president of the Convention, adverting BOOK to this proposition, exclaimed, "What singular generosity is this towards a nation of twenty-five 1794. millions of souls, which has 1,200,000 heroes in arms! Depend, citizens, on the incorruptible mountain. It is against this rock that our enemies are wasting their strength!" Such was the unshaken and well-founded confidence, which in the midst of internal discord, and distraction was placed by the existing government of France in the spirit and resources of the country. At the head of the faction of the Cordeliers were Hebert, Ronsin, Anarcharsis Clootz, styled the Apostle of Atheism, &c.-men who, to conciliate the populace, adopted the wildest theories, decried all religion, preached equality in the absurdest extent, and recommended publicly an agrarian law. In the beginning of March the Table of the Rights of Man, in the hall of the Cordeliers, was covered with a black crape; and Hebert, from the tribune of the society, affirmed that tyranny existed in the republic. This was sufficient to arouse the jealousy of Robespierre. Virtue and ferocity were declared in the Convention, by the wretch Couthon, to be the requisite order of the day. On the 25th March, Hebert, Ronsin, Clootz, and many others of the same association, were arrested, and brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal, and of course con XX. BOOK demned to the guillotine. These executions were followed by those of Fabre d'Eglantine, 1794 Chabot, Bazire, Julien of Toulouse, Herault Sechelles, and other popular deputies of the Convention, on pretence of their having engaged in counter-revolutionary projects. But what excited still more amazement was the arrest of Danton, Philippeaux, and Camille Desmoulins, &c. on the 31st of March. It is remarkable that St. Just, in the report presented on this occasion, makes the profession of atheism a principal charge against Fabre d'Eglantine. On the 2d of April, these persons and many others their pretended accomplices, fell under the fatal axe of the guillotine. Danton was a man of great parts, and seems to have been regarded by Robespierre in the light of a rival for power and superiority, and such rivalship was, in the view of that execrable tyrant, the most heinous of all offences. At this period it was decreed by the Convention that the remains of the famous Jean Jacques Rousseau should be deposited in the beautiful church of St. Génévieve, now styled the Pantheon. The president, upon this occasion, said, "That illustrious patriot has left excellent lessons to mankind, to love liberty, morality, and the Divinity. These lessons will for ever confound those false philosophers who profess neither to believe in a Providence nor in a XX. Supreme Being the only consolation of man- BOOK kind in their last moments."-Religion was now again the order of the day in the National Con- 1794. vention. The number of public executions, upon the most frivolous and wanton pretences, still continued, nevertheless, to be almost incredible. M. Palissot, a dramatic author who had many years before written a comedy in ridicule of Rousseau, was now destined to expiate this offence with his life. He wrote to the municipality an acknowledgment of his error, and of the merits of Rousseau: "Yet," said he, "if Rousseau was a god, you ought not to sacrifice human victims to him."-This striking expression produced its effect, and Palissot was released from his imprisonment. In the month of May, the virtuous princess Elizabeth, sister of the late king, and his faithful companion under misfortune, was, without any shadow of pretext, brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal, and, after a few vague and insolent interrogatories, barbarously condemned to the punishment of the guillotine, which she suffered without betraying any other emotions than those of humble and pious resignation. On the 30th of this month Barrère brought forward the infamous decree for allowing no quarter to the English or Hanoverian troops: but the French officers and soldiery unanimously XX. BOOK refused to carry this abominable mandate into execution and the commander in chief of the 1794. British forces, on this occasion, to his lasting honor, declared, by a public proclamation, his unalterable resolution not to imitate this horrid barbarity. In order to demonstrate that the most atrocious acts may be as intimately associated with religious hypocrisy, as with open profaneness, a grand festival was, a few days afterwards, (June 8,) observed in honor of the SUPREME BEING! The president of the Convention, from the midst of a spacious amphitheatre adorned with festoons and garlands, made an oration to the immense surrounding multitude, exhorting them to adore the great Author of Nature. During the performance of a solemn symphony, he descended from the tribune armed with the torch of Truth; and approached an hideous monster representing Atheism, which, on being touched by the torch, instantly vanished, and the resplendent figure of Wisdom occupied its place. Such are the gaudy shows which human folly has ever been eager to substitute for rational devotion, and in which the divine simplicity of the pure religion of nature is obscured and lost. Fall of Ro No sooner had Robespierre reached the bespierre, summit of power, than the basis on which it stood seemed to totter under him. After the pro |