Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/627

Rh ROBESPIERRE 603 Billaud-Varenne, who were not afraid of blood, and who dared to look facts in the face and take the responsibility of doing while others were talking, were the men who made the 10th of August and took the Tuileries. The Girondins, however, were quite ready to take advantage of the accomplished fact ; and Robespierre, likewise, though shocked at the shedding of blood, 'was willing to take his seat on the commune of Paris, which had overthrown Louis XVI., and might check the Girondins. The strong men of the commune were glad to have Robespierre's assistance, not because they cared for him or believed in him, but because of the help got from his popularity, his reputation for virtue, and his influence over the Jacobin Club and its branches, which spread all over France. He it was who presented the petition of the commune of Paris on 16th August to the legislative assembly, demand- ing the establishment of a revolutionary tribunal and the summons of a convention. The massacres of September in the prisons, which Robespierre in vain attempted to stop, showed that the commune had more confidence in Billaud than in him. Yet, as a proof of his personal popularity, he was a few days later elected first deputy for Paris to the national convention. On the meeting of the convention the Girondins im- mediately attacked Robespierre ; they were jealous of his popularity and knew that his single-hearted fanaticism would never forgive their intrigues with the king at the end of July, and would always be opposed to their plans for raising the duke of Orleans to the throne. As early as 26th September the Girondin Lasource accused him of aiming at the dictatorship ; afterwards he was informed that Marat, Danton, and himself were plotting to become triumvirs ; and eventually on 29th October Louvet attacked him in a studied and declamatory harangue, abounding in ridiculous falsehoods and obviously concocted in Madame Roland's boudoir. But Robespierre had no difficulty in rebutting this attack (5th November). All personal dis- putes, however, gave way by the month of December 1792 before the great question of the king's trial, and here Robespierre took up a position which is at least easily understood. These are his words spoken on 3d December : " This is no trial ; Louis is not a prisoner at the bar ; you are not judges ; you are you cannot but be statesmen, and the representatives of the nation. You have not to pass sentence for or against a single man, but you have to take a resolution on a question of the public safety, and to decide a question of national foresight. It is with regret that I pronounce the fatal truth ; Louis ought to perish rather than a hundred thousand virtuous citizens ; Louis must die, that the country may live." This great question settled by the king's execution, the struggle between Robespierre and the Girondins entered upon a more acute stage, and the want of statesmanship among the latter threw upon the side of the fanatical Robespierre Danton and all those strong practical men who cared little for personal questions, and whose only desire was the victory of France in her great struggle with Europe. Had it been at all possible to act with that group of men of genius whom history calls the Girondins, Danton, Carnot, Robert Lindet, and even Billaud-Varenne would have sooner thrown in their lot with them than with Robespierre, whom they thoroughly understood ; but the Girondins, spurred on by Madame Roland, refused to have anything to do with Danton. Government became impossible; the federalist idea, which would have broken France to pieces in the very face of the enemy, grew and flourished, and the men of action had to take a decided part. In the month of May 1793 Camille Desmoulins, acting under the inspiration of Robespierre and Danton, published his Ilittoire des Brissotins and Brissot devoile ; Isnard declared- that Paris must be destroyed ; Robespierre preached insurrection at the Jacobin Club ; and on 31st May and 2d June the commune of Paris destroyed the Girondin party. For a moment it seemed as if France would avenge them ; but patriotism was stronger than federalism. The defence of Lyons only exasperated the men who were working for France, and the armies who were fighting for her, and on 27th July 1793, when the struggle was practically decided, the convention elected Robespierre to the committee of public safety. This election marks an important epoch, not only in the life of Robespierre, but in the history of the Revolution. Danton and the men of action had throughout the last two years of the crisis, as Mirabeau had in the first two years, seen that the one great need of France, if she was to see the end of her troubles without the interference of foreign armies, was the existence of a strong executive government. The means for establishing the much-needed strong executive were found in the committee of public safety. The success of this committee in suppressing the Norman insurrection had confirmed the majority of the convention in the expediency of strengthening its powers, and the committee of general security which sat beside it was also strengthened and given the entire management of the internal police of the country. When Danton, who had been a member of the committee from April to 10th July 1793, left it Robespierre was elected; and it was not until then that he became one of the actual rulers of France. Indeed the committee was not finally constituted until the 13th of September, when the last two of the "great " twelve who held office until July 1794 were elected. Of these twelve at least seven, Carnot, Billaud-Varenne, Collot d'Herbois, Prieur (of the Marne), Prieur (of the Cote d'Or), Jean Bon Saint-Andre, and Robert Lindet, were essentially men of action, all of whom despised rather than feared Robespierre owing to his sup- posed timidity, and were entirely free from his influence. Of the other four Herault de Sechelles was a professed adherent of Danton ; Barere was an eloquent Provencal, who was ready to be the spokesman to the convention of any view which the majority of the committee might adopt ; and only Couthon and Saint-Just shared Robes- pierre's political enthusiasm for the regeneration of France by the gospel of Rousseau. It is necessary to dwell upon the fact that Robespierre was always in a minority in the great committee in order to absolve him from the blame of being the inventor of the enormities of the Terror, as well as to deprive him of the glory of the gallant stand made against Europe in arms. After this examination of Robespierre's position it is not necessary to investigate closely every act of the great committee during the year which was pre-eminently the year of the Terror ; the biographer is rather called upon to examine his personal position with regard to the estab- lishment of the Terror and the fall of the Hebertists and Dantonists, and then to dwell upon the last three months in which he stood almost alone trying to work up an effective counterbalance to the power of the majority of the great committee. The Terror was the embodiment of the idea of Danton, that it was necessary to have resort to extreme measures to keep France united and strong at home in order to meet successfully her enemies upon the frontier. This idea was systematized by the committee of public safety, or rather by two members of it acting for the majority, Billaud-Varenne and Collot d'Herbois, with- out much consideration as to who were to be the victims. With the actual organization of the Terror Robespierre had little or nothing to do ; its tAvo great engines, the revolu- tionary tribunal and the absolute power in the provinces of the representatives on mission, were in existence before he