Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/639

 GIRONDISTS AND JACOBINS.] F K A N C E 603 ed nst tria. communication with the enemy. The feeling against the ministers was so strong that after the trial of one of them, known to bo the queen s agent, they all resigned, and a Gi- Girondist cabinet was appointed by the king. Koland, a man 1st of intelligence, spirit, and uprightness, married to the noblest stry&amp;gt; lady of these troubled times, a lady who was the inspiring genius of the Gironde, was made minister of the interior. The other name of note was that of Dumouriez, who had the portfolio of foreign affairs. This ministry at once took up a resolute position against the allied sovereigns ; and Francis II., the new head of the house of Austria, unlike Leopold, who had never wished for war, at once replied with defiance, ordering France to replace king, clergy, and nobles de- in their ancient dignities and privileges. On tho 20th April 1792 the Girondist ministry declared war against Francis, and tlie long wars of the republic and the empire began. The French army was in a state of great confusion ; most of ita officers had joined the emigrants, eager to show the Germans &quot; the way to Paris&quot; ; those who remained were Kiispected by the people; there was little money in the treasury, little experience in the camp. Dumouriez hoped to make a good beginning by invading Belgium, restless n iu under its Austrian masters, and only lately in revolt. All, um&amp;lt; however, went amiss. One column was checked near Tournay, lost its guns, killed Dillon its general, and fled with cries of &quot; treason &quot;; a second column was defeated near Mous ; Lafayette and the other generals hereon halted and stood on the defensive. All France was uneasy. Had her ancient courage departed ? was she powerless with out her noble officers ] or was she the victim of treachery ] The Jacobins grew more vehement ; the terrible voice of Marat was now heard calling for heads ; suspicion became greater than ever against the king, above all against the Austrian queen, and the guards around them, who were thought to be inclined to betray the people. The Assembly declared itself as sitting in permanence. It levelled mea sures against the refractory priests ; it decreed that the king s guard should be dismissed, and that a camp of fed eral soldiers should be formed at Paris. The king refused to dismiss his guards ; and on a strong remonstrance from Roland, he at once dismissed the three chief Girondist minis ters. Dumouriez finding the king obstinate, also resigned office. Louis named a ministry of obscure members of the Feuillant party, men who believed in the constitution of 1790, and in the royal authority. It was at this time that ho sent Mallet du Pan on a secret mission to Vienna, to pray the Germans to rescue him from the tyranny of those &quot; who now ruled with a rod of iron.&quot; The Girondists, thus ejected from power, made common cause with the Jacobins, and watched with keen eyes the on * course of Lafayette, the centre of the constitutional party ; the ministry and all those who in heart loved the older system or dreaded the progress of the Revolution, looked to Lafayette and his army as their only hope. He was no statesman, loyal and upright as he was, and committed the great blunder of defying the Jacobins. At once his waning popularity was lost ; his party was seen to be that of reaction ; the people could see no difference between the constitutionalist Feuillants and the aristocrat emigrants, and the doom of the party was sealed. On the 20th of June 1792 tho Jacobins replied to Lafayette s manifesto by raising the Parisian populace against the Assembly. That body, overawed and powerless, could do nothing against so fierce and determined an invasion. They next forced their way into the palace, and there Louis XVI. met them with admirable dignity. The populace shouted &quot; down with the veto,&quot; &quot; recall the ministers,&quot; and so forth. The king wore the Paris red cap, and the crowd was appeased at once. It was an excited, not a bloodthirsty, mob that day. Louis assured them that &quot; he would do whatever the constitution 1792. ordained that he should do,&quot; words which, though they meant little, yet, when joined with the red cap and the king s manly bearing, satisfied the people, who departed quietly. Public opinion seemed at once to go with the monarch and the ministers against this outrage ; the Girondists, who had been parties to it, lost ground ; Lafayette even ventured to come up to Paris from the army to demand the punish ment of the insurgent chiefs. His attempt, however, was a failure. The Assembly threatened to arrest him fur leaving his troops without orders ; the courtiers of the Tuileries looked coldly on him ; the king gave him no thanks ; as for the queen, she liked him no better than of old. He had to return quickly to the army. The truth was that at this The time the court policy had gone entirely over to the emi- court grants and their foreign friends. There were 80,000 men K oes over at Coblentz commanded by the duke of Brunswick ; the n j_ royalists cared nothing for such constitutionalists as La- grants, fayette ; &quot; in a month I shall be free,&quot; was the queen s remark. Prussia had now also declared against France, and was on the march ; this movement restored all power and popularity to the Jacobins. The Assembly took measures in self-defence against the court and the foreigners ; men began to call for the deposition of the king ; the country was proclaimed in danger, and 50,000 volunteers were de creed ; men flocked to enrol themselves from every quarter ; the excitement grew daily; the fiercest threats and sug- 1 gestions made themselves heard. The Jacobins organized, insurrec- I almost openly, a new insurrection, which should force the tion of j hand of the Assembly, and &quot;save the Revolution.&quot; The van- Ue lOft the battalion of men of Marseilles, who have attached their name to the ever-famous song, which has been sung by Frenchmen on so many a hard-won battlefield, in poli tics or in campaign, the Marseillaise. The extravagant The proclamation with which Brunswick heralded the opening Marseil- of his campaign did but add to the fury of the people ; and laise on the 10th of August the great insurrection, led by the popular chief Danton, swept over the Assembly and the monarchy, overpowering everything as it passed along. The guards at the Tuileries were of uncertain fidelity to the king ; the commissioners of the sections of Paris seized on the Hotel de Ville, and at once set up an &quot; insurrectionary commune&quot; ; they summoned before them the commandant The Pa- of the national guard, Mandat, who was massacred as he ris com - left the hall. The guards, thus left headless, refused to fire niime - on the people ; the insurrection swept over all ; the king with difficulty, surrounded by his family, took refuge under protection of the trembling Assembly. The Swiss guards of the palace were massacred, the Tuileries taken and sacked ; the new municipality, flushed with victory, com pelled the Assembly to confirm its powers ; to order tho election of a new National Convention ; to declare the king suspended provisionally, and placed at the Luxembourg under civic guard ; to dismiss the ministers ; to make into law the decrees passed but vetoed by the king. The Assembly was crushed, the royal family prisoners in the Temple ; the Paris people, under inspiration of Robespierre and Danton, were omnipotent. Forthwith began tho terrible scenes of the prisons, the mockery of trial, the massacres of the &quot; killers at six francs a day.&quot; It was clear that the new commune of Paris was now the sovereign power in France; it established a committee of surveillance, and swept away all the older administration of Paris. Danton, burly representative of popular passions, and of Danton. popular kindness also, was the leading spirit of the time. He was no statesman, and had little chance of permanent power, when pitted against the virtuous, the incorruptible Robespierre, who had kept sedulously clear of the iusurrec-
 * guard of the attack on the constitution was entrusted to ust u