Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/590

 448 General History of Europe few of those who were brought before it. Indeed, it turned upon those who had themselves been the leaders in the worst atrocities ; for example, the public prosecutor, who had brought hundreds of victims to the guillotine in Paris, and the brutes who had or- dered the massacres at Nantes and Lyons. Within a few months the Jacobin Club at Paris was closed by the Convention, and the Commune abolished. In this way the Reign of Terror came to an end. 782. Constitution of the Year Three. The Convention now at last turned its attention to the great work for which it had originally been summoned and drew up a constitution for the Republic to take the place of the first French constitution which was monarchical. This provided that the law-making power should be vested in a legislative assembly consisting of two houses. The lower house was called the Council of the Five Hundred, and the upper chamber the Council of the Elders. Members of the latter were required to be at least forty years of age. The executive powers were put in the hands of a Directory of five persons, to be chosen by the two chambers. 783. End of the Convention, October, 1795. In October, 1795, the Convention finally dissolved itself, having governed the country during three years of unprecedented excitement, danger, and disorder. While it was responsible for the horrors of the Reign of Terror, its committees had carried France through the terrible crisis of 1793. The civil war had been brought to a speedy end, and the coalition of foreign powers had been defeated. Meanwhile other committees appointed by the Convention had been quietly working upon the problem of bettering the system of education, which had been taken by the State out of the hands of the clergy. Progress had also been made toward establishing a single system of law for the whole country to replace the old con- fusion. The new republican calendar was not destined to survive many years, but the metric system of weights and measures intro- duced by the Convention has now been adopted by most Euro- pean countries and is used by men of science in England and America.