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Rh that of the Basilisk would, perhaps, have been more appropriate.

He affected to be called a Sans-Culotte; but his clothes were always chosen with taste; and his hair was constantly dressed and powdered, with a precision that bordered on foppery. He was but an indifferent orator; for his person, voice, and provincial accent, militated against the grand characteristics of eloquence. He was generally deficient, also, in point of composition: his speech, however, on the trial of Louis XVI. is an exception. That on the recognition of the Supreme Being is said to have been written by a member of one of the ci-devant academies.

It was the idea of his virtue, and confidence in his principles, that procured him the unbounded esteem of a corrupt age. Until intoxicated with power, his conduct and morals must be allowed to have been unimpeachable. While a private man, he exhibited virtues that seemed to render him worthy of command; and it was not till he was vested with supreme authority, that, like the deified Cæsars of ancient times, he threw off the character of humanity, and became a demon. He was never a republican; for the idea of a commonwealth supposes a restraint on governors, as well as on the governed; and, if we are to believe the assertion of an illustrious woman, (Madame Roland,) who was basely murdered by him, he was accustomed to sneer on the mention of the term, and ask what it meant.

After the fall of Robespierre, the Convention exhibited no small change of appearance. Instead of that silence which formerly prevailed.