Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/33



could render to England was to hate her: and such as he was may all who hate her be!"

Barère, it appears, adhered to the Christian faith through the whole Revolution; through all that time when he made his Reports,—which were popularly called Carmagnoles, of which, as Lord Macaulay says, whoever has read Lord Ellenborough's proclamations can form a complete idea;—through that time, when on the day on which the Queen was dragged to her doom, he regaled Robespierre and some other Jacobins at a tavern; where, in the intervals between the beaune and the champagne, between the ragout of thrushes and the partridge with truffles, he preached his political creed: "The vessel of the Revolution can float into port only on waves of blood."

This,—that is, the union of love of Christianity and hatred to England,—this, says Lord Macaulay,

"'Makes the character complete. Whatsoever things are false, whatsoever things are dishonest, whatsoever things are unjust, whatsoever things are impure, whatsoever things are hateful, whatsoever things are of evil report, if there be any vice, and if there be any infamy, all these things, we know, were blended in Barère. But one thing was still wanting, and that M. Hippolyte Carnot has supplied. When to such an assemblage of qualities a high profession of piety is added, the effect becomes overpowering. We sink"