Page:The Royal Family of France (Henry).djvu/40

 Thus M. Gambetta, whose policy is frankly, bluntly, Jacobinical, anti-religious, anti-Conservative, Radical, Montagnard, is outstripped by M. Louis Blanc, who no longer has adherents in the Palais Bourbon, but who had fanatical followers in the mass of the populace; and who, when he vanished from the public stage, left behind him, first M. Clémenceau, next M. Guesde as the official heirs of his revolutionary aspirations.

M. Louis Blanc considers the date of Sept. 21st, 1792, as the most memorable of all those belonging to the Revolution, because on that date., by the abolition of Royalty and the proclamation of the Republic, it was saved from the Coalition of the Foreign Princes whose accomplice the King of France was. This is a lie, and a calumny! History has by this time approved the severe and solemn warnings of two most noble Frenchmen, MM. de Malesherbes and de Sèze, the King's counsel.

The complicity of Louis XVL with the Foreign Princes has never been proved; the contrary was proved at his trial. And if his judges had been judges only, in spite of their demagogue passions and their political calculations, they would not have dared condemn him. But the brutal Barrière with his tail of rabid Montagnards had determined beforehand to be his executioners; and they delivered his head to Samson's knife that they might cut off all means of retreat and compel themselves to march ever forward on the blood-stained path they had chosen.

As a matter of fact, the unfortunate King Louis XVI. was the innocent victim slain for the guilt of his ancestors. For this same guilt Royalty became the plaything, an object of contempt and distrust, the tool of the vile populace in France; for the guilt of their forefathers the Princes and Princesses of the Royal House of France have had to fly for their lives and to thank the foreigner for a shelter, nay, some for a tomb! It is God's will. God curses in this present world human institutions as well as human creatures when by Him they are found undutiful: the next world in truth is one of punishment or rewards for individuals. A bad King courts a bad Aristocracy, and the bad examples of the nobles quickly eat up through every class of society.

In speaking with such veneration of Sept. 21st, 1792, M. Louis Blanc is silent about the 21st of January, May 3Tst, and October