Page:Works of Thomas Carlyle - Volume 04.djvu/354

 the King (September 4th). Constituent Assembly proclaims 'in a sonorous voice' (September 30th), that its Sessions are all ended;—and goes its ways amid 'illuminations.'

1791. October–December.

Legislative Assembly, elected according to the Constitution, the first and also the last Assembly of that character, meets October 1st, 1791: sat till September 21st, 1792; a Twelvemonth all but nine days. More republican than its predecessor; inferior in talent; destitute, like it, of parliamentary experience. Its debates, futilities, staggering parliamentary procedure (Book V. cc. 1–3). Court 'pretending to be dead,'—not 'aiding the Constitution to march.' Sunday October 16th, L'Escuyer, at Avignon, murdered in a church; Massacres in the Ice-Tower follow. Suspicions of their King, and of each other; anxieties about foreign attack, and whether they are in a right condition to meet it; painful questioning of Ministers, continual changes of Ministry,—occupy France and its Legislative with sad debates, growing ever more desperate and stormy in the coming months. Narbonne (Madame de Staël's friend) made War-Minister, December 7th; continues for nearly half a year; then Servan, who lasts three months; then Dumouriez, who, in that capacity, lasts only five days (had, with Roland as Home-Minister, been otherwise in place for a year or more); mere 'Ghosts of Ministries.'

1792. February–April.

Terror of rural France (February–March); Camp of Jalès; copious Emigration. February 7th, Emperor Leopold and the King of Prussia, mending their Pilnitz offer, make public Treaty, That they specially will endeavour to keep down disturbance, and if attacked will assist one another. Sardinia, Naples, Spain, and even Russia and the Pope, understood to be in the rear of these two. April 20th, French Assembly, after violent debates, decrees War against Emperor Leopold. This is the first Declaration of War; which the others followed, pro and contra, all round, like pieces of a great Firework blazing out now here now there. The Prussian Declaration, which followed first, some months after; is the immediately important one.

1792. June.

In presence of these alarming phenomena, Government cannot act; will not, say the People. Clubs, Journalists, Sections (organised population of Paris) growing ever more violent and desperate. Issue forth (June 20th) in vast Procession, the combined Sections and leaders, with