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Article MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF ROBERSPIERRE. ← Page 8 of 10 →
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Memoirs Of The Life Of Roberspierre.
In the mean time , the Commune , to which Roberspierre and his associates had repaired , were deposing and appointing- public officers ; issuing orders to the sections ; arresting the messengers of the Convention , and exercising various other functions of sovereign power . The department of Parisj aud the forty-eight sections , declared immediately for the Convention . The Committees of Public and General Safety acted with promptitude and vi . The measures they
gour proposed were readily sanctioned by the Convention ; and , in a fewhours , the people every where prepared to defend their representatives . The armed force soon followed their example , except the cannonneers , who surrounded the Commune , They remained undecided till some' members of the Convention appeared among them . Yet , but a few hours before Roberspierre was re-taken , it was difficult
to say whether he or the Convention would prevail . So confident were he and his party at the Commune of success , that they had begun to organize their new plan of government ; , appointed a general of their army , produced a seal of state , the impression of a single Jieur-de-lys ; and , as was said by Barrere in his general report , had given orders for . forcing the temple , in order to get into their hands the unfortunate son of the late king .
At three in the morning of the 28 th of July , as we have already stated * , these imaginary sovereigns were prisoners , and , in the evening of the same day , were executed . The death of Roberspierre may perhaps form the most remarkable epocha in the French revolutionary system . It appears that he has fallen without even a mock trial ; unpitying all , and unpitied by those over whom he certainlexercised the most bloodtyranny that
y y the human mind ever invented or experienced . It was undoubtedly his aim to have been the supreme ruling governor of France , not improbably under the very name of king ; at least the seal found prepared with the impression of a single fleur-de-lys , seems favourable to this supposition .
Who could ever have supposed , until the French Revolution had familiarized us to such strange singularities , that two bad lawyers , born at the two extremities of France , should one day dispute with each other the empire of that vast country ? Barrere was born at the foot of the Pyrenees , was an obscure lawyer , a member of the Constituent Assembly , and succeeded to be the organ of the Girondists and Mountaineers . —Roberspierre was
horn on the northern frontier , among the lowest class of the people ; was educated at the expence of the bishop of Arras ; was by profession a lawyer , and equally obscure in his practice as Barrere . Fie was despised by both parties in the Constituent Assembly , as a lowlived indifferent speaker . What the views ofthe people , or ofthe Convention , are , it is difficult to determine ; but it seems at present to be the French notion of freedom to be subject to the controul or opinion of no one person .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Memoirs Of The Life Of Roberspierre.
In the mean time , the Commune , to which Roberspierre and his associates had repaired , were deposing and appointing- public officers ; issuing orders to the sections ; arresting the messengers of the Convention , and exercising various other functions of sovereign power . The department of Parisj aud the forty-eight sections , declared immediately for the Convention . The Committees of Public and General Safety acted with promptitude and vi . The measures they
gour proposed were readily sanctioned by the Convention ; and , in a fewhours , the people every where prepared to defend their representatives . The armed force soon followed their example , except the cannonneers , who surrounded the Commune , They remained undecided till some' members of the Convention appeared among them . Yet , but a few hours before Roberspierre was re-taken , it was difficult
to say whether he or the Convention would prevail . So confident were he and his party at the Commune of success , that they had begun to organize their new plan of government ; , appointed a general of their army , produced a seal of state , the impression of a single Jieur-de-lys ; and , as was said by Barrere in his general report , had given orders for . forcing the temple , in order to get into their hands the unfortunate son of the late king .
At three in the morning of the 28 th of July , as we have already stated * , these imaginary sovereigns were prisoners , and , in the evening of the same day , were executed . The death of Roberspierre may perhaps form the most remarkable epocha in the French revolutionary system . It appears that he has fallen without even a mock trial ; unpitying all , and unpitied by those over whom he certainlexercised the most bloodtyranny that
y y the human mind ever invented or experienced . It was undoubtedly his aim to have been the supreme ruling governor of France , not improbably under the very name of king ; at least the seal found prepared with the impression of a single fleur-de-lys , seems favourable to this supposition .
Who could ever have supposed , until the French Revolution had familiarized us to such strange singularities , that two bad lawyers , born at the two extremities of France , should one day dispute with each other the empire of that vast country ? Barrere was born at the foot of the Pyrenees , was an obscure lawyer , a member of the Constituent Assembly , and succeeded to be the organ of the Girondists and Mountaineers . —Roberspierre was
horn on the northern frontier , among the lowest class of the people ; was educated at the expence of the bishop of Arras ; was by profession a lawyer , and equally obscure in his practice as Barrere . Fie was despised by both parties in the Constituent Assembly , as a lowlived indifferent speaker . What the views ofthe people , or ofthe Convention , are , it is difficult to determine ; but it seems at present to be the French notion of freedom to be subject to the controul or opinion of no one person .