and impracticable, it is fuperfluous to dwell upon the defects of it. The moft ftriking feature of this extraordinary model of a perfect government was, that the members of the council in which the executive power was proposed to be vested were to be elected by the people at large; and it was apparent that the whole was the dream of a theorist. This failure was particularly unfortunate, as it left all the powers of government, executive, legislative, and judicial, ftill to be exercised without control by the Conventional Affembly, in which the Jacobins were continually gaining ground upon their adversaries.

In the month of March the celebrated Revolutionary Tribunal, for deciding upon offences against the state, was organifed. This dreadful court confifted of fix judges, to be elected by a majority of voices in the affembly, to whom were joined a public accufer and two affiftants. The fentence of this court was wholly arbitrary, and without appeal; and the crimes on which it was to pronounce were vague, undefined, and undefinable-feeming to comprehend not merely the actions but the words, and even, by a horrid mockery of juftice, the thoughts and moft fecret intentions, of thofe fufpected of difaffection,

On the ift of April a decree, fatal in its confequences to the Girondist or Briffotine party, was paffed, abolishing the inviolability of the deputies of the Convention when accused of crimes against the ftate. In the fame month the powers of the Committee of Public Safety were fo much enlarged, that the Executive Council became mere cyphers in the government. The chiefs of the Briffotines appeared to be aftonished and · confounded at these daring and defperate measures of their inveterate adverfaries, confident in their prowefs and popularity, and made no vigorous oppofition to decrees evidently intended to pave the way to their deftruction. Nearly at the fame time it was refolved that the branches of the royal family remaining in France fhould be detained as hoftages for the fafety of general Bournonville and the arrested

deputies;

deputies; and that, excepting those confined in the Temple, all the Bourbons should be removed to Marseilles. In this decree the duke of Orléans, though a member of the Convention, and although he had courted popularity by the most degrading and criminal facrifices, was included.

On the 10th of May the republic was, in oppofition to the favourite ideas and fecret efforts of the Briffotines, who preferred a federal government, upon the plan of that established in America, declared ONE AND INDIVISIBLE. It was now manifeft that the Girondifts, fo inferior to their antagonists in vigor and decision, and even, notwithstanding the intellectual and literary accomplishments of the leaders of the party, grofsly deficient in practical talents for government, must finally fink under the conteft, of which they were unequal to the management. On the 13th of May M. Condorcet propofed, that the prefent Convention fhould be diffolved, and a new Convention chofen on the ift of November next: but this being violently opposed, the Briffotines, dreading to come to extremities, weakly confented to an adjournment of the motion. On the 18th of May, M. Guadet, infifting that the Convention was no longer free in Paris, and that the power of the state was paffing into the hands of the anarchists, moved, much too late to produce any effect, the decifive propofition that the fittings of the Convention be removed to Bourges, and all the conftituted authorities of Paris fhould be broken and diffolved. M. Barrère recommended the appointment of a committee to enquire into the evils complained of, which was, by the pufillanimous compromife of the Giroudifts, decreed by the Convention.

These half-measures of the Briffotine party only increased the rage and excited the contempt of the Jacobins-accelerating, in all probability, the catastrophe which almost immediately ensued. The city of Paris, in confequence of the violence of the two parties in the Convention, was kept in a state of extreme agitation, and fcarcely could the inhabitants

inhabitants of that lawless metropolis be restrained from á renewal of the dreadful scenes lately acted there. The fucceffive fittings of the Convention till the 31ft exhibited a fhocking picture of tumult and confufion. Very early on the morning of that day the tocfin was founded, the générale beaten, and the alarm-gun fired. Terror pervaded every breast. At feven o'clock the Convention met, and foon a deputation appeared at the bar from the Revolutionary Committees, demanding, amongst various other things, the immediate arrest of Clavière, minister of finance, and Le Brun, of foreign affairs. The department of Paris next appeared, and demanded a decree of accufation against Briffot, Guadet, Roland, Ifnard, Vergniaud, and many others of the moft diftinguished note in the Gironde party. M. Barrère, who had with infinite art and address vibrated between the two factions, now took a decided part with the Jacobins, and, in the name of the Committee of Public Safety, proposed that the accused deputies fhould be invited to fufpend themselves from their functions. With this the major part of them complied; and in a fhort time being invested with an armed force, and cannon planted at the avenues, a decree paffed the Convention, ordering the arreft of the deputies, with the minifters Clavière and Le Brun.

After the public commotions had in fome degree fub fided, the first step of the triumphant party was to frame the model of a new conftitution, which those who were in the actual poffeffion of power, as might alfo be fufpected of the Briffotines, would probably not appear in too much hafte to carry into effect. In about a month the completion of the expected conftitution was announced, confifting of no less than 124 articles, which, after a very flight difcuffon, was recognised by the Convention as the Constitutional Act. But as the execution of this act was fufpended during the revolutionary crifis, and never fubfequently revived, it may, like the former, be fuffered quietly to pafs into

oblivion.

⚫blivion. Yet was this Jacobine conftitution generally regarded as lefs effentially defective than that of M. Condorcet. Population was, agreeably to the principles of it, the fole bafis of reprefentation, the election of members annual, and the right of fuffrage univerfal. The Legislative Body proposes the plan of laws, which are transmitted for confirmation or rejection to the feveral departments. The Executive Council, confifting of twenty-four members, is chofen by the legislature from a lift composed of one nominee from each department; and half the number is renewed by each legislature in the last month of the feffion. The judicial power to be exercised by perfons to be elected yearly by the Electoral Affemblies.

The tranfactions of the 31st of May caufed a great fhock throughout the nation, and France feemed ready to fall a prey to the distractions which, at this fatal period, afflicted the new-created republic. Various of the accused deputies effected their escape to different parts of the country which feemed well difpofed to rife in fupport of the authority of the Convention; but the city of Paris and the foldiery remained firm to the government party. The department of Calvados was the first in arms; and, about the beginning of July, a confiderable force had assembled, which affumed the appellation of the Departmental Army, under the direction of the fugitive deputies, Petion, Buzot, Barbaroux, &c.: but on their approach to Evreux, they were encountered by the national troops, and foon broken and difperfed, most of the deputies being made prisoners. An infurrection alfo took place in the department of the Gironde, excited by their own profcribed representatives, Vergniaud, Genfonné, Guadet, &c. which was alfo quickly fuppreffed. But by far the most formidable refiftance to the reigning faction took place in the fouth, where the three great cities, Lyons, Marfeilles, and Toulon, entered into a fort of federal league, and feemed to menace the diffolution of the exifting authorities. A strong

A strong force was dispatched against them, under general Carteaux, about the end of July; and in the beginning of August the Marseillois were driven from the department of Vauclufe, and on the 24th the republicans captured the town of Aix; after which Marseilles threw open its gates and fubmitted. But the people of Toulon and the French admiral Trugoff entered into a negotiation with the English admiral, lord Hood, who was then cruizing in the Mediterranean; and he took poffeffion both of the town and the fhipping in the name of Louis XVII. and under the express and positive ftipulation that he was to affift in reftoring the conftitution of 1789.

In the mean time general Kellerman, who commanded the army of the Alps, was dispatched against Lyons, which contained an immenfe and motley multitude of difaffected citizens of all claffes-Girondifts, royalifts, and conftitutional monarchists. The city fuftained, for more than seven weeks, a clofe and vigilant blockade, and was gradually reduced to a ftate of extrerne diftrefs. Kellerman, not being deemed fufficiently zealous in the cause, was superfeded by a general Doppet, to whom the city, now become an heap of ruins, furrendered on the 8th of October. The barbarities exercifed upon the inhabitants after the furrender, by order of the Conventional commiffioners, fhock all the feelings of humanity, and almoft furpafs the limits of credibility. The guillotine was confidered as an inftrument of too flow an operation; numbers were deftroyed by grape-shot discharged from artillery; and others crowded together in barks, and funk in the river, which, in Jacobine language, was ftyled "the revolutionary torrent of the Rhône." After they had fatiated themselves with blood and flaughter, a decree paffed the Convention, by which the wall and public buildings of the city were ordered to be deftroyed, and the name of the city itself, by a farcasm worthy of such an affembly, changed to that of Ville Affranchie."

The