HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



95 



surgents were such, that had not 

 the Convention, struck with their 

 horrors, deemed itself bound, in 

 ■compliance with the general feel- 

 ings of their friends as well as their 

 foes, to bring to open justice the 

 principal agent of those atrocious 

 proceedings, the world, however 

 inclined to hold their conduct in 

 abhorrence, would not have given 

 credit to the horrid reports that 

 were circulated of the abominable 

 treatment experienced by the roy- 

 ahsts, after their insurrection had 

 been suppressed, and the repub- 

 lican administration felt itself at li- 

 berty to give an unbounded loose 

 to its rage. The only extenuation, 

 if it be one, for the inhuman fury 

 that actuated the whole of their 

 conduct, was, that it originated in 

 one of the most execrable charac- 

 ters that ever held the reins of go- 

 vernment in that or in any coun- 

 try. The decrees that either au- 

 thorized or gave occasion to the 

 atrocious transactions of those 

 bloody times, were ascribed to Ro- 

 bespierre and his associates. The 

 gloomy and inexorable disposition 

 of this infamous tyrant, is certainly 

 well known : but had there not 

 existed an aptitude in the instru- 

 ments of his enormitiei for the 

 perpetration of any inhuman deed 

 he could have suggested, and had 

 not these vile instruments proved 

 as numerous and willing to obey 

 him as his sanguinary temper re- 

 quired, France would not have 

 •een so shocking a proportion of its 

 iohabitantj acting cheerfully tlis 

 part of the most unfeeling execu- 

 tioners, and betraying, as it were, 

 a native prouensity to sport with 

 the lives of their fellow-crea- 

 tures. 



Iii a country ar<d nation hitherto 



respected for its civilization, its hos- 

 pitality, it* manners, and its emi- 

 nence in arts, its knowledge, and 

 whatever adorns and refines human 

 life, Europe beheld, and posterity 

 will learn with astonishment and 

 horror, that for the space of several 

 months a tribunal existed in the 

 large and populous city of Nantz, 

 Jegally commissioned by public au- 

 thority to exercise the most mer- 

 ciless and cruel despotism, and to 

 co'idemn to the most unfeeling and 

 scandalous modes of destruction, 

 whole tribes and districts of their 

 fellow-citizens. Allowing that they 

 had been guilty of rebellion a j^aiast 

 tb.e constituted authorities of their 

 country, and that their lives had 

 been forfeited by the law of the 

 land, still the world must recoil with 

 detestation at that s'.rict and indis- 

 criminatiag seventy which excluded 

 all species of compassion, and could 

 at one breath sentence to perdition 

 whole multitudes of men, women, 

 and children, congregated for this 

 purpose before that horrible tribu- 

 nal. Death, sufficiently awful ot 

 itself to human nature, was clad in 

 every additional terror that could 

 appal the firmest mind. Thou- 

 sands at once, in pairs of differeat 

 sexes, were lashed to each other 

 naked, and sent in tiiib manner to 

 be shot or drowned, in derision 

 of every sentiment of humanity. 

 These dreadful executions were 

 styled Republican Weddings. An- 

 other species of execution, equally 

 terrifying, was also adopted : — A 

 boat, contrived to drop its bottom 

 at will, was filled with crowds of 

 those unhappy people, who that 

 were sunk in a moment. Thi» 

 was denominated the Patriotic Na- 

 vigation, or Bathing. But these 

 ■irighiful deeds svcre still e^Lceeded 



•by 



