140 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1794. 



cal attempts to subvert it, was to 

 participate in their treason. Death 

 vithout mercyought, he expUcitly 

 insisted, to betheportionof all those 

 who contributed in any shape to 

 . thwart the present system. Who- 

 ever afforded refuge or concealment 

 to persons accused of conspiracy ; 

 those who corresponded by woids 

 or by writingwithpersonsimprisoa- 

 edonhis account; iailors who aided 

 or connived at this correspondence, 

 Avere involved by him in the like 

 punishment : and those who expres- 

 sed dissatisfiiction at revolutionary 

 measures, he threatened with trans- 

 portation. 



The atrocities, of which the enu- 

 meration has rilled so many pages 

 in the various publications of those 

 tempestuous times, became gradu- 

 ally so familiar to the sight, as to be 

 almost lost to feeling. The depriva- 

 tion of relations aiid friends was 

 submitted to, with a patience and 

 resignation that arose neither from 

 reason nor rehgiou, but from an 

 unmanly apathy tliat debased the 

 soul and the understanding. In- 

 difference to the public, and selfish- 

 ness, seemed to have extinguished 

 both magnanimity and commisera- 

 tion. 'I'he hourly evidence oi the 

 danrer to which ever}' one was 

 exposed from capriciousness or 

 cruelty, was not sufficient to open 

 the eyes of men to the necessity of 

 running all risks, in order to put an 

 instant stop to horrors that tlireat- 

 eued to involve, with httle discri- 

 mination, individuals of all parties 

 in one common scene of destruc- 

 tion. 



To judge from the cor,di;ct of 

 Robespierre, after he had obtained 

 u::limited power, he was ot no 

 party. The enjoyment and the 

 exercise of this power without fear 

 or controui, was cvideiuly the 



sole object of his restless endeai-. . 

 vours to attain it. Ambition alone, 

 deeply tinctured with political 

 fanaticism, actuated him : it was 

 not only the predominant, but 

 almost the sole passion that cha- 

 racterized him ; if he had any 

 otiiers, they were so subservient 

 to this one, and so intimately 

 blended with all its operations, as 

 not to be distinguished from it. 



Paris, that celebrated seat of 

 gaiety, refinement, and elegance, 

 was now become the residence of 

 wretchedness and woe. Scenes of 

 distress were continually passing 

 before the eyes of its inhabitants, 

 without dividing the day from the 

 night. Executions took up the 

 one, and arrestations the other : 

 yet, strange to relate, no man iiitcd 

 his voice against the author of these 

 calamities : only the calamity it- 

 self was deplored, and no one had^ 

 the courage openly to vent his in- 

 dignation at these barbarities. So 

 thoroughly were people frozen 

 with terror, that they beheld those 

 processions of death moTe along 

 the streets, in silent dread, that 

 they themselves might shortly make 

 part of them. Every individual 

 tr;mbled for himself, and hardly 

 dared to bestow a tear on the 

 fate of his neighbour. This cauti- 

 ousness and tiiiiidity was the natu-' 

 ral result of the dangers that ho- 

 vered incessantly over every mem- 

 ber of any genteel cJass of society j 

 only the iovv-cst, or rather the vilest 

 of human beings, were exempt fron^ 

 them. The commonalty was now 

 exclusively exalted into all that waf. 

 respectable and worthy of respect ; 

 they alone were asserted to b^ 

 not only the strength, but the hof,' 

 uour of a nation. The meanest 

 occupat ons were placed above the 

 mobt po ite and Uberalj and supe- 

 riority. 



