HISTORY OFEUROPE. 



145 



scandalous directions addressed to 

 them, evinced by their conduct that 

 they had a belter sense of their own 

 duty, and entertained more proper 

 notions of the treatment recipro- 

 cally due to eacii other by nations 

 •at war, than their barbarous rulers> 

 or rather indeed than those san- 

 guinary men by whom they basfly 

 suffered tliemselves to be ruled. 

 The bloody decree that was made, 

 in consequence of this inhuman 

 speech, prohibiting quarter to be 

 given to the English, was never 

 cariied into execution by the re-- 

 publican armies, Tiie very con- 

 trary happened to what had been 

 proposed by Barrere- W^hen, thro' 

 tlie events of war, the English fell 

 into the hands of the French, they 

 treated them v/ith the wonted hu- 

 manity long practised by both na- 

 tions, 



BiitjiiOLWithstandingthedisincli- 

 nation so positively manifested by 

 tile French military to obey in- 

 junctions repugnant no less to the 

 laws of war than to their own feel- 

 ings, a decree of a similar nature 

 ♦us shortly after passed in the Con* 

 ▼ehtion, by which no quarter was 

 to be given to the jjarrisons placed 

 by the allies in the towns they had 

 taken from France, if they refused 

 to surrender within twenty-four 

 hours after they had been summon- 

 ed. This decree also met with the 

 same disobedience as the other. 



The power of Robespierre was 

 now arrived at such a height, that 

 it was generally consideicd as fixed 

 upon unshakable foundations. His 

 popularity im-reased proportlonably 

 with the intelligence daily arrivi'ig 

 of the victorious progros of the 

 French armies, which was in a great 

 llieisure attributed to his sagacity 

 in the appointment of proper com- 



VoL. XXXVI, 



manders. The municipality of Paris 

 was implicitlyat his devotion, — the 

 places at his disposal, — and to which 

 he nominated them preferably to 

 others, were effectxial means to se- 

 cure their attachment. The revo- 

 lutionary tribunal contained a large 

 portion of them. That immense 

 body, tl;e Parisian nasioual guards, 

 were wholly at his orders, as he h.id 

 the naming of all the principal of-' 

 hcers in the forty-eight sections 

 into which the metropolis was di- 

 vided. This and that other mil?-' 

 taly body, styled the Revolutionary 

 Army, formed such a support, aa 

 seemed to phxe him out of the 

 reachof all attack, founded on vio- 

 lence. The tide of popular opinion 

 ran strongly in his favour ; and his 

 influence in the revolutionary soci- 

 eties was irresistible. That called 

 the Jacobin Club, was totally under 

 his management; and its nximerous 

 affiliations zealously propagated its 

 principles throughout all France. 

 The Cordelier club, which had 

 ventured to displease him, he had 

 suppressed; and no private or pub- 

 lic assembly seemed inclined either 

 to oppose or to differ from him. 



The opinion of numbers of the 

 most discerning individuals at this 

 period was, that Robespierre had 

 now a fair oppnrt\inity of perpetu- 

 ating his povver,by relaxing from his 

 severity. He had destroyed a suf- 

 ficient proportion of the enemies 

 to the predominant system, to se- 

 cure it from the attempts of tho^e 

 that remained. Had he laid aside 

 that plan of proscription and terror 

 by which not only the foes to the 

 revoUnion, but even its friends, 

 were kept in a continual state of 

 intimidation, the various partie.? 

 into which the revolutionists had 

 been split, were become 60 weary 



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