88} 
to the laws of humanity, and of 
all civilized countries, pregnant 
women had been ordered for execu- 
tion. Such was their thirst ofblood, 
that they had been known to take 
no longer a space of time than three 
hours to try and condemn sixty in- 
dividuals, They were so hardened 
and unfeeling in this work of death, 
and their condué& so careless and 
inattentive, that the father had been 
executed for the son, and the son for 
the father. Frequently they had 
refused copies of indictments to 
prisoners, Instead of a lega! se- 
lection of juries by lot, our of the 
body of citizens, they had packed 
and chosen them as they thought 
proper. At the head of these accu- 
sations stood the name of Fouquier 
Tinville, a man as mach detested 
as his patron Roberspierre. Fifteen 
others were comprehended in the 
list, either judges or jurors of the 
revolutionary tribunal. They were 
condemned and executed on the 
ninth of May, to the universal satis- 
fattion of the humane and equitable 
part of society. 
There still remained a manequally 
guilty withthe worstofthose who iad 
suffered, and whohad signalized him- 
self by his barbarities as copiously 
as Roberspierre himself, This was 
Joseph Lebon, already mentioned. 
Loaded as he was with crimes and 
murders, the convention allowed 
him to speak in his own defence. 
He was one of those men, whom 
‘nature, in an evil hour for the 
community, endowed witha shrewd 
head and a wicked heart’ He 
pleaded his cause eight or nine suc- 
cessive days, with as much coolness 
and resolutiou as if his conscience 
had Been wholly clear of all offence. 
But though his audience might be 
astonished at his abilities, they were 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1795. 
too well apprised of his guilt to 
suffer him to go unpunished. He 
was unanimously delivered up toa 
court of justice, in that city where 
he had exercised most of hisenormi- 
ties, and there brought to a trial, 
which terminated in his execution 
some time in July. 
‘This marked spirit of vengeance, 
on the jacobin party, roused its 
abettors in every quarter : and they 
too derermined to seize the first mo- 
ment of revenge. They loudly ac- 
cused the moderate party of shield- 
ing themselves under that denomi- 
nation, the more securely to conceal 
the plots they were contriving for 
the restora‘ion of royalty. But the 
falsity of these accusations was so 
manifest, ‘hat they passed unheeded 
by the more cool republicans, The 
convention did not seem in the least 
inclined to favour the royalists. It 
enacted at this very time some se- 
vere egulations ‘o prevent their re- 
turn into France, without lawful 
permission. It softened, indeed, the 
unnecessary rigour with which they 
had hitherto been treated. | The 
property of none was confiscaied, 
but actual emigrants : the estates of 
such as had suff-red during the late 
tyranny, were restored to the lawful 
heirs: and the relations, and even 
the creditors of known emigrants 
were excepted from the severity of 
the laws against them. é 
But the lenity which the canven- 
tion seemed evidently inclined to 
adopt, whenever occasion offered, 
could not fail to procure them the 
ill-will of those unruly multitudes, 
whose minds had been perverted by 
the inexorable maxims of the ter- 
rorists. ‘Lhey watched in silence 
for another opportunity of rising 
against the convention ; and a fa- 
vourable one soon recurred. ‘The | 
scarcity 
