ha oe 
_ they had proposed. 
HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
ficty-of publications in the conven- 
tional pay asserted also, with their 
usval confidence, that the English 
ministry was deeply concerned in 
this fruitless‘ attempt to overthrow 
the republic: but they obtained no 
@redit with the discerning part of 
society. The Parisians had aéted 
so much in the face of day, their 
eonduét had been so candid and 
Open, their opposition to the con- 
ventional schemes so regular and 
elear, that no handle had been af- 
forded to their most malicious ene- 
mies, to tax them with any more 
than an inveterate antipathy to the 
Measures pursued by the conven. 
tion, and a firm determination to re- 
sist them by force. 
‘The use which the convention 
made of this success, was diated 
by the keenest resentment for the 
charges it had been loaded with by 
the citizens, with so much truth, 
though with such defamatory lan- 
guage. These were deprived of all 
their arms and warlikestores, and a 
military commission appointed to try 
them as rebels. As no resistance 
could be apprehended after subduing 
that of the metropolis, the conven. 
tion felt itself released from all re- 
straints. It now published, with- 
Out fear of opposition, or even of 
contradiction that the majority of 
votes in the departments were de- 
cidedly for the mode of election 
The terror 
they had inspired was such, that no 
More dissentient voices were heard 
tn the public assemblies of the peo- 
ple. But the expression of discon- 
tent was not the less forcible in the 
Private meetings of those mdividu- 
als who had not lost all sense and 
spirit. They foresaw that by the 
Suppression of the courageous re- 
vistance of the capital, the rest of the 
[107 
nation would be sointimidated, that 
the members of the convention, who 
were the most obnoxious to the 
public, would, in defiance of its © 
opinion and sentiments, be seated in 
the future legislature ; which, under 
another name, would still be little 
more, if any more than the present 
convention. Such, it appeared, 
through influence, intrigue, andeve. 
ry species of machination, was the 
power of this body become, that 
they would easily find means to pres 
vent the ele¢tion even of that third 
of new members, which they had 
held forth to the public, merely to 
obviate the clamours and scandal 
they must have encountered, had 
they not employed this deception, 
But exclusively of these conside. 
rations, which principally regarded 
France, there was, in the opinion of 
the public, another, which alone 
ought to have induced them to let 
the law take its due course. Anew 
constitution had been formed by the 
convention, and accepted by the peo- 
ple. ‘The theory seemed well adapted 
to the wishes of the generality, and 
not only the French, but not a few of 
their neighbours, appeared satisfied — 
withit. The backwardness of these 
to treat with France was avowedly 
the uncertainty and fluétuation of 
the government; but, more than all, 
the character of its present rulers, 
The declared sentiments of some 
among these were sincere; and they 
were, for that reason, well pleased, 
when they understood that a new 
constitution was framing, and still 
more, when they were informed 
that the legislature was to consist 
wholly of new members. They 
doubted not that these would bring 
apter. dispositions for peace than 
their predecessors, whom they had 
long viewed with a malevolent eye; 
and 
