HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
each other which should have the 
honour of being represented by 
them. Hence it happened how- 
ever, that as each ot them could 
only take his seat for one, and yet 
had been elected by many, the con- 
vention, conformably to the decrees 
carried by that party, which was: 
thereby to become the majority in 
the legislative body, had a farther 
opportunity of adding to its superio. 
rity, by supplying those departments 
for which they had not made their 
option, with members of its own 
choosing. This was an advantage 
which it seems they had well fore- 
seen, when they passed that decree, 
by which the convention should be 
empowered to nominate to the de- 
ficiencies occasioned by the defaults’ 
in the departments ’of not electing a 
sufficient number. But instead of 
a majority of members, the party 
which now atied in opposition to 
that which was superior in numbers, 
counted the major part of the na- 
tion on its side, and thus felt a con- 
“sequence that emboldened it to en- 
ter the lists, unappalled at the mul- 
4itude it would have to encounter. 
| It ought not, however, to be for- 
gotten, that much of the rancour 
that aétuated these opposite parties 
was owing to the refusal of the one 
tocoalesce with the other. Advances 
of reconciliation had been made, 
‘by the chiefs of the predominant 
‘faGtion, with the heads of the mo- 
derate party. As those advances 
were prompted by interest, they 
may justly be presumed to have been 
sincere, Those who made them 
were conscious that their conduct 
had long been odious to the nation, 
Which had always considered them 
as the coadjutors of Roberspierre, 
and imputed their defection from 
him, not so much to their aversion 
* You, XXXVII. 
to his measures, as to the necessity 
of preventing the 
they either knew, or suspeéted he 
had formed against them. To save 
their own lives they had rescued the. 
nation from his tyranny : but their 
subsequent conduct had not suffi- 
ciently proyed their abhorrence of 
his measures; and the terrorists had 
always viewed them in the light of 
patrons, and testified a marked rea. 
diness to be subservient to them: In 
the late cohtest with the metropolis 
the reciprocal confidence subsisting 
between them and the terrorists had 
been too strongly evinced, to suffer 
any doubt that they were intimately 
connected, and that they would 
stand by each other whenever the 
one or the other was in danger, 
Such being the relative situation of 
the prevailing faction in the conven. 
tion, and of the great body of the 
terrorists, the heads of the mo- 
derates disdained a!l connexion with 
that party, looking upon them as 
men of blood, who would not scru- 
ple to imitate their former leader, 
Roberspierre, if they could doit with 
safety ; and who had, in faa, imi- 
tated him in their conduct towards 
the Parisians, and were preparing 
to imitate him still farther, by that 
despotic commission which was to 
have invested five of them with the 
whole authority of the state. Tal. 
lien, Legendre, and Freron, were 
the prine‘pals of this party. They 
were undoubtedly men of strong 
parts and great resolution: their 
influence was extensive, and those 
who were personally attached to 
them, were also men of known abi- 
lities and courage. Finding that 
their advances were slighted, and 
that the nation was manifestly in- 
clined to favour their rivals, they 
determined to model the legislative 
[1] body 
Die 
designs which. 
r 
