HIS PRINCIPLES AND CRARACTER. 393 
itself into every province, town, and village, nay, even into every 
family, found therein its ready supporters, as well as its victims. 
In this instance, likewise, the fanatic seems to have anticipated fu- 
ture events with an instinctive foresight surpassing his coadjutors 
of the Assembly, who, after having assisted in bringing it into 
being, fell, by their irresolution, victims to their own decree. In- 
deed, every revolution is more or less a civil war, which, in its turn, 
readily assumes the character of, and engenders, a war of extermina- 
tion, whenever it owes its origin, not to clashing interests, but toa 
difference of opinion. All attempts at reconciliation are then in 
vain, inasmuch as the process of political chemistry admits only, in 
that case, of the entire decomposition of the parts, not to the combi- 
nation of the constituents. 
That decree, by which the whole population of France was sepa- 
rated into two large and hostile bodies, the Patriots and Anti-revo- 
lutionists—ordaining that the former should be placed in surveil- 
lance over the latter—whilst it gave rise to hatred, suspicion, and 
bitter animosities, most effectually disarmed justice of its power and 
efficiency. Even the more discreet and sober-minded members of 
the Convention, as well as of the other ranks of society, contemplat- 
ing the Revolution as the fore-runner of a war of extermination, 
which would necessarily involve the national rights, and assumed 
prerogatives of individuals, in fierce contention, imagined that, by 
giving effect to that decree, they would best afford protection to the 
former against the latter; and though they quickly discovered that 
thousands of well-disposed and peaceable persons were being sacri- 
ficed to the jealousy and strife to which it gave rise among the mul- 
titude, who betook themselves to arms, and resorted to violence, not 
so much from a deliberate conviction of its expediency as by their 
uncontrollable passions, yet were they impressed with the necessity 
of opposing to an attack so violent an equally forcible defence. 
No disorder could arise from this state of affairs, which resembled 
a war superintended by the government, whose agents, the tribunals 
and the popular societies, being invested with unlimited power, 
calmed the public disposition to riot and outrage, superseding the 
necessity of, and surpassing in effect, well-disciplined military in- 
terference. These all-powerful revolutionary tribunals and socic- 
ties were placed under the superintendence of the (so called) Com- 
mttee of Safety ; and Robespiérre directed the proceedings of that 
body, of the Convent, and of the Club of the Jacobins. The Reign 
of Terror must not, therefore, be considered as the characteristic 
VOL, IX., NO. XXVII. 50 
