HIS PRINCIPLES AND CHARACTER. 397 
comprehension a union between the prophet of a new political reve- 
lation and the last scion of the chief of the ancient regime, at least 
in the wild and overstrained imagination of a fanatic who could en® 
tertain the absurd and futile hope that he should be enabled to pro- 
duce the regeneration of society, and to constitute a jubilee of uni- 
versal relationship and brotherhood. 
However, this must be received as a mere report, the most scru- 
pulous enquiries made by his contemporaries, within whose reach 
were the best sources of information, having failed to substantiate 
anything definite on the subject. 
Another rumour was likewise industriously circulated, identify- 
ing Robespiérre as the agent of some of the foreign courts, and 
especially of the cabinet of St. James. This originated in a letter 
which was found among his papers—as mentioned in the Report of 
Courtois—wherein an anonymous republican congratulates Robes- 
pierre on the success which had attended his revolutionary proceed- 
ings, and suggests the propriety of his retiring, after he should have 
struck a few more blows, into some foreign country, where he might 
enjoy in quiet his accumulated riches—the reward due to his merits 
—and there hold up to ridicule the fools of his own country: no 
rumour, indeed, seems to be more widely spread, but at the same 
time more devoid of credit. How possible is it that this letter was 
an impudent forgery, thrust among the other papers in order to ag- 
gravate the culpability of the deceased—a base and infamous expe- 
dient, suited to the period at which it was called into practice? It 
is even more than probable that this and other letters of a similar 
characier were, in fact, anonymously addresssed to him by his ene- 
mies, in the hope that they might be intercepted, and become the 
means of exciting suspicion as to his character in the public mind: 
indeed, the very tenor of the letter we have quoted betrays the ma- 
licious object of its author, who is so utterly shameless as to term 
* the accumulated riches,” a reward due to his merits, ete. 
Political crimes are generally committed with much prudence, ex- 
pertness, and tact ; and when dealt with by state agents, and their 
subordinates, it is invariably under the plausible pretence, and with 
the philanthropic view, of promoting the public weal, that such co- 
ercive steps are taken, whilst selfish and private motives more fre- 
quently give birth to them. 
So much vulgarity and grossness of style pervades the letter referred 
to in the Report of Courtois, that even the obdurate feelings of a 
pickpocket would be outraged by it: to how much greater an extent 
will this observation be considered applicable towards a man whose 
