XX historical chron.icle 



each Commune an additional force, and you will find tliat you have no oc- 

 casion to despair. 



On tHe 12th Aufjiist, Barrere brou^^ht up a report from the Committee 

 of Pi'.biic Safety ; in which, amonji; a variety of other matter, hi: produces 

 another intercepted letter from Dunkirk, in which he plots of the Englilii 

 ministry are s:iid to be made manifest. '' At the end of September, it 

 says, all the bankers of London, Amsterdam, Vienna, and Hamburg, are 

 to stop all payment. No bill will be honoured, and when they will be 

 sent back to the drawer, payment ought likewise to be stoopped in France 

 in the same manner. This stoppage will give a» general fliock to all pro- 

 perty, and occasion an utter confusion in your Republic, which will con- 

 duct the allied powers to tlie end which they piopose to themselves." 

 He then produces another letter for the same purpose, dated Hamburg, 

 August 2d. containing these words : " A petition, signed by 2co,coo per- 

 sons, has been addrefsed to the king, demanding a peace with France, and 

 justice to be done upon the ministers : The petition declares, that the pe- 

 titioners are leady to march to London, wlicre the good citizens are disposed 

 to puniP.i the traitors." — [Af}plavsc.] — Having thus endeavoured to excite 

 hopes of succefs, he returns to the report. " The national guards, says he, 

 and recruits have received orders to march to St Q_uentin. We want arms, 

 and the fields still occupy many hands. The cattle and the crops are trans- 

 porting into the interior parts of the Rupublic. We must strike some 



great blow : The administrators do not properly spirit up the people A 



grand movement must be made ; Paris must r*. j once more; noe ought to 

 bloccade the enemy before St ^tentin, else the Republic is undone ■ Your 

 committee has ordered iS,ooo men, taken from the armies of the Rhine and 

 the iMoselle, to reinforce the "^rmy of the north ; and the last battalion of 

 these I can afsure yon, arrived there three days ago, and it will fliortly 

 be augmented by 30,000 more patriots." It concludes with these words. 

 " Doubt not citizens but your enemies will be destroyed." The Pre- 

 sident, however, Herault de Sechelles, thinks it neceisary to strenghten 

 these imprelsions by the following speech. 



" Citizens t'ommifsioners of the P'rcnch nation, when the French de- 

 manded a democratic constitution, they displayed their wisdom ; by ac- 

 cepting it two days ago in the face of heaven, they fliewed their majesty. 

 Now it is time they flKuild make tlxir enemies feel their stiength and their 

 power. Depositaries of the wilhes of the Primary Afsemblics, let the 

 words you have uttered resound throughout the empire, as a thunder of 

 vengeance and destruction \ IMagnanimous nation I invincible in thy wrath, 

 rise all, and France will in one day be tranquil. Let the south rise, and 

 protect the north, as the north might screen tlic south. What can our ene- 

 mies do, who employ tiieir forces against us not so much as their detestable 

 peifidy .' We — we all swear by the Genius of the Republic, we will crulli 

 them, we will triumph ; Distant or rival nations will join us. In despite 

 of the barriers raised by despotism, liberty warrants the concordance of 

 every heait. The national plastic power, the cry of humanity, will arise 

 in a dreadful roar; our cyts, refrefhed with comlort, will view from one 

 side the immense and sacred mafs of freemen, and on the other an hand- 

 ful o princes and wretched beings and their graves." \^Applavses.'\ 



The tor|jor still continuing, BaIirere returns to the same subject on the 

 14th ; " Your committee has been employed in regulating the movement 

 Which must be made lor the defence of the frontiers, and of la Vendee. 

 It would be betraying the cause of liberty to attempt to conceal that grand 

 measures are called for. The squadrons of the ene'iny block up our ports ; 

 the Piedmontesehave had some succefs ; la^Vcyiidf . is torn by civil di.^'ord-; 



