Robespierre and Miraheau at the Jacobins 7 



plauded project supported also by Dubois de Crance. According to this 

 project the national guards of Paris are no longer to have a commander 

 in chief. Such great power in the hands of a single chief appeared to be 

 too dangerous. Each commandant of a battalion is to be general in turn 

 and this division of power will serve as a check upon anyone disposed to 

 abuse it.^° 



That the Bulletin de Brest here refers to the session of Decem- 

 ber 6 is proved by an obscure passage in the Fenille du jour, an 

 opposition paper, which mentions Robespierre's speech, Mira- 

 beau's interruption, the uproar which followed and the explanation 

 made by Vicomte de Noailles.^^ 



This makes Mirabeau's action at first sight more puzzling than 

 ever, for his quarrel with Lafayette was notorious and is now 

 usually considered as a historical fact of considerable importance. 

 The radical Jacobins had for some time lived in terror of Lafay- 

 ette, whom they believed upon the point of making himself mili- 

 tary dictator. Many times already their speakers had filled the 

 Jacobin tribune with loud denunciations of the general and on 

 November 12, 1790, when Carra was delivering one of these tirades 

 of unusual violence, Chabroud, who was then president, called him 

 to order, saying that it seemed to him inappropriate that a deputy 

 holding such an honored position should be attacked at the society. 

 This caused a commotion just such as Mirabeau experienced on 

 December 6. While Chabroud's case against Carra was not so 

 definite as that of Mirabeau against Robespierre, his point was 

 certainly well taken. Upon this occasion, however, Mirabeau 

 could not resist the temptation of doing Lafayette an unquestion- 

 able injury. He joined the clamoring mob against Chabroud, 

 whom he declared to be in the wrong and maintained the right of 

 anyone to criticize whomsoever he pleased, which was not at all 

 a refutation of Chabroud's point.^^ On December 6, then, Mira- 



^^ No. 142, Dec. 12, 1790. This was a newspaper based upon the corre- 

 spondence of the deputies of the Senechaussee of Brest with the bureau 

 of correspondence at Brest. 



" No. 13, 1790. 



"For this session of the Jacobins see the Mercure national of Robert, 

 No. 41, Nov. 23, 1790. Also Arthur Chuquet, Paris en 1790. Voyage de 



349 



