Robespierre and Mirabeau at the Jacobins 1 1 



rapid decline of the power of Lafayette and spoke of the possible 

 necessity of doing something to check it.-" 



But there were other and very powerful considerations which 

 justified Mirabeau in departing from his usual method and op- 

 posing Robespierre at every hazard. These were found in the 

 threatening attitude the sections and the populace of Paris were 

 beginning to assume and the evident intention of the radicals to 

 force themselves to the front by making use of these elements. 

 But as long as the sections were composed of the middle class, 

 exclusive of the inactive citizens, it was necessary to reckon with 

 Lafayette and his middle-class guards who had no special sym- 

 pathy with the class below them. Had Robespierre been able to 

 render his views efifective, he would not only have displaced 

 Lafayette, but in all probability inaugurated a new revolution, for 

 he would have swamped the guards as then constituted with a 

 flood of members who would certainly have been at the disposal 

 of those who had championed their cause in the assembly, in the 

 press and in the political clubs. These radicals, whom we have 

 several times mentioned, did not yet appear as an organized group, 

 but they were clearly working toward the same end and in the 

 Jacobin club favored the same tendencies. Besides Robespierre, 

 they counted among them as prominent individuals Petion, Freron, 

 Carra, Robert, Buzot, Brissot and later Camille Desmoulins, 

 Lanthenas and Madame Roland. It was probably due largely to 

 the two last named that this group finally gained consistency as a 

 party with clearness and definiteness in their aims. But to show 

 how they intended to arrive at their object it is necessary to return 

 for a moment to the sections of Paris and the manner in which 

 they were constituted. 



As is well known, Paris had become practically independent as 

 a result of the revolution of July, 1789. During this period the 

 sixty electoral districts had become organized as deliberating 

 bodies which several times showed a disposition to interfere in the 

 work of legislation after the assembly removed to the capital, fol- 

 lowing the disturbances in October of that year. This frightened 



* Bacourt, III, 9-12. 



353 



