Robespierre and Mirabeaii at the Jacobins 15 



to defeat this motion by one of his renowned " oblique " marches 

 and thus checked this dangerous tendency for the moment.-^ 



The overwhehiiing influence of Paris on the revolution has long 

 been recognized, but, until quite recently, the conditions which 

 made its insurrectionary movements possible had not been suffi- 

 ciently studied. The party leaders, however, even during the 

 period of the first assembly understood not only the dangers from 

 this source, but were conversant as well with the methods by which 

 the multitude could be set in motion. At the close of 1790, three 

 different parties were maneuvring for the control of this field. 

 The old Jacobins, represented by the comparatively moderate party 

 of the Lameths, we have just mentioned as appealing to the sec- 

 tions for support against the ministry. Openly working against 

 this party was the newly organized " Society of the Friends of the 

 Monarchical Constitution," composed of men whose opinions may 

 be said to have found a sort of mean representation in conserva- 

 tives such as Malouet and Clermont-Tonnere. They stated in 

 their journal, a newspaper intended for general circulation, that 

 they were urging their members diligently to attend the sessions 

 of their respective sections. This statement, combined with the 

 announcement that their society owed its existence almost solely 

 to the fact that in their opinion it had become positively necessary 

 to meet the Jacobins upon their own ground and with their own 

 weapons, must be taken to mean that this was to be done as a party 

 measure. Besides busying themselves with the assemblies of the 

 sections the Monarchical society opened a bureau of subscrip- 

 tions the proceeds of which were expended on bread-tickets 

 distributed to the poor, enabling them to obtain bread at half the 



"Bacourt, II, thirty-sixth note to the court. Oct. 24, 1790. Chuquet, 

 letter of Halem, Oct. 26, 1790. 



Although Mirabeau dissuaded the Jacobins from appealing to the sec- 

 tions in this instance, the sections themselves, whether encouraged by the 

 discussion at the society or not, continued the agitation until on November 

 ID, a collective address was presented to the national assembly by a depu- 

 tation reluctantly headed by Bailly, the mayor of Paris. Danton was the 

 real speaker of the deputation. This whole subject is fully treated by 

 Lacroix in Actes de la commune de Paris, second series, vol. I, 210-32. 



355 



