1797-] 
famous maffacre of the 31ft of May, 
when the Girondine faction was over- 
thrown by a_ popular infurreétion. 
What gives the appearance of authen- 
Ps to this report 1s, that FABRE him- 
felf, {ome days Aoretras: obferved toa 
friend, that the domineering fpirit of 
the Girondines, who had engroffed all 
power and office, had induced him and 
his colleagues, in order to fhake off the 
yoke, to throw themfelves into the 
hands of the Sanseuloterie ; that he could 
not help, however, foreboding dangerous 
confequences from that day, 31ft of May, 
as the fame mob which taey had taughe 
to defpife the legiflature, might, at the 
inftigation of another taétion, overthrow 
him, in his turn ;—thus F apreE appeared 
to have a prefentiment of his own future 
_deftiiny. On the overthrow of the 
Girondiae party, and the eftablifhment 
in power of the Sansculotterie, FABRE 
began to act a confiderable part. He was 
appointed member of the Committee of 
Public Inftruétion, in which ftation, in 
the month of Auguft, 1793. he gave his 
vote for {upprefing all academies and 
literary corporations, which, from tcir 
privileges and ariftocratic fpirit, were 
confidered as unfriendly to a truly Re- 
publican Government. In Oétober, 
1793, he fubmitted to the National Con- 
vention, the plan of a new calendar, 
which was afterwards adopted. ‘The ac- 
curacy and regularity with which this ca- 
lendar was executed, evinced an uncom- 
mon degree of knowledge in the mathe- 
matics and natural philojophy,and failed 
not to refie€t on its author, great reputa- 
tion. it gave birth, however, toa pleafant 
pamphlet, entitled, LeLégi/lateur ala Mode, 
in which it was (eaealra eu that the 31ft 
chapter of the travels of Anacharfis, by 
the Abbé Barthelemy, where the defcrip- 
tion of the ancient Greek calendar'was 
introduced, had furnifhed no inconfider- 
able part of the plan of the new Fabrine 
calendar. The Sansculloterie had now 
become too powerful to be tolerated any 
jlonger. Ins the winter of 1794, that 
faction was divided into two parts, the 
Facobins and the Cordeliers, ‘or, in other 
words, the Robe/pierrifis and the Danton- 
zis. FABRE was of the fattion of 
Danton, and was confined, with Danton’s 
adherents,in the prifon of the Luxem- 
burg. From that prifon he wrote a 
numberof letters, whichwere afterwards 
printed, thefe letters are highly extolled 
as ‘ep noall defcriptions of fenfibility and 
talents in diftrefs. After a month’s im- 
prifonment, FaBRE was, with many 
i 
Original Anecdotes.—F. & E glantine....F1, de Sechelles. 
451 
others, executed in the place de la Rewo- 
lution, in April, 1794, in the 35th year uf 
his age. 
HERAULT DE SECHEULLES. 
Few men made a greater figure, and, 
it may be added, a more refpedtable 
figure, in the French revolution, during 
the fix months previous to, and as many 
after, the fall of the Bvitavipes. as He- 
RAULT DE SECHELLES. He was of 
a rich and diftinguifhed family, who had 
given him a liberal education, and was, 
-independantly of his patent place, as ad- 
vocate general of the parliament of Paris, 
ennobled. We was born at Paris, and 
was chofen a deputy for that depart- 
ment to the National Convention. He 
enjoyed an independant fortune of his 
‘own, but he had very confiderable ex- 
pectations from a wealthy uncle, greatly 
advanced in years. 
The fall of HERAULT is not, per- 
haps, wholly to be afcribed tothe politi- 
ral fins imputed to him; he was un- 
queftionably a republican to the -heart, 
but, from a vanity which may be confi 
dered natural, he paid too much re- 
gard to the charaéter he had acquired of 
being what the French term, wz jso/r- 
garcon. Thus, though his language was 
never incompatible with the aufterities of 
the newly-adopted government, yet his 
drefs was, by many, thought highly in- 
confiftent with it, and frequent farcafms 
would be thrown againft him, on this 
fubject, by his fellow deputies, who 
made it a ea to drefs as muchas pof~ 
fible en Facodin, 
However unpardonable this offence 
againft the exterior of republicanifm 
might appear in the eyes of thofe fhal- 
low-minded reformers, who confound 
its attributes with its effence, others, at 
that time, with more influence in the 
meafures of government, confidered it 
as a peccadillo only, and fixed upon him 
as the moft proper perfon to open a 
communication with foreign powers, for 
obtaining @ peace. The Committee of 
Public Welfare diftinguifhed him by the 
appellation and authority of diplomatic 
member. In this capacity he made various 
fruitlefs efforts to treat with two of the 
powers combined againft the infant 
republic, but fuch Sng the haughty and 
overbearing tone and conduct of the 
league, at that period, that every overture 
was rejected with a difdain as rafh as it 
has fince proved puerile. 
When thofe jealouftes became general, 
which may be confidered as the natural 
concomitants of a revolution like that of 
France, 
