to succour them; or in holding discourses tending to vilify and dissolve the national representation." Again,-" accused of having endeavoured to destroy the republic, dissolve the representation, restore royalty, of having held counter-revolutionary principles."

In these terms are drawn up the accusations that I observed in the different Moniteurs of the different people executed. On the 5th of Floreal (April), 1794, forty-five were condemned, four acquitted; on the 9th, thirty-three condemned, and five acquitted; on the 11th, twenty condemned; on the 16th, thirteen; on the 17th, twenty-four; on the 18th, ten; on the 19th, eighteen, the celebrated chymist, Lavoisier, included. On the 20th Prairial, Robespierre makes his speech on the subject of religion, acknowledges the existence of the Deity, the immortality of the soul, presides at a fête to the Supreme Being, this on the 20th; but on the 15th are executed thirty-two; on the 16th, sixteen; on the 17th, six; on the 18th, twenty-one; on the 19th, twenty-one; on the 20th, the day of the fête, there seems to have been a pause, and on the 21st are executed twenty-three; on the 23rd, twenty-two; on the 24th, seventeen; on the 25th, twenty-two; on the 27th, eighteen; and on the 28th, forty-two; on the 29th, sixty-one; on the 1st Messidor, eighteen, and so on; on the 25th, thirty-eight, and on the 27th, thirty, of every condition and of every age. Thus, on this 25th of Messidor, with respect to the ages, I observed them to be thus: fifty-seven, eighteen, forty-nine, twenty-six, twenty-three, fifty-one, forty-seven, sixty-five, fifty-three, twenty-two, twenty-two, forty-five, forty-four, seventy-five. On the 21st, when twenty-five were condemned, among them appears Anne-Elizabeth Capet, aged thirty, born at Versailles, sister to the last tyrant." In the mean time, along with these executions, always appears in the next column a list of ten or twelve places of public amusement. On the 5th Thermidor, a few days before the fall of Robespierre, there is seen in the Moniteur of the 18th, a long list of fifty-nine people put to death; on the 6th, another of thirty-six, and one more condemned; on the 7th, thirty-eight; on the 8th, fiftythree; forty-five on the 9th; and then at length and at last the list for the 10th of Thermidor begins with the horrible name of Robespierre, aged only thirty-five; and this is fol

lowed by the names of Couthon, Henriot-Dumas, ex-president of the revolutionary tribunal, and St. Just, the demon of the Revolution, only second to Robespierre, and only twenty-six.

Such are some of the particulars I observed in the Moniteurs from Jannary, 1793, to the fall of Robespierre. Now the question is, when such particulars can be presented to you, merely as a sort of slight extract from the whole, what are you to think of scenes that were really taking place in Paris and in France at the time-what of the people-what of the Jacobins-what of the state, to which the new opinions had in their progress at last advanced? Orators may exaggerate, party writers may misrepresent, but I have been quoting and referring to the common daily paper, to the official gazette of the country; and I must again repeat to you, that from want of time, I so mutilate and abridge in every way these most extraordinary documents, that I do no proper justice to them; and whatever impression they may have made on your minds, no adequate impression can have been possibly produced upon you, as yet, or ever will, unless you cast your eye over these columns, as I have done, and suffer your imagination and reflection to follow up into their legitimate consequences the simple, undeniable facts, that appear before you. I say nothing, if they are such to read, what they must have been to witness.

SOME

LECTURE XLI.

REIGN OF TERROR.

OME further notice of this singular period, and of the effects produced by the system of terror, may be collected from different publications that appeared about the time. I shall proceed in this lecture to allude to some of them. The historians, however, have availed themselves of such memoirs, pamphlets, and other political writings as were fitted to illustrate their subject; and you will be presented with many incidents of this nature while you are reading the accounts they give.

I will allude, in the first place, to a few of the particulars that have been given relative to the behaviour of these victims of the Reign of Terror during their confinement in different prisons, and while expecting every day a summons for their trial, or rather their sentence of death.

These particulars are very descriptive of the French character, and very alien from our own; our own, sober, pensive, and dull; even in our hours of social intercourse and festivity, little disposed to be entertained, and still less to entertain; and though bearing afflictions and calamities with proper fortitude, from a sense of duty and religion, never inclined in the least to under estimate them; always fully asserting our right, whenever we have it, to be out of spirits and disagreeable, and certainly little comprehending that happy facility with which the Frenchman can conform to his situation; that eternal gaiety, which seems never to desert him, be the scene what it may-a disastrous campaign, a field of battle, the privations of poverty, the horrors of a prison, even the impending stroke of the guillotine.

Amongst the papers of Mallet du Pan was found a note

which he had taken of a conversation that had passed between himself and M. Portalis. It has been communicated to me by his son, and I will read it to you, as not only in itself curious, but as it will contribute to give a greater authority to similar accounts, which you will read in the historians.

M. Portalis and his son had been confined for fourteen months in the Maison de Santé (House of Recovery) of Bel Homme, in the Fauxbourg St. Antoine at Paris, which had been converted into a prison: certain facilities were given in these houses which could not be had in the common prisons, and it was a sort of favour to be admitted there. Among the persons confined at Bel Homme were several of the principal noblesse of Brittany: M. de Boisgelin, formerly president of the States of that province; M. de Noyant also, a considerable man at Rennes; M. de Nicolai, president of the Chambres des Comptes in the Parliament of Paris, was also there. The utmost punctilio was observed among these personages; regular introductions were necessary to be admitted into the different circles. The noblesse kept apart, and did not mix with the roturiers. M. de Nicolai, who suffered after a few months' detention, had brought from his house a part of his library, some furniture, and two thousand bottles of wine; other wealthy individuals had followed his example. After breakfasting in their apartments, every one dressed about eleven o'clock, and walked for some time in the gardens, when the weather permitted. Two o'clock was the dinner hour. A traiteur had the custom of the house. At three o'clock, the messenger of death entered the prison, and summoned his victims. A general gloom and apprehension preceded this appalling moment; but as soon as the unfortunate individuals, whose last hour had struck, had taken leave of their friends, all was life again at Bel Homme.

At four o'clock, a second and more careful toilet took place; the different circles met, and the evening was spent much in the same manner as if the same parties had assembled, in happier hours, at their respective hotels, in drinking tea, playing cards, trictrac, and conversation.

The fearful situation of the inmates of this half-way house to the guillotine had not in any manner softened their old

political prejudices and resentments; and on one occasion, when a former intendant of Brittany, who had quarrelled with the provincial states, was brought in, and a question arose whether he should be admitted into M. de Boisgelin's circle, a meeting of several members of the states was held at old de Noyant's, when it was resolved that they would not give their votes at the next election to M. de Boisgelin, if he visited the intendant; which threat had the desired effect. Linguist, the factious and eloquent Paris advocate, was at Bel Homme. The parliament people all shunned him, and he lived in a sort of solitude, amidst the dissipation of the place. On the day when his summons was brought, he came to the apartment of M. Portalis, with the warrant in his hand, to ask him whether he was required to attend under an act of accusation, or only as a witness. Portalis, who knew the form of these instruments, told him that his own trial was coming on. He received the intelligence with composure, went and dressed himself, took some refreshment with his wife, and left the prison never to return. These scenes were of daily occurrence, save on the Decadi, during which day the revolutionary tribunal did not sit, and the guillotine suspended its toils. From the evening preceding the Decadi to the morning following, was therefore a respite, and the schoolboys enjoyed their holiday, as if the hand of the executioner was for ever stayed. These very people left their frivolities for the scaffold, with such stoical unconcern, that the Committee of Public Safety became apprehensive of the effect, which such unheard of fortitude might have on the people. In some prisons, therefore, the persons, whose fate was decided, were kept on bread and water for several days previously to their execution, and a proposal was actually made in the Committee of Public Safety to bleed their victims previously to their appearing in public.

Again. In the History of Montgaillard, under the head of July, 1794, it is mentioned that a state of the prisons gave a list of eleven thousand four hundred people detained. "In many of the thirty-two places," he says, "that were converted into prisons, the later comers were so crowded together, that they suffered from mere want of air, were deprived of all exercise, and almost power of motion, and were like the