Convention not to fleep on its victories, but to ftrike terror amongst the confpirators." On the 25th of July, Robefpierre made an oration in the Convention, in which he plainly indicated his future project. "What a terrible use,”* faid he, "have our enemies made of a word which at Rome was applied only to a public function." The fpeech was heard with symptoms of contempt, many things in it contested; and it was evident that his influence in the Convention was loft. This was the critical moment. The armed force of Paris, under Henriot, was ftill at his devotion; but his refolution, and even his fagacity, feemed to fail him; his popularity was evidently declining, and the applaufes of the galleries attended the speeches of his opponents, who, on their part, perceived that they had already gone too far to recede.

In the fitting of the 9th Thermidor (July 27) Billaud Varennes complained openly, "that the armed force of Paris was entrusted to parricidal hands. Henriot," said he, "was denounced as the accomplice of Hebert. One man alone had the audacity to fupport him. Need I name him?-Robespierre." He then proceeded to recount with energy his acts of blood and oppreffion: and accused him, without referve, of harbouring an infamous defign of making himself dictator. "In order to effect his purpose," faid this orator, "he has refolved to mutilate the Convention, and to murder the reprefentatives of the people." Robespierre here darted towards the tribune, while a number of voices exclaimed " Down with the tyrant! Down with the tyrant!" He was not suffered to speak in his defence; and Tallien rofe" to congratulate the Convention that the veil was at length withdrawn, and the real conspirators unmasked. Every thing," faid he, "announces that the enemy of the nation is about to fall. In the house of that guilty man, who now stands humbled with the consciousness of detected crimes, and overwhelmed with that deteftation

which

which his infamous defigns against liberty have so justly merited, were formed those lifts of profcriptions which have ftained with fo much blood the altars of rifing liberty. He copied the example of the deteftable Sylla. His proscriptions were intended only to prepare the way for his own power and the establishment of a perpetual dictatorship. Was it to fubject ourselves to fo abject and degrading a tyranny that we brought to the fcaffold the laft of the Capets, that we declared eternal war against kings, and swore to establish liberty as the price of life? No! the fpirit of liberty has not funk fo low. I invoke the fhade of the virtuous Brutus; like him I have a poniard to rid my country of the tyrant, if the Convention do not deliver him to the fword of justice. Let us, republicans, accuse him with the courage which fprings from loyalty in the presence of the French people: and, as it is of the utmost importance that the chiefs of the armed force do no mischief, I move that Henriot and all his staff be arrested. I move that our fittings be permanent until the fword of the law has fecured to us this revolution. I alfo move that ROBESPIERRE and his creatures be immediately arrested." These motions were paffed amid tumults of applause.Barrère was now called upon to speak in the name of the Committee of Public Safety; and after propofing that the national guard resume its original organization, and that the mayor of Paris be refponsible for the fafety of the national representation, he joined without referve in the invectives against the fallen tyrant, who has had the art, said he, of wearing fo many different masks; and, when he had no longer occafion for his creatures, has made no fcruple to fend them to the guillotine, as Camille Defmoulins, Bazire, Chabot, and others.-Robespierre, loft in amazement and confternation, fubmitted without farther refiftance to the decree of the Convention, and was guarded by the proper officers to the prifon of the Luxembourg; the governor of which, being one of his creatures, refused

to

to receive him; upon which he was conducted to the Hotel-de-Ville.

In the mean time Henriot had found means to escape, and, with the activity infpired by defperation, rallied his adherents. Dividing his forces into three bodies, he attempted at once to attack the Hotel-de-Ville, the Committee of Public Safety, and the Convention. The reprefentatives of the people fhewed in this moment of danger much courage and prefence of mind. No fooner were they apprized of the ftate of things than they declared Robespierre and his accomplices outlaws and traitors. Barras was appointed commander-in-chief: and a proclamation was flued, exhorting the people to affert their liberty and defend the National Convention. In confequence of these measures the troops of Henriot almoft univerfally abandoned him; and he himself, with the remainder, took poffeffion of the Hotel-de-Ville. Here, at two hours after midnight, they were vigorously affaulted by a determined party of the conventional guard, headed by Bourdon de l'Oife and other commissioners of the Convention, who rufhed boldly forward into the hall of the commune. The infurgents, after a fhort and fruitless refiftance, attempted in the last agonics of their defpair to turn their arms against themselves. Robefpierre, already wounded in the fide by a fabre, difcharged a piftol in his mouth with no other effect than to fhatter and disfigure his countenance. Le Bas fhot himself dead upon the spot, and Couthon stabbed himself with a poinard. Henriot, while haranguing the populace from an upper window, was thrown down by their defire, and fhockingly wounded by the violence of the fall. Robespierre and the rest of the criminals outlawed by the Convention were immediately conveyed to the Revolutionary Tribunal, merely for the purpose of identifying their perfons, and then re-conveyed to the Palace of Juftice, and that very evening, to the

number

number of twenty-one, executed in the Place de la Révolution, amid the loudeft and most universal acclamations of joy ever remembered. The eyes of the fpectators were chiefly fixed upon Robespierre, Couthon, and Henriot, who exhibited a ghaftly picture of blood, mingled with duft, and covered with wounds. Robefpierre was executed laft, but remained on the fcaffold wholly fpeechlefs, and petrified with horror.

Such was the merited doom of a tyrant, deftined, by univerfal confent, to be ranked in the black catalogue of the Neros, the Catalines, and the Borgias, whofe names are held up from age to age to the eternal execration of mankind. Immediately after this great and happy event a very general alteration and melioration took place in the different branches of the provifional government of France. The Jacobine Club was entirely abolished, and the remains of the Gironde party, excluded and profcribed from the month of May, 1793, to the number of feventy-one, were now restored to their feats in the Convention. Dumas, prefident of the horrid Revolutionary Tribunal, Fouquier Tinville, the public accufer, Carrier, conventional commiffioner in La Vendée, and various others of the fame defcription, loft their lives most deservedly on the public fcaffold. At the fame time hundreds were releafed from the different state prifons, who, but for the late revolution, would probably have fallen victims to the Robefpierrian tyranny and the infamous decree of the Convention, for refufing quarter to the English and Hanoverian foldiery, was formerly refcinded. The infurgents of the depart-. ments of La Vendée and La Loire had never been completely fubdued, and thoufands were ftill fheltered in the natural receffes of that romantic country under their leaders Charette and Stofflet. A general amnesty, however, being now published, they almost universally laid down their arms, and submitted to the authority of the Convention. But it deserves remark, that, during the most critical periods of

this unparalleled revolution, amid internal contention and convulfion, the Gallic like the Roman republic rofe victorious over the world; and fince the fubverfion of the antient monarchy, the fpirit of atheism and anarchy had uniformly triumphed over that of fuperftition and defpotism.

The miscellaneous events of the year in Britain ftill remain to be related. In the month of April Mr. Jay, chiefjuftice of the United States of America, arrived in London, as minister plenipotentiary, to adjust the existing differences between that republic and the British government. His reception was at the firft cool and revolting; but in proportion as the allied armies receded, it was remarked that the negotiation with America advanced. The general state of things in England was at this period fo truly unpleasant, and the differences which prevailed in politics under the prefent administration entered fo deeply into private and focial life, and were fo fubverfive of its comforts, that great numbers of families of the old Whig stamp, whose ancestors had been most warmly attached to the principles of the revolution, and to the Hanoverian fucceffion, now fought refuge in the bofom of the American republic. Amongst other emigrants of this description was the celebrated Dr. Priestley, who had been driven from his philofophical retirement in the centre of the kingdom by the mad outrages of a barbarous populace, excited and encouraged by perfons, however exalted above them in rank, scarcely lefs barbarous than they. A Chatham, a Lanfdown, or a Fox, would have paid just reverence to the virtues and talents of this illuftrious character; whofe zeal, as a theologian, for the diffusion of his peculiar tenets, was both natural and laudable. If his opinions were erroneous, argument might be opposed by argument, and the cause of truth would be eventually the gainer. But, under the adminis tration of Mr. Pitt, bigotry and malignity advanced with an accelerated progrefs, and every fpecies of improvement, moral, intellectual, or political, feemed gradually to be

come