women, and children, who were indiscriminately butchered by the orders of Suvaroff, who said to his soldiers"Brothers, no quarter to-day, for bread is scarce." Every horror possible in war, especially between barbarians, was perpetrated by the Russian hordes in Ismael, who were guilty of the most diabolical atrocities, such as burning of whole streets, mosques, and serais. Suvaroff sate down and wrote in Russian rhyme the words quoted by lord Byron in "Don Juan," "Glory to God and the Empress, Ismael is ours." When Sir Charles Whitworth, the British ambassador, next saw Catherine, she said, in allusion to some strong remonstrances from England and Prussia, which took care not to go beyond remonstrances, which were cheap-"Since the king, your master, wishes to drive me out of Petersburg, I hope he will permit me to retire to Constantinople.* That was a bitter and an ominous speech, could Pitt, the so much-lauded minister of England, have felt or perceived the real force of it. and ambitious power thus aggrandised and extended from the Baltic to the Mediterranean-from Siberia to Greece; yet Pitt continued as selfishly inactive as if there were no danger at all, and the same blind policy actuated Holland and Prussia. The least support given by these powers at this time to Gustavus of Sweden would have effectually checked the Russian designs on the east, and have raised Sweden into a power capable of always acting as a dead weight on Russian aggression. By very little aid Gustavus would have been able to recover all the territories on the eastern side of the Baltic which had been wrested from Sweden by Russia, and would thus have kept a formidable power always, as it were, at the very gates of Petersburg. But Gustavus was left, with his brave heart but very circumscribed forces, to contend with Russia alone. He kept down his disaffected nobles by cultivating the interests of the people at large, and maintained a determined struggle with Russia. He sent over the prince of Anhalt with a small army of about three thousand men at so early a season this Since the commencement of the year 1790, the agitation year that the ground was covered with ice and snow. The in Paris had become greater than ever. The soldiers of the prince pushed on boldly towards Petersburg, and made national guard mutinied for pay. They assembled in the himself master of the strong forts and defences at Karnom- Champs Elysées to the number of a thousand, but La koski, on the lake Saima, within two days' march of that Fayette, so far from yielding to them, hastened to the spot capital. In April, they were encountered by ten thousand with better-affected troops, dispersed them, bayoneted others Russians under the command of general Ingelstrom, whom on the spot, and took about two hundred prisoners. This they defeated after a desperate battle, leaving two thousand spirited conduct had the effect of cowing the mutineers and Russians dead on the field. But the prince of Anhalt was their allies of the rabble, who on various occasions of late killed, and the Swedes were not able, with such a handful had appeared with arms concealed under their coats, and had of men, to advance on Petersburg, which was in fearful thus compelled the municipal authorities to raise the red flag panic. But Gustavus was more successful at sea. He and as the symbol of martial law. There were, at the same his brother, the duke of Sudermania, fought the Russians time, many rumours of plots against the assembly and the with a very inferior force of ships off Revel, and afterwards municipality, the supposed ringleader of which was the off Svenskasund. A considerable number of English officers marquis de Favras. This marquis de Favras had served in were serving in the Swedish fleet, amongst them one the army in the Netherlands, and in Holland, at the time of destined to rise to high distinction, Sydney, afterwards Sir the insurrection against the stadtholder. He was a man of Sydney Smith. After two days' sanguinary fight at the dissipated habits, a gambler, and full of intrigues. The latter place, Gustavus beat the Russian admiral Chitschakoff revolution had stopped his income, as it had done that of so completely that he took four thousand prisoners, destroyed thousands of his order. He married the only daughter of several of the largest Russian ships, and took or sunk forty-five the prince of Anhalt-Schaumburg; but his wife, it would galleys. Catherine was now glad to make peace, which was seem, was a natural child, for he had been in Germany concluded at Warela, near the river Kymen, but with very endeavouring to get her legitimatised, by which she would different results to what would have been obtained had acquire a handsome fortune. He had been first lieutenant Gustavus found that support which it was the obvious of Monsieur's guards, which gave him the rank of colonel. interest of the whole civilised world to afford him. He It was now communicated to La Fayette and Bailly, by a agreed that each power should retain what it possessed spy of the name of Houdart, that Favras was plotting to before the war, thus conferring on Russia the provinces torn have them both assassinated, to carry off the king to Veronne, from Sweden. Gustavus complained bitterly of his treat- for which he had twelve hundred horse ready. The mayor ment, and with great cause. ordered his arrest, and he was consigned to the Chatelet for trial. The Chatelet had been erected into a court for the trial of all causes arising out of the revolution. This court was conducted on more liberal principles than the old ones. The accused were allowed counsel for their defence, and it was proposed soon to introduce juries. Besenval had been tried at the Chatelet for his conduct at the time of the assault on the Bastille, and had been acquitted. Favras was said to be the secret agent in this plot of high personages, and it was stated that he had received money from Monsieur. A letter, indeed, was found on Favras which favoured that belief. La Fayette showed this letter to Monsieur, who was so greatly affected by it, that he During this campaign, Catherine had made great progress in her road to Constantinople. Suvaroff had reduced Ismael, a remarkably strong place, which was the key of the lower Danube, and the only obstruction of any importance to the Russian advance to the Balkan mountains and to Constantinople. This city had been taken by storm, after a most desperate defence, on the 25th of December, and when, with a little more resistance, the Russians would have been compelled to quit the field by the severity of the season. The carnage on this occasion was of the most frightful kind. The Russians themselves lost nearly ten thousand men, and the Turks thirty thousand people-men, The baron de A.D. 1790.] VISIT OF THE KING TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. determined to go to the Chatelet and clear himself. Accordingly, he appeared there, and read a very able defence, supposed to have been written by Mirabeau for him. In this Monsieur declared that he had been always a friend of the revolution, and referred the judges to his conduct throughout it; and these allegations were apparently quite true. The gist of the whole speech is couched in one remarkable passage: "As to my private sentiments, I shall speak of them with confidence to my fellow-citizens. Ever since the day that, in the second assembly of notables, I declared my views respecting the fundamental question which divided people's minds, I have not ceased to believe that a great revolution was at hand; that the king, by his intentions, his virtues, and his supreme rank, ought to be the head of it, since it could not be beneficial to the nation without being equally so to the monarch. In short, that the royal authority ought to be the rampart of the national liberty, and the national liberty the basis of the royal authority. I challenge you to produce a single one of my actions, a single one of my expressions, which has contradicted these principles, which has shown that, in what circumstances soever I have been placed, the happiness of the king and that of the people have ceased to be the sole objects of my thoughts and my views. I have, therefore, a right to be believed on my word. I have never changed my sentiments and principles, and I never will change them." Monsieur's speech was received with enthusiastic applause, and he was escorted back to his residence. 483 occupied. Suddenly there was a cry, "The king is coming!" and Louis entered. The assembly rose, and received his with applause. Louis XVI., standing, read a long and very admirable address to the seated assembly. He referred to the exertions which had been made, not only during the sitting of the assembly, but previously in the parliaments, to allay the troubles which had fallen on France, and to supply the wants of the people. He begged them to remember that, ten years ago, and before a public call was made for a states-general, he had recommended such a step, and that, since the meeting of the assembly, he added, to use his own words, "I have seconded, by all the means in my power, that grand organisation on which depends the welfare of France; and I think it necessary to observe, that I am too attentive to the internal condition of the kingdom, my eyes are too open to the dangers of all kinds by which we are encompassed, not to be deeply sensible that, in the present disposition of minds, and considering the actual state of public affairs, it is requisite that a new order of things should be established, or the kingdom may be exposed to all the calamities of anarchy. No doubt," he added, "those who have relinquished their pecuniary privileges, those who will no longer form, as of old, an order in the state, find themselves subjected to sacrifices; but I am persuaded that they will have generosity enough to seek an indemnification in all the public advantages of which the establishment of national assemblies holds out a hope." Favras was put upon his trial, and defended himself ably. Louis added, " I, too, should have losses to enumerate, if, Two men, one of whom was the same Houdart who had amid the most important interests of the state, I could informed against him, deposed to the reality of the plot for dwell upon personal considerations; but I feel a compensathe assassination of La Fayette and Bailly, but they could tion that satisfies me, a full and entire compensation, in the bring no other evidence of these facts, and there appeared no increase of the national happiness; and this sentiment comes proof of the twelve hundred cavalry being in readiness, or from the very bottom of my heart. I will defend, therefore of the Swiss and Piedmontese army being in motion. La-I will uphold constitutional liberty, the principles which Fayette requested that the part of the charge respecting the public wish, in accordance with my own, has himself and Bailly might be left out of the trial, but the sanctioned. I will do more; and, in concert with the court would not concede this. Favras demanded to know queen, who shares all my sentiments, I will early adapt the who was his original accuser: this, too, was refused. He heart and mind of my son to the new order of things which called his own witnesses, and the court refused to hear them, circumstances have brought about. I will accustom him, and Favras justly denounced the court as no better than from his very first years, to seek happiness in the happiness the inquisition. In fact, the whole proceeding was most of the French, and ever to acknowledge that, in spite of the arbitrary and unjust. No clear proofs of his guilt were language of flatterers, a wise constitution will preserve him adduced, and Favras ought to have been acquitted; but from the dangers of inexperience, and that a just liberty adds the populace had been exasperated at the acquittal of Besen- a new value to the sentiments of affection and loyalty, of val, and were furious for the execution of Favras. During the which the nation has for so many years given such touching whole trial, crowds surrounded the Chatelet, crying, "A la proofs to its kings!" linterne !" and menacing the judges if they did not condemn Favras; and it is but too apparent that the judges, fearing for their own lives, dared not to acquit him. The manly sentiments of this speech were certainly followed by vehement applause, but, at the conclusion of this promise on behalf of the queen and the dauphin, the whole assembly burst forth in thunders of acclamation, all hands were stretched towards the king, and there were loud cries for the queen and the royal infant. Louis concluded by calling on all who still kept aloof from a spirit of concord that was become so necessary, to make a sacrifice to him of all the recollections that afflicted them, exclaiming, "I will repay them with my gratitude and affection!" and the as In the midst of the trial, the king suddenly appeared in the national assembly. The statements of the witnesses on the trial had again roused the suspicions of the public as to the designs of the court, and he was advised that it would be well, by a decisive step, to dissipate these ideas. Accordingly, on the 4th of February, the assembly, on meeting, were surprised to observe arrangements for a royal visit. The steps of the bureau were covered with a carpet sprinkled with fleurs-sembly was in a rapture of delight. The king was conde-lis; the arm-chair of the secretaries was lowered, and the ducted back to the Tuileries by the multitude, shouting and president was standing beside the seat which he usually rejoicing. The assembly voted thanks to the king and queen; and, as Louis had voluntarily vowed to uphold the constitution, it declared that it was fitting for the deputies to do the same. Every deputy, therefore, took the civic oath to be faithful to the nation, to the law, and to the king; and to uphold, with all his power, the constitution. The supplementary members, the deputies of communes, desired also to take the oath; the tribunes and galleries followed their example, and on all sides nothing was heard but the words, "I swear it!" The Hôtel de Ville followed the example of the assembly; all swore there, and so commune after commune throughout France did the same. Rejoicings were ordered, which appeared to be general and sincere. Here, then, surely was a foundation for a permanent harmony in any country except France. If the king was honest, if the people had any appreciation of sincerity, nothing could be so easy as the future progress of constitutional reform. But in this strange capital and country, a very few days had dissipated this ardent ebullition of sentiment; the court had fallen back into its old suspicions of the people, and the people into theirs of the court. The trial of Favras went on, and he was condemned to be hanged in the Place de Grève, to show the equality of all men. Favras prophesied to his judges, that if life could be taken on evidence like that brought against him, no man would long be safe. But the fact appears plain that the judges did not dare to acquit him. The mob demanded his life; and the lives of judges who should dare to acquit him would not have been worth much. Favras was conducted to the Hôtel de Ville, and was hanged at night by torch-light, and amid the yells and jeers of the populace. He declared that his whole crime was that of receiving a hundred louisd'ors to endeavour to dispose the public favourably towards the king; but there must have been more than this, for the queen expressed much uneasiness lest he should disclose particulars which would be dangerous to them in his last moments. He once, indeed, asked whether, if he gave the names of those with whom he had acted, he could he saved? but the answer was not satisfactory, and he said he would carry his secrets along with him. The rumour of these things deepened the suspicions of the court; and the folly of the friends of Favras dreadfully aggravated them. On the Sunday after the execution, "as the royal family were dining in public, and members of the officers of the national guards present, the widow and child of Favras were presented to Marie Antoinette. The queen was confounded; did not venture to take any notice of the widow and her son; and, as soon as dinner was over, hurrying to her private apartment, she exclaimed to madame Campan that they were undone ; that the people would believe that the widow and child in deep mourning had been presented to her at her request, and that the royalists would censure her for not taking notice of them. Whilst, however, complaining that the folly of their own friends were ruining them, the queen privately sent relief to the widow, for Favras died poor. Every day made the queen and her friends the more sensible that their only safety was in flight; and Marie Antoinette, had it depended on her, would soon have accomplished this escape. Plan after plan was passed, but the inertness of the king rendered them all abortive. At this very moment, an excellent opportunity presented itself. The officer of the national guard on duty was secretly in their favour. All was made ready, relays of horses were provided, the queen had packed up her jewels; but the king continued playing at whist, and, at last, said he could not consent to be carried off. That high-spirited and beautiful woman must be dragged down to the block by her slug of a husband! As Louis would not escape, many of his friends thought he ought now to put himself heartily into the revolution, and do all in his power to secure the favour of the national assembly. On the contrary, the American, Governeur Morris, anxiously recommended that the king should remain quiescent, and let things take their course. He argued, and he wrote to the queen, urging this view of affairs, that matters were becoming so miserable for the people, that, ere long, they would grow sick of the revolution, and return to the king for his guidance and protection, when it would be in his power to form a proper constitution. But no such salutary effects were to be expected from studied inaction on the part of the king. The assembly and the people were determined not to stop short of a complete and democratic revolution. They had no confidence in the court, and the court had none in them. The queen's party looked to Austria for support, and numbers of the courtiers were in correspondence with the count D'Artois and the royalist refugees, who were actively mustering forces and exciting disaffection in the south. Another great depen dence of the court was on the marquis de Bouillé, who had the command of the army at Metz, where he extended his authority over a vast extent of frontier. Bouillé was firmly attached to the royal cause, and was ready to risk his life to serve it. But he had no confidence in his relative, La Fayette, the commandant of the national guard, whom he held to be too deeply committed to the revolution for them to work at all together. Whilst La Fayette, therefore, wrote earnestly to Bouillé to co-operate with him in support of the throne, Bouillé only returned a cold answer to La Fayette, of whom the queen, at least, was suspicious; for, when La Fayette urged the king and queen to go heartily into the revolution with the assembly, in order to be able to moderate it, they received his advice with impatience, though the king declared him an honest man. So far, therefore, from the king being able to produce an advantage to himself by quietly waiting, he was losing influence every day by the jealousies which the partisans of the court excited in the assembly and the people. The party of the refugees was divided in itself. It had Caloune for its minister at Turin, but he was no more able to unite the court factions than he had been, when minister of the realm, to induce the nobles and clergy to submit to taxation. The high nobility insisted on none but foreign aid being employed for the recovery of the ancient power of the court, and this from their jealousy of the provincial noblesse, and still more of the bourgeoisie. On the contrary, the petty nobles, and the citizens who had emigrated and made up the second party, were for calling out all the catholic and royalist population in France to put down the revolution, which was based partly on atheism and partly on protestantism, according to M. Fromont, who urged this plan upon them, and to renounce all reliance on foreign aid; they were A.D. 1790.1 ATTEMPT TO OBTAIN THE ELECTION OF NEW DEPUTIES. to stifle a strong passion by a still stronger; religious zeal was to stifle the republican mania. In fact, the catholic royalists had seen, with resentment, toleration conferred on the protestants, and they trusted to arouse the spirit of fanatic intolerance in their behalf. This party proving the stronger, the clergy, furious at the confiscation of their property, were only too ready to second these views. They took advantage, during the solemnities of Easter, to preach up persecution of the protestants, who had shown, as was, from a mere principle of gratitude, natural, a zealous support of the assembly and the revolution. In consequence of this bigot crusade of the clergy, and the active exertions of the emissaries of the refugees at Turin, there were popular outbreaks at Montpellier, Nismes, Montaubon, and other places in the south, and the rage of the catholics was turned against the protestants and the revolution. Charles Lameth complained, in the assembly, that the festival of Easter had been abused to excite the people against the new laws. The clergy started to their feet, and threatened to quit the assembly in a body if such a charge were admitted. Dom Gerle, a carthusian, proposed that the catholic religion should be declared the religion of the state. The clergy and a great number of catholic deputies raised a clamorous acclamation. The president adjourned to the next day. A vast crowd collected, and La Fayette thought it prudent tɔ double the usual guard. A violent debate, amounting to an actual tumult, took place, but the motion was rejected. But the commotion in Paris was followed by an equal commotion in the provinces. The patriots attributed all these excitements to the instigations of the refugee court at Turin. The national guards turned out, and actual fights took place betwixt royalist and revolutionist parties. At Marseilles, the national guards drove the royalist officers out of the castle and forts, and made the troops swear to the constitution. At Valence, on the Rhine, the viscount de Voisins, the commandant, was murdered; all the old antipathies of those regions betwixt catholic and protestant were let loose, and the brother of Mirabeau announced in the assembly that civil war had begun, and that all the south was in flames. It was from this state of warfare in the south, and especially in the valley of the Rhone, that the famous federations, destined to produce such decided influence on the revolution, took their rise. Fearing attacks from the fanatic catholics and their allies, the refugees, the municipal authorities, the national guard, and the people of Etoile took an oath to be true to the constitution and to one another towards the close of the year 1789. The neighbouring town of Montélimart immediately followed the example, and also made a federation with the people of Etoile. The practice spread all over the towns of the south, which swore, "in the face of God and their country," to be true to one another, to liberty, and to the national assembly, even unto death. The people of the country joined those of the towns, and from the south the federations spread northward, and towns federated with towns, districts with districts, departments with departments, till France was one universal federation. These acts of federation were celebrated by music and firing of guns. The national assembly and La Fayette applauded the movement. This close union of a whole armed nation, binding itself to support all the laws which the assembly had 485 made, or should make hereafter, presented an awful view of the overwhelming power of the assembly to those unfavourable to the revolution. Accordingly, there was an attempt made in April to put an end to the term of the present members. It was represented that the people were about to meet to elect their magistrates; that the term for which the deputies had been elected, which was in most cases only for one year, was near expiring, and that the people might as well be authorised to elect the new deputies at the same time. They had met in May, 1789, and it was now April of 1790. The abbé Maury was chosen to introduce this motion. He said the new organisation of the kingdom was complete; the nation had assumed its sovereignty, and he asked by what right the assembly put themselves in the place of the nation, and prolonged powers that were but temporary. By what right they had invested themselves with sovereign attributes? It was replied that they continued to sit in a legislative capacity, and to complete the constitution; but Maury said that legislative and constitutional power were only the same, unless there was no other government in a country. If they were a sovereign convention, then they had only to depose the king, and declare the throne vacant. A vociferous indignation drowned the voice of the speaker at these words, and Mirabeau arose. "We are asked," he said, "since what time the deputies of the people have become a national convention? I answer, from the day when, finding the entrance to their seats encompassed by soldiers, they went and met in the first place where they could assemble, to save or to perish rather than betray and abandon the rights of the nation. On that day, the nature of our powers, whatever they were, was changed. Be the powers that we have exercised what they may, our efforts, our labours, have legitimated them. The adhesion of the whole nation has sanctified them. All of you recollect the expression of that great man of antiquity, who had neglected the legal forms for saving the country. Called upon by a factious tribune to say if he had observed the laws, he replied, 'I swear that I have saved the country!' Gentlemen," continued Mirabeau, I swear that you have saved France!" แ At this magnificent oath, says Ferrières, the whole assembly, as if under the influence of a sudden inspiration, closed the discussion, and resolved that the electoral body should not proceed to the new election of deputies. The scheme for putting an end to the present assembly was thus frustrated, but it was by a most dangerous and unwarranted assumption. The assembly had voted itself, in fact, independent of the people. Such things can be done only in revolutions, for at any other period they would constitute a revolution. It was thus that the Long Parliament of England acted; and the national assembly could only have done it from the consciousness that they should receive the full sanction of the people at large, which was equally bent on violating all forms and all rights but the right to establish their freedom in defiance of the schemes of the aristocracy. But there was another power which threatened to transcend even the assembly in the favour of the most revolutionary of the populace, and this was the Jacobin Club, which sate almost constantly in the Rue St. Honoré, close to the Grande Sallé de Manège, or Riding School, to which who were accustomed to higher-seasoned politics and the assembly had now transferred itself. This, as we have speeches. Soon after the establishment of the Feuillans, Baid, was founded on the Breton club, but it had now they celebrated their foundation and the 17th of June embraced determined revolutionists of all parts of France. together, that being the day on which the states-genera The Lameths were at the head of it, but numbers of the declared itself a national assembly. They had a graul most outre electors and of the members of the assembly dinner in the Palais Royal, and amongst them were Sièyes, itself were its regular frequenters. Robespierre was a Talleyrand, Chapelier, count Mirabeau, the brother of the constant attendant, and Mirabeau was as often at the club orator, Bailly, La Fayette, and general Paoli, the Corsican as at the assembly. The president had his fauteuil, and his patriot. They sate with open windows, so that the people hand-bell to ring for order, just like the president of the in the Palais Royal might hear the music and the speeches; assembly, and the club had its journal to record all its transactions and its speeches. In fact, it was a selfclected and hotter assembly, acting as a spur to that body, and possessing more of the esteem of the mob, from whom it drew its animus. La Fayette and Bailly, to neutralise its formidable influence, established another club, called the club of the Feuillans, from sitting in the convent of the monks of that order. The members of this club were men whom La Fayette and Bailly deemed the most enlightened—that is, they were men of moderate and constitutional principles. But they sought in vain to win the favour of the multitude, and they presented themselves on the balcony, and bowed to the people, and received a deputation of the dames de la halle. But all this would not do; the tone of the populace, which ruled the country, was far ahead of their politics, and the Feuillans died gradually out. On the other hand, a still more fervid club than even the Jacobins grew and won the popular regard universally. This was the club of the Cordeliers, also taking its name from the convent of the monks of that order, where it sate. At this club, Desmoulins frenzied with revolutionary fire Danton, at the commencement of the revolution a briefless |