destruction of Roberspierre was now agreed on, and it was brought about in this manner. I give the statement on the authority of Barrère, Carnot, Tallien, Sieyes, and others.

Roberspierre, it seems, had it in contemplation to do that which Bonaparte has since done; to destroy the Convention, and procure himself to be proclaimed Dictator: he might have succeeded, as he had the general and the armed force of Paris at his command; but before he attempted that, he wished to get rid of his powerful adversaries, who had rendered themselves obnoxious to the department whither they had been sent: of that description were Fouché, Collot d'Herbois, Billaud de Varennes, Barras, Tallien, Isabeau, Freron, Dubois, Crancé, &c. &c. The fatal list was already given to Fouquier Tinville: it seems the latter told the circumstance to his friend Merlin, who communicated it to Carnot, who communicated it to Barrère. None of these three persons were on the list; they did not however feel easy under the idea that they were to be made the tools of such a man as Roberspierre, whom all his colleagues considered as a man of a very inferior capacity they therefore opened the business to their colleagues of the Committee of Public Safety, Collot and Billaud; all agreed to make the same known to Tallien and the others, and especially to Legendre the Butcher, who was the great friend of Danton, and who had great influence

with the Canaille of Paris. They were apprised of the day when the Dictator en petto was to have denounced his colleagues to the Convention. Roberspierre was aware of the strength of the party. The combatants now entered the lists-Billaud began; Barrère was called upon by the Convention to say if all was true which had been related by Billaud. Barrère in a very eloquent speech denounced the tyrant, and Tallien decided it. His arrestation was decreed. But such was the terror of his name, that two jail-keepers refused to receive him; he was therefore carried in triumph to the Hotel de Ville, where he was besieged by the Conventional troops, and subdued; fortunately for the Convention, Henriot the commandant was so inebriated, that none of his soldiers would obey him. The Parisians say, that if Roberspierre had known how to ride on horseback, and head the troops, he would not have been subdued. monster, however, fell!

The

When it was known that the tyrant was arrested, a messenger was sent after four carts full of victims going to the scaffold to stop them, but in vain. The blood hounds would not be disappointed!

Frenchmen have a great idea of a man's knowing how to monter à cheval; they say that had Louis XVI. known how to ride, and put himself at the head of his troops, the Revolution would never have taken place. Therefore the Abbé Sieyes learned to ride a short time before the Revolution of Bonaparte, on the 18th Brumaire! which made the Parisians say that some thing extraordinary would happen!

I could not have believed such a dreadful story, had it not been related to me by Tallien.

After the fall of Roberspierre, the Convention saw that it was necessary to have a sort of government, which was not susceptible of such horrors as the Revolutionary Code of 1793. A Committee was therefore appointed to prepare a Constitution, which was done and put in force; I mean the Government of the Directory.

In every country where the principles of a representative government are well understood, a total dissolution of the Convention should have followed, and a new election should have taken place; but the leaders, knowing how unpopular the Revolution was in the Departments, were determined that two thirds of the representatives should remain, and one third only should be re-elected. The sections of Paris opposed this arbitrary decree. However, thanks to the ultima ratio regum, it was carried; and Napoleon Bonaparte here for the first time evinced his affections for his "bonne ville de Paris." He was opposed by General Danican, and if the latter had been provided with artillery, the human race would not now have to mourn for the cruelties and horrors committed by a Bonaparte!

It is worthy of observation, that notwithstanding the atrocities committed in France by the Committee of Public Safety, still they respected the laws of nations more than Bonaparte does.

For instance, Basle, in Switzerland, was crowded with emigrants, who were plotting against the soidisant Republic; an English Ambassador was also there, who could not be friendly to the new order of things in France. Still it never entered into the heads of the French rulers to send an armed force across the Rhine to seize the emigrants or the English Minister, as Bonaparte has done in the cases of the Duke D'Enghien, and Sir George Rumbold, the English Minister at Hamburgh.

When the Revolution broke out in Poland, in 1793, its leaders were supported by France, and they had their agents in Paris; as soon, however, as peace was signed at Basle between the King of Prussia and the Committee of Public Safety, the Polish agents were no longer recognized, and no further succour given to the Poles. This fact was told me by General Kosciusko.

An Englishman of the name of Hathway went to Paris for the purpose of proposing to the Committee of Public Safety, a plan for forging and circulating Bank of England Notes. They rejected the treasonable proposition, and sent him to prison as a spy, where he remained for several years!

The hatred nevertheless to this country, was as violent under Roberspierre and Co. as it is under Napoleon, although they had advocates for their cause here; but their conduct to our countrymen in France was not so bad as that pursued by the Revolutionary Emperor. After the declaration of war,

they made a decree by which the English in general were ordered to quit France, but nobody was detained against his will.

Only those were permitted to remain who could assign a cause for it. And even when all the English who remained, were afterwards put in a state of arrestation, an exception was made in favour of mechanics, artists, &c. &c.

The then French Government nevertheless encouraged the organization of rebellion in Ireland. It was under their régime that the Rey. Mr. Jackson was sent over to that country for that specific purpose.

In the midst of that system of disorganization, it was singular enough to see that those men who were annihilating the race of Frenchmen, did not forget the welfare of the future generation. They formed public establishments for the education of youth, which would have done honour to the most civilized nation on earth! Napoleon has reorganized them: the youths are not now to learn Greek, because the books in that language breathe the principles of Republicanism.

I now propose taking a view of the

GOVERNMENT OF THE DIRECTORY.

THE new Government had no sooner entered on its functions, than " la queue de Roberspierre" began to shew itself in the Legislative Body. The majo