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the Jacobins, from their superior intelligence. position, we can have little to say to them. their history and their fall, look upon it as of course, and well deserved, and pass on. Again, we may consider them, as I have done, as not without principle; as faulty in the same way with their predecessors the Constitutionalists, but to a far greater extent, to a very criminal extent, and with still more important consequences. Thirdly and lastly, we may consider them, much as they considered themselves; as men of the highest patriotism and exalted virtue; and as chiefly unfortunate, in having to do with ruffians and men of blood, who, on account of their virtues, hated and resolved to destroy them.

Now, I know not, whether in any way, their example can be made more instructive, than in this last; and I shall therefore proceed to consider them not a little in the light, in which they would themselves have chosen to be viewed. The better to do this, I shall in this lecture quote largely from their writings and speeches. And while so doing, you are for the present to listen and catch the edification, that, as I conceive, may be found by any reflecting mind; the edification, I mean, to be derived from the lesson here held up to men of sanguine temperament, who engage in public concerns, and are not scrupulous about their means. You will see, upon their own showing, how men of this kind become the victims of those, more lawless than themselves, whom they had employed. The lessons of the French Revolution, as I have often mentioned to you, are of different kinds: on the present occasion the lesson is addressed to the popular party.

But I shall first mention to you the books, where our present subject, the fall of the Girondists, may be best found.

The main facts may be described in a very few words; and these facts you can, for the present, keep in mind, until you can consider them more regularly hereafter. You will then, for the present, I say, understand, that the Girondists (to sum

up

their history in a few words and as they would themselves describe it), though they were heart and part in the insurrection of the 10th of August, shrunk from the massacres of September, and endeavoured to punish the chief contrivers of these horrors; that they therefore became the personal foes

of the Jacobins; that they afterwards endeavoured to save the life of Louis XVI.; that they laboured to restore law and order; that they attempted to protect themselves against the revolutionary tribunals of the Jacobins, by a commission of their own, the Commission of Twelve, as it was called; that they also endeavoured to protect themsemselves and the Convention, by a guard brought up from all the departments; that all these measures made their enemies, Robespierre and the Jacobins, more and more popular in Paris, and enabled these demagogues to engage the mobs, and the military power of the metropolis, in the work of their destruction; that this destruction was soon effected. A plan was formed to seize, and probably massacre them, while sitting in the Convention on the 10th of March. The Girondists had notice of what was intended, and absented themselves. But they were more regularly attacked in the course of the ensuing 1st of May and 2nd of June; taken out of the Convention, proscribed by a decree, and put under an arrest to the number of twenty-two, until they could be conveniently executed; the rest flying into the interior, and in vain endeavouring to raise the departments in their favour.

Such is in a few words the history of the fall of the Girondists. When they had acquired power by the 10th of August, they could not introduce that order and law, which were necessary for the exercise of it; their republic, or their intended new dynasty, was taken from them.

I will now mention the books where you will find the facts properly detailed.

You will naturally turn in the first place to the work of Thiers; but his fourth volume is not written with his usual success it does not offer the same perspicuous narrative, particularly with respect to the Girondists, that is found in his former volumes: his observations are often important, but I thought the whole somewhat fatiguing to read, and perplexing, as I went along, to comprehend. You must judge for yourselves. I consider it as far too favourable to the Girondists.

There is an account of these transactions, and one less favourable, in the Abbé Montgaillard.

There is a full and very unfavourable account given by the

historians, the Two Friends to Liberty. These writers resolve the whole of these dreadful contentions between the Girondists and Jacobins into a struggle for power.

The Historical Sketches, by Dulaure, is a work that now becomes well worth reading. He was himself proscribed, and numbered at last among the Girondists, was an eye-witness of what passed, and he enters into a detail of the scenes that took place in the Convention.

There is an account by Tonlongeon, which is, as usual, of a calm and neutral nature, after the manner of regular history, and interspersed with sensible remarks.

The shortest, and most able account is by Mignet; but it appears to me, far too favourable to the Girondists. You will of course read his sixth and seventh books. The historian in these books gives the detail; the main facts are in every writer the same; and his summary of the whole is the following: "So fell the party of the Gironde; a party illustrious by its great talents and its daring efforts; a party, which did honour to the infant republic by its horror of blood, its hatred of crime, the disgust it felt at anarchy, its love of order, of justice, and of liberty." A noble panegyric, little deserved, however, by the Girondists, until after the 10th of August, when it was too late, if even then deserved, which it certainly was not to the extent here stated.

The panegyric of the historian will be however abundantly confirmed by the panegyrics, if these be thought sufficient, which the Girondists continually pronounced upon themselves. And after you have well considered the facts of the history, from the opening of the Legislative Assembly to the execution of the king, so as to prevent your being deceived by the eloquent effusions of men who take for granted every thing that is necessary to their own case, and who have the advantage of continually contrasting themselves with their enemies the Jacobins, then the most cruel and unprincipled of mankind; after so preparing yourselves, you may turn, and to minds so prepared, I know nothing more instructive than to turn, to the memoirs and writings that we have received from the Girondists themselves, and again to their speeches in the Convention. We shall thus, as I have proposed to do, see them not a little in the point of view, in which they would

have themselves chosen to be presented; and after having before mentioned the general histories, I shall now proceed to allude to works of this particular nature.

There was an address published by Brissot to his constituents, which is now valuable, as an animated and able description of the Jacobins and Anarchists, that overthrew Brissot and his friend; that is, overthrew the Girondists. It is valuable on this account; and again, on another; for in several places it confirms, undesignedly, the unfavourable opinion, which I think ought to be entertained of the Girondists, such as I have offered to your consideration, in a former lecture. This work was translated by Mr. Burke's son, and a spirited and powerful preface after his manner furnished by Mr. Burke himself, which now appears in his works, and in which he exhibits the crimes of the Girondists, and the culpable conduct of Roland. Both the preface and translation are intended for the English public.

I have already pointed out to your attention the Memoirs of Barbaroux and Me. Roland; to the latter I shall again immediately refer. But the most interesting and valuable work, with reference to our present subject, is the Memoirs of Buzot; to these Memoirs is prefixed by Guadet (their editor) a sort of dissertation, "Recherches distingués sur les Girondins," which you must by all means read, for it is the best account of their rise and fall, to which I can refer you. You can then look at the account given by Buzot himself, and afterwards you should by all means turn to the different pieces given in the notes; lastly, as I have mentioned, to the debates of the Convention, the better to appreciate the situation and the talents of these celebrated men. It is chiefly from these Memoirs of Buzot, that Walter Scott has drawn his account of the Girondists in his sixth chapter of the Life of Buonaparte. And I may now mention that this account by Walter Scott, seems to me extremely well done; and will enable you, in a short time, to understand the subject and to benefit by the more regular consideration of it, which I have just recommended.

It is in these works of the Girondists themselves, that such delusions and faults, as should be avoided by men, animated often with the most generous feelings, may be seen in their

most striking point of view. I shall allude to a few passages of this nature. I do not think that I shall thus misuse your time; no object of ambition can be, to me, more attractive, as I must for ever repeat, than to impart, if possible, the slightest hint of instruction to those, who may be destined hereafter to be the patriots of their country, who are, in truth, the noblest of their kind, those who are elevated with a love of freedom, and an interest in the happiness of others.

Observe then, as I continue to read to you, all through the remainder of this lecture, observe the virtuous principles, with which these Girondists suppose themselves animated; observe their disappointments, their lamentations over the faults of the people, their invectives against the crimes of their opponents; and then remember their own prior history; the manner in which they pandered to the furious passions of that people; the faults they themselves committed, the daring and bloody means, the insurrections to which they themselves had recourse, to accomplish their own political ends; to establish what they called liberty.

We will first allude to Me. Roland. "On a throne to-day, in chains to-morrow." Such is the motto, which she prefixed to her account of her first imprisonment. "On a throne today, and in chains to morrow." "Such," she says, "is the fate of virtue in times of revolution. After the first movements of a people wearied out by the abuses to which they have been subjected, the men of wisdom (who have enlightened them on the subject of their rights, who have aided them in the recovery of them), are called into place; there they cannot however long remain; for the men of ambition, ardent to profit by circumstances, soon succeed in their wish, by flattering the people to lead them astray, and indispose them to their true defenders, that they may themselves become persons of power and consideration. And this has been the course of things, more particularly, since the 10th of August."

Such was the observation of Me. Roland, taught by her own melancholy experience. Let this then be remembered in time by those, who would benefit their country, that though they may be themselves men of virtue, there are those behind them, who are not.

You will read on; and you will, at last, see, that an order