from his hands. At that time Robes : turn influenced the legislature and the provinces. But this very power early made him enemies; and having been nominated deputy of Paris to the na tional convention, he saw himself, in the fifth meeting (25th of September) denounced by Rabecqui and by several other Girondins, as wanting to raise himself to the dictatorship. He coldly ascended the tribune, and, after 1 very long relation of all his labours since 1789, a relation which was often interrupted by the Girondins, he defeuded himself by denouncing those who accused him, and the assembly passed to the order of the day. He was again attacked on the 29th of October, by the minister Rolaud, by Rebecqui, and especially by Louvet, who pronounced against him a very eloquent discourse, which madame Roland called the Robespierride. He immediately strove to justify himself, assisted by his brother and Danton, who were, as well as himself, very unfavourably heard; but the 5th of November became the day of his triumph: he employed the whole time of the meeting in repelling Lou. vet's denunciation; he prevailed over the Girondins, and then went to es joy his victory at the Jacobin club, where Merlin de Thionville assured him that he was an eagle, and that Barbaroux was a reptile. Manuel and Collot also congratulated him in the same style. From this time be did not cease to seek the death of Louis XVI. with incredible animo. sity and perseverance. On the S0th of November he demanded that "the last twrant of France should be tried without delay, and that the punish ment due to his crimes should be adjudged to him." On the 24 cf December he maintained, in a long speech, that "the business was not the judgment of Louis, but an act of national providence, to be exercised in declaring that prince a traitor to the French nation and to humanity; and in condemning him to give a great es ample Memoirs of Robespierre. ample the world, in the very place where, on the 10th of August, the martyrs to liberty had perished." He also wished to send the queen and madame Elizabeth before the tribunals, and to keep the dauphin in the On the 3d of Temple till a peace. December he was refused permission to speak on the same subject, but on the 4th he spoke, notwithstanding violent opposition, and proposed that Louis should be immediately condemned to death for an insurrection." In short, till the very day of the king's execution, he was continually in the tribune, uttering (according to the expression of one of his colleagues,) the vociferations of a cannibal, and atrocious pre-judgments; it is useless to add, that he voted for death on the On the day of the nominal appeal. 27th of March, 1793, he again persecuted the remainder of the house of Bourbon; and, confounding their cause with that of the Girondins, against whom he had long maintained a painful struggle, he demauded, on the 10th of April, that the queen, the duke of Orleans, Sillery, Vergniaud, Guadet, Gensonne, and Brissot, should be sent before the revolutionary tribunal. In the midst of this contest, which was several times near becoming fatal to him, he continued to enjoy great power in the capital, and to propose, from time to time, decrees more worthy of the member of a faction than a statesman: but at last, the events of the 31st of May, and the 1st and 2d of June, which were effected by the Dantonists, and especially by the commune, much more than by him, rendered him completely master of the convention, and laid the foundation of that tyrannical power, His which ceased but with his life. most dangerous enemies among the Girondins were outlawed, the others arrested; and from that time every thing trembled before him, and before that revolutionary government, which was confided to the committee of The of public safety, of which he took the 2 C 2 It must also be 2, (27th of July, 1794,) he would have acted like the retributive party, and sacrificed the Jacobins to his power, while he invoked justice, humanity, moderation, &c. We shall also mention, in support of this remark, that he one day carried, against the sentiments of the Montagne, a decree, in which he had interested that inert portion of the convention, called the Ventre, or the Marais; and that, proud of his triumph, he let slip a part of his secret, by addressing to the Montagnards these remarkable words ::-"I shall reach you that it is by the majority that laws are made." These different causes acted by turns to remove from him his friends and his enemies. The faction of the commune, or the Hebertists, which had contributed more than any other to rid him of the Girondins, was the first to separate from the committees, and consequently from Robespierre. Proud of the vic tories which it had till that time made the Montagne gain, it thought itself able to reign alone, and to dictate laws to the convention; but the good fortune, or the address of Robespierre, found means to bring against it at once the Jacobins and the Cordeliers, (it had just separated itself from the latter faction,) and it sunk, in March, 1794, under their united efforts. Danton, Desmoulins, and other Cordeliers, laboured more at its ruin than Robesbierre; but he, according to his custom, contrived to reap all the benefit of it. It was after this very victory, however, that he had a still more terrible eneiny to contend with. "That Danton, whose energy had been so useful to him, and in whose shadow he had so often walked, while he detested him, had helped to sweep away the other factions before him; the two parties, of which they were the head, then alone remained, and it was necessary that one or the other should sink. But it was to be expected that the inconsiderate boldness of Danton would yield to the cunning of his enemy, who had taken care to place all his creatures in the govern ment beforehand, and to remove the Cordeliers from it by degrees, in order to deprive them of all means of acting. Indeed, after having in a manner shared his power with him, he had taken care to begin depriving him of his popularity, by sending him to enrich himself in Holland; and after wards a week was sufficient for him to have Danton accused, arrested, and sent to the scaffold with Desmoulins, Lacroix, Fabre, &c. In the course of the same month (April) he also delivered over to the revolutionary tribunal the remainder of the party of the commune, and of that of the Cordeliers, whom he termed atheists ; and, from that time till his fall, his power found no more rivals. In August, 1793. he had condescended to preside in the convention, which he himself called his machine of decrees; but it was always in the Jacobin club and in the committees that he prepared the execution of his projects; and the words, "it is necessary,' it must be so," '« I will have it," at last became his daily expressions,— Though he spoke little in the assembly, he often occupied the tribune in the Jacobin club, signified his orders there with the greatest despotism, and on the 11th of February, 1794, even caused two members to be expelled for having presumed to oppose his opinion. What is worthy of remark is, that France, groaning under the contests of the different parties, rejoiced for a short time in the blows which Robes. pierre gave them, hoping yet to be less unhappy under a single tyrant. The royalists, besides, thanked him for having dragged the most violent revolutionists to the scaffold, and almost forgot the laws of blood in which he had a part; among others, that shocking decree passed against the English and Hanoverian prisoners, which the armies constantly refused to to execute. It was in the beginning to shew some suspicion of the commit- of May that he announced, by Barere, ignorant; but forgetting the system of attack which had always succeeded with him, and remaining deaf to the advice of St. Just, who united intrepidity to coolness, he temporized and ruined himself. After having passed several days in retirement, employed in projecting, while he ought to have been acting; after having cooled, rather than warmed his partisans, by indecisive speeches made in the Jacobin club, he appeared again on the 26th of July, 1794, in the convention, and ascended the tribune to extol his own virtue. He endeavoured to gain over the Plaine, by reminding it that he had always defended it, and especially that he had opposed the accusation of the 73. He then declaimed against the committees, of which several members (Billaud-Varennes among others) were leaving him; some because they saw the storm gathering over his head; others, because they had learnt that their names were in their turn placed on the lists of proscription. Bourdon again ventured to begin the attack first, by demanding that Robespierre's speech should be referred to the examination of the committees before it was sent to be printed, under pretence that errors might have got into it. Errors! into a speech of Robespierre's. This expression struck all ears; the party was firmly connected, it was thought time to act, and Vadier, Cambon, Charlier, Billaud, Panis, Amar, Bentabolle, Thirion, and Breard, spoke successively against against the despot, but with a half. boldness which shewed the terror that he inspired. Barere alone, still uncertain, pronounced only insignificant phrases, incapable of compromising him with either of the two parties. In the mean time Robespierre perceived all the danger that threatened him; he saw that the greatest part of the members of the government were abandoning him, either through hatred, or that they might not fail with him; and on the night between the 26th and 27th he assembled his intimate friends. St. Just pressed him to act immediately; he delayed it for twenty-four hours, and that delay was his sentence of death. In vain St. Just wished to speak the next day in the convention; his voice was drowned: Tallien began the contest again, Billaud-Varennes finished the tearing of the veil, and Robespierre having rushed into the tribune, cries of Down with the tyrant !" immediately drove him from it. Then the people vied with each other in declaiming against the overthrown idol, and in giving him the fast blows. However, threatened on all sides, he shewed more courage than he was suspected of possessing; he still presumed to threaten the convention, and to say with an air of superiority to Tallien, who demanded permission to speak in order to bring back the debate to its real subject, "I shall be able to bring it back." (To be continued.) Of the Reformation, IN order to understand the new hardships which the Irish were now to endure, it is good to take a short view of the state of Religion in England. We shall hear no more now of mere Irish and degenerate English. For, from this time, their persecutions assume a new form, and are carried on in the name of God! Inexplicable pa. radox! How the mildest religion on the earth should be, as it has always been, called in aid to sanction the most atrocious crimes; and how men have dared in profanely invoking it, to make laws so repugnant to it that they never could be obeyed until the laws of God were broken. I cannot better describe the state of religion amongst the English, than by a short history of the Apostle of the reformation. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF HENRY VIII. He was born in 1491, and began to reign in 1509. He raised his favorites, the instruments of his crimes, from the depth of obscurity to the pinnacle of grandeur, and after setting them up as tyrants, put them to death like slaves. He was pre-eminent in religion: first quarrelling with Luther, whose doctrines he thought too republican, he became defender of the Catholic faith; and then quarrelling with the Pope, who stood in the way of his murders, he was twice excommunicated. He made creeds and articles, and made it treason not to swear to them; he made others quite opposed to them, and made it treason not to swear to them; and he burned his opponents with slow fire. He burned an hyste rical girl, the maid of Kent, for her opinions. He disputed with a foolish school-master on the Real Presence. and burned him to convince him. He beheaded Bishop Fisher and Sir Tho mas Moore, for not swearing that his own children were bastards. He robbed the churches, and gave the revenue of a convent to an old woman for a pudding. He burned a lovely young woman (Anne Ascue) for jabbering of the real presence. He was in love as in religion, delicate and tender. He first married his sister-in-law, and because her childrea died, divorced her; married her maid of honour, and made parliament and clergy declare he had done well. He beheaded |