The Morning Chronicle (18 August) and Gazette Nationale ou Le Moniteur Universel (29 July)

The Morning Chronicle, London, Monday, August 18, 1794.

Gazette Nationale ou Le Moniteur Universel. No. 311. Primidi 11 Thermidor, year 2. (Tuesday 29 July 1794, old style.)  [My trans.]

Gazette Nationale ou Le Moniteur Universel. No. 311. Primidi 11 Thermidor, l'an 2e. (Mardi 29 July 1794, vieux style.) [Note]

   Roberspierre mounted the Tribune.–He pronounced a long speech respecting the Revolutionary Government, and replied to the reproaches made against him of aspiring to the Dictatorship.–He said, that since the period of his having proclaimed the existence of a Supreme Being, the successors of Hebert and Danton had become more inveterate against him. He then endeavoured to shew the falsehood of the reports circulated in the Convention and in Paris, of his having proposed to cause thirty Members of the Convention to be arrested. He next touched on the situation of the Republic. "The Committees of Public and General Safety," said he, "contain the pillars of Liberty, but the greater number are oppressed. The decree against the English is not carried into execution. The system of Dumourier continues to be pursued in Belgium. They are replanting in that country the trees of liberty. They are driving to a distance the Cannoneers of Paris. They are wishing to produce a change in the situation of the Republic. It is necessary that the Committees should act, but it is likewise necessary to superintend their operations. It is incumbent on the Convention to assume the dignity which belongs to its character."

   Robespierre, who for a long time had not appeared before the assembly, mounts the tribune and takes the floor.

  He reads a long speech in which he begins by boasting of his virtue. He complains of having been calumniated, and indicates as enemies of the people those who appear to be opposed to his plans. He next censures, in a long diatribe, all the workings of the government; he declaims successively against the committees of public safety, of general security and of finances. Without formally complaining of civic opposition set by this last committee against his plans to take control of the finances, he tries to include it within this proscription, in accusing it of having counter-revolutionized the finances of the republic. He next claims that the patriots are oppressed. "Why, he says, these speeches that have been made to you about the successes of the armies? The system of Dumouriez is followed in Belgium; the sterile trees of liberty are planted, the cannoneers of Paris are kept at a distance, a camp has been formed which could become dangerous, etc."

  He adds that a change has been desired in the situation of the republic; finally he announces that he would propose the sole measures suited to save the fatherland.

   Robespierre, qui depuis longtemps n'avait paru à l'assemblée, monte à la tribune et prend le parole.

   Il lit un long discours dans lequel il commence par vanter sa vertu. Il se plaint d'être calomnié, et signale comme ennemis du peuple tous ceux qui lui paraissent opposés à ses projets. Il décrie ensuite, dans une longue diatribe, toutes les opérations du gouvernement; il déclame successivement contre les comités de salut public, de sûreté générale et des finances. Sans se plaindre formellement de l'opposition civique mise par ce dernier comité à ses projets d'envahissement des finances, il essaie de le compendre [sic] dans la proscription, en l'accusant d'avoir contre-révolutionné les finances de le république. Il prétend ensuite que les patriotes sont opprimés. "Pourquoi, dit-il, ces discours que l'on vous a faits sur les succés des armées? Le système de Dumouriez est suivi dans la Belgique; on plante des arbres stériles de la liberté, on éloigne les canonniers de Paris, on a formé un camp qui peut devenir dangereux, etc."

   Il ajoute qu'on a voulu donner le change sur la situation de la république; enfin il annonce qu'il proposera les seules mesures propres à sauver la patrie.

9 THERMIDOR, SUNDAY, JULY 27

      After some Petitioners had been heard, St. Just appeared at the Tribune–

   Saint Just.–"I am of no faction, I will contend against them all. Your Committees of General and Public Safety, have charged me to make a report on the causes of the evident perversion of opinion; but I mean to address myself to you, only in my own name"––

   Saint Just, who had come prepared to support the sentiments which had the day before been delivered from the Tribune by Roberspierre, was here interrupted by shouts of disapprobation from all quarters of the Convention.

   After a considerable degree of tumult, Tallien at last spoke to order–

   Tallien.–"The Orator has set out with telling you that he is of no party: I likewise espouse only the side of truth. Yesterday, a Member of the Government (Roberspierre) presented you a report upon his own authority. To-day, another Member comes to speak to you in his own name. No good Citizen can refrain from lamenting, with tears, the abject and calamitous state to which the Republic is reduced, when individuals thus pretend to dictate to you in their own name, and upon their own authority.

  




  Billaud Varennes–"You will shudder with horror when you are apprized that the armed force of Paris is entrusted into parricidal hands. Henriot was denounced by the Revolutionary Tribunal as an accomplice of Hebert. What was the consequence? One man alone had the audacity to support him. Need I name who that individual was?–Roberspierre. Lavalette, one of the Chiefs of the armed force, the only Noble who has been retained in a military trust, sharpens the poignards intended to inflict a fatal blow on the Representatives of the People: under whose auspices has he been protected?–Roberspierre's. I might quote many more proofs of the same audacity on the part of Roberspierre, and of his infamous designs against liberty–among others, I need only mention that he has been the author of the imprisonment of the Members of the Revolutionary Committee of the Section of Indivisibility–men of the most unsullied integrity, and of the most distinguished patriotism. I accuse him of having withdrawn himself from the Committee for these four last decades, since the decree with respect to the Revolutionaay [sic] Tribunal passed on the 22d Prairial (June 10), which he alone devised–and which was badly received. Thus he intended to drive from the Convention every impure man; that is to say, every person who did not please himself, or whom he might suspect to be possessed of sufficient discernment to detect, and integrity to oppose, his ambitious views; and as a preparatory step to the establishing himself in that Dictatorship, which has so long been the object of his wishes, he would have left none in the Convention but his creatures and dependants, men as vile as himself, and ready to forward all his detestable views. But his designs were discovered by the very means which he took to carry them into execution. From the facts which I have briefly stated, his intentions to corrupt the military, to enslave and to degrade the Representation, appear plain and incontrovertible. Are more facts still necessary to substantiate the charges against him? I accuse him of having skreened from justice, a Secretary who had robbed the public of 40,000 livres.–Such is the foundation on which stands his pretensions to disinterestedness, which were only assumed to conceal the deep-laid projects of his ambition, and to deceive those whom he afterwards meant to enslave. I accuse him of being surrounded by a band of ruffians, among whom it is only necessary to mention the infamous name of Daubigny. With all his affectation of probity, such were the associates whom alone he could admit into his confidence, or trust for the completion of his designs. I proclaim–I proclaim the tyranny of Roberspierre!"–(Loud and repeated bursts of applause resounded from all parts of the Hall).–Roberspierre attempted to speak, but after different efforts, found himself obliged to desist, in consequence of the most vociferous exclamations from every quarter, of Down with the Tyrant! Down with the Tyrant!"

Tallien.–"In the house of that guilty individual, who now stands humbled with the consciousness of detected guilt, and overwhelmed with that disapprobation which his infamous designs against liberty have so justly merited, were formed those lists of proscription which have stained with so much blood the altars of rising liberty: imitating the example of the detestable Sylla, his proscriptions were intended only to pave the way for his own power and the establishment of a perpetual Dictatorship: happily, however, his designs have been discovered before he had time to execute them, or to add to that stream of blood which has already deluged France. His long success in villainy made him at last lay aside his wonted caution. He had advanced with such rapidity in the career of lawless ambition, that he had already conceived himself arrived at the accomplishments of his wishes, and that, like Caesar, the name of King was only wanting to him, for the full establishment of his power. Was it to subject ourselves to so degrading, and so abject a tyranny, that we brought to the scaffold the last of the Capets, and lavished so much blood of French Citizens? Was it to acknowledge so petty a despot, that we declared eternal war against Kings, and swore to establish liberty at the price of life? No–the spirit of freedom has not sunk so low: the sense of that duty which virtuous men owe to their country is not yet extinguished. I invoke the shade of the virtuous Brutus, [fixing his eyes upon the bust.]–Like him, I have a poignard to rid my country of the tyrant, if the Convention do not deliver him to the sword of justice. The French people, always just, are attached neither to Roberspierre, nor to any other individual–Liberty is alone the object of their affections, and whoever forms any designs against it, becomes that moment their enemy. That liberty they will ever pursue amidst the intrigues of domestic traitors, and the opposition of foreign despots. The Republic is to be established not only by the victories of our armies, by the vigilance of our councils, and the justice of our punishments. After this enumeration of facts which you have heard from the last speaker, is it necessary for me to remind you of the proceedings of that sitting of the Jacobins, where Dumas, President of the Revolutionary Tribunal, the creature and confederate of Roberspierre, had the audacity to insult the Representatives of the People? Need I recal to you that expression addressed to the Journalists in one of the last sittings of the Jacobins? "I prohibit you from inserting my discourses in your papers till you have previously communicated them to me." Here already we find the tone of the Dictator–the people shall know nothing except through my organ, and in the manner in which I shall be pleased to communicate it to them. Well indeed might he court the aid of silence and deception, whose designs were too infamous to be revealed, and whose conduct required to be glossed over with all the artifice of hypocrisy. But the French people were not to be so enslaved, after having shaken off the tyranny of force. The guilt of the traitors now stands revealed, and it now remains only to think of their punishment. For this purpose, I move, that we declare the Sitting Permanent."

   The proposition was immediately decreed.

SITTING OF 9 THERMIDOR

   Saint-Just mounts the tribune; he opens a speech in the same vein as the speech which Robespierre had read the day before; he guarantees that he does not belong to any party, to any faction, that, in spite of the fact that the tribune might be for him, as it has for several others, the Tarpeian rock, for all that he would nonetheless speak his opinions about the causes and motives of the divisions which have broken out.

   He is interrupted by Tallien who asks for the floor for a point of order.

   Tallien: I ask for the floor for a point of order. The speaker began by saying that he was of no faction. I say the same thing. I belong to none but myself, to none but liberty. It is for that that I am going to make the truth heard. No good citizen can hold back his tears over the unhappy state to which the republic is abandoned. Everywhere we see nothing but division. Yesterday a member of the government secluded himself from it, pronounced a speech in his own name; today another does the same thing. They are coming again to attack each other, aggravating the woes of fatherland, precipitating it into the abyss. I ask that the curtain be entirely torn away. (Very lively applause resumes at three different times.)

...

  




  Billaud:  I myself ask that all men explain themselves in this assembly. One is quite strong when he has on his side the justice, the probity and the rights of the people. You will shudder with horror when you know the situation you are in, when you know that the armed forces are confided to parricidal hands, when you know that the chief of the national guard had been denounced in the committee of public safety by the revolutionary tribunal as an accomplice of Hébert and an infamous conspirator. You will shudder with horror when you know that those who accuse the government of placing at the head of the armed forces conspirators and nobles, are those who have forced our hand to place there the only nobles who remain there; and Lavallette, conspirator at Lille, is a proof of it. You will shudder when you know that he is a man who, while it was still a question of sending representatives of the people into the departments, did not find on the list which was presented to him, twenty members of the Convention who were worthy of this mission. (The assembly murmurs with indignation.) I will say more, it is complained that the patriots are oppressed. Certainly, you will have a rather peculiar idea of the denunciation when you know that he from whom it proceeds has had the best revolutionary committee of Paris arrested, that of the section of Indivisibility, although only two of its members have been denounced. (New murmurs.)

   When Robespierre tells you that he distanced himself from the committee because he was suppressed, he takes care not to let you know all; he does not tell you that it is because having carried his will in the committee for six months, he found resistance the moment that, alone, he wanted to deliver the decree of 22 prairial; this decree which in impure hands which he chose, could be so grievous to patriots. (The murmurs of indignation continue.) Know, citizens, that yesterday the president of the revolutionary tribunal proposed overtly to the Jacobins to drive from the Convention all impure men, which is to say all those they want to sacrifice; but the people is there, and the patriots will know how to die to save liberty (Yes, Yes! exclaimed all the members – lively applauses.)

   I repeat it, we all die with honor, for I do not believe that there is here a single representative who would want to exist under a tyrant. (No, no! is exclaimed from all sides; death to tyrants! – The applauses are drawn out.) The men who speak incessantly of justice and of virtue to the Convention or to the Jacobins, are those who override it when they can; here is the proof of it. A secretary of the committee of public safety had stolen 114,000 livres. I called for his arrest, and Robespierre, who speaks incessantly of justice and of virtue, is the only one who would have prevented his arrest. (New movement of indignation.)

   There are, citizens, a thousand other facts that I could cite; and it is us that he accuses! What! men who are isolated, who do not know anyone, who spend their nights and days at the committee of public safety, who coordinate the victories, these men would be conspirators! and those who only abandoned Hébert when it was no longer possible for them to favor him would be virtuous men! The first time that I denounced Danton to the committee, Robespierre rose up like a madman, saying of it that he saw my intentions, that I wanted to lose the best patriots. All that made me see the abyss dug under our feet. We must not hesitate at all to fill it with our corpses or to triumph over the traitors.

   They want to destroy, to mutilate the Convention, and that intention was so real that they coordinated a surveillance of the representatives of the people whose throats they wanted to cut. It is infamous to speak of justice and of virtue when you defy them and when you express yourself only when you have been arrested or contradicted.

   Robespierre rushed to the tribune.

   A great number of voices: Down, down with the tyrant!

   Tallien:  I asked a little while ago that we tear away the veil. I begin to perceive with pleasure that it is entirely torn, that the conspirators are unmasked, and that liberty will triumph. (Lively applauses.) Everything announces that the enemy of the national representation will fall under its blows. We give to our emerging republic a proof of our republican loyalty. Up until here I have imposed silence upon myself because I knew, from a man close to the tyrant of France, that he had formed a list of proscription. I did not want to recriminate, but yesterday I saw a sitting of the Jacobins; I shudder for the fatherland; I saw forming itself the army of the new Cromwell, and I armed myself with a dagger with which to pierce his breast if the national Convention had not the courage to declare him under accusation. (Lively applauses.)

   We, republicans, we accuse him with the loyalty of courage, in the presence of the French people. It is good to enlighten the citizens, and those who frequent the tribunes of the Jacobins are not more attached to Robespierre than to any other individual, but to liberty. (They applaud.) Nor is it as an individual that I come to attack, it is the attention of the Convention that I draw to this vast conspiracy. I do not doubt that it will take energetic and prompt measures, that it will remain here permanently to save the people; and whatever the partisans of the man whom I denounce say, there will not be a 31 May, there will not be proscriptions; national justice alone will strike the villains. (Lively applauses.) As it is of the last importance that in the dangers which surround the fatherland, citizens not be led astray, that the chiefs of the armed force not be able to do wrong, I demand the arrest of Hanriot and of his general staff. Next we will consider the decree which was delivered on the sole proposition of the man who concerns us. We are not moderate, but we wish that innocence not be oppressed. We wish that the president of the revolutionary tribunal treat the accused with decency and justice. (New applauses.) There is true virtue, there is true probity.

   Yesterday a member of the revolutionary tribunal wished to excite the citizens to insult a representative of the people who had always been on the breach of the revolution. He was outraged in a Society, and the national representation was vilified in his person. Those who combated Lafayette and all the factions which have succeeded since then reunited to save the republic. If only the writers would awaken. I call all the old friends of liberty. They will give their word, and guarantee me their patriotism. Eyes had been cast upon me. I would have borne my head with courage upon the scaffold, because I would have told myself: A day will come when my ashes will be raised with the honors due to a patriot persecuted by a tyrant. The man who is at the tribune is a new Catiline. Those by whom he is surrounded are new Verreses. We do not say that the members of the two committees are my partisans, for I do not know them, and, since my mission, I have been watered by nothing but disgust. Robespierre wanted to attack us by turns, to isolate us, and finally he would be left one day only with the base and abandoned and debauched men who serve him. I ask that we declare the permanence of our sittings until the blade of the law has secured the revolution, and that we order the arrest of his creatures.

   The two propositions of Tallien are adopted amidst the most lively applauses and cries of vive la république!

SÉANCE DU 9 THERMIDOR

   Saint-Just monte à la tribune; il entame un discours dans le même sens que celui que Robespierre avait lu la veille; il assure qu'il n'appartient à aucun parti, à aucune faction; que, malgré que la tribune puisse être pour lui, comme pour plusieurs autres, la roche Tarpéienne, il n'en dira pas moins son opinion sur les causes et les motifs des divisions qui ont éclaté, etc.

   Il est interrompu par Tallien qui demande la parole pour une motion d'ordre.

   Tallien:  Je demande la parole pour une motion d'ordre. L'Orateur a commencé par dire qu'il n'était d'aucune faction. Je dis la même chose. Je n'appartiens qu'à moi-même, qu'à la liberté. C'est pour cela que je vais faire entendre la vérité. Aucun bon citoyen ne peut retenir ses larmes sur le sort malheureux auquel la chose publique est abandonnée. Partout on ne voit que division. Hier un membre du gouvernement s'en est isolé, a prononcé un discours en son nom particulier; aujourd'hui un autre fait la même chose. On vient encore s'attaquer, aggraver les maux de la patrie, la précipiter dans l'abîme. Je demande que le rideau soit entièrement déchiré. (On applaudit très vivement à trois reprises différentes.)

...

  Billaud:  Je demande moi-même que tous les hommes s'expliquent dans cette assemblée. On est bien fort quand on a pour soi la justice, la probité et les droits du peuple. Vous frémirez d'horreur quand vous saurez la situation où vous êtes, quand vous saurez que la force armée est confiée à des mains parricides; quand vous saurez que le chef de la garde nationale a été dénoncé au comité de salut public par le tribunal révolutionnaire comme un complice d'Hébert et un conspirateur infàme. Vous frémirez d'horreur quand vous saurez que ceux qui accusent le gouvernement de placer à la tête de la force armée des conspirateurs et des nobles, sont ceux qui nous ont forcé la main pour y mettre les seuls nobles qui y existent; et Lavallette, conspirateur à Lille, en est une preuve. Vous frémirez quand vous saurez qu'il est un homme qui, lorsqu'il fut question d'envoyer des représentants du peuple dans les départements, ne trouva pas sur la liste qui lui fut présentée, vingt membres de la Convention qui fussent dignes de cette mission. (L'assemblée murmure d'indignation.) Je dirai plus, on s'est plaint que les patriotes étaient opprimés. Certes, vous aurez une bien étrange idée de la dénonciation quand vous saurez que celui de qui elle part a fait arrêter le meilleur comité révolutionnaire de Paris, celui de la section de l'Indivisibilité, quoiqu'il n'y eût que deux de ses membres qui fussent dénoncés. (Nouveaux murmures.)

   Quand Robespierre vous dit qu'il s'est éloigné du comité parce qu'il y était opprimé, il a soin de ne pas vous faire tout connaître; il ne vous dit pas que c'est parce qu'ayant fait dans la comité sa volonté pendant six mois, il y a trouvé de la résistance au moment où, seul, il a voulu faire rendre le décret du 22 prairial; ce décret qui dans les mains impures qu'il avait choisies, pouvait être si funeste aux patriotes. (Les murmures d'indignation continuent.) Sachez, citoyens, qu'hier le président du tribunal révolutionnaire a proposé ouvertement aux Jacobins de chasser de la Convention tous les hommes impurs, c'est-à-dire tous ceux qu'on veut sacrifier; mais la peuple est là, et les patriotes sauront mourir pour sauver la liberté (Oui, oui! s'écrient tous les membres. – Vifs applaudissements.)

   Je le répète, nous mourrons tous avec honneur, car je ne crois pas qu'il y ait ici un seul représentant qui voulût exister sous un tyran.  (Non, non! s'écrie-t-on de toutes parts; périssent les tyrans! – Les applaudiessements se prolongent.) Les hommes qui parlent sans cesse de justice et de vertu à la Convention ou aux Jacobins, sont ceux qui la foulent aux pieds quand ils le peuvent; en voici la preuve. Un secrétaire du comité de salut public avait volé 114,000 liv. J'ai demandé son arrestation, et Robespierre, qui parle sans cesse de justice et de vertu, est le seul qui l'ait empêche d'être arrêté. (Nouveau mouvement d'indignation.)

   Il est, citoyens, mille autres faits que je pourraise citer; et c'est nous qu'il accuse! Quoi! des hommes qui sont isolés, qui ne connaissent personne, qui passent les nuits et les jours au comité de salut public, qui organisent les victoires, ces hommes seraient des conspirateurs! et ceux qui n'ont abandonné Hébert que quand il ne leur a plus été possible de le favoriser seront des hommes vertueux! La première fois que je dénonçai Danton au comité, Robespierre se leva comme un furieux, en disant qu'il voyait mes intentions, que je voulais perdre les meilleurs patriotes. Tout cela m'a fait voir l'abîme creusé sous nos pas. Il ne faut point hésiter à le combler de nos cadavres ou à triompher des traîtres.

   On voulait détruire, mutiler la Convention, et cette intention était si réelle qu'on avait organisé un espionnage des représentants du peuple qu'on voulait égorger. Il est infâme de parler de justice et de vertu quand on les brave et quand on ne s'exhale que lorsqu'on est arrêté ou contrarié.

   Robespierre s'élance à la tribune.

   Un grand nombre de voix: A bas, à bas le tyran!

   Tallien:  Je demandais tout à l'heure qu'on déchirât le voile. Je viens d'apercevoir avec plaisir qu'il l'est entièrement, que les conspirateurs sont démasqués, qu'ils seront bientôt anéantis, et que la liberté triomphera. (Vifs applaudissements.) Tout annonce que l'ennemi de la représentation nationale va tomber sous ses coups. Nous donnons à notre république naissante une preuve de notre loyauté républicaine. Je me suis imposé jusqu'ici silence parce que je savais, d'un homme qui approchait le tyran de la France, qu'il avait formé une liste de proscription. Je n'ai pas voulu récriminer, mais j'ai vu hier la séance des Jacobins; j'ai frémi pour la patrie; j'ai vu se former l'armée du nouveau Cromwell, et je me suis armé d'un poignard pour lui percer le sein si la Convention nationale n'avait pas le courage de le décréter d'accusation. (Vifs applaudissements.)

   Nous, républicains, accusons–le avec la loyauté du courage, en présence du peuple français. Il est bon d'éclairer les citoyens et ceux qui fréquentent les tribunes des Jacobins ne sont pas plus attachés à Robespierre qu'à aucun autre individu, mais à la liberté. (On applaudit.) Ce n'est pas non plus en [sic] individu que je viens attaquer, c'est l'attention de la Convention que j'appelle sur cette vaste conspiration. Je ne doute pas qu'elle ne prenne des mesures énergiques et promptes, qu'elle ne reste ici en permanence pour sauver le peuple; et quoi qu'en aient dit les partisans de l'homme que je dénonce, il n'y aura pas de 31 mai, il n'y aura pas de proscriptions; la justice nationale seule frappera les scélérats. (Vifs applaudissements.) Comme il est de la dernière importance que dans les dangers qui environnent la patrie, les citoyens ne soient pas égarés, que les chefs de la force armée ne puissent pas faire de mal, je demande l'arrestation d'Hanriot et de son état-major. Ensuite nous examinerons le décret qui a été rendu sur la seule proposition de l'homme qui nous occupe. Nous ne sommes pas modérés, mais nous voulons que l'innocence ne soit pas opprimée. Nous voulons que la président du tribunal révolutionnaire traite les accusés avec décence et justice. (Nouveaux applaudissements.) Voilà la véritable vertu, voilà la véritable probité.

   Hier un membre du tribunal révolutionnaire a voulu exciter des citoyens à insulter un représentant du peuple qui a toujours été sur la brèche de la révolution. Il a été outragé dans une Société, et la représentation nationale a été avilie dans sa personne. Ceux qui ont combattu Lafayette et toutes les factions qui se sont succédées depuis se réuniront pour sauver la république. Que les écrivains patriotes se réveillent. J'appelle tous les vieux amis de la liberté. Ils tiendront parole, leur patriotisme m'en est garant. On avait jeté les yeux sur moi. J'aurais porté ma tête sur l'échafaud avec courage, parce que je me serais dit: Un jour viendra où ma cendre sera relevée avec les honneurs dus à un patriote persécuté par un tyran. L'homme qui est à la tribune est un nouveau Catilina. Ceux dont il s'était entouré étaient de nouveaux Verrès. On ne dira pas que les membres des deux comités sont mes partisans, car je ne les connais pas, et, depuis ma mission, je n'ai été abreuvé que de dégoûts. Robespierre voulait tour à tour nous attaquer, nous isoler, et enfin il serait resté un jour seul avec les hommes crapuleux et perdus et débauche qui le servent. Je demande que nous décrétions la permanence de nos séances jusqu'à ce que le glaive de la loi ait assuré la révolution, et que nous ordonnions l'arrestation de ses créatures.

   Les deux propositions de Tallien sont adoptées au milieu des plus vifs applaudissements et des cris de vive la république!