The life of Napoleon Buonaparte, emperor of the French. By Sir Walter Scott.

LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 87
seau? Where were the girondists, celebrated by cording to the resolutions of the 10th of August, to
one of their admirers,* as distinguished by good give place to the National Convention.
morals, by severe probity, by a profound respect The Legislative Assembly was, in its composition
for the dignity of man, by a deep sense of his rights and its character, of a caste greatly inferior to that
and his duties, by a sound, constant, and immutable which it succeeded. The flower of the talents of
love of order, of justice, and of liberty? Were the France had naturally centred in the National Aseyes,of such men blind, that they could not see the sembly, and, by an absurd regulation, its members
blood which flooded for four days the streets of the were incapacitated fi-om being re-elected; which
metropolis? were their ears deadened, that they necessarily occasioned their situation being in many
could not hear the shouLts of the murderers, and the instances supplied by persons of inferior attainments.
screams of the victims? or were their voices mute, Then the destinies-of the first assembly had been
that they called not upon God and man-upon the filfilled in a more lofty manner. They were often
very stones of Paris, to assist them in interrupting wrong, often absurd, often arrogant and presumpsuch a crime? Political reasons have, by royalist tuous, but never mean or servile. They respected
writers, been supposed to furnish a motive for their the liberty of debate, and even amidst the bitterest
acquiescence; for there is, according to civilians, a political discussions, defended the persons of their
certain degree of careless or timid inmbecility, which colleagues, however much opposed to them in sencan only be explained as having its origin in fiaud. timent, and maintained their constitutional inviolaThey allege that the girondists saw, rather with bility. They had also the great advantage of being,
pleasure than horror, the atrocities which were as it were, free born. They were indeed placedin
committed, while their enemies the jacobiens, exter- captivity by their removal to Paris, but their conminating their equally hated enemies the constitl- rage was not abated; nor did they make any contionalists and royalists, took on themselves the whole cessions of a personal kind to the ruffians, by whom
odium of a glut of blood, vwhich must soon, they they were at times personally ill-used.
might naturally expect, disgust the sense and feelings But the second, or Legislative Assembly, had,
of a country so civilized as France. WVe remain, on the contrary, been captive from the monment of
nevertheless, convinced, that Vergniaud, Brissot, their first convocation. They had never met but in
Roland, and, to a certainty, his high-minded wife, Paris, and wvere inured to the habit of patient subwould have stopped the massacres of Sepitember, mission to the tribunes and the refuse of the city,
had their courage and practical skill in public af who repeatedly broke into their hall, and issued
fairs borne any proportion to the conceit which led their mandates in the form of petitions. On two mrethem to suppose, that their vocation lay for govern- morable -occasions they showed too distinctly, that
ing such a nation as France. considerations of personal safety could overpower
But whatever was the motive of their apathy, the their sense of public duta. Two-thirds of' the reLegislative Assembly was nearly silent on the sub- presentatives joined in acquitting La Fayette, and
ject of the massacres, not only while they were in declared by doing so that they abhorred the insurprogress, but for several days afterwards. On the rection of the 20th of June; yet, when that of the
16th of September, when news from the army on the 10th of August had completed what wa's before atfrontiers was beginning to announce successes, and tempted in vain upon the occasion preceding, the
when the panic of the metropolis began to subside, assembly unanimously voted the deposition of the
Vergniaud adroitly charged the jacobins with turn- monarch, and committed him to prison. Secondly,
ing on unhappy prisoners of state the popular re- they remained silent and inactive during all the
sentmnent, which should have animated them'with horrors of September, and suffered the executive
bravery to march out against the common enemly. He power to be wrenched out of their hands by the
upbraided also the Community of Paris with the as- Community of Paris, and used before their eyes for
sumption of unconstitutional powers, and the inhu- the. destruction of many thousands of Frenchmen
man tyranny with which they had abused them; but wl:om they represented.
his speech made little impression, so much are deeds It must be, however, remembered, that the Leof cruelty apt to become familiar to men's feelings, gislative Assembly were oppressed by difficulties
when of frequent recurrence. When the first ac- and dangers the most dreadful that can threaten a
coulnts were read in the Constituent Assembly, of government;-the bloody discord of contending
the massacres perpetrated at Avignon, the president factions, the arms of foreigners menacing the fronfainted away, and the whole body mlanifested a tier, and civil war breaking out in the provinces.
horror, as well of the senses as of the mind; and In addition to these sources of' peril and dismay,
unow, that a far more cruel, more enduring, more there were three divided parties within the assembly
extensive train of murders was perpetrated under itself; while a rival power, equally formlidable
their own eye, the Legislative Assembly looked on from its audacity and its crimes, had erected itself
in apathy.'The utmost which the eloquence of in predominating authority, like that of the Milaires
Vergniaud could extract from them was a decree, dir Palais over the feeble monarchs of the Merothat in fiature the comnlanity should be answerable vingian dynasty.
with their own lives for the security of the prisoners
under their charge. After passing this decree, the CHAP'TER XI.
Legislative Assembly, being the second representative body of the French nation, dissolved itself ac- Electionl of representatives for thie National CotrveJtios.
-Jacobints are very active.-Right head partry-Left
* Buzot. hand side-Netutral members.-The girondists are na