These abandoned wretches, lost to every sense of the finer feelings of the human heart and to the principles of delicacy and compassion, carried the princess's head on a pole, in triumph, to the temple, where they insulted the eir queen with the sight of it, by raising it to her winof dow, well knowing that there had been a particular friendship subsisting between them.

While this bloody scene was acting, the assemblythe national guards-the municipal officers, and near 100,000 citizens all remained quiet, without the feeblest 'attempt to put a stop to these most cruel and barbarous murders of citizens under the protection of the laws, and immediately in the care of the government, that ever disgraced a civilized people, and which was a reproach to human nature, and for ever will be an indelible stain on the character of Frenchmen.

On the 26th August, 1792, all the ecclesiastics, who had not taken the oath, were decreed to be transported. It is said they amounted to 130 odd bishops and 64,000 priests of the second order. “The distress and misery which many worthy individuals suffered, in consequence of this decree, cannot be sufficiently deplored; many of these victims of conscience were hurried from their connections and their friends, and landed, almost naked and pennyless, on a foreign shore; some were committed to prison, there to remain till a mode of conveyance out of the kingdom should be found; some were massacred by the populace, soon after they were arrested; and no inconsiderable number were reserved for the melancholy catastrophe to which we shall have speedily to advert." From this time may be dated the effectual downfall of the Church, the abolishing of all religious rites, and the dispersion of the flock of Christ; for

away the shepherd, and the sheep will necessarily be scattered abroad.

A general sale of all ecclesiastical property had been decreed in September of the last year, including every species connected with Churches or Charities. At one period this amounted to 1,350,000l. sterling—and it was not long before there did not remain a sacred vase, publicly known, through the whole extent of France; not even in domestic chapels, at least, where the power of the government extended.

The 2d Sept. 1792, was also made famous (or rather infamous) for another insurrection, of the most awful kind-" The most shocking crimes are, at this moment, perpetrating at the prison of the Abbaye, hard by the hotel in which I now write. The mob, they call them the people here, but they deserve no name by which any thing that has the least relation to human nature can be signified a set of monsters have broken into the Abbaye and are massacreing the prisoners."*

Laujuinai, speaking of these murders, says, "that the number of victims, assassinated that day, amounted to 8000; others say to 12,000; and the deputy Louvet states them at 28,000.†

On the 20th September the national convention, recommended by the late assembly, came together, and was organized. It contained men of all characters, or ders, and ranks; even foreigners were invited to become members. The famous Thomas Paine, an Englishman, who had figured in the American revolution, as a popular writer against the British government, but of a very discontented and restless spirit, and of a very immoral character, together with Dr. Joseph Priestly, an eminent + Hist. Epoch. p. 32-41.

* Moore's Journal, p. 173.

philosopher and chemist of Birmingham, in Great Britain, but who had been the object of great popular frenzy as a violent democrat, and opposed to the government, or rather the administration, of Great Britain, were absurdly chosen, by certain departments in France, as representatives in this convention. The first, being on the spot, took his seat; the latter prudently declined the honour, if such it could be called.

One of the first acts of the convention, after the late awful catastrophe, was again decreeing the eternal abolition of royalty in France. This was received with rapture throughout the nation, and that by a people who, but a short time before, would have thought it their highest honour to have layed down their lives for their grand monarque. They also abolished the use of all res:pectful epithets, in common use between man and man, as monsieur, madame, and the like, excepting the word citizen alone, which, in a short time, became a kind of mark by which to know a sans-culotte.

The convention soon became divided into two parties, to wit, The Girondists, so called from Le Girond, the department from whence the chief deputies came, who took the lead, and were men of the best understanding in the convention, and the Mountain, so called from the place of their sitting in the convention, being the upper seat that surrounded the hall. These were generally men of small talents and little learning, but of daring and sanguinary characters, advanced from among the meanest of the people, and who, by the violence of the times, had been raised from great obscurity.

At the head of this last party was Robertspierre, Danton, Couthon, Merlin de Thionville, Demolin, Thuriot, Collot D'Herbois, Legendre, Marat, and others.

The Girondists wished to prosecute the late infamous murders; but the Mountain always eluded the question, and were aided by the Jacobin club, where all political subjects were previously determined.

The summer and autumn were spent in passing de crees of banishment against all the nonjuring clergydissolving all boards of justice, that judges might be rechosen from among the lower classes of people.

During the winter campaign the French armies, under the direction of the Girondists, were every where successful; though immense numbers were slain on both sides. The success of the ruling party so enraged the Mountain, and of course the majority of the Jacobins, that they concluded, their best scheme to obtain revenge and perplex the opposite party, was to start the question, what was to be done with the king?

The Girondists wanted to save him, and, therefore, the Mountain determined his death. By the influence of the latter, and taking advantage of the popular rage, the convention became his accusers and his judges, against every principle of common justice. As they had previously determined on his execution, his trial became the mere mockery of public justice, and finally ended, as might be supposed, in the murder of the king, under covert of the law, by the decree of a set of ruffians, taken from the meanest of his subjects. The majority, who decreed the punishment of immediate death, was but small, and to add to their inhumanity, they gave him but 24 hours to prepare for his awful change. He was accordingly executed on the 21st January, 1793. His body was interred in a grave filled with quick lime, and a guard placed round it till it was consumed.

Soon after this, or about this time, a Mr. Dupont, in a debate on the subject of establishing public schools, for the education of youth, pronounced a discourse before the national convention, in favour of atheism, which was loudly applauded by the members, except two or three of the clergy-" What," said this unhappy man, "thrones are overturned! soeptres broken! kings expire! and yet the altars of God remain! a single breath of enlightened reason will now be sufficient to make them disappear. Nature and reason! these ought to be the Gods of men! These are my Gods! admire nature, cultivate reason! And you, legislators, if you desire that the French people should be happy, make haste to propagate these principles, and to teach them in your schools, instead of those fanatical principles which have been hitherto taught. For myself, I honestly avow to the convention, I am an atheist." This paved the way for abolishing the public worship of Almighty God, which soon took place, as we shall see, and on the doors of their grave yards were engraved or painted," Death is an eternal sleep."*

After various and astonishing successes on the part of France, against the concert of kings, Dumorier, the French general, was seduced by them, and the army of the new republic was driven from all their conquests.

The Mountain, taking advantage of this change in their affairs, obtained the ascendancy with the mobs of Paris, in addition to the interests of the Jacobins, and during the month of May, 1793, all was riot, tumult,

* Citizen Lacroix, in a debate on the petition of some Quakers and Anabaptists, said "The constitution is my Gospel, and liberty is my God-I know no other."+

† Vid. Dwight's Notes to Greenfield Hill.