Historical Epochs of the French Revolution Part 8

30. Hebert is set at liberty. The French from Landau make an effort to deliver Mayence.

A bold sally is made from Mayence. Prince Louis, son of Prince Ferdinand, makes a vigorous resistance. The jacobins are victorious in Paris.

100,000 citizens are under arms all night. The tocsin (alarm bell) is ringing all day.

The forty-eight sections of Paris demand an act of accusation against twenty members; among whom are, Pethion, Brissot, Barbaroux, Chambon, Gorsas, Guadet, Lanjuinais, Verniaud, &c. Six escape, and among them is Brissot. Madame Roland is arrested; her husband not to be found.

The convention in horrible tumult; and the president (Isnard) unable to calm it, breaks up the sitting. The result of this famous day was to devote twenty-two members to the guillotine, to declare forty-one out of the protection of the law, and to imprison seventy-one.

_June_. A legion of French gentlemen sails from England to Ostend.

A party of male and female negroes are presented to the convention.

The generals of the French armies are as follows: Custine commands the army of the North at Bouchain; Houchard that of the Moselle, at Sar Louis; Beauharnols, the army of the Rhine, at Wissenbourg; Kellerman, that of the Alps, at Chamberry; Brunet, that of Italy, at Nice; De Flers, that of the Eastern Pyrenees, at Bayonne; Biron, the army of the coasts of Nantes, at Nantes; and Wimpfer, that of the coasts of Cantal, at Bayeux.

7. The royalists in La Vendee obtain considerable advantages.

Baron Trenck becomes a jacobin.

9. A b.l.o.o.d.y battle near Arlon. The French very numerous. General Schroeder forced to retreat.

Arlon pillaged by the French.

Discussion in the convention about a forced loan of a milliard of livres.

The Prince of Waldec killed in an attack near Lisle at the head of the Dutch.

Severe complaints from most of the departments about the sitting of the 31st of May.

Saumur and Angers taken by the royalists.

13. Manifesto from the Ma.r.s.eilleois to the French republicans against the convention.

14. The departments of Eure and Calvados declare that the convention is not free.

The club of jacobins is shut up at Aix.

De-Ferraris, general of artillery, begins to bombard Valenciennes.

The Prussians open trenches before Mayence.

Marat returns to the convention after a fortnight's voluntary suspension.

Plan of a republican const.i.tution read.

18. The revolutionary tribunal sends eighteen persons to the guillotine.

General Wimpfer loses the confidence of the convention, on account of the disorders in Calvados.

19. The news reaches London of a naval action on the 18th of April between the French and English.

The army of the Emperor is stated to amount to 225,274 men, exclusive of artillery and the staffs.

Des-Forges nominated minister of foreign affairs.

Count Byland executed.

Dumourier arrives in London. He is ordered to leave England immediately, but in terms of civility.

The royalists under Gaston suffer great losses near Nantes.

20. Deputies a.s.semble at Gren.o.ble to give a judgment upon the proceedings of the convention on the 31st of May.

Ferrand, commandant of Valenciennes, exerts himself by every means to prevent the inhabitants from desiring to surrender.

Decree of accusation against Wimpfer.

23. Pethion and Lanjuinais escape. Decree of accusation against Brissot.

The cathedral of Mayence burnt down; the Prussians summon the city to surrender.

The Imperialists take Weissenau.

_July_ 1. The Queen is informed that she must separate herself from her son, whose education is committed to Simon, a shoemaker.

Barrere reports to the a.s.sembly, that an insurrection has taken place in Corsica.

8. Condorcet is denounced by Chabot.

Buzot, Barbaroux, Gorsas, Lanjuinais, &c. are declared traitors. Some other members are decreed to be in accusation.

General Sandos is delivered to the revolutionary tribunal.

Biron is accused of incivism.

The French are forced to evacuate the camp of Caesar on the Scheldt.

Conde surrenders by capitulation to his Imperial Majesty.

Insurrection at Lyons, and in several other departments.

Declaration by the chiefs of the royal and catholick army of La Vendee.

Admiral Truguet complains to the convention of the ill state of the marine.

12. Charlotte Corday a.s.sa.s.sinates Marat; he is buried with great ceremony in the Pantheon.

Charlotte Corday is executed.

14. The republicans in La Vendee are defeated by the royalists.

Deputies from St. Domingo complain of ravages by the commissioners Polverel and Santonax, who are declared to be in accusation.

Rigorous decree against Corsica. General Paoli declared a traitor.

The royalists continue their successes.

23. Mayence surrenders to the Prussians.

D'Arnaud-Baculard, an eminent writer, is guillotined for having lodged an emigrant in his house.

Decreed, that every soldier shall suffer death who shall throw away his arms to fly from an enemy.

Decree of accusation against Gen. Custine.

27. General D'Oyre, the commandant of Mayence during the siege, and all his staff, put under arrest by the convention.

Valenciennes surrenders to the Duke of York. The Prince of Cobourg takes possession of it for the Emperor.

29. Tremendous hail-storms at Paris.

General Custine is sent to the Abbaye.

Decreed, that every 10th of August shall be celebrated as the festival of the unity and indivisibility of the republic.

Ordered, that every knight of St. Louis shall deposit his cross in his munic.i.p.ality.

Decreed, that no a.s.signats, with the late King's effigy, under the value of 100 livres, shall have in future any value, but be received only at present in payment of taxes.

Decreed, that all strangers in France, especially English, be committed to prison.

Decreed, that all forests and all crops of corn in La Vendee be burnt.

Decreed, that every vestige of royalty be destroyed.

Decreed, that the trial of the Queen be commenced.

Decreed, that a camp of 300,000 men be formed between Valenciennes and Paris.

The invention of the telegraph laid before the convention.

The effects of the India company seized and sealed.

The members of the revolutionary tribunal doubled, in order that they may be able to go through business more expeditiously.

31. Engagement between the republicans and Sardinians.

Motion by Danton, to pa.s.s a national sponge over the enormous number of a.s.signats.

_Aug_. 1. The convention regulates an uniformity of weights and measures in the republic.

It denounces to all Europe the government of England.

Ordered, that the Queen be sent to the ordinary prison of the Conciergerie, and given up to the revolutionary tribunal.

Chambon moves, that all castles be erased from the face of the republic.

2. A fire in the a.r.s.enal of Huningen.

7. Decreed, that Pitt is the enemy of the human race.

8. All academics and literary societies, which had been established by letters patent, suppressed by decree.

A colossal statue of liberty is erected in the place of that of Louis XV.

14. The new const.i.tution accepted by the federes.

Decreed, upon the motion of Barrere, that the nation will repair in ma.s.s to the frontiers; this was the origin of requisitions.

18. The battle of Lincelles in favour of the allies.

The army of the convention enters Ma.r.s.eilles, after dispersing the few troops which that city had raised to oppose it.

Decree for a plan of education purely republican.

The convention charges its commissioners to spare nothing to reduce Lyons, which is in a state of rebellion.

A child appears at the bar of the convention, saying, that instead of preaching up one self-made G.o.d, the convention had established G.o.ds in the principles of equality and the rights of man.

28. Custine is guillotined, at Paris.

Lord Hood addresses a proclamation to the Southern provinces of France.

Lord Hood takes possession of Toulon, by agreement with the chief men and inhabitants of the city, in the name of Louis XVII.

Action between the Spaniards and the French under Dagobert, in which the former lose their camp.

29. The Spaniards obtain advantages over another army of the French towards the Western Pyrenees.

Within the last six months, twenty-seven generals of the republican armies have been disgraced or accused; of whom, five destroyed themselves, three perished on the scaffold, and fourteen deserted to the enemy.

30. Motion to imprison the wives and children of emigrants.

Motion of Danton to cause the expence of the war to fall upon merchants and the wealthy.

_ Sept_. 3. Declaration of war by the King of Naples against the French republic.

Poland is obliged to yield to the treaty of part.i.tion proposed by Prussia.