y
work which tended to exculpate the King, or to censure his despotism, and
the massacres that accompanied and followed it.*--

* I appeal for the confirmation of this to every person who resided
in France at that period.

--During the time of Robespierre the same system was only transmitted to
other hands, and would still prevail under the Moderates, if their
tyranny were not circumscribed by their weakness. It was some time
before I ventured to receive Freron's Orateur du Peuple by the post.
Even pamphlets written with the greatest caution are not to be procured
without difficulty in the country; and this is not to be wondered at when
we recollect how many people have lost their lives through a subscription
to a newspaper, or the possession of some work, which, when they
purchased it, was not interdicted.

As the government has lately assumed a more civilized cast, it was
expected that the anniversary of the King's death would not have been
celebrated. The Convention, however, determined otherwise; and their
musical band was ordered to attend as usual on occasions of festivity.
The leader of the band had perhaps sense and decency enough to suppose,
that if such an event could possibly be justified, it never could be a
subject of rejoicing, and therefore made choice of melodies rather tender
than gay. But this Lydian mood, far from having the mollifying effect
attributed to it by Scriblerus, threw several Deputies into a rage; and
the conductor was reprimanded for daring to insult the ears of the
legislature with strains which seemed to lament the tyrant. The
affrighted musician begged to be heard in his defence; and declaring he
only meant, by the adoption of these gentle airs, to express the
tranquillity and happiness enjoyed under the republican constitution,
struck off Ca Ira.

When the ceremony was over, one Brival proposed, that the young King
should be put to death; observing that instead of the many useless crimes
which had been committed, this ought to have had the preference. The
motion was not seconded; but the Convention, in order to defeat the
purposes of the royalists, who, they say, increase in number, have
ordered the Committees to consider of some way of sending this poor child
out of the country.

When I reflect on the event which these men have so indecently
commemorated, and the horrors which succeeded it, I feel something more
than a detestation for republicanism. The undefine