argument which has been urged in
defence of the system of terror, that the Committee of Public Safety
resolved to infuse into that system an energy hitherto unknown. It was
proposed to reconstruct the Revolutionary Tribunal, and to collect in
the space of two pages the whole revolutionary jurisprudence. Lists of
twelve judges and fifty jurors were made out from among the fiercest
Jacobins. The substantive law was simply this, that whatever the
tribunal should think pernicious to the Republic was a capital crime.
The law of evidence was simply this, that whatever satisfied the jurors
was sufficient proof. The law of procedure was of a piece with
everything else. There was to be an advocate against the prisoner, and
no advocate for him. It was expressly declared that, if the jurors were
in any manner convinced of the guilt of the prisoner, they might convict
him without hearing a single witness. The only punishment which the
court could inflict was death.

Robespierre proposed this decree. When he had read it, a murmur rose
from the Convention. The fear which had long restrained the deputies
from opposing the Committee was overcome by a stronger fear. Every man
felt the knife at his throat. "The decree," said one, "is of grave
importance. I move that it be printed, and that the debate be adjourned.
If such a measure were adopted without time for consideration, I would
blow my brains out at once." The motion for adjournment was seconded.
Then Barere sprang up. "It is impossible," he said, "that there can be
any difference of opinion among us as to a law like this, a law so
favorable in all respects to patriots; a law which insures the speedy
punishment of conspirators. If there is to be an adjournment, I must
insist that it shall not be for more than three days." The opposition
was overawed; the decree was passed; and, during the six weeks which
followed, the havoc was such as had never been known before.

And now the evil was beyond endurance. That timid majority which had for
a time supported the Girondists, and which had, after their fall,
contented itself with registering in silence the decrees of the
Committee of Public Safety, at length drew courage from despair. Leaders
of bold and firm character were not wanting, men such as Fouche and
Tallien, who, having been long conspicuous among the chiefs of the
Mountain, now found that their own lives, or lives still dearer to them
than their own, were in extreme peril. Nor