and his family to the prison of the Temple; the national convention
came to a speedy and unanimous resolution that royalty should be for
ever abolished, and that France should henceforth be a republic. But,
although united in this principle tendency, this assembly, like the one
which preceded it, was divided into two hostile parties; the moderates,
or Girondists, and the Republicans, or Jacobins. In the national
convention these two parties took the names of the Mountain and the
Plain; and from the very commencement of its sitting the assembly was
threatened with new convulsions, through the struggles of these
parties. But the populace now, in reality, possessed the power, and they
naturally permitted themselves to be led only by men whose character and
principles were in accordance with their own; hence the triumph of the
Mountain, or the Jacobins. On one point, however, both parties came to
a perfect agreement. Encouraged by recent successes over the allied
armies--for the French generals had everywhere defeated them--the
Parisian populace loudly demanded the blood of their monarch; and, after
violent contests, it was resolved that the inviolability of Louis was
forfeited, and that the convention had power to decide on his life or
death. These resolutions were passed on the 3rd of December, and on the
11th of that month, an act of accusation was drawn up, and the King of
France was brought before the bar of his revolutionary subjects. His
trial and death will be noticed in a future page.

{GEORGE III. 1792-1793}

AFFAIRS OF POLAND.

France was not the only European state now in commotion. It has been
seen that the two imperial courts of Austria and Russia had seized a
great portion of Poland as their prey, and that they had imposed their
yoke upon the nation. This ignominious situation of Poland remained
unchanged until the year 1788, when, encouraged by the war which had
broken out between their oppressors and the Porte, and by the secret
promises of Prussia, the Poles meditated the means of effecting their
salvation. The Russians had requested them to conclude a defensive
alliance against the Porte; and, under these circumstances, a diet
assembled in Warsaw, which immediately declared itself a confederated
diet, in order that it might not be dissolved by the right of
veto, which, under the old constitution, belonged to every deputy
individually. Those who were in the interests of Russia were completely
over