he
ferocious Robespierre himself. Hence the storm of passion and the work
of strife did not cease with that tyrant's fall. There was a cessation
of strife, but the parties composing the convention soon came again into
collision. These parties are known in history as the Thermidorians and
the Jacobins. In one thing, both these parties were agreed; that since
death was sworn to liberty by foreign and intestine enemies, terror
only promised salvation. But the motives for this resolution were very
dissimilar. The Thermidorians adhered with pure zeal to the republic,
and regarded it as a duty to sacrifice all other interests to those
of liberty; while the Jacobins sought only their own interests and
paramount influence. From the opposition of these parties arose
an undecided, and often contradictory course by the members of the
convention. On the one hand, many prisoners were liberated, a milder
form given to the revolutionary tribunal, and the power of the committee
of safety restricted; while, on the other hand, the Jacobin club, which
had been closed at the fall of Robespierre, was opened anew, executions
were continued, the forms of the revolutionary government retained, and
every assault averted from the leaders of the terrorists. Gradually,
however, moderation got the upper hand; or, in other words, the
Thermidorians triumphed. Their power was manifested by the execution of
the monster Carrier, together with some of his infamous accomplices, and
by a decree of investigation which finally passed against the highest
heads--against Billaud-Varennes, Collot d'Herbois, and Rarrere, with
some of their assistants. In the meantime their predominence was also
shown in many beneficial decrees, as in those which abolished the
_maximum_ and arbitrary requisitions, put the relatives of the executed
in the possession of their property, and prevented Vandalism in arts and
sciences, and the profanation of churches. The provinces, also, felt the
powerful influence of this new system. The Vendee again rose out of
its ashes; bands of soldiers were again collected there to resist the
republicans, as well as in Upper Poitou, and among the Chouans. Such
were the results of this year of the revolution. At its close sentiments
of humanity, long unknown, began to appear in the French government;
but there was no relaxation in that energy and spirit which pushed its
armies on to conquest. Revolutionary France still defied all Europe.

{GEORGE I