issotin description, to whom the
concealed royalists, still very numerous, joined themselves, obtained a
temporary superiority in all these places. In Bordeaux, on account of
the activity and eloquence of some of its representatives, this
superiority was the most distinguished. This last city is seated on the
Garonne, or Gironde; and being the centre of a department named from
that river, the appellation of Girondists was given to the whole party.
These, and some other towns, declared strongly against the principles of
anarchy, and against the despotism of Paris. Numerous addresses were
sent to the Convention, promising to maintain its authority, which the
addressers were pleased to consider as legal and constitutional, though
chosen, not to compose an executive government, but to form a plan for a
Constitution. In the Convention measures were taken to obtain an armed
force from the several departments to maintain the freedom of that body,
and to provide for the personal safety of the members: neither of which,
from the 14th of July, 1789, to this hour, have been really enjoyed by
their assemblies sitting under any denomination.

This scheme, which was well conceived, had not the desired success.
Paris, from which the Convention did not dare to move, though some
threats of such a departure were from time to time thrown out, was too
powerful for the party of the Gironde. Some of the proposed guards, but
neither with regularity nor in force, did indeed arrive: they were
debauched as fast as they came, or were sent to the frontiers. The game
played by the revolutionists in 1789, with respect to the French guards
of the unhappy king, was now played against the departmental guards,
called together for the protection of the revolutionists. Every part of
their own policy comes round, and strikes at their own power and their
own lives.

The Parisians, on their part, were not slow in taking the alarm. They
had just reason to apprehend, that, if they permitted the smallest
delay, they should see themselves besieged by an army collected from all
parts of France. Violent threats were thrown out against that city in
the Assembly. Its total destruction was menaced. A very remarkable
expression was used in these debates,--"that in future times it might be
inquired on what part of the Seine Paris had stood." The faction which
ruled in Paris, too bold to be intimidated and too vigilant to be
surprised, instantly armed themselves. In th