Freron, in the _Orateur du
Peuple_; Hebert and Manuel, in the _Pere Duchesne_; Carra, in the
_Annales Patriotiques;_ Fleydel, in the _Observateur_; Laclos, in the
_Journal des Jacobins_; Fauchet, in the _Bouche de Fer_; Royon, in the
_Ami du Roi_; Champcenetz-Rivarol, in the _Actes des Apotres_; Suleau
and Andre Chenier, in several _royaliste_ or _moderee_ papers,--excited
and disputed dominion over the minds of the people. It was the ancient
tribune transported to the dwelling of each citizen, and adapting its
language to the comprehension of all men, even the most illiterate.
Anger, suspicion, hatred, envy, fanaticism, credulity, invective, thirst
of blood, sudden panics, madness and reflection, treason and fidelity,
eloquence and folly, had each their organ in this concert of every
passion and feeling in which the city revelled each night. All toil was
at an end; the only labour in their eyes was to watch the throne, to
frustrate the real or fancied plots of the aristocracy, and to save
their country. The hoarse bawling of the vendors of the public journals,
the patriotic chaunts of the Jacobins as they quitted their clubs, the
tumultuous assemblies, the convocations to the patriotic ceremonies,
fallacious fears as to the failure of provisions--kept the population of
the city and faubourgs in a perpetual state of excitement, which
suffered no one to remain inactive; indifference would have been
considered treason; and it was necessary to feign enthusiasm in order to
be in accordance with public opinion. Each fresh event quickened this
feverish excitement, which the press constantly instilled into the veins
of the people. Its language already bordered on delirium, and borrowed
from the population even their proverbs, their love of trifles, their
obscenity, their brutality, and even their oaths, with which the
articles were interlarded, as though to impress more forcibly its hatred
on the ear of its foes. Danton, Hebert, and Marat were the first to
adopt this tone, these gestures, and these exclamations of the populace,
as though to flatter them by imitating their vices. Robespierre never
condescended to this, and never sought to obtain ascendency over the
people by pandering to their brutality, but by appealing to their
reason; and the fanatical tone of his speeches possessed at least that
decency that attends great ideas--he ruled by respect, and scorned to
captivate them by familiarity. The more he gained the confiden