francs for the preparations for war, and the grade of marshal of France
for the aged Luckner. The press and the clubs themselves applauded him,
for the general eagerness for war swept away all before it, even the
resentments of faction.

One man alone of the Jacobins resisted the influence of this enthusiasm:
this man was Robespierre. Up to this time Robespierre had been merely a
discusser of ideas, a subaltern agitator, indefatigable and intrepid,
but eclipsed by other and greater names. From this day he became a
statesman; he felt his own mental strength; he based this strength on a
principle, and alone and unaided ventured to cope with the truth. He
devoted himself without regarding even the number of his adversaries,
and by exercising he doubled his force.

All the cabinets of the princes threatened by the Revolution still
debated the question of peace or war. It was discussed alike in the
councils of Louis XVI., in the meetings of parties in the Assembly, at
the Jacobins, and in the public journals. The moment was decisive, for
it was evident that the negotiation between the emperor Leopold and
France on the subject of the reception of emigrants in the states
dependent on the empire was fast drawing to a close, and that before
long the emperor would have given satisfaction to France by dispersing
these bodies of emigres, or that France would declare war against him,
and by this declaration draw on herself the hostilities of all her
enemies at the same time. France thus would defy them all.

We have already seen that the Statesmen, and Revolutionists,
Constitutionalists, and Girondists, Aristocrats, and Jacobins, were all
in favour of war. War was, in the eyes of all, an appeal to destiny, and
the impatient spirit of France wished that it would pronounce at once,
either by victory or defeat. Victory seemed to France the sole issue by
which she could extricate herself from her difficulties at home, and
even defeat did not terrify her. She believed in the necessity of war,
and defied even death. Robespierre thought otherwise, and it is for that
reason that he was Robespierre.

He clearly comprehended two things; the first, that war was a gratuitous
crime against the people; the second, that a war, even though
successful, would ruin the cause of democracy. Robespierre looked on the
Revolution as the rigorous application of the principles of philosophy
to society. A passionate and devoted pupil of Jean Jacques Rous