cratic feeling, honour, that religion that binds the soldier to
the throne; discipline, that despotism of glory, would usurp the place
of those stern virtues to which the exercise of the constitution would
have accustomed the people,--then they would forgive every thing, even
despotism, in those who had saved them. The gratitude of a nation to
those who have led its children to victory is a pitfall in which the
people will ever be ensnared,--nay, they even offer their necks to the
yoke; civil virtues must ever fade before the brilliancy of military
exploits. Either the army would return to surround the ancient royalty
with all its strength, and France would have her Monk, or the army would
crown the most successful of its generals, and liberty would have her
Cromwell. In either case the Revolution escaped from the people, and
lay at the mercy of the soldiery, and thus to save it from war was to
save it from a snare. These reflections decided him; as yet he meditated
no violence; he but saw into the future, and read it aright. This was
the original cause of his rupture with the Girondists; their justice was
but policy, and war appeared to them politic. Just or unjust, they
wished for it as a means of destruction to the throne, of aggrandisement
for themselves. Posterity must decide, if in this great quarrel the
first blame lies on the side of the democrat, or the ambitious
Girondists. This fierce contest, destined to terminate in the death of
both parties, began on the 12th of December at a meeting of the Jacobin
Club.

V.

"I have meditated during six months, and even from the first day of the
Revolution," said Brissot, the leader of the Gironde, "to what party I
should give my support. It is by the force of reason, and by considering
facts, that I have come to the conviction that a people, who, after ten
centuries of slavery, have re-conquered liberty, have need of war. War
is necessary to consolidate liberty, and to purge the constitution from
all taint of despotism. War is necessary to drive from amongst us those
men whose example might corrupt us. You have the power of chastising the
rebels, and intimidating the world; have the courage to do so. The
emigres persist in their rebellion, the sovereigns persist in supporting
them. Can we hesitate to attack them? Our honour, our public credit, the
necessity of strengthening our revolution, all make it imperative on us.
France would be dishonoured, did she tamely suffe