New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1842-08-01
From the Foreign Quarterly for July.
THE REIGN OF TERROR.
IConunued.

And vet Danton himself was more genial, more
even of the old French gentleman, than most OF
his compeers. His cornwall qualities, his love OF
women his very vices tended in some degree to hn-
mamie his manners. The true persecution OF the
MODS, of what the French call still te Peuple-
ilong MAY it be before that word can be justly
translated into the noble Anglicism, TIE PEoPLE)
was Marat. Let us take M. Duvals descr;p-
1ion of him Our narrator accepts an invitation
10 dine with Danton:
.On dinan 6ien cle= Dantoa, one dined well
with Danton Politics were not always SPOKEN ma a,
his table one laughed often, and one was bored
rarely We PISSED from very e!e
CANT saloon into dining room looking upon The
Cour du Commerce. At this acnent there entered
man A man-here is his portrait. He was at
most from four feet eight four feet nine French
measure his head little inclined &c the left shout
der. like Alexander the Great; the limbs were
crooked the complexion yellow and bilious, the face
marked with the small pSx. the lips thin, the eyes
gray and rolling continually in their orbits, the eye
lashes red, and the white, so called, OF the eyes
nearly the same color SO that the pupil seemed TO
swim in blood He moved his head res,lessly TO and
fro like Greenland lear in his den at the Jaroln
des Plantes.
"a. to the accou,rements of the ana du zeuple
behold him from head 10 foot hat q Fdndr0mane,
as one then called those hats low IN the crown VIA
broad brims turned up, adorned With huge TIL
colored cockade; old coat worn out at the seums
striped stockings rcd, white and blue, and bits OF
string his shoes in the place OF ribbons or
plush breaches red wastcoat, turned over, and the
neck all OPEN lank black HAIR pastered 10 the tenn
tiles with ,e queue fastened with leather knot
as Dauton said Marat, from ufar l have slnet
The SAVIOR of your roast, and have come 10 see II
there is corner for me at your feast
"'Wby not if we crowd each other little.
am sorry you did not let me know, that lSut nave
ordered something more
"sPooh, your daily fare would suffice tor me-
n.WelI. but when one invites oneself to dinner
amongst persons CONNIE u faut, one generally pre-
SCENTS oneself clad little less uneeremoniously;
"1Ah, with a laced frill and embroidered coat
and ones hair curled ! 'oiseau royal, EN- Thank
you for nothing. Nature is at the cost of my toilet
and the friend Of the zeuale has need of foreign
ornaments
"'But patriotism does not forbid
Il cravat a collar
".I never wear them, as you well know
&c. But at least clean shirt and clean hands
al then perceived that Marar had in fact his hands
as black as a smiths Saturday night. and his
shirt of the same hue his hands. May 1t be sad
without offence to his memory" &c.
Yes, this was Marat!-And in him appeared the
friend of the populace (penple). because the true
son of the popuiace. his rlckety, bilious, scro-
fulous, diseased victim of the neglect, the ailments
and the Woes of his parents, represented IN nm
self the squalid masses who formed the procession
of .Jourdain Coupttte, or filed the gloomy Pande-
menium of the Jacoba Club. But beneath all
this external debasement moved the iron springs
of an ndomitable, logged, frantic energy Il spirit
of blood and vengeance which made virtue OF
crime, so honest was 1t, so sincere Marat shrek
ing day after day for 800 900 heads-Marat emerg-
ing from cave ard garnet into power that shook
alike court and tempe-thc Arch Alecto starting
from the rags and decrepitude in which the fury
had been while concealed-Marat was as willing
TO be the martyr as the hangman: those hIihy
hands would have spurned the gold that sullied
ruffies of the corrupt Danton. Nothing could soft
en-, nothing humanize but nothing could intimdate,
nothing brbe. Fer time Marut the peupis
and the people Marat.
Against such spirit, that now pervaded the
great masses, what were all attempts at modera-
ton and corpromse2 In vain has curiosity spec |
uated upon what had been the results, had Mira
beau lived and struggled for the preservation of the
monarchy. Monarchy had no materials Tor pre-
servation left it. The weakness of the mobiles rs
an order had become so manifest from the trst so
thoroughly rotted away from amongst them was
the spiri, whs,hor of cavalier of patriot, that
they had neither the courage to defend themselves
nor the ambition to save their Country. As the
ancient warrior, who, having once lost his shield,
felt spirit end vaor gone, and took to his heels at
once, so as soon as the mobiles lost that mere APP
terrain no higher aspirations than those of physi-
cal safety. The first wind that shook the trunk
scattered the leaves. The ignoble prematurity of
their emigration was the bassst feature in the
whole revolution, and the suIest sign that the no.
blesse as a body had lost the elements for the
restoration of aristscracv. What then could Mi
rabeau have done fora TIN one surrounded by dem
ocratic Institutions, for Z head destined to be
crowned by the bonnet rouge? What man can
protect amids, the war Of public passions. what
pablc respect and public opinion have deserted?
Ii was easy, we say, 10 that where power
had grown the monopoly of the assailants, there
was no longer the hope of compromise with the
assaed. That time passed when the moderate
men incurred the guilt of cheering the populacc
on to the siege Of the Bastilc and the murder OF
Its defenders. At later period the Girondins
vainly sought 10 DE the Restorers of Reason In
the midst OF the frenzy they had encouraged, TO
weigh out brahms and scruples for the adjustment
of scales into which heavier sword than that OF
Brennus already thrown. The Girondins
may Be considered the representatives. of the Mid
die Classes. Their leaders belonged principally
that order-they had their responsibility, their
honesty, their prejudiccs, and their fears. The
Girondin mayor of Paris, Petition, riding amidst
the riots, and weeping virtuous tears Che was
2e vertueg.c Pflaion,) because, after having muir
dered their victim, the poPuiace quietly with
drew at his pa,ernal remonstrances-the orators,
vergniaud end Isnard, opposing oonspiracies by
sentcnces-Barbaroux and the fair Roland inaasin-
ing government of federaiiSms, that IN tact
would have divided Franco into small republics.
under the control of the 5ourgsoisie and the law
yers-werc equally the types of class trained 10
respect for law, bus thoroughly impo,en, a, time
when law needs other force than It's own. In such
n crisis, an active Aristocracy has its defence in
soldiers-a Democracy in mobs--a Middle Glass