The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1865-05-06
gNistellalleolts.
ROBESPIERRE.
BY JOHN s. c. ABBOTT.

| Among the remarkable men developed
! by the French Revolution, there are few
who stand more prominent than Robespierre
His first appearance was in the Assem-
| bly, of the States General. The mobiles and
| the bishops refused to meet with the COM
mons. They resolved to meet in seperate
halls, that each Of the three orders, having
separate vote, the lords and the bishops
having two votes, and the commons but
one, the commons might be thus outvoted,
though in the immense majority. Were
| they to meet in one assembly, the commons
could, of course, carry their measures. The
poor were in state of terrible Distress
The mobiles sent the Archbishop of AK
with very pathetic appeal, urging the COM
mons in behalf of the people TO proceed to
business, by consenting to the separation of
the three chambers.
Robespierre, one of the deputies of the
commons, then an unknown young man, pale
and slender, rose and said, Go tell your
colleagues that we are waiting for them here
to aid us in assuaging the sorrows of the
people Tell them 10 longer to rettr our
work. Tell them that our resolution is not
to be shaken by such stratagem as this
| If they have sympathy for the poor, let
them, in imitation Of their master, renOunce
that luxury which consumes the funds Of in
digerce, dismiss those insoent lackeys who
attend them, sell their gorgeous equipages
and with these superhuities relieve the per-
ishing. We wait for them here"
We next hear of him earnestly advoca-
| ting the abolition -Of tfrC tfr-Ah FJrnaTUy.-
| DIR. Guillotin had introduced new machine
called from the inventor, the guillotlne, for
the inaiction of capital punishment, with
out inficting pain. A general burst OF
laughter was excited in the assembly as the
Doctor said (" With my machine, can
clip off your head in the twinklng of an
eye, without you feeling it," 1t may be re-
marked, in passing, that many who then
smiled were soon beheaded by the keen axe.
party arose in France called the Gil
rondists-so called, because their leaders
were from the department. OF the Gironde.
They at first were in favor of constitution
al monarchy like that Of England. But
finding, from the perfdy Of the king and the
/ court. this to be impossible, they then ad-
yocated a republic. There was another
marty advocating the extreme of democratic
license called the Jacobins. Robespierre
was one of the leaders of the latter party.
He brought an exceedingly envenomed bill
Of accusation against the Girondists, over
whelming them in their trial, and they were
all sent to the guillotine.
Rebespierre. Dantop and Marat, the
heads of the Jacobin party, were now the
idols of France Charlotte Corday soon
plunged her dagger into the bosom of Ma
rat Herbert, at the head of the Atheists
of Paris, organized formidable party
Robespierre, at the peril of his life, threw
himself into the breach to oppose them
"There are men," said he, " who, under the
pretext. of destroying superstition, would
make religion of Atheism. The legislator
who would adopt the system of Atheism, is
insane. The national convention abhors
such system. Atheism is aristocratiO. The
idea of a great being who watches over op-
pressed innocence, and who Furnishes tri-
umphant guilt, is quite popular The peo-
pie, the unfortunate, applaud me. If God
did not exist, it would behoove man to in
vent him."
The conflict was short and Desperate
Each party knew that the guilotine was
the doom of the vanquished. Herbert and
his coadjutors, nineteen in number, were on
the 10Th Of March, 1894, in five carts con-
Quoted to the scaffold.
Danton and Robespierre now quarrelled.
Robespierre again conquered in the death
struggle, and Danton was doomed to die
Before the dawn of the morning, gems d :
armes entered his chamber and tore him
from the arms of his wife. AS he entered
his prison, in the vaults of Luxembourg,
he said, sadly:
CAT length perceive that in revolutions
the Supreme power ultimately rests with the
most abandoned. We are sacrificed to the
ambition ola few dastardly brigands. But
they will not long enjoy the fruit of their
villainy. / drag Rabespierre after me-
Robespierre follows me to the grave"
| AS Danton, with Camille Desmoulns and
others who were to be executed with him,
alighted from the cart at the scafold, Her
ault de Sechelles, who was to suffer first,