Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-08-31
DESTROYING THE REVOLUTION.

DhbINofiNt THE kENDLUTIpN.
the ultraists as he had been in their favor,
totally contradicting his antecedcnts, on ac-
count Of his personal interests Robespierre's
distrust Of him had been well based. He was
not, like SO many OF his associates, an enthu.
siast and idealist Ho caused the arraign-
ment Of Carrier, OF whose cruelties at Nantes
We have spoken In n previous article, of lie
Bon and Fouquier Tinville, and they were
guillotincd.
Le Bon, a native Of Arras was originally
priest and professor of rhetoric at Beaune
A democrat by conviction, he welcomed the
Revolution, soon became a constitutional Gu
rate, and was one Of the first of his order TO
marry. This act was regarded as q proof
Of patriotism, and Of attachment 10 the prn-
ciples OF the now era. He was chosen to
the legislative assembly made member Of
tho committee Of public safety, and was sent
on various important missions into seditious
districts and those invaded by foreign foes
He bore himself with marked credit and dis
played unusual courage
His memory has been bitterly assailed, es-
pecially by the church; but many of the sto-
r'es told TO his disparagement have been dis
proved. Armand Gulfroy, a fellow towns
man aud, like him, mountaineer tmon-
tagnard), and member Of the Jacobins, was
his unrelenting foe, hunting him to death.
Guifroy, who appears 10 have been as treach-
erous ms he was INSCRIPTIONS and cruel had
no visible motive for his persecution beyond
his general malignity. Le Bon, who was ex-
ecuted at 80, had the reputation OF an exem-
plary husband. a tender father, a steadfast
friend.
Fouquier-Tinville has been portrayed in
worse light than oven Marat or Robespierre,
and there is reason TO tbipk that much OF his
tod infa 40 ttnl n,,t ll,,
happens, he has bsen blamed for things OF
which no was not guilty, and it Is always
comforting to know that humanity is never
totally depraved. Having acted throughout
the Terror as public accuser of the revolu-
tionary tribunal, he is accused Of the most
cold blooded apathy, declared incapable Of
friendship, sympathy or tho slightest APP
proach to human feeling His contempora-
ries asserted that no had no soul, not even
the soul Of n tiger, which seems TO DO graft
fled with what It devours. He is charged
with sending to the scaffold, with equal in
difference his political intimates and his po-
litical enemies, Bailly and Vergniaud, Chau-
mette and Danton, Hebert and Desmoulins,
Philippe, duke OF Orleans (surnamed Egalitel
and Charlotte Corday, Robespierre and Marie
Antoinette.
This Office would naturally make him exc
cradle; but, apart from that, he seems to
have been strangely devoid OF senSihihtv
nevertheless, he is known 10 have done fire.
quent acts Of kindness, not to have been par
ticularly dissolute, not to have taken bribes,
not to have been in any sense a poltroon. At
the end he was poorer than when lie first took
part in the popular rebellion, and he was un-
deniably a rampant democrat from the be-
ginning, He said at his trial that he had
simply been the ak of the Revolution, and
that he could not See why the ax should be
punished.
Freron, who, having belonged 10 the Noun
tain and tho Cordeliers, had become a reac-