New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-05-07
THE "SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE.'
From The Saturday Review.

/
phrase may insure immortality, and the
| phrase-makers have been kind to Macmillan
Robespierre. Yet few Of the phrases which
have given the monster life are just and Apo
site Consistent he was-consistent In nara,
intellectual cruelty. But was he incorruptbe?
Assuredly he was in the sense that Mirabeau
was corruptible. Yet even here the superiority
is with the other. Mirabeau took money, and
never let himself be bribed Robespierre never
took money, and was brfbed every hour by MS
astounding vanity and by a fierce ambition
which oereapt all the boundaries of morals.
To assume that he was moved by patriotism in
his attack upon France is to forget both his
ambition and his vanity. He proved his ambi-
ton by the determination to shed the blood OF
his opponents. He showed his vanity in all the
speeches which he made by surprise. as well as
in his furtive efforts at dandyism. His elegance
was the elegance OF Arras, to be sure; his frlZ-
zled hair suggested the provincial barber. Yet
he was always elegant and frizzled, and, as car
lyle said, had his room hung round with sea-
green portraits and busts." But behind the TWO
master qualities of his nature there was neither
solid intelligence nor equabe courage.
No man ever came forth to rule others with a
more slender equipment He had READ Kous-
seau whom he half understood, and there his
erudition began and ended. 1t is statesman ;
business to scan events. and to ind a practlcal
solution for such difficulties as the situation I'M
poses. But Robespierre never understood the
situation, so he never ready 10 soIve a dlH-
cuItv He showed to best advantage before the
Jacobins who were always content with an
aphorism and at an aphorism Robespierre was
never at loss for he was in his essence pot
house politician, spouting Rousseau in cares
IL is notorious that in the presence or educated
Tartloroen he preserved a stony silence. Yet
with congenial audience he was garruious
though never eloquent. Not even his partisans
claim for him this supreme gift. His speeches
are the dreariest ever spoken by leader or
men, since they are chiefly composed OF phllo-
sophie commonplace. THE only basis OF CIVIL
lied society" he cried in q respite from murder.
! .s;e ~ thrOQP
themselves hCarse in praise OF this trite obser-
walton. And il was this stunted intelligence
which made him danger to the state When
he should have acted, he theorlzed; wheh ne
should have developed statesmanke idea. ne
was content to echo a copy-book heading. or
such stuff indeed, made the worlds worst
enemies The pedants narrow brain IL more
detrimental to peace than the rascals overt viii
lany
phrase of Robespierres, repeated parrot
like might arm lazy hand with dagger; but
Robespierre had neither the courage nor the
policy 10 stay the hand into which he had thrust
casual weapon. No when blood howed In the
cutters, ne mumbled Renaissance OF lawless
philosophy fashioned what he fondly hoped
was an epigram: There is but one way OF avoid
ing obstacles: to crush them. That Is quoted
by an admiror as a masterpiece OF Wi. And II
is nothing but bull and wholly INFERIOR 10
the variant of Sir Boyle Roche: THE best way
10 avoid danger is to meet IL plump. But while
he was of "A beRgary ineligence-a mere Au-
tolycus in the byways OF phiosophy-he yet had
che positive characteristic: ne was cruel MS
discourses are ill-composcd and hard TO read;
Vet one and all give you the impression Of a
careless cruelty. He declared himself innocent
Of the September massaCres, and ne never raised
voice nor finger to stay them. He assumed the
first responsibility for the death OF the KING, 10
whom he would have refused a rlal; ana Wheh
he came to power he could invent no hetter
artiice OF government than the Terror. winch
was cruelty made concrete. lie pitied NOBODY ne
shared nobody, and the only satisfaction Wnlch
can be extracted from his squahd history Is una.
when the moment Of reprisal came few were
found TO pity him
Professor Goodwin Smiths history Of English
politics and constitutional questions down 10
Inc era of the first reform bill VIII be pub