His celebrated journal, "L'Ami du Peuple," (Friend of the People,) seemed to have been written with a pen dipped in blood. Carnage was the only remedy he knew for the diseases of the state. By a most just and signal retribution of God, he fell by the weapons which he had been so industriously teaching others to wield. The spirit of violence, which he had unchained, returned upon himself and slew him thus fulfilling the emphatic language of Scripture, "Violence shall haunt the bloody man;" “The wicked shall fall by his own

:

wickedness.

While recognising the providence of God in the punishment of Marat's crimes, we are equally bound to denounce the act of Charlotte Corday. It was a violation of that command of God, which forbids the commission of evil on the pretence that good may come. It failed to accomplish the objects which its perpetrator had in view-strengthening, as it did, instead of weakening, the hands of the violent party, and urging them on to deeds of greater atrocity. The criminality of the action, however, is not to be determined by its temporal consequences. Even if successful, when tried by the standard of God's word, it would have been found

utterly indefensible.

Vengeance is mine: I will repay," is the declaration of the Almighty; and we may be assured, from the subsequent fate of the other revolutionary leaders, that Marat's crimes, if unrepented of, would, in due season, have met with their reward without the intervention of the assassin's dagger. While acknowledging, therefore, in the end of Marat, the operation of what has been well termed the "moral chemistry" of God, which can extract good from evil, and make even the wrath of man to praise him, we are not the less bound to reprobate the crime by which Marat fell, as utterly at variance with the meek and benevolent spirit of Him who has said, "Love your enemies; do good to them that hate you," Luke vi. 27; "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good," Rom. xii. 21.

CHAPTER VII.

The Committee of Public Safety and Revolutionary TribunalsThe painter David-Fouquier Tinville, the public prosecutor-The trial of Marie Antoinette-Fate of her sonMadame Roland-Execution of Bailly-Condorcet's deathFruits of infidelity-Alterations in French calendar-Christianity abjured-Plunder of the churches-Installation of the Goddess of Reason and scene at Nôtre Dame.

THE Girondist party having been swept from the political arena, in the manner described in the last chapter, the reins of power were left entirely in the hands of the Mountain, or extreme democratic section. A few timid and vacillating deputies, under the name of the Plain, still pretended to some show of moderation and independence. Upon all important questions, however, they voted along with the Mountain, not from conviction, but from a pusillanimous dread of incurring their opponents' displeasure. Uncontrolled, accordingly, by any constitutional check, the dominant section commenced a career of legislation which

has no parallel in the history of the world. A council, called the "Committee of Public Safety," was formed with the most arbitrary powers, and, in conjunction with another court, named the "Revolutionary Tribunal," perpetrated such enormities as have designated the period over which their authority extended by the awful, but expressive title, "the reign of terror." The first of the two bodies just named consisted of ten members, who appointed the generals, judges, and every public officer of the state, in addition to originating all the principal measures brought forward in the convention. The Revolutionary Tribunal was composed of six judges and twelve jurymen, the latter holding permanent appointments, and not being subject to any challenge from the accused. These juries had the power of deciding with or without proof, of cutting short evidence, and of stopping the defence of the prisoners at pleasure. The crimes brought under their cognizance were, in many cases, so loosely defined by law, that it was impossible for innocence to protect itself against accusation. The following is a sample of a few out of many grounds on which parties could be arraigned before these dread tribunals.

1. For speaking of the misfortunes of the republic, and spreading bad news with an affected air of sorrow.

2. For lamenting the situation of those whose property had been taken for the use of the state by forced requisitions.

3. For expressing fears as to the durability of the republic.

4. For being amongst the number of those who, if they had done nothing against the cause of liberty, had done nothing in its favour.

The execution of these dreadful laws was not confined to the revolutionary tribunals of Paris, but was entrusted to about fifty thousand courts scattered over the whole of France, and supported at a vast expense to the community. David, an eminent French painter, formed one of the members of another court, called the "Committee of Public Security." "Let us grind enough of the red," was David's favourite expression to his colleagues when they commenced their bloody labours for the day-another instance, added to the many presented by this history, of the union of high intellectual powers with degrading and enslaving passions.