him, and all his honours, in the duft. Varennes made a formal attack, on nim, ia a violent harangue, in which e charged him with intending to facrifice all the best patriots of the Convention, that it might confit entirely of men as vile as himself, and no one be left to oppofe his ambitious views. Robespierre haftily preffed toward the tribune, to reply, but was prevented; a num ber of voices exclaiming-Down with the tyrant! down with the tyrant! Tallien, next, in a long fpeech, compared him to Sylla, who, by his murderous profcriptions, procured himself to be appointed per A great number of the members of the Convention had been the friends of thofe he had profcribed, and no one could fay who would next be selected for his victim; the axe of the guillotine hung over the head of each, fufpended by a hair. They therefore united to fecure themfelves, and obtained a decree, in which, among feveral other articles, it was enacted, That although every citizen was bound to denounce any magiftrate a traitor, he fhould not carry him before the Revolutionary Tribunal. Secret inter-petual dictator. He invoked the rogatories were fuppreffed; and the members of the Convention, the committees of Public Safety and general fecurity, the reprefentatives of the people employed in miffions, and the public accufer, were exempted from this power of denunciation. By this decree the power of Robespierre was fo much abridged, that he could no longer fend, at pleafure, to the guillotine, thofe who difapproved of his conduct, in either of thefe affemblies; and the members of the Convention were now emboldened to oppofe his measures, fince they were fecure from his revenge. Tallien, Bourdon de l'Oife, and Legendre, refolved to make one vioLent effort to wrest from Robespierre his ufurped power. They matured their plan, and increafed the number of their partifans at the civic fétes, which were then fo numerous, that it was observed all Paris feemed to fup every evening in the streets. Robespierre, apprized that a formidable confpiracy was concerting against him, on the 26th of July came to the Convention, and made a long speech to exculpate himfelf from the charge of a'piring to the dictatorship. The fame fubject was refamed the next day, when Billaud VOL. XXV. fhade of the virtuous Brutus. Like him,' faid he, I have a dagger to rid my country of the tyrant, if the Convention do not deliver him to the fword of justice.'. He concluded with moving, That Robefpierre and his creatures be immediately arrested, which was inftantly decreed amidst loud applaufes. Robespierre, perceiving his power left in the Convention, made his efcape, and joined Henriot, who, by riding at the head of fome troopers, through the streets of Paris, and exclaiming, Robespierre is arrefled, and liberty is no more!" had gained over a company of artillery, determined to turn their cannon against the Convention. The national guards, however, prevented them. Robespierre, St. Juft, and Couthon, at the head of a confiderable force, took poft at the Commune, or Town-hall; the alarm bell was rung; all Paris was in commotion, and a civil war feemed ready to commence, But when the people had, learned the truth, that the contest was between the partizans of Robespierre, and the relt of their reprefentatives, the fections of Paris unanimously declared for the Convention; and the cannoneers, when they heard that Henriot was outlawed, offered, 3 R the fon, fevere in countenance, and haughty in manner, he had no pleafing exterior qualities to excite prepoffeffion in his favour. His firm ep, and quick pace, feemed to in His drefs was always neat and even elegant. He never failed to have his hair dreffed with the utmost care. atrabilious, and his eyes dull, funk His complexion was livid and in their fockets, and fpiritlefs, unlefs fomething unexpected raised a momentary animation. The conftant blinking of his eye-lids feemed to arife from convulfive agitation, for which he always carried a temporary remedy in his pocket. His voice was feeble, and extremely diffonant, unlefs when he foftened it by careful management. the moment they fhould receive orders, to turn their guns against the commune. Between two and three o'clock in the morning, of the 28th, Bourdon de l'One repaired to the Place de Greve, there read the de-dicate great activity of mind. He cree of the Convention to the people, had acquired a habit of frequently and, foon after, rushed himfelf, with folding and compaffing his hands, a fabre between his teeth, and a pif- and, as he was fubje&t to fpafms in tol in his hand, into the chamber of the reck and fhoulders, the latter the Town-hall. Robespierre, in the attack, was wounded in the jaw- five motion, efpecially when he was were generally in a flate of convulbone. His younger brother jumped much agitated by any furprize, anxout of the window, and broke a leg iety, or oppofition. and an arm, Ceuthon ftabbed himfelf twice with a knife, Coffintal, a member of the municipality, finding that Henriot had deceived him in declaring, on the forfeiture of his head, that all Patis was in his favour, threw him out of the window. Henriot, who was mortally wounded by the fall, hid himself in a houfe, from whence he was brought out, fo covered with wounds and blood, that it was fcarcely poffible to recognize him. In defpair he had endeavoured to beat his brains out againft the wall. Le Bas, and feveral others, thot themfelves with concealed piftols. Robespierre was carried on a litter to the Convention, but not fuffered to be brought in. He, and those who were made prifoners with him, were taken before the Revolutionary Tribunal, where, as nothing was neceflary but to identify their perfons, they having been outlawed the preceding day, fentence of death was immediately pronounced, and they were executed the fame evening, the 28th of July, in the Place de la Revolution, amid the acclamations of an immenfe concourfe of people, who rent the airtablish a monarchical government in with fhorting, Vive la Republique! Vive la Convention! Robespierre is faid to have been thirty-feven years of age, when he terminated his life by the guillotine. His height was not more than five feet three inches. Slender in per 2 He is faid to have been particularly fond of attracting the notice of women, and when he intended to diftinguifh himself in the Jacobin Club, Commune, or Convention, never failed to circulate as many tickets as he poffibly could among his female admirers." Such was the man, who, for two years paft, as had fo great a fhare public of France. His fall, it seems in the goverament of the new reprobable, will be of little importance to the combined powers, who have laboured fo carneilly to re-ef that country: it has only ferved to evince the attachment of the people to the new conflitution and the Convention, however the principles of the former may be violated, and however weak or wicked may be the members of the latter. They fill act at with unabated vigour and unpa- [ Every fair-cafe is called a turnpike or land, with the addition of fome name to didinguish it from another. The families of the best rank have generally but one floor, fome only half a floor, and others lefs. The gentry take the firit, fccond, or third; the middling and poor mount higher. From the principal freet are many wynds or narrow turnings, and A DESCRIPTION of the CITY of it is not eafy for a stranger to find EDINBURGH. (With a View elegantly engraved.) E his way to any one of the dwellings, which in thefe wyads are, as it were, piled one upon another. But there is in Edinburgh a very ufeful kind of blackguard, called Cawdies, who attend at taverns, coffee-houses, and other public places, to go on errands, and know every body of any note in the town. i hele boys, though they are in rags, and lie eve DINBURGH, the metropolis of Scotland, takes its prefent name from the Saxons; but its moit ancient inhabitants, the Irish, or Northern Scots, called it Duned, or Duner Eder, i. e. Eden Town, and the Latins Edeni, or Edinodunum;ry night upon the ftairs, or in the which all fignify a town upon a hill, or rather the city of the Edini, built upon a hill. The town is fo antient that no history has recorded when, by whom, or on what occafion, it was built; yet it feems mott natural to conclude, that fuch a fituation could not be chofen, but for a retreat from the outrages and attempts of the Bitons, Saxons, Danes, or other enemies; for, having an impregnable cattle at the weit end, and a lake on either fide, the inhabitants had nothing to defend but the entrance, at the east end, which it was caly to fortify. freets, are yet confiderably trufted, and have feldom proved unfaithful. They are fubje&t to a kind of captain, or magiftrate, called the con table of the Cawdies, who punithe st any neglect or misdemeanor, generally by a fine of ale or brandy, but fometimes corporally. Most of them are uncommonly acute, and execute whatever employment is alligned them with great speed and addrefs. It is faid that a judge formerly abandoned two of his fons to this way of life, for a time, believing they would acquire that vigilance and acuteness, which could no otherwife be taught them, and which would be of great ufe in a higher ftation. Most of the houses in Edinburgh are built of a rough kind of stone, undreffed, becaule of its extreme From the palace gate, weftward, hardness; but the window cafes and the street is called the Canon-gate, corner ftones are generally well-where the canons of the abbey dreffed; and fo indeed are the whole formerly refided; which is a kind fronts of many houfes, particularly of iuburb by itself, as Southwark is in the Parliament Clofe, and fome to London. At the upper or west parts of the High-street. They are end of this street, where it joins to moftly covered, especially the new the city, is a gate which parts the buildings, with blue flate. city from the fuburb, but does not 3 R 2 dif |