LECTURE VI.

THE REPUBLIC.

Proclamation of the Republic, Sept., 1792.

It is confronted by (a) the danger from the allied armies; (b) disorganization of the French military forces; (c) internal disunion.

The Girondists, now in control of the government, unequal to the tasks imposed on them.

Situation in Paris after August 10. The massacres of September, their cause, meaning and influence. Situation on the frontier.

Dumouriez and Kellerman check

the allies at Valmy.

"A new epoch begins for Europe from this day."

GOETHE.

The French Revolution becomes an armed propagandist movement. It threatens the stability of all existing institutions and international obligations. Edict of Fraternity and of December. England is drawn into the war.

The need for drastic methods in the conduct of the war, and in restoring unity to France, forces the Jacobin party to the front.

Points of divergence between Girondins and Jacobins. The Girondins are to this stage of the Revolution what the Constitutional party was to the last. Attack on the Girondins follows the course of the attack on the monarchy.

The fate of the King involves the fate of the Girondins.
Execution of Louis XVI, January, 1793.

Attempted overthrow of the Girondins, March. Girondist leaders arrested, June.

Provincial rising against the Jacobins.

Defection of Dumouriez to the Austrians and check to the

French arms.

Assassination of Marat adds to Jacobin alarm. Jacobin organization and the Reign of Terror.

The rising in La Vendée increases Jacobin stringency.
Jacobin methods of administration.

The Revolutionary Tribunal.

The Committees of Public Safety and Security.
The Guillotine.

As the Jacobins attain their ends, the need for them as a political party tends to disappear. Reaction against the Terror. Reaction concentrates on Robespierre, who seems to represent it. Sectional movement in the Jacobin party.

The Atheists-Hébert, Chaumelle, etc.

The Indulgents-Danton, Camille Desmoulins, etc.
The Committee indifferently destroys both sections.
Robespierre as a constructive statesman.

Festival of the Supreme Being. He increases the stringency of the Revolutionary Tribunal. He becomes an object of alarm among the Terrorists. He is charged with aiming at a Dictatorship.

Revolution of Thermidor, July, 1794.

Fall of Robespierre.

To the number of the day in

APPENDIX II.

TABLE

By which the dates of the Revolutionary Calendar may be identified with the ordinary Calendar.