Page:Babeuf's Conspiracy.djvu/50
The friends of equality opposed to this premature discussion of constitution.
Nevertheless, the most clear-sighted of
the friends of equality did not participate
in this opinion. Whatever may have been
said of the matter, the aristocrats of the
Convention were more eager to set to
work about this constitution than the
friends of equality, who, being far less numerous, felt
convinced that without an event calculated to terrify
from prison, or who congregated in crowds into this revolted city? Were there not some Royalists amongst those other Girondists who delivered Toulon to the enemy, and re-established there the very same day the royal authority? The servile spirit of the Girondists appeared palpable in the proposition, so obstinately supported by them, to submit the sentence against Louis to the ratification of the Primary Assemblies. Falsely did they pretend in that to render homage to the sovereignty of the people, since the question at issue was a mere judicial act, and not a law. Could they flatter themselves with engraving on the hearts of Frenchmen that hatred of royalty upon which the Republic should be based, by introducing in favour of the royal captive so new a privilege? How is it that they did not dread exposing France to weariness and distraction, which had well nigh dug a tomb for liberty? Was such an irresolution, cowardice, and servile respect for a demolished throne, the proper means to strengthen in the souls of the citizens that courage and virtue which they so much needed to escape the fury and perfidious snares of the enemies of the Revolution? Is it by tergiversation that characters elevate themselves? Is it by trembling, dastard-like, that we can break a nation's chains? But if, under all circumstances, people will have it that the Girondists were Republicans, then must it be confessed that their conduct was absurd, and that if they desired a Republic, it was one that would have crushed the people under such a weight of oppression as to give them abundant cause to regret their old servitude. Unfortunate Girondists! the sport of your own vanity, yon could neither be frankly Royalist nor positively Republican. You did us far more injury than our avowed enemies, inasmuch as you veiled your crimes under the appearances of patriotism and moderation, and rendered urgent and necessary that severity which at first saved the Republic, but which afterwards furnished so many auxiliaries to those by whom it was successively dismantled and destroyed. Miserable Girondists! by combatting against the men sincerely devoted to the happiness of the people, you delivered them defenceless to the wicked and infatuated men that immolated them on the 9th Thermidor. Listening only to the counsels of vengeance, you provoked, after this epoch, the massacre of the Republicans; and your aristocratic spirit gave birth to the Constitution of the year III, to which we owe the tyranny of Buonaparte, which was, in gpreat measure, your work. Let others vaunt the eloquence of the Girondists; to us they cannot be subjects for eulogy in any sense, because we are convinced that their influence has been one of the most active causes of the failure of the Revolution, of the fall of the Republic, and of the ruin of liberty.