Deaths of the emperor and the king of Sweden-The Girondin Ministry-French declaration of war against the king of Hungary and Bohemia-The Veto-Roland, and two other ministers, dismissed-Insurrection of the 20th of June--The Country in Danger proclaimed-Arrival of the Marsellais-Proclamation of the Duke of Brunswick-Insurrection of the 10th of August-Attack on the Tuileries-Royal family removed to the Temple-Longwy taken by the Prussians-The Massacres of September. IN March, 1792, two of the crowned heads of Europe who were meditating upon the great question of a war with France were removed by death. Leopold, the emperor, died on the 1st of March. He was succeeded as king of Hungary and Bohemia by his eldest son, Francis II. Gustavus III., king of Sweden, was shot on the 6th of March, at a masked ball, by Ankerstroem, one of the nobles whose privileges he had abrogated in 1789 to establish his own absolute power. He was succeeded by his son, a boy of thirteen years of age. The successor of Leopold was not yet elected emperor, when France declared war against him on the 20th of April. This declaration was the act of the Girondin ministry. The administration which represented the Feuillans, or party of the Constitution, of whom Bertrand de Moleville and Narbonne were leading members and political rivals, was broken up by VOL. VII. 218 THE GIRONDIN MINISTRY. [1792. its own differences. The king had now to look to a party of greater power in the Assembly, but more likely to precipitate the Court into dangerous measures. On the 15th of March, general Dumouriez was offered the ministry of Foreign Affairs. By the 23d a new administration was formed. Clavière was appointed minister of finance; and Roland de Platière was appointed minister of the interior; he, of whom Arthur Young writes, in 1789, as "a gentleman somewhat advanced in life, who has a young and beautiful wife," and who then filled the humble office of inspector of fabrics at Lyons.* Roland has now brought to Paris his beautiful wife, the daughter of an engraver, to aid him in weightier matters than such as he discussed with the English agriculturist. The grave man goes to Court in plain black, with strings in his shoes; and the horrified master of the ceremonies points to him; and ejaculates to Dumouriez-" Quoi!-no buckles!" "All is lost," said the sarcastic general. Madame Roland, an enthusiastic republican, was admitted to the political meetings of her husband and the men of his party. Dumont says of these committees of ministers and the principal Girondins, at which he was sometimes present and saw Madame Roland, "a woman might appear there somewhat out of place, but she took no part in the discussions. She sat at her own writing-table, busy over letters, but she lost not a word of what was going forward." Madame Roland, he says, "who had an easy and energetic style, was too fond of writing, and engaged her husband in writing unceasingly. It was the ministry of writers." + He conceived that they were too much occupied in labouring to influence the opinions of the moment, not to sacrifice too much to a vulgar policy, instead of rising above the dominion of prejudices. Brissot, equally active in the Assembly, and in the Jacobins' Club, was the head of a faction sufficiently powerful to make himself feared by the ministry. Brissot had strong pre "Travels in France," 4to., p. 262. 1792.] DECLARATION OF WAR BY FRANCE. 219 judices against the king. Clavière had become convinced that the king had pure intentions; and he was detailing, at a meeting at Roland's house, an instance of the knowledge of the Constitution which Louis possessed. Brissot and Clavière had angry words; Roland was afraid to be just towards a king whose minister he was. The dispute was made up by the address of Roland's wife. * Such small circumstances indicate the internal influences that bore upon the actions of the ministry. The war with Austria was forced on by Brissot. It was opposed by all except Dumouriez. "Brissot," says Dumont, "was so violent, that I have heard him propose to disguise some soldiers as Austrian hussars, who should make a night attack upon some French villages; and, upon receiving this news, he would have made a motion for war, and would have carried an enthusiastic decree."† Dumouriez says in his Memoirs, that, as minister, he endeavoured to prevent the war; but that he would have considered the nation cowardly, and unworthy of liberty, if it had longer submitted to the hostile insolence of the Court of Vienna. The king was against the war; although he formally proposed to the Legislative Assembly a declaration of hostilities. The Assembly resolved on war the same night. The plan of the campaign was formed by Dumouriez. Its chief object was to advance into the Low Countries, where it was expected that the French armies would be welcomed by a population which disliked the rule of Austria. The first movements were not successful. La Fayette commanded the army of the centre; Rochambeau, the army of the north; two of his officers, Dillon and Biron, were to move forward with divisions, as a feint, whilst La Fayette made the real advance. The troops under Dillon and Biron were each seized with a panic, at the sight of the Austrian troops. La Fayette, hearing of these misfortunes, suspended his own march. There was a crisis at hand of more importance in the future destinies of France and of Europe, than the first failure of the French arms in the advance from the frontier. The possibility of the Constitution of 1791 working in times of trial was to be demonstrated. That Constitution gave the king an absolute veto upon the acts of the Legislature. He had the sole power of nominating his ministers; and of appointing to every civil and military office. He had a large and uncontrolled revenue. That he was subject to popular insult was perhaps in some degree an unavoidable consequence of the anomaly that had been established between the power of the crown and the spirit of the people. A democratic legislature; a monarch, with the power in his own person of overturning their decrees, without any reference to ministerial responsibility. A ministry forced upon him by a party in the Assembly inclined towards a republic; an army upon the frontier, stimulated by the princes of the blood and a body of noble emigrants, in secret communication with him, and resolved to undo the work of the Revolution. The king had too much power of a dangerous nature; and too little power for the preservation of his own authority, in connection with the vast changes which had cut away all the natural props of the monarchy. The Girondin ministry, represented by Roland, were disposed to coerce the king but not to adopt the extreme opinions of the Jacobins. Dumouriez, a man of vivacity * "Souvenirs sur Mirabeau," p. 284. + Ibid., p. 288. 220 THE VETO-ROLAND DISMISSED. [1792. and pleasure, was not at ease with his formal associate of the shoe-strings; who went straight forward to the assertion of his own opinions without intrigue or compromise. The king hesitated about his sanction of a decree of the Assembly for the deportation of the priests who had not taken the oath; and of another decree for the formation of a large camp of federates near Paris. Roland, or rather his wife, had drawn up a letter of advice to the king, which he proposed that all the ministers should sign. They declined to do so. Another letter was then drawn up by the enthusiastic lady, which was addressed by Roland to the king in his own name. It demanded, almost in a tone of menace, that the king should give his sanction to the two decrees about which he was deliberating. Dumouriez was asked by the king if he ought to endure this insult; and Dumouriez advised him to dismiss Roland and two other of the ministry. This was on the 13th of June. Roland went to the Assembly, and read his letter; and it was declared that the three dismissed ministers had the confidence of the country. The king resolved to sanction the decree for a camp near Paris, but not that for the deportation of the priests; and he prepared a letter to that effect to the Assembly, which he asked the remaining ministers to countersign. They refused, and were dismissed. Other ministers were appointed from the party of the Feuillans. They entered upon office on the 17th of June. On the 20th a popular demonstration of the most formidable nature showed where the power resided that would command an interpretation of the constitution according to its own will. Lamartine has truly said, "the first insurrections of the Revolution were the spontaneous impulses of the people. Public passion gave the signal, and chance commanded. When the Revolution was accomplished, and the Constitution had imposed legal order on each party, the insurrections of the people were no longer agitations, but plans. Amongst the citizens anarchy had disciplined itself, and its disorder was only external, for a secret influence animated and directed it unknown to itself."* In every quarter and section of Paris there were local leaders, who took their direction from the great agitators of the Clubs and of the Journals. The 20th of June is the anniversary of the famous day of 1789, when the States-General in the Tennis Court swore never to separate. In the faubourg Saint Antoine, and in the faubourg Saint Marceau, there are great crowds assembled betimes in the morning. Their purpose ostensibly is to plant a tree of liberty, and to petition the Assembly about certain constitutional grievances. They have music; and tricolor streamers on pikes; and dainty emblems with inscriptions, such as a bull's heart pierced through, inscribed "Aristocrat's heart," and a pair of black breeches, with a label intimating that tyrants must tremble at the sans-culottes. The mob of armed men and armed women, led by Santerre, the brewer, have reached the Salle de Manége, to the number of eight thousand. They gain admittance, and a petition is read to the Assembly, the text of which is, that "blood shall flow, unless the tree of liberty which we are going to plant, shall flourish." They defile through the Hall, singing "ça ira," and shouting "Down with the Veto." The crowd had prodigiously increased when the petitioners came out. The tree is * "Girondins," book xvi. 1792.) INSURRECTION OF THE TWENTIETH OF JUNE. 221 planted; and then, the king must be visited in his palace. The king is expected to come out, but he does not think proper to appear. The Place de Carrousel and the gardens of the Tuileries are filled with this wild rabble; and at last they are battering the doors of the palace with axes and crowbars. The king goes to the Council Chamber, where some of the ministers are assembled, and three grenadiers are also there. The rabble are in the adjoining room, when the king orders the door of the Council Chamber to be opened. "Sire, be not afraid," said a grenadier to the king. "Put your hand upon my heart; it is tranquil," replied the king. He asks the mob what they want? His courage somewhat awes them. They then cry "Remove Veto." "This is not the time to do so, nor is this the way to ask it," says the brave Louis. A petition was then read to him by Legendre, a butcher. For four hours did this extraordinary scene continue. The red cap was handed to the king, and he put it on. A drunken man, with a bottle in his hand, offered the king to drink, and he drank "To the Nation." Pétion, the mayor of Paris, at last arrived. He had been very slow in coming, and was not very alert when he did come. To his connivance is attributed the disgrace of this outrage; and it is even alleged that the agitators hoped that the king would fall by the hands of the mob. The education of the people in the school of bloodshed was not yet sufficiently advanced for this scheme to be realised. The king at last got out of the hands of the rude crowd, vociferous but not ferocious, though many were intoxicated. They marched through the apartments of the palace. They passed before the queen and her son, who stood behind a table, protected by some grenadiers; they placed a red cap on the little boy's head. The sun has set before the palace is cleared; but no lives have been sacrificed. The firmness of the king has saved him. Mr. Huskisson, in a letter of the 29th of June, pays a just tribute to the deportment of the king: "His admirable presence of mind during this long and painful scene, have gained him many friends among the better order of people, and seem to have added much to the affection of the army. His friends only wish that his courage was of a more active nature. In his conduct he seems to be supported by the spirit of a martyr, the tranquillity of a good conscience, the |