[39] But the
Convention has become frightened for its own safety; at the last
moment the plot is exposed, and the blow frustrated.[40] The
Constitution, decreed, is put in operation, and a system of the law
has replaced the system of arbitrariness. The Jacobin invasion,
through that alone, is checked and then arrested. The nation is in a
condition to defend itself and does defend itself. It gradually
regains lost ground, even at the center. - At Paris, the electoral
body,[41] which is obliged to take two-thirds of its deputies from the
Convention, takes none of the regicide deputation representing Paris.
All who are chosen, Lanjuinais, Larivi?re, Fermon, Saladin, Boissy
d'Anglas, wished to save the King, and nearly all were proscribed
after the 31st May. The departments show the same spirit. The
members of the Convention for whom the provinces show a decided
preference are the most prominent of the anti-Jacobins: Thibaudeau is
re-elected by 32 electoral colleges, Pelet de la Loz?re by 71, Boissy
d'Anglas by 72, Lanjuinais by 73. As to the 250 of the new third,
these are liberals of 1789 or moderates of 1791,[42] most of them
honorable men and many of them well-informed and of real merit,
jurisconsults, officers, administrators, members of the Constitutional
Assembly or Feuillants in the Legislative Assembly, Mathieu Dumas,
Vaublanc, Dupont de Nemours, Sim?on, Barb?-Marbois and Tron?on-
Ducoudray.
Pages:
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971