mained a facred vafe, not even in the domestic chapels b.

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2. That whatever troubles may enfue in Paris, in confequence of religious motives, the Priests and Minifters of the different religions fhall each be particularly responsible.

3. That every perfon requiring the opening of a Church, or Temple, fhall be put under arreft as a fufpected perfon, &c. &c."

Sunday, Nov. 17. "Anacharfis Cloots did homage to the Convention, and made the following propofal :

"It is now become an acknowledged truth, that the adversaries of Religion have well deserved of mankind. On this account I demand, that a ftatue be erected to the first abjuring Prieft in the Temple of Reason. It will be fufficient to name him to obtain a favourable decree of the National Convention. It is the intrepid, generous, and exemplary John Melier, Rector of Estrepigny, in Champagne, whofe Philofophical Testament spread desolation in the Sorbonne, and among all those fects who worship Christ. The memory of that honest man, branded with infamy under the antient government, ought to be restored in the reign of Nature. The propofal of Cloots was referred to the Committee, and adopted."

Count de Montgaillare quoted in the New Ann. Reg. 1794, p. 345. "The Sans Culottes confidered themselves as authorised to plunder every place of worfhip, public and private, and divided with the Convention large heaps of fhrines, figures, and veffels, hitherto ufed in the offices of Religion; whilft commiffioners. from the Convention aided the facrilegious pillage. At

Abbeville

At this period the phrenfy of impiety* was carried to the highest degree of abfurdity. A moft indecent fcene was acted in the Convention. Gobet, the Republican Bishop of Paris, with his grand vicars, and other unworthy members of the ecclefiafti cal body, entered the hall with the constituted authorities, and the Ecclefiaftics folemnly refigned their functions, and abjured the Chriftian Religion. Several of the Ecclefiaftics, both Catholic and Proteftant, who were members of the Convention, refigned at the same time; and the celebrated Gregoire was the only man who had the courage to profess himself a Christian.

By the tumultuous applaufes of the Convention, Liberty and Equality, and a number of allegorical divinities, were confecrated as objects of worship; and they have fince erected a ftatue, and instituted a feaft to Ceres.

The

Abbeville and other places, the churches were fhut, and many of the priests, who ftill attempted to officiate at their altars, were arrested and thrown into dungeons.' Ann. Reg. 1793, p. 280.

Nov. 7, 1793. New Ann. Reg. p. 202.

* Gregoire had distinguished himself very early as the patron of the Jews.

"Thus, attacking Heaven itself, an impious fect

vilified

The Revolutionary Tribunal was establifhed upon the motion of Danton, March 5, 1793. It authorised the inceffant exercife of the guillotine; and thus was confirmed the reign of terror in all its horrors f. The Tribunal added daily, for a long time, new victims to the thousands who had fallen on the fatal days in Auguft and September. Here the mockery of juftice was complete, for in the condemnation of the accused, the conviction of the jury, without the examination of witneffes, or even the confeffion of the prisoner, was declared fufficient to establish guilt.

vilified all religions, under a pretence of toleration, and permitted all modes of worship, in suffering them all to be oppreffed. In their room, they fubftituted political irreligion, without comfort for the unfortunate, without morality for the vicious, and without any check for crimes; infurrection was confecrated as the most facred of duties. (The principle proposed by La Fayette, and adopted by the National Affembly.) Solemn and public festivals were • decreed in honour of the baseft and greatest criminals.' (Of the foldiers fet at liberty from the Gallies, and the affaffins of Avignon, Nifmes, Arles, &c.) Extract from the Emperor's Manifefto, Ann. Reg. 1792, p. 292. The conflagrations and cruelties of Nismes, Avignon, and the Comtat Venaifin, were justified and praised by the National Affembly, Ann. Reg. p. 500.

f See Note (P) page 201. Briffot, p. 25.

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In fuch a state of fociety, when fortune, honour, and life, depended upon the caprice of fanguinary individuals, it is not furprifing, that private affaffinations were frequently perpetrated with impunity; and, from, the torpor and infenfibility that prevailed, were regarded as trivial acts. Suicide likewife became the refource of the unfortunate, efpecially of thofe, who had renounced every idea of Religion, the fuperintendance of a Providence, and of a future existence. Thus those who escaped from the tribunal of the ruling faction, perifhed' by their own hands. Valazé stabbed himfelf;-Echelle and Condorcet preferred poifon; -L'Huillier killed himself in prifon,Rebecqui drowned himself they were both agents in the atrocities of Avignon, and the fecond of September.-Hidon, and the aca demician, Champfort, fell by their own hands and fuch was the end of Roland, who was one of the principal actors in the Revolution of the tenth of Auguft.

The public acts of the reprefentatives of the people, record, that at this time, the month of November 1793, the greateft, hoftility to the minifters of the church prevailed to the fervice of the church-to all celebration of devotion to any profeffion of

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Christianity or even reverence of the name of the Supreme Being. The churches were plundered, the name of God was blafphemed, the clergy were declared to be capable of every crime, and made refponfible for every tumult.-And the will of those persons was ordered to be particularly refpected, who renounced all worship, except of the Republican Virtues.

On the eleventh of November, the festival of Reafon and Truth was celebrated in the Cathedral of Paris. A woman of infamous character was appointed there to receive the homage, which was denied to the Deity &.

The barbarities perpetrated at Avignon, and at Nantz, by the Revolutionary Committees, and the deftructive vengeance inAlicted upon the inhabitants, and city of Lyons, are too flagitious, and too repug

* See Robinfon and Barruel, and the Sun Paper, for a description of this impious ceremony.

For proofs of the unparalleled cruelties exercised againft the Lyonnois, read their petition, delivered December 29, 1793, by a deputation of the miferable furvivors of the cruelties exercifed, and horrors perpetrated in that city. It is expreffed in the language of the most abject humility, and dictated by agonizing despair, Ann. Reg. p. 275

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