Portland Gazette, And Maine Advertiser

Interesting Political Miscellany.

Goldsmith's Secret History.

There is so much force and application in the following lines to the subject of the extracts which follow, that we could not resist the desire of transcribing them.

"But let eternal infamy pursue
The wretch, to nought but his ambition true;
Who, for the sake of filling with one blast
The post-horns of all Europe, lays her waste.
Think yourself station'd on a tow'ring rock
To see a people scatter'd like a flock-
Some Imperial mastiff panting at their heels
With all the savage thirst a tiger feels;
Then view him self-proclaim'd in a gazette,
Chief monster that has plagu'd the nations yet!
The globe & scepter in such hands misplac'd,
Those ensigns of dominion, bow disgrac'd!"

EXTRACT-NO. III

After the Jacobinical Coup de Main of the 31st of May, every thing repugnant to the genuine feelings of human nature, to reason and to justice, was exercised throughout France. The ignorance of some of the members, kept pace with the barbarity of the others. A few facts not generally known out of France, it may not be irrelevant to notice. I introduce them for the purpose of shewing that cruelties of the same kind as those which were exercised by Robespierre and his associates are still carried on by Bonaparte in every country where his savage Satellites have been!

A variety of plans were proposed to reduce the population of France. It was at first agitated by Robespierre and Co. to have four revolutionary tribunals in Paris, one not being sufficient. Chaumette proposed a new plan of a Guillotine (the model of which I saw lately at M. Le Conseil d'Arret Real's in Paris,) which could take off the heads of 36 persons at one time ; however Robespierre, like his imitator Bonaparte, did not wish too much blood to be spilt in Paris, therefore his Pro-Consuls in the departments were ordered to execute his bloody mandates at a distance. The atrocities committed at Nantes by the Deputy Carrier may be seen in the public journals of those days. He caused pregnant women to be ripped open, the unborn babes taken out and sported with on the bayonets, and then committed to the waves. The men were put into large lighters with false bottoms, called bateaux a soupape, which were taken from under them, and if any of them were observed to swim, they were destroyed by musquetry!

In La Vendee General Turreau, who is now French Ambassador in America, annihilated whole parishes, butchering men, women and children; and on one occasion, on his return from La Vendee: he entered the Town of Rennes decorated with ears and eyes of Chouans pinned to his coat, and in the loop of his hat !! In Lyons, the unhappy victims were not drowned as at Nantes, but they were all assembled in a market place, and shot by cannon ball, without even the form of trial. To see how these barbarous rulers exulted in their ferocity, it is only necessary to quote their own words. "We feel sincere rejoicings and solid enjoyments. Nature," (oh, what a nature) "human nature seems to us to have revenge." On another occasion one of them writes thus, to one of his colleagues who was at Toulon : "And we also my friend, we have contributed to the capture of Toulon by carrying terror among the cowards who entered it ; by during them some thousands of cartridges of their accomplices. We adopt only the one way of celebrating our victory. We dispatch this evening 213 rebels with the fire of thunder !!!" A very humane sentiment! well worthy of the man who is now one of the Ministers of Napoleon!

In Arras the same horrors. The pro-Consul Joseph Le Bon, although only 25 years of age and a Priest, nevertheless proved himself a worthy rival of his colleagues at Lyons, &c. He committed cruelties of the same kind, as those related of Col. Kirke in the reign of king James the 2d. He sent a Lady and her daughter to the Guillotine for reading an English Book ! In Paris the executions, after a trial, were seldom less than 20, but never exceeded 60 a day !! The numbers are large, but they bear no comparison with the massacres in the departments.

The traits of ferocity are scarcely credible. Mons Real, now Count Real, in his Journal de l'Opposition of the 18 September 1794 (after the fall of Robespierre) relates the following atrocities!

One man was taken for another of the same name, and put into the cart ; he was taken to the Tribunal and afterwards executed : a by-stander observed to the jailer that he was sure he would get into a scrape about it, as the man who was to have been tried will probably be reported as still alive, "Oh, never fear." was the answer, "it is no matter, if that fellow has not yet gone to day I answer for it he will go tomorrow," and sure enough the next day he was dispatched!!!

The two following traits of barbarity are related by an author who was present.

"One day an agent of Fouquier Tinville (the so called Attorney General) came to the prison with a list of 18 names ; he only could find 17 ; d-n it, says he to the Jailor, I must have 18. An unfortunate man happened to pass by, he asked him his name, which he took down, saying, you will do as well as any body! The man was accordingly taken to the Tribunal. and executed afterwards."

"On another occasion, one of these agents summoned a man of about fifty years of age; he had been a general, and was a Corsican by birth; he could not speak French, and did not immediately answer the call : a youth of about sixteen, who was also a prisoner, was playing at tennis, and hearing the name called out, which very much resembled his own, answered the summons; the lad was taken to the tribunal, and guillotined a few hours after!"

Well might a member of the Convention, of the name of Amin, at this period, propose the erection of a temple to the God Nero! This may appear a persiflage, but I do not think that any member of the Convention would have had courage enough, at that time, to say it by way of joke! although they evinced, in their ferocious careers, the same French trifling as heretofore.

In the time of Robespierre, however, blood and plunder were inseparable companions ; and if Bonaparte does not inflict instant death upon his victims, whom he plunders of their property, he takes care to put them in a situation which precludes them from ever again taking an active part of use.

Robespierre, it seems, had it in contemplation to do that which Bonaparte has since done ; to destroy the Convention, and procure himself to be proclaimed Dictator : he might have succeeded, as he had the armed force of Paris at his command ; but lest he attempted that, it wished to get rid of his powerful adversaries, who had then the ministries of various sorts in the arrangement whether the last been sent: of that design, such were Fouche, Collot d'Herbois, Butaud de Varennes, Barras, Tallien, Issabeau, Ferron, Dubois, Cranee, &c. &c. The fatal list was already given to Fouquier Tinville : it seems that latter told the circumstance to his friend Merin, who communicated it to Carnot, who communicated it to Barrere. None of these three persons were on the list ; they did not however feel easy under the idea that they were to be made the tools of such a man as Robespierre, whom all his colleagues considered as a man of a very inferior capacity : they therefore opened the business to their colleagues of the Committee of Public Safety, Collot and Billaud ; all agreed to make the same known to Tallien and the others, and especially to Legendre the butcher. who was the great friend of Danton, and who had great influence with the Cannaille of Paris. They were apprized of the day when the Dictator elect was to have denounced his colleagues to the Convention. Robespierre was aware of the strength of the party. The combatants now entered the lists Billaud began: Barrere was called upon by the Convention to say if all was true which had been related by Billaud. Barrere in a very eloquent speech denounced the tyrant, and Tallien decided it. His arrestation was decreed. But such was the terror of his name, that two jail keepers refused to receive him, he was therefore carried in triumph to the Hotel de Ville, where he was besieged by the Convention. all troops, and subdued, fortunately for the convention, Henriot the commandant was so inebriated, that none of his soldiers would obey him. The Parisians say, that if Robespierre had known how to ride on horseback, and head the troops, he would not have been subdued. The monster, however fell!

When it was known that the tyrant was arrested, a messenger was sent after four carts full of victims coming to the scaffold to stop them, but in vain: it was too late, or the blood hounds would not be disappointed! I could not have believed such a dreadful story, had it not been related to me by Tallien,

(To be continued )