¶ Robespierre was really a great man gone wrong; he had in many respects a brilliant mind; he was a profound orator; a born leader; but he was unsound at the core, like a rotten apple; taught bloodshed and violence, as expressions of National honor. ¶ In one picture of the hour, he is represented as the Sun, rising over the Mountain, and Giving Light to the Universe. * * * * * ¶ The day dawns when Robespierre has his old friend and rival Danton on the scaffold. This was to be expected. Then followed many executions of Dantonists. ¶ Robespierre now came on with his "new" religion; he boldly announced a Supreme Being and belief in immortality! ¶ He applied the torch to the wooden images set up by his political predecessors. He made a speech that is unintelligible, all wind, sound and bombast, but was cheered to the echo. * * * * * ¶ Are you not growing weary of all these absurdities? Perhaps you think the details taken from the records of Bloomingdale Asylum? No; French Constitutionalism of 1789-93, the sort that the Radicals of Germany had in mind, (with some variations), and often extolled in fiery speeches of the German Liberal party that Bismarck decided to crush down, with a rod of iron. True, the old offensive historical details were kept out of sight and were not fresh in men's minds;--except reading men and thinking men, like Bismarck; men bold enough to stand out against mob-violence, called by whatever soft name you please. ¶ A French cartoon of the Robespierre Regime made at the time by an admirer shows the earth around the guillotine heaped with heads, and at last the over-weary executioner, failing to find further victims, decides to execute himself! He is therefore seen lying under the axe, his head rolling on the floor. ¶ Robespierre in the end went the way of all the other political fanatics; the day came when he was spat upon, struck, beaten by mobs, pricked with knives. According to his own theory, he needed no trial (said his new rivals and enemies in their lust for power), for he has by his acts shown himself to be an enemy of his country. They carried him down the great staircase; he fought back savagely, like the frightful animal that he was. ¶ Eighty-two of his followers died that day, on the guillotine. ¶ "Long live the Republic! Long live Liberty!" was the loud cry of the rabble. * * * * * ¶ Such is some of the work of the great legislators of the Republic of Equality as set forth by the various authors of the new French "political Millennium," during those terrible years 1789-93; we have seen their ideas on a grand scale; and it is for you to judge whether in setting himself squarely in favor of Discipline and respect for constituted Authority, as exemplified by the line of Prussian kings, and the Prussian system of education, Bismarck was to show himself a man or a mouse.