Immediately after this disturbance was quelled, expresses communicative of the event were dispatched into all the districts. The courier to this place arrived a little before noon on the 9th instant, and the drum was forthwith beat in every quarter of the town, inviting all “_good citizens_” to repair at two o’clock to the cathedral, to hear the account from Paris read, and to adopt measures in consequence of it. Being assured of not giving offence, I went at three to the place of appointment, and found the municipality, and about 150 people of the lower order, including a few officers, several soldiers, and many women, collected. They were listening to a man who was mounted into the pulpit, and reading to them a _bulletin_, stating the circumstances of the attempt which had been committed on the national representatives, and of its suppression; also the names of certain members whose arrest had been decreed; and lastly, that General Pichegru was called in, to preserve by an armed force the peace of Paris from the machinations of royalists and terrorists. Every body wore their hats, and no insult was offered to us Englishmen, several of whom were present. When the reading was finished, an address to the convention was voted, on the patriotism and energy they had displayed; and several people got into the pulpit, and spoke in their turns. From these orators, a blacksmith was universally allowed to bear away the palm, haranguing with great fluency against the terrorists, and surprizing his auditors by the keenness of his sarcasms, and the justness of his observations. The speech of one who ascended the tribune was simply, “_Vive la republique!_” which was received with many plaudits. In conclusion they decreed, that the members of the ancient committee of _surveillance_ of the town (which has long been suppressed) shall be deemed suspected persons, be disarmed, and obliged to appear every day before the municipality; and that henceforth they shall not be eligible to any office of trust or power in their commune. A mention of the committee of _surveillance_ leads me to bring you acquainted with that infernal institution, which, of all engines that ever were placed in the hands of a government, was surely the most effectual to over-awe the citizens, and to promote the cause of despotism. The number and cost of this host of licensed spies were not less extraordinary than their power, which authorized them, without assigning any reason but a suspicion of incivism, to enter the houses of all the inhabitants, whom they pleased to say had been denounced to them; to seize upon their persons, in order to deliver them over to the revolutionary tribunal; and to break open their cabinets, and inspect their papers. There are in France forty thousand communes, and every commune had its committee, which, upon an average, contained ten members, the number in part depending upon that of the inhabitants. The salary of every member was five livres a day.