_Election of Representatives for the National Convention--Jacobins are very active--Right hand Party--Left hand side--Neutral Members--The Girondists are in possession of the ostensible Power--They denounce the Jacobin Chiefs, but in an irregular and feeble manner--Marat, Robespierre, and Danton, supported by the Commune and Populace of Paris--France declared a Republic--Duke of Brunswick's Campaign--Neglects the French Emigrants--Is tardy in his Operations--Occupies the poorest part of Champagne--His Army becomes sickly--Prospects of a Battle--Dumouriez's Army recruited with Carmagnoles--The Duke resolves to Retreat--Thoughts on the consequences of that measure--The Retreat disastrous--The Emigrants disbanded in a great measure--Reflections on their Fate--The Prince of Condé's Army._ [Sidenote: NATIONAL CONVENTION.] It was, of course, the object of each party to obtain the greatest possible majority in the National Convention now to be assembled, for arranging upon some new footing the government of France, and for replacing that Constitution to which faith had been so repeatedly sworn. The Jacobins made the most energetic exertions. They not only wrote missives through their two thousand affiliated societies, but sent three hundred commissaries, or delegates, to superintend the elections in the different towns and departments; to exhort their comrades not only to be firm, but to be enterprising; and to seize with strong hand the same power over the public force, which the mother society possessed in Paris. The advice was poured into willing ears; for it implied the sacred right of insurrection, with the concomitant privileges of pillage and slaughter. The power of the Jacobins was irresistible in Paris, where Robespierre, Danton, and Marat, who shared the high places in their synagogue, were elected by an immense majority;[293] and of the twenty deputies who represented Paris, there were not above five or six unconnected with the massacres. Nor were they any where unsuccessful, where there existed enough of their adherents to overawe by threats, clamour, and violence, the impartial voice of the public.