The reaction in Paris soon made itself felt in the Assembly. The
attacks upon the Terrorists and their supporters redoubled. In October
a law was passed forbidding the federation of popular clubs. On the
12th November, the Committee of Public Safety announced that it had
closed the Jacobin Club. In the same month Carrier was arrested. He
was sent for trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal and a few weeks
later to the scaffold. On the 8th December, the seventy-three deputies
who had been imprisoned for protesting against the expulsion of the
Gironde, were readmitted to their places in the Convention. At the
end of that month the Assembly decided that there was ground for
investigating the charges against Billaud-Varennes, Collot d'Herbois,
Vadier and Barère. As the winter went on, the members of the Right,
reinforced by the seventy-three, and determined to undo the work of the
Terror, demanded a reconsideration of the laws against Emigrants and
priests, and the restoration in certain cases of property confiscated
for political offences. In February, 1795, the Convention decreed
the freedom of all forms of religious opinion; but at the same
time it continued the penal enactments against non-juring priests,
imposed a variety of restrictions on the exercise of public worship,
and, while refusing to contribute towards the maintenance of any
religion, retained its hold upon the buildings and property of the
old Church. A further advance made in June towards the principles of
complete toleration was afterwards repealed by the influence of the
Left. On the 2nd March, Legendre carried a motion for the arrest of
Billaud-Varennes, Collot d'Herbois, Vadier and Barère. On the 8th,
the survivors of the Girondist leaders proscribed on the 31st May,
including Isnard, Lanjuinais and Louvet, were recalled to their seats
in the Assembly. The triumph of the reaction seemed to be assured.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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