The Elections of 1792.--Parties in the Convention.--The Girondists and their advisers.--Madame Roland.--The part played by women in the French Revolution.--Difference between the Girondists and the Jacobins.--Rather one of conduct than of principle.--No place in the Revolution for the Girondists as a separate party.--Their only distinctive characteristics an idealised republicanism and a policy of war.--Beginning of the struggle between the two parties.--Trial and death of the King.--Demoralisation of politics.--The Girondists lose ground, especially in Paris.--The war after Valmy.--Dumouriez' defeat at Neerwinden.--His desertion.--Important decrees of the Convention in the spring of 1793, preparing the instruments of the Terror.--Economic measures.--Growth of the influence of the Jacobins.--Rising in La Vendée.--Organisation of the Jacobin forces.--The Girondists, unprepared but alarmed, attack the Jacobins in April and May.--Warnings of Dutard.--State of feeling in Paris.--Arrest of Hébert and Jacobin rising.--The 31st May and 2nd June.--Dangers of the Jacobin Government.--Its success on all sides.--Fate of the Girondists and others. CHAPTER IX. THE JACOBINS IN POWER 208-235 The Constitution of '93.--Conflict between Jacobin theory and Jacobin practice.--The Constitution suspended.--Intimidation of the Convention.--Services of its Committees to the cause of reform.--The Revolutionary Government in Paris and in the provinces.--The Committee of Public Safety.--Its members, its divisions and its heroic work.--The Representatives on Mission.--Varied character of their rule.--Their violence and excesses.--Principles of the Terrorists.--Influence of the Parisian Commune.--Supremacy of the State enforced in every relation of life.--The State, in return for implicit obedience, undertakes to provide for all its subjects.--Its methods of doing this.--Attempts to fix prices.--The Maximum ruthlessly enforced.--Ruin resulting from these arbitrary measures in industry and trade.--General scarcity of food.--The State regulates private conduct and family life.--Abolition of the Christian faith and of the Christian era.--Moral results.--The idealists of the Terror.--Its practical agents.--Hébert and his party.--License and cruelty of many leading Terrorists.--General worthlessness of their subordinates.--Blindness and self-delusion of the best among them.--Entire failure of the Terrorist ideal. CHAPTER X. THE STRUGGLE OF PARTIES AND THE ASCENDENCY OF ROBESPIERRE 236-260