Outside the National Assembly were four journalists on the democratic
side, whose writings, among many other newspapers the names of which
cannot be chronicled here, enjoyed conspicuous popularity, and
three of whom were destined before long to play conspicuous parts
as politicians. Brissot, once a fellow-clerk with Robespierre in a
lawyer's office, had, in the vicissitudes of a singular career, in
which his private character had not escaped reproach, acquired a
reputation as a pamphleteer of advanced and cosmopolitan views. In
the summer of 1789, he became the editor of the _Patriote Français_,
and he made that paper the organ of those theoretic and philanthropic
sentiments which the Girondists afterwards combined with advanced
republican opinions. Another noted journalist, Loustallot, the youngest
and most brilliant of the democratic writers, became, until his death
in September, 1790, the chief contributor to the _Révolutions de
Paris_, and his fervent enthusiasm, his great ability, his bold and
stirring phrases, sometimes falling into violence, his fine, emotional,
ill-governed belief in the splendour of freedom and in the virtue
of the people, secured for the paper with which he was connected an
astonishing circulation and success. By the side of Loustallot in
the ranks of journalism there stands a figure equally attractive,
but intended for a greater part. Camille Desmoulins was one of the
many young advocates who, at the outset of the Revolution, forsook
for dreams of literature and politics the barren realities of law,
and in return for the doubtful sacrifice found themselves suddenly a
power in the State. Raised to fame on the 12th July by his memorable
harangue in the Palais Royal, Camille Desmoulins determined to dedicate
to journalism the gaiety, the light touch, the mocking eloquence and
careless wit, which veiled his unconsidered views and his genuine love
of freedom, and in the autumn of 1789 he brought out the _Révolutions
de France et de Brabant_. Lastly, in September, 1789, there appeared
the first number of a newspaper, which, under the title of the _Ami
du Peuple_, was soon to acquire a sinister fame, and which, by the
violence of its language, and the wild, suspicious indignation of its
tone, represented more truly than any other journal the temper, the
fears, the bitterness, the passions, which animated the most ignorant
and necessitous class.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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