CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL


CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S
INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.


NO. 426. NEW SERIES. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1852. PRICE 1½_d_.




TIME'S REVIEW OF CHARACTER.

ROBESPIERRE.


Some characters are a puzzle to history, and none is more so than that
of Robespierre. According to popular belief, this personage was a
blood-thirsty monster, a vulgar tyrant, who committed the most
unheard-of enormities, with the basely selfish object of raising
himself to supreme power--of becoming the Cromwell of the Revolution.
Considering that Robespierre was for five years--1789 to 1794--a prime
leader in the political movements in France; that for a length of time
he was personally concerned in sending from forty to fifty heads to
the scaffold per diem; and that the Reign of Terror ceased immediately
on his overthrow--it is not surprising that his character is
associated with all that is villainous and detestable. Nevertheless,
as the obscurities of the great revolutionary drama clear up, a
strange suspicion begins to be entertained, that the popular legend