persecutions of the times; and above all it had lost respect by
remaining for two years the slave and the tool of the Terrorists. The
downfall of Robespierre, when it did take place, showed how easily the
same blessed deliverance might have been effected long before, had this
body possessed any sense of firmness or of dignity. Even the restoration
of the members banished by the tyrant did not serve to replace the
Convention in the confidence of the public. They themselves saw clearly
that a new remodelling of the government was called for and must be; and
their anxiety was to devise the means of securing for themselves as
large a share as possible of substantial power, under some arrangement
sufficiently novel in appearance to throw dust in the eyes of the
people.

A great part of the nation, there is no doubt, were at this time anxious
to see the royal family restored, and the government settled on the
model of 1791. Among the more respectable citizens of Paris in
particular such feelings were very prevalent. But many causes conspired
to surround the adoption of this measure with difficulties, which none
of the actually influential leaders had the courage, or perhaps the
means, to encounter. The soldiery of the Republican armies had been
accustomed to fight against the exiled princes and nobility, considered
them as the worst enemies of France, and hated them personally. The
estates of the church, the nobles, and the crown, had been divided and
sold; and the purchasers foresaw that, were the monarchy restored at
this period, the resumption of the forfeited property would be pressed
with all the powers of government. And, lastly, the men who had earned
for themselves most distinction and influence in public affairs, had
excellent reasons for believing that the Bourbons and nobility, if
restored, would visit on their own heads the atrocities of the
Revolution, and above all the murder of the King.