Most of the characteristics observable in the Constituent and Legislative Assemblies reappeared, in an exaggerated form, in the Convention.
This Assembly comprised about seven hundred and fifty deputies, of whom rather more than a third had sat in the Constituent or the Legislative Assembly.By terrorising the population the Jacobins contrived to triumph at the elections.The majority of the electors, six millions out of seven, preferred to abstain from voting.
As to the professions, the Assembly contained a large number of lawyers, advocates, notaries, bailiffs, ex-magistrates, and a few literary men.
The mentality of the Convention was not homogeneous.Now, an assembly composed of individuals of widely different characters soon splits up into a number of groups.The Convention very early contained three--the Gironde, the Mountain, and the Plain.
The constitutional monarchists had almost disappeared.
The Gironde and the Mountain, extreme parties, consisted of about a hundred members apiece, who successively became leaders.In the Mountain were the most advanced members: Couthon, Herault de Sechelles, Danton, Camille Desmoulins, Marat, Collot d'Herbois, Billaud-Varennes, Barras, Saint-Just, Fouche, Tallien, Carrier, Robespierre, &c.In the Gironde were Brissot, Petion, Condorcet, Vergniaud, &c.
The five hundred other members of the Assembly--that is, the great majority--constituted what was known as the Plain.
This latter formed a floating mass, silent, undecided, and timid;ready to follow every impulse and to be carried away by the excitement of the moment.It gave ear indifferently to the stronger of the two preceding groups.After obeying the Gironde for some time it allowed itself to be led away by the Mountain, when the latter triumphed over its enemy.This was a natural consequence of the law already stated, by which the weak invariably fall under the dominion of the stronger wills.
The influence of great manipulators of men was displayed in a high degree during the Convention.It was constantly led by a violent minority of narrow minds, whose intense convictions lent them great strength.
A brutal and audacious minority will always lead a fearful and irresolute majority.This explains the constant tendency toward extremes to be observed in all revolutionary assemblies.The history of the Convention verifies once more the law of acceleration studied in another chapter.
The men of the Convention were thus bound to pass from moderation to greater and greater violence.Finally they decimated themselves.Of the 180 Girondists who at the outset led the Convention 140 were killed or fled, and finally the most fanatical of the Terrorists, Robespierre, reigned alone over a terrified crowd of servile representatives.
Yet it was among the five hundred members of the majority, uncertain and floating as it was, that the intelligence and experience were to be found.The technical committees to whom the useful work of the Convention was due were recruited from the Plain.
