In my previous lectures I have been outlining the scale of the military crisis confronting republican France in the middle of 1793, a crisis which is about armed invasion by the first coalition, by royalist forces from elsewhere in Europe, but is also one of counter-revolution, particularly in the west of France and in some of the biggest cities of the south. An extraordinary military crisis, an overwhelming military crisis. But one which, because of the extraordinary measures, that the Committee of Public Safety takes, backed by the National Convention, is also being met with some degree of success, by the end of 1793. In October, the major federalist insurrection in Lyon, and in Bordeaux is effectively suppressed, and it must be said at extraordinary loss of life. Thousands of people implicated directly or indirectly in those Federalist insurrections are summarily executed. In the middle of that month, the major battle of the Vendean insurrection occurs near the town of Cholet in the west, and results in a victory for Republican forces who can now turn their attention to the repression of those Vendean rebels. A major battle is won in Wattignies in the northeast, against Austrian troops. And then, at the end of December, the key naval port of Toulon, on the mediterranean is retaken. It raises the key political question, because it had been agreed by the National Convention back in October that the Constitution of 1793, massively supported in a referendum, should be suspended until the peace. That until the peace was achieved as they said at that time, terror should be the order of the day, as a way of intimidating, the enemies of the republic into surrender, into defeat. Again, towards the end of the year, in December 1793, the national convention passes a law on revolutionary government, which effectively concentrates political authority and political initiative in the hands of the Committee of Public Safety and of the National Convention itself. It's seen to be a way of taking power away from local initiative at the, the neighbourhood level. It’s seen to be a law which is designed to undermine the ability of the sans-culottes in particular, to impose their will on the National Convention. It raises that political question of, just when is it going to be safe to ease the restrictions on political life, to return from revolutionary government to constitutional government by introducing the Constitution of 1793. There is another dimension to this as well and that is the economic success that the Committee of Public Safety and the national convention has had by the end of the year. Remember that the purchasing power of the revolutionary currency, the assingats, had been as low as 36% of its face value compared to 1790 by the middle of 1793. By August of that year its actually fallen to 22% only a fifth of it's face value compared to 1970. Because of the measures that the convention put in place particularly, the maximum on prices and wages, in September, the purchasing power of the Assignats starts to rise, and by the end of the year it's at 48% of it's face value. In other words, the economic situation seems to be stabilising, the position for wage earners and laborers, at the same time as the military and political situation seems to be stabilizing as well. It's in this situation that two of the most prominent members of the national convention, two of the most prominent Jacobins, two of the best known figures in the whole republic, raised the fundamental question, about how might one wind down the policies of terror until the peace. One of them is this man Camille Desmoulins, who since the very beginning of the Revolution had been a prominent orator and journalist and who, with his with his friend, Georges Danton, has established a key political club, the Cordeliers Club and had campaigned since the outset of the Revolution for democratic reform. Two of the heroes of the Revolution. Danton, one of the great figures of 1792, delivering stirring speeches before the the army went off to confront the Austrian oppression forces in the east of France, the man who would establish the revolutionary tribunal to put suspects on trial. These are people of enormous esteem among the first five of the 24 deputies elected in Paris to the National Convention in 1792. They launch a new newspaper harking back to the name of their political club, in 1789, the Cordelier club. They called their newspaper Le Vieux cordelier, the old cordelier. And this is what they say, in the fourth issue of that newspaper, at the end of 1793. And they seem to be saying this to Robespierre in particular: You want to remove all your enemies by means of the guillotine! Has there ever been such great folly? Could you make a single man perish on the scaffold, without making ten enemies for yourself from his family or his friends? I think quite differently from those who tell you that terror must remain the order of the day. Desmoulins is an old friend of Robespierre. In fact, they'd been at the same high school, in Paris, Desmoulins a few years behind him, but a close friend, as is Danton. These are members of the National Convention, members of the Jacobin club who with Robespierre are the most admired Jacobin politicians in the country. They are effectively saying at the end of 1793 that such had been, the military victories, the strides made in terms of, political and economic stability, that it's time to, open up the prisons, let the 80,000 suspects who are held there go free. Stop the political trials, stop the executions of leading counter revolutionaries, and to return to constitutional government. Even though they don't name Robespierre in person, they seem to be confronting him as the man who is the best known the most popular, the most esteemed, as well as the most hated member of the committee of public safety. In my next series of lectures we will see how Robespierre responds to the great challenge of his allies and friends, Danton and Desmoulins.
