Deaths of the emperor and the king of Sweden-The Girondin Ministry-French declaration of war against the king of Hungary and Bohemia-The Veto-Roland, and two other ministers, dismissed-Insurrection of the 20th of June-The Country in Danger proclaimed-Arrival of the Marsellais-Proclamation of the Duke of Brunswick-Insurrection of the 10th of August-Attack on the Tuileries-Royal family removed to the Temple-Longwy taken by the Prussians-The Massacres of September. IN March, 1792, two of the crowned heads of Europe who were meditating upon the great question of a war with France were removed by death. Leopold, the emperor, died on the 1st of March. He was succeeded as king of Hungary and Bohemia by his eldest son, Francis II. Gustavus III., king of Sweden, was shot on the 6th of March, at a masked ball, by Ankerstroem, one of the nobles whose privileges he had abrogated in 1789 to establish his own absolute power. He was succeeded by his son, a boy of thirteen years of age. The successor of Leopold was not yet elected emperor, when France declared war against him on the 20th of April. This declaration was the act of the Girondin ministry. The administration which represented the Feuillans, or party of the Constitution, of whom Bertrand de Moleville and Narbonne were leading members and political rivals, was broken up by 218 THE GIRONDIN MINISTRY. [1792 its own differences. The king had now to look to a party of greater power in the Assembly, but more likely to precipitate the Court into dangerous measures. On the 15th of March, general Dumouriez was offered the ministry of Foreign Affairs. By the 23d a new administration was formed. Clavière was appointed minister of finance; and Roland de Platière was appointed minister of the interior; he, of whom Arthur Young writes, in 1789, as "a gentleman somewhat advanced in life, who has a young and beautiful wife," and who then filled the humble office of inspector of fabrics at Lyons.* Roland has now brought to Paris his beautiful wife, the daughter of an engraver, to aid him in weightier matters than such as he discussed with the English agriculturist. The grave man goes to Court in plain black, with strings in his shoes; and the horrified master of the ceremonies points to him; and ejaculates to Dumouriez-" Quoi!-no buckles!" "All is lost," said the sarcastic general. Madame Roland, an enthusiastic republican, was admitted to the political meetings of her husband and the men of his party. Dumont says of these committees of ministers and the principal Girondins, at which he was sometimes present and saw Madame Roland, "a woman might appear there somewhat out of place, but she took no part in the discussions. She sat at her own writing-table, busy over letters, but she lost not a word of what was going forward." Madame Roland, he says, "who had an easy and energetic style, was too fond of writing, and engaged her husband in writing unceasingly. It was the ministry of writers." He conceived that they were too much occupied in labouring to influence the opinions of the moment, not to sacrifice too much to a vulgar policy, instead of rising above the dominion of prejudices. Brissot, equally active in the Assembly, and in the Jacobins' Club, was the head of a faction sufficiently powerful to make himself feared by the ministry. Brissot had strong pre "Travels in France," 4to., p. 262. |