The Montagnards and Their Opponents: Some Comments

Abstract

I should not wish to quarrel too much with Professor Sydenham on this subject, especially since it was his book which first roused my interest in the Convention and which has immensely simplified the task of anyone studying its membership; and further, since there are many points on which we seem substantially agreed. The area of agreement may become even larger if I repeat that, like Sydenham, I am unable to find political parties in the Convention. We perhaps differ mainly over the large amorphous of deputies, sections of which seem to me to have behaved in a fairly consistent (if on that account superficially inconsistent) manner from January 1793 to Thermidor. Not unnaturally, the de-gree of consistency appears to increase as one moves toward either extreme. I hoped I had made it clear that we are agreed on the importance of distinguishing between the leaders, or most conspicuous deputies, and the sympathizers of the Gironde. I should see the Mountain as a less disciplined body than Sydenham seems to do; there seems to be a lack of evidence about the application of discipline even to the Jacobins, who were themselves a limited group. Like the Gironde, the Mountain had many cliques-as became obvious in late 1793. What interested me in both cases was the discovery of issues over which the members seemed to be more or less united in attitude. In examining possible varieties of attitude in early 1793, it seemed a reasonable hypothesis that men who expressed disapproval of the expulsion of the Girondin leaders might also have sympathized with theilpolitical outlook and shared their hostility to Parisian radicalism before June 2, and that other deputies who responded in other ways to the establishment of Jacobin rule might also have responded differently oIl earlier important occasions. This was a hypothesis only, which I wished to test against the evidence. I felt it was supported by an analysis of the appels nominaux, the results of which surprised me considerably, not least because of the apparent consistency of the differences in behaviobetween the various suggested groups. The special difficulties of the Gironde, who seemed likely to have reasons other than simple conservatism for taking their decisions, seemed to me to be reflected in the figures. It is noticeable however that after January, for the Girondins, the distinction in the appels becomes primarily one between those who