Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution

by R.R. Palmer

A clear theory of dictatorship had been formulated by the Committee, but no member of that body, not even Saint-Just, considered dictatorship a permanent form of government, or desirable in itself. Most of the Committee (certainly Robespierre) honestly saw in the Convention the seat of national authority intermediate between themselves and the people. They did not consider themselves absolute in law, nor were they so in fact, for even after Ventôse they had difficulty in controlling subordinates. The Committee was not popular, having aroused as many grievances as it settled. Robespierrists wanted the dictatorship to last until democracy was secured, but most people considered its usefulness over when the Allies were defeated. The politically effective element was then chiefly the middle class, which had an interest in introducing liberal institutions.