JACOBINS, THE, one of those clubs which played so conspicuous a part in the first French Revolution. When it became evident in 1789 that a social crisis was at hand, the members elected by the people considered it advisable to have conferences among themselves about questions of public interest. At these meetings the deputies from Bretagne took the lead, and from this fact the society was, for some time, called the Breton Club. The three orders of the National Assembly were represented in it—all desirous of a change of things. The clergy were represented by the bishop of Autun (Talleyrand), the Abbé Siéyes, and others; the nobility by the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, the Viscount de Noailles, &c.; the magistracy by Dupont, Target, &c. At first the club, during its sittings at Versailles, made no great noise, but immediately after the events of October 5th and 6th, in 1789, they publicly opened their meetings in the monastery of the Jacobins in the Rue St Honoré, at Paris. Although inaugurated as The Society of the Friends of the Constitution, they got the name of the Jacobins from their place of meeting, and by that title they are now best known. Their hall was thronged by crowds of listeners, including most of the remarkable public men of the period. The club itself became the parent of numerous affiliated societies throughout France. At the funeral of Mirabeau in 1791 the Jacobins mustered 1800 strong. They were almost powerful enough, by their vehement de-
nunciations of the king and his ministers and their own numerical weight in the assembly, to subvert the government. In 1792 they took the name of The Society of the Friends of Liberty and Equality. Their influence, however, was for a time somewhat lessened by the rise of a moderate party which had been forming in the society itself, and which occasioned a temporary secession. Immediately after the fall of the king, the Jacobins began that struggle against the Girondists which ended in the destruction of the latter. After this, the violence of the club knew no bounds, and often hurried many of the members into the most outrageous excesses. After the fall of Robespierre during the Convention they rapidly lost influence, and were at last suppressed. The history of this club is closely interwoven with the history of France during the first Revolution. See FRANCE.