Reign of Terror June 1793 and the end of July 1794, there were 16,594 official death sentences in France, of which 2,639 were in Paris. There was a sense of emergency among leading politicians in France in the summer of 1793 between the widespread civil war and counter-revolution. Bertrand Barère exclaimed on 5 September 1793 in the Convention: "Let's make terror the order of the day!" They were determined to avoid street violence such as the September Massacres of 1792 by taking violence into their own hands as an instrument of government. Robespierre in February 1794 in a speech explained the necessity of
Transport vessels for the cancelled British invasion of Île de France (1794) Transport vessels for the cancelled British invasion of Île de France (1794) In 1794, after the onset of the French Revolutionary Wars the British government contemplated an invasion of Île de France (Mauritius). To that end it detained at Portsmouth a large number of East Indiamen sailing for the British East India Company (EIC). The government cancelled the invasion and in May 1794 released the vessels it had detained. When it did so, it paid demurrage for having delayed the vessels' voyages to the Indies and China. The British government finally invaded and captured Île de France (Mauritius) in 1810.