Editing Committee of Public Safety (section)

=== Committee of rule ===
[[File:Louis Boilly Robespierre.jpg|thumb|[[Maximilien Robespierre]], member of the Committee of Public Safety]]

The elimination of the Hébertists and the Dantonists made evident the strength of the Committees to control and silence opposition. The creation in March 1794 of a General Police Bureau—reporting nominally to the Committee of Public Safety—served to increase the power of the Committee of Public Safety.

However, even as the period later known as the 'Terror' reached its height and with it the committee's political power, discord was growing within the revolutionary government. Members of the Committee of General Security resented the aggressive behavior of the Committee of Public Safety and particularly the encroachment of the General Police Bureau upon their own brief.<ref name="Scurr331">{{harvp|Scurr|2006|p=331}}.</ref> Arguments within the Committee of Public Safety itself had grown so violent that it relocated its meetings to a more private room to preserve the illusion of agreement.<ref name="Scurr340">{{harvp|Scurr|2006|p=340}}.</ref> On 21 May 1794 the revolutionary government decided that the judicial system would be centralised, with almost all 
the [[revolutionary Tribunal|tribunals]] in the provinces closed and all the capital trials held in Paris.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=9lWNCwAAQBAJ&dq=government+decided+that+the+Terror+would+be+centralised&pg=PR14-IA87 The French Revolution: From Enlightenment to Tyranny by Ian Davidson, p. xiv]</ref>

The [[Law of 22 Prairial]], proposed by the committee and enacted by the convention on 10 June 1794, went further in establishing the control of the Revolutionary Tribunal and above it the Convention and Committees of Public Safety and General Security. The law enumerated various forms of public enemies, required their denunciation, and severely limited the legal recourse available to those accused. The punishment for all crimes covered under this law was death; from its inception to its removal, more people were condemned to death in Paris than in the entire previous history of the Revolutionary Tribunal.<ref name="Scurr328">{{harvp|Scurr|2006|p=328}}.</ref> However, this statistic is accentuated by the fact that, as noted previously, all capital trials and sentences were carried out in Paris rather than being scattered across the provinces.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hazan |first=Eric |title=A People's History of the French Revolution |date=2014 |publisher=Verso |location=Paris, France |pages=384}}</ref>

Robespierre, a fervent supporter of the theistic [[Cult of the Supreme Being]], found himself frequently in conflict with anti-religious Committee members [[Collot d'Herbois]] and [[Billaud-Varenne]]. Moreover, Robespierre's increasingly extensive absences from the Committee due to illness (he all but ceased to attend meetings in June 1794) created the impression among some members that he was isolated and out of touch. [[Charlotte Robespierre]] reported in her memoirs that Robespierre had come into conflict with several of the representatives on mission due to their excessive use of violence, which likely also led to the unity of the Committee devolving.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Robespierre |first=Charlotte |title=Memoirs of Charlotte Robespierre |pages=Ch. 5}}</ref>