<P> Between June 1793 and the end of July 1794, there were 16,594 official death sentences in France, of which 2,639 were in Paris . </P> <P> 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 . </P> <P> Robespierre in February 1794 in a speech explained the necessity of terror: </P> <P> If the basis of popular government in peacetime is virtue, the basis of popular government during a revolution is both virtue and terror; virtue, without which terror is baneful; terror, without which virtue is powerless . Terror is nothing more than speedy, severe and inflexible justice; it is thus an emanation of virtue; it is less a principle in itself, than a consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing needs of the patrie (homeland, fatherland). </P>

Who was the reign of terror directed at