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ndorcet was not a fluent orator :-he wanted both voice and nerve for the est of revolutionary debate and he a very inefficient President as to keeprder; but nevertheless, so long as the dists were in command of the majority, as regarded as in the very first rank of ence and even while President, the important addresses-circulars-proctions of the Assembly, were for the part drawn up by his practiced pen. ust be allowed that no pen ever prod writings which obtained a more unded circulation, or excited profounder

ions.

e are not attempting an abridgment of history of the Revolution. M. Condor marking labors in its cause are omitted one of the comprehensive works on the ect. To him, for example, belongs the or of having brought forward the motion r la nécessité d'ôter au clergé l'état civil citoyens." But, above all, it was the esentative of Turgot who, both within Assembly and in his journals and pamphtook and kept the undisputed lead as >cate of the two great principles of Revonary Economics namely, 1.-the ition of all indirect imposts-and 2. the t progressif—that is, the principle of a ng scale of taxation, passing wholly over itizens who live by the pay of their daily r, and taxing those above that class more more heavily according to the proportion

eir means.

ondorcet's course, however, gave no satison to many different sections of the revonists. Though determined in his hosto the church and the aristocracy as tutions, he was on the side of personal leness to an extent which displeased even majority of his friends, the Girondists. 7 were, for example, disgusted with his osal to allow all dispossessed clergymen pensions to the value of a third of their fices. Their oracle, Madame Roland, "On peut dire de l'intelligence de Conet, en rapport avec sa personne, que une liqueur fine imbibée dans du coton;" hich M. Arago adds triumphantly, "We see by-and-bye whether he could not

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philosopher the mouton enragé-the sheep gone mad. On the other hand, the Parisian electors could by no means understand his dallying between Girondin and Jacobin;with them the influence of the latter faction was already supreme, and bitterly of course did they vituperate many of his reservesecpecially that, on the proposition for making it penal to use any of the abolished titles, he produced an amendment to the effect that it was below the dignity of the Assembly to treat such freloques in a serious manner, and that it would be sufficient to declare all citizens at liberty to assume, from that time forth, any name, title, or designation whatsoever, according to individual fancy. This is talked of by some of the biographers as a characteristic piece of irony. We suspect that Condorcet had a fixed and not unnatural dislike to the vulgar neologism of "Citizen Caritat "at all events, he continued to call himself by the name which was in fact a title. At best, however, such irony of the ci-devant Marquis-so lately the denouncer of Sire and Majesty-must have failed of its object. It was the small sword of the fencing-master against pikes and bludgeons

and it was nothing the better for him that his own voice had had no small share in evoking and exciting the "stupid enthusiasm from which there is but one step to ferocity." The Girondins as a party were much in the same situation with this their "Seneca of the Revolution," as M. de Lamartine styles him. That party claimed in the sequel the honor of having mainly stimulated the insurrections of June and August, 1792-of which the first utterly degraded the crown, and the second, after sacking the Tuileries and massacring its few faithful defenders, and many helpless inmates, ended with the imprisonment of the King and his family. Nor was their claim a vain boast-nor, of all who usually acted with them, did the responsibility of those terrible scenes rest more heavily on one than on Condorcet. both occasions the preparatory inflammation was largely the work of his pen and of his voice.

On

We have already alluded to his motion for the public burning of all documents nobiliaires. M. Arago is indignant that some modern historian should have dubbed him "the Omar of the Revolution," and expatiates on the absurdity of exalting "patents and pedi

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can hardly deny that to individuals of the noble classes his country had owed a very large proportion of whatever, either in arts or arms, dignified her ancient existence before eyes of all Europe at all events, he cannot venture to deny that the claims, pretensions, struggles of the French aristocracy constituted a very considerable element in the political development and career of the nation; nor could any one but an astronomer fail to see that it would be utterly impossible for a historian of France to make the subject intelligible in the absence of truthful documents concerning the origin and alliances of her high families. But waiving controversy on these heads, what we complain of is, 1st, that M. Arago slurs over the extent of Condorcet's motion-which was, That although the Assembly had already decreed the incremation in the capital of the immense volumes which attest the vanity of that class [i. e., the books of the Crown-heralds], this was not enough; that vestiges of the same vanity existed in the public libraries, in the Chamber des Comptes [the exchequer], in the Archives, and in the houses of the genealogists; and that all these dépôts should be enveloped in a common destruction." The Assembly "declared urgency," and passed the law unanimously-nor among all the acts of that Assembly can we point to one either of more contemptible folly or of more audacious tyranny. But, 2dly, M. Arago, with all his love of exact science, passes wholly sub silentio the date of the motion-and the date is the key to its motive. Condorcet produced this harangue and this new law on the 19th of June, 1792 -the very day before the insurrection. His proceeding was evidently part and parcel of the Girondin preparation of the revolt. That party were eager to convince the populace that they were as good haters of nobility as their rivals the Jacobins--and the motion devised as evidence of this their republican purity was of course to acquire additional weight by coming from almost the only man. of noble birth who condescended to follow the guidance of that knot of shallow and impudent parvenus.

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We cannot pass from the 20th of June without observing that that day was in fact fatal to the first and best patron of M. de Condorcet- the Duke of Rochefoucauld. This nobleman's mother, already more than once mentioned, may be said to have spent her life in active hostility to the monarchy; yet she had herself received signal and

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born in 1716-the only child of th Rochefoucauld of the direct line, the g son of the author of the Maxims. O marriage with a cousin, the Comte de R he received in compliment to her the ti Duke d'Enville, and the ancient dukedo Rochefoucauld was in due time reviv favor of her male issue. She brough the young Rochefoucauld in the princip her philosophic friends, and when T was no more, he followed mainly the pol guidance of Condorcet, who had in e life owed so much to his influence liberality. As the revolution advanced great lord fell by degrees behind the m of his Mentor, and at length their aliena had become complete-a total breach. have not space for the particulars-we l it was not the fact that the amiable generous Duke had reason to accuse dorcet of having violated his confidence an unauthorized communication of somet said in private through one of the ul democratic journals-but there was a qua in form, and from that time, while Condo wavered between Girondins and Jacob the Duke so conducted himself as to e the combined enmity of both. He was h of the Commune of Paris, and in that capa approved of some proceedings against Mayor, Pétion, for the attentat of the 2 of June. After the 10th of August he arrested-and the sequel is told by Maton la Varenne, a conscientious and trustwort writer, in more detail than elsewhere, a with expressions so seriously implicati Condorcet that we are astonished at Arag utter, though no doubt dignified, silence to the whole matter. The passage is as f lows:

des fureurs populaires pour signer un ordre d'

"Santerre, sollicité, dit-on, par Condorcet, prof

reter le Duc. Un commissaire de la Commu en fut charge, et se rendit a Forges; mais, pl humain que ses confreres, il l'avertit du dang et le fit consentir a se rendre a sa terre de Roche Guyon, où il le garderait. Ils partire dans la meme voiture. En passant par Gisors furent rencontres, le 14, comme par hasard, par detachement des egorgeurs de Paris, qui deman erent a grands cris la tete du Duc. Des forc vinrent à son secours. Il traversa la ville au m lieu d'une quadruple haie de Gardes Nationaux, leur Commandant et du Maire. Une charrett embarrassait un chemin etroit a la sortie de G sors; un assassin se trouva pres du Duc, et lu Madame d'Encille, sa mère, âgee de quatre-ving lança un pare qui l'atteignit dans les bras d treize ans, et le renversa sans vie."

Observing that the authors of the " Picto

History of England " (who have bestow- | every shape, that all capital punishments very great care on the details of the -nch Revolution) accept La Varenne's ds as cruelly decisive against Condorcet, think it right to say, as M. Arago should e done, that the on dit reported by La enne might be correct, and yet the fact leave Condorcet under the hideous impuon handed on by later writers. He might e suggested the arrest of his old friend patron in the hope of saving him from sacre by the mob; and it seems, by the tion, that the police agent acted in that gn. We hope and believe that this is right interpretation. It is, however, no der that Condorcet's character should e been irretrievably degraded in the eyes ich a man as La Varenne by his alliance the execrable conspiracy-be it Gironor Jacobin-of June and August, 1792. ll know how the policy of the Girondists rewarded. Condorcet fared no better his allies in the crisis which their cuncowardice had made inevitable. The ropolitans refused to nominate him for Convention-but four provincial constitues competed for the honor-and he took part in the ulterior proceedings against ing as deputy for the department of the

were barbarous. "Their abolition will be one of the most effectual means for perfecting the human species, in destroying that tendency to ferocity which has so long been its dishonor. Punishments which admit of repentance and amendment are the only ones which can suit the regenerated race of man."

e.

We have seen what he said in 1787 of the
and execution of Charles I.—and, not-
standing all his hatred of monarchy and
offensiveness of various of his writings
motions as regarded Louis XVI. person-
it must be allowed that the views which
announced when the trial of Louis was
formally broached in the Convention,
not on all points in opposition to those
e passage we quoted from his Notes to
aire. He argued vigorously (Dec. 22nd,
2) that the Convention derived no right
the constitution to sit in judgment on
King-that, if he were to be tried, the
on must interfere directly, and the tri-
I be composed of judges elected ad hoc
each Department. Furthermore, he
ed that an assembly at once legisla-
accusatrice, et juge s'offrait a ses yeux
e une monstruosite de l'example le plus
ereux." In all times"-he said- "and
countries, it has been held that the ac-
I was entitled to reject the judge who
previously expressed an opinion on his
or innocence; now, the Convention had
dy pronounced the culpability of the
Condorcet ended with a solemn

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We must state shortly and plainly what Condorcet's procedure throughout this business was. From first to last his system was evidently evasion-a compromise between his natural instinct of justice and decency and the risk and peril of his personal position. We have seen on what grounds he objected to the trial in limine. After the Convention had decided on the trial, Condorcet, being more human than Roman, "did not refuse to co-operate in what he had so lately characterized as a 'monstrosity of the most frightful example." Four votes followedthe first on the 15th of January, 1793, “Is Louis guilty?" To this Condorcet answered "Yes"-thus being, contrary to his own principle, both judge and jury. The second question, on the same day, was, "Shall the sentence be submitted to the ratification of the people?" To this Condorcet answered:

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Supposing the Assembly to have given sentence of death, my wish would be that its execution might be suspended until the Constitution had been settled and published, and the people had then pronounced in its primary Assemblies should have regulated. But consulted to-day, in according to the forms which the Constitution virtue of a decree, if there ought to be an appeal to the people, I say No."

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itary confinement, because that was a punishment unknown to the law-as if it could make any difference, especially in a trial before an (in his opinion) illegal tribunal, whether they decreed a penalty unrecognized in their code, or a penalty different from that assigned by their code to the alleged crime. The "reflexion de Mailhe" (a previous speaker) was whether, after passing sentence of death, it might not be expedient to suspend its execution. Now mark the sequel. On that 17th the majority voted for death. The fourth debate was on the 19th-its subject distinctly this "reflexion de Mailhe "-the question, "Shall execution be suspended?" Condorcet's "Opinion," spoken from the tribune, and next day published by himself on a flying sheet, is certainly among the curiosities of the Revolution. He said:

"CITIZENS! Whatever your decision on this important question may be, it will expose our country to great dangers. I have endeavored to weigh them, and I acknowledge that I do not feel my hand firm enough to hold that balance. There is nevertheless one danger on the side of a prompt execution which has seemed to me to merit your attention. It is the only one of which I have been really afraid; but I believe that it is in your power to parry it. I will therefore speak of that danger alone, and the means of escaping it. Hitherto we have only had to combat kings and their armies trained to a servile obedience. Those kings are now laboring to inspire in other nations their own hatred for France, and for this end their instrument-that so familiar in Courts-is Calumny. They will say that the Convention has immolated Louis merely to satiate its vengeancethey will paint us as men greedy of blood. Citizens! this is the only means they have for injuring us; but if we be united, if our conduct be worthy of our cause, we may brave it.

"When I saw my colleagues ascend the tribune to give their vote, I observed that many of the firmest patriots did not pronounce the word death without a shudder. Eh bien abolish the pain of death for all private offences, and reserve for your examination whether it should be kept to in crimes against the state. That question is different. Considerations which are without force when we have to do with private offences acquire in that case a high importance-while, on the contrary, the most powerful arguments for abolishing the penalty of death, lose a great part of their weight.

"Citizens! a speedy judgment is a duty of humanity; and yet in Paris there is a complaint that the prisons are full of persons under accusation-dark murmurs are rife as to their fate-we hear of movements in preparation. What is the

cause of this? It is that in Paris there is only

| equality is there in having here one tribu 800,000 men, there one for 200,000? I p that the number of tribunals for Paris sh raised to three.

"You have hitherto testified an active soli for the maintenance of liberty-you have been charged with exaggerating it. I do n pose to you to renounce it, but I ask you to it a solicitude of benevolence! Hasten

act laws which shall establish Adoption! H

to secure the lot of children born out of wed Take such steps as that the words Foundlin

Bastard shall pollute no longer a republica

gunge!

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The necessities of the state require taxes there exists means to prevent them from pre any longer on the poor. A respectable ci Dusaulx, has prepared a report on that Lo ci-devant Royal, which is at once an oppre tax, a well-spring of poverty, and a hotbed o ruption. Hasten to listen to him. It will difficult to suggest measures which, while ma up the loss to the revenue, so far from being densome to the poor, will offer them ne

sources.

"Submit to the scrutiny of humanity a justice those useless and barbarous laws that a creditor a power over the liberty of his de for which neither nature nor the true interes commerce can be appealed to.

"The organization of public charity ask your cares-but humanity demands also pr ional measures. When we see our streets public walks filled with wounded, mutilated reduced to an evident impossibility of prov for their wants, how can we recognize a N in which Equality has been solemnly proclai If society wishes that this equality should no a vain name, does it not owe to these men treat and a subsistence?

66

Such, citizens! are the laws with which necessity of repelling a dangerous calu makes it your duty to occupy yourselves: if the despots should still dare to reproach you the judgment of Louis, you will say to ther We have punished a King, but we have saved a dred thousand Men!

"There exists in Europe a nation which 1 liberty sincerely, though it deceives itself bot to the nature of that sacred right and as to means of preserving it. The ministers of I land are now trying to excite that nation aga us! Do you believe that they will dare to per in their calumnious declamations when you say to them: We have abolished the punishi of death, and you maintain it for the theft of a shillings. You surrender your debtors to the r city and spleen of their creditors: our laws h how to respect poverty and misfortune. Judg tween yourselves and us!

"Citizens! if you adopt a severer co whatever dangers may threaten you, they wil be able to reach you, provided that by wise, mane and just laws vou render vourselves resu

ich was the "Opinion"-when it was his | Isnard, the most important member of that rn to vote he said, “Je n'ai pas de voix.”Monit., Jan. 24.)

We cannot afford room for a commentary, hich would require to be as long as the last these speeches; but we think our readers I already have appreciated both M. Ara's prophecy as to cotton for men, bronze for Enciples, and his statement that Condorcet nounced for the appeal to the peopleich statement, be it observed, is introduced er the mention of his vote on the nature the punishment, and cannot, therefore, ply by any means to his argument of the 1 December. But to what else can it ap? To the second question of the 15th of uary, "Shall there be an appeal to the ple?" he distinctly answered, No: and ugh he then intimated that, in case sence of death had been passed, he would e voted for an appeal to the people-nay, ugh in voting on the third question, That shall be the punishment?" he two s later recommended a discussion of the flexion de Mailhe"-yet when the Asbly came to a distinct vote on the quesof sursis (suspension of execution) upon 19th-he pronounced, indeed, a longled speech-and-amidst its miraculous arole about new hospitals, new taxes, and tribunals! bastards, foundlings, and ries!-it included at least as many suggestions toward as against "the rer course"-but he refused to vote at je n'ai pas de voix.

hints

e have only one thing more to remark. Arago, in his Biographie, makes no alluwhatever to the series of addresses and amations to the French people, to the es of the Republic, to foreign governs, foreign nations, and foreign armies, n up by Condorcet in the weeks immely succeeding the king's death-justithe whole procedure against him as a legitimate exercise of national right, not obscurely recommending similar sses in respect to other crowned delinS. Of all these papers, among the remarkable specimens of Condorcet's s-for assuredly the vertigo only ed his rhetoric-it did not seem expeto say a word when this Life was writor even when it was re-edited in 1847. al of the documents appear, however, twelfth of these volumes, published in

party. His own biographers, on the contrary, all disclaim this-according to them, he was above being of any party but that of the Nation. The truth is, that Condorcet had a very lofty notion of his own dignity and consequence all along; and it was the most enduring as well as the wildest of his dreams to conceive himself qualified and entitled to hold the balance between the two great parties into which the Movement ultimately split. He had been an early member of the Jacobin Club, and he continued to sit in it after Brissot and others had withdrawn

indeed, his personal relations with their arch-enemy Danton were of old standing, familiar and confidential, and this intercourse appears to have been friendly until the final struggle was near at hand. Condorcet made very many efforts to reconcile the factions and avert that struggle. His favorite phrase was, "Don't abuse the Jacobins, try to guide them;" but those were not days for Whig tactics. The Girondins, after having been deeply involved in the anti-regal insurrections of June and August, 1792, found the mob power turned against the Assembly itselfall but the Jacobin minority, whose audacity and insolence of course became intolerableblockading their doors, and continually interfering with their discussions. These trimmers were then compelled to give open battle to the Mountain within their own hall-and there can be no doubt that Condorcet, particeps criminis in their previous intrigues, adhered to them both in that course and in the attempts they made to moderate the rancor without by a most paltry series of flatteries, concessions, compromises. He shared the natural fate of such policy in such times. The attempt against Marat was a desperate one--when it failed, the shrewder of the Girondists read their own doom-but one. more chance offered itself, and they all accepted it. They sacrificed all their own principles by voting for the trial of the kingmost of them even went the length of voting for his death-after he was murdered, they all, and conspicuously Condorcet, adopted and justified the deed :-it was Condorcet, for instance, the solemn protester in limine against the competency of the tribunal, who, in February, 1793, drew up the letter to Pitt, saying,-

"Mais vous en voulez a la Convention Nation

= historians of the revolution, with few ale d'avoir osé punir un conspirateur qui s'etait ap

tions consider Condorcet es not only.

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