perty, under the idea of their being, criminal in as much as they have not undergone any legal trial. It is monftrous, to make ufe of the words juftice and humanity, in the fame breath with confifcations and profcriptions, without trial or judgement. This is the ironical laugh of a man who poignards his victim. [Here, again, Rouchon was interrupted by many expreffions of difapprobation.] I call on my colleague, Chabert, to anfwer this argument. In no state, fubjected to laws, is any one held to be a criminal, and out of their protection, without previous and legal trial, and conviction. But the deputies were banished, by the nineteenth of Fructidor, without previous trial and conviction. Therefore, they were either banished, in violation of the constitution, or, there was no conftitution to be violated. I demand the previous queftion. I have not had time to arrange my fentiments on the prefent fubject: but, at the fight of the bill before you, the hairs of my head ftand on end! I demand, at least, that, if you do not adopt the previous question, you will fend a meffage to the directory, for farther inftructions. I have yet one farther obfervation to make, and then I have done. The bill is fo conceived and worded, that it puts the power of making the law into the hands of the directory, who might, according to their pleasure, banish the Bourbons to Spain, for example, and the deputies, to the burning defarts of Surinam, there to perifh of thirst and hunger." This fmart fortie, this unexpected fally of honeft indignation, excited a general murmur and agitation throughout the whole affembly, which rendered the prefent fitting one of the most boisterous that had taken place for a twelvemonth.The fubject was exceedingly interefting: and, though there was only one member in oppofition to feveral hundreds, he was animated and fupported by reafon and moral fentiment, and long maintained the unequal conteft with overwhelming numbers and unconquerable prejudices, teazed and tortured into many expreffions of impatience and blind paffion and refentment. For this reafon, we have judged it probable, that we should do a pleasure to our readers, to embrace the prefent occafion to lay before them a fpecimen of the debates in the French parliament. Rouchon, throughout the whole of his fpeech, was interrupted with cries from individuals in different parts of the hall, befides the general and univerfal burfts, already mentioned, of, to order, down with him, have done, to the Abbey with him, to Guiana, and fo on. He, alone, and unfupported by a fingle countenance or voice, maintained the caufe of juftice and humanity, in the midft of reproaches, menaces, and the conftant calls of the prefident to order. Sometimes he forced his way, in the debates which followed his firft fpeech, into the tribune, and spoke from thence, and fometimes ftanding up in his place in the hall. In the debates in the French assemblies, there is a degree of gefticulation and contortion of countenance, that, to an Eng lifhman, and all the northern nations, except, perhaps, the Ruffians, would certainly appear in the higheft degree extravagant and ridiculous. Gefture and action are a kind of mute modes of interchang ing fentiments, which the French, in their public meetings, have improved into a kind of language, very well understood to one año ther, in all its modifications, though not a little various. In this fpecies of language, Rouchon was not a whit behind his most violent opponents. When his voice was drowned by the confentient clamours of hundreds, he ftill expreffed his fentiments by gestures, looks, and irritating fmiles of contempt, glanced in the faces of his bittereft adverfaries. These were, Geniffieux, Boulay-Paty, Lecointe-Puiraveaux, Chabert, Crochon, and PoulaineGrandpré. The following is a fhort abridgement of the greater part of the speeches that were made from the tribune, in answer to that of Rouchon. Geniffieux.-I would afk of Rouchon, when did he ever fet his face against any of thofe evils that threatened the country before the eighteenth of Fructidor? Did he mount the tribune, when the infamous Dumoulard demanded a trial of the hero who had conquered Italy? Did any one hear his voice, when the profcribed republicans had not where to lay their heads? They talk of a violation of the conftitution! Are you the defenders of the conftitution, ye abominable faction! ye, who, with the word constitution in your mouths, are going about every where to organize tribunals, for murdering the friends of liberty! [Here Rouchon teftified ftrong diffent and difapprobation on which feveral of thofe near him frowned at him, and cried, to the Abbey]. Yes, continued Genifheux, at the very time when the tribunals, fold to Blankenbourg, acquitted, for example, a woman who had avowed that it was her wish to exterminate all the republicans! Aye, cried a great number of the deputies, and which acquitted, alfo, a number of agents in the caufe of royalty! Geniffieux, after this exordium, faid, that, he could refute all the principles on which Rouchon had oppofed the bill: if, indeed, there were, in that hall, fuch a number of deputies capable of approving his principles as to make a refutation of them at all neceffary. [At these words, almost the whole of the members, rifing as by one accord from their feats, cried out, No, no, it is not neceffary: Vive la république ! ] Boulay-Paty. You have heard, to-day, the last squeak of the infamous faction of Clichy. It is the arrival, in London, of Pichegru, Willot, Barthelemy, and other confpirators, that had this day fent to this tribune the fcum of Clichy. Lecointe - Puiraveaux inveighed against the continued machinations of royalifm. Thanks and praife, cried he, to the genius of the republic! which has forced the con1pirators to throw off the mafk, The friends of the republic will unite clofely together, and the confpirators will again hide their heads! Rouchon, overpowered by an inceflant cry of Vive la république quitted the hall: on which all the members rofe, and, amidst an univerfal fhout of exultation, waved > their hats in the air. The refolutions moved in the bill were then read over, one by one, and all of them agreed to. On the fifth of November, the fame fubject was recalled to the confideration of the five hundred, by by Chabert, who obferved, that the unexpected fpeech of Rouchon had prevented the members of the council from reflecting maturely on the bill before them. Half measures were out of feafon. It was neceffary to give the finishing blow to the confpirators: he, therefore, moved, that all those who should withdraw themselves from the places of their exile, fhould be treated as emigrants. This motion was immediately agreed to, and a committee appointed to draw up a new fet of refolutions, or, in other words, a new bill conformably to the fame. Thus the generous efforts of Rouchon, in favour of thofe unfortunate men, whom the council called confpirators, had no other effect than to provoke greater feverity and cruelty against them. The oppofition of Rouchon awakened, in the legiflators of Fructidor, an irritation that was vented in expreffions of animofity, more and more violent, in proportion as the arguments urged against the bill were teazing, and unanfwerable by any other mode than that of numbers united by the fympathy of common prejudice and paffion. Chabert. The agitation into which you were thrown, at your laft fitting, by the difcourfe of Rouchon, did not permit you to beftow, on the bill before you, all the perfection of which it is fufceptible. Be affured that the propofitions then stated were not the effects of mere inconfideration, but the fruits of deep defign; and the petty councils ftill held in fecret, by the agents of royalifm. Yes, reprefentatives of the French people, a confpiracy is ftill on foot against liberty! Rouchon proposes to revife the law of the nineteenth of Fructidor. It is a wonder he did not propose to revife the law for the abolition of royalty! A party of thofe men, who were condemned to exile, endeavours to revive criminal machinations here: others of them, having fled to England, confpire with the foreign enemy. Rouchon talks of forbearance and indulgenceWhat is it a time to talk of indulgence, to thofe men, when the Rhone and the Seine are ftill tinged with the blood of their unhappy victims! Representatives, there is not now room for half measures. I demand, that all the laws, that have been enacted against emigrants, fhall be applicable to those who shall have withdrawn themfelves from deportation. Rouchon-I demand to be heard in oppofition to that propofal. A very great number of voices: to order, to order! Crochon. When an audacious orator, from this tribune, undertakes the defence of the confpirators of the eighteenth of Fructidor; when he dares to prefume the innocence of agents of royalty; when, doing honour to himfelf, by adopting the language of a name dear to the friends of liberty (Condorcet), he maintains that the punishments, inflicted on political delinquencies, ought to be only temporary; the royalifts will, no doubt, fmile for a moment. But let them know, that, if a treacherous deputy has the impudence Rouchon.-You are an ass! A great number of voices: to the Abbey with him, to the Abbey !. Crochon continued: :-- When a man has the impudence to make ftipulations for the interests of roy alty, alty, we will make ftipulations for thofe of the republic. The royal ifts have caufe to tremble: their accomplices, too, dread, left they fhould drive us to the neceffity of taking extraordinary measures. Yes, thofe men, who were vomited from the legislature, perfevere in their confpirations ftill! An infurrec. tion, as terrible as it is unexpected, attefts the refult of their plots. What is the expedient proposed to you at fuch a crifis? To fend the confpirators out of the country? No but that they fhall be treated as emigrants. What is our legifla tive power good for, if a criminal, condemned to exile, fhall be fuffered contumaciously to refuse certificates of his refidence! I vote for the amendment propofed by Chabert. [A great number of voices joined in a general confent and acclamation.] Rouchon. I have not demanded a hearing, for the purpofe of replying to perfonalities. I am wearied of making fuch replies. I only mean to propofe a new claufe to the bill. There is no article in the bill, for fixing the condition and civil fituation of the wives and children of perfons giving themfelves up to deportation. Many, of thofe condemned to exile, will voluntarily yield to their fate, rather than to devote their unhappy families to mifery, and ruin. I demand, that their generous facrifice of health and life fhall not be loft to their wives and children, but that, from the moment they furrender themfelves prifoners, the fequeftrations fhall be taken off from their eftates. In the bill before you, it is propofed, indeed, that fome relief fhould be granted to the families of exiles, at the ex penfe of the legislature: but, before you be generous, you ought to be juft: and, if you are fo, you will not withhold from wives what they could claim, nor from innocent and helplefs children their natural inheritance. With regard to the accufations brought against me, of being a confpirator, I declare that nothing fhall prevent me from obeying the dictates of my conscience. But I will answer my accufers. What do I gain, by ftanding up for the unfortunate and wretched? While I difcharge a facred duty to others, do I ftipulate any thing for my own private interefts ? Will my appearances for thofe unhappy men contribute to the improvement of my own fortune? Will they beftow on me embaffies, confulfhips, or any place under government? No! I demand only liberty, which implies juftice: and this is the amount of my confpiracy! Poulaine-Grandpré answered to Rouchon, that, of the two cafes, he had fuppofed the one was already provided for by a law already paffed, and that the other was to be provided for by a fubfequent law. He therefore propofed, that the council fhould pafs from the prefent converfation to the order of the day. Chat-Zot Latour invoked the juftice of the council in favour of the wives and children of exiles, and feconded the motion that had been made by Rouchon. Several members having demanded that the refolution, moved by Chabert, fhould be put to the vote, it was put accordingly and carried, and a committee appointed for digefting it into a proper form. On the day thereafter, the fixth of November, the bill, newly modelled by the refolution of Chabert, for treating refractory exiles, in every refpect, as emigrants, pafled the council of five hundred, and, on the eighth, was fent up to the council of ancients, where it was taken into confideration, on the ninth of November. Maillant was aftonished that, after a committee had formerly been appointed by the council for revifing and reconfidering the proceed ing of the eighteenth of Fructidor, there fhould be any objection or hefitation of appointing one for the fame purpose, now, in circumftances lefs urgent. If the council fhould not agree to the appointment of a committee, he defired permiffion to deliver his fentiments on the general fubject. Dentzel. Speak, fpeak, we fall fee! Goupil called to mind, as Maillant had done, that, on the occa. fion of the eighteenth of Fructidor, a committee of the whole houfe had been appointed, and a difcuffion taken place on the bufinefs of that day in the courfe of which, two of their colleagues, he faid, had made efforts, ineffectual indeed, but which had not leffened them in the public esteem. We appoint committees, faid he, for examining the proceedings of the fmalleft primary affemblies, and fhall we not appoint one for the examination of a refolution that has coft a difcuffion of five days in the council of five hundred, and fince there can be no danger from leifurely deliberation? The difcuffion wifhed for is the more defirable, that it may produce a fatisfactory explanation of paft tranfactions. Moreau, (one of the members for Yonne). What! do you talk of a committee, at the moment when your country points out the men who are her murderers, and this hall still re-echoes the tranfactions of the abominable affaffins employed by royalty? They come for the purpofe of feconding the defigns of the perfidious Albion, for the deftruction of the republic. The debates that have taken place, in the council of five hundred, have rendered all farther difcuffion on the prefent refolution, in this place, unneceffary. The eyes of Europe are upon us; and the fafety of the Great Nation imperiously demands the measure before you. I demand that the bill may be passed imme, diately. Lecoulteux approved the propofal for referring the bill to a committee. It might produce expla nations that might be followed by a more entire acquiefcence and fubmiffion to the law propofed. One article in the bill mentions a future and ulterior deftination for exiles. If, from any fair conftruction of these words, it should appear, that there were any grounds for hope that they were to be fent elfe where than to Guiana, where, it feemed, that there was at present, dreadful mortality, he doubted not but they would fubmit to the law. Gouthier faid, that, if Guiana was really fatal, to the exiles, it was to be prefumed that the humanity of the directory would change their deftination. Dubuiffon obferved, that there was no occafion for an adjournment, as Maillant was ready to speak to the general question. Maillant oppofed the bill. The meafure propofed was not urged by any neceffity; for as much as there |