32 CARNOT. 



to the great shade of Carnot. I am desired, wished, and 

 almost ordered to do this. Well ! I consent, I will not 

 speak of the drama whose &quot; denouement &quot; was the tragic 

 death of the successor of a hundred kings, and the over 

 throw of the monarchy ; nevertheless I, a decided parti 

 san of the abolition of the punishment of death, do not 

 perceive the supposed difficulties of position which should 

 have hindered me from abandoning myself here publicly 

 to the inspirations of my conscience ; nor do I see any 

 better, why I should have abstained from rendering this 

 assembly aware of the deep aversion which I profess for 

 every political decree issued by a political body. Must I 

 say it, in a word ? a fraternal solicitude for the memory 

 of Carnot did not appear to me to require the sacrifice 

 which is imposed upon me. Is it forgotten how contem 

 poraneous history would have furnished me with accusing 

 documents against the thousand courtiers whose inter 

 ested, hypocritical, and antinational manoeuvres cast the 

 monarch into a labyrinth without exit, caused him to be 

 unanimously declared culpable by the national represen 

 tatives, and were much more instrumental than the ardent 

 democratical ideas of the Convention in rendering the 

 catastrophe of the 21st of January inevitable ? If from 

 these high moral considerations I had descended to a 

 minute appreciation and technical discussion of facts, 

 such as one has to submit to a court of appeal or of re 

 peal, I should, in company with all upright minds with 

 our Daunou, for example, have found the illegality of 

 the celebrated trial, less in the nature of the sentence, 

 less in the severity of the punishment inflicted, than in 

 the very composition of the tribunal, or in the usurpation 

 of power which had given birth to it. Now, Gentlemen, 

 and this is a point I should not have failed to remark 



