COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY. 33 



on, when the Convention was investing itself with the 

 right of pronouncing on the fate of Louis XVI. ; when 

 after this stroke it was regulating its jurisprudence ; when 

 it was simultaneously attributing to itself the functions of 

 accuser and judge, Carnot was absent from Paris ; he 

 was fulfilling with the armies one of those important 

 missions, the difficulties of which his ardent patriotism 

 always found the secret of surmounting. 



CARNOT A MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC 

 SAFETY. 



The concession which was required of me, if I con 

 formed exactly to it, nevertheless authorizes me to show 

 myself less docile on the subject of another period of 

 Carnot s life, which is still more stormy and difficult. 

 Let us avoid I willingly consent to it carrying our at 

 tention back to certain irritating phases of our civil dis 

 cords ; for my own part, I will only put one condition on 

 it ; that is, that the memory of none of our members 

 shall suffer by it. Well, Gentlemen, suppose for a mo 

 ment that I be now silent concerning the &quot; Member of 

 the Committee of Public Safety ; &quot; would it not be con 

 cluded from my silence nay more, would it not be right 

 to conclude from thence that I have recognized the 

 impossibility of repelling the violent, numerous, and 

 trenchant attacks of which he was the object ? These 

 attacks Carnot, whilst living, was able to disdain ; in me, 

 on the contrary, it was incumbent to seek for their origin, 

 and conscientiously weigh their value. I say it with 

 out exaggeration, no human power should have decided 

 me to cause the name of Carnot to reecho here, unless 

 I had discovered the honourable and patriotic causes of 

 certain acts which the most atrocious of calumnies, politi- 



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