COMMERSON COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY. 



303 



search, comprehensive views, and logical power dis- 

 played both by the counsel and- the courts, will sup- 

 port a comparison with those of their European con- 

 temporaries, who might derive very useful additions 

 to their own adjudications, particularly on the sub- 

 jects of merchants' shipping and insurance, from the 

 American reports. Among ttye most eminent of 

 those who have contributed to the elucidation of the 

 commercial law, chief justice Marshall, and justices 

 Washington and Story, of the supreme court of the 

 United States, and chancellor Kent of New York. 



COMMERSON, PHILIBERT, a botanist, born 1727, 

 at Chatillon-les-Dombes, was a doctor of medicine 

 in Montpellier. In 1767, at the command of the 

 king of France, he accompanied Bougainville (q. v.) 

 on his voyage round the world. From the name of 

 a young French lady, Hortense Barre, who accom- 

 panied him in a man's dress, he called a flower, now 

 well known, Hortensia. During this voyage, he 

 died on the Isle de France, in 1773. He wrote, 

 among other things, a botanical martyrology a 

 biography of those who have fallen victims to their 

 efforts in the cause of botany. He left his plants, 

 drawings, and papers to the royal cabinet at Paris. 



COMMINES. See Comines. 



COMMITTEE. Large deliberative assemblies, 

 with a great variety of business before them, are un- 

 able to discuss and investigate, sufficiently, many 

 subjects on which they are obliged to act. Com- 

 mittees, therefore, are appointee!, to examine and 

 to report to the assembly. Committees have a right 

 to choose their chairman. In the Lritish parliament 

 and the legislative bodies in the United States, as, in 

 fact, in all legislative bodies in representative go- 

 vernments, there are select and standing committees. 

 The French chambers are divided into bureaux. 

 The standing committees are appointed, in Britain, 

 and the United States, by the speaker or president 

 of the house, at the beginning of each session. In 

 the British parliament, the standing committees ap- 

 pointed at every session are those of privileges and 

 elections, of religion, of grievances, of courts of jus- 

 tice, and of trade, though only the first mentioned 

 acts. In the congress of the United States, the 

 standing committees are very numerous; some of 

 the most important are those of elections, of ways 

 and means, of commerce, of public lands, of the 

 judiciary, of public expenditures, of Indian affairs, 

 of foreign affairs, of manufactures, &c. In fact, 

 business is done by means of committees, much more 

 in the American congress than in the British parlia- 

 ment. The French chamber, on the request of five 

 members, must resolve itself into a secret com- 

 mittee. 



Committee of the Whole. Matters of great con- 

 cerument are usually referred to a committee of the 

 whole house, where general principles are digested 

 in the form of resolutions, which are debated and 

 amended, till they take a shape which meets the 

 approbation of the majority. These, being reported, 

 and confirmed by the house, are then referred to one 

 or more select committees, according as the subject 

 divides itself into one or more bills. The sense of 

 the whole assembly is better taken in committee , 

 because in all committees every one speaks as often 

 as he pleases. They generally acquiesce in the 

 chairman named by the speaker, but, like all other 

 committees, have a right to elect their chairman, 

 some member, by consent, putting the question. 

 When the house is desirous of forming itself into a 

 committee, the speaker, on motion, puts the question 

 whether the house will resolve itself into a committee 

 of the whole, to take into consideration such a 

 matter, naming it. No previous question can be put 

 in a committee ; nor can this committee adjourn, as 



others may ; but, if their business is unfinished when 

 the time of separation arrives, a motion is made for 

 rising, and the cliairman reports that the committee 

 of the whole have, according to order, had under 

 their consideration such a matter, and have made 

 progress therein, but, not having had time to go 

 through the same, have directed him to ask leave to 

 sit again. The question is then put whether the 

 request shall be granted, and, if so, at what time the 

 house will again resolve itself into a committee. 

 But, if they have gone through the matter referred 

 to them, the chairman reports, either immediately, 

 or, if the house wish, at a later period. 



COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY (Comitt 

 de Salut Public). Under this name, the Mountain 

 party or Terrorists (see Terror, Reign of), in the 

 national convention (see France), concealed the dic- 

 tatorial power which they had assumed to overthrow 

 the Girondists (q. v.) and the moderate party, that 

 the Mountain party might rule, and the republic tri- 

 umph over its domestic and foreign enemies. The 

 revolutionary tribunal was subservient to this com- 

 mittee, which was at first composed of nine, then 

 of twelve members. The committee was established 

 April 6, 1793, in the stead of the comite de defense 

 generate, which had existed hardly ten days ; and 

 the convention, from the midst of which its members 

 (among them Danton, Barrere, Cambon) were 

 chosen, intrusted it with unlimited power of secret 

 deliberation, and of supervising the ministers. It 

 was, in every case, to provide for the public welfare 

 as its own judgment should dictate ; and therefore, 

 after the lapse of a few months, the right of im- 

 prisonment was also given it. The prevailing party 

 acted on the ground that France, threatened from 

 within and without, could not be governed as if at 

 peace (as the Girondists wished), but could only be 

 saved by desperate measures, as in times of the 

 greatest danger. But, after the downfall of the 

 Girondists, June 1 and 2, 1793, when the Mountain, 

 on the recommendation of the committee of safety, 

 declared that the population of France consisted of 

 but two parties, patriots and enemies of the revolu- 

 tion, and consigned the latter to the persecution of 

 all good citizens, terror took the place of law. 

 Robespierre (q. v.) soon afterwards, July 27, 1793, 

 became a member of the committee of safety, the 

 members of which were appointed monthly ; but the 

 old members were, at this period, commonly re- 

 elected. From this time, the committee governed 

 the Mountain party, and, through it, the convention. 

 As the sole rule of his conduct, Robespierre declared 

 that the main-spring of a popular government in a 

 state of revolution was la vertu et la terreur I With 

 him, and in accordance with his views, St Just, 

 Coutlion, Billaud de Varennes, Collot d'Herbois, and 

 Herault de Sechelles acted in the committee. Car- 

 not (q. v.), likewise a member of the committee of 

 public safety, confined himself to the direction of the 

 armies, and left to his colleagues the affairs of the in- 

 terior. At the motion of these men, the new con- 

 stitution was suspended for a time, and the revolution- 

 ary government conferred on the committee of safety, 

 by a decree of the convention, of Dec. 4, 1793. The 

 committee now instituted in all the communes of the 

 republic, as judges of the suspected, revolutionary 

 committees, composed of the most furious zealots : 

 tlie number of these new tribunals was as great as 

 20,000. The last remaining forms of regular pro- 

 cess were abolished; their place was supplied by 

 violence, and often by avarice and folly. In this 

 time of internal revolutions, and danger from without, 

 it was not in the power of man to restrain the exas- 

 perated fury, which, probably, alone prevented France 

 from being conquered. Finally, Danton, who luid 



