PETION PETITION OF RIGHT. 



501 



sures as were calculated to impede the extension of 

 liberty and equality of rights. In October, 1789, he 

 was appointed a member of the first committee of 

 general safety, and, December 4, 1790, was elected 

 president of the national assembly. In June follow- 

 ing, he became president of the criminal tribunal of 

 Paris, and together with Barnave and Latour-Mau- 

 bourg, was appointed commissioner to attend the 

 return of the monarch. He was elected mayor of 

 Paris, November 14, 1791, and in consequence of his 

 implication in the attack on the Tuileries, June 20, 

 1792, was suspended from his functions, July 6, but 

 restored by the assembly on the 13th. His behaviour 

 on the 10th of August has, by some, been interpreted 

 as the result of weakness, and by others as the effect 

 of design to avoid betraying his character as an 

 abettor of the violence. Being nominated a deputy 

 from the department of Eure and Loire to the con- 

 vention which met in September, he became the 

 first president of that assembly. Soon after the death 

 of the king, Pethion was accused of having contri- 

 buted to the massacres of September ; but against 

 this charge he successfully defended himself. He 

 now, however, became the object of jealousy to 

 Robespierre, and was included in the proscription of 

 the Girondists, May 31, 1793. (See Girondists.} 

 He made his escape, with some other deputies of the 

 same party, to the department of Calvados, where 

 they in vain endeavoured to avail themselves of the 

 insurrections against the terrorists. Some time after, 

 the body of Pethion, with that of Buzot, one of his 

 confederates, was found in a field, in the department 

 of the Gironde, half devoured by wolves, and it was 

 supposed that he had perished from hunger. His 

 works were printed in 1793, in 4 vols. 8vo. 



PETION, ALEXANDRE, president of the southern 

 parts of the island Hayti, was a mulatto, and receiv- 

 ed his education in the military school of Paris. 

 Being a man of cultivated understanding and attrac- 

 tive manners, and moreover well instructed in the 

 art of war, he served in the French, and afterwards 

 in the Haytian armies, with success and reputation. 

 He was in high credit as a skilful engineer, in which 

 capacity he rendered the most essential services to 

 Toussaint and Dessalines, from whom he received 

 many marks of attention, and rapid advancement in 

 his profession. He succeeded Clervaux in the go- 

 vernment of Port au Prince, and the command of the 

 mulattoes, and held this post at the time of Dessa- 

 lines' death. Petion was highly respected by the 

 people for his talents and virtues ; and upon the dis- 

 solution of the government by the death of Dessa- 

 lines, the people of colour rallied around him as their 

 chief, in preference to Christophe, who became the 

 leader of the blacks. Christophe, deeming himself 

 entitled to the undivided succession of Toussaint 

 and Dessalines, the two chiefs took up arms, and 

 had many rencounters, in one of which particularly, 

 a pitched battle, fought January 1, 1807, Petion was 

 defeated and pursued by Christophe to the very gates 

 of Port au Prince. This campaign secured to Chris- 

 tophe a decided and unquestioned ascendency in the 

 northern part of the island, where his chief strength 

 lay. Still Petion's personal popularity, and the 

 hostility of the mulattoes to the negroes, enabled 

 him to maintain his ground at the south ; and a 

 bloody war ensued between the rival chieftains, of 

 several years' duration, favourable, in its issue, 

 to Christophe on the whole, but not sufficiently 

 so to dispossess Petion of his power. Weari- 

 ed, at length, of their unavailing struggle, both 

 parties tacitly suspended the contest, and devot- 

 ed themselves to the improvement of their respec- 

 tive dominions. Petion's government took the form 

 of republican institutions, consisting of himself, as 



president for life, and a legislative body so constitut- 

 ed as to be completely under his influence. Petion 

 was a man of fine talents and of honourable feelings 

 and intentions, but not well adapted for the station 

 which he was called upon to fill. The Haytians, just 

 liberated from absolute slavery, without the educa- 

 tion, habits of thought, moral energy and rectitude 

 of character, which are necessary in a government 

 perfectly republican, stood in need of a ruler less 

 kind, gentle, and humane than Petion. In conse- 

 quence of this, his people relaxed in their attention 

 to agriculture, his finances became disorganized, and 

 his country impoverished ; and, disheartened at a 

 state of things which he saw no means of remedying, 

 he sank into a state of despondency, which ended in 

 voluntary death. His final illness lasted only eight 

 days, during which he resolutely refused all remedies, 

 and every species of aliment, even to water, dying, 

 at length, of mere inanition and despondency. His 

 physicians, upon examining his body after death, 

 found all its functions perfectly sound, and without 

 any trace of malady. He died, March 29, 1818, 

 and was succeeded by president Boyer. Malo, Haiti 

 (published 1825) ; Franklin's Hayti, ch. 8. 



PETITION, in politics. The right of petitioning 

 is indispensable to complete the constitutional or re- 

 presentative system. In absolute governments, and 

 in those founded upon the ancient three estates, this 

 right is often, or, we may say, almost always, denied 

 to the citizen. As the present constitutional govern- 

 ments in Europe originated from one or the other of 

 these forms, it has been considered necessary to pro- 

 vide for this right by express articles in their char- 

 ters ; otherwise it would be strange to mention this 

 right any more than thousands of others which are 

 not mentioned ; for how can citizens be reasonably 

 refused the liberty to make requests to governments 

 established for their benefit? In Britain, there are 

 certain laws enacted to prevent disorder, in case 

 many citizens assemble to deliberate on the propriety 

 of petitioning government for particular enactments. 

 Since Charles II. (1662), it has been necessary for 

 at least three justices of the peace of the county to 

 give their consent if more than twenty persons wish 

 to sign a petition. It cannot be presented by more 

 than ten persons, and must be written in a respectful 

 tone. Large assemblies must abstain from any 

 breach of the peace, else the riot act may be read. 

 In respect to meetings in the open air, some laws 

 were enacted in 1819, to remain in force for five 

 years ; for instance, that no one should appear armed ; 

 that the inhabitants of but one parish should meet ; 

 that the meeting should be advertised six days be- 

 forehand ; that the petition should be signed by 

 seven householders at least, &c. The justices of 

 the peace may also divide large parishes of more 

 than 20,000 souls into districts of 10,000, that the 

 assemblies may not be too numerous. Lately, how- 

 ever, meetings have been held attended by many 

 more. In France, before the revolution, when the 

 three estates assembled to choose deputies to the 

 general estates of the realm, it was customary to 

 provide them with cahier de griefs et de dolfance, 

 which, at the breaking out of the revolution, became 

 important. The right of petitioning was then pro- 

 nounced, and was greatly abused during the revolu- 

 tion, as may be easily imagined, on account of the dis- 

 ordered state of society. The right of petitioning by 

 large numbers was then abolished. The charter re- 

 established it. 



PETITION OF RIGHT. The conflict between 

 the crown and the parliament had already begun, in 

 the reign of James I., when (1621) the house of 

 commons framed the famous protestation that the 

 liberties, franchises, privileges and jurisdictions of 



