LAVOISIER. 323 



lettered multitude are permitted to bear sway and to 

 place in the seat of dominion their idols, who dupe to 

 betray and finally punish them. The execrable trium- 

 virate in 1794 seized him with twenty-seven others, 

 who had been fermiers-general before the Kevolution, 

 an employment he held as it were by inheritance; 

 they were all flung into prison upon a charge which 

 as against most of them, certainly as against Lavoisier, 

 was ridiculously groundless, that of having mixed water 

 and ingredients hurtful to the health of the citizens for 

 the adulteration of tobacco, one of the objects of the 

 ferme; but their real crimes were their possessions. 

 On hearing of the order for his arrest he fled, and re- 

 mained for some days in concealment ; but under- 

 standing that his escape might injure the others, and 

 that among them M. Paulze, his father-in-law, had been 

 arrested, he nobly, though to the sorrow of the sciences, 

 gave himself up and was confined with the rest. He 

 presently perceived that he must expect to be stripped 

 of his property; but he could lead the life of a philo- 

 sopher, and wealth had never ministered to any but 

 his philosophical pursuits. He had, indeed, when those 

 dismal times began, in conversation with Laborde, said 

 that he foresaw his fortune could not escape, and that 

 he was resolved, when ruined, to support himself by 

 his labour ; and the profession in which he designed 

 to engage was that of pharmacy. No such respite, 

 however, was now allowed him. By a retrospective 

 law, monstrous even in that season of violence, their 

 persons were declared punishable for the profits which 

 they had made from the old government, and punishable 

 not as for malversation but treason. This iniquitous 

 decree was passed on the 5th May ; under it he was 

 condemned to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal, 

 before whom a courageous citizen, M. Halle, had the 

 noble firmness to read a detailed account of Lavoisier's 

 discoveries, and his services to his country. After his 

 sentence was pronounced, he himself asked to be 



