34 CARNOT. 



cal calumny, had soiled with its infected slaver. My 

 work, furthermore, was not without some difficulties. 

 Perhaps no one henceforth will have the opportunity 

 to reunite its elements. In a few years, indeed, the 

 colleagues and fellow labourers of Carnot, from whom 

 I have been able to gather some lights and evidences, 

 will have paid the debt of nature. 



In 1793 the convention was the only organized power 

 in the State, capable of opposing an effective dyke 

 against the overflow of enemies, who came from all 

 parts of Europe to cast themselves on France, and 

 menace her nationality. The nationality of a people is 

 like honour : the slightest wound to it becomes mortal. 

 Such were, Gentlemen, the sentiments of very many 

 members of the Convention, whose memory France re- 

 veres ; such were the ties which attached them to the 

 perilous post whither election had called them. 



In creating the " Committee of Public Safety," (6th 

 April 1793,) the Convention had reserved to itself the 

 choice of its members. Up to the famous 31st of May, 

 it counted only neutral members, or at any rate such as 

 were strangers to the factions of the Assembly who were 

 combating each other to the death. After several partial 

 renewals it was composed, on the llth September 1793, 

 of Robespierre, Saint-Just, Couthon, Collot d'Herbois, 

 Billaud-Varennes, Prieur (of the Marne), Prieur (of the 

 Cote-d'Or), Carnot, Jean-bon Saint-Andre, Barere, He- 

 rault de Sechelles, and Robert Lindet. 



The Convention, when it delegated such great powers 

 to the Committee of Public Safety, desired that every 

 affair should be a subject of profound discussion and de- 

 liberation in that committee ; that the majority of voices 

 should decide. The decisions, to acquire the force of 



