32 CARNOT. 
to the great shade of Carnot. Iam desired, wished, and 
almost ordered to do this. Well! TI consent, I will not 
speak of the drama whose “dénouement” was the tragic 
death of the successor of a hundred kings, and the over- 
throw of the monarchy; nevertheless I, a decided parti- 
san of the abolition of the punishment of death, do not 
perceive the supposed difficulties of position which should 
have hindered me from abandoning myself here publicly 
to the inspirations of my conscience ; nor do I see any 
better, why I should have abstained from rendering this 
assembly aware of the deep aversion which I profess for 
every political decree issued by a political body. Must I 
say it, in a word ?—a fraternal solicitude for the memory 
of Carnot did not appear to me to require the sacrifice 
which is imposed upon me. Is it forgotten how contem- 
poraneous history would have furnished me with accusing: 
documents against the thousand courtiers whose inter- 
ested, hypocritical, and antinational manceuvres cast the 
monarch into a labyrinth without exit, caused him to be 
unanimously declared culpable by the national represen- 
tatives, and were much more instrumental than the ardent 
democratical ideas of the Convention in rendering the 
catastrophe of the 21st of January inevitable? If from 
these high moral considerations I had descended to a 
minute appreciation and technical discussion of facts, 
such as one has to submit to a court of appeal or of re- 
peal, I should, in company with all upright minds—with 
our Daunou, for example,—have found the illegality of 
the celebrated trial, less in the nature of the sentence, 
less in the severity of the punishment inflicted, than in 
the very composition of the tribunal, or in the usurpation 
of power which had given birth to it. Now, Gentlemen, 
—and this is a point I should not have failed to remark 
