COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY. 83 
on,—when the Convention was investing itself with the 
right of pronouncing on the fate of Louis XVI.; when 
after this stroke it was regulating its jurisprudence ; when 
it was simultaneously attributing to itself the functions of 
accuser and judge, Carnot was absent from Paris; he 
was fulfilling with the armies one of those important 
missions, the difficulties of which his ardent patriotism 
always found the secret of surmounting. 
CARNOT A MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC 
SAFETY. 
The concession which was required of me, if I con 
formed exactly to it, nevertheless authorizes me to show 
myself less docile on the subject of another period of 
Carnot’s life, which is still more stormy and difficult. 
Let us avoid—lI willingly consent to it—carrying our at- 
tention back to certain irritating phases of our civil dis- 
cords ; for my own part, I will only put one condition on 
it; that is, that the memory of none of our members 
shall suffer by it. Well, Gentlemen, suppose for a mo- 
ment that I be now silent concerning the “ Member of 
the Committee of Public Safety ;” would it not be con- 
cluded from my silence—nay more, would it not be right 
to conclude from thence—that I have recognized the 
impossibility of repelling the violent, numerous, and 
trenchant attacks of which he was the object? These 
attacks Carnot, whilst living, was able to disdain; in me, 
on the contrary, it was incumbent to seek for their origin, 
and conscientiously weigh their value. I say it with- 
out exaggeration, no human power should have decided 
me to cause the name of Carnot to reécho here, unless 
I had discovered the honourable and patriotic causes of 
certain acts which the most atrocious of calumnies, politi- 
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