COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY. 



33 



on, — when the Convention was investing itself with the 

 riglit of pronouncing on the fate of Louis XVI. ; wlien 

 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 pati'iotisni 

 always found the secret of surmounting. 



CAUNOT A MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE OP 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 — I wiUingly 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 suffisr 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 reecho here, unless 

 I had discovered the honourable and patriotic causes of 

 certain acts which the most atrocious of calumnies, politi- 



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