On the Coniiict of Parties in the Jacobin Club 5 



jecture, entered by Duqtiesnoy under date of March 16, 1790, is 

 frequently repeated by the enemies of the Jacobins as a fact, but 

 our trustworthy sources give no evidence of the existence of a 

 formally organized committee of this nature.^ 



Hardly had the Crillon difficulty been disposed of before the 

 long debate in the National Assembly upon the judicial system 

 began, creating a new division in the popular party. Adrien 

 Duport, rejecting the report of the committee on the constitu- 

 tion, toward the close of March, read a plan of his own which 

 the society officially approved by printing it. On March 30, it 

 was attacked in the society itself, after Loyseau had on the 24th 

 read a long and favorable commentary on it.^ The point of 

 greatest difficulty was whether or not juries should 'be introduced 

 in civil cases as Duport had proposed. Barnave, the Lameths, 

 and Robespierre warmly seconded Duport against the advocates 

 and procurers who almost to a unit opposed it. In spite of the 

 violence of Charles Lameth, who declared that he would oppose 

 the aristocracy of the advocates as he had opposed the other aris- 

 tocrats, and the talk of despotism and counter-revolution, the 

 party of Duport was defeated.^ But the debate had beyond 

 question driven a number of deputies from the club. 



It was at this time that the "Triumvirate," composed of Bar- 

 nave, Alexander Lameth, and Adrien Duport, established their 

 supremacy in the society. The formation of the "Club of '89" 

 about this time contributed to this result by removing a large 

 number of deputies who would have opposed them had they re- 

 mained. Their power in the club and in the assembly was at- 

 tested by the fury with which their enemies attacked them. 

 From May or June, 1790, to March, 1791, innumerable pam- 

 phlets and articles in the newspapers were directed against them 



^Duquesnoy,yc«r«a/, I, bulletin for March 16, 1790. 



^Aulard, I, 42-58, speech of Loyseau. 



s The discussion on the jury system is somewhat fully reported in the 

 Correspondance de MM. les deputes des communes de la province d'Anjou, 

 IV, Nos. 22 and 23. Ferrieres says that the avocats were a disturbing ele- 

 ment among the " revolutionists" at this time. Robespierre claims that the 

 avocats acted as a unit against the jury in criminal cases. Memoires au- 

 ihentiques de M. de Robespierre, Paris, 1830, II, 66. See also Chronique de 

 Paris, No. 98. 1790. 



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