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The prefident thus addressed them: Be affured, citizens, that there never will be in France, king, dictator, trium virs, nor protectors. We each wear a poignard to be plunged into the heart of the first dominator who thall lay a parricidal hand on the ftatue of liberty. Virtue and probity are not idle words. There are hypocrites in virtue as well as in patriotilin; but they fhall be unmasked. It is not to men that we must attach ourfelves, but to principles, which are in variable. Let every man in public trull know, that he has only to choose between a civic crown and the fcaffold.

Carno then called the attention of the convention to a very important object. • In the name,' faid he, of the committee of public fafety, I propofe the abolition of the executive council, which you have already felt to be inconfittent with a republican government.'-The hall refounded with applauies. After explaining the inconveniences of this remnant of monarchy, a fyftem, of which the following are the principal articles, was propoled and adopted as the form of revolutionary government till peace:

I. The provifional executive council is fuppreffed, as well as the fix minifters who compofe it. Their functions fhall cafe on the first Floreal (April 20th)

II. Its place fhall be fupplied by twelve commiffions, viz. it, one of police and courts of justice, charged with printing and publishing laws, and with the feal.2d, One of public inftruction, charged with libraries, with the fuperintendance of fchools, weights, measures, spectacles, and national fettivals.-3d, One of Agriculture and arts, charged with rural economy and mechanic ar s.-4th, One of commerce and provifions, charged with interior circulation. This commiffion alone fhall have the right of pre-emption. sth, One of public works, charged with making and repairing roads, monuments, ports, &c.-6th, One of public fuccour.-7th, One of finance, charged with domains and contributions.-8th, One of tranfports and pofts, charged with military convoys, &c.-gth, One of movements of land forces, charged with the levy of troops and the direction of armies. -10th, One of marine, charged with the levy of feamen, colonics, &c.- 11th, One of arms and gunpowder.-12th, One of foreign affairs and cuttoms.

III. Eight of thefe thall confift of two commiffioners and an aflitant each, the latter to do the duty of fecretary and

archivift. The commiffions of police, public inftruction, and foreign affairs, to conuift of one commiffioner and an affiftant. That of finance to confift of five commiffioners and an affiftant.

IV. The national treafury fhall continue under the management of the convention and committee of public fafety as ufual.

V. The members of these commissions fhall be nominated by the convention, on the prefentation of the committee of public fafety. The falary of commiffioners fhall be 12,000 livres, of affiftants 8,000 livres, and of perfons employed under them not more than 6,000 livres.

VI. Thele commiffioners shall give am account of their operations, day by day, to the committee of public fafety. The members fhall be refponfible individually. Perfons employed under them fhall be appointed in the name of the convention.

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On Friday, April 4, a deputation from the popular fociety of Cette was admitted to the bar. Legiflators,' faid the spokef man, treafon ftill wishes to raise itself by raifing monarchy. Let us raise it to the fcaffold. Legislators, make death the order of the day. Marat faid, off with 300.000 heads, and liberty is fecured for ever. If, more attentive to the voice of their friend, the people had then exerted their omnipotence, they would have crushed the feeds of La Vendee, of Federalism, and of a war that will devour millions of men. But we were weak, and liberty tottered.'

To this the prefident answered: Not death, but justice is the order of the day. The national convention has proved that it will fpare no confpirator, no enemy of liberty; that it will even fearch for fuch in its own bofom. When we find a con fpirator, it is not to death we send him, but before a tribunal, formidable, it is true, to the guilty, but just to the accused that gives confidence to the good citizen, and to innocence oppreffed. In exercising thefe acts of jutt leverity we difcharge the duty which the truft repofed in us by the people, and our confcience, impote upon

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But to the obduracy of the legislator, fucceed the feelings of the man. weep over the perverfenefs of our fellows, The language you have uttered here is unworthy of republicans; and the citi zens who fill our galleries, have proved by their murmurs that they share not in your fentiments: no!-For they are Frenchmen, republicans, that are just and humane! And in fpite of those who

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would annihilate all public and private virtue, never fhall we be brought to delight in human blood; for virtue, probity, and justice, are the order of the day. Report this answer to those who fent you.' This was applauded.

No invitation to the honours of the fitting! exclaimed the members from all parts of the hall, and the deputation was turned out.

He who prefented fuch a fanguinary petition, faid La Planche, must be a bad citizen. It imports the justice of the convention to order enquiry to be made refpecting the man who has dared to addrefs the representatives of the nation as an affemblage of executioners. I move that he be fent before the committee of general fafety.'

Breard thought it would be fufficient to inform the committee of public fafety of the addrefs, and to infert an abstract of it, and of the prefident's anfwer in the bulletin. This was ordered.

The fame day, St. Juft, in the name of the committee of public and general fatety, nade a report on the prefent circumitances of affairs. He faid, that the wife of Camille Defmoulins had received money to cause the patriots and the revolutionary tribunal to be maffacred. He compared the fituation of the convention to that of the Roman fenate, and afterward proposed the following decree :

I. The revolutionary tribunal fhall continue the proceedings against Danton, Lacroix, Chabot, and others, implicated in the fame confpiracy.

II. The prefident of the tribunal fhall employ all the means committed to him by the law to make the authority respected with which he is entrusted.

III. Whoever shall infult the national justice, fhall not be heard, but be tried immediately."

Billaud Varennes then faid: Before this decree is paffed, I demand the convention fhould hear the reading of a letter received by the committee, from the adminiftration of police. It will fee how liberty is threatened, and the intimacy which fubfifts between the conspirators now before the tribunal and thofe in the prifons. The following letter was then read, dated

• Commune of Paris, April 4. We, administrators of the department of police, in confequence of a letter received from the keeper of the Luxemburg prison, went thither, where there appeared before us, citizen La Flotte, formerly

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minifter of the republic at Florence, who declared to us, that being in the chamber of Arthur Dillon the preceding evening, the latter told him, that Danton, Lacroix, and others, had that day declared before the revolutionary tribunal, that they would anfwer no questions but in the prefence of Robelpierre, Barrere, and St. Just, their accufers; that the people were much pleated with this determination; that the jury was embarraffed how to proceed : and that it was feared the committee of public fafety would order all the prisoners to be maffacred for fear they fhould create." an infurrection. Dillon added, that he had concerted means with Simon to bribe the keepers; that the wife of Defmoulins was to distribute 1ooo crowns to the mob. to furround the revolutionary tribunal; and, in fhort, that a popular infurrection was to be excited in order to release the prifoners. La Flotte added, that Dillon wifhed very much that he should enter into this confpiracy.' This declaration was figned by La Flotte; after which the decree propofed by St. Juft was adopted.

Robefpierre moved, that the letter and report of St. Juit be fent to the revolutionary tribunal, and read aloud in open court. This was adopted.

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On Saturday, April 6, Couthon thus addreffed the convention: We are here to give you fome particulars refpecting what happened yesterday before the revolutionary tribunal, where Vadier and I were prefent without being feen. confpirators faid, that nothing was more glorious than to confpire against a government which confpires. Danton even had the audacity to fling little balls in the face of the judges. Meanwhile, Simon, Thouret, and Dillon, in the prifon of the Luxembourgh, efscorted by their military fellow-prifoners, were waiting the moment to break their chains, to feize the avenues to the committees of public welfare and general fafety, to butcher their members, and to inflict the same barbarity on the patriots of Paris, and on the revolutionary tribunal; then, taking the fon of Capet from the Temple, they were to have put him into the arms of Danton, who was to prefent to the people their new defpot."

They calumniate your committee,' faid Vadier, they speak of arbitrary power, and of a dictator. We can answer this in

a few words. Examine the whole tenor of our life, and pronounce. For my part, I fwear here, that if there were a member who would ufurp but for an inftant the

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This motion was unanimously decreed, amid loud bursts of applaufe.

Couthon alfo propofed to renew the propofition already confecrated, that every freeman who thall make an attempt upon the rights of the people fhall be put to death by freemen. This was applauded.

The proceedings against Fabre d'Eglantine, Danton, and the reft of the accufed deputies, having lafted three days, the prefident of the revolutionary tribunal read the decree of the convention, which ordains the clofure of all proceedings, if the jury fhould declare themfelves fatisfied with a difcuffion of three days. The jury accordingly declared, that they would retire to their apartment to deliberate upon a verdict.

Danton, and the reft of the accufed, made a long defence on the 4th, but as foon as they heard what the jury had anfwered, they grew quite riotous and refractory, and infifted upon being heard. Westermann and Danton, in particular, became very turbulent. The prefident of the tribunal therefore ordered, that thefe delinquents be taken from the bar, and carried back to their dungeon.

Soon after, the jury returned into court, and declared that they were fufficiently fa tisfied with the evidence which had been given.

The public accufer now put the jury in mind of the audacity and impudence which the accused had manifefted all the while their trial lafted. He recapitulated the outrageous infults committed by them against national justice, and the grins, railleries, and threats which they had

made during the whole of the proceedings. He reminded the jury of the decree which the convention had paffed refpecting the treatment of thofe who fhould infult the president of the revolutionary tribunal.

The tribunal, with due deference to the remarks of the public accufer, then paffed fentence of death upon Danton, Camille Delmoulins, Philippeaux, Herault of Se chelles, general Weftermann, Fabre d'Eglantine, Delauny of Angers, Chabot, D'Efpagnac, Janius and Emanuel Frey; Dietrichen, a Dane; and Gufinan a Spaniard, and they were left for execution the fame day.

On Saturday, April 5, at five o'clock, Danton, and the other condemned perfons, were conveyed in three carts from the Conciergerie to the Place de la Revolu tion. In the first cart, were Danton, Chabot, Lacroix, Fabre d'Eglantine, and Herault de Sechelles; in the fecond, Phillippeaux, Dehuny of Angers, Bazire, and Camille Defmoulins; in the third, Weftermann, and the reft. They all behaved with intrepidity except Lacroix. Danton, in particular, who was executed laft, fhewed the utmost contempt of death.

Thefe executions paffed without the leaft disturbance. We have at length,' fays one of the Paris papers, reached the happy epoch when the government triumphs over every faction. Regeneration is on every fide the greater order of the day; and the members of all the municipal bodies, and indeed of all the constituted authorities, are paffing under the purifying fcrutiny. Conftant fearches, which terminate as regularly in the arret of feveral individuals, are ftill made in the gaming-houfes, the taverns, and drinking-houfes, the ci-devant Palais Royal, and the theatres. In the midft of all thete movements, the people preferve a folemn filence. The number of prifoners amounts to 7063.,

[To be continued.]

PROCEEDINGS of the Fourth SESSION of the Seventeenth Parliament of Great Britain: Continued from Page 229.

ON Friday, February 21, the earl of Albemarle, in a maiden fpeech, opened the state of the bufinefs for which he had fummoned their lordships. He faid, that he meant to move the first reading of a bill to indemnify minifters for permitting a body of Heffian troops to land in this kingdom. He meant not, in any man

ner, to advert to the expediency of their being in this kingdom, but merely to the legality. The question was not new; it had been often agitated, and often declared to be illegal. He quoted the Bill of Rights, which, he faid, was a declaratory bill, the fpirit of which went to prove, that the introduction of foreign troops inP P&

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to this kingdom was contrary to the conftitution. Alluding to the body of Heffrans formerly landed at Gibraltar, and the debate thereon, he mentioned what the late marquis of Rockingham had advanced when the fubject was agitated before their lordships. That noble lord infifted, that the crown was not, by its prerogative, vefted with any fuch power; and that he could not confent to any bill, which fhould contribute to make it legal in any cafe whatfoever. Lord Albemarle faid, he did not mean to go fo far; he wished merely to fhew, that, without the confent of parliament, foreign troops fhould not continue in this country; and, by paffing a bill of indemnity, the houfe would at once declare, that the matter was illegal, but that they were willing to exonerate minifters, on account of the neceffity of the measure, and thereby remove all doubts which had been entertained on this fubject. He hinted, that minifters had heretofore been afraid to meet the question on conftitutional ground; and declared, that he confidered fuch a prerogative in the erown as of a dangerous tendency; as throwing too much power into the hands of any future prince of an arbitrary or ambitious inclination. To confider this matter properly, their lordships ought to refer to the firft principles of the conftitution, and thofe principles were, that the introduction of foreign troops was oppofite to the real fpirit of thole general laws by which we were governed. He concluded with prefenting the bill, which was read a first time; and on motion for the fecond reading, earl Spencer faid, that he perfectly coincided in thofe points which alluded to the unconftitutional doctrine of a right to introduce foreign troops in time of peace into the country without the fanction of parliament; but this was not the prefent cafe. He was glad the measure was brought forward; it must ultimately tend to produce a decided opinion on the queftion; not that he by any means meant to infinuate, that it was legal to introduce foreign troops. Legality was one thing: neceffity was another. He thought it beft, therefore, at the prefent crisis, that the bill fhould be rejected; chiefly on the ground that it would make no precedent for minifters hereafter, whofe intentions might be fraught with mischief. The Bill of Rights clearly did not interdict the landing of foreign troops in time of war. To conceive otherwife, was to go out of the principle, to fubitantiate the letter. The act of fettlement had no particular

reference to the prefent cafe; the Heffians, at this moment, were not exerciting any act of military truft; and the precedents quoted were not in point. He said, he always was, and ever would be, ready to allow, that the prerogative of the crown never did, nor ever ought to extend to the employment of foreign auxiliaries, without the confent of parliament. It was his bounden duty to oppofe all ideas that had for their obje& such a doctrine; and he would at all times join in bringing forward an impeachment against any minifter who durft practife fuch a doctrine. The prefent cale, however, was widely different; he fhould therefore give his negative to the fecond reading.

Lord Auckland oppofed the bill on the ground, that, under the prefent circumitances, the introduction of those troops was perfectly legal and constitutional.

Lord Romney thought it best to move the previous question.

Lord Grenville faid, he was for meeting the question fairly: he confeffed, that he was clearly of opinion the crown had no right to call in the aid of foreign troops without the confent of parliament; and that in time of peace it was contrary to the conititution to land them in the British dominions; but that, in time of war, and particularly at this moment, when we were defending all that was dear to us, the introduction of foreign troops was not againit the law, parliament having received due notice of their landing, as was the cafe at prefent. The Heffians were not a standing army in this country, conformable to military idea; for they were not difciplined according to the British command, they had no quarters legally allotted, nor means of payment regularly provided. The two great points to be confidered were the expediency, and the danger of the measure. The firtt could not be controverted—the first could not be controvert ed-the fecond had no existence in truth. He concluded with faying, that this was no time for new theories.

Lord Lauderdale fupported the bill. He expreffed his aftonishment at the doctrines laid down by the noble secretary of ftate, and declared it was impoffible for any fact to be more clear than that the introduction of foreign troops into this country, without confent of parliament, was illegal. He therefore thought the act of indemnity neceflary to exprefs the sense of parliament on the fubject. He interpreted the bill of rights, though mentioning only tune of peace, to extend to all times.

He also referred to the act of fettlement, which provided that no foreigner should hold any place of truft under the government. The officers of the Heifian troops landed in this kingdom, he declared, held a place of military truft, which not even naturalization could render lawful. The argument, that though the king might land foreign troops, the parliament only could continue them, he faid, would be of little weight; for if 30,0000 men fhould once be landed, parliament would fcarce dare to withhold their affent.

Lord Hawkesbury declared himself as ready as any noble lord could be, to affert that the employing foreign troops in this country was illegal; but the prefent cafe did not amount to that; minifters did not feel the fmallest apprehension from what they had done, confequently did not wifh for an indemnification.

Lord Stanhope spoke in support of the bill, and remarked on the inconfiftency of fome of the former speakers against the bill-fome of whom had ventured to affert the prerogative to extend to landing foreign troops while others had declared it illegal in the abftract; though they united in oppofing the prefent bill of indemnity.

Lord Carnarvon expreffed himself a gainst the introduction of abstract quetions. The prefent bill he confidered as merely ridiculous; fince it went to impute blame to ministers for a praise-worthy action.

The Duke of Portland declared it always to have been his invariable opinion, that the bringing foreign troops into this country was at all times contrary to the conftitution; but he was free to confefs, that in the present cafe, no danger was to be apprehended, or the smallett degree of blame incurred. He fhould therefore give his negative to the bill.

Lord Guilford fupported the bill; maintained the illegality of the proceed. ing; and infifted, that every precedent upon the journals warranted that conclufion.

The marquis of Lanfdown faid, the neceflity or number of the troops landed he confidered as of no confequence-as a pretence might easily be railed to introduce a few foreign troops, which might be afterward augmented. He followed lord Lauderdale in the fuppofition that if 30,000 Heffians, 30,000 Ruffians, and 30,0co Pruffians were landed, parliament might not think it prudent to withhold their content to any fupplies they might demand.

Lord Mansfield did not think any thing had been faid to justify a decision on the general question.

Lord Grenville, in explanation, faid, that in fuch discullions as the prefent, endeavours were frequently used to lead minifters into the delivery of abstract opinions upon conftitonal points; endeavours, which he thought should be fpared, for certainly it was fufficient for ministers to fhew that their practice was conftitutional, without committing themselves upon questions not connected with it.

Yet, though he faw no neceffity, in ge neral, for the delivery of fuch opinions, and had no wish to make diftinctions between his and those of other perfons, he would ftate his fentiments as to the intro. duction of foreign troops into this country. He was of opinion, that the maintenance of a foreign army in this country, whether during peace or war, without the confent of parliament, was illegal; that when foreign troops were introduced without the previous confent of parliament, the legality of the measure would depend upon the neceffity of it; and that it lay with parliament, by confenting to the measure, to fanction the legality of it.

The duke of Bedford was for the fecond reading of the bill, which he confidered as a very proper and neceñary mea fure. The introduction of the Heffians might be neceffary; of that his majesty's ministers were able to judge; but certainly it was an infringement of the conftitution of the country, to land them without the confent of parliament.

The house now divided on the motion for the fecond reading of the bill on Monday,

For the second reading

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