COUNT LANJUINAIS.

NUMEROUS examples have occurred in the present age of the developement of extraordinary virtues and splendid talents in the midst of political tempests, which have overturned great empires, and for a while spread desolation and misery throughout the whole mass of civil society. The conjuncture of unusual circumstances, while it tends to the general ascendancy of superior abilities, at the expense of those who owe to long prescription alone their situation in the state, calls forth the energies of genius. and gives occasion for the display of noble examples of patriotism, philanthropy, and all that is good and amiable. Such occurred in France, even during the period of revolutionary fury: and when the infatuation of party violence seemed to pervade all ranks, threatening the extinction of the best affections of human nature, yet, in that distracted state of moral and social anarchy, individuals arose inspired with devotion for the public good, faithful to conscience and their country, courageous to resist the wicked, and perpetually employed in extending useful knowledge, and presenting to their fellow citizens glorious models of public virtue. Such, according to the suffrage of their most enlightened compatriots, were Turgot, Malesherbes, Necker, Monthyon, the venerable pastor Oberlin of Strasburgh, Boissy d'Anglas, and La Rochefoucauld Liancourt.

In the honourable catalogue of these votaries of virtue may, with confidence, be inscribed the name of LANJUINAIS. The friend of liberty and of justice, always actuated by principles of charity and toleration, both in public and private life; imbued with sincere piety and ardent patriotism, but superior to the spirit of party; active and indefatigable for the advancement of good purposes; distinguished as a professor in the schools of law, as a defender of public liberty in national assemblies, as a profound statesman, judicious and enlightened, in the first rank of political writers, as an industrious scientific enquirer, as an excellent husband, a tender parent and faithful friend; in' his domestic and social relations, he extorted the approbation of those who were disposed to differ most widely with him in opinion. His

progress through life, in the midst of vicissitudes, persecutions and dangers, presented a constant succession of virtuous actions and useful labours.

Jean Denis Lanjuinais was the son of a distinguished advocate of the Parliament of Rennes, in which city he was born March 12, 1753. While yet quite young, he engaged in the study of jurisprudence, to which he applied himself with assiduity and success. He was admitted prematurely, with a dispensation on the score of his age, to the successive honours of advocate in 1771, doctor of law in 1772, and professor of ecclesiastical law in 1775, after a long and brilliant competition. In 1779 he was chosen, by each of the three orders, one of the counsellors of the Statesgeneral of Bretagne; and in 1789 he was nominated deputy to the States-general, by the assembly of the Third Estate [Tiers Etat] of the bailliwick of Rennes. He had prepared the memorial which contained the demands of that assembly, in which was formally expressed a requisition for a monarchical and representative constitution. Becoming a member of the first National Assembly, he displayed in that capacity, as he had on former occasions, a sincere regard for public liberty, which he manifested by entering into all the most important deliberations.* Though firmly attached to the Catholic religion, he zealously defended the liberties of the Gallic church. He became a member of the ecclesiastical committee, and was one of the deputies who most readily concurred in the alterations made in the constitution of the church; yet he voted against the decree which declared the goods of the clergy to be without exception the property of the state. During the deliberations on the constitution, Mirabeau having proposed that the ministers should be admitted to sit in the assembly, leaving their right to form a part

* In the early part of his political career, Lanjuinais was an ardent promoter of the revolution. His conduct as a member of the National Assembly is thus described in a work published at the beginning of the present century:-"He early attracted notice by the display of some talent, but more by his violence against the clergy, the nobility, and royalty; and he was one of the founders of the Breton Club, which subsequently became the club of the Jacobins. June 27, 1789, he objected to the words- Je veux,' J'ordonne,' I will, I command, which the king had used in his declaration; October 26, he denounced the nobility of Bretagne, of Dauphiné, and of Languedoc, as having made decrees contrary to liberty; the 7th of November he opposed allowing ministers a voice in the assembly; the 19th of June, 1790, he demanded the abolition of all titles; the 11th of May, 1791, he declared in favour of the people of colour, and solicited their admission to the rights of effective citizens; and lastly, on the 13th of August, he stated his astonishment at the title of princes being still allowed to the members of the reigning family."-Dictionnaire Biographique et Historique des Hommes Marquans de la fin du dix-huitième Siècle. Londres (Paris) 1800. Tome II, p. 321.

of it as a matter for future discussion, Lanjuinais warmly opposed the proposition, and procured a decree (amidst the plaudits of the assembly) that during the actual session no deputy should enter into the ministry.

On

After the session of the Constituent Assembly, M. Lanjuinais was appointed professor of Constitutional Law, professor of General Grammar, and member of the high national court at Rennes, and subsequently deputy from the department of Ille and Vilaine to the National Convention, where he displayed new talents and energy of character. On the 24th of September 1792, he joined with his colleague Kersaint, to procure a decree against the instigators of assassination; and on the 5th of November he supported the denunciation of Louvet against Robespierre. When the trial of the king was proposed, he demanded that the same means of defence should be allowed to that prince as to other persons under accusation. He shortly after supported, with great animation, the motion made by Buzot, that the family of Orleans should be obliged to quit France in twenty-four hours after the trial of the king; and he finished his speech by declaring, that he had for three years carried that motion in his heart. December 19, he again attacked the duke of Orleans, in spite of the exclamations from the tribunes and the epigrams of Billaud, Tallien, and others, of the Orleanists. the 26th of December he opposed the act of indictment; and on the 16th of January 1793, he voted for the seclusion of the royal prisoner, and his banishment on the restoration of peace; to which he added the proposition that the judgment, whatever it might be, should not pass into a law, without the sanction of twothirds of the judges. February 8, he displayed his firmness in withstanding those who opposed the punishment of the perpetrators of the massacres in the month of September 1792. vainly objected to the creation of the revolutionary tribunal; demanding that its authority should be restricted to the metropolis. On the evening of the 31st of May he denounced Chabot, and those joined with him in the committee of insurrection meeting in the hall of the archbishopric of Paris; and twice during the same session he spoke against arbitrary arrests and denunciations by petition. On the second occasion, the deputy Legendre, a butcher by trade, called out to him, with a menacing voice and gesture, as he stood in the tribune: "Descend, or I will knock thee down."-Lanjuinais coolly replied: "You had better decree me to be an ox, that you may have a right to knock me down." The brutish Legendre recovering from the stupor of astonishment into which he had been thrown by the unexpected sarcasm, rushed towards the tribune with Chabot, and presenting a pistol to his head, attempted to drag down the orator. Other

He

deputies, among whom were Kervélegan, Peinières, and Defermon, ran to his assistance, also armed with pistols, and defended him from the rage of his adversaries; after which, without any hesitation, he continued his discourse. The same day took place the famous procession without the hall, when it was stated that one hundred thousand men, commanded by Henriot, had besieged the Convention. The most intrepid of the deputies lost their courage, when they perceived their places occupied by strangers ready to join in their deliberations. Almost all the Girondists had sought for security in absenting themselves from the assembly, giving way in effect to the insidious recommendation of Barrere, that such members as had incurred suspicion should suspend themselves from office for their own safety. Lanjuinais alone stood on his defence. Barbaroux appeared, and was insulted by the Capuchin priest Chabot, when Lanjuinais, interrupting his discourse, exclaimed-" In ancient times might be seen the victims for sacrifice decorated with flowers and garlands; but the priest by whom they were immolated did not insult them." He then resumed his speech against the conspirators who wished to mutilate the Convention, and thus expressed himself:-"If I have hitherto shown some courage, I have derived it from my love of my country and of liberty. I trust that I shall be faithful to those sentiments, even to my latest breath. Expect then no voluntary suspension of my powers; for I have no right to resign my functions, neither have you to accept the resignation." But though Lanjuinais escaped the fate which awaited his colleagues, he did not owe his safety to his courage or eloquence. On the same day, on which after a free deliberation the innocence of the accused deputies had been proclaimed, an order was issued that Lanjuinais and several others should be arrested. He had the good fortune to make his escape from the house where he was held in custody; and having obtained by means of friends a passport in the name of Jean Denis, schoolmaster, he quitted Paris and went to Caen, where he joined other proscribed deputies, with whom he proceeded to Rennes. There he remained concealed in his own house during eighteen months; indebted for the preservation of his life to the courage, affection, and fidelity of his wife and maid-servant;* who would inevitably have suffered under the guillotine if his retreat had been discovered.

Seven months after the revolution of the 9th Thermidor (July 27th, 1794) Lanjuinais, reinstated in his functions as a deputy, took an active part in the conference of Mabilais, and contributed

* Madame Lanjuinais, and her domestic Julia Poirier, have been celebrated for their heroic conduct, by Legouve, in his poem intitled "Mérite des Femmes."

powerfully to the treaty of peace concluded with the royalist chiefs of that part of Bretagne. Restored to his seat in the Convention, March 8th, 1795, he was besides nominated president. Faithful to the principles he had previously maintained, he pleaded the cause of the oppressed, and especially of the emigrants and the priests, and he procured the restoration of public worship and the re-opening of the churches. On the occurrence of the insurrection in May and October 1795, he acted with firmness against the insurgent Jacobins; objecting, however, to all violent proceedings with regard to the partizans of the fallen faction. The National Convention being succeeded by the two Legislative Councils, Lanjuinais was elected by seventy-three departments a member of the Council of Ancients, of which he became the secretary. He vacated by lot his place in this assembly in May 1797. After the revolution of the 18th Brumaire, in the year 8, he was twice nominated a candidate for the Senate, by the Legislative Body, and was nominated a senator by the Senate, March 22d, 1800. M. Lanjuinais declared himself against the consulate for life, and against the establishment of the imperial government. At the epoch when Napoleon, betraying the principles of the revolution which he had sworn to respect, restored the nobility, Lanjuinais was created a count of the empire, and commandant of the Legion of Honour.

After having constantly opposed the decrees and arbitrary measures of Napoleon, he voted on the 1st of April 1814, for the dethronement of the emperor, and the establishment of a provisional government; and he concurred in preparing the outline of the constitution framed by the senate. June 4th, 1814, the king created him a peer of France. During the hundred days in 1815, he did not vote for the additional act, notwithstanding which the electors of Paris, and those of the department of Seine and Marne, chose him a member of the Chamber of Representatives, of which he was also elected president almost unanimously. Napoleon confirmed this election. The circumstances which occurred in the interview which took place between the emperor and the president-elect, are thus reported from information furnished by the latter.-A letter from the grand chamberlain announced to M. Lanjuinais that the emperor was ready to receive him; but that he still hesitated, and that his approbation would depend on the answers he might obtain to certain questions he intended to propose. The following was the dialogue which took place "NAPOLEON: Well, Monsieur, there must be no more doubledealing; it is necessary that you should answer my questions.— LANJUINAIS: Yes, sire, with the rapidity of lightning; for I never make a compromise with my conscience.-NAP. Are you for me?-LANJ. I have never been the partizan of any one: my