Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1823 edition. Excerpt: ... set forth in the decree issued by government," (above mentioned.) It will, hereafter, certainly appear very ex-See the Appendix of Documents. traordinary, that the heads oj' the condemnation are not the same as the heads of the accusation: but for the present, looking only at the text of the warrant, it will be seen that the Duke d'Enghien is accused of plots contrived against the internal and external safety of the republic. Now the cognizance of such plots was never vested in military commissions, but was always reserved to the ordinary tribunals. Had the military commission even been competent to take cognizance of the other charges, it could never, even under the pretext of its connexion with them, take cognizance of the accusation of a plot against the safety of the state: it ought, at all events, to have declared itself incompetent in this respect. This point of jurisprudence was recognized and avowed by the minister of justice, in his report of the 4th Ventose, year V, on the affair of Dunan, Brottier, and De la Villeurnoy; a report which was inserted in the bulletin of the laws, (2d series, No. 1021, ) with the sanction of the Directory. This incompetence of the military commission, which appears on the very face of the accusation, vitiates in the outset any judgment In this report, the minister has the hardihood to treat Louis XVIII. as a rebel. " What is this pretended Louis XVIII," says he, "but & rebel T it could pronounce: for it must have given judgment without power to do so; than which there is no greater defect. Nullus major defec-tus quam potestatis. III. Irregularities in the Trial. The primary characteristic of this infernal proceeding is, that every thing was done by night. " In the twelfth year of the French...
