royalty. The jacobín party, who doubted his sincerity, exhibited symptoms of great violence, and at the moment when he repeated these words, "I swear hatred to royalty," Savary cried out," Louder, if you please." Vaublanc was not at all disconcerted, but only replied, "And you lower, if you please;" he then descended from the tribune. He afterwards frequently appeared in the Assembly, and opposed with much force and eloquence the return of the reign of terror. The club of jacobins having been re-formed at Paris, it was proposed that certain measures should be adopted for its regulation; but this was strongly resisted by M. de Vaublane, who struggled for the suppression of all the clubs, and obtain ed a decree to that effect, which was immediately sent to the Conseil des Anciens, and approved of by them. On the 1st of July, 1797, he brought the accusation against the minister of the marine, of paying a certain person named Bottu for editing an inflammatory journal, "The Republican of the Colonies." On the 21st he pronounced a thundering philippic against the rest of the revolutionary institutions, and drew a horrible picture of the Revolution itself, declaring it to have been brought about by the clubs. The speech was listened to with transport, and ordered to be printed. On the 10th of August he set himself in opposition to those who sought to curtail the authority of the Councils, in order to augment that of the Directory; and he was appointed one of the commissioners who were entrusted with resisting the Directory of three in their ambitious projects. Hence, on the 4th September 1797, he shared the fate of proscription with the other members, and was condemned to be banished. Accordingly he went to Switzerland, and then to Italy, from which, however, he was ere long recalled. In December 1800 the Conservative Senate proclaimed him a member of the Legislative Body, of which he became treasurer in the year 1804. He was next named a candidate for the Senate by the Elec toral College of Seine and Marne, and on the 1st of February 1805 he was appointed Prefect of the Moselle, and dignified with the titles of Count and Commandant of the Legion of Honour. In 1813, when the army of Maience returned into the interior, and when frora the crowds of sick and wounded which had been carried to Metz, the city became the prey of a contagious fever, M. de Vaublanc established several hospitals, and vi sited them repeatedly every day. He was soon attacked by the disease, whose fearful ravages he had been so beneficently attempting to stop, and was considered almost at the point of death; upon which occasion he re ceived from the inhabitants of Metz the strongest testimony of the interest with which they viewed his melancholy situation. On the 20th of March he spoke in the strongest manner to the National Guard ofthat town, of the fidelity which they ought to observe towards the king, and adopted measures, in conjunction with Marshal Oudinot, for preserving the loy. alty of the city. He went so far as to order the inhabitants to prepare for a siege; and caused to be posted up and proclaimed in every quarter of the town, the declaration of the Congress of Vienna, which he had received from M. de Talleyrand. Buonaparte had scarcely arrived in Paris, when he caused a paragraph to be inserted -against him in the Moniteur; and on the day when the paper reached Metz, an aid-de-camp of the minister of war, Davoust, arrived with an order to General Durutte to arrest the prefect. The general, whose loyalty is well known, gave warning to the latter of what was doing, and M. de Vaublanc immediately mounted his horse, and rode off without communicating with his family. Next day he arrived at Luxembourg, where he was treated in the most distinguished manner by the Austrian General Count Desfours. Thence he repaired to Ghent where the king was; and addressed to his majesty several memorials on the state of the country. He returned to France in the suite of the king, by whom he was named a counsellor of state, and prefect of the Bouchesdu-Rhone. At the end of September he became minister of the interior, which office he continued to occupy until the 7th of May; and during the short period of his administration, he exhibited very extraordinary zeal and activity in the discharge of his duty. It was under his administration that the new organization of the Institute took place, and he presided at the installation of that learned body on the 24th of April, 1806. He was afterwards entrusted with bringing forward and defending several bills of importance in the Chambers; in particular the bill of amnesty, in the support of which, on the 22d of Oetober, he delivered a speech of great eloquence, and which produced a powerful effect upon the Assembly. From what he said, however, it was clear that his sentiments were by no means entirely in accordance with those of his colleagues in office. He was succeeded by M. Lainé, and appointed minister of state, and a member of the privy council. He is a member of the academy and belongs to the class of fine arts. The works which he has published are some tracts upon astronomy, and a book in octavo, of which the title is, "The Rivalry of France and England, from the time of William the Conqueror in 1066, to the breaking of the treaty of Amiens by England.” M. LAINE. Joseph Henry Joachim Lainé was born at Bourdeaux in the year 1767, and for a considerable time practised at the bar with great eclat. In the year 1808 he was elected a member of the Legislative Body by the department of the Gironde, and took the earliest opportunity of attempting to engender in the members a spirit of independence, but without success. He set himself to oppose the system of confiscation which Bonaparte wished to establish in his criminal code. In order to bring that matter into discussion, he endeavoured to get the Legislative Body formed into a secret committee, which might be done upon the agreement of a precise number of the members; but the thing fell to the ground, from a deficiency in the number of signatures required by law. Every body expected that he would be thrown into disgrace. So far from that, however, he received the cross of the Legion of Honour, and it was not till the critical period of 1814 that he received any marks of the usurper's displeasure. Being appointed at that time to present to the Legislative Body the report of the extraordinary commission elected to discover the wish of the nation at the crisis in which it was placed by the invasion of the foreign : to petition his majesty to maintain the full and entire execution of the laws, which secure to the French people the rights of personal freedom, and the safety of property, as well as a share in the direction of the state. We may judge of the state of things at that period, by calling up to our recollection the rage into which such language threw Buonaparte, and the suddenness with which he dissolved the Legislative Body. Nor have we forgotten the insults which he bestowed on the members of the commission, in presence of their colleagues, reassembled at the Tuilleries the following year. For example, he de who had sold himself to the English, and that he had conspired with the enemies of France in the unlawful meetings held at the house of the advocate Desezè." powers, he read the memorial, which, in conjunction with his colleagues, Messrs Raynouard, Gallois, Flangergues, and Maine-de-Biran, he had composed, and in the composition of which he was generally supposed to have had the greatest share. In that remarkable production, the commissioners, after having given the detail of the previous negociations, and the precise state in which the negociations then were, added, "The wishes of humanity are directed towards an honourable and lasting peace. Among nations as among individuals, honour consists in respecting the rights of others; and the best guarantee of peace consists in the determination of the contracting powers to be faith-clared that "M. Lainé was a traitor, ful to themselves. And who will deprive us of these benefits? In a time such as this, the power of the empire should be employed to strengthen the bands which unite the nation with its Sovereign. Certain resolutions, in the form of proclamations, might have the effect of keeping the people at rest, and silencing the reproaches of the enemy, on the score of our thirst for conquest and a colossal power. It is not our part to put words into the mouth of the prince; but a decla ration of the kind I have mentioned, in order to produce an impression upon the foreign powers, and upon France itself, ought certainly to announce in the most solemn manner in the face of Europe, that our only objects in going to war are to secure the independence of the nation and the integrity of our territory. The words peace and country would be but an empty sound, if the constitution should not receive a proper limitation, upon which, in fact, the benefits connected with both depend. It is therefore the opinion of your committee, that it is your duty, while the government is adopting the promptest measures in defence of the country, Towards the end of January he repaired to Bourdeaux, and was present in that city on the 12th of March 1814. Although he had taken no active part in the events of that day, the Duke of Angouleme offered him the prefecture, an appointment of which he at first refused to accept, on the ground that it was not legally vacant by the resignation of the actual prefect; but he was at last persuaded by his Royal Highness to accept of it conditionally. Being recalled to Paris in the month of June of the same year by the convocation of the Legislative Body, which had just been transformed by his majesty into the Chamber of Deputies, he held the office of president during the whole of that session. During the sitting of the 3d of November, when the law was enacted for the restitution of the unsold property of the emigrants, he left the chair, and ascended the tribune in order to attack a proposed amend ment, which contained a special de claration in reference to the inviolability of national property." The new proprietors," said he, "are confirmed in their possessions by time and by the word of his majesty, which although given not without feeling on the part of the king, will not on that account be the less sacred and the less irrevocable. Are they not also confirmed in their possessions by the constitutional charter? How then could the proposed article add to their security? It rather appears to me as likely to lay the foundation for some thing disagreeable in future, by opposing, at a time when the flourishing state of our finances might render it practicable, the restitution of the property conferred upon certain hospitals in lieu of that which they lost If, at some future period, persons of piety should, in anticipation of the restitution referred to, bestow gifts upon these establishments, and if those religious women who employ themselves in comforting the distress ed, encouraged by the encreased prosperity of their circumstances, should petition the king or the legislature to restore the property to its original owners, can we imagine that these petitions would not be attended to? I do not believe that the Assembly is vested with the right of imposing limits upon the justice and generosity of the nation for the time to come. From this tribune some member yesterday argued the possibility of the recurrence of a war. Now, if such an unfortunate event should take place, would not the emigrants or their children unite with ours in defending the territory invaded; and yet the majority of them, those, I mean, to whom nothing is restored, will have nothing to defend save their king, and those who have acquired their lands. After having fought, after having shed their blood in defence of their king, of their country, and of the new possessors of their estates, they would without question make no demands; but if you think fit, in consideration of their poverty and of their distress, to listen now to the voice of humanity, and afterwards to that of gratitude, can you allow any thing to pass into a law which may prevent you from acting according to such sentiments, and which will also prevent your successors from doing the same? No, gentlemen, I cannot bring myself to believe that this Assembly will give its sanction to that part of the law proposed, which will infallibly be productive of such effects." After this speech, which was de livered with great animation, and which, without doubt, procured the rejection of the proposed clause, M. Lainé did not speak till the 30th of December, the day when the session closed. In the speech which he then delivered, he presented the Assembly with a rapid sketch of the business which had come before them in the session which was about to close. The restrictions which had been put upon the liberty of the press were, he said, necessary to strengthen the government, and to guard the morals and the peace of families;-the tem porary maintenance of indirect taxes was, he said, indispensable in the exhausted state of the treasury;-the public burdens could not be dimi nished while so much expence was incurred in supporting the army which was in actual service, and that which was unemployed;-to the embarrassment of the finance was to be attributed the delay which had taken place in improving the condition of the clergy;the imperfect nature of the laws with regard to commerce was owing to the operation of the ancient continental system of embargo. Having taken occasion to compliment the Assembly, upon the unanimity of their voices with regard to the civil list, with the true French spirit which they had manifested, he added, "The honour of the country, to borrow the expression of an illustrious individual of whom France is justly proud, will continue those miracles which Heaven performed upon the reappearance of a son of St Louis.Let us go in peace, gentlemen, to our firesides." These words were still sounding as it were in the ears of the deputies, when Buonaparte re-appeared upon the territory of France. The session which was intimated for the month of May, was by royal ordonnance fixed to take place upon the 11th of March; and accordingly it opened on that day, and M. Lainé with his colleagues, could do nothing but declare unavailing wishes with the dignity which became the circumstances. "Let men of all parties," said he, on the 16th of March, on which occasion the king was present, "forget their animosities, and think only of the ties by which they are united as Frenchmen. There will be time enough for us to settle our disputes afterwards. At present, let us all unite our efforts against the common enemy." The next day, after having adopted the national proclamation, which was proposed by General Angier, the Assembly separated. M. Lainé took the route of Bourdeaux, where, on the 28th, he published, in his character as president, and in the name of his colleagues, a declaration, in which, after having protested against the dissolution of the Chamber, and against all the decrees which might emanate from Buonaparte, he freed the French people from the double obligation of paying the imposts, and of obeying the conscriptionary law for the recruiting of the army. "When," said he, "so daring an attack is made upon . the rights and liberties of the French, it is their duty to do all they can indi vidually to protect their rights. While history preserves an eternal tribute of gratitude to those men, who in free countries have refused to lend any assistance to tyranny, it covers with eternal disgrace those who, pursuing a different course, have forgotten their character as men, and stooped to submit themselves to their enslavers.". The events which soon rendered the departure of the Duchess of Angou leme necessary, rendered it impossible for M. Lainé to make any new efforts which his zeal might suggest. He refused to take the oath which Buonaparte required of him; and being, in consequence of this step, unable to remain longer in the country, he retired to Holland. After his return to Paris, he was, in the month of August following, re-elected member of the Chamber of Deputies by the college of the Gironde; and being again called to perform the functions of president, M. Lainé became distinguished in the debates which occurred relating to the law of elections. He opposed the reduction of the sum necessary to be contributed in order to procure the qualification of an elector from 300 to 50 francs. He declared his preference of assemblies by arrondissement to assemblies by canton; and he supported the title of public functionaries, possessing the requisite qualifications to act as electors. With regard to the age of candidates, while he approved of the regulation of the charter which fixes the age of admission to bachelors at forty years, he voted for the admission of married men at twenty-five years. He did not dissemble his wish that the * M. de Chateaubriand. |