"He suffered under Pontius Pilate." Pilate's gallant struggle to save
Jesus from lynchers survives in no kindly memorial save among the
peasants of Oberammergau. It is said that the impression once made
in England by the Miracle Play has left its relic in the miserable
puppet-play Punch and Judy (_Pontius cum Judoeis_); but meanwhile the
Church repeats, throughout Christendom, "He suffered under Pontius
Pilate." It is almost normal in history that the brand of infamy
falls on the wrong man. This is the penalty of personal eminence, and
especially of eloquence. In the opening years of the French Revolution
the two men in Europe who seemed omnipotent were Pitt and Robespierre.
By reason of their eloquence, their ingenious defences, their fame, the
columns of credit and discredit were begun in their names, and have so
continued. English liberalism, remembering the imprisoned and flying
writers, still repeats, "They suffered under William Pitt." French
republics transmit their legend of Condorcet, Camille Desmoulins,
Brissot, Malesherbes, "They suffered under Robespierre." The friends,
disciples, biographers, of Thomas Paine have it in their creed that he
suffered under both Pitt and Robespierre, It is certain that neither
Pitt nor Robespierre was so strong as he appeared. Their hands cannot
be cleansed, but they are historic scapegoats of innumerable sins they
never committed.
Unfortunately for Robespierre's memory, in England and America
especially, those who for a century might have been the most ready to
vindicate a slandered revolutionist have been confronted by the long
imprisonment of the author of the "Rights of Man," and by the discovery
of his virtual death-sentence in Robespierre's handwriting. Louis Blanc,
Robespierre's great vindicator, could not, we may assume, explain this
ugly fact, which he passes by in silence, He has proved, conclusively as
I think, that Robespierre was among the revolutionists least guilty
of the Terror; that he was murdered by a conspiracy of those whose
cruelties he was trying to restrain; that, when no longer alive to
answer, they burdened him with their crimes, as the only means of saving
their heads. Robespierre's doom was sealed when he had real power, and
used it to prevent any organization of the constitutional government
which might have checked revolutionary excesses. He then, because of
a superstitious faith in the auspices of the Supreme Being, threw the
reins upon the neck of the revolution he afterwards vainly tried to
curb. Others, who did not wish to restrain it, seized the reins and when
the precipice was reached took care that Robespierre should be hurled
over it.
Many allegations against Robespierre have been disproved He tried to
save Danton and Camille Desmoulins, and did save seventy-three deputies
whose death the potentates of the Committee of Public Safety had
planned. But against him still lies that terrible sentence found in his
Note Book, and reported by a Committee to the Convention: "Demand that
Thomas Payne be decreed of accusation for the interests of America as
much as of France."*
* "Demander que Thomas Payne soit decrete d'accusation pour
les interets de l'Amerique autant que de la France."
The Committee on Robespierre's papers, and especially Courtois its
Chairman, suppressed some things favorable to him (published long
after), and it can never be known whether they found anything further
about Paine. They made a strong point of the sentence found, and added:
"Why Thomas Payne more than another? Because he helped to establish the
liberty of both worlds."
An essay by Paine on Robespierre has been lost, and his opinion of the
man can be gathered only from occasional remarks. After the Courtois
report he had to accept the theory of Robespierre's malevolence and
hypocrisy. He then, for the first time, suspected the same hand in a
previous act of hostility towards him. In August, 1793, an address had
been sent to the Convention from Arras, a town in his constituency,
saying that they had lost confidence in Paine. This failed of success
because a counter-address came from St. Omer. Robespierre being a native
of Arras, it now seemed clear that he had instigated the address. It
was, however, almost certainly the work of Joseph Le-bon, who, as Paine
once wrote, "made the streets of Arras run with blood" Lebon was his
_suppleant_, and could not sit in the Convention until Paine left it.
But although Paine would appear to have ascribed his misfortunes to
Robespierre at the time, he was evidently mystified by the whole thing.
No word against him had ever fallen from Robespierre's lips, and if that
leader had been hostile to him why should he have excepted him from the
accusations of his associates, have consulted him through the summer,
and even after imprisonment, kept him unharmed for months? There is a
notable sentence in Paine's letter (from prison) to Monroe, elsewhere
considered, showing that while there he had connected his trouble rather
with the Committee of Public Safety than with Robespierre.
"However discordant the late American Minister Gouvernoeur Morris, and
the late French Committee of Public Safety, were, it suited the purposes
of both that I should be continued in arrestation. The former wished to
prevent my return to America, that I should not expose his misconduct;
and the latter lest I should publish to the world the history of its
wickedness. Whilst that Minister and that Committee continued, I had
no expectation of liberty. I speak here of the Committee of which
Robespierre was a member."
Paine wrote this letter on September 10, 1794. Robespierre, three
months before that, had ceased to attend the Committee, disavowing
responsibility for its actions: Paine was not released. Robespierre,
when the letter to Monroe was written, had been dead more than six
months: Paine was not released The prisoner had therefore good reason to
look behind Robespierre for his enemies; and although the fatal sentence
found in the Note Book, and a private assurance of Barrere, caused him
to ascribe his wrongs to Robespierre, farther reflection convinced him
that hands more hidden had also been at work. He knew that Robespierre
was a man of measured words, and pondered the sentence that he should
"be decreed of accusation for the interests of America as much as of
France." In a letter written in 1802, Paine said: "There must have been
a coalition in sentiment, if not in fact, between the terrorists of
America and the terrorists of France, and Robespierre must have known
it, or he could not have had the idea of putting America into the bill
of accusation against me." Robespierre, he remarks, assigned no reason
for his imprisonment.
The secret for which Paine groped has remained hidden for a hundred
years. It is painful to reveal it now, but historic justice, not only to
the memory of Paine, but to that of some eminent contemporaries of his,
demands that the facts be brought to light.
The appointment of Gouverneur Morris to be Minister to France, in 1792,
passed the Senate by 16 to 11 votes. The President did not fail to
advise him of this reluctance, and admonish him to be more cautious in
his conduct. In the same year Paine took his seat in the Convention.
Thus the royalist and republican tendencies, whose struggles made
chronic war in Washington's Cabinet, had their counterpart in Paris,
where our Minister Morris wrote royalist, and Paine republican,
manifestoes. It will have been seen, by quotations from his diary
already given, that Gouverneur Morris harbored a secret hostility
towards Paine; and it is here assumed that those entries and incidents
are borne in mind. The Diary shows an appearance of friendly terms
between the two; Morris dines Paine and receives information from him.
The royalism of Morris and humanity of Paine brought them into a common
desire to save the life of Louis.
But about the same time the American Minister's own position became a
subject of anxiety to him. He informs Washington (December 28, 1792)
that Genet's appointment as Minister to the United States had not been
announced to him (Morris). "Perhaps the Ministry think it is a trait of
republicanism to omit those forms which were anciently used to express
good will." His disposition towards Paine was not improved by finding
that it was to him Genet had reported. "I have not yet seen M. Genet,"
writes Morris again, "but Mr. Paine is to introduce him to me." Soon
after this Morris became aware that the French Ministry had asked
his recall, and had Paine also known this the event might have been
different The Minister's suspicion that Paine had instigated the recall
gave deadliness to his resentment when the inevitable break came between
them.
The occasion of this arose early in the spring. When war had broken out
between England and France, Morris, whose sympathies were with England,
was eager to rid America of its treaty obligations to France. He so
wrote repeatedly to Jefferson, Secretary of State. An opportunity
presently occurred for acting on this idea. In reprisal for the seizure
by British cruisers of American ships conveying provisions to France,
French cruisers were ordered to do the like, and there were presently
ninety-two captured American vessels at Bordeaux. They were not allowed
to reload and go to sea lest their cargoes should be captured by
England. Morris pointed out to the French Government this violation of
the treaty with America, but wrote to Jefferson that he would leave
it to them in Philadelphia to insist on the treaty's observance, or to
accept the "unfettered" condition in which its violation by France left
them. Consultation with Philadelphia was a slow business, however,
and the troubles of the American vessels were urgent The captains, not
suspecting that the American Minister was satisfied with the treaty's
violation, were angry at his indifference about their relief, and
applied to Paine. Unable to move Morris, Paine asked him "if he did not
feel ashamed to take the money of the country and do nothing for it" It
was, of course, a part of Morris' scheme for ending the treaty to point
out its violation and the hardships resulting, and this he did; but
it would defeat his scheme to obtain the practical relief from those
hardships which the un-theoretical captains demanded. On August 20th,
the captains were angrily repulsed by the American Minister, who,
however, after they had gone, must have reflected that he had gone too
far, and was in an untenable position; for on the same day he wrote to
the French Minister a statement of the complaint.
"I do not [he adds] pretend to interfere in the internal concerns of the
French Republic, and I am persuaded that the Convention has had weighty
reasons for laying upon Americans the restriction of which the American
captains complain. The result will nevertheless be that this prohibition
will severely aggrieve the parties interested, and put an end to the
commerce between France and the United States."
The note is half-hearted, but had the captains known it was written
they might have been more patient Morris owed his subsequent humiliation
partly to his bad manners. The captains went off to Paine, and proposed
to draw up a public protest against the American Minister. Paine advised
against this, and recommended a petition to the Convention. This was
offered on August 22d. In this the captains said: "We, who know your
political situation, do not come to you to demand the rigorous execution
of the treaties of alliance which unite us to you. We confine ourselves
to asking for the present, to carry provisions to your colonies." To
this the Convention promptly and favorably responded.
It was a double humiliation to Morris that the first important benefit
gained by Americans since his appointment should be secured without his
help, and that it should come through Paine. And it was a damaging blow
to his scheme of transferring to England our alliance with France. A
"violation" of the treaty excused by the only sufferers could not be
cited as "releasing" the United States. A cruel circumstance for
Morris was that the French Minister wrote (October 14th): "You must be
satisfied, sir, with the manner in which the request presented by the
American captains from Bordeaux, has been received"--and so forth. Four
days before, Morris had written to Jefferson, speaking of the thing
as mere "mischief," and belittling the success, which "only served
an ambition so contemptible that I shall draw over it the veil of
oblivion."
The "contemptible ambition" thus veiled from Paine's friend, Jefferson,
was revealed by Morris to others. Some time before (June 25th), he had
written to Robert Morris:
"I suspected that Paine was intriguing against me, although he put on a
face of attachment. Since that period I am confirmed in the idea, for
he came to my house with Col. Oswald, and being a little more drunk than
usual, behaved extremely ill, and through his insolence I discovered
clearly his vain ambition."
This was probably written after Paine's rebuke already quoted. It is not
likely that Colonel Oswald would have taken a tipsy man eight leagues
out to Morris' retreat, Sainport, on business, or that the tipsy man
would remember the words of his rebuke two years after, when Paine
records them in his letter to Washington. At any rate, if Morris saw
no deeper into Paine's physical than into his mental condition, the
"insolent" words were those of soberness. For Paine's private letters
prove him ignorant of any intrigue against Morris, and under an
impression that the Minister had himself asked for recall; also that,
instead of being ambitious to succeed Morris, he was eager to get out
of France and back to America. The first expression of French
dissatisfaction with Morris had been made through De Ternant, (February
20th, 1793,) whom he had himself been the means of sending as Minister
to the United States. The positive recall was made through Genet.*
* On September I, 1792, Morris answered a request of the
executive of the republic that he could not comply until
he had received "orders from his Court," (les ordres de ma
cour). The representatives of the new-born republic were
scandalized by such an expression from an American Minister,
and also by his intimacy with Lord and Lady Gower. They
may have suspected what Morris' "Diary" now suggests, that
he (Morris) owed his appointment to this English Ambassador
and his wife. On August 17, 1792, Lord Gower was
recalled, in hostility to the republic, but during the
further weeks of his stay in Paris the American Minister
frequented their house. From the recall Morris was
saved for a year by the intervention of Edmund Randolph.
(See my "Omitted Chapters of History," etc, p. 149.)
Randolph met with a Morrisian reward. Morris ("Diary,"
ii., p. 98) records an accusation of Randolph, to which he
listened in the office of Lord Grenville, Secretary of!
State, which plainly meant his (Randolph's) ruin, which
followed. He I knew it to be untrue, but no defence is
mentioned.
It would appear that Morris must have had sore need of a scapegoat to
fix on poor Paine, when his intrigues with the King's agents, his
trust of the King's money, his plot for a second attempt of the King to
escape, his concealment of royalist leaders in his house, had been his
main ministerial performances for some time after his appointment. Had
the French known half as much as is now revealed in Morris' Diary, not
even his office could have shielded him from arrest. That the executive
there knew much of it, appears in the revolutionary archives. There is
reason to believe that Paine, instead of intriguing against Morris,
had, in ignorance of his intrigues, brought suspicion on himself by
continuing his intercourse with the Minister. The following letter of
Paine to Barrere, chief Committeeman of Public Safety, dated September
5th, shows him protecting Morris while he is trying to do something for
the American captains.
"I send you the papers you asked me for.
"The idea you have to send Commissioners to Congress, and of which you
spoke to me yesterday, is excellent, and very necessary at this moment.
Mr. Jefferson, formerly Minister of the United States in France, and
actually Minister for Foreign Affairs at Congress, is an ardent defender
of the interests of France. Gouverneur Morris, who is here now, is
badly disposed towards you. I believe he has expressed the wish to be
recalled. The reports which he will make on his arrival will not be to
the advantage of France. This event necessitates the sending direct of
Commissioners from the Convention. Morris is not popular in America. He
has set the Americans who are here against him, as also the Captains of
that Nation who have come from Bordeaux, by his negligence with regard
to the affair they had to treat about with the Convention. _Between us_
[sic] he told them: 'That they had thrown themselves into the lion's
mouth, and it was for them to get out of it as best they could.' I shall
return to America on one of the vessels which will start from Bordeaux
in the month of October. This was the project I had formed, should
the rupture not take place between America and England; but now it is
necessary for me to be there as soon as possible. The Congress will
require a great deal of information, independently of this. It will soon
be seven years that I have been absent from America, and my affairs in
that country have suffered considerably through my absence. My house and
farm buildings have been entirely destroyed through an accidental fire.
"Morris has many relations in America, who are excellent patriots. I
enclose you a letter which I received from his brother, General Louis
Morris, who was a member of the Congress at the time of the Declaration
of Independence. You will see by it that he writes like a good patriot.
I only mention this so that you may know the true state of things. It
will be fit to have respect for Gouverneur Morris, on account of his
relations, who, as I said above, are excellent patriots.
"There are about 45 American vessels at Bordeaux, at the present moment.
If the English Government wished to take revenge on the Americans, these
vessels would be very much exposed during their passage. The American
Captains left Paris yesterday. I advised them, on leaving, to demand a
convoy of the Convention, in case they heard it said that the English
had begun reprisals against the Americans, if only to conduct as far as
the Bay of Biscay, at the expense of the American Government. But if the
Convention determines to send Commissioners to Congress, they will be
sent in a ship of the line. But it would be better for the Commissioners
to go in one of the best American sailing vessels, and for the ship of
the line to serve as a convoy; it could also serve to convoy the ships
that will return to France charged with flour. I am sorry that we cannot
converse together, but if you could give me a rendezvous, where I could
see Mr. Otto, I shall be happy and ready to be there. If events force
the American captains to demand a convoy, it will be to me that they
will write on the subject, and not to Morris, against whom they have
grave reasons of complaint Your friend, etc. Thomas Paine."*
* State Archives, Paris. Etats Unis, Vol. 38, No. 93.
Endorsed: "No. 6. Translation of a letter from Thomas
Payne to Citizen Barrere." It may be noted that Paine and
Barrere, though they could read each other's language, could
converse only in their own tongue.
This is the only letter written by Paine to any one in France about
Gouverneur Morris, so far as I can discover, and not knowing French he
could only communicate in writing. The American Archives are equally
without anything to justify the Minister's suspicion that Paine was
intriguing against him, even after his outrageous conduct about the
captains. Morris had laid aside the functions of a Minister to exercise
those of a treaty-making government. During this excursion into
presidential and senatorial power, for the injury of the country to
which he was commissioned, his own countrymen in France were without an
official Minister, and in their distress imposed ministerial duties on
Paine. But so far from wishing to supersede Morris, Paine, in the above
letter to Barrere, gives an argument for his retention, namely, that
if he goes home he will make reports disadvantageous to France. He
also asks respect for Morris on account of his relations, "excellent
patriots." Barrere, to whom Paine's letter is written, was chief of the
Committee of Public Safety, and had held that powerful position since
its establishment, April 6, 1793. To this all-powerful Committee of Nine
Robespierre was added July 27th. On the day that Paine wrote the letter,
September 5th, Barrere opened the Terror by presenting a report in which
it is said, "Let us make terror the order of the day!" This Barrere was
a sensualist, a crafty orator, a sort of eel which in danger turned into
a snake. His "supple genius," as Louis Blanc expresses it, was probably
appreciated by Morris, who was kept well informed as to the secrets
of the Committee of Public Safety. This omnipotent Committee had
supervision of foreign affairs and appointments. At this time the
Minister of Foreign Affairs was Deforgues, whose secretary was the
M. Otto alluded to in Paine's letter to Barrere. Otto spoke English
fluently; he had been in the American Legation. Deforgues became
Minister June 5th, on the arrest of his predecessor (Lebrun), and was
anxious lest he should follow Lebrun to prison also,--as he ultimately
did. Deforgues and his secretary, Otto, confided to Morris their strong
desire to be appointed to America, Genet having been recalled.*
Despite the fact that Morris' hostility to France was well known, he had
become an object of awe. So long as his removal was daily expected in
reply to a request twice sent for his recall, Morris was weak, and even
insulted. But when ship after ship came in without such recall, and at
length even with the news that the President had refused the Senate's
demand for Morris' entire correspondence, everything was changed.**
* Morris' letter to Washington, Oct. 18, 1793. The
passage is omitted from the letter as quoted in his "Diary
and Letters" ii., p. 53.
** See my "Life of Edmund Randolph," p. 214.
"So long," writes Morris to Washington, "as they believed in the success
of their demand, they treated my representations with indifference
and contempt; but at last, hearing nothing from their minister on that
subject, or, indeed, on any other, they took it into their heads that I
was immovable, and made overtures for conciliation." It must be borne in
mind that at this time America was the only ally of France; that already
there were fears that Washington was feeling his way towards a treaty
with England. Soon after the overthrow of the monarchy Morris had hinted
that the treaty between the United States and France, having been made
with the King, might be represented by the English Ministry in America
as void under the revolution; and that "it would be well to evince a
degree of good will to America." When Robespierre first became a leader
he had particular charge of diplomatic affairs. It is stated by Frederic
Masson that Robespierre was very anxious to recover for the republic the
initiative of the alliance with the United States, which was credited
to the King; and "although their Minister Gouverneur Morris was justly
suspected, and the American republic was at that time aiming only to
utilize the condition of its ally, the French republic cleared it at a
cheap rate of its debts contracted with the King."*
* "Le Departement des Affaires Etrangeres pendant la
Revolution," P-295.
Such were the circumstances which, when Washington seemed determined
to force Morris on France, made this Minister a power. Lebrun, the
ministerial predecessor of Deforgues, may indeed have been immolated to
placate Morris, who having been, under his administration, subjected to
a domiciliary visit, had gone to reside in the country. That was when
Morris' removal was supposed near; but now his turn came for a little
reign of terror on his own account In addition to Deforgues' fear of
Lebrun's fate, should he anger Washington's immovable representative, he
knew that his hope of succeeding Genet in America must depend on Morris.
The terrors and schemes of Deforgues and Otto brought them to the feet
of Morris. About the time when the chief of the Committee of Public
Safety, Barrere, was consulting Paine about sending Commissioners
to America, Deforgues was consulting Morris on the same point. The
interview was held shortly after the humiliation which Morris had
suffered, in the matter of the captains, and the defeat of his scheme
for utilizing their grievance to release the United States from their
alliance. The American captains had appointed Paine their Minister, and
he had been successful. Paine and his clients had not stood in awe of
Morris; but he now had the strength of a giant, and proceeded to use it
like a giant.
The interview with Deforgues was not reported by Morris to the Secretary
of State (Paine's friend, Jefferson), but in a confidential letter to
Washington,--so far as was prudent.
"I have insinuated [he writes] the advantages which might result from
an early declaration on the part of the new minister that, as France has
announced the determination not to meddle with the interior affairs of
other nations, he can know only the _government_ of America. In union
with this idea, I told the minister that I had observed an overruling
influence in their affairs which seemed to come from the other side of
the channel, and at the same time had traced the intention to excite a
seditious spirit in America; that it was impossible to be on a friendly
footing with such persons, but that at present a different spirit seemed
to prevail, etc. This declaration produced the effect I intended."*
* Letter to Washington, Oct. 18, 1793.
In thus requiring that the new minister to America shall recognize only
the "government" (and not negotiate with Kentucky, as Genet had done),
notice is also served on Deforgues that the Convention must in future
deal only with the American Minister, and not with Paine or sea-captains
in matters affecting his countrymen. The reference to an influence from
the other side of the channel could only refer to Paine, as there were
then no Englishmen in Paris outside his garden in the Faubourg St.
Denis. By this ingenious phrase Morris already disclaims jurisdiction
over Paine, and suggests that he is an Englishman worrying Washington
through Genet This was a clever hint in another way. Genet, now
recalled, evidently for the guillotine, had been introduced to Morris
by Paine, who no doubt had given him letters to eminent Americans. Paine
had sympathized warmly with the project of the Kentuckians to expel the
Spanish from the Mississippi, and this was patriotic American doctrine
even after Kentucky was admitted into the Union (June 1, 1792). He had
corresponded with Dr. O'Fallon, a leading Kentuckian on the subject But
things had changed, and when Genet went out with his blank commissions
he found himself confronted with a proclamation of neutrality which
turned his use of them to sedition. Paine's acquaintance with Genet, and
his introductions, could now be plausibly used by Morris to involve him.
The French Minister is shown an easy way of relieving his country from
responsibility for Genet, by placing it on the deputy from "the other
side of the channel."
"This declaration produced the effect I intended," wrote Morris. The
effect was indeed swift On October 3d, Amar, after the doors of the
Convention were locked, read the memorable accusation against the
Girondins, four weeks before their execution. In that paper he denounced
Brissot for his effort to save the King, for his intimacy with the
English, for injuring the colonies by his labors for negro emancipation!
In this denunciation Paine had the honor to be included.
"At that same time the Englishman Thomas Paine, called by the faction
[Girondin] to the honor of representing the French nation, dishonored
himself by supporting the opinion of Brissot, and by promising us in his
fable the dissatisfaction of the United States of America, our natural
allies, which he did not blush to depict for us as full of veneration
and gratitude for the tyrant of France."
On October 19th the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Deforgues, writes to
Morris:
"I shall give the Council an account of the punishable conduct of their
agent in the United States [Genet], and I can assure you beforehand that
they will regard the strange abuse of their confidence by this agent, as
I do, with the liveliest indignation. The President of the United States
has done justice to our sentiments in attributing the deviations of the
citizen Genet to causes entirely foreign to his instructions, and we
hope that the measures to be taken will more and more convince the head
and members of your Government that so far from having authorized the
proceedings and manoeuvres of Citizen Genet our only aim has been to
maintain between the two nations the most perfect harmony."
One of "the measures to be taken" was the imprisonment of Paine, for
which Amar's denunciation had prepared the way. But this was not so
easy. For Robespierre had successfully attacked Amar's report for
extending its accusations beyond the Girondins. How then could an
accusation be made against Paine, against whom no charge could be
brought, except that he had introduced a French minister to his friends
in America! A deputy must be formally accused by the Convention before
he could be tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal. An indirect route must
be taken to reach the deputy secretly accused by the American Minister,
and the latter had pointed it out by alluding to Paine as an influence
"from across the channel." There was a law passed in June for the
imprisonment of foreigners belonging to countries at war with France.
This was administered by the Committees. Paine had not been liable to
this law, being a deputy, and never suspected of citizenship in the
country which had outlawed him, until Morris suggested it. Could he
be got out of the Convention the law might be applied to him without
necessitating any public accusation and trial, or anything more than an
announcement to the Deputies.
Such was the course pursued. Christmas day was celebrated by the
terrorist Bourdon de l'Oise with a denunciation of Paine: "They have
boasted the patriotism of Thomas Paine. _Eh bien!_ Since the Brissotins
disappeared from the bosom of this Convention he has not set foot in it.
And I know that he has intrigued with a former agent of the bureau of
Foreign Affairs." This accusation could only have come from the American
Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs--from Gouverneur Morris and
Deforgues. Genet was the only agent of Deforgues' office with whom Paine
could possibly have been connected; and what that connection was the
reader knows. That accusation is associated with the terrorist's charge
that Paine had declined to unite with the murderous decrees of the
Convention.
After the speech of Bourdon de l'Oise, Bentabole moved the "exclusion
of foreigners from every public function during the war." Bentabole was
a leading member of the Committee of General Surety. "The Assembly,"
adds _The Moniteur_, "decreed that no foreigner should be admitted to
represent the French people." The Committee of General Surety assumed
the right to regard Paine as an Englishman; and as such out of the
Convention, and consequently under the law of June against aliens
of hostile nations. He was arrested next day, and on December 28th
committed to the Luxembourg prison.