Star.
London, England, 1802-05-24 00:00:00

FRANCS.

TRIBUNATE, MAY ii.

The affenibly proceeded to the order or the day,
on the report of the plan of the law refpelting the
efiablithment of a Legion of Honour.

LUCIEN Bossy/ air; mounted the Tribune.
" We enjoy," laid he " the funds of peace ; the
moment is therefore arrived for fixing the plans
of the National Recompences, to be decreed to
our warriors. Already the Government has be-
gun to acquit itfelf of this facred duty ; a quan-
tity of arms of honour has been diftributed. But
thefe partial meafures are infufficient. Thefe dif-;
tinaions are honourable, no doubt, but they are I
not fufficiently brilliant, and the penfions granted
are not fufficiently independent of the Elate in
I which the public treafure may be. Since the
eflablithment of peace, thefe marks are too feeble
for the public gratitude. The peace has confoli-
dated the benefit, it fhould alfo confolidate the re-
compence. It is for this reafon that the Govern-
ment propofes the formation of a Legion of Ho-
nour. Two great views have direaed it; firft,
the projea of the law renders the recompence as
diffinguithed as it is poflible, without violating
philofophy or the conffitution. Secondly, it fixes
the penfions on a hafts independent of the public
treafure, and conformable to its interests. Thole
of our warriors who have obtained recompences
are infulated in the vaft field of honour. We leek
them every where and find them no where. This
projea colleas them and prefents them in a body
to the public gratitude. They have for their chief
the chief of the Government. Formed into a le-
gion under his orders, their glory will be common,
and this community of glory will comprehend
them all in its vaft radiation. They are named
for life, and each of them, marked with the fa-
cred charaaer of glory, will be recognized in the
midft of his fellow citizens: his recompence will be
worthy of him. But this diftinaion is not here-
ditary, none of them can afpire to any other re-
compence but fuch as ends in the grave. No new
place is created,nc Vreditary funaion eftablithed.
Hereditary recompences are abfurd in as much as
there can no more be glory in them than there is
(lime in hereditary puniffitnent. Glory is pecu-
liar to him who acquires it ; is cries out to the de-
fcendant of the hero—" Imitate his valour, imi-
tate his virtues, if you with to receive his recom-
pence." " The projea eftablithes fifteen cohorts,
of which each in a body will enjoy zoo,oao francs
annual revenue in national property. This is not
an annual penfion of which tne payment may be-
come uncertain, it is a maintenance for the remain-
der of their lives, fecured in landed property. This
regulation guards the interests of the public trey
lure, it produces a great political effea, by giving
to the lawful purchafers of national property a
new fupport. Their poffeffions, already fecured
by the laws, by viaory, by religion, is (till far.
ther confirmed in an indefeafable manner, by the
legion of honour. Thus the public intereft isunired
with this great as of recompence. But this recom-
pence is not the exclnfive right of miltary men':
it will be extended to thole civil fervants who have
merited well of the country. And how many are
there in that chi's, who are worthy of it ! In vain
would viaory have mulled the enemy without,
if the enemies within had not been kept down by
the mirage and wifdom of the civil officers.—
Peace feemed to fly before viaory, becaufe the
nations, affrighted by our civil diffentions, did not
with to treat with a country, which was a prey to
them. The Conftitution was fluent on the recom-
pence to be decreed to civil funaionaries : it was
neceffary to fupply the defea oecafioned by its fi-
lence, and this the projea has done. By amalga-
mating the military with the civil, all the germs
of jealoufy are deftroyed, all fecret and rival pre-
tentions, all party fpirit. By uniting in the fame
recompence the magiltrate, the foldier, and the
man of. letters, there is eftablithed among them
A fraternal equalit7, the example of which will
fpread through fociety."

The Reporter propofed. that the projea be
adopted—fix copies to be printed.

SAVOYE ROLLIN attacked the plan as contrary
to the letter and the fpirit of the conllitution.—
" A free (late contains only magiftrates and citi-
zens. Thole who with to defend the plan rely on
the 87th article of the conaitution ' • which de-
clares that national recompences (ball be given
to thofe warriors who than have rendered confpi-
cuous Cervices in fighting for the Republic. I only
fee in that a promice of granting to our brave fol.
diers tndividual recompcnce ; but to difcovcr, in
this article, an order of chivalry, a privileged
corps, one mutt forget our language and our con-
flitution. The people ought not to tolerate a body
bound by oaths, and more powerful than the peo-
ple, to undertake the defence of the conflitution.
The people fhould be fuhordinate only to their ma.
gittrates and thofe niagifirates are defignated by
the conhitution. Tribunes, to accept a Legion
of Honour, is to accept a Patrician Order. It is
the introduaion of an hereditary and military
Noble& into the Republic. After twelve years of
frightful calamities, which the genius of France
(guided by one of thole extraordinary men who
are neceffary to finifh Revolutions) has furmount.
ed, to accept of fuch an inflitution, armed with
power and privileges, would be to go back to the
point from which we fet out. What do 1 fay? It
is going back to thefe barbarous ages that gave
birth to the feudal fy Item, which began with war
hodes, fine coats of armour, and fefrivals, but
ended with enflaving Europe for eight centuries.
Such is the cafe now in Rua,' and in Turkey,
where the condition of citizen or fubjea is fubor-
dinate to the daft of foldieri. In a free Rate, the
civil officer ought to have the firll place. It will
he quite different in the Legion of Honour, and
will it not be fhameful, that an officer, who (hall
have carried a redoubt at the point of the (word,
fhould have a higher rank than Montefquieu, the
author of the immortal work " The Spirit of
Laws ?" " For many ages our Kings even did
not dare to truflthe defence of their Rates to knight
errant* or to orders of chivalry. Why, this ex.
clulive dcnoutinatioa of Legion of Honour, as if

honour Was an exclufive. privilege ? Honour is not
given, it is acquired. Often thole to whom it is
Siren have not deferved it, and thofe have deferved
it to whom it has not been given. Betide one of
the difpolitions of the plan poftpones the execution
till the tft Vendemiaire, year 2. I do not fee
why the fandion of it fhould not be poftponed for
the fame term. 1 vote its rejeEtion."—Thisfpcech
WAS ordered to be printed.
FREvILLE confidered that honour and public
confideration were the only rewards worthy of the
heroic adions performed by individuals during this
war. The nation had decreed rewards, the Go-
vernment only pointed out what appeared the molt
fuitable. As for the Civil Functionaries, it was
well known that many of them had laboured with
the utmoft zeal for the Republic, without thofe
profpeds of gain that induftry applied in com•
merce, or the management of their own affairs
would have procured them : they therefore were
deferving of a teftimony of gratitude as well as our
brave foldiers, and honour and diftindion were the
belt reward that could be given them.—He
therefore fupported the plan.

C AU V *AN oppofed the plan that was now pre-
fenced ; and thought that both the authors and
defenders of it had very widely departed from the
objea they declared. Without doubt, it is incum-
bent on us to difcharge the great debt of national
gratitude to our brave warriors ; W e mull confirm
what has been already decreed, and add other re-
wards of a new, honourable, and diftinguithed na-
ture. But, can it be neceffary to incorporate
civil funaionaries in an . organiCition altoge-
ther military ?—ln the antient Republics, mili-
tary exploits have been often rewarded by civil
diflinetions; a crown of laurel or of oak leaves
adorned alike the head of the warrior and the ma-
giftrate, the poet and the artift ; but this will be
the firft time that heroirm in civil offices is to be
repaid by military honours, that are nothing in
the eyes of reafon, if not gained in battle. If the
oath required of this corps was neceffary for the
fecurity of our rights, it &mild be taken by the
army in general, and by all Frenchmen. If it be
fuperfluons, it can only tend to call in queflion
that equality which the laws confecrate, which is
dear to all Frenchmen, which was introduced by
our manners for half a century pall, and which
was rather acknowledged than required in 1789.
Such a corporation as this would partake of the
vices of the Nobkje, on account of the diftinaions
conferred upon it ; it would, like the Clergy, poffefs
itfelf of dates in mortmain, and would, like them,
conflitute a feparate order in the State. The au-
thors of the plan reprefented this inflitution as a
ufeful intermediary between the power of the Go-
vernment and the public opinion ; fuch doarine is
altogether unconftitutional ; in a reprefentative
Government the conftituted authorities are the only
intermediaries between the Government and the
people. In France it is the Tribunate, the Senate,
and the Legiflative Body, that are the conftitu-
tional intermediaries. In order to pay the great
debt of national gratitude, it may be nccetfary to
firike a new coin, but this coin however should
not be (truck at the expence of the inalienable fo-
vereignty of the French people. He voted for re-
jeeting the plan.

CARRION DR Nixes argued in a fpeech of con-
fiderable length againil the infufficiency of pecu-
niary rewards, and urged the expediency of main-
taining a high fpirit of military honour, as the
fource of all the ftrength and glory of a Rate. To-
wards the conclution he lays, 46 I look at this plan
as the point of the focial pyramid, and that point is
formed of the richeft metal and the moft precious
Bones."

Lucite BONAPARTE PI reply).—" In a public
difcuaion, to examine a plan of a law in a different
point of view from that in which it is propofed ;
to attribute to it a meaning entirely contrary to its
letter and fpiri t,. is not only to ge affray one's felt,
but alfo to lead affray others. To attack the in-
tentions of a law by burlefquing it in an unbecom-
ing manner, is to attack the intentions of thole who
propofe it—it is to attack the Government. lithe
excels of indignation which fuch an addrefs excites
(if there be an addrefs that deferves no kind of re-
ipea ), if the excels of indignation did not render
this fobjed too grave for pleafantry, I thould com-
pare the attempt of one of the fpeakers to thole of
the champion of knight-errantry, who, miftaking
a windmill for an army, exerted all the-vigour of
his arm againft it. I than not look in the fpeech
of that fpeaker for what is not to be found in it.
I do not underhand the meaning, and therefore
' cannot anfwer it. He admits that we may form
inflitutions, provided they ellablith no privilege."
He then proceeded to argue that the plan did not
confer any privilege but a mere diftinaion, con
mining nothing injurious to the conftitution ; that
the inftitution was not as had been charged, the
formation of a body of knighthood, but a mere
perfonal recompence due to the French heroes who
had diflinguilhed themfelves in their country's
caufe. He next defended the oath prefcribed for
each legionary, and concludeckvith the following
obfervations upon that point What danger can
we fee in the promife to defend the territory of the
Republic and the Government. There is not a
Frenchman who does not thick-that the happinefs
and glory of the Republic are attached to the fop-
port of the prefent Government. I believe that
this truth is fo plain, even in the eyes of thofe who
have fpoken before me, that I think it unneceffary
to fay any thing in its confirmation."—He there-
fore now propofed, that the difeuffion thould clofe,
and that they proceed immediately to vote for its
adoption or rejeaion.