ady trying to avert popular wrath from the individual
man by directing it against the general league of monarchs,
and the monarchal system. Nor would his plea for the King's
life have been listened to but for this previous address.--
_Editor._

2 Of course no English journal could then venture to print
it.--_Editor._

A Secretary read the opinion of Thomas Paine. I think it necessary
that Louis XVI. should be tried; not that this advice is suggested by
a spirit of vengeance, but because this measure appears to me just,
lawful, and conformable to sound policy. If Louis is innocent, let us
put him to prove his innocence; if he is guilty, let the national will
determine whether he shall be pardoned or punished.

But besides the motives personal to Louis XVI., there are others which
make his trial necessary. I am about to develope these motives, in the
language which I think expresses them, and no other. I forbid myself the
use of equivocal expression or of mere ceremony. There was formed among
the crowned brigands of Europe a conspiracy which threatened not only
French liberty, but likewise that of all nations. Every thing tends
to the belief that Louis XVI. was the partner of this horde of
conspirators. You have this man in your power, and he is at present the
only one of the band of whom you can make sure. I consider Louis XVI. in
the same point of view as the two first robbers taken up in the affair
of the Store Room; their trial led to discovery of the gang to which
they belonged. We have seen the unhappy soldiers of Austria, of Prussia,
and the other powers which declared themselves our enemies, torn from
their fire-sides, and drawn to butchery like wretched animals, to
sustain, at the cost of their blood, the common cause of these crowned
brigands. They loaded the inhabitants of those regions with taxes to
support the expenses of the war. All this was not done solely for Louis
XVI. Some of the conspirators have acted openly: but there is reason
to presume that this conspiracy is composed of two classes of brigands;
those who have taken up arms, and those who have lent to their cause
secret encouragement and clandestine assistance. Now it is indispensable
to let France and the whole world know all these accomplices.

A little time after the National Convention was constituted, the
Minister for Foreign Affairs presented the picture of all the
governments of Europe,--those whose hostili