ed a position as advocate to the
parlement. In 1789 he was elected by the third estate of the
_senechaussee_ of Annonay as deputy to the states-general. He was one of
those who induced the states-general to proclaim itself a National
Assembly on the 17th of June 1789; approved, in several speeches, of the
capture of the Bastille and of the taking of the royal family to Paris
(October 1789); demanded that strict measures be taken against the
royalists who were intriguing in the south of France, and published some
pamphlets on finance. During the Legislative Assembly he was
_procureur-syndic_ for the directory of the department of Ardeche.
Elected to the Convention, he sat in the centre, "_le Marais_," voting
in the trial of Louis XVI. for his detention until deportation should be
judged expedient for the state. He was then sent on a mission to Lyons
to investigate the frauds in connexion with the supplies of the army of
the Alps. During the Terror he was one of those deputies of the centre
who supported Robespierre; but he was gained over by the members of the
Mountain hostile to Robespierre, and his support, along with that of
some other leaders of the _Marais_, made possible the 9th Thermidor. He
was then elected a member of the Committee of Public Safety and charged
with the superintendence of the provisioning of Paris. He presented the
report supporting the decree of the 3rd Ventose of the year III. which
established liberty of worship. In the critical days of Germinal and of
Prairial of the year III. he showed great courage. On the 12th Germinal
he was in the tribune, reading a report on the food supplies, when the
hall of the Convention was invaded by the rioters, and when they
withdrew he quietly continued where he had been interrupted. On the 1st
Prairial he presided over the Convention, and remained unmoved by the
insults and menaces of the insurgents. When the head of the deputy, Jean
Feraud, was presented to him on the end of a pike, he saluted it
impassively. He was reporter of the committee which drew up the
constitution of the year III., and his report shows keen apprehension of
a return of the Reign of Terror, and presents reactionary measures as
precautions against the re-establishment of "tyranny and anarchy." This
report, the proposal that he made (August 27, 1795) to lessen the
severity of the revolutionary laws, and the eulogies he received from
several Paris sections suspected of disloyalty to the repu