Barère de Vieuzac

Barère de Vieuzac, BERTRAND, a French revolutionist and regicide, born at Tarbes, 10th September 1755. First an advocate at Toulouse, he acted as a deputy in the National Assembly, and was sent by the department of the Hautes-Pyré- nées to the National Convention in 1792. He soon became active as a journalist, and attached himself to the 'Mountain,' supporting it with eloquence of such a flowery and poetical style as afterwards earned him the name of the 'Anacreon of the guillotine.' He was president of the Convention when the sentence was passed upon Louis XVI. He rejected the appeal to the people, and gave his vote with these words: 'The law is for death, and I am here only as the organ of the law.' Though a supporter of Robespierre, he concurred in his downfall, yet this did not save him from being impeached and sentenced to transportation. His sentence was not carried into effect, and he shared in the general amnesty of the 18th Brumaire. Elected a deputy during the Hundred Days, he was banished after the second restoration. He betook himself to Brussels, where he devoted himself to literary work till the revolution of July permitted his return. In the year 1832 he was once more elected as a deputy by the department of the Hautes-Pyrénées; his election, however, was annulled, on account of errors of form, whereupon the government called him to be a member of the administration of that department, which office he continued to hold till 1840. He died on 14th January 1841. His Mémoires were edited by Hipp. Carnot (1842; trans. 1897). Barère was one of the most graceful and consummate liars in history. His masterpiece in this kind is his famous account of that glorious suicidal sinking of the ship Vengeur in 1794, which is still dear as a heroic story to the French people, and was described in glowing words, as a real historical exploit, by Carlyle in the first edition of his French Revolution. See Carlyle's Miscellanies.