Barnave

Barnave, ANTOINE-PIERRE-JOSEPH-MARIE, a notable figure in the French Revolution, born at Grenoble, October 22, 1761. He early attracted attention as an eloquent pleader in the parliament of Grenoble, and was sent as the deputy of his province to the States-general in 1789. Here his trenchant logic, keen wit, and vehement eloquence on behalf of public liberty quickly brought him to the front. He opposed the absolute veto, carried through the confiscation of church-property to the use of the nation, the emancipation of the Jews, and the abolition of the religious orders, and was mainly instrumental in the liberation of the slaves and reorganisation of the colonies. He became the idol of the people, particularly after his victory over Mirabeau, in the question of the power of peace and war, which Mirabeau wished to remain with the king, and Barnave successfully claimed for the National Assembly. After the flight to Varennes, he was deputed to conduct the royal family back to Paris, and this duty he discharged with a fine courtesy to the unhappy queen. Subsequently he advocated more moderate courses, defended the inviolability of the king's person, and resisted the assertion by the assembly of its power to remove ministers. This led to his being regarded as a renegade from the national party, and to his being assailed by the fierce vituperations of the journalists. He retired to his native place on the dissolution of the National Assembly; but after the 10th of August 1792, he was impeached for treasonable correspondence with the court, tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal, and guillotined 29th November 1793.