The Special Military Commission, established at Bourdeaux, by a decision of the Representative of the People YSABEAU, bearing the date of yesterday, in order to try LACOMBE, and his Accomplices—has passed the following Sentence: to which have assisted, Citizens LATASTE, President; A. FRIGIERE, SEGUY, AZEVEDO, and CLOCHARD, members of the said Commission.

THEY brought to the bar, a man who called himself Jean Baptist Lacombe, a native of Toulouse, having his domicil in Bourdeaux, dis­trict of the same in the department of Bec d' Am­be's; the said man about 35 years old; formerly a school-master, and president to the late mili­tary commission at Bourdeaux.

[Page 6] Citizen DEREY, war commissary and public accuser, said:

CITIZENS,

Lacombe, is accused of having perpetrated the most horrid crimes, and that under the mask of all virtues. The papers of the process will prove, that nobody ever betrayed so boldly the confidence of the people, and of its representa­tives; that the discharge of judicial duty, was never so shamefully abused, these papers will prove that a greater criminal, did never fix up­on himself the attention of Justice.

These papers are numerous; time has been short to read them, and to compare together the facts they contain. I could scarcely copy the result of them; but the public is consumed with the thirst of justice; it is important to yield to its impatience; this impatience is that of republican virtues: The people want a great example of severity, let this example be granted.

The papers were read, after which the pub­lic accuser spoke again as follows:

CITIZENS,

You have just heard the reading of the docu­ments of the process; they exhibit to you the most hideous picture; you see thereby Lacombe, [Page 7] to be successively a shark, a prevaricating ma­gistrate, a counter-revolutionist, and always a hypocrite.

Let us follow him in the three periods of his life, in order that we may form to ourselves a just idea of his baseness, and of the wickedness of his disposition.

What has been his conduct previous to the re­volution? How did he behave himself since the revolution, and before his getting in the office of president of the military commission? How did he behave himself in the various emergencies of this duty?

What has been his conduct previous to the revolution? He himself informs us that he was born in Toulouse; he says that he followed there the line of a teacher, and that he came to settle in Bourdeaux, about ten years ago.

Lacombe a tutor! What man is this to teach youth the principles of morality, to unfold in their minds the seeds of the virtues therein sow­ed by nature!

He was twenty eight years old when he came to Bourdeaux: He was married. His wife de­clared [Page 8] that they were poor at Toulouse, and that, on their arriving at Bourdeaux, they had got but a little money along with their cloaths. What!—Lacombe who had been successful at Toulouse in the line of a teacher, was deprived of almost everything when he arrived at Bor­deaux.

But, citizens, a fact which ought to have fixed your attention, inspires us with the most unfa­vorable suspicions concerning his fame in Tou­louse. He left, doubtless, Toulouse on the on­ly account of his being there too publicly known, and he came to Bourdeaux, because the population, commerce and opulency of this im­portant city, unhappily warrant to an intriguing man more resources and more means to conceal the baseness of his actions, and to impose upon others: Recall to your minds the declaration of citizen Merzeau, one of the most ancient, of the most sincere and most virtuous republicans. You have seen Lacombe to partake of the theft of a carriage from Colineau, a coach-maker on Tourny-walks; you have seen him to partake of a theft of books 1800 livers worth from Ducot a bookseller; you have seen him accompanied by a fellow, who acted the part of an English Lord, in order to impose more easily both upon the coach-maker and bookseller; you have after­wards [Page 9] seen him stealing linens, worth 800 livres, from citizen Merzeau; and how did he steal these linens? In order to impose upon citizen Merzeau, he sent his wife, elegantly dressed in a coach, and she picked out and carried away these linens. It is thus that this tutor, who had obtained great successes in Toulouse, did ground his new successes in Bourdeaux; it is thus that he taught his family the art of craf­tiness and knavery; it is thus that, by misusing the weakness of his wife, he made her an ac­complice of his criminal baseness! These facts, and a thousand others, with which the public voice reproaches him, show clearly enough what man Lacombe was, previous to the revo­lution. Let us see what he has been since that epoch.

Every one is sensible that there are every where intriguers, imposters and atrocious men, who took up the revolutionary mask to veil their plots, to deceive the people and its representa­tives, to get in the public offices, and to crush liberty to pieces.

There is no liberty without virtue; there is no liberty where licentiousness is; but alas! How shall we have this republican principle adopted by men, whose whole country's love consists but [Page 10] in the violence of their declamations! By men who cry aloud for the only purpose of imposing upon the candour and credulity of a generous and trustful public; by men who are always speaking about republicanism, and who shelter in their hearts all the furies of despotism; by men who speak of virtue, and have their hearts stained by the most hideous vices; by men who talk of liberty, to fetter and slave their fellow-citizens?

In the year 1790, Lacombe kept a boarding-school, in a house rented to him by citizen Lis­leferme; he bought from a widow woman, six or seven tuns of wine, for the use, said he, of his boarders. That wine had not been paid for, and it became necessary for Lacombe, to draw both his wine and himself from the prosecutions of the widow. He contrived to suppose a sale of the wine, to a man by the name of Poireau, a writing master, and to declare that Poireau had paid for it beforehand; this wine was car­ried away, and Lacombe removed to another house; insomuch that the widow, who had a claim to make for the price of her wine, was, for a while, at a loss to know what had become both of her wine and Lacombe.

[Page 11] Luckily for her, Poireau pretended that the sale agreed upon between Lacombe and him was sincere. Lacombe behaved himself violently to­wards Poireau; this was the motive which car­ried the two knaves before the municipal of­ficer; they were giving to one another the name of rogue, when they arrived before him; they were both put under arrest, but as they were together in a room, these honest people ad­justed their differences.

The municipal officer repealed the order of their arrest; but, as he suspected that their re­concilement had been made at the expence of the widow, he caused her to be informed of it; and she seized upon her wine in the dwelling house of Poireau. This seizing of the wine, gave place to a suit before the justice of St. Seurin, who compelled both Lacombe and Poireau to pay for the wine; thus the shame of this rob­bery remained alone with these two men.

Lacombe has therefore given himself up to the excesses of the basest cupidity, as well since, as before the revolution.

Endowed with some talents, but rather a prattler than a thinker, Lacombe seemed to [Page 12] throw himself headlong in the revolution; he was, according to himself, the scourge of aristo­cracy; he succeeded effectively in dazzling pa­triots.

He went to St. Foi, and opened a school there; but it is probable that neither his beha­viour nor his manners could obtain him the good will of the inhabitants; his undertaking proved abortive.

He has been bold enough to say that he had left St. Foi, on account of that place abounding with aristocrats and moderates. Citizens, this is a forgery which he has contrived to veil the true motives of his coming back to Bourdeaux. St. Foi, is classed among the towns which have constantly proved patriots; we have seen, and we even now behold, very worthy citizens from that community, trusted with public of­fices, and justifying more and more by their equity, humanity and other republican virtues, the choice made of them by the representatives of the people.

The ill fate of Bourdeaux, raised up in its bo­som some wicked men who, in concert with the intriguing deputies from the Gironde, abused even the deluded patriotism of the citizens of [Page 13] this large city, in order to hurry them into li­berticide measures. These traitors aimed at fe­deralism, and they cloaked their plots under their oaths of the unity and indivisibility of the republic, and of their attachment to the Nati­onal Convention.

The National Convention, justly irritated, proposed to employ no means, but the justice which they are indebted for to the French peo­ple, as well as to their own dignity; the Nati­onal revenge threatened then a multitude of ci­tizens.

It was at that time that Lacombe left St. Foi, and reassumed his residence at Bourdeaux; as bold and apt to all that could forward his for­tune as he was, he joined with those he had be­fore dazzled by his speeches about his own vir­tues and patriotism. The citizens whose testi­mony he might have dreaded, were struck with sorrow and terror; they did no more show themselves. Lacombe profited by this instant of terror; he dreads no more the language of truth; he well knew how to imitate both the discourses and manners of patriotism; they pro­claim him the most inexorable enemy to aristo­cracy and federalism; his supporters praise his talents and virtues; they are nearly supposing him to be endowed with the manners of a Spar­tan; [Page 14] both people and their representatives are im­posed upon, he is trusted with the office of pre­sident to the military commission.

Such a man was Lacombe from the epoch of the revolution, to the unlucky instant when by his intrigues he got in the station of president to the military commission; he was alternatively contemptible and impudent; he was never a patriot; is it possible to be so with a corrupted heart? He returned to Bourdeaux, only when he had a certainty to profit by the terror and silence of patriots, and to be at liberty of speak­ing here about his virtues and patriotism, without the least fear of being contradicted.

Let us now follow him into the discharge of his duty, as president to the military commis­sion.

It is here that he entirely pulls off his mask; he appears fierce and humane successively: The rich counter revolutionist may be certain to se­cure his life by giving up his purse to him; the guiltless, if he wishes to be discharged, shall be obliged to put his money by his innocence; the papers of the process have exhibited to us the proofs of these odious bargains! It is thus that Lacombe, by prostituting the sacred duty of a [Page 15] judge to his cupidity, hastened the steps of the counter-revolution; by plundering together the counter-revolutionist, and the patriots, he strengthened the tyrannical hopes of the former and reduced the latter to dispair.

Let us fix our attention upon some of the facts, which are proved by the papers of the process.

We have seen the relations of Journu-Au­bert, determined to do all in their power to save their relative who was out-lawed; they went so far as to offer 300,000 livres: Bizat, for­merly a lawyer, was charged to make the same offer to Rey, a baker, the friend of Lacombe and the manager of the pecuniary proposals made to him, and of the out-bidding of the dis­charge of his duty. Rey asked for a delay of two days after which he answered to Bizat that his offer had been accepted; assignats to the a­mount of 205,000 livres were therefore deli­vered, and they deposited bills for the residue of 95,000 livres.

Mean while Journu-Aubert, who was igno­rant of the steps made in his behalf by his rela­tions, having proved with the representative of the people, both his innocence and patriotism, was restored to law. Such an event was calcu­lated to disappoint our intriguers. The relati­ons [Page 16] of Journu claimed again the 205,000 livres they had paid; it was impossible to detain this money; the justice just done by the representa­tive Ysabeau, to a well known patriot, stopped that of Lacombe; he felt therefore himself dri­ven to the necessity of repairing the money; but he delayed more and more; he gave it back a­gain by little and little; and as if he had sup­posed that the relations of Journu ought to be grateful for his having been kind enough to ac­cept a sum of one hundred thousand crowns, he has kept for himself a sum of about 70 or 75000 livres.

The very declaration of Bizat informs us that Bory, a brother-in-law of Journu, had agreed to give up 55,000 livres, as a reward for the pains which had been taken.

But remark the cunning of Lacombe and his associates; they masked this shameful extortion under the name of a fine, to which, said they, Journu could possibly be condemned; as if a fine was to be deposited with the president of the tribunal, as if a fine was to be paid before­hand, as if Journu was to be condemned before being heard and before the reading of his justification; as if the judges forming the tribunal together with Lacombe, ought not to perceive and judge but by his eyes.

[Page 17] Almost every day is marked out by some new prevarication.—He extorted 7200 livres from citizen Chappel.

He extorted 48,000 livres for his releasing ci­tizen Beaux.—32,000 livres from citizen Pe­rayre, viz.—20,000 livres before the arrestation of his brother, by promising that none of the two brothers should be arrested, and 12,000 livres after the one being arrested. Citizens, perfidy and a wanton outrage to the liberty of citizens, are found here by the most impudent concussion.

He extorted 160,000 livres from citizen Le­changeur, and as the emissary of Lechangeur, cried out upon so excessive an extortion, (for Lacombe would at first have 200,000 livres,) Lacombe answered to him, ‘who wouldst thou have to pay, if monied people do not! I have got children, I must secure them a fortune.’ Wicked man! didst thou not perceive that the most precious inheritance to be left to our chil­dren, is the remembrance of their father dying in a state of indigence; they then have, at least, the certainty of their property being not stain­ed by any crime.

[Page 18] He extorted 58,000 livres from John Tartey­ron.

He had extorted 60,000 livres from citizen Castarede, and 13,200 livres from the female citizen Dubergier. Lacombe, whom remorse had not been able to attain, was afraid some days since to be discovered; he caused there­fore the sum of 13,200 livres to be returned to citizen Dubergier, as well as that of 60,000 li­vres to citizen Castarede, some days previous to his being arrested.

The cupidity of Lacombe and his associates, acted upon trifling sums, as well as upon consi­derable ones. The wife of Bujac, having but an indifferent estate, gave 1200 livres with the hope of saving her husband: And notwithstand­ing that, Buzac was condemned to death.

The brothers Pimentel, gave some laces to the wife of Lacombe; some days after, Lacombe supposing to be in want of 6,000 livres, addressed himself to citizen Beraud, that he should bor­row for him this sum from these merchants. The money was accordingly borrowed by Be­raud; but Lacombe who, without doubt, wished to appropriate the sum to himself without be­ing exposed to any prosecution on that account, [Page 19] urged citizen Beraud to bind himself towards Pimentel; Beraud refused and Lacombe did not receive the money.

Lacombe was possessed of considerable sums; he would lodge that of 52,000 livres with citi­zen Perayre; on his refusal, this sum was lodged with citizen Aequart.

Lebrun, a director to the National Custom-House, was arrested; his friends offered to give 100,000 livres, but it was too late; Lebrun had now been brought before the military commis­sion. Lacombe fearing therefore to be suspec­ted, answered the offers by saying that they had been delayed too long, and Rey added, that Le­brun would otherwise have been saved; it is thus that the lives of citizens became, with Lacombe, an object of speculation without troubling himself about distinguishing republi­cans from aristocrats.

Citizens, I hurry this recital, unsufferable for righteous men.

You have seen the female citizen Bujac, giv­ing 1200 livres as the price of saving her husband, Bujac, who was condemned.

[Page 20] Another deed of the same kind, but more important, another crime more deliberately atrocious has been perpetrated.

The wife of Dudon, as did that of Bujac, wished to buy the life of her husband; she gave one hundred louis' in specie: By receiving them Lacombe exclaimed against the smallness of the sum, saying that he wanted at least one thou­sand louis'; Rey reported these words to the wife of Dudon, she objected her impossibility of procuring so large a sum; her answer was re­lated by Rey to Lacombe, and this odious judge cried out, "she will repent of it;" he then charged Rey, to tell the woman that she must find out this sum in three days; she could not, Dudon was sentenced, and Lacombe kept up the one hundred louis' he had received. What a horrid prostitution of his duty, of the life of men and of the laws!

But the mind is overwhelmed, at the recital of such horrors! do I want, citizens, to retrace here all the crimes which Lacombe has perpe­trated? Is it not enough of what I said, to raise up your indignation, and to arm you with the sword of the laws?

[Page 21] He denied these facts at first in the examina­tion he underwent; but as he found himself urged on account of the assignats discovered in some tin boxes, which he had hidden in the garret of his house, he said that some aristocrats, the enemies which his faithful discharge of his duty bad raised up against him, had probably and wickedly brought these assignats into his garret; such a ridiculous evasion would betray sufficiently his crime, but his brother and Rey, who were his agents, have asserted that the as­signats, this shameful offspring of his extortions, had been brought into the garret but in com­pliance of his directions.

But he has afterwards confessed several of his exactions; he declared that he had given to Du­casse, another of his agents, a sum of 3,000 livres out of that he had received from the fe­male citizen Dubergier.

He has confessed that Rey had delivered to him a sum of 6,000 livres out of the 48,000 livres exacted from citizen Beaux.

Should we be reduced to these two confes­sions, they would be a full proof of his concus­sion.

[Page 22] But he made other avowals, which justice ought to preserve carefully; he said in a letter to citizen Plenaud, that he had been misled by a desire to have his family rich; to which he ad­ded that he had denied every thing in his exa­mination on account of two very natural mo­tives; the one a desire to conceal his weakness, the other on account of the indignation he felt, at the odious and artful calumnies of the infa­mous Rey.

He had therefore denied every thing, and this avowal from his own, is a proof of the sin­cerity of Rey's declaration.

He says that he had denied every thing, in order to conceal his weakness; he therefore con­fesses to have perpetrated those concussions of which he is accused: We differ, he and I, but about words; he calls weakness, what I call a horrid crime. A judge trusted with the most rigorous duty, that of punishing the enemies of the republic, and, with the utmost impartiali­ty, of discerning them from its sincere friends, such a judge trading about justice, is a monster whom the world ought to get rid of! Such a judge is a declared enemy to the republic, for we now are in a state of revolution, and it is only by his fully executing the revolutionary [Page 23] laws and by his practising the virtues which are the order of the day, that a judge can ma­nifest himself a true friend to the revolution.

He denied the facts too, said he, because he wished to conceal the indignation he felt, at the odious and artful calumnies of the infamous Rey.

The infamous Rey! But, since Rey is an in­famous man, what epithet shall we affix upon Lacombe? Is it not manifest, that it is he who has employed Rey, as his agent?

Recall again, citizens, to your minds the odi­ous ascendency he had assumed upon Rey. Some­times he threatened him with the guillotine, in case he should dare to unveil his mysteries, add­ing that he had power enough to cause citi­zens to be imprisoned, without imparting it to the committee of surveillance, to cause them to be sentenced, and to pull off the head of whom­soever would be daring enough to inspire him with any fears. When Rey communicated to him his apprehension for their common fate, No, no, said Lacombe, no punishment will reach me in the station I am in; thou wouldst certainly be exposed, if it were not for thy complying with what I prescribe to thee. Thou art the master [Page 24] of my secret, said he once to Rey, but I am the master of thy life.

Lacombe, however confesses himself guilty, but of weakness only; he likewise calls Rey an infamous man; we must suppose him to be very familiar with crimes, and his mind to be strong­ly subjected to his heart, to a heart essential­ly vicious, as well as to that egotism which com­pelled him to trample upon the most sacred duty; which, before his eyes, gives to his crimes the physiognomy of weakness only, and that of crime to the condescensions, to which he was artful enough, to drive a man who has, at least, the merit of sincerity.

Citizens, facts numerous enough, have con­vinced you, and the denials of Lacombe will not shake your conviction; but he shall be com­pelled himself to give up that crafty justificati­on. He has been examined by the com­mittee of surveillance; he has been confronted with Rey and Bizot, who had before given their evidences and declarations. Rey and Bi­zot have maintained to him, before the com­mittee, the truth of all the facts they had de­clared, and no one of those who have witnessed those debates, in which Lacombe unfolded the [Page 25] whole art of falsehood and hypocrisy, enter­tains no doubt of his being guilty.

What is the consequence of these facts?

Lacombe, at the happy epoch of the revoluti­on, behaved himself, as did many others whose element was corruption. Recall again, citizens, to your minds the theft, of about six or seven tuns of wine, and how he was reprimanded on that account by the municipal, who discharged then the duty of policy. Lacombe had before vehemently talked about liberty! Virtue and a regeneration of manners; but he uttered a lan­guage, which was a strange one to his heart; he pretended himself to be at the height of liberty, and he was in reality creeping in the mire of corruption.

That spirit, with which he was inspired did not fail him, when he was promoted to the of­fice of president to the military commission. Be­hold his crimes, they all partake of his propen­sity to the most infamous cupidity; it was that cupidity which, almost always, put his passions into movement, which prompted him into the most odious bargains, which induced him to weigh in the same scale with gold, the lives of [Page 26] citizens. It was that cupidity, which induced him to place in the same scale the aristocrat and patriot, which pursuaded him to spare the ene­my of the revolution, provided he would pay the money exacted from him, and to keep fainting in the anguish of terror the patriot, who has no money to give, or who would blush in giving it as a price for his innocence and patriotism.

We are sensible that those who have been sen­tenced to death, did, generally speaking, merit it; either they were aristocrats, or they had a share in tyrannical measures; but by entering into bargains with them, by his striving to save them for money, he plainly partakes of the crime of counter-revolution, concealed in the hearts of such men; it mattered him but very little whether liberty should be destroyed, pro­vided he could acquire riches.

But a thing which makes humanity tremble, is, to behold Lacombe, entering into contracts with the enemies to the revolution, sentencing them to death, and notwithstanding keeping their money from them. What a specula­tion! What a horrid and cool-blood temper!

[Page 27] Let us observe, citizens, that the revolution­ary circumstances we are now under, want on behalf of every public officer, a revoluti­onary behaviour; let us particularly observe that Lacombe was a president to a military commission, specially calculated to guide, and to hasten the steps of the revolution. The crime of a prevaricator, ought, therefore, to be looked upon as a crime of counter-revo­lution; the public functioner who contrives means to save a counter-revolutionist should be looked upon as a counter-revolutionist himself, and must undergo the punishment which the law directs against the declared ene­mies of the republic.

Citizens, the public opinion was some time since rising against Lacombe; the representa­tive of the people Ysabeau, was on the point to order his being arrested, when his powers were repealed by the committee of public safe­ty.

Lacombe himself was affrighted, there is the motive for his, on one side, informing the re­presentative Ysabeau, that it would be impru­dent for him to stay any longer at Bourdeaux, and, on the other side, for his delivering back, [Page 28] to those who had given them to him, the sums and jewels he had received.

The representative Garnier of Xaintes, was not long before he became acquainted with the disposition of Lacombe, the report of his pre­varications reached him, and Lacombe was ar­rested.

Citizens, I saw you trembling at the recital of so many crimes; You have asked yourselves, how such a man could have been committed to discharge the duty of a revolutionary justice.

It is to your misfortunes, to your errors, to that unlawful federalism, to which Bourdeaux was driven, that you are indebted for such a scourge, the representatives of the people sent to restore this important city to the princi­ple of the unity and indivisibility of the re­public, could find any where, but men bran­ded with federalism. Lacombe artfully pro­fited by this emergency. Generous people are trustful; the representatives were imposed up­on and Lacombe was chosen. The wicked and counter-revolutionary designs of Lacombe suc­ceeded the righteous and benevolent designs of the representatives. The terror with which he inspired every one, unhappily constrained [Page 29] for a long time, the complaints of citizens. But truth has reached the representatives of the peo­ple; justice and humanity will be triumphant, both the republic and citizens, will be reveng­ed.

In consequence of the proofs resulting from the papers of the process, I demand that Jean Baptiste Lacombe, lately a school-master and the president of the military commission esta­blished in Bourdeaux; be condemned to death, and that in conformity to the law passed on the 27th of March 1793; that he in consequence be given up to the executioner, and carried to the national square, in order to undergo the said punishment; I likewise demand, that his estate be declared forfeited to the benefit of the repub­lic, and that the sentence passed upon him be printed, published and posted up every where it shall be requisite.

(SIGNED) DEREY.

The military commission, after hearing the public accuser, and the reading of the papers of the process, as well as the replies of the party accused; the judges having given in their votes aloud, the president has delivered the sentence as follows:

[Page 30] THE MILITARY COMMISSION, Convinced that Jean Baptiste Lacombe, lately a school-master and the president to the former revolutionary commission, has been guilty of sundry exactions, concussions, prevarications, as well as of the most odious corruption of manners and the public mind, declares him to be a trai­tor to his country, and an enemy to the people; in consequence of which it condemns him to the punishment of death, agreeably to the law, bearing date the 27th of March 1793, (old stile) and from which the following is an extract:

‘The National Convention, on the propo­sal of one of its members, declares its firm re­solution to give no quarter, or peace to aris­tocrats, or any other persons who are the enemies of the revolution, and it decrees that they are out-lawed.’

(First article of the decision above mentioned.)

‘There shall be established in Bourdeaux, a new military commission, specially and singularly charged with trying the offences said to have been perpetrated by the late president of the tribunal, which existed under the same deno­mination, as well as by his accomplices:’

[Page 31] Directs further the said commission, that this present sentence, shall be directly put into exe­cution in the national square; that it shall be printed and posted up every where it will be re­quisite; declares the estate of the said Lacombe forfeited to the benefit of the republic.

Done at Bourdeaux, in sitting on the 27th Thermidor, the second year of the French re­public, one and indivisible.