Babeuf

Babeuf, Francois Noel, born at St. Quentin, France, 1764, and brought up as a surveyor, embraced revolutionary principles in their wildest form, and calling himself Gracchus, edited a paper entitled Le Tribun du Peuple. In this he advocated the nationalisation of land and socialistic theories generally, inveighing against the Directory. His followers, the Babouvistes, formed a club in which equality was the rule. He was charged at Vendome with conspiring to overthrow the constitution, attempted to commit suicide, but was brought alive beneath the knife of the guillotine in 1797.