Brissot

Brissot, Jean Pierre, the son of a pastry-cook at Chartres, France, was born in 1754, and destined for the law, but he took to journalism and politics, editing the Courrier de l'Europe at Boulogne. When this was suppressed he settled in Paris and published his Theory of Criminal Laws, and other works inspired by Rousseau, with the result that he was imprisoned in the Bastille. He then went to England and started a democratic paper, which was seized, and he subsequently visited Holland and America. In 1789 he returned to Paris, brought out Le Patriote Francois, and, becoming a member of the Commune, drew up the famous petition for the abolition of royalty. Being elected to the Legislative Assembly and the Convention he actively supported the wars with Austria, England, and Holland (1792-93), and founded a party - the Brissotins - which stood halfway between the Girondists and the Montagnards, opposing the excesses of the latter. Robespierre, incensed at his policy, ordered his arrest, and he was guillotined in 1793. His Memoirs and Political Will were published forty years later.