Un discours de Barère avant la Révolution
In: Annales historiques de la Révolution Française, Band 262, Heft 1, S. 500-509
ISSN: 1952-403X
A SPEECH OF BARERE (1788)
Bertrand Barère of Vieuzac (1755-1841), one of the members of the committee of public safety, tried to embark on a literary career before the Revolution, and from 1782 he wrote several discourses and eulogies, which brought him a certain degree of local renown. As a result he was elected member of the Academy of the Floral Games at Toulouse in 1788. His entrance discourse seems to have caused a certain sensation, if not a scandal, and we have some remarks written at the time, but the text itself was considered to be lost. I have found a dictated copy of the discourse at the municipal library in Bagneres-de-Bigorre, and I reproduce it here with this brief comment. It is interesting because it illuminates aspects of Barère's theory of history and his ideas about philosophy. It reveals the last formative stage in the intellectual development of Barère in the period before the Revolution.
Koichi YAMAZUKI.