[History of the Girondists, Volume I by Alphonse de Lamartine]@TWC D-Link bookHistory of the Girondists, Volume I BOOK IV 47/60
Unquestionably I still see certain points in the constitution in which more perfection might be attained; but I agree to allow experience to be the judge.
When I shall have fairly and loyally put in action the powers of government confided to me no reproach can be addressed to me, and the nation will make itself known by the means which the constitution has reserved to it. (Applause.) Let those who are restrained by the fear of persecutions and troubles out of their country return to it in safety.
In order to extinguish hatreds let us consent to a mutual forgetfulness of the past. (The tribunes and the left renewed their acclamations.) Let the accusations and the prosecutions which have sprung solely from the events of the constitution be obliterated in a general reconciliation.
I do not refer to those which have been caused by an attachment to me.
Can you see any guilt in them? As to those who from excess, in which I can see personal insult, have drawn on themselves the visitation of the laws, I prove with respect to them that I am the king of all the French. I will swear to the constitution in the very place where it was drawn up, and I will present myself to-morrow at noon to the National Assembly." The Assembly adopted unanimously, on the proposition of La Fayette, the general amnesty demanded by the king.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|