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ESSAYS IN HISTORICAL CRITISISM

tion to make nominations.[1] The scope of this plan of conferring honorary citizenship on eminent foreigners was extended on the 26th by including men who had served the cause of liberty by arms.

This was approved, and the Assembly then took action as follows, according to the record: [l'Assemblée Nat.] "Declare déférer le titre de citoyen français au Docteur Joseph Priestley, à Thomas Payne, à Jérémie Beintham, à William Wilberforce, à Thomas Clarkson, à Jacques Makintosh, à David Williams, à, N. Gorani, à Anarcharsis Cloots, à Corneille Paw, à Joachim-Henry Campe, à Pestalozzi, à Georges Washington, à Jean Hamilton, à N. Maddisón, k H. Klopstack, et à Thadée Kociusko."[2] This great distinction, placing two Americans without much previous literary reputation upon a level with Jeremy Bentham and Sir James Mackintosh, is a striking indication of the appreciation of The Federalist by some at least of the leaders of French thought and politics.

Two editions of this French translation were published in 1792, which indicates a considerable popular interest in the essays of Publius. In the National Convention, however, the Paris or centralizing party got the upper hand, and soon the name of "federalist" was to be perilously akin to that of "traitor." The Convention on September 25th declared, "the French Republic is one and indivisible," and referred to a committee the proposition to inflict the death penalty on

1 See the Procès-Verbaux du Comité d'Instruction Publigue, Paris, 1889, 114-116.

2 The Procès-Verbal de l'Assemblée Nationale, tom. 13, Aug. 18-27, 1792. The inclusion of Hamilton and Madison in the list may have been owing to M. J. Chénier. He had presented a petition to the National Assembly on Aug. 24, in behalf of this proposal to admit to French citizenship eminent foreigners, and in his long list of benefactors of humanity is included "Madisson, qui, dans le Fédéraliste, a développé avec profondeur le systême des Confédérations." Œuvres de M. J. Chénier, V, 150. The mistakes in the initials of Hamilton and Madison are to be accounted for by the fact that the title-page of Le Fédéraliste gave simply the surnames. Schiller was added to the list the same day by a special vote. This honorary naturalization of foreigners is mentioned in Aulard, Histoire Politique de la Révolution Française, Paris, 1901, 566.

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