FRENCH DEFINITIONS of REVOLUTIONARY CANT PHRASES. " -BAS, interj. Down with him! "Institut aérostatique, s. m. aërostatic institution. This was first established by the committee of public safety at the palace of Meudon, and is conducted with great secrecy. The company of aeronauts consists of fifty enterprising young men who are constantly in practice. Balloons are by this institution prepared for the different armies, and have their appropriate names; that employed at the battle of Fleurus on the 26th of June 1794 is called the Entreprenant. An aeronaut and two officers of rank ascended in it twice, and by their signals made with flags contributed to the success of the day (or rather successive days), which was of the greatest consequence to the republican arms. When the labours of the aërostatic institution shall have attained to a degree of general utility and perfection, the transactions, it has been said, will be published; at present the French public know but little of what is doing. The greatest improvement the institution has hitherto made, has been to add a kind of telegraph falling below the gondola, and suspended from it, consisting of eight cylinders of black taffeta, which form the signals by opening and shutting, and appear like so many paper lanterns. This simple apparatus forms two hundred and sixty-five changes, and has been found sufficient for the purposes of correspondence. The principal engineer has had in contemplation the construction of a telegraphic balloon which might be worked on terra firma, by means of strings communicating with the cylinders before mentioned, at the height of twelve feet from the ground." "Attaché, s. m. a servant. Mon attaché is now generally used in France instead of mon valet de chambre, mon laquais, mon garçon, &c. (Le ministre public de France fit son entrée à Gênes, précédé de deux attachés, portant habit de citoyen et la cocarde nationale tricolore au chapeau, &c. The public minister of France made his entry into Genoa, preceded by two serrants, dressed in the habit of a citizen, having the three-coloured national cockade in his hat, &c.)" "Brissotiner, v. a. to brissotine; to empty the pockets or purse after the the manner of Brissot. Brissot was driven from Paris for some tricks of youth, and sought an asylum in London, where he gained a proficiency in an art which he was admirably. qualified to distinguish himself by, whether in financial or literary matters. "He began his brilliant career by the publication of a treatise on genteel frauds (sur l'honnêteté des voleries). He did not confine his doctrine to barren arguments à priori, but instructed the public by weighty proofs of unanswerable and lucrative experience. This obtained for him the honour of having his name applied to feats of skill and address in the like way, called after him (brissotiner) brissotining, with the further eulogium of having proved himself an adept in the art of knavery (avoir bien mérité de la coquinerie.)" "Carmagnole, s. f. a patriotic dance and song so called. It owes its rise to the violence which broke out amongst the people, occasioned by the late king's right of veto, the massacre of the Swiss, and the knights of the poniard. It was called the carmagnole of the royalists, that is to say, a dance and song made to incense the rovalists. "It is since become a common phrase in familiar speech. (On dit que nous dansons la carmagnole partout sur la même air; pour dire, que les armes des carmagnols ont du succès partout.-It is said that we dance the carmagnole every where to the same tune; which implies that the carmagnols have every where the same success.) Carmagnole was the name at first given to the particular tune and dance before mentioned; afterwards to a particular kind of coat, and to the soldiers who wore it, or who sung the song: lastly, the reports made in the national convention by the framers of them. "The word carmagnole is probably borrowed from the name of a town so called in Piedmont, from whence came a number of diminutive fellows who served in the capacity of lacqueys in Paris, and, as is usual, were called after the name of the place from whence they came. This song is remarkable because it has given the name of carmagnol to the republican part of the French nation." "Disetteux, euse, adj. famished; starving; having a scarcity of food. This adjective, which has been marked in the dictionaries heretofore as obsolete or seldom used,' has been but too much employed during the late dearth of four successive years. (Une année disetteuse, a year of famine.) "It is remarkable that though the substantive disette is used to imply a famine, the adjective di-. setteux, formed from it, has been always used as an expression of ridicule, and to mean a poor needy devil; or in a compassionate sense, for a distressed person. Furetière has said: The academicians, so far from rendering the French language rich and copious, havestarved and impoverished it (l'ont rendu disetteuse)." "S'Embrancher, v. recip. to interweave; to entwine itself. This verb was formerly used only in an active sense, but is now become a reciprocal verb. (Cette question s'embranche avec une foule d'autres: this question interweaves itself with a number of others.) A metaphor taken from the interweaving, or entwining of the branches of trees, whether by art or nature. This verb is new." The "THES The WESTPHALIAN SECRET TRIBUNALS. [From RENDER'S TOUR through GERMANY.] THESE are first mentioned as generally known in the year 1220, and reported to have been in force to the year 1665. They were never formally abrogated, but lost their influence by degrees, as the sword of justice was wielded by vigorous hands. The Westphalian secret tribunals were at first only designed for that country alone, and had no jurisdiction whatever elsewhere. The extent of their power was limited on the west by the Rhine, on the east by the Weser, on the north by Friesland, and on the south by the Westerwald,' i.e. the western forest, and Hesse." "The emperor being supreme judge of all secular courts of judicature in Germany, was also the sole institutor and chief of all tribunals. "Free counties, being certain districts comprehending several parishes, where the judges and counsellors of the secret ban administered justice, conformably to the territorial statutes. A free county contained several tribunals subject to the control of one master of the chair, stuhlherr.' These masters of the chair, who commonly were secular or ecclesiastical princes, held their appointment by the will of the emperor, which they forfeited by deciding in matters not within their jurisdiction, or on deviating from the laws of the free tribunals. They appointed the free counts, frey-grafen,' whọ were presidents of particular tribunals of the secret ban. They were presented by the masters of their chair to the emperor for confirmation, who were made responsible for them, upon which they were invested with the royal ban, and obliged to swear fealty and obedience to the head of the empire. The latter also could punish the free counts, or deprive them of their office; occupy the seat of a free count in the tribunals, decide in matters of appeal brought before him, inspect and reform the tribu nals, and appoint the free knights, i. e. frey-schoffen; but this was confined to the territory of Westphalia." "The number of these free knights, belonging to each tribunal, never was less than seven, nor did it amount to more than eleven. Seven free knights, at least, were required to compose a plenary court, i. e. vollgericht,' in which the final sentence was pronounced. Knights of other tribunals were indeed permitted to be present on these occasions as visitors, but were not allowed to give their vote. On their reception they promised upon oath, to give information to the secret tribunal of every thing coming under its jurisdiction, perceived by themseives or reported to them by creditable persons, and not to suffer any thing ercated 1 created betwixt heaven and earth to divert them from the execution of their duty. They also bound themselves to promote the interest of the sacred Roman empire, and to invade the possessions of the masters of the chair, and of the free courts, only on legal grounds. After having taken this oath, they were not permitted to reveal, even to their confessors, the secrets of the tribunal; and on transgressing this law, though only in the most trifling point, they were hanged without mercy. They pronounced judgment according to the statutes of the Westphalian secret tribunal, and executed it conformably to the decrees of the free courts. They knew each other by certain secret signs. "The original constitution of the secret tribunals did, however, not long continue in force; all sorts of abandoned characters being admitted. The number of free knights allowed to every tribunal was originally limited to eleven, but in a short time many of them amounted to sixty or seventy, who even were not possessed of an inch of landed property in Westphaly, and were induced by self-interest, ambition, and revenge, or some other disgraceful motive, to join the association. The meetingplaces of the members of the sccret tribunals degenerated into haunts of sanguinary banditti, who indiscriminately assassinated the innocent with the guilty. The masters of the chair being actuated by the most sordid avarice, they divided the free counties into numerous smaller seats of justice, whereby the number of spies and secret informers naturally was increased to a most prodigious de gree, and various opportunities offered for fraud, imposition, and extortion. Although they were originally authorised to pronounce sentence only in criminal cases, in order to increase their fees they at length interfered in private and domestic affairs, and contrived to lay even counts and princes under contribution. On their admission, they vowed in the most solemn and awful manner, to judge with incorruptible impartiality, to regard no person, and even to be deaf to every emotion of the heart, in framing their decrees; but on the contrary, they were swayed by selfishness, accessible to corruption, partial to their friends, while they prosecuted their enemies with the inost rancorous malice, and prostituted their function by rendering their authority subservient to the gratification of the most brutal lust. They were deaf to the lamentations of calumniated innocence, assassinated their relations to inherit their estates, and were more dreadful to the virtuous than the midnight ruffian. A free count frequently acted at once as witness and as judge: the spy, informer, witness, and judge, were in many instances united in the same person; in short, the abuses which disgraced the secret tribunals rendered them a real curse to mankind. "In the beginning of the 15th century, their power in Germany rose to a most alarming degree; and we may safely maintain that the German empire at that time contained more than 140,000 free knights, who, without either previous notice or trial, executed every one who was condemned by the secret ban. Austrians, Bavarians, Franconians, and Suabians, having a demand on any one whom they could not bring to jus tice before the regular courts of this country, applied to the West phalian phalian secret tribunal, where they obtained a summons, and in case of non-appearance, a sentence, which was immediately communicated to the whole fraternity of free knights, a step by which were put in motion an host of executioners, bound by the most dreadful oath to spare neither father nor mother, nor to regard the sacred ties of friendship or matri-, monial love. If a free knight met a friend condemned by the secret ban, and gave him only the slightest hint to save his life by flight, all the other free knights were bound to hang him seven feet higher than any other criminal. The sentence being pronounced in the secret ban, they were obliged to put it into immediate execution, and not permitted to make the least remonstrance, though they were perfectly convinced that the victim was the best of men, and innocent of the crime alleged against him. This induced almost every man of rank and power to become a member of that dreadful association, in order to secure himself against its effects. Every prince had some free knights among his counsellors, and the majority of the German nobility belonged to that secret order. Even princes, for instance, the duke of Bavaria and the margrave of Brandenburgh, were members of the secret tribunal. The duke William of Brunswic is reported to have said: 'I must order the duke Adolphus of Schleswic to be hanged, if he should come to lest the free knights should hang me.' It was difficult to elude the proceedings of the free knights, as they at all times contrived to steal at night, unknown and unseen, to the gates of castles, palaces, and towns, and to affix the see me, summons of the secret tribunal. When this had been done three times, and the accused did not appear, he was condemned by the secret ban, and summoned once more to submit to the execution of the sentence; and in case of non-appearance, he was solemnly outlawed, and then the invisible hands of free knights followed all his steps till they found an opportunity of taking away his life. When a free knight thought himself too weak to seize and hang the culprit, he was bound to pursue him till he met with some of his colleagues, who assisted him in hanging him to a tree, near the high road, and not to a gibbet; signifying thereby that they exercised a free imperial judicature throughout the whole empire, independent of all provincial tribunals. If the devoted victim made resistance, so as to compel them to poignard him; they tied the dead body to a tree, fixing the dagger over his head, to show that he had not been murdered, but executed by a free knight. |