Théorie de la constitution de la Grande-Bretagne, ou de ses trois pouvoirs séparés et réunis: ouvrage traduit de l’anglais de Brooke, précédé d’un avertissement du traducteur, et d’un examen rapide des constitutions qui se sont succédées en France depuis 1791 jusqu’en 1814

Avril 1815 Subjects: Conduct of life, Politics and government Forms: Essays Translation Status: Adapted, Partial French Paris URL

Authors of source text

Henry Brooke

Contributions

Bertrand Barère

translator

Jean-Baptiste-Louis Colas

publisher

Related resources

is translation of

The Fool of Quality: or, The History of Henry Earl of Moreland has translation

has paratext

Théorie de la constitution de la Grande-Bretagne, ou de ses trois pouvoirs séparés et réunis: ouvrage traduit de l’anglais de Brooke, précédé d’un avertissement du traducteur, et d’un examen rapide des constitutions qui se sont succédées en France depuis 1791 jusqu’en 1814 paratext

Summary (extracted citations)

"Une constitution établissant la liberté publique ne peut s'affermir, ne peut se concilier avec des âmes vénales et des hommes corrompus…" (p.81)

Held by

• Cambridge University Library

Notes

After a lengthy hiatus of journalistic and literary work following his amnesty by Napoleon Bonaparte in December 1799, Barère became a member of the Chamber of Deputies in 1815, during the 100 Days, publishing this annotated translation in April as his contribution to the debate over what kind of constitution France should have. However, following the restoration of the Bourbons in July, he was banished from France for life "as a regicide", and withdrew to Brussels, where he lived until 1830, before returning to France to serve Louis Philippe under the July monarchy.

According to his posthumously published 'Memoirs' (1843), "The state of public opinion and the obstinacy of the Emperor in depriving us of a statesmanlike constitution, resembling that which the nation had decreed in 1789, suggested to me the idea of writing three works which might be useful in enabling us to frame and a definite and final constitution, in spite of him and his designs."

He describes the work of "M. Brooke" – giving no indication of its author's identity, which is incorrectly listed on Worldcat, and elsewhere, as Thomas H. Brooke – as a "very ably written analysis of the English constitution, intending to use this constitution as a model, and to institute a comparison between it and the additional charter. I adopted the course of writing a preface to the translation, consisting of a brief summary of the constitutions to which France had submitted during the last twenty-five years. I had the courage, too rare in the reign of his Imperial Majesty, to attack his consular and imperial constitutions, and to prove that they were without adequate security for the rights of the nation, and that they possessed the additional disadvantage of being altogether despotic, unlimited, and illusory." [iii: 200-01]