Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai

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Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai
National Convention
In office
21 September 1792 – 26 October 1795
ConstituencyNord
Signature

Philippe-Antoine Merlin, known as Merlin de Douai (French pronunciation: [filip ɑ̃twan mɛʁlɛ̃ də dwɛ], 30 October 1754 – 26 December 1838) was a French politician and lawyer.[1]

Early life

Merlin de Douai was born at

Flemish bar association in 1775.[2] He collaborated in the Répertoire de jurisprudence, the later editions of which appeared under Merlin's superintendence, and contributed to other important legal compilations. In 1782 he purchased a position as royal secretary at the chancellery of the Flanders parlement. His reputation spread to Paris and he was consulted by leading magistrates. The Duke of Orléans selected him to be a member of his privy council.[3]

As an elected member of the

States-General for the Third Estate in Douai, he was one of the chief of those who applied the principles of liberty and equality embodied in the National Constituent Assembly's Tennis Court Oath
of 20 June 1789.

Career

On behalf of the committee, appointed to deal with the

redistribution with compensation, and topics associated with them (hunting and fishing rights, forestry etc.). He carried legislation for the abolition of primogeniture and secured equality of inheritance between relatives of the same degree and between men and women.[4] He also prepared the report for the Assembly that argued that no compensation should be paid to the German princes whose lands in Alsace were forfeit when France incorporated them.[5]

His numerous reports were supplemented by popular exposition of current legislation in the Journal de legislation. On the dissolution of the Assembly, he became judge of the criminal court at Douai.[6]

National Convention

Although not always an advocate of violent measures, as a deputy to the

Louis XVI. Later, as a member of the council of legislation, he presented to the Convention the Law of Suspects (17 September 1793), permitting the detention of suspects,[6] (a document backed by Georges Couthon and Maximilien Robespierre).[7] He exercised missions in his native region and accused General Charles François Dumouriez of having betrayed the country during the Campaign of the Low Countries (after the Battle of Neerwinden
).

Merlin de Douai was closely allied with his namesake

Commune and the Revolutionary Tribunal.[6]

Merlin de Douai convinced the Committee of Public Safety to agree with the closing of the Jacobin Club on the ground that it was an administrative, rather than a legislative, measure. Merlin de Douai recommended the readmission of the survivors of the

French Republic.[6]

Merlin de Douai had been commissioned in April 1794 to report on the

branding and life imprisonment and was based chiefly on the penal code that had been drawn up in September 1791.[6]

Directory

He was made

émigrés. After the coup d'état known as 18 Fructidor, he became one of the five Directors on 5 September 1797. He was accused of the bankruptcy and various other failures of the government and was forced to retire into private life during the Coup of 30 Prairial VII on 18 June 1799.[11][6]

Consulate and Empire

Merlin de Douai had no share in

Grand Officier de la Légion d'honneur
.

Exile and July Monarchy

Having resumed his functions during the Hundred Days, he was one of those banished on the Second Bourbon Restoration.

The years of his exile were devoted to his Répertoire de jurisprudence (5th ed., 18 vols., Paris, 1827–1828) and to his Recueil alphabétique des questions de droit (4th ed., 8 vols., Paris, 1827–1828). At the 1830

Academy of Political and Moral Sciences by the July Monarchy. He died in Paris.[6]

Personal life

Merlin de Douai's son, Antoine François Eugène Merlin (1778–1854), was a well-known general in the French Revolutionary Army and served in most of the Napoleonic Wars.

Bibliography

See also

Notes

  1. ISBN 978-2-910663-05-6
  2. ^ Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman Group 1989 p.37
  3. ^ Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman Group 1989 p.37
  4. ^ Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman Group 1989 p.146, 151
  5. ^ Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman Group 1989 p.177
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Chisholm 1911.
  7. ^ Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman Group 1989 p.366
  8. ^ Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman Group 1989 p.446
  9. ^ Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman Group 1989 p.512
  10. ^ Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman Group 1989 p.522
  11. ^ Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman Group 1989 p.637
  12. ^ Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman Group 1989 p.669

References

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Louis Gohier
 Minister of Justice
1795–1796 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Justice
1796–1797 		Succeeded by
Charles Joseph Lambrechts
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