REVOLUTIONARY TRIBUNAL, THE (le tribunal revolutionnaire), a court which was instituted in Paris by the Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders, and became one of the most powerful engines of the Terror. The news of the failure of the French arms in Belgium gave rise in Paris to popular movements on March 9 and io, 1793, and on March Io on the proposal of Danton, the Convention de creed the establishment in Paris of an extraordinary criminal court, which received the official name of the Revolutionary Tribunal by a decree of Oct. 29, 1793. It was composed of a paid jury, a public prosecutor, and two substitutes, all nominated by the Convention; and from its judgments there was no appeal. With M. J. A. Hermann as president and Fouquier-Tinville as public prosecutor, the tribunal preserved, at first, at least the forms of a court of justice, but on June io, 1794, was promulgat ed the infamous law of 22 Prairial, which deprived prisoners of the right to be represented by counsel, suppressed the hearing of witnesses and made death the sole penalty. Before 22 Prairial
the tribunal had pronounced 1,220 death-sentences in 13 months; during the 49 days between the passing of the law and the fall of Robespierre 1,376 persons were condemned, including many inno cent victims. The tribunal was suppressed on May 31, 1795.