DESMOULINS, CAMILLE, one of the prominent personages of the French revolution, was b. in 1792 at Guise, in Picardy; studied law at the College Louis-le-Grand, Paris; but on account of a stutter in his speech, did not prosecute the profession. His mind was filled with lofty but confused notions of classical republicanism, which found vent on the eve of the revolution in his La Philosophic au People Franpis (Par. 1788), and La France Libre (Par. 1789). To his exaggerated denunciation was owing that outburst of popular fury which resulted in the destruction of the Bastile on the night of the 14th July, 1789. In the events of the Champ de Mars, Aug. 10, 1792, D., like his friend Dauton, took a leading part, but was less implicated in the Sept. massacres. Elected to the national convention by the people of' Paris, he voted for the death of Louis XVI. His relation to Dantou, which had always in it something of dependence, induced him to take up the pen against the Girondists, and in his Histoire des Brissotins, lie covered these moderate republicans with ridicule. In this, however, D. was not quite sincere, for many of the Girondist lie highly esteemed, and he was himself by nature much more like Vergniaud and Brissot than like Robespierre and St. Just. When the guillo tine was erected, D. saw his error, and bitterly repented his facile folly, Towards the end of 1793, lie began to publish Le Vieux Cordelier. a journal which recommended, among other things, that the-forms of justice should be restored, and attacked the mem bers of the COnliM de Salut Public. Twice accused before the Jacobin club, he was at
length, on the night of the 30th Mar., 1794, along with Danton, arrested. and brought before the revolutionary tribunal. When asked his age, D. replied: " J'ai l'age du sans culotte, Jesus, c'est-&-dire trente-trois ans, age fatal aux ri3volutionnaires." Ile was con demned without a hearing, and mounted the scaffold along with Dauton, April 5, 1794. His wife, the beautiful Lucile Duplessis, vainly endeavored to excite an insurrection in his favor, and a fortnight after, she also was executed.—D. was essentially an enthu siast and hero-worshiper, always leaning for support on some stronger spirit than his own. His first idol was Mirabeau, after whose death he devoted himself to Banton. His aspirations were noble, his sympathies magnanimous, but he had neither sufficient moral resolution to oppose the political excesses of the popular party, nor even, until the close of his career, sufficient insight to assure him of their injustice and folly. Gifted abundantly by nature, as the light-hearted Camille was, with wit, fancy, and feeling, one cannot help regretting that he did not live in less troublous times, when he might have given to the world, in the form of poesy or fiction, the treasures of his rich and sparkling genius.