REVOLUTIONARY TRIBUNAL. A court of extraordinary criminal jurisdiction es tablished by the French Convention, 10 March 1793, for the purpose of trying those accused of plotting aagainst the liberty, equality, unity and indivisibility of the Republic, the internal and external safety of the state, or the sover eignty of the people) It received the name Revolutionary Tribunal in October 1793. The court was to consist of a jury and a public prosecutor with two assistants, all named by the Convention, and from its decision there was no appeal. The number of judges rose as high as 80 toward the end of the tribunal's existence. Intended as a means of combating treason at home, the Revolutionary Tribunal speedily be came an instrument in the hands of the Com mittee of Public Safety, whose will it executed under the guise of judicial form. Without any definite procedure, with no legal defenders allowed to the accused and with its acceptance of the vaguest rumors and charges as evidence, the tribunal offered but a mockery of justice and citation before it almost invariably meant death. The reading of the act of accusations,
the trial and the execution of the sentence gen erally occurred on the same day. The tribunal sent 1,220 victims to the guillotine from its in ception till June 1794, when Robespierre (q.v.) caused the infamous law to be enacted acceler ating its procedure; from that date to the fall of Robespierre, a period of about 50 days, It condemned 1,376 persons, Robespierre and his followers being among the lot. The tribunal soon after ceased its functions and was for mally suppressed 31 May 1795. Its sanguinary work must be regarded as justified to a large extent by its success in saving the country from sedition at home at a time of great national danger. It was but one feature of the organized Terror which saved France from foreign con quest. Consult Wallon, 'Histoire chi Tribunal Revolutionnaire de Pans) (1880-82).