DESMOULINS, Lucie Simplice Camille Benoist, French revolutionist: b. Guise, Pi cardy, 2 March 1760; d. Paris, 5 April 1794. He studied at the Lycee Louis-le-Grand and later took up law. In 1785 he appeared before the Parliament of Paris as an advocate, but a defect of speech made him unsuccessful in this capacity. Before the general republican move ment came to a head, he published in 1788 a pamphlet called 'La philosophie au peuple franqais.' But the removal of Necker, Desmoulins suddenly found himself one of the prime instigators of the revolutionary move ment. Carried along by the enthusiasm of the first few weeks, he published a political pamph let called 'La France libre,) which scored an instant and prodigious success. It was fol lowed shortly afterward by 'Discours de la Lanterne aux which gained him the nickname of uProcureur general de la Lan terne." In November 1789, there appeared his famous journal La Revolutions de France et de Brabant. It inflamed the hatred of the royalists and the loyalty of the republicans, and established beyond question the position of Desmoulins as one of the foremost of republi can journalists. He became a strong adherent of Robespierre, with whom he had studied at college, and of Danton, the leader of the Cor deliers. In April 1792 he founded with Freron the journal La Tribune des patriotes, which expired after the fourth number had been is sued. He abandoned journalism for the plat form for a while, but he was less influential as an orator than as a pamphleteer. He was,
moreover, not an original. thinker nor con sistent in his political adherence. The bril liance of his philippics was always the ornament of his devotion to one or another of the great leaders of the various democratic parties, rather than the lustre of his own deeply-rooted poli cies. His attack on the Girondists, which he wrote at the suggestion of Robespierre, was so effective in undermining that party that he earnestly regretted having written it. He even thought that the total expulsion of the Bour bons was far too extreme a measure. He was finally alienated from the Jacobins by his opposition in Le Vieux Cordelier, the Danton ist paper, to the tyrannical character of the Committee of Public Safety. He advocated just trials, less drastic punishments and more liberal policies. This led to his arrest by the com mittee, along with Danton and others of the party; and after a semblance of a trial and a half-hearted defense by Robespierre, Desmou lins was condemned and executed. His wife met the same fate eight days later. Consult cCEuvres de Camille Desmoulins, avec une notice biographique,' ed. by Matton (Paris 1838) ; Clarctie, Desmoulins, Lucile Desmoulins etude sur les Dantonistes> (Paris 1875) ; and Aulard, 'Les orateurs de la Legis lative et de la Convention' (Paris