CAMBACÉRÈS, Jean Jacques Regis de (1753-1824), an eminent French statesman under the first republic and the first empire, was born at Montpellier the 18th October 1753, of an old and distinguished family. Being destined for the profession of law, he began his studies in that department at an early age, and was soon recognized as one of the ablest jurists in France. And as his legal learning was one of the main sources of his fame, so it was his chief means of rendering service to his country. Cambacérès was a decided though moderate disciple of the new principles now everywhere diffused in France, and on the assembling of the States-general in 1789 was chosen as a second representative for the nobility of the district of Montpellier. The right of Montpellier to send a second noble deputy was disputed, and Cambacérès did not sit. But he was a member of the National Convention in 1792. Foreseeing the violent courses into which the Convention should be impelled, Cambacérès, from principle as well as necessity, held aloof, and sought to avoid the perils and excesses of the time by confining himself to the neutral province of jurist and legislator. The trial of the king, however, compelled him to declare himself. In the first place, he maintained that the Convention was not competent to try the king; and when the trial had been decided on, he insisted that aÚ latitude of defence ought to be accorded to the royal counsel. As to the sentence, he found the king guilty, and worthy of the punishment due to one who had conspired against his country; but moved for delay in the execution of it, till peace should be restored, or the French soil invaded. This moderation made Cambacérès “suspect” in the eyes of the Mountain, and he confined himself more circumspectly ...