MODERN BIOGRAPHY. DUMOLARD (J. V.) a lawyer at Grenoble, born at Vizille in Dauphiné, was but 25 years of age when appointed to the legislation, by the department of Isère. On the 2d of October, 1791, he caused every individual to take the civic oath ; and on the 15th of February, 1792, spoke in favour of divorce, and inveighed against the court of Sardinia. In March he declared against emigrants; in short, he for some time displayed sentiments much less moderate than those which afterwards distinguished him; but on the 11th of May he opposed the spirit of insubordination which reigned in the armies, and that of faction which governed the assembly. On the 16th and 20th he made vain efforts to defend the accused queen, and the justice of peace, Larivière. On the 20th of June he proposed a strict examination into the conduct of the department of Paris on that day, and obtained a decree that thenceforward no armed deputation should present itself to the assembly, nor to the constituted authorities. On the 8th of August he was near being assassinated, on leaving the assembly, by the Jacobins united with the Federates, for having opposed the decree of accusation against Lafayette. He escaped into a guard-house of the PalaisRoyal, which he was obliged to quit by a back window. If these dangers did not depress his courage, at least they appear to have forced him to retreat, 1 : 5 be quitted the tribune till the end of the session. Berg elected, in September 1795, to the council 51, be there detended several elections, and song ores, that of J. J. Aimé, against the JacoTjavashed to have them annulled. On the Of January, 1796, braving the murmurs and the cres of the opposite party, he maintained the cause oftere atoms of the emigrants, and tried to prove that they co d not be deprived of their property: he was censured by the council for having made this speech, and was on the point of being sent to the Arcave he gave information of a tumult among the demagogues, and declared that they had devoted several deputies to their daggers. He shortly afterwards caused the representatives excluded by the law of the 15th Brumaire, to be recalled, proposed that the laws for the regulation of public worship should be repealed, and voted for the suspension of divorces, on account of incompatibility of temper. On the 25th of June he gave a detailed account of the conduct of the directory in Italy, desired it to answer for the destruction of the states of Venice and Genoa, and declared that Switzerland was threatened with a similar invasion. On the 12th of July he again denounced the Jacobins with the greatest fury. On the 18th he vehemently opposed the dismissal of the ministers who possessed the confidence of the assembly, and the approach of the troops whom the directory was summoning to the capital. On the 25th of August he inveighed against the establishment of the theophilanthropic club proposed by Leclerc. On the 30th he pronounced a very energetic speech against Bailleul, against the terrorists, and especially against the Orleans' faction, which he accused of actuating all the others. On the 31st he spoke in favour of the inhabitants of the Vendée, and the fugitives of the Rhine. In the contest carried on at this period be tween the majority of the directors and that of the councils, he had regularly opposed the directors, and had often attempted to fix on them the accusations directed against his party, of aiming at the overthrow of the constitution, for which reason he was included in the proscription of September 4, 1797, and condemned to be transported, but he escaped the search made after him, and was not conveyed to Cayenne. He, with several of his colleagues, delivered himself into the hands of the directors, who mitigated their punishment into a transportation to Oleron. At the conclusion of 1799 the consuls recalled him, and in March, 1800, restored him to his rights as a citizen, since which time he has been appointed sub-prefect for he quitted the tribune till the end of the session. Being elected, in September 1795, to the council of 500, he there defended several elections, and among others, that of J. J. Aimé, against the Jacobins, who wished to have them annulled. On the 9th of January, 1796, braving the murmurs and the cries of the opposite party, he maintained the cause of the relations of the emigrants, and tried to prove that they could not be deprived of their property: he was censured by the council for having made this speech, and was on the point of being sent to the Abbaye. On the 5th of May he warmly pleaded for the repeal of the law which ordained that the trial of the murderers at Lyon should be brought on before the tribunal of Isère; he afterwards denounced the encroachments of the directory in the nominations to different offices, and pleaded for the annihilation of the retroactive effect given to the laws on inheritances; on the 19th of June he was chosen secretary. On the 31st of August he made a report on hospitals, and pressed the assembly to endow them. On the 6th of September he denied the charges against the city of Lyon, which the directory had denounced as a nursery of counter-revolutionists. In December he declared for the liberty of the press, which the directory then wished to restrain, and compared the intricate project of Daunou on this subject, "to the folds of a serpent which would end by stifling the press under pretence of correcting its abuses." On the 11th of January, 1797, he again denounced the directory as invading the legislative power. He then ventured to plead in favour of the order of Malta, opposed the referring Lavilleheurnois and others to a military committee, and insisted that while the agents of Louis XVIII. were pursued, those of Orleans should not be neglected. In the month of March he pressed for a statement of all the laws adverse to the constitution, and declared that the directory had violated the law of nations, by causing a band of galley-slaves to be set on shore in England. On the 18th of May |