Rare books, manuscripts and ephemera from five centuries

Take no prisoners 

​

[FRENCH REVOLUTION]. DÉCRET DE LA CONVENTION NATIONALE, Du 7e jour de Prairial, an second de la République Française, une & indivisible, Portant qu’il ne sera fait aucun prisonnier Anglais ou Hanovrien. A Paris: de l’Imprimerie nationale du Louvre, 7e jour de Prairial, an II de la République, [26th May, 1794]. £200

​

Printed in Roman and italic on recto of first page of a single folded leaf, with one crease from having been folded horizontally. Holes from stitches suggest that it has been bound with other leaves in folio format. Very clean, one tiny wormhole. 

​

A good copy of the infamous decree promulgated by the National Convention, two years into the Revolutionary wars, stipulating that no English or Hanoverian prisoners were to be taken, but rather than any captured should be executed on the spot. This came into effect a scarce two weeks before the infamous Law of 22nd Prairial, and reflects a hardening of the French attitude to the British after an attempted assassination of Robespierre. 

​

After a report delivered by Bertrand Barère, the ‘rapporteur’ of the Committee for Public Safety, who was renowned for his oratorical skill, the decree baldly states: ‘Il ne sera fait aucun prisonnier Anglais ou Hanovrien’, before ensuring its immediate and universal enforcement: ‘L’adresse & le décret seront imprimés dans le bulletin, & envoyés à toutes les armées.’ 

​

It was passed with the approval of Michel-Martial Cordier, who had been juge de paix in Coulommiers before becoming elected to the Convention as deputy for Seine-et-Marne, where he voted in favour of the execution of Louis XVI. The other Montagnards to sign the decree are Jean-Henri Voulland, president of the Convention in the previous year and member of the Committee for Public Safety until Fructidor later in the same year, and two of the secretaries of the Convention, Jean-Baptiste Carrier and Gaspard Jean Joseph Lesage-Sénault. The latter two would join the 9 Thermidor coup against Robespierre a few months later, but Carrier was himself soon after arrested and executed by the Thermidoriens. 

​

OCLC only identifies copies at Cambridge, the University of Pennsylvania, and NYPL. 

 

[ref: 2575 ]