plicate of it a
few days after. It was carried to them by my good friend and comrade
Vanhuele, who was then going in liberty, having been examined the day
before. Vanhuele wrote me on the next day and said: "Bourdon de l'Oise
[who was one of the examining Deputies] is the most inveterate enemy you
can have. The answer he gave me when I presented your letter put me in
such a passion with him that I expected I should be sent back again
to prison." I then wrote a third letter but had not an opportunity of
sending it, as Bourdon did not come any more till after I received Mr.
Labonadaire's letter advising me to write to the Convention. The letter
was as follows:--"Citizens, I have twice offered myself for examination,
and I chose to do this while Bourdon de l'Oise was one of the
Commissioners.

1 Festival of Labour, September 19, 1794.--_Editor._.

This Deputy has said in the Convention that I intrigued with an ancient
agent of the Bureau of Foreign Affairs. My examination therefore while
he is present will give him an opportunity of proving his charge or of
convincing himself of his error. If Bourdon de l'Oise is an honest man
he will examine me, but lest he should not I subjoin the following. That
which B[ourdon] calls an intrigue was at the request of a member of the
former Committee of Salut Public, last August was a twelvemonth. I met
the member on the Boulevard. He asked me something in French which I
did not understand and we went together to the Bureau of Foreign Affairs
which was near at hand. The Agent (Otto, whom you probably knew in
America) served as interpreter, The member (it was Barere) then asked
me 1st, If I could furnish him with the plan of Constitution I had
presented to the Committee of Constitution of which I was member with
himself, because, he said, it contained several things which he
wished had been adopted: 2dly, He asked me my opinion upon sending
Commissioners to the United States of America: 3dly, If fifty or an
hundred ship loads of flour could be procured from America. As verbal
interpretation was tedious, it was agreed that I should give him my
opinion in writing, and that the Agent [Otto] should translate it, which
he did. I answered the first question by sending him the plan [of
a Constitution] which he still has. To the second, I replied that
I thought it would be proper to send Commissioners, because that in
Revolutions circumstances change so fast that it was often necessary
to