Page:Englishmen in the French Revolution.djvu/62

42 of name and nationality, in these terms, and entitling the bearer to a federal ribbon and diploma:—

"Capital of the globe, February 5, year 2.—I certify and make known to all the free men of the earth that Joseph Cajadaer Chammas, member of the oppressed sovereign [the people] of Mesopotamia, had the honour of attending the Federation of July 14, by virtue of a decree emanating from the august French Senate, June 19, year one., orator of the human race in the French National Assembly."

What a contrast between the High Sheriff of Salop paying the honours to the judges of assize and the cap-headed man at the bar of the National Assembly! In this same year 1790, Pigott sent or presented an address to the Assembly on Sieyes's press bill. He spoke in it of his loving France as warmly as if he had been a native, and of his having hastened over with a multitude of other foreigners to enjoy the rights of man in all their fulness. He dissuaded the Assembly from taking English legislation as a model, for the shameful war with America had shown how people could be misled by a press which the Government could persecute or coerce. England, he said, was not really free, but had only a semblance of freedom. This address was read at the Lyons Club, 10th February 1791, and printed in its journal.