Several members occupy only a subaltern position, and amongst
these, Bar?re, who, official secretary and mouthpiece, is always ready
to make a speech or draft an editorial; others, with special
functions, Jean Bon St. Andr?, Lindet, and above all, Prieur de la
C?te d'Or and Carnot, confine themselves each to his particular
department, navy, war, supplies, with blank signatures, for which they
give in return their signatures to the political leaders; the latter,
called "the statesmen," Robespierre, Couthon, Saint-Just, Collot
d'Herbois, Billaud-Varennes, are the real rulers providing overall
direction. It is true that their mandate has to be renewed monthly;
but this is a certainty, for, in the present state of the Convention,
its vote, required beforehand, becomes an almost vain formality. More
submissive than the parliament of Louis XIV., the Convention adopts,
without discussion, the decrees which the Committee of Public Safety
present to it ready made. It is no more than a registry-office, and
scarcely that, for it has relinquished its right of appointing its own
committees, that office being assigned to the Committee of Public
Safety; it votes as a whole all lists of names which the Committee
send in.
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