Pierre-Louis MANUEL (1751-1793) Public Prosecutor of the Par - Lot 245

Pierre-Louis MANUEL (1751-1793) Public Prosecutor of the Paris Commune. L.S., Paris March 5, 1792, to PALLOY, "entrepreneur des demolitions de la Bastille"; half-page in-4, letterhead and vignette of the Municipality of Paris, address countersigned by Petion, red wax seal; following, autograph minute of PALLOY's reply (2 p. in-4 in pencil, partly erased but transcribed in full in ink). Demolition of the Bastille. MANUEL informs Palloy that "the General Council has decided that the account you have to render of the demolition of the Bastille will be presented in the ordinary form, and that according to custom it will be given to the municipal body". PALLOY replies... "I convened, according to requests, by deputations, the bodies, both civil and military in the arrondissemt of the department of Paris, to witness the surrender of my mission to work on the Bastille, which the people had entrusted to me at a time when all Frenchmen were equal, not of the accounts, for I am not accountable; but of the crossings I had in the course of two years. Thus, on July 16, 1789, in the presence of the electors, I promised the people [...] that I would give an account of my mission in this room [...] I must do so, or pass for a jean foutre, or for an aristocrat, which is not in my feelings, I am an honest man and a patriot. I wanted to leave on October 8, 1790, but my resignation was not received. On May 24, 1791, Mr. le Maire refused me, I thought I would find in the new Municipality, frank men who liked to learn about what had happened, to judge the honest man and welcome his patriotism, I see with pain the opposite "...Former collections of L'Autographophile F. Jolly de Thuisy (his label), then Alain Taillade (his ink stamp, March 28, 1985 n° 75).