257. BEAUMARCHAIS (Pierre-Augustin Caron de). 4-page LAS sig - Lot 257

257. BEAUMARCHAIS (Pierre-Augustin Caron de). 4-page LAS signed Caron Beaumarchais, négociant, dated 10 Ventôse an V (March 1, 1797). In this letter, Beaumarchais asks the legislator (Baron Debry, unnamed) to pass on to one of the members of the Conseil des Cinq-Cents his plea for the re-establishment of constraint by corps against foreigners, with whom France is infested. Indeed, Cambacérès had the institution of contrainte par corps in civil matters adopted on February 27, 1797. Beaumarchais puts forward a well-reasoned argument: since the principles of liberty have been extended too far, and in particular since the abolition of constraint by corps, France has become the sewer for the four parts of the trading world; and rascals driven out of all countries have come to set up their brigandage workshops here. He proposed amending the law to allow foreigners to be prosecuted, or else risk seeing them turn the law to their own advantage. This letter is all the more interesting given that Beaumarchais was himself in a difficult situation at the time. He sought to defend himself against the accusations levelled against him, notably concerning an affair involving the purchase of rifles for the French Republic, which forced him to take refuge in London, then Hamburg, before only returning to France in July 1796.