See also: Bergasse

Nicolas Bergasse (born the January 24th 1750 with Lyon - died the May 28th 1832 with Paris) was a French politician, whose activity was exerted during the Révolution.

Nicolas Bergasse was the son of a trader of Lyon. After studies of right, it arrived at Paris in 1778 where he became lawyer. Attending the living rooms, it met Manuel, Sieyès, Lanthenas, Roland and his wife, and became the friend of Brissot.

Impassioned by the fashion of the animal Magnetism launched by the famous Franz Anton Mesmer, he sees in the mesmerism a model of the social order to which he aspires. In 1783, to support the German doctor financially, it founds with the banker Guillaume Kornmann, the Société of the Universal Harmony . But soon it is diverted of the Master whom it reproaches his personal enrichment, and launches out in the fight against the political despotism with Brissot and Clavière ( gallo-American Société ) and in 1788, adheres to the Société friends Blacks.

In 1788, it pleads for the equal rights between the men and against the hereditary nobility.

As of the previous year, it benefitted from a business of adultery to make the lawsuit of corruption and despotism, which was worth a certain notoriety to him (see the business Guillaume Kornmann). If it loses this cause which opposes it to Beaumarchais, it gains on the other hand the public opinion which remains to him favorable. Beaumarchais is avenged by putting it in scene in " The mother coupable" under the name of Bergearss .

In January 1789, it publishes its Lettre on the General states , kind of lampoon, where it claims the equal rights, the abolition of the orders, an National Assembly and at the same time a royal capacity extremely with right of veto, a vote censitaire reserved with the owners and two rooms of which one reserved for the nobility.

Elected official appointed by the Third state of Lyon to the General states, it lined up very quickly behind Mounier and the conservatives. Member of the Committee of constitution, it opposed the Declaration human rights, asked for a rapid reorganization of justice to restore the order and worried about the abolition of the privileges. The September 12th 1789, it resigned of the Committee of constitution, then ceased sitting.

In 1790, it was opposed to the sale goods of the Church, the assignat S and the creation of the departments, thus breaking with his/her friends Brissot and Condorcet. After Varennes, it is him which advised with Louis XVI the refusal of the Constitution and firmness.

In September 1791, it married Perpétue the Smallone, thus entering the old nobility. He became the adviser of Louis XVI for whom he wrote the address at the departments and in July 1792 a monarchical constitution project. Being compromised, after the August 10th, by the discovery of its correspondence, it entered clandestinity without seeking to emigrate. Denounced the 16 nivôse year II (January 5th 1794), it was stopped close to Tarbes, but, it seems, it would have profited from the protection of Barère, which would have delayed its transfer towards Paris. Bergasse appeared only the 13 brumaire year III (November 4th 1794) before the revolutionary Tribunal which discharged it.

Under the Restoration, it supported Louis XVIII fully, being opposed to the liberals in whom it saw the successors of the revolutionists. In a work published in 1821, he asked the cancellation of the sale of the goods of the emigrants and their compensation. He fought the Franc-maçonnerie and rejected any idea of popular sovereignty. Supporting Charles X, it took fear of the Revolution of 1830 and withdrew public life.

Works

Publications published on the fight in favor of the Mesmérisme

in 1784, Considerations on animal Magnetism ; a Theory of the World following the principles of Mesmer

Publications published within the framework of the Business Kornmann (1787-1789)

• Memory on a question of adultery, seduction and slandering, for the sior Kornmann against the Kornmann lady, her wife, the sior Daudet de Jossan, the sior Pierre-Augustin Charon de Beaumarchais and Mr. Black, Adviser of State, former lieutenant de Police followed by Supporting documents - 1787

• Observations of Mr. Kornmann on a writing of Mr. de Beaumarchais - 1787
• Note of Mr. Kornmann relative to his lawsuit against Beaumarchais - 1787
• Observations of the sior Kornmann in answer to the report of Mr. Lenoir - 1787
• New Observations for the sior Kornmann against Mr. Lenoir - 1787
• Observations of Sieur Kornmann on a letter of Sieur Daudet, with the printer Muller - 1787
• Memory of the sior Kornmann in answer to the report of the sior of Beaumarchais - 1787
• Observation of Sieur Kornmann on a Writing signed Séguin and Dubois (followed Answers of the Owners Associated in acquisition with Quinze-Vingts to the Reflections of Sieur Kornmann) - 1787
• Speech on the humanity of the judges in the administration of criminal justice - 1787.
• preliminary Reflections in the cause of the sior Bergasse with the prince de Nassau - 1788
• Observations of the sior Bergasse, on the writing of the sior of Beaumarchais, having for title: “Short memory, while waiting for the other”, in the cause of the sior Kornmann - 1788
• Precise for the sior Kornmann against the sior the Page, doctor of medicine - 1788
• Considerations on the freedom of the trade. Work where one examines whether it is advantageous or harmful with the Trade that the carriage of the food products and the Goods is tiny room in an exclusive privilege , London, 1788.
• Observations of the sior Bergasse, in the cause of the sior Kornmann - 1789
• Plaidoyer pronounced with Small tower-criminal, on Thursday, March 19, 1789, by the sior Bergasse, in the cause of the sior Kornmann - 1789

• of the Speech and Reports/ratios pronounced with the constituent Assembly;

• a Test on the law, sovereignty and freedom of the press (1817);
• a Test on the property (1821), where it tackles the sale of the national goods, etc

At the beginning of the French revolution, one made appear several times under his name of the odious lampoons to which it did not have in any share.

Sources

• Maurice Lever, Pierre-Augustin Charon de Beaumarchais, Beech, 2004, volume 3, chapter III.

Biographical elements

JEAN-DENIS BERGASSE - Of a dream of reformation to a European consideration: The Bergasse deputies (XVIIIe - XIX E centuries) - published by the author, 1990.

LOUIS BERGASSE - A Lyons philosopher: Nicolas Bergasse, Test of Christian philosophy under the first empire - Bookstore philosophical J. Vrin, Paris, 1938.

LEOPOLD OF STRAPPING MAN - Other times: Nicolas Bergasse, deputy of Lyon to the constituent Assembly; two enclaves of old France: Orange and Avignon - Bookstore Plon, Paris, 1893.

RENE MARTINEAU - A lawyer of time formerly, Nicolas Bergasse - Ducourtieux and Gout, Limoges, 1907.

ETIENNE LAMY (foreword), LOUIS BERGASSE - a defender of the traditional principles under the revolution: Nicolas Bergasse, lawyer at the Parliament of bets, deputy of the third state of the seneschalsy Lyon 1750-1832 - Bookstore Academic Perrin, Paris, 1910.