Philippe-Antoine, Count Merlin

Philippe-Antoine, Count Merlin (born October 30, 1754, Arleux, France—died December 26, 1838, Paris) was one of the foremost jurists of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. As a deputy for the town of Douai in the revolutionary Constituent Assembly of 1789, he was instrumental in the passage of important legislation abolishing feudal and seignorial rights. Merlin was elected to a new assembly, the National Convention, in September 1792, and he voted for the death sentence...