and some other parts, here and there, were inserted, on his reading the
manuscript, by my lost son.
[98] I do not choose to shock the feeling of the moral reader with any
quotation of their vulgar, base, and profane language.
[99] Their connection with Turgot and almost all the people of the
finance.
[100] All have been confiscated in their turn.
[101] Not his brother, nor any near relation; but this mistake does not
affect the argument.
[102] The rest of the passage is this:--
"Who, having spent the treasures of his crown,
Condemns their luxury to feed his own.
And yet this act, to varnish o'er the shame
Of sacrilege, must bear Devotion's name.
No crime so bold, but would be understood
A real, or at least a seeming good.
Who fears not to do ill, yet fears the name,
And free from conscience, is a slave to fame.
Thus he the Church at once protects and spoils:
But princes' swords are sharper than their styles.
And thus to th' ages past he makes amends,
Their charity destroys, their faith defends.
Then did Religion in a lazy cell,
In empty, airy contemplations, dwell;
And like the block, unmovèd lay: but ours,
As much too active, like the stork devours.
Is there no temperate region can be known
Betwixt their frigid and our torrid zone?
Could we not wake from that lethargic dream,
But to be restless in a worse extreme?
And for that lethargy was there no care,
But to be cast into a calenture?
Can knowledge have no bound, but must advance
So far, to make us wish for ignorance,
And rather in the dark to grope our way,
Than, led by a false guide, to err by day?
Who sees these dismal heaps, but would demand
What barbarous invader sack'd the land?
But when he hears no Goth, no Turk did bring
This desolation, but a Christian king,
When nothing but the name of zeal appears
'Twixt our best actions and the worst of theirs,
What does he think our sacrilege would spare,
When such th' effects of our devotions are?"
_Cooper's Hill_, by Sir JOHN DENHAM.
[103] Rapport de Mons. le Directeur-Général des Finances, fait par Ordre
du Roi à Versailles. Mai 5, 1789.
[104] In the Constitution of Scotland, during the Stuart reigns, a
committee sat for preparing bills; and none could pass, but those
previously approved by them. This committee was called Lords of
Articles.
[105] When I wrote this I quoted from memory, after many years had
elapsed from my reading the passage. A learned friend has found it and
it is as follows:--
τὸ ἠ̂θος τὸ αὐτό, καὶ ἄμφω δεσποτικὰ τω̂ν βελτιόνων, καὶ τὰ
ψηφίσματα ὥσπερ ἐκει̂ τὰ ἐπιτάγματα, καὶ ὁ δημαγωγὸς καὶ ὁ
κόλαξ οἱ αὐτοὶ καὶ ἀνάλογον· καὶ μάλιστα δ' ἑκάτεροι παρ'
ἑκατέροις ἰσχύουσιν, οἱ μὲν κόλακες παρὰ τοι̂ς τυράννοις, οἱ
δὲ δημαγωγοὶ παρὰ τοι̂ς δήμοις τοι̂ς τοιούτοις.
"The ethical character is the same: both exercise despotism over the
better class of citizens; and decrees are in the one what ordinances and
arrêts are in the other: the demagogue, too, and the court favorite, are
not unfrequently the same identical men, and always bear a close
analogy; and these have the principal power, each in their respective
forms of government, favorites with the absolute monarch, and demagogues
with a people such as I have described."--Arist. Politic. lib. iv. cap.
4.
[106] De l'Administration des Finances de la France, par Mons. Necker,
Vol. I. p. 288.
[107] De l'Administration des Finances de la France, par M. Necker.
[108] Vol. III. chap. 8 and chap. 9.
[109] The world is obliged to M. de Calonne for the pains he has taken
to refute the scandalous exaggerations relative to some of the royal
expenses, and to detect the fallacious account given of pensions, for
the wicked purpose of provoking the populace to all sorts of crimes.
[110] See Gulliver's Travels for the idea of countries governed by
philosophers.
[111] M. de Calonne states the falling off of the population of Paris as
far more considerable; and it may be so, since the period of M. Necker's
calculation.
[112]
Travaux de charité pour subvenir
au manque de travail à Livres. £ s. d.
Paris et dans les provinces 3,866,920 161,121 13 4
Destruction de vagabondage et de la
mendicité 1,671,417 69,642 7 6
Primes pour l'importation de grains 5,671,907 235,329 9 2
Dépenses relatives aux subsistances,
déduction fait des reconvrements
qui out en lieu 39,871,790 1,661,324 11 8
-----------------------------
Total 51,082,034 2,128,418 1 8
When I sent this book to the press, I entertained some doubt concerning
the nature and extent of the last article in the above accounts, which
is only under a general head, without any detail. Since then I have seen
M. de Calonne's work. I must think it a great loss to me that I had not
that advantage earlier. M. de Calonne thinks this article to be on
account of general subsistence; but as he is not able to comprehend how
so great a loss as upwards of 1,661,000_l._ sterling could be sustained
on the difference between the price and the sale of grain, he seems to
attribute this enormous head of charge to secret expenses of the
Revolution. I cannot say anything positively on that subject. The reader
is capable of judging, by the aggregate of these immense charges, on the
state and condition of France, and the system of public economy adopted
in that nation. These articles of account produced no inquiry or
discussion in the National Assembly.
[113] This is on a supposition of the truth of this story; but he was
not in France at the time. One name serves as well as another.
[114] Domat.
[115] Speech of M. Camus, published by order of the National Assembly.
[116] Whether the following description is strictly true I know not; but
it is what the publishers would have pass for true, in order to animate
others. In a letter from Toul, given in one of their papers, is the
following passage concerning the people of that district:--"Dans la
Révolution actuelle, ils ont résisté à toutes les _séductions du
bigotisme, aux persécutions et aux tracasseries_ des ennemis de la
Révolution. _Oubliant leurs plus grands intérêts_ pour rendre hommage
aux vues d'ordre général qui out déterminé l'Assemblée Nationale, ils
voient, _sans se plaindre_, supprimer cette foule d'établissemens
ecclésiastiques par lesquels _ils subsistoient_; et même, en perdant
leur siège épiscopal, la seule de toutes ces ressources qui pouvoit, on
plutôt _qui devoit, en toute équité_, leur être conservée, condamnés _à
la plus effrayante misère_ sans avoir _été ni pu être entendus, ils ne
murmurent point_, ils restent fidèles aux principes du plus pur
patriotisme; ils sont encore prêts à _verser leur sang_ pour le maintien
de la constitution, qui va réduire leur ville _à la plus déplorable
nullité_."--These people are not supposed to have endured those
sufferings and injustices in a struggle for liberty, for the same
account states truly that they have been always free; their patience in
beggary and ruin, and their suffering, without remonstrance, the most
flagrant and confessed injustice, if strictly true, can be nothing but
the effect of this dire fanaticism. A great multitude all over France is
in the same condition and the same temper.
[117] See the proceedings of the confederation at Nantes.
[118] "Si plures sunt ii quibus improbe datum est, quam illi quibus
injuste ademptum est, idcirco plus etiam valent? Non enim numero hæc
judicantur, sed pondere. Quam autem habet æquitatem, ut agrum multis
annis, aut etiam sæculis ante possessum, qui nullum habuit habeat, qui
autem habuit amittat? Ac, propter hoc injuriæ genus, Lacedæmonii
Lysandrum Ephorum expulerunt; Agin regem (quod nunquam antea apud eos
acciderat) necaverunt; exque eo tempore tantæ discordiæ secutæ sunt, ut
et tyranni exsisterent, et optimates exterminarentur, et preclarissime
constituta respublica dilaberetur. Nec vero solum ipsa cecidit, sed
etiam reliquam Græciam evertit contagionibus malorum, quæ a Lacedæmoniis
profectæ manarunt latius."--After speaking of the conduct of the model
of true patriots, Aratus of Sicyon, which was in a very different
spirit, he says,--"Sic par est agere cum civibus; non (ut bis jam
vidimus) hastam in foro ponere et bona civium voci subjicere præconis.
At ille Græcus (id quod fuit sapientis et præstantis viri) omnibus
consulendum esse putavit: eaque est summa ratio et sapientia boni civis,
commoda civium non divellere, sed omnes eadem æquitate continere."--Cic.
Off. 1. 2.
[119] See two books entitled, "Einige Originalschriften des
Illuminatenordens,"--"System und Folgen des Illuminatenordens." München,
1787.
[120] A leading member of the Assembly, M. Rabaut de St. Étienne, has
expressed the principle of all their proceedings as clearly as possible;
nothing can be more simple:--"_Tous les établissemens en France
couronnent le malheur du peuple: pour le rendre heureux, il faut le
renouveler, changer ses idées, changer ses loix, changer ses mœurs, ...
changer les hommes, changer les choses, changer ses mots, ... tout
détruire; oui, tout détruire; puisque tout est à récréer_."--This
gentleman was chosen president in an assembly not sitting at
_Quinze-Vingt_ or the _Petites Maisons_, and composed of persons giving
themselves out to be rational beings; but neither his ideas, language,
or conduct differ in the smallest degree from the discourses, opinions,
and actions of those, within and without the Assembly, who direct the
operations of the machine now at work in France.
[121] The Assembly, in executing the plan of their committee, made some
alterations. They have struck out one stage in these gradations; this
removes a part of the objection; but the main objection, namely, that in
their scheme the first constituent voter has no connection with the
representative legislator, remains in all its force. There are other
alterations, some possibly for the better, some certainly for the worse:
but to the author the merit or demerit of these smaller alterations
appears to be of no moment, where the scheme itself is fundamentally
vicious and absurd.
[122] "Non, ut olim, universæ legiones deducebantur, cum tribunis, et
centurionibus, et sui cujusque ordinis militibus, ut consensu et
caritate rempublicam efficerent; sed ignoti inter se, diversis
manipulis, sine rectore, sine affectibus mutuis, quasi ex alio genere
mortalium repente in unum collecti, numerus magis quam colonia."--Tac.
Annal. lib. 14, sect. 27.--All this will be still more applicable to the
unconnected, rotatory, biennial national assemblies, in this absurd and
senseless constitution.
[123] Qualitas, Relatio, Actio, Passio, Ubi, Quando, Situs, Habitus.
[124] See l'État de la France, p. 363.
[125] In reality three, to reckon the provincial republican
establishments.
[126] For further elucidations upon the subject of all these judicatures
and of the Committee of Research, see M. de Calonne's work.
[127] "Comme sa Majesté a reconnu, non un système d'associations
particulières, mais une réunion de volontés de tous les François pour la
liberté et la prospérité communes, ainsi pour le maintien de l'ordre
publique, il a pensé qu'il convenoit que chaque régiment prît part à ces
fêtes civiques pour multiplier les rapports, et resserrer les liens
d'union entre les citoyens et les troupes."--Lest I should not be
credited, I insert the words authorizing the troops to feast with the
popular confederacies.
[128] This war minister has since quitted the school and resigned his
office.
[129] Courrier François, 30 July, 1790. Assemblée Nationale, Numero 210.
[130] I see by M. Necker's account, that the national guards of Paris
have received, over and above the money levied within their own city,
about 145,000_l._ sterling out of the public treasure. Whether this be
an actual payment for the nine months of their existence, or an estimate
of their yearly charge, I do not clearly perceive. It is of no great
importance, as certainly they may take whatever they please.
[131] The reader will observe that I have but lightly touched (my plan
demanded nothing more) on the condition of the French finances as
connected with the demands upon them. If I had intended to do otherwise,
the materials in my hands for such a task are not altogether perfect. On
this subject I refer the reader to M. de Calonne's work, and the
tremendous display that he has made of the havoc and devastation in the
public estate, and in all the affairs of France, caused by the
presumptuous good intentions of ignorance and incapacity. Such effects
those causes will always produce. Looking over that account with a
pretty strict eye, and, with perhaps too much rigor, deducting
everything which may be placed to the account of a financier out of
place, who might be supposed by his enemies desirous of making the most
of his cause, I believe it will be found that a more salutary lesson of
caution against the daring spirit of innovators than what has been
supplied at the expense of France never was at any time furnished to
mankind.
[132] La Bruyère of Bossuet.
[133] "Ce n'est point à l'assemblée entière que je m'adresse ici; je ne
parle qu'à ceux qui l'égarent, en lui cachant sous des gazes séduisantes
le but où ils l'entraînent. C'est à eux que je dis: Votre objet, vous
n'en disconviendrez pas, c'est d'ôter tout espoir au clergé, et de
consommer sa ruine; c'est-là, en ne vous soupçonnant d'aucune
combinaison de cupidité, d'aucun regard sur le jeu des effets publics,
c'est-là ce qu'on doit croire que vous avez en vue dans la terrible
opération que vous proposez; c'est ce qui doit en être le fruit. Mais le
peuple qui vous y intéressez, quel avantage peut-il y trouver? En vous
servant sans cesse de lui, que faites-vous pour lui? Rien, absolument
rien; et, au contraire, vous faites ce qui ne conduit qu'à l'accabler de
nouvelles charges. Vous avez rejeté, à son préjudice, une offre de 400
millions, dont l'acceptation pouvoit devenir un moyen de soulagement en
sa faveur; et à cette ressource, aussi profitable que légitime, vous
avez substitué une injustice ruineuse, qui, de votre propre aveu, charge
le trésor public, et par consequent le peuple, d'un surcroît de dépense
annuelle de 50 millions an moins, et d'un remboursement de 150 millions.
"Malheureux peuple! voilà ce que vous vaut en dernier résultat
l'expropriation de l'Église, et la dureté des décrets taxateurs du
traitement des ministres d'une religion bienfaisante; et désormais ils
scront à votre charge: leurs charités soulageoient les pauvres; et vous
allez être imposés pour subvenir à leur entretien!"--_De l'État de la
France,_ p. 81. See also p. 92, and the following pages.
END OF VOL. III.