THE JACOBIN CLUB.
The Jacobins--Chateaubriand's Opinion of Them--Arthur Young's
Descriptions--The New Club.
Between the Church of St. Roch and the Place Vendôme is the Rue du
Marché and the Marché, or market, itself; chiefly interesting at the
present day as occupying the ground on which stood the ancient Monastery
of the Jacobins, where from 1791 to 1794--from before the beginning
until the very end of the Reign of Terror--the meetings of the famous
Jacobin Club were held.
[Illustration: MIRABEAU.]
The name of Jacobin soon became familiar in England, and, as in France
itself when the fury of the Revolution was quite at an end, was often
applied as a term of reproach to all persons of Liberal ideas. The
word, however, is now chiefly known among us from the _Anti-Jacobin_ of
Canning and Frere, and latterly from the excellent, but short-lived,
weekly newspaper of the same name edited by Mr. Frederick Greenwood.
Under the Restoration, everyone in France who was not an ardent
supporter of the ancient monarchy was called a Jacobin. But though
towards the end of the Revolution Jacobinism became something hateful
indeed, the principles which first brought the Jacobins together were
such as neither lovers of liberty nor lovers of order could object to.
In 1789 a number of popular associations were rapidly organised; this
being the natural result of the reactionary feeling against a system
which had subjected books, newspapers, and even conversation in public
places (such as cafés) to a rigid censorship supported by officials
and by spies. A passion suddenly arose throughout France for public
speaking, and in a thousand different assemblies orators were formed.
The States-General had just met; and, not content with the formal
sittings, the deputies loved to address in a direct manner the outside
public. With this view, the deputies from Brittany established a
club called the Breton Club, which was joined by other deputies, and
which presently changed its title to "Society of the Friends of the
Constitution." This association included men of all shades of politics,
who were afterwards to make war upon one another. Among the most famous
may be mentioned Sieyès, Volney, Barnave, Pétion, Barrère, Lameth,
Robespierre, the Duke of Orleans (Philippe Égalité), the Duke de La
Rochefoucauld, Boissy d'Anglas, Talleyrand, La Fayette, and Mirabeau.
The Society had its head-quarters at Versailles, in a building called Le
Reposoir, which, later on, became a Protestant church.
After the days of October the Assembly followed the King to Paris; and
the famous club was established, first in a large hall which served as
library to the Dominican monks at the convent of the Rue Saint-Honoré,
and afterwards, when this order had been dissolved, in the Convent
Church. As the Dominicans were more generally spoken of as the Jacobins,
the latter name was soon applied to the Friends of the Constitution,
who willingly adopted it. The same thing, strangely enough, happened to
the Cordeliers and the Feuillants; so that the principal Revolutionary
parties got to be known throughout Europe by appellations formerly
monastic.
What is still more curious is that the last of the Jacobin monks (in
1789 and 1790) took part in the meetings of which their convent was
the scene, as, in like manner, did the last members of the Order of
Cordeliers. The Jacobin Club possessed a large staff of officers,
including a president, vice-president, four secretaries, twelve
inspectors, four censors, eight commissaries, treasurer, and librarian,
all appointed at quarterly elections. The privilege of membership was
only granted under very strict conditions, and every newly-elected
Jacobin had, before being formally admitted, to take the following
oath:--
"I swear to live free or die; to remain faithful to the
principles of the Constitution; to obey the laws; to cause them to
be respected; to help with all my might to make them perfect; and
to conform to the customs and regulations of the society."
The sittings were held, first three, then four times a week. Little by
little, however, the usual course in such assemblies was drifted into.
The leaders went to extremes, and soon the most extravagant of them
obtained the largest following. Then the moderate members retired to
form counter-associations, until in time the hostile organisations made
war upon one another, with the guillotine as their final weapon.
"The Jacobins," says Michelet, "by their _esprit de corps_, which went
on constantly increasing, by their hardened, uncompromising faith, by
their harsh, inquisitorial ways, had something of a priestly character.
They formed a sort of revolutionary clergy."
Another great admirer of the Revolution, and especially of Robespierre,
in whom the principle of Jacobinism was incarnate, sums up the Jacobin
spirit in the following words:--
"Hatred of the conventional inequalities of former times, of unalterable
beliefs, a sort of methodical fanaticism, intolerance of all that
interfered with the development of the most daring innovations, and,
fundamentally, a passion for regular forms; these, whatever may be said
on the subject, were the components of the Jacobin spirit. The true
Jacobin had something about him at once powerful, original and sombre.
He stood midway between the agitator and the statesman; between the
Protestant and the Monk; between the inquisitor and the tribune. Hence
that ferocious vigilance transformed into a virtue: that spy system
raised to the rank of a patriotic organisation: and that mania for
denunciation, which made people at first laugh, and at last tremble."
France, like England soon afterwards, had its _Anti-Jacobin_. _Les
Sabbats Jacobites_ was the title of the French publication, and the
Jacobin "mania for denunciation" was thus satirised in its columns:--
Je dénonce l'Allemagne,
Le Portugal et l'Espagne,
Le Mexique et la Champagne,
La Sardaigne et le Pérou.
Je dénonce l'ltalie,
L'Afrique et la Barbarie,
L'Angleterre et la Russie
Sans même excepter Moscou.
In spite of these attacks and a thousand others, the importance of
the Jacobin Club went on constantly increasing; and at the funeral of
Mirabeau, who died in the first year of the Revolution, the President of
the Jacobin Club marched side by side with the President of the National
Assembly, and had precedence of the Ministers. After the death of
Mirabeau the influence of the Lameths, the Duports, the Barnaves, etc.,
gave way to that of Robespierre, in whom, says Louis Blanc, "Jacobinism
in its extremest points was personified."
Chateaubriand, the Royalist, ought, however, to be heard on this subject
as well as Louis Blanc, the Republican; and this is what the former
writes in his "Essay on Revolutions," published in 1797:--
"Much has been said about the Jacobins, but few people
have known them. Nearly everyone rushes into declamations, and
publishes the crimes of this society without enlightening us as
to the general principle which directed its views. This principle
consisted in a system of perfection towards which the first step
to take was to restore the laws of Lycurgus. If, moreover, it be
considered that France is indebted to the Jacobins for its numerous
armies, courageous and disciplined; that it was the Jacobins who
found the means of paying them, and of victualling a country
without resources and surrounded by enemies; that it was they who
created a navy as if by miracle, and who, through intrigues and
money, ensured the neutrality of some of the powers; that under
their reign the greatest discoveries in natural history were made,
and great generals formed; that, in a word, they gave vigour to
a warlike body, and, so to say, organised anarchy; one must then
of necessity admit that these monsters, escaped from hell, had
infernal talents."
In 1791 the Jacobins were still Royalists, not from attachment to the
Monarchy, but from a scrupulous regard for Constitutional legality.
Nevertheless, after the flight to Varennes they departed from their
former principles so far as to demand the abdication of the king. The
next day, however, on the proposition of Robespierre, they returned to
their customary prudence, pronounced against the Republic, and sent
commissaries to the Champ de Mars to take back their demand.
In connection with most of the great revolutionary events their conduct
was the same, though the aristocratic Jacobins of 1789 had now quitted
the society, to be replaced by men of extreme views--journalists,
orators, and members of the National Assembly, who desired to place
themselves in direct contact with the outside world.
Among the questions put to candidates for election to the Jacobin Club
were the following: "What were you in 1789? What have you done since?
What was your fortune until 1789, and what is it now?" Every candidate
was bound to answer all questions addressed to him, and he was to do
this publicly in a loud voice. Anyone rejected by the Jacobin Club
became at once an object of suspicion; and to be denounced by the
Jacobin leaders was to receive a sentence of death. In this way perished
the unfortunate Anacharsis Clootz, Fabre d'Églantine, and many others.
At the critical moment the Jacobins remained faithful to the fortune of
their chief. On the news of his arrest they ordered permanent sittings
and voted unanimously their approval of the insurrectionary attitude of
the Paris Commune. They spoke of resistance. But, though men of action
abounded in the Jacobin Club, the members, as a body, were pusillanimous
and could do nothing.
Arthur Young in his "Travels in France" gives an interesting account of
a meeting, which he attended, of the Jacobin Club at the time of the
Revolution:--
"At night," he says, writing in diary form, "M. Decretot and
M. Blin carried me to the revolutionary club of the Jacobins; the
room where they assemble is that in which the famous league was
signed. There were above one hundred deputies present, with a
president in the chair; I was handed to him and announced as the
author of the _Arithmétique Politique_. The President, standing
up, repeated my name to the company and demanded if there were any
objections. None; and this was all the ceremony, not merely of an
introduction, but election; for I was told that now I was free
to be present when I pleased, being a foreigner. Ten or a dozen
other elections were made. In this Club the business that is to
be brought into the National Assembly is regularly debated; the
motions are read that are intended to be made there, and rejected,
or corrected and approved. When these have been fully agreed to,
the whole party are engaged to support them. Plans of conduct are
here determined; proper persons nominated to act on committees and
as presidents of the Assembly named. And I may add that such is the
majority of members that whatever passes in this Club is almost
sure to pass in the Assembly."
Arthur Young also gives a description of a debate in the National
Assembly on the subject of the conduct of the Chamber of Vacation in the
Parliament of Rennes.
[Illustration: ROBESPIERRE.]
M. l'Abbé Maury, a zealous royalist, "made a long and eloquent speech,
which he delivered with great fluency and precision and without any
notes, in defence of the Parliament; he replied to what had been
urged by the Count de Mirabeau on a former day, and strongly censured
his unjustifiable call on the people of Bretagne to a _redoutable
dénombrement_. He said that it would better become the members of such
an assembly to count their own principles and duties and the fruits
of their attention to the privileges of the subject than to call for
a _dénombrement_ that would fill a province with fire and bloodshed.
He was interrupted by the noise and confusion of the Assembly and of
the audience six several times, but it had no effect on him; he waited
calmly till it subsided, and then proceeded as if no interruption had
occurred. The speech was a very able one and much relished by the
Royalists; but the _enragés_ condemned it as good for nothing. No
other person spoke without notes; the Count de Clermont read a speech
that had some brilliant passages, but was by no means an answer to the
Abbé Maury, as, indeed, it would have been wonderful if it were, being
prepared before he heard the Abbé's oration.... Disorder and every kind
of confusion prevails now almost as much as when the Assembly sat at
Versailles. The interruptions are frequent and long, and speakers who
have no right by the rules to speak will attempt to hold forth. The
Count de Mirabeau pressed to deliver his opinion after the Abbé Maury;
the president put it to the vote whether he should be allowed to speak
a second time, and the whole house rose up to negative it, so that the
first orator of the Assembly has not the influence even to be heard
to explain. We have no conception of such rules, and yet their great
numbers must make this necessary. I forgot to observe that there is a
gallery at each end of the saloon which is open to all the world, and
side ones for admission of the friends of the members by tickets. The
audience in these galleries are very noisy; they clap when anything
pleases them, and they have been known to hiss, an indecorum which is
utterly destructive of freedom of debate."
[Illustration: THE PALAIS ROYAL.]
With Robespierre the grand period of the Jacobins came to an end, and
nearly a hundred and twenty of them perished on the scaffold. Their hall
was now closed and the club forbidden to meet except as a "regenerated
society." At last the Committees of Public Safety and of General
Security issued a decree which put an end to the Society of Jacobins.
In the year 1796 a new Jacobin club was formed in the Riding School
of the Tuileries, which soon afterwards moved to the church in the
Rue du Bac, and boldly announced that it meant to revive the Jacobin
traditions. "Jacobins of the Riding School" this society was called,
and, after some ridicule (for the French public had grown sick of the
Revolution), it was suppressed by an order from the Directory (1799).
The Jacobin Club, however, as Arthur Young knew and described it, not
only dictated the proceedings of the National Assembly, using this body
as a sort of tool or cat's-paw by which it practically governed France,
but exerted such an influence on Parisian society that enthusiasm
for Liberal ideas took possession even of the fair sex. "The present
devotion to liberty," he writes, "is a sort of rage. It absorbs every
other passion and permits no other object to remain in view than what
promises to confirm it. Dine with a large party at the Duke de La
Rochefoucauld's, ladies and gentlemen are all equally politicians."
Young adds, however, that one effect of the Revolution was to lessen
the enormous influence of the gentler sex. Previously they had "mixed
themselves in everything in order to govern everything," and the men
of the kingdom had been mere "puppets moved by their wives." But now,
"instead of giving the _ton_ to questions of national debate, they
must receive it and be content to move in the political sphere of some
celebrated leader." They were thus sinking into the position which, as
Young considered, Nature had intended for them; and he maintained that
the daughters of France would now become "more amiable and the nation
better governed."