CHAPTER I. PSYCHOLOGY OF THE JACOBIN LEA

Produced by Svend Rom

THE ORIGINS OF CONTEMPORARY FRANCE, VOLUME 4

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, VOLUME 3.

by Hippolyte A. Taine

Please note that all references to earlier Volumes of the

Origines of Contemporary France are to the American edition.

Since there are no fixed page numbers in the Gutenberg

edition these page numbers are only approximate. (SR).

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION VOLUME III.

PREFACE.

BOOK FIRST. The Establishment of the Revolutionary Government.

CHAPTER I.

BOOK SECOND. The Jacobin Program.

CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

BOOK THIRD. The Governors.

CHAPTER I. Psychology of the Jacobin Leaders.

CHAPTER II. The Rulers of the Country.

CHAPTER III. The Rulers. (continued).

BOOK FOURTH. The Governed.

CHAPTER I. The Oppressed.

CHAPTER II. Food and Provisions.

BOOK FIFTH. The End of the Revolutionary Government.

CHAPTER I.

PREFACE.

"In Egypt," says Clement of Alexandria,[1101] "the sanctuaries of the

temples are shaded by curtains of golden tissue. But on going further

into the interior in quest of the statue, a priest of grave aspect,

advancing to meet you and chanting a hymn in the Egyptian tongue,

slightly raises a veil to show you the god. And what do you behold? A

crocodile, or some indigenous serpent, or other dangerous animal, the

Egyptian god being a beast sprawling on a purple carpet."

We need not visit Egypt or go so far back in history to encounter

crocodile worship, as this can be readily found in France at the end

of the last century.--Unfortunately, a hundred years is too long an

interval, too far away, for an imaginative retrospect of the past. At

the present time, standing where we do and regarding the horizon behind

us, we see only forms which the intervening atmosphere embellishes,

shimmering contours which each spectator may interpret in his own

fashion; no distinct, animated figure, but merely a mass of moving

points, forming and dissolving in the midst of picturesque architecture.

I was anxious to take a closer view of these vague points, and,

accordingly, deported myself back to the last half of the eighteenth

century. I have now been living with them for twelve years, and, like

Clement of Alexandria, examined, first, the temple, and next the god.

A passing glance at these is not sufficient; it was also necessary

to understand the theology on which this cult is founded. This one,

explained by a very specious theology, like most others, is composed of

dogmas called the principles of 1789; they were proclaimed, indeed, at

that date, having been previously formulated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau:

* The well known sovereignty of the people.

* The rights of Man.

* The social contract.

Once adopted, their practical results unfolded themselves naturally. In

three years these dogmas installed the crocodile on the purple carpet

insides the sanctuary behind the golden veil. He was selected for the

place on account of the energy of his jaws and the capacity of his

stomach; he became a god through his qualities as a destructive brute

and man-eater.--Comprehending this, the rites which consecrate him and

the pomp which surrounds him need not give us any further concern.--We

can observe him, like any ordinary animal, and study his various

attitudes, as he lies in wait for his prey, springs upon it, tears it to

pieces, swallows it, and digests it. I have studied the details of his

structure, the play of his organs, his habits, his mode of living, his

instincts, his faculties, and his appetites.--Specimens abounded. I have

handled thousands of them, and have dissected hundreds of every species

and variety, always preserving the most valuable and characteristic

examples, but for lack of room I have been compelled to let many of them

go because my collections was too large. Those that I was able to

bring back with me will be found here, and, among others, about twenty

individuals of different dimensions, which--a difficult undertaking--I

have kept alive with great pains. At all events, they are intact and

perfect, and particularly the three largest. These seem to me, of their

kind, truly remarkable, and those in which the divinity of the day might

well incarnate himself.--Authentic and rather well kept cookbooks inform

us about the cost of the cult: We can more or less estimate how much the

sacred crocodiles consumed in ten years; we know their bills of daily

fare, their favorite morsels. Naturally, the god selected the fattest

victims, but his voracity was so great that he likewise bolted down,

and blindly, the lean ones, and in much greater number than the fattest.

Moreover, by virtue of his instincts, and an unfailing effect of the

situation, he ate his equals once or twice a year, except when they

succeeded in eating him.--This cult certainly is instructive, at least

to historians and men of pure science. If any believers in it still

remain I do not aim to convert them; one cannot argue with a devotee on

matters of faith. This volume, accordingly, like the others that have

gone before it, is written solely for amateurs of moral zoology, for

naturalists of the understanding, for seekers of truth, of texts, and

of proofs--for these alone and not for the public, whose mind is made up

and which has its own opinion on the Revolution. This opinion began to

be formed between 1825 and 1830, after the retirement or withdrawal of

eye witnesses. When they disappeared it was easy to convince a credulous

public that crocodiles were philanthropists; that many possessed

genius; that they scarcely ate others than the guilty, and that if they

sometimes ate too many it was unconsciously and in spite of themselves,

or through devotion and self-sacrifice for the common good.

H. A. Taine, Menthon Saint Bernard, July 1884.

*****

BOOK FIRST. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT.

CHAPTER I. JACOBIN GOVERNMENT

I. The despotic creed and instincts of the Jacobin.

Weakness of former governments.--Energy of the new

government.--The despotic creed and instincts of the

Jacobin.

So far, the weakness of the legal government is extreme. During

four years, whatever its kind, it has constantly and everywhere been

disobeyed. For four years it never dared enforce obedience. Recruited

among the cultivated and refined class, the rulers of the country have

brought with them into power the prejudices and sensibilities of the

epoch. Under the influence of the prevailing dogma they have submitted

to the will of the multitude and, with too much faith in the rights

of Man, they have had too little in the authority of the magistrate.

Moreover, through humanity, they have abhorred bloodshed and, unwilling

to repress, they have allowed themselves to be repressed. Thus from

the 1st of May, 1789, to June 2, 1793, they have administrated or

legislated, escaping countless insurrections, almost all of them going

unpunished; while their constitution, an unhealthy product of theory and

fear, have done no more than transform spontaneous anarchy into legal

anarchy. Deliberately and through distrust of authority they have

undermined the principle of command, reduced the King to the post of a

decorative puppet, and almost annihilated the central power: from the

top to the bottom of the hierarchy the superior has lost his hold on

the inferior, the minister on the departments, the departments on the

districts, and the districts on the communes. Throughout all branches of

the service, the chief, elected on the spot and by his subordinates,

has come to depend on them. Thenceforth, each post in which authority

is vested is found isolated, dismantled and preyed upon, while, to

crown all, the Declaration of Rights, proclaiming "the jurisdiction of

constituents over their clerks,"[1102] has invited the assailants to

make the assault. On the strength of this a faction arises which ends in

becoming an organized band; under its clamor, its menaces and its pikes,

at Paris and in the provinces, at the polls and in the parliament,

the majorities are all silenced, while the minorities vote, decree and

govern; the Legislative Assembly is purged, the King is dethroned,

and the Convention is mutilated. Of all the garrisons of the central

citadel, whether royalists, Constitutionalists, or Girondins, not one

has been able to defend itself, to re-fashion the executive instrument,

to draw the sword and use it in the streets: on the first attack, often

at the first summons, all have surrendered, and now the citadel, with

every other public fortress, is in the hands of the Jacobins.

This time, its occupants are of a different stamp. Aside from the great

mass of well-disposed people fond of a quiet life, the Revolution has

sifted out and separated from the rest all who are fanatical, brutal

or perverse enough to have lost respect for others; these form the new

garrison--sectarians blinded by their creed, the roughs (assommeurs) who

are hardened by their calling, and those who make all they can out of

their offices. None of this class are scrupulous concerning human life

or property; for, as we have seen, they have shaped the theory to suit

themselves, and reduced popular sovereignty to their sovereignty.

The commonwealth, according to the Jacobin, is his; with him, the

commonwealth comprises all private possessions, bodies, estates, souls

and consciences; everything belongs to him; the fact of being a Jacobin

makes him legitimately czar and pope. Little does he care about the

wills of actually living Frenchmen; his mandate does not emanate from

a vote; it descends to him from aloft, conferred on him by Truth, by

Reason, by Virtue. As he alone is enlightened, and the only patriot,

he alone is worthy to take command, while resistance, according to his

imperious pride, is criminal. If the majority protests it is because

the majority is imbecile or corrupt; in either case, it deserves to be

brought to heel. And, in fact, the Jacobin only does that and right

away too; insurrections, usurpations, pillaging, murders, assaults on

individuals, on judges and public attorneys, on assemblies, violations

of law, attacks on the State, on communities--there is no outrage not

committed by him. He has always acted as sovereign instinctively; he

was so as a private individual and clubbist; he is not to cease being

so, now that he possesses legal authority, and all the more because if

he hesitates he knows he is lost; to save himself from the scaffold

he has no refuge but in a dictatorship. Such a man, unlike his

predecessors, will not allow himself to be turned out; on the contrary,

he will exact obedience at any cost. He will not hesitate to restore

the central power; he will put back the local wheels that have been

detached; he will repair the old forcing gear; he will set it agoing so

as to work more rudely and arbitrarily than ever, with greater contempt

for private rights and public liberties than either a Louis XIV. or a

Napoleon.

II. Jacobin Dissimulation.

Contrast between his words and his acts.--How he

dissimulates his change of front.--The Constitution of June,

1793.--Its promises of freedom.

In the mean time, he has to harmonize his coming acts with his recent

declarations, which, at the first glance, seems a difficult operation:

for, in the speeches he has made he has already condemned the actions he

meditates. Yesterday he exaggerated the rights of the governed, even to

a suppression of those of the government; to-morrow he is to exaggerate

the rights of the people in power, even to suppressing those who are

governed. The people, as he puts it, is the sole sovereign, and he is

going to treat the people as slaves; the government, as he puts it, is

a valet, and he is going to endow the government with prerogatives of a

sultan. He has just denounced the slightest exercise of public

authority as a crime; he is now going to punish as a crime the slightest

resistance to public authority. What will justify such a volte-face and

with what excuse can he repudiate the principles with which he justified

his takeover?--He takes good care not to repudiate them; it would

drive the already rebellious provinces to extremes; on the contrary,

he proclaims them with renewed vigor, through which move the ignorant

crowd, seeing the same flask always presented to it, imagines that it is

always served with the same liquor, and is thus forced to drink tyranny

under the label of freedom. Whatever the charlatan can do with his

labels, signboards, shouting and lies for the next six months, will be

done to disguise the new nostrum; so much the worse for the public if,

later on, it discovers that the draught is bitter; sooner or later it

must swallow it, willingly or by compulsion: for, in the interval,

the instruments are being got ready to force it down the public

throat.[1103]

As a beginning, the Constitution, so long anticipated and so often

promised, is hastily fabricated:[1104] declarations of rights in

thirty-five articles, the Constitutional bill in one hundred and

twenty-four articles, political principles and institutions of every

sort, electoral, legislative, executive, administrative, judicial,

financial and military;[1105] in three weeks all is drawn up and passed

on the double.--Of course, the new Constitutionalists do not propose to

produce an effective and serviceable instrument; that is the least of

their worries. Hérault Séchelles, the reporter of the bill, writes on

the 7th of June, "to have procured for him at once the laws of Minos,

of which he has urgent need;" very urgent need, as he must hand in

the Constitution that week.[1106] Such circumstance is sufficiently

characteristic of both the workmen and the work. All is mere show and

pretense. Some of the workmen are shrewd politicians whose sole object

is to furnish the public with words instead of realities; others,

ordinary scribblers of abstractions, or even ignoramuses, and unable to

distinguish words from reality, imagine that they are framing laws by

stringing together a lot of phrases.--It is not a difficult job; the

phrases are ready-made to hand. "Let the plotters of anti-popular

systems," says the reporter, "painfully elaborate their projects!

Frenchmen.... have only to consult their hearts to read the Republic

there!"[1107] Drafted in accordance with the "Contrat-Social," filled

with Greek and Latin reminiscences, it is a summary "in pithy style" of

the manual of current aphorisms then in vogue, Rousseau's mathematical

formulas and prescriptions, "the axioms of truth and the consequences

flowing from these axioms," in short, a rectilinear constitution which

any school-boy may spout on leaving college. Like a handbill posted

on the door of a new shop, it promises to customers every imaginable

article that is handsome and desirable. Would you have rights and

liberties? You will find them all here. Never has the statement been so

clearly made, that the government is the servant, creature and tool

of the governed; it is instituted solely "to guarantee to them their

natural, imprescriptible rights." [1108] Never has a mandate been more

strictly limited: "The right of expressing one's thoughts and opinions,

either through the press or in any other way; the right of peaceful

assembly, the free exercise of worship, cannot be interdicted." Never

have citizens been more carefully guarded against the encroachments and

excesses of public authority: "The law should protect public and

private liberties against the oppression of those who govern...

offenses committed by the people's mandatories and agents must never

go unpunished. Let free men instantly put to death every individual

usurping sovereignty. .. Every act against a man outside of the

cases and forms which the law determines is arbitrary and tyrannical;

whosoever is subjected to violence in the execution of this act has the

right to repel it by force... When the government violates the people's

rights insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the

people, the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties."

To civil rights the generous legislator has added political rights, and

multiplied every precaution for maintaining the dependence of rulers on

the people.--In the first place, rulers are appointed by the people and

through direct choice or nearly direct choice: in primary meetings

the people elect deputies, city officers, justices of the peace, and

electors of the second degree; the latter, in their turn, elect in

the secondary meetings, district and department administrators, civil

arbitrators, criminal judges, judges of appeal and the eighty candidates

from amongst which the legislative body is to select its executive

council.--In the second place, all powers of whatever kind are never

conferred except for a very limited term: one year for deputies, for

electors of the second degree, for civil arbitrators, and for judges

of every kind and class. As to municipalities and also department and

district administrations, these are one-half renewable annually. Every

first of May the fountain-head of authority flows afresh, the people in

its primary assemblies, spontaneously formed, manifesting or changing at

will its staff of clerks.--In the third place, even when installed and

at work, the people may, if it pleases, become their collaborator:

means are provided for "deliberating" with its deputies. The latter,

on incidental questions, those of slight importance, on the ordinary

business of the year, may enact laws; but on matters of general,

considerable and permanent interest, they are simply to propose the

laws, while, especially as regards a declaration of war, the people

alone must decide. The people have a suspensive veto and, finally, a

definitive veto, which they may exercise when they please. To this end,

they may assemble in extraordinary session; one-fifth of the citizens

who have the right to vote suffice for their convocation. Once convoked,

the vote is determined by a Yes or a No on the act proposed by the

legislative body. If, at the expiration of forty days, one-tenth of the

primary assemblies in one-half of the departments vote No, there is

a suspensive veto. In that event all the primary assemblies of the

Republic must be convoked and if the majority still decides in the

negative, that is a definitive veto. The same formalities govern a

revision of the established constitution.--In all this, the plan of the

"Montagnards" is a further advance on that of the Girondins; never was

so insignificant a part assigned to the rulers nor so extensive a

part to the governed. The Jacobins profess a respect for the popular

initiative which amounts to a scruple.[1109] According to them the

sovereign people should be sovereign de facto, permanently, and without

interregnum, allowed to interfere in all serious affairs, and not

only possess the right, but the faculty, of imposing its will on its

mandatories.--All the stronger is the reason for referring to it the

institutions now being prepared for it. Hence the Convention, after the

parade is over, convokes the primary assemblies and submits to them for

ratification the Constitutional bill has been drawn up.

III. Primary Assemblies

Primary Assemblies.--Proportion of Absentees.--Unanimity of

the voters.--Their motives for accepting the Constitution.

--Pressure brought to bear on voters.--Choice of Delegates.

The ratification will, undoubtedly, be approved. Everything has

been combined beforehand to secure it, also to secure it as wanted,

apparently spontaneously, and almost unanimously.--The primary

assemblies, indeed, are by no means fully attended; only one-half, or a

quarter, or a third of the electors in the cities deposit their votes,

while in the rural districts there is only a quarter, and less.[1110]

Repelled by their experience with previous convocations the electors

know too well the nature of these assemblies; how the Jacobin faction

rules them, how it manages the electoral comedy, with what violence

and threats it reduces all dissidents to voting either as figurants or

claqueurs. From four to five million of electors prefer to hold aloof

and stay at home as usual. Nevertheless the organization of most of the

assemblies takes place, amounting to some six or seven thousand. This is

accounted for by the fact that each canton contains its small group

of Jacobins. Next to these come the simple-minded who still believe in

official declarations; in their eyes a constitution which guarantees

private rights and institutes public liberties must be accepted, no

matter what hand may present it to them. And all the more readily

because the usurpers offer to resign; in effect, the Convention has

just solemnly declared that once the Constitution is adopted, the people

shall again be convoked to elect "a new national assembly... a

new representative body invested with a later and more immediate

trust,"[1111] which will allow electors, if they are so disposed, to

return honest deputies and exclude the knaves who now rule. Thereupon

even the insurgent departments, the mass of the Girondins population,

after a good deal of hesitation, resign themselves at last to voting for

it.[1112] This is done at Lyons and in the department of Calvados only

on the 30th of July. A number of Constitutionalists or neutrals have

done the same thing, some through a horror of civil war and a spirit of

conciliation, and others through fear of persecution and of being taxed

with royalism;[1113] one conception more: through docility they may

perhaps succeed in depriving the "Mountain" of all pretext for violence.

In this they greatly deceive themselves, and, from the first, they

are able to see once more the Jacobins interpretation of electoral

liberty.--At first, all the registered,[1114] and especially the

"suspects," are compelled to vote, and to vote Yes; otherwise, says a

Jacobin journal,[1115] "they themselves will indicate the true opinion

one ought to have of their attitudes, and no longer have reason to

complain of suspicions that are found to be so well grounded." They come

accordingly, "very humbly and very penitent." Nevertheless they meet

with a rebuff, and a cold shoulder is turned on them; they are consigned

to a corner of the room, or near the doors, and are openly insulted.

Thus received, it is clear that they will keep quiet and not risk the

slightest objection. At Macon "a few aristocrats muttered to themselves,

but not one dared say No."[1116] It would, indeed, be extremely

imprudent. At Montbrison, "six individuals who decline to vote," are

denounced in the procès-verbal of the Canton, while a deputy in the

Convention demands "severe measures" against them. At Nogent-sur-Seine,

three administrators, guilty of the same offense, are to be turned

out of office.[1117] A few months later, the offense becomes a capital

crime, and people are to be guillotined "for having voted against the

Constitution of 1793."[1118] Almost all the ill-disposed foresaw this

danger; hence, in nearly all the primary assemblies, the adoption is

unanimous, or nearly unanimous.[1119] At Rouen, there are but twenty-six

adverse votes; at Caen, the center of the Girondin opposition, fourteen;

at Rheims, there are only two; at Troyes, Besançon, Limoges and Paris,

there are none at all; in fifteen departments the number of negatives

varies from five to one; not one is found in Var; this apparent unity is

most instructive. The commune of St. Donau, the only one in France, in

the remote district of Cotês-du-Nord, dares demand the restoration of

the clergy and the son of Capet for king. All the others vote as

if directed with a baton; they have understood the secret of the

plebiscite; that it is a Jacobin demonstration, not an honest vote,

which is required.[1120] The operation undertaken by the local party is

actually carried out. It beats to arms around the ballot-box; it arrives

in force; it alone speaks with authority; it animates officers; it moves

all the resolutions and draws up the report of proceedings, while the

representatives on mission from Paris add to the weight of the local

authority that of the central authority. In the Macon assembly "they

address the people on each article; this speech is followed by

immense applause and redoubled shouting of Vive la République! Vive la

Constitution! Vive le Peuple Français!" Beware, ye lukewarm, who do not

join in the chorus! They are forced to vote "in a loud, intelligible

voice." They are required to shout in unison, to sign the grandiloquent

address in which the leaders testify their gratitude to the Convention,

and give their adhesion to the eminent patriots delegated by the primary

assembly to bear its report to Paris.[1121]

IV. The Delegates reach Paris

The Delegates reach Paris.--Precautions taken against them.

--Constraints and Seductions.

The first act of the comedy is over and the second act now begins.--The

faction has convoked the delegates of the primary assemblies to Paris

for a purpose. Like the primary assemblies, they are to serve as its

instruments for governing; they are to form the props of dictatorship,

and the object now is to restrict them to that task only.--Indeed, it

is not certain that all will lend themselves to it. For, among the eight

thousand commissioners, some, appointed by refractory assemblies, bring

a refusal instead of an adhesion;[1122] others, more numerous, are

instructed to present objections and point out omissions:[1123] it is

very certain that the envoys of the Girondist departments will insist on

the release or return of their excluded representatives. And lastly,

a good many delegates who have accepted the Constitution in good faith

desire its application as soon as possible, and that the Convention

should fulfill its promise of abdication, so as to give way to a new

Assembly.--As it is important to suppress at once all these vague

desires for independence or tendencies for opposition a decree of the

Convention "authorizes the Committee of General Security to order the

arrest of 'suspect' commissioners;" it is especially to look after those

who, "charged with a special mission, would hold meetings to win over

their colleagues,.... and engage them in proceedings contrary to their

mandate."[1124] In the first place, and before they are admitted

into Paris, their Jacobinism is to be verified, like a bale in the

customs-house, by the special agents of the executive council, and

especially by Stanislas Maillard, the famous September judge, and his

sixty-eight bearded ruffians, each receiving pay at five francs a day.

"On all the roads, within a circuit of fifteen or twenty leagues of the

capital," the delegates are searched; their trunks are opened, and their

letters read. At the barriers in Paris they find "inspectors" posted by

the Commune, under the pretext of protecting them against prostitutes

and swindlers. There, they are taken possession of, and conducted to

the mayoralty, where they receive lodging tickets, while a picket of

gendarmerie escorts them to their allotted domiciles.[1125]--Behold them

in pens like sheep, each in his numbered stall; there is no fear of

the dissidents trying to escape and form a band apart: one of them, who

comes to the Convention and asks for a separate hall for himself and his

adherents, is snubbed in the most outrageous manner; they denounce

him as an intriguer, and accuse him of a desire to defend the traitor

Castries; they take his name and credentials, and threaten him with an

investigation.[1126] The unfortunate speaker hears the Abbaye alluded

to, and evidently thinks himself fortunate to escape sleeping there

that night.--After this, it is certain that he will not again demand the

privilege of speaking, and that his colleagues will remain quiet; and

all this is the more likely

* because the revolutionary tribunal holds permanent sessions under

their eyes,

* because the guillotine is set up and in operation on the "Place de la

Révolution;"

* because a recent act of the Commune enjoins on the police "the most

active surveillance" and "constant patrols" by the armed force;

* because, from the first to the fourth of August, the barriers are

closed;

* because, on the 2nd of August, a raid into three of the theaters puts

five hundred young men in the lock-up,[1127]

so the discontented soon discover, if there are any, that this is not

the time or the place to protest.

As to the others, already Jacobin, the faction takes it upon itself to

render them still more so.--Lost in the immensity of Paris, all these

provincials require moral as well as physical guides; it agrees to

exercise toward them "hospitality in all its plenitude, the sweetest

of Republican virtues."[1128] Hence, ninety-six sans-culottes, selected

from among the sections, wait on them at the Mayoralty to serve as their

correspondents, and perhaps as their guarantees, and certainly as pilots

* to give them lodging-tickets,

* to escort and install them,

* to indoctrinate them, as formerly with the federates of July, 1792,

* to prevent their getting into bad company,

* to introduce them into all the exciting meetings,

* to see that their ardent patriotism quickly rises to the proper

temperature of Parisian Jacobinism.[1129]

The theaters must not offend their eyes or ears with pieces "opposed

to the spirit of the Revolution."[1130] An order is issued for the

performance three times a week of "republican tragedies, such as

'Brutus', 'William Tell', 'Caius Gracchus,' and other dramas suitable

for the maintenance of the principles of equality and liberty." Once a

week the theaters must be free, when Chéniér's alexandrines are spouted

on the stage to the edification of the delegates, crowded into the boxes

at the expense of the State. The following morning, led in groups into

the tribunes of the Convention,[1131] they there find the same, classic,

simple, declamatory, sanguinary tragedy, except that the latter is not

feigned but real, and the tirades are in prose instead of in verse.

Surrounded by paid yappers like victims for the ancient Romans

celebrations of purifications, our provincials applaud, cheer and get

excited, the same as on the night before at the signal given by the

claqueurs and the regulars. Another day, the procureur-syndic Lhullier

summons them to attend the "Evéché," to "fraternize with the authorities

of the Paris department;"[1132] the "Fraternité" section invites them

to its daily meetings; the Jacobin club lends them its vast hall in

the morning and admits them to its sessions in the evening.--Thus

monopolized and kept, as in a diving bell, they breathe in Paris nothing

but a Jacobin atmosphere; from one Jacobin den to another, as they are

led about in this heated atmosphere, their pulse beats more rapidly.

Many of them, who, on their arrival, were "plain, quiet people,"[1133]

but out of their element, subjected to contagion without any antidote,

quickly catch the revolutionary fever. The same as at an American

revival, under the constant pressure of preaching and singing, of shouts

and nervous spasms, the lukewarm and even the indifferent have not long

to wait before the delirium puts them in harmony with the converted.

V. Fête of August 10th

They make their profession of Jacobin faith.--Their part in

the Fête of August 10th.--Their enthusiasm.

On the 7th of August things come to a head.--Led by the department

and the municipality, a number of delegates march to the bar of the

Convention, and make a confession of Jacobin faith. "Soon," they

exclaim, "will search be made on the banks of the Seine for the foul

marsh intended to engulf us. Were the royalist and intriguers to die

of spite, we will live and die 'Montagnards.'"[1134] Applause and

embraces.--From thence they betake themselves to the Jacobin Club, where

one of them proposes an address prepared beforehand: the object of this

is to justify the 31st of May, and the 2nd of June, "to open the eyes"

of provincial France, to declare "war against the federalists."[1135]

"Down with the infamous libelers who have calumniated Paris!.... We

cherish but one sentiment, our souls are all melted into one... We form

here but one vast, terrible mountain, about to vomit forth its fires

on the royalists and supporters of tyranny." Applause and

cheers.--Robespierre declares that they are there to save the

country.[1136] On the following day, August 8th, this address is

presented to the Convention and Robespierre has a resolution adopted,

ordering it to be sent to the armies, to foreign powers and all the

Communes. More applause, more embraces, and more cheers.--On the 9th

of August,[1137] by order of the Convention, the delegates meet in

the Tuileries garden, where, divided into as many groups as there are

departments, they study the program drawn up by David, in order to

familiarize themselves with the parts they are to play in the festival

of the following day.

What an odd festival and how well it expresses the spirit of the time!

It is a sort of opera played in the streets by the public authorities,

with triumphant chariots, altars, censers, an Ark of the Covenant,

funeral urns, classic banners and other trappings! Its divinities

consist of plaster statues representing Nature, Liberty, the People, and

Hercules, all of which are personified abstractions, like those painted

on the ceiling of a theater. In all this there is no spontaneity nor

sincerity; the actors, whose consciences tell them that they are only

actors, render homage to symbols which they know to be nothing but

symbols, while the mechanical procession,[1138] the invocations, the

apostrophes, the postures, the gestures are regulated beforehand, the

same as by a ballet-manager. To any truth-loving person all this must

seem like a charade performed by puppets.--But the festival is colossal,

well calculated to stimulate the imagination and excite pride through

physical excitement.[1139] On this grandiose stage the delegates become

quite intoxicated with their part; for, evidently, theirs is the leading

part; they represent twenty-six millions of Frenchmen, and the sole

object of this ceremony is to glorify the national will of which they

are the bearers.--On the Place de la Bastille[1140] where the gigantic

effigy of nature pours forth from its two breasts "the regenerating

water," Hérault, the president, after offering libations and saluting

the new goddess, passes the cup to the eighty-seven elders (les doyens)

of the eighty-seven departments, each "summoned by sound of drum and

trumpet" to step forward and drink in his turn, while cannon belch forth

their thunders as if for a monarch. After the eighty-seven have passed

the cup around, the artillery roars. The procession them moves on, and

the delegates again are assigned the place of honor. The elders, holding

an olive-branch in one hand, and a pike in the other, with a streamer on

the end of it bearing the name of their department, "bound to each other

by a small three-color ribbon," surround the Convention as if to

convey the idea that the nation maintains and conducts its legal

representative. Behind them march the rest of the eight thousand

delegates, likewise holding olive-branches and forming a second distinct

body, the largest of all, and on which all eyes are centered. For, in

their wake, "their is no longer any distinction between persons and

functionaries," all being confounded together, marching pell-mell,

executive council, city officials, judges scattered about haphazard and,

by virtue of equality, lost in the crowd. At each station, thanks to

their insignia, the delegates form the most conspicuous element. On

reaching the last one, that of the Champ de Mars, they alone with the

Convention, ascend the steps leading to the alter of the country; on the

highest platform stands the eldest of all alongside the president of

the Convention, also standing; thus graded above each other, the seven

thousand, who envelope the seven hundred and fifty, form "the veritable

Sacred Mountain." Now, the president, on the highest platform, turns

toward the eighty-seven elders; he confides to the Ark containing the

Constitutional Act and the list of those who voted for it; they, on

their part, then advance and hand him their pikes, which he

gathers together into one bundle as an emblem of national unity and

indivisibility. At this, shouts arise from every point of the immense

enclosure; salvoes of artillery follow again and again; "one would say

that heaven and earth answered each other" in honor "of the greatest

epoch of humanity."--Certainly, the delegates are beside themselves;

their nerves, strained to the utmost, vibrates too powerfully; the

millennium discloses itself before their eyes. Already, many among them

on the Place de la Bastille, had addressed the universe; others, "seized

with a prophetic spirit," promise eternity to the Constitution. They

feel themselves "reborn again, along with the human species;" they

regard themselves as beings of a new world. History is consummated in

them; the future is in their hands; they believe themselves gods

on earth.--In this critical state, their reason, like a pair of

ill-balanced scales, yields to the slightest touch; under the pressure

of the manufacturers of enthusiasm, a sudden reaction will carry them

away. They consider the Constitution as a panacea, and they are going to

consign it, like some dangerous drug, to this coffer which they call an

ark. They have just proclaimed the liberty of the people, and are going

to perpetuate the dictatorship of the Convention.

VI. The Mountain.

Maneuvers of the "Mountain."--The Jacobin Club on the eve of

August 11th.--Session of the Convention on the 11th of

August.--The Delegates initiate Terror.--Popular

consecration of the Jacobin dictatorship.

This volteface has, of course, to appear spontaneous and the hand of the

titular rulers remain invisible: the Convention, as usual with usurpers,

is to simulate reserve and disinterestedness.--Consequently, the

following morning, August 11, on the opening of the session, it simply

declares that "its mission is fulfilled:"[1141] on the motion of

Lacroix, a confederate of Danton's, it passes a law that a new census

of the population and of electors shall be made with as little delay

as possible, in order to convoke the primary assemblies at once; it

welcomes with joy the delegates who bring to it the Constitutional Ark;

the entire Assembly rises in the presence of this sacred receptacle,

and allows the delegates to exhort it and instruct it concerning its

duties.[1142] But in the evening, at the Jacobin Club, Robespierre,

after a long and vague discourse on public dangers, conspiracies, and

traitors, suddenly utters the decisive words:

"The most important of my reflections was about to escape me[1143]...

The proposition made this morning will only facilitate the replacement

of the purified members of this Convention by the envoys of Pitt and

Cobourg."

Dreadful words in the mouth of a man of principles! They are at once

understood by the leaders, great and small, also by the selected fifteen

hundred Jacobins then filling the hall. "No! no! shouts the entire

club." The delegates are carried away:

"I demand," exclaims one of them, "that the dissolution of the

Convention be postponed until the end of the war."--

At last, the precious motion, so long desired and anticipated, is made:

the calumnies of the Girondins now fall the ground; it is demonstrated

that the Convention does not desire to perpetuate itself and that it has

no ambition; if it remains in power it is because it is kept there; the

delegates of the people compel it to stay.

And better still, they are going to mark out its course of action.--The

next day, the 12th of August, with the zeal of new converts, they spread

themselves through the hall in such numbers that Assembly, no longer

able to carry on is deliberations, crowds toward the left and yields

the whole of the space on the right that they may occupy and "purify"

it.[1144] All the combustible material in their minds, accumulated

during the past fortnight, takes fire and explodes; they are more

furious than the most ultra Jacobins; they repeat at the bar of the

house the extravagances of Rose Lacombe, and of the lowest clubs; they

even transcend the program drawn up by the "Mountain." "The time for

deliberation is past," exclaims their spokesman, "we must act[1145]...

Let the people rouse themselves in a mass... it alone can annihilate its

enemies... We demand that all 'suspects' be put under arrest; that

they be dispatched to the frontiers, followed by the terrible mass of

sans-culottes. There, in the front ranks, they will be obliged to fight

for that liberty which they have outraged for the past four years, or

be immolated on the tyrants' cannon.... Women, children, old men and

the infirm shall be kept as hostages by the women and children of

sans-culottes." Danton seizes the opportunity. With his usual lucidity

he finds the expression which describes the situation:

"The deputies of the primary assemblies," he says, "have just begun to

practice among us the initiative of terror."

He moreover reduces the absurd notions of the fanatics to a practical

measure: "A mobilization en masse, yes, but with order" by at once

calling out the first class of conscript, all men from eighteen to

twenty-five years of age; the arrest of all 'suspects', yes, but not to

lead them against the enemy; "they would be more dangerous than useful

in our armies; let us shut them up; they will be our hostages."--He also

proposes employment for the delegates who are only in the way in Paris

and might be useful in the provinces. Let us make of them "various kinds

of representatives charged with animating citizens... Let them, along

with all good citizens and the constituted authorities, take charge of

the inventories of grain and arms, and make requisitions for men, and

let the Committee of Public Safety direct this sublime movement....

All will swear that, on returning to their homes, they will give this

impulse their fellow citizens." Universal applause; the delegates

exclaim in one voice, "We swear!" Everybody springs to his feet; the men

in the tribunes wave their hats and likewise should the same oath.--The

scheme is successful; a semblance of popular will has authorized the

staff of officials, the policy, the principles and the very name of

Terror. As to the instruments for the operation they are all there ready

to be back into action. The delegates, of whose demands and interference

the "Mountain" is still in dread, are sent back to their departmental

holes, where they shall serve as agents and missionaries.[1146] There is

no further mention of putting the Constitution into operation; this

was simply a bait, a decoy, contrived for fishing in turbid waters: the

fishing ended, the Constitution is now placed in a conspicuous place

in the hall, in a small monument for which David furnished the

design.[1147]--The Convention, now, says Danton, "will rise to a sense

of its dignity, for it is now invested with the full power of the

nation." In other words, artifice completes what violence has begun.

Through the outrages committed in May and June, the Convention had lost

its legitimacy; through the maneuvers of July and August it recovered

the semblance of it. The Montagnards still hold their slave by his lash,

but they have restored his prestige so as to make the most of him to

their own profit.

VII. Extent and Manifesto of the departmental insurrection

Effect of this maneuver.--Extent and Manifesto of the

departmental insurrection.--Its fundamental weakness.--The

mass of the population inert and distrustful.--The small

number of Girondists.--Their lukewarm adherents.--Scruples

of fugitive deputies and insurgent administrators.--They

form no central government.--They leave military authority

in the hands of the Convention.--Fatal progress of their

concessions.--Withdrawal of the departments one by one.

--Retraction of the compromised authorities.--Effect of

administrative habits.--Failings and illusions of the

Moderates.--Opposite character of the Jacobins.

With the same blow, and amongst the same playacting, they have nearly

disarmed their adversaries.--On learning the events of May 31 and June

2, a loud cry of indignation arose among republicans of the cultivated

class in this generation, who, educated by the philosophers,

sincerely believed in the rights of man.[1148] Sixty-nine department

administrations had protested,[1149] and, in almost all the towns of the

west, the south, the east and the center of France, at Caen, Alençon,

Evreux, Rennes, Brest, Lorient, Nantes and Limoges, at Bordeaux,

Toulouse, Montpellier, Nîmes and Marseilles, at Grenoble, Lyons,

Clermont, Lons-le-Saunier, Besançon, Mâcon and Dijon,[1150] the

citizens, assembled in their sections, had provoked, or maintained by

cheering them on, the acts of their administrators. Rulers and citizens,

all declared that, the Convention not being free, its decrees after

the 31st of May, no longer had the force of law; that the troops of

the departments should march on Paris to deliver that city from its

oppressors, and that their substitutes should be called out and assemble

at Bourges. In many places words were converted into acts. Already

before the end of May, Marseilles and Lyons had taken up arms and

checkmated their local Jacobins. After the 2nd of June, Normandy,

Brittany, Gard, Jura, Toulouse and Bordeaux, had also raised troops. At

Marseilles, Bordeaux and Caen representatives on mission, arrested or

under guard, were retained as hostages.[1151] At Nantes, the national

Guard and popular magistrates who, a week before, had so bravely

repulsed the great Vendéan army, dared to more than this; they limited

the powers of the Convention and condemned all meddling: according to

them, the sending of representatives on mission was "an usurpation, an

attack on national sovereignty;" representatives had been elected

"to make and not to execute laws, to prepare a constitution and regulate

all public powers, and not to confound these together and exercise

them all at once; to protect and maintain intermediary powers which

the people have delegated, and not to encroach upon and annihilate

them."[1152]

With still greater boldness, Montpellier enjoined all representatives

everywhere to meet at the headquarters of their respective departments,

and await the verdict of a national jury. In short, in accordance with

the very democratic creed, "nothing was visible amid the ruins of the

Convention," mutilated and degraded, but interloping "attorneys." "The

people's workmen" are summoned "to return to obedience and do justice to

the reproaches addressed to them by their legitimate master;"[1153]

the nation canceled the pay of its clerks at the capital, withdrew the

mandate they had misused, and declared them usurpers if they persisted

in not yielding up their borrowed sovereignty "to its inalienable

sovereignty."--To this stroke, which strikes deep, the "Mountain"

replies by a similar stroke; it also renders homage to principles and

falls back on the popular will. Through the sudden manufacture of an

ultra-democratic constitution, through a convocation of the primary

assemblies, and a ratification of its work by the people in these

assemblies, through the summoning of delegates to Paris, through the

assent of these converted, fascinated, or constrained delegates, it

exonerates and justifies itself, and thus deprives the Girondins of

the grievances to which they had given currency, of the axioms they had

displayed on their standards, and of the popularity they thought they

had acquired.[1154]--Henceforth, the ground their opponents had built on

sinks under their feet; the materials collected by them disintegrate

in their hands; their league dissolves before it is completed, and the

incurable weakness of the party appears in full daylight.

Firstly, in the departments, as at Paris,[1155] the party has no roots.

For the past three years all the sensible and orderly people, occupied

with their own affairs, who has no taste or interest in politics,

nine-tenths of the electors, abstain from voting and in this large mass

the Girondins have no adherents. As they themselves admit,[1156] this

class remains attached to the institutions of 1791, which they have

overthrown; if it has any esteem for them, it is as "extremely honest

madmen." Again, this esteem is mingled with aversion: it reproaches

them with the violent decrees they have passed in concert with the

"Mountain;" with persecutions, confiscations, every species of injustice

and cruelty; it always sees the King's blood on their hands; they,

too, are regicides, anti-Catholics, anti-Christians, demolishers and

levelers.[1157]--Undoubtedly they are less so than the "Mountain;"

hence, when the provincial insurrection breaks out, many Feuillants and

even Royalists follow them to the section assemblies and join in their

protests. But the majority goes no further, and soon falls back into

is accustomed inertia. It is not in harmony with its leaders:[1158]

its latent preferences are opposed to their avowed program; it does not

wholly trust them; it has only a half-way affection for them; its recent

sympathies are deadened by old animosities: everywhere, instead of

firmness there is only caprice. All this affords no assurance of

steadfast loyalty and practical adhesion. The Girondin deputies

scattered through the provinces relied upon each department arousing

itself at their summons and forming a republican Vendée against the

"Mountain:" nowhere do they find anything beyond mild approval and

speculative hopes.

There remains to support them the élite of the republican party, the

scholars and lovers of literature, who are honest and sincere thinkers,

who, worked upon by the current dogmas, have accepted the philosophical

catechism literally and seriously. Elected judges, or department,

district, and city administrators, commanders and officers of the

National Guard, presidents and secretaries of sections, they occupy

most of the places conferred by local authority, and hence their almost

unanimous protest seems at first to be the voice of France. In reality,

it is only the despairing cry of a group of staff-officers without an

army. Chosen under the electoral pressure with which we are familiar,

they possess rank, office and titles, but no credit or influence; they

are supported only by those whom they really represent, that is to

say, those who elected them, a tenth of the population, and forming a

sectarian minority. Again, in this minority there are a good many who

are lukewarm; with most men the distance is great between conviction and

action; the interval is filled up with acquired habits, indolence, fear

and egoism. One's belief in the abstractions of the "Contrat-social" is

of little account; no one readily bestirs oneself for an abstract end.

Uncertainties beset one at the outset; the road one has to follow is

found to be perilous and obscure, and one hesitates and postpones; one

feels himself a home-body and is afraid of engaging too deeply and of

going too far. Having expended one's breath in words one is less willing

to give one's money; another may open his purse but he may not be

disposed to give himself, which is as true of the Girondins as it is of

the Feuillants.

"At Marseilles,[1159] at Bordeaux," says a deputy, "in nearly all the

principal towns, the proprietor, slow, indifferent and timid, could not

make up his mind to leave home for a moment; it was to mercenaries that

he entrusted his cause his arms."

Only the federates of Mayenne, Ile-et-Vilaine, and especially of

Finisterre, were "young men well brought up and well informed about the

cause they were going to support." In Normandy, the Central Committee,

unable to do better, has to recruit its soldiers, and especially

gunners, from the band of Carabots, former Jacobins, a lot of ruffians

ready for anything, pillagers and runaways at the first canon-shot.

At Caen, Wimpffen, having ordered the eight battalions of the National

Guard to assemble in the court, demands volunteers and finds that only

seventeen step forth; on the following day a formal requisition brings

out only one hundred and thirty combatants; other towns, except Vire,

which furnishes about twenty, refuse their contingent. In short, a

marching army cannot be formed, or, if it does march, it halts at

the first station, that of Evreux before reaching Vernon, and that of

Marseilles at the walls of Avignon.

On the other hand, by virtue of being sincere and logical, those who

have rebelled entertain scruples and themselves define the limits of

their insurrection. The fugitive deputies at their head would believe

themselves guilty of usurpation had they, like the "Mountain" at Paris,

constituted themselves at Caen en sovereign assembly[1160]: according

to them, their right and their duty is reduced to giving testimony

concerning the 31st of May and the 1st of June, and to exhorting the

people and to being eloquent. They are not legally qualified to take

executive power; it is for the local magistrates, the élus(elected) of

the sections, and better still, the department committees to command

in the departments. Lodged as they are in official quarters, they

are merely to print formal statements, write letters, and, behaving

properly, wait until the sovereign people, their employer, reinstates

them. It has been outraged in their persons; it must avenge itself

for this outrage; since it approves of its mandatories, it is bound to

restore them to office; it being the master of the house, it is bound to

have its own way in the house.--As to the department committees, it is

true that, in the heat of the first excitement, they thought of forming

a new Convention at Bourges,[1161] either through a muster of substitute

deputies, or through the convocation of a national commission of one

hundred and seventy members. But time is wanting, also the means, to

carry out the plan; it remains suspended in the air like vain menace; at

the end of a fortnight it vanishes in smoke; the departments succeed in

federating only in scattered groups; they desist from the formation of

a central government, and thus, through this fact alone, condemn

themselves to succumb, one after the other, in detail, and each at

home.--What is worse, through conscientiousness and patriotism, they

prepare their own defeat: the refrain from calling upon the armies

and from stripping the frontiers; they do not contest the right of the

Convention to provide as it pleases for the national defense.

Lyons allows the passage of convoys of cannon-balls which are to be

subsequently used in cannonading its defenders[1162]. The authorities

of Puy-de-Dome aid by sending to Vendée the battalion that they

had organized against the "Mountain." Bordeaux is to surrender

Chateau-Trompette, its munitions of war and supplies, to the

representatives on mission; and, without a word, with exemplary

docility, both the Bordeaux battalions which guard Blaye suffer

themselves to be dislodged by two Jacobin battalions.[1163]

Comprehending the insurrection in this way, defeat is certain

beforehand.

The insurgents are thus conscious of their false position; they have a

vague sort of feeling that, in recognizing the military authority of the

Convention, they admit its authority in full; insensibly they glide down

this slope, from concession to concession, until they reach complete

submission. From the 16th of June, at Lyons,[1164] "people begin to

feel that it ought not break with the Convention." Five weeks later, the

authorities of Lyons "solemnly recognize that the Convention is the

sole central rallying point of all French citizens and republicans," and

decree that "all acts emanating from it concerning the general interests

of the republic are to be executed."[1165] Consequently, at Lyons and in

other departments, the administrations convoke the primary assemblies

as the Convention has prescribed; consequently, the primary assemblies

accept the Constitution which it has proposed; consequently, the

delegates of the primary assemblies betake themselves to Paris according

to its orders.--Henceforth, the Girondins' cause is lost; the discharge

of a few cannon at Vernon and Avignon disperse the only two columns

of soldiery that have set out on their march. In each department, the

Jacobins, encouraged by the representatives on mission, raise their

heads; everywhere the local club enjoins the local government to

submit,[1166] everywhere the local governments report the acts

they pass, make excuses and ask forgiveness. Proportionately to the

retraction of one department, the rest, feeling themselves abandoned,

are more disposed to retract. On the 9th of July forty-nine departments

are enumerated as having given in their adhesion. Several of them

declare that the scales have dropped from their eyes, that they approve

of the acts of May 31 and June 2, and thus ensure their safety by

manifesting their zeal. The administration of Calvados notifies the

Breton fédérés that "having accepted the Constitution it can no longer

tolerate their presence in Caen;" it sends them home, and secretly makes

peace with the "Mountain;" and only informs the deputies, who are its

guests, of this proceeding, three days afterwards, by postings on their

door the decree that declares them outlaws.

Disguised as soldiers, the latter depart along with the Breton fédérés;

on the way, they are able to ascertain the veritable sentiments of this

people whom they believe imbued with their rights and capable of taking

a political initiative.[1167] The pretended citizens and republicans

they have to do with are, in sum, the former subjects of Louis XVI. and

the future subjects of Napoleon I., that is to say, administrators and

people, disciplined by habit and instinctively subordinate, requiring a

government just as sheep require a shepherd and a watch-dog, accepting

or submitting to shepherd and dog, provided these look and act the

part, even if the shepherd be a butcher and the dog a wolf. To avoid

isolation, to rejoin the most numerous herd as soon as possible, to

always form masses and bodies and thus follow the impulsion which comes

from above, and gather together scattered individuals, such is the

instinct of the flock.

In the battalion of federates, they begin by saying that, as the

Constitution is now accepted and the convention recognized, it is no

longer allowed to protect deputies whom it has declared outlaws: "that

would be creating a faction." Thereupon, the deputies withdraw from the

battalion, and, in a little squad by themselves, march along separately.

As they are nineteen in number, resolute and well armed, the authorities

of the market-towns through which they pass make no opposition by force;

it would be offering battle, and that surpasses a functionary's

zeal; moreover, the population is either indifferent toward them or

sympathetic. Nevertheless, efforts are made to stop them, sometimes to

surround them and take them by surprise; for, a warrant of arrest is out

against them, transmitted through the hierarchical channel, and every

local magistrate feels bound to do his duty as gendarme. Under this

administrative network, the meshes of which they encounter everywhere,

the proscribed deputies can do naught else but hide in caves or escape

by sea.--On reaching Bordeaux, they find other sheep getting ready

for the slaughter-house. Saige, the mayor, preaches conciliation and

patience: he declines the aid of four or five thousand young men, three

thousand grenadiers of the National Guard, and two or three hundred

volunteers who had formed themselves into a club against the Jacobin

club. He persuades them to disband; he sends a deputation to Paris to

entreat the Convention to overlook "a moment of error" and pardon their

"brethren who had gone astray."--"They flattered themselves," says a

deputy, an eye-witness,[1168] "that prompt submission would appease

the resentment of tyrants and that these would be, or pretend to be,

generous enough to spare a town that had distinguished itself more than

any other during the Revolution." Up to the last, they are to entertain

the same illusions and manifest the same docility. When Tallien, with

his eighteen hundred peasants and brigands, enters Bordeaux, twelve

thousand National Guards, equipped, armed and in uniform, receive him

wearing oak-leaf crowns; they listen in silence to "his astounding

and outrageous discourse;" they suffer him to tear off their crowns,

cockades and epaulettes; the battalions allow themselves to be disbanded

on the spot; on returning to their quarters they listen with downcast

eyes to the proclamation which "orders all inhabitants without

distinction to bring their arms within thirty-six hours, under the

penalty of death, to the glacis of the Chateau-Trompette; before

the time elapses thirty thousand guns, swords, pistols and even

pocket-knives are given up."

Here, as at Paris, on the 20th of June, 10th of August, 2nd of

September, 3rd of May and 2nd of June, as at every critical moment of

the Revolution in Paris and the provinces, habits of subordination

and of amiability, stamped on a people by a provident monarchy and a

time-honored civilization, have blunted in man the foresight of danger,

his aggressive instinct, his independence and the faculty of depending

upon himself only, the willingness to help one another and of saving

himself. Inevitably, when anarchy brings a nation back to the state of

nature, the tame animals will be eaten by the savage ones,--these are

now let loose and immediately they show their true nature.

VIII. The Reasons for the Terror.

The last local resistance.--Political orthodoxy of the

insurgent towns.--They stipulate but one condition.--Reasons

of State for granting this.--Party arguments against it.

If the men of the "Mountain" had been statesmen, or even sensible

men, they would have shown themselves humane, if not for the sake of

humanity, at least through calculation; for in this France, so little

republican, all the republican strength is not too great for the

founding of the Republic, while, through their principles, their

culture, their social position and their number, the Girondins form the

élite and the force, the flower and the sap of the party.--The death-cry

of the "Mountain" against the insurgents of Lozére[1169] and Vendée

can be understood: they had raised the king's white flag; they accepted

leaders and instructions from Coblentz and London. But neither Bordeaux,

Marseilles nor Lyons are royalist, or in alliance with the foreigner.

"We, rebels!" write the Lyonnese;[1170] "Why we see no other than the

tri-color flag waving; the white cockade, the symbol of rebellion, has

never been raised within our walls. We, royalists! Why, shouts of 'Long

live the Republic' are heard on all sides, and, spontaneously (in the

session of July 2nd) we have all sworn to fall upon whoever should

propose a king.... Your representatives tell you that we are

anti-revolutionaries, we who have accepted the Constitution. They tell

you that we protect émigrés when we have offered to surrender all those

that you might indicate. They tell you that our streets are filled

with refractory priests, when we have not even opened the doors of

Pierre-en-Cize (prison) to the thirty-two priests confined there by

the old municipality, without indictment, without any charge whatever

against them, solely because they were priests."

Thus, at Lyons, the pretended aristocrats were, then, not only

republicans but democrats and radicals, loyal to the established régime,

and submissive to the worst of the revolutionary laws, while the

same state of things prevailed at Bordeaux, at Marseilles and even at

Toulon.[1171] And furthermore, they accepted the outrages of May 31 and

June 2;[1172] they stopped contesting the usurpations of Paris; they no

longer insisted on the return of the excluded deputies. On the 2nd

of August at Bordeaux, and the 30th of July at Lyons, the

Committee-Extraordinary of Public Safety resigned; there no longer

existed any rival assembly opposed to the Convention. After the 24th of

July,[1173] Lyons solemnly recognized the supreme and central authority,

reserving nothing but its municipal franchises.--And better still, in

striking testimony of political orthodoxy, the Council-General of the

department prescribed a civic festival for the 10th of August analogous

to that of Paris. The Lyonnese, already blockaded, indulged in no

hostile manifestation; on the 7th of August they marched out of their

advanced positions to fraternize with the first body of troops sent

against them.[1174] They conceded everything, save on one point, which

they could not yield without destruction, namely, the assurance that

they should not be given up defenseless to the arbitrary judgment of

their local tyrants, to the spoliation, proscriptions and revenge of the

Jacobin rabble. In sum, at Marseilles and Bordeaux, especially at Lyons

and Toulon, the sections had revolted only on that account; acting

promptly and spontaneously, the people had thrust aside the knife which

a few ruffians aimed at their throats; they had not been, and were

not now, willing to be "Septemberised," that was their sole concern.

Provided they were not handed over to the butchers bound hand and foot,

they would open their gates. On these minimum terms the "Mountain" could

terminate the civil war before the end of July. It had only to follow

the example of Robert Lindet who, at Evreux the home of Buzot, at

Caen the home of Charlotte Corday and the central seat of the fugitive

Girondins, established permanent obedience through the moderation he had

shown and the promises he had kept.[1175] The measures that had pacified

the most compromised province would have brought back the others, and

through this policy, Paris, without striking a blow, would have secured

the three largest cities in France, the capital of the South-west, that

of the South, and the capital of the Center.

On the contrary, should Paris persist in imposing on them the domination

of its local Jacobins there was a risk of their being thrown into the

arms of the enemy. Rather than fall back into the hands of the bandits

who had ransomed and decimated them, Toulon, starved out, was about to

receive the English within its walls and surrender to them the great

arsenal of the South. Not less famished, Bordeaux might be tempted to

demand aid from another English fleet; a few marches would brings the

Piedmontese army to Lyons; France would then b cut in two, while the

plan of stirring up the South against the North was proposed to the

allies by the most clear-sighted of their councilors.[1176] Had this

plan been carried out it is probably that the country would have been

lost.--In any event, there was danger in driving the insurgents to

despair: for, between the unbridled dictatorship of their victorious

assassins and the musketry of the besieging army, there could be no

hesitation by men of any feeling; it was better to be beaten on the

ramparts than allow themselves to be bound for the guillotine; brought

to a stand under the scaffold, their sole resource was to depend

on themselves to the last.--Thus, through its unreasonableness, the

"Mountain" condemns itself to a number of sieges or blockades which

lasted several months,[1177] to leaving Var and Savoy unprotected, to

exhausting the arsenals, to employing against Frenchmen[1178] troops

and munitions needed against foreigners, and all this at the moment

the foreigner was taking Valenciennes[1179] and Mayence, when thirty

thousand royalist were organizing in Lozére, when the great Vendean

army was laying siege to Nantes, when each new outbreak of fighting was

threatening to connect the flaming frontier with the conflagration in

the Catholic countries.[1180]--With a jet of cold water aptly directed,

the "Mountain" could extinguish the fires it had kindled in the great

republican towns; otherwise, nothing remained but to let them increase

at the risk of consuming the whole country, with no other hope than

that they might at last die out under a mass of ruins, and with no other

object but to rule over captives and the dead.

But this is precisely the Jacobin aim; for, he is not satisfied with

less than absolute submission; he must rule at any cost, just as he

pleases, by fair means or foul, no matter over what ruins. A despot by

instinct and installation, his dogma has consecrated him King; he is

King by natural and divine right, in the name of eternal verity, the

same as Philip II., enthroned by his religious system and blessed by

his Holy Office. Hence he can abandon no jot or title of his authority

without a sacrifice of principle, nor treat with rebels, unless they

surrender at discretion; simply for having risen against legitimate

authority, they are traitors and villains. And who are greater rascals

the renegades who, after three years of patient effort, just as the sect

finally reaches its goal, oppose its accession to power![1181] At Nîmes,

Toulouse, Bordeaux, Toulon, and Lyons, not only have they interfered

with or arrested the blow which Paris struck, but they have put down the

aggressors, closed the club, disarmed the fanatical and imprisoned the

leading Maratists; and worse still, at Lyons and at Toulon, five or

six massacreurs, or promoters of massacre, Châlier and Riard, Jassaud,

Sylvestre and Lemaille, brought before the courts, have been condemned

and executed after a trial in which all the forms were strictly adhered

to.--That is the inexpiable crime; for, in this trial, the "Mountain"

is involved; the principles of Sylvestre and Châlier are its principles;

what is accomplished in Paris, they have attempted in the provinces; if

they are guilty, it is also guilty; it cannot tolerate their punishment

without assenting to its own punishment. Accordingly,

* it must proclaim them heroes and martyrs,

* it must canonize their memory,[1182]

* it must avenge their tortures,

* it must resume and complete their assaults,

* it must restore their accomplices to their places,

* it must render them omnipotent,

* it must force each rebel city to accept the rule of its rabble and

villains.

It matters little whether the Jacobins be a minority, whether at

Bordeaux, they have but four out of twenty-eight sections on their side,

at Marseilles five out of thirty-two, whether at Lyons they can count

up only fifteen hundred devoted adherents.[1183] Suffrages are not

reckoned, but weighed, for legality is founded, not on numbers, but on

patriotism, the sovereign people being composed wholly of sans-culottes.

So much the worse for towns where the anti-revolutionary majority is so

great; they are only more dangerous; under the republican demonstrations

is concealed the hostility of old parties and of the "suspect" classes,

the Moderates, the Feuillants and Royalists, merchants, men of the legal

profession, property-owners and muscadins.[1184] These towns are nests

of reptiles and must be crushed out.

IX. Destruction of Rebel Cities

Bordeaux.--Marseilles.--Lyons.---Toulon.

Consequently, obedient or disobedient, they are crushed out. They

are declared traitors to the country, not merely the members of the

departmental committees, but, at Bordeaux, all who have "aided or

abetted the Committee of Public Safety;" at Lyons, all administrators,

functionaries, military or civil officers who "convoked or tolerated the

Rhône-et-Loire congress," and furthermore, "every individual whose son,

clerk, servant, or even day-laborer, may have borne arms or contributed

the means of resistance," that is to say, the entire National Guard

who took up arms, and nearly all the population which gave its money

or voted in the sections.[1185]--By virtue of this decree, all are

"outlaws," or, in other words subject to the guillotine just on the

establishment of their identity, and their property confiscated.

Consequently, at Bordeaux, where not a gun had been fired, the mayor

Saige, and principal author of the submission, is at once led to the

scaffold without any form of trial,[1186] while eight hundred and

eighty-one others succeed him amidst the solemn silence of a dismayed

population.[1187] Two hundred prominent merchants are arrested in one

night; more than fifteen hundred persons are imprisoned; all who are

well off are ransomed, even those against who no political charge could

be made; nine millions of fines are levied against "rich egoists." One

of these,[1188] accused of "indifference and moderatism," pays twenty

thousand francs "not to be harnessed to the car of the Revolution;"

another "convicted of having shown contempt for his section and for the

poor by giving thirty livres per months," is taxed at one million two

hundred thousand livres, while the new authorities, a crooked mayor and

twelve knaves composing the Revolutionary Committee, traffic in lives

and property.[1189] At Marseilles, says Danton,[1190] the object is

"to give the commercial aristocracy an important lesson;" we must

"show ourselves as terrible to traders as to nobles and priests;"

consequently, twelve thousand of them are proscribed and their

possessions sold.[1191] From the first day the guillotine works as

fast as possible; nevertheless, it does not work fast enough for

Representative Fréron who finds the means for making it work faster.

"The military commission we have established in place of the

revolutionary tribunal," he writes, "works frightfully fast against

the conspirators.... They fall like hail under the sword of the law.

Fourteen have already paid for their infamous treachery with their

heads. To-morrow, sixteen more are to be guillotined, all chiefs of

the legion, notaries, sectionists, members of the popular tribunal;

to-morrow, also, three merchants will dance the carmagnole, and they are

the ones we are after."[1192]

Men and things, all must perish; he wishes to demolish the city and

proposes to fill up the harbor. Restrained with great difficulty, Fréron

contents himself with a destruction of "the haunts" of the aristocracy,

two churches, the concert-hall, the houses around it, and twenty-three

buildings in which the rebel sections had held their meetings.

At Lyons, to increase the booty, the representatives had taken pains

to encourage the manufacturers and merchants with vague promises; these

opened their shops and brought their valuable goods, books and papers

out of their hiding-places. No time is lost in seizing the plunder; "a

list of all property belonging to the rich and to anti-revolutionaries"

is drawn up, which is "confiscated for the benefit of the patriots of

the city;" in addition to this a tax of six millions is imposed,

payable in eight days, by those whom the confiscation may have still

spared;[1193] it is proclaimed, according to principle, that the surplus

of each individual belongs by right to the sans-culottes, and whatever

may have been retained beyond the strictly necessary, is a robbery by

the individual to the detriment of the nation.[1194] In conformity with

this rule there is a general rounding up, prolonged for ten months,

which places the fortunes of a city of one hundred and twenty thousand

souls in the hands of its scoundrels. Thirty-two revolutionary

committees "whose members are thick as thieves select thousands of

guards devoted to them."[1195] In confiscated dwellings and warehouses,

they affix seals without an inventory; they drive out women and children

"so that there shall be no witnesses;" they keep the keys; they enter

and steal when they please, or install themselves for a revel with

prostitutes.--Meanwhile, the guillotine is kept going, and people are

fired at and shot down with grape-shot. The revolutionary committee

officially avow one thousand six hundred and eighty-two acts of murder

committed in five months,[1196] while a confederate of Robespierre's

privately declare that there were six thousand.[1197]

Blacksmiths are condemned to death for having shod the Lyonnese cavalry,

firemen for having extinguished fires kindled by republican bombshells,

a widow for having paid a war-tax during the siege, market women

for "having shown disrespect to patriots." It is an organized

"Septembrisade" made legal and lasting; its authors are so well

aware of the fact as to use the word itself in their public

correspondence.[1198]--At Toulon it is worse, people are slaughtered in

heaps, almost haphazard. Notwithstanding that the inhabitants the

most compromised, to the number of four thousand, take refuge on board

English vessels, the whole city, say the representatives, is guilty.

Four hundred workmen in the navy-yard having marched out to meet Fréron,

he reminds them that they kept on working during the English occupation

of the town, and he has them put to death on the spot. An order is

issued to all "good citizens to assemble in the Champ de Mars on penalty

of death." They come there to the number of three thousand; Fréron, on

horseback, surrounded by cannon and troops, arrives with about a hundred

Maratists, the former accomplices of Lemaille, Sylvestre, and other

well-known assassins, who form a body of local auxiliaries and

counselors; he tells them to select out of the crowd at pleasure

according to their grudge, fancy, or caprice; all who are designated

are ranged along a wall and shot. The next morning, and on the following

days, the operation is renewed: Fréron writes on the 16th of Nivose

that "eight hundred Toulonese have already been shot." ... "A volley

of musketry," says he, in another letter, and after that, volley after

volley, until "the traitors are all gone." Then, for three months after

this, the guillotine dispatches eighteen hundred persons; eleven young

women have to mount the scaffold together, in honor of a republican

festival; an old woman of ninety-four is borne to it in an armchair. The

population, initially of twenty-eight thousand people, is reduced to six

or seven thousand only.

All this is not enough; the two cities that dared maintain a siege must

disappear from the French soil. The Convention decrees that "the city

of Lyons shall be destroyed: every house occupied by a rich man shall be

demolished; only the dwellings of the poor shall remain, with edifices

specially devoted to industry, and monuments consecrated to humanity and

public education."[1199] The same at Toulon: "the houses within the town

shall be demolished; only the buildings that are essential for army and

navy purposes, for stores and munitions, shall be preserved."[11100]

Consequently, a requisition is made in Var and the neighboring

departments for twelve thousand masons to level Toulon to the

ground.--At Lyons, fourteen thousand laborers pull down the Chateau

Pierre-Encize; also the superb houses on Place Bellecour, those of the

Quai St.-Clair, those of the Rues de Flandre and de Bourgneuf, and many

others; the cost of all this amounts to four hundred thousand livres

per decade; in six months the Republic expends fifteen millions in

destroying property valued at three or four hundred millions, all

belonging to the Republic.[11101] Since the Mongols of the fifth

and thirteenth centuries, no such vast and irrational waste had been

seen--such frenzy against the most profitable fruits of industry and

human civilization.--Again, one can understand how the Mongols, who

were nomads, desired to convert the soil into one vast steppe. But, to

demolish a town whose arsenal and harbor is maintained by it, to destroy

the leaders of manufacturing interests and their dwellings in a city

where its workmen and factories are preserved, to keep up a fountain and

stop the stream which flows from it, or the stream without the fountain,

is so absurd that the idea could only enter the head of a Jacobin. His

imagination has run so wild and his prevision become so limited that

he is no longer aware of contradictions; the ferocious stupidity of the

barbarian and the fixed idea of the inquisition meet on common ground;

the earth is not big enough for any but himself and the orthodox of his

species. Employing absurd, inflated and sinister terms he decrees the

extermination of heretics: not only shall their monuments, dwellings and

persons be destroyed, but every vestige of them shall be eradicated and

their names lost to the memory of man.[11102]

"The name of Toulon shall be abolished; that commune shall henceforth

bear the name of Port-la-Montagne."--"The name of Lyons shall be

stricken off the list of towns belonging to the Republic; the remaining

collection of houses shall henceforth bear the name of Ville-Affranchie.

A column shall be erected on the ruins of Lyons bearing this

inscription: 'Lyons made war on Liberty! Lyons is no more!'"

X. Destruction of the Girondin party

Destruction of the Girondin party.--Proscription of the

Deputies of the "Right".--Imprisonment of the 73.--Execution

of the 21.--Execution, suicide, or flight of the rest.

In all this there is no intention to spare in Paris the chiefs of the

insurrection or of the party, either deputies or ministers; on the

contrary, the object is to complete the subjection of the Convention,

to stifle the murmurs of the "Right," to impose silence on Ducos,

Boyer-Fonfrède, Vernier, and Couhey, who still speak and protest.[11103]

Hence the decrees of arrest or death, launched weekly from the top

of the "Mountain," fall on the majority like guns fired into a crowd.

Decrees of accusation follow: on the 15th of June, against Duchâtel, on

the 17th against Barbaroux, on the 23rd against Brissot, on the 8th of

July against Devérité and Condorcet, on the 14th against Lauze-Deperret

and Fauchet, on the 30th against Duprat Jr., Valée and Mainvielle,

on the 2nd of August against Rouyer, Brunel and Carra; Carra,

Lauze-Deperret and Fauchet, present during the session, are seized on

the spot, which is plain physical warning: none is more effective to

check the unruly.--Decrees are passed on the 18th of July accusing

Coustard, on the 28th of July against Gensonné, La Source, Vergniaud,

Mollevaut, Gardien, Grangeneuve, Fauchet, Boilleau, Valazé, Cussy,

Meillan; each being aware that the tribunal before which he must appear

is the waiting room to the guillotine.--Decrees of condemnation are

passed on the 12th of July against Birotteau, the 28 of July against

Buzot, Barbaroux, Gorsas, Lanjuniais, Salles, Louvet, Bergoeing,

Pétion, Guadet, Chasset, Chambon, Lidon, Valady, Defermon, Kervelégen,

Larivière, Rabaut-Saint-Étienne, and Lesage; pronounced outlaws and

traitors, they are to be led to the scaffold without trial as soon as

they can be got hold of.--Finally, on the 3rd of October, a great

haul of the net in the Assembly itself sweeps off the benches all the

deputies that still seem capable of any independence: the first thing is

to close the doors of the hall, which is done by Amar, reporter of the

Committee of General Security;[11104] then, after a declamatory and

calumnious speech, which lasts two hours, he reads off names on two

lists of proscriptions: forty-five deputies, more or less prominent

among the Girondins, are to be at once summoned before the revolutionary

tribunal; seventy-three others, who have signed secret protests against

the 31st of May and 2nd of June, are to be put in jail. No arguing!

the majority dares not even express an opinion. Some of the proscribed

attempt to exculpate themselves, but they are not allowed to be heard;

none but the Montagnards have the floor, and they do no more than add

to the lists, each according to personal enmity; Levasseur has Vigée put

down, and Duroi adds the name of Richon. One their names being called,

all the poor creatures who happen to be inscribed, quietly advance and

"huddle together within the bar of the house, like lambs destined to

slaughter," and here they are separated into two flocks; on the one hand

the seventy-three, and on the other, the ten or twelve who, with

the Girondins already kept under lock and key, are to furnish the

sacramental and popular number, the twenty-two traitors, whose

punishment is a requirement of the Jacobin imagination;[11105] on

the left, the batch for the prison; on the right, the batch for the

guillotine.

To those who might be tempted to imitate them or defend them this is

a sufficient lesson.--Subject to the boos, hisses and insults from the

hags lining the streets, the seventy-three[11106] are conducted to the

prisoners' room in the town hall. This, already full, is where they pass

the night standing on benches, scarcely able to breathe. The next day

they are crammed into the prison for assassins and robbers, "la Force,"

on the sixth story, under the roof; in this narrow garret their beds

touch each other, while two of the deputies are obliged to sleep on the

floor for lack of room. Under the skylights, which serve for windows,

and at the foot of the staircase are two pig-pens; at the end of

the apartment are the privies, and in one corner a night-tub, which

completes the poisoning of the atmosphere already vitiated by this

crowded mass of human beings. The beds consist of sacks of

straw swarming with vermin; they are compelled to endure the

discipline,[11107] rations and mess of convicts. And they are lucky to

escape at this rate: for Amar takes advantage of their silent deportment

to tax them with conspiracy; other Montagnards likewise want to arraign

them at the revolutionary Tribunal: at all events, it is agreed that the

Committee of General Security shall examine their records and maintain

the right of designating new culprits amongst them. For ten months

they thus remain under the knife, in daily expectation of joining the

twenty-two on the Place de la Révolution.--With respect to the latter,

the object is not to try them but to kill them, and the semblance of a

trial is simply judicial assassination; the bill of indictment against

them consists of club gossip; they are accused of having desired the

restoration of the monarchy, of being in correspondence with Pitt and

Coburg;[11108] of having excited Vendée to insurrection. The betrayal

of Dumouriez is imputed to them, also the murder of Lepelletier, and the

assassination of Marat; while pretended witnesses, selected from amongst

their personal enemies, come and repeat, like a theme agreed upon, the

same ill-contrived fable: nothing but vague allegations and manifest

falsehoods, not one definite fact, not once convincing document; the

lack of proof is such that the trial has to be stopped as soon as

possible. "You brave b----forming the court," writes Hébert, "don't

trifle away your time. Why so much ceremony in shortening the days of

wretches whom the people have already condemned?" Care is especially

taken not to let them have a chance to speak. The eloquence of

Vergniaud and logic of Guadet might turn the tables at the last

moment. Consequently, a prompt decree authorizes the tribunal to stop

proceedings as soon as the jury becomes sufficiently enlightened, which

is the case after the seventh session of the court, the record of death

suddenly greeting the accused, who are not allowed to defend themselves.

One of them, Valazé, stabs himself in open court, and the next day

the national head-chopper strikes off the remaining twenty heads in

thirty-eight minutes.--Still more expeditious are the proceedings

against the accused who avoid a trial. Gorsas, seized in Paris on

the 8th of October, is guillotined the same day. Birotteau, seized at

Bordeaux, on the 24th of October, mounts the scaffold within twenty-four

hours. The others, tracked like wolves, wandering in disguise from one

hiding-place to another, and most of them arrested in turn, have only

choice of several kinds of death. Cambon is killed in defending himself.

Lidon, after having defended himself, blows out his brains, Condorcet

takes poison in the guard-room of Bourg-la-Reine. Roland kills himself

with his sword on the highway. Clavière stabs himself in prison.

Rébecqui is found drowned in the harbor of Marseilles, and Pétion

and Buzon half eaten by wolves on a moor of Saint-Emilion. Valady is

executed at Périgueux, Dechézeau at Rochefort, Grangeneuve, Guadet,

Salle and Barbaroux at Bordeaux, Coustard, Cussy, Rabout-Saint-Étienne,

Bernard, Masuyer, and Lebrun at Paris. Even those who resigned in

January, 1793, Kersaint and Manuel, atone with their lives for the crime

of having sided with the "Right" and, of course, Madame Roland, who

is taken for the leader of the party, is one of the first to be

guillotined.[11109]--Of the one-hundred and eighty Girondins who led

the Convention, one hundred and forty have perished or are in prison,

or fled under sentence of death. After such a curtailment and such an

example the remaining deputies cannot be otherwise than docile;[11110]

neither in the central nor in the local government will the "Mountain"

encounter resistance; its despotism is practically established, and all

that remains is to proclaim this in legal form.

XI. Institutions of the Revolutionary Government

Institutions of the Revolutionary Government.--Its

principle, objects, proceedings, tools and structure.--The

Committee of Public Safety.--Subordination of the Convention

and ministry.--The use of the Committee of General Security

and the Revolutionary Tribunal.--Administrative

centralization.--Representatives on Mission, National Agents

and Revolutionary Committees.--Law of Lése-majesty.

--Restoration and Aggravation of the institutions of the old

monarchy.

After the 2nd of August, on motion of Bazire, the Convention decrees

"that France is in revolution until its independence is recognized."

which means[11111] that the period of hypocritical phrases has come to

an end, that the Constitution was merely a signboard for a fair, and

that the charlatans who had made use of it no longer need it, that it is

to be put away in the store containing other advertising material, that

individual, local and parliamentary liberties are abolished, that the

government is arbitrary and absolute, that no institution, law, dogma,

or precedent affords any guarantee for it against the rights of the

people, that property and lives are wholly at its mercy, that there are

no longer any rights of man.--Six weeks later, when, through the protest

of the forty-five and the arrest of the seventy-three, obedience to the

Convention is assured, all this is boldly and officially announced in

the tribune. "Under the present circumstances of the Republic," says

St. Just, "the Constitution cannot be implemented as this would enable

attacks on liberty to take place because it would lack the violent

measures necessary to repress these." We are no longer to govern

"according to maxims of natural peace and justice; these maxims are only

valid among the friends of liberty;" but they are not applicable between

patriots and the malevolent. The latter are "outside our sovereignty,"

are lawless, excluded from the social pact, slaves in rebellion, to be

punished or imprisoned, and, amongst the malevolent must be placed

"the indifferent[11112]".--"You are to punish whoever is passive in

the Republic and does nothing for it;" for his passivity is treason and

ranks him among other public enemies. Now, between the people and its

enemies, there is nothing in common but the sword; steel must control

those who cannot be ruled "by justice"; the monarchical and neutral

majority must be repressed (comprimé);

"The Republic will be founded only when the sans-culottes,[11113] the

sole representatives of the nation, the only citizens, "shall rule by

right of conquest."[11114]

The meaning of this is more than clear. The régime of which St. Just

presents the plan, is that by which every oligarchy of invaders installs

and maintains itself over a subjugated nation. Through this régime, in

Greece, ten thousand Spartans, after the Dorian invasion, mastered three

hundred thousand helots and périocques; through this régime, in England,

sixty thousand Normans, after the battle of Hastings, mastered two

million Saxons; through this régime in Ireland, since the battle of the

Boyne, two hundred thousand English Protestants have mastered a million

of Catholic Irish; through this régime, the three hundred thousand

Jacobins of France will master the seven or eight millions of Girondins,

Feuillants, Royalists or Indifferents.

This system of government is a very simple one and consist in

maintaining the subject population in a state of extreme helplessness

and of extreme terror. To this end, it is disarmed;[11115] it is kept

under surveillance; all action in common is prohibited; its eyes should

always be directed to the up-lifted ax and to the prison doors always

open; it is ruined and decimated.--For the past six months all these

rigors are decreed and applied,--disarmament of "suspects," taxes on

the rich, the maximum against traders, requisitions on land-owners,

wholesale arrests, rapid executions of sentences, arbitrary penalties of

death, and publicized, multiplied tortures. For the past six months, all

sorts of executive instruments are set up and put into operation:

The Committee of Public Safety, the Committee of General Security,

ambulating proconsuls with full power, local committees authorized

to tax and imprison at will, a revolutionary army, a revolutionary

tribunal. But, for lack of internal harmony and of central impulsion,

the machine only half works, the power not being sufficient and its

action not sufficiently sweeping and universal.

"You are too remote from the conspiracies against you," says St.

Just;[11116] "it is essential that the sword of the law should

everywhere be rapidly brandished and your arm be everywhere present

to arrest crime.... The ministers confess that, beyond their first

and second subordinates, they find nothing but inertia and

indifference."--"A similar apathy is found in all the government

agents," adds Billaud-Varennes;[11117] "the secondary authorities

which are the strong points of the Revolution serve only to impede it."

Decrees, transmitted through administrative channels, arrive slowly and

are indolently applied. "You are missing that co-active force which

is the principle of being, of action, of execution.... Every good

government should possess a center of willpower and the levers connected

with it.... Every government activity should exclusively originate from

the central source."--

"In ordinary governments," says Couthon, finally,[11118] "the right of

electing belongs to the people; you cannot take it away from them. In

extraordinary governments all impulsion must come from the center; it is

from the convention that elections must issue.... You would injure the

people by confiding the election of officials to them, because you would

expose them to electing men that would betray them."

--The result is that the constitutional maxims of 1789 give way to

radically opposed maxims; instead of subjecting the government to the

people, the people is made subject to the government. The hierarchy

of the ancient régime is re-established under revolutionary terms, and

henceforth all powers, much more formidable than those of the ancient

régime, cease to be delegated from the depths to the summit and will

henceforth instead be delegated from the summit to the bottom.

At the summit, a committee of twelve members, similar to the former

royal council, exercises collective royalty; nominally, authority is

divided amongst the twelve; it is, in practice, concentrated in a few

hands. Several members occupy only a subaltern position, and amongst

these, Barère, who, official secretary and mouthpiece, is always ready

to make a speech or draft an editorial; others, with special functions,

Jean Bon St. André, Lindet, and above all, Prieur de la Côte d'Or and

Carnot, confine themselves each to his particular department, navy, war,

supplies, with blank signatures, for which they give in return their

signatures to the political leaders; the latter, called "the statesmen,"

Robespierre, Couthon, Saint-Just, Collot d'Herbois, Billaud-Varennes,

are the real rulers providing overall direction. It is true that their

mandate has to be renewed monthly; but this is a certainty, for, in the

present state of the Convention, its vote, required beforehand, becomes

an almost vain formality. More submissive than the parliament of Louis

XIV., the Convention adopts, without discussion, the decrees which the

Committee of Public Safety present to it ready made. It is no more than

a registry-office, and scarcely that, for it has relinquished its right

of appointing its own committees, that office being assigned to the

Committee of Public Safety; it votes as a whole all lists of names which

the Committee send in.[11119] Naturally, none but the creatures of the

latter and the faithful are inscribed; thus, the whole legislative and

parliamentary power belongs to it.--As to executive and administrative

power, the ministers have become mere clerks of the Committee of Public

Safety; "they come every day at specified hours to receive its orders

and acts;[11120] "they submit to it "the list with explanations, of all

the agents" sent into the departments and abroad; they refer to it

every minute detail; they are its scribes, merely its puppets,

so insignificant that they finally lose their title, and for the

"Commission on External Relations" a former school-master is taken, an

inept clubbist, bar-fly and the pillar of the billiard-room, scarcely

able to read the documents brought to him to sign in the café where he

passes his days.[11121]--Thus is the second power in the State converted

by the Committee into a squad of domestics, while the foremost one is

converted into an audience of claqueurs.

To make them do their duty, it has two hands.--One, the right, which

seizes people unawares by the collar, is the Committee of General

Security, composed of twelve extreme Montagnards, such as Panis, Vadier,

Le Bas, Geoffroy, David, Amar, La Vicomterie, Lebon and Ruhl, all

nominated, that is to say, appointed by it, being its confederates and

subalterns. They are its lieutenants of police, and once a week they

come and take part in its labors, as formerly the Sartines, and

the Lenoirs assisted the Comptroller-general. A man who this secret

committee deems a "suspect," is suddenly seized, no matter who, whether

representative, minister, or general, and finds himself the next morning

behind the bars in one of the ten new Bastilles.--There, the other

hand seizes him by the throat; this is the revolutionary tribunal, an

exceptional court like the extraordinary commissions of the ancient

régime, only far more terrible. Aided by its police gang, the

Committee of Public Safety itself selects the sixteen judges and sixty

jurymen[11122] from among the most servile, the most furious, or the

most brutal of the fanatics:[11123] Fouquier-Tinville, Hermann, Dumas,

Payan, Coffinhal, Fleuriot-Lescot, and, lower down on the scale,

apostate priests, renegade nobles, disappointed artists, infatuated

studio-apprentices, journeymen scarcely able to write their names,

shoemakers, joiners, carpenters, tailors, barbers, former lackeys,

an idiot like Ganney, a deaf man like Leroy-Dix-Août; their names and

professions indicate all that is necessary to be told: these men are

licensed and paid murderers. The Jurymen themselves are allowed eighteen

francs a day, so that they may attend to their business more leisurely.

This business consists in condemning without proof, without any

pleadings, and scarcely any examination, in a hurry, in batches,

whoever the Committee of Public Safety might send to them, even the most

confirmed Montagnards: Danton, who contrived the tribunal, will soon

discover this.--it is through these two government institutions that the

Committee of Public Safety keeps every head under the cleaver and each

head, to avoid being struck off, bows down,[11124] in the provinces as

well as in Paris.

This has happened when the existing local hierarchy was replaced by

new authorities making the omnipotent will of the Committee present

everywhere. Directly or indirectly, "for all government measures or

measures of public safety, all that relates to persons and the

general and internal police, all constituted bodies and all public

functionaries, are placed under its inspection."[11125] You may imagine

how the risk of being guillotined weighed upon them.

To suppress in advance any tendency to administrative inertia, it has

had withdrawn from the too powerful, too much respected, department

governments, "too inclined to federalism," their departmental dominance

and their "political influence."[11126] It reduces these to the levying

of taxes and the supervision of roads and canals; it purges them out

through its agents; it even purges out the governments of municipalities

and districts. To suppress beforehand all probability of popular

opposition, it has had the sessions of the sections reduced to two

per week; it installs in these sections, for about forty sous a day,

a majority of sans-culottes; it orders the suspension "until further

directives" of all municipal elections.[11127]

Finally, to have full control on the spot, it appoints its own men,

first, the commissioners and the representatives on missions, a sort of

temporary corps of directors sent into each department with unlimited

powers;[11128] next, a body of national agents, a sort of permanent

body of sub-delegates, through whom in each district and municipality it

replaces the procureurs-syndics.[11129] To this army of functionaries is

added in each town, bourg or large village, a revolutionary committee,

paid three francs a day per member, charged with the application of its

decrees, and required to make reports thereon. Never before was such

a vast and closely woven network cast from above to envelope and keep

captive twenty-six million people. Such is the real constitution which

the Jacobins substitute for the constitution they have prepared for

show. In the arsenal of the monarchy which they destroyed they took the

most despotic institutions--centralization, Royal Council, lieutenants

of police, special tribunals, intendants and sub-delegates; they

disinterred the antique Roman law of lèse-majesty, refurbished old

blades which civilization had dulled, aiming them at every throat and

now wielded at random against liberties, property and lives. It is

called the "revolutionary government;" according to official statements

it is to last until peace is secured; in the minds of genuine Jacobins

it must continue until all the French have been regenerated in

accordance with the formula.

*****

[Footnote 1101: Titus Flavious Clemens, (Greek writer born in Athens

around 150 and dead in Cappadoce in 250) He lived in Alexandria. (SR).]

[Footnote 1102: The words of Marat.]

[Footnote 1103: After the Constitution is completed, said Legendre, in

the Jacobin club, we will make the federalists dance.]

[Footnote 1104: Archives Nationales, F.I.C.. 56, (Circular of Gohier,

Minister of Justice, to the French people, July 6, 1793). "Certain

persons are disposed to pervert the events of May 31 and June 2,

by atrocious exaggerations and the grossest fables, and prevent the

fortunate results they present from being seen. They are absolutely

determined to see nothing but violations of the liberty of the people's

representatives in a step which was specially designed to hasten on the

Constitutional Act on which the liberty of all is established. Of what

consequence is it who are the authors of the Constitution presented

to you? What does it matter whether it issues from a mountain amidst

lightning and the rolling thunder, like the Tables of the Law given

to the Hebrews, or whether it comes, like the laws given to the early

Romans, inspired in the tranquil asylum of a divinity jealous of his

religious surroundings? Is this constitution worthy of a free people?

That is the only question which citizens who wear the livery of no party

need examine!"]

[Footnote 1105: Buchez et Roux, XXVIII., 177. (report by Hérault

Séchelles, June 10, 1793). Ibid, XXXI., 400. (Text of constitution

submitted to discussion June 11th, and passed June 24th.)]

[Footnote 1106: De Sybel, II., 331. (According to the facsimile

published in the Quarterly Review). "Hérault says that he and four of

his colleagues are ordered to furnish the draft of a constitution by

Monday."]

[Footnote 1107: Report by Hérault-Séchelles. (Buchez et Roux, XXVIII.

178.)]

[Footnote 1108: Buchez et Roux, XXXI, 400. (Articles of the Declaration

of Rights, 1, 7, 9, 11, 27, 31, 35)]

[Footnote 1109: Buchez et Roux, XXVIII., 178. Report by

Hérault-Séchelles. "Each of us had the same desire, that of attaining

to the greatest democratic result. The sovereignty of the people and the

dignity of man were constantly in our minds... A secret sentiment tells

us that our work is perhaps the most popular that ever existed."]

[Footnote 1110: Archives Nationales, B. II., 23. (Table of votes by the

commission appointed to collect the procès-verbaux of the adoption

of the constitution, August 20, 1793.)--Number of primary assemblies

sending in their procès-verbaux, 6,589 (516 cantons have not yet sent

theirs in).--Number of voters on call, 1,795,908; Yes, 1,784,377; Noes,

11,531.--Number of primary assemblies voting Yes unanimously, not on

call of names, 297.--At Paris, 40,990 voters, at Troyes, 2,491, at

Limoges, 2,137.--Cf. For details and motives of abstention, Sauzay IV.

pp. 157-161. Albert Babeau, II, pp. 83 and 84. Moniteur, XVII., 375

(speech by the representative Desvars).]

[Footnote 1111: Ibid., Moniteur, XVII., 20. (report by Barrère on

the convocation of the primary assemblies, June 17, 1793.) Ibid., 102

(Report of Cambon, July 11). "It is now a fortnight since you demanded a

Constitution. Very well, here it is.... Respect for persons and

property is amply secured in it. Yes, more definitely than in any other

constitution. Does it provide for its own revision? Yes, for in six

weeks, we can convoke the primary assemblies and express our desire

for the reform that may appear necessary.--Will the popular wish be

respected? Yes, the people then will make definitive laws."]

[Footnote 1112: Guillon de Montléon, I., 282, 309.--Buchez et Roux,

XXVIII, 356, 357 (Journal de Lyon Nos. 223 and 224.) "The acceptance of

the Constitution was neither entire nor very sincere; people took credit

to themselves for accepting a vicious and sketchy production." Meillan,

"Mémoires," 120. (In July he leaves Caen for Quimper). "Although we

were assured that we should pass only through Maratist towns, we had the

satisfaction of finding nearly all the inhabitants regarding Marat

with horror. They had indeed accepted the Constitution offered by

the Committee of Public Safety, but solely to end the matter and on

conditions which would speak well for them; for, everywhere the renewal

of the Convention was exacted and the punishment of assaults made

on it." This desire, and others analogous to it, are given in the

procès-verbaux of many of the primary assemblies (Archives Nationales,

B. II., 23); for example, in those of the thirteen cantons of Ain. A

demand is made, furthermore, for the reintegration of the Twenty-two,

the abolition of the revolutionary tribunal, the suppression of absolute

proconsulates, the organization of a department guard for securing the

future of the Convention, the discharge of the revolutionary army, etc.]

[Footnote 1113: Moniteur, XVII., 20. Report of Barère: "The

Constitutional act is going to draw the line between republicans and

royalists."]

[Footnote 1114: Archives Nationales, F.I.C., 54. (Circular of the

Minister, Gohier, July 6, 1793.) "It is to-day that, summoned to the

alter of the country, those who desire the Republic will be known by

name, and those who do not desire it, whether they speak or keep silent,

will be equally known."]

[Footnote 1115: Sauzay, IV., 160, 161. (Article by the Vidette.)

Consequently, "all the unconstitutionalists nobles and priests

considered it a duty to go the assemblies and joyfully accept a

constitution which guaranteed liberty and property to everybody."]

[Footnote 1116: "Journal des Débats de la Société des Jacobins," No. For

July 27, 1793 (correspondence, No. 122).]

[Footnote 1117: Moniteur, XVII., 156, 163.]

[Footnote 1118: Sauzay, IV., 158: "The motives for judgments were thus

stated by judges themselves."]

[Footnote 1119: Moniteur, XVII., 40, 48, 72, 140, 175, 194, 263.

(Cf. Speeches by Chaumette, July 14, and Report by Gossoin, August

9).--Archives Nationales, B. II., 23. Negative votes in Ardèche 5, in

Aude 5, Moselle 5, Saône-et-Loire 5, Côte-d'Or 4, Creuse 4, Haut-Rhin

4, Gers 4, Haute-Garonne 3, Aube 2, Bouches-du-Rhône 2, Cantal 2,

Basses-Alpes 1, Haute-Marne 1, Haute-Vienne 1, Var 0, Seine 0.--The

details and circumstances of voting are curious. In the department

of Aube, at Troyes, the second section in agreement with the third,

excluded "suspects" from the vote. At Paris, the section "Gardes

Française," Fourcroy president, announces 1,714 voters, of which 1,678

are citizens and 36 citoyennes. In the "Mont Blanc" section, the

secretary signs as follows: Trone segretaire general de la semblé.]

[Footnote 1120: Moniteur, XVII., 375. (Session of the convention, August

11, 1793). Chabot: "I demand a law requiring every man who does not

appear at a primary meeting to give good reason for his absence;

also, that any man who has not favored the Constitution, be declared

ineligible to all constitutional franchises." Ibid., 50. (Meeting of the

Commune, July 4th). Leonard Bourdon demands, in the name of his section,

the Gravilliers, a register on which to inscribe those who accept

the Constitution, "in order that those who do not vote for it may be

known."--Souzay, IV. 159. M. Boillon, of Belleherbe, is arrested "for

being present at the primary assembly of the canton of Vaucluse, and

when called upon to accept the Constitutional act, leaving without

voting."]

[Footnote 1121: Moniteur, XVII., 11. (Instructions on the mode of

accepting the Constitution).--Sauzay IV., 158.--Moniteur, XVII., 302.

(Speech by Garat, August 2.) "I have dispatched commissioners to push

the Constitutional Act through the primary assemblies."--Durand-

Maillane. 150. "The envoys of the departments were taken from the

sans-culotterie then in fashion, because they ruled in the Convention."]

[Footnote 1122: Sauzay, IV., 158.]

[Footnote 1123: Moniteur, XVII., 363. (Report of Gossuin to the

Convention, August 9). "There are primary assemblies which have extended

their deliberations beyond the acceptance of the Constitution. This

acceptance being almost unanimous, all other objects form matter for

petitions to be entrusted to competent committees."--Ibid., 333.

(Speech of Delacroix). "The anti-revolutionary delegates sent by the

conspirators we had in the Convention must be punished. (August 6.).]

[Footnote 1124: Moniteur, ibid., 333. Speech and motions of Bazire,

August 8.--XIX., 116. Report of Vouland, January 2, 1794. The pay

of Maillard and his acolytes amounted to twenty-two thousand

livres.--XVIII., 324. (Session of August 5. Speeches of Gossuin,

Thibault and Lacroix.)--Ibid., 90. (Session of Germinal 8, year III.)

Speech by Bourdon de l'Oise: "We have been obliged to pick men out of

the envoys in order to find those disposed for rigorous measures."]

[Footnote 1125: Moniteur, XVII., 330. Ordinance of the Commune, August

6.]

[Footnote 1126: Moniteur, XVII., 332. (Session of the Convention, August

6.)--Cf. the "Diurnal" of Beaulieu, August 6. Beaulieu mentions several

deputations and motions of the same order, and states the alarm of the

"Mountain."--Durand-Maillane, "Mémoires," 151. "Among the envoys from

the departments were sensible men who, far from approving of all the

steps taken by their brethren, entertained and manifested very contrary

sentiments. These were molested and imprisoned."--"Archives des Affaires

étrangères," vol. 1411. (Report of the agents of August 10 and 11.) The

department commissioners... seemed to us in the best disposition. There

are some intriguers among them, however; we are following up some of

them, and striving by fraternizing with them to prevent them from being

seduced or led away by the perfidious suggestions of certain

scoundrels, the friends of federalism, amongst them.... A few patriotic

commissioners have already denounced several of their brethren accused

of loving royalty and federalism."]

[Footnote 1127: Buchez et Roux, XXVIII., 408.]

[Footnote 1128: Moniteur., XVII., 330. (Act passed by the Commune,

August 6.)]

[Footnote 1129: Archives des Affaires étrangères, vol. 1411. (Reports of

agents, Aug. 10 and 11). "Citizens are, to-day, eager to see who shall

have a commissioner at his table: who shall treat him the best. .. the

Commissioners of the primary assemblies come and fraternise with them in

the Jacobin club. They adopt their maxims, and are carried away by the

energy of the good and true republican sans-culottes in the clubs."]

[Footnote 1130: Moniteur, XVII., 307, 308. (Report of Couthon to

the Convention, Aug. 2.) "You would wound, you would outrage these

Republicans, were you to allow the performance before them of an

infinity of pieces filled with insulting allusions to liberty."]

[Footnote 1131: Ibid. 124. (Session of Aug. 5.)]

[Footnote 1132: Ibid., 314; (Letter of Lhuillier, Aug. 4.)--322,

Session of the Commune, Aug. 4th; 332, (Session of the Convention, Aug.

6).--Buchez et Roux, XXVIII., 409. (Meeting of the Jacobin Club, Aug.

5th).]

[Footnote 1133: Buchez et Roux, 411 (Article in the Journal de la

Montagne.)]

[Footnote 1134: Moniteur, XVII., 348.]

[Footnote 1135: "Le Féderation" was in 1790 "the Association of the

National Guards." (SR).]

[Footnote 1136: Buchez et Roux, XVIII., 415 and following pages.]

[Footnote 1137: Ibid., 352.--Cf. Beaulieu, "Diurnal," Aug. 9.]

[Footnote 1138: On the mechanical character of the festivals of the

Revolution read the programme of "The civic fete in honor of Valor and

Morals," ordered by Fouché at Nevers, on the 1st day of the 1st decade

of the 2nd month of the year II. (De Martel, "Etude sur Fouché,"

202); also, the programme of the "Fete de l'Etre Supréme," at Sceaux,

organized by the patriot Palloy, Presidial 20, year II. (Dauban, Paris

en 1794, p.187).]

[Footnote 1139: It cost one million two hundred thousand francs, besides

the traveling expenses of eight thousand delegates.]

[Footnote 1140: Buchez et Roux, XXVIII., 439, and following pages.

Procès verbal of he National Festival of the 10th of August.--Dauban "La

Demagogie en 1791." (Extract from the Republican Ritual.)]

[Footnote 1141: Moniteur, XVII., 366. (Session of Aug. 11. Speech by

Lacroix and decree in conformity therewith.)]

[Footnote 1142: Ibid., 374. "Remember that you are accountable to the

nation and the universe for this sacred Ark. Remember that it is your

duty to die rather than suffer a sacrilegious hand....."]

[Footnote 1143: Buchez et Roux, XXVIII., 358. It is evident from the

context of the speech that Robespierre and the Jacobins were desirous of

maintaining the Convention because they foresaw Girondist elections.]

[Footnote 1144: Moniteur, XVII., 382. (Session of Aug. 12. Speech by

Lacroix).]

[Footnote 1145: Ibid., 387.--Cf. Ibid., 410, session of August 16. The

delegates return there to insist on a levy, en masse, the levy of the

first class not appearing sufficient to them. (levy means mobilization

of all men)--Buchez et Roux, XXVIII., 464. Delegate Royer, Curé of

Chalons-sur-Saone, demands that the aristocrats "chained together in

sixes" be put in the front rank in battle "to avoid the risks of sauve

qui peut."]

[Footnote 1146: Decrees of August 14 and 16.]

[Footnote 1147: Moniteur, XVII., 375.]

[Footnote 1148: Riouffe, "Mémoires," 19: "An entire generation, the

real disciples of Jean-Jacques, Voltaire and Diderot, could be, and was

annihilated, to a large extent under the pretext of federalism."]

[Footnote 1149: Moniteur, XVII., 102. (Speech by Cambon, July 11, 1793).

Archives Nationales, AF. II., 46. (Speech of General Wimpffen to

the "Société des amis de la Liberté et de l'Egalité," in session at

Cherbourg, June 25, 1793). "Sixty-four departments have already revoked

the powers conferred on their representatives." Meillan, "Mémoires," 72:

"The archives of Bordeaux once contained the acts passed by seventy-two

departments, all of which adhered to measures nearly the same as those

indicted in our documents."]

[Footnote 1150: Buchez et Roux, XVIII., 148.--Meillan, 70, 71.--Guillon

de Montléon, I., 300 (on Lyons) and I., 280 (on Bordeaux). Archives

Nationales, AF II., 46. (Deliberations of the Nantes section July

5).--Letter of Merlin and Gillet, representatives on mission, Lorient,

June 12. Dissatisfaction at the outrages of May 31 and June 2, was so

manifest that the representatives on mission Merline, Gillet, Savestre,

and Cagaignac print on the 14th of June a resolution authorising one of

their body to go to the Convention and protest "in their name" against

the weakness shown by it and against the ursurpations of the Paris

commune.--Sauzay, IV., 260. At Besançon, in a general assembly of all

the administrative, judicial and municipal bodies of the department

joined to the commissioners of the section, protest "unanimously" on the

15th of June.]

[Footnote 1151: Archives Nationales, Ibid.(Letter of Romme and Prieur,

Caen, June 10th, to the committee of Public Safety). The insurgents are

so evidently in the right that Romme and Prieur approve of their

own arrest. "Citizens, our colleagues, this arrest may be of great

importance, serve the cause of liberty, maintain the unity of the

republic and revive confidence if, as we hasten to demand it of you, you

confirm it by a decree which declares us hostages.... We have noticed

that among the people of Caen, there is a love of liberty, as well as of

justice and docility."]

[Footnote 1152: Archives Nationales, AF. II., 46. (Printed July 5).

Result of the deliberations of the Nantes sections. The act is signed

by the three administrative bodies of Nantes, by the district rulers of

Clisson, Anceries and Machecoul, who had fled to Nantes, and by both

the deputies of the districts of Paimboeuf and Chateaubriand, in all,

eighty-six signatures.]

[Footnote 1153: Archives Nationales, ibid., (letter of General Wimpffen

to the "Societé des Amis de l'Egalité et de la Liberté" in session

at Cherbourg, June 25, 1793).--Mortimer-Ternaux, VIII., 126.--On the

opinion of the departments cf. Paul Thibaud ("Etudes sur l'histoire

de Grenoble et du Department de l'Isére").--Louis Guibert ("Le Parti

Girondin dans le Haute Vienne").--Jarrin, ("Bourg et Bellay pendant la

Révolution").]

[Footnote 1154: Albert Babeau, II., 83. (Pamphlet by the curé of

Cleray). "Every primary assembly that accepts the Constitution strikes

the factions a blow on the head with the club of Hercules."]

[Footnote 1155: Cf. "The Revolution," Vol. II. Ch. XI.]

[Footnote 1156: Buzot.--Archives Nationales, AF. II., 157. Reports by

Baudot and Ysabeau to the Convention. The 19th of Aug. At the Hotel de

Ville of Bordeaux, they eulogize the 21st of January: "There was then a

roar as frightful as it was general. A city official coolly replied to

us: What would you have? To oppose anarchy we have been forced to join

the aristocrats, and they rule." Another says ironically to Ysabeau: "We

did not anticipate that,--they are our tribunes."]

[Footnote 1157: Jarrin, "Bourg et Belley pendant la Révolution"

("Annales de la Societé d'Emulation de l'Ain," 1878, Nos. For January,

February and March, p. 16).]

[Footnote 1158: Louvet, 103, 108.--Guillon de Montléon, I., 305 and

following pages.--Buchez et Roux, XXVIII., 151. (Report of the delegates

of the district of Andelys). "One of members observed that there would

be a good deal of trouble in raising an armed force of one thousand

men."--An administrator (a commissioner of Calvados) replied: "We shall

have all the aristocrats on our side." The principal military leaders

at Caen and at Lyons, Wimpffen, Précy, Puisaye, are Feuillants and form

only a provisional alliance with the Girondists properly so called,

Hence constant contentions and reciprocal mistrust. Birotteau and

Chapet leave Lyons because they do not find the spirit of the place

sufficiently republican.]

[Footnote 1159: Louvet, 124, 129.--Buchez et Roux, XXVII, 360. (Notice

by General Wimpffen), July 7.--Puisaye, "Mémoires" and "L'Insurrection

Normande." by et Vaultier et Mancel.]

[Footnote 1160: Mortimer-Ternaux, VIII., 471. Letter of Barbaroux, Caen,

June 18.--Ibid., 133. Letter of Madame Roland to Buzot, July 7. "You are

not the one to march at the head of battalions (departmental). It would

have the appearance of gratifying personal vengeance."]

[Footnote 1161: Buchez et Roux, XXVIII., 153. (Deliberations of the

constituted authorities of Marseilles, June 7.)]

[Footnote 1162: Guillon de Montléon, II., 40. The contrast between the

two parties is well shown in the following extract from the letter of a

citizen of Lyons to Kellerman's soldiers. "They tell you that we want

to destroy the unity of the republic, while they themselves abandon the

frontiers to the enemy in order to come here and cut their brethren's

throats."]

[Footnote 1163: Guillon de Montléon, I., 288.--Marcelin Boudet, "Les

Conventionnels d'Auvergne," p. 181.--Louvet, 193.--Moniteur, XVII., 101.

(Speech of Cambon, July 11). "We have preferred to expose these

funds (one hundred and five millions destined for the army) to being

intercepted, rather than to retard this dispatch. The first thing the

Committee of Public Safety have had to care for was to save the republic

and make the administrations fully responsible for it. They were fully

aware of this, and accordingly have allowed the circulation of these

funds... They have been forced, through the wise management of the

Committee, to contribute themselves to the safety of the republic."]

[Footnote 1164: Archives Nationales, Letter of Robert Lindet, June 16,

AF. II., 43. The correspondence of Lindet, which is very interesting,

well shows the sentiments of the Lyonnese and the policy of the

"Mountain." "However agitated Lyons may be, order prevails; nobody wants

either king or tyrant; all use the same language: the words republic,

union, are in everybody's mouth." (Eight letters.) He always gives the

same advice to the Committee of Public Safety: "Publish a constitution,

publish the motives of the bills of arrest," which are indispensable to

rally everybody to the Convention, (June 15).]

[Footnote 1165: Guillon de Montléon, I., 309 (July 24).]

[Footnote 1166: Sauzay, IV., 268.--Paul Thibaud, 50.--Marcelin Boudet,

185.--Archives Nationales AF. II., 46. Extract from the registers of the

Council of the department of Loire-Inferieure, July 14. The department

protests that its decree of July 5 was not "a rupture with the

Convention, an open rebellion against the laws of the State, an idea

very remote from the sentiments and intentions of the citizens present."

Now, "the plan of a Constitution is offered to the acceptance of the

sovereign. This fortunate circumstance should bring people to one

mind, and, with hope thus renewed, let us at once seize on the means

of salvation thus presented to us."--Moniteur, XVII., 102. (Speech of

Cambon, July 11.)]

[Footnote 1167: Louvet, 119, 128, 150, 193.--Meillan, 130, 141. (On

the disposition and sentiments of the provinces and of the public

in general, the reader will find ample and authentic details in the

narratives of the fugitives who scattered themselves in all directions,

and especially those of Louvet, Meillan, Dulaure, and Vaublanc.) Cf.

the "Mémoires de Hua" and "Un Séjour en France in 1792 and

1795."--Mallet-du-Pan already states this disposition before 1789 (MS.

Journal). "June, 1785: The French live simply in a crowd; they must all

cling together. On the promenades they huddle together and jostle each

other in one alley; the same when there is more space." "Aug., 1787,

(after the first riots): I have remarked in general more curiosity

than excitement in the multitude.... One can judge, at this moment, the

national character; a good deal of bravado and nonsense; neither reason,

rule nor method; rebellious in crowds, and not a soul that does not

tremble in the presence of a corporal."]

[Footnote 1168: Meillan, 143.--Mortimer-Ternaux, VIII., 203. (Session of

August 10).--Mallet-du-Pan, "Mémoires," II., 9.]

[Footnote 1169: Ernest Daudet, "His. des Conspirations royalistes dans

le midi." (Books II. And III.)]

[Footnote 1170: Guillon de Montléon, I., 313. (Address of a Lyonais to

the patriot soldiers under Kellerman.)]

[Footnote 1171: Mortimer-Ternaux, VIII., 222.--The insurrection of

Toulon, Girondist at the start, dates July 1st.--Letter of the new

administrators of Toulon to the Convention. "W desire the Republic,

one and indivisible; there is no sign of rebellion with us...

Representatives Barras and Fréron lie shamefully in depicting us as

anti-revolutionaries, on good terms with the English and the families of

Vendée."--The Toulon administrators continue furnishing the Italian army

with supplies. July 19, an English boat, sent to parley, had to lower

the white flag and hoist the tri-color flag. The entry of the English

into Toulon did not take place before the 29th of August.]

[Footnote 1172: Guillon de Montléon, II., 67. (Letter of the Lyonnese to

the representatives of the people, Sep. 20): "The people of Lyons have

constantly respected the laws, and if, as in some departments, that of

Rhone-et-Loire was for a moment mistaken in the events of May 31,

they hastened, as soon as they believed that the Convention was not

oppressed, to recognize and execute its decrees. Every day, now that

these reach it, they are published and observed within its walls."]

[Footnote 1173: Moniteur, XVII., 269. (Session of July 28). (Letter

of the administrators of the department of Rhone-et-Loire to the

Convention, Lyons, July 24). "We present to the Convention our

individual recantation and declaration; in conforming to the law we

are entitled to its protection. We petition the court to decide on

our declaration, and to repeal the acts which relate to us or make an

exception in our favor... We have always professed ourselves to be true

republicans."]

[Footnote 1174: Guillon de Montléon, I., 309, 311, 315,

335.--Mortimer-Ternaux, VIII., 197.]

[Footnote 1175: Mortimer-Ternaux, VIII., 141.]

[Footnote 1176: Mallet du Pan, I., 379 and following pages; I., 408;

II., 10.]

[Footnote 1177: Entry of the Republican troops into Lyons, October

9th, into Toulon, December 19th.--Bordeaux had submitted on the 2nd of

August. Exasperated by the decree of the 6th which proscribed all the

abettors of the insurrection, the city drives out, on the 19th, the

representatives Baudot and Ysabeau. It submits again on the 19th of

September. But so great is the indignation of the citizens, Tallien

and his three colleagues dare not enter before the 16th of October.

(Mortimer-Ternaux, VIII., 197 and following pages.)]

[Footnote 1178: Seventy thousand men were required to reduce Lyons,

(Guillon de Montléon, II., 226) and sixty thousand men to reduce

Toulon.]

[Footnote 1179: Archives des Affaires étrangères, vol. CCCXXIX.

(Letter of Chépy, political agent, Grenoble, July 26, 1793). "I say it

unhesitatingly, I had rather reduce Lyons than save Valenciennes."]

[Footnote 1180: Ibid., vol. CCCXXIX. (Letter of Chépy, Grenoble, August

24, 1793): "The Piedmontese are masters of Cluse. A large body of

mountaineers have joined them. At Annecy the women have cut down

the liberty pole and burnt the archives of the club and commune. At

Chambéry, the people wanted to do the same, but they forced the sick in

the hospitals to take arms and thus kept them down."]

[Footnote 1181: Moniteur, XVIII, 474. (Report of Billaud-Varennes,

October 18, 1793). "The combined efforts of all the powers of Europe

have not compromised liberty and the country so much as the federalist

factions; the assassin the most to be dreaded is the one that lives in

the house."]

[Footnote 1182: The convention purposely reinstates incendiaries and

assassins. (Moniteur, XVIII., 483. Session of Breumaire 28, year II.):

XVII., 176. (Session of July 19, 1793). Rehabilitation of Bordier and

Jourdain, hung in August, 1789. Cancelling of the proceedings begun

against the authors of the massacre of Melun (September, 1792) and

release of the accused.--Cf. Albert Babeau, (I., 277.) Rehabilitation,

with indemnities distributed in Messidor, year II, to their

relatives.--"Archives des Affaires étrangères," vol. 331. (Letter of

Chépy, Grenoble, Frimaire 8, year II). "The criminal court and jury of

the department have just risen to the height of the situation; they have

acquitted the castle-burners."]

[Footnote 1183: Mortimer-Ternaux, VIII., 593. (Deputation of twenty-four

sections sent from Bordeaux to the Convention, August 30).--Buchez

et Roux, XXVIII., 494. (Report of the representatives on mission in

Bouches-du-Rhône, September 2nd).--Ibid., XXX., 386. (Letter of Rousin,

commandant of the revolutionary army at Lyons. "A population of one

hundred twenty thousand souls..... There are not amongst all these, one

thousand five hundred patriots, even one thousand five hundred persons

that one could spare."--Guillon de Montléon, I., 355, 374. (Signatures of

twenty thousand Lyonnese of all classes, August 17th).]

[Footnote 1184: Guillon de Montléon, I., 394. (Letter of Dubois-Crancé

to the Lyonnese, August 19th.)]

[Footnote 1185: Mortimer-Ternaux, VIII., 198. (Decree of Aug.

6.)--Buchez et Roux, XXVIII. 297, (Decree of July 12.).--Guillon de

Montléon, I., 342. Summons of Dubois-Crancé, Aug. 8.)]

[Footnote 1186: Meillan, 142.).--"Archives des Affaires Etrangéres,"

vol. CCCXXXII. (Letter of Desgranges, Bordeaux, Brumaire 8, year II.):

"The execution of Mayor Saige, who was much loved by the people for his

benefactions, caused much sorrow: but no guilty murmur was heard."]

[Footnote 1187: Archives Nationales, AF. II., 46. (Letter of Julien to

the Committee of Public Safety Messidor 11, year II). "Some time ago a

solemn silence prevailed at the sessions of the military commission, the

people's response to the death-sentences against conspirators; the same

silence attended them to the scaffold; the whole commune seemed to sob

in secret at their fate."]

[Footnote 1188: Berryat Saint-Prix, "La Justice Révolutionaire," pp.

277-299.--Archives Nationales, AF. II., 46. (Registers of the Com. Of

Surveillance, Bordeaux). The number of prisoners between Prairial 21 and

28, varies from 1504 to 1529. Number of the guillotined, 882. (Memoirs

of Sénart).]

[Footnote 1189: Archives Nationales, AF. II., 46. Letter of Julien,

Messidor 12, year II. "A good deal has been stolen here; the mayor, now

in prison, is informed of considerable losses. The former Committee of

surveillance came under serious suspicion; many people who were outlawed

only escaped by paying: it is a fact that... Of a number of those who

have thus purchased their lives there are some who did not deserve to

die and who, nevertheless, were threatened with death."--Buchez et Roux,

XXXII., 428. (Extracts from the Memoirs of Sénart). "The president of

the military commission was a man named Lacombe, already banished from

the city on account of a judgment against him for robbery. The other

individuals employed by Tallien comprised a lot of valets, bankrupts and

sharpers."]

[Footnote 1190: Buchez et Roux, XXVIII., 493. (Speech by Danton, August

31, and decree in conformity therewith by the Convention).]

[Footnote 1191: Mallet-Dupan, II., 17. "Thousands of traders in

Marseilles and Bordeaux, here the respectable Gradis and there the

Tarteron, have been assassinated and their goods sold. I have seen the

thirty-second list only of the Marseilles emigres, whose property has

been confiscated.... There are twelve thousand of them and the lists are

not yet complete." (Feb. 1, 1794.)--Anne Plumptre.2A Narrative of Three

years' Residence in France, from 1802 to 1805." "During this period the

streets of Marseilles were almost those of a deserted town. One could go

from one end of the town to the other without meeting any one he could

call an inhabitant. The great terrorists, of whom scarcely one was a

Marseillaise, the soldiers and roughs as they called themselves, were

almost the only persons encountered. The latter, to the number of fifty

or sixty, in jackets with leather straps, fell upon all whom they did

not like, and especially on anybody with a clean shirt and white cravat.

Many persons on the "Cours" were thus whipped to death. No women went

out-doors without a basket, while every man wore a jacket, without which

they were taken for aristocrats." (II., 94.)]

[Footnote 1192: "Mémoires de Fréron." (Collection Barrière and

Berville). Letters of Fréron to Moise Bayle, Brumaire 23, Pluviose 5 and

11, Novose 16, II, published by Moise Bayle, also details furnished

by Huard, pp. 350-365.--Archives Nationales, AF. II., 144. (Order of

representatives Fréron, Barras, Salicetti and Richard, Novose 17, year

II.)]

[Footnote 1193: Mallet-Dupan, II., 17.--Guillon de Montléon, II., 259.]

[Footnote 1194: Ibid., II., 281. (Decree of the Convention, Oct. 12);

II. 312. (Orders of Couthon and his colleagues, Oct. 25); II., 366-372

(Instructions of the temporary commission, Brumaire 26).]

[Footnote 1195: Ibid. III., 153-156. Letter of Laporte to Couthon, April

13, 1794.]

[Footnote 1196: The contemporary French Encyclopedia "QUID" ed. Lafont,

1996 states on page 755 that according to Louis Marie Prudhomme there

were 31 000 victims at Lyons. (SR.)]

[Footnote 1197: Ibid. II. 135-137. (Resolutions of the Revolutionary

Commission, Germinal 17.) and Letters of Cadillot to Robespierre,

Floréal, year II). III., 63.]

[Footnote 1198: Guillon de Montléon, II., 399. (Letter of Perrotin,

member of the temporary commission to the revolutionary committee of

Moulin.) "The work before the new commission may be considered as an

Organization of the Septembrisade; the process will be the same but

legalized by an act passed."]

[Footnote 1199: Buchez et Roux, XXIX., 192. (Decree of October 12).]

[Footnote 11100: Ibid., XXX., 457. (Decree of November 23).]

[Footnote 11101: "Mémoires de Fréron." (Letter of Fréron, Nivose

6).--Guillon de Montléon, II., 391.]

[Footnote 11102: Decrees of October 12 and December 24.--Archives

Nationales, AF. II., 44. The representatives on mission wanted to do the

same thing with Marseilles. (Orders of Fréron, Barras, Salicetti, and

Ricard, Nivôse 17, year II.) "The name of Marseilles, still borne by

this criminal city, shall be changed. The National Convention shall be

requested to give it another name. Meanwhile it shall remain nameless

and be thus known." In effect, in several subsequent documents,

Marseilles is called the nameless commune.]

[Footnote 11103: Buchez et Roux, XXVIII., 204. (Session of June 24:

"Strong expressions of dissent are heard on the right." Legendre,

"I demand that the first rebel, the first man there (pointing to the

"Right" party) who interrupts the speaker, be sent to the Abbaye."

Couhey, indeed, was sent to the Abbaye for applauding a Federalist

speech.--Cf. on these three months.--Mortimer-Ternaux, vol. VIII.]

[Footnote 11104: Buchez et Roux, XXIX., 175.--Dauban: "La Démagogie à

Paris en 1793," 436 (Narrative by Dulaure, an eye-witness).]

[Footnote 11105: There were really only twenty-two brought before the

revolutionary tribunal.]

[Footnote 11106: Dauban, XXVI., p. 440. (Narrative of Blanqui, one of

the seventy-three.)]

[Footnote 11107: Buchez et Roux. XXIX., 178, 179. Osselin: "I demand the

decree of accusation against them all."--Amar: "The apparently negative

conduct of the minority of the Convention since the 2nd of June, was

a new plot devised by Barbaroux." Robespierre: "If there are other

criminals among those you have placed under arrest the Committee of

General Security will present to you the nomenclature of them and you

will always be at liberty to strike."]

[Footnote 11108: Ibid., XXIX., 432, 437, 447.--Report by Amar. (this

report served as the bill of indictment against them, "cowardly

satellites of royal despotism, vile agents of foreign tyrants."--Wallon,

II., 407, 409. (Letter of Fouquier-Tinville to the convention). "After

the special debates, will not each of the accused demand a general

prosecution? The trial, accordingly, will be interminable. Besides,

one may ask why should there be witnesses? The convention, all France,

accuses those on trial. The evidence of their crimes is plain; everybody

is convinced of their guilt.... It is the Convention which must

remove all formalities that interfere with the course pursued by the

tribunal."--Moniteur, XVII., (Session of October 28), 291. The decree

provoked by a petition of Jacobins, is passed on motion of Osselin,

aggravated by Robespierre.]

[Footnote 11109: Louvet, "Mémoires," 321. (List of the Girondists who

perished or who were proscribed. Twenty-four fugitives survived.)]

[Footnote 11110: Mortimer-Ternaux, VIII., 395, 416, 435. The terror and

disgust of the majority is seen in the small number of voters. Their

abstention from voting is the more significant in relation to the

election of the dictators. The members of the Committee of Public

Safety, elected on the 16th of July, obtain from one hundred to one

hundred and ninety-two votes. The members of the Committee of Security

obtain from twenty-two to one hundred and thirteen votes. The members

of the same committee, renewed on the 11th of September, obtain

from fifty-two to one hundred and eight votes. The judges of the

revolutionary tribunal, completed on the 3rd of August, obtain from

forty-seven to sixty-five votes.--Meillan, 85. (In relation to the

institution of the revolutionary government, on motion of Bazire, Aug.

28). "Sixty or eighty deputies passed this decree... it was preceded by

another passed by a plurality of thirty against ten. .. For two months

the session the best attended, contains but one hundred deputies. The

Montagnards overran the departments to deceive or intimidate the people.

The rest, discouraged, keep away from the meetings or take no part in

the proceedings."]

[Footnote 11111: The meaning and motives of this declaration are clearly

indicated in Bazire's speech. "Since the adoption of the Constitution,"

he says, "Feuillantism has raised its head; a struggle has arisen

between energetic and moderate patriots. At the end of the Constituent

Assembly, the Feuillants possessed themselves of the words law, order,

public, peace, security, to enchain the zeal of the friends of freedom;

the same manoeuvres are practiced to-day. You must shatter the weapon in

your enemies' hands, which they use against you."--Durand-Maillane, 154.

"The simple execution of constitutional laws," said Bazire, "made for

peaceable times, would be impotent among the conspiracies that surround

you."--Meillan, 108.]

[Footnote 11112: Moniteur, XVIII, 106. (Report of Saint-Just on the

organization of the revolutionary government, October 10th, and the

decree in conformity therewith.) Ibid., 473. (Report of Billaud-Varennes

on a mode of provisional and revolutionary government, Nov. 18th,

and decree in conformity therewith.)--Ib., 479 (session of Nov. 22nd,

1793,.--Speech of Hébrard, spokesman of a deputation from Cantal).

"A central committee of surveillance, a revolutionary army, has been

established in our department. Aristocrats, suspects, the doubtful,

moderates, egoists, all gentlemen without distinguishing those who have

done nothing for the revolution from those who have acted against it,

await in retirement the ulterior measures required by the interests of

the Republic. I have said without distinction of the indifferent from

the suspects; for we hold to these words of Solon's: 'He who is not with

us is against us.'"]

[Footnote 11113: The trousers used in pre-Revolutionary France by the

nobility was called culottes, they terminated just below the knee where

the long cotton or silken stockings would begin. The less affluent used

long trousers and no socks and became known as the Sans-culottes which

became, as mentioned in vol. II. a nickname for the revolutionary

proletariat. (SR.)]

[Footnote 11114: Moniteur, (Speech by Danton, March 26, 1794.) "In

creating revolutionary committees the desire was to establish a species

of dictatorship of citizens the most devoted to liberty over those who

rendered themselves suspects."]

[Footnote 11115: Mallet-Dupan, II., 8. (February, 1794). "At this moment

the entire people is disarmed. Not a gun can be found either in town or

country. If anything attests the super-natural power which the leaders

of the Convention enjoy, it is to see, in one instant, through one act

of the will and nobody offering any resistance, or complaining of it,

the nation from Perpignan to Lille, deprived of every means of defense

against oppression, with a facility still more unprecedented than

that which attended the universal arming of the nation in 1789."--"A

Residence in France," II., 409. "The National Guard as a regular

institution was in great part suppressed after the summer of 1793, those

who composed it being gradually disarmed. Guard-mounting was continued,

but the citizens performing this service were, with very few exceptions,

armed with pikes, and these again were not fully entrusted to them; each

man, on quitting his post, gave up his arms more punctually than if he

had been bound to do so through capitulation with a victorious enemy."]

[Footnote 11116: Moniteur, XVIII., 106. (Report by Saint-Just, Oct.

10th).]

[Footnote 11117: Ibid., 473. (Report of Billaud-Varennes, Nov. 13th).]

[Footnote 11118: Ibid., XVIII., 591. (Speech by Couthon, December 4th).

Ibid., Barère: "Electoral assemblies are monarchical institutions, they

attach to royalism, they must be specially avoided in revolutionary

times."]

[Footnote 11119: Mortimer-Ternaux, VIII., 40. (Decree passed on the

proposition of Danton, session of September 13th). The motive alleged

by Danton is that "members are still found on the committees whose

opinions, at least, approach federalism." Consequently the committees

are purified, and particularly the Committee of General Security. Six

of its members are stricken off (Sept. 14), and the list sent in by the

Committee of Public safety passes without discussion.]

[Footnote 11120: Moniteur, XVIII., 592. (Session of December 4, speech

by Robespierre).]

[Footnote 11121: Miot de Melito, "Mémoires," I., 47.]

[Footnote 11122: Buchez et Roux, XXVIII., 153. Mortimer-Ternaux,

VIII., 443. (Decree of September 28th).--Wallon, "Histoire du Tribunal

Révolutionaire de Paris," IV., 112.]

[Footnote 11123: Buchez et Roux, XXXIV., 300. (Trial of

Fouquier-Tinville and associates). Bill of indictment: "One of these

publicly boasted of always having voted death. Others state that they

were content to see people to give their judgment; physical inspection

alone determined them to vote death. Another said, that when there

was no offense committed it was necessary to imagine one. Another is

a regular sot and has never sat in judgment but in a state of

intoxication. Others came to the bench only to fire their volleys." Etc.

(Supporting evidence.)--"Observe, moreover, that judges and juries are

bound to kill under penalty of death (Ibid.,30)." Fouquier-Tinville

states that on the 22nd of Prairial he took the same step (to resign)

with Chatelet, Brochet and Lerry, when they met Robespierre, returning

to the National Convention arm-in-arm with Barère. Fouquier adds,

that they were treated as aristocrats and anti-revolutionaries, and

threatened with death if they refused to remain on their posts."

Analogous declarations by Pigeot, Ganne, Girard, Dupley, Foucault,

Nollin and Madre. "Sellier adds, that the tribunal having remonstrated

against the law of Prairial 22, he was threatened with arrest by Dumas.

Had we resigned, he says, Dumas would have guillotined us.]

[Footnote 11124: Moniteur, XXIV., 12. (Session of Ventôse 29, year III.,

speech by Baileul). "Terror subdued all minds, suppressed all emotions;

it was the force of the government, while such was this government that

the numerous inhabitants of a vast territory seemed to have lost the

qualities which distinguish man from a domestic animal. They seemed

even to have no life except what the government accorded to them. Human

personality no longer existed; each individual was simply a machine,

going, coming, thinking or not thinking as he was impelled or stimulated

by tyranny."]

[Footnote 11125: Decree of Frimaire 14, year II., Dec. 4, 1793.]

[Footnote 11126: Moniteur, XVII., 473, 474, 478. (Speech by

Billaud-Varennes). "The sword of Damocles must henceforth be brandished

over the entire surface." This expression of Billaud sums up the spirit

of every new institution.]

[Footnote 11127: Moniteur, XVIII., 275. (Session of Oct. 26. 1793,

speech by Barère.) "This is the most revolutionary step you can take."

(Applause.)]

[Footnote 11128: Ibid., 520. (Report of Barère and decree in

conformity). "The representatives sent on mission are required to

conform strictly to the acts of the Committee of Public Safety. Generals

and other agents of the executive power will, under no pretext, obey

any special order, that they may refuse to carry out the said

acts."--Moniteur, XVIII., 291. (Report by Barère, Oct. 29, 1793.) At

this date one hundred and forty representatives are on mission.]

[Footnote 11129: Archives Nationales, AF. II., 22. (Papers of the

'Committee of Public Safety. Note on the results of the revolutionary

government without either date or signature.) "The law of Frimaire 14

created two centers of influence from which action spread, in the sense

of the Committee, and which affected the authorities. These two pivots

of revolutionary rule outside the Committee were the representatives of

the people on missions and the national agents controlling the district

committees. The word revolutionary government alone exercised an

incalculable magical influence."--Mallet-Dupan, "Mémoires," II., p. 2,

and following pages.]

BOOK SECOND. THE JACOBIN PROGRAM.

CHAPTER I. THE JACOBIN PARTY

I. The Doctrine.

Program of the Jacobin party.--Abstract principle and

spontaneous development of the theory.

Nothing is more dangerous than a general idea in narrow and empty minds:

as they are empty, it finds no knowledge there to interfere with it; as

they are narrow it is not long before it occupies the place entirely.

Henceforth they no longer belong to themselves but are mastered by it;

it works in them and through them, the man, in the true sense of the

word, being possessed. Something which is not himself, a monstrous

parasite, a foreign and disproportionate conception, lives within

him, developing and giving birth to the evil purposes with which it is

pregnant. He did not foresee that he would have them; he did not know

what his dogma contained, what venomous and murderous consequences were

to issue from it. They issue from it fatally, each in its turn, and

under the pressure of circumstances, at first anarchical consequences

and now despotic consequences. Having obtained power, the Jacobin brings

his fixed idea along with him; whether at the head of the government or

in opposition to it, this idea is fruitful, and the all-powerful dogma

projects over a new domain the innumerable links of its endless chain.

II. A Communist State.

The Jacobin concept of Society.--The Contrat-Social.--Total

surrender of the Individual to the Community.--Everything

belongs to the State.--Confiscations and Sequestrations.

--Pre-emption and requisition and requisition of produce and

merchandise.--Individuals belong to the State.--Drafts of

persons for Military service.--Drafts of persons for the

Civil service.--The State philanthropist, educator,

theologian, moralist, censor and director of ideas and

intimate feelings.

Let us trace this inward development and go back, along with the

Jacobin, to first principles, to the original pact, to the first

organization of society. There is but one just and sound society, the

one founded on the "contrat-social," and

"the clauses of this contract, fully understood, reduce themselves to

one, the total transfer of each individual, with all his rights, to

the community,.... each surrendering himself up absolutely, just as

he actually stands, he and all his forces, of which the property he

possesses forms a part."[2101]

There must be no exception or reservation. Nothing of what he previously

was, or had, now belongs to him in his own right; henceforth, what he

is, or has, devolves upon him only through delegation. His property

and his person now form a portion of the commonwealth. If he is in

possession of these, his ownership is at second hand; if he derives

any benefit there from, it is as a concession. He is their depository,

trustee and administrator, and nothing more.[2102] In other words, with

respect to these he is simply a managing director, that is to say

a functionary like others, with a precarious appointment and always

revocable by the State which has appointed him.

"As nature gives to every man absolute power over the members of his

body the social pact gives the social body absolute power over all its

members."

The State, as omnipotent sovereign and universal proprietor,

exercises at discretion, its boundless rights over persons and things;

consequently we, its representatives, take all things and persons into

our hands; as they belong to it, so do they belong to us.

We have confiscated the possessions of the clergy, amounting to

about four billion livres; we confiscate the property of the emigrés,

amounting to three billion livres;[2103] we confiscate the property

of the guillotined and deported: all this amounts to some hundreds of

millions; later on, the count will be made, because the list remains

open and is being daily added to. We will sequestrate the property of

"suspects," which gives us the right to use it: here are many hundred

millions more; after the war and the banishment of "suspects," we shall

seize the property along with its income: here, again, are billions of

capital.[2104] Meanwhile we take the property of hospitals and of other

benevolent institutions, about eight hundred million livres; we take the

property of factories, of endowments, of educational institutions, and

of literary and scientific associations: another lot of millions.[2105]

We take back the domains rented or surrendered by the State for the

past three centuries and more, which gives again about a couple of

billions.[2106] We take the possessions of the communes up to the amount

of their indebtedness. We have already received as inheritance the

ancient domains of the crown, also the later domain of the civil list.

More than three-fifths[2107] of the soil thus falls into our hands,

which three-fifths are much the best stocked; they comprise almost

all the large and fine edifices, châteaux, abbeys, mansions, houses of

superintendents and nearly all the royal, episcopal, seigniorial and

bourgeois stock of rich and elegant furniture; all plate, libraries,

pictures and artistic objects accumulated for centuries.--Remark, again,

the seizure of specie and all other articles of gold and silver; in the

months alone of November and December, 1793, this swoop puts into our

coffers three or four hundred millions,[2108] not assignats, but ringing

coin. In short, whatever the form of established capital may be we take

all we can get hold of, probably more than three-fourths of it.--There

remains the portion which is not fixed capital, that which disappears

in use, namely, all that is consumed, all the fruits of the soil, every

description of provision, all the products of human art and labor

which contribute the maintenance of existence. Through "the right of

pre-emption" and through the right of "requisition," "the Republic

becomes temporary proprietor of whatever commerce, manufacture and

agriculture have produced and added to the soil of France: "all food and

merchandise is ours before being owned by their holder. We carry out of

his house whatever suits us; we pay him for this with worthless paper;

we frequently do not pay him at all. For greater convenience, we seize

objects directly and wherever we find them, grain in the farmer's barn,

hay in the reaper's shed, cattle in the fold, wine in the vats, hides

at the butcher's, leather in the tanneries, soap, tallow, sugar, brandy,

cloths, linens and the rest, in stores, depots and ware-houses. We stop

vehicles and the horses in the street. We enter the premises of mail

or coach contractors and empty their stables. We carry away kitchen

utensils to obtain the copper; we turn people out of their rooms to get

their beds; we strip them of their coats and shirts; in one day, we make

ten thousand individuals in one town go barefoot.[2109]

"When public needs require it," says representative Isoré, "all belongs

to the people and nothing to individuals."

By virtue of the same right we dispose of persons as we do of things. We

decree the levy en masse and, stranger still, we carry it out, at least

in many parts of the country, and we keep it up for months: in Vendée,

and in the northern and eastern departments, it is the entire male,

able-bodied population, up to fifty years of age, which we drive in

herds against the enemy.[2110] We afterwards sign an entire generation

on, all young men between eighteen and twenty-five, almost a million of

men:[2111] whoever fails to appear is put in irons for ten years; he is

regarded as a deserter; his property is confiscated, and his family is

punished as well; later he is classed with the emigrants, condemned to

death, and his father, mother and progenitors, treated as "suspects,"

imprisoned and their possessions taken.--To clothe, shoe and equip

our recruits, we must have workmen; we summon to head-quarters all

gunsmiths, blacksmiths and locksmiths, all the tailors and shoemakers of

the district, "foremen, apprentices and boys;"[2112] we imprison those

who do not come; we install the rest in squads in public buildings

and assign them their tasks; they are forbidden to furnish anything to

private individuals. Henceforth, French shoemakers must work only for

us, and each must deliver to us, under penalty, so many pairs of shoes

per decade.[2113]--But, the civil service is no less important than the

military service, and to feed the people is as urgent as it is to defend

them. Hence we put "in requisition all who have anything to do with

handling, transporting or selling provisions and articles of prime

necessity,"[2114] especially combustibles and food--wood-choppers,

carters, raftsmen, millers, reapers, threshers, wine-growers, movers,

field-hands, "country people" of every kind and degree. Their hands

belong to us: we make them bestir themselves and work under the penalty

of fine and imprisonment. There shall be no idlers, especially in crop

time: we take the entire population of a commune or canton into the

fields, comprising "the lazy of both sexes;"[2115] willingly or not,

they shall do the harvesting under our eyes, banded together in fields

belonging to others as well as in their own, and they shall put the

sheaves indiscriminately into the public granary.

But in labor all hangs together, from the initial undertaking to the

final result, from the raw material to the most finished production,

from the great manufacturer down to the pettiest jobber; grasping the

first link of the chain involves grasping the last one. The requisition

here again answers the purpose: we apply it to all pursuits; each is

bound to continue his own; the manufacturer to manufacture, the trader

to trade, even to his own detriment, because, if he works at a loss, the

public profits, and every good citizen ought to prefer public profit to

his own profit.[2116] In effect, let his office be what it will, he

is an employee of the community; therefore, the community may not only

prescribe task-work to him, but select his task; it need not consult

him in the matter, for he has no right to refuse. Hence it is that we

appoint or maintain people in spite of themselves, in the magistracy,

in the army and in every other species of employment. In vain may they

excuse themselves or try get out of the way; they must remain or

become generals, judges, mayors, national agents, town councilors,

commissioners of public welfare or administration,[2117] even against

their will. Too bad for them if the responsibility is expensive or

dangerous, if they have no time for leisure, if they do not feel

themselves qualified for it, if the rank or services seems to them to

lead to a prison or the guillotine; when they declare that the work is

forced labor we reply that they liable to work for the State.--Such is,

henceforth, the condition of all Frenchmen, and likewise of all French

women. We force mothers to take their daughters to the meetings of

popular clubs. We oblige women to parade in companies, and march in

procession at republican festivals; we invade the family and select

the most beautiful to be draped as antique goddesses, and publicly

promenaded on a chariot; we sometimes even designate those among the

rich who must wed patriots[2118]: there is no reason why marriage, which

is the most important of all services, should not be put in requisition

like the others.--Accordingly, we enter families, we carry of the

child, we subject him to a civic education. We are schoolmasters,

philanthropists, theologians, and moralists. We impose by force our

religion and our ritual, our morality and our social customs. We lord it

over private lives and consciences; we dictate ideas, we scrutinize and

punish secret inclinations, we tax, imprison and guillotine not only

the evil-disposed, but again "the indifferent, the moderate and the

egoists."[2119] Over and above his visible acts we dictate to the

individual his ideas and his deepest feelings; we prescribe to him his

affections as well as his beliefs, and, according to a preconceived

type, we refashion his intellect, his conscience and his sensibilities.

III. The object of the State is the regeneration of man.

The object of the State is the regeneration of man.--Two

sides to this undertaking.--Restoration of the Natural man.

--Formation of the Social man.--Grandeur of the undertaking.

--To carry it out, the use of force is a right and a duty.

There is nothing arbitrary in this operation; for the ideal model is

traced beforehand. If the State is omnipotent, it is for the purpose of

"regenerating Mankind," and the theory which confers its rights, at the

same time assigns to it its object. In what does this regeneration

of Man consist?--Consider a domestic animal such as a dog or a horse.

Scrawny, battered, tied up or chained, a thousand are strained and

overworked compared to the few basking in idleness, dying from rich

living; and with all of them, whether fat or lean, the soul is more

spoiled than the body. A superstitious respect keeps them cowed under

their burden, or makes them cringe before their master. Servile,

slothful, gluttonous, feeble, incapable of resisting adversity, if they

have acquired the miserable skills of slavery, they have also contracted

its needs, weaknesses and vices. A crust of absurd habits and perverse

inclinations, a sort of artificial and supplementary being, has covered

over their original nature.--And, on the other hand, the better side of

their original nature has had no chance to develop itself, for lack of

use. Separated from the other, these two parts of its nature have

not acquired the sentiment of community; they do not know, like their

brethren of the prairies, how to help each other and subordinate private

interests to the interests of the flock. Each pulls his own way,

nobody cares for others, all are egoists; social interests have

miscarried.--Such is Man nowadays, a disfigured slave that has to be

restored. Our task, accordingly is two-fold: we have to demolish and we

have to construct; we must first set free the natural Man that we may

afterwards build up the social Man.

It is a vast enterprise and we are conscious of its vastness.

"It is necessary," says Billaud-Varennes,[2120] "that the people to

which one desires to restore their freedom should in some way be created

anew, since old prejudices must be destroyed, old habits changed,

depraved affections improved, superfluous wants restricted, and

inveterate vices extirpated."

But the task is sublime, as the aim is "to fulfill the desires of

nature,[2121] accomplish the destinies of humanity, and fulfill the

promises of philosophy".--"Our purpose," says Robespierre,[2122] "is

to substitute morality for egoism, honesty for honor, principles for

custom, duties for etiquette, the empire of reason for the tyranny of

fashion, contempt of vice for indifference to misfortune, pride for

arrogance, a noble mind for vanity, love of glory for the love of

profit, good people for high society, merit for intrigue, genius for

intellectual brilliancy, the charm of contentment for the boredom of

voluptuous pleasure, the majesty of Man for the high-breeding of

the great, a magnanimous, powerful and happy people for an amiable,

frivolous and wretched people, that is to say, every virtue and miracle

of the Republic in the place of the vices and absurdities of the

monarchy."

We will do this, the whole of it, whatever the cost. Little do we care

for the present generation: we are working for generations to come.

"Man, forced to isolate himself from society, anchors himself in

the future and presses to his heart a posterity innocent of existing

evils."[2123]

He sacrifices to this work his own and the lives of others.

"On the day that I am persuaded," writes Saint-Just, "that it is

impossible to render the French people kind, energetic, tender and

relentless against tyranny and injustice, I will stab myself."

--"What I have done in the South I will do in the North," says Baudot;

"I will convert them into patriots; either they or I must die."--

"We will make France a cemetery," says Carrier, "rather than not

regenerate it our own way."

In vain may the ignorant or the vicious protest; they protest because

they are ignorant or vicious. In vain may the individual plead his

personal rights; he has none: through the social contract, which is

obligatory and solely valid, he has surrendered his entire being; having

made no reservation, "he has nothing to claim." Undoubtedly, some will

grumble, because, with them, the old wrinkle remains and artificial

habits still cover over the original instinct. Untie the mill-horse, and

he will still go round in the same track; let the mountebank's dog be

turned loose, and he will still raise himself on his hind-legs; if we

would bring them back to their natural gait we must handle them roughly.

In like manner, to restore Man to his normal attitude, you must handle

him roughly. But, in this respect, have no scruples,[2124] for we do not

bow him down, we raise him up; as Rousseau says, "we compel him to be

free;" we confer on him the greatest boon a human being can receive; we

bring him back to nature and to justice. For this reason, now that he

is warned, if he persists in his resistance, he is a criminal and merits

every kind of chastisements[2125], for, he declares himself a rebel and

a perjurer, inimical to humanity, and a traitor to the social compact.

IV. Two distortions of the natural man.

Two distortions of the natural man.--Positive religion.

--Proscription of the orthodox cult.--Measures against unsworn

priests.--Measures against the loyal orthodox.--Destruction

of the constitutional cult.--Pressure on the sworn priests.

--Churches closed and ceremonies suppressed.--Continuation of

these persecutions until the Consulate.

Let us (Taine lets the Jacobin say) begin by figuring to ourselves the

natural man; certainly we of to-day have some difficulty in recognizing

him; he bears but little resemblance to the artificial being who (in

1789) stands in his shoes, the creature which an antiquated system of

constraint and fraud has deformed, held fast in his hereditary harness

of thralldom and superstition, blinded by his religion and held in check

by prestige, exploited by his government and tamed by dint of blows,

always with a halter on, always put to work in the wrong way and against

nature, whatever stall he may occupy, high or low, however full or

empty his crib may be, now in menial service like the blinded hack-horse

turning the mill-wheel, and now on parade like a trained dog which,

decked with flags, shows off its antics before the public.[2126] But

imagine all these out of the way, the flags and the bands, the fetters

and compartments in the social stable, and you will see a new man

appearing, the original man, intact and healthy in mind, soul and

body.--In this condition, he is free of prejudice, he is not ensnared in

a net of lies, he is neither Jew, Protestant nor Catholic; if he tries

to imagine the universe as a whole and the principle of events, he will

not let himself be duped by a pretended revelation; he will listen only

to his own reason; he may chance, now and then, to become an atheist,

but, generally, he will settle down into a deist.--In this condition

of things he is not fettered by a hierarchy; he is neither noble nor

commoner, land-owner nor tenant, inferior nor superior. Independent

of the others, all are equal, and, if all agree in the forming of an

association, their common-sense will stipulate that its first article

shall secure the maintenance of this primordial equality.--Such is man,

as nature made him, as history has unmade him, and as the Revolution is

to re-make him.[2127] One cannot batter away too vigorously against the

two casings that hold him tight, one the positive religion which narrows

and perverts his intellect, and the other the social inequality which

perverts and weakens his will;[2128] for, at every effort, some band is

loosened, and, as each band gives way, the paralyzed limbs recover their

action.

Let us trace, (say the Jacobins), the progress of this liberating

operation.--Always timid and at loggerheads with the ecclesiastical

organization, the Constituent Assembly could take only half-measures; it

cut into the bark without daring to drive the ax into the solid trunk.

Its work reduced itself down to the confiscation of clerical property,

to a dissolution of the religious orders, and to a check upon the

authority of the pope; its object was to establish a new church and

transform priests into sworn functionaries of the State, and this

was all. As if Catholicism, even administrative, would cease to be

Catholicism! As if the noxious tree, once stamped with the public seal,

would cease to be noxious! Instead of the old laboratory of falsehoods

being destroyed another one is officially established alongside of it,

so that there are now two instead of one. With or without the official

label it operates in every commune in France and, as in the past, it

distributes with impunity its drug to the public. This is precisely

what we, (the Jacobins) cannot tolerate.--We must, indeed, keep up

appearances, and, as far as words go, we will decree anew freedom

of worship.[2129] But, in fact and in practice, we will demolish the

laboratory and prevent the drug from being sold; there shall no longer

be any Catholic worship in France, no baptism, no confession, no

marriage, no extreme unction, no mass; nobody shall preach or listen

to a sermon; nobody shall administer or receive a sacrament, save

in secret, and with the prospect before him of imprisonment or the

scaffold.--With this object in mind, we do one thing at a time. There

is no problem with the Church claiming to be be orthodox: its members

having refused to take the oath are outlaws; one excludes oneself

from an association when one repudiates the pact; they have lost their

qualifications as citizens and have become ordinary foreigners under

the surveillance of the police; and, as they propagate around them

discontent and disobedience, they are not only foreigners but seditious

persons, enemies in disguise, the authors of a secret and widespread

Vendée; it is not necessary for us to prosecute them as charlatans, it

is sufficient to strike them down as rebels. As such, we have already

banished from France all unsworn ecclesiastics, about forty thousand

priests, and we are deporting those who did not cross the frontier

within the allotted time: we allow only sexagenarians and the infirm to

remain on French soil, and, again, as prisoners and in seclusion; they

incur the penalty of death if they do not of their own accord report to

the prisons of their country town; the banished who return home incur

the penalty of death, and there is penalty of death against those who

shelter priests.[2130] Consequently, in default of an orthodox clergy,

there must no longer be an orthodox worship; the most dangerous of the

two manufactories of superstition is shut down. That the sale of this

poisonous food may be more surely stopped we punish those who ask for it

the same as those who provide it, and we prosecute not only the pastors,

but, again, the fanatics of the flock; if these are not the authors of

the ecclesiastical rebellion they are its promoters and accomplices.

Now, thanks to the schism among them, we already know who they are,

and, in each commune, the list is made out. We style as fanatics all who

reject the ministry of the sworn priests, the bourgeois who calls him an

interloper, all the nuns who do not confess to him, all the peasants who

stay away from his mass, all the old women who do not kiss his paten,

and all the relations of an infant who do not wish him to baptize it.

All these people and those who associate with them, whether allied,

close relatives, friends, guests or visitors, of whatever class, either

men or women, are seditious at heart, and, therefore, "suspects." We

deprive them of their electoral rights, we withdraw their pensions, we

impose on them special taxation, we confine them to their dwellings, we

imprison them by thousands, and guillotine them by hundreds; the

rest will gradually become discouraged and abandon an impracticable

cult.[2131]--The lukewarm remain, the sheep-like crowd which holds on

to its rites: the Constituent Assembly will seize them wherever it finds

them, and, as they are the same in the authorized as in the refractory

church, instead of seeking them with the priest who does not submit, it

will seek them with the one who does. But it will proceed without zeal,

without confidence, often even with distrust, questioning itself whether

these rites, being administered by one who is excommunicated, are not of

doubtful quality. Such a church is not sound, and we have only to

give it a push to knock it down. We will do all we can to discredit

constitutional priests: we will prohibit them from wearing the

ecclesiastical costume, and force them by law to bestow the nuptial

benediction on their apostate brethren; we will employ terror and

imprisonment to constrain them to marry; we will given them no respite

until they return to civil life, some admitting themselves to be

impostors, many by surrendering their priestly credentials, and most

of them by resigning their places.[2132] Deprived of leaders by these

voluntary or forced desertions, the Catholic flock will allow itself

to be easily led out of the fold, while, to remove all temptation to go

back, we will tear the enclosure down. In the communes in which we are

masters we will make the Jacobins of the place demand the abolition

of worship, while, in other communes, we will get rid of this

authoritatively through our missionary representatives. We will close

the churches, demolish the steeples, melt down the bells, send all

sacred vessels to the Mint, smash the images of the saints, desecrate

relics, prohibit religious burials, impose the civil burial, prescribe

rest during the décadi[2133] and labor on Sundays. No exception

whatever. Since all positive religions deal in error, we will outlaw

them all: we will exact from Protestant clergymen a public abjuration;

we will not let the Jews practice their ceremonies; we will have "an

'auto-da-fé,' of all the books and symbols of the faith of Moses."[2134]

But, of all these various juggling machines, the worst is the Catholic,

the most hostile to nature due to the celibacy of its priesthood, the

most opposed to reason in the absurdity of its dogmas, the most opposed

to democracy, since its powers are delegated from above downwards,

the best protected from civil authority because its head is outside

of France.[2135] Accordingly, we must be most furious against it; even

after Thermidor,[2136] we will keep up constant persecution, great and

small; up to the Consulate, we will deport and shoot the priests, we

will revive against fanatics the laws of the Reign of Terror, we will

hamper their movements, we will exhaust their patience; we will keep

them anxious during the day and restless at night; we will not give them

a moment's repose.[2137] We will restrict the population to the decadal

cult only; we will change the market-days, so that no believer shall

be able to buy fish on a fast-day.[2138]--We have nothing more at heart

than this war against Catholicism; no article on our program will be

carried out with more determination and perseverance. The question

involved is truth. We are its guardians, its champions, its ministers,

and never did the servants of truth apply force with such minute detail

and such effect to the extirpation of error.

V. Equality and Inequality.

Social inequality.--Malice of the aristocratic race.

--Measures against the King and Nobles.--Malice of the

aristocracy of wealth.--Measures against landowners,

capitalists and people with incomes.--Destruction of large

fortunes.--Measures taken to prevent the large fortunes in

reconstituting themselves.

Next to superstition there is another monster to be destroyed, and, also

here it was the Constituent Assembly that had begun the assault. But it

had also, through lack of courage or of logic, it stopped, after two or

three feeble blows:

* Banning of heraldic insignia, titles of nobility and territorial

names;

* abolition, without indemnity, of all the dues belonging to the

seigneur by right of his former proprietorship over persons;

* abolition of the permission to purchase other feudal rights at a price

agreed upon,

* limitation of royal power. This was little enough. When it concerns

usurpers and tyrants they must be treated in another fashion; for their

privilege is, of itself, an outrage on the rights of man. Consequently,

* we (the Jacobins) have dethroned the King and cut off his head;[2139]

* we have suppressed, without indemnity, the entire feudal debt,

comprising the rights vested in the seigneurs by virtue of their being

owners of real-estate, and merely lessors;

* we have abandoned their persons and possessions to the claims and

rancor of local jacqueries;

* we have reduced them to emigration;

* we imprison them if they stay at home;

* we guillotine them if they return.

(As the aristocrats are)Reared in habits of supremacy, and convinced

that they are of a different species from other men, the prejudices of

their race are incorrigible; they are incapable of companionship with

their social equals; we cannot too carefully crush them out, or, at the

very least, hold them firmly down.[2140] Besides, they are guilty from

the fact of having existed; for, they have taken both the lead and the

command without any right to do so, and, in violation of all right, they

have misused mankind; having enjoyed their rank, it is but just that

they should pay for it. Privileged in reverse, they must be treated the

same as vagabonds were treated under their reign,

* stopped by the police and sent off with their families into the

interior,

* crowded into prisons,

* executed in a mass, or, at least,

* expelled from Paris, the seaports and fortified towns, put on the

limits,

* compelled to present themselves daily at the municipality,

* deprived of their political rights,

* excluded from public offices, "popular clubs, committees of

supervision and from communal and section assemblages."[2141]

Even this is indulgence; branded with infamy, we ought to class them

with galley-slaves, and set them to work on the public highways.[2142]

"Justice condemns the people's enemies and the partisans of tyranny to

eternal slavery."[2143]

But that is not enough, because, apart from the aristocracy of rank,

there are other aristocracies which the Constituent Assembly has left

untouched,[2144] especially the aristocracy of wealth. Of all the

sovereignties, that of the rich man over the poor one is the most

burdensome. In effect, not only, in contempt of equality, does he

consume more than his share of the common products of labor, and without

producing anything himself, but again, in contempt of liberty, he may

fix wages as he pleases, and, in contempt of humanity, he always fixes

them at the lowest point. Between himself and the needy he never makes

other than the most unjust contracts. Sole possessor of land, capital

and the necessities of life, he imposes conditions which others,

deprived of means, are forced to accept at the risk of starvation; he

speculates at his discretion on wants which cannot be put off, and makes

the most of his monopoly by maintaining the poor in their destitute

situations. That is why, writes Saint Just:[2145]

"Opulence is a disgrace; for every thousand livres expenditure of this

kind a smaller number of natural or adopted children can be looked

after."--

"The richest Frenchman," says Robespierre, "ought not to have now more

three thousand livres rental."--

Beyond what is strictly necessary, no property is legitimate; we have

the right to take the superfluous wherever we find it. Not only to-day,

because we now require it for the State and for the poor, but at all

times, because the superfluous, in all times, confers on its owner an

advantage in contracts, a control of wages, an arbitrary power over

the means of living, in short, a supremacy of condition worse than

preeminence in rank. Consequently, our hand is not only against the

nobles, but also against the rich and well-to-do bourgeois[2146] the

large land-owners and capitalists; we are going to demolish their crafty

feudalism from top to bottom.[2147]--In the first place, and merely

through the effect of the new institutions, we prevent any capitalist

from deducting, as he is used to do, the best portion of the fruits of

another's labor; the hornets shall no longer, year after year, consume

the honey of the bees. To bring this about, we have only to let the

assignats (paper money) and their forced rate (of exchange) work things

out. Through the depreciation of paper-money, the indolent land-owner

or capitalist sees his income melting away in his hands; his receipts

consist only of nominal values. On the 1st of January, his tenant pays

him really for a half term instead of a full term; on the 1st of March,

his farmer settles his account with a bag of grain.[2148] The effect

is just the same as if we had made fresh contracts, and reduced by

one-half, three-quarters, or, even more, the rate of interest on loans,

the rent of houses and the leases of farm lands.--Whilst the revenue of

the landlord evaporates, his capital melts away, and we do the best

we can to help this along. If he has claims on ancient corporations

or civil and religious establishments of any description, whether

provincial governments, congregations, associations, endowments or

hospitals, we withdraw his special guarantee; we convert his title-deeds

into a state annuity, we combine his private fortune with the public

fortune whether he will or not, we drag him into the universal

bankruptcy, toward which we are conducting all the creditors of the

Republic.[2149]--Besides, to ruin him, we have more direct and prompt

means. If an émigré, and there are hundreds of thousands of émigrés, we

confiscate his possessions. If he has been guillotined or deported, and

there are tens of thousands of these, we confiscate his possessions.

If he is "recognized as an enemy of the Revolution,"[2150] and "all

the rich pray for the counter-revolution,"[2151] we sequestrate his

property, enjoying the usufruct of it until peace is declared, and we

shall have the property after the war is over. Usufruct or property, the

State, in either case, inherits; at the most we might grant temporary

aid to the family, which is not even entitled to maintenance.

It is impossible to uproot fortunes more thoroughly. As to those which

are not at once eradicated we get rid of them piecemeal, and against

these we employ two axes:

On the one hand, we decree the principle of progressive taxation, and

on this basis we establish the forced loan:[2152] in incomes, we

distinguish between the essential and the surplus; we fix according as

the excess is greater or less we take a quarter, a third or the half of

it, and, when above nine thousand francs, the whole; beyond its small

alimentary reserve, the most opulent family will keep only four thousand

five hundred francs income.

On the other hand, we cut deep into capital through revolutionary taxes;

our committees and provincial proconsuls levy arbitrarily what suits

them, three hundred, five hundred, up to one million two hundred

thousand francs,[2153] on this or that banker, trader, bourgeois or

widow, payable within a week; all the worse for the person taxed if he

or she has no money on hand and is unable to borrow it; we declare them

"suspects," we imprison them, we sequestrate their property and the

State enjoys it in their place.

In any event, even when the amount is paid, we force him or her

to deposit their silver and gold coin in our hands, sometimes with

assignats as security, and often nothing; henceforth, money must

circulate and the precious metals are in requisition;[2154] everybody

will deliver up what plate he possesses. And let nobody presume to

conceal his hoard; all treasure, whether silver-plate, diamonds,

ingots, gold or silver, coined or un-coined, "discovered, or that may

be discovered, buried in the ground or concealed in cellars, inside of

walls or in garrets, under floors, pavements, or hearthstones, or in

chimneys and other hiding places,"[2155] becomes the property of

the Republic, with a premium of twenty per cent. in assignats to the

informer.--As, furthermore, we make requisitions for bed-linen, beds,

clothes, provisions, wines and the rests, along with specie and precious

metals, the condition of the mansion may be imagined, especially after

we have lodged in it; it is the same as if the house had been on fire;

all movable property and all real estate have perished.--Now that both

are destroyed they must not be allowed to accumulate again. To ensure

this,

1. we abolish, according to rule, the freedom of bequest,[2156]

2. we prescribe equal and obligatory divisions of all

inheritances;[2157]

3. we include bastards in this under the same title as legitimate

children;

4. we admit representation à l'infini,[2158] "in order to multiply heirs

and parcel out inheritances;"[2159]

5. we reduce the disposable portion to one-tenth, in the direct line,

and one-sixth in a collateral line;

6. we forbid any gift to persons whose income exceeds one thousand

quintals of grain;

7. we inaugurate adoption, "an admirable institution," and essentially

republican, "since it brings about a division of large properties

without a crisis."

Already, in the Legislative Assembly a deputy had stated that "equal

rights could be maintained only by a persistent tendency to uniformity

of fortunes."[2160]

We have provided for this for the present day and we likewise provide

for it in the future.--None of the vast tumors which have sucked the

sap of the human plant are to remain; we have cut them away with a few

telling blows, while the steady-moving machine, permanently erected

by us, will shear off their last tendrils should they change to sprout

again.

VI. Conditions requisite for making a citizen.

Conditions requisite for making a citizen.--Plans for

suppressing poverty.--Measures in favor of the poor.

In returning Man to his natural condition we have prepared for the

advent of the Social Man. The object now is to form the citizen, and

this is possible only through a leveling of conditions. In a well made

society there shall be "neither rich nor poor"[2161]: we have already

destroyed the opulence which corrupts; it now remains for us to suppress

the poverty which degrades. Under the tyranny of material things, which

is as oppressive as the tyranny of men, Man falls below himself. Never

will a citizen be made out of a poor fellow condemned to remain valet,

hireling or beggar, reduced to thinking only of himself and his daily

bread, asking in vain for work, or, plodding when he gets it, twelve

hours a day at a monotonous pursuit, living like a beast of burden and

dying in a alms-house.[2162] He should have his own bread, his own roof,

and all that is indispensable for life; he must not be overworked, nor

suffer anxiety or constraint;

"he must live independently, respect himself, have a tidy wife and

healthy and robust children."[2163]

The community should guarantee him comfort, security, the certainty of

not going hungry if he becomes infirm, and, if he dies, of not leaving

his family in want.

"It is not enough," says Barère,[2164] "to bleed the rich, to pull down

colossal fortunes; the slavery of poverty must be banished from the soil

of the Republic. No more beggars, no more almsgiving, no poor-houses".

"The poor and unfortunates," says Saint Just, "are the powerful of the

earth; they have a right to speak as masters to the governments which

neglect them;[2165] they have a right to national charity.... In a

democracy under construction, every effort should be made to free people

from having to battle for the bare minimum needed for survival; by labor

if he is fit for work, by education if he is a child, or with public

assistance if he is an invalid or in old age."[2166]

And never had the moment been so favorable. "Rich in property, the

Republic now expects to use the many millions the rich would have spent

on a counter revolution for the improvement of the conditions of its

less fortunate citizens... Those who would assassinate liberty have made

it the richer. The possessions of conspirators exist for the benefit of

the unfortunate."[2167]--Let the poor take with a clear conscience: it

is not a charity but "an indemnity" which we provide for them; we save

their pride by providing for their comfort, and we relieve them without

humiliating them.

"We leave charity and benevolent works to the monarchies; this insolent

and shabby way of furnishing assistance is fit only for slaves and

masters; we substitute for it a system of national works, on a grand

scale, over the whole territory of the Republic."[2168]

On the other hand, we cause a statement to be drawn up in each commune,

of "the condition of citizens without property," and "of national

possessions not disposed of;" we divide these possession in small lots;

we distribute them "in the shape of national sales" to poor folks able

to work. We give, "through the form of rental, "an acre to each head

of a family who has less than an acre of his own. "We thus bind all

citizens to the country as well as to property. We restore idle and

robust arms to the soil, and lost or weakened families to the workshops

in the towns."--As to old and infirm farmers or craftsmen, also poor

mothers, wives and widows of artisans and farmers, we keep in each

department a "big ledger of national welfare;" we inscribe thereon for

every thousand inhabitants, four farmers, two mechanics, five women,

either mothers or widows; each registered person shall be pensioned

by the State, the same as a maimed soldier; labor-invalids are as

respectable as war-invalids.--Over and above those who are thus aided

on account of poverty, we relieve and elevate the entire poor class, not

alone the thirteen hundred thousand destitutes counted in France,[2169]

but, again, all who, having little or no means on hand, live from day

to day on what they can earn. We have passed a law[2170] by which the

public treasury shall, through a tax on large fortunes, "furnish to each

commune or district the necessary funds for adapting the price of bread

to the rate of wages." Our representatives in the provinces impose

on the wealthy the obligation of "lodging, feeding, and clothing all

infirm, aged, and indigent citizens and orphans of their respective

cantons."[2171] Through the decree on monopolization and the

establishment of the "maximum" we bring within reach of the poor all

objects of prime necessity. We pay them forty sous a day for attending

district meetings; and three francs a day for serving on committees of

surveillance. We recruit from amongst them our revolutionary army;[2172]

we select amongst them the innumerable custodians of sequesters: in

this way, hundreds of thousands of sans-culottes enter into the various

public services.--At last, the poor are taken out of a state of poverty:

each will now have his plot of ground, his salary or pension;

"in a well-ordered republic nobody is without some property."[2173]

Henceforth, among individuals, the difference in welfare will be small;

from the maximum to the minimum, there will be only a degree, while

there will be found in every dwelling about the same sort of household,

a plain, simple household, that of the small rural proprietor, well-off

farmer or factory foreman; that of Rousseau at Montmorency, or that

of the Savoyard Vicar, or that of Duplay, the carpenter, with whom

Robespierre lodges.[2174] There will be no more domestic servitude:

"only the bond of help and gratitude will exists between employer and

employee."[2175]--He who works for another citizen belongs to his family

and sits at his table."[2176]--Through the transformation of lower

social classes into middle class conditions we restore human dignity,

and out of the proletarian, the valet and the workman, we begin to

liberate the citizen.

VII. Socialist projects.

Repression of Egoism.--Measures against farmers,

manufacturers and merchants.--Socialist projects.

--Repression of Federalism.--Measures against the local,

professional and family spirit.

Two leading obstacles hinder the development of civism, and the first is

egoism. Whilst the citizen prefers the community to himself, the egoist

prefers himself to the community. He cares only for his own interest, he

gives no heed to public necessities; he sees none of the superior

rights which take precedence of his derived right; he supposes that his

property is his own without restriction or condition; he forgets

that, if he is allowed to use it, he must not use it to another's

detriment.[2177] This even the middle or low class, who possess goods

essential for survival, will do. The greater the demand for these

goods the higher they raise their prices; soon, they sell only at an

exorbitant rate, and worse still, stop selling and store their goods or

products, in the expectation of selling them dearer. In this way, they

speculate on another's wants; they augment the general distress and

become public enemies. Nearly all the agriculturists, manufacturers

and tradesmen of the day, little and big, are public enemies--farmers,

tenant farmers, market-gardeners, cultivators of every degree, as well

as foremen, shopkeepers, especially wine-dealers, bakers and butchers.

"All merchants are essentially anti-revolutionaries, and would sell

their country to gain a few pennies."[2178]

We will not tolerate this legal brigandage. Since "agriculture has done

nothing for liberty and has sought only its own gain,"[2179] we will put

it under surveillance, and, if necessary, under control. Since

"commerce has become a species of miserly tyrant," since "it has become

self-paralyzed," and, "through a sort of anti-revolutionary contempt,

neglected the manufacture, handling and expedition of diverse

materials," we will thwart "the calculations of its barbarous

arithmetic, and purge it of the aristocratic and corrupting fermentation

which oppresses it." We make monopoly "a capital crime;"[2180] we call

him a monopolist who "takes food and wares of prime necessity out of

circulation," and "keeps them stored without daily and publicly offering

them for sale." Penalty of death against whoever, within eight days,

does not make a declaration, or if he makes a false one. Penalty of

death against the dealer who does not post up the contents of his

warehouse, or who does not keep open shop. Penalty of death against

any person who keeps more bread on hand than he needs for his

subsistence.[2181] Penalty of death against the cultivator who does not

bring his grain weekly to market. Penalty of death against the dealer

who does not post up the contents of his warehouse, or who does not keep

open shop. Penalty of death against the manufacturer who does not verify

the daily use of his workable material.--As to prices, we intervene

authoritatively between buyer and seller; we fix the maximum price for

all objects which, near or remotely, serve to feed, warm and clothe man;

we will imprison whoever offers or demands anything more. Whether the

dealer or manufacturer pays expenses at this rate, matters not; if,

after the maximum is fixed, he closes factory, or gives up business, we

declare him a "suspect;" we chain him down to his pursuit, we oblige

him to lose by it.--This is the way to clip the claws of beasts of prey,

little and big! But the claws grow out again, and, instead of paring

them down, it would probably be better to pull them out. Some amongst us

have already thought of that; the right of pre-emption shall be applied

to every article; "in each department, national storehouse might be

established where farmers, land-owners and manufacturers would be

obliged to deposit at a fixed price, paid down, the surplus of their

consumption of every species of merchandise. The nation would distribute

this merchandise to wholesale dealers, reserving a profit of six per

cent. The profit of the wholesale dealer would be fixed at eight per

cent and that of the retailer at twelve per cent."[2182] In this way,

farmers, manufacturers, and merchants would all become clerks of the

State, appointed on a premium or a discount; unable to gain a great

deal, they would not be tempted to gain too much; they would cease to be

greedy and soon cease to be egoists.[2183]--Since, fundamentally,

egoism is the capital vice and individual proprietorship the food that

nourishes it, why not suppress individual proprietorship altogether? Our

extreme logicians, with Babæuf at the head of them, go as far as that,

and Saint-Just seems to be of that opinion.[2184] We are not concerned

with the enacting of an Agrarian; the nation may reserve the soil to

itself and divide among individuals, not the soil, but its lease. The

outcome of this principle affords us a glimpse of an order of things in

which the State, sole proprietor of real-estate, sole capitalist, sole

manufacturer, sole trader, having all Frenchmen in its pay and service,

would assign to each one his task according to his aptitude, and

distribute to each one his rations according to his wants.[2185]--These

various uncompleted plans still float in a hazy distance but their

common purpose is clearly distinguishable.

"All which tends to center human passions on the vile, individual ego

must be repudiated or repressed;"[2186]

We should annihilate special interests, deprive the individual of

the motives and means for self-isolation, suppress preoccupations and

ambitions by which Man makes himself a focal point at the expense of the

real center, in short, to detach him from himself in order to attach him

wholly to the State.

This is why, disregarding the narrow egoism through which the individual

prefers himself to the community, we strive towards the enlarged egoism

by which the individual prefers the community to the group of which he

forms a part. Under no pretext must he separate himself from the whole,

at no price, must he be allowed to form for himself a small homeland

within the large one, for, by the affection he entertains for the small

one, he frustrates the objects of the large one. Nothing is worse than

political, civil, religious and domestic federalism; we combat it under

all its forms.[2187] In this particular, the Constituent Assembly has

paved the way for us, since it has broken up all the principal historic

or material groups by which men have separated themselves from the

masses and formed a band apart, provinces, clergy, nobles, parliaments,

religious orders and trades-unions. We complete its work, we destroy

churches, we suppress literary or scientific associations, educational

or benevolent societies, even down to financial companies.[2188] We

prohibit any departmental or commercial "local spirit:" we find

"odious and opposed to all principles, that, amongst municipalities,

some should be rich and others poor, that one should have immense

patrimonial possessions and another nothing but debts."[2189]

We regard these possessions as the nation's, and we place indebtedness

to the nation's account. We take grain from rich communes and

departments, to feed poor communes and departments. We build bridges,

roads and canals of each district, at the expense of the State;

"we centralize the labor of the French people in a broad, opulent

fashion."[2190] We want no more local interests, recollections,

dialects, idioms and patriotisms. Only one bond should subsist between

individuals, that which attaches them to the social body. We sunder all

others; we do not tolerate any special aggregation; we do the best we

can to break up the most tenacious of all, the family.--We therefore

give marriage the status of an ordinary contract: we render this loose

and precarious, resembling as much as possible the free and transient

union of the sexes; it shall be dissolved at the option of both parties,

and even of one of the parties, after one month of formalities and of

probation. If the couple has lived separate six months; the divorce

may be granted without any probation or delay; divorced parties may

re-marry. On the other hand, we suppress marital authority: since

spouses are equal, each has equal rights over common property and the

property of each other; we deprive the husband of its administration and

render it "common" to both parties. We abolish "paternal authority;"

"it is cheating nature to enforce her rights through constraint.. ..

The only rights that parents have are those of protection and

watchfulness."[2191]

The father can no longer control the education of his children;

the State takes charge of it. The father is no longer master of his

property; that portion he can dispose of by donation or testament is

of the smallest; we prescribe an equal and forced division of

property.--Finally we preach adoption, we efface bastardy, we confer on

children born of free love, or of a despotic will, the same rights as

those of legitimate children. In short, we break that sacred circle,

that exclusive group, that aristocratic organization which, under

the name of the family, was created out of pride and

egoism.[2192]--Henceforth, affection and obedience will no longer be

frittered away; the miserable supports to which they have clung like ivy

vines, castes, churches, corporations, provinces, communes or families,

are ruined and rooted out; on the ground which is thus leveled, the

State alone remains standing, and it alone offers any point of adhesion;

all these vines are about to twine themselves in on trunk about the

great central column.

VIII. Indoctrination of mind and intellect.

Indoctrination of mind and intellect.--Civil religion.

--National education.--Egalitarian moral standards.

--Obligatory civism.--The recasting and reduction of human

nature to the Jacobin type.

Let not Man go astray, let us lead him on, let us direct minds and

souls, and, to this end, let us enfold him in our doctrines. He needs

general ideas and the daily experiences flowing out of them; he needs

some theory explaining the origin and nature of things, one which

assigns him his place and the part he has to play in the world, which

teaches him his duties, which regulates his life, which fixes the days

he shall work and the days he shall rest, which stamps itself on

his mind through commemorations, festivals and ceremonies, through a

catechism and a calendar. Up to this time Religion has been the power

charged with this service, interpreted and served by the Church; now

it is to be Reason, interpreted and served by the State.--In this

connection, many among us, disciples of the encyclopedists, constitute

Reason a divinity, and honor her with a system of worship; but it is

plain that they personify an abstraction; their improvised goddess is

simply an allegorical phantom; none of them see in her the intelligent

cause of the world; in the depths of their hearts they deny this Supreme

Cause, their pretended religion being merely a show or a sham.--We

discard atheism, not only because it is false, but again, and more

especially, because it is disintegrating and unwholesome.[2193] We want

an effective, consolatory and fortifying religion, and that religion is

natural religion, which is social as well as true. "Without this,[2194]

as Rousseau has said, it is impossible to be a good citizen......The

existence of divinity, the future life, the sacredness of the social

contract and of the laws," all are its dogmas; "no one may be forced

to believe in these, but whoever dares say that he does not believe in

them, sets himself up against the French people, the human species and

nature." Consequently, we decree that "the French people recognizes the

Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul."--The important thing now

is to plant this entirely philosophic faith in all hearts. We introduce

it into the civil order of things, we take the calendar out of the hands

of the Church, we purge it of its Christian imagery; we make the new era

begin with the advent of the Republic; we divide the year according to

the metric system, we name the months according to the vicissitudes of

the seasons, "we substitute, in all directions, the realities of reason

for the visions of ignorance, the truths of nature for a sacerdotal

prestige,"[2195] the decade for the week, the décadi for Sundays, lay

festivals for ecclesiastical festivals.[2196] On each décadi, through

solemn and appropriate pomp, we impress on the popular mind one of the

highest truths of our creed; we glorify, in the order of their dates,

Nature, Truth, Justice, Liberty, Equality, the People, Adversity,

Humanity, the Republic, Posterity, Glory, Patriotism, Heroism, and other

virtues. Besides this, we honor the important days of the Revolution,

the taking of the Bastille, the fall of the Throne, the punishment

of the tyrant, the expulsion of the Girondins. We, too, have our

anniversaries, our relics, the relics of Chalier and Marat,[2197] our

processions, our services, our ritual,[2198] and the vast system of

visible pageantry by which dogmas are made manifest and propagated. But

ours, instead of leading men off to an imaginary heaven, brings them

back to a living patrimony, and, through our ceremonies as well as

through our creed, we shall preach public-spiritedness (civism).

It is important to preach this to adults, it is still more important to

teach it to children: for children are more easily molded than adults.

Our hold on these still flexible minds is complete, and, through

national education "we seize the coming generations."[2199] Naught is

more essential and naught is more legitimate.

"The country," says Robespierre, "has a right to bring up its own

children; it cannot confide this trust to family pride nor to the

prejudices of individuals, the eternal nourishment of aristocracies and

of a domestic federalism which narrows the soul by keeping it isolated."

We are determined to have "education common and equal for all French

people," and "we stamp on it a great character, analogous to the nature

of our government and the sublime doctrines of our Republic. The aim is

no longer to form gentlemen (messieurs) but citizens."[21100]

We oblige[21101] teachers, male and female, to present certificates of

civism, that is to say, of Jacobinism. We close the school if "precepts

or maxims opposed to revolutionary morality" are taught in it, that is

to say, in conformity with Christian morals. Children will learn to read

in the Declaration of Rights and in the Constitution of 1793. Republican

manuals and catechisms will be prepared for their use.[21102] "They must

be taught the virtuous traits which most honor free men, and especially

the traits characteristic of the French Revolution, the best calculated

to elevate the soul and render them worthy of equality and liberty."

The 14th of July, 10th of August, 2nd of September, 21st of January, and

31st of May must be lauded or justified in their presence. They must be

taken to meetings of the municipalities, to the law courts,[21103]

and especially to the popular clubs; from these pure sources they will

derive a knowledge of their rights, of their duties, of the laws,

of republican morality," and, on entering society, they will find

themselves imbued with all good maxims. Over and above their political

opinions we shape their ordinary habits. We apply on a grand scale the

plan of education drawn out by Jean-Jacques (Rousseau).[21104] We want

no more literary prigs; in the army, "the 'dandy' breaks down during the

first campaign;[21105] we want young men able to endure privation

and fatigue, toughened, like Emile, "by hard work" and physical

exercise.--We have, thus far, only sketched out this department of

education, but the agreement amongst the various plans shows the meaning

and bearings of our principle. "Children generally, without exception,

says Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau,[21106] the boys from five to twelve,

the girls from five to eleven years of age, must be brought up in common

at the expense of the Republic; all, under the sacred law of equality,

are to receive the same clothing, the same food, the same education, the

same attention "in boarding-schools distributed according to cantons,

and containing each from four to six hundred pupils.

"Pupils will be made to submit every day and every moment to the same

rigid rules... Their beds must be hard, their food healthy, but simple,

their clothing comfortable, but coarse." Servants will not be allowed;

children must help themselves and, besides this, they must wait on the

old and infirm, lodged with or near them. "Among daily duties, manual

labor will be the principal thing; all the rest will be accessory."

Girls must learn to spin, sew and wash clothes; the boys will work the

roads, be shepherds, ploughmen and work-hands; both will have tasks set

them, either in the school-workshops, or in the fields and factories in

the neighborhood; they will be hired out to surrounding manufacturers

and to the tillers of the soil. Saint-Just is more specific and

rigid.[21107] "Male children from five to sixteen years of age, must

be raised for their country. They must be clad in common cloth at all

seasons, and have mats for beds, and sleep eight hours. They are to have

common food only, fruits, vegetables, preparations of milk, bread and

water. They must not eat meat before sixteen.. Their education, from ten

to sixteen, is to be military and agricultural. They will be formed into

companies of sixty; six companies make a battalion; the children of

a district form a legion; they will assemble annually at the district

town, encamp there and drill in infantry tactics, in arenas specially

provided for the purpose; they will also learn cavalry maneuvers and

every other species of military evolution. In harvest time they are to

be distributed amongst the harvesters." After sixteen, "they enter

the crafts," with some farmer, artisan, merchant or manufacturer, who

becomes their titular "instructor," and with whom they are bound to

remain up to the age of twenty-one, "under the penalty of being deprived

for life of a citizen's rights.[21108]... All children will dress alike

up to sixteen years of age; from twenty-one to twenty-five, they will

dress as soldiers, if they are not in the magistracy."--Already we show

the effects of the theory by one striking example; we founded the "Ecole

de Mars;"[21109] we select out of each district six boys from sixteen to

seventeen and a half years old "among the children of sans-culottes;"

we summon them to Paris, "to receive there, through a revolutionary

education, whatever belongs to the knowledge and habits of a republican

soldier. They are schooled in fraternity, in discipline, in frugality,

in good habits, in love of country and in detestation of kings." three

or four thousand young people are lodged at the Sablons, "in a palisaded

enclosure, the intervals of which are guarded by chevaux de frises

and sentinels."[21110] We puts them into tents; we feed them with bran

bread, rancid pork, water and vinegar; we drill them in the use of arms;

we march them out on national holidays and stimulate them with patriotic

harangues.--Suppose all Frenchmen educated in such a school; the habits

they acquire in youth will persist in the adult, and, in each adult we

shall find the sobriety, energy and patriotism of a Spartan or Roman.

Already, under the pressure of our decrees, civism affects customs, and

there are manifest signs, on all sides, of public regeneration. "The

French people," says Robespierre, "seems to have outstripped the rest

of humanity, by two thousand years; one might be tempted to regard them,

living amongst them, as a different species. In the rest of Europe, a

ploughman, an artisan, is an animal formed for the pleasures of a noble;

in France, the nobles are trying to transform themselves into ploughmen

and artisans, but do not succeed in obtaining that honor."[21111]

Life in all directions is gradually assuming democratic forms Wealthy

prisoners are prohibited from purchasing delicacies, or procuring

special conveniences; they eat along with the poor prisoners the same

ration, at the common mess[21112]. Bakers have orders to make but one

quality of bread, the brown bread called equality bread, and, to obtain

his ration, each person must place himself in line with the rest of the

crowd. On holidays[21113] everybody will bring his provisions down into

the street and eat as one family with his neighbor; on décadi all are to

sing and dance together, pell-mell, in the temple of the Supreme being.

The decrees of the Convention and the orders of the representatives

impose the republican cockade on women; public opinion and example

impose on men the costume and appearance of sans-culottes we see even

dandies wearing mustaches, long hair, red cap, vest and heavy wooden

shoes.[21114] Nobody calls a person Monsieur or Madame; the only titles

allowed are citoyen and citoyenne while thee and Thou is the general

rule. Rude familiarity takes the place of monarchical politeness; all

greet each other as equals and comrades.[21115] There is now only one

tone, one style, one language; revolutionary forms constitute the

tissue of speech, as well as of written discourse; thought now seems

to consists entirely of our ideas and phrases.[21116] All names are

transformed, those of months and of days, those of places and of

monuments, baptismal names and names of families: St. Denis has become

Franciade; Peter Gaspard is converted into Anaxagoras, and Antoine-Louis

into Brutus; Leroi, the deputy, calls himself Laloi, and Leroy, the

jurist, calls himself August-Tenth.--By dint of thus shaping the

exterior we reach the interior, and through outward civism we prepare

internal civism. Both are obligatory, but the latter much more so than

the former; for that is the fundamental principle,[21117] "the incentive

which sustains and impels a democratic and popular government." It

is impossible to apply the social contract if everybody does not

scrupulously observe the first clause of it, namely, the complete

surrender of himself to the community; everybody, then, must give

himself up entirely, not only actually but heartily, and devote himself

to the public good, which public good is the regeneration of Man as we

have defined it. The veritable citizen is he who thus marches along

with us. With him, as with us, abstract truths of philosophy control the

conscience and govern the will. He starts with our articles of faith and

follows them out to the end; he endorses our acts, he recites our creed,

he observes our discipline, he is a believing and practicing Jacobin,

an orthodox Jacobin, unsullied, and without taint of heresy or schism.

Never does he swerve to the left toward exaggeration, nor to the right

toward toleration; without haste or delay he travels along the narrow,

steep and straight path which we have marked out for him; this is the

pathway of reason, for, as there is but one reason, there is but one

pathway. Let no one swerve from the line; there are abysses on each side

of it. Let us follow our guides, men of principles, the pure, especially

Couthon, Saint-Just and Robespierre; they are choice specimens, all

cast in the true mold, and it is this unique and rigid mold in which all

French men are to be recast.

***** ]

[Footnote 2101: This and the following text are taken from the

"Contrat-Social" by Rousseau. Cf. "The ancient Régime," book III., ch..

IV.]

[Footnote 2102: This idea, so universally prevalent and precocious, is

uttered by Mirabeau in the session of the 10th of August, 1789. (Buchez

et Roux, II., 257.) "I know of but three ways of maintaining one's

existence in society, and these are to be either a beggar, a robber or a

hireling. The proprietor is himself only the first of hirelings. What we

commonly call his property is nothing more than the pay society awards

him for distributing amongst others that which is entrusted to him

to distribute through his expenses and through what he consumes;

proprietors are the agents, the stewards of the social body."]

[Footnote 2103: Report by Roland, January 6, 1793, and by Cambon,

February 1, 1793.]

[Footnote 2104: Buchez et Roux, XXXI., 311. Report by Saint-Just,

Ventôse 8, year II., and decree in conformity therewith.]

[Footnote 2105: Decree of 13 Brumaire, year II.--Report by Cambon, Feb.

1, 1793. Cambon estimates the property alone of the order of Malta and

of the colleges at four hundred million livres.]

[Footnote 2106: Moniteur, XVIII., 419 and 486. Reports by Cambon,

Brumaire 22 and Frimaire 1st, year II. "Let us begin with taking

possession of the leased domains, notwithstanding preceding laws."]

[Footnote 2107: Cf. "The Ancient Régime," p. 14.]

[Footnote 2108: Mallet-Dupan, "Mémoires," II., 19. Moniteur, XVIII.,

565. (Report by Cambon, 11 Frimaire, year II.) Requested to do so by a

popular club of Toulouse, the department of Haute-Garonne has ordered

all possessors of articles in gold or silver to bring them to the

treasuries of their districts to be exchanged for assignats. This order

has thus far brought into the Toulouse treasury about one million five

hundred thousand or one million six hundred thousand livres in gold

and silver. The same at Montauban and other places. "Several of our

colleagues have even decreed the death penalty against whoever did not

bring their gold and silver within a given time."]

[Footnote 2109: Archives Nationales, AF. II., 106. (Order by

representative Beauchamp, l'Isle Jourdan, Pluviose 2, year II.) "All

blue and green cloaks in the departments of Haute-Garonne, as well as

of the Landes, Gers and others, are put in requisition from the present

day. Every citizen possessing blue or green cloaks is required to

declare them at the depot of municipality or other locality where he

may chance to be." If not, he is considered "suspect" is treated as

such.--Ibid., AF.II., 92 (Order issued by Taillefer, Brumaire 3, year

II., at Villefranche-l'Aveyron).--De Martel, "Etude sur Fouché," 368.

(Order by Fouché, Collot d'Herbois and Delaporte: Lyons, Brumaire 21,

year II.)--Moniteur, XVIII., 384. (Session of 19th Brumaire. Letter of

Barras and Fréron, dated at Marseilles.)--Moniteur XVIII., 513 (Orders

by Lebon and Saint-Just, at Strasbourg, Brumaire 24 and 25, year II.)

Letter of Isoré to the minister Bouchotte, November 4, 1793. (Legros,

"La Revolution telle qu'elle est.") The principle of these measures was

laid down by Robespierre in his speech on property (April 24, 1793),

and in his declaration of rights unanimously adopted by the Jacobin Club

(Buchez et Roux, XXVI., 93 and 130).]

[Footnote 2110: Rousset, "Les Volontaires," p. 234 and 254.]

[Footnote 2111: Report by Cambon, Pluviose 3, year III., p.3. "One fifth

of the active population is employed in the common defense."--Decree of

May 12, and Aug. 23, 1793.--Decree of November 22, 1793.--Order of the

Directory, October 18, 1798.]

[Footnote 2112: Moniteur, XIX., 631. Decree of Ventôse 14, year II.

Archives Nationales, D.SI., 10. (Orders by representatives Delacroix,

Louchet and Legendre; Pont-Audemer, Frimaire 14, year II.)--Moniteur,

XVIII, 622.--(Decree of Frimaire 18, year II.)]

[Footnote 2113: Lenin must have read Taine's text during his long

studious stay in Paris. He and Stalin did, in any case try to let the

USSR function in accordance with such central allocated planning. (SR.)]

[Footnote 2114: Decree of 15-18 Floréal, year II. Decree of

September 29, 1793, (in which forty objects of prime necessity are

enumerated.--Article 9 decrees three days imprisonment against workmen

and manufacturers who "without legitimate reason, shall refuse to do

their ordinary task."--Decrees of September 16 and 20, 1793, and that of

September 11, articles 16,19, 20 and 21.]

[Footnote 2115: Archives Nationales, AF. II., III. Order of the

representative Ferry; Bourges, 23 Messidor, year II.--Ibid., AF. II.,

106. Order of the representative Dartigoyte, Auch, Prairial 18, year

II.]

[Footnote 2116: Decree of Brumaire 11, year II., article 7.]

[Footnote 2117: Gouvion Saint Cyr, "Mémoires sur les campagnes de 1792 à

la paix de Campo-Formio," I., 91-109: "Promotion, which every one feared

at this time."... Ibid. 229. "Men who had any resources obstinately

held aloof from any kind of advancement." Archives Nationales, DS. I, 5.

(Mission of representative Albert in L'Aube and La Marne, and especially

the order issued by Albert, Chalons, Germinal 7, year III., with

the numerous petitions of judges and town officers soliciting their

removal.--Letter of the painter Gosse (published in Le Temps, May 31,

1872), which is very curious, showing the trials of those in

private life during the Revolution: "My father was appointed charity

commissioner and quartermaster for the troops; at the time of the

Reign of Terror it would have been imprudent to have refused any

office"--Archives Nationales, F7, 3485. The case of Girard Toussaint,

notary at Paris, who "fell under the sword of the law, Thermidor 9,

year II." This Girard, who was very liberal early in the revolution, was

president of his section in 1789, but, after the 10th of August, he had

kept quiet. The committee of the section of the "Amis de la Patrie,"

"considering that citizen Girard.... came forward only at the time when

the court and Lafayette prevailed against the sans-culottes;" that,

"since equality was established by the Revolution he has deprived his

fellow citizens of his knowledge, which, in a revolution, is criminal,

unanimously agree that the said citizen is "suspect" and order "him to

be sent to the Luxembourg."]

[Footnote 2118: Ludovic Sciout, "Histoire de la Constitution civile

du clergé," IV., 131, 135. (Orders issued by Dartigoyte and de

Pinet).--"Recueil de pieces authentiques serrant à l'histoire de la

révolution à Strasbourg." Vol. I. p. 230. (Speech by Schneider at Barr,

for marrying the patriot Funck.) Schneider, it appears, did still better

on his own account. (Ibid., 317).]

[Footnote 2119: Buchez et Roux, XXIX., 160. (Report of Saint-Just,

October 20, 1793.) "You have to punish not only traitors, but even the

indifferent; you must punish all in the Republic who are passive and do

nothing for it."]

[Footnote 2120: Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 338. Report of the Convention

on the theory of democratic government, by Billaud-Varennes (April 20,

1794).]

[Footnote 2121: Buchez et Roux, XXXI., 270. Report by Robespierre,

on the principles which should guide the National Convention in the

internal administration of the Republic, February 5, 1794.--Cf. "The

ancient Régime," 227-230, the ideas of Rousseau, of which those of

Robespierre are simply a recast.]

[Footnote 2122: Ibid., 270.--The pretension of reforming men's

sentiments is found in all the programs. Ibid., 305. (Report of

Saint-Just, February 26, 1794.) "Our object is to create an order of

things establishing a universal inclination toward the good, and to have

factions immediately hurled upon the scaffold." Ibid., 337. (Report of

Saint-Just, March 13, 1794.--Ibid., 337. (Report of Saint-Just, March

13, 1794.) "We see but one way of arresting the evil, and that is to

convert the revolution into a civil power and wage war on every species

of perversity, as designedly created amongst us for the enervation of

the republic."]

[Footnote 2123: Ibid., XXXV., 276. (Institutions, by Saint-Just.--Ibid.,

287.)--Moniteur, XVIII., 343. Meeting of the Jacobin Club, Brumaire 13,

year II., speech by Baudot.]

[Footnote 2124: Buchez et Roux, XXIX, 142. (Speech by Jean Bon St. André

in the Convention, Sep. 25, 1793.) "We are said to exercise arbitrary

power, we are charged with being despots. We, despots!... Ah, no doubt,

if despotism is to secure the triumph of liberty, such a despotism

is political regeneration." (Applause.)--Ibid, XXXI., 276. (Report by

Robespierre, Pluviose 17, year, II.) "It has been said that terror

is the incentive of despotic government. Does yours, then, resemble

despotism? Yes, as the sword which flashes in the hands of the heroes

of liberty, resembles that with which the satellites of tyranny are

armed..... The government of the Revolution is the despotism of freedom

against tyranny."]

[Footnote 2125: Ibid., XXXII, 353. Decree of April 1791. "The Convention

declares, that, supported by the virtues of the French people, it will

insure the triumph of the democratic revolution and show no pity in

punishing its enemies."]

[Footnote 2126: In the following portrayal of the ancient régime, the

bombast and credulity of the day overflows in the most extravagant

exaggerations (Buchez et Roux, XXXI., 300, Report, by Saint-Just,

February 26, 1794.): "In 1788, Louis XVI. Caused eight thousand persons

of both sexes and of every age to be sacrificed in the rue Meslay and on

the Pont-Neuf. These scenes were repeated by the court on the Champs

de Mars; the court had hangings in the prisons, and the bodies of the

drowned found in the Seine were its victims. These were four hundred

thousand prisoners in confinement; fifteen thousand smugglers were hung

in a year, and three thousand men were broken on the wheel; there were

more prisoners in Paris than there are now... Look at Europe. There

are four millions of people shut up in Europe whose shrieks are never

heard."--Ibid., XXIV., 132. (Speech by Robespierre, May 10, 1793). "Up

to this time the art of governing has simply consisted in the art

of stripping and subduing the masses for the benefit of the few, and

legislation, the mode of reducing these outrages to a system."]

[Footnote 2127: Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 353. (Report by Robespierre

to the Convention, May 7, 1794.) "Nature tells us that man is born for

freedom while the experience of man for centuries shows him a slave. His

rights are written in his heart and history records his humiliation."]

[Footnote 2128: Ibid., 372. "Priests are to morality what charlatans are

to medical practice. How different is the God of nature from the God

of the priests! I know of nothing which is so much like atheism as the

religions they have manufactured." Already, in the Constituent Assembly,

Robespierre wanted to prevent the father from endowing a child. "You

have done nothing for liberty if yours laws do not tend to diminish by

mild and effective means the inequality of fortunes." (Hamel, I., 403.)]

[Footnote 2129: Decree of Frimaire 18, year II.--Note the restrictions:

"The convention, in the foregoing arrangement, has no idea of derogating

from any law or precaution for public safety against refractory or

turbulent priests, or against those who might attempt to abuse the

pretext of religion in order to compromise the cause of liberty. Nor

does it mean to disapprove of what has thus far been done by virtue of

the ordinances of representatives of the people, nor to furnish anybody

with a pretext for unsettling patriotism and relaxing the energy of

public spirit."]

[Footnote 2130: Decrees of May 27, and August 26, 1792, March 18, April

21 and October 20, 1793, April 11, and May 11, 1794.--Add (Moniteur,

XIX., 697) the decree providing for the confiscation of the possessions

of ecclesiastics "who have voluntarily left or been so reported, who

are retired as old or inform, or who have preferred transportation to

retirement."--Ibid., XVIII., 492, (session of Frimaire 2). A speech by

Forester. "As to the priesthood, its continuation has become a disgrace

and even a crime."--Archives Nationales, AF. II., 36. (An order by

Lequinio, representative of the people of Charante-Inférieur, la Vendée

and Deux-Sèvres, Saintes, Nivose 1, year II.) "In order that freedom of

worship may exist in full plenitude it is forbidden to all whom it may

concern to preach or write in favor of any form of worship or religious

opinion whatsoever." And especially "it is expressly forbidden to any

former minister, belonging to any religious sect whatever, to preach,

write or teach morality under penalty of being regarded as a suspect

and, as such, immediately put under arrest.. .. Every man who undertakes

to preach any religious precepts whatsoever is, by that fact, culpable

before the people. He violates ... social equality, which does not

permit the individual to publicly raise his ideal pretensions above

those of his neighbor."]

[Footnote 2131: Ludofic Sciout, "Histoire de la Constitution Civile

du clergé," vols. III. and IV., passim.--Jules Sauzay, "Histoire de la

persécution révolutionaire dans le Doubs," vols. III., IV., V., and

VI., particularly the list, at the end of the work, of those deported,

guillotined, sent into the interior and imprisoned.]

[Footnote 2132: Order of the day of the Convention September 17, 1792;

circular of the Executive Council, January 22, 1793; decrees of

the Convention, July 19, August 12, September 17, November 15,

1793.--Moniteur, October, and November, 1793, passim. (November 23,

Order of the Paris Commune, closing the churches.)--In relation to

the terror the constitutional priests were under, I merely give the

following extracts (Archives Nationales, F7,31167): "Citizen Pontard,

bishop of the department of Dordogne, lodging in the house of citizen

Bourbon, No. 66 faubourg Saint-Honoré, on being informed that there was

an article in a newspaper called "le Republican" stating that a meeting

of priests had been held in the said house, declares that he had no

knowledge of it; that all the officers in charge of the apartments are

in harmony with the Revolution; that, if he had had occasion to suspect

such a circumstance, he would have move out immediately, and that if

any motive can possibly be detected in such a report it is his proposed

marriage with the niece of citizen Caminade, an excellent patriot and

captain of the 9th company of the Champs-Elysées section, a marriage

which puts an end to fanaticism in his department, unless this be

done by the ordination of a priest à la sans-culotte which he had done

yesterday in the chapel, another act in harmony with the Revolution. It

is well to add, perhaps, that one of his curés now in Paris has called

on him, and that he came to request him to second his marriage. The

name of the said curé is Greffier Sauvage; he is still in Paris, and

is preparing to be married the same time as himself. Aside from these

motives, which may have given rise to some talk, citizen Pontard sees no

cause whatever for suspicion. Besides, so thoroughly patriotic as he,

he asks nothing better than to know the truth, in order to march along

unhesitatingly in the revolutionary path. He sighs his declaration,

promising to support the Revolution on all occasions, by his writings as

well as by his conduct. He presents the two numbers of his journal which

he has had printed in Paris in support of the principles he adheres

to. At Paris, September 7, 1793, year II. Of the Republic, one and

indivisible. F. Pontard, bishop of the Republic in the department

of Dordogne."--Dauban La Demagogie en 1793, p. 557. Arrest of

representative Osselin, letter his brother, curé of Saint-Aubin, to the

committee of section Mutius Scoevola, Brumaire 20, year II.,"Like Brutus

and Mutius Scoevola, I trample on the feelings with which I idolised

my brother! O, truth, thou divinity of republicans, thou knowest the

incorruptibility of may intentions!" (and so on for fifty-three lines).

"These are my sentiments, I am fraternally, Osselin, minister of worship

at Saint-Aubin."--P.S. "It was just as I was going to answer a call of

nature that I learned this afflicting news." (He keeps up this bombast

until words fail him, and finally, frightened to death, and his

brain exhausted, he gives this postscript to show that he was not an

accomplice.)]

[Footnote 2133: A term denoting the substitution of ten instead of seven

days as a division of time in the calendar, and forced into use during

the Revolution.]

[Footnote 2134: "Recuil de pieces authentiques servant à l'histoire de

la revolution à Strasbourg," II., 299. (A district order.)]

[Footnote 2135: Later, when Lenin and Stalin resurrected Jacobinism,

they placed the headquarters of any subversive movement outside the

country where it operated. (SR.)]

[Footnote 2136: Thermidor refers to the a very important day and event

during the French Revolution: the day Robespierre fell: Thermidor 9,

year II, (July 27, 1794), Robespierre's fall, effective the 10, was

prepared by his adversaries, Tallien, Barras, Fouché etc., essentially

because they feared for their lives. Robespierre and 21 of his followers

were executed on the evening of the 10th of Thermidor year II. (SR.).]

[Footnote 2137: Ludovic Sciout, IV., 426. (Instructions sent by the

Directory to the National Commissions, Frimaire, year II.)--Ibid., ch.

X. to XVIII.]

[Footnote 2138: Ibid., IV., 688.An order of the Director, Germinal 14,

year VI.--"The municipal governments will designate special days in each

decade for market days in their respective districts, and not allow,

in any case, their ordinance to be set aside on the plea that the said

market days would fall on a holiday. They will specially strive to

break up all connection between the sales of fish and days of fasting

designated on the old calendar. Every person exposing food or wares

on sale in the markets on days other than those fixed by the municipal

government will be prosecuted in the police court for obstructing a

public thoroughfare."--The Thermidorians remain equally as anti-Catholic

as their predecessors; only, they disavow open persecution and rely on

slow pressure. (Moniteur, XIII., 523. Speech by Boissy d'Anglas, Ventôse

3, year II.) "Keep an eye on what you cannot hinder; regulate what you

cannot prohibit.... It will not be long before these absurd dogmas, the

offspring of fear and error, whose influence on the human mind has been

so steadily destructive, will be known only to be despised.... It will

not be long before the religion of Socrates, of Marcus Aurelius and

Cicero will be the religion of the whole world."]

[Footnote 2139: Moniteur, XVI., 646. (The King's trial.) Speech by

Robespierre: "the right of punishing the tyrant and of dethroning him is

one and the same thing."--Speech by Saint-Just: "Royalty is an eternal

crime, against which every man has the right of taking up arms... To

reign innocently is impossible!"]

[Footnote 2140: Epigraph of Marat's journal: Ute readapt miseries, abet

Fortuna superb is.]

[Footnote 2141: Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 323. (Report of Saint-Just,

Germinal 21, year II., and a decree of Germinal 26-29, Art. 4, 13,

15.)--Ibid., 315.]

[Footnote 2142: Buchez et Roux, (Report of Saint-Just, October 10,

1793.) "That would be the only good they could do their country.... It

would be no more than just for the people to reign over its oppressors

in its turn, and that their pride should be bathed in the sweat of their

brows."]

[Footnote 2143: Ibid., XXXI., 309. (Report of Saint-Just, Ventôse 8,

year II.)]

[Footnote 2144: Ibid., XXVI. 435. (Speech by Robespierre on the

constitution, May 10, 1793.) "What were our usages and pretended laws

other than a code of impertinence and baseness, where contempt of men

was subject to a sort of tariff, and graduated according to regulations

as odd as they were numerous? To despise and be despised, to cringe in

order to rule, slaves and tyrants in turn, now kneeling before a master,

now trampling the people under foot--such was the ambition of all of

us, so long as we were men of birth or well educated men, whether common

folks or fashionable folks, lawyers or financiers, pettifoggers or

wearing swords."--Archives Nationales, F7, 31167. (Report of the

observatory Chaumont, Nivôse 10, year II.)--"Boolean's effigy, placed in

the college of Lisle, has been lowered to the statues of the saints,

the latter being taken out of their niches. There is now no kind of

distinction. Saints and authors are of the same class."]

[Footnote 2145: Buchez et Roux., 296. ("Institutions" by

Saint-Just.)--Meillan, "Mémoires," p. 17.--Anne Plumptre, "A narrative

of three years' residence in France, from 1802 to 1805," II., 96.

At Marseilles: "The two great crimes charged on those who doomed to

destruction, were here as elsewhere, wealth and aristocracy... It had

been decreed by the Terrorists that no person could have occasion

for more than two hundred livres a year, and that no income should be

permitted to exceed that sum."]

[Footnote 2146: Archives Nationales, F7, 4437. (Address of the people's

club of Caisson (Gard), Messidor 7, year II.) "The Bourgeoisie,

the merchants, the large land-owners have all the pretension of the

ex-nobles. The law provides no means for opening the eyes of the common

people in relation to these new tyrants. The club desires that the

revolutionary tribunal should be empowered to condemn this proud class

of individuals to a prompt partial confinement. The people would then

see that they had committed a misdemeanor and would withdraw that sort

of respect in which they hold them." A note in the hand-writing of

Couthon: "Left to the decision of popular commissions."]

[Footnote 2147: Gouvernor Morris, in a letter of January 4, 1796, says

that French capitalists have been financially ruined by assignats, and

physically by the guillotine.--Buchez et Roux, XXX., 26. (Notes

written by Robespierre in June, 1793.) "Internal dangers come from the

bourgeois... who are our enemies? The vicious and the rich."]

[Footnote 2148: Narrative by M. Sylvester de Sacy (May 23, 1873): His

father owned a farm bringing in four thousand francs per annum; the

farmer offered him four thousand francs in assignats or a hog; M. de

Sacy took the hog.]

[Footnote 2149: Buchez et Roux, XXXI., 441. (Report by Cambon on the

institution of the grand livre of public debt, August 15, 1793.)]

[Footnote 2150: Ibid., XXXI., 311. Report by Saint-Just, February 26,

1794, and decree in accordance therewith, unanimously adopted. See, in

particular, article 2.--Moniteur, 12 Ventôse, year II. (meeting of the

Jacobin club, speech by Collot d'Herbois). "The Convention has declared

that prisoners must prove that they were patriots from the 1st of May

1789. When the patriots and enemies of the Revolution shall be fully

known, then the property of the former shall be inviolable and held

sacred, while that of the latter will be confiscated for the benefit of

the republic."]

[Footnote 2151: Buchez et Roux, XXVI., 455 (Session of the Jacobin Club,

May 10, 1793, speech by Robespierre.)--Ibid., (Report by Saint-Just,

Feb. 26, 1794.) "He who has shown himself an enemy of his country cannot

be one of its proprietors. Only he has patrimonial rights who has helped

to free it."]

[Footnote 2152: Buchez et Roux, XXXI., 93 and 130. (Speech by

Robespierre on property, and the declaration of rights adopted by the

Jacobin club.) Decree of Sept. 3, 1793 (articles 13 and 14).]

[Footnote 2153: Moniteur, XXII., 719. (Report by Cambon, Frimaire

6, year III.) "At Bordeaux Raba has been sentenced to pay a fine of

1,200,000 francs, Pechotte to pay 500,000 francs, Martin-Martin to

300,000 francs."--Cf. Rodolphe Reuss, "Séligmann Alexandre ou les

Tribulations d'un israélite de Strasbourg."]

[Footnote 2154: Ibid., XVIII., 486. (Report by Cambon, Frimaire 1, year

II.) "The egotists who, some time ago, found it difficult to pay for the

national domains they had acquired from the Republic, even in assignats,

now bring us their gold... Collectors of the revenue who had buried

their gold have come and offered to pay what they owe the nation in

ingots of gold and silver. These have been refused, the Assembly having

decreed the confiscation of these objects."]

[Footnote 2155: Decree of Brumaire 23, year II. On taxes and

confiscations in the provinces see M. de Martel, "Etude sur Fouché et

Pieces authentiques servant à l'histoire de la revolution à Strasbourg."

And further on the details of this operation at Troyes.--Meillan, 90:

"At Bordeaux, merchants were heavily taxed, not on account of their

incivism, but on account of their wealth."]

[Footnote 2156: Decree of March 7-11, 1793.]

[Footnote 2157: Moniteur, XVIII., 274, decrees of Brumaire 4, and ibid,

305, decree of Brumaire 9, year II., establishing equal partition

of inheritances with retroactive effect to July 14, 1789. Adulterous

bastards are excepted. The reporter of the bill, Cambacèrés, laments

this regrettable exception.]

[Footnote 2158: Rights of inheritance allowed to the descendants of

a deceased person who never enjoyed these rights, but who might have

enjoyed them had he been living when they fell to him.--Tr.]

[Footnote 2159: Fenet, "Travaux du Code civil." (Report by Cambacèrés

on the Code civil, August 9, 1793). The spokesman for the committee that

had framed the bill makes excuses for not having deprived the father of

all the disposable portion. "The committee believed that such a clause

would seriously violate our customs without being of any benefit to

society or of any moral advantage. We assured ourselves, moreover,

that there should always be a division of property." With respect

to donations: "It is repugnant to all ideas of beneficence to allow

donations to the rich. Nature is averse to the making of such gifts

so long as our eyes dwell on misery and misfortune. These affecting

considerations have determined us to fix a point, a sort of maximum,

which prohibits gifts on the part of those who have reached that

point."]

[Footnote 2160: Moniteur, XII., 730, (June 22, 1792), speech by

Lamarque.--But this principle is encountered everywhere. "Equality,

indeed, (is) the final aim of social art." (Condorcet, 'Tableau des

progrès de l'esprit humain," II., 59.--"We desired," writes Baudot, "to

apply to politics the equality which the Gospel awards to Christians."

(Quinet, "Revolution Française, II., 407.)]

[Footnote 2161: Buchez et Roux, XXXV, 296 (The words of

Saint-Just.)--Moniteur, XVIII, 505 (Ordinance of the Paris Commune,

Frimaire 3, year II). "Wealth and Poverty must alike disappear under the

régime of equality."]

[Footnote 2162: Ib. XXXV, 296 ("Institutions" by Saint-Just). "A man is

not made for trades, nor for a workhouse nor for an alms-house; all this

is frightful."--Ibid., XXXI., 312. (Report of Saint-Just, Ventôse 8,

year II.) "Let all Europe see that you will not allow a miserable man on

French territory!... Happiness is a new idea in Europe."]

[Footnote 2163: Ib. XXXV, 296 ("Institutions" by Saint-Just.)]

[Footnote 2164: Moniteur, XX, 444 ( Report by Barère, Floreal 22, year

II). "Mendicity is incompatible with popular government."]

[Footnote 2165: Ib., XIX., 568. (Report by Saint-Just, Ventôse 8, year

II.)]

[Footnote 2166: Ib., XX, 448 (Rapport by Barère, Floreal 22).]

[Footnote 2167: Ibid., XIX., 568. (Report by Saint-Just, Ventôse 8, and

decree of Ventôse 13.) "The Committee of Public Safety will report on

the means of indemnifying the unfortunate with property belonging to the

enemies of the Revolution."]

[Footnote 2168: Ibid., XIX., 484. (Report by Barère, Ventôse 21, year

II.)--Ibid., XX., 445. (Report by Barère, Floréal 22, year II.)--Decrees

on public assistance, June 28, 1793, July 25, 1793, Frimaire 2, and

Floréal 22, year II.)--this principle, moreover, was set forth in the

Constitution of 1793. "Public help is a sacred obligation; society owes

a subsistence to unfortunate citizens, whether by providing work for

them, or by ensuring the means of existence to those who are not in a

condition to work."--Archives Nationales, AF. II., 39. The character of

this measure is very clearly expressed in the following circular of

the Committee of Public Safety to its representatives on mission in the

departments, Ventôse, year II. "A summary act was necessary to put the

aristocracy down. The national Convention has struck the blow. Virtuous

indigence had to recover the property which crime had encroached upon.

The national Convention has proclaimed its rights. A general list of all

prisoners should be sent to the Committee of General Security, charged

with deciding on their fate. The Committee of Public Safety will receive

the statement of the indigent in each commune so as to regulate what

is due to them. Both these proceedings demand the utmost dispatch and

should go together. It is necessary that terror and justice be brought

to bear on all points at once. The Revolution is the work of the people

and it is time they should have the benefit of it."]

[Footnote 2169: Moniteur, XX., 449. (Report by Barère, Floréal 22, year

II.)]

[Footnote 2170: Decree of April 2-5, 1793.]

[Footnote 2171: Moniteur, XVIII., 505. (Orders of Fouché and Collet

d'Herbois, dated at Lyons and communicated to the commune of Paris,

Frimaire 3, year II.)--De Martel, "Etude sur Fouché," 132. Orders of

Fouché on his mission in the Nievre, Sept. 19, 1793. "There shall

be established in each district town a Committee of Philanthropy,

authorized to levy on the rich a tax proportionate to the number of the

indigent."]

[Footnote 2172: Decree of April 2-5, 1793. "There shall be organized

in each large commune a guard of citizens selected from the least

fortunate. These citizens shall be armed and paid at the expense of the

Republic."]

[Footnote 2173: Moniteur, XX., 449. (Report of Barère, Floréal 22, year

II.)]

[Footnote 2174: Ibid., XIX., 689. (Report by Saint-Just, Ventôse 23,

year II.) "We spoke of happiness. It is not the happiness of Persepolis

we have offered to you. It is that of Sparta or Athens in their best

days, the happiness of virtue, that of comfort and moderation, the

happiness which springs from the enjoyment of the necessary without the

superfluous, the luxury of a cabin and of a field fertilized by your

own hands. A cart, a thatched roof affording shelter from the frosts, a

family safe from the lubricity of a robber--such is happiness!"]

[Footnote 2175: Buchez et Roux, XXXI., 402. (Constitution of 1793.)]

[Footnote 2176: Ibid. XXXV., 310. ("Institutions", by Saint-Just.)]

[Footnote 2177: Ibid., XXVI., 93 and 131. (Speech by Robespierre on

property, April 24, 1793, and declaration of rights adopted by the

Jacobin Club.)--Mallet-Dupan, "Mémoires," I., 401. (Address of a

deputation from Gard.) "Material wealth is no more the special property

of any one member of the social body than base metal stamped as a

circulating medium."]

[Footnote 2178: Moniteur, VIII., 452. (Speech by Hébert in the Jacobin

Club, Brumaire 26, year II.) "Un Séjour en France de 1792 à 1795,"

p.218. (Amiens, Oct. 4, 1794.) "While waiting this morning at a shop

door I overheard a beggar bargaining for a slice of pumpkin. Unable to

agree on the price with the woman who kept the shop he pronounced her

'corrupted with aristocracy.' 'I defy you to prove it!' she replied.

But, as she spoke, she turned pale and added, 'Your civism is beyond

all question--but take your pumpkin.' 'Ah,' returned the beggar, 'what a

good republican!'"]

[Footnote 2179: Ibid., XVIII., 320. (Meeting of Brumaire 11, year II.

Report by Barère.)--Meillan, 17. Already, before the 31st May: "The

tribune resounded with charges against monopoly, every man being a

monopolist who was not reduced to living on daily wages or on alms."]

[Footnote 2180: Decrees of July 26, 1793, Sept. 11 and 29; Brumaire 11,

and Ventôse 6, year II.]

[Footnote 2181: Moniteur, XVIII., 359. "Brumaire 16, year II. Sentence

of death of Pierre Gourdier, thirty-six years of age, stock-broker,

resident in Paris, rue Bellefond, convicted of having monopolized and

concealed in his house a large quantity of bread, in order to bread

scarcity in the midst of abundance." He had gastritis and could eat

nothing but panada made with toast, and the baker who furnished this

gave him thirty pieces at a time (Wallon, II., 155).]

[Footnote 2182: Journal of the debates of the Jacobin Club, No.

532, Brumaire 20, year II. (Plan of citizen Dupré, presented in the

Convention by a deputation of the Arcis Club.)--Dauban, "Paris en 1794,"

p. 483 (a project similar to the former, presented to the Committee of

Public Safety by the Jacobin Club of Montereau, Thermidor, year II.)]

[Footnote 2183: These proposals should come to haunt western

civilization for a long time. (SR.)]

[Footnote 2184: Buchez et Roux, XXXV., 272. ("Institutions," by

Saint-Just.)]

[Footnote 2185: These ideas were still powerful even before Taine

wrote these words in 1882. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations cites a

declaration made by 47 anarchists on trial after their uprising in Lyons

in 1870: "We wish, in a word, equality--equality in fact as corollary,

or rather, as primordial condition of liberty. From each according to

his faculties, to each according to his needs; that is what we wish

sincerely and energetically."]

[Footnote 2186: Buchez et Roux, XXXI, 273, (Report by Robespierre,

Pluviôse17, year II. (7 Feb. 1794).]

[Footnote 2187: Moniteur, XIX (Rapport by Barère, Ventôse 21, an II).

"You should detect and combat federalism in all your institutions, as

your natural enemy....A grand central establishment for all the work of

the Republic is an effective means against federalism."--Buchez et Roux,

XXXI, 351, et XXXII, 316 (Rapports by Saint-Just, Ventôse 23 et Germinal

26, year II). "Immorality is a federalism in the civil state...Civil

federalism, by isolating all parts of the state, has dried up

abundance."]

[Footnote 2188: Decree of Germinal 26-29, year II. "Financial companies

are and hereby remain suppressed. All bankers, commission merchants,

and other persons, are forbidden to form any establishment of this order

under any pretext or under any denomination."]

[Footnote 2189: "Memoires de Carnot," I., 278 (Report by Carnot). "That

is not family life. If there are local privileges there will soon be

individual privileges and local aristocracy will bring along in its

train the aristocracy of inhabitants."]

[Footnote 2190: Moniteur, XIX., 683 (Rapport by Barère, Ventôse 21, year

II).--This report should be read in full to comprehend the communistic

and centralizing spirit of the Jacobins. (Undoubtedly Lenin, during his

years in Paris, had read Taine's footnote and asked the national library

for a copy of this rapport. SR.)]

[Footnote 2191: Fenet, "Travaux du Code civil," 105 (Rapports by

Cambacérès, August 9, 1793 and September 9, 1794).--Decrees of September

20, 1793 and Floréal 4, year II (On divorce).--Cf. "Institutions," by

Saint-Just (Buchez et Roux, XXXV, 302). "A man and woman who love

each other are married; if they have no children they may keep their

relationship secret."]

[Footnote 2192: This article of the Jacobin program, like the others,

has its practical result.--"At Paris, in the twenty-seven months after

the promulgation of the law of September, 1792, the courts granted five

thousand nine hundred and ninety-four divorces, and in year VI, the

number of divorces exceeded the marriages." (Glasson, le Mariage civil

et le Divorce, 51.)--"The number of foundlings which, in 1790, in

France, did not exceed twenty-three thousand, is now (year X.) more than

sixty-three thousand. "Statistique de la Sarthe," by Auvray, prefect,

year, X.)--In the Lot-et-Garonne (Statistique, by Peyre, préfet, year X

), more than fifteen hundred foundlings are counted: "this extraordinary

number increased during the Revolution through the too easy admission

of foundlings into the asylums, through the temporary sojourning of

soldiers in their homes, through the disturbance of every moral and

religious principle."--"It is not rare to find children of thirteen and

fourteen talking and acting in a way that would have formerly disgraced

a young man of twenty." (Moselle, Analyse, by Ferrière.)--"The children

of workmen are idle and insubordinate; some indulge in the most shameful

conduct against their parents;" others try stealing and use the coarsest

language." (Meurthe, Statistique, by Marquis, préfet.)--Cf. Anne

Plumptre (A Narrative of three years' residence in France from 1802 to

1805, I. 436). "You would not believe it, Madame, said a gardener to her

at Nimes, that during the Revolution we dared not scold our children

for their faults. Those who called themselves patriots regarded it as

against the fundamental principles of liberty to correct children. This

made them so unruly that, very often, when a parent presumed to scold

its child the latter would tell him to mind his business, adding, 'we

are free and equal, the Republic is our only father and mother; if you

are not satisfied, I am. Go where you like it better.' Children are

still saucy. It will take a good many years to bring them back to

minding.']

[Footnote 2193: Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 364 (Report by Robespierre,

Floréal 8, year II.)]

[Footnote 2194: Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 385--(Address of a Jacobin

deputation to the Convention, Floréal 27, year II.)--At Bayeux, the

young girl who represented Liberty, had the following inscription on

her breast or back: "Do not make of me an instrument of licentiousness."

(Gustave Flaubert, family souvenirs.)]

[Footnote 2195: Buchez et Roux, XXXI., 415. (Report by Fabre

d'Eglantine, October 6, 1793.)--(Grégoire, "Memoires," I., 341.) "The

new calendar was invented by Romme in order to get rid of Sunday. This

was his object; he admitted it to me."]

[Footnote 2196: Ibid., XXXII., 274. (Report by Robespierre, Floréal

18, year II.) "National Festivals form an essential part of public

education.... A system of national festivals is the most powerful means

of regeneration."]

[Footnote 2197: Ibid., XXXVIII., 335. Marat's heart, placed on a

table in the Cordéliers Club, was an object of religious

reverence.--(Grégoire, "Mémoires," I., 341.) "In some schools the

pupils were obliged to make the sign of the cross at the names of Marat,

Lazowski, etc."]

[Footnote 2198: Comte de Martel, "Étude sur Fouché," 137. Fête at

Nevers, on the inaguration of a bust of Brutus.--Ibid., 222, civic

festival at Nevers in honor of valor and morals.--Dauban, "Paris en

1794." Programme of the fête of the supreme Being at Sceaux.]

[Footnote 2199: An expression by Rabaut Saint-Etienne.]

[Footnote 21100: Ibid., XXXII., 373 (Report by Robespierre, Floréal 15,

year II.)--Danton had expressed precisely the same opinion, supported by

the same arguments, at the meeting of Frimaire 22, year II. (Moniteur,

XVIII, 654.) "Children first belong to the Republic before belonging

to their parents. Who will assure me that these children, inspired by

parental egoism, will not become dangerous to the Republic? What do we

care for the ideas of an individual alongside of national ideas?... Who

among us does not know the danger of this constant isolation? It is in

the national schools that the child must suck republican milk! .... The

Republic is one and indivisible. Public instruction must likewise relate

to this center of unity."]

[Footnote 21101: Decree of Vendémaire 30 and Brumaire 7, year II.--Cf.

Sauzay, VI., 252, on the application of this decree in the provinces.]

[Footnote 21102: Albert Duruy, 2L 'Instruction publique et la

Revolution,2 164, to 172' (extracts from various republican

spelling-books and catechisms).--Decree of Frimaire 29, year II.,

section I., art. I, 83; section II., art. 2; section III., arts. 6 and

9.]

[Footnote 21103: Moniteur, XVIII., 653. (Meeting of Frimaire 22, speech

by Bouquir, reporter.)]

[Footnote 21104: Moniteur, XVIII., 351-359. (Meeting of Brumaire 15,

year II., report by Chénier.) "You have made laws--create habits.... You

can apply to the public instruction of the nation the same course that

Rousseau follows in 'Emile.' "]

[Footnote 21105: The words of Bouquier, reporter. (Meeting of Frimaire

22, year II.)]

[Footnote 21106: Buchez et Roux, XXIV, 57 (Plan by Le Peletier

de Saint-Fargeau, read by Robespierre at the Convention, July 13,

1793.)--Ibid., 35. (Draft of a decree by the same hand.)]

[Footnote 21107: Ibid., XXX., 229. ("Institutions," by Saint-Just.)]

[Footnote 21108: Buchez et Roux, XXXI., 261. (Meeting of Nivose 17.)

On the committee presenting the final draft of the decrees on public

instruction the Convention adopts the following article: "All boys who,

on leaving the primary schools of instruction, do not devote themselves

to tillage, will be obliged to learn some science, art or occupation

useful to society. Otherwise, on reaching twenty, they will be deprived

of citizens' rights for ten years, and the same penalty will be laid on

their father, mother, tutor or guardian."]

[Footnote 21109: Decree of Prairial 13, year II.]

[Footnote 21110: Langlois, "Souvenirs de l'Ecole de Mars."]

[Footnote 21111: Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 355. (Report by Robespierre,

Floréal 18, year II.)]

[Footnote 21112: Moniteur, XVIII., 326. (Meeting of the Commune,

Brumaire 11, year II.) the commissary announces that, at Fontainebleau

and other places, "he has established the system of equality in the

prisons and places of confinement, where the rich and the poor partake

of the same food."--Ibid., 210. (Meeting of the Jacobins, Vendémiaire

29, year II. Speech by Laplance on his mission to Gers.) "Priests had

every comfort in their secluded retreats; the sans-culottes in the

prisons slept on straw. The former provided me with mattresses for the

latter."--Ibid., XVIII., 445. (Meeting of the convention, Brumaire

26, year II.) "The Convention decrees that the food of persons kept in

places of confinement shall be simple and the same for all, the rich

paying for the poor."]

[Footnote 21113: Archives Nationales. (AF. II., 37, order of Lequinio,

Saintes, Nivose 1, year II.) "Citizens generally in all communes, are

requested to celebrate the day of the decade by a fraternal banquet

which, served without luxury or display... will render the man bowed

down with fatique insensible to his forlorn condition; which will

fill the soul of the poor and unfortunate with the sentiment of social

equality and raise man up to the full sense of his dignity; which will

suppress with the rich man the slightest feeling of pride and extinguish

in the public functionary all germs of haughtiness and aristocracy."]

[Footnote 21114: Archives Nationales, AF. II., ii., 48 (Act of

Floréal 25, year II.) "the Committee of Public Safety request David,

representative of the people, to present his views and plans in

relation to modifying the present national costume, so as to render

it appropriate to republican habits and the character of the

Revolution."--Ibid., (Act of Prairial 5, year II.) for engraving and

coloring twenty thousand impressions of the design for a civil uniform,

and six thousand impressions for the three designs for a military,

judicial and legislative uniform.]

[Footnote 21115: An identical change took, strangely enough and as

caused by some hidden force, place in Denmark in the seventies. (SR.)]

[Footnote 21116: This is now the case in the entire Western 'democratic'

sphere, in newspapers, schools, and on television. (SR.)]

[Footnote 21117: Ibid, XXXI., 271. (Report by Robespierre, Pluviose

1, year II.) "This sublime principle supposes a preference for public

interests over all private interests; from which it follows that the

love of country supposes again, or produces, all the virtues." "As the

essence of a republic or of democracy is equality, it follows that love

of country necessarily comprises a love of equality." "The soul of the

Republic is virtue, equality."--Lavalette, "Memoirs," I., 254. (Narrated

by Madame Lavalette.) She was compelled to attend public festivals,

and, every month, the patriotic processions. "I was rudely treated by my

associates, the low women of the quarter; the daughter of an emigré, of

a marquis, or of an imprisoned mother, ought not to be allowed the

honor of their company;.... it was all wrong that she was not made an

apprentice.... Hortense de Beauharnais was apprenticed to her mother's

seamstress, while Eugene was put with a carpenter in the Faubourg

St. Germain." The prevailing dogmatism has a singular effect with

simple-minded people. (Archives Nationals, AF. II., 135. petition of

Ursule Riesler, servant to citizen Estreich and arrested along with him,

addressed to Garneri, agent of the Committee of Public Safety. She begs

citizen Garnerin to interest himself in obtaining her freedom. She will

devote her life to praying to the Supreme Being for him, since he will

redeem her life. He is to furnish her, moreover, with the means

for espousing a future husband, a genuine republican, by who she is

pregnant, and who would not allow her to entertain any idea of fanatical

capers.]

CHAPTER II. REACTIONARY CONCEPT OF THE STATE.

I. Reactionary concept of the State.

Reactionary concept of the State.--Analogy between this idea

of the State and that of antiquity.--Difference between

antique and modern society.--Changed circumstances.

The Jacobin theory can then be summarized in the following points:

* The speculative creation of a curtailed type of human being.

* An effort to adapt the living man to this type.

* The interference of public authority in every branch of public

endeavor.

* Constraints put upon labor, trade and property, upon the family and

education, upon worship, habits, customs and sentiments.

* The sacrifice of the individual to the community.

* The omnipotence of the State.

No theory could be more reactionary since it moves modern man back to

a type of society which he, eighteen centuries ago, had already passed

through and left behind.

During the historical era proceeding our own, and especially in the old

Greek or Latin cities, in Rome or Sparta, which the Jacobins take for

their models,[2201] human society was shaped after the pattern of an

army or convent. In a convent as in an army, one idea, absorbing and

unique, predominates:

* The aim of the monk is to please God at any sacrifice.

* The soldier makes every sacrifice to obtain a victory.

Accordingly, each renounces every other desire and entirely abandons

himself, the monk to his rules and the soldier to his drill. In like

manner, in the antique world, two preoccupations were of supreme

importance. In the first place, the city had its gods who were both its

founders and protectors: it was therefore obliged to worship these in

the most reverent and particular manner; otherwise, they abandoned it.

The neglect of any insignificant rite might offend them and ruin it.

In the second place, there was incessant warfare, and the spoils of war

were atrocious; on a city being taken every citizen might expect to be

killed or maimed, or sold at auction, and see his children and wife

sold to the highest bidder.[2202] In short, the antique city, with its

acropolis of temples and its fortified citadel surrounded by implacable

and threatening enemies, resembles for us the institution of the Knights

of St. John on their rocks at Rhodes or Malta, a religious and military

confraternity encamped around a church.--Liberty, under such conditions,

is out of the question: public convictions are too imperious; public

danger is too great. With this pressure upon him, and thus hampered,

the individual gives himself up to the community, which takes full

possession of him, because, to maintain its own existence, it needs the

whole man. Henceforth, no one may develop apart and for himself; no

one may act or think except within fixed lines. The type of Man

is distinctly and clearly marked out, if not logically at least

traditionally; each life, as well as each portion of each life must

conform to this type; otherwise public security is compromised: any

falling off in gymnastic education weakens the army; passing the images

of the gods and neglecting the usual libation draws down celestial

vengeance on the city. Consequently, to prevent all deviations, the

State, absolute master, exercises unlimited jurisdiction; no freedom

whatever is left to the individual, no portion of himself is reserved

to himself, no sheltered corner against the strong hand of public force,

neither his possessions, his children, his personality, his opinions or

his conscience.[2203] If, on voting days, he shares in the sovereignty,

he is subject all the rest of the year, even to his private sentiments.

Rome, to serve these ends, had two censors. One of the archons of Athens

was inquisitor of the faith. Socrates was put to death for not believing

in the gods in which the city believed.[2204]--In reality, not only

in Greece and in Rome, but in Egypt, in China, in India, in Persia,

in Judea, in Mexico, in Peru, during the first stages of

civilization,[2205] the principle of human communities is still that of

gregarious animals: the individual belongs to his community the same as

the bee to its hive and the ant to its ant-hill; he is simply an

organ within an organism. Under a variety of structures and in diverse

applications authoritative socialism alone prevails.

Just the opposite in modern society; what was once the rule has now

become the exception; the antique system survives only in temporary

associations, like that of an army, or in special associations, as in

a convent. Gradually, the individual has liberated himself, and century

after century, he has extended his domain and the two chains which once

bound him fast to the community, have snapped or been lightened.

In the first place, public power has ceased to consist of a militia

protecting a cult. In the beginning, through the institution of

Christianity, civil society and religious society have become two

distinct empires, Christ himself having separated the two jurisdictions;

"Render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, and unto God the things

that are God's."

Additionally, through the rise of Protestantism, the great Church is

split into numerous sects which, unable to destroy each other, have been

so compelled to live together and the State, even when preferring one

of them, has found it necessary to tolerate the others. Finally,

through the development of Protestantism, philosophy and the sciences,

speculative beliefs have multiplied. There are almost as many faiths

now-a-days as there are thinking men, and, as thinking men are becoming

daily more numerous, opinions are daily becoming more numerous. So

should the State try to impose any one of these on society, this would

excite opposition from an infinity of others; hence the wisdom

in governing is found, first, in remaining neutral, and, next, in

acknowledging that it is not qualified to interfere.

In the second place, war has become less frequent and less destructive

because men have not so many motives for waging it, nor the same motives

to push it to the same extremes. Formerly, war was the main source of

wealth; through victories Man acquired slaves, subjects and tributaries;

he turned these to the best account; he leisurely enjoyed their forced

labor. Nothing of this kind is seen now-a-days; people no longer think

of providing themselves human cattle; they have discovered that, of all

animals, these are the most troublesome, the least productive, and the

most dangerous. Comforts and security are obtained much more readily

through free labor and machinery; the great object no is not to conquer,

but to produce and interchange. Every day, man, pressing forward more

eagerly in civil careers, is less disposed to put up with any obstacle

that interferes with his aims; if he still consents to be a soldier it

is not to become an invader, but to provide against invasion. Meanwhile,

war has become more scientific and, through the complications of its

machinery, more costly; the State can no longer call out and enlist

for life every able-bodied man without ruining itself, nor put too

many obstacles in the way of the free industry which, through taxation,

provides for its expenses; however short-sighted the State may be, it

consults civil interests, even in its military interest.--Thus, of

the two nets in which it has enveloped all human activity, one is rent

asunder and the other has slackened its meshes. There is no longer any

reason for making the community omnipotent; the individual need not

alienate himself entirely; he may, without inconvenience, reserve to

himself a part of himself, and, if now called upon to sign a social

contract, you may be sure that he would make this reservation.

II. Changed minds.

Changed minds.--Conscience and its Christian origin.--Honor

and its feudal origin.--The individual of to-day refuses to

surrender himself entirely.--His motives.--Additional

motives in modern democracy.--Character of the elective

process and the quality of the representative.

And so have not only outward circumstances changed, but the very human

attitudes are now different. In the mind of modern man a feeling,

distasteful to the antique pact, has evolved.--Undoubtedly, in extreme

cases and under the pressure of brutal necessity I may, momentarily,

sign a blank check. But, never, if I understand what I am doing, will

I sign away in good faith the complete and permanent abandonment of

myself: it would be against conscience and against honor, which two

possessions are not to be alienated. My honor and my conscience are

not to go out of my keeping; I am their sole guardian and depositary; I

would not even entrust them to my father.--Both these terms are recent

and express two conceptions unknown to the ancients,[2206] both being

of profound import and of infinite reach. Through them, like a bud

separated from its stem and taking root apart, the individual has

separated himself from the primitive body, clan, family, caste or city

in which he has lived indistinguishable and lost in the crowd; he has

ceased to be an organ and appendage; he has become a personality.--The

first of these concepts is of Christian origin the second of feudal

origin; both, following each other and conjoined, measure the enormous

distance which separates an antique soul from a modern soul.[2207]

Alone, in the presence of God, the Christian has felt melting, like wax,

all the ties binding him to his group; this because he is in front of

the Great Judge, and because this infallible judge sees all souls as

they are, not confusedly and in masses, but clearly, each by itself. At

the bar of His tribunal no one is answerable for another; each answers

for himself alone; one is responsible only for one's own acts. But those

acts are of infinite consequence, for the soul, redeemed by the blood of

a God, is of immeasurable value; hence, according as it has or has not

profited by the divine sacrifice, so will the reward or punishment be

infinite; at the final judgment, an eternity of torment or bliss opens

before it. All other interests vanish alongside of a vision of such

vastness. Thenceforth, righteousness is the most serious of all aims,

not in the eyes of man, but of God and again, day after day, the

soul renews within itself that tragic questioning in which the Judge

interrogates and the sinner responds.--Through this dialogue, which

has been going on for eighteen centuries, and which is yet to continue,

conscience has grown more and more sensitive, and man has conceived

the idea of absolute justice. Whether this is vested in an all-powerful

master, or whether it is a self-existent truth, like mathematical

truths, in no way diminishes its sacredness nor, consequently, from its

authority. It commands with a superior voice and its commands must be

obeyed, irrespective of cost: there are strict duties to which every man

is rigorously bound. No pledge may relieve him of these duties; if not

fulfilled because he has given contrary pledges he is no less culpable

on this account, and besides, he is culpable for having pledged himself;

the pledging of himself to crimes was in itself a crime. His fault thus

appears to himself twofold, and the inward prick galls him twice instead

of once. Hence, the more sensitive the conscience, the more loath it is

to give up; it rejects any promise which may lead to wrong-doing, and

refuses to give to give others any right of imposing remorse.

At the same time another sentiment has arisen, not less valuable, but

hardier, more energetic, more human and more effective. On his own in

his stronghold, the feudal chieftain, at the head of his band, could

depend on nobody but himself, for a public force did not then exist. It

was necessary that he should protect himself, and, indeed, over-protect

himself. Whoever, in the anarchical and military society in which

he lived, allowed the slightest encroachment, or left unpunished the

slightest approach to insult, was regarded as weak or craven and at once

became a prey; one had to be proud-spirited, if not, one risked death.

This was not difficult either. Sole proprietor and nearly absolute

sovereign, with neither equals or peers on his domain, here he was

unique being, superior and incomparable to every one else.[2208] On that

subject revolved his long monologue during his hours of gloomy solitude,

which soliloquy has lasted for nine centuries.[2209] Thus in his own

eyes, his person and all that depends on him are inviolable; rather than

tolerate the slightest infringement on his prerogatives he will dare all

and sacrifice all.[2210] A sensitive pride (orgueil exalté) is the best

of sentinels to protect a right; for, not only does it mount guard

over the right to preserve it, but, again, and especially, for its own

satisfaction; the imagination has conceived a personality appropriate

for his rank, and this character the man imposes on himself as his role.

Henceforth, he not only forces the respect of others, but he respects

himself; he possesses the sentiment of honor, a generous self-esteem

which makes him regard himself as noble and incapable of doing anything

mean. In discriminating between his actions, he may err; fashion or

vanity may sometimes lead him too far, or lead him astray, either on the

path of recklessness or on that of puerility; his point of honor may be

fixed in the wrong direction. But, in sum, and thanks to this being

a fixed point, he will maintain himself erect even under an absolute

monarchy, under a Philip II. in Spain, under a Louis XIV. in France,

under a Frederick II. in Prussia. From the feudal baron or gentleman of

the court to the modern gentleman, this tradition persists and descends

from story to story down to lowest social substratum: to-day, every man

of spirit, the bourgeois, the peasant, the workman, has his point of

honor like the noble. He likewise, in spite of the social encroachments

that gain on him, reserves to himself his private nook, a sort of

moral stronghold wherein he preserves his faiths, his opinions, his

affections, his obligations as son, husband and father; it is the sacred

treasury of his innermost being. This stronghold belongs to him alone;

no one, even in the name of the public, has a right to enter it; to

surrender it would be cowardice, rather than give up its keys he would

die in the breach;[2211] when this militant sentiment of honor is

enlisted on the side of conscience it becomes virtue itself.[2212]--Such

are, in these days, (1870) the two central themes of our European

morality.[2213] Through the former the individual recognizes duties from

which nothing can exempt him; through the latter, he claims rights of

which nothing can deprive him: our civilization has vegetated from these

two roots, and still vegetates. Consider the depth and the extent of

the historical soil in which they penetrate, and you may judge of their

vigor. Consider the height and unlimited growth of the trees which they

nourish, and you may judge of their healthiness. Everywhere else, one

or other having failed, in China, in the Roman Empire, in Islam, the sap

has dried downward and the tree has become stunted, or has fallen.... It

is the modern man, who is neither Chinese, nor antique, nor Moslem,

nor Negro, nor savage, the man formed by Christian education and taking

refuge in his conscience as in a sanctuary, the man formed by feudal

education and entrenched behind his honor as in a fortress, whose

sanctuary and stronghold the new social contract bids him surrender.

Now, in this democracy founded on the preponderance of numbers, into

whose hands am I required to make this surrender?--Theoretically, to the

community, that is to say, to a crowd in which an anonymous impulse

is the substitute for individual judgment; in which action becomes

impersonal because it is collective; in which nobody acknowledges

responsibility; in which I am borne along like a grain of sand in a

whirlwind; in which all sorts of outrages are condoned beforehand for

reasons of state: practically, to the plurality of voices counted by

heads, to a majority which, over-excited by the struggle for mastery,

will abuse its victory and wrong the minority to which I may belong;

to a provisional majority which, sooner or later, will be replaced by

another, so that if I am to-day oppressor I am sure of being

oppressed to-morrow; still more particularly, to six or seven hundred

representatives, among who I am called upon to choose but one. To elect

this unique mandatory I have but one vote among ten thousand; and in

helping to elect him I am only the ten-thousandth; I do not even count

for a ten-thousandth in electing the others. And it is these six or

seven hundred strangers to me to who I give full power to decide for

me--note the expression full power--which means unlimited power, not

alone over my possessions and life, but, again, over my conscience, with

all its powers combined; that is to say, with powers much more extensive

than those I confer separately on ten persons in whom I place the most

confidence--to my legal adviser who looks after my fortune, to the

teacher of my children, to the physician who cares for my health, to

the confessor who directs my conscience, to friends who are to serve as

executors of my last will and testament, to seconds in a duel who decide

on my life, on the was of my blood and who guard my honor. Without

reference to the deplorable farce, so often played around the

ballot-box, or to the forced and distorted elections which put a

contrary interpretation on public sentiment, or to the official lies

by which, at this very moment, a few fanatics and madmen, who represent

nobody but themselves, assume to represent the nation,[2214] measure

what degree of confidence I may have, even after honest elections,

in mandatories who are thus chosen! Frequently, I have voted for the

defeated candidate; in which case I am represented by the other who I

did not want for a representative. In voting for the elected candidate,

I did it because I knew of no better one, and because his opponent

seemed to me worse. I have only seen him one time out of four and then

fleetingly, at odd moment; I scarcely knew more of him than the color

of his coat, the tone of his voice, and the way he has of thumping

his breast. All I know of him is through his "platform," vague and

declamatory, through editorials, and through drawing-room, coffee-house,

or street gossip. His title to my confidence is of the flimsiest and

shallowest kind; there is nothing to substantiate to me his integrity

or competency; he has no diploma, and no one to endorse him as has a

private tutor; he has no guarantee from the society to which he belongs,

like the physician, the priest or the lawyer. With references as poor as

these I should hesitate to recruit him even as a domestic. And all the

more because the class from which I am obliged to take him is almost

always that of politicians, a suspicious class, especially in countries

in which universal suffrage prevails. This class is not recruited

among the most independent, the ablest, and the most honest, but among

voluble, scheming men, zealous charlatans, who for want of perseverance,

having failed in private careers, in situations where one is watched too

closely and too nicely weighed in the balance, have selected roles in

which the want of scrupulousness and discretion is a force instead of a

weakness; to their indelicacy and impudence the doors of a public

career stand wide open.--Such is the august personage into whose hands,

according to the theory, I am called upon to surrender my will, my will

in full; certainly, if self-renunciation were necessary, I should

risk less in giving myself up to a king or to an aristocracy, even

hereditary; for then would my representatives be at least recommended

by their evident rank and their probable competency.--Democracy, in its

nature and composition, is a system in which the individual awards to

his representatives the least trust and deference; hence, it is the

system in which he should entrust them with the least power. Conscience

and honor everywhere enjoin a man to retain for himself some portion of

his independence; but nowhere is there so little be ceded. If a modern

constitution ought to clearly define and limit the domain of the State,

it is in respect of contemporary democracy that it ought to be the most

restrictive.

III. Origin and nature of the modern State.

Origin and nature of the modern State.--Its functions,

rights and limits.

Let us try to define these limits.--After the turmoil of invasions and

conquest, at the height of social disintegration, amidst the combats

daily occurring between private parties, there arose in every European

community a public force, which force, lasting for centuries, still

persists to our day. How it was organized, through what early stages of

violence it passed, through what accidents and struggles, and into whose

hands it is now entrusted, whether temporarily or forever, whatever

the laws of its transmission, whether by inheritance or election, is of

secondary importance; the main thing is its functions and their mode of

operation. It is essentially a mighty sword, drawn from its scabbard

and uplifted over the smaller blades around it, with which private

individuals once cut each others' throats. Menaced by it, the smaller

blades repose in their scabbards; they have become inert, useless, and,

finally rusty; with few exceptions, everybody save malefactors, has now

lost both the habit and the desire to use them, so that, henceforth,

in this pacified society, the public sword is so formidable that all

private resistance vanishes the moment it flashes.--This sword is forged

out of two interests: it was necessary to have one of its magnitude,

first, against similar blades brandished by other communities on the

frontier, and next, against the smaller blades which bad passions are

always sharpening in the interior. People demanded protection against

outside enemies and inside ruffians and murderers, and, slowly and

painfully, after much groping and much re-tempering, the agreement

between hereditary forces has fashioned the sole arm which is capable of

protecting lives and property with any degree of success.--So long as it

does no more I am indebted to the State which holds the hilt: it gives

me a security which, without it, I could not have enjoyed. In return for

this security I owe it, for my quota, the means for keeping this weapon

in good condition: he who enjoys a service is under an obligation to pay

for it. Accordingly, there is between the State and myself, if not an

express contract, at least a tacit understanding equivalent to that

which binds a child to its parent, a believer to his church, and, on

both sides, this mutual understanding is clear and precise. The state

engages to look after my security within and without; I engage to

furnish the means for so doing, which means consist of my respect

and gratitude, my zeal as a citizen, my services as a conscript, my

contributions as a tax-payer, in short, whatever is necessary for the

maintenance of an army, a navy, a diplomatic organization, civil

and criminal courts, a militia and police, central and local

administrations, in short, a harmonious set of organs of which my

obedience and loyalty constitute the food, the substance and the

blood. This loyalty and obedience, whatever I am, whether rich or poor,

Catholic, Protestant, Jew or free-thinker, royalist or republican,

individualist or socialist, upon my honor and in my conscience I owe.

This because I have received the equivalent; I am delighted that I am

not vanquished, assassinated, or robbed. I reimburse the State, exactly

but not more that which it has spent on equipment and personnel for

keeping down brutal cupidity, greedy appetites, deadly fanaticism, the

entire howling pack of passions and desires of which, sooner or later,

I might become the prey, were it not constantly to extend over me its

vigilant protection. When it demands its outlay of me it is not my

property which it takes away, but its own property, which it collects

and, in this light, it may legitimately force me to pay.--On condition,

however, that it does not exact more than my liabilities, and this it

does when it oversteps its original engagements;

1. when it undertakes some extra material or moral work that I do not

ask for;

2. when it constitutes itself sectarian, moralist, philanthropist, or

pedagogue;

3. when it strives to propagate within its borders, or outside of them,

any religious or philosophic dogma, or any special political or social

system.

For then, it adds a new article to the primitive pact, for which article

there is not the same unanimous and assured assent that existed for

the pact. We are all willing to be secured against violence and fraud;

outside of this, and on almost any other point, there are divergent

wills. I have my own religion, my own opinions, my habits, my customs,

my peculiar views of life and way of regarding the universe; now, this

is just what constitutes my personality, what honor and conscience

forbid me to alienate, and which the State has promised me to protect.

Consequently, when, through its additional article, it attempts to

regulate these in a certain way, if that way is not my way, it fails

to fulfill its primordial engagement and, instead of protecting me, it

oppresses me. Even if it should have the support of a majority, even

if all voters, less one, should agree to entrusting it with this

supererogatory function, were there only one dissenter, he would be

wronged, and in two ways.--

First of all, and in any event, the State, to fulfill its new tasks,

exacts from him an extra amount of subsidy and service; for, every

supplementary work brings along with it supplementary expenses; the

budget is overburdened when the State takes upon itself the procuring

of work for laborers or employment for artists, the maintenance of any

particular industrial or commercial enterprise, the giving of alms,

and the furnishing of education. To an expenditure of money add an

expenditure of lives, should it enter upon a war of generosity or of

propaganda. Now, to all these expenditures that it does not approve of,

the minority contributes as well as the majority which does approve

of them; so much the worse for the conscript and the tax-payer if they

belong to the dissatisfied group. Like it or not, the collector puts his

hand in the tax-payer's pocket, and the sergeant lays his hand on the

conscript's collar.--

In the second place, and in many circumstances, not only does the State

unjustly take more than its due, but it uses the money it has extorted

from me to apply unjustly new constraints against me. Such is the case,

* when it imposes on me its theology or philosophy;

* when it prescribes for me, or interdicts, a cult;

* when it assumes to regulate my ways and habits,

* when it assumes to limit my labor or expenditure,

* when it assumes to direct the education of my children,

* when it assumes to fix the prices of my wares or the rate of my wages.

For then, to enforce its commands and prohibitions, it enacts light or

serious penalties against the recalcitrant, all the way from political

or civil incapacity to fines, imprisonment, exile and the guillotine.

In other words, the money I do not owe it, and of which it robs me, pays

for the persecution which it inflicts upon me; I am reduced to paying

out of my own purse the wages of my inquisitors, my jailer and my

executioner. A more glaring oppression could not be imagined!--Let us

watch out for the encroachments of the State and not allow it to become

anything more than a watch-dog. Whilst the teeth and nails of other

guests in the household have been losing their sharpness, its fangs have

become formidable; it is now colossal and it alone still keeps up the

practice of fighting. Let us supply it with nourishment against wolves;

but never let it touch peaceable folks around the table. Appetite grows

by eating; it would soon become a wolf itself, and the most ravenous

wolf inside the fold. The important thing is to keep a chain around its

neck and confine it within its own enclosure.

IV. The state is tempted to encroach.

The state is tempted to encroach.--Precedents and reasons

for its pretensions.

Let us go around the fold, which is an extensive one, and, through its

extensions, reach into almost every nook of private life.--Each private

domain, indeed, physical or moral, offers temptations for its neighbors

to trespass on it, and, to keep this intact, demands the superior

intervention of a third party. To acquire, to possess, to sell, to give,

to bequeath, to contract between husband and wife, father, mother or

child, between master or domestic, employer or employee, each act

and each situation, involves rights limited by contiguous and adverse

rights, and it is the State which sets up the boundary between them.

Not that it creates this boundary; but, that this may be recognized, it

draws the line and therefore enacts civil laws which it applies through

its courts and gendarmes in such a way as to secure to each individual

what belongs to him. The State stands, accordingly, as regulator and

controller, not alone of private possessions, but also of the family

and of domestic life; its authority is thus legitimately introduced into

that reserved circle in which the individual will has entrenched itself,

and, as is the habit of all great powers, once the circle is invaded,

its tendency is to occupy it fully and entirely.--To this end, it

invokes a new principle. Constituted as a moral personality, the same as

a church, university, or charitable or scientific body, is not the State

bound, like every corporate body that is to last for ages, to extend

its vision far and near and prefer to private interests, which are only

life-interests, the common interest (l'intérêt commun) which is eternal?

Is not this the superior end to which all others should be subordinated,

and must this interest, which is supreme over all, be sacrificed to

two troublesome instincts which are often unreasonable and sometimes

dangerous; to conscience, which overflows in mystic madness, and to

honor, which may lead to strife even to murderous duels?--Certainly not,

and first of all when, in its grandest works, the State, as legislator,

regulates marriages, inheritances, and testaments, then it is not

respect for the will of individuals which solely guides it; it does not

content itself with obliging everybody to pay his debts, including even

those which are tacit, involuntary and innate; it takes into account

the public interest; it calculates remote probabilities, future

contingencies, all results singly and collectively. Manifestly, in

allowing or forbidding divorce, in extending or restricting what a man

may dispose of by testament, in favoring or interdicting substitutions,

it is chiefly in view of some political, economical or social advantage,

either to refine or consolidate the union of the sexes, to implant in

the family habits of discipline or sentiments of affection, to excite

in children an initiatory spirit, or one of concord, to prepare for the

nation a staff of natural chieftains, or an army of small proprietors,

and always authorized by the universal assent. Moreover, and always with

this universal assent, it does other things outside the task originally

assigned to it, and nobody finds that it usurps when,

* it coins money,

* it regulates weights and measures,

* it establishes quarantines,

* on condition of an indemnity, it expropriates private property for

public utility,

* it builds lighthouses, harbors, dikes, canals, roads,

* it defrays the cost of scientific expeditions,

* it founds museums and public libraries;

* at times, toleration is shown for its support of universities,

schools, churches, and theaters, and, to justify fresh drafts on private

purses for such objects, no reason is assigned for it but the common

interest. (l'intérêt commun)--Why should it not, in like manner, take

upon itself every enterprise for the benefit of all? Why should it

hesitate in commanding the execution of every work advantageous to

the community, and why abstain from forbidding every harmful work? Now

please note that in human society every act or omission, even the most

concealed or private, is either a loss or a gain to society. So if I

neglect to take care of my property or of my health, of my intellect or

of my soul, I undermine or weaken in my person a member of the community

which can only be rich, healthy and strong through the wealth, health

and strength of his fellow members, so that, from this point of view,

my private actions are all public benefits or public injuries. Why then,

from this point of view, should the State scruple about prescribing some

of these to me and forbidding others? Why, in order to better exercise

this right, and better fulfill this obligation, should it not constitute

itself the universal contractor for labor, and the universal distributor

of productions? Why should it not become the sole agriculturist,

manufacturer and merchant, the unique proprietor and administrator of

all France?--Precisely because this would be opposed to the common weal

(l'intérêt de tous, the interest of everyone)[2215]. Here the second

principle, that advanced against individual independence, operates

inversely, and, instead of being an adversary, it becomes a champion.

Far from setting the State free, it puts another chain around its neck,

and thus strengthens the fence within which modern conscience and modern

honor have confined the public guardian.

V. Direct common interest.

Direct common interest.--This consists in the absence of

constraint.--Two reasons in favor of freedom of action.--

Character, in general, of the individual man.--Modern

complication.

In what, indeed, does the common weal (l'intérêt de tous, the interest

of everyone) consist?--In the interest of each person, while that which

interests each person is the things of which the possession is agreeable

and deprivation painful. The whole world would in vain gainsay this

point; every sensation is personal. My suffering and my enjoyments

are not to be contested any more than my inclination for objects which

procure me the one, and my dislike of objects which procure me the

other. There is, therefore, no arbitrary definition of each one's

particular interest; this exists as a fact independently of the

legislator; all that remains is to show what this interest is, and what

each individual prefers. Preferences vary according to race, time, place

and circumstance. Among the possessions which are ever desirable and

the privation of which is ever dreaded, there is one, however, which,

directly desired, and for itself, becomes, through the progress of

civilization, more and more cherished, and of which the privation

becomes, through the progress of civilization, more and more grievous.

That is the disposition of one's self, the full ownership of one's body

and property, the faculty of thinking, believing and worshipping as one

pleases, of associating with others, of acting separately or along with

others, in all senses and without hindrance; in short, one's liberty.

That this liberty may as extensive as possible is, in all times, one of

man's great needs, and, in our days, it is his greatest need. There are

two reasons for this, one natural and the other historical.--

By nature Man is an individual, that is to say a small distinct world

in himself, a center apart in an enclosed circle, a detached organism

complete in itself and which suffers when his spontaneous inclinations

are frustrated by the intervention of an outside force.

The passage of time has made him a complicated organism, upon which

three or four religions, five or six civilizations, thirty centuries

of rich culture have left their imprint; in which its acquisitions are

combined together, wherein inherited qualities are crossbred, wherein

special traits have accumulated in such a way as to produce the most

original and the most sensitive of beings. As civilization increases, so

does his complexity: with the result that man's originality strengthens

and his sensitivity become keener; from which it follows that the more

civilized he becomes, the greater his repugnance to constraint and

uniformity.

At the present day, (1880), each of us is the terminal and peculiar

product of a vast elaboration of which the diverse stages occur in this

order but once, a plant unique of its species, a solitary individual of

superior and finer essence which, with its own inward structure and

its own inalienable type, can bear no other than its own characteristic

fruit. Nothing could be more adverse to the interest of the oak than to

be tortured into bearing the apples of the apple tree; nothing could be

more adverse to the interests of the apple tree than to be tortured into

bearing acorns; nothing could be more opposed to the interests of both

oak and apple tree, also of other trees, than to be pruned, shaped and

twisted so as all to grow after a forced model, delineated on paper

according to the rigid and limited imagination of a surveyor. The least

possible constraint is, therefore, everybody's chief interest; if one

particular restrictive agency is established, it is that every one may

be preserved by if from other more powerful constraints, especially

those which the foreigner and evil-doer would impose. Up to that point,

and not further, its intervention is beneficial; beyond that point, it

becomes one of the evils it is intended to forestall. Such then, if the

common weal is to be looked after, the sole office of the State is,

1. to prevent constraint and, therefore, never to use it except to

prevent worse constraints;

2. to secure respect for each individual in his own physical and moral

domain; never to encroach on this except for that purpose and then to

withdraw immediately;

3. to abstain from all indiscreet meddling, and yet more, as far as is

practicable, without any sacrifice of public security;

4. to reduce old assessments, to exact only a minimum of subsidies and

services;

5. to gradually limit even useful action;

6. to set itself as few tasks as possible;

7. to let each one have all the room possible and the maximum of

initiative;

8. to slowly abandon monopolies;

9. to refrain from competition with private parties;

10. to rid itself of functions which these private parties can fulfill

equally well--and we see that the limits assigned to the State by the

public interest (l'intérêt commun) correspond to those stipulated by

duty and justice.

VI. Indirect common interest.

Indirect common interest.--This consists in the most

economical and most productive employment of spontaneous

forces.--Difference between voluntary labor and forced

labor.--Sources of man's spontaneous action. Conditions of

their energy, work and products.--Motives for leaving them

under personal control.--Extent of the private domain.

--Individuals might voluntarily extend it.--What is left

becomes the domain of the State.--Obligatory functions of

the State.--Optional functions of the State.

Let us now take into consideration, no longer the direct, but the

indirect interest of all. Instead of considering individuals let us

concern ourselves with their works. Let us regard human society as a

material and spiritual workshop, whose perfection consists in making

it as productive, economical, and as well furnished and managed as

possible. Even with this secondary and subordinate aim, the domain of

the State is scarcely to be less restricted: very few new functions are

to be attributed to it; nearly all the rest will be better fulfilled by

independent persons, or by natural or voluntary associations.--

Let us consider the man who works for his own benefit, the farmer,

the manufacturer, the merchant, and observe how attentive he is to his

business. This is because his interest and pride are involved. One side

his welfare and that of those around him is at stake, his capital, his

reputation, his social position and advancement; on the other side,

are poverty, ruin, social degradation, dependence, bankruptcy and the

alms-house. In the presence of this alternative he keeps close watch and

becomes industrious; he thinks of his business even when abed or at his

meals; he studies it, not from a distance, speculatively, in a general

way, but on the spot, practically, in detail, in all its bearings and

relationships, constantly calculating difficulties and resources, with

such sharp insight and special information that for any other person

to try to solve the daily problem which he solves, would be impossible,

because nobody could possess or estimate as he can the precise elements

which constitute it.--Compare with this unique devotion and these

peculiar qualifications the ordinary capacity and listless regularity of

a senior public official, even when expert and honest. He is sure of his

salary, provided he does his duty tolerably well, and this he does when

he is occupied during official hours. Let his papers be correct, in

conformity with regulations and custom, and nothing more is asked

of him; he need not tax his brain beyond that. If he conceives any

economical measure, or any improvement of his branch of the service, not

he, but the public, an anonymous and vague impersonality, reaps all the

benefit of it. Moreover, why should he care about it, since his project

or reform might end up in the archives. The machine is too vast and

complicated, too unwieldy, too clumsy, with its rusty wheels, its "old

customs and acquired rights," to be renewed and rebuilt as one might a

farm, a warehouse or a foundry. Accordingly, he has no idea of troubling

himself further in the matter; on leaving his office he dismisses it

from his mind; he lets things go on automatically, just as it happens,

in a costly way and with indifferent results. Even in a country of as

much probity as France, it is calculated that every enterprise managed

by the State costs one quarter more, and brings in one quarter less,

than when entrusted to private hands. Consequently if work were

withheld from individuals in order that the State might undertake it the

community, when the accounts came to be balanced, would suffer a loss of

one-half.[2216]

Now, this is true of all work, whether spiritual or material not only of

agricultural, industrial and commercial products, but, again, of works

of science and of art, of literature and philosophy, of charity, of

education and propaganda. Not only when driven by egoism, such as

personal interest and vulgar vanity, but also when a disinterested

sentiment is involved, such the discovery of truth, the creation of

beauty, the propagation of a faith, the diffusion of convictions,

religious enthusiasm or natural generosity, love in a broad or a narrow

sense, spanning from one who embraces all humanity to one who devotes

himself wholly to his friends and kindred. The effect is the same in

both cases, because the cause is the same. Always, in the shop directed

by the free workman, the motivating force is enormous, almost

infinite, because it is a living spring which flows at all hours and is

inexhaustible. The mother thinks constantly of her child, the savant of

his science, the artist of his art, the inventor of his inventions, the

philanthropist of his endowments, Faraday of electricity, Stephenson

of his locomotive, Pasteur of his microbes, De Lesseps of his isthmus,

sisters of charity of their poor. Through this peculiar concentration of

thought, man derives every possible advantage from human faculties and

surroundings; he himself gets to be a more and more perfect instrument,

and, moreover, he fashions others: with this he daily reduces the

friction of the powerful machine which he controls and of which he

is the main wheel; he increases its yield ; he economizes, maintains,

repairs and improves it with a capability and success that nobody

questions; in short, he fabricates in a superior way.--But this

living source, to which the superiority of the works is due, cannot

be separated from the owner and chief, for it issues from his own

affections and deepest sentiments. It is useless without him; out of

his hands, in the hands of strangers, the fountain ceases to flow and

production stops.--If, consequently, a good and large yield is required,

he alone must have charge of the mill; he is the resident owner of

it, the one who sets it in motion, the born engineer, installed and

specially designed for that position. In vain may attempts be made to

turn the stream elsewhere; there simply ensues a stoppage of the natural

issue, a dam barring useful canals, a haphazard change of current

not only without gain, but loss, the stream subsiding in swamps or

undermining the steep banks of a ravine. At the utmost, the millions of

buckets of water, forcibly taken from private reservoirs, half fill with

a good deal of trouble the great central artificial basin in which the

water, low and stagnant, is never sufficient in quantity or force to

move the huge public wheel that replaces the small private wheels, doing

the nation's work.

Thus, even when we only consider men as manufactures, even if we treat

them simply as producers of what is valuable and serviceable, with

no other object in view than to furnish society with supplies and to

benefit the consumers, even though the private domain includes all

enterprises undertaken by private individuals, either singly or

associated together, through personal interests or personal taste, then

this is enough to ensure that all is managed better than the State could

have done; it is by virtue of this that they have devolved into their

hands. Consequently, in the vast field of labor, they themselves decide

on what they will undertake; they themselves, of their own authority,

set their own limits. They may therefore enlarge their own domain to any

extent they please, and reduce indefinitely the domain of the State. On

the contrary, the State cannot pretend to more than what they leave; as

they advance on their common territory separated by vague frontiers, it

is bound to recede and leave the ground to them; whatever the task

is, it should not perform it except in case of their default, or their

prolonged absence, or on proof of their having abandoned it.

All the rest, therefore falls to the State; first, the offices which

they would never claim, and which they will deliberately leave in its

hands, because they do not have that indispensable instrument, called

armed force. This force forces assures the protection of the community

against foreign communities, the protection of individuals against one

another, the levying of soldiers, the imposition of taxes, the execution

of the laws, the administration of justice and of the police.--Next

to this, come matters of which the accomplishment concerns everybody

without directly interesting any one in particular--the government of

unoccupied territory, the administration of rivers, coasts, forests and

public highways, the task of governing subject countries, the framing

of laws, the coinage of money, the conferring of a civil status,

the negotiating in the name of the community with local and special

corporations, departments, communes, banks, institutions, churches, and

universities.--Add to these, according to circumstances, sundry optional

co-operative services,[2217] such as subsidies granted to institutions

of great public utility, for which private contributions could not

suffice, now in the shape of concessions to corporations for which

equivalent obligations are exacted, and, again, in those hygienic

precautions which individuals fail to take through indifference; so

occasionally, such provisional aid as supports a man, or so stimulates

him as to enable him some day or other to support himself; and, in

general, those discreet and scarcely perceptible interpositions for

the time being which prove so advantageous in the future, like a

far-reaching code and other consistent regulations which, mindful of the

liberty of the existing individual, provide for the welfare of coming

generations. Nothing beyond that.

Again, in this preparation for future welfare the same principle still

holds.

VII. Fabrication of social instruments.

Fabrication of social instruments.--Application of this

principle.--How all kinds of useful laborers are formed.--

Respect for spontaneous sources, the essential and adequate

condition.--Obligation of the State to respect these.--They

dry up when it monopolizes them.--The aim of patriotism.--

The aim of other liberal dispositions.--Impoverishment of

all the productive faculties.--Destructive effect of the

Jacobin system.

Among the precious products, the most precious and important are,

evidently, the animated instruments, namely the men, since they produce

the rest. The object then, is to fashion men capable of physical,

mental or moral labor, the most energetic, the most persistent, the most

skillful and most productive; now, we already know the conditions of

their formation. It is essential and sufficient, that the vivacious

sources, described above, should flow there, on the spot, each through

its natural outlet, and under the control of the owner. On this

condition the jet becomes more vigorous, for the acquired impetus

increases the original outflow; the producer becomes more and more

skillful, since 'practice makes perfect.' Those around him likewise

become better workmen, inasmuch as they find encouragement in his

success and avail themselves of his discoveries.--Thus, simply because

the State respects, and enforces respect, for these individual sources

in private hands, it develops in individuals, as well as in those around

them, the will and the talent for producing much and well, the faculty

for, and desire to, keep on producing more and better; in other words,

all sorts of energies and capacities, each of its own kind and in its

own place, with all compatible fullness and efficiency. Such is the

office, and the sole office, of the State, first in relation to the

turbid and frigid springs issuing from selfishness and self-conceit,

whose operations demand its oversight, and next for still stronger

reasons, in relation to the warm and pure springs whose beneficence is

unalloyed, as in the family affections and private friendships; again,

in relation to those rarer and higher springs, such as the love of

beauty, the yearning for truth, the spirit of association, patriotism

and love of mankind; and, finally, for still stronger reasons, in

relation to the two most sacred and salutary of all springs, conscience

which renders will subject to duty, and honor which makes will the

support of justice. Let the State prevent, as well as abstain from, any

interference with either; let this be its object and nothing more; its

abstention is as necessary as its vigilance. Let it guard both, and

it will see everywhere growing spontaneously, hourly, each in degree

according to conditions of time and place, the most diligent and most

competent workmen, the agriculturist, the manufacturer, the merchant,

the savant, the artist, the inventor, the propagandist, the husband and

wife, the father and mother, the patriot, the philanthropist and the

sister of charity.

On the contrary, if, like our Jacobins, the State seeks to confiscate

every natural force to its own profit, it seeks to make affection for

itself paramount, if it strives to suppress all other passions and

interests, if it tolerates no other preoccupation than that which

concerns the common weal, if it tries to forcibly convert every member

of society into a Spartan or Jesuit, then, at enormous cost, will it not

only destroy private fountains, and spread devastation over the entire

territory, but it will destroy its own fountain-head. We honor the State

only for the services it renders to us, and proportionately to these

services and the security it affords us, and to the liberty which it

ensures us under the title of universal benefactor; when it deliberately

wounds us through our dearest interests and most tender affections, when

it goes so far as to attack our honor and conscience, when it becomes

the universal wrong-doer, our affection for it, in the course of time,

turns into hatred. Let this system be maintained, and patriotism,

exhausted, dries up, and, one by one, all other beneficent springs,

until, finally, nothing is visible over the whole country, but stagnant

pools or overwhelming torrents, inhabited by passive subjects or

depredators. As in the Roman empire in the fourth century, in Italy in

the seventeenth century, in the Turkish provinces in our own day, naught

remains but an ill-conducted herd of stunted, torpid creatures, limited

to their daily wants and animal instincts, indifferent to the public

welfare and to their own prospective interests, so degenerate as to have

lost sight of their own discoveries, unlearned their own sciences,

arts and industries, and, in short, and worse than all, base, false,

corrupted souls entirely wanting in honor and conscience. Nothing is

more destructive than the unrestricted meddling of the State, even when

wise and paternal; in Paraguay, under the discipline of Jesuits, so

minute in its details, "Indian physiognomy appeared like that of animals

taken in a trap." They worked, ate, drank and gave birth by sound of

bells, under watch and ward, correctly and mechanically, but showing no

liking for anything, not even for their own existence, being transformed

into so may automatons; at least it may be said is that the means

employed to produce this result were gentle and that they, before their

transformation were mere brutes. But those who the revolutionary-Jesuit

now undertakes to transform into robots, and by harsh means, are human

beings.

VIII. Comparison between despotisms.

Comparison between despotisms.--Philip II and Louis XIV.--

Cromwell and Frederick the Great.--Peter the Great and the

Sultans.--Relationship between the tasks the Jacobins are to

carry out and the assets at their disposal.--Disproportion

between the burdens they are to carry and the forces at

their disposal.--Folly of their undertaking.--Physical force

the only governmental force they possess.--They are

compelled to exercise it.--They are compelled to abuse it.--

Character of their government.--Character requisite of their

leaders.

Several times, in European history, despotism almost equally harsh have

born down heavily on human effort; but never have any of them been so

thoroughly inept; for none have ever attempted to raise so heavy a mass

with so short a lever. And to start with, no matter how authoritative

the despot might have been, his intervention was limited.--Philip

II. burned heretics, persecuted Moors and drove out Jews; Louis XIV.

forcibly converted the Protestants; but both used violence only against

dissenters, about a fifteenth or a twentieth of their subjects. If

Cromwell, on becoming Protector, remained sectarian, and the compulsory

servant of an army of sectarians, he took good care not to impose

on other churches the theology, rites and discipline of his own

church;[2218] on the contrary, he repressed fanatical outrages;

protected the Anabaptists as well as his Independents. He granted paid

curates to the Presbyterians as well as the public exercise of their

worship, he showed the Episcopalians a large tolerance and gave them

the right to worship in private; he maintained the two great Anglican

universities and allowed the Jews to erect a synagogue.--Frederick II.

drafted into his army every able-bodied peasant that he could feed; he

kept every man twenty years in the service, under a discipline worse

than slavery, with almost certain prospect of death; and in his last

war, he sacrificed about one sixth of his male subjects;[2219] but they

were serfs, and his conscription did not touch the bourgeois class. He

put his hands in the pockets of the bourgeois and of every other man,

and took every crown they had; when driven to it, he adulterated coin

and stopped paying his functionaries; but, under the scrutiny of his

eyes, always open, the administration was honest, the police effective,

justice exact, toleration unlimited, and the freedom of the press

complete; the king allowed the publication of the most cutting pamphlets

against himself, and their public sale, even at Berlin.--A little

earlier, in the great empire of the east, Peter the Great,[2220] with

whip in hand, lashed his Muscovite bears and made them drill and dance

in European fashion; but were bears accustomed from father to son to the

whip and chain; moreover, he stood as the orthodox head of their faith,

and left their mir (the village commune) untouched.--Finally, at the

other extremity of Europe, and even outside of Europe, in the seventh

century the caliph, in the fifteenth century a sultan, a Mahomet or an

Omar, a fanatical Arab or brutal Turk, who had just overcome Christians

with the sword, himself assigned the limits of his own absolutism:

if the vanquished were reduced to the condition of heavily ransomed

tributaries and of inferiors daily humiliated, he allowed them

their worship, civil laws and domestic usages; he left them their

institutions, their convents and their schools; he allowed them to

administer the affairs of their own community as they pleased under

the jurisdiction of their patriarch, or other natural chieftains.--Thus

whatever the tyrant may have been, he did not attempt to entirely

recast Man, nor to subject all his subjects to the recasting. However

penetrating the tyranny, it stopped in the soul at a certain point;

that point reached, the sentiments were left free. No matter how

comprehensive this tyranny may have been, it affected only one class of

men; the others, outside the net, remained free. When it wounded all at

once all sensitive chords, it did so only to a limited minority, unable

to defend themselves. As far as the majority, able to protect itself,

their main sensibilities were respected, especially the most sensitive,

this one or that one, as the case might be, now the conscience which

binds man to his religion, now that amour-propre on which honor depends,

and now the habits which make man cling to customs, hereditary usages

and outward observances. As far as the others were concerned, those

which relate to property, personal welfare, and social position, it

proceeded cautiously and with moderation. In this way the discretion

of the ruler lessened the resistance of the subject, and a daring

enterprise, even mischievous, was not outrageous; it might be carried

out; nothing was required but a force in hand equal to the resistance it

provoked.

Again, and on the other hand, the tyrant possessed this force. Very many

and very strong arms stood behind the prince ready to cooperate with him

and countervail any resistance.--Behind Philip II. or Louis XIV. ready

to drive the dissidents out or at least to consent to their oppression,

stood the Catholic majority, as fanatical or as illiberal as their king.

Behind Philip II., Louis XIV., Frederick II., and Peter the Great, stood

the entire nation, equally violent, rallied around the sovereign through

his consecrated title and uncontested right, through tradition and

custom, through a rigid sentiment of duty and the vague idea of public

security.--Peter the Great counted among his auxiliaries every eminent

and cultivated man in the country; Cromwell had his disciplined and

twenty-times victorious army; the caliph or sultan brought along with

him his military and privileged population.--Aided by cohorts of this

stamp, it was easy to raise a heavy mass, and even maintain it in a

fixed position. Once the operation was concluded there followed a sort

of equilibrium; the mass, kept in the air by a permanent counterbalance,

only required a little daily effort to prevent it from falling.

It is just the opposite with the Jacobin enterprise. When it is put

into operation, the theory, more exacting, adds an extra weight to the

uplifted mass, and, finally, a burden of almost infinite weight.--At

first, the Jacobin confined his attacks to royalty, to nobility, to

the Church, to parliaments, to privileges, to ecclesiastical and feudal

possessions, in short, to medieval foundations. Then he attacks yet more

ancient and more solid foundations, positive religion, property and the

family.--For four years he has been satisfied with demolition and now he

wants to construct. His object is not merely to do away with a positive

faith and suppress social inequality, to proscribe revealed dogmas,

hereditary beliefs, an established cult, the supremacy of rank and

superiority of fortunes, wealth, leisure, refinement and elegance, but

he wants, in addition to all this, to re-fashion the citizen. He wants

to create new sentiments, impose natural religion on the individual,

civic education, uniform ways and habits, Jacobin conduct, Spartan

virtue; in short, nothing is to be left in a human being that is not

prescribed, enforced and constrained.--Henceforth, there is opposed to

the Revolution, not alone the partisans of the ancient régime--priests,

nobles, parliamentarians, royalists, and Catholics--but, again, every

person imbued with European civilization, every member of a regular

family, any possessor of a capital, large or small; every kind or degree

of proprietor, farmer, manufacturer, merchant, artisan or farmer, even

most of the revolutionaries. Nearly all the revolutionaries count on

escaping the constraints they impose, and who only like the strait

jacket when it is on another's back.--The influence of resistant wills

at this moment becomes incalculable: it would be easier to raise

a mountain, and, just at this moment, the Jacobins have deprived

themselves of every moral force through which a political engineer acts

on human wills.

Unlike Philip II. and Louis XIV. they are not supported by the

intolerance of a vast majority, for, instead of fifteen or twenty

orthodox against one heretic, they count in their church scarcely more

than one orthodox against fifteen or twenty heretics.[2221]--They are

not, like legitimate sovereigns, supported by the stubborn loyalty of

an entire population, following in the steps of its chieftain out of the

prestige of hereditary right and through habits of ancient fealty. On

the contrary, their reign is only a day old and they themselves are

interlopers. At first installed by a coup d'état and afterwards by the

semblance of an election, they have extorted or obtained by trick the

suffrages through which they act. They are so familiar with fraud and

violence that, in their own Assembly, the ruling minority has seized

and held on to power by violence and fraud, putting down the majority by

riots, and the departments by force of arms. To give their brutalities

the semblance of right, they improvise two pompous demonstrations,

first, the sudden manufacture of a paper constitution, which molders

away in their archives, and next, the scandalous farce of a hollow

and compulsory plebiscite.--A dozen leaders of the party concentrate

unlimited authority in their own hands; but, as admitted by them, their

authority is derivative; it is the Convention which makes them its

delegates; their precarious title has to be renewed monthly; a turn

of the majority may sweep them and their work away to-morrow;

an insurrection of the people, whom they have familiarized with

insurrection, may to-morrow sweep them away, their work and their

majority.--They maintain only a disputed, limited and transient

ascendancy over their adherents. They are not military chieftains like

Cromwell and Napoleon, generals of an army obeyed without a murmur, but

common stump-speakers at the mercy of an audience that sits in judgment

on them. There is no discipline in this public; every Jacobin remains

independent by virtue of his principles; if he accepts leaders, it is

with a reservation of their worth to him; selecting them as he pleases,

he is free to change them when he pleases; his trust in them is

intermittent, his loyalty provisional, and, as his adhesion depends on a

mere preference, he always reserves the right to discard the favorite of

to-day as he has discarded the favorite of yesterday. In this audience,

there is no such thing as subordination; the lowest demagogue, any noisy

subaltern, a Hébert or Jacques Roux, aspiring to step out of the ranks,

overbidding the charlatans in office in order to obtain their places.

Even with a complete and lasting ascendancy over an organized band

of docile supporters, the Jacobin leaders would be feeble for lack of

reliable and competent instruments; for they have but very few

partisans other than those of doubtful probity and of notorious

incapacity.--Cromwell had around him, to carry out the puritan program,

the moral élite of the nation, an army of rigorists, with narrow

consciences, but much more strict towards themselves than towards

others, men who never drank and who never swore, who never indulged for

a moment in sensuality or idleness, who forbade themselves every act

of omission or commission about which they held any scruples, the most

honest, the most temperate, the most laborious and the most persevering

of mankind,[2222] the only ones capable of laying the foundations of

that practical morality on which England and the United States still

subsist at the present day.--Around Peter the Great, in carrying out

his European program, stood the intellectual élite of the country, an

imported staff of men of ability associated with natives of moderate

ability, every well-taught resident foreigner and indigenous Russian,

the only ones able to organize schools and public institutions, to set

up a vast central and regular system of administration, to assign rank

according to service and merit, in short, to erect on the snow and

mud of a shapeless barbarism a conservatory of civilization which,

transplanted like an exotic tree, grows and gradually becomes

acclimated.--Around Couthon, Saint-Just, Billaud, Collot, and

Robespierre, with the exception of certain men devoted, not to

Utopianism but the country, and who, like Carnot, conform to the system

in order to save France, there are but a few sectarians to carry out

the Jacobin program. These are men so short-sighted as not to clearly

comprehend its fallacies, or sufficiently fanatical to accept its

horrors, a lot of social outcasts and self-constituted statesmen,

infatuated through incommensurate faculties with the parts they

play, unsound in mind and superficially educated, wholly incompetent,

boundless in ambition, their consciences perverted, callous or deadened

by sophistry, hardened through arrogance or killed by crime, by impunity

and by success.

Thus, whilst other despots raise a moderate weight, calling around them

either the majority or the flower of the nation, employing the best

strength of the country and lengthening their lever (of despotism) as

much as possible, the Jacobins attempt to raise an incalculable weight,

repel the majority as well as the flower of the nation, discard the best

strength of the country, and shorten their lever to the utmost. They

hold on only to the shorter end, the rough, clumsy, iron-bound, creaking

and grinding extremity, that is to say, to physical force,--the means

for physical constraint, the heavy hand of the gendarme on the shoulder

of the suspect, the jailer's bolts and keys turned on the prisoner, the

club used by the sans-culottes on the back of the bourgeois to quicken

his pace, and, better still, the Septembriseur's pike thrust into the

aristocrat's belly, and the blade falling on the neck held fast in the

clutches of the guillotine.--Such, henceforth, is the only machinery

they posses for governing the country, for they have deprived themselves

of all other. Their engine has to be exhibited, for it works only on

condition that its bloody image be stamped indelibly on every body's

imagination; if the Negro monarch or the pasha desires to see heads

bowing as he passes along, he must be escorted by executioners. They

must abuse their engine because fear losing its effect through habit,

needs example to keep it alive; the Negro monarch or the pasha who would

keep the fear alive by which he rules, must be stimulated every day;

he must slaughter too many to be sure of slaughtering enough; he must

slaughter constantly, in heaps, indiscriminately, haphazard, no matter

for what offense, on the slightest suspicion, the innocent along with

the guilty. He and his are lost the moment they cease to obey this rule.

Every Jacobin, like every African monarch or pasha, must it that he

may be and remain at the head of his band.--That is the reason why

the chiefs of the party, its natural and pre-determined leaders, are

theoreticians able to grasp its principle and logicians capable of

drawing its consequences. They are, however, so inept as to be unable

to understand that their enterprise exceeds both their own and all other

human resources, but shrewd enough to see that brutal force is their

only tool, inhuman enough to apply it unscrupulously and without

reserve, and perverted enough to murder at random in order to

disseminate terror.

*****

[Footnote 2201: Buchez et Roux, XXXII, 354. (Speech by Robespierre in

the Convention, Floréal 18, year II.) "Sparta gleams like a flash of

lightening amidst profoundest darkness".]

[Footnote 2202: Milos taken by the Athenians; Thebes, after Alexander's

victory; Corinth, after its capture by the Romans.--In the Peloponnesian

war, the Plateans, who surrender at discretion, are put to death. Nicias

is murdered in cold blood after his defeat in Sicily. The prisoners at

oegos-Potamos have their thumbs cut off.]

[Footnote 2203: Fustel de Coulanges, "La Cité Antique", ch. XVII.]

[Footnote 2204: Plato, "The Apology of Socrates."--See also in the

"Crito" Socrates' reasons for not eluding the penalty imposed on him.

The antique conception of the State is here clearly set forth.]

[Footnote 2205: Cf. the code of Manu, the Zendavesta, the Pentateuch and

the Tcheou-Li. In this last code (Biot's translation), will be found the

perfection of the system, particularly in vol. I., 241, 247, II., 393,

III., 9, 11, 21, 52. "Every district chief, on the twelfth day of the

first moon, assembles together the men of his district and reads to

them the table of rules; he examines their virtue, their conduct, their

progress in the right path, and in their knowledge, and encourages them;

he investigates their errors, their failings and prevents them from

doing evil.... Superintendents of marriages see that young people marry

at the prescribed age." The reduction of man to a State automaton is

plain enough in the institution of "Overseer of Gags..." At all grand

hunts, at all gatherings of troops, he orders the application of gags.

In these cases gags are put in the soldiers' mouths; they then fulfill

their duties without tumult or shouting."]

[Footnote 2206: These two words have no exact equivalents in Greek or

Latin, Conscientia, dignitas, honos denote different shade of meaning.

This difference is most appreciable in the combination of the two modern

terms delicate conscience, scrupulous conscience, and the phrase of

stake one's honour on this or that, make it a point of honor, the laws

of honor, etc. The technical terms of antique morality: the beautiful,

truthfulness, the sovereign good, indicate ideas of another stamp and

origin.]

[Footnote 2207: Alas, modern 20th century democratic Man has given up

honor and conscience, all he has got to do is to be correct and follow

the thousands of rules governing his life. And, of course, make sure

that he is following orders or sure of not being caught when he breaks

the natural rules of friendship, honor or conscience. Conscience, on

the other had, will always lurk somewhere in the shadows of our mind,

because we all know how we would like to be treated by others, and

will be forced not to transgress certain boundaries in case an intended

victim might be in a position to take his revenge. That I am not alone

in seeing things this way I noted in an interview with the 79 year old

French author Michel Déon in Le Figaro on the 16th of May 1998 in which

Mr. Déon said: "Everywhere we are still in a nursery. A great movement

attempting to turn us all into half-wits (une grande campagne de

crétinisation est en route). When these are the only ones left, the

governments have an easy job. It is very clever." (SR.)]

[Footnote 2208: Montaigne, Essays, book I., ch. 42: "Observe in

provinces far from the court, in Brittany for example, the retinue,

the subjects, the duties, the ceremony, of a seignior living alone

by himself, brought up among his dependents, and likewise observe the

flights of his imagination, there is nothing which is more royal; he may

allude to his superior once a year, as if he were the King of Persia...

The burden of sovereignty scarcely affects the French gentilhomme twice

in his life... he who lurks in his own place avoiding dispute and trial

is as free as the Duke of Venice."]

[Footnote 2209: "Mémoires de Chateaubriand," vol. I. ("Les Soirées au

Chateau de Cambourg".)]

[Footnote 2210: In China, the moral principle is just the opposite. The

Chinese, amidst obstacles and embarrassments, always enjoin siao-sin,

which means, "abate thy affections." (Huc, "L'Empire Chinoise," I.,

204.)]

[Footnote 2211: In the United states the moral order of things reposes

chiefly on puritan ideas; nevertheless deep traces of feudal conceptions

are found there; for instance, the general deference for women which is

quite chivalric there, and even excessive.]

[Footnote 2212: Observe, from this point of view, in the woman of modern

times the defenses of female virtue. The (male) sentiment of duty is the

first safeguard of modesty, but this has a much more powerful auxiliary

in the sentiment of honor, or deep innate pride.]

[Footnote 2213: The moral standard varies, but according to a fixed law,

the same as a mathematical function. Each community has its own moral

elements, organization, history and surroundings, and necessarily its

peculiar conditions of vitality. When the queen been in a hive is chosen

and impregnated this condition involves the massacre of useless male

and female rivals (Darwin). In China, it consists of paternal authority,

literary education and ritual observances. In the antique city, it

consisted of the omnipotence of the State, gymnastic education, and

slavery. In each century, and in each country, these vital conditions

are expressed by more or less hereditary passwords which set forth or

interdict this or that class of actions. When the individual feels

the inward challenge he is conscious of obligation; the moral conflict

consists in the struggle within himself between the universal password

and personal desire. In our European society the vital condition, and

thus the general countersign, is self-respect coupled with respect for

others (including women and children). This countersign, new in history,

has a singular advantage over all preceding ones: each individual being

respected, each can develop himself according to his nature; he can

accordingly invent in every sense, bring forth every sort of production

and be useful to himself and others in every way, thus enabling society

to develop indefinitely.]

[Footnote 2214: Taine is probably speaking of the colonial wars in China

and the conquest of Madagascar. (SR).]

[Footnote 2215: Here Taine is seeing mankind as being male, strong and

hardy; however I feel that liberty is more desirable for the strong and

confident while the child, the lost, the sick, the ignorant or feeble

person is looking for protection, reassurance and guidance. When society

consisted of strong independent farmers, hunters, warriors, nomads or

artisans backed by family and clan, liberty was an important idea. Today

few if any can rise above the horde and gain the insights, the wisdom

and the competence which once was such a common thing. Today the strong

seek promotion inside the hierarchy of the welfare state rest-house.

(S.R.)]

[Footnote 2216: This is just what Lenin could not believe when he read

this around 1906. Even Taine did not see how much a French government

organization depended upon staff recruited from a hardworking,

modest and honest French population. We have now lived to see how the

nationalization of private property in Egypt, Argentina, Algeria not

to speak of Ethiopia and India proved disastrous and how 40 years of

government ownership should degrade and corrupt the populations of

Russia, China, Yugoslavia, Albania etc. (SR).]

[Footnote 2217: When the function to be performed is of an uncertain or

mixed character the following rule may be applied in deciding

whether the State or individuals shall be entrusted with it; also in

determining, in the case of cooperation, what portion of it shall be

assigned to individuals and what portion to the State. As a general

rule, when individuals, either singly or associated together, have a

direct interest in, or are drawn toward, a special function, and

the community has no direct interest therein, the matter belongs to

individuals and not to the State. On the other hand, if the interest of

the community in any function is direct, and indirect for individuals

singly or associated together, it is proper for the State and not for

individuals to take hold of it.--According to this rule the limits of

the public and private domain can be defined, which limits, as they

change backward and forward, may be verified according to the changes

which take place in interests and preferences, direct or indirect.]

[Footnote 2218: Carlyle: "Cromwell's Speeches and Letters," III., 418.

(Cromwell's address to the Parliament, September 17, 1656.)]

[Footnote 2219: Seeley, "Life and Times of Stein," II., 143.--Macaulay,

"Biographical essays," Frederick the Great. 33, 35, 87, 92.]

[Footnote 2220: Eugene Schuyler, "Peter the Great," vol. 2.]

[Footnote 2221: Cf. "The Revolution" vol. II., pp. 46 and 323, vol.

III., ch I. Archives des Affaires Etrangèrés. Vol. 332. (Letter by

Thiberge, Marseilles, Brumaire 14, year II.) "I have been to Marteygne,

a small town ten leagues from Marseilles, along with my colleague

Fournet; I found (je trouvée) seventeen patriots in a town of give

thousand population."--Ibid., (Letter by Regulus Leclerc, Bergues,

Brumaire 15, year II.) At Bergues, he says, "the municipality is

composed of traders with empty stores and brewers without beer since the

law of the maximum." Consequently there is universal lukewarmness, "only

forty persons being found to form a popular club, holding sessions as a

favor every five days.... Public spirit at Bergues is dead; fanaticism

rules."--Archives Nationales, F7, 7164 (Department of Var, reports of

year V. "General idea.")--"At Draguignan, out of seven thousand souls,

forty patriots, exclusifs, despised or dishonest; at Vidauban, nine or

ten exclusifs, favored by the municipality and who live freely without

their means being known; at Brignolles, frequent robberies on the road

by robbers said to have been very patriotic in the beginning of the

Revolution: people are afraid of them and dare not name them; at

Fréjus, nine leading exclusifs who pass all their time in the

cafe."--Berryat-Saint-Prix, "La Justice Révolutionnaire," p.

146.--Brutus Thierry, grocer, member of the Rev. Com. Of Angers, said

that "in angers, there were not sixty revolutionaries."]

[Footnote 2222: Macaulay. "History of England," I., 152. "The Royalists

themselves confessed that, in every department of honest industry, the

discarded warriors prospered beyond other men, that none was charged

with any theft or robbery, that none was heard to ask an alms, and that,

if a baker, a mason, or a waggoner attracted notice by his diligence and

sobriety, he was in all probability one of Oliver's old soldiers."]

BOOK THIRD. THE MEN IN POWER.

CHAPTER I. PSYCHOLOGY OF THE JACOBIN LEADERS.

I. Marat.

Marat.--Disparity between his faculties and pretensions.

--The Maniac.--The Ambitious delirium.--Rage for persecution.

--The permanent nightmare.--Homicidal frenzy.

Three men among the Jacobins, Marat, Danton and Robespierre, had

deserved preeminence and held authority:--that is because they, due to

a deformity or warping of their minds and their hearts, met the required

conditions.--

Of the three, Marat is the most monstrous; he is nearly a madman,

of which he displays the chief characteristics--furious exaltation,

constant over-excitement, feverish restlessness, an inexhaustible

propensity for scribbling, that mental automatism and single-mindedness

of purpose constrained and ruled by a fixed idea. In addition to this,

he displays the usual physical symptoms, such as insomnia, a pallid

complexion, hot-headed, foulness of dress and person,[3101] with,

during the last five months of his life, rashes and itching all over his

body.[3102] Issuing from ill-matched stock, born of a mixed blood and

tainted with serious moral agitation,[3103] he carries within him a

peculiar germ: physically, he is a freak, morally a pretender, and one

who covet all places of distinction. His father, who was a physician,

intended, from his early childhood, that he should be a scholar; his

mother, an idealist, had prepared him to become a philanthropist, while

he himself always steered his course towards both summits.

"At five years of age," he says, "it would have pleased me to be a

school-master, at fifteen a professor, at eighteen an author, and a

creative genius at twenty,"[3104]and, afterwards, up to the last, an

apostle and martyr to humanity. "From my earliest infancy I had an

intense love of fame which changed its object at various stages of my

life, but which never left me for a moment." He rambled over Europe

or vegetated in Paris for thirty years, living a nomadic life in

subordinate positions, hissed as an author, distrusted as a man of

science and ignored as a philosopher, a third rate political writer,

aspiring to every sort of celebrity and to every honor, constantly

presenting himself as a candidate and as constantly rejected,--too

great a disproportion between his faculties and ambition! Without

talents,[3105] possessing no critical acumen and of mediocre

intelligence, he was fitted only to teach some branch of the sciences,

or to practice some one of the arts, either as professor or doctor more

or less bold and lucky, or to follow, with occasional slips on one side

or the other, some path clearly marked out for him. "But," he says, "I

constantly refused any subject which did not hold out a promise.... of

showing off my originality and providing great results, for I

cannot make up my mind to treat a subject already well done by

others."--Consequently, when he tries to originate he merely imitates,

or commits mistakes. His treatise on "Man" is a jumble of physiological

and moral common-places, made up of ill-digested reading and words

strung together haphazard,[3106] of gratuitous and incoherent

suppositions in which the doctrines of the seventeenth and eighteenth

centuries, coupled together, end in empty phraseology. "Soul and Body

are distinct substances with no essential relationship, being connected

together solely through the nervous fluid;" this fluid is not gelatinous

for the spirits by which it is renewed contains no gelatin; the soul,

excited by this, excites that; hence the place assigned to it "in the

brain."--His "Optics"[3107] is the reverse of the great truth already

discovered by Newton more than a century before, and since confirmed by

more than another century of experiment and calculation. On "Heat"

and "Electricity" he merely puts forth feeble hypotheses and literary

generalizations; one day, driven to the wall, he inserts a needle in a

resin to make this a conductor, in which piece of scientific trickery

he is caught by the physicist Charles.[3108] He is not even qualified to

comprehend the great discoverers of his age, Laplace, Monge, Lavoisier,

or Fourcroy; on the contrary, he libels them in the style of a low

rebellious subordinate, who, without the shadow of a claim, aims to take

the place of legitimate authorities. In Politics, he adopts every absurd

idea in vogue growing out of the "Contrat-Social" based on natural

right, and which he renders still more absurd by repeating as his own

the arguments advanced by those bungling socialists, who, physiologists

astray in the moral world, derive all rights from physical necessities.

"All human rights issue from physical wants[3109]... If a man has

nothing, he has a right to any surplus with which another gorges

himself. What do I say? He has a right to seize the indispensable,

and, rather than die of hunger, he may cut another's throat and eat

his throbbing flesh.... Man has a right to self-preservation, to the

property, the liberty and even the lives of his fellow creatures. To

escape oppression he has a right to repress, to bind and to massacre. He

is free to do what he pleases to ensure his own happiness."

It is plain enough what this leads to.--But, let the consequences

be what they may, whatever he writes or does, it is always in

self-admiration and always in a counter sense, being as vain-glorious

of his encyclopedic impotence as he is of his social mischievousness.

Taking his word for it, his discoveries in Physics will render him

immortal[3110]:

"They will at least effect a complete transformation in Optics.... The

true primitive colors were unknown before me."

He is a Newton, and still better. Previous to his appearance "the place

occupied by the electrical fluid in nature, considered as an universal

agent, was completely ignored. .. I have made it known in such a way as

to leave no further doubt about it."[3111] As to the heat-engendering

fluid, "that substance unknown until my discovery, I have freed

the theory from every hypothesis and conjecture, from every alembic

argument; I have purged it of error, I have rendered it intuitive; I

have written this out in a small volume which consigns to oblivion all

that scientific bodies have hitherto published on that subject."[3112]

Anterior to his treatise on "Man," the relationships between moral and

physics were incomprehensible. "Descartes, Helvetius, Hailer, Lecat,

Hume, Voltaire, Bonnet, held this to be an impenetrable secret, 'an

enigma.'" He has solved the problem, he has fixed the seat of the soul,

he has determined the medium through which the soul communicates with

the body.[3113]--In the higher sciences, those treating of nature

generally, or of human society, he reaches the climax. "I believe that

I have exhausted every combination of the human intellect in relation

to morals, philosophy and political science."[3114] Not only has he

discovered the true theory of government, but he is a statesman, a

practical expert, able to forecast the future and shape events. He makes

predictions, on the average, twice a week, which always turn out right;

he already claims, during the early sessions of the Convention, to have

made "three hundred predictions on the leading points of the Revolution,

all justified by the event."[3115]--In the face of the Constituents who

demolish and reconstruct so slowly, he is sufficiently strong to take

down, put up and complete at a moment's notice.

"If I were one of the people's tribunes[3116] and were supported by a

few thousand determined men, I answer for it that, in six weeks, the

Constitution would be perfected, the political machine well agoing,

and the nation free and happy. In less than a year there would be a

flourishing, formidable government which would remain so as long as I

lived."--If necessary, he could act as commander-in-chief of the army

and always be victorious: having twice seen the Vendeans carry on a

fight he would end the war "at the first encounter."[3117]--"If I could

stand the march, I would go in person and carry out my views. At the

head of a small party of trusty troops the rebels could be easily put

down to the last man, and in one day. I know something of military art,

and; without boasting, I can answer for success."--On any difficulty

occurring, it is owing to his advice not having been taken; he is the

great political physician: his diagnosis from the beginning of the

Revolution is always correct, his prognosis infallible, his therapeutics

efficacious, humane and salutary. He provides the panacea and he should

be allowed to prescribe it; only, to ensure a satisfactory operation, he

should himself administer the dose. Let the public lancet, therefore,

be put in his hands that he may perform the humanitarian operation of

bloodletting. "Such are my opinions. I have published them in my works.

I have signed them with my name and I am not ashamed of it.... If you

are not equal to me and able to comprehend me so much the worse for

you."[3118] In other words, in his own eyes, Marat is in advance of

everybody else and, through his superior genius and character, he is the

veritable savior.

Such are the symptoms by which medical men recognize immediately one of

those partial lunatics who may not be put in confinement, but who are

all the more dangerous;[3119] the malady, as they would express it in

technical terms, may be called the ambitious delirium, well known in

lunatic asylums.--Two predispositions, one an habitually perverted

judgment, and the other a colossal excess of self-esteem,[3120]

constitute its sources, and nowhere are both more prolific than in

Marat. Never did a man with such diversified culture, possess such an

incurably perverted intellect. Never did a man, after so many abortive

speculations and such repeated malpractices, conceive and maintain so

high an opinion of himself. Each of these two sources in him augments

the other: through his faculty of not seeing things as they are, he

attributes to himself virtue and genius; satisfied that he possesses

genius and virtue, he regards his misdeeds as merits and his whims as

truths.--Thenceforth, and spontaneously, his malady runs its own course

and becomes complex; to the ambitious delirium comes the persecution

mania. In effect, the evident or demonstrated truths which he advances

should strike the public at once; if they burn slowly or miss fire,

it is owing to their being stamped out by enemies or the envious;

manifestly, they have conspired against him, and against him plots have

never ceased. First came the philosophers' plot: when his treatise on

"Man" was sent to Paris from Amsterdam, "they felt the blow I struck at

their principles and had the book stopped at the custom-house."[3121]

Next came the plot of the doctors: "they ruefully estimated my enormous

gains. Were it necessary, I could prove that they often met together to

consider the best way to destroy my reputation." Finally, came the plot

of the Academicians; "the disgraceful persecution I had to undergo from

the Academy of Sciences for two years, after being satisfied that my

discoveries on Light upset all that it had done for a century, and that

I was quite indifferent about becoming a member of its body.... Would it

be believed that these scientific charlatans succeeded in underrating

my discoveries throughout Europe, in exciting every society

of savants against me, and in closing against me all the

newspapers?"[3122]--Naturally, the would-be-persecuted man defends

himself, that is to say, he attacks. Naturally, as he is the aggressor,

he is repulsed and put down, and, after creating imaginary enemies, he

creates real ones, especially in politics where, on principle, he

daily preaches insurrection and murder. And finally, he is of course

prosecuted, convicted at the Chatelet court, tracked by the police,

obliged to fly and wander from one hiding-place to another; to live like

a bat "in a cellar, underground, in a dark dungeon;"[3123] once, says

his friend Panis, he passed "six weeks sitting on his behind" like

a madman in his cell, face to face with his reveries.--It is not

surprising that, with such a system, the reverie should become more

intense, more and more gloomy, and, at last settle down into a

confirmed nightmare; that, in his distorted brain, objects should appear

distorted; that, even in full daylight men and things should seem awry,

as in a magnifying, dislocating mirror; that, frequently, on the numbers

(of his journal) appearing too blood-thirsty, and his chronic disease

too acute, his physician should bleed him to arrest these attacks and

prevent their return.[3124]

But it has become a habit: henceforth, falsehood grow in his brain as

if it was their native soil; planting himself on the irrational he

cultivates the absurd, even physical and mathematical. "If we include

everyone;"[3125] he says, "the patriotic tax-contribution of one-quarter

of all income will produce, at the very least, 4,860 millions, and

perhaps twice that sum." With this sum M. Necker may raise five

hundred thousand men, which he calculates on for the subjugation of

France.--Since the taking of the Bastille, "the municipality's waste

alone amount to two hundred millions. The sums pocketed by Bailly are

estimated at more than two millions; what 'Mottié' (Lafayette) has taken

for the past two years is incalculable."[3126]--On the 15th of November,

1791, the gathering of emigrés comprises "at least 120,000 former

gentlemen and drilled partisans and soldiers, not counting the forces of

the German princes about to join them."[3127]--Consequently, as with

his brethren in Bicêtre, (a lunatic asylum), he raves incessantly on the

horrible and the foul: the procession of terrible or disgusting phantoms

has begun.[3128] According to him, the scholars who do not choose to

admire him are fools, charlatans and plagiarists. Laplace and Monge are

even "automatons," so many calculating machines; Lavoisier, "reputed

father of every discovery causing a sensation in the world, has not an

idea of his own;" he steals from others without comprehending them, and

"changes his system as he changes his shoes." Fourcroy, his disciple and

horn-blower, is of still thinner stuff. All are scamps: "I could cite a

hundred instances of dishonesty by the Academicians of Paris, a hundred

breaches of trust;" twelve thousand francs were entrusted to them for

the purpose of ascertaining how to direct balloons, and "they divided

it among themselves, squandering it at the Rapée, the opera and in

brothels."[3129]--In the political world, where debates are battles,

it is still worse. Marat's publication "The Friend of the people"

has merely rascals for adversaries. Praise of Lafayette's courage and

disinterestedness, how absurd If he went to America it was because he

was jilted, "cast off by a Messalina;" he maintained a park of artillery

there as "powder-monkeys look after ammunition-wagons; "these are his

only exploits; besides, he is a thief. Bailly is also a thief, and

Mabuet a "clown." Necker has conceived the "horrible project of starving

and poisoning the people; he has drawn on himself for all eternity the

execration of Frenchmen and the detestation of mankind."--What is

the Constituent Assembly but a set of "low, rampant, mean, stupid

fellows?"--"Infamous legislators, vile scoundrels, monsters athirst for

gold and blood, you traffic with the monarch, with our fortunes,

with our rights, with our liberties, with our lives!"--"The second

legislative corps is no less rotten than the first one."--In the

Convention, Roland, "the officious Gilles and the forger Pasquin, is

the infamous head of the monopolizers." "Isnard is a juggler, Buzot a

Tartuffe, Vergniaud a police spy."[3130]--When a madman sees everywhere

around him, on the floor, on the walls, on the ceiling, toads,

scorpions, spiders, swarms of crawling, loathsome vermin, he thinks only

of crushing them, and the disease enters on its last stage: after the

ambitious delirium, the mania for persecution and the settled nightmare,

comes the homicidal mania.

With Marat, this broke out at the very beginning of the Revolution.

The disease was innate; he was inoculated with it beforehand. He had

contracted it in good earnest, on principle; never was there a plainer

case of deliberate insanity.--On the one hand, having derived the rights

of man from physical necessities, he concluded, "that society owes to

those among its members who have no property, and whose labor scarcely

suffices for their support, an assured subsistence, the wherewithal to

feed, lodge and clothe oneself suitably, provision for attendance in

sickness and when old age comes on, and for bringing up children. Those

who wallow in wealth must (then) supply the wants of those who lack

the necessaries of life." Otherwise, "the honest citizen whom society

abandons to poverty and despair, reverts back to the state of nature and

the right of forcibly claiming advantages which were only alienated by

him to procure greater ones. All authority which is opposed to this is

tyrannical, and the judge who condemns a man to death (through it) is

simply a cowardly assassin."[3131]

Thus do the innumerable riots which the dearth excites, find

justification, and, as the dearth is permanent, the daily riot is

legitimate.--On the other hand, having laid down the principle

of popular sovereignty he deduces from this, "the sacred right of

constituents to dismiss their delegates;" to seize them by the throat

if they prevaricate, to keep them in the right path by fear, and wring

their necks should they attempt to vote wrong or govern badly. Now, they

are always subject to this temptation.

"If there is one eternal truth of which it is important to convince man,

it is that the mortal enemy of the people, the most to be dreaded by

them, is the Government."--"Any minister who remains more than 2 days

in office, once the ministry is able to plot against the country is

'suspect.' "[3132]--Bestir yourselves, then, ye unfortunates in town and

country, workmen without work, street stragglers without fuel or shelter

sleeping under bridges, prowlers along the highways, beggars,

tattered vagabonds, cripples and tramps, and seize your faithless

representatives!--On July 14th and October 5th and 6th, "the people

had the right not only to execute some of the conspirators in military

fashion, but to immolate them all, to put to the sword the entire body

of royal satellites leagued together for our destruction, the whole herd

of traitors to the country, of every condition and degree."[3133]

Never go to the Assembly, "without filling your pockets with stones and

throwing them at the impudent scoundrels who preach monarchical maxims;"

"I recommend to you no other precaution but that of telling their

neighbors to look out."[3134]--"We do not demand the resignation of the

ministers-we demand their heads. We demand the heads of all the cabinet

officials in the Assembly, your mayor's, your general's, the heads of

most of the staff-officers, of most of the municipal council, of the

principal agents of the executive power in the kingdom. "--Of what use

are half-way measures, like the sack of the hotel de Castries?[3135]

"Avenge yourselves wisely! Death! Death! is the sole penalty for

traitors raging to destroy you It is the only one that strikes terror

into them. Follow the example of your implacable enemies! Keep always

armed, so that they may not escape through the delays of the law! Stab

them on the spot or blow their brains out!"--"Twenty-four millions of

men shout in unison: If the black, gangrened, archi-gangrened officials

dare pass a bill reducing and reorganizing the army, citizens, then you

build eight hundred scaffolds in the Tuileries garden and hang on them

every traitor to his country--that infamous Riquetti, Comte de Mirabeau,

at the head of them--and, at the same time, erect in the middle of

the fountain basin a big pile of logs to roast the ministers and their

tools!"[3136]--Could "the Friend of the People" rally around him two

thousand men determined "to save the country, he would go and tear the

heart out of that infernal Mottié in the very midst of his battalions

of slaves; he would go and burn the monarch and his imps in his palace,

impale the deputies on their benches, and bury them beneath the flaming

ruins of their den."[3137]-On the first cannon shot being fired on the

frontier,

"it is indispensable that the people should close the gates of the towns

and unhesitatingly make way with every priest, public functionary and

anti-revolutionary, known instigators and their accomplices."--"It would

be wise for the people's magistrates to keep constantly manufacturing

large quantities of strong, sharp, short-bladed, double-edged knives, so

as to arm each citizen known as a friend of his country. Now, the art of

fighting with these terrible weapons consists in this: Use the left arm

as buckler, and cover it up to the arm-pit with a sleeve quilted with

some woollen stuff, filled with rags and hair, and then rush on the

enemy, the right hand wielding the knife."[3138]--Let us use these

knives as soon as possible, for "what means are now remaining for us to

put an end to the problems which overwhelm us? I repeat it, no other but

executions by the people."[3139]--The Throne is at last down; but "be

careful not to give way to false pity!.... No quarter! I advise you

to decimate the anti-revolutionary members of the municipality, of the

justices of the peace, of the members of the departments and of the

National Assembly."[3140]--At the outset, a few lives would have

sufficed: "five hundred heads ought to have fallen when the Bastille

was taken, and all would then have gone on well." But, through lack of

foresight and timidity, the evil was allowed to spread, and the more it

spread the larger the amputation should have been.--With the sure,

keen eye of the surgeon, Marat gives its dimensions; he has made his

calculation beforehand. In September, 1792, in the Council at the

Commune, he estimates forty thousand as the number of heads that should

be laid low.[3141] Six weeks later, the social abscess having enormously

increased, the figures swell in proportion; he now demands two hundred

and seventy thousand heads,[3142] always on the score of humanity, "to

ensure public tranquility," on condition that the operation be entrusted

to him, as the temporary enforcer of the justice.--Except for this last

point, the rest is granted to him; it is unfortunate that he could not

see with his own eyes the complete fulfillment of his programme, the

batches condemned by the revolutionary Tribunal, the massacres of Lyons

and Toulon, the drownings of Nantes.--From the beginning to the end, he

was in keeping with the Revolution, lucid on account of his blindness,

thanks to his crazy logic, thanks to the concordance of his personal

malady with the public malady, to the early manifestation of his

complete madness in the midst of the incomplete or tardy madness of the

rest, he alone steadfast, remorseless, triumphant, perched aloft at the

first bound on the sharp pinnacle which his rivals dared not climb or

only stumbled up.

II. Danton.

Danton.--Richness of his faculties.--Disparity between his

condition and instincts.--The Barbarian.--His work.--His

weakness.

There is nothing of the madman about Danton; on the contrary, not only

is his intellect sound, but he possesses political aptitudes to an

eminent degree, and to such an extent that, in this particular, none of

his associates or adversaries compare with him, while, among the men

of the Revolution, only Mirabeau equals or surpasses him. He is an

original, spontaneous genius and not, like most of his contemporaries, a

disputatious, quill-driving theorist,[3143] that is to say, a fanatical

pedant, an artificial being composed of his books, a mill-horse with

blinkers, and turning around in a circle without an issue. His free

judgment is not hampered by abstract prejudices: he does not carry about

with him a social contract, like Rousseau, nor, like Siéyès, a social

art and cabinet principles or combinations;[3144] he has kept aloof from

these instinctively and, perhaps, through contempt for them; he had no

need of them; he would not have known what to do with them. Systems are

crutches for the impotent, while he is able-bodied; formulas serve as

spectacles for the short-sighted, while his eyes are good. "He had

read and meditated very little," says a learned and philosophical

witness;[3145] "his knowledge was scanty and he took no pride in

investigation; but he observed and saw .. His native capacity, which

was very great and not absorbed by other things, was naturally closed to

vague, complex and false notions, and naturally open to every notion

of experience the truth of which was made manifest." Consequently, "his

perceptions of men and things, sudden, clear, impartial and true, were

instinct with solid, practical discretion." To form a clear idea of

the divergent or concordant dispositions, fickle or earnest, actual or

possible, of different parties and of twenty-six millions of souls, to

justly estimate probable resistances, and calculate available forces,

to recognize and take advantage of the one decisive moment, to combine

executive means, to find men of action, to measure the effect produced,

to foresee near and remote contingencies, to regret nothing and take

things coolly, to accept crimes in proportion to their political

efficacy, to dodge before insurmountable obstacles, even in contempt

of current maxims, to consider objects and men the same as an engineer

contracting for machinery and calculating horse-power[3146]--such are

the faculties of which he gave proof on the 10th of August and the 2nd

of September, during his effective dictatorship between the 10th of

August and the 21st of September, afterwards in the Convention, on the

first Committee of Public Safety, on the 31st of May and on the 2nd of

June:[3147] we have seen him busy at work. Up to the last, in spite of

his partisans, he has tried to diminish or, at least, not add to, the

resistance the government had to overcome. Nearly up to the last, in

spite of his adversaries, he tried to increase or, at least, not destroy

the available forces of the government. In defiance of the outcries

of the clubs, which clamor for the extermination of the Prussians, the

capture of the King of Prussia, the overthrow of all thrones, and the

murder of Louis XVI., he negotiated the almost pacific withdrawal of

Brunswick;[3148] he strove to detach Prussia from the coalition;[3149]

he wanted to turn a war of propaganda into one of interests;[3150] he

caused the Convention to pass the decree that France would not in any

way interfere with foreign governments; he secured an alliance with

Sweden; he prescribed beforehand the basis of the treaty of Basle,

and had an idea of saving the King.[3151] In spite of the distrust and

attacks of the Girondists, who strove to discredit him and put him out

of the way, he persists in offering them his hand; he declared war on

them only because they refused to make peace,[3152] and he made efforts

to save them when they were down. Amidst so many ranters and scribblers

whose logic is mere words and whose rage is blind, who grind out phrases

like a hand-organ, or are wound up for murder, his intellect, always

capacious and supple, went right to facts, not to disfigure and pervert

them, but to accept them, to adapt himself to them, and to comprehend

them. With a mind of this quality one goes far no matter in what

direction; nothing remains but to choose one's path. Mandrin, under the

ancient régime, was also, in a similar way, a superior man;[3153] only

he chose the highway.

Between the demagogue and the highwayman the resemblance is close: both

are leaders of bands and each requires an opportunity to organize his

band. Danton, to organize his band, needed the Revolution.--"Of low

birth, without patronage," penniless, every office being filled,

and "the Paris bar exorbitantly priced," admitted a lawyer after

"a struggle," he for a long time wandered jobless frequenting the

coffee-houses, the same as similar men nowadays frequent the bars. At

the Café de l'École, the proprietor, a good natured old fellow "in a

small round wig, gray coat and a napkin on his arm," circulated among

his tables smiling blandly, while his daughter sat in the rear as

cashier.[3154] Danton chatted with her and demanded her hand in

marriage. To obtain her, he had to mend his ways, purchase an

attorneyship in the Court of the Royal Council and find guarantors and

sponsors in his small native town.[3155] Once married and lodged in the

gloomy Passage du Commerce, he finds himself "more burdened with debts

than with causes," tied down to a sedentary profession which demands

vigorous application, accuracy, a moderate tone, a respectable style and

blameless deportment; obliged to keep house on so small a scale that,

without the help of a louis regularly advanced to him each week by his

coffee-house father-in-law, he could not make both ends meet.[3156]

His free-and-easy tastes, his alternately impetuous and indolent

disposition, his love of enjoyment and of having his own way, his rude,

violent instincts, his expansiveness, creativeness and activity, all

rebel against this life: he is ill-suited for the quiet routine of our

civil careers. It is not the steady discipline of an old society, but

the tumultuous brutality of a society going to pieces or in a state

of formation, that suits him. In temperament and character he is a

barbarian, and a barbarian born to command his fellow-creatures, like

this or that vassal of the sixth century or baron of the tenth century.

A giant with the face of a "Tartar," pitted with the small-pox,

tragically and terribly ugly, with a mask convulsed like that of a

growling "bull-dog,"[3157] with small, cavernous, restless eyes buried

under the huge wrinkles of a threatening brow, with a thundering voice

and moving and acting like a combatant, full-blooded, boiling over with

passion and energy. His strength in its outbursts appears boundless like

a force of nature, when speaking he is roaring like a bull and be

heard through closed windows fifty yards off in the street, employing

immoderate imagery, intensely in earnest, trembling with indignation,

revenge and patriotic sentiments, able to arouse savage instincts in

the most tranquil breast and generous instincts in the most brutal

personalities.[3158] He may be profane, using emphatic terms,[3159]

cynical, but not monotonous and affected like Hébert, but spontaneous

and to the point, full of crude jests worthy of Rabelais, possessing a

stock of jovial sensuality and good-humor, cordial and familiar in his

ways, frank, friendly in tone. He is, both outwardly and inwardly,

the best fitted for winning the confidence and sympathy of a Gallic,

Parisian populace. His talents all contribute to "his inborn,

practical popularity," and to make of him "a grand-seignior of

sans-cullotterie."[3160]--With such talents for acting, there is

a strong temptation to act it out the moment the theatre is ready,

whatever the theatre, even unlawful and murky, whatever the actors

rogues, scoundrels and loose women, whatever the part, ignoble,

murderous, and finally fatal to him who undertakes it.--To hold out

against such temptation, would require a sentiment of repugnance which

a refined or thorough culture develops in both sense and mind, but which

was completely wanting in Danton. Nothing disgusts him physically

or morally: he embraces Marat,[3161] fraternizes with drunkards,

congratulates the Septembriseurs, retorts in blackguard terms to the

insults of prostitutes, treats reprobates, thieves and jail-birds

as equals,--Carra, Westermann, Huguenin, Rossignol and the confirmed

scoundrels whom he sends into the departments after the 2nd of

September.

"Eh! What the hell! Do you think we ought to send young misses." [3162]

Garbage men are needed for the collection of garbage; one cannot hold

one's nose when they come for their wages; one must pay them well, talk

to them encouragingly, and leave them plenty of elbow room. Danton is

willing to play the part of the fire, and he humors vices; he has no

scruples, and lets people scratch and take.--He has stolen as much

to give as to keep, to maintain his role as much as to benefit by it,

squaring accounts by spending the money of the Court against the Court,

probably inwardly chuckling, the same as the peasant in a blouse on

getting ahead of his well-duped landlord, or as the Frank, whom the

ancient historian describes as leering on pocketing Roman gold the

better to make war against Rome.--The graft on this plebeian seedling

has not taken; in our modern garden this remains as in the ancient

forest; its vigorous sap preserves its primitive raciness and produces

none of the fine fruits of our civilization, a moral sense, honor and

conscience. Danton has no respect for himself nor for others; the nice,

delicate limitations that circumscribe human personality, seem to him as

legal conventionality and mere drawing-room courtesy. Like a Clovis,

he tramples on this, and like a Clovis, equal in faculties, in similar

expedients, and with a worse horde at his back, he throws himself

athwart society, to stagger along, destroy and reconstruct it to his own

advantage.

At the start, he comprehended the peculiar character and normal

procedure of the Revolution, that is to say, the useful agency of

popular brutality: in 1788 he had already figured in insurrections. He

comprehended from the first the ultimate object and definite result

of the Revolution, that is to say, the dictatorship of the violent

minority. Immediately after the 14th of July," 1789, he organized in his

quarter of the city[3163] a small independent republic, aggressive and

predominant, the center of the faction, a refuge for the riff-raff and

a rendezvous for fanatics, a pandemonium composed of every available

madcap, every rogue, visionary, shoulder-hitter, newspaper scribbler

and stump-speaker, either a secret or avowed plotter of murder, Camille

Desmoulins, Fréron, Hébert, Chaumette, Clootz, Théroigne, Marat,--while,

in this more than Jacobin State, the model in anticipation of that he

is to establish later, he reigns, as he will afterwards reign, the

permanent president of the district, commander of the battalion, orator

of the club, and the concocter of bold undertakings. Here, usurpation

is the rule there is no recognition of legal authority; they brave the

King, the ministers, the judges, the Assembly, the municipality, the

mayor, the commandant of the National Guard. Nature and principle raise

them above the law; the district takes Marat under its protection, posts

two sentinels at his door to protect him from prosecutions, and uses

arms against the armed force sent with a warrant to arrest him.[3164]

yet more, in the name of the city of Paris, "chief sentinel of the

nation," they assume to govern France: Danton betakes himself to the

National Assembly and declares that the citizens of Paris are the

natural representatives of the eighty-three departments, and summons it,

on their injunction, to cancel an act it has passed.[3165]--The entire

Jacobin conception is therein expressed: Danton, with his keen insight,

took it all in and proclaimed it in appropriate terms; to apply it at

the present time on a grand scale,[3166] he has merely to pass from the

small theatre to the large one, from the Cordeliers club to the Commune,

to the Ministry, and the Committee of Public Safety, and, in all these

theatres, he plays the same part with the same end in view and the same

results. A despotism formed by conquest and maintained by terror,

the despotism of the Jacobin Parisian rabble, is the end to which he

directly marches. He employs no other means and, adapting the means

to the end and the end to the means, manages the important days

and instigates the decisive measures of the Revolution: the 10th

of August,[3167] the 2nd of September, the 31st of May, the 2nd of

June;[3168] the decree providing for an army of paid sans-culottes "to

keep down aristocrats with their pikes;" the decree in each commune

where grain is dear, taxing the rich to put bread within reach of the

poor;[3169] the decree giving laborers forty sous for attending the

meetings of the Section Assemblies;[3170] the institution of the

revolutionary Tribunal;[3171] the proposal to erect the Committee of

Public Safety into a provisional government; the proclamation of Terror;

the concentration of Jacobin zeal on useful works; the employment of the

eight thousand delegates of the primary assemblies, who had been

sent home as recruiting agents for the universal armament;[3172]

the inflammatory expressions of young men on the frontier; the wise

resolutions for limiting the levy en masse to men between eighteen and

twenty-five, which put an end to the scandalous songs and dances by the

populace in the very hall of the Convention.[3173]

In order to set the machine up, he cleared the ground, fused the metal,

hammered out the principal pieces, filed off the blisters, designed the

action, adjusted the minor wheels, set it agoing and indicated what it

had to do, and, at the same time, he forged the armor which guarded

it against strangers and outside violence. The machine being his, why,

after constructing it, did he not serve as its engineer?

Because, if competent to construct it, he was not qualified to manage

it. In a crisis, he may give a helping hand, win the support of an

assembly or a mob, direct, high-handedly and for a few weeks, an

executive committee. But regular, persistent labor is repugnant to him;

he is not made for bookkeeping,[3174] for paper and administrative work.

Never, like Robespierre and Billaud can he attend to both official and

police duties at the same time, carefully reading minute daily reports,

annotating mortuary lists, extemporizing ornate abstractions, coolly

enunciating falsehoods and acting out the patient, satisfied inquisitor;

and especially, he can never become the systematic executioner.--On the

one hand, his eyes are not obscured by the gray veil of theory: he does

not regard men through the "Contrat-Social" as a sum of arithmetical

units,[3175] but as they really are, living, suffering, shedding their

blood, especially those he knows, each with his peculiar physiognomy and

demeanor. Compassion is excited by all this when one has any feeling,

and he had. Danton had a heart; he had the quick sensibilities of a man

of flesh and blood stirred by the primitive instincts, the good ones

along with the bad ones, instincts which culture had neither impaired

nor deadened, which allowed him to plan and permit the September

massacre, but which did not allow him to practice daily and blindly,

systematic and wholesale murder. Already in September, "cloaking his

pity under his bellowing,"[3176] he had shielded or saved many eminent

men from the butchers. When the axe is about to fall on the Girondists,

he is "ill with grief" and despair. "I am unable to save them," he

exclaimed, " and big tears streamed down his cheeks."--On the other

hand, his eyes are not covered by the bandage of incapacity or lack of

fore-thought. He detected the innate vice of the system, the inevitable

and approaching suicide of the Revolution.

"The Girondists forced us to throw ourselves upon the sans-culotterie

which has devoured them, which will devour us, and which will eat itself

up."[3177]--"Let Robespierre and Saint-Just alone, and there will

soon be nothing left in France but a Thebiad of political

Trappists."[3178]--At the end, he sees more clearly still:

"On a day like this I organized the Revolutionary Tribunal: I ask pardon

for it of God and man.--In Revolutions, authority remains with the

greatest scoundrels.--It is better to be a poor fisherman than govern

men."[3179]

But he has aspired to govern them; he constructed a new machine for

the purpose, and, deaf to its squeals, it worked in conformity with

the structure and the impulse he gave to it. It towers before him, this

sinister machine, with its vast wheel and iron cogs grinding all France,

their multiplied teeth pressing out each individual life, its steel

blade constantly rising and falling, and, as it plays faster and faster,

daily exacting a larger and larger supply of human material, while those

who furnish this supply are held to be as insensible and as senseless

as itself. This Danton cannot, will not be.--He gets out of the way,

diverts himself, gambles,[3180] forgets; he supposes that the titular

decapitators will probably consent to take no notice of him; in any

event they do not pursue him; "they would not dare do it." "No one

must lay hands on me, I am the ark." At the worst, he prefers "to be

guillotined rather than guillotine."--Having said or thought this, he is

ripe for the scaffold.

III. Robespierre.

Robespierre.--Mediocrity of his faculties.--The Pedant.

--Absence of ideas.--Study of phrases.--Wounded self-esteem.

--His infatuation.--He plays victim.--His gloomy fancies.--His

resemblance to Marat.--Difference between him and Marat.

--The sincere hypocrite.--The festival in honor of the Supreme

Being, and the law of Prairial 22.--The external and

internal characters of Robespierre and the Revolution.

Even with the firm determination to remain decapitator-in-chief, Danton

could never be a perfect representative of the Revolution. It is

an armed but philosophical robbery; its creed includes robbery and

assassination, but only as a knife in its sheath; the showy, polished

sheath is for public display, and not the sharp and bloody blade.

Danton, like Marat, lets the blade be too plainly visible. At the mere

sight of Marat, filthy and slovenly, with his livid, frog-like face,

with his round, gleaming and fixed eyeballs, and his bold, maniacal

stare and steady monotonous rage, common-sense rebels; no-one selects

a homicidal maniac as a guide. At the mere sight of Danton, with his

porter's vocabulary, his voice like an alarm bell of insurrection, his

cyclopean features and air of an exterminator, humanity takes alarm; one

does not surrender oneself to a political butcher without repugnance.

The Revolution demands another interpreter, like itself captivatingly

fitted out, and Robespierre fits the bill,[3181] with his irreproachable

attire, well-powdered hair, carefully brushed coat,[3182] strict habits,

dogmatic tone, and formal, studied manner of speaking. No mind, in its

mediocrity and incompetence, so well harmonizes with the spirit of the

epoch. The reverse of the statesman, he soars in empty space, amongst

abstractions, always mounted on a principle and incapable of dismounting

so as to see things practically.

"That bastard there," exclaims Danton, "is not even able to boil an

egg!"

"The vague generalities of his preaching," writes another

contemporary,[3183] "rarely culminated in any specific measure or legal

provision. He combated everything and proposed nothing; the secret of

his policy happily accorded with his intellectual impotence and with

the nullity of his legislative conceptions." Once he has rattled his

revolutionary pedantry off, he no longer knows what to say.--As to

financial matters and military art, he knows nothing and risks nothing,

except to underrate or calumniate Carnot and Cambon who did know and

who took risks.[3184]--In relation to a foreign policy his speech on

the state of Europe is the amplification of a schoolboy; on exposing

the plans of the English minister he reaches the pinnacle of chimerical

nonsense;[3185] eliminate the rhetorical passages, and it is not the

head of a government who speaks, but the porter of the Jacobin club.

On contemporary France, as it actually exists, he has not one sound or

specific idea: instead of men, he sees only twenty-six millions simple

robots, who, when duly led and organized, will work together in peace

and harmony. Basically they are good,[3186] and will, after a little

necessary purification, become good again. Accordingly, their collective

will is "the voice of reason and public interest," hence, on meeting

together, they are wise. "The people's assembly of delegates should

deliberate, if possible, in the presence of the whole body of the

people;" the Legislative body, at least, should hold its sittings "in

a vast, majestic edifice open to twenty thousand spectators." Note that

for the past four years, in the Constituent Assembly, in the Legislative

Assembly, in the Convention, at the Hotel de-Ville, in the Jacobin Club,

wherever Robespierre speaks, the galleries have never ceased to shout,

yell and express their opinion. Such a positive, palpable experience

would open anybody's eyes; his are closed through prejudice or interest;

even physical truth finds no access to his mind, because he is unable to

comprehend it, or because he has to keep it out. He must, accordingly,

be either obtuse or a charlatan. Actually he is both, for both combine

to form the pedant (cuistre), that is to say, the hollow, inflated mind

which, filled with words and imagining that these are ideas, revels in

its own declamation and dupes itself that it may dictate to others.

Such is his title, his personality and role. In this artificial and

declamatory tragedy of the Revolution he takes the leading part;

the maniac and the barbarian slowly retire in the background on the

appearance of the cuistre; Marat and Danton finally become effaced, or

efface themselves, and the stage is left to Robespierre who attracts all

the attention.[3187]--If we want to understand him we must look at him

as he stands in the midst of his surroundings. At the last stage of

a dying intellectual vegetation, on the last branch of the eighteenth

century, he is the final freak and dried fruit of the classical

spirit.[3188] He has retained nothing of a worn-out system of philosophy

but its lifeless dregs and well-conned formulae, the formulae of

Rousseau, Mably, and Raynal, concerning "the people, nature,

reason, liberty, tyrants, factions, virtue, morality," a ready-made

vocabulary,[3189] expressions too ample, the meaning of which,

ill-defined by the masters, evaporates in the hands of the disciple. He

never tries to get at this; his writings and speeches are merely long

strings of vague abstract periods; there is no telling fact in them, no

distinct, characteristic detail, no appeal to the eye evoking a living

image, no personal, special observation, no clear, frank original

impression. It might be said of him that he never saw anything with his

own eyes, that he neither could nor would see, that false conceptions

have intervened and fixed themselves between him and the object;[3190]

he combines these in logical sequence, and simulates the absent thought

by an affected jargon, and this is all. The other Jacobins alongside of

him likewise use the same scholastic jargon; but none of them spout

and spread out so complacently and lengthily as he. For hours, we grope

after him in the vague shadows of political speculation, in the cold

and perplexing mist of didactic generalities, trying in vain to make

something out of his colorless tirades, and we grasp nothing.[3191] When

we, in astonishment, ask ourselves what all this talk amounts to, and

why he talks at all; the answer is, that he has said nothing and that he

talks only for the sake of talking, the same as a sectarian preaching to

his congregation, neither the preacher nor his audience ever wearying,

the one of turning the dogmatic crank, and the other of listening. So

much the better if the container is empty; the emptier it is the easier

and faster the crank turns. And better still, if the empty term he

selects is used in a contrary sense; the sonorous words justice,

humanity, mean to him piles of human heads, the same as a text from the

gospels means to a grand inquisitor the burning of heretics.--Through

this extreme perversity, the cuistre spoils his own mental instrument;

thenceforth he employs it as he likes, as his passions dictate,

believing that he serves truth in serving these.

Now, his first passion, his principal passion, is literary vanity. Never

was the chief of a party, sect or government, even at critical moments,

such an incurable, insignificant rhetorician, so formal, so pompous, and

so dull.--On the eve of the 9th of Thermidor, when it was a question

of life or death, he enters the tribune with a set speech, written and

re-written, polished and re-polished,[3192] overloaded with studied

ornaments and bits for effect,[3193] coated by dint of time and labor,

with the academic varnish, the glitter of symmetrical antitheses,

rounded periods, exclamations, omissions, apostrophes and other

tricks of the pen.[3194]--In the most famous and important of

his reports,[3195] I have counted eighty-four instances of

personifications[3196] imitated from Rousseau and the antique, many of

them largely expanded, some addressed to the dead, to Brutus, to

young Barra, and others to absentees, priests, and aristocrats, to the

unfortunate, to French women, and finally to abstract substantives

like Liberty and Friendship. With unshaken conviction and intense

satisfaction, he deems himself an orator because he harps on the same

old tune. There is not one true tone in his elaborate eloquence,

nothing but recipes and only those of a worn-out art, Greek and Roman

common-places, Socrates and the hemlock, Brutus and his dagger,

classic metaphors like "the flambeaux of discord," and "the vessel of

State,"[3197]s coupled together and beauties of style which a pupil in

rhetoric aims at on the college bench;[3198]times a grand bravura air,

so essential for parade in public;[3199] centimes a delicate strain of

the flute, for, in those days, one must have a tender heart;[31100]

in short, Marmontel's method in "Belisarius," or that of Thomas in his

"Eloges," all borrowed from Rousseau, but of inferior quality, like a

sharp, thin voice strained to imitate a rich, powerful voice. All is a

sort of involuntary parody, and the more repulsive because a word

ends in a blow, because a sentimental, declamatory Trissotin poses as

statesman, because the studied elegance of the closet become pistol

shots aimed at living breasts, because an epithet skillfully directed

sends a man to the guillotine.--The contrast is too great between his

talent and the part he plays. With such a talent, as mediocre and false

as his intellect, there is no employment for which he is less suited

than that of governing men; he was cut out for another, which, in

a peaceable community, he would have been able to do. Suppress the

Revolution, and Marat would have probably ended his days in an asylum.

Danton might possibly have become a legal filibuster, a highwayman or

gangster, and finally throttled or hung. Robespierre, on the contrary,

might have continued as he began,[31101] a busy, hard-working lawyer

of good standing, member of the Arras Academy, winner of competitive

prizes, author of literary eulogies, moral essays and philanthropic

pamphlets; his little lamp, lighted like hundreds of others of

equal capacity at the focus of the new philosophy, would have burned

moderately without doing harm to any one, and diffused over a provincial

circle a dim, commonplace illumination proportionate to the little oil

his lamp would hold.

But the Revolution bore him into the Constituent Assembly, where, for a

long time on this great stage, his amour propre, the dominant feeling

of the pedant, suffered terribly. He had already suffered on this score

from his earliest youth, and his wounds being still fresh made him only

the more sensitive.--Born in Arras in 1758, orphaned and poor, protégé

of his bishop, a bursar through favor at the college Louis-le-Grand,

later a clerk with Brissot under the revolutionary system of

law-practice, and at length settled down in his gloomy rue des

Rapporteurs as a pettifogger. Living with a bad-tempered sister, he has

adopts Rousseau, whom he had once seen and whom he ardently studies, for

his master in philosophy, politics and style. Fancying, probably, like

other young men of his age and condition, that he could play a similar

part and thus emerge from his blind alley, he published law pleadings

for effect, contended for Academy prizes, and read papers before

his Arras colleagues. His success was moderate: one of his harangues

obtained a notice in the Artois Almanac; the Academy of Metz awarded him

only a second prize; that of Amiens gave him no prize, while the critic

of the "Mercure" spoke of his style as smacking of the provinces.--In

the National Assembly, eclipsed by men of great and spontaneous ability,

he remains a long time in the shade, and, more than once, through

obstination or lack of tact, makes himself ridiculous. With his sharp,

thin, attorney's visage, "dull, monotonous, coarse voice and wearisome

delivery,"--"an artesian accent" and constrained air,[31102] his

constantly putting himself forward, his elaboration of commonplaces, his

evident determination to impose on cultivated people, still a body of

intelligent listeners, and the intolerable boredom he caused them--all

this is not calculated to render the Assembly indulgent to errors

of sense and taste.[31103] One day, referring to certain acts of the

"Conseil:" "It is necessary that a noble and simple formula should

announce national rights and carry respect for law into the hearts of

the people. Consequently, in the decrees as promulgated, after the words

Louis, by the grace of God," etc., these words should follow:

"People, behold the law imposed on you! Let this law be considered

sacred and inviolable for all!" Upon this, a Gascon deputy arises

and remarks in his southern accent, "Gentlemen, this style is

unsuitable--there is no need for sermons.[31104] (cantique)."

General laughter; Robespierre keeps silent and bleeds internally: two or

three such mishaps nettle such a man from head to foot. It is not that

his stupid remarks seem silly to him; no pedant taken in the act and

hissed would avow that he deserved such treatment; on the contrary, he

is content to have spoken as becomes a philosophic and moral legislator,

and so much the worse for the narrow minds and corrupt hearts unable

to comprehend him.--Thrown back upon himself, his wounded vanity seeks

inward nourishment and takes what it can find in the sterile uniformity

of his bourgeois moderation. Robespierre, unlike Danton, has no

cravings. He is sober; he is not tormented by his senses; if he gives

way to them, it is only no further than he can help, and with a bad

grace. In the rue Saintonge in Paris, "for seven months," says his

secretary,[31105] "I knew of but one woman that he kept company with,

and he did not treat her very well. .. very often he would not let her

enter his room": when busy, he must not be disturbed. He is naturally

steady, hard-working, studious and fond of seclusion, at college a model

pupil, at home in his province an attentive advocate, a punctual deputy

in the Assembly, everywhere free of temptation and incapable of going

astray.--"Irreproachable" is the word which from early youth an

inward voice constantly repeats to him in low tones to console him for

obscurity and patience. Thus has he ever been, is now, and ever will be;

he says this to himself, tells others so, and on this foundation, all of

a piece, he builds up his character. He is not, like Desmoulins, to be

seduced by dinners, like Barnave, by flattery, like Mirabeau and Danton,

by money, like the Girondists, by the insinuating charm of ancient

politeness and select society, like the Dantonists, by the bait of

joviality and unbounded license--he is the incorruptible. He is not

to be deterred or diverted, like the Feuillants, Girondists, and

Dantonists, like statesmen or specialists, by considerations of a lower

order, by regard for interests or respect for acquired positions, by

the danger of undertaking too much at once, by the necessity of not

disorganizing the service and of giving play to human passions, motives

of utility and opportunity: he is the uncompromising champion of the

right.[31106] "Alone, or nearly alone, I do not allow myself to be

corrupted; alone or nearly alone, I do not compromise justice; which two

merits I possess in the highest degree. A few others may live correctly,

but they oppose or betray principles; a few others profess to have

principles, but they do not live correctly. No one else leads so pure

a life or is so loyal to principles; no one else joins to so fervent a

worship of truth so strict a practice of virtue: I am the unique."--What

can be more agreeable than this mute soliloquy? From the very first day

it can be heard toned down in Robespierre's address to the Third-Estate

of Arras;[31107] the last day it is spoken aloud in his great speech

in the Convention;[31108] during the interval, it crops out and shines

through all his compositions, harangues, or reports, in exordiums,

parentheses and perorations, permeating every sentence like the drone of

a bag-pipe.[31109]--Through the delight he takes in this he can listen

to nothing else, and it is just here that the outward echoes supervene

and sustain with their accompaniment the inward cantata which he sings

to his own glory. Towards the end of the Constituent Assembly, through

the withdrawal or the elimination of every man at all able or competent,

he becomes one of the conspicuous tenors on the political stage, while

in the Jacobin Club he is decidedly the tenor most in vogue.--"Unique

competitor of the Roman Fabricius," writes the branch club at Marseilles

to him; "immortal defender of popular rights," says the Jacobin crew of

Bourges.[31110] One of two portraits of him in the exhibition of 1791

bears the inscription: "The Incorruptible." At the Moliere Theatre a

drama of the day represents him as launching the thunderbolts of

his logic and virtue at Rohan and Condé. On his way, at Bapaume,

the patriots of the place, the National Guard on the road and the

authorities, come in a body to honor the great man. The town of Arras

is illuminated on his arrival. On the adjournment of the Constituent

Assembly the people in the street greet him with shouts, crown him with

oak wreaths, take the horses from his cab and drag him in triumph to the

rue St. Honoré, where he lodges with the carpenter Duplay.--Here, in

one of those families in which the semi-bourgeois class borders on

the people, whose minds are unsophisticated, and on whom glittering

generalities and oratorical tirades take full hold, he finds his

worshippers; they drink in his words; they have the same opinion of him

that he has of himself; to every person in the house, husband, wife

and daughter, he is the great patriot, the infallible sage; he bestows

benedictions night and morning; he inhales clouds of incense; he is a

god at home. The faithful, to obtain access to him form a line in the

court.[31111] One by one they are admitted into the reception room,

where they gather around portraits of him drawn with pencil, in stump,

in sepia and in water color, and before miniature busts in red or gray

plaster. Then, on the signal being given by him, they penetrate through

a glass door into the sanctuary where he presides, into the private

closet in which the best bust of him, with verses and mottoes, replaces

him during his absence.--His worshippers adore him on their knees, and

the women more than the men. On the day he delivers his apology before

the Convention "the passages are lined with women[31112].... seven

or eight hundred of them in the galleries, and but two hundred men at

most;" and how frantically they cheer him! He is a priest surrounded by

devotees."[31113] In the Jacobin club, when he delivers his "amphigory,"

there are sobs of emotion, "outcries and stamping of feet almost making

the house tumble."[31114] An onlooker who shows no emotion is greeted

with murmurs and obliged to slip out, like a heretic that has

strayed into a church on the elevation of the Host.--The faster the

revolutionary thunderbolts fall on other heads, so does Robespierre

mount higher and higher in glory and deification. Letters are addressed

to him as "the founder of the Republic, the incorruptible genius

who foresees all and saves all, who can neither be deceived nor

seduced;"[31115] who has "the energy of a Spartan and the eloquence of

an Athenian;"[31116] "who shields the Republic with the aegis of his

eloquence;"[31117] who "illuminates the universe with his writings,

fills the world with his renown and regenerates the human species here

below;"[31118] whose" name is now, and will be, held in veneration for

all ages, present and to come;"[31119] who is "the Messiah promised by

the Eternal for universal reform."[31120] An extraordinary popularity,"

says Billaud-Varennes,[31121] a popularity which, founded under the

Constituent Assembly, "only increased during the Legislative Assembly,"

and, later on, so much more, that, "in the National Convention he soon

found himself the only one able to fix attention on his person.... and

control public opinion.... With this ascendancy over public opinion,

with this irresistible preponderance, when he reached the Committee of

Public Safety, he was already the most important being in France." After

three years, a chorus of a thousand voices,[31122] which he formed and

directs, repeats again and again in unison his litany, his personal

creed, a hymn of three stanzas composed by him in his own honor, and

which he daily recites to himself in a low tone of voice, and often in a

loud one:

"Robespierre alone has discovered the best type of citizen! Robespierre

alone, modestly and without shortcomings, fits the description!

Robespierre alone is worthy of and able to lead the Revolution!"[31123]

Cool infatuation carried thus far is equivalent to a raging fever, and

Robespierre almost attains to the ideas and the ravings of Marat.

First, in his own eyes, he, like Marat, is a persecuted man, and, like

Marat, he poses himself as a "martyr," but more skillfully and keeping

within bounds, affecting the resigned and tender air of an innocent

victim, who, offering himself as a sacrifice, ascends to Heaven,

bequeathing to mankind the imperishable souvenir of his virtues.[31124]

"I arouse against me the pride of everybody;[31125] I sharpen against me

a thousand daggers. I am a sacrifice to every species of hatred. ... It

is certain that my head will atone for the truths I have uttered. I have

given my life, and shall welcome death almost as a boon. It is, perhaps,

Heaven's will that my blood should indicate the pathway of my country

to happiness and freedom. With what joy I accept this glorious

destiny!"[31126]--

"It is hardly in order to live that one declares war against tyrants,

and, what is still more dangerous, against miscreants.... The greater

their eagerness to put an end to my career here below, the more eager

I shall be to fill it with actions serving the welfare of my

fellow-creatures."[31127]

"All these offenders outrage me;[31128] actions which to others may

appear insignificant or completely legitimate are for me crimes. As soon

as someone becomes acquainted with me he is at once calumniated. Others

are forgiven for their fortune, my zeal is considered a crime. Deprive

me of my conscience and I am the most wretched of men. I do not even

enjoy the rights of a citizen. I am not even allowed to perform my duty

as a representative of the people.... To the enemies of my country, to

whom my existence seems an obstacle to their heinous plots, I am ready

to sacrifice it, if their odious empire is to endure..... Let their road

to the scaffold be the pathway of crime, ours shall be that of virtue;

let the hemlock be got ready for me, I await it on this hallowed spot.

I shall at least bequeath to my country an example of constant affection

for it, and to the enemies of humanity the disgrace of my death."

Naturally, and always just like Marat, he sees around himself only

"the perverted, the plotters, the traitors."[31129]--Naturally, as with

Marat, common sense with him is perverted, and, like Marat again, he

thinks at random.

"I am not obliged to reflect," said he to Garat, "I always rely on first

impressions."

"For him," says the same authority, "the best reasons are

suspicions,"[31130] and naught makes headway against suspicions,

not even the most positive evidence. On September 4, 1792, talking

confidentially with Pétion, and hard pressed with the questions that he

put to him, he ends by saying, "Very well, I think that Brissot is on

Brunswick's side."[31131]--Naturally, finally, he, like Marat, imagines

the darkest fictions, but they are less improvised, less grossly

absurd, more slowly worked out and more industriously interwoven in his

calculating inquisitorial brain.

"Evidently," he says to Garat, "the Girondists are conspiring."[31132]

"And where?" demands Garat.

"Everywhere," Robespierre replies, "in Paris, throughout France, over

all Europe. Gensonné, at Paris, is plotting in the Faubourg St. Antoine,

going about among the shopkeepers and persuading them that we patriots

mean to pillage their shops. The Gironde (department) has for a long

time been plotting its separation from France so as to join England; the

chiefs of its deputation are at the head of the plot, and mean to carry

it out at any cost. Gensonné makes no secret of it; he tells all among

them who will listen to him that they are not representatives of the

nation, but plenipotentiaries of the Gironde. Brissot is plotting in his

journal, which is simply a tocsin of civil war; we know of his going

to England, and why he went; we know all about his intimacy with that

Lebrun, minister of foreign affairs, a Liegois and creature of the

Austrian house. Brissot's best friend is Clavière, and Clavière

has plotted wherever he could breathe. Rabaut, treacherous like the

Protestant and philosopher that he is, was not clever enough to conceal

his correspondence with that courtier and traitor Montesquiou; six

months ago they were working together to open Savoy and France to the

Piedmontese. Servan was made general of the Pyrenean army only to give

the keys of France to the Spaniards."

"Is there no doubt of this in your mind?" asks Garat.

"None, whatever."[31133]

Such assurance, equal to that of Marat, is terrible and worse in its

effect, for Robespierre's list of conspirators is longer than that of

Marat. Political and social, in Marat's mind, the list comprehends only

aristocrats and the rich; theological and moral in Robespierre's mind,

it comprehends all atheists and dishonest persons, that is to say,

nearly the whole of his party. In this narrow mind, given up to

abstractions and habitually classifying men under two opposite headings,

whoever is not with him on the good side is against him on the bad side,

and, on the bad side, the common understanding between the factious of

every flag and the rogues of every degree, is natural.

"All aristocrats are corrupt, and every corrupt man is an aristocrat;"

for, "republican government and public morality are one and the same

thing."[31134]

Not only do evil-doers of both species tend through instinct and

interest to league together, but their league is already perfected. One

has only to open one's eyes to detect "in all its extent" the plot

they have hatched, "the frightful system of destruction of public

morality."[31135] Guadet, Vergniaud, Gensonné, Danton, Hébert, "all of

them artificial characters," had no other end in view: "they felt[31136]

that, to destroy liberty, it was necessary to favor by every means

whatever tended to justify egoism, wither the heart and efface that idea

of moral beauty, which affords the only rule for public reason in its

judgment of the defenders and enemies of humanity."--Their heirs

remain; but let those be careful. Immorality is a political offense; one

conspires against the State merely by making a parade of materialism or

by preaching indulgence, by acting scandalously, or by following evil

courses, by stock-jobbing, by dining too sumptuously; by being vicious,

scheming, given to exaggeration, or "on the fence;" by exciting or

perverting the people, by deceiving the people, by finding fault with

the people, by distrusting the people,[31137] short, when one does not

march straight along on the prescribed path marked out by Robespierre

according to principles: whoever stumbles or turns aside is a scoundrel,

a traitor. Now, not counting the Royalists, Feuillantists, Girondists,

Hébertists, Dantonists, and others already decapitated or imprisoned

according to their merit, how many traitors still remain in the

Convention, on the Committees, amongst the representatives on mission,

in the administrative bodies not properly weeded out, amongst petty

tyrannical underlings and the entire ruling, influential class at Paris

and in the provinces? Outside of "about twenty political Trappists in

the Convention," outside of a small devoted group of pure Jacobins in

Paris, outside of a faithful few scattered among the popular clubs of

the departments, how many Fouchés, Vadiers, Talliens, Bourdons, Collots,

remain amongst the so-called revolutionaries? How many dissidents are

there, disguised as orthodox, charlatans disguised as patriots, and

pashas disguised as sans-culottes?[31138] Add all this vermin to

that which Marat seeks to crush out; it is no longer by hundreds of

thousands, but by millions, exclaim Baudot, Jeanbon-Saint-André and

Guffroy, that the guilty must be counted and cut off their heads!--And

all these heads, Robespierre, according to his maxims, must strike off.

He is well aware of this; hostile as his intellect may be to precise

ideas, he, when alone in his closet, face to face with himself, sees

clearly, as clearly as Marat. Marat's chimera, on first spreading out

its wings, bore its frenzied rider swiftly onward to the charnel house;

that of Robespierre, fluttering and hobbling along, reaches the goal

in its turn; in its turn, it demands something to feed on, and the

rhetorician, the professor of principles, begins to assess the voracity

of the monstrous brute on which he is mounted. Slower than the other,

this one is still more ravenous, for, with similar claws and teeth,

it has a vaster appetite. At the end of three years Robespierre has

overtaken Marat, at that distant end of the line, at the station

where Marat had established himself from the very beginning, and the

theoretician now adopts the policy, the aim, the means, the work, and

almost the vocabulary of a maniac:[31139]

armed dictatorship of the urban mob,

systematic perturbation of the bribed rabble,

war against the bourgeoisie,

extermination of the rich,

placing opposition writers, administrators and deputies outside the law.