the anecdote by observing, that he is the first French writer by whom
it is recorded; and, as if sensible that such a remark could not fail to
excite suspicion, he proceeds to say, that it is wonderful that his
predecessors should have been silent. Yet he certainly was not the first
who stated the story in print; for it appears in the Chronicles of
Nicholas Gilles, which were printed in 1492, whilst the earliest edition
of Gaugin was published in 1497.--According to these monkish historians,
Clotharius, of France, son of Clovis, had threatened the life of his
chamberlain, Gaultier, Lord of Yvetot, who thereupon fled the kingdom,
and for ten years remained in voluntary exile, fighting against the
infidels. At the end of this period, Gaultier hoped that the anger of
his sovereign might be appeased, and he accordingly went to Rome, and
implored the aid of the Supreme Pontiff. Pope Agapetus pitied the
wanderer; and he gave unto him a letter addressed to the King of the
Franks, in which he interceded for the supplicant. Clotharius was then
residing at Soissons, his capital, and thither Gaultier repaired on
Good-Friday, in the year 536, and, availing himself of the moment when
the King was kneeling before the altar, threw himself at the feet of the
royal votary, beseeching pardon in the name of the common Savior of
mankind, who on that day shed his blood for the redemption of the human
race. But his prayers and appeal were in vain: he found no pardon;
Clothair drew his sword, and slew him on the spot. The Pope threatened
the monarch with apostolical vengeance, and Clothair attempted to atone
for the murder, by raising the town and territory of Yvetot into a
kingdom, and granting it in perpetuity to the heirs of Gaultier.
Such is the tradition. There is a very able dissertation upon the
subject, by the Abbé de Vertot[46], who endeavors to disprove the whole
story: first by the silence of all contemporary authors; then by the
fact, that Yvetot was not at that time under the dominion of Clothair;
then by an anachronism, which the story involves as to Pope Agapetus;
and finally by sundry other arguments of minor importance. Even he,
however, admits, that in a royal decree, dated 1392, and preserved among
the records of the Exchequer of Normandy, the title of _King_ is given
to the Lord of Yvetot; and he is obliged to cut the knot, which he is
unable to untie, by stating it as his opinion, that at or about this
period Yvetot was really raised into a sovereignty, though, on what
occasion, for what purpose, and with what privileges, no document
remains to prove. As a parallel case, he instances the Peers of France,
an order with whose existence every body is acquainted, while of the
date of the establishment nothing is known. It is surprising, that so
clear-sighted a writer did not perceive that he was doing nothing more
than illustrating, as the logicians say, _obscurum per obscurius_, or,
rather, making darkness more dark; as if it were not considerably more
probable, that so strange a circumstance should have taken place in the
sixth century, and have been left unrecorded, when society was unformed,
anomalies frequent, and historians few, than that it should have
happened in the fourteenth, a period when the government of France was
completely settled in a regular form, under one monarch, when literature
was generally diffused, and when every remarkable event was chronicled.
Besides which, the inhabitants of the little kingdom continued, in some
measure, independent of his Most Christian Majesty, even until the
revolution. At least, they paid not a sou of taxes, neither _aides_, nor
_tenth-penny_, nor _gabelle_. It was a sanctuary into which no farmer
of the revenue dared to enter. And it is hardly to be doubted, but that
there must have been some very singular cause for so singular and
enviable a privilege. In our own days, M. Duputel[47], a member of the
academy of Rouen, has entered the lists against the Abbé; and between
them the matter is still undecided, and is likely so to continue. For
myself, I have no means of throwing light upon it; but the impression
left upon my mind, after reading both sides of the question, is, that
the arguments are altogether in favor of Vertot, while the greater
weight of probabilities is in the opposite scale. I shall leave you,
however, to poise the balance, and I shall not attempt to cause either
end of the beam to preponderate, by acting the part of Old Nick as
before exhibited to you; though I decidedly believe that Gaguin had some
authority for his tale, but, by neglecting to quote it, he has left the
minds of his readers to uncertainty, and his own veracity to suspicion.
With this digression I bid farewell to Yvetot, and its Lilliputian
kingdom; nor will I detain you much longer on the way to Rouen, the road
passing through nothing likely to afford interest in point of historical
recollection or antiquities; though within a very short distance of the
ancient Abbey of Pavilly on the one side, and at no great distance from
the still more celebrated Monastery of Jumieges on the other. The houses
in this neighborhood are in general composed of a framework of wood,
with the interstices filled with clay, in which are imbedded small
pieces of glass, disposed in rows, for windows. The wooden studs are
preserved from the weather by slates, laid one over the other, like the
scales of a fish, along their whole surface, or occasionally by wood
over wood in the same manner. I am told that there are some very ancient
timber churches in Norway, erected immediately after the conversion of
the Northmen, which are covered with wood-scales: the coincidence is
probably accidental, yet it is not altogether unworthy of notice. At one
end the roof projects beyond the gable four or five feet, in order to
protect a door-way and ladder or staircase that leads to it; and this
elevation has a very picturesque effect. A series of villages, composed
of cottages of this description, mixed with large manufactories and
extensive bleaching grounds, comprise all that is to be remarked in the
remainder of the ride; a journey that would be as interesting to a
traveller in quest of statistical information, as it would be the
contrary to you or to me.
Poverty, the inseparable companion of a manufacturing population, shews
itself in the number of beggars that infest this road as well as that
from Calais to Paris. They station themselves by the side of every hill,
as regularly as the mendicants of Rome were wont to do upon the bridges.
Sometimes a small nosegay thrown into your carriage announces the
petition in language, which, though mute, is more likely to prove
efficacious than the loudest prayer. Most commonly, however, there is no
lack of words; and, after a plaintive voice has repeatedly assailed you
with "une petite charité, s'il vous plait, Messieurs et Dames," an
appeal is generally made to your devotion, by their gabbling over the
Lord's Prayer and the Creed with the greatest possible velocity. At the
conclusion, I have often been told that they have repeated them once,
and will do so a second time if I desire it! Should all this prove
ineffectual, you will not fail to hear "allons, Messieurs et Dames, pour
l'amour de Dieu, qu'il vous donné un bon voyage," or probably a
song or two; the whole interlarded with scraps of prayers, and
ave-marias, and promises to secure you "santé et salut." They go through
it with an earnestness and pertinacity almost inconceivable, whatever
rebuffs they may receive. Their good temper, too, is undisturbed, and
their face is generally as piteous as their language and tone; though
every now and then a laugh will out, and probably at the very moment
when they are telling you they are "pauvres petits misérables," or
"petits malheureux, qui n'ont ni père ni mère." With all this they are
excellent flatterers. An Englishman is sure to be "milord," and a lady
to be "ma belle duchesse," or "ma belle princesse." They will try too to
please you by "vivent les Anglais, vive Louis dix-huit." In 1814 and
1815, I remember the cry used commonly to be "vive Napoléon," but they
have now learned better; and, in truth, they had no reason to bear
attachment to the ex-emperor, an early maxim of whose policy it was to
rid the face of the country of this description of persons, for which
purpose he established workhouses, or _dépots de mendicité_, in each
department, and his gendarmes were directed to proceed in the most
summary manner, by conveying every mendicant and vagrant to these
receptacles, without listening to any excuse, or granting any delay. He
had no clear idea of the necessity of the gentle formalities of a
summons, and a pass under his worship's hand and seal. And, without
entering into the elaborate researches respecting the original habitat
of a _mumper_, which are required by the English law, he thought that
pauperism could be sufficiently protected by consigning the specimen to
the nearest cabinet. The simple and rigorous plan of Napoléon was
conformable to the nature of his government, and it effectually answered
the purpose. The day, therefore, of his exile to Elba was a _Beggar's
Opera_ throughout France; and they have kept up the jubilee to the
present hour, and seem likely to persist in maintaining it.
Footnotes:
[41] _Goube, Histoire de la Normandie_, III. p. 127.
[42] "François premier, revenant vainqueur de la bataille de Marignan en
1515, crut devoir profiter de la situation avantageuse de la Crique; il
conçut le dessin de l'agrandir et d'en faire une place de guerre
importante. Ce prince avoit pris les interêts du jeune Roi d'Ecosse,
Jacques V, et ce fut pour se fortifier contre les Anglais qu'il forma la
résolution de leur opposer cette barrière. Pour conduire l'entreprise il
jetta les yeux sur un Gentilhomme nommé Guion le Roi, Seigneur de
Chillon, Vice-Amiral, et Capitaine de Honfleur, et la premiere pierre
fut posée en 1516."--_Description de la Haute Normandie_, I. p. 195.
[43] _Description de la Haute Normandie_, I. p. 200.
[44] See _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Normandy_, t. 12.--There
is also a general view of the church, and of some of the monastic
buildings from the lithographic press of the Comte de Lasteyrie.
[45] "Sed priusquàm a Clotario discedo, illud non prætermittendum reor,
quod, cùm maximè cognitu dignum est, mirari licet a nullo Franco
Scriptore litteris fuisse commendatum. Fuit inter familiarissimos
Clotarii aulicos, Galterus Yvetotus, Caletus agri Rothomagensis, apprimè
nobilis et qui regii cubiculi primarius cultor esset. Huic pro suâ
integritate, de Clotario cùm meliùs meliùsque in dies promereretur,
reliqui aulici invident, depravantes quodlibet ab eo gestum, nec
desistunt donec irritatum illi Clotarium pessimis susurris efficiunt;
quamobrem jurat Rex se hominem necaturum. Perceptâ Clotarii
indignatione, Galterus pugnator illustris cedere Regi irato constituit.
Igitur derelictâ Franciâ in militiam adversus religionis catholicæ
inimicos pergit, ubi decem annos multis prosperè gestis rebus, ratus
Clotarium simul cum tempore mitiorem effectum, Romam in primis ad
Agapitum Pontificem se contulit: a quo ad Clotarium impetratis litteris,
ad eum Suessione agentem se protinùs confert, Veneris die, quæ parasceve
dicitur, cogitans religiosam Christianis diem ad pietatem sibi
profuturam. Verùm litteris Pontificis exceptis cùm Galterum Clotarius
agnovit, vetere irâ tanquam recenti livore percitus, rapto a proximo
sibi equite gladio, hominem statìm interemit. Tam indignam insignis
atque innocentis hominis necem, religioso loco et die ad Christi
passionem recolendam celebri, pontifex inæquanimitèr ferens, confestìm
Clotarium reprehendit, monetque iniquissimi facinoris rationem habere,
se alioquin excommunicationis sententiam subiturum. Agapiti monita
reveritus Rex, capto cum prudentibus consilio, Galteri hæredes, et qui
Yvetotum deinceps possiderent, ab omni Francorum Regum ditione atque
fide liberavit, liberosque prorsùs fore suo syngrapho et regiis scriptis
confirmat. Ex quo factum est ut ejus pagi et terræ possessor _Regem_ se
Yvetoti hactenus sine controversiâ nominaverit. Id autem anno christianæ
gratiæ quingentesimo trigesimo sexto gestum esse indubiâ fide invenio.
Nam dominantibus longo post tempore in Normanniâ. Anglis, ortâque inter
Joannem Hollandum, Auglum, et Yvetoti dominum quæstione, quasi
proventuum ejus terræ pars fisco Regis Anglorum quotannis obnoxia esset,
Caleti Proprætor anno salutis 1428, de ratione litis judiciario ordine
se instruens, id, sicut annotatum a me est, comperisse
judicavit."--_Robert Gaguin_, lib. II. fol. 17.
[46] _Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions_, IV. p. 728.--The
question is also discussed in the _Traité de la Noblesse_, by M. de la
Roque; in the _Mercure de France_, for January, 1726; and in a Latin
treatise by Charles Malingre, entitled "_De falsâ regni Yvetoti
narratione, ex majoribus commentariis fragmentum_."
[47] _Précis Analytique des Travaux de l'Académie de Rouen_, 1811, p.
181.
LETTER VII.
ON THE STATE OF AFFAIRS IN FRANCE.
(_Rouen, June_, 1818.)
Abandoning, for the present, all discussion of the themes of the elder
day, I shall occupy myself with matters relating to the living world.
The fatigued and hungry traveller, whose flesh is weaker than his
spirit, is often too apt to think that his bed and his supper are of
more immediate consequence than churches or castles. And to those who
are in this predicament, there is a material improvement at Rouen, since
I was last here: nothing could be worse than the inns of the year 1815;
but four years of peace have effected a wonderful alteration, and
nothing can now be better than the Hôtel de Normandie, where we have
fixed our quarters. Objection may, indeed, be made to its situation, as
to that of every other hôtel in the city; but this is of little moment
in a town, where every house, whatever street or place it may front,
opens into a court-yard, so that its views are confined to what passes
within its own quadrangle; and, for excellence of accommodations,
elegance of furniture, skill in cookery, civility of attendance, nay,
even for what is more rare, neatness, our host, M. Trimolet, may
challenge competition with almost any establishment in Europe. For the
rent of the house, which is one of the most spacious in Rouen, he pays
three thousand francs a year; and, as house-rent is one of the main
standards of the value of the circulating medium, I will add, that our
friend, M. Rondeau, for his, which is not only among the largest but
among the most elegant and the best placed for business, pays but five
hundred francs more. This, then, may be considered as the _maximum_ at
Rouen. Yet Rouen is far from being the place which should be selected by
an Englishman, who retires to France for the purpose of economizing:
living in general is scarcely one-fourth cheaper than in our own
country. At Caen it is considerably more reasonable; on the banks of the
Loire the expences of a family do not amount to one-half of the English
cost; and still farther south a yet more sensible reduction takes place,
the necessaries of life being cheaper by half than they are in Normandy,
and house-rent by full four-fifths.
A foreigner can glean but little useful information respecting the
actual state of a country through which he journeys with as much
rapidity as I have done. And still less is he able to secern the truth
from the falsehood, or to weigh the probabilities of conflicting
testimony. I therefore originally intended to be silent on this subject.
There is a story told, I believe, of Voltaire, at least it may be as
well told of Voltaire as of any other wit, that, being once in company
with a very talkative empty Frenchman, and a very _glum_ and silent
Englishman, he afterwards characterized them by saying, "l'un ne dit que
des riens, et l'autre ne dit rien." Fearing that my political and
statistical observations, which in good truth are very slender, might be
ranked but too truly in the former category, I had resolved to confine
them to my own notebook. Yet we all take so much interest in the
destinies of our ancient rival and enemy, (I wish I could add, our
modern friend,) that, according to my usual habit, I changed my
determination within a minute after I had formed it; for I yielded to
the impression, that even my scanty contribution would not be wholly
unacceptable to you.
France, I am assured on all sides, is rapidly improving, and the
government is satisfactory to all _liberal_ men, in which number I
include persons of every opinion, except the emigrants and those
attached exclusively to the _ancien régime_. Men of the latter
description are commonly known by the name of _Ultras_; and, speaking
with a degree of freedom, which is practised here, to at least as great
an extent as in England, they do not hesitate to express their decided
disapprobation of the present system of government, and to declare, not
only that Napoléon was more of a royalist than Louis, but that the King
is a jacobin. They persuade themselves also, and would fain persuade
others, that he is generally hated; and their doctrine is, that the
nation is divided into three parties, ready to tear each other in
pieces: the _Ministerialists_, who are few, and in every respect
contemptible; the _Ultras_, not numerous, but headed by the Princes, and
thus far of weight; and the _Revolutionists_, who, in point of numbers,
as well as of talents and of opulence, considerably exceed the other
two, and will, probably, ultimately prevail; so that these conflicts of
opinion will terminate by decomposing the constitutional monarchy into a
republic. To listen to these men, you might almost fancy they were
quoting from Clarendon's History of the Rebellion in our own country;
so entirely do their feelings coincide with those of the courtiers who
attended Charles in his exile. Similar too is the reward they receive;
for it is difficult for a monarch to be just, however he may in some
cases he generous.
Yet even the Ultras admit that the revolution has been beneficial to
France, though they are willing to confine its benefits to the
establishment of the trial by jury, and the correction of certain abuses
connected with the old system of nobility. Among the advantages
obtained, they include the abolition of the game laws; and, indeed, I am
persuaded, from all I hear, that this much-contested question could not
receive a better solution than by appealing to the present laws in
France. Game is here altogether the property of the land-owner; it is
freely exposed for sale, like other articles of food; and every one is
himself at liberty to sport, or to authorize his friend to do so over
his property, with no other restriction than that of taking out a
licence, or _port d'armes_, which, for fifteen francs, is granted
without difficulty to any man of respectability, whatever may be his
condition in life. In this particular, I cannot but think that France
has set us an example well worthy of our imitation; and she also shews
that it may be followed without danger; for neither do the pleasures of
the field lose their relish, nor is the game extirpated. The former are
a subject of conversation in almost every company; and, as to the
latter, whatever slaughter may have taken place in the woods and
preserves, at the first burst of the revolution, I am assured that a
good sportsman may, at the present time, between Dieppe and Rouen kill
with ease, in a day, fifty head of game, consisting principally of
hares, quails, and partridges.
But, while these men thus restrict the benefits derived from the
revolution, the case is far different with individuals of the other
parties, all of whom are loud and unanimous in its praises. The good
resulting from the republic has been purchased at a dreadful price, but
the good remains; and those, who now enjoy the boon, are not inclined to
remember the blood which drenched the three-colored banner. Thirty years
have elapsed, and a new generation has arisen, to whom the horrors of
the revolution live only in the page of history. But its advantages are
daily felt in the equal nature and equal administration of the laws; in
the suppression of the monasteries with their concomitant evils; in the
restriction of the powers of the clergy; in the liberty afforded to all
modes of religious worship; and in the abolition of all the edicts and
mandates and prejudices, which secured to a peculiar sect and caste a
monopoly of all the honors and distinctions of the common-wealth; for
now, every individual of talent and character feels that the path to
preferment and power is not obstructed by his birth or his opinions.
The constitutional charter, in its present state, is a subject of pride
to the French, and a sure bulwark to the throne. The representative
system is beginning to be generally appreciated, and particularly in
commercial towns. The deputies of this department are to be changed the
approaching autumn, and the minds of men are already anxiously bent upon
selecting such representatives as may best understand and promote their
local interests. Few acts of the Bourbon government have contributed
more powerfully to promote the popularity of the King, than the law
enacted in the course of last year, which abolished the double election,
and enabled the voters to give their suffrages directly for their
favorite candidate, thus putting a stop at once to a variety of unfair
influence, previously exerted upon such occasions. The same law has also
created a general interest upon the subject, never before known; the
strongest proof of which is, that, of the six or eight thousand electors
contained in this department, nearly the whole are expected now to vote,
whereas not a third ever did so before. The qualifications for an
elector and a deputy are uniform throughout the kingdom, and depending
upon few requisites; nothing more being required in the former case,
than the payment of three hundred francs per annum, in direct taxes, and
the having attained the age of thirty; while an addition of ten years to
the age, and the payment of one thousand francs, instead of three
hundred, renders every individual qualified to be of the number of the
elected. The system, however, is subject to a restriction, which
provides, that at least one half of the representatives of each
department shall be chosen from among those who reside in it.
In the beginning of the revolution, a much wider door was open: all that
was then necessary to entitle a man to vote, was, that he should be
twenty-one years of age, a Frenchman, and one who had lived for a year
in the country on his own revenue, or on the produce of his labor, and
was not in a state of servitude. It was then also decreed, that the
electors should have each three livres a day during their mission, and
should be allowed at the rate of one livre a league, for the distance
from their usual place of residence, to that in which the election of
members for their department is held. Such were the only conditions
requisite for eligibility, either as elector or deputy; except, indeed,
that the citizens in the primary assemblies, and the electors in the
electoral assembly, swore that they would maintain liberty and equality,
or die rather than violate their oath[48].