* through the decree which, in each commune, establishes a tax on

the wealth of the commune in order to adapt the price of bread to

wages;[3467]

* through the decree which subjects every bag of grain to declaration

and to the maximum (price control);[3468]

* through the decree which awards six years in irons for any traffic in

the currency;[3469]

* through the decree which orders a forced loan of a billion, extorted

from the rich;[3470]

* through the decree which raises in each town a paid army of

sans-culottes "to hold aristocrats under their pikes "[3471] and at

last,

* through the decree which, instituting the Committee of Public

Safety,[3472] fashions a central motor to set these sharp scythes agoing

and mow down fortunes and lives with the utmost rapidity.--

To these engines of general destruction it adds one more, which is

special and operates against itself. Not only does it furnish its rivals

of the Commune with the millions they need to pay their bands; not only

does it advance to the different sections,[3473] in the form of a loan,

the hundreds of thousands of francs which are needed to satisfy the

thirst of their yelpers; but again, at the end of March, just at the

moment when it happens to escape the first Jacobin invasion, it

provides for the election by each section of a Committee of Supervision,

authorized to make domiciliary visits and to disarm the suspected;[3474]

it allows this committee to make arrests and inflict special taxes; to

facilitate its operations it orders a list of the inmates of each house,

legibly "stating names, surnames, ages and professions," to be affixed

to the entrance,[3475] a copy of which must be left with the committee,

and which is subject to its control.

To end the matter, it submits itself; and, "regardless of the

inviolability of a representative of the French nation,"[3476] it

decides that, in case of political denunciation, its own members may be

brought to trial.

V. Jacobin violence against the people.

Committees of Supervision after March 28, 1793.--The régime

of August and September, 1792, revived.--Disarmament.

--Certificates of civism.--Forced enlistment.--Forced loans.

--Use made of the sums raised.--Vain resistance of the

population.--Manifestations by young men repressed.

--Violence and victory of the Jacobins in the assemblies of

the sections.

"I seem to hear you," writes a sarcastic observer,[3477] "addressing the

(Jacobin) faction in these terms:

'Now, look here, we have the means, but we are not disposed to make use

of them against you; it would be unfair to attack you unarmed. Public

power emanates from two sources, legal authority and armed force. Now

we will at once create committees of supervision, of which you shall

appoint the heads, for the reason that, with a whip of this kind, you

can lash every honest man in Paris, and thus regulate public opinion.

We will do more than this, because our sacrifice is not yet complete; we

are disposed to make you a present of our armed force, with authority to

disarm anybody that you may suspect. As far as we are concerned, we

are ready to surrender even our pocketknives,[3478] and remain apart,

content with our virtues and talents.--But mind what you are about.

Should you be so ungrateful as to attack our sacred persons, we shall

find avengers in the departments.'

'What good will the departments do you, let loose against each other,

after you are out of the way?' (was the imaginary Jacobin reply!)

No summary could be more exact nor any prediction more accurately based.

Henceforth, and by virtue of the Convention's own decrees, not only have

the Jacobins the whole of the executive power in their hands, as this

is found in civilized countries, but likewise the discretionary power

of the antique tyrant or modern pasha, that arbitrary, strong arm which,

singling out the individual, falls upon him and takes from him his arms,

his freedom, and his money. After the 28th of March, we see in Paris a

resumption of the system which, instituted by the 10th of August, was

completed by the 2nd of September. In the morning, drums beat to arms;

at noon, the barriers are shut, the bridges and passages guarded, and

sentinels stand on the corners of the streets; no one is allowed "to

pass outside the limits of his section," or circulate within them

without showing his certificate of civism; houses are invested, numbers

of persons are arrested,[3479] and, during the succeeding months, this

operation is carried on under the sway of the Committee of Supervision.

Now, this Committee, in almost all the sections, "is made up of

sans-culottes," not fathers of families, men of judgment and experience,

people living a long time in the quarter, but "strangers, or young

men trying to be something,"[3480] ambitious underlings, ignorant

daredevils, despotic intruders, fierce, touchy and inexperienced

inquisitors".

The first thing is the disarmament of the suspected. "It is enough that

any citizen shall be denounced, and that the case is made known to the

Committee";[3481] or that his certificate of civism is less than one

month old,[3482] to make a delegate, accompanied by ten armed men,

search his house. In the section of the Réunion alone, on the first

day, 57 denounced persons are thus disarmed for "acts of incivism or

expressions adverse to the Republic," not merely lawyers, notaries,

architects, and other prominent men, but petty tradesmen and

shop-keepers, hatters, dyers, locksmiths, mechanics, gilders, and

bar-keepers. One section; in defiance of the law, adds to these in block

the signers of the petition of the eight thousand and that of the twenty

thousand. "Through such schemes," says an observer,[3483] "all the guns

in Paris, numbering more than a hundred thousand, pass into the hands of

the faction. None remain for its adversaries, even in the gunshops; for,

through an ordinance of the Commune, no one may purchase a gun without

a certificate issued by the Committee of Supervision of the

section.[3484]--On the other hand, owing to the power of granting or

refusing certificates of civism, each Committee, on its own authority,

interposes barriers as it pleases in all directions, public or private,

to every inhabitant within its bounds. It is impossible for any person

who has not obtained his certificate[3485] to have a passport for

traveling, although a tradesman; no public employee, no clerk of the

administration, advocate or notary can keep his place without it; no one

can go out of Paris or return late at night. If one goes out to take

a walk, there is danger of being arrested and brought back between two

soldiers to the committee of the section; if one stays at home, it is

with the chance of being inspected as a harbourer of priests or nobles.

Any Parisian opening his windows in the morning may find his house

surrounded by a company of carmagnoles, if he has not the indispensable

certificate in his pocket.[3486] In the eyes of a Jacobin committee,

there is no civism but in Jacobinism, and we can imagine whether

this patent would be willingly conferred on opponents, or even on the

lukewarm; what examinations they would have to undergo; what questions

they would be obliged to answer; how many goings and comings,

solicitations, appearances and waitings would be imposed on them; with

what persistency it would excite delay, and with what satisfaction it

would be refused. Buzot presented himself four times at the Committee of

Quatre-Nations to obtain a certificate for his domestic, and failed

to get it.[3487] There is another still more effective expedient for

keeping the ill-disposed in check The committee of each section, aided

by a member of the Commune,[3488] designates the twelve thousand men

drafted for the expedition into La Vendée, and picks them by name, one

by one, as it may select them; the effect of this is to purge Paris of

twelve thousand anti-Jacobins, and tranquilize the section assemblies,

where opposition is often objectionable. To this end the committee

selects first, and gives the preference to, the clerks of lawyers and

notaries, those of banking-houses, the administration, and of merchants,

the unmarried in all offices and counting-rooms, in short, all

the Parisian middle class bachelors, of which there are more than

twenty-five thousand.[3489] The ordinance stipulates that one out of two

should be taken, undoubtedly those with the poorest reputation with the

Committee, this proceeding will silence the others and prevent them from

speaking up in their sections.[3490]

While one hand clutches the collar, the other rummages the pocket. The

Committee of Supervision of each section, always aided by a member

of the Commune,[3491] designates all persons in easy circumstances,

estimates their incomes as it pleases, or according to common report,

and sends them an order to pay a particular sum in proportion to their

surplus, and according to a progressive tax. The allowance which is

exempt for the head of a family is 1,500 francs per annum, besides 1,000

francs for his wife and 1,000 francs for each child; if the excess is

over 15,000 or 20,000 francs, they assess it 5,000 francs; if more

than 40,000 or 50,000 francs, they assess it 20,000; in no case may the

surplus retained exceed 30,000 francs; all above this amount goes to the

State. The first third of this sudden contribution to the public funds

is required in forty-eight hours, the second in a fortnight, and the

remaining third in a month, under serious penalties. If the tax happens

to be exaggerated, if an income is uncertain or imaginary, if receipts

are yet to come in, if there is no ready money, if; like Francoeur, the

opera manager, a man "has nothing but debts," so much the worse. "In

case of refusal," writes the section of Bon-Conseil, "his personal and

real property shall be sold by the revolutionary committee, and his

person declared suspected."[3492]--Even this is simply an installment on

account:

"There is no desire on the part of the Committee at the present moment

to demand more than a portion of your surplus," that which rest will be

taken later. Desfieux, the bankrupt,[3493] has already, in the tribune

of the Jacobin club, estimated the fortunes of one hundred of the

wealthiest notaries and financiers in Paris at 640,000,000 francs;

the municipality sent a list of their names to the sections to have it

completed; if only one-tenth was taken from them, it would amount to

64,000,000, which "big sponges," thoroughly squeezed, would disgorge a

much larger amount.

"The richest of Frenchmen," says Robespierre, "should not have more than

3,000 francs a year."[3494]

The contributions of "these gentlemen" suffice to arm the sans-culottes,

"remunerate artisans for their attendance in the section meetings, and

support laborers without work."[3495] Already through the sovereign

virtue of summary requisitions, everything is spoil; carriage-horses are

seized in their stables, while vehicles belonging to aged ladies,

mostly widows, and the last of the berlins and elegant carriages still

remaining in Paris, are taken out of the livery-stables.[3496]

With such powers used in this way, the section makes the most of the old

deep-seated enmity of the poor against the rich;[3497] it secures the

firm loyalty of the needy and of vagabonds; thanks to the vigorous arms

of its active clients, it completely overcomes the feeble, transient,

poorly-contrived resistance which the National Convention and the

Parisian population still oppose to its rule.

On the 13th of April Marat, accused three months before and daily

becoming bolder in his fractiousness, is finally indicted through a

decree of the incensed majority;[3498] on the 24th he appears before the

revolutionary tribunal. But the revolutionary tribunal, like other newly

organized institutions, is composed of pure Jacobins, and, moreover, the

party has taken its precautions. Marat, for his escort to the court-room

has "the municipal commissaries, envoys from the various sections,

delegates from all the patriotic clubs"; besides these, "a multitude of

good patriots" fill the hall beforehand; "early in the morning the

other chambers of the Palais de Justice, the corridors, the courts

and adjacent streets" overflow with "sans-culottes ready to avenge

any outrage that may be perpetrated on their favorite defender."[3499]

Naturally, excessively conceited, he speaks not like an accused, but

"as an apostle and martyr." He is overwhelmed with applause, unanimously

acquitted, crowned with laurel, borne in triumph to the Convention,

where he thunders a song of victory, while the Girondist majority

is obliged to suffer his presence awaiting to be subjected to their

banishments.--Equally as impotent as the moderates of the Legislative

Assembly are the moderates in the street who recover themselves only

again to be felled to the ground. On the 4th and 5th of May, five or six

hundred young fellows, well-dressed and without arms, have assembled

in the Champs-Elysées and at the Luxembourg to protest against the

ordinance of the Commune, which drafts them for the expedition to La

Vendée;[34100] they shout, "Vive la Republique! Vive la Loi! Down with

anarchists! Send Marat, Danton and Robespierre to the Devil!" Naturally,

Santerre's paid guard disperses these young sparks; about a thousand are

arrested, and henceforth the rest will be careful not to make any open

demonstration on the public thoroughfares.--Again, for lack of

something better to do, we see them frequently returning to the section

assemblies, especially early in May; they find themselves in a majority,

and enter on discussions against Jacobin tyranny; at the Bon-Conseil

section, and at those of Marseilles and l'Unité, Lhuillier is hooted at,

Marat threatened, and Chaumette denounced.[34101]--But these are

only flashes in the pan; to be firmly in charge in these permanent

assemblies, the moderates, like the sans-culottes, would have to be in

constant attendance, and use their fists every night. Unfortunately, the

young men of 1793 have not yet arrived at that painful experience, that

implacable hate, that athletic ruggedness which is to sustain them in

1795. "After one evening, in which the seats everywhere were broken

"[34102] on the backs of the contestants, they falter, and never recover

themselves, the professional roughs, at the end of a fortnight, being

victorious all along the line.--The better to put resistance down, the

roughs form a special league amongst themselves, and go around from

section to section to give each other help.[34103] Under the title of

a deputation, under the pretext of preventing disturbance, a troop of

sturdy fellows, dispatched by the neighboring section, arrives at

the meeting, and suddenly transforms the minority into a majority, or

controls the vote by force of clamor. Sometimes, at a late hour, when

the hall is nearly empty, they declare themselves a general meeting, and

about twenty or thirty will cancel the discussions of the day. At other

times, being, through the municipality, in possession of the police,

they summon an armed force to their aid, and oblige the refractory to

decamp. And, as examples are necessary to secure perfect silence, the

fifteen or twenty who have formed themselves into a full meeting, with

the five or six who form the Committee of Supervision, issue warrants of

arrest against the most prominent of their opponents. The vice-president

of the Bon-Conseil section, and the juge-de-paix of the Unité section,

learn in prison that it is dangerous to present to the Convention

an address against anarchists or sign a debate against

Chaumette.[34104]--Towards the end of May, in the section assemblies,

nobody dares open his mouth against a Jacobin motion; often, even, there

are none present but Jacobins; for example, at the Gravilliers,

they have driven out all not of their band, and henceforth no

"intriguer"[34105] is imprudent enough to present himself there.--Having

become the sovereign People assembled in Council, with full power to

* disarm,

* put on the index,

* displace,

* tax,

* send off to the army, and

* imprison whoever gives them umbrage,

they are able now, with the municipality at their back and as guides, to

turn the armament which they have obtained from the Convention against

it, attack the Girondists in their last refuge, and possess themselves

of the only fort not yet surrendered.

VI. Jacobin tactics.

Jacobin tactics to constrain the Convention.--Petition of

April 15 against the Girondins.--Means employed to obtain

signatures.--The Convention declares the petition

calumnious.--The commission of Twelve and the arrest of

Hébert.--Plans for massacres.--Intervention of the Mountain

leaders.

To conquer the last bastion of the Girondists all they have to do is

simultaneously in all sections to do what they used to do separately in

each section: substituting themselves, by fraud and by force, for the

Veritable people, they are able to conjure up before the Convention

the phantom of popular disapproval.--From the municipality, holding its

sessions at the Hôtel-de-ville, and from the conventicle established

at the Evêché, emissaries are sent forth who present the same

formal communication in writing at the same time in every section in

Paris.[34106] "Here is a petition for signatures."--"Read it."--"But

that is unnecessary--it is already adopted by a majority of the

sections."--This lie is accepted by some and several sign in good faith

without reading it. In others they read it and refuse to sign it; in

others, again, it is read and they pass to the order of the day.

What happens? The plotters and ringleaders remain behind until all

conscientious citizens have withdrawn; then, masters of the debate,

they decide that the petition must be signed, and they accordingly

affix their signatures. The next day, on the arrival of citizens at the

section, the petition is handed to them for their names, and the debate

of the previous evening is advanced against them. If they offer any

remarks, they are met with these terrifying words:

Sign, or no certificate of civism!

And, as if approving this threat, several of the sections which are

mastered by those who draw up the lists of proscriptions, decide that

the certificates of civism must be renewed, new ones being refused to

those refusing to sign the petition. They do not rest content with

these moves; men armed with pikes are posted in the streets to force

the signatures of those who pass."[34107]--The whole weight of municipal

authority has been publicly cast into the scale. "Commissaries of the

Commune, accompanied by municipal secretaries, with tables, inkstands,

paper and registers, promenade about Paris preceded by drums and a body

of militia." From time to time, they make "a solemn halt," and declaim

against Brissot, Vergniaud, Guadet, and then "demand and obtain

signatures."[34108]--Thus extorted and borne to the Convention by the

mayor, in the name of the council-general of the Commune and of the

thirty-five sections, the imperious petition denounces twenty-two

Girondists as traitors, and insolently demands their expulsion.--Another

day it is found that a similar summons and similarly presented, in the

name of the forty-eight sections, is authorized only by thirteen

or fourteen.[34109]--Sometimes the political parade is still more

incautious. Pretended deputies of the Faubourg St. Antoine appear before

the Convention and assert the revolutionary program. "If you do

not adopt it," they say, "we will declare ourselves in a state of

insurrection; there are 40,000 men at the door."[34110] The truth is,

"about fifty bandits, scarcely known in the Faubourg," and led by a

former upholsterer, now a commissary of police, "have gathered together

on their route" all they could find in the workshops "and in the

stores," the multitude packed into the Place Vendôme not knowing what

was demanded in their name.[34111]--These dummy tumults are, however,

useful; they show the Convention its master, and prepare the way for a

more efficient invasion. The day Marat was acquitted, the whole of his

sewer, male and female, came along with him; under pretext of parading

before the Convention, they invaded the hall, scattered themselves over

the benches and steps, and, supported by the galleries, installed anew

in the tribune, amidst a tempest of applause and of tumult, the usual

promoter of insurrection, pillage and assassination.[34112]--And yet,

however energetic and however persistent the pressure, the Convention,

which has yielded on so many points, will not consent to mutilate

itself. It pronounces the petition presented against the Twenty-two

calumnious; it institutes a special commission of twelve members to

search the papers of the Commune and the sections for legal proofs of

the plot openly and steadily maintained by the Jacobins against the

national representation; Mayor Pache is summoned to the bar of the

house; warrants of arrest are issued against Hébert, Dobsen and

Varlet.--Since popular manifestations have not answered the purpose, and

the Convention, instead of obeying, is rebellious, nothing is left but

to employ force.

"Since the 10th of March," says Vergniaud, in the tribune,[34113]

"murder is openly and unceasingly fomented against you."--"It is a

terrible time," says an observer, "strongly resembling that preceding

the 2nd of September."[34114]--That same evening, at the Jacobin club,

a member proposes to "exterminate the scoundrels before leaving. "I

have studied the Convention," he says[34115] "it is composed in part of

scoundrels who ought to be punished. All the supporters of Dumouriez and

the other conspirators should be put out of the way; fire the alarm gun

and close the barriers!" The following forenoon, "all the walls in Paris

are covered with posters," calling on the Parisians to "hurry up and

slit the throats of the statesmen."[34116]--" We must do something to

put an end to this!" is the slogan of the sans-culottes.--The following

week, at the Jacobin club, as elsewhere, "immediate insurrection is the

order of the day.... What we formerly called the sacred enthusiasm of

freedom and patriotism, is now metamorphosed into the fury of an excited

populace, which can no longer be regulated or disciplined except by

force. There is not one of these scoundrels who would not accept a

counter-revolution, provided they could be allowed to crush and stamp on

the most noted conservatives.[34117].. . The conclusion is that the day,

the hour, the minute that the faction believes that it can usefully and

without risk bring into play all the brigands in Paris,[34118] then

the insurrection will undoubtedly take place." Already the plan of the

massacre is under consideration by the lowest class of fanatics at the

mayoralty, the Evêché, and the Jacobin club.[34119]

Some isolated house is to be selected, with a suite of three rooms

on the ground floor, and a small court in the rear; the twenty-two

Girondists are to be caught in the night and brought to this

slaughter-house arranged beforehand; each in turn is to be passed along

to the last room, where he is to be killed and his body tumbled into

a hole dug in the middle of the court, and then the whole covered over

with quick-lime; it will be supposed that they have emigrated, and,

to establish the fact, false correspondence will be printed.[34120] A

member of the Committee on the Municipal Police declares that the plan

is feasible:

"We will Septemberize(kill) them--not we ourselves, but men who are

ready, and who will be well paid for it."

The Montagnards present Léonard Bourdon and Legendre, make no objection.

The latter simply remarks that the Girondists should not be seized in

the Convention; outside the Convention "they are scoundrels whose death

would save the Republic," and the act is lawful; he would like to

see "with them every rascal on the 'black' side perish without

interfering."--Several, instead of 22 deputies, demand 30 or 32, and

some 300; the suspected of each district may be added, while ten or a

dozen proscription lists are already made out. Through a clean sweep,

executed the same night, at the same hour, they may be conducted to

the Carmelites, near the Luxembourg, and, "if there is not room enough

there," to Bicêtre; here, "they will disappear from the surface of the

globe."[34121] Certain leaders desired to entrust the purification of

Paris to the sagacity of popular instinct. "In loose and disconnected

phrases" they address the people: "Rouse yourselves, and act according

to your inclinations, as my indications might only startle those you

should strike down and thereby allow them to escape!" Varlet proposes,

on the contrary, a plan of public safety, very full and explicit, in

fifteen articles:

"Sweep away the deputies of the 'Plain,' and other deputies of

the Constituent and Legislative Assemblies, all nobles, priests,

pettifoggers, etc.; exterminate the whole of that race, and the

Bourbons, too, with entire suppression of the Ministers."

Hébert, for his part, alluding to the Girondists, writes in his gazette

that "the last hour of their death is going to strike," and that, "when

their foul blood shall have been spilled, aristocratic brawlers will

return to their holes, the same as on the 10th of August. "Naturally,

the professional slaughterers are notified. A certain Laforet, an

old-clothes dealer on the Quai-du-Louvre, who, with his wife, had

already distinguished themselves on the 2nd of September, reckons that

"there are in Paris 6,000 sans-culottes ready to massacre at the

first sign all dangerous deputies, and eight thousand petitioners,"

undoubtedly those who, in the several sections, signed the addresses

to the Convention against the Commune.--Another "Septemberizer,"[34122]

commanding the battalion of the Jardin des Plantes, Henriot, on meeting

a gang of men working on the wharves, exclaims in his rough voice:

"Good morning, my good fellows, we shall need you soon, and at better

work. You won't have wood to carry in your carts--you'll have to carry

dead bodies."

"All right," replies one of the hands, half tipsy, "we'll do it as we

did the 2nd of September. We'll turn a penny by it."--

Cheynard, a locksmith and machinist at the mint, is manufacturing

daggers, and the women of the tribunes are already supplied with two

hundred of them."--

Finally, on the 29th of May, Hébert proposes, in the Jacobin

club,[34123] "to pounce down on the Commission of Twelve," and another

Jacobin declares that "those who have usurped dictatorial power,"

meaning by that the Girondists, "are outlawed."

All this is extreme, clumsily done, useless and dangerous, or, at least,

premature, and the chiefs of the "Mountain," Danton, Robespierre, and

Marat himself; better informed and less shortsighted, are well aware

that brutal murder would be revolting to the already half-aroused

departments.[34124] The legislative machinery is not to be shattered,

but made use of; it must be employed against itself to effect the

required injury; in this way the operation at a distance will appear

legal, and, garnished with the usual high-flown speeches, impose on

the provincial mind.[34125] From the 3rd of April, Robespierre, in

the Jacobin club, always circumspect and considerate, had limited and

defined in advance the coming insurrection. "Let all good citizens,"

he says, "meet in their sections, and come and force us to place the

disloyal deputies under arrest." Nothing can be more moderate, and, if

they refer to principles, nothing can be more correct. The people always

reserves the right to cooperate with its mandatories, which right it

practices daily in the galleries. Through extreme precaution, which well

describes the man,[34126] Robespierre refuses to go any further in his

interference. "I am incapable of advising the people what steps to

take for its salvation. That is not given to one man alone. I, who

am exhausted by four years of revolution, and by the heart-rending

spectacle of the triumph of tyranny, am not thus favored.... I, who am

wasted by a slow fever, and, above all by the fever of patriotism. As I

have said, there remains for me no other duty to fulfill at the present

moment." What's more, he enjoins the municipality "to unite with the

people, and form a close alliance with it."--In other words, the blow

must be struck by the Commune, the "Mountain" must appear to have

nothing to do with it. But, "it is privy to the secret";[34127] its

chiefs pull the wires which set the brutal dancing-jacks in motion on

the public trestles of the Hôtel-de-ville. Danton and Lacroix wrote in

the bureau of the Committee of "Public Safety," the insolent summons

which the procureur of the Commune is to read to the Convention on the

31st of May, and, during seven days of crisis, Danton, Robespierre and

Marat are the counselors, directors and moderators of all proceedings,

and lead, push on or restrain their stooges of the insurrection within

the limits of this program.

VII. The central Jacobin committee in power.

The 27th day of May.--The central revolutionary committee.

--The municipal body displaced and then restored.--Henriot,

commanding general.

It is a tragicomic drama in three acts, each winding up with a coup

de théâtre, always the same and always foreseen. Legendre, one of the

principal stage hands, has taken care to announce beforehand that,

"If this lasts any longer," said he, at the Cordeliers club,[34128] "if

the 'Mountain' remains quiet any longer, I shall call in the people,

and tell the galleries to come down and take part with us in the

deliberations."

At first, on the 27th of May, in relation to the arrest of Hébert and

his companions, the "Mountain," supported by the galleries, becomes

furious.[34129] In vain does the majority again and again demonstrate

its numerical superiority. "We shall resist," says Danton, "so long as

there are a hundred true citizens to help us."--"President," exclaims

Marat to Isnard, you are a tyrant! a despicable tyrant!"--"I demand,"

says Couthon, "that the President be impeached!"--"Off with the

President to the Abbaye!"--The "Mountain" has decided that he shall not

preside; it springs from the benches and rushes at him, shouts "death

to him," becomes hoarse with its vociferations, and compels him to leave

the chair through weariness and exhaustion. It drives out his successor,

Fonfrède, in the same manner, and ends by putting Hérault-Séchelles, one

of its own accomplices, in the chair.--Meanwhile, at the entrance of the

Convention, "the regulations have been violated"; a crowd of armed men

"have spread through the passages and obstructed the approaches";

the deputies, Meillan, Chiappe and Lydon, on attempting to leave,

are arrested, Lydon being stopped "by the point of a saber at his

breast,"[34130] while the leaders on the inside encourage, protect and

justify their trusty aids outdoors.--Marat, with his usual audacity, on

learning that Raffet, the commandant, was clearing the passages, comes

to him "with a pistol in his hand and puts him under arrest,"[34131]

on the ground that the people and its sacred rights of petition and the

petitioners must be respected. There are "five or six hundred, almost

all of them armed,"[34132] stationed for three hours at the doors of

the hall; at the last moment, two other troops, dispatched by the

Gravilliers and Croix-Rouge sections, arrive and bring them their final

afflux. Thus strengthened, they spring over the benches assigned to

them, spread through the hall, and mingle with the deputies who

still remain in their seats. It is after midnight; many of the

representatives, worn out with fatigue and disgust, have left; Pétion,

Lasource, and a few others, who wish to get in, "cannot penetrate the

threatening crowd." To compensate themselves, and in the places of the

absent, the petitioners, constituting themselves representatives of

France, vote with the "Mountain," while the Jacobin president, far

from turning them out, himself invites them "to set aside all obstacles

prejudicial to the welfare of the people.." In this gesticulating crowd,

in the half-light of smoky lamps, amidst the uproar of the galleries, it

is difficult to hear well what motion is put to vote; it is not easy to

see who rises or sits down, and two decrees pass, or seem to pass,

one releasing Hébert and his accomplices, and the other revoking the

commission of the Twelve.[34133] Forthwith the messengers who await the

issue run out and carry the good news to the Hôtel-de-ville, the Commune

celebrating its triumph with an explosion of applause.

The next morning, however, notwithstanding the terrors of a call of

the House and the fury of the "Mountain," the majority, as a defensive

stroke, revokes the decree by which it is disarmed, while a new decree

maintains the commission of the Twelve; the operation, accordingly,

is to be done over again, but not the whole of it; for Hébert and the

others imprisoned remain at liberty, while the majority, which, through

a sense of propriety or the instinct of self-preservation, had again

placed its sentinels on the outposts, consents, either through weakness

or hopes of conciliation, to let the prisoners remain free. The result

is they have had the worst of the fight. Their adversaries, accordingly,

are encouraged, and at once renew the attack, their tactics, very

simple, being those which have already proved so successful on the 10th

of August.

The matter now in hand is to invoke against the derived and provisional

rights of the government, the superior and inalienable right of the

people; also, to substitute for legal authority, which, in its nature,

is limited, revolutionary power, which, in its essence, is absolute. To

this end the section of the City, under the vice-presidency of Maillard,

the "Septemberizer," invites the other forty-seven sections each

to elect two commissaries, with "unlimited powers." In thirty-three

sections, purged, terrified, or deserted, the Jacobins, alone, or almost

alone,[34134] elect the most determined of their band, particularly

strangers and rascals, in all sixty-six commissaries, who, on the

evening of the 29th, meet at the Evêché, and select nine from

their midst to form, under the presidency of Dobsen, a central and

revolutionary executive committee. These nine persons are entirely

unknown;[34135] all are obscure subordinates,[34136] mere puppets and

manikins; eight days later, on finishing their performance, when they

are no longer needed, they will be withdrawn behind the scenes. In the

mean time they pass for the mandatories of the popular sovereign, with

full power in all directions, because he has delegated his omnipotence

to them, and the sole power, because their investiture is the

most recent; under this sanction, they stalk around somewhat like

supernumeraries at the Opera, dressed in purple and gold, representing

a conclave of cardinals or the Diet of the Holy Empire. Never has the

political drama degenerated into such an impudent farce!--On the

31st, at half-past six in the morning, Dobsen and his bullies present

themselves at the council-general of the Commune, tender their

credentials, and make known to it its deposition. The Council, with

edifying complacency, accepts the fiat and leaves the department. With

no less grateful readiness Dobsen summons it back, and reinstates it

in all its functions, in the name of the people, and declares that

it merits the esteem of the country.[34137] At the same time another

demagogue, Varlet, performs the same ceremony with the Council of the

department, and both bodies, consecrated by a new baptism, join the

sixty-six commissaries to share the dictatorship.--What could be more

legitimate? The Convention would err in making any opposition:

"It was elected merely to condemn the tyrant and to frame a

constitution; the sovereign people has invested it with no other

power;[34138] accordingly, the other acts, its warrants of arrest, are

simply usurpations and despotism. Paris, moreover, represents France

better than it does, for Paris is "the extract of all the departments,

the mirror of opinion,"[34139] the advance-guard of patriotism.

"Remember the 10th of August;[34140] previous to that time, the opinions

in the Republic were divided; but, scarcely had you struck the decisive

blow when all subsided into silence. Have no fear of the departments;

with a little terror and a few instructions, we shall turn all minds in

our favor." Grumblers persist in demanding the convocation of primary

assemblies. "Was not the 10th of August necessary? Did not the

departments then endorse what Paris did? They will do so this time. It

is Paris which saved them."[34141]

Consequently, the new government places Henriot, a reliable man, and one

of the September slaughterers, in full command of the armed force; then,

through a violation by law declared as a capital offense, it orders the

alarm gun to be fired; then, on the other hand, it beats a general call

to arms, sounds the tocsin and closes the barriers; the post office

managers are put in arrest, and letters are intercepted and opened;

the order is given to disarm the suspected and hand their arms over to

patriots; "forty sous a day are allowed to citizens with small means

while under arms."[34142] Notice is given without fail the preceding

evening to the trusty men of the quarter; accordingly, early in the

morning, the Committee of Supervision has already selected from the

Jacobin sections "the most needy companies in order to arm those

the most worthy of combating for liberty," while all its guns are

distributed "to the good republican workmen." [34143]--From hour to hour

as the day advances, we see in the refractory sections all authority

passing over to the side of force; at the Finistère, Butte-des-Moulins,

Lombards, Fraternité, and Marais[34144] sections, the encouraged

sans-culottes obtain the ascendancy, nullify the deliberations of the

moderates, and, in the afternoon, their delegates go and take the oath

at the Hôtel-de-ville.

Meanwhile the Commune, dragging behind it the semblance of popular

unanimity, besieges the Convention with multiplied and threatening

petitions. As on the 27th of May, the petitioners invade the hall, and

"mix in fraternally with the members of the 'Left."' Forthwith, on the

motion of Levasseur, the "Mountain," "confident of its place being well

guarded," leaves it and passes over to the "Right."[34145] Invaded in

its turn, the "Right" refuses to join in the deliberations; Vergniaud

demands that "the Assembly join the armed force on the square, and put

itself under its protection"; he and his friends leave the hall, and the

decapitated majority falls back upon its usual hesitating course. All is

hubbub and uproar around it. In the hall the clamors of the "Mountain,"

the petitioners, and the galleries, seem like the constant roar of a

tempest. Outside, twenty or thirty thousand men will probably clash in

the streets;[34146] the battalion of Butte-des-Moulins, with detachments

sent by neighboring sections, is entrenched in the Palais-Royal, and

Henriot, spreading the report that the rich sections of the center have

displayed the white cockade, send against it the sans-culottes of the

faubourgs Saint-Antoine and Saint-Marceau; cannon are pointed on both

sides.--These loaded cannon must not be discharged; the signal of

civil war must not be given; it is simply necessary "to forestall

the consequences of a movement which could be only disastrous to

liberty,"[34147] and it is important to ensure public order. The

majority, accordingly, think that it is acting courageously in refusing

to the Commune the arrest of the Twenty-two, and of the Ministers,

Lebrun and Clavière; in exchange for this it consents to suppress its

commission of Twelve; it confirms the act of the Commune which allows

forty sous a day to the workmen under arms; it declares freedom of entry

into its tribunes, and, thanking all the sections, those who defended

as well as those who attacked it, it maintains the National Guard on

permanent call, announces a general federation for the 10th of August

following, and goes off to fraternize with the battalions in the

PalaisRoyal, in battle array against each other through the calumnies

of the Commune, and which, set right at the last moment, now embrace

instead of cutting each other's throats.

This time, again, the advantage is on the side of the Commune. Not only

have many of its requirements been converted into decrees, but again,

its revolutionary baptism remains in full force; its executive committee

is tacitly recognized, the new government performs its functions, its

usurpations are endorsed, its general, Henriot, keeps command of the

entire armed force, and all its dictatorial measures are carried out

without let or hindrance.--There is another reason why they should

be maintained and aggravated. "Your victory is only half-won," writes

Hébert in his Père Duchesne, "all those bastards of intriguers still

live!"--On the evening of the 31st of May the Commune issues warrants of

arrest against the ministers Clavière and Lebrun, and against Roland and

his wife. That same evening and throughout the following day and

night, and again the day after, the Committees of Supervision of

the forty-eight sections, according to instructions from the

Hôtel-de-ville[34148] study the lists of their quarters,[34149] add

new names to these, and send commissaries to disarm and arrest the

suspected. Whoever has spoken against revolutionary committees, or

disapproved of the assaults of the 31st of May, or not openly shown

himself on the 10th of August, or voted on the wrong side in the old

Legislative Assembly, might be arrested. It is a general, simultaneous

raid; in all the streets we see nothing but people seized and

under escort sent to prison, or put before the section committee.

"Anti-patriotic" journalists are arrested first of all, the entire

impression of their journals being additionally confiscated, and the

journal suppressed; the printing-rooms of Gorsas are sacked, seals

placed on his presses,[34150] and Prudhomme himself is locked up. All

resistance is overcome in the Contrat-Social, Fraternity, Marais and

Marseilles sections, leaving the Commune free, as far as the street

is concerned, to recommence its attack on the Convention. "Lists of

sans-culottes workmen" have been drawn up in each section, and six

francs a head is allowed them, payable by the Convention, as indemnity

for their temporary suspension from work;[34151] this is a premium

offered to voters, and as nothing is more potent than cash in hand,

Pache provides the funds by diverting 150,000 francs intended for the

colonists in San Domingo; the whole day on the 2nd of June, trusted

men go about among the ranks distributing five-franc assignats.[34152]

Vehicles loaded with supplies accompany each battalion, the better to

keep the men under arms;[34153] the stomach needs filling up, and a pint

of wine is excellent for strengthening patriotic sentiment. Henriot has

ordered back from Courbevoie the battalions of volunteers which a few

days before had been enlisted for La Vendée,[34154] crooked adventurers

and looters, later known as "the heroes of the 500 francs." Besides

these he has under his thumb Rosenthal's hussars, a body of German

veterans who do not understand French, and will remain deaf to any legal

summons. Finally, he surrounds the Convention with a circle of picked

sans-culottes, especially the artillerists, the best of Jacobins,[34155]

who drag along with them the most formidable park of artillery, 163

cannons, with grates and charcoal to heat the balls. The Tuileries is

thus encircled by bands of roughs and fanatics; the National Guard, five

or six times as many,[34156] brought out "to give an appearance of a

popular movement to the proceedings of five or six thousand bandits,"

cannot come to the aid of the Convention, it being stationed out of

reach, beyond the Pont Tournant, which is raised, and behind the wooden

fence separating the Carrousel from the palace. Kept in its position by

its orders, merely serving as a stationary piece of scenery, employed

against itself unbeknown to itself,[34157] it can do no more than let

the factionists act who serve as its advanced guard.--Early in

the morning the vestibules, stairs and passages in the hall of the

convention have been invaded by the frequenters of the galleries and

the women under pay. The commandant of the post, with his officers, have

been confined by "men with moustaches," armed with sabers and pistols;

the legal guard has been replaced with an extraordinary guard,[34158]

and the deputies are prisoners. If one of them is obliged to go out for

a moment, it is under the supervision of four fusiliers, "who conduct

him, wait for him, and bring him back."[34159] Others, in trying to look

out the windows, are aimed at; the venerable Dussaulx is struck, and

Boissy d'Anglas, seized by the throat, returns with his cravat and

shirt all in shreds. For six hours by the clock the Convention is under

arrest, and when the decree is passed, ordering the removal of the armed

force bearing upon it, Henriot replies to the officer who notifies him

of it: "Tell your damned president that he and his Assembly may go to

hell. If he don't surrender the Twenty-two in an hour, I'll send him

there!"[34160]

In the hall the majority, abandoned by its recognized guides and its

favorite spokesmen, grows more and more feeble from hour to hour.

Brissot, Pétion, Guadet, Gensonné, Buzot, Salle, Grangeneuve, and

others, two-thirds of the Twenty-two, kept away by their friends,

remain at home.[34161] Vergniaud, who had come, remains silent, and then

leaves; the "Mountain," probably, gaining by his absence, allows him to

pass out. Four other Girondists who remain in the Assembly to the end,

Isnard, Dussaulx, Lauthenas, and Fauchet, consent to resign; when the

generals give up their swords, the soldiers soon lay down their arms.

Lanjuinais, alone, who is not a Girondist, but a Catholic and Breton,

speaks like a man against this outrageous attack on the nation's

representatives They rush at him and assail him in the tribune; the

butcher, Legendre, simulating "the cleaver's blow," cries out to him,

"Come down or I'll knock you down! A group of Montagnards spring forward

to help Legendre, and one of them claps a pistol to his throat;[34162]

he clings fast to the tribune and strives in vain, for his party

around him are losing courage.--At this moment Barrère, remarkable for

expedients, proposes to the Convention to adjourn, and hold the session

"amidst the armed force that will afford it protection."[34163] All

other things failing, the majority avails itself of this last straw.

It rises in a body, in spite of the vociferations in the galleries,

descends the great staircase, and proceeds to the entrance of the

Carrousel. There the Montagnard president, Hérault-Séchelles, reads the

decree of Henriot, which enjoins him to withdraw, and he officially

and correctly summons him in the usual way. But a large number of the

Montagnards have followed the majority, and are there to encourage the

insurrection; Danton takes Henriot's hand and tells him, in a low voice,

"Go ahead, don't be afraid; we want to show that the Assembly is

free, be firm."[34164] At this the tall bedizened gawky recovers his

assurance, and in his husky voice, he addresses the president: "Hérault,

the people have not come here to listen to big words. You are a good

patriot... Do you promise on your head that the Twenty-two shall be

given up in twenty-four hours?"--"No."--"Then, in that case, I am not

responsible. To arms, cannoneers, make your guns ready!" The cannoneers

take their lighted matches, "the cavalry draw their sabers, and the

infantry aim at the deputies."[34165] Forced back on this side, the

unhappy Convention turns to the left, passes through the archway,

follows the broad avenue through the garden, and advances to the

Pont-Tournant to find an outlet. There is no outlet; the bridge is

raised, and everywhere the barrier of pikes and bayonets remains

impenetrable; shouts of "Vive la Montagne! vive Marat! To the guillotine

with Brissot, Vergniaud, Guadet and Gensonné! Away with bad blood!"

greet the deputies on all sides, and the Convention, similar to a flock

of sheep, in vain turns round and round in its pen. At this moment, to

get them back into the fold, Marat, like a barking dog, runs up as fast

as his short legs will allow, followed by his troop of tatterdemalions,

and exclaims: "Let all loyal deputies return to their posts!" With bowed

heads, they mechanically return to the hall; it is immediately

closed, and they are once more in confinement. To assist them in their

deliberations a crowd of the well-disposed entered pell-mell along with

them. To watch them and hurry on the matter, the sans-culottes, with

fixed bayonets, gesticulate and threaten them from the galleries.

Outside and inside, necessity, with its iron hand, has seized them and

holds them fast. There is a dead silence. Couthon, a paralytic, tries

to stand up; his friends carry him in their arms to the tribune; an

intimate friend of Robespierre's, he is a grave and important personage;

he sits down, and in his mild tone of voice, he speaks: "Citizens, all

members of the Convention must now be satisfied of their freedom.... You

are now aware that there is no restraint on your deliberations."[34166]

The comedy is at an end. Even in Molière there is none like it. The

sentimental cripple in the tribune winds up by demanding that the

Twenty-two, the Twelve, and the Ministers, Clavière and Lebrun be

placed in arrest. Nobody opposes the motion,[34167] "because physical

necessities begin to be felt, and an impression of terror pervades the

Assembly." Several say to themselves, "Well, after all, those who are

proscribed will be as well off at home, where they will be safe.... It

is better to put up with a lesser evil than encounter a greater one."

Another exclaims: "It is better not to vote than to betray one's trust."

The salvo being found, all consciences are easy. Two-thirds of the

Assembly declare that they will no longer take part in the discussions,

hold aloof; and remain in their seats at each calling of the vote. With

the exception of about fifty members of the "Right," who rise on the

side of the Girondists, the "Mountain," whose forces are increased by

the insurgents and amateurs sitting fraternally in its midst, alone

votes for, and finally passes the decree.--Now that the Convention has

mutilated itself; it is check-mated, and is about to become a governing

machine in the service of a clique; the Jacobin conquest is completed,

and in the hands of the victors, the grand operations of the guillotine

are going to commence.

VIII. Right or Wrong, my Country.

Character of the new governors.--Why France accepted them.

Let us observe them at this decisive moment. I doubt if any such

contrast ever presented itself in any country or in any age.--Through

a series of purifications in an inverse sense, the faction has become

reduced to its dregs; nothing remains of the vast surging wave of 1789

but its froth and its slime; the rest has been cast off or has withdrawn

to one side; at first the highest class, the clergy, the nobles, and the

parliamentarians; next the middle class of traders, manufacturers,

and the bourgeois; and finally the best of the inferior class, small

proprietors, farmers,[34168] and master-workmen--in short, the prominent

in every pursuit, profession, state, or occupation, whoever possesses

capital, a revenue, an establishment, respectability, public esteem,

education and mental and moral culture. The party in June, 1793, is

composed of little more than unreliable workmen, town and country

vagabonds, the habitués of hospices[34169], sluts of the gutter,

degraded and dangerous persons,[34170] the déclassé, the corrupt, the

perverted, the maniacs of all sorts. In Paris, from which they command

the rest of France, their troop, an insignificant minority, is recruited

from that refuse of humanity infesting all capitals, amongst the

epileptic and scrofulous rabble which, heirs of vitiated blood and,

further degrading this by its misconduct, introduces into civilization

the degeneracy, imbecility, and infatuations of shattered temperaments,

retrograde instincts, and deformed brains.[34171] What it did with the

powers of the State is narrated by three or four contemporary witnesses;

we see it face to face, in itself, and in its chiefs, we contemplate the

true nature of the men of action and of enterprise who have led the last

attack and who represent it the best.

Since the 2nd of June "nearly one-half of the deputies in the Convention

refrain from taking any part in its deliberations; more than one

hundred and fifty have even fled or disappeared[34172]"; the silent,

the fugitives, the incarcerated, and the convicted, all this has been

accomplished by the party. On the evening of June 2nd its bosom friend,

its conscience, the filthy monstrosity, charlatan, monomaniac and

murderer, who regularly every morning, effuses his political poison into

its bosom, Marat, has at last obtained the discretionary powers craved

by him for the last four years, that of Marius and Sylla, that of

Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus; the power of adding or removing names

from lists of proscription:

"while the reading was going on he indicated cancellations or additions,

the secretary effacing or adding names as he suggested them, without any

consultation whatever with the Assembly."[34173]

At the Hôtel-de-ville on the 3rd of June, in the Salle de la Reine,

Pétion and Guadet, under arrest, see with their own eyes this Central

Committee which has just started the insurrection, and which through

its singular delegation sits enthroned over all other established

authorities.

"They were snoring,[34174] some stretched out on the benches and others

leaning on the tables with their elbows, some were barefoot others were

wearing their shoes slipshod like slippers; almost all were dirty and

poorly clad; their clothes were unbuttoned, their hair uncombed, and

their faces frightful; they wore pistols in their belts, and sabers,

with scarves turned into shoulder-straps. Bottles, bits of bread,

fragments of meat and bones lay strewn around on the floor, and smell

was rotten."

It looks like a tapestry of a middle age battle field. The chief of the

band here is not Chaumette, who has legal qualms,[34175] nor Pache,

who cunningly tacks under his mask of Swiss phlegm, but Hébert, another

Marat, yet more brutal and depraved, and who profits by the opportunity

to "put more coal into the furnace of his Père Duchesne," striking off

600,000 copies of it, pocketing 135,000 francs for the numbers sent

to the armies, and gaining seventy-five per cent on the

contract.[34176]--In the street the active body of supporters consists

of two bands, one military and other civil, the former composed

of roughs who are soon to furnish the revolutionary army. "This

army,[34177] considered to be a recent institution, has actually existed

since 1789. The agents of the Duke of Orleans formed its first nucleus.

It grew, became organized, had officers appointed to it, mustering

points, orders of the day, and a peculiar slang.... All the revolutions

were carried out by its aid; it gave impetus to popular violence

wherever it did not appear en masse. On the 12th of July, 1789, it had

Necker's bust carried in public and the theaters closed; on the 5th of

October it started the populace off to Versailles; on the 20th of April,

1791, it caused the king's arrest in the court of the Tuileries...

Led by Westermann and Fournier, it formed the central battalion in the

attack of August 10, 1792; it carried out the September massacres; it

protected the Maratists on the 31st of May, 1793,... its composition

is in keeping with its exploits and its functions. It contains the most

determined scoundrels, the brigands of Avignon, the scum of Marseilles,

Brabant, Liège, Switzerland and the shores of Genoa." Through a careful

sifting,[34178] it is to be inspected, strengthened, aggravated, and

converted into a legal body of Janissaries on triple pay; once "enlarged

with idle hairdressers, unemployed lackeys, designers of mad schemes,

and other scoundrels unable to earn their keep in an honest manner,"

it will supply the detachments needed for garrison at Bordeaux, Lyons,

Dijon and Nantes, still leaving "ten thousand of these Mamelukes to keep

down the capital."

The civilian body of supporters comprises, first, those who haunt the

sections, and are about to receive 40 sous for attending each meeting;

next; the troop of figure-heads who, in other public places, are to

represent the people, about 1,000 bawlers and claqueurs, "two-thirds of

which are women." "While I was free," says Beaulieu,[34179] "I

closely observed their movements. It was a magic-lantern constantly in

operation. They traveled to and from the Convention to the Revolutionary

Tribunal, and from this to the Jacobin Club, or to the Commune, which

held its meetings in the evening.... They scarcely took time for their

natural requirements; they were often seen dining and supping at

their posts when some action or an important murder was in the offing.

Henriot, the commander-in-chief of both hordes, was at one time a

swindler, then a police-informer, then imprisoned at Bicêtre for

robbery, and then one of the September murderers. His military bearing

and popularity are due to parading the streets in the uniform of a

general, and appearing in humbug performances; he is the type of a

swaggerer, always drunk or soaked with brandy. A blockhead, with a beery

voice, blinking eyes, and a face distorted by nervous twitching,

he possesses all the external characteristics of his employment.

In talking, he vociferates like men with the scurvy; his voice is

sepulchral, and when he stops talking his features come to rest only

after repeated agitations; he blinks three times, after which his face

recovers its equilibrium."[34180]

Marat, Hébert, and Henriot, the maniac, the thief and the brute. Were it

not for the dagger of Charlotte Corday,[34181] it is probable that this

trio, master of the press and of the armed force, aided by Jacques Roux,

Leclerc, Vincent, Ronsin, and other madmen of the slums, would have put

aside Danton, suppressed Robespierre, and governed France. Such are the

counselors, the favorites, and the leaders of the ruling revolutionary

class; did one not know what was to occur during the next fourteen

months, one might form an idea of its government from the quality of

these men.

And yet, such as this government is, France accepts or submits to it.

In fact, Lyons, Marseilles, Toulon, Nîmes, Bordeaux, Caen, and other

cities, feeling the knife at their throats,[34182] turn aside the stroke

with a movement of horror. They rise against their local Jacobins; but

it is nothing more than an instinctive movement. They do not think of

forming States within the State, as the "Mountain" pretends that they

do, nor of usurping the central authority, as the "Mountain" actually

does. Lyons cries, "Long live the Republic, one and indivisible,"

receives with honor the commissioners of the Convention, permits convoys

of arms and horses destined for the army of the Alps to pass. To excite

a revolt there, requires the insane demands of Parisian despotism just

as it requires the brutal persistence of religious persecution to render

the province of la Vendée insurgent. Without the prolonged oppression

that weighs down consciences, and the danger to life always imminent,

no city or province would have attempted secession. Even under this

government of inquisitors and butchers no community, save those of

Lyons and La Vendée, makes any sustained effort to break up the State,

withdraw from it and live by itself. The national sheaf has been too

strongly bound together by secular centralization. One's country exists;

and when that country is in danger, when the armed stranger attacks

the frontier, one follows the flag-bearer, whoever he may be, whether

usurper, adventurer, blackguard, or cut-throat, provided only that he

marches in the van and holds the banner with a firm hand.[34183] To tear

that flag from him, to contest his pretended right, to expel him and

replace him by another, would be a complete destruction of the common

weal. Brave men sacrifice their own repugnance for the sake of

the common good; in order to serve France, they serve her unworthy

government. In the committee of war, the engineering and staff officers

who give their days to the study of military maps, think of nothing

else than of knowing it thoroughly; one of them, d'Arcon, "managed the

raising of the siege of Dunkirk, and of the blockade of Maubeuge;[34184]

nobody excels him in penetration, in practical knowledge, in quick

perception and in imagination; it is a spirit of flame, a brain compact

of resources. I speak of him, says Mallet du Pan, "from an intimate

acquaintance of ten years. He is no more a revolutionnaire than I am."

Carnot[34185] does even more than this: he gives up his honor when,

with his colleagues on the Committee of Public Safety, Billaud-Varennes,

Couthon, Saint-Just, Robespierre, he puts his name to decrees which are

assassinations. A similar devotion brings recruits into the armies

by hundreds of thousands, bourgeois[34186] and peasants, from the

volunteers of 1791 to the levies of 1793; and the latter class fight not

only for France, but also, and more than all, for the Revolution. For,

now that the sword is drawn, the mutual and growing exasperation leaves

only the extreme parties in the field. Since the 10th of August, and

more especially since the 21st of January, it has no longer been a

question how to deal with the ancient regime, of cutting away its

dead portions or its troublesome thorns, of accommodating it to modern

requirements, of establishing civil equality, a limited monarchy, a

parliamentary government. The question is how to escape conquest by

armed force to avert the military executions of Brunswick,[34187] the

vengeance of the proscribed émigrés, the restoration and the aggravation

of the old feudal and fiscal order of things. Both through their

traditions and their experience, the mass of the country people hate

this ancient order, and with all the accumulated hatred which an

unceasing and secular spoliation has caused. Irrespective of costs, the

rural masses will never again suffer the tax-collector among them, nor

the excise man in the cellar, nor the fiscal agent on the frontier. For

them the ancient regime is nothing more than these things; and, in fact,

they have paid no taxes, or scarcely any, since the beginning of

the Revolution. On this matter the people's idea is fixed, positive,

unalterable; and as soon as they perceive in the distant future the

possible re-establishment of the taille, the tithe, and the seignorial

rights, they choose their side; they will fight to the death.--As to the

artisans and lesser bourgeois, their spur is the magnificent prospect of

careers, to which the doors are thrown open, of unbounded advancement,

of promotion offered to merit; more than all, their illusions are still

intact.

Camped out there, facing the enemy, those noble ideals, which in the

hands of the Parisian demagogues had turned into sanguinary harlots,

remain pure and virginal in the minds of the soldiers and their

officers. Liberty, equality, the rights of man, the reign of reason--all

these vague and sublime images moved before their eyes when they climbed

the escarpment of Jemmapes under a storm of grapeshot, or when they

wintered, with naked feet, among the snows of the Vosges. These ideas,

in descending from heaven to earth, were not dishonored and distorted

under their feet, they did not see them transformed in their hands to

frightful caricatures. These men are not pillars of clubs, nor

brawlers in the sections, nor the inquisitors of a committee, nor

hired informers, nor providers for the scaffold. Apart from the sabbath

revolutionaire, brought back to earth by their danger, and having

understood the inequality of talents and the need for discipline, they

do the work of men; they suffer, they fast, they face bullets, they are

conscious of their generosity and their sacrifices; they are heroes, and

they look upon themselves as liberators.[34188] They are proud of this.

According to an astute observer[34189] who knew their survivors,

"many of them believed that the French alone were reasonable beings. ..

In our eyes the people in the rest of Europe, who were fighting to keep

their chains, were only pitiable imbeciles or knaves sold to the despots

who were attacking us. Pitt and Cobourg seemed to us the chiefs of these

knaves and the personification of all the treachery and stupidity in the

world... In 1794 our inmost, serious sentiment was wholly contained in

this idea: to be useful to our country; all other things, our clothes,

our food, advancement, were poor ephemeral details. As society did not

exist, there was no such thing for us as social success, that leading

element in the character of our nation. Our only gatherings were

national festivals, moving ceremonies which nourished in us the love of

our country. In the streets our eyes filled with tears when we saw an

inscription in honor of the young drummer, Barra... This sentiment was

the only religion we had."[34190]

But it was a religion. When the heart of a nation is so high it will

deliver itself, in spite of its rulers, whatever their excesses may be,

whatever their crimes; for the nation atones for their follies by its

courage; it hides their crimes beneath its great achievements.

*****

[Footnote 3401: "Archives Nationales," AF II, 45, May 6, 1793 (in

English).]

[Footnote 3402: Moore, II. 185 (October 20). "It is evident that all the

departments of France are in theory allowed to have an equal share in

the government; yet in fact the single department of Paris has the whole

power of the government." Through the pressure of the mob Paris makes

the law for the Convention and for all France.--Ibid., II. 534 (during

the king's trial). "All the departments of France, including that of

Paris, are in reality often obliged to submit to the clamorous tyranny

of a set of hired ruffians in the tribunes who usurp the name and

functions of the sovereign people, and, secretly direct by a few

demagogues, govern this unhappy nation." Cf. Ibid., II. (Nov. 13).]

[Footnote 3403: Schmidt, I. 96. Letter of Lauchou to the president of

the Convention, Oct. 11, 1792: "The section of 1792 on its own authority

decreed on the 5th of this month that all persons in a menial service

could be allowed to vote in our primary assemblies... It would be well

for the National Convention to convince the inhabitants of Paris that

they alone do not constitute the entire republic. However absurd this

idea may be, it is gaining ground every day."--Ibid., Letter of Damour,

vice-president of the Pantheon section, Oct. 29: "The citizen Paris...

has said that when the law is in conflict with general opinion no

attention must be paid to it... These disturbers of the public peace

who desire to monopolize all places, either in the municipality or

elsewhere, are themselves the cause of the greatest tumult."]

[Footnote 3404: Schmidt, I. 223 (report by Dutard, May 14).]

[Footnote 3405: Mortimer-Ternaux, VI. 117; VII. 59 (balloting of Dec.

2 and 4). In most of these and the following elections the number of

voters is but one-twentieth of those registered. Chaumette is elected

in his section by 53 votes; Hébert by 56; Gency, a master-cooper, by

34; Lechenard, a tailor, by 39; Douce, a building-hand, by 24.--Pache

is elected mayor Feb. 15, 1793, by 11,881 votes, out of 160,000

registered.]

[Footnote 3406: Buchez et Roux, XVII. 101. (Decree of Aug. 19,

1792).--Mortimer-Ternaux, IV. 223.--Beaulieu, "Essais," III. 454.

"The National Guard ceased to exist after the 10th of August."--Buzot,

454.--Schmidt, I. 533 (Dutard, May 29). "It is certain that the armed

forces of Paris is nonexistent."]

[Footnote 3407: Beaulieu, Ibid., IV. 6.--"Archives Nationales," F7, 3249

(Oise).--Letters of the Oise administrators, Aug. 24, Sept. 12 and 20,

1792. Letters of the administrators of the district of Clermont, Sept.

14, etc.]

[Footnote 3408: Cf. above, ch. IX.-"Archives Nationales," F7, 3249.

Letter of the administrators of the district of Senlis, Oct. 31, 1792.

Two of the administrators of the Senlis hospital were arrested by Paris

commissaries and conducted "before the pretended Committee of Public

Safety in Paris, with all that they possessed in money, jewels, and

assignats." The same commissaries carry off two of the hospital sisters

of charity, with all the silver plate in the establishment; the sisters

are released, but the plate is not returned.--Buchez et Roux, XXVI. 209

(Patriote Français). Session of April 30, 1793, the final report of the

commission appointed to examine the accounts of the old Committee of

Supervision: "Panis and Sergent are convicted of breaking seals."...

"67,580 francs found in Septenil's domicile have disappeared, as well as

many articles of value."]

[Footnote 3409: Schmidt, I, 270.]

[Footnote 3410: Mortimer-Ternaux, IV. 221 to 229, 242 to 260; VI. 43 to

52.]

[Footnote 3411: De Sybel, "Histoire de l'Europe pendant la Révolution

Française," II 76.--Madame Roland, II.152. "It was not only impossible

to make out the accounts, but to imagine where 130,000,000 had gone...

The day he was dismissed he made sixty appointments,... from his

son-in-law, who, a vicar, was made a director at 19,000 francs salary,

to his hair-dresser, a young scapegrace of nineteen, whom he makes a

commissary of war".. "It was proved that he paid in full regiments that

were actually reduced to a few men.--Meillan, 20. "The faction became

the master of Paris through hired brigands, aided by the millions placed

at its disposition by the municipality, under the pretext of ensuring

supplies."]

[Footnote 3412: See in the "Memoirs of Mme. Elliot," the particulars of

this vote.--Beaulieu, I.445. "I saw a placard signed by Marat posted on

the corners of the streets, stating that he had demanded 15,000 francs

of the Duke of Orleans as compensation for what he had done for him.

Gouverneur Morris, I. 260 (Letter of Dec. 21, 1792). The galleries

force the Convention to revoke its decree against the expulsion of the

Bourbons.--On the 22nd of December the sections present a petition in

the same sense, while there is a sort of riot in the suburbs in favor of

Philippe-Egalité.]

[Footnote 3413: Schmidt, I. 246 (Dutard, May 13). "The Convention cannot

count in all Paris thirty persons ready to side with them.]

[Footnote 3414: Buchez et Roux, XXV. 463. On the call of the houses,

April 13, 1793, ninety-two deputies vote for Marat.]

[Footnote 3415: Prudhomme, "Crimes de la Révolution," V. 133.

Conversation with Danton, December, 1792.--De Barante, III.123. The same

conversation, probably after another verbal tradition.--I am obliged to

substitute less coarse terms for those of the quotation.]

[Footnote 3416: He is the first speaker on the part of the "Mountain" in

the king's trial, and at once becomes president of the Jacobin Club. His

speech against Louis XVI. is significant. "Louis is another Catiline."

He should be executed, first as traitor taken in the act, and next as

king; that is to say, as a natural enemy and wild beast taken in a net.]

[Footnote 3417: Vatel, "Charlotte Corday and the Girondists," I.

preface, CXLI. (with all the documents, the letters of Madame de

Saint-Just, the examination on the 6th of October, 1786, etc.)

The articles stolen consisted of six pieces of plate, a fine ring,

gold-mounted pistols, packets of silver lace, etc.--The youth declares

that he is "about to enter the Comte d'Artois' regiment of guards until

he is old enough to enter the king's guards." He also had an idea of

entering the Oratoire.]

[Footnote 3418: Cf. his speech against the king, his report

on Danton, on the Girondists, etc. If the reader would comprehend

Saint-Just's character he has only to read his letter to d'Aubigny, July

20, 1792: "Since I came here I am consumed with a republican fury, which

is wasting me away... It is unfortunate that I cannot remain in Paris. I

feel something within me which tells me that I shall float on the waves

of this century... You dastards, you have not appreciated me! My renown

will yet blaze forth and cast yours in the shade. Wretches that you are,

you call me a thief, a villain, because I can give you no money. Tear

my heart out of my body and eat it, and you will become what you are not

now--great!"]

[Footnote 3419: Buchez et Roux, XXIV. 296, 363; XXV. 323; XXVII. 144,

145.--Moniteur, XIV 80 (terms employed by Danton, David, Legendre, and

Marat).]

[Footnote 3420: Moniteur, XV. 74.--Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 254, 257,

sessions of Jan. 6 and May 27.]

[Footnote 3421: Moniteur, XIV. 851. (Session of Dec.26, 1792. Speech by

Julien.)]

[Footnote 3422: Moniteur, XIV. 768 (session of Dec. 16). The president

says: "I have called Calon to order three times, and three times has he

resisted. "--Vergnieud declares that "The majority of the Assembly

is under the yoke of a seditious minority."--Ibid, XIV. 851, 853, 865

(session of Dec. 26 and 27).--Buchez et Roux, XXV. 396 (session of April

11.)]

[Footnote 3423: Louvet, 72]

[Footnote 3424: Meillan, 24: "We were for some time all armed with

sabres, pistols, and blunderbusses."--Moore, II. 235 (October, 1792).

A number of deputies already at this date carried sword canes and

pocket-pistols.]

[Footnote 3425: Dauban, "La Demagogie en 1793," p.101. Description

of the hall by Prudhomme, with illustrations.--Ibid., 199. Letter of

Brissot to his constituents: "The brigands and the bacchantes have found

their way into the new hall.--According to Prudhomme the galleries hold

1,400 persons in all, and according to Dulaure, 20,000 or 3,000.]

[Footnote 3426: Moore, I.44 (Oct. 10), and II. 534.]

[Footnote 3427: Moniteur. XIV. 795. Speech by Lanjuinais, Dec. 19,

1792.]

[Footnote 3428: Buchez et Roux, XX. 5, 396. Speech by Duperret, session

of April 11, 1793.]

[Footnote 3429: Dauban, 143. Letter of Valazé, April 14.--Cf. Moniteur,

XIV. 746, session of Dec. 14.--Ibid., 800, session of Dec. 20.--Ibid.,

853, session of Dec. 26.]

[Footnote 3430: Speech by Salles.--Lanjuinais also says: "One seems to

deliberate here in a free Convention; but it is only under the dagger

and cannon of the factions."--Moniteur. XV. 180, session of Jan. 16.

Speech by N--, deputy, its delivery insisted on by Charles Vilette.]

[Footnote 3431: Meillan, 24-32 "Archives Nationales," AF, II.45. Police

reports, May 16, 18, 19. "There is fear of a bloody scene the first

day."--Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 125. Report of Gamon inspector of the

Convention hall.]

[Footnote 3433: Moniteur, XIV. 362 (Nov. 1, 1792).--Ibid., 387, session

of Nov. 4. Speech by Royer and Gorsas.-Ibid., 382. Letter by Roland,

Nov. 5.]

[Footnote 3434: Moniteur, XIV. 699. Letter of Roland, Nov. 28.]

[Footnote 3435: Moniteur, XIV. 697, number for Dec. 11.]

[Footnote 3436: Moniteur, XV. 180, session of Jan. 16. Speech by

Lehardy, Hugues, and Thibaut.--Meillan, 14: "A line of separation

between the two sides of the Assembly was then traced. Several deputies

which the faction wished to put out of the way had voted for death (of

the king). Almost all of these were down on the list of those in favor

of the appeal to the people, which was the basis preferred. We were then

known as appellants."]

[Footnote 3437: Moniteur, XV. 8. Speech by Rabaut-Saint-Ètienne.--Buchez

et Roux, XXIII 24. Mortimer-Ternaux, V. 418.--Moniteur, XV.180, session

of Jan. 16.--Buchez et Roux, XXIV. 292.--Moniteur, XV. 182. Letter

of the mayor of Paris, Jan. 16.--Ibid., 179. Letter of Roland, Jan.

16.--Buchez et Roux, XXIV. 448. Report by Santerre.]

[Footnote 3438: Buchez et Roux, XXV. 23 to 26.--Mortimer-Ternaux, VI.

184 (Manifesto of the central committee, March 9, 2 o'clock in the

morning).-Ibid. 193. Narrative of Fournier at the bar of the Convention,

March 12.--Report of the mayor of Paris, March 10.--Report of the

Minister of Justice, March 13.--Meillan, 24.--Louvet, 72, 74.]

[Footnote 3439: Pétion, "Mémoires," 106 (Ed. Dauban): "How many times I

heard, 'You rascal, we'll have your head!' And I have no doubt that they

often planned my assassination."]

[Footnote 3440: Taillandier, "Documents biographiques," on Daunou

(Narrative by Daunou), p. 38.--Doulcet de Pontécoulant, "Mémoires," I.

139: "It was then that the 'Mountain' used all the means of intimidation

it knew so well how to bring into play, filling the galleries with its

satellites, who shouted out to each other the name of each deputy as

he stepped up to the president's table to give his vote, and yelling

savagely at every one who did not vote for immediate and unconditional

death.--Carnot, "Mémoires," I.293. Carnot voted for the death of the

king; yet afterward he avowed that "Louis XVI. would have been saved, if

the Convention had not held its deliberations under the dagger."]

[Footnote 3441: Durand-Maillane, 35, 38, 57.]

[Footnote 3442: An expression by Dussaulx, in his "Fragments pour servir

à l'histoire de la Convention."]

[Footnote 3443: Madame Roland, "Mémoires," ed. Barrière et Berville, II.

52.--(Note by Roland.)]

[Footnote 3444: Moniteur, XV, 187. Cambacérès votes: "Louis has incurred

the penalties established in the penal code against conspirators... The

execution to be postponed until hostilities cease. In case of invasion

of the French territory by the enemies of the republic, the decree to be

enforced."--On Barrère, see Macaulay's crushing article in "Biographical

Essays."]

[Footnote 3445: Sainte-Beuve, "Causeries du Lundi," V. 209. ("Sièyes,"

according to his unpublished manuscripts.)]

[Footnote 3446: Madame Roland, II.56. Note by Roland.]

[Footnote 3447: Mortimer-Ternaux, V. 476.]

[Footnote 3448: Mortimer-Ternaux, V. 513.]

[Footnote 3449: Comte de Ségur, "Mémoires." I. 13.]

[Footnote 3450: Harmand de la Meuse (member of the Convention),

"Anecdotes relative à la Révolution," 83, 85.]

[Footnote 3451: Meissner, 148, "Voyage à Paris" (last months of 1795).

Testimony of the regicide Audrein.]

[Footnote 3452: Louvet, 775.]

[Footnote 3453: Meillan, 16.]

[Footnote 3454: Remark by M. Guirot ("Mémoires"), II. 73.]

[Footnote 3455: Moniteur, XIV. 432, session of Nov. 10, 1792. Speech

by Cambon: "That is the reason why I shall always detest the 2nd of

September; for never will I approve of assassinations." In the same

speech he justifies the Girondists against any reproach of federalism.]

[Footnote 3456: "Le Maréchal Davoust," by Madame de Bocqueville. Letter

of Davoust, battalion officer, June 2, 1793: "We are animated with the

spirit of Lepelletier, which is all that need be said with respect

to our opinions and what we will do in the coming crisis, in which,

perhaps, a faction will try to plunge us anew into a civil war between

the departments and Paris. Perfidious eloquence... conservative

Tartufes."]

[Footnote 3457: Moniteur, XIV. 738. Report by Cambon, Dec. 15. "On the

way French generals are to act in countries occupied by the armies

of the republic." This important document is a true manifesto of the

Revolution.--Buchez et Roux, XXVII 140, session of May 20, and XXVI.

177, session of April 27, speech by Cambon: "The department of Hérault

says to this or that individual: 'You are rich; your opinions cause us

expenditure.. I mean to fix you to the Revolution in spite of yourself.

You shall lend your fortune to the republic, and when liberty is

established the republic will return your capital to you.--"I should

like, then, following the example of the department of Hérault, that the

Convention should organize a civic loan of one billion, to be supplied

by egoists and the indifferent.--Decree of May 20, "passed almost

unanimously. A forced loan of one billion shall be made on wealthy

citizens."]

[Footnote 3458: Meillan. 100.]

[Footnote 3459: Speech by Ducos, March 20. "We must choose between

domestic education and liberty. So long as the poor and the rich are

not brought close together through a common education, in vain will

your laws proclaim sacred equality!"--Rabaut-Saint-Étienne: "In every

township a national temple will be erected, in which every Sunday

its municipal officers will give moral instruction to the assembled

citizens. This instruction will be drawn from books approved of by

the legislative body, and followed by hymns also approved of by the

legislative. A catechism, as simple as it is short, drawn up by

the legislative body, shall be taught and every boy will know it

by heart."--On the sentiments of the Girondists in relation to

Christianity, see chapters V. and XI. of this volume.--On the means for

equalizing the fortunes, see articles by Rabaut-Saint-Étienne (Buchez et

Roux, XXIII. 467).--Ibid., XXIV. 475 (March 7-11) decree abolishing the

testamentary right.--Condorcet, in his "Tableau des progrés de

l'Esprit humain," assigns the leveling of conditions as the purpose of

society.--On propaganda abroad, read the report by Cambon (Dec. 15).

This report is nearly unanimously accepted, and Buzot exacerbates it by

adding an amendment]

[Footnote 3460: Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 287, session of May 28, vote on

the maintenance of the Commission of Twelve.]

[Footnote 3461: Moniteur. XV. 395, session of Feb. 8, 1793.]

[Footnote 3462: Decrees of March 13 and 14.]

[Footnote 3463: Moore, II. 44 (October 1792). Danton declares in the

tribune that "the Convention should be a committee of instruction for

kings throughout the universe." On which Moore remarks that this

is equivalent to declaring war against all Europe except

Switzerland.--Mallet du Pan, "Considerations sur la Revolution de

France," p.37: "In a letter which chance has brought to my notice,

Brissot wrote to one of his minister-generals towards the close of last

year: 'The four quarters of Europe must be set on fire; that is our

salvation.'"]

[Footnote 3464: Duvergier, "Collection des lois et décrets." Decree of

March 10-12. Title I. articles 4, 12, 13; title II. articles 2, 3. Add

to this the decree of March 29-31, establishing the penalty of

death against whoever composes or prints documents favoring the

re-establishment of royalty.]

[Footnote 3465: Ib., Decree of March 28--April 5 (article 6).--Cf. the

decrees of March 18-22, and April 23-24.]

[Footnote 3466: Decree of March 27-30.]

[Footnote 3467: Decree of April 5-7.]

[Footnote 3468: Decree of May 4. (A law fixing the highest price at

which grain shall be sold. TR.)]

[Footnote 3469: Decree of April 11-16 (bearing on the reduction in value

of the legal currency.--TR).]

[Footnote 3470: Decree of May 20-25.]

[Footnote 3471: Decree of April 5-7. Words used by Danton in the course

of the debate.]

[Footnote 3472: Decree of April 5-11.]

[Footnote 3473: Decrees of May 13, 16, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, and 29, June

1.]

[Footnote 3474: Decrees of March 21-23 and March 26-30.]

[Footnote 3475: Decrees of March 29-31.]

[Footnote 3476: Decree of April 1-5.]

[Footnote 3477: Schmidt, I. 232. Report by Dutard, May 10.]

[Footnote 3478: "Archives Nationales," F7, 2401 to 2505. Records of

the section debates in Paris.--Many of these begin March 28, 1793, and

contain the deliberations of revolutionary committees; for example, F7,

2475, the section of the Pikes or of the Place Vendôme. We see by

the official reports dated March 28 and the following days that the

suspected were deprived all weapons, even the smallest, every species of

swordcane, including dress-swords with steel or silver handles.]

[Footnote 3479: Buchez et Roux, XXV. 157.--"Archives Nationales," F7,

2494, section of the Réunion, official report, March 28.]

[Footnote 3480: Schmidt, I. 223 (Dutard, May 14).--Ibid., 224. "If the

Convention allows committees of supervision to exercise its authority,

I will not give it eight days."--Meillan, 111: "Almost all the section

agitators were strangers"--"Archives Nationales," F7, 3294 and 3297,

records of debate in the committees of supervision belonging to the

sections of the Réunion and Droits de l'Homme. Quality of mind and

education are both indicated by orthography. For instance: "Le dit jour

et an que déçus."--"Orloger."--"Lecture d'une lettre du comité de surté

général de la convention qui invite le comité à se transporter de

suites chez le citoyen Louis Féline rue Baubourg, à leffets de faire

perquisition chez lui et dans tout ces papiers, et que ceux qui

paraîtrons suspect lon y metes les selés."]

[Footnote 3481: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3294. Section of the Réunion,

official report. March 28.]

[Footnote 3482: Buchez et Roux, XXV. 168. An ordinance of the commune,

March 27.]

[Footnote 3483: Schmidt, I.223. Report by Dutard, May 14.]

[Footnote 3484: Buchez et Roux, XXV. 167. Ordinance of May 27. XXXVII.

151. Ordinance of May 20.]

[Footnote 3485: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3294. See in particular, the

official reports of the month of April.--Buchez et Roux, XXV. 149, and

XXVI. 342. (ordinances of the Commune, March 27 and May 2).]

[Footnote 3486: Buchez et Roux, XXVI. 402 (article from the Patriote

Français, May 8). "Arrests are multiplied lately to a frightful extent.

The mayoralty overflows with prisoners. Nobody has any idea of the

insolence and harshness with which citizens are treated. Slaughter and

a Saint-Bartholomew are all that are talked of. "--Meillan, 55. "Let

anybody in any assemblage or club express any opinion not in unison

with municipal views, and he is sure to be arrested the following night.

"--Gouverneur Morris, March 29, 1793. "Yesterday I was arrested in the

street and conducted to the section of Butte-des-Moulins... Armed men

came to my house yesterday. "--Reply of the minister Lebrun, April 3.

"Domiciliary visits were a general measure from which no house in Paris

was exempt."]

[Footnote 3487: Buchez et Roux, XXVI. 384. Speech by Buzot, session of

May 8.]

[Footnote 3488: Buchez et Roux, XXVI. 332. Ordinance of the commune, May

1.]

[Footnote 3489: Schmidt, I. 216. Report by Dutard, May 13.]

[Footnote 3490: Schmidt, I.301. "In our sections the best class of

citizens are still afraid of imprisonment or of being disarmed. Nobody

talks freely."--The Lyons revolutionaries make the same calculation

("Archives Nationales," AF, II. 43). Letter addressed to the

representatives of the people by the administrators of the department of

the Rhône, June 4, 1793. The revolutionary committee "designated for La

Vendée those citizens who were most comfortably off or those it hated,

whilst conditional enlistment with the privilege of remaining in the

department were granted only to those in favor of disorganization."--Cf.

Guillon de Montléon, I. 235.]

[Footnote 3491: Buchez et Roux, XXVI. 399. Ordinance of the commune, May

3, on a forced loan of twelve millions, article 6. "The revolutionary

committees will regard the apportionment 'lists simply as guides,

without regarding them as a basis of action."--Article 14. "The personal

and real property of those who have not conformed to the patriotic draft

will be seized and sold at the suit of the revolutionary committees, and

their persons declared suspected."]

[Footnote 3492: Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 17 (Patriote Français, number for

May 14). Francoeur is taxed at 3,600 francs.--The same process at Lyons

(Balleydier, 174, and Guillon de Montléon, I. 238). The authorized tax

by the commissaries of the convention amounted to six millions. The

revolutionary committee levied thirty and forty millions, payable

in twenty-four hours on warrants without delay (May 13 and 14). Many

persons are taxed from 80,000 to 100,000 francs, the text of the

requisitions conveying ironically a hostile spirit.]

[Footnote 3493: Buchez et Roux, XXVI. 463, session of the Jacobin Club,

May 11.]

[Footnote 3494: Meillan, 17.]

[Footnote 3495: Buchez et Roux, XXVI. 463, session of the Jacobin club,

May 11. Speech by Hassenfratz.--Ibid., 455, session of the Jacobin club,

May 10, speech by Robespierre. "The rich are all anti-revolutionaries;

only beggars and the people can save the country."--Ibid. N--:

"Revolutionary battalions should be maintained in the department at the

expense of the rich, who are cowards."--Ibid., XXVII. 317. Petition of

the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, May 11.--Schmidt, I. 315 (Report by Dutard,

May 13). "There is no recruiting in the faubourgs, because people there

know that they are more wanted here than in La Vendée. They let the rich

go and fight. They watch things here, and trust nobody but themselves to

guard Paris."]

[Footnote 3496: "Archives Nationales," F7, 2494. Section of the Réunion,

official reports of May 15 and 16.--Buchez et Roux, XXV. 167, ordance of

the commune, March 27.]

[Footnote 3497: Schmidt, I.327. Report of Perriére, May 28. "Our group

itself seemed to governed by nothing but hatred of the rich by the poor.

One must be a dull observer not to see by a thousand symptoms that these

two natural enemies stand in battle array, only awaiting the signal or

the opportunity."]

[Footnote 3498: Buchez et Roux, XXV. 460. The papers examined by the

accusers are the numbers of Marat's journal of the 5th of January and

of the 25th of February. The article which provoked the decree is his

"Address to the National Convention," pp. 446 and 450.]

[Footnote 3499: Buchez et Roux, XXVI. 149; Narrative by Marat,114.

Bulletin of the revolutionary tribunal, session of the Convention.]

[Footnote 34100: Buchez et Roux, XXVI. 358, article in the Chronique de

Paris; 358, article by Marat.--Schmidt, I. 184. Report by Dutard, May

5.--Paris, "Histoire de Joseph Lebon," I. 81. Letter by Robespierre, Jr.,

May 7.]

[Footnote 34101: Buchez et Roux, XXV. 240 and 246. Protest of the Mail

section, of the electoral body of the Arsenal, Marais, Gravelliers,

and Arcis sections. (The Convention, session of April 2; the commune,

session of April 2.)--XXVI. 358 Protests of the sections of Bon-Conseil

and the Unité, (May 5).--XXVII. 71. Defeat of the anarchists in the

section of Butté-des-Moulins. "A great many sections openly show a

determination to put anarchy down." (Patriote Français, May 15).--Ibid.,

137. Protests of the Panthéon Français, Piques, Mail, and several

other sections (Patriote Français, May 19).--Ibid., 175. Protest of the

Fraternité section (session of the Convention, May 23).]

[Footnote 34102: Schmidt, I. 189. Dutard, May 6.]

[Footnote 34103: Mortimer-Ternaux, VII. 218. Official report of the

reunion of the two sections of the Lombards and Bon-Conseil (April

12), "by which the two said sections promise and swear union, aid,

fraternity, and mutual help, in case the aristocracy are disposed to

destroy liberty."--"Consequently," says the Bon-Conseil section,

"many of the citizens of the Lombards section, justly alarmed at the

disturbances occasioned by the evil-disposed, came and proffered their

assistance."--Adhesion of the section of Les Amis de la Patrie.--Buchez

et Roux, XXVII. 138. (Article of the Patriote Français, May 19): "This

brigandage is called assembly of combined sections."--Ibid., 236, May

26, session of the commune. "Deputations of the Montreuil, Quinze-Vingts

and Droits de l'Homme sections came to the assistance of the Arsenal

patriots; the aristocrats took to flight, leaving their hats behind

them."--Schmidt, I. 213, 313 (Dutard, May 13 and 27). Violent treatment

of the moderates in the Bon-Conseil and Arsenal sections; "struck with

chairs, several persons wounded, one captain carried off on a bench;

the gutter-jumpers and dumpy shopkeepers cleared out, leaving the

sans-culottes masters of the field."--Meillan, 111.--Buchez et Roux,

XXVII. 237, session of the Jacobin club, May 26. "In the section of

Butte-des-Moulins the patriots, finding they were not in force, seized

the chairs and drove the aristocrats out."]

[Footnote 34104: Buchez et Roux, 78, XXVII. On the juge-de-paix Roux,

carried off at night and imprisoned. April 16.--Mortimer-Ternaux, III.

220, on the vice-president Sagnier, May 10.--Buchez et Roux, XXVII.

231, May 26, on the five citizens of the Unité section arrested by

the revolutionary committee of the section "for having spoken against

Robespierre and Marat."]

[Footnote 34105: Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 154. Speech of Léonard Bourdon

to the Jacobins, May 20.]

[Footnote 34106: Buchez et Roux, XXVI. 3. Address drawn up by the

commissaries of the 48 sections approved of by 35 sections, also by the

commune, and presented to the Convention April 15.--Others have preceded

it, like pilot ballons.--Ibid., XXV. 319. Petition of the Bon-Conseil,

April 8.--XXV. 320. Petition of the section of the Halleau-Blé, April

10.]

[Footnote 34107: Buchez et Roux, XXVI. 83. Speech by Vergniaud to the

convention, session of April 20. "These facts are accepted. Nobody can

contradict them. More than 10,000 witnesses would confirm them."--There

are the same proceedings at Lyons Jan.13, 1792, against the petition far

an appeal to the people (Guillon de Montléon, I.145, 155). The official

report of the Jacobins claims that the petition obtained 40,215

signatures. "The petition was first signed by about 200 clubbists, who

pretended to be the people... They spread the report among the people

that all who would not sign the address would be blacklisted or

proscribed. That's why they had desks set up in all the public squares,

and seized by the arm all who came, and forced them to sign. As this

approach did not prove fruitful they made children ten years of age,

women, and ignorant rustics put down their name." They were told that

the object was to put down the price of bread. "I swear to you that this

address is the work a hundred persons at most; the great majority of the

citizens of Lyons desire to avail themselves of their own sovereignty

in the judgment of Louis." (Letter of David of Lyons to the president of

the convention, Jan. 16.)]

[Footnote 34108: "Fragment," by Lanjuinais (in the memoirs of

Durand-Maillane, p. 297).]

[Footnote 34109: Meillan, 113.]

[Footnote 34110: Buchez et Roux, XXVI. 3!9 (May 12).--Meillan, 113.]

[Footnote 34111: Buchez et Roux, XVI. 327. On being informed of this the

crowd sent new deputies, the latter stating in relation to the others:

"We do not recognise them."]

[Footnote 34112: Buchez et Roux, XXVI. 143.]

[Footnote 34113: Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 175, May 23.]

[Footnote 34114: Schmidt, I. 212. Report of Dutard, May 13.--I. 218. "A

plot is really under way, and many heads are singled out." (Terrasson,

May 13.)]

[Footnote 34115: Buchez et Roux, XXVII 9. Speech of Guadet to the

Convention, May 14.]

[Footnote 34116: Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 2. Patriote Français, May 13.]

[Footnote 34117: Schmidt, I 242. Report of Dutard, May 18.--Also 245.]

[Footnote 34118: Schmidt, I 254. Report of Dutard, May 19.]

[Footnote 34119: Bergoeing, Chatry, Dubosq, "Pièces recueillies par

la Commission des Douze et publiées à Caen." June 28, 1793 (in the

"Mémoires" of Meillan, pp. 176-198). Attempts at murder had already

occurred. "Lanjuinais came near being killed. Many of the deputies were

insulted and threatened. The armed force joins with the malefactors; we

have accordingly no means of repression." (Mortimer-Ternaux, VII.562,

letter of the deputy Michel to his constituents, May 20.)]

[Footnote 34120: Bergoeing, "Pièces, etc."--Meillan, pp. 39 and 40.--The

depositions are all made by eye witnesses. The propositions for the

massacre were made in the meetings at the town-hall, May 19, 20 and 21,

and at the Cordeliers club May 22 and 23.]

[Footnote 34121: The Jacobins at Lyons plot the same thing (Guilion de

Montléon, 248). Chalier says to the club: "We shall not fail to have 300

noted heads. Get hold of the members of the department, the presidents

and secretaries of the sections, and let us make a bundle of them for

the guillotine; we will wash our hands in their blood." Thereupon, on

the night of May 28 the revolutionary municipality seize the arsenal and

plant cannon on the Hôtel-de-ville. The Lyons sections, however, more

energetic than those of Paris, take, up arms and after a terrible fight

they get possession of the Hôtel-de-ville. The moral difference

between the two parties is very marked in Gonchon's letters. ("Archives

Nationales," AF, II. 43. letters of Gonchon to Garat, May 31, June 1 and

3.) "Keep up the courage of the Convention. It need not be afraid. The

citizens of Lyons have covered themselves with glory. They displayed the

greatest courage in every fight that took place in various quarters of

the town, and the greatest magnanimity to their enemies, who behaved

most villainously." The municipal body had sent a flag of truce,

pretending to negotiate, and then treacherously opened fire with its

cannon on the columns of the sections, and cast the wounded into the

river. The citizens of Lyons, so often slandered, will be the first

to have set an example of true republican character. Find me a similar

instance, if you can, in the history of revolutions: being victorious

and yet not then to have shed a drop of blood!" They cared for the

wounded, and raised a subscription for the widows and orphans of the

dead, without distinction of party. Cf. Lauvergue, "Histoire du Var,"

175. The same occurs at Toulon (insurrection of the moderates, July 12

and 13, 1793).--At Toulon, as at Lyons, there was no murder after the

victory; only regular trials and the execution of two or three assassins

whose crimes were legally proved.]

[Footnote 34122: Schmidt, I. 335. Report of Perrière, May 29.]

[Footnote 34123: Bergoeing, "Pièces, etc.", p. 195.--Buchez et Roux,

XXVII 296.]

[Footnote 34124: The insurrection at Lyons took place on May 29. On the

2nd of June it is announced in the Convention that the insurgent army

of Lozère, more than 30,000 strong, has taken Marvejols, and is about

to take Mende (Buchez et Roux XXVII. 387).--A threatening address from

Bordeaux (May 14) and from thirty-two sections in Marseilles (May 25)

against the Jacobins (Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 3. 214).--Cf. Robinet in

"Le procès des Dantonistes, 303, 305.]

[Footnote 34125: Mortimer-Ternaux, VII 38.]

[Footnote 34126: Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 297, session of the Jacobins,

May 29.]

[Footnote 34127: Barrère, "Mémoires," II. 91, 94. As untruthful as

Barrère is, here his testimony may be accepted. I see no reason why he

should state what is not true; he was well informed, as he belonged

to the Committee of Public Safety. His statements, besides, on the

complicity d the Mountain and on the rôle of Danton are confirmed by the

whole mass of facts.--Buchez et Roux, XXVIII. 200 (speech by Danton in

the Convention, June 13). "Without the canon of the 31st of May, without

the insurrection the conspirators would have triumphed; they would have

given us the law. Let the crime of that insurrection be on our heads!

That insurrection--I myself demanded it!... I demand a declaration by

the Convention, that without the insurrection of May 31, liberty would

be no more!"--Ibid., 220. Speech by Leclerc at the Cordeliers club, June

27: "Was it not Legendre who rendered abortive our wise measures, so

often taken, to exterminate our enemies? He and Danton it was, who,

through their culpable resistance, reduced us to the moderation of

the 31st of May, Legendre and Danton are the men who opposed the

revolutionary steps which we had taken on those great days to crush out

all the aristocrats in Paris!"]

[Footnote 34128: Schmidt, I. 244. Report by Dutard, May 18.]

[Footnote 34129: Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 253 and following pages, session

of May 27.--Mortimer-Ternaux, VII. 294.--Buchez et Roux, XXVIII. 9

("Précis rapide" by Gorsas).]

[Footnote 34130: Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 258. Meillan, 43.]

[Footnote 34131: Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 259 (words of Raffet).]

[Footnote 34132: Meillan, 44.--Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 267, 280.]

[Footnote 34133: Meillan, 44. Placed opposite the president, within

ten paces of him, with my eyes constantly fixed on him, because in the

horrible din which disgraced the Assembly we could have no other compass

to steer by, I can testify that I neither saw nor heard the decree put

to vote."--Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 278. Speech by Osselin, session of

May 28: "I presented the decree as drawn up to the secretaries for their

signatures this morning. One of them, after reading it, observed to

me that the last article had not been decreed, but that the preceding

articles had been."--Mortimer-Ternaux, VII. 562. Letter of the deputy

Michel. May 29. "The guards were forced, and the sanctuary of the law

invested from about four to ten hours, so that nobody could leave the

hall even for the most urgent purposes.]

[Footnote 34134: Mortimer-Ternaux, VII. 308. Extract from the official

reports of the patriotic club of Butte-des-Moulins, May 30. "Considering

that the majority of the section, known for incivism and its

antirevolutionary spirit, would decline this election or would elect

commissaries not enjoying the confidence of patriots,".. the patriotic

club takes upon itself the duty of electing the two commissaries

demanded.]

[Footnote 34135: Durand-Maillan, 297. "Fragment," by Lanjuinais. "Seven

strangers, seven outside agents, Desfieux, Proly, Pereyra, Dubuisson,

Gusman, the two brothers Frey, etc., were set up by the commune as an

insurrectionary committee." Most of them are vile fellows, as is the

case with Varlet, Dobsen, Hassenfratz, Rousselin, Desfieux, Gusman,

etc.]

[Footnote 34136: Buchez et Roux, XXVIII. 156. "We, members of the

revolutionary commission, citizens Clémence, of the Bon-Conseil section;

Dunouy, of the Sans-culottes section; Bonin, of the section of Les

Marchés, Auvray of the section of Mont-Blanc; Séguy, of the section

of Butte-des-Moulins; Moissard, of Grenelle; Berot, canton d'Issy;

Rousselin, section of the Unité; Marchand, section of Mont-Blanc;

Grespin, section of Gravilliers." They resign on the 6th of June.--The

commission, at first composed of nine members, ends in comprising eleven

(Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 316, official reports of the commune. May 31.)

then 25 (Speech by Pache to the Committee of Public Safety, June 1.)]

[Footnote 34137: Buchez et Roux XXVII. 306. Official reports of the

commune, May 31.--Ibid., 316. Mortimer-Ternaux, VII. 319.]

[Footnote 34138: Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 274 Speech by Hassenfratz to the

Jacobin Club, May 27.]

[Footnote 34139: Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 346 (speech by Lhuillier in the

Convention, May 31).]

[Footnote 34140: Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 302, session of the Convention,

May 30. Words uttered by Hassenfratz, Varlet, and Chabot, and denounced

by Lanjuinais.]

[Footnote 34141: Madame Roland, "Appel à l'impartiale postérité."

Conversation of Madam Roland on the evening of May 31 on the Place du

Carrusel with an artillerist.]

[Footnote 34142: Buchez et Roux, 307-323. Official reports of the

commune, May 31.]

[Footnote 34143: "Archives Nationales," F7, 2494, register of the

revolutionary committee of the Réunion section, official report of May

31, 6 o'clock in the morning.]

[Footnote 34144: Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 335, session of the Convention,

May 31. Petition presented by the commissaries in the name of

forty-eight sections; their credentials show that they are not at first

authorized by more than twenty-six sections.]

[Footnote 34145: Buchez et Roux, 347, 348. Mortimer-Ternaux, VII.

350 (third dispatch of the Hôtel-de-ville delegates, present at the

session): "The National Assembly was not able to accept the above

important measures... until the perturbators of the Assembly, known

under the title of the 'Right,' did themselves the justice to perceive

that they were not worthy of taking part in them; they evacuated the

Assembly, after the great gesticulations and imprecations, to which you

know they are liable."]

[Footnote 34146: Dauban, "La Demagogie en 1793." Diary of Beaulieu,

May 31.--Declaration of Henriot, Germinal 4, year III.--Buchez et Roux,

XXVIII. 351]

[Footnote 34147: Mortimer-Ternaux, VII. 565. Letter of the deputy

Loiseau, June 5.]

[Footnote 34148: Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 352 to 360, 368 to 377. Official

reports of the commune, June 1 and 2. Proclamation of the revolutionary

committee, June 1. "Your delegates have ordered the arrest of all

suspected persons concealing themselves in the sections of Paris. This

arrest is in progress in all quarters."]

[Footnote 34149: "Archives Nationales," F7, 2494. Section of the

Réunion, official report, June 1.--Ibid., June 2. Citizen Robin is

arrested on the 2nd of June, "for having manifested opinions contrary to

the sovereignty of the people in the National Assembly." The same day a

proclamation is made on the territory of the section by a deputation

of the commune, accompanied by one member and two drummers, "tending

(tendantes) to make known to the people that the country will be

saved by awaiting (en atendans) with courage the decree which is to be

rendered to prevent traitors (les traitre) from longer sitting in the

senate house."--Ibid., June 4. The committee decides that it will add

new members to its number, but they will be taken only from all "good

sans-cullote; no notary, no notary's clerk, no lawyers nor their clerks,

no banker nor rich landlord" being admissible, unless he gives evidence

of unmistakable civism since 1789.--Cf. F7, 2497 (section of the Droits

de l'Homme), F7, 2484 (section of the Halle-au-blé), the resemblance in

orthography and in their acts; the registry of the Piques section (F7,

2475) is one of the most interesting; here may be found the details of

the appearance of the ministers before it; the committee that examines

them does not even spell their names correctly, "Clavier" being often

written for Clavière, and "Goyer" for Gohier.]

[Footnote 34150: Buchez et Roux, XXVIII. 19.]

[Footnote 34151: Buchez et Roux, XXVII.357. Official reports of the

commune, June 1.]

[Footnote 34152: Meillan, 307.--"Fragment," by Lanuinais.--"Diurnal," of

Beaulieu, June 2.--Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 399 (speech by Barère).]

[Footnote 34153: Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 357. Official reports of the

commune, June 1.]

[Footnote 34154: Meillan, 53, 58, 307. Buchez et Roux, XXVIII. 14

(Précis, by Gordas).]

[Footnote 34155: Buchez et Roux, XXVII 359. Official reports of the

commune, June 1. "One member of the Council stated that on going to the

Beaurepaire section he was not well received; that the president of

this section spoke uncivilly to him and took him for an imaginary

municipalist; that he was threatened with the lock-up, and that his

liberty was solely due to the brave citizens of the Sans-culottes

section and the gunners of the Beaurepaire section who went with

him."--Preparations for the investment began on the 1st of June.

("Archives Nationales," F7, 2497, official reports of the Droits de

l'Homme section, June 1.) Orders of Henriot to the commandant of the

section to send "400 homme et la compagnie de canonier avec le 2 pièces

de canon au Carouzel le long des Thuilerie plasse de la Révolution."]

[Footnote 34156: "Lanjuinais states 100,000 men, Meillan 50,000; the

deputies of the Somme say 60,000, but without any evidence. Judging by

various indications I should put the number much lower, on account of

the disarmament and absentees: say 30,000 men, the same as May 31.]

[Footnote 34157: Mortimer-Ternaux, VII. 566. Letter of the deputy

Loiseau: "I passed through the whole of one battalion; the men all

said that they did not know why the movement was made, that only their

officers knew." (June 1.)]

[Footnote 34158: Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 400. Session of the Convention,

June 2.----XXVIII. 43 (report by Saladin).]

[Footnote 34159: Mortimer-Ternaux, VII. 392. Official report of the

Jacobin Club, June 2 "The deputies were so surrounded as not to be able

to go out even for special purposes."--Ibid., 568 Letter of the deputy

Loiseau.]

[Footnote 34160: Buchez et Roux, XXVIII. 44. Report by

Saladin.--Meillan, 237.--Mortimer-Ternaux VII. 547. Declaration of the

deputies of the Somme.]

[Footnote 34161: Meillan, 52.--Pétion, "Mémoires," 109 (Edition

Dauban).--Lanjuinais ("Fragment")--"Nearly all those called Girondists

thought it best to stay away."--Letter of Vergniaud June 3 (in the

Republican Français, June 5, 1793). "I left the Assembly yesterday

between 1 and 2 o'clock."]

[Footnote 34162: Lanjuinais, "Fragment," 299.]

[Footnote 34163: Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 400.]

[Footnote 34164: Robinet, "Le Procès de Danton," 169. Words of Danton

(according to the notes of a juryman, Topino-Lebrun).]

[Footnote 34165: Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 44. Report by Saladin.--Meillan,

59.--Lanjuinais, 308, 310.]

[Footnote 34166: Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 401]

[Footnote 34167: Mortimer-Ternaux, VII. 569. Letter of the deputy

Loiseau.--Meillan, 62.]

[Footnote 34168: Buchez et Roux, XXVI. 341. Speech by Chasles in the

Convention, May 2: "The farmers... are nearly all aristocrats."]

[Footnote 34169: Or workhouses, see Taine: "Notes on England" page

214: "It is an English principle that the indigent, by giving up their

freedom, have a right to be supported. Society pays the cost, but shuts

them up and sets them to work. As this condition is repugnant to them,

they avoid the workhouse as much as possible." Similar institutions

existed in France before the revolution. (SR).]

[Footnote 34170: Sieyès (quoted by Barante, "Histoire de la Convention,"

III. 169) thus describes it: "The fake people, the deadliest enemy which

the French people ever had, blocked incessantly the approaches to the

Convention... At the entrance or exit of the Convention the astonished

spectator thought that a new invasion of barbarian hordes had suddenly

occurred, a new irruption of voracious, sanguinary harpies, flocking

there to seize hold of the revolution as if it were the natural prey of

their species."]

[Footnote 34171: Gouverneur Morris, II. 241. Letter of Oct. 23, 1792.

"The populace--something, thank God, that is unknown in America"--He

often insists on this essential characteristic of the French

Revolution.--On this ever-present class, see the accurate and complete

work well supported by facts, of Dr. Lombrose, "L'Uomo delinquente."]

[Footnote 34172: Mortimer-Ternaux, VII. Letter of the deputy Laplaigne,

July 6.]

[Footnote 34173: Meillan, 51.--Buchez et Roux, XXVII. 356. Official

report of the commune, session of June 1. In the afternoon Marat comes

to the commune, harrangues the council, and gives the insurrection the

last impetus. It is plain that he was chief actor on both these days

(June 1 and 2).]

[Footnote 34174: Pétion, 116.]

[Footnote 34175: Schmidt, I. 370.--Mortimer-Ternaux, VII. 391. Letter

of Marchand, member of the Central Committee. "I saw Chaumette do

everything he could to hinder this glorious revolution,... exclaim, shed

tears, and tear his hair."--Buchez et Roux, XXVIII. 46. According to

Saladin, Chaumette went so far as to demand Hébert's arrest.]

[Footnote 34176: Mortimer-Ternaux, VII. 300.--Cf. "Le vieux Cordelier,"

by C. Desmoulins, No. 5.]

[Footnote 34177: Mallet du Pan, II. 52. (March 8, 1794).--The titular

general of the revolutionary army was Ronsin. "Previous to the

Revolution he was a seedy author earning his living and reputation by

working for the boulevard stalls... One day a person informed him that

his staff 'was behaving very badly, acting tyrannically in the most

outrageous manner at the theaters and everywhere else, striking women

and tearing their bonnets to pieces. Your men commit rape, pillage, and

massacre.' To which he replied; 'Well, what shall I do? I know that they

are a lot of ruffians as well as you do; but those are the follows I

need for my revolutionary army. Find me honest people, if you can,

that will do that business.'" (Prudhomme, "Crimes de la Révolution," V.

130.)]

[Footnote 34178: Buchez et Roux, XXIX. 152.]

[Footnote 34179: Beaulieu, "Essais sur la Révolution," V. 200.]

[Footnote 34180: Schmidt, II. 85. Report of Dutard, June 24 (on the

review of the previous evening) "A sort of low-class artisan who seemed

to me to have been a soldier... Apparently he had associated only with

disorderly men; I am sure that he would be found fond of gaming, wine,

women, and everything that denotes a bad character."]

[Footnote 34181: Charlotte de Corday d'Armont, 1768 to 1793. Young

French girl who knifed Marat in his bath. Adherent of the Revolution,

she considered Marat as being responsible for the elimination of the

Girondists and the establishment of the terror. She was guillotined.

(SR.)]

[Footnote 34182: Lauvergne, "Histoire de la Révolution dans le

département du Var," 176. At Toulon "the spirit of counter-revolution

was nothing else than the sentiment of self-preservation." It was the

same thing at Lyons. (Nolhac, "Souvenir de trois année de la Révolution

à Lyon," p. 14.)]

[Footnote 34183: Gouverneur Morris, II. 395. Letter of Jan. 21, 1794.

"Admitting what has been asserted by persons in a situation to know the

truth and deeply interested to prove the contrary, it is an undoubted

truth that ninety-nine-hundredths are opposed to all ideas of a

dismemberment, and will fight to prevent it.]

[Footnote 34184: Mallet du Pan, II. 44.]

[Footnote 34185: Carnot, Lazare, Nicolas, 1753-1823, military engineer

and mathematician, member of the committee of public safety, organized

the armies of the republic and their offensive tactics. (SR).]

[Footnote 34186: Among other documents, the following letter will show

the quality of these recruits, especially of the recruits of 1791, who

were much the best men. (Letter from the municipal officers of Dorat,

December 28, 1792, "Archives Nationales," F7, 3275.) "The commune

of Dorat is made up of three classes of citizens: The richest class,

composed of persons confirmed in the prejudices of the ancient régime,

has been disarmed. The second, composed of well-to-do people, fills

the administrative positions. It is against them that the fury of the

turbulent is aimed; but those of this class who could make resistance

have gone to fight the enemy abroad. The third class, and the most

numerous, is made up in part of the seditious and in part of laborers,

who, not daring to mix in the revolt, content themselves with

coveting the tax on grain."--Toulongeon, "Histoire de France depuis la

Révolution," IV. 94. "Do not degrade a nation by ascribing base motives

to it and a servile fear. Every one, on the contrary, felt himself

infused by an exalted instinct for the public welfare."--Gouvion

Saint-Cyr, "Mémoires," I. 56: A young man would have blushed to remain

at home when the independence of the nation was threatened. Each one

quitted his studies or his profession.]

[Footnote 34187: Gouvion-Saint-Cyr, 26. "The manifesto of Brunswick

assigns to France more than a hundred battalions, which, within three

weeks, were raised, armed, and put in the field."]

[Footnote 34188: In respect of these sentiments, cf. Gouvion Saint-Cyr,

"Mémoires," and Fervel, "Campagnes de la Révolution Française dans les

Pyrénées orientales."]

[Footnote 34189: Stendhal, Memoires sur Napoléon.]

[Footnote 34190: Gouvion-Saint-Cyr, "Memoires," p.43. "Patriotism

made up for everything; it alone gave us victory; it supplied our most

pressing needs."]