HUMANE INSTITUTIONS--_continued_
SOUP ESTABLISHMENTS
During the last winter (1801–1802) the distress of the lower orders
rose to such a height that it became necessary to open subscriptions
for the distribution of soup to the poor. A committee was formed for
the purpose, and this committee distributed 164,000 rations of soups,
besides what was sold from different furnaces, established by voluntary
contributions.
The committee commenced their useful labours with the names of only
_one hundred subscribers_. The price of each subscription is
eighteen francs or fifteen shillings and ninepence sterling, and any
person is at liberty to take as many subscriptions as he thinks proper.
In consideration of every subscription the subscriber receives 240
bonuses of soup from any establishment he may prefer, or he may leave
the disposal of them to the committee.
[Sidenote: HUMANITY OF BONAPARTE]
Madame Bonaparte, the wife of the First Consul, who is a most
benevolent, charitable and kind-hearted woman, gave 600 francs towards
the establishment of a furnace in her division.
The committee solicited the generosity of the public functionaries,
“Not because they are wealthy, but because as the greater part of them
were known for their philanthropy, their example would encourage others
to subscribe.” The result of this appeal to these rich philanthropists
who fatten upon the blood of the people was somewhat ludicrous,
considering the small subscriptions it drew forth. The Senate granted
a subsidy of 1500 livres, or £60 sterling; the Council of State took
forty-six subscriptions, about £35; the Bank of France, 60, about £40;
the Mont de Piété, 20, about £14; and the officers of the Consular
Guard, 84, making a total of about £252!
The First Consul generously put down his name for a 1000 subscription,
which would have amounted to £787 sterling. But there was no security
for his payment except his inclination; his servile vassals, however,
boasted of his magnificence, and the Commissioners who drew up the
report on the distribution of the soup broke forth into the following
apostrophe:--“Our eyes are turned with complacency on the 1000
subscription of the First Consul. The Conqueror of Marengo has made
_humanity_ the companion of _glory_. His triumphant hand has
repaired the edifice of social happiness; this hero, who seemed to
have attained the summit of _perfection_ and _grandeur_, has
proved that a good action may make him _still mount_, and lift him
above sublimity itself!”
Unluckily for the trumpeters of this “astonishing man” this hero who
has made humanity the companion of glory has not to this hour paid
one sou of the thousand subscription to which he signed his name and
entered into a solemn engagement.
In the report made by Cadet de Vaux to the Minister of the Interior it
is stated--“Of all the branches of polite economy the least advanced
among us is public beneficence. Formerly there was an organised system
of charity, but now unhappily this branch of our administration is
defective. When there were clergy resident in every parish, their
profession gave them the privilege of asking charity from the rich and
of penetrating into the secret wants of the poor, and they therefore
possessed much greater opportunities of doing good than does the
present Board of Public Assistance, notwithstanding its activity and
zeal. Among the religious orders some corporations were distinguished
for their zeal in affording relief to the poor, particularly the
Sisters of Charity, who devoted their whole lives to the most fatiguing
details of charitable benevolence!”
These respectable Associations no longer exist, but it is under
consideration to permit the re-assembling of the dispersed communities.
In France at this time there are neither parochial rates nor workhouses
such as we have in England. For idle, disorderly or viciously disposed
persons no midway exists between the high road and the prison, and
no kind of provision exists which affords employment to persons who,
from sickness, misfortune, or lack of employment, have been thrown
out of work. Hence the poverty of a French pauper is the consummation
of wretchedness; rags, filth and disease waste his constitution and
destroy his body, while despair for ever settles on his soul. If he
have strength enough to carry a musket he is instantly transported into
a soldier; and if this means of subsistence fail, his only alternative
is to steal or to become a beast of burden, performing labour that in
other countries is only executed by horses and asses.
But miserable as he is, the lot of the female beggar is infinitely
worse. Objects of loathsome corruption and horrible aspect, they seem
planted in the streets of this capital, only to laugh to scorn the
Revolution, and to rebuke the greedy and the sumptuous magnificence of
the upstart. As you traverse the streets they follow you, conjuring you
in the name of God, and, with entreaties which would melt a heart of
flint, implore you to give them a little charity.
The charitable are deprived of the power of discriminating; they must
attend to the cries of beggary or submit to be pursued for half a mile
by the same forlorn wretch, imploring for mercy and pity. This is
indeed a wretched state of society, yet we are told the Revolution was
the work of philosophers, made for the benefit of the people to dispel
the darkness of their prejudices, and to remove all the moral and
physical evils under which they groaned before the advent of freedom.