peculiar hostility all the ancient establishments for education; and the
same plan of suppressing daily what they have neither leisure nor
abilities to supply, which I remarked to you two years ago, has directed
the Convention ever since. It is true, the interval has produced much
dissertation, and engendered many projects; but those who were so
unanimous in rejecting, were extremely discordant in adopting, and their
own disputes and indecision might have convinced them of their
presumption in condemning what they now found it so difficult to excel.
Some decided in favour of public schools, after the example of Sparta--
this was objected to by others, because, said they, if you have public
schools you must have edifices, and governors, and professors, who will,
to a certainty, be aristocrats, or become so; and, in short, this will
only be a revival of the colleges of the old government--A third party
proposed private seminaries, or that people might be at liberty to
educate their children in the way they thought best; but this, it was
declared, would have a still greater tendency to aristocracy; for the
rich, being better able to pay than the poor, would engross all the
learning to themselves. The Jacobins were of opinion, that there should
be no schools, either public or private, but that the children should
merely be taken to hear the debates of the Clubs, where they would
acquire all the knowledge necessary for republicans; and a few spirits of
a yet sublimer cast were adverse both to schools or clubs, and
recommended, that the rising generation should "study the great book of
Nature alone." It is, however, at length concluded, that there shall be
a certain number of public establishments, and that people shall even be
allowed to have their children instructed at home, under the inspection
of the constituted authorities, who are to prevent the instillation of
aristocratic principles.*
* We may judge of the competency of many of these people to be
official censors of education by the following specimens from a
report of Gregoire's. Since the rage for destruction has a little
subsided, circular letters have been sent to the administrators of
the departments, districts, &c. enquiring what antiquities, or other
objects of curiosity, remain in their neighbourhood.--"From one,
(says Gregoire,) we are informed, that they are possessed of nothing
in this way except four vases, which, as they have been told, are of
porphyry. From a second we learn, that, not having either forge or
manufactory in the neighbourhood, no monument of the arts is to be
found there: and a third announces, that the completion of its
library cataloges has been retarded, because the person employed at
them ne fait pas la diplomatique!"--("does not understand the
science of diplomacy.")
The difficulty as to the mode in which children were to be taught being
got over, another remained, not less liable to dispute--which was, the
choice of what they were to learn. Almost every member had a favourite
article---music, physic, prophylactics, geography, geometry, astronomy,
arithmetic, natural history, and botany, were all pronounced to be
requisites in an eleemosynary system of education, specified to be
chiefly intended for the country people; but as this debate regarded only
the primary schools for children in their earliest years, and as one man
for a stipend of twelve hundred livres a year, was to do it all, a
compromise became necessary, and it has been agreed for the present, that
infants of six years shall be taught only reading, writing, gymnastics,
geometry, geography, natural philosophy, and history of all free nations,
and that of all the tyrants, the rights of man, and the patriotic songs.
--Yet, after these years of consideration, and days of debate, the
Assembly has done no more than a parish-clerk, or an old woman with a
primer, and "a twig whilom of small regard to see," would do better
without its interference.
The students of a more advanced age are still to be disposed of, and the
task of devising an institution will not be easy; because, perhaps a
Collot d'Herbois or a Duhem is not satisfied with the system which
perfectioned the genius of Montesquieu or Descartes. Change, not
improvement, is the object--whatever bears a resemblance to the past must
be proscribed; and while other people study to simplify modes of
instruction, the French legislature is intent on rendering them as
difficult and complex as possible; and at the moment they decree that the
whole country shall become learned, they make it an unfathomable science
to teach urchins of half a dozen years old their letters.
Foreigners, indeed, who judge only from the public prints, may suppose
the French far advanced towards becoming the most erudite nation in
Europe: unfortunately, all these schools, primary, and secondary, and
centrical, and divergent, and normal,* exist as yet but in the
repertories of the Convention, and perhaps may not add "a local
habitation" to their names, till the present race** shall be unfit to
reap the benefit of them.
* _Les Ecoles Normales_ were schools where masters were to be
instructed in the art of teaching. Certain deputies objected to
them, as being of feudal institution, supposing that Normale had
some reference to Normandy.
** This was a mistake, for the French seem to have adopted the
maxim, "that man is never too old to learn;" and, accordingly, at
the opening of the Normal schools, the celebrated Bougainville, now
eighty years of age, became a pupil. This Normal project was,
however, soon relinquished--for by that fatality which has hitherto
attended all the republican institutions, it was found to have
become a mere nursery for aristocrats.
But this revolutionary barbarism, not content with stopping the progress
of the rising generation, has ravaged without mercy the monuments of
departed genius, and persecuted with senseless despotism those who were
capable of replacing them. Pictures have been defaced, statues
mutilated, and libraries burnt, because they reminded the people of their
Kings or their religion; while artists, and men of science or literature,
were wasting their valuable hours in prison, or expiring on the
scaffold.--The moral and gentle Florian died of vexation. A life of
abstraction and utility could not save the celebrated chymist, Lavoisier,
from the Guillotine. La Harpe languished in confinement, probably, that
he might not eclipse Chenier, who writes tragedies himself; and every
author that refused to degrade his talents by the adulation of tyranny
has been proscribed and persecuted. Palissot,* at sixty years old, was
destined to expiate in a prison a satire upon Rousseau, written when he
was only twenty, and escaped, not by the interposition of justice, but by
the efficacity of a bon mot.
* Palissot was author of "The Philosophers," a comedy, written
thirty years ago, to ridicule Rousseau. He wrote to the
municipality, acknowledged his own error, and the merits of
Rousseau; yet, says he, if Rousseau were a god, you ought not to
sacrifice human victims to him.--The expression, which in French is
well tuned, pleased the municipality, and Palissot, I believe, was
not afterwards molested.
--A similar fate would have been awarded Dorat, [Author of "Les Malheurs
de l'Inconstance," and other novels.] for styling himself Chevalier in
the title-pages of his novels, had he not commuted his punishment for
base eulogiums on the Convention, and with the same pen, which has been
the delight of the French boudoir, celebrated Carrier's murders on the
Loire under the appellation of "baptemes civiques." Every province in
France, we are informed by the eloquent pedantry of Gregoire, exhibits
traces of these modern Huns, which, though now exclusively attributed to
the agents of Robespierre and Mr. Pitt,* it is very certain were
authorized by the decrees of the Convention, and executed under the
sanction of Deputies on mission, or their subordinates.
* _"Soyez sur que ces destructions se sont pour la plupart a
l'instigation de nos ennemis--quel triomphe pour l'Anglais si il eul
pu ecraser notre commerce par l'aneantissement des arts dont la
culture enrichit le sien."_--"Rest assured that these demolitions
were, for the most part, effected at the instigation of our enemies
--what a triumph would it have been for the English, if they had
succeeded in crushing our commerce by the annihilation of the arts,
the culture of which enriched their own."
--If the principal monuments of art be yet preserved to gratify the
national taste or vanity, it is owing to the courage and devotion of
individuals, who obeyed with a protecting dilatoriness the destructive
mandates of government.
At some places, orangeries were sold by the foot for fire-wood, because,
as it was alledged, that republicans had more occasion for apples and
potatoes than oranges.--At Mousseaux, the seals were put on the
hot-houses, and all the plants nearly destroyed. Valuable remains of
sculpture were condemned for a crest, a fleur de lys, or a coronet
attached to them; and the deities of the Heathen mythology were made war
upon by the ignorance of the republican executioners, who could not
distinguish them from emblems of feodality.*
* At Anet, a bronze stag, placed as a fountain in a large piece of
water, was on the point of being demolished, because stags are
beasts of chace, and hunting is a feodal privilege, and stags of
course emblems of feodality.--It was with some difficulty preserved
by an amateur, who insisted, that stags of bronze were not included
in the decree.--By a decree of the Convention, which I have formerly
mentioned, all emblems of royalty or feodality were to be demolished
by a particular day; and as the law made no distinction, it could
not be expected that municipalities, &c. often ignorant or timid,
should either venture or desire to spare what in the eyes of the
connoisseur might be precious.
"At St. Dennis, (says the virtuoso Gregoire,) where the National
Club justly struck at the tyrants even in their tombs, that of
Turenne ought to have been spared; yet strokes of the sword are
still visible on it."--He likewise complains, that at the Botanic
Garden the bust of Linnaeus had been destroyed, on a presumption of
its being that of Charles the Ninth; and if it had been that of
Charles the Ninth, it is not easy to discern how the cause of
liberty was served by its mutilation.--The artist or moralist
contemplates with equal profit or curiosity the features of Pliny or
Commodus; and History and Science will appreciate Linnaeus and
Charles the Ninth, without regarding whether their resemblances
occupy a palace, or are scattered in fragments by republican
ignorance.--Long after the death of Robespierre, the people of
Amiens humbly petitioned the Convention, that their cathedral,
perhaps the most beautiful Gothic edifice in Europe, might be
preserved; and to avoid giving offence by the mention of churches or
cathedrals, they called it a Basilique.--But it is unnecessary to
adduce any farther proof, that the spirit of what is now called
Vandalism originated in the Convention. Every one in France must
recollect, that, when dispatches from all corners announced these
ravages, they were heard with as much applause, as though they had
related so many victories gained over the enemy.
--Quantities of curious medals have been melted down for the trifling
value of the metal; and at Abbeville, a silver St. George, of uncommon
workmanship, and which Mr. Garrick is said to have desired to purchase at
a very high price, was condemned to the crucible--
_"----Sur tant de tresors
"Antiques monumens respectes jusqu'alors,
"Par la destruction signalant leur puissance,
"Las barbares etendirent leur stupide vengeance."
"La Religion,"_ Racine.
Yet the people in office who operated these mischiefs were all appointed
by the delegates of the Assembly; for the first towns of the republic
were not trusted even with the choice of a constable. Instead,
therefore, of feeling either surprise or regret at this devastation, we
ought rather to rejoice that it has extended no farther; for such agents,
armed with such decrees, might have reduced France to the primitive state
of ancient Gaul. Several valuable paintings are said to have been
conveyed to England, and it will be curious if the barbarism of France in
the eighteenth century should restore to us what we, with a fanaticism
and ignorance at least more prudent than theirs, sold them in the
seventeenth. The zealots of the Barebones' Parliament are, however, more
respectable than the atheistical Vandals of the Convention; and, besides
the benefit of our example, the interval of a century and an half, with
the boast of a philosophy and a degree of illumination exceeding that of
any other people, have rendered the errors of the French at once more
unpardonable and more ridiculous; for, in assimilating their past
presentations to their present conduct and situation, we do not always
find it possible to regret without a mixture of contempt.
Amiens, Nov. 29, 1794.
The selfish policy of the Convention in affecting to respect and preserve
the Jacobin societies, while it deprived them of all power, and help up
the individuals who composed them to abhorrence, could neither satisfy
nor deceive men versed in revolutionary expedients, and more accustomed
to dictate laws than to submit to them.*
* The Jacobins were at this time headed by Billaud Varenne, Collot,
Thuriot, &c.--veterans, who were not likely to be deceived by
temporizing.
Supported by all the force of government, and intrinsically formidable by
their union, the Clubs had long existed in defiance of public
reprobation, and for some time they had braved not only the people, but
the government itself. The instant they were disabled from corresponding
and communicating in that privileged sort of way which rendered them so
conspicuous, they felt their weakness; and their desultory and
unconnected efforts to regain their influence only served to complete its
annihilation. While they pretended obedience to the regulations to which
the Convention had subjected them, they intrigued to promote a revolt,
and were strenuously exerting themselves to gain partizans among the idle
and dissolute, who, having subsisted for months as members of
revolutionary committees, and in other revolutionary offices, were
naturally averse from a more moderate government. The numbers of these
were far from inconsiderable: and, when it is recollected that this
description of people only had been allowed to retain their arms, while
all who had any thing to defend were deprived of them, we cannot wonder
if the Jacobins entertained hopes of success.
The Convention, aware of these attempts, now employed against its ancient
accomplices the same arts that had proved so fatal to all those whom it
had considered as its enemies. A correspondence was "opportunely"
intercepted between the Jacobins and the Emigrants in Switzerland, while
emissaries insinuated themselves into the Clubs, for the purpose of
exciting desperate motions; or, dispersed in public places, contrived, by
assuming the Jacobin costume, to throw on the faction the odium of those
seditious exclamations which they were employed to vociferate.
There is little doubt that the designs of the Jacobins were nearly such
as have been imputed to them. They had, however, become more politic
than to act thus openly, without being prepared to repel their enemies,
or to support their friends; and there is every appearance that the Swiss
plots, and the insurrections of the _Palais Egalite,_ were the devices of
the government, to give a pretext for shutting up the Club altogether,
and to avert the real dangers with which it was menaced, by spreading an
alarm of fictitious ones. A few idle people assembled (probably on
purpose) about the _Palais Egalite,_ and the place where the Jacobins held
their meetings, and the exclamation of "Down with the Convention!" served
as the signal for hostilities. The aristocrats joined the partizans of
the Convention, the Jacobins were attacked in their hall, and an affray
ensued, in which several persons on each side were wounded. Both parties
accused each other of being the aggressor, and a report of the business
was made to the Assembly; but the Assembly had already decided--and, on
the ninth of November, while the Jacobins were endeavouring to raise the
storm by a recapitulation of the rights of man, a decree was passed,
prohibiting their debates, and ordering the national seal to be put on
their doors and papers. The society were not in force to make
resistance, and the decree was carried into execution as quietly as
though it had been levelled against the hotel of some devoted aristocrat.
When the news of this event reached the departments, it occasioned an
universal rejoicing--not such a rejoicing as is ordered for the successes
of the French arms, (which always seems to be a matter of great
indifference,) but a chearfulness of heart and of countenance; and many
persons whom I do not remember to have ever seen in the least degree
moved by political events, appeared sincerely delighted at this--
"And those smile now, who never smil'd before,
"And those who always smil'd, now smile the more."
Parnell's Claudian.
The armies might proceed to Vienna, pillage the Escurial, or subjugate
all Europe, and I am convinced no emotion of pleasure would be excited
equal to that manifested at the downfall of the Jacobins of Paris.
Since this disgrace of the parent society, the Clubs in the departments
have, for the most part, dissolved themselves, or dwindled into peaceable
assemblies to hear the news read, and applaud the convention.--The few
Jacobin emblems which were yet remaining have totally disappeared, and no
vestige of Jacobinism is left, but the graves of its victims, and the
desolation of the country.
The profligate, the turbulent, the idle, and needy, of various countries
in Europe, have been tempted by the successes of the French Jacobins to
endeavour to establish similar institutions; but the same successes have
operated as a warning to people of a different description, and the fall
of these societies has drawn two confessions from their original
partizans, which ought never to be forgotten--namely, that they were
formed for the purpose of subverting the monarchy, and that their
existence is incompatible with regular government of any kind.--"While
the monarchy still existed, (says the most philosophic Lequinio, with
whose scheme of reforming La Vendee you are already acquainted,) it was
politic and necessary to encourage popular societies, as the most
efficacious means of operating its destruction; but now we have effected
a revolution, and have only to consolidate it by mild and philosophic
laws, these societies are dangerous, because they can produce only
confusion and disorder."--This is also the language of Brissot, who
admires the Jacobins from their origin till the end of 1792, but after
that period he admits they were only the instruments of faction, and
destructive of all property and order.*
* The period of the Jacobin annals so much admired by Brissot,
comprises the dethronement of the King, the massacres of the
prisons, the banishment of the priests, &c. That which he
reprobates begins precisely at the period when the Jacobins disputed
the claims of himself and his party to the exclusive direction of
the government.--See Brissot's Address to his Constituents.
--We learn therefore, not from the abuses alone, but from the praises
bestowed on the Jacobins, how much such combinations are to be dreaded.
Their merit, it appears, consisted in the subversion of the monarchical
government, and their crime in ceasing to be useful as agents of tyranny,
the moment they ceased to be principals.
I am still sceptical as to the conversion of the Assembly, and little
disposed to expect good from it; yet whatever it may attempt in future,
or however its real principles may take an ascendant, this fortunate
concurrence of personal interests, coalition of aristocrats and
democrats, and political rivalry, have likewise secured France from a
return of that excess of despotism which could have been exercised only
by such means. It is true, the spirit of the nation is so much
depressed, that an effort to revive these Clubs might meet no resistance;
but the ridicule and opprobrium to which they have latterly been subject,
and finally the manner of their being sacrificed by that very Convention,
of which they were the sole creators and support, will, I think, cool the
zeal, and diminish the numbers of their partizans too much for them ever
again to become formidable.
The conduct of Carrier has been examined according to the new forms, and
he is now on his trial--though not till the delays of the Convention had
given rise to a general suspicion that they intended either to exonerate
or afford him an opportunity of escaping; and the people were at last so
highly exasperated, that six thousand troops were added to the military
force of Paris, and an insurrection was seriously apprehended. This
stimulated the diligence, or relaxed the indulgence, of the commission
appointed to make the report on Carrier's conduct; and it being decided
that there was room for accusation, the Assembly confirmed the decision,
and he was ordered into custody, to be tried along with the Revolutionary
Committee of Nantes which had been the instrument of his crimes.
It is a circumstance worth noting, that most of the Deputies who
explained the motives on which they thought Carrier guilty, were silent
on the subject of his drowning, shooting, and guillotining so many
thousands of innocent people, and only declared him guilty, as having
been wanting in respect towards Trehouard, one of his colleagues, and of
injuring the republican cause by his atrocities.
The fate of this monster exhibits a practical exposition of the enormous
absurdity of such a government. He is himself tried for the exercise of
a power declared to be unbounded when entrusted to him. The men tried
with him as his accomplices were obliged by the laws to obey him; and the
acts of which they are all accused were known, applauded, and held out
for imitation, by the Convention, who now declare those very acts to be
criminal!--There is certainly no way of reconciling justice but by
punishing both chiefs and subordinates, and the hour for this will yet
come.--Adieu.
Amiens. [No date given.]
I do not yet venture to correspond with my Paris friends by the post, but
whenever the opportunity of private conveyance occurs, I receive long and
circumstantial letters, as well as packets, of all the publications most
read, and the theatrical pieces most applauded. I have lately drudged
through great numbers of these last, and bestowed on them an attention
they did not in themselves deserve, because I considered it as one means
of judging both of the spirit of the government and the morals of the
people.
The dramas produced at the beginning of the revolution were in general
calculated to corrupt the national taste and morals, and many of them
were written with skill enough to answer the purpose for which they were
intended; but those that have appeared during the last two years, are so
stupid and so depraved, that the circumstance of their being tolerated
even for a moment implies an extinction both of taste and of morals.*
* _"Dans l'espace d'un an ils ont failli detruire le produit de
plusieurs siecles de civilization."_--("In the space of a year they
nearly destroyed the fruits of several ages of civilization.")
The principal cause of this is the despotism of the government in making
the stage a mere political engine, and suffering the performance of such
pieces only as a man of honesty or genius would not submit to write.*
* The tragedy of Brutus was interdicted on account of these two
lines:
_"Arreter un romain sur de simple soupcons,
"C'est agir en tyrans, nous qui les punissons."_
That of Mahomet for the following:
_"Exterminez, grands dieux, de la terre ou nous sommes
"Quiconque avec plaisir repand le sang des hommes."_
It is to be remarked, that the last lines are only a simple axiom of
humanity, and could not have been considered as implying a censure
on any government except that of the French republic.
--Hence a croud of scribblers, without shame or talents, have become the
exclusive directors of public amusements, and, as far as the noise of a
theatre constitutes success, are perhaps more successful than ever was
Racine or Moliere. Immorality and dulness have an infallible resource
against public disapprobation in the abuse of monarchy and religion, or a
niche for Mr. Pitt; and an indignant or impatient audience, losing their
other feelings in their fears, are glad to purchase the reputation of
patriotism by applauding trash they find it difficult to endure. The
theatres swarm with spies, and to censure a revolutionary piece, however
detestable even as a composition, is dangerous, and few have courage to
be the critics of an author who is patronized by the superintendants of
the guillotine, or who may retaliate a comment on his poetry by the
significant prose of a mandat d'arret.