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diff --git a/old/11993.txt b/old/11993.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f305bf3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11993.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6644 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Residence in France During the Years +1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795, Part II., 1793, by An English Lady + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Residence in France During the Years 1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795, + Part II., 1793 + Described in a Series of Letters from an English Lady: With General + and Incidental Remarks on the French Character and Manners + + +Author: An English Lady + +Release Date: April 11, 2004 [EBook #11993] +[Last updated on February 14, 2007] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A RESIDENCE IN FRANCE, PART II., 1793 *** + + + + +Produced by Mary Munarin and David Widger + + + + +A RESIDENCE IN FRANCE, +DURING THE YEARS +1792, 1793, 1794, AND 1795; + +DESCRIBED IN A SERIES OF LETTERS +FROM AN ENGLISH LADY; +With General And Incidental Remarks +On The French Character And Manners. + +Prepared for the Press +By John Gifford, Esq. +Author of the History of France, Letter to Lord +Lauderdale, Letter to the Hon. T. Erskine, &c. + + +Second Edition. + +_Plus je vis l'Etranger plus j'aimai ma Patrie._ +--Du Belloy. + + +London: Printed for T. N. Longman, Paternoster Row. 1797. + + + + +1793 + + + +Amiens, January, 1793. + +Vanity, I believe, my dear brother, is not so innoxious a quality as we +are desirous of supposing. As it is the most general of all human +failings, so is it regarded with the most indulgence: a latent +consciousness averts the censure of the weak; and the wise, who flatter +themselves with being exempt from it, plead in its favour, by ranking it +as a foible too light for serious condemnation, or too inoffensive for +punishment. Yet, if vanity be not an actual vice, it is certainly a +potential one--it often leads us to seek reputation rather than virtue, +to substitute appearances for realities, and to prefer the eulogiums of +the world to the approbation of our own minds. When it takes possession +of an uninformed or an ill-constituted mind, it becomes the source of a +thousand errors, and a thousand absurdities. Hence, youth seeks a +preeminence in vice, and age in folly; hence, many boast of errors they +would not commit, or claim distinction by investing themselves with an +imputation of excess in some popular absurdity--duels are courted by the +daring, and vaunted by the coward--he who trembles at the idea of death +and a future state when alone, proclaims himself an atheist or a +free-thinker in public--the water-drinker, who suffers the penitence of +a week for a supernumerary glass, recounts the wonders of his +intemperance--and he who does not mount the gentlest animal without +trepidation, plumes himself on breaking down horses, and his perils in +the chace. In short, whatever order of mankind we contemplate, we shall +perceive that the portion of vanity allotted us by nature, when it is +not corrected by a sound judgement, and rendered subservient to useful +purposes, is sure either to degrade or mislead us. + +I was led into this train of reflection by the conduct of our +Anglo-Gallican legislator, Mr. Thomas Paine. He has lately composed a +speech, which was translated and read in his presence, (doubtless to his +great satisfaction,) in which he insists with much vehemence on the +necessity of trying the King; and he even, with little credit to his +humanity, gives intimations of presumed guilt. Yet I do not suspect Mr. +Paine to be of a cruel or unmerciful nature; and, most probably, vanity +alone has instigated him to a proceeding which, one would wish to +believe, his heart disapproves. Tired of the part he was playing, and +which, it must be confessed, was not calculated to flatter the censurer +of Kings and the reformer of constitutions, he determined to sit no +longer for whole hours in colloquy with his interpreter, or in mute +contemplation, like the Chancellor in the Critic; and the speech to +which I have alluded was composed. Knowing that lenient opinions would +meet no applause from the tribunes, he inlists himself on the side of +severity, accuses all the Princes in the world as the accomplices of +Louis the Sixteenth, expresses his desire for an universal revolution, +and, after previously assuring the Convention the King is guilty, +recommends that they may instantly proceed to his trial. But, after all +this tremendous eloquence, perhaps Mr. Paine had no malice in his heart: +he may only be solicitous to preserve his reputation from decay, and to +indulge his self-importance by assisting at the trial of a Monarch whom +he may not wish to suffer.--I think, therefore, I am not wrong in +asserting, that Vanity is a very mischievous counsellor. + +The little distresses I formerly complained of, as arising from the paper +currency, are nearly removed by a plentiful emission of small assignats, +and we have now pompous assignments on the national domains for ten sols: +we have, likewise, pieces coined from the church bells in circulation, +but most of these disappear as soon as issued. You would scarcely +imagine that this copper is deemed worthy to be hoarded; yet such is the +people's aversion from the paper, and such their mistrust of the +government, that not an housewife will part with one of these pieces +while she has an assignat in her possession; and those who are rich +enough to keep a few livres by them, amass and bury this copper treasure +with the utmost solicitude and secresy. + +A tolerably accurate scale of the national confidence might be made, by +marking the progress of these suspicious interments. Under the first +Assembly, people began to hide their gold; during the reign of the second +they took the same affectionate care of their silver; and, since the +meeting of the Convention, they seem equally anxious to hide any metal +they can get. If one were to describe the present age, one might, as far +as regards France, call it, both literally and metaphorically, the Iron +Age; for it is certain, the character of the times would justify the +metaphoric application, and the disappearance of every other metal the +literal one. As the French are fond of classic examples, I shall not be +surprized to see an iron coinage, in imitation of Sparta, though they +seem in the way of having one reason less for such a measure than the +Spartans had, for they are already in a state to defy corruption; and if +they were not, I think a war with England would secure the purity of +their morals from being endangered by too much commercial intercourse. + +I cannot be displeased with the civil things you say of my letters, nor +at your valuing them so much as to preserve them; though, I assure you, +this fraternal gallantry is not necessary, on the account you intimate, +nor will our countrymen suffer, in my opinion, by any comparisons I can +make here. Your ideas of French gallantry are, indeed, very erroneous-- +it may differ in the manner from that practised in England, but is far +from having any claim to superiority. Perhaps I cannot define the +pretensions of the two nations in this respect better than by saying, +that the gallantry of an Englishman is a sentiment--that of a Frenchman a +system. The first, if a lady happen to be old or plain, or indifferent +to him, is apt to limit his attentions to respect, or utility--now the +latter never troubles himself with these distinctions: he is repulsed by +no extremity of years, nor deformity of feature; he adores, with equal +ardour, both young and old, nor is either often shocked by his visible +preference of the other. I have seen a youthful beau kiss, with perfect +devotion, a ball of cotton dropped from the hand of a lady who was +knitting stockings for her grand-children. Another pays his court to a +belle in her climacteric, by bringing _gimblettes_ [A sort of +gingerbread.] to the favourite lap-dog, or attending, with great +assiduity, the egresses and regresses of her angola, who paces slowly out +of the room ten times in an hour, while the door is held open by the +complaisant Frenchman with a most respectful gravity. + +Thus, you see, France is to the old what a masquerade is to the ugly +--the one confounds the disparity of age as the other does that of +person; but indiscriminate adoration is no compliment to youth, nor is a +mask any privilege to beauty. We may therefore conclude, that though +France may be the Elysium of old women, England is that of the young. +When I first came into this country, it reminded me of an island I had +read of in the Arabian Tales, where the ladies were not deemed in their +bloom till they verged towards seventy; and I conceived the project of +inviting all the belles, who had been half a century out of fashion in +England, to cross the Channel, and begin a new career of admiration!-- +Yours, &c. + + + + +Amiens, 1793. + +Dear Brother, + +I have thought it hitherto a self evident proposition--that of all the +principles which can be inculcated in the human mind, that of liberty is +least susceptible of propagation by force. Yet a Council of Philosophers +(disciples of Rousseau and Voltaire) have sent forth Dumouriez, at the +head of an hundred thousand men, to instruct the people of Flanders in +the doctrine of freedom. Such a missionary is indeed invincible, and the +defenceless towns of the Low Countries have been converted and pillaged +[By the civil agents of the executive power.] by a benevolent crusade of +the philanthropic assertors of the rights of man. These warlike +Propagandistes, however, do not always convince without experiencing +resistance, and ignorance sometimes opposes, with great obstinacy, the +progress of truth. The logic of Dumouriez did not enforce conviction at +Gemappe, but at the expence of fifteen thousand of his own army, and, +doubtless, a proportionate number of the unconverted. + +Here let me forbear every expression tending to levity: the heart recoils +at such a slaughter of human victims; and, if a momentary smile be +excited by these Quixotisms, it is checked by horror at their +consequences!--Humanity will lament such destruction; but it will +likewise be indignant to learn, that, in the official account of this +battle, the killed were estimated at three hundred, and the wounded at +six!--But, if the people be sacrificed, they are not deceived. The +disabled sufferers, who are returning to their homes in different parts +of the republic, betray the turpitude of the government, and expose the +fallacy of these bloodless victories of the gazettes. The pedants of the +Convention are not unlearned in the history of the Praetorian Bands and +the omnipotence of armies; and an offensive war is undertaken to give +occupation to the soldiers, whose inactivity might produce reflection, or +whose discontent might prove fatal to the new order of things.--Attempts +are made to divert the public mind from the real misery experienced at +home, by relations of useless conquests abroad; the substantial losses, +which are the price of these imaginary benefits, are palliated or +concealed; and the circumstances of an engagement is known but by +individual communication, and when subsequent events have nearly effaced +the remembrance of it.--By these artifices, and from motives at least not +better, and, perhaps, worse than those I have mentioned, will population +be diminished, and agriculture impeded: France will be involved in +present distress, and consigned to future want; and the deluded people be +punished in the miseries of their own country, because their unprincipled +rulers have judged it expedient to carry war and devastation into +another. + +One of the distinguishing features in the French character is _sang froid_ +--scarcely a day passes that it does not force itself on one's +observation. It is not confined to the thinking part of the people, who +know that passion and irritability avail nothing; nor to those who, not +thinking at all, are, of course, not moved by any thing: but is equally +possessed by every rank and condition, whether you class them by their +mental endowments, or their temporal possessions. They not only (as, it +must be confessed, is too commonly the case in all countries,) bear the +calamities of their friends with great philosophy, but are nearly as +reasonable under the pressure of their own. The grief of a Frenchman, +at least, partakes of his imputed national complaisance, and, far from +intruding itself on society, is always ready to accept of consolation, +and join in amusement. If you say your wife or relations are dead, they +replay coldly, _"Il faut se consoler:"_ or if they visit you in an +illness, _"Il faut prendre patience."_ Or tell them you are ruined, and +their features then become something more attenuated, the shoulders +something more elevated, and a more commiserating tone confesses, _"C'est +bien mal beureux--Mai enfin que voulez vous?"_ ["It's unlucky, but what +can be said in such cases?"] and in the same instant they ill recount +some good fortune at a card party, or expatiate on the excellence of a +ragout.--Yet, to do them justice, they only offer for your comfort the +same arguments they would have found efficacious in promoting their own. + +This disposition, which preserves the tranquillity of the rich, indurates +the sense of wretchedness in the poor; it supplies the place of fortitude +in the one, and that of patience in the other; and, while it enables both +to endure their own particular distresses, it makes them submit quietly +to a weight and excess of public evils, which any nation but their own +would sink under, or resist. Amongst shopkeepers, servants, &c. without +incurring personal odium, it has the effect of what would be deemed in +England impenetrable assurance. It forces pertinaceously an article not +wanted, and preserves the inflexibility of the features at a detected +imposition: it inspires servants with arguments in defence of every +misdemeanour in the whole domestic catalogue; it renders them insensible +either of their negligences or the consequences of them; and endows them +with a happy facility of contradicting with the most obsequious +politeness. + +A gentleman of our acquaintances dined at a table d'Hote, where the +company were annoyed by a very uncommon and offensive smell. On cutting +up a fowl, they discovered the smell to have been occasioned by its being +dressed with out any other preparation than that of depluming. They +immediately sent for the host, and told him, that the fowl had been +dressed without having been drawn: but, far from appearing disconcerted, +as one might expect, he only replied, _"Cela se pourroit bien, +Monsieur."_ ["'Tis very possible, Sir."] Now an English Boniface, even +though he had already made his fortune, would have been mortified at such +an incident, and all his eloquence would scarcely have produced an +unfaultering apology. + +Whether this national indifference originate in a physical or a moral +cause, from an obtuseness in their corporeal formation or a perfection in +their intellectual one, I do not pretend to decide; but whatever be the +cause, the effect is enjoyed with great modesty. So little do the French +pique themselves on this valuable stoicism, that they acknowledge being +more subject to that human weakness called feeling, than any other people +in the world. All their writers abound in pathetic exclamations, +sentimental phrases, and allusions to "la sensibilite Francaise," as +though they imagined it proverbial. You can scarcely hold a conversation +with a Frenchman without hearing him detail, with an expression of +feature not always analogous, many very affecting sentences. He is +_desole, desespere, or afflige_--he has _le coeur trop sensible, le coeur +serre, or le coeur navre;_ [Afflicted--in despair--too feeling a heart-- +his heart is wrung or wounded.] and the well-placing of these dolorous +assertions depends rather upon the judgement and eloquence of the +speaker, than the seriousness of the case which gives rise to them. For +instance, the despair and desolation of him who has lost his money, and +of him whose head is ill drest, are of different degrees, but the +expressions are usually the same. The debates of the Convention, the +debates of the Jacobins, and all the public prints, are fraught with +proofs of this appropriated susceptibility, and it is often attributed to +persons and occasions where we should not much expect to find it. A +quarrel between the legislators as to who was most concerned in promoting +the massacres of September, is reconciled with a "sweet and enthusiastic +excess of fraternal tenderness." When the clubs dispute on the +expediency of an insurrection, or the necessity of a more frequent +employment of the guillotine, the debate terminates by overflowing of +sensibility from all the members who have engaged in it! + +At the assassinations in one of the prisons, when all the other miserable +victims had perished, the mob discovered one Jonneau, a member of the +Assembly, who had been confined for kicking another member named +Grangeneuve.* As the massacrers probably had no orders on the subject, +he was brought forth, from amidst heaps of murdered companions, and a +messenger dispatched to the Assembly, (which during these scenes met as +usual,) to enquire if they acknowledged Jonneau as a member. A decree +was passed in the affirmative, and Jonneau brought by the assassins, with +the decree fastened on his breast, in triumph to his colleagues, who, we +are told, at this instance of respect for themselves, shed tears of +tenderness and admiration at the conduct of monsters, the sight of whom +should seem revolting to human nature. + + * When the massacres began, the wife and friends of Jonneau + petitioned Grangeneuve on their knees to consent to his enlargement; + but Grangeneuve was implacable, and Jonneau continued in prison till + released by the means above mentioned. It is observable, that at + this dreadful moment the utmost strictness was observed, and every + form literally enforced in granting the discharge of a prisoner. A + suspension of all laws, human and divine, was allowed to the + assassins, while those only that secured them their victims were + rigidly adhered to. + +Perhaps the real sang froid I have before noticed, and these pretensions +to sensibility, are a natural consequence one or the other. It is the +history of the beast's confession--we have only to be particularly +deficient in any quality, to make us solicitous for the reputation of it; +and after a long habit of deceiving others we finish by deceiving +ourselves. He who feels no compassion for the distresses of his +neighbour, knows that such indifference is not very estimable; he +therefore studies to disguise the coldness of his heart by the +exaggeration of his language, and supplies, by an affected excess of +sentiment, the total absence of it.--The gods have not (as you know) made +me poetical, nor do I often tax your patience with a simile, but I think +this French sensibility is to genuine feeling, what their paste is to the +diamond--it gratifies the vanity of the wearer, and deceives the eye of +the superficial observer, but is of little use or value, and when tried +by the fire of adversity quickly disappears. + +You are not much obliged to me for this long letter, as I own I have +scribbled rather for my own amusement than with a view to yours.-- +Contrary to our expectation, the trial of the King has begun; and, though +I cannot properly be said to have any real interest in the affairs of +this country, I take a very sincere one in the fate of its unfortunate +Monarch--indeed our whole house has worn an appearance of dejection since +the commencement of the business. Most people seem to expect it will +terminate favourably, and, I believe, there are few who do not wish it. +Even the Convention seem at present disposed to be merciful; and as they +judge now, so may they be judged hereafter! + +--Yours. + + + + +Amiens, January 1793. + +I do all possible justice to the liberality of my countrymen, who are +become such passionate admirers of the French; and I cannot but lament +their having been so unfortunate in the choice of the aera from whence +they date this new friendship. It is, however, a proof, that their +regards are not much the effect of that kind of vanity which esteems +objects in proportion as they are esteemed by the rest of the world; and +the sincerity of an attachment cannot be better evinced than by its +surviving irretrievable disgrace and universal abhorrence. Many will +swell the triumph of a hero, or add a trophy to his tomb; but he who +exhibits himself with a culprit at the gallows, or decorates the gibbet +with a wreath, is a friend indeed. + +If ever the character of a people were repugnant to amity, or inimical to +connection, it is that of the French for the last three years.--* + + * The editor of the _Courier de l'Egalite,_ a most decided patriot, + thus expresses himself on the injuries and insults received by the + King from the Parisians, and their municipality, previous to his + trial: + + "I know that Louis is guilty--but are we to double his punishment + before it is pronounced by the law? Indeed one is tempted to say + that, instead of being guided by the humanity and philosophy which + dictated the revolution, we have taken lessons of barbarity from the + most ferocious savages! Let us be virtuous if we would be + republicans; if we go on as we do, we never shall, and must have + recourse to a despot: for of two evils it is better to choose the + least." + +The editor, whose opinion of the present politics is thus expressed, is +so truly a revolutionist, and so confidential a patriot, that, in August +last, when almost all the journalists were murdered, his paper was the +only one that, for some time, was allowed to reach the departments. + +In this short space they have formed a compendium of all the vices which +have marked as many preceding ages:--the cruelty and treachery of the +league--the sedition, levity, and intrigue of the _Fronde_ [A name given +to the party in opposition to the court during Cardinal Mazarin's +ministry.--See the origin of it in the Memoirs of that period.] with the +licentiousness and political corruption of more modern epochs. Whether +you examine the conduct of the nation at large, or that of its chiefs and +leaders, your feelings revolt at the one, and your integrity despises the +other. You see the idols erected by Folly, degraded by Caprice;--the +authority obtained by Intrigue, bartered by Profligacy;--and the perfidy +and corruption of one side so balanced by the barbarity and levity of the +other, that the mind, unable to decide on the preference of contending +vices, is obliged to find repose, though with regret and disgust, in +acknowledging the general depravity. + +La Fayette, without very extraordinary pretensions, became the hero of +the revolution. He dictated laws in the Assembly, and prescribed oaths +to the Garde Nationale--and, more than once, insulted, by the triumph of +ostentatious popularity, the humiliation and distress of a persecuted +Sovereign. Yet when La Fayette made an effort to maintain the +constitution to which he owed his fame and influence, he was abandoned +with the same levity with which he had been adopted, and sunk, in an +instant, from a dictator to a fugitive! + +Neckar was an idol of another description. He had already departed for +his own country, when he was hurried back precipitately, amidst universal +acclamations. All were full of projects either of honour or recompence-- +one was for decreeing him a statue, another proposed him a pension, and a +third hailed him the father of the country. But Mr. Neckar knew the +French character, and very wisely declined these pompous offers; for +before he could have received the first quarter of his pension, or the +statue could have been modelled, he was glad to escape, probably not +without some apprehensions for his head! + +The reign of Mirabeau was something longer. He lived with popularity, +was fortunate enough to die before his reputation was exhausted, was +deposited in the Pantheon, apotheosised in form, and his bust placed as a +companion to that of Brutus, the tutelary genius of the Assembly.--Here, +one might have expected, he would have been quit for this world at least; +but the fame of a patriot is not secured by his death, nor can the gods +of the French be called immortal: the deification of Mirabeau is +suspended, his memory put in sequestration, and a committee appointed to +enquire, whether a profligate, expensive, and necessitous character was +likely to be corruptible. The Convention, too, seem highly indignant +that a man, remarkable only for vice and atrocity, should make no +conscience of betraying those who were as bad as himself; and that, after +having prostituted his talents from the moment he was conscious of them, +he should not, when associated with such immaculate colleagues, become +pure and disinterested. It is very probable that Mirabeau, whose only +aim was power, might rather be willing to share it with the King, as +Minister, than with so many competitors, and only as Prime Speechmaker to +the Assembly: and as he had no reason for suspecting the patriotism of +others to be more inflexible than his own, he might think it not +impolitic to anticipate a little the common course of things, and betray +his companions, before they had time to stipulate for felling him. He +might, too, think himself more justified in disposing of them in the +gross, because he did not thereby deprive them of their right of +bargaining for themselves, and for each other in detail.--* + + * La Porte, Steward of the Household, in a letter to Duquesnoy, [Not + the brutal Dusquenoy hereafter mentioned.] dated February, 1791, + informs him that Barrere, Chairman of the Committee of Domains, is + in the best disposition possible.--A letter of Talon, (then + minister,) with remarks in the margin by the King, says, that + "Sixteen of the most violent members on the patriotic side may be + brought over to the court, and that the expence will not exceed two + millions of livres: that fifteen thousand will be sufficient for the + first payment; and only a Yes or No from his Majesty will fix these + members in his interest, and direct their future conduct."--It + likewise observes, that these two millions will cost the King + nothing, as the affair is already arranged with the + Liquidator-General. + +Extract of a letter from Chambonas to the King, dated June 18, 1792: + + "Sire, + + "I inform your Majesty, that my agents are now in motion. I have + just been converting an evil spirit. I cannot hope that I have made + him good, but I believe I have neutralized him.--To-night we shall + make a strong effort to gain Santerre, (Commandant of the Garde + Nationale,) and I have ordered myself to be awakened to hear the + result. I shall take care to humour the different interests as well + as I can.--The Secretary of the Cordeliers club is now secured.--All + these people are to be bought, but not one of them can be hired.--I + have had with me one Mollet a physician. Perhaps your Majesty may + have heard of him. He is an outrageous Jacobin, and very difficult, + for he will receive nothing. He insists, previous to coming to any + definitive treaty, on being named Physician to the Army. I have + promised him, on condition that Paris is kept quiet for fifteen + days. He is now gone to exert himself in our favour. He has great + credit at the Caffe de Procope, where all the journalists and + 'enragis' of the Fauxbourg St. Germain assemble. I hope he will + keep his word.--The orator of the people, the noted Le Maire, a + clerk at the Post-office, has promised tranquility for a week, and + he is to be rewarded. + + "A new Gladiator has appeared lately on the scene, one Ronedie + Breton, arrived from England. He has already been exciting the + whole quarter of the Poisonnerie in favour of the Jacobins, but I + shall have him laid siege to.--Petion is to come to-morrow for + fifteen thousand livres, [This sum was probably only to propitiate + the Mayor; and if Chambonas, as he proposed, refused farther + payment, we may account for Petion's subsequent conduct.] on account + of thirty thousand per month which he received under the + administration of Dumouriez, for the secret service of the police.-- + I know not in virtue of what law this was done, and it will be the + last he shall receive from me. Your Majesty will, I doubt not, + understand me, and approve of what I suggest. + + (Signed) "Chambonas." + Extract from the Papers found at the Thuilleries. + + It is impossible to warrant the authenticity of these Papers; on + their credibility, however, rests the whole proof of the most + weighty charges brought against the King. So that it must be + admitted, that either all the first patriots of the revolution, and + many of those still in repute, are corrupt, or that the King was + condemned on forged evidence. + +The King might also be solicitous to purchase safety and peace at any +rate; and it is unfortunate for himself and the country that he had not +recourse to the only effectual means till it was too late. But all this +rests on no better evidence than the papers found at the Thuilleries; and +as something of this kind was necessary to nourish the exhausted fury of +the populace, I can easily conceive that it was thought more prudent to +sacrifice the dead, than the living; and the fame of Mirabeau being less +valuable than the safety of those who survived him, there would be no +great harm in attributing to him what he was very likely to have done.-- +The corruption of a notorious courtier would have made no impression: the +King had already been overwhelmed with such accusations, and they had +lost their effect: but to have seduced the virtuous Mirabeau, the very +Confucius of the revolution, was a kind of profanation of the holy fire, +well calculated to revive the languid rage, and extinguish the small +remains of humanity yet left among the people. + +It is sufficiently remarkable, that notwithstanding the court must have +seen the necessity of gaining over the party now in power, no vestige of +any attempt of this kind has been discovered; and every criminating +negotiation is ascribed to the dead, the absent, or the insignificant. I +do not, however, presume to decide in a case so very delicate; their +panegyrists in England may adjust the claims of Mirabeau's integrity, and +that of his accusers, at their leisure. + +Another patriot of "distinguished note," and more peculiarly interesting +to our countrymen, because he has laboured much for their conversion, is +Talleyrand, Bishop of Autun.--He was in England some time as +Plenipotentiary from the Jacobins, charged with establishing treaties +between the clubs, publishing seditious manifestoes, contracting friendly +alliances with discontented scribblers, and gaining over neutral or +hostile newspapers.--But, besides his political and ecclesiastical +occupations, and that of writing letters to the Constitutional Society, +it seems this industrious Prelate had likewise a correspondence with the +Agents of the Court, which, though he was too modest to surcharge his +fame by publishing it, was, nevertheless, very profitable. + +I am sorry his friends in England are mostly averse from episcopacy, +otherwise they might have provided for him, as I imagine he will have no +objection to relinquish his claims on the see of Autun. He is not under +accusation, and, were he to return, he would not find the laws quite so +ceremonious here as in England. After labouring with impunity for months +together to promote an insurrection with you, a small private barter of +his talents would here cost him his head; and I appeal to the Bishop's +friends in England, whether there can be a proper degree of freedom in a +country where a man is refused the privilege of disposing of himself to +the best advantage. + +To the eternal obloquy of France, I must conclude, in the list of those +once popular, the ci-devant Duke of Orleans. But it was an unnatural +popularity, unaided by a single talent, or a single virtue, supported +only by the venal efforts of those who were almost his equals in vice, +though not in wealth, and who found a grateful exercise for their +abilities in at once profiting by the weak ambition of a bad man, and +corrupting the public morals in his favour. The unrighteous compact is +now dissolved; those whom he ruined himself to bribe have already +forsaken him, and perhaps may endeavour to palliate the disgrace of +having been called his friends, by becoming his persecutors.--Thus, many +of the primitive patriots are dead, or fugitives, or abandoned, or +treacherous; and I am not without fear lest the new race should prove as +evanescent as the old. + +The virtuous Rolland,* whose first resignation was so instrumental in +dethroning the King, has now been obliged to resign a second time, +charged with want of capacity, and suspected of malversation; and this +virtue, which was so irreproachable, which it would have been so +dangerous to dispute while it served the purposes of party, is become +hypocrisy, and Rolland will be fortunate if he return to obscurity with +only the loss of his gains and his reputation. + + * In the beginning of December, the Council-General of the + municipality of Paris opened a register, and appointed a Committee + to receive all accusations and complaints whatever against Rolland, + who, in return, summoned them to deliver in their accounts to him as + Minister of the interior, and accused them, at the same time, of the + most scandalous peculations. + +The credit of Brissot and the Philosophers is declining fast--the clubs +are unpropitious, and no party long survives this formidable omen; so +that, like Macbeth, they will have waded from one crime to another, only +to obtain a short-lived dominion, at the expence of eternal infamy, and +an unlamented fall. + +Dumouriez is still a successful General, but he is denounced by one +faction, insulted by another, insidiously praised by a third, and, if he +should persevere in serving them, he has more disinterested rectitude +than I suspect him of, or than they merit. This is another of that +Jacobin ministry which proved so fatal to the King; and it is evident +that, had he been permitted to entertain the same opinion of all these +people as they now profess to have of each other, he would have been +still living, and secure on his throne. + +After so many mutual infidelities, it might be expected that one party +would grow indifferent, and the other suspicious; but the French never +despair: new hordes of patriots prepare to possess themselves of the +places they are forcing the old ones to abandon, and the people, eager +for change, are ready to receive them with the momentary and fallacious +enthusiasm which ever precedes disgrace; while those who are thus +intriguing for power and influence, are, perhaps, secretly devising how +it may be made most subservient to their personal advantage. + +Yet, perhaps, these amiable levities may not be displeasing to the +Constitutional Society and the revolutionists of England; and, as the +very faults of our friends are often endearing to us, they may extend +their indulgence to the "humane" and "liberal" precepts of the Jacobins, +and the massacres of September.--To confess the truth, I am not a little +ashamed for my country when I see addresses from England to a Convention, +the members of which have just been accusing each other of assassination +and robbery, or, in the ardour of a debate, threatening, cuffing, and +knocking each other down. Exclusive of their moral character, considered +only as it appears from their reciprocal criminations, they have so +little pretension to dignity, or even decency, that it seems a mockery to +address them as the political representatives of a powerful nation +deliberating upon important affairs. + +If a bearer of one of these congratulatory compliments were not apprized +of the forms of the House, he would be rather astonished, at his +introduction, to see one member in a menacing attitude, and another +denying his veracity in terms perfectly explicit, though not very civil. +Perhaps, in two minutes, the partizans of each opponent all rise and +clamour, as if preparing for a combat--the President puts on his hat as +the signal of a storm--the subordinate disputants are appeased--and the +revilings of the principal ones renewed; till, after torrents of indecent +language, the quarrel is terminated by a fraternal embrace.*--I think, +after such a scene, an addresser must feel a little humiliated, and would +return without finding his pride greatly increased by his mission. + + * I do not make any assertions of this nature from conjecture or + partial evidence. The journals of the time attest that the scenes I + describe occur almost in every debate.--As a proof, I subjoin some + extracts taken nearly at hazard: + + "January 7th, Convention Nationale, Presidence de Treilhard.--The + debate was opened by an address from the department of Finisterre, + expressing their wishes, and adding, that these were likewise the + wishes of the nation at large--that Marat, Robespierre, Bazire, + Chabot, Merlin, Danton, and their accomplices, might be expelled the + Convention as caballers and intriguers paid by the tyrants at war + with France." + + The account of this debate is thus continued--"The almost daily + troubles which arise in the Convention were on the point of being + renewed, when a member, a friend to order, spoke as follows, and, it + is remarked, was quietly listened to: + + "'Citizens, + + "'If three months of uninterrupted silence has given me any claim to + your attention, I now ask it in the name of our afflicted country. + Were I to continue silent any longer, I should render myself as + culpable as those who never hold their tongues. I see we are all + sensible of the painfulness of our situation. Every day + dissatisfied with ourselves, we come to the debate with the + intention of doing something, and every day we return without having + done any thing. The people expect from us wise laws, and not storms + and tumults. How are we to make these wise laws, and keep + twenty-five millions of people quiet, when we, who are only seven + hundred and fifty individuals, give an example of perpetual riot and + disorder? What signifies our preaching the unity and indivisibility + of the republic, when we cannot maintain peace and union amongst + ourselves? What good can we expect to do amidst such scandalous + disturbances, and while we spend our time in attending to + informations, accusations, and inculpations, for the most part + utterly unfounded? For my part, I see but one means of attaining + any thing like dignity and tranquillity, and that is, by submitting + ourselves to coercive regulations.'" + + Here follow some proposals, tending to establish a little decency in + their proceedings for the future; but the account from whence this + extract is taken proceeds to remark, that this invitation to peace + was no sooner finished, than a new scene of disturbance took place, + to the great loss of their time, and the scandal of all good + citizens. One should imagine, that if ever the Convention could + think it necessary to assume an appearance of dignity, or at least + of seriousness and order, it would be in giving their judgement + relative to the King. Yet, in determining how a series of questions + should be discussed, on the arrangement of which his fate seems much + to have depended, the solemnity of the occasion appears to have had + no weight. It was proposed to begin by that of the appeal to the + people. This was so violently combated, that the Convention would + hear neither party, and were a long time without debating at all. + Petion mounted the tribune, and attempted to restore order; but the + noise was too great for him to be heard. He at length, however, + obtained silence enough to make a motion. Again the murmurs + recommenced. Rabaud de St. Etienne made another attempt, but was + equally unsuccessful. Those that were of an opposite opinion + refused to hear him, and both parties rose up and rushed together to + the middle of the Hall. The most dreadful tumult took place, and + the President, with great difficulty, procured a calm. Again the + storm began, and a member told them, that if they voted in the + affirmative, those on the left side (Robespierre, &c.) would not + wait the result, but have the King assassinated. "Yes! Yes! + (resounded from all parts) the Scelerats of Paris will murder him!" + --Another violent disorder ensuing, it was thought no decree could + be passed, and, at length, amidst this scene of riot and confusion, + the order of questions was arranged, and in such a manner as to + decide the fate of the King.--It was determined, that the question + of his guilt should precede that of the appeal to the people. Had + the order of the questions been changed, the King might have been + saved, for many would have voted for the appeal in the first + instance who did not dare do it when they found the majority + resolved to pronounce him guilty. + +It is very remarkable, that, on the same day on which the friends of +liberty and equality of Manchester signalized themselves by a most +patriotic compliment to the Convention, beginning with _"Francais, vous +etes libres,"_ ["Frenchmen, you are free."] they were, at that very +moment, employed in discussing a petition from numbers of Parisians who +had been thrown into prison without knowing either their crime or their +accusers, and were still detained under the same arbitrary +circumstances.--The law of the constitution is, that every person +arrested shall be interrogated within twenty-four hours; but as these +imprisonments were the work of the republican Ministers, the Convention +seemed to think it indelicate to interpose, and these citizens of a +country whose freedom is so much envied by the Manchester Society, will +most likely remain in durance as long as their confinement shall be +convenient to those who have placed them there.--A short time after, +Villette, who is a news-writer and deputy, was cited to appear before the +municipality of Paris, under the charge of having inserted in his paper +"equivocal phrases and anti-civic expressions, tending to diminish the +confidence due to the municipality."--Villette, as being a member of the +Convention, obtained redress; but had he been only a journalist, the +liberty of the press would not have rescued him.--On the same day, +complaint was made in the Assembly, that one man had been arrested +instead of another, and confined for some weeks, and it was agreed +unanimously, (a thing that does not often occur,) that the powers +exercised by the Committee of Inspection [Surveillance.--See Debates, +December.] were incompatible with liberty. + +The patriots of Belfast were not more fortunate in the adaption of their +civilities--they addressed the Convention, in a strain of great piety, to +congratulate them on the success of their arms in the "cause of civil and +religious liberty."* + + * At this time the municipalities were empowered to search all + houses by night or day; but their visites domiciliaires, as they are + called, being made chiefly in the night, a decree has since ordained + that they shall take place only during the day. Perhaps an + Englishman may think the latter quite sufficient, considering that + France is the freeest country in the world, and, above all, a + republic. + +The harangue was interrupted by the _mal-a-propos_ entrance of two +deputies, who complained of having been beaten, almost hanged, and half +drowned, by the people of Chartres, for belonging, as they were told, to +an assembly of atheistical persecutors of religion; and this Convention, +whom the Society of Belfast admire for propagating "religious liberty" in +other countries, were in a few days humbly petitioned, from various +departments, not to destroy it in their own. I cannot, indeed, suppose +they have really such a design; but the contempt with which they treat +religion has occasioned an alarm, and given the French an idea of their +piety very different from that so kindly conceived by the patriots of +Belfast. + +I entrust this to our friend Mrs. ____, who is leaving France in a few +days; and as we are now on the eve of a war, it will be the last letter +you will receive, except a few lines occasionally on our private affairs, +or to inform you of my health. As we cannot, in the state Mrs. D____ is +in, think of returning to England at present, we must trust ourselves to +the hospitality of the French for at least a few weeks, and I certainly +will not abuse it, by sending any remarks on their political affairs out +of the country. But as I know you interest yourself much in the subject, +and read with partiality my attempts to amuse you, I will continue to +throw my observations on paper as regularly as I have been accustomed to +do, and I hope, ere long, to be the bearer of the packets myself. I here +also renew my injunction, that no part of my correspondence that relates +to French politics be communicated to any one, not even my mother. What +I have written has been merely to gratify your own curiosity, and I +should be extremely mortified if my opinions were repeated even in the +little circle of our private acquaintance. I deem myself perfectly +justifiable in imparting my reflections to you, but I have a sort of +delicacy that revolts at the thought of being, in the remotest degree, +accessary to conveying intelligence from a country in which I reside, +and which is so peculiarly situated as France is at this moment. My +feelings, my humanity, are averse from those who govern, but I should +regret to be the means of injuring them. You cannot mistake my +intentions, and I conclude by seriously reminding you of the promise I +exacted previous to any political discussion.--Adieu. + + + + +Amiens, February 15, 1793. + +I did not, as I promised, write immediately on my return from Chantilly; +the person by whom I intended to send my letter having already set out +for England, and the rule I have observed for the last three months of +entrusting nothing to the post but what relates to our family affairs, +is now more than ever necessary. I have before requested, and I must now +insist, that you make no allusion to any political matter whatever, nor +even mention the name of any political person. Do not imagine that you +are qualified to judge of what is prudent, or what may be written with +safety--I repeat, no one in England can form an idea of the suspicion +that pervades every part of the French government. + +I cannot venture to answer decisively your question respecting the King-- +indeed the subject is so painful to me, that I have hitherto avoided +reverting to it. There certainly was, as you observe, some sudden +alteration in the dispositions of the Assembly between the end of the +trial and the final judgement. The causes were most probably various, +and must be sought for in the worst vices of our nature--cruelty, +avarice, and cowardice. Many, I doubt not, were guided only by the +natural malignity of their hearts; many acted from fear, and expected to +purchase impunity for former compliances with the court by this popular +expiation; a large number are also supposed to have been paid by the Duke +of Orleans--whether for the gratification of malice or ambition, time +must develope.--But, whatever were the motives, the result was an +iniquitous combination of the worst of a set of men, before selected from +all that was bad in the nation, to profane the name of justice--to +sacrifice an unfortunate, but not a guilty Prince--and to fix an +indelible stain on the country. + +Among those who gave their opinion at large, you will observe Paine: and, +as I intimated in a former letter, it seems he was at that time rather +allured by the vanity of making a speech that should be applauded, than +by any real desire of injuring the King. Such vanity, however, is not +pardonable: a man has a right to ruin himself, or to make himself +ridiculous; but when his vanity becomes baneful to others, as it has all +the effect, so does it merit the punishment, of vice. + +Of all the rest, Condorcet has most powerfully disgusted me. The avowed +wickedness of Thuriot or Marat inspires one with horror; but this cold +philosophic hypocrite excites contempt as well as detestation. He seems +to have wavered between a desire to preserve the reputation of humanity, +which he has affected, and that of gratifying the real depravity of his +mind. Would one have expected, that a speech full of benevolent systems, +mild sentiments, and aversion from the effusion of human blood, was to +end in a vote for, and recommendation of, the immediate execution of his +sovereign?--But such a conduct is worthy of him, who has repaid the +benefits of his patron and friend [The Duke de la Rochefaucault.] by a +persecution which ended in his murder. + +You will have seen, that the King made some trifling requests to be +granted after his decease, and that the Convention ordered him to be +told, that the nation, "always great, always just," accorded them in +part. Yet this just and magnanimous people refused him a preparation of +only three days, and allowed him but a few hours--suffered his remains to +be treated with the most scandalous indecency--and debated seriously, +whether or no the Queen should receive some little tokens of affection he +had left for her. + +The King's enemies had so far succeeded in depreciating his personal +courage, that even his friends were apprehensive he might not sustain his +last moments with dignity. The event proves how much injustice has been +done him in this respect, as well as in many others. His behaviour was +that of a man who derived his fortitude from religion--it was that of +pious resignation, not ostentatious courage; it was marked by none of +those instances of levity and indifference which, at such a time, are +rather symptoms of distraction than resolution; he exhibited the +composure of an innocent mind, and the seriousness that became the +occasion; he seemed to be occupied in preparing for death, but not to +fear it.--I doubt not but the time will come, when those who have +sacrificed him may envy the last moments of Louis the Sixteenth! + +That the King was not guilty of the principal charges brought against +him, has been proved indubitably--not altogether by the assertions of +those who favour him, but by the confession of his enemies. He was, for +example, accused of planning the insurrection of the tenth of August; yet +not a day passes that both parties in the Convention are not disputing +the priority of their efforts to dethrone him, and to erect a republic; +and they date their machinations long before the period on which they +attribute the first aggression to the King.--Mr. Sourdat, and several +other writers, have very ably demonstrated the falsehood of these +charges; but the circulation of such pamphlets was dangerous--of course, +secret and limited; while those which tended to deceive and prejudice the +people were dispersed with profusion, at the expence of the government.* + + * Postscript of the Courier de l'Egalite, Sept. 29: + + "The present minister (Rolland) takes every possible means in his + power to enlighten and inform the people in whatever concerns their + real interests. For this purpose he has caused to be printed and + distributed, in abundance, the accounts and papers relative to the + events of the tenth of August. We have yet at our office a small + number of these publications, which we have distributed to our + subscribers, and we still give them to any of our fellow-citizens + who have opportunities of circulating them." + +I have seen one of these written in coarse language, and replete with +vulgar abuse, purposely calculated for the lower classes in the country, +who are more open to gross impositions than those of the same rank in +towns; yet I have no doubt, in my own mind, that all these artifices +would have proved unavailing, had the decision been left to the nation at +large: but they were intimidated, if not convinced; and the mandate of +the Convention, which forbids this sovereign people to exercise their +judgement, was obeyed with as much submission, and perhaps more +reluctance, than an edict of Louis the fourteenth.* + + * The King appealed, by his counsel, to the People; but the + convention, by a decree, declared his appeal of no validity, and + forbade all persons to pay attention to it, under the severest + penalties. + +The French seem to have no energy but to destroy, and to resist nothing +but gentleness or infancy. They bend under a firm or oppressive +administration, but become restless and turbulent under a mild Prince or +a minority. + +The fate of this unfortunate Monarch has made me reflect, with great +seriousness, on the conduct of our opposition-writers in England. The +literary banditti who now govern France began their operations by +ridiculing the King's private character--from ridicule they proceeded to +calumny, and from calumny to treason; and perhaps the first libel that +degraded him in the eyes of his subjects opened the path from the palace +to the scaffold.--I do not mean to attribute the same pernicious +intentions to the authors on your side the Channel, as I believe them, +for the most part, to be only mercenary, and that they would write +panegyrics as soon as satires, were they equally profitable. I know too, +that there is no danger of their producing revolutions in England--we do +not suffer our principles to be corrupted by a man because he has the art +of rhyming nothings into consequence, nor suffer another to overturn the +government because he is an orator. Yet, though these men may not be +very mischievous, they are very reprehensible; and, in a moment like the +present, contempt and neglect should supply the place of that punishment +against which our liberty of the press secures them. + +It is not for a person no better informed than myself to pronounce on +systems of government--still less do I affect to have more enlarged +notions than the generality of mankind; but I may, without risking those +imputations, venture to say, I have no childish or irrational deference +for the persons of Kings. I know they are not, by nature, better than +other men, and a neglected or vicious education may often render them +worse. This does not, however, make me less respect the office. I +respect it as the means chosen by the people to preserve internal peace +and order--to banish corruption and petty tyrants ["And fly from petty +tyrants to the throne."--Goldsmith]--and give vigour to the execution of +the laws. + +Regarded in this point of view, I cannot but lament the mode which has +lately prevailed of endeavouring to alienate the consideration due to our +King's public character, by personal ridicule. If an individual were +attacked in this manner, his house beset with spies, his conversation +with his family listened to, and the most trifling actions of his life +recorded, it would be deemed unfair and illiberal, and he who should +practice such meanness would be thought worthy of no punishment more +respectful than what might be inflicted by an oaken censor, or an +admonitory heel.--But it will be said, a King is not an individual, and +that such a habit, or such an amusement, is beneath the dignity of his +character. Yet would it be but consistent in those who labour to prove, +by the public acts of Kings, that they are less than men, not to exact, +that, in their private lives, they should be more.--The great prototype +of modern satyrists, Junius, does not allow that any credit should be +given a Monarch for his domestic virtues; is he then to be reduced to an +individual, only to scrutinize his foibles, and is his station to serve +only as the medium of their publicity? Are these literary miners to +penetrate the recesses of private life, only to bring to light the dross? +Do they analyse only to discover poisons? Such employments may be +congenial to their natures, but have little claim to public remuneration. +The merit of a detractor is not much superior to that of a flatterer; nor +is a Prince more likely to be amended by imputed follies, than by +undeserved panegyrics. If any man wished to represent his King +advantageously, it could not be done better than by remarking, that, +after all the watchings of assiduous necessity, and the laborious +researches of interested curiosity, it appears, that his private life +affords no other subjects of ridicule than, that he is temperate, +domestic, and oeconomical, and, as is natural to an active mind, wishes +to be informed of whatever happens not to be familiar to him. It were to +be desired that some of these accusations were applicable to those who +are so much scandalized at them: but they are not littlenesses--the +littleness is in him who condescends to report them; and I have often +wondered that men of genius should make a traffic of gleaning from the +refuse of anti-chambers, and retailing the anecdotes of pages and +footmen! + +You will perceive the kind of publications I allude to; and I hope the +situation of France, and the fate of its Monarch, may suggest to the +authors a more worthy employ of their talents, than that of degrading the +executive power in the eyes of the people. + + + + +Amiens, Feb. 25, 1793. + +I told you, I believe, in a former letter, that the people of Amiens were +all aristocrates: they have, nevertheless, two extremely popular +qualifications--I mean filth and incivility. I am, however, far from +imputing either of them to the revolution. This grossness of behavior +has long existed under the palliating description of _"la franchise +Picarde,"_ ["Picardy frankness."] and the floors and stairs of many +houses will attest their preeminence in filth to be of a date much +anterior to the revolution.--If you purchase to the amount of an hundred +livres, there are many shopkeepers who will not send your purchases home; +and if the articles they show you do not answer your purpose, they are +mostly sullen, and often rude. No appearance of fatigue or infirmity +suggests to them the idea of offering you a seat; they contradict you +with impertinence, address you with freedom, and conclude with cheating +you if they can. It was certainly on this account that Sterne would not +agree to die at the inn at Amiens. He might, with equal justice, have +objected to any other house; and I am sure if he thought them an +unpleasant people to die amongst, he would have found them still worse to +live with.--My observation as to the civility of aristocrates does not +hold good here--indeed I only meant that those who ever had any, and were +aristocrates, still preserved it. + +Amiens has always been a commercial town, inhabited by very few of the +higher noblesse; and the mere gentry of a French province are not very +much calculated to give a tone of softness and respect to those who +imitate them. You may, perhaps, be surprized that I should express +myself with little consideration for a class which, in England, is so +highly respectable: there gentlemen of merely independent circumstances +are not often distinguishable in their manners from those of superior +fortune or rank. But, in France, it is different: the inferior noblesse +are stiff, ceremonious, and ostentatious; while the higher ranks were +always polite to strangers, and affable to their dependents. When you +visit some of the former, you go through as many ceremonies as though you +were to be invested with an order, and rise up and sit down so many +times, that you return more fatigued than you would from a cricket match; +while with the latter you are just as much at your ease as is consistent +with good breeding and propriety, and a whole circle is never put in +commotion at the entrance and exit of every individual who makes part of +it. Any one not prepared for these formalities, and who, for the first +time, saw an assembly of twenty people all rising from their seats at the +entrance of a single beau, would suppose they were preparing for a dance, +and that the new comer was a musician. For my part I always find it an +oeconomy of strength (when the locality makes it practicable) to take +possession of a window, and continue standing in readiness until the hour +of visiting is over, and calm is established by the arrangement of the +card tables.--The revolution has not annihilated the difference of rank; +though it has effected the abolition of titles; and I counsel all who +have remains of the gout or inflexible joints, not to frequent the houses +of ladies whose husbands have been ennobled only by their offices, of +those whose genealogies are modern, or of the collaterals of ancient +families, whose claims are so far removed as to be doubtful. The society +of all these is very exigent, and to be avoided by the infirm or +indolent. + +I send you with this a little collection of airs which I think you will +find very agreeable. The French music has not, perhaps, all the +reputation it is entitled to. Rousseau has declared it to be nothing but +doleful psalmodies; Gray calls a French concert "Une tintamarre de +diable:" and the prejudices inspired by these great names are not easily +obliterated. We submit our judgement to theirs, even when our taste is +refractory.--The French composers seem to excel in marches, in lively +airs that abound in striking passages calculated for the popular taste, +and yet more particularly in those simple melodies they call romances: +they are often in a very charming and singular style, without being +either so delicate or affecting as the Italian. They have an expression +of plaintive tenderness, which makes one tranquil rather than melancholy; +and which, though it be more soothing than interesting, is very +delightful.--Yours, &c. + + + + +Amiens, 1793. + +I have been to-day to take a last view of the convents: they are now +advertised for sale, and will probably soon be demolished. You know my +opinion is not, on the whole, favourable to these institutions, and that +I thought the decree which extinguishes them, but which secured to the +religious already profest the undisturbed possession of their habitations +during life, was both politic and humane. Yet I could not see the +present state of these buildings without pain--they are now inhabited by +volunteers, who are passing a novitiate of intemperance and idleness, +previous to their reception in the army; and those who recollect the +peace and order that once reigned within the walls of a monastery, cannot +but be stricken with the contrast. I felt both for the expelled and +present possessors, and, perhaps, gave a mental preference to the +superstition which founded such establishments, over the persecution that +destroys them. + +The resigned and pious votaries, who once supposed themselves secure from +all the vicissitudes of fortune, and whose union seemed dissoluble only +by the common lot of mortality, are now many of them dispersed, +wandering, friendless, and miserable. The religion which they cherished +as a comfort, and practised as a duty, is now pursued as a crime; and it +is not yet certain that they will not have to choose between an +abjuration of their principles, and the relinquishment of the means of +existence.--The military occupiers offered nothing very alleviating to +such unpleasant reflections; and I beheld with as much regret the +collection of these scattered individuals, as the separation of those +whose habitations they fill. They are most of them extremely young, +taken from villages and the service of agriculture, and are going to risk +their lives in a cause detested perhaps by more than three parts of the +nation, and only to secure impunity to its oppressors. + +It has usually been a maxim in all civilized states, that when the +general welfare necessitates some act of partial injustice, it shall be +done with the utmost consideration for the sufferer, and that the +required sacrifice of moral to political expediency shall be palliated, +as much as the circumstances will admit, by the manner of carrying it +into execution. But the French legislators, in this respect, as in most +others, truly original, disdain all imitation, and are rarely guided by +such confined motives. With them, private rights are frequently +violated, only to facilitate the means of public oppressions--and cruel +and iniquitous decrees are rendered still more so by the mode of +enforcing them. + +I have met with no person who could conceive the necessity of expelling +the female religious from their convents. It was, however, done, and +that with a mixture of meanness and barbarity which at once excites +contempt and detestation. The ostensible, reasons were, that these +communities afforded an asylum to the superstitious, and that by their +entire suppression, a sale of the houses would enable the nation to +afford the religious a more liberal support than had been assigned them +by the Constituent Assembly. But they are shallow politicians who expect +to destroy superstition by persecuting those who practise it: and so far +from adding, as the decree insinuates, to the pensions of the nuns, they +have now subjected them to an oath which, to those at least whose +consciences are timid, will act as a prohibition to their receiving what +they were before entitled to. + +The real intention of the legislature in thus entirely dispersing the +female religious, besides the general hatred of every thing connected +with religion, is, to possess itself of an additional resource in the +buildings and effects, and, as is imagined by some, to procure numerous +and convenient state prisons. But, I believe, the latter is only an +aristocratic apprehension, suggested by the appropriation of the convents +to this use in a few places, where the ancient prisons are full.-- +Whatever purpose it is intended to answer, it has been effected in a way +disgraceful to any national body, except such a body as the Convention; +and, though it be easy to perceive the cruelty of such a measure, yet as, +perhaps, its injustice may not strike you so forcibly as if you had had +the same opportunities of investigating it as I have, I will endeavour to +explain, as well as I can, the circumstances that render it so peculiarly +aggravated. + +I need not remind you, that no order is of very modern foundation, nor +that the present century has, in a great degree, exploded the fashion of +compounding for sins by endowing religious institutions. Thus, +necessarily, by the great change which has taken place in the expence of +living, many establishments that were poorly endowed must have become +unable to support themselves, but for the efforts of those who were +attached to them. It is true, that the rent of land has increased as its +produce became more valuable; but every one knows that the lands +dependent on religious houses have always been let on such moderate +terms, as by no means to bear a proportion to the necessities they were +intended to supply; and as the monastic vows have long ceased to be the +frequent choice of the rich, little increase has been made to the +original stock by the accession of new votaries:--yet, under all these +disadvantages, many societies have been able to rebuild their houses, +embellish their churches, purchase plate, &c. &c. The love of their +order, that spirit of oeconomy for which they are remarkable, and a +persevering industry, had their usual effects, and not only banished +poverty, but became a source of wealth. An indefatigable labour at such +works as could be profitably disposed of, the education of children, and +the admission of boarders, were the means of enriching a number of +convents, whose proper revenues would not have afforded them even a +subsistence. + +But the fruits of active toil or voluntary privation, have been +confounded with those of expiatory bequest and mistaken devotion, and +have alike become the prey of a rapacious and unfeeling government. Many +communities are driven from habitations built absolutely with the produce +of their own labour. In some places they were refused even their beds +and linen; and the stock of wood, corn, &c. provided out of the savings +of their pensions, (understood to be at their own disposal,) have been +seized, and sold, without making them the smallest compensation. + +Thus deprived of every thing, they are sent into the world with a +prohibition either to live several of them together, wear their habits,* +or practise their religion; yet their pensions** are too small for them +to live upon, except in society, or to pay the usual expence of boarding: +many of them have no other means of procuring secular dresses, and still +more will imagine themselves criminal in abstaining from the mode of +worship they have been taught to think salutary. + + * Two religious, who boarded with a lady I had occasion to see + sometimes, told me, that they had been strictly enjoined not to + dress like each other in any way. + + ** The pensions are from about seventeen to twenty-five pounds + sterling per annum.--At the time I am writing, the necessaries of + life are increased in price nearly two-fifths of what they bore + formerly, and are daily becoming dearer. The Convention are not + always insensible to this--the pay of the foot soldier is more than + doubled. + +It is also to be remembered, that women of small fortune in France often +embraced the monastic life as a frugal retirement, and, by sinking the +whole they were possessed of in this way, they expected to secure a +certain provision, and to place themselves beyond the reach of future +vicissitudes: yet, though the sums paid on these occasions can be easily +ascertained, no indemnity has been made; and many will be obliged to +violate their principles, in order to receive a trifling pension, perhaps +much less than the interest of their money would have produced without +loss of the principal. + +But the views of these legislating philosophers are too sublimely +extensive to take in the wrongs or sufferings of contemporary +individuals; and not being able to disguise, even to themselves, that +they create much misery at present, they promise incalculable advantages +to those who shall happen to be alive some centuries hence! Most of +these poor nuns are, however, of an age to preclude them from the hope of +enjoying this Millennium; and they would have been content en attendant +these glorious times, not to be deprived of the necessaries of life, or +marked out as objects of persecution. + +The private distresses occasioned by the dissolution of the convents are +not the only consequences to be regretted--for a time, at least, the loss +must certainly be a public one. There will now be no means of +instruction for females, nor any refuge for those who are without friends +or relations: thousands of orphans must be thrown unprotected on the +world, and guardians, or single men, left with the care of children, have +no way to dispose of them properly. I do not contend that the education +of a convent is the best possible: yet are there many advantages +attending it; and I believe it will readily be granted, that an education +not quite perfect is better than no education at all. It would not be +very difficult to prove, that the systems of education, both in England +and France, are extremely defective; and if the characters of women are +generally better formed in one than the other, it is not owing to the +superiority of boarding-schools over convents, but to the difference of +our national manners, which tend to produce qualities not necessary, or +not valued, in France. + +The most distinguished female excellencies in England are an attachment +to domestic life, an attention to its oeconomies, and a cultivated +understanding. Here, any thing like house-wifery is not expected but +from the lower classes, and reading or information is confined chiefly to +professed wits. Yet the qualities so much esteemed in England are not +the effect of education: few domestic accomplishments, and little useful +knowledge, are acquired at a boarding-school; but finally the national +character asserts its empire, and the female who has gone through a +course of frivolities from six to sixteen, who has been taught that the +first "human principle" should be to give an elegant tournure to her +person, after a few years' dissipation, becomes a good wife and mother, +and a rational companion. + +In France, young women are kept in great seclusion: religion and oeconomy +form a principal part of conventual acquirements, and the natural vanity +of the sex is left to develope itself without the aid of authority, or +instillation by precept--yet, when released from this sober tuition, +manners take the ascendant here as in England, and a woman commences at +her marriage the aera of coquetry, idleness, freedom, and rouge.--We may +therefore, I think, venture to conclude, that the education of a +boarding-school is better calculated for the rich, that of a convent for +the middle classes and the poor; and, consequently, that the suppression +of this last in France will principally affect those to whom it was most +beneficial, and to whom the want of it will be most dangerous. + +A committee of wise men are now forming a plan of public instruction, +which is to excel every thing ever adopted in any age or country; and we +may therefore hope that the defects which have hitherto prevailed, both +in theirs and our own, will be remedied. All we have to apprehend is, +that, amidst so many wise heads, more than one wise plan may be produced, +and a difficulty of choice keep the rising generation in a sort of +abeyance, so that they must remain sterile, or may become vitiated, while +it is determining in what manner they shall be cultivated. + +It is almost a phrase to say, the resources of France are wonderful, and +this is no less true than generally admitted. Whatever be the want or +loss, it is no sooner known than supplied, and the imagination of the +legislature seems to become fertile in proportion to the exigence of the +moment.--I was in some pain at the disgrace of Mirabeau, lest this new +kind of retrospective judgement should depopulate the Pantheon of the few +divinities that remained; more especially when I considered that +Voltaire, notwithstanding his merits as an enemy to revelation, had been +already accused of aristocracy, and even Rousseau himself might not be +found impeccable. His Contrat Social might not, perhaps, in the eyes of +a committee of philosophical Rhadmanthus's, atone for his occasional +admiration of christianity: and thus some crime, either of church or +state, disfranchise the whole race of immortals, and their fame scarcely +outlast the dispute about their earthly remains.* + + * Alluding to the disputes between the Convention and the person who + claimed the exclusive right to the remains of Rousseau. + +My concern, on this account, was the more justifiable, because the great +fallibility which prevailed among the patriots, and the very delicate +state of the reputation of those who retained their political existence, +afforded no hope that they could ever fill the vacancies in the +Pantheon.--But my fears were very superfluous--France will never want +subjects for an apotheosis, and if one divinity be dethroned, "another +and another still succeeds," all equally worthy as long as they continue +in fashion.--The phrenzy of despair has supplied a successor to Mirabeau, +in Le Pelletier. [De St. Fargeau.] The latter had hitherto been little +heard of, but his death offered an occasion for exciting the people too +favourable to be neglected: his patriotism and his virtues immediately +increased in a ratio to the use which might be made of them;* a dying +speech proper for the purpose was composed, and it was decreed +unanimously, that he should be installed in all the rights, privileges, +and immortalities of the degraded Riquetti.-- + + * At the first intelligence of his death, a member of the + Convention, who was with him, and had not yet had time to study a + speech, confessed his last words to have been, "Jai froid."--"I am + cold." This, however, would nave made no figure on the banners of a + funeral procession; and Le Pelletier was made to die, like the hero + of a tragedy, uttering blank verse. + +The funeral that preceded these divine awards was a farce, which tended +more to provoke a massacre of the living, than to honour the dead; and +the Convention, who vowed to sacrifice their animosities on his tomb, do +so little credit to the conciliating influence of St. Fargeau's virtues, +that they now dispute with more acrimony than ever. + +The departments, who begin to be extremely submissive to Paris, thought +it incumbent on them to imitate this ceremony; but as it was rather an +act of fear than of patriotism, it was performed here with so much +oeconomy, and so little inclination, that the whole was cold and paltry. +--An altar was erected on the great market-place, and so little were the +people affected by the catastrophe of a patriot whom they were informed +had sacrificed* his life in their cause, that the only part of the +business which seemed to interest them was the extravagant gestures of a +woman in a dirty white dress, hired to act the part of a "pleureuse," or +mourner, and whose sorrow appeared to divert them infinitely.-- + + * There is every reason to believe that Le Pelletier was not singled + out for his patriotism.--It is said, and with much appearance of + probability, that he had promised PARIS, with whom he had been + intimate, not to vote for the death of the King; and, on his + breaking his word, PARIS, who seems to have not been perfectly in + his senses, assassinated him.--PARIS had been in the Garde du Corps, + and, like most of his brethren, was strongly attached to the King's + person. Rage and despair prompted him to the commission of an act, + which can never be excused, however the perpetrator may imagine + himself the mere instrument of Divine vengeance.--Notwithstanding + the most vigilant research, he escaped for some time, and wandered + as far as Forges d'Eaux, a little town in Normandy. At the inn + where he lodged, the extravagance of his manner giving suspicions + that he was insane, the municipality were applied to, to secure him. + An officer entered his room while he was in bed, and intimated the + purpose he was come for. PARIS affected to comply, and, turning, + drew a pistol from under the clothes, and shot himself.--Among the + papers found upon him were some affecting lines, expressive of his + contempt for life, and adding, that the influence of his example was + not to be dreaded, since he left none behind him that deserved the + name of Frenchmen!--_"Qu'on n'inquiete personne! personne n'a ete + mon complice dans la mort heureuse de Scelerat St. Fargeau. Si Je + ne l'eusse pas rencontre sous ma main, Je purgeois la France du + regicide, du parricide, du patricide D'Orleans. Qu'on n'inquiete + personne. Tous les Francois sont des laches auxquelles Je dis-- + + "Peuple, dont les forfaits jettent partout l'effroi, + "Avec calme et plaisir J'abandonne la vie + "Ce n'est que par la mort qu'on peut fuir l'infamie, + "Qu'imprime sur nos fronts le sang de notre Roi."_ + + "Let no man be molested on my account: I had no accomplice in the + fortunate death of the miscreant St. Fargeau. If he had not fallen + in my way, I should have purged France of the regicide, parricide, + patricide D'Orleans. Let no man be molested. All the French are + cowards, to whom I say--'People, whose crimes inspire universal + horror, I quit life with tranquility and pleasure. By death alone + can we fly from that infamy which the blood of our King has marked + upon our foreheads!'"--This paper was entitled "My Brevet of + Honour." + +It will ever be so where the people are not left to consult their own +feelings. The mandate that orders them to assemble may be obeyed, but +"that which passeth show" is not to be enforced. It is a limit +prescribed by Nature herself to authority, and such is the aversion of +the human mind from dictature and restraint, that here an official +rejoicing is often more serious than these political exactions of regret +levied in favour of the dead.--Yours, &c. &c. + + + + +March 23, 1793. + +The partizans of the French in England alledge, that the revolution, by +giving them a government founded on principles of moderation and +rectitude, will be advantageous to all Europe, and more especially to +Great Britain, which has so often suffered by wars, the fruit of their +intrigues.--This reasoning would be unanswerable could the character of +the people be changed with the form of their government: but, I believe, +whoever examines its administration, whether as it relates to foreign +powers or internal policy, will find that the same spirit of intrigue, +fraud, deception, and want of faith, which dictated in the cabinet of +Mazarine or Louvois, has been transfused, with the addition of meanness +and ignorance,* into a Constitutional Ministry, or the Republican +Executive Council. + + * The Executive Council is composed of men who, if ever they were + well-intentioned, must be totally unfit for the government of an + extensive republic. Monge, the Minister of the Marine, is a + professor of geometry; Garat, Minister of Justice, a gazette writer; + Le Brun, Minister of Foreign Affairs, ditto; and Pache, Minister of + the Interior, a private tutor.--Whoever reads the debates of the + Convention will find few indications of real talents, and much + pedantry and ignorance. For example, Anacharsis Cloots, who is a + member of the Committee of Public Instruction, and who one should, + of course, expect not to be more ignorant than his colleagues, has + lately advised them to distress the enemy by invading Scotland, + which he calls the granary of England. + +France had not yet determined on the articles of her future political +creed, when agents were dispatched to make proselytes in England, and, in +proportion as she assumed a more popular form of government, all the +qualities which have ever marked her as the disturber of mankind seem to +have acquired new force. Every where the ambassadors of the republic are +accused of attempts to excite revolt and discontent, and England* is now +forced into a war because she could not be persuaded to an insurrection. + + * For some time previous to the war, all the French prints and even + members of the Convention, in their debates, announced England to be + on the point of an insurrection. The intrigues of Chauvelin, their + ambassador, to verify this prediction, are well known. Brissot, Le + Brun, &c. who have since been executed, were particularly charged by + the adverse party with provoking the war with England. Robespierre, + and those who succeeded, were not so desirous of involving us in a + foreign war, and their humane efforts were directed merely to excite + a civil one.--The third article of accusation against Rolland is, + having sent twelve millions of livres to England, to assist in + procuring a declaration of war. + +Perhaps it may be said, that the French have taken this part only for +their own security, and to procure adherents to the common cause; but +this is all I contend for--that the politics of the old government +actuate the new, and that they have not, in abolishing courts and +royalty, abolished the perfidious system of endeavouring to benefit +themselves, by creating distress and dissention among their neighbours.-- +Louvois supplied the Protestants in the Low Countries with money, while +he persecuted them in France. The agents of the republic, more +oeconomical, yet directed by the same motives, eke out corruption by +precepts of sedition, and arm the leaders of revolt with the rights of +man; but, forgetting the maxim that charity should begin at home, in +their zeal for the freedom of other countries, they leave no portion of +it for their own! + +Louis the Fourteenth over-ran Holland and the Palatinate to plant the +white flag, and lay the inhabitants under contribution--the republic send +an army to plant the tree of liberty, levy a _don patriotique,_ +[Patriotic gift.] and place garrisons in the towns, in order to preserve +their freedom.--Kings have violated treaties from the desire of conquest +--these virtuous republicans do it from the desire of plunder; and, +previous to opening the Scheldt, the invasion of Holland, was proposed as +a means of paying the expences of the war. I have never heard that even +the most ambitious Potentates ever pretended to extend their subjugation +beyond the persons and property of the conquered; but these militant +dogmatists claim an empire even over opinions, and insist that no people +can be free or happy unless they regulate their ideas of freedom and +happiness by the variable standard of the Jacobin club. Far from being +of Hudibras's philosophy,* they seem to think the mind as tangible as the +body, and that, with the assistance of an army, they may as soon lay one +"by the heels" as the other. + + * "Quoth he, one half of man, his mind, + "Is, sui juris, unconfin'd, + "And ne'er can be laid by the heels, + "Whate'er the other moiety feels." + + Hudibras. + +Now this I conceive to be the worst of all tyrannies, nor have I seen it +exceeded on the French theatre, though, within the last year, the +imagination of their poets has been peculiarly ingenious and inventive on +this subject.--It is absurd to suppose this vain and overbearing +disposition will cease when the French government is settled. The +intrigues of the popular party began in England the very moment they +attained power, and long before there was any reason to suspect that the +English would deviate from their plan of neutrality. If, then, the +French cannot restrain this mischievous spirit while their own affairs +are sufficient to occupy their utmost attention, it is natural to +conclude, that, should they once become established, leisure and peace +will make them dangerous to the tranquillity of all Europe. Other +governments may be improved by time, but republics always degenerate; and +if that which is in its original state of perfection exhibit already the +maturity of vice, one cannot, without being more credulous than +reasonable, hope any thing better for the future than what we have +experienced from the past.--It is, indeed, unnecessary to detain you +longer on this subject. You must, ere now, be perfectly convinced how +far the revolutionary systems of France are favourable to the peace and +happiness of other countries. I will only add a few details which may +assist you in judging of what advantage they have been to the French +themselves, and whether, in changing the form of their government, they +have amended its principles; or if, in "conquering liberty," (as they +express it,) they have really become free. + +The situation of France has altered much within the last two months: the +seat of power is less fluctuating and the exercise of it more absolute-- +arbitrary measures are no longer incidental, but systematic--and a +regular connection of dependent tyranny is established, beginning with +the Jacobin clubs, and ending with the committees of the sections. A +simple decree for instance, has put all the men in the republic, +(unmarried and without children,) from eighteen to forty-five at the +requisition of the Minister of War. A levy of three hundred thousand is +to take place immediately: each department is responsible for the whole +of a certain number to the Convention, the districts are answerable for +their quota to the departments, the municipalities to the district, and +the diligence of the whole is animated by itinerant members of the +legislature, entrusted with the disposal of an armed force. The latter +circumstance may seem to you incredible; yet is it nevertheless true, +that most of the departments are under the jurisdiction of these +sovereigns, whose authority is nearly unlimited. We have, at this +moment, two Deputies in the town, who arrest and imprison at their +pleasure. One-and-twenty inhabitants of Amiens were seized a few nights +ago, without any specific charge having been exhibited against them, and +are still in confinement. The gates of the town are shut, and no one is +permitted to pass or repass without an order from the municipality; and +the observance of this is exacted even of those who reside in the +suburbs. Farmers and country people, who are on horseback, are obliged +to have the features and complexion of their horses minuted on the +passport with their own. Every person whom it is found convenient to +call suspicious, is deprived of his arms; and private houses are +disturbed during the night, (in opposition to a positive law,) under +pretext of searching for refractory priests.--These regulations are not +peculiar to this department, and you must understand them as conveying a +general idea of what passes in every part of France.--I have yet to add, +that letters are opened with impunity--that immense sums of assignats are +created at the will of the Convention--that no one is excused mounting +guard in person--and that all housekeepers, and even lodgers, are +burthened with the quartering of troops, sometimes as many as eight or +ten, for weeks together. + +You may now, I think, form a tolerable idea of the liberty that has +accrued to the French from the revolution, the dethronement of the King, +and the establishment of a republic. But, though the French suffer this +despotism without daring to murmur openly, many a significant shrug and +doleful whisper pass in secret, and this political discontent has even +its appropriate language, which, though not very explicit, is perfectly +understood.--Thus when you hear one man say to another, _"Ah, mon Dieu, +on est bien malheureux dans ce moment ici;"_ or, _"Nous sommes dans une +position tres critique--Je voudrois bien voir la fin de tout cela;"_ +["God knows, we are very miserable at present--we are in a very critical +situation--I should like to see an end of all this."] you may be sure he +languishes for the restoration of the monarchy, and hopes with equal +fervor, that he may live to see the Convention hanged. In these sort of +conferences, however, evaporates all their courage. They own their +country is undone, that they are governed by a set of brigands, go home +and hide any set of valuables they have not already secreted, and receive +with obsequious complaisance the next visite domiciliaire. + +The mass of the people, with as little energy, have more obstinacy, and +are, of course, not quite so tractable. But, though they grumble and +procrastinate, they do not resist; and their delays and demurs usually +terminate in implicit submission. + +The Deputy-commissioners, whom I have mentioned above, have been at +Amiens some time, in order to promote the levying of recruits. On +Sundays and holidays they summoned the inhabitants to attend at the +cathedral, where they harangued them on the subject, called for vengeance +on the coalesced despots, expatiated on the love of glory, and insisted +on the pleasure of dying for one's country: while the people listened +with vacant attention, amused themselves with the paintings, or adjourned +in small committees to discuss the hardship of being obliged to fight +without inclination.--Thus time elapsed, the military orations produced +no effect, and no troops were raised: no one would enlist voluntarily, +and all refused to settle it by lot, because, as they wisely observed, +the lot must fall on somebody. Yet, notwithstanding the objection, the +matter was at length decided by this last method. The decision had no +sooner taken place, than another difficulty ensued--those who escaped +acknowledged it was the best way that could be devised; but those who +were destined to the frontiers refused to go. Various altercations, and +excuses, and references, were the consequence; yet, after all this +murmuring and evasion, the presence of the Commissioners and a few +dragoons have arranged the business very pacifically; many are already +gone, and the rest will (if the dragoons continue here) soon follow. + +This, I assure you, is a just statement of the account between the +Convention and the People: every thing is effected by fear--nothing by +attachment; and the one is obeyed only because the other want courage to +resist.--Yours, &c. + + + + +Rouen, March 31, 1793. + +Rouen, like most of the great towns in France, is what is called +decidedly aristocratic; that is, the rich are discontented because they +are without security, and the poor because they want bread. But these +complaints are not peculiar to large places; the causes of them equally +exist in the smallest village, and the only difference which fixes the +imputation of aristocracy on one more than the other, is, daring to +murmur, or submitting in silence. + +I must here remark to you, that the term aristocrate has much varied from +its former signification. A year ago, aristocrate implied one who was an +advocate for the privileges of the nobility, and a partizan of the +ancient government--at present a man is an aristocrate for entertaining +exactly the same principles which at that time constituted a patriot; +and, I believe, the computation is moderate, when I say, that more than +three parts of the nation are aristocrates. The rich, who apprehend a +violation of their property, are aristocrates--the merchants, who regret +the stagnation of commerce, and distrust the credit of the assignats, are +aristocrates--the small retailers, who are pillaged for not selling +cheaper than they buy, and who find these outrages rather encouraged than +repressed, are aristocrates--and even the poor, who murmur at the price +of bread, and the numerous levies for the army, are, occasionally, +aristocrates. + +Besides all these, there are likewise various classes of moral +aristocrates--such as the humane, who are averse from massacres and +oppression--those who regret the loss of civil liberty--the devout, who +tremble at the contempt for religion--the vain, who are mortified at the +national degradation--and authors, who sigh for the freedom of the +press.--When you consider this multiplicity of symptomatic indications, +you will not be surprized that such numbers are pronounced in a state of +disease; but our republican physicians will soon generalize these various +species of aristocracy under the single description of all who have any +thing to lose, and every one will be deemed plethoric who is not in a +consumption. The people themselves who observe, though they do not +reason, begin to have an idea that property exposes the safety of the +owner and that the legislature is less inexorable when guilt is +unproductive, than when the conviction of a criminal comprehends the +forfeiture of an estate.--A poor tradesman was lamenting to me yesterday, +that he had neglected an offer of going to live in England; and when I +told him I thought he was very fortunate in having done so, as he would +have been declared an emigrant, he replied, laughing, _"Moi emigre qui +n'ai pas un sol:"_ ["I am emigrant, who am not worth a halfpenny!"]--No, +no; they don't make emigrants of those who are worth nothing. And this +was not said with any intended irreverence to the Convention, but with +the simplicity which really conceived the wealth of the emigrants to be +the cause of the severity exercised against them. + +The commercial and political evils attending a vast circulation of +assignats have been often discussed, but I have never yet known the +matter considered in what is, perhaps, its most serious point of view--I +mean its influence on the habits and morals of the people. Wherever I +go, especially in large towns like this, the mischief is evident, and, I +fear, irremediable. That oeconomy, which was one of the most valuable +characteristics of the French, is now comparatively disregarded. The +people who receive what they earn in a currency they hold in contempt, +are more anxious to spend than to save; and those who formerly hoarded +six liards or twelve sols pieces with great care, would think it folly to +hoard an assignat, whatever its nominal value. Hence the lower class of +females dissipate their wages on useless finery; men frequent +public-houses, and game for larger sums than before; little shopkeepers, +instead of amassing their profits, become more luxurious in their table: +public places are always full; and those who used, in a dress becoming +their station, to occupy the "parquet" or "parterre," now, decorated +with paste, pins, gauze, and galloon, fill the boxes:--and all this +destructive prodigality is excused to others and themselves _"par ce que +ce n'est que du papier."_ [Because it is only paper.]--It is vain to +persuade them to oeconomize what they think a few weeks may render +valueless; and such is the evil of a circulation so totally discredited, +that profusion assumes the merit of precaution, extravagance the plea of +necessity, and those who were not lavish by habit become so through +their eagerness to part with their paper. The buried gold and silver +will again be brought forth, and the merchant and the politician forget +the mischief of the assignats. But what can compensate for the injury +done to the people? What is to restore their ancient frugality, or +banish their acquired wants? It is not to be expected that the return +of specie will diminish the inclination for luxury, or that the human +mind can be regulated by the national finance; on the contrary, it is +rather to be feared, that habits of expence which owe their introduction +to the paper will remain when the paper is annihilated; that, though +money may become more scarce, the propensities of which it supplies the +indulgence will not be less forcible, and that those who have no other +resources for their accustomed gratifications will but too often find +one in the sacrifice of their integrity.--Thus, the corruption of +manners will be succeeded by the corruption of morals, and the +dishonesty of one sex, with the licentiousness of the other, produce +consequences much worse than any imagined by the abstracted calculations +of the politician, or the selfish ones of the merchant. Age will be +often without solace, sickness without alleviation, and infancy without +support; because some would not amass for themselves, nor others for +their children, the profits of their labour in a representative sign of +uncertain value. + +I do not pretend to assert that these are the natural effects of a paper +circulation--doubtless, when supported by high credit, and an extensive +commerce, it must have many advantages; but this was not the case in +France--the measure was adopted in a moment of revolution, and when the +credit of the country, never very considerable, was precarious and +degraded--It did not flow from the exuberance of commerce, but the +artifices of party--it never presumed, for a moment, on the confidence of +the people--its reception was forced, and its emission too profuse not to +be alarming.--I know it may be answered, that the assignats do not depend +upon an imaginary appreciation, but really represent a large mass of +national wealth, particularly in the domains of the clergy: yet, perhaps, +it is this very circumstance which has tended most to discredit them. +Had their credit rested only on the solvency of the nation, though they +had not been greatly coveted, still they would have been less +distributed; people would not have apprehended their abolition on a +change of government, nor that the systems adopted by one party might be +reversed by another. Indeed we may add, that an experiment of this kind +does not begin auspiciously when grounded on confiscation and seizures, +which it is probable more than half the French considered as sacrilege +and robbery; nor could they be very anxious to possess a species of +wealth which they made it a motive of conscience to hope would never be +of any value.--But if the original creation of assignats were +objectionable, the subsequent creations cannot but augment the evil. I +have already described to you the effects visible at present, and those +to be apprehended in future--others may result from the new inundation, +[1200 millions--50 millions sterling.] which it is not possible to +conjecture; but if the mischiefs should be real, in proportion as a part +of the wealth which this paper is said to represent is imaginary, their +extent cannot easily be exaggerated. Perhaps you will be of this +opinion, when you recollect that one of the funds which form the security +of this vast sum is the gratitude of the Flemings for their liberty; and +if this reimbursement be to be made according to the specimen the French +army have experienced in their retreat, I doubt much of the convention +will be disposed to advance any farther claims on it; for, it seems, the +inhabitants of the Low Countries have been so little sensible of the +benefits bestowed on them, that even the peasants seize on any weapons +nearest hand, and drub and pursue the retrograding armies as they would +wild beasts; and though, as Dumouriez observes in one of his dispatches, +our revolution is intended to favour the country people, _"c'est +cependant les gens de campagne qui s'arment contre nous, et le tocsin +sonne de toutes parts;"_ ["It is, however, the country people who take up +arms against us, and the alarm is sounded from all quarters."] so that +the French will, in fact, have created a public debt of so singular a +nature, that every one will avoid as much as possible making any demand +of the capital. + +I have already been more diffuse than I intended on the subject of +finance; but I beg you to observe, that I do not affect to calculate, or +speculate, and that I reason only from facts which are daily within my +notice, and which, as tending to operate on the morals of the people, are +naturally included in the plan I proposed to myself. + +I have been here but a few days, and intend returning to-morrow. I left +Mrs. D____ very little better, and the disaffection of Dumouriez, which I +just now learn, may oblige us to remove to some place not on the route to +Paris.--Every one looks alert and important, and a physiognomist may +perceive that regret is not the prevailing sentiment-- + + "We now begin to speak in tropes, + "And, by our fears, express our hopes." + +The Jacobins are said to be apprehensive, which augurs well; for, +certainly, next to the happiness of good people, one desires the +punishment of the bad. + + + + +Amiens, April 7, 1793. + +If the sentiments of the people towards their present government had been +problematical before, the visible effect of Dumouriez' conduct would +afford an ample solution of the problem. That indifference about public +affairs which the prospect of an established despotism had begun to +create has vanished--all is hope and expectation--the doors of those who +retail the newspapers are assailed by people too impatient to read them-- +each with his gazette in his hand listens eagerly to the verbal +circulation, and then holds a secret conference with his neighbour, and +calculates how long it may be before Dumouriez can reach Paris. A +fortnight ago the name of Dumouriez was not uttered but in a tone of +harshness and contempt, and, if ever it excited any thing like +complacency, it was when he announced defeats and losses. Now he is +spoken of with a significant modulation of voice, it is discovered that +he has great talents, and his popularity with the army is descanted upon +with a mysterious air of suppressed satisfaction.--Those who were +extremely apprehensive lest part of the General's troops should be driven +this way by the successes of the enemy, seem to talk with perfect +composure of their taking the same route to attack the capital; while +others, who would have been unwilling to receive either Dumouriez or his +army as peaceful fugitives, will be "nothing loath" to admit them as +conquerors. From all I can learn, these dispositions are very general, +and, indeed, the actual tyranny is so great, and the perspective so +alarming, that any means of deliverance must be acceptable. But whatever +may be the event, though I cannot be personally interested, if I thought +Dumouriez really proposed to establish a good government, humanity would +render one anxious for his success; for it is not to be disguised, that +France is at this moment (as the General himself expressed it) under the +joint dominion of _"imbecilles"_ and _"brigands."_ [Ideots and robbers.] + +It is possible, that at this moment the whole army is disaffected, and +that the fortified towns are prepared to surrender. It is also certain, +that Brittany is in revolt, and that many other departments are little +short of it; yet you will not very easily conceive what may have occupied +the Convention during part of this important crisis--nothing less than +inventing a dress for their Commissioners! But, as Sterne says, "it is +the spirit of the nation;" and I recollect no circumstance during the +whole progress of the revolution (however serious) that has not been +mixed with frivolities of this kind. + +I know not what effect this new costume may produce on the rebels or the +enemy, but I confess it appears to me more ludicrous than formidable, +especially when a representative happens to be of the shape and features +of the one we have here. Saladin, Deputy for this department, and an +advocate of the town of Amiens, has already invested himself with this +armour of inviolability; "strange figure in such strange habiliments," +that one is tempted to forget that Baratraria and the government of +Sancho are the creation of fancy. Imagine to yourself a short fat man, +of sallow complexion and small eyes, with a sash of white, red, and blue +round his waist, a black belt with a sword suspended across his +shoulders, and a round hat turned up before, with three feathers of the +national colours: "even such a man" is our representative, and exercises +a more despotic authority than most Princes in Europe.--He is accompanied +by another Deputy, who was what is called Pere de la Oratoire before the +revolution--that is, in a station nearly approaching to that of an +under-master at our public schools; only that the seminaries to which +these were attached being very numerous, those employed in them were +little considered. They wore the habit, and were subject to the same +restrictions, as the Clergy, but were at liberty to quit the profession +and marry, if they chose.--I have been more particular in describing +this class of men, because they have every where taken an active and +successful part in perverting and misleading the people: they are in the +clubs, or the municipalities, in the Convention, and in all elective +administrations, and have been in most places remarkable for their +sedition and violence. + +Several reasons may be assigned for the influence and conduct of men +whose situation and habits, on a first view, seem to oppose both. In the +first ardour of reform it was determined, that all the ancient modes of +education should be abolished; small temporary pensions were allotted to +the Professors of Colleges, and their admission to the exercise of +similar functions in the intended new system was left to future decision. +From this time the disbanded oratorians, who knew it would be vain to +resist popular authority, endeavoured to share in it; or, at least, by +becoming zealous partizans of the revolution, to establish their claims +to any offices or emoluments which might be substituted for those they +had been deprived of. They enrolled themselves with the Jacobins, +courted the populace, and, by the talent of pronouncing Roman names with +emphasis, and the study of rhetorical attitudes, they became important to +associates who were ignorant, or necessary to those who were designing. + +The little information generally possessed by the middle classes of life +in France, is also another cause of the comparative importance of those +whose professions had, in this respect, raised them something above the +common level. People of condition, liberally educated, have +unfortunately abandoned public affairs for some time; so that the +incapacity of some, and the pride or despondency of others, have, in a +manner, left the nation to the guidance of pedants, incendiaries, and +adventurers. Perhaps also the animosity with which the description of +men I allude to pursued every thing attached to the ancient government, +may, in some degree, have proceeded from a desire of revenge and +retaliation. They were not, it must be confessed, treated formerly with +the regard due to persons whose profession was in itself useful and +respectable; and the wounds of vanity are not easily cured, nor the +vindictiveness of little minds easily satisfied. + +From the conduct and popular influence of these Peres de l'Oratoire, some +truths may be deduced not altogether useless even to a country not liable +to such violent reforms. It affords an example of the danger arising +from those sudden and arbitrary innovations, which, by depriving any part +of the community of their usual means of living, and substituting no +other, tempt them to indemnify themselves by preying, in different ways, +on their fellow-citizens.--The daring and ignorant often become +depredators of private property; while those who have more talents, and +less courage, endeavour to succeed by the artifices which conciliate +public favour. I am not certain whether the latter are not to be most +dreaded of the two, for those who make a trade of the confidence of the +people seldom fail to corrupt them--they find it more profitable to +flatter their passions than to enlighten their understandings; and a +demagogue of this kind, who obtains an office by exciting one popular +insurrection, will make no scruple of maintaining himself in it by +another. An inferrence may likewise be drawn of the great necessity of +cultivating such a degree of useful knowledge in the middle order of +society, as may not only prevent their being deceived by interested +adventurers themselves, but enable them to instruct the people in their +true interests, and rescue them from becoming the instruments, and +finally the victims, of fraud and imposture.--The insult and oppression +which the nobility frequently experience from those who have been +promoted by the revolution, will, I trust, be a useful lesson in future +to the great, who may be inclined to arrogate too much from adventitious +distinctions, to forget that the earth we tread upon may one day +overwhelm us, and that the meanest of mankind may do us an injury which +it is not in the power even of the most exalted to shield us from. + +The inquisition begins to grow so strict, that I have thought it +necessary to-day to bury a translation of Burke.--In times of ignorance +and barbarity, it was criminal to read the bible, and our English author +is prohibited for a similar reason--that is, to conceal from the people +the errors of those who direct them: and, indeed, Mr. Burke has written +some truths, which it is of much more importance for the Convention to +conceal, than it could be to the Catholic priests to monopolize the +divine writings.--As far as it was possible, Mr. Burke has shown himself +a prophet: if he has not been completely so, it was because he had a +benevolent heart, and is the native of a free country. By the one, he +was prevented from imagining the cruelties which the French have +committed; by the other, the extreme despotism which they endure. + + + + +April 20, 1793. + +Before these halcyon days of freedom, the supremacy of Paris was little +felt in the provinces, except in dictating a new fashion in dress, an +improvement in the art of cookery, or the invention of a minuet. At +present our imitations of the capital are something more serious; and if +our obedience be not quite so voluntary, it is much more implicit. +Instead of receiving fashions from the Court, we take them now from the +_dames des balles,_ [Market-women.] and the municipality; and it must be +allowed, that the imaginations of our new sovereigns much exceed those of +the old in force and originality. + +The mode of pillaging the shops, for instance, was first devised by the +Parisian ladies, and has lately been adopted with great success in the +departments; the visite domiciliaire, also, which I look upon as a most +ingenious effort of fancy, is an emanation from the commune of Paris, and +has had an universal run.--But it would be vain to attempt enumerating +all the obligations of this kind which we owe to the indulgence of that +virtuous city: our last importation, however, is of so singular a nature, +that, were we not daily assured all the liberty in the world centers in +Paris, I should be doubtful as to its tendency. It has lately been +decreed, that every house in the republic shall have fixed on the outside +of the door, in legible characters, the name, age, birth-place, and +profession of its inhabitants. Not the poorest cottager, nor those who +are too old or too young for action, nor even unmarried ladies, are +exempt from thus proclaiming the abstract of their history to passers-by. +--The reigning party judge very wisely, that all those who are not +already their enemies may become so, and that those who are unable to +take a part themselves may excite others: but, whatever may be the +intention of this measure, it is impossible to conceive any thing which +could better serve the purposes of an arbitrary government; it places +every individual in the republic within the immediate reach of informers +and spies--it points out those who are of an age to serve in the army-- +those who have sought refuge in one department from the persecutions of +another--and, in short, whether a victim is pursued by the denunciation +of private malice, or political suspicion, it renders escape almost +impracticable. + +We have had two domiciliary visits within the last fortnight--one to +search for arms, the other under pretext of ascertaining the number of +troops each house is capable of lodging. But this was only the pretext, +because the municipalities always quarter troops as they think proper, +without considering whether you have room or not; and the real object of +this inquisition was to observe if the inhabitants answered to the lists +placed on the doors.--Mrs. D____ was ill in bed, but you must not imagine +such a circumstance deterred these gallant republicans from entering her +room with an armed force, to calculate how many soldiers might be lodged +in the bedchamber of a sick female! The French, indeed, had never, in my +remembrance, any pretensions to delicacy, or even decency, and they are +certainly not improved in these respects by the revolution. + +It is curious in walking the streets, to observe the devices of the +several classes of aristocracy; for it is not to be disguised, that since +the hope from Dumouriez has vanished, though the disgust of the people +may be increased, their terror is also greater than ever, and the +departments near Paris have no resource but silent submission. Every +one, therefore, obeys the letter of the decrees with the diligence of +fear, while they elude the spirit of them with all the ingenuity of +hatred. The rich, for example, who cannot entirely divest themselves of +their remaining hauteur, exhibit a sullen compliance on a small piece of +paper, written in a small hand, and placed at the very extreme of the +height allowed by the law. Some fix their bills so as to be half covered +by a shutter; others fasten them only with wafers, so that the wind +detaching one or two corners, makes it impossible to read the rest.* + + * This contrivance became so common, that an article was obliged to + be added to the decree, importing, that whenever the papers were + damaged or effaced by the weather, or deranged by the wind, the + inhabitants should replace them, under a penalty. + +Many who have courts or passages to their houses, put their names on the +half of a gate which they leave open, so that the writing is not +perceptible but to those who enter. But those who are most afraid, or +most decidedly aristocrates, subjoin to their registers, "All good +republicans:" or, _"Vive la republique, une et indivisible."_ ["The +republic, one and indivisible for ever!"] Some likewise, who are in +public offices, or shopkeepers who are very timid, and afraid of pillage, +or are ripe for a counter-revolution, have a sheet half the size of the +door, decorated with red caps, tri-coloured ribbons, and flaming +sentences ending in "Death or Liberty!" + +If, however, the French government confined itself to these petty acts of +despotism, I would endeavour to be reconciled to it; but I really begin +to have serious apprehensions, not so much for our safety as our +tranquillity, and if I considered only myself, I should not hesitate to +return to England. Mrs. D____ is too ill to travel far at present, and +her dread of crossing the sea makes her less disposed to think our +situation here hazardous or ineligible. Mr. D____, too, who, without +being a republican or a partizan of the present system, has always been a +friend to the first revolution, is unwilling to believe the Convention so +bad as there is every reason to suppose it. I therefore let my judgement +yield to my friendship, and, as I cannot prevail on them to depart, the +danger which may attend our remaining is an additional reason for my not +quitting them. + +The national perfidy which has always distinguished France among the +other countries of Europe, seems now not to be more a diplomatic +principle, than a rule of domestic government. It is so extended and +generalized, that an individual is as much liable to be deceived and +betrayed by confiding in a decree, as a foreign power would be by relying +on the faith of a treaty.--An hundred and twenty priests, above sixty +years of age, who had not taken the oaths, but who were allowed to remain +by the same law that banished those who were younger, have been lately +arrested, and are confined together in a house which was once a college. +The people did not behold this act of cruelty with indifference, but, +awed by an armed force, and the presence of the Commissioners of the +Convention, they could only follow the priests to their prison with +silent regret and internal horror. They, however, venture even now to +mark their attachment, by taking all opportunities of seeing them, and +supplying them with necessaries, which it is not very difficult to do, as +they are guarded by the Bourgeois, who are generally inclined to favour +them. I asked a woman to-day if she still contrived to have access to +the priests, and she replied, _"Ah, oui, il y a encore de la facilite, +par ce que l'on ne trouve pas des gardes ici qui ne sont pas pour eux."_* + + * "Yes, yes, we still contive it, because there are no guards to be + found here who don't befriend them." + +Thus, even the most minute and best organized tyranny may be eluded; and, +indeed, if all the agents of this government acted in the spirit of its +decrees, it would be insupportable even to a native of Turkey or Japan. +But if some have still a remnant of humanity left, there are a sufficient +number who execute the laws as unfeelingly as they are conceived. + +When these poor priests were to be removed from their several houses, it +was found necessary to dislodge the Bishop of Amiens, who had for some +time occupied the place fixed on for their reception. The Bishop had +notice given him at twelve o'clock in the day to relinquish his lodging +before evening; yet the Bishop of Amiens is a constitutional Prelate, and +had, before the revolution, the cure of a large parish at Paris; nor was +it without much persuasion that he accepted the see of Amiens. In the +severe winter of 1789 he disposed of his plate and library, (the latter +of which was said to be one of the best private collections in Paris,) to +purchase bread for the poor. "But Time hath a wallet on his back, +wherein he puts alms for oblivion;" and the charities of the Bishop could +not shield him from the contempt and insult which pursue his profession. + +I have been much distressed within the last few days on account of my +friend Madame de B____. I subjoining a translation of a letter I have +just received from her, as it will convey to you hereafter a tolerable +specimen of French liberty. + + "Maison de Arret, at ____. + + "I did not write to you, my dear friend, at the time I promised, and + you will perceive, by the date of this, that I have had too good an + excuse for my negligence. I have been here almost a week, and my + spirits are still so much disordered, that I can with difficulty + recollect myself enough to relate the circumstances of our + unfortunate situation; but as it is possible you might become + acquainted with them by some other means, I rather determined to + send you a few lines, than suffer you to be alarmed by false or + exaggerated reports. + + "About two o'clock on Monday morning last our servants were called + up, and, on their opening the door, the house was immediately filled + with armed men, some of whom began searching the rooms, while others + came to our bedchamber, and informed us we were arrested by order of + the department, and that we must rise and accompany them to prison. + It is not easy to describe the effect of such a mandate on people + who, having nothing to reproach themselves with, could not be + prepared for it.--As soon as we were a little recovered from our + first terrors, we endeavoured to obey, and begged they would indulge + us by retiring a few moments till I had put my clothes on; but + neither my embarrassment, nor the screams of the child--neither + decency nor humanity, could prevail. They would not even permit my + maid to enter the room; and, amidst this scene of disorder, I was + obliged to dress myself and the terrified infant. When this + unpleasant task was finished, a general examination of our house and + papers took place, and lasted until six in the evening: nothing, + however, tending in the remotest degree to criminate us was found, + but we were nevertheless conducted to prison, and God knows how long + we are likely to remain here. The denunciation against us being + secret, and not being able to learn either our crime or our + accusers, it is difficult for us to take any measures for our + enlargement. We cannot defend ourselves against a charge of which + we are ignorant, nor combat the validity of a witness, who is not + only allowed to remain secret, but is paid perhaps for his + information.* + + * At this time informers were paid from fifty to an hundred + livres for each accusation. + + "We most probably owe our misfortune to some discarded servant or + personal enemy, for I believe you are convinced we have not merited + it either by our discourse or our actions: if we had, the charge + would have been specific; but we have reason to imagine it is + nothing more than the indeterminate and general charge of being + aristocrates. I did not see my mother or sister all the day we were + arrested, nor till the evening of the next: the one was engaged + perhaps with "Rosine and the Angola", who were indisposed, and the + other would not forego her usual card-party. Many of our friends + likewise have forborne to approach us, lest their apparent interest + in our fate should involve themselves; and really the alarm is so + general, that I can, without much effort, forgive them. + + "You will be pleased to learn, that the greatest civilities I have + received in this unpleasant situation, have been from some of your + countrymen, who are our fellow-prisoners: they are only poor + sailors, but they are truly kind and attentive, and do us various + little services that render us more comfortable than we otherwise + should be; for we have no servants here, having deemed it prudent to + leave them to take care of our property. The second night we were + here, these good creatures, who lodge in the next room, were rather + merry, and awoke the child; but as they found, by its cries, that + their gaiety had occasioned me some trouble, I have observed ever + since that they walk softly, and avoid making the least noise, after + the little prisoner is gone to rest. I believe they are pleased + with me because I speak their language, and they are still more + delighted with your young favourite, who is so well amused, that he + begins to forget the gloom of the place, which at first terrified + him extremely. + + "One of our companions is a nonjuring priest, who has been + imprisoned under circumstances which make me almost ashamed of my + country.--After having escaped from a neighbouring department, he + procured himself a lodging in this town, and for some time lived + very peaceably, till a woman, who suspected his profession, became + extremely importunate with him to confess her. The poor man, for + several days, refused, telling her, that he did not consider himself + as a priest, nor wished to be known as such, nor to infringe the law + which excluded him. The woman, however, still continued to + persecute him, alledging, that her conscience was distressed, and + that her peace depended on her being able to confess "in the right + way." At length he suffered himself to be prevailed upon--the woman + received an hundred livres for informing against him, and, perhaps, + the priest will be condemned to the Guillotine.* + + * He was executed some time after. + + "I will make no reflection on this act, nor on the system of paying + informers--your heart will already have anticipated all I could say. + I will only add, that if you determine to remain in France, you must + observe a degree of circumspection which you may not hitherto have + thought necessary. Do not depend on your innocence, nor even trust + to common precautions--every day furnishes examples that both are + unavailing.--Adieu.--My husband offers you his respects, and your + little friend embraces you sincerely. As soon as any change in our + favour takes place, I will communicate it to you; but you had better + not venture to write--I entrust this to Louison's mother, who is + going through Amiens, as it would be unsafe to send it by the post. + --Again adieu.--Yours, + + "Adelaide de ____." + + Amiens, 1793. + + +It is observable, that we examine less scrupulously the pretensions of a +nation to any particular excellence, than we do those of an individual. +The reason of this is, probably, that our self-love is as much gratified +by admitting the one, as in rejecting the other. When we allow the +claims of a whole people, we are flattered with the idea of being above +narrow prejudices, and of possessing an enlarged and liberal mind; but if +a single individual arrogate to himself any exclusive superiority, our +own pride immediately becomes opposed to his, and we seem but to +vindicate our judgement in degrading such presumption. + +I can conceive no other causes for our having so long acquiesced in the +claims of the French to pre-eminent good breeding, in an age when, I +believe, no person acquainted with both nations can discover any thing to +justify them. If indeed politeness consisted in the repetition of a +certain routine of phrases, unconnected with the mind or action, I might +be obliged to decide against our country; but while decency makes a part +of good manners, or feeling is preferable to a mechanical jargon, I am +inclined to think the English have a merit more than they have hitherto +ascribed to themselves. Do not suppose, however, that I am going to +descant on the old imputations of "French flattery," and "French +insincerity;" for I am far from concluding that civil behaviour gives one +a right to expect kind offices, or that a man is false because he pays a +compliment, and refuses a service: I only wish to infer, that an +impertinence is not less an impertinence because it is accompanied by a +certain set of words, and that a people, who are indelicate to excess, +cannot properly be denominated "a polite people." + +A French man or woman, with no other apology than _"permettez moi,"_ +["Give me leave."] will take a book out of your hand, look over any thing +you are reading, and ask you a thousand questions relative to your most +private concerns--they will enter your room, even your bedchamber, +without knocking, place themselves between you and the fire, or take hold +of your clothes to guess what they cost; and they deem these acts of +rudeness sufficiently qualified by _"Je demande bien de pardons."_ ["I +ask you a thousand pardons."]--They are fully convinced that the English +all eat with their knives, and I have often heard this discussed with +much self-complacence by those who usually shared the labours of the +repast between a fork and their fingers. Our custom also of using +water-glasses after dinner is an object of particular censure; yet whoever +dines at a French table must frequently observe, that many of the guests +might benefit by such ablutions, and their napkins always testify that +some previous application would be by no means superfluous. Nothing is +more common than to hear physical derangements, disorders, and their +remedies, expatiated upon by the parties concerned amidst a room full of +people, and that with so much minuteness of description, that a +foreigner, without being very fastidious, is on some occasions apt to +feel very unpleasant sympathies. There are scarcely any of the +ceremonies of a lady's toilette more a mystery to one sex than the other, +and men and their wives, who scarcely eat at the same table, are in this +respect grossly familiar. The conversation in most societies partakes of +this indecency, and the manners of an English female are in danger of +becoming contaminated, while she is only endeavouring to suffer without +pain the customs of those she has been taught to consider as models of +politeness. + +Whether you examine the French in their houses or in public, you are +every where stricken with the same want of delicacy, propriety, and +cleanliness. The streets are mostly so filthy, that it is perilous to +approach the walls. The insides of the churches are often disgusting, in +spite of the advertisements that are placed in them to request the +forbearance of phthifical persons: the service does not prevent those who +attend from going to and fro with the same irreverence as if the church +were empty; and, in the most solemn part of the mass, a woman is suffered +to importune you for a liard, as the price of the chair you sit on. At +the theatres an actor or actress frequently coughs and expectorates on +the stage, in a manner one should think highly unpardonable before one's +most intimate friends in England, though this habit is very common to all +the French. The inns abound with filth of every kind, and though the +owners of them are generally civil enough, their notions of what is +decent are so very different from ours, that an English traveller is not +soon reconciled to them. In short, it would be impossible to enumerate +all that in my opinion excludes the French from the character of a +well-bred people.--Swift, who seems to have been gratified by the +contemplation of physical impurity, might have done the subject justice; +but I confess I am not displeased to feel that, after my long and +frequent residences in France, I am still unqualified. So little are +these people susceptible of delicacy, propriety, and decency, that they +do not even use the words in the sense we do, nor have they any others +expressive of the same meaning. + +But if they be deficient in the external forms of politeness, they are +infinitely more so in that politeness which may be called mental. The +simple and unerring rule of never preferring one's self, is to them more +difficult of comprehension than the most difficult problem in Euclid: in +small things as well as great, their own interest, their own +gratification, is their leading principle; and the cold flexibility which +enables them to clothe this selfish system in "fair forms," is what they +call politeness. + +My ideas on this subject are not recent, but they occurred to me with +additional force on the perusal of Mad. de B____'s letter. The behaviour +of some of the poorest and least informed class of our countrymen forms a +striking contrast with that of the people who arrested her, and even her +own friends: the unaffected attention of the one, and the brutality and +neglect of the other, are, perhaps, more just examples of English and +French manners than you may have hitherto imagined. I do not, however, +pretend to say that the latter are all gross and brutal, but I am myself +convinced that, generally speaking, they are an unfeeling people. + +I beg you to remember, that when I speak of the dispositions and +character of the French, my opinions are the result of general +observation, and are applicable to all ranks; but when my remarks are on +habits and manners, they describe only those classes which are properly +called the nation. The higher noblesse, and those attached to courts, so +nearly resemble each other in all countries, that they are necessarily +excepted in these delineations, which are intended to mark the +distinguishing features of a people at large: for, assuredly, when the +French assert, and their neighbours repeat, that they are a polite +nation, it is not meant that those who have important offices or +dignified appellations are polite: they found their claims on their +superiority as a people, and it is in this light I consider them. My +examples are chiefly drawn, not from the very inferior, nor from the most +eminent ranks; neither from the retailer of a shop, nor the claimant of a +_tabouret,_* or _les grandes ou petites entrees;_ but from the gentry, +those of easy fortunes, merchants, &c.--in fact, from people of that +degree which it would be fair to cite as what may be called genteel +society in England. + + * The tabouret was a stool allowed to the Ladies of the Court + particularly distinguished by rank or favour, when in presence of + the Royal Family.--"Les entrees" gave a familiar access to the King + and Queen. + +This cessation of intercourse with our country dispirits me, and, as it +will probably continue some time, I shall amuse myself by noting more +particularly the little occurrences which may not reach your public +prints, but which tend more than great events to mark both the spirit of +the government and that of the people.--Perhaps you may be ignorant that +the prohibition of the English mails was not the consequence of a decree +of the Convention, but a simple order of its commissioners; and I have +some reason to think that even they acted at the instigation of an +individual who harbours a mean and pitiful dislike to England and its +inhabitants.--Yours, &c. + + + + +May 18, 1793. + +Near six weeks ago a decree was passed by the Convention, obliging all +strangers, who had not purchased national property, or who did not +exercise some profession, to give security to the amount of half their +supposed fortune, and under these conditions they were to receive a +certificate, allowing them to reside, and were promised the protection of +the laws. The administrators of the departments, who perceive that they +become odious by executing the decrees of the Convention, begin to relax +much of their diligence, and it is not till long after a law is +promulgated, and their personal fear operates as a stimulant, that they +seriously enforce obedience to these mandates. This morning, however, we +were summoned by the Committee of our section (or ward) in order to +comply with the terms of the decree, and had I been directed only by my +own judgement, I should have given the preference to an immediate return +to England; but Mrs. D____ is yet ill, and Mr. D____ is disposed to +continue. In vain have I quoted "how fickle France was branded 'midst +the nations of the earth for perfidy and breach of public faith;" in vain +have I reasoned upon the injustice of a government that first allured +strangers to remain by insidious offers of protection, and now subjects +them to conditions which many may find it difficult to subscribe to: Mr. +D____ wishes to see our situation in the most favourable point of view: +he argues upon the moral impossibility of our being liable to any +inconvenience, and persists in believing that one government may act with +treachery towards another, yet, distinguishing between falsehood and +meanness, maintain its faith with individuals--in short, we have +concluded a sort of treaty, by which we are bound, under the forfeiture +of a large sum, to behave peaceably and submit to the laws. The +government, in return, empowers us to reside, and promises protection and +hospitality. + +It is to be observed, that the spirit of this regulation depends upon +those it affects producing six witnesses of their _"civisme;"_* yet so +little interest do the people take on these occasions, that our witnesses +were neighbours we had scarcely ever seen, and even one was a man who +happened to be casually passing by. + + * Though the meaning of this word is obvious, we have no one that is + exactly synonymous to it. The Convention intend by it an attachment + to their government: but the people do not trouble themselves about + the meaning of words--they measure their unwilling obedience by the + letter. + +These Committees, which form the last link of a chain of despotism, are +composed of low tradesmen and day-labourers, with an attorney, or some +person that can read and write, at their head, as President. Priests and +nobles, with all that are related, or anywise attached, to them, are +excluded by the law; and it is understood that true sans-culottes only +should be admitted. + +With all these precautions, the indifference and hatred of the people to +their government are so general, that, perhaps, there are few places +where this regulation is executed so as to answer the purposes of the +jealous tyranny that conceived it. The members of these Committees seem +to exact no farther compliances than such as are absolutely necessary to +the mere form of the proceeding, and to secure themselves from the +imputation of disobedience; and are very little concerned whether the +real design of the legislature be accomplished or not. This negligence, +or ill-will, which prevails in various instances, tempers, in some +degree, the effect of that restless suspicion which is the usual +concomitant of an uncertain, but arbitrary, power. The affections or +prejudices that surround a throne, by ensuring the safety of the Monarch, +engage him to clemency, and the laws of a mild government are, for the +most part, enforced with exactness; but a new and precarious authority, +which neither imposes on the understanding nor interests the heart, which +is supported only by a palpable and unadorned tyranny, is in its nature +severe, and it becomes the common cause of the people to counteract the +measures of a despotism which they are unable to resist.--This (as I have +before had occasion to observe) renders the condition of the French less +insupportable, but it is by no means sufficient to banish the fears of a +stranger who has been accustomed to look for security, not from a +relaxation or disregard of the laws, but from their efficacy; not from +the characters of those who execute them, but from the rectitude with +which they are formed.--What would you think in England, if you were +obliged to contemplate with dread the three branches of your legislature, +and depend for the protection of your person and property on soldiers and +constables? Yet such is nearly the state we are in; and indeed a system +of injustice and barbarism gains ground so fast, that almost any +apprehension is justified.--The Tribunal Revolutionnaire has already +condemned a servant maid for her political opinions; and one of the +Judges of this tribunal lately introduced a man to the Jacobins, with +high panegyrics, because, as he alledged, he had greatly contributed to +the condemnation of a criminal. The same Judge likewise apologized for +having as yet sent but a small number to the Guillotine, and promises, +that, on the first appearance of a "Brissotin" before him, he will show +him no mercy. + +When the minister of public justice thus avows himself the agent of a +party, a government, however recent its formation, must be far advanced +in depravity; and the corruption of those who are the interpreters of the +law has usually been the last effort of expiring power. + +My friends, Mons. And Mad. de B____, are released from their confinement; +not as you might expect, by proving their innocence, but by the efforts +of an individual, who had more weight than their accuser: and, far from +obtaining satisfaction for the injury they have received, they are +obliged to accept as a favour the liberty they were deprived of by malice +and injustice. They will, most probably, never be acquainted with the +nature of the charges brought against them; and their accuser will escape +with impunity, and, perhaps, meet with reward. + +All the French papers are filled with descriptions of the enthusiasm with +which the young men "start to arms" [_Offian._] at the voice of their +country; yet it is very certain, that this enthusiasm is of so subtle and +aerial a form as to be perceivable only to those who are interested in +discovering it. In some places these enthusiastic warriors continue to +hide themselves--from others they are escorted to the place of their +destination by nearly an equal number of dragoons; and no one, I believe, +who can procure money to pay a substitute, is disposed to go himself. +This is sufficiently proved by the sums demanded by those who engage as +substitutes: last year from three to five hundred livres was given; at +present no one will take less than eight hundred or a thousand, besides +being furnished with clothes, &c. The only real volunteers are the sons +of aristocrates, and the relations of emigrants, who, sacrificing their +principles to their fears, hope, by enlisting in the army, to protect +their estates and families: those likewise who have lucrative +employments, and are afraid of losing them, affect great zeal, and expect +to purchase impunity for civil peculation at home, by the military +services of their children abroad. + +This, I assure you, is the real state of that enthusiasm which occasions +such an expence of eloquence to our gazette-writers; but these fallacious +accounts are not like the ephemeral deceits of your party prints in +England, the effect of which is destroyed in a few hours by an opposite +assertion. None here are bold enough to contradict what their sovereigns +would have believed; and a town or district, driven almost to revolt by +the present system of recruiting, consents very willingly to be described +as marching to the frontiers with martial ardour, and burning to combat +les esclaves des tyrans! By these artifices, one department is misled +with regard to the dispositions of another, and if they do not excite to +emulation, they, at least, repress by fear; and, probably, many are +reduced to submission, who would resist, were they not doubtful of the +support and union of their neighbours. Every possible precaution is +taken to prevent any connections between the different departments-- +people who are not known cannot obtain passports without the +recommendation of two housekeepers--you must give an account of the +business you go upon, of the carriage you mean to travel in, whether it +has two wheels or four: all of which must be specified in your passport: +and you cannot send your baggage from one town to another without the +risk of having it searched. All these things are so disgusting and +troublesome, that I begin to be quite of a different opinion from Brutus, +and should certainly prefer being a slave among a free people, than thus +be tormented with the recollection that I am a native of England in a +land of slavery. Whatever liberty the French might have acquired by +their first revolution, it is now much like Sir John Cutler's worsted +stockings, so torn, and worn, and disguised by patchings and mendings, +that the original texture is not discoverable.--Yours, &c. + + + + +June 3, 1793. + +We have been three days without receiving newspapers; but we learn from +the reports of the courier, that the Brissotins are overthrown, that many +of them have been arrested, and several escaped to raise adherents in the +departments. I, however, doubt much if their success will be very +general: the people have little preference between Brissot and Marat, +Condorcet and Robespierre, and are not greatly solicitous about the names +or even principles of those who govern them--they are not yet accustomed +to take that lively interest in public events which is the effect of a +popular constitution. In England every thing is a subject of debate and +contest, but here they wait in silence the result of any political +measure or party dispute; and, without entering into the merits of the +cause, adopt whatever is successful. While the King was yet alive, the +news of Paris was eagerly sought after, and every disorder of the +metropolis created much alarm: but one would almost suppose that even +curiosity had ceased at his death, for I have observed no subsequent +event (except the defection of Dumouriez) make any very serious +impression. We hear, therefore, with great composure, the present +triumph of the more violent republicans, and suffer without impatience +this interregnum of news, which is to continue until the Convention shall +have determined in what manner the intelligence of their proceedings +shall be related to the departments. + +The great solicitude of the people is now rather about their physical +existence than their political one--provisions are become enormously +dear, and bread very scarce: our servants often wait two hours at the +baker's, and then return without bread for breakfast. I hope, however, +the scarcity is rather artificial than real. It is generally supposed to +be occasioned by the unwillingness of the farmers to sell their corn for +paper. Some measures have been adopted with an intention of remedying +this evil, though the origin of it is beyond the reach of decree. It +originates in that distrust of government which reconciles one part of +the community to starving the other, under the idea of self-preservation. +While every individual persists in establishing it as a maxim, that any +thing is better than assignats, we must expect that all things will be +difficult to procure, and will, of course, bear a high price. I fear, +all the empyricism of the legislature cannot produce a nostrum for this +want of faith. Dragoons and penal laws only "linger, and linger it out;" +the disease is incurable. + +My friends, Mons. and Mad. de B____, by way of consolation for their +imprisonment, now find themselves on the list of emigrants, though they +have never been a single day absent from their own province, or from +places of residence where they are well known. But that they may not +murmur at this injustice, the municipality have accompanied their names +with those of others who have not even been absent from the town, and of +one gentleman in particular, who I believe may have been seen on the +ramparts every day for these seven years.--This may appear to you only +very absurd, and you may imagine the consequences easily obviated; yet +these mistakes are the effect of private malice, and subject the persons +affected by them to an infinity of expence and trouble. They are +obliged, in order to avert the confiscation of their property, to appear, +in every part of the republic where they have possessions, with +attestations of their constant residence in France, and perhaps suffer a +thousand mortifications from the official ignorance and brutality of the +persons to whom they apply. No remedy lies against the authors of these +vexations, and the sufferer who is prudent fears even to complain. + +I have, in a former letter, noticed the great number of beggars that +swarm at Arras: they are not less numerous at Amiens, though of a +different description--they are neither so disgusting, nor so wretched, +but are much more importunate and insolent--they plead neither sickness +nor infirmity, and are, for the most part, able and healthy. How so many +people should beg by profession in a large manufacturing town, it is +difficult to conceive; but, whatever may be the cause, I am tempted to +believe the effect has some influence on the manners of the inhabitants +of Amiens. I have seen no town in France so remarkable for a rude and +unfeeling behaviour, and it is not fanciful to conjecture that the +multitude of poor may tend in part to occasion it. The constant view of +a sort of misery that excites little compassion, of an intrusive +necessity which one is more desirous to repulse than to relieve, cannot +but render the heart callous, and the manners harsh. The avarice of +commerce, which is here unaccompanied by its liberality, is glad to +confound real distress with voluntary and idle indigence, till, in time, +an absence of feeling becomes part of the character; and the constant +habit of petulant refusals, or of acceding more from fatigue than +benevolence, has perhaps a similar effect on the voice, gesture, and +external. + +This place has been so often visited by those who describe better than +myself, that I have thought it unnecessary to mention public buildings, +or any thing equally obvious to the traveller or the resident. The +beauty and elegance of the cathedral have been celebrated for ages, and I +only remind you of it to indulge my national vanity in the reflection +that one of the most splendid monuments of Gothic architecture in France +is the work of our English ancestors. The edifice is in perfect +preservation, and the hand of power has not yet ventured to appropriate +the plate or ornaments; but this forbearance will most probably give way +to temptation and impunity. The Convention will respect ancient +prejudices no longer than they suppose the people have courage to defend +them, and the latter seem so entirely subdued, that, however they may +murmur, I do not think any serious resistance is to be expected from +them, even in behalf of the relics of St. Firmin. [St. Firmin, the patron +of Amiens, where he is, in many of the streets, represented with his head +in his hand.]--The bust of Henry the Fourth, which was a present from the +Monarch himself, is banished the town-house, where it was formerly +placed, though, I hope, some royalist has taken possession of it, and +deposited it in safety till better times. This once popular Prince is +now associated with Nero and Caligula, and it is "leze nation" to speak +of him to a thorough republican.--I know not if the French had before the +revolution reached the acme of perfection, but they have certainly been +retrograding very fast since. Every thing that used to create fondness +and veneration is despised, and things are esteemed only in proportion as +they are worthless. Perhaps the bust of Robespierre may one day replace +that of Henry the Fourth, and, to speak in the style of an eastern +epistle, "what can I say more?" + +Should you ever travel this way with Gray in your hand, you will look for +the Ursuline convent, and regret the paintings he mentions: but you may +recollect, for your consolation, that they are merely pretty, and +remarkable only for being the work of one of the nuns.--Gray, who seems +to have had that enthusiastic respect for religious orders common to +young minds, admired them on this account; and numbers of English +travellers have, I dare say, prepossessed by such an authority, +experienced the same disappointment I myself felt on visiting the +Ursuline church. Many of the chapels belonging to these communities were +very showy and much decorated with gilding and sculpture: some of them +are sold for a mere trifle, but the greatest part are filled with corn +and forage, and on the door is inscribed "Magazin des armees." The +change is almost incredible to those who remember, that less than four +years ago the Catholic religion was strictly practised, and the violation +of these sanctuaries deemed sacrilegious. Our great historian [Gibbon] +might well say "the influence of superstition is fluctuating and +precarious;" though, in the present instance, it has rather been +restrained than subdued; and the people, who have not been convinced, but +intimidated, secretly lament these innovations, and perhaps reproach +themselves conscientiously with their submission.--Yours. + + + + +June 20, 1793. + +Mercier, in his Tableau de Paris, notices, on several occasions, the +little public spirit existing among his countrymen--it is also +observable, that many of the laws and customs presume on this deficiency, +and the name of republicans has by no means altered that cautious +disposition which makes the French consider either misfortunes or +benefits only as their personal interest is affected by them.--I am just +returned from a visit to Abbeville, where we were much alarmed on Sunday +by a fire at the Paraclete convent. The tocsin rang great part of the +day, and the principal street of the town was in danger of being +destroyed. In such circumstances, you will suppose, that people of all +ranks eagerly crouded to offer their service, and endeavour to stop the +progress of so terrible a calamity. By no means--the gates of the town +were shut to prevent its entire evacuation, many hid themselves in +garrets and cellars, and dragoons patrolled the streets, and even entered +the houses, to force the inhabitants to assist in procuring water; while +the consternation, usually the effect of such accidents, was only owing +to the fear of being obliged to aid the sufferers.--This employment of +military coercion for what humanity alone should dictate, is not +ascribeable to the principles of the present government--it was the same +before the revolution, (except that the agents of the ancient system were +not so brutal and despotic as the soldiers of the republic,) and +compulsion was always deemed necessary where there was no stimulant but +the general interest. + +In England, at any alarm of the fort, all distinction of ranks is +forgotten, and every one is solicitous to contribute as much as he is +able to the safety of his fellow-citizens; and, so far from an armed +force being requisite to procure assistance, the greatest difficulty is +to repress the too-officious zeal of the croud.--I do not pretend to +account for this national disparity, but I fear what a French gentleman +once said to me of the Parisians is applicable to the general character, +_"Ils sont tous egoistes,"_ ["They are all selfish!"] and they would not +do a benevolent action at the risk of soiling a coat or tearing a ruffle. + +Distrust of the assignats, and scarcity of bread, have occasioned a law +to oblige the farmers, in every part of the republic, to sell their corn +at a certain price, infinitely lower than what they have exacted for some +months past. The consequence of this was, that, on the succeeding market +days, no corn came to market, and detachments of dragoons are obliged to +scour the country to preserve us from a famine. If it did not convey an +idea both of the despotism and want with which the nation is afflicted, +one should be amused by the ludicrous figures of the farmers, who enter +the town preceded by soldiers, and reposing with doleful visages on their +sacks of wheat. Sometimes you see a couple of dragoons leading in +triumph an old woman and an ass, who follow with lingering steps their +military conductors; and the very ass seems to sympathize with his +mistress on the disaster of selling her corn at a reduced price, and for +paper, when she had hoped to hoard it till a counter-revolution should +bring back gold and silver. + +The farmers are now, perhaps, the greatest aristocrates in the country; +but as both their patriotism and their aristocracy have been a mere +calculation of interest, the severity exercised on their avarice is not +much to be regretted. The original fault is, however, in an usurped +government, which inspires no confidence, and which, to supply an +administration lavish beyond all example, has been obliged to issue such +an immense quantity of paper as nearly destroys its credit. In +political, as in moral, vices, the first always necessitates a second, +and these must still be sustained by others; until, at length, the very +sense of right and wrong becomes impaired, and the latter is not only +preferred from habit, but from choice. + +Thus the arbitrary emission of paper has been necessarily followed by +still more arbitrary decrees to support it. For instance--the people +have been obliged to sell their corn at a stated price, which has again +been the source of various and general vexations. The farmers, irritated +by this measure, concealed their grain, or sold it privately, rather than +bring it to market.--Hence, some were supplied with bread, and others +absolutely in want of it. This was remedied by the interference of the +military, and a general search for corn has taken place in all houses +without exception, in order to discover if any was secreted; even our +bedchambers were examined on this occasion: but we begin to be so +accustomed to the visite domiciliaire, that we find ourselves suddenly +surrounded by the Garde Nationale, without being greatly alarmed.--I know +not how your English patriots, who are so enamoured of French liberty, +yet thunder with the whole force of their eloquence against the ingress +of an exciseman to a tobacco warehouse, would reconcile this domestic +inquisition; for the municipalities here violate your tranquillity in +this manner under any pretext they choose, and that too with an armed +cortege sufficient to undertake the siege of your house in form. + +About fifteen departments are in insurrection, ostensibly in behalf of +the expelled Deputies; but I believe I am authorized in saying, it is by +no means the desire of the people at large to interfere. All who are +capable of reflection consider the dispute merely as a family quarrel, +and are not partial enough to either party to adopt its cause. The +tropps they have already raised have been collected by the personal +interest of the members who contrived to escape, or by an attempt of a +few of the royalists to make one half of the faction subservient to the +destruction of the other. If you judge of the principles of the nation +by the success of the Foederalists,* and the superiority of the +Convention, you will be extremely deceived; for it is demonstrable, that +neither the most zealous partizans of the ancient system, nor those of +the abolished constitution, have taken any share in the dispute; and the +departments most notoriously aristocratic have all signified their +adherence to the proceedings of the Assembly. + + * On the 31st of May and 2d of June, the Convention, who had been + for some months struggling with the Jacobins and the municipality of + Paris, was surrounded by an armed force: the most moderate of the + Deputies (those distinguished by the name of Brissotins,) were + either menaced into a compliance with the measures of the opposite + faction, or arrested; others took flight, and, by representing the + violence and slavery in which the majority of the Convention was + holden, excited some of the departments to take arms in their + favour.--This contest, during its short existence, was called the + war of the Foederalists.--The result is well known. + +Those who would gladly take an active part in endeavouring to establish a +good government, are averse from risking their lives and properties in +the cause of Brissot or Condorcet.--At Amiens, where almost every +individual is an aristocrate, the fugitive Deputies could not procure the +least encouragement, but the town would have received Dumouriez, and +proclaimed the King without opposition. But this schism in the +legislature is considered as a mere contest of banditti, about the +division of spoil, not calculated to excite an interest in those they +have plundered and oppressed. + +The royalists who have been so mistaken as to make any effort on this +occasion, will, I fear, fall a sacrifice, having acted for the most part +without union or concert; and their junction with the Deputies renders +them suspicious, if not odious, to their own party. The extreme +difficulty, likewise, of communication between the departments, and the +strict watch observed over all travellers, form another obstacle to the +success of any attempt at present; and, on the whole, the only hope of +deliverance for the French seems to rest upon the allied armies and the +insurgents of La Vendee. + +When I say this, I do not assert from prejudices, which often deceive, +nor from conjecture, that is always fallible; but from unexceptionable +information--from an intercourse with various ranks of people, and a +minute observance of all. I have scarcely met with a single person who +does not relate the progress of the insurgents in La Vendee with an air +of satisfaction, or who does not appear to expect with impatience the +surrender of Conde: and even their language, perhaps unconsciously, +betrays their sentiments, for I remark, they do not, when they speak of +any victory gained by the arms of the republic, say, Nous, or Notre +armee, but, Les Francais, and, Les troupes de la republique;--and that +always in a tone as though they were speaking of an enemy.--Adieu. + + + + +June 30, 1793. + +Our modern travellers are mostly either sentimental or philosophical, or +courtly or political; and I do not remember to have read any who describe +the manner of living among the gentry and middle ranks of life in France. +I will, therefore, relieve your attention for a moment from our actual +distresses, and give you the picture of a day as usually passed by those +who have easy fortunes and no particular employment.--The social +assemblage of a whole family in the morning, as in England, is not very +common, for the French do not generally breakfast: when they do, it is +without form, and on fruit, bread, wine, and water, or sometimes coffee; +but tea is scarcely ever used, except by the sick. The morning is +therefore passed with little intercourse, and in extreme dishabille. The +men loiter, fiddle, work tapestry, and sometimes read, in a robe de +chambre, or a jacket and _"pantalons;"_ [Trowsers.] while the ladies, +equipped only in a short manteau and petticoat, visit their birds, knit, +or, more frequently, idle away the forenoon without doing any thing. It +is not customary to walk or make visits before dinner, and if by chance +any one calls, he is received in the bedchamber. At half past one or two +they dine, but without altering the negligence of their apparel, and the +business of the toilette does not begin till immediately after the +repast. About four, visits of ceremony begin, and may be made till six +or seven according to the season; but those who intend passing an evening +at any particular house, go before six, and the card parties generally +finish between eight and nine. People then adjourn to their supper +engagements, which are more common than those for dinner, and are, for +the most part, in different places, and considered as a separate thing +from the earlier amusements of the evening. They keep better hours than +the English, most families being in bed by half past ten. The theatres +are also regulated by these sober habits, and the dramatic +representations are usually over by nine. + +A day passed in this manner is, as you may imagine, susceptible of much +ennui, and the French are accordingly more subject to it than +to any other complaint, and hold it in greatest dread than either +sickness or misfortune. They have no conception how one can remain two +hours alone without being ennuye a la mort; and but few, comparatively +speaking, read for amusement: you may enter ten houses without seeing a +book; and it is not to be wondered at that people, who make a point of +staying at home all the morning, yet do not read, are embarrassed with +the disposition of so much time.--It is this that occasions such a +general fondness for domestic animals, and so many barbarous musicians, +and male-workers of tapestry and tambour. + +I cannot but attribute this littleness and dislike of morning exercise to +the quantity of animal food the French eat at night, and to going to rest +immediately after it, in consequence of which their activity is checked +by indigestions, and they feel heavy and uncomfortable for half the +succeeding day.--The French pique themselves on being a gayer nation than +the English; but they certainly must exclude their mornings from the +account, for the forlorn and neglected figure of a Frenchman till dinner +is a very antidote to chearfulness, especially if contrasted with the +animation of our countrymen, whose forenoon is passed in riding or +walking, and who make themselves at least decent before they appear even +in their own families. + +The great difficulty the French have in finding amusement makes them +averse from long residences in the country, and it is very uncommon for +those who can afford only one house not to prefer a town; but those whose +fortune will admit of it, live about three months of the year in the +country, and the rest in the neighbouring town. This, indeed, as they +manage it, is no very considerable expence, for the same furniture often +serves for both habitations, and the one they quit being left empty, +requires no person to take charge of it, especially as house-breaking is +very uncommon in France; at least it was so before the revolution, when +the police was more strict, and the laws against robbers were more +severe. + +You will say, I often describe the habits and manners of a nation so +frequently visited, as though I were writing from Kamschatka or Japan; +yet it is certain, as I have remarked above, that those who are merely +itinerant have not opportunities of observing the modes of familiar life +so well as one who is stationary, and travellers are in general too much +occupied by more important observations to enter into the minute and +trifling details which are the subject of my communications to you. But +if your attention be sometimes fatigued by occurrences or relations too +well known, or of too little consequence to be interesting, I claim some +merit in never having once described the proportions of a building, nor +given you the history of a town; and I might have contrived as well to +tax your patience by an erudite description, as a superficial reflection, +or a female remark. The truth is, my pen is generally guided by +circumstances as they rise, and my ideas have seldom any deeper origin +than the scene before me. I have no books here, and I am apt to think if +professed travellers were deprived of this resource, many learned +etymologies and much profound compilation would be lost to the modern +reader. + +The insurgents of La Vendee continue to have frequent and decided +successes, but the insurrections in the other departments languish. The +avowed object of liberating the Convention is not calculated to draw +adherents, and if any better purpose be intended, while a faction are the +promoters of it, it will be regarded with too much suspicion to procure +any effectual movement. Yet, however partial and unconnected this revolt +may be, it is an object of great jealousy and inquietude: all the +addresses or petitions brought in favour of it are received with +disapprobation, and suppressed in the official bulletin of the +legislature; but those which express contrary sentiments are ordered to +be inserted with the usual terms of "applaudi, adopte, et mention +honorable."--In this manner the army and the people, who derive their +intelligence from these accounts (which are pasted up in the streets,) +are kept in ignorance of the real state of distant provinces, and, what +is still more important for the Convention, the communication of +examples, which they know so many are disposed to imitate, is retarded. + +The people here are nearly in the same state they have been in for some +time--murmuring in secret, and submitting in public; expecting every +thing from that energy in others which they have not themselves, and +accumulating the discontents they are obliged to suppress. The +Convention call them the brave republicans of Amiens; but if their +bravery were as unequivocal as their aristocracy, they would soon be at +the gates of Paris. Even the first levies are not all departed for the +frontiers, and some who were prevailed on to go are already returned.-- +All the necessaries of life are augmenting in price--the people complain, +pillage the shops and the markets one day, and want the next. Many of +the departments have opposed the recruiting much more decidedly than they +have ventured to do here; and it was not without inspiring terror by +numerous arrests, that the levies which were immediately necessary were +procured.--France offers no prospect but that of scarcity, disorder, and +oppression; and my friends begin to perceive that we have committed an +imprudence in remaining so long. No passports can now be obtained, and +we must, as well as several very respectable families still here, abide +the event of the war. + +Some weeks have elapsed since I had letters from England, and those we +receive from the interior come open, or sealed with the seal of the +district. This is not peculiar to our letters, as being foreigners, but +the same unceremonious inspection is practised with the correspondence of +the French themselves. Thus, in this land of liberty, all epistolary +intercourse has ceased, except for mere matters of business; and though +in the declaration of the rights of man it be asserted, that every one is +entitled to write or print his thoughts, yet it is certain no person can +entrust a letter to the post, but at the risk of having it opened; nor +could Mr. Thomas Paine himself venture to express the slightest +disapprobation of the measures of government, without hazarding his +freedom, and, in the end, perhaps, his life. Even these papers, which I +reserve only for your amusement, which contain only the opinions of an +individual, and which never have been communicated, I am obliged to +conceal with the utmost circumspection; for should they happen to fall +into the hands of our domiciliary inquisitors, I should not, like your +English liberties, escape with the gentle correction of imprisonment, or +the pillory.--A man, who had murdered his wife, was lately condemned to +twenty years imprisonment only; but people are guillotined every day for +a simple discourse, or an inadvertent expression.--Yours. + + + + +Amiens, July 5, 1793. + +It will be some consolation to the French, if, from the wreck of their +civil liberty, they be able to preserve the mode of administering justice +as established by the constitution of 1789. Were I not warranted by the +best information, I should not venture an opinion on the subject without +much diffidence, but chance has afforded me opportunities that do not +often occur to a stranger, and the new code appears to me, in many parts, +singularly excellent, both as to principle and practice.--Justice is here +gratuitous--those who administer it are elected by the people--they +depend only on their salaries, and have no fees whatever. Reasonable +allowances are made to witnesses both for time and expences at the public +charge--a loss is not doubled by the costs of a prosecution to recover +it. In cases of robbery, where property found is detained for the sake +of proof, it does not become the prey of official rapacity, but an +absolute restitution takes place.--The legislature has, in many respects, +copied the laws of England, but it has simplified the forms, and +rectified those abuses which make our proceedings in some cases almost as +formidable to the prosecutor as to the culprit. Having to compose an +entire new system, and being unshackled by professional reverence for +precedents, they were at liberty to benefit by example, to reject those +errors which have been long sanctioned by their antiquity, and are still +permitted to exist, through our dread of innovation. The French, +however, made an attempt to improve on the trial by jury, which I think +only evinces that the institution as adopted in England is not to be +excelled. The decision is here given by ballot--unanimity is not +required--and three white balls are sufficient to acquit the prisoner. +This deviation from our mode seems to give the rich an advantage over the +poor. I fear, that, in the number of twelve men taken from any country, +it may sometimes happen that three may be found corruptible: now the +wealthy delinquent can avail himself of this human failing; but, "through +tatter'd robes small vices do appear," and the indigent sinner has less +chance of escaping than another. + +It is to be supposed, that, at this time, the vigour of the criminal laws +is much relaxed, and their execution difficult. The army offers refuge +and impunity to guilt of all kinds, and the magistrates themselves would +be apprehensive of pursuing an offender who was protected by the mob, or, +which is the same thing, by the Jacobins. + +The groundwork of much of the French civil jurisprudence is arbitration, +particularly in those trifling processes which originate in a spirit of +litigation; and it is not easy for a man here, however well disposed, to +spend twenty pounds in a contest about as many pence, or to ruin himself +in order to secure the possession of half an acre of land. In general, +redress is easily obtained without unnecessary procrastination, and with +little or no cost. Perhaps most legal codes may be simple and +efficacious at their first institution, and the circumstance of their +being encumbered with forms which render them complex and expensive, may +be the natural consequence of length of time and change of manners. +Littleton might require no commentary in the reign of Henry II. and the +mysterious fictions that constitute the science of modern judicature were +perhaps familiar, and even necessary, to our ancestors. It is to be +regretted that we cannot adapt our laws to the age in which we live, and +assimilate them to our customs; but the tendency of our nature to +extremes perpetuates evils, and makes both the wise and the timid enemies +to reform. We fear, like John Calvin, to tear the habit while we are +stripping off the superfluous decoration; and the example of this country +will probably long act as a discouragement to all change, either judicial +or political. The very name of France will repress the desire of +innovation--we shall cling to abuses as though they were our support, and +every attempt to remedy them will become an objection of suspicion and +terror.--Such are the advantages which mankind will derive from the +French revolution. + +The Jacobin constitution is now finished, and, as far as I am able to +judge, it is what might be expected from such an origin: calculated to +flatter the people with an imaginary sovereignty--to place the whole +power of election in the class most easily misled--to exclude from the +representation those who have a natural interest in the welfare of the +country, and to establish the reign of anarchy and intrigue.--Yet, +however averse the greater number of the French may be from such a +constitution, no town or district has dared to reject it; and I remark, +that amongst those who have been foremost in offering their acceptation, +are many of the places most notoriously aristocratic. I have enquired of +some of the inhabitants of these very zealous towns on what principle +they acted so much in opposition to their known sentiments: the reply is +always, that they fear the vengeance of the Jacobins, and that they are +awed by military force. This reasoning is, of course, unanswerable; and +we learn, from the debates of the Convention, that the people have +received the new constitution _"avec la plus vive reconnoissance,"_ +["With the most lively gratitude."] and that they have all sworn to die +in its defence.--Yours, &c. + + + + +July 14, 1793. + +The return of this day cannot but suggest very melancholy reflections to +all who are witnesses of the changes which a single year has produced. +In twelve months only the government of France has been overturned, her +commerce destroyed, the country depopulated to raise armies, and the +people deprived of bread to support them. A despotism more absolute than +that of Turkey is established, the manners of the nation are corrupted, +and its moral character is disgraced in the eyes of all Europe. A +barbarous rage has laid waste the fairest monuments of art--whatever +could embellish society, or contribute to soften existence, has +disappeared under the reign of these modern Goths--even the necessaries +of life are becoming rare and inadequate to the consumption--the rich are +plundered and persecuted, yet the poor are in want--the national credit +is in the last stage of debasement, yet an immense debt is created, and +daily accumulating; and apprehension, distrust, and misery, are almost +universal.--All this is the work of a set of adventurers who are now +divided among themselves--who are accusing each other of those crimes +which the world imputes to them all--and who, conscious they can no +longer deceive the nation, now govern with the fear and suspicion of +tyrants. Every thing is sacrificed to the army and Paris, and the people +are robbed of their subsistence to supply an iniquitous metropolis, and a +military force that awes and oppresses them. + +The new constitution has been received here officially, but no one seems +to take the least interest in it: it is regarded in just the same light +as a new tax, or any other ministerial mandate, not sent to be discussed +but obeyed. The mode of proclaiming it conveyed a very just idea of its +origin and tendency. It was placed on a cushion, supported by Jacobins +in their red caps, and surrounded by dragoons. It seemed the image of +Anarchy, guarded by Despotism.--In this manner they paraded the town, and +the "sacred volume" was then deposed on an altar erected on the Grande +Place.--The Garde Nationale, who were ordered to be under arms, attended, +and the constitution was read. A few of the soldiers cried "Vive la +republique!" and every one returned home with countenances in which +delight was by no means the prevailing expression. + +A trifling incident which I noticed on this occasion, will serve, among +others of the same kind that I could enumerate, to prove that even the +very lower class of the people begin to ridicule and despise their +legislators. While a municipal officer was very gravely reading the +constitution, an ass forced his way across the square, and placed himself +near the spot where the ceremony was performing: a boy, who was under our +window, on observing it, cried out, "Why don't they give him the +_accolade fraternelle!"_* + + * Fraternal embrace.--This is the reception given by the President + to any one whom the Convention wish particularly to distinguish. On + an occasion of the sort, the fraternal embrace was given to an old + Negress.--The honours of the fitting are also daily accorded to + deputations of fish-women, chimney-sweepers, children, and all whose + missions are flattering. There is no homage so mean as not to + gratify the pride of those to whom dominion is new; and these + expressions are so often and so strangely applied, that it is not + surprizing they are become the cant phrases of the mob. + +--"Yes, (rejoined another,) and admit him _aux honneurs de la feance."_ +[To the honours of the fitting.] This disposition to jest with their +misfortunes is, however, not so common as it was formerly. A bon mot may +alleviate the loss of a battle, and a lampoon on the court solace under +the burthen of a new impost; but the most thoughtless or improvident can +find nothing very facetious in the prospect of absolute want--and those +who have been used to laugh under a circumscription of their political +liberty, feel very seriously the evil of a government which endows its +members with unlimited power, and enables a Deputy, often the meanest and +most profligate character of his department, to imprison all who, from +caprice, interest, or vengeance, may have become the objects of his +persecution. + +I know this will appear so monstrous to an Englishman, that, had I an +opportunity of communicating such a circumstance before it were publicly +authenticated, you would suppose it impossible, and imagine I had been +mistaken, or had written only from report; it is nevertheless true, that +every part of France is infested by these Commissioners, who dispose, +without appeal, of the freedom and property of the whole department to +which they are sent. It frequently happens, that men are delegated to +places where they have resided, and thus have an opportunity of +gratifying their personal malice on all who are so unfortunate as to be +obnoxious to them. Imagine, for a moment, a village-attorney acting with +uncontrouled authority over the country where he formerly exercised his +profession, and you will have some idea of what passes here, except that +I hope no class of men in England are so bad as those which +compose the major part of the National Convention.--Yours, &c. + + + + +July 23, 1793. + +The events of Paris which are any way remarkable are so generally +circulated, that I do not often mention them, unless to mark their effect +on the provinces; but you will be so much misled by the public papers +with regard to the death of Marat, that I think it necessary to notice +the subject while it is yet recent in my memory. Were the clubs, the +Convention, or the sections of Paris to be regarded as expressing the +sense of the people, the assassination of this turbulent journalist must +be considered being the case, that the departments are for the most part, +if not rejoiced, indifferent--and many of those who impute to him the +honour of martyrdom, or assist at his apotheosis, are much better +satisfied both with his christian and heathen glories, than they were +while he was living to propagate anarchy and pillage. The reverence of +the Convention itself is a mere political pantomime. Within the last +twelve months nearly all the individuals who compose it have treated +Marat with contempt; and I perfectly remember even Danton, one of the +members of the Committee of Salut Publique, accusing him of being a +contre revolutionnaire. + +But the people, to use a popular expression here, require to be +electrified.--St. Fargeau is almost forgotten, and Marat is to serve the +same purposes when dead, to which he contributed while living.--An +extreme grossness and want of feeling form the characteristic feature of +the Parisians; they are ignorant, credulous, and material, and the +Convention do not fail on all occasions to avail themselves of these +qualities. The corpse of Marat decently enclosed in a coffin would have +made little impression, and it was not pity, but revenge, which was to be +excited. The disgusting object of a dead leper was therefore exposed to +the eyes of a metropolis calling itself the most refined and enlightened +of all Europe-- + + "And what t'oblivion better were consign'd, + Is hung on high to poison half mankind." + +I know not whether these lines are most applicable to the display of +Marat's body, or the consecration of his fame, but both will be a lasting +stigma on the manners and morals of Paris. + +If the departments, however, take no interest in the loss of Marat, the +young woman who assassinated him has created a very lively one. The +slightest anecdotes concerning her are collected with avidity, and +repeated with admiration; and this is a still farther proof of what you +have heard me advance, that neither patriotism nor humanity has an +abundant growth in this country. The French applaud an act in itself +horrid and unjustifiable, while they have scarcely any conception of the +motive, and such a sacrifice seems to them something supernatural.--The +Jacobins assert, that Charlotte Corday was an emissary of the allied +powers, or, rather, of Mr. Pitt; and the Parisians have the complaisance +to believe, that a young woman could devote herself to certain +destruction at the instigation of another, as though the same principles +which would lead a person to undertake a diplomatic commission, would +induce her to meet death. + +I wrote some days ago to a lady of my acquaintance at Caen, to beg she +would procure me some information relative to this extraordinary female, +and I subjoin an extract of her answer, which I have just received: + +"Miss Corday was a native of this department, and had, from her earliest +years, been very carefully educated by an aunt who lives at Caen. Before +she was twenty she had decided on taking the veil, and her noviciate was +just expired when the Constituent Assembly interdicted all religious vows +for the future: she then left the convent, and resided entirely with her +aunt. The beauty of her person, and particularly her mental +acquisitions, which were superior to that of French women in general, +rendered an object of much admiration. She spoke uncommonly well, and +her discourse often turned on the ancients, and on such subjects as +indicated that masculine turn of mind which has since proved so fatal to +her. Perhaps her conversation was a little tinctured with that pedantry +not unjustly attributed to our sex when they have a little more knowledge +than usual, but, at the same time, not in such a degree as to render it +unpleasant. She seldom gave any opinion on the revolution, but +frequently attended the municipalities to solicit the pensions of the +expelled religious, or on any other occasion where she could be useful to +her friends. On the arrival of Petion, Barbaroux, and others of the +Brissotin faction, she began to frequent the clubs, and to take a more +lively interest in political affairs. Petion, and Barbaroux especially, +seemed to be much respected by her. It was even said, she had a tender +partiality for the latter; but this I believe is untrue.--I dined with +her at her aunt's on the Sunday previous to her departure for Paris. +Nothing very remarkable appeared in her behaviour, except that she was +much affected by a muster of the recruits who were to march against +Paris, and seemed to think many lives might be lost on the occasion, +without obtaining any relief for the country.--On the Tuesday following +she left Caen, under pretext of visiting her father, who lives at Sens. +Her aunt accompanied her to the gate of the town, and the separation was +extremely sorrowful on both sides. The subsequent events are too well +known to need recital." + +On her trial, and at her execution, Miss Corday was firm and modest; +and I have been told, that in her last moments her whole figure was +interesting beyond description. She was tall, well formed, and +beautiful--her eyes, especially, were fine and expressive--even her dress +was not neglected, and a simple white dishabille added to the charms of +this self-devoted victim. On the whole, it is not possible to ascertain +precisely the motives which determined her to assassinate Marat. Her +letter to Barbaroux expresses nothing but republican sentiments; yet it +is difficult to conceive that a young woman, who had voluntarily embraced +the life of a cloister, could be really of this way of thinking.--I +cannot but suppose her connection with the Deputies arose merely from an +idea that they might be the instruments of restoring the abolished +government, and her profession of republican principles after she was +arrested might probably be with a view of saving Duperret, and others of +the party, who were still in the power of the Convention.--Her selection +of Marat still remains to be accounted for. He was, indeed, the most +violent of the Jacobins, but not the most dangerous, and the death of +several others might have been more serviceable to the cause. Marat was, +however, the avowed persecutor of priests and religion, and if we +attribute any influence to Miss Corday's former habits, we may suppose +them to have had some share in the choice of her victim. Her refusal of +the ministry of a constitutional priest at the scaffold strengthens this +opinion. We pay a kind of involuntary tribute of admiration to such +firmness of mind in a young and beautiful woman; and I do not recollect +that history has transmitted any thing parallel to the heroism of +Charlotte Corday. Love, revenge, and ambition, have often sacrificed +their victims, and sustained the courage of their voluntaries under +punishment; but a female, animated by no personal motives, sensible only +to the misfortunes of her country, patriotic both from feeling and +reflection, and sacrificing herself from principle, is singular in the +annals of human nature.--Yet, after doing justice to such an instance of +fortitude and philanthropic devotion, I cannot but sincerely lament the +act to which it has given rise. At a time when so many spirits are +irritated by despair and oppression, the example may be highly +pernicious, and a cause, however good, must always be injured by the use +of such means in its support.--Nothing can sanctify an assassination; and +were not the French more vindictive than humane, the crimes of the +republican party would find a momentary refuge in this injudicious effort +to punish them. + +My friend La Marquise de ____ has left Paris, and is now at Peronne, +where she has engaged me to pass a few weeks with her; so that my next +will most probably be dated from thence.--Mr. D____ is endeavouring to +get a passport for England. He begins to regret having remained here. +His temper, naturally impatient of restraint, accords but ill with the +portion of liberty enjoyed by our republicans. Corporal privations and +mental interdictions multiply so fast, that irritable people like +himself, and valetudinarians like Mrs. C____ and me, could not choose a +worse residence; and, as we are now unanimous on the subject, I hope soon +to leave the country.--There is, as you observe in your last, something +of indolence as well as friendship in my having so long remained here; +but if actions were always analyzed so strictly, and we were not allowed +to derive a little credit from our weaknesses, how many great characters +would be reduced to the common level. Voltaire introduced a sort of rage +for anecdotes, and for tracing all events to trifling causes, which has +done much more towards exploding the old-fashioned system or the dignity +of human nature than the dry maxims of Rochefaucault, the sophisms of +Mandeville, or even the malicious wit of Swift. This is also another +effect of the progress of philosophy; and this sort of moral Quixotism, +continually in search of evil, and more gratified in discovering it than +pained by its existence, may be very philosophical; but it is at least +gloomy and discouraging; and we may be permitted to doubt whether mankind +become wiser or better by learning, that those who have been most +remarkable either for wisdom or virtue were occasionally under the +influence of the same follies and passions as other people.--Your +uncharitable discernment, you see, has led me into a digression, and I +have, without intending it, connected the motives of my stay with +reflections on Voltaire's General History, Barillon's Letters, and all +the secret biography of our modern libraries. This, you will say, is +only a chapter of a "man's importance to himself;" but public affairs are +now so confused and disgusting, that we are glad to encourage any train +of ideas not associated with them. + +The Commissioners I gave you some account of in a former letter are +departed, and we have lately had Chabot, an Ex-capuchin, and a patriot of +special note in the Convention, and one Dumont, an attorney of a +neighbouring village. They are, like all the rest of these missionaries, +entrusted with unlimited powers, and inspire apprehension and dismay +wherever they approach. + +The Garde Nationale of Amiens are not yet entirely subdued to the times, +and Chabot gave some hints of a project to disarm them, and actually +attempted to arrest some of their officers; but, apprized of his design, +they remained two nights under arms, and the Capuchin, who is not +martially inclined, was so alarmed at this indication of resistance, +that he has left the town with more haste than ceremony.--He had, in an +harangue at the cathedral, inculcated some very edifying doctrines on the +division of property and the right of pillage; and it is not improbable, +had he not withdrawn, but the Amienois would have ventured, on this +pretext, to arrest him. Some of them contrived, in spite of the centinel +placed at the lodging of these great men, to paste up on the door two +figures, with the names of Chabot and Dumont; in the "fatal position of +the unfortunate brave;" and though certain events in the lives of these +Deputies may have rendered this perspective of their last moments not +absolutely a novelty, yet I do not recollect that Akenside, or any other +author, has enumerated a gibbet amongst the objects, which, though not +agreeable in themselves, may be reconciled to the mind by familiarity. +I wish, therefore, our representatives may not, in return for this +admonitory portrait of their latter end, draw down some vengeance on the +town, not easily to be appeased. I am no astrologer, but in our +sublunary world the conjunction of an attorney and a renegade monk cannot +present a fortunate aspect; and I am truly anxious to find myself once +again under the more benign influence of your English hemisphere.--Yours. + + + + +Peronne, July 29, 1793. + +Every attempt to obtain passports has been fruitless, and, with that sort +of discontented resignation which is the effect of necessity, I now look +upon myself as fixed here till the peace. I left Mr. and Mrs. D____ +yesterday morning, the disappointment operating upon them in full force. +The former takes longer walks than usual, breaks out in philippics +against tyrannies of all kinds, and swears ten times a day that the +French are the most noisy people upon earth--the latter is vexed, and, +for that reason, fancies she is ill, and calculates, with great +ingenuity, all the hazard and inconvenience we may be liable to by +remaining here. I hope, on my return, to find them more reconciled. + +At Villars de Bretonne, on my road hither, some people told me, with +great gaiety, that the English had made a descent on the coast of +Picardy. Such a report (for I did not suppose it possible) during the +last war would have made me tremble, but I heard this without alarm, +having, in no instance, seen the people take that kind of interest in +public events which formerly made a residence in France unpleasant to an +individual of an hostile nation. It is not that they are become more +liberal, or better informed--no change of this kind has been discovered +even by the warmest advocates of the revolution; but they are more +indifferent, and those who are not decidedly the enemies of the present +government, for the most part concern themselves as little about the +events of the war, as though it were carried on in the South Sea. + +I fear I should risk an imputation on my veracity, were I to describe the +extreme ignorance and inattention of the French with respect to public +men and measures. They draw no conclusions from the past, form no +conjectures for the future, and, after exclaiming "Il ne peut pas durer +comme cela," they, with a resignation which is certainly neither pious +nor philosophic, leave the rest to the agency of Providence.--Even those +who are more informed so bewilder themselves in the politics of Greece +and Rome, that they do not perceive how little these are applicable to +their own country. Indeed, it should seem that no modern age or people +is worthy the knowledge of a Frenchman.--I have often remarked, in the +course of our correspondence, how little they are acquainted with what +regards England or the English; and scarcely a day passes that I have not +occasion to make the same observation. + +My conductor hither, who is a friend of Mad. de T____, and esteemed "bien +instruit," was much surprized when I told him that the population and +size of London exceeded that of Paris--that we had good fruit, and better +vegetables than were to be found in many parts of France. I saw that he +suspected my veracity, and there is always on these occasions such a +decided and impenetrable incredulity in a Frenchman as precludes all +hopes of convincing him. He listens with a sort of self-sufficient +complacence which tells you he does not consider your assertions as any +thing more than the exaggerations of national vanity, but that his +politeness does not allow him to contradict you. I know nothing more +disgustingly impertinent than his ignorance, which intrenches itself +behind the forms of civility, and, affecting to decline controversy, +assumes the merit of forbearance and moderation: yet this must have been +often observed by every one who has lived much in French society: for the +first emotion of a Frenchman, on hearing any thing which tends to place +another country on an equality with France, is doubt--this doubt is +instantly reinforced by vanity--and, in a few seconds, he is perfectly +satisfied that the thing is impossible. + +One must be captious indeed to object to this, did it arise from that +patriotic feeling so common in the English; but here it is all vanity, +downright vanity: a Frenchman must have his country and his mistress +admired, though he does not often care much for either one or the other. +I have been in various parts of France in the most critical periods of +the revolution--I have conversed with people of all parties and of all +ranks--and I assert, that I have never yet met but with one man who had a +grain of real patriotism. If the Athenian law were adopted which doomed +all to death who should be indifferent to the public welfare in a time of +danger, I fear there would be a woeful depopulation here, even among the +loudest champions of democracy. + +It is not thirty miles from Amiens to Peronne, yet a journey of thirty +miles is not now to be undertaken inconsiderately; the horses are so much +worked, and so ill fed, that few perform such a distance without rest and +management. If you wish to take others, and continue your route, you +cannot, or if you wait while your own horses are refreshed, as a reward +for your humanity you get starved yourself. Bread being very scarce, no +family can get more than sufficient for its own consumption, and those +who travel without first supplying themselves, do it at the risk of +finding none on the road. + +Peronne is chiefly remarkable in history for never having been taken, and +for a tower where Louis XI. was confined for a short time, after being +outwitted in a manner somewhat surprizing for a Monarch who piqued +himself on his talents for intrigue, by Charles le Temeraire, Duke of +Burgundy. It modern reputation, arises from its election of the Abbe +Maury for its representative, and for entertaining political principles +every way analogous to such a choice. + +I found the Marquise much altered in her person, and her health much +impaired, by the frequent alarms and continual apprehensions she had been +subject to at Paris. Fortunately she has no imputation against her but +her rank and fortune, for she is utterly guiltless of all political +opinions; so that I hope she will be suffered to knit stockings, tend her +birds and dogs, and read romances in peace.--Yours, &c. &c. + + + + +August 1, 1793. + +When the creation of assignats was first proposed, much ingenuity was +employed in conjecturing, and much eloquence displayed in expatiating +upon, the various evils that might result from them; yet the genius of +party, however usually successful in gloomy perspective, did not at that +time imagine half the inconvenience this measure was fraught with. It +was easy, indeed, to foresee, that an immense circulation of paper, like +any other currency, must augment the price of every thing; but the +excessive discredit of the assignats, operating accessarily to their +quantity, has produced a train of collateral effects of greater magnitude +than even those that were originally apprehended. Within the last twelve +months the whole country are become monopolizers--the desire of realizing +has so possessed all degrees of people, that there is scarcely an article +of consumption which is not bought up and secreted. One would really +suppose that nothing was perishable but the national credit--the +nobleman, the merchant, the shopkeeper, all who have assignats, engage in +these speculations, and the necessities of our dissipated heirs do not +drive them to resources for obtaining money more whimsical than the +commerce now practised here to get rid of it. I know a beau who has +converted his _hypotheque_ [Mortgage.] on the national domains into train +oil, and a General who has given these "airy nothings" the substance and +form of hemp and leather!* + + * In the late rage for monopolies in France, a person who had + observed the vast daily consumption of onions, garlic, and + eschalots, conceived the project of making the whole district of + Amiens tributary for this indispensible article. In consequence, he + attended several market-days, and purchased all that came in his + way. The country people finding a ready sale for their onions, + poured in from all quarters, and our projector found that, in + proportion as he bought, the market became more profusely supplied, + and that the commodity he had hoped to monopolize was inexhaustible. + +Goods purchased from such motives are not as you may conceive sold till +the temptation of an exorbitant profit seduces the proprietor to risk a +momentary possession of assignats, which are again disposed of in a +similar way. Thus many necessaries of life are withdrawn from +circulation, and when a real scarcity ensues, they are produced to the +people, charged with all the accumulated gains of these intermediate +barters. + +This illiberal and pernicious commerce, which avarice and fear have for +some time kept in great activity, has at length attracted the notice of +the Convention, and very severe laws are now enacted against monopolies +of all kinds. The holder of any quantity of merchandize beyond what he +may be supposed to consume is obliged to declare it to his municipality, +and to expose the articles he deals in in writing over his door. These +clauses, as well as every other part of the decree, seem very wise and +equitable; but I doubt if the severity of the punishment annexed to any +transgression of it will not operate so as to defeat the purposes +intended to be produced. A false declaration is punishable by six years +imprisonment, and an absolute non-compliance with death.--Blackstone +remarks, that it is the certainty, not the severity, of punishment, which +makes laws efficacious; and this must ever be the case amongst an humane +people.--An inordinate desire of gain is not often considered by mankind +as very criminal, and those who would willingly subject it to its +adequate punishment of fine and confiscation, will hesitate to become the +means of inflicting death on the offender, or of depriving him of his +liberty. The Poets have, from time immemorial, claimed a kind of +exclusive jurisdiction over the sin of avarice: but, unfortunately, minds +once steeled by this vice are not often sensible to the attacks of +ridicule; and I have never heard that any poet, from Plautus to Moliere, +has reformed a single miser. I am not, therefore, sorry that our +legislature has encroached on this branch of the poetical prerogative, +and only wish that the mild regimen of the Muses had been succeeded by +something less rigid than the prison or the guillotine. It is true, +that, in the present instance, it is not the ordinary and habitual +practice of avarice that has called forth the severity of the laws, but a +species so destructive and extensive in its consequences, that much may +be said in defence of any penalty short of death; and such is the general +distrust of the paper-money, that I really believe, had not some measure +of the kind been adopted, no article susceptible of monopoly would have +been left for consumption. There are, however, those who retort on the +government, and assert, that the origin of the evil is in the waste and +peculation of its agents, which also make the immense emission of paper +more necessary; and they are right in the fact, though not in their +deduction, for as the evil does exist whatever may be the cause, it is +certainly wise to endeavour to remedy it. + +The position of Valenciennes, which is supposed to be on the eve of a +surrender--the progress of the insurgents in La Vendee--the discontents +in the South--and the charge of treachery against so many of the +Generals, and particularly Custine--all together seem to have agitated +the public extremely: yet it is rather the agitation of uncertainty than +that occasioned by any deep impression of hope or fear. The people wish +to be relieved from their present situation, yet are without any +determinate views for the future; and, indeed, in this part of the +country, where they have neither leaders nor union, it would be very +difficult for them to take a more active part. + +The party of the foederalists languish, merely because it is nothing more +than a party, and a party of which the heads excite neither interest nor +esteem. I conclude you learn from the papers all the more important +events, and I confine myself, as usual, to such details as I think less +likely to reach you. The humanity of the English must often banish their +political animosities when they read what passes here; and thousands of +my countrymen must at this moment lament with me the situation to which +France is reduced by projects in which common sense can distinguish no +medium between wickedness and folly. + +All apparent attachment to royalism is now cautiously avoided, but the +royalists do not diminish by persecution, and the industry with which +they propagate their opinions is nearly a match for all the force armee +of the republicans.--It is not easy to print pamphlets or newspapers, but +there are certain shops which one would think were discovered by +instinct, where are sold a variety of mysterious emblems of royalty, such +as fans that have no visible ornaments except landscapes, &c. but when +opened by the initiated, present tolerable likenesses of the Royal +Family; snuff-boxes with secret lids, containing miniature busts of the +late King; and music so ingeniously printed, that what to the common eye +offers only some popular air, when folded so as to join the heads and +tails of the notes together, forms sentences of very treasonable import, +and by no means flattering to the existing government--I have known these +interdicted trifles purchased at extravagant prices by the best-reputed +patriots, and by officers who in public breathe nothing but unconquerable +democracy, and detestation of Kings. Yet, though these things are +circulated with extreme caution, every body has something of the sort, +and, as Charles Surface says, "for my part, I don't see who is out of the +secret." + +The belief in religious miracles is exploded, and it is only in political +ones that the faith of the people is allowed to exercise itself.--We have +lately seen exhibited at the fairs and markets a calf, produced into the +world with the tri-coloured cockade on its head; and on the painted cloth +that announces the phoenomenon is the portrait of this natural +revolutionist, with a mayor and municipality in their official scarfs, +addressing the four-footed patriot with great ceremony. + +We set out early to-morrow-morning for Soissons, which is about twenty +leagues from hence. Travelling is not very desirable in the present +circumstances, but Mad. de F____ has some affairs to settle there which +cannot well be entrusted to a third person. The times, however, have a +very hostile appearance, and we intend, if possible, to be absent but +three days.--Yours. + + + + +Soissons, August 4, 1793. + +"And you may go by Beauvais if you will, for which reason many go by +Beauvais;" and the stranger who turns out of his road to go by Soissons, +must use the same reasoning, for the consciousness of having exercised +his free agency will be all his reward for visiting Soissons. This, by +the way; for my journey hither not being one of curiosity, I have no +right to complain; yet somehow or other, by associating the idea of the +famous Vase, the ancient residence of the first French Kings, and other +circumstances as little connected as these I suppose with modern history, +I had ranked Soissons in my imagination as one of the places I should see +with interest. I find it, however, only a dull, decent-looking town, +tolerably large, but not very populous. In the new division of France it +is the capital of the department De l'Aisne, and is of course the seat of +the administration. + +We left Peronne early, and, being so fortunate as to encounter no +accidental delays, we arrived within a league of Soissons early in the +afternoon. Mad. de F____, recollecting an acquaintance who has a chateau +not far out of our road, determined to stop an hour or two; for, as she +said, her friend was so "fond of the country," she should be sure to find +him there. We did, indeed, find this Monsieur, who is so "fond of the +country," at home, extremely well powdered, dressed in a striped silk +coat, and engaged with a card party, on a warm afternoon on the third of +August.--The chateau was situated as a French chateau usually is, so as +to be benefited by all the noises and odours of the village--built with a +large single front, and a number of windows so judiciously placed, that +it must be impossible either to be cool in summer or warm in winter. + +We walked out after taking some coffee, and I learned that this lover of +the country did not keep a single acre of land in his own hands, but that +the part immediately contiguous to the house was cultivated for a certain +share of the profit by a farmer who lives in a miserable looking place +adjoining, and where I saw the operations of the dairy-maid carried on +amidst pigs, ducks, and turkeys, who seemed to have established a very +familiar access. + +Previous to our arrival at Soissons, the Marquise (who, though she does +not consider me as an aristocrate, knows I am by no means a republican,) +begged me to be cautious in expressing my sentiments, as the Comte de +____, where we were going, had embraced the principles of the revolution +very warmly, and had been much blamed by his family on this account. +Mad. de F____ added, that she had not seen him for above a year, but that +she believed him still to be "extremement patriote." + +We reached Mons. de ____'s just as the family were set down to a very +moderate supper, and I observed that their plate had been replaced by +pewter. After the first salutations were over, it was soon visible that +the political notions of the count were much changed. He is a sensible +reflecting man, and seems really to wish the good of his country. He +thinks, with many others, that all the good effects which might have been +obtained by the revolution will be lost through the contempt and hatred +which the republican government has drawn upon it. + +Mons. de ____ has two sons who have distinguished themselves very +honourably in the army, and he has himself made great pecuniary +sacrifices; but this has not secured him from numerous domiciliary visits +and vexations of all kinds. The whole family are at intervals a little +pensive, and Mons. de ____ told us, at a moment when the ladies were +absent, that the taking of Valenciennes had occasioned a violent +fermentation at Paris, and that he had serious apprehensions for those +who have the misfortune to be distinguished by their rank, or obnoxious +from their supposed principles--that he himself, and all who were +presumed to have an attachment to the constitution of eighty-nine, were +much more feared, and of course more suspected, than the original +aristocrates--and "enfin" that he had made up his mind a la Francaise to +the worst that could happen. + +I have just run over the papers of the day, and I perceive that the +debates of the Convention are filled with invectives against the English. +A letter has been very opportunely found on the ramparts of Lisle, which +is intended to persuade the people that the British government has +distributed money and phosphoric matches in every town in France--the one +to provoke insurrection, the other to set fire to the corn.* You will +conclude this letter to be a fabrication, and it is imagined and executed +with so little ingenuity, that I doubt whether it will impose on the most +ignorant of the people for a moment. + + * "The National Convention, in the name of violated humanity, + denounces to all the world, and to the people of England in + particular, the base, perfidious, and wicked conduct of the British + government, which does not hesitate to employ fire, poison, + assassination, and every other crime, to procure the triumph of + tyranny, and the destruction of the rights of man." (Decree, 1st + August, 1793.) + +The Queen has been transferred to the Conciergerie, or common prison, and +a decree is passed for trying her; but perhaps at this moment (whatever +may be the result hereafter) they only hope her situation may operate as +a check upon the enemy; at least I have heard it doubted by many whether +they intend to proceed seriously on this trial so long threatened.-- +Perhaps I may have before noticed to you that the convention never seemed +capable of any thing great or uniform, and that all their proceedings +took a tinge from that frivolity and meanness which I am almost tempted +to believe inherent in the French character. They have just now, amidst +a long string of decrees, the objects of which are of the first +consequence, inserted one for the destruction of all the royal tombs +before the tenth of August, and another for reducing the expences of the +King's children, particularly their food, to bare necessaries. Had our +English revolutionists thus employed themselves, they might have expelled +the sculptured Monarchs from the Abbey, and waged a very successful war +on the admirers of Gothic antiquity; but neither the Stuarts, nor the +Catholic religion, would have had much to fear from them. + +We have been wandering about the town all day, and I have not remarked +that the successes of the enemy have occasioned any regret. When I was +in France three years ago, you may recollect that my letters usually +contained some relation of our embarrassment and delays, owing to the +fear and ignorance of the people. At one place they apprehended the +introduction of foreign troops--at another, that the Comte d'Artois was +to burn all the corn. In short, the whole country teemed with plots and +counterplots, every one of which was more absurd and inexplicable than +those of Oates, with his whole tribe of Jesuits. At present, when a +powerful army is invading the frontiers, and people have not in many +places bread to eat, they seem to be very little solicitous about the +former, and as little disposed to blame the aristocrates for the latter. + +It is really extraordinary, after all the pains that have been taken to +excite hatred and resentment against the English, that I have not heard +of a single instance of their having been insulted or molested. Whatever +inconveniencies they may have been subjected to, were acts of the +government, not of the people; and perhaps this is the first war between +the two nations in which the reverse has not been the case. + +I accompanied Mad. de ____ this afternoon to the house of a rich +merchant, where she had business, and who, she told me, had been a +furious patriot, but his ardour is now considerably abated. He had just +returned from the department, [Here used for the place where the public +business is transacted.] where his affairs had led him; and he assures +us, that in general the agents of the republic were more inaccessible, +more insolent, corrupt, and ignorant, than any employed under the old +government. He demurred to paying Mad. de ____ a sum of money all in +_assignats a face;_* and this famous patriot would readily have given me +an hundred livres for a pound sterling. + + * _Assignats a face_--that is, with the King's effigy; at this time + greatly preferred to those issued after his death. + +We shall return to Peronne to-morrow, and I have availed myself of the +hour between cards and supper, which is usually employed by the French in +undressing, to scribble my remarks. In some families, I suppose, supping +in dishabille is an arrangement of oeconomy, in others of ease; but I +always think it has the air of preparation for a very solid meal; and, in +effect, supping is not a mere ceremony with either sex in this country. + +I learnt in conversation with M. de ____, whose sons were at Famars when +the camp was forced, that the carnage was terrible, and that the loss of +the French on this occasion amounted to several thousands. You will be +informed of this much more accurately in England, but you will scarcely +imagine that no official account was ever published here, and that in +general the people are ignorant of the circumstance, and all the +disasters attending it. In England, you have opposition papers that +amply supply the omissions of the ministerial gazettes, and often dwell +with much complacence on the losses and defeats of their country; here +none will venture to publish the least event which they suppose the +government wish to keep concealed. I am told, a leading feature of +republican governments is to be extremely jealous of the liberty of the +press, and that of France is, in this respect, truly republican.--Adieu. + + + + +Peronne, August, 1793. + +I have often regretted, my dear brother, that my letters have for some +time been rather intended to satisfy your curiosity than your affection. +At this moment I feel differently, and I rejoice that the inquietude and +danger of my situation will, probably, not come to your knowledge till I +shall be no longer subject to them. I have been for several days unwell, +and yet my body, valetudinarian as I am at best, is now the better part +of me; for my mind has been so deranged by suspense and terror, that I +expect to recover my health long before I shall be able to tranquillize +my spirits. + +On our return from Soissons I found, by the public prints, that a decree +had passed for arresting all natives of the countries with which France +is at war, and who had not constantly resided there since 1789.--This +intelligence, as you will conceive, sufficiently alarmed me, and I lost +no time in consulting Mad. de ____'s friends on the subject, who were +generally of opinion that the decree was merely a menace, and that it was +too unjust to be put in execution. As some days elapsed and no steps +were taken in consequence, I began to think they were right, and my +spirits were somewhat revived; when one evening, as I was preparing to go +to bed, my maid suddenly entered the room, and, before she could give me +any previous explanation, the apartment was filled with armed men. As +soon as I was collected enough to enquire the object of this unseasonable +visit, I learned that all this military apparel was to put the seals on +my papers, and convey my person to the Hotel de Ville!--I knew it would +be vain to remonstrated, and therefore made an effort to recover my +spirits and submit. The business, however, was not yet terminated, my +papers were to be sealed--and though they were not very voluminous, the +process was more difficult than you would imagine, none of the company +having been employed on affairs of the kind before. A debate ensued on +the manner in which it should be done, and, after a very tumultuous +discussion, it was sagaciously concluded to seal up the doors and windows +of all the apartments appropriated to my use. They then discovered that +they had no seal fit for the purpose, and a new consultation was holden +on the propriety of affixing a cypher which was offered them by one of +the Garde Nationale. + +This weighty matter being at length decided, the doors of my bedchamber, +dressing-room, and of the apartments with which they communicated, were +carefully fastened up, though not without an observation on my part that +I was only a guest at Mad. de ____'s, and that an order to seize my +papers or person was not a mandate for rendering a part of her home +useless. But there was no reasoning with ignorance and a score of +bayonets, nor could I obtain permission even to take some linen out of my +drawers. On going down stairs, I found the court and avenues to the +garden amply guarded, and with this numerous escort, and accompanied by +Mad. de ____, I was conducted to the Hotel de Ville. I know not what +resistance they might expect from a single female, but, to judge by their +precautions, they must have deemed the adventure a very perilous one. +When we arrived at the Hotel de Ville, it was near eleven o'clock: the +hall was crouded, and a young man, in a dirty linen jacket and trowsers +and dirty linen, with the air of a Polisson and the countenance of an +assassin, was haranguing with great vehemence against the English, who, +he asserted, were all agents of Pitt, (especially the women,) and were to +set fire to the corn, and corrupt the garrisons of the fortified towns.-- +The people listened to these terrible projects with a stupid sort of +surprize, and, for the most part, seemed either very careless or very +incredulous. As soon as this inflammatory piece of eloquence was +finished, I was presented to the ill-looking orator, who, I learned, was +a representant du peuple. It was very easy to perceive that my spirits +were quite overpowered, and that I could with difficulty support myself; +but this did not prevent the representant du peuple from treating me with +that inconsiderable brutality which is commonly the effect of a sudden +accession of power on narrow and vulgar minds. After a variety of +impertinent questions, menaces of a prison for myself, and exclamations +of hatred and vengeance against my country, on producing some friends of +Mad. de ____, who were to be answerable for me, I was released, and +returned home more dead than alive. + +You must not infer, from what I have related, that I was particularly +distinguished on this occasion, for though I have no acquaintance with +the English here, I understand they had all been treated much in the same +manner.--As soon as the representant had left the town, by dint of +solicitation we prevailed on the municipality to take the seal off the +rooms, and content themselves with selecting and securing my papers, +which was done yesterday by a commission, formally appointed for the +purpose. I know not the quality of the good citizens to whom this +important charge was entrusted, but I concluded from their costume that +they had been more usefully employed the preceding part of the day at the +anvil and last. It is certain, however, they had undertaken a business +greatly beyond their powers. They indeed turned over all my trunks and +drawers, and dived to the bottom of water-jugs and flower-jars with great +zeal, but neglected to search a large portfolio that lay on the table, +probably from not knowing the use of it; and my servant conveyed away +some letters, while I amused them with the sight of a blue-bottle fly +through a microscope. They were at first much puzzled to know whether +books and music were included under the article of papers, and were very +desirous of burning a history of France, because they discovered, by the +title-plate, that it was "about Kings;" but the most difficult part of +this momentous transaction was taking an account of it in writing. +However, as only one of the company could write, there was no disputing +as to the scribe, though there was much about the manner of execution. I +did not see the composition, but I could hear that it stated "comme +quoi," they had found the seals unbroken, "comme quoi," they had taken +them off, and divers "as hows" of the same kind. The whole being +concluded, and my papers deposited in a box, I was at length freed from +my guests, and left in possession of my apartments. + +It is impossible to account for this treatment of the English by any mode +of reasoning that does not exclude both justice and policy; and viewing +it only as a symptom of that desperate wickedness which commits evil, not +as a means, but an end, I am extremely alarmed for our situation. At +this moment the whole of French politics seems to center in an endeavour +to render the English odious both as a nation and as individuals. The +Convention, the clubs, and the streets of Paris, resound with low abuse +of this tendency; and a motion was made in the former, by one Garnier, to +procure the assassination of Mr. Pitt. Couthon, a member of the Comite +de Salut Publique, has proposed and carried a decree to declare him the +enemy of mankind; and the citizens of Paris are stunned by the hawkers of +Mr. Pitt's plots with the Queen to "starve all France," and "massacre all +the patriots."--Amidst so many efforts* to provoke the destruction of the +English, it is wonderful, when we consider the sanguinary character which +the French people have lately evinced, that we are yet safe, and it is in +effect only to be accounted for by their disinclination to take any part +in the animosities of their government. + + * When our representative appeared at Abbeville with an intention of + arresting the English and other foreigners, the people, to whom + these missionaries with unlimited powers were yet new, took the + alarm, and became very apprehensive that he was come likewise to + disarm their Garde Nationale. The streets were crouded, the town + house was beset, and Citizen Dumout found it necessary to quiet the + town's people by the following proclamation. One part of his + purpose, that of insuring his personal safety, was answered by it; + but that of exciting the people against the English, failed-- + insomuch, that I was told even the lowest classes, so far from + giving credit to the malignant calumnies propagated against the + English, openly regretted their arrestation. + + "Citizens, + + "On my arrival amongst you, I little thought that malevolence would + be so far successful as to alarm you on the motives of my visit. + Could the aristocrates, then, flatter themselves with the hope of + making you believe I had the intention of disarming you? Be deaf, I + beseech you, to so absurd a calumny, and seize on those who + propagate it. I came here to fraternize with you, and to assist you + in getting rid of those malcontents and foreigners, who are striving + to destroy the republic by the most infernal manoeuvres.--An + horrible plot has been conceived. Our harvests are to be fired by + means of phosphoric matches, and all the patriots assassinated. + Women, priests, and foreigners, are the instruments employed by the + coalesced despots, and by England above all, to accomplish these + criminal designs.--A law of the first of this month orders the + arrest of all foreigners born in the countries with which the + republic is at war, and not settled in France before the month of + July, 1789. In execution of this law I have required domiciliary + visits to be made. I have urged the preservation of the public + tranquillity. I have therefore done my duty, and only what all good + citizens must approve." + +I have just received a few lines from Mrs. D____, written in French, and +put in the post without sealing. I perceive, by the contents, though she +enters into no details, that circumstances similar to those I have +described have likewise taken place at Amiens. In addition to my other +anxieties, I have the prospect of a long separation from my friends; for +though I am not in confinement, I cannot, while the decree which arrested +me remains in force, quit the town of Peronne. I have not often looked +forward with so little hope, or so little certainty, and though a +first-rate philosopher might make up his mind to a particular event, yet +to be prepared for any thing, and all things, is a more difficult +matter. + +The histories of Greece and Rome have long constituted the grand +resources of French eloquence, and it is not till within a few days that +an orator has discovered all this good learning to be of no use--not, as +you might imagine, because the moral character and political situation of +the French differ from those of the Greeks and Romans, but because they +are superior to all the people who ever existed, and ought to be cited as +models, instead of descending to become copyists. "Therefore, continues +this Jacobin sage, (whose name is Henriot, and who is highly popular,) +let us burn all the libraries and all the antiquities, and have no guide +but ourselves--let us cut off the heads of all the Deputies who have not +voted according to our principles, banish or imprison all the gentry and +the clergy, and guillotine the Queen and General Custine!" + +These are the usual subjects of discussion at the clubs, and the +Convention itself is not much more decent. I tremble when I recollect +that I am in a country where a member of the legislature proposes rewards +for assassination, and the leader of a society, that pretends to inform +and instruct the people, argues in favour of burning all the books. The +French are on the eve of exhibiting the singular spectacle of a nation +enlightened by science, accustomed to the benefit of laws and the +enjoyment of arts, suddenly becoming barbarous by system, and sinking +into ignorance from choice.--When the Goths shared the most curious +antiques by weight, were they not more civilized than the Parisian of +1793, who disturbs the ashes of Henry the Fourth, or destroys the +monument of Turenne, by a decree?--I have myself been forced to an act +very much in the spirit of the times, but I could not, without risking my +own safety, do otherwise; and I sat up late last night for the purpose of +burning Burke, which I had brought with me, but had fortunately so well +concealed, that it escaped the late inquisition. I indeed made this +sacrifice to prudence with great unwillingness--every day, by confirming +Mr. Burke's assertions, or fulfilling his predictions, had so increased +my reverence for the work, that I regarded it as a kind of political +oracle. I did not, however, destroy it without an apologetic apostrophe +to the author's benevolence, which I am sure would suffer, were he to be +the occasion, though involuntarily, of conducting a female to a prison or +the Guillotine. + +"How chances mock, and changes fill the cup of alteration up with divers +liquors."--On the same hearth, and in a mingled flame, was consumed the +very constitution of 1789, on which Mr. Burke's book was a censure, and +which would now expose me to equal danger were it to be found in my +possession. In collecting the ashes of these two compositions, the +tendency of which is so different, (for such is the complexion of the +moment, that I would not have even the servant suspect I had been burning +a quantity of papers,) I could not but moralize on the mutability of +popular opinion. Mr. Burke's Gallic adversaries are now most of them +proscribed and anathematized more than himself. Perhaps another year may +see his bust erected on the piedestal which now supports that of Brutus +or Le Pelletier. + +The letters I have written to you since the communication was +interrupted, with some other papers that I am solicitous to preserve, +I have hitherto always carried about me, and I know not if any danger, +merely probable, will induce me to part with them. You will not, I +think, suspect me of attaching any consequence to my scribblings from +vanity; and if I run some personal risk in keeping them, it is because +the situation of this country is so singular, and the events which occur +almost daily so important, that the remarks of any one who is unlucky +enough to be a spectator, may interest, without the advantage of literary +talents.--Yours. + + + + +Peronne, August 24, 1793. + +I have been out to-day for the first time since the arrest of the +English, and, though I have few acquaintances here, my adventure at the +Hotel de Ville has gained me a sort of popularity. I was saluted by many +people I did not know, and overwhelmed with expressions of regret for +what had happened, or congratulations on my having escaped so well. + +The French are not commonly very much alive to the sufferings of others, +and it is some mortification to my vanity that I cannot, but at the +expence of a reproaching conscience, ascribe the civilities I have +experienced on this occasion to my personal merit. It would doubtless +have been highly flattering to me to relate the tender and general +interest I had excited even among this cold-hearted people, who scarcely +feel for themselves: but the truth is, they are disposed to take the part +of any one whom they think persecuted by their government; and their +representative, Dumont, is so much despised in his private character, and +detested in his public one, that it suffices to have been ill treated by +him, to ensure one a considerable portion of the public good will. + +This disposition is not a little consolatory, at a time when the whole +rage of an oligarchical tyranny, though impotent against the English as a +nation, meanly exhausts itself on the few helpless individuals within its +power. Embarrassments accumulate and if Mr. Pitt's agents did not most +obligingly write letters, and these letters happen to be intercepted just +when they are most necessary, the Comite de Salut Publique would be at a +loss how to account for them. + +Assignats have fallen into a discredit beyond example, an hundred and +thirty livres having been given for one Louis-d'or; and, as if this were +not the natural result of circumstances like the present, a +correspondence between two Englishmen informs us, that it is the work of +Mr. Pitt, who, with an unparalleled ingenuity, has contrived to send +couriers to every town in France, to concert measures with the bankers +for this purpose. But if we may believe Barrere, one of the members of +the Committee, this atrocious policy of Mr. Pitt will not be unrevenged, +for another intercepted letter contains assurances that an hundred +thousand men have taken up arms in England, and are preparing to march +against the iniquitous metropolis that gives this obnoxious Minister +shelter. + +My situation is still the same--I have no hope of returning to Amiens, +and have just reason to be apprehensive for my tranquillity here. I had +a long conversation this morning with two people whom Dumont has left +here to keep the town in order during his absence. The subject was to +prevail on them to give me a permission to leave Peronne, but I could not +succeed. They were not, I believe, indisposed to gratify me, but were +afraid of involving themselves. One of them expressed much partiality +for the English, but was very vehement in his disapprobation of their +form of government, which he said was "detestable." My cowardice did not +permit me to argue much in its behalf, (for I look upon these people as +more dangerous than the spies of the old police,) and I only ventured to +observe, with great diffidence, that though the English government was +monarchical, yet the power of the Crown was very much limited; and that +as the chief subjects of our complaints at present were not our +institutions, but certain practical errors, they might be remedied +without any violent or radical changes; and that our nobility were +neither numerous nor privileged, and by no means obnoxious to the +majority of the people.--_"Ah, vous avez donc de la noblesse blesse en +Angleterre, ce sont peut-etre les milords,"_ ["What, you have nobility in +England then? The milords, I suppose."] exclaimed our republican, and it +operated on my whole system of defence like my uncle Toby's smoke-jack, +for there was certainly no discussing the English constitution with a +political critic, who I found was ignorant even of the existence of a +third branch of it; yet this reformer of governments and abhorrer of +Kings has power delegated to him more extensive than those of an English +Sovereign, though I doubt if he can write his own language; and his moral +reputation is still less in his favour than his ignorance--for, previous +to the revolution, he was known only as a kind of swindler, and has more +than once been nearly convicted of forgery.--This is, however, the +description of people now chiefly employed, for no honest man would +accept of such commissions, nor perform the services annexed to them. + +Bread continues very scarce, and the populace of Paris are, as usual, +very turbulent; so that the neighbouring departments are deprived of +their subsistence to satisfy the wants of a metropolis that has no claim +to an exemption from the general distress, but that which arises from the +fears of the Convention. As far as I have opportunity of learning or +observing, this part of France is in that state of tranquillity which is +not the effect of content but supineness; the people do not love their +government, but they submit to it, and their utmost exertions amount only +to a little occasional obstinacy, which a few dragoons always reduce to +compliance. We are sometimes alarmed by reports that parties of the +enemy are approaching the town, when the gates are shut, and the great +bell is toll'd; but I do not perceive that the people are violently +apprehensive about the matter. Their fears are, I believe, for the most +part, rather personal than political--they do not dread submission to the +Austrians, but military licentiousness. + +I have been reading this afternoon Lord Orrery's definition of the male +Cecisbeo, and it reminds me that I have not yet noticed to you a very +important class of females in France, who may not improperly be +denominated female Cecisbeos. Under the old system, when the rank of a +woman of fashion had enabled her to preserve a degree of reputation and +influence, in spite of the gallantries of her youth and the decline of +her charms, she adopted the equivocal character I here allude to, and, +relinquishing the adorations claimed by beauty, and the respect due to +age, charitably devoted herself to the instruction and advancement of +some young man of personal qualifications and uncertain fortune. She +presented him to the world, panegyrized him into fashion, and insured his +consequence with one set of females, by hinting his successes with +another. By her exertions he was promoted in the army or distinguished +at the levee, and a career begun under such auspices often terminated in +a brilliant establishment.--In the less elevated circle, a female +Cecisbeo is usually of a certain age, of an active disposition, and great +volubility, and her functions are more numerous and less dignified. Here +the grand objects are not to besiege Ministers, nor give a "ton" to the +protege at a fashionable ruelle, but to obtain for him the solid +advantages of what she calls _"un bon parti."_ [A good match.] To this +end she frequents the houses of widows and heiresses, vaunts the docility +of his temper, and the greatness of his expectations, enlarges on the +solitude of widowhood, or the dependence and insignificance of a +spinster; and these prefatory encomiums usually end in the concerted +introduction of the Platonic "ami." + +But besides these principal and important cares, a female Cecisbeo of the +middle rank has various subordinate ones--such as buying linen, choosing +the colour of a coat, or the pattern of a waistcoat, with all the +minutiae of the favourite's dress, in which she is always consulted at +least, if she has not the whole direction. + +It is not only in the first or intermediate classes that these useful +females abound, they are equally common in more humble situations, and +only differ in their employments, not in their principles. A woman in +France, whatever be her condition, cannot be persuaded to resign her +influence with her youth; and the bourgeoise who has no pretensions to +court favour or the disposal of wealthy heiresses, attaches her eleve by +knitting him stockings, forcing him with bons morceaux till he has an +indigestion, and frequent regales of coffee and liqueur. + +You must not conclude from all this that there is any gallantry implied, +or any scandal excited--the return for all these services is only a +little flattery, a philosophic endurance of the card-table, and some +skill in the disorders of lap-dogs. I know there are in England, as well +as in France, many notable females of a certain age, who delight in what +they call managing, and who are zealous in promoting, matches among the +young people of their acquaintance; but for one that you meet with in +England there are fifty here. + +I doubt much if, upon the whole, the morals of the English women are not +superior to those of the French; but however the question may be decided +as to morals, I believe their superiority in decency of manners is +indisputable--and this superiority is, perhaps, more conspicuous in women +of a certain age, than in the younger part of the sex. We have a sort of +national regard for propriety, which deters a female from lingering on +the confines of gallantry, when age has warned her to withdraw; and an +old woman that should take a passionate and exclusive interest about a +young man not related to her, would become at least an object of +ridicule, if not of censure:--yet in France nothing is more common; every +old woman appropriates some youthful dangler, and, what is extraordinary, +his attentions are not distinguishable from those he would pay to a +younger object.--I should remark, however, as some apology for these +juvenile gallants, that there are very few of what we call Tabbies in +France; that is, females of severe principles and contracted features, in +whose apparel every pin has its destination with mathematical exactness, +who are the very watch-towers of a neighbourhood, and who give the alarm +on the first appearance of incipient frailty. Here, antique dowagers and +faded spinsters are all gay, laughing, rouged, and indulgent--so that +'bating the subtraction of teeth and addition of wrinkles, the disparity +between one score and four is not so great: + + "Gay rainbow silks their mellow charms enfold, + Nought of these beauties but themselves is old." + +I know if I venture to add a word in defence of Tabbyhood, I shall be +engaged in a war with yourself and all our young acquaintance; yet in +this age, which so liberally "softens, and blends, and weakens, and +dilutes" away all distinctions, I own I am not without some partiality +for strong lines of demarcation; and, perhaps, when fifty retrogrades +into fifteen, it makes a worse confusion in society than the toe of the +peasant treading on the heel of the courtier.--But, adieu: I am not gay, +though I trifle. I have learnt something by my residence in France, and +can be, as you see, frivolous under circumstances that ought to make me +grave.--Yours. + + + + +Peronne, August 29, 1793. + +The political horizon of France threatens nothing but tempests. If we +are still tranquil here, it is only because the storm is retarded, and, +far from deeming ourselves secure from its violence, we suffer in +apprehension almost as much as at other places is suffered in reality. +An hundred and fifty people have been arrested at Amiens in one night, +and numbers of the gentry in the neighbouring towns have shared the same +fate. This measure, which I understand is general throughout the +republic, has occasioned great alarms, and is beheld by the mass of the +people themselves with regret. In some towns, the Bourgeois have +petitions to the Representatives on mission in behalf of their gentry +thus imprisoned: but, far from succeeding, all who have signed such +petitions are menaced and intimidated, and the terror is so much +increased, that I doubt if even this slight effort will be repeated any +where. + +The levee en masse, or rising in a body, which has been for some time +decreed, has not yet taken place. There are very few, I believe, that +comprehend it, and fewer who are disposed to comply. Many consultations +have been holden, many plans proposed; but as the result of all these +consultations and plans is to send a certain number to the frontiers, the +suffrages have never been unanimous except in giving their negative.-- +Like Falstaff's troops, every one has some good cause of exemption; and +if you were to attend a meeting where this affair is discussed, you would +conclude the French to be more physically miserable than any people on +the glove. Youths, in apparent good health, have internal disorders, or +concealed infirmities--some are near-sighted--others epileptic--one is +nervous, and cannot present a musquet--another is rheumatic, and cannot +carry it. In short, according to their account, they are a collection of +the lame, the halt, and the blind, and fitter to send to the hospital, +than to take the field. But, in spite of all these disorders and +incapacities, a considerable levy must be made, and the dragoons will, I +dare say, operate very wonderful cures. + +The surrender of Dunkirk to the English is regarded as inevitable. I am +not politician enough to foresee the consequences of such an event, but +the hopes and anxieties of all parties seem directed thither, as if the +fate of the war depended on it. As for my own wishes on the subject, +they are not national, and if I secretly invoke the God of Armies for the +success of my countrymen, it is because I think all that tends to destroy +the present French government may be beneficial to mankind. Indeed, the +successes of war can at no time gratify a thinking mind farther than as +they tend to the establishment of peace. + +After several days of a mockery which was called a trial, though the +witnesses were afraid to appear, or the Counsel to plead in his favour, +Custine has suffered at the Guillotine. I can be no judge of his +military conduct, and Heaven alone can judge of his intentions. None of +the charges were, however, substantiated, and many of them were absurd or +frivolous. Most likely, he has been sacrificed to a cabal, and his +destruction makes a part of that system of policy, which, by agitating +the minds of the people with suspicions of universal treason and +unfathomable plots, leaves them no resource but implicit submission to +their popular leaders. + +The death of Custine seems rather to have stimulated than appeased the +barbarity of the Parisian mob. At every defeat of their armies they call +for executions, and several of those on whom the lot has fallen to march +against the enemy have stipulated, at the tribune of the Jacobins, for +the heads they exact as a condition of their departure,* or as the reward +for their labours. The laurel has no attraction for heroes like these, +who invest themselves with the baneful yew and inauspicious cypress, and +go to the field of honour with the dagger of the assassin yet +ensanguined. + + * Many insisted they would not depart until after the death of the + Queen--some claimed the death of one General, some that of another, + and all, the lives or banishment of the gentry and clergy. + +"Fair steeds, gay shields, bright arms," [Spencer.] the fancy-created +deity, the wreath of fame, and all that poets have imagined to decorate +the horrors of war, are not necessary to tempt the gross barbarity of the +Parisian: he seeks not glory, but carnage--his incentive is the groans of +defenceless victims--he inlists under the standard of the Guillotine, and +acknowledges the executioner for his tutelary Mars. + +In remarking the difficulties that have occurred in carrying into +execution the levee en masse, I neglected to inform you that the prime +mover of all these machinations is your omnipotent Mr. Pitt--it is he who +has fomented the perverseness of the towns, and alarmed the timidity of +the villages--he has persuaded some that it is not pleasant to leave +their shops and families, and insinuated into the minds of others that +death or wounds are not very desirable--he has, in fine, so effectually +achieved his purpose, that the Convention issues decree after decree, the +members harangue to little purpose, and the few recruits already levied, +like those raised in the spring, go from many places strongly escorted to +the army.--I wish I had more peaceful and more agreeable subjects for +your amusement, but they do not present themselves, and "you must blame +the times, not me." I would wish to tell you that the legislature is +honest, that the Jacobins are humane, and the people patriots; but you +know I have no talent for fiction, and if I had, my situation is not +favourable to any effort of fancy.--Yours. + + + + +Peronne, Sept. 7, 1793. + +The successes of the enemy on all sides, the rebellion at Lyons and +Marseilles, with the increasing force of the insurgents in La Vendee, +have revived our eagerness for news, and if the indifference of the +French character exempt them from more patriotic sensations, it does not +banish curiosity; yet an eventful crisis, which in England would draw +people together, here keeps them apart. When an important piece of +intelligence arrives, our provincial politicians shut themselves up with +their gazettes, shun society, and endeavour to avoid giving an opinion +until they are certain of the strength of a party, or the success of an +attempt. In the present state of public affairs, you may therefore +conceive we have very little communication--we express our sentiments +more by looks and gestures than words, and Lavater (admitting his system) +would be of more use to a stranger than Boyer or Chambaud. If the +English take Dunkirk, perhaps we may be a little more social and more +decided. + +Mad. de ____ has a most extensive acquaintance, and, as we are situated +on one of the roads from Paris to the northern army, notwithstanding the +cautious policy of the moment, we are tolerably well informed of what +passes in most parts of France; and I cannot but be astonished, when I +combine all I hear, that the government is able to sustain itself. Want, +discord, and rebellion, assail it within--defeats and losses from +without. Perhaps the solution of this political problem can only be +found in the selfishness of the French character, and the want of +connection between the different departments. Thus one part of the +country is subdued by means of another: the inhabitants of the South take +up arms in defence of their freedom and their commerce, while those of +the North refuse to countenance or assist them, and wait in selfish +tranquillity till the same oppression is extended to themselves. The +majority of the people have no point of union nor mode of communication, +while the Jacobins, whose numbers are comparatively insignificant, are +strong, by means of their general correspondence, their common center at +Paris, and the exclusive direction of all the public prints. But, +whatever are the causes, it is certain that the government is at once +powerful and detested--almost without apparent support, yet difficult to +overthrow; and the submission of Rome to a dotard and a boy can no longer +excite the wonder of any one who reflects on what passes in France. + +After various decrees to effect the levee en masse, the Convention have +discovered that this sublime and undefined project was not calculated for +the present exhausted state of martial ardour. They therefore no longer +presume on any movement of enthusiasm, but have made a positive and +specific requisition of all the male inhabitants of France between +eighteen and twenty-five years of age. This, as might be expected, has +been more effectual, because it interests those that are exempt to force +the compliance of those who are not. Our young men here were like +children with a medicine--they proposed first one form of taking this +military potion, then another, and finding them all equally unpalatable, +would not, but for a little salutary force, have decided at all. + +A new law has been passed for arresting all the English who cannot +produce two witnesses of their civisme, and those whose conduct is thus +guaranteed are to receive tickets of hospitality, which they are to wear +as a protection. This decree has not yet been carried into effect at +Peronne, nor am I much disturbed about it. Few of our countrymen will +find the matter very difficult to arrange, and I believe they have all a +better protection in the disposition of the people towards them, than any +that can be assured them by decrees of the Convention. + +Sept. 11. The news of Lord Hood's taking possession of Toulon, which the +government affected to discredit for some days, is now ascertained; and +the Convention, in a paroxism of rage, at once cowardly and unprincipled, +has decreed that all the English not resident in France before 1789, +shall be imprisoned as hostages, and be answerable with their lives for +the conduct of their countrymen and of the Toulonese towards Bayle and +Beauvais, two Deputies, said to be detained in the town at the time of +its surrender. My first emotions of terror and indignation have +subsided, and I have, by packing up my clothes, disposing of my papers, +and providing myself with money, prepared for the worst. My friends, +indeed, persuade me, (as on a former occasion,) that the decree is too +atrocious to be put in execution; but my apprehensions are founded on a +principle not likely to deceive me--namely, that those who have possessed +themselves of the French government are capable of any thing. I live in +constant fear, watching all day and listening all night, and never go to +bed but with the expectation of being awakened, nor rise without a +presentiment of misfortune.--I have not spirits nor composure to write, +and shall discontinue my letters until I am relieved from suspense, if +nor from uneasiness. I risk much by preserving these papers, and, +perhaps, may never be able to add to them; but whatever I may be reserved +for, while I have a hope they may reach you they shall not be destroyed. +--I bid you adieu in a state of mind which the circumstances I am under +will describe better than words.--Yours. + + + + +Maison d'Arret, Arras, Oct. 15, 1793. + +Dear Brother, + +The fears of a timid mind usually magnify expected evil, and anticipated +suffering often diminishes the effect of an apprehended blow; yet my +imagination had suggested less than I have experienced, nor do I find +that a preparatory state of anxiety has rendered affliction more +supportable. The last month of my life has been a compendium of misery; +and my recollection, which on every other subject seems to fail me, is, +on this, but too faithful, and will enable me to relate events which will +interest you not only as they personally concern me, but as they present +a picture of the barbarity and despotism to which this whole country is +subject, and to which many thousands besides myself were at the same +instant victims. + +A few evenings after I concluded my last, the firing of cannon and +ringing the great bell announced the arrival of Dumont (still +Representative en mission in our department). The town was immediately +in alarm, all the gates were shut, and the avenues leading to the +ramparts guarded by dragoons. Our house being in a distant and +unfrequented street, before we could learn the cause of all this +confusion, a party of the national guard, with a municipal officer at +their head, arrived, to escort Mad. de ___ and myself to a church, where +the Representant was then examining the prisoners brought before him. +Almost as much astonished as terrified, we endeavoured to procure some +information of our conductors, as to what was to be the result of this +measure; but they knew nothing, and it was easy to perceive they thought +the office they were executing an unpleasant one. The streets we passed +were crouded with people, whose silent consternation and dismayed +countenances increased our forebodings, and depressed the little courage +we had yet preserved. The church at our arrival was nearly empty, and +Dumont preparing to depart, when the municipal officer introduced us to +him. As soon as he learned that Mad. de ____ was the sister of an +emigrant, and myself a native of England, he told us we were to pass the +night in a church appointed for the purpose, and that on the morrow we +should be conveyed to Arras. For a moment all my faculties became +suspended, and it was only by an effort almost convulsive that I was able +to ask how long it was probable we should be deprived of our liberty. He +said he did not know--"but that the raising of the siege of Dunkirk, and +the loss of six thousand troops which the French had taken prisoners, +would doubtless produce an insurrection in England, par consequent a +peace, and our release from captivity!" + +You may be assured I felt no desire of freedom on such terms, and should +have heard this ignorant and malicious suggestion only with contempt, had +not the implication it conveyed that our detention would not terminate +but with the war overwhelmed every other idea. Mad. de ____ then +petitioned that we might, on account of our health, (for we were both +really unwell,) be permitted to go home for the night, accompanied by +guards if it were thought necessary. But the Representant was +inexorable, and in a brutal and despotic tone ordered us away.--When we +reached the church, which was to be our prison till morning, we found +about an hundred and fifty people, chiefly old men, women, and children, +dispersed in melancholy groupes, lamenting their situation, and imparting +their fears to each other. The gloom of the building was increased by +the darkness of the night; and the noise of the guard, may of whom were +intoxicated, the odour of tobacco, and the heat of the place, rendered +our situation almost insupportable. We soon discovered several of our +acquaintance, but this association in distress was far from consolatory, +and we passed the time in wandering about together, and consulting upon +what would be of most use to us in our confinement. We had, indeed, +little to hope for from the morrow, yet the hours dragged on heavily, and +I know not if ever I beheld the return of light with more pleasure. I +was not without apprehension for our personal safety. I recollected the +massacres in churches at Paris, and the frequent propositions that had +been made to exterminate the gentry and clergy. Mad. de ____ has since +confessed, that she had the same ideas. + +Morning at length came, and our servants were permitted to enter with +breakfast. They appeared sorrowful and terror-stricken, but offered with +great willingness to accompany us whithersoever we should be sent. After +a melancholy sort of discussion, it was decided that we should take our +femmes de chambres, and that the others should remain for the safety of +the house, and to send us what we might have occasion for. This settled, +they returned with such directions as we were able to give them, (God +knows, not very coherent ones,) to prepare for our journey: and as our +orders, however confused, were not very voluminous, they were soon +executed, and before noon every thing was in readiness for our departure. +The people employed by our companions were equally diligent, and we might +very well have set out by one o'clock, had our case been at all +considered; but, I know not why, instead of so providing that we might +reach our destination in the course of the day, it seemed to have been +purposely contrived that we should be all night on the road, though we +had already passed one night without rest, and were exhausted by watching +and fatigue. + +In this uncertain and unpleasant state we waited till near six o'clock; +a number of small covered waggons were then brought, accompanied by a +detachment of dragoons, who were to be our escort. Some time elapsed, as +you may suppose, before we could be all settled in the carriages and such +a cavalcade put in motion; but the concourse of people that filled the +streets, the appearance of the troops, and the tumult occasioned by so +many horses and carriages, overpowered my spirits, and I remember little +of what passed till I found we were on the road to Arras. Mad. de ____'s +maid now informed us, that Dumont had arrived the evening before in +extreme ill humour, summoned the municipality in haste, enquired how many +people they had arrested, and what denunciations they had yet to make. +The whole body corporate trembled, they had arrested no one, and, still +worse, they had no one to accuse; and could only alledge in their behalf, +that the town was in the utmost tranquillity, and the people were so well +disposed, that all violence was unnecessary. The Representant became +furious, vociferated _tout grossierement a la Francaise,_ [In the vulgar +French manner.] that he knew there were five thousand aristocrates in +Peronne, and that if he had not at least five hundred brought him before +morning, he would declare the town in a state of rebellion. + +Alarmed by this menace, they began to arrest with all possible speed, +and were more solicitous to procure their number than to make +discriminations. Their diligence, however, was inadequate to appease the +choleric legislator, and the Mayor, municipal officers, and all the +administrators of the district, were in the morning sent to the Castle, +whence they are to be conveyed, with some of their own prisoners, to +Amiens. + +Besides this intelligence, we learned that before our servants had +finished packing up our trunks, some Commissioners of the section arrived +to put the seals on every thing belonging to us, and it was not without +much altercation that they consented to our being furnished with +necessaries--that they had not only sealed up all the house, but had +placed guards there, each of whom Mad. de ____ is to pay, at the rate of +two shillings a day. + +We were too large a body to travel fast, and by the time we reached +Bapaume (though only fifteen miles) it was after twelve; it rained +dreadfully, the night was extremely dark, the roads were bad, and the +horses tired; so that the officer who conducted us thought it would be +difficult to proceed before morning. We were therefore once more crouded +into a church, in our wet clothes, (for the covering of the waggon was +not thick enough to exclude the rain,) a few bundles of damp straw were +distributed, and we were then shut up to repose as well as we could. All +my melancholy apprehensions of the preceding night returned with +accumulated force, especially as we were now in a place where we were +unknown, and were guarded by some of the newly-raised dragoons, of whom +we all entertained very unfavourable suspicions. + +We did not, as you may well imagine, attempt to sleep--a bed of wet straw +laid on the pavement of a church, filthy, as most French churches are, +and the fear of being assassinated, resisted every effort of nature +herself, and we were very glad when at the break of day we were summoned +to continue our journey. About eleven we entered Arras: the streets were +filled by idle people, apprized of our arrival; but no one offered us any +insult, except some soldiers, (I believe, by their uniform, refugees from +the Netherlands,) who cried, "a la Guillotine!--a la Guillotine!" + +The place to which we were ordered had been the house of an emigrant, +now converted into an house of detention, and which, though large, was +excessively full. The keeper, on our being delivered to him, declared he +had no room for us, and we remained with our baggage in the court-yard +some hours before he had, by dislodging and compressing the other +inhabitants, contrived to place us. At last, when we were half dead with +cold and fatigue, we were shown to our quarters. Those allotted for my +friend, myself, and our servants, was the corner of a garret without a +cieling, cold enough in itself, but rendered much warmer than was +desirable by the effluvia of a score of living bodies, who did not seem +to think the unpleasantness of their situation at all increased by dirt +and offensive smells. Weary as we were, it was impossible to attempt +reposing until a purification had been effected: we therefore set +ourselves to sprinkling vinegar and burning perfumes; and it was curious +to observe that the people, (_all gens comme il faut_ [People of +fashion.]) whom we found inhaling the atmosphere of a Caffrarian hut, +declared their nerves were incommoded by the essence of roses and +vinaigre des quatre voleurs. + +As a part of the room was occupied by men, our next business was to +separate our corner by a curtain, which we had fortunately brought with +our bedding; and this done, we spread our mattresses and lay down, while +the servants were employed in getting us tea. As soon as we were a +little refreshed, and the room was quiet for the night, we made up our +beds as well as we could, and endeavoured to sleep. Mad. de ____ and the +two maids soon forgot their cares; but, though worn out by fatigue, the +agitation of my mind conquered the disposition of my body. I seemed to +have lost the very faculty of sleeping, and passed this night with almost +as little repose as the two preceding ones. Before morning I discovered +that remaining so long in damp clothes, and the other circumstances of +our journey, had given me cold, and that I had all the symptoms of a +violent fever. + +I leave you to conjecture, for it would be impossible to detail, all the +misery of illness in such a situation; and I will only add, that by the +care of Mad. de ____, whose health was happily less affected, and the +attention of my maid, I was able to leave the room in about three weeks. +--I must now secrete this for some days, but will hereafter resume my +little narrative, and explain how I have ventured to write so much even +in the very neighbourhood of the Guillotine.--Adieu. + + + + +Maison d'Arret, Arras, Oct. 17, 1793. + +On the night I concluded my last, a report that Commissioners were to +visit the house on the morrow obliged me to dispose of my papers beyond +the possibility of their being found. The alarm is now over, and I +proceed.--After something more than three weeks indisposition, I began to +walk in the yard, and make acquaintance with our fellow-prisoners. Mad. +de ____ had already discovered several that were known to her, and I now +found, with much regret, that many of my Arras friends were here also. +Having been arrested some days before us, they were rather more +conveniently lodged, and taking the wretchedness of our garret into +consideration, it was agreed that Mad. de ____ should move to a room less +crouded than our own, and a dark closet that would just contain my +mattresses was resigned to me. It is indeed a very sorry apartment, but +as it promises me a refuge where I may sometimes read or write in peace, +I have taken possession of it very thankfully. A lock on the door is not +the least of its recommendations, and by way of securing myself against +all surprize, I have contrived an additional fastening by means of a +large nail and the chain of a portmanteau--I have likewise, under pretext +of keeping out the wind, papered over the cracks of the door, and +provided myself with a sand-bag, so that no one can perceive when I have +a light later than usual.--With these precautions, I can amuse myself by +putting on paper any little occurrences that I think worth preserving, +without much danger, and perhaps the details of a situation so new and so +strange may not be uninteresting to you. + +We are now about three hundred in number of both sexes, and of all ages +and conditions--ci-devant noblesse, parents, wives, sisters, and other +relations of emigrants--priests who have not taken the oaths, merchants +and shopkeepers accused of monopoly, nuns, farmers that are said to have +concealed their corn, miserable women, with scarcely clothes to cover +them, for not going to the constitutional mass, and many only because +they happened to be at an inn, or on a visit from their own town, when a +general arrest took place of all who are what is called etrangers, that +is to say, not foreigners only, but not inhabitants of the town where +they are found.--There are, besides, various descriptions of people sent +here on secret informations, and who do not themselves know the precise +reason of their confinement. I imagine we are subject to nearly the same +rules as the common prisons: no one is permitted to enter or speak to a +"detenu" but at the gate, and in presence of the guard; and all letters, +parcels, baskets, &c. are examined previous to their being either +conveyed from hence or received. This, however, depends much on the +political principles of those who happen to be on guard: an aristocrate +or a constitutionalist will read a letter with his eyes half shut, and +inspect bedding and trunks in a very summary way; while a thorough-paced +republican spells every syllable of the longest epistle, and opens all +the roasted pigs or duck-pies before he allows their ingress.--None of +the servants are suffered to go out, so that those who have not friends +in the town to procure them necessaries are obliged to depend entirely on +the keeper, and, of course, pay extravagantly dear for every thing; but +we are so much in the power of these people, that it is prudent to submit +to such impositions without murmuring. + +I did not, during my illness, read the papers, and have to-day been +amusing myself with a large packet. General Houchard, I find, is +arrested, for not having, as they say he might have done, driven all the +English army into the sea, after raising the siege of Dunkirk; yet a few +weeks ago their utmost hopes scarcely amounted to the relief of the town: +but their fears having subsided, they have now leisure to be jealous; and +I know no situation so little to be envied under the present government +as that of a successful General.--Among all their important avocations, +the Convention have found time to pass a decree for obliging women to +wear the national cockade, under pain of imprisonment; and the +municipality of the superb Paris have ordered that the King's family +shall, in future, use pewter spoons and eat brown bread! + + + + +Oct. 18. + +I begin to be very uneasy about Mr. and Mrs. D____. I have written +several times, and still receive no answer. I fear they are in a +confinement more severe than my own, or that our letters miscarry. A +servant of Mad. de ____'s was here this morning, and no letters had come +to Peronne, unless, as my friend endeavours to persuade me, the man would +not venture to give them in presence of the guard, who par excellence +happened to be a furious Jacobin.--We had the mortification of hearing +that a very elegant carriage of Mad. de ____'s has been put in +requisition, and taken to convey a tinman and two farriers who were going +to Paris on a mission--that two of her farmer's best horses had been +killed by hard work in taking provisions to the army, and that they are +now cutting down the young wood on her estate to make pikes.--The seals +are still on our effects, and the guard remains in possession, which has +put us to the expence of buying a variety of articles we could not well +dispense with: for, on examining the baggage after our arrival, we found +it very much diminshed; and this has happened to almost all the people +who have been arrested. Our suspicions naturally fall on the dragoons, +and it is not very surprizing that they should attempt to steal from +those whom they are certain would not dare to make any complaint. + +Many of our fellow-prisoners are embarrassed by their servants having +quitted them.--One Collot d'Herbois, a member of the Commite de Salut +Public, has proposed to the Convention to collect all the gentry, +priests, and suspected people, into different buildings, which should be +previously mined for the purpose, and, on the least appearance of +insurrection, to blow them up all together.--You may perhaps conclude, +that such a project was received with horror, and the adviser of it +treated as a monster. Our humane legislature, however, very coolly sent +it to the committee to be discussed, without any regard to the terror and +apprehension which the bare idea of a similar proposal must inspire in +those who are the destined victims. I cannot myself believe that this +abominable scheme is intended for execution, but it has nevertheless +created much alarm in timid minds, and has occasioned in part the +defection of the servants I have just mentioned. Those who were +sufficiently attached to their masters and mistresses to endure the +confinement and privations of a Maison d'Arret, tremble at the thoughts +of being involved in the common ruin of a gunpowder explosion; and the +men seem to have less courage than the women, at least more of the latter +have consented to remain here.--It was atrocious to publish such a +conception, though nothing perhaps was intended by it, as it may deprive +many people of faithful attendants at a time when they are most +necessary. + +We have a tribunal revolutionnaire here, with its usual attendant the +Guillotine, and executions are now become very frequent. I know not who +are the sufferers, and avoid enquiring through fear of hearing the name +of some acquaintance. As far as I can learn, the trials are but too +summary, and little other evidence is required than the fortune, rank, +and connections of the accused. The Deputy who is Commissioner for this +department is one Le Bon, formerly a priest--and, I understand, of an +immoral and sanguinary character, and that it is he who chiefly directs +the verdicts of the juries according to his personal hatred or his +personal interest.--We have lately had a very melancholy instance of the +terror created by this tribunal, as well as of the notions that prevail +of its justice. A gentleman of Calais, who had an employ under the +government, was accused of some irregularity in his accounts, and, in +consequence, put under arrest. The affair became serious, and he was +ordered to prison, as a preliminary to his trial. When the officers +entered his apartment to take him, regarding the judicial procedure as a +mere form, and concluding it was determined to sacrifice him, he in a +frenzy of despair seized the dogs in the chimney, threw them at the +people, and, while they escaped to call for assistance, destroyed himself +by cutting his arteries.--It has appeared, since the death of this +unfortunate man, that the charge against him was groundless, and that he +only wanted time to arrange his papers, in order to exonerate himself +entirely. + + + + +Oct. 19. + +We are disturbed almost nightly by the arrival of fresh prisoners, and my +first question of a morning is always _"N'est il pas du monde entre la +nuit?"_--Angelique's usual reply is a groan, and _"Ah, mon Dieu, oui;" +"Une dixaine de pretres;"_ or, _"Une trentaine de nobles:"_ ["Did not some +people arrive in the night?"]--"Yes, God help us--half a score priests, or +twenty or thirty gentry." And I observe the depth of the groan is nearly +in proportion to the quality of the person she commiserates. Thus, a +groan for a Comte, a Marquise, or a Priest, is much more audible than one +for a simple gentlewoman or a merchant; and the arrival of a Bishop +(especially if not one of the constitutional clergy) is announced in a +more sorrowful key than either. + +While I was walking in the yard this morning, I was accosted by a +female whom I immediately recollected to be Victoire, a very pretty +_couturiere,_ [Sempstress.] who used to work for me when I was at +Panthemont, and who made your last holland shirts. I was not a little +surprized to see her in such a situation, and took her aside to enquire +her history. I found that her mother was dead, and that her brother +having set up a little shop at St. Omer, had engaged her to go and live +with him. Being under five-and-twenty, the last requisition obliged him +to depart for the army, and leave her to carry on the business alone. +Three weeks after, she was arrested at midnight, put into a cart, and +brought hither. She had no time to take any precautions, and their +little commerce, which was in haberdashery, as well as some work she had +in hand, is abandoned to the mercy of the people that arrested her. She +has reason to suppose that her crime consists in not having frequented +the constitutional mass; and that her accuser is a member of one of the +town committees, who, since her brother's absence, has persecuted her +with dishonourable proposals, and, having been repulsed, has taken this +method of revenging himself. Her conjecture is most probably right, as, +since her imprisonment, this man has been endeavouring to make a sort of +barter with her for her release. + +I am really concerned for this poor creature, who is at present a very +good girl, but if she remain here she will not only be deprived of her +means of living, but perhaps her morals may be irremediably corrupted. +She is now lodged in a room with ten or dozen men, and the house is so +crouded that I doubt whether I have interest enough to procure her a more +decent apartment. + +What can this strange policy tend to, that thus exposes to ruin and want +a girl of one-and-twenty--not for any open violation of the law, but +merely for her religious opinions; and this, too, in a country which +professes toleration as the basis of its government? + +My friend, Mad. de ____ s'ennui terribly; she is not incapable of amusing +herself, but is here deprived of the means. We have no corner we can +call our own to sit in, and no retreat when we wish to be out of a croud +except my closet, where we can only see by candle-light. Besides, she +regrets her employments, and projects for the winter. She had begun +painting a St. Theresa, and translating an Italian romance, and had +nearly completed the education of a dozen canary birds, who would in a +month's time have accompanied the harp so delightfully, as to overpower +the sound of the instrument. I believe if we had a few more square +inches of room, she would be tempted, if not to bring the whole chorus, +at least to console herself with two particular favourites, distinguished +by curious topknots, and rings about their necks. + +With all these feminine propensities, she is very amiable, and her case +is indeed singularly cruel and unjust.--Left, at an early age, under the +care of her brother, she was placed by him at Panthemont (where I first +became acquainted with her) with an intention of having her persuaded to +take the veil; but finding her averse from a cloister, she remained as a +pensioner only, till a very advantageous marriage with the Marquis de +____, who was old enough to be her father, procured her release. About +two years ago he died, and left her a very considerable fortune, which +the revolution has reduced to nearly one-third of its former value. The +Comte de ____, her brother, was one of the original patriots, and +embraced with great warmth the cause of the people; but having very +narrowly escaped the massacres of September, 1792, he immediately after +emigrated. + +Thus, my poor friend, immured by her brother till the age of twenty-two +in a convent, then sacrificed three years to a husband of a disagreeable +temper and unsuitable age, is now deprived of the first liberty she ever +enjoyed, and is made answerable for the conduct of a man over whom she +has no sort of influence. It is not, therefore, extraordinary that she +cannot reconcile herself to her present situation, and I am really often +more concerned on her account than my own. Cut off from her usual +resources, she has no amusement but wandering about the house; and if her +other causes of uneasiness be not augmented, they are at least rendered +more intolerable by her inability to fill up her time.--This does not +arise from a deficiency of understanding, but from never having been +accustomed to think. Her mind resembles a body that is weak, not by +nature, but from want of exercise; and the number of years she has passed +in a convent has given her that mixture of childishness and romance, +which, my making frivolities necessary, renders the mind incapable of +exertion or self-support. + + + + +Oct. 20. + +The unfortunate Queen, after a trial of some days, during which she seems +to have behaved with great dignity and fortitude, is no longer sensible +of the regrets of her friends or the malice of her enemies. It is +singular, that I have not yet heard her death mentioned in the prison +--every one looks grave and affects silence. I believe her death has not +occasioned an effect so universal as that of the King, and whatever +people's opinions may be, they are afraid of expressing them: for it is +said, though I know not with what truth, that we are surrounded by spies, +and several who have the appearance of being prisoners like ourselves +have been pointed out to me as the objects of this suspicion. + +I do not pretend to undertake the defence of the Queen's imputed faults-- +yet I think there are some at least which one may be very fairly +permitted to doubt. Compassion should not make me an advocate for guilt +--but I may, without sacrificing morals to pity, venture to observe, that +the many scandalous histories circulated to her prejudice took their rise +at the birth of the Dauphin,* which formed so insurmountable a bar to the +views of the Duke of Orleans.-- + + * Nearly at the same time, and on the same occasion, there were + literary partizans of the Duke of Orleans, who endeavoured to + persuade the people that the man with the iron mask, who had so long + excited curiosity and eluded conjecture, was the real son of Louis + XIII.--and Louis XIV. in consequence, supposititious, and only the + illegitimate offspring of Cardinal Mazarin and Anne of Austria--that + the spirit of ambition and intrigue which characterized this + Minister had suggested this substitution to the lawful heir, and + that the fears of the Queen and confusion of the times had obliged + her to acquiesce: + + "Cette opinion ridicule, et dont les dates connues de l'histoire + demontrent l'absurdite, avoit eu des partisans en France--elle + tendoit a avilir la maison regnante, et a persuader au peuple que le + trone n'appartient pas aux descendans de Louis XIV. prince + furtivement sutstitue, mais a la posterite du second fils de Louis + XIII. qui est la tige de la branche d'Orleans, et qui est reconnue + comme descendant legitimement, et sans objection, du Roi Louis + XIII." + + --Nouvelles Considerations sur la Masque de Fer, Memoirs de + Richelieu. + + "This ridiculous opinion, the absurdity of which is demonstrated by + historical dates, had not been without its partizans in France.--It + tended to degrade the reigning family, and to make the people + believe that the throne did not of right belong to the descendants + of Louis XIV. (a prince surreptitiously intruded) but to the + posterity of the second son of Louis XIII. from whom is derived the + branch of Orleans, and who was, without dispute, the legitimate and + unobjectionable offspring of Louis XIII." + + --New Considerations on the Iron Mask.--Memoirs of the Duc de + Richelieu. + +The author of the above Memoirs adds, that after the taking of the +Bastille, new attempts were made to propagate this opinion, and that he +himself had refuted it to many people, by producing original letters and +papers, sufficiently demonstrative of its absurdity. + +--He might hope, by popularity, to supersede the children of the Count +d'Artois, who was hated; but an immediate heir to the Crown could be +removed only by throwing suspicions on his legitimacy. These +pretensions, it is true, were so absurd, and even incredible, that had +they been urged at the time, no inference in the Queen's favour would +have been admitted from them; but as the existence of such projects, +however absurd and iniquitous, has since been demonstrated, one may now, +with great appearance of reason, allow them some weight in her +justification. + +The affair of the necklace was of infinite disservice to the Queen's +reputation; yet it is remarkable, that the most furious of the Jacobins +are silent on this head as far as it regarded her, and always mention the +Cardinal de Rohan in terms that suppose him to be the culpable party: +but, "whatever her faults, her woes deserve compassion;" and perhaps the +moralist, who is not too severe, may find some excuse for a Princess, +who, at the age of sixteen, possibly without one real friend or +disinterested adviser, became the unrestrained idol of the most +licentious Court in Europe. Even her enemies do not pretend that her +fate was so much a merited punishment as a political measure: they +alledge, that while her life was yet spared, the valour of their troops +was checked by the possibility of negotiation; and that being no more, +neither the people nor armies expecting any thing but execration or +revenge, they will be more ready to proceed to the most desperate +extremities.--This you will think a barbarous sort of policy, and +considering it as national, it appears no less absurd than barbarous; but +for the Convention, whose views perhaps extend little farther than to +saving their heads, peculating, and receiving their eighteen livres a +day, such measures, and such a principle of action, are neither unwise +nor unaccountable: "for the wisdom of civilized nations is not their +wisdom, nor the ways of civilized people their ways."*-- + + * I have been informed, by a gentleman who saw the Queen pass in her + way to execution, that the short white bed gown and the cap which + she wore were discoloured by smoke, and that her whole appearance + seemed to have been intended, if possible, to degrade her in the + eyes of the multitude. The benevolent mind will recollect with + pleasure, that even the Queen's enemies allow her a fortitude and + energy of character which must have counteracted this paltry malice, + and rendered it incapable of producing any emotion but contempt. On + her first being removed to the Conciergerie, she applied for some + necessaries; but the humane municipality of Paris refused them, + under pretext that the demand was contrary to the system of _la + sainte elagite_--"holy equality." + +--It was reported that the Queen was offered her life, and the liberty to +retire to St. Cloud, her favourite residence, if she would engage the +enemy to raise the siege of Maubeuge and withdraw; but that she refused +to interfere. + + + + +Arras, 1793. + +For some days previous to the battle by which Maubeuge was relieved, we +had very gloomy apprehensions, and had the French army been unsuccessful +and forced to fall back, it is not improbable but the lives of those +detained in the _Maison d'Arret_ [House of detention.] might have been +sacrificed under pretext of appeasing the people, and to give some credit +to the suspicions so industriously inculcated that all their defeats are +occasioned by internal enemies. My first care, as soon as I was able to +go down stairs, was to examine if the house offered any means of escape +in case of danger, and I believe, if we could preserve our recollection, +it might be practicable; but I can so little depend on my strength and +spirits, should such a necessity occur, that perhaps the consolation of +knowing I have a resource is the only benefit I should ever derive from +it. + + + + +Oct. 21. + +I have this day made a discovery of a very unpleasant nature, which Mad. +de ____ had hitherto cautiously concealed from me. All the English, and +other foreigners placed under similar circumstances, are now, without +exception, arrested, and the confiscation of their property is decreed. +It is uncertain if the law is to extend to wearing apparel, but I find +that on this ground the Committee of Peronne persist in refusing to take +the seals off my effects, or to permit my being supplied with any +necessaries whatsoever. In other places they have put two, four, and, I +am told, even to the number of six guards, in houses belonging to the +English; and these guards, exclusive of being paid each two shillings per +day, burn the wood, regale on the wine, and pillage in detail all they +can find, while the unfortunate owner is starving in a Maison d'Arret, +and cannot obtain permission to withdraw a single article for his own +use.--The plea for this paltry measure is, that, according to the report +of a deserter escaped from Toulon, Lord Hood has hanged one Beauvais, a +member of the Convention. I have no doubt but the report is false, and, +most likely, fabricated by the Comite de Salut Public, in order to +palliate an act of injustice previously meditated. + +It is needless to expatiate on the atrocity of making individuals, living +here under the faith of the nation, responsible for the events of the +war, and it is whispered that even the people are a little ashamed of it; +yet the government are not satisfied with making us accountable for what +really does happen, but they attribute acts of cruelty to our countrymen, +in order to excuse those they commit themselves, and retaliate imagined +injuries by substantial vengeance.--Legendre, a member of the Convention, +has proposed, with a most benevolent ingenuity, that the manes of the +aforesaid Beauvais should be appeased by exhibiting Mr. Luttrell in an +iron cage for a convenient time, and then hanging him. + +A gentleman from Amiens, lately arrested while happening to be here on +business, informs me, that Mr. Luttrell is now in the common gaol of that +place, lodged with three other persons in a miserable apartment, so +small, that there is not room to pass between their beds. I understand +he was advised to petition Dumont for his removal to a Maison d'Arret, +where he would have more external convenience; but he rejected this +counsel, no doubt from a disdain which did him honour, and preferred to +suffer all that the mean malice of these wretches would inflict, rather +than ask any accommodation as a favour.--The distinguishing Mr. Luttrell +from any other English gentleman is as much a proof of ignorance as of +baseness; but in this, as in every thing else, the present French +government is still more wicked than absurd, and our ridicule is +suppressed by our detestation. + + + + +Oct. 22. + +Mad. de ____'s _homme d'affaires_ [Agent] has been here to-day, but no +news from Amiens. I know not what to conjecture. My patience is almost +exhausted, and my spirits are fatigued. Were I not just now relieved by +a distant prospect of some change for the better, my situation would be +insupportable.--"Oh world! oh world! but that thy strange mutations make +us wait thee, life would not yield to age." We should die before our +time, even of moral diseases, unaided by physical ones; but the +uncertainty of human events, which is the "worm i'the bud" of happiness, +is to the miserable a cheering and consolatory reflection. Thus have I +dragged on for some weeks, postponing, as it were, my existence, without +any resource, save the homely philosophy of _"nous verrons demain."_ +["We shall see to-morrow."] + +At length our hopes and expectations are become less general, and if we +do not obtain our liberty, we may be able at least to procure a more +eligible prison. I confess, the source of our hopes, and the protector +we have found, are not of a dignity to be ushered to your notice by +citations of blank verse, or scraps of sentiment; for though the top of +the ladder is not quite so high, the first rounds are as low as that of +Ben Bowling's. + +Mad. de ____'s confidential servant, who came here to-day, has learned, +by accident, that a man, who formerly worked with the Marquis's tailor, +having (in consequence, I suppose of a political vocation,) quitted the +selling of old clothes, in which he had acquired some eminence, has +become a leading patriot, and is one of Le Bon's, the Representative's, +privy counsellors. Fleury has renewed his acquaintance with this man, +has consulted him upon our situation, and obtained a promise that he will +use his interest with Le Bon in our behalf. Under this splendid +patronage, it is not unlikely but we may get an order to be transferred +to Amiens, or, perhaps, procure our entire liberation. We have already +written to Le Bon on the subject, and Fleury is to have a conference with +our friend the tailor in a few days to learn the success of his +mediation; so that, I trust, the business will not be long in suspense. + +We have had a most indulgent guard to-day, who, by suffering the servant +to enter a few paces within the gate, afforded us an opportunity of +hearing this agreeable intelligence; as also, by way of episode, that +boots being wanted for the cavalry, all the boots in the town were last +night put in requisition, and as Fleury was unluckily gone to bed before +the search was made at his inn, he found himself this morning very +unceremoniously left bootless. He was once a famous patriot, and the +oracle of Mad. de ____'s household; but our confinement had already +shaken his principles, and this seizure of his "superb English boots" +has, I believe, completed his defection. + + + + +Oct. 25. + +I have discontinued my journal for three days to attend my friend, Mad. +de ____, who has been ill. Uneasiness, and want of air and exercise, had +brought on a little fever, which, by the usual mode of treatment in this +country, has been considerably increased. Her disorder did not indeed +much alarm me, but I cannot say as much of her medical assistants, and it +seems to me to be almost supernatural that she has escaped the jeopardy +of their prescriptions. In my own illness I had trusted to nature, and +my recollection of what had been ordered me on similar occasions; but for +Mad. de ____ I was less confident, and desirous of having better advice, +begged a physician might be immediately sent for. Had her disorder been +an apoplexy, she must infallibly have died, for as no person, not even +the faculty, can enter, without an order from the municipal Divan, half a +day elapsed before this order could be procured. At length the physician +and surgeon arrived, and I know not why the learned professions should +impose on us more by one exterior than another; but I own, when I saw the +physician appear in a white camblet coat, lined with rose colour, and the +surgeon with dirty linen, and a gold button and loop to his hat, I began +to tremble for my friend. My feminine prejudices did not, however, in +this instance, deceive me. After the usual questions, the patient was +declared in a fever, and condemned to cathartics, bleeding, and "bon +bouillons;" that is to say, greasy beef soup, in which there is never an +oeconomy of onions.--When they were departed, I could not help expressing +my surprize that people's lives should be entrusted to such hands, +observing, at the same time, to the Baron de L____, (who is lodged in the +same apartment with Mad. de ____,) that the French must never expect men, +whose education fitted them for the profession, would become physicians, +while they continued to be paid at the rate of twenty-pence per visit.-- +Yet, replied the Baron, if they make twenty visits a day, they gain forty +livres--_"et c'est de quoi vivre."_ [It is a living.] It is undeniably +_de quoi vivre,_ but as long as a mere subsistence is the only prospect +of a physician, the French must be content to have their fevers cured by +"drastics, phlebotomy, and beef soup." + +They tell me we have now more than five hundred detenus in this single +house. How so many have been wedged in I can scarcely conceive, but it +seems our keeper has the art of calculating with great nicety the space +requisite for a given number of bodies, and their being able to respire +freely is not his affair. Those who can afford it have their dinners, +with all the appurtenances, brought from the inns or traiteurs; and the +poor cook, sleep, and eat, by scores, in the same room. I have persuaded +my friend to sup as I do, upon tea; but our associates, for the most +part, finding it inconvenient to have suppers brought at night, and being +unwilling to submit to the same privations, regale themselves with the +remains of their dinner, re-cooked in their apartments, and thus go to +sleep, amidst the fumes of _perdrix a l'onion, oeufs a la tripe,_ +[Partridge a l'onion--eggs a la tripe.] and all the produce of a French +kitchen. + +It is not, as you may imagine, the Bourgeois, and less distinguished +prisoners only, who indulge in these highly-seasoned repasts, at the +expence of inhaling the savoury atmosphere they leave behind them: the +beaux and petites mistresses, among the ci-devant, have not less exigent +appetites, nor more delicate nerves; and the ragout is produced at night, +in spite of the odours and disorder that remain till the morrow. + +I conclude, notwithstanding your English prejudices, that there is +nothing unwholesome in filth, for if it were otherwise, I cannot account +for our being alive. Five hundred bodies, in a state of coacervation, +without even a preference for cleanliness, "think of that Master Brook." +All the forenoon the court is a receptacle for cabbage leaves, fish +scales, leeks, &c. &c.--and as a French chambermaid usually prefers the +direct road to circumambulation, the refuse of the kitchen is then washed +away by plentiful inundations from the dressing-room--the passages are +blockaded by foul plates, fragments, and bones; to which if you add the +smell exhaling from hoarded apples and gruyere cheese, you may form some +notion of the sufferings of those whose olfactory nerves are not robust. +Yet this is not all--nearly every female in the house, except myself, is +accompanied even here by her lap-dog, who sleeps in her room, and, not +unfrequently, on her bed; and these Lesbias and Lindamiras increase the +insalubrity of the air, and colonize one's stockings by sending forth +daily emigrations of fleas. For my own part, a few close November days +will make me as captious and splenetic as Matthew Bramble himself. +Nothing keeps me in tolerable good humour at present, but a clear frosty +morning, or a high wind. + + + + +Oct. 27. + +I thought, when I wrote the above, that the house was really so full as +to be incapable of containing more; but I did not do justice to the +talents of our keeper. The last two nights have brought us an addition +of several waggon loads of nuns, farmers, shopkeepers, &c. from the +neighbouring towns, which he has still contrived to lodge, though much in +the way that he would pack goods in bales. Should another convoy arrive, +it is certain that we must sleep perpendicularly, for even now, when the +beds are all arranged and occupied for the night, no one can make a +diagonal movement without disturbing his neighbour.--This very sociable +manner of sleeping is very far, I assure you, from promoting the harmony +of the day; and I am frequently witness to the reproaches and +recriminations occasioned by nocturnal misdemeanours. Sometimes the +lap-dog of one dowager is accused of hostilities against that of +another, and thereby producing a general chorus of the rest--then a +four-footed favourite strays from the bed of his mistress, and takes +possession of a General's uniform--and there are female somnambules, who +alarm the modesty of a pair of Bishops, and suspended officers, that, +like Richard, warring in their dreams, cry "to arms," to the great +annoyance of those who are more inclined to sleep in peace. But, I +understand, the great disturbers of the room where Mad. de ____ sleeps +are two chanoines, whose noses are so sonorous and so untuneable as to +produce a sort of duet absolutely incompatible with sleep; and one of +the company is often deputed to interrupt the serenade by manual +application _mais tout en badinant et avec politesse_ [But all in +pleasantry, and with politeness.] to the offending parties. + +All this, my dear brother, is only ludicrous in the relation; yet for so +many people to be thus huddled together without distinction of age, sex, +or condition, is truly miserable.--Mad. De ____ is still indisposed, and +while she is thus suffocated by bad air, and distracted by the various +noises of the house, I see no prospect of her recovery. + +Arras is the common prison of the department, and, besides, there are a +number of other houses and convents in the town appropriated to the same +use, and all equally full. God knows when these iniquities are to +terminate! So far from having any hopes at present, the rage for +arresting seems, I think, rather to increase than subside. It is +supposed there are now more than three hundred thousand people in France +confined under the simple imputation of being what is called "gens +suspect:" but as this generic term is new to you, I will, by way of +explanation, particularize the several species as classed by the +Convention, and then described by Chaumette, solicitor for the City of +Paris;*-- + + * Decree concerning suspected people: + + "Art. I. Immediately after the promulgation of the present decree, + all suspected persons that are found on the territory of the + republic, and who are still at large, shall be put under arrest. + + "II. Those are deemed suspicious, who by their connections, their + conversation, or their writings, declare themselves partizans of + tyranny or foederation, and enemies to liberty--Those who have not + demonstrated their means of living or the performance of their civic + duties, in the manner prescribed by the law of March last--Those + who, having been suspended from public employments by the Convention + or its Commissioners, are not reinstated therein--Those of the + ci-devant noblesse, who have not invariably manifested their + attachment to the revolution, and, in general, all the fathers, + mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and agents of + emigrants--All who have emigrated between the 1st of July, 1789, + and 8th of April, 1792. + + "III. The execution of the decree is confided to the Committee of + Inspection. The individuals arrested shall be taken to the houses + of confinement appointed for their reception. They are allowed to + take with them such only of their effects as are strictly necessary, + the guards set upon them shall be paid at their expence, and they + shall be kept in confinement until the peace.--The Committees of + Inspection shall, without delay, transmit to the Committee of + General Safety an account of the persons arrested, with the motives + of their arrest. [If this were observed (which I doubt much) it was + but a mockery, few persons ever knew the precise reason of their + confinement.]--The civil and criminal tribunals are empowered, when + they deem it necessary, to detain and imprison, as suspected + persons, those who being accused of crimes have nevertheless had no + bill found against them, (lieu a accusation,) or who have even been + tried and acquitted." + +Indications that may serve to distinguish suspicious persons, and those +to whom it will be proper to refuse certificates of civism: + + "I. Those who in popular assemblies check the ardour of the people + by artful speeches, by violent exclamations or threats. + + "II. Those who with more caution speak in a mysterious way of the + public misfortunes, who appear to pity the lot of the people, and + are ever ready to spread bad news with an affectation of concern. + + "III. Those who adapt their conduct and language to the + circumstances of the moment--who, in order to be taken for + republicans, put on a studied austerity of manners, and exclaim with + vehemence against the most trifling error in a patriot, but mollify + when the crimes of an Aristocrate or a Moderee are the subject of + complaint. [These trifling events were, being concerned in the + massacres of September, 1792--public peculations--occasional, and + even habitual robbery, forgeries, &c. &c. &c.--The second, fourth, + fifth, sixth, and seventh classes, were particularly numerous, + insomuch that I doubt whether they would not have included + nineteen-twentieths of all the people in France who were honest + or at all capable of reflection.] + + "IV. Those who pity avaricious farmers and shopkeepers, against + whom the laws have been necessarily directed. + + "V. Those who with the words liberty, country, republic, &c. + constantly in their mouths, hold intercourse with ci-devant Nobles, + Contre-revolutionnaires, Priests, Aristocrates, Feuillans, &c. and + take an interest in their concerns. + + "VI. Those who not having borne an active part in the revolution, + endeavour to excuse themselves by urging the regular payment of + their taxes, their patriotic gifts, and their service in the Garde + National by substitute or otherwise. + + "VII. Those who received the republican constitution with coolness, + or who intimated their pretended apprehensions for its establishment + and duration. + + "VIII. Those who, having done nothing against liberty, have done as + little for it. + + "IX. Those who do not frequent the assembly of their section, and + offer, for excuse, that they are no orators, or have no time to + spare from their own business. + + "X. Those who speak with contempt of the constituted authorities, + of the rigour of the laws, of the popular societies, and the + defenders of liberty. + + "XI. Those who have signed anti-revolutionary petitions, or any + time frequented unpatriotic clubs, or were known as partizans of La + Fayette, and accomplices in the affair of the Champ de Mars." + +--and it must be allowed by all who reside in France at this moment, and +are capable of observing the various forms under which hatred for the +government shelters itself, that the latter is a chef d'oeuvre in its +kind. + +Now, exclusive of the above legal and moral indications of people to be +suspected, there are also outward and visible signs which we are told +from the tribune of the Convention, and the Jacobins, are not much less +infallible--such as _Gens a bas de soie rayes mouchetes--a chapeau rond-- +habit carre--culotte pincee etroite--a bottes cirees--les muscadins-- +Freloquets--Robinets, &c._ [People that wear spotted or striped silk +stockings--round hats--small coats--tight breeches--blacked boots-- +perfumes--coxcombs--sprigs of the law, &c.] The consequence of making +the cut of a man's coat, or the shape of his hat, a test of his political +opinions, has been the transformation of the whole country into +republicans, at least as far as depends on the costume; and where, as is +natural, there exists a consciousness of inveterate aristocracy, the +external is more elaborately "a la Jacobin." The equipment, indeed, of a +French patriot of the latest date is as singular as his manners, and in +both he is highly distinguishable from the inhabitants of any other +country: from those of civilized nations, because he is gross and +ferocious--from those of barbarous ones, because his grossness is often +affected, and his ferocity a matter of principle and preference. + +A man who would not be reckoned suspect now arrays himself in a jacket +and trowsers (a Carmagnole) of striped cotton or coarse cloth, a +neckcloth of gaudy cotton, wadded like a horse-collar, and projecting +considerably beyond his chin, a cap of red and blue cloth, embroidered in +front and made much in the form of that worn by the Pierrot of a +pantomime, with one, or sometimes a pair, of ear-rings, about the size of +a large curtain-ring! Finally, he crops his hair, and carefully +encourages the growth of an enormous pair of whiskers, which he does not +fail to perfume with volumes of tobacco smoke. He, however, who is +ambitious of still greater eminence, disdains these fopperies, and +affects an appearance of filth and rags, which he dignifies with the +appellation of stern republicanism and virtuous poverty; and thus, by +means of a thread-bare coat out at elbows, wooden shoes, and a red +woollen cap, the rich hope to secure their wealth, and the covetous and +intriguing to acquire lucrative employment.--Rolland, I think, was the +founder of these modern Franciscans, and with this miserable affectation +he machinated the death of the King, and, during some months, procured +for himself the exclusive direction of the government. + +All these patriots by prescription and system have likewise a peculiar +and appropriated dialect--they address every one by the title of Citizen, +thee and thou indistinctly, and talk of nothing but the agents of Pitt +and Cobourg, the coalesced tyrants, royal ogres, satellites of the +despots, automaton slaves, and anthropophagi; and if they revert to their +own prosperous state, and this very happy country, it is, _un peuple +libre, en peuple heureux, and par excellence la terre de la liberte._ +["A free people--a happy people--and, above all others, the land of +liberty."]--It is to be observed, that those with whom these pompous +expressions are most familiar, are officers employed in the war-like +service of mutilating the wooden saints in churches, and arresting old +women whom they encounter without national cockades; or members of the +municipalities, now reduced to execute the offices of constables, and +whose chief functions are to hunt out suspected people, or make +domiciliary visits in quest of concealed eggs and butter. But, above +all, this democratic oratory is used by tailors, shoemakers, &c.* of the +Committees of Inspection, to whom the Representatives on mission have +delegated their unlimited powers, who arrest much on the principle of +Jack Cade, and with whom it is a crime to read and write, or to appear +decently dressed. + + * For some months the departments were infested by people of this + description--corrupt, ignorant, and insolent. Their motives of + arrest were usually the hope of plunder, or the desire of + distressing those whom they had been used to look upon as their + superiors.--At Arras it sufficed even to have disobliged the wives + of these miscreants to become the object of persecution. In some + places they arrested with the most barbarous caprice, even without + the shadow of a reason. At Hesden, a small town in Artois, Dumont + left the Mayor carte blanche, and in one night two hundred people + were thrown into prison. Every where these low and obscure + dominators reigned without controul, and so much were the people + intimidated, that instead of daring to complain, they treated their + new tyrants with the most servile adulation.--I have seen a + ci-devant Comtesse coquetting with all her might a Jacobin tailor, + and the richest merchants of a town soliciting very humbly the good + offices of a dealer in old clothes. + +These ridiculous accoutrements, and this magnificent phraseology, are in +themselves very harmless; but the ascendancy which such a class of people +are taking has become a subject of just alarm.--The whole administration +of the country is now in the hands of uninformed and necessitous +profligates, swindlers, men already condemned by the laws, and who, if +the revolution had not given them "place and office," would have been at +the galleys, or in prison.* + + * One of the administrators of the department de la Somme (which, + however, was more decently composed than many others,) was, before + the revolution, convicted of house-breaking, and another of forgery; + and it has since been proved on various occasions, particularly on + the trial of the ninety-four Nantais, that the revolutionary + Committees were, for the most part, composed of the very refuse of + society--adventurers, thieves, and even assassins; and it would be + difficult to imagine a crime that did not there find reward and + protection.--In vain were the privileges of the nobility abolished, + and religion proscribed. A new privileged order arose in the + Jacobins, and guilt of every kind, without the semblance of + penitence, found an asylum in these Committees, and an inviolability + more sacred than that afforded by the demolished altars. + +To these may be added a few men of weak character, and unsteady +principles, who remain in office because they fear to resign; with a few, +and but very few, ignorant fanatics, who really imagine they are free +because they can molest and destroy with impunity all they have hitherto +been taught to respect, and drink treble the quantity they did formerly. + + + + +Oct. 30. + +For some days the guards have been so untractable, and the croud at the +door has been so great, that Fleury was obliged to make various efforts +before he could communicate the result of his negotiation. He has at +length found means to inform us, that his friend the tailor had exerted +all his interest in our favour, but that Dumont and Le Bon (as often +happens between neighbouring potentates) are at war, and their enmity +being in some degree subject to their mutual fears, neither will venture +to liberate any prisoner arrested by the other, lest such a disposition +to clemency should be seized on by his rival as a ground of accusation.* + + * But if they did not free the enemies of each other, they revenged + themselves by throwing into prison all their mutual friends--for the + temper of the times was such, that, though these Representatives + were expressly invested with unlimited powers, they did not venture + to set any one at liberty without a multitude of forms and a long + attendance: on the contrary, they arrested without any form at all, + and allowed their myrmidons to harrass and confine the persons and + sequester the property of all whom they judged proper.--It seemed to + have been an elementary principle with those employed by the + government at this time, that they risked nothing in doing all the + mischief they could, and that they erred only in not doing enough. + +--All, therefore, that can be obtained is, a promise to have us removed +to Amiens in a short time; and I understand the detenus are there treated +with consideration, and that no tribunal revolutionnaire has yet been +established. + +My mind will be considerably more at ease if this removal can be +effected. Perhaps we may not be in more real danger here than at any +other place, but it is not realities that constitute the misery of life; +and situated as we are, that imagination must be phlegmatic indeed, which +does not create and exaggerate enough to prevent the possibility of +ease.--We are, as I before observed, placed as it were within the +jurisdiction of the guillotine; and I have learned "a secret of our +prison-house" to-day which Mad. de ____ had hitherto concealed from me, +and which has rendered me still more anxious to quit it. Several of our +fellow prisoners, whom I supposed only transferred to other houses, have +been taken away to undergo the ceremony of a trial, and from thence to +the scaffold. These judicial massacres are now become common, and the +repetition of them has destroyed at once the feeling of humanity and the +sense of justice. Familiarized to executions, the thoughtless and +sanguinary people behold with equal indifference the guilty or innocent +victim; and the Guillotine has not only ceased to be an object of horror, +but is become almost a source of amusement. + + * At Arras this horrid instrument of death was what they called en + permanence, (stationary,) and so little regard was paid to the + morals of the people, (I say the morals, because every thing which + tends to destroy their humanity renders them vicious,) that it was + often left from one execution to another with the ensanguined traces + of the last victim but too evident.--Children were taught to amuse + themselves by making models of the Guillotine, with which they + destroyed flies, and even animals. On the Pontneuf, at Paris, a + sort of puppet-show was exhibited daily, whose boast it was to give + a very exact imitation of a guillotinage; and the burthen of a + popular song current for some months was _"Dansons la Guillotine."_ + --On the 21st of January, 1794, the anniversary of the King's death, + the Convention were invited to celebrate it on the "Place de la + Revolution," where, during the ceremony, and in presence of the + whole legislative body, several people were executed. It is true, + Bourdon, one of the Deputies, complained of this indecency; but not + so much on account of the circumstance itself, as because it gave + some of the people an opportunity of telling him, in a sort of way + he might probably deem prophetic, that one of the victims was a + Representative of the People. The Convention pretended to order + that some enquiry should be made why at such a moment such a place + was chosen; but the enquiry came to nothing, and I have no doubt but + the executions were purposely intended as analogous to the + ceremony.--It was proved that Le Bon, on an occasion when he chose + to be a spectator of some executions he had been the cause of, + suspended the operation while he read the newspaper aloud, in order, + as he said, that the aristocrates might go out of the world with the + additional mortification of learning the success of the republican + arms in their last moments. + + The People of Brest were suffered to behold, I had almost said to be + amused with (for if those who order such spectacles are detestable, + the people that permit them are not free from blame,) the sight of + twenty-five heads ranged in a line, and still convulsed with the + agonies of death.--The cant word for the Guillotine was "our holy + mother;" and verdicts of condemnation were called prizes in the + Sainte Lotterie--"holy lottery." + +The dark and ferocious character of Le Bon developes itself hourly: the +whole department trembles before him; and those who have least merited +persecution are, with reason, the most apprehensive. The most cautious +prudence of conduct, the most undeviating rectitude in those who are by +their fortune or rank obnoxious to the tyrant, far from contributing to +their security, only mark them out for a more early sacrifice. What is +still worse, these horrors are not likely to terminate, because he is +allowed to pay out of the treasury of the department the mob that are +employed to popularize and applaud them.--I hope, in a few days, we shall +receive our permission to depart. My impatience is a malady, and, for +nearly the first time in my life, I am sensible of ennui; not the ennui +occasioned by want of amusement, but that which is the effect of unquiet +expectation, and which makes both the mind and body restless and +incapable of attending to any thing. I am incessantly haunted by the +idea that the companion of to-day may to-morrow expire under the +Guillotine, that the common acts of social intercourse may be explained +into intimacy, intimacy into the participation of imputed treasons, and +the fate of those with whom we are associated become our own. It appears +both useless and cruel to have brought us here, nor do I yet know any +reason why we were not all removed to Amiens, except it was to avoid +exposing to the eyes of the people in the places through which we must +pass too large a number of victims at once.--The cause of our being +removed from Peronne is indeed avowed, as it is at present a rule not to +confine people at the place of their residence, lest they should have too +much facility or communication with, or assistance from, their friends.* + + * In some departments the nobles and priests arrested were removed + from ten to twenty leagues distant from their homes; and if they + happened to have relations living at the places where they were + confined, these last were forbidden to reside there, or even to + travel that way. + +We should doubtless have remained at Arras until some change in public +affairs had procured our release, but for the fortunate discovery of the +man I have mentioned; and the trifling favour of removal from one prison +to another has been obtained only by certain arrangements which Fleury +has made with this subordinate agent of tyranny, and in which justice or +consideration for us had no share. Alas! are we not miserable? is not +the country miserable, when our only resource is in the vices of those +who govern?--It is uncertain when we shall be ordered from hence--it may +happen when we least expect it, even in the night, so that I shall not +attempt to write again till we have changed our situation. The risk is +at present too serious, and you must allow my desire of amusing you to +give way to my solicitude for my own preservation. + + + + +Bicetre at Amiens, Nov. 18, 1793. + +_Nous voila donc encore, logees a la nation;_ that is to say, the common +prison of the department, amidst the thieves, vagabonds, maniacs, &c. +confined by the old police, and the gens suspects recently arrested by +the new.--I write from the end of a sort of elevated barn, sixty or +seventy feet long, where the interstices of the tiles admit the wind from +all quarters, and scarcely exclude the rain, and where an old screen and +some curtains only separate Mad. de ____, myself, and our servants, from +sixty priests, most of them old, sick, and as wretched as men can be, who +are pious and resigned. Yet even here I feel comparatively at ease, and +an escape from the jurisdiction of Le Bon and his merciless tribunal +seems cheaply purchased by the sacrifice of our personal convenience. I +do not pretend to philosophize or stoicize, or to any thing else which +implies a contempt of life--I have, on the contrary, a most unheroic +solicitude about my existence, and consider my removal to a place where I +think we are safe, as a very fortunate aera of our captivity. + +After many delays and disappointments, Fleury at length procured an +order, signed by the Representative, for our being transferred to Amiens, +under the care of two _Gardes Nationalaux,_ and, of course, at our +expence.--Every thing in this country wears the aspect of despotism. At +twelve o'clock at night we were awakened by the officer on guard, and +informed we were to depart on the morrow; and, notwithstanding the +difficulty of procuring horses and carriages, it was specified, that if +we did not go on the day appointed, we were not to go at all. It was, or +course, late before we could surmount the various obstacles to our +journey, and procure two crazy cabriolets, and a cart for the guards, +ourselves, and baggage. The days being short, we were obliged to sleep +at Dourlens; and, on our arrival at the castle, which is now, as it +always has been, a state-prison, we were told it was so full, that it was +absolutely impossible to lodge us, and that we had better apply to the +Governor, for permission to sleep at an inn. We then drove to the +Governor's* house, who received us very civilly, and with very little +persuasion agreed to our request. At the best of the miserable inns in +the town we were informed they had no room, and that they could not +accommodate us in any way whatever, except a sick officer then in the +house would permit us to occupy one of two beds in his apartment. + + * The Commandant had been originally a private soldier in the + regiment of Dillon.--I know not how he had obtained his advancement, + but, however obtained, it proved fatal to him: he was, a very short + time after I saw him, guillotined at Arras, for having borrowed + money of a prisoner. His real crime was, probably, treating the + prisoners in general with too much consideration and indulgence; and + at this period every suspicion of the kind was fatal. + +In England it would not be very decent to make such a request, or to +accept such an accommodation. In France, neither the one nor the other +is unusual, and we had suffered lately so many embarrassments of the +kind, that we were, if not reconciled, at least inured to them. Before, +however, we could determine, the gentleman had been informed of our +situation, and came to offer his services. You may judge of our surprize +when we found in the stranger, who had his head bound up and his arm in a +sling, General ____, a relation of Mad. de ____. We had now, therefore, +less scruple in sharing his room, though we agreed, notwithstanding, only +to repose a few hours in our clothes. + +After taking some tea, the remainder of the evening was dedicated to +reciprocal conversation of all kinds; and our guards having acquaintance +in the town, and knowing it was impossible for us to escape, even were we +so inclined, very civilly left us to ourselves. We found the General had +been wounded at Maubeuge, and was now absent on conge for the recovery of +his health. He talked of the present state of public affairs like a +military man who is attached to his profession, and who thinks it his +duty to fight at all events, whatever the rights or merits of those that +employ him. He confessed, indeed, that they were repulsing their +external enemies, only to confirm the power of those who were infinitely +more to be dreaded at home, and that the condition of a General was more +to be commiserated at this time than any other: if he miscarry, disgrace +and the Guillotine await him--if he be successful, he gains little +honour, becomes an object of jealousy, and assists in rivetting the +chains of his country. He said, the armies were for the most part +licentious and insubordinate, but that the political discipline was +terrible--the soldiers are allowed to drink, pillage, and insult their +officers with impunity, but all combinations are rigorously suppressed, +the slightest murmur against the Representative on mission is treason, +and to disapprove of a decree of the convention, death--that every man of +any note in the army is beset with spies, and if they leave the camp on +any occasion, it is more necessary to be on their guard against these +wretches than against an ambuscade of the enemy; and he related a +circumstance which happened to himself, as an example of what he +mentioned, and which will give you a tolerable idea of the present system +of government.--After the relief of Dunkirk, being quartered in the +neighbourhood of St. Omer, he occasionally went to the town on his +private concerns. One day, while he was waiting at the inn where he +intended to dine, two young men accosted him, and after engaging him in a +general conversation for some time, began to talk with great freedom, +though with an affected caution of public men and measures, of the +banditti who governed, the tyranny that was exercised, and the supineness +of the people: in short, of all those too poignant truths which +constitute the leze nation of the day. Mons. de ____ was not at first +very attentive, but finding their discourse become still more liberal, it +excited his suspicions, and casting his eyes on a glass opposite to where +they were conversing, he perceived a sort of intelligence between them, +which immediately suggested to him the profession of his companions; and +calling to a couple of dragoons who had attended him, ordered them to +arrest the two gentlemen as artistocrates, and convey them without +ceremony to prison. They submitted, seemingly more surprized than +alarmed, and in two hours the General received a note from a higher +power, desiring him to set them at liberty, as they were agents of the +republic. + +Duquesnoy, one of the Representatives now with the Northern army, is +ignorant and brutal in the extreme. He has made his brother (who, as +well as himself, used to retail hops in the streets of St. Pol,) a +General; and in order to deliver him from rivals and critics, he breaks, +suspends, arrests, and sends to the Guillotine every officer of any merit +that comes in his way. After the battle of Maubeuge, he arrested a +General Bardell, [The Generals Bardell and D'Avesnes, and several others, +were afterwards guillotined at Paris.] for accommodating a wounded +prisoner of distinction (I think a relation of the Prince of Cobourg) +with a bed, and tore with his own hands the epaulette from the shoulders +of those Generals whose divisions had not sustained the combat so well as +the others. His temper, naturally savage and choleric, is irritated to +fury by the habit of drinking large quantities of strong liquors; and +Mad. de ___'s relation assured us, that he had himself seen him take the +Mayor of Avesnes (a venerable old man, who was presenting some petition +to him that regarded the town,) by the hair and throw him on the ground, +with the gestures of an enraged cannibal. He also confined one of his +own fellow deputies in the tower of Guise, upon a very frivolous pretext, +and merely on his own authority. In fact, I scarcely remember half the +horrors told us of this man; and I shall only remind you, that he has an +unlimited controul over the civil constitution of the Northern army, and +over the whole department of the North. + +You, I suppose, will be better informed of military events than we are, +and I mention our friend's conjecture, that (besides an enormous number +of killed) the wounded at Maubeuge amounted to twelve or fourteen +thousand, only to remark the deception which is still practised on the +people; for no published account ever allowed the number to be more than +a few hundreds.--Besides these professional details, the General gave us +some very unpleasant family ones. On returning to his father's chateau, +where he hoped to be taken care of while his wounds were curing, he found +every room in it under seals, three guards in possession, his two sisters +arrested at St. Omer, where they happened to be on a visit, and his +father and mother confined in separate houses of detention at Arras. +After visiting them, and making some ineffectual applications for their +relief, he came to the neighbourhood of Dourlens, expecting to find an +asylum with an uncle, who had hitherto escaped the general persecution of +the gentry. Here again his disappointment and chagrin were renewed: his +uncle had been carried off to Amiens the morning of his arrival, and the +house rendered inaccessible, by the usual affixture of seals, and an +attendant pair of myrmidons to guard them from infraction. Thus excluded +from all his family habitations, he had taken up his residence for a day +or two at the inn where we met him, his intention being to return to +Arras. + +In the morning we made our adieus and pursued our journey; but, tenacious +of this comparative liberty and the enjoyment of pure air, we prevailed +on our conductors to let us dine on the road, so that we lingered with +the unwillingness of truant children, and did not reach Amiens until +dark. When we arrived at the Hotel de Ville, one of the guards enquired +how we were to be disposed of. Unfortunately for us, Dumont happened to +be there himself, and on hearing we were sent from Arras by order of Le +Bon, declared most furiously (for our Representative is subject to choler +since his accession to greatness) that he would have no prisoners +received from Arras, and that we should sleep at the Conciergerie, and be +conveyed back again on the morrow. Terrified at this menace, we +persuaded the guard to represent to Dumont that we had been sent to +Amiens at our own instance, and that we had been originally arrested by +himself, and were therefore desirous of returning to the department where +he was on mission, and where we had more reason to expect justice than at +Arras. Mollified, perhaps, by this implied preference of his authority, +he consented that we should remain for the present at Amiens, and ordered +us to be taken to the Bicetre. Whoever has been used to connect with the +word Bicetre the idea of the prison so named at Paris, must recoil with +horror upon hearing they are destined to such a abode. Mad. de ___, yet +weak from the remains of her illness, laid hold of me in a transport of +grief; but, far from being able to calm or console her, my thoughts were +so bewildered that I did not, till we alighted at the gate, begin to be +really sensible of our situation. The night was dark and dreary, and our +first entrance was into a kitchen, such as my imagination had pictured +the subterraneous one of the robbers in Gil Blas. Here we underwent the +ceremony of having our pocket-books searched for papers and letters, and +our trunks rummaged for knives and fire-arms. This done, we were shown +to the lodging I have described, and the poor priests, already +insufferably crouded, were obliged almost to join their beds in order to +make room for us.--I will not pain you by a recital of all the +embarrassments and distresses we had to surmount before we could even +rest ourselves. We were in want of every thing, and the rules of the +prison such, that it was nearly impossible, for some time, to procure any +thing: but the human mind is more flexible than we are often disposed to +imagine it; and in two days we were able to see our situation in this +best point of view, (that is, as an escape from Arras,) and the affair of +submitting our bodies to our minds must be atchieved by time.--We have +now been here a week. We have sounded the very depth of humiliation, +taken our daily allowance of bread with the rest of the prisoners, and +contracted a most friendly intimacy with the gaoler. + +I have discovered since our arrival, that the order for transferring us +hither described me as a native of the Low Countries. I know not how +this happened, but my friend has insisted on my not rectifying the +mistake, for as the French talk continually of re-conquering Brabant, she +persuades herself such an event would procure me my liberty. I neither +desire the one nor expect the other; but, to indulge her, I speak no +English, and avoid two or three of my countrymen who I am told are here. +There have been also some English families who were lately removed, but +the French pronounce our names so strangely, that I have not been able to +learn who they were. + + + + +November 19, 1793. + +The English in general, especially of late years, have been taught to +entertain very formidable notions of the Bastille and other state prisons +of the ancient government, and they were, no doubt, horrid enough; yet I +have not hitherto been able to discover that those of the new republic +are any way preferable. The only difference is, that the great number of +prisoners which, for want of room, are obliged to be heaped together, +makes it impossible to exclude them as formerly from communication, and, +instead of being maintained at the public expence, they now, with great +difficulty, are able to procure wherewithal to eat at their own. Our +present habitation is an immense building, about a quarter of a mile from +the town, intended originally for the common gaol of the province. The +situation is damp and unwholesome, and the water so bad, that I should +suppose a long continuance here of such a number of prisoners must be +productive of endemical disorders. Every avenue to the house is guarded, +and no one is permitted to stop and look up at the windows, under pain of +becoming a resident. We are strictly prohibited from all external +intercourse, except by writing; and every scrap of paper, though but an +order for a dinner, passes the inquisition of three different people +before it reaches its destination, and, of course, many letters and notes +are mislaid, and never sent at all.--There is no court or garden in which +the prisoners are allowed to walk, and the only exercise they can take is +in damp passages, or a small yard, (perhaps thirty feet square,) which +often smells so detestably, that the atmosphere of the house itself is +less mephitic. + +Our fellow-captives are a motley collection of the victims of nature, +of justice, and of tyranny--of lunatics who are insensible of their +situation, of thieves who deserve it, and of political criminals whose +guilt is the accident of birth, the imputation of wealth, or the +profession of a clergyman. Among the latter is the Bishop of Amiens, +whom I recollect to have mentioned in a former letter. You will wonder +why a constitutional Bishop, once popular with the democratic party, +should be thus treated. The real motive was, probably, to degrade in his +person a minister of religion--the ostensible one, a dispute with Dumont +at the Jacobin club. As the times grew alarming, the Bishop, perhaps, +thought it politic to appear at the club, and the Representative meeting +him there one evening, began to interrogate him very rudely with regard +to his opinion of the marriage of priests. M. Dubois replied, that when +it was officially incumbent on him to explain himself, he would do so, +but that he did not think the club a place for such discussions, or +something to this purpose. _"Tu prevariques donc!--Je t'arrete sur le +champ:"_ ["What, you prevaricate!--I arrest you instantly."] the Bishop +was accordingly arrested at the instant, and conducted to the Bicetre, +without even being suffered to go home and furnish himself with +necessaries; and the seals being immediately put on his effects, he has +never been able to obtain a change of linen and clothes, or any thing +else--this too at a time when the pensions of the clergy are ill paid, +and every article of clothing so dear as to be almost unpurchaseable by +moderate fortunes, and when those who might otherwise be disposed to aid +or accommodate their friends, abandon them through fear of being +implicated in their misfortunes. + +But the Bishop, yet in the vigour of life, is better capable of enduring +these hardships than most of the poor priests with whom he is associated: +the greater number of them are very old men, with venerable grey locks-- +and their tattered clerical habits, scanty meals, and wretched beds, give +me many an heart-ache. God send the constant sight of so much misery may +not render me callous!--It is certain, there are people here, who, +whatever their feelings might have been on this occasion at first, seem +now little affected by it. Those who are too much familiarized with +scenes of wretchedness, as well as those to whom they are unknown, are +not often very susceptible; and I am sometimes disposed to cavil with our +natures, that the sufferings which ought to excite our benevolence, and +the prosperity that enables us to relieve them, should ever have a +contrary effect. Yet this is so true, that I have scarcely ever observed +even the poor considerate towards each other--and the rich, if they are +frequently charitable, are not always compassionate.* + + * Our situation at the Bicetre, though terrible for people unused to + hardships or confinement, and in fact, wretched as personal + inconvenience could make it, was yet Elysium, compared to the + prisons of other departments. At St. Omer, the prisoners were + frequently disturbed at midnight by the entrance of men into their + apartments, who, with the detestable ensign of their order, (red + caps,) and pipes in their mouths, came by way of frolic to search + their pockets, trunks, &c.--At Montreuil, the Maisons d'Arret were + under the direction of a Commissary, whose behaviour to the female + prisoners was too atrocious for recital--two young women, in + particular, who refused to purchase milder treatment, were locked up + in a room for seventeen days.--Soon after I left Arras, every prison + became a den of horror. The miserable inhabitants were subject to + the agents of Le Bon, whose avarice, cruelty, and licentiousness, + were beyond any thing a humane mind can imagine. Sometimes the + houses were suddenly surrounded by an armed force, the prisoners + turned out in the depth of winter for several hours into an open + court, during the operation of robbing them of their pocket-books, + buckles, ear-rings, or whatever article of value they had about + them. At other times they were visited by the same military array, + and deprived of their linen and clothes. Their wine and provisions + were likewise taken from them in the same manner--wives were + separated from their husbands, parents from their children, old men + treated with the most savage barbarity, and young women with an + indecency still more abominable. All communication, either by + writing or otherwise, was often prohibited for many days together, + and an order was once given to prevent even the entry of provisions, + which was not revoked till the prisoners became absolutely + distressed. At the Hotel Dieu they were forbidden to draw more than + a single jug of water in twenty-four hours. At the Providence, the + well was left three days without a cord, and when the unfortunate + females confined there procured people to beg water of the + neighbours, they were refused, "because it was for prisoners, and if + Le Bon heard of it he might be displeased!" Windows were blocked + up, not to prevent escape, but to exclude air; and when the general + scarcity rendered it impossible for the prisoners to procure + sufficient food for their support, their small portions were + diminished at the gate, under pretext of searching for letters, &c. + --People, respectable both for their rank and character, were + employed to clean the prisons and privies, while their low and + insolent tyrants looked on and insulted them. On an occasion when + one of the Maisons d'Arrets was on fire, guards were planted round, + with orders to fire upon those that should attempt to escape.--My + memory has but too faithfully recorded these and still greater + horrors; but curiosity would be gratified but too dearly by the + relation. I added the above note some months after writing the + letter to which it is annexed. + + + + +Nov. 20. + +Besides the gentry and clergy of this department, we have likewise for +companions a number of inhabitants of Lisle, arrested under circumstances +singularly atrocious, even where atrocity is the characteristic of almost +every proceeding.--In the month of August a decree was passed to oblige +all the nobility, clergy, and their servants, as well as all those +persons who had been in the service of emigrants, to depart from Lisle in +eight-and-forty hours, and prohibiting their residence within twenty +leagues from the frontiers. Thus banished from their own habitations, +they took refuge in different towns, at the prescribed distance; but, +almost as soon as they were arrived, and had been at the expence of +settling themselves, they were arrested as strangers,* and conducted to +prison. + + * I have before, I believe, noticed that the term estranger at this + time did not exclusively apply to foreigners, but to such as had + come from one town to another, who were at inns or on a visit to + their friends. + +It will not be improper to notice here the conduct of the government +towards the towns that have been besieged. Thionville,* to whose gallant +defence in 1792 France owed the retreat of the Prussians and the safety +of Paris, was afterwards continually reproached with aristocracy; and +when the inhabitants sent a deputation to solicit an indemnity for the +damage the town had sustained during the bombardment a member of the +Convention threatened them from the tribune with "indemnities a coup de +baton!" that is, in our vernacular tongue, with a good thrashing. + + * Wimpsen, who commanded there, and whose conduct at the time was + enthusiastically admired, was driven, most probably by the + ingratitude and ill treatment of the Convention, to head a party of + the Foederalists.--These legislators perpetually boast of imitating + and surpassing the Romans, and it is certain, that their ingratitude + has made more than one Coriolanus. The difference is, that they are + not jealous for the liberty of the country, but for their own + personal safety. + +The inhabitants of Lisle, who had been equally serviceable in stopping +the progress of the Austrians, for a long time petitioned without effect +to obtain the sums already voted for their relief. The noblesse, and +others from thence who have been arrested, as soon as it was known that +they were Lillois, were treated with peculiar rigour;* and an _armee +revolutionnaire,_** with the Guillotine for a standard, has lately +harrassed the town and environs of Lisle, as though it were a conquered +country. + + * The Commandant of Lisle, on his arrival at the Bicetre, was + stripped of a considerable sum of money, and a quantity of plate he + had unluckily brought with him by way of security. Out of this he + is to be supplied with fifty livres at a time in paper, which, + according to the exchange and the price of every thing, is, I + suppose, about half a guinea. + + ** The armee revolutionnaire was first raised by order of the + Jacobins, for the purpose of searching the countries for provisions, + and conducting them to Paris. Under this pretext, a levy was made + of all the most desperate ruffians that could be collected together. + They were divided into companies, each with its attendant + Guillotine, and then distributed in the different departments: + they had extraordinary pay, and seem to have been subject to no + discipline. Many of them were distinguished by the representation + of a Guillotine in miniature, and a head just severed, on their + cartouch-boxes. It would be impossible to describe half the + enormities committed by these banditti: wherever they went they were + regarded as a scourge, and every heart shrunk at their approach. + Lecointre, of Versailles, a member of the Convention, complained + that a band of these wretches entered the house of a farmer, one of + his tenants, by night, and, after binding the family hand and foot, + and helping themselves to whatever they could find, they placed the + farmer with his bare feet on the chaffing-dish of hot ashes, by way + of forcing him to discover where he had secreted his plate and + money, which having secured, they set all the vessels of liquor + running, and then retired. + +You are not to suppose this a robbery, and the actors common thieves; all +was in the usual form--"au nom de la loi," and for the service of the +republic; and I do not mention this instance as remarkable, otherwise +than as having been noticed in the Convention. A thousand events of this +kind, even still more atrocious, have happened; but the sufferers who had +not the means of defence as well as of complaint, were obliged, through +policy, to be silent. + +--The garrison and national guard, indignant at the horrors they +committed, obliged them to decamp. Even the people of Dunkirk, whose +resistance to the English, while the French army was collecting together +for their relief, was perhaps of more consequence than ten victories, +have been since intimidated with Commissioners, and Tribunals, and +Guillotines, as much as if they had been convicted of selling the town. +In short, under this philanthropic republic, persecution seems to be very +exactly proportioned to the services rendered. A jealous and suspicious +government does not forget, that the same energy of character which has +enabled a people to defend themselves against an external enemy, may also +make them less submissive to domestic oppression; and, far from repaying +them with the gratitude to which they have a claim, it treats them, on +all occasions, as opponents, whom it both fears and hates. + + + +Nov. 22. We have been walking in the yard to-day with General Laveneur, +who, for an act which in any other country would have gained him credit, +is in this suspended from his command.--When Custine, a few weeks before +his death, left the army to visit some of the neighbouring towns, the +command devolved on Laveneur, who received, along with other official +papers, a list of countersigns, which, having probably been made some +time, and not altered conformably to the changes of the day, contained, +among others, the words Condorcet--Constitution; and these were in their +turn given out. On Custine's trial, this was made a part of his +accusation. Laveneur, recollecting that the circumstance had happened in +the absence of Custine, thought it incumbent on him to take the blame, if +there were any, on himself, and wrote to Paris to explain the matter as +it really stood; but his candour, without availing Custine, drew +persecution on himself, and the only notice taken of his letter was an +order to arrest him. After being dragged from one town to another, like +a criminal, and often lodged in dungeons and common prisons, he was at +length deposited here. + +I know not if the General's principles are republican, but he has a very +democratic pair of whiskers, which he occasionally strokes, and seems to +cherish with much affection. He is, however, a gentleman-like man, and +expresses such anxiety for the fate of his wife and children, who are now +at Paris, that one cannot but be interested in his favour.--As the agents +of the republic never err on the side of omission, they arrested Mons. +Laveneur's aid-de-camp with him; and another officer of his acquaintance, +who was suspended, and living at Amiens, has shared the same fate, only +for endeavouring to procure him a trifling accommodation. This gentleman +called on Dumont, to beg that General Laveneur's servant might be +permitted to go in and out of the prison on his master's errands. After +breakfasting together, and conversing on very civil terms, Dumont told +him, that as he concerned himself so much in behalf of his friend, he +would send him to keep the latter company, and at the conclusion of his +visit he was sent prisoner to the Bicetre. + +Perhaps the greater part of between three and four hundred thousand +people, now imprisoned on suspicion, have been arrested for reasons as +little substantial. + +--I begin to fear my health will not resist the hardship of a long +continuance here. We have no fire-place, and are sometimes starved +with partial winds from the doors and roof; at others faint and heartsick +with the unhealthy air produced by so many living bodies. The water we +drink is not preferable to the air we breathe; the bread (which is now +every where scarce and bad) contains such a mixture of barley, rye, +damaged wheat, and trash of all kinds, that, far from being nourished by +it, I lose both my strength and appetite daily.--Yet these are not the +worst of our sufferings. Shut out from all society, victims of a +despotic and unprincipled government capable of every thing, and ignorant +of the fate which may await us, we are occasionally oppressed by a +thousand melancholy apprehensions. I might, indeed, have boasted of my +fortitude, and have made myself an heroine on paper at as small an +expence of words as it has cost me to record my cowardice: but I am of an +unlucky conformation, and think either too much or too little (I know not +which) for a female philosopher; besides, philosophy is getting into such +ill repute, that not possessing the reality, the name of it is not worth +assuming. + +A poor old priest told me just now, (while Angelique was mending his +black coat with white thread,) that they had left at the place where they +were last confined a large quantity of linen, and other necessaries; but, +by the express orders of Dumont, they were not allowed to bring a single +article away with them. The keeper, too, it seems, was threatened with +dismission, for supplying one of them with a shirt.--In England, where, +I believe, you ally political expediency as much as you can with justice +and humanity, these cruelties, at once little and refined, will appear +incredible; and the French themselves, who are at least ashamed of, if +they are not pained by, them, are obliged to seek refuge in the fancied +palliative of a "state of revolution."--Yet, admitting the necessity of +confining the persons of these old men, there can be none for heaping +them together in filth and misery, and adding to the sufferings of years +and infirmity by those of cold and want. If, indeed, a state of +revolution require such deeds, and imply an apology for them, I cannot +but wish the French had remained as they were, for I know of no political +changes that can compensate for turning a civilized nation into a people +of savages. It is not surely the eating acorns or ragouts, a +well-powdered head, or one decorated with red feathers, that constitutes +the difference between barbarism and civilization; and, I fear, if the +French proceed as they have begun, the advantage of morals will be +considerably on the side of the unrefined savages. + +The conversation of the prison has been much engaged by the fate of an +English gentleman, who lately destroyed himself in a Maison d'Arret at +Amiens. His confinement had at first deeply affected his spirits, and +his melancholy increasing at the prospect of a long detention, terminated +in deranging his mind, and occasioned this last act of despair.--I never +hear of suicide without a compassion mingled with terror, for, perhaps, +simple pity is too light an emotion to be excited by an event which +reminds us, that we are susceptible of a degree of misery too great to be +borne--too strong for the efforts of instinct, reflection, and religion. +--I could moralize on the necessity of habitual patience, and the benefit +of preparing the mind for great evils by a philosophic endurance of +little ones; but I am at the Bicetre--the winds whistle round me--I am +beset by petty distresses, and we do not expatiate to advantage on +endurance while we have any thing to endure.--Seneca's contempt for the +things of this world was doubtless suggested in the palace of Nero. He +would not have treated the subject so well in disgrace and poverty. Do +not suppose I am affecting to be pleasant, for I write in the sober +sadness of conviction, that human fortitude is often no better than a +pompous theory, founded on self-love and self-deception. + +I was surprized at meeting among our fellow-prisoners a number of Dutch +officers. I find they had been some time in the town on their parole, +and were sent here by Dumont, for refusing to permit their men to work on +the fortifications.--The French government and its agents despise the +laws of war hitherto observed; they consider them as a sort of +aristocratie militaire, and they pretend, on the same principle, to be +enfranchised from the law of nations.--An orator of the convention lately +boasted, that he felt himself infinitely superior to the prejudices of +Grotius, Puffendorff, and Vatel, which he calls "l'aristocratie +diplomatique."--Such sublime spirits think, because they differ from the +rest of mankind, that they surpass them. Like Icarus, they attempt to +fly, and are perpetually struggling in the mire.--Plain common sense has +long pointed out a rule of action, from which all deviation is fatal, +both to nations and individuals. England, as well as France, has +furnished its examples; and the annals of genius in all countries are +replete with the miseries of eccentricity.--Whoever has followed the +course of the French revolution, will, I believe, be convinced, that the +greatest evils attending on it have been occasioned by an affected +contempt for received maxims. A common banditti, acting only from the +desire of plunder, or men, erring only through ignorance, could not have +subjugated an whole people, had they not been assisted by narrow-minded +philosophers, who were eager to sacrifice their country to the vanity of +making experiments, and were little solicitous whether their systems were +good or bad, provided they were celebrated as the authors of them. Yet, +where are they now? Wandering, proscribed, and trembling at the fate of +their followers and accomplices.--The Brissotins, sacrificed by a party +even worse than themselves, have died without exciting either pity or +admiration. Their fall was considered as the natural consequence of +their exaltation, and the courage with which they met death obtained no +tribute but a cold and simple comment, undistinguished from the news of +the day, and ending with it. + + + + +December. + +Last night, after we had been asleep about an hour, (for habit, that +"lulls the wet sea-boy on the high and giddy mast," has reconciled us to +sleep even here,) we were alarmed by the trampling of feet, and sudden +unlocking of our door. Our apprehensions gave us no time for conjecture +--in a moment an ill-looking fellow entered the room with a lantern, two +soldiers holding drawn swords, and a large dog! The whole company walked +as it were processionally to the end of the apartment, and, after +observing in silence the beds on each side, left us. It would not be +easy to describe what we suffered at this moment: for my own part, I +thought only of the massacres of September, and the frequent proposals at +the Jacobins and the Convention for dispatching the _"gens suspect,"_ +and really concluded I was going to terminate my existence +_"revolutionnairement."_ I do not now know the purport of these visits, +but I find they are not unusual, and most probably intended to alarm the +prisoners. + +After many enquiries and messages, I have had the mortification of +hearing that Mr. and Mrs. D____ were taken to Arras, and were there even +before I left it. The letters sent to and from the different prisons are +read by so many people, and pass through so many hands, that it is not +surprizing we have not heard from each other. As far as I can learn, +they had obtained leave, after their first arrest, to remove to a house +in the vicinity of Dourlens for a few days, on account of Mrs. D____'s +health, which had suffered by passing the summer in the town, and that at +the taking of Toulon they were again arrested while on a visit, and +conveyed to a _Maison d'Arret_ at Arras. I am the more anxious for them, +as it seems they were unprepared for such an event; and as the seals were +put upon their effects, I fear they must be in want of every thing. I +might, perhaps, have succeeded in getting them removed here, but Fleury's +Arras friend, it seems, did not think, when the Convention had abolished +every other part of Christianity, that they intended still to exact a +partial observance of the eighth article of the decalogue; and having, in +the sense of Antient Pistol, "conveyed" a little too notoriously, Le Bon +has, by way of securing him from notice or pursuit, sent him to the +frontiers in the capacity of Commissary. + +The prison, considering how many French inhabitants it contains, is +tolerably quiet--to say the truth, we are not very sociable, and still +less gay. Common interest establishes a sort of intimacy between those +of the same apartment; but the rest of the house pass each other, without +farther intercourse than silent though significant civility. Sometimes +you see a pair of unfortunate aristocrates talking politics at the end of +a passage, or on a landing-place; and here and there a bevy of females, +en deshabille, recounting altogether the subject of their arrest. One's +ear occasionally catches a few half-suppressed notes of a proscribed +aire, but the unhallowed sounds of the Carmagnole and Marseillois are +never heard, and would be thought more dissonant here than the war-whoop. +In fact, the only appearance of gaiety is among the ideots and lunatics. +--_"Je m'ennuye furieusement,"_ is the general exclamation.--An Englishman +confined at the Bicetre would express himself more forcibly, but, it is +certain, the want of knowing how to employ themselves does not form a +small part of the distresses of our fellow-prisoners; and when they tell +us they are _"ennuyes,"_ they say, perhaps, nearly as much as they feel-- +for, as far as I can observe, the loss of liberty has not the same effect +on a Frenchman as an Englishman. Whether this arises from political +causes, or the natural indifference of the French character, I am not +qualified to determine; probably from both: yet when I observe this +facility of mind general, and by no means peculiar to the higher classes, +I cannot myself but be of opinion, that it is more an effect of their +original disposition than of their form of government; for though in +England we were accustomed from our childhood to consider every man in +France as liable to wake and find himself in the Bastille, or at Mont St. +Michel, this formidable despotism existed more in theory than in +practice; and if courtiers and men of letters were intimidated by it, +the mass of the people troubled themselves very little about Lettres de +Cachet. The revenge or suspicion of Ministers might sometimes pursue +those who aimed at their power, or assailed their reputation; but the +lesser gentry, the merchants, or the shopkeepers, were very seldom +victims of arbitrary imprisonment--and I believe, amongst the evils which +it was the object of the revolution to redress, this (except on the +principle) was far from being of the first magnitude. I am not likely, +under my present circumstances, to be an advocate for the despotism of +any form of government; and I only give it as a matter of opinion, that +the civil liberty of the French was not so often and generally violated,* +as to influence their character in such a degree as to render them +insensible of its loss. At any rate, we must rank it among the +_bizarreries_ [Unaccountable whimsical events.] of this world, that the +French should have been prepared, by the theory of oppression under their +old system, for enduring the practice of it under the new one; and that +what during the monarchy was only possible to a few, is, under the +republic, almost certain to all. + + * I remember in 1789, after the destruction of the Bastille, our + compassionate countrymen were taught to believe that this tremendous + prison was peopled with victims, and that even the dungeons were + inhabited; yet the truth is, though it would not have told so + pathetically, or have produced so much theatrical effect, there were + only seven persons confined in the whole building, and certainly not + one in the dungeons. + + + + +Amiens, Providence, Dec. 10, 1793. + +We have again, as you will perceive, changed our abode, and that too +without expecting, and almost without desiring it. In my moments of +sullenness and despondency, I was not very solicitous about the +modifications of our confinement, and little disposed to be better +satisfied with one prison than another: but, heroics apart, external +comforts are of some importance, and we have, in many respects, gained by +our removal. + +Our present habitation is a spacious building, lately a convent, and +though now crouded with more prisoners by two or three hundred than it +will hold conveniently, yet we are better lodged than at the Bicetre, and +we have also a large garden, good water, and, what above all is +desirable, the liberty of delivering our letters or messages ourselves +(in presence of the guard) to any one who will venture to approach us. +Mad. de ____ and myself have a small cell, where we have just room to +place our beds, but we have no fire-place, and the maids are obliged to +sleep in an adjoining passage. + +A few evenings ago, while we were at the Bicetre, we were suddenly +informed by the keeper that Dumont had sent some soldiers with an order +to convey us that night to the Providence. We were at first rather +surprized than pleased, and reluctantly gathered our baggage together +with as much expedition as we could, while the men who were to escort us +were exclaiming "a la Francaise" at the trifling delay this occasioned. +When we had passed the gate, we found Fleury, with some porters, ready to +receive our beds, and overjoyed at having procured us a more decent +prison, for, it seems, he could by no means reconcile himself to the name +of Bicetre. We had about half a mile to walk, and on the road he +contrived to acquaint us with the means by which he had solicited this +favour of Dumont. After advising with all Mad. de ____'s friends who +were yet at liberty, and finding no one willing to make an effort in her +behalf, for fear of involving themselves, he discovered an old +acquaintance in the "femme de chambre" of one of Fleury's mistresses.-- +This, for one of Fleury's sagacity, was a spring to have set the whole +Convention in a ferment; and in a few days he profited so well by this +female patronage, as to obtain an order for transferring us hither. On +our arrival, we were informed, as usual, that the house was already full, +and that there was no possibility of admitting us. We however, set up +all night in the keeper's room with some other people newly arrived like +ourselves, and in the morning, after a little disputing and a pretty +general derangement of the more ancient inhabitants, we were "nichees," +as I have described to you. + +We have not yet quitted our room much, but I observe that every one +appears more chearful, and more studied in their toilette, than at the +Bicetre, and I am willing to infer from thence that confinement here is +less insupportable.--I have been employed two days in enlarging the notes +I had made in our last prison, and in making them more legible, for I +ventured no farther than just to scribble with a pencil in a kind of +short-hand of my own invention, and not even that without a variety of +precautions. I shall be here less liable either to surprize or +observation, and as soon as I have secured what I have already noted, +(which I intend to do to-night,) I shall continue my remarks in the usual +form. You will find even more than my customary incorrectness and want +of method since we left Peronne; but I shall not allow your competency as +a critic, until you have been a prisoner in the hands of French +republicans. + +It will not be improper to notice to you a very ingenious decree of +Gaston, (a member of the Convention,) who lately proposed to embark all +the English now in France at Brest, and then to sink the ships.--Perhaps +the Committee of Public Welfare are now in a sort of benevolent +indecision, whether this, or Collot d'Herbois' gunpowder scheme, shall +have the preference. Legendre's iron cage and simple hanging will, +doubtless, be rejected, as too slow and formal. The mode of the day is +"les grandes mesures." If I be not seriously alarmed at these +propositions, it is not that life is indifferent to me, or that I think +the government too humane to adopt them. My tranquillity arises from +reflecting that such measures would be of no political use, and that we +shall most likely be soon forgotten in the multitude of more important +concerns. Those, however, whom I endeavour to console by this reasoning, +tell me it is nothing less than infallible, that the inutility of a crime +is here no security against its perpetration, and that any project which +tends to evil will sooner be remembered than one of humanity or justice. + +[End of Vol. I. The Printed Books] + + + + +[Beginning of Volume II. Of The Printed Books] + + + + +Providence, Dec. 20, 1793. + +"All places that are visited by the eye of Heaven, are to the wise man +happy havens." If Shakspeare's philosophy be orthodox, the French have, +it must be confessed, many claims to the reputation of a wise people; and +though you know I always disputed their pretensions to general gaiety, +yet I acknowledge that misfortune does not deprive them of the share they +possess, and, if one may judge by appearances, they have at least the +habit, more than any other nation, of finding content under situations +with which it should seem incompatible. We are here between six and +seven hundred, of all ages and of all ranks, taken from our homes, and +from all that usually makes the comfort of life, and crowded together +under many of the inflictions that constitute its misery; yet, in the +midst of all this, we fiddle, dress, rhyme, and visit as ceremoniously as +though we had nothing to disturb us. Our beaux, after being correctly +frizz'd and powdered behind some door, compliment the belle just escaped +from a toilet, performed amidst the apparatus of the kitchen; three or +four beds are piled one upon another to make room for as many +card-tables; and the wits of the prison, who are all the morning +employed in writing doleful placets to obtain their liberty, in the +evening celebrate the loss of it in bout-rimees and acrostics. + +I saw an ass at the _Corps de Garde_ this morning laden with violins and +music, and a female prisoner seldom arrives without her complement of +bandboxes.--Embarrassed, stifled as we are by our numbers, it does not +prevent a daily importation of lap-dogs, who form as consequential a part +of the community in a prison, as in the most superb hotel. The faithful +valet, who has followed the fortunes of his master, does not so much +share his distresses as contribute to his pleasure by adorning his +person, or, rather, his head, for, excepting the article of +hair-dressing, the beaux here are not elaborate. In short, there is an +indifference, a frivolity, in the French character, which, in +circumstances like the present, appears unaccountable. But man is not +always consistent with himself, and there are occasions in which the +French are nothing less than philosophers. Under all these externals of +levity, they are a very prudent people, and though they seem to bear +with infinite fortitude many of the evils of life, there are some in +which their sensibility is not to be questioned. At the death of a +relation, or the loss of liberty, I have observed that a few hours +suffice, _pour prendre son parti;_ [To make up his mind.] but on any +occasion where his fortune has suffered, the liveliest Frenchman is _au +desespoir_ for whole days. Whenever any thing is to be lost or gained, +all his characteristic indifference vanishes, and his attention becomes +mentally concentrated, without dissipating the habitual smile of his +countenance. He may sometimes be deceived through deficiency of +judgment, but I believe not often by unguardedness; and, in a matter of +interest, a _petit maitre_ of five-and-twenty might _tout en badinage_ +[All in the way of pleasantry.] maintain his ground against a whole +synagogue.--This disposition is not remarkable only in affairs that may +be supposed to require it, but extends to the minutest objects; and the +same oeconomy which watches over the mass of a Frenchman's estate, +guards with equal solicitude the menu property of a log of wood, or a +hen's nest. + +There is at this moment a general scarcity of provisions, and we who are +confined are, of course, particularly inconvenienced by it; we do not +even get bread that is eatable, and it is curious to observe with what +circumspection every one talks of his resources. The possessor of a few +eggs takes care not to expose them to the eye of his neighbour; and a +slice of white bread is a donation of so much consequence, that those who +procure any for themselves do not often put their friends to the pain +either of accepting or refusing it. + +Mad. de ____ has been unwell for some days, and I could not help giving a +hint to a relation of her's whom we found here, and who has frequent +supplies of bread from the country, that the bread we eat was peculiarly +inimical to her; but I gained only a look of repulsive apprehension, and +a cold remark that it was very difficult to get good bread--_"et que +c'etoit bien malheureux."_ [And that it certainly was very unfortunate.] +I own this kind of selfishness is increased by a situation where our +wants are numerous, and our enjoyments few; and the great distinctions of +meum and tuum, which at all times have occasioned so much bad fellowship +in the world, are here perhaps more rigidly observed than any where else; +yet, in my opinion, a close-hearted consideration has always formed an +essential and a predominant quality in the French character. + +People here do not ruin themselves, as with us, by hospitality; and +examples of that thoughtless profusion which we censure and regret, +without being able entirely to condemn, are very rare indeed. In France +it is not uncommon to see a man apparently dissipated in his conduct, and +licentious in his morals, yet regular, even to parsimony, in his +pecuniary concerns.--He oeconomizes with his vices, and indulges in all +the excesses of fashionable life, with the same system of order that +accumulates the fortune of a Dutch miser. Lord Chesterfield was +doubtless satisfied, that while his son remained in France, his precepts +would have all the benefit of living illustration; yet it is not certain +that this cautious and reflecting licentiousness has any merit over the +more imprudent irregularity of an English spendthrift: the one is, +however, likely to be more durable than the other; and, in fact, the +character of an old libertine is more frequent in France than in England. + +If oeconomy preside even over the vices of the rich and fashionable, you +may conclude that the habits of the middling ranks of people of small +fortunes are still more scrupulously subjected to its influence. A +French _menage_ [Household.] is a practical treatise on the art of +saving--a spirit of oeconomy pervades and directs every part of it, and +that so uniformly, so generally, and so consistently, as not to make the +same impression on a stranger as would a single instance where the whole +was not conducted on the same principle. A traveller is not so forcibly +stricken by this part of the French character, because it is more real +than apparent, and does not seem the effect of reasoning or effort, which +is never consequential, but rather that of inclination and the natural +course of things. + +A degree of parsimony, which an Englishman, who does not affect the +reputation of a Codrus, could not acquire without many self-combats, +appears in a Frenchman a matter of preference and convenience, and till +one has lived long and familiarly in the country, one is apt to mistake +principles for customs, and character for manners, and to attribute many +things to local which have their real source in moral causes.--The +traveller who sees nothing but gay furniture, and gay clothes, and +partakes on invitation of splendid repasts, returns to England the +enamoured panegyrist of French hospitality.--On a longer residence and +more domestic intercourse, all this is discoverable to be merely the +sacrifice of parsimony to vanity--the solid comforts of life are unknown, +and hospitality seldom extends beyond an occasional and ostentatious +reception. The gilding, painting, glasses, and silk hangings of a French +apartment, are only a gay disguise; and a house, which to the eye may be +attractive even to splendour, often has not one room that an Englishman +would find tolerably convenient. Every thing intended for use rather +than shew is scanty and sordid--all is _beau, magnifique, gentil,_ or +_superb,_ [Fine magnificent, genteel, or superb.] and nothing +comfortable. The French have not the word, or its synonime, in their +language. + +In France, clothes are almost as durable as furniture, and the gaiety +which twenty or thirty years ago we were complaisant enough to admire is +far from being expensive. People are not more than five or six hours a +day in their gala habits, and the whole of this period is judiciously +chosen between the hours of repast, so that no risk in incurred by +accidents at table. Then the caprices of fashion, which in England are +so various and despotic, have here a more limited influence: the form of +a dress changes as long as the material is convertible, and when it has +outlasted the possibility of adaptation to a reigning mode, it is not on +that account rejected, but is generally worn in some way or other till +banished by the more rational motive of its decay. All the expences of +tea-visits, breakfast-loungings, and chance-dinners, are avoided--an +evening visit is passed entirely at cards, a breakfast in form even for +the family is unusual, and there are very few houses where you could dine +without being previously engaged. I am, indeed, certain, that (unless in +large establishments) the calculation for diurnal supply is so exact, +that the intrusion of a stranger would be felt by the whole family. I +must, however, do them the justice to say, that on such occasions, and +where they find the thing to be inevitable, they put the best face +possible on it, and the guest is entertained, if not plentifully, and +with a very sincere welcome, at least with smiles and compliments. The +French, indeed, allow, that they live less hospitably than the English: +but then they say they are not so rich; and it is true, property is not +so general, nor so much diffused, as with us. This is, however, only +relative, and you will not suspect me of being so uncandid as to make +comparisons without allowing for every difference which is the effect of +necessity. All my remarks of this kind are made after an unprejudiced +comparison of the people of the same rank or fortune in the two +countries;--yet even the most liberal examination must end by concluding, +that the oeconomy of the French too nearly approaches to meanness, and +that their civility is ostentatious, perhaps often either interested, or +even verbal. + +You already exclaim, why, in the year 1793, you are characterizing a +nation in the style of Salmon! and implying a panegyric on the moral of +the School for Scandal! I plead to the first part of the charge, and +shall hereafter defend my opinion against the more polished writers who +have succeeded Salmon. For the moral of the School for Scandal, I have +always considered it as the seal of humanity on a comedy which would +otherwise be perfection. + +It is not the oeconomy of the French that I am censuring, but their +vanity, which, engrossing all their means of expence, prefers show to +accommodation, and the parade of a sumptuous repast three or four times a +year to a plainer but more frequent hospitality.--I am far from being the +advocate of extravagance, or the enemy of domestic order; and the +liberality which is circumscribed only by prudence shall not find in me a +censurer. + +My ideas on the French character and manner of living may not be unuseful +to such of my countrymen as come to France with the project of retrieving +their affairs; for it is very necessary they should be informed, that it +is not so much the difference in the price of things, which makes a +residence here oeconomical, as a conformity to the habits of the country; +and if they were not deterred by a false shame from a temporary adoption +of the same system in England, their object might often be obtained +without leaving it. For this reason it may be remarked, that the English +who bring English servants, and persist in their English mode of living, +do not often derive very solid advantages from their exile, and their +abode in France is rather a retreat from their creditors than the means +of paying their debts. + +Adieu.--You will not be sorry that I have been able for a moment to +forget our personal sufferings, and the miserable politics of the +country. The details of the former are not pleasant, and the latter grow +every day more inexplicable. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Residence in France During the Years +1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795, Part II., 1793, by An English Lady + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A RESIDENCE IN FRANCE, PART II., 1793 *** + +***** This file should be named 11993.txt or 11993.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/9/9/11993/ + +Produced by Mary Munarin and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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