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diff --git a/11994-0.txt b/11994-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c3e6787 --- /dev/null +++ b/11994-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7220 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11994 *** + +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. + + + + +1794 + + + +January 6, 1794. + +If I had undertaken to follow the French revolution through all its +absurdities and iniquities, my indolence would long since have taken the +alarm, and I should have relinquished a task become too difficult and too +laborious. Events are now too numerous and too complicated to be +described by occasional remarks; and a narrator of no more pretensions +than myself may be allowed to shrink from an abundance of matter which +will hereafter perplex the choice and excite the wonder of the +historian.--Removed from the great scene of intrigues, we are little +acquainted with them--we begin to suffer almost before we begin to +conjecture, and our solicitude to examine causes is lost in the rapidity +with which we feel their effects. + +Amidst the more mischievous changes of a philosophic revolution, you will +have learned from the newspapers, that the French have adopted a new aera +and a new calendar, the one dating from the foundation of their republic, +and other descriptive of the climate of Paris, and the productions of the +French territory. I doubt, however, if these new almanack-makers will +create so much confusion as might be supposed, or as they may desire, for +I do not find as yet that their system has made its way beyond the public +offices, and the country people are particularly refractory, for they +persist in holding their fairs, markets, &c. as usual, without any regard +to the hallowed decade of their legislators. As it is to be presumed +that the French do not wish to relinquish all commercial intercourse with +other nations, they mean possibly to tack the republican calendar to the +rights of man, and send their armies to propagate them together; +otherwise the correspondence of a Frenchman will be as difficult to +interpret with mercantile exactness as the characters of the Chinese. + +The vanity of these philosophers would, doubtless, be gratified by +forcing the rest of Europe and the civilized world to adopt their useless +and chimerical innovations, and they might think it a triumph to see the +inhabitant of the Hebrides date _"Vendemiaire,"_ [Alluding to the +vintage.] or the parched West-Indian _"Nivose;"_ but vanity is not on +this, as it is on many other occasions, the leading principle.--It was +hoped that a new arrangement of the year, and a different nomenclature of +the months, so as to banish all the commemorations of Christianity, might +prepare the way for abolishing religion itself, and, if it were possible +to impose the use of the new calendar so far as to exclude the old one, +this might certainly assist their more serious atheistical operations; +but as the success of such an introduction might depend on the will of +the people, and is not within the competence of the bayonet, the old year +will maintain its ground, and these pedantic triflers find that they have +laboured to no more extensive a purpose, than to furnish a date to the +newspapers, or to their own decrees, which no one will take the pains to +understand. + +Mankind are in general more attached to customs than principles. The +useful despotism of Peter, which subdued so many of the prejudices of his +countrymen, could not achieve the curtailment of their beards; and you +must not imagine that, with all the endurance of the French, these +continual attempts at innovation pass without murmurs: partial revolts +happen very frequently; but, as they are the spontaneous effect of +personal suffering, not of political manoeuvre, they are without concert +or union, of course easily quelled, and only serve to strengthen the +government.--The people of Amiens have lately, in one of these sudden +effusions of discontent, burnt the tree of liberty, and even the +representative, Dumont, has been menaced; but these are only the blows of +a coward who is alarmed at his own temerity, and dreads the chastisement +of it.* + + * The whole town of Bedouin, in the south of France, was burnt + pursuant to a decree of the convention, to expiate the imprudence of + some of its inhabitants in having cut down a dead tree of liberty. + Above sixty people were guillotined as accomplices, and their bodies + thrown into pits, dug by order of the representative, Magnet, (then + on mission,) before their death. These executions were succeeded by + a conflagration of all the houses, and the imprisonment or + dispersion of their possessors. It is likewise worthy of remark, + that many of these last were obliged, by express order of Maignet, + to be spectators of the murder of their friends and relations. + +This crime in the revolutionary code is of a very serious nature; and +however trifling it may appear to you, it depends only on the will of +Dumont to sacrifice many lives on the occasion. But Dumont, though +erected by circumstances into a tyrant, is not sanguinary--he is by +nature and education passionate and gross, and in other times might only +have been a good natured Polisson. Hitherto he has contented himself +with alarming, and making people tired of their lives, but I do not +believe he has been the direct or intentional cause of anyone's death. +He has so often been the hero of my adventures, that I mention him +familiarly to you, without reflecting, that though the delegate of more +than monarchical power here, he is too insignificant of himself to be +known in England. But the history of Dumont is that of two-thirds of the +Convention. He was originally clerk to an attorney at Abbeville, and +afterwards set up for himself in a neighbouring village. His youth +having been marked by some digressions from the "'haviour of reputation," +his profession was far from affording him a subsistence; and the +revolution, which seems to have called forth all that was turbulent, +unprincipled, or necessitous in the country, naturally found a partizan +in an attorney without practice.--At the election of 1792, when the +King's fall and the domination of the Jacobins had spread so general a +terror that no man of character could be prevailed upon to be a candidate +for a public situation, Dumont availed himself of this timidity and +supineness in those who ought to have become the representatives of the +people; and, by a talent for intrigue, and a coarse facility of +phrase-making, (for he has no pretensions to eloquence,) prevailed on +the mob to elect him. His local knowledge, active disposition, and +subservient industry, render him an useful kind of drudge to any +prevailing party, and, since the overthrow of the Brissotines, he has +been entrusted with the government of this and some of the neighbouring +departments. He professes himself a zealous republican, and an apostle +of the doctrine of universal equality, yet unites in his person all the +attributes of despotism, and lives with more luxury and expence than +most of the _ci-devant_ gentry. His former habitation at Oisemont is not +much better than a good barn; but patriotism is more profitable here +than in England, and he has lately purchased a large mansion belonging +to an emigrant. + + * "Britain no longer pays her patriots with her spoils:" and perhaps + it is matter of congratulation to a country, when the profession of + patriotism is not lucrative. Many agreeable inferences may be made + from it--the sentiment may have become too general for reward, + Ministers too virtuous to fear, or even the people too enlightened + to be deceived. + +--His mode of travelling, which used at best to be in the _coche d'eau_ +[Passage-boat.] or the diligence, is now in a coach and four, very +frequently accompanied by a led horse, and a party of dragoons. I fear +some of your patriots behold this with envy, and it is not to be wondered +at that they should wish to see a similar revolution in England. What a +seducing prospect for the assertors of liberty, to have the power of +imprisoning and guillotining all their countrymen! What halcyon days, +when the aristocratic palaces* shall be purified by solacing the fatigues +of republican virtue, and the levellers of all distinction travel with +four horses and a military escort!--But, as Robespierre observes, you are +two centuries behind the French in patriotism and information; and I +doubt if English republicanism will ever go beyond a dinner, and toasting +the manes of Hampden and Sydney. I would, therefore, seriously advise +any of my compatriots who may be enamoured of a government founded on the +rights of man, to quit an ungrateful country which seems so little +disposed to reward their labours, and enjoy the supreme delight of men a +systeme, that of seeing their theories in action. + + * Many of the emigrants' houses were bought by members of the + Convention, or people in office. At Paris, crouds of inferior + clerks, who could not purchase, found means to get lodged in the + most superb national edifices: Monceaux was the villa of + Robespierre--St. Just occasionally amused himself at Raincy--Couthon + succeed the Comte d'Artois at Bagatelle-and Vliatte, a juryman of + the Revolutionary Tribunal, was lodged at the pavillion of Flora, in + the Tuilleries, which he seems to have occupied as a sort of Maitre + d'Hotel to the Comite de Salut Public. + +_A propos_--a decree of the Convention has lately passed to secure the +person of Mr. Thomas Paine, and place seals on his papers. I hope, +however, as he has been installed in all the rights of a French citizen, +in addition to his representative inviolability, that nothing more than a +temporary retreat is intended for him. Perhaps even his personal +sufferings may prove a benefit to mankind. He may, like Raleigh, "in his +prison hours enrich the world," and add new proselytes to the cause of +freedom. Besides, human evils are often only blessings in a questionable +form--Mr. Paine's persecutions in England made him a legislator in +France. Who knows but his persecutions in France may lead to some new +advancement, or at least add another line to the already crouded +title-pages that announce his literary and political distinctions! + +--Yours. + + + + +January, 1794. + +The total suppression of all religious worship in this country is an +event of too singular and important a nature not to have been commented +upon largely by the English papers; but, though I have little new to add +on the subject, my own reflections have been too much occupied in +consequence for me to pass it over in silence. + +I am yet in the first emotions of wonder: the vast edifice which had been +raised by the blended efforts of religion and superstition, which had +been consecrated by time, endeared by national taste, and become +necessary by habit, has now disappeared, and scarcely left a vestige of +its ruins. To those who revert only to the genius of the Catholic +religion, and to former periods of the history of France, this event must +seem incredible; and nothing but constant opportunities of marking its +gradual approach can reconcile it to probability. The pious christian +and the insidious philosopher have equally contributed to the general +effect, though with very different intentions: the one, consulting only +his reason, wished to establish a pure and simple mode of worship, which, +divested of the allurements of splendid processions and imposing +ceremonies, should teach the people their duty, without captivating their +senses; the other, better acquainted with French character, knew how +little these views were compatible with it, and hoped, under the specious +pretext of banishing the too numerous ornaments of the Catholic practice, +to shake the foundations of Christianity itself. Thus united in their +efforts, though dissimilar in their motives, all parties were eager at +the beginning of the revolution for a reform in the Church: the wealth of +the Clergy, the monastic establishments, the supernumerary saints, were +devoted and attacked without pity, and without regret; and, in the zeal +and hurry of innovation, the decisive measure, which reduced +ecclesiastics to small pensions dependent on the state, was carried, +before those who really meant well were aware of its consequences. The +next step was, to make the receiving these pensions subject to an oath, +which the selfish philosopher, who can coldly calculate on, and triumph +in, the weakness of human nature, foresaw would be a brand of discord, +certain to destroy the sole force which the Clergy yet possessed--their +union, and the public opinion. + +Unfortunately, these views were not disappointed: conviction, interest, +or fear, prevailed on many to take the oath; while doubt, worldly +improvidence, or a scrupulous piety, deterred others. A schism took +place between the jurors and nonjurors--the people became equally +divided, and adhered either to the one or the other, as their habits or +prepossessions directed them. Neither party, as it may be imagined, +could see themselves deprived of any portion of the public esteem, +without concern, perhaps without rancour; and their mutual animosity, far +from gaining proselytes to either, contributed only to the immediate +degradation and future ruin of both. Those, however, who had not taken +the prescribed oath, were in general more popular than what were called +the constitutionalists, and the influence they were supposed to exert in +alienating the minds of their followers from the new form of government, +supplied the republican party with a pretext for proposing their +banishment.* + + *The King's exertion of the power vested in him by the constitution, + by putting a temporary negative on this decree, it is well known, + was one of the pretexts for dethroning him. + +At the King's deposition this decree took place, and such of the +nonjuring priests as were not massacred in the prisons, or escaped the +search, were to be embarked for Guiana. The wiser and better part of +those whose compliances entitled them to remain, were, I believe, far +from considering this persecution of their opponents as a triumph--to +those who did, it was of short duration. The Convention, which had +hitherto attempted to disguise its hatred of the profession by censure +and abuse of a part of its members, began now to ridicule the profession +itself: some represented it as useless--others as pernicious and +irreconcileable with political freedom; and a discourse* was printed, +under the sanction of the Assembly, to prove, that the only feasible +republic must be supported by pure atheism. + + * Extracts from the Report of Anacharsis Cloots, member of the + Committee of Public Instruction, printed by order of the National + Convention: + + "Our _Sans-culottes_ want no other sermon but the rights of man, no + other doctrine but the constitutional precepts and practice, nor any + other church than where the section or the club hold their meetings, + &c. + + "The propagation of the rights of man ought to be presented to the + astonished world pure and without stain. It is not by offering + strange gods to our neighbours that we shall operate their + conversion. We can never raise them from their abject state by + erecting one altar in opposition to another. A trifling heresy is + infinitely more revolting than having no religion at all. Nature, + like the sun, diffuses her light without the assistance of priests + and vestals. While we were constitutional heretics, we maintained + an army of an hundred thousand priests, who waged war equally with + the Pope and the disciples of Calvin. We crushed the old priesthood + by means of the new, and while we compelled every sect to contribute + to the payment of a pretended national religion, we became at once + the abhorrence of all the Catholics and Protestants in Europe. The + repulsion of our religious belief counteracted the attraction of our + political principles.--But truth is at length triumphant, and all + the ill-intentioned shall no more be able to detach our neighbours + from the dominion of the rights of man, under pretext of a religious + dominion which no longer exists.--The purpose of religion is no how + so well answered as by presenting carte blanche to the abused world. + Every one will then be at liberty to form his spiritual regimen to + his own taste, till in the end the invincible ascendant of reason + shall teach him that the Supreme Being, the Eternal Being, is no + other than Nature uncreated and uncreatable; and that the only + Providence is the association of mankind in freedom and equality!-- + This sovereign providence affords comfort to the afflicted, rewards + the good, and punishes the wicked. It exercises no unjust + partialities, like the providence of knaves and fools. Man, when + free, wants no other divinity than himself. This god will not cost + us a single farthing, not a single tear, nor a drop of blood. From + the summit of our mountain he hath promulgated his laws, traced in + evident characters on the tables of nature. From the East to the + West they will be understood without the aid of interpreters, + comments, or miracles. Every other ritual will be torn in pieces at + the appearance of that of reason. Reason dethrones both the Kings + of the earth, and the Kings of heaven.--No monarch above, if we wish + to preserve our republic below. + + "Volumes have been written to determine whether or no a republic of + Atheists could exist. I maintain that every other republic is a + chimera. If you once admit the existence of a heavenly Sovereign, + you introduce the wooden horse within your walls!--What you adore by + day will be your destruction at night. + + "A people of theists necessarily become revelationists, that is to + say, slaves of priests, who are but religious go-betweens, and + physicians of damned souls. + + "If I were a scoundrel, I should make a point of exclaiming against + atheism, for a religious mask is very convenient to a traitor. + + "The intolerance of truth will one day proscribe the very name of + temple 'fanum,' the etymology of fanaticism. + + "We shall instantly see the monarchy of heaven condemned in its turn + by the revolutionary tribunal of victorious Reason; for Truth, + exalted on the throne of Nature, is sovereignly intolerant. + + "The republic of the rights of man is, properly speaking, neither + theistical nor atheistical--it is nihilistical." + +Many of the most eminent conforming Prelates and Clergy were arrested, +and even individuals, who had the reputation of being particularly +devout, were marked as objects of persecution. A new calendar was +devised, which excluded the ancient festivals, and limited public worship +to the decade, or tenth day, and all observance of the Sabbath was +interdicted. The prisons were crouded with sufferers in the cause of +religion, and all who had not the zeal or the courage of martyrs, +abstained from manifesting any attachment to the Christian faith. + +While this consternation was yet recent, the Deputies on mission in the +departments shut up the churches entirely: the refuse of low clubs were +paid and encouraged to break the windows and destroy the monuments; and +these outrages, which, it was previously concerted, should at first +assume the appearance of popular tumult, were soon regulated and directed +by the mandates of the Convention themselves. The churches were again +opened, an atheistic ritual, and licentious homilies,* were substituted +for the proscribed service--and an absurd and ludicrous imitation of the +Greek mythology was exhibited, under the title of the Religion of +Reason.-- + + * I have read a discourse pronounced in a church at Paris, on the + decade, so indecent and profane, that the most humble audience of a + country-puppet show in England would not have tolerated it. + +On the principal church of every town was inscribed, "The Temple of +Reason;" and a tutelary goddess was installed with a ceremony equally +pedantic, ridiculous, and profane.* + + * At Havre, the goddess of Reason was drawn on a car by four + cart-horses, and as it was judged necessary, to prevent accidents, + that the horses should be conducted by those they were accustomed + to, the carters were likewise put in requisition and furnished with + cuirasses a l'antique from the theatre. The men, it seems, being + neither martial nor learned, were not au fait at this equipment, + and concluding it was only a waistcoat of ceremony, invested + themselves with the front behind, and the back part laced before, + to the great amusement of the few who were sensible of the mistake. + +Yet the philosophers did not on this occasion disdain those adventitious +aids, the use of which they had so much declaimed against while they were +the auxiliaries of Christianity.* + + * Mr. Gibbon reproaches the Christians with their adoption of the + allurements of the Greek mythology.--The Catholics have been more + hostilely despoiled by their modern persecutors, and may retort that + the religion of reason is a more gross appeal to the senses than the + darkest ages of superstition would have ventured on. + +Music, processions, and decorations, which had been banished from the +ancient worship, were introduced in the new one, and the philosophical +reformer, even in the very attempt to establish a religion purely +metaphysical, found himself obliged to inculcate it by a gross and +material idolatry.*-- + + * The French do not yet annex any other idea to the religion of + reason than that of the female who performs the part of the goddess. + +Thus, by submitting his abstractions to the genius of the people, and the +imperfections of our nature, perhaps the best apology was offered for the +errors of that worship which had been proscribed, persecuted, and +ridiculed. + +Previous to the tenth day, on which a celebration of this kind was to +take place, a Deputy arrived, accompanied by the female goddess:* that +is, (if the town itself did not produce one for the purpose,) a Roman +dress of white satin was hired from the theatre, with which she was +invested--her head covered with a red cap, ornamented with oak leaves-- +one arm was reclined on a plough, the other grasped a spear--and her feet +were supported by a globe, and environed by mutilated emblems of +seodality. [It is not possible to explain this costume as appropriate.] + + * The females who personated the new divinity were usually selected + from amongst those who "might make sectaries of whom they bid but + follow," but who were more conspicuous for beauty than any other + celestial attribute.--The itinerant goddess of the principal towns + in the department de la Somme was the mistress of one Taillefer, a + republican General, brother to the Deputy of the same name.--I know + not, in this military government, whether the General's services on + the occasion were included in his other appointments. At Amiens, he + not only provided the deity, but commanded the detachment that + secured her a submissive adoration. + +Thus equipped, the divinity and her appendages were borne on the +shoulders of Jacobins "en bonnet rouge," and escorted by the National +Guard, Mayor, Judges, and all the constituted authorities, who, whether +diverted or indignant, were obliged to preserve a respectful gravity of +exterior. When the whole cavalcade arrived at the place appointed, the +goddess was placed on an altar erected for the occasion, from whence she +harangued the people, who, in return, proffered their adoration, and sung +the Carmagnole, and other republican hymns of the same kind. They then +proceeded in the same order to the principal church, in the choir of +which the same ceremonies were renewed: a priest was procured to abjure +his faith and avow the whole of Christianity an imposture;* and the +festival concluded with the burning of prayer-books, saints, +confessionals, and every thing appropriated to the use of public +worship.**-- + + *It must be observed, in justice to the French Clergy, that it was + seldom possible to procure any who would consent to this infamy. In + such cases, the part was exhibited by a man hired and dressed for + the purpose.--The end of degrading the profession in the eyes of the + people was equally answered. + + ** In many places, valuable paintings and statues were burnt or + disfigured. The communion cups, and other church plate, were, after + being exorcised in Jacobin revels, sent to the Convention, and the + gold and silver, (as the author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman + Empire invidiously expresses himself,) the pearls and jewels, were + wickedly converted to the service of mankind; as if any thing whose + value is merely fictitious, could render more service to mankind + than when dedicated to an use which is equally the solace of the + rich and the poor--which gratifies the eye without exciting + cupidity, soothes the bed of sickness, and heals the wounds of + conscience. Yet I am no advocate for the profuse decorations of + Catholic churches; and if I seem to plead in their behalf, it is + that I recollect no instance where the depredators of them have + appropriated the spoil to more laudable purposes. + +The greater part of the attendants looked on in silent terror and +astonishment; whilst others, intoxicated, or probably paid to act this +scandalous farce, danced round the flames with an appearance of frantic +and savage mirth.--It is not to be forgotten, that representatives of the +people often presided as the high priests of these rites; and their +official dispatches to the convention, in which these ceremonies were +minutely described, were always heard with bursts of applause, and +sanctioned by decrees of insertion in the bulletin.* + + * A kind of official newspaper distributed periodically at the + expence of Government in large towns, and pasted up in public + places--it contained such news as the convention chose to impart, + which was given with the exact measure of truth or falsehood that + suited the purpose of the day. + +I have now conducted you to the period in which I am contemplating France +in possession of all the advantages which a total dereliction of +religious establishments can bestow--at that consummation to which the +labours of modern philosophers have so long tended. + +Ye Shaftesburys, Bolingbrokes, Voltaires, and must I add the name of +Gibbon,* behold yourselves inscribed on the registers of fame with a +Laplanche, a Chenier, an Andre Dumont, or a Fouche!**-- + + * The elegant satirist of Christianity will smile at the presumption + of so humble a censurer.--It is certain, the misapplication only of + such splendid talents could embolden me to mention the name of the + possessor with diminished respect. + + ** These are names too contemptible for notice, but for the mischief + to which they were instrumental--they were among the first and most + remarkable persecutors of religion. + +Do not blush at the association; your views have been the same; and the +subtle underminer of man's best comfort in the principles of his +religion, is even more criminal than him who prohibits the external +exercise of it. Ridicule of the sacred writings is more dangerous than +burning them, and a sneer at the miracles of the gospel more mischievous +than disfiguring the statues of the evangelists; and it must be confessed +that these Anti-christian Iconoclasts themselves might probably have been +content to "believe and say their prayers," had not the intolerance of +philosophy made them atheists and persecutors.--The coarse legend of +"death is the sleep of eternity,"* is only a compendium of the fine-drawn +theories of the more elaborate materialist, and the depositaries of the +dead will not corrupt more by the exhibition of this desolating standard, +than the libraries of the living by the volumes which hold out the same +oblivion to vice, and discouragement to virtue.-- + + * Posts, bearing the inscription "la mort est un sommeil eternel," + were erected in many public burying-grounds.--No other ceremony is + observed with the dead than enclosing the body in some rough boards, + and sending it off by a couple of porters, (in their usual garb,) + attended by a municipal officer. The latter inscribes on a register + the name of the deceased, who is thrown into a grave generally + prepared for half a score, and the whole business is finished. + +The great experiment of governing a civilized people without religion +will now be made; and should the morals, the manners, or happiness of the +French, be improved by it, the sectaries of modern philosophy may +triumph. Should it happen otherwise, the Christian will have an +additional motive for cherishing his faith: but even the afflictions of +humanity will not, I fear, produce either regret or conviction in his +adversary; for the prejudices of philosophers and systemists are +incorrigible.* + + * _"Ce ne sont point les philosophes qui connoissent le mieux les + hommes. Ils ne les voient qu'a travers les prejuges, et je ne fache + aucun etat ou l'on en ait tant."_--J. J. Rousseau. ["It is not among + philosophers that we are to look for the most perfect knowledge of + human nature.--They view it only through the prejudices of + philosophy, and I know of no profession where prejudices are more + abundant."] + + + + +Providence, Jan. 29. + +We are now quite domesticated here, though in a very miserable way, +without fire, and with our mattresses, on the boards; but we nevertheless +adopt the spirit of the country, and a total absence of comfort does not +prevent us from amusing ourselves. My friend knits, and draws landscapes +on the backs of cards; and I have established a correspondence with an +old bookseller, who sends me treatises of chemistry and fortifications, +instead of poetry and memoirs. I endeavoured at first to borrow books of +our companions, but this resource was soon exhausted, and the whole +prison supplied little more than a novel of Florian's, _Le Voyage du jeune +Anarcharsis,_ and some of the philosophical romances of Voltaire.--They +say it ennuyes them to read; and I observe, that those who read at all, +take their books into the garden, and prefer the most crowded walks. +These studious persons, who seem to surpass Crambe himself in the faculty +of abstraction, smile and bow at every comma, without any appearance of +derangement from such frequent interruptions. + +Time passes sorrowly, rather than slowly; and my thoughts, without being +amused, are employed. The novelty of our situation, the past, the +future, all offer so many subjects of reflection, that my mind has more +occasion for repose than amusement. My only external resource is +conversing with our fellow-prisoners, and learning the causes of their +detention. These relations furnish me with a sort of "abstract of the +times," and mark the character of the government better than +circumstances of more apparent consequence; for what are battles, sieges, +and political machinations, but as they ultimately affect the happiness +of society? And when I learn that the lives, the liberty, and property +of no class are secure from violation, it is not necessary one should be +at Paris to form an opinion of this period of the revolution, and of +those who conduct it. + +The persecution which has hitherto been chiefly directed against the +Noblesse, has now a little subsided, and seems turned against religion +and commerce. People are daily arrested for assisting at private masses, +concealing images, or even for being possessors of religious books. +Merchants are sent here as monopolizers, and retailers, under various +pretexts, in order to give the committees an opportunity of pillaging +their shops. It is not uncommon to see people of the town who are our +guards one day, become our fellow-prisoners the next; and a few weeks +since, the son of an old gentleman who has been some time here, after +being on guard the whole day, instead of being relieved at the usual +hour, was joined by his wife and children, under the escort of a couple +of dragoons, who delivered the whole family into the custody of our +keeper; and this appears to have happened without any other motive than +his having presented a petition to Dumont in behalf of his father. + +An old man was lately taken from his house in the night, and brought +here, because he was said to have worn the cross of St. Louis.--The fact +is, however, that he never did wear this obnoxious distinction; and +though his daughter has proved this incontrovertibly to Dumont, she +cannot obtain his liberty: and the poor young woman, after making two or +three fruitless journeys to Paris, is obliged to content herself with +seeing her father occasionally at the gate. + +The refectory of the convent is inhabited by hospital nuns. Many of the +hospitals in France had a sort of religious order annexed to them, whose +business it was to attend the sick; and habit, perhaps too the +association of the offices of humanity with the duties of religion, had +made them so useful in their profession, that they were suffered to +remain, even after the abolition of the regular monasteries. But the +devastating torrent of the revolution at length reached them: they were +accused of bestowing a more tender solicitude on their aristocratic +patients than on the wounded volunteers and republicans; and, upon these +curious charges, they have been heaped into carts, without a single +necessary, almost without covering, sent from one department to another, +and distributed in different prisons, where they are perishing with cold, +sickness, and want! Some people are here only because they happened to +be accidentally at a house when the owner was arrested;* and we have one +family who were taken at dinner, with their guests, and the plate they +were using! + + * It was not uncommon for a mandate of arrest to direct the taking + "Citizen Such-a-one, and all persons found in his house." + +A grand-daughter of the celebrated De Witt, who resided thirty leagues +from hence, was arrested in the night, put in an open cart, without any +regard to her age, her sex, or her infirmities, though the rain fell in +torrents; and, after sleeping on straw in different prisons on the road, +was deposited here. As a Fleming, the law places her in the same +predicament with a very pretty young woman who has lived some months at +Amiens; but Dumont, who is at once the maker, the interpreter, and +executor of the laws, has exempted the latter from the general +proscription, and appears daily with her in public; whereas poor Madame +De Witt is excluded from such indulgence, being above seventy years old-- +and is accused, moreover, of having been most exemplarily charitable, +and, what is still worse, very religious.--I have given these instances +not as any way remarkable, and only that you may form some idea of the +pretexts which have served to cover France with prisons, and to conduct +so many of its inhabitants to the scaffold. + +It is impossible to reflect on a country in such a situation, without +abhorring the authors of it, and dreading the propagation of their +doctrines. I hope they neither have imitators nor admirers in England; +yet the convention in their debates, the Jacobins, and all the French +newspapers, seem so sanguine in their expectation, and so positive in +their assertions of an English revolution, that I occasionally, and in +spite of myself, feel a vague but serious solicitude, which I should not +have supposed the apprehension of any political evil could inspre. I +know the good sense and information of my countrymen offer a powerful +resource against the love of change and metaphysical subtilties; but, it +is certain, the French government have much depended on the spirit of +party, and the zeal of their propagandistes. They talk of a British +convention, of a conventional army, and, in short, all France seem +prepared to see their neighbours involved in the same disastrous system +with themselves. The people are not a little supported in this error by +the extracts that are given them from your orators in the House of +Commons, which teem with nothing but complaints against the oppression of +their own country, and enthusiastic admiration of French liberty. We +read and wonder--collate the Bill of Rights with the Code +Revolutionnaire, and again fear what we cannot give credit to. + +Since the reports I allude to have gained ground, I have been forcibly +stricken by a difference in the character of the two nations. At the +prospect of a revolution, all the French who could conveniently leave the +country, fled; and those that remained (except adventurers and the +banditti that were their accomplices) studiously avoided taking any part. +But so little are our countrymen affected with this selfish apathy, that +I am told there is scarcely one here who, amidst all his present +sufferings, does not seem to regret his absence from England, more on +account of not being able to oppose this threatened attack on our +constitution, than for any personal motive.--The example before them +must, doubtless, tend to increase this sentiment of genuine patriotism; +for whoever came to France with but a single grain of it in his +composition, must return with more than enough to constitute an hundred +patriots, whose hatred of despotism is only a principle, and who have +never felt its effects.--Adieu. + + + + +February 2, 1794. + +The factions which have chosen to give France the appellation of a +republic, seem to have judged, and with some reason, that though it might +answer their purpose to amuse the people with specious theories of +freedom, their habits and ideas were far from requiring that these fine +schemes should be carried into practice. I know of no example equal to +the submission of the French at this moment; and if "departed spirits +were permitted to review the world," the shades of Richelieu or Louvois +might hover with envy round the Committee of Public Welfare, and regret +the undaring moderation of their own politics. + +How shall I explain to an Englishman the doctrine of universal +requisition? I rejoice that you can imagine nothing like it.--After +establishing, as a general principle, that the whole country is at the +disposal of government, succeeding decrees have made specific claims on +almost every body, and every thing. The tailors, shoemakers,* bakers, +smiths, sadlers, and many other trades, are all in requisition--carts, +horses, and carriages of every kind, are in requisition--the stables and +cellars are put in requisition for the extraction of saltpetre, and the +houses to lodge soldiers, or to be converted into prisons. + + * In order to prevent frauds, the shoemakers were obliged to make + only square-toed shoes, and every person not in the army was + forbidden to wear them of this form. Indeed, people of any + pretentions to patriotism (that is to say, who were much afraid) did + not venture to wear any thing but wooden shoes; as it had been + declared anti-civique, if not suspicious, to walk in leather. + +--Sometimes shopkeepers are forbidden to sell their cloth, nails, wine, +bread, meat, &c. There are instances where whole towns have been kept +without the necessaries of life for several days together, in consequence +of these interdictions; and I have known it proclaimed by beat of drum, +that whoever possessed two uniforms, two hats, or two pair of shoes, +should relinquish one for the use of the army! Yet with all these +efforts of despotism, the republican troops are in many respects ill +supplied, the produce being too often converted to the use of the agents +of government, who are all Jacobins, and whose peculations are suffered +with impunity, because they are too necessary, or perhaps too formidable +for punishment. + +These proceedings, which are not the less mischievous for being absurd, +must end in a total destruction of commerce: the merchant will not import +what he may be obliged to sell exclusively to government at an arbitrary +and inadequate valuation.--Those who are not imprisoned, and have it in +their power, are for the most part retired from business, or at least +avoid all foreign speculations; so that France may in a few months depend +only on her internal resources. The same measures which ruin one class, +serve as a pretext to oppress and levy contributions on the rest.--In +order to make this right of seizure still more productive, almost every +village has its spies, and the domiciliary visits are become so frequent, +that a man is less secure in his own house, than in a desert amidst +Arabs. On these occasions, a band of Jacobins, with a municipal officer +at their head, enter sans ceremonie, over-run your apartments, and if +they find a few pounds of sugar, soap, or any other article which they +choose to judge more than sufficient for immediate consumption, they take +possession of the whole as a monopoly, which they claim for the use of +the republic, and the terrified owner, far from expostulating, thinks +himself happy if he escapes so well.--But this is mere vulgar tyranny: +a less powerful despotism might invade the security of social life, and +banish its comforts. We are prone to suffer, and it requires often +little more than the will to do evil to give us a command over the +happiness of others. The Convention are more original, and, not +satisfied with having reduced the people to the most abject slavery, +they exact a semblance of content, and dictate at stated periods the +chastisement which awaits those who refuse to smile. + +The splendid ceremonies at Paris, which pass for popular rejoicings, +merit that appellation less than an auto de fe. Every movement is +previously regulated by a Commissioner appointed for the purpose, +(to whom en passant these fetes are very lucrative jobs,) a plan of the +whole is distributed, in which is prescribed with great exactness, that +at such and such parts the people are to "melt into tears," at others +they are to be seized with a holy enthusiasm, and at the conclusion of +the whole they are to rend the air with the cry of "Vive la Convention!" +--These celebrations are always attended by a military force, sufficient +to ensure their observance, besides a plentiful mixture of spies to +notice refractory countenances or faint acclamations. + +The departments which cannot imitate the magnificence of Paris, are +obliged, nevertheless, to manifest their satisfaction. At every occasion +on which a rejoicing is ordered, the same kind of discipline is +preserved; and the aristocrats, whose fears in general overcome their +principles, are often not the least zealous attendants. + +At the retaking of Toulon, when abandoned by our countrymen, the National +Guards were every where assembled to participate in the festivity, under +a menace of three days imprisonment. Those persons who did not +illuminate their houses were to be considered as suspicious, and treated +as such: yet, even with all these precautions, I am informed the business +was universally cold, and the balls thinly attended, except by +aristocrats and relations of emigrants, who, in some places, with a +baseness not excused even by their terrors, exhibited themselves as a +public spectacle, and sang the defeats of that country which was armed in +their defence. + +I must here remark to you a circumstance which does still less honour to +the French character; and which you will be unwilling to believe. In +several towns the officers and others, under whose care the English were +placed during their confinement, were desirous sometimes on account of +the peculiar hardship of their situation as foreigners, to grant them +little indulgences, and even more liberty than to the French prisoners; +and in this they were justified on several considerations, as well as +that of humanity.--They knew an Englishman could not escape, whatever +facility might be given him, without being immediately retaken; and that +if his imprisonment were made severe, he had fewer external resources and +alleviations than the natives of the country: but these favourable +dispositions were of no avail--for whenever any of our countrymen +obtained an accommodation, the jealousy of the French took umbrage, and +they were obliged to relinquish it, or hazard the drawing embarrassment +on the individual who had served them. + +You are to notice, that the people in general, far from being averse to +seeing the English treated with a comparative indulgence, were even +pleased at it; and the invidious comparisons and complaints which +prevented it, proceeded from the gentry, from the families of those who +had found refuge in England, and who were involved in the common +persecution.--I have, more than once, been reproached by a female +aristocrat with the ill success of the English army; and many, with whom +I formerly lived on terms of intimacy, would refuse me now the most +trifling service.--I have heard of a lady, whose husband and brother are +both in London, who amuses herself in teaching a bird to repeat abuse of +the English. + +It has been said, that the day a man becomes a slave, he loses half his +virtue; and if this be true as to personal slavery, judging from the +examples before me, I conclude it equally so of political bondage.--The +extreme despotism of the government seems to have confounded every +principle of right and wrong, every distinction of honour and dishonour +and the individual, of whatever class, alive only to the sense of +personal danger, embraces without reluctance meanness or disgrace, if it +insure his safety.--A tailor or shoemaker, whose reputation perhaps is +too bad to gain him a livelihood by any trade but that of a patriot, +shall be besieged by the flatteries of people of rank, and have levees as +numerous as Choiseul or Calonne in their meridian of power. + +When a Deputy of the Convention is sent to a town on mission, sadness +takes possession of every heart, and gaiety of every countenance. He is +beset with adulatory petitions, and propitiating gifts; the Noblesse who +have escaped confinement form a sort of court about his person; and +thrice happy is the owner of that habitation at which he condescends to +reside.--* + + * When a Deputy arrives, the gentry of the town contend with jealous + rivalship for the honour of lodging him; and the most eloquent + eulogist of republican simplicity in the Convention does not fail to + prefer a large house and a good table, even though the unhallowed + property of an aristocrat.--It is to be observed, that these + Missionaries travel in a very patriarchal style, accompanied by + their wives, children, and a numerous train of followers, who are + not delicate in availing themselves of this hospitality, and are + sometimes accused of carrying off the linen, or any thing else + portable--even the most decent behave on these occasions as though + they were at an inn. + +--A Representative of gallantry has no reason to envy either the +authority of the Grand Signor, or the licence of his seraglio--he is +arbiter of the fate of every woman that pleases him; and, it is supposed, +that many a fair captive has owed her liberty to her charms, and that the +philosophy of a French husband has sometimes opened the doors of his +prison. + +Dumont, who is married, and has besides the countenance of a white Negro, +never visits us without occasioning a general commotion amongst all the +females, especially those who are young and pretty. As soon as it is +known that he is expected, the toilettes are all in activity, a +renovation of rouge and an adjustment of curls take place, and, though +performed with more haste, not with less solicitude, than the preparatory +splendour of a first introduction.--When the great man arrives, he finds +the court by which he enters crowded by these formidable prisoners, and +each with a petition in her hand endeavours, with the insidious coquetry +of plaintive smiles and judicious tears, that brighten the eye without +deranging the features, to attract his notice and conciliate his favour. +Happy those who obtain a promise, a look of complacence, or even of +curiosity!--But the attention of this apostle of republicanism is not +often bestowed, except on high rank, or beauty; and a woman who is old, +or ill dressed, that ventures to approach him, is usually repulsed with +vulgar brutality--while the very sight of a male suppliant renders him +furious. The first half hour he walks about, surrounded by his fair +cortege, and is tolerably civil; but at length, fatigued, I suppose by +continual importunity, he loses his temper, departs, and throws all the +petitions he has received unopened into the fire. + +Adieu--the subject is too humiliating to dwell on. I feel for myself, I +feel for human nature, when I see the fastidiousness of wealth, the more +liberal pride of birth, and the yet more allowable pretensions of beauty, +degraded into the most abject submission to such a being as Dumont. Are +our principles every where the mere children of circumstance, or is it in +this country only that nothing is stable? For my own part I love +inflexibility of character; and pride, even when ill founded, seems more +respectable while it sustains itself, than concessions which, refused to +the suggestions of reason, are yielded to the dictates of fear.--Yours. + + + + +February 12, 1794. + +I was too much occupied by my personal distresses to make any remarks on +the revolutionary government at the time of its adoption. The text of +this political phoenomenon must be well known in England--I shall, +therefore, confine myself to giving you a general idea of its spirit and +tendency,--It is, compared to regular government, what force is to +mechanism, or the usual and peaceful operations of nature to the ravages +of a storm--it substitutes violence for conciliation, and sweeps with +precipitate fury all that opposes its devastating progress. It refers +every thing to a single principle, which is in itself not susceptible of +definition, and, like all undefined power, is continually vibrating +between despotism and anarchy. It is the execrable shape of Milton's +Death, "which shape hath none," and which can be described only by its +effects.--For instance, the revolutionary tribunal condemns without +evidence, the revolutionary committees imprison without a charge, and +whatever assumes the title of revolutionary is exonerated from all +subjection to humanity, decency, reason, or justice.--Drowning the +insurgents, their wives and children, by boatloads, is called, in the +dispatch to the Convention, a revolutionary measure--* + + * The detail of the horrors committed in La Vendee and at Nantes + were not at this time fully known. Carrier had, however, + acknowledged, in a report read to the Convention, that a boat-load + of refractory priests had been drowned, and children of twelve years + old condemned by a military commission! One Fabre Marat, a + republican General, wrote, about the same period, I think from + Angers, that the Guillotine was too slow, and powder scarce, so that + it was concluded more expedient to drown the rebels, which he calls + a patriotic baptism!--The following is a copy of a letter addressed + to the Mayor of Paris by a Commissary of the Government: + +"You will give us pleasure by transmitting the details of your fete at +Paris last decade, with the hymns that were sung. Here we all cried +_"Vive la Republique!"_ as we ever do, when our holy mother Guillotine is +at work. Within these three days she has shaved eleven priests, one +_ci-devant_ noble, a nun, a general, and a superb Englishman, six feet high, +and as he was too tall by a head, we have put that into the sack! At the +same time eight hundred rebels were shot at the Pont du Ce, and their +carcases thrown into the Loire!--I understand the army is on the track of +the runaways. All we overtake we shoot on the spot, and in such numbers +that the ways are heaped with them!" + +--At Lyons, it is revolutionary to chain three hundred victims together +before the mouths of loaded cannon, and massacre those who escape the +discharge with clubs and bayonets;* and at Paris, revolutionary juries +guillotine all who come before them.--** + + * The Convention formally voted their approbation of this measure, + and Collot d'Herbois, in a report on the subject, makes a kind of + apostrophical panegyric on the humanity of his colleagues. "Which + of you, Citizens, (says he,) would not have fired the cannon? Which + of you would not joyfully have destroyed all these traitors at a + blow?" + + ** About this time a woman who sold newspapers, and the printer of + them, were guillotined for paragraphs deemed incivique. + +--Yet this government is not more terrible than it is minutely vexations. +One's property is as little secure as one's existence. Revolutionary +committees every where sequestrate in the gross, in order to plunder in +detail.* + + * The revolutionary committees, when they arrested any one, + pretended to affix seals in form. The seal was often, however, no + other than the private one of some individual employed--sometimes + only a button or a halfpenny, which was broken as often as the + Committee wanted access to the wine or other effects. Camille + Desmoulins, in an address to Freron, his fellow-deputy, describes + with some humour the mode of proceeding of these revolutionary + pilferers: + +_"Avant hier, deux Commissaires de la section de Mutius Scaevola, montent +chez lui--ils trouvent dans la bibliotheque des livres de droit; et +non-obstant le decret qui porte qu'on ne touchera point Domat ni a Charles +Dumoulin, bien qu'ils traitent de matieres feodales, ils sont main basse +sur la moitie de la bibliotheque, et chargent deux Chrocheteurs des +livres paternels. Ils trouvent une pendule, don't la pointe de Paiguille +etoit, comme la plupart des pointes d'aiguilles, terminee en trefle: il +leur semble que cette pointe a quelque chose d'approchant d'une fleur de +lys; et non-obstant le decret qui ordonne de respecter les monumens des +arts, il confisquent la pendule.--Notez bien qu'il y avoit a cote une +malle sur laquelle etoit l'adresse fleurdelisee du marchand.--Ici il n'y +avoit pas moyen de aier que ce fut une belle et bonne fleur de lys; mais +comme la malle ne valoit pas un corset, les Commissaires se contentent de +rayer les lys, au lieu que la malheureuse pendule, qui vaut bien 1200 +livres, est, malgre son trefle, emportee par eux-memes, qui ne se fioient +pas aux Chrocheteurs d'un poid si precieux--et ce, en vertu du droit que +Barrere a appelle si heureusement le droit de prehension, quoique le +decret s'opposat, dans l'espece, a l'application de ce droit.--Enfin, +notre decemvirat sectionnaire, qui se mettoit ainsi au-dessus des +decrets, trouve le brevet de pension de mon beau-pere, qui, comme tous +les brevets de pension, n'etant pas de nature a etre porte sur le grand +livre de la republique, etoit demeure dans le porte-feuille, et qui, +comme tous les brevets de pension possibles, commencoit par ce protocole; +Louis, &c. Ciel! s'ecrient les Commissaires, le nom du tyran!--Et apres +avoir retrouve leur haleine, suffoquee d'abord par l'indignation, ils +mettent en poche le brevet de pension, c'est a dire 1000 livres de rente, +et emportent la marmite. Autre crime, le Citoyen Duplessis, qui etoit +premier commis des finances, sous Clugny, avoit conserve, comme c'etoit +l'usage, la cachet du controle general d'alors--un vieux porte-feuille de +commis, qui etoit au rebut, ouble au dessus d'une armoire, dans un tas de +poussiere, et auquel il n'avoit pas touche ne meme pense depuis dix ans +peutetre, et sur le quel on parvint a decouvrir l'empreinte de quelques +fleurs de lys, sous deux doigts de crasse, acheva de completer la preuve +que le Citoyen Duplessis etoit suspect--et la voila, lui, enferme jusqu'a +la paix, et le scelle mis sur toutes les portes de cette campagne, ou, tu +te souviens, mon cher Freroa--que, decretes tous deux de prise de corps, +apres le massacre du Champ de Mars, nous trouvions un asyle que le tyran +n'osoit violer."_ + +"The day before yesterday, two Commissaries belonging to the section of +Mutius Scaevola, entered my father-in-law's apartments; they found some +law-books in the library, and, notwithstanding the decree which exempts +from seizure the works of Domat and Charles Dumouin, (although they treat +of feudal matters,) they proceeded to lay violent hands on one half of +the collection, and loaded two porters with paternal spoils. The next +object that attracted their attention was a clock, the hand of which, +like the hands of most other clocks, terminated in a point, in the form +of a trefoil, which seemed to them to bear some resemblance to a fleur de +lys; and, notwithstanding the decree which ordains that the monuments of +the arts shall be respected, they immediately passed sentence of +confiscation on the clock. I should observe to you, that hard by lay a +portmanteau, having on it the maker's address, encircled with lilies.-- +Here there was no disputing the fact, but as the trunk was not worth five +livres, the Commissaries contented themselves with erasing the lilies; +but the unfortunate clock, being worth twelve hundred, was, +notwithstanding its trefoil, carried off by themselves, for they would +not trust the porters with so precious a load.--And all this was done in +virtue of the law, which Barrere aptly denominated the law of prehension, +and which, according to the terms of the decree itself, was not +applicable to the case in question. + +"At length our sectionary decemvirs, who thus placed themselves above the +law, discovered the grant of my father-in-law's pension, which, like all +similar grants, being excluded from the privilege of inscription on the +great register of public debts, had been left in his port-folio; and +which began, as all such grants necessarily must, with the words, Louis, +&c. "Heaven!" exclaimed the Commissaries, "here is the very name of the +tyrant!" And, as soon as they recovered their breaths, which had been +nearly stopped by the violence of the indignation, they coolly pocketed +the grant, that is to say, an annuity of one thousand livres, and sent +off the porridge-pot. Nor did these constitute all the crimes of Citizen +Duplessis, who, having served as first clerk of the revenue board under +Clugny, had, as was usual, kept the official seal of that day. An old +port-folio, which had been thrown aside, and long forgotten, under a +wardrobe, where it was buried in dust, and had, in all probability, not +been touched for ten years, but, which with much difficulty, was +discovered to bear the impression of a fleur de lys, completed the proof +that Citizen Duplessis was a suspicious character. And now behold him +shut up in a prison until peace shall be concluded, and the seals put +upon all the doors of that country seat, where, you may remember, my dear +Freron, that at the time when warrants were issued for apprehending us +both, after the massacre in the Champ de Mars, we found an asylum which +the tyrant did not dare to violate." + +--In a word, you must generally understand, that the revolutionary system +supersedes law, religion, and morality; and that it invests the +Committees of Public Welfare and General Safety, their agents, the +Jacobin clubs, and subsidiary banditti, with the disposal of the whole +country and its inhabitants. + +This gloomy aera of the revolution has its frivolities as well as the +less disastrous periods, and the barbarism of the moment is rendered +additionally disgusting by a mixture of levity and pedantry.--It is a +fashion for people at present to abandon their baptismal and family +names, and to assume that of some Greek or Roman, which the debates of +the Convention have made familiar.--France swarms with Gracchus's and +Publicolas, who by imaginary assimilations of acts, which a change of +manners has rendered different, fancy themselves more than equal to their +prototypes.* + + * The vicissitudes of the revolution, and the vengeance of party, + have brought half the sages of Greece, and patriots of Rome, to the + Guillotine or the pillory. The Newgate Calendar of Paris contains + as many illustrious names as the index to Plutarch's Lives; and I + believe there are now many Brutus's and Gracchus's in durance vile, + besides a Mutius Scaevola condemned to twenty years imprisonment for + an unskilful theft.--A man of Amiens, whose name is Le Roy, + signified to the public, through the channel of a newspaper, that he + had adopted that of Republic. + +--A man who solicits to be the executioner of his own brother ycleps +himself Brutus, and a zealous preacher of the right of universal pillage +cites the Agrarian law, and signs himself Lycurgus. Some of the Deputies +have discovered, that the French mode of dressing is not characteristic +of republicanism, and a project is now in agitation to drill the whole +country into the use of a Roman costume.--You may perhaps suspect, that +the Romans had at least more bodily sedateness than their imitators, and +that the shrugs, jerks, and carracoles of a French petit maitre, however +republicanized, will not assort with the grave drapery of the toga. But +on your side of the water you have a habit of reasoning and deliberating +--here they have that of talking and obeying. + +Our whole community are in despair to-day. Dumont has been here, and +those who accosted him, as well as those who only ventured to interpret +his looks, all agree in their reports that he is in a "bad humour."--The +brightest eyes in France have supplicated in vain--not one grace of any +sort has been accorded--and we begin to cherish even our present +situation, in the apprehension that it may become worse.--Alas! you know +not of what evil portent is the "bad humour" of a Representant. We are +half of us now, like the Persian Lord, feeling if our heads are still on +our shoulders.--I could add much to the conclusion of one of my last +letters. Surely this incessant solicitude for mere existence debilitates +the mind, and impairs even its passive faculty of suffering. We intrigue +for the favour of the keeper, smile complacently at the gross +pleasantries of a Jacobin, and tremble at the frown of a Dumont.--I am +ashamed to be the chronicler of such humiliation: but, "tush, Hal; men, +mortal men!" I can add no better apology, and quit you to moralize on +it.--Yours. + + + + +[No date given.] + +Were I a mere spectator, without fear for myself or compassion for +others, the situation of this country would be sufficiently amusing. The +effects produced (many perhaps unavoidably) by a state of revolution--the +strange remedies devised to obviate them--the alternate neglect and +severity with which the laws are executed--the mixture of want and +profusion that distinguish the lower classes of people--and the distress +and humiliation of the higher; all offer scenes so new and unaccountable, +as not to be imagined by a person who has lived only under a regular +government, where the limits of authority are defined, the necessaries of +life plentiful, and the people rational and subordinate. The +consequences of a general spirit of monopoly, which I formerly described, +have lately been so oppressive, that the Convention thought it necessary +to interfere, and in so extraordinary a way, that I doubt if (as usual) +"the distemper of their remedies" will not make us regret the original +disease. Almost every article, by having passed through a variety of +hands, had become enormously dear; which, operating with a real scarcity +of many things, occasioned by the war, had excited universal murmurings +and inquietude. The Convention, who know the real source of the evil +(the discredit of assignats) to be unattainable, and who are more +solicitous to divert the clamours of the people, than to supply their +wants, have adopted a measure which, according to the present +appearances, will ruin one half of the nation, and starve the other. A +maximum, or highest price, beyond which nothing is to be sold, is now +promulgated under very severe penalties for all who shall infringe it. +Such a regulation as this, must, in its nature, be highly complex, and, +by way of simplifying it, the price of every kind of merchandise is fixed +at a third above what it bore in 1791: but as no distinction is made +between the produce of the country, and articles imported--between the +small retailer, who has purchased perhaps at double the rate he is +allowed to sell at, and the wholesale speculator, this very +simplification renders the whole absurd and inexecutable.--The result was +such as might have been expected; previous to the day on which the decree +was to take place, shopkeepers secreted as many of their goods as they +could; and, when the day arrived, the people laid siege to them in +crowds, some buying at the maximum, others less ceremonious, and in a few +hours little remained in the shop beyond the fixtures. The farmers have +since brought neither butter nor eggs to market, the butchers refuse to +kill as usual, and, in short, nothing is to be purchased openly. The +country people, instead of selling provisions publicly, take them to +private houses; and, in addition to the former exorbitant prices, we are +taxed for the risk that is incurred by evading the law. A dozen of eggs, +or a leg of mutton, are now conveyed from house to house with as much +mystery, as a case of fire-arms, or a treasonable correspondence; the +whole republic is in a sort of training like the Spartan youth; and we +are obliged to have recourse to dexterity and intrigue to procure us a +dinner. + +Our legislators, aware of what they term the "aristocratie marchande,"-- +that is to say, that tradesmen would naturally shut up their shops when +nothing was to be gained--provided, by a clause in the above law, that no +one should do this in less time than a year; but as the injunction only +obliged them to keep the shops open, and not to have goods to sell, every +demand is at first always answered in the negative, till a sort of +intelligence becomes established betwixt the buyer and seller, when the +former, if he may be trusted, is informed in a low key, that certain +articles may be had, but not au maximum.--Thus even the rich cannot +obtain the necessaries of life without difficulty and submitting to +imposition--and the decent poor, who will not pillage nor intimidate the +tradesmen, are more embarrassed than ever. + +The above species of contraband commerce is carried on, indeed, with +great circumspection, and no avowed hostilities are attempted in the +towns. The great war of the maximum was waged with the farmers and +higlers, as soon as it was discovered that they took their commodities +privily to such people as they knew would buy at any price, rather than +not be supplied. In consequence, the guards were ordered to stop all +refractory butter-women at the gates, and conduct them to the town-house, +where their merchandize was distributed, without pity or appeal, au +maximum, to those of the populace who could clamour loudest. + +These proceedings alarmed the peasants, and our markets became deserted. +New stratagems, on one side, new attacks on the other. The servants were +forced to supply themselves at private rendezvous in the night, until +some were fined, and others arrested; and the searching all comers from +the country became more intolerable than the vexations of the ancient +Gabelle.--Detachments of dragoons are sent to scour the farm-yards, +arrest the farmers, and bring off in triumph whatever the restive +housewives have amassed, to be more profitably disposed of. + +In this situation we remain, and I suppose shall remain, while the law of +the maximum continues in force. The principle of it was certainly good, +but it is found impossible to reduce it to practice so equitably as to +affect all alike: and as laws which are not executed are for the most +part rather pernicious than nugatory, informations, arrests, imposition, +and scarcity are the only ends which this measure seems to have answered. + +The houses of detention, before insupportable, are now yet more crouded +with farmers and shopkeepers suspected of opposing the law.--Many of the +former are so ignorant, as not to conceive that any circumstances ought +to deprive them of the right to sell the produce of their farms at the +highest price they can get, and regard the maximum much in the same light +as they would a law to authorize robbing or housebreaking: as for the +latter, they are chiefly small dealers, who bought dearer than they have +sold, and are now imprisoned for not selling articles which they have not +got. An informer by trade, or a personal enemy, lodges an accusation +against a particular tradesman for concealing goods, or not selling au +maximum; and whether the accusation be true or false, if the accused is +not in office, or a Jacobin, he has very little chance of escaping +imprisonment.--It is certain, that if the persecution of these classes of +people continue, and commerce (already nearly annihilated by the war) be +thus shackled, an absolute want of various articles of primary +consumption must ensue; but if Paris and the armies can be supplied, the +starving the departments will be a mere pleasurable experiment to their +humane representatives! + + + + +March 1, 1794. + +The freedom of the press is so perfectly well regulated, that it is not +surprizing we are indulged with the permission of seeing the public +papers: yet this indulgence is often, I assure you, a source of much +perplexity to me--our more intimate associates know that I am a native of +England, and as often as any debates of our House of Commons are +published, they apply to me for explanations which it is not always in my +power to give them. I have in vain endeavoured to make them comprehend +the nature of an opposition from system, so that when they see any thing +advanced by a member exactly the reverse of truth, they are wondering how +he can be so ill informed, and never suspect him of saying what he does +not believe himself. It must be confessed, however, that our extracts +from the English papers often form so complete a contrast with facts, +that a foreigner unacquainted with the tactics of professional +patriotism, may very naturally read them with some surprize. A noble +Peer, for example, (whose wisdom is not to be disputed, since the Abbe +Mably calls him the English Socrates,*) asserts that the French troops +are the best clothed in Europe; yet letters, of nearly the same date with +the Earl's speech, from two Generals and a Deputy at the head of +different armies intreat a supply of covering for their denudated +legions, and add, that they are obliged to march in wooden shoes!** + + * It is surely a reflection on the English discernment not to have + adopted this happy appellation, in which, however, as well as in + many other parts of "the rights of Man and the Citizen," the Abbe + seems to have consulted his own zeal, rather than the noble Peer's + modesty. + + ** If the French troops are now better clothed, it is the effect of + requisitions and pre-emptions, which have ruined the manufacturers. + --Patriots of the North, would you wish to see our soldiers clothed + by the same means? + +--On another occasion, your British Sage describes, with great eloquence, +the enthusiasm with which the youth of France "start to arms at the call +of the Convention;" while the peaceful citizen anticipates, with equal +eagerness, the less glorious injunction to extract saltpetre.--The +revolts, and the coercion, necessary to enforce the departure of the +first levies (however fear, shame, and discipline, may have since made +them soldiers, though not republicans) might have corrected the ardour of +the orator's inventive talents; and the zeal of the French in +manufacturing salpetre, has been of so slow a growth, that any reference +to it is peculiarly unlucky. For several months the Convention has +recommended, invited, intreated, and ordered the whole country to occupy +themselves in the process necessary for obtaining nitre; but the +republican enthusiasm was so tardy, that scarcely an ounce appeared, till +a long list of sound penal laws, with fines and imprisonments in every +line, roused the public spirit more effectually.* + + * Two years imprisonment was the punishment assigned to a Citizen + who should be found to obstruct in any way the fabricating + saltpetre. If you had a house that was adjudged to contain the + materials required, and expostulated against pulling it down, the + penalty was incurred.--I believe something of this kind existed + under the old government, the abuses of which are the only parts the + republic seems to have preserved. + +--Another cause also has much favoured the extension of this manufacture: +the necessity of procuring gunpowder at any rate has secured an exemption +from serving in the army to those who shall be employed in making it.--* + + * Many, under this pretext, even procured their discharge from the + army; and it was eventually found requisite to stop this commutation + of service by a decree. + +--On this account vast numbers of young men, whose martial propensities +are not too vehement for calculation, considering the extraction of +saltpetre as more safe than the use of it, have seriously devoted +themselves to the business. Thus, between fear of the Convention and of +the enemy, has been produced that enthusiasm which seems so grateful to +Lord S____. Yet, if the French are struck by the dissimilitude of facts +with the language of your English patriots, there are other circumstances +which appear still more unaccountable to them. I acknowledge the word +patriotism is not perfectly understood any where in France, nor do my +prison-associates abound in it; but still they find it difficult to +reconcile the love of their country, so exclusively boasted by certain +senators, with their eulogiums on a government, and on men who avow an +implacable hatred to it, and are the professed agents of its future +destruction. The Houses of Lords and Commons resound with panegyrics on +France; the Convention with _"delenda est Carthate"--"ces vils +Insulaires"--"de peuple marchand, boutiquier"--"ces laches Anglois"--_ &c. +&c. ("Carthage must be destroyed"--"those vile Islanders"--"that nation +of shopkeepers"--"those cowardly Englishmen"--&c.) + +The efforts of the English patriots overtly tend to the consolidation of +the French republic, while the demagogues of France are yet more +strenuous for the abolition of monarchy in England. The virtues of +certain people called Muir and Palmer,* are at once the theme of Mr. Fox +and Robespierre,** of Mr. Grey and Barrere,***, of Collot d'Herbois**** +and Mr. Sheridan; and their fate is lamented as much at the Jacobins as +at St. Stephen's.***** + + * If I have not mentioned these gentlemen with the respect due to + their celebrity, their friends must pardon me. To say truth, I did + not at this time think of them with much complacence, as I had heard + of them only from the Jacobins, by whom they were represented as the + leaders of a Convention, which was to arm ninety thousand men, for + the establishment of a system similar to that existing in France. + + **The French were so much misled by the eloquence of these gentlemen + in their favour, that they were all exhibited on the stage in red + caps and cropped heads, welcoming the arrival of their Gallic + friends in England, and triumphing in the overthrow of the British + constitution, and the dethronement of the King. + + *** If we may credit the assertions of Barrere, the friendship of + the Committee of Public Welfare was not merely verbal. He says, the + secret register of the Committee furnishes proofs of their having + sent three frigates to intercept these distinguished victims, whom + their ungrateful country had so ignominiously banished. + + **** This humane and ingenious gentleman, by profession a player, is + known likewise as the author of several farces and vaudevilles, and + of the executions at Lyons.--It is asserted, that many of the + inhabitants of this unfortunate city expiated under the Guillotine + the crime of having formerly hissed Collot's successful attempts on + the stage. + + ***** The printing of a particular speech was interdicted on account + of its containing allusions to certain circumstances, the knowledge + of which might be of disservice to their unfortunate friends during + their trial. + +--The conduct of Mr. Pitt is not more acrimoniously discussed at the +Palais National than by a part of his colleagues; and the censure of the +British government, which is now the order of the day at the Jacobins, is +nearly the echo of your parliamentary debates.* + + * Allowing for the difference of education in the orators, a + journeyman shoemaker was, I think, as eloquent, and not more + abusive, than the facetious _ci-devant_ protege of Lord T____d. + +--All this, however, does not appear to me out of the natural order of +things; it is the sorry history of opposition for a century and an half, +and our political rectitude, I fear, is not increasing: but the French, +who are in their way the most corrupt people in Europe, have not +hitherto, from the nature of their government, been familiar with this +particular mode of provoking corruption, nor are they at present likely +to become so. Indeed, I must here observe, that your English Jacobins, +if they are wise, should not attempt to introduce the revolutionary +system; for though the total possession of such a government is very +alluring, yet the prudence, which looks to futurity, and the incertitude +of sublunary events, must acknowledge it is "Caesar or nothing;" and that +it offers no resource in case of those segregations, which the jealousy +of power, or the appropriation of spoil, may occasion, even amongst the +most virtuous associates.--The eloquence of a discontented orator is here +silenced, not by a pension, but by a mandat d'arret; and the obstinate +patriotism, which with you could not be softened with less than a +participation of authority, is more cheaply secured by the Guillotine. A +menace is more efficacious than a bribe, and in this respect I agree with +Mr. Thomas Paine,* that a republic is undoubtedly more oeconomical than a +monarchy; besides, that being conducted on such principles, it has the +advantage of simplifying the science of government, as it consults +neither the interests nor weaknesses of mankind; and, disdaining to +administer either to avarice or vanity, subdues its enemies by the sole +influence of terror.--* + + * This gentleman's fate is truly to be pitied. After rejecting, as + his friends assert, two hundred a year from the English Ministry, he + is obliged now to be silent gratis, with the additional desagrement + of occupying a corner in the Luxembourg. + +--Adieu!--Heaven knows how often I may have to repeat the word thus +unmeaningly. I sit here, like Pope's bard "lulled by soft zephyrs +through the broken pane," and scribbling high-sounding phrases of +monarchy, patriotism, and republics, while I forget the humbler subject +of our wants and embarrassments. We can scarcely procure either bread, +meat, or any thing else: the house is crouded by an importation of +prisoners from Abbeville, and we are more strictly guarded than ever. My +friend ennuyes as usual, and I grow impatient, not having sang froid +enough for a true French ennuie in a situation that would tempt one to +hang one's self. + + + + +March, 1794. + +The aspect of the times promises no change in our favour; on the +contrary, every day seems to bring its attendant evil. The gentry who +had escaped the comprehensive decree against suspected people, are now +swept away in this and the three neighbouring departments by a private +order of the representatives, St. Just, Lebas, and Dumont.* + + * The order was to arrest, without exception, all the ci-devant + Noblessse, men, women, and children, in the departments of the + Somme, North, and Pas de Calais, and to exclude them rigourously + from all external communication--(mettre au secret). + +--A severer regimen is to be adopted in the prisons, and husbands are +already separated from their wives, and fathers from their daughters, for +the purpose, as it is alledged, of preserving good morals. Both this +place and the Bicetre being too full to admit of more inhabitants, two +large buildings in the town are now appropriated to the male prisoners.-- +My friends continue at Arras, and, I fear, in extreme distress. I +understand they have been plundered of what things they had with them, +and the little supply I was able to send them was intercepted by some of +the harpies of the prisons. Mrs. D____'s health has not been able to +sustain these accumulated misfortunes, and she is at present at the +hospital. All this is far from enlivening, even had I a larger share of +the national philosophy; and did I not oftener make what I observe, than +what I suffer, the subject of my letters, I should tax your patience as +much by repetition, as I may by dullness. + +When I enumerated in my last letters a few of the obligations the French +have to their friends in England, I ought also to have observed, with how +little gratitude they behave to those who are here. Without mentioning +Mr. Thomas Paine, whose persecution will doubtless be recorded by abler +pens, nothing, I assure you, can be more unpleasant than the situation of +one of these Anglo-Gallican patriots. The republicans, supposing that an +Englishman who affects a partiality for them can be only a spy, execute +all the laws, which concern foreigners, upon him with additional rigour;* +and when an English Jacobin arrives in prison, far from meeting with +consolation or sympathy, his distresses are beheld with triumph, and his +person avoided with abhorrence. They talk much here of a gentleman, of +very democratic principles, who left the prison before I came. It seems, +that, notwithstanding Dumont condescended to visit at his house, and was +on terms of intimacy with him, he was arrested, and not distinguished +from the rest of his countrymen, except by being more harshly treated. +The case of this unfortunate gentleman was rendered peculiarly amusing to +his companions, and mortifying to himself, by his having a very pretty +mistress, who had sufficient influence over Dumont to obtain any thing +but the liberation of her protector. The Deputy was on this head +inflexible; doubtless, as a proof of his impartial observance of the +laws, and to show that, like the just man in Horace, he despised the +clamour of the vulgar, who did not scruple to hint, that the crime of our +countryman was rather of a moral than a political nature--that he was +unaccommodating, and recalcitrant--addicted to suspicions and jealousies, +which it was thought charitable to cure him of, by a little wholesome +seclusion. In fact, the summary of this gentleman's history is not +calculated to tempt his fellow societists on your side of the water to +imitate his example.--After taking refuge in France from the tyranny and +disappointments he experienced in England, and purchasing a large +national property to secure himself the rights of a citizen, he is +awakened from his dream of freedom, to find himself lodged in a prison, +his estate under sequestration, and his mistress in requisition.--Let us +leave this Coriolanus among the Volscians--it is a persecution to make +converts, rather than martyrs, and + + _"Quand le malheur ne seroit bon, + "Qu'a mettre un sot a la raison, + "Toujours seroit-ce a juste cause + "Qu'on le dit bon a quelque chose."_* + + * If calamity were only good to restore a fool to his senses, still + we might justly say, "that it was good for some thing." + +Yours, &c. + + + + +March 5, 1794. + +Of what strange influence is this word revolution, that it should thus, +like a talisman of romance, keep inchained, as it were, the reasoning +faculties of twenty millions of people! France is at this moment looking +for the decision of its fate in the quarrels of two miserable clubs, +composed of individuals who are either despised or detested. The +municipality of Paris favours the Cordeliers, the Convention the +Jacobins; and it is easy to perceive, that in this cafe the auxiliaries +are principals, and must shortly come to such an open rupture, as will +end in the destruction of either one or the other. The world would be +uninhabitable, could the combinations of the wicked be permanent; and it +is fortunate for the tranquil and upright part of mankind, that the +attainment of the purposes for which such combinations are formed, is +usually the signal of their dissolution. + +The municipality of Paris had been the iniquitous drudges of the Jacobin +party in the legislative assembly--they were made the instruments of +massacring the prisoners,* of dethroning and executing the king,** and +successively of destroying the Brissotine faction,*** filling the prisons +with all who were obnoxious to the republicans,**** and of involving a +repentant nation in the irremidiable guilt of the Queen's death.--***** + + * It is well known that the assassins were hired and paid by the + municipality, and that some of the members presided at these horrors + in their scarfs of office. + + ** The whole of what is called the revolution of the 10th of August + may very justly be ascribed to the municipality of Paris--I mean the + active part of it. The planning and political part has been so + often disputed by different members of the Convention, that it is + not easy to decide on any thing, except that the very terms of these + disputes fully evince, that the people at large, and more + particularly the departments, were both innocent, and, until it took + place, ignorant of an event which has plunged the country into so + many crimes and calamities. + + *** A former imprisonment of Hebert formed a principal charge + against the Brissotines, and, indeed, the one that was most insisted + on at their trial, if we except that of having precipitated France + into a war with England.--It must be difficult for the English + Jacobins to decide on this occasion between the virtues of their + dead friends and those of their living ones. + + **** The famous definition of suspected persons originated with the + municipality of Paris. + + ***** It is certain that those who, deceived by the calumnies of + faction, permitted, if not assented to, the King's death, at this + time regretted it; and I believe I have before observed, that one of + the reasons urged in support of the expediency of putting the Queen + to death, was, that it would make the army and people decisive, by + banishing all hope of peace or accommodation. See the _Moniteur_ of + that time, which, as I have elsewhere observed, may be always + considered as official. + +--These services being too great for adequate reward, were not rewarded +at all; and the municipality, tired of the odium of crime, without the +participation of power, has seized on its portion of tyranny; while the +convention, at once jealous and timid, exasperated and doubtful, yet +menaces with the trepidation of a rival, rather than with the security of +a conqueror. + +Hebert, the Deputy-solicitor for the commune of Paris, appears on this +occasion as the opponent of the whole legislature; and all the +temporizing eloquence of Barrere, and the mysterious phraseology of +Robespierre, are employed to decry his morals, and to reproach the +ministers with the sums which have been the price of his labours.--* + + * Five thousand pounds, two thousand pounds, and other considerable + sums, were paid to Hebert for supplying the army with his paper, + called "La Pere Duchene." Let whoever has read one of them, + conceive the nature of a government to which such support was + necessary, which supposed its interests promoted by a total + extinction of morals, decency, and religion. I could almost wish, + for the sake of exhibiting vice under its most odious colours, that + my sex and my country permitted me to quote one. + +--Virtuous republicans! the morals of Hebert were pure when he outraged +humanity in his accusations of the Queen--they were pure when he +prostrated the stupid multitude at the feet of a Goddess of Reason;* they +were pure while his execrable paper served to corrupt the army, and to +eradicate every principle which yet distinguished the French as a +civilized people. + + * Madame Momoro, the unfortunate woman who exposed herself in this + pageant, was guillotined as an accomplice of Hebert, together with + the wives of Hebert and Camille Desmoulins. + +--Yet, atrocious as his crimes are, they form half the Magna Charta of +the republic,* and the authority of the Convention is still supported by +them. + + * What are the death of the King, and the murders of August and + September, 1792, but the Magna Charta of the republicans? + +--It is his person, not his guilt, that is proscribed; and if the one be +threatened with the scaffold, the fruits of the other are held sacred. +He will fall a sacrifice--not to offended religion or morality, but to +the fears and resentment of his accomplices! + +Amidst the dissentions of two parties, between which neither reason nor +humanity can discover a preference, a third seems to have formed itself, +equally inimical to, and hated by both. At the head of it are Danton, +Camille Desmoulins, Philipeaux, &c.--I own I have no better opinion of +the integrity of these, than of the rest; but they profess themselves the +advocates of a system of mildness and moderation, and, situated as this +country is at present, even the affectation of virtue is captivating.-- +As far as they dare, the people are partial to them: bending beneath the +weight of a sanguinary and turbulent despotism, if they sigh not for +freedom, they do for repose; and the harassed mind, bereft of its own +energy, looks up with indolent hope for relief from a change of factions. +They forget that Danton is actuated by ambitious jealousy, that Camille +Desmoulins is hacknied in the atrocities of the revolution, and that +their partizans are adventurers, with neither honour nor morals. Yet, +after all, if they will destroy a few of the guillotines, open our +bastilles, and give us at least the security of servitude, we shall be +content to leave these retrospections to posterity, and be thankful that +in this our day the wicked sometimes perceive it their interest to do +good. + +In this state of seclusion, when I remark to you the temper of the public +at any important crisis, you are, perhaps, curious to know my sources of +intelligence; but such details are unnecessary. I might, indeed, write +you a manuel des prisons, and, like Trenck or Latude, by a vain display +of ingenuity, deprive some future victim of a resource. It is enough, +that Providence itself seems to aid our invention, when its object is to +elude tyranny; besides that a constant accession of prisoners from all +parts, who are too numerous to be kept separate, necessarily circulates +among us whatever passes in the world. + +The Convention has lately made a sort of _pas retrogade_ [Retrogade +movement.] in the doctrine of holy equality, by decreeing, that every +officer who has a command shall be able to read and write, though it +cannot be denied that their reasons for this lese democratie are of some +weight. All gentlemen, or, as it is expressed here, noblesse, have been +recalled from the army, and replaced by officers chosen by the soldiers +themselves, [Under the rank of field-officers.] whose affections are +often conciliated by qualities not essentially military, though sometimes +professional. A buffoon, or a pot-companion, is, of course, often more +popular than a disciplinarian; and the brightest talents lose their +influence when put in competition with a head that can bear a greater +number of bottles.* + + * Hence it happened, that a post was sometimes confided to one who + could not read the parole and countersign; expeditions failed, + because commanding officers mistook on the map a river for a road, + or woods for mountains; and the most secret orders were betrayed + through the inability of those to whom they were entrusted to read + them. + +--Yet this reading and writing are a sort of aristocratic distinctions, +and not among the primeval rights of man; so that it is possible your +English patriots will not approve of any regulations founded on them. +But this is not the only point on which there is an apparent discordance +between them and their friends here--the severity of Messrs. Muir and +Palmer's sentence is pathetically lamented in the House of Commons, while +the Tribunal Revolutionnaire (in obedience to private orders) is +petitioning, that any disrespect towards the convention shall be punished +with death. In England, it is asserted, that the people have a right to +decide on the continuation of the war--here it is proposed to declare +suspicious, and treat accordingly, all who shall dare talk of peace.--Mr. +Fox and Robespierre must settle these trifling variations at the general +congress of republicans, when the latter shall (as they profess) have +dethroned all the potentates in Europe! + +Do you not read of cart-loads of patriotic gifts,* bales of lint and +bandages, and stockings, knit by the hands of fair citizens, for the use +of the soldiers? + + * A sum of money was at this time publicly offered to the Convention + for defraying the expences and repairs of the guillotine.--I know + not if it were intended patriotically or correctionally; but the + legislative delicacy was hurt, and the bearer of the gift ordered + for examination to the Committee of General Safety, who most + probably sent him to expiate either his patriotism or his pleasantry + in a prison. + +--Do you not read, and call me calumniator, and ask if these are proofs +that there is no public spirit in France? Yes, the public spirit of an +eastern tributary, who offers, with apprehensive devotion, a part of the +wealth which he fears the hand of despotism may ravish entirely.--The +wives and daughters of husbands and fathers, who are pining in arbitrary +confinement, are employed in these feeble efforts, to deprecate the +malice of their persecutors; and these voluntary tributes are but too +often proportioned, not to the abilities, but the miseries of the donor.* + + * A lady, confined in one of the state prisons, made an offering, + through the hands of a Deputy, of ten thousand livres; but the + Convention observed, that this could not properly be deemed a gift-- + for, as she was doubtless a suspicious person, all she had belonged + of right to the republic: + + _"Elle doit etre a moi, dit il, et la raison, + "C'est que je m'appelle Lion + "A cela l'on n'a rien a dire."_ + -- La Fontaine. + + Sometimes these _dons patriotiques_ were collected by a band of + Jacobins, at others regularly assessed by a Representative on + mission; but on all occasions the aristocrats were most assiduous + and most liberal: + + "Urg'd by th' imperious soldier's fierce command, + "The groaning Greeks break up their golden caverns, + "The accumulated wealth of toiling ages; + . . . . . . . . + "That wealth, too sacred for their country's use; + "That wealth, too pleasing to be lost for freedom, + "That wealth, which, granted to their weeping Prince, + "Had rang'd embattled nations at their gates." + -- Johnson. + + Or, what is still better, have relieved the exigencies of the state, + without offering a pretext for the horrors of a revolution.--O + selfish luxury, impolitic avarice, how are ye punished? robbed of + your enjoyments and your wealth--glad even to commute both for a + painful existence! + +--The most splendid sacrifices that fill the bulletin of the Convention, +and claim an honourable mention in their registers, are made by the +enemies of the republican government--by those who have already been the +objects of persecution, or are fearful of becoming such.--Ah, your prison +and guillotine are able financiers: they raise, feed, and clothe an army, +in less time than you can procure a tardy vote from the most complaisant +House of Commons!--Your, &c. + + + + +March 17, 1794. + +After some days of agitation and suspense, we learn that the popularity +of Robespierre is victorious, and that Hebert and his partizans are +arrested. Were the intrinsic claims of either party considered, without +regard to the circumstances of the moment, it might seem strange I should +express myself as though the result of a contest between such men could +excite a general interest: yet a people sadly skilled in the gradations +of evil, and inured to a choice only of what is bad, learn to prefer +comparatively, with no other view than that of adopting what may be least +injurious to themselves; and the merit of the object is out of the +question. Hence it is, that the public wish was in favour of +Robespierre; for, besides that his cautious character has given him an +advantage over the undisguised profligacy of Hebert, it is conjectured by +many, that the more merciful politics professed by Camille Desmoulins, +are secretly suggested, or, at least assented to, by the former.* + + * This was the opinion of many.--The Convention and the Jacobins had + taken alarm at a paper called "The Old Cordelier," written by + Camille Desmoulins, apparently with a view to introduce a milder + system of government. The author had been censured at the one, + expelled the other, and defended by Robespierre, who seems not to + have abandoned him until he found the Convention resolved to persist + in the sanguinary plan they had adopted. Robespierre afterwards + sacrificed his friends to retrieve his influence; but could his + views have been answered by humane measures, as certainly as by + cruel ones, I think he would have preferred the first; for I repeat, + that the Convention at large were averse from any thing like reason + or justice, and Robespierre more than once risked his popularity by + professions of moderation.--The most eloquent speech I have seen of + his was previous to the death of Danton, and it seems evidently + intended to sound the principles of his colleagues as to a change of + system.--Camille Desmoulins has excited some interest, and has been + deemed a kind of martyr to humanity. Perhaps nothing marks the + horrors of the time more than such a partiality.--Camille + Desmoulins, under an appearance of simplicity, was an adventurer, + whose pen had been employed to mislead the people from the beginning + of the revolution. He had been very active on the 10th of August; + and even in the papers which have given him a comparative + reputation, he is the panegyrist of Marat, and recommends "une + Guillotine economique;" that is, a discrimination in favour of + himself and his party, who now began to fear they might themselves + be sacrificed by the Convention and deserted by Robespierre--after + being the accomplices and tools of both. + +The vicissitudes of the revolution have hitherto offered nothing but a +change of vices and of parties; nor can I regard this defeat of the +municipality of Paris as any thing more: the event is, however, +important, and will probably have great influence on the future. + +After having so long authorized, and profited by, the crimes of those +they have now sacrificed, the Convention are willing to have it supposed +they were themselves held in subjection by Hebert and the other +representatives of the Parisian mob.--Admitting this to be true, having +regained their independence, we ought naturally to expect a more rational +and humane system will take place; but this is a mere hope, and the +present occurrences are far from justifying it. We hear much of the +guilt of the fallen party, and little of remedying its effects--much of +punishment, and little of reform; and the people are excited to +vengeance, without being permitted to claim redress. In the meanwhile, +fearful of trusting to the cold preference which they owe to a superior +abhorrence of their adversaries, the Convention have ordered their +colleagues on mission to glean the few arms still remaining in the hands +of the National Guard, and to arrest all who may be suspected of +connection with the adverse party.--Dumont has performed this service +here very diligently; and, by way of supererogation, has sent the +Commandant of Amiens to the Bicetre, his wife, who was ill, to the +hospital, and two young children to this place. + +As usual, these proceedings excite secret murmurs, but are nevertheless +yielded to with perfect submission. + +One can never, on these occasions, cease admiring the endurance of the +French character. In other countries, at every change of party, the +people are flattered with the prospect of advantage, or conciliated by +indulgences; but here they gain nothing by change, except an accumulation +of oppression--and the success of a new party is always the harbinger of +some new tyranny. While the fall of Hebert is proclaimed as the triumph +of freedom, all the citizens are disarmed by way of collateral security; +and at the instant he is accused by the Convention of atheism and +immorality,* a militant police is sent forth to devastate the churches, +and punish those who are detected in observing the Sabbath--_"mais plutot +souffrir que mourir, c'est la devise des Francois."_ ["To suffer rather +than die is the motto of Frenchmen."] + + * It is remarkable, that the persecution of religion was never more + violent than at the time when the Convention were anathematizing + Hebert and his party for athiesm. + +--Brissot and his companions died singing a paraphrase of my quotation: + + _"Plutot la mort que l'esclavage, + "C'est la devise des Francois."_ + ["Death before slavery, is the Frenchman's motto."] + +--Let those who reflect on what France has submitted to under them and +their successors decide, whether the original be not more apposite. + +I hope the act of accusation against Chabot has been published in +England, for the benefit of your English patriots: I do not mean by way +of warning, but example. It appears, that the said Chabot, and four or +five of his colleagues in the Convention, had been bribed to serve a +stock-jobbing business at a stipulated sum,* and that the money was to be +divided amongst them. + + * Chabot, Fabre d'Eglantine, (author of "l'Intrigue Epistolaire," + and several other admired dramatic pieces,) Delaunay d'Angers, + Julien de Toulouse, and Bazire, were bribed to procure the passing + certain decrees, tending to enrich particular people, by defrauding + the East India Company.--Delaunay and Julien (both re-elected into + the present Assembly) escaped by flight, the rest were guillotined. + --It is probable, that these little peculations might have passed + unnoticed in patriots of such note, but that the intrigues and + popular character of Chabot made it necessary to dispose of him, and + his accomplices suffered to give a countenance to the measure. + +--Chabot, with great reason, insisted on his claim to an extra share, on +account, as he expressed it, of having the reputation of one of the first +patriots in Europe. Now this I look upon to be a very useful hint, as it +tends to establish a tariff of reputations, rather than of talents. In +England, you distinguish too much in favour of the latter; and, in a +question of purchase, a Minister often prefers a "commodity" of +rhetoricians, to one of "good names."--I confess, I am of Chabot's +opinion; and think a vote from a member who has some reputation for +honesty, ought to be better paid for than the eloquence which, weakened +by the vices of the orator, ceases to persuade. How it is that the +patriotic harangues at St. Stephen's serve only to amuse the auditors, +who identify the sentiments they express as little with the speaker, as +they would those of Cato's soliloquy with the actor who personates the +character for the night? I fear the people reason like Chabot, and are +"fools to fame." Perhaps it is fortunate for England, that those whose +talents and principles would make them most dangerous, are become least +so, because both are counteracted by the public contempt. Ought it not +to humble the pride, and correct the errors, which too often accompany +great genius, that the meanest capacity can distinguish between talents +and virtue; and that even in the moment our wonder is excited by the one, +a sort of intrinsic preference is given to the other?--Yours, &c. + + + + +Providence, April 15, 1794. + +"The friendship of bad men turns to fear:" and in this single phrase of +our popular bard is comprized the history of all the parties who have +succeeded each other during the revolution.--Danton has been sacrificed +to Robespierre's jealousy,* and Camille Desmoulins to support his +popularity;** and both, after sharing in the crimes, and contributing to +the punishment, of Hebert and his associates, have followed them to the +same scaffold. + + * The ferocious courage of Danton had, on the 10th of August, the 2d + of September, the 31st of May, and other occasions, been the ductile + instrument of Robespierre; but, in the course of their iniquitous + connection, it should seem, they had committed themselves too much + to each other. Danton had betrayed a desire of more exclusively + profiting by his crimes; and Robespierre's views been equally + ambitious, though less daring, their mutual jealousies had risen to + a height which rendered the sacrifice of one party necessary--and + Robespierre had the address to secure himself, by striking the first + blow. They had supped in the country, and returned together to + Paris, on the night Danton was arrested; and, it may be supposed, + that in this interview, which was intended to produce a + reconciliation, they had been convinced that neither was to be + trusted by the other. + + ** There can be no doubt but Robespierre had encouraged Camille + Desmoulins to publish his paper, intitled "The Old Cordelier," in + which some translations from Tacitus, descriptive of every kind of + tyranny, were applied to the times, and a change of system + indirectly proposed. The publication became highly popular, except + with the Convention and the Jacobins; these, however, it was + requisite for Robespierre to conciliate; and Camille Desmoulins was + sacrificed, to prove that he did not favour the obnoxious moderation + of his friend. + +I know not if one's heart gain any thing by this habitual contemplation +of successive victims, who ought not to inspire pity, and whom justice +and humanity forbid one to regret.--How many parties have fallen, who +seem to have laboured only to transmit a dear-bought tyranny, which they +had not time to enjoy themselves, to their successors: The French +revolutionists may, indeed, adopt the motto of Virgil's Bees, "Not for +ourselves, but for you." The monstrous powers claimed for the Convention +by the Brissotines,* with the hope of exclusively exercising them, were +fatal to themselves--the party that overthrew the Brissotines in its turn +became insignificant--and a small number of them only, under the +description of Committees of Public Welfare and General Safety, gradually +usurped the whole authority. + + * The victorious Brissotines, after the 10th of August, availing + themselves of the stupor of one part of the people, and the + fanaticism of the other, required that the new Convention might be + entrusted with unlimited powers. Not a thousandth portion of those + who elected the members, perhaps, comprehended the dreadful extent + of such a demand, as absurd as it has proved fatal.--_"Tout pouvoir + sans bornes ne fauroit etre legitime, parce qu'il n'a jamais pu + avoir d'origine legitime, car nous ne pouvons pas donner a un autre + plus de pouvoir sur nous que nous n'en avons nous-memes"_ + [Montesquieu.]:--that is, the power which we accord to others, or + which we have over ourselves, cannot exceed the bounds prescribed by + the immutable laws of truth and justice. The united voice of the + whole French nation could not bestow on their representatives a + right to murder or oppress one innocent man. + +--Even of these, several have already perished; and in the hands of +Robespierre, and half a dozen others of equal talents and equal atrocity, +but less cunning, center at present all the fruits of so many miseries, +and so many crimes. + +In all these conflicts of party, the victory seems hitherto to have +remained with the most artful, rather than the most able; and it is under +the former title that Robespierre, and his colleagues in the Committee of +Public Welfare, are now left inheritors of a power more despotic than +that exercised in Japan.--Robespierre is certainly not deficient in +abilities, but they are not great in proportion to the influence they +have acquired him. They may, perhaps, be more properly called singular +than great, and consist in the art of appropriating to his own advantage +both the events of chance and the labours of others, and of captivating +the people by an exterior of severe virtue, which a cold heart enables +him to assume, and which a profligacy, not the effect of strong passions, +but of system, is easily subjected to. He is not eloquent, nor are his +speeches, as compositions,* equal to those of Collot d'Herbais, Barrere, +or Billaud Varennes; but, by contriving to reserve himself for +extraordinary occasions, such as announcing plots, victories, and systems +of government, he is heard with an interest which finally becomes +transferred from his subject to himself.** + + * The most celebrated members of the Convention are only readers of + speeches, composed with great labour, either by themselves or + others; and I think it is distinguishable, that many are + manufactured by the same hand. The style and spirit of Lindet, + Barrere, and Carnot, seem to be in common. + + ** The following passages, from a speech of Dubois Crance, who may + be supposed a competent judge, at once furnish an idea of + Robespierre's oratory, exhibit a leading feature in his character, + and expose some of the arts by which the revolutionary despotism was + maintained: + + _"Rapportant tout a lui seul, jusqu'a la patrie, il n'en parla + jamais que pour s'en designer comme l'unique defenseur: otez de ses + longs discours tout ce qui n'a rapport qu'a son personnel, vous n'y + trouverez plus que de seches applications de prinipes connus, et + surtout de phrases preparees pour amener encore son eloge. Vous + l'avez juge timide, parce que son imagination, que l'on croyait + ardente, qui n'etait que feroce, parassait exagerer souvent les maux + de son pays. C'etait une jonglerie: il ne croyait ni aux + conspirations don't il faisait tant d'etalage, ni aux poignards + aux-quels il feignoit de sse devouer; mais il vouloit que les + citoyens fusssent constamment en defiance l'un de l'autre," &c._ + + "Affecting to consider all things, even the fate of the country, as + depending on himself alone, he never spoke of it but with a view to + point himself out its principal defender.--If you take away from his + long harangues all that regards him personally, you will find only + dry applications of familiar principles, and, above all, those + studied turns, which were artfully prepared to introduce his own + eternal panegyric.--You supposed him timid because his imagination + (which was not merely ardent, as was supposed, but ferocious) seemed + often to exaggerate the misfortunes of his country.--This was a mere + trick: he believed neither in the conspiracies he made so great a + parade of, nor in the poignards to which he pretended to devote + himself as a victim.--His real design was to infuse into the minds + of all men an unceasing diffidence of each other." + +One cannot study the characters of these men, and the revolution, without +wonder; and, after an hour of such scribbling, I wake to the scene around +me, and my wonder is not a little increased, at the idea that the fate of +such an individual as myself should be at all dependent on either.--My +friend Mad. de ____ is ill,* and taken to the hospital, so that having no +longer the care of dissipating her ennui, I am at full liberty to indulge +my own. + + * I have generally made use of the titles and distinctions by which + the people I mention were known before the revolution; for, besides + that I found it difficult to habituate my pen to the republican + system of levelling, the person to whom these letters were addressed + would not have known who was meant by the new appellations. It is, + however, to be observed, that, except in private aristocratic + intercourse, the word Citizen was in general use; and that those who + had titles relinquished them and assumed their family names. + +--Yet I know not how it is, but, as I have before observed to you, I do +not ennuye--my mind is constantly occupied, though my heart is vacant-- +curiosity serves instead of interest, and I really find it sufficiently +amusing to conjecture how long my head may remain on my shoulders.--You +will, I dare say, agree with me that any doubts on such a subject are +very well calculated to remove the tranquil sort of indifference which +produces ennui; though, to judge by the greater part of my +fellow-prisoners, one would not think so.--There is something surely in +the character of the French, which makes them differ both in prosperity +and adversity from other people. Here are many amongst us who see +little more in the loss of their liberty than a privation of their usual +amusements; and I have known some who had the good fortune to obtain +their release at noon, exhibit themselves at the theatre at night.--God +knows how such minds are constituted: for my part, when some consolatory +illusion restores me to freedom, I associate with it no idea of positive +pleasure, but long for a sort of intermediate state, which may repose my +harassed faculties, and in which mere comfort and security are portrayed +as luxuries. After being so long deprived of the decent accommodations +of life, secluded from the intercourse which constitutes its best +enjoyments, trembling for my own fate, and hourly lamenting that of my +friends, the very thoughts of tumult or gaiety seem oppressive, and the +desire of peace, for the moment, banishes every other. One must have no +heart, after so many sufferings, not to prefer the castle of Indolence +to the palace of Armida. + +The coarse organs of an Argus at the door, who is all day employed in +calling to my high-born companions by the republican appellations of +_"Citoyen,"_ and _"Citoyenne,"_ has just interrupted me by a summons to +receive a letter from my unfortunate friends at Arras.--It was given me +open;* of course they say nothing of their situation, though I have +reason to believe it is dreadful. + + * The opening of letters was now so generally avowed, that people + who corresponded on business, and were desirous their letters should + be delivered, put them in the post without sealing; otherwise they + were often torn in opening, thrown aside, or detained, to save the + trouble of perusing. + +--They have now written to me for assistance, which I have not the means +of affording them. Every thing I have is under sequestration; and the +difficulty which attends the negociating any drafts drawn upon England, +has made it nearly impossible to procure money in the usual way, even if +I were not confined. The friendship of Mad. de ____ will be little +available to me. Her extensive fortune, before frittered to mere +competency by the extortions of the revolution, now scarcely supplies her +own wants; and her tenants humanely take the opportunity of her present +distress to avoid paying their rent.* + + * In some instances servants or tenants have been known to seize on + portions of land for their own use--in others the country + municipalities exacted as the price of a certificate of civism, + (without which no release from prison could be obtained,) such + leases, lands, or privileges, as they thought the embarrassments of + their landlords would induce them to grant. Almost every where the + houses of persons arrested were pilfered either by their own + servants or the agents of the republic. I have known an elegant + house put in requisition to erect blacksmiths' forges in for the use + of the army, and another filled with tailors employed in making + soldiers' clothes.--Houses were likewise not unfrequently abandoned + by the servants through fear of sharing the fate of their masters, + and sometimes exposed equally by the arrest of those who had been + left in charge, in order to extort discoveries of plate, money, &c. + the concealment of which they might be supposed privy to. + +--So that I have no resource, either for myself or Mrs. D____, but the +sale of a few trinkets, which I had fortunately secreted on my first +arrest. How are we to exist, and what an existence to be solicitous +about! In gayer moments, and, perhaps, a little tinctured by romantic +refinement, I have thought Dr. Johnson made poverty too exclusively the +subject of compassion: indeed I believe he used to say, it was the only +evil he really felt for. This, to one who has known only mental +suffering, appears the notion of a coarse mind; but I doubt whether, the +first time we are alarmed by the fear of want, the dread of dependence +does not render us in part his converts. The opinion of our English sage +is more natural than we may at first imagine; or why is it that we are +affected by the simple distresses of Jane Shore, beyond those of any +other heroine?--Yours. + + + + +April 22, 1794. + +Our abode becomes daily more crouded; and I observe, that the greater +part of those now arrested are farmers. This appears strange enough, +when we consider how much the revolutionary persecution has hitherto +spared this class of people; and you will naturally enquire why it has at +length reached them. + +It has been often observed, that the two extremes of society are nearly +the same in all countries; the great resemble each other from education, +the little from nature. Comparisons, therefore, of morals and manners +should be drawn from the intervening classes; yet from this comparison +also I believe we must exclude farmers, who are every where the same, and +who seem always more marked by professional similitude than national +distinction. + +The French farmer exhibits the same acuteness in all that regards his own +interest, and the same stupidity on most other occasions, as the mere +English one; and the same objects which enlarge the understanding and +dilate the heart of other people, seem to have a contrary effect on both. +They contemplate the objects of nature as the stock-jobber does the +vicissitudes of the public funds: "the dews of heaven," and the +enlivening orb by which they are dispelled, are to the farmer only +objects of avaricious speculation; and the scarcity, which is partially +profitable, is but too often more welcome than a general abundance.--They +consider nothing beyond the limits of their own farms, except for the +purpose of making envious comparisons with those of their neighbours; and +being fed and clothed almost without intermediate commerce, they have +little necessity for communication, and are nearly as isolated a part of +society as sailors themselves. + +The French revolutionists have not been unobserving of these +circumstances, nor scrupulous of profiting by them: they knew they might +have discussed for ever their metaphysical definitions of the rights of +man, without reaching the comprehension, or exciting the interest, of the +country people; but that if they would not understand the propagation of +the rights of man, they would very easily comprehend an abolition of the +rights of their landlords. Accordingly, the first principle of liberty +they were taught from the new code was, that they had a right to assemble +in arms, to force the surrender of title-deeds; and their first +revolutionary notions of equality and property seem to have been +manifested by the burning of chateaux, and refusing to pay their rents. +They were permitted to intimidate their landlords, in order to force them +to emigration, and either to sell their estates at a low price, or leave +them to the mercy of the tenants. + +At a time when the necessities of the state had been great enough to be +made the pretext of a dreadful revolution, they were not only almost +exempt from contributing to its relief, but were enriched by the common +distress; and while the rest of their countrymen beheld with unavailing +regret their property gradually replaced by scraps of paper, the peasants +became insolent and daring by impunity, refused to sell but for specie, +and were daily amassing wealth. It is not therefore to be wondered at, +that they were partial to the new order of things. The prisons might +have overflowed or been thinned by the miseries of those with whom they +had been crowded--the Revolutionary Tribunal might have sacrificed half +France, and these selfish citizens, I fear, would have beheld it +tranquilly, had not the requisition forced their labourers to the army, +and the "maximum" lowered the price of their corn. The exigency of the +war, and an internal scarcity, having rendered these measures necessary, +and it being found impossible to persuade the farmers into a peaceful +compliance with them, the government has had recourse to its usual +summary mode of expostulation--a prison or the Guillotine.* + + * The avarice of the farmers was doubtless to be condemned, but the + cruel despotism of the government almost weakened our sense of + rectitude; for by confounding error with guilt, and guilt with + innocence, they habituated us to indiscriminate pity, and obliged us + to transfer our hatred of a crime to those who in punishing it, + observed neither mercy nor justice. A farmer was guillotined, + because some blades of corn appeared growing in one of his ponds; + from which circumstance it was inferred, he had thrown in a large + quantity, in order to promote a scarcity--though it was + substantially proved on his trial, that at the preceding harvest the + grain of an adjoining field had been got in during a high wind, and + that in all probability some scattered ears which reached the water + had produced what was deemed sufficient testimony to convict him.-- + Another underwent the same punishment for pursuing his usual course + of tillage, and sowing part of his ground with lucerne, instead of + employing the whole for wheat; and every where these people became + the objects of persecution, both in their persons and property. + + "Almost all our considerable farmers have been thrown into prison; + the consequence is, that their capital is eat up, their stock gone + to ruin, and our lands have lost the almost incalculable effect of + their industry. In La Vendee six million acres of land lie + uncultivated, and five hundred thousand oxen have been turned + astray, without shelter and without an owner." + Speech of Dubois Crance, Sept. 22, 1794. + +--Amazed to find themselves the objects of a tyranny they had hitherto +contributed to support, and sharing the misfortune of their Lords and +Clergy, these ignorant and mistaken people wander up and down with a +vacant sort of ruefulness, which seems to bespeak that they are far from +comprehending or being satisfied with this new specimen of +republicanism.--It has been a fatality attending the French through the +whole revolution, that the different classes have too readily facilitated +the sacrifice of each other; and the Nobility, the Clergy, the Merchant, +and the Farmer, have the mortification of experiencing, that their +selfish and illiberal policy has answered no purpose but to involve all +in one common ruin. + +Angelique has contrived to-day to negotiate the sale of some bracelets, +which a lady, with whom I was acquainted previous to our detention, has +very obligingly given almost half their value for, though not without +many injunctions to secresy, and as many implied panegyrics on her +benevolence, in risking the odium of affording assistance to a foreigner. +We are, I assure you, under the necessity of being oeconomists, where the +most abundant wealth could not render us externally comfortable: and the +little we procure, by a clandestine disposal of my unnecessary trinkets, +is considerably diminished,* by arbitrary impositions of the guard and +the poor,** and a voluntary tax from the misery that surrounds us. + + * I am aware of Mr. Burke's pleasantry on the expression of very + little, being greatly diminished; but my exchequer at this time was + as well calculated to prove the infinite divisibility of matter, as + that of the Welch principality. + + ** The guards of the republican Bastilles were paid by the prisoners + they contained; and, in many places, the tax for this purpose was + levied with indecent rigour. It might indeed be supposed, that + people already in prison could have little to apprehend from an + inability or unwillingness to submit to such an imposition; yet + those who refused were menaced with a dungeon; and I was informed, + from undoubted authority, of two instances of the sort among the + English--the one a young woman, the other a person with a large + family of children, who were on the point of suffering this + treatment, but that the humanity of some of their companions + interfered and paid the sum exacted of them. The tax for supporting + the imprisoned poor was more willingly complied with, though not + less iniquitous in its principle; numbers of inoffensive and + industrious people were taken from their homes on account of their + religion, or other frivolous pretexts, and not having the + wherewithal to maintain themselves in confinement, instead of being + kept by the republic, were supported by their fellow-prisoners, in + consequence of a decree to that purpose. Families who inherited + nothing from their noble ancestors but their names, were dragged + from obscurity only to become objects of persecution; and one in + particular, consisting of nine persons, who lived in extreme + indigence, but were notwithstanding of the proscribed class; the + sons were brought wounded from the army and lodged with the father, + mother, and five younger children in a prison, where they had + scarcely food to support, or clothing to cover them. + + I take this opportunity of doing justice to the Comte d'Artois, + whose youthful errors did not extinguish his benevolence--the + unfortunate people in question having enjoyed a pension from him + until the revolution deprived them of it. + +Our male companions are for the most part transferred to other prisons, +and among the number are two young Englishmen, with whom I used sometimes +to converse in French, without acknowledging our compatriotism. They +have told me, that when the decree for arresting the English was received +at Amiens, they happened to be on a visit, a few miles from the town; and +having notice that a party of horse were on the road to take them, +willing to gain time at least, they escaped by another route, and got +home. The republican constables, for I can call the military employed in +the interior by no better appellation, finding their prey had taken +flight, adopted the impartial justice of the men of Charles Town,* and +carried off the old couple (both above seventy) at whose house they had +been. + + * "But they maturely having weigh'd + "They had no more but him o'th'trade, + "Resolved to spare him, yet to do + "The Indian Hoghan-Moghan too + "Impartial justice--in his stead did + "Hang an old weaver that was bed-rid." + +The good man, who was probably not versed in the etiquette of the +revolution, conceived nothing of the matter, and when at the end of their +journey they were deposited at the Bicetre, his head was so totally +deranged, that he imagined himself still in his own house, and continued +for some days addressing all the prisoners as though they were his +guests--at one moment congratulating them on their arrival, the next +apologizing for want of room and accommodation.--The evasion of the young +men, as you will conclude, availed them nothing, except a delay of their +captivity for a few hours. + +A report has circulated amongst us to-day, that all who are not detained +on specific charges are soon to be liberated. This is eagerly believed +by the new-comers, and those who are not the "pale converts of +experience." I am myself so far from crediting it, that I dread lest it +should be the harbinger of some new evil, for I know not whether it be +from the effect of chance, or a refinement in atrocity, but I have +generally found every measure which tended to make our situation more +miserable preceded by these flattering rumours. + +You would smile to see with what anxious credulity intelligence of this +sort is propagated: we stop each other on the stairs and listen while our +palled dinner, just arrived from the traiteur, is cooling; and the bucket +of the draw-well hangs suspended while a history is finished, of which +the relator knows as little as the hearer, and which, after all, proves +to have originated in some ambiguous phrase of our keeper, uttered in a +good-humoured paroxysm while receiving a douceur. + +We occasionally lose some of our associates, who, having obtained their +discharge, _depart a la Francaise,_ forget their suffering, and praise the +clemency of Dumont, and the virtue of the Convention; while those who +remain still unconverted amuse themselves in conjecturing the channel +through which such favours were solicited, and alleging reasons why such +preferences were partial and unjust. + +Dumont visits us, as usual, receives an hundred or two of petitions, +which he does not deign to read, and reserves his indulgence for those +who have the means of assailing him through the smiles of a favourite +mistress, or propitiating him by more substantial advantages.--Many of +the emigrants' wives have procured their liberty by being divorced, and +in this there is nothing blameable, for I imagine the greater number +consider it only as a temporary expedient, indifferent in itself, and +which they are justified in having recourse to for the protection of +their persons and property. But these domestic alienations are not +confined to those who once moved in the higher orders of society--the +monthly registers announce almost as many divorces as marriages, and the +facility of separation has rendered the one little more than a licentious +compact, which the other is considered as a means of dissolving. The +effect of the revolution has in this, as in many other cases, been to +make the little emulate the vices of the great, and to introduce a more +gross and destructive policy among the people at large, than existed in +the narrow circle of courtiers, imitators of the Regent, or Louis the +fifteenth. Immorality, now consecrated as a principle, is far more +pernicious than when, though practised, it was condemned, and, though +suffered, not sanctioned. + +You must forgive me if I ennuye you a little sententiously--I was more +partial to the lower ranks of life in France, than to those who were +deemed their superiors; and I cannot help beholding with indignant regret +the last asylums of national morals thus invaded by the general +corruption.--I believe no one will dispute that the revolution has +rendered the people more vicious; and, without considering the matter +either in a moral or religious point of view, it is impossible to assert +that they are not less happy. How many times, when I was at liberty, +have I heard the old wish for an accession of years, or envy those yet +too young to be sensible of "the miseries of a revolution!"--Were the +vanity of the self-sufficient philosopher susceptible of remorse, would +he not, when he beholds this country, lament his presumption, in +supposing he had a right to cancel the wisdom of past ages; or that the +happiness of mankind might be promoted by the destruction of their +morals, and the depravation of their social affections?--Yours, &c. + + + + +April 30, 1794. + +For some years previous to the revolution, there were several points in +which the French ascribed to themselves a superiority not very distant +from perfection. Amongst these were philosophy, politeness, the +refinements of society, and, above all, the art of living.--I have +sometimes, as you know, been inclined to dispute these claims; yet, if it +be true that in our sublunary career perfection is not stationary, and +that, having reached the apex of the pyramid on one side, we must +necessarily descend on the other, I might, on this ground, allow such +pretensions to be more reasonable than I then thought them. Whatever +progress might have been attained in these respects, or however near our +neighbours might have approached to one extreme, it is but too certain +they are now rapidly declining to the other. This boasted philosophy is +become a horrid compound of all that is offensive to Heaven, and +disgraceful to man--this politeness, a ferocious incivility--and this +social elegance and exclusive science in the enjoyment of life, are now +reduced to suspicious intercourse, and the want of common necessaries. + +If the national vanity only were wounded, perhaps I might smile, though I +hope I should not triumph; but when I see so much misery accompany so +profound a degradation, my heart does not accord with my language, if I +seem to do either one or the other. + +I should ineffectually attempt to describe the circumstances and +situation which have given rise to these reflections. Imagine to +yourself whatever tyranny can inflict, or human nature submit to-- +whatever can be the result of unrestrained wickedness and unresisting +despair--all that can scourge or disgrace a people--and you may form some +idea of the actual state of this country: but do not search your books +for comparisons, or expect to find in the proscriptions and +extravagancies of former periods any examples by which to judge the +present.--Tiberius and Nero are on the road to oblivion, and the subjects +of the Lama may boast comparative pretensions to rank as a free and +enlightened nation. + +The frantic ebullitions of the revolutionary government are now as it +were subsided, and instead of appearing the temporary resources of +"despotism in distress," [Burke.] have assumed the form of a permanent +and regular system. The agitation occasioned by so many unexampled +scenes is succeeded by an habitual terror, and this depressing sentiment +has so pervaded all ranks, that it would be difficult to find an +individual, however obscure or inoffensive, who deems his property, or +even his existence, secure only for a moment. The sound of a bell or a +knocker at the close of the evening is the signal of dismay. The +inhabitants of the house regard each other with looks of fearful +interrogation--all the precautions hitherto taken appear insufficient-- +every one recollects something yet to be secreted--a prayer-book, an +unburied silver spoon, or a few assignats "a face royale," are hastily +scrambled together, and if the visit prove nothing more than an amicable +domiciliary one, in search of arms and corn, it forms matter of +congratulation for a week after. Yet such is the submission of the +people to a government they abhor, that it is scarcely thought requisite +now to arrest any person formally: those whom it is intended to secure +often receive nothing more than a written mandate* to betake themselves +to a certain prison, and such unpleasant rendezvous are attended with +more punctuality than the most ceremonious visit, or the most gallant +assignation. + + * These rescripts were usually couched in the following terms:-- + "Citizen, you are desired to betake yourself immediately to ------, + (naming the prison,) under pain of being conveyed there by an armed + force in case of delay." + +--A few necessaries are hastily packed together, the adieus are made, +and, after a walk to their prison, they lay their beds down in the corner +allotted, just as if it were a thing of course. + +It was a general observation with travellers, that the roads in France +were solitary, and had rather the deserted appearance of the route of a +caravan, than of the communications between different parts of a rich and +populous kingdom. This, however, is no longer true, and, as far as I can +learn, they are now sufficiently crowded--not, indeed, by curious +itinerants, parties of pleasure, or commercial industry, but by Deputies +of the Convention,* agents of subsistence,** committee men, Jacobin +missionaries,*** troops posting from places where insurrection is just +quelled to where it has just begun, besides the great and never-failing +source of activity, that of conveying suspected people from their homes +to prison, and from one prison to another.-- + + * Every department was infested by one, two, or more of these + strolling Deputies; and, it must be confessed, the constant tendency + of the people to revolt in many places afforded them sufficient + employment. Sometimes they acted as legislators, making laws on the + spot--sometimes, both as judges and constables--or, if occasion + required, they amused themselves in assisting the executioner.--The + migrations of obscure men, armed with unlimited powers, and whose + persons were unknown, was a strong temptation to imposture, and in + several places adventurers were detected assuming the character of + Deputies, for various purposes of fraud and depredation.--The + following instance may appear ludicrous, but I shall be excused + mentioning it, as it is a fact on record, and conveys an idea of + what the people supposed a Deputy might do, consistent with the + "dignity" of his executive functions. + + An itinerant of this sort, whose object seems to have been no more + than to procure a daily maintenance, arriving hungry in a village, + entered the first farm-house that presented itself, and immediately + put a pig in requisition, ordered it to be killed, and some sausages + to be made, with all speed. In the meanwhile our mock-legislator, + who seems to have acted his part perfectly well, talked of liberty, + l'amour de la Patrie, of Pitt and the coalesced tyrants, of + arresting suspicious people and rewarding patriots; so that the + whole village thought themselves highly fortunate in the presence of + a Deputy who did no worse than harangue and put their pork in + requisiton.--Unfortunately, however, before the repast of sausages + could be prepared, a hue and cry reached the place, that this + gracious Representant was an impostor! He was bereft of his + dignities, conveyed to prison, and afterwards tried by the Tribunal + Revolutionnaire at Paris; but his Counsel, by insisting on the + mildness with which he had "borne his faculties," contrived to get + his punishment mitigated to a short imprisonment.--Another suffered + death on a somewhat similar account; or, as the sentence expressed + it, for degrading the character of a National Representative.--Just + Heaven! for degrading the character of a National Representative!!! + --and this too after the return of Carrier from Nantes, and the + publication of Collot d'Herbois' massacres at Lyons! + + **The agents employed by government in the purchase of subsistence + amounted, by official confession, to ten thousand. In all parts + they were to be seen, rivalling each other, and creating scarcity + and famine, by requisitions and exactions, which they did not + convert to the profit of the republic, but to their own.--These + privileged locusts, besides what they seized upon, occasioned a + total stagnation of commerce, by laying embargoes on what they did + not want; so that it frequently occurred that an unfortunate + tradesman might have half the articles in his shop under requisition + for a month together, and sometimes under different requisitions + from deputies, commissaries of war, and agents of subsistence, all + at once; nor could any thing be disposed of till such claims were + satisfied or relinquished. + + *** Jacobin missionaries were sent from Paris, and other great + towns, to keep up the spirits of the people, to explain the benefits + of the revolution, (which, indeed, were not very apparent,) and to + maintain the connection between the provincial and metropolitan + societies.--I remember the Deputies on mission at Perpignan writing + to the Club at Paris for a reinforcement of civic apostles, _"pour + evangeliser les habitans et les mettre dans la voie de salut"_--("to + convert the inhabitants, and put them in the road to salvation"). + +--These movements are almost entirely confined to the official travellers +of the republic; for, besides the scarcity of horses, the increase of +expence, and the diminution of means, few people are willing to incur the +suspicion or hazard* attendant on quitting their homes, and every +possible obstacle is thrown in the way of a too general intercourse +between the inhabitants of large towns. + + * There were moments when an application for a passport was certain + of being followed by a mandat d'arret--(a writ of arrest). The + applicant was examined minutely as to the business he was going + upon, the persons he was to transact it with, and whether the + journey was to be performed on horseback or in a carriage, and any + signs of impatience or distaste at those democratic ceremonies were + sufficient to constitute _"un homme suspect"_--("a suspicious + person"), or at least one _"soupconne d'etre suspect,"_ that is, a man + suspected of being suspicious. In either case it was usually deemed + expedient to prevent the dissemination of his supposed principles, + by laying an embargo on his person.--I knew a man under persecution + six months together, for having gone from one department to another + to see his family. + +The committee of Public Welfare is making rapid advances to an absolute +concentration of the supreme power, and the convention, while they are +the instruments of oppressing the whole country, are themselves become +insignificant, and, perhaps, less secure than those over whom they +tyrannize. They cease to debate, or even to speak; but if a member of +the Committee ascends the tribune, they overwhelm him with applauses +before they know what he has to say, and then pass all the decrees +presented to them more implicitly than the most obsequious Parliament +ever enregistered an arrete of the Court; happy if, by way of +compensation, they attract a smile from Barrere, or escape the ominous +glances of Robespierre.* + + * When a member of the committee looked inauspiciously at a + subordinate accomplice, the latter scarce ventured to approach his + home for some time.--Legendre, who has since boasted so continually + about his courage, is said to have kept his bed, and Bourdon de + l'Oise, to have lost his senses for a considerable time, from + frights, the consequence of such menaces. + +Having so far described the situation of public affairs, I proceed as +usual, and for which I have the example of Pope, who never quits a +subject without introducing himself, to some notice of my own. It is not +only bad in itself, but worse in perspective than ever: yet I learn not +to murmur, and derive patience from the certainty, that almost every part +of France is more oppressed and wretched than we are.--Yours, etc. + + + + +June 3, 1794. + +The individual sufferings of the French may perhaps yet admit of +increase; but their humiliation as a people can go no farther; and if it +were not certain that the acts of the government are congenial to its +principles, one might suppose this tyranny rather a moral experiment on +the extent of human endurance, than a political system. + +Either the vanity or cowardice of Robespierre is continually suggesting +to him plots for his assassination; and on pretexts, at once absurd and +atrocious, a whole family, with near seventy other innocent people as +accomplices, have been sentenced to death by a formal decree of the +convention. + +One might be inclined to pity a people obliged to suppress their +indignation on such an event, but the mind revolts when addresses are +presented from all quarters to congratulate this monster's pretended +escape, and to solicit a farther sacrifice of victims to his revenge.-- +The assassins of Henry the Fourth had all the benefit of the laws, and +suffered only after a legal condemnation; yet the unfortunate Cecilia +Renaud, though evidently in a state of mental derangement, was hurried to +the scaffold without a hearing, for the vague utterance of a truth, to +which every heart in France, not lost to humanity, must assent. Brooding +over the miseries of her country, till her imagination became heated and +disordered, this young woman seems to have conceived some hopeless plan +of redress from expostulation with Robespierre, whom she regarded as a +principal in all the evils she deplored. The difficulty of obtaining an +audience of him irritated her to make some comparison between an +hereditary sovereign and a republican despot; and she avowed, that, in +desiring to see Robespierre, she was actuated only by a curiosity to +"contemplate the features of a tyrant."--On being examined by the +Committee, she still persisted that her design was "seulement pour voir +comment etoit fait un tyrant;" and no instrument nor possible means of +destruction was found upon her to justify a charge of any thing more than +the wild and enthusiastic attachment to royalism, which she did not +attempt to disguise. The influence of a feminine propensity, which often +survives even the wreck of reason and beauty, had induced her to dress +with peculiar neatness, when she went in search of Robespierre; and, from +the complexion of the times, supposing it very probable a visit of this +nature might end in imprisonment and death, she had also provided herself +with a change of clothes to wear in her last moments. + +Such an attention in a beautiful girl of eighteen was not very unnatural; +yet the mean and cruel wretches who were her judges, had the littleness +to endeavour at mortifying, by divesting her of her ornaments, and +covering her with the most loathsome rags. But a mind tortured to +madness by the sufferings of her country, was not likely to be shaken by +such puerile malice; and, when interrogated under this disguise, she +still preserved the same firmness, mingled with contempt, which she had +displayed when first apprehended. No accusation, nor even implication, +of any person could be drawn from her, and her only confession was that +of a passionate loyalty: yet an universal conspiracy was nevertheless +decreed by the Convention to exist, and Miss Renaud, with sixty-nine +others,* were sentenced to the guillotine, without farther trial than +merely calling over their names. + + * It is worthy of remark, that the sixty-nine people executed as + accomplices of Miss Renaud, except her father, mother, and aunt, + were totally unconnected with her, or with each other, and had been + collected from different prisons, between which no communication + could have subsisted. + +--They were conducted to the scaffold in a sort of red frocks, intended, +as was alleged, to mark them as assassins--but, in reality, to prevent +the crowd from distinguishing or receiving any impression from the number +of young and interesting females who were comprised in this dreadful +slaughter.--They met death with a courage which seemed almost to +disappoint the malice of their tyrants, who, in an original excess of +barbarity, are said to have lamented that their power of inflicting could +not reach those mental faculties which enabled their victims to suffer +with fortitude.* + + * Fouquier Tinville, public accuser of the Revolutionary Tribunal, + enraged at the courage with which his victims submitted to their + fate, had formed the design of having them bled previous to their + execution; hoping by this means to weaken their spirits, and that + they might, by a pusillanimous behaviour in their last moments, + appear less interesting to the people. + +Such are the horrors now common to almost every part of France: the +prisons are daily thinned by the ravages of the executioner, and again +repeopled by inhabitants destined to the fate of their predecessors. A +gloomy reserve, and a sort of uncertain foreboding, have taken possession +of every body--no one ventures to communicate his thoughts, even to his +nearest friend--relations avoid each other--and the whole social system +seems on the point of being dissolved. Those who have yet preserved +their freedom take the longest circuit, rather than pass a republican +Bastille; or, if obliged by necessity to approach one, it is with +downcast or averted looks, which bespeak their dread of incurring the +suspicion of humanity. + +I say little of my own feelings; they are not of a nature to be relieved +by pathetic expressions: "I am e'en sick at heart." For some time I have +struggled both against my own evils, and the share I take in the general +calamity, but my mortal part gives way, and I can no longer resist the +despondency which at times depresses me, and which indeed, more than the +danger attending it, has occasioned my abandoning my pen for the last +month.--Several circumstances have occurred within these few days, to add +to the uneasiness of our situation, and my own apprehensions. Le Bon,* +whose cruelties at Arras seem to have endeared him to his colleagues in +the Convention, has had his powers extended to this department, and Andre +Dumont is recalled; so that we are hourly menaced with the presence of a +monster, compared to whom our own representative is amiable.-- + + * I have already noticed the cruel and ferocious temper of Le Bon, + and the massacres of his tribunals are already well known. I will + only add some circumstances which not only may be considered as + characteristic of this tyrant, but of the times--and I fear I may + add of the people, who suffered and even applauded them. They are + selected from many others not susceptible of being described in + language fit for an English reader. + + As he was one day enjoying his customary amusement of superintending + an execution, where several had already suffered, one of the victims + having, from a very natural emotion, averted his eyes while he + placed his body in the posture required, the executioner perceived + it, and going to the sack which contained the heads of those just + sacrificed, took one out, and with the most horrible imprecations + obliged the unhappy wretch to kiss it: yet Le Bon not only + permitted, but sanctioned this, by dining daily with the hangman. + He was afterwards reproached with this familiarity in the + Convention, but defended himself by saying, "A similar act of + Lequinio's was inserted by your orders in the bulletin with + 'honourable mention;' and your decrees have invariably consecrated + the principles on which I acted." They all felt for a moment the + dominion of conscience, and were silent.--On another occasion he + suspended an execution, while the savages he kept in pay threw dirt + on the prisoners, and even got on the scaffold and insulted them + previous to their suffering. + + When any of his colleagues passed through Arras, he always proposed + their joining with him in a _"partie de Guillotine,"_ and the + executions were perpetrated on a small square at Arras, rather than + the great one, that he, his wife, and relations might more + commodiously enjoy the spectacle from the balcony of the theatre, + where they took their coffee, attended by a band of music, which + played while this human butchery lasted. + + The following circumstance, though something less horrid, yet + sufficiently so to excite the indignation of feeling people, + happened to some friends of my own.--They had been brought with many + others from a distant town in open carts to Arras, and, worn out + with fatigue, were going to be deposited in the prison to which they + were destined. At the moment of their arrival several persons were + on the point of being executed. Le Bon, presiding as usual at the + spectacle, observed the cavalcade passing, and ordered it to stop, + that the prisoners might likewise be witnesses. He was, of course, + obeyed; and my terrified friends and their companions were obliged + not only to appear attentive to the scene before them, but to join + in the cry of _"Vive la Republique!"_ at the severing of each head.-- + One of them, a young lady, did not recover the shock she received + for months. + + The Convention, the Committees, all France, were well acquainted + with the conduct of Le Bon. He himself began to fear he might have + exceeded the limits of his commission; and, upon communicating some + scruples of this kind to his employers, received the following + letters, which, though they do not exculpate him, certainly render + the Committee of Public Welfare more criminal than himself. + + "Citizen, + + "The Committee of Public Welfare approve the measures you have + adopted, at the same time that they judge the warrant you solicit + unnecessary--such measures being not only allowable, but enjoined by + the very nature of your mission. No consideration ought to stand in + the way of your revolutionary progress--give free scope therefore to + your energy; the powers you are invested with are unlimited, and + whatever you may deem conducive to the public good, you are free, + you are even called upon by duty, to carry into execution without + delay.--We here transmit you an order of the Committee, by which + your powers are extended to the neighbouring departments. Armed + with such means, and with your energy, you will go on to confound + the enemies of the republic, with the very schemes they have + projected for its destruction. + + "Carnot. + "Barrere. + "R. Lindet." + + + Extract from another letter, signed Billaud Varenne, Carnot, + Barrere. + + "There is no commutation for offences against a republic. Death + alone can expiate them!--Pursue the traitors with fire and sword, + and continue to march with courage in the revolutionary track you + have described." + +--Merciful Heaven! are there yet positive distinctions betwixt bad and +worse that we thus regret a Dumont, and deem ourselves fortunate in being +at the mercy of a tyrant who is only brutal and profligate? But so it +is; and Dumont himself, fearful that he has not exercised his mission +with sufficient severity, has ordered every kind of indulgence to cease, +the prisons to be more strictly guarded, and, if possible, more crowded; +and he is now gone to Paris, trembling lest he should be accused of +justice or moderation! + +The pretended plots for assassinating Robespierre are, as usual, +attributed to Mr. Pitt; and a decree has just passed, that no quarter +shall be given to English prisoners. I know not what such inhuman +politics tend to, but my contempt, and the conscious pride of national +superiority; certain, that when Providence sees fit to vindicate itself, +by bestowing victory on our countrymen, the most welcome + + "Laurels that adorn their brows + "Will be from living, not dead boughs." + +The recollection of England, and its generous inhabitants, has animated +me with pleasure; yet I must for the present quit this agreeable +contemplation, to take precautions which remind me that I am separated +from both, and in a land of despotism and misery! + +--Yours affectionately. + + + + +June 11, 1794. + +The immorality of Hebert, and the base compliances of the Convention, for +some months turned the churches into "temples of reason."--The ambition, +perhaps the vanity, of Robespierre, has now permitted them to be +dedicated to the "Supreme Being," and the people, under such auspices, +are to be conducted from atheism to deism. Desirous of distinguishing +his presidency, and of exhibiting himself in a conspicuous and +interesting light, Robespierre, on the last decade, appeared as the hero +of a ceremony which we are told is to restore morals, destroy all the +mischiefs introduced by the abolition of religion, and finally to defeat +the machinations of Mr. Pitt. A gay and splendid festival has been +exhibited at Paris, and imitated in the provinces: flags of the +republican colours, branches of trees, and wreaths of flowers, were +ordered to be suspended from the houses--every countenance was to wear +the prescribed smile, and the whole country, forgetting the pressure of +sorrow and famine, was to rejoice. A sort of monster was prepared, +which, by some unaccountable ingenuity, at once represented Atheism and +the English, Cobourg and the Austrians--in short, all the enemies of the +Convention.--This external phantom, being burned with proper form, +discovered a statue, which was understood to be that of Liberty, and the +inauguration of this divinity, with placing the busts of Chalier* and +Marat in the temple of the Supreme Being, by way of attendant saints, +concluded the ceremony.-- + + * Chalier had been sent from the municipality of Paris after the + dethronement of the King, to revolutionize the people of Lyons, and + to excite a massacre. In consequence, the first days of September + presented the same scenes at Lyons as were presented in the capital. + For near a year he continued to scourge this unfortunate city, by + urging the lower classes of people to murder and pillage; till, at + the insurrection which took place in the spring of 1793, he was + arrested by the insurgents, tried, and sentenced to the guillotine. + --The Convention, however, whose calendar of saints is as + extraordinary as their criminal code, chose to beatify Chalier, + while they executed Malesherbes; and, accordingly, decreed him a + lodging in the Pantheon, pensioning his mistress, and set up his + bust in their own Hall as an associate for Brutus, whom, by the way, + one should not have expected to find in such company. + +The good citizens of the republic, not to be behind hand with their +representatives, placed Chalier in the cathedrals, in their +public-houses, on fans and snuff-boxes--in short, wherever they thought +his appearance would proclaim their patriotism.--I can only exclaim as +Poultier, a deputy, did, on a similar occasion--"Francais, Francais, +serez vous toujours Francais?"--(Frenchmen, Frenchmen, will you never +cease to be Frenchmen?) + +--But the mandates for such celebrations reach not the heart: flowers +were gathered, and flags planted, with the scrupulous exactitude of +fear;* yet all was cold and heavy, and a discerning government must have +read in this anxious and literal obedience the indication of terror and +hatred. + + * I have more than once had occasion to remark the singularity of + popular festivities solemnized on the part of the people with no + other intention but that of exact obedience to the edicts of + government. This is so generally understood, that Richard, a deputy + on mission at Lyons, writes to the Convention, as a circumstance + extraordinary, and worthy of remark, that, at the repeal of a decree + which was to have razed their city to the ground, a rejoicing took + place, _"dirigee et executee par le peuple, les autorites + constitutees n'ayant fait en quelque sorte qu'y assister,"_-- + (directed and executed by the people, the constituted authorities + having merely assisted at the ceremony). + +--Even the prisons were insultingly decorated with the mockery of +colours, which, we are told, are the emblems of freedom; and those whose +relations have expired on the scaffold, or who are pining in dungeons for +having heard a mass, were obliged to listen with apparent admiration to a +discourse on the charms of religious liberty.--The people, who, for the +most part, took little interest in the rest of this pantomime, and +insensible of the national disgrace it implied, beheld with stupid +satisfaction* the inscription on the temple of reason replaced by a +legend, signifying that, in this age of science and information, the +French find it necessary to declare their acknowledgment of a God, and +their belief in the immortality of the soul. + + * Much has been said of the partial ignorance of the unfortunate + inhabitants of La Vendee, and divers republican scribblers attribute + their attachment to religion and monarchy to that cause: yet at + Havre, a sea-port, where, from commercial communication, I should + suppose the people as informed and civilized as in any other part of + France, the ears of piety and decency were assailed, during the + celebration above-mentioned, by the acclamations of, _"Vive le Pere + Eternel!"--"Vive l'etre Supreme!"_--(I entreat that I may not be + suspected of levity when I translate this; in English it would be + "God Almighty for ever! The Supreme Being for ever!") + +--At Avignon the public understanding seems to have been equally +enlightened, if we may judge from the report of a Paris missionary, who +writes in these terms:--"The celebration in honour of the Supreme Being +was performed here yesterday with all possible pomp: all our +country-folks were present, and unspeakably content that there was still +a God--What a fine decree (cried they all) is this!" + +My last letter was a record of the most odious barbarities--to-day I am +describing a festival. At one period I have to remark the destruction of +the saints--at another the adoration of Marat. One half of the newspaper +is filled with a list of names of the guillotined, and the other with +that of places of amusement; and every thing now more than ever marks +that detestable association of cruelty and levity, of impiety and +absurdity, which has uniformly characterized the French revolution. It +is become a crime to feel, and a mode to affect a brutality incapable of +feeling--the persecution of Christianity has made atheism a boast, and +the danger of respecting traditional virtues has hurried the weak and +timid into the apotheosis of the most abominable vices. Conscious that +they are no longer animated by enthusiasm,* the Parisians hope to imitate +it by savage fury or ferocious mirth--their patriotism is signalized only +by their zeal to destroy, and their attachment to their government only +by applauding its cruelties.--If Robespierre, St. Just, Collot d'Herbois, +and the Convention as their instruments, desolate and massacre half +France, we may lament, but we can scarcely wonder at it. How should a +set of base and needy adventurers refrain from an abuse of power more +unlimited than that of the most despotic monarch; or how distinguish the +general abhorrence, amid addresses of adulation, which Louis the +Fourteenth would have blushed to appropriate?* + + * Louis the Fourteenth, aguerri (steeled) as he was by sixty years + of adulation and prosperity, had yet modesty sufficient to reject a + "dose of incense which he thought too strong." (See D'Alembert's + Apology for Clermont Tonnerre.) Republicanism, it should seem, has + not diminished the national compliasance for men in power, thought + it has lessened the modesty of those who exercise it.--If Louis the + Fourteenth repressed the zeal of the academicians, the Convention + publish, without scruple, addresses more hyperbolical than the + praises that monarch refused.--Letters are addressed to Robespierre + under the appellation of the Messiah, sent by the almighty for the + reform of all things! He is the apostle of one, and the tutelar + deity of another. He is by turns the representative of the virtues + individually, and a compendium of them altogether: and this monster, + whose features are the counterpart of his soul, find republican + parasites who congratulate themselves on resembling him. + +The bulletins of the Convention announce, that the whole republic is in a +sort of revolutionary transport at the escape of Robespierre and his +colleague, Collot d'Herbois, from assassination; and that we may not +suppose the legislators at large deficient in sensibility, we learn also +that they not only shed their grateful tears on this affecting occasion, +but have settled a pension on the man who was instrumental in rescuing +the benign Collot. + +The members of the Committee are not, however, the exclusive objects of +public adoration--the whole Convention are at times incensed in a style +truly oriental; and if this be sometimes done with more zeal than +judgment, it does not appear to be less acceptable on that account. A +petition from an incarcerated poet assimilates the mountain of the +Jacobins to that of Parnassus--a state-creditor importunes for a small +payment from the Gods of Olympus--and congratulations on the abolition of +Christianity are offered to the legislators of Mount Sinai! Every +instance of baseness calls forth an eulogium on their magnanimity. A +score of orators harangue them daily on their courage, while they are +over-awed by despots as mean as themselves and whom they continue to +reinstal at the stated period with clamorous approbation. They +proscribe, devastate, burn, and massacre--and permit themselves to be +addressed by the title of "Fathers of their Country!" + +All this would be inexplicable, if we did not contemplate in the French a +nation where every faculty is absorbed by a terror which involves a +thousand contradictions. The rich now seek protection by becoming +members of clubs,* and are happy if, after various mortifications, they +are finally admitted by the mob who compose them; while families, that +heretofore piqued themselves on a voluminous and illustrious genealogy,** +eagerly endeavour to prove they have no claim to either. + + * _Le diplome de Jacobin etait une espece d'amulette, dont les + inities etaient jaloux, et qui frappoit de prestiges ceux qui ne + l'etaient pas_--"The Jacobin diploma was a kind of amulet, which the + initiated were jealous of preserving, and which struck as it were + with witchcraft, those who were not of the number." + + Rapport de Courtois sur les Papiers de Robespierre. + + ** Besides those who, being really noble, were anxious to procure + certificates of sans-cullotism, many who had assumed such honours + without pretensions now relinquished them, except indeed some few, + whose vanity even surmounted their fears. But an express law + included all these seceders in the general proscription; alledging, + with a candour not usual, that those who assumed rank were, in fact, + more criminal than such as were guilty of being born to it. + + --Places and employments, which are in most countries the objects of + intrigue and ambition, are here refused or relinquished with such + perfect sincerity, that a decree became requisite to oblige every + one, under pain of durance, to preserve the station to which his ill + stars, mistaken politics, or affectation of patriotism, had called + him. Were it not for this law, such is the dreadful responsibility + and danger attending offices under the government, that even low and + ignorant people, who have got possession of them merely for support, + would prefer their original poverty to emoluments which are + perpetually liable to the commutation of the guillotine.--Some + members of a neighbouring district told me to-day, when I asked them + if they came to release any of our fellow-prisoners, that so far + from it, they had not only brought more, but were not certain twelve + hours together of not being brought themselves. + +The visionary equality of metaphysical impostors is become a substantial +one--not constituted by abundance and freedom, but by want and +oppression. The disparities of nature are not repaired, but its whole +surface is levelled by a storm. The rich are become poor, but the poor +still remain so; and both are conducted indiscriminately to the scaffold. +The prisons of the former government were "petty to the ends" of this. +Convents, colleges, palaces, and every building which could any how be +adapted to such a purpose, have been filled with people deemed +suspicious;* and a plan of destruction seems resolved on, more certain +and more execrable than even the general massacre of September 1792. + + * Now multiplied to more than four hundred thousand!--The prisons of + Paris and the environs were supposed to contain twenty-seven + thousand. The public papers stated but about seven thousand, + because they included the official returns of Paris only. + +--Agents of the police are, under some pretended accusation, sent to the +different prisons; and, from lists previously furnished them, make daily +information of plots and conspiracies, which they alledge to be carrying +on by the persons confined. This charge and this evidence suffice: the +prisoners are sent to the tribunal, their names read over, and they are +conveyed by cart's-full to the republican butchery. Many whom I have +known, and been in habits of intimacy with, have perished in this manner; +and the expectation of Le Bon,* with our numbers which make us of too +much consequence to be forgotten, all contribute to depress and alarm me. + + * Le Bon had at this period sent for lists of the prisoners in the + department of the Somme--which lists are said to have been since + found, and many of the names in them marked for destruction. + +--Even the levity of the French character yields to this terrible +despotism, and nothing is observed but weariness, silence, and sorrow:-- +_"O triste loisir, poids affreux du tems."_ [St. Lambert.] The season +returns with the year, but not to us--the sun shines, but to add to our +miseries that of insupportable heat--and the vicissitudes of nature only +awaken our regret that we cannot enjoy them-- + + "Now gentle gales o'er all the vallies play, + "Breathe on each flow'r, and bear their sweets away." + [Collins.] + +Yet what are fresh air and green fields to us, who are immured amidst a +thousand ill scents, and have no prospect but filth and stone walls? It +is difficult to describe how much the mind is depressed by this state of +passive suffering. In common evils, the necessity of action half +relieves them, as a vessel may reach her port by the agitation of a +storm; but this stagnant listless existence is terrible. + +Those most to be envied here are the victims of their religious opinions. +The nuns, who are more distressed than any of us,* employ themselves +patiently, and seem to look beyond this world; whilst the once gay deist +wanders about with a volume of philosophy in his hand, unable to endure +the present, and dreading still more the future. + + * These poor women, deprived of the little which the rapacity of the + Convention had left them, by it subordinate agents, were in want of + every thing; and though in most prisons they were employed for the + republican armies, they could scarcely procure more than bread and + water. Yet this was not all: they were objects of the meanest and + most cruel persecution.--I knew one who was put in a dungeon, up to + her waist in putrid water, for twelve hours altogether, without + losing her resolution or serenity. + +I have already written you a long letter, and bid you adieu with the +reluctance which precedes an uncertain separation. Uneasiness, ill +health, and confinement, besides the danger I am exposed to, render my +life at present more precarious than "the ordinary of nature's tenures." +--God knows when I may address you again!--My friend Mad. de ____ is +returned from the hospital, and I yield to her fears by ceasing to write, +though I am nevertheless determined not to part with what I have hitherto +preserved; being convinced, that if evil be intended us, it will be as +soon without a pretext as with one.--Adieu. + + + + +Providence, Aug. 11, 1794. + +I have for some days contemplated the fall of Robespierre and his +adherents, only as one of those dispensations of Providence, which were +gradually to pursue all who had engaged in the French revolution. The +late change of parties has, however, taken a turn I did not expect; and, +contrary to what has hitherto occurred, there is a manifest disposition +in the people to avail themselves of the weakness which is necessarily +occasioned by the contentions of their governors. + +When the news of this extraordinary event first became public, it was +ever where received with great gravity--I might say, coldness.--Not a +comment was uttered, nor a glance of approbation seen. Things might be +yet in equilibrium, and popular commotions are always uncertain. +Prudence was, therefore, deemed, indispensable; and, until the contest +was finally decided, no one ventured to give an opinion; and many, to be +certain of guarding against verbal indiscretion, abstained from all +intercourse whatever. + +By degrees, the execution of Robespierre and above an hundred of his +partizans, convinced even the most timid; the murmurs of suppressed +discontent began to be heard; and all thought they might now with safety +relieve their fears and their sufferings, by execrating the memory of the +departed tyrants. The prisons, which had hitherto been avoided as +endangering all who approached them, were soon visited with less +apprehension; and friendship or affection, no longer exanimate by terror, +solicited, though still with trepidation, the release of those for whom +they were interested. Some of our associates have already left us in +consequence of such intercessions, and we all hope that the tide of +opinion, now avowedly inimical to the detestable system to which we are +victims, will enforce a general liberation.--We are guarded but slightly; +and I think I perceive in the behaviour of the Jacobin Commissaries +something of civility and respect not usual. + +Thus an event, which I beheld merely as the justice which one set of +banditti were made the instruments of exercising upon another, may +finally tend to introduce a more humane system of government; or, at +least, suspend proscription and massacre, and give this harassed country +a little repose. + +I am in arrears with my epistolary chronicle, and the hope of so +desirable a change will now give me courage to resume it from the +conclusion of my last. To-morrow shall be dedicated to this purpose.-- +Yours. + + + + +August 12. + +My letters, previous to the time when I judged it necessary to desist +from writing, will have given you some faint sketch of the situation of +the country, and the sufferings of its inhabitants--I say a faint sketch, +because a thousand horrors and iniquities, which are now daily +disclosing, were then confined to the scenes where they were perpetrated; +and we knew little more of them than what we collected from the reports +of the Convention, where they excited a laugh as pleasantries, or +applause as acts of patriotism. + +France had become one vast prison, executions were daily multiplied, and +a minute and comprehensive oppression seemed to have placed the lives, +liberty, and fortune of all within the grasp of the single Committee. +Despair itself was subdued, and the people were gradually sinking into a +gloomy and stupid obedience. + + * The words despotism and tyranny are sufficiently expressive of the + nature of the government to which they are applied; yet still they + are words rendered familiar to us only by history, and convey no + precise idea, except that of a bad political system. The condition + of the French at this time, besides its wretchedness, had something + so strange, so original in it, that even those who beheld it with + attention must be content to wonder, without pretending to offer any + description as adequate. + +--The following extract from a speech of Bailleul, a member of the +Convention, exhibits a picture nearer the original than I have yet seen-- + + _"La terreur dominait tous les esprits, comprimait tous les couers-- + elle etait la force du gouvernement, et ce gouvernement etait tel, + que les nombreux habitans d'un vaste territoire semblaient avoir + perdu les qualites qui distinguent l'homme de l'animal domestique: + ils semblaient meme n'avoir de vie que ce que le gouvernement + voulait bien leur en accorder.--Le moi humain n'existoit plus; + chaque individu n'etait qu'une machine, allant, venant, pensant ou + ne pensant pas, felon que la tyrannie le pressait ou l'animait."_ + + Discours de Bailleul, 19 March 1795. + + "The minds of all were subdued by terror, and every heart was + compressed beneath its influence.--In this consisted the strength of + the government; and that government was such, that the immense + population of a vast territory, seemed to have lost all the + qualities which distinguish man from the animals attached to him.-- + They appeared to exhibit no signs of life but such as their rulers + condescended to permit--the very sense of existence seemed doubtful + or extinct, and each individual was reduced to a mere machine, going + or coming, thinking or not thinking, according as the impulse of + tyranny gave him force or animation." + Speech of Bailleul, 19 March 1795. + +On the twenty-second of Prairial, (June 10,) a law, consisting of a +variety of articles for the regulation of the Revolutionary Tribunal, was +introduced to the convention by Couthon, a member of the government; and, +as usual adopted with very little previous discussion.--Though there was +no clause of this act but ought to have given the alarm to humanity, +"knocked at the heart, and bid it not be quiet;" yet the whole appeared +perfectly unexceptionable to the Assembly in general: till, on farther +examination, they found it contained an implied repeal of the law +hitherto observed, according to which, no representative could be +arrested without a preliminary decree for that purpose.--This discovery +awakened their suspicions, and the next day Bourdon de l'Oise, a man of +unsteady principles, (even as a revolutionist,) was spirited up to demand +an explicit renunciation of any power in the Committee to attack the +legislative inviolability except in the accustomed forms.--The clauses +which elected a jury of murderers, that bereft all but guilt of hope, and +offered no prospect to innocence but death, were passed with no other +comment than the usual one of applause.*-- + + * The baseness, cruelty, and cowardice of the Convention are neither + to be denied, nor palliated. For several months they not only + passed decrees of proscription and murder which might reach every + individual in France except themselves, but they even sacrificed + numbers of their own body; and if, instead of proposing an article + affecting the whole Convention, the Committee had demanded the heads + of as many Deputies as they had occasion for by name, I am persuaded + they would have met no resistance.--This single example of + opposition only renders the convention still more an object of + abhorrence, because it marks that they could subdue their + pusillanimity when their own safety was menaced, and that their + previous acquiescence was voluntary. + +--This, and this only, by involving their personal safety, excited their +courage through their fears.--Merlin de Douay, originally a worthless +character, and become yet more so by way of obviating the imputation of +bribery from the court, seconded Bourdon's motion, and the obnoxious +article was repealed instantaneously. + +This first and only instance of opposition was highly displeasing to the +Committee, and, on the twenty-fourth, Robespierre, Barrere, Couthon, and +Billaud, animadverted with such severity on the promoters of it, that the +terrified Bourdon* declared, the repeal he had solicited was unnecessary, +and that he believed the Committee were destined to be the saviours of +the country; while Merlin de Douay disclaimed all share in the business-- +and, in fine, it was determined, that the law of the twenty-second of +Prairial should remain as first presented to the Convention, and that the +qualification of the succeeding day was void. + + * It was on this occasion that the "intrepid" Bourdon kept his bed a + whole month with fear. + +So dangerous an infringement on the privileges of the representative +body, dwelt on minds insensible to every other consideration; the +principal members caballed secretly on the perils by which they were +surrounded; and the sullen concord which now marked their deliberations, +was beheld by the Committee rather as the prelude to revolt, than the +indication of continued obedience. In the mean while it was openly +proposed to concentrate still more the functions of government. The +circulation of newspapers was insinuated to be useless; and Robespierre +gave some hints of suppressing all but one, which should be under +particular and official controul.* + + * This intended restriction was unnecessary; for the newspapers were + all, not indeed paid by government, but so much subject to the + censure of the guillotine, that they had become, under an "unlimited + freedom of the press," more cautious and insipid than the gazettes + of the proscribed court. Poor Duplain, editor of the "Petit + Courier," and subsequently of the "Echo," whom I remember one of the + first partizans of the revolution, narrowly escaped the massacre of + August 1792, and was afterwards guillotined for publishing the + surrender of Landrecy three days before it was announced officially. + +A rumour prevailed, that the refractory members who had excited the late +rebellion were to be sacrificed, a general purification of the Assembly +to take place, and that the committee and a few select adherents were to +be invested with the whole national authority. Lists of proscription +were said to be made; and one of them was secretly communicated as having +been found among the papers of a juryman of the Revolutionary Tribunal +lately arrested.--These apprehensions left the members implicated no +alternative but to anticipate hostilities, or fall a sacrifice; for they +knew the instant of attack would be that of destruction, and that the +people were too indifferent to take any part in the contest. + +Things were in this state, when two circumstances of a very different +nature assisted in promoting the final explosion, which so much +astonished, not only the rest of Europe, but France itself. + +It is rare that a number of men, however well meaning, perfectly agree in +the exercise of power; and the combinations of the selfish and wicked +must be peculiarly subject to discord and dissolution. The Committee of +Public Welfare, while it enslaved the convention and the people, was torn +by feuds, and undermined by the jealousies of its members. Robespierre, +Couthon, and St. Just, were opposed by Collot and Billaud Varennes; while +Barrere endeavoured to deceive both parties; and Carnot, Lindet, the two +Prieurs, and St. Andre, laboured in the cause of the common tyranny, in +the hope of still dividing it with the conquerors. + +For some months this enmity was restrained, by the necessity of +preserving appearances, and conciliated, by a general agreement in the +principles of administration, till Robespierre, relying on his superior +popularity, began to take an ascendant, which alarmed such of his +colleagues as were not his partisans, both for their power and their +safety. Animosities daily increased, and their debates at length became +so violent and noisy, that it was found necessary to remove the business +of the Committee to an upper room, lest people passing under the windows +should overhear these scandalous scenes. Every means were taken to keep +these disputes a profound secret--the revilings which accompanied their +private conferences were turned into smooth panegyrics of each other when +they ascended the tribune, and their unanimity was a favourite theme in +all their reports to the Convention.* + + * So late as on the seventh of Thermidor, (25th July,) Barrere made + a pompous eulogium on the virtues of Robespierre; and, in a long + account of the state of the country, he acknowledges "some little + clouds hang over the political horizon, but they will soon be + dispersed, by the union which subsists in the Committees;--above + all, by a more speedy trial and execution of revolutionary + criminals." It is difficult to imagine what new means of dispatch + this airy barbarian had contrived, for in the six weeks preceding + this harangue, twelve hundred and fifty had been guillotined in + Paris only. + +The impatience of Robespierre to be released from associates whose views +too much resembled his own to leave him an undivided authority, at length +overcame his prudence; and, after absenting himself for six weeks from +the Committee, on the 8th of Thermidor, (26th July,) he threw off the +mask, and in a speech full of mystery and implications, but containing no +direct charges, proclaimed the divisions which existed in the +government.--On the same evening he repeated this harangue at the +Jacobins, while St. Just, by his orders, menaced the obnoxious part of +the Committee with a formal denunciation to the Convention.--From this +moment Billaud Varennes and Collot d'Herbois concluded their destruction +to be certain. In vain they soothed, expostulated with, and endeavoured +to mollify St. Just, so as to avert an open rupture. The latter, who +probably knew it was not Robespierre's intention to accede to any +arrangement, left them to make his report. + +On the morning of the ninth the Convention met, and with internal dread +and affected composure proceeded to their ordinary business.--St. Just +then ascended the tribune, and the curiosity or indecision of the greater +number permitted him to expatiate at large on the intrigues and guilt of +every kind which he imputed to a "part" of the Committee.--At the +conclusion of this speech, Tallien, one of the devoted members, and +Billaud Varennes, the leader of the rival party, opened the trenches, by +some severe remarks on the oration of St. Just, and the conduct of those +with whom he was leagued. This attack encouraged others: the whole +Convention joined in accusing Robespierre of tyranny; and Barrere, who +perceived the business now deciding, ranged himself on the side of the +strongest, though the remaining members of the Committee still appeared +to preserve their neutrality. Robespierre was, for the first time, +refused a hearing, yet, the influence he so lately possessed still seemed +to protect him. The Assembly launched decrees against various of his +subordinate agents, without daring to proceed against himself; and had +not the indignant fury with which he was seized, at the desertion of +those by whom he had been most flattered, urged him to call for arrest +and death, it is probable the whole would have ended in the punishment of +his enemies, and a greater accession of power to himself. + +But at this crisis all Robespierre's circumspection abandoned him. +Having provoked the decree for arresting his person, instead of +submitting to it until his party should be able to rally, he resisted; +and by so doing gave the Convention a pretext for putting him out of the +law; or, in other words, to destroy him, without the delay or hazard of a +previous trial. + +Having been rescued from the Gens d'Armes, and taken in triumph to the +municipality, the news spread, the Jacobins assembled, and Henriot, the +commander of the National Guard, (who had likewise been arrested, and +again set at liberty by force,) all prepared to act in his defence. But +while they should have secured the Convention, they employed themselves +at the Hotel de Ville in passing frivolous resolutions; and Henriot, with +all the cannoneers decidedly in his favour, exhibited an useless +defiance, by stalking before the windows of the Committee of General +Safety, when he should have been engaged in arresting its members. + +All these imprudences gave the Convention time to proclaim that +Robespierre, the municipality, and their adherents, were decreed out of +the protection of the laws, and in circumstances of this nature such a +step has usually been decisive--for however odious a government, if it +does but seem to act on a presumption of its own strength, it has always +an advantage over its enemies; and the timid, the doubtful, or +indifferent, for the most part, determine in favour of whatever wears the +appearance of established authority. The people, indeed, remained +perfectly neuter; but the Jacobins, the Committees of the Sections, and +their dependents, might have composed a force more than sufficient to +oppose the few guards which surrounded the National Palace, had not the +publication of this summary outlawry at once paralyzed all their hopes +and efforts.--They had seen multitudes hurried to the Guillotine, because +they were "hors de la loi;" and this impression now operated so forcibly, +that the cannoneers, the national guard, and those who before were most +devoted to the cause, laid down their arms, and precipitately abandoned +their chiefs to the fate which awaited them. Robespierre was taken at +the Hotel de Ville, after being severely wounded in the face; his brother +broke his thigh, in attempting to escape from a window; Henriot was +dragged from concealment, deprived of an eye; and Couthon, whom nature +had before rendered a cripple, now exhibited a most hideous spectacle, +from an ineffectual effort to shoot himself.--Their wounds were dressed +to prolong their suffering, and their sentence being contained in the +decree that outlawed them, their persons were identified by the same +tribunal which had been the instrument of their crimes. +--On the night of the tenth they were conveyed to the scaffold, amidst +the insults and execrations of a mob, which a few hours before beheld +them with trembling and adoration.--Lebas, also a member of the +convention, and a principal agent of Robespierre, fell by his own hand; +and Couthon, St. Just, and seventeen others, suffered with the two +Robespierres.--The municipality of Paris, &c. to the number of +seventy-two, were guillotined the succeeding day, and about twelve +more the day after. + +The fate of these men may be ranked as one of the most dreadful of those +examples which history vainly transmits to discourage the pursuits of +ambition. The tyrant who perishes amidst the imposing fallaciousness of +military glory, mingles admiration with abhorrence, and rescues his +memory from contempt, if not from hatred. Even he who expiates his +crimes on the scaffold, if he die with fortitude, becomes the object of +involuntary compassion, and the award of justice is not often rendered +more terrible by popular outrage. But the fall of Robespierre and his +accomplices was accompanied by every circumstance that could add +poignancy to suffering, or dread to death. The ambitious spirit which +had impelled them to tyrannize over a submissive and defenceless people, +abandoned them in their last moments. Depressed by anguish, exhausted by +fatigue, and without courage, religion, or virtue, to support them, they +were dragged through the savage multitude, wounded and helpless, to +receive that stroke, from which even the pious and the brave sometimes +shrink with dismay. + +Robespierre possessed neither the talents nor merits of Nicolas Riezi; +but they are both conspicuous instances of the mutability of popular +support, and there is a striking similitude in the last events of their +history. They both degraded their ambition by cowardice--they were both +deserted by the populace, whom they began by flattering, and ended by +oppressing; and the death of both was painful and ignominious--borne +without dignity, and embittered by reproach and insult.* + + * Robespierre lay for some hours in one of the committee-rooms, + writhing with the pain of his wound, and abandoned to despair; while + many of his colleagues, perhaps those who had been the particular + agents and applauders of his crimes, passed and repassed him, + glorying and jesting at his sufferings. The reader may compare the + death of Robespierre with that of Rienzi; but if the people of Rome + revenged the tyranny of the Tribune, they were neither so mean nor + so ferocious as the Parisians. + +You will perceive by this summary that the overthrow of Robespierre was +chiefly occasioned by the rivalship of his colleagues in the Committee, +assisted by the fears of the Convention at large for themselves.--Another +circumstance, at which I have already hinted, as having some share in +this event, shall be the subject of my next letter. + + + + +Providence, Aug. 13, 1794. + +_Amour, tu perdis Troye_ [Love! thou occasionedst the destruction of +Troy.]:--yet, among the various mischiefs ascribed to the influence of +this capricious Sovereign, amidst the wrecks of sieges, and the slaughter +of battles, perhaps we may not unjustly record in his praise, that he was +instrumental to the solace of humanity, by contributing to the overthrow +of Robespierre. It is at least pleasing to turn from the general horrors +of the revolution, and suppose, for a moment, that the social affections +were not yet entirely banished, and that gallantry still retained some +empire, when every other vestige of civilization was almost annihilated. + +After such an exordium, I feel a little ashamed of my hero, and could +wish, for the credit of my tale, it were not more necessary to invoke the +historic muse of Fielding, than that of Homer or Tasso; but imperious +Truth obliges me to confess, that Tallien, who is to be the subject of +this letter, was first introduced to celebrity by circumstances not +favourable for the comment of my poetical text. + +At the beginning of the revolution he was known only as an eminent orator +en plain vent; that is, as a preacher of sedition to the mob, whom he +used to harangue with great applause at the Palais Royal. Having no +profession or means of subsistence, he, as Dr. Johnson observes of one of +our poets, necessarily became an author. He was, however, no farther +entitled to this appellation, than as a periodical scribbler in the cause +of insurrection; but in this he was so successful, that it recommended +him to the care of Petion and the municipality, to whom his talents and +principles were so acceptable, that they made him Secretary to the +Committee. + +On the second and third of September 1792, he superintended the massacre +of the prisons, and is alledged to have paid the assassins according to +the number of victims they dispatched with great regularity; and he +himself seems to have little to say in his defence, except that he acted +officially. Yet even the imputation of such a claim could not be +overlooked by the citizens of Paris; and at the election of the +Convention he was distinguished by being chosen one of their +representatives. + +It is needless to describe his political career in the Assembly otherwise +than by adding, that when the revolutionary furor was at its acme, he was +deemed by the Committee of Public Welfare worthy of an important mission +in the South. The people of Bourdeaux were, accordingly, for some time +harassed by the usual effects of these visitations--imprisonments and the +Guillotine; and Tallien, though eclipsed by Maignet and Carrier, was by +no means deficient in the patriotic energies of the day. + +I think I must before have mentioned to you a Madame de Fontenay, the +wife of an emigrant, whom I occasionally saw at Mad. de C____'s. I then +remarked her for the uncommon attraction of her features, and the +elegance of her person; but was so much disgusted at a tendency to +republicanism I observed in her, and which, in a young woman, I thought +unbecoming, that I did not promote the acquaintance, and our different +pursuits soon separated us entirely. Since this period I have learned, +that her conduct became exceedingly imprudent, or at least suspicious, +and that at the general persecution, finding her republicanism would not +protect her, she fled to Bourdeaux, with the hope of being able to +proceed to Spain. Here, however, being a Spaniard by birth, and the wife +of an emigrant, she was arrested and thrown into prison, where she +remained till the arrival of Tallien on his mission. + +The miscellaneous occupations of a deputy-errant, naturally include an +introduction to the female prisoners; and Tallien's presence afforded +Mad. de Fontenay an occasion of pleading her cause with all the success +which such a pleader might, in other times, be supposed to obtain from a +judge of Tallien's age. The effect of the scenes Tallien had been an +actor in, was counteracted by youth, and his heart was not yet +indifferent to the charms of beauty--Mad. de Fontenay was released by the +captivation of her liberator, and a reciprocal attachment ensued. + +We must not, however, conclude, all this merely a business of romance. +Mad. de Fontenay was rich, and had connexions in Spain, which might +hereafter procure an asylum, when a regicide may with difficulty find +one: and on the part of the lady, though Tallien's person is agreeable, a +desire of protecting herself and her fortune might be allowed to have +some influence. + +From this time the revolutionist is said to have given way: Bourdeaux +became the Capua of Tallien; and its inhabitants were, perhaps, indebted +for a more moderate exercise of his power, to the smiles of Mad. de +Fontenay.--From hanging loose on society, he had now the prospect of +marrying a wife with a large fortune; and Tallien very wisely considered, +that having something at stake, a sort of comparative reputation among +the higher class of people at Bourdeaux, might be of more importance to +him in future, than all the applause the Convention could bestow on a +liberal use of the Guillotine.--The relaxed system which was the +consequence of such policy, soon reached the Committee of Public Welfare, +to whom it was highly displeasing, and Tallien was recalled. + +A youth of the name of Julien, particularly in the confidence of +Robespierre, was then sent to Bourdeaux, not officially as his successor, +but as a spy, to collect information concerning him, as well as to watch +the operations of other missionaries, and prevent their imitating +Tallien's schemes of personal advantage, at the expence of scandalizing +the republic by an appearance of lenity.--The disastrous state of Lyons, +the persecutions of Carrier, the conflagrations of Maignet, and the +crimes of various other Deputies, had obliterated the minor +revolutionisms of Tallien:* The citizens of Bourdeaux spoke of him +without horror, which in these times was equal to eulogium; and Julien +transmitted such accounts of his conduct to Robespierre,** as were +equally alarming to the jealousy of his spirit, and repugnant to the +cruelty of his principles. + + * It was Tallien's boast to have guillotined only aristocrats, and + of this part of his merit I am willing to leave him in possession. + At Toulon he was charged with the punishment of those who had given + up the town to the English; but finding, as he alledged, nearly all + the inhabitants involved, he selected about two hundred of the + richest, and that the horrid business might wear an appearance of + regularity, the patriots, that is, the most notorious Jacobins, were + ordered to give their opinion on the guilt of these victims, who + were brought out into an open field for that purpose. With such + judges the sentence was soon passed, and a fusillade took place on + the spot.--It was on this occasion that Tallien made particular + boast of his humanity; and in the same publication where he relates + the circumstance, he exposes the "atrocious conduct" of the English + at the surrender of Toulon. The cruelty of these barbarians not + being sufficiently gratified by dispatching the patriots the + shortest way, they hung up many of them by their chins on hooks at + the shambles, and left them to die at their leisure.--See + "Mitraillades, Fusillades," a recriminating pamphlet, addressed by + Tallien to Collot d'Herbois.--The title alludes to Collot's exploits + at Lyons. + + ** It is not out of the usual course of things that Tallien's + moderation at Bourdeaux might have been profitable; and the wife or + mistress of a Deputy was, on such occasions, a useful medium, + through which the grateful offerings of a rich and favoured + aristocrat might be conveyed, without committing the legislative + reputation.--The following passage from Julien's correspondence with + Robespierre seems to allude to some little arrangements of this + nature: + + "I think it my duty to transmit you an extract from a letter of + Tallien's, [Which had been intercepted.] to the National Club.--It + coincides with the departure of La Fontenay, whom the Committee of + General Safety have doubtless had arrested. I find some very + curious political details regarding her; and Bourdeaux seems to have + been, until this moment, a labyrinth of intrigue and peculation." + +It appears from Robespierre's papers, that not only Tallien, but +Legendre, Bourdon de l'Oise, Thuriot, and others, were incessantly +watched by the spies of the Committee. The profession must have improved +wonderfully under the auspices of the republic, for I doubt if _Mons. le +Noir's Mouchards_ [The spies of the old police, so called in derision.-- +Brissot, in this act of accusation, is described as having been an agent +of the Police under the monarchy.--I cannot decide on the certainty of +this, or whether his occupation was immediately that of a spy, but I have +respectable authority for saying, that antecedent to the revolution, his +character was very slightly estimated, and himself considered as "hanging +loose on society."] were as able as Robespierre's.--The reader may judge +from the following specimens: + + "The 6th instant, the deputy Thuriot, on quitting the Convention, + went to No. 35, Rue Jaques, section of the Pantheon, to the house of + a pocket-book maker, where he staid talking with a female about ten + minutes. He then went to No. 1220, Rue Fosse St. Bernard, section + of the Sans-Culottes, and dined there at a quarter past two. At a + quarter past seven he left the last place, and meeting a citizen on + the Quay de l'Ecole, section of the Museum, near le Cafe Manoury, + they went in there together, and drank a bottle of beer. From + thence he proceeded to la Maison Memblee de la Providence, No. 16, + Rue d'Orleans Honore, section de la Halle au Bled, whence, after + staying about five-and-twenty minutes, he came out with a citoyenne, + who had on a puce Levite, a great bordered shawl of Japan cotton, + and on her head a white handkerchief, made to look like a cap. They + went together to No. 163, Place Egalite, where after stopping an + instant, they took a turn in the galleries, and then returned to + sup.--They went in at half past nine, and were still there at eleven + o'clock, when we came away, not being certain if they would come out + again. + + "Bourdon de l'Oise, on entering the Assembly, shook hands with four + or five Deputies. He was observed to gape while good news was + announcing." + +Tallien was already popular among the Jacobins of Paris; and his +connexion with a beautiful woman, who might enable him to keep a domestic +establishment, and to display any wealth he had acquired, without +endangering his reputation, was a circumstance not to be overlooked; for +Robespierre well knew the efficacy of female intrigue, and dinners,* in +gaining partizans among the subordinate members of the Convention. + + * Whoever reads attentively, and in detail, the debates of the + Convention, will observe the influence and envy created by a + superior style of living in any particular member. His dress, his + lodging, or dinners, are a perpetual subject of malignant reproach. + --This is not to be wondered at, when we consider the description of + men the Convention is composed of;--men who, never having been + accustomed to the elegancies of life, behold with a grudging eye the + gay apparel or luxurious table of a colleague, who arrived at Paris + with no other treasure but his patriotism, and has no ostensible + means beyond his eighteen livres a day, now increased to thirty-six. + +Mad. de Fontenay, was, therefore, on her arrival at Paris, whither she +had followed Tallien, (probably in order to procure a divorce and marry +him,) arrested, and conveyed to prison. + +An injury of this kind was not to be forgiven; and Robespierre seems to +have acted on the presumption that it could not. He beset Tallien with +spies, menaced him in the Convention, and made Mad. de Fontenay an offer +of liberty, if she would produce a substantial charge against him, which +he imagined her knowledge of his conduct at Bourdeaux might furnish her +grounds for doing. A refusal must doubtless have irritated the tyrant; +and Tallien had every reason to fear she would soon be included in one of +the lists of victims who were daily sacrificed as conspirators in the +prisons. He was himself in continual expectation of being arrested; and +it was generally believed Robespierre would soon openly accuse him.--Thus +situated, he eagerly embraced the opportunity which the schism in the +Committee presented of attacking his adversary, and we certainly must +allow him the merit of being the first who dared to move for the arrest +of Robespierre.--I need not add, that la belle was one of the first whose +prison doors were opened; and I understand that, being divorced from +Mons. de Fontenay, she is either married, or on the point of being so, to +Tallien. + +This conclusion spoils my story as a moral one; and had I been the +disposer of events, the Septembriser, the regicide, and the cold assassin +of the Toulonais, should have found other rewards than affluence, and a +wife who might represent one of Mahomet's Houris. Yet, surely, "the time +will come, though it come ne'er so slowly," when Heaven shall separate +guilt from prosperity, and when Tallien and his accomplices shall be +remembered only as monuments of eternal justice. For the lady, her +faults are amply punished in the disgrace of such an alliance-- + + "A cut-purse of the empire and the rule; + "____ a King of shreds and patches." + + + + +Providence, Aug. 14, 1794. + +The thirty members whom Robespierre intended to sacrifice, might perhaps +have formed some design of resisting, but it appears evident that the +Convention in general acted without plan, union, or confidence.*-- + + * The base and selfish timidity of the Convention is strongly + evinced by their suffering fifty innocent people to be guillotined + on the very ninth of Thermidor, for a pretended conspiracy in the + prison of St. Lazare.--A single word from any member might at this + crisis have suspended the execution of the sentence, but that word + no one had the courage or the humanity to utter. + +--Tallien and Billaud were rendered desperate by their situation, and it +is likely that, when they ventured to attack Robespierre, they did not +themselves expect to be successful--it was the consternation of the +latter which encouraged them to persist, and the Assembly to support +them: + + "There is a tide in the affairs of men, + "Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." + +And to have been lucky enough to seize on this crisis, is, doubtless, the +whole merit of the convention. There has, it is true, been many +allusions to the dagger of Brutus, and several Deputies are said to have +conceived very heroic projects for the destruction of the tyrant; but as +he was dead before these projects were brought to light, we cannot justly +ascribe any effect to them. + +The remains of the Brissotin faction, still at liberty, from whom some +exertions might have been expected, were cautiously inactive; and those +who had been most in the habit of appreciating themselves for their +valour, were now conspicuous only for that discretion which Falstaff +calls the better part of it.--Dubois Crance, who had been at the expence +of buying a Spanish poniard at St. Malo, for the purpose of assassinating +Robespierre, seems to have been calmed by the journey, and to have +finally recovered his temper, before he reached the Convention.--Merlin +de Thionville, Merlin de Douay, and others of equal note, were among the +"passive valiant;" and Bourdon de l'Oise had already experienced such +disastrous effects from inconsiderate exhibitions of courage, that he now +restrained his ardour till the victory should be determined. Even +Legendre, who is occasionally the Brutus, the Curtius, and all the +patriots whose names he has been able to learn, confined his prowess to +an assault on the club-room of the Jacobins, when it was empty, and +carrying off the key, which no one disputed with him, so that he can at +most claim an ovation. It is, in short, remarkable, that all the members +who at present affect to be most vehement against Robespierre's +principles, [And where was the all-politic Sieyes?--At home, writing his +own eulogium.] were the least active in attacking his person; and it is +indisputable, that to Tallien, Billaud, Louchet, Elie Lacoste, Collot +d'Herbois, and a few of the more violent Jacobins, were due those first +efforts which determined his fall.--Had Robespierre, instead of a +querelous harangue, addressed the convention in his usual tone of +authority, and ended by moving for a decree against a few only of those +obnoxious to him, the rest might have been glad to compound for their own +safety, by abandoning a cause no longer personal: but his impolicy, not +his wickedness, hastened his fate; and it is so far fortunate for France, +that it has at least suspended the system of government which is ascribed +to him. + +The first days of victory were passed in receiving congratulations, and +taking precautions; and though men do not often adapt their claims to +their merits, yet the members of the Convention seemed in general to be +conscious that none amongst them had very decided pretensions to the +spoils of the vanquished.--Of twelve, which originally composed the +Committee of Public Welfare, seven only remained; yet no one ventured to +suggest a completion of the number, till Barrere, after previously +insinuating how adequate he and his colleagues were to the task of +"saving the country," proposed, in his flippant way, and merely as a +matter of form, that certain persons whom he recommended, should fill up +the vacancies in the government. + +This modest Carmagnole* was received with great coolness; the late +implicit acquiescence was changed to demur, and an adjournment +unanimously called for. + + * A ludicrous appellation, which Barrere used to give to his reports + in the presence of those who were in the secret of his Charlatanry. + The air of "La Carmagnole" was originally composed when the town of + that name was taken by Prince Eugene, and was adapted to the + indecent words now sung by the French after the 10th of August 1792. + +--Such unusual temerity susprised and alarmed the remains of the +Committee, and Billaud Varennes sternly reminded the Convention of the +abject state they were so lately released from. This produced retort and +replication, and the partners of Robespierre's enormities, who had hoped +to be the tranquil inheritors of his power, found, that in destroying a +rival, they had raised themselves masters. + +The Assembly persisted in not adopting the members offered to be imposed +upon them; but, as it was easier to reject than to choose, the Committee +were ordered to present a new plan for this part of the executive branch, +and the election of those to be entrusted with it was postponed for +farther consideration. + +Having now felt their strength, they next proceeded to renew a part of +the committee of General Safety, several of its members being inculpated +as partizans of Robespierre, and though this Committee had become +entirely subordinate to that of Public Welfare, yet its functions were +too important for it to be neglected, more especially as they comprised a +very favourite branch of the republican government, that of issuing writs +of arrest at pleasure.--The law of the twenty-second of Prairial is also +repealed, but the Revolutionary Tribunal is preserved, and the necessity +of suspending the old jury, as being the creatures of Robespierre, has +not prevented the tender solicitude of the Convention for a renovated +activity in the establishment itself. + +This assumption of power has become every day more confirmed, and the +addresses which are received by the Assembly, though yet in a strain of +gross adulation,* express such an abhorrence of the late system, as must +suffice to convince them the people are not disposed to see such a system +continued. + + * A collection of addresses, presented to the Convention at various + periods, might form a curious history of the progress of despotism. + These effusions of zeal were not, however, all in the "sublime" + style: the legislative dignity sometimes condescended to unbend + itself, and listen to metrical compositions, enlivened by the + accompaniment of fiddles; but the manly and ferocious Danton, to + whom such sprightly interruptions were not congenial, proposed a + decree, that the citizens should, in future, express their + adorations in plain prose, and without any musical accessories. + +Billaud Varennes, Collot, and other members of the old Committee, view +these innovations with sullen acquiescence; but Barrere, whose frivolous +and facile spirit is incapable of consistency, even in wickedness, +perseveres and flourishes at the tribune as gaily as ever.--Unabashed by +detection, insensible to contempt, he details his epigrams and antitheses +against Catilines and Cromwells with as much self-sufficiency as when, in +the same tinsel eloquence, he promulgated the murderous edicts of +Robespierre. + +Many of the prisoners at Paris continue daily to obtain their release, +and, by the exertions of his personal enemies, particularly of our +quondam sovereign, Andre Dumont, (now a member of the Committee of +General Safety,) an examination into the atrocities committed by Le Bon +is decreed.--But, amidst these appearances of justice, a versatility of +principle, or rather an evident tendency to the decried system, is +perceptible. Upon the slightest allusion to the revolutionary +government, the whole Convention rise in a mass to vociferate their +adherence to it:* the tribunal, which was its offspring and support, is +anxiously reinstalled; and the low insolence with which Barrere announces +their victories in the Netherlands, is, as usual, loudly applauded. + + * The most moderate, as well as the most violent, were always united + on the subject of this irrational tyranny.--_"Toujours en menageant, + comme la prunelle de ses yeux, le gouvernement revolutionnaire."_-- + "Careful always of the revolutionary government, as of the apple of + their eye." _Fragment pour servir a l'Hist. de la Convention, par + J. J. Dussault_. + +The brothers of Cecile Renaud, who were sent for by Robespierre from the +army to Paris, in order to follow her to the scaffold, did not arrive +until their persecutor was no more, and a change of government was +avowed. They have presented themselves at the bar of the Convention, to +entreat a revisal of their father's sentence, and some compensation for +his property, so unjustly confiscated.--You will, perhaps, imagine, that, +at the name of these unfortunate young men, every heart anticipated a +consent to their claims, even before the mind could examine the justice +of them, and that one of those bursts of sensibility for which this +legislature is so remarkable instantaneously accorded the petition. +Alas! this was not an occasion to excite the enthusiasm of the +Convention: Coupilleau de Fontenay, one of the "mild and moderate party", +repulsed the petitioners with harshness, and their claim was silenced by +a call for the order of the day. The poor Renauds were afterwards coldly +referred to the Committee of Relief, for a pittance, by way of charity, +instead of the property they have a right to, and which they have been +deprived of, by the base compliance of the Convention with the caprice of +a monster. + +Such relapses and aberrations are not consolatory, but the times and +circumstances seem to oppose them--the whole fabric of despotism is +shaken, and we have reason to hope the efforts of tyranny will be +counteracted by its weakness. + +We do not yet derive any advantage from the early maturity of the +harvest, and it is still with difficulty we obtain a limited portion of +bad bread. Severe decrees are enacted to defeat the avarice of the +farmers, and prevent monopolies of the new corn; but these people are +invulnerable: they have already been at issue with the system of terror-- +and it was found necessary, even before the death of Robespierre, to +release them from prison, or risk the destruction of the harvest for want +of hands to get it in. It is now discovered, that natural causes, and +the selfishness of individuals, are adequate to the creation of a +temporary scarcity; yet when this happened under the King, it was always +ascribed to the machinations of government.--How have the people been +deceived, irritated, and driven to rebellion, by a degree of want, less, +much less, insupportable than that they are obliged to suffer at present, +without daring even to complain! + +I have now been in confinement almost twelve months, and my health is +considerably impaired. The weather is oppressively warm, and we have no +shade in the garden but under a mulberry-tree, which is so surrounded by +filth, that it is not approachable. I am, however, told, that in a few +days, on account of my indisposition, I shall be permitted to go home, +though with a proviso of being guarded at my own expence.--My friends are +still at Arras; and if this indulgence be extended to Mad. de la F____, +she will accompany me. Personal accommodation, and an opportunity of +restoring my health, render this desirable; but I associate no idea of +freedom with my residence in this country. The boundary may be extended, +but it is still a prison.--Yours. + + + + +Providence, Aug. 15, 1794. + +To-morrow I expect to quit this place, and have been wandering over it +for the last time. You will imagine I can have no attachment to it: yet +a retrospect of my sensations when I first arrived, of all I have +experienced, and still more of what I have apprehended since that period, +makes me look forward to my departure with a satisfaction that I might +almost call melancholy. This cell, where I have shivered through the +winter--the long passages, which I have so often traversed in bitter +rumination--the garden, where I have painfully breathed a purer air, at +the risk of sinking beneath the fervid rays of an unmitigated sun, are +not scenes to excite regret; but when I think that I am still subject to +the tyranny which has so long condemned me to them, this reflection, with +a sentiment perhaps of national pride, which is wounded by accepting as a +favour what I have been unjustly deprived of, renders me composed, if not +indifferent, at the prospect of my release. + +This dreary epoch of my life has not been without its alleviations. I +have found a chearful companion in Mad. de M____, who, at sixty, was +brought here, because she happened to be the daughter of Count L____, who +has been dead these thirty years!--The graces and silver accents of +Madame de B____, might have assisted in beguiling severer captivity; and +the Countess de C____, and her charming daughters (the eldest of whom is +not to be described in the common place of panegyric), who, though they +have borne their own afflictions with dignity, have been sensible to the +misfortunes of others, and whom I must, in justice, except from all the +imputations of meanness or levity, which I have sometimes had occasion to +notice in those who, like themselves, were objects of republican +persecution, have essentially contributed to diminish the horrors of +confinement.--I reckon it likewise among my satisfactions, that, with the +exception of the Marechalle de Biron,* and General O'Moran, none of our +fellow-prisoners have suffered on the scaffold.-- + + * The Marechalle de Biron, a very old and infirm woman, was taken + from hence to the Luxembourg at Paris, where her daughter-in-law, + the Duchess, was also confined. A cart arriving at that prison to + convey a number of victims to the tribunal, the list, in the coarse + dialect of republicanism, contained the name of la femme Biron. "But + there are two of them," said the keeper. "Then bring them both."-- + The aged Marechalle, who was at supper, finished her meal while the + rest were preparing, then took up her book of devotion, and departed + chearfully.--The next day both mother and daughter were guillotined. + +--Dumont has, indeed, virtually occasioned the death of several; in +particular the Duc du Chatelet, the Comte de Bethune, Mons. de +Mancheville, &c.--and it is no merit in him that Mr. Luttrell, with a +poor nun of the name of Pitt,* whom he took from hence to Paris, as a +capture which might give him importance, were not massacred either by the +mob or the tribunal. + + * This poor woman, whose intellects, as I am informed, appeared in a + state of derangement, was taken from a convent at Abbeville, and + brought to the Providence, as a relation of Mr. Pitt, though I + believe she has no pretensions to that honour. But the name of Pitt + gave her importance; she was sent to Paris under a military escort, + and Dumont announced the arrival of this miserable victim with all + the airs of a conqueror. I have been since told, she was lodged at + St. Pelagie, where she suffered innumerable hardships, and did not + recover her liberty for many months after the fall of Robespierre. + +--If the persecution of this department has not been sanguinary,* it +should be remembered, that it has been covered with prisons; and that the +extreme submission of its inhabitants would scarcely have furnished the +most merciless tyrant with a pretext for a severer regimen.-- + + * There were some priests guillotined at Amiens, but the + circumstance was concealed from me for some months after it + happened. + +--Dumont, I know, expects to establish a reputation by not having +guillotined as an amusement, and hopes that he may here find a retreat +when his revolutionary labours shall be finished. + +The Convention have not yet chosen the members who are to form the new +Committee. They were yesterday solemnly employed in receiving the +American Ambassador; likewise a brass medal of the tyrant Louis the +Fourteenth, and some marvellous information about the unfortunate +Princess' having dressed herself in mourning at the death of Robespierre. +These legislators remind me of one of Swift's female attendants, who, in +spite of the literary taste he endeavoured to inspire her with, never +could be divested of her original housewifely propensities, but would +quit the most curious anecdote, as he expresses it, "to go seek an old +rag in a closet." Their projects for the revival of their navy seldom go +farther than a transposal in the stripes of the flag, and their vengeance +against regal anthropophagi, and proud islanders, is infallibly diverted +by a denunciation of an aristocratic quartrain, or some new mode, whose +general adoption renders it suspected as the badge of a party.--If, +according to Cardinal de Retz' opinion, elaborate attention to trifles +denote a little mind, these are true Lilliputian sages.--Yours, &c. + + + + +August, 1794. + +I did not leave the Providence until some days after the date of my last: +there were so many precautions to be taken, and so many formalities to be +observed--such references from the municipality to the district, and from +the district to the Revolutionary Committee, that it is evident +Robespierre's death has not banished the usual apprehension of danger +from the minds of those who became responsible for acts of justice or +humanity. At length, after procuring a house-keeper to answer with his +life and property for our re-appearance, and for our attempting nothing +against the "unity and indivisibility" of the republic, we bade (I hope) +a long adieu to our prison. + +Madame de ____ is to remain with me till her house can be repaired; for +it has been in requisition so often, that there is now, we are told, +scarcely a bed left, or a room habitable. We have an old man placed with +us by way of a guard, but he is civil, and is not intended to be a +restraint upon us. In fact, he has a son, a member of the Jacobin club, +and this opportunity is taken to compliment him, by taxing us with the +maintenance of his father. It does not prevent us from seeing our +acquaintance, and we might, I suppose, go out, though we have not yet +ventured. + +The politics of the Convention are fluctuating and versatile, as will +ever be the case where men are impelled by necessity to act in opposition +to their principles. In their eagerness to attribute all the past +excesses to Robespierre, they have, unawares, involved themselves in the +obligation of not continuing the same system. They doubtless expected, +by the fall of the tyrant, to become his successors; but the people, +weary of being dupes, and of hearing that tyrants were fallen, without +feeling any diminution of tyranny, have every where manifested a temper, +which the Convention, in the present relaxed state of its power, is +fearful of making experiments upon. Hence, great numbers of prisoners +are liberated, those that remain are treated more indulgently, and the +fury of revolutionary despotism is in general abated. + +The Deputies who most readily assent to these changes have assumed the +appellation of Moderates; (Heaven knows how much they are indebted to +comparison;) and the popularity they have acquired has both offended and +alarmed the more inflexible Jacobins. A motion has just been made by one +Louchet, that a list of all persons lately enlarged should be printed, +with the names of those Deputies who solicited in their favour, annexed; +and that such aristocrats as were thus discovered to have regained their +liberty, should be re-imprisoned.--The decree passed, but was so ill +received by the people, that it was judged prudent to repeal it the next +day. + +This circumstance seems to be the signal of dissention between the +Assembly and the Club: the former, apprehensive of revolting the public +opinion on the one hand, and desirous of conciliating the Jacobins on the +other, waver between indulgence and severity; but it is easy to discover, +that their variance with the Jacobins is more a matter of expediency than +principle, and that, were it not for other considerations, they would not +suffer the imprisonment of a few thousand harmless people to interrupt +the amity which has so long subsisted between themselves and their +ancient allies.--It is written, "from their works you shall know them;" +and reasoning from this tenet, which is our best authority, (for who can +boast a science in the human heart?) I am justified in my opinion, and I +know it to be that of many persons more competent to decide than myself. +If I could have had doubts on the subject, the occurrences of the last +few days would have amply satisfied them. + +However rejoiced the nation at large might be at the overthrow of +Robespierre, no one was deceived as to the motives which actuated his +colleagues in the Committee. Every day produced new indications not only +of their general concurrence in the enormities of the government, but of +their own personal guilt. The Convention, though it could not be +insensible of this, was willing, with a complaisant prudence, to avoid +the scandal of a public discussion, which must irritate the Jacobins, and +expose its own weakness by a retrospect of the crimes it had applauded +and supported. Laurent Lecointre,* alone, and apparently unconnected +with party, has had the courage to exhibit an accusation against Billaud, +Collot, Barrere, and those of Robespierre's accomplices who were members +of the Committee of General Safety. He gave notice of his design on the +eleventh of Fructidor (28th of August). + + * Lecointre is a linen-draper at Versailles, an original + revolutionist, and I believe of more decent character than most + included in that description. If we could be persuaded that there + were any real fanatics in the Convention, I should give Lecointre + the credit of being among the number. He seems, at least, to have + some material circumstances in his favour--such as possessing the + means of living; of not having, in appearance, enriched himself by + the revolution; and, of being the only member who, after a score of + decrees to that purpose, has ventured to produce an account of his + fortune to the public. + +--It was received everywhere but in the Convention with applause; and the +public was flattered with the hope that justice would attain another +faction of its oppressors. On the succeeding day, Lecointre appeared at +the tribune to read his charges. They conveyed, even to the most +prejudiced mind, an entire conviction, that the members he accused were +sole authors of a part, and accomplices in all the crimes which had +desolated their country. Each charge was supported by material proof, +which he deposited for the information of his colleagues. But this was +unnecessary--his colleagues had no desire to be convinced; and, after +overpowering him with ridicule and insult, they declared, without +entering into any discussion, that they rejected the charges with +indignation, and that the members implicated had uniformly acted +according to their [own] wishes, and those of the nation. + +As soon as this result was known in Paris, the people became enraged and +disgusted, the public walks resounded with murmurs, the fermentation grew +general, and some menaces were uttered of forcing the Convention to give +Lecointre a more respectful hearing.--Intimidated by such unequivocal +proofs of disapprobation, when the Assembly met on the thirteenth, it was +decreed, after much opposition from Tallien, that Lecointre should be +allowed to reproduce his charges, and that they should be solemnly +examined. + +After all this, Lecointre, whose figure is almost ludicrous, and who is +no orator, was to repeat a voluminous denunciation, amidst the clamour, +abuse, chicane, and derision of the whole Convention. But there are +occasions when the keenest ridicule is pointless; when the mind, armed by +truth and elevated by humanity, rejects its insidious efforts--and, +absorbed by more laudable feelings, despises even the smile of contempt. +The justice of Lecointre's cause supplied his want of external +advantages: and his arguments were so clear and so unanswerable, that the +plain diction in which they were conveyed was more impressive than the +most finished eloquence; and neither the malice nor sarcasms of his +enemies had any effect but on those who were interested in silencing or +confounding him. Yet, in proportion as the force of Lecointre's +denunciation became evident, the Assembly appeared anxious to suppress +it; and, after some hours' scandalous debate, during which it was +frequently asserted that these charges could not be encouraged without +criminating the entire legislative body, they decreed the whole to be +false and defamatory. + +The accused members defended themselves with the assurance of delinquents +tried by their avowed accomplices, and who are previously certain of +favour and acquittal; while Lecointre's conduct in the business seems to +have been that of a man determined to persevere in an act of duty, which +he has little reason to hope will be successful.* + + * It is said, that, at the conclusion of this disgraceful business, + the members of the convention crouded about the delinquents with + their habitual servility, and appeared gratified that their services + on the occasion had given them a claim to notice and familiarity. + +Though the galleries of the Convention were more than usually furnished +on the day with applauders, yet this decision has been universally ill +received. The time is passed when the voice of reason could be silenced +by decrees. The stupendous tyranny of the government, though not +meliorated in principle, is relaxed in practice; and this vote, far from +operating in favour of the culprits, has only served to excite the public +indignation, and to render them more odious. Those who cannot judge of +the logical precision of Lecointre's arguments, or the justness of his +inferences, can feel that his charges are merited. Every heart, every +tongue, acknowledges the guilt of those he has attacked. They are +certain France has been the prey of numberless atrocities--they are +certain, that these were perpetrated by order of the committee; that +eleven members composed it; and that Robespierre and his associates being +but three, did not constitute a majority. + +These facts are now commented on with as much freedom as can be expected +among a people whose imaginations are yet haunted by revolutionary +tribunals and Bastilles, and the conclusions are not favourable to the +Convention. The national discontent is, however, suspended by the +hostilities between the legislature and the Jacobin club: the latter +still persists in demanding the revolutionary system in its primitive +severity, while the former are restrained from compliance, not only by +the odium it must draw on them, but from a certainty that it cannot be +supported but through the agency of the popular societies, who would thus +again become their dictators. I believe it is not unlikely that the +people and the Convention are both endeavouring to make instruments of +each other to destroy the common enemy; for the little popularity the +Convention enjoy is doubtless owing to a superior hatred of the Jacobins: +and the moderation which the former affect towards the people, is equally +influenced by a view of forming a powerful balance against these +obnoxious societies.--While a sort of necessity for this temporizing +continues, we shall go on very tranquilly, and it is become a mode to say +the Convention is "adorable." + +Tallien, who has been wrestling with his ill fame for a transient +popularity, has thought it advisable to revive the public attention by +the farce of Pisistratus--at least, an attempt to assassinate him, in +which there seems to have been more eclat than danger, has given rise to +such an opinion. Bulletins of his health are delivered every day in form +to the Convention, and some of the provincial clubs have sent +congratulations on his escape. But the sneers of the incredulous, and +perhaps an internal admonition of the ridicule and disgrace attendant on +the worship of an idol whose reputation is so unpropitious, have much +repressed the customary ardour, and will, I think, prevent these +"hair-breadth 'scapes" from continuing fashionable.--Yours, &c. + + + + +[No Date Given] + +When I describe the French as a people bending meekly beneath the most +absurd and cruel oppression, transmitted from one set of tyrants to +another, without personal security, without commerce--menaced by famine, +and desolated by a government whose ordinary resources are pillage and +murder; you may perhaps read with some surprize the progress and +successes of their armies. But, divest yourself of the notions you may +have imbibed from interested misrepresentations--forget the revolutionary +common-place of "enthusiams", "soldiers of freedom," and "defenders of +their country"--examine the French armies as acting under the motives +which usually influence such bodies, and I am inclined to believe you +will see nothing very wonderful or supernatural in their victories. + +The greater part of the French troops are now composed of young men taken +indiscriminately from all classes, and forced into the service by the +first requisition. They arrive at the army ill-disposed, or at best +indifferent, for it must not be forgotten, that all who could be +prevailed on to go voluntarily had departed before recourse was had to +the measure of a general levy. They are then distributed into different +corps, so that no local connections remain: the natives of the North are +mingled with those of the South, and all provincial combinations are +interdicted. + +It is well known that the military branch of espionage is as extended as +the civil, and the certainty of this destroys confidence, and leaves even +the unwilling soldier no resource but to go through his professional duty +with as much zeal as though it were his choice. On the one hand, the +discipline is severe--on the other, licentiousness is permitted beyond +all example; and, half-terrified, half-seduced, principles the most +inimical, and morals the least corrupt, become habituated to fear nothing +but the government, and to relish a life of military indulgence.--The +armies were some time since ill clothed, and often ill fed; but the +requisitions, which are the scourge of the country, supply them, for the +moment, with profusion: the manufacturers, the shops, and the private +individual, are robbed to keep them in good humour--the best wines, the +best clothes, the prime of every thing, is destined to their use; and +men, who before laboured hard to procure a scanty subsistence, now revel +in luxury and comparative idleness. + +The rapid promotion acquired in the French army is likewise another cause +of its adherence to the government. Every one is eager to be advanced; +for, by means of requisitions, pillage and perquisites, the most trifling +command is very lucrative.--Vast sums of money are expended in supplying +the camps with newspapers written nearly for that purpose, and no others +are permitted to be publicly circulated.--When troops are quartered in a +town, instead of that cold reception which it is usual to accord such +inmates, the system of terror acts as an excellent Marechal de Logis, and +procures them, if not a cordial, at least a substantial one; and it is +indubitable, that they are no where so well entertained as at the houses +of professed aristocrats. The officers and men live in a familiarity +highly gratifying to the latter; and, indeed, neither are distinguishable +by their language, manners, or appearance. There is, properly speaking, +no subordination except in the field, and a soldier has only to avoid +politics, and cry "Vive la Convention!" to secure plenary indulgence on +all other occasions.--Many who entered the army with regret, continue +there willingly for the sake of a maintenance; besides that a decree +exists, which subjects the parents of those who return, to heavy +punishments. In a word, whatever can operate on the fears, or interests, +or passions, is employed to preserve the allegiance of the armies to the +government, and attach them to their profession. + +I am far from intending to detract from the national bravery--the annals +of the French Monarchy abound with the most splendid instances of it--I +only wish you to understand, what I am fully convinced of myself, that +liberty and republicanism have no share in the present successes. The +battle of Gemappe was gained when the Brissotin faction had enthroned +itself on the ruins of a constitution, which the armies were said to +adore with enthusiasm: by what sudden inspiration were their affections +transferred to another form of government? or will any one pretend that +they really understood the democratic Machiavelism which they were to +propagate in Brabant? At the battle of Maubeuge, France was in the first +paroxysm of revolutionary terror--at that of Fleurus, she had become a +scene of carnage and proscription, at once the most wretched and the most +detestable of nations, the sport and the prey of despots so contemptible, +that neither the excess of their crimes, nor the sufferings they +inflicted, could efface the ridicule which was incurred by a submission +to them. Were the French then fighting for liberty, or did they only +move on professionally, with the enemy in front, the Guillotine in the +rear, and the intermediate space filled up with the licentiousness of a +camp?--If the name alone of liberty suffices to animate the French troops +to conquest, and they could imagine it was enjoyed under Brissot or +Robespierre, this is at least a proof that they are rather amateurs than +connoisseurs; and I see no reason why the same impulse might not be given +to an army of Janizaries, or the the legions of Tippoo Saib. + +After all, it may be permitted to doubt, whether the sort of enthusiasm +so liberally ascribed to the French, would really contribute more to +their successes, than the thoughtless courage I am willing to allow +them.--It is, I believe, the opinion of military men, that the best +soldiers are those who are most disposed to act mechanically; and we are +certain that the most brilliant victories have been obtained where this +ardour, said to be produced by the new doctrines, could have had no +influence.--The heroes of Pavia, of Narva, or those who administered to +the vain-glory of Louis the Fourteenth, by ravaging the Palatinate, we +may suppose little acquainted with it. The fate of battles frequently +depends on causes which the General, the Statesman, or the Philosopher, +are equally unable to decide upon; and the laurel, "meed of mighty +conquerors," seems oftener to fall at the caprice of the wind, than to be +gathered. It is sometimes the lot of the ablest tactician, at others of +the most voluminous muster-roll; but, I believe, there are few examples +where these political elevations have had an effect, when unaccompanied +by advantages of situation, superior skill, or superior numbers.--_"La +plupart des gens de guerre_ (says Fontenelle) _sont leur metier avec +beaucoup de courage. Il en est peu qui y pensent; leurs bras agissent +aussi vigoureusement que l'on veut, leurs tetes se reposent, et ne +prennent presque part a rieu"_*-- + + * "Military men in general do their duty with much courage, but few + make it a subject of reflection. With all the bodily activity that + can be expected of them, their minds remain at rest, and partake but + little of the business they are engaged in." + +--If this can be applied with truth to any armies, it must be to those of +France. We have seen them successively and implicitly adopting all the +new constitutions and strange gods which faction and extravagance could +devise--we have seen them alternately the dupes and slaves of all +parties: at one period abandoning their King and their religion: at +another adulating Robespierre, and deifying Marat.--These, I confess are +dispositions to make good soldiers, but convey to me no idea of +enthusiasts or republicans. + +The bulletin of the Convention is periodically furnished with splendid +feats of heroism performed by individuals of their armies, and I have no +doubt but some of them are true. There are, however, many which have +been very peaceably culled from old memoirs, and that so unskilfully, +that the hero of the present year loses a leg or an arm in the same +exploit, and uttering the self-same sentences, as one who lived two +centuries ago. There is likewise a sort of jobbing in the edifying +scenes which occasionally occur in the Convention--if a soldier happen to +be wounded who has relationship, acquaintance, or connexion, with a +Deputy, a tale of extraordinary valour and extraordinary devotion to the +cause is invented or adopted; the invalid is presented in form at the bar +of the Assembly, receives the fraternal embrace and the promise of a +pension, and the feats of the hero, along with the munificence of the +Convention, are ordered to circulate in the next bulletin. Yet many of +the deeds recorded very deservedly in these annals of glory, have been +performed by men who abhor republican principles, and lament the +disasters their partizans have occasioned. I have known even notorious +aristocrats introduced to the Convention as martyrs to liberty, and who +have, in fact, behaved as gallantly as though they had been so.--These +are paradoxes which a military man may easily reconcile. + +Independently of the various secondary causes that contribute to the +success of the French armies, there is one which those persons who wish +to exalt every thing they denominate republican seem to exclude--I mean, +the immense advantage they possess in point of numbers. There has +scarcely been an engagement of importance, in which the French have not +profited by this in a very extraordinary degree.* + + * This has been confessed to me by many republicans themselves; and + a disproportion of two or three to one must add considerably to + republican enthusiasm. + +--Whenever a point is to be gained, the sacrifice of men is not a matter +of hesitation. One body is dispatched after another; and fresh troops +thus succeeding to oppose those of the enemy already harassed, we must +not wonder that the event has so often proved favourable to them. + +A republican, who passes for highly informed, once defended this mode of +warfare by observing, that in the course of several campaigns more troops +perished by sickness than the sword. If then an object could be attained +by such means, so much time was saved, and the loss eventually the same: +but the Generals of other countries dare not risk such philosophical +calculations, and would be accountable to the laws of humanity for their +destructive conquests. + +When you estimate the numbers that compose the French armies, you are not +to consider them as an undisciplined multitude, whose sole force is in +their numbers. From the beginning of the revolution, many of them have +been exercised in the National Guard; and though they might not make a +figure on the parade at Potsdam, their inferiority is not so great as to +render the German exactitude a counterbalance for the substantial +inequality of numbers. Yet, powerfully as these considerations favour +the military triumphs of France, there is a period when we may expect +both cause and effect will terminate. That period may still be far +removed, but whenever the assignats* become totally discredited, and it +shall be found requisite to economize in the war department, adieu la +gloire, a bas les armes, and perhaps bon soir la republique; for I do not +reckon it possible, that armies so constituted can ever be persuaded to +subject themselves to the restraints and privations which must be +indispensible, as soon as the government ceases to have the disposal of +an unlimited fund. + + * The mandats were, in fact, but a continuation of the assignats, + under another name. The last decree for the emission of assignats, + limited the quantity circulated to forty milliards, which taken at + par, is only about sixteen hundred millions of pounds sterling! + +What I have hitherto written you will understand as applicable only to +the troops employed on the frontiers. There are some of another +description, more cherished and not less serviceable, who act as a sort +of police militant and errant, and defend the republic against her +internal enemies--the republicans. Almost every town of importance is +occasionally infested by these servile instruments of despotism, who are +maintained in insolent profusion, to overawe those whom misery and famine +might tempt to revolt. When a government, after imprisoning some hundred +thousands of the most distinguished in every class of life, and disarming +all the rest, is yet obliged to employ such a force for its protection, +we may justifiably conclude, it does not presume on the attachment of the +people. It is not impossible that the agents of different descriptions, +destined to the service of conciliating the interior to republicanism, +might alone form an army equal to that of the Allies; but this is a task, +where the numbers employed only serve to render it more difficult. They, +however, procure submission, if they do not create affection; and the +Convention is not delicate. + + + + +Amiens, Sept. 30, 1794. + +The domestic politics of France are replete with novelties: the +Convention is at war with the Jacobins--and the people, even to the most +decided aristocrats, have become partizans of the Convention.--My last +letters have explained the origin of these phaenomena, and I will now add +a few words on their progress. + +You have seen that, at the fall of Robespierre, the revolutionary +government had reached the very summit of despotism, and that the +Convention found themselves under the necessity of appearing to be +directed by a new impulse, or of acknowledging their participation in the +crimes they affected to deplore.--In consequence, almost without the +direct repeal of any law, (except some which affected their own +security,) a more moderate system has been gradually adopted, or, to +speak more correctly, the revolutionary one is suffered to relax. The +Jacobins behold these popular measures with extreme jealousy, as a means +which may in time render the legislature independent of them; and it is +certainly not the least of their discontents, that, after all their +labours in the common cause, they find themselves excluded both from +power and emoluments. Accustomed to carry every thing by violence, and +more ferocious than politic, they have, by insisting on the +reincarceration of suspected people, attached a numerous party to the +Convention, which is thus warned that its own safety depends on +repressing the influence of clubs, which not only loudly demand that the +prisons may be again filled, but frequently debate on the project of +transporting all the "enemies of the republic" together. + +The liberty of the press, also, is a theme of discord not less important +than the emancipation of aristocrats. The Jacobins are decidedly adverse +to it; and it is a sort of revolutionary solecism, that those who boast +of having been the original destroyers of despotism, are now the +advocates of arbitrary imprisonment, and restraints on the freedom of the +press. The Convention itself is divided on the latter subject; and, +after a revolution of five years, founded on the doctrine of the rights +of man, it has become matter of dispute--whether so principal an article +of them ought really to exist or not. They seem, indeed, willing to +allow it, provided restrictions can be devised which may prevent calumny +from reaching their own persons; but as that cannot easily be atchieved, +they not only contend against the liberty of the press in practice, but +have hitherto refused to sanction it by decree, even as a principle. + +It is perhaps reluctantly that the Convention opposes these powerful and +extended combinations which have so long been its support, and it may +dread the consequences of being left without the means of overawing or +influencing the people; but the example of the Brissotins, who, by +attempting to profit by the services of the Jacobins, without submitting +to their domination, fell a sacrifice, has warned their survivors of the +danger of employing such instruments. It is evident that the clubs will +not act subordinately, and that they must either be subdued to +insignificance, or regain their authority entirely; and as neither the +people nor Convention are disposed to acquiesce in the latter, they are +politicly joining their efforts to accelerate the former. + +Yet, notwithstanding these reciprocal cajoleries, the return of justice +is slow and mutable; an instinctive or habitual preference of evil +appears at times to direct the Convention, even in opposition to their +own interests. They have as yet done little towards repairing the +calamities of which they are the authors; and we welcome the little they +have done, not for its intrinsic value, but as we do the first spring +flowers--which, though of no great sweetness or beauty, we consider as +pledges that the storms of winter are over, and that a milder season is +approaching.--It is true, the revolutionary Committees are diminished in +number, the prisons are disencumbered, and a man is not liable to be +arrested because a Jacobin suspects his features: yet there is a wide +difference between such toleration and freedom and security; and it is a +circumstance not favourable to those who look beyond the moment, that the +tyrannical laws which authorized all the late enormities are still +unrepealed. The Revolutionary Tribunal continues to sentence people to +death, on pretexts as frivolous as those which were employed in the time +of Robespierre; they have only the advantage of being tried more +formally, and of forfeiting their lives upon proof, instead of without +it, for actions that a strictly administered justice would not punish by +a month's imprisonment.* + + * For instance, a young monk, for writing fanatic letters, and + signing resolutions in favour of foederalism--a hosier, for + facilitating the return of an emigrant--a man of ninety, for + speaking against the revolution, and discrediting the assignats--a + contractor, for embezzling forage--people of various descriptions, + for obstructing the recruitment, or insulting the tree of liberty. + These, and many similar condemnations, will be found in the + proceedings of the Revolutionary Tribunal, long after the death of + Robespierre, and when justice and humanity were said to be restored. + +A ceremony has lately taken place, the object of which was to deposit the +ashes of Marat in the Pantheon, and to dislodge the bust of Mirabeau-- +who, notwithstanding two years notice to quit this mansion of +immortality, still remained there. The ashes of Marat being escorted to +the Convention by a detachment of Jacobins, and the President having +properly descanted on the virtues which once animated the said ashes, +they were conveyed to the place destined for their reception; and the +excommunicated Mirabeau being delivered over to the secular arm of a +beadle, these remains of the divine Marat were placed among the rest of +the republican deities. To have obliged the Convention in a body to +attend and consecrate the crimes of this monster, though it could not +degrade them, was a momentary triumph for the Jacobins, nor could the +royalists behold without satisfaction the same men deploring the death of +Marat, who, a month before, had celebrated the fall of Louis the +Sixteenth! To have been so deplored, and so celebrated, are, methinks, +the very extremes of infamy and glory. + +I must explain to you, that the Jacobins have lately been composed of two +parties--the avowed adherents of Collot, Billaud, &c. and the concealed +remains of those attached to Robespierre; but party has now given way to +principle, a circumstance not usual; and the whole club of Paris, with +several of the affiliated ones, join in censuring the innovating +tendencies of the Convention.--It is curious to read the debates of the +parent society, which pass in afflicting details of the persecutions +experienced by the patriots on the parts of the moderates and +aristocrats, who, they assert, are become so daring as even to call in +question the purity of the immortal Marat. You will suppose, of course, +that this cruel persecution is nothing more than an interdiction to +persecute others; and their notions of patriotism and moderation may be +conceived by their having just expelled Tallien and Freron as moderates.* + + * Freron endeavoured, on this occasion, to disculpate himself from + the charge of "moderantisme," by alledging he had opposed + Lecointre's denunciation of Barrere, &c.--and certainly one who + piques himself on being the pupil of the divine Marat, was worthy of + remaining in the fraternity from which he was now expelled.--Freron + is a veteran journalist of the revolution, of better talents, though + not of better fame, than the generality of his contemporaries: or, + rather, his early efforts in exciting the people to rebellion + entitle him to a preeminence of infamy. + + + + +Amiens, October 4, 1794. + +We have had our guard withdrawn for some days; and I am just now returned +from Peronne, where we had been in order to see the seals taken off the +papers, &c. which I left there last year. I am much struck with the +alteration observable in people's countenances. Every person I meet +seems to have contracted a sort of revolutionary aspect: many walk with +their heads down, and with half-shut eyes measure the whole length of a +street, as though they were still intent on avoiding greetings from the +suspicious; some look grave and sorrow-worn; some apprehensive, as if in +hourly expectation of a _mandat d'arret;_ and others absolutely ferocious, +from a habit of affecting the barbarity of the times. + +Their language is nearly as much changed as their appearance--the +revolutionary jargon is universal, and the most distinguished aristocrats +converse in the style of Barrere's reports. The common people are not +less proficients in this fashionable dialect, than their superiors; and, +as far as I can judge, are become so from similar motives. While I was +waiting this morning at a shop-door, I listened to a beggar who was +cheapening a slice of pumpkin, and on some disagreement about the price, +the beggar told the old _revendeuse_ [Market-woman.] that she was +_"gangrenee d'aristocratie."_ ["Eat up with aristocracy."] _"Je vous en +defie,"_ ["I defy you."] retorted the pumpkin-merchant; but turning pale +as she spoke, _"Mon civisme est a toute epreuve, mais prenez donc ta +citrouille,"_ ["My civism is unquestionable; but here take your pumpkin."] +take it then." _"Ah, te voila bonne republicaine,_ ["Ah! Now I see you +are a good republican."] says the beggar, carrying off her bargain; while +the old woman muttered, _"Oui, oui, l'on a beau etre republicaine tandis +qu'on n'a pas de pain a manger."_ ["Yes, in troth, it's a fine thing to +be a republican, and have no bread to eat."] + +I hear little of the positive merits of the convention, but the hope is +general that they will soon suppress the Jacobin clubs; yet their attacks +continue so cold and cautious, that their intentions are at least +doubtful: they know the voice of the nation at large would be in favour +of such a measure, and they might, if sincere, act more decisively, +without risk to themselves.--The truth is, they would willingly proscribe +the persons of the Jacobins, while they cling to their principles, and +still hesitate whether they shall confide in a people whose resentment +they have so much deserved, and have so much reason to dread. Conscious +guilt appears to shackle all their proceedings, and though the punishment +of some subordinate agents cannot, in the present state of things, be +dispensed with, yet the Assembly unveil the register of their crimes very +reluctantly, as if each member expected to see his own name inscribed on +it. Thus, even delinquents, who would otherwise be sacrificed +voluntarily to public justice, are in a manner protected by delays and +chicane, because an investigation might implicate the Convention as the +example and authoriser of their enormities.--Fouquier Tinville devoted a +thousand innocent people to death in less time than it has already taken +to bring him to a trial, where he will benefit by all those judicial +forms which he has so often refused to others. This man, who is much the +subject of conversation at present, was Public Accuser to the +Revolutionary Tribunal--an office which, at best, in this instance, only +served to give an air of regularity to assassination: but, by a sort of +genius in turpitude, he contrived to render it odious beyond its original +perversion, in giving to the most elaborate and revolting cruelties a +turn of spontaneous pleasantry, or legal procedure.--The prisoners were +insulted with sarcasms, intimidated by threats, and still oftener +silenced by arbitrary declarations, that they were not entitled to speak; +and those who were taken to the scaffold, after no other ceremony than +calling over their names, had less reason to complain, than if they had +previously been exposed to the barbarities of such trials.--Yet this +wretch might, for a time at least, have escaped punishment, had he not, +in defending himself, criminated the remains of the Committee, whom it +was intended to screen. When he appeared at the bar of the Convention, +every word he uttered seemed to fill its members with alarm, and he was +ordered away before he could finish his declaration. It must be +acknowledged, that, however he may be condemned by justice and humanity, +nothing could legally attach to him: he was only the agent of the +Convention, and the utmost horrors of the Tribunal were not merely +sanctioned, but enjoined by specific decrees. + +I have been told by a gentleman who was at school with Fouquier, and has +had frequent occasions of observing him at different periods since, that +he always appeared to him to be a man of mild manners, and by no means +likely to become the instrument of these atrocities; but a strong +addiction to gaming having involved him in embarrassments, he was induced +to accept the office of Public Accuser to the Tribunal, and was +progressively led on from administering to the iniquity of his employers, +to find a gratification in it himself. + +I have often thought, that the habit of watching with selfish avidity for +those turns of fortune which enrich one individual by the misery of +another, must imperceptibly tend to harden the heart. How can the +gamester, accustomed both to suffer and inflict ruin with indifference, +preserve that benevolent frame of mind, which, in the ordinary and less +censurable pursuits of common life, is but too prone to become impaired, +and to leave humanity more a duty than a feeling? + +The conduct of Fouquier Tinville has led me to some reflections on a +subject which I know the French consider as matter of triumph, and as a +peculiar advantage which their national character enjoys over the +English--I mean that smoothness of manner and guardedness of expression +which they call "aimable," and which they have the faculty of attaining +and preserving distinctly from a correspondent temper of the mind. It +accompanies them through the most irritating vicissitudes, and enables +them to deceive, even without deceit: for though this suavity is +habitual, of course frequently undesigning, the stranger is nevertheless +thrown off his guard by it, and tempted to place confidence, or expect +services, which a less conciliating deportment would not have been +suggested. A Frenchman may be an unkind husband, a severe parent, or an +arrogant master, yet never contract his features, or asperate his voice, +and for this reason is, in the national sense, "un homme bien doux." His +heart may become corrupt, his principles immoral, and his disposition +ferocious--yet he shall still retain his equability of tone and +complacent phraseology, and be "un homme bien aimable." + +The revolution has tended much to develope this peculiarity of the French +character, and has, by various examples in public life, confirmed the +opinions I had formed from previous observation. Fouquier Tinville, as I +have already noticed, was a man of gentle exterior.--Couthon, the +execrable associate of Robespierre, was mildness itself--Robespierre's +harangues are in a style of distinguished sensibility--and even Carrier, +the destroyer of thirty thousand Nantais, is attested by his +fellow-students to have been of an amiable disposition. I know a man of +most insinuating address, who has been the means of conducting his own +brother to the Guillotine; and another nearly as prepossessing, who, +without losing his courteous demeanor, was, during the late +revolutionary excesses, the intimate of an executioner. + + *It would be too voluminous to enumerate all the contrasts of + manners and character exhibited during the French revolution--The + philosophic Condorcet, pursuing with malignancy his patron, the Duc + de la Rochefoucault, and hesitating with atrocious mildness on the + sentence of the King--The massacres of the prisons connived at by + the gentle Petion--Collot d'Herbois dispatching, by one discharge of + cannon, three hundred people together, "to spare his sensibility" + the talk of executions in detail--And St. Just, the deviser of a + thousand enormities, when he left the Committee, after his last + interview, with the project of sending them all to the Guillotine, + telling them, in a tone of tender reproach, like a lover of romance, + "Vous avez fletri mon coeur, je vais l'ouvrir a la Convention."-- + Madame Roland, in spite of the tenderness of her sex, could coldly + reason on the expediency of a civil war, which she acknowledged + might become necessary to establish the republic. Let those who + disapprove this censure of a female, whom it is a sort of mode to + lament, recollect that Madame Roland was the victim of a celebrity + she had acquired in assisting the efforts of faction to dethrone the + King--that her literary bureau was dedicated to the purpose of + exasperating the people against him--and that she was considerably + instrumental to the events which occasioned his death. If her + talents and accomplishments make her an object of regret, it was to + the unnatural misapplication of those talents and accomplishments in + the service of party, that she owed her fate. Her own opinion was, + that thousands might justifiably be devoted to the establishment of + a favourite system; or, to speak truly, to the aggrandisement of + those who were its partizans. The same selfish principle actuated + an opposite faction, and she became the sacrifice.--"Oh even-handed + justice!" + +I do not pretend to decide whether the English are virtually more gentle +in their nature than the French; but I am persuaded this douceur, on +which the latter pride themselves, affords no proof of the contrary. An +Englishman is seldom out of humour, without proclaiming it to all the +world; and the most forcible motives of interest, or expediency, cannot +always prevail on him to assume a more engaging external than that which +delineates his feelings. + +If he has a matter to refuse, he usually begins by fortifying himself +with a little ruggedness of manner, by way of prefacing a denial he might +otherwise not have resolution to persevere in. "The hows and whens of +life" corrugate his features, and disharmonize his periods; contradiction +sours, and passion ruffles him--and, in short, an Englishman displeased, +from whatever cause, is neither "un homme bien doux," nor "un homme bien +aimable;" but such as nature has made him, subject to infirmities and +sorrows, and unable to disguise the one, or appear indifferent to the +other. Our country, like every other, has doubtless produced too many +examples of human depravity; but I scarcely recollect any, where a +ferocious disposition was not accompanied by corresponding manners--or +where men, who would plunder or massacre, affected to retain at the same +time habits of softness, and a conciliating physiognomy. + +We are, I think, on the whole, authorized to conclude, that, in +determining the claims to national superiority, the boasted and unvarying +controul which the French exercise over their features and accents, is +not a merit; nor those indications of what passes within, to which the +English are subject, an imperfection. If the French sometimes supply +their want of kindness, or render disappointment less acute at the +moment, by a sterile complacency, the English harshness is often only the +alloy to an efficient benevolence, and a sympathizing mind. In France +they have no humourists who seem impelled by their nature to do good, in +spite of their temperament--nor have we in England many people who are +cold and unfeeling, yet systematically aimable: but I must still persist +in not thinking it a defect that we are too impetuous, or perhaps too +ingenuous, to unite contradictions. + +There is a cause, that doubtless has its effects in representing the +English disadvantageously, and which I have never heard properly allowed +for. The liberty of the press, and the great interest taken by all ranks +of people in public affairs, have occasioned a more numerous circulation +of periodical prints of every kind in England, than in any other country +in Europe. Now, as it is impossible to fill them constantly with +politics, and as the taste of different readers must be consulted, every +barbarous adventure, suicide, murder, robbery, domestic fracas, assaults, +and batteries of the lower orders, with the duels and divorces of the +higher, are all chronicled in various publications, disseminated over +Europe, and convey an idea that we are a very miserable, ferocious, and +dissolute nation. The foreign gazettes being chiefly appropriated to +public affairs, seldom record either the vices, the crimes, or +misfortunes of individuals; so that they are thereby at least prevented +from fixing an unfavourable judgement on the national character. + +Mercier observes, that the number of suicides committed in Paris was +supposed to exceed greatly that of similar disasters in London; and that +murders in France were always accompanied by circumstances of peculiar +horror, though policy and custom had rendered the publication of such +events less general than with us.--Our divorces, at which the Gallic +purity of manners used to be so much scandalized, are, no doubt, to be +regretted; but that such separations were not then allowed, or desired in +France, may perhaps be attributed, at least as justly, to the +complaisance of husbands, as to the discretion of wives, or the national +morality.* + + * At present, in the monthly statement, the number of divorces in + France, is often nearly equal to that of the marriages. + +I should reproach myself if I could feel impartial when I contemplate the +English character; yet I certainly endeavour to write as though I were +so. If I have erred, it has been rather in allowing too much to received +opinions on the subject of this country, than in suffering my affections +to make me unjust; for though I am far from affecting the fashion of the +day, which censures all prejudices as illiberal, except those in +disfavour of our own country, yet I am warranted, I hope, in saying, that +however partial I may appear to England, I have not been so at the +expence of truth.--Yours, &c. + + + + +October 6, 1794. + +The sufferings of individuals have often been the means of destroying or +reforming the most powerful tyrannies; reason has been convinced by +argument, and passion appealed to by declamation in vain--when some +unvarnished tale, or simple exposure of facts, has at once rouzed the +feelings, and conquered the supineness of an oppressed people. + +The revolutionary government, in spite of the clamorous and weekly +swearings of the Convention to perpetuate it, has received a check from +an event of this nature, which I trust it will never recover.--By an +order of the Revolutionary Committee of Nantes, in November 1793, all +prisoners accused of political crimes were to be transferred to Paris, +where the tribunal being more immediately under the direction of +government, there would be no chance of their acquittal. In consequence +of this order, an hundred and thirty-two inhabitants of Nantes, arrested +on the usual pretexts of foederalism, or as suspected, or being +Muscadins, were, some months after, conducted to Paris. Forty of the +number died through the hardships and ill treatment they encountered on +the way, the rest remained in prison until after the death of +Robespierre. + +The evidence produced on their trial, which lately took place, has +revealed but too circumstantially all the horrors of the revolutionary +system. Destruction in every form, most shocking to morals or humanity, +has depopulated the countries of the Loire; and republican Pizarro's and +Almagro's seem to have rivalled each other in the invention and +perpetration of crimes. + +When the prisons of Nantes overflowed, many hundreds of their miserable +inhabitants had been conducted by night, and chained together, to the +river side; where, being first stripped of their clothes, they were +crouded into vessels with false bottoms, constructed for the purpose, and +sunk.*-- + + * Though the horror excited by such atrocious details must be + serviceable to humanity, I am constrained by decency to spare the + reader a part of them. Let the imagination, however repugnant, + pause for a moment over these scenes--Five, eight hundred people of + different sexes, ages, and conditions, are taken from their prisons, + in the dreary months of December and January, and conducted, during + the silence of the night, to the banks of the Loire. The agents of + the Republic there despoil them of their clothes, and force them, + shivering and defenceless, to enter the machines prepared for their + destruction--they are chained down, to prevent their escape by + swimming, and then the bottom is detached for the upper part, and + sunk.--On some occasions the miserable victims contrived to loose + themselves, and clinging to the boards near them, shrieked in the + agonies of despair and death, "O save us! it is not even now too + late: in mercy save us!" But they appealed to wretches to whom + mercy was a stranger; and, being cut away from their hold by strokes + of the sabre, perished with their companions. That nothing might be + wanting to these outrages against nature, they were escribed as + jests, and called "Noyades, water parties," and "civic baptisms"! + Carrier, a Deputy of the Convention, used to dine and make parties + of pleasure, accompanied by music and every species of gross luxury, + on board the barges appropriated to these execrable purposes. + +--At one time, six hundred children appear to have been destroyed in this +manner;--young people of different sexes were tied in pairs and thrown +into the river;--thousands were shot in the high roads and in the fields; +and vast numbers were guillotined, without a trial!* + + * Six young women, (the _Mesdemoiselles la Meterie,_) in particular, + sisters, and all under four-and-twenty, were ordered to the + Guillotine together: the youngest died instantly of fear, the rest + were executed successively.--A child eleven years old, who had + previously told the executioner, with affecting simplicity, that he + hoped he would not hurt him much, received three strokes of the + Guillotine before his head was severed from his body. + +--Two thousand died, in less than two months, of a pestilence, occasioned +by this carnage: the air became infected, and the waters of the Loire +empoisoned, by dead bodies; and those whom tyranny yet spared, perished +by the elements which nature intended for their support.* + + * Vast sums were exacted from the Nantais for purifying the air, and + taking precautions against epidemical disorders. + +But I will not dwell on horrors, which, if not already known to all +Europe, I should be unequal to describe: suffice it to say, that whatever +could disgrace or afflict mankind, whatever could add disgust to +detestation, and render cruelty, if possible, less odious than the +circumstances by which it was accompanied, has been exhibited in this +unfortunate city.--Both the accused and their witnesses were at first +timid through apprehension, but by degrees the monstrous mysteries of the +government were laid open, and it appeared, beyond denial or palliation, +that these enormities were either devised, assisted, or connived at, by +Deputies of the Convention, celebrated for their ardent republicanism and +revolutionary zeal.--The danger of confiding unlimited power to such men +as composed the majority of the Assembly, was now displayed in a manner +that penetrated the dullest imagination, and the coldest heart; and it +was found, that, armed with decrees, aided by revolutionary committees, +revolutionary troops, and revolutionary vehicles of destruction,* +missionaries selected by choice from the whole representation, had, in +the city of Nantes alone, and under the mask of enthusiastic patriotism, +sacrificed thirty thousand people! + + * A company was formed of all the ruffians that could be collected + together. They were styled the Company of Marat, and were specially + empowered to arrest whomsoever they chose, and to enter houses by + night or day--in fine, to proscribe and pillage at their pleasure. + +Facts like these require no comment. The nation may be intimidated, and +habits of obedience, or despair of redress, prolong its submission; but +it can no longer be deceived: and patriotism, revolutionary liberty, and +philosophy, are for ever associated with the drowning machines of +Carrier, and the precepts and calculations of a Herault de Sechelles,* or +a Lequinio.**-- + + * Herault de Sechelles was distinguished by birth, talents, and + fortune, above most of his colleagues in the Convention; yet we find + him in correspondence with Carrier, applauding his enormities, and + advising him how to continue them with effect.--Herault was of a + noble family, and had been a president in the Parliament of Paris. + He was one of Robespierre's Committee of Public Welfare, and being + in some way implicated in a charge of treachery brought against + Simon, another Deputy, was guillotined at the same time with Danton. + + ** Lequinio is a philosopher by profession, who has endeavoured to + enlighten his countrymen by a publication entitled "_Les Prejuges + Detruits,_" and since by proving it advantageous to make no prisoners + of war. + +--The ninety Nantais, against whom there existed no serious charge, and +who had already suffered more than death, were acquitted. Yet, though +the people were gratified by this verdict, and the general indignation +appeased by an immediate arrest of those who had been most notoriously +active in these dreadful operations, a deep and salutary impression +remains, and we may hope it will be found impracticable either to renew +the same scenes, or for the Convention to shelter (as they seemed +disposed to do) the principal criminals, who are members of their own +body. Yet, how are these delinquents to be brought to condemnation? +They all acted under competent authority, and their dispatches to the +Convention, which sufficiently indicated their proceedings, were always +sanctioned by circulation, and applauded, according to the excess of +their flagitiousness. + +It is worthy of remark, that Nantes, the principal theatre of these +persecutions and murders, had been early distinguished by the attachment +of its inhabitants to the revolution; insomuch, that, at the memorable +epoch when the short-sighted policy of the Court excluded the Constituent +Assembly from their Hall at Versailles, and they took refuge in the Jeu +de Paume, with a resolution fatal to their country, never to separate +until they had obtained their purposes, an express was sent to Nantes, as +the place they should make choice of, if any violence obliged them to +quit the neighbourhood of Paris. + +But it was not only by its principles that Nantes had signalized itself; +at every period of the war, it had contributed largely both in men and +money, and its riches and commerce still rendered it one of the most +important towns of the republic.--What has been its reward?--Barbarous +envoys from the Convention, sent expressly to level the aristocracy of +wealth, to crush its mercantile spirit, and decimate its inhabitants.*-- + + * When Nantes was reduced almost to a state of famine by the + destruction of commerce, and the supplies drawn for the maintenance + of the armies, Commissioners were sent to Paris, to solicit a supply + of provisions. They applied to Carrier, as being best acquainted + with their distress, and were answered in this language:--_"Demandez, + pour Nantes! je solliciterai qu'on porte le fer et la flamme dans + cette abominable ville. Vous etes tous des coquins, des contre- + revolutionnaires, des brigands, des scelerats, je ferai nommer une + commission par la Convention Nationale.--J'irai moi meme a la tete + de cette commission.--Scelerats, je serai rouler les tetes dans + Nantes--je regenererai Nantes."_--"Is it for Nantes that you + petition? I'll exert my influence to have fire and sword carried + into that abominable city. You are all scoundrels, counter- + revolutionists, thieves, miscreants.--I'll have a commission + appointed by the Convention, and go myself at the head of it.-- + Villains, I'll set your heads a rolling about Nantes--I'll + regenerate Nantes." + Report of the Commission of Twenty-one, on the conduct of Carrier. + +--Terrible lesson for those discontented and mistaken people, who, +enriched by commerce, are not content with freedom and independence, but +seek for visionary benefits, by becoming the partizans of innovation, or +the tools of faction!* + + * The disasters of Nantes ought not to be lost to the republicans of + Birmingham, Manchester, and other great commercial towns, where "men + fall out they know not why;" and where their increasing wealth and + prosperity are the best eulogiums on the constitution they attempt + to undermine. + +I have hitherto said little of La Vendee; but the fate of Nantes is so +nearly connected with it, that I shall make it the subject of my next +letter. + + + + +[No Date or Place Given.] + +It appears, that the greater part of the inhabitants of Poitou, Anjou, +and the Southern divisions of Brittany, now distinguished by the general +appellation of the people of La Vendee, (though they include those of +several other departments,) never either comprehended or adopted the +principles of the French revolution. Many different causes contributed +to increase their original aversion from the new system, and to give +their resistance that consistency, which has since become so formidable. +A partiality for their ancient customs, an attachment to their Noblesse, +and a deference for their Priests, are said to characterize the brave +and simple natives of La Vendee. Hence republican writers, with +self-complacent decision, always treat this war as the effect of +ignorance, slavery, and superstition. + +The modern reformist, who calls the labourer from the plough, and the +artizan from the loom, to make them statesmen or philosophers, and who +has invaded the abodes of contented industry with the rights of man, that +our fields may be cultivated, and our garments wove, by metaphysicians, +will readily assent to this opinion.--Yet a more enlightened and liberal +philosophy may be tempted to examine how far the Vendeans have really +merited the contempt and persecution of which they have been the objects. +By the confession of the republicans themselves, they are religious, +hospitable, and frugal, humane and merciful towards their enemies, and +easily persuaded to whatever is just and reasonable. + +I do not pretend to combat the narrow prejudices of those who suppose the +worth or happiness of mankind compatible but with one set of opinions; +and who, confounding the adventitious with the essential, appreciate only +book learning: but surely, qualities which imply a knowledge of what is +due both to God and man, and information sufficient to yield to what is +right or rational, are not descriptive of barbarians; or at least, we may +say with Phyrrhus, "there is nothing barbarous in their discipline."* + + *"The husbandmen of this country are in general men of simple + manners, naturally well inclined, or at least not addicted to + serious vices." Lequinio, Guerre de La Vendee. + + Dubois de Crance, speaking of the inhabitants of La Vendee, says, + "They are the most hospitable people I ever saw, and always disposed + to listen to what is just and reasonable, if proffered with mildness + and humanity." + + "This unpolished people, whom, however, it is much less difficult to + persuade than to fight." Lequinio, G. de La V. + + "They affected towards our prisoners a deceitful humanity, + neglecting no means to draw them over to their own party, and often + sending them back to us with only a simple prohibition to bear arms + against the King or religion." + Report of Richard and Choudieu. + + The ignorant Vendeans then could give lessons of policy and + humanity, which the "enlightened" republicans were not capable of + profiting by. + +--Their adherence to their ancient institutions, and attachment to their +Gentry and Clergy, when the former were abolished and the latter +proscribed, might warrant a presumption that they were happy under the +one, and kindly treated by the other: for though individuals may +sometimes persevere in affections or habits from which they derive +neither felicity nor advantage, whole bodies of men can scarcely be +supposed eager to risk their lives in defence of privileges that have +oppressed them, or of a religion from which they draw no consolation. + +But whatever the cause, the new doctrines, both civil and religious, were +received in La Vendee with a disgust, which was not only expressed by +murmurs, but occasionally by little revolts, by disobedience to the +constitutional authorities, and a rejection of the constitutional clergy. + +Some time previous to the deposition of the King, Commissioners were sent +to suppress these disorders; and though I doubt not but all possible +means were taken to conciliate, I can easily believe, that neither the +King nor his Ministers might be desirous of subduing by force a people +who erred only from piety or loyalty. What effect this system of +indulgence might have produced cannot now be decided; because the +subsequent overthrow of the monarchy, and the massacre or banishment of +the priests, must have totally alienated their minds, and precluded all +hope of reconcilement.--Disaffection, therefore, continued to increase, +and the Brissotines are suspected of having rather fostered than +repressed these intestine commotions,* for the same purpose which induced +them to provoke the war with England, and to extend that of the +Continent. + + * Le Brun, one of the Brissotin Ministers, concealed the progress of + this war for six months before he thought fit to report it to the + Convention. + +--It is impossible to assign a good motive to any act of this literary +intriguer. + +--Perhaps, while they determined to establish their faction by "braving +all Europe," they might think it equally politic to perplex and overawe +Paris by a near and dangerous enemy, which would render their continuance +in power necessary, or whom they might join, if expelled from it.* + + * This last reason might afterwards have given way to their + apprehensions, and the Brissotins have preferred the creation of new + civil wars, to a confidence in the royalists. These men, who + condemned the King for a supposed intention of defending an + authority transmitted to him through whole ages, and recently + sanctioned by the voice of the people, did not scruple to excite a + civil war in defence of their six months' sovereignty over a + republic, proclaimed by a ferocious comedian, and certainly without + the assent of the nation. Had the ill-fated Monarch dared thus to + trifle with the lives of his subjects, he might have saved France + and himself from ruin. + +When men gratify their ambition by means so sanguinary and atrocious as +those resorted to by the Brissotines, we are authorized in concluding +they will not be more scrupulous in the use or preservation of power, +than they were in attaining it; and we can have no doubt but that the +fomenting or suppressing the progress of civil discord, was, with them, +a mere question of expediency. + +The decree which took place in March, 1793, for raising three hundred +thousand men in the departments, changed the partial insurrections of La +Vendee to an open and connected rebellion; and every where the young +people refused going, and joined in preference the standard of revolt. +In the beginning of the summer, the brigands* (as they were called) grew +so numerous, that the government, now in the hands of Robespierre and his +party, began to take serious measures to combat them. + + * Robbers--_banditti_--The name was first given, probably, to the + insurgents of La Vendee, in order to insinuate a belief that the + disorders were but of a slight and predatory nature. + +--One body of troops were dispatched after another, who were all +successively defeated, and every where fled before the royalists. + +It is not unusual in political concerns to attribute to deep-laid plans +and abstruse combinations, effects which are the natural result of +private passions and isolated interests. Robespierre is said to have +promoted both the destruction of the republican armies and those of La +Vendee, in order to reduce the national population. That he was capable +of imagining such a project is probable--yet we need not, in tracing the +conduct of the war, look farther than to the character of the agents who +were, almost necessarily, employed in it. Nearly every officer qualified +for the command of an army, had either emigrated, or was on service at +the frontiers; and the task of reducing by violence a people who resisted +only because they deemed themselves injured, and who, even in the +estimation of the republicans, could only be mistaken, was naturally +avoided by all men who were not mere adventurers. It might likewise be +the policy of the government to prefer the services of those, who, having +neither reputation nor property, would be more dependent, and whom, +whether they became dangerous by their successes or defeats, it would be +easy to sacrifice. + +Either, then, from necessity or choice, the republican armies in La +Vendee were conducted by dissolute and rapacious wretches, at all times +more eager to pillage than fight, and who were engaged in securing their +plunder, when they should have been in pursuit of the enemy. On every +occasion they seemed to retreat, that their ill success might afford them +a pretext for declaring that the next town or village was confederated +with the insurgents, and for delivering it up, in consequence, to murder +and rapine. Such of the soldiers as could fill their pocket-books with +assignats, left their less successful companions, and retired as invalids +to the hospitals: the battalions of Paris (and particularly "the +conquerors of the Bastille") had such ardour for pillage, that every +person possessed of property was, in their sense, an aristocrat, whom it +was lawful to despoil.* + + * _"Le pillage a ete porte a son comble--les militaires au lieu de + songer a ce qu'ils avoient a faire, n'ont pense qu'a remplir leurs + sacs, et a voir se perpetuer une guerre aussi avantageuse a leur + interet--beaucoup de simples soldats ont acquis cinquante mille + francs et plus; on en a vu couverts de bijoux, et faisant dans tous + les genres des depenses d'une produgaloite, monstreuse." + Lequinio, Guerre de la Vendee._ + + "The most unbridled pillage prevailed--officers, instead of + attending to their duty, thought only of filling their portmanteaus, + and of the means to perpetuate a war they found so profitable.--Many + private soldiers made fifty thousand livres, and they have been seen + loaded with trinkets, and exercising the most abominable + prodigalities of every kind." + Lequinio, War of La Vendee. + + "The conquerors of the Bastille had unluckily a most unbridled + ardour for pillage--one would have supposed they had come for the + express purpose of plunder, rather than fighting. The stage coaches + for Paris were entirely loaded with their booty." + Report of Benaben, Commissioner of the Department of Maine and + Loire. + +--The carriages of the army were entirely appropriated to the conveyance +of their booty; till, at last, the administrators of some departments +were under the necessity of forbidding such incumbrances: but the +officers, with whom restrictions of this sort were unavailing, put all +the horses and waggons of the country in requisition for similar +purposes, while they relaxed themselves from the serious business of the +war, (which indeed was nearly confined to burning, plundering, and +massacring the defenceless inhabitants,) by a numerous retinue of +mistresses and musicians. + +It is not surprizing that generals and troops of this description were +constantly defeated; and their reiterated disasters might probably have +first suggested the idea of totally exterminating a people it was found +so difficult to subdue, and so impracticable to conciliate.--On the first +of October 1793, Barrere, after inveighing against the excessive +population of La Vendee, which he termed "frightful," proposed to the +Convention to proclaim by a decree, that the war of La Vendee "should be +terminated" by the twentieth of the same month. The Convention, with +barbarous folly, obeyed; and the enlightened Parisians, accustomed to +think with contempt on the ignorance of the Vendeans, believed that a +war, which had baffled the efforts of government for so many months, was +to end on a precise day--which Barrere had fixed with as much assurance +as though he had only been ordering a fete. + +But the Convention and the government understood this decree in a very +different sense from the good people of Paris. The war was, indeed, to +be ended; not by the usual mode of combating armies, but by a total +extinction of all the inhabitants of the country, both innocent and +guilty--and Merlin de Thionville, with other members, so perfectly +comprehended this detestable project, that they already began to devise +schemes for repeopling La Vendee, when its miserable natives should be +destroyed.* + + * It is for the credit of humanity to believe, that the decree was + not understood according to its real intention; but the nation has + to choose between the imputation of cruelty, stupidity, or slavery-- + for they either approved the sense of the decree, believed what was + not possible, or were obliged to put on an appearance of both, in + spite of their senses and their feelings. A proclamation, in + consequence, to the army, is more explicit--"All the brigands of La + Vendee must be exterminated before the end of October." + +From this time, the representatives on mission, commissaries of war, +officers, soldiers, and agents of every kind, vied with each other in the +most abominable outrages. Carrier superintended the fusillades and +noyades at Nantes, while Lequinio dispatched with his own hands a part of +the prisoners taken at La Fontenay, and projected the destruction of the +rest.--After the evacuation of Mans by the insurgents, women were brought +by twenties and thirties, and shot before the house where the deputies +Tureau and Bourbotte had taken up their residence; and it appears to have +been considered as a compliment to these republican Molochs, to surround +their habitation with mountains of the dead. A compliment of the like +nature was paid to the representative Prieur de la Marne,* by a +volunteer, who having learned that his own brother was taken amongst the +enemy, requested, by way of recommending himself to notice, a formal +permission to be his executioner.--The Roman stoicism of Prieur accepted +the implied homage, and granted the request!! + + * This representative, who was also a member of the Committee of + Public Welfare, was not only the Brutus, but the Antony of La + Vendee; for we learn from the report of Benaben, that his stern + virtues were accompanied, through the whole of his mission in this + afflicted country, by a cortege of thirty strolling fiddlers! + +Fourteen hundred prisoners, who had surrendered at Savenay, among whom +were many women and children, were shot, by order of the deputy +Francastel, who, together with Hentz, Richard, Choudieu, Carpentier, and +others of their colleagues, set an example of rapine and cruelty, but too +zealously imitated by their subordinate agents. In some places, the +inhabitants, without distinction of age or sex, were put indiscriminately +to the sword; in others, they were forced to carry the pillage collected +from their own dwellings, which, after being thus stripped, were +consigned to the flames.* + + * "This conflagration accomplished, they had no sooner arrived in + the midst of our army, than the volunteers, in imitation of their + commanders, seized what little they had preserved, and massacred + them.--But this is not all: a whole municipality, in their scarfs of + office, were sacrificed; and at a little village, inhabited by about + fifty good patriots, who had been uniform in their resistance of the + insurgents, news is brought that their brother soldiers are coming + to assist them, and to revenge the wrongs they have suffered. A + friendly repast is provided, the military arrive, embrace their + ill-fated hosts, and devour what they have provided; which is no + sooner done, than they drive all these poor people into the + churchyard, and stab them one after another." + Report of Faure, Vice-President of a Military Commission at + Fontenay. + +--The heads of the prisoners served occasionally as marks for the +officers to shoot at for trifling wagers, and the soldiers, who imitated +these heinous examples, used to conduct whole hundreds to the place of +execution, singing _"allons enfans de la patrie."_* + + * Woe to those who were unable to walk, for, under pretext that + carriages could not be found to convey them, they were shot without + hesitation!--Benaben. + +The insurgents had lost Cholet, Chatillon, Mortagne, &c. Yet, far from +being vanquished by the day appointed, they had crossed the Loire in +great force, and, having traversed Brittany, were preparing to make an +attack on Granville. But this did not prevent Barrere from announcing to +the convention, that La Vendee was no more, and the galleries echoed with +applauses, when they were told that the highways were impassable, from +the numbers of the dead, and that a considerable part of France was one +vast cemetery. This intelligence also tranquillized the paternal +solicitude of the legislature, and, for many months, while the system of +depopulation was pursued with the most barbarous fury, it was not +permissible even to suspect that the war was yet unextinguished. + +It is only since the trial of the Nantais, that the state of La Vendee +has again become a subject of discussion: truth has now forced its way, +and we learn, that, whatever may be the strength of these unhappy people, +their minds, embittered by suffering, and animated by revenge, are still +less than ever disposed to submit to the republican government. The +design of total extirpation, once so much insisted on, is at present said +to be relinquished, and a plan of instruction and conversion is to be +substituted for bayonets and conflagrations. The revolted countries are +to be enlightened by the doctrines of liberty, fanaticism is to be +exposed, and a love of the republic to succeed the prejudices in favour +of Kings and Nobles.--To promote these objects, is, undoubtedly, the real +interest of the Convention; but a moralist, who observes through another +medium, may compare with regret and indignation the instructors with the +people they are to illumine, and the advantages of philosophy over +ignorance. + +Lequinio, one of the most determined reformers of the barbarism of La +Vendee, proposes two methods: the first is, a general massacre of all the +natives--and the only objection it seems susceptible of in his opinion +is, their numbers; but as he thinks on this account it may be attended +with difficulty, he is for establishing a sort of perpetual mission of +Representatives, who, by the influence of good living and a company of +fiddlers and singers, are to restore the whole country to peace.*-- + + *"The only difficulty that presents itself is, to determine whether + recourse shall be had to the alternative of indulgence, or if it + will not be more advantageous to persist in the plan of total + destruction. + + "If the people that still remain were not more than thirty or forty + thousand, the shortest way would doubtless be, to cut all their + throats (egorger), agreeably to my first opinion; but the population + is immense, amounting still to four hundred thousand souls.--If + there were no hope of succeeding by any other methods, certainly it + were better to kill all (egorger), even were there five hundred + thousand. + + "But what are we to understand by measures of rigour? Is there no + distinction to be made between rigorous and barbarous measures? The + utmost severity is justified on the plea of the general good, but + nothing can justify barbarity. If the welfare of France + necessitated the sacrifice of the four hundred thousand inhabitants + of La Vendee, and the countries in rebellion adjoining, they ought + to be sacrificed: but, even in this case, there would be no excuse + for those atrocities which revolt nature, which are an outrage to + social order, and repugnant equally to feeling (sentiment) and + reason; and in cutting off so many entire generations for the good + of the country, we ought not to suffer the use of barbarous means in + a single instance. + + "Now the most effectual way to arrive at this end (converting the + people), would be by joyous and fraternal missions, frank and + familiar harangues, civic repasts, and, above all, dancing. + + "I could wish, too, that during their circuits in these countries, + the Representatives were always attended by musicians. The expence + would be trifling, compared with the good effect; if, as I am + strongly persuaded, we could thus succeed in giving a turn to the + public mind, and close the bleeding arteries of these fertile and + unhappy provinces." + Lequinio, Guerre de La Vendee. + + And this people, who were either to have their throats cut, or be + republicanized by means of singing, dancing, and revolutionary Pans + and Silenus's, already beheld their property devastated by pillage + or conflagration, and were in danger of a pestilence from the + unburied bodies of their families.--Let the reader, who has seen + Lequinio's pamphlet, compare his account of the sufferings of the + Vendeans, and his project for conciliating them. They convey a + strong idea of the levity of the national character; but, in this + instance, I must suppose, that nature would be superior to local + influence; and I doubt if Lequinio's jocund philosophy will ever + succeed in attaching the Vendeans to the republic. + +--Camille Desmouins, a republican reformer, nearly as sanguinary, though +not more liberal, thought the guillotine disgraced by such ignorant prey, +and that it were better to hunt them down like wild beasts; or, if made +prisoners, to exchange them against the cattle of their country!--The +eminently informed Herault de Sechelles was the patron and confidant of +the exterminating reforms of Carrier; and Carnot, when the mode of +reforming by noyades and fusillades was debated at the Committee, pleaded +the cause of Carrier, whom he describes as a good, nay, an excellent +patriot.--Merlin de Thionville, whose philosophy is of a more martial +cast, was desirous that the natives of La Vendee should be completely +annihilated, in order to furnish in their territory and habitations a +recompence for the armies.--Almost every member of the Convention has +individually avowed principles, or committed acts, from which common +turpitude would recoil, and, as a legislative body, their whole code has +been one unvarying subversion of morals and humanity. Such are the men +who value themselves on possessing all the advantages the Vendeans are +pretended to be in want of.--We will now examine what disciples they have +produced, and the benefits which have been derived from their +instructions. + +Every part of France remarkable for an early proselytism to the +revolutionary doctrines has been the theatre of crimes unparalleled in +the annals of human nature. Those who have most boasted their contempt +for religious superstition have been degraded by an idolatry as gross as +any ever practiced on the Nile; and the most enthusiastic republicans +have, without daring to murmur, submitted for two years successively to a +horde of cruel and immoral tyrants.--A pretended enfranchisement from +political and ecclesiastical slavery has been the signal of the lowest +debasement, and the most cruel profligacy: the very Catechumens of +freedom and philosophy have, while yet in their first rudiments, +distinguished themselves as proficients in the arts of oppression and +servility, of intolerance and licentiousness.--Paris, the rendezvous of +all the persecuted patriots and philosophers in Europe, the centre of the +revolutionary system, whose inhabitants were illumined by the first rays +of modern republicanism, and who claim a sort of property in the rights +of man, as being the original inventors, may fairly be quoted as an +example of the benefits that would accrue from a farther dissemination of +the new tenets. + +Without reverting to the events of August and September, 1792, presided +by the founders of liberty, and executed by their too apt sectaries, it +is notorious that the legions of Paris, sent to chastise the +unenlightened Vendeans, were the most cruel and rapacious banditti that +ever were let loose to afflict the world. Yet, while they exercised this +savage oppression in the countries near the Loire, their fellow-citizens +on the banks of the Seine crouched at the frown of paltry tyrants, and +were unresistingly dragged to dungeons, or butchered by hundreds on the +scaffold.--At Marseilles, Lyons, Bourdeaux, Arras, wherever these baleful +principles have made converts, they have made criminals and victims; and +those who have been most eager in imbibing or propagating them have, by a +natural and just retribution, been the first sacrificed. The new +discoveries in politics have produced some in ethics not less novel, and +until the adoption of revolutionary doctrines, the extent of human +submission or human depravity was fortunately unknown. + +In this source of guilt and misery the people of La Vendee are now to be +instructed--that people, who are acknowledged to be hospitable, humane, +and laborious, and whose ideas of freedom may be better estimated by +their resistance to a despotism which the rest of France has sunk under, +than by the jargon of pretended reformers.--I could wish, that not only +the peasants of La Vendee, but those of all other countries, might for +ever remain strangers to such pernicious knowledge. It is sufficient for +this useful class of men to be taught the simple precepts of religion and +morality, and those who would teach them more, are not their benefactors. +Our age is, indeed, a literary age, and such pursuits are both liberal +and laudable in the rich and idle; but why should volumes of politics or +philosophy be mutilated and frittered into pamphlets, to inspire a +disgust for labour, and a taste for study or pleasure, in those to whom +such disgusts or inclinations are fatal. The spirit of one author is +extracted, and the beauties of another are selected, only to bewilder the +understanding, and engross the time, of those who might be more +profitably employed. + +I know I may be censured as illiberal; but I have, during my abode in +this country, sufficiently witnessed the disastrous effects of corrupting +a people through their amusements or curiosity, and of making men neglect +their useful callings to become patriots and philosophers.*-- + + *This right of directing public affairs, and neglecting their own, + we may suppose essential to republicans of the lower orders, since + we find the following sentence of transportation in the registers of + a popular commission: + + "Bergeron, a dealer in skins--suspected--having done nothing in + favour of the revolution--extremely selfish (egoiste,) and blaming + the Sans-Culottes for neglecting their callings, that they may + attend only to public concerns."--Signed by the members of the + Commission and the two Committees. + +--_"Il est dangereux d'apprendre au peuple a raisonner: il ne faut pas +l'eclairer trop, parce qu'il n'est pas possible de l'eclairer assez."_ +["It is dangerous to teach the people to reason--they should not be too +much enlightened, because it is not possible to enlighten them +sufficiently."]--When the enthusiasm of Rousseau's genius was thus +usefully submitted to his good sense and knowledge of mankind, he little +expected every hamlet in France would be inundated with scraps of the +contrat social, and thousands of inoffensive peasants massacred for not +understanding the Profession de Foi. + +The arguments of mistaken philanthropists or designing politicians may +divert the order of things, but they cannot change our nature--they may +create an universal taste for literature, but they will never unite it +with habits of industry; and until they prove how men are to live without +labour, they have no right to banish the chearful vacuity which usually +accompanies it, by substituting reflections to make it irksome, and +propensities with which it is incompatible. + +The situation of France has amply demonstrated the folly of attempting to +make a whole people reasoners and politicians--there seems to be no +medium; and as it is impossible to make a nation of sages, you let loose +a horde of savages: for the philosophy which teaches a contempt for +accustomed restraints, is not difficult to propagate; but that superior +kind, which enables men to supply them, by subduing the passions that +render restraints necessary, is of slow progress, and never can be +general. + +I have made the war of La Vendee more a subject of reflection than +narrative, and have purposely avoided military details, which would be +not only uninteresting, but disgusting. You would learn no more from +these desultory hostilities, than that the defeats of the republican +armies were, if possible, more sanguinary than their victories; that the +royalists, who began the war with humanity, were at length irritated to +reprisals; and that more than two hundred thousand lives have already +been sacrificed in the contest, yet undecided. + + + + +Amiens, Oct. 24, 1794. + +Revolutions, like every thing else in France, are a mode, and the +Convention already commemorate four since 1789: that of July 1789, which +rendered the monarchical power nugatory; that of August the 10th, 1792, +which subverted it; the expulsion of the Brissotins, in May 1793; and the +death of Robespierre, in July 1794. + +The people, accustomed, from their earliest knowledge, to respect the +person and authority of the King, felt that the events of the two first +epochs, which disgraced the one and annihilated the other, were violent +and important revolutions; and, as language which expresses the public +sentiment is readily adopted, it soon became usual to speak of these +events as the revolutions of July and August. + +The thirty-first of May has always been viewed in a very different light, +for it was not easy to make the people at large comprehend how the +succession of Robespierre and Danton to Brissot and Roland could be +considered as a revolution, more especially as it appeared evident that +the principles of one party actuated the government of the other. Every +town had its many-headed monster to represent the defeat of the +Foederalists, and its mountain to proclaim the triumph of their enemies +the Mountaineers; but these political hieroglyphics were little +understood, and the merits of the factions they alluded to little +distinguished--so that the revolution of the thirty-first of May was +rather a party aera, than a popular one. + +The fall of Robespierre would have made as little impression as that of +the Girondists, if some melioration of the revolutionary system had not +succeeded it; and it is in fact only since the public voice, and the +interest of the Convention, have occasioned a change approaching to +reform, that the death of Robespierre is really considered as a benefit. + +But what was in itself no more than a warfare of factions, may now, if +estimated by its consequences, be pronounced a revolution of infinite +importance. The Jacobins, whom their declining power only rendered more +insolent and daring, have at length obliged the Convention to take +decided measures against them, and they are now subject to such +regulations as must effectually diminish their influence, and, in the +end, dissolve their whole combination. They can no longer correspond as +societies, and the mischievous union which constituted their chief force, +can scarcely be supported for any time under the present restrictions.* + + * "All affiliations, aggregations, and foederations, as well as + correspondences carried on collectively between societies, under + whatever denomination they may exist, are henceforth prohibited, as + being subversive of government, and contrary to the unity of the + republic. + + "Those persons who sign as presidents or secretaries, petitions or + addresses in a collective form, shall be arrested and confined as + suspicious, &c. &c.--Whoever offends in any shape against the + present law, will incur the same penalty." + + The whole of the decree is in the same spirit. The immediate and + avowed pretext for this measure was, that the popular societies, who + have of late only sent petitions disagreeable to the Convention, did + not express the sense of the people. Yet the deposition of the + King, and the establishment of the republic, had no other sanction + than the adherence of these clubs, who are now allowed not to be the + nation, and whose very existence as then constituted is declared to + be subversive of government. + +It is not improbable, that the Convention, by suffering the clubs still +to exist, after reducing them to nullity, may hope to preserve the +institution as a future resource against the people, while it represses +their immediate efforts against itself. The Brissotins would have +attempted a similar policy, but they had nothing to oppose to the +Jacobins, except their personal influence. Brissot and Roland took part +with the clubs, as they approved the massacres of August and September, +just as far as it answered their purpose; and when they were abandoned by +the one, and the other were found to incur an unprofitable odium, they +acted the part which Tallien and Freron act now under the same +circumstances, and would willingly have promoted the destruction of a +power which had become inimical to them.*-- + + * Brissot and Roland were more pernicious as Jacobins than the most + furious of their successors. If they did not in person excite the + people to the commission of crimes, they corrupted them, and made + them fit instruments for the crimes of others. Brissot might affect + to condemn the massacres of September in the gross, but he is known + to have enquired with eager impatience, and in a tone which implied + he had reasons for expecting it, whether De Morande, an enemy he + wished to be released from, was among the murdered. + +--Their imitators, without possessing more honesty, either political or +moral, are more fortunate; and not only Tallien and Freron, who since +their expulsion from the Jacobins have become their most active enemies, +are now in a manner popular, but even the whole Convention is much less +detested than it was before. + +It is the singular felicity of the Assembly to derive a sort of +popularity from the very excesses it has occasioned or sanctioned, and +which, it was natural to suppose, would have consigned it for ever to +vengeance or obloquy; but the past sufferings of the people have taught +them to be moderate in their expectations; and the name of their +representation has been so connected with tyranny of every sort, that it +appears an extraordinary forbearance when the usual operations of +guillotines and mandates of arrest are suspended. + +Thus, though the Convention have not in effect repaired a thousandth part +of their own acts of injustice, or done any good except from necessity, +they are overwhelmed with applauding addresses, and affectionate +injunctions not to quit their post. What is still more wonderful, many +of these are sincere; and Tallien, Freron, Legendre, &c. with all their +revolutionary enormities on their heads, are now the heroes of the +reviving aristocrats. + +Situated as things are at present, there is much sound policy in +flattering the Convention into a proper use of their power, rather than +making a convulsive effort to deprive them of it. The Jacobins would +doubtless avail themselves of such a movement; and this is so much +apprehended, that it has given rise to a general though tacit agreement +to foment the divisions between the Legislature and the Clubs, and to +support the first, at least until it shall have destroyed the latter. + +The late decrees, which obstruct the intercourse and affiliation of +popular societies, may be regarded as an event not only beneficial to +this country, but to the world in general; because it is confessed, that +these combinations, by means of which the French monarchy was subverted, +and the King brought to the scaffold, are only reconcileable with a +barbarous and anarchical government. + +The Convention are now much occupied on two affairs, which call forth all +their "natural propensities," and afford a farther confirmation of this +fact--that their feelings and principles are always instinctively at war +with justice, however they may find it expedient to affect a regard for +it--_C'est la chatte metamorphosee en femme_ [The cat turned into a +woman.]-- + + _"En vain de son train ordinaire" + "On la veut desaccoutumer, + "Quelque chose qu'on puisse faire + "On ne fauroit la reformer."_ + La Fontaine. + +The Deputies who were imprisoned as accomplices of the Girondists, and on +other different pretexts, have petitioned either to be brought to trial +or released; and the abominable conduct of Carrier at Nantes is so fully +substantiated, that the whole country is impatient to have some steps +taken towards bringing him to punishment: yet the Convention are averse +from both these measures--they procrastinate and elude the demand of +their seventy-two colleagues, who were arrested without a specific +charge; while they almost protect Carrier, and declare, that in cases +which tend to deprive a Representative of his liberty, it is better to +reflect thirty times than once. This is curious doctrine with men who +have sent so many people arbitrarily to the scaffold, and who now detain +seventy-two Deputies in confinement, they know not why. + +The ashes of Rousseau have recently been deposited with the same +ceremonies, and in the same place, as those of Marat. We should feel for +such a degradation of genius, had not the talents of Rousseau been +frequently misapplied; and it is their misapplication which has levelled +him to an association with Marat. Rousseau might be really a fanatic, +and, though eccentric, honest; yet his power of adorning impracticable +systems, it must be acknowledged, has been more mischievous to society +than a thousand such gross impostors as Marat. + +I have learned since my return from the Providence, the death of Madame +Elizabeth. I was ill when it happened, and my friends took some pains to +conceal an event which they knew would affect me. In tracing the motives +of the government for this horrid action, it may perhaps be sufficiently +accounted for in the known piety and virtues of this Princess; but +reasons of another kind have been suggested to me, and which, in all +likelihood, contributed to hasten it. She was the only person of the +royal family of an age competent for political transactions who had not +emigrated, and her character extorted respect even from her enemies. [The +Prince of Conti was too insignificant to be an object of jealousy in this +way.] She must therefore, of course, since the death of the Queen, have +been an object of jealousy to all parties. Robespierre might fear that +she would be led to consent to some arrangement with a rival faction for +placing the King on the throne--the Convention were under similar +apprehensions with regard to him; so that the fate of this illustrious +sufferer was probably gratifying to every part of the republicans. + +I find, on reading her trial, (if so it may be called,) a repetition of +one of the principal charges against the Queen--that of trampling on the +national colours at Versailles, during an entertainment given to some +newly-arrived troops. Yet I have been assured by two gentlemen, +perfectly informed on the subject, and who were totally unacquainted with +each other, that this circumstance, which has been so usefully enlarged +upon, is false,* and that the whole calumny originated in the jealousy of +a part of the national guard who had not been invited. + + * This infamous calumny (originally fabricated by Lecointre the + linen draper, then an officer of the National Guard, now a member of + the council of 500) was amply confuted by M. Mounier, who was + President of the States-General at the time, in a publication + intitled "_Expose de ma Conduite,_" which appeared soon after the + event--in the autumn of 1789.--Editor. + +But this, as well as the taking of the Bastille, and other revolutionary +falsehoods, will, I trust, be elucidated. The people are now undeceived +only by their calamities--the time may come, when it will be safe to +produce their conviction by truth. Heroes of the fourteenth of July, and +patriots of the tenth of August, how will ye shrink from it!--Yours, &c. + + + + +Amiens, Nov. 2, 1794. + +Every post now brings me letters from England; but I perceive, by the +suppressed congratulations of my friends, that, though they rejoice to +find I am still alive, they are far from thinking me in a state of +security. You, my dear Brother, must more particularly have lamented the +tedious confinement I have endured, and the inconveniencies to which I +have been subjected; I am, however, persuaded that you would not wish me +to have been exempt from a persecution in which all the natives of +England, who are not a disgrace to their country, as well as some that +are so, have shared. Such an exemption would now be deemed a reproach; +for, though it must be confessed that few of us have been voluntary +sufferers, we still claim the honour of martyrdom, and are not very +tolerant towards those who, exposed by their situation, may be supposed +to have owed their protection to their principles. + +There are, indeed, many known revolutionists and republicans, who, from +party disputes, personal jealousies, or from being comprised in some +general measure, have undergone a short imprisonment; and these men now +wish to be confounded with their companions who are of a different +description. But such persons are carefully distinguished;* and the +aristocrats have, in their turn, a catalogue of suspicious people--that +is, of people suspected of not having been suspicious. + + * Mr. Thomas Paine, for instance, notwithstanding his sufferings, is + still thought more worthy of a seat in the Convention or the + Jacobins, than of an apartment in the Luxembourg.--Indeed I have + generally remarked, that the French of all parties hold an English + republican in peculiar abhorrence. + +It is now the fashion to talk of a sojourn in a maison d'arret with +triumph; and the more decent people, who from prudence or fear had been +forced to seek refuge in the Jacobin clubs, are now solicitous to +proclaim their real motives. The red cap no longer "rears its hideous +front" by day, but is modestly converted into a night-cap; and the bearer +of a diplome de Jacobin, instead of swinging along, to the annoyance of +all the passengers he meets, paces soberly with a diminished height, and +an air not unlike what in England we call sneaking. The bonnet rouge +begins likewise to be effaced from flags at the doors; and, as though +this emblem of liberty were a very bad neighbour to property, its +relegation seems to encourage the re-appearance of silver forks and +spoons, which are gradually drawn forth from their hiding-places, and +resume their stations at table. The Jacobins represent themselves as +being under the most cruel oppression, declare that the members of the +Convention are aristocrats and royalists, and lament bitterly, that, +instead of fish-women, or female patriots of republican external, the +galleries are filled with auditors in flounces and anti-civic top-knots, +femmes a fontanges. + +These imputations and grievances of the Jacobins are not altogether +without foundation. People in general are strongly impressed with an +idea that the Assembly are veering towards royalism; and it is equally +true, that the speeches of Tallien and Freron are occasionally heard and +applauded by fair elegantes, who, two years ago, would have recoiled at +the name of either. It is not that their former deeds are forgotten, but +the French are grown wise by suffering; and it is politic, when bad men +act well, whatever the motive, to give them credit for it, as nothing is +so likely to make them persevere, as the hope that their reputation is +yet retrievable. On this principle the aristocrats are the eulogists of +Tallien, while the Jacobins remind him hourly of the massacres of the +priests, and his official conduct as Secretary to the municipality or +Paris.* + + * Tallien was Seecretary to the Commune of Paris in 1792, and on the + thirty-first of August he appeared at the bar of the Legislative + Assembly with an address, in which he told them "he had caused the + refractory priests to be arrested and confined, and that in a few + days the Land of Liberty should be freed of them."--The massacres of + the prisons began two days after! + +As soon as a Representative is convicted of harbouring an opinion +unfavourable to pillage or murder, he is immediately declared an +aristocrat; or, if the Convention happen for a moment to be influenced by +reason or justice, the hopes and fears of both parties are awakened by +suspicions that the members are converts to royalism.--For my own part, +I believe they are and will be just what their personal security and +personal interest may suggest, though it is but a sorry sort of panegyric +on republican ethics to conclude, that every one who manifests the least +symptom of probity or decency, must of course be a royalist or an +aristocrat. + +Notwithstanding the harmony which appears to subsist between the +Convention and the people, the former is much less popular in detail than +in the gross. Almost every member who has been on mission, is accused of +dilapidations and cruelties so heinous, that, if they had not been +committed by Representans du Peuple, the criminal courts would find no +difficulty in deciding upon them.--But as theft or murder does not +deprive a member of his privileges, complaints of this nature are only +cognizable by the Assembly, which, being yet in its first days of +regeneration, is rather scrupulous of defending such amusements overtly. +Alarmed, however, at the number, and averse from the precedent of these +denunciations, it has now passed a variety of decrees, which are termed a +guarantee of the national representation, and which in fact guarantee it +so effectually, that a Deputy may do any thing in future with impunity, +provided it does not affect his colleagues. There are now so many forms, +reports, and examinations, that several months may be employed before the +person of a delinquent, however notorious his guilt, can be secured. The +existence of a fellow-creature should, doubtless, be attacked with +caution; for, though he may have forfeited his claims on our esteem, and +even our pity, religion has preserved him others, of which he should not +be deprived.--But when we recollect that all these merciful ceremonies +are in favour of a Carrier or a Le Bon, and that the King, Madame +Elizabeth, and thousands of innocent people, were hurried to execution, +without being allowed the consolations of piety or affection, which only +a mockery of justice might have afforded them; when, even now, priests +are guillotined for celebrating masses in private, and thoughtless people +for speaking disrespectfully of the Convention--the heart is at variance +with religion and principle, and we regret that mercy is to be the +exclusive portion of those who were never accessible to its dictates.* + + * The denunciation being first presented to the Assembly, they are + to decide whether it shall be received. If they determine in the + affirmative, it is sent to the three Committees of Legislation, + Public Welfare, and General Safety, to report whether there may be + room for farther examination. In that case, a commission of + twenty-one members is appointed to receive the proofs of the accuser, + and the defence of the accused. These Commissioners, after as long a + delay as they may think fit to interpose, make known their opinion; + and if it be against the accused, the Convention proceed to + determine finally whether the matter shall be referred to the + ordinary tribunal. All this time the culprit is at large, or, at + worst, and merely for the form, carelessly guarded at his own + dwelling. + +I would not "pick bad from bad," but it irks one's spirit to see these +miscreants making "assurance doubly sure," and providing for their own +safety with such solicitude, after sacrificing, without remorse, whatever +was most interesting or respectable in the country.--Yours, &c. + + + + +Basse-ville, Arras, Nov. 6, 1794. + +Since my own liberation, I have been incessantly employed in endeavouring +to procure the return of my friends to Amiens; who, though released from +prison some time, could not obtain passports to quit Arras. After +numerous difficulties and vexations, we have at length succeeded, and I +am now here to accompany them home. + +I found Mr. and Mrs. D____ much altered by the hardships they have +undergone: Mrs. D____, in particular, has been confined some months in a +noisome prison called the Providence, originally intended as a house of +correction, and in which, though built to contain an hundred and fifty +persons, were crouded near five hundred females, chiefly ladies of Arras +and the environs.--The superintendance of this miserable place was +entrusted to a couple of vulgar and vicious women, who, having +distinguished themselves as patriots from the beginning of the +revolution, were now rewarded by Le Bon with an office as profitable +as it was congenial to their natures. + +I know not whether it is to be imputed to the national character, or to +that of the French republicans only, but the cruelties which have been +committed are usually so mixed with licentiousness, as to preclude +description. I have already noticed the conduct of Le Bon, and it must +suffice to say, his agents were worthy of him, and that the female +prisoners suffered every thing which brutality, rapaciousness, and +indecency, could inflict. Mr. D____ was, in the mean time, transferred +from prison to prison--the distress of separation was augmented by their +mutual apprehensions and pecuniary embarrassments--and I much fear, the +health and spirits of both are irretrievably injured. + +I regret my impatience in coming here, rather than waiting the arrival of +my friends at home; for the changes I observe, and the recollections they +give birth to, oppress my heart, and render the place hateful to me.--All +the families I knew are diminished by executions, and their property is +confiscated--those whom I left in elegant hotels are now in obscure +lodgings, subsisting upon the superfluities of better days--and the +sorrows of the widows and orphans are increased by penury; while the +Convention, which affects to condemn the crimes of Le Bon, is profiting +by the spoils of his victims. + +I am the more deeply impressed by these circumstances, because, when I +was here in 1792, several who have thus fallen, though they had nothing +to reproach themselves with, were yet so much intimidated as to propose +emigrating; and I then was of opinion, that such a step would be +impolitic and unnecessary. I hope and believe this opinion did not +influence them, but I lament having given it, for the event has proved +that a great part of the emigrants are justifiable. It always appeared +to me so serious and great an evil to abandon one's country, that when I +have seen it done with indifference or levity, I may perhaps have +sometimes transferred to the measure itself a sentiment of +disapprobation, excited originally by the manner of its adoption. When I +saw people expatiate with calmness, and heard them speak of it as a means +of distinguishing themselves, I did not sufficiently allow for the +tendency of the French to make the best of every thing, or the influence +of vanity on men who allow it to make part of the national +characteristic: and surely, if ever vanity were laudable, that of marking +a detestation for revolutionary principles, and an attachment to loyalty +and religion, may justly be considered so. Many whom I then accused of +being too lightly affected by the prospect of exile, might be animated by +the hope of personally contributing to the establishment of peace and +order, and rescuing their country from the banditti who were oppressing +it; and it is not surprising that such objects should dazzle the +imagination and deceive the judgment in the choice of measures by which +they were to be obtained. + +The number of emigrants from fashion or caprice is probably not great; +and whom shall we now dare to include under this description, when the +humble artizan, the laborious peasant, and the village priest, have +ensanguined the scaffold destined for the prince or the prelate?--But if +the emigrants be justifiable, the refugees are yet more so. + +By Emigrants, I mean all who, without being immediately in danger, left +their country through apprehension of the future--from attachment to the +persons of the Princes, or to join companions in the army whom they might +deem it a disgrace to abandon.--Those whom I think may with truth be +styled Refugees, are the Nobility and Priests who fled when the people, +irritated by the literary terrorists of the day, the Brissots, Rolands, +Camille Desmoulins, &c. were burning their chateaux and proscribing their +persons, and in whom expatriation cannot properly be deemed the effect of +choice. These, wherever they have sought an asylum, are entitled to our +respect and sympathy. + +Yet, I repeat, we are not authorized to discriminate. There is no +reasoning coldly on the subject. The most cautious prudence, the most +liberal sacrifices, and the meanest condescensions, have not insured the +lives and fortunes of those who ventured to remain; and I know not that +the absent require any other apology than the desolation of the country +they have quitted. Had my friends who have been slaughtered by Le Bon's +tribunal persisted in endeavouring to escape, they might have lived, and +their families, though despoiled by the rapacity of the government, have +been comparatively happy.* + + * The first horrors of the revolution are well known, and I have + seen no accounts which exaggerate them. The niece of a lady of my + acquaintance, a young woman only seventeen, escaped from her + country-house (whilst already in flames) with her infant at her + breast, and literally without clothes to cover her. In this state + she wandered a whole night, and when she at length reached a place + where she procured assistance, was so exhausted that her life was in + danger.--Another lady, whom I knew, was wounded in the arm by some + peasants assembled to force from her the writings of her husband's + estates. Even after this they still remained in France, submitted + with cheerfulness to all the demands of patriotic gifts, forced + loans, requisitions and impositions of every kind; yet her husband + was nevertheless guillotined, and the whole of their immense + property confiscated. + +Retrospections, like these, obliterate many of my former notions on the +subject of the Emigrants; and if I yet condemn emigration, it is only as +a general measure, impolitic, and inadequate to the purposes for which it +was undertaken. But errors of judgment, in circumstances so +unprecedented, cannot be censured consistently with candour, through we +may venture to mark them as a discouragement to imitation; for if any +nation should yet be menaced by the revolutionary scourge, let it beware +of seeking external redress by a temporary abandonment of its interests +to the madness of systemists, or the rapine of needy adventurers. We +must, we ought to, lament the fate of the many gallant men who have +fallen, and the calamities of those who survive; but what in them has +been a mistaken policy, will become guilt in those who, on a similar +occasion, shall not be warned by their example. I am concerned when I +hear these unhappy fugitives are any where objects of suspicion or +persecution, as it is not likely that those who really emigrated from +principle can merit such treatment: and I doubt not, that most of the +instances of treachery or misconduct ascribed to the Emigrants originated +in republican emissaries, who have assumed that character for the double +purpose of discrediting it, and of exercising their trade as spies. + +The common people here, who were retained by Le Bon for several months to +attend and applaud his executions, are still dissolute and ferocious, and +openly regret the loss of their pay, and the disuse of the guillotine. + +--I came to Arras in mourning, which I have worn since the receipt of +your first letter, but was informed by the lady with whom my friends +lodge, that I must not attempt to walk the streets in black, for that it +was customary to insult those who did so, on a supposition that they were +related to some persons who had been executed; I therefore borrowed a +white undress, and stole out by night to visit my unfortunate +acquaintance, as I found it was also dangerous to be seen entering houses +known to contain the remains of those families which had been dismembered +by Le Bon's cruelties. + +We return to Amiens to-morrow, though you must not imagine so formidable +a person as myself is permitted to wander about the republic without due +precaution; and I had much difficulty in being allowed to come, even +attended by a guard, who has put me to a considerable expence; but the +man is civil, and as he has business of his own to transact in the town, +he is no embarrassment to me. + + + + +Amiens, Nov. 26, 1794. + +The Constituent Assembly, the Legislative Assembly, and the National +Convention, all seem to have acted from a persuasion, that their sole +duty as revolutionists was comprised in the destruction of whatever +existed under the monarchy. If an institution were discovered to have +the slightest defect in principle, or to have degenerated a little in +practice, their first step was to abolish it entirely, and leave the +replacing it for the present to chance, and for the future to their +successors. In return for the many new words which they have introduced +into the French language, they have expunged that of reform; and the +havock and devastation, which a Mahometan conqueror might have performed +as successfully, are as yet the only effects of philosophy and +republicanism. + +This system of ignorance and violence seems to have persecuted with +peculiar hostility all the ancient establishments for education; and the +same plan of suppressing daily what they have neither leisure nor +abilities to supply, which I remarked to you two years ago, has directed +the Convention ever since. It is true, the interval has produced much +dissertation, and engendered many projects; but those who were so +unanimous in rejecting, were extremely discordant in adopting, and their +own disputes and indecision might have convinced them of their +presumption in condemning what they now found it so difficult to excel. +Some decided in favour of public schools, after the example of Sparta-- +this was objected to by others, because, said they, if you have public +schools you must have edifices, and governors, and professors, who will, +to a certainty, be aristocrats, or become so; and, in short, this will +only be a revival of the colleges of the old government--A third party +proposed private seminaries, or that people might be at liberty to +educate their children in the way they thought best; but this, it was +declared, would have a still greater tendency to aristocracy; for the +rich, being better able to pay than the poor, would engross all the +learning to themselves. The Jacobins were of opinion, that there should +be no schools, either public or private, but that the children should +merely be taken to hear the debates of the Clubs, where they would +acquire all the knowledge necessary for republicans; and a few spirits of +a yet sublimer cast were adverse both to schools or clubs, and +recommended, that the rising generation should "study the great book of +Nature alone." It is, however, at length concluded, that there shall be +a certain number of public establishments, and that people shall even be +allowed to have their children instructed at home, under the inspection +of the constituted authorities, who are to prevent the instillation of +aristocratic principles.* + + * We may judge of the competency of many of these people to be + official censors of education by the following specimens from a + report of Gregoire's. Since the rage for destruction has a little + subsided, circular letters have been sent to the administrators of + the departments, districts, &c. enquiring what antiquities, or other + objects of curiosity, remain in their neighbourhood.--"From one, + (says Gregoire,) we are informed, that they are possessed of nothing + in this way except four vases, which, as they have been told, are of + porphyry. From a second we learn, that, not having either forge or + manufactory in the neighbourhood, no monument of the arts is to be + found there: and a third announces, that the completion of its + library cataloges has been retarded, because the person employed at + them ne fait pas la diplomatique!"--("does not understand the + science of diplomacy.") + +The difficulty as to the mode in which children were to be taught being +got over, another remained, not less liable to dispute--which was, the +choice of what they were to learn. Almost every member had a favourite +article---music, physic, prophylactics, geography, geometry, astronomy, +arithmetic, natural history, and botany, were all pronounced to be +requisites in an eleemosynary system of education, specified to be +chiefly intended for the country people; but as this debate regarded only +the primary schools for children in their earliest years, and as one man +for a stipend of twelve hundred livres a year, was to do it all, a +compromise became necessary, and it has been agreed for the present, that +infants of six years shall be taught only reading, writing, gymnastics, +geometry, geography, natural philosophy, and history of all free nations, +and that of all the tyrants, the rights of man, and the patriotic songs. +--Yet, after these years of consideration, and days of debate, the +Assembly has done no more than a parish-clerk, or an old woman with a +primer, and "a twig whilom of small regard to see," would do better +without its interference. + +The students of a more advanced age are still to be disposed of, and the +task of devising an institution will not be easy; because, perhaps a +Collot d'Herbois or a Duhem is not satisfied with the system which +perfectioned the genius of Montesquieu or Descartes. Change, not +improvement, is the object--whatever bears a resemblance to the past must +be proscribed; and while other people study to simplify modes of +instruction, the French legislature is intent on rendering them as +difficult and complex as possible; and at the moment they decree that the +whole country shall become learned, they make it an unfathomable science +to teach urchins of half a dozen years old their letters. + +Foreigners, indeed, who judge only from the public prints, may suppose +the French far advanced towards becoming the most erudite nation in +Europe: unfortunately, all these schools, primary, and secondary, and +centrical, and divergent, and normal,* exist as yet but in the +repertories of the Convention, and perhaps may not add "a local +habitation" to their names, till the present race** shall be unfit to +reap the benefit of them. + + * _Les Ecoles Normales_ were schools where masters were to be + instructed in the art of teaching. Certain deputies objected to + them, as being of feudal institution, supposing that Normale had + some reference to Normandy. + + ** This was a mistake, for the French seem to have adopted the + maxim, "that man is never too old to learn;" and, accordingly, at + the opening of the Normal schools, the celebrated Bougainville, now + eighty years of age, became a pupil. This Normal project was, + however, soon relinquished--for by that fatality which has hitherto + attended all the republican institutions, it was found to have + become a mere nursery for aristocrats. + +But this revolutionary barbarism, not content with stopping the progress +of the rising generation, has ravaged without mercy the monuments of +departed genius, and persecuted with senseless despotism those who were +capable of replacing them. Pictures have been defaced, statues +mutilated, and libraries burnt, because they reminded the people of their +Kings or their religion; while artists, and men of science or literature, +were wasting their valuable hours in prison, or expiring on the +scaffold.--The moral and gentle Florian died of vexation. A life of +abstraction and utility could not save the celebrated chymist, Lavoisier, +from the Guillotine. La Harpe languished in confinement, probably, that +he might not eclipse Chenier, who writes tragedies himself; and every +author that refused to degrade his talents by the adulation of tyranny +has been proscribed and persecuted. Palissot,* at sixty years old, was +destined to expiate in a prison a satire upon Rousseau, written when he +was only twenty, and escaped, not by the interposition of justice, but by +the efficacity of a bon mot. + + * Palissot was author of "The Philosophers," a comedy, written + thirty years ago, to ridicule Rousseau. He wrote to the + municipality, acknowledged his own error, and the merits of + Rousseau; yet, says he, if Rousseau were a god, you ought not to + sacrifice human victims to him.--The expression, which in French is + well tuned, pleased the municipality, and Palissot, I believe, was + not afterwards molested. + +--A similar fate would have been awarded Dorat, [Author of "Les Malheurs +de l'Inconstance," and other novels.] for styling himself Chevalier in +the title-pages of his novels, had he not commuted his punishment for +base eulogiums on the Convention, and with the same pen, which has been +the delight of the French boudoir, celebrated Carrier's murders on the +Loire under the appellation of "baptemes civiques." Every province in +France, we are informed by the eloquent pedantry of Gregoire, exhibits +traces of these modern Huns, which, though now exclusively attributed to +the agents of Robespierre and Mr. Pitt,* it is very certain were +authorized by the decrees of the Convention, and executed under the +sanction of Deputies on mission, or their subordinates. + + * _"Soyez sur que ces destructions se sont pour la plupart a + l'instigation de nos ennemis--quel triomphe pour l'Anglais si il eul + pu ecraser notre commerce par l'aneantissement des arts dont la + culture enrichit le sien."_--"Rest assured that these demolitions + were, for the most part, effected at the instigation of our enemies + --what a triumph would it have been for the English, if they had + succeeded in crushing our commerce by the annihilation of the arts, + the culture of which enriched their own." + +--If the principal monuments of art be yet preserved to gratify the +national taste or vanity, it is owing to the courage and devotion of +individuals, who obeyed with a protecting dilatoriness the destructive +mandates of government. + +At some places, orangeries were sold by the foot for fire-wood, because, +as it was alledged, that republicans had more occasion for apples and +potatoes than oranges.--At Mousseaux, the seals were put on the +hot-houses, and all the plants nearly destroyed. Valuable remains of +sculpture were condemned for a crest, a fleur de lys, or a coronet +attached to them; and the deities of the Heathen mythology were made war +upon by the ignorance of the republican executioners, who could not +distinguish them from emblems of feodality.* + + * At Anet, a bronze stag, placed as a fountain in a large piece of + water, was on the point of being demolished, because stags are + beasts of chace, and hunting is a feodal privilege, and stags of + course emblems of feodality.--It was with some difficulty preserved + by an amateur, who insisted, that stags of bronze were not included + in the decree.--By a decree of the Convention, which I have formerly + mentioned, all emblems of royalty or feodality were to be demolished + by a particular day; and as the law made no distinction, it could + not be expected that municipalities, &c. often ignorant or timid, + should either venture or desire to spare what in the eyes of the + connoisseur might be precious. + + "At St. Dennis, (says the virtuoso Gregoire,) where the National + Club justly struck at the tyrants even in their tombs, that of + Turenne ought to have been spared; yet strokes of the sword are + still visible on it."--He likewise complains, that at the Botanic + Garden the bust of Linnaeus had been destroyed, on a presumption of + its being that of Charles the Ninth; and if it had been that of + Charles the Ninth, it is not easy to discern how the cause of + liberty was served by its mutilation.--The artist or moralist + contemplates with equal profit or curiosity the features of Pliny or + Commodus; and History and Science will appreciate Linnaeus and + Charles the Ninth, without regarding whether their resemblances + occupy a palace, or are scattered in fragments by republican + ignorance.--Long after the death of Robespierre, the people of + Amiens humbly petitioned the Convention, that their cathedral, + perhaps the most beautiful Gothic edifice in Europe, might be + preserved; and to avoid giving offence by the mention of churches or + cathedrals, they called it a Basilique.--But it is unnecessary to + adduce any farther proof, that the spirit of what is now called + Vandalism originated in the Convention. Every one in France must + recollect, that, when dispatches from all corners announced these + ravages, they were heard with as much applause, as though they had + related so many victories gained over the enemy. + +--Quantities of curious medals have been melted down for the trifling +value of the metal; and at Abbeville, a silver St. George, of uncommon +workmanship, and which Mr. Garrick is said to have desired to purchase at +a very high price, was condemned to the crucible-- + + _"----Sur tant de tresors + "Antiques monumens respectes jusqu'alors, + "Par la destruction signalant leur puissance, + "Las barbares etendirent leur stupide vengeance." + "La Religion,"_ Racine. + +Yet the people in office who operated these mischiefs were all appointed +by the delegates of the Assembly; for the first towns of the republic +were not trusted even with the choice of a constable. Instead, +therefore, of feeling either surprise or regret at this devastation, we +ought rather to rejoice that it has extended no farther; for such agents, +armed with such decrees, might have reduced France to the primitive state +of ancient Gaul. Several valuable paintings are said to have been +conveyed to England, and it will be curious if the barbarism of France in +the eighteenth century should restore to us what we, with a fanaticism +and ignorance at least more prudent than theirs, sold them in the +seventeenth. The zealots of the Barebones' Parliament are, however, more +respectable than the atheistical Vandals of the Convention; and, besides +the benefit of our example, the interval of a century and an half, with +the boast of a philosophy and a degree of illumination exceeding that of +any other people, have rendered the errors of the French at once more +unpardonable and more ridiculous; for, in assimilating their past +presentations to their present conduct and situation, we do not always +find it possible to regret without a mixture of contempt. + + + + +Amiens, Nov. 29, 1794. + +The selfish policy of the Convention in affecting to respect and preserve +the Jacobin societies, while it deprived them of all power, and help up +the individuals who composed them to abhorrence, could neither satisfy +nor deceive men versed in revolutionary expedients, and more accustomed +to dictate laws than to submit to them.* + + * The Jacobins were at this time headed by Billaud Varenne, Collot, + Thuriot, &c.--veterans, who were not likely to be deceived by + temporizing. + +Supported by all the force of government, and intrinsically formidable by +their union, the Clubs had long existed in defiance of public +reprobation, and for some time they had braved not only the people, but +the government itself. The instant they were disabled from corresponding +and communicating in that privileged sort of way which rendered them so +conspicuous, they felt their weakness; and their desultory and +unconnected efforts to regain their influence only served to complete its +annihilation. While they pretended obedience to the regulations to which +the Convention had subjected them, they intrigued to promote a revolt, +and were strenuously exerting themselves to gain partizans among the idle +and dissolute, who, having subsisted for months as members of +revolutionary committees, and in other revolutionary offices, were +naturally averse from a more moderate government. The numbers of these +were far from inconsiderable: and, when it is recollected that this +description of people only had been allowed to retain their arms, while +all who had any thing to defend were deprived of them, we cannot wonder +if the Jacobins entertained hopes of success. + +The Convention, aware of these attempts, now employed against its ancient +accomplices the same arts that had proved so fatal to all those whom it +had considered as its enemies. A correspondence was "opportunely" +intercepted between the Jacobins and the Emigrants in Switzerland, while +emissaries insinuated themselves into the Clubs, for the purpose of +exciting desperate motions; or, dispersed in public places, contrived, by +assuming the Jacobin costume, to throw on the faction the odium of those +seditious exclamations which they were employed to vociferate. + +There is little doubt that the designs of the Jacobins were nearly such +as have been imputed to them. They had, however, become more politic +than to act thus openly, without being prepared to repel their enemies, +or to support their friends; and there is every appearance that the Swiss +plots, and the insurrections of the _Palais Egalite,_ were the devices of +the government, to give a pretext for shutting up the Club altogether, +and to avert the real dangers with which it was menaced, by spreading an +alarm of fictitious ones. A few idle people assembled (probably on +purpose) about the _Palais Egalite,_ and the place where the Jacobins held +their meetings, and the exclamation of "Down with the Convention!" served +as the signal for hostilities. The aristocrats joined the partizans of +the Convention, the Jacobins were attacked in their hall, and an affray +ensued, in which several persons on each side were wounded. Both parties +accused each other of being the aggressor, and a report of the business +was made to the Assembly; but the Assembly had already decided--and, on +the ninth of November, while the Jacobins were endeavouring to raise the +storm by a recapitulation of the rights of man, a decree was passed, +prohibiting their debates, and ordering the national seal to be put on +their doors and papers. The society were not in force to make +resistance, and the decree was carried into execution as quietly as +though it had been levelled against the hotel of some devoted aristocrat. + +When the news of this event reached the departments, it occasioned an +universal rejoicing--not such a rejoicing as is ordered for the successes +of the French arms, (which always seems to be a matter of great +indifference,) but a chearfulness of heart and of countenance; and many +persons whom I do not remember to have ever seen in the least degree +moved by political events, appeared sincerely delighted at this-- + + "And those smile now, who never smil'd before, + "And those who always smil'd, now smile the more." + Parnell's Claudian. + +The armies might proceed to Vienna, pillage the Escurial, or subjugate +all Europe, and I am convinced no emotion of pleasure would be excited +equal to that manifested at the downfall of the Jacobins of Paris. + +Since this disgrace of the parent society, the Clubs in the departments +have, for the most part, dissolved themselves, or dwindled into peaceable +assemblies to hear the news read, and applaud the convention.--The few +Jacobin emblems which were yet remaining have totally disappeared, and no +vestige of Jacobinism is left, but the graves of its victims, and the +desolation of the country. + +The profligate, the turbulent, the idle, and needy, of various countries +in Europe, have been tempted by the successes of the French Jacobins to +endeavour to establish similar institutions; but the same successes have +operated as a warning to people of a different description, and the fall +of these societies has drawn two confessions from their original +partizans, which ought never to be forgotten--namely, that they were +formed for the purpose of subverting the monarchy, and that their +existence is incompatible with regular government of any kind.--"While +the monarchy still existed, (says the most philosophic Lequinio, with +whose scheme of reforming La Vendee you are already acquainted,) it was +politic and necessary to encourage popular societies, as the most +efficacious means of operating its destruction; but now we have effected +a revolution, and have only to consolidate it by mild and philosophic +laws, these societies are dangerous, because they can produce only +confusion and disorder."--This is also the language of Brissot, who +admires the Jacobins from their origin till the end of 1792, but after +that period he admits they were only the instruments of faction, and +destructive of all property and order.* + + * The period of the Jacobin annals so much admired by Brissot, + comprises the dethronement of the King, the massacres of the + prisons, the banishment of the priests, &c. That which he + reprobates begins precisely at the period when the Jacobins disputed + the claims of himself and his party to the exclusive direction of + the government.--See Brissot's Address to his Constituents. + +--We learn therefore, not from the abuses alone, but from the praises +bestowed on the Jacobins, how much such combinations are to be dreaded. +Their merit, it appears, consisted in the subversion of the monarchical +government, and their crime in ceasing to be useful as agents of tyranny, +the moment they ceased to be principals. + +I am still sceptical as to the conversion of the Assembly, and little +disposed to expect good from it; yet whatever it may attempt in future, +or however its real principles may take an ascendant, this fortunate +concurrence of personal interests, coalition of aristocrats and +democrats, and political rivalry, have likewise secured France from a +return of that excess of despotism which could have been exercised only +by such means. It is true, the spirit of the nation is so much +depressed, that an effort to revive these Clubs might meet no resistance; +but the ridicule and opprobrium to which they have latterly been subject, +and finally the manner of their being sacrificed by that very Convention, +of which they were the sole creators and support, will, I think, cool the +zeal, and diminish the numbers of their partizans too much for them ever +again to become formidable. + +The conduct of Carrier has been examined according to the new forms, and +he is now on his trial--though not till the delays of the Convention had +given rise to a general suspicion that they intended either to exonerate +or afford him an opportunity of escaping; and the people were at last so +highly exasperated, that six thousand troops were added to the military +force of Paris, and an insurrection was seriously apprehended. This +stimulated the diligence, or relaxed the indulgence, of the commission +appointed to make the report on Carrier's conduct; and it being decided +that there was room for accusation, the Assembly confirmed the decision, +and he was ordered into custody, to be tried along with the Revolutionary +Committee of Nantes which had been the instrument of his crimes. + +It is a circumstance worth noting, that most of the Deputies who +explained the motives on which they thought Carrier guilty, were silent +on the subject of his drowning, shooting, and guillotining so many +thousands of innocent people, and only declared him guilty, as having +been wanting in respect towards Trehouard, one of his colleagues, and of +injuring the republican cause by his atrocities. + +The fate of this monster exhibits a practical exposition of the enormous +absurdity of such a government. He is himself tried for the exercise of +a power declared to be unbounded when entrusted to him. The men tried +with him as his accomplices were obliged by the laws to obey him; and the +acts of which they are all accused were known, applauded, and held out +for imitation, by the Convention, who now declare those very acts to be +criminal!--There is certainly no way of reconciling justice but by +punishing both chiefs and subordinates, and the hour for this will yet +come.--Adieu. + + + + +Amiens. [No date given.] + +I do not yet venture to correspond with my Paris friends by the post, but +whenever the opportunity of private conveyance occurs, I receive long and +circumstantial letters, as well as packets, of all the publications most +read, and the theatrical pieces most applauded. I have lately drudged +through great numbers of these last, and bestowed on them an attention +they did not in themselves deserve, because I considered it as one means +of judging both of the spirit of the government and the morals of the +people. + +The dramas produced at the beginning of the revolution were in general +calculated to corrupt the national taste and morals, and many of them +were written with skill enough to answer the purpose for which they were +intended; but those that have appeared during the last two years, are so +stupid and so depraved, that the circumstance of their being tolerated +even for a moment implies an extinction both of taste and of morals.* + + * _"Dans l'espace d'un an ils ont failli detruire le produit de + plusieurs siecles de civilization."_--("In the space of a year they + nearly destroyed the fruits of several ages of civilization.") + +The principal cause of this is the despotism of the government in making +the stage a mere political engine, and suffering the performance of such +pieces only as a man of honesty or genius would not submit to write.* + + * The tragedy of Brutus was interdicted on account of these two + lines: + + _"Arreter un romain sur de simple soupcons, + "C'est agir en tyrans, nous qui les punissons."_ + + That of Mahomet for the following: + + _"Exterminez, grands dieux, de la terre ou nous sommes + "Quiconque avec plaisir repand le sang des hommes."_ + + It is to be remarked, that the last lines are only a simple axiom of + humanity, and could not have been considered as implying a censure + on any government except that of the French republic. + +--Hence a croud of scribblers, without shame or talents, have become the +exclusive directors of public amusements, and, as far as the noise of a +theatre constitutes success, are perhaps more successful than ever was +Racine or Moliere. Immorality and dulness have an infallible resource +against public disapprobation in the abuse of monarchy and religion, or a +niche for Mr. Pitt; and an indignant or impatient audience, losing their +other feelings in their fears, are glad to purchase the reputation of +patriotism by applauding trash they find it difficult to endure. The +theatres swarm with spies, and to censure a revolutionary piece, however +detestable even as a composition, is dangerous, and few have courage to +be the critics of an author who is patronized by the superintendants of +the guillotine, or who may retaliate a comment on his poetry by the +significant prose of a mandat d'arret. + +Men of literature, therefore, have wisely preferred the conservation of +their freedom to the vindication of their taste, and have deemed it +better to applaud at the Theatre de la Republique, than lodge at St. +Lazare or Duplessis.--Thus political slavery has assisted moral +depravation: the writer who is the advocate of despotism, may be dull and +licentious by privilege, and is alone exempt from the laws of Parnassus +and of decency.--One Sylvan Marechal, author of a work he calls +philosophie, has written a sort of farce, which has been performed very +generally, where all the Kings in Europe are brought together as so many +monsters; and when the King of France is enquired after as not being +among them, a Frenchman answers,--"Oh, he is not here--we have +guillotined him--we have cut off his head according to law."--In one +piece, the hero is a felon escaped from the galleys, and is represented +as a patriot of the most sublime principles; in another, he is the +virtuous conductor of a gang of banditti; and the principal character in +a third, is a ploughman turned deist and politician. + +Yet, while these malevolent and mercenary scribblers are ransacking past +ages for the crimes of Kings or the abuses of religion, and imputing to +both many that never existed, they forget that neither their books nor +their imagination are able to furnish scenes of guilt and misery equal to +those which have been presented daily by republicans and philosophers. +What horror can their mock-tragedies excite in those who have +contemplated the Place de la Revolution? or who can smile at a farce in +ridicule of monarchy, that beholds the Convention, and knows the +characters of the men who compose it?--But in most of these wretched +productions the absurdity is luckily not less conspicuous than the +immoral intention: their Princes, their Priests, their Nobles, are all +tyrannical, vicious, and miserable; yet the common people, living under +these same vicious tyrants, are described as models of virtue, +hospitality, and happiness. If, then, the auditors of such edifying +dramas were in the habit of reasoning, they might very justly conclude, +that the ignorance which republicanism is to banish is desirable, and +that the diffusion of riches with which they have been flattered, will +only increase their vices, and subtract from their felicity. + +There are, however, some patriotic spirits, who, not insensible to this +degeneracy of the French theatre, and lamenting the evil, have lately +exercised much ingenuity in developing the cause. They have at length +discovered, that all the republican tragedies, flat farces, and heavy +comedies, are attributable to Mr. Pitt, who has thought proper to corrupt +the authors, with a view to deprave the public taste. There is, +certainly, no combating this charge; for as, according to the assertions +of the Convention, Mr. Pitt has succeeded in bribing nearly every other +description of men in the republic, we may suppose the consciences of +such scribblers not less flexible. Mr. Pitt, indeed, stands accused, +sometimes in conjunction with the Prince of Cobourg, and sometimes on his +own account, of successively corrupting the officers of the fleet and +army, all the bankers and all the farmers, the priests who say masses, +and the people who attend them, the chiefs of the aristocrats, and the +leaders of the Jacobins. The bakers who refuse to bake when they have no +flour, and the populace who murmur when they have no bread, besides the +merchants and shopkeepers who prefer coin to assignats, are notoriously +pensioned by him: and even a part of the Representatives, and all the +frail beauties, are said to be enlisted in his service.--These +multifarious charges will be found on the journals of the Assembly, and +we must of course infer, that Mr. Pitt is the ablest statesman, or the +French the most corrupt nation, existing. + +But it is not only Barrere and his colleagues who suppose the whole +country bribeable--the notion is common to the French in general; and +vanity adding to the omnipotence of gold, whenever they speak of a battle +lost, or a town taken, they conclude it impossible to have occurred but +through the venal treachery of their officers.--The English, I have +observed, always judge differently, and would not think the national +honour sustained by a supposition that their commanders were vulnerable +only in the hand. If a general or an admiral happen to be unfortunate, +it would be with the utmost reluctance that we should think of +attributing his mischance to a cause so degrading; yet whoever has been +used to French society will acknowledge, that the first suggestion on +such events is _"nos officiers ont ete gagnes,"_ [Our officers were +bought.] or _"sans la trahison ce ne seroit pas arrive."_ [This could not +have happened without treachery.]--Pope's hyperbole of + + "Just half the land would buy, and half be sold," + +is more than applicable here; for if we may credit the French themselves, +the buyers are by no means so well proportioned to the sellers. + +As I have no new political intelligence to comment upon, I shall finish +my letter with a domestic adventure of the morning.--Our house was +yesterday assigned as the quarters of some officers, who, with part of a +regiment, were passing this way to join the Northern army. As they spent +the evening out, we saw nothing of them, but finding one was a Colonel, +and the other a Captain, though we knew what republican colonels and +captains might be, we thought it civil, or rather necessary, to send them +an invitation to breakfast. We therefore ordered some milk coffee early, +(for Frenchmen seldom take tea,) and were all assembled before the usual +time to receive our military guests. As they did not, however, appear, +we were ringing to enquire for them, when Mr. D____ entered from his +morning walk, and desired us to be at ease on their account, for that in +passing the kitchen, he had perceived the Captain fraternizing over some +onions, bread, and beer, with our man; while the Colonel was in close +conference with the cook, and watching a pan of soup, which was warming +for his breakfast. We have learned since, that these heroes were very +willing to accept of any thing the servants offered them, but could not +be prevailed upon to approach us; though, you are to understand, this was +not occasioned either by timidity or incivility, but by mere ignorance. +--Mr. D____ says, the Marquise and I have not divested ourselves of +aristocratic associations with our ideas of the military, and that our +deshabilles this morning were unusually coquetish. Our projects of +conquest were, however, all frustrated by the unlucky intervention of +Bernardine's _soupe aux choux,_ [Cabbage-soup.] and Eustace's regale of +cheese and onions. + + "And with such beaux 'tis vain to be a belle." + +Yours, &c. + + + + +Amiens, Dec. 10, 1794. + +Your American friend passed through here yesterday, and delivered me the +two parcels. As marks of your attention, they were very acceptable; but +on any other account, I assure you, I should have preferred a present of +a few pecks of wheat to all your fineries. + +I have been used to conclude, when I saw such strange and unaccountable +absurdities given in the French papers as extracts from the debates in +either of your Houses of Parliament, that they were probably fabricated +here to serve the designs of the reigning factions: yet I perceive, by +some old papers which came with the muslins, that there are really +members so ill-informed or so unprincipled, as to use the language +attributed to them, and who assert that the French are attached to their +government, and call France "a land of republicans." + +When it is said that a people are republicans, we must suppose they are +either partial to republicanism as a system, or that they prefer it in +practice. A little retrospection, perhaps, will determine both these +points better than the eloquence of your orators. + +A few men, of philosophic or restless minds, have, in various ages and +countries, endeavoured to enlighten or disturb the world by examinations +and disputes on forms of government; yet the best heads and the best +hearts have remained divided on the subject, and I never heard that any +writer was able to produce more than a partial conviction, even in the +most limited circle. Whence, then, did it happen in France, where +information was avowedly confined, and where such discussions could not +have been general, that the people became suddenly inspired with this +political sagacity, which made them in one day the judges and converts of +a system they could scarcely have known before, even by name?--At the +deposition of the King, the French, (speaking at large,) had as +perspicuous a notion of republics, as they may be supposed to have of +mathematics, and would have understood Euclid's Elements as well as the +Social Contract. Yet an assemblage of the worst and most daring men from +every faction, elected amidst massacres and proscription, the moment they +are collected together, declare, on the proposal of Collot d'Herbois, a +profligate strolling player, that France shall be a republic.--Admitting +that the French were desirous of altering their form of government, I +believe no one will venture to say such an inclination was ever +manifested, or that the Convention were elected in a manner to render +them competent to such a decision. They were not the choice of the +people, but chiefly emissaries imposed on the departments by the Jacobins +and the municipality of Paris; and let those who are not acquainted with +the means by which the elections were obtained, examine the composition +of the Assembly itself, and then decide whether any people being free +could have selected such men as Petion, Tallien, Robespierre, Brissot, +Carrier, Taillefer, &c. &c. from the whole nation to be their +Representatives.--There must, in all large associations, be a mixture of +good and bad; but when it is incontrovertible that the principal members +of the Convention are monsters, who, we hope, are not to be paralleled-- +that the rest are inferior rather in talents than wickedness, or cowards +and ideots, who have supported and applauded crimes they only wanted +opportunity to commit--it is not possible to conceive, that any people in +the world could make a similar choice. Yet if the French were absolutely +unbiassed, and of their own free will made this collection, who would, +after such an example, be the advocates of general suffrage and popular +representation?--But, I repeat, the people were not free. They were not, +indeed, influenced by bribes--they were intimidated by the horrors of the +moment; and along with the regulations for the new elections, were every +where circulated details of the assassinations of August and September.* + + * The influence of the municipality of Paris on the new elections is + well known. The following letter will show what instruments were + employed, and the description of Representatives likely to be chosen + under such auspices. + + "Circular letter, written by the Committee of Inspection of the + municipality of Paris to all the departments of the republic, dated + the third of September, the second day of the massacres: + + "The municipality of Paris is impatient to inform their brethren of + the departments, that a part of the ferocious conspirators detained + in the prisons have been put to death by the people: an act of + justice which appeared to them indispensable, to restrain by terror + those legions of traitors whom they must have left behind when they + departed for the army. There is no doubt but the whole nation, + after such multiplied treasons, will hasten to adopt the same + salutary measure!"--Signed by the Commune of Paris and the Minister + of Justice. + + Who, after this mandate, would venture to oppose a member + recommended by the Commune of Paris? + +--The French, then, neither chose the republican form of government, +nor the men who adopted it; and are, therefore, not republicans on +principle.--Let us now consider whether, not being republicans on +principle, experience may have rendered them such. + +The first effects of the new system were an universal consternation, +the disappearance of all the specie, an extravagant rise in the price of +provisions, and many indications of scarcity. The scandalous quarrels of +the legislature shocked the national vanity, by making France the +ridicule of all Europe, until ridicule was suppressed by detestation at +the subsequent murder of the King. This was followed by the efforts of +one faction to strengthen itself against another, by means of a general +war--the leaders of the former presuming, that they alone were capable of +conducting it. + +To the miseries of war were added revolutionary tribunals, revolutionary +armies and committees, forced loans, requisitions, maximums, and every +species of tyranny and iniquity man could devise or suffer; or, to use +the expression of Rewbell, [One of the Directory in 1796.] "France was in +mourning and desolation; all her families plunged in despair; her whole +surface covered with Bastilles, and the republican government become so +odious, that the most wretched slave, bending beneath the weight of his +chains, would have refused to live under it!" + +Such were the means by which France was converted into a land of +republicans, and such the government to which your patriots assert the +French people were attached: yet so little was this attachment +appreciated here, that the mere institutions for watching and suppressing +disaffection amount, by the confession of Cambon, the financier, to +twenty-four millions six hundred and thirty-one thousand pounds sterling +a year! + +To suppose, then, that the French are devoted to a system which has +served as a pretext for so many crimes, and has been the cause of so many +calamities, is to conclude them a nation of philosophers, who are able to +endure, yet incapable of reasoning; and who suffer evils of every kind in +defence of a principle with which they can be little acquainted, and +which, in practice, they have known only by the destruction it has +occasioned. + +You may, perhaps, have been persuaded, that the people submit patiently +now, for the sake of an advantage in perspective; but it is not in the +disposition of unenlightened men (and the mass of a people must +necessarily be so) to give up the present for the future. The individual +may sometimes atchieve this painful conquest over himself, and submit to +evil, on a calculation of future retribution, but the multitude will ever +prefer the good most immediately attainable, if not under the influence +of that terror which supersedes every other consideration. Recollect, +then, the counsel of the first historian of our age, and "suspend your +belief of whatever deviates from the laws of nature and the character of +man;" and when you are told the French are attached to a government which +oppresses them, or to principles of which they are ignorant, suppose +their adoption of the one, and their submission to the other, are the +result of fear, and that those who make these assertions to the contrary, +are either interested or misinformed. + +Excuse me if I have devoted a few pages to a subject which with you is +obsolete. I am indignant at the perusal of such falsehoods; and though I +feel for the humiliation of great talents, I feel still more for the +disgrace such an abuse of them brings on our country. + +It is not inapposite to mention a circumstance which happened to a friend +of Mr. D____'s, some little time since, at Paris. He was passing through +France, in his way from Italy, at the time of the general arrest, and was +detained there till the other day. As soon as he was released from +prison, he applied in person to a member of the Convention, to learn when +he might hope to return to England. The Deputy replied, _"Ma soi je n'en +sais rien_ [Faith I can't tell you.]--If your Messieurs (naming some +members in the opposition) had succeeded in promoting a revolution, you +would not have been in your cage so long--_mais pour le coup il faut +attendre."_ [But now you must have patience.] It is not probable the +members he named could have such designs, but Dumont once held the same +language to me; and it is mortifying to hear these miscreants suppose, +that factious or ambitious men, because they chance to possess talents, +can make revolutions in England as they have done in France. + +In the papers which gave rise to these reflections, I observe that some +of your manufacturing towns are discontented, and attribute the +stagnation of their commerce to the war; but it is not unlikely, that the +stagnation and failures complained of might have taken place, though the +war had not happened.--When I came here in 1792, every shop and warehouse +were over-stocked with English goods. I could purchase any article of +our manufacture at nearly the retail price of London; and some I sent for +from Paris, in the beginning of 1793, notwithstanding the reports of war, +were very little advanced. Soon after the conclusion of the commercial +treaty, every thing English became fashionable; and so many people had +speculated in consequence, that similar speculations took place in +England. But France was glutted before the war; and all speculations +entered into on a presumption of a demand equal to that of the first +years of the treaty, must have failed in a certain degree, though the two +countries had remained at peace.--Even after a two years cessation of +direct intercourse, British manufactures are every where to be procured, +which is a sufficient proof that either the country was previously over +supplied, or that they are still imported through neutral or indirect +channels. Both these suppositions preclude the likelihood that the war +has so great a share in relaxing the activity of your commerce, as is +pretended. + +But whatever may be the effect of the war, there is no prospect of peace, +until the efforts of England, or the total ruin of the French finances,* +shall open the way for it. + + * By a report of Cambon's at this time, it appears the expences of + France in 1792 were eighteen millions sterling--in 1793, near ninety + millions--and, in the spring of 1794, twelve and a half millions per + month!--The church bells, we learn from the same authority, cost in + coinage, and the purchase of copper to mix with the metal, five or + six millions of livres more than they produced as money. The church + plate, which was brought to the bar of the Convention with such + eclat, and represented as an inexhaustible resource, amounted to + scarcely a million sterling: for as the offering was every where + involuntary, and promoted by its agents for the purposes of pillage, + part was secreted, a still greater part stolen, and, as the + conveyance to Paris was a sort of job, the expences often exceeded + the worth--a patine, a censor, and a small chalice, were sent to the + Convention, perhaps an hundred leagues, by a couple of Jacobin + Commissioners in a coach and four, with a military escort. Thus, + the prejudices of the people were outraged, and their property + wasted, without any benefit, even to those who suggested the + measure. + +--The Convention, indeed, have partly relinquished their project of +destroying all the Kings of the earth, and forcing all the people to be +free. But, though their schemes of reformation have failed, they still +adhere to those of extirpation; and the most moderate members talk +occasionally of "vile islanders," and "sailing up the Thames."*-- + + * The Jacobins and the Moderates, who could agree in nothing else, + were here perfectly in unison; so that on the same day we see the + usual invectives of Barrere succeeded by menaces equally ridiculous + from Pelet and Tallien-- + + _"La seule chose dont nous devons nous occuper est d'ecraser ce + gouvernement infame."_ + + + Discours de Pelet, 14 Nov. + + "The destruction of that infamous government is the only thing that + ought to engage our attention." + Pelet's Speech, 14 Nov. 1794. + + _"Aujourdhui que la France peut en se debarrassant d'une partie de + ses ennemis reporter la gloire de ses armes sur les bordes de la + Tamise, et ecraser le gouvernement Anglais." + Discours de Tallien._ + + "France, having now the opportunity of lessening the number of her + enemies, may carry the glory of her arms to the banks of the Thames, + and crush the English government." + Tallien's Speech. + + _"Que le gouvernement prenne des mesures sages pour faire une paix + honorable avec quelques uns de nos ennemis, et a l'aide des + vaisseaux Hollandais et Espagnols, portons nous ensuite avec vigueur + sur les bordes de la Tamise, et detruisons la nouvelle Carthage." + Discours de Tallien, 14 Nov._ + + "Let the government but adopt wise measures for making an honorable + peace with a part of our enemies, and with the aid of the Dutch and + Spanish navies, let us repair to the banks of the Thames, and + destroy the modern Carthage." + Tallien's Speech, 14 Nov. 1794. + +No one is here ignorant of the source of Tallien's predilection for +Spain, and we may suppose the intrigue at this time far advanced. +Probably the charms of his wife (the daughter of Mons. Cabarrus, a French +speculator, formerly much encouraged by the Spanish government, +afterwards disgraced and imprisoned, but now liberated) might not be the +only means employed to procure his conversion. + +--Tallien, Clauzel, and those who have newly assumed the character of +rational and decent people, still use the low and atrocious language of +Brissot, on the day he made his declaration of war; and perhaps hope, by +exciting a national spirit of vengeance against Great Britain, to secure +their lives and their pay, when they shall have been forced to make peace +on the Continent: for, be certain, the motives of these men are never to +be sought for in any great political object, but merely in expedients to +preserve their persons and their plunder. + +Those who judge of the Convention by their daily harangues, and the +justice, virtue, or talents which they ascribe to themselves, must +believe them to be greatly regenerated: yet such is the dearth both of +abilities and of worth of any kind, that Andre Dumont has been +successively President of the Assembly, Member of the Committee of +General Safety, and is now in that of Public Welfare.--Adieu. + + + + +Amiens, Dec. 16, 1794. + +The seventy-three Deputies who have been so long confined are now +liberated, and have resumed their seats. Jealousy and fear for some time +rendered the Convention averse from the adoption of this measure; but the +public opinion was so determined in favour of it, that farther resistance +might not have been prudent. The satisfaction created by this event is +general, though the same sentiment is the result of various conclusions, +which, however, all tend to one object--the re-establishment of monarchy. + +The idea most prevalent is, that these deputies, when arrested, were +royalists.* + + * This opinion prevailed in many places where the proscribed + deputies took refuge. "The Normans (says Louvet) deceived by the + imputations in the newspapers, assisted us, under the idea that we + were royalists: but abandoned us when they found themselves + mistaken." In the same manner, on the appearance of these Deputies + in other departments, armies were collecting very fast, but + dispersed when they perceived these men were actuated only by + personal fear or personal ambition, and that no one talked of + restoring the monarchy. + +--By some it is thought, persecution may have converted them; but the +reflecting part of the nation look on the greater number as adherents of +the Girondists, whom the fortunate violence of Robespierre excluded from +participating in many of the past crimes of their colleagues, and who +have, in that alone, a reason for not becoming accomplices in those which +may be attempted in future. + +It is astonishing to see with what facility people daily take on trust +things which they have it in their power to ascertain. The seventy-three +owe a great part of the interest they have excited to a persuasion of +their having voted either for a mild sentence on the King, or an appeal +to the nation: yet this is so far from being true, that many of them were +unfavourable to him on every question. But supposing it to have been +otherwise, their merit is in reality little enhanced: they all voted him +guilty, without examining whether he was so or not; and in affecting +mercy while they refused justice, they only aimed at conciliating their +present views with their future safety. + +The whole claim of this party, who are now the Moderates of the +Convention, is reducible to their having opposed the commission of crimes +which were intended to serve their adversaries, rather than themselves. +To effect the dethronement of the King, and the destruction of those +obnoxious to them, they approved of popular insurrections; but expected +that the people whom they had rendered proficients in cruelty, should +become gentle and obedient when urged to resist their own authority; yet +they now come forth as victims of their patriotism, and call the heads of +the faction who are fallen--martyrs to liberty! But if they are victims, +it is to their folly or wickedness in becoming members of such an +assembly; and if their chiefs were martyrs, it was to the principles they +inculcated. + +The trial of the Brissotins was justice, compared with that of the King. +If the former were condemned without proof, their partizans should +remember, that the revolutionary jury pretended to be influenced by the +same moral evidence they had themselves urged as the ground on which they +condemned the King; and if the people beheld with applause or +indifference the execution of their once-popular idols, they only put in +practice the barbarous lessons which those idols had taught them;--they +were forbidden to lament the fate of their Sovereign, and they rejoiced +in that of Brissot and his confederates.--These men, then, only found the +just retribution of their own guilt; and though it may be politic to +forget that their survivors were also their accomplices, they are not +objects of esteem--and the contemporary popularity, which a long +seclusion has obtained for them, will vanish, if their future conduct +should be directed by their original principles.* + + * Louvet's pamphlet had not at this time appeared, and the + subsequent events proved, that the interest taken in these Deputies + was founded on a supposition they had changed their principles; for + before the close of the Convention they were as much objects of + hatred and contempt as their colleagues. + +Some of these Deputies were the hirelings of the Duke of Orleans, and +most of them are individuals of no better reputation than the rest of the +Assembly. Lanjuinais has the merit of having acted with great courage in +defence of himself and his party on the thirty-first of May 1792; but the +following anecdote, recited by Gregoire* in the Convention a few days ago +will sufficiently explain both his character and Gregoire's, who are now, +however, looked up to as royalists, and as men comparatively honest. + + * Gregoire is one of the constitutional Clergy, and, from the habit + of comparing bad with worse, is more esteemed than many of his + colleagues; yet, in his report on the progress of Vandalism, he + expresses himself with sanguinary indecency--"They have torn (says + he) the prints which represented the execution of Charles the first, + because there were coats of arms on them. Ah, would to god we could + behold, engraved in the same manner, the heads of all Kings, done + from nature! We might then reconcile ourselves to seeing a + ridiculous embellishment of heraldry accompany them." + +--"When I first arrived at Versailles, (says Gregoire,) as member of the +Constituent Assembly, (in 1789,) I met with Lanjuinais, and we took an +oath in concert to dethrone the King and abolish Nobility." Now, this +was before the alledged provocations of the King and Nobility--before the +constitution was framed--before the flight of the royal family to +Varennes--and before the war. But almost daily confessions of this sort +escape, which at once justify the King, and establish the infamy of the +revolutionists. + +These are circumstances not to be forgotten, did not the sad science of +discriminating the shades of wickedness, in which (as I have before +noticed) the French have been rendered such adepts, oblige them at +present to fix their hopes--not according to the degree of merit, but by +that of guilt. They are reduced to distinguish between those who +sanction murders, and those who perpetrated them--between the sacrificer +of one thousand victims, and that of ten--between those who assassinate, +and those who only reward the assassin.* + + * Tallien is supposed, as agent of the municipality of paris, to + have paid a million and a half of livres to the Septembrisers or + assassins of the prisons! I know not whether the sum was in + assignats or specie.--If in the former, it was, according to the + exchange then, about two and thirty thousand pounds sterling: but if + estimated in proportion to what might be purchased with it, near + fifty thousand. Tallien has never denied the payment of the money-- + we may, therefore, conclude the charge to be true. + +--Before the revolution, they would not have known how to select, where +all were objects of abhorrence; but now the most ignorant are casuists in +the gradations of turpitude, and prefer Tallien to Le Bon, and the Abbe +Sieyes to Barrere. + +The crimes of Carrier have been terminated, not punished, by death. He +met his fate with a courage which, when the effect of innocence, is +glorious to the sufferer, and consoling to humanity; but a career like +his, so ended, was only the confirmation of a brutal and ferocious mind.* + + * When Carrier was arrested, he attempted to shoot himself, and, on + being prevented by the Gens-d'armes, he told them there were members + of the Convention who would not forgive their having prevented his + purpose--implying, that they apprehended the discoveries he might + make on his trial. While he was dressing himself, (for they took + him in bed,) he added, "_Les Scelerats!_ (Meaning his more + particular accomplices, who, he was told, had voted against him,) + they deserved that I should be as dastardly as themselves." He + rested his defence entirely on the decrees of the Convention. + +--Of thirty who were tried with him as his agents, and convicted of +assisting at the drownings, shootings, &c. two only were executed, the +rest were acquitted; because, though the facts were proved, the moral +latitude of the Revolutionary Jury* did not find the guilt of the +intention--that is, the culprits were indisputably the murderers of +several thousand people, but, according to the words of the verdict, they +did not act with a counter-revolutionary intention. + + * An English reader may be deceived by the name of Jury. The + Revolutionary Jury was not only instituted, but even appointed by + the Convention.--The following is a literal translation of some of + the verdicts given on this occasion: + + "That O'Sulivan is author and accomplice of several noyades + (drownings) and unheard-of cruelties towards the victims delivered + to the waves. + + "That Lefevre is proved to have ordered and caused to be executed a + noyade of men, women, and children, and to have committed various + arbitrary acts. + + "That General Heron is proved to have assassinated children, and + worn publicly in his hat the ear of a man he had murdered. That he + also killed two children who were peaceably watching sheep. + + "That Bachelier is author and accomplice of the operations at + Nantes, in signing arbitrary mandates of arrest, imposing vexatious + taxes, and taking for himself plate, &c. found at the houses of + citizens arrested on suspicion. + + "That Joly is guilty, &c. in executing the arbitrary orders of the + Revolutionary Committee, of tying together the victims destined to + be drowned or shot." + + There are thirty-one articles conceived nearly in the same terms, + and which conclude thus--"All convicted as above, but not having + acted with criminal or counter-revolutionary intentions, the + Tribunal acquits and sets them at liberty." + + All France was indignant at those verdicts, and the people of Paris + were so enraged, that the Convention ordered the acquitted culprits + to be arrested again, perhaps rather for protection than punishment. + They were sent from Paris, and I never heard the result; but I have + seen the name of General Heron as being at large. + +The Convention were certainly desirous that the atrocities of these men +(all zealous republicans) should be forgotten; for, independently of the +disgrace which their trial has brought on the cause, the sacrifice of +such agents might create a dangerous timidity in future, and deprive the +government of valuable partizans, who would fear to be the instruments of +crimes for which, after such a precedent, they might become responsible. +But the evil, which was unavoidable, has been palliated by the tenderness +or gratitude of a jury chosen by the Convention, who, by sacrificing two +only of this mass of monsters, and protecting the rest, hope to +consecrate the useful principle of indulgence for every act, whatever its +enormity, which has been the consequence of zeal or obedience to the +government. + +It is among the dreadful singularities of the revolution, that the +greatest crimes which have been committed were all in strict observance +of the laws. Hence the Convention are perpetually embarrassed by +interest or shame, when it becomes necessary to punish them. We have +only to compare the conduct of Carrier, le Bon, Maignet, &c. with the +decrees under which they acted, to be convinced that their chief guilt +lies in having been capable of obeying: and the convention, coldly +issuing forth their rescripts of extermination and conflagration, will +not, in the opinion of the moralist, be favorably distinguished from +those who carried these mandates into execution. + + + + +December 24, 1794. + +I am now at a village a few miles from Amiens, where, upon giving +security in the usual form, we have been permitted to come for a few days +on a visit to some relations of my friend Mad. de ____. On our arrival, +we found the lady of the house in a nankeen pierrot, knitting grey thread +stockings for herself, and the gentleman in a thick woollen jacket and +pantaloons, at work in the fields, and really labouring as hard as his +men.--They hope, by thus taking up the occupation and assuming the +appearance of farmers, to escape farther persecution; and this policy may +be available to those who have little to lose: but property is now a more +dangerous distinction than birth, and whoever possesses it, will always +be considered as the enemies of the republic, and treated accordingly. + +We have been so much confined the last twelve months, that we were glad +to ride yesterday in spite of the cold; and our hosts having procured +asses for the females of the party, accompanied us themselves on foot.-- +During our ramble, we entered into conversation with two old men and a +boy, who were at work in an open field near the road. They told us, they +had not strength to labour, because they had not their usual quantity of +bread--that their good lady, whose chateau we saw at a distance, had been +guillotined, or else they should have wanted for nothing--_"Et ste pauvre +Javotte la n'auroit pas travaille quant elle est qualsiment prete a +mourir."_ ["And our poor Javotte there would not have had to work when she +is almost in her grave."]--_"Mon dieu,"_ (says one of the old men, who had +not yet spoke,) _"Je donnerais bien ma portion de sa terre pour la ravoir +notre bonne dame."_ ["God knows, I would willingly give up my share of +her estate to have our good lady amongst us again."]--_"Ah pour ca oui,"_ +(returned the other,) _"mais j'crois que nous n'aurons ni l'une l'autre, +voila ste maudite nation qui s'empare de tout."_ ["Ah truly, but I fancy +we shall have neither one nor the other, for this cursed nation gets hold +of every thing."] + +While they were going on in this style, a berline and four cabriolets, +with three-coloured flags at the windows, and a whole troop of national +guard, passed along the road. _"Vive la Republique!"_--"Vive la Nation!" +cried our peasants, in an instant; and as soon as the cavalcade was out +of sight, _"Voyez ste gueusaille la, quel train, c'est vraiment quelque +depute de la Convention--ces brigands la, ils ne manquent de rien, ils +vivent comme des rois, et nous autres nous sommes cent sois plus +miserables que jamais."_ ["See there what a figure they make, those +beggarly fellows--it's some deputy of the convention I take it. The +thieves want for nothing, they live like so many kings, and we are all a +hundred times worse off than ever."]--_"Tais toi, tais tois,"_ ["Be quiet, +I tell you."] (says the old man, who seemed the least garrulous of the +two.)--_"Ne crains rien,_ ["Never fear."] (replied the first,) _c'est de +braves gens;_ these ladies and gentlemen I'm sure are good people; they +have not the look of patriots."--And with this compliment to ourselves, +and the externals of patriotism, we took our leave of them. + +I found, however, by this little conversation, that some of the peasants +still believe they are to have the lands of the gentry divided amongst +them, according to a decree for that purpose. The lady, whom they +lamented, and whose estate they expected to share, was the Marquise de +B____, who had really left the country before the revolution, and had +gone to drink some of the German mineral waters, but not returning within +the time afterwards prescribed, was declared an emigrant. By means of a +friend, she got an application made to Chabot, (then in high popularity,) +who for an hundred thousand livres procured a passport from the Executive +Council to enter France. Upon the faith of this she ventured to return, +and was in consequence, notwithstanding her passport, executed as an +emigrant. + +Mrs. D____, who is not yet well enough for such an expedition, and is, +besides, unaccustomed to our montures, remained at home. We found she +had been much alarmed during our absence, every house in the village +having been searched, by order of the district, for corn, and two of the +horses taken to the next post to convey the retinue of the Deputy we had +seen in the morning. Every thing, however, was tranquil on our arrival, +and rejoicing it was no worse, though Mons. ____ seemed to be under great +apprehension for his horses, we sat down to what in France is called a +late dinner. + +Our host's brother, who left the army at the general exclusion of the +Noblesse, and was in confinement at the Luxembourg until after the death +of Robespierre, is a professed wit, writes couplets to popular airs, and +has dramatized one of Plutarch's Lives. While we were at the desert, he +amused us with some of his compositions in prison, such as an epigram on +the Guillotine, half a dozen calembours on the bad fare at the _Gamelle,_ +[Mess.] and an ode on the republican victory at Fleurus--the last written +under the hourly expectation of being sent off with the next _fournee_ +(batch) of pretended conspirators, yet breathing the most ardent +attachment to the convention, and terminated by a full sounding line +about tyrants and liberty.--This may appear strange, but the Poets were, +for the most part, in durance, and the Muses must sing, though in a cage: +hope and fear too both inspire prescriptively, and freedom might be +obtained or death averted by these effusions of a devotion so profound as +not to be alienated by the sufferings of imprisonment, or the menace of +destruction. Whole volumes of little jeux d'esprit, written under these +circumstances, might be collected from the different prisons; and, I +believe, it is only in France that such a collection could have been +furnished.* + + * Many of these poetical trifles have been published--some written + even the night before their authors were executed. There are + several of great poetical merit, and, when considered relatively, + are wonderful.--Among the various poets imprisoned, was one we + should scarcely have expected--Rouget Delille, author of the + Marseillois Hymn, who, while his muse was rouzing the citizens from + one end of the republic to the other to arm against tyrants, was + himself languishing obscurely a victim to the worst of all + tyrannies. + +Mr. D____, though he writes and speaks French admirably, does not love +French verses; and I found he could not depend on the government of his +features, while a French poet was reciting his own, but kept his eyes +fixed on a dried apple, which he pared very curiously, and when that was +atchieved, betook himself to breaking pralines, and extracting the +almonds with equal application. We, however, complimented Monsieur's +poetry; and when we had taken our coffee, and the servants were entirely +withdrawn, he read us some trifles more agreeable to our principles, if +not to our taste, and in which the Convention was treated with more +sincerity than complaisance. It seems the poet's zeal for the republic +had vanished at his departure from the Luxembourg, and that his wrath +against coalesced despots, and his passion for liberty, had entirely +evaporated. In the evening we played a party of reversi with republican +cards,* and heard the children sing "Mourrons pour la Patrie." + + * The four Kings are replaced by four Genii, the Queens by four + sorts of liberty, and the Knaves by four descriptions of equality. + +--After these civic amusements, we closed our chairs round the fire, +conjecturing how long the republic might last, or whether we should all +pass another twelve months in prison, and, agreeing that both our fate +and that of the republic were very precarious, adjourned to rest. + +While I was undressing, I observed Angelique looked extremely +discontented, and on my enquiring what was the matter, she answered, +_"C'est que je m'ennuie beaucoup ici,"_ ["I am quite tired of this +place."] "Mademoiselle," (for no state or calling is here exempt from this +polite sensation.) "And why, pray?"--_"Ah quelle triste societe, tout le +monde est d'un patriotisme insoutenable, la maison est remplie d'images +republicaines, des Marat, des Voltaire, des Pelletier, que sais-moi? et +voila jusqu'au garcon de l'ecurie qui me traite de citoyenne."_ ["Oh, +they are a sad set--every body is so insufferably patriotic. The house +is full from top to bottom of republican images, Marats, and Voltaires, +and Pelletiers, and I don't know who--and I am called Citizen even by the +stable boy."] I did not think it right to satisfy her as to the real +principles of our friends, and went to bed ruminating on the improvements +which the revolution must have occasioned in the art of dissimulation. +Terror has drilled people of the most opposite sentiments into such an +uniformity of manner and expression, that an aristocrat who is ruined and +persecuted by the government is not distinguishable from the Jacobin who +has made his fortune under it. + +In the morning Angelique's countenance was brightened, and I found she +had slept in the same room with Madame's _femme de chambre,_ when an +explanation of their political creeds had taken place, so that she now +assured me Mad. Augustine was _"fort honnete dans le fond,"_ [A very good +girl at heart.] though she was obliged to affect republicanism.--"All the +world's a stage," says our great dramatic moralist. France is certainly +so at present, and we are not only necessitated to act a part, but a +sorry one too; for we have no choice but to exhibit in farce, or suffer +in tragedy.--Yours, &c. + + + + +December 27, 1794. + +I took the opportunity of my being here to go about four leagues farther +to see an old convent acquaintance lately come to this part of the +country, and whom I have not met since I was at Orleans in 1789. + +The time has been when I should have thought such a history as this +lady's a romance, but tales of woe are now become familiar to us, and, if +they create sympathy, they no longer excite surprize, and we hear of them +as the natural effects of the revolution. + +Madame de St. E__m__d is the daughter of a gentleman whose fortune was +inadequate both to his rank and manner of living, and he gladly embraced +the offer of Monsieur de St. E__m__d to marry her at sixteen, and to +relinquish the fortune allotted her to her two younger sisters. Monsieur +de St. E__m__d, being a dissipated man, soon grew weary of any sort of +domestic life, and placing his wife with her father, in less than a year +after their marriage departed for Italy.--Madame de St. E__m__d, thus +left in a situation both delicate and dangerous for a young and pretty +woman, became unfortunately attached to a gentleman who was her distant +relation: yet, far from adopting the immoral principles not unjustly +ascribed to your country, she conducted herself with a prudence and +reserve, which even in France made her an object of general respect. +About three years after her husband's departure the revolution took +place, and not returning, he was of course put on the list of emigrants. +In 1792, when the law passed which sanctioned and facilitated divorces, +her friends all earnestly persuaded her to avail herself of it, but she +could not be prevailed upon to consider the step as justifiable; for +though Monsieur de St. E__m__d neglected her, he had, in other respects, +treated her with generosity and kindness. She, therefore, persisted in +her refusal, and her lover, in despair, joined the republican army. + +At the general arrest of the Noblesse, Madame de St. E__m__d and her +sisters were confined in the town where they resided, but their father +was sent to Paris; and a letter from one of his female relations, who had +emigrated, being found among his papers, he was executed without being +able to see or write to his children. Madame de St. E__m__d's husband had +returned about the same time to France, in the disguise of a post-boy, +was discovered, and shared the same fate. These events reached her love, +still at the army, but it was impossible for him to quit his post, and in +a few days after, being mortally wounded, he died,* recommending Eugenie +de St. E__m__d to the protection of his father.-- + + * This young man, who died gallantly fighting in the cause of the + republic, was no republican: but this does not render the murder of + his father, a deaf [There were people both deaf and dumb in the + prisons as conspirators.] and inoffensive man, less abominable.--The + case of General Moreau's father, though somewhat similar, is yet + more characteristic of the revolution. Mons. Moreau was persuaded, + by a man who had some interest in the business, to pay a debt which + he owed an emigrant, to an individual, instead of paying it, as the + law directed, to the use of the republic. The same man afterwards + denounced him, and he was thrown into prison. At nine o'clock on + the night preceding his trial, his act of accusation was brought + him, and before he had time to sketch out a few lines for his + defence, the light by which he wrote was taken away. In the morning + he was tried, the man who had informed against him sitting as one of + his judges, and he was condemned and executed the very day on which + his son took the Fort de l'Ecluse!--Mons. Moreau had four sons, + besides the General in the army, and two daughters, all left + destitute by the confiscation of his property. + +--A brother officer, who engaged to execute this commission, wrote +immediately to the old man, to inform him of his loss, and of his son's +last request. It was too late, the father having been arrested on +suspicion, and afterwards guillotined, with many other persons, for a +pretended conspiracy in prison, the very day on which his son had fallen +in the performance of an act of uncommon bravery. + +Were I writing from imagination, I should add, that Madame de St. E__m__d +had been unable to sustain the shock of these repeated calamities, and +that her life or understanding had been the sacrifice. It were, indeed, +happy for the sufferer, if our days were always terminated when they +became embittered, or that we lost the sense of sorrow by its excess: but +it is not so--we continue to exist when we have lost the desire of +existence, and to reason when feeling and reason constitute our torments. +Madame de St. E__m__d then lives, but lives in affliction; and having +collected the wreck of her personal property, which some friends had +concealed, she left the part of France she formerly inhabited, and is now +with an aunt in this neighbourhood, watching the decay of her eldest +sister, and educating the youngest. + +Clementine was consumptive when they were first arrested, and vexation, +with ill-treatment in the prison, have so established her disorder, that +she is now past relief. She is yet scarcely eighteen, and one of the +most lovely young women I ever saw. Grief and sickness have ravaged her +features; but they are still so perfect, that fancy, associating their +past bloom with their present languor, supplies perhaps as much to the +mind as is lost by the eye. She suffers without complaining, and mourns +without ostentation; and hears her father spoken of with such solemn +silent floods of tears, that she looks like the original of Dryden's +beautiful portrait of the weeping Sigismunda. + +The letter which condemned the father of these ladies, was not, it seems, +written to himself, but to a brother, lately dead, whose executor he was, +and of whose papers he thus became possessed. On this ground their +friends engaged them to petition the Assembly for a revision of the +sentence, and the restoration of their property, which was in consequence +forfeited. + +The daily professions of the Convention, in favour of justice and +humanity, and the return of the seventy-three imprisoned Deputies, had +soothed these poor young women with the hopes of regaining their paternal +inheritance, so iniquitously confiscated. A petition was, therefore, +forwarded to Paris about a fortnight ago; and the day before, the +following decree was issued, which has silenced their claims for ever: +"La Convention Nationale declare qu'elle n'admettra aucune demande en +revision des jugemens criminels portant confiscation de biens rendus et +executes pendant la revolution."* + + * "The National Convention hereby declares that it will admit no + petitions for the revisal of such criminal sentences, attended with + confiscation of property, as have been passed and executed since the + revolution." + + Yet these revolutionists, who would hear nothing of repairing their + own injustice, had occasionally been annulling sentences past half a + century ago, and the more recent one of the Chevalier La Barre. But + their own executions and confiscations for an adherence to religion + were to be held sacred.--I shall be excused for introducing here a + few words respecting the affair of La Barre, which has been a + favourite topic with popular writers of a certain description. The + severity of the punishment must, doubtless, be considered as + disgraceful to those who advised as well as to those who sanctioned + it: but we must not infer from hence that he merited no punishment + at all; and perhaps degradation, some scandalous and public + correction, with a few years solitary confinement, might have + answered every purpose intended. + + La Barre was a young etourdi, under twenty, but of lively talents, + which, unfortunately for him, had taken a very perverse turn. The + misdemeanour commonly imputed to him and his associates was, that + they had mutilated a Christ which stood on the Pont-neuf at + Abbeville: but La Barre had accustomed himself to take all + opportunities of insulting, with the most wanton malignity, these + pious representations, and especially in the presence of people, + with whom his particular connections led him to associate, and whose + profession could not allow them entirely to overlook such affronts + on what was deemed an appendage to the established religion of the + country. + + The people of Abbeville manifested their sense of the business when + d'Etalonde, La Barre's intimate friend, who had saved himself by + flight, returned, after a long exile, under favour of the + revolution. He was received in the neighbourhood with the most + mortifying indifference. + + The decree of the Convention too, by which the memory of this + imprudent young man was re-established, when promulgated, created + about as much interest as any other law which did not immediately + affect the property or awaken the apprehensions of the hearers. + +Madame de St. E__m__d told me her whole fortune was now reduced to a few +Louis, and about six or seven thousand livres in diamonds; that she was +unwilling to burden her aunt, who was not rich, and intended to make some +advantage of her musical talents, which are indeed considerable. But I +could not, without anguish, hear an elegant young woman, with a heart +half broken, propose to get her living by teaching music.--I know not +that I ever passed a more melancholy day. In the afternoon we walked up +and down the path of the village church-yard. The church was shut up, +the roof in part untiled, the windows were broken, and the wooden crosses +that religion or tenderness had erected to commemorate the dead, broken +and scattered about. Two labourers, and a black-smith in his working +garb, came while we were there, and threw a sort of uncouth wooden coffin +hastily into a hole dug for the purpose, which they then covered and left +without farther ceremony. Yet this was the body of a lady regretted by a +large family, who were thus obliged to conquer both their affection and +their prejudices, and inter her according to the republican mode.* + + * The relations or friends of the dead were prohibited, under severe + penalties, from following their remains to the grave. + +I thought, while we traversed the walk, and beheld this scene, that every +thing about me bore the marks of the revolution. The melancholy objects +I held on my arm, and the feeble steps of Clementine, whom we could +scarcely support, aided the impression; and I fear that, for the moment, +I questioned the justice of Heaven, in permitting such a scourge to be +let loose upon its works. + +I quitted Madame de St. E__m__d this morning with reluctance, for we +shall not meet again till I am entirely at liberty. The village +municipality where she now resides, are quiet and civil, and her +misfortunes make her fearful of attracting the notice of the people in +authority of a large place, so that she cannot venture to Amiens.--You +must observe, that any person who has suffered is an object of particular +suspicion, and that to have had a father or a husband executed, and to be +reduced to beggary, are titles to farther persecution.--The politics of +the day are, it is true, something less ferocious than they were: but +confidence is not to be restored by an essay in the Orateur du Peuple,* +or an equivocal harangue from the tribune; and I perceive every where, +that those who have been most injured, are most timid. + + + * _"L'Orateur du Peuple,"_ was a periodical paper published by + Freron, many numbers of which were written with great spirit.-- + Freron was at this time supposed to have become a royalist, and his + paper, which was comparatively favourable to the aristocrats, was + read with great eagerness. + + The following extract from the registers of one of the popular + commissions will prove, that the fears of those who had already + suffered by the revolution were well founded: + + "A. Sourdeville, and A. N. E. Sourdeville, sisters of an emigrant + Noble, daughters of a Count, aristocrats, and having had their + father and brother guillotined. + + "M. J. Sourdeville, mother of an emigrant, an aristocrat, and her + husband and son having been guillotined. + + "Jean Marie Defille--very suspicious--a partizan of the Abbe Arnoud + and La Fayette, has had a brother guillotined, and always shewn + himself indifferent about the public welfare." + + The commissions declare that the above are condemned to banishment. + +I did not reach this place till after the family had dined, and taking my +soup and a dish of coffee, have escaped, under pretext of the headache, +to my own room. I left our poet far gone in a classical description of a +sort of Roman dresses, the drawings of which he had seen exhibited at the +Lyceum, as models of an intended national equipment for the French +citizens of both sexes; and my visit to Madame de St. E__m__d had +incapacitated me for discussing revolutionary draperies. + +In England, this is the season of festivity to the little, and +beneficence in the great; but here, the sterile genius of atheism has +suppressed the sounds of mirth, and closed the hands of charity--no +season is consecrated either to the one or the other; and the once-varied +year is but an uniform round of gloom and selfishness. The philosopher +may treat with contempt the notion of periodical benevolence, and assert +that we should not wait to be reminded by religion or the calendar, in +order to contribute to the relief of our fellow creatures: yet there are +people who are influenced by custom and duty, that are not always awake +to compassion; and indolence or avarice may yield a too ready obedience +to prohibitions which favour both. The poor are certainly no gainers by +the substitution of philosophy for religion; and many of those who are +forbidden to celebrate Christmas or Easter by a mass, will forget to do +it by a donation. For my own part, I think it an advantage that any +period of the year is more particularly signalized by charity; and I +rejoice when I hear of the annual gifts of meat or firing of such, or +such a great personage--and I never enquire whether they might still +continue their munificence if Christianity were abolished.--Adieu. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Residence in France During the Years +1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795, Part III., 1794, by An English Lady + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11994 *** |