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diff --git a/11995-0.txt b/11995-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9df3f8e --- /dev/null +++ b/11995-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3056 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11995 *** + +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. + + + +1795 + + + +Amiens, Jan. 23, 1795. + +Nothing proves more that the French republican government was originally +founded on principles of despotism and injustice, than the weakness and +anarchy which seem to accompany every deviation from these principles. +It is strong to destroy and weak to protect: because, deriving its +support from the power of the bad and the submission of the timid, it is +deserted or opposed by the former when it ceases to plunder or oppress-- +while the fears and habits of the latter still prevail, and render them +as unwilling to defend a better system as they have been to resist the +worst possible. + +The reforms that have taken place since the death of Robespierre, though +not sufficient for the demands of justice, are yet enough to relax the +strength of the government; and the Jacobins, though excluded from +authority, yet influence by the turbulence of their chiefs in the +Convention, and the recollection of their past tyranny--against the +return of which the fluctuating politics of the Assembly offer no +security. The Committees of Public Welfare and General Safety (whose +members were intended, according to the original institution, to be +removed monthly) were, under Robespierre, perpetual; and the union they +preserved in certain points, however unfavourable to liberty, gave a +vigour to the government, of which from its conformation it should appear +to have been incapable. It is now discovered, that an undefined power, +not subject to the restriction of fixed laws, cannot remain long in the +same hands without producing tyranny. A fourth part of the Members of +these Committees are, therefore, now changed every month; but this +regulation, more advantageous to the Convention than the people, keeps +alive animosities, stimulates ambition, and retains the country in +anxiety and suspense; for no one can guess this month what system may be +adopted the next--and the admission of two or three new Jacobin members +would be sufficient to excite an universal alarm. + +We watch these renewals with a solicitude inconceivable to those who +study politics as they do a new opera, and have nothing to apprehend from +the personal characters of Ministers; and our hopes and fears vary +according as the members elected are Moderates, Doubtfuls, or decided +Mountaineers.* + + * For instance, Carnot, whose talents in the military department + obliged the Convention (even if they had not been so disposed) to + forget his compliances with Robespierre, his friendship for Barrere + and Collot, and his eulogiums on Carrier. + +--This mixture of principles, which intrigue, intimidation, or +expediency, occasions in the Committees, is felt daily; and if the +languor and versatility of the government be not more apparent, it is +that habits of submission still continue, and that the force of terror +operates in the branches, though the main spring be relaxed. Were armies +to be raised, or means devised to pay them now, it could not be done; +though, being once put in motion, they continue to act, and the +requisitions still in a certain degree supply them. + +The Convention, while they have lost much of their real power, have also +become more externally contemptible than ever. When they were overawed +by the imposing tone of their Committees, they were tolerably decent; but +as this restraint has worn off, the scandalous tumult of their debates +increases, and they exhibit whatever you can imagine of an assemblage of +men, most of whom are probably unacquainted with those salutary forms +which correct the passions, and soften the intercourse of polished +society. They question each other's veracity with a frankness truly +democratic, and come fraternally to "Touchstone's seventh remove" at +once, without passing any of the intermediate progressions. It was but +lately that one Gaston advanced with a stick in full assembly to thresh +Legendre; and Cambon and Duhem are sometimes obliged to be holden by the +arms and legs, to prevent their falling on Tallien and Freron. I +described scenes of this nature to you at the opening of the Convention; +but I assure you, the silent meditations of the members under Robespierre +have extremely improved them in that species of eloquence, which is not +susceptible of translation or transcription. We may conclude, that these +licences are inherent to a perfect democracy; for the greater the number +of representatives, and the nearer they approach to the mass of the +people, the less they will be influenced by aristocratic ceremonials. We +have, however, no interest in disputing the right of the Convention to +use violence and lavish abuse amongst themselves; for, perhaps, these +scenes form the only part of their journals which does not record or +applaud some real mischief. + +The French, who are obliged to celebrate so many aeras of revolution, who +have demolished Bastilles and destroyed tyrants, seem at this moment to +be in a political infancy, struggling against despotism, and emerging +from ignorance and barbarity. A person unacquainted with the promoters +and objects of the revolution, might be apt to enquire for what it had +been undertaken, or what had been gained by it, when all the manufactured +eloquence of Tallien is vainly exerted to obtain some limitation of +arbitrary imprisonment--when Freron harangues with equal labour and as +little success in behalf of the liberty of the press; while Gregoire +pleads for freedom of worship, Echasseriaux for that of commerce, and all +the sections of Paris for that of election.* + + * It is to be observed, that in these orations all the decrees + passed by the Convention for the destruction of commerce and + religion, are ascribed to the influence of Mr. Pitt.--"La libertedes + cultes existe en Turquie, elle n'existe point en France. Le peuple + y est prive d'un droit donc on jouit dans les etats despotiques + memes, sous les regences de Maroc et d'Algers. Si cet etat de + choses doit perseverer, ne parlons plus de l'inquisition, nous en + avons perdu le droit, car la liberte des cultes n'est que dans les + decrets, et la persecution tiraille toute la France. + + "Cette impression intolerante aurait elle ete (suggeree) par le + cabinet de St. James?" + + "In Turkey the liberty of worship is admitted, though it does not + exist in France. Here the people are deprived of a right common to + the most despotic governments, not even excepting those of Algiers + and Morocco.--If things are to continue in this state, let us say no + more about the Inquisition, we have no right, for religious liberty + is to be found only in our decrees, while, in truth, the whole + country is exposed to persecution. + + "May not these intolerant notions have been suggested by the Cabinet + of St. James?" + + Gregoire's Report on the Liberty of Worship. + +--Thus, after so many years of suffering, and such a waste of whatever is +most valuable, the civil, religious, and political privileges of this +country depend on a vote of the Convention. + +The speech of Gregoire, which tended to restore the Catholic worship, was +very ill received by his colleagues, but every where else it is read with +avidity and applause; for, exclusive of its merit as a composition, the +subject is of general interest, and there are few who do not wish to have +the present puerile imitations of Paganism replaced by Christianity. The +Assembly listened to this tolerating oration with impatience, passed to +the order of the day, and called loudly for Decades, with celebrations in +honour of "the liberty of the world, posterity, stoicism, the republic, +and the hatred of tyrants!" But the people, who understand nothing of +this new worship, languish after the saints of their ancestors, and think +St. Francois d'Assise, or St. Francois de Sales, at least as likely to +afford them spiritual consolation, as Carmagnoles, political homilies, or +pasteboard goddesses of liberty. + +The failure of Gregoire is far from operating as a discouragement to this +mode of thinking; for such has been the intolerance of the last year, +that his having even ventured to suggest a declaration in favour of free +worship, is deemed a sort of triumph to the pious which has revived their +hopes. Nothing is talked of but the restoration of churches, and +reinstalment of priests--the shops are already open on the Decade, and +the decrees of the Convention, which make a principal part of the +republican service, are now read only to a few idle children or bare +walls. [When the bell toll'd on the Decade, the people used to say it was +for La messe du Diable--The Devil's mass.]--My maid told me this morning, +as a secret of too much importance for her to retain, that she had the +promise of being introduced to a good priest, (un bon pretre, for so the +people entitle those who have never conformed,) to receive her confession +at Easter; and the fetes of the new calendar are now jested on publicly +with very little reverence. + +The Convention have very lately decreed themselves an increase of pay, +from eighteen to thirty-six livres. This, according to the comparative +value of assignats, is very trifling: but the people, who have so long +been flattered with the ideas of partition and equality, and are now +starving, consider it as a great deal, and much discontent is excited, +which however evaporates, as usual, in the national talent for bon mots. +The augmentation, though an object of popular jealousy, is most likely +valued by the leading members only as it procures them an ostensible +means of living; for all who have been on missions, or had any share in +the government, have, like Falstaff, "hid their honour in their +necessities," and have now resources they desire to profit by, but cannot +decently avow. + +The Jacobin party have in general opposed this additional eighteen +livres, with the hope of casting an odium on their adversaries; but the +people, though they murmur, still prefer the Moderates, even at the +expence of paying the difference. The policy of some Deputies who have +acquired too much, or the malice of others who have acquired nothing, has +frequently proposed, that every member of the Convention should publish +an account of his fortune before and since the revolution. An +enthusiastic and acclamatory decree of assent has always insued; but +somehow prudence has hitherto cooled this warmth before the subsequent +debate, and the resolution has never yet been carried into effect. + +The crimes of Maignet, though they appear to occasion but little regret +in his colleagues, have been the source of considerable embarrassment to +them. When he was on mission in the department of Vaucluse, besides +numberless other enormities, he caused the whole town of Bedouin to be +burnt, a part of its inhabitants to be guillotined, and the rest +dispersed, because the tree of liberty was cut down one dark night, while +they were asleep.* + + * Maignet's order for the burning of Bedouin begins thus: "Liberte, + egalite, au nom du peuple Francais!" He then states the offence of + the inhabitants in suffering the tree of liberty to be cut down, + institutes a commission for trying them, and proceeds--"It is hereby + ordered, that as soon as the principal criminals are executed, the + national agent shall notify to the remaining inhabitants not + confined, that they are enjoined to evacuate their dwellings, and + take out their effects in twenty-four hours; at the expiration of + which he is to commit the town to the flames, and leave no vestige + of a building standing. Farther, it is forbidden to erect any + building on the spot in future, or to cultivate the soil." + + "Done at Avignon, the 17th Floreal." + + The decree of the Convention to the same effect passed about the 1st + of Floreal. Merlin de Douai, (Minister of Justice in 1796,) + Legendre, and Bourdon de l'Oise, were the zealous defenders of + Maignet on this occasion. + +--Since the Assembly have thought it expedient to disavow these +revolutionary measures, the conduct of Maignet has been denounced, and +the accusations against him sent to a commission to be examined. For a +long time no report was made, till the impatience of Rovere, who is +Maignet's personal enemy, rendered a publication of the result +dispensable. They declared they found no room for censure or farther +proceedings. This decision was at first strongly reprobated by the +Moderates; but as it was proved, in the course of the debate, that +Maignet was authorized, by an express decree of the Convention, to burn +Bedouin, and guillotine its inhabitants, all parties soon agreed to +consign the whole to oblivion. + +Our clothes, &c. are at length entirely released from sequestration, and +the seals taken off. We are indebted for this act of justice to the +intrigues of Tallien, whose belle Espagnole is considerably interested. +Tallien's good fortune is so much envied, that some of the members were +little enough to move, that the property of the Spanish Bank of St. +Charles (in which Madame T----'s is included) should be excepted from the +decree in favour of foreigners. The Convention were weak enough to +accede; but the exception will, doubtless, be over-ruled. + +The weather is severe beyond what it has been in my remembrance. The +thermometer was this morning at fourteen and a half. It is, besides, +potentially cold, and every particle of air is like a dart.--I suppose +you contrive to keep yourselves warm in England, though it is not +possible to do so here. The houses are neither furnished nor put +together for the climate, and we are fanned by these congealing winds, as +though the apertures which admit them were designed to alleviate the +ardours of an Italian sun. + +The satin hangings of my room, framed on canvas, wave with the gales +lodged behind them every second. A pair of "silver cupids, nicely poised +on their brands," support a wood fire, which it is an occupation to keep +from extinguishing; and all the illusion of a gay orange-grove pourtrayed +on the tapestry at my feet, is dissipated by a villainous chasm of about +half an inch between the floor and the skirting-boards. Then we have so +many corresponding windows, supernumerary doors, "and passages that lead +to nothing," that all our English ingenuity in comfortable arrangement is +baffled.--When the cold first became so insupportable, we attempted to +live entirely in the eating-room, which is warmed by a poele, or German +stove, but the kind of heat it emits is so depressive and relaxing to +those who are not inured to it, that we are again returned to our large +chimney and wood-fire.--The French depend more on the warmth of their +clothing, than the comfort of their houses. They are all wadded and +furred as though they were going on a sledge party, and the men, in this +respect, are more delicate than the ladies: but whether it be the +consequence of these precautions, or from any other cause, I observe they +are, in general, without excepting even the natives of the Southern +provinces, less sensible of cold than the English. + + + + +Amiens, Jan. 30, 1795. + +Delacroix, author of _"Les Constitutions Politiques de l'Europe,"_ [The +Political Constitutions of Europe.] has lately published a work much +read, and which has excited the displeasure of the Assembly so highly, +that the writer, by way of preliminary criticism, has been arrested. The +book is intitled _"Le Spectateur Francais pendant la Revolution."_ [The +French Spectator during the Revolution.] It contains many truths, and +some speculations very unfavourable both to republicanism and its +founders. It ventures to doubt the free acceptance of the democratic +constitution, proposes indirectly the restoration of the monarchy, and +dilates with great composure on a plan for transporting to America all +the Deputies who voted for the King's death. The popularity of the work, +still more than its principles, has contributed to exasperate the +Assembly; and serious apprehensions are entertained for the fate of +Delacroix, who is ordered for trial to the Revolutionary Tribunal. + +It would astonish a superficial observer to see with what avidity all +forbidden doctrines are read. Under the Church and Monarchy, a deistical +or republican author might sometimes acquire proselytes, or become the +favourite amusement of fashionable or literary people; but the +circulation of such works could be only partial, and amongst a particular +class of readers: whereas the treason of the day, which comprises +whatever favours Kings or religion, is understood by the meanest +individual, and the temptation to these prohibited enjoyments is assisted +both by affection and prejudice.--An almanack, with a pleasantry on the +Convention, or a couplet in behalf of royalism, is handed mysteriously +through half a town, and a _brochure_ [A pamphlet.] of higher +pretensions, though on the same principles, is the very bonne bouche of +our political _gourmands_. [Gluttons.] + +There is, in fact, no liberty of the press. It is permitted to write +against Barrere or the Jacobins, because they are no longer in power; but +a single word of disrespect towards the Convention is more certain of +being followed by a Lettre de Cachet, than a volume of satire on any of +Louis the Fourteenth's ministers would have been formerly. The only +period in which a real freedom of the press has existed in France were +those years of the late King's reign immediately preceding the +revolution; and either through the contempt, supineness, or worse +motives, of those who should have checked it, it existed in too great a +degree: so that deists and republicans were permitted to corrupt the +people, and undermine the government without restraint.* + + * It is well known that Calonne encouraged libels on the Queen, to + obtain credit for his zeal in suppressing them; and the culpable + vanity of Necker made made him but too willing to raise his own + reputation on the wreck of that of an unsuspecting and unfortunate + Monarch. + +After the fourteenth of July 1789, political literature became more +subject to mobs and the lanterne, than ever it had been to Ministers and +Bastilles; and at the tenth of August 1792, every vestige of the liberty +of the press disappeared.*-- + + * "What impartial man among us must not be forced to acknowledge, + that since the revolution it has become dangerous for any one, I + will not say to attack the government, but to emit opinions contrary + to those which the government has adopted." + Discours de Jean Bon St. Andre sur la Liberte de la Presse, 30th + April, 1795. + + A law was passed on the first of May, 1795, a short time after this + letter was written, making it transportation to vilify the National + Representation, either by words or writing; and if the offence were + committed publicly, or among a certain number of people, it became + capital. + +--Under the Brissotins it was fatal to write, and hazardous to read, any +work which tended to exculpate the King, or to censure his despotism, and +the massacres that accompanied and followed it.*-- + + * I appeal for the confirmation of this to every person who resided + in France at that period. + +--During the time of Robespierre the same system was only transmitted to +other hands, and would still prevail under the Moderates, if their +tyranny were not circumscribed by their weakness. It was some time +before I ventured to receive Freron's Orateur du Peuple by the post. +Even pamphlets written with the greatest caution are not to be procured +without difficulty in the country; and this is not to be wondered at when +we recollect how many people have lost their lives through a subscription +to a newspaper, or the possession of some work, which, when they +purchased it, was not interdicted. + +As the government has lately assumed a more civilized cast, it was +expected that the anniversary of the King's death would not have been +celebrated. The Convention, however, determined otherwise; and their +musical band was ordered to attend as usual on occasions of festivity. +The leader of the band had perhaps sense and decency enough to suppose, +that if such an event could possibly be justified, it never could be a +subject of rejoicing, and therefore made choice of melodies rather tender +than gay. But this Lydian mood, far from having the mollifying effect +attributed to it by Scriblerus, threw several Deputies into a rage; and +the conductor was reprimanded for daring to insult the ears of the +legislature with strains which seemed to lament the tyrant. The +affrighted musician begged to be heard in his defence; and declaring he +only meant, by the adoption of these gentle airs, to express the +tranquillity and happiness enjoyed under the republican constitution, +struck off Ca Ira. + +When the ceremony was over, one Brival proposed, that the young King +should be put to death; observing that instead of the many useless crimes +which had been committed, this ought to have had the preference. The +motion was not seconded; but the Convention, in order to defeat the +purposes of the royalists, who, they say, increase in number, have +ordered the Committees to consider of some way of sending this poor child +out of the country. + +When I reflect on the event which these men have so indecently +commemorated, and the horrors which succeeded it, I feel something more +than a detestation for republicanism. The undefined notions of liberty +imbibed from poets and historians, fade away--my reverence for names long +consecrated in our annals abates--and the sole object of my political +attachment is the English constitution, as tried by time and undeformed +by the experiments of visionaries and impostors. I begin to doubt either +the sense or honesty of most of those men who are celebrated as the +promoters of changes of government which have chiefly been adopted rather +with a view to indulge a favourite theory, than to relieve a people from +any acknowledged oppression. A wise or good man would distrust his +judgment on a subject so momentous, and perhaps the best of such +reformers were but enthusiasts. Shaftesbury calls enthusiasm an honest +passion; yet we have seen it is a very dangerous one: and we may perhaps +learn, from the example of France, not to venerate principles which we do +not admire in practice.* + + * I do not imply that the French Revolution was the work of + enthusiasts, but that the enthusiasm of Rousseau produced a horde of + Brissots, Marats, Robespierres, &c. who speculated on the + affectation of it. The Abbe Sieyes, whose views were directed to a + change of Monarchs, not a dissolution of the monarchy, and who in + promoting a revolution did not mean to found a republic, has + ventured to doubt both the political genius of Rousseau, and the + honesty of his sectaries. These truths from the Abbe are not the + less so for our knowing they would not be avowed if it answered his + purpose to conceal them.--_"Helas! un ecrivain justement celebre qui + seroit mort de douleur s'il avoit connu ses disciples; un philosophe + aussi parfait de sentiment que foible de vues, n'a-t-il pas dans ses + pages eloquentes, riches en detail, pauvre au fond, confondu + lui-meme les principes de l'art social avec les commencemens de la + societe humaine? Que dire si l'on voyait dans un autre genre de + mechaniques, entreprendre le radoub ou la construction d'un vaisseau + de ligne avec la seule theorie, avec les seules resources des + Sauvages dans la construction de leurs Pirogues!"_--"Alas! has not a + justly-celebrated writer, who would have died with grief, could he + have known what disciples he was destined to have;--a philosopher as + perfect in sentiment as feeble in his views,--confounded, in his + eloquent pages--pages which are as rich in matter as poor in + substance--the principles of the social system with the commencement + of human society? What should we say to a mechanic of a different + description, who should undertake the repair or construction of a + ship of the line, without any practical knowledge of the art, on + mere theory, and with no other resources than those which the savage + employs in the construction of his canoe?" + Notices sur la Vie de Sieyes. + +What had France, already possessed of a constitution capable of rendering +her prosperous and happy, to do with the adoration of Rousseau's +speculative systems? Or why are the English encouraged in a traditional +respect for the manes of republicans, whom, if living, we might not +improbably consider as factious and turbulent fanatics?* + + * The prejudices of my countrymen on this subject are respectable, + and I know I shall be deemed guilty of a species of political + sacrilege. I attack not the tombs of the dead, but the want of + consideration for the living; and let not those who admire + republican principles in their closets, think themselves competent + to censure the opinions of one who has been watching their effects + amidst the disasters of a revolution. + +Our slumbers have for some time been patriotically disturbed by the +danger of Holland; and the taking of the Maestricht nearly caused me a +jaundice: but the French have taught us philosophy--and their conquests +appear to afford them so little pleasure, that we ourselves hear of them +with less pain. The Convention were indeed, at first, greatly elated by +the dispatches from Amsterdam, and imagined they were on the eve of +dictating to all Europe: the churches were ordered to toll their only +bell, and the gasconades of the bulletin were uncommonly pompous--but the +novelty of the event has now subsided, and the conquest of Holland +excites less interest than the thaw. Public spirit is absorbed by +private necessities or afflictions; people who cannot procure bread or +firing, even though they have money to purchase it, are little gratified +by reading that a pair of their Deputies lodged in the Stadtholder's +palace; and the triumphs of the republic offer no consolation to the +families which it has pillaged or dismembered. + +The mind, narrowed and occupied by the little cares of hunting out the +necessaries of life, and evading the restraints of a jealous government, +is not susceptible of that lively concern in distant and general events +which is the effect of ease and security; and all the recent victories +have not been able to sooth the discontents of the Parisians, who are +obliged to shiver whole hours at the door of a baker, to buy, at an +extravagant price, a trifling portion of bread. + + * "Chacun se concentre aujourdhui dans sa famille et calcule ses + resources."--"The attention of every one now is confined to his + family, and to the calculation of his resources." + Discours de Lindet. + + "Accable du soin d'etre, et du travail de vivre."--"Overwhelmed with + the care of existence, and the labour of living." + St. Lambert + +--The impression of these successes is, I am persuaded, also diminished +by considerations to which the philosopher of the day would allow no +influence; yet by their assimilation with the Deputies and Generals whose +names are so obscure as to escape the memory, they cease to inspire that +mixed sentiment which is the result of national pride and personal +affection. The name of a General or an Admiral serves as the epitome of +an historical relation, and suffices to recall all his glories, and all +his services; but this sort of enthusiasm is entirely repelled by an +account that the citizens Gillet and Jourbert, two representatives heard +of almost for the first time, have taken possession of Amsterdam. + +I enquired of a man who was sawing wood for us this morning, what the +bells clattered for last night. _"L'on m'a dit_ (answered he) _que c'est +pour quelque ville que quelque general de la republique a prise. Ah! ca +nous avancera beaucoup; la paix et du pain, je crois, sera mieux notre +affaire que toutes ces conquetes."_ ["They say its for some town or +other, that some general or other has taken.--Ah! we shall get a vast +deal by that--a peace and bread, I think, would answer our purpose better +than all these victories."] I told him he ought to speak with more +caution. _"Mourir pour mourir,_ [One death's as good as another.] (says +he, half gaily,) one may as well die by the Guillotine as be starved. My +family have had no bread these two days, and because I went to a +neighbouring village to buy a little corn, the peasants, who are jealous +that the town's people already get too much of the farmers, beat me so +that I am scarce able to work."*-- + + * _"L'interet et la criminelle avarice ont fomente et entretenu des + germes de division entre les citoyens des villes et ceux des + campagnes, entre les cultivateurs, les artisans et les commercans, + entre les citoyens des departements et districts, et meme des + communes voisines. On a voulu s'isoler de toutes parts." + Discours de Lindet._ + + "Self-interest and a criminal avarice have fomented and kept alive + the seeds of division between the inhabitants of the towns and those + of the country, between the farmer, the mechanic, and the trader-- + the like has happened between adjoining towns and districts--an + universal selfishness, in short, has prevailed." + Lindet's Speech. + + This picture, drawn by a Jacobin Deputy, is not flattering to + republican fraternization. + +--It is true, the wants of the lower classes are afflicting. The whole +town has, for some weeks, been reduced to a nominal half pound of bread a +day for each person--I say nominal, for it has repeatedly happened, that +none has been distributed for three days together, and the quantity +diminished to four ounces; whereas the poor, who are used to eat little +else, consume each, in ordinary times, two pounds daily, on the lowest +calculation. + +We have had here a brutal vulgar-looking Deputy, one Florent-Guyot, who +has harangued upon the virtues of patience, and the magnanimity of +suffering hunger for the good of the republic. This doctrine has, +however, made few converts; though we learn, from a letter of +Florent-Guyot's to the Assembly, that the Amienois are excellent +patriots, and that they starve with the best grace possible. + +You are to understand, that the Representatives on mission, who describe +the inhabitants of all the towns they visit as glowing with +republicanism, have, besides the service of the common cause, views of +their own, and are often enabled by these fictions to administer both to +their interest and their vanity. They ingratiate themselves with the +aristocrats, who are pleased at the imputation of principles which may +secure them from persecution--they see their names recorded on the +journals; and, finally, by ascribing these civic dispositions to the +power of their own eloquence, they obtain the renewal of an itinerant +delegation--which, it may be presumed, is very profitable. + + + + +Beauvais, March 13, 1795. + +I have often, in the course of these letters, experienced how difficult +it is to describe the political situation of a country governed by no +fixed principles, and subject to all the fluctuations which are produced +by the interests and passions of individuals and of parties. In such a +state conclusions are necessarily drawn from daily events, minute facts, +and an attentive observation of the opinions and dispositions of the +people, which, though they leave a perfect impression on the mind of the +writer, are not easily conveyed to that of the reader. They are like +colours, the various shades of which, though discriminated by the eye, +cannot be described but in general terms. + +Since I last wrote, the government has considerably improved in decency +and moderation; and though the French enjoy as little freedom as their +almost sole Allies, the Algerines, yet their terror begins to wear off-- +and, temporizing with a despotism they want energy to destroy, they +rejoice in the suspension of oppressions which a day or an hour may +renew. No one pretends to have any faith in the Convention; but we are +tranquil, if not secure--and, though subject to a thousand arbitrary +details, incompatible with a good government, the political system is +doubtless meliorated. Justice and the voice of the people have been +attended to in the arrest of Collot, Barrere, and Billaud, though many +are of opinion that their punishment will extend no farther; for a trial, +particularly that of Barrere, who is in the secret of all factions, would +expose so many revolutionary mysteries and patriotic reputations, that +there are few members of the Convention who will not wish it evaded; they +probably expect, that the seclusion, for some months, of the persons of +the delinquents will appease the public vengeance, and that this affair +may be forgotten in the bustle of more recent events.--If there had been +any doubt of the crimes of these men, the publication of Robespierre's +papers would have removed them; and, exclusive of their value when +considered as a history of the times, these papers form one of the most +curious and humiliating monuments of human debasement, and human +depravity, extant.* + + * The Report of Courtois on Robespierre's papers, though very able, + is an instance of the pedantry I have often remarked as so peculiar + to the French, even when they are not deficient in talents. It + seems to be an abstract of all the learning, ancient and modern, + that Courtois was possessed of. I have the book before me, and have + selected the following list of persons and allusions; many of which + are indeed of so little use or ornament to their stations in this + speech, that one would have thought even a republican requisition + could not have brought them there: + + "Sampson, Dalila, Philip, Athens, Sylla, the Greeks and Romans, + Brutus, Lycurgus, Persepolis, Sparta, Pulcheria, Cataline, Dagon, + Anicius, Nero, Babel, Tiberius, Caligula, Augustus, Antony, Lepidus, + the Manicheans, Bayle and Galileo, Anitus, Socrates, Demosthenes, + Eschinus, Marius, Busiris, Diogenes, Caesar, Cromwell, Constantine, + the Labarum, Domitius, Machiavel, Thraseas, Cicero, Cato, + Aristophanes, Riscius, Sophocles, Euripides, Tacitus, Sydney, + Wisnou, Possidonius, Julian, Argus, Pompey, the Teutates, Gainas, + Areadius, Sinon, Asmodeus, Salamanders, Anicetus, Atreus, Thyestus, + Cesonius, Barca and Oreb, Omar and the Koran, Ptolomy Philadelphus, + Arimanes, Gengis, Themuginus, Tigellinus, Adrean, Cacus, the Fates, + Minos and Rhadamanthus," &c. &c. + Rapport de Courtois su les Papiers de Robespierre. + +After several skirmishes between the Jacobins and Muscadins, the bust of +Marat has been expelled from the theatres and public places of Paris, and +the Convention have ratified this popular judgment, by removing him also +from their Hall and the Pantheon. But reflecting on the frailty of our +nature, and the levity of their countrymen, in order to obviate the +disorders these premature beatifications give rise to, they have decreed +that no patriot shall in future by Pantheonized until ten years after his +death. This is no long period; yet revolutionary reputations have +hitherto scarcely survived as many months, and the puerile enthusiasm +which is adopted, not felt, has been usually succeeded by a violence and +revenge equally irrational. + +It has lately been discovered that Condorcet is dead, and that he +perished in a manner singularly awful. Travelling under a mean +appearance, he stopped at a public house to refresh himself, and was +arrested in consequence of having no passport. He told the people who +examined him he was a servant, but a Horace, which they found about him, +leading to a suspicion that he was of a superior rank, they determined to +take him to the next town. Though already exhausted, he was obliged to +walk some miles farther, and, on his arrival, he was deposited in a +prison, where he was forgotten, and starved to death. + +Thus, perhaps at the moment the French were apotheosing an obscure +demagogue, the celebrated Condorcet expired, through the neglect of a +gaoler; and now, the coarse and ferocious Marat, and the more refined, +yet more pernicious, philosopher, are both involved in one common +obloquy. + +What a theme for the moralist!--Perhaps the gaoler, whose brutal +carelessness terminated the days of Condorcet, extinguished his own +humanity in the torrent of that revolution of which Condorcet himself was +one of the authors; and perhaps the death of a sovereign, whom Condorcet +assisted in bringing to the scaffold, might have been this man's first +lesson in cruelty, and have taught him to set little value on the lives +of the rest of mankind.--The French, though they do not analyse +seriously, speak of this event as a just retribution, which will be +followed by others of a similar nature. _"Quelle mort,"_ ["What an end."] +says one--_"Elle est affreuse,_ (says another,) _mais il etoit cause que +bien d'autres ont peri aussi."_--_"Ils periront tous, et tant mieux,"_ +["'Twas dreadful--but how many people have perished by his means."-- +"They'll all share the same fate, and so much the better."] reply twenty +voices; and this is the only epitaph on Condorcet. + +The pretended revolution of the thirty-first of May, 1792, which has +occasioned so much bloodshed, and which I remember it dangerous not to +hallow, though you did not understand why, is now formally erased from +among the festivals of the republic; but this is only the triumph of +party, and a signal that the remains of the Brissotines are gaining +ground. + +A more conspicuous and a more popular victory has been obtained by the +royalists, in the trial and acquittal of Delacroix. The jury had been +changed after the affair of Carrier, and were now better composed; though +the escape of Delacroix is more properly to be attributed to the +intimidating favour of the people. The verdict was received with shouts +of applause, repeated with transport, and Delacroix, who had so +patriotically projected to purify the Convention, by sending more than +half its members to America, was borne home on the shoulders of an +exulting populace. + +Again the extinction of the war in La Vendee is officially announced; and +it is certain that the chiefs are now in treaty with government. Such a +peace only implies, that the country is exhausted, for it suffices to +have read the treatment of these unhappy people to know that a +reconciliation can neither be sincere nor permanent. But whatever may be +the eventual effect of this negotiation, it has been, for the present, +the means of wresting some unwilling concessions from the Assembly in +favour of a free exercise of religion. No arrangement could ever be +proposed to the Vendeans, which did not include a toleration of +Christianity; and to refuse that to patriots and republicans, which was +granted to rebels and royalists, was deemed at this time neither +reasonable nor politic. A decree is therefore passed, authorizing +people, if they can overcome all the annexed obstacles, to worship God in +they way they have been accustomed to. + +The public hitherto, far from being assured or encouraged by this decree, +appear to have become more timid and suspicious; for it is conceived in +so narrow and paltry a spirit, and expressed in such malignant and +illusive terms, that it can hardly be said to intend an indulgence. Of +twelve articles of an act said to be concessive, eight are prohibitory +and restrictive; and a municipal officer, or any other person "in place +or office," may controul at his pleasure all religious celebrations. The +cathedrals and parish churches yet standing were seized on by the +government at the introduction of the Goddesses of Reason, and the decree +expressly declares that they shall not be restored or appropriated to +their original uses. Individuals, who have purchased chapels or +churches, hesitate to sell or let them, lest they should, on a change of +politics, be persecuted as the abettors of fanaticism; so that the +long-desired restoration of the Catholic worship makes but very slow +progress.*-- + + * This decree prohibits any parish, community, or body of people + collectively, from hiring or purchasing a church, or maintaining a + clergyman: it also forbids ringing a bell, or giving any other + public notice of Divine Service, or even distinguishing any building + by external signs of its being dedicated to religion. + +--A few people, whose zeal overpowers their discretion, have ventured to +have masses at their own houses, but they are thinly attended; and on +asking any one if they have yet been to this sort of conventicle, the +reply is, _"On new sait pas trop ce que le decret veut dire; il faut voir +comment cela tournera."_ ["One cannot rightly comprehend the decree--it +will be best to wait and see how things go."] Such a distrust is indeed +very natural; for there are two subjects on which an inveterate hatred is +apparent, and which are equally obnoxious to all systems and all parties +in the Assembly--I mean Christianity and Great Britain. Every day +produces harangues against the latter; and Boissy d'Anglas has solemnly +proclaimed, as the directing principle of the government, that the only +negociation for peace shall be a new boundary described by the Northern +conquests of the republic; and this modest diplomatic is supported by +arguments to prove, that the commerce of England cannot be ruined on any +other terms.* + + * "How (exclaims the sagacious Bourdon de l'Oise) can you hope to + ruin England, if you do not keep possession of the three great + rivers." (The Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt.) + +The debates of the Convention increase in variety and amusement. Besides +the manual exercises of the members, the accusations and retorts of +unguarded choler, disclose to us many curious truths which a politic +unanimity might conceal. Saladin, who was a stipendiary of the Duke of +Orleans, and whose reputation would not grace any other assembly, is +transformed into a Moderate, and talks of virtue and crime; while Andre +Dumont, to the great admiration of his private biographists, has been +signing a peace with the Duke of Tuscany.--Our republican statesmen +require to be viewed in perspective: they appear to no advantage in the +foreground. Dumont would have made "a good pantler, he would have +chipp'd bread well;" or, like Scrub, he might have "drawn warrants, or +drawn beer,"--but I should doubt if, in a transaction of this nature, the +Dukedom of Tuscany was ever before so assorted; and if the Duke were +obliged to make this peace, he may well say, "necessity doth make us herd +with strange companions." + +Notwithstanding the Convention still detests Christianity, utters +anathemas against England, and exhibits daily scenes of indecent +discussion and reviling, it is doubtless become more moderate on the +whole; and though this moderation be not equal to the people's wishes, it +is more than sufficient to exasperate the Jacobins, who call the +Convention the Senate of Coblentz, and are perpetually endeavouring to +excite commotions. The belief is, indeed, general, that the Assembly +contains a strong party of royalists; yet, though this may be true in a +degree, I fear the impulse which has been given by the public opinion, is +mistaken for a tendency in the Convention itself. But however, this may +be, neither the imputations of the Jacobins, nor the hopes of the people, +have been able to oppose the progress of a sentiment which, operating on +a character like that of the French, is more fatal to a popular body than +even hatred or contempt. The long duration of this disastrous +legislature has excited an universal weariness; the guilt of particular +members is now less discussed than the insignificance of the whole +assemblage; and the epithets corrupt, worn out, hackneyed, and +everlasting, [Tare, use, banal, and eternel.] have almost superseded +those of rogues and villains. + +The law of the maximum has been repealed some time, and we now procure +necessaries with much greater facility; but the assignats, no longer +supported by violence, are rapidly diminishing in credit--so that every +thing is dear in proportion. We, who are more than indemnified by the +rise of exchange in our favour, are not affected by these progressive +augmentations in the price of provisions. It would, however, be +erroneous and unfeeling to judge of the situation of the French +themselves from such a calculation. + +People who have let their estates on leases, or have annuities on the +Hotel de Ville, &c. receive assignats at par, and the wages of the +labouring poor are still comparatively low. What was five years ago a +handsome fortune, now barely supplies a decent maintenance; and smaller +incomes, which were competencies at that period, are now almost +insufficient for existence. A workman, who formerly earned twenty-five +sols a day, has at present three livres; and you give a sempstress thirty +sols, instead of ten: yet meat, which was only five or six sols when +wages was twenty-five, is now from fifty sols to three livres the pound, +and every other article in the same or a higher proportion. Thus, a +man's daily wages, instead of purchasing four or five pounds of meat, as +they would have done before the revolution, now only purchase one. + +It grieves me to see people whom I have known at their ease, obliged to +relinquish, in the decline of life, comforts to which they were +accustomed at a time when youth rendered indulgence less necessary; yet +every day points to the necessity of additional oeconomy, and some little +convenience or enjoyment is retrenched--and to those who are not above +acknowledging how much we are the creatures of habit, a dish of coffee, +or a glass of liqueur, &c. will not seem such trifling privations. It is +true, these are, strictly speaking, luxuries; so too are most things by +comparison-- + + "O reason not the need: our basest beggars + "Are in the poorest thing superfluous: + "Allow not nature more than nature needs, + "Man's life is cheap as beast's." + +If the wants of one class were relieved by these deductions from the +enjoyments of another, it might form a sufficient consolation; but the +same causes which have banished the splendor of wealth and the comforts +of mediocrity, deprive the poor of bread and raiment, and enforced +parsimony is not more generally conspicuous than wretchedness. + +The frugal tables of those who were once rich, have been accompanied by +relative and similar changes among the lower classes; and the suppression +of gilt equipages is so far from diminishing the number of wooden shoes, +that for one pair of sabots which were seen formerly, there are now ten. +The only Lucullus's of the day are a swarm of adventurers who have +escaped from prisons, or abandoned gaming-houses, to raise fortunes by +speculating in the various modes of acquiring wealth which the revolution +has engendered.--These, together with the numberless agents of government +enriched by more direct pillage, live in coarse luxury, and dissipate +with careless profusion those riches which their original situations and +habits have disqualified them from converting to a better use. + +Although the circumstances of the times have necessitated a good deal of +domestic oeconomy among people who live on their fortunes, they have +lately assumed a gayer style of dress, and are less averse from +frequenting public amusements. For three years past, (and very +naturally,) the gentry have openly murmured at the revolution; and they +now, either convinced of the impolicy of such conduct, terrified by their +past sufferings, or, above all, desirous of proclaiming their triumph +over the Jacobins, are every where reviving the national taste for modes +and finery. The attempt to reconcile these gaieties with prudence, has +introduced some contrasts in apparel whimsical enough, though our French +belles adopt them with much gravity. + +In consequence of the disorders in the South of France, and the +interruption of commerce by sea, soap is not only dear, but sometimes +difficult to purchase at any rate. We have ourselves paid equal to five +livres a pound in money. Hence we have white wigs* and grey stockings, +medallions and gold chains with coloured handkerchiefs and discoloured +tuckers, and chemises de Sappho, which are often worn till they rather +remind one of the pious Queen Isabel, than the Greek poetess. + + * Vilate, in his pamphlet on the secret causes of the revolution of + the ninth Thermidor, relates the following anecdote of the origin of + the peruques blondes. "The caprice of a revolutionary female who, + on the fete in celebration of the Supreme Being, covered her own + dark hair with a tete of a lighter colour, having excited the + jealousy of La Demahe, one of Barrere's mistresses, she took + occasion to complain to him of this coquettry, by which she thought + her own charms eclipsed. Barrere instantly sent for Payen, the + national agent, and informed him that a new counter-revolutionary + sect had started up, and that its partizans distinguished themselves + by wearing wigs made of light hair cut from the heads of the + guillotined aristocrats. He therefore enjoined Payen to make a + speech at the municipality, and to thunder against this new mode. + The mandate was, of course, obeyed; and the women of rank, who had + never before heard of these wigs, were both surprized and alarmed at + an imputation so dangerous. Barrere is said to have been highly + amused at having thus solemnly stopped the progress of a fashion, + only becuase it displeased one of his female favourites.--I + perfectly remember Payen's oration against this coeffure, and every + woman in Paris who had light hair, was, I doubt not, intimidated." + + This pleasantry of Barrere's proves with what inhuman levity the + government sported with the feelings of the people. At the fall of + Robespierre, the peruque blonde, no longer subject to the empire of + Barrere's favourites, became a reigning mode. + +--Madame Tallien, who is supposed occasionally to dictate decrees to the +Convention, presides with a more avowed and certain sway over the realms +of fashion; and the Turkish draperies that may float very gracefully on a +form like hers, are imitated by rotund sesquipedal Fatimas, who make one +regret even the tight lacings and unnatural diminishings of our +grandmothers. + +I came to Beauvais a fortnight ago with the Marquise. Her long +confinement has totally ruined her health, and I much fear she will not +recover. She has an aunt lives here, and we flattered ourselves she +might benefit by change of air--but, on the contrary, she seems worse, +and we propose to return in the course of a week to Amiens. + +I had a good deal of altercation with the municipality about obtaining a +passport; and when they at last consented, they gave me to understand I +was still a prisoner in the eye of the law, and that I was indebted to +them for all the freedom I enjoyed. This is but too true; for the decree +constituting the English hostages for the Deputies at Toulon has never +been repealed-- + + "Ah, what avails it that from slavery far, + "I drew the breath of life in English air?" + Johnson. + +Yet is it a consolation, that the title by which I was made an object of +mean vengeance is the one I most value.* + + * An English gentleman, who was asked by a republican Commissary, + employed in examining the prisons, why he was there, replied, + "Because I have not the misfortune to be a Frenchman!" + +This is a large manufacturing town, and the capital of the department of +l'Oise. Its manufactories now owe their chief activity to the +requisitions for supplying cloth to the armies. Such commerce is by no +means courted; and if people were permitted, as they are in most +countries, to trade or let it alone, it would soon decline.--The choir of +the cathedral is extremely beautiful, and has luckily escaped republican +devastation, though there seems to exist no hope that it will be again +restored to the use of public worship. Your books will inform you, that +Beauvais was besieged in 1472 by the Duke of Burgundy, with eighty +thousand men, and that he failed in the attempt. Its modern history is +not so fortunate. It was for some time harassed by a revolutionary army, +whose exactions and disorders being opposed by the inhabitants, a decree +of the Convention declared the town in a state of rebellion; and this +ban, which operates like the Papal excommunications three centuries ago, +and authorizes tyranny of all kinds, was not removed until long after the +death of Robespierre.--Such a specimen of republican government has made +the people cautious, and abundant in the exteriors of patriotism. Where +they are sure of their company, they express themselves without reserve, +both on the subject of their legislators and the miseries of the country; +but intercourse is considerably more timid here than at Amiens. + +Two gentlemen dined with us yesterday, whom I know to be zealous +royalists, and, as they are acquainted, I made no scruple of producing an +engraving which commemorates mysteriously the death of the King, and +which I had just received from Paris by a private conveyance. They +looked alarmed, and affected not to understand it; and, perceiving I had +done wrong, I replaced the print without farther explanation: but they +both called this evening, and reproached me separately for thus exposing +their sentiments to each other.--This is a trifling incident, yet perhaps +it may partly explain the great aenigma why no effectual resistance is +made to a government which is secretly detested. It has been the policy +of all the revolutionists, from the Lameths and La Fayette down to +Brissot and Robespierre, to destroy the confidence of society; and the +calamities of last year, now aiding the system of spies and informers, +occasion an apprehension and distrust which impede union, and check every +enterprize that might tend to restore the freedom of the country.--Yours, +&c. + + + + +Amiens, April 12, 1795. + +Instead of commenting on the late disorders at Paris, I subjoin the +translation of a letter just received by Mrs. D-------- from a friend, +whose information, we have reason to believe, is as exact as can possibly +be obtained in the chaos of little intrigues which now comprise the whole +science of French politics. + +"Paris, April 9. + +"Though I know, my good friend, you are sufficiently versed in the +technicals of our revolution not to form an opinion of occurrences from +the language in which they are officially described, yet I cannot resist +the favourable opportunity of Mad. --------'s return, to communicate such +explanations of the late events as their very ambiguous appearance may +render necessary even to you. + +"I must begin by informing you, that the proposed decree of the +Convention to dissolve themselves and call a new Assembly, was a mere +coquettry. Harassed by the struggles of the Jacobins, and alarmed at +the symptoms of public weariness and disgust, which became every day more +visible, they hoped this feint might operate on the fears of the people +of Paris, and animate them to a more decided support against the efforts +of the common enemy, as well as tend to reconcile them to a farther +endurance of a representation from which they did not disguise their +wishes to be released. An opportunity was therefore seized on, or +created, when our allowance of bread had become unusually short, and the +Jacobins unusually turbulent, to bring forward this project of renovating +the legislature. But in politics, as well as love, such experiments are +dangerous. Far from being received with regret, the proposition excited +universal transport; and it required all the diligence of the agents of +government to insinuate effectually, that if Paris were abandoned by the +Convention at this juncture, it would not only become a prey to famine, +but the Jacobins would avail themselves of the momentary disorder to +regain their power, and renew their past atrocities. + +"A conviction that we in reality derive our scanty supplies from +exertions which would not be made, were they not necessary to restrain +the popular ill humour, added to an habitual apprehension of the Clubs,* +assisted this manoeuvre; and a few of the sections were, in consequence, +prevailed on to address our Representatives, and to request they would +remain at their post.-- + + * Paris had been long almost entirely dependent on the government + for subsistence, so that an insurrection could always be procured by + withholding the usual supply. The departments were pillaged by + requisitions, and enormous sums sent to the neutral countries to + purchase provisions, that the capital might be maintained in + dependence and good humour. The provisions obtained by these means + were distributed to the shopkeepers, who had instructions to retail + them to the idle and disorderly, at about a twentieth part of the + original cost, and no one could profit by this regulation, without + first receiving a ticket from the Committee of his section. + + It was lately asserted in the Convention, and not disavowed, that if + the government persisted in this sort of traffic, the annual loss + attending the article of corn alone would amount to fifty millions + sterling. The reduction of the sum in question into English money + is made on a presumption that the French government did not mean + (were it to be avoided) to commit an act of bankruptcy, and redeem + their paper at less than par. Reckoning, however, at the real value + of assignats when the calculation was made, and they were then worth + perhaps a fifth of their nominal value, the government was actually + at the expence of ten millions sterling a year, for supplying Paris + with a very scanty portion of bread! The sum must appear enormous, + but the peculation under such a government must be incalculable; and + when it is recollected that all neutral ships bringing cargoes for + the republic must have been insured at an immense premium, or + perhaps eventually purchased by the French, and that very few could + reach their destination, we may conclude that such as did arrive + cost an immoderate sum. + +--"The insurrection that immediately succeeded was at first the effect of +a similar scheme, and it ended in a party contention, in which the +people, as usual, were neuter. + +"The examination into the conduct of Barrere, Collot, &c. had been +delayed until it seemed rather a measure destined to protect than to +bring them to punishment; and the impatience which was every where +expressed on the subject, sufficiently indicated the necessity, or at +least the prudence, of hastening their trial. Such a process could not +be ventured on but at the risk of involving the whole Convention in a +labyrinth of crimes, inconsistencies, and ridicule, and the delinquents +already began to exonerate themselves by appealing to the vote of solemn +approbation passed in their favour three months after the death of +Robespierre had restored the Assembly to entire freedom. + +"The only means of extrication from this dilemma, appeared to be that of +finding some pretext to satisfy the public vengeance, without hazarding +the scandal of a judicial exposure. Such a pretext it was not difficult +to give rise to: a diminished portion of bread never fails to produce +tumultuous assemblages, that are easily directed, though not easily +suppressed; and crouds of this description, agitated by real misery, were +excited (as we have every reason to suppose) by hired emissaries to +assail the Convention with disorderly clamours for bread. This being +attributed to the friends of the culprits, decrees were opportunely +introduced and passed for transporting them untried out of the republic, +and for arresting most of the principal Jacobin members as their +partizans. + +"The subsequent disturbances were less artificial; for the Jacobins, thus +rendered desperate, attempted resistance; but, as they were unsuccessful, +their efforts only served their adversaries as an excuse for arresting +several of the party who had escaped the former decrees. + +"Nothing, I assure you, can with less truth be denominated popular +movements, than many of these scenes, which have, notwithstanding, +powerfully influenced the fate of our country. A revolt, or +insurrection, is often only an affair of intrigue and arrangement; and +the desultory violences of the suburbs of St. Antoine, or of the market +women, are regulated by the same Committee and cabals that direct our +campaigns and treaties. The common distresses of the people are +continually drawing them together; and, when thus collected, their +credulity renders them the ready instruments of any prevailing faction. + +"Our recent disorders afforded a striking proof of this. I was myself +the Cicerone of a country friend on the day the Convention was first +assailed. The numbers who crouded into the hall were at first +considerable, yet they exhibited no signs of hostility, and it was +evident they were brought there for some purpose of which they were +themselves ignorant. When asked their intentions, they vociferated 'Du +pain! Du pain!'--Bread, Bread; and, after occupying the seats of the +Deputies for a short time, quietly withdrew. + +"That this insurrection was originally factitious, and devised for the +purpose I have mentioned, is farther corroborated by the sudden +appearance of Pichegru and other officers, who seemed brought expressly +to protect the departure of the obnoxious trio, in case it should be +opposed either by their friends or enemies. It is likewise to be +remarked, that Barrere and the rest were stopped at the gates of Paris by +the same mob who were alledged to have risen in their favour, and who, +instead of endeavouring to rescue them, brought them back to the +Committee of General Safety, on a supposition that they had escaped from +prison.--The members of the moderate party, who were detained in some of +the sections, sustained no ill treatment whatever, and were released on +being claimed by their colleagues, which could scarcely have happened, +had the mob been under the direction of the Jacobins, or excited by +them.--In short, the whole business proved that the populace were mere +agents, guided by no impulse of their own, except hunger, and who, when +left to themselves, rather impeded than promoted the designs of both +factions. + +"You must have been surprized to see among the list of members arrested, +the name of Laurent Lecointre; but he could never be pardoned for having +reduced the Convention to the embarrassing necessity of prosecuting +Robespierre's associates, and he is now secured, lest his restless +Quixotism should remind the public, that the pretended punishment of +these criminals is in fact only a scandalous impunity. + +"We are at present calm, but our distress for bread is intolerable, and +the people occasionally assail the pastry-cooks' shops; which act of +hostility is called, with more pleasantry than truth or feeling, _'La +guerre du pain bis contre la brioche.'_ [The war of brown bread against +cakes.]--God knows, it is not the quality of bread, but the scarcity of +it which excites these discontents. + +"The new arithmetic* is more followed, and more interesting, than ever, +though our hopes are all vague, and we neither guess how or by whom they +are to be fulfilled. + + * This was a mysterious way of expressing that the royalists were + still gaining ground. It alluded to a custom which then prevailed, + of people asking each other in the street, and sometimes even + assailing the Deputies, with the question of "How much is eight and + a half and eight and a half?"--By which was understood Louis the + Seventeenth. + +"I have done every thing that depends on me to obtain your passports +without success, and I still advise you to come to Paris and solicit them +in person. Your departure, in happier times, would be a subject of +regret, at present I shall both envy and congratulate you when you are +enabled to quit a country which promises so little security or +satisfaction. + +"We receive, at this moment, the two loaves. My sister joins me in +acknowledgments, and expresses her fears that you must suffer by your +kindness, though it is truly acceptable--for I have been several days +under arms, and have had no time to make my usual excursions in search of +bread. + +"Yours, &c." + + +The proposed dissolution of the Assembly alluded to in the beginning of +Mons. --------'s letter, occasioned here a more general rejoicing than +even the fall of the Jacobin club, and, not being influenced by the +motives suggested to the Parisians, we were sincerely disappointed when +we found the measure postponed. The morning this news arrived, we walked +about the town till dinner, and in every street people were collected in +groupes, and engaged in eager discussion. An acquaintance whom we +happened to meet, instead of the usual salutations, exclaimed "_Nous +viola quittes, ils s'en vont les brigands_" ["At length we are quit of +them--the rogues are going about their business."]; and I observed several +recontres of this sort, where people skipped and caracoled, as though +unable to contain their satisfaction. Nothing was talked of but _Le +Petit_ [An endearing appellation given to the young King by those who +would not venture to mention his name.], and the new elections; and I +remarked with pleasure, that every one agreed in the total exclusion of +all the present Deputies. + +Two mornings after we had been indulging in these agreeable visions, we +learned that the Convention, purely from a patriotic desire of serving +their country, had determined not to quit their post. We were at this +time in extreme want of bread, the distribution not exceeding a quarter +of a pound per day; and numbers who are at their ease in other respects, +could not obtain any. This, operating perhaps with the latent ill humour +occasioned by so unwelcome a declaration of perseverance on the part of +their Representatives, occasioned a violent ferment among the people, and +on the second of this month they were in open revolt; the magazine of +corn for the use of the army was besieged, the national colours were +insulted, and Blaux, a Deputy who is here on mission, was dragged from +the Hotel de Ville, and obliged by the enraged populace to cry "Vive le +Roi!" These disorders continued till the next day, but were at length +appeased by a small distribution of flour from the magazine. + +In the debates of the Convention the whole is ascribed to the Jacobins, +though it is well known they have no influence here; and I wish you to +attend to this circumstance more particularly, as it proves what +artifices are used to conceal the real sentiments of the people. +I, and every inhabitant of Amiens, can attest that this revolt, which was +declared in the Assembly to have been instigated by the partizans of the +Jacobins, was, as far as it had any decided political character, an +effervescence of royalism. + +At Rouen, Abbeville, and other places, the trees of liberty, (or, rather, +the trees of the republic,) have been cut down, the tri-coloured flag +torn, and the cry of "Vive le Roi!" was for some time predominant; yet +the same misrepresentation was had recourse to, and all these places were +asserted to have espoused the cause of that party to which they are most +repugnant. + +I acknowledge that the chief source of these useless excesses is famine, +and that it is for the most part the lower classes only who promote them; +but the same cause and the same description of people were made the +instruments for bringing about the revolution, and the poor seek now, as +they did in 1789, a remedy for their accumulated sufferings in a change +of government. The mass of mankind are ever more readily deluded by hope +than benefited by experience; and the French, being taught by the +revolutionists to look for that relief from changes of government which +such changes cannot afford, now expect that the restoration of the +monarchy will produce plenty, as they were before persuaded that the +first efforts to subvert it would banish want. + +We are now tolerably quiet, and should seriously think of going to Paris, +were we not apprehensive that some attempt from the Jacobins to rescue +their chiefs, may create new disturbances. The late affair appears to +have been only a retaliation of the thirty-first of May, 1792; and the +remains of the Girondists have now proscribed the leaders of the +Mountaineers, much in the same way as they were then proscribed +themselves.--Yours. + + + + +Amiens, May 9, 1795. + +Whilst all Europe is probably watching with solicitude the progress of +the French arms, and the variations of their government, the French +themselves, almost indifferent to war and politics, think only of +averting the horrors of famine. The important news of the day is the +portion of bread which is to be distributed; and the siege of Mentz, +or the treaty with the King of Prussia, are almost forgotten, amidst +enquiries about the arrival of corn, and anxiety for the approach of +harvest. The same paper that announces the surrender of towns, and the +success of battles, tells us that the poor die in the streets of Paris, +or are driven to commit suicide, through want. We have no longer to +contend with avaricious speculations, but a real scarcity; and +detachments of the National Guard, reinforced by cannon, often search the +adjacent villages several days successively without finding a single +septier of corn. The farmers who have yet been able to conceal any, +refuse to dispose of it for assignats; and the poor, who have neither +plate nor money, exchange their best clothes or linen for a loaf, or a +small quantity of flour. Our gates are sometimes assailed by twenty or +thirty people, not to beg money, but bread; and I am frequently accosted +in the street by women of decent appearance, who, when I offer them +assignats, refuse them, saying, "We have enough of this sorry paper--it +is bread we want."--If you are asked to dine, you take your bread with +you; and you travel as though you were going a voyage--for there are not +many inns on the road where you can expect to find bread, or indeed +provisions of any kind. + +Having procured a few six-livre pieces, we were enabled to purchase a +small supply of corn, though by no means enough for our consumption, so +that we are obliged to oeconomise very rigidly. Mr. D-------- and the +servants eat bread made with three-parts bran to one of flour. The +little provision we possess is, however, a great embarrassment to us, for +we are not only subject to domiciliary visits, but continually liable to +be pillaged by the starving poor around us; and we are often under the +necessity of passing several meals without bread, because we dare not +send the wheat to be ground, nor bake except at night. While the last +operation is performing, the doors are carefully shut, the bell rings in +vain, and no guest is admitted till every vestige of it is removed.--All +the breweries have seals put upon the doors, and severe penal laws are +issued against converting barley to any other purpose than the making of +bread. If what is allowed us were composed only of barley, or any other +wholesome grain, we should not repine; but the distribution at present is +a mixture of grown wheat, peas, rye, &c. which has scarcely the +resemblance of bread. + +I was asked to-day, by some women who had just received their portion, +and in an accent of rage and despair that alarmed me, whether I thought +such food fit for a human creature.--We cannot alleviate this misery, and +are impatient to escape from the sight of it. If we can obtain passports +to go from hence to Paris, we hope there to get a final release, and a +permission to return to England. + +My friend Madame de la F-------- has left us, and I fear is only gone +home to die. Her health was perfectly good when we were first arrested, +though vexation, more than confinement, has contributed to undermine it. +The revolution had, in various ways, diminished her property; but this +she would have endured with patience, had not the law of successions +involved her in difficulties which appeared every day more interminable, +and perplexed her mind by the prospect of a life of litigation and +uncertainty. By this law, all inheritances, donations, or bequests, +since the fourteenth of July 1789, are annulled and subjected to a +general partition among the nearest relatives. In consequence, a large +estate of the Marquise's, as well as another already sold, are to be +accounted for, and divided between a variety of claimants. Two of the +number being emigrants, the republic is also to share; and as the live +stock, furniture, farming utensils, and arrears, are included in this +absurd and iniquitous regulation, the confusion and embarrassment which +it has occasioned are indescribable. + +Though an unlucky combination of circumstances has rendered such a law +particularly oppressive to Madame de la F--------, she is only one of an +infinite number who are affected by it, and many of whom may perhaps be +still greater sufferers than herself. The Constituent Assembly had +attempted to form a code that might counteract the spirit of legal +disputation, for which the French are so remarkable; but this single +decree will give birth to more processes than all the _pandects, canons,_ +and _droits feodaux,_ accumulated since the days of Charlemagne; and I +doubt, though one half the nation were lawyers, whether they might not +find sufficient employment in demalgamating the property of the other +half. + +This mode of partition, in itself ill calculated for a rich and +commercial people, and better adapted to the republic of St. Marino than +to that of France, was introduced under pretext of favouring the system +of equality; and its transition from absurdity to injustice, by giving it +a retroactive effect, was promoted to accommodate the "virtuous" Herault +de Sechelles, who acquired a considerable addition of fortune by it. The +Convention are daily beset with petitions from all parts on this subject; +but their followers and themselves being somewhat in the style of +Falstaff's regiment--"younger sons of younger brothers," they seem +determined, as they usually are, to square their notions of justice by +what is most conducive to their own interest. + +An apprehension of some attempt from the Jacobins, and the discontents +which the scarcity of bread give rise to among the people, have produced +a private order from the Committees of government for arming and +re-organizing the National Guard.* + + * Though I have often had occasion to use the term National Guard, + it is to be understood only as citizens armed for some temporary + purpose, whose arms were taken from them as soon as that service was + performed. The _Garde Nationale,_ as a regular institution, had + been in a great measure suppressed since the summer of 1793, and + those who composed it gradually disarmed. The usual service of + mounting guard was still continued, but the citizens, with very few + exceptions, were armed only with pikes, and even those were not + entrusted to their own care, each delivering up his arms when he + retired more exactly than if it were an article of capitulation with + a successful enemy. + +--I remember, in 1789 and 1790, when this popular militia was first +instituted, every one, either from policy or inclination, appeared eager +to promote it; and nothing was discussed but military fetes, balls, +exercise, and uniforms. These patriotic levities have now entirely +vanished, and the business proceeds with languor and difficulty. One +dreads the present expence, another future persecution, and all are +solicitous to find cause for exemption. + +This reluctance, though perhaps to be regretted, is in a great measure +justifiable. Where the lives and fortunes of a whole nation are +dependent on the changes of party, obscurity becomes the surest +protection, and those who are zealous now, may be the first sacrifices +hereafter. Nor is it encouraging to arm for the defence of the +Convention, which is despised, or to oppose the violence of a populace, +who, however misguided, are more objects of compassion than of +punishment. + +Fouquier Tinville, with sixteen revolutionary Judges and Jurymen, have +been tried and executed, at the moment when the instigators of their +crimes, Billaud-Varennes, Collot, &c. were sentenced by the Convention to +a banishment, which is probably the object of their wishes. This +Tinville and his accomplices, who condemned thousands with such ferocious +gaiety, beheld the approach of death themselves with a mixture of rage +and terror, that even cowardice and guilt do not always exhibit. It +seems an awful dispensation of Providence, that they who were inhuman +enough to wish to deprive their victims of the courage which enabled them +to submit to their fate with resignation, should in their last moments +want that courage, and die despairing, furious, and uttering +imprecations, which were returned by the enraged multitude.* + +--Yours, &c. + + * Some of the Jurymen were in the habit of taking caricatures of the + prisoners while they condemned them. Among the papers of the + Revolutionary Tribunal were found blank sentences, which were + occasionally sent to the Committee of Public Safety, to be filled up + with the names of those intended to be sacrificed.--The name of one + of the Jurymen executed on this occasion was Leroi, but being a very + ardent republican, he had changed it for that of Citizen Tenth of + August. + + + + +Amiens, May 26, 1795. + +Our journey to Paris has been postponed by the insurrection which +occurred on the first and second of Prairial, (20th and 21st of May,) and +which was not like that of Germinal, fabricated--but a real and violent +attempt of the Jacobins to regain their power. Of this event it is to be +remarked, that the people of Paris were at first merely spectators, and +that the Convention were at length defended by the very classes which +they have so long oppressed under the denomination of aristocrats. For +several hours the Assembly was surrounded, and in the power of its +enemies; the head of Ferraud, a deputy, was borne in triumph to the +hall;* and but for the impolitic precipitation of the Jacobins, the +present government might have been destroyed. + + * The head of Ferraud was placed on a pole, and, after being paraded + about the Hall, stationed opposite the President. It is impossible + to execrate sufficiently this savage triumph; but similar scenes had + been applauded on the fourteenth of July and the fifth and sixth of + October 1789; and the Parisians had learned, from the example of the + Convention themselves, that to rejoice in the daily sacrifice of + fifty or sixty people, was an act of patriotism. As to the epithets + of Coquin, Scelerats, Voleurs, &c. which were now bestowed on the + Assembly, they were only what the members were in the constant habit + of applying to each other. + + The assassin of Ferraud being afterwards taken and sentenced to the + Guillotine, was rescued by the mob at the place of execution, and + the inhabitants of the Fauxbourg St. Antoine were in revolt for two + days on this occasion, nor would they give him up until abandoned by + the cannoneers of their party.--It is singular, and does no honour + to the revolutionary school, or the people of Paris, that Madame + Elizabeth, Malsherbes, Cecile Renaud, and thousands of others, + should perish innocently, and that the only effort of this kind + should be exerted in favour of a murderer who deserved even a worse + death. + +The contest began, as usual, by an assemblage of females, who forced +themselves into the national palace, and loudly clamoured for immediate +supplies of bread. They then proceeded to reproach the Convention with +having robbed them of their liberty, plundered the public treasure, and +finally reduced the country to a state of famine.* + + * People.--_"Nous vous demandons ce que vous avez fait de nos + tresors et de notre liberte?"_--"We want to know what you have done + with our treasure and our liberty?" + + President.--_"Citoyens, vous etes dans le sein de la Convention + Nationale."_--"Citizens, I must remind you that you are in the + presence of the National Convention." + + People.--_"Du pain, du pain, Coquin--Qu'as tu fait de notre argent? + Pas tant de belles phrases, mais du pain, du pain, il n'y a point + ici de conspirateurs--nous demandons du pain parceque nous avons + saim."_--"Bread, bread, rogue!--what have you done with our money?-- + Fine speeches won't do--'tis bread we want.--There are no + conspirators among us--we only ask for bread, because we are + hungry." + + See Debates of the Convention. + +--It was not easy either to produce bread, or refute these charges, and +the Deputies of the moderate party remained silent and overpowered, while +the Jacobins encouraged the mob, and began to head them openly. The +Parisians, however interested in the result of this struggle, appeared to +behold it with indifference, or at least with inactivity. Ferraud had +already been massacred in endeavouring to repel the croud, and the +Convention was abandoned to outrage and insult; yet no effectual attempt +had been made in their defence, until the Deputies of the Mountain +prematurely avowed their designs, and moved for a repeal of all the +doctrines since the death of Robespierre--for the reincarceration of +suspected persons--and, in fine, for an absolute revival of the whole +revolutionary system. + +The avowal of these projects created an immediate alarm among those on +whom the massacre of Ferraud, and the dangers to which the Assembly was +exposed, had made no impression. The dismay became general; and in a few +hours the aristocrats themselves collected together a force sufficient to +liberate the Assembly,* and wrest the government from the hands of the +Jacobins.-- + + * This is stated as a ground of reproach by the Jacobins, and is + admitted by the Convention. Andre Dumont, who had taken so active a + part in supporting Robespierre's government, was yet on this + occasion defended and protected the whole day by a young man whose + father had been guillotined. + +--This defeat ended in the arrest of all who had taken a part against the +now triumphant majority; and there are, I believe, near fifty of them in +custody, besides numbers who contrived to escape.* + + * Among those implicated in this attempt to revive the revolutionary + government was Carnot, and the decree of arrest would have been + carried against him, had it not been suggested that his talents were + necessary in the military department. All that remained of + Robespierre's Committees, Jean Bon St. Andre, Robert Lindet, and + Prieur, were arrested. Carnot alone was excepted; and it was not + disguised that his utility, more than any supposed integrity, + procured him the exemption. + +That the efforts of this more sanguinary faction have been checked, is +doubtless a temporary advantage; yet those who calculate beyond the +moment see only the perpetuation of anarchy, in a habit of expelling one +part of the legislature to secure the government of the other; nor can it +be denied, that the freedom of the representative body has been as much +violated by the Moderates in the recent transactions, as by the Jacobins +on the thirty-first of May 1793. The Deputies of the Mountain have been +proscribed and imprisoned, rather as partizans than criminals; and it is +the opinion of many, that these measures, which deprive the Convention of +such a portion of its members, attach as much illegality to the +proceedings of the rest, as the former violences of Robespierre and his +faction.* + + * The decrees passed by the Jacobin members during their few hours + triumph cannot be defended; but the whole Convention had long + acquiesced in them, and the precise time when they were to cease was + certainly a matter of opinion. The greater part of these members + were accused of no active violence, nor could they have been + arrested on any principles but that of being rivals to a faction + stronger than themselves. + +--It is true, the reigning party may plead in their justification that +they only inflict what they would themselves have suffered, had the +Jacobins prevailed; and this is an additional proof of the weakness and +instability of a form of government which is incapable of resisting +opposition, and which knows no medium between yielding to its +adversaries, and destroying them. + +In a well organized constitution, it is supposed that a liberal spirit of +party is salutary. Here they dispute the alternatives of power and +emolument, or prisons and guillotines; and the sole result to the people +is the certainty of being sacrificed to the fears, and plundered by the +rapacity of either faction which may chance to acquire the superiority.-- +Had the government any permanent or inherent strength, a party watching +its errors, and eager to attack them, might, in time, by these perpetual +collisions, give birth to some principles of liberty and order. But, as +I have often had occasion to notice, this species of republicanism is in +itself so weak, that it cannot exist except by a constant recurrence to +the very despotism it professes to exclude. Hence it is jealous and +suspicious, and all opposition to it is fatal; so that, to use an +argument somewhat similar to Hume's on the liberty of the press in +republics, the French possess a sort of freedom which does not admit of +enjoyment; and, in order to boast that they have a popular constitution, +are obliged to support every kind of tyranny.* + + * Hume observes, that absolute monarchies and republics nearly + approach; for the excess of liberty in the latter renders such + restraints necessary as to make them in practice resemble the + former. + +The provinces take much less interest in this event, than in one of a +more general and personal effect, though not apparently of equal +importance. A very few weeks ago, the Convention asseverated, in the +usual acclamatory style, that they would never even listen to a proposal +for diminishing the value, or stopping the currency, of any description +of assignats. Their oaths are not, indeed, in great repute, yet many +people were so far deceived, as to imagine that at least the credit of +the paper would not be formally destroyed by those who had forced its +circulation. All of a sudden, and without any previous notice, a decree +was issued to suppress the corsets, (or assignats of five livres,) +bearing the King's image;* and as these were very numerous, and chiefly +in the hands of the lower order of people, the consternation produced by +this measure was serious and unusual.-- + + * The opinion that prevailed at this time that a restoration of the + monarchy was intended by the Convention, had rendered every one + solicitous to amass assignats issued during the late King's reign. + Royal assignats of five livres were exchanged for six, seven, and + eight livres of the republican paper. + +--There cannot be a stronger proof of the tyranny of the government, or +of the national propensity to submission, than the circumstance of making +it penal to refuse one day, what, by the same authority, is rendered +valueless the next--and that notwithstanding this, the remaining +assignats are still received under all the probability of their +experiencing a similar fate. + +Paris now offers an interval of tranquillity which we mean to avail +ourselves of, and shall, in a day or two, leave this place with the hope +of procuring passports for England. The Convention affect great +moderation and gratitude for their late rescue; and the people, persuaded +in general that the victorious party are royalists, wait with impatience +some important change, and expect, if not an immediate restoration of the +monarchy, at least a free election of new Representatives, which must +infallibly lead to it. With this hope, which is the first that has long +presented itself to this harassed country, I shall probably bid it adieu; +but a visit to the metropolis will be too interesting for me to conclude +these papers, without giving you the result of my observations. + +--Yours. &c. + + + + +Paris, June 3, 1795. + +We arrived here early on Saturday, and as no stranger coming to Paris, +whether a native of France, or a foreigner, is suffered to remain longer +than three days without a particular permission, our first care was to +present ourselves to the Committee of the section where we lodge, and, on +giving proper security for our good conduct, we have had this permission +extended to a Decade. + +I approached Paris with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension, as +though I expected the scenes which had passed in it, and the moral +changes it had undergone, would be every where visible; but the gloomy +ideas produced by a visit to this metropolis, are rather the effect of +mental association than external objects. Palaces and public buildings +still remain; but we recollect that they are become the prisons of +misfortune, or the rewards of baseness. We see the same hotels, but +their owners are wandering over the world, or have expired on the +scaffold. Public places are not less numerous, nor less frequented; but, +far from inspiring gaiety, we behold them with regret and disgust, as +proofs of the national levity and want of feeling. + +I could almost wish, for the credit of the French character, to have +found some indications that the past was not so soon consigned to +oblivion. It is true, the reign of Robespierre and his sanguinary +tribunal are execrated in studied phrases; yet is it enough to adopt +humanity as a mode, to sing the _Revel du Peuple_ in preference to the +_Marseillois,_ or to go to a theatre with a well-powdered head, instead +of cropped locks a la Jacobin? But the people forget, that while they +permitted, and even applauded, the past horrors, they were also accessary +to them, and if they rejoice at their termination, their sensibility does +not extend to compunction; they cast their sorrows away, and think it +sufficient to exhibit their reformation in dressing and dancing-- + + "Yet hearts refin'd their sadden'd tint retain, + "The sigh is pleasure, and the jest is pain." + Sheridan. + +French refinements are not, however, of this poetical kind.* + + * This too great facility of the Parisians has been commented upon + by an anonymous writer in the following terms: + + "At Paris, where more than fifty victims were dragged daily to the + scaffold, the theatres never failed to overflow, and that on the + Place de la Revolution was not the least frequented. The public, in + their way every evening to the Champs Ellisees, continued + uninterruptedly to cross the stream of blood that deluged this fatal + spot with the most dreadful indifference; and now, though these days + of horror are scarcely passed over our heads, one would suppose them + ages removed--so little are we sensible that we are dancing, as it + were, on a platform of dead bodies. Well may we say, respecting + those events which have not reached ourselves-- + + _'Le malheur Qui n'est plus, n'a jamais existe.'_ + + But if we desire earnestly that the same misfortunes should not + return, we must keep them always present in our recollection." + +The practice of the government appears to depart every day more widely +from its professions; and the moderate harangues of the tribune are often +succeeded by measures as arbitrary as those which are said to be +exploded.--Perhaps the Convention begin to perceive their mistake in +supposing that they can maintain a government against the inclination of +the people, without the aid of tyranny. They expected at the same time +that they decried Robespierre, to retain all the power he possessed. +Hence, their assumed principles and their conduct are generally at +variance; and, divided between despotism and weakness, they arrest the +printers of pamphlets and newspapers one day, and are obliged to liberate +them the next.--They exclaim publicly against the system of terror, yet +secretly court the assistance of its agents.--They affect to respect the +liberty of the press, yet every new publication has to defend itself +against the whole force of the government, if it happen to censure a +single member of the reigning party.--Thus, the _Memoirs of Dumouriez_ +had circulated nearly through all Europe, yet it was not without much +risk, and after a long warfare, that they were printed in France.* + + *On this subject the government appears sometimes to have adopted + the maxim--that prevention is better than punishment; for, in + several instances, they seized on manuscripts, and laid embargoes on + the printers' presses, where they only suspected that a work which + they might disapprove was intended to be published. + +I know not if it be attributable to these political inconsistencies that +the calm which has succeeded the late disorders is little more than +external. The minds of the people are uncommonly agitated, and every one +expresses either hope or apprehension of some impending event. The +royalists, amidst their ostensible persecutions, are particularly elated; +and I have been told, that many conspicuous revolutionists already talk +of emigration. + +I am just returned from a day's ramble, during which I have met with +various subjects of unpleasant meditation. About dinner-time I called on +an old Chevalier de St. Louis and his lady, who live in the Fauxbourg +St. Germain. When I knew them formerly, they had a handsome annuity on +the Hotel de Ville, and were in possession of all the comforts necessary +to their declining years. To-day the door was opened by a girl of dirty +appearance, the house looked miserable, the furniture worn, and I found +the old couple over a slender meal of soup maigre and eggs, without wine +or bread. Our revolutionary adventures, as is usual on all meetings of +this kind, were soon communicated; and I learned, that almost before they +knew what was passing around them, Monsieur du G--------'s forty years' +service, and his croix, had rendered him suspected, and that he and his +wife were taken from their beds at midnight and carried to prison. Here +they consumed their stock of ready money, while a guard, placed in their +house, pillaged what was moveable, and spoiled what could not be +pillaged. Soon after the ninth of Thermidor they were released, but they +returned to bare walls, and their annuity, being paid in assignats, now +scarcely affords them a subsistence.--Monsieur du G-------- is near +seventy, and Madame is become helpless from a nervous complaint, the +effect of fear and confinement; and if this depreciation of the paper +should continue, these poor people may probably die of absolute want. + +I dined with a relation of the Marquise's, and in the afternoon we called +by appointment on a person who is employed by the Committee of National +Domains, and who has long promised my friend to facilitate the adjustment +of some of the various claims which the government has on her property. +This man was originally a valet to the brother of the Marquise: at the +revolution he set up a shop, became a bankrupt, and a furious Jacobin, +and, in the end, a member of a Revolutionary Committee. In the last +capacity he found means to enrich himself, and intimidate his creditors +so as to obtain a discharge of his debts, without the trouble of paying +them.* + + * "It was common for men in debt to procure themselves to be made + members of a revolutionary committee, and then force their creditors + to give them a receipt in full, under the fear of being imprisoned." + Clauzel's Report, Oct. 13, 1794. + + I am myself acquainted with an old lady, who was confined four + months, for having asked one of these patriots for three hundred + livres which he owed her. + +--Since the dissolution of the Committees, he has contrived to obtain the +situation I have mentioned, and now occupies superb apartments in an +hotel, amply furnished with the proofs of his official dexterity, and the +perquisites of patriotism. + +The humiliating vicissitudes occasioned by the revolution induced Madame +de la F-------- to apply to this democratic _parvenu,_ [Upstart.] whose +office at present gives him the power, and whose former obligations to +her family (by whom he was brought up) she hoped would add the +disposition, to serve her.--The gratitude she expected has, however, +ended only in delays and disappointments, and the sole object of my +commission was to get some papers which she had entrusted to him out of +his possession. + +When we enquired if the Citizen was at home, a servant, not in livery, +informed us Monsieur was dressing, but that if we would walk in, he would +let Monsieur know we were there. We passed through a dining parlour, +where we saw the remains of a dessert, coffee, &c. and were assailed by +the odours of a plentiful repast. As we entered the saloon, we heard the +servant call at the door of an adjoining parlour, _"Monsieur, voici deux +Citoyennes et un Citoyen qui vous demandent."_ ["Sir, here are two female +citizens and one male citizen enquiring for you."] When Monsieur +appeared, he apologized with an air of graciousness for the impossibility +he had been under of getting my friend's affairs arranged--protested he +was _accable_ [Oppressed..]--that he had scarcely an instant at his own +disposal--that _enfin_ the responsibility of people in office was so +terrible, and the fatigue so _assommante,_ [Overpowering.] that nothing +but the purest _civism,_ and a heart _penetre de l'amour de la patrie,_ +[Penetrated with the love of his country.] could enable him to persevere +in the task imposed on him. As for the papers we required, he would +endeavour to find them, though his cabinet was really so filled with +petitions and certificates of all sorts, _que des malheureux lui avoient +addresses,_ [Addressed to him by unfortunate people.] that it would not +be very easy to find them at present; and, with this answer, which we +should have smiled at from M. de Choiseul or Sartine, we were obliged to +be satisfied. We then talked of the news of the day, and he lamented +that the aristocrats were still restless and increasing in number, and +that notwithstanding the efforts of the Convention to diffuse a spirit of +philosophy, it was too evident there was yet much fanaticism among the +people. + +As we rose to depart, Madame entered, dressed for visiting, and decorated +with bracelets on her wrists and above her elbows, medallions on her +waists and neck, and, indeed, finery wherever it could possibly be +bestowed. We observed her primitive condition of a waiting-woman still +operated, and that far from affecting the language of her husband, she +retained a great deference for rank, and was solicitous to insinuate that +she was secretly of a superior way of thinking. As we left the room +together, she made advances to an acquaintance with my companions (who +were people of condition); and having occasion to speak to a person at +the door, as she uttered the word _Citoyen_ she looked at us with an +expression which she intended should imply the contempt and reluctance +with which she made use of it. + +I have in general remarked, that the republicans are either of the +species I have just been describing, waiters, jockies, gamblers, +bankrupts, and low scribblers, living in great splendour, or men taken +from laborious professions, more sincere in their principles, more +ignorant and brutal--and who dissipate what they have gained in gross +luxury, because they have been told that elegance and delicacy are worthy +only of Sybarites, and that the Greeks and Romans despised both. These +patriots are not, however, so uninformed, nor so disinterested, as to +suppose they are to serve their country without serving themselves; and +they perfectly understand, that the rich are their legal patrimony, and +that it is enjoined them by their mission to pillage royalists and +aristocrats.* + +--Yours. + + * Garat observes, it was a maxim of Danton, _"Que ceux qui fesaient + les affaires de la republique devaient aussi faireles leurs,"_ that + who undertook the care of the republic should also take care of + themselves. This tenet, however, seems common to the friends of + both. + + + + +Paris, June 6, 1795. + +I had scarcely concluded my last, when I received advice of the death of +Madame de la F--------; and though I have, almost from the time we +quitted the Providence, thought she was declining, and that such an event +was probable, it has, nevertheless, both shocked and grieved me. + +Exclusively of her many good and engaging qualities, which were +reasonable objects of attachment, Madame de la F-------- was endeared to +me by those habits of intimacy that often supply the want of merit, and +make us adhere to our early friendships, even when not sanctioned by our +maturer judgment. Madame de la F-------- never became entirely divested +of the effects of a convent education; but if she retained a love of +trifling amusements, and a sort of infantine gaiety, she likewise +continued pious, charitable, and strictly attentive not only to the +duties, but to the decorum, essential in the female character and merits +of this sort are, I believe, now more rare than those in which she might +be deemed deficient. + +I was speaking of her this morning to a lady of our acquaintance, who +acquiesced in my friendly eulogiums, but added, in a tone of superiority, +_"C'etoit pourtant une petite femme bien minutieuse_--she always put me +out of patience with her birds and her flowers, her levees of poor +people, and her persevering industry in frivolous projects." My friend +was, indeed, the most feminine creature in the world, and this is a +flippant literary lady, who talks in raptures of the Greeks and Romans, +calls Rousseau familiarly Jean Jaques, frisks through the whole circle of +science at the Lyceum, and has an utter contempt both for personal +neatness and domestic oeconomy. How would Madame de Sevigne wonder, +could she behold one of these modern belles esprits, with which her +country, as well as England, abounds? In our zeal for reforming the +irregular orthography and housewifely penmanship of the last century, we +are all become readers, and authors, and critics. I do not assert, that +the female mind is too much cultivated, but that it is too generally so; +and that we encourage a taste for attainments not always compatible with +the duties and occupations of domestic life. No age has, I believe, +produced so many literary ladies as the present;* yet I cannot learn that +we are at all improved in morals, or that domestic happiness is more +universal than when, instead of writing sonnets to dew-drops or +daisies,** we copied prayers and recipes, in spelling similar to that of +Stowe or Hollingshed. + + * Let me not be supposed to undervalue the female authors of the + present day. There are some who, uniting great talents with + personal worth, are justly entitled to our respect and admiration. + The authoress of "Cecilia," or the Miss Lees, cannot be confounded + with the proprietors of all the Castles, Forests, Groves, Woods, + Cottages, and Caverns, which are so alluring in the catalogue of a + circulating library. + + ** Mrs. Smith's beautiful Sonnets have produced sonnetteers for + every object in nature, visible or invisible; and her elegant + translations of Petrarch have procured the Italian bard many an + English dress that he would have been ashamed to appear in. + +--We seem industrious to make every branch of education a vehicle for +inspiring a premature taste for literary amusements; and our old +fashioned moral adages in writing-books are replaced by scraps from +"Elegant Extracts," while print-work and embroidery represent scenes from +poems or novels. I allow, that the subjects formerly pourtrayed by the +needle were not pictoresque, yet, the tendency considered, young ladies +might as well employ their silk or pencils in exhibiting Daniel in the +lions' den, or Joseph and his brethren, as Sterne's Maria, or Charlotte +and Werter. + +You will forgive this digression, which I have been led into on hearing +the character of Madame de la F-------- depreciated, because she was only +gentle and amiable, and did not read Plutarch, nor hold literary +assemblies. It is, in truth, a little amende I owe her memory, for I may +myself have sometimes estimated her too lightly, and concluded my own +pursuits more rational than hers, when possibly they were only different. +Her death has left an impression on my mind, which the turbulence of +Paris is not calculated to soothe; but the short time we have to stay, +and the number of people I must see, oblige me to conquer both my regret +and my indolence, and to pass a great part of the day in running from +place to place. + +I have been employed all this morning in executing some female +commissions, which, of course, led me to milliners, mantua-makers, &c. +These people now recommend fashions by saying one thing is invented by +Tallien's wife, and another by Merlin de Thionville, or some other +Deputy's mistress; and the genius of these elegantes has contrived, by a +mode of dressing the hair which lengthens the neck, and by robes with an +inch of waist, to give their countrywomen an appearance not much unlike +that of a Bar Gander. + +I saw yesterday a relation of Madame de la F--------, who is in the army, +and whom I formerly mentioned as having met when we passed through +Dourlens. He was for some months suspended, and in confinement, but is +now restored to his rank, and ordered on service. He asked me if I ever +intended to visit France again. I told him I had so little reason to be +satisfied with my treatment, that I did not imagine I should.--"Yes, +(returned he,) but if the republic should conquer Italy, and bring all +its treasures to Paris, as has lately been suggested in the Convention, +we shall tempt you to return, in spite of yourself."* + + *The project of pillaging Italy of its most valuable works of art + was suggested by the philosophic Abbe Gregoire, a constitutional + Bishop, as early as September 1794, because, as he alledged, the + chefs d'ouvres of the Greek republic ought not to embellish a + country of slaves. + +--I told him, I neither doubted their intending such a scheme, nor the +possibility of its success, though it was not altogether worthy of +philosophers and republicans to wage war for Venus's and Appollos, and to +sacrifice the lives of one part of their fellow-citizens, that the rest +might be amused with pictures and statues.--"That's not our affair (says +Monsieur de --------). Soldiers do not reason. And if the Convention +should have a fancy to pillage the Emperor of China's palace, I see no +remedy but to set sail with the first fair wind,"--"I wish, (said his +sister, who was the only person present,) instead of being under such +orders, you had escaped from the service." "Yes, (returned the General +quickly,) and wander about Europe like Dumouriez, suspected and despised +by all parties." I observed, Dumouriez was an adventurer, and that on +many accounts it was necessary to guard against him. He said, he did not +dispute the necessity or even the justice of the conduct observed towards +him, but that nevertheless I might be assured it had operated as an +effectual check to those who might, otherwise, have been tempted to +follow Dumouriez's example; "And we have now (added he, in a tone between +gaiety and despair,) no alternative but obedience or the guillotine."--I +have transcribed the substance of this conversation, as it confirms what +I have frequently been told, that the fate of Dumouriez, however merited, +is one great cause why no desertion of importance has since taken place. + +I was just now interrupted by a noise and shouting near my window, and +could plainly distinguish the words Scipio and Solon uttered in a tone of +taunt and reproach. Not immediately comprehending how Solon or Scipio +could be introduced in a fray at Paris, I dispatched Angelique to make +enquiry; and at her return I learned that a croud of boys were following +a shoemaker of the neighbourhood, who, while he was member of a +revolutionary Committee, had chosen to unite in his person the glories of +both Rome and Greece, of the sword and gown, and had taken unto himself +the name of Scipio Solon. A decree of the Convention some weeks since +enjoined all such heroes and sages to resume their original appellations, +and forbade any person, however ardent his patriotism, to distinguish +himself by the name of Brutus, Timoleon, or any other but that which he +derived from his Christian parents. The people, it seems, are not so +obedient to the decree as those whom it more immediately concerns; and as +the above-mentioned Scipio Solon had been detected in various larcenies, +he is not allowed to quit his shop without being reproached with his +thefts, and his Greek and Roman appellations. + +--I am, &c. + + + + +Paris, June 8, 1795. + +Yesterday being Sunday, and to-day the Decade, we have had two holidays +successively, though, since the people have been more at liberty to +manifest their opinions, they give a decided preference to the Christian +festival over that of the republic.* + + * This was only at Paris, where the people, from their number, are + less manageable, and of course more courageous. In the departments, + the same cautious timidity prevailed, and appeared likely to + continue. + +--They observe the former from inclination, and the latter from +necessity; so that between the performance of their religious duties, and +the sacrifice to their political fears, a larger portion of time will be +deducted from industry than was gained by the suppression of the Saints' +days. The Parisians, however, seem to acquiesce very readily in this +compromise, and the philosophers of the Convention, who have so often +declaimed against the idleness occasioned by the numerous fetes of the +old calendar, obstinately persist in the adoption of a new one, which +increases the evil they pretend to remedy. + +If the people are to be taken from their labour for such a number of +days, it might as well be in the name of St. Genevieve or St. Denis, as +of the Decade, and the Saints'-days have at least this advantage, that +the forenoons are passed in churches; whereas the republican festivals, +dedicated one to love, another to stoicism, and so forth, not conveying +any very determinate idea, are interpreted to mean only an obligation to +do nothing, or to pass some supernumerary hours at the cabaret. +[Alehouse.] + +I noticed with extreme pleasure yesterday, that as many of the places of +public worship as are permitted to be open were much crouded, and that +religion appears to have survived the loss of those exterior allurements +which might be supposed to have rendered it peculiarly attractive to the +Parisians. The churches at present, far from being splendid, are not +even decent, the walls and windows still bear traces of the Goths (or, if +you will, the philosophers,) and in some places service is celebrated +amidst piles of farage, sacks, casks, or lumber appertaining to the +government--who, though they have by their own confession the disposal of +half the metropolis, choose the churches in preference for such +purposes.* + + * It has frequently been asserted in the Convention, that by + emigrations, banishments, and executions, half Paris had become the + property of the public. + +--Yet these unseemly and desolate appearances do not prevent the +attendance of congregations more numerous, and, I think, more fervent, +than were usual when the altars shone with the offerings of wealth, and +the walls were covered with the more interesting decorations of pictures +and tapestry. + +This it is not difficult to account for. Many who used to perform these +religious duties with negligence, or indifference, are now become pious, +and even enthusiastic--and this not from hypocrisy or political +contradiction, but from a real sense of the evils of irreligion, produced +by the examples and conduct of those in whom such a tendency has been +most remarkable.--It must, indeed, be acknowledged, that did Christianity +require an advocate, a more powerful one need not be found, than in a +retrospect of the crimes and sufferings of the French since its +abolition. + +Those who have made fortunes by the revolution (for very few have been +able to preserve them) now begin to exhibit equipages; and they hope to +render the people blind to this departure from their visionary systems of +equality, by foregoing the use of arms and liveries--as if the real +difference between the rich and the poor was not constituted rather by +essential accommodation, than extrinsic embellishments, which perhaps do +not gratify the eyes of the possessor a second time, and are, probably of +all branches of luxury, the most useful. The livery of servants can be +of very little importance, whether morally or politically considered--it +is the act of maintaining men in idleness, who might be more profitably +employed, that makes the keeping a great number exceptionable; nor is a +man more degraded by going behind a carriage with a hat and feather, than +with a bonnet de police, or a plain beaver; but he eats just as much, and +earns just as little, equipped as a Carmagnole, as though glittering in +the most superb gala suit.* + + * In their zeal to imitate the Roman republicans, the French seem to + forget that a political consideration very different from the love + of simplicity, or an idea of the dignity of man, made the Romans + averse from distinguishing their slaves by any external indication. + They were so numerous that it was thought impolitic to furnish them + with such means of knowing their own strength in case of a revolt. + +The marks of service cannot be more degrading than service itself; and it +is the mere chicane of philosophy to extend reform only to cuffs and +collars, while we do not dispense with the services annexed to them. A +valet who walks the street in his powdering jacket, disdains a livery as +much as the fiercest republican, and with as much reason--for there is no +more difference between domestic occupation performed in one coat or +another, than there is between the party-coloured habit and the jacket. + +If the luxury of carriages be an evil, it must be because the horses +employed in them consume the produce of land which might be more +beneficially cultivated: but the gilding, fringe, salamanders, and lions, +in all their heraldic positions, afford an easy livelihood to +manufacturers and artisans, who might not be capable of more laborious +occupations. + +I believe it will generally be found, that most of the republican reforms +are of this description--calculated only to impose on the people, and +disguising, by frivolous prohibitions, their real inutility. The +affectation of simplicity in a nation already familiarized with luxury, +only tends to divert the wealth of the rich to purposes which render it +more destructive. Vanity and ostentation, when they are excluded from +one means of gratification, will always seek another; and those who, +having the means, cannot distinguish themselves by ostensible splendour, +will often do so by domestic profusion.* + + * "Sectaries (says Walpole in his Anecdotes of Painting, speaking of + the republicans under Cromwell) have no ostensible enjoyments; their + pleasures are private, comfortable and gross. The arts of civilized + society are not calculated for men who mean to rise on the ruins of + established order." Judging by comparison, I am persuaded these + observations are yet more applicable to the political, than the + religious opinions of the English republicans of that period; for, + in these respects, there is no difference between them and the + French of the present day, though there is a wide one between an + Anabaptist and the disciples of Boulanger and Voltaire. + +--Nor can it well be disputed, that a gross luxury is more pernicious +than an elegant one; for the former consumes the necessaries of life +wantonly, while the latter maintains numerous hands in rendering things +valuable by the workmanship which are little so in themselves. + +Every one who has been a reflecting spectator of the revolution will +acknowledge the justice of these observations. The agents and retainers +of government are the general monopolizers of the markets, and these men, +who are enriched by peculation, and are on all occasions retailing the +cant phrases of the Convention, on the _purete des moeurs republicains, +et la luxe de la ci-devant Noblesse,_ [The purity of republican manners, +and the luxury of the ci-devant Noblesse.] exhibit scandalous exceptions +to the national habits of oeconomy, at a time too when others more +deserving are often compelled to sacrifice even their essential +accommodations to a more rigid compliance with them.* + + * Lindet, in a report on the situation of the republic, declares, + that since the revolution the consumption of wines and every article + of luxury has been such, that very little has been left for + exportation. I have selected the following specimens of republican + manners, from many others equally authentic, as they may be of some + utility to those who would wish to estimate what the French have + gained in this respect by a change of government. + + "In the name of the French people the Representatives sent to + Commune Affranchie (Lyons) to promote the felicity of its + inhabitants, order the Committee of Sequestration to send them + immediately two hundred bottles of the best wine that can be + procured, also five hundred bottles of claret, of prime quality, for + their own table. For this purpose the commission are authorized to + take of the sequestration, wherever the above wine can be found. + + Done at Commune Affranchie, thirteenth Nivose, second year. + (Signed) "Albitte, + "Fouche, + "Deputies of the National Convention." + + + Extract of a denunciation of Citizen Boismartin against Citizen + Laplanche, member of the National Convention: + + "The twenty-fourth of Brumaire, in the second year of the republic, + the Administrators of the district of St. Lo gave orders to the + municipality over which I at that time presided, to lodge the + Representative of the people, Laplanche, and General Siphert, in the + house of Citizen Lemonnier, who was then under arrest at Thorigni. + In introducing one of the founders of the republic, and a French + General, into this hospitable mansion, we thought to put the + property of our fellow-citizen under the safeguard of all the + virtues; but, alas, how were we mistaken! They had no sooner + entered the house, than the provisions of every sort, the linen, + clothes, furniture, trinkets, books, plate, carriages, and even + title-deeds, all disappeared; and, as if they purposely insulted our + wretchedness, while we were reduced to the sad necessity of + distributing with a parsimonious hand a few ounces of black bread to + our fellow-citizens, the best bread, pillaged from Citizen + Lemonnier, was lavished by buckets full to the horses of General + Siphert, and the Representative Laplanche.--The Citizen Lemonnier, + who is seventy years of age, having now recovered his liberty, which + he never deserved to lose, finds himself so entirely despoiled, that + he is at present obliged to live at an inn; and, of property to the + amount of sixty thousand livres, he has nothing left but a single + spoon, which he took with him when carried to one of the Bastilles + in the department de la Manche." + + The chief defence of Laplanche consisted in allegations that the + said Citizen Lemonnier was rich, and a royalist, and that he had + found emblems of royalism and fanaticism about the house. + +At the house of one of our common friends, I met --------, and so little +did I imagine that he had escaped all the revolutionary perils to which +he had been exposed, that I could almost have supposed myself in the +regions of the dead, or that he had been permitted to quit them, for his +being alive scarcely seemed less miraculous or incredible. As I had not +seen him since 1792, he gave me a very interesting detail of his +adventures, and his testimony corroborates the opinion generally +entertained by those who knew the late King, that he had much personal +courage, and that he lost his crown and his life by political indecision, +and an humane, but ill-judged, unwillingness to reduce his enemies by +force. He assured me, the Queen might have been conveyed out of France +previous to the tenth of August, if she would have agreed to leave the +King and her children behind; that she had twice consulted him on the +subject; but, persisting in her resolution not to depart unaccompanied by +her family, nothing practicable could be devised, and she determined to +share their fate.* + + * The gentleman here alluded to has great talents, and is + particularly well acquainted with some of the most obscure and + disastrous periods of the French revolution. I have reason to + believe, whenever it is consistent with his own safety, he will, by + a genuine relation, expose many of the popular falsehoods by which + the public have been misled. + +This, as well as many other instances of tenderness and heroism, which +distinguished the Queen under her misfortunes, accord but ill with the +vices imputed to her; and were not such imputations encouraged to serve +the cause of faction, rather than that of morality, these inconsistencies +would have been interpreted in her favour, and candour have palliated or +forgotten the levities of her youth, and remembered only the sorrows and +the virtues by which they were succeeded. + +I had, in compliance with your request on my first arrival in France, +made a collection of prints of all the most conspicuous actors in the +revolution; but as they could not be secreted so easily as other papers, +my fears overcame my desire of obliging you, and I destroyed them +successively, as the originals became proscribed or were sacrificed. +Desirous of repairing my loss, I persuaded some friends to accompany me +to a shop, kept by a man of whom they frequently purchased, and whom, as +his principles were known to them, I might safely ask for the articles I +wanted. He shook his head, while he ran over my list, and then told me, +that having preferred his safety to his property, he had disposed of his +prints in the same way I had disposed of mine. "At the accession of a +new party, (continued he,) I always prepare for a domiciliary visit, +clear my windows and shelves of the exploded heads, and replace them by +those of their rivals. Nay, I assure you, since the revolution, our +trade is become as precarious as that of a gamester. The +Constitutionalists, indeed, held out pretty well, but then I was half +ruined by the fall of the Brissotins; and, before I could retrieve a +little by the Hebertists and Dantonists, the too were out of fashion."-- +"Well, but the Robespierrians--you must have gained by them?"--"Why, +true; Robespierre and Marat, and Chalier, answered well enough, because +the royalists generally placed them in their houses to give themselves an +air of patriotism, yet they are gone after the rest.--Here, however, +(says he, taking down an engraving of the Abbe Sieyes,) is a piece of +merchandize that I have kept through all parties, religions, and +constitutions--_et le voila encore a la mode,_ ["And now you see him in +fashion again."] mounted on the wrecks, and supported by the remnants of +both his friends and enemies. _Ah! c'est un fin matois."_ ["Ah! He's a +knowing one."] + +This conversation passed in a gay tone, though the man added, very +seriously, that the instability of popular factions, and their +intolerance towards each other, had obliged him to destroy to the amount +of some thousand livres, and that he intended, if affairs did not change, +to quit business. + +Of all the prints I enquired for, I only got Barrere, Sieyes, and a few +others of less note. Your last commissions I have executed more +successfully, for though the necessaries of life are almost +unpurchaseable, articles of taste, books, perfumery, &c. are cheaper than +ever. This is unfortunately the reverse of what ought to be the case, +but the augmentation in the price of provisions is to be accounted for in +various ways, and that things of the description I allude to do not bear +a price in proportion is doubtless to be attributed to the present +poverty of those who used to be the purchasers of them; while the people +who are become rich under the new government are of a description to seek +for more substantial luxuries than books and essences.--I should however +observe, that the venders of any thing not perishable, and who are not +forced to sell for their daily subsistence, are solicitous to evade every +demand for any article which is to be paid for in assignats. + +I was looking at some trinkets in a shop at the Palais Royal, and on my +asking the mistress of it if the ornaments were silver, she smiled +significantly, and replied, she had nothing silver nor gold in the shop, +but if I chose to purchase _en espece,_ she would show me whatever I +desired: _"Mais pour le papier nous n'en avons que trop."_ ["In coin, but +for paper we have already too much of it."] + +Many of the old shops are nearly empty, and the little trade which yet +exists is carried on by a sort of adventurers who, without being bred to +any one trade, set up half a dozen, and perhaps disappear three months +afterwards. They are, I believe, chiefly men who have speculated on the +assignats, and as soon as they have turned their capital in a mercantile +way a short time, become apprehensive of the paper, realize it, and +retire; or, becoming bankrupts by some unlucky monopoly, begin a new +career of patriotism. + +There is, properly speaking, no money in circulation, yet a vast quantity +is bought and sold. Annuitants, possessors of moderate landed property, +&c., finding it impossible to subsist on their incomes, are forced to +have recourse to the little specie they have reserved, and exchange it +for paper. Immense sums in coin are purchased by the government, to make +good the balance of their trade with the neutral countries for +provisions, so that I should suppose, if this continue a few months, very +little will be left in the country. + +One might be tempted to fancy there is something in the atmosphere of +Paris which adapts the minds of its inhabitants to their political +situation. They talk of the day appointed for a revolt a fortnight +before, as though it were a fete, and the most timid begin to be inured +to a state of agitation and apprehension, and to consider it as a natural +vicissitude that their lives should be endangered periodically. + +A commission has been employed for some time in devising another new +constitution, which is to be proposed to the Assembly on the thirteenth +of this month; and on that day, it is said, an effort is to be made by +the royalists. They are certainly very numerous, and the interest taken +in the young King is universal. In vain have the journalists been +forbidden to cherish these sentiments, by publishing details concerning +him: whatever escapes the walls of his prison is circulated in impatient +whispers, and requires neither printing nor gazettes a la main to give it +publicity.* + + * Under the monarchy people disseminated anecdotes or intelligence + which they did not think it safe to print, by means of these written + gazettes.--I doubt if any one would venture to have recourse to them + at present. + +--The child is reported to be ill, and in a kind of stupefaction, so as +to sit whole days without speaking or moving: this is not natural at his +age, and must be the consequence of neglect, or barbarous treatment. + +The Committees of Government, and indeed most of the Convention who have +occasionally appeared to give tacit indications of favouring the +royalists, in order to secure their support against the Jacobins, having +now crushed the latter, begin to be seriously alarmed at the projects of +the former.--Sevestre, in the name of the Committee of Public Safety, +has announced that a formidable insurrection may be expected on the +twenty-fifth of Prairial, (thirteenth June,) the Deputies on mission are +ordered to return, and the Assembly propose to die under the ruins of the +republic. They have, notwithstanding, judged it expedient to fortify +these heroic dispositions by the aid of a military force, and a large +number of regular troops are in Paris and the environs. We shall +certainly depart before this menacing epoch: the application for our +passports was made on our first arrival, and Citizen Liebault, Principal +of the Office for Foreign Affairs, who is really very civil, has promised +them in a day or two. + +Our journey here was, in fact, unnecessary; but we have few republican +acquaintance, and those who are called aristocrats do not execute +commission of this kind zealously, nor without some apprehensions of +committing themselves.--You will wonder that I find time to write to you, +nor do I pretend to assume much merit from it. We have not often courage +to frequent public places in the evening, and, when we do, I continually +dread some unlucky accident: either a riot between the Terrorists and +Muscadins, within, or a military investment without. The last time we +were at the theatre, a French gentleman, who was our escort, entered into +a trifling altercation with a rude vulgar-looking man, in the box, who +seemed to speak in a very authoritative tone, and I know not how the +matter might have ended, had not a friend in the next box silenced our +companion, by conveying a penciled card, which informed him the person he +was disputing with was a Deputy of the Convention. We took an early +opportunity of retreating, not perfectly at ease about the consequences +which might ensue from Mr. -------- having ventured to differ in opinion +from a Member of the Republican Legislature. Since that time we have +passed our evenings in private societies, or at home; and while Mr. +D-------- devours new pamphlets, and Mrs. D-------- and the lady we lodge +with recount their mutual sufferings at Arras and St. Pelagie, I take the +opportunity of writing. + +--Adieu. + + + + +Paris, June 12, 1795. + +The hopes and fears, plots and counterplots, of both royalists and +republicans, are now suspended by the death of the young King. This +event was announced on Tuesday last, and since that time the minds and +conversation of the public have been entirely occupied by it. Latent +suspicion, and regret unwillingly suppressed, are every where visible; +and, in the fond interest taken in this child's life, it seems to be +forgotten that it is the lot of man "to pass through nature to eternity," +and that it was possible for him to die without being sacrificed by human +malice. + +All that has been said and written on original equality has not yet +persuaded the people that the fate of Kings is regulated only by the +ordinary dispensations of Providence; and they seem to persist in +believing, that royalty, if it has not a more fortunate pre-eminence, is +at least distinguished by an unusual portion of calamities. + +When we recollect the various and absurd stories which have been +propagated and believed at the death of Monarchs or their offspring, +without even a single ground either political or physical to justify +them, we cannot now wonder, when so many circumstances of every kind tend +to excite suspicion, that the public opinion should be influenced, and +attribute the death of the King to poison. The child is allowed to have +been of a lively disposition, and, even long after his seclusion from his +family, to have frequently amused himself by singing at the window of his +prison, until the interest he was observed to create in those who +listened under it, occasioned an order to prevent him. It is therefore +extraordinary, that he should lately have appeared in a state of +stupefaction, which is by no means a symptom of the disorder he is +alledged to have died of, but a very common one of opiates improperly +administered.* + + * In order to account in some way for the state in which the young + King had lately appeared, it was reported that he had been in the + habit of drinking strong liquors to excess. Admitting this to be + true, they must have been furnished for him, for he could have no + means of procuring them.--It is not inapposite to record, that on a + petition being formerly presented to the legislature from the + Jacobin societies, praying that the "son of the tyrant" might be put + to death, an honourable mention in the national bulletin was + unanimously decreed!!! + +Though this presumption, if supported by the evidence of external +appearances, may seem but of little weight; when combined with others, of +a moral and political nature, it becomes of considerable importance. The +people, long amused by a supposed design of the Convention to place the +Dauphin on the throne, were now become impatient to see their wishes +realized; or, they hoped that a renewal of the representative body, +which, if conducted with freedom, must infallibly lead to the +accomplishment of this object, would at least deliver them from an +Assembly which they considered as exhausted in talents and degraded in +reputation.--These dispositions were not attempted to be concealed; they +were manifested on all occasions: and a general and successful effort in +favour of the Royal Prisoner was expected to take place on the +thirteenth.* + + * That there were such designs, and such expectations on the part of + the people, is indubitable. The following extract, written and + signed by one of the editors of the _Moniteur,_ is sufficiently + expressive of the temper of the public at this period; and I must + observe here, that the _Moniteur_ is to be considered as nearly + equivalent to an official paper, and is always supposed to express + the sense of government, by whom it is supported and paid, whatever + party or system may happen to prevail: + + _"Les esperances les plus folles se manifestent de toutes parts.-- + C'est a qui jettera plus promptement le masque--on dirait, a lire + les ecrits qui paraissent, a entendre les conversations des gens qui + se croient dans les confidences, que c'en est fait de la republique: + la Convention, secondee, poussee meme par le zele et l'energie des + bons citoyens a remporte une grande victoire sur les Terroristes, + sur les successeurs de Robespierre, il semble qu'elle n'ait plus + qu'a proclamer la royaute. Ce qui donne lieu a toutes les + conjectures plus ou moins absurdes aux quelles chacun se livre, + c'est l'approche du 25 Prairial."_ (13th June, the day on which the + new constitution was to be presented). + + "The most extravagant hopes, and a general impatience to throw off + the mask are manifested on all sides.--To witness the publications + that appear, and to hear what is said by those who believe + themselves in the secret, one would suppose that it was all over + with the republic.--The Convention seconded, impelled even, by the + good citizens, has gained a victory over the Terrorists and the + successors of Robespierre, and now it should seem that nothing + remained to be done by to proclaim royalty--what particularly gives + rise to these absurdities, which exist more or less in the minds of + all, is the approach of the 25th Prairial." + _Moniteur,_ June 6, 1795. + +Perhaps the majority of the Convention, under the hope of securing +impunity for their past crimes, might have yielded to the popular +impulse; but the government is no longer in the hands of those men who, +having shared the power of Robespierre before they succeeded him, might, +as Rabaut St. Etienne expressed himself, "be wearied of their portion of +tyranny."* + + * -"Je suis las de la portion de tyrannie que j'exerce."---"I am + weary of the portion of tyranny which I exercise." + Rabaut de St. Etienne + +--The remains of the Brissotins, with their newly-acquired authority, +have vanity, interest, and revenge, to satiate; and there is no reason to +suppose that a crime, which should favour these views, would, in their +estimation, be considered otherwise than venial. To these are added +Sieyes, Louvet, &c. men not only eager to retain their power, but known +to have been of the Orleans faction, and who, if they are royalists, are +not loyalists, and the last persons to whose care a son of Louis the +Sixteenth ought to have been intrusted. + +At this crisis, then, when the Convention could no longer temporize with +the expectations it raised--when the government was divided between one +party who had deposed the King to gratify their own ambition, and another +who had lent their assistance in order to facilitate the pretensions of +an usurper--and when the hopes of the country were anxiously fixed on +him, died Louis the Seventeenth. At an age which, in common life, is +perhaps the only portion of our existence unalloyed by misery, this +innocent child had suffered more than is often the lot of extended years +and mature guilt. He lived to see his father sent to the scaffold--to be +torn from his mother and family--to drudge in the service of brutality +and insolence--and to want those cares and necessaries which are not +refused even to the infant mendicant, whose wretchedness contributes to +the support of his parents.* + + * It is unnecessary to remind the reader, that the Dauphin had been + under the care of one Simon, a shoemaker, who employed him to clean + his (Simon's) shoes, and in any other drudgery of which his close + confinement admitted. + +--When his death was announced to the Convention, Sevestre, the reporter, +acknowledged that Dessault, the surgeon, had some time since declared the +case to be dangerous; yet, notwithstanding policy as well as humanity +required that every appearance of mystery and harshness should, on such +an occasion, be avoided, the poor child continued to be secluded with the +same barbarous jealousy--nor was the Princess, his sister, whose evidence +on the subject would have been so conclusive, ever suffered to approach +him. + +No report of Dessault's opinion had till now been made public; and +Dessault himself, who was an honest man, died of an inflammatory disorder +four days before the Dauphin.--It is possible, he might have expressed +himself too freely, respecting his patient, to those who employed him-- +his future discretion might be doubted--or, perhaps, he was only called +in at first, that his character might give a sanction to the future +operations of those who were more confided in. But whether this event is +to be ascribed to natural causes, or to that of opiates, the times and +circumstances render it peculiarly liable to suspicions, and the +reputation of those who are involved, is not calculated to repel them. +Indeed, so conscious are the advocates of government, that the imputation +cannot be obviated by pleading the integrity of the parties, that they +seem to rest their sole defence on the inutility of a murder, which only +transfers whatever rights the House of Bourbon may be supposed to +possess, from one branch of it to another. Yet those who make use of +this argument are well aware of its fallaciousness: the shades of +political opinion in France are extremely diversified, and a considerable +part of the Royalists are also Constitutionalists, whom it will require +time and necessity to reconcile to the emigrant Princes. But the young +King had neither enemies nor errors--and his claims would have united the +efforts and affections of all parties, from the friends of the monarchy, +as it existed under Louis the Fourteenth, down to the converted +Republican, who compromises with his principles, and stipulates for the +title of Perpetual President. + +That the removal of this child has been fortunate for those who govern, +is proved by the effect: insurrections are no longer talked of, the +royalists are confounded, the point of interest is no more, and a sort of +despondency and confusion prevails, which is highly favourable to a +continuance of the present system.--There is no doubt, but that when +men's minds become more settled, the advantage of having a Prince who is +capable of acting, and whose success will not be accompanied by a long +minority, will conciliate all the reflecting part of the constitutional +royalists, in spite of their political objections. But the people who +are more under the influence of their feelings, and yield less to +expediency, may not, till urged by distress and anarchy, be brought to +take the same interest in the absent claimant of the throne, that they +did in their infant Prince. + +It is to be regretted, that an habitual and unconquerable deference for +the law which excludes females from the Crown of France, should have +survived monarchy itself; otherwise the tender compassion excited by the +youth, beauty and sufferings of the Princess, might yet have been the +means of procuring peace to this distracted country. But the French +admire, lament, and leave her to her fate-- + + "O, shame of Gallia, in one sullen tower + "She wets with royal tears her daily cell; + "She finds keen anguish every rose devour, + "They spring, they bloom, then bid the world farewell. + "Illustrious mourner! will no gallant mind + "The cause of love, the cause of justice own? + "Such claims! such charms! And is no life resign'd + "To see them sparkle from their parent throne?" + +How inconsistent do we often become through prejudices! The French are +at this moment governed by adventurers and courtezans--by whatever is +base, degraded, or mean, in both sexes; yet, perhaps, would they blush to +see enrolled among their Sovereigns an innocent and beautiful Princess, +the descendant of Henry the Fourth. + +Nothing since our arrival at Paris has seemed more strange than the +eagerness with which every one recounts some atrocity, either committed +or suffered by his fellow-citizens; and all seem to conclude, that the +guilt or shame of these scenes is so divided by being general, that no +share of either attaches to any individual. They are never tired of the +details of popular or judicial massacres; and so zealous are they to do +the honours of the place, that I might, but for disinclination on my +part, pass half my time in visiting the spots where they were +perpetrated. It was but to-day I was requested to go and examine a kind +of sewer, lately described by Louvet, in the Convention, where the blood +of those who suffered at the Guillotine was daily carried in buckets, by +men employed for the purpose.* + + * "At the gate of St. Antoine an immense aqueduct had been + constructed for the purpose of carrying off the blood that was shed + at the executions, and every day four men were employed in taking it + up in buckets, and conveying it to this horrid reservoir of + butchery." + Louvet's Report, 2d May. + +--These barbarous propensities have long been the theme of French +satyrists; and though I do not pretend to infer that they are national, +yet certainly the revolution has produced instances of ferocity not to be +paralleled in any country that ever had been civilized, and still less in +one that had not.* + + * It would be too shocking, both to decency and humanity, to recite + the more serious enormities alluded to; and I only add, to those I + have formerly mentioned, a few examples which particularly describe + the manners of the revolution.-- + + At Metz, the heads of the guillotined were placed on the tops of + their own houses. The Guillotine was stationary, fronting the + Town-house, for months; and whoever was observed to pass it with + looks of disapprobation, was marked as an object of suspicion. A + popular Commission, instituted for receiving the revolutionary tax + at this place, held their meetings in a room hung with stripes of + red and black, lighted only with sepulchral lamps; and on the desk + was placed a small Guillotine, surrounded by daggers and swords. In + this vault, and amidst this gloomy apparatus, the inhabitants of + Metz brought their patriotic gifts, (that is, the arbitrary and + exorbitant contributions to which they were condemned,) and laid + them on the altar of the Guillotine, like the sacrifice of fear to + the infernal deities; and, that the keeping of the whole business + might be preserved, the receipts were signed with red ink, avowedly + intended as expressive of the reigning system. + + At Cahors, the deputy, Taillefer, after making a triumphal entry + with several waggons full of people whom he had arrested, ordered a + Guillotine to be erected in the square, and some of the prisoners to + be brought forth and decorated in a mock costume representing Kings, + Queens, and Nobility. He then obliged them successively to pay + homage to the Guillotine, as though it had been a throne, the + executioner manoeuvring the instrument all the while, and exciting + the people to call for the heads of those who were forced to act in + this horrid farce. The attempt, however, did not succeed, and the + spectators retired in silent indignation. + + At Laval, the head of Laroche, a deputy of the Constituent Assembly, + was exhibited (by order of Lavallee, a deputy there on mission) on + the house inhabited by his wife.--At Auch, in the department of + Gers, d'Artigoyte, another deputy, obliged some of the people under + arrest to eat out of a manger.--Borie used to amuse himself, and the + inhabitants of Nismes, by dancing what he called a farandole round + the Guillotine in his legislative costume.--The representative + Lejeune solaced his leisure hours in beheading animals with a + miniature Guillotine, the expence of which he had placed to the + account of the nation; and so much was he delighted with it, that + the poultry served at his table were submitted to its operation, as + well as the fruits at his dessert! (Debates, June 1.) + + But it would be tedious and disgusting to describe all the _menus + plaisirs_ of these founders of the French republic. Let it suffice + to say, that they comprised whatever is ludicrous, sanguinary, and + licentious, and that such examples were but too successful in + procuring imitators. At Tours, even the women wore Guillotines in + their ears, and it was not unusual for people to seal their letters + with a similar representation! + +We have been once at the theatre since the King's death, and the stanza +of the _Reveil du Peuple,_ [The rousing of the people.] which contains a +compliment to the Convention, was hissed pretty generally, while those +expressing an abhorrence of Jacobinism were sung with enthusiasm. But +the sincerity of these musical politics is not always to be relied on: a +popular air is caught and echoed with avidity; and whether the words be +_"Peuple Francais, peuple de Freres,"_ ["Brethren."]--or _"Dansons la +Guillotine,"_ the expression with which it is sung is not very different. +How often have the theatres resounded with _"Dieu de clemence et de +justice."_ ["God of mercy and justice."] and _"Liberte, Liberte, +cherie!"_ ["Liberty, beloved Liberty!"] while the instrument of death was +in a state of unceasing activity--and when the auditors, who joined in +these invocations to Liberty, returned to their homes trembling, lest +they should be arrested in the street, or find a mandate or guard at +their own houses.* + + * An acquaintance of mine told me, that he was one evening in + company at Dijon, where, after singing hymns to liberty in the most + energetic style, all the party were arrested, and betook themselves + as tranquilly to prison, as though the name of liberty had been + unknown to them. The municipality of Dijon commonly issued their + writs of arrest in this form--"Such and such a person shall be + arrested, and his wife, if he has one!" + +--At present, however, the Parisians really sing the _Reveil_ from +principle, and I doubt if even a new and more agreeable air in the +Jacobin interest would be able to supplant it. + +We have had our permission to remain here extended to another Decade; but +Mr. D------, who declares, ten times in an hour, that the French are the +strangest people on earth, besides being the most barbarous and the most +frivolous, is impatient to be gone; and as we now have our passports, I +believe we shall depart the middle of next week. + +--Yours. + + + + +Paris, June 15, 1795. + +I am now, after a residence of more than three years, amidst the chaos of +a revolution, on the eve of my departure from France. Yet, while I +joyfully prepare to revisit my own country, my mind involuntarily traces +the rapid succession of calamities which have filled this period, and +dwells with painful contemplation on those changes in the morals and +condition of the French people that seem hitherto to be the only fruits +which they have produced. In this recurrence to the past, and estimation +of the present, however we may regret the persecution of wealth, the +destruction of commerce, and the general oppression, the most important +and irretrievable mischief of the revolution is, doubtless, the +corruption of manners introduced among the middle and lower classes of +the people. + +The labouring poor of France have often been described as frugal, +thoughtless, and happy, earning, indeed, but little, yet spending still +less, and in general able to procure such a subsistence as their habits +and climate rendered agreeable and sufficient.* + + * Mr. Young seems to have been persuaded, that the common people of + France worked harder, and were worse fed, than those of the same + description in England. Yet, as far as I have had opportunity of + observing, and from the information I have been able to procure, I + cannot help supposing that this gentleman has drawn his inference + partially, and that he has often compared some particular case of + distress, with the general situation of the peasantry in the rich + counties, which are the scene of his experiments. The peasantry of + many distant parts of England fare as coarsely, and labour harder, + than was common in France; and taking their habits of frugality, + their disposition to be satisfied, and their climate into the + account, the situation of the French perhaps was preferable. + + Mr. Young's Tour has been quoted very triumphantly by a Noble Lord, + particularly a passage which laments and ascribes to political + causes the appearance of premature old age, observable in French + women of the lower classes. Yet, for the satisfaction of his + Lordship's benevolence and gallantry, I can assure him, that the + female peasants in France have not more laborious occupations than + those of England, but they wear no stays, and expose themselves to + all weathers without hats; in consequence, lose their shape, tan + their complexions, and harden their features so as to look much + older than they really are.--Mr. Young's book is translated into + French, and I have too high an opinion both of his principles and + his talents to doubt that he must regret the ill effects it may have + had in France, and the use that has been made of it in England. + +--They are now become idle, profuse, and gloomy; their poverty is +embittered by fanciful claims to riches and a taste for expence. They +work with despair and unwillingness, because they can no longer live by +their labour; and, alternately the victims of intemperance or want, they +are often to be found in a state of intoxication, when they have not been +able to satisfy their hunger--for, as bread cannot always be purchased +with paper, they procure a temporary support, at the expence of their +health and morals, in the destructive substitute of strong liquors. + +Those of the next class, such as working tradesmen, artizans, and +domestic servants, though less wretched, are far more dissolute; and it +is not uncommon in great towns to see men of this description unite the +ferociousness of savages with all the vices of systematic profligacy. +The original principles of the revolution, of themselves, naturally +tended to produce such a depravation; but the suspension of religious +worship, the conduct of the Deputies on mission, and the universal +immorality of the existing government, must have considerably hastened +it. When the people were forbidden the exercise of their religion, +though they did not cease to be attached to it, yet they lost the good +effects which even external forms alone are calculated to produce; and +while deism and atheism failed in perverting their faith, they were but +too successful in corrupting their morals. + +As in all countries the restraints which religion imposes are more +readily submitted to by the inferior ranks of life, it is these which +must be most affected by its abolition; and we cannot wonder, that when +men have been once accustomed to neglect the duty they consider as most +essential, they should in time become capable of violating every other: +for, however it may be among the learned, _qui s'aveuglent a force de +lumiere,_ [Who blind themselves by excess of light. Destouchet.] with +the ignorant the transition from religious indifference to actual vice is +rapid and certain. + +The Missionaries of the Convention, who for two years extended their +destructive depredations over the departments, were every where guilty of +the most odious excesses, and those least culpable offered examples of +licentiousness and intemperance with which, till then, the people had +never been familiar.* + + * "When the Convention was elected, (says Durand Maillane, see + Report of the Committee of Legislation, 13th Prairial, 1st June,) + the choice fell upon men who abused the name of patriot, and adopted + it as a cloak for their vices.--Vainly do we inculcate justice, and + expect the Tribunals will bring thieves and assassins to punishment, + if we do not punish those amongst ourselves.--Vainly shall we talk + of republican manners and democratic government, while our + representatives carry into the departments examples of despotism and + corruption." + + The conduct of these civilized banditti has been sufficiently + described. Allard, Lacoste, Mallarme, Milhaud, Laplanche, + Monestier, Guyardin, Sergent, and many others, were not only + ferocious and extravagant, but known to have been guilty of the + meanest thefts. Javoques is alledged to have sacrificed two hundred + people of Montibrison, and to have stolen a vast quantity of their + effects. It was common for him to say, that he acknowledged as true + patriots those only who, like himself, _"etaient capables de boire + une verre de sang,"_--("were capable of drinking a glass of blood.") + D'Artigoyte distinguished himself by such scandalous violations of + morals and decency, that they are not fit to be recited. He often + obliged married women, by menaces, to bring their daughters to the + Jacobin clubs, for the purpose of insulting them with the grossest + obscenities.--Having a project of getting up a play for his + amusement, he caused it to be declared, that those who had any + talents for acting, and did not present themselves, should be + imprisoned as suspects. And it is notorious, that this same Deputy + once insulted all the women present at the theatre, and, after using + the most obscene language for some time, concluded by stripping + himself entirely in presence of the spectators. + Report of the Committee of Legislation, 13th Prairial (1st of + June). + + Lacoste and Baudet, when they were on mission at Strasburgh, lived + in daily riot and intoxication with the members of the Revolutionary + Tribunal, who, after qualifying themselves in these orgies, + proceeded to condemn all the prisoners brought before them.--During + the debate following the above quoted report, Dentzel accused + Lacoste, among other larcenies, of having purloined some shirts + belonging to himself; and addressing Lacoste, who was present in the + Assembly, with true democratic frankness, adds, _"Je suis sur qu'il + en a une sur le corps."_--("I am certain he has one of them on at + this moment.") Debate, 1st of June. + + The following is a translation of a letter from Piorry, + Representative of the People, to the popular society of Poitiers:-- + "My honest and determined _Sans Culottes,_ as you seemed to desire a + Deputy amongst you who has never deviated from the right principles, + that is to say, a true Mountaineeer, I fulfil your wishes in sending + you the Citizen Ingrand.--Remember, honest and determined _Sans + Culottes,_ that with the sanction of the patriot Ingrand, you may do + every thing, obtain every thing, destroy every thing--imprison all, + try all, transport all, or guillotine all. Don't spare him a + moment; and thus, through his means, all may tremble, every thing be + swept away, and, finally, be re-established in lasting order. + (Signed) "Piorry." + + The gentleman who translated the above for me, subjoined, that he + had omitted various oaths too bad for translation.--This Piorry + always attended the executions, and as fast as a head fell, used to + wave his hat in the air, and cry, _"Vive la Republique!"_ + + Such are the founders of the French Republic, and such the means by + which it has been supported! + +--It may be admitted, that the lives of the higher Noblesse were not +always edifying; but if their dissipation was public, their vices were +less so, and the scenes of both were for the most part confined to Paris. +What they did not practise themselves, they at least did not discourage +in others; and though they might be too indolent to endeavour at +preserving the morals of their dependents, they knew their own interest +too well to assist in depraving them. + +But the Representatives, and their agents, are not to be considered +merely as individuals who have corrupted only by example;--they were +armed with unlimited authority, and made proselytes through fear, where +they failed to produce them from inclination. A contempt for religion or +decency has been considered as the test of an attachment to the +government; and a gross infraction of any moral or social duty as a proof +of civism, and a victory over prejudice. Whoever dreaded an arrest, or +courted an office, affected profaneness and profligacy--and, doubtless, +many who at first assumed an appearance of vice from timidity, in the end +contracted a preference for it. I myself know instances of several who +began by deploring that they were no longer able to practise the duties +of their religion, and ended by ridiculing or fearing them. Industrious +mechanics, who used to go regularly to mass, and bestow their weekly +_liard_ on the poor, after a month's revolutionising, in the suite of a +Deputy, have danced round the flames which consumed the sacred writings, +and become as licentious and dishonest as their leader. + +The general principles of the Convention have been adapted to sanction +and accelerate the labours of their itinerant colleagues. The sentences +of felons were often reversed, in consideration of their "patriotism"-- +women of scandalous lives have been pensioned, and complimented publicly +--and various decrees passed, all tending to promote a national +dissoluteness of manners.* + + * Among others, a decree which gave all illegitimate children a + claim to an equal participation in the property of the father to + whom they should (at the discretion of the mother) be attributed. + +--The evil propensities of our nature, which penal laws and moralists +vainly contend against, were fostered by praise, and stimulated by +reward--all the established distinctions of right and wrong confounded-- +and a system of revolutionary ethics adopted, not less incompatible with +the happiness of mankind than revolutionary politics. + +Thus, all the purposes for which this general demoralization was +promoted, being at length attained, those who were rich having been +pillaged, those who were feared massacred, and a croud of needy and +desperate adventurers attached to the fate of the revolution, the +expediency of a reform has lately been suggested. But the mischief is +already irreparable. Whatever was good in the national character is +vitiated; and I do not scruple to assert, that the revolution has both +destroyed the morals of the people, and rendered their condition less +happy*--that they are not only removed to a greater distance from the +possession of rational liberty, but are become more unfit for it than +ever. + + * It has been asserted, with a view to serve the purposes of party, + that the condition of the lower classes in France was mended by the + revolution. If those who advance this were not either partial or + ill-informed, they would observe that the largesses of the + Convention are always intended to palliate some misery, the + consequence of the revolution, and not to banish what is said to + have existed before. For the most part, these philanthropic + projects are never carried into effect, and when they are, it is to + answer political purposes.--For instance, many idle people are kept + in pay to applaud at the debates and executions, and assignats are + distributed to those who have sons serving in the army. The + tendency of both these donations needs no comment. The last, which + is the most specious, only affords a means of temporary profusion to + people whose children are no incumbrance to them, while such as have + numerous and helpless families, are left without assistance. Even + the poorest people now regard the national paper with contempt; and, + persuaded it must soon be of no value, they eagerly squander + whatever they receive, without care for the future. + +As I have frequently, in the course of these letters, had occasion to +quote from the debates of the Convention, and other recent publications, +I ought to observe that the French language, like every thing else in the +country, has been a subject of innovation--new words have been invented, +the meaning of old ones has been changed, and a sort of jargon, +compounded of the appropriate terms of various arts and sciences, +introduced, which habit alone can render intelligible. There is scarcely +a report read in the Convention that does not exhibit every possible +example of the Bathos, together with more conceits than are to be found +in a writer of the sixteenth century; and I doubt whether any of their +projects of legislation or finance would be understood by Montesquieu or +Colbert. + +But the style most difficult to be comprehended by foreigners, is that +of the newspapers; for the dread of offending government so entirely +possesses the imagination of those who compose such publications, that it +is not often easy to distinguish a victory from a defeat, by the language +in which it is conveyed. The common news of the day is worded as +cautiously as though it were to be the subject of judicial disquisition; +and the real tendency of an article is sometimes so much at variance with +its comment, that the whole, to a cursory peruser, may seem destitute of +any meaning at all. Time, however, has produced a sort of intelligence +between news-writers and their readers--and rejoicings, lamentations, +praise, or censure, are, on particular occasions, understood to convey +the reverse of what they express. + +The affected moderation of the government, and the ascendency which some +of the Brissotin party are beginning to take in it, seem to flatter the +public with the hope of peace. They forget that these men were the +authors of the war, and that a few months imprisonment has neither +expiated their crimes, nor subdued their ambition. It is the great +advantage of the Brissotins, that the revolutionary tyranny which they +had contributed to establish, was wrested from them before it had taken +its full effect; but those who appreciate their original claims, without +regard to their sufferings under the persecution of a party, are disposed +to expect they will not be less tenacious of power, nor less arbitrary in +the exercise of it than any of the intervening factions. The present +government is composed of such discordant elements, that their very union +betrays that they are in fact actuated by no principle, except the +general one of retaining their authority. Lanjuinais, Louvet, Saladin, +Danou, &c. are now leagued with Tallien, Freron, Dubois de Crance, and +even Carnot. + +At the head of this motley assemblage of Brissotins, Orleanists, and +Robespierrians, is Sieyes--who, with perhaps less honesty, though more +cunning, than either, despises and dupes them all. At a moment when the +Convention had fallen into increased contempt, and when the public +affairs could no longer be conducted by fabricators of reports and +framers of decrees, the talents of this sinister politician became +necessary; yet he enjoys neither the confidence of his colleagues nor +that of the people--the vanity and duplicity of his conduct disgust and +alarm the first, while his reputation of partizan of the Duke of Orleans +is a reason for suspicion in the latter. But if Sieyes has never been +able to conciliate esteem, nor attain popularity, he has at length +possessed himself of power, and will not easily be induced to relinquish +it.--Many are of opinion, that he is secretly machinating for the son of +his former patron; but whether he means to govern in the name of the Duke +of Orleans, or in that of the republic, it is certain, had the French any +liberty to lose, it never could have found a more subtle and dangerous +enemy.* + + * The Abbe, in his _"notices sur la Vie de Sieyes,"_ declares that + his contempt and detestation of the colleagues "with whom his + unfortunate stars had connected him," were so great, that he + determined, from his first arrival at the Convention, to take no + part in public affairs. As these were his original sentiments of + the Assembly, perhaps he may hereafter explain by which of their + operations his esteem was so much reconciled, that he has + condescended to become their leader. + +Paris may, without exaggeration, be described as in a state of famine. +The markets are scantily supplied, and bread, except the little +distributed by order of the government, not to be obtained: yet the +inhabitants, for the most part, are not turbulent--they have learned too +late, that revolutions are not the source of plenty, and, though they +murmur and execrate their rulers, they abstain from violence, and seem +rather inclined to yield to despair, than to seek revenge. This is one +proof, among a variety of others, that the despotism under which the +French have groaned for the last three years, has much subdued the +vivacity and impatience of the national character; for I know of no +period in their history, when such a combination of personal suffering +and political discontent, as exists at present, would not have produced +some serious convulsion. + + + + +Amiens, June 18, 1795. + +We returned hither yesterday, and on Friday we are to proceed to Havre, +accompanied by an order from the Committee of Public Welfare, stating +that several English families, and ourselves among the number, have been +for some time a burthen on the generosity of the republic, and that for +this reason we are permitted to embark as soon as we can find the means. +This is neither true, nor very gallant; but we are too happy in quitting +the republic, to cavil about terms, and would not exchange our +pauper-like passports for a consignment of all the national domains. + +I have been busy to-day in collecting and disposing of my papers, and +though I have taken infinite pains to conceal them, their bulk is so +considerable, that the conveyance must be attended with risk. While I +was thus employed, the casual perusal of some passages in my letters and +notes has led me to consider how much my ideas of the French character +and manners differ from those to be found in the generality of modern +travels. My opinions are not of importance enough to require a defence; +and a consciousness of not having deviated from truth makes me still more +averse from an apology. Yet as I have in several instances varied from +authorities highly respectable, it may not be improper to endeavour to +account for what has almost the appearance of presumption. + +If you examine most of the publications describing foreign countries, you +will find them generally written by authors travelling either with the +eclat of birth and riches, or, professionally, as men of science or +letters. They scarcely remain in any place longer than suffices to view +the churches, and to deliver their letters of recommendation; or, if +their stay be protracted at some capital town, it is only to be feted +from one house to another, among that class of people who are every where +alike. As soon as they appear in society, their reputation as authors +sets all the national and personal vanity in it afloat. One is polite, +for the honour of his country--another is brilliant, to recommend +himself; and the traveller cannot ask a question, the answer to which is +not intended for an honourable insertion in his repertory of future fame. + +In this manner an author is passed from the literati and fashionable +people of one metropolis to those of the next. He goes post through +small towns and villages, seldom mixes with every-day life, and must in a +great degree depend for information on partial enquiries. He sees, as it +were, only the two extremes of human condition--the splendour of the +rich, and the misery of the poor; but the manners of the intermediate +classes, which are less obtrusive, are not within the notice of a +temporary resident. + +It is not therefore extraordinary, that I, who have been domesticated +some years in France, who have lived among its inhabitants without +pretensions, and seen them without disguise, should not think them quite +so polite, elegant, gay, or susceptible, as they endeavour to appear to +the visitant of the day. Where objects of curiosity only are to be +described, I know that a vast number may be viewed in a very rapid +progress; yet national character, I repeat, cannot be properly estimated +but by means of long and familiar intercourse. A person who is every +where a stranger, must see things in their best dress; being the object +of attention, he is naturally disposed to be pleased, and many +circumstances both physical and moral are passed over as novelties in +this transient communication, which might, on repetition, be found +inconvenient or disgusting. When we are stationary, and surrounded by +our connections, we are apt to be difficult and splenetic; but a literary +traveller never thinks of inconvenience, and still less of being out of +humour--curiosity reconciles him to the one, and his fame so smooths all +his intercourse, that he has no plea for the other. + +It is probably for these reasons that we have so many panegyrists of our +Gallic neighbours, and there is withal a certain fashion of liberality +that has lately prevailed, by which we think ourselves bound to do them +more than justice, because they [are] our political enemies. For my own +part, I confess I have merely endeavoured to be impartial, and have not +scrupled to give a preference to my own country where I believed it was +due. I make no pretensions to that sort of cosmopolitanism which is +without partialities, and affects to consider the Chicktaw or the Tartars +of Thibet, with the same regard as a fellow-countryman. Such universal +philanthropists, I have often suspected, are people of very cold hearts, +who fancy they love the whole world, because they are incapable of loving +any thing in it, and live in a state of "moral vagabondage," (as it is +happily termed by Gregoire,) in order to be exempted from the ties of a +settled residence. _"Le cosmopolytisme de systeme et de fait n'est qu'un +vagabondage physique ou moral: nous devons un amour de preference a la +societe politique dont nous sommes membres."_ ["Cosmopolytism, either in +theory or in practice, is no better than a moral or physical vagrancy: +the political society of which we are members, is entitled to a +preference in our affections."] + +Let it not be imagined, that, in drawing comparisons between France and +England, I have been influenced by personal suffering or personal +resentment. My opinions on the French characters and manners were formed +before the revolution, when, though my judgment might be deficient, my +heart was warm, and my mind unprejudiced; yet whatever credit may be +allowed to my general opinions, those which particularly apply to the +present situation and temper of the French will probably be disputed. +When I describe the immense majority of the nation as royalists, hating +their government, and at once indignant and submissive, those who have +not studied the French character, and the progress of the revolution, may +suspect my veracity. I can only appeal to facts. It is not a new event +in history for the many to be subdued by the few, and this seems to be +the only instance in which such a possibility has been doubted.* + + * It is admitted by Brissot, who is in this case competent + authority, that about twenty factious adventurers had oppressed the + Convention and the whole country. A more impartial calculator would + have been less moderate in the number, but the fact is the same; and + it would be difficult to fix the period when this oppression ceased. + +--The well-meaning of all classes in France are weak, because they are +divided; while the small, but desperate factions that oppress them, are +strong in their union, and in the possession of all the resources of the +country. + +Under these circumstances, no successful effort can be made; and I have +collected from various sources, that the general idea of the French at +present is, to wait till the new constitution appears, and to accept it, +though it should be even more anarchical and tyrannic than the last. +They then hope that the Convention will resign their power without +violence, that a new election of representatives will take place, and +that those representatives, who they intend shall be men of honesty and +property, will restore them to the blessings of a moderate and permanent +government. + +--Yours. + + + + +Havre, June 22, 1795. + +We are now in hourly expectation of sailing for England: we have agreed +with the Captain of a neutral vessel, and are only waiting for a +propitious wind. This good ally of the French seems to be perfectly +sensible of the value of a conveyance out of the republic, and +accordingly we are to pay him about ten times more for our passage than +he would have asked formerly. We chose this port in preference to Calais +or Boulogne, because I wished to see my friend Madame de ------ at Rouen, +and leave Angelique with her relations, who live there. + +I walked this morning to the harbour, and seeing some flat-bottomed boats +constructing, asked a French gentleman who accompanied me, perhaps a +little triumphantly, if they were intended for a descent on the English +coast. He replied, with great composure, that government might deem it +expedient (though without any views of succeeding) to sacrifice ten or +twenty thousand men in the attempt.--It is no wonder that governments, +accountable for the lives and treasure they risk, are scarcely equal to a +conflict sustained by such power, and conducted on such principles.--But +I am wearied and disgusted with the contemplation of this despotism, and +I return to my country deeply and gratefully impressed with a sense of +the blessings we enjoy in a free and happy constitution. + +--I am, &c. + +FINIS. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Residence in France During the Years +1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795, Part IV., 1795, by An English Lady + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11995 *** |