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diff --git a/old/11996.txt b/old/11996.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4f6883 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11996.txt @@ -0,0 +1,20650 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Residence in France During the Years +1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795, Complete, by An English Lady + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Residence in France During the Years 1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795, + Complete + Described in a Series of Letters from an English Lady: With General + and Incidental Remarks on the French Character and Manners + + +Author: An English Lady + +Release Date: October 28, 2006 [EBook #11996] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A RESIDENCE IN FRANCE, COMPLETE *** + + + + +Produced by Mary Munarin and David Widger + + + + +A RESIDENCE IN FRANCE, +DURING THE YEARS +1792, 1793, 1794, AND 1795; + +DESCRIBED IN A SERIES OF LETTERS +FROM AN ENGLISH LADY; +With General And Incidental Remarks +On The French Character And Manners. + +Prepared for the Press +By John Gifford, Esq. +Author of the History of France, Letter to Lord +Lauderdale, Letter to the Hon. T. Erskine, &c. + + + +Second Edition. + +_Plus je vis l'Etranger plus j'aimai ma Patrie._ +--Du Belloy. + + + + +London: Printed for T. N. Longman, Paternoster Row. 1797. + + + + + +PRELIMINARY REMARKS BY THE EDITOR. + +The following Letters were submitted to my inspection and judgement by +the Author, of whose principles and abilities I had reason to entertain a +very high opinion. How far my judgement has been exercised to advantage +in enforcing the propriety of introducing them to the public, that public +must decide. To me, I confess, it appeared, that a series of important +facts, tending to throw a strong light on the internal state of France, +during the most important period of the Revolution, could neither prove +uninteresting to the general reader, nor indifferent to the future +historian of that momentous epoch; and I conceived, that the opposite and +judicious reflections of a well-formed and well-cultivated mind, +naturally arising out of events within the immediate scope of its own +observation, could not in the smallest degree diminish the interest +which, in my apprehension, they are calculated to excite. My advice upon +this occasion was farther influenced by another consideration. Having +traced, with minute attention, the progress of the revolution, and the +conduct of its advocates, I had remarked the extreme affiduity employed +(as well by translations of the most violent productions of the Gallic +press, as by original compositions,) to introduce and propagate, in +foreign countries, those pernicious principles which have already sapped +the foundation of social order, destroyed the happiness of millions, and +spread desolation and ruin over the finest country in Europe. I had +particularly observed the incredible efforts exerted in England, and, I +am sorry to say, with too much success, for the base purpose of giving a +false colour to every action of the persons exercising the powers of +government in France; and I had marked, with indignation, the atrocious +attempt to strip vice of its deformity, to dress crime in the garb of +virtue, to decorate slavery with the symbols of freedom, and give to +folly the attributes of wisdom. I had seen, with extreme concern, men, +whom the lenity, mistaken lenity, I must call it, of our government had +rescued from punishment, if not from ruin, busily engaged in this +scandalous traffic, and, availing themselves of their extensive +connections to diffuse, by an infinite variety of channels, the poison of +democracy over their native land. In short, I had seen the British +press, the grand palladium of British liberty, devoted to the cause of +Gallic licentiousness, that mortal enemy of all freedom, and even the +pure stream of British criticism diverted from its natural course, and +polluted by the pestilential vapours of Gallic republicanism. I +therefore deemed it essential, by an exhibition of well-authenticated +facts, to correct, as far as might be, the evil effects of +misrepresentation and error, and to defend the empire of truth, which had +been assailed by a host of foes. + +My opinion of the principles on which the present system of government in +France was founded, and the war to which those principles gave rise, have +been long since submitted to the public. Subsequent events, far from +invalidating, have strongly confirmed it. In all the public declarations +of the Directory, in their domestic polity, in their conduct to foreign +powers, I plainly trace the prevalence of the same principles, the same +contempt for the rights and happiness of the people, the same spirit of +aggression and aggrandizement, the same eagerness to overturn the +existing institutions of neighbouring states, and the same desire to +promote "the universal revolution of Europe," which marked the conduct of +BRISSOT, LE BRUN, DESMOULINS, ROBESPIERRE, and their disciples. Indeed, +what stronger instance need be adduced of the continued prevalence of +these principles, than the promotion to the supreme rank in the state, of +two men who took an active part in the most atrocious proceedings of the +Convention at the close of 1792, and at the commencement of the following +year? + +In all the various constitutions which have been successively adopted +in that devoted country, the welfare of the people has been wholly +disregarded, and while they have been amused with the shadow of liberty, +they have been cruelly despoiled of the substance. Even on the +establishment of the present constitution, the one which bore the nearest +resemblance to a rational system, the freedom of election, which had been +frequently proclaimed as the very corner-stone of liberty, was shamefully +violated by the legislative body, who, in their eagerness to perpetuate +their own power, did not scruple to destroy the principle on which it was +founded. Nor is this the only violation of their own principles. A +French writer has aptly observed, that "En revolution comme en morale, ce +n'est que le premier pas qui coute:" thus the executive, in imitation of +the legislative body, seem disposed to render their power perpetual. For +though it be expressly declared by the 137th article of the 6th title of +their present constitutional code, that the "Directory shall be partially +renewed by the election of a new member every year," no step towards such +election has been taken, although the time prescribed by the law is +elapsed.--In a private letter from Paris now before me, written within +these few days, is the following observation on this very circumstance: +"The constitution has received another blow. The month of Vendemiaire is +past, and our Directors still remain the same. Hence we begin to drop +the appalation of Directory, and substitute that of the Cinqvir, who are +more to be dreaded for their power, and more to be detested for their +crimes, than the Decemvir of ancient Rome." The same letter also +contains a brief abstract of the state of the metropolis of the French +republic, which is wonderfully characteristic of the attention of the +government to the welfare and happiness of its inhabitants! + +"The reign of misery and of crime seems to be perpetuated in this +distracted capital: suicides, pillage, and assassinations, are daily +committed, and are still suffered to pass unnoticed. But what renders +our situation still more deplorable, is the existence of an innumerable +band of spies, who infest all public places, and all private societies. +More than a hundred thousand of these men are registered on the books of +the modern SARTINE; and as the population of Paris, at most, does not +exceed six hundred thousand souls, we are sure to find in six individuals +one spy. This consideration makes me shudder, and, accordingly, all +confidence, and all the sweets of social intercourse, are banished from +among us. People salute each other, look at each other, betray mutual +suspicions, observe a profound silence, and part. This, in few words, is +an exact description of our modern republican parties. It is said, that +poverty has compelled many respectable persons, and even state-creditors, +to enlist under the standard of COCHON, (the Police Minister,) because +such is the honourable conduct of our sovereigns, that they pay their +spies in specie--and their soldiers, and the creditors of the state, in +paper.--Such is the morality, such the justice, such are the republican +virtues, so loudly vaunted by our good and dearest friends, our +pensioners--the Gazetteers of England and Germany!" + +There is not a single abuse, which the modern reformers reprobated so +loudly under the ancient system, that is not magnified, in an infinite +degree, under the present establishment. For one Lettre de Cachet issued +during the mild reign of LOUIS the Sixteenth, a thousand Mandats d'Arret +have been granted by the tyrannical demagogues of the revolution; for one +Bastile which existed under the Monarchy, a thousand Maisons de Detention +have been established by the Republic. In short, crimes of every +denomination, and acts of tyranny and injustice, of every kind, have +multiplied, since the abolition of royalty, in a proportion which sets +all the powers of calculation at defiance. + +It is scarcely possible to notice the present situation of France, +without adverting to the circumstances of the WAR, and to the attempt now +making, through the medium of negotiation, to bring it to a speedy +conclusion. Since the publication of my Letter to a Noble Earl, now +destined to chew the cud of disappointment in the vale of obscurity, I +have been astonished to hear the same assertions advance, by the members +and advocates of that party whose merit is said to consist in the +violence of their opposition to the measures of government, on the origin +of the war, which had experienced the most ample confutation, without the +assistance of any additional reason, and without the smallest attempt to +expose the invalidity of those proofs which, in my conception, amounted +nearly to mathematical demonstration, and which I had dared them, in +terms the most pointed, to invalidate. The question of aggression before +stood on such high ground, that I had not the presumption to suppose it +could derive an accession of strength from any arguments which I could +supply; but I was confident, that the authentic documents which I offered +to the public would remove every intervening object that tended to +obstruct the fight of inattentive observers, and reflect on it such an +additional light as would flash instant conviction on the minds of all. +It seems, I have been deceived; but I must be permitted to suggest, that +men who persist in the renewal of assertions, without a single effort to +controvert the proofs which have been adduced to demonstrate their +fallacy, cannot have for their object the establishment of truth--which +ought, exclusively, to influence the conduct of public characters, +whether writers or orators. + +With regard to the negotiation, I can derive not the smallest hopes of +success from a contemplation of the past conduct, or of the present +principles, of the government of France. When I compare the projects of +aggrandizement openly avowed by the French rulers, previous to the +declaration of war against this country, with the exorbitant pretensions +advanced in the arrogant reply of the Executive Directory to the note +presented by the British Envoy at Basil in the month of February, 1796, +and with the more recent observations contained in their official note of +the 19th of September last, I cannot think it probable that they will +accede to any terms of peace that are compatible with the interest and +safety of the Allies. Their object is not so much the establishment as +the extension of their republic. + +As to the danger to be incurred by a treaty of peace with the republic of +France, though it has been considerably diminished by the events of the +war, it is still unquestionably great. This danger principally arises +from a pertinacious adherence, on the part of the Directory, to those +very principles which were adopted by the original promoters of the +abolition of Monarchy in France. No greater proof of such adherence need +be required than their refusal to repeal those obnoxious decrees (passed +in the months of November and December, 1792,) which created so general +and so just an alarm throughout Europe, and which excited the reprobation +even of that party in England, which was willing to admit the equivocal +interpretation given to them by the Executive Council of the day. I +proved, in the Letter to a Noble Earl before alluded to, from the very +testimony of the members of that Council themselves, as exhibited in +their official instructions to one of their confidential agents, that the +interpretation which they had assigned to those decrees, in their +communications with the British Ministry, was a base interpretation, and +that they really intended to enforce the decrees, to the utmost extent of +their possible operation, and, by a literal construction thereof, to +encourage rebellion in every state, within the reach of their arms or +their principles. Nor have the present government merely forborne to +repeal those destructive laws--they have imitated the conduct of their +predecessors, have actually put them in execution wherever they had the +ability to do so, and have, in all respects, as far as related to those +decrees, adopted the precise spirit and principles of the faction which +declared war against England. Let any man read the instructions of the +Executive Council to PUBLICOLA CHAUSSARD, their Commissary in the +Netherlands, in 1792 and 1793, and an account of the proceedings in the +Low Countries consequent thereon, and then examine the conduct of the +republican General, BOUNAPARTE, in Italy--who must necessarily act from +the instructions of the Executive Directory----and he will be compelled +to acknowledge the justice of my remark, and to admit that the latter +actuated by the same pernicious desire to overturn the settled order of +society, which invariably marked the conduct of the former. + +"It is an acknowledged fact, that every revolution requires a provisional +power to regulate its disorganizing movements, and to direct the +methodical demolition of every part of the ancient social constitution.-- +Such ought to be the revolutionary power. + +"To whom can such power belong, but to the French, in those countries +into which they may carry their arms? Can they with safety suffer it to +be exercised by any other persons? It becomes the French republic, then, +to assume this kind of guardianship over the people whom she awakens to +Liberty!*" + + * _Considerations Generales fur l'Esprit et les Principes du Decret + du 15 Decembre_. + +Such were the Lacedaemonian principles avowed by the French government in +1792, and such is the Lacedaimonian policy* pursued by the French +government in 1796! It cannot then, I conceive, be contended, that a +treaty with a government still professing principles which have been +repeatedly proved to be subversive of all social order, which have been +acknowledged by their parents to have for their object the methodical +demolition of existing constitutions, can be concluded without danger or +risk. That danger, I admit, is greatly diminished, because the power +which was destined to carry into execution those gigantic projects which +constituted its object, has, by the operations of the war, been +considerably curtailed. They well may exist in equal force, but the +ability is no longer the same. + +MACHIAVEL justly observes, that it was the narrow policy of the +Lacedaemonians always to destroy the ancient constitution, and establish +their own form of government, in the counties and cities which they +subdued. + +But though I maintain the existence of danger in a Treaty with the +Republic of France, unless she previously repeal the decrees to which I +have adverted, and abrogate the acts to which they have given birth, I by +no means contend that it exists in such a degree as to justify a +determination, on the part of the British government, to make its removal +the sine qua non of negotiation, or peace. Greatly as I admire the +brilliant endowments of Mr. BURKE, and highly as I respect and esteem him +for the manly and decisive part which he has taken, in opposition to the +destructive anarchy of republican France, and in defence of the +constitutional freedom of Britain; I cannot either agree with him on this +point, or concur with him in the idea that the restoration of the +Monarchy of France was ever the object of the war. That the British +Ministers ardently desired that event, and were earnest in their +endeavours to promote it, is certain; not because it was the object of +the war, but because they considered it as the best means of promoting +the object of the war, which was, and is, the establishment of the safety +and tranquillity of Europe, on a solid and permanent basis. If that +object can be attained, and the republic exist, there is nothing in the +past conduct and professions of the British Ministers, that can interpose +an obstacle to the conclusion of peace. Indeed, in my apprehension, it +would be highly impolitic in any Minister, at the commencement of a war, +to advance any specific object, that attainment of which should be +declared to be the sine qua non of peace. If mortals could arrogate to +themselves the attributes of the Deity, if they could direct the course +of events, and controul the chances of war, such conduct would be +justifiable; but on no other principle, I think, can its defence be +undertaken. It is, I grant, much to be lamented, that the protection +offered to the friends of monarchy in France, by the declaration of the +29th of October, 1793, could not be rendered effectual: as far as the +offer went it was certainly obligatory on the party who made it; but it +was merely conditional--restricted, as all similar offers necessarily +must be, by the ability to fulfil the obligation incurred. + +In paying this tribute to truth, it is not my intention to retract, in +the smallest degree, the opinion I have ever professed, that the +restoration of the ancient monarchy of France would be the best possible +means not only of securing the different states of Europe from the +dangers of republican anarchy, but of promoting the real interests, +welfare, and happiness of the French people themselves. The reasons on +which this opinion is founded I have long since explained; and the +intelligence which I have since received from France, at different times, +has convinced me that a very great proportion of her inhabitants concur +in the sentiment. + +The miseries resulting from the establishment of a republican system of +government have been severely felt, and deeply deplored; and I am fully +persuaded, that the subjects and tributaries of France will cordially +subscribe to the following observation on republican freedom, advanced by +a writer who had deeply studied the genius of republics: _"Di tutte le +fervitu dure, quella e durissima, che ti sottomette ad una republica; +l'una, perche e la piu durabile, e manco si puo sperarne d'ufare: L'altra +perche il fine della republica e enervare ed indebolire, debolire, per +accrescere il corpo suo, tutti gli altri corpi._*" + +JOHN GIFFORD. London, Nov. 12, 1796. + + * _Discorsi di Nicoli Machiavelli,_ Lib. ii. p. 88. + +P.S. Since I wrote the preceding remarks, I have been given to +understand, that by a decree, subsequent to the completion of the +constitutional code, the first partial renewal of the Executive Directory +was deferred till the month of March, 1979; and that, therefore, in this +instance, the present Directory cannot be accused of having violated the +constitution. But the guilt is only to be transferred from the Directory +to the Convention, who passed that decree, as well as some others, in +contradiction to a positive constitutional law.-----Indeed, the Directory +themselves betrayed no greater delicacy with regard to the observance of +the constitution, or M. BARRAS would never have taken his seat among +them; for the constitution expressly says, (and this positive provision +was not even modified by any subsequent mandate of the Convention,) that +no man shall be elected a member of the Directory who has not completed +his fortieth year--whereas it is notorious that Barras had not this +requisite qualification, having been born in the year 1758! + + - - - - - - - - - - - - + +I avail myself of the opportunity afforded me by the publication of a +Second Edition to notice some insinuations which have been thrown out, +tending to question the authenticity of the work. The motives which have +induced the author to withhold from these Letters the sanction of her +name, relate not to herself, but to some friends still remaining in +France, whose safety she justly conceives might be affected by the +disclosure. Acceding to the force and propriety of these motives, yet +aware of the suspicions to which a recital of important facts, by an +anonymous writer, would naturally be exposed, and sensible, also, that a +certain description of critics would gladly avail themselves of any +opportunity for discouraging the circulation of a work which contained +principles hostile to their own; I determined to prefix my name to the +publication. By so doing, I conceived that I stood pledged for its +authenticity; and the matter has certainly been put in a proper light by +an able and respectable critic, who has observed that "Mr. GIFFORD stands +between the writer and the public," and that "his name and character are +the guarantees for the authenticity of the Letters." + +This is precisely the situation in which I meant to place myself-- +precisely the pledge which I meant to give. The Letters are exactly what +they profess to be; the production of a Lady's pen, and written in the +very situations which they describe.--The public can have no grounds for +suspecting my veracity on a point in which I can have no possible +interest in deceiving them; and those who know me will do me the justice +to acknowledge, that I have a mind superior to the arts of deception, and +that I am incapable of sanctioning an imposition, for any purpose, or +from any motives whatever. Thus much I deemed it necessary to say, as +well from a regard for my own character, and from a due attention to the +public, as from a wish to prevent the circulation of the work from being +subjected to the impediments arising from the prevalence of a groundless +suspicion. + +I naturally expected, that some of the preceding remarks would excite the +resentment and draw down the vengeance of those persons to whom they +evidently applied. The contents of every publication are certainly a +fair subject for criticism; and to the fair comments of real critics, +however repugnant to the sentiments I entertain, or the doctrine I seek +to inculcate, I shall ever submit without murmur or reproach. But, when +men, assuming that respectable office, openly violate all the duties +attached to it, and, sinking the critic in the partizan, make a wanton +attack on my veracity, it becomes proper to repel the injurious +imputation; and the same spirit which dictates submission to the candid +award of an impartial judge, prescribes indignation and scorn at the +cowardly attacks of a secret assassin. + +April 14, 1797. + + + + +RESIDENCE IN FRANCE + + + + +DEDICATION + +To The RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. + +SIR, + +It is with extreme diffidence that I offer the following pages to Your +notice; yet as they describe circumstances which more than justify Your +own prophetic reflections, and are submitted to the public eye from no +other motive than a love of truth and my country, I may, perhaps, be +excused for presuming them to be not altogether unworthy of such a +distinction. + +While Your puny opponents, if opponents they may be called, are either +sunk into oblivion, or remembered only as associated with the degrading +cause they attempted to support, every true friend of mankind, +anticipating the judgement of posterity, views with esteem and veneration +the unvarying Moralist, the profound Politician, the indefatigable +Servant of the Public, and the warm Promoter of his country's happiness. + +To this universal testimony of the great and good, permit me, Sir, to +join my humble tribute; being, with the utmost respect, +SIR, + +Your obedient Servant, THE AUTHOR. Sept. 12, 1796. + + + + +PREFACE + +After having, more than once, in the following Letters, expressed +opinions decidedly unfavourable to female authorship, when not justified +by superior talents, I may, by now producing them to the public, subject +myself to the imputation either of vanity or inconsistency; and I +acknowledge that a great share of candour and indulgence must be +possessed by readers who attend to the apologies usually made on such +occasions: yet I may with the strictest truth alledge, that I should +never have ventured to offer any production of mine to the world, had I +not conceived it possible that information and reflections collected and +made on the spot, during a period when France exhibited a state, of which +there is no example in the annals of mankind, might gratify curiosity +without the aid of literary embellishment; and an adherence to truth, I +flattered myself, might, on a subject of this nature, be more acceptable +than brilliancy of thought, or elegance of language. The eruption of a +volcano may be more scientifically described and accounted for by the +philosopher; but the relation of the illiterate peasant who beheld it, +and suffered from its effects, may not be less interesting to the common +hearer. + +Above all, I was actuated by the desire of conveying to my countrymen a +just idea of that revolution which they have been incited to imitate, and +of that government by which it has been proposed to model our own. + +Since these pages were written, the Convention has nominally been +dissolved, and a new constitution and government have succeeded, but no +real change of principle or actors has taken place; and the system, of +which I have endeavoured to trace the progress, must still be considered +as existing, with no other variations than such as have been necessarily +produced by the difference of time and circumstances. The people grew +tired of massacres en masse, and executions en detail: even the national +fickleness operated in favour of humanity; and it was also discovered, +that however a spirit of royalism might be subdued to temporary inaction, +it was not to be eradicated, and that the sufferings of its martyrs only +tended to propagate and confirm it. Hence the scaffolds flow less +frequently with blood, and the barbarous prudence of CAMILLE DESMOULINS' +guillotine economique has been adopted. But exaction and oppression are +still practised in every shape, and justice is not less violated, nor is +property more secure, than when the former was administered by +revolutionary tribunals, and the latter was at the disposition of +revolutionary armies. + +The error of supposing that the various parties which have usurped the +government of France have differed essentially from each other is pretty +general; and it is common enough to hear the revolutionary tyranny +exclusively associated with the person of ROBESPIERRE, and the +thirty-first of May, 1793, considered as the epoch of its introduction. +Yet whoever examines attentively the situation and politics of France, +from the subversion of the Monarchy, will be convinced that all the +principles of this monstrous government were established during the +administration of the Brissotins, and that the factions which succeeded, +from Danton and Robespierre to Sieyes and Barras, have only developed +them, and reduced them to practice. The revolution of the thirty-first +of May, 1793, was not a contest for system but for power--that of July +the twenty-eighth, 1794, (9th Thermidor,) was merely a struggle which of +two parties should sacrifice the other--that of October the fifth, 1795, +(13th Vendemiaire,) a war of the government against the people. But in +all these convulsions, the primitive doctrines of tyranny and injustice +were watched like the sacred fire, and have never for a moment been +suffered to languish. + +It may appear incredible to those who have not personally witnessed this +phoenomenon, that a government detested and despised by an immense +majority of the nation, should have been able not only to resist the +efforts of so many powers combined against it, but even to proceed from +defence to conquest, and to mingle surprize and terror with those +sentiments of contempt and abhorrence which it originally excited. + +That wisdom or talents are not the sources of this success, may be +deduced from the situation of France itself. The armies of the republic +have, indeed, invaded the territories of its enemies, but the desolation +of their own country seems to increase with every triumph--the genius of +the French government appears powerful only in destruction, and inventive +only in oppression--and, while it is endowed with the faculty of +spreading universal ruin, it is incapable of promoting the happiness of +the smallest district under its protection. The unrestrained pillage of +the conquered countries has not saved France from multiplied +bankruptcies, nor her state-creditors from dying through want; and +the French, in the midst of their external prosperity, are often +distinguished from the people whom their armies have been subjugated, +only by a superior degree of wretchedness, and a more irregular +despotism. + +With a power excessive and unlimited, and surpassing what has hitherto +been possessed by any Sovereign, it would be difficult to prove that +these democratic despots have effected any thing either useful or +beneficent. Whatever has the appearance of being so will be found, on +examination, to have for its object some purpose of individual interest +or personal vanity. They manage the armies, they embellish Paris, they +purchase the friendship of some states and the neutrality of others; but +if there be any real patriots in France, how little do they appreciate +these useless triumphs, these pilfered museums, and these fallacious +negotiations, when they behold the population of their country +diminished, its commerce annihilated, its wealth dissipated, its morals +corrupted, and its liberty destroyed-- + + "Thus, on deceitful Aetna's Flow'ry side + Unfading verdure glads the roving eye, + While secret flames with unextinguish'd rage + Insatiate on her wafted entrails prey, + And melt her treach'rous beauties into ruin." + +Those efforts which the partizans of republicanism admire, and which even +well-disposed persons regard as prodigies, are the simple and natural +result of an unprincipled despotism, acting upon, and disposing of, all +the resources of a rich, populous, and enslaved nation. _"Il devient aise +d'etre habile lorsqu'on s'est delivre des scrupules et des loix, de tout +honneur et de toute justice, des droits de ses semblables, et des devoirs +de l'autorite--a ce degre d'independence la plupart des obstacles qui +modifient l'activite humaine disparaissent; l'on parait avoir du talent +lorsqu'on n'a que de l'impudence, et l'abus de la force passe pour +energie._*" + + * "Exertions of ability become easy, when men have released + themselves from the scruples of conscience, the restraints of law, + the ties of honour, the bonds of justice, the claims of their fellow + creatures, and obedience to their superiors:--at this point of + independence, most of the obstacles which modify human activity + disappear; impudence is mistaken for talents; and the abuse of power + passes for energy." + +The operations of all other governments must, in a great measure, be +restrained by the will of the people, and by established laws; with them, +physical and political force are necessarily separate considerations: +they have not only to calculate what can be borne, but what will be +submitted to; and perhaps France is the first country that has been +compelled to an exertion of its whole strength, without regard to any +obstacle, natural, moral, or divine. It is for want of sufficiently +investigating and allowing for this moral and political latitudinarianism +of our enemies, that we are apt to be too precipitate in censuring the +conduct of the war; and, in our estimation of what has been done, we pay +too little regard to the principles by which we have been directed. An +honest man could scarcely imagine the means we have had to oppose, and an +Englishman still less conceive that they would have been submitted to: +for the same reason that the Romans had no law against parricide, till +experience had evinced the possibility of the crime. + +In a war like the present, advantage is not altogether to be appreciated +by military superiority. If, as there is just ground for believing, our +external hostilities have averted an internal revolution, what we have +escaped is of infinitely more importance to us than what we could +acquire. Commerce and conquest, compared to this, are secondary objects; +and the preservation of our liberties and our constitution +is a more solid blessing than the commerce of both the Indies, or the +conquest of nations. + +Should the following pages contribute to impress this salutary truth on +my countrymen, my utmost ambition will be gratified; persuaded, that a +sense of the miseries they have avoided, and of the happiness they enjoy, +will be their best incentive, whether they may have to oppose the arms of +the enemy in a continuance of the war, or their more dangerous +machinations on the restoration of peace. + +I cannot conclude without noticing my obligations to the Gentleman whose +name is prefixed to these volumes; and I think it at the same time +incumbent on me to avow, that, in having assisted the author, he must not +be considered as sanctioning the literary imperfections of the work. +When the subject was first mentioned to him, he did me the justice of +supposing, that I was not likely to have written any thing, the general +tendency of which he might disapprove; and when, on perusing the +manuscript, he found it contain sentiments dissimilar to his own, he was +too liberal to require a sacrifice of them as the condition of his +services.--I confess that previous to my arrival in France in 1792, I +entertained opinions somewhat more favourable to the principle of the +revolution than those which I was led to adopt at a subsequent period. +Accustomed to regard with great justice the British constitution as the +standard of known political excellence, I hardly conceived it possible +that freedom or happiness could exist under any other: and I am not +singular in having suffered this prepossession to invalidate even the +evidence of my senses. I was, therefore, naturally partial to whatever +professed to approach the object of my veneration. I forgot that +governments are not to be founded on imitations or theories, and that +they are perfect only as adapted to the genius, manners, and disposition +of the people who are subject to them. Experience and maturer judgement +have corrected my error, and I am perfectly convinced, that the old +monarchical constitution of France, with very slight meliorations, was +every way better calculated for the national character than a more +popular form of government. + +A critic, though not very severe, will discover many faults of style, +even where the matter may not be exceptionable. Besides my other +deficiencies, the habit of writing is not easily supplied, and, as I +despaired of attaining excellence, and was not solicitous about degrees +of mediocrity, I determined on conveying to the public such information +as I was possessed of, without alteration or ornament. Most of these +Letters were written exactly in the situation they describe, and remain +in their original state; the rest were arranged according as +opportunities were favourable, from notes and diaries kept when "the +times were hot and feverish," and when it would have been dangerous to +attempt more method. I forbear to describe how they were concealed +either in France or at my departure, because I might give rise to the +persecution and oppression of others. But, that I may not attribute to +myself courage which I do not possess, nor create doubts of my veracity, +I must observe, that I seldom ventured to write till I was assured of +some certain means of conveying my papers to a person who could safely +dispose of them. + +As a considerable period has elapsed since my return, it may not be +improper to add, that I took some steps for the publication of these +Letters so early as July, 1795. Certain difficulties, however, arising, +of which I was not aware, I relinquished my design, and should not have +been tempted to resume it, but for the kindness of the Gentleman whose +name appears as the Editor. + +Sept. 12, 1796. + + + + +A RESIDENCE IN FRANCE. + + + + +May 10, 1792. + +I am every day more confirmed in the opinion I communicated to you on my +arrival, that the first ardour of the revolution is abated.--The bridal +days are indeed past, and I think I perceive something like indifference +approaching. Perhaps the French themselves are not sensible of this +change; but I who have been absent two years, and have made as it were a +sudden transition from enthusiasm to coldness, without passing through +the intermediate gradations, am forcibly struck with it. When I was here +in 1790, parties could be scarcely said to exist--the popular triumph was +too complete and too recent for intolerance and persecution, and the +Noblesse and Clergy either submitted in silence, or appeared to rejoice +in their own defeat. In fact, it was the confusion of a decisive +conquest--the victors and the vanquished were mingled together; and the +one had not leisure to exercise cruelty, nor the other to meditate +revenge. Politics had not yet divided society; nor the weakness and +pride of the great, with the malice and insolence of the little, thinned +the public places. The politics of the women went no farther than a few +couplets in praise of liberty, and the patriotism of the men was confined +to an habit de garde nationale, the device of a button, or a nocturnal +revel, which they called mounting guard.--Money was yet plenty, at least +silver, (for the gold had already begun to disappear,) commerce in its +usual train, and, in short, to one who observes no deeper than myself, +every thing seemed gay and flourishing--the people were persuaded they +were happier; and, amidst such an appearance of content, one must have +been a cold politician to have examined too strictly into the future. +But all this, my good brother, is in a great measure subsided; and the +disparity is so evident, that I almost imagine myself one of the seven +sleepers--and, like them too, the coin I offer is become rare, and +regarded more as medals than money. The playful distinctions of +Aristocrate and Democrate are degenerated into the opprobium and +bitterness of Party--political dissensions pervade and chill the common +intercourse of life--the people are become gross and arbitrary, and the +higher classes (from a pride which those who consider the frailty of +human nature will allow for) desert the public amusements, where they +cannot appear but at the risk of being the marked objects of insult.--The +politics of the women are no longer innoxious--their political principles +form the leading trait of their characters; and as you know we are often +apt to supply by zeal what we want in power, the ladies are far from +being the most tolerant partizans on either side.--The national uniform, +which contributed so much to the success of the revolution, and +stimulated the patriotism of the young men, is become general; and the +task of mounting guard, to which it subjects the wearer, is now a serious +and troublesome duty.--To finish my observations, and my contrast, no +Specie whatever is to be seen; and the people, if they still idolize +their new form of government, do it at present with great sobriety--the +Vive la nation! seems now rather the effect of habit than of feeling; and +one seldom hears any thing like the spontaneous and enthusiastic sounds I +formerly remarked. + +I have not yet been here long enough to discover the causes of this +change; perhaps they may lie too deep for such an observer as myself: but +if (as the causes of important effects sometimes do) they lie on the +surface, they will be less liable to escape me, than an observer of more +pretentions. Whatever my remarks are, I will not fail to communicate +them--the employment will at least be agreeable to me, though the result +should not be satisfactory to you; and as I shall never venture on any +reflection, without relating the occurrence that gave rise to it, your +own judgement will enable you to correct the errors of mine. + +I was present yesterday at a funeral service, performed in honour of +General Dillon. This kind of service is common in Catholic countries, +and consists in erecting a cenotaph, ornamented with numerous lights, +flowers, crosses, &c. The church is hung with black, and the mass is +performed the same as if the body were present. On account of General +Dillon's profession, the mass yesterday was a military one. It must +always, I imagine, sound strange to the ears of a Protestant, to hear +nothing but theatrical music on these occasions, and indeed I could never +reconcile myself to it; for if we allow any effect to music at all, the +train of thought which should inspire us with respect for the dead, and +reflections on mortality, is not likely to be produced by the strains in +which Dido bewails Eneas, or in which Armida assails the virtue of +Rinaldo.--I fear, that in general the air of an opera reminds the belle +of the Theatre where she heard it--and, by a natural transition, of the +beau who attended her, and the dress of herself and her neighbours. I +confess, this was nearly my own case yesterday, on hearing an air from +"Sargines;" and had not the funeral oration reminded me, I should have +forgotten the unfortunate event we were celebrating, and which, for some +days before, when undistracted by this pious ceremony, I had dwelt on +with pity and horror.*-- + + * At the first skirmish between the French and Austrians near Lisle, + a general panic seized the former, and they retreated in disorder to + Lisle, crying _"Sauve qui peut, & nous fomnes (sic) trahis."_--"Let + every one shift for himself--we are betrayed." The General, after + in vain endeavouring to rally them, was massacred at his return on + the great square.--My pen faulters, and refuses to describe the + barbarities committed on the lifeless hero. Let it suffice, perhaps + more than suffice, to say, that his mutilated remains were thrown on + a fire, which these savages danced round, with yells expressive of + their execrable festivity. A young Englishman, who was so + unfortunate as to be near the spot, was compelled to join in this + outrage to humanity.--The same day a gentleman, the intimate friend + of our acquaintance, Mad. _____, was walking (unconscious what had + happened) without the gate which leads to Douay, and was met by the + flying ruffians on their return; immediately on seeing him they + shouted, _"Voila encore un Aristocrate!"_ and massacred him on the + spot. + +--Independent of any regret for the fate of Dillon, who is said to have +been a brave and good officer, I am sorry that the first event of this +war should be marked by cruelty and licentiousness.--Military discipline +has been much relaxed since the revolution, and from the length of time +since the French have been engaged in a land war, many of the troops must +be without that kind of courage which is the effect of habit. The +danger, therefore, of suffering them to alledge that they are betrayed, +whenever they do not choose to fight, and to excuse their own cowardice +by ascribing treachery to their leaders, is incalculable.--Above all, +every infraction of the laws in a country just supposing itself become +free, cannot be too severely repressed. The National Assembly have done +all that humanity could suggest--they have ordered the punishment of the +assassins, and have pensioned and adopted the General's children. The +orator expatiated both on the horror of the act and its consequences, as +I should have thought, with some ingenuity, had I not been assured by a +brother orator that the whole was "execrable." But I frequently remark, +that though a Frenchman may suppose the merit of his countrymen to be +collectively superior to that of the whole world, he seldom allows any +individual of them to have so large a portion as himself.--Adieu: I have +already written enough to convince you I have neither acquired the +Gallomania, nor forgotten my friends in England; and I conclude with a +wish _a propos_ to my subject--that they may long enjoy the rational +liberty they possess and so well deserve.--Yours. + + + + +May, 1792. + +You, my dear _____, who live in a land of pounds, shillings, and pence, +can scarcely form an idea of our embarrassments through the want of them. +'Tis true, these are petty evils; but when you consider that they happen +every day, and every hour, and that, if they are not very serious, they +are very frequent, you will rejoice in the splendour of your national +credit, which procures you all the accommodation of paper currency, +without diminishing the circulation of specie. Our only currency here +consists of assignats of 5 livres, 50, 100, 200, and upwards: therefore +in making purchases, you must accommodate your wants to the value of your +assignat, or you must owe the shopkeeper, or the shopkeeper must owe you; +and, in short, as an old woman assured me to-day, "C'est de quoi faire +perdre la tete," and, if it lasted long, it would be the death of her. +Within these few days, however, the municipalities have attempted to +remedy the inconvenience, by creating small paper of five, ten, fifteen, +and twenty sols, which they give in exchange for assignats of five +livres; but the number they are allowed to issue is limited, and the +demand for them so great, that the accommodation is inadequate to the +difficulty of procuring it. On the days on which this paper (which is +called billets de confiance) is issued, the Hotel de Ville is besieged by +a host of women collected from all parts of the district--Peasants, small +shopkeepers, fervant maids, and though last, not least formidable-- +fishwomen. They usually take their stand two or three hours before the +time of delivery, and the interval is employed in discussing the news, +and execrating paper money. But when once the door is opened, a scene +takes place which bids defiance to language, and calls for the pencil of +a Hogarth. Babel was, I dare say, comparatively to this, a place of +retreat and silence. Clamours, revilings, contentions, tearing of hair, +and breaking of heads, generally conclude the business; and, after the +loss of half a day's time, some part of their clothes, and the expence of +a few bruises, the combatants retire with small bills to the value of +five, or perhaps ten livres, as the whole resource to carry on their +little commerce for the ensuing week. I doubt not but the paper may have +had some share in alienating the minds of the people from the revolution. +Whenever I want to purchase any thing, the vender usually answers my +question by another, and with a rueful kind of tone inquires, "En papier, +madame?"--and the bargain concludes with a melancholy reflection on the +hardness of the times. + +The decrees relative to the priests have likewise occasioned much +dissension; and it seems to me impolitic thus to have made religion the +standard of party. The high mass, which is celebrated by a priest who +has taken the oaths, is frequented by a numerous, but, it must be +confessed, an ill-drest and ill-scented congregation; while the low mass, +which is later, and which is allowed the nonjuring clergy, has a gayer +audience, but is much less crouded.--By the way, I believe many who +formerly did not much disturb themselves about religious tenets, have +become rigid Papists since an adherence to the holy see has become a +criterion of political opinion. But if these separatists are bigoted and +obstinate, the conventionalists on their side are ignorant and +intolerant. + +I enquired my way to-day to the Rue de l'Hopital. The woman I spoke to +asked me, in a menacing tone, what I wanted there. I replied, which was +true, that I merely wanted to pass through the street as my nearest way +home; upon which she lowered her voice, and conducted me very civilly.--I +mentioned the circumstance on my return, and found that the nuns of the +hospital had their mass performed by a priest who had not taken the +oaths, and that those who were suspected of going to attend it were +insulted, and sometimes ill treated. A poor woman, some little time ago, +who conceived perhaps that her salvation might depend on exercising her +religion in the way she had been accustomed to, persisted in going, and +was used by the populace with such a mixture of barbarity and indecency, +that her life was despaired of. Yet this is the age and the country of +Philosophers.--Perhaps you will begin to think Swift's sages, who only +amused themselves with endeavouring to propagate sheep without wool, not +so contemptible. I am almost convinced myself, that when a man once +piques himself on being a philosopher, if he does no mischief you ought +to be satisfied with him. + +We passed last Sunday with Mr. de ____'s tenants in the country. Nothing +can equal the avidity of these people for news. We sat down after dinner +under some trees in the village, and Mr. de _____ began reading the +Gazette to the farmers who were about us. In a few minutes every thing +that could hear (for I leave understanding the pedantry of a French +newspaper out of the question) were his auditors. A party at quoits in +one field, and a dancing party in another, quitted their amusements, and +listened with undivided attention. I believe in general the farmers are +the people most contented with the revolution, and indeed they have +reason to be so; for at present they refuse to sell their corn unless for +money, while they pay their rent in assignats; and farms being for the +most part on leases, the objections of the landlord to this kind of +payment are of no avail. Great encouragement is likewise held out to +them to purchase national property, which I am informed they do to an +extent that may for some time be injurious to agriculture; for in their +eagerness to acquire land, the deprive themselves of cultivating it. +They do not, like our crusading ancestors, "sell the pasture to buy the +horse," but the horse to buy the pasture; so that we may expect to see in +many places large farms in the hands of those who are obliged to neglect +them. + +A great change has happened within the last year, with regard to landed +property--so much has been sold, that many farmers have had the +opportunity of becoming proprietors. The rage of emigration, which the +approach of war, pride, timidity, and vanity are daily increasing, has +occasioned many of the Noblesse to sell their estates, which, with those +of the Crown and the Clergy, form a large mass of property, thrown as it +were into general circulation. This may in future be beneficial to the +country, but the present generation will perhaps have to purchase (and +not cheaply) advantages they cannot enjoy. A philanthropist may not +think of this with regret; and yet I know not why one race is preferable +to another, or why an evil should be endured by those who exist now, in +order that those who succeed may be free from it.--I would willingly +plant a million of acorns, that another age might be supplied with oaks; +but I confess, I do not think it quite so pleasant for us to want bread, +in order that our descendants may have a superfluity. + +I am half ashamed of these selfish arguments; but really I have been led +to them through mere apprehension of what I fear the people may have yet +to endure, in consequence of the revolution. + +I have frequently observed how little taste the French have for the +country, and I believe all my companions, except Mr. de _____, who took +(as one always does) an interest in surveying his property, were heartily +ennuyes with our little excursion.--Mad. De _____, on her arrival, took +her post by the farmer's fire-side, and was out of humour the whole day, +inasmuch as our fare was homely, and there was nothing but rustics to see +or be seen by. That a plain dinner should be a serious affair, you may +not wonder; but the last cause of distress, perhaps you will not conclude +quite so natural at her years. All that can be said about it is, that +she is a French woman, who rouges, and wears lilac ribbons, at +seventy-four. I hope, in my zeal to obey you, my reflections will not +be too voluminous.--For the present I will be warned by my conscience, +and add only, that I am, Yours. + + + + +June 10, 1792. + +You observe, with some surprize, that I make no mention of the Jacobins-- +the fact is, that until now I have heard very little about them. Your +English partizans of the revolution have, by publishing their +correspondence with these societies, attributed a consequence to them +infinitely beyond what they have had pretensions to:--a prophet, it is +said, is not honoured in his own country--I am sure a Jacobin is not. +In provincial towns these clubs are generally composed of a few of the +lowest tradesmen, who have so disinterested a patriotism, as to bestow +more attention on the state than on their own shops; and as a man may be +an excellent patriot without the aristocratic talents of reading and +writing, they usually provide a secretary or president, who can supply +these deficiencies--a country attorney, a _Pere de l'oratoire,_ or a +disbanded capuchin, is in most places the candidate for this office. +The clubs often assemble only to read the newspapers; but where they +are sufficiently in force, they make motions for "fetes," censure the +municipalities, and endeavour to influence the elections of the members +who compose them.--That of Paris is supposed to consist of about six +thousand members; but I am told their number and influence are daily +increasing, and that the National Assembly is more subservient to them +than it is willing to acknowledge--yet, I believe, the people at large +are equally adverse to the Jacobins, who are said to entertain the +chimerical project of forming a republic, and to the Aristocrates, who +wish to restore the ancient government. The party in opposition to both +these, who are called the Feuillans,* have the real voice of the people +with them, and knowing this, they employ less art than their opponents, +have no point of union, and perhaps may finally be undermined by +intrigue, or even subdued by violence. + + *They derive this appellation, as the Jacobins do theirs, from the + convent at which they hold their meetings. + +You seem not to comprehend why I include vanity among the causes of +emigration, and yet I assure you it has had no small share in many of +them. The gentry of the provinces, by thus imitating the higher +noblesse, imagine they have formed a kind of a common cause, which may +hereafter tend to equalize the difference of ranks, and associate them +with those they have been accustomed to look up to as their superiors. +It is a kind of ton among the women, particularly to talk of their +emigrated relations, with an accent more expressive of pride than regret, +and which seems to lay claim to distinction rather than pity. + +I must now leave you to contemplate the boasted misfortunes of these +belles, that I may join the card party which forms their alleviation.-- +Adieu. + + + + +June 24, 1792. + +You have doubtless learned from the public papers the late outrage of the +Jacobins, in order to force the King to consent to the formation of an +army at Paris, and to sign the decree for banishing the nonjuring Clergy. +The newspapers will describe to you the procession of the Sans-Culottes, +the indecency of their banners, and the disorders which were the result-- +but it is impossible for either them or me to convey an idea of the +general indignation excited by these atrocities. Every well-meaning +person is grieved for the present, and apprehensive for the future: +and I am not without hope, that this open avowal of the designs of the +Jacobins, will unite the Constitutionalists and Aristocrates, and that +they will join their efforts in defence of the Crown, as the only means +of saving both from being overwhelmed by a faction, who are now become +too daring to be despised. Many of the municipalities and departments +are preparing to address they King, on the fortitude he displayed in this +hour of insult and peril.--I know not why, but the people have been +taught to entertain a mean opinion of his personal courage; and the late +violence will at least have the good effect of undeceiving them. It is +certain, that he behaved on this occasion with the utmost coolness; and +the Garde Nationale, whose hand he placed on his heart, attested that it +had no unusual palpitation. + +That the King should be unwilling to sanction the raising an army under +the immediate auspice of the avowed enemies of himself, and of the +constitution he has sworn to protect, cannot be much wondered at; and +those who know the Catholic religion, and consider that this Prince is +devout, and that he has reason to suspect the fidelity of all who +approach him, will wonder still less that he refuses to banish a class of +men, whose influence is extensive, and whose interest it is to preserve +their attachment to him. + +These events have thrown a gloom over private societies; and public +amusements, as I observed in a former letter, are little frequented; so +that, on the whole, time passes heavily with a people who, generally +speaking, have few resources in themselves. Before the revolution, +France was at this season a scene of much gaiety. Every village had +alternately a sort of Fete, which nearly answers to our Wake--but with +this difference, that it was numerously attended by all ranks, and the +amusement was dancing, instead of wrestling and drinking. Several small +fields, or different parts of a large one, were provided with music, +distinguished by flags, and appropriated to the several classes of +dancers--one for the peasants, another for the bourgeois, and a third for +the higher orders. The young people danced beneath the ardour of a July +sun, while the old looked on and regaled themselves with beer, cyder, and +gingerbread. I was always much pleased with this village festivity: it +gratified my mind more than select and expensive amusements, because it +was general, and within the power of all who chose to partake of it; and +the little distinction of rank which was preserved, far from diminishing +the pleasure of any, added, I am certain, to the freedom of all. By +mixing with those only of her own class, the Paysanne* was spared the +temptation of envying the pink ribbons of the Bourgeoise, who in her turn +was not disturbed by an immediate rivalship with the sash and plumes of +the provincial belle. But this custom is now much on the decline. The +young women avoid occasions where an inebriated soldier may offer himself +as her partner in the dance, and her refusal be attended with insult to +herself, and danger to those who protect her; and as this licence is +nearly as offensive to the decent Bourgeoise as to the female of higher +condition, this sort of fete will most probably be entirely abandoned. + + *The head-dress of the French _Paysanne_ is uniformly a small cap, + without ribbon or ornament of any kind, except in that part of + Normandy which is called the _Pays de Caux,_ where the Paysannes + wear a particular kind of head dress, ornamented with silver. + +The people here all dance much better than those of the same rank in +England; but this national accomplishment is not instinctive: for though +few of the laborious class have been taught to read, there are scarcely +any so poor as not to bestow three livres for a quarter's instruction +from a dancing master; and with this three months' noviciate they become +qualified to dance through the rest of their lives. + +The rage for emigration, and the approach of the Austrians, have +occasioned many restrictions on travelling, especially near the seacoast +of frontiers. No person can pass through a town without a passport from +the municipality he resides in, specifying his age, the place of his +birth, his destination, the height of his person, and the features of his +face. The Marquis de C____ entered the town yesterday, and at the gate +presented his passport as usual; the guard looked at the passport, and in +a high tone demanded his name, whence he came, and where he was going. +M. de C____ referred him to the passport, and suspecting the man could +not read, persisted in refusing to give a verbal account of himself, but +with much civility pressed the perusal of the passport; adding, that if +it was informal, Monsieur might write to the municipality that granted +it. The man, however, did not approve of the jest, and took the Marquis +before the municipality, who sentenced him to a month's imprisonment for +his pleasantry. + +The French are becoming very grave, and a bon-mot will not now, as +formerly, save a man's life.--I do not remember to have seen in any +English print an anecdote on this subject, which at once marks the levity +of the Parisians, and the wit and presence of mind of the Abbe Maury.--At +the beginning of the revolution, when the people were very much incensed +against the Abbe, he was one day, on quitting the Assembly, surrounded by +an enraged mob, who seized on him, and were hurrying him away to +execution, amidst the universal cry of _a la lanterne! a la lanterne!_ +The Abbe, with much coolness and good humour, turned to those nearest him, +_"Eh bien mes amis et quand je serois a la lanterne, en verriez vous plus +clair?"_ Those who held him were disarmed, the bon-mot flew through the +croud, and the Abbe escaped while they were applauding it.--I have +nothing to offer after this trait which is worthy of succeeding it, but +will add that I am always Yours. + + + + +July 24, 1792. + +Our revolution aera has passed tranquilly in the provinces, and with less +turbulence at Paris than was expected. I consign to the Gazette-writers +those long descriptions that describe nothing, and leave the mind as +unsatisfied as the eye. I content myself with observing only, that the +ceremony here was gay, impressive, and animating. I indeed have often +remarked, that the works of nature are better described than those of +art. The scenes of nature, though varied, are uniform; while the +productions of art are subject to the caprices of whim, and the +vicissitudes of taste. A rock, a wood, or a valley, however the scenery +may be diversified, always conveys a perfect and distinct image to the +mind; but a temple, an altar, a palace, or a pavilion, requires a detail, +minute even to tediousness, and which, after all, gives but an imperfect +notion of the object. I have as often read descriptions of the Vatican, +as of the Bay of Naples; yet I recollect little of the former, while the +latter seems almost familiar to me.--Many are strongly impressed with the +scenery of Milton's Paradise, who have but confused ideas of the +splendour of Pandemonium. The descriptions, however, are equally minute, +and the poetry of both is beautiful. + +But to return to this country, which is not absolutely a Paradise, and I +hope will not become a Pandemonium--the ceremony I have been alluding to, +though really interesting, is by no means to be considered as a proof +that the ardour for liberty increases: on the contrary, in proportion as +these fetes become more frequent, the enthusiasm which they excite seems +to diminish. "For ever mark, Lucilius, when Love begins to sicken and +decline, it useth an enforced ceremony." When there were no +foederations, the people were more united. The planting trees of liberty +seems to have damped the spirit of freedom; and since there has been a +decree for wearing the national colours, they are more the marks of +obedience than proofs of affection.--I cannot pretend to decide whether +the leaders of the people find their followers less warm than they were, +and think it necessary to stimulate them by these shows, or whether the +shows themselves, by too frequent repetition, have rendered the people +indifferent about the objects of them.--Perhaps both these suppositions +are true. The French are volatile and material; they are not very +capable of attachment to principles. External objects are requisite for +them, even in a slight degree; and the momentary enthusiasm that is +obtained by affecting their senses subsides with the conclusion of a +favourite air, or the end of a gaudy procession. + +The Jacobin party are daily gaining ground; and since they have forced a +ministry of their own on the King, their triumph has become still more +insolent and decisive.--A storm is said to be hovering over us, which I +think of with dread, and cannot communicate with safety--"Heaven square +the trial of those who are implicated, to their proportioned strength!"-- +Adieu. + + + + +August 4, 1792. + +I must repeat to you, that I have no talent for description; and, having +seldom been able to profit by the descriptions of others, I am modest +enough not willingly to attempt one myself. But, as you observe, the +ceremony of a foederation, though familiar to me, is not so to my English +friends; I therefore obey your commands, though certain of not succeeding +so as to gratify your curiosity in the manner you too partially expect. + +The temple where the ceremony was performed, was erected in an open +space, well chosen both for convenience and effect. In a large circle on +this spot, twelve posts, between fifty and sixty feet high, were placed +at equal distances, except one larger, opening in front by way of +entrance. On each alternate post were fastened ivy, laurel, &c. so as to +form a thick body which entirely hid the support. These greens were then +shorn (in the manner you see in old fashioned gardens) into the form of +Doric columns, of dimensions proportioned to their height. The +intervening posts were covered with white cloth, which was so +artificially folded, as exactly to resemble fluted pillars--from the +bases of which ascended spiral wreaths of flowers. The whole was +connected at top by a bold festoon of foliage, and the capital of each +column was surmounted by a vase of white lilies. In the middle of this +temple was placed an altar, hung round with lilies, and on it was deposed +the book of the constitution. The approach to the altar was by a large +flight of steps, covered with beautiful tapestry. + +All this having been arranged and decorated, (a work of several days,) +the important aera was ushered in by the firing of cannon, ringing of +bells, and an appearance of bustle and hilarity not to be seen on any +other occasion. About ten, the members of the district, the +municipality, and the judges in their habits of ceremony, met at the +great church, and from thence proceeded to the altar of liberty. The +troops of the line, the Garde Nationale of the town, and of all the +surrounding communes, then arrived, with each their respective music and +colours, which (reserving one only of the latter to distinguish them in +the ranks) they planted round the altar. This done, they retired, and +forming a circle round the temple, left a large intermediate space free. +A mass was then celebrated with the most perfect order and decency, and +at the conclusion were read the rights of man and the constitution. The +troops, Garde Nationale, &c. were then addressed by their respective +officers, the oath to be faithful to the nation, the law, and the King, +was administered: every sword was drawn, and every hat waved in the air; +while all the bands of music joined in the favorite strain of ca ira.-- +This was followed by crowning, with the civic wreaths hung round the +altar, a number of people, who during the year had been instrumental in +saving the lives of their fellow-citizens that had been endangered by +drowning or other accidents. This honorary reward was accompanied by a +pecuniary one, and a fraternal embrace from all the constituted bodies. +But this was not the gravest part of the ceremony. The magistrates, +however upright, were not all graceful, and the people, though they +understood the value of the money, did not that of the civic wreaths, or +the embraces; they therefore looked vacant enough during this part of the +business, and grinned most facetiously when they began to examine the +appearance of each other in their oaken crowns, and, I dare say, thought +the whole comical enough.--This is one trait of national pedantry. +Because the Romans awarded a civic wreath for an act of humanity, the +French have adopted the custom; and decorate thus a soldier or a sailor, +who never heard of the Romans in his life, except in extracts from the +New Testament at mass. + +But to return to our fete, of which I have only to add, that the +magistrates departed in the order they observed in coming, and the troops +and Garde Nationale filed off with their hats in the air, and with +universal acclamations, to the sound of ca ira.--Things of this kind are +not susceptible of description. The detail may be uninteresting, while +the general effect may have been impressive. The spirit of the scene I +have been endeavouring to recall seems to have evaporated under my pen; +yet to the spectator it was gay, elegant, and imposing. The day was +fine, a brilliant sun glittered on the banners, and a gentle breeze gave +them motion; while the satisfied countenances of the people added spirit +and animation to the whole. + +I must remark to you, that devots, and determined aristocrates, ever +attend on these occasions. The piety of the one is shocked at a mass by +a priest who has taken the oaths, and the pride of the other is not yet +reconciled to confusion of ranks and popular festivities. I asked a +woman who brings us fruit every day, why she had not come on the +fourteenth as usual. She told me she did not come to the town, _"a cause +de la foederation"--"Vous etes aristocrate donc?"--"Ah, mon Dieu non--ce +n'est pas que je suis aristocrate, ou democrate, mais que je suis +Chretienne._*" + + *"On account of the foederation."--"You are an aristocrate then, I + suppose?"--"Lord, no! It is not because I am an aristocrate, or a + democrate, but because I am a Christian." + +This is an instance, among many others I could produce, that our +legislators have been wrong, in connecting any change of the national +religion with the revolution. I am every day convinced, that this and +the assignats are the great causes of the alienation visible in many who +were once the warmest patriots.--Adieu: do not envy us our fetes and +ceremonies, while you enjoy a constitution which requires no oath to make +you cherish it: and a national liberty, which is felt and valued without +the aid of extrinsic decoration.--Yours. + + + + +August 15. + +The consternation and horror of which I have been partaker, will more +than apologize for my silence. It is impossible for any one, however +unconnected with the country, not to feel an interest in its present +calamities, and to regret them. I have little courage to write even now, +and you must pardon me if my letter should bear marks of the general +depression. All but the faction are grieved and indignant at the King's +deposition; but this grief is without energy, and this indignation +silent. The partizans of the old government, and the friends of the new, +are equally enraged; but they have no union, are suspicious of each +other, and are sinking under the stupor of despair, when they should be +preparing for revenge.--It would not be easy to describe our situation +during the last week. The ineffectual efforts of La Fayette, and the +violences occasioned by them, had prepared us for something still more +serious. On the ninth, we had a letter from one of the representatives +for this department, strongly expressive of his apprehensions for the +morrow, but promising to write if he survived it. The day, on which we +expected news, came, but no post, no papers, no diligence, nor any means +of information. The succeeding night we sat up, expecting letters by the +post: still, however, none arrived; and the courier only passed hastily +through, giving no detail, but that Paris was _a feu et a sang_.* + + * All fire and slaughter. + +At length, after passing two days and nights in this dreadful suspence, +we received certain intelligence which even exceeded our fears.--It is +needless to repeat the horrors that have been perpetrated. The accounts +must, ere now, have reached you. Our representative, as he seemed to +expect, was so ill treated as to be unable to write: he was one of those +who had voted the approval of La Fayette's conduct--all of whom were +either massacred, wounded, or intimidated; and, by this means, a majority +was procured to vote the deposition of the King. The party allow, by +their own accounts, eight thousand persons to have perished on this +occasion; but the number is supposed to be much more considerable. No +papers are published at present except those whose editors, being members +of the Assembly, and either agents or instigators of the massacres, are, +of course, interested in concealing or palliating them.---Mr. De _____ +has just now taken up one of these atrocious journals, and exclaims, with +tears starting from his eyes, _"On a abattu la statue d'Henri quatre!*"_ + + *"They have destroyed the statue of Henry the Fourth." + +The sacking of Rome by the Goths offers no picture equal to the +licentiousness and barbarity committed in a country which calls itself +the most enlightened in Europe.--But, instead of recording these horrors, +I will fill up my paper with the Choeur Bearnais. + + _Choeur Bearnais. + + "Un troubadour Bearnais, + "Le yeux inoudes de larmes, + "A ses montagnards + "Chantoit ce refrein source d'alarmes-- + "Louis le fils d'Henri + "Est prisonnier dans Paris! + "Il a tremble pour les jours + "De sa compagne cherie + "Qui n'a troube de secours + "Que dans sa propre energie; + "Elle suit le fils d'Henri + "Dans les prisons de Paris. + + "Quel crime ont ils donc commis + "Pour etre enchaines de meme? + "Du peuple ils sont les amis, + "Le peuple veut il qu'on l'aime, + "Quand il met le fils d'Henri + "Dans les prisons de Paris? + + "Le Dauphin, ce fils cheri, + "Qui seul fait notre esperance, + "De pleurs sera donc nourri; + "Les Berceaux qu'on donne en France + "Aux enfans de notre Henri + "Sont les prisons de Paris. + + "Il a vu couler le sang + "De ce garde fidele, + "Qui vient d'offrir en mourant + "Aux Francais un beau modele; + Mais Louis le fils d'Henri + "Est prisonnier dans Paris. + + "Il n'est si triste appareil + "Qui du respect nous degage, + "Les feux ardens du Soleil + "Savent percer le nuage: + "Le prisonnier de Paris + "Est toujours le fils d'Henri. + + "Francais, trop ingrats Francais + "Rendez le Roi a sa compagne; + "C'est le bien du Bearnais, + "C'est l'enfant de la Montagne: + "Le bonheur qu' avoit Henri + "Nous l'affarons a Louis. + + "Chez vouz l'homme a de ses droits + "Recouvre le noble usage, + "Et vous opprimez vos rois, + "Ah! quel injuste partage! + "Le peuple est libre, et Louis + "Est prisonnier dans Paris. + + "Au pied de ce monument + "Ou le bon Henri respire + "Pourquoi l'airain foudroyant? + "Ah l'on veut qu' Henri conspire + "Lui meme contre son fils + "Dans les prisons de Paris."_ + +It was published some time ago in a periodical work, (written with great +spirit and talents,) called "The Acts of the Apostles," and, I believe, +has not yet appeared in England. The situation of the King gives a +peculiar interest to these stanzas, which, merely as a poetical +composition, are very beautiful. I have often attempted to translate +them, but have always found it impossible to preserve the effect and +simplicity of the original. They are set to a little plaintive air, very +happily characteristic of the words. + +Perhaps I shall not write to you again from hence, as we depart for +A_____ on Tuesday next. A change of scene will dissipate a little the +seriousness we have contracted during the late events. If I were +determined to indulge grief or melancholy, I would never remove from the +spot where I had formed the resolution. Man is a proud animal even when +oppressed by misfortune. He seeks for his tranquility in reason and +reflection; whereas, a post-chaise and four, or even a hard-trotting +horse, is worth all the philosophy in the world.--But, if, as I observed +before, a man be determined to resist consolation, he cannot do better +than stay at home, and reason and phosophize. + +Adieu:--the situation of my friends in this country makes me think of +England with pleasure and respect; and I shall conclude with a very +homely couplet, which, after all the fashionable liberality of modern +travellers, contains a great deal of truth: + + "Amongst mankind + "We ne'er shall find + "The worth we left at home." + +Yours, &c. + + + + +August 22, 1792. + +The hour is past, in which, if the King's friends had exerted themselves, +they might have procured a movement in his favour. The people were at +first amazed, then grieved; but the national philosophy already begins to +operate, and they will sink into indifference, till again awakened by +some new calamity. The leaders of the faction do not, however, entirely +depend either on the supineness of their adversaries, or the submission +of the people. Money is distributed amongst the idle and indigent, and +agents are nightly employed in the public houses to comment on +newspapers, written for the purpose to blacken the King and exalt the +patriotism of the party who have dethroned him. Much use has likewise +been made of the advances of the Prussians towards Champagne, and the +usual mummery of ceremony has not been wanting. Robespierre, in a burst +of extemporary energy, previously studied, has declared the country in +danger. The declaration has been echoed by all the departments, and +proclaimed to the people with much solemnity. We were not behind hand in +the ceremonial of the business, though, somehow, the effect was not so +serious and imposing as one could have wished on such an occasion. A +smart flag, with the words "Citizens, the country is in danger," was +prepared; the judges and the municipality were in their costume, the +troops and Garde Nationale under arms, and an orator, surrounded by his +cortege, harangued in the principal parts of the town on the text of the +banner which waved before him. + +All this was very well; but, unfortunately, in order to distinguish the +orator amidst the croud, it was determined he should harangue on +horseback. Now here arose a difficulty which all the ardour of +patriotism was not able to surmount. The French are in general but +indifferent equestrians; and it so happened that, in our municipality, +those who could speak could not ride, and those who could ride could not +speak. At length, however, after much debating, it was determined that +arms should yield to the gown, or rather, the horse to the orator--with +this precaution, that the monture should be properly secured, by an +attendant to hold the bridle. Under this safeguard, the rhetorician +issued forth, and the first part of the speech was performed without +accident; but when, by way of relieving the declaimer, the whole military +band began to flourish ca ira, the horse, even more patriotic than his +rider, curvetted and twisted with so much animation, that however the +spectators might be delighted, the orator was far from participating in +their satisfaction. After all this, the speech was to be finished, and +the silence of the music did not immediately tranquillize the animal. +The orator's eye wandered from the paper that contained his speech, with +wistful glances toward the mane; the fervor of his indignation against +the Austrians was frequently calmed by the involuntary strikings he was +obliged to submit to; and at the very crisis of the emphatic declaration, +he seemed much less occupied by his country's danger than his own. The +people, who were highly amused, I dare say, conceived the whole ceremony +to be a rejoicing, and at every repetition that the country was in +danger, joined with great glee in the chorus of _ca ira_.* + + *The oration consisted of several parts, each ending with a kind of + burden of _"Citoyens, la patri est en danger;"_ and the arrangers of + the ceremony had not selected appropriate music: so that the band, + who had been accustomed to play nothing else on public occasions, + struck up _ca ira_ at every declaration that the country was in + danger! + +Many of the spectators, I believe, had for some time been convinced of +the danger that threatened the country, and did not suppose it much +increased by the events of the war; others were pleased with a show, +without troubling themselves about the occasion of it; and the mass, +except when rouzed to attention by their favourite air, or the +exhibitions of the equestrian orator, looked on with vacant stupidity. +--This tremendous flag is now suspended from a window of the Hotel de +Ville, where it is to remain until the inscription it wears shall no +longer be true; and I heartily wish, the distresses of the country may +not be more durable than the texture on which they are proclaimed. + +Our journey is fixed for to-morrow, and all the morning has been passed +in attendance for our passports.--This affair is not so quickly +dispatched as you may imagine. The French are, indeed, said to be a very +lively people, but we mistake their volubility for vivacity; for in their +public offices, their shops, and in any transaction of business, no +people on earth can be more tedious--they are slow, irregular, and +loquacious; and a retail English Quaker, with all his formalities, would +dispose of half his stock in less time than you can purchase a three sols +stamp from a brisk French Commis. You may therefore conceive, that this +official portraiture of so many females was a work of time, and not very +pleasant to the originals. The delicacy of an Englishman may be shocked +at the idea of examining and registering a lady's features one after +another, like the articles of a bill of lading; but the cold and +systematic gallantry of a Frenchman is not so scrupulous.--The officer, +however, who is employed for this purpose here, is civil, and I suspected +the infinity of my nose, and the acuteness of Mad. de ____'s chin, might +have disconcerted him; but he extricated himself very decently. My nose +is enrolled in the order of aquilines, and the old lady's chin pared off +to a _"menton un peu pointu."_--[A longish chin.] + +The carriages are ordered for seven to-morrow. Recollect, that seven +females, with all their appointments, are to occupy them, and then +calculate the hour I shall begin increasing my distance from England and +my friends. I shall not do it without regret; yet perhaps you will be +less inclined to pity me than the unfortunate wights who are to escort +us. A journey of an hundred miles, with French horses, French carriages, +French harness, and such an unreasonable female charge, is, I confess, in +great humility, not to be ventured on without a most determined +patience.--I shall write to you on our arrival at Arras; and am, till +then, at all times, and in all places, Yours. + + + + +Hesdin. + +We arrived here last night, notwithstanding the difficulties of our first +setting out, in tolerable time; but I have gained so little in point of +repose, that I might as well have continued my journey. We are lodged at +an inn which, though large and the best in the town, is so disgustingly +filthy, that I could not determine to undress myself, and am now up and +scribbling, till my companions shall be ready. Our embarkation will, I +foresee, be a work of time and labour; for my friend, Mad. de ____, +besides the usual attendants on a French woman, a femme de chambre and a +lap-dog, travels with several cages of canary-birds, some pots of curious +exotics, and a favourite cat; all of which must be disposed of so as to +produce no interstine commotions during the journey. Now if you consider +the nature of these fellow-travellers, you will allow it not so easy a +matter as may at first be supposed, especially as their fair mistress +will not allow any of them to be placed in any other carriage than her +own.--A fray happened yesterday between the cat and the dog, during which +the birds were overset, and the plants broken. Poor M. de ____, with a +sort of rueful good nature, separated the combatants, restored order, and +was obliged to purchase peace by charging himself with the care of the +aggressor. + +I should not have dwelt so long on these trifling occurrences, but that +they are characteristic. In England, this passion for animals is chiefly +confined to old maids, but here it is general. Almost every woman, +however numerous her family, has a nursery of birds, an angola, and two +or three lap-dogs, who share her cares with her husband and children. +The dogs have all romantic names, and are enquired after with so much +solicitude when they do not make one in a visit, that it was some time +before I discovered that Nina and Rosine were not the young ladies of the +family. I do not remember to have seen any husband, however master of +his house in other respects, daring enough to displace a favourite +animal, even though it occupied the only vacant fauteuil. + +The entrance into Artois from Picardy, though confounded by the new +division, is sufficiently marked by a higher cultivation, and a more +fertile soil. The whole country we have passed is agreeable, but +uniform; the roads are good, and planted on each side with trees, mostly +elms, except here and there some rows of poplar or apple. The land is +all open, and sown in divisions of corn, carrots, potatoes, tobacco, and +poppies of which last they make a coarse kind of oil for the use of +painters. The country is entirely flat, and the view every where bounded +by woods interspersed with villages, whose little spires peeping through +the trees have a very pleasing effect. + +The people of Artois are said to be highly superstitious, and we have +already passed a number of small chapels and crosses, erected by the road +side, and surrounded by tufts of trees. These are the inventions of a +mistaken piety; yet they are not entirely without their use, and I cannot +help regarding them with more complacence than a rigid Protestant might +think allowable. The weary traveller here finds shelter from a mid-day +sun, and solaces his mind while he reposes his body. The glittering +equipage rolls by--he recalls the painful steps he has past, anticipates +those which yet remain, and perhaps is tempted to repine; but when he +turns his eye on the cross of Him who has promised a recompence to the +sufferers of this world, he checks the sigh of envy, forgets the luxury +which excited it, and pursues his way with resignation. The Protestant +religion proscribes, and the character of the English renders +unnecessary, these sensible objects of devotion; but I have always been +of opinion, that the levity of the French in general would make them +incapable of persevering in a form of worship equally abstracted and +rational. The Spaniards, and even the Italians, might abolish their +crosses and images, and yet preserve their Christianity; but if the +French ceased to be bigots, they would become atheists. + +This is a small fortified town, though not of strength to offer any +resistance to artillery. Its proximity to the frontier, and the dread of +the Austrians, make the inhabitants very patriotic. We were surrounded +by a great croud of people on our arrival, who had some suspicion that we +were emigrating; however, as soon as our passports were examined and +declared legal, they retired very peaceably. + +The approach of the enemy keeps up the spirit of the people, and, +notwithstanding their dissatisfaction at the late events, they have not +yet felt the change of their government sufficiently to desire the +invasion of an Austrian army.--Every village, every cottage, hailed us +with the cry of Vive la nation! The cabaret invites you to drink beer a +la nation, and offers you lodging a la nation--the chandler's shop sells +you snuff and hair powder a la nation--and there are even patriotic +barbers whose signs inform you, that you may be shaved and have your +teeth drawn a la nation! These are acts of patriotism one cannot +reasonably object to; but the frequent and tedious examination of one's +passports by people who can't read, is not quite so inoffensive, and I +sometimes lose my patience. A very vigilant _Garde Nationale_ yesterday, +after spelling my passport over for ten minutes, objected that it was not +a good one. I maintained that it was; and feeling a momentary importance +at the recollection of my country, added, in an assuring tone, _"Et +d'ailleurs je suis Anglaise et par consequent libre d'aller ou bon me +semble._*" The man stared, but admitted my argument, and we passed on. + + *"Besides, I am a native of England, and, consequently, have a right + to go where I please." + +My room door is half open, and gives me a prospect into that of Mad. de +L____, which is on the opposite side of the passage. She has not yet put +on her cap, but her grey hair is profusely powdered; and, with no other +garments than a short under petticoat and a corset, she stands for the +edification of all who pass, putting on her rouge with a stick and a +bundle of cotton tied to the end of it.--All travellers agree in +describing great indelicacy to the French women; yet I have seen no +accounts which exaggerate it, and scarce any that have not been more +favourable than a strict adherence to truth might justify. This +inattractive part of the female national character is not confined to the +lower or middling classes of life; and an English woman is as likely to +be put to the blush in the boudoir of a Marquise, as in the shop of the +Grisette, which serves also for her dressing-room. + +If I am not too idle, or too much amused, you will soon be informed of my +arrival at Arras; but though I should neglect to write, be persuaded I +shall never cease to be, with affection and esteem, Yours, &c. + + + + +Arras, August, 1792. + +The appearance of Arras is not busy in proportion to its population, +because its population is not equal to its extent; and as it is a large, +without being a commercial, town, it rather offers a view of the tranquil +enjoyment of wealth, than of the bustle and activity by which it is +procured. The streets are mostly narrow and ill paved, and the shops +look heavy and mean; but the hotels, which chiefly occupy the low town, +are large and numerous. What is called la Petite Place, is really very +large, and small only in comparison with the great one, which, I believe, +is the largest in France. It is, indeed, an immense quadrangle--the +houses are in the Spanish form, and it has an arcade all round it. The +Spaniards, by whom it was built, forgot, probably, that this kind of +shelter would not be so desirable here as in their own climate. The +manufacture of tapestry, which a single line of Shakespeare has +immortalized, and associated with the mirthful image of his fat Knight, +has fallen into decay. The manufacturers of linen and woollen are but +inconsiderable; and one, which existed till lately, of a very durable +porcelain, is totally neglected. The principal article of commerce is +lace, which is made here in great quantities. The people of all ages, +from five years old to seventy, are employed in this delicate fabrick. +In fine weather you will see whole streets lined with females, each with +her cushion on her lap. The people of Arras are uncommonly dirty, and +the lacemakers do not in this matter differ from their fellow-citizens; +yet at the door of a house, which, but for the surrounding ones, you +would suppose the common receptacle of all the filth in the vicinage, is +often seated a female artizan, whose fingers are forming a point of +unblemished whiteness. It is inconceivable how fast the bobbins move +under their hands; and they seem to bestow so little attention on their +work, that it looks more like the amusement of idleness than an effort of +industry. I am no judge of the arguments of philosophers and politicians +for and against the use of luxury in a state; but if it be allowable at +all, much may be said in favour of this pleasing article of it. Children +may be taught to make it at a very early age, and they can work at home +under the inspection of their parents, which is certainly preferable to +crouding them together in manufactories, where their health is injured, +and their morals are corrupted. + +By requiring no more implements than about five shillings will purchase, +a lacemaker is not dependent on the shopkeeper, nor the head of a +manufactory. All who choose to work have it in their own power, and can +dispose of the produce of their labour, without being at the mercy of an +avaricious employer; for though a tolerable good workwoman can gain a +decent livelihood by selling to the shops, yet the profit of the retailer +is so great, that if he rejected a piece of lace, or refused to give a +reasonable price for it, a certain sale would be found with the +individual consumer: and it is a proof of the independence of this +employ, that no one will at present dispose of their work for paper, and +it still continues to be paid for in money. Another argument in favour +of encouraging lace-making is, that it cannot be usurped by men: you may +have men-milliners, men-mantuamakers, and even ladies' valets, but you +cannot well fashion the clumsy and inflexible fingers of man to +lace-making. We import great quantities of lace from this country, yet +I imagine we might, by attention, be enabled to supply other countries, +instead of purchasing abroad ourselves. The art of spinning is daily +improving in England; and if thread sufficiently fine can be +manufactured, there is no reason why we should not equal our neighbours +in the beauty of this article. The hands of English women are more +delicate than those of the French; and our climate is much the same as +that of Brussels, Arras, Lisle, &c. where the finest lace is made. + +The population of Arras is estimated at about twenty-five thousand souls, +though many people tell me it is greater. It has, however, been lately +much thinned by emigration, suppression of convents, and the decline of +trade, occasioned by the absence of so many rich inhabitants.--The +Jacobins are here become very formidable: they have taken possession of a +church for their meetings, and, from being the ridicule, are become the +terror of all moderate people. + +Yesterday was appointed for taking the new oath of liberty and equality. +I did not see the ceremony, as the town was in much confusion, and it was +deemed unsafe to be from home. I understand it was attended only by the +very refuse of the people, and that, as a gallanterie analogue, the +President of the department gave his arm to Madame Duchene, who sells +apples in a cellar, and is Presidente of the Jacobin club. It is, +however, reported to-day, that she is in disgrace with the society for +her condescension; and her parading the town with a man of forty thousand +livres a year is thought to be too great a compliment to the aristocracy +of riches; so that Mons. Le President's political gallantry has availed +him nothing. He has debased and made himself the ridicule of the +Aristocrates and Constitutionalists, without paying his court, as he +intended, to the popular faction. I would always wish it to happen so to +those who offer up incense to the mob. As human beings, as one's fellow +creatures, the poor and uninformed have a claim to our affection and +benevolence, but when they become legislators, they are absurd and +contemptible tyrants.--_A propos_--we were obliged to acknowledge this new +sovereignty by illuminating the house on the occasion; and this was not +ordered by nocturnal vociferation as in England, but by a regular command +from an officer deputed for that purpose. + +I am concerned to see the people accustomed to take a number of +incompatible oaths with indifference: it neither will nor can come to any +good; and I am ready to exclaim with Juliet--"Swear not at all." Or, if +ye must swear, quarrel not with the Pope, that your consciences may at +least be relieved by dispensations and indulgences. + +To-morrow we go to Lisle, notwithstanding the report that it has already +been summoned to surrender. You will scarcely suppose it possible, yet +we find it difficult to learn the certainty of this, at the distance of +only thirty miles: but communication is much less frequent and easy here +than in England. I am not one of those "unfortunate women who delight in +war;" and, perhaps, the sight of this place, so famous for its +fortifications, will not be very amusing to me, nor furnish much matter +of communication for my friends; but I shall write, if it be only to +assure you that I am not made prize of by the Austrians. Yours, &c. + + + + +Lisle, August, 1792. + +You restless islanders, who are continually racking imagination to +perfect the art of moving from one place to another, and who can drop +asleep in a carriage and wake at an hundred mile distance, have no notion +of all the difficulties of a day's journey here. In the first place, all +the horses of private persons have been taken for the use of the army, +and those for hire are constantly employed in going to the camp--hence, +there is a difficulty in procuring horses. Then a French carriage is +never in order, and in France a job is not to be done just when you want +it--so that there is often a difficulty in finding vehicles. Then there +is the difficulty of passports, and the difficulty of gates, if you want +to depart early. Then the difficulties of patching harness on the road, +and, above all, the inflexible _sang froid_ of drivers. All these things +considered, you will not wonder that we came here a day after we +intended, and arrived at night, when we ought to have arrived at noon. +--The carriage wanted a trifling repair, and we could get neither +passports nor horses. The horses were gone to the army--the municipality +to the club--and the blacksmith was employed at the barracks in making a +patriotic harangue to the soldiers.--But we at length surmounted all +these obstacles, and reached this place last night. + +The road between Arras and Lisle is equally rich with that we before +passed, but is much more diversified. The plain of Lens is not such a +scene of fertility, that one forgets it has once been that of war and +carnage. We endeavoured to learn in the town whereabouts the column was +erected that commemmorates that famous battle, [1648.] but no one seemed +to know any thing of the matter. One who, we flattered ourselves, looked +more intelligent than the rest, and whom we supposed might be an +attorney, upon being asked for this spot,--(where, added Mr. de ____, by +way of assisting his memory, _"le Prince de Conde s'est battu si bien,"_) +--replied, _"Pour la bataille je n'en sais rien, mais pour le Prince de +Conde il y a deja quelque tems qu'il est emigre--on le dit a Coblentz."_* +After this we thought it in vain to make any farther enquiry, and +continued our walk about the town. + + *"Where the Prince of Conde fought so gallantly."--"As to the battle + I know nothing about the matter; but for the Prince of Conde he + emigrated some time since--they say he is at Coblentz." + +Mr. P____, who, according to French custom, had not breakfasted, took a +fancy to stop at a baker's shop and buy a roll. The man bestowed so much +more civility on us than our two sols were worth, that I observed, on +quitting the shop, I was sure he must be an Aristocrate. Mr. P____, who +is a warm Constitutionalist, disputed the justice of my inference, and we +agreed to return, and learn the baker's political principles. After +asking for more rolls, we accosted him with the usual phrase, "Et vous, +Monsieur, vous etes bon patriote?"--_"Ah, mon Dieu, oui,_ (replied he,) +_il faut bien l'etre a present."_* + + *"And you, Sir, are without doubt, a good patriot?"--"Oh Lord, Sir, + yes; one's obliged to be so, now-a-days." + +Mr. P____ admitted the man's tone of voice and countenance as good +evidence, and acknowledged I was right.--It is certain that the French +have taken it into their heads, that coarseness of manners is a necessary +consequence of liberty, and that there is a kind of leze nation in being +too civil; so that, in general, I think I can discover the principles of +shopkeepers, even without the indications of a melancholy mien at the +assignats, or lamentations on the times. + +The new doctrine of primeval equality has already made some progress. At +a small inn at Carvin, where, upon the assurance that they had every +thing in the world, we stopped to dine, on my observing they had laid +more covers than were necessary, the woman answered, "Et les domestiques, +ne dinent ils pas?"--"And, pray, are the servants to have no dinner?" + +We told her not with us, and the plates were taken away; but we heard her +muttering in the kitchen, that she believed we were aristocrates going to +emigrate. She might imagine also that we were difficult to satisfy, for +we found it impossible to dine, and left the house hungry, +notwithstanding there was "every thing in the world" in it. + +On the road between Carvin and Lisle we saw Dumouriez, who is going to +take the command of the army, and has now been visiting the camp of +Maulde. He appears to be under the middle size, about fifty years of +age, with a brown complexion, dark eyes, and an animated countenance. He +was not originally distinguished either by birth or fortune, and has +arrived at his present situation by a concurrence of fortuitous +circumstances, by great and various talents, much address, and a spirit +of intrigue. He is now supported by the prevailing party; and, I +confess, I could not regard with much complacence a man, whom the +machinations of the Jacobins had forced into the ministry, and whose +hypocritical and affected resignation has contributed to deceive the +people, and ruin the King. + +Lisle has all the air of a great town, and the mixture of commercial +industry and military occupation gives it a very gay and populous +appearance. The Lillois are highly patriotic, highly incensed against +the Austrians, and regard the approaching siege with more contempt than +apprehension. I asked the servant who was making my bed this morning, +how far the enemy was off. _"Une lieue et demie, ou deux lieues, a moins +qu'ils ne soient plus avances depuis hier,"_* repled she, with the utmost +indifference.--I own, I did not much approve of such a vicinage, and a +view of the fortifications (which did not make the less impression, +because I did not understand them,) was absolutely necessary to raise my +drooping courage. + + *"A league and a half, or two leagues; unless, indeed, they have + advanced since yesterday." + +This morning was dedicated to visiting the churches, citadel, and +Collisee (a place of amusement in the manner of our Vauxhall); but all +these things have been so often described by much abler pens, that I +cannot modestly pretend to add any thing on the subject. + +In the evening we were at the theatre, which is large and handsome; and +the constant residence of a numerous garrison enables it to entertain a +very good set of performers:--their operas in particular are extremely +well got up. I saw Zemire et Azor given better than at Drury Lane.--In +the farce, which was called Le Francois a Londres, was introduced a +character they called that of an Englishman, (Jack Roastbeef,) who pays +his addresses to a nobleman's daughter, in a box coate, a large hat +slouched over his eyes, and an oaken trowel in his hand--in short, the +whole figure exactly resembling that of a watchman. His conversation is +gross and sarcastic, interlarded with oaths, or relieved by fits of +sullen taciturnity--such a lover as one may suppose, though rich, and the +choice of the lady's father, makes no impression; and the author has +flattered the national vanity by making the heroine give the preference +to a French marquis. Now there is no doubt but nine-tenths of the +audience thought this a good portraiture of the English character, and +enjoyed it with all the satisfaction of conscious superiority.--The +ignorance that prevails with regard to our manners and customs, among a +people so near us, is surprizing. It is true, that the noblesse who have +visited England with proper recommendations, and have been introduced to +the best society, do us justice: the men of letters also, who, from party +motives, extol every thing English, have done us perhaps more than +justice. But I speak of the French in general; not the lower classes +only, but the gentry of the provinces, and even those who in other +respects have pretensions to information. The fact is, living in England +is expensive: a Frenchman, whose income here supports him as a gentleman, +goes over and finds all his habits of oeconomy insufficient to keep him +from exceeding the limits he had prescribed to himself. His decent +lodging alone costs him a great part of his revenue, and obliges him to +be strictly parsimonious of the rest. This drives him to associate +chiefly with his own countrymen, to dine at obscure coffee-houses, and +pay his court to opera-dancers. He sees, indeed, our theatres, our +public walks, the outside of our palaces, and the inside of churches: but +this gives him no idea of the manners of the people in superior life, or +even of easy fortune. Thus he goes home, and asserts to his untravelled +countrymen, that our King and nobility are ill lodged, our churches mean, +and that the English are barbarians, who dine without soup, use no +napkin, and eat with their knives.--I have heard a gentleman of some +respectability here observe, that our usual dinner was an immense joint +of meat half drest, and a dish of vegetables scarcely drest at all.--Upon +questioning him, I discovered he had lodged in St. Martin's Lane, had +likewise boarded at a country attorney's of the lowest class, and dined +at an ordinary at Margate. + +Some few weeks ago the Marquis de P____ set out from Paris in the +diligence, and accompanied by his servant, with a design of emigrating. +Their only fellow-traveller was an Englishman, whom they frequently +addressed, and endeavoured to enter into conversation with; but he either +remained silent, or gave them to understand he was entirely ignorant of +the language. Under this persuasion the Marquis and his valet freely +discussed their affairs, arranged their plan of emigration, and +expressed, with little ceremony, their political opinions.--At the end of +their journey they were denounced by their companion, and conducted to +prison. The magistrate who took the information mentioned the +circumstance when I happened to be present. Indignant at such an act in +an Englishman, I enquired his name. You will judge of my surprize, when +he assured me it was the English Ambassador. I observed to him, that it +was not common for our Ambassadors to travel in stage-coaches: this, he +said, he knew; but that having reason to suspect the Marquis, Monsieur +l'Ambassadeur had had the goodness to have him watched, and had taken +this journey on purpose to detect him. It was not without much +reasoning, and the evidence of a lady who had been in England long enough +to know the impossibility of such a thing, that I would justify Lord +G____ from this piece of complaisance to the Jacobins, and convince the +worthy magistrate he had been imposed upon: yet this man is the Professor +of Eloquence at a college, is the oracle of the Jacobin society; and may +perhaps become a member of the Convention. This seems so almost +incredibly absurd, that I should fear to repeat it, were it not known to +many besides myself; but I think I may venture to pronounce, from my own +observation, and that of others, whose judgement, and occasions of +exercising it, give weight to their opinions, that the generality of the +French who have read a little are mere pedants, nearly unacquainted with +modern nations, their commercial and political relation, their internal +laws, characters, or manners. Their studies are chiefly confined to +Rollin and Plutarch, the deistical works of Voltaire, and the visionary +politics of Jean Jaques. Hence they amuse their hearers with allusions +to Caesar and Lycurgus, the Rubicon, and Thermopylae. Hence they pretend +to be too enlightened for belief, and despise all governments not founded +on the Contrat Social, or the Profession de Foi.--They are an age removed +from the useful literature and general information of the middle classes +in their own country--they talk familiarly of Sparta and Lacedemon, and +have about the same idea of Russia as they have of Caffraria. Yours. + + + + +Lisle. + +"Married to another, and that before those shoes were old with which she +followed my poor father to the grave."--There is scarcely any +circumstance, or situation, in which, if one's memory were good, one +should not be mentally quoting Shakespeare. I have just now been +whispering the above, as I passed the altar of liberty, which still +remains on the Grande Place. But "a month, a little month," ago, on this +altar the French swore to maintain the constitution, and to be faithful +to the law and the King; yet this constitution is no more, the laws are +violated, the King is dethroned, and the altar is now only a monument of +levity and perjury, which they have not feeling enough to remove. + +The Austrians are daily expected to besiege this place, and they may +destroy, but they will not take it. I do not, as you may suppose, +venture to speak so decisively in a military point of view--I know as +little as possible of the excellencies of Vauban, or the adequacy of the +garrison; but I draw my inference from the spirit of enthusiasm which +prevails among the inhabitants of every class--every individual seems to +partake of it: the streets resound with patriotic acclamations, patriotic +songs, war, and defiance.--Nothing can be more animating than the +theatre. Every allusion to the Austrians, every song or sentence, +expressive of determined resistance, is followed by bursts of assent, +easily distinguishable not to be the effort of party, but the sentiment +of the people in general. There are, doubtless, here, as in all other +places, party dissensions; but the threatened siege seems at least to +have united all for their common defence: they know that a bomb makes no +distinction between Feuillans, Jacobins, or Aristocrates, and neither are +so anxious to destroy the other, when it is only to be done at such a +risk to themselves. I am even willing to hope that something better than +mere selfishness has a share in their uniting to preserve one of the +finest, and, in every sense, one of the most interesting, towns in +France. + + + + +Lisle, Saturday. + +We are just on our departure for Arras, where, I fear, we shall scarcely +arrive before the gates are shut. We have been detained here much beyond +our time, by a circumstance infinitely shocking, though, in fact, not +properly a subject of regret. One of the assassins of General Dillon was +this morning guillotined before the hotel where we are lodged.--I did +not, as you will conclude, see the operation; but the mere circumstance +of knowing the moment it was performed, and being so near it, has much +unhinged me. The man, however, deserved his fate, and such an example +was particularly necessary at this time, when we are without a +government, and the laws are relaxed. The mere privation of life is, +perhaps, more quickly effected by this instrument than by any other +means; but when we recollect that the preparation for, and apprehension +of, death, constitute its greatest terrors; that a human hand must give +motion to the Guillotine as well as to the axe; and that either accustoms +a people, already sanguinary, to the sight of blood, I think little is +gained by the invention. It was imagined by a Mons. Guillotin, a +physician of Paris, and member of the Constituent Assembly. The original +design seems not so much to spare pain to the criminal, as obloquy to the +executioner. I, however, perceive little difference between a man's +directing a Guillotine, or tying a rope; and I believe the people are of +the same opinion. They will never see any thing but a _bourreau_ +[executioner] in the man whose province it is to execute the sentence of +the laws, whatever name he may be called by, or whatever instrument he +may make use of.--I have concluded this letter with a very unpleasant +subject, but my pen is guided by circumstances, and I do not invent, but +communicate.--Adieu. Yours, &c. + + + + +Arras, September 1, 1792. + +Had I been accompanied by an antiquary this morning, his sensibility +would have been severely exercised; for even I, whose respect for +antiquity is not scientific, could not help lamenting the modern rage for +devastation which has seized the French. They are removing all "the +time-honoured figures" of the cathedral, and painting its massive +supporters in the style of a ball-room. The elaborate uncouthness of +ancient sculpture is not, indeed, very beautiful; yet I have often +fancied there was something more simply pathetic in the aukward effigy of +an hero kneeling amidst his trophies, or a regal pair with their +supplicating hands and surrounding offspring, than in the graceful +figures and poetic allegories of the modern artist. The humble intreaty +to the reader to "praye for the soule of the departed," is not very +elegant--yet it is better calculated to recall the wanderings of +morality, than the flattering epitaph, a Fame hovering in the air, or the +suspended wreath of the remunerating angel.--But I moralize in vain--the +rage of these new Goths is inexorable: they seem solicitous to destroy +every vestige of civilization, lest the people should remember they have +not always been barbarians. + +After obtaining an order from the municipality, we went to see the +gardens and palace of the Bishop, who has emigrated. The garden has +nothing very remarkable, but is large and well laid out, according to the +old style. It forms a very agreeable walk, and, when the Bishop possest +it, was open for the enjoyment of the inhabitants, but it is now shut up +and in disorder. The house is plain, and substantially furnished, and +exhibits no appearance of unbecoming luxury. The whole is now the +property of the nation, and will soon be disposed of.--I could not help +feeling a sensation of melancholy as we walked over the apartments. +Every thing is marked in an inventory, just as left; and an air of +arrangement and residence leads one to reflect, that the owner did not +imagine at his departure he was quitting it perhaps for ever. I am not +partial to the original emigrants, yet much may be said for the Bishop of +Arras. He was pursued by ingratitude, and marked for persecution. The +Robespierres were young men whom he had taken from a mean state, had +educated, and patronized. The revolution gave them an opportunity of +displaying their talents, and their talents procured them popularity. +They became enemies to the clergy, because their patron was a Bishop; and +endeavoured to render their benefactor odious, because the world could +not forget, nor they forgive, how much they were indebted to him.--Vice +is not often passive; nor is there often a medium between gratitude for +benefits, and hatred to the author of them. A little mind is hurt by the +remembrance of obligation--begins by forgetting, and, not uncommonly, +ends by persecuting. + +We dined and passed the afternoon from home to-day. After dinner our +hostess, as usual, proposed cards; and, as usual in French societies, +every one assented: we waited, however, some time, and no cards came-- +till, at length, conversation-parties were formed, and they were no +longer thought of. I have since learned, from one of the young women of +the house, that the butler and two footmen had all betaken themselves to +clubs and Guinguettes,* and the cards, counters, &c. could not be +obtained. + + * Small public houses in the vicinity of large towns, where the + common people go on Sundays and festivals to dance and make merry. + +This is another evil arising from the circumstances of the times. All +people of property have begun to bury their money and plate, and as the +servants are often unavoidably privy to it, they are become idle and +impertinent--they make a kind of commutation of diligence for fidelity, +and imagine that the observance of the one exempts them from the +necessity of the other. The clubs are a constant receptacle for +idleness; and servants who think proper to frequent them do it with very +little ceremony, knowing that few whom they serve would be imprudent +enough to discharge them for their patriotism in attending a Jacobin +society. Even servants who are not converts to the new principle cannot +resist the temptation of abusing a little the power which they acquire +from a knowledge of family affairs. Perhaps the effect of the revolution +has not, on the whole, been favourable to the morals of the lower class +of people; but this shall be the subject of discussion at some future +period, when I shall have had farther opportunities of judging. + +We yesterday visited the Oratoire, a seminary for education, which is now +suppressed. The building is immense, and admirably calculated for the +purpose, but is already in a state of dilapidation; so that, I fear, by +the time the legislature has determined what system of instruction shall +be substituted for that which has been abolished, the children (as the +French are fond of examples from the ancients) will take their lessons, +like the Greeks, in the open air; and, in the mean while, become expert +in lying and thieving, like the Spartans. + +The Superior of the house is an immoderate revolutionist, speaks English +very well, and is a great admirer of our party writers. In his room I +observed a vast quantity of English books, and on his chimney stood what +he called a patriotic clock, the dial of which was placed between two +pyramids, on which were inscribed the names of republican authors, and on +the top of one was that of our countryman, Mr. Thomas Paine--whom, by the +way, I understand you intended to exhibit in a much more conspicuous and +less tranquil situation. I assure you, though you are ungrateful on your +side of the water, he is in high repute here--his works are translated-- +all the Jacobins who can read quote, and all who can't, admire him; and +possibly, at the very moment you are sentencing him to an installment in +the pillory, we may be awarding him a triumph.--Perhaps we are both +right. He deserves the pillory, from you for having endeavoured to +destroy a good constitution--and the French may with equal reason grant +him a triumph, as their constitution is likely to be so bad, that even +Mr. Thomas Paine's writings may make it better! + +Our house is situated within view of a very pleasant public walk, where I +am daily amused with a sight of the recruits at their exercise. This is +not quite so regular a business as the drill in the Park. The exercise +is often interrupted by disputes between the officer and his eleves--some +are for turning to the right, others to the left, and the matter is not +unfrequently adjusted by each going the way that seemeth best unto +himself. The author of the _"Actes des Apotres"_ [The Acts of the +Apostles] cites a Colonel who reprimanded one of his corps for walking +ill--_"Eh Dicentre,_ (replied the man,) _comment veux tu que je marche +bien quand tu as fait mes souliers trop etroits."_* but this is no longer +a pleasantry--such circumstances are very common. A Colonel may often be +tailor to his own regiment, and a Captain operated on the heads of his +whole company, in his civil capacity, before he commands them in his +military one. + + *"And how the deuce can you expect me to march well, when you have + made my shoes too tight?" + +The walks I have just mentioned have been extremely beautiful, but a +great part of the trees have been cut down, and the ornamental parts +destroyed, since the revolution--I know not why, as they were open to the +poor as well as the rich, and were a great embellishment to the low town. +You may think it strange that I should be continually dating some +destruction from the aera of the revolution--that I speak of every thing +demolished, and of nothing replaced. But it is not my fault--"If freedom +grows destructive, I must paint it:" though I should tell you, that in +many streets where convents have been sold, houses are building with the +materials on the same site.--This is, however, not a work of the nation, +but of individuals, who have made their purchases cheap, and are +hastening to change the form of their property, lest some new revolution +should deprive them of it.--Yours, &c. + + + + +Arras, September. + +Nothing more powerfully excites the attention of a stranger on his first +arrival, than the number and wretchedness of the poor at Arras. In all +places poverty claims compulsion, but here compassion is accompanied by +horror--one dares not contemplate the object one commiserates, and +charity relieves with an averted eye. Perhaps with Him, who regards +equally the forlorn beggar stretched on the threshold, consumed by filth +and disease, and the blooming beauty who avoids while she succours him, +the offering of humanity scarcely expiates the involuntary disgust; yet +such is the weakness of our nature, that there exists a degree of misery +against which one's senses are not proof, and benevolence itself revolts +at the appearance of the poor of Arras.--These are not the cold and +fastidious reflections of an unfeeling mind--they are not made without +pain: nor have I often felt the want of riches and consequence so much as +in my incapacity to promote some means of permanent and substantial +remedy for the evils I have been describing. I have frequently enquired +the cause of this singular misery, but can only learn that it always has +been so. I fear it is, that the poor are without energy, and the rich +without generosity. The decay of manufactures since the last century +must have reduced many families to indigence. These have been able to +subsist on the refuse of luxury, but, too supine for exertion, they have +sought for nothing more; while the great, discharging their consciences +with the superfluity of what administered to their pride, fostered the +evil, instead of endeavouring to remedy it. But the benevolence of the +French is not often active, nor extensive; it is more frequently a +religious duty than a sentiment. They content themselves with affording +a mere existence to wretchedness; and are almost strangers to those +enlightened and generous efforts which act beyond the moment, and seek +not only to relieve poverty, but to banish it. Thus, through the frigid +and indolent charity of the rich, the misery which was at first +accidental is perpetuated, beggary and idleness become habitual, and are +transmitted, like more fortunate inheritances, from one generation to +another.--This is not a mere conjecture--I have listened to the histories +of many of these unhappy outcasts, who were more than thirty years old, +and they have all told me, they were born in the state in which I beheld +them, and that they did not remember to have heard that their parents +were in any other. The National Assembly profess to effectuate an entire +regeneration of the country, and to eradicate all evils, moral, physical, +and political. I heartily wish the numerous and miserable poor, with +which Arras abounds, may become one of the first objects of reform; and +that a nation which boasts itself the most polished, the most powerful, +and the most philosophic in the world, may not offer to the view so many +objects shocking to humanity. + +The citadel of Arras is very strong, and, as I am told, the chef d'oeuvre +of Vauban; but placed with so little judgement, that the military call it +_la belle inutile_ [the useless beauty]. It is now uninhabited, and +wears an appearance of desolation--the commandant and all the officers of +the ancient government having been forced to abandon it; their houses +also are much damaged, and the gardens entirely destroyed.--I never heard +that this popular commotion had any other motive than the general war of +the new doctrines on the old. + +I am sorry to see that most of the volunteers who go to join the army are +either old men or boys, tempted by extraordinary pay and scarcity of +employ. A cobler who has been used to rear canary-birds for Mad. de +____, brought us this morning all the birds he was possessed of, and told +us he was going to-morrow to the frontiers. We asked him why, at his +age, he should think of joining the army. He said, he had already +served, and that there were a few months unexpired of the time that would +entitle him to his pension.--"Yes; but in the mean while you may get +killed; and then of what service will your claim to a pension be?"-- +_"N'ayez pas peur, Madame--Je me menagerai bien--on ne se bat pas pour ces +gueux la comme pour son Roi."_* + + * "No fear of that, Madam--I'll take good care of myself: a man does + not fight for such beggarly rascals as these as he would for his + King." + +M. de ____ is just returned from the camp of Maulde, where he has been to +see his son. He says, there is great disorder and want of discipline, +and that by some means or other the common soldiers abound more in money, +and game higher, than their officers. There are two young women, +inhabitants of the town of St. Amand, who go constantly out on all +skirmishing parties, exercise daily with the men, and have killed several +of the enemy. They are both pretty--one only sixteen, the other a year +or two older. Mr. de ____ saw them as they were just returning from a +reconnoitring party. Perhaps I ought to have been ashamed after this +recital to decline an invitation from Mr. de R___'s son to dine with him +at the camp; but I cannot but feel that I am an extreme coward, and that +I should eat with no appetite in sight of an Austrian army. The very +idea of these modern Camillas terrifies me--their creation seems an error +of nature.* + + * Their name was Fernig; they were natives of St. Amand, and of no + remarkable origin. They followed Dumouriez into Flanders, where + they signalized themselves greatly, and became Aides-de-Camp to that + General. At the time of his defection, one of them was shot by a + soldier, whose regiment she was endeavouring to gain over. Their + house having been razed by the Austrians at the beginning of the + war, was rebuilt at the expence of the nation; but, upon their + participation in Dumouriez' treachery, a second decree of the + Assembly again levelled it with the ground. + +Our host, whose politeness is indefatigable, accompanied us a few days +ago to St. Eloy, a large and magnificent abbey, about six miles from +Arras. It is built on a terrace, which commands the surrounding country +as far as Douay; and I think I counted an hundred and fifty steps from +the house to the bottom of the garden, which is on a level with the road. +The cloisters are paved with marble, and the church neat and beautiful +beyond description. The iron work of the choir imitates flowers and +foliage with so much taste and delicacy, that (but for the colour) one +would rather suppose it to be soil, than any durable material.--The monks +still remain, and although the decree has passed for their suppression, +they cannot suppose it will take place. They are mostly old men, and, +though I am no friend to these institutions, they were so polite and +hospitable that I could not help wishing they were permitted, according +to the design of the first Assembly, to die in their habitations-- +especially as the situation of St. Eloy renders the building useless for +any other purpose.--A friend of Mr. de ____ has a charming country-house +near the abbey, which he has been obliged to deny himself the enjoyment +of, during the greatest part of the summer; for whenever the family +return to Arras, their persons and their carriage are searched at the +gate, as strictly as though they were smugglers just arrived from the +coast, under the pretence that they may assist the religious of St. Eloy +in securing some of their property, previous to the final seizure. + +I observe, in walking the streets here, that the common people still +retain much of the Spanish cast of features: the women are remarkably +plain, and appear still more so by wearing faals. The faal is about two +ells of black silk or stuff, which is hung, without taste or form, on the +head, and is extremely unbecoming: but it is worn only by the lower +class, or by the aged and devotees. + +I am a very voluminous correspondent, but if I tire you, it is a proper +punishment for your insincerity in desiring me to continue so. I have +heard of a governor of one of our West India islands who was universally +detested by its inhabitants, but who, on going to England, found no +difficulty in procuring addresses expressive of approbation and esteem. +The consequence was, he came back and continued governor for life.--Do +you make the application of my anecdote, and I shall persevere in +scribbling.--Every Yours. + + + + +Arras. + +It is not fashionable at present to frequent any public place; but as we +are strangers, and of no party, we often pass our evenings at the +theatre. I am fond of it--not so much on account of the representation, +as of the opportunity which it affords for observing the dispositions of +the people, and the bias intended to be given them. The stage is now +become a kind of political school, where the people are taught hatred to +Kings, Nobility, and Clergy, according as the persecution of the moment +requires; and, I think, one may often judge from new pieces the meditated +sacrifice. A year ago, all the sad catalogue of human errors were +personified in Counts and Marquisses; they were not represented as +individuals whom wealth and power had made something too proud, and much +too luxurious, but as an order of monsters, whose existence, +independently of their characters, was a crime, and whose hereditary +possessions alone implied a guilt, not to be expiated but by the +forfeiture of them. This, you will say, was not very judicious; and that +by establishing a sort of incompatibility of virtue with titular +distinctions, the odium was transferred from the living to the dead--from +those who possessed these distinctions to those who instituted them. +But, unfortunately, the French were disposed to find their noblesse +culpable, and to reject every thing which tended to excuse or favour +them. The hauteur of the noblesse acted as a fatal equivalent to every +other crime; and many, who did not credit other imputations, rejoiced in +the humiliation of their pride. The people, the rich merchants, and even +the lesser gentry, all eagerly concurred in the destruction of an order +that had disdained or excluded them; and, perhaps, of all the innovations +which have taken place, the abolition of rank has excited the least +interest. + +It is now less necessary to blacken the noblesse, and the compositions of +the day are directed against the Throne, the Clergy, and Monastic Orders. +All the tyrants of past ages are brought from the shelves of faction and +pedantry, and assimilated to the mild and circumscribed monarchs of +modern Europe. The doctrine of popular sovereignty is artfully +instilled, and the people are stimulated to exert a power which they must +implicitly delegate to those who have duped and misled them. The frenzy +of a mob is represented as the sublimest effort of patriotism; and +ambition and revenge, usurping the title of national justice, immolate +their victims with applause. The tendency of such pieces is too obvious; +and they may, perhaps, succeed in familiarizing the minds of the people +to events which, a few months ago, would have filled them with horror. +There are also numerous theatrical exhibitions, preparatory to the +removal of the nuns from their convents, and to the banishment of the +priests. Ancient prejudices are not yet obliterated, and I believe some +pains have been taken to justify these persecutions by calumny. The +history of our dissolution of the monasteries has been ransacked for +scandal, and the bigotry and biases of all countries are reduced into +abstracts, and exposed on the stage. The most implacable revenge, the +most refined malice, the extremes of avarice and cruelty, are wrought +into tragedies, and displayed as acting under the mask of religion and +the impunity of a cloister; while operas and farces, with ridicule still +more successful, exhibit convents as the abode of licentiousness, +intrigue, and superstition. + +These efforts have been sufficiently successful--not from the merit of +the pieces, but from the novelty of the subject. The people in general +were strangers to the interior of convents: they beheld them with that +kind of respect which is usually produced in uninformed minds by mystery +and prohibition. Even the monastic habit was sacred from dramatic uses; +so that a representation of cloisters, monks, and nuns, their costumes +and manners, never fails to attract the multitude.--But the same cause +which renders them curious, makes them credulous. Those who have seen no +farther than the Grille, and those who have been educated in convents, +are equally unqualified to judge of the lives of the religious; and their +minds, having no internal conviction or knowledge of the truth, easily +become the converts of slander and falsehood. + +I cannot help thinking, that there is something mean and cruel in this +procedure. If policy demand the sacrifice, it does not require that the +victims should be rendered odious; and if it be necessary to dispossess +them of their habitations, they ought not, at the moment they are thrown +upon the world, to be painted as monsters unworthy of its pity or +protection. It is the cowardice of the assassin, who murders before he +dares to rob. + +This custom of making public amusements subservient to party, has, I +doubt not, much contributed to the destruction of all against whom it has +been employed; and theatrical calumny seems to be always the harbinger of +approaching ruin to its object; yet this is not the greatest evil which +may arise from these insidious politics--they are equally unfavourable +both to the morals and taste of the people; the first are injured beyond +calculation, and the latter corrupted beyond amendment. The orders of +society, which formerly inspired respect or veneration, are now debased +and exploded; and mankind, once taught to see nothing but vice and +hypocrisy in those whom they had been accustomed to regard as models of +virtue, are easily led to doubt the very existence of virtue itself: they +know not where to turn for either instruction or example; no prospect is +offered to them but the dreary and uncomfortable view of general +depravity; and the individual is no longer encouraged to struggle with +vicious propensities, when he concludes them irresistibly inherent in his +nature. Perhaps it was not possible to imagine principles at once so +seductive and ruinous as those now disseminated. How are the morals of +the people to resist a doctrine which teaches them that the rich only can +be criminal, and that poverty is a substitute for virtue--that wealth is +holden by the sufferance of those who do not possess it--and that he who +is the frequenter of a club, or the applauder of a party, is exempt from +the duties of his station, and has a right to insult and oppress his +fellow citizens? All the weaknesses of humanity are flattered and called +to the aid of this pernicious system of revolutionary ethics; and if +France yet continue in a state of civilization, it is because Providence +has not yet abandoned her to the influence of such a system. + +Taste is, I repeat it, as little a gainer by the revolution as morals. +The pieces which were best calculated to form and refine the minds of the +people, all abound with maxims of loyalty, with respect for religion, and +the subordinations of civil society. These are all prohibited; and are +replaced by fustian declamations, tending to promote anarchy and discord +--by vulgar and immoral farces, and insidious and flattering panegyrics +on the vices of low life. No drama can succeed that is not supported by +the faction; and this support is to be procured only by vilifying the +Throne, the Clergy, and Noblesse. This is a succedaneum for literary +merit, and those who disapprove are menaced into silence; while the +multitude, who do not judge but imitate, applaud with their leaders--and +thus all their ideas become vitiated, and imbibe the corruption of their +favourite amusement. + +I have dwelt on this subject longer than I intended; but as I would not +be supposed prejudiced nor precipitate in my assertions, I will, by the +first occasion, send you some of the most popular farces and tragedies: +you may then decide yourself upon the tendency; and, by comparing the +dispositions of the French before, and within, the last two years, you +may also determine whether or not my conclusions are warranted by fact. +Adieu.--Yours. + + + + +Arras. + +Our countrymen who visit France for the first time--their imaginations +filled with the epithets which the vanity of one nation has appropriated, +and the indulgence of the other sanctioned--are astonished to find this +"land of elegance," this refined people, extremely inferior to the +English in all the arts that minister to the comfort and accommodation of +life. They are surprized to feel themselves starved by the intrusion of +all the winds of heaven, or smothered by volumes of smoke--that no lock +will either open or shut--that the drawers are all immoveable--and that +neither chairs nor tables can be preserved in equilibrium. In vain do +they inquire for a thousand conveniences which to them seem +indispensible; they are not to be procured, or even their use is unknown: +till at length, after a residence in a score of houses, in all of which +they observe the same deficiencies, they begin to grow sceptical, to +doubt the pretended superiority of France, and, perhaps for the first +time, do justice to their own unassuming country. It must however, be +confessed, that if the chimnies smoke, they are usually surrounded by +marble--that the unstable chair is often covered with silk--and that if a +room be cold, it is plentifully decked with gilding, pictures, and +glasses.--In short, a French house is generally more showy than +convenient, and seldom conveys that idea of domestic comfort which +constitutes the luxury of an Englishman. + +I observe, that the most prevailing ornaments here are family portraits: +almost every dwelling, even among the lower kind of tradesmen, is peopled +with these ensigns of vanity; and the painters employed on these +occasions, however deficient in other requisites of their art, seem to +have an unfortunate knack at preserving likenesses. Heads powdered even +whiter than the originals, laced waistcoats, enormous lappets, and +countenances all ingeniously disposed so as to smile at each other, +encumber the wainscot, and distress the unlucky visitor, who is obliged +to bear testimony to the resemblance. When one sees whole rooms filled +with these figures, one cannot help reflecting on the goodness of +Providence, which thus distributes self-love, in proportion as it denies +those gifts that excite the admiration of others. + +You must not understand what I have said on the furniture of French +houses as applying to those of the nobility or people of extraordinary +fortunes, because they are enabled to add the conveniences of other +countries to the luxuries of their own. Yet even these, in my opinion, +have not the uniform elegance of an English habitation: there is always +some disparity between the workmanship and the materials--some mixture of +splendour and clumsiness, and a want of what the painters call keeping; +but the houses of the gentry, the lesser noblesse, and merchants, are, +for the most part, as I have described---abounding in silk, marble, +glasses, and pictures; but ill finished, dirty, and deficient in articles +of real use.--I should, however, notice, that genteel people are cleaner +here than in the interior parts of the kingdom. The floors are in +general of oak, or sometimes of brick; but they are always rubbed bright, +and have not that filthy appearance which so often disgusts one in French +houses. + +The heads of the lower classes of people are much disturbed by these new +principles of universal equality. We enquired of a man we saw near a +coach this morning if it was hired. "Monsieur--(quoth he--then checking +himself suddenly,)--no, I forgot, I ought not to say Monsieur, for they +tell me I am equal to any body in the world: yet, after all, I know not +well if this may be true; and as I have drunk out all I am worth, I +believe I had better go home and begin work again to-morrow." This new +disciple of equality had, indeed, all the appearance of having sacrificed +to the success of the cause, and was then recovering from a dream of +greatness which he told us had lasted two days. + +Since the day of taking the new oath we have met many equally elevated, +though less civil. Some are undoubtedly paid, but others will distress +their families for weeks by this celebration of their new discoveries, +and must, after all, like our intoxicated philosopher, be obliged to +return "to work again to-morrow." + +I must now bid you adieu--and, in doing so, naturally turn my thoughts to +that country where the rights of the people consist not of sterile and +metaphysic declarations, but of real defence and protection. May they +for ever remain uninterrupted by the devastating chimeras of their +neighbours; and if they seek reform, may it be moderate and permanent, +acceded to reason, and not extorted by violence!--Yours, &c. + + + + +September 2, 1792. + +We were so much alarmed at the theatre on Thursday, that I believe we +shall not venture again to amuse ourselves at the risk of a similar +occurrence. About the middle of the piece, a violent outcry began from +all parts of the house, and seemed to be directed against our box; and I +perceived Madame Duchene, the Presidente of the Jacobins, heading the +legions of Paradise with peculiar animation. You may imagine we were not +a little terrified. I anxiously examined the dress of myself and my +companions, and observing nothing that could offend the affected +simplicity of the times, prepared to quit the house. A friendly voice, +however, exerting itself above the clamour, informed us that the +offensive objects were a cloak and a shawl which hung over the front of +the box.--You will scarcely suppose such grossness possible among a +civilized people; but the fact is, our friends are of the proscribed +class, and we were insulted because in their society.--I have before +noticed, that the guards which were stationed in the theatre before the +revolution are now removed, and a municipal officer, made conspicuous by +his scarf, is placed in the middle front box, and, in case of any tumult, +is empowered to call in the military to his assistance. + +We have this morning been visiting two objects, which exhibit this +country in very different points of view--as the seat of wealth, and the +abode of poverty. The first is the abbey of St. Vaast, a most superb +pile, now inhabited by monks of various orders, but who are preparing to +quit it, in obedience to the late decrees. Nothing impresses one with a +stronger idea of the influence of the Clergy, than these splendid +edifices. We see them reared amidst the solitude of deserts, and in the +gaiety and misery of cities; and while they cheer the one and embellish +the other, they exhibit, in both, monuments of indefatigable labour and +immense wealth.--The facade of St. Vaast is simple and striking, and the +cloisters and every other part of the building are extremely handsome. +The library is supposed to be the finest in France, except the King's, +but is now under the seal of the nation. A young monk, who was our +Cicerone, told us he was sorry it was not in his power to show it. _"Et +nous, Monsieur, nous sommes faches aussi."_--["And we are not less sorry +than yourself, Sir."] + +Thus, with the aid of significant looks, and gestures of disapprobation, +an exchange of sentiments took place, without a single expression of +treasonable import: both parties understood perfectly well, that in +regretting that the library was inaccessible, each included all the +circumstances which attended it.--A new church was building in a style +worthy of the convent--I think, near four hundred feet long; but it was +discontinued at the suppression of the religious orders, and will now, of +course, never be finished. + +From this abode of learned case and pious indolence Mr. de ____ conducted +us to the Mont de Piete, a national institution for lending money to the +poor on pledges, (at a moderate interest,) which, if not redeemed within +a year, are sold by auction, and the overplus, if there remain any, after +deducting the interest, is given to the owner of the pledge. Thousands +of small packets are deposited here, which, to the eye of affluence, +might seem the very refuse of beggary itself.--I could not reflect +without an heart-ache, on the distress of the individual, thus driven to +relinquish his last covering, braving cold to satisfy hunger, and +accumulating wretchedness by momentary relief. I saw, in a lower room, +groupes of unfortunate beings, depriving themselves of different parts of +their apparel, and watching with solicitude the arbitrary valuations; +others exchanging some article of necessity for one of a still greater-- +some in a state of intoxication, uttering execrations of despair; and all +exhibiting a picture of human nature depraved and miserable.--While I was +viewing this scene, I recalled the magnificent building we had just left, +and my first emotions were those of regret and censure. When we only +feel, and have not leisure to reflect, we are indignant that vast sums +should be expended on sumptuous edifices, and that the poor should live +in vice and want; yet the erection of St. Vaast must have maintained +great numbers of industrious hands; and perhaps the revenues of the abbey +may not, under its new possessors, be so well employed. When the +offerings and the tributes to religion are the support of the industrious +poor, it is their best appropriation; and he who gives labour for a day, +is a more useful benefactor than he who maintains in idleness for two. +--I could not help wishing that the poor might no longer be tempted by +the facility of a resource, which perhaps, in most instances, only +increases their distress.--It is an injudicious expedient to palliate an +evil, which great national works, and the encouragement of industry and +manufactures, might eradicate.* + + * In times of public commotion people frequently send their valuable + effects to the Mont de Piete, not only as being secure by its + strength, but as it is respected by the people, who are interested + in its preservation. + +--With these reflections I concluded mental peace with the monks of St. +Vaast, and would, had it depended upon me, have readily comprized the +finishing their great church in the treaty. + +The Primary Assemblies have already taken place in this department. We +happened to enter a church while the young Robespierre was haranguing to +an audience, very little respectable either in numbers or appearance. +They were, however, sufficiently unanimous, and made up in noisy applause +what they wanted in other respects. If the electors and elected of other +departments be of the same complexion with those of Arras, the new +Assembly will not, in any respect, be preferable to the old one. I have +reproached many of the people of this place, who, from their education +and property, have a right to take an interest in the public affairs, +with thus suffering themselves to be represented by the most desperate +and worthless individuals of the town. Their defence is, that they are +insulted and overpowered if they attend the popular meetings, and by +electing _"les gueux et les scelerats pour deputes,"_* they send them to +Paris, and secure their own local tranquillity. + + * The scrubs and scoundrels for deputies. + +--The first of these assertions is but too true, yet I cannot but think +the second a very dangerous experiment. They remove these turbulent and +needy adventurers from the direction of a club to that of government, and +procure a partial relief by contributing to the general ruin. + +Paris is said to be in extreme fermentation, and we are in some anxiety +for our friend M. P____, who was to go there from Montmorency last week. +I shall not close my letter till I have heard from him. + + + + +September 4. + +I resume my pen after a sleepless night, and with an oppression of mind +not to be described. Paris is the scene of proscription and massacres. +The prisoners, the clergy, the noblesse, all that are supposed inimical +to public faction, or the objects of private revenge, are sacrificed +without mercy. We are here in the utmost terror and consternation--we +know not the end nor the extent of these horrors, and every one is +anxious for himself or his friends. Our society consists mostly of +females, and we do not venture out, but hover together like the fowls of +heaven, when warned by a vague yet instinctive dread of the approaching +storm. We tremble at the sound of voices in the street, and cry, with +the agitation of Macbeth, "there's knocking at the gate." I do not +indeed envy, but I most sincerely regret, the peace and safety of +England.--I have no courage to add more, but will enclose a hasty +translation of the letter we received from M. P____, by last night's +post. Humanity cannot comment upon it without shuddering.--Ever Yours, +&c. + + +"Rue St. Honore, Sept. 2, 1792. + +"In a moment like this, I should be easily excused a breach of promise in +not writing; yet when I recollect the apprehension which the kindness of +my amiable friends will feel on my account, I determine, even amidst the +danger and desolation that surround me, to relieve them.--Would to Heaven +I had nothing more alarming to communicate than my own situation! I may +indeed suffer by accident; but thousands of wretched victims are at this +moment marked for sacrifice, and are massacred with an execrable +imitation of rule and order: a ferocious and cruel multitude, headed by +chosen assassins, are attacking the prisons, forcing the houses of the +noblesse and priests, and, after a horrid mockery of judicial +condemnation, execute them on the spot. The tocsin is rung, alarm guns +are fired, the streets resound with fearful shrieks, and an undefinable +sensation of terror seizes on one's heart. I feel that I have committed +an imprudence in venturing to Paris; but the barriers are now shut, and I +must abide the event. I know not to what these proscriptions tend, or if +all who are not their advocates are to be their victims; but an +ungovernable rage animates the people: many of them have papers in their +hands that seem to direct them to their objects, to whom they hurry in +crouds with an eager and savage fury.--I have just been obliged to quit +my pen. A cart had stopped near my lodgings, and my ears were assailed +by the groans of anguish, and the shouts of frantic exultation. +Uncertain whether to descend or remain, I, after a moment's deliberation, +concluded it would be better to have shown myself than to have appeared +to avoid it, in case the people should enter the house, and therefore +went down with the best show of courage I could assume.--I will draw a +veil over the scene that presented itself--nature revolts, and my fair +friends would shudder at the detail. Suffice it to say, that I saw cars, +loaded with the dead and dying, and driven by their yet ensanguined +murderers; one of whom, in a tone of exultation, cried, 'Here is a +glorious day for France!' I endeavoured to assent, though with a +faultering voice, and, as soon as they were passed escaped to my room. +You may imagine I shall not easily recover the shock I received.--At this +moment they say, the enemy are retreating from Verdun. At any other time +this would have been desirable, but at present one knows not what to wish +for. Most probably, the report is only spread with the humane hope of +appeasing the mob. They have already twice attacked the Temple; and I +tremble lest this asylum of fallen majesty should ere morning, be +violated. + +"Adieu--I know not if the courier will be permitted to depart; but, as I +believe the streets are not more unsafe than the houses, I shall make an +attempt to send this. I will write again in a few days. If to-morrow +should prove calm, I shall be engaged in enquiring after the fate of my +friends.--I beg my respects to Mons. And Mad. de ____; and entreat you +all to be as tranquil as such circumstances will permit.--You may be +certain of hearing any news that can give you pleasure immediately. I +have the honour to be," &c. &c. + + + + +Arras, September, 1792. + +You will in future, I believe, find me but a dull correspondent. The +natural timidity of my disposition, added to the dread which a native of +England has of any violation of domestic security, renders me unfit for +the scenes I am engaged in. I am become stupid and melancholy, and my +letters will partake of the oppression of my mind. + +At Paris, the massacres at the prisons are now over, but those in the +streets and in private houses still continue. Scarcely a post arrives +that does not inform M. de ____ of some friend or acquaintance being +sacrificed. Heaven knows where this is to end! + +We had, for two days, notice that, pursuant to a decree of the Assembly, +commissioners were expected here at night, and that the tocsin would be +rung for every body to deliver up their arms. We did not dare go to bed +on either of these nights, but merely lay down in our robes de chambre, +without attempting to sleep. This dreaded business is, however, past. +Parties of the Jacobins paraded the streets yesterday morning, and +disarmed all they thought proper. I observed they had lists in their +hands, and only went to such houses as have an external appearance of +property. Mr. de ____, who has been in the service thirty years, +delivered his arms to a boy, who behaved to him with the utmost +insolence, whilst we sat trembling and almost senseless with fear the +whole time they remained in the house; and could I give you an idea of +their appearance, you would think my terror very justifiable. It is, +indeed, strange and alarming, that all who have property should be +deprived of the means of defending either that or their lives, at a +moment when Paris is giving an example of tumult and assassination to +every other part of the kingdom. Knowing no good reason for such +procedure, it is very natural to suspect a bad one.--I think, on many +accounts, we are more exposed here than at ____, and as soon as we can +procure horses we shall depart.--The following is the translation of our +last letter from Mr. P____. + +"I promised my kind friends to write as soon as I should have any thing +satisfactory to communicate: but, alas! I have no hope of being the +harbinger of any thing but circumstances of a very different tendency. +I can only give you details of the horrors I have already generally +described. Carnage has not yet ceased; and is only become more cool and +more discriminating. All the mild characteristics annihilated; and a +frantic cruelty, which is dignified with the name of patriotism, has +usurped ever faculty, and banished both reason and mercy. + +"Mons. ____, whom I have hitherto known by reputation, as an upright, and +even humane man, had a brother shut up, with a number of other priests, +at the Carmes; and, by his situation and connections, he has such +influence as might, if exerted, have preserved the latter. The +unfortunate brother knowing this, found means, while hourly expecting his +fate, to convey a note to Mr. ____, begging he would immediately release, +and procure him an asylum. The messenger returned with an answer, that +Mons. ____ had no relations in the enemies of his country! + +"A few hours after, the massacres at the Carmes took place.--One Panis,* +who is in the Comite de Surveillance, had, a few days previous to these +dreadful events, become, I know not on what occasion, the depositary of a +large sum of money belonging to a gentleman of his section. + + * Panis has since figured on various occasions. He is a member of + the Convention, and was openly accused of having been an accomplice + in the robbery of the Garde Meuble. + +"A secret and frivolous denunciation was made the pretext for throwing +the owner of the money into prison, where he remained till September, +when his friends, recollecting his danger, flew to the Committee and +applied for his discharge. Unfortunately, the only member of the +Committee present was Panis. He promised to take measures for an +immediate release.--Perhaps he kept his word, but the release was cruel +and final--the prison was attacked, and the victim heard of no more.--You +will not be surprized at such occurrences when I tell you that G____,* +whom you must remember to have heard of as a Jacobin at ____, is +President of the Committee above mentioned--yes, an assassin is now the +protector of the public safety, and the commune of Paris the patron of a +criminal who has merited the gibbet. + + * G____ was afterwards elected (doubtless by a recommendation of the + Jacobins) Deputy for the department of Finisterre, to which he was + sent Commissioner by the Convention. On account of some + unwarrantable proceedings, and of some words that escaped him, which + gave rise to a suspicion that he was privy to the robbery of the + Garde Meuble, he was arrested by the municipality of Quimper + Corentin, of which place he is a native. The Jacobins applied for + his discharge, and for the punishment of the municipality; but the + Convention, who at that time rarely took any decisive measures, + ordered G____ to be liberated, but evaded the other part of the + petition which tended to revenge him. The affair of the Garde + Meuble, was, however, again brought forward; but, most probably, + many of the members had reasons for not discussing too nearly the + accusation against G____; and those who were not interested in + suppressing it, were too weak or too timid to pursue it farther. + +"--I know not if we are yet arrived at the climax of woe and iniquity, +but Brissot, Condorcet, Rolland, &c. and all those whose principles you +have reprobated as violent and dangerous, will now form the moderate side +of the Assembly. Perhaps even those who are now the party most dreaded, +may one day give place to yet more desperate leaders, and become in their +turn our best alternative. What will then be the situation of France? +Who can reflect without trembling at the prospect?--It is not yet safe to +walk the streets decently dressed; and I have been obliged to supply +myself with trowsers, a jacket, coloured neckcloths, and coarse linen, +which I take care to soil before I venture out. + +"The Agrarian law is now the moral of Paris, and I had nearly lost my +life yesterday by tearing a placard written in support of it. I did it +imprudently, not supposing I was observed; and had not some people, known +as Jacobins, come up and interfered in my behalf, the consequence might +have been fatal.--It would be difficult, and even impossible, to attempt +a description of the manners of the people of Paris at this moment: the +licentiousness common to great cities is decency compared with what +prevails in this; it has features of a peculiar and striking description, +and the general expression is that of a monstrous union of opposite +vices. Alternately dissolute and cruel, gay and vindictive, the Parisian +vaunts amidst debauchery the triumph of assassination, and enlivens his +midnight orgies by recounting the sufferings of the massacred +aristocrates: women, whose profession it is to please, assume the _bonnet +rouge_ [red cap], and affect, as a means of seduction, an intrepid and +ferocious courage.--I cannot yet learn if Mons. S____'s sister be alive; +her situation about the Queen makes it too doubtful; but endeavour to +give him hope--many may have escaped whose fears still detain them in +concealment. People of the first rank now inhabit garrets and cellars, +and those who appear are disguised beyond recollection; so that I do not +despair of the safety of some, who are now thought to have perished.-- +I am, as you may suppose, in haste to leave this place, and I hope to +return to Montmorency tomorrow; but every body is soliciting passports. +The Hotel de Ville is besieged, and I have already attended two days +without success.--I beg my respectful homage to Monsieur and Madame de +____; and I have the honour to be, with esteem, the affectionate servant +of my friends in general. + +"L____." + + +You will read M. L____'s letter with all the grief and indignation we +have already felt, and I will make no comment on it, but to give you a +slight sketch of the history of Guermeur, whom he mentions as being +President of the Committee of Surveillance.--In the absence of a man, +whom he called his friend, he seduced his wife, and eloped with her: the +husband overtook them, and fell in the dispute which insued; when +Guermeur, to avoid being taken by the officers of justice, abandoned his +companion to her fate, and escaped alone. After a variety of adventures, +he at length enlisted himself as a grenadier in the regiment of Dillon. +With much assurance, and talents cultivated above the situation in which +he appeared, he became popular amongst his fellow-soldiers, and the +military impunity, which is one effect of the revolution, cast a veil +over his former guilt, or rather indeed enabled him to defy the +punishment annexed to it. When the regiment was quartered at ____, he +frequented and harangued at the Jacobin club, perverted the minds of the +soldiers by seditious addresses, till at length he was deemed qualified +to quit the character of a subordinate incendiary, and figure amongst the +assassins at Paris. He had hitherto, I believe, acted without pay, for +he was deeply in debt, and without money or clothes; but a few days +previous to the tenth of August, a leader of the Jacobins supplied him +with both, paid his debts, procured his discharge, and sent him to Paris. +What intermediate gradations he may have passed through, I know not; but +it is not difficult to imagine the services that have advanced him to his +present situation.--It would be unsafe to risk this letter by the post, +and I close it hastily to avail myself of a present conveyance.--I +remain, Yours, &c. + + + + +Arras, September 14, 1792. + +The camp of Maulde is broken up, and we deferred our journey, that we +might pass a day at Douay with M. de ____'s son. The road within some +miles of that place is covered with corn and forage, the immediate +environs are begun to be inundated, and every thing wears the appearance +of impending hostility. The town is so full of troops, that without the +interest of our military friends we should scarcely have procured a +lodging. All was bustle and confusion, the enemy are very near, and the +French are preparing to form a camp under the walls. Amidst all this, we +found it difficult to satisfy our curiosity in viewing the churches and +pictures: some of the former are shut, and the latter concealed; we +therefore contented ourselves with seeing the principal ones. + +The town-house is a very handsome building, where the Parliament was +holden previous to the revolution, and where all the business of the +department of the North is now transacted.--In the council-chamber, which +is very elegantly carved, was also a picture of the present King. They +were, at the very moment of our entrance, in the act of displacing it. +We asked the reason, and were told it was to be cut in pieces, and +portions sent to the different popular societies.--I know not if our +features betrayed the indignation we feared to express, but the man who +seemed to have directed this disposal of the portrait, told us we were +not English if we saw it with regret. I was not much delighted with such +a compliment to our country, and was glad to escape without farther +comment. + +The manners of the people seem every where much changed, and are becoming +gross and inhuman. While we were walking on the ramparts, I happened to +have occasion to take down an address, and with the paper and pencil in +my hand turned out of the direct path to observe a chapel on one side of +it. In a moment I was alarmed by the cries of my companions, and beheld +the musquet of the centinel pointed at me, and M. de ____ expostulating +with him. I am not certain if he supposed I was taking a plan of the +fortifications, and meant really more than a threat; but I was +sufficiently frightened, and shall not again approach a town wall with +pencils and paper. + +M. de ____ is one of the only six officers of his regiment who have not +emigrated. With an indignation heated by the works of modern +philosophers into an enthusiastic love of republican governments, and +irritated by the contempt and opposition he has met with from those of +this own class who entertain different principles, he is now become +almost a fanatic. What at first was only a political opinion is now a +religious tenet; and the moderate sectary has acquired the obstinacy of a +martyr, and, perhaps, the spirit of persecution. At the beginning of the +revolution, the necessity of deciding, a youthful ardour for liberty, and +the desire of preserving his fortune, probably determined him to become a +patriot; and pride and resentment have given stability to notions which +might otherwise have fluctuated with circumstances, or yielded to time. +This is but too general the case: the friends of rational reform, and the +supporters of the ancient monarchy, have too deeply offended each other +for pardon or confidence; and the country perhaps will be sacrificed by +the mutual desertions of those most concerned in its preservation. +Actuated only by selfishness and revenge, each party willingly consents +to the ruin of its opponents. The Clergy, already divided among +themselves, are abandoned by the Noblesse--the Noblesse are persecuted by +the commercial interest--and, in short, the only union is amongst the +Jacobins; that is, amongst a few weak persons who are deceived, and a +banditti who betray and profit by their "patriotism." + +I was led to these reflections by my conversation with Mr. de L____ and +his companions. I believe they do not approve of the present extremes, +yet they expressed themselves with the utmost virulence against the +aristocrates, and would hear neither of reconcilement nor palliation. On +the other hand, these dispositions were not altogether unprovoked--the +young men had been persecuted by their relations, and banished the +society of their acquaintance; and their political opinions had acted as +an universal proscription. There were even some against whom the doors +of the parental habitation were shut.--These party violences are +terrible; and I was happy to perceive that the reciprocal claims of duty +and affection were not diminished by them, either in M. de ____, or his +son. He, however, at first refused to come to A____, because he +suspected the patriotism of our society. I pleaded, as an inducement, +the beauty of Mad. G____, but he told me she was an aristocrate. It was +at length, however, determined, that he should dine with us last Sunday, +and that all visitors should be excluded. He was prevented coming by +being ordered out with a party the day we left him; and he has written to +us in high spirits, to say, that, besides fulfilling his object, he had +returned with fifty prisoners. + +We had a very narrow escape in coming home--the Hulans were at the +village of ____, an hour after we passed through it, and treated the poor +inhabitants, as they usually do, with great inhumanity.--Nothing has +alienated the minds of the people so much as the cruelties of these +troops--they plunder and ill treat all they encounter; and their avarice +is even less insatiable than their barbarity. How hard is it, that the +ambition of the Chiefs, and the wickedness of faction, should thus fall +upon the innocent cottager, who perhaps is equally a stranger to the +names of the one, and the principles of the other! + +The public papers will now inform you, that the French are at liberty to +obtain a divorce on almost any pretext, or even on no pretext at all, +except what many may think a very good one--mutual agreement. A lady of +our acquaintance here is become a republican in consequence of the +decree, and probably will very soon avail herself of it; but this +conduct, I conceive, will not be very general. + +Much has been said of the gallantry of the French ladies, and not +entirely without reason; yet, though sometimes inconstant wives, they +are, for the most part, faithful friends--they sacrifice the husband +without forsaking him, and their common interest is always promoted with +as much zeal as the most inviolable attachment could inspire. Mad. de +C____, whom we often meet in company, is the wife of an emigrant, and is +said not to be absolutely disconsolate at his absence; yet she is +indefatigable in her efforts to supply him with money: she even risks her +safety by her solicitude, and has just now prevailed on her favourite +admirer to hasten his departure for the frontiers, in order to convey a +sum she has with much difficulty been raising. Such instances are, I +believe, not very rare; and as a Frenchman usually prefers his interest +to every thing else, and is not quite so unaccommodating as an +Englishman, an amicable arrangement takes place, and one seldom hears of +a separation. + +The inhabitants of Arras, with all their patriotism, are extremely averse +from the assignats; and it is with great reluctance that they consent to +receive them at two-thirds of their nominal value. This discredit of the +paper money has been now two months at a stand, and its rise or fall will +be determined by the success of the campaign.--I bid you adieu for the +last time from hence. We have already exceeded the proposed length of +our visit, and shall set out for St. Omer to-morrow.--Yours. + + + + +St. Omer, September, 1792. + +I am confined to my room by a slight indisposition, and, instead of +accompanying my friends, have taken up my pen to inform you that we are +thus far safe on our journey.--Do not, because you are surrounded by a +protecting element, smile at the idea of travelling forty or fifty miles +in safety. The light troops of the Austrian army penetrate so far, that +none of the roads on the frontier are entirely free from danger. My +female companions were alarmed the whole day--the young for their +baggage, and the old for themselves. + +The country between this and Arras has the appearance of a garden +cultivated for the common use of its inhabitants, and has all the +fertility and beauty of which a flat surface is susceptible. Bethune and +Aire I should suppose strongly fortified. I did not fail, in passing +through the former, to recollect with veneration the faithful minister of +Henry the Fourth. The misfortunes of the descendant of Henry, whom +Sully* loved, and the state of the kingdom he so much cherished, made a +stronger impression on me than usual, and I mingled with the tribute of +respect a sentiment of indignation. + + * Maximilien de Bethune, Duc de Sully. + +What perverse and malignant influence can have excited the people either +to incur or to suffer their present situation? Were we not well +acquainted with the arts of factions, the activity of bad men, and the +effect of their union, I should be almost tempted to believe this change +in the French supernatural. Less than three years ago, the name of Henri +Quatre was not uttered without enthusiasm. The piece that transmitted +the slightest anecdotes of his life was certain of success--the air that +celebrated him was listened to with delight--and the decorations of +beauty, when associated with the idea of this gallant Monarch, became +more irresistible.* + + * At this time it was the prevailing fashion to call any new + inventions of female dress after his name, and to decorate the + ornamental parts of furniture with his resemblance. + +Yet Henry the Fourth is now a tyrant--his pictures and statues are +destroyed, and his memory is execrated!--Those who have reduced the +French to this are, doubtless, base and designing intriguers; yet I +cannot acquit the people, who are thus wrought on, of unfeelingness and +levity.--England has had its revolutions; but the names of Henry the +Fifth and Elizabeth were still revered: and the regal monuments, which +still exist, after all the vicissitudes of our political principles, +attest the mildness of the English republicans. + +The last days of our stay at Arras were embittered by the distress of our +neighbour and acquaintance, Madame de B____. She has lost two sons under +circumstances so affecting, that I think you will be interested in the +relation.--The two young men were in the army, and quartered at +Perpignan, at a time when some effort of counter-revolution was said to +be intended. One of them was arrested as being concerned, and the other +surrendered himself prisoner to accompany his brother.--When the High +Court at Orleans was instituted for trying state-prisoners, those of +Perpignan were ordered to be conducted there, and the two B____'s, +chained together, were taken with the rest. On their arrival at Orleans, +their gaoler had mislaid the key that unlocked their fetters, and, not +finding it immediately, the young men produced one, which answered the +purpose, and released themselves. The gaoler looked at them with +surprize, and asked why, with such a means in their power, they had not +escaped in the night, or on the road. They replied, because they were +not culpable, and had no reason for avoiding a trial that would manifest +their innocence. Their heroism was fatal. They were brought, by a +decree of the Convention, from Orleans to Versailles, (on their way to +Paris,) where they were met by the mob, and massacred. + +Their unfortunate mother is yet ignorant of their fate; but we left her +in a state little preferable to that which will be the effect of +certainty. She saw the decree for transporting the prisoners from +Orleans, and all accounts of the result have been carefully concealed +from her; yet her anxious and enquiring looks at all who approach her, +indicate but too well her suspicion of the truth.--Mons. de ____'s +situation is indescribable. Informed of the death of his sons, he is yet +obliged to conceal his sufferings, and wear an appearance of tranquillity +in the presence of his wife. Sometimes he escapes, when unable to +contain his emotions any longer, and remains at M. de ____'s till he +recovers himself. He takes no notice of the subject of his grief, and we +respect it too much to attempt to console him. The last time I asked him +after Madame de ____, he told me her spirits were something better, and, +added he, in a voice almost suffocated, "She is amusing herself with +working neckcloths for her sons!"--When you reflect that the massacres at +Paris took place on the second and third of September, and that the +decree was passed to bring the prisoners from Orleans (where they were in +safety) on the tenth, I can say nothing that will add to the horror of +this transaction, or to your detestation of its cause. Sixty-two, mostly +people of high rank, fell victims to this barbarous policy: they were +brought in a fort of covered waggons, and were murdered in heaps without +being taken out.* + + * Perhaps the reader will be pleased at a discovery, which it would + have been unsafe to mention when made, or in the course of this + correspondence. The two young men here alluded to arrived at + Versailles, chained together, with their fellow-prisoners. + Surprize, perhaps admiration, had diverted the gaoler's attention + from demanding the key that opened their padlock, and it was still + in their possession. On entering Versailles, and observing the + crowd preparing to attack them, they divested themselves of their + fetters, and of every other incumbrance. In a few moments their + carriages were surrounded, their companions at one end were already + murdered, and themselves slightly wounded; but the confusion + increasing, they darted amidst the croud, and were in a moment + undistinguishable. They were afterwards taken under the protection + of an humane magistrate, who concealed them for some time, and they + are now in perfect security. They were the only two of the whole + number that escaped. + + + + +September, 1792. + +We passed a country so barren and uninteresting yesterday, that even a +professional traveller could not have made a single page of it. It was, +in every thing, a perfect contrast to the rich plains of Artois-- +unfertile, neglected vallies and hills, miserable farms, still more +miserable cottages, and scarcely any appearance of population. The only +place where we could refresh the horses was a small house, over the door +of which was the pompous designation of Hotel d'Angleterre. I know not +if this be intended as a ridicule on our country, or as an attraction to +our countrymen, but I, however, found something besides the appellation +which reminded me of England, and which one does not often find in houses +of a better outside; for though the rooms were small, and only two in +number, they were very clean, and the hostess was neat and civil. The +Hotel d'Angleterre, indeed, was not luxuriously supplied, and the whole +of our repast was eggs and tea, which we had brought with us.--In the +next room to that we occupied were two prisoners chained, whom the +officers were conveying to Arras, for the purpose of better security. +The secret history of this business is worth relating, as it marks the +character of the moment, and the ascendancy which the Jacobins are daily +acquiring. + +These men were apprehended as smugglers, under circumstances of peculiar +atrocity, and committed to the gaol at ____. A few days after, a young +girl, of bad character, who has much influence at the club, made a +motion, that the people, in a body, should demand the release of the +prisoners. The motion was carried, and the Hotel de Ville assailed by a +formidable troop of sailors, fish-women, &c.--The municipality refused to +comply, the Garde Nationale was called out, and, on the mob persisting, +fired over their heads, wounded a few, and the rest dispersed of +themselves.--Now you must understand, the latent motive of all this was +two thousand livres promised to one of the Jacobin leaders, if he +succeeded in procuring the men their liberty.--I do not advance this +merely on conjecture. The fact is well known to the municipality; and +the decent part of it would willingly have expelled this man, who is one +of their members, but that they found themselves too weak to engage in a +serious quarrel with the Jacobins.--One cannot reflect, without +apprehension, that any society should exist which can oppose the +execution of the laws with impunity, or that a people, who are little +sensible of realities, should be thus abused by names. They suffer, with +unfeeling patience, a thousand enormities--yet blindly risk their +liberties and lives to promote the designs of an adventurer, because he +harangues at a club, and calls himself a patriot.--I have just received +advice that my friends have left Lausanne, and are on their way to Paris. +Our first plan of passing the winter there will be imprudent, if not +impracticable, and we have concluded to take a house for the winter six +months at Amiens, Chantilly, or some place which has the reputation of +being quiet. I have already ordered enquiries to be made, and shall set +out with Mrs. ____ in a day or two for Amiens. I may, perhaps, not write +till our return; but shall not cease to be, with great truth.--Yours, &c. + + + + +Amiens, 1792. + +The departement de la Somme has the reputation of being a little +aristocratic. I know not how far this be merited, but the people are +certainly not enthusiasts. The villages we passed on our road hither +were very different from those on the frontiers--we were hailed by no +popular sounds, no cries of Vive la nation! except from here and there +some ragged boy in a red cap, who, from habit, associated this salutation +with the appearance of a carriage. In every place where there are half a +dozen houses is planted an unthriving tree of liberty, which seems to +wither under the baneful influence of the _bonnet rouge_. [The red cap.] +This Jacobin attribute is made of materials to resist the weather, and +may last some time; but the trees of liberty, being planted unseasonably, +are already dead. I hope this will not prove emblematic, and that the +power of the Jacobins may not outlive the freedom of the people. + +The Convention begin their labours under disagreeable auspices. A +general terror seems to have seized on the Parisians, the roads are +covered with carriages, and the inns filled with travellers. A new +regulation has just taken place, apparently intended to check this +restless spirit. At Abbeville, though we arrived late and were fatigued, +we were taken to the municipality, our passports collated with our +persons, and at the inn we were obliged to insert in a book our names, +the place of our birth, from whence we came, and where we were going. +This, you will say, has more the features of a mature Inquisition, than a +new-born Republic; but the French have different notions of liberty from +yours, and take these things very quietly.--At Flixecourt we eat out of +pewter spoons, and the people told us, with much inquietude, that they +had sold their plate, in expectation of a decree of the Convention to +take it from them. This decree, however, has not passed, but the alarm +is universal, and does not imply any great confidence in the new +government. + +I have had much difficulty in executing my commission, and have at last +fixed upon a house, of which I fear my friends will not approve; but the +panic which depopulates Paris, the bombardment of Lisle, and the +tranquillity which has hitherto prevailed here, has filled the town, and +rendered every kind of habitation scarce, and extravagantly dear: for you +must remark, that though the Amienois are all aristocrates, yet when an +intimidated sufferer of the same party flies from Paris, and seeks an +asylum amongst them, they calculate with much exactitude what they +suppose necessity may compel him to give, and will not take a livre +less.--The rent of houses and lodgings, like the national funds, rises +and falls with the public distresses, and, like them, is an object of +speculation: several persons to whom we were addressed were extremely +indifferent about letting their houses, alledging as a reason, that if +the disorders of Paris should increase, they had no doubt of letting them +to much greater advantage. + +We were at the theatre last night--it was opened for the first time since +France has been declared a republic, and the Jacobins vociferated loudly +to have the fleur de lys, ad other regal emblems, effaced. Obedience was +no sooner promised to this command, than it was succeeded by another not +quite so easily complied with--they insisted on having the Marsellois +Hymn sung. In vain did the manager, with a ludicrous sort of terror, +declare, that there were none of his company who had any voice, or who +knew either the words of the music of the hymn in question. _"C'est egal, +il faut chanter,"_ ["No matter for that, they must sing."] resounded from +all the patriots in the house. At last, finding the thing impossible, +they agreed to a compromise; and one of the actors promised to sing it on +the morrow, as well as the trifling impediment of having no voice would +permit him.--You think your galleries despotic when they call for an +epilogue that is forgotten, and the actress who should speak it is +undrest; or when they insist upon enlivening the last acts of Jane Shore +with Roast Beef! What would you think if they would not dispense with a +hornpipe on the tight-rope by Mrs. Webb? Yet, bating the danger, I +assure you, the audience of Amiens was equally unreasonable. But liberty +at present seems to be in an undefined state; and until our rulers shall +have determined what it is, the matter will continue to be settled as it +is now--by each man usurping as large a portion of tyranny as his +situation will admit of. He who submits without repining to his +district, to his municipality, or even to the club, domineers at the +theatre, or exercises in the street a manual censure on aristocratic +apparel.* + + *It was common at this time to insult women in the streets if + dressed too well, or in colours the people chose to call + aristocratic. I was myself nearly thrown down for having on a straw + bonnet with green ribbons. + +Our embarrassment for small change is renewed: many of the communes who +had issued bills of five, ten, and fifteen sols, repayable in assignats, +are become bankrupts, which circumstance has thrown such a discredit on +all this kind of nominal money, that the bills of one town will not pass +at another. The original creation of these bills was so limited, that no +town had half the number requisite for the circulation of its +neighbourhood; and this decrease, with the distrust that arises from the +occasion of it, greatly adds to the general inconvenience. + +The retreat of the Prussian army excites more surprize than interest, and +the people talk of it with as much indifference as they would of an event +that had happened beyond the Ganges. The siege of Lisle takes off all +attention from the relief of Thionville--not on account of its +importance, but on account of its novelty.--I remain, Yours, &c. + + + + +Abbeville, September, 1792. + +We left Amiens early yesterday morning, but were so much delayed by the +number of volunteers on the road, that it was late before we reached +Abbeville. I was at first somewhat alarmed at finding ourselves +surrounded by so formidable a cortege; they however only exacted a +declaration of our political principles, and we purchased our safety by a +few smiles, and exclamations of vive la nation! There were some hundreds +of these recruits much under twenty; but the poor fellows, exhilarated by +their new uniform and large pay, were going gaily to decide their fate by +that hazard which puts youth and age on a level, and scatters with +indiscriminating hand the cypress and the laurel. + +At Abbeville all the former precautions were renewed--we underwent +another solemn identification of our persons at the Hotel de Ville, and +an abstract of our history was again enregistered at the inn. One would +really suppose that the town was under apprehensions of a siege, or, at +least, of the plague. My "paper face" was examined as suspiciously as +though I had had the appearance of a travestied Achilles; and M____'s, +which has as little expression as a Chinese painting, was elaborately +scrutinized by a Dogberry in spectacles, who, perhaps, fancied she had +the features of a female Machiavel. All this was done with an air of +importance sufficiently ludicrous, when contrasted with the object; but +we met with no incivility, and had nothing to complain of but a little +additional fatigue, and the delay of our dinner. + +We stopped to change horses at Bernay, and I soon perceived our landlady +was a very ardent patriot. In a room, to which we waded at great risk of +our clothes, was a representation of the siege of the Bastille, and +prints of half a dozen American Generals, headed by Mr. Thomas Paine. On +descending, we found out hostess exhibiting a still more forcible picture +of curiosity than Shakspeare's blacksmith. The half-demolished repast +was cooling on the table, whilst our postilion retailed the Gazette, and +the pigs and ducks were amicably grazing together on whatever the kitchen +produced. The affairs of the Prussians and Austrians were discussed with +entire unanimity, but when these politicians, as is often the case, came +to adjust their own particular account, the conference was much less +harmonious. The postilion offered a ten sols billet, which the landlady +refused: one persisted in its validity, the other in rejecting it--till, +at last, the patriotism of neither could endure this proof, and peace was +concluded by a joint execration of those who invented this fichu papier-- +"Sorry paper." + +At ____ we met our friend, Mad. de ____, with part of her family and an +immense quantity of baggage. I was both surprized and alarmed at such an +apparition, and found, on enquiry, that they thought themselves unsafe at +Arras, and were going to reside near M. de ____'s estate, where they were +better known. I really began to doubt the prudence of our establishing +ourselves here for the winter. Every one who has it in his power +endeavours to emigrate, even those who till now have been zealous +supporters of the revolution.--Distrust and apprehension seem to have +taken possession of every mind. Those who are in towns fly to the +country, while the inhabitant of the isolated chateau takes refuge in the +neighbouring town. Flocks of both aristocrates and patriots are +trembling and fluttering at the foreboding storm, yet prefer to abide its +fury, rather than seek shelter and defence together. I, however, flatter +myself, that the new government will not justify this fear; and as I am +certain my friends will not return to England at this season, I shall not +endeavour to intimidate or discourage them from their present +arrangement. We shall, at least, be enabled to form some idea of a +republican constitution, and I do not, on reflection, conceive that any +possible harm can happen to us. + + + + +October, 1792. + +I shall not date from this place again, intending to quit it as soon as +possible. It is disturbed by the crouds from the camps, which are broken +up, and the soldiers are extremely brutal and insolent. So much are the +people already familiarized with the unnatural depravity of manners that +begins to prevail, that the wife of the Colonel of a battalion now here +walks the streets in a red cap, with pistols at her girdle, boasting of +the numbers she has destroyed at the massacres in August and September. + +The Convention talk of the King's trial as a decided measure; yet no one +seems to admit even the possibility that such an act can be ever +intended. A few believe him culpable, many think him misled, and many +acquit him totally: but all agree, that any violation of his person would +be an atrocity disgraceful to the nation at large.--The fate of Princes +is often disastrous in proportion to their virtues. The vanity, +selfishness, and bigotry of Louis the Fourteenth were flattered while he +lived, and procured him the appellation of Great after his death. The +greatest military talents that France has given birth to seemed created +to earn laurels, not for themselves, but for the brow of that +vain-glorious Monarch. Industry and Science toiled but for his +gratification, and Genius, forgetting its dignity, willingly received +from his award the same it has since bestowed. + +Louis the Fifteenth, who corrupted the people by his example, and ruined +them by his expence, knew no diminution of the loyalty, whatever he might +of the affection, of his people, and ended his days in the practice of +the same vices, and surrounded by the same luxury, in which he had passed +them. + +Louis the Sixteenth, to whom scarcely his enemies ascribe any vices, for +its outrages against whom faction finds no excuse but in the facility of +his nature--whose devotion is at once exemplary and tolerant--who, in an +age of licentiousness, is remarkable for the simplicity of his manners-- +whose amusements were liberal or inoffensive--and whose concessions to +his people form a striking contrast with the exactions of his +predecessors.--Yes, the Monarch I have been describing, and, I think, not +partially, has been overwhelmed with sorrow and indignities--his person +has been degraded, that he might be despoiled of his crown, and perhaps +the sacrifice of his crown may be followed by that of his life. When we +thus see the punishment of guilt accumulated on the head of him who has +not participated in it, and vice triumph in the security that should seem +the lot of innocence, we can only adduce new motives to fortify ourselves +in this great truth of our religion--that the chastisement of the one, +and reward of the other, must be looked for beyond the inflictions or +enjoyments of our present existence. + +I do not often moralize on paper, but there are moments when one derives +one's best consolation from so moralizing; and this easy and simple +justification of Providence, which refers all that appears inconsistent +here to the retribution of a future state, is pointed out less as the +duty than the happiness of mankind. This single argument of religion +solves every difficulty, and leaves the mind in fortitude and peace; +whilst the pride of sceptical philosophy traces whole volumes, only to +establish the doubts, and nourish the despair, of its disciples. + +Adieu. I cannot conclude better than with these reflections, at a time +when disbelief is something too fashionable even amongst our +countrymen.--Yours, &c. + + + + +Amiens, October, 1792. + +I arrived here the day on which a ball was given to celebrate the return +of the volunteers who had gone to the assistance of Lisle.* + + *The bombardment of Lisle commenced on the twenty-ninth of + September, at three o'clock in the afternoon, and continued, almost + without interruption, until the sixth of October. Many of the + public buildings, and whole quarters of the town, were so much + damaged or destroyed, that the situation of the streets were + scarcely distinguishable. The houses which the fire obliged their + inhabitants to abandon, were pillaged by barbarians, more merciless + than the Austrians themselves. Yet, amidst these accumulated + horrors, the Lillois not only preserved their courage, but their + presence of mind: the rich incited and encouraged the poor; those + who were unable to assist with their labour, rewarded with their + wealth: the men were employed in endeavouring to extinguish the fire + of the buildings, or in preserving their effects; while women and + children snatched the opportunity of extinguishing the fuzes of the + bombs as soon as they fell, at which they became very daring and + dexterous. During the whole of this dreadful period, not one + murmur, not one proposition to surrender, was heard from any party. + + --The Convention decreed, amidst the wildest enthusiasm of applause, + that Lisle had deserved well of the country. + + --Forty-two thousand five hundred balls were fired, and the damages + were estimated at forty millions of livres. + +The French, indeed, never refuse to rejoice when they are ordered; but as +these festivities are not spontaneous effusions, but official ordinances, +and regulated with the same method as a tax or recruitment, they are of +course languid and uninteresting. The whole of their hilarity seems to +consist in the movement of the dance, in which they are by not means +animated; and I have seen, even among the common people, a cotillion +performed as gravely and as mechanically as the ceremonies of a Chinese +court.--I have always thought, with Sterne, that we were mistaken in +supposing the French a gay nation. It is true, they laugh much, have +great gesticulation, and are extravagantly fond of dancing: but the laugh +is the effect of habit, and not of a risible sensation; the gesture is +not the agitation of the mind operating upon the body, but constitutional +volatility; and their love of dancing is merely the effect of a happy +climate, (which, though mild, does not enervate,) and that love of action +which usually accompanies mental vacancy, when it is not counteracted by +heat, or other physical causes. + +I know such an opinion, if publicly avowed, would be combated as false +and singular; yet I appeal to those who have at all studied the French +character, not as travellers, but by a residence amongst them, for the +support of my opinion. Every one who understands the language, and has +mixed much in society, must have made the same observations.--See two +Frenchmen at a distance, and the vehemence of their action, and the +expression of their features, shall make you conclude they are discussing +some subject, which not only interests, but delights them. Enquire, and +you will find they were talking of the weather, or the price of a +waistcoat!--In England you would be tempted to call in a peace-officer at +the loud tone and menacing attitudes with which two people here very +amicably adjust a bargain for five livres.--In short, we mistake that for +a mental quality which, in fact, is but a corporeal one; and, though the +French may have many good and agreeable points of character, I do not +include gaiety among the number. + +I doubt very much of my friends will approve of their habitation. I +confess I am by no means satisfied with it myself; and, with regard to +pecuniary consideration, my engagement is not an advantageous one. +--Madame Dorval, of whom I have taken the house, is a character very +common in France, and over which I was little calculated to have the +ascendant. Officiously polite in her manners, and inflexibly attentive +to her interest, she seemingly acquiesces in every thing you propose. +You would even fancy she was solicitous to serve you; yet, after a +thousand gracious sentiments, and as many implied eulogiums on her +liberality and generosity, you find her return, with unrelenting +perseverance, to some paltry proposition, by which she is to gain a few +livres; and all this so civilly, so sentimentally, and so determinedly, +that you find yourself obliged to yield, and are duped without being +deceived. + +The lower class have here, as well as on your side of the water, the +custom of attributing to Ministers and Governments some connection with, +or controul over, the operations of nature. I remarked to a woman who +brings me fruit, that the grapes were bad and dear this year--_"Ah! mon +Dieu, oui, ils ne murrissent pas. Il me semble que tout va mal depuis +qu'on a invente la nation."_ ["Ah! Lord, they don't ripen now.--For my +part, I think nothing has gone well since the nation was first +invented."] + +I cannot, like the imitators of Sterne, translate a chapter of sentiment +from every incident that occurs, or from every physiognomy I encounter; +yet, in circumstances like the present, the mind, not usually observing, +is tempted to comment.--I was in a milliner's shop to-day, and took +notice on my entering, that its mistress was, whilst at her work, +learning the _Marseillois_ Hymn. [A patriotic air, at this time highly +popular.] Before I had concluded my purchase, an officer came in to +prepare her for the reception of four volunteers, whom she was to lodge +the two ensuing nights. She assented, indeed, very graciously, (for a +French woman never loses the command of her features,) but a moment +after, the Marseillois, which lay on the counter, was thrown aside in a +pet, and I dare say she will not resume her patriotic taste, nor be +reconciled to the revolution, until some days after the volunteers shall +have changed their quarters. + +This quartering of troops in private houses appears to me the most +grievous and impolitic of all taxes; it adds embarrassment to expence, +invades domestic comfort, and conveys such an idea of military +subjection, that I wonder any people ever submits to it, or any +government ever ventures to impose it. + +I know not if the English are conscious of their own importance at this +moment, but it is certain they are the centre of the hopes and fears of +all parties, I might say of all Europe. The aristocrates wait with +anxiety and solicitude a declaration of war, whilst their opponents +regard such an event as pregnant with distress, and even as the signal of +their ruin. The body of the people of both parties are averse from +increasing the number of their enemies; but as the Convention may be +directed by other motives than the public wish, it is impossible to form +any conclusion on the subject. I am, of course, desirous of peace, and +should be so from selfishness, if I were not from philanthropy, as a +cessation of it at this time would disconcert all our plans, and oblige +us to seek refuge at ____, which has just all that is necessary for our +happiness, except what is most desirable--a mild and dry atmosphere.-- +Yours, &c. + + + + +Amiens, November, 1792. + +The arrival of my friends has occasioned a short suspension of my +correspondence: but though I have been negligent, I assure you, my dear +brother, I have not been forgetful; and this temporary preference of the +ties of friendship to those of nature, will be excused, when you consider +our long separation. + +My intimacy with Mrs. D____ began when I first came to this country, and +at every subsequent visit to the continent it has been renewed and +increased into that rational kind of attachment, which your sex seldom +allow in ours, though you yourselves do not abound in examples of it. +Mrs. D____ is one of those characters which are oftener loved than +admired--more agreeable than handsome--good-natured, humane, and +unassuming--and with no mental pretensions beyond common sense tolerably +well cultivated. The shades of this portraiture are an extreme of +delicacy, bordering on fastidiousness--a trifle of hauteur, not in +manners, but disposition--and, perhaps, a tincture of affectation. These +foibles are, however, in a great degree, constitutional: she is more an +invalid than myself; and ill health naturally increases irritability, and +renders the mind less disposed to bear with inconveniencies; we avoid +company at first, through a sense of our infirmities, till this timidity +becomes habitual, and settles almost into aversion.--The valetudinarian, +who is obliged to fly the world, in time fancies herself above it, and +ends by supposing there is some superiority in differing from other +people. Mr. D____ is one of the best men existing--well bred and well +informed; yet, without its appearing to the common observer, he is of a +very singular and original turn of mind. He is most exceedingly nervous, +and this effect of his physical construction has rendered him so +susceptible, that he is continually agitated and hurt by circumstances +which others pass by unnoticed. In other respects he is a great lover of +exercise, fond of domestic life, reads much, and has an aversion from +bustle of all kind. + +The banishment of the Priests, which in many instances was attended with +circumstances of peculiar atrocity, has not yet produced those effects +which were expected from it, and which the promoters of the measure +employed as a pretext for its adoption. There are indeed now no masses +said but by the Constitutional Clergy; but as the people are usually as +ingenious in evading laws as legislators are in forming them, many +persons, instead of attending the churches, which they think profaned by +priests who have taken the oaths, flock to church-yards, chapels, or +other places, once appropriated to religious worship, but in disuse since +the revolution, and of course not violated by constitutional masses. The +cemetery of St. Denis, at Amiens, though large, is on Sundays and +holidays so crouded, that it is almost difficult to enter it. Here the +devotees flock in all weathers, say their mass, and return with the +double satisfaction of having preserved their allegiance to the Pope, and +risked persecution in a cause they deem meritorious. To say truth, it is +not very surprizing that numbers should be prejudiced against the +constitutional clergy. Many of them are, I doubt not, liberal and +well-meaning men, who have preferred peace and submission to theological +warfare, and who might not think themselves justified in opposing their +opinion to a national decision: yet are there also many of profligate +lives, who were never educated for the profession, and whom the +circumstances of the times have tempted to embrace it as a trade, which +offered subsistence without labour, and influence without wealth, and +which at once supplied a veil for licentiousness, and the means of +practising it. Such pastors, it must be confessed, have little claim to +the confidence or respect of the people; and that there are such, I do +not assert, but on the most credible information. I will only cite two +instances out of many within my own knowledge. + +P____n, bishop of St. Omer, was originally a priest of Arras, of vicious +character, and many of his ordinations have been such as might be +expected from such a patron.--A man of Arras, who was only known for his +vicious pursuits, and who had the reputation of having accelerated the +death of his wife by ill treatment, applied to P____n to marry him a +second time. The good Bishop, preferring the interest of his friend to +the salvation of his flock, advised him to relinquish the project of +taking a wife, and offered to give him a cure. The proposal was accepted +on the spot, and this pious associate of the Reverend P____n was +immediately invested with the direction of the consciences, and the care +of the morals, of an extensive parish. + +Acts of this nature, it is to be imagined, were pursued by censure and +ridicule; but the latter was not often more successful than on the +following occasion:--Two young men, whose persons were unknown to the +bishop, one day procured an audience, and requested he would recommend +them to some employment that would procure them the means of subsistence. +This was just a time when the numerous vacancies that had taken place +were not yet supplied, and many livings were unfilled for want of +candidates. The Bishop, who was unwilling that the nonjuring priests +should have the triumph of seeing their benefices remain vacant, fell +into the snare, and proposed their taking orders. The young men +expressed their joy at the offer; but, after looking confusedly on each +other, with some difficulty and diffidence, confessed their lives had +been such as to preclude them from the profession, which, but for this +impediment, would have satisfied them beyond their hopes. The Bishop +very complaisantly endeavoured to obviate thesse objections, while they +continued to accuse themselves of all the sins in the decalogue; but the +Prelate at length observing he had ordained many worse, the young men +smiled contemptuously, and, turning on their heels, replied, that if +priests were made of worse men than they had described themselves to be, +they begged to be excused from associating with such company. + +Dumouriez, Custine, Biron, Dillon, &c. are doing wonders, in spite of the +season; but the laurel is an ever-green, and these heroes gather it +equally among the snows of the Alps, and the fogs of Belgium. If we may +credit the French papers too, what they call the cause of liberty is not +less successfully propagated by the pen than the sword. England is said +to be on the eve of a revolution, and all its inhabitants, except the +King and Mr. Pitt, become Jacobins. If I did not believe "the wish was +father to the thought," I should read these assertions with much +inquietude, as I have not yet discovered the excellencies of a republican +form of government sufficiently to make me wish it substituted for our +own.--It should seem that the Temple of Liberty, as well as the Temple of +Virtue, is placed on an ascent, and that as many inflexions and +retrogradations occur in endeavouring to attain it. In the ardour of +reaching these difficult acclivities, a fall sometimes leaves us lower +than the situation we first set out from; or, to speak without a figure, +so much power is exercised by our leaders, and so much submission exacted +from the people, that the French are in danger of becoming habituated to +a despotism which almost sanctifies the errors of their ancient monarchy, +while they suppose themselves in the pursuit of a degree of freedom more +sublime and more absolute than has been enjoyed by any other nation.-- +Attempts at political as well as moral perfection, when carried beyond +the limits compatible with a social state, or the weakness of our +natures, are likely to end in a depravity which moderate governments and +rational ethics would have prevented. + +The debates of the Convention are violent and acrimonious. Robespierre +has been accused of aspiring to the Dictatorship, and his defence was by +no means calculated to exonerate him from the charge. All the chiefs +reproach each other with being the authors of the late massacres, and +each succeeds better in fixing the imputation on his neighbour, than in +removing it from himself. General reprobation, personal invectives, and +long speeches, are not wanting; but every thing which tends to +examination and enquiry is treated with much more delicacy and composure: +so that I fear these first legislators of the republic must, for the +present, be content with the reputation they have assigned each other, +and rank amongst those who have all the guilt, but want the courage, of +assassins. + +I subjoin an extract from a newspaper, which has lately appeared.* + + *Extract from _The Courier de l'Egalite,_ November, 1792: + + "There are discontented people who still venture to obtrude their + sentiments on the public. One of them, in a public print, thus + expresses himself-- + + 'I assert, that the newspapers are sold and devoted to falsehood. + At this price they purchase the liberty of appearing; and the + exclusive privilege they enjoy, as well as the contradictory and + lying assertions they all contain, prove the truth of what I + advance. They are all preachers of liberty, yet never was liberty + so shamefully outraged--of respect for property, and property was at + no time so little held sacred--of personal security, yet when were + there committed so many massacres? and, at the very moment I am + writing, new ones are premeditated. They call vehemently for + submission, and obedience to the laws, but the laws had never less + influence; and while our compliance with such as we are even + ignorant of is exacted, it is accounted a crime to execute those in + force. Every municipality has its own arbitrary code--every + battalion, every private soldier, exercises a sovereignty, a most + absolute despotism; and yet the Gazettes do not cease to boast the + excellence of such a government. They have, one and all, attributed + the massacres of the tenth of August and the second of September, + and the days following each, to a popular fermentation. The + monsters! they have been careful not to tell us, that each of these + horrid scenes (at the prisons, at La Force, at the Abbaye, &c. &c.) + was presided by municipal officers in their scarfs, who pointed out + the victims, and gave the signal for the assassination. It was + (continue the Journals) the error of an irritated people--and yet + their magistrates were at the head of it: it was a momentary error; + yet this error of a moment continued during six whole days of the + coolest reflection--it was only at the close of the seventh that + Petion made his appearance, and affected to persuade the people to + desist. The assassins left off only from fatigue, and at this + moment they are preparing to begin again. The Journals do not tell + us that the chief of these _Scelerats_ [We have no term in the + English language that conveys an adequate meaning for this word--it + seems to express the extreme of human wickedness and atrocity.] + employed subordinate assassins, whom they caused to be clandestinely + murdered in their turn, as though they hoped to destroy the proof of + their crime, and escape the vengeance that awaits them. But the + people themselves were accomplices in the deed, for the Garde + Nationale gave their assistance,'" &c. &c. + +In spite of the murder of so many journalists, and the destruction of the +printing-offices, it treats the September business so freely, that the +editor will doubtless soon be silenced. Admitting these accusations to +be unfounded, what ideas must the people have of their magistrates, when +they are credited? It is the prepossession of the hearer that gives +authenticity to fiction; and such atrocities would neither be imputed to, +nor believed of, men not already bad.--Yours, &c. + + + + +December, 1792. + +Dear Brother, + +All the public prints still continue strongly to insinuate, that England +is prepared for an insurrection, and Scotland already in actual +rebellion: but I know the character of our countrymen too well to be +persuaded that they have adopted new principles as easily as they would +adopt a new mode, or that the visionary anarchists of the French +government can have made many proselytes among an humane and rational +people. For many years we were content to let France remain the +arbitress of the lighter departments of taste: lately she has ceded this +province to us, and England has dictated with uncontested superiority. +This I cannot think very strange; for the eye in time becomes fatigued by +elaborate finery, and requires only the introduction of simple elegance +to be attracted by it. But if, while we export fashions to this country, +we should receive in exchange her republican systems, it would be a +strange revolution indeed; and I think, in such a commerce, we should be +far from finding the balance in our favour. I have, in fact, little +solicitude about these diurnal falsehoods, though I am not altogether +free from alarm as to their tendency. I cannot help suspecting it is to +influence the people to a belief that such dispositions exist in England +as preclude the danger of a war, in case it should be thought necessary +to sacrifice the King. + +I am more confirmed in this opinion, from the recent discovery, with the +circumstances attending it, of a secret iron chest at the Tuilleries. +The man who had been employed to construct this recess, informs the +minister, Rolland; who, instead of communicating the matter to the +Convention, as it was very natural he should do on an occasion of so much +importance, and requiring it to be opened in the presence of proper +witnesses, goes privately himself, takes the papers found into his own +possession, and then makes an application for a committee to examine +them. Under these suspicious and mysterious appearances, we are told +that many letters, &c. are found, which inculpate the King; and perhaps +the fate of this unfortunate Monarch is to be decided by evidence not +admissible with justice in the case of the obscurest malefactor. Yet +Rolland is the hero of a party who call him, par excellence, the virtuous +Rolland! Perhaps you will think, with me, that this epithet is +misapplied to a man who has risen, from an obscure situation to that of +first Minister, without being possessed of talents of that brilliant or +prominent class which sometimes force themselves into notice, without the +aid of wealth or the support of patronage. + +Rolland was inspector of manufactories in this place, and afterwards at +Lyons; and I do not go too far in advancing, that a man of very rigid +virtue could not, from such a station, have attained so suddenly the one +he now possesses. Virtue is of an unvarying and inflexible nature: it +disdains as much to be the flatterer of mobs, as the adulator of Princes: +yet how often must he, who rises so far above his equals, have stooped +below them? How often must he have sacrificed both his reason and his +principles? How often have yielded to the little, and opposed the great, +not from conviction, but interest? For in this the meanest of mankind +resemble the most exalted; he bestows not his confidence on him who +resists his will, nor subscribes to the advancement of one whom he does +not hope to influence.--I may almost venture to add, that more +dissimulation, meaner concessions, and more tortuous policy, are +requisite to become the idol of the people, than are practised to acquire +and preserve the favour of the most potent Monarch in Europe. The +French, however, do not argue in this manner, and Rolland is at present +very popular, and his popularity is said to be greatly supported by the +literary talents of his wife. + +I know not if you rightly understand these party distinctions among a set +of men whom you must regard as united in the common cause of establishing +a republic in France, but you have sometimes had occasion to remark in +England, that many may amicably concur in the accomplishment of a work, +who differ extremely about the participation of its advantages; and this +is already the case with the Convention. Those who at present possess +all the power, and are infinitely the strongest, are wits, moralists, and +philosophers by profession, having Brissot, Rolland, Petion, Concorcet, +&c. at their head; their opponents are adventurers of a more desperate +cast, who make up by violence what they want in numbers, and are led by +Robespierre, Danton, Chabot, &c. &c. The only distinction of these +parties is, I believe, that the first are vain and systematical +hypocrites, who have originally corrupted the minds of the people by +visionary and insidious doctrines, and now maintain their superiority by +artifice and intrigue: their opponents, equally wicked, and more daring, +justify that turpitude which the others seek to disguise, and appear +almost as bad as they are. The credulous people are duped by both; while +the cunning of the one, and the vehemence of the other, alternately +prevail.--But something too much of politics, as my design is in general +rather to mark their effect on the people, than to enter on more +immediate discussions. + +Having been at the Criminal Tribunal to-day, I now recollect that I have +never yet described to you the costume of the French Judges.--Perhaps +when I have before had occasion to speak of it, your imagination may have +glided to Westminster Hall, and depicted to you the scarlet robes and +voluminous wigs of its respectable magistrates: but if you would form an +idea of a magistrate here, you must bring your mind to the abstraction of +Crambo, and figure to yourself a Judge without either gown, wig, or any +of those venerable appendages. Nothing indeed can be more becoming or +gallant, than this judicial accoutrement--it is black, with a silk cloak +of the same colour, in the Spanish form, and a round hat, turned up +before, with a large plume of black feathers. This, when the magistrate +happens to be young, has a very theatrical and romantic appearance; but +when it is worn by a figure a little Esopian, or with a large bushy +perriwig, as I have sometimes seen it, the effect is still less awful; +and a stranger, on seeing such an apparition in the street, is tempted to +suppose it a period of jubilee, and that the inhabitants are in +masquerade. + +It is now the custom for all people to address each other by the +appellation of Citizen; and whether you are a citizen or not--whether you +inhabit Paris, or are a native of Peru--still it is an indication of +aristocracy, either to exact, or to use, any other title. This is all +congruous with the system of the day: the abuses are real, the reform is +imaginary. The people are flattered with sounds, while they are losing +in essentials. And the permission to apply the appellation of Citizen to +its members, is but a poor compensation for the despotism of a department +or a municipality. + +In vain are the people flattered with a chimerical equality--it cannot +exist in a civilized state, and if it could exist any where, it would not +be in France. The French are habituated to subordination--they naturally +look up to something superior--and when one class is degraded, it is only +to give place to another. + +--The pride of the noblesse is succeeded by the pride of the merchant-- +the influence of wealth is again realized by cheap purchases of the +national domains--the abandoned abbey becomes the delight of the opulent +trader, and replaces the demolished chateau of the feudal institution. +Full of the importance which the commercial interest is to acquire under +a republic, the wealthy man of business is easily reconciled to the +oppression of the superior classes, and enjoys, with great dignity, his +new elevation. The counting-house of a manufacturer of woollen cloth is +as inaccessible as the boudoir of a Marquis; while the flowered brocade +gown and well-powdered curls of the former offer a much more imposing +exterior than the chintz robe de chambre and dishevelled locks of the +more affable man of fashion. + +I have read, in some French author, a maxim to this effect:--"Act with +your friends as though they should one day be your enemies;" and the +existing government seems amply to have profited by the admonition of +their country-man: for notwithstanding they affirm, that all France +supports, and all England admires them, this does not prevent their +exercising a most vigilant inquisition over the inhabitants of both +countries.--It is already sagaciously hinted, that Mr. Thomas Paine may +be a spy, and every householder who receives a lodger or visitor, and +every proprietor who lets a house, is obliged to register the names of +those he entertains, or who are his tenants, and to become responsible +for their conduct. This is done at the municipality, and all who thus +venture to change their residence, of whatever age, sex, or condition, +must present themselves, and submit to an examination. The power of the +municipalities is indeed very great; and as they are chiefly selected +from the lower class of shop-keepers, you may conclude that their +authority is not exercised with much politeness or moderation. + +The timid or indolent inhabitant of London, whose head has been filled +with the Bastilles and police of the ancient government, and who would as +soon have ventured to Constantinople as to Paris, reads, in the debates +of the Convention, that France is now the freeest country in the world, +and that strangers from all corners of it flock to offer their adorations +in this new Temple of Liberty. Allured by these descriptions, he +resolves on the journey, willing, for once in his life, to enjoy a taste +of the blessing in sublimate, which he now learns has hitherto been +allowed him only in the gross element.--He experiences a thousand +impositions on landing with his baggage at Calais, but he submits to them +without murmuring, because his countrymen at Dover had, on his +embarkation, already kindly initiated him into this science of taxing the +inquisitive spirit of travellers. After inscribing his name, and +rewarding the custom-house officers for rummaging his portmanteau, he +determines to amuse himself with a walk about the town. The first +centinel he encounters stops him, because he has no cockade: he purchases +one at the next shop, (paying according to the exigency of the case,) and +is suffered to pass on. When he has settled his bill at the Auberge "a +l'Angloise," and emagines he has nothing to do but to pursue his journey, +he finds he has yet to procure himself a passport. He waits an hour and +an half for an officer, who at length appears, and with a rule in one +hand, and a pen in the other, begins to measure the height, and take an +inventory of the features of the astonished stranger. By the time this +ceremony is finished, the gates are shut, and he can proceed no farther, +till the morrow. He departs early, and is awakened twice on the road to +Boulogne to produce his passport: still, however, he keeps his temper, +concluding, that the new light has not yet made its way to the frontiers, +and that these troublesome precautions may be necessary near a port. He +continues his route, and, by degrees, becomes habituated to this regimen +of liberty; till, perhaps, on the second day, the validity of his +passport is disputed, the municipality who granted it have the reputation +of aristocracy, or the whole is informal, and he must be content to wait +while a messenger is dispatched to have it rectified, and the officers +establish the severity of their patriotism at the expence of the +stranger. + +Our traveller, at length, permitted to depart, feels his patience +wonderfully diminished, execrates the regulations of the coast, and the +ignorance of small towns, and determines to stop a few days and observe +the progress of freedom at Ameins. Being a large commercial place, he +here expects to behold all the happy effects of the new constitution; he +congratulates himself on travelling at a period when he can procure +information, and discuss his political opinions, unannoyed by fears of +state prisons, and spies of the police. His landlord, however, acquaints +him, that his appearance at the Town House cannot be dispensed with--he +attends three or four different hours of appointment, and is each time +sent away, (after waiting half an hour with the valets de ville in the +antichamber,) and told that the municipal officers are engaged. As an +Englishman, he has little relish for these subordinate sovereigns, and +difficult audiences--he hints at the next coffee-house that he had +imagined a stranger might have rested two days in a free country, without +being measured, and questioned, and without detailing his history, as +though he were suspected of desertion; and ventures on some implied +comparison between the ancient "Monsieur le Commandant," and the modern +"Citoyen Maire."--To his utter astonishment he finds, that though there +are no longer emissaries of the police, there are Jacobin informers; his +discourse is reported to the municipality, his business in the town +becomes the subject of conjecture, he is concluded to be _"un homme sans +aveu,"_ [One that can't give a good account of himself.] and arrested as +"suspect;" and it is not without the interference of the people to whom +he may have been recommended at Paris, that he is released, and enabled +to continue his journey. + +At Paris he lives in perpetual alarm. One night he is disturbed by a +visite domiciliaire, another by a riot--one day the people are in +insurrection for bread, and the next murdering each other at a public +festival; and our country-man, even after making every allowance for the +confusion of a recent change, thinks himself very fortunate if he reaches +England in safety, and will, for the rest of his life, be satisfied with +such a degree of liberty as is secured to him by the constitution of his +own country. + +You see I have no design of tempting you to pay us a visit; and, to speak +the truth, I think those who are in England will show their wisdom by +remaining there. Nothing but the state of Mrs. D____'s health, and her +dread of the sea at this time of the year, detains us; for every day +subtracts from my courage, and adds to my apprehensions. + +--Yours, &c. + + + + + + + +1793 + +Amiens, January, 1793. + +Vanity, I believe, my dear brother, is not so innoxious a quality as we +are desirous of supposing. As it is the most general of all human +failings, so is it regarded with the most indulgence: a latent +consciousness averts the censure of the weak; and the wise, who flatter +themselves with being exempt from it, plead in its favour, by ranking it +as a foible too light for serious condemnation, or too inoffensive for +punishment. Yet, if vanity be not an actual vice, it is certainly a +potential one--it often leads us to seek reputation rather than virtue, +to substitute appearances for realities, and to prefer the eulogiums of +the world to the approbation of our own minds. When it takes possession +of an uninformed or an ill-constituted mind, it becomes the source of a +thousand errors, and a thousand absurdities. Hence, youth seeks a +preeminence in vice, and age in folly; hence, many boast of errors they +would not commit, or claim distinction by investing themselves with an +imputation of excess in some popular absurdity--duels are courted by the +daring, and vaunted by the coward--he who trembles at the idea of death +and a future state when alone, proclaims himself an atheist or a +free-thinker in public--the water-drinker, who suffers the penitence of +a week for a supernumerary glass, recounts the wonders of his +intemperance--and he who does not mount the gentlest animal without +trepidation, plumes himself on breaking down horses, and his perils in +the chace. In short, whatever order of mankind we contemplate, we shall +perceive that the portion of vanity allotted us by nature, when it is +not corrected by a sound judgement, and rendered subservient to useful +purposes, is sure either to degrade or mislead us. + +I was led into this train of reflection by the conduct of our +Anglo-Gallican legislator, Mr. Thomas Paine. He has lately composed a +speech, which was translated and read in his presence, (doubtless to his +great satisfaction,) in which he insists with much vehemence on the +necessity of trying the King; and he even, with little credit to his +humanity, gives intimations of presumed guilt. Yet I do not suspect Mr. +Paine to be of a cruel or unmerciful nature; and, most probably, vanity +alone has instigated him to a proceeding which, one would wish to +believe, his heart disapproves. Tired of the part he was playing, and +which, it must be confessed, was not calculated to flatter the censurer +of Kings and the reformer of constitutions, he determined to sit no +longer for whole hours in colloquy with his interpreter, or in mute +contemplation, like the Chancellor in the Critic; and the speech to +which I have alluded was composed. Knowing that lenient opinions would +meet no applause from the tribunes, he inlists himself on the side of +severity, accuses all the Princes in the world as the accomplices of +Louis the Sixteenth, expresses his desire for an universal revolution, +and, after previously assuring the Convention the King is guilty, +recommends that they may instantly proceed to his trial. But, after all +this tremendous eloquence, perhaps Mr. Paine had no malice in his heart: +he may only be solicitous to preserve his reputation from decay, and to +indulge his self-importance by assisting at the trial of a Monarch whom +he may not wish to suffer.--I think, therefore, I am not wrong in +asserting, that Vanity is a very mischievous counsellor. + +The little distresses I formerly complained of, as arising from the paper +currency, are nearly removed by a plentiful emission of small assignats, +and we have now pompous assignments on the national domains for ten sols: +we have, likewise, pieces coined from the church bells in circulation, +but most of these disappear as soon as issued. You would scarcely +imagine that this copper is deemed worthy to be hoarded; yet such is the +people's aversion from the paper, and such their mistrust of the +government, that not an housewife will part with one of these pieces +while she has an assignat in her possession; and those who are rich +enough to keep a few livres by them, amass and bury this copper treasure +with the utmost solicitude and secresy. + +A tolerably accurate scale of the national confidence might be made, by +marking the progress of these suspicious interments. Under the first +Assembly, people began to hide their gold; during the reign of the second +they took the same affectionate care of their silver; and, since the +meeting of the Convention, they seem equally anxious to hide any metal +they can get. If one were to describe the present age, one might, as far +as regards France, call it, both literally and metaphorically, the Iron +Age; for it is certain, the character of the times would justify the +metaphoric application, and the disappearance of every other metal the +literal one. As the French are fond of classic examples, I shall not be +surprized to see an iron coinage, in imitation of Sparta, though they +seem in the way of having one reason less for such a measure than the +Spartans had, for they are already in a state to defy corruption; and if +they were not, I think a war with England would secure the purity of +their morals from being endangered by too much commercial intercourse. + +I cannot be displeased with the civil things you say of my letters, nor +at your valuing them so much as to preserve them; though, I assure you, +this fraternal gallantry is not necessary, on the account you intimate, +nor will our countrymen suffer, in my opinion, by any comparisons I can +make here. Your ideas of French gallantry are, indeed, very erroneous-- +it may differ in the manner from that practised in England, but is far +from having any claim to superiority. Perhaps I cannot define the +pretensions of the two nations in this respect better than by saying, +that the gallantry of an Englishman is a sentiment--that of a Frenchman a +system. The first, if a lady happen to be old or plain, or indifferent +to him, is apt to limit his attentions to respect, or utility--now the +latter never troubles himself with these distinctions: he is repulsed by +no extremity of years, nor deformity of feature; he adores, with equal +ardour, both young and old, nor is either often shocked by his visible +preference of the other. I have seen a youthful beau kiss, with perfect +devotion, a ball of cotton dropped from the hand of a lady who was +knitting stockings for her grand-children. Another pays his court to a +belle in her climacteric, by bringing _gimblettes_ [A sort of +gingerbread.] to the favourite lap-dog, or attending, with great +assiduity, the egresses and regresses of her angola, who paces slowly out +of the room ten times in an hour, while the door is held open by the +complaisant Frenchman with a most respectful gravity. + +Thus, you see, France is to the old what a masquerade is to the ugly +--the one confounds the disparity of age as the other does that of +person; but indiscriminate adoration is no compliment to youth, nor is a +mask any privilege to beauty. We may therefore conclude, that though +France may be the Elysium of old women, England is that of the young. +When I first came into this country, it reminded me of an island I had +read of in the Arabian Tales, where the ladies were not deemed in their +bloom till they verged towards seventy; and I conceived the project of +inviting all the belles, who had been half a century out of fashion in +England, to cross the Channel, and begin a new career of admiration!-- +Yours, &c. + + + + +Amiens, 1793. + +Dear Brother, + +I have thought it hitherto a self evident proposition--that of all the +principles which can be inculcated in the human mind, that of liberty is +least susceptible of propagation by force. Yet a Council of Philosophers +(disciples of Rousseau and Voltaire) have sent forth Dumouriez, at the +head of an hundred thousand men, to instruct the people of Flanders in +the doctrine of freedom. Such a missionary is indeed invincible, and the +defenceless towns of the Low Countries have been converted and pillaged +[By the civil agents of the executive power.] by a benevolent crusade of +the philanthropic assertors of the rights of man. These warlike +Propagandistes, however, do not always convince without experiencing +resistance, and ignorance sometimes opposes, with great obstinacy, the +progress of truth. The logic of Dumouriez did not enforce conviction at +Gemappe, but at the expence of fifteen thousand of his own army, and, +doubtless, a proportionate number of the unconverted. + +Here let me forbear every expression tending to levity: the heart recoils +at such a slaughter of human victims; and, if a momentary smile be +excited by these Quixotisms, it is checked by horror at their +consequences!--Humanity will lament such destruction; but it will +likewise be indignant to learn, that, in the official account of this +battle, the killed were estimated at three hundred, and the wounded at +six!--But, if the people be sacrificed, they are not deceived. The +disabled sufferers, who are returning to their homes in different parts +of the republic, betray the turpitude of the government, and expose the +fallacy of these bloodless victories of the gazettes. The pedants of the +Convention are not unlearned in the history of the Praetorian Bands and +the omnipotence of armies; and an offensive war is undertaken to give +occupation to the soldiers, whose inactivity might produce reflection, or +whose discontent might prove fatal to the new order of things.--Attempts +are made to divert the public mind from the real misery experienced at +home, by relations of useless conquests abroad; the substantial losses, +which are the price of these imaginary benefits, are palliated or +concealed; and the circumstances of an engagement is known but by +individual communication, and when subsequent events have nearly effaced +the remembrance of it.--By these artifices, and from motives at least not +better, and, perhaps, worse than those I have mentioned, will population +be diminished, and agriculture impeded: France will be involved in +present distress, and consigned to future want; and the deluded people be +punished in the miseries of their own country, because their unprincipled +rulers have judged it expedient to carry war and devastation into +another. + +One of the distinguishing features in the French character is _sang froid_ +--scarcely a day passes that it does not force itself on one's +observation. It is not confined to the thinking part of the people, who +know that passion and irritability avail nothing; nor to those who, not +thinking at all, are, of course, not moved by any thing: but is equally +possessed by every rank and condition, whether you class them by their +mental endowments, or their temporal possessions. They not only (as, it +must be confessed, is too commonly the case in all countries,) bear the +calamities of their friends with great philosophy, but are nearly as +reasonable under the pressure of their own. The grief of a Frenchman, +at least, partakes of his imputed national complaisance, and, far from +intruding itself on society, is always ready to accept of consolation, +and join in amusement. If you say your wife or relations are dead, they +replay coldly, _"Il faut se consoler:"_ or if they visit you in an +illness, _"Il faut prendre patience."_ Or tell them you are ruined, and +their features then become something more attenuated, the shoulders +something more elevated, and a more commiserating tone confesses, _"C'est +bien mal beureux--Mai enfin que voulez vous?"_ ["It's unlucky, but what +can be said in such cases?"] and in the same instant they ill recount +some good fortune at a card party, or expatiate on the excellence of a +ragout.--Yet, to do them justice, they only offer for your comfort the +same arguments they would have found efficacious in promoting their own. + +This disposition, which preserves the tranquillity of the rich, indurates +the sense of wretchedness in the poor; it supplies the place of fortitude +in the one, and that of patience in the other; and, while it enables both +to endure their own particular distresses, it makes them submit quietly +to a weight and excess of public evils, which any nation but their own +would sink under, or resist. Amongst shopkeepers, servants, &c. without +incurring personal odium, it has the effect of what would be deemed in +England impenetrable assurance. It forces pertinaceously an article not +wanted, and preserves the inflexibility of the features at a detected +imposition: it inspires servants with arguments in defence of every +misdemeanour in the whole domestic catalogue; it renders them insensible +either of their negligences or the consequences of them; and endows them +with a happy facility of contradicting with the most obsequious +politeness. + +A gentleman of our acquaintances dined at a table d'Hote, where the +company were annoyed by a very uncommon and offensive smell. On cutting +up a fowl, they discovered the smell to have been occasioned by its being +dressed with out any other preparation than that of depluming. They +immediately sent for the host, and told him, that the fowl had been +dressed without having been drawn: but, far from appearing disconcerted, +as one might expect, he only replied, _"Cela se pourroit bien, +Monsieur."_ ["'Tis very possible, Sir."] Now an English Boniface, even +though he had already made his fortune, would have been mortified at such +an incident, and all his eloquence would scarcely have produced an +unfaultering apology. + +Whether this national indifference originate in a physical or a moral +cause, from an obtuseness in their corporeal formation or a perfection in +their intellectual one, I do not pretend to decide; but whatever be the +cause, the effect is enjoyed with great modesty. So little do the French +pique themselves on this valuable stoicism, that they acknowledge being +more subject to that human weakness called feeling, than any other people +in the world. All their writers abound in pathetic exclamations, +sentimental phrases, and allusions to "la sensibilite Francaise," as +though they imagined it proverbial. You can scarcely hold a conversation +with a Frenchman without hearing him detail, with an expression of +feature not always analogous, many very affecting sentences. He is +_desole, desespere, or afflige_--he has _le coeur trop sensible, le coeur +serre, or le coeur navre;_ [Afflicted--in despair--too feeling a heart-- +his heart is wrung or wounded.] and the well-placing of these dolorous +assertions depends rather upon the judgement and eloquence of the +speaker, than the seriousness of the case which gives rise to them. For +instance, the despair and desolation of him who has lost his money, and +of him whose head is ill drest, are of different degrees, but the +expressions are usually the same. The debates of the Convention, the +debates of the Jacobins, and all the public prints, are fraught with +proofs of this appropriated susceptibility, and it is often attributed to +persons and occasions where we should not much expect to find it. A +quarrel between the legislators as to who was most concerned in promoting +the massacres of September, is reconciled with a "sweet and enthusiastic +excess of fraternal tenderness." When the clubs dispute on the +expediency of an insurrection, or the necessity of a more frequent +employment of the guillotine, the debate terminates by overflowing of +sensibility from all the members who have engaged in it! + +At the assassinations in one of the prisons, when all the other miserable +victims had perished, the mob discovered one Jonneau, a member of the +Assembly, who had been confined for kicking another member named +Grangeneuve.* As the massacrers probably had no orders on the subject, +he was brought forth, from amidst heaps of murdered companions, and a +messenger dispatched to the Assembly, (which during these scenes met as +usual,) to enquire if they acknowledged Jonneau as a member. A decree +was passed in the affirmative, and Jonneau brought by the assassins, with +the decree fastened on his breast, in triumph to his colleagues, who, we +are told, at this instance of respect for themselves, shed tears of +tenderness and admiration at the conduct of monsters, the sight of whom +should seem revolting to human nature. + + * When the massacres began, the wife and friends of Jonneau + petitioned Grangeneuve on their knees to consent to his enlargement; + but Grangeneuve was implacable, and Jonneau continued in prison till + released by the means above mentioned. It is observable, that at + this dreadful moment the utmost strictness was observed, and every + form literally enforced in granting the discharge of a prisoner. A + suspension of all laws, human and divine, was allowed to the + assassins, while those only that secured them their victims were + rigidly adhered to. + +Perhaps the real sang froid I have before noticed, and these pretensions +to sensibility, are a natural consequence one or the other. It is the +history of the beast's confession--we have only to be particularly +deficient in any quality, to make us solicitous for the reputation of it; +and after a long habit of deceiving others we finish by deceiving +ourselves. He who feels no compassion for the distresses of his +neighbour, knows that such indifference is not very estimable; he +therefore studies to disguise the coldness of his heart by the +exaggeration of his language, and supplies, by an affected excess of +sentiment, the total absence of it.--The gods have not (as you know) made +me poetical, nor do I often tax your patience with a simile, but I think +this French sensibility is to genuine feeling, what their paste is to the +diamond--it gratifies the vanity of the wearer, and deceives the eye of +the superficial observer, but is of little use or value, and when tried +by the fire of adversity quickly disappears. + +You are not much obliged to me for this long letter, as I own I have +scribbled rather for my own amusement than with a view to yours.-- +Contrary to our expectation, the trial of the King has begun; and, though +I cannot properly be said to have any real interest in the affairs of +this country, I take a very sincere one in the fate of its unfortunate +Monarch--indeed our whole house has worn an appearance of dejection since +the commencement of the business. Most people seem to expect it will +terminate favourably, and, I believe, there are few who do not wish it. +Even the Convention seem at present disposed to be merciful; and as they +judge now, so may they be judged hereafter! + +--Yours. + + + + +Amiens, January 1793. + +I do all possible justice to the liberality of my countrymen, who are +become such passionate admirers of the French; and I cannot but lament +their having been so unfortunate in the choice of the aera from whence +they date this new friendship. It is, however, a proof, that their +regards are not much the effect of that kind of vanity which esteems +objects in proportion as they are esteemed by the rest of the world; and +the sincerity of an attachment cannot be better evinced than by its +surviving irretrievable disgrace and universal abhorrence. Many will +swell the triumph of a hero, or add a trophy to his tomb; but he who +exhibits himself with a culprit at the gallows, or decorates the gibbet +with a wreath, is a friend indeed. + +If ever the character of a people were repugnant to amity, or inimical to +connection, it is that of the French for the last three years.--* + + * The editor of the _Courier de l'Egalite,_ a most decided patriot, + thus expresses himself on the injuries and insults received by the + King from the Parisians, and their municipality, previous to his + trial: + + "I know that Louis is guilty--but are we to double his punishment + before it is pronounced by the law? Indeed one is tempted to say + that, instead of being guided by the humanity and philosophy which + dictated the revolution, we have taken lessons of barbarity from the + most ferocious savages! Let us be virtuous if we would be + republicans; if we go on as we do, we never shall, and must have + recourse to a despot: for of two evils it is better to choose the + least." + +The editor, whose opinion of the present politics is thus expressed, is +so truly a revolutionist, and so confidential a patriot, that, in August +last, when almost all the journalists were murdered, his paper was the +only one that, for some time, was allowed to reach the departments. + +In this short space they have formed a compendium of all the vices which +have marked as many preceding ages:--the cruelty and treachery of the +league--the sedition, levity, and intrigue of the _Fronde_ [A name given +to the party in opposition to the court during Cardinal Mazarin's +ministry.--See the origin of it in the Memoirs of that period.] with the +licentiousness and political corruption of more modern epochs. Whether +you examine the conduct of the nation at large, or that of its chiefs and +leaders, your feelings revolt at the one, and your integrity despises the +other. You see the idols erected by Folly, degraded by Caprice;--the +authority obtained by Intrigue, bartered by Profligacy;--and the perfidy +and corruption of one side so balanced by the barbarity and levity of the +other, that the mind, unable to decide on the preference of contending +vices, is obliged to find repose, though with regret and disgust, in +acknowledging the general depravity. + +La Fayette, without very extraordinary pretensions, became the hero of +the revolution. He dictated laws in the Assembly, and prescribed oaths +to the Garde Nationale--and, more than once, insulted, by the triumph of +ostentatious popularity, the humiliation and distress of a persecuted +Sovereign. Yet when La Fayette made an effort to maintain the +constitution to which he owed his fame and influence, he was abandoned +with the same levity with which he had been adopted, and sunk, in an +instant, from a dictator to a fugitive! + +Neckar was an idol of another description. He had already departed for +his own country, when he was hurried back precipitately, amidst universal +acclamations. All were full of projects either of honour or recompence-- +one was for decreeing him a statue, another proposed him a pension, and a +third hailed him the father of the country. But Mr. Neckar knew the +French character, and very wisely declined these pompous offers; for +before he could have received the first quarter of his pension, or the +statue could have been modelled, he was glad to escape, probably not +without some apprehensions for his head! + +The reign of Mirabeau was something longer. He lived with popularity, +was fortunate enough to die before his reputation was exhausted, was +deposited in the Pantheon, apotheosised in form, and his bust placed as a +companion to that of Brutus, the tutelary genius of the Assembly.--Here, +one might have expected, he would have been quit for this world at least; +but the fame of a patriot is not secured by his death, nor can the gods +of the French be called immortal: the deification of Mirabeau is +suspended, his memory put in sequestration, and a committee appointed to +enquire, whether a profligate, expensive, and necessitous character was +likely to be corruptible. The Convention, too, seem highly indignant +that a man, remarkable only for vice and atrocity, should make no +conscience of betraying those who were as bad as himself; and that, after +having prostituted his talents from the moment he was conscious of them, +he should not, when associated with such immaculate colleagues, become +pure and disinterested. It is very probable that Mirabeau, whose only +aim was power, might rather be willing to share it with the King, as +Minister, than with so many competitors, and only as Prime Speechmaker to +the Assembly: and as he had no reason for suspecting the patriotism of +others to be more inflexible than his own, he might think it not +impolitic to anticipate a little the common course of things, and betray +his companions, before they had time to stipulate for felling him. He +might, too, think himself more justified in disposing of them in the +gross, because he did not thereby deprive them of their right of +bargaining for themselves, and for each other in detail.--* + + * La Porte, Steward of the Household, in a letter to Duquesnoy, [Not + the brutal Dusquenoy hereafter mentioned.] dated February, 1791, + informs him that Barrere, Chairman of the Committee of Domains, is + in the best disposition possible.--A letter of Talon, (then + minister,) with remarks in the margin by the King, says, that + "Sixteen of the most violent members on the patriotic side may be + brought over to the court, and that the expence will not exceed two + millions of livres: that fifteen thousand will be sufficient for the + first payment; and only a Yes or No from his Majesty will fix these + members in his interest, and direct their future conduct."--It + likewise observes, that these two millions will cost the King + nothing, as the affair is already arranged with the + Liquidator-General. + +Extract of a letter from Chambonas to the King, dated June 18, 1792: + + "Sire, + + "I inform your Majesty, that my agents are now in motion. I have + just been converting an evil spirit. I cannot hope that I have made + him good, but I believe I have neutralized him.--To-night we shall + make a strong effort to gain Santerre, (Commandant of the Garde + Nationale,) and I have ordered myself to be awakened to hear the + result. I shall take care to humour the different interests as well + as I can.--The Secretary of the Cordeliers club is now secured.--All + these people are to be bought, but not one of them can be hired.--I + have had with me one Mollet a physician. Perhaps your Majesty may + have heard of him. He is an outrageous Jacobin, and very difficult, + for he will receive nothing. He insists, previous to coming to any + definitive treaty, on being named Physician to the Army. I have + promised him, on condition that Paris is kept quiet for fifteen + days. He is now gone to exert himself in our favour. He has great + credit at the Caffe de Procope, where all the journalists and + 'enragis' of the Fauxbourg St. Germain assemble. I hope he will + keep his word.--The orator of the people, the noted Le Maire, a + clerk at the Post-office, has promised tranquility for a week, and + he is to be rewarded. + + "A new Gladiator has appeared lately on the scene, one Ronedie + Breton, arrived from England. He has already been exciting the + whole quarter of the Poisonnerie in favour of the Jacobins, but I + shall have him laid siege to.--Petion is to come to-morrow for + fifteen thousand livres, [This sum was probably only to propitiate + the Mayor; and if Chambonas, as he proposed, refused farther + payment, we may account for Petion's subsequent conduct.] on account + of thirty thousand per month which he received under the + administration of Dumouriez, for the secret service of the police.-- + I know not in virtue of what law this was done, and it will be the + last he shall receive from me. Your Majesty will, I doubt not, + understand me, and approve of what I suggest. + + (Signed) "Chambonas." + Extract from the Papers found at the Thuilleries. + + It is impossible to warrant the authenticity of these Papers; on + their credibility, however, rests the whole proof of the most + weighty charges brought against the King. So that it must be + admitted, that either all the first patriots of the revolution, and + many of those still in repute, are corrupt, or that the King was + condemned on forged evidence. + +The King might also be solicitous to purchase safety and peace at any +rate; and it is unfortunate for himself and the country that he had not +recourse to the only effectual means till it was too late. But all this +rests on no better evidence than the papers found at the Thuilleries; and +as something of this kind was necessary to nourish the exhausted fury of +the populace, I can easily conceive that it was thought more prudent to +sacrifice the dead, than the living; and the fame of Mirabeau being less +valuable than the safety of those who survived him, there would be no +great harm in attributing to him what he was very likely to have done.-- +The corruption of a notorious courtier would have made no impression: the +King had already been overwhelmed with such accusations, and they had +lost their effect: but to have seduced the virtuous Mirabeau, the very +Confucius of the revolution, was a kind of profanation of the holy fire, +well calculated to revive the languid rage, and extinguish the small +remains of humanity yet left among the people. + +It is sufficiently remarkable, that notwithstanding the court must have +seen the necessity of gaining over the party now in power, no vestige of +any attempt of this kind has been discovered; and every criminating +negotiation is ascribed to the dead, the absent, or the insignificant. I +do not, however, presume to decide in a case so very delicate; their +panegyrists in England may adjust the claims of Mirabeau's integrity, and +that of his accusers, at their leisure. + +Another patriot of "distinguished note," and more peculiarly interesting +to our countrymen, because he has laboured much for their conversion, is +Talleyrand, Bishop of Autun.--He was in England some time as +Plenipotentiary from the Jacobins, charged with establishing treaties +between the clubs, publishing seditious manifestoes, contracting friendly +alliances with discontented scribblers, and gaining over neutral or +hostile newspapers.--But, besides his political and ecclesiastical +occupations, and that of writing letters to the Constitutional Society, +it seems this industrious Prelate had likewise a correspondence with the +Agents of the Court, which, though he was too modest to surcharge his +fame by publishing it, was, nevertheless, very profitable. + +I am sorry his friends in England are mostly averse from episcopacy, +otherwise they might have provided for him, as I imagine he will have no +objection to relinquish his claims on the see of Autun. He is not under +accusation, and, were he to return, he would not find the laws quite so +ceremonious here as in England. After labouring with impunity for months +together to promote an insurrection with you, a small private barter of +his talents would here cost him his head; and I appeal to the Bishop's +friends in England, whether there can be a proper degree of freedom in a +country where a man is refused the privilege of disposing of himself to +the best advantage. + +To the eternal obloquy of France, I must conclude, in the list of those +once popular, the ci-devant Duke of Orleans. But it was an unnatural +popularity, unaided by a single talent, or a single virtue, supported +only by the venal efforts of those who were almost his equals in vice, +though not in wealth, and who found a grateful exercise for their +abilities in at once profiting by the weak ambition of a bad man, and +corrupting the public morals in his favour. The unrighteous compact is +now dissolved; those whom he ruined himself to bribe have already +forsaken him, and perhaps may endeavour to palliate the disgrace of +having been called his friends, by becoming his persecutors.--Thus, many +of the primitive patriots are dead, or fugitives, or abandoned, or +treacherous; and I am not without fear lest the new race should prove as +evanescent as the old. + +The virtuous Rolland,* whose first resignation was so instrumental in +dethroning the King, has now been obliged to resign a second time, +charged with want of capacity, and suspected of malversation; and this +virtue, which was so irreproachable, which it would have been so +dangerous to dispute while it served the purposes of party, is become +hypocrisy, and Rolland will be fortunate if he return to obscurity with +only the loss of his gains and his reputation. + + * In the beginning of December, the Council-General of the + municipality of Paris opened a register, and appointed a Committee + to receive all accusations and complaints whatever against Rolland, + who, in return, summoned them to deliver in their accounts to him as + Minister of the interior, and accused them, at the same time, of the + most scandalous peculations. + +The credit of Brissot and the Philosophers is declining fast--the clubs +are unpropitious, and no party long survives this formidable omen; so +that, like Macbeth, they will have waded from one crime to another, only +to obtain a short-lived dominion, at the expence of eternal infamy, and +an unlamented fall. + +Dumouriez is still a successful General, but he is denounced by one +faction, insulted by another, insidiously praised by a third, and, if he +should persevere in serving them, he has more disinterested rectitude +than I suspect him of, or than they merit. This is another of that +Jacobin ministry which proved so fatal to the King; and it is evident +that, had he been permitted to entertain the same opinion of all these +people as they now profess to have of each other, he would have been +still living, and secure on his throne. + +After so many mutual infidelities, it might be expected that one party +would grow indifferent, and the other suspicious; but the French never +despair: new hordes of patriots prepare to possess themselves of the +places they are forcing the old ones to abandon, and the people, eager +for change, are ready to receive them with the momentary and fallacious +enthusiasm which ever precedes disgrace; while those who are thus +intriguing for power and influence, are, perhaps, secretly devising how +it may be made most subservient to their personal advantage. + +Yet, perhaps, these amiable levities may not be displeasing to the +Constitutional Society and the revolutionists of England; and, as the +very faults of our friends are often endearing to us, they may extend +their indulgence to the "humane" and "liberal" precepts of the Jacobins, +and the massacres of September.--To confess the truth, I am not a little +ashamed for my country when I see addresses from England to a Convention, +the members of which have just been accusing each other of assassination +and robbery, or, in the ardour of a debate, threatening, cuffing, and +knocking each other down. Exclusive of their moral character, considered +only as it appears from their reciprocal criminations, they have so +little pretension to dignity, or even decency, that it seems a mockery to +address them as the political representatives of a powerful nation +deliberating upon important affairs. + +If a bearer of one of these congratulatory compliments were not apprized +of the forms of the House, he would be rather astonished, at his +introduction, to see one member in a menacing attitude, and another +denying his veracity in terms perfectly explicit, though not very civil. +Perhaps, in two minutes, the partizans of each opponent all rise and +clamour, as if preparing for a combat--the President puts on his hat as +the signal of a storm--the subordinate disputants are appeased--and the +revilings of the principal ones renewed; till, after torrents of indecent +language, the quarrel is terminated by a fraternal embrace.*--I think, +after such a scene, an addresser must feel a little humiliated, and would +return without finding his pride greatly increased by his mission. + + * I do not make any assertions of this nature from conjecture or + partial evidence. The journals of the time attest that the scenes I + describe occur almost in every debate.--As a proof, I subjoin some + extracts taken nearly at hazard: + + "January 7th, Convention Nationale, Presidence de Treilhard.--The + debate was opened by an address from the department of Finisterre, + expressing their wishes, and adding, that these were likewise the + wishes of the nation at large--that Marat, Robespierre, Bazire, + Chabot, Merlin, Danton, and their accomplices, might be expelled the + Convention as caballers and intriguers paid by the tyrants at war + with France." + + The account of this debate is thus continued--"The almost daily + troubles which arise in the Convention were on the point of being + renewed, when a member, a friend to order, spoke as follows, and, it + is remarked, was quietly listened to: + + "'Citizens, + + "'If three months of uninterrupted silence has given me any claim to + your attention, I now ask it in the name of our afflicted country. + Were I to continue silent any longer, I should render myself as + culpable as those who never hold their tongues. I see we are all + sensible of the painfulness of our situation. Every day + dissatisfied with ourselves, we come to the debate with the + intention of doing something, and every day we return without having + done any thing. The people expect from us wise laws, and not storms + and tumults. How are we to make these wise laws, and keep + twenty-five millions of people quiet, when we, who are only seven + hundred and fifty individuals, give an example of perpetual riot and + disorder? What signifies our preaching the unity and indivisibility + of the republic, when we cannot maintain peace and union amongst + ourselves? What good can we expect to do amidst such scandalous + disturbances, and while we spend our time in attending to + informations, accusations, and inculpations, for the most part + utterly unfounded? For my part, I see but one means of attaining + any thing like dignity and tranquillity, and that is, by submitting + ourselves to coercive regulations.'" + + Here follow some proposals, tending to establish a little decency in + their proceedings for the future; but the account from whence this + extract is taken proceeds to remark, that this invitation to peace + was no sooner finished, than a new scene of disturbance took place, + to the great loss of their time, and the scandal of all good + citizens. One should imagine, that if ever the Convention could + think it necessary to assume an appearance of dignity, or at least + of seriousness and order, it would be in giving their judgement + relative to the King. Yet, in determining how a series of questions + should be discussed, on the arrangement of which his fate seems much + to have depended, the solemnity of the occasion appears to have had + no weight. It was proposed to begin by that of the appeal to the + people. This was so violently combated, that the Convention would + hear neither party, and were a long time without debating at all. + Petion mounted the tribune, and attempted to restore order; but the + noise was too great for him to be heard. He at length, however, + obtained silence enough to make a motion. Again the murmurs + recommenced. Rabaud de St. Etienne made another attempt, but was + equally unsuccessful. Those that were of an opposite opinion + refused to hear him, and both parties rose up and rushed together to + the middle of the Hall. The most dreadful tumult took place, and + the President, with great difficulty, procured a calm. Again the + storm began, and a member told them, that if they voted in the + affirmative, those on the left side (Robespierre, &c.) would not + wait the result, but have the King assassinated. "Yes! Yes! + (resounded from all parts) the Scelerats of Paris will murder him!" + --Another violent disorder ensuing, it was thought no decree could + be passed, and, at length, amidst this scene of riot and confusion, + the order of questions was arranged, and in such a manner as to + decide the fate of the King.--It was determined, that the question + of his guilt should precede that of the appeal to the people. Had + the order of the questions been changed, the King might have been + saved, for many would have voted for the appeal in the first + instance who did not dare do it when they found the majority + resolved to pronounce him guilty. + +It is very remarkable, that, on the same day on which the friends of +liberty and equality of Manchester signalized themselves by a most +patriotic compliment to the Convention, beginning with _"Francais, vous +etes libres,"_ ["Frenchmen, you are free."] they were, at that very +moment, employed in discussing a petition from numbers of Parisians who +had been thrown into prison without knowing either their crime or their +accusers, and were still detained under the same arbitrary +circumstances.--The law of the constitution is, that every person +arrested shall be interrogated within twenty-four hours; but as these +imprisonments were the work of the republican Ministers, the Convention +seemed to think it indelicate to interpose, and these citizens of a +country whose freedom is so much envied by the Manchester Society, will +most likely remain in durance as long as their confinement shall be +convenient to those who have placed them there.--A short time after, +Villette, who is a news-writer and deputy, was cited to appear before the +municipality of Paris, under the charge of having inserted in his paper +"equivocal phrases and anti-civic expressions, tending to diminish the +confidence due to the municipality."--Villette, as being a member of the +Convention, obtained redress; but had he been only a journalist, the +liberty of the press would not have rescued him.--On the same day, +complaint was made in the Assembly, that one man had been arrested +instead of another, and confined for some weeks, and it was agreed +unanimously, (a thing that does not often occur,) that the powers +exercised by the Committee of Inspection [Surveillance.--See Debates, +December.] were incompatible with liberty. + +The patriots of Belfast were not more fortunate in the adaption of their +civilities--they addressed the Convention, in a strain of great piety, to +congratulate them on the success of their arms in the "cause of civil and +religious liberty."* + + * At this time the municipalities were empowered to search all + houses by night or day; but their visites domiciliaires, as they are + called, being made chiefly in the night, a decree has since ordained + that they shall take place only during the day. Perhaps an + Englishman may think the latter quite sufficient, considering that + France is the freeest country in the world, and, above all, a + republic. + +The harangue was interrupted by the _mal-a-propos_ entrance of two +deputies, who complained of having been beaten, almost hanged, and half +drowned, by the people of Chartres, for belonging, as they were told, to +an assembly of atheistical persecutors of religion; and this Convention, +whom the Society of Belfast admire for propagating "religious liberty" in +other countries, were in a few days humbly petitioned, from various +departments, not to destroy it in their own. I cannot, indeed, suppose +they have really such a design; but the contempt with which they treat +religion has occasioned an alarm, and given the French an idea of their +piety very different from that so kindly conceived by the patriots of +Belfast. + +I entrust this to our friend Mrs. ____, who is leaving France in a few +days; and as we are now on the eve of a war, it will be the last letter +you will receive, except a few lines occasionally on our private affairs, +or to inform you of my health. As we cannot, in the state Mrs. D____ is +in, think of returning to England at present, we must trust ourselves to +the hospitality of the French for at least a few weeks, and I certainly +will not abuse it, by sending any remarks on their political affairs out +of the country. But as I know you interest yourself much in the subject, +and read with partiality my attempts to amuse you, I will continue to +throw my observations on paper as regularly as I have been accustomed to +do, and I hope, ere long, to be the bearer of the packets myself. I here +also renew my injunction, that no part of my correspondence that relates +to French politics be communicated to any one, not even my mother. What +I have written has been merely to gratify your own curiosity, and I +should be extremely mortified if my opinions were repeated even in the +little circle of our private acquaintance. I deem myself perfectly +justifiable in imparting my reflections to you, but I have a sort of +delicacy that revolts at the thought of being, in the remotest degree, +accessary to conveying intelligence from a country in which I reside, +and which is so peculiarly situated as France is at this moment. My +feelings, my humanity, are averse from those who govern, but I should +regret to be the means of injuring them. You cannot mistake my +intentions, and I conclude by seriously reminding you of the promise I +exacted previous to any political discussion.--Adieu. + + + + +Amiens, February 15, 1793. + +I did not, as I promised, write immediately on my return from Chantilly; +the person by whom I intended to send my letter having already set out +for England, and the rule I have observed for the last three months of +entrusting nothing to the post but what relates to our family affairs, +is now more than ever necessary. I have before requested, and I must now +insist, that you make no allusion to any political matter whatever, nor +even mention the name of any political person. Do not imagine that you +are qualified to judge of what is prudent, or what may be written with +safety--I repeat, no one in England can form an idea of the suspicion +that pervades every part of the French government. + +I cannot venture to answer decisively your question respecting the King-- +indeed the subject is so painful to me, that I have hitherto avoided +reverting to it. There certainly was, as you observe, some sudden +alteration in the dispositions of the Assembly between the end of the +trial and the final judgement. The causes were most probably various, +and must be sought for in the worst vices of our nature--cruelty, +avarice, and cowardice. Many, I doubt not, were guided only by the +natural malignity of their hearts; many acted from fear, and expected to +purchase impunity for former compliances with the court by this popular +expiation; a large number are also supposed to have been paid by the Duke +of Orleans--whether for the gratification of malice or ambition, time +must develope.--But, whatever were the motives, the result was an +iniquitous combination of the worst of a set of men, before selected from +all that was bad in the nation, to profane the name of justice--to +sacrifice an unfortunate, but not a guilty Prince--and to fix an +indelible stain on the country. + +Among those who gave their opinion at large, you will observe Paine: and, +as I intimated in a former letter, it seems he was at that time rather +allured by the vanity of making a speech that should be applauded, than +by any real desire of injuring the King. Such vanity, however, is not +pardonable: a man has a right to ruin himself, or to make himself +ridiculous; but when his vanity becomes baneful to others, as it has all +the effect, so does it merit the punishment, of vice. + +Of all the rest, Condorcet has most powerfully disgusted me. The avowed +wickedness of Thuriot or Marat inspires one with horror; but this cold +philosophic hypocrite excites contempt as well as detestation. He seems +to have wavered between a desire to preserve the reputation of humanity, +which he has affected, and that of gratifying the real depravity of his +mind. Would one have expected, that a speech full of benevolent systems, +mild sentiments, and aversion from the effusion of human blood, was to +end in a vote for, and recommendation of, the immediate execution of his +sovereign?--But such a conduct is worthy of him, who has repaid the +benefits of his patron and friend [The Duke de la Rochefaucault.] by a +persecution which ended in his murder. + +You will have seen, that the King made some trifling requests to be +granted after his decease, and that the Convention ordered him to be +told, that the nation, "always great, always just," accorded them in +part. Yet this just and magnanimous people refused him a preparation of +only three days, and allowed him but a few hours--suffered his remains to +be treated with the most scandalous indecency--and debated seriously, +whether or no the Queen should receive some little tokens of affection he +had left for her. + +The King's enemies had so far succeeded in depreciating his personal +courage, that even his friends were apprehensive he might not sustain his +last moments with dignity. The event proves how much injustice has been +done him in this respect, as well as in many others. His behaviour was +that of a man who derived his fortitude from religion--it was that of +pious resignation, not ostentatious courage; it was marked by none of +those instances of levity and indifference which, at such a time, are +rather symptoms of distraction than resolution; he exhibited the +composure of an innocent mind, and the seriousness that became the +occasion; he seemed to be occupied in preparing for death, but not to +fear it.--I doubt not but the time will come, when those who have +sacrificed him may envy the last moments of Louis the Sixteenth! + +That the King was not guilty of the principal charges brought against +him, has been proved indubitably--not altogether by the assertions of +those who favour him, but by the confession of his enemies. He was, for +example, accused of planning the insurrection of the tenth of August; yet +not a day passes that both parties in the Convention are not disputing +the priority of their efforts to dethrone him, and to erect a republic; +and they date their machinations long before the period on which they +attribute the first aggression to the King.--Mr. Sourdat, and several +other writers, have very ably demonstrated the falsehood of these +charges; but the circulation of such pamphlets was dangerous--of course, +secret and limited; while those which tended to deceive and prejudice the +people were dispersed with profusion, at the expence of the government.* + + * Postscript of the Courier de l'Egalite, Sept. 29: + + "The present minister (Rolland) takes every possible means in his + power to enlighten and inform the people in whatever concerns their + real interests. For this purpose he has caused to be printed and + distributed, in abundance, the accounts and papers relative to the + events of the tenth of August. We have yet at our office a small + number of these publications, which we have distributed to our + subscribers, and we still give them to any of our fellow-citizens + who have opportunities of circulating them." + +I have seen one of these written in coarse language, and replete with +vulgar abuse, purposely calculated for the lower classes in the country, +who are more open to gross impositions than those of the same rank in +towns; yet I have no doubt, in my own mind, that all these artifices +would have proved unavailing, had the decision been left to the nation at +large: but they were intimidated, if not convinced; and the mandate of +the Convention, which forbids this sovereign people to exercise their +judgement, was obeyed with as much submission, and perhaps more +reluctance, than an edict of Louis the fourteenth.* + + * The King appealed, by his counsel, to the People; but the + convention, by a decree, declared his appeal of no validity, and + forbade all persons to pay attention to it, under the severest + penalties. + +The French seem to have no energy but to destroy, and to resist nothing +but gentleness or infancy. They bend under a firm or oppressive +administration, but become restless and turbulent under a mild Prince or +a minority. + +The fate of this unfortunate Monarch has made me reflect, with great +seriousness, on the conduct of our opposition-writers in England. The +literary banditti who now govern France began their operations by +ridiculing the King's private character--from ridicule they proceeded to +calumny, and from calumny to treason; and perhaps the first libel that +degraded him in the eyes of his subjects opened the path from the palace +to the scaffold.--I do not mean to attribute the same pernicious +intentions to the authors on your side the Channel, as I believe them, +for the most part, to be only mercenary, and that they would write +panegyrics as soon as satires, were they equally profitable. I know too, +that there is no danger of their producing revolutions in England--we do +not suffer our principles to be corrupted by a man because he has the art +of rhyming nothings into consequence, nor suffer another to overturn the +government because he is an orator. Yet, though these men may not be +very mischievous, they are very reprehensible; and, in a moment like the +present, contempt and neglect should supply the place of that punishment +against which our liberty of the press secures them. + +It is not for a person no better informed than myself to pronounce on +systems of government--still less do I affect to have more enlarged +notions than the generality of mankind; but I may, without risking those +imputations, venture to say, I have no childish or irrational deference +for the persons of Kings. I know they are not, by nature, better than +other men, and a neglected or vicious education may often render them +worse. This does not, however, make me less respect the office. I +respect it as the means chosen by the people to preserve internal peace +and order--to banish corruption and petty tyrants ["And fly from petty +tyrants to the throne."--Goldsmith]--and give vigour to the execution of +the laws. + +Regarded in this point of view, I cannot but lament the mode which has +lately prevailed of endeavouring to alienate the consideration due to our +King's public character, by personal ridicule. If an individual were +attacked in this manner, his house beset with spies, his conversation +with his family listened to, and the most trifling actions of his life +recorded, it would be deemed unfair and illiberal, and he who should +practice such meanness would be thought worthy of no punishment more +respectful than what might be inflicted by an oaken censor, or an +admonitory heel.--But it will be said, a King is not an individual, and +that such a habit, or such an amusement, is beneath the dignity of his +character. Yet would it be but consistent in those who labour to prove, +by the public acts of Kings, that they are less than men, not to exact, +that, in their private lives, they should be more.--The great prototype +of modern satyrists, Junius, does not allow that any credit should be +given a Monarch for his domestic virtues; is he then to be reduced to an +individual, only to scrutinize his foibles, and is his station to serve +only as the medium of their publicity? Are these literary miners to +penetrate the recesses of private life, only to bring to light the dross? +Do they analyse only to discover poisons? Such employments may be +congenial to their natures, but have little claim to public remuneration. +The merit of a detractor is not much superior to that of a flatterer; nor +is a Prince more likely to be amended by imputed follies, than by +undeserved panegyrics. If any man wished to represent his King +advantageously, it could not be done better than by remarking, that, +after all the watchings of assiduous necessity, and the laborious +researches of interested curiosity, it appears, that his private life +affords no other subjects of ridicule than, that he is temperate, +domestic, and oeconomical, and, as is natural to an active mind, wishes +to be informed of whatever happens not to be familiar to him. It were to +be desired that some of these accusations were applicable to those who +are so much scandalized at them: but they are not littlenesses--the +littleness is in him who condescends to report them; and I have often +wondered that men of genius should make a traffic of gleaning from the +refuse of anti-chambers, and retailing the anecdotes of pages and +footmen! + +You will perceive the kind of publications I allude to; and I hope the +situation of France, and the fate of its Monarch, may suggest to the +authors a more worthy employ of their talents, than that of degrading the +executive power in the eyes of the people. + + + + +Amiens, Feb. 25, 1793. + +I told you, I believe, in a former letter, that the people of Amiens were +all aristocrates: they have, nevertheless, two extremely popular +qualifications--I mean filth and incivility. I am, however, far from +imputing either of them to the revolution. This grossness of behavior +has long existed under the palliating description of _"la franchise +Picarde,"_ ["Picardy frankness."] and the floors and stairs of many +houses will attest their preeminence in filth to be of a date much +anterior to the revolution.--If you purchase to the amount of an hundred +livres, there are many shopkeepers who will not send your purchases home; +and if the articles they show you do not answer your purpose, they are +mostly sullen, and often rude. No appearance of fatigue or infirmity +suggests to them the idea of offering you a seat; they contradict you +with impertinence, address you with freedom, and conclude with cheating +you if they can. It was certainly on this account that Sterne would not +agree to die at the inn at Amiens. He might, with equal justice, have +objected to any other house; and I am sure if he thought them an +unpleasant people to die amongst, he would have found them still worse to +live with.--My observation as to the civility of aristocrates does not +hold good here--indeed I only meant that those who ever had any, and were +aristocrates, still preserved it. + +Amiens has always been a commercial town, inhabited by very few of the +higher noblesse; and the mere gentry of a French province are not very +much calculated to give a tone of softness and respect to those who +imitate them. You may, perhaps, be surprized that I should express +myself with little consideration for a class which, in England, is so +highly respectable: there gentlemen of merely independent circumstances +are not often distinguishable in their manners from those of superior +fortune or rank. But, in France, it is different: the inferior noblesse +are stiff, ceremonious, and ostentatious; while the higher ranks were +always polite to strangers, and affable to their dependents. When you +visit some of the former, you go through as many ceremonies as though you +were to be invested with an order, and rise up and sit down so many +times, that you return more fatigued than you would from a cricket match; +while with the latter you are just as much at your ease as is consistent +with good breeding and propriety, and a whole circle is never put in +commotion at the entrance and exit of every individual who makes part of +it. Any one not prepared for these formalities, and who, for the first +time, saw an assembly of twenty people all rising from their seats at the +entrance of a single beau, would suppose they were preparing for a dance, +and that the new comer was a musician. For my part I always find it an +oeconomy of strength (when the locality makes it practicable) to take +possession of a window, and continue standing in readiness until the hour +of visiting is over, and calm is established by the arrangement of the +card tables.--The revolution has not annihilated the difference of rank; +though it has effected the abolition of titles; and I counsel all who +have remains of the gout or inflexible joints, not to frequent the houses +of ladies whose husbands have been ennobled only by their offices, of +those whose genealogies are modern, or of the collaterals of ancient +families, whose claims are so far removed as to be doubtful. The society +of all these is very exigent, and to be avoided by the infirm or +indolent. + +I send you with this a little collection of airs which I think you will +find very agreeable. The French music has not, perhaps, all the +reputation it is entitled to. Rousseau has declared it to be nothing but +doleful psalmodies; Gray calls a French concert "Une tintamarre de +diable:" and the prejudices inspired by these great names are not easily +obliterated. We submit our judgement to theirs, even when our taste is +refractory.--The French composers seem to excel in marches, in lively +airs that abound in striking passages calculated for the popular taste, +and yet more particularly in those simple melodies they call romances: +they are often in a very charming and singular style, without being +either so delicate or affecting as the Italian. They have an expression +of plaintive tenderness, which makes one tranquil rather than melancholy; +and which, though it be more soothing than interesting, is very +delightful.--Yours, &c. + + + + +Amiens, 1793. + +I have been to-day to take a last view of the convents: they are now +advertised for sale, and will probably soon be demolished. You know my +opinion is not, on the whole, favourable to these institutions, and that +I thought the decree which extinguishes them, but which secured to the +religious already profest the undisturbed possession of their habitations +during life, was both politic and humane. Yet I could not see the +present state of these buildings without pain--they are now inhabited by +volunteers, who are passing a novitiate of intemperance and idleness, +previous to their reception in the army; and those who recollect the +peace and order that once reigned within the walls of a monastery, cannot +but be stricken with the contrast. I felt both for the expelled and +present possessors, and, perhaps, gave a mental preference to the +superstition which founded such establishments, over the persecution that +destroys them. + +The resigned and pious votaries, who once supposed themselves secure from +all the vicissitudes of fortune, and whose union seemed dissoluble only +by the common lot of mortality, are now many of them dispersed, +wandering, friendless, and miserable. The religion which they cherished +as a comfort, and practised as a duty, is now pursued as a crime; and it +is not yet certain that they will not have to choose between an +abjuration of their principles, and the relinquishment of the means of +existence.--The military occupiers offered nothing very alleviating to +such unpleasant reflections; and I beheld with as much regret the +collection of these scattered individuals, as the separation of those +whose habitations they fill. They are most of them extremely young, +taken from villages and the service of agriculture, and are going to risk +their lives in a cause detested perhaps by more than three parts of the +nation, and only to secure impunity to its oppressors. + +It has usually been a maxim in all civilized states, that when the +general welfare necessitates some act of partial injustice, it shall be +done with the utmost consideration for the sufferer, and that the +required sacrifice of moral to political expediency shall be palliated, +as much as the circumstances will admit, by the manner of carrying it +into execution. But the French legislators, in this respect, as in most +others, truly original, disdain all imitation, and are rarely guided by +such confined motives. With them, private rights are frequently +violated, only to facilitate the means of public oppressions--and cruel +and iniquitous decrees are rendered still more so by the mode of +enforcing them. + +I have met with no person who could conceive the necessity of expelling +the female religious from their convents. It was, however, done, and +that with a mixture of meanness and barbarity which at once excites +contempt and detestation. The ostensible, reasons were, that these +communities afforded an asylum to the superstitious, and that by their +entire suppression, a sale of the houses would enable the nation to +afford the religious a more liberal support than had been assigned them +by the Constituent Assembly. But they are shallow politicians who expect +to destroy superstition by persecuting those who practise it: and so far +from adding, as the decree insinuates, to the pensions of the nuns, they +have now subjected them to an oath which, to those at least whose +consciences are timid, will act as a prohibition to their receiving what +they were before entitled to. + +The real intention of the legislature in thus entirely dispersing the +female religious, besides the general hatred of every thing connected +with religion, is, to possess itself of an additional resource in the +buildings and effects, and, as is imagined by some, to procure numerous +and convenient state prisons. But, I believe, the latter is only an +aristocratic apprehension, suggested by the appropriation of the convents +to this use in a few places, where the ancient prisons are full.-- +Whatever purpose it is intended to answer, it has been effected in a way +disgraceful to any national body, except such a body as the Convention; +and, though it be easy to perceive the cruelty of such a measure, yet as, +perhaps, its injustice may not strike you so forcibly as if you had had +the same opportunities of investigating it as I have, I will endeavour to +explain, as well as I can, the circumstances that render it so peculiarly +aggravated. + +I need not remind you, that no order is of very modern foundation, nor +that the present century has, in a great degree, exploded the fashion of +compounding for sins by endowing religious institutions. Thus, +necessarily, by the great change which has taken place in the expence of +living, many establishments that were poorly endowed must have become +unable to support themselves, but for the efforts of those who were +attached to them. It is true, that the rent of land has increased as its +produce became more valuable; but every one knows that the lands +dependent on religious houses have always been let on such moderate +terms, as by no means to bear a proportion to the necessities they were +intended to supply; and as the monastic vows have long ceased to be the +frequent choice of the rich, little increase has been made to the +original stock by the accession of new votaries:--yet, under all these +disadvantages, many societies have been able to rebuild their houses, +embellish their churches, purchase plate, &c. &c. The love of their +order, that spirit of oeconomy for which they are remarkable, and a +persevering industry, had their usual effects, and not only banished +poverty, but became a source of wealth. An indefatigable labour at such +works as could be profitably disposed of, the education of children, and +the admission of boarders, were the means of enriching a number of +convents, whose proper revenues would not have afforded them even a +subsistence. + +But the fruits of active toil or voluntary privation, have been +confounded with those of expiatory bequest and mistaken devotion, and +have alike become the prey of a rapacious and unfeeling government. Many +communities are driven from habitations built absolutely with the produce +of their own labour. In some places they were refused even their beds +and linen; and the stock of wood, corn, &c. provided out of the savings +of their pensions, (understood to be at their own disposal,) have been +seized, and sold, without making them the smallest compensation. + +Thus deprived of every thing, they are sent into the world with a +prohibition either to live several of them together, wear their habits,* +or practise their religion; yet their pensions** are too small for them +to live upon, except in society, or to pay the usual expence of boarding: +many of them have no other means of procuring secular dresses, and still +more will imagine themselves criminal in abstaining from the mode of +worship they have been taught to think salutary. + + * Two religious, who boarded with a lady I had occasion to see + sometimes, told me, that they had been strictly enjoined not to + dress like each other in any way. + + ** The pensions are from about seventeen to twenty-five pounds + sterling per annum.--At the time I am writing, the necessaries of + life are increased in price nearly two-fifths of what they bore + formerly, and are daily becoming dearer. The Convention are not + always insensible to this--the pay of the foot soldier is more than + doubled. + +It is also to be remembered, that women of small fortune in France often +embraced the monastic life as a frugal retirement, and, by sinking the +whole they were possessed of in this way, they expected to secure a +certain provision, and to place themselves beyond the reach of future +vicissitudes: yet, though the sums paid on these occasions can be easily +ascertained, no indemnity has been made; and many will be obliged to +violate their principles, in order to receive a trifling pension, perhaps +much less than the interest of their money would have produced without +loss of the principal. + +But the views of these legislating philosophers are too sublimely +extensive to take in the wrongs or sufferings of contemporary +individuals; and not being able to disguise, even to themselves, that +they create much misery at present, they promise incalculable advantages +to those who shall happen to be alive some centuries hence! Most of +these poor nuns are, however, of an age to preclude them from the hope of +enjoying this Millennium; and they would have been content en attendant +these glorious times, not to be deprived of the necessaries of life, or +marked out as objects of persecution. + +The private distresses occasioned by the dissolution of the convents are +not the only consequences to be regretted--for a time, at least, the loss +must certainly be a public one. There will now be no means of +instruction for females, nor any refuge for those who are without friends +or relations: thousands of orphans must be thrown unprotected on the +world, and guardians, or single men, left with the care of children, have +no way to dispose of them properly. I do not contend that the education +of a convent is the best possible: yet are there many advantages +attending it; and I believe it will readily be granted, that an education +not quite perfect is better than no education at all. It would not be +very difficult to prove, that the systems of education, both in England +and France, are extremely defective; and if the characters of women are +generally better formed in one than the other, it is not owing to the +superiority of boarding-schools over convents, but to the difference of +our national manners, which tend to produce qualities not necessary, or +not valued, in France. + +The most distinguished female excellencies in England are an attachment +to domestic life, an attention to its oeconomies, and a cultivated +understanding. Here, any thing like house-wifery is not expected but +from the lower classes, and reading or information is confined chiefly to +professed wits. Yet the qualities so much esteemed in England are not +the effect of education: few domestic accomplishments, and little useful +knowledge, are acquired at a boarding-school; but finally the national +character asserts its empire, and the female who has gone through a +course of frivolities from six to sixteen, who has been taught that the +first "human principle" should be to give an elegant tournure to her +person, after a few years' dissipation, becomes a good wife and mother, +and a rational companion. + +In France, young women are kept in great seclusion: religion and oeconomy +form a principal part of conventual acquirements, and the natural vanity +of the sex is left to develope itself without the aid of authority, or +instillation by precept--yet, when released from this sober tuition, +manners take the ascendant here as in England, and a woman commences at +her marriage the aera of coquetry, idleness, freedom, and rouge.--We may +therefore, I think, venture to conclude, that the education of a +boarding-school is better calculated for the rich, that of a convent for +the middle classes and the poor; and, consequently, that the suppression +of this last in France will principally affect those to whom it was most +beneficial, and to whom the want of it will be most dangerous. + +A committee of wise men are now forming a plan of public instruction, +which is to excel every thing ever adopted in any age or country; and we +may therefore hope that the defects which have hitherto prevailed, both +in theirs and our own, will be remedied. All we have to apprehend is, +that, amidst so many wise heads, more than one wise plan may be produced, +and a difficulty of choice keep the rising generation in a sort of +abeyance, so that they must remain sterile, or may become vitiated, while +it is determining in what manner they shall be cultivated. + +It is almost a phrase to say, the resources of France are wonderful, and +this is no less true than generally admitted. Whatever be the want or +loss, it is no sooner known than supplied, and the imagination of the +legislature seems to become fertile in proportion to the exigence of the +moment.--I was in some pain at the disgrace of Mirabeau, lest this new +kind of retrospective judgement should depopulate the Pantheon of the few +divinities that remained; more especially when I considered that +Voltaire, notwithstanding his merits as an enemy to revelation, had been +already accused of aristocracy, and even Rousseau himself might not be +found impeccable. His Contrat Social might not, perhaps, in the eyes of +a committee of philosophical Rhadmanthus's, atone for his occasional +admiration of christianity: and thus some crime, either of church or +state, disfranchise the whole race of immortals, and their fame scarcely +outlast the dispute about their earthly remains.* + + * Alluding to the disputes between the Convention and the person who + claimed the exclusive right to the remains of Rousseau. + +My concern, on this account, was the more justifiable, because the great +fallibility which prevailed among the patriots, and the very delicate +state of the reputation of those who retained their political existence, +afforded no hope that they could ever fill the vacancies in the +Pantheon.--But my fears were very superfluous--France will never want +subjects for an apotheosis, and if one divinity be dethroned, "another +and another still succeeds," all equally worthy as long as they continue +in fashion.--The phrenzy of despair has supplied a successor to Mirabeau, +in Le Pelletier. [De St. Fargeau.] The latter had hitherto been little +heard of, but his death offered an occasion for exciting the people too +favourable to be neglected: his patriotism and his virtues immediately +increased in a ratio to the use which might be made of them;* a dying +speech proper for the purpose was composed, and it was decreed +unanimously, that he should be installed in all the rights, privileges, +and immortalities of the degraded Riquetti.-- + + * At the first intelligence of his death, a member of the + Convention, who was with him, and had not yet had time to study a + speech, confessed his last words to have been, "Jai froid."--"I am + cold." This, however, would nave made no figure on the banners of a + funeral procession; and Le Pelletier was made to die, like the hero + of a tragedy, uttering blank verse. + +The funeral that preceded these divine awards was a farce, which tended +more to provoke a massacre of the living, than to honour the dead; and +the Convention, who vowed to sacrifice their animosities on his tomb, do +so little credit to the conciliating influence of St. Fargeau's virtues, +that they now dispute with more acrimony than ever. + +The departments, who begin to be extremely submissive to Paris, thought +it incumbent on them to imitate this ceremony; but as it was rather an +act of fear than of patriotism, it was performed here with so much +oeconomy, and so little inclination, that the whole was cold and paltry. +--An altar was erected on the great market-place, and so little were the +people affected by the catastrophe of a patriot whom they were informed +had sacrificed* his life in their cause, that the only part of the +business which seemed to interest them was the extravagant gestures of a +woman in a dirty white dress, hired to act the part of a "pleureuse," or +mourner, and whose sorrow appeared to divert them infinitely.-- + + * There is every reason to believe that Le Pelletier was not singled + out for his patriotism.--It is said, and with much appearance of + probability, that he had promised PARIS, with whom he had been + intimate, not to vote for the death of the King; and, on his + breaking his word, PARIS, who seems to have not been perfectly in + his senses, assassinated him.--PARIS had been in the Garde du Corps, + and, like most of his brethren, was strongly attached to the King's + person. Rage and despair prompted him to the commission of an act, + which can never be excused, however the perpetrator may imagine + himself the mere instrument of Divine vengeance.--Notwithstanding + the most vigilant research, he escaped for some time, and wandered + as far as Forges d'Eaux, a little town in Normandy. At the inn + where he lodged, the extravagance of his manner giving suspicions + that he was insane, the municipality were applied to, to secure him. + An officer entered his room while he was in bed, and intimated the + purpose he was come for. PARIS affected to comply, and, turning, + drew a pistol from under the clothes, and shot himself.--Among the + papers found upon him were some affecting lines, expressive of his + contempt for life, and adding, that the influence of his example was + not to be dreaded, since he left none behind him that deserved the + name of Frenchmen!--_"Qu'on n'inquiete personne! personne n'a ete + mon complice dans la mort heureuse de Scelerat St. Fargeau. Si Je + ne l'eusse pas rencontre sous ma main, Je purgeois la France du + regicide, du parricide, du patricide D'Orleans. Qu'on n'inquiete + personne. Tous les Francois sont des laches auxquelles Je dis-- + + "Peuple, dont les forfaits jettent partout l'effroi, + "Avec calme et plaisir J'abandonne la vie + "Ce n'est que par la mort qu'on peut fuir l'infamie, + "Qu'imprime sur nos fronts le sang de notre Roi."_ + + "Let no man be molested on my account: I had no accomplice in the + fortunate death of the miscreant St. Fargeau. If he had not fallen + in my way, I should have purged France of the regicide, parricide, + patricide D'Orleans. Let no man be molested. All the French are + cowards, to whom I say--'People, whose crimes inspire universal + horror, I quit life with tranquility and pleasure. By death alone + can we fly from that infamy which the blood of our King has marked + upon our foreheads!'"--This paper was entitled "My Brevet of + Honour." + +It will ever be so where the people are not left to consult their own +feelings. The mandate that orders them to assemble may be obeyed, but +"that which passeth show" is not to be enforced. It is a limit +prescribed by Nature herself to authority, and such is the aversion of +the human mind from dictature and restraint, that here an official +rejoicing is often more serious than these political exactions of regret +levied in favour of the dead.--Yours, &c. &c. + + + + +March 23, 1793. + +The partizans of the French in England alledge, that the revolution, by +giving them a government founded on principles of moderation and +rectitude, will be advantageous to all Europe, and more especially to +Great Britain, which has so often suffered by wars, the fruit of their +intrigues.--This reasoning would be unanswerable could the character of +the people be changed with the form of their government: but, I believe, +whoever examines its administration, whether as it relates to foreign +powers or internal policy, will find that the same spirit of intrigue, +fraud, deception, and want of faith, which dictated in the cabinet of +Mazarine or Louvois, has been transfused, with the addition of meanness +and ignorance,* into a Constitutional Ministry, or the Republican +Executive Council. + + * The Executive Council is composed of men who, if ever they were + well-intentioned, must be totally unfit for the government of an + extensive republic. Monge, the Minister of the Marine, is a + professor of geometry; Garat, Minister of Justice, a gazette writer; + Le Brun, Minister of Foreign Affairs, ditto; and Pache, Minister of + the Interior, a private tutor.--Whoever reads the debates of the + Convention will find few indications of real talents, and much + pedantry and ignorance. For example, Anacharsis Cloots, who is a + member of the Committee of Public Instruction, and who one should, + of course, expect not to be more ignorant than his colleagues, has + lately advised them to distress the enemy by invading Scotland, + which he calls the granary of England. + +France had not yet determined on the articles of her future political +creed, when agents were dispatched to make proselytes in England, and, in +proportion as she assumed a more popular form of government, all the +qualities which have ever marked her as the disturber of mankind seem to +have acquired new force. Every where the ambassadors of the republic are +accused of attempts to excite revolt and discontent, and England* is now +forced into a war because she could not be persuaded to an insurrection. + + * For some time previous to the war, all the French prints and even + members of the Convention, in their debates, announced England to be + on the point of an insurrection. The intrigues of Chauvelin, their + ambassador, to verify this prediction, are well known. Brissot, Le + Brun, &c. who have since been executed, were particularly charged by + the adverse party with provoking the war with England. Robespierre, + and those who succeeded, were not so desirous of involving us in a + foreign war, and their humane efforts were directed merely to excite + a civil one.--The third article of accusation against Rolland is, + having sent twelve millions of livres to England, to assist in + procuring a declaration of war. + +Perhaps it may be said, that the French have taken this part only for +their own security, and to procure adherents to the common cause; but +this is all I contend for--that the politics of the old government +actuate the new, and that they have not, in abolishing courts and +royalty, abolished the perfidious system of endeavouring to benefit +themselves, by creating distress and dissention among their neighbours.-- +Louvois supplied the Protestants in the Low Countries with money, while +he persecuted them in France. The agents of the republic, more +oeconomical, yet directed by the same motives, eke out corruption by +precepts of sedition, and arm the leaders of revolt with the rights of +man; but, forgetting the maxim that charity should begin at home, in +their zeal for the freedom of other countries, they leave no portion of +it for their own! + +Louis the Fourteenth over-ran Holland and the Palatinate to plant the +white flag, and lay the inhabitants under contribution--the republic send +an army to plant the tree of liberty, levy a _don patriotique,_ +[Patriotic gift.] and place garrisons in the towns, in order to preserve +their freedom.--Kings have violated treaties from the desire of conquest +--these virtuous republicans do it from the desire of plunder; and, +previous to opening the Scheldt, the invasion of Holland, was proposed as +a means of paying the expences of the war. I have never heard that even +the most ambitious Potentates ever pretended to extend their subjugation +beyond the persons and property of the conquered; but these militant +dogmatists claim an empire even over opinions, and insist that no people +can be free or happy unless they regulate their ideas of freedom and +happiness by the variable standard of the Jacobin club. Far from being +of Hudibras's philosophy,* they seem to think the mind as tangible as the +body, and that, with the assistance of an army, they may as soon lay one +"by the heels" as the other. + + * "Quoth he, one half of man, his mind, + "Is, sui juris, unconfin'd, + "And ne'er can be laid by the heels, + "Whate'er the other moiety feels." + + Hudibras. + +Now this I conceive to be the worst of all tyrannies, nor have I seen it +exceeded on the French theatre, though, within the last year, the +imagination of their poets has been peculiarly ingenious and inventive on +this subject.--It is absurd to suppose this vain and overbearing +disposition will cease when the French government is settled. The +intrigues of the popular party began in England the very moment they +attained power, and long before there was any reason to suspect that the +English would deviate from their plan of neutrality. If, then, the +French cannot restrain this mischievous spirit while their own affairs +are sufficient to occupy their utmost attention, it is natural to +conclude, that, should they once become established, leisure and peace +will make them dangerous to the tranquillity of all Europe. Other +governments may be improved by time, but republics always degenerate; and +if that which is in its original state of perfection exhibit already the +maturity of vice, one cannot, without being more credulous than +reasonable, hope any thing better for the future than what we have +experienced from the past.--It is, indeed, unnecessary to detain you +longer on this subject. You must, ere now, be perfectly convinced how +far the revolutionary systems of France are favourable to the peace and +happiness of other countries. I will only add a few details which may +assist you in judging of what advantage they have been to the French +themselves, and whether, in changing the form of their government, they +have amended its principles; or if, in "conquering liberty," (as they +express it,) they have really become free. + +The situation of France has altered much within the last two months: the +seat of power is less fluctuating and the exercise of it more absolute-- +arbitrary measures are no longer incidental, but systematic--and a +regular connection of dependent tyranny is established, beginning with +the Jacobin clubs, and ending with the committees of the sections. A +simple decree for instance, has put all the men in the republic, +(unmarried and without children,) from eighteen to forty-five at the +requisition of the Minister of War. A levy of three hundred thousand is +to take place immediately: each department is responsible for the whole +of a certain number to the Convention, the districts are answerable for +their quota to the departments, the municipalities to the district, and +the diligence of the whole is animated by itinerant members of the +legislature, entrusted with the disposal of an armed force. The latter +circumstance may seem to you incredible; yet is it nevertheless true, +that most of the departments are under the jurisdiction of these +sovereigns, whose authority is nearly unlimited. We have, at this +moment, two Deputies in the town, who arrest and imprison at their +pleasure. One-and-twenty inhabitants of Amiens were seized a few nights +ago, without any specific charge having been exhibited against them, and +are still in confinement. The gates of the town are shut, and no one is +permitted to pass or repass without an order from the municipality; and +the observance of this is exacted even of those who reside in the +suburbs. Farmers and country people, who are on horseback, are obliged +to have the features and complexion of their horses minuted on the +passport with their own. Every person whom it is found convenient to +call suspicious, is deprived of his arms; and private houses are +disturbed during the night, (in opposition to a positive law,) under +pretext of searching for refractory priests.--These regulations are not +peculiar to this department, and you must understand them as conveying a +general idea of what passes in every part of France.--I have yet to add, +that letters are opened with impunity--that immense sums of assignats are +created at the will of the Convention--that no one is excused mounting +guard in person--and that all housekeepers, and even lodgers, are +burthened with the quartering of troops, sometimes as many as eight or +ten, for weeks together. + +You may now, I think, form a tolerable idea of the liberty that has +accrued to the French from the revolution, the dethronement of the King, +and the establishment of a republic. But, though the French suffer this +despotism without daring to murmur openly, many a significant shrug and +doleful whisper pass in secret, and this political discontent has even +its appropriate language, which, though not very explicit, is perfectly +understood.--Thus when you hear one man say to another, _"Ah, mon Dieu, +on est bien malheureux dans ce moment ici;"_ or, _"Nous sommes dans une +position tres critique--Je voudrois bien voir la fin de tout cela;"_ +["God knows, we are very miserable at present--we are in a very critical +situation--I should like to see an end of all this."] you may be sure he +languishes for the restoration of the monarchy, and hopes with equal +fervor, that he may live to see the Convention hanged. In these sort of +conferences, however, evaporates all their courage. They own their +country is undone, that they are governed by a set of brigands, go home +and hide any set of valuables they have not already secreted, and receive +with obsequious complaisance the next visite domiciliaire. + +The mass of the people, with as little energy, have more obstinacy, and +are, of course, not quite so tractable. But, though they grumble and +procrastinate, they do not resist; and their delays and demurs usually +terminate in implicit submission. + +The Deputy-commissioners, whom I have mentioned above, have been at +Amiens some time, in order to promote the levying of recruits. On +Sundays and holidays they summoned the inhabitants to attend at the +cathedral, where they harangued them on the subject, called for vengeance +on the coalesced despots, expatiated on the love of glory, and insisted +on the pleasure of dying for one's country: while the people listened +with vacant attention, amused themselves with the paintings, or adjourned +in small committees to discuss the hardship of being obliged to fight +without inclination.--Thus time elapsed, the military orations produced +no effect, and no troops were raised: no one would enlist voluntarily, +and all refused to settle it by lot, because, as they wisely observed, +the lot must fall on somebody. Yet, notwithstanding the objection, the +matter was at length decided by this last method. The decision had no +sooner taken place, than another difficulty ensued--those who escaped +acknowledged it was the best way that could be devised; but those who +were destined to the frontiers refused to go. Various altercations, and +excuses, and references, were the consequence; yet, after all this +murmuring and evasion, the presence of the Commissioners and a few +dragoons have arranged the business very pacifically; many are already +gone, and the rest will (if the dragoons continue here) soon follow. + +This, I assure you, is a just statement of the account between the +Convention and the People: every thing is effected by fear--nothing by +attachment; and the one is obeyed only because the other want courage to +resist.--Yours, &c. + + + + +Rouen, March 31, 1793. + +Rouen, like most of the great towns in France, is what is called +decidedly aristocratic; that is, the rich are discontented because they +are without security, and the poor because they want bread. But these +complaints are not peculiar to large places; the causes of them equally +exist in the smallest village, and the only difference which fixes the +imputation of aristocracy on one more than the other, is, daring to +murmur, or submitting in silence. + +I must here remark to you, that the term aristocrate has much varied from +its former signification. A year ago, aristocrate implied one who was an +advocate for the privileges of the nobility, and a partizan of the +ancient government--at present a man is an aristocrate for entertaining +exactly the same principles which at that time constituted a patriot; +and, I believe, the computation is moderate, when I say, that more than +three parts of the nation are aristocrates. The rich, who apprehend a +violation of their property, are aristocrates--the merchants, who regret +the stagnation of commerce, and distrust the credit of the assignats, are +aristocrates--the small retailers, who are pillaged for not selling +cheaper than they buy, and who find these outrages rather encouraged than +repressed, are aristocrates--and even the poor, who murmur at the price +of bread, and the numerous levies for the army, are, occasionally, +aristocrates. + +Besides all these, there are likewise various classes of moral +aristocrates--such as the humane, who are averse from massacres and +oppression--those who regret the loss of civil liberty--the devout, who +tremble at the contempt for religion--the vain, who are mortified at the +national degradation--and authors, who sigh for the freedom of the +press.--When you consider this multiplicity of symptomatic indications, +you will not be surprized that such numbers are pronounced in a state of +disease; but our republican physicians will soon generalize these various +species of aristocracy under the single description of all who have any +thing to lose, and every one will be deemed plethoric who is not in a +consumption. The people themselves who observe, though they do not +reason, begin to have an idea that property exposes the safety of the +owner and that the legislature is less inexorable when guilt is +unproductive, than when the conviction of a criminal comprehends the +forfeiture of an estate.--A poor tradesman was lamenting to me yesterday, +that he had neglected an offer of going to live in England; and when I +told him I thought he was very fortunate in having done so, as he would +have been declared an emigrant, he replied, laughing, _"Moi emigre qui +n'ai pas un sol:"_ ["I am emigrant, who am not worth a halfpenny!"]--No, +no; they don't make emigrants of those who are worth nothing. And this +was not said with any intended irreverence to the Convention, but with +the simplicity which really conceived the wealth of the emigrants to be +the cause of the severity exercised against them. + +The commercial and political evils attending a vast circulation of +assignats have been often discussed, but I have never yet known the +matter considered in what is, perhaps, its most serious point of view--I +mean its influence on the habits and morals of the people. Wherever I +go, especially in large towns like this, the mischief is evident, and, I +fear, irremediable. That oeconomy, which was one of the most valuable +characteristics of the French, is now comparatively disregarded. The +people who receive what they earn in a currency they hold in contempt, +are more anxious to spend than to save; and those who formerly hoarded +six liards or twelve sols pieces with great care, would think it folly to +hoard an assignat, whatever its nominal value. Hence the lower class of +females dissipate their wages on useless finery; men frequent +public-houses, and game for larger sums than before; little shopkeepers, +instead of amassing their profits, become more luxurious in their table: +public places are always full; and those who used, in a dress becoming +their station, to occupy the "parquet" or "parterre," now, decorated +with paste, pins, gauze, and galloon, fill the boxes:--and all this +destructive prodigality is excused to others and themselves _"par ce que +ce n'est que du papier."_ [Because it is only paper.]--It is vain to +persuade them to oeconomize what they think a few weeks may render +valueless; and such is the evil of a circulation so totally discredited, +that profusion assumes the merit of precaution, extravagance the plea of +necessity, and those who were not lavish by habit become so through +their eagerness to part with their paper. The buried gold and silver +will again be brought forth, and the merchant and the politician forget +the mischief of the assignats. But what can compensate for the injury +done to the people? What is to restore their ancient frugality, or +banish their acquired wants? It is not to be expected that the return +of specie will diminish the inclination for luxury, or that the human +mind can be regulated by the national finance; on the contrary, it is +rather to be feared, that habits of expence which owe their introduction +to the paper will remain when the paper is annihilated; that, though +money may become more scarce, the propensities of which it supplies the +indulgence will not be less forcible, and that those who have no other +resources for their accustomed gratifications will but too often find +one in the sacrifice of their integrity.--Thus, the corruption of +manners will be succeeded by the corruption of morals, and the +dishonesty of one sex, with the licentiousness of the other, produce +consequences much worse than any imagined by the abstracted calculations +of the politician, or the selfish ones of the merchant. Age will be +often without solace, sickness without alleviation, and infancy without +support; because some would not amass for themselves, nor others for +their children, the profits of their labour in a representative sign of +uncertain value. + +I do not pretend to assert that these are the natural effects of a paper +circulation--doubtless, when supported by high credit, and an extensive +commerce, it must have many advantages; but this was not the case in +France--the measure was adopted in a moment of revolution, and when the +credit of the country, never very considerable, was precarious and +degraded--It did not flow from the exuberance of commerce, but the +artifices of party--it never presumed, for a moment, on the confidence of +the people--its reception was forced, and its emission too profuse not to +be alarming.--I know it may be answered, that the assignats do not depend +upon an imaginary appreciation, but really represent a large mass of +national wealth, particularly in the domains of the clergy: yet, perhaps, +it is this very circumstance which has tended most to discredit them. +Had their credit rested only on the solvency of the nation, though they +had not been greatly coveted, still they would have been less +distributed; people would not have apprehended their abolition on a +change of government, nor that the systems adopted by one party might be +reversed by another. Indeed we may add, that an experiment of this kind +does not begin auspiciously when grounded on confiscation and seizures, +which it is probable more than half the French considered as sacrilege +and robbery; nor could they be very anxious to possess a species of +wealth which they made it a motive of conscience to hope would never be +of any value.--But if the original creation of assignats were +objectionable, the subsequent creations cannot but augment the evil. I +have already described to you the effects visible at present, and those +to be apprehended in future--others may result from the new inundation, +[1200 millions--50 millions sterling.] which it is not possible to +conjecture; but if the mischiefs should be real, in proportion as a part +of the wealth which this paper is said to represent is imaginary, their +extent cannot easily be exaggerated. Perhaps you will be of this +opinion, when you recollect that one of the funds which form the security +of this vast sum is the gratitude of the Flemings for their liberty; and +if this reimbursement be to be made according to the specimen the French +army have experienced in their retreat, I doubt much of the convention +will be disposed to advance any farther claims on it; for, it seems, the +inhabitants of the Low Countries have been so little sensible of the +benefits bestowed on them, that even the peasants seize on any weapons +nearest hand, and drub and pursue the retrograding armies as they would +wild beasts; and though, as Dumouriez observes in one of his dispatches, +our revolution is intended to favour the country people, _"c'est +cependant les gens de campagne qui s'arment contre nous, et le tocsin +sonne de toutes parts;"_ ["It is, however, the country people who take up +arms against us, and the alarm is sounded from all quarters."] so that +the French will, in fact, have created a public debt of so singular a +nature, that every one will avoid as much as possible making any demand +of the capital. + +I have already been more diffuse than I intended on the subject of +finance; but I beg you to observe, that I do not affect to calculate, or +speculate, and that I reason only from facts which are daily within my +notice, and which, as tending to operate on the morals of the people, are +naturally included in the plan I proposed to myself. + +I have been here but a few days, and intend returning to-morrow. I left +Mrs. D____ very little better, and the disaffection of Dumouriez, which I +just now learn, may oblige us to remove to some place not on the route to +Paris.--Every one looks alert and important, and a physiognomist may +perceive that regret is not the prevailing sentiment-- + + "We now begin to speak in tropes, + "And, by our fears, express our hopes." + +The Jacobins are said to be apprehensive, which augurs well; for, +certainly, next to the happiness of good people, one desires the +punishment of the bad. + + + + +Amiens, April 7, 1793. + +If the sentiments of the people towards their present government had been +problematical before, the visible effect of Dumouriez' conduct would +afford an ample solution of the problem. That indifference about public +affairs which the prospect of an established despotism had begun to +create has vanished--all is hope and expectation--the doors of those who +retail the newspapers are assailed by people too impatient to read them-- +each with his gazette in his hand listens eagerly to the verbal +circulation, and then holds a secret conference with his neighbour, and +calculates how long it may be before Dumouriez can reach Paris. A +fortnight ago the name of Dumouriez was not uttered but in a tone of +harshness and contempt, and, if ever it excited any thing like +complacency, it was when he announced defeats and losses. Now he is +spoken of with a significant modulation of voice, it is discovered that +he has great talents, and his popularity with the army is descanted upon +with a mysterious air of suppressed satisfaction.--Those who were +extremely apprehensive lest part of the General's troops should be driven +this way by the successes of the enemy, seem to talk with perfect +composure of their taking the same route to attack the capital; while +others, who would have been unwilling to receive either Dumouriez or his +army as peaceful fugitives, will be "nothing loath" to admit them as +conquerors. From all I can learn, these dispositions are very general, +and, indeed, the actual tyranny is so great, and the perspective so +alarming, that any means of deliverance must be acceptable. But whatever +may be the event, though I cannot be personally interested, if I thought +Dumouriez really proposed to establish a good government, humanity would +render one anxious for his success; for it is not to be disguised, that +France is at this moment (as the General himself expressed it) under the +joint dominion of _"imbecilles"_ and _"brigands."_ [Ideots and robbers.] + +It is possible, that at this moment the whole army is disaffected, and +that the fortified towns are prepared to surrender. It is also certain, +that Brittany is in revolt, and that many other departments are little +short of it; yet you will not very easily conceive what may have occupied +the Convention during part of this important crisis--nothing less than +inventing a dress for their Commissioners! But, as Sterne says, "it is +the spirit of the nation;" and I recollect no circumstance during the +whole progress of the revolution (however serious) that has not been +mixed with frivolities of this kind. + +I know not what effect this new costume may produce on the rebels or the +enemy, but I confess it appears to me more ludicrous than formidable, +especially when a representative happens to be of the shape and features +of the one we have here. Saladin, Deputy for this department, and an +advocate of the town of Amiens, has already invested himself with this +armour of inviolability; "strange figure in such strange habiliments," +that one is tempted to forget that Baratraria and the government of +Sancho are the creation of fancy. Imagine to yourself a short fat man, +of sallow complexion and small eyes, with a sash of white, red, and blue +round his waist, a black belt with a sword suspended across his +shoulders, and a round hat turned up before, with three feathers of the +national colours: "even such a man" is our representative, and exercises +a more despotic authority than most Princes in Europe.--He is accompanied +by another Deputy, who was what is called Pere de la Oratoire before the +revolution--that is, in a station nearly approaching to that of an +under-master at our public schools; only that the seminaries to which +these were attached being very numerous, those employed in them were +little considered. They wore the habit, and were subject to the same +restrictions, as the Clergy, but were at liberty to quit the profession +and marry, if they chose.--I have been more particular in describing +this class of men, because they have every where taken an active and +successful part in perverting and misleading the people: they are in the +clubs, or the municipalities, in the Convention, and in all elective +administrations, and have been in most places remarkable for their +sedition and violence. + +Several reasons may be assigned for the influence and conduct of men +whose situation and habits, on a first view, seem to oppose both. In the +first ardour of reform it was determined, that all the ancient modes of +education should be abolished; small temporary pensions were allotted to +the Professors of Colleges, and their admission to the exercise of +similar functions in the intended new system was left to future decision. +From this time the disbanded oratorians, who knew it would be vain to +resist popular authority, endeavoured to share in it; or, at least, by +becoming zealous partizans of the revolution, to establish their claims +to any offices or emoluments which might be substituted for those they +had been deprived of. They enrolled themselves with the Jacobins, +courted the populace, and, by the talent of pronouncing Roman names with +emphasis, and the study of rhetorical attitudes, they became important to +associates who were ignorant, or necessary to those who were designing. + +The little information generally possessed by the middle classes of life +in France, is also another cause of the comparative importance of those +whose professions had, in this respect, raised them something above the +common level. People of condition, liberally educated, have +unfortunately abandoned public affairs for some time; so that the +incapacity of some, and the pride or despondency of others, have, in a +manner, left the nation to the guidance of pedants, incendiaries, and +adventurers. Perhaps also the animosity with which the description of +men I allude to pursued every thing attached to the ancient government, +may, in some degree, have proceeded from a desire of revenge and +retaliation. They were not, it must be confessed, treated formerly with +the regard due to persons whose profession was in itself useful and +respectable; and the wounds of vanity are not easily cured, nor the +vindictiveness of little minds easily satisfied. + +From the conduct and popular influence of these Peres de l'Oratoire, some +truths may be deduced not altogether useless even to a country not liable +to such violent reforms. It affords an example of the danger arising +from those sudden and arbitrary innovations, which, by depriving any part +of the community of their usual means of living, and substituting no +other, tempt them to indemnify themselves by preying, in different ways, +on their fellow-citizens.--The daring and ignorant often become +depredators of private property; while those who have more talents, and +less courage, endeavour to succeed by the artifices which conciliate +public favour. I am not certain whether the latter are not to be most +dreaded of the two, for those who make a trade of the confidence of the +people seldom fail to corrupt them--they find it more profitable to +flatter their passions than to enlighten their understandings; and a +demagogue of this kind, who obtains an office by exciting one popular +insurrection, will make no scruple of maintaining himself in it by +another. An inferrence may likewise be drawn of the great necessity of +cultivating such a degree of useful knowledge in the middle order of +society, as may not only prevent their being deceived by interested +adventurers themselves, but enable them to instruct the people in their +true interests, and rescue them from becoming the instruments, and +finally the victims, of fraud and imposture.--The insult and oppression +which the nobility frequently experience from those who have been +promoted by the revolution, will, I trust, be a useful lesson in future +to the great, who may be inclined to arrogate too much from adventitious +distinctions, to forget that the earth we tread upon may one day +overwhelm us, and that the meanest of mankind may do us an injury which +it is not in the power even of the most exalted to shield us from. + +The inquisition begins to grow so strict, that I have thought it +necessary to-day to bury a translation of Burke.--In times of ignorance +and barbarity, it was criminal to read the bible, and our English author +is prohibited for a similar reason--that is, to conceal from the people +the errors of those who direct them: and, indeed, Mr. Burke has written +some truths, which it is of much more importance for the Convention to +conceal, than it could be to the Catholic priests to monopolize the +divine writings.--As far as it was possible, Mr. Burke has shown himself +a prophet: if he has not been completely so, it was because he had a +benevolent heart, and is the native of a free country. By the one, he +was prevented from imagining the cruelties which the French have +committed; by the other, the extreme despotism which they endure. + + + + +April 20, 1793. + +Before these halcyon days of freedom, the supremacy of Paris was little +felt in the provinces, except in dictating a new fashion in dress, an +improvement in the art of cookery, or the invention of a minuet. At +present our imitations of the capital are something more serious; and if +our obedience be not quite so voluntary, it is much more implicit. +Instead of receiving fashions from the Court, we take them now from the +_dames des balles,_ [Market-women.] and the municipality; and it must be +allowed, that the imaginations of our new sovereigns much exceed those of +the old in force and originality. + +The mode of pillaging the shops, for instance, was first devised by the +Parisian ladies, and has lately been adopted with great success in the +departments; the visite domiciliaire, also, which I look upon as a most +ingenious effort of fancy, is an emanation from the commune of Paris, and +has had an universal run.--But it would be vain to attempt enumerating +all the obligations of this kind which we owe to the indulgence of that +virtuous city: our last importation, however, is of so singular a nature, +that, were we not daily assured all the liberty in the world centers in +Paris, I should be doubtful as to its tendency. It has lately been +decreed, that every house in the republic shall have fixed on the outside +of the door, in legible characters, the name, age, birth-place, and +profession of its inhabitants. Not the poorest cottager, nor those who +are too old or too young for action, nor even unmarried ladies, are +exempt from thus proclaiming the abstract of their history to passers-by. +--The reigning party judge very wisely, that all those who are not +already their enemies may become so, and that those who are unable to +take a part themselves may excite others: but, whatever may be the +intention of this measure, it is impossible to conceive any thing which +could better serve the purposes of an arbitrary government; it places +every individual in the republic within the immediate reach of informers +and spies--it points out those who are of an age to serve in the army-- +those who have sought refuge in one department from the persecutions of +another--and, in short, whether a victim is pursued by the denunciation +of private malice, or political suspicion, it renders escape almost +impracticable. + +We have had two domiciliary visits within the last fortnight--one to +search for arms, the other under pretext of ascertaining the number of +troops each house is capable of lodging. But this was only the pretext, +because the municipalities always quarter troops as they think proper, +without considering whether you have room or not; and the real object of +this inquisition was to observe if the inhabitants answered to the lists +placed on the doors.--Mrs. D____ was ill in bed, but you must not imagine +such a circumstance deterred these gallant republicans from entering her +room with an armed force, to calculate how many soldiers might be lodged +in the bedchamber of a sick female! The French, indeed, had never, in my +remembrance, any pretensions to delicacy, or even decency, and they are +certainly not improved in these respects by the revolution. + +It is curious in walking the streets, to observe the devices of the +several classes of aristocracy; for it is not to be disguised, that since +the hope from Dumouriez has vanished, though the disgust of the people +may be increased, their terror is also greater than ever, and the +departments near Paris have no resource but silent submission. Every +one, therefore, obeys the letter of the decrees with the diligence of +fear, while they elude the spirit of them with all the ingenuity of +hatred. The rich, for example, who cannot entirely divest themselves of +their remaining hauteur, exhibit a sullen compliance on a small piece of +paper, written in a small hand, and placed at the very extreme of the +height allowed by the law. Some fix their bills so as to be half covered +by a shutter; others fasten them only with wafers, so that the wind +detaching one or two corners, makes it impossible to read the rest.* + + * This contrivance became so common, that an article was obliged to + be added to the decree, importing, that whenever the papers were + damaged or effaced by the weather, or deranged by the wind, the + inhabitants should replace them, under a penalty. + +Many who have courts or passages to their houses, put their names on the +half of a gate which they leave open, so that the writing is not +perceptible but to those who enter. But those who are most afraid, or +most decidedly aristocrates, subjoin to their registers, "All good +republicans:" or, _"Vive la republique, une et indivisible."_ ["The +republic, one and indivisible for ever!"] Some likewise, who are in +public offices, or shopkeepers who are very timid, and afraid of pillage, +or are ripe for a counter-revolution, have a sheet half the size of the +door, decorated with red caps, tri-coloured ribbons, and flaming +sentences ending in "Death or Liberty!" + +If, however, the French government confined itself to these petty acts of +despotism, I would endeavour to be reconciled to it; but I really begin +to have serious apprehensions, not so much for our safety as our +tranquillity, and if I considered only myself, I should not hesitate to +return to England. Mrs. D____ is too ill to travel far at present, and +her dread of crossing the sea makes her less disposed to think our +situation here hazardous or ineligible. Mr. D____, too, who, without +being a republican or a partizan of the present system, has always been a +friend to the first revolution, is unwilling to believe the Convention so +bad as there is every reason to suppose it. I therefore let my judgement +yield to my friendship, and, as I cannot prevail on them to depart, the +danger which may attend our remaining is an additional reason for my not +quitting them. + +The national perfidy which has always distinguished France among the +other countries of Europe, seems now not to be more a diplomatic +principle, than a rule of domestic government. It is so extended and +generalized, that an individual is as much liable to be deceived and +betrayed by confiding in a decree, as a foreign power would be by relying +on the faith of a treaty.--An hundred and twenty priests, above sixty +years of age, who had not taken the oaths, but who were allowed to remain +by the same law that banished those who were younger, have been lately +arrested, and are confined together in a house which was once a college. +The people did not behold this act of cruelty with indifference, but, +awed by an armed force, and the presence of the Commissioners of the +Convention, they could only follow the priests to their prison with +silent regret and internal horror. They, however, venture even now to +mark their attachment, by taking all opportunities of seeing them, and +supplying them with necessaries, which it is not very difficult to do, as +they are guarded by the Bourgeois, who are generally inclined to favour +them. I asked a woman to-day if she still contrived to have access to +the priests, and she replied, _"Ah, oui, il y a encore de la facilite, +par ce que l'on ne trouve pas des gardes ici qui ne sont pas pour eux."_* + + * "Yes, yes, we still contive it, because there are no guards to be + found here who don't befriend them." + +Thus, even the most minute and best organized tyranny may be eluded; and, +indeed, if all the agents of this government acted in the spirit of its +decrees, it would be insupportable even to a native of Turkey or Japan. +But if some have still a remnant of humanity left, there are a sufficient +number who execute the laws as unfeelingly as they are conceived. + +When these poor priests were to be removed from their several houses, it +was found necessary to dislodge the Bishop of Amiens, who had for some +time occupied the place fixed on for their reception. The Bishop had +notice given him at twelve o'clock in the day to relinquish his lodging +before evening; yet the Bishop of Amiens is a constitutional Prelate, and +had, before the revolution, the cure of a large parish at Paris; nor was +it without much persuasion that he accepted the see of Amiens. In the +severe winter of 1789 he disposed of his plate and library, (the latter +of which was said to be one of the best private collections in Paris,) to +purchase bread for the poor. "But Time hath a wallet on his back, +wherein he puts alms for oblivion;" and the charities of the Bishop could +not shield him from the contempt and insult which pursue his profession. + +I have been much distressed within the last few days on account of my +friend Madame de B____. I subjoining a translation of a letter I have +just received from her, as it will convey to you hereafter a tolerable +specimen of French liberty. + + "Maison de Arret, at ____. + + "I did not write to you, my dear friend, at the time I promised, and + you will perceive, by the date of this, that I have had too good an + excuse for my negligence. I have been here almost a week, and my + spirits are still so much disordered, that I can with difficulty + recollect myself enough to relate the circumstances of our + unfortunate situation; but as it is possible you might become + acquainted with them by some other means, I rather determined to + send you a few lines, than suffer you to be alarmed by false or + exaggerated reports. + + "About two o'clock on Monday morning last our servants were called + up, and, on their opening the door, the house was immediately filled + with armed men, some of whom began searching the rooms, while others + came to our bedchamber, and informed us we were arrested by order of + the department, and that we must rise and accompany them to prison. + It is not easy to describe the effect of such a mandate on people + who, having nothing to reproach themselves with, could not be + prepared for it.--As soon as we were a little recovered from our + first terrors, we endeavoured to obey, and begged they would indulge + us by retiring a few moments till I had put my clothes on; but + neither my embarrassment, nor the screams of the child--neither + decency nor humanity, could prevail. They would not even permit my + maid to enter the room; and, amidst this scene of disorder, I was + obliged to dress myself and the terrified infant. When this + unpleasant task was finished, a general examination of our house and + papers took place, and lasted until six in the evening: nothing, + however, tending in the remotest degree to criminate us was found, + but we were nevertheless conducted to prison, and God knows how long + we are likely to remain here. The denunciation against us being + secret, and not being able to learn either our crime or our + accusers, it is difficult for us to take any measures for our + enlargement. We cannot defend ourselves against a charge of which + we are ignorant, nor combat the validity of a witness, who is not + only allowed to remain secret, but is paid perhaps for his + information.* + + * At this time informers were paid from fifty to an hundred + livres for each accusation. + + "We most probably owe our misfortune to some discarded servant or + personal enemy, for I believe you are convinced we have not merited + it either by our discourse or our actions: if we had, the charge + would have been specific; but we have reason to imagine it is + nothing more than the indeterminate and general charge of being + aristocrates. I did not see my mother or sister all the day we were + arrested, nor till the evening of the next: the one was engaged + perhaps with "Rosine and the Angola", who were indisposed, and the + other would not forego her usual card-party. Many of our friends + likewise have forborne to approach us, lest their apparent interest + in our fate should involve themselves; and really the alarm is so + general, that I can, without much effort, forgive them. + + "You will be pleased to learn, that the greatest civilities I have + received in this unpleasant situation, have been from some of your + countrymen, who are our fellow-prisoners: they are only poor + sailors, but they are truly kind and attentive, and do us various + little services that render us more comfortable than we otherwise + should be; for we have no servants here, having deemed it prudent to + leave them to take care of our property. The second night we were + here, these good creatures, who lodge in the next room, were rather + merry, and awoke the child; but as they found, by its cries, that + their gaiety had occasioned me some trouble, I have observed ever + since that they walk softly, and avoid making the least noise, after + the little prisoner is gone to rest. I believe they are pleased + with me because I speak their language, and they are still more + delighted with your young favourite, who is so well amused, that he + begins to forget the gloom of the place, which at first terrified + him extremely. + + "One of our companions is a nonjuring priest, who has been + imprisoned under circumstances which make me almost ashamed of my + country.--After having escaped from a neighbouring department, he + procured himself a lodging in this town, and for some time lived + very peaceably, till a woman, who suspected his profession, became + extremely importunate with him to confess her. The poor man, for + several days, refused, telling her, that he did not consider himself + as a priest, nor wished to be known as such, nor to infringe the law + which excluded him. The woman, however, still continued to + persecute him, alledging, that her conscience was distressed, and + that her peace depended on her being able to confess "in the right + way." At length he suffered himself to be prevailed upon--the woman + received an hundred livres for informing against him, and, perhaps, + the priest will be condemned to the Guillotine.* + + * He was executed some time after. + + "I will make no reflection on this act, nor on the system of paying + informers--your heart will already have anticipated all I could say. + I will only add, that if you determine to remain in France, you must + observe a degree of circumspection which you may not hitherto have + thought necessary. Do not depend on your innocence, nor even trust + to common precautions--every day furnishes examples that both are + unavailing.--Adieu.--My husband offers you his respects, and your + little friend embraces you sincerely. As soon as any change in our + favour takes place, I will communicate it to you; but you had better + not venture to write--I entrust this to Louison's mother, who is + going through Amiens, as it would be unsafe to send it by the post. + --Again adieu.--Yours, + + "Adelaide de ____." + + Amiens, 1793. + + +It is observable, that we examine less scrupulously the pretensions of a +nation to any particular excellence, than we do those of an individual. +The reason of this is, probably, that our self-love is as much gratified +by admitting the one, as in rejecting the other. When we allow the +claims of a whole people, we are flattered with the idea of being above +narrow prejudices, and of possessing an enlarged and liberal mind; but if +a single individual arrogate to himself any exclusive superiority, our +own pride immediately becomes opposed to his, and we seem but to +vindicate our judgement in degrading such presumption. + +I can conceive no other causes for our having so long acquiesced in the +claims of the French to pre-eminent good breeding, in an age when, I +believe, no person acquainted with both nations can discover any thing to +justify them. If indeed politeness consisted in the repetition of a +certain routine of phrases, unconnected with the mind or action, I might +be obliged to decide against our country; but while decency makes a part +of good manners, or feeling is preferable to a mechanical jargon, I am +inclined to think the English have a merit more than they have hitherto +ascribed to themselves. Do not suppose, however, that I am going to +descant on the old imputations of "French flattery," and "French +insincerity;" for I am far from concluding that civil behaviour gives one +a right to expect kind offices, or that a man is false because he pays a +compliment, and refuses a service: I only wish to infer, that an +impertinence is not less an impertinence because it is accompanied by a +certain set of words, and that a people, who are indelicate to excess, +cannot properly be denominated "a polite people." + +A French man or woman, with no other apology than _"permettez moi,"_ +["Give me leave."] will take a book out of your hand, look over any thing +you are reading, and ask you a thousand questions relative to your most +private concerns--they will enter your room, even your bedchamber, +without knocking, place themselves between you and the fire, or take hold +of your clothes to guess what they cost; and they deem these acts of +rudeness sufficiently qualified by _"Je demande bien de pardons."_ ["I +ask you a thousand pardons."]--They are fully convinced that the English +all eat with their knives, and I have often heard this discussed with +much self-complacence by those who usually shared the labours of the +repast between a fork and their fingers. Our custom also of using +water-glasses after dinner is an object of particular censure; yet whoever +dines at a French table must frequently observe, that many of the guests +might benefit by such ablutions, and their napkins always testify that +some previous application would be by no means superfluous. Nothing is +more common than to hear physical derangements, disorders, and their +remedies, expatiated upon by the parties concerned amidst a room full of +people, and that with so much minuteness of description, that a +foreigner, without being very fastidious, is on some occasions apt to +feel very unpleasant sympathies. There are scarcely any of the +ceremonies of a lady's toilette more a mystery to one sex than the other, +and men and their wives, who scarcely eat at the same table, are in this +respect grossly familiar. The conversation in most societies partakes of +this indecency, and the manners of an English female are in danger of +becoming contaminated, while she is only endeavouring to suffer without +pain the customs of those she has been taught to consider as models of +politeness. + +Whether you examine the French in their houses or in public, you are +every where stricken with the same want of delicacy, propriety, and +cleanliness. The streets are mostly so filthy, that it is perilous to +approach the walls. The insides of the churches are often disgusting, in +spite of the advertisements that are placed in them to request the +forbearance of phthifical persons: the service does not prevent those who +attend from going to and fro with the same irreverence as if the church +were empty; and, in the most solemn part of the mass, a woman is suffered +to importune you for a liard, as the price of the chair you sit on. At +the theatres an actor or actress frequently coughs and expectorates on +the stage, in a manner one should think highly unpardonable before one's +most intimate friends in England, though this habit is very common to all +the French. The inns abound with filth of every kind, and though the +owners of them are generally civil enough, their notions of what is +decent are so very different from ours, that an English traveller is not +soon reconciled to them. In short, it would be impossible to enumerate +all that in my opinion excludes the French from the character of a +well-bred people.--Swift, who seems to have been gratified by the +contemplation of physical impurity, might have done the subject justice; +but I confess I am not displeased to feel that, after my long and +frequent residences in France, I am still unqualified. So little are +these people susceptible of delicacy, propriety, and decency, that they +do not even use the words in the sense we do, nor have they any others +expressive of the same meaning. + +But if they be deficient in the external forms of politeness, they are +infinitely more so in that politeness which may be called mental. The +simple and unerring rule of never preferring one's self, is to them more +difficult of comprehension than the most difficult problem in Euclid: in +small things as well as great, their own interest, their own +gratification, is their leading principle; and the cold flexibility which +enables them to clothe this selfish system in "fair forms," is what they +call politeness. + +My ideas on this subject are not recent, but they occurred to me with +additional force on the perusal of Mad. de B____'s letter. The behaviour +of some of the poorest and least informed class of our countrymen forms a +striking contrast with that of the people who arrested her, and even her +own friends: the unaffected attention of the one, and the brutality and +neglect of the other, are, perhaps, more just examples of English and +French manners than you may have hitherto imagined. I do not, however, +pretend to say that the latter are all gross and brutal, but I am myself +convinced that, generally speaking, they are an unfeeling people. + +I beg you to remember, that when I speak of the dispositions and +character of the French, my opinions are the result of general +observation, and are applicable to all ranks; but when my remarks are on +habits and manners, they describe only those classes which are properly +called the nation. The higher noblesse, and those attached to courts, so +nearly resemble each other in all countries, that they are necessarily +excepted in these delineations, which are intended to mark the +distinguishing features of a people at large: for, assuredly, when the +French assert, and their neighbours repeat, that they are a polite +nation, it is not meant that those who have important offices or +dignified appellations are polite: they found their claims on their +superiority as a people, and it is in this light I consider them. My +examples are chiefly drawn, not from the very inferior, nor from the most +eminent ranks; neither from the retailer of a shop, nor the claimant of a +_tabouret,_* or _les grandes ou petites entrees;_ but from the gentry, +those of easy fortunes, merchants, &c.--in fact, from people of that +degree which it would be fair to cite as what may be called genteel +society in England. + + * The tabouret was a stool allowed to the Ladies of the Court + particularly distinguished by rank or favour, when in presence of + the Royal Family.--"Les entrees" gave a familiar access to the King + and Queen. + +This cessation of intercourse with our country dispirits me, and, as it +will probably continue some time, I shall amuse myself by noting more +particularly the little occurrences which may not reach your public +prints, but which tend more than great events to mark both the spirit of +the government and that of the people.--Perhaps you may be ignorant that +the prohibition of the English mails was not the consequence of a decree +of the Convention, but a simple order of its commissioners; and I have +some reason to think that even they acted at the instigation of an +individual who harbours a mean and pitiful dislike to England and its +inhabitants.--Yours, &c. + + + + +May 18, 1793. + +Near six weeks ago a decree was passed by the Convention, obliging all +strangers, who had not purchased national property, or who did not +exercise some profession, to give security to the amount of half their +supposed fortune, and under these conditions they were to receive a +certificate, allowing them to reside, and were promised the protection of +the laws. The administrators of the departments, who perceive that they +become odious by executing the decrees of the Convention, begin to relax +much of their diligence, and it is not till long after a law is +promulgated, and their personal fear operates as a stimulant, that they +seriously enforce obedience to these mandates. This morning, however, we +were summoned by the Committee of our section (or ward) in order to +comply with the terms of the decree, and had I been directed only by my +own judgement, I should have given the preference to an immediate return +to England; but Mrs. D____ is yet ill, and Mr. D____ is disposed to +continue. In vain have I quoted "how fickle France was branded 'midst +the nations of the earth for perfidy and breach of public faith;" in vain +have I reasoned upon the injustice of a government that first allured +strangers to remain by insidious offers of protection, and now subjects +them to conditions which many may find it difficult to subscribe to: Mr. +D____ wishes to see our situation in the most favourable point of view: +he argues upon the moral impossibility of our being liable to any +inconvenience, and persists in believing that one government may act with +treachery towards another, yet, distinguishing between falsehood and +meanness, maintain its faith with individuals--in short, we have +concluded a sort of treaty, by which we are bound, under the forfeiture +of a large sum, to behave peaceably and submit to the laws. The +government, in return, empowers us to reside, and promises protection and +hospitality. + +It is to be observed, that the spirit of this regulation depends upon +those it affects producing six witnesses of their _"civisme;"_* yet so +little interest do the people take on these occasions, that our witnesses +were neighbours we had scarcely ever seen, and even one was a man who +happened to be casually passing by. + + * Though the meaning of this word is obvious, we have no one that is + exactly synonymous to it. The Convention intend by it an attachment + to their government: but the people do not trouble themselves about + the meaning of words--they measure their unwilling obedience by the + letter. + +These Committees, which form the last link of a chain of despotism, are +composed of low tradesmen and day-labourers, with an attorney, or some +person that can read and write, at their head, as President. Priests and +nobles, with all that are related, or anywise attached, to them, are +excluded by the law; and it is understood that true sans-culottes only +should be admitted. + +With all these precautions, the indifference and hatred of the people to +their government are so general, that, perhaps, there are few places +where this regulation is executed so as to answer the purposes of the +jealous tyranny that conceived it. The members of these Committees seem +to exact no farther compliances than such as are absolutely necessary to +the mere form of the proceeding, and to secure themselves from the +imputation of disobedience; and are very little concerned whether the +real design of the legislature be accomplished or not. This negligence, +or ill-will, which prevails in various instances, tempers, in some +degree, the effect of that restless suspicion which is the usual +concomitant of an uncertain, but arbitrary, power. The affections or +prejudices that surround a throne, by ensuring the safety of the Monarch, +engage him to clemency, and the laws of a mild government are, for the +most part, enforced with exactness; but a new and precarious authority, +which neither imposes on the understanding nor interests the heart, which +is supported only by a palpable and unadorned tyranny, is in its nature +severe, and it becomes the common cause of the people to counteract the +measures of a despotism which they are unable to resist.--This (as I have +before had occasion to observe) renders the condition of the French less +insupportable, but it is by no means sufficient to banish the fears of a +stranger who has been accustomed to look for security, not from a +relaxation or disregard of the laws, but from their efficacy; not from +the characters of those who execute them, but from the rectitude with +which they are formed.--What would you think in England, if you were +obliged to contemplate with dread the three branches of your legislature, +and depend for the protection of your person and property on soldiers and +constables? Yet such is nearly the state we are in; and indeed a system +of injustice and barbarism gains ground so fast, that almost any +apprehension is justified.--The Tribunal Revolutionnaire has already +condemned a servant maid for her political opinions; and one of the +Judges of this tribunal lately introduced a man to the Jacobins, with +high panegyrics, because, as he alledged, he had greatly contributed to +the condemnation of a criminal. The same Judge likewise apologized for +having as yet sent but a small number to the Guillotine, and promises, +that, on the first appearance of a "Brissotin" before him, he will show +him no mercy. + +When the minister of public justice thus avows himself the agent of a +party, a government, however recent its formation, must be far advanced +in depravity; and the corruption of those who are the interpreters of the +law has usually been the last effort of expiring power. + +My friends, Mons. And Mad. de B____, are released from their confinement; +not as you might expect, by proving their innocence, but by the efforts +of an individual, who had more weight than their accuser: and, far from +obtaining satisfaction for the injury they have received, they are +obliged to accept as a favour the liberty they were deprived of by malice +and injustice. They will, most probably, never be acquainted with the +nature of the charges brought against them; and their accuser will escape +with impunity, and, perhaps, meet with reward. + +All the French papers are filled with descriptions of the enthusiasm with +which the young men "start to arms" [_Offian._] at the voice of their +country; yet it is very certain, that this enthusiasm is of so subtle and +aerial a form as to be perceivable only to those who are interested in +discovering it. In some places these enthusiastic warriors continue to +hide themselves--from others they are escorted to the place of their +destination by nearly an equal number of dragoons; and no one, I believe, +who can procure money to pay a substitute, is disposed to go himself. +This is sufficiently proved by the sums demanded by those who engage as +substitutes: last year from three to five hundred livres was given; at +present no one will take less than eight hundred or a thousand, besides +being furnished with clothes, &c. The only real volunteers are the sons +of aristocrates, and the relations of emigrants, who, sacrificing their +principles to their fears, hope, by enlisting in the army, to protect +their estates and families: those likewise who have lucrative +employments, and are afraid of losing them, affect great zeal, and expect +to purchase impunity for civil peculation at home, by the military +services of their children abroad. + +This, I assure you, is the real state of that enthusiasm which occasions +such an expence of eloquence to our gazette-writers; but these fallacious +accounts are not like the ephemeral deceits of your party prints in +England, the effect of which is destroyed in a few hours by an opposite +assertion. None here are bold enough to contradict what their sovereigns +would have believed; and a town or district, driven almost to revolt by +the present system of recruiting, consents very willingly to be described +as marching to the frontiers with martial ardour, and burning to combat +les esclaves des tyrans! By these artifices, one department is misled +with regard to the dispositions of another, and if they do not excite to +emulation, they, at least, repress by fear; and, probably, many are +reduced to submission, who would resist, were they not doubtful of the +support and union of their neighbours. Every possible precaution is +taken to prevent any connections between the different departments-- +people who are not known cannot obtain passports without the +recommendation of two housekeepers--you must give an account of the +business you go upon, of the carriage you mean to travel in, whether it +has two wheels or four: all of which must be specified in your passport: +and you cannot send your baggage from one town to another without the +risk of having it searched. All these things are so disgusting and +troublesome, that I begin to be quite of a different opinion from Brutus, +and should certainly prefer being a slave among a free people, than thus +be tormented with the recollection that I am a native of England in a +land of slavery. Whatever liberty the French might have acquired by +their first revolution, it is now much like Sir John Cutler's worsted +stockings, so torn, and worn, and disguised by patchings and mendings, +that the original texture is not discoverable.--Yours, &c. + + + + +June 3, 1793. + +We have been three days without receiving newspapers; but we learn from +the reports of the courier, that the Brissotins are overthrown, that many +of them have been arrested, and several escaped to raise adherents in the +departments. I, however, doubt much if their success will be very +general: the people have little preference between Brissot and Marat, +Condorcet and Robespierre, and are not greatly solicitous about the names +or even principles of those who govern them--they are not yet accustomed +to take that lively interest in public events which is the effect of a +popular constitution. In England every thing is a subject of debate and +contest, but here they wait in silence the result of any political +measure or party dispute; and, without entering into the merits of the +cause, adopt whatever is successful. While the King was yet alive, the +news of Paris was eagerly sought after, and every disorder of the +metropolis created much alarm: but one would almost suppose that even +curiosity had ceased at his death, for I have observed no subsequent +event (except the defection of Dumouriez) make any very serious +impression. We hear, therefore, with great composure, the present +triumph of the more violent republicans, and suffer without impatience +this interregnum of news, which is to continue until the Convention shall +have determined in what manner the intelligence of their proceedings +shall be related to the departments. + +The great solicitude of the people is now rather about their physical +existence than their political one--provisions are become enormously +dear, and bread very scarce: our servants often wait two hours at the +baker's, and then return without bread for breakfast. I hope, however, +the scarcity is rather artificial than real. It is generally supposed to +be occasioned by the unwillingness of the farmers to sell their corn for +paper. Some measures have been adopted with an intention of remedying +this evil, though the origin of it is beyond the reach of decree. It +originates in that distrust of government which reconciles one part of +the community to starving the other, under the idea of self-preservation. +While every individual persists in establishing it as a maxim, that any +thing is better than assignats, we must expect that all things will be +difficult to procure, and will, of course, bear a high price. I fear, +all the empyricism of the legislature cannot produce a nostrum for this +want of faith. Dragoons and penal laws only "linger, and linger it out;" +the disease is incurable. + +My friends, Mons. and Mad. de B____, by way of consolation for their +imprisonment, now find themselves on the list of emigrants, though they +have never been a single day absent from their own province, or from +places of residence where they are well known. But that they may not +murmur at this injustice, the municipality have accompanied their names +with those of others who have not even been absent from the town, and of +one gentleman in particular, who I believe may have been seen on the +ramparts every day for these seven years.--This may appear to you only +very absurd, and you may imagine the consequences easily obviated; yet +these mistakes are the effect of private malice, and subject the persons +affected by them to an infinity of expence and trouble. They are +obliged, in order to avert the confiscation of their property, to appear, +in every part of the republic where they have possessions, with +attestations of their constant residence in France, and perhaps suffer a +thousand mortifications from the official ignorance and brutality of the +persons to whom they apply. No remedy lies against the authors of these +vexations, and the sufferer who is prudent fears even to complain. + +I have, in a former letter, noticed the great number of beggars that +swarm at Arras: they are not less numerous at Amiens, though of a +different description--they are neither so disgusting, nor so wretched, +but are much more importunate and insolent--they plead neither sickness +nor infirmity, and are, for the most part, able and healthy. How so many +people should beg by profession in a large manufacturing town, it is +difficult to conceive; but, whatever may be the cause, I am tempted to +believe the effect has some influence on the manners of the inhabitants +of Amiens. I have seen no town in France so remarkable for a rude and +unfeeling behaviour, and it is not fanciful to conjecture that the +multitude of poor may tend in part to occasion it. The constant view of +a sort of misery that excites little compassion, of an intrusive +necessity which one is more desirous to repulse than to relieve, cannot +but render the heart callous, and the manners harsh. The avarice of +commerce, which is here unaccompanied by its liberality, is glad to +confound real distress with voluntary and idle indigence, till, in time, +an absence of feeling becomes part of the character; and the constant +habit of petulant refusals, or of acceding more from fatigue than +benevolence, has perhaps a similar effect on the voice, gesture, and +external. + +This place has been so often visited by those who describe better than +myself, that I have thought it unnecessary to mention public buildings, +or any thing equally obvious to the traveller or the resident. The +beauty and elegance of the cathedral have been celebrated for ages, and I +only remind you of it to indulge my national vanity in the reflection +that one of the most splendid monuments of Gothic architecture in France +is the work of our English ancestors. The edifice is in perfect +preservation, and the hand of power has not yet ventured to appropriate +the plate or ornaments; but this forbearance will most probably give way +to temptation and impunity. The Convention will respect ancient +prejudices no longer than they suppose the people have courage to defend +them, and the latter seem so entirely subdued, that, however they may +murmur, I do not think any serious resistance is to be expected from +them, even in behalf of the relics of St. Firmin. [St. Firmin, the patron +of Amiens, where he is, in many of the streets, represented with his head +in his hand.]--The bust of Henry the Fourth, which was a present from the +Monarch himself, is banished the town-house, where it was formerly +placed, though, I hope, some royalist has taken possession of it, and +deposited it in safety till better times. This once popular Prince is +now associated with Nero and Caligula, and it is "leze nation" to speak +of him to a thorough republican.--I know not if the French had before the +revolution reached the acme of perfection, but they have certainly been +retrograding very fast since. Every thing that used to create fondness +and veneration is despised, and things are esteemed only in proportion as +they are worthless. Perhaps the bust of Robespierre may one day replace +that of Henry the Fourth, and, to speak in the style of an eastern +epistle, "what can I say more?" + +Should you ever travel this way with Gray in your hand, you will look for +the Ursuline convent, and regret the paintings he mentions: but you may +recollect, for your consolation, that they are merely pretty, and +remarkable only for being the work of one of the nuns.--Gray, who seems +to have had that enthusiastic respect for religious orders common to +young minds, admired them on this account; and numbers of English +travellers have, I dare say, prepossessed by such an authority, +experienced the same disappointment I myself felt on visiting the +Ursuline church. Many of the chapels belonging to these communities were +very showy and much decorated with gilding and sculpture: some of them +are sold for a mere trifle, but the greatest part are filled with corn +and forage, and on the door is inscribed "Magazin des armees." The +change is almost incredible to those who remember, that less than four +years ago the Catholic religion was strictly practised, and the violation +of these sanctuaries deemed sacrilegious. Our great historian [Gibbon] +might well say "the influence of superstition is fluctuating and +precarious;" though, in the present instance, it has rather been +restrained than subdued; and the people, who have not been convinced, but +intimidated, secretly lament these innovations, and perhaps reproach +themselves conscientiously with their submission.--Yours. + + + + +June 20, 1793. + +Mercier, in his Tableau de Paris, notices, on several occasions, the +little public spirit existing among his countrymen--it is also +observable, that many of the laws and customs presume on this deficiency, +and the name of republicans has by no means altered that cautious +disposition which makes the French consider either misfortunes or +benefits only as their personal interest is affected by them.--I am just +returned from a visit to Abbeville, where we were much alarmed on Sunday +by a fire at the Paraclete convent. The tocsin rang great part of the +day, and the principal street of the town was in danger of being +destroyed. In such circumstances, you will suppose, that people of all +ranks eagerly crouded to offer their service, and endeavour to stop the +progress of so terrible a calamity. By no means--the gates of the town +were shut to prevent its entire evacuation, many hid themselves in +garrets and cellars, and dragoons patrolled the streets, and even entered +the houses, to force the inhabitants to assist in procuring water; while +the consternation, usually the effect of such accidents, was only owing +to the fear of being obliged to aid the sufferers.--This employment of +military coercion for what humanity alone should dictate, is not +ascribeable to the principles of the present government--it was the same +before the revolution, (except that the agents of the ancient system were +not so brutal and despotic as the soldiers of the republic,) and +compulsion was always deemed necessary where there was no stimulant but +the general interest. + +In England, at any alarm of the fort, all distinction of ranks is +forgotten, and every one is solicitous to contribute as much as he is +able to the safety of his fellow-citizens; and, so far from an armed +force being requisite to procure assistance, the greatest difficulty is +to repress the too-officious zeal of the croud.--I do not pretend to +account for this national disparity, but I fear what a French gentleman +once said to me of the Parisians is applicable to the general character, +_"Ils sont tous egoistes,"_ ["They are all selfish!"] and they would not +do a benevolent action at the risk of soiling a coat or tearing a ruffle. + +Distrust of the assignats, and scarcity of bread, have occasioned a law +to oblige the farmers, in every part of the republic, to sell their corn +at a certain price, infinitely lower than what they have exacted for some +months past. The consequence of this was, that, on the succeeding market +days, no corn came to market, and detachments of dragoons are obliged to +scour the country to preserve us from a famine. If it did not convey an +idea both of the despotism and want with which the nation is afflicted, +one should be amused by the ludicrous figures of the farmers, who enter +the town preceded by soldiers, and reposing with doleful visages on their +sacks of wheat. Sometimes you see a couple of dragoons leading in +triumph an old woman and an ass, who follow with lingering steps their +military conductors; and the very ass seems to sympathize with his +mistress on the disaster of selling her corn at a reduced price, and for +paper, when she had hoped to hoard it till a counter-revolution should +bring back gold and silver. + +The farmers are now, perhaps, the greatest aristocrates in the country; +but as both their patriotism and their aristocracy have been a mere +calculation of interest, the severity exercised on their avarice is not +much to be regretted. The original fault is, however, in an usurped +government, which inspires no confidence, and which, to supply an +administration lavish beyond all example, has been obliged to issue such +an immense quantity of paper as nearly destroys its credit. In +political, as in moral, vices, the first always necessitates a second, +and these must still be sustained by others; until, at length, the very +sense of right and wrong becomes impaired, and the latter is not only +preferred from habit, but from choice. + +Thus the arbitrary emission of paper has been necessarily followed by +still more arbitrary decrees to support it. For instance--the people +have been obliged to sell their corn at a stated price, which has again +been the source of various and general vexations. The farmers, irritated +by this measure, concealed their grain, or sold it privately, rather than +bring it to market.--Hence, some were supplied with bread, and others +absolutely in want of it. This was remedied by the interference of the +military, and a general search for corn has taken place in all houses +without exception, in order to discover if any was secreted; even our +bedchambers were examined on this occasion: but we begin to be so +accustomed to the visite domiciliaire, that we find ourselves suddenly +surrounded by the Garde Nationale, without being greatly alarmed.--I know +not how your English patriots, who are so enamoured of French liberty, +yet thunder with the whole force of their eloquence against the ingress +of an exciseman to a tobacco warehouse, would reconcile this domestic +inquisition; for the municipalities here violate your tranquillity in +this manner under any pretext they choose, and that too with an armed +cortege sufficient to undertake the siege of your house in form. + +About fifteen departments are in insurrection, ostensibly in behalf of +the expelled Deputies; but I believe I am authorized in saying, it is by +no means the desire of the people at large to interfere. All who are +capable of reflection consider the dispute merely as a family quarrel, +and are not partial enough to either party to adopt its cause. The +tropps they have already raised have been collected by the personal +interest of the members who contrived to escape, or by an attempt of a +few of the royalists to make one half of the faction subservient to the +destruction of the other. If you judge of the principles of the nation +by the success of the Foederalists,* and the superiority of the +Convention, you will be extremely deceived; for it is demonstrable, that +neither the most zealous partizans of the ancient system, nor those of +the abolished constitution, have taken any share in the dispute; and the +departments most notoriously aristocratic have all signified their +adherence to the proceedings of the Assembly. + + * On the 31st of May and 2d of June, the Convention, who had been + for some months struggling with the Jacobins and the municipality of + Paris, was surrounded by an armed force: the most moderate of the + Deputies (those distinguished by the name of Brissotins,) were + either menaced into a compliance with the measures of the opposite + faction, or arrested; others took flight, and, by representing the + violence and slavery in which the majority of the Convention was + holden, excited some of the departments to take arms in their + favour.--This contest, during its short existence, was called the + war of the Foederalists.--The result is well known. + +Those who would gladly take an active part in endeavouring to establish a +good government, are averse from risking their lives and properties in +the cause of Brissot or Condorcet.--At Amiens, where almost every +individual is an aristocrate, the fugitive Deputies could not procure the +least encouragement, but the town would have received Dumouriez, and +proclaimed the King without opposition. But this schism in the +legislature is considered as a mere contest of banditti, about the +division of spoil, not calculated to excite an interest in those they +have plundered and oppressed. + +The royalists who have been so mistaken as to make any effort on this +occasion, will, I fear, fall a sacrifice, having acted for the most part +without union or concert; and their junction with the Deputies renders +them suspicious, if not odious, to their own party. The extreme +difficulty, likewise, of communication between the departments, and the +strict watch observed over all travellers, form another obstacle to the +success of any attempt at present; and, on the whole, the only hope of +deliverance for the French seems to rest upon the allied armies and the +insurgents of La Vendee. + +When I say this, I do not assert from prejudices, which often deceive, +nor from conjecture, that is always fallible; but from unexceptionable +information--from an intercourse with various ranks of people, and a +minute observance of all. I have scarcely met with a single person who +does not relate the progress of the insurgents in La Vendee with an air +of satisfaction, or who does not appear to expect with impatience the +surrender of Conde: and even their language, perhaps unconsciously, +betrays their sentiments, for I remark, they do not, when they speak of +any victory gained by the arms of the republic, say, Nous, or Notre +armee, but, Les Francais, and, Les troupes de la republique;--and that +always in a tone as though they were speaking of an enemy.--Adieu. + + + + +June 30, 1793. + +Our modern travellers are mostly either sentimental or philosophical, or +courtly or political; and I do not remember to have read any who describe +the manner of living among the gentry and middle ranks of life in France. +I will, therefore, relieve your attention for a moment from our actual +distresses, and give you the picture of a day as usually passed by those +who have easy fortunes and no particular employment.--The social +assemblage of a whole family in the morning, as in England, is not very +common, for the French do not generally breakfast: when they do, it is +without form, and on fruit, bread, wine, and water, or sometimes coffee; +but tea is scarcely ever used, except by the sick. The morning is +therefore passed with little intercourse, and in extreme dishabille. The +men loiter, fiddle, work tapestry, and sometimes read, in a robe de +chambre, or a jacket and _"pantalons;"_ [Trowsers.] while the ladies, +equipped only in a short manteau and petticoat, visit their birds, knit, +or, more frequently, idle away the forenoon without doing any thing. It +is not customary to walk or make visits before dinner, and if by chance +any one calls, he is received in the bedchamber. At half past one or two +they dine, but without altering the negligence of their apparel, and the +business of the toilette does not begin till immediately after the +repast. About four, visits of ceremony begin, and may be made till six +or seven according to the season; but those who intend passing an evening +at any particular house, go before six, and the card parties generally +finish between eight and nine. People then adjourn to their supper +engagements, which are more common than those for dinner, and are, for +the most part, in different places, and considered as a separate thing +from the earlier amusements of the evening. They keep better hours than +the English, most families being in bed by half past ten. The theatres +are also regulated by these sober habits, and the dramatic +representations are usually over by nine. + +A day passed in this manner is, as you may imagine, susceptible of much +ennui, and the French are accordingly more subject to it than +to any other complaint, and hold it in greatest dread than either +sickness or misfortune. They have no conception how one can remain two +hours alone without being ennuye a la mort; and but few, comparatively +speaking, read for amusement: you may enter ten houses without seeing a +book; and it is not to be wondered at that people, who make a point of +staying at home all the morning, yet do not read, are embarrassed with +the disposition of so much time.--It is this that occasions such a +general fondness for domestic animals, and so many barbarous musicians, +and male-workers of tapestry and tambour. + +I cannot but attribute this littleness and dislike of morning exercise to +the quantity of animal food the French eat at night, and to going to rest +immediately after it, in consequence of which their activity is checked +by indigestions, and they feel heavy and uncomfortable for half the +succeeding day.--The French pique themselves on being a gayer nation than +the English; but they certainly must exclude their mornings from the +account, for the forlorn and neglected figure of a Frenchman till dinner +is a very antidote to chearfulness, especially if contrasted with the +animation of our countrymen, whose forenoon is passed in riding or +walking, and who make themselves at least decent before they appear even +in their own families. + +The great difficulty the French have in finding amusement makes them +averse from long residences in the country, and it is very uncommon for +those who can afford only one house not to prefer a town; but those whose +fortune will admit of it, live about three months of the year in the +country, and the rest in the neighbouring town. This, indeed, as they +manage it, is no very considerable expence, for the same furniture often +serves for both habitations, and the one they quit being left empty, +requires no person to take charge of it, especially as house-breaking is +very uncommon in France; at least it was so before the revolution, when +the police was more strict, and the laws against robbers were more +severe. + +You will say, I often describe the habits and manners of a nation so +frequently visited, as though I were writing from Kamschatka or Japan; +yet it is certain, as I have remarked above, that those who are merely +itinerant have not opportunities of observing the modes of familiar life +so well as one who is stationary, and travellers are in general too much +occupied by more important observations to enter into the minute and +trifling details which are the subject of my communications to you. But +if your attention be sometimes fatigued by occurrences or relations too +well known, or of too little consequence to be interesting, I claim some +merit in never having once described the proportions of a building, nor +given you the history of a town; and I might have contrived as well to +tax your patience by an erudite description, as a superficial reflection, +or a female remark. The truth is, my pen is generally guided by +circumstances as they rise, and my ideas have seldom any deeper origin +than the scene before me. I have no books here, and I am apt to think if +professed travellers were deprived of this resource, many learned +etymologies and much profound compilation would be lost to the modern +reader. + +The insurgents of La Vendee continue to have frequent and decided +successes, but the insurrections in the other departments languish. The +avowed object of liberating the Convention is not calculated to draw +adherents, and if any better purpose be intended, while a faction are the +promoters of it, it will be regarded with too much suspicion to procure +any effectual movement. Yet, however partial and unconnected this revolt +may be, it is an object of great jealousy and inquietude: all the +addresses or petitions brought in favour of it are received with +disapprobation, and suppressed in the official bulletin of the +legislature; but those which express contrary sentiments are ordered to +be inserted with the usual terms of "applaudi, adopte, et mention +honorable."--In this manner the army and the people, who derive their +intelligence from these accounts (which are pasted up in the streets,) +are kept in ignorance of the real state of distant provinces, and, what +is still more important for the Convention, the communication of +examples, which they know so many are disposed to imitate, is retarded. + +The people here are nearly in the same state they have been in for some +time--murmuring in secret, and submitting in public; expecting every +thing from that energy in others which they have not themselves, and +accumulating the discontents they are obliged to suppress. The +Convention call them the brave republicans of Amiens; but if their +bravery were as unequivocal as their aristocracy, they would soon be at +the gates of Paris. Even the first levies are not all departed for the +frontiers, and some who were prevailed on to go are already returned.-- +All the necessaries of life are augmenting in price--the people complain, +pillage the shops and the markets one day, and want the next. Many of +the departments have opposed the recruiting much more decidedly than they +have ventured to do here; and it was not without inspiring terror by +numerous arrests, that the levies which were immediately necessary were +procured.--France offers no prospect but that of scarcity, disorder, and +oppression; and my friends begin to perceive that we have committed an +imprudence in remaining so long. No passports can now be obtained, and +we must, as well as several very respectable families still here, abide +the event of the war. + +Some weeks have elapsed since I had letters from England, and those we +receive from the interior come open, or sealed with the seal of the +district. This is not peculiar to our letters, as being foreigners, but +the same unceremonious inspection is practised with the correspondence of +the French themselves. Thus, in this land of liberty, all epistolary +intercourse has ceased, except for mere matters of business; and though +in the declaration of the rights of man it be asserted, that every one is +entitled to write or print his thoughts, yet it is certain no person can +entrust a letter to the post, but at the risk of having it opened; nor +could Mr. Thomas Paine himself venture to express the slightest +disapprobation of the measures of government, without hazarding his +freedom, and, in the end, perhaps, his life. Even these papers, which I +reserve only for your amusement, which contain only the opinions of an +individual, and which never have been communicated, I am obliged to +conceal with the utmost circumspection; for should they happen to fall +into the hands of our domiciliary inquisitors, I should not, like your +English liberties, escape with the gentle correction of imprisonment, or +the pillory.--A man, who had murdered his wife, was lately condemned to +twenty years imprisonment only; but people are guillotined every day for +a simple discourse, or an inadvertent expression.--Yours. + + + + +Amiens, July 5, 1793. + +It will be some consolation to the French, if, from the wreck of their +civil liberty, they be able to preserve the mode of administering justice +as established by the constitution of 1789. Were I not warranted by the +best information, I should not venture an opinion on the subject without +much diffidence, but chance has afforded me opportunities that do not +often occur to a stranger, and the new code appears to me, in many parts, +singularly excellent, both as to principle and practice.--Justice is here +gratuitous--those who administer it are elected by the people--they +depend only on their salaries, and have no fees whatever. Reasonable +allowances are made to witnesses both for time and expences at the public +charge--a loss is not doubled by the costs of a prosecution to recover +it. In cases of robbery, where property found is detained for the sake +of proof, it does not become the prey of official rapacity, but an +absolute restitution takes place.--The legislature has, in many respects, +copied the laws of England, but it has simplified the forms, and +rectified those abuses which make our proceedings in some cases almost as +formidable to the prosecutor as to the culprit. Having to compose an +entire new system, and being unshackled by professional reverence for +precedents, they were at liberty to benefit by example, to reject those +errors which have been long sanctioned by their antiquity, and are still +permitted to exist, through our dread of innovation. The French, +however, made an attempt to improve on the trial by jury, which I think +only evinces that the institution as adopted in England is not to be +excelled. The decision is here given by ballot--unanimity is not +required--and three white balls are sufficient to acquit the prisoner. +This deviation from our mode seems to give the rich an advantage over the +poor. I fear, that, in the number of twelve men taken from any country, +it may sometimes happen that three may be found corruptible: now the +wealthy delinquent can avail himself of this human failing; but, "through +tatter'd robes small vices do appear," and the indigent sinner has less +chance of escaping than another. + +It is to be supposed, that, at this time, the vigour of the criminal laws +is much relaxed, and their execution difficult. The army offers refuge +and impunity to guilt of all kinds, and the magistrates themselves would +be apprehensive of pursuing an offender who was protected by the mob, or, +which is the same thing, by the Jacobins. + +The groundwork of much of the French civil jurisprudence is arbitration, +particularly in those trifling processes which originate in a spirit of +litigation; and it is not easy for a man here, however well disposed, to +spend twenty pounds in a contest about as many pence, or to ruin himself +in order to secure the possession of half an acre of land. In general, +redress is easily obtained without unnecessary procrastination, and with +little or no cost. Perhaps most legal codes may be simple and +efficacious at their first institution, and the circumstance of their +being encumbered with forms which render them complex and expensive, may +be the natural consequence of length of time and change of manners. +Littleton might require no commentary in the reign of Henry II. and the +mysterious fictions that constitute the science of modern judicature were +perhaps familiar, and even necessary, to our ancestors. It is to be +regretted that we cannot adapt our laws to the age in which we live, and +assimilate them to our customs; but the tendency of our nature to +extremes perpetuates evils, and makes both the wise and the timid enemies +to reform. We fear, like John Calvin, to tear the habit while we are +stripping off the superfluous decoration; and the example of this country +will probably long act as a discouragement to all change, either judicial +or political. The very name of France will repress the desire of +innovation--we shall cling to abuses as though they were our support, and +every attempt to remedy them will become an objection of suspicion and +terror.--Such are the advantages which mankind will derive from the +French revolution. + +The Jacobin constitution is now finished, and, as far as I am able to +judge, it is what might be expected from such an origin: calculated to +flatter the people with an imaginary sovereignty--to place the whole +power of election in the class most easily misled--to exclude from the +representation those who have a natural interest in the welfare of the +country, and to establish the reign of anarchy and intrigue.--Yet, +however averse the greater number of the French may be from such a +constitution, no town or district has dared to reject it; and I remark, +that amongst those who have been foremost in offering their acceptation, +are many of the places most notoriously aristocratic. I have enquired of +some of the inhabitants of these very zealous towns on what principle +they acted so much in opposition to their known sentiments: the reply is +always, that they fear the vengeance of the Jacobins, and that they are +awed by military force. This reasoning is, of course, unanswerable; and +we learn, from the debates of the Convention, that the people have +received the new constitution _"avec la plus vive reconnoissance,"_ +["With the most lively gratitude."] and that they have all sworn to die +in its defence.--Yours, &c. + + + + +July 14, 1793. + +The return of this day cannot but suggest very melancholy reflections to +all who are witnesses of the changes which a single year has produced. +In twelve months only the government of France has been overturned, her +commerce destroyed, the country depopulated to raise armies, and the +people deprived of bread to support them. A despotism more absolute than +that of Turkey is established, the manners of the nation are corrupted, +and its moral character is disgraced in the eyes of all Europe. A +barbarous rage has laid waste the fairest monuments of art--whatever +could embellish society, or contribute to soften existence, has +disappeared under the reign of these modern Goths--even the necessaries +of life are becoming rare and inadequate to the consumption--the rich are +plundered and persecuted, yet the poor are in want--the national credit +is in the last stage of debasement, yet an immense debt is created, and +daily accumulating; and apprehension, distrust, and misery, are almost +universal.--All this is the work of a set of adventurers who are now +divided among themselves--who are accusing each other of those crimes +which the world imputes to them all--and who, conscious they can no +longer deceive the nation, now govern with the fear and suspicion of +tyrants. Every thing is sacrificed to the army and Paris, and the people +are robbed of their subsistence to supply an iniquitous metropolis, and a +military force that awes and oppresses them. + +The new constitution has been received here officially, but no one seems +to take the least interest in it: it is regarded in just the same light +as a new tax, or any other ministerial mandate, not sent to be discussed +but obeyed. The mode of proclaiming it conveyed a very just idea of its +origin and tendency. It was placed on a cushion, supported by Jacobins +in their red caps, and surrounded by dragoons. It seemed the image of +Anarchy, guarded by Despotism.--In this manner they paraded the town, and +the "sacred volume" was then deposed on an altar erected on the Grande +Place.--The Garde Nationale, who were ordered to be under arms, attended, +and the constitution was read. A few of the soldiers cried "Vive la +republique!" and every one returned home with countenances in which +delight was by no means the prevailing expression. + +A trifling incident which I noticed on this occasion, will serve, among +others of the same kind that I could enumerate, to prove that even the +very lower class of the people begin to ridicule and despise their +legislators. While a municipal officer was very gravely reading the +constitution, an ass forced his way across the square, and placed himself +near the spot where the ceremony was performing: a boy, who was under our +window, on observing it, cried out, "Why don't they give him the +_accolade fraternelle!"_* + + * Fraternal embrace.--This is the reception given by the President + to any one whom the Convention wish particularly to distinguish. On + an occasion of the sort, the fraternal embrace was given to an old + Negress.--The honours of the fitting are also daily accorded to + deputations of fish-women, chimney-sweepers, children, and all whose + missions are flattering. There is no homage so mean as not to + gratify the pride of those to whom dominion is new; and these + expressions are so often and so strangely applied, that it is not + surprizing they are become the cant phrases of the mob. + +--"Yes, (rejoined another,) and admit him _aux honneurs de la feance."_ +[To the honours of the fitting.] This disposition to jest with their +misfortunes is, however, not so common as it was formerly. A bon mot may +alleviate the loss of a battle, and a lampoon on the court solace under +the burthen of a new impost; but the most thoughtless or improvident can +find nothing very facetious in the prospect of absolute want--and those +who have been used to laugh under a circumscription of their political +liberty, feel very seriously the evil of a government which endows its +members with unlimited power, and enables a Deputy, often the meanest and +most profligate character of his department, to imprison all who, from +caprice, interest, or vengeance, may have become the objects of his +persecution. + +I know this will appear so monstrous to an Englishman, that, had I an +opportunity of communicating such a circumstance before it were publicly +authenticated, you would suppose it impossible, and imagine I had been +mistaken, or had written only from report; it is nevertheless true, that +every part of France is infested by these Commissioners, who dispose, +without appeal, of the freedom and property of the whole department to +which they are sent. It frequently happens, that men are delegated to +places where they have resided, and thus have an opportunity of +gratifying their personal malice on all who are so unfortunate as to be +obnoxious to them. Imagine, for a moment, a village-attorney acting with +uncontrouled authority over the country where he formerly exercised his +profession, and you will have some idea of what passes here, except that +I hope no class of men in England are so bad as those which +compose the major part of the National Convention.--Yours, &c. + + + + +July 23, 1793. + +The events of Paris which are any way remarkable are so generally +circulated, that I do not often mention them, unless to mark their effect +on the provinces; but you will be so much misled by the public papers +with regard to the death of Marat, that I think it necessary to notice +the subject while it is yet recent in my memory. Were the clubs, the +Convention, or the sections of Paris to be regarded as expressing the +sense of the people, the assassination of this turbulent journalist must +be considered being the case, that the departments are for the most part, +if not rejoiced, indifferent--and many of those who impute to him the +honour of martyrdom, or assist at his apotheosis, are much better +satisfied both with his christian and heathen glories, than they were +while he was living to propagate anarchy and pillage. The reverence of +the Convention itself is a mere political pantomime. Within the last +twelve months nearly all the individuals who compose it have treated +Marat with contempt; and I perfectly remember even Danton, one of the +members of the Committee of Salut Publique, accusing him of being a +contre revolutionnaire. + +But the people, to use a popular expression here, require to be +electrified.--St. Fargeau is almost forgotten, and Marat is to serve the +same purposes when dead, to which he contributed while living.--An +extreme grossness and want of feeling form the characteristic feature of +the Parisians; they are ignorant, credulous, and material, and the +Convention do not fail on all occasions to avail themselves of these +qualities. The corpse of Marat decently enclosed in a coffin would have +made little impression, and it was not pity, but revenge, which was to be +excited. The disgusting object of a dead leper was therefore exposed to +the eyes of a metropolis calling itself the most refined and enlightened +of all Europe-- + + "And what t'oblivion better were consign'd, + Is hung on high to poison half mankind." + +I know not whether these lines are most applicable to the display of +Marat's body, or the consecration of his fame, but both will be a lasting +stigma on the manners and morals of Paris. + +If the departments, however, take no interest in the loss of Marat, the +young woman who assassinated him has created a very lively one. The +slightest anecdotes concerning her are collected with avidity, and +repeated with admiration; and this is a still farther proof of what you +have heard me advance, that neither patriotism nor humanity has an +abundant growth in this country. The French applaud an act in itself +horrid and unjustifiable, while they have scarcely any conception of the +motive, and such a sacrifice seems to them something supernatural.--The +Jacobins assert, that Charlotte Corday was an emissary of the allied +powers, or, rather, of Mr. Pitt; and the Parisians have the complaisance +to believe, that a young woman could devote herself to certain +destruction at the instigation of another, as though the same principles +which would lead a person to undertake a diplomatic commission, would +induce her to meet death. + +I wrote some days ago to a lady of my acquaintance at Caen, to beg she +would procure me some information relative to this extraordinary female, +and I subjoin an extract of her answer, which I have just received: + +"Miss Corday was a native of this department, and had, from her earliest +years, been very carefully educated by an aunt who lives at Caen. Before +she was twenty she had decided on taking the veil, and her noviciate was +just expired when the Constituent Assembly interdicted all religious vows +for the future: she then left the convent, and resided entirely with her +aunt. The beauty of her person, and particularly her mental +acquisitions, which were superior to that of French women in general, +rendered an object of much admiration. She spoke uncommonly well, and +her discourse often turned on the ancients, and on such subjects as +indicated that masculine turn of mind which has since proved so fatal to +her. Perhaps her conversation was a little tinctured with that pedantry +not unjustly attributed to our sex when they have a little more knowledge +than usual, but, at the same time, not in such a degree as to render it +unpleasant. She seldom gave any opinion on the revolution, but +frequently attended the municipalities to solicit the pensions of the +expelled religious, or on any other occasion where she could be useful to +her friends. On the arrival of Petion, Barbaroux, and others of the +Brissotin faction, she began to frequent the clubs, and to take a more +lively interest in political affairs. Petion, and Barbaroux especially, +seemed to be much respected by her. It was even said, she had a tender +partiality for the latter; but this I believe is untrue.--I dined with +her at her aunt's on the Sunday previous to her departure for Paris. +Nothing very remarkable appeared in her behaviour, except that she was +much affected by a muster of the recruits who were to march against +Paris, and seemed to think many lives might be lost on the occasion, +without obtaining any relief for the country.--On the Tuesday following +she left Caen, under pretext of visiting her father, who lives at Sens. +Her aunt accompanied her to the gate of the town, and the separation was +extremely sorrowful on both sides. The subsequent events are too well +known to need recital." + +On her trial, and at her execution, Miss Corday was firm and modest; +and I have been told, that in her last moments her whole figure was +interesting beyond description. She was tall, well formed, and +beautiful--her eyes, especially, were fine and expressive--even her dress +was not neglected, and a simple white dishabille added to the charms of +this self-devoted victim. On the whole, it is not possible to ascertain +precisely the motives which determined her to assassinate Marat. Her +letter to Barbaroux expresses nothing but republican sentiments; yet it +is difficult to conceive that a young woman, who had voluntarily embraced +the life of a cloister, could be really of this way of thinking.--I +cannot but suppose her connection with the Deputies arose merely from an +idea that they might be the instruments of restoring the abolished +government, and her profession of republican principles after she was +arrested might probably be with a view of saving Duperret, and others of +the party, who were still in the power of the Convention.--Her selection +of Marat still remains to be accounted for. He was, indeed, the most +violent of the Jacobins, but not the most dangerous, and the death of +several others might have been more serviceable to the cause. Marat was, +however, the avowed persecutor of priests and religion, and if we +attribute any influence to Miss Corday's former habits, we may suppose +them to have had some share in the choice of her victim. Her refusal of +the ministry of a constitutional priest at the scaffold strengthens this +opinion. We pay a kind of involuntary tribute of admiration to such +firmness of mind in a young and beautiful woman; and I do not recollect +that history has transmitted any thing parallel to the heroism of +Charlotte Corday. Love, revenge, and ambition, have often sacrificed +their victims, and sustained the courage of their voluntaries under +punishment; but a female, animated by no personal motives, sensible only +to the misfortunes of her country, patriotic both from feeling and +reflection, and sacrificing herself from principle, is singular in the +annals of human nature.--Yet, after doing justice to such an instance of +fortitude and philanthropic devotion, I cannot but sincerely lament the +act to which it has given rise. At a time when so many spirits are +irritated by despair and oppression, the example may be highly +pernicious, and a cause, however good, must always be injured by the use +of such means in its support.--Nothing can sanctify an assassination; and +were not the French more vindictive than humane, the crimes of the +republican party would find a momentary refuge in this injudicious effort +to punish them. + +My friend La Marquise de ____ has left Paris, and is now at Peronne, +where she has engaged me to pass a few weeks with her; so that my next +will most probably be dated from thence.--Mr. D____ is endeavouring to +get a passport for England. He begins to regret having remained here. +His temper, naturally impatient of restraint, accords but ill with the +portion of liberty enjoyed by our republicans. Corporal privations and +mental interdictions multiply so fast, that irritable people like +himself, and valetudinarians like Mrs. C____ and me, could not choose a +worse residence; and, as we are now unanimous on the subject, I hope soon +to leave the country.--There is, as you observe in your last, something +of indolence as well as friendship in my having so long remained here; +but if actions were always analyzed so strictly, and we were not allowed +to derive a little credit from our weaknesses, how many great characters +would be reduced to the common level. Voltaire introduced a sort of rage +for anecdotes, and for tracing all events to trifling causes, which has +done much more towards exploding the old-fashioned system or the dignity +of human nature than the dry maxims of Rochefaucault, the sophisms of +Mandeville, or even the malicious wit of Swift. This is also another +effect of the progress of philosophy; and this sort of moral Quixotism, +continually in search of evil, and more gratified in discovering it than +pained by its existence, may be very philosophical; but it is at least +gloomy and discouraging; and we may be permitted to doubt whether mankind +become wiser or better by learning, that those who have been most +remarkable either for wisdom or virtue were occasionally under the +influence of the same follies and passions as other people.--Your +uncharitable discernment, you see, has led me into a digression, and I +have, without intending it, connected the motives of my stay with +reflections on Voltaire's General History, Barillon's Letters, and all +the secret biography of our modern libraries. This, you will say, is +only a chapter of a "man's importance to himself;" but public affairs are +now so confused and disgusting, that we are glad to encourage any train +of ideas not associated with them. + +The Commissioners I gave you some account of in a former letter are +departed, and we have lately had Chabot, an Ex-capuchin, and a patriot of +special note in the Convention, and one Dumont, an attorney of a +neighbouring village. They are, like all the rest of these missionaries, +entrusted with unlimited powers, and inspire apprehension and dismay +wherever they approach. + +The Garde Nationale of Amiens are not yet entirely subdued to the times, +and Chabot gave some hints of a project to disarm them, and actually +attempted to arrest some of their officers; but, apprized of his design, +they remained two nights under arms, and the Capuchin, who is not +martially inclined, was so alarmed at this indication of resistance, +that he has left the town with more haste than ceremony.--He had, in an +harangue at the cathedral, inculcated some very edifying doctrines on the +division of property and the right of pillage; and it is not improbable, +had he not withdrawn, but the Amienois would have ventured, on this +pretext, to arrest him. Some of them contrived, in spite of the centinel +placed at the lodging of these great men, to paste up on the door two +figures, with the names of Chabot and Dumont; in the "fatal position of +the unfortunate brave;" and though certain events in the lives of these +Deputies may have rendered this perspective of their last moments not +absolutely a novelty, yet I do not recollect that Akenside, or any other +author, has enumerated a gibbet amongst the objects, which, though not +agreeable in themselves, may be reconciled to the mind by familiarity. +I wish, therefore, our representatives may not, in return for this +admonitory portrait of their latter end, draw down some vengeance on the +town, not easily to be appeased. I am no astrologer, but in our +sublunary world the conjunction of an attorney and a renegade monk cannot +present a fortunate aspect; and I am truly anxious to find myself once +again under the more benign influence of your English hemisphere.--Yours. + + + + +Peronne, July 29, 1793. + +Every attempt to obtain passports has been fruitless, and, with that sort +of discontented resignation which is the effect of necessity, I now look +upon myself as fixed here till the peace. I left Mr. and Mrs. D____ +yesterday morning, the disappointment operating upon them in full force. +The former takes longer walks than usual, breaks out in philippics +against tyrannies of all kinds, and swears ten times a day that the +French are the most noisy people upon earth--the latter is vexed, and, +for that reason, fancies she is ill, and calculates, with great +ingenuity, all the hazard and inconvenience we may be liable to by +remaining here. I hope, on my return, to find them more reconciled. + +At Villars de Bretonne, on my road hither, some people told me, with +great gaiety, that the English had made a descent on the coast of +Picardy. Such a report (for I did not suppose it possible) during the +last war would have made me tremble, but I heard this without alarm, +having, in no instance, seen the people take that kind of interest in +public events which formerly made a residence in France unpleasant to an +individual of an hostile nation. It is not that they are become more +liberal, or better informed--no change of this kind has been discovered +even by the warmest advocates of the revolution; but they are more +indifferent, and those who are not decidedly the enemies of the present +government, for the most part concern themselves as little about the +events of the war, as though it were carried on in the South Sea. + +I fear I should risk an imputation on my veracity, were I to describe the +extreme ignorance and inattention of the French with respect to public +men and measures. They draw no conclusions from the past, form no +conjectures for the future, and, after exclaiming "Il ne peut pas durer +comme cela," they, with a resignation which is certainly neither pious +nor philosophic, leave the rest to the agency of Providence.--Even those +who are more informed so bewilder themselves in the politics of Greece +and Rome, that they do not perceive how little these are applicable to +their own country. Indeed, it should seem that no modern age or people +is worthy the knowledge of a Frenchman.--I have often remarked, in the +course of our correspondence, how little they are acquainted with what +regards England or the English; and scarcely a day passes that I have not +occasion to make the same observation. + +My conductor hither, who is a friend of Mad. de T____, and esteemed "bien +instruit," was much surprized when I told him that the population and +size of London exceeded that of Paris--that we had good fruit, and better +vegetables than were to be found in many parts of France. I saw that he +suspected my veracity, and there is always on these occasions such a +decided and impenetrable incredulity in a Frenchman as precludes all +hopes of convincing him. He listens with a sort of self-sufficient +complacence which tells you he does not consider your assertions as any +thing more than the exaggerations of national vanity, but that his +politeness does not allow him to contradict you. I know nothing more +disgustingly impertinent than his ignorance, which intrenches itself +behind the forms of civility, and, affecting to decline controversy, +assumes the merit of forbearance and moderation: yet this must have been +often observed by every one who has lived much in French society: for the +first emotion of a Frenchman, on hearing any thing which tends to place +another country on an equality with France, is doubt--this doubt is +instantly reinforced by vanity--and, in a few seconds, he is perfectly +satisfied that the thing is impossible. + +One must be captious indeed to object to this, did it arise from that +patriotic feeling so common in the English; but here it is all vanity, +downright vanity: a Frenchman must have his country and his mistress +admired, though he does not often care much for either one or the other. +I have been in various parts of France in the most critical periods of +the revolution--I have conversed with people of all parties and of all +ranks--and I assert, that I have never yet met but with one man who had a +grain of real patriotism. If the Athenian law were adopted which doomed +all to death who should be indifferent to the public welfare in a time of +danger, I fear there would be a woeful depopulation here, even among the +loudest champions of democracy. + +It is not thirty miles from Amiens to Peronne, yet a journey of thirty +miles is not now to be undertaken inconsiderately; the horses are so much +worked, and so ill fed, that few perform such a distance without rest and +management. If you wish to take others, and continue your route, you +cannot, or if you wait while your own horses are refreshed, as a reward +for your humanity you get starved yourself. Bread being very scarce, no +family can get more than sufficient for its own consumption, and those +who travel without first supplying themselves, do it at the risk of +finding none on the road. + +Peronne is chiefly remarkable in history for never having been taken, and +for a tower where Louis XI. was confined for a short time, after being +outwitted in a manner somewhat surprizing for a Monarch who piqued +himself on his talents for intrigue, by Charles le Temeraire, Duke of +Burgundy. It modern reputation, arises from its election of the Abbe +Maury for its representative, and for entertaining political principles +every way analogous to such a choice. + +I found the Marquise much altered in her person, and her health much +impaired, by the frequent alarms and continual apprehensions she had been +subject to at Paris. Fortunately she has no imputation against her but +her rank and fortune, for she is utterly guiltless of all political +opinions; so that I hope she will be suffered to knit stockings, tend her +birds and dogs, and read romances in peace.--Yours, &c. &c. + + + + +August 1, 1793. + +When the creation of assignats was first proposed, much ingenuity was +employed in conjecturing, and much eloquence displayed in expatiating +upon, the various evils that might result from them; yet the genius of +party, however usually successful in gloomy perspective, did not at that +time imagine half the inconvenience this measure was fraught with. It +was easy, indeed, to foresee, that an immense circulation of paper, like +any other currency, must augment the price of every thing; but the +excessive discredit of the assignats, operating accessarily to their +quantity, has produced a train of collateral effects of greater magnitude +than even those that were originally apprehended. Within the last twelve +months the whole country are become monopolizers--the desire of realizing +has so possessed all degrees of people, that there is scarcely an article +of consumption which is not bought up and secreted. One would really +suppose that nothing was perishable but the national credit--the +nobleman, the merchant, the shopkeeper, all who have assignats, engage in +these speculations, and the necessities of our dissipated heirs do not +drive them to resources for obtaining money more whimsical than the +commerce now practised here to get rid of it. I know a beau who has +converted his _hypotheque_ [Mortgage.] on the national domains into train +oil, and a General who has given these "airy nothings" the substance and +form of hemp and leather!* + + * In the late rage for monopolies in France, a person who had + observed the vast daily consumption of onions, garlic, and + eschalots, conceived the project of making the whole district of + Amiens tributary for this indispensible article. In consequence, he + attended several market-days, and purchased all that came in his + way. The country people finding a ready sale for their onions, + poured in from all quarters, and our projector found that, in + proportion as he bought, the market became more profusely supplied, + and that the commodity he had hoped to monopolize was inexhaustible. + +Goods purchased from such motives are not as you may conceive sold till +the temptation of an exorbitant profit seduces the proprietor to risk a +momentary possession of assignats, which are again disposed of in a +similar way. Thus many necessaries of life are withdrawn from +circulation, and when a real scarcity ensues, they are produced to the +people, charged with all the accumulated gains of these intermediate +barters. + +This illiberal and pernicious commerce, which avarice and fear have for +some time kept in great activity, has at length attracted the notice of +the Convention, and very severe laws are now enacted against monopolies +of all kinds. The holder of any quantity of merchandize beyond what he +may be supposed to consume is obliged to declare it to his municipality, +and to expose the articles he deals in in writing over his door. These +clauses, as well as every other part of the decree, seem very wise and +equitable; but I doubt if the severity of the punishment annexed to any +transgression of it will not operate so as to defeat the purposes +intended to be produced. A false declaration is punishable by six years +imprisonment, and an absolute non-compliance with death.--Blackstone +remarks, that it is the certainty, not the severity, of punishment, which +makes laws efficacious; and this must ever be the case amongst an humane +people.--An inordinate desire of gain is not often considered by mankind +as very criminal, and those who would willingly subject it to its +adequate punishment of fine and confiscation, will hesitate to become the +means of inflicting death on the offender, or of depriving him of his +liberty. The Poets have, from time immemorial, claimed a kind of +exclusive jurisdiction over the sin of avarice: but, unfortunately, minds +once steeled by this vice are not often sensible to the attacks of +ridicule; and I have never heard that any poet, from Plautus to Moliere, +has reformed a single miser. I am not, therefore, sorry that our +legislature has encroached on this branch of the poetical prerogative, +and only wish that the mild regimen of the Muses had been succeeded by +something less rigid than the prison or the guillotine. It is true, +that, in the present instance, it is not the ordinary and habitual +practice of avarice that has called forth the severity of the laws, but a +species so destructive and extensive in its consequences, that much may +be said in defence of any penalty short of death; and such is the general +distrust of the paper-money, that I really believe, had not some measure +of the kind been adopted, no article susceptible of monopoly would have +been left for consumption. There are, however, those who retort on the +government, and assert, that the origin of the evil is in the waste and +peculation of its agents, which also make the immense emission of paper +more necessary; and they are right in the fact, though not in their +deduction, for as the evil does exist whatever may be the cause, it is +certainly wise to endeavour to remedy it. + +The position of Valenciennes, which is supposed to be on the eve of a +surrender--the progress of the insurgents in La Vendee--the discontents +in the South--and the charge of treachery against so many of the +Generals, and particularly Custine--all together seem to have agitated +the public extremely: yet it is rather the agitation of uncertainty than +that occasioned by any deep impression of hope or fear. The people wish +to be relieved from their present situation, yet are without any +determinate views for the future; and, indeed, in this part of the +country, where they have neither leaders nor union, it would be very +difficult for them to take a more active part. + +The party of the foederalists languish, merely because it is nothing more +than a party, and a party of which the heads excite neither interest nor +esteem. I conclude you learn from the papers all the more important +events, and I confine myself, as usual, to such details as I think less +likely to reach you. The humanity of the English must often banish their +political animosities when they read what passes here; and thousands of +my countrymen must at this moment lament with me the situation to which +France is reduced by projects in which common sense can distinguish no +medium between wickedness and folly. + +All apparent attachment to royalism is now cautiously avoided, but the +royalists do not diminish by persecution, and the industry with which +they propagate their opinions is nearly a match for all the force armee +of the republicans.--It is not easy to print pamphlets or newspapers, but +there are certain shops which one would think were discovered by +instinct, where are sold a variety of mysterious emblems of royalty, such +as fans that have no visible ornaments except landscapes, &c. but when +opened by the initiated, present tolerable likenesses of the Royal +Family; snuff-boxes with secret lids, containing miniature busts of the +late King; and music so ingeniously printed, that what to the common eye +offers only some popular air, when folded so as to join the heads and +tails of the notes together, forms sentences of very treasonable import, +and by no means flattering to the existing government--I have known these +interdicted trifles purchased at extravagant prices by the best-reputed +patriots, and by officers who in public breathe nothing but unconquerable +democracy, and detestation of Kings. Yet, though these things are +circulated with extreme caution, every body has something of the sort, +and, as Charles Surface says, "for my part, I don't see who is out of the +secret." + +The belief in religious miracles is exploded, and it is only in political +ones that the faith of the people is allowed to exercise itself.--We have +lately seen exhibited at the fairs and markets a calf, produced into the +world with the tri-coloured cockade on its head; and on the painted cloth +that announces the phoenomenon is the portrait of this natural +revolutionist, with a mayor and municipality in their official scarfs, +addressing the four-footed patriot with great ceremony. + +We set out early to-morrow-morning for Soissons, which is about twenty +leagues from hence. Travelling is not very desirable in the present +circumstances, but Mad. de F____ has some affairs to settle there which +cannot well be entrusted to a third person. The times, however, have a +very hostile appearance, and we intend, if possible, to be absent but +three days.--Yours. + + + + +Soissons, August 4, 1793. + +"And you may go by Beauvais if you will, for which reason many go by +Beauvais;" and the stranger who turns out of his road to go by Soissons, +must use the same reasoning, for the consciousness of having exercised +his free agency will be all his reward for visiting Soissons. This, by +the way; for my journey hither not being one of curiosity, I have no +right to complain; yet somehow or other, by associating the idea of the +famous Vase, the ancient residence of the first French Kings, and other +circumstances as little connected as these I suppose with modern history, +I had ranked Soissons in my imagination as one of the places I should see +with interest. I find it, however, only a dull, decent-looking town, +tolerably large, but not very populous. In the new division of France it +is the capital of the department De l'Aisne, and is of course the seat of +the administration. + +We left Peronne early, and, being so fortunate as to encounter no +accidental delays, we arrived within a league of Soissons early in the +afternoon. Mad. de F____, recollecting an acquaintance who has a chateau +not far out of our road, determined to stop an hour or two; for, as she +said, her friend was so "fond of the country," she should be sure to find +him there. We did, indeed, find this Monsieur, who is so "fond of the +country," at home, extremely well powdered, dressed in a striped silk +coat, and engaged with a card party, on a warm afternoon on the third of +August.--The chateau was situated as a French chateau usually is, so as +to be benefited by all the noises and odours of the village--built with a +large single front, and a number of windows so judiciously placed, that +it must be impossible either to be cool in summer or warm in winter. + +We walked out after taking some coffee, and I learned that this lover of +the country did not keep a single acre of land in his own hands, but that +the part immediately contiguous to the house was cultivated for a certain +share of the profit by a farmer who lives in a miserable looking place +adjoining, and where I saw the operations of the dairy-maid carried on +amidst pigs, ducks, and turkeys, who seemed to have established a very +familiar access. + +Previous to our arrival at Soissons, the Marquise (who, though she does +not consider me as an aristocrate, knows I am by no means a republican,) +begged me to be cautious in expressing my sentiments, as the Comte de +____, where we were going, had embraced the principles of the revolution +very warmly, and had been much blamed by his family on this account. +Mad. de F____ added, that she had not seen him for above a year, but that +she believed him still to be "extremement patriote." + +We reached Mons. de ____'s just as the family were set down to a very +moderate supper, and I observed that their plate had been replaced by +pewter. After the first salutations were over, it was soon visible that +the political notions of the count were much changed. He is a sensible +reflecting man, and seems really to wish the good of his country. He +thinks, with many others, that all the good effects which might have been +obtained by the revolution will be lost through the contempt and hatred +which the republican government has drawn upon it. + +Mons. de ____ has two sons who have distinguished themselves very +honourably in the army, and he has himself made great pecuniary +sacrifices; but this has not secured him from numerous domiciliary visits +and vexations of all kinds. The whole family are at intervals a little +pensive, and Mons. de ____ told us, at a moment when the ladies were +absent, that the taking of Valenciennes had occasioned a violent +fermentation at Paris, and that he had serious apprehensions for those +who have the misfortune to be distinguished by their rank, or obnoxious +from their supposed principles--that he himself, and all who were +presumed to have an attachment to the constitution of eighty-nine, were +much more feared, and of course more suspected, than the original +aristocrates--and "enfin" that he had made up his mind a la Francaise to +the worst that could happen. + +I have just run over the papers of the day, and I perceive that the +debates of the Convention are filled with invectives against the English. +A letter has been very opportunely found on the ramparts of Lisle, which +is intended to persuade the people that the British government has +distributed money and phosphoric matches in every town in France--the one +to provoke insurrection, the other to set fire to the corn.* You will +conclude this letter to be a fabrication, and it is imagined and executed +with so little ingenuity, that I doubt whether it will impose on the most +ignorant of the people for a moment. + + * "The National Convention, in the name of violated humanity, + denounces to all the world, and to the people of England in + particular, the base, perfidious, and wicked conduct of the British + government, which does not hesitate to employ fire, poison, + assassination, and every other crime, to procure the triumph of + tyranny, and the destruction of the rights of man." (Decree, 1st + August, 1793.) + +The Queen has been transferred to the Conciergerie, or common prison, and +a decree is passed for trying her; but perhaps at this moment (whatever +may be the result hereafter) they only hope her situation may operate as +a check upon the enemy; at least I have heard it doubted by many whether +they intend to proceed seriously on this trial so long threatened.-- +Perhaps I may have before noticed to you that the convention never seemed +capable of any thing great or uniform, and that all their proceedings +took a tinge from that frivolity and meanness which I am almost tempted +to believe inherent in the French character. They have just now, amidst +a long string of decrees, the objects of which are of the first +consequence, inserted one for the destruction of all the royal tombs +before the tenth of August, and another for reducing the expences of the +King's children, particularly their food, to bare necessaries. Had our +English revolutionists thus employed themselves, they might have expelled +the sculptured Monarchs from the Abbey, and waged a very successful war +on the admirers of Gothic antiquity; but neither the Stuarts, nor the +Catholic religion, would have had much to fear from them. + +We have been wandering about the town all day, and I have not remarked +that the successes of the enemy have occasioned any regret. When I was +in France three years ago, you may recollect that my letters usually +contained some relation of our embarrassment and delays, owing to the +fear and ignorance of the people. At one place they apprehended the +introduction of foreign troops--at another, that the Comte d'Artois was +to burn all the corn. In short, the whole country teemed with plots and +counterplots, every one of which was more absurd and inexplicable than +those of Oates, with his whole tribe of Jesuits. At present, when a +powerful army is invading the frontiers, and people have not in many +places bread to eat, they seem to be very little solicitous about the +former, and as little disposed to blame the aristocrates for the latter. + +It is really extraordinary, after all the pains that have been taken to +excite hatred and resentment against the English, that I have not heard +of a single instance of their having been insulted or molested. Whatever +inconveniencies they may have been subjected to, were acts of the +government, not of the people; and perhaps this is the first war between +the two nations in which the reverse has not been the case. + +I accompanied Mad. de ____ this afternoon to the house of a rich +merchant, where she had business, and who, she told me, had been a +furious patriot, but his ardour is now considerably abated. He had just +returned from the department, [Here used for the place where the public +business is transacted.] where his affairs had led him; and he assures +us, that in general the agents of the republic were more inaccessible, +more insolent, corrupt, and ignorant, than any employed under the old +government. He demurred to paying Mad. de ____ a sum of money all in +_assignats a face;_* and this famous patriot would readily have given me +an hundred livres for a pound sterling. + + * _Assignats a face_--that is, with the King's effigy; at this time + greatly preferred to those issued after his death. + +We shall return to Peronne to-morrow, and I have availed myself of the +hour between cards and supper, which is usually employed by the French in +undressing, to scribble my remarks. In some families, I suppose, supping +in dishabille is an arrangement of oeconomy, in others of ease; but I +always think it has the air of preparation for a very solid meal; and, in +effect, supping is not a mere ceremony with either sex in this country. + +I learnt in conversation with M. de ____, whose sons were at Famars when +the camp was forced, that the carnage was terrible, and that the loss of +the French on this occasion amounted to several thousands. You will be +informed of this much more accurately in England, but you will scarcely +imagine that no official account was ever published here, and that in +general the people are ignorant of the circumstance, and all the +disasters attending it. In England, you have opposition papers that +amply supply the omissions of the ministerial gazettes, and often dwell +with much complacence on the losses and defeats of their country; here +none will venture to publish the least event which they suppose the +government wish to keep concealed. I am told, a leading feature of +republican governments is to be extremely jealous of the liberty of the +press, and that of France is, in this respect, truly republican.--Adieu. + + + + +Peronne, August, 1793. + +I have often regretted, my dear brother, that my letters have for some +time been rather intended to satisfy your curiosity than your affection. +At this moment I feel differently, and I rejoice that the inquietude and +danger of my situation will, probably, not come to your knowledge till I +shall be no longer subject to them. I have been for several days unwell, +and yet my body, valetudinarian as I am at best, is now the better part +of me; for my mind has been so deranged by suspense and terror, that I +expect to recover my health long before I shall be able to tranquillize +my spirits. + +On our return from Soissons I found, by the public prints, that a decree +had passed for arresting all natives of the countries with which France +is at war, and who had not constantly resided there since 1789.--This +intelligence, as you will conceive, sufficiently alarmed me, and I lost +no time in consulting Mad. de ____'s friends on the subject, who were +generally of opinion that the decree was merely a menace, and that it was +too unjust to be put in execution. As some days elapsed and no steps +were taken in consequence, I began to think they were right, and my +spirits were somewhat revived; when one evening, as I was preparing to go +to bed, my maid suddenly entered the room, and, before she could give me +any previous explanation, the apartment was filled with armed men. As +soon as I was collected enough to enquire the object of this unseasonable +visit, I learned that all this military apparel was to put the seals on +my papers, and convey my person to the Hotel de Ville!--I knew it would +be vain to remonstrated, and therefore made an effort to recover my +spirits and submit. The business, however, was not yet terminated, my +papers were to be sealed--and though they were not very voluminous, the +process was more difficult than you would imagine, none of the company +having been employed on affairs of the kind before. A debate ensued on +the manner in which it should be done, and, after a very tumultuous +discussion, it was sagaciously concluded to seal up the doors and windows +of all the apartments appropriated to my use. They then discovered that +they had no seal fit for the purpose, and a new consultation was holden +on the propriety of affixing a cypher which was offered them by one of +the Garde Nationale. + +This weighty matter being at length decided, the doors of my bedchamber, +dressing-room, and of the apartments with which they communicated, were +carefully fastened up, though not without an observation on my part that +I was only a guest at Mad. de ____'s, and that an order to seize my +papers or person was not a mandate for rendering a part of her home +useless. But there was no reasoning with ignorance and a score of +bayonets, nor could I obtain permission even to take some linen out of my +drawers. On going down stairs, I found the court and avenues to the +garden amply guarded, and with this numerous escort, and accompanied by +Mad. de ____, I was conducted to the Hotel de Ville. I know not what +resistance they might expect from a single female, but, to judge by their +precautions, they must have deemed the adventure a very perilous one. +When we arrived at the Hotel de Ville, it was near eleven o'clock: the +hall was crouded, and a young man, in a dirty linen jacket and trowsers +and dirty linen, with the air of a Polisson and the countenance of an +assassin, was haranguing with great vehemence against the English, who, +he asserted, were all agents of Pitt, (especially the women,) and were to +set fire to the corn, and corrupt the garrisons of the fortified towns.-- +The people listened to these terrible projects with a stupid sort of +surprize, and, for the most part, seemed either very careless or very +incredulous. As soon as this inflammatory piece of eloquence was +finished, I was presented to the ill-looking orator, who, I learned, was +a representant du peuple. It was very easy to perceive that my spirits +were quite overpowered, and that I could with difficulty support myself; +but this did not prevent the representant du peuple from treating me with +that inconsiderable brutality which is commonly the effect of a sudden +accession of power on narrow and vulgar minds. After a variety of +impertinent questions, menaces of a prison for myself, and exclamations +of hatred and vengeance against my country, on producing some friends of +Mad. de ____, who were to be answerable for me, I was released, and +returned home more dead than alive. + +You must not infer, from what I have related, that I was particularly +distinguished on this occasion, for though I have no acquaintance with +the English here, I understand they had all been treated much in the same +manner.--As soon as the representant had left the town, by dint of +solicitation we prevailed on the municipality to take the seal off the +rooms, and content themselves with selecting and securing my papers, +which was done yesterday by a commission, formally appointed for the +purpose. I know not the quality of the good citizens to whom this +important charge was entrusted, but I concluded from their costume that +they had been more usefully employed the preceding part of the day at the +anvil and last. It is certain, however, they had undertaken a business +greatly beyond their powers. They indeed turned over all my trunks and +drawers, and dived to the bottom of water-jugs and flower-jars with great +zeal, but neglected to search a large portfolio that lay on the table, +probably from not knowing the use of it; and my servant conveyed away +some letters, while I amused them with the sight of a blue-bottle fly +through a microscope. They were at first much puzzled to know whether +books and music were included under the article of papers, and were very +desirous of burning a history of France, because they discovered, by the +title-plate, that it was "about Kings;" but the most difficult part of +this momentous transaction was taking an account of it in writing. +However, as only one of the company could write, there was no disputing +as to the scribe, though there was much about the manner of execution. I +did not see the composition, but I could hear that it stated "comme +quoi," they had found the seals unbroken, "comme quoi," they had taken +them off, and divers "as hows" of the same kind. The whole being +concluded, and my papers deposited in a box, I was at length freed from +my guests, and left in possession of my apartments. + +It is impossible to account for this treatment of the English by any mode +of reasoning that does not exclude both justice and policy; and viewing +it only as a symptom of that desperate wickedness which commits evil, not +as a means, but an end, I am extremely alarmed for our situation. At +this moment the whole of French politics seems to center in an endeavour +to render the English odious both as a nation and as individuals. The +Convention, the clubs, and the streets of Paris, resound with low abuse +of this tendency; and a motion was made in the former, by one Garnier, to +procure the assassination of Mr. Pitt. Couthon, a member of the Comite +de Salut Publique, has proposed and carried a decree to declare him the +enemy of mankind; and the citizens of Paris are stunned by the hawkers of +Mr. Pitt's plots with the Queen to "starve all France," and "massacre all +the patriots."--Amidst so many efforts* to provoke the destruction of the +English, it is wonderful, when we consider the sanguinary character which +the French people have lately evinced, that we are yet safe, and it is in +effect only to be accounted for by their disinclination to take any part +in the animosities of their government. + + * When our representative appeared at Abbeville with an intention of + arresting the English and other foreigners, the people, to whom + these missionaries with unlimited powers were yet new, took the + alarm, and became very apprehensive that he was come likewise to + disarm their Garde Nationale. The streets were crouded, the town + house was beset, and Citizen Dumout found it necessary to quiet the + town's people by the following proclamation. One part of his + purpose, that of insuring his personal safety, was answered by it; + but that of exciting the people against the English, failed-- + insomuch, that I was told even the lowest classes, so far from + giving credit to the malignant calumnies propagated against the + English, openly regretted their arrestation. + + "Citizens, + + "On my arrival amongst you, I little thought that malevolence would + be so far successful as to alarm you on the motives of my visit. + Could the aristocrates, then, flatter themselves with the hope of + making you believe I had the intention of disarming you? Be deaf, I + beseech you, to so absurd a calumny, and seize on those who + propagate it. I came here to fraternize with you, and to assist you + in getting rid of those malcontents and foreigners, who are striving + to destroy the republic by the most infernal manoeuvres.--An + horrible plot has been conceived. Our harvests are to be fired by + means of phosphoric matches, and all the patriots assassinated. + Women, priests, and foreigners, are the instruments employed by the + coalesced despots, and by England above all, to accomplish these + criminal designs.--A law of the first of this month orders the + arrest of all foreigners born in the countries with which the + republic is at war, and not settled in France before the month of + July, 1789. In execution of this law I have required domiciliary + visits to be made. I have urged the preservation of the public + tranquillity. I have therefore done my duty, and only what all good + citizens must approve." + +I have just received a few lines from Mrs. D____, written in French, and +put in the post without sealing. I perceive, by the contents, though she +enters into no details, that circumstances similar to those I have +described have likewise taken place at Amiens. In addition to my other +anxieties, I have the prospect of a long separation from my friends; for +though I am not in confinement, I cannot, while the decree which arrested +me remains in force, quit the town of Peronne. I have not often looked +forward with so little hope, or so little certainty, and though a +first-rate philosopher might make up his mind to a particular event, yet +to be prepared for any thing, and all things, is a more difficult +matter. + +The histories of Greece and Rome have long constituted the grand +resources of French eloquence, and it is not till within a few days that +an orator has discovered all this good learning to be of no use--not, as +you might imagine, because the moral character and political situation of +the French differ from those of the Greeks and Romans, but because they +are superior to all the people who ever existed, and ought to be cited as +models, instead of descending to become copyists. "Therefore, continues +this Jacobin sage, (whose name is Henriot, and who is highly popular,) +let us burn all the libraries and all the antiquities, and have no guide +but ourselves--let us cut off the heads of all the Deputies who have not +voted according to our principles, banish or imprison all the gentry and +the clergy, and guillotine the Queen and General Custine!" + +These are the usual subjects of discussion at the clubs, and the +Convention itself is not much more decent. I tremble when I recollect +that I am in a country where a member of the legislature proposes rewards +for assassination, and the leader of a society, that pretends to inform +and instruct the people, argues in favour of burning all the books. The +French are on the eve of exhibiting the singular spectacle of a nation +enlightened by science, accustomed to the benefit of laws and the +enjoyment of arts, suddenly becoming barbarous by system, and sinking +into ignorance from choice.--When the Goths shared the most curious +antiques by weight, were they not more civilized than the Parisian of +1793, who disturbs the ashes of Henry the Fourth, or destroys the +monument of Turenne, by a decree?--I have myself been forced to an act +very much in the spirit of the times, but I could not, without risking my +own safety, do otherwise; and I sat up late last night for the purpose of +burning Burke, which I had brought with me, but had fortunately so well +concealed, that it escaped the late inquisition. I indeed made this +sacrifice to prudence with great unwillingness--every day, by confirming +Mr. Burke's assertions, or fulfilling his predictions, had so increased +my reverence for the work, that I regarded it as a kind of political +oracle. I did not, however, destroy it without an apologetic apostrophe +to the author's benevolence, which I am sure would suffer, were he to be +the occasion, though involuntarily, of conducting a female to a prison or +the Guillotine. + +"How chances mock, and changes fill the cup of alteration up with divers +liquors."--On the same hearth, and in a mingled flame, was consumed the +very constitution of 1789, on which Mr. Burke's book was a censure, and +which would now expose me to equal danger were it to be found in my +possession. In collecting the ashes of these two compositions, the +tendency of which is so different, (for such is the complexion of the +moment, that I would not have even the servant suspect I had been burning +a quantity of papers,) I could not but moralize on the mutability of +popular opinion. Mr. Burke's Gallic adversaries are now most of them +proscribed and anathematized more than himself. Perhaps another year may +see his bust erected on the piedestal which now supports that of Brutus +or Le Pelletier. + +The letters I have written to you since the communication was +interrupted, with some other papers that I am solicitous to preserve, +I have hitherto always carried about me, and I know not if any danger, +merely probable, will induce me to part with them. You will not, I +think, suspect me of attaching any consequence to my scribblings from +vanity; and if I run some personal risk in keeping them, it is because +the situation of this country is so singular, and the events which occur +almost daily so important, that the remarks of any one who is unlucky +enough to be a spectator, may interest, without the advantage of literary +talents.--Yours. + + + + +Peronne, August 24, 1793. + +I have been out to-day for the first time since the arrest of the +English, and, though I have few acquaintances here, my adventure at the +Hotel de Ville has gained me a sort of popularity. I was saluted by many +people I did not know, and overwhelmed with expressions of regret for +what had happened, or congratulations on my having escaped so well. + +The French are not commonly very much alive to the sufferings of others, +and it is some mortification to my vanity that I cannot, but at the +expence of a reproaching conscience, ascribe the civilities I have +experienced on this occasion to my personal merit. It would doubtless +have been highly flattering to me to relate the tender and general +interest I had excited even among this cold-hearted people, who scarcely +feel for themselves: but the truth is, they are disposed to take the part +of any one whom they think persecuted by their government; and their +representative, Dumont, is so much despised in his private character, and +detested in his public one, that it suffices to have been ill treated by +him, to ensure one a considerable portion of the public good will. + +This disposition is not a little consolatory, at a time when the whole +rage of an oligarchical tyranny, though impotent against the English as a +nation, meanly exhausts itself on the few helpless individuals within its +power. Embarrassments accumulate and if Mr. Pitt's agents did not most +obligingly write letters, and these letters happen to be intercepted just +when they are most necessary, the Comite de Salut Publique would be at a +loss how to account for them. + +Assignats have fallen into a discredit beyond example, an hundred and +thirty livres having been given for one Louis-d'or; and, as if this were +not the natural result of circumstances like the present, a +correspondence between two Englishmen informs us, that it is the work of +Mr. Pitt, who, with an unparalleled ingenuity, has contrived to send +couriers to every town in France, to concert measures with the bankers +for this purpose. But if we may believe Barrere, one of the members of +the Committee, this atrocious policy of Mr. Pitt will not be unrevenged, +for another intercepted letter contains assurances that an hundred +thousand men have taken up arms in England, and are preparing to march +against the iniquitous metropolis that gives this obnoxious Minister +shelter. + +My situation is still the same--I have no hope of returning to Amiens, +and have just reason to be apprehensive for my tranquillity here. I had +a long conversation this morning with two people whom Dumont has left +here to keep the town in order during his absence. The subject was to +prevail on them to give me a permission to leave Peronne, but I could not +succeed. They were not, I believe, indisposed to gratify me, but were +afraid of involving themselves. One of them expressed much partiality +for the English, but was very vehement in his disapprobation of their +form of government, which he said was "detestable." My cowardice did not +permit me to argue much in its behalf, (for I look upon these people as +more dangerous than the spies of the old police,) and I only ventured to +observe, with great diffidence, that though the English government was +monarchical, yet the power of the Crown was very much limited; and that +as the chief subjects of our complaints at present were not our +institutions, but certain practical errors, they might be remedied +without any violent or radical changes; and that our nobility were +neither numerous nor privileged, and by no means obnoxious to the +majority of the people.--_"Ah, vous avez donc de la noblesse blesse en +Angleterre, ce sont peut-etre les milords,"_ ["What, you have nobility in +England then? The milords, I suppose."] exclaimed our republican, and it +operated on my whole system of defence like my uncle Toby's smoke-jack, +for there was certainly no discussing the English constitution with a +political critic, who I found was ignorant even of the existence of a +third branch of it; yet this reformer of governments and abhorrer of +Kings has power delegated to him more extensive than those of an English +Sovereign, though I doubt if he can write his own language; and his moral +reputation is still less in his favour than his ignorance--for, previous +to the revolution, he was known only as a kind of swindler, and has more +than once been nearly convicted of forgery.--This is, however, the +description of people now chiefly employed, for no honest man would +accept of such commissions, nor perform the services annexed to them. + +Bread continues very scarce, and the populace of Paris are, as usual, +very turbulent; so that the neighbouring departments are deprived of +their subsistence to satisfy the wants of a metropolis that has no claim +to an exemption from the general distress, but that which arises from the +fears of the Convention. As far as I have opportunity of learning or +observing, this part of France is in that state of tranquillity which is +not the effect of content but supineness; the people do not love their +government, but they submit to it, and their utmost exertions amount only +to a little occasional obstinacy, which a few dragoons always reduce to +compliance. We are sometimes alarmed by reports that parties of the +enemy are approaching the town, when the gates are shut, and the great +bell is toll'd; but I do not perceive that the people are violently +apprehensive about the matter. Their fears are, I believe, for the most +part, rather personal than political--they do not dread submission to the +Austrians, but military licentiousness. + +I have been reading this afternoon Lord Orrery's definition of the male +Cecisbeo, and it reminds me that I have not yet noticed to you a very +important class of females in France, who may not improperly be +denominated female Cecisbeos. Under the old system, when the rank of a +woman of fashion had enabled her to preserve a degree of reputation and +influence, in spite of the gallantries of her youth and the decline of +her charms, she adopted the equivocal character I here allude to, and, +relinquishing the adorations claimed by beauty, and the respect due to +age, charitably devoted herself to the instruction and advancement of +some young man of personal qualifications and uncertain fortune. She +presented him to the world, panegyrized him into fashion, and insured his +consequence with one set of females, by hinting his successes with +another. By her exertions he was promoted in the army or distinguished +at the levee, and a career begun under such auspices often terminated in +a brilliant establishment.--In the less elevated circle, a female +Cecisbeo is usually of a certain age, of an active disposition, and great +volubility, and her functions are more numerous and less dignified. Here +the grand objects are not to besiege Ministers, nor give a "ton" to the +protege at a fashionable ruelle, but to obtain for him the solid +advantages of what she calls _"un bon parti."_ [A good match.] To this +end she frequents the houses of widows and heiresses, vaunts the docility +of his temper, and the greatness of his expectations, enlarges on the +solitude of widowhood, or the dependence and insignificance of a +spinster; and these prefatory encomiums usually end in the concerted +introduction of the Platonic "ami." + +But besides these principal and important cares, a female Cecisbeo of the +middle rank has various subordinate ones--such as buying linen, choosing +the colour of a coat, or the pattern of a waistcoat, with all the +minutiae of the favourite's dress, in which she is always consulted at +least, if she has not the whole direction. + +It is not only in the first or intermediate classes that these useful +females abound, they are equally common in more humble situations, and +only differ in their employments, not in their principles. A woman in +France, whatever be her condition, cannot be persuaded to resign her +influence with her youth; and the bourgeoise who has no pretensions to +court favour or the disposal of wealthy heiresses, attaches her eleve by +knitting him stockings, forcing him with bons morceaux till he has an +indigestion, and frequent regales of coffee and liqueur. + +You must not conclude from all this that there is any gallantry implied, +or any scandal excited--the return for all these services is only a +little flattery, a philosophic endurance of the card-table, and some +skill in the disorders of lap-dogs. I know there are in England, as well +as in France, many notable females of a certain age, who delight in what +they call managing, and who are zealous in promoting, matches among the +young people of their acquaintance; but for one that you meet with in +England there are fifty here. + +I doubt much if, upon the whole, the morals of the English women are not +superior to those of the French; but however the question may be decided +as to morals, I believe their superiority in decency of manners is +indisputable--and this superiority is, perhaps, more conspicuous in women +of a certain age, than in the younger part of the sex. We have a sort of +national regard for propriety, which deters a female from lingering on +the confines of gallantry, when age has warned her to withdraw; and an +old woman that should take a passionate and exclusive interest about a +young man not related to her, would become at least an object of +ridicule, if not of censure:--yet in France nothing is more common; every +old woman appropriates some youthful dangler, and, what is extraordinary, +his attentions are not distinguishable from those he would pay to a +younger object.--I should remark, however, as some apology for these +juvenile gallants, that there are very few of what we call Tabbies in +France; that is, females of severe principles and contracted features, in +whose apparel every pin has its destination with mathematical exactness, +who are the very watch-towers of a neighbourhood, and who give the alarm +on the first appearance of incipient frailty. Here, antique dowagers and +faded spinsters are all gay, laughing, rouged, and indulgent--so that +'bating the subtraction of teeth and addition of wrinkles, the disparity +between one score and four is not so great: + + "Gay rainbow silks their mellow charms enfold, + Nought of these beauties but themselves is old." + +I know if I venture to add a word in defence of Tabbyhood, I shall be +engaged in a war with yourself and all our young acquaintance; yet in +this age, which so liberally "softens, and blends, and weakens, and +dilutes" away all distinctions, I own I am not without some partiality +for strong lines of demarcation; and, perhaps, when fifty retrogrades +into fifteen, it makes a worse confusion in society than the toe of the +peasant treading on the heel of the courtier.--But, adieu: I am not gay, +though I trifle. I have learnt something by my residence in France, and +can be, as you see, frivolous under circumstances that ought to make me +grave.--Yours. + + + + +Peronne, August 29, 1793. + +The political horizon of France threatens nothing but tempests. If we +are still tranquil here, it is only because the storm is retarded, and, +far from deeming ourselves secure from its violence, we suffer in +apprehension almost as much as at other places is suffered in reality. +An hundred and fifty people have been arrested at Amiens in one night, +and numbers of the gentry in the neighbouring towns have shared the same +fate. This measure, which I understand is general throughout the +republic, has occasioned great alarms, and is beheld by the mass of the +people themselves with regret. In some towns, the Bourgeois have +petitions to the Representatives on mission in behalf of their gentry +thus imprisoned: but, far from succeeding, all who have signed such +petitions are menaced and intimidated, and the terror is so much +increased, that I doubt if even this slight effort will be repeated any +where. + +The levee en masse, or rising in a body, which has been for some time +decreed, has not yet taken place. There are very few, I believe, that +comprehend it, and fewer who are disposed to comply. Many consultations +have been holden, many plans proposed; but as the result of all these +consultations and plans is to send a certain number to the frontiers, the +suffrages have never been unanimous except in giving their negative.-- +Like Falstaff's troops, every one has some good cause of exemption; and +if you were to attend a meeting where this affair is discussed, you would +conclude the French to be more physically miserable than any people on +the glove. Youths, in apparent good health, have internal disorders, or +concealed infirmities--some are near-sighted--others epileptic--one is +nervous, and cannot present a musquet--another is rheumatic, and cannot +carry it. In short, according to their account, they are a collection of +the lame, the halt, and the blind, and fitter to send to the hospital, +than to take the field. But, in spite of all these disorders and +incapacities, a considerable levy must be made, and the dragoons will, I +dare say, operate very wonderful cures. + +The surrender of Dunkirk to the English is regarded as inevitable. I am +not politician enough to foresee the consequences of such an event, but +the hopes and anxieties of all parties seem directed thither, as if the +fate of the war depended on it. As for my own wishes on the subject, +they are not national, and if I secretly invoke the God of Armies for the +success of my countrymen, it is because I think all that tends to destroy +the present French government may be beneficial to mankind. Indeed, the +successes of war can at no time gratify a thinking mind farther than as +they tend to the establishment of peace. + +After several days of a mockery which was called a trial, though the +witnesses were afraid to appear, or the Counsel to plead in his favour, +Custine has suffered at the Guillotine. I can be no judge of his +military conduct, and Heaven alone can judge of his intentions. None of +the charges were, however, substantiated, and many of them were absurd or +frivolous. Most likely, he has been sacrificed to a cabal, and his +destruction makes a part of that system of policy, which, by agitating +the minds of the people with suspicions of universal treason and +unfathomable plots, leaves them no resource but implicit submission to +their popular leaders. + +The death of Custine seems rather to have stimulated than appeased the +barbarity of the Parisian mob. At every defeat of their armies they call +for executions, and several of those on whom the lot has fallen to march +against the enemy have stipulated, at the tribune of the Jacobins, for +the heads they exact as a condition of their departure,* or as the reward +for their labours. The laurel has no attraction for heroes like these, +who invest themselves with the baneful yew and inauspicious cypress, and +go to the field of honour with the dagger of the assassin yet +ensanguined. + + * Many insisted they would not depart until after the death of the + Queen--some claimed the death of one General, some that of another, + and all, the lives or banishment of the gentry and clergy. + +"Fair steeds, gay shields, bright arms," [Spencer.] the fancy-created +deity, the wreath of fame, and all that poets have imagined to decorate +the horrors of war, are not necessary to tempt the gross barbarity of the +Parisian: he seeks not glory, but carnage--his incentive is the groans of +defenceless victims--he inlists under the standard of the Guillotine, and +acknowledges the executioner for his tutelary Mars. + +In remarking the difficulties that have occurred in carrying into +execution the levee en masse, I neglected to inform you that the prime +mover of all these machinations is your omnipotent Mr. Pitt--it is he who +has fomented the perverseness of the towns, and alarmed the timidity of +the villages--he has persuaded some that it is not pleasant to leave +their shops and families, and insinuated into the minds of others that +death or wounds are not very desirable--he has, in fine, so effectually +achieved his purpose, that the Convention issues decree after decree, the +members harangue to little purpose, and the few recruits already levied, +like those raised in the spring, go from many places strongly escorted to +the army.--I wish I had more peaceful and more agreeable subjects for +your amusement, but they do not present themselves, and "you must blame +the times, not me." I would wish to tell you that the legislature is +honest, that the Jacobins are humane, and the people patriots; but you +know I have no talent for fiction, and if I had, my situation is not +favourable to any effort of fancy.--Yours. + + + + +Peronne, Sept. 7, 1793. + +The successes of the enemy on all sides, the rebellion at Lyons and +Marseilles, with the increasing force of the insurgents in La Vendee, +have revived our eagerness for news, and if the indifference of the +French character exempt them from more patriotic sensations, it does not +banish curiosity; yet an eventful crisis, which in England would draw +people together, here keeps them apart. When an important piece of +intelligence arrives, our provincial politicians shut themselves up with +their gazettes, shun society, and endeavour to avoid giving an opinion +until they are certain of the strength of a party, or the success of an +attempt. In the present state of public affairs, you may therefore +conceive we have very little communication--we express our sentiments +more by looks and gestures than words, and Lavater (admitting his system) +would be of more use to a stranger than Boyer or Chambaud. If the +English take Dunkirk, perhaps we may be a little more social and more +decided. + +Mad. de ____ has a most extensive acquaintance, and, as we are situated +on one of the roads from Paris to the northern army, notwithstanding the +cautious policy of the moment, we are tolerably well informed of what +passes in most parts of France; and I cannot but be astonished, when I +combine all I hear, that the government is able to sustain itself. Want, +discord, and rebellion, assail it within--defeats and losses from +without. Perhaps the solution of this political problem can only be +found in the selfishness of the French character, and the want of +connection between the different departments. Thus one part of the +country is subdued by means of another: the inhabitants of the South take +up arms in defence of their freedom and their commerce, while those of +the North refuse to countenance or assist them, and wait in selfish +tranquillity till the same oppression is extended to themselves. The +majority of the people have no point of union nor mode of communication, +while the Jacobins, whose numbers are comparatively insignificant, are +strong, by means of their general correspondence, their common center at +Paris, and the exclusive direction of all the public prints. But, +whatever are the causes, it is certain that the government is at once +powerful and detested--almost without apparent support, yet difficult to +overthrow; and the submission of Rome to a dotard and a boy can no longer +excite the wonder of any one who reflects on what passes in France. + +After various decrees to effect the levee en masse, the Convention have +discovered that this sublime and undefined project was not calculated for +the present exhausted state of martial ardour. They therefore no longer +presume on any movement of enthusiasm, but have made a positive and +specific requisition of all the male inhabitants of France between +eighteen and twenty-five years of age. This, as might be expected, has +been more effectual, because it interests those that are exempt to force +the compliance of those who are not. Our young men here were like +children with a medicine--they proposed first one form of taking this +military potion, then another, and finding them all equally unpalatable, +would not, but for a little salutary force, have decided at all. + +A new law has been passed for arresting all the English who cannot +produce two witnesses of their civisme, and those whose conduct is thus +guaranteed are to receive tickets of hospitality, which they are to wear +as a protection. This decree has not yet been carried into effect at +Peronne, nor am I much disturbed about it. Few of our countrymen will +find the matter very difficult to arrange, and I believe they have all a +better protection in the disposition of the people towards them, than any +that can be assured them by decrees of the Convention. + +Sept. 11. The news of Lord Hood's taking possession of Toulon, which the +government affected to discredit for some days, is now ascertained; and +the Convention, in a paroxism of rage, at once cowardly and unprincipled, +has decreed that all the English not resident in France before 1789, +shall be imprisoned as hostages, and be answerable with their lives for +the conduct of their countrymen and of the Toulonese towards Bayle and +Beauvais, two Deputies, said to be detained in the town at the time of +its surrender. My first emotions of terror and indignation have +subsided, and I have, by packing up my clothes, disposing of my papers, +and providing myself with money, prepared for the worst. My friends, +indeed, persuade me, (as on a former occasion,) that the decree is too +atrocious to be put in execution; but my apprehensions are founded on a +principle not likely to deceive me--namely, that those who have possessed +themselves of the French government are capable of any thing. I live in +constant fear, watching all day and listening all night, and never go to +bed but with the expectation of being awakened, nor rise without a +presentiment of misfortune.--I have not spirits nor composure to write, +and shall discontinue my letters until I am relieved from suspense, if +nor from uneasiness. I risk much by preserving these papers, and, +perhaps, may never be able to add to them; but whatever I may be reserved +for, while I have a hope they may reach you they shall not be destroyed. +--I bid you adieu in a state of mind which the circumstances I am under +will describe better than words.--Yours. + + + + +Maison d'Arret, Arras, Oct. 15, 1793. + +Dear Brother, + +The fears of a timid mind usually magnify expected evil, and anticipated +suffering often diminishes the effect of an apprehended blow; yet my +imagination had suggested less than I have experienced, nor do I find +that a preparatory state of anxiety has rendered affliction more +supportable. The last month of my life has been a compendium of misery; +and my recollection, which on every other subject seems to fail me, is, +on this, but too faithful, and will enable me to relate events which will +interest you not only as they personally concern me, but as they present +a picture of the barbarity and despotism to which this whole country is +subject, and to which many thousands besides myself were at the same +instant victims. + +A few evenings after I concluded my last, the firing of cannon and +ringing the great bell announced the arrival of Dumont (still +Representative en mission in our department). The town was immediately +in alarm, all the gates were shut, and the avenues leading to the +ramparts guarded by dragoons. Our house being in a distant and +unfrequented street, before we could learn the cause of all this +confusion, a party of the national guard, with a municipal officer at +their head, arrived, to escort Mad. de ___ and myself to a church, where +the Representant was then examining the prisoners brought before him. +Almost as much astonished as terrified, we endeavoured to procure some +information of our conductors, as to what was to be the result of this +measure; but they knew nothing, and it was easy to perceive they thought +the office they were executing an unpleasant one. The streets we passed +were crouded with people, whose silent consternation and dismayed +countenances increased our forebodings, and depressed the little courage +we had yet preserved. The church at our arrival was nearly empty, and +Dumont preparing to depart, when the municipal officer introduced us to +him. As soon as he learned that Mad. de ____ was the sister of an +emigrant, and myself a native of England, he told us we were to pass the +night in a church appointed for the purpose, and that on the morrow we +should be conveyed to Arras. For a moment all my faculties became +suspended, and it was only by an effort almost convulsive that I was able +to ask how long it was probable we should be deprived of our liberty. He +said he did not know--"but that the raising of the siege of Dunkirk, and +the loss of six thousand troops which the French had taken prisoners, +would doubtless produce an insurrection in England, par consequent a +peace, and our release from captivity!" + +You may be assured I felt no desire of freedom on such terms, and should +have heard this ignorant and malicious suggestion only with contempt, had +not the implication it conveyed that our detention would not terminate +but with the war overwhelmed every other idea. Mad. de ____ then +petitioned that we might, on account of our health, (for we were both +really unwell,) be permitted to go home for the night, accompanied by +guards if it were thought necessary. But the Representant was +inexorable, and in a brutal and despotic tone ordered us away.--When we +reached the church, which was to be our prison till morning, we found +about an hundred and fifty people, chiefly old men, women, and children, +dispersed in melancholy groupes, lamenting their situation, and imparting +their fears to each other. The gloom of the building was increased by +the darkness of the night; and the noise of the guard, may of whom were +intoxicated, the odour of tobacco, and the heat of the place, rendered +our situation almost insupportable. We soon discovered several of our +acquaintance, but this association in distress was far from consolatory, +and we passed the time in wandering about together, and consulting upon +what would be of most use to us in our confinement. We had, indeed, +little to hope for from the morrow, yet the hours dragged on heavily, and +I know not if ever I beheld the return of light with more pleasure. I +was not without apprehension for our personal safety. I recollected the +massacres in churches at Paris, and the frequent propositions that had +been made to exterminate the gentry and clergy. Mad. de ____ has since +confessed, that she had the same ideas. + +Morning at length came, and our servants were permitted to enter with +breakfast. They appeared sorrowful and terror-stricken, but offered with +great willingness to accompany us whithersoever we should be sent. After +a melancholy sort of discussion, it was decided that we should take our +femmes de chambres, and that the others should remain for the safety of +the house, and to send us what we might have occasion for. This settled, +they returned with such directions as we were able to give them, (God +knows, not very coherent ones,) to prepare for our journey: and as our +orders, however confused, were not very voluminous, they were soon +executed, and before noon every thing was in readiness for our departure. +The people employed by our companions were equally diligent, and we might +very well have set out by one o'clock, had our case been at all +considered; but, I know not why, instead of so providing that we might +reach our destination in the course of the day, it seemed to have been +purposely contrived that we should be all night on the road, though we +had already passed one night without rest, and were exhausted by watching +and fatigue. + +In this uncertain and unpleasant state we waited till near six o'clock; +a number of small covered waggons were then brought, accompanied by a +detachment of dragoons, who were to be our escort. Some time elapsed, as +you may suppose, before we could be all settled in the carriages and such +a cavalcade put in motion; but the concourse of people that filled the +streets, the appearance of the troops, and the tumult occasioned by so +many horses and carriages, overpowered my spirits, and I remember little +of what passed till I found we were on the road to Arras. Mad. de ____'s +maid now informed us, that Dumont had arrived the evening before in +extreme ill humour, summoned the municipality in haste, enquired how many +people they had arrested, and what denunciations they had yet to make. +The whole body corporate trembled, they had arrested no one, and, still +worse, they had no one to accuse; and could only alledge in their behalf, +that the town was in the utmost tranquillity, and the people were so well +disposed, that all violence was unnecessary. The Representant became +furious, vociferated _tout grossierement a la Francaise,_ [In the vulgar +French manner.] that he knew there were five thousand aristocrates in +Peronne, and that if he had not at least five hundred brought him before +morning, he would declare the town in a state of rebellion. + +Alarmed by this menace, they began to arrest with all possible speed, +and were more solicitous to procure their number than to make +discriminations. Their diligence, however, was inadequate to appease the +choleric legislator, and the Mayor, municipal officers, and all the +administrators of the district, were in the morning sent to the Castle, +whence they are to be conveyed, with some of their own prisoners, to +Amiens. + +Besides this intelligence, we learned that before our servants had +finished packing up our trunks, some Commissioners of the section arrived +to put the seals on every thing belonging to us, and it was not without +much altercation that they consented to our being furnished with +necessaries--that they had not only sealed up all the house, but had +placed guards there, each of whom Mad. de ____ is to pay, at the rate of +two shillings a day. + +We were too large a body to travel fast, and by the time we reached +Bapaume (though only fifteen miles) it was after twelve; it rained +dreadfully, the night was extremely dark, the roads were bad, and the +horses tired; so that the officer who conducted us thought it would be +difficult to proceed before morning. We were therefore once more crouded +into a church, in our wet clothes, (for the covering of the waggon was +not thick enough to exclude the rain,) a few bundles of damp straw were +distributed, and we were then shut up to repose as well as we could. All +my melancholy apprehensions of the preceding night returned with +accumulated force, especially as we were now in a place where we were +unknown, and were guarded by some of the newly-raised dragoons, of whom +we all entertained very unfavourable suspicions. + +We did not, as you may well imagine, attempt to sleep--a bed of wet straw +laid on the pavement of a church, filthy, as most French churches are, +and the fear of being assassinated, resisted every effort of nature +herself, and we were very glad when at the break of day we were summoned +to continue our journey. About eleven we entered Arras: the streets were +filled by idle people, apprized of our arrival; but no one offered us any +insult, except some soldiers, (I believe, by their uniform, refugees from +the Netherlands,) who cried, "a la Guillotine!--a la Guillotine!" + +The place to which we were ordered had been the house of an emigrant, +now converted into an house of detention, and which, though large, was +excessively full. The keeper, on our being delivered to him, declared he +had no room for us, and we remained with our baggage in the court-yard +some hours before he had, by dislodging and compressing the other +inhabitants, contrived to place us. At last, when we were half dead with +cold and fatigue, we were shown to our quarters. Those allotted for my +friend, myself, and our servants, was the corner of a garret without a +cieling, cold enough in itself, but rendered much warmer than was +desirable by the effluvia of a score of living bodies, who did not seem +to think the unpleasantness of their situation at all increased by dirt +and offensive smells. Weary as we were, it was impossible to attempt +reposing until a purification had been effected: we therefore set +ourselves to sprinkling vinegar and burning perfumes; and it was curious +to observe that the people, (_all gens comme il faut_ [People of +fashion.]) whom we found inhaling the atmosphere of a Caffrarian hut, +declared their nerves were incommoded by the essence of roses and +vinaigre des quatre voleurs. + +As a part of the room was occupied by men, our next business was to +separate our corner by a curtain, which we had fortunately brought with +our bedding; and this done, we spread our mattresses and lay down, while +the servants were employed in getting us tea. As soon as we were a +little refreshed, and the room was quiet for the night, we made up our +beds as well as we could, and endeavoured to sleep. Mad. de ____ and the +two maids soon forgot their cares; but, though worn out by fatigue, the +agitation of my mind conquered the disposition of my body. I seemed to +have lost the very faculty of sleeping, and passed this night with almost +as little repose as the two preceding ones. Before morning I discovered +that remaining so long in damp clothes, and the other circumstances of +our journey, had given me cold, and that I had all the symptoms of a +violent fever. + +I leave you to conjecture, for it would be impossible to detail, all the +misery of illness in such a situation; and I will only add, that by the +care of Mad. de ____, whose health was happily less affected, and the +attention of my maid, I was able to leave the room in about three weeks. +--I must now secrete this for some days, but will hereafter resume my +little narrative, and explain how I have ventured to write so much even +in the very neighbourhood of the Guillotine.--Adieu. + + + + +Maison d'Arret, Arras, Oct. 17, 1793. + +On the night I concluded my last, a report that Commissioners were to +visit the house on the morrow obliged me to dispose of my papers beyond +the possibility of their being found. The alarm is now over, and I +proceed.--After something more than three weeks indisposition, I began to +walk in the yard, and make acquaintance with our fellow-prisoners. Mad. +de ____ had already discovered several that were known to her, and I now +found, with much regret, that many of my Arras friends were here also. +Having been arrested some days before us, they were rather more +conveniently lodged, and taking the wretchedness of our garret into +consideration, it was agreed that Mad. de ____ should move to a room less +crouded than our own, and a dark closet that would just contain my +mattresses was resigned to me. It is indeed a very sorry apartment, but +as it promises me a refuge where I may sometimes read or write in peace, +I have taken possession of it very thankfully. A lock on the door is not +the least of its recommendations, and by way of securing myself against +all surprize, I have contrived an additional fastening by means of a +large nail and the chain of a portmanteau--I have likewise, under pretext +of keeping out the wind, papered over the cracks of the door, and +provided myself with a sand-bag, so that no one can perceive when I have +a light later than usual.--With these precautions, I can amuse myself by +putting on paper any little occurrences that I think worth preserving, +without much danger, and perhaps the details of a situation so new and so +strange may not be uninteresting to you. + +We are now about three hundred in number of both sexes, and of all ages +and conditions--ci-devant noblesse, parents, wives, sisters, and other +relations of emigrants--priests who have not taken the oaths, merchants +and shopkeepers accused of monopoly, nuns, farmers that are said to have +concealed their corn, miserable women, with scarcely clothes to cover +them, for not going to the constitutional mass, and many only because +they happened to be at an inn, or on a visit from their own town, when a +general arrest took place of all who are what is called etrangers, that +is to say, not foreigners only, but not inhabitants of the town where +they are found.--There are, besides, various descriptions of people sent +here on secret informations, and who do not themselves know the precise +reason of their confinement. I imagine we are subject to nearly the same +rules as the common prisons: no one is permitted to enter or speak to a +"detenu" but at the gate, and in presence of the guard; and all letters, +parcels, baskets, &c. are examined previous to their being either +conveyed from hence or received. This, however, depends much on the +political principles of those who happen to be on guard: an aristocrate +or a constitutionalist will read a letter with his eyes half shut, and +inspect bedding and trunks in a very summary way; while a thorough-paced +republican spells every syllable of the longest epistle, and opens all +the roasted pigs or duck-pies before he allows their ingress.--None of +the servants are suffered to go out, so that those who have not friends +in the town to procure them necessaries are obliged to depend entirely on +the keeper, and, of course, pay extravagantly dear for every thing; but +we are so much in the power of these people, that it is prudent to submit +to such impositions without murmuring. + +I did not, during my illness, read the papers, and have to-day been +amusing myself with a large packet. General Houchard, I find, is +arrested, for not having, as they say he might have done, driven all the +English army into the sea, after raising the siege of Dunkirk; yet a few +weeks ago their utmost hopes scarcely amounted to the relief of the town: +but their fears having subsided, they have now leisure to be jealous; and +I know no situation so little to be envied under the present government +as that of a successful General.--Among all their important avocations, +the Convention have found time to pass a decree for obliging women to +wear the national cockade, under pain of imprisonment; and the +municipality of the superb Paris have ordered that the King's family +shall, in future, use pewter spoons and eat brown bread! + + + + +Oct. 18. + +I begin to be very uneasy about Mr. and Mrs. D____. I have written +several times, and still receive no answer. I fear they are in a +confinement more severe than my own, or that our letters miscarry. A +servant of Mad. de ____'s was here this morning, and no letters had come +to Peronne, unless, as my friend endeavours to persuade me, the man would +not venture to give them in presence of the guard, who par excellence +happened to be a furious Jacobin.--We had the mortification of hearing +that a very elegant carriage of Mad. de ____'s has been put in +requisition, and taken to convey a tinman and two farriers who were going +to Paris on a mission--that two of her farmer's best horses had been +killed by hard work in taking provisions to the army, and that they are +now cutting down the young wood on her estate to make pikes.--The seals +are still on our effects, and the guard remains in possession, which has +put us to the expence of buying a variety of articles we could not well +dispense with: for, on examining the baggage after our arrival, we found +it very much diminshed; and this has happened to almost all the people +who have been arrested. Our suspicions naturally fall on the dragoons, +and it is not very surprizing that they should attempt to steal from +those whom they are certain would not dare to make any complaint. + +Many of our fellow-prisoners are embarrassed by their servants having +quitted them.--One Collot d'Herbois, a member of the Commite de Salut +Public, has proposed to the Convention to collect all the gentry, +priests, and suspected people, into different buildings, which should be +previously mined for the purpose, and, on the least appearance of +insurrection, to blow them up all together.--You may perhaps conclude, +that such a project was received with horror, and the adviser of it +treated as a monster. Our humane legislature, however, very coolly sent +it to the committee to be discussed, without any regard to the terror and +apprehension which the bare idea of a similar proposal must inspire in +those who are the destined victims. I cannot myself believe that this +abominable scheme is intended for execution, but it has nevertheless +created much alarm in timid minds, and has occasioned in part the +defection of the servants I have just mentioned. Those who were +sufficiently attached to their masters and mistresses to endure the +confinement and privations of a Maison d'Arret, tremble at the thoughts +of being involved in the common ruin of a gunpowder explosion; and the +men seem to have less courage than the women, at least more of the latter +have consented to remain here.--It was atrocious to publish such a +conception, though nothing perhaps was intended by it, as it may deprive +many people of faithful attendants at a time when they are most +necessary. + +We have a tribunal revolutionnaire here, with its usual attendant the +Guillotine, and executions are now become very frequent. I know not who +are the sufferers, and avoid enquiring through fear of hearing the name +of some acquaintance. As far as I can learn, the trials are but too +summary, and little other evidence is required than the fortune, rank, +and connections of the accused. The Deputy who is Commissioner for this +department is one Le Bon, formerly a priest--and, I understand, of an +immoral and sanguinary character, and that it is he who chiefly directs +the verdicts of the juries according to his personal hatred or his +personal interest.--We have lately had a very melancholy instance of the +terror created by this tribunal, as well as of the notions that prevail +of its justice. A gentleman of Calais, who had an employ under the +government, was accused of some irregularity in his accounts, and, in +consequence, put under arrest. The affair became serious, and he was +ordered to prison, as a preliminary to his trial. When the officers +entered his apartment to take him, regarding the judicial procedure as a +mere form, and concluding it was determined to sacrifice him, he in a +frenzy of despair seized the dogs in the chimney, threw them at the +people, and, while they escaped to call for assistance, destroyed himself +by cutting his arteries.--It has appeared, since the death of this +unfortunate man, that the charge against him was groundless, and that he +only wanted time to arrange his papers, in order to exonerate himself +entirely. + + + + +Oct. 19. + +We are disturbed almost nightly by the arrival of fresh prisoners, and my +first question of a morning is always _"N'est il pas du monde entre la +nuit?"_--Angelique's usual reply is a groan, and _"Ah, mon Dieu, oui;" +"Une dixaine de pretres;"_ or, _"Une trentaine de nobles:"_ ["Did not some +people arrive in the night?"]--"Yes, God help us--half a score priests, or +twenty or thirty gentry." And I observe the depth of the groan is nearly +in proportion to the quality of the person she commiserates. Thus, a +groan for a Comte, a Marquise, or a Priest, is much more audible than one +for a simple gentlewoman or a merchant; and the arrival of a Bishop +(especially if not one of the constitutional clergy) is announced in a +more sorrowful key than either. + +While I was walking in the yard this morning, I was accosted by a +female whom I immediately recollected to be Victoire, a very pretty +_couturiere,_ [Sempstress.] who used to work for me when I was at +Panthemont, and who made your last holland shirts. I was not a little +surprized to see her in such a situation, and took her aside to enquire +her history. I found that her mother was dead, and that her brother +having set up a little shop at St. Omer, had engaged her to go and live +with him. Being under five-and-twenty, the last requisition obliged him +to depart for the army, and leave her to carry on the business alone. +Three weeks after, she was arrested at midnight, put into a cart, and +brought hither. She had no time to take any precautions, and their +little commerce, which was in haberdashery, as well as some work she had +in hand, is abandoned to the mercy of the people that arrested her. She +has reason to suppose that her crime consists in not having frequented +the constitutional mass; and that her accuser is a member of one of the +town committees, who, since her brother's absence, has persecuted her +with dishonourable proposals, and, having been repulsed, has taken this +method of revenging himself. Her conjecture is most probably right, as, +since her imprisonment, this man has been endeavouring to make a sort of +barter with her for her release. + +I am really concerned for this poor creature, who is at present a very +good girl, but if she remain here she will not only be deprived of her +means of living, but perhaps her morals may be irremediably corrupted. +She is now lodged in a room with ten or dozen men, and the house is so +crouded that I doubt whether I have interest enough to procure her a more +decent apartment. + +What can this strange policy tend to, that thus exposes to ruin and want +a girl of one-and-twenty--not for any open violation of the law, but +merely for her religious opinions; and this, too, in a country which +professes toleration as the basis of its government? + +My friend, Mad. de ____ s'ennui terribly; she is not incapable of amusing +herself, but is here deprived of the means. We have no corner we can +call our own to sit in, and no retreat when we wish to be out of a croud +except my closet, where we can only see by candle-light. Besides, she +regrets her employments, and projects for the winter. She had begun +painting a St. Theresa, and translating an Italian romance, and had +nearly completed the education of a dozen canary birds, who would in a +month's time have accompanied the harp so delightfully, as to overpower +the sound of the instrument. I believe if we had a few more square +inches of room, she would be tempted, if not to bring the whole chorus, +at least to console herself with two particular favourites, distinguished +by curious topknots, and rings about their necks. + +With all these feminine propensities, she is very amiable, and her case +is indeed singularly cruel and unjust.--Left, at an early age, under the +care of her brother, she was placed by him at Panthemont (where I first +became acquainted with her) with an intention of having her persuaded to +take the veil; but finding her averse from a cloister, she remained as a +pensioner only, till a very advantageous marriage with the Marquis de +____, who was old enough to be her father, procured her release. About +two years ago he died, and left her a very considerable fortune, which +the revolution has reduced to nearly one-third of its former value. The +Comte de ____, her brother, was one of the original patriots, and +embraced with great warmth the cause of the people; but having very +narrowly escaped the massacres of September, 1792, he immediately after +emigrated. + +Thus, my poor friend, immured by her brother till the age of twenty-two +in a convent, then sacrificed three years to a husband of a disagreeable +temper and unsuitable age, is now deprived of the first liberty she ever +enjoyed, and is made answerable for the conduct of a man over whom she +has no sort of influence. It is not, therefore, extraordinary that she +cannot reconcile herself to her present situation, and I am really often +more concerned on her account than my own. Cut off from her usual +resources, she has no amusement but wandering about the house; and if her +other causes of uneasiness be not augmented, they are at least rendered +more intolerable by her inability to fill up her time.--This does not +arise from a deficiency of understanding, but from never having been +accustomed to think. Her mind resembles a body that is weak, not by +nature, but from want of exercise; and the number of years she has passed +in a convent has given her that mixture of childishness and romance, +which, my making frivolities necessary, renders the mind incapable of +exertion or self-support. + + + + +Oct. 20. + +The unfortunate Queen, after a trial of some days, during which she seems +to have behaved with great dignity and fortitude, is no longer sensible +of the regrets of her friends or the malice of her enemies. It is +singular, that I have not yet heard her death mentioned in the prison +--every one looks grave and affects silence. I believe her death has not +occasioned an effect so universal as that of the King, and whatever +people's opinions may be, they are afraid of expressing them: for it is +said, though I know not with what truth, that we are surrounded by spies, +and several who have the appearance of being prisoners like ourselves +have been pointed out to me as the objects of this suspicion. + +I do not pretend to undertake the defence of the Queen's imputed faults-- +yet I think there are some at least which one may be very fairly +permitted to doubt. Compassion should not make me an advocate for guilt +--but I may, without sacrificing morals to pity, venture to observe, that +the many scandalous histories circulated to her prejudice took their rise +at the birth of the Dauphin,* which formed so insurmountable a bar to the +views of the Duke of Orleans.-- + + * Nearly at the same time, and on the same occasion, there were + literary partizans of the Duke of Orleans, who endeavoured to + persuade the people that the man with the iron mask, who had so long + excited curiosity and eluded conjecture, was the real son of Louis + XIII.--and Louis XIV. in consequence, supposititious, and only the + illegitimate offspring of Cardinal Mazarin and Anne of Austria--that + the spirit of ambition and intrigue which characterized this + Minister had suggested this substitution to the lawful heir, and + that the fears of the Queen and confusion of the times had obliged + her to acquiesce: + + "Cette opinion ridicule, et dont les dates connues de l'histoire + demontrent l'absurdite, avoit eu des partisans en France--elle + tendoit a avilir la maison regnante, et a persuader au peuple que le + trone n'appartient pas aux descendans de Louis XIV. prince + furtivement sutstitue, mais a la posterite du second fils de Louis + XIII. qui est la tige de la branche d'Orleans, et qui est reconnue + comme descendant legitimement, et sans objection, du Roi Louis + XIII." + + --Nouvelles Considerations sur la Masque de Fer, Memoirs de + Richelieu. + + "This ridiculous opinion, the absurdity of which is demonstrated by + historical dates, had not been without its partizans in France.--It + tended to degrade the reigning family, and to make the people + believe that the throne did not of right belong to the descendants + of Louis XIV. (a prince surreptitiously intruded) but to the + posterity of the second son of Louis XIII. from whom is derived the + branch of Orleans, and who was, without dispute, the legitimate and + unobjectionable offspring of Louis XIII." + + --New Considerations on the Iron Mask.--Memoirs of the Duc de + Richelieu. + +The author of the above Memoirs adds, that after the taking of the +Bastille, new attempts were made to propagate this opinion, and that he +himself had refuted it to many people, by producing original letters and +papers, sufficiently demonstrative of its absurdity. + +--He might hope, by popularity, to supersede the children of the Count +d'Artois, who was hated; but an immediate heir to the Crown could be +removed only by throwing suspicions on his legitimacy. These +pretensions, it is true, were so absurd, and even incredible, that had +they been urged at the time, no inference in the Queen's favour would +have been admitted from them; but as the existence of such projects, +however absurd and iniquitous, has since been demonstrated, one may now, +with great appearance of reason, allow them some weight in her +justification. + +The affair of the necklace was of infinite disservice to the Queen's +reputation; yet it is remarkable, that the most furious of the Jacobins +are silent on this head as far as it regarded her, and always mention the +Cardinal de Rohan in terms that suppose him to be the culpable party: +but, "whatever her faults, her woes deserve compassion;" and perhaps the +moralist, who is not too severe, may find some excuse for a Princess, +who, at the age of sixteen, possibly without one real friend or +disinterested adviser, became the unrestrained idol of the most +licentious Court in Europe. Even her enemies do not pretend that her +fate was so much a merited punishment as a political measure: they +alledge, that while her life was yet spared, the valour of their troops +was checked by the possibility of negotiation; and that being no more, +neither the people nor armies expecting any thing but execration or +revenge, they will be more ready to proceed to the most desperate +extremities.--This you will think a barbarous sort of policy, and +considering it as national, it appears no less absurd than barbarous; but +for the Convention, whose views perhaps extend little farther than to +saving their heads, peculating, and receiving their eighteen livres a +day, such measures, and such a principle of action, are neither unwise +nor unaccountable: "for the wisdom of civilized nations is not their +wisdom, nor the ways of civilized people their ways."*-- + + * I have been informed, by a gentleman who saw the Queen pass in her + way to execution, that the short white bed gown and the cap which + she wore were discoloured by smoke, and that her whole appearance + seemed to have been intended, if possible, to degrade her in the + eyes of the multitude. The benevolent mind will recollect with + pleasure, that even the Queen's enemies allow her a fortitude and + energy of character which must have counteracted this paltry malice, + and rendered it incapable of producing any emotion but contempt. On + her first being removed to the Conciergerie, she applied for some + necessaries; but the humane municipality of Paris refused them, + under pretext that the demand was contrary to the system of _la + sainte elagite_--"holy equality." + +--It was reported that the Queen was offered her life, and the liberty to +retire to St. Cloud, her favourite residence, if she would engage the +enemy to raise the siege of Maubeuge and withdraw; but that she refused +to interfere. + + + + +Arras, 1793. + +For some days previous to the battle by which Maubeuge was relieved, we +had very gloomy apprehensions, and had the French army been unsuccessful +and forced to fall back, it is not improbable but the lives of those +detained in the _Maison d'Arret_ [House of detention.] might have been +sacrificed under pretext of appeasing the people, and to give some credit +to the suspicions so industriously inculcated that all their defeats are +occasioned by internal enemies. My first care, as soon as I was able to +go down stairs, was to examine if the house offered any means of escape +in case of danger, and I believe, if we could preserve our recollection, +it might be practicable; but I can so little depend on my strength and +spirits, should such a necessity occur, that perhaps the consolation of +knowing I have a resource is the only benefit I should ever derive from +it. + + + + +Oct. 21. + +I have this day made a discovery of a very unpleasant nature, which Mad. +de ____ had hitherto cautiously concealed from me. All the English, and +other foreigners placed under similar circumstances, are now, without +exception, arrested, and the confiscation of their property is decreed. +It is uncertain if the law is to extend to wearing apparel, but I find +that on this ground the Committee of Peronne persist in refusing to take +the seals off my effects, or to permit my being supplied with any +necessaries whatsoever. In other places they have put two, four, and, I +am told, even to the number of six guards, in houses belonging to the +English; and these guards, exclusive of being paid each two shillings per +day, burn the wood, regale on the wine, and pillage in detail all they +can find, while the unfortunate owner is starving in a Maison d'Arret, +and cannot obtain permission to withdraw a single article for his own +use.--The plea for this paltry measure is, that, according to the report +of a deserter escaped from Toulon, Lord Hood has hanged one Beauvais, a +member of the Convention. I have no doubt but the report is false, and, +most likely, fabricated by the Comite de Salut Public, in order to +palliate an act of injustice previously meditated. + +It is needless to expatiate on the atrocity of making individuals, living +here under the faith of the nation, responsible for the events of the +war, and it is whispered that even the people are a little ashamed of it; +yet the government are not satisfied with making us accountable for what +really does happen, but they attribute acts of cruelty to our countrymen, +in order to excuse those they commit themselves, and retaliate imagined +injuries by substantial vengeance.--Legendre, a member of the Convention, +has proposed, with a most benevolent ingenuity, that the manes of the +aforesaid Beauvais should be appeased by exhibiting Mr. Luttrell in an +iron cage for a convenient time, and then hanging him. + +A gentleman from Amiens, lately arrested while happening to be here on +business, informs me, that Mr. Luttrell is now in the common gaol of that +place, lodged with three other persons in a miserable apartment, so +small, that there is not room to pass between their beds. I understand +he was advised to petition Dumont for his removal to a Maison d'Arret, +where he would have more external convenience; but he rejected this +counsel, no doubt from a disdain which did him honour, and preferred to +suffer all that the mean malice of these wretches would inflict, rather +than ask any accommodation as a favour.--The distinguishing Mr. Luttrell +from any other English gentleman is as much a proof of ignorance as of +baseness; but in this, as in every thing else, the present French +government is still more wicked than absurd, and our ridicule is +suppressed by our detestation. + + + + +Oct. 22. + +Mad. de ____'s _homme d'affaires_ [Agent] has been here to-day, but no +news from Amiens. I know not what to conjecture. My patience is almost +exhausted, and my spirits are fatigued. Were I not just now relieved by +a distant prospect of some change for the better, my situation would be +insupportable.--"Oh world! oh world! but that thy strange mutations make +us wait thee, life would not yield to age." We should die before our +time, even of moral diseases, unaided by physical ones; but the +uncertainty of human events, which is the "worm i'the bud" of happiness, +is to the miserable a cheering and consolatory reflection. Thus have I +dragged on for some weeks, postponing, as it were, my existence, without +any resource, save the homely philosophy of _"nous verrons demain."_ +["We shall see to-morrow."] + +At length our hopes and expectations are become less general, and if we +do not obtain our liberty, we may be able at least to procure a more +eligible prison. I confess, the source of our hopes, and the protector +we have found, are not of a dignity to be ushered to your notice by +citations of blank verse, or scraps of sentiment; for though the top of +the ladder is not quite so high, the first rounds are as low as that of +Ben Bowling's. + +Mad. de ____'s confidential servant, who came here to-day, has learned, +by accident, that a man, who formerly worked with the Marquis's tailor, +having (in consequence, I suppose of a political vocation,) quitted the +selling of old clothes, in which he had acquired some eminence, has +become a leading patriot, and is one of Le Bon's, the Representative's, +privy counsellors. Fleury has renewed his acquaintance with this man, +has consulted him upon our situation, and obtained a promise that he will +use his interest with Le Bon in our behalf. Under this splendid +patronage, it is not unlikely but we may get an order to be transferred +to Amiens, or, perhaps, procure our entire liberation. We have already +written to Le Bon on the subject, and Fleury is to have a conference with +our friend the tailor in a few days to learn the success of his +mediation; so that, I trust, the business will not be long in suspense. + +We have had a most indulgent guard to-day, who, by suffering the servant +to enter a few paces within the gate, afforded us an opportunity of +hearing this agreeable intelligence; as also, by way of episode, that +boots being wanted for the cavalry, all the boots in the town were last +night put in requisition, and as Fleury was unluckily gone to bed before +the search was made at his inn, he found himself this morning very +unceremoniously left bootless. He was once a famous patriot, and the +oracle of Mad. de ____'s household; but our confinement had already +shaken his principles, and this seizure of his "superb English boots" +has, I believe, completed his defection. + + + + +Oct. 25. + +I have discontinued my journal for three days to attend my friend, Mad. +de ____, who has been ill. Uneasiness, and want of air and exercise, had +brought on a little fever, which, by the usual mode of treatment in this +country, has been considerably increased. Her disorder did not indeed +much alarm me, but I cannot say as much of her medical assistants, and it +seems to me to be almost supernatural that she has escaped the jeopardy +of their prescriptions. In my own illness I had trusted to nature, and +my recollection of what had been ordered me on similar occasions; but for +Mad. de ____ I was less confident, and desirous of having better advice, +begged a physician might be immediately sent for. Had her disorder been +an apoplexy, she must infallibly have died, for as no person, not even +the faculty, can enter, without an order from the municipal Divan, half a +day elapsed before this order could be procured. At length the physician +and surgeon arrived, and I know not why the learned professions should +impose on us more by one exterior than another; but I own, when I saw the +physician appear in a white camblet coat, lined with rose colour, and the +surgeon with dirty linen, and a gold button and loop to his hat, I began +to tremble for my friend. My feminine prejudices did not, however, in +this instance, deceive me. After the usual questions, the patient was +declared in a fever, and condemned to cathartics, bleeding, and "bon +bouillons;" that is to say, greasy beef soup, in which there is never an +oeconomy of onions.--When they were departed, I could not help expressing +my surprize that people's lives should be entrusted to such hands, +observing, at the same time, to the Baron de L____, (who is lodged in the +same apartment with Mad. de ____,) that the French must never expect men, +whose education fitted them for the profession, would become physicians, +while they continued to be paid at the rate of twenty-pence per visit.-- +Yet, replied the Baron, if they make twenty visits a day, they gain forty +livres--_"et c'est de quoi vivre."_ [It is a living.] It is undeniably +_de quoi vivre,_ but as long as a mere subsistence is the only prospect +of a physician, the French must be content to have their fevers cured by +"drastics, phlebotomy, and beef soup." + +They tell me we have now more than five hundred detenus in this single +house. How so many have been wedged in I can scarcely conceive, but it +seems our keeper has the art of calculating with great nicety the space +requisite for a given number of bodies, and their being able to respire +freely is not his affair. Those who can afford it have their dinners, +with all the appurtenances, brought from the inns or traiteurs; and the +poor cook, sleep, and eat, by scores, in the same room. I have persuaded +my friend to sup as I do, upon tea; but our associates, for the most +part, finding it inconvenient to have suppers brought at night, and being +unwilling to submit to the same privations, regale themselves with the +remains of their dinner, re-cooked in their apartments, and thus go to +sleep, amidst the fumes of _perdrix a l'onion, oeufs a la tripe,_ +[Partridge a l'onion--eggs a la tripe.] and all the produce of a French +kitchen. + +It is not, as you may imagine, the Bourgeois, and less distinguished +prisoners only, who indulge in these highly-seasoned repasts, at the +expence of inhaling the savoury atmosphere they leave behind them: the +beaux and petites mistresses, among the ci-devant, have not less exigent +appetites, nor more delicate nerves; and the ragout is produced at night, +in spite of the odours and disorder that remain till the morrow. + +I conclude, notwithstanding your English prejudices, that there is +nothing unwholesome in filth, for if it were otherwise, I cannot account +for our being alive. Five hundred bodies, in a state of coacervation, +without even a preference for cleanliness, "think of that Master Brook." +All the forenoon the court is a receptacle for cabbage leaves, fish +scales, leeks, &c. &c.--and as a French chambermaid usually prefers the +direct road to circumambulation, the refuse of the kitchen is then washed +away by plentiful inundations from the dressing-room--the passages are +blockaded by foul plates, fragments, and bones; to which if you add the +smell exhaling from hoarded apples and gruyere cheese, you may form some +notion of the sufferings of those whose olfactory nerves are not robust. +Yet this is not all--nearly every female in the house, except myself, is +accompanied even here by her lap-dog, who sleeps in her room, and, not +unfrequently, on her bed; and these Lesbias and Lindamiras increase the +insalubrity of the air, and colonize one's stockings by sending forth +daily emigrations of fleas. For my own part, a few close November days +will make me as captious and splenetic as Matthew Bramble himself. +Nothing keeps me in tolerable good humour at present, but a clear frosty +morning, or a high wind. + + + + +Oct. 27. + +I thought, when I wrote the above, that the house was really so full as +to be incapable of containing more; but I did not do justice to the +talents of our keeper. The last two nights have brought us an addition +of several waggon loads of nuns, farmers, shopkeepers, &c. from the +neighbouring towns, which he has still contrived to lodge, though much in +the way that he would pack goods in bales. Should another convoy arrive, +it is certain that we must sleep perpendicularly, for even now, when the +beds are all arranged and occupied for the night, no one can make a +diagonal movement without disturbing his neighbour.--This very sociable +manner of sleeping is very far, I assure you, from promoting the harmony +of the day; and I am frequently witness to the reproaches and +recriminations occasioned by nocturnal misdemeanours. Sometimes the +lap-dog of one dowager is accused of hostilities against that of +another, and thereby producing a general chorus of the rest--then a +four-footed favourite strays from the bed of his mistress, and takes +possession of a General's uniform--and there are female somnambules, who +alarm the modesty of a pair of Bishops, and suspended officers, that, +like Richard, warring in their dreams, cry "to arms," to the great +annoyance of those who are more inclined to sleep in peace. But, I +understand, the great disturbers of the room where Mad. de ____ sleeps +are two chanoines, whose noses are so sonorous and so untuneable as to +produce a sort of duet absolutely incompatible with sleep; and one of +the company is often deputed to interrupt the serenade by manual +application _mais tout en badinant et avec politesse_ [But all in +pleasantry, and with politeness.] to the offending parties. + +All this, my dear brother, is only ludicrous in the relation; yet for so +many people to be thus huddled together without distinction of age, sex, +or condition, is truly miserable.--Mad. De ____ is still indisposed, and +while she is thus suffocated by bad air, and distracted by the various +noises of the house, I see no prospect of her recovery. + +Arras is the common prison of the department, and, besides, there are a +number of other houses and convents in the town appropriated to the same +use, and all equally full. God knows when these iniquities are to +terminate! So far from having any hopes at present, the rage for +arresting seems, I think, rather to increase than subside. It is +supposed there are now more than three hundred thousand people in France +confined under the simple imputation of being what is called "gens +suspect:" but as this generic term is new to you, I will, by way of +explanation, particularize the several species as classed by the +Convention, and then described by Chaumette, solicitor for the City of +Paris;*-- + + * Decree concerning suspected people: + + "Art. I. Immediately after the promulgation of the present decree, + all suspected persons that are found on the territory of the + republic, and who are still at large, shall be put under arrest. + + "II. Those are deemed suspicious, who by their connections, their + conversation, or their writings, declare themselves partizans of + tyranny or foederation, and enemies to liberty--Those who have not + demonstrated their means of living or the performance of their civic + duties, in the manner prescribed by the law of March last--Those + who, having been suspended from public employments by the Convention + or its Commissioners, are not reinstated therein--Those of the + ci-devant noblesse, who have not invariably manifested their + attachment to the revolution, and, in general, all the fathers, + mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and agents of + emigrants--All who have emigrated between the 1st of July, 1789, + and 8th of April, 1792. + + "III. The execution of the decree is confided to the Committee of + Inspection. The individuals arrested shall be taken to the houses + of confinement appointed for their reception. They are allowed to + take with them such only of their effects as are strictly necessary, + the guards set upon them shall be paid at their expence, and they + shall be kept in confinement until the peace.--The Committees of + Inspection shall, without delay, transmit to the Committee of + General Safety an account of the persons arrested, with the motives + of their arrest. [If this were observed (which I doubt much) it was + but a mockery, few persons ever knew the precise reason of their + confinement.]--The civil and criminal tribunals are empowered, when + they deem it necessary, to detain and imprison, as suspected + persons, those who being accused of crimes have nevertheless had no + bill found against them, (lieu a accusation,) or who have even been + tried and acquitted." + +Indications that may serve to distinguish suspicious persons, and those +to whom it will be proper to refuse certificates of civism: + + "I. Those who in popular assemblies check the ardour of the people + by artful speeches, by violent exclamations or threats. + + "II. Those who with more caution speak in a mysterious way of the + public misfortunes, who appear to pity the lot of the people, and + are ever ready to spread bad news with an affectation of concern. + + "III. Those who adapt their conduct and language to the + circumstances of the moment--who, in order to be taken for + republicans, put on a studied austerity of manners, and exclaim with + vehemence against the most trifling error in a patriot, but mollify + when the crimes of an Aristocrate or a Moderee are the subject of + complaint. [These trifling events were, being concerned in the + massacres of September, 1792--public peculations--occasional, and + even habitual robbery, forgeries, &c. &c. &c.--The second, fourth, + fifth, sixth, and seventh classes, were particularly numerous, + insomuch that I doubt whether they would not have included + nineteen-twentieths of all the people in France who were honest + or at all capable of reflection.] + + "IV. Those who pity avaricious farmers and shopkeepers, against + whom the laws have been necessarily directed. + + "V. Those who with the words liberty, country, republic, &c. + constantly in their mouths, hold intercourse with ci-devant Nobles, + Contre-revolutionnaires, Priests, Aristocrates, Feuillans, &c. and + take an interest in their concerns. + + "VI. Those who not having borne an active part in the revolution, + endeavour to excuse themselves by urging the regular payment of + their taxes, their patriotic gifts, and their service in the Garde + National by substitute or otherwise. + + "VII. Those who received the republican constitution with coolness, + or who intimated their pretended apprehensions for its establishment + and duration. + + "VIII. Those who, having done nothing against liberty, have done as + little for it. + + "IX. Those who do not frequent the assembly of their section, and + offer, for excuse, that they are no orators, or have no time to + spare from their own business. + + "X. Those who speak with contempt of the constituted authorities, + of the rigour of the laws, of the popular societies, and the + defenders of liberty. + + "XI. Those who have signed anti-revolutionary petitions, or any + time frequented unpatriotic clubs, or were known as partizans of La + Fayette, and accomplices in the affair of the Champ de Mars." + +--and it must be allowed by all who reside in France at this moment, and +are capable of observing the various forms under which hatred for the +government shelters itself, that the latter is a chef d'oeuvre in its +kind. + +Now, exclusive of the above legal and moral indications of people to be +suspected, there are also outward and visible signs which we are told +from the tribune of the Convention, and the Jacobins, are not much less +infallible--such as _Gens a bas de soie rayes mouchetes--a chapeau rond-- +habit carre--culotte pincee etroite--a bottes cirees--les muscadins-- +Freloquets--Robinets, &c._ [People that wear spotted or striped silk +stockings--round hats--small coats--tight breeches--blacked boots-- +perfumes--coxcombs--sprigs of the law, &c.] The consequence of making +the cut of a man's coat, or the shape of his hat, a test of his political +opinions, has been the transformation of the whole country into +republicans, at least as far as depends on the costume; and where, as is +natural, there exists a consciousness of inveterate aristocracy, the +external is more elaborately "a la Jacobin." The equipment, indeed, of a +French patriot of the latest date is as singular as his manners, and in +both he is highly distinguishable from the inhabitants of any other +country: from those of civilized nations, because he is gross and +ferocious--from those of barbarous ones, because his grossness is often +affected, and his ferocity a matter of principle and preference. + +A man who would not be reckoned suspect now arrays himself in a jacket +and trowsers (a Carmagnole) of striped cotton or coarse cloth, a +neckcloth of gaudy cotton, wadded like a horse-collar, and projecting +considerably beyond his chin, a cap of red and blue cloth, embroidered in +front and made much in the form of that worn by the Pierrot of a +pantomime, with one, or sometimes a pair, of ear-rings, about the size of +a large curtain-ring! Finally, he crops his hair, and carefully +encourages the growth of an enormous pair of whiskers, which he does not +fail to perfume with volumes of tobacco smoke. He, however, who is +ambitious of still greater eminence, disdains these fopperies, and +affects an appearance of filth and rags, which he dignifies with the +appellation of stern republicanism and virtuous poverty; and thus, by +means of a thread-bare coat out at elbows, wooden shoes, and a red +woollen cap, the rich hope to secure their wealth, and the covetous and +intriguing to acquire lucrative employment.--Rolland, I think, was the +founder of these modern Franciscans, and with this miserable affectation +he machinated the death of the King, and, during some months, procured +for himself the exclusive direction of the government. + +All these patriots by prescription and system have likewise a peculiar +and appropriated dialect--they address every one by the title of Citizen, +thee and thou indistinctly, and talk of nothing but the agents of Pitt +and Cobourg, the coalesced tyrants, royal ogres, satellites of the +despots, automaton slaves, and anthropophagi; and if they revert to their +own prosperous state, and this very happy country, it is, _un peuple +libre, en peuple heureux, and par excellence la terre de la liberte._ +["A free people--a happy people--and, above all others, the land of +liberty."]--It is to be observed, that those with whom these pompous +expressions are most familiar, are officers employed in the war-like +service of mutilating the wooden saints in churches, and arresting old +women whom they encounter without national cockades; or members of the +municipalities, now reduced to execute the offices of constables, and +whose chief functions are to hunt out suspected people, or make +domiciliary visits in quest of concealed eggs and butter. But, above +all, this democratic oratory is used by tailors, shoemakers, &c.* of the +Committees of Inspection, to whom the Representatives on mission have +delegated their unlimited powers, who arrest much on the principle of +Jack Cade, and with whom it is a crime to read and write, or to appear +decently dressed. + + * For some months the departments were infested by people of this + description--corrupt, ignorant, and insolent. Their motives of + arrest were usually the hope of plunder, or the desire of + distressing those whom they had been used to look upon as their + superiors.--At Arras it sufficed even to have disobliged the wives + of these miscreants to become the object of persecution. In some + places they arrested with the most barbarous caprice, even without + the shadow of a reason. At Hesden, a small town in Artois, Dumont + left the Mayor carte blanche, and in one night two hundred people + were thrown into prison. Every where these low and obscure + dominators reigned without controul, and so much were the people + intimidated, that instead of daring to complain, they treated their + new tyrants with the most servile adulation.--I have seen a + ci-devant Comtesse coquetting with all her might a Jacobin tailor, + and the richest merchants of a town soliciting very humbly the good + offices of a dealer in old clothes. + +These ridiculous accoutrements, and this magnificent phraseology, are in +themselves very harmless; but the ascendancy which such a class of people +are taking has become a subject of just alarm.--The whole administration +of the country is now in the hands of uninformed and necessitous +profligates, swindlers, men already condemned by the laws, and who, if +the revolution had not given them "place and office," would have been at +the galleys, or in prison.* + + * One of the administrators of the department de la Somme (which, + however, was more decently composed than many others,) was, before + the revolution, convicted of house-breaking, and another of forgery; + and it has since been proved on various occasions, particularly on + the trial of the ninety-four Nantais, that the revolutionary + Committees were, for the most part, composed of the very refuse of + society--adventurers, thieves, and even assassins; and it would be + difficult to imagine a crime that did not there find reward and + protection.--In vain were the privileges of the nobility abolished, + and religion proscribed. A new privileged order arose in the + Jacobins, and guilt of every kind, without the semblance of + penitence, found an asylum in these Committees, and an inviolability + more sacred than that afforded by the demolished altars. + +To these may be added a few men of weak character, and unsteady +principles, who remain in office because they fear to resign; with a few, +and but very few, ignorant fanatics, who really imagine they are free +because they can molest and destroy with impunity all they have hitherto +been taught to respect, and drink treble the quantity they did formerly. + + + + +Oct. 30. + +For some days the guards have been so untractable, and the croud at the +door has been so great, that Fleury was obliged to make various efforts +before he could communicate the result of his negotiation. He has at +length found means to inform us, that his friend the tailor had exerted +all his interest in our favour, but that Dumont and Le Bon (as often +happens between neighbouring potentates) are at war, and their enmity +being in some degree subject to their mutual fears, neither will venture +to liberate any prisoner arrested by the other, lest such a disposition +to clemency should be seized on by his rival as a ground of accusation.* + + * But if they did not free the enemies of each other, they revenged + themselves by throwing into prison all their mutual friends--for the + temper of the times was such, that, though these Representatives + were expressly invested with unlimited powers, they did not venture + to set any one at liberty without a multitude of forms and a long + attendance: on the contrary, they arrested without any form at all, + and allowed their myrmidons to harrass and confine the persons and + sequester the property of all whom they judged proper.--It seemed to + have been an elementary principle with those employed by the + government at this time, that they risked nothing in doing all the + mischief they could, and that they erred only in not doing enough. + +--All, therefore, that can be obtained is, a promise to have us removed +to Amiens in a short time; and I understand the detenus are there treated +with consideration, and that no tribunal revolutionnaire has yet been +established. + +My mind will be considerably more at ease if this removal can be +effected. Perhaps we may not be in more real danger here than at any +other place, but it is not realities that constitute the misery of life; +and situated as we are, that imagination must be phlegmatic indeed, which +does not create and exaggerate enough to prevent the possibility of +ease.--We are, as I before observed, placed as it were within the +jurisdiction of the guillotine; and I have learned "a secret of our +prison-house" to-day which Mad. de ____ had hitherto concealed from me, +and which has rendered me still more anxious to quit it. Several of our +fellow prisoners, whom I supposed only transferred to other houses, have +been taken away to undergo the ceremony of a trial, and from thence to +the scaffold. These judicial massacres are now become common, and the +repetition of them has destroyed at once the feeling of humanity and the +sense of justice. Familiarized to executions, the thoughtless and +sanguinary people behold with equal indifference the guilty or innocent +victim; and the Guillotine has not only ceased to be an object of horror, +but is become almost a source of amusement. + + * At Arras this horrid instrument of death was what they called en + permanence, (stationary,) and so little regard was paid to the + morals of the people, (I say the morals, because every thing which + tends to destroy their humanity renders them vicious,) that it was + often left from one execution to another with the ensanguined traces + of the last victim but too evident.--Children were taught to amuse + themselves by making models of the Guillotine, with which they + destroyed flies, and even animals. On the Pontneuf, at Paris, a + sort of puppet-show was exhibited daily, whose boast it was to give + a very exact imitation of a guillotinage; and the burthen of a + popular song current for some months was _"Dansons la Guillotine."_ + --On the 21st of January, 1794, the anniversary of the King's death, + the Convention were invited to celebrate it on the "Place de la + Revolution," where, during the ceremony, and in presence of the + whole legislative body, several people were executed. It is true, + Bourdon, one of the Deputies, complained of this indecency; but not + so much on account of the circumstance itself, as because it gave + some of the people an opportunity of telling him, in a sort of way + he might probably deem prophetic, that one of the victims was a + Representative of the People. The Convention pretended to order + that some enquiry should be made why at such a moment such a place + was chosen; but the enquiry came to nothing, and I have no doubt but + the executions were purposely intended as analogous to the + ceremony.--It was proved that Le Bon, on an occasion when he chose + to be a spectator of some executions he had been the cause of, + suspended the operation while he read the newspaper aloud, in order, + as he said, that the aristocrates might go out of the world with the + additional mortification of learning the success of the republican + arms in their last moments. + + The People of Brest were suffered to behold, I had almost said to be + amused with (for if those who order such spectacles are detestable, + the people that permit them are not free from blame,) the sight of + twenty-five heads ranged in a line, and still convulsed with the + agonies of death.--The cant word for the Guillotine was "our holy + mother;" and verdicts of condemnation were called prizes in the + Sainte Lotterie--"holy lottery." + +The dark and ferocious character of Le Bon developes itself hourly: the +whole department trembles before him; and those who have least merited +persecution are, with reason, the most apprehensive. The most cautious +prudence of conduct, the most undeviating rectitude in those who are by +their fortune or rank obnoxious to the tyrant, far from contributing to +their security, only mark them out for a more early sacrifice. What is +still worse, these horrors are not likely to terminate, because he is +allowed to pay out of the treasury of the department the mob that are +employed to popularize and applaud them.--I hope, in a few days, we shall +receive our permission to depart. My impatience is a malady, and, for +nearly the first time in my life, I am sensible of ennui; not the ennui +occasioned by want of amusement, but that which is the effect of unquiet +expectation, and which makes both the mind and body restless and +incapable of attending to any thing. I am incessantly haunted by the +idea that the companion of to-day may to-morrow expire under the +Guillotine, that the common acts of social intercourse may be explained +into intimacy, intimacy into the participation of imputed treasons, and +the fate of those with whom we are associated become our own. It appears +both useless and cruel to have brought us here, nor do I yet know any +reason why we were not all removed to Amiens, except it was to avoid +exposing to the eyes of the people in the places through which we must +pass too large a number of victims at once.--The cause of our being +removed from Peronne is indeed avowed, as it is at present a rule not to +confine people at the place of their residence, lest they should have too +much facility or communication with, or assistance from, their friends.* + + * In some departments the nobles and priests arrested were removed + from ten to twenty leagues distant from their homes; and if they + happened to have relations living at the places where they were + confined, these last were forbidden to reside there, or even to + travel that way. + +We should doubtless have remained at Arras until some change in public +affairs had procured our release, but for the fortunate discovery of the +man I have mentioned; and the trifling favour of removal from one prison +to another has been obtained only by certain arrangements which Fleury +has made with this subordinate agent of tyranny, and in which justice or +consideration for us had no share. Alas! are we not miserable? is not +the country miserable, when our only resource is in the vices of those +who govern?--It is uncertain when we shall be ordered from hence--it may +happen when we least expect it, even in the night, so that I shall not +attempt to write again till we have changed our situation. The risk is +at present too serious, and you must allow my desire of amusing you to +give way to my solicitude for my own preservation. + + + + +Bicetre at Amiens, Nov. 18, 1793. + +_Nous voila donc encore, logees a la nation;_ that is to say, the common +prison of the department, amidst the thieves, vagabonds, maniacs, &c. +confined by the old police, and the gens suspects recently arrested by +the new.--I write from the end of a sort of elevated barn, sixty or +seventy feet long, where the interstices of the tiles admit the wind from +all quarters, and scarcely exclude the rain, and where an old screen and +some curtains only separate Mad. de ____, myself, and our servants, from +sixty priests, most of them old, sick, and as wretched as men can be, who +are pious and resigned. Yet even here I feel comparatively at ease, and +an escape from the jurisdiction of Le Bon and his merciless tribunal +seems cheaply purchased by the sacrifice of our personal convenience. I +do not pretend to philosophize or stoicize, or to any thing else which +implies a contempt of life--I have, on the contrary, a most unheroic +solicitude about my existence, and consider my removal to a place where I +think we are safe, as a very fortunate aera of our captivity. + +After many delays and disappointments, Fleury at length procured an +order, signed by the Representative, for our being transferred to Amiens, +under the care of two _Gardes Nationalaux,_ and, of course, at our +expence.--Every thing in this country wears the aspect of despotism. At +twelve o'clock at night we were awakened by the officer on guard, and +informed we were to depart on the morrow; and, notwithstanding the +difficulty of procuring horses and carriages, it was specified, that if +we did not go on the day appointed, we were not to go at all. It was, or +course, late before we could surmount the various obstacles to our +journey, and procure two crazy cabriolets, and a cart for the guards, +ourselves, and baggage. The days being short, we were obliged to sleep +at Dourlens; and, on our arrival at the castle, which is now, as it +always has been, a state-prison, we were told it was so full, that it was +absolutely impossible to lodge us, and that we had better apply to the +Governor, for permission to sleep at an inn. We then drove to the +Governor's* house, who received us very civilly, and with very little +persuasion agreed to our request. At the best of the miserable inns in +the town we were informed they had no room, and that they could not +accommodate us in any way whatever, except a sick officer then in the +house would permit us to occupy one of two beds in his apartment. + + * The Commandant had been originally a private soldier in the + regiment of Dillon.--I know not how he had obtained his advancement, + but, however obtained, it proved fatal to him: he was, a very short + time after I saw him, guillotined at Arras, for having borrowed + money of a prisoner. His real crime was, probably, treating the + prisoners in general with too much consideration and indulgence; and + at this period every suspicion of the kind was fatal. + +In England it would not be very decent to make such a request, or to +accept such an accommodation. In France, neither the one nor the other +is unusual, and we had suffered lately so many embarrassments of the +kind, that we were, if not reconciled, at least inured to them. Before, +however, we could determine, the gentleman had been informed of our +situation, and came to offer his services. You may judge of our surprize +when we found in the stranger, who had his head bound up and his arm in a +sling, General ____, a relation of Mad. de ____. We had now, therefore, +less scruple in sharing his room, though we agreed, notwithstanding, only +to repose a few hours in our clothes. + +After taking some tea, the remainder of the evening was dedicated to +reciprocal conversation of all kinds; and our guards having acquaintance +in the town, and knowing it was impossible for us to escape, even were we +so inclined, very civilly left us to ourselves. We found the General had +been wounded at Maubeuge, and was now absent on conge for the recovery of +his health. He talked of the present state of public affairs like a +military man who is attached to his profession, and who thinks it his +duty to fight at all events, whatever the rights or merits of those that +employ him. He confessed, indeed, that they were repulsing their +external enemies, only to confirm the power of those who were infinitely +more to be dreaded at home, and that the condition of a General was more +to be commiserated at this time than any other: if he miscarry, disgrace +and the Guillotine await him--if he be successful, he gains little +honour, becomes an object of jealousy, and assists in rivetting the +chains of his country. He said, the armies were for the most part +licentious and insubordinate, but that the political discipline was +terrible--the soldiers are allowed to drink, pillage, and insult their +officers with impunity, but all combinations are rigorously suppressed, +the slightest murmur against the Representative on mission is treason, +and to disapprove of a decree of the convention, death--that every man of +any note in the army is beset with spies, and if they leave the camp on +any occasion, it is more necessary to be on their guard against these +wretches than against an ambuscade of the enemy; and he related a +circumstance which happened to himself, as an example of what he +mentioned, and which will give you a tolerable idea of the present system +of government.--After the relief of Dunkirk, being quartered in the +neighbourhood of St. Omer, he occasionally went to the town on his +private concerns. One day, while he was waiting at the inn where he +intended to dine, two young men accosted him, and after engaging him in a +general conversation for some time, began to talk with great freedom, +though with an affected caution of public men and measures, of the +banditti who governed, the tyranny that was exercised, and the supineness +of the people: in short, of all those too poignant truths which +constitute the leze nation of the day. Mons. de ____ was not at first +very attentive, but finding their discourse become still more liberal, it +excited his suspicions, and casting his eyes on a glass opposite to where +they were conversing, he perceived a sort of intelligence between them, +which immediately suggested to him the profession of his companions; and +calling to a couple of dragoons who had attended him, ordered them to +arrest the two gentlemen as artistocrates, and convey them without +ceremony to prison. They submitted, seemingly more surprized than +alarmed, and in two hours the General received a note from a higher +power, desiring him to set them at liberty, as they were agents of the +republic. + +Duquesnoy, one of the Representatives now with the Northern army, is +ignorant and brutal in the extreme. He has made his brother (who, as +well as himself, used to retail hops in the streets of St. Pol,) a +General; and in order to deliver him from rivals and critics, he breaks, +suspends, arrests, and sends to the Guillotine every officer of any merit +that comes in his way. After the battle of Maubeuge, he arrested a +General Bardell, [The Generals Bardell and D'Avesnes, and several others, +were afterwards guillotined at Paris.] for accommodating a wounded +prisoner of distinction (I think a relation of the Prince of Cobourg) +with a bed, and tore with his own hands the epaulette from the shoulders +of those Generals whose divisions had not sustained the combat so well as +the others. His temper, naturally savage and choleric, is irritated to +fury by the habit of drinking large quantities of strong liquors; and +Mad. de ___'s relation assured us, that he had himself seen him take the +Mayor of Avesnes (a venerable old man, who was presenting some petition +to him that regarded the town,) by the hair and throw him on the ground, +with the gestures of an enraged cannibal. He also confined one of his +own fellow deputies in the tower of Guise, upon a very frivolous pretext, +and merely on his own authority. In fact, I scarcely remember half the +horrors told us of this man; and I shall only remind you, that he has an +unlimited controul over the civil constitution of the Northern army, and +over the whole department of the North. + +You, I suppose, will be better informed of military events than we are, +and I mention our friend's conjecture, that (besides an enormous number +of killed) the wounded at Maubeuge amounted to twelve or fourteen +thousand, only to remark the deception which is still practised on the +people; for no published account ever allowed the number to be more than +a few hundreds.--Besides these professional details, the General gave us +some very unpleasant family ones. On returning to his father's chateau, +where he hoped to be taken care of while his wounds were curing, he found +every room in it under seals, three guards in possession, his two sisters +arrested at St. Omer, where they happened to be on a visit, and his +father and mother confined in separate houses of detention at Arras. +After visiting them, and making some ineffectual applications for their +relief, he came to the neighbourhood of Dourlens, expecting to find an +asylum with an uncle, who had hitherto escaped the general persecution of +the gentry. Here again his disappointment and chagrin were renewed: his +uncle had been carried off to Amiens the morning of his arrival, and the +house rendered inaccessible, by the usual affixture of seals, and an +attendant pair of myrmidons to guard them from infraction. Thus excluded +from all his family habitations, he had taken up his residence for a day +or two at the inn where we met him, his intention being to return to +Arras. + +In the morning we made our adieus and pursued our journey; but, tenacious +of this comparative liberty and the enjoyment of pure air, we prevailed +on our conductors to let us dine on the road, so that we lingered with +the unwillingness of truant children, and did not reach Amiens until +dark. When we arrived at the Hotel de Ville, one of the guards enquired +how we were to be disposed of. Unfortunately for us, Dumont happened to +be there himself, and on hearing we were sent from Arras by order of Le +Bon, declared most furiously (for our Representative is subject to choler +since his accession to greatness) that he would have no prisoners +received from Arras, and that we should sleep at the Conciergerie, and be +conveyed back again on the morrow. Terrified at this menace, we +persuaded the guard to represent to Dumont that we had been sent to +Amiens at our own instance, and that we had been originally arrested by +himself, and were therefore desirous of returning to the department where +he was on mission, and where we had more reason to expect justice than at +Arras. Mollified, perhaps, by this implied preference of his authority, +he consented that we should remain for the present at Amiens, and ordered +us to be taken to the Bicetre. Whoever has been used to connect with the +word Bicetre the idea of the prison so named at Paris, must recoil with +horror upon hearing they are destined to such a abode. Mad. de ___, yet +weak from the remains of her illness, laid hold of me in a transport of +grief; but, far from being able to calm or console her, my thoughts were +so bewildered that I did not, till we alighted at the gate, begin to be +really sensible of our situation. The night was dark and dreary, and our +first entrance was into a kitchen, such as my imagination had pictured +the subterraneous one of the robbers in Gil Blas. Here we underwent the +ceremony of having our pocket-books searched for papers and letters, and +our trunks rummaged for knives and fire-arms. This done, we were shown +to the lodging I have described, and the poor priests, already +insufferably crouded, were obliged almost to join their beds in order to +make room for us.--I will not pain you by a recital of all the +embarrassments and distresses we had to surmount before we could even +rest ourselves. We were in want of every thing, and the rules of the +prison such, that it was nearly impossible, for some time, to procure any +thing: but the human mind is more flexible than we are often disposed to +imagine it; and in two days we were able to see our situation in this +best point of view, (that is, as an escape from Arras,) and the affair of +submitting our bodies to our minds must be atchieved by time.--We have +now been here a week. We have sounded the very depth of humiliation, +taken our daily allowance of bread with the rest of the prisoners, and +contracted a most friendly intimacy with the gaoler. + +I have discovered since our arrival, that the order for transferring us +hither described me as a native of the Low Countries. I know not how +this happened, but my friend has insisted on my not rectifying the +mistake, for as the French talk continually of re-conquering Brabant, she +persuades herself such an event would procure me my liberty. I neither +desire the one nor expect the other; but, to indulge her, I speak no +English, and avoid two or three of my countrymen who I am told are here. +There have been also some English families who were lately removed, but +the French pronounce our names so strangely, that I have not been able to +learn who they were. + + + + +November 19, 1793. + +The English in general, especially of late years, have been taught to +entertain very formidable notions of the Bastille and other state prisons +of the ancient government, and they were, no doubt, horrid enough; yet I +have not hitherto been able to discover that those of the new republic +are any way preferable. The only difference is, that the great number of +prisoners which, for want of room, are obliged to be heaped together, +makes it impossible to exclude them as formerly from communication, and, +instead of being maintained at the public expence, they now, with great +difficulty, are able to procure wherewithal to eat at their own. Our +present habitation is an immense building, about a quarter of a mile from +the town, intended originally for the common gaol of the province. The +situation is damp and unwholesome, and the water so bad, that I should +suppose a long continuance here of such a number of prisoners must be +productive of endemical disorders. Every avenue to the house is guarded, +and no one is permitted to stop and look up at the windows, under pain of +becoming a resident. We are strictly prohibited from all external +intercourse, except by writing; and every scrap of paper, though but an +order for a dinner, passes the inquisition of three different people +before it reaches its destination, and, of course, many letters and notes +are mislaid, and never sent at all.--There is no court or garden in which +the prisoners are allowed to walk, and the only exercise they can take is +in damp passages, or a small yard, (perhaps thirty feet square,) which +often smells so detestably, that the atmosphere of the house itself is +less mephitic. + +Our fellow-captives are a motley collection of the victims of nature, +of justice, and of tyranny--of lunatics who are insensible of their +situation, of thieves who deserve it, and of political criminals whose +guilt is the accident of birth, the imputation of wealth, or the +profession of a clergyman. Among the latter is the Bishop of Amiens, +whom I recollect to have mentioned in a former letter. You will wonder +why a constitutional Bishop, once popular with the democratic party, +should be thus treated. The real motive was, probably, to degrade in his +person a minister of religion--the ostensible one, a dispute with Dumont +at the Jacobin club. As the times grew alarming, the Bishop, perhaps, +thought it politic to appear at the club, and the Representative meeting +him there one evening, began to interrogate him very rudely with regard +to his opinion of the marriage of priests. M. Dubois replied, that when +it was officially incumbent on him to explain himself, he would do so, +but that he did not think the club a place for such discussions, or +something to this purpose. _"Tu prevariques donc!--Je t'arrete sur le +champ:"_ ["What, you prevaricate!--I arrest you instantly."] the Bishop +was accordingly arrested at the instant, and conducted to the Bicetre, +without even being suffered to go home and furnish himself with +necessaries; and the seals being immediately put on his effects, he has +never been able to obtain a change of linen and clothes, or any thing +else--this too at a time when the pensions of the clergy are ill paid, +and every article of clothing so dear as to be almost unpurchaseable by +moderate fortunes, and when those who might otherwise be disposed to aid +or accommodate their friends, abandon them through fear of being +implicated in their misfortunes. + +But the Bishop, yet in the vigour of life, is better capable of enduring +these hardships than most of the poor priests with whom he is associated: +the greater number of them are very old men, with venerable grey locks-- +and their tattered clerical habits, scanty meals, and wretched beds, give +me many an heart-ache. God send the constant sight of so much misery may +not render me callous!--It is certain, there are people here, who, +whatever their feelings might have been on this occasion at first, seem +now little affected by it. Those who are too much familiarized with +scenes of wretchedness, as well as those to whom they are unknown, are +not often very susceptible; and I am sometimes disposed to cavil with our +natures, that the sufferings which ought to excite our benevolence, and +the prosperity that enables us to relieve them, should ever have a +contrary effect. Yet this is so true, that I have scarcely ever observed +even the poor considerate towards each other--and the rich, if they are +frequently charitable, are not always compassionate.* + + * Our situation at the Bicetre, though terrible for people unused to + hardships or confinement, and in fact, wretched as personal + inconvenience could make it, was yet Elysium, compared to the + prisons of other departments. At St. Omer, the prisoners were + frequently disturbed at midnight by the entrance of men into their + apartments, who, with the detestable ensign of their order, (red + caps,) and pipes in their mouths, came by way of frolic to search + their pockets, trunks, &c.--At Montreuil, the Maisons d'Arret were + under the direction of a Commissary, whose behaviour to the female + prisoners was too atrocious for recital--two young women, in + particular, who refused to purchase milder treatment, were locked up + in a room for seventeen days.--Soon after I left Arras, every prison + became a den of horror. The miserable inhabitants were subject to + the agents of Le Bon, whose avarice, cruelty, and licentiousness, + were beyond any thing a humane mind can imagine. Sometimes the + houses were suddenly surrounded by an armed force, the prisoners + turned out in the depth of winter for several hours into an open + court, during the operation of robbing them of their pocket-books, + buckles, ear-rings, or whatever article of value they had about + them. At other times they were visited by the same military array, + and deprived of their linen and clothes. Their wine and provisions + were likewise taken from them in the same manner--wives were + separated from their husbands, parents from their children, old men + treated with the most savage barbarity, and young women with an + indecency still more abominable. All communication, either by + writing or otherwise, was often prohibited for many days together, + and an order was once given to prevent even the entry of provisions, + which was not revoked till the prisoners became absolutely + distressed. At the Hotel Dieu they were forbidden to draw more than + a single jug of water in twenty-four hours. At the Providence, the + well was left three days without a cord, and when the unfortunate + females confined there procured people to beg water of the + neighbours, they were refused, "because it was for prisoners, and if + Le Bon heard of it he might be displeased!" Windows were blocked + up, not to prevent escape, but to exclude air; and when the general + scarcity rendered it impossible for the prisoners to procure + sufficient food for their support, their small portions were + diminished at the gate, under pretext of searching for letters, &c. + --People, respectable both for their rank and character, were + employed to clean the prisons and privies, while their low and + insolent tyrants looked on and insulted them. On an occasion when + one of the Maisons d'Arrets was on fire, guards were planted round, + with orders to fire upon those that should attempt to escape.--My + memory has but too faithfully recorded these and still greater + horrors; but curiosity would be gratified but too dearly by the + relation. I added the above note some months after writing the + letter to which it is annexed. + + + + +Nov. 20. + +Besides the gentry and clergy of this department, we have likewise for +companions a number of inhabitants of Lisle, arrested under circumstances +singularly atrocious, even where atrocity is the characteristic of almost +every proceeding.--In the month of August a decree was passed to oblige +all the nobility, clergy, and their servants, as well as all those +persons who had been in the service of emigrants, to depart from Lisle in +eight-and-forty hours, and prohibiting their residence within twenty +leagues from the frontiers. Thus banished from their own habitations, +they took refuge in different towns, at the prescribed distance; but, +almost as soon as they were arrived, and had been at the expence of +settling themselves, they were arrested as strangers,* and conducted to +prison. + + * I have before, I believe, noticed that the term estranger at this + time did not exclusively apply to foreigners, but to such as had + come from one town to another, who were at inns or on a visit to + their friends. + +It will not be improper to notice here the conduct of the government +towards the towns that have been besieged. Thionville,* to whose gallant +defence in 1792 France owed the retreat of the Prussians and the safety +of Paris, was afterwards continually reproached with aristocracy; and +when the inhabitants sent a deputation to solicit an indemnity for the +damage the town had sustained during the bombardment a member of the +Convention threatened them from the tribune with "indemnities a coup de +baton!" that is, in our vernacular tongue, with a good thrashing. + + * Wimpsen, who commanded there, and whose conduct at the time was + enthusiastically admired, was driven, most probably by the + ingratitude and ill treatment of the Convention, to head a party of + the Foederalists.--These legislators perpetually boast of imitating + and surpassing the Romans, and it is certain, that their ingratitude + has made more than one Coriolanus. The difference is, that they are + not jealous for the liberty of the country, but for their own + personal safety. + +The inhabitants of Lisle, who had been equally serviceable in stopping +the progress of the Austrians, for a long time petitioned without effect +to obtain the sums already voted for their relief. The noblesse, and +others from thence who have been arrested, as soon as it was known that +they were Lillois, were treated with peculiar rigour;* and an _armee +revolutionnaire,_** with the Guillotine for a standard, has lately +harrassed the town and environs of Lisle, as though it were a conquered +country. + + * The Commandant of Lisle, on his arrival at the Bicetre, was + stripped of a considerable sum of money, and a quantity of plate he + had unluckily brought with him by way of security. Out of this he + is to be supplied with fifty livres at a time in paper, which, + according to the exchange and the price of every thing, is, I + suppose, about half a guinea. + + ** The armee revolutionnaire was first raised by order of the + Jacobins, for the purpose of searching the countries for provisions, + and conducting them to Paris. Under this pretext, a levy was made + of all the most desperate ruffians that could be collected together. + They were divided into companies, each with its attendant + Guillotine, and then distributed in the different departments: + they had extraordinary pay, and seem to have been subject to no + discipline. Many of them were distinguished by the representation + of a Guillotine in miniature, and a head just severed, on their + cartouch-boxes. It would be impossible to describe half the + enormities committed by these banditti: wherever they went they were + regarded as a scourge, and every heart shrunk at their approach. + Lecointre, of Versailles, a member of the Convention, complained + that a band of these wretches entered the house of a farmer, one of + his tenants, by night, and, after binding the family hand and foot, + and helping themselves to whatever they could find, they placed the + farmer with his bare feet on the chaffing-dish of hot ashes, by way + of forcing him to discover where he had secreted his plate and + money, which having secured, they set all the vessels of liquor + running, and then retired. + +You are not to suppose this a robbery, and the actors common thieves; all +was in the usual form--"au nom de la loi," and for the service of the +republic; and I do not mention this instance as remarkable, otherwise +than as having been noticed in the Convention. A thousand events of this +kind, even still more atrocious, have happened; but the sufferers who had +not the means of defence as well as of complaint, were obliged, through +policy, to be silent. + +--The garrison and national guard, indignant at the horrors they +committed, obliged them to decamp. Even the people of Dunkirk, whose +resistance to the English, while the French army was collecting together +for their relief, was perhaps of more consequence than ten victories, +have been since intimidated with Commissioners, and Tribunals, and +Guillotines, as much as if they had been convicted of selling the town. +In short, under this philanthropic republic, persecution seems to be very +exactly proportioned to the services rendered. A jealous and suspicious +government does not forget, that the same energy of character which has +enabled a people to defend themselves against an external enemy, may also +make them less submissive to domestic oppression; and, far from repaying +them with the gratitude to which they have a claim, it treats them, on +all occasions, as opponents, whom it both fears and hates. + + + +Nov. 22. We have been walking in the yard to-day with General Laveneur, +who, for an act which in any other country would have gained him credit, +is in this suspended from his command.--When Custine, a few weeks before +his death, left the army to visit some of the neighbouring towns, the +command devolved on Laveneur, who received, along with other official +papers, a list of countersigns, which, having probably been made some +time, and not altered conformably to the changes of the day, contained, +among others, the words Condorcet--Constitution; and these were in their +turn given out. On Custine's trial, this was made a part of his +accusation. Laveneur, recollecting that the circumstance had happened in +the absence of Custine, thought it incumbent on him to take the blame, if +there were any, on himself, and wrote to Paris to explain the matter as +it really stood; but his candour, without availing Custine, drew +persecution on himself, and the only notice taken of his letter was an +order to arrest him. After being dragged from one town to another, like +a criminal, and often lodged in dungeons and common prisons, he was at +length deposited here. + +I know not if the General's principles are republican, but he has a very +democratic pair of whiskers, which he occasionally strokes, and seems to +cherish with much affection. He is, however, a gentleman-like man, and +expresses such anxiety for the fate of his wife and children, who are now +at Paris, that one cannot but be interested in his favour.--As the agents +of the republic never err on the side of omission, they arrested Mons. +Laveneur's aid-de-camp with him; and another officer of his acquaintance, +who was suspended, and living at Amiens, has shared the same fate, only +for endeavouring to procure him a trifling accommodation. This gentleman +called on Dumont, to beg that General Laveneur's servant might be +permitted to go in and out of the prison on his master's errands. After +breakfasting together, and conversing on very civil terms, Dumont told +him, that as he concerned himself so much in behalf of his friend, he +would send him to keep the latter company, and at the conclusion of his +visit he was sent prisoner to the Bicetre. + +Perhaps the greater part of between three and four hundred thousand +people, now imprisoned on suspicion, have been arrested for reasons as +little substantial. + +--I begin to fear my health will not resist the hardship of a long +continuance here. We have no fire-place, and are sometimes starved +with partial winds from the doors and roof; at others faint and heartsick +with the unhealthy air produced by so many living bodies. The water we +drink is not preferable to the air we breathe; the bread (which is now +every where scarce and bad) contains such a mixture of barley, rye, +damaged wheat, and trash of all kinds, that, far from being nourished by +it, I lose both my strength and appetite daily.--Yet these are not the +worst of our sufferings. Shut out from all society, victims of a +despotic and unprincipled government capable of every thing, and ignorant +of the fate which may await us, we are occasionally oppressed by a +thousand melancholy apprehensions. I might, indeed, have boasted of my +fortitude, and have made myself an heroine on paper at as small an +expence of words as it has cost me to record my cowardice: but I am of an +unlucky conformation, and think either too much or too little (I know not +which) for a female philosopher; besides, philosophy is getting into such +ill repute, that not possessing the reality, the name of it is not worth +assuming. + +A poor old priest told me just now, (while Angelique was mending his +black coat with white thread,) that they had left at the place where they +were last confined a large quantity of linen, and other necessaries; but, +by the express orders of Dumont, they were not allowed to bring a single +article away with them. The keeper, too, it seems, was threatened with +dismission, for supplying one of them with a shirt.--In England, where, +I believe, you ally political expediency as much as you can with justice +and humanity, these cruelties, at once little and refined, will appear +incredible; and the French themselves, who are at least ashamed of, if +they are not pained by, them, are obliged to seek refuge in the fancied +palliative of a "state of revolution."--Yet, admitting the necessity of +confining the persons of these old men, there can be none for heaping +them together in filth and misery, and adding to the sufferings of years +and infirmity by those of cold and want. If, indeed, a state of +revolution require such deeds, and imply an apology for them, I cannot +but wish the French had remained as they were, for I know of no political +changes that can compensate for turning a civilized nation into a people +of savages. It is not surely the eating acorns or ragouts, a +well-powdered head, or one decorated with red feathers, that constitutes +the difference between barbarism and civilization; and, I fear, if the +French proceed as they have begun, the advantage of morals will be +considerably on the side of the unrefined savages. + +The conversation of the prison has been much engaged by the fate of an +English gentleman, who lately destroyed himself in a Maison d'Arret at +Amiens. His confinement had at first deeply affected his spirits, and +his melancholy increasing at the prospect of a long detention, terminated +in deranging his mind, and occasioned this last act of despair.--I never +hear of suicide without a compassion mingled with terror, for, perhaps, +simple pity is too light an emotion to be excited by an event which +reminds us, that we are susceptible of a degree of misery too great to be +borne--too strong for the efforts of instinct, reflection, and religion. +--I could moralize on the necessity of habitual patience, and the benefit +of preparing the mind for great evils by a philosophic endurance of +little ones; but I am at the Bicetre--the winds whistle round me--I am +beset by petty distresses, and we do not expatiate to advantage on +endurance while we have any thing to endure.--Seneca's contempt for the +things of this world was doubtless suggested in the palace of Nero. He +would not have treated the subject so well in disgrace and poverty. Do +not suppose I am affecting to be pleasant, for I write in the sober +sadness of conviction, that human fortitude is often no better than a +pompous theory, founded on self-love and self-deception. + +I was surprized at meeting among our fellow-prisoners a number of Dutch +officers. I find they had been some time in the town on their parole, +and were sent here by Dumont, for refusing to permit their men to work on +the fortifications.--The French government and its agents despise the +laws of war hitherto observed; they consider them as a sort of +aristocratie militaire, and they pretend, on the same principle, to be +enfranchised from the law of nations.--An orator of the convention lately +boasted, that he felt himself infinitely superior to the prejudices of +Grotius, Puffendorff, and Vatel, which he calls "l'aristocratie +diplomatique."--Such sublime spirits think, because they differ from the +rest of mankind, that they surpass them. Like Icarus, they attempt to +fly, and are perpetually struggling in the mire.--Plain common sense has +long pointed out a rule of action, from which all deviation is fatal, +both to nations and individuals. England, as well as France, has +furnished its examples; and the annals of genius in all countries are +replete with the miseries of eccentricity.--Whoever has followed the +course of the French revolution, will, I believe, be convinced, that the +greatest evils attending on it have been occasioned by an affected +contempt for received maxims. A common banditti, acting only from the +desire of plunder, or men, erring only through ignorance, could not have +subjugated an whole people, had they not been assisted by narrow-minded +philosophers, who were eager to sacrifice their country to the vanity of +making experiments, and were little solicitous whether their systems were +good or bad, provided they were celebrated as the authors of them. Yet, +where are they now? Wandering, proscribed, and trembling at the fate of +their followers and accomplices.--The Brissotins, sacrificed by a party +even worse than themselves, have died without exciting either pity or +admiration. Their fall was considered as the natural consequence of +their exaltation, and the courage with which they met death obtained no +tribute but a cold and simple comment, undistinguished from the news of +the day, and ending with it. + + + + +December. + +Last night, after we had been asleep about an hour, (for habit, that +"lulls the wet sea-boy on the high and giddy mast," has reconciled us to +sleep even here,) we were alarmed by the trampling of feet, and sudden +unlocking of our door. Our apprehensions gave us no time for conjecture +--in a moment an ill-looking fellow entered the room with a lantern, two +soldiers holding drawn swords, and a large dog! The whole company walked +as it were processionally to the end of the apartment, and, after +observing in silence the beds on each side, left us. It would not be +easy to describe what we suffered at this moment: for my own part, I +thought only of the massacres of September, and the frequent proposals at +the Jacobins and the Convention for dispatching the _"gens suspect,"_ +and really concluded I was going to terminate my existence +_"revolutionnairement."_ I do not now know the purport of these visits, +but I find they are not unusual, and most probably intended to alarm the +prisoners. + +After many enquiries and messages, I have had the mortification of +hearing that Mr. and Mrs. D____ were taken to Arras, and were there even +before I left it. The letters sent to and from the different prisons are +read by so many people, and pass through so many hands, that it is not +surprizing we have not heard from each other. As far as I can learn, +they had obtained leave, after their first arrest, to remove to a house +in the vicinity of Dourlens for a few days, on account of Mrs. D____'s +health, which had suffered by passing the summer in the town, and that at +the taking of Toulon they were again arrested while on a visit, and +conveyed to a _Maison d'Arret_ at Arras. I am the more anxious for them, +as it seems they were unprepared for such an event; and as the seals were +put upon their effects, I fear they must be in want of every thing. I +might, perhaps, have succeeded in getting them removed here, but Fleury's +Arras friend, it seems, did not think, when the Convention had abolished +every other part of Christianity, that they intended still to exact a +partial observance of the eighth article of the decalogue; and having, in +the sense of Antient Pistol, "conveyed" a little too notoriously, Le Bon +has, by way of securing him from notice or pursuit, sent him to the +frontiers in the capacity of Commissary. + +The prison, considering how many French inhabitants it contains, is +tolerably quiet--to say the truth, we are not very sociable, and still +less gay. Common interest establishes a sort of intimacy between those +of the same apartment; but the rest of the house pass each other, without +farther intercourse than silent though significant civility. Sometimes +you see a pair of unfortunate aristocrates talking politics at the end of +a passage, or on a landing-place; and here and there a bevy of females, +en deshabille, recounting altogether the subject of their arrest. One's +ear occasionally catches a few half-suppressed notes of a proscribed +aire, but the unhallowed sounds of the Carmagnole and Marseillois are +never heard, and would be thought more dissonant here than the war-whoop. +In fact, the only appearance of gaiety is among the ideots and lunatics. +--_"Je m'ennuye furieusement,"_ is the general exclamation.--An Englishman +confined at the Bicetre would express himself more forcibly, but, it is +certain, the want of knowing how to employ themselves does not form a +small part of the distresses of our fellow-prisoners; and when they tell +us they are _"ennuyes,"_ they say, perhaps, nearly as much as they feel-- +for, as far as I can observe, the loss of liberty has not the same effect +on a Frenchman as an Englishman. Whether this arises from political +causes, or the natural indifference of the French character, I am not +qualified to determine; probably from both: yet when I observe this +facility of mind general, and by no means peculiar to the higher classes, +I cannot myself but be of opinion, that it is more an effect of their +original disposition than of their form of government; for though in +England we were accustomed from our childhood to consider every man in +France as liable to wake and find himself in the Bastille, or at Mont St. +Michel, this formidable despotism existed more in theory than in +practice; and if courtiers and men of letters were intimidated by it, +the mass of the people troubled themselves very little about Lettres de +Cachet. The revenge or suspicion of Ministers might sometimes pursue +those who aimed at their power, or assailed their reputation; but the +lesser gentry, the merchants, or the shopkeepers, were very seldom +victims of arbitrary imprisonment--and I believe, amongst the evils which +it was the object of the revolution to redress, this (except on the +principle) was far from being of the first magnitude. I am not likely, +under my present circumstances, to be an advocate for the despotism of +any form of government; and I only give it as a matter of opinion, that +the civil liberty of the French was not so often and generally violated,* +as to influence their character in such a degree as to render them +insensible of its loss. At any rate, we must rank it among the +_bizarreries_ [Unaccountable whimsical events.] of this world, that the +French should have been prepared, by the theory of oppression under their +old system, for enduring the practice of it under the new one; and that +what during the monarchy was only possible to a few, is, under the +republic, almost certain to all. + + * I remember in 1789, after the destruction of the Bastille, our + compassionate countrymen were taught to believe that this tremendous + prison was peopled with victims, and that even the dungeons were + inhabited; yet the truth is, though it would not have told so + pathetically, or have produced so much theatrical effect, there were + only seven persons confined in the whole building, and certainly not + one in the dungeons. + + + + +Amiens, Providence, Dec. 10, 1793. + +We have again, as you will perceive, changed our abode, and that too +without expecting, and almost without desiring it. In my moments of +sullenness and despondency, I was not very solicitous about the +modifications of our confinement, and little disposed to be better +satisfied with one prison than another: but, heroics apart, external +comforts are of some importance, and we have, in many respects, gained by +our removal. + +Our present habitation is a spacious building, lately a convent, and +though now crouded with more prisoners by two or three hundred than it +will hold conveniently, yet we are better lodged than at the Bicetre, and +we have also a large garden, good water, and, what above all is +desirable, the liberty of delivering our letters or messages ourselves +(in presence of the guard) to any one who will venture to approach us. +Mad. de ____ and myself have a small cell, where we have just room to +place our beds, but we have no fire-place, and the maids are obliged to +sleep in an adjoining passage. + +A few evenings ago, while we were at the Bicetre, we were suddenly +informed by the keeper that Dumont had sent some soldiers with an order +to convey us that night to the Providence. We were at first rather +surprized than pleased, and reluctantly gathered our baggage together +with as much expedition as we could, while the men who were to escort us +were exclaiming "a la Francaise" at the trifling delay this occasioned. +When we had passed the gate, we found Fleury, with some porters, ready to +receive our beds, and overjoyed at having procured us a more decent +prison, for, it seems, he could by no means reconcile himself to the name +of Bicetre. We had about half a mile to walk, and on the road he +contrived to acquaint us with the means by which he had solicited this +favour of Dumont. After advising with all Mad. de ____'s friends who +were yet at liberty, and finding no one willing to make an effort in her +behalf, for fear of involving themselves, he discovered an old +acquaintance in the "femme de chambre" of one of Fleury's mistresses.-- +This, for one of Fleury's sagacity, was a spring to have set the whole +Convention in a ferment; and in a few days he profited so well by this +female patronage, as to obtain an order for transferring us hither. On +our arrival, we were informed, as usual, that the house was already full, +and that there was no possibility of admitting us. We however, set up +all night in the keeper's room with some other people newly arrived like +ourselves, and in the morning, after a little disputing and a pretty +general derangement of the more ancient inhabitants, we were "nichees," +as I have described to you. + +We have not yet quitted our room much, but I observe that every one +appears more chearful, and more studied in their toilette, than at the +Bicetre, and I am willing to infer from thence that confinement here is +less insupportable.--I have been employed two days in enlarging the notes +I had made in our last prison, and in making them more legible, for I +ventured no farther than just to scribble with a pencil in a kind of +short-hand of my own invention, and not even that without a variety of +precautions. I shall be here less liable either to surprize or +observation, and as soon as I have secured what I have already noted, +(which I intend to do to-night,) I shall continue my remarks in the usual +form. You will find even more than my customary incorrectness and want +of method since we left Peronne; but I shall not allow your competency as +a critic, until you have been a prisoner in the hands of French +republicans. + +It will not be improper to notice to you a very ingenious decree of +Gaston, (a member of the Convention,) who lately proposed to embark all +the English now in France at Brest, and then to sink the ships.--Perhaps +the Committee of Public Welfare are now in a sort of benevolent +indecision, whether this, or Collot d'Herbois' gunpowder scheme, shall +have the preference. Legendre's iron cage and simple hanging will, +doubtless, be rejected, as too slow and formal. The mode of the day is +"les grandes mesures." If I be not seriously alarmed at these +propositions, it is not that life is indifferent to me, or that I think +the government too humane to adopt them. My tranquillity arises from +reflecting that such measures would be of no political use, and that we +shall most likely be soon forgotten in the multitude of more important +concerns. Those, however, whom I endeavour to console by this reasoning, +tell me it is nothing less than infallible, that the inutility of a crime +is here no security against its perpetration, and that any project which +tends to evil will sooner be remembered than one of humanity or justice. + +[End of Vol. I. The Printed Books] + + + + +[Beginning of Volume II. Of The Printed Books] + + + + +Providence, Dec. 20, 1793. + +"All places that are visited by the eye of Heaven, are to the wise man +happy havens." If Shakspeare's philosophy be orthodox, the French have, +it must be confessed, many claims to the reputation of a wise people; and +though you know I always disputed their pretensions to general gaiety, +yet I acknowledge that misfortune does not deprive them of the share they +possess, and, if one may judge by appearances, they have at least the +habit, more than any other nation, of finding content under situations +with which it should seem incompatible. We are here between six and +seven hundred, of all ages and of all ranks, taken from our homes, and +from all that usually makes the comfort of life, and crowded together +under many of the inflictions that constitute its misery; yet, in the +midst of all this, we fiddle, dress, rhyme, and visit as ceremoniously as +though we had nothing to disturb us. Our beaux, after being correctly +frizz'd and powdered behind some door, compliment the belle just escaped +from a toilet, performed amidst the apparatus of the kitchen; three or +four beds are piled one upon another to make room for as many +card-tables; and the wits of the prison, who are all the morning +employed in writing doleful placets to obtain their liberty, in the +evening celebrate the loss of it in bout-rimees and acrostics. + +I saw an ass at the _Corps de Garde_ this morning laden with violins and +music, and a female prisoner seldom arrives without her complement of +bandboxes.--Embarrassed, stifled as we are by our numbers, it does not +prevent a daily importation of lap-dogs, who form as consequential a part +of the community in a prison, as in the most superb hotel. The faithful +valet, who has followed the fortunes of his master, does not so much +share his distresses as contribute to his pleasure by adorning his +person, or, rather, his head, for, excepting the article of +hair-dressing, the beaux here are not elaborate. In short, there is an +indifference, a frivolity, in the French character, which, in +circumstances like the present, appears unaccountable. But man is not +always consistent with himself, and there are occasions in which the +French are nothing less than philosophers. Under all these externals of +levity, they are a very prudent people, and though they seem to bear +with infinite fortitude many of the evils of life, there are some in +which their sensibility is not to be questioned. At the death of a +relation, or the loss of liberty, I have observed that a few hours +suffice, _pour prendre son parti;_ [To make up his mind.] but on any +occasion where his fortune has suffered, the liveliest Frenchman is _au +desespoir_ for whole days. Whenever any thing is to be lost or gained, +all his characteristic indifference vanishes, and his attention becomes +mentally concentrated, without dissipating the habitual smile of his +countenance. He may sometimes be deceived through deficiency of +judgment, but I believe not often by unguardedness; and, in a matter of +interest, a _petit maitre_ of five-and-twenty might _tout en badinage_ +[All in the way of pleasantry.] maintain his ground against a whole +synagogue.--This disposition is not remarkable only in affairs that may +be supposed to require it, but extends to the minutest objects; and the +same oeconomy which watches over the mass of a Frenchman's estate, +guards with equal solicitude the menu property of a log of wood, or a +hen's nest. + +There is at this moment a general scarcity of provisions, and we who are +confined are, of course, particularly inconvenienced by it; we do not +even get bread that is eatable, and it is curious to observe with what +circumspection every one talks of his resources. The possessor of a few +eggs takes care not to expose them to the eye of his neighbour; and a +slice of white bread is a donation of so much consequence, that those who +procure any for themselves do not often put their friends to the pain +either of accepting or refusing it. + +Mad. de ____ has been unwell for some days, and I could not help giving a +hint to a relation of her's whom we found here, and who has frequent +supplies of bread from the country, that the bread we eat was peculiarly +inimical to her; but I gained only a look of repulsive apprehension, and +a cold remark that it was very difficult to get good bread--_"et que +c'etoit bien malheureux."_ [And that it certainly was very unfortunate.] +I own this kind of selfishness is increased by a situation where our +wants are numerous, and our enjoyments few; and the great distinctions of +meum and tuum, which at all times have occasioned so much bad fellowship +in the world, are here perhaps more rigidly observed than any where else; +yet, in my opinion, a close-hearted consideration has always formed an +essential and a predominant quality in the French character. + +People here do not ruin themselves, as with us, by hospitality; and +examples of that thoughtless profusion which we censure and regret, +without being able entirely to condemn, are very rare indeed. In France +it is not uncommon to see a man apparently dissipated in his conduct, and +licentious in his morals, yet regular, even to parsimony, in his +pecuniary concerns.--He oeconomizes with his vices, and indulges in all +the excesses of fashionable life, with the same system of order that +accumulates the fortune of a Dutch miser. Lord Chesterfield was +doubtless satisfied, that while his son remained in France, his precepts +would have all the benefit of living illustration; yet it is not certain +that this cautious and reflecting licentiousness has any merit over the +more imprudent irregularity of an English spendthrift: the one is, +however, likely to be more durable than the other; and, in fact, the +character of an old libertine is more frequent in France than in England. + +If oeconomy preside even over the vices of the rich and fashionable, you +may conclude that the habits of the middling ranks of people of small +fortunes are still more scrupulously subjected to its influence. A +French _menage_ [Household.] is a practical treatise on the art of +saving--a spirit of oeconomy pervades and directs every part of it, and +that so uniformly, so generally, and so consistently, as not to make the +same impression on a stranger as would a single instance where the whole +was not conducted on the same principle. A traveller is not so forcibly +stricken by this part of the French character, because it is more real +than apparent, and does not seem the effect of reasoning or effort, which +is never consequential, but rather that of inclination and the natural +course of things. + +A degree of parsimony, which an Englishman, who does not affect the +reputation of a Codrus, could not acquire without many self-combats, +appears in a Frenchman a matter of preference and convenience, and till +one has lived long and familiarly in the country, one is apt to mistake +principles for customs, and character for manners, and to attribute many +things to local which have their real source in moral causes.--The +traveller who sees nothing but gay furniture, and gay clothes, and +partakes on invitation of splendid repasts, returns to England the +enamoured panegyrist of French hospitality.--On a longer residence and +more domestic intercourse, all this is discoverable to be merely the +sacrifice of parsimony to vanity--the solid comforts of life are unknown, +and hospitality seldom extends beyond an occasional and ostentatious +reception. The gilding, painting, glasses, and silk hangings of a French +apartment, are only a gay disguise; and a house, which to the eye may be +attractive even to splendour, often has not one room that an Englishman +would find tolerably convenient. Every thing intended for use rather +than shew is scanty and sordid--all is _beau, magnifique, gentil,_ or +_superb,_ [Fine magnificent, genteel, or superb.] and nothing +comfortable. The French have not the word, or its synonime, in their +language. + +In France, clothes are almost as durable as furniture, and the gaiety +which twenty or thirty years ago we were complaisant enough to admire is +far from being expensive. People are not more than five or six hours a +day in their gala habits, and the whole of this period is judiciously +chosen between the hours of repast, so that no risk in incurred by +accidents at table. Then the caprices of fashion, which in England are +so various and despotic, have here a more limited influence: the form of +a dress changes as long as the material is convertible, and when it has +outlasted the possibility of adaptation to a reigning mode, it is not on +that account rejected, but is generally worn in some way or other till +banished by the more rational motive of its decay. All the expences of +tea-visits, breakfast-loungings, and chance-dinners, are avoided--an +evening visit is passed entirely at cards, a breakfast in form even for +the family is unusual, and there are very few houses where you could dine +without being previously engaged. I am, indeed, certain, that (unless in +large establishments) the calculation for diurnal supply is so exact, +that the intrusion of a stranger would be felt by the whole family. I +must, however, do them the justice to say, that on such occasions, and +where they find the thing to be inevitable, they put the best face +possible on it, and the guest is entertained, if not plentifully, and +with a very sincere welcome, at least with smiles and compliments. The +French, indeed, allow, that they live less hospitably than the English: +but then they say they are not so rich; and it is true, property is not +so general, nor so much diffused, as with us. This is, however, only +relative, and you will not suspect me of being so uncandid as to make +comparisons without allowing for every difference which is the effect of +necessity. All my remarks of this kind are made after an unprejudiced +comparison of the people of the same rank or fortune in the two +countries;--yet even the most liberal examination must end by concluding, +that the oeconomy of the French too nearly approaches to meanness, and +that their civility is ostentatious, perhaps often either interested, or +even verbal. + +You already exclaim, why, in the year 1793, you are characterizing a +nation in the style of Salmon! and implying a panegyric on the moral of +the School for Scandal! I plead to the first part of the charge, and +shall hereafter defend my opinion against the more polished writers who +have succeeded Salmon. For the moral of the School for Scandal, I have +always considered it as the seal of humanity on a comedy which would +otherwise be perfection. + +It is not the oeconomy of the French that I am censuring, but their +vanity, which, engrossing all their means of expence, prefers show to +accommodation, and the parade of a sumptuous repast three or four times a +year to a plainer but more frequent hospitality.--I am far from being the +advocate of extravagance, or the enemy of domestic order; and the +liberality which is circumscribed only by prudence shall not find in me a +censurer. + +My ideas on the French character and manner of living may not be unuseful +to such of my countrymen as come to France with the project of retrieving +their affairs; for it is very necessary they should be informed, that it +is not so much the difference in the price of things, which makes a +residence here oeconomical, as a conformity to the habits of the country; +and if they were not deterred by a false shame from a temporary adoption +of the same system in England, their object might often be obtained +without leaving it. For this reason it may be remarked, that the English +who bring English servants, and persist in their English mode of living, +do not often derive very solid advantages from their exile, and their +abode in France is rather a retreat from their creditors than the means +of paying their debts. + +Adieu.--You will not be sorry that I have been able for a moment to +forget our personal sufferings, and the miserable politics of the +country. The details of the former are not pleasant, and the latter grow +every day more inexplicable. + + + + + + +1794 + + +A RESIDENCE IN FRANCE + + +January 6, 1794. + +If I had undertaken to follow the French revolution through all its +absurdities and iniquities, my indolence would long since have taken the +alarm, and I should have relinquished a task become too difficult and too +laborious. Events are now too numerous and too complicated to be +described by occasional remarks; and a narrator of no more pretensions +than myself may be allowed to shrink from an abundance of matter which +will hereafter perplex the choice and excite the wonder of the +historian.--Removed from the great scene of intrigues, we are little +acquainted with them--we begin to suffer almost before we begin to +conjecture, and our solicitude to examine causes is lost in the rapidity +with which we feel their effects. + +Amidst the more mischievous changes of a philosophic revolution, you will +have learned from the newspapers, that the French have adopted a new aera +and a new calendar, the one dating from the foundation of their republic, +and other descriptive of the climate of Paris, and the productions of the +French territory. I doubt, however, if these new almanack-makers will +create so much confusion as might be supposed, or as they may desire, for +I do not find as yet that their system has made its way beyond the public +offices, and the country people are particularly refractory, for they +persist in holding their fairs, markets, &c. as usual, without any regard +to the hallowed decade of their legislators. As it is to be presumed +that the French do not wish to relinquish all commercial intercourse with +other nations, they mean possibly to tack the republican calendar to the +rights of man, and send their armies to propagate them together; +otherwise the correspondence of a Frenchman will be as difficult to +interpret with mercantile exactness as the characters of the Chinese. + +The vanity of these philosophers would, doubtless, be gratified by +forcing the rest of Europe and the civilized world to adopt their useless +and chimerical innovations, and they might think it a triumph to see the +inhabitant of the Hebrides date _"Vendemiaire,"_ [Alluding to the +vintage.] or the parched West-Indian _"Nivose;"_ but vanity is not on +this, as it is on many other occasions, the leading principle.--It was +hoped that a new arrangement of the year, and a different nomenclature of +the months, so as to banish all the commemorations of Christianity, might +prepare the way for abolishing religion itself, and, if it were possible +to impose the use of the new calendar so far as to exclude the old one, +this might certainly assist their more serious atheistical operations; +but as the success of such an introduction might depend on the will of +the people, and is not within the competence of the bayonet, the old year +will maintain its ground, and these pedantic triflers find that they have +laboured to no more extensive a purpose, than to furnish a date to the +newspapers, or to their own decrees, which no one will take the pains to +understand. + +Mankind are in general more attached to customs than principles. The +useful despotism of Peter, which subdued so many of the prejudices of his +countrymen, could not achieve the curtailment of their beards; and you +must not imagine that, with all the endurance of the French, these +continual attempts at innovation pass without murmurs: partial revolts +happen very frequently; but, as they are the spontaneous effect of +personal suffering, not of political manoeuvre, they are without concert +or union, of course easily quelled, and only serve to strengthen the +government.--The people of Amiens have lately, in one of these sudden +effusions of discontent, burnt the tree of liberty, and even the +representative, Dumont, has been menaced; but these are only the blows of +a coward who is alarmed at his own temerity, and dreads the chastisement +of it.* + + * The whole town of Bedouin, in the south of France, was burnt + pursuant to a decree of the convention, to expiate the imprudence of + some of its inhabitants in having cut down a dead tree of liberty. + Above sixty people were guillotined as accomplices, and their bodies + thrown into pits, dug by order of the representative, Magnet, (then + on mission,) before their death. These executions were succeeded by + a conflagration of all the houses, and the imprisonment or + dispersion of their possessors. It is likewise worthy of remark, + that many of these last were obliged, by express order of Maignet, + to be spectators of the murder of their friends and relations. + +This crime in the revolutionary code is of a very serious nature; and +however trifling it may appear to you, it depends only on the will of +Dumont to sacrifice many lives on the occasion. But Dumont, though +erected by circumstances into a tyrant, is not sanguinary--he is by +nature and education passionate and gross, and in other times might only +have been a good natured Polisson. Hitherto he has contented himself +with alarming, and making people tired of their lives, but I do not +believe he has been the direct or intentional cause of anyone's death. +He has so often been the hero of my adventures, that I mention him +familiarly to you, without reflecting, that though the delegate of more +than monarchical power here, he is too insignificant of himself to be +known in England. But the history of Dumont is that of two-thirds of the +Convention. He was originally clerk to an attorney at Abbeville, and +afterwards set up for himself in a neighbouring village. His youth +having been marked by some digressions from the "'haviour of reputation," +his profession was far from affording him a subsistence; and the +revolution, which seems to have called forth all that was turbulent, +unprincipled, or necessitous in the country, naturally found a partizan +in an attorney without practice.--At the election of 1792, when the +King's fall and the domination of the Jacobins had spread so general a +terror that no man of character could be prevailed upon to be a candidate +for a public situation, Dumont availed himself of this timidity and +supineness in those who ought to have become the representatives of the +people; and, by a talent for intrigue, and a coarse facility of +phrase-making, (for he has no pretensions to eloquence,) prevailed on +the mob to elect him. His local knowledge, active disposition, and +subservient industry, render him an useful kind of drudge to any +prevailing party, and, since the overthrow of the Brissotines, he has +been entrusted with the government of this and some of the neighbouring +departments. He professes himself a zealous republican, and an apostle +of the doctrine of universal equality, yet unites in his person all the +attributes of despotism, and lives with more luxury and expence than +most of the _ci-devant_ gentry. His former habitation at Oisemont is not +much better than a good barn; but patriotism is more profitable here +than in England, and he has lately purchased a large mansion belonging +to an emigrant. + + * "Britain no longer pays her patriots with her spoils:" and perhaps + it is matter of congratulation to a country, when the profession of + patriotism is not lucrative. Many agreeable inferences may be made + from it--the sentiment may have become too general for reward, + Ministers too virtuous to fear, or even the people too enlightened + to be deceived. + +--His mode of travelling, which used at best to be in the _coche d'eau_ +[Passage-boat.] or the diligence, is now in a coach and four, very +frequently accompanied by a led horse, and a party of dragoons. I fear +some of your patriots behold this with envy, and it is not to be wondered +at that they should wish to see a similar revolution in England. What a +seducing prospect for the assertors of liberty, to have the power of +imprisoning and guillotining all their countrymen! What halcyon days, +when the aristocratic palaces* shall be purified by solacing the fatigues +of republican virtue, and the levellers of all distinction travel with +four horses and a military escort!--But, as Robespierre observes, you are +two centuries behind the French in patriotism and information; and I +doubt if English republicanism will ever go beyond a dinner, and toasting +the manes of Hampden and Sydney. I would, therefore, seriously advise +any of my compatriots who may be enamoured of a government founded on the +rights of man, to quit an ungrateful country which seems so little +disposed to reward their labours, and enjoy the supreme delight of men a +systeme, that of seeing their theories in action. + + * Many of the emigrants' houses were bought by members of the + Convention, or people in office. At Paris, crouds of inferior + clerks, who could not purchase, found means to get lodged in the + most superb national edifices: Monceaux was the villa of + Robespierre--St. Just occasionally amused himself at Raincy--Couthon + succeed the Comte d'Artois at Bagatelle-and Vliatte, a juryman of + the Revolutionary Tribunal, was lodged at the pavillion of Flora, in + the Tuilleries, which he seems to have occupied as a sort of Maitre + d'Hotel to the Comite de Salut Public. + +_A propos_--a decree of the Convention has lately passed to secure the +person of Mr. Thomas Paine, and place seals on his papers. I hope, +however, as he has been installed in all the rights of a French citizen, +in addition to his representative inviolability, that nothing more than a +temporary retreat is intended for him. Perhaps even his personal +sufferings may prove a benefit to mankind. He may, like Raleigh, "in his +prison hours enrich the world," and add new proselytes to the cause of +freedom. Besides, human evils are often only blessings in a questionable +form--Mr. Paine's persecutions in England made him a legislator in +France. Who knows but his persecutions in France may lead to some new +advancement, or at least add another line to the already crouded +title-pages that announce his literary and political distinctions! + +--Yours. + + + + +January, 1794. + +The total suppression of all religious worship in this country is an +event of too singular and important a nature not to have been commented +upon largely by the English papers; but, though I have little new to add +on the subject, my own reflections have been too much occupied in +consequence for me to pass it over in silence. + +I am yet in the first emotions of wonder: the vast edifice which had been +raised by the blended efforts of religion and superstition, which had +been consecrated by time, endeared by national taste, and become +necessary by habit, has now disappeared, and scarcely left a vestige of +its ruins. To those who revert only to the genius of the Catholic +religion, and to former periods of the history of France, this event must +seem incredible; and nothing but constant opportunities of marking its +gradual approach can reconcile it to probability. The pious christian +and the insidious philosopher have equally contributed to the general +effect, though with very different intentions: the one, consulting only +his reason, wished to establish a pure and simple mode of worship, which, +divested of the allurements of splendid processions and imposing +ceremonies, should teach the people their duty, without captivating their +senses; the other, better acquainted with French character, knew how +little these views were compatible with it, and hoped, under the specious +pretext of banishing the too numerous ornaments of the Catholic practice, +to shake the foundations of Christianity itself. Thus united in their +efforts, though dissimilar in their motives, all parties were eager at +the beginning of the revolution for a reform in the Church: the wealth of +the Clergy, the monastic establishments, the supernumerary saints, were +devoted and attacked without pity, and without regret; and, in the zeal +and hurry of innovation, the decisive measure, which reduced +ecclesiastics to small pensions dependent on the state, was carried, +before those who really meant well were aware of its consequences. The +next step was, to make the receiving these pensions subject to an oath, +which the selfish philosopher, who can coldly calculate on, and triumph +in, the weakness of human nature, foresaw would be a brand of discord, +certain to destroy the sole force which the Clergy yet possessed--their +union, and the public opinion. + +Unfortunately, these views were not disappointed: conviction, interest, +or fear, prevailed on many to take the oath; while doubt, worldly +improvidence, or a scrupulous piety, deterred others. A schism took +place between the jurors and nonjurors--the people became equally +divided, and adhered either to the one or the other, as their habits or +prepossessions directed them. Neither party, as it may be imagined, +could see themselves deprived of any portion of the public esteem, +without concern, perhaps without rancour; and their mutual animosity, far +from gaining proselytes to either, contributed only to the immediate +degradation and future ruin of both. Those, however, who had not taken +the prescribed oath, were in general more popular than what were called +the constitutionalists, and the influence they were supposed to exert in +alienating the minds of their followers from the new form of government, +supplied the republican party with a pretext for proposing their +banishment.* + + *The King's exertion of the power vested in him by the constitution, + by putting a temporary negative on this decree, it is well known, + was one of the pretexts for dethroning him. + +At the King's deposition this decree took place, and such of the +nonjuring priests as were not massacred in the prisons, or escaped the +search, were to be embarked for Guiana. The wiser and better part of +those whose compliances entitled them to remain, were, I believe, far +from considering this persecution of their opponents as a triumph--to +those who did, it was of short duration. The Convention, which had +hitherto attempted to disguise its hatred of the profession by censure +and abuse of a part of its members, began now to ridicule the profession +itself: some represented it as useless--others as pernicious and +irreconcileable with political freedom; and a discourse* was printed, +under the sanction of the Assembly, to prove, that the only feasible +republic must be supported by pure atheism. + + * Extracts from the Report of Anacharsis Cloots, member of the + Committee of Public Instruction, printed by order of the National + Convention: + + "Our _Sans-culottes_ want no other sermon but the rights of man, no + other doctrine but the constitutional precepts and practice, nor any + other church than where the section or the club hold their meetings, + &c. + + "The propagation of the rights of man ought to be presented to the + astonished world pure and without stain. It is not by offering + strange gods to our neighbours that we shall operate their + conversion. We can never raise them from their abject state by + erecting one altar in opposition to another. A trifling heresy is + infinitely more revolting than having no religion at all. Nature, + like the sun, diffuses her light without the assistance of priests + and vestals. While we were constitutional heretics, we maintained + an army of an hundred thousand priests, who waged war equally with + the Pope and the disciples of Calvin. We crushed the old priesthood + by means of the new, and while we compelled every sect to contribute + to the payment of a pretended national religion, we became at once + the abhorrence of all the Catholics and Protestants in Europe. The + repulsion of our religious belief counteracted the attraction of our + political principles.--But truth is at length triumphant, and all + the ill-intentioned shall no more be able to detach our neighbours + from the dominion of the rights of man, under pretext of a religious + dominion which no longer exists.--The purpose of religion is no how + so well answered as by presenting carte blanche to the abused world. + Every one will then be at liberty to form his spiritual regimen to + his own taste, till in the end the invincible ascendant of reason + shall teach him that the Supreme Being, the Eternal Being, is no + other than Nature uncreated and uncreatable; and that the only + Providence is the association of mankind in freedom and equality!-- + This sovereign providence affords comfort to the afflicted, rewards + the good, and punishes the wicked. It exercises no unjust + partialities, like the providence of knaves and fools. Man, when + free, wants no other divinity than himself. This god will not cost + us a single farthing, not a single tear, nor a drop of blood. From + the summit of our mountain he hath promulgated his laws, traced in + evident characters on the tables of nature. From the East to the + West they will be understood without the aid of interpreters, + comments, or miracles. Every other ritual will be torn in pieces at + the appearance of that of reason. Reason dethrones both the Kings + of the earth, and the Kings of heaven.--No monarch above, if we wish + to preserve our republic below. + + "Volumes have been written to determine whether or no a republic of + Atheists could exist. I maintain that every other republic is a + chimera. If you once admit the existence of a heavenly Sovereign, + you introduce the wooden horse within your walls!--What you adore by + day will be your destruction at night. + + "A people of theists necessarily become revelationists, that is to + say, slaves of priests, who are but religious go-betweens, and + physicians of damned souls. + + "If I were a scoundrel, I should make a point of exclaiming against + atheism, for a religious mask is very convenient to a traitor. + + "The intolerance of truth will one day proscribe the very name of + temple 'fanum,' the etymology of fanaticism. + + "We shall instantly see the monarchy of heaven condemned in its turn + by the revolutionary tribunal of victorious Reason; for Truth, + exalted on the throne of Nature, is sovereignly intolerant. + + "The republic of the rights of man is, properly speaking, neither + theistical nor atheistical--it is nihilistical." + +Many of the most eminent conforming Prelates and Clergy were arrested, +and even individuals, who had the reputation of being particularly +devout, were marked as objects of persecution. A new calendar was +devised, which excluded the ancient festivals, and limited public worship +to the decade, or tenth day, and all observance of the Sabbath was +interdicted. The prisons were crouded with sufferers in the cause of +religion, and all who had not the zeal or the courage of martyrs, +abstained from manifesting any attachment to the Christian faith. + +While this consternation was yet recent, the Deputies on mission in the +departments shut up the churches entirely: the refuse of low clubs were +paid and encouraged to break the windows and destroy the monuments; and +these outrages, which, it was previously concerted, should at first +assume the appearance of popular tumult, were soon regulated and directed +by the mandates of the Convention themselves. The churches were again +opened, an atheistic ritual, and licentious homilies,* were substituted +for the proscribed service--and an absurd and ludicrous imitation of the +Greek mythology was exhibited, under the title of the Religion of +Reason.-- + + * I have read a discourse pronounced in a church at Paris, on the + decade, so indecent and profane, that the most humble audience of a + country-puppet show in England would not have tolerated it. + +On the principal church of every town was inscribed, "The Temple of +Reason;" and a tutelary goddess was installed with a ceremony equally +pedantic, ridiculous, and profane.* + + * At Havre, the goddess of Reason was drawn on a car by four + cart-horses, and as it was judged necessary, to prevent accidents, + that the horses should be conducted by those they were accustomed + to, the carters were likewise put in requisition and furnished with + cuirasses a l'antique from the theatre. The men, it seems, being + neither martial nor learned, were not au fait at this equipment, + and concluding it was only a waistcoat of ceremony, invested + themselves with the front behind, and the back part laced before, + to the great amusement of the few who were sensible of the mistake. + +Yet the philosophers did not on this occasion disdain those adventitious +aids, the use of which they had so much declaimed against while they were +the auxiliaries of Christianity.* + + * Mr. Gibbon reproaches the Christians with their adoption of the + allurements of the Greek mythology.--The Catholics have been more + hostilely despoiled by their modern persecutors, and may retort that + the religion of reason is a more gross appeal to the senses than the + darkest ages of superstition would have ventured on. + +Music, processions, and decorations, which had been banished from the +ancient worship, were introduced in the new one, and the philosophical +reformer, even in the very attempt to establish a religion purely +metaphysical, found himself obliged to inculcate it by a gross and +material idolatry.*-- + + * The French do not yet annex any other idea to the religion of + reason than that of the female who performs the part of the goddess. + +Thus, by submitting his abstractions to the genius of the people, and the +imperfections of our nature, perhaps the best apology was offered for the +errors of that worship which had been proscribed, persecuted, and +ridiculed. + +Previous to the tenth day, on which a celebration of this kind was to +take place, a Deputy arrived, accompanied by the female goddess:* that +is, (if the town itself did not produce one for the purpose,) a Roman +dress of white satin was hired from the theatre, with which she was +invested--her head covered with a red cap, ornamented with oak leaves-- +one arm was reclined on a plough, the other grasped a spear--and her feet +were supported by a globe, and environed by mutilated emblems of +seodality. [It is not possible to explain this costume as appropriate.] + + * The females who personated the new divinity were usually selected + from amongst those who "might make sectaries of whom they bid but + follow," but who were more conspicuous for beauty than any other + celestial attribute.--The itinerant goddess of the principal towns + in the department de la Somme was the mistress of one Taillefer, a + republican General, brother to the Deputy of the same name.--I know + not, in this military government, whether the General's services on + the occasion were included in his other appointments. At Amiens, he + not only provided the deity, but commanded the detachment that + secured her a submissive adoration. + +Thus equipped, the divinity and her appendages were borne on the +shoulders of Jacobins "en bonnet rouge," and escorted by the National +Guard, Mayor, Judges, and all the constituted authorities, who, whether +diverted or indignant, were obliged to preserve a respectful gravity of +exterior. When the whole cavalcade arrived at the place appointed, the +goddess was placed on an altar erected for the occasion, from whence she +harangued the people, who, in return, proffered their adoration, and sung +the Carmagnole, and other republican hymns of the same kind. They then +proceeded in the same order to the principal church, in the choir of +which the same ceremonies were renewed: a priest was procured to abjure +his faith and avow the whole of Christianity an imposture;* and the +festival concluded with the burning of prayer-books, saints, +confessionals, and every thing appropriated to the use of public +worship.**-- + + *It must be observed, in justice to the French Clergy, that it was + seldom possible to procure any who would consent to this infamy. In + such cases, the part was exhibited by a man hired and dressed for + the purpose.--The end of degrading the profession in the eyes of the + people was equally answered. + + ** In many places, valuable paintings and statues were burnt or + disfigured. The communion cups, and other church plate, were, after + being exorcised in Jacobin revels, sent to the Convention, and the + gold and silver, (as the author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman + Empire invidiously expresses himself,) the pearls and jewels, were + wickedly converted to the service of mankind; as if any thing whose + value is merely fictitious, could render more service to mankind + than when dedicated to an use which is equally the solace of the + rich and the poor--which gratifies the eye without exciting + cupidity, soothes the bed of sickness, and heals the wounds of + conscience. Yet I am no advocate for the profuse decorations of + Catholic churches; and if I seem to plead in their behalf, it is + that I recollect no instance where the depredators of them have + appropriated the spoil to more laudable purposes. + +The greater part of the attendants looked on in silent terror and +astonishment; whilst others, intoxicated, or probably paid to act this +scandalous farce, danced round the flames with an appearance of frantic +and savage mirth.--It is not to be forgotten, that representatives of the +people often presided as the high priests of these rites; and their +official dispatches to the convention, in which these ceremonies were +minutely described, were always heard with bursts of applause, and +sanctioned by decrees of insertion in the bulletin.* + + * A kind of official newspaper distributed periodically at the + expence of Government in large towns, and pasted up in public + places--it contained such news as the convention chose to impart, + which was given with the exact measure of truth or falsehood that + suited the purpose of the day. + +I have now conducted you to the period in which I am contemplating France +in possession of all the advantages which a total dereliction of +religious establishments can bestow--at that consummation to which the +labours of modern philosophers have so long tended. + +Ye Shaftesburys, Bolingbrokes, Voltaires, and must I add the name of +Gibbon,* behold yourselves inscribed on the registers of fame with a +Laplanche, a Chenier, an Andre Dumont, or a Fouche!**-- + + * The elegant satirist of Christianity will smile at the presumption + of so humble a censurer.--It is certain, the misapplication only of + such splendid talents could embolden me to mention the name of the + possessor with diminished respect. + + ** These are names too contemptible for notice, but for the mischief + to which they were instrumental--they were among the first and most + remarkable persecutors of religion. + +Do not blush at the association; your views have been the same; and the +subtle underminer of man's best comfort in the principles of his +religion, is even more criminal than him who prohibits the external +exercise of it. Ridicule of the sacred writings is more dangerous than +burning them, and a sneer at the miracles of the gospel more mischievous +than disfiguring the statues of the evangelists; and it must be confessed +that these Anti-christian Iconoclasts themselves might probably have been +content to "believe and say their prayers," had not the intolerance of +philosophy made them atheists and persecutors.--The coarse legend of +"death is the sleep of eternity,"* is only a compendium of the fine-drawn +theories of the more elaborate materialist, and the depositaries of the +dead will not corrupt more by the exhibition of this desolating standard, +than the libraries of the living by the volumes which hold out the same +oblivion to vice, and discouragement to virtue.-- + + * Posts, bearing the inscription "la mort est un sommeil eternel," + were erected in many public burying-grounds.--No other ceremony is + observed with the dead than enclosing the body in some rough boards, + and sending it off by a couple of porters, (in their usual garb,) + attended by a municipal officer. The latter inscribes on a register + the name of the deceased, who is thrown into a grave generally + prepared for half a score, and the whole business is finished. + +The great experiment of governing a civilized people without religion +will now be made; and should the morals, the manners, or happiness of the +French, be improved by it, the sectaries of modern philosophy may +triumph. Should it happen otherwise, the Christian will have an +additional motive for cherishing his faith: but even the afflictions of +humanity will not, I fear, produce either regret or conviction in his +adversary; for the prejudices of philosophers and systemists are +incorrigible.* + + * _"Ce ne sont point les philosophes qui connoissent le mieux les + hommes. Ils ne les voient qu'a travers les prejuges, et je ne fache + aucun etat ou l'on en ait tant."_--J. J. Rousseau. ["It is not among + philosophers that we are to look for the most perfect knowledge of + human nature.--They view it only through the prejudices of + philosophy, and I know of no profession where prejudices are more + abundant."] + + + + +Providence, Jan. 29. + +We are now quite domesticated here, though in a very miserable way, +without fire, and with our mattresses, on the boards; but we nevertheless +adopt the spirit of the country, and a total absence of comfort does not +prevent us from amusing ourselves. My friend knits, and draws landscapes +on the backs of cards; and I have established a correspondence with an +old bookseller, who sends me treatises of chemistry and fortifications, +instead of poetry and memoirs. I endeavoured at first to borrow books of +our companions, but this resource was soon exhausted, and the whole +prison supplied little more than a novel of Florian's, _Le Voyage du jeune +Anarcharsis,_ and some of the philosophical romances of Voltaire.--They +say it ennuyes them to read; and I observe, that those who read at all, +take their books into the garden, and prefer the most crowded walks. +These studious persons, who seem to surpass Crambe himself in the faculty +of abstraction, smile and bow at every comma, without any appearance of +derangement from such frequent interruptions. + +Time passes sorrowly, rather than slowly; and my thoughts, without being +amused, are employed. The novelty of our situation, the past, the +future, all offer so many subjects of reflection, that my mind has more +occasion for repose than amusement. My only external resource is +conversing with our fellow-prisoners, and learning the causes of their +detention. These relations furnish me with a sort of "abstract of the +times," and mark the character of the government better than +circumstances of more apparent consequence; for what are battles, sieges, +and political machinations, but as they ultimately affect the happiness +of society? And when I learn that the lives, the liberty, and property +of no class are secure from violation, it is not necessary one should be +at Paris to form an opinion of this period of the revolution, and of +those who conduct it. + +The persecution which has hitherto been chiefly directed against the +Noblesse, has now a little subsided, and seems turned against religion +and commerce. People are daily arrested for assisting at private masses, +concealing images, or even for being possessors of religious books. +Merchants are sent here as monopolizers, and retailers, under various +pretexts, in order to give the committees an opportunity of pillaging +their shops. It is not uncommon to see people of the town who are our +guards one day, become our fellow-prisoners the next; and a few weeks +since, the son of an old gentleman who has been some time here, after +being on guard the whole day, instead of being relieved at the usual +hour, was joined by his wife and children, under the escort of a couple +of dragoons, who delivered the whole family into the custody of our +keeper; and this appears to have happened without any other motive than +his having presented a petition to Dumont in behalf of his father. + +An old man was lately taken from his house in the night, and brought +here, because he was said to have worn the cross of St. Louis.--The fact +is, however, that he never did wear this obnoxious distinction; and +though his daughter has proved this incontrovertibly to Dumont, she +cannot obtain his liberty: and the poor young woman, after making two or +three fruitless journeys to Paris, is obliged to content herself with +seeing her father occasionally at the gate. + +The refectory of the convent is inhabited by hospital nuns. Many of the +hospitals in France had a sort of religious order annexed to them, whose +business it was to attend the sick; and habit, perhaps too the +association of the offices of humanity with the duties of religion, had +made them so useful in their profession, that they were suffered to +remain, even after the abolition of the regular monasteries. But the +devastating torrent of the revolution at length reached them: they were +accused of bestowing a more tender solicitude on their aristocratic +patients than on the wounded volunteers and republicans; and, upon these +curious charges, they have been heaped into carts, without a single +necessary, almost without covering, sent from one department to another, +and distributed in different prisons, where they are perishing with cold, +sickness, and want! Some people are here only because they happened to +be accidentally at a house when the owner was arrested;* and we have one +family who were taken at dinner, with their guests, and the plate they +were using! + + * It was not uncommon for a mandate of arrest to direct the taking + "Citizen Such-a-one, and all persons found in his house." + +A grand-daughter of the celebrated De Witt, who resided thirty leagues +from hence, was arrested in the night, put in an open cart, without any +regard to her age, her sex, or her infirmities, though the rain fell in +torrents; and, after sleeping on straw in different prisons on the road, +was deposited here. As a Fleming, the law places her in the same +predicament with a very pretty young woman who has lived some months at +Amiens; but Dumont, who is at once the maker, the interpreter, and +executor of the laws, has exempted the latter from the general +proscription, and appears daily with her in public; whereas poor Madame +De Witt is excluded from such indulgence, being above seventy years old-- +and is accused, moreover, of having been most exemplarily charitable, +and, what is still worse, very religious.--I have given these instances +not as any way remarkable, and only that you may form some idea of the +pretexts which have served to cover France with prisons, and to conduct +so many of its inhabitants to the scaffold. + +It is impossible to reflect on a country in such a situation, without +abhorring the authors of it, and dreading the propagation of their +doctrines. I hope they neither have imitators nor admirers in England; +yet the convention in their debates, the Jacobins, and all the French +newspapers, seem so sanguine in their expectation, and so positive in +their assertions of an English revolution, that I occasionally, and in +spite of myself, feel a vague but serious solicitude, which I should not +have supposed the apprehension of any political evil could inspre. I +know the good sense and information of my countrymen offer a powerful +resource against the love of change and metaphysical subtilties; but, it +is certain, the French government have much depended on the spirit of +party, and the zeal of their propagandistes. They talk of a British +convention, of a conventional army, and, in short, all France seem +prepared to see their neighbours involved in the same disastrous system +with themselves. The people are not a little supported in this error by +the extracts that are given them from your orators in the House of +Commons, which teem with nothing but complaints against the oppression of +their own country, and enthusiastic admiration of French liberty. We +read and wonder--collate the Bill of Rights with the Code +Revolutionnaire, and again fear what we cannot give credit to. + +Since the reports I allude to have gained ground, I have been forcibly +stricken by a difference in the character of the two nations. At the +prospect of a revolution, all the French who could conveniently leave the +country, fled; and those that remained (except adventurers and the +banditti that were their accomplices) studiously avoided taking any part. +But so little are our countrymen affected with this selfish apathy, that +I am told there is scarcely one here who, amidst all his present +sufferings, does not seem to regret his absence from England, more on +account of not being able to oppose this threatened attack on our +constitution, than for any personal motive.--The example before them +must, doubtless, tend to increase this sentiment of genuine patriotism; +for whoever came to France with but a single grain of it in his +composition, must return with more than enough to constitute an hundred +patriots, whose hatred of despotism is only a principle, and who have +never felt its effects.--Adieu. + + + + +February 2, 1794. + +The factions which have chosen to give France the appellation of a +republic, seem to have judged, and with some reason, that though it might +answer their purpose to amuse the people with specious theories of +freedom, their habits and ideas were far from requiring that these fine +schemes should be carried into practice. I know of no example equal to +the submission of the French at this moment; and if "departed spirits +were permitted to review the world," the shades of Richelieu or Louvois +might hover with envy round the Committee of Public Welfare, and regret +the undaring moderation of their own politics. + +How shall I explain to an Englishman the doctrine of universal +requisition? I rejoice that you can imagine nothing like it.--After +establishing, as a general principle, that the whole country is at the +disposal of government, succeeding decrees have made specific claims on +almost every body, and every thing. The tailors, shoemakers,* bakers, +smiths, sadlers, and many other trades, are all in requisition--carts, +horses, and carriages of every kind, are in requisition--the stables and +cellars are put in requisition for the extraction of saltpetre, and the +houses to lodge soldiers, or to be converted into prisons. + + * In order to prevent frauds, the shoemakers were obliged to make + only square-toed shoes, and every person not in the army was + forbidden to wear them of this form. Indeed, people of any + pretentions to patriotism (that is to say, who were much afraid) did + not venture to wear any thing but wooden shoes; as it had been + declared anti-civique, if not suspicious, to walk in leather. + +--Sometimes shopkeepers are forbidden to sell their cloth, nails, wine, +bread, meat, &c. There are instances where whole towns have been kept +without the necessaries of life for several days together, in consequence +of these interdictions; and I have known it proclaimed by beat of drum, +that whoever possessed two uniforms, two hats, or two pair of shoes, +should relinquish one for the use of the army! Yet with all these +efforts of despotism, the republican troops are in many respects ill +supplied, the produce being too often converted to the use of the agents +of government, who are all Jacobins, and whose peculations are suffered +with impunity, because they are too necessary, or perhaps too formidable +for punishment. + +These proceedings, which are not the less mischievous for being absurd, +must end in a total destruction of commerce: the merchant will not import +what he may be obliged to sell exclusively to government at an arbitrary +and inadequate valuation.--Those who are not imprisoned, and have it in +their power, are for the most part retired from business, or at least +avoid all foreign speculations; so that France may in a few months depend +only on her internal resources. The same measures which ruin one class, +serve as a pretext to oppress and levy contributions on the rest.--In +order to make this right of seizure still more productive, almost every +village has its spies, and the domiciliary visits are become so frequent, +that a man is less secure in his own house, than in a desert amidst +Arabs. On these occasions, a band of Jacobins, with a municipal officer +at their head, enter sans ceremonie, over-run your apartments, and if +they find a few pounds of sugar, soap, or any other article which they +choose to judge more than sufficient for immediate consumption, they take +possession of the whole as a monopoly, which they claim for the use of +the republic, and the terrified owner, far from expostulating, thinks +himself happy if he escapes so well.--But this is mere vulgar tyranny: +a less powerful despotism might invade the security of social life, and +banish its comforts. We are prone to suffer, and it requires often +little more than the will to do evil to give us a command over the +happiness of others. The Convention are more original, and, not +satisfied with having reduced the people to the most abject slavery, +they exact a semblance of content, and dictate at stated periods the +chastisement which awaits those who refuse to smile. + +The splendid ceremonies at Paris, which pass for popular rejoicings, +merit that appellation less than an auto de fe. Every movement is +previously regulated by a Commissioner appointed for the purpose, +(to whom en passant these fetes are very lucrative jobs,) a plan of the +whole is distributed, in which is prescribed with great exactness, that +at such and such parts the people are to "melt into tears," at others +they are to be seized with a holy enthusiasm, and at the conclusion of +the whole they are to rend the air with the cry of "Vive la Convention!" +--These celebrations are always attended by a military force, sufficient +to ensure their observance, besides a plentiful mixture of spies to +notice refractory countenances or faint acclamations. + +The departments which cannot imitate the magnificence of Paris, are +obliged, nevertheless, to manifest their satisfaction. At every occasion +on which a rejoicing is ordered, the same kind of discipline is +preserved; and the aristocrats, whose fears in general overcome their +principles, are often not the least zealous attendants. + +At the retaking of Toulon, when abandoned by our countrymen, the National +Guards were every where assembled to participate in the festivity, under +a menace of three days imprisonment. Those persons who did not +illuminate their houses were to be considered as suspicious, and treated +as such: yet, even with all these precautions, I am informed the business +was universally cold, and the balls thinly attended, except by +aristocrats and relations of emigrants, who, in some places, with a +baseness not excused even by their terrors, exhibited themselves as a +public spectacle, and sang the defeats of that country which was armed in +their defence. + +I must here remark to you a circumstance which does still less honour to +the French character; and which you will be unwilling to believe. In +several towns the officers and others, under whose care the English were +placed during their confinement, were desirous sometimes on account of +the peculiar hardship of their situation as foreigners, to grant them +little indulgences, and even more liberty than to the French prisoners; +and in this they were justified on several considerations, as well as +that of humanity.--They knew an Englishman could not escape, whatever +facility might be given him, without being immediately retaken; and that +if his imprisonment were made severe, he had fewer external resources and +alleviations than the natives of the country: but these favourable +dispositions were of no avail--for whenever any of our countrymen +obtained an accommodation, the jealousy of the French took umbrage, and +they were obliged to relinquish it, or hazard the drawing embarrassment +on the individual who had served them. + +You are to notice, that the people in general, far from being averse to +seeing the English treated with a comparative indulgence, were even +pleased at it; and the invidious comparisons and complaints which +prevented it, proceeded from the gentry, from the families of those who +had found refuge in England, and who were involved in the common +persecution.--I have, more than once, been reproached by a female +aristocrat with the ill success of the English army; and many, with whom +I formerly lived on terms of intimacy, would refuse me now the most +trifling service.--I have heard of a lady, whose husband and brother are +both in London, who amuses herself in teaching a bird to repeat abuse of +the English. + +It has been said, that the day a man becomes a slave, he loses half his +virtue; and if this be true as to personal slavery, judging from the +examples before me, I conclude it equally so of political bondage.--The +extreme despotism of the government seems to have confounded every +principle of right and wrong, every distinction of honour and dishonour +and the individual, of whatever class, alive only to the sense of +personal danger, embraces without reluctance meanness or disgrace, if it +insure his safety.--A tailor or shoemaker, whose reputation perhaps is +too bad to gain him a livelihood by any trade but that of a patriot, +shall be besieged by the flatteries of people of rank, and have levees as +numerous as Choiseul or Calonne in their meridian of power. + +When a Deputy of the Convention is sent to a town on mission, sadness +takes possession of every heart, and gaiety of every countenance. He is +beset with adulatory petitions, and propitiating gifts; the Noblesse who +have escaped confinement form a sort of court about his person; and +thrice happy is the owner of that habitation at which he condescends to +reside.--* + + * When a Deputy arrives, the gentry of the town contend with jealous + rivalship for the honour of lodging him; and the most eloquent + eulogist of republican simplicity in the Convention does not fail to + prefer a large house and a good table, even though the unhallowed + property of an aristocrat.--It is to be observed, that these + Missionaries travel in a very patriarchal style, accompanied by + their wives, children, and a numerous train of followers, who are + not delicate in availing themselves of this hospitality, and are + sometimes accused of carrying off the linen, or any thing else + portable--even the most decent behave on these occasions as though + they were at an inn. + +--A Representative of gallantry has no reason to envy either the +authority of the Grand Signor, or the licence of his seraglio--he is +arbiter of the fate of every woman that pleases him; and, it is supposed, +that many a fair captive has owed her liberty to her charms, and that the +philosophy of a French husband has sometimes opened the doors of his +prison. + +Dumont, who is married, and has besides the countenance of a white Negro, +never visits us without occasioning a general commotion amongst all the +females, especially those who are young and pretty. As soon as it is +known that he is expected, the toilettes are all in activity, a +renovation of rouge and an adjustment of curls take place, and, though +performed with more haste, not with less solicitude, than the preparatory +splendour of a first introduction.--When the great man arrives, he finds +the court by which he enters crowded by these formidable prisoners, and +each with a petition in her hand endeavours, with the insidious coquetry +of plaintive smiles and judicious tears, that brighten the eye without +deranging the features, to attract his notice and conciliate his favour. +Happy those who obtain a promise, a look of complacence, or even of +curiosity!--But the attention of this apostle of republicanism is not +often bestowed, except on high rank, or beauty; and a woman who is old, +or ill dressed, that ventures to approach him, is usually repulsed with +vulgar brutality--while the very sight of a male suppliant renders him +furious. The first half hour he walks about, surrounded by his fair +cortege, and is tolerably civil; but at length, fatigued, I suppose by +continual importunity, he loses his temper, departs, and throws all the +petitions he has received unopened into the fire. + +Adieu--the subject is too humiliating to dwell on. I feel for myself, I +feel for human nature, when I see the fastidiousness of wealth, the more +liberal pride of birth, and the yet more allowable pretensions of beauty, +degraded into the most abject submission to such a being as Dumont. Are +our principles every where the mere children of circumstance, or is it in +this country only that nothing is stable? For my own part I love +inflexibility of character; and pride, even when ill founded, seems more +respectable while it sustains itself, than concessions which, refused to +the suggestions of reason, are yielded to the dictates of fear.--Yours. + + + + +February 12, 1794. + +I was too much occupied by my personal distresses to make any remarks on +the revolutionary government at the time of its adoption. The text of +this political phoenomenon must be well known in England--I shall, +therefore, confine myself to giving you a general idea of its spirit and +tendency,--It is, compared to regular government, what force is to +mechanism, or the usual and peaceful operations of nature to the ravages +of a storm--it substitutes violence for conciliation, and sweeps with +precipitate fury all that opposes its devastating progress. It refers +every thing to a single principle, which is in itself not susceptible of +definition, and, like all undefined power, is continually vibrating +between despotism and anarchy. It is the execrable shape of Milton's +Death, "which shape hath none," and which can be described only by its +effects.--For instance, the revolutionary tribunal condemns without +evidence, the revolutionary committees imprison without a charge, and +whatever assumes the title of revolutionary is exonerated from all +subjection to humanity, decency, reason, or justice.--Drowning the +insurgents, their wives and children, by boatloads, is called, in the +dispatch to the Convention, a revolutionary measure--* + + * The detail of the horrors committed in La Vendee and at Nantes + were not at this time fully known. Carrier had, however, + acknowledged, in a report read to the Convention, that a boat-load + of refractory priests had been drowned, and children of twelve years + old condemned by a military commission! One Fabre Marat, a + republican General, wrote, about the same period, I think from + Angers, that the Guillotine was too slow, and powder scarce, so that + it was concluded more expedient to drown the rebels, which he calls + a patriotic baptism!--The following is a copy of a letter addressed + to the Mayor of Paris by a Commissary of the Government: + +"You will give us pleasure by transmitting the details of your fete at +Paris last decade, with the hymns that were sung. Here we all cried +_"Vive la Republique!"_ as we ever do, when our holy mother Guillotine +is at work. Within these three days she has shaved eleven priests, one +_ci-devant_ noble, a nun, a general, and a superb Englishman, six feet +high, and as he was too tall by a head, we have put that into the sack! +At the same time eight hundred rebels were shot at the Pont du Ce, and +their carcases thrown into the Loire!--I understand the army is on the +track of the runaways. All we overtake we shoot on the spot, and in +such numbers that the ways are heaped with them!" + +--At Lyons, it is revolutionary to chain three hundred victims together +before the mouths of loaded cannon, and massacre those who escape the +discharge with clubs and bayonets;* and at Paris, revolutionary juries +guillotine all who come before them.--** + + * The Convention formally voted their approbation of this measure, + and Collot d'Herbois, in a report on the subject, makes a kind of + apostrophical panegyric on the humanity of his colleagues. "Which + of you, Citizens, (says he,) would not have fired the cannon? Which + of you would not joyfully have destroyed all these traitors at a + blow?" + + ** About this time a woman who sold newspapers, and the printer of + them, were guillotined for paragraphs deemed incivique. + +--Yet this government is not more terrible than it is minutely vexations. +One's property is as little secure as one's existence. Revolutionary +committees every where sequestrate in the gross, in order to plunder in +detail.* + + * The revolutionary committees, when they arrested any one, + pretended to affix seals in form. The seal was often, however, no + other than the private one of some individual employed--sometimes + only a button or a halfpenny, which was broken as often as the + Committee wanted access to the wine or other effects. Camille + Desmoulins, in an address to Freron, his fellow-deputy, describes + with some humour the mode of proceeding of these revolutionary + pilferers: + +_"Avant hier, deux Commissaires de la section de Mutius Scaevola, montent +chez lui--ils trouvent dans la bibliotheque des livres de droit; et +non-obstant le decret qui porte qu'on ne touchera point Domat ni a Charles +Dumoulin, bien qu'ils traitent de matieres feodales, ils sont main basse +sur la moitie de la bibliotheque, et chargent deux Chrocheteurs des +livres paternels. Ils trouvent une pendule, don't la pointe de Paiguille +etoit, comme la plupart des pointes d'aiguilles, terminee en trefle: il +leur semble que cette pointe a quelque chose d'approchant d'une fleur de +lys; et non-obstant le decret qui ordonne de respecter les monumens des +arts, il confisquent la pendule.--Notez bien qu'il y avoit a cote une +malle sur laquelle etoit l'adresse fleurdelisee du marchand.--Ici il n'y +avoit pas moyen de aier que ce fut une belle et bonne fleur de lys; mais +comme la malle ne valoit pas un corset, les Commissaires se contentent de +rayer les lys, au lieu que la malheureuse pendule, qui vaut bien 1200 +livres, est, malgre son trefle, emportee par eux-memes, qui ne se fioient +pas aux Chrocheteurs d'un poid si precieux--et ce, en vertu du droit que +Barrere a appelle si heureusement le droit de prehension, quoique le +decret s'opposat, dans l'espece, a l'application de ce droit.--Enfin, +notre decemvirat sectionnaire, qui se mettoit ainsi au-dessus des +decrets, trouve le brevet de pension de mon beau-pere, qui, comme tous +les brevets de pension, n'etant pas de nature a etre porte sur le grand +livre de la republique, etoit demeure dans le porte-feuille, et qui, +comme tous les brevets de pension possibles, commencoit par ce protocole; +Louis, &c. Ciel! s'ecrient les Commissaires, le nom du tyran!--Et apres +avoir retrouve leur haleine, suffoquee d'abord par l'indignation, ils +mettent en poche le brevet de pension, c'est a dire 1000 livres de rente, +et emportent la marmite. Autre crime, le Citoyen Duplessis, qui etoit +premier commis des finances, sous Clugny, avoit conserve, comme c'etoit +l'usage, la cachet du controle general d'alors--un vieux porte-feuille de +commis, qui etoit au rebut, ouble au dessus d'une armoire, dans un tas de +poussiere, et auquel il n'avoit pas touche ne meme pense depuis dix ans +peutetre, et sur le quel on parvint a decouvrir l'empreinte de quelques +fleurs de lys, sous deux doigts de crasse, acheva de completer la preuve +que le Citoyen Duplessis etoit suspect--et la voila, lui, enferme jusqu'a +la paix, et le scelle mis sur toutes les portes de cette campagne, ou, tu +te souviens, mon cher Freroa--que, decretes tous deux de prise de corps, +apres le massacre du Champ de Mars, nous trouvions un asyle que le tyran +n'osoit violer."_ + +"The day before yesterday, two Commissaries belonging to the section of +Mutius Scaevola, entered my father-in-law's apartments; they found some +law-books in the library, and, notwithstanding the decree which exempts +from seizure the works of Domat and Charles Dumouin, (although they treat +of feudal matters,) they proceeded to lay violent hands on one half of +the collection, and loaded two porters with paternal spoils. The next +object that attracted their attention was a clock, the hand of which, +like the hands of most other clocks, terminated in a point, in the form +of a trefoil, which seemed to them to bear some resemblance to a fleur de +lys; and, notwithstanding the decree which ordains that the monuments of +the arts shall be respected, they immediately passed sentence of +confiscation on the clock. I should observe to you, that hard by lay a +portmanteau, having on it the maker's address, encircled with lilies.-- +Here there was no disputing the fact, but as the trunk was not worth five +livres, the Commissaries contented themselves with erasing the lilies; +but the unfortunate clock, being worth twelve hundred, was, +notwithstanding its trefoil, carried off by themselves, for they would +not trust the porters with so precious a load.--And all this was done in +virtue of the law, which Barrere aptly denominated the law of prehension, +and which, according to the terms of the decree itself, was not +applicable to the case in question. + +"At length our sectionary decemvirs, who thus placed themselves above the +law, discovered the grant of my father-in-law's pension, which, like all +similar grants, being excluded from the privilege of inscription on the +great register of public debts, had been left in his port-folio; and +which began, as all such grants necessarily must, with the words, Louis, +&c. "Heaven!" exclaimed the Commissaries, "here is the very name of the +tyrant!" And, as soon as they recovered their breaths, which had been +nearly stopped by the violence of the indignation, they coolly pocketed +the grant, that is to say, an annuity of one thousand livres, and sent +off the porridge-pot. Nor did these constitute all the crimes of Citizen +Duplessis, who, having served as first clerk of the revenue board under +Clugny, had, as was usual, kept the official seal of that day. An old +port-folio, which had been thrown aside, and long forgotten, under a +wardrobe, where it was buried in dust, and had, in all probability, not +been touched for ten years, but, which with much difficulty, was +discovered to bear the impression of a fleur de lys, completed the proof +that Citizen Duplessis was a suspicious character. And now behold him +shut up in a prison until peace shall be concluded, and the seals put +upon all the doors of that country seat, where, you may remember, my dear +Freron, that at the time when warrants were issued for apprehending us +both, after the massacre in the Champ de Mars, we found an asylum which +the tyrant did not dare to violate." + +--In a word, you must generally understand, that the revolutionary system +supersedes law, religion, and morality; and that it invests the +Committees of Public Welfare and General Safety, their agents, the +Jacobin clubs, and subsidiary banditti, with the disposal of the whole +country and its inhabitants. + +This gloomy aera of the revolution has its frivolities as well as the +less disastrous periods, and the barbarism of the moment is rendered +additionally disgusting by a mixture of levity and pedantry.--It is a +fashion for people at present to abandon their baptismal and family +names, and to assume that of some Greek or Roman, which the debates of +the Convention have made familiar.--France swarms with Gracchus's and +Publicolas, who by imaginary assimilations of acts, which a change of +manners has rendered different, fancy themselves more than equal to their +prototypes.* + + * The vicissitudes of the revolution, and the vengeance of party, + have brought half the sages of Greece, and patriots of Rome, to the + Guillotine or the pillory. The Newgate Calendar of Paris contains + as many illustrious names as the index to Plutarch's Lives; and I + believe there are now many Brutus's and Gracchus's in durance vile, + besides a Mutius Scaevola condemned to twenty years imprisonment for + an unskilful theft.--A man of Amiens, whose name is Le Roy, + signified to the public, through the channel of a newspaper, that he + had adopted that of Republic. + +--A man who solicits to be the executioner of his own brother ycleps +himself Brutus, and a zealous preacher of the right of universal pillage +cites the Agrarian law, and signs himself Lycurgus. Some of the Deputies +have discovered, that the French mode of dressing is not characteristic +of republicanism, and a project is now in agitation to drill the whole +country into the use of a Roman costume.--You may perhaps suspect, that +the Romans had at least more bodily sedateness than their imitators, and +that the shrugs, jerks, and carracoles of a French petit maitre, however +republicanized, will not assort with the grave drapery of the toga. But +on your side of the water you have a habit of reasoning and deliberating +--here they have that of talking and obeying. + +Our whole community are in despair to-day. Dumont has been here, and +those who accosted him, as well as those who only ventured to interpret +his looks, all agree in their reports that he is in a "bad humour."--The +brightest eyes in France have supplicated in vain--not one grace of any +sort has been accorded--and we begin to cherish even our present +situation, in the apprehension that it may become worse.--Alas! you know +not of what evil portent is the "bad humour" of a Representant. We are +half of us now, like the Persian Lord, feeling if our heads are still on +our shoulders.--I could add much to the conclusion of one of my last +letters. Surely this incessant solicitude for mere existence debilitates +the mind, and impairs even its passive faculty of suffering. We intrigue +for the favour of the keeper, smile complacently at the gross +pleasantries of a Jacobin, and tremble at the frown of a Dumont.--I am +ashamed to be the chronicler of such humiliation: but, "tush, Hal; men, +mortal men!" I can add no better apology, and quit you to moralize on +it.--Yours. + + + + +[No date given.] + +Were I a mere spectator, without fear for myself or compassion for +others, the situation of this country would be sufficiently amusing. The +effects produced (many perhaps unavoidably) by a state of revolution--the +strange remedies devised to obviate them--the alternate neglect and +severity with which the laws are executed--the mixture of want and +profusion that distinguish the lower classes of people--and the distress +and humiliation of the higher; all offer scenes so new and unaccountable, +as not to be imagined by a person who has lived only under a regular +government, where the limits of authority are defined, the necessaries of +life plentiful, and the people rational and subordinate. The +consequences of a general spirit of monopoly, which I formerly described, +have lately been so oppressive, that the Convention thought it necessary +to interfere, and in so extraordinary a way, that I doubt if (as usual) +"the distemper of their remedies" will not make us regret the original +disease. Almost every article, by having passed through a variety of +hands, had become enormously dear; which, operating with a real scarcity +of many things, occasioned by the war, had excited universal murmurings +and inquietude. The Convention, who know the real source of the evil +(the discredit of assignats) to be unattainable, and who are more +solicitous to divert the clamours of the people, than to supply their +wants, have adopted a measure which, according to the present +appearances, will ruin one half of the nation, and starve the other. A +maximum, or highest price, beyond which nothing is to be sold, is now +promulgated under very severe penalties for all who shall infringe it. +Such a regulation as this, must, in its nature, be highly complex, and, +by way of simplifying it, the price of every kind of merchandise is fixed +at a third above what it bore in 1791: but as no distinction is made +between the produce of the country, and articles imported--between the +small retailer, who has purchased perhaps at double the rate he is +allowed to sell at, and the wholesale speculator, this very +simplification renders the whole absurd and inexecutable.--The result was +such as might have been expected; previous to the day on which the decree +was to take place, shopkeepers secreted as many of their goods as they +could; and, when the day arrived, the people laid siege to them in +crowds, some buying at the maximum, others less ceremonious, and in a few +hours little remained in the shop beyond the fixtures. The farmers have +since brought neither butter nor eggs to market, the butchers refuse to +kill as usual, and, in short, nothing is to be purchased openly. The +country people, instead of selling provisions publicly, take them to +private houses; and, in addition to the former exorbitant prices, we are +taxed for the risk that is incurred by evading the law. A dozen of eggs, +or a leg of mutton, are now conveyed from house to house with as much +mystery, as a case of fire-arms, or a treasonable correspondence; the +whole republic is in a sort of training like the Spartan youth; and we +are obliged to have recourse to dexterity and intrigue to procure us a +dinner. + +Our legislators, aware of what they term the "aristocratie marchande,"-- +that is to say, that tradesmen would naturally shut up their shops when +nothing was to be gained--provided, by a clause in the above law, that no +one should do this in less time than a year; but as the injunction only +obliged them to keep the shops open, and not to have goods to sell, every +demand is at first always answered in the negative, till a sort of +intelligence becomes established betwixt the buyer and seller, when the +former, if he may be trusted, is informed in a low key, that certain +articles may be had, but not au maximum.--Thus even the rich cannot +obtain the necessaries of life without difficulty and submitting to +imposition--and the decent poor, who will not pillage nor intimidate the +tradesmen, are more embarrassed than ever. + +The above species of contraband commerce is carried on, indeed, with +great circumspection, and no avowed hostilities are attempted in the +towns. The great war of the maximum was waged with the farmers and +higlers, as soon as it was discovered that they took their commodities +privily to such people as they knew would buy at any price, rather than +not be supplied. In consequence, the guards were ordered to stop all +refractory butter-women at the gates, and conduct them to the town-house, +where their merchandize was distributed, without pity or appeal, au +maximum, to those of the populace who could clamour loudest. + +These proceedings alarmed the peasants, and our markets became deserted. +New stratagems, on one side, new attacks on the other. The servants were +forced to supply themselves at private rendezvous in the night, until +some were fined, and others arrested; and the searching all comers from +the country became more intolerable than the vexations of the ancient +Gabelle.--Detachments of dragoons are sent to scour the farm-yards, +arrest the farmers, and bring off in triumph whatever the restive +housewives have amassed, to be more profitably disposed of. + +In this situation we remain, and I suppose shall remain, while the law of +the maximum continues in force. The principle of it was certainly good, +but it is found impossible to reduce it to practice so equitably as to +affect all alike: and as laws which are not executed are for the most +part rather pernicious than nugatory, informations, arrests, imposition, +and scarcity are the only ends which this measure seems to have answered. + +The houses of detention, before insupportable, are now yet more crouded +with farmers and shopkeepers suspected of opposing the law.--Many of the +former are so ignorant, as not to conceive that any circumstances ought +to deprive them of the right to sell the produce of their farms at the +highest price they can get, and regard the maximum much in the same light +as they would a law to authorize robbing or housebreaking: as for the +latter, they are chiefly small dealers, who bought dearer than they have +sold, and are now imprisoned for not selling articles which they have not +got. An informer by trade, or a personal enemy, lodges an accusation +against a particular tradesman for concealing goods, or not selling au +maximum; and whether the accusation be true or false, if the accused is +not in office, or a Jacobin, he has very little chance of escaping +imprisonment.--It is certain, that if the persecution of these classes of +people continue, and commerce (already nearly annihilated by the war) be +thus shackled, an absolute want of various articles of primary +consumption must ensue; but if Paris and the armies can be supplied, the +starving the departments will be a mere pleasurable experiment to their +humane representatives! + + + + +March 1, 1794. + +The freedom of the press is so perfectly well regulated, that it is not +surprizing we are indulged with the permission of seeing the public +papers: yet this indulgence is often, I assure you, a source of much +perplexity to me--our more intimate associates know that I am a native of +England, and as often as any debates of our House of Commons are +published, they apply to me for explanations which it is not always in my +power to give them. I have in vain endeavoured to make them comprehend +the nature of an opposition from system, so that when they see any thing +advanced by a member exactly the reverse of truth, they are wondering how +he can be so ill informed, and never suspect him of saying what he does +not believe himself. It must be confessed, however, that our extracts +from the English papers often form so complete a contrast with facts, +that a foreigner unacquainted with the tactics of professional +patriotism, may very naturally read them with some surprize. A noble +Peer, for example, (whose wisdom is not to be disputed, since the Abbe +Mably calls him the English Socrates,*) asserts that the French troops +are the best clothed in Europe; yet letters, of nearly the same date with +the Earl's speech, from two Generals and a Deputy at the head of +different armies intreat a supply of covering for their denudated +legions, and add, that they are obliged to march in wooden shoes!** + + * It is surely a reflection on the English discernment not to have + adopted this happy appellation, in which, however, as well as in + many other parts of "the rights of Man and the Citizen," the Abbe + seems to have consulted his own zeal, rather than the noble Peer's + modesty. + + ** If the French troops are now better clothed, it is the effect of + requisitions and pre-emptions, which have ruined the manufacturers. + --Patriots of the North, would you wish to see our soldiers clothed + by the same means? + +--On another occasion, your British Sage describes, with great eloquence, +the enthusiasm with which the youth of France "start to arms at the call +of the Convention;" while the peaceful citizen anticipates, with equal +eagerness, the less glorious injunction to extract saltpetre.--The +revolts, and the coercion, necessary to enforce the departure of the +first levies (however fear, shame, and discipline, may have since made +them soldiers, though not republicans) might have corrected the ardour of +the orator's inventive talents; and the zeal of the French in +manufacturing salpetre, has been of so slow a growth, that any reference +to it is peculiarly unlucky. For several months the Convention has +recommended, invited, intreated, and ordered the whole country to occupy +themselves in the process necessary for obtaining nitre; but the +republican enthusiasm was so tardy, that scarcely an ounce appeared, till +a long list of sound penal laws, with fines and imprisonments in every +line, roused the public spirit more effectually.* + + * Two years imprisonment was the punishment assigned to a Citizen + who should be found to obstruct in any way the fabricating + saltpetre. If you had a house that was adjudged to contain the + materials required, and expostulated against pulling it down, the + penalty was incurred.--I believe something of this kind existed + under the old government, the abuses of which are the only parts the + republic seems to have preserved. + +--Another cause also has much favoured the extension of this manufacture: +the necessity of procuring gunpowder at any rate has secured an exemption +from serving in the army to those who shall be employed in making it.--* + + * Many, under this pretext, even procured their discharge from the + army; and it was eventually found requisite to stop this commutation + of service by a decree. + +--On this account vast numbers of young men, whose martial propensities +are not too vehement for calculation, considering the extraction of +saltpetre as more safe than the use of it, have seriously devoted +themselves to the business. Thus, between fear of the Convention and of +the enemy, has been produced that enthusiasm which seems so grateful to +Lord S____. Yet, if the French are struck by the dissimilitude of facts +with the language of your English patriots, there are other circumstances +which appear still more unaccountable to them. I acknowledge the word +patriotism is not perfectly understood any where in France, nor do my +prison-associates abound in it; but still they find it difficult to +reconcile the love of their country, so exclusively boasted by certain +senators, with their eulogiums on a government, and on men who avow an +implacable hatred to it, and are the professed agents of its future +destruction. The Houses of Lords and Commons resound with panegyrics on +France; the Convention with _"delenda est Carthate"--"ces vils +Insulaires"--"de peuple marchand, boutiquier"--"ces laches Anglois"--_ &c. +&c. ("Carthage must be destroyed"--"those vile Islanders"--"that nation +of shopkeepers"--"those cowardly Englishmen"--&c.) + +The efforts of the English patriots overtly tend to the consolidation of +the French republic, while the demagogues of France are yet more +strenuous for the abolition of monarchy in England. The virtues of +certain people called Muir and Palmer,* are at once the theme of Mr. Fox +and Robespierre,** of Mr. Grey and Barrere,***, of Collot d'Herbois**** +and Mr. Sheridan; and their fate is lamented as much at the Jacobins as +at St. Stephen's.***** + + * If I have not mentioned these gentlemen with the respect due to + their celebrity, their friends must pardon me. To say truth, I did + not at this time think of them with much complacence, as I had heard + of them only from the Jacobins, by whom they were represented as the + leaders of a Convention, which was to arm ninety thousand men, for + the establishment of a system similar to that existing in France. + + **The French were so much misled by the eloquence of these gentlemen + in their favour, that they were all exhibited on the stage in red + caps and cropped heads, welcoming the arrival of their Gallic + friends in England, and triumphing in the overthrow of the British + constitution, and the dethronement of the King. + + *** If we may credit the assertions of Barrere, the friendship of + the Committee of Public Welfare was not merely verbal. He says, the + secret register of the Committee furnishes proofs of their having + sent three frigates to intercept these distinguished victims, whom + their ungrateful country had so ignominiously banished. + + **** This humane and ingenious gentleman, by profession a player, is + known likewise as the author of several farces and vaudevilles, and + of the executions at Lyons.--It is asserted, that many of the + inhabitants of this unfortunate city expiated under the Guillotine + the crime of having formerly hissed Collot's successful attempts on + the stage. + + ***** The printing of a particular speech was interdicted on account + of its containing allusions to certain circumstances, the knowledge + of which might be of disservice to their unfortunate friends during + their trial. + +--The conduct of Mr. Pitt is not more acrimoniously discussed at the +Palais National than by a part of his colleagues; and the censure of the +British government, which is now the order of the day at the Jacobins, is +nearly the echo of your parliamentary debates.* + + * Allowing for the difference of education in the orators, a + journeyman shoemaker was, I think, as eloquent, and not more + abusive, than the facetious _ci-devant_ protege of Lord T____d. + +--All this, however, does not appear to me out of the natural order of +things; it is the sorry history of opposition for a century and an half, +and our political rectitude, I fear, is not increasing: but the French, +who are in their way the most corrupt people in Europe, have not +hitherto, from the nature of their government, been familiar with this +particular mode of provoking corruption, nor are they at present likely +to become so. Indeed, I must here observe, that your English Jacobins, +if they are wise, should not attempt to introduce the revolutionary +system; for though the total possession of such a government is very +alluring, yet the prudence, which looks to futurity, and the incertitude +of sublunary events, must acknowledge it is "Caesar or nothing;" and that +it offers no resource in case of those segregations, which the jealousy +of power, or the appropriation of spoil, may occasion, even amongst the +most virtuous associates.--The eloquence of a discontented orator is here +silenced, not by a pension, but by a mandat d'arret; and the obstinate +patriotism, which with you could not be softened with less than a +participation of authority, is more cheaply secured by the Guillotine. A +menace is more efficacious than a bribe, and in this respect I agree with +Mr. Thomas Paine,* that a republic is undoubtedly more oeconomical than a +monarchy; besides, that being conducted on such principles, it has the +advantage of simplifying the science of government, as it consults +neither the interests nor weaknesses of mankind; and, disdaining to +administer either to avarice or vanity, subdues its enemies by the sole +influence of terror.--* + + * This gentleman's fate is truly to be pitied. After rejecting, as + his friends assert, two hundred a year from the English Ministry, he + is obliged now to be silent gratis, with the additional desagrement + of occupying a corner in the Luxembourg. + +--Adieu!--Heaven knows how often I may have to repeat the word thus +unmeaningly. I sit here, like Pope's bard "lulled by soft zephyrs +through the broken pane," and scribbling high-sounding phrases of +monarchy, patriotism, and republics, while I forget the humbler subject +of our wants and embarrassments. We can scarcely procure either bread, +meat, or any thing else: the house is crouded by an importation of +prisoners from Abbeville, and we are more strictly guarded than ever. My +friend ennuyes as usual, and I grow impatient, not having sang froid +enough for a true French ennuie in a situation that would tempt one to +hang one's self. + + + + +March, 1794. + +The aspect of the times promises no change in our favour; on the +contrary, every day seems to bring its attendant evil. The gentry who +had escaped the comprehensive decree against suspected people, are now +swept away in this and the three neighbouring departments by a private +order of the representatives, St. Just, Lebas, and Dumont.* + + * The order was to arrest, without exception, all the ci-devant + Noblessse, men, women, and children, in the departments of the + Somme, North, and Pas de Calais, and to exclude them rigourously + from all external communication--(mettre au secret). + +--A severer regimen is to be adopted in the prisons, and husbands are +already separated from their wives, and fathers from their daughters, for +the purpose, as it is alledged, of preserving good morals. Both this +place and the Bicetre being too full to admit of more inhabitants, two +large buildings in the town are now appropriated to the male prisoners.-- +My friends continue at Arras, and, I fear, in extreme distress. I +understand they have been plundered of what things they had with them, +and the little supply I was able to send them was intercepted by some of +the harpies of the prisons. Mrs. D____'s health has not been able to +sustain these accumulated misfortunes, and she is at present at the +hospital. All this is far from enlivening, even had I a larger share of +the national philosophy; and did I not oftener make what I observe, than +what I suffer, the subject of my letters, I should tax your patience as +much by repetition, as I may by dullness. + +When I enumerated in my last letters a few of the obligations the French +have to their friends in England, I ought also to have observed, with how +little gratitude they behave to those who are here. Without mentioning +Mr. Thomas Paine, whose persecution will doubtless be recorded by abler +pens, nothing, I assure you, can be more unpleasant than the situation of +one of these Anglo-Gallican patriots. The republicans, supposing that an +Englishman who affects a partiality for them can be only a spy, execute +all the laws, which concern foreigners, upon him with additional rigour;* +and when an English Jacobin arrives in prison, far from meeting with +consolation or sympathy, his distresses are beheld with triumph, and his +person avoided with abhorrence. They talk much here of a gentleman, of +very democratic principles, who left the prison before I came. It seems, +that, notwithstanding Dumont condescended to visit at his house, and was +on terms of intimacy with him, he was arrested, and not distinguished +from the rest of his countrymen, except by being more harshly treated. +The case of this unfortunate gentleman was rendered peculiarly amusing to +his companions, and mortifying to himself, by his having a very pretty +mistress, who had sufficient influence over Dumont to obtain any thing +but the liberation of her protector. The Deputy was on this head +inflexible; doubtless, as a proof of his impartial observance of the +laws, and to show that, like the just man in Horace, he despised the +clamour of the vulgar, who did not scruple to hint, that the crime of our +countryman was rather of a moral than a political nature--that he was +unaccommodating, and recalcitrant--addicted to suspicions and jealousies, +which it was thought charitable to cure him of, by a little wholesome +seclusion. In fact, the summary of this gentleman's history is not +calculated to tempt his fellow societists on your side of the water to +imitate his example.--After taking refuge in France from the tyranny and +disappointments he experienced in England, and purchasing a large +national property to secure himself the rights of a citizen, he is +awakened from his dream of freedom, to find himself lodged in a prison, +his estate under sequestration, and his mistress in requisition.--Let us +leave this Coriolanus among the Volscians--it is a persecution to make +converts, rather than martyrs, and + + _"Quand le malheur ne seroit bon, + "Qu'a mettre un sot a la raison, + "Toujours seroit-ce a juste cause + "Qu'on le dit bon a quelque chose."_* + + * If calamity were only good to restore a fool to his senses, still + we might justly say, "that it was good for some thing." + +Yours, &c. + + + + +March 5, 1794. + +Of what strange influence is this word revolution, that it should thus, +like a talisman of romance, keep inchained, as it were, the reasoning +faculties of twenty millions of people! France is at this moment looking +for the decision of its fate in the quarrels of two miserable clubs, +composed of individuals who are either despised or detested. The +municipality of Paris favours the Cordeliers, the Convention the +Jacobins; and it is easy to perceive, that in this cafe the auxiliaries +are principals, and must shortly come to such an open rupture, as will +end in the destruction of either one or the other. The world would be +uninhabitable, could the combinations of the wicked be permanent; and it +is fortunate for the tranquil and upright part of mankind, that the +attainment of the purposes for which such combinations are formed, is +usually the signal of their dissolution. + +The municipality of Paris had been the iniquitous drudges of the Jacobin +party in the legislative assembly--they were made the instruments of +massacring the prisoners,* of dethroning and executing the king,** and +successively of destroying the Brissotine faction,*** filling the prisons +with all who were obnoxious to the republicans,**** and of involving a +repentant nation in the irremidiable guilt of the Queen's death.--***** + + * It is well known that the assassins were hired and paid by the + municipality, and that some of the members presided at these horrors + in their scarfs of office. + + ** The whole of what is called the revolution of the 10th of August + may very justly be ascribed to the municipality of Paris--I mean the + active part of it. The planning and political part has been so + often disputed by different members of the Convention, that it is + not easy to decide on any thing, except that the very terms of these + disputes fully evince, that the people at large, and more + particularly the departments, were both innocent, and, until it took + place, ignorant of an event which has plunged the country into so + many crimes and calamities. + + *** A former imprisonment of Hebert formed a principal charge + against the Brissotines, and, indeed, the one that was most insisted + on at their trial, if we except that of having precipitated France + into a war with England.--It must be difficult for the English + Jacobins to decide on this occasion between the virtues of their + dead friends and those of their living ones. + + **** The famous definition of suspected persons originated with the + municipality of Paris. + + ***** It is certain that those who, deceived by the calumnies of + faction, permitted, if not assented to, the King's death, at this + time regretted it; and I believe I have before observed, that one of + the reasons urged in support of the expediency of putting the Queen + to death, was, that it would make the army and people decisive, by + banishing all hope of peace or accommodation. See the _Moniteur_ of + that time, which, as I have elsewhere observed, may be always + considered as official. + +--These services being too great for adequate reward, were not rewarded +at all; and the municipality, tired of the odium of crime, without the +participation of power, has seized on its portion of tyranny; while the +convention, at once jealous and timid, exasperated and doubtful, yet +menaces with the trepidation of a rival, rather than with the security of +a conqueror. + +Hebert, the Deputy-solicitor for the commune of Paris, appears on this +occasion as the opponent of the whole legislature; and all the +temporizing eloquence of Barrere, and the mysterious phraseology of +Robespierre, are employed to decry his morals, and to reproach the +ministers with the sums which have been the price of his labours.--* + + * Five thousand pounds, two thousand pounds, and other considerable + sums, were paid to Hebert for supplying the army with his paper, + called "La Pere Duchene." Let whoever has read one of them, + conceive the nature of a government to which such support was + necessary, which supposed its interests promoted by a total + extinction of morals, decency, and religion. I could almost wish, + for the sake of exhibiting vice under its most odious colours, that + my sex and my country permitted me to quote one. + +--Virtuous republicans! the morals of Hebert were pure when he outraged +humanity in his accusations of the Queen--they were pure when he +prostrated the stupid multitude at the feet of a Goddess of Reason;* they +were pure while his execrable paper served to corrupt the army, and to +eradicate every principle which yet distinguished the French as a +civilized people. + + * Madame Momoro, the unfortunate woman who exposed herself in this + pageant, was guillotined as an accomplice of Hebert, together with + the wives of Hebert and Camille Desmoulins. + +--Yet, atrocious as his crimes are, they form half the Magna Charta of +the republic,* and the authority of the Convention is still supported by +them. + + * What are the death of the King, and the murders of August and + September, 1792, but the Magna Charta of the republicans? + +--It is his person, not his guilt, that is proscribed; and if the one be +threatened with the scaffold, the fruits of the other are held sacred. +He will fall a sacrifice--not to offended religion or morality, but to +the fears and resentment of his accomplices! + +Amidst the dissentions of two parties, between which neither reason nor +humanity can discover a preference, a third seems to have formed itself, +equally inimical to, and hated by both. At the head of it are Danton, +Camille Desmoulins, Philipeaux, &c.--I own I have no better opinion of +the integrity of these, than of the rest; but they profess themselves the +advocates of a system of mildness and moderation, and, situated as this +country is at present, even the affectation of virtue is captivating.-- +As far as they dare, the people are partial to them: bending beneath the +weight of a sanguinary and turbulent despotism, if they sigh not for +freedom, they do for repose; and the harassed mind, bereft of its own +energy, looks up with indolent hope for relief from a change of factions. +They forget that Danton is actuated by ambitious jealousy, that Camille +Desmoulins is hacknied in the atrocities of the revolution, and that +their partizans are adventurers, with neither honour nor morals. Yet, +after all, if they will destroy a few of the guillotines, open our +bastilles, and give us at least the security of servitude, we shall be +content to leave these retrospections to posterity, and be thankful that +in this our day the wicked sometimes perceive it their interest to do +good. + +In this state of seclusion, when I remark to you the temper of the public +at any important crisis, you are, perhaps, curious to know my sources of +intelligence; but such details are unnecessary. I might, indeed, write +you a manuel des prisons, and, like Trenck or Latude, by a vain display +of ingenuity, deprive some future victim of a resource. It is enough, +that Providence itself seems to aid our invention, when its object is to +elude tyranny; besides that a constant accession of prisoners from all +parts, who are too numerous to be kept separate, necessarily circulates +among us whatever passes in the world. + +The Convention has lately made a sort of _pas retrogade_ [Retrogade +movement.] in the doctrine of holy equality, by decreeing, that every +officer who has a command shall be able to read and write, though it +cannot be denied that their reasons for this lese democratie are of some +weight. All gentlemen, or, as it is expressed here, noblesse, have been +recalled from the army, and replaced by officers chosen by the soldiers +themselves, [Under the rank of field-officers.] whose affections are +often conciliated by qualities not essentially military, though sometimes +professional. A buffoon, or a pot-companion, is, of course, often more +popular than a disciplinarian; and the brightest talents lose their +influence when put in competition with a head that can bear a greater +number of bottles.* + + * Hence it happened, that a post was sometimes confided to one who + could not read the parole and countersign; expeditions failed, + because commanding officers mistook on the map a river for a road, + or woods for mountains; and the most secret orders were betrayed + through the inability of those to whom they were entrusted to read + them. + +--Yet this reading and writing are a sort of aristocratic distinctions, +and not among the primeval rights of man; so that it is possible your +English patriots will not approve of any regulations founded on them. +But this is not the only point on which there is an apparent discordance +between them and their friends here--the severity of Messrs. Muir and +Palmer's sentence is pathetically lamented in the House of Commons, while +the Tribunal Revolutionnaire (in obedience to private orders) is +petitioning, that any disrespect towards the convention shall be punished +with death. In England, it is asserted, that the people have a right to +decide on the continuation of the war--here it is proposed to declare +suspicious, and treat accordingly, all who shall dare talk of peace.--Mr. +Fox and Robespierre must settle these trifling variations at the general +congress of republicans, when the latter shall (as they profess) have +dethroned all the potentates in Europe! + +Do you not read of cart-loads of patriotic gifts,* bales of lint and +bandages, and stockings, knit by the hands of fair citizens, for the use +of the soldiers? + + * A sum of money was at this time publicly offered to the Convention + for defraying the expences and repairs of the guillotine.--I know + not if it were intended patriotically or correctionally; but the + legislative delicacy was hurt, and the bearer of the gift ordered + for examination to the Committee of General Safety, who most + probably sent him to expiate either his patriotism or his pleasantry + in a prison. + +--Do you not read, and call me calumniator, and ask if these are proofs +that there is no public spirit in France? Yes, the public spirit of an +eastern tributary, who offers, with apprehensive devotion, a part of the +wealth which he fears the hand of despotism may ravish entirely.--The +wives and daughters of husbands and fathers, who are pining in arbitrary +confinement, are employed in these feeble efforts, to deprecate the +malice of their persecutors; and these voluntary tributes are but too +often proportioned, not to the abilities, but the miseries of the donor.* + + * A lady, confined in one of the state prisons, made an offering, + through the hands of a Deputy, of ten thousand livres; but the + Convention observed, that this could not properly be deemed a gift-- + for, as she was doubtless a suspicious person, all she had belonged + of right to the republic: + + _"Elle doit etre a moi, dit il, et la raison, + "C'est que je m'appelle Lion + "A cela l'on n'a rien a dire."_ + -- La Fontaine. + + Sometimes these _dons patriotiques_ were collected by a band of + Jacobins, at others regularly assessed by a Representative on + mission; but on all occasions the aristocrats were most assiduous + and most liberal: + + "Urg'd by th' imperious soldier's fierce command, + "The groaning Greeks break up their golden caverns, + "The accumulated wealth of toiling ages; + . . . . . . . . + "That wealth, too sacred for their country's use; + "That wealth, too pleasing to be lost for freedom, + "That wealth, which, granted to their weeping Prince, + "Had rang'd embattled nations at their gates." + -- Johnson. + + Or, what is still better, have relieved the exigencies of the state, + without offering a pretext for the horrors of a revolution.--O + selfish luxury, impolitic avarice, how are ye punished? robbed of + your enjoyments and your wealth--glad even to commute both for a + painful existence! + +--The most splendid sacrifices that fill the bulletin of the Convention, +and claim an honourable mention in their registers, are made by the +enemies of the republican government--by those who have already been the +objects of persecution, or are fearful of becoming such.--Ah, your prison +and guillotine are able financiers: they raise, feed, and clothe an army, +in less time than you can procure a tardy vote from the most complaisant +House of Commons!--Your, &c. + + + + +March 17, 1794. + +After some days of agitation and suspense, we learn that the popularity +of Robespierre is victorious, and that Hebert and his partizans are +arrested. Were the intrinsic claims of either party considered, without +regard to the circumstances of the moment, it might seem strange I should +express myself as though the result of a contest between such men could +excite a general interest: yet a people sadly skilled in the gradations +of evil, and inured to a choice only of what is bad, learn to prefer +comparatively, with no other view than that of adopting what may be least +injurious to themselves; and the merit of the object is out of the +question. Hence it is, that the public wish was in favour of +Robespierre; for, besides that his cautious character has given him an +advantage over the undisguised profligacy of Hebert, it is conjectured by +many, that the more merciful politics professed by Camille Desmoulins, +are secretly suggested, or, at least assented to, by the former.* + + * This was the opinion of many.--The Convention and the Jacobins had + taken alarm at a paper called "The Old Cordelier," written by + Camille Desmoulins, apparently with a view to introduce a milder + system of government. The author had been censured at the one, + expelled the other, and defended by Robespierre, who seems not to + have abandoned him until he found the Convention resolved to persist + in the sanguinary plan they had adopted. Robespierre afterwards + sacrificed his friends to retrieve his influence; but could his + views have been answered by humane measures, as certainly as by + cruel ones, I think he would have preferred the first; for I repeat, + that the Convention at large were averse from any thing like reason + or justice, and Robespierre more than once risked his popularity by + professions of moderation.--The most eloquent speech I have seen of + his was previous to the death of Danton, and it seems evidently + intended to sound the principles of his colleagues as to a change of + system.--Camille Desmoulins has excited some interest, and has been + deemed a kind of martyr to humanity. Perhaps nothing marks the + horrors of the time more than such a partiality.--Camille + Desmoulins, under an appearance of simplicity, was an adventurer, + whose pen had been employed to mislead the people from the beginning + of the revolution. He had been very active on the 10th of August; + and even in the papers which have given him a comparative + reputation, he is the panegyrist of Marat, and recommends "une + Guillotine economique;" that is, a discrimination in favour of + himself and his party, who now began to fear they might themselves + be sacrificed by the Convention and deserted by Robespierre--after + being the accomplices and tools of both. + +The vicissitudes of the revolution have hitherto offered nothing but a +change of vices and of parties; nor can I regard this defeat of the +municipality of Paris as any thing more: the event is, however, +important, and will probably have great influence on the future. + +After having so long authorized, and profited by, the crimes of those +they have now sacrificed, the Convention are willing to have it supposed +they were themselves held in subjection by Hebert and the other +representatives of the Parisian mob.--Admitting this to be true, having +regained their independence, we ought naturally to expect a more rational +and humane system will take place; but this is a mere hope, and the +present occurrences are far from justifying it. We hear much of the +guilt of the fallen party, and little of remedying its effects--much of +punishment, and little of reform; and the people are excited to +vengeance, without being permitted to claim redress. In the meanwhile, +fearful of trusting to the cold preference which they owe to a superior +abhorrence of their adversaries, the Convention have ordered their +colleagues on mission to glean the few arms still remaining in the hands +of the National Guard, and to arrest all who may be suspected of +connection with the adverse party.--Dumont has performed this service +here very diligently; and, by way of supererogation, has sent the +Commandant of Amiens to the Bicetre, his wife, who was ill, to the +hospital, and two young children to this place. + +As usual, these proceedings excite secret murmurs, but are nevertheless +yielded to with perfect submission. + +One can never, on these occasions, cease admiring the endurance of the +French character. In other countries, at every change of party, the +people are flattered with the prospect of advantage, or conciliated by +indulgences; but here they gain nothing by change, except an accumulation +of oppression--and the success of a new party is always the harbinger of +some new tyranny. While the fall of Hebert is proclaimed as the triumph +of freedom, all the citizens are disarmed by way of collateral security; +and at the instant he is accused by the Convention of atheism and +immorality,* a militant police is sent forth to devastate the churches, +and punish those who are detected in observing the Sabbath--_"mais plutot +souffrir que mourir, c'est la devise des Francois."_ ["To suffer rather +than die is the motto of Frenchmen."] + + * It is remarkable, that the persecution of religion was never more + violent than at the time when the Convention were anathematizing + Hebert and his party for athiesm. + +--Brissot and his companions died singing a paraphrase of my quotation: + + _"Plutot la mort que l'esclavage, + "C'est la devise des Francois."_ + ["Death before slavery, is the Frenchman's motto."] + +--Let those who reflect on what France has submitted to under them and +their successors decide, whether the original be not more apposite. + +I hope the act of accusation against Chabot has been published in +England, for the benefit of your English patriots: I do not mean by way +of warning, but example. It appears, that the said Chabot, and four or +five of his colleagues in the Convention, had been bribed to serve a +stock-jobbing business at a stipulated sum,* and that the money was to be +divided amongst them. + + * Chabot, Fabre d'Eglantine, (author of "l'Intrigue Epistolaire," + and several other admired dramatic pieces,) Delaunay d'Angers, + Julien de Toulouse, and Bazire, were bribed to procure the passing + certain decrees, tending to enrich particular people, by defrauding + the East India Company.--Delaunay and Julien (both re-elected into + the present Assembly) escaped by flight, the rest were guillotined. + --It is probable, that these little peculations might have passed + unnoticed in patriots of such note, but that the intrigues and + popular character of Chabot made it necessary to dispose of him, and + his accomplices suffered to give a countenance to the measure. + +--Chabot, with great reason, insisted on his claim to an extra share, on +account, as he expressed it, of having the reputation of one of the first +patriots in Europe. Now this I look upon to be a very useful hint, as it +tends to establish a tariff of reputations, rather than of talents. In +England, you distinguish too much in favour of the latter; and, in a +question of purchase, a Minister often prefers a "commodity" of +rhetoricians, to one of "good names."--I confess, I am of Chabot's +opinion; and think a vote from a member who has some reputation for +honesty, ought to be better paid for than the eloquence which, weakened +by the vices of the orator, ceases to persuade. How it is that the +patriotic harangues at St. Stephen's serve only to amuse the auditors, +who identify the sentiments they express as little with the speaker, as +they would those of Cato's soliloquy with the actor who personates the +character for the night? I fear the people reason like Chabot, and are +"fools to fame." Perhaps it is fortunate for England, that those whose +talents and principles would make them most dangerous, are become least +so, because both are counteracted by the public contempt. Ought it not +to humble the pride, and correct the errors, which too often accompany +great genius, that the meanest capacity can distinguish between talents +and virtue; and that even in the moment our wonder is excited by the one, +a sort of intrinsic preference is given to the other?--Yours, &c. + + + + +Providence, April 15, 1794. + +"The friendship of bad men turns to fear:" and in this single phrase of +our popular bard is comprized the history of all the parties who have +succeeded each other during the revolution.--Danton has been sacrificed +to Robespierre's jealousy,* and Camille Desmoulins to support his +popularity;** and both, after sharing in the crimes, and contributing to +the punishment, of Hebert and his associates, have followed them to the +same scaffold. + + * The ferocious courage of Danton had, on the 10th of August, the 2d + of September, the 31st of May, and other occasions, been the ductile + instrument of Robespierre; but, in the course of their iniquitous + connection, it should seem, they had committed themselves too much + to each other. Danton had betrayed a desire of more exclusively + profiting by his crimes; and Robespierre's views been equally + ambitious, though less daring, their mutual jealousies had risen to + a height which rendered the sacrifice of one party necessary--and + Robespierre had the address to secure himself, by striking the first + blow. They had supped in the country, and returned together to + Paris, on the night Danton was arrested; and, it may be supposed, + that in this interview, which was intended to produce a + reconciliation, they had been convinced that neither was to be + trusted by the other. + + ** There can be no doubt but Robespierre had encouraged Camille + Desmoulins to publish his paper, intitled "The Old Cordelier," in + which some translations from Tacitus, descriptive of every kind of + tyranny, were applied to the times, and a change of system + indirectly proposed. The publication became highly popular, except + with the Convention and the Jacobins; these, however, it was + requisite for Robespierre to conciliate; and Camille Desmoulins was + sacrificed, to prove that he did not favour the obnoxious moderation + of his friend. + +I know not if one's heart gain any thing by this habitual contemplation +of successive victims, who ought not to inspire pity, and whom justice +and humanity forbid one to regret.--How many parties have fallen, who +seem to have laboured only to transmit a dear-bought tyranny, which they +had not time to enjoy themselves, to their successors: The French +revolutionists may, indeed, adopt the motto of Virgil's Bees, "Not for +ourselves, but for you." The monstrous powers claimed for the Convention +by the Brissotines,* with the hope of exclusively exercising them, were +fatal to themselves--the party that overthrew the Brissotines in its turn +became insignificant--and a small number of them only, under the +description of Committees of Public Welfare and General Safety, gradually +usurped the whole authority. + + * The victorious Brissotines, after the 10th of August, availing + themselves of the stupor of one part of the people, and the + fanaticism of the other, required that the new Convention might be + entrusted with unlimited powers. Not a thousandth portion of those + who elected the members, perhaps, comprehended the dreadful extent + of such a demand, as absurd as it has proved fatal.--_"Tout pouvoir + sans bornes ne fauroit etre legitime, parce qu'il n'a jamais pu + avoir d'origine legitime, car nous ne pouvons pas donner a un autre + plus de pouvoir sur nous que nous n'en avons nous-memes"_ + [Montesquieu.]:--that is, the power which we accord to others, or + which we have over ourselves, cannot exceed the bounds prescribed by + the immutable laws of truth and justice. The united voice of the + whole French nation could not bestow on their representatives a + right to murder or oppress one innocent man. + +--Even of these, several have already perished; and in the hands of +Robespierre, and half a dozen others of equal talents and equal atrocity, +but less cunning, center at present all the fruits of so many miseries, +and so many crimes. + +In all these conflicts of party, the victory seems hitherto to have +remained with the most artful, rather than the most able; and it is under +the former title that Robespierre, and his colleagues in the Committee of +Public Welfare, are now left inheritors of a power more despotic than +that exercised in Japan.--Robespierre is certainly not deficient in +abilities, but they are not great in proportion to the influence they +have acquired him. They may, perhaps, be more properly called singular +than great, and consist in the art of appropriating to his own advantage +both the events of chance and the labours of others, and of captivating +the people by an exterior of severe virtue, which a cold heart enables +him to assume, and which a profligacy, not the effect of strong passions, +but of system, is easily subjected to. He is not eloquent, nor are his +speeches, as compositions,* equal to those of Collot d'Herbais, Barrere, +or Billaud Varennes; but, by contriving to reserve himself for +extraordinary occasions, such as announcing plots, victories, and systems +of government, he is heard with an interest which finally becomes +transferred from his subject to himself.** + + * The most celebrated members of the Convention are only readers of + speeches, composed with great labour, either by themselves or + others; and I think it is distinguishable, that many are + manufactured by the same hand. The style and spirit of Lindet, + Barrere, and Carnot, seem to be in common. + + ** The following passages, from a speech of Dubois Crance, who may + be supposed a competent judge, at once furnish an idea of + Robespierre's oratory, exhibit a leading feature in his character, + and expose some of the arts by which the revolutionary despotism was + maintained: + + _"Rapportant tout a lui seul, jusqu'a la patrie, il n'en parla + jamais que pour s'en designer comme l'unique defenseur: otez de ses + longs discours tout ce qui n'a rapport qu'a son personnel, vous n'y + trouverez plus que de seches applications de prinipes connus, et + surtout de phrases preparees pour amener encore son eloge. Vous + l'avez juge timide, parce que son imagination, que l'on croyait + ardente, qui n'etait que feroce, parassait exagerer souvent les maux + de son pays. C'etait une jonglerie: il ne croyait ni aux + conspirations don't il faisait tant d'etalage, ni aux poignards + aux-quels il feignoit de sse devouer; mais il vouloit que les + citoyens fusssent constamment en defiance l'un de l'autre," &c._ + + "Affecting to consider all things, even the fate of the country, as + depending on himself alone, he never spoke of it but with a view to + point himself out its principal defender.--If you take away from his + long harangues all that regards him personally, you will find only + dry applications of familiar principles, and, above all, those + studied turns, which were artfully prepared to introduce his own + eternal panegyric.--You supposed him timid because his imagination + (which was not merely ardent, as was supposed, but ferocious) seemed + often to exaggerate the misfortunes of his country.--This was a mere + trick: he believed neither in the conspiracies he made so great a + parade of, nor in the poignards to which he pretended to devote + himself as a victim.--His real design was to infuse into the minds + of all men an unceasing diffidence of each other." + +One cannot study the characters of these men, and the revolution, without +wonder; and, after an hour of such scribbling, I wake to the scene around +me, and my wonder is not a little increased, at the idea that the fate of +such an individual as myself should be at all dependent on either.--My +friend Mad. de ____ is ill,* and taken to the hospital, so that having no +longer the care of dissipating her ennui, I am at full liberty to indulge +my own. + + * I have generally made use of the titles and distinctions by which + the people I mention were known before the revolution; for, besides + that I found it difficult to habituate my pen to the republican + system of levelling, the person to whom these letters were addressed + would not have known who was meant by the new appellations. It is, + however, to be observed, that, except in private aristocratic + intercourse, the word Citizen was in general use; and that those who + had titles relinquished them and assumed their family names. + +--Yet I know not how it is, but, as I have before observed to you, I do +not ennuye--my mind is constantly occupied, though my heart is vacant-- +curiosity serves instead of interest, and I really find it sufficiently +amusing to conjecture how long my head may remain on my shoulders.--You +will, I dare say, agree with me that any doubts on such a subject are +very well calculated to remove the tranquil sort of indifference which +produces ennui; though, to judge by the greater part of my +fellow-prisoners, one would not think so.--There is something surely in +the character of the French, which makes them differ both in prosperity +and adversity from other people. Here are many amongst us who see +little more in the loss of their liberty than a privation of their usual +amusements; and I have known some who had the good fortune to obtain +their release at noon, exhibit themselves at the theatre at night.--God +knows how such minds are constituted: for my part, when some consolatory +illusion restores me to freedom, I associate with it no idea of positive +pleasure, but long for a sort of intermediate state, which may repose my +harassed faculties, and in which mere comfort and security are portrayed +as luxuries. After being so long deprived of the decent accommodations +of life, secluded from the intercourse which constitutes its best +enjoyments, trembling for my own fate, and hourly lamenting that of my +friends, the very thoughts of tumult or gaiety seem oppressive, and the +desire of peace, for the moment, banishes every other. One must have no +heart, after so many sufferings, not to prefer the castle of Indolence +to the palace of Armida. + +The coarse organs of an Argus at the door, who is all day employed in +calling to my high-born companions by the republican appellations of +_"Citoyen,"_ and _"Citoyenne,"_ has just interrupted me by a summons to +receive a letter from my unfortunate friends at Arras.--It was given me +open;* of course they say nothing of their situation, though I have +reason to believe it is dreadful. + + * The opening of letters was now so generally avowed, that people + who corresponded on business, and were desirous their letters should + be delivered, put them in the post without sealing; otherwise they + were often torn in opening, thrown aside, or detained, to save the + trouble of perusing. + +--They have now written to me for assistance, which I have not the means +of affording them. Every thing I have is under sequestration; and the +difficulty which attends the negociating any drafts drawn upon England, +has made it nearly impossible to procure money in the usual way, even if +I were not confined. The friendship of Mad. de ____ will be little +available to me. Her extensive fortune, before frittered to mere +competency by the extortions of the revolution, now scarcely supplies her +own wants; and her tenants humanely take the opportunity of her present +distress to avoid paying their rent.* + + * In some instances servants or tenants have been known to seize on + portions of land for their own use--in others the country + municipalities exacted as the price of a certificate of civism, + (without which no release from prison could be obtained,) such + leases, lands, or privileges, as they thought the embarrassments of + their landlords would induce them to grant. Almost every where the + houses of persons arrested were pilfered either by their own + servants or the agents of the republic. I have known an elegant + house put in requisition to erect blacksmiths' forges in for the use + of the army, and another filled with tailors employed in making + soldiers' clothes.--Houses were likewise not unfrequently abandoned + by the servants through fear of sharing the fate of their masters, + and sometimes exposed equally by the arrest of those who had been + left in charge, in order to extort discoveries of plate, money, &c. + the concealment of which they might be supposed privy to. + +--So that I have no resource, either for myself or Mrs. D____, but the +sale of a few trinkets, which I had fortunately secreted on my first +arrest. How are we to exist, and what an existence to be solicitous +about! In gayer moments, and, perhaps, a little tinctured by romantic +refinement, I have thought Dr. Johnson made poverty too exclusively the +subject of compassion: indeed I believe he used to say, it was the only +evil he really felt for. This, to one who has known only mental +suffering, appears the notion of a coarse mind; but I doubt whether, the +first time we are alarmed by the fear of want, the dread of dependence +does not render us in part his converts. The opinion of our English sage +is more natural than we may at first imagine; or why is it that we are +affected by the simple distresses of Jane Shore, beyond those of any +other heroine?--Yours. + + + + +April 22, 1794. + +Our abode becomes daily more crouded; and I observe, that the greater +part of those now arrested are farmers. This appears strange enough, +when we consider how much the revolutionary persecution has hitherto +spared this class of people; and you will naturally enquire why it has at +length reached them. + +It has been often observed, that the two extremes of society are nearly +the same in all countries; the great resemble each other from education, +the little from nature. Comparisons, therefore, of morals and manners +should be drawn from the intervening classes; yet from this comparison +also I believe we must exclude farmers, who are every where the same, and +who seem always more marked by professional similitude than national +distinction. + +The French farmer exhibits the same acuteness in all that regards his own +interest, and the same stupidity on most other occasions, as the mere +English one; and the same objects which enlarge the understanding and +dilate the heart of other people, seem to have a contrary effect on both. +They contemplate the objects of nature as the stock-jobber does the +vicissitudes of the public funds: "the dews of heaven," and the +enlivening orb by which they are dispelled, are to the farmer only +objects of avaricious speculation; and the scarcity, which is partially +profitable, is but too often more welcome than a general abundance.--They +consider nothing beyond the limits of their own farms, except for the +purpose of making envious comparisons with those of their neighbours; and +being fed and clothed almost without intermediate commerce, they have +little necessity for communication, and are nearly as isolated a part of +society as sailors themselves. + +The French revolutionists have not been unobserving of these +circumstances, nor scrupulous of profiting by them: they knew they might +have discussed for ever their metaphysical definitions of the rights of +man, without reaching the comprehension, or exciting the interest, of the +country people; but that if they would not understand the propagation of +the rights of man, they would very easily comprehend an abolition of the +rights of their landlords. Accordingly, the first principle of liberty +they were taught from the new code was, that they had a right to assemble +in arms, to force the surrender of title-deeds; and their first +revolutionary notions of equality and property seem to have been +manifested by the burning of chateaux, and refusing to pay their rents. +They were permitted to intimidate their landlords, in order to force them +to emigration, and either to sell their estates at a low price, or leave +them to the mercy of the tenants. + +At a time when the necessities of the state had been great enough to be +made the pretext of a dreadful revolution, they were not only almost +exempt from contributing to its relief, but were enriched by the common +distress; and while the rest of their countrymen beheld with unavailing +regret their property gradually replaced by scraps of paper, the peasants +became insolent and daring by impunity, refused to sell but for specie, +and were daily amassing wealth. It is not therefore to be wondered at, +that they were partial to the new order of things. The prisons might +have overflowed or been thinned by the miseries of those with whom they +had been crowded--the Revolutionary Tribunal might have sacrificed half +France, and these selfish citizens, I fear, would have beheld it +tranquilly, had not the requisition forced their labourers to the army, +and the "maximum" lowered the price of their corn. The exigency of the +war, and an internal scarcity, having rendered these measures necessary, +and it being found impossible to persuade the farmers into a peaceful +compliance with them, the government has had recourse to its usual +summary mode of expostulation--a prison or the Guillotine.* + + * The avarice of the farmers was doubtless to be condemned, but the + cruel despotism of the government almost weakened our sense of + rectitude; for by confounding error with guilt, and guilt with + innocence, they habituated us to indiscriminate pity, and obliged us + to transfer our hatred of a crime to those who in punishing it, + observed neither mercy nor justice. A farmer was guillotined, + because some blades of corn appeared growing in one of his ponds; + from which circumstance it was inferred, he had thrown in a large + quantity, in order to promote a scarcity--though it was + substantially proved on his trial, that at the preceding harvest the + grain of an adjoining field had been got in during a high wind, and + that in all probability some scattered ears which reached the water + had produced what was deemed sufficient testimony to convict him.-- + Another underwent the same punishment for pursuing his usual course + of tillage, and sowing part of his ground with lucerne, instead of + employing the whole for wheat; and every where these people became + the objects of persecution, both in their persons and property. + + "Almost all our considerable farmers have been thrown into prison; + the consequence is, that their capital is eat up, their stock gone + to ruin, and our lands have lost the almost incalculable effect of + their industry. In La Vendee six million acres of land lie + uncultivated, and five hundred thousand oxen have been turned + astray, without shelter and without an owner." + Speech of Dubois Crance, Sept. 22, 1794. + +--Amazed to find themselves the objects of a tyranny they had hitherto +contributed to support, and sharing the misfortune of their Lords and +Clergy, these ignorant and mistaken people wander up and down with a +vacant sort of ruefulness, which seems to bespeak that they are far from +comprehending or being satisfied with this new specimen of +republicanism.--It has been a fatality attending the French through the +whole revolution, that the different classes have too readily facilitated +the sacrifice of each other; and the Nobility, the Clergy, the Merchant, +and the Farmer, have the mortification of experiencing, that their +selfish and illiberal policy has answered no purpose but to involve all +in one common ruin. + +Angelique has contrived to-day to negotiate the sale of some bracelets, +which a lady, with whom I was acquainted previous to our detention, has +very obligingly given almost half their value for, though not without +many injunctions to secresy, and as many implied panegyrics on her +benevolence, in risking the odium of affording assistance to a foreigner. +We are, I assure you, under the necessity of being oeconomists, where the +most abundant wealth could not render us externally comfortable: and the +little we procure, by a clandestine disposal of my unnecessary trinkets, +is considerably diminished,* by arbitrary impositions of the guard and +the poor,** and a voluntary tax from the misery that surrounds us. + + * I am aware of Mr. Burke's pleasantry on the expression of very + little, being greatly diminished; but my exchequer at this time was + as well calculated to prove the infinite divisibility of matter, as + that of the Welch principality. + + ** The guards of the republican Bastilles were paid by the prisoners + they contained; and, in many places, the tax for this purpose was + levied with indecent rigour. It might indeed be supposed, that + people already in prison could have little to apprehend from an + inability or unwillingness to submit to such an imposition; yet + those who refused were menaced with a dungeon; and I was informed, + from undoubted authority, of two instances of the sort among the + English--the one a young woman, the other a person with a large + family of children, who were on the point of suffering this + treatment, but that the humanity of some of their companions + interfered and paid the sum exacted of them. The tax for supporting + the imprisoned poor was more willingly complied with, though not + less iniquitous in its principle; numbers of inoffensive and + industrious people were taken from their homes on account of their + religion, or other frivolous pretexts, and not having the + wherewithal to maintain themselves in confinement, instead of being + kept by the republic, were supported by their fellow-prisoners, in + consequence of a decree to that purpose. Families who inherited + nothing from their noble ancestors but their names, were dragged + from obscurity only to become objects of persecution; and one in + particular, consisting of nine persons, who lived in extreme + indigence, but were notwithstanding of the proscribed class; the + sons were brought wounded from the army and lodged with the father, + mother, and five younger children in a prison, where they had + scarcely food to support, or clothing to cover them. + + I take this opportunity of doing justice to the Comte d'Artois, + whose youthful errors did not extinguish his benevolence--the + unfortunate people in question having enjoyed a pension from him + until the revolution deprived them of it. + +Our male companions are for the most part transferred to other prisons, +and among the number are two young Englishmen, with whom I used sometimes +to converse in French, without acknowledging our compatriotism. They +have told me, that when the decree for arresting the English was received +at Amiens, they happened to be on a visit, a few miles from the town; and +having notice that a party of horse were on the road to take them, +willing to gain time at least, they escaped by another route, and got +home. The republican constables, for I can call the military employed in +the interior by no better appellation, finding their prey had taken +flight, adopted the impartial justice of the men of Charles Town,* and +carried off the old couple (both above seventy) at whose house they had +been. + + * "But they maturely having weigh'd + "They had no more but him o'th'trade, + "Resolved to spare him, yet to do + "The Indian Hoghan-Moghan too + "Impartial justice--in his stead did + "Hang an old weaver that was bed-rid." + +The good man, who was probably not versed in the etiquette of the +revolution, conceived nothing of the matter, and when at the end of their +journey they were deposited at the Bicetre, his head was so totally +deranged, that he imagined himself still in his own house, and continued +for some days addressing all the prisoners as though they were his +guests--at one moment congratulating them on their arrival, the next +apologizing for want of room and accommodation.--The evasion of the young +men, as you will conclude, availed them nothing, except a delay of their +captivity for a few hours. + +A report has circulated amongst us to-day, that all who are not detained +on specific charges are soon to be liberated. This is eagerly believed +by the new-comers, and those who are not the "pale converts of +experience." I am myself so far from crediting it, that I dread lest it +should be the harbinger of some new evil, for I know not whether it be +from the effect of chance, or a refinement in atrocity, but I have +generally found every measure which tended to make our situation more +miserable preceded by these flattering rumours. + +You would smile to see with what anxious credulity intelligence of this +sort is propagated: we stop each other on the stairs and listen while our +palled dinner, just arrived from the traiteur, is cooling; and the bucket +of the draw-well hangs suspended while a history is finished, of which +the relator knows as little as the hearer, and which, after all, proves +to have originated in some ambiguous phrase of our keeper, uttered in a +good-humoured paroxysm while receiving a douceur. + +We occasionally lose some of our associates, who, having obtained their +discharge, _depart a la Francaise,_ forget their suffering, and praise the +clemency of Dumont, and the virtue of the Convention; while those who +remain still unconverted amuse themselves in conjecturing the channel +through which such favours were solicited, and alleging reasons why such +preferences were partial and unjust. + +Dumont visits us, as usual, receives an hundred or two of petitions, +which he does not deign to read, and reserves his indulgence for those +who have the means of assailing him through the smiles of a favourite +mistress, or propitiating him by more substantial advantages.--Many of +the emigrants' wives have procured their liberty by being divorced, and +in this there is nothing blameable, for I imagine the greater number +consider it only as a temporary expedient, indifferent in itself, and +which they are justified in having recourse to for the protection of +their persons and property. But these domestic alienations are not +confined to those who once moved in the higher orders of society--the +monthly registers announce almost as many divorces as marriages, and the +facility of separation has rendered the one little more than a licentious +compact, which the other is considered as a means of dissolving. The +effect of the revolution has in this, as in many other cases, been to +make the little emulate the vices of the great, and to introduce a more +gross and destructive policy among the people at large, than existed in +the narrow circle of courtiers, imitators of the Regent, or Louis the +fifteenth. Immorality, now consecrated as a principle, is far more +pernicious than when, though practised, it was condemned, and, though +suffered, not sanctioned. + +You must forgive me if I ennuye you a little sententiously--I was more +partial to the lower ranks of life in France, than to those who were +deemed their superiors; and I cannot help beholding with indignant regret +the last asylums of national morals thus invaded by the general +corruption.--I believe no one will dispute that the revolution has +rendered the people more vicious; and, without considering the matter +either in a moral or religious point of view, it is impossible to assert +that they are not less happy. How many times, when I was at liberty, +have I heard the old wish for an accession of years, or envy those yet +too young to be sensible of "the miseries of a revolution!"--Were the +vanity of the self-sufficient philosopher susceptible of remorse, would +he not, when he beholds this country, lament his presumption, in +supposing he had a right to cancel the wisdom of past ages; or that the +happiness of mankind might be promoted by the destruction of their +morals, and the depravation of their social affections?--Yours, &c. + + + + +April 30, 1794. + +For some years previous to the revolution, there were several points in +which the French ascribed to themselves a superiority not very distant +from perfection. Amongst these were philosophy, politeness, the +refinements of society, and, above all, the art of living.--I have +sometimes, as you know, been inclined to dispute these claims; yet, if it +be true that in our sublunary career perfection is not stationary, and +that, having reached the apex of the pyramid on one side, we must +necessarily descend on the other, I might, on this ground, allow such +pretensions to be more reasonable than I then thought them. Whatever +progress might have been attained in these respects, or however near our +neighbours might have approached to one extreme, it is but too certain +they are now rapidly declining to the other. This boasted philosophy is +become a horrid compound of all that is offensive to Heaven, and +disgraceful to man--this politeness, a ferocious incivility--and this +social elegance and exclusive science in the enjoyment of life, are now +reduced to suspicious intercourse, and the want of common necessaries. + +If the national vanity only were wounded, perhaps I might smile, though I +hope I should not triumph; but when I see so much misery accompany so +profound a degradation, my heart does not accord with my language, if I +seem to do either one or the other. + +I should ineffectually attempt to describe the circumstances and +situation which have given rise to these reflections. Imagine to +yourself whatever tyranny can inflict, or human nature submit to-- +whatever can be the result of unrestrained wickedness and unresisting +despair--all that can scourge or disgrace a people--and you may form some +idea of the actual state of this country: but do not search your books +for comparisons, or expect to find in the proscriptions and +extravagancies of former periods any examples by which to judge the +present.--Tiberius and Nero are on the road to oblivion, and the subjects +of the Lama may boast comparative pretensions to rank as a free and +enlightened nation. + +The frantic ebullitions of the revolutionary government are now as it +were subsided, and instead of appearing the temporary resources of +"despotism in distress," [Burke.] have assumed the form of a permanent +and regular system. The agitation occasioned by so many unexampled +scenes is succeeded by an habitual terror, and this depressing sentiment +has so pervaded all ranks, that it would be difficult to find an +individual, however obscure or inoffensive, who deems his property, or +even his existence, secure only for a moment. The sound of a bell or a +knocker at the close of the evening is the signal of dismay. The +inhabitants of the house regard each other with looks of fearful +interrogation--all the precautions hitherto taken appear insufficient-- +every one recollects something yet to be secreted--a prayer-book, an +unburied silver spoon, or a few assignats "a face royale," are hastily +scrambled together, and if the visit prove nothing more than an amicable +domiciliary one, in search of arms and corn, it forms matter of +congratulation for a week after. Yet such is the submission of the +people to a government they abhor, that it is scarcely thought requisite +now to arrest any person formally: those whom it is intended to secure +often receive nothing more than a written mandate* to betake themselves +to a certain prison, and such unpleasant rendezvous are attended with +more punctuality than the most ceremonious visit, or the most gallant +assignation. + + * These rescripts were usually couched in the following terms:-- + "Citizen, you are desired to betake yourself immediately to ------, + (naming the prison,) under pain of being conveyed there by an armed + force in case of delay." + +--A few necessaries are hastily packed together, the adieus are made, +and, after a walk to their prison, they lay their beds down in the corner +allotted, just as if it were a thing of course. + +It was a general observation with travellers, that the roads in France +were solitary, and had rather the deserted appearance of the route of a +caravan, than of the communications between different parts of a rich and +populous kingdom. This, however, is no longer true, and, as far as I can +learn, they are now sufficiently crowded--not, indeed, by curious +itinerants, parties of pleasure, or commercial industry, but by Deputies +of the Convention,* agents of subsistence,** committee men, Jacobin +missionaries,*** troops posting from places where insurrection is just +quelled to where it has just begun, besides the great and never-failing +source of activity, that of conveying suspected people from their homes +to prison, and from one prison to another.-- + + * Every department was infested by one, two, or more of these + strolling Deputies; and, it must be confessed, the constant tendency + of the people to revolt in many places afforded them sufficient + employment. Sometimes they acted as legislators, making laws on the + spot--sometimes, both as judges and constables--or, if occasion + required, they amused themselves in assisting the executioner.--The + migrations of obscure men, armed with unlimited powers, and whose + persons were unknown, was a strong temptation to imposture, and in + several places adventurers were detected assuming the character of + Deputies, for various purposes of fraud and depredation.--The + following instance may appear ludicrous, but I shall be excused + mentioning it, as it is a fact on record, and conveys an idea of + what the people supposed a Deputy might do, consistent with the + "dignity" of his executive functions. + + An itinerant of this sort, whose object seems to have been no more + than to procure a daily maintenance, arriving hungry in a village, + entered the first farm-house that presented itself, and immediately + put a pig in requisition, ordered it to be killed, and some sausages + to be made, with all speed. In the meanwhile our mock-legislator, + who seems to have acted his part perfectly well, talked of liberty, + l'amour de la Patrie, of Pitt and the coalesced tyrants, of + arresting suspicious people and rewarding patriots; so that the + whole village thought themselves highly fortunate in the presence of + a Deputy who did no worse than harangue and put their pork in + requisiton.--Unfortunately, however, before the repast of sausages + could be prepared, a hue and cry reached the place, that this + gracious Representant was an impostor! He was bereft of his + dignities, conveyed to prison, and afterwards tried by the Tribunal + Revolutionnaire at Paris; but his Counsel, by insisting on the + mildness with which he had "borne his faculties," contrived to get + his punishment mitigated to a short imprisonment.--Another suffered + death on a somewhat similar account; or, as the sentence expressed + it, for degrading the character of a National Representative.--Just + Heaven! for degrading the character of a National Representative!!! + --and this too after the return of Carrier from Nantes, and the + publication of Collot d'Herbois' massacres at Lyons! + + **The agents employed by government in the purchase of subsistence + amounted, by official confession, to ten thousand. In all parts + they were to be seen, rivalling each other, and creating scarcity + and famine, by requisitions and exactions, which they did not + convert to the profit of the republic, but to their own.--These + privileged locusts, besides what they seized upon, occasioned a + total stagnation of commerce, by laying embargoes on what they did + not want; so that it frequently occurred that an unfortunate + tradesman might have half the articles in his shop under requisition + for a month together, and sometimes under different requisitions + from deputies, commissaries of war, and agents of subsistence, all + at once; nor could any thing be disposed of till such claims were + satisfied or relinquished. + + *** Jacobin missionaries were sent from Paris, and other great + towns, to keep up the spirits of the people, to explain the benefits + of the revolution, (which, indeed, were not very apparent,) and to + maintain the connection between the provincial and metropolitan + societies.--I remember the Deputies on mission at Perpignan writing + to the Club at Paris for a reinforcement of civic apostles, _"pour + evangeliser les habitans et les mettre dans la voie de salut"_--("to + convert the inhabitants, and put them in the road to salvation"). + +--These movements are almost entirely confined to the official travellers +of the republic; for, besides the scarcity of horses, the increase of +expence, and the diminution of means, few people are willing to incur the +suspicion or hazard* attendant on quitting their homes, and every +possible obstacle is thrown in the way of a too general intercourse +between the inhabitants of large towns. + + * There were moments when an application for a passport was certain + of being followed by a mandat d'arret--(a writ of arrest). The + applicant was examined minutely as to the business he was going + upon, the persons he was to transact it with, and whether the + journey was to be performed on horseback or in a carriage, and any + signs of impatience or distaste at those democratic ceremonies were + sufficient to constitute _"un homme suspect"_--("a suspicious + person"), or at least one _"soupconne d'etre suspect,"_ that is, a man + suspected of being suspicious. In either case it was usually deemed + expedient to prevent the dissemination of his supposed principles, + by laying an embargo on his person.--I knew a man under persecution + six months together, for having gone from one department to another + to see his family. + +The committee of Public Welfare is making rapid advances to an absolute +concentration of the supreme power, and the convention, while they are +the instruments of oppressing the whole country, are themselves become +insignificant, and, perhaps, less secure than those over whom they +tyrannize. They cease to debate, or even to speak; but if a member of +the Committee ascends the tribune, they overwhelm him with applauses +before they know what he has to say, and then pass all the decrees +presented to them more implicitly than the most obsequious Parliament +ever enregistered an arrete of the Court; happy if, by way of +compensation, they attract a smile from Barrere, or escape the ominous +glances of Robespierre.* + + * When a member of the committee looked inauspiciously at a + subordinate accomplice, the latter scarce ventured to approach his + home for some time.--Legendre, who has since boasted so continually + about his courage, is said to have kept his bed, and Bourdon de + l'Oise, to have lost his senses for a considerable time, from + frights, the consequence of such menaces. + +Having so far described the situation of public affairs, I proceed as +usual, and for which I have the example of Pope, who never quits a +subject without introducing himself, to some notice of my own. It is not +only bad in itself, but worse in perspective than ever: yet I learn not +to murmur, and derive patience from the certainty, that almost every part +of France is more oppressed and wretched than we are.--Yours, etc. + + + + +June 3, 1794. + +The individual sufferings of the French may perhaps yet admit of +increase; but their humiliation as a people can go no farther; and if it +were not certain that the acts of the government are congenial to its +principles, one might suppose this tyranny rather a moral experiment on +the extent of human endurance, than a political system. + +Either the vanity or cowardice of Robespierre is continually suggesting +to him plots for his assassination; and on pretexts, at once absurd and +atrocious, a whole family, with near seventy other innocent people as +accomplices, have been sentenced to death by a formal decree of the +convention. + +One might be inclined to pity a people obliged to suppress their +indignation on such an event, but the mind revolts when addresses are +presented from all quarters to congratulate this monster's pretended +escape, and to solicit a farther sacrifice of victims to his revenge.-- +The assassins of Henry the Fourth had all the benefit of the laws, and +suffered only after a legal condemnation; yet the unfortunate Cecilia +Renaud, though evidently in a state of mental derangement, was hurried to +the scaffold without a hearing, for the vague utterance of a truth, to +which every heart in France, not lost to humanity, must assent. Brooding +over the miseries of her country, till her imagination became heated and +disordered, this young woman seems to have conceived some hopeless plan +of redress from expostulation with Robespierre, whom she regarded as a +principal in all the evils she deplored. The difficulty of obtaining an +audience of him irritated her to make some comparison between an +hereditary sovereign and a republican despot; and she avowed, that, in +desiring to see Robespierre, she was actuated only by a curiosity to +"contemplate the features of a tyrant."--On being examined by the +Committee, she still persisted that her design was "seulement pour voir +comment etoit fait un tyrant;" and no instrument nor possible means of +destruction was found upon her to justify a charge of any thing more than +the wild and enthusiastic attachment to royalism, which she did not +attempt to disguise. The influence of a feminine propensity, which often +survives even the wreck of reason and beauty, had induced her to dress +with peculiar neatness, when she went in search of Robespierre; and, from +the complexion of the times, supposing it very probable a visit of this +nature might end in imprisonment and death, she had also provided herself +with a change of clothes to wear in her last moments. + +Such an attention in a beautiful girl of eighteen was not very unnatural; +yet the mean and cruel wretches who were her judges, had the littleness +to endeavour at mortifying, by divesting her of her ornaments, and +covering her with the most loathsome rags. But a mind tortured to +madness by the sufferings of her country, was not likely to be shaken by +such puerile malice; and, when interrogated under this disguise, she +still preserved the same firmness, mingled with contempt, which she had +displayed when first apprehended. No accusation, nor even implication, +of any person could be drawn from her, and her only confession was that +of a passionate loyalty: yet an universal conspiracy was nevertheless +decreed by the Convention to exist, and Miss Renaud, with sixty-nine +others,* were sentenced to the guillotine, without farther trial than +merely calling over their names. + + * It is worthy of remark, that the sixty-nine people executed as + accomplices of Miss Renaud, except her father, mother, and aunt, + were totally unconnected with her, or with each other, and had been + collected from different prisons, between which no communication + could have subsisted. + +--They were conducted to the scaffold in a sort of red frocks, intended, +as was alleged, to mark them as assassins--but, in reality, to prevent +the crowd from distinguishing or receiving any impression from the number +of young and interesting females who were comprised in this dreadful +slaughter.--They met death with a courage which seemed almost to +disappoint the malice of their tyrants, who, in an original excess of +barbarity, are said to have lamented that their power of inflicting could +not reach those mental faculties which enabled their victims to suffer +with fortitude.* + + * Fouquier Tinville, public accuser of the Revolutionary Tribunal, + enraged at the courage with which his victims submitted to their + fate, had formed the design of having them bled previous to their + execution; hoping by this means to weaken their spirits, and that + they might, by a pusillanimous behaviour in their last moments, + appear less interesting to the people. + +Such are the horrors now common to almost every part of France: the +prisons are daily thinned by the ravages of the executioner, and again +repeopled by inhabitants destined to the fate of their predecessors. A +gloomy reserve, and a sort of uncertain foreboding, have taken possession +of every body--no one ventures to communicate his thoughts, even to his +nearest friend--relations avoid each other--and the whole social system +seems on the point of being dissolved. Those who have yet preserved +their freedom take the longest circuit, rather than pass a republican +Bastille; or, if obliged by necessity to approach one, it is with +downcast or averted looks, which bespeak their dread of incurring the +suspicion of humanity. + +I say little of my own feelings; they are not of a nature to be relieved +by pathetic expressions: "I am e'en sick at heart." For some time I have +struggled both against my own evils, and the share I take in the general +calamity, but my mortal part gives way, and I can no longer resist the +despondency which at times depresses me, and which indeed, more than the +danger attending it, has occasioned my abandoning my pen for the last +month.--Several circumstances have occurred within these few days, to add +to the uneasiness of our situation, and my own apprehensions. Le Bon,* +whose cruelties at Arras seem to have endeared him to his colleagues in +the Convention, has had his powers extended to this department, and Andre +Dumont is recalled; so that we are hourly menaced with the presence of a +monster, compared to whom our own representative is amiable.-- + + * I have already noticed the cruel and ferocious temper of Le Bon, + and the massacres of his tribunals are already well known. I will + only add some circumstances which not only may be considered as + characteristic of this tyrant, but of the times--and I fear I may + add of the people, who suffered and even applauded them. They are + selected from many others not susceptible of being described in + language fit for an English reader. + + As he was one day enjoying his customary amusement of superintending + an execution, where several had already suffered, one of the victims + having, from a very natural emotion, averted his eyes while he + placed his body in the posture required, the executioner perceived + it, and going to the sack which contained the heads of those just + sacrificed, took one out, and with the most horrible imprecations + obliged the unhappy wretch to kiss it: yet Le Bon not only + permitted, but sanctioned this, by dining daily with the hangman. + He was afterwards reproached with this familiarity in the + Convention, but defended himself by saying, "A similar act of + Lequinio's was inserted by your orders in the bulletin with + 'honourable mention;' and your decrees have invariably consecrated + the principles on which I acted." They all felt for a moment the + dominion of conscience, and were silent.--On another occasion he + suspended an execution, while the savages he kept in pay threw dirt + on the prisoners, and even got on the scaffold and insulted them + previous to their suffering. + + When any of his colleagues passed through Arras, he always proposed + their joining with him in a _"partie de Guillotine,"_ and the + executions were perpetrated on a small square at Arras, rather than + the great one, that he, his wife, and relations might more + commodiously enjoy the spectacle from the balcony of the theatre, + where they took their coffee, attended by a band of music, which + played while this human butchery lasted. + + The following circumstance, though something less horrid, yet + sufficiently so to excite the indignation of feeling people, + happened to some friends of my own.--They had been brought with many + others from a distant town in open carts to Arras, and, worn out + with fatigue, were going to be deposited in the prison to which they + were destined. At the moment of their arrival several persons were + on the point of being executed. Le Bon, presiding as usual at the + spectacle, observed the cavalcade passing, and ordered it to stop, + that the prisoners might likewise be witnesses. He was, of course, + obeyed; and my terrified friends and their companions were obliged + not only to appear attentive to the scene before them, but to join + in the cry of _"Vive la Republique!"_ at the severing of each head.-- + One of them, a young lady, did not recover the shock she received + for months. + + The Convention, the Committees, all France, were well acquainted + with the conduct of Le Bon. He himself began to fear he might have + exceeded the limits of his commission; and, upon communicating some + scruples of this kind to his employers, received the following + letters, which, though they do not exculpate him, certainly render + the Committee of Public Welfare more criminal than himself. + + "Citizen, + + "The Committee of Public Welfare approve the measures you have + adopted, at the same time that they judge the warrant you solicit + unnecessary--such measures being not only allowable, but enjoined by + the very nature of your mission. No consideration ought to stand in + the way of your revolutionary progress--give free scope therefore to + your energy; the powers you are invested with are unlimited, and + whatever you may deem conducive to the public good, you are free, + you are even called upon by duty, to carry into execution without + delay.--We here transmit you an order of the Committee, by which + your powers are extended to the neighbouring departments. Armed + with such means, and with your energy, you will go on to confound + the enemies of the republic, with the very schemes they have + projected for its destruction. + + "Carnot. + "Barrere. + "R. Lindet." + + + Extract from another letter, signed Billaud Varenne, Carnot, + Barrere. + + "There is no commutation for offences against a republic. Death + alone can expiate them!--Pursue the traitors with fire and sword, + and continue to march with courage in the revolutionary track you + have described." + +--Merciful Heaven! are there yet positive distinctions betwixt bad and +worse that we thus regret a Dumont, and deem ourselves fortunate in being +at the mercy of a tyrant who is only brutal and profligate? But so it +is; and Dumont himself, fearful that he has not exercised his mission +with sufficient severity, has ordered every kind of indulgence to cease, +the prisons to be more strictly guarded, and, if possible, more crowded; +and he is now gone to Paris, trembling lest he should be accused of +justice or moderation! + +The pretended plots for assassinating Robespierre are, as usual, +attributed to Mr. Pitt; and a decree has just passed, that no quarter +shall be given to English prisoners. I know not what such inhuman +politics tend to, but my contempt, and the conscious pride of national +superiority; certain, that when Providence sees fit to vindicate itself, +by bestowing victory on our countrymen, the most welcome + + "Laurels that adorn their brows + "Will be from living, not dead boughs." + +The recollection of England, and its generous inhabitants, has animated +me with pleasure; yet I must for the present quit this agreeable +contemplation, to take precautions which remind me that I am separated +from both, and in a land of despotism and misery! + +--Yours affectionately. + + + + +June 11, 1794. + +The immorality of Hebert, and the base compliances of the Convention, for +some months turned the churches into "temples of reason."--The ambition, +perhaps the vanity, of Robespierre, has now permitted them to be +dedicated to the "Supreme Being," and the people, under such auspices, +are to be conducted from atheism to deism. Desirous of distinguishing +his presidency, and of exhibiting himself in a conspicuous and +interesting light, Robespierre, on the last decade, appeared as the hero +of a ceremony which we are told is to restore morals, destroy all the +mischiefs introduced by the abolition of religion, and finally to defeat +the machinations of Mr. Pitt. A gay and splendid festival has been +exhibited at Paris, and imitated in the provinces: flags of the +republican colours, branches of trees, and wreaths of flowers, were +ordered to be suspended from the houses--every countenance was to wear +the prescribed smile, and the whole country, forgetting the pressure of +sorrow and famine, was to rejoice. A sort of monster was prepared, +which, by some unaccountable ingenuity, at once represented Atheism and +the English, Cobourg and the Austrians--in short, all the enemies of the +Convention.--This external phantom, being burned with proper form, +discovered a statue, which was understood to be that of Liberty, and the +inauguration of this divinity, with placing the busts of Chalier* and +Marat in the temple of the Supreme Being, by way of attendant saints, +concluded the ceremony.-- + + * Chalier had been sent from the municipality of Paris after the + dethronement of the King, to revolutionize the people of Lyons, and + to excite a massacre. In consequence, the first days of September + presented the same scenes at Lyons as were presented in the capital. + For near a year he continued to scourge this unfortunate city, by + urging the lower classes of people to murder and pillage; till, at + the insurrection which took place in the spring of 1793, he was + arrested by the insurgents, tried, and sentenced to the guillotine. + --The Convention, however, whose calendar of saints is as + extraordinary as their criminal code, chose to beatify Chalier, + while they executed Malesherbes; and, accordingly, decreed him a + lodging in the Pantheon, pensioning his mistress, and set up his + bust in their own Hall as an associate for Brutus, whom, by the way, + one should not have expected to find in such company. + +The good citizens of the republic, not to be behind hand with their +representatives, placed Chalier in the cathedrals, in their +public-houses, on fans and snuff-boxes--in short, wherever they thought +his appearance would proclaim their patriotism.--I can only exclaim as +Poultier, a deputy, did, on a similar occasion--"Francais, Francais, +serez vous toujours Francais?"--(Frenchmen, Frenchmen, will you never +cease to be Frenchmen?) + +--But the mandates for such celebrations reach not the heart: flowers +were gathered, and flags planted, with the scrupulous exactitude of +fear;* yet all was cold and heavy, and a discerning government must have +read in this anxious and literal obedience the indication of terror and +hatred. + + * I have more than once had occasion to remark the singularity of + popular festivities solemnized on the part of the people with no + other intention but that of exact obedience to the edicts of + government. This is so generally understood, that Richard, a deputy + on mission at Lyons, writes to the Convention, as a circumstance + extraordinary, and worthy of remark, that, at the repeal of a decree + which was to have razed their city to the ground, a rejoicing took + place, _"dirigee et executee par le peuple, les autorites + constitutees n'ayant fait en quelque sorte qu'y assister,"_-- + (directed and executed by the people, the constituted authorities + having merely assisted at the ceremony). + +--Even the prisons were insultingly decorated with the mockery of +colours, which, we are told, are the emblems of freedom; and those whose +relations have expired on the scaffold, or who are pining in dungeons for +having heard a mass, were obliged to listen with apparent admiration to a +discourse on the charms of religious liberty.--The people, who, for the +most part, took little interest in the rest of this pantomime, and +insensible of the national disgrace it implied, beheld with stupid +satisfaction* the inscription on the temple of reason replaced by a +legend, signifying that, in this age of science and information, the +French find it necessary to declare their acknowledgment of a God, and +their belief in the immortality of the soul. + + * Much has been said of the partial ignorance of the unfortunate + inhabitants of La Vendee, and divers republican scribblers attribute + their attachment to religion and monarchy to that cause: yet at + Havre, a sea-port, where, from commercial communication, I should + suppose the people as informed and civilized as in any other part of + France, the ears of piety and decency were assailed, during the + celebration above-mentioned, by the acclamations of, _"Vive le Pere + Eternel!"--"Vive l'etre Supreme!"_--(I entreat that I may not be + suspected of levity when I translate this; in English it would be + "God Almighty for ever! The Supreme Being for ever!") + +--At Avignon the public understanding seems to have been equally +enlightened, if we may judge from the report of a Paris missionary, who +writes in these terms:--"The celebration in honour of the Supreme Being +was performed here yesterday with all possible pomp: all our +country-folks were present, and unspeakably content that there was still +a God--What a fine decree (cried they all) is this!" + +My last letter was a record of the most odious barbarities--to-day I am +describing a festival. At one period I have to remark the destruction of +the saints--at another the adoration of Marat. One half of the newspaper +is filled with a list of names of the guillotined, and the other with +that of places of amusement; and every thing now more than ever marks +that detestable association of cruelty and levity, of impiety and +absurdity, which has uniformly characterized the French revolution. It +is become a crime to feel, and a mode to affect a brutality incapable of +feeling--the persecution of Christianity has made atheism a boast, and +the danger of respecting traditional virtues has hurried the weak and +timid into the apotheosis of the most abominable vices. Conscious that +they are no longer animated by enthusiasm,* the Parisians hope to imitate +it by savage fury or ferocious mirth--their patriotism is signalized only +by their zeal to destroy, and their attachment to their government only +by applauding its cruelties.--If Robespierre, St. Just, Collot d'Herbois, +and the Convention as their instruments, desolate and massacre half +France, we may lament, but we can scarcely wonder at it. How should a +set of base and needy adventurers refrain from an abuse of power more +unlimited than that of the most despotic monarch; or how distinguish the +general abhorrence, amid addresses of adulation, which Louis the +Fourteenth would have blushed to appropriate?* + + * Louis the Fourteenth, aguerri (steeled) as he was by sixty years + of adulation and prosperity, had yet modesty sufficient to reject a + "dose of incense which he thought too strong." (See D'Alembert's + Apology for Clermont Tonnerre.) Republicanism, it should seem, has + not diminished the national compliasance for men in power, thought + it has lessened the modesty of those who exercise it.--If Louis the + Fourteenth repressed the zeal of the academicians, the Convention + publish, without scruple, addresses more hyperbolical than the + praises that monarch refused.--Letters are addressed to Robespierre + under the appellation of the Messiah, sent by the almighty for the + reform of all things! He is the apostle of one, and the tutelar + deity of another. He is by turns the representative of the virtues + individually, and a compendium of them altogether: and this monster, + whose features are the counterpart of his soul, find republican + parasites who congratulate themselves on resembling him. + +The bulletins of the Convention announce, that the whole republic is in a +sort of revolutionary transport at the escape of Robespierre and his +colleague, Collot d'Herbois, from assassination; and that we may not +suppose the legislators at large deficient in sensibility, we learn also +that they not only shed their grateful tears on this affecting occasion, +but have settled a pension on the man who was instrumental in rescuing +the benign Collot. + +The members of the Committee are not, however, the exclusive objects of +public adoration--the whole Convention are at times incensed in a style +truly oriental; and if this be sometimes done with more zeal than +judgment, it does not appear to be less acceptable on that account. A +petition from an incarcerated poet assimilates the mountain of the +Jacobins to that of Parnassus--a state-creditor importunes for a small +payment from the Gods of Olympus--and congratulations on the abolition of +Christianity are offered to the legislators of Mount Sinai! Every +instance of baseness calls forth an eulogium on their magnanimity. A +score of orators harangue them daily on their courage, while they are +over-awed by despots as mean as themselves and whom they continue to +reinstal at the stated period with clamorous approbation. They +proscribe, devastate, burn, and massacre--and permit themselves to be +addressed by the title of "Fathers of their Country!" + +All this would be inexplicable, if we did not contemplate in the French a +nation where every faculty is absorbed by a terror which involves a +thousand contradictions. The rich now seek protection by becoming +members of clubs,* and are happy if, after various mortifications, they +are finally admitted by the mob who compose them; while families, that +heretofore piqued themselves on a voluminous and illustrious genealogy,** +eagerly endeavour to prove they have no claim to either. + + * _Le diplome de Jacobin etait une espece d'amulette, dont les + inities etaient jaloux, et qui frappoit de prestiges ceux qui ne + l'etaient pas_--"The Jacobin diploma was a kind of amulet, which the + initiated were jealous of preserving, and which struck as it were + with witchcraft, those who were not of the number." + + Rapport de Courtois sur les Papiers de Robespierre. + + ** Besides those who, being really noble, were anxious to procure + certificates of sans-cullotism, many who had assumed such honours + without pretensions now relinquished them, except indeed some few, + whose vanity even surmounted their fears. But an express law + included all these seceders in the general proscription; alledging, + with a candour not usual, that those who assumed rank were, in fact, + more criminal than such as were guilty of being born to it. + + --Places and employments, which are in most countries the objects of + intrigue and ambition, are here refused or relinquished with such + perfect sincerity, that a decree became requisite to oblige every + one, under pain of durance, to preserve the station to which his ill + stars, mistaken politics, or affectation of patriotism, had called + him. Were it not for this law, such is the dreadful responsibility + and danger attending offices under the government, that even low and + ignorant people, who have got possession of them merely for support, + would prefer their original poverty to emoluments which are + perpetually liable to the commutation of the guillotine.--Some + members of a neighbouring district told me to-day, when I asked them + if they came to release any of our fellow-prisoners, that so far + from it, they had not only brought more, but were not certain twelve + hours together of not being brought themselves. + +The visionary equality of metaphysical impostors is become a substantial +one--not constituted by abundance and freedom, but by want and +oppression. The disparities of nature are not repaired, but its whole +surface is levelled by a storm. The rich are become poor, but the poor +still remain so; and both are conducted indiscriminately to the scaffold. +The prisons of the former government were "petty to the ends" of this. +Convents, colleges, palaces, and every building which could any how be +adapted to such a purpose, have been filled with people deemed +suspicious;* and a plan of destruction seems resolved on, more certain +and more execrable than even the general massacre of September 1792. + + * Now multiplied to more than four hundred thousand!--The prisons of + Paris and the environs were supposed to contain twenty-seven + thousand. The public papers stated but about seven thousand, + because they included the official returns of Paris only. + +--Agents of the police are, under some pretended accusation, sent to the +different prisons; and, from lists previously furnished them, make daily +information of plots and conspiracies, which they alledge to be carrying +on by the persons confined. This charge and this evidence suffice: the +prisoners are sent to the tribunal, their names read over, and they are +conveyed by cart's-full to the republican butchery. Many whom I have +known, and been in habits of intimacy with, have perished in this manner; +and the expectation of Le Bon,* with our numbers which make us of too +much consequence to be forgotten, all contribute to depress and alarm me. + + * Le Bon had at this period sent for lists of the prisoners in the + department of the Somme--which lists are said to have been since + found, and many of the names in them marked for destruction. + +--Even the levity of the French character yields to this terrible +despotism, and nothing is observed but weariness, silence, and sorrow:-- +_"O triste loisir, poids affreux du tems."_ [St. Lambert.] The season +returns with the year, but not to us--the sun shines, but to add to our +miseries that of insupportable heat--and the vicissitudes of nature only +awaken our regret that we cannot enjoy them-- + + "Now gentle gales o'er all the vallies play, + "Breathe on each flow'r, and bear their sweets away." + [Collins.] + +Yet what are fresh air and green fields to us, who are immured amidst a +thousand ill scents, and have no prospect but filth and stone walls? It +is difficult to describe how much the mind is depressed by this state of +passive suffering. In common evils, the necessity of action half +relieves them, as a vessel may reach her port by the agitation of a +storm; but this stagnant listless existence is terrible. + +Those most to be envied here are the victims of their religious opinions. +The nuns, who are more distressed than any of us,* employ themselves +patiently, and seem to look beyond this world; whilst the once gay deist +wanders about with a volume of philosophy in his hand, unable to endure +the present, and dreading still more the future. + + * These poor women, deprived of the little which the rapacity of the + Convention had left them, by it subordinate agents, were in want of + every thing; and though in most prisons they were employed for the + republican armies, they could scarcely procure more than bread and + water. Yet this was not all: they were objects of the meanest and + most cruel persecution.--I knew one who was put in a dungeon, up to + her waist in putrid water, for twelve hours altogether, without + losing her resolution or serenity. + +I have already written you a long letter, and bid you adieu with the +reluctance which precedes an uncertain separation. Uneasiness, ill +health, and confinement, besides the danger I am exposed to, render my +life at present more precarious than "the ordinary of nature's tenures." +--God knows when I may address you again!--My friend Mad. de ____ is +returned from the hospital, and I yield to her fears by ceasing to write, +though I am nevertheless determined not to part with what I have hitherto +preserved; being convinced, that if evil be intended us, it will be as +soon without a pretext as with one.--Adieu. + + + + +Providence, Aug. 11, 1794. + +I have for some days contemplated the fall of Robespierre and his +adherents, only as one of those dispensations of Providence, which were +gradually to pursue all who had engaged in the French revolution. The +late change of parties has, however, taken a turn I did not expect; and, +contrary to what has hitherto occurred, there is a manifest disposition +in the people to avail themselves of the weakness which is necessarily +occasioned by the contentions of their governors. + +When the news of this extraordinary event first became public, it was +ever where received with great gravity--I might say, coldness.--Not a +comment was uttered, nor a glance of approbation seen. Things might be +yet in equilibrium, and popular commotions are always uncertain. +Prudence was, therefore, deemed, indispensable; and, until the contest +was finally decided, no one ventured to give an opinion; and many, to be +certain of guarding against verbal indiscretion, abstained from all +intercourse whatever. + +By degrees, the execution of Robespierre and above an hundred of his +partizans, convinced even the most timid; the murmurs of suppressed +discontent began to be heard; and all thought they might now with safety +relieve their fears and their sufferings, by execrating the memory of the +departed tyrants. The prisons, which had hitherto been avoided as +endangering all who approached them, were soon visited with less +apprehension; and friendship or affection, no longer exanimate by terror, +solicited, though still with trepidation, the release of those for whom +they were interested. Some of our associates have already left us in +consequence of such intercessions, and we all hope that the tide of +opinion, now avowedly inimical to the detestable system to which we are +victims, will enforce a general liberation.--We are guarded but slightly; +and I think I perceive in the behaviour of the Jacobin Commissaries +something of civility and respect not usual. + +Thus an event, which I beheld merely as the justice which one set of +banditti were made the instruments of exercising upon another, may +finally tend to introduce a more humane system of government; or, at +least, suspend proscription and massacre, and give this harassed country +a little repose. + +I am in arrears with my epistolary chronicle, and the hope of so +desirable a change will now give me courage to resume it from the +conclusion of my last. To-morrow shall be dedicated to this purpose.-- +Yours. + + + + +August 12. + +My letters, previous to the time when I judged it necessary to desist +from writing, will have given you some faint sketch of the situation of +the country, and the sufferings of its inhabitants--I say a faint sketch, +because a thousand horrors and iniquities, which are now daily +disclosing, were then confined to the scenes where they were perpetrated; +and we knew little more of them than what we collected from the reports +of the Convention, where they excited a laugh as pleasantries, or +applause as acts of patriotism. + +France had become one vast prison, executions were daily multiplied, and +a minute and comprehensive oppression seemed to have placed the lives, +liberty, and fortune of all within the grasp of the single Committee. +Despair itself was subdued, and the people were gradually sinking into a +gloomy and stupid obedience. + + * The words despotism and tyranny are sufficiently expressive of the + nature of the government to which they are applied; yet still they + are words rendered familiar to us only by history, and convey no + precise idea, except that of a bad political system. The condition + of the French at this time, besides its wretchedness, had something + so strange, so original in it, that even those who beheld it with + attention must be content to wonder, without pretending to offer any + description as adequate. + +--The following extract from a speech of Bailleul, a member of the +Convention, exhibits a picture nearer the original than I have yet seen-- + + _"La terreur dominait tous les esprits, comprimait tous les couers-- + elle etait la force du gouvernement, et ce gouvernement etait tel, + que les nombreux habitans d'un vaste territoire semblaient avoir + perdu les qualites qui distinguent l'homme de l'animal domestique: + ils semblaient meme n'avoir de vie que ce que le gouvernement + voulait bien leur en accorder.--Le moi humain n'existoit plus; + chaque individu n'etait qu'une machine, allant, venant, pensant ou + ne pensant pas, felon que la tyrannie le pressait ou l'animait."_ + + Discours de Bailleul, 19 March 1795. + + "The minds of all were subdued by terror, and every heart was + compressed beneath its influence.--In this consisted the strength of + the government; and that government was such, that the immense + population of a vast territory, seemed to have lost all the + qualities which distinguish man from the animals attached to him.-- + They appeared to exhibit no signs of life but such as their rulers + condescended to permit--the very sense of existence seemed doubtful + or extinct, and each individual was reduced to a mere machine, going + or coming, thinking or not thinking, according as the impulse of + tyranny gave him force or animation." + Speech of Bailleul, 19 March 1795. + +On the twenty-second of Prairial, (June 10,) a law, consisting of a +variety of articles for the regulation of the Revolutionary Tribunal, was +introduced to the convention by Couthon, a member of the government; and, +as usual adopted with very little previous discussion.--Though there was +no clause of this act but ought to have given the alarm to humanity, +"knocked at the heart, and bid it not be quiet;" yet the whole appeared +perfectly unexceptionable to the Assembly in general: till, on farther +examination, they found it contained an implied repeal of the law +hitherto observed, according to which, no representative could be +arrested without a preliminary decree for that purpose.--This discovery +awakened their suspicions, and the next day Bourdon de l'Oise, a man of +unsteady principles, (even as a revolutionist,) was spirited up to demand +an explicit renunciation of any power in the Committee to attack the +legislative inviolability except in the accustomed forms.--The clauses +which elected a jury of murderers, that bereft all but guilt of hope, and +offered no prospect to innocence but death, were passed with no other +comment than the usual one of applause.*-- + + * The baseness, cruelty, and cowardice of the Convention are neither + to be denied, nor palliated. For several months they not only + passed decrees of proscription and murder which might reach every + individual in France except themselves, but they even sacrificed + numbers of their own body; and if, instead of proposing an article + affecting the whole Convention, the Committee had demanded the heads + of as many Deputies as they had occasion for by name, I am persuaded + they would have met no resistance.--This single example of + opposition only renders the convention still more an object of + abhorrence, because it marks that they could subdue their + pusillanimity when their own safety was menaced, and that their + previous acquiescence was voluntary. + +--This, and this only, by involving their personal safety, excited their +courage through their fears.--Merlin de Douay, originally a worthless +character, and become yet more so by way of obviating the imputation of +bribery from the court, seconded Bourdon's motion, and the obnoxious +article was repealed instantaneously. + +This first and only instance of opposition was highly displeasing to the +Committee, and, on the twenty-fourth, Robespierre, Barrere, Couthon, and +Billaud, animadverted with such severity on the promoters of it, that the +terrified Bourdon* declared, the repeal he had solicited was unnecessary, +and that he believed the Committee were destined to be the saviours of +the country; while Merlin de Douay disclaimed all share in the business-- +and, in fine, it was determined, that the law of the twenty-second of +Prairial should remain as first presented to the Convention, and that the +qualification of the succeeding day was void. + + * It was on this occasion that the "intrepid" Bourdon kept his bed a + whole month with fear. + +So dangerous an infringement on the privileges of the representative +body, dwelt on minds insensible to every other consideration; the +principal members caballed secretly on the perils by which they were +surrounded; and the sullen concord which now marked their deliberations, +was beheld by the Committee rather as the prelude to revolt, than the +indication of continued obedience. In the mean while it was openly +proposed to concentrate still more the functions of government. The +circulation of newspapers was insinuated to be useless; and Robespierre +gave some hints of suppressing all but one, which should be under +particular and official controul.* + + * This intended restriction was unnecessary; for the newspapers were + all, not indeed paid by government, but so much subject to the + censure of the guillotine, that they had become, under an "unlimited + freedom of the press," more cautious and insipid than the gazettes + of the proscribed court. Poor Duplain, editor of the "Petit + Courier," and subsequently of the "Echo," whom I remember one of the + first partizans of the revolution, narrowly escaped the massacre of + August 1792, and was afterwards guillotined for publishing the + surrender of Landrecy three days before it was announced officially. + +A rumour prevailed, that the refractory members who had excited the late +rebellion were to be sacrificed, a general purification of the Assembly +to take place, and that the committee and a few select adherents were to +be invested with the whole national authority. Lists of proscription +were said to be made; and one of them was secretly communicated as having +been found among the papers of a juryman of the Revolutionary Tribunal +lately arrested.--These apprehensions left the members implicated no +alternative but to anticipate hostilities, or fall a sacrifice; for they +knew the instant of attack would be that of destruction, and that the +people were too indifferent to take any part in the contest. + +Things were in this state, when two circumstances of a very different +nature assisted in promoting the final explosion, which so much +astonished, not only the rest of Europe, but France itself. + +It is rare that a number of men, however well meaning, perfectly agree in +the exercise of power; and the combinations of the selfish and wicked +must be peculiarly subject to discord and dissolution. The Committee of +Public Welfare, while it enslaved the convention and the people, was torn +by feuds, and undermined by the jealousies of its members. Robespierre, +Couthon, and St. Just, were opposed by Collot and Billaud Varennes; while +Barrere endeavoured to deceive both parties; and Carnot, Lindet, the two +Prieurs, and St. Andre, laboured in the cause of the common tyranny, in +the hope of still dividing it with the conquerors. + +For some months this enmity was restrained, by the necessity of +preserving appearances, and conciliated, by a general agreement in the +principles of administration, till Robespierre, relying on his superior +popularity, began to take an ascendant, which alarmed such of his +colleagues as were not his partisans, both for their power and their +safety. Animosities daily increased, and their debates at length became +so violent and noisy, that it was found necessary to remove the business +of the Committee to an upper room, lest people passing under the windows +should overhear these scandalous scenes. Every means were taken to keep +these disputes a profound secret--the revilings which accompanied their +private conferences were turned into smooth panegyrics of each other when +they ascended the tribune, and their unanimity was a favourite theme in +all their reports to the Convention.* + + * So late as on the seventh of Thermidor, (25th July,) Barrere made + a pompous eulogium on the virtues of Robespierre; and, in a long + account of the state of the country, he acknowledges "some little + clouds hang over the political horizon, but they will soon be + dispersed, by the union which subsists in the Committees;--above + all, by a more speedy trial and execution of revolutionary + criminals." It is difficult to imagine what new means of dispatch + this airy barbarian had contrived, for in the six weeks preceding + this harangue, twelve hundred and fifty had been guillotined in + Paris only. + +The impatience of Robespierre to be released from associates whose views +too much resembled his own to leave him an undivided authority, at length +overcame his prudence; and, after absenting himself for six weeks from +the Committee, on the 8th of Thermidor, (26th July,) he threw off the +mask, and in a speech full of mystery and implications, but containing no +direct charges, proclaimed the divisions which existed in the +government.--On the same evening he repeated this harangue at the +Jacobins, while St. Just, by his orders, menaced the obnoxious part of +the Committee with a formal denunciation to the Convention.--From this +moment Billaud Varennes and Collot d'Herbois concluded their destruction +to be certain. In vain they soothed, expostulated with, and endeavoured +to mollify St. Just, so as to avert an open rupture. The latter, who +probably knew it was not Robespierre's intention to accede to any +arrangement, left them to make his report. + +On the morning of the ninth the Convention met, and with internal dread +and affected composure proceeded to their ordinary business.--St. Just +then ascended the tribune, and the curiosity or indecision of the greater +number permitted him to expatiate at large on the intrigues and guilt of +every kind which he imputed to a "part" of the Committee.--At the +conclusion of this speech, Tallien, one of the devoted members, and +Billaud Varennes, the leader of the rival party, opened the trenches, by +some severe remarks on the oration of St. Just, and the conduct of those +with whom he was leagued. This attack encouraged others: the whole +Convention joined in accusing Robespierre of tyranny; and Barrere, who +perceived the business now deciding, ranged himself on the side of the +strongest, though the remaining members of the Committee still appeared +to preserve their neutrality. Robespierre was, for the first time, +refused a hearing, yet, the influence he so lately possessed still seemed +to protect him. The Assembly launched decrees against various of his +subordinate agents, without daring to proceed against himself; and had +not the indignant fury with which he was seized, at the desertion of +those by whom he had been most flattered, urged him to call for arrest +and death, it is probable the whole would have ended in the punishment of +his enemies, and a greater accession of power to himself. + +But at this crisis all Robespierre's circumspection abandoned him. +Having provoked the decree for arresting his person, instead of +submitting to it until his party should be able to rally, he resisted; +and by so doing gave the Convention a pretext for putting him out of the +law; or, in other words, to destroy him, without the delay or hazard of a +previous trial. + +Having been rescued from the Gens d'Armes, and taken in triumph to the +municipality, the news spread, the Jacobins assembled, and Henriot, the +commander of the National Guard, (who had likewise been arrested, and +again set at liberty by force,) all prepared to act in his defence. But +while they should have secured the Convention, they employed themselves +at the Hotel de Ville in passing frivolous resolutions; and Henriot, with +all the cannoneers decidedly in his favour, exhibited an useless +defiance, by stalking before the windows of the Committee of General +Safety, when he should have been engaged in arresting its members. + +All these imprudences gave the Convention time to proclaim that +Robespierre, the municipality, and their adherents, were decreed out of +the protection of the laws, and in circumstances of this nature such a +step has usually been decisive--for however odious a government, if it +does but seem to act on a presumption of its own strength, it has always +an advantage over its enemies; and the timid, the doubtful, or +indifferent, for the most part, determine in favour of whatever wears the +appearance of established authority. The people, indeed, remained +perfectly neuter; but the Jacobins, the Committees of the Sections, and +their dependents, might have composed a force more than sufficient to +oppose the few guards which surrounded the National Palace, had not the +publication of this summary outlawry at once paralyzed all their hopes +and efforts.--They had seen multitudes hurried to the Guillotine, because +they were "hors de la loi;" and this impression now operated so forcibly, +that the cannoneers, the national guard, and those who before were most +devoted to the cause, laid down their arms, and precipitately abandoned +their chiefs to the fate which awaited them. Robespierre was taken at +the Hotel de Ville, after being severely wounded in the face; his brother +broke his thigh, in attempting to escape from a window; Henriot was +dragged from concealment, deprived of an eye; and Couthon, whom nature +had before rendered a cripple, now exhibited a most hideous spectacle, +from an ineffectual effort to shoot himself.--Their wounds were dressed +to prolong their suffering, and their sentence being contained in the +decree that outlawed them, their persons were identified by the same +tribunal which had been the instrument of their crimes. +--On the night of the tenth they were conveyed to the scaffold, amidst +the insults and execrations of a mob, which a few hours before beheld +them with trembling and adoration.--Lebas, also a member of the +convention, and a principal agent of Robespierre, fell by his own hand; +and Couthon, St. Just, and seventeen others, suffered with the two +Robespierres.--The municipality of Paris, &c. to the number of +seventy-two, were guillotined the succeeding day, and about twelve +more the day after. + +The fate of these men may be ranked as one of the most dreadful of those +examples which history vainly transmits to discourage the pursuits of +ambition. The tyrant who perishes amidst the imposing fallaciousness of +military glory, mingles admiration with abhorrence, and rescues his +memory from contempt, if not from hatred. Even he who expiates his +crimes on the scaffold, if he die with fortitude, becomes the object of +involuntary compassion, and the award of justice is not often rendered +more terrible by popular outrage. But the fall of Robespierre and his +accomplices was accompanied by every circumstance that could add +poignancy to suffering, or dread to death. The ambitious spirit which +had impelled them to tyrannize over a submissive and defenceless people, +abandoned them in their last moments. Depressed by anguish, exhausted by +fatigue, and without courage, religion, or virtue, to support them, they +were dragged through the savage multitude, wounded and helpless, to +receive that stroke, from which even the pious and the brave sometimes +shrink with dismay. + +Robespierre possessed neither the talents nor merits of Nicolas Riezi; +but they are both conspicuous instances of the mutability of popular +support, and there is a striking similitude in the last events of their +history. They both degraded their ambition by cowardice--they were both +deserted by the populace, whom they began by flattering, and ended by +oppressing; and the death of both was painful and ignominious--borne +without dignity, and embittered by reproach and insult.* + + * Robespierre lay for some hours in one of the committee-rooms, + writhing with the pain of his wound, and abandoned to despair; while + many of his colleagues, perhaps those who had been the particular + agents and applauders of his crimes, passed and repassed him, + glorying and jesting at his sufferings. The reader may compare the + death of Robespierre with that of Rienzi; but if the people of Rome + revenged the tyranny of the Tribune, they were neither so mean nor + so ferocious as the Parisians. + +You will perceive by this summary that the overthrow of Robespierre was +chiefly occasioned by the rivalship of his colleagues in the Committee, +assisted by the fears of the Convention at large for themselves.--Another +circumstance, at which I have already hinted, as having some share in +this event, shall be the subject of my next letter. + + + + +Providence, Aug. 13, 1794. + +_Amour, tu perdis Troye_ [Love! thou occasionedst the destruction of +Troy.]:--yet, among the various mischiefs ascribed to the influence of +this capricious Sovereign, amidst the wrecks of sieges, and the slaughter +of battles, perhaps we may not unjustly record in his praise, that he was +instrumental to the solace of humanity, by contributing to the overthrow +of Robespierre. It is at least pleasing to turn from the general horrors +of the revolution, and suppose, for a moment, that the social affections +were not yet entirely banished, and that gallantry still retained some +empire, when every other vestige of civilization was almost annihilated. + +After such an exordium, I feel a little ashamed of my hero, and could +wish, for the credit of my tale, it were not more necessary to invoke the +historic muse of Fielding, than that of Homer or Tasso; but imperious +Truth obliges me to confess, that Tallien, who is to be the subject of +this letter, was first introduced to celebrity by circumstances not +favourable for the comment of my poetical text. + +At the beginning of the revolution he was known only as an eminent orator +en plain vent; that is, as a preacher of sedition to the mob, whom he +used to harangue with great applause at the Palais Royal. Having no +profession or means of subsistence, he, as Dr. Johnson observes of one of +our poets, necessarily became an author. He was, however, no farther +entitled to this appellation, than as a periodical scribbler in the cause +of insurrection; but in this he was so successful, that it recommended +him to the care of Petion and the municipality, to whom his talents and +principles were so acceptable, that they made him Secretary to the +Committee. + +On the second and third of September 1792, he superintended the massacre +of the prisons, and is alledged to have paid the assassins according to +the number of victims they dispatched with great regularity; and he +himself seems to have little to say in his defence, except that he acted +officially. Yet even the imputation of such a claim could not be +overlooked by the citizens of Paris; and at the election of the +Convention he was distinguished by being chosen one of their +representatives. + +It is needless to describe his political career in the Assembly otherwise +than by adding, that when the revolutionary furor was at its acme, he was +deemed by the Committee of Public Welfare worthy of an important mission +in the South. The people of Bourdeaux were, accordingly, for some time +harassed by the usual effects of these visitations--imprisonments and the +Guillotine; and Tallien, though eclipsed by Maignet and Carrier, was by +no means deficient in the patriotic energies of the day. + +I think I must before have mentioned to you a Madame de Fontenay, the +wife of an emigrant, whom I occasionally saw at Mad. de C____'s. I then +remarked her for the uncommon attraction of her features, and the +elegance of her person; but was so much disgusted at a tendency to +republicanism I observed in her, and which, in a young woman, I thought +unbecoming, that I did not promote the acquaintance, and our different +pursuits soon separated us entirely. Since this period I have learned, +that her conduct became exceedingly imprudent, or at least suspicious, +and that at the general persecution, finding her republicanism would not +protect her, she fled to Bourdeaux, with the hope of being able to +proceed to Spain. Here, however, being a Spaniard by birth, and the wife +of an emigrant, she was arrested and thrown into prison, where she +remained till the arrival of Tallien on his mission. + +The miscellaneous occupations of a deputy-errant, naturally include an +introduction to the female prisoners; and Tallien's presence afforded +Mad. de Fontenay an occasion of pleading her cause with all the success +which such a pleader might, in other times, be supposed to obtain from a +judge of Tallien's age. The effect of the scenes Tallien had been an +actor in, was counteracted by youth, and his heart was not yet +indifferent to the charms of beauty--Mad. de Fontenay was released by the +captivation of her liberator, and a reciprocal attachment ensued. + +We must not, however, conclude, all this merely a business of romance. +Mad. de Fontenay was rich, and had connexions in Spain, which might +hereafter procure an asylum, when a regicide may with difficulty find +one: and on the part of the lady, though Tallien's person is agreeable, a +desire of protecting herself and her fortune might be allowed to have +some influence. + +From this time the revolutionist is said to have given way: Bourdeaux +became the Capua of Tallien; and its inhabitants were, perhaps, indebted +for a more moderate exercise of his power, to the smiles of Mad. de +Fontenay.--From hanging loose on society, he had now the prospect of +marrying a wife with a large fortune; and Tallien very wisely considered, +that having something at stake, a sort of comparative reputation among +the higher class of people at Bourdeaux, might be of more importance to +him in future, than all the applause the Convention could bestow on a +liberal use of the Guillotine.--The relaxed system which was the +consequence of such policy, soon reached the Committee of Public Welfare, +to whom it was highly displeasing, and Tallien was recalled. + +A youth of the name of Julien, particularly in the confidence of +Robespierre, was then sent to Bourdeaux, not officially as his successor, +but as a spy, to collect information concerning him, as well as to watch +the operations of other missionaries, and prevent their imitating +Tallien's schemes of personal advantage, at the expence of scandalizing +the republic by an appearance of lenity.--The disastrous state of Lyons, +the persecutions of Carrier, the conflagrations of Maignet, and the +crimes of various other Deputies, had obliterated the minor +revolutionisms of Tallien:* The citizens of Bourdeaux spoke of him +without horror, which in these times was equal to eulogium; and Julien +transmitted such accounts of his conduct to Robespierre,** as were +equally alarming to the jealousy of his spirit, and repugnant to the +cruelty of his principles. + + * It was Tallien's boast to have guillotined only aristocrats, and + of this part of his merit I am willing to leave him in possession. + At Toulon he was charged with the punishment of those who had given + up the town to the English; but finding, as he alledged, nearly all + the inhabitants involved, he selected about two hundred of the + richest, and that the horrid business might wear an appearance of + regularity, the patriots, that is, the most notorious Jacobins, were + ordered to give their opinion on the guilt of these victims, who + were brought out into an open field for that purpose. With such + judges the sentence was soon passed, and a fusillade took place on + the spot.--It was on this occasion that Tallien made particular + boast of his humanity; and in the same publication where he relates + the circumstance, he exposes the "atrocious conduct" of the English + at the surrender of Toulon. The cruelty of these barbarians not + being sufficiently gratified by dispatching the patriots the + shortest way, they hung up many of them by their chins on hooks at + the shambles, and left them to die at their leisure.--See + "Mitraillades, Fusillades," a recriminating pamphlet, addressed by + Tallien to Collot d'Herbois.--The title alludes to Collot's exploits + at Lyons. + + ** It is not out of the usual course of things that Tallien's + moderation at Bourdeaux might have been profitable; and the wife or + mistress of a Deputy was, on such occasions, a useful medium, + through which the grateful offerings of a rich and favoured + aristocrat might be conveyed, without committing the legislative + reputation.--The following passage from Julien's correspondence with + Robespierre seems to allude to some little arrangements of this + nature: + + "I think it my duty to transmit you an extract from a letter of + Tallien's, [Which had been intercepted.] to the National Club.--It + coincides with the departure of La Fontenay, whom the Committee of + General Safety have doubtless had arrested. I find some very + curious political details regarding her; and Bourdeaux seems to have + been, until this moment, a labyrinth of intrigue and peculation." + +It appears from Robespierre's papers, that not only Tallien, but +Legendre, Bourdon de l'Oise, Thuriot, and others, were incessantly +watched by the spies of the Committee. The profession must have improved +wonderfully under the auspices of the republic, for I doubt if _Mons. le +Noir's Mouchards_ [The spies of the old police, so called in derision.-- +Brissot, in this act of accusation, is described as having been an agent +of the Police under the monarchy.--I cannot decide on the certainty of +this, or whether his occupation was immediately that of a spy, but I have +respectable authority for saying, that antecedent to the revolution, his +character was very slightly estimated, and himself considered as "hanging +loose on society."] were as able as Robespierre's.--The reader may judge +from the following specimens: + + "The 6th instant, the deputy Thuriot, on quitting the Convention, + went to No. 35, Rue Jaques, section of the Pantheon, to the house of + a pocket-book maker, where he staid talking with a female about ten + minutes. He then went to No. 1220, Rue Fosse St. Bernard, section + of the Sans-Culottes, and dined there at a quarter past two. At a + quarter past seven he left the last place, and meeting a citizen on + the Quay de l'Ecole, section of the Museum, near le Cafe Manoury, + they went in there together, and drank a bottle of beer. From + thence he proceeded to la Maison Memblee de la Providence, No. 16, + Rue d'Orleans Honore, section de la Halle au Bled, whence, after + staying about five-and-twenty minutes, he came out with a citoyenne, + who had on a puce Levite, a great bordered shawl of Japan cotton, + and on her head a white handkerchief, made to look like a cap. They + went together to No. 163, Place Egalite, where after stopping an + instant, they took a turn in the galleries, and then returned to + sup.--They went in at half past nine, and were still there at eleven + o'clock, when we came away, not being certain if they would come out + again. + + "Bourdon de l'Oise, on entering the Assembly, shook hands with four + or five Deputies. He was observed to gape while good news was + announcing." + +Tallien was already popular among the Jacobins of Paris; and his +connexion with a beautiful woman, who might enable him to keep a domestic +establishment, and to display any wealth he had acquired, without +endangering his reputation, was a circumstance not to be overlooked; for +Robespierre well knew the efficacy of female intrigue, and dinners,* in +gaining partizans among the subordinate members of the Convention. + + * Whoever reads attentively, and in detail, the debates of the + Convention, will observe the influence and envy created by a + superior style of living in any particular member. His dress, his + lodging, or dinners, are a perpetual subject of malignant reproach. + --This is not to be wondered at, when we consider the description of + men the Convention is composed of;--men who, never having been + accustomed to the elegancies of life, behold with a grudging eye the + gay apparel or luxurious table of a colleague, who arrived at Paris + with no other treasure but his patriotism, and has no ostensible + means beyond his eighteen livres a day, now increased to thirty-six. + +Mad. de Fontenay, was, therefore, on her arrival at Paris, whither she +had followed Tallien, (probably in order to procure a divorce and marry +him,) arrested, and conveyed to prison. + +An injury of this kind was not to be forgiven; and Robespierre seems to +have acted on the presumption that it could not. He beset Tallien with +spies, menaced him in the Convention, and made Mad. de Fontenay an offer +of liberty, if she would produce a substantial charge against him, which +he imagined her knowledge of his conduct at Bourdeaux might furnish her +grounds for doing. A refusal must doubtless have irritated the tyrant; +and Tallien had every reason to fear she would soon be included in one of +the lists of victims who were daily sacrificed as conspirators in the +prisons. He was himself in continual expectation of being arrested; and +it was generally believed Robespierre would soon openly accuse him.--Thus +situated, he eagerly embraced the opportunity which the schism in the +Committee presented of attacking his adversary, and we certainly must +allow him the merit of being the first who dared to move for the arrest +of Robespierre.--I need not add, that la belle was one of the first whose +prison doors were opened; and I understand that, being divorced from +Mons. de Fontenay, she is either married, or on the point of being so, to +Tallien. + +This conclusion spoils my story as a moral one; and had I been the +disposer of events, the Septembriser, the regicide, and the cold assassin +of the Toulonais, should have found other rewards than affluence, and a +wife who might represent one of Mahomet's Houris. Yet, surely, "the time +will come, though it come ne'er so slowly," when Heaven shall separate +guilt from prosperity, and when Tallien and his accomplices shall be +remembered only as monuments of eternal justice. For the lady, her +faults are amply punished in the disgrace of such an alliance-- + + "A cut-purse of the empire and the rule; + "____ a King of shreds and patches." + + + + +Providence, Aug. 14, 1794. + +The thirty members whom Robespierre intended to sacrifice, might perhaps +have formed some design of resisting, but it appears evident that the +Convention in general acted without plan, union, or confidence.*-- + + * The base and selfish timidity of the Convention is strongly + evinced by their suffering fifty innocent people to be guillotined + on the very ninth of Thermidor, for a pretended conspiracy in the + prison of St. Lazare.--A single word from any member might at this + crisis have suspended the execution of the sentence, but that word + no one had the courage or the humanity to utter. + +--Tallien and Billaud were rendered desperate by their situation, and it +is likely that, when they ventured to attack Robespierre, they did not +themselves expect to be successful--it was the consternation of the +latter which encouraged them to persist, and the Assembly to support +them: + + "There is a tide in the affairs of men, + "Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." + +And to have been lucky enough to seize on this crisis, is, doubtless, the +whole merit of the convention. There has, it is true, been many +allusions to the dagger of Brutus, and several Deputies are said to have +conceived very heroic projects for the destruction of the tyrant; but as +he was dead before these projects were brought to light, we cannot justly +ascribe any effect to them. + +The remains of the Brissotin faction, still at liberty, from whom some +exertions might have been expected, were cautiously inactive; and those +who had been most in the habit of appreciating themselves for their +valour, were now conspicuous only for that discretion which Falstaff +calls the better part of it.--Dubois Crance, who had been at the expence +of buying a Spanish poniard at St. Malo, for the purpose of assassinating +Robespierre, seems to have been calmed by the journey, and to have +finally recovered his temper, before he reached the Convention.--Merlin +de Thionville, Merlin de Douay, and others of equal note, were among the +"passive valiant;" and Bourdon de l'Oise had already experienced such +disastrous effects from inconsiderate exhibitions of courage, that he now +restrained his ardour till the victory should be determined. Even +Legendre, who is occasionally the Brutus, the Curtius, and all the +patriots whose names he has been able to learn, confined his prowess to +an assault on the club-room of the Jacobins, when it was empty, and +carrying off the key, which no one disputed with him, so that he can at +most claim an ovation. It is, in short, remarkable, that all the members +who at present affect to be most vehement against Robespierre's +principles, [And where was the all-politic Sieyes?--At home, writing his +own eulogium.] were the least active in attacking his person; and it is +indisputable, that to Tallien, Billaud, Louchet, Elie Lacoste, Collot +d'Herbois, and a few of the more violent Jacobins, were due those first +efforts which determined his fall.--Had Robespierre, instead of a +querelous harangue, addressed the convention in his usual tone of +authority, and ended by moving for a decree against a few only of those +obnoxious to him, the rest might have been glad to compound for their own +safety, by abandoning a cause no longer personal: but his impolicy, not +his wickedness, hastened his fate; and it is so far fortunate for France, +that it has at least suspended the system of government which is ascribed +to him. + +The first days of victory were passed in receiving congratulations, and +taking precautions; and though men do not often adapt their claims to +their merits, yet the members of the Convention seemed in general to be +conscious that none amongst them had very decided pretensions to the +spoils of the vanquished.--Of twelve, which originally composed the +Committee of Public Welfare, seven only remained; yet no one ventured to +suggest a completion of the number, till Barrere, after previously +insinuating how adequate he and his colleagues were to the task of +"saving the country," proposed, in his flippant way, and merely as a +matter of form, that certain persons whom he recommended, should fill up +the vacancies in the government. + +This modest Carmagnole* was received with great coolness; the late +implicit acquiescence was changed to demur, and an adjournment +unanimously called for. + + * A ludicrous appellation, which Barrere used to give to his reports + in the presence of those who were in the secret of his Charlatanry. + The air of "La Carmagnole" was originally composed when the town of + that name was taken by Prince Eugene, and was adapted to the + indecent words now sung by the French after the 10th of August 1792. + +--Such unusual temerity susprised and alarmed the remains of the +Committee, and Billaud Varennes sternly reminded the Convention of the +abject state they were so lately released from. This produced retort and +replication, and the partners of Robespierre's enormities, who had hoped +to be the tranquil inheritors of his power, found, that in destroying a +rival, they had raised themselves masters. + +The Assembly persisted in not adopting the members offered to be imposed +upon them; but, as it was easier to reject than to choose, the Committee +were ordered to present a new plan for this part of the executive branch, +and the election of those to be entrusted with it was postponed for +farther consideration. + +Having now felt their strength, they next proceeded to renew a part of +the committee of General Safety, several of its members being inculpated +as partizans of Robespierre, and though this Committee had become +entirely subordinate to that of Public Welfare, yet its functions were +too important for it to be neglected, more especially as they comprised a +very favourite branch of the republican government, that of issuing writs +of arrest at pleasure.--The law of the twenty-second of Prairial is also +repealed, but the Revolutionary Tribunal is preserved, and the necessity +of suspending the old jury, as being the creatures of Robespierre, has +not prevented the tender solicitude of the Convention for a renovated +activity in the establishment itself. + +This assumption of power has become every day more confirmed, and the +addresses which are received by the Assembly, though yet in a strain of +gross adulation,* express such an abhorrence of the late system, as must +suffice to convince them the people are not disposed to see such a system +continued. + + * A collection of addresses, presented to the Convention at various + periods, might form a curious history of the progress of despotism. + These effusions of zeal were not, however, all in the "sublime" + style: the legislative dignity sometimes condescended to unbend + itself, and listen to metrical compositions, enlivened by the + accompaniment of fiddles; but the manly and ferocious Danton, to + whom such sprightly interruptions were not congenial, proposed a + decree, that the citizens should, in future, express their + adorations in plain prose, and without any musical accessories. + +Billaud Varennes, Collot, and other members of the old Committee, view +these innovations with sullen acquiescence; but Barrere, whose frivolous +and facile spirit is incapable of consistency, even in wickedness, +perseveres and flourishes at the tribune as gaily as ever.--Unabashed by +detection, insensible to contempt, he details his epigrams and antitheses +against Catilines and Cromwells with as much self-sufficiency as when, in +the same tinsel eloquence, he promulgated the murderous edicts of +Robespierre. + +Many of the prisoners at Paris continue daily to obtain their release, +and, by the exertions of his personal enemies, particularly of our +quondam sovereign, Andre Dumont, (now a member of the Committee of +General Safety,) an examination into the atrocities committed by Le Bon +is decreed.--But, amidst these appearances of justice, a versatility of +principle, or rather an evident tendency to the decried system, is +perceptible. Upon the slightest allusion to the revolutionary +government, the whole Convention rise in a mass to vociferate their +adherence to it:* the tribunal, which was its offspring and support, is +anxiously reinstalled; and the low insolence with which Barrere announces +their victories in the Netherlands, is, as usual, loudly applauded. + + * The most moderate, as well as the most violent, were always united + on the subject of this irrational tyranny.--_"Toujours en menageant, + comme la prunelle de ses yeux, le gouvernement revolutionnaire."_-- + "Careful always of the revolutionary government, as of the apple of + their eye." _Fragment pour servir a l'Hist. de la Convention, par + J. J. Dussault_. + +The brothers of Cecile Renaud, who were sent for by Robespierre from the +army to Paris, in order to follow her to the scaffold, did not arrive +until their persecutor was no more, and a change of government was +avowed. They have presented themselves at the bar of the Convention, to +entreat a revisal of their father's sentence, and some compensation for +his property, so unjustly confiscated.--You will, perhaps, imagine, that, +at the name of these unfortunate young men, every heart anticipated a +consent to their claims, even before the mind could examine the justice +of them, and that one of those bursts of sensibility for which this +legislature is so remarkable instantaneously accorded the petition. +Alas! this was not an occasion to excite the enthusiasm of the +Convention: Coupilleau de Fontenay, one of the "mild and moderate party", +repulsed the petitioners with harshness, and their claim was silenced by +a call for the order of the day. The poor Renauds were afterwards coldly +referred to the Committee of Relief, for a pittance, by way of charity, +instead of the property they have a right to, and which they have been +deprived of, by the base compliance of the Convention with the caprice of +a monster. + +Such relapses and aberrations are not consolatory, but the times and +circumstances seem to oppose them--the whole fabric of despotism is +shaken, and we have reason to hope the efforts of tyranny will be +counteracted by its weakness. + +We do not yet derive any advantage from the early maturity of the +harvest, and it is still with difficulty we obtain a limited portion of +bad bread. Severe decrees are enacted to defeat the avarice of the +farmers, and prevent monopolies of the new corn; but these people are +invulnerable: they have already been at issue with the system of terror-- +and it was found necessary, even before the death of Robespierre, to +release them from prison, or risk the destruction of the harvest for want +of hands to get it in. It is now discovered, that natural causes, and +the selfishness of individuals, are adequate to the creation of a +temporary scarcity; yet when this happened under the King, it was always +ascribed to the machinations of government.--How have the people been +deceived, irritated, and driven to rebellion, by a degree of want, less, +much less, insupportable than that they are obliged to suffer at present, +without daring even to complain! + +I have now been in confinement almost twelve months, and my health is +considerably impaired. The weather is oppressively warm, and we have no +shade in the garden but under a mulberry-tree, which is so surrounded by +filth, that it is not approachable. I am, however, told, that in a few +days, on account of my indisposition, I shall be permitted to go home, +though with a proviso of being guarded at my own expence.--My friends are +still at Arras; and if this indulgence be extended to Mad. de la F____, +she will accompany me. Personal accommodation, and an opportunity of +restoring my health, render this desirable; but I associate no idea of +freedom with my residence in this country. The boundary may be extended, +but it is still a prison.--Yours. + + + + +Providence, Aug. 15, 1794. + +To-morrow I expect to quit this place, and have been wandering over it +for the last time. You will imagine I can have no attachment to it: yet +a retrospect of my sensations when I first arrived, of all I have +experienced, and still more of what I have apprehended since that period, +makes me look forward to my departure with a satisfaction that I might +almost call melancholy. This cell, where I have shivered through the +winter--the long passages, which I have so often traversed in bitter +rumination--the garden, where I have painfully breathed a purer air, at +the risk of sinking beneath the fervid rays of an unmitigated sun, are +not scenes to excite regret; but when I think that I am still subject to +the tyranny which has so long condemned me to them, this reflection, with +a sentiment perhaps of national pride, which is wounded by accepting as a +favour what I have been unjustly deprived of, renders me composed, if not +indifferent, at the prospect of my release. + +This dreary epoch of my life has not been without its alleviations. I +have found a chearful companion in Mad. de M____, who, at sixty, was +brought here, because she happened to be the daughter of Count L____, who +has been dead these thirty years!--The graces and silver accents of +Madame de B____, might have assisted in beguiling severer captivity; and +the Countess de C____, and her charming daughters (the eldest of whom is +not to be described in the common place of panegyric), who, though they +have borne their own afflictions with dignity, have been sensible to the +misfortunes of others, and whom I must, in justice, except from all the +imputations of meanness or levity, which I have sometimes had occasion to +notice in those who, like themselves, were objects of republican +persecution, have essentially contributed to diminish the horrors of +confinement.--I reckon it likewise among my satisfactions, that, with the +exception of the Marechalle de Biron,* and General O'Moran, none of our +fellow-prisoners have suffered on the scaffold.-- + + * The Marechalle de Biron, a very old and infirm woman, was taken + from hence to the Luxembourg at Paris, where her daughter-in-law, + the Duchess, was also confined. A cart arriving at that prison to + convey a number of victims to the tribunal, the list, in the coarse + dialect of republicanism, contained the name of la femme Biron. "But + there are two of them," said the keeper. "Then bring them both."-- + The aged Marechalle, who was at supper, finished her meal while the + rest were preparing, then took up her book of devotion, and departed + chearfully.--The next day both mother and daughter were guillotined. + +--Dumont has, indeed, virtually occasioned the death of several; in +particular the Duc du Chatelet, the Comte de Bethune, Mons. de +Mancheville, &c.--and it is no merit in him that Mr. Luttrell, with a +poor nun of the name of Pitt,* whom he took from hence to Paris, as a +capture which might give him importance, were not massacred either by the +mob or the tribunal. + + * This poor woman, whose intellects, as I am informed, appeared in a + state of derangement, was taken from a convent at Abbeville, and + brought to the Providence, as a relation of Mr. Pitt, though I + believe she has no pretensions to that honour. But the name of Pitt + gave her importance; she was sent to Paris under a military escort, + and Dumont announced the arrival of this miserable victim with all + the airs of a conqueror. I have been since told, she was lodged at + St. Pelagie, where she suffered innumerable hardships, and did not + recover her liberty for many months after the fall of Robespierre. + +--If the persecution of this department has not been sanguinary,* it +should be remembered, that it has been covered with prisons; and that the +extreme submission of its inhabitants would scarcely have furnished the +most merciless tyrant with a pretext for a severer regimen.-- + + * There were some priests guillotined at Amiens, but the + circumstance was concealed from me for some months after it + happened. + +--Dumont, I know, expects to establish a reputation by not having +guillotined as an amusement, and hopes that he may here find a retreat +when his revolutionary labours shall be finished. + +The Convention have not yet chosen the members who are to form the new +Committee. They were yesterday solemnly employed in receiving the +American Ambassador; likewise a brass medal of the tyrant Louis the +Fourteenth, and some marvellous information about the unfortunate +Princess' having dressed herself in mourning at the death of Robespierre. +These legislators remind me of one of Swift's female attendants, who, in +spite of the literary taste he endeavoured to inspire her with, never +could be divested of her original housewifely propensities, but would +quit the most curious anecdote, as he expresses it, "to go seek an old +rag in a closet." Their projects for the revival of their navy seldom go +farther than a transposal in the stripes of the flag, and their vengeance +against regal anthropophagi, and proud islanders, is infallibly diverted +by a denunciation of an aristocratic quartrain, or some new mode, whose +general adoption renders it suspected as the badge of a party.--If, +according to Cardinal de Retz' opinion, elaborate attention to trifles +denote a little mind, these are true Lilliputian sages.--Yours, &c. + + + + +August, 1794. + +I did not leave the Providence until some days after the date of my last: +there were so many precautions to be taken, and so many formalities to be +observed--such references from the municipality to the district, and from +the district to the Revolutionary Committee, that it is evident +Robespierre's death has not banished the usual apprehension of danger +from the minds of those who became responsible for acts of justice or +humanity. At length, after procuring a house-keeper to answer with his +life and property for our re-appearance, and for our attempting nothing +against the "unity and indivisibility" of the republic, we bade (I hope) +a long adieu to our prison. + +Madame de ____ is to remain with me till her house can be repaired; for +it has been in requisition so often, that there is now, we are told, +scarcely a bed left, or a room habitable. We have an old man placed with +us by way of a guard, but he is civil, and is not intended to be a +restraint upon us. In fact, he has a son, a member of the Jacobin club, +and this opportunity is taken to compliment him, by taxing us with the +maintenance of his father. It does not prevent us from seeing our +acquaintance, and we might, I suppose, go out, though we have not yet +ventured. + +The politics of the Convention are fluctuating and versatile, as will +ever be the case where men are impelled by necessity to act in opposition +to their principles. In their eagerness to attribute all the past +excesses to Robespierre, they have, unawares, involved themselves in the +obligation of not continuing the same system. They doubtless expected, +by the fall of the tyrant, to become his successors; but the people, +weary of being dupes, and of hearing that tyrants were fallen, without +feeling any diminution of tyranny, have every where manifested a temper, +which the Convention, in the present relaxed state of its power, is +fearful of making experiments upon. Hence, great numbers of prisoners +are liberated, those that remain are treated more indulgently, and the +fury of revolutionary despotism is in general abated. + +The Deputies who most readily assent to these changes have assumed the +appellation of Moderates; (Heaven knows how much they are indebted to +comparison;) and the popularity they have acquired has both offended and +alarmed the more inflexible Jacobins. A motion has just been made by one +Louchet, that a list of all persons lately enlarged should be printed, +with the names of those Deputies who solicited in their favour, annexed; +and that such aristocrats as were thus discovered to have regained their +liberty, should be re-imprisoned.--The decree passed, but was so ill +received by the people, that it was judged prudent to repeal it the next +day. + +This circumstance seems to be the signal of dissention between the +Assembly and the Club: the former, apprehensive of revolting the public +opinion on the one hand, and desirous of conciliating the Jacobins on the +other, waver between indulgence and severity; but it is easy to discover, +that their variance with the Jacobins is more a matter of expediency than +principle, and that, were it not for other considerations, they would not +suffer the imprisonment of a few thousand harmless people to interrupt +the amity which has so long subsisted between themselves and their +ancient allies.--It is written, "from their works you shall know them;" +and reasoning from this tenet, which is our best authority, (for who can +boast a science in the human heart?) I am justified in my opinion, and I +know it to be that of many persons more competent to decide than myself. +If I could have had doubts on the subject, the occurrences of the last +few days would have amply satisfied them. + +However rejoiced the nation at large might be at the overthrow of +Robespierre, no one was deceived as to the motives which actuated his +colleagues in the Committee. Every day produced new indications not only +of their general concurrence in the enormities of the government, but of +their own personal guilt. The Convention, though it could not be +insensible of this, was willing, with a complaisant prudence, to avoid +the scandal of a public discussion, which must irritate the Jacobins, and +expose its own weakness by a retrospect of the crimes it had applauded +and supported. Laurent Lecointre,* alone, and apparently unconnected +with party, has had the courage to exhibit an accusation against Billaud, +Collot, Barrere, and those of Robespierre's accomplices who were members +of the Committee of General Safety. He gave notice of his design on the +eleventh of Fructidor (28th of August). + + * Lecointre is a linen-draper at Versailles, an original + revolutionist, and I believe of more decent character than most + included in that description. If we could be persuaded that there + were any real fanatics in the Convention, I should give Lecointre + the credit of being among the number. He seems, at least, to have + some material circumstances in his favour--such as possessing the + means of living; of not having, in appearance, enriched himself by + the revolution; and, of being the only member who, after a score of + decrees to that purpose, has ventured to produce an account of his + fortune to the public. + +--It was received everywhere but in the Convention with applause; and the +public was flattered with the hope that justice would attain another +faction of its oppressors. On the succeeding day, Lecointre appeared at +the tribune to read his charges. They conveyed, even to the most +prejudiced mind, an entire conviction, that the members he accused were +sole authors of a part, and accomplices in all the crimes which had +desolated their country. Each charge was supported by material proof, +which he deposited for the information of his colleagues. But this was +unnecessary--his colleagues had no desire to be convinced; and, after +overpowering him with ridicule and insult, they declared, without +entering into any discussion, that they rejected the charges with +indignation, and that the members implicated had uniformly acted +according to their [own] wishes, and those of the nation. + +As soon as this result was known in Paris, the people became enraged and +disgusted, the public walks resounded with murmurs, the fermentation grew +general, and some menaces were uttered of forcing the Convention to give +Lecointre a more respectful hearing.--Intimidated by such unequivocal +proofs of disapprobation, when the Assembly met on the thirteenth, it was +decreed, after much opposition from Tallien, that Lecointre should be +allowed to reproduce his charges, and that they should be solemnly +examined. + +After all this, Lecointre, whose figure is almost ludicrous, and who is +no orator, was to repeat a voluminous denunciation, amidst the clamour, +abuse, chicane, and derision of the whole Convention. But there are +occasions when the keenest ridicule is pointless; when the mind, armed by +truth and elevated by humanity, rejects its insidious efforts--and, +absorbed by more laudable feelings, despises even the smile of contempt. +The justice of Lecointre's cause supplied his want of external +advantages: and his arguments were so clear and so unanswerable, that the +plain diction in which they were conveyed was more impressive than the +most finished eloquence; and neither the malice nor sarcasms of his +enemies had any effect but on those who were interested in silencing or +confounding him. Yet, in proportion as the force of Lecointre's +denunciation became evident, the Assembly appeared anxious to suppress +it; and, after some hours' scandalous debate, during which it was +frequently asserted that these charges could not be encouraged without +criminating the entire legislative body, they decreed the whole to be +false and defamatory. + +The accused members defended themselves with the assurance of delinquents +tried by their avowed accomplices, and who are previously certain of +favour and acquittal; while Lecointre's conduct in the business seems to +have been that of a man determined to persevere in an act of duty, which +he has little reason to hope will be successful.* + + * It is said, that, at the conclusion of this disgraceful business, + the members of the convention crouded about the delinquents with + their habitual servility, and appeared gratified that their services + on the occasion had given them a claim to notice and familiarity. + +Though the galleries of the Convention were more than usually furnished +on the day with applauders, yet this decision has been universally ill +received. The time is passed when the voice of reason could be silenced +by decrees. The stupendous tyranny of the government, though not +meliorated in principle, is relaxed in practice; and this vote, far from +operating in favour of the culprits, has only served to excite the public +indignation, and to render them more odious. Those who cannot judge of +the logical precision of Lecointre's arguments, or the justness of his +inferences, can feel that his charges are merited. Every heart, every +tongue, acknowledges the guilt of those he has attacked. They are +certain France has been the prey of numberless atrocities--they are +certain, that these were perpetrated by order of the committee; that +eleven members composed it; and that Robespierre and his associates being +but three, did not constitute a majority. + +These facts are now commented on with as much freedom as can be expected +among a people whose imaginations are yet haunted by revolutionary +tribunals and Bastilles, and the conclusions are not favourable to the +Convention. The national discontent is, however, suspended by the +hostilities between the legislature and the Jacobin club: the latter +still persists in demanding the revolutionary system in its primitive +severity, while the former are restrained from compliance, not only by +the odium it must draw on them, but from a certainty that it cannot be +supported but through the agency of the popular societies, who would thus +again become their dictators. I believe it is not unlikely that the +people and the Convention are both endeavouring to make instruments of +each other to destroy the common enemy; for the little popularity the +Convention enjoy is doubtless owing to a superior hatred of the Jacobins: +and the moderation which the former affect towards the people, is equally +influenced by a view of forming a powerful balance against these +obnoxious societies.--While a sort of necessity for this temporizing +continues, we shall go on very tranquilly, and it is become a mode to say +the Convention is "adorable." + +Tallien, who has been wrestling with his ill fame for a transient +popularity, has thought it advisable to revive the public attention by +the farce of Pisistratus--at least, an attempt to assassinate him, in +which there seems to have been more eclat than danger, has given rise to +such an opinion. Bulletins of his health are delivered every day in form +to the Convention, and some of the provincial clubs have sent +congratulations on his escape. But the sneers of the incredulous, and +perhaps an internal admonition of the ridicule and disgrace attendant on +the worship of an idol whose reputation is so unpropitious, have much +repressed the customary ardour, and will, I think, prevent these +"hair-breadth 'scapes" from continuing fashionable.--Yours, &c. + + + + +[No Date Given] + +When I describe the French as a people bending meekly beneath the most +absurd and cruel oppression, transmitted from one set of tyrants to +another, without personal security, without commerce--menaced by famine, +and desolated by a government whose ordinary resources are pillage and +murder; you may perhaps read with some surprize the progress and +successes of their armies. But, divest yourself of the notions you may +have imbibed from interested misrepresentations--forget the revolutionary +common-place of "enthusiams", "soldiers of freedom," and "defenders of +their country"--examine the French armies as acting under the motives +which usually influence such bodies, and I am inclined to believe you +will see nothing very wonderful or supernatural in their victories. + +The greater part of the French troops are now composed of young men taken +indiscriminately from all classes, and forced into the service by the +first requisition. They arrive at the army ill-disposed, or at best +indifferent, for it must not be forgotten, that all who could be +prevailed on to go voluntarily had departed before recourse was had to +the measure of a general levy. They are then distributed into different +corps, so that no local connections remain: the natives of the North are +mingled with those of the South, and all provincial combinations are +interdicted. + +It is well known that the military branch of espionage is as extended as +the civil, and the certainty of this destroys confidence, and leaves even +the unwilling soldier no resource but to go through his professional duty +with as much zeal as though it were his choice. On the one hand, the +discipline is severe--on the other, licentiousness is permitted beyond +all example; and, half-terrified, half-seduced, principles the most +inimical, and morals the least corrupt, become habituated to fear nothing +but the government, and to relish a life of military indulgence.--The +armies were some time since ill clothed, and often ill fed; but the +requisitions, which are the scourge of the country, supply them, for the +moment, with profusion: the manufacturers, the shops, and the private +individual, are robbed to keep them in good humour--the best wines, the +best clothes, the prime of every thing, is destined to their use; and +men, who before laboured hard to procure a scanty subsistence, now revel +in luxury and comparative idleness. + +The rapid promotion acquired in the French army is likewise another cause +of its adherence to the government. Every one is eager to be advanced; +for, by means of requisitions, pillage and perquisites, the most trifling +command is very lucrative.--Vast sums of money are expended in supplying +the camps with newspapers written nearly for that purpose, and no others +are permitted to be publicly circulated.--When troops are quartered in a +town, instead of that cold reception which it is usual to accord such +inmates, the system of terror acts as an excellent Marechal de Logis, and +procures them, if not a cordial, at least a substantial one; and it is +indubitable, that they are no where so well entertained as at the houses +of professed aristocrats. The officers and men live in a familiarity +highly gratifying to the latter; and, indeed, neither are distinguishable +by their language, manners, or appearance. There is, properly speaking, +no subordination except in the field, and a soldier has only to avoid +politics, and cry "Vive la Convention!" to secure plenary indulgence on +all other occasions.--Many who entered the army with regret, continue +there willingly for the sake of a maintenance; besides that a decree +exists, which subjects the parents of those who return, to heavy +punishments. In a word, whatever can operate on the fears, or interests, +or passions, is employed to preserve the allegiance of the armies to the +government, and attach them to their profession. + +I am far from intending to detract from the national bravery--the annals +of the French Monarchy abound with the most splendid instances of it--I +only wish you to understand, what I am fully convinced of myself, that +liberty and republicanism have no share in the present successes. The +battle of Gemappe was gained when the Brissotin faction had enthroned +itself on the ruins of a constitution, which the armies were said to +adore with enthusiasm: by what sudden inspiration were their affections +transferred to another form of government? or will any one pretend that +they really understood the democratic Machiavelism which they were to +propagate in Brabant? At the battle of Maubeuge, France was in the first +paroxysm of revolutionary terror--at that of Fleurus, she had become a +scene of carnage and proscription, at once the most wretched and the most +detestable of nations, the sport and the prey of despots so contemptible, +that neither the excess of their crimes, nor the sufferings they +inflicted, could efface the ridicule which was incurred by a submission +to them. Were the French then fighting for liberty, or did they only +move on professionally, with the enemy in front, the Guillotine in the +rear, and the intermediate space filled up with the licentiousness of a +camp?--If the name alone of liberty suffices to animate the French troops +to conquest, and they could imagine it was enjoyed under Brissot or +Robespierre, this is at least a proof that they are rather amateurs than +connoisseurs; and I see no reason why the same impulse might not be given +to an army of Janizaries, or the the legions of Tippoo Saib. + +After all, it may be permitted to doubt, whether the sort of enthusiasm +so liberally ascribed to the French, would really contribute more to +their successes, than the thoughtless courage I am willing to allow +them.--It is, I believe, the opinion of military men, that the best +soldiers are those who are most disposed to act mechanically; and we are +certain that the most brilliant victories have been obtained where this +ardour, said to be produced by the new doctrines, could have had no +influence.--The heroes of Pavia, of Narva, or those who administered to +the vain-glory of Louis the Fourteenth, by ravaging the Palatinate, we +may suppose little acquainted with it. The fate of battles frequently +depends on causes which the General, the Statesman, or the Philosopher, +are equally unable to decide upon; and the laurel, "meed of mighty +conquerors," seems oftener to fall at the caprice of the wind, than to be +gathered. It is sometimes the lot of the ablest tactician, at others of +the most voluminous muster-roll; but, I believe, there are few examples +where these political elevations have had an effect, when unaccompanied +by advantages of situation, superior skill, or superior numbers.--_"La +plupart des gens de guerre_ (says Fontenelle) _sont leur metier avec +beaucoup de courage. Il en est peu qui y pensent; leurs bras agissent +aussi vigoureusement que l'on veut, leurs tetes se reposent, et ne +prennent presque part a rieu"_*-- + + * "Military men in general do their duty with much courage, but few + make it a subject of reflection. With all the bodily activity that + can be expected of them, their minds remain at rest, and partake but + little of the business they are engaged in." + +--If this can be applied with truth to any armies, it must be to those of +France. We have seen them successively and implicitly adopting all the +new constitutions and strange gods which faction and extravagance could +devise--we have seen them alternately the dupes and slaves of all +parties: at one period abandoning their King and their religion: at +another adulating Robespierre, and deifying Marat.--These, I confess are +dispositions to make good soldiers, but convey to me no idea of +enthusiasts or republicans. + +The bulletin of the Convention is periodically furnished with splendid +feats of heroism performed by individuals of their armies, and I have no +doubt but some of them are true. There are, however, many which have +been very peaceably culled from old memoirs, and that so unskilfully, +that the hero of the present year loses a leg or an arm in the same +exploit, and uttering the self-same sentences, as one who lived two +centuries ago. There is likewise a sort of jobbing in the edifying +scenes which occasionally occur in the Convention--if a soldier happen to +be wounded who has relationship, acquaintance, or connexion, with a +Deputy, a tale of extraordinary valour and extraordinary devotion to the +cause is invented or adopted; the invalid is presented in form at the bar +of the Assembly, receives the fraternal embrace and the promise of a +pension, and the feats of the hero, along with the munificence of the +Convention, are ordered to circulate in the next bulletin. Yet many of +the deeds recorded very deservedly in these annals of glory, have been +performed by men who abhor republican principles, and lament the +disasters their partizans have occasioned. I have known even notorious +aristocrats introduced to the Convention as martyrs to liberty, and who +have, in fact, behaved as gallantly as though they had been so.--These +are paradoxes which a military man may easily reconcile. + +Independently of the various secondary causes that contribute to the +success of the French armies, there is one which those persons who wish +to exalt every thing they denominate republican seem to exclude--I mean, +the immense advantage they possess in point of numbers. There has +scarcely been an engagement of importance, in which the French have not +profited by this in a very extraordinary degree.* + + * This has been confessed to me by many republicans themselves; and + a disproportion of two or three to one must add considerably to + republican enthusiasm. + +--Whenever a point is to be gained, the sacrifice of men is not a matter +of hesitation. One body is dispatched after another; and fresh troops +thus succeeding to oppose those of the enemy already harassed, we must +not wonder that the event has so often proved favourable to them. + +A republican, who passes for highly informed, once defended this mode of +warfare by observing, that in the course of several campaigns more troops +perished by sickness than the sword. If then an object could be attained +by such means, so much time was saved, and the loss eventually the same: +but the Generals of other countries dare not risk such philosophical +calculations, and would be accountable to the laws of humanity for their +destructive conquests. + +When you estimate the numbers that compose the French armies, you are not +to consider them as an undisciplined multitude, whose sole force is in +their numbers. From the beginning of the revolution, many of them have +been exercised in the National Guard; and though they might not make a +figure on the parade at Potsdam, their inferiority is not so great as to +render the German exactitude a counterbalance for the substantial +inequality of numbers. Yet, powerfully as these considerations favour +the military triumphs of France, there is a period when we may expect +both cause and effect will terminate. That period may still be far +removed, but whenever the assignats* become totally discredited, and it +shall be found requisite to economize in the war department, adieu la +gloire, a bas les armes, and perhaps bon soir la republique; for I do not +reckon it possible, that armies so constituted can ever be persuaded to +subject themselves to the restraints and privations which must be +indispensible, as soon as the government ceases to have the disposal of +an unlimited fund. + + * The mandats were, in fact, but a continuation of the assignats, + under another name. The last decree for the emission of assignats, + limited the quantity circulated to forty milliards, which taken at + par, is only about sixteen hundred millions of pounds sterling! + +What I have hitherto written you will understand as applicable only to +the troops employed on the frontiers. There are some of another +description, more cherished and not less serviceable, who act as a sort +of police militant and errant, and defend the republic against her +internal enemies--the republicans. Almost every town of importance is +occasionally infested by these servile instruments of despotism, who are +maintained in insolent profusion, to overawe those whom misery and famine +might tempt to revolt. When a government, after imprisoning some hundred +thousands of the most distinguished in every class of life, and disarming +all the rest, is yet obliged to employ such a force for its protection, +we may justifiably conclude, it does not presume on the attachment of the +people. It is not impossible that the agents of different descriptions, +destined to the service of conciliating the interior to republicanism, +might alone form an army equal to that of the Allies; but this is a task, +where the numbers employed only serve to render it more difficult. They, +however, procure submission, if they do not create affection; and the +Convention is not delicate. + + + + +Amiens, Sept. 30, 1794. + +The domestic politics of France are replete with novelties: the +Convention is at war with the Jacobins--and the people, even to the most +decided aristocrats, have become partizans of the Convention.--My last +letters have explained the origin of these phaenomena, and I will now add +a few words on their progress. + +You have seen that, at the fall of Robespierre, the revolutionary +government had reached the very summit of despotism, and that the +Convention found themselves under the necessity of appearing to be +directed by a new impulse, or of acknowledging their participation in the +crimes they affected to deplore.--In consequence, almost without the +direct repeal of any law, (except some which affected their own +security,) a more moderate system has been gradually adopted, or, to +speak more correctly, the revolutionary one is suffered to relax. The +Jacobins behold these popular measures with extreme jealousy, as a means +which may in time render the legislature independent of them; and it is +certainly not the least of their discontents, that, after all their +labours in the common cause, they find themselves excluded both from +power and emoluments. Accustomed to carry every thing by violence, and +more ferocious than politic, they have, by insisting on the +reincarceration of suspected people, attached a numerous party to the +Convention, which is thus warned that its own safety depends on +repressing the influence of clubs, which not only loudly demand that the +prisons may be again filled, but frequently debate on the project of +transporting all the "enemies of the republic" together. + +The liberty of the press, also, is a theme of discord not less important +than the emancipation of aristocrats. The Jacobins are decidedly adverse +to it; and it is a sort of revolutionary solecism, that those who boast +of having been the original destroyers of despotism, are now the +advocates of arbitrary imprisonment, and restraints on the freedom of the +press. The Convention itself is divided on the latter subject; and, +after a revolution of five years, founded on the doctrine of the rights +of man, it has become matter of dispute--whether so principal an article +of them ought really to exist or not. They seem, indeed, willing to +allow it, provided restrictions can be devised which may prevent calumny +from reaching their own persons; but as that cannot easily be atchieved, +they not only contend against the liberty of the press in practice, but +have hitherto refused to sanction it by decree, even as a principle. + +It is perhaps reluctantly that the Convention opposes these powerful and +extended combinations which have so long been its support, and it may +dread the consequences of being left without the means of overawing or +influencing the people; but the example of the Brissotins, who, by +attempting to profit by the services of the Jacobins, without submitting +to their domination, fell a sacrifice, has warned their survivors of the +danger of employing such instruments. It is evident that the clubs will +not act subordinately, and that they must either be subdued to +insignificance, or regain their authority entirely; and as neither the +people nor Convention are disposed to acquiesce in the latter, they are +politicly joining their efforts to accelerate the former. + +Yet, notwithstanding these reciprocal cajoleries, the return of justice +is slow and mutable; an instinctive or habitual preference of evil +appears at times to direct the Convention, even in opposition to their +own interests. They have as yet done little towards repairing the +calamities of which they are the authors; and we welcome the little they +have done, not for its intrinsic value, but as we do the first spring +flowers--which, though of no great sweetness or beauty, we consider as +pledges that the storms of winter are over, and that a milder season is +approaching.--It is true, the revolutionary Committees are diminished in +number, the prisons are disencumbered, and a man is not liable to be +arrested because a Jacobin suspects his features: yet there is a wide +difference between such toleration and freedom and security; and it is a +circumstance not favourable to those who look beyond the moment, that the +tyrannical laws which authorized all the late enormities are still +unrepealed. The Revolutionary Tribunal continues to sentence people to +death, on pretexts as frivolous as those which were employed in the time +of Robespierre; they have only the advantage of being tried more +formally, and of forfeiting their lives upon proof, instead of without +it, for actions that a strictly administered justice would not punish by +a month's imprisonment.* + + * For instance, a young monk, for writing fanatic letters, and + signing resolutions in favour of foederalism--a hosier, for + facilitating the return of an emigrant--a man of ninety, for + speaking against the revolution, and discrediting the assignats--a + contractor, for embezzling forage--people of various descriptions, + for obstructing the recruitment, or insulting the tree of liberty. + These, and many similar condemnations, will be found in the + proceedings of the Revolutionary Tribunal, long after the death of + Robespierre, and when justice and humanity were said to be restored. + +A ceremony has lately taken place, the object of which was to deposit the +ashes of Marat in the Pantheon, and to dislodge the bust of Mirabeau-- +who, notwithstanding two years notice to quit this mansion of +immortality, still remained there. The ashes of Marat being escorted to +the Convention by a detachment of Jacobins, and the President having +properly descanted on the virtues which once animated the said ashes, +they were conveyed to the place destined for their reception; and the +excommunicated Mirabeau being delivered over to the secular arm of a +beadle, these remains of the divine Marat were placed among the rest of +the republican deities. To have obliged the Convention in a body to +attend and consecrate the crimes of this monster, though it could not +degrade them, was a momentary triumph for the Jacobins, nor could the +royalists behold without satisfaction the same men deploring the death of +Marat, who, a month before, had celebrated the fall of Louis the +Sixteenth! To have been so deplored, and so celebrated, are, methinks, +the very extremes of infamy and glory. + +I must explain to you, that the Jacobins have lately been composed of two +parties--the avowed adherents of Collot, Billaud, &c. and the concealed +remains of those attached to Robespierre; but party has now given way to +principle, a circumstance not usual; and the whole club of Paris, with +several of the affiliated ones, join in censuring the innovating +tendencies of the Convention.--It is curious to read the debates of the +parent society, which pass in afflicting details of the persecutions +experienced by the patriots on the parts of the moderates and +aristocrats, who, they assert, are become so daring as even to call in +question the purity of the immortal Marat. You will suppose, of course, +that this cruel persecution is nothing more than an interdiction to +persecute others; and their notions of patriotism and moderation may be +conceived by their having just expelled Tallien and Freron as moderates.* + + * Freron endeavoured, on this occasion, to disculpate himself from + the charge of "moderantisme," by alledging he had opposed + Lecointre's denunciation of Barrere, &c.--and certainly one who + piques himself on being the pupil of the divine Marat, was worthy of + remaining in the fraternity from which he was now expelled.--Freron + is a veteran journalist of the revolution, of better talents, though + not of better fame, than the generality of his contemporaries: or, + rather, his early efforts in exciting the people to rebellion + entitle him to a preeminence of infamy. + + + + +Amiens, October 4, 1794. + +We have had our guard withdrawn for some days; and I am just now returned +from Peronne, where we had been in order to see the seals taken off the +papers, &c. which I left there last year. I am much struck with the +alteration observable in people's countenances. Every person I meet +seems to have contracted a sort of revolutionary aspect: many walk with +their heads down, and with half-shut eyes measure the whole length of a +street, as though they were still intent on avoiding greetings from the +suspicious; some look grave and sorrow-worn; some apprehensive, as if in +hourly expectation of a _mandat d'arret;_ and others absolutely ferocious, +from a habit of affecting the barbarity of the times. + +Their language is nearly as much changed as their appearance--the +revolutionary jargon is universal, and the most distinguished aristocrats +converse in the style of Barrere's reports. The common people are not +less proficients in this fashionable dialect, than their superiors; and, +as far as I can judge, are become so from similar motives. While I was +waiting this morning at a shop-door, I listened to a beggar who was +cheapening a slice of pumpkin, and on some disagreement about the price, +the beggar told the old _revendeuse_ [Market-woman.] that she was +_"gangrenee d'aristocratie."_ ["Eat up with aristocracy."] _"Je vous en +defie,"_ ["I defy you."] retorted the pumpkin-merchant; but turning pale +as she spoke, _"Mon civisme est a toute epreuve, mais prenez donc ta +citrouille,"_ ["My civism is unquestionable; but here take your pumpkin."] +take it then." _"Ah, te voila bonne republicaine,_ ["Ah! Now I see you +are a good republican."] says the beggar, carrying off her bargain; while +the old woman muttered, _"Oui, oui, l'on a beau etre republicaine tandis +qu'on n'a pas de pain a manger."_ ["Yes, in troth, it's a fine thing to +be a republican, and have no bread to eat."] + +I hear little of the positive merits of the convention, but the hope is +general that they will soon suppress the Jacobin clubs; yet their attacks +continue so cold and cautious, that their intentions are at least +doubtful: they know the voice of the nation at large would be in favour +of such a measure, and they might, if sincere, act more decisively, +without risk to themselves.--The truth is, they would willingly proscribe +the persons of the Jacobins, while they cling to their principles, and +still hesitate whether they shall confide in a people whose resentment +they have so much deserved, and have so much reason to dread. Conscious +guilt appears to shackle all their proceedings, and though the punishment +of some subordinate agents cannot, in the present state of things, be +dispensed with, yet the Assembly unveil the register of their crimes very +reluctantly, as if each member expected to see his own name inscribed on +it. Thus, even delinquents, who would otherwise be sacrificed +voluntarily to public justice, are in a manner protected by delays and +chicane, because an investigation might implicate the Convention as the +example and authoriser of their enormities.--Fouquier Tinville devoted a +thousand innocent people to death in less time than it has already taken +to bring him to a trial, where he will benefit by all those judicial +forms which he has so often refused to others. This man, who is much the +subject of conversation at present, was Public Accuser to the +Revolutionary Tribunal--an office which, at best, in this instance, only +served to give an air of regularity to assassination: but, by a sort of +genius in turpitude, he contrived to render it odious beyond its original +perversion, in giving to the most elaborate and revolting cruelties a +turn of spontaneous pleasantry, or legal procedure.--The prisoners were +insulted with sarcasms, intimidated by threats, and still oftener +silenced by arbitrary declarations, that they were not entitled to speak; +and those who were taken to the scaffold, after no other ceremony than +calling over their names, had less reason to complain, than if they had +previously been exposed to the barbarities of such trials.--Yet this +wretch might, for a time at least, have escaped punishment, had he not, +in defending himself, criminated the remains of the Committee, whom it +was intended to screen. When he appeared at the bar of the Convention, +every word he uttered seemed to fill its members with alarm, and he was +ordered away before he could finish his declaration. It must be +acknowledged, that, however he may be condemned by justice and humanity, +nothing could legally attach to him: he was only the agent of the +Convention, and the utmost horrors of the Tribunal were not merely +sanctioned, but enjoined by specific decrees. + +I have been told by a gentleman who was at school with Fouquier, and has +had frequent occasions of observing him at different periods since, that +he always appeared to him to be a man of mild manners, and by no means +likely to become the instrument of these atrocities; but a strong +addiction to gaming having involved him in embarrassments, he was induced +to accept the office of Public Accuser to the Tribunal, and was +progressively led on from administering to the iniquity of his employers, +to find a gratification in it himself. + +I have often thought, that the habit of watching with selfish avidity for +those turns of fortune which enrich one individual by the misery of +another, must imperceptibly tend to harden the heart. How can the +gamester, accustomed both to suffer and inflict ruin with indifference, +preserve that benevolent frame of mind, which, in the ordinary and less +censurable pursuits of common life, is but too prone to become impaired, +and to leave humanity more a duty than a feeling? + +The conduct of Fouquier Tinville has led me to some reflections on a +subject which I know the French consider as matter of triumph, and as a +peculiar advantage which their national character enjoys over the +English--I mean that smoothness of manner and guardedness of expression +which they call "aimable," and which they have the faculty of attaining +and preserving distinctly from a correspondent temper of the mind. It +accompanies them through the most irritating vicissitudes, and enables +them to deceive, even without deceit: for though this suavity is +habitual, of course frequently undesigning, the stranger is nevertheless +thrown off his guard by it, and tempted to place confidence, or expect +services, which a less conciliating deportment would not have been +suggested. A Frenchman may be an unkind husband, a severe parent, or an +arrogant master, yet never contract his features, or asperate his voice, +and for this reason is, in the national sense, "un homme bien doux." His +heart may become corrupt, his principles immoral, and his disposition +ferocious--yet he shall still retain his equability of tone and +complacent phraseology, and be "un homme bien aimable." + +The revolution has tended much to develope this peculiarity of the French +character, and has, by various examples in public life, confirmed the +opinions I had formed from previous observation. Fouquier Tinville, as I +have already noticed, was a man of gentle exterior.--Couthon, the +execrable associate of Robespierre, was mildness itself--Robespierre's +harangues are in a style of distinguished sensibility--and even Carrier, +the destroyer of thirty thousand Nantais, is attested by his +fellow-students to have been of an amiable disposition. I know a man of +most insinuating address, who has been the means of conducting his own +brother to the Guillotine; and another nearly as prepossessing, who, +without losing his courteous demeanor, was, during the late +revolutionary excesses, the intimate of an executioner. + + *It would be too voluminous to enumerate all the contrasts of + manners and character exhibited during the French revolution--The + philosophic Condorcet, pursuing with malignancy his patron, the Duc + de la Rochefoucault, and hesitating with atrocious mildness on the + sentence of the King--The massacres of the prisons connived at by + the gentle Petion--Collot d'Herbois dispatching, by one discharge of + cannon, three hundred people together, "to spare his sensibility" + the talk of executions in detail--And St. Just, the deviser of a + thousand enormities, when he left the Committee, after his last + interview, with the project of sending them all to the Guillotine, + telling them, in a tone of tender reproach, like a lover of romance, + "Vous avez fletri mon coeur, je vais l'ouvrir a la Convention."-- + Madame Roland, in spite of the tenderness of her sex, could coldly + reason on the expediency of a civil war, which she acknowledged + might become necessary to establish the republic. Let those who + disapprove this censure of a female, whom it is a sort of mode to + lament, recollect that Madame Roland was the victim of a celebrity + she had acquired in assisting the efforts of faction to dethrone the + King--that her literary bureau was dedicated to the purpose of + exasperating the people against him--and that she was considerably + instrumental to the events which occasioned his death. If her + talents and accomplishments make her an object of regret, it was to + the unnatural misapplication of those talents and accomplishments in + the service of party, that she owed her fate. Her own opinion was, + that thousands might justifiably be devoted to the establishment of + a favourite system; or, to speak truly, to the aggrandisement of + those who were its partizans. The same selfish principle actuated + an opposite faction, and she became the sacrifice.--"Oh even-handed + justice!" + +I do not pretend to decide whether the English are virtually more gentle +in their nature than the French; but I am persuaded this douceur, on +which the latter pride themselves, affords no proof of the contrary. An +Englishman is seldom out of humour, without proclaiming it to all the +world; and the most forcible motives of interest, or expediency, cannot +always prevail on him to assume a more engaging external than that which +delineates his feelings. + +If he has a matter to refuse, he usually begins by fortifying himself +with a little ruggedness of manner, by way of prefacing a denial he might +otherwise not have resolution to persevere in. "The hows and whens of +life" corrugate his features, and disharmonize his periods; contradiction +sours, and passion ruffles him--and, in short, an Englishman displeased, +from whatever cause, is neither "un homme bien doux," nor "un homme bien +aimable;" but such as nature has made him, subject to infirmities and +sorrows, and unable to disguise the one, or appear indifferent to the +other. Our country, like every other, has doubtless produced too many +examples of human depravity; but I scarcely recollect any, where a +ferocious disposition was not accompanied by corresponding manners--or +where men, who would plunder or massacre, affected to retain at the same +time habits of softness, and a conciliating physiognomy. + +We are, I think, on the whole, authorized to conclude, that, in +determining the claims to national superiority, the boasted and unvarying +controul which the French exercise over their features and accents, is +not a merit; nor those indications of what passes within, to which the +English are subject, an imperfection. If the French sometimes supply +their want of kindness, or render disappointment less acute at the +moment, by a sterile complacency, the English harshness is often only the +alloy to an efficient benevolence, and a sympathizing mind. In France +they have no humourists who seem impelled by their nature to do good, in +spite of their temperament--nor have we in England many people who are +cold and unfeeling, yet systematically aimable: but I must still persist +in not thinking it a defect that we are too impetuous, or perhaps too +ingenuous, to unite contradictions. + +There is a cause, that doubtless has its effects in representing the +English disadvantageously, and which I have never heard properly allowed +for. The liberty of the press, and the great interest taken by all ranks +of people in public affairs, have occasioned a more numerous circulation +of periodical prints of every kind in England, than in any other country +in Europe. Now, as it is impossible to fill them constantly with +politics, and as the taste of different readers must be consulted, every +barbarous adventure, suicide, murder, robbery, domestic fracas, assaults, +and batteries of the lower orders, with the duels and divorces of the +higher, are all chronicled in various publications, disseminated over +Europe, and convey an idea that we are a very miserable, ferocious, and +dissolute nation. The foreign gazettes being chiefly appropriated to +public affairs, seldom record either the vices, the crimes, or +misfortunes of individuals; so that they are thereby at least prevented +from fixing an unfavourable judgement on the national character. + +Mercier observes, that the number of suicides committed in Paris was +supposed to exceed greatly that of similar disasters in London; and that +murders in France were always accompanied by circumstances of peculiar +horror, though policy and custom had rendered the publication of such +events less general than with us.--Our divorces, at which the Gallic +purity of manners used to be so much scandalized, are, no doubt, to be +regretted; but that such separations were not then allowed, or desired in +France, may perhaps be attributed, at least as justly, to the +complaisance of husbands, as to the discretion of wives, or the national +morality.* + + * At present, in the monthly statement, the number of divorces in + France, is often nearly equal to that of the marriages. + +I should reproach myself if I could feel impartial when I contemplate the +English character; yet I certainly endeavour to write as though I were +so. If I have erred, it has been rather in allowing too much to received +opinions on the subject of this country, than in suffering my affections +to make me unjust; for though I am far from affecting the fashion of the +day, which censures all prejudices as illiberal, except those in +disfavour of our own country, yet I am warranted, I hope, in saying, that +however partial I may appear to England, I have not been so at the +expence of truth.--Yours, &c. + + + + +October 6, 1794. + +The sufferings of individuals have often been the means of destroying or +reforming the most powerful tyrannies; reason has been convinced by +argument, and passion appealed to by declamation in vain--when some +unvarnished tale, or simple exposure of facts, has at once rouzed the +feelings, and conquered the supineness of an oppressed people. + +The revolutionary government, in spite of the clamorous and weekly +swearings of the Convention to perpetuate it, has received a check from +an event of this nature, which I trust it will never recover.--By an +order of the Revolutionary Committee of Nantes, in November 1793, all +prisoners accused of political crimes were to be transferred to Paris, +where the tribunal being more immediately under the direction of +government, there would be no chance of their acquittal. In consequence +of this order, an hundred and thirty-two inhabitants of Nantes, arrested +on the usual pretexts of foederalism, or as suspected, or being +Muscadins, were, some months after, conducted to Paris. Forty of the +number died through the hardships and ill treatment they encountered on +the way, the rest remained in prison until after the death of +Robespierre. + +The evidence produced on their trial, which lately took place, has +revealed but too circumstantially all the horrors of the revolutionary +system. Destruction in every form, most shocking to morals or humanity, +has depopulated the countries of the Loire; and republican Pizarro's and +Almagro's seem to have rivalled each other in the invention and +perpetration of crimes. + +When the prisons of Nantes overflowed, many hundreds of their miserable +inhabitants had been conducted by night, and chained together, to the +river side; where, being first stripped of their clothes, they were +crouded into vessels with false bottoms, constructed for the purpose, and +sunk.*-- + + * Though the horror excited by such atrocious details must be + serviceable to humanity, I am constrained by decency to spare the + reader a part of them. Let the imagination, however repugnant, + pause for a moment over these scenes--Five, eight hundred people of + different sexes, ages, and conditions, are taken from their prisons, + in the dreary months of December and January, and conducted, during + the silence of the night, to the banks of the Loire. The agents of + the Republic there despoil them of their clothes, and force them, + shivering and defenceless, to enter the machines prepared for their + destruction--they are chained down, to prevent their escape by + swimming, and then the bottom is detached for the upper part, and + sunk.--On some occasions the miserable victims contrived to loose + themselves, and clinging to the boards near them, shrieked in the + agonies of despair and death, "O save us! it is not even now too + late: in mercy save us!" But they appealed to wretches to whom + mercy was a stranger; and, being cut away from their hold by strokes + of the sabre, perished with their companions. That nothing might be + wanting to these outrages against nature, they were escribed as + jests, and called "Noyades, water parties," and "civic baptisms"! + Carrier, a Deputy of the Convention, used to dine and make parties + of pleasure, accompanied by music and every species of gross luxury, + on board the barges appropriated to these execrable purposes. + +--At one time, six hundred children appear to have been destroyed in this +manner;--young people of different sexes were tied in pairs and thrown +into the river;--thousands were shot in the high roads and in the fields; +and vast numbers were guillotined, without a trial!* + + * Six young women, (the _Mesdemoiselles la Meterie,_) in particular, + sisters, and all under four-and-twenty, were ordered to the + Guillotine together: the youngest died instantly of fear, the rest + were executed successively.--A child eleven years old, who had + previously told the executioner, with affecting simplicity, that he + hoped he would not hurt him much, received three strokes of the + Guillotine before his head was severed from his body. + +--Two thousand died, in less than two months, of a pestilence, occasioned +by this carnage: the air became infected, and the waters of the Loire +empoisoned, by dead bodies; and those whom tyranny yet spared, perished +by the elements which nature intended for their support.* + + * Vast sums were exacted from the Nantais for purifying the air, and + taking precautions against epidemical disorders. + +But I will not dwell on horrors, which, if not already known to all +Europe, I should be unequal to describe: suffice it to say, that whatever +could disgrace or afflict mankind, whatever could add disgust to +detestation, and render cruelty, if possible, less odious than the +circumstances by which it was accompanied, has been exhibited in this +unfortunate city.--Both the accused and their witnesses were at first +timid through apprehension, but by degrees the monstrous mysteries of the +government were laid open, and it appeared, beyond denial or palliation, +that these enormities were either devised, assisted, or connived at, by +Deputies of the Convention, celebrated for their ardent republicanism and +revolutionary zeal.--The danger of confiding unlimited power to such men +as composed the majority of the Assembly, was now displayed in a manner +that penetrated the dullest imagination, and the coldest heart; and it +was found, that, armed with decrees, aided by revolutionary committees, +revolutionary troops, and revolutionary vehicles of destruction,* +missionaries selected by choice from the whole representation, had, in +the city of Nantes alone, and under the mask of enthusiastic patriotism, +sacrificed thirty thousand people! + + * A company was formed of all the ruffians that could be collected + together. They were styled the Company of Marat, and were specially + empowered to arrest whomsoever they chose, and to enter houses by + night or day--in fine, to proscribe and pillage at their pleasure. + +Facts like these require no comment. The nation may be intimidated, and +habits of obedience, or despair of redress, prolong its submission; but +it can no longer be deceived: and patriotism, revolutionary liberty, and +philosophy, are for ever associated with the drowning machines of +Carrier, and the precepts and calculations of a Herault de Sechelles,* or +a Lequinio.**-- + + * Herault de Sechelles was distinguished by birth, talents, and + fortune, above most of his colleagues in the Convention; yet we find + him in correspondence with Carrier, applauding his enormities, and + advising him how to continue them with effect.--Herault was of a + noble family, and had been a president in the Parliament of Paris. + He was one of Robespierre's Committee of Public Welfare, and being + in some way implicated in a charge of treachery brought against + Simon, another Deputy, was guillotined at the same time with Danton. + + ** Lequinio is a philosopher by profession, who has endeavoured to + enlighten his countrymen by a publication entitled "_Les Prejuges + Detruits,_" and since by proving it advantageous to make no prisoners + of war. + +--The ninety Nantais, against whom there existed no serious charge, and +who had already suffered more than death, were acquitted. Yet, though +the people were gratified by this verdict, and the general indignation +appeased by an immediate arrest of those who had been most notoriously +active in these dreadful operations, a deep and salutary impression +remains, and we may hope it will be found impracticable either to renew +the same scenes, or for the Convention to shelter (as they seemed +disposed to do) the principal criminals, who are members of their own +body. Yet, how are these delinquents to be brought to condemnation? +They all acted under competent authority, and their dispatches to the +Convention, which sufficiently indicated their proceedings, were always +sanctioned by circulation, and applauded, according to the excess of +their flagitiousness. + +It is worthy of remark, that Nantes, the principal theatre of these +persecutions and murders, had been early distinguished by the attachment +of its inhabitants to the revolution; insomuch, that, at the memorable +epoch when the short-sighted policy of the Court excluded the Constituent +Assembly from their Hall at Versailles, and they took refuge in the Jeu +de Paume, with a resolution fatal to their country, never to separate +until they had obtained their purposes, an express was sent to Nantes, as +the place they should make choice of, if any violence obliged them to +quit the neighbourhood of Paris. + +But it was not only by its principles that Nantes had signalized itself; +at every period of the war, it had contributed largely both in men and +money, and its riches and commerce still rendered it one of the most +important towns of the republic.--What has been its reward?--Barbarous +envoys from the Convention, sent expressly to level the aristocracy of +wealth, to crush its mercantile spirit, and decimate its inhabitants.*-- + + * When Nantes was reduced almost to a state of famine by the + destruction of commerce, and the supplies drawn for the maintenance + of the armies, Commissioners were sent to Paris, to solicit a supply + of provisions. They applied to Carrier, as being best acquainted + with their distress, and were answered in this language:--_"Demandez, + pour Nantes! je solliciterai qu'on porte le fer et la flamme dans + cette abominable ville. Vous etes tous des coquins, des contre- + revolutionnaires, des brigands, des scelerats, je ferai nommer une + commission par la Convention Nationale.--J'irai moi meme a la tete + de cette commission.--Scelerats, je serai rouler les tetes dans + Nantes--je regenererai Nantes."_--"Is it for Nantes that you + petition? I'll exert my influence to have fire and sword carried + into that abominable city. You are all scoundrels, counter- + revolutionists, thieves, miscreants.--I'll have a commission + appointed by the Convention, and go myself at the head of it.-- + Villains, I'll set your heads a rolling about Nantes--I'll + regenerate Nantes." + Report of the Commission of Twenty-one, on the conduct of Carrier. + +--Terrible lesson for those discontented and mistaken people, who, +enriched by commerce, are not content with freedom and independence, but +seek for visionary benefits, by becoming the partizans of innovation, or +the tools of faction!* + + * The disasters of Nantes ought not to be lost to the republicans of + Birmingham, Manchester, and other great commercial towns, where "men + fall out they know not why;" and where their increasing wealth and + prosperity are the best eulogiums on the constitution they attempt + to undermine. + +I have hitherto said little of La Vendee; but the fate of Nantes is so +nearly connected with it, that I shall make it the subject of my next +letter. + + + + +[No Date or Place Given.] + +It appears, that the greater part of the inhabitants of Poitou, Anjou, +and the Southern divisions of Brittany, now distinguished by the general +appellation of the people of La Vendee, (though they include those of +several other departments,) never either comprehended or adopted the +principles of the French revolution. Many different causes contributed +to increase their original aversion from the new system, and to give +their resistance that consistency, which has since become so formidable. +A partiality for their ancient customs, an attachment to their Noblesse, +and a deference for their Priests, are said to characterize the brave +and simple natives of La Vendee. Hence republican writers, with +self-complacent decision, always treat this war as the effect of +ignorance, slavery, and superstition. + +The modern reformist, who calls the labourer from the plough, and the +artizan from the loom, to make them statesmen or philosophers, and who +has invaded the abodes of contented industry with the rights of man, that +our fields may be cultivated, and our garments wove, by metaphysicians, +will readily assent to this opinion.--Yet a more enlightened and liberal +philosophy may be tempted to examine how far the Vendeans have really +merited the contempt and persecution of which they have been the objects. +By the confession of the republicans themselves, they are religious, +hospitable, and frugal, humane and merciful towards their enemies, and +easily persuaded to whatever is just and reasonable. + +I do not pretend to combat the narrow prejudices of those who suppose the +worth or happiness of mankind compatible but with one set of opinions; +and who, confounding the adventitious with the essential, appreciate only +book learning: but surely, qualities which imply a knowledge of what is +due both to God and man, and information sufficient to yield to what is +right or rational, are not descriptive of barbarians; or at least, we may +say with Phyrrhus, "there is nothing barbarous in their discipline."* + + *"The husbandmen of this country are in general men of simple + manners, naturally well inclined, or at least not addicted to + serious vices." Lequinio, Guerre de La Vendee. + + Dubois de Crance, speaking of the inhabitants of La Vendee, says, + "They are the most hospitable people I ever saw, and always disposed + to listen to what is just and reasonable, if proffered with mildness + and humanity." + + "This unpolished people, whom, however, it is much less difficult to + persuade than to fight." Lequinio, G. de La V. + + "They affected towards our prisoners a deceitful humanity, + neglecting no means to draw them over to their own party, and often + sending them back to us with only a simple prohibition to bear arms + against the King or religion." + Report of Richard and Choudieu. + + The ignorant Vendeans then could give lessons of policy and + humanity, which the "enlightened" republicans were not capable of + profiting by. + +--Their adherence to their ancient institutions, and attachment to their +Gentry and Clergy, when the former were abolished and the latter +proscribed, might warrant a presumption that they were happy under the +one, and kindly treated by the other: for though individuals may +sometimes persevere in affections or habits from which they derive +neither felicity nor advantage, whole bodies of men can scarcely be +supposed eager to risk their lives in defence of privileges that have +oppressed them, or of a religion from which they draw no consolation. + +But whatever the cause, the new doctrines, both civil and religious, were +received in La Vendee with a disgust, which was not only expressed by +murmurs, but occasionally by little revolts, by disobedience to the +constitutional authorities, and a rejection of the constitutional clergy. + +Some time previous to the deposition of the King, Commissioners were sent +to suppress these disorders; and though I doubt not but all possible +means were taken to conciliate, I can easily believe, that neither the +King nor his Ministers might be desirous of subduing by force a people +who erred only from piety or loyalty. What effect this system of +indulgence might have produced cannot now be decided; because the +subsequent overthrow of the monarchy, and the massacre or banishment of +the priests, must have totally alienated their minds, and precluded all +hope of reconcilement.--Disaffection, therefore, continued to increase, +and the Brissotines are suspected of having rather fostered than +repressed these intestine commotions,* for the same purpose which induced +them to provoke the war with England, and to extend that of the +Continent. + + * Le Brun, one of the Brissotin Ministers, concealed the progress of + this war for six months before he thought fit to report it to the + Convention. + +--It is impossible to assign a good motive to any act of this literary +intriguer. + +--Perhaps, while they determined to establish their faction by "braving +all Europe," they might think it equally politic to perplex and overawe +Paris by a near and dangerous enemy, which would render their continuance +in power necessary, or whom they might join, if expelled from it.* + + * This last reason might afterwards have given way to their + apprehensions, and the Brissotins have preferred the creation of new + civil wars, to a confidence in the royalists. These men, who + condemned the King for a supposed intention of defending an + authority transmitted to him through whole ages, and recently + sanctioned by the voice of the people, did not scruple to excite a + civil war in defence of their six months' sovereignty over a + republic, proclaimed by a ferocious comedian, and certainly without + the assent of the nation. Had the ill-fated Monarch dared thus to + trifle with the lives of his subjects, he might have saved France + and himself from ruin. + +When men gratify their ambition by means so sanguinary and atrocious as +those resorted to by the Brissotines, we are authorized in concluding +they will not be more scrupulous in the use or preservation of power, +than they were in attaining it; and we can have no doubt but that the +fomenting or suppressing the progress of civil discord, was, with them, +a mere question of expediency. + +The decree which took place in March, 1793, for raising three hundred +thousand men in the departments, changed the partial insurrections of La +Vendee to an open and connected rebellion; and every where the young +people refused going, and joined in preference the standard of revolt. +In the beginning of the summer, the brigands* (as they were called) grew +so numerous, that the government, now in the hands of Robespierre and his +party, began to take serious measures to combat them. + + * Robbers--_banditti_--The name was first given, probably, to the + insurgents of La Vendee, in order to insinuate a belief that the + disorders were but of a slight and predatory nature. + +--One body of troops were dispatched after another, who were all +successively defeated, and every where fled before the royalists. + +It is not unusual in political concerns to attribute to deep-laid plans +and abstruse combinations, effects which are the natural result of +private passions and isolated interests. Robespierre is said to have +promoted both the destruction of the republican armies and those of La +Vendee, in order to reduce the national population. That he was capable +of imagining such a project is probable--yet we need not, in tracing the +conduct of the war, look farther than to the character of the agents who +were, almost necessarily, employed in it. Nearly every officer qualified +for the command of an army, had either emigrated, or was on service at +the frontiers; and the task of reducing by violence a people who resisted +only because they deemed themselves injured, and who, even in the +estimation of the republicans, could only be mistaken, was naturally +avoided by all men who were not mere adventurers. It might likewise be +the policy of the government to prefer the services of those, who, having +neither reputation nor property, would be more dependent, and whom, +whether they became dangerous by their successes or defeats, it would be +easy to sacrifice. + +Either, then, from necessity or choice, the republican armies in La +Vendee were conducted by dissolute and rapacious wretches, at all times +more eager to pillage than fight, and who were engaged in securing their +plunder, when they should have been in pursuit of the enemy. On every +occasion they seemed to retreat, that their ill success might afford them +a pretext for declaring that the next town or village was confederated +with the insurgents, and for delivering it up, in consequence, to murder +and rapine. Such of the soldiers as could fill their pocket-books with +assignats, left their less successful companions, and retired as invalids +to the hospitals: the battalions of Paris (and particularly "the +conquerors of the Bastille") had such ardour for pillage, that every +person possessed of property was, in their sense, an aristocrat, whom it +was lawful to despoil.* + + * _"Le pillage a ete porte a son comble--les militaires au lieu de + songer a ce qu'ils avoient a faire, n'ont pense qu'a remplir leurs + sacs, et a voir se perpetuer une guerre aussi avantageuse a leur + interet--beaucoup de simples soldats ont acquis cinquante mille + francs et plus; on en a vu couverts de bijoux, et faisant dans tous + les genres des depenses d'une produgaloite, monstreuse." + Lequinio, Guerre de la Vendee._ + + "The most unbridled pillage prevailed--officers, instead of + attending to their duty, thought only of filling their portmanteaus, + and of the means to perpetuate a war they found so profitable.--Many + private soldiers made fifty thousand livres, and they have been seen + loaded with trinkets, and exercising the most abominable + prodigalities of every kind." + Lequinio, War of La Vendee. + + "The conquerors of the Bastille had unluckily a most unbridled + ardour for pillage--one would have supposed they had come for the + express purpose of plunder, rather than fighting. The stage coaches + for Paris were entirely loaded with their booty." + Report of Benaben, Commissioner of the Department of Maine and + Loire. + +--The carriages of the army were entirely appropriated to the conveyance +of their booty; till, at last, the administrators of some departments +were under the necessity of forbidding such incumbrances: but the +officers, with whom restrictions of this sort were unavailing, put all +the horses and waggons of the country in requisition for similar +purposes, while they relaxed themselves from the serious business of the +war, (which indeed was nearly confined to burning, plundering, and +massacring the defenceless inhabitants,) by a numerous retinue of +mistresses and musicians. + +It is not surprizing that generals and troops of this description were +constantly defeated; and their reiterated disasters might probably have +first suggested the idea of totally exterminating a people it was found +so difficult to subdue, and so impracticable to conciliate.--On the first +of October 1793, Barrere, after inveighing against the excessive +population of La Vendee, which he termed "frightful," proposed to the +Convention to proclaim by a decree, that the war of La Vendee "should be +terminated" by the twentieth of the same month. The Convention, with +barbarous folly, obeyed; and the enlightened Parisians, accustomed to +think with contempt on the ignorance of the Vendeans, believed that a +war, which had baffled the efforts of government for so many months, was +to end on a precise day--which Barrere had fixed with as much assurance +as though he had only been ordering a fete. + +But the Convention and the government understood this decree in a very +different sense from the good people of Paris. The war was, indeed, to +be ended; not by the usual mode of combating armies, but by a total +extinction of all the inhabitants of the country, both innocent and +guilty--and Merlin de Thionville, with other members, so perfectly +comprehended this detestable project, that they already began to devise +schemes for repeopling La Vendee, when its miserable natives should be +destroyed.* + + * It is for the credit of humanity to believe, that the decree was + not understood according to its real intention; but the nation has + to choose between the imputation of cruelty, stupidity, or slavery-- + for they either approved the sense of the decree, believed what was + not possible, or were obliged to put on an appearance of both, in + spite of their senses and their feelings. A proclamation, in + consequence, to the army, is more explicit--"All the brigands of La + Vendee must be exterminated before the end of October." + +From this time, the representatives on mission, commissaries of war, +officers, soldiers, and agents of every kind, vied with each other in the +most abominable outrages. Carrier superintended the fusillades and +noyades at Nantes, while Lequinio dispatched with his own hands a part of +the prisoners taken at La Fontenay, and projected the destruction of the +rest.--After the evacuation of Mans by the insurgents, women were brought +by twenties and thirties, and shot before the house where the deputies +Tureau and Bourbotte had taken up their residence; and it appears to have +been considered as a compliment to these republican Molochs, to surround +their habitation with mountains of the dead. A compliment of the like +nature was paid to the representative Prieur de la Marne,* by a +volunteer, who having learned that his own brother was taken amongst the +enemy, requested, by way of recommending himself to notice, a formal +permission to be his executioner.--The Roman stoicism of Prieur accepted +the implied homage, and granted the request!! + + * This representative, who was also a member of the Committee of + Public Welfare, was not only the Brutus, but the Antony of La + Vendee; for we learn from the report of Benaben, that his stern + virtues were accompanied, through the whole of his mission in this + afflicted country, by a cortege of thirty strolling fiddlers! + +Fourteen hundred prisoners, who had surrendered at Savenay, among whom +were many women and children, were shot, by order of the deputy +Francastel, who, together with Hentz, Richard, Choudieu, Carpentier, and +others of their colleagues, set an example of rapine and cruelty, but too +zealously imitated by their subordinate agents. In some places, the +inhabitants, without distinction of age or sex, were put indiscriminately +to the sword; in others, they were forced to carry the pillage collected +from their own dwellings, which, after being thus stripped, were +consigned to the flames.* + + * "This conflagration accomplished, they had no sooner arrived in + the midst of our army, than the volunteers, in imitation of their + commanders, seized what little they had preserved, and massacred + them.--But this is not all: a whole municipality, in their scarfs of + office, were sacrificed; and at a little village, inhabited by about + fifty good patriots, who had been uniform in their resistance of the + insurgents, news is brought that their brother soldiers are coming + to assist them, and to revenge the wrongs they have suffered. A + friendly repast is provided, the military arrive, embrace their + ill-fated hosts, and devour what they have provided; which is no + sooner done, than they drive all these poor people into the + churchyard, and stab them one after another." + Report of Faure, Vice-President of a Military Commission at + Fontenay. + +--The heads of the prisoners served occasionally as marks for the +officers to shoot at for trifling wagers, and the soldiers, who imitated +these heinous examples, used to conduct whole hundreds to the place of +execution, singing _"allons enfans de la patrie."_* + + * Woe to those who were unable to walk, for, under pretext that + carriages could not be found to convey them, they were shot without + hesitation!--Benaben. + +The insurgents had lost Cholet, Chatillon, Mortagne, &c. Yet, far from +being vanquished by the day appointed, they had crossed the Loire in +great force, and, having traversed Brittany, were preparing to make an +attack on Granville. But this did not prevent Barrere from announcing to +the convention, that La Vendee was no more, and the galleries echoed with +applauses, when they were told that the highways were impassable, from +the numbers of the dead, and that a considerable part of France was one +vast cemetery. This intelligence also tranquillized the paternal +solicitude of the legislature, and, for many months, while the system of +depopulation was pursued with the most barbarous fury, it was not +permissible even to suspect that the war was yet unextinguished. + +It is only since the trial of the Nantais, that the state of La Vendee +has again become a subject of discussion: truth has now forced its way, +and we learn, that, whatever may be the strength of these unhappy people, +their minds, embittered by suffering, and animated by revenge, are still +less than ever disposed to submit to the republican government. The +design of total extirpation, once so much insisted on, is at present said +to be relinquished, and a plan of instruction and conversion is to be +substituted for bayonets and conflagrations. The revolted countries are +to be enlightened by the doctrines of liberty, fanaticism is to be +exposed, and a love of the republic to succeed the prejudices in favour +of Kings and Nobles.--To promote these objects, is, undoubtedly, the real +interest of the Convention; but a moralist, who observes through another +medium, may compare with regret and indignation the instructors with the +people they are to illumine, and the advantages of philosophy over +ignorance. + +Lequinio, one of the most determined reformers of the barbarism of La +Vendee, proposes two methods: the first is, a general massacre of all the +natives--and the only objection it seems susceptible of in his opinion +is, their numbers; but as he thinks on this account it may be attended +with difficulty, he is for establishing a sort of perpetual mission of +Representatives, who, by the influence of good living and a company of +fiddlers and singers, are to restore the whole country to peace.*-- + + *"The only difficulty that presents itself is, to determine whether + recourse shall be had to the alternative of indulgence, or if it + will not be more advantageous to persist in the plan of total + destruction. + + "If the people that still remain were not more than thirty or forty + thousand, the shortest way would doubtless be, to cut all their + throats (egorger), agreeably to my first opinion; but the population + is immense, amounting still to four hundred thousand souls.--If + there were no hope of succeeding by any other methods, certainly it + were better to kill all (egorger), even were there five hundred + thousand. + + "But what are we to understand by measures of rigour? Is there no + distinction to be made between rigorous and barbarous measures? The + utmost severity is justified on the plea of the general good, but + nothing can justify barbarity. If the welfare of France + necessitated the sacrifice of the four hundred thousand inhabitants + of La Vendee, and the countries in rebellion adjoining, they ought + to be sacrificed: but, even in this case, there would be no excuse + for those atrocities which revolt nature, which are an outrage to + social order, and repugnant equally to feeling (sentiment) and + reason; and in cutting off so many entire generations for the good + of the country, we ought not to suffer the use of barbarous means in + a single instance. + + "Now the most effectual way to arrive at this end (converting the + people), would be by joyous and fraternal missions, frank and + familiar harangues, civic repasts, and, above all, dancing. + + "I could wish, too, that during their circuits in these countries, + the Representatives were always attended by musicians. The expence + would be trifling, compared with the good effect; if, as I am + strongly persuaded, we could thus succeed in giving a turn to the + public mind, and close the bleeding arteries of these fertile and + unhappy provinces." + Lequinio, Guerre de La Vendee. + + And this people, who were either to have their throats cut, or be + republicanized by means of singing, dancing, and revolutionary Pans + and Silenus's, already beheld their property devastated by pillage + or conflagration, and were in danger of a pestilence from the + unburied bodies of their families.--Let the reader, who has seen + Lequinio's pamphlet, compare his account of the sufferings of the + Vendeans, and his project for conciliating them. They convey a + strong idea of the levity of the national character; but, in this + instance, I must suppose, that nature would be superior to local + influence; and I doubt if Lequinio's jocund philosophy will ever + succeed in attaching the Vendeans to the republic. + +--Camille Desmouins, a republican reformer, nearly as sanguinary, though +not more liberal, thought the guillotine disgraced by such ignorant prey, +and that it were better to hunt them down like wild beasts; or, if made +prisoners, to exchange them against the cattle of their country!--The +eminently informed Herault de Sechelles was the patron and confidant of +the exterminating reforms of Carrier; and Carnot, when the mode of +reforming by noyades and fusillades was debated at the Committee, pleaded +the cause of Carrier, whom he describes as a good, nay, an excellent +patriot.--Merlin de Thionville, whose philosophy is of a more martial +cast, was desirous that the natives of La Vendee should be completely +annihilated, in order to furnish in their territory and habitations a +recompence for the armies.--Almost every member of the Convention has +individually avowed principles, or committed acts, from which common +turpitude would recoil, and, as a legislative body, their whole code has +been one unvarying subversion of morals and humanity. Such are the men +who value themselves on possessing all the advantages the Vendeans are +pretended to be in want of.--We will now examine what disciples they have +produced, and the benefits which have been derived from their +instructions. + +Every part of France remarkable for an early proselytism to the +revolutionary doctrines has been the theatre of crimes unparalleled in +the annals of human nature. Those who have most boasted their contempt +for religious superstition have been degraded by an idolatry as gross as +any ever practiced on the Nile; and the most enthusiastic republicans +have, without daring to murmur, submitted for two years successively to a +horde of cruel and immoral tyrants.--A pretended enfranchisement from +political and ecclesiastical slavery has been the signal of the lowest +debasement, and the most cruel profligacy: the very Catechumens of +freedom and philosophy have, while yet in their first rudiments, +distinguished themselves as proficients in the arts of oppression and +servility, of intolerance and licentiousness.--Paris, the rendezvous of +all the persecuted patriots and philosophers in Europe, the centre of the +revolutionary system, whose inhabitants were illumined by the first rays +of modern republicanism, and who claim a sort of property in the rights +of man, as being the original inventors, may fairly be quoted as an +example of the benefits that would accrue from a farther dissemination of +the new tenets. + +Without reverting to the events of August and September, 1792, presided +by the founders of liberty, and executed by their too apt sectaries, it +is notorious that the legions of Paris, sent to chastise the +unenlightened Vendeans, were the most cruel and rapacious banditti that +ever were let loose to afflict the world. Yet, while they exercised this +savage oppression in the countries near the Loire, their fellow-citizens +on the banks of the Seine crouched at the frown of paltry tyrants, and +were unresistingly dragged to dungeons, or butchered by hundreds on the +scaffold.--At Marseilles, Lyons, Bourdeaux, Arras, wherever these baleful +principles have made converts, they have made criminals and victims; and +those who have been most eager in imbibing or propagating them have, by a +natural and just retribution, been the first sacrificed. The new +discoveries in politics have produced some in ethics not less novel, and +until the adoption of revolutionary doctrines, the extent of human +submission or human depravity was fortunately unknown. + +In this source of guilt and misery the people of La Vendee are now to be +instructed--that people, who are acknowledged to be hospitable, humane, +and laborious, and whose ideas of freedom may be better estimated by +their resistance to a despotism which the rest of France has sunk under, +than by the jargon of pretended reformers.--I could wish, that not only +the peasants of La Vendee, but those of all other countries, might for +ever remain strangers to such pernicious knowledge. It is sufficient for +this useful class of men to be taught the simple precepts of religion and +morality, and those who would teach them more, are not their benefactors. +Our age is, indeed, a literary age, and such pursuits are both liberal +and laudable in the rich and idle; but why should volumes of politics or +philosophy be mutilated and frittered into pamphlets, to inspire a +disgust for labour, and a taste for study or pleasure, in those to whom +such disgusts or inclinations are fatal. The spirit of one author is +extracted, and the beauties of another are selected, only to bewilder the +understanding, and engross the time, of those who might be more +profitably employed. + +I know I may be censured as illiberal; but I have, during my abode in +this country, sufficiently witnessed the disastrous effects of corrupting +a people through their amusements or curiosity, and of making men neglect +their useful callings to become patriots and philosophers.*-- + + *This right of directing public affairs, and neglecting their own, + we may suppose essential to republicans of the lower orders, since + we find the following sentence of transportation in the registers of + a popular commission: + + "Bergeron, a dealer in skins--suspected--having done nothing in + favour of the revolution--extremely selfish (egoiste,) and blaming + the Sans-Culottes for neglecting their callings, that they may + attend only to public concerns."--Signed by the members of the + Commission and the two Committees. + +--_"Il est dangereux d'apprendre au peuple a raisonner: il ne faut pas +l'eclairer trop, parce qu'il n'est pas possible de l'eclairer assez."_ +["It is dangerous to teach the people to reason--they should not be too +much enlightened, because it is not possible to enlighten them +sufficiently."]--When the enthusiasm of Rousseau's genius was thus +usefully submitted to his good sense and knowledge of mankind, he little +expected every hamlet in France would be inundated with scraps of the +contrat social, and thousands of inoffensive peasants massacred for not +understanding the Profession de Foi. + +The arguments of mistaken philanthropists or designing politicians may +divert the order of things, but they cannot change our nature--they may +create an universal taste for literature, but they will never unite it +with habits of industry; and until they prove how men are to live without +labour, they have no right to banish the chearful vacuity which usually +accompanies it, by substituting reflections to make it irksome, and +propensities with which it is incompatible. + +The situation of France has amply demonstrated the folly of attempting to +make a whole people reasoners and politicians--there seems to be no +medium; and as it is impossible to make a nation of sages, you let loose +a horde of savages: for the philosophy which teaches a contempt for +accustomed restraints, is not difficult to propagate; but that superior +kind, which enables men to supply them, by subduing the passions that +render restraints necessary, is of slow progress, and never can be +general. + +I have made the war of La Vendee more a subject of reflection than +narrative, and have purposely avoided military details, which would be +not only uninteresting, but disgusting. You would learn no more from +these desultory hostilities, than that the defeats of the republican +armies were, if possible, more sanguinary than their victories; that the +royalists, who began the war with humanity, were at length irritated to +reprisals; and that more than two hundred thousand lives have already +been sacrificed in the contest, yet undecided. + + + + +Amiens, Oct. 24, 1794. + +Revolutions, like every thing else in France, are a mode, and the +Convention already commemorate four since 1789: that of July 1789, which +rendered the monarchical power nugatory; that of August the 10th, 1792, +which subverted it; the expulsion of the Brissotins, in May 1793; and the +death of Robespierre, in July 1794. + +The people, accustomed, from their earliest knowledge, to respect the +person and authority of the King, felt that the events of the two first +epochs, which disgraced the one and annihilated the other, were violent +and important revolutions; and, as language which expresses the public +sentiment is readily adopted, it soon became usual to speak of these +events as the revolutions of July and August. + +The thirty-first of May has always been viewed in a very different light, +for it was not easy to make the people at large comprehend how the +succession of Robespierre and Danton to Brissot and Roland could be +considered as a revolution, more especially as it appeared evident that +the principles of one party actuated the government of the other. Every +town had its many-headed monster to represent the defeat of the +Foederalists, and its mountain to proclaim the triumph of their enemies +the Mountaineers; but these political hieroglyphics were little +understood, and the merits of the factions they alluded to little +distinguished--so that the revolution of the thirty-first of May was +rather a party aera, than a popular one. + +The fall of Robespierre would have made as little impression as that of +the Girondists, if some melioration of the revolutionary system had not +succeeded it; and it is in fact only since the public voice, and the +interest of the Convention, have occasioned a change approaching to +reform, that the death of Robespierre is really considered as a benefit. + +But what was in itself no more than a warfare of factions, may now, if +estimated by its consequences, be pronounced a revolution of infinite +importance. The Jacobins, whom their declining power only rendered more +insolent and daring, have at length obliged the Convention to take +decided measures against them, and they are now subject to such +regulations as must effectually diminish their influence, and, in the +end, dissolve their whole combination. They can no longer correspond as +societies, and the mischievous union which constituted their chief force, +can scarcely be supported for any time under the present restrictions.* + + * "All affiliations, aggregations, and foederations, as well as + correspondences carried on collectively between societies, under + whatever denomination they may exist, are henceforth prohibited, as + being subversive of government, and contrary to the unity of the + republic. + + "Those persons who sign as presidents or secretaries, petitions or + addresses in a collective form, shall be arrested and confined as + suspicious, &c. &c.--Whoever offends in any shape against the + present law, will incur the same penalty." + + The whole of the decree is in the same spirit. The immediate and + avowed pretext for this measure was, that the popular societies, who + have of late only sent petitions disagreeable to the Convention, did + not express the sense of the people. Yet the deposition of the + King, and the establishment of the republic, had no other sanction + than the adherence of these clubs, who are now allowed not to be the + nation, and whose very existence as then constituted is declared to + be subversive of government. + +It is not improbable, that the Convention, by suffering the clubs still +to exist, after reducing them to nullity, may hope to preserve the +institution as a future resource against the people, while it represses +their immediate efforts against itself. The Brissotins would have +attempted a similar policy, but they had nothing to oppose to the +Jacobins, except their personal influence. Brissot and Roland took part +with the clubs, as they approved the massacres of August and September, +just as far as it answered their purpose; and when they were abandoned by +the one, and the other were found to incur an unprofitable odium, they +acted the part which Tallien and Freron act now under the same +circumstances, and would willingly have promoted the destruction of a +power which had become inimical to them.*-- + + * Brissot and Roland were more pernicious as Jacobins than the most + furious of their successors. If they did not in person excite the + people to the commission of crimes, they corrupted them, and made + them fit instruments for the crimes of others. Brissot might affect + to condemn the massacres of September in the gross, but he is known + to have enquired with eager impatience, and in a tone which implied + he had reasons for expecting it, whether De Morande, an enemy he + wished to be released from, was among the murdered. + +--Their imitators, without possessing more honesty, either political or +moral, are more fortunate; and not only Tallien and Freron, who since +their expulsion from the Jacobins have become their most active enemies, +are now in a manner popular, but even the whole Convention is much less +detested than it was before. + +It is the singular felicity of the Assembly to derive a sort of +popularity from the very excesses it has occasioned or sanctioned, and +which, it was natural to suppose, would have consigned it for ever to +vengeance or obloquy; but the past sufferings of the people have taught +them to be moderate in their expectations; and the name of their +representation has been so connected with tyranny of every sort, that it +appears an extraordinary forbearance when the usual operations of +guillotines and mandates of arrest are suspended. + +Thus, though the Convention have not in effect repaired a thousandth part +of their own acts of injustice, or done any good except from necessity, +they are overwhelmed with applauding addresses, and affectionate +injunctions not to quit their post. What is still more wonderful, many +of these are sincere; and Tallien, Freron, Legendre, &c. with all their +revolutionary enormities on their heads, are now the heroes of the +reviving aristocrats. + +Situated as things are at present, there is much sound policy in +flattering the Convention into a proper use of their power, rather than +making a convulsive effort to deprive them of it. The Jacobins would +doubtless avail themselves of such a movement; and this is so much +apprehended, that it has given rise to a general though tacit agreement +to foment the divisions between the Legislature and the Clubs, and to +support the first, at least until it shall have destroyed the latter. + +The late decrees, which obstruct the intercourse and affiliation of +popular societies, may be regarded as an event not only beneficial to +this country, but to the world in general; because it is confessed, that +these combinations, by means of which the French monarchy was subverted, +and the King brought to the scaffold, are only reconcileable with a +barbarous and anarchical government. + +The Convention are now much occupied on two affairs, which call forth all +their "natural propensities," and afford a farther confirmation of this +fact--that their feelings and principles are always instinctively at war +with justice, however they may find it expedient to affect a regard for +it--_C'est la chatte metamorphosee en femme_ [The cat turned into a +woman.]-- + + _"En vain de son train ordinaire" + "On la veut desaccoutumer, + "Quelque chose qu'on puisse faire + "On ne fauroit la reformer."_ + La Fontaine. + +The Deputies who were imprisoned as accomplices of the Girondists, and on +other different pretexts, have petitioned either to be brought to trial +or released; and the abominable conduct of Carrier at Nantes is so fully +substantiated, that the whole country is impatient to have some steps +taken towards bringing him to punishment: yet the Convention are averse +from both these measures--they procrastinate and elude the demand of +their seventy-two colleagues, who were arrested without a specific +charge; while they almost protect Carrier, and declare, that in cases +which tend to deprive a Representative of his liberty, it is better to +reflect thirty times than once. This is curious doctrine with men who +have sent so many people arbitrarily to the scaffold, and who now detain +seventy-two Deputies in confinement, they know not why. + +The ashes of Rousseau have recently been deposited with the same +ceremonies, and in the same place, as those of Marat. We should feel for +such a degradation of genius, had not the talents of Rousseau been +frequently misapplied; and it is their misapplication which has levelled +him to an association with Marat. Rousseau might be really a fanatic, +and, though eccentric, honest; yet his power of adorning impracticable +systems, it must be acknowledged, has been more mischievous to society +than a thousand such gross impostors as Marat. + +I have learned since my return from the Providence, the death of Madame +Elizabeth. I was ill when it happened, and my friends took some pains to +conceal an event which they knew would affect me. In tracing the motives +of the government for this horrid action, it may perhaps be sufficiently +accounted for in the known piety and virtues of this Princess; but +reasons of another kind have been suggested to me, and which, in all +likelihood, contributed to hasten it. She was the only person of the +royal family of an age competent for political transactions who had not +emigrated, and her character extorted respect even from her enemies. [The +Prince of Conti was too insignificant to be an object of jealousy in this +way.] She must therefore, of course, since the death of the Queen, have +been an object of jealousy to all parties. Robespierre might fear that +she would be led to consent to some arrangement with a rival faction for +placing the King on the throne--the Convention were under similar +apprehensions with regard to him; so that the fate of this illustrious +sufferer was probably gratifying to every part of the republicans. + +I find, on reading her trial, (if so it may be called,) a repetition of +one of the principal charges against the Queen--that of trampling on the +national colours at Versailles, during an entertainment given to some +newly-arrived troops. Yet I have been assured by two gentlemen, +perfectly informed on the subject, and who were totally unacquainted with +each other, that this circumstance, which has been so usefully enlarged +upon, is false,* and that the whole calumny originated in the jealousy of +a part of the national guard who had not been invited. + + * This infamous calumny (originally fabricated by Lecointre the + linen draper, then an officer of the National Guard, now a member of + the council of 500) was amply confuted by M. Mounier, who was + President of the States-General at the time, in a publication + intitled "_Expose de ma Conduite,_" which appeared soon after the + event--in the autumn of 1789.--Editor. + +But this, as well as the taking of the Bastille, and other revolutionary +falsehoods, will, I trust, be elucidated. The people are now undeceived +only by their calamities--the time may come, when it will be safe to +produce their conviction by truth. Heroes of the fourteenth of July, and +patriots of the tenth of August, how will ye shrink from it!--Yours, &c. + + + + +Amiens, Nov. 2, 1794. + +Every post now brings me letters from England; but I perceive, by the +suppressed congratulations of my friends, that, though they rejoice to +find I am still alive, they are far from thinking me in a state of +security. You, my dear Brother, must more particularly have lamented the +tedious confinement I have endured, and the inconveniencies to which I +have been subjected; I am, however, persuaded that you would not wish me +to have been exempt from a persecution in which all the natives of +England, who are not a disgrace to their country, as well as some that +are so, have shared. Such an exemption would now be deemed a reproach; +for, though it must be confessed that few of us have been voluntary +sufferers, we still claim the honour of martyrdom, and are not very +tolerant towards those who, exposed by their situation, may be supposed +to have owed their protection to their principles. + +There are, indeed, many known revolutionists and republicans, who, from +party disputes, personal jealousies, or from being comprised in some +general measure, have undergone a short imprisonment; and these men now +wish to be confounded with their companions who are of a different +description. But such persons are carefully distinguished;* and the +aristocrats have, in their turn, a catalogue of suspicious people--that +is, of people suspected of not having been suspicious. + + * Mr. Thomas Paine, for instance, notwithstanding his sufferings, is + still thought more worthy of a seat in the Convention or the + Jacobins, than of an apartment in the Luxembourg.--Indeed I have + generally remarked, that the French of all parties hold an English + republican in peculiar abhorrence. + +It is now the fashion to talk of a sojourn in a maison d'arret with +triumph; and the more decent people, who from prudence or fear had been +forced to seek refuge in the Jacobin clubs, are now solicitous to +proclaim their real motives. The red cap no longer "rears its hideous +front" by day, but is modestly converted into a night-cap; and the bearer +of a diplome de Jacobin, instead of swinging along, to the annoyance of +all the passengers he meets, paces soberly with a diminished height, and +an air not unlike what in England we call sneaking. The bonnet rouge +begins likewise to be effaced from flags at the doors; and, as though +this emblem of liberty were a very bad neighbour to property, its +relegation seems to encourage the re-appearance of silver forks and +spoons, which are gradually drawn forth from their hiding-places, and +resume their stations at table. The Jacobins represent themselves as +being under the most cruel oppression, declare that the members of the +Convention are aristocrats and royalists, and lament bitterly, that, +instead of fish-women, or female patriots of republican external, the +galleries are filled with auditors in flounces and anti-civic top-knots, +femmes a fontanges. + +These imputations and grievances of the Jacobins are not altogether +without foundation. People in general are strongly impressed with an +idea that the Assembly are veering towards royalism; and it is equally +true, that the speeches of Tallien and Freron are occasionally heard and +applauded by fair elegantes, who, two years ago, would have recoiled at +the name of either. It is not that their former deeds are forgotten, but +the French are grown wise by suffering; and it is politic, when bad men +act well, whatever the motive, to give them credit for it, as nothing is +so likely to make them persevere, as the hope that their reputation is +yet retrievable. On this principle the aristocrats are the eulogists of +Tallien, while the Jacobins remind him hourly of the massacres of the +priests, and his official conduct as Secretary to the municipality or +Paris.* + + * Tallien was Seecretary to the Commune of Paris in 1792, and on the + thirty-first of August he appeared at the bar of the Legislative + Assembly with an address, in which he told them "he had caused the + refractory priests to be arrested and confined, and that in a few + days the Land of Liberty should be freed of them."--The massacres of + the prisons began two days after! + +As soon as a Representative is convicted of harbouring an opinion +unfavourable to pillage or murder, he is immediately declared an +aristocrat; or, if the Convention happen for a moment to be influenced by +reason or justice, the hopes and fears of both parties are awakened by +suspicions that the members are converts to royalism.--For my own part, +I believe they are and will be just what their personal security and +personal interest may suggest, though it is but a sorry sort of panegyric +on republican ethics to conclude, that every one who manifests the least +symptom of probity or decency, must of course be a royalist or an +aristocrat. + +Notwithstanding the harmony which appears to subsist between the +Convention and the people, the former is much less popular in detail than +in the gross. Almost every member who has been on mission, is accused of +dilapidations and cruelties so heinous, that, if they had not been +committed by Representans du Peuple, the criminal courts would find no +difficulty in deciding upon them.--But as theft or murder does not +deprive a member of his privileges, complaints of this nature are only +cognizable by the Assembly, which, being yet in its first days of +regeneration, is rather scrupulous of defending such amusements overtly. +Alarmed, however, at the number, and averse from the precedent of these +denunciations, it has now passed a variety of decrees, which are termed a +guarantee of the national representation, and which in fact guarantee it +so effectually, that a Deputy may do any thing in future with impunity, +provided it does not affect his colleagues. There are now so many forms, +reports, and examinations, that several months may be employed before the +person of a delinquent, however notorious his guilt, can be secured. The +existence of a fellow-creature should, doubtless, be attacked with +caution; for, though he may have forfeited his claims on our esteem, and +even our pity, religion has preserved him others, of which he should not +be deprived.--But when we recollect that all these merciful ceremonies +are in favour of a Carrier or a Le Bon, and that the King, Madame +Elizabeth, and thousands of innocent people, were hurried to execution, +without being allowed the consolations of piety or affection, which only +a mockery of justice might have afforded them; when, even now, priests +are guillotined for celebrating masses in private, and thoughtless people +for speaking disrespectfully of the Convention--the heart is at variance +with religion and principle, and we regret that mercy is to be the +exclusive portion of those who were never accessible to its dictates.* + + * The denunciation being first presented to the Assembly, they are + to decide whether it shall be received. If they determine in the + affirmative, it is sent to the three Committees of Legislation, + Public Welfare, and General Safety, to report whether there may be + room for farther examination. In that case, a commission of + twenty-one members is appointed to receive the proofs of the accuser, + and the defence of the accused. These Commissioners, after as long a + delay as they may think fit to interpose, make known their opinion; + and if it be against the accused, the Convention proceed to + determine finally whether the matter shall be referred to the + ordinary tribunal. All this time the culprit is at large, or, at + worst, and merely for the form, carelessly guarded at his own + dwelling. + +I would not "pick bad from bad," but it irks one's spirit to see these +miscreants making "assurance doubly sure," and providing for their own +safety with such solicitude, after sacrificing, without remorse, whatever +was most interesting or respectable in the country.--Yours, &c. + + + + +Basse-ville, Arras, Nov. 6, 1794. + +Since my own liberation, I have been incessantly employed in endeavouring +to procure the return of my friends to Amiens; who, though released from +prison some time, could not obtain passports to quit Arras. After +numerous difficulties and vexations, we have at length succeeded, and I +am now here to accompany them home. + +I found Mr. and Mrs. D____ much altered by the hardships they have +undergone: Mrs. D____, in particular, has been confined some months in a +noisome prison called the Providence, originally intended as a house of +correction, and in which, though built to contain an hundred and fifty +persons, were crouded near five hundred females, chiefly ladies of Arras +and the environs.--The superintendance of this miserable place was +entrusted to a couple of vulgar and vicious women, who, having +distinguished themselves as patriots from the beginning of the +revolution, were now rewarded by Le Bon with an office as profitable +as it was congenial to their natures. + +I know not whether it is to be imputed to the national character, or to +that of the French republicans only, but the cruelties which have been +committed are usually so mixed with licentiousness, as to preclude +description. I have already noticed the conduct of Le Bon, and it must +suffice to say, his agents were worthy of him, and that the female +prisoners suffered every thing which brutality, rapaciousness, and +indecency, could inflict. Mr. D____ was, in the mean time, transferred +from prison to prison--the distress of separation was augmented by their +mutual apprehensions and pecuniary embarrassments--and I much fear, the +health and spirits of both are irretrievably injured. + +I regret my impatience in coming here, rather than waiting the arrival of +my friends at home; for the changes I observe, and the recollections they +give birth to, oppress my heart, and render the place hateful to me.--All +the families I knew are diminished by executions, and their property is +confiscated--those whom I left in elegant hotels are now in obscure +lodgings, subsisting upon the superfluities of better days--and the +sorrows of the widows and orphans are increased by penury; while the +Convention, which affects to condemn the crimes of Le Bon, is profiting +by the spoils of his victims. + +I am the more deeply impressed by these circumstances, because, when I +was here in 1792, several who have thus fallen, though they had nothing +to reproach themselves with, were yet so much intimidated as to propose +emigrating; and I then was of opinion, that such a step would be +impolitic and unnecessary. I hope and believe this opinion did not +influence them, but I lament having given it, for the event has proved +that a great part of the emigrants are justifiable. It always appeared +to me so serious and great an evil to abandon one's country, that when I +have seen it done with indifference or levity, I may perhaps have +sometimes transferred to the measure itself a sentiment of +disapprobation, excited originally by the manner of its adoption. When I +saw people expatiate with calmness, and heard them speak of it as a means +of distinguishing themselves, I did not sufficiently allow for the +tendency of the French to make the best of every thing, or the influence +of vanity on men who allow it to make part of the national +characteristic: and surely, if ever vanity were laudable, that of marking +a detestation for revolutionary principles, and an attachment to loyalty +and religion, may justly be considered so. Many whom I then accused of +being too lightly affected by the prospect of exile, might be animated by +the hope of personally contributing to the establishment of peace and +order, and rescuing their country from the banditti who were oppressing +it; and it is not surprising that such objects should dazzle the +imagination and deceive the judgment in the choice of measures by which +they were to be obtained. + +The number of emigrants from fashion or caprice is probably not great; +and whom shall we now dare to include under this description, when the +humble artizan, the laborious peasant, and the village priest, have +ensanguined the scaffold destined for the prince or the prelate?--But if +the emigrants be justifiable, the refugees are yet more so. + +By Emigrants, I mean all who, without being immediately in danger, left +their country through apprehension of the future--from attachment to the +persons of the Princes, or to join companions in the army whom they might +deem it a disgrace to abandon.--Those whom I think may with truth be +styled Refugees, are the Nobility and Priests who fled when the people, +irritated by the literary terrorists of the day, the Brissots, Rolands, +Camille Desmoulins, &c. were burning their chateaux and proscribing their +persons, and in whom expatriation cannot properly be deemed the effect of +choice. These, wherever they have sought an asylum, are entitled to our +respect and sympathy. + +Yet, I repeat, we are not authorized to discriminate. There is no +reasoning coldly on the subject. The most cautious prudence, the most +liberal sacrifices, and the meanest condescensions, have not insured the +lives and fortunes of those who ventured to remain; and I know not that +the absent require any other apology than the desolation of the country +they have quitted. Had my friends who have been slaughtered by Le Bon's +tribunal persisted in endeavouring to escape, they might have lived, and +their families, though despoiled by the rapacity of the government, have +been comparatively happy.* + + * The first horrors of the revolution are well known, and I have + seen no accounts which exaggerate them. The niece of a lady of my + acquaintance, a young woman only seventeen, escaped from her + country-house (whilst already in flames) with her infant at her + breast, and literally without clothes to cover her. In this state + she wandered a whole night, and when she at length reached a place + where she procured assistance, was so exhausted that her life was in + danger.--Another lady, whom I knew, was wounded in the arm by some + peasants assembled to force from her the writings of her husband's + estates. Even after this they still remained in France, submitted + with cheerfulness to all the demands of patriotic gifts, forced + loans, requisitions and impositions of every kind; yet her husband + was nevertheless guillotined, and the whole of their immense + property confiscated. + +Retrospections, like these, obliterate many of my former notions on the +subject of the Emigrants; and if I yet condemn emigration, it is only as +a general measure, impolitic, and inadequate to the purposes for which it +was undertaken. But errors of judgment, in circumstances so +unprecedented, cannot be censured consistently with candour, through we +may venture to mark them as a discouragement to imitation; for if any +nation should yet be menaced by the revolutionary scourge, let it beware +of seeking external redress by a temporary abandonment of its interests +to the madness of systemists, or the rapine of needy adventurers. We +must, we ought to, lament the fate of the many gallant men who have +fallen, and the calamities of those who survive; but what in them has +been a mistaken policy, will become guilt in those who, on a similar +occasion, shall not be warned by their example. I am concerned when I +hear these unhappy fugitives are any where objects of suspicion or +persecution, as it is not likely that those who really emigrated from +principle can merit such treatment: and I doubt not, that most of the +instances of treachery or misconduct ascribed to the Emigrants originated +in republican emissaries, who have assumed that character for the double +purpose of discrediting it, and of exercising their trade as spies. + +The common people here, who were retained by Le Bon for several months to +attend and applaud his executions, are still dissolute and ferocious, and +openly regret the loss of their pay, and the disuse of the guillotine. + +--I came to Arras in mourning, which I have worn since the receipt of +your first letter, but was informed by the lady with whom my friends +lodge, that I must not attempt to walk the streets in black, for that it +was customary to insult those who did so, on a supposition that they were +related to some persons who had been executed; I therefore borrowed a +white undress, and stole out by night to visit my unfortunate +acquaintance, as I found it was also dangerous to be seen entering houses +known to contain the remains of those families which had been dismembered +by Le Bon's cruelties. + +We return to Amiens to-morrow, though you must not imagine so formidable +a person as myself is permitted to wander about the republic without due +precaution; and I had much difficulty in being allowed to come, even +attended by a guard, who has put me to a considerable expence; but the +man is civil, and as he has business of his own to transact in the town, +he is no embarrassment to me. + + + + +Amiens, Nov. 26, 1794. + +The Constituent Assembly, the Legislative Assembly, and the National +Convention, all seem to have acted from a persuasion, that their sole +duty as revolutionists was comprised in the destruction of whatever +existed under the monarchy. If an institution were discovered to have +the slightest defect in principle, or to have degenerated a little in +practice, their first step was to abolish it entirely, and leave the +replacing it for the present to chance, and for the future to their +successors. In return for the many new words which they have introduced +into the French language, they have expunged that of reform; and the +havock and devastation, which a Mahometan conqueror might have performed +as successfully, are as yet the only effects of philosophy and +republicanism. + +This system of ignorance and violence seems to have persecuted with +peculiar hostility all the ancient establishments for education; and the +same plan of suppressing daily what they have neither leisure nor +abilities to supply, which I remarked to you two years ago, has directed +the Convention ever since. It is true, the interval has produced much +dissertation, and engendered many projects; but those who were so +unanimous in rejecting, were extremely discordant in adopting, and their +own disputes and indecision might have convinced them of their +presumption in condemning what they now found it so difficult to excel. +Some decided in favour of public schools, after the example of Sparta-- +this was objected to by others, because, said they, if you have public +schools you must have edifices, and governors, and professors, who will, +to a certainty, be aristocrats, or become so; and, in short, this will +only be a revival of the colleges of the old government--A third party +proposed private seminaries, or that people might be at liberty to +educate their children in the way they thought best; but this, it was +declared, would have a still greater tendency to aristocracy; for the +rich, being better able to pay than the poor, would engross all the +learning to themselves. The Jacobins were of opinion, that there should +be no schools, either public or private, but that the children should +merely be taken to hear the debates of the Clubs, where they would +acquire all the knowledge necessary for republicans; and a few spirits of +a yet sublimer cast were adverse both to schools or clubs, and +recommended, that the rising generation should "study the great book of +Nature alone." It is, however, at length concluded, that there shall be +a certain number of public establishments, and that people shall even be +allowed to have their children instructed at home, under the inspection +of the constituted authorities, who are to prevent the instillation of +aristocratic principles.* + + * We may judge of the competency of many of these people to be + official censors of education by the following specimens from a + report of Gregoire's. Since the rage for destruction has a little + subsided, circular letters have been sent to the administrators of + the departments, districts, &c. enquiring what antiquities, or other + objects of curiosity, remain in their neighbourhood.--"From one, + (says Gregoire,) we are informed, that they are possessed of nothing + in this way except four vases, which, as they have been told, are of + porphyry. From a second we learn, that, not having either forge or + manufactory in the neighbourhood, no monument of the arts is to be + found there: and a third announces, that the completion of its + library cataloges has been retarded, because the person employed at + them ne fait pas la diplomatique!"--("does not understand the + science of diplomacy.") + +The difficulty as to the mode in which children were to be taught being +got over, another remained, not less liable to dispute--which was, the +choice of what they were to learn. Almost every member had a favourite +article---music, physic, prophylactics, geography, geometry, astronomy, +arithmetic, natural history, and botany, were all pronounced to be +requisites in an eleemosynary system of education, specified to be +chiefly intended for the country people; but as this debate regarded only +the primary schools for children in their earliest years, and as one man +for a stipend of twelve hundred livres a year, was to do it all, a +compromise became necessary, and it has been agreed for the present, that +infants of six years shall be taught only reading, writing, gymnastics, +geometry, geography, natural philosophy, and history of all free nations, +and that of all the tyrants, the rights of man, and the patriotic songs. +--Yet, after these years of consideration, and days of debate, the +Assembly has done no more than a parish-clerk, or an old woman with a +primer, and "a twig whilom of small regard to see," would do better +without its interference. + +The students of a more advanced age are still to be disposed of, and the +task of devising an institution will not be easy; because, perhaps a +Collot d'Herbois or a Duhem is not satisfied with the system which +perfectioned the genius of Montesquieu or Descartes. Change, not +improvement, is the object--whatever bears a resemblance to the past must +be proscribed; and while other people study to simplify modes of +instruction, the French legislature is intent on rendering them as +difficult and complex as possible; and at the moment they decree that the +whole country shall become learned, they make it an unfathomable science +to teach urchins of half a dozen years old their letters. + +Foreigners, indeed, who judge only from the public prints, may suppose +the French far advanced towards becoming the most erudite nation in +Europe: unfortunately, all these schools, primary, and secondary, and +centrical, and divergent, and normal,* exist as yet but in the +repertories of the Convention, and perhaps may not add "a local +habitation" to their names, till the present race** shall be unfit to +reap the benefit of them. + + * _Les Ecoles Normales_ were schools where masters were to be + instructed in the art of teaching. Certain deputies objected to + them, as being of feudal institution, supposing that Normale had + some reference to Normandy. + + ** This was a mistake, for the French seem to have adopted the + maxim, "that man is never too old to learn;" and, accordingly, at + the opening of the Normal schools, the celebrated Bougainville, now + eighty years of age, became a pupil. This Normal project was, + however, soon relinquished--for by that fatality which has hitherto + attended all the republican institutions, it was found to have + become a mere nursery for aristocrats. + +But this revolutionary barbarism, not content with stopping the progress +of the rising generation, has ravaged without mercy the monuments of +departed genius, and persecuted with senseless despotism those who were +capable of replacing them. Pictures have been defaced, statues +mutilated, and libraries burnt, because they reminded the people of their +Kings or their religion; while artists, and men of science or literature, +were wasting their valuable hours in prison, or expiring on the +scaffold.--The moral and gentle Florian died of vexation. A life of +abstraction and utility could not save the celebrated chymist, Lavoisier, +from the Guillotine. La Harpe languished in confinement, probably, that +he might not eclipse Chenier, who writes tragedies himself; and every +author that refused to degrade his talents by the adulation of tyranny +has been proscribed and persecuted. Palissot,* at sixty years old, was +destined to expiate in a prison a satire upon Rousseau, written when he +was only twenty, and escaped, not by the interposition of justice, but by +the efficacity of a bon mot. + + * Palissot was author of "The Philosophers," a comedy, written + thirty years ago, to ridicule Rousseau. He wrote to the + municipality, acknowledged his own error, and the merits of + Rousseau; yet, says he, if Rousseau were a god, you ought not to + sacrifice human victims to him.--The expression, which in French is + well tuned, pleased the municipality, and Palissot, I believe, was + not afterwards molested. + +--A similar fate would have been awarded Dorat, [Author of "Les Malheurs +de l'Inconstance," and other novels.] for styling himself Chevalier in +the title-pages of his novels, had he not commuted his punishment for +base eulogiums on the Convention, and with the same pen, which has been +the delight of the French boudoir, celebrated Carrier's murders on the +Loire under the appellation of "baptemes civiques." Every province in +France, we are informed by the eloquent pedantry of Gregoire, exhibits +traces of these modern Huns, which, though now exclusively attributed to +the agents of Robespierre and Mr. Pitt,* it is very certain were +authorized by the decrees of the Convention, and executed under the +sanction of Deputies on mission, or their subordinates. + + * _"Soyez sur que ces destructions se sont pour la plupart a + l'instigation de nos ennemis--quel triomphe pour l'Anglais si il eul + pu ecraser notre commerce par l'aneantissement des arts dont la + culture enrichit le sien."_--"Rest assured that these demolitions + were, for the most part, effected at the instigation of our enemies + --what a triumph would it have been for the English, if they had + succeeded in crushing our commerce by the annihilation of the arts, + the culture of which enriched their own." + +--If the principal monuments of art be yet preserved to gratify the +national taste or vanity, it is owing to the courage and devotion of +individuals, who obeyed with a protecting dilatoriness the destructive +mandates of government. + +At some places, orangeries were sold by the foot for fire-wood, because, +as it was alledged, that republicans had more occasion for apples and +potatoes than oranges.--At Mousseaux, the seals were put on the +hot-houses, and all the plants nearly destroyed. Valuable remains of +sculpture were condemned for a crest, a fleur de lys, or a coronet +attached to them; and the deities of the Heathen mythology were made war +upon by the ignorance of the republican executioners, who could not +distinguish them from emblems of feodality.* + + * At Anet, a bronze stag, placed as a fountain in a large piece of + water, was on the point of being demolished, because stags are + beasts of chace, and hunting is a feodal privilege, and stags of + course emblems of feodality.--It was with some difficulty preserved + by an amateur, who insisted, that stags of bronze were not included + in the decree.--By a decree of the Convention, which I have formerly + mentioned, all emblems of royalty or feodality were to be demolished + by a particular day; and as the law made no distinction, it could + not be expected that municipalities, &c. often ignorant or timid, + should either venture or desire to spare what in the eyes of the + connoisseur might be precious. + + "At St. Dennis, (says the virtuoso Gregoire,) where the National + Club justly struck at the tyrants even in their tombs, that of + Turenne ought to have been spared; yet strokes of the sword are + still visible on it."--He likewise complains, that at the Botanic + Garden the bust of Linnaeus had been destroyed, on a presumption of + its being that of Charles the Ninth; and if it had been that of + Charles the Ninth, it is not easy to discern how the cause of + liberty was served by its mutilation.--The artist or moralist + contemplates with equal profit or curiosity the features of Pliny or + Commodus; and History and Science will appreciate Linnaeus and + Charles the Ninth, without regarding whether their resemblances + occupy a palace, or are scattered in fragments by republican + ignorance.--Long after the death of Robespierre, the people of + Amiens humbly petitioned the Convention, that their cathedral, + perhaps the most beautiful Gothic edifice in Europe, might be + preserved; and to avoid giving offence by the mention of churches or + cathedrals, they called it a Basilique.--But it is unnecessary to + adduce any farther proof, that the spirit of what is now called + Vandalism originated in the Convention. Every one in France must + recollect, that, when dispatches from all corners announced these + ravages, they were heard with as much applause, as though they had + related so many victories gained over the enemy. + +--Quantities of curious medals have been melted down for the trifling +value of the metal; and at Abbeville, a silver St. George, of uncommon +workmanship, and which Mr. Garrick is said to have desired to purchase at +a very high price, was condemned to the crucible-- + + _"----Sur tant de tresors + "Antiques monumens respectes jusqu'alors, + "Par la destruction signalant leur puissance, + "Las barbares etendirent leur stupide vengeance." + "La Religion,"_ Racine. + +Yet the people in office who operated these mischiefs were all appointed +by the delegates of the Assembly; for the first towns of the republic +were not trusted even with the choice of a constable. Instead, +therefore, of feeling either surprise or regret at this devastation, we +ought rather to rejoice that it has extended no farther; for such agents, +armed with such decrees, might have reduced France to the primitive state +of ancient Gaul. Several valuable paintings are said to have been +conveyed to England, and it will be curious if the barbarism of France in +the eighteenth century should restore to us what we, with a fanaticism +and ignorance at least more prudent than theirs, sold them in the +seventeenth. The zealots of the Barebones' Parliament are, however, more +respectable than the atheistical Vandals of the Convention; and, besides +the benefit of our example, the interval of a century and an half, with +the boast of a philosophy and a degree of illumination exceeding that of +any other people, have rendered the errors of the French at once more +unpardonable and more ridiculous; for, in assimilating their past +presentations to their present conduct and situation, we do not always +find it possible to regret without a mixture of contempt. + + + + +Amiens, Nov. 29, 1794. + +The selfish policy of the Convention in affecting to respect and preserve +the Jacobin societies, while it deprived them of all power, and help up +the individuals who composed them to abhorrence, could neither satisfy +nor deceive men versed in revolutionary expedients, and more accustomed +to dictate laws than to submit to them.* + + * The Jacobins were at this time headed by Billaud Varenne, Collot, + Thuriot, &c.--veterans, who were not likely to be deceived by + temporizing. + +Supported by all the force of government, and intrinsically formidable by +their union, the Clubs had long existed in defiance of public +reprobation, and for some time they had braved not only the people, but +the government itself. The instant they were disabled from corresponding +and communicating in that privileged sort of way which rendered them so +conspicuous, they felt their weakness; and their desultory and +unconnected efforts to regain their influence only served to complete its +annihilation. While they pretended obedience to the regulations to which +the Convention had subjected them, they intrigued to promote a revolt, +and were strenuously exerting themselves to gain partizans among the idle +and dissolute, who, having subsisted for months as members of +revolutionary committees, and in other revolutionary offices, were +naturally averse from a more moderate government. The numbers of these +were far from inconsiderable: and, when it is recollected that this +description of people only had been allowed to retain their arms, while +all who had any thing to defend were deprived of them, we cannot wonder +if the Jacobins entertained hopes of success. + +The Convention, aware of these attempts, now employed against its ancient +accomplices the same arts that had proved so fatal to all those whom it +had considered as its enemies. A correspondence was "opportunely" +intercepted between the Jacobins and the Emigrants in Switzerland, while +emissaries insinuated themselves into the Clubs, for the purpose of +exciting desperate motions; or, dispersed in public places, contrived, by +assuming the Jacobin costume, to throw on the faction the odium of those +seditious exclamations which they were employed to vociferate. + +There is little doubt that the designs of the Jacobins were nearly such +as have been imputed to them. They had, however, become more politic +than to act thus openly, without being prepared to repel their enemies, +or to support their friends; and there is every appearance that the Swiss +plots, and the insurrections of the _Palais Egalite,_ were the devices of +the government, to give a pretext for shutting up the Club altogether, +and to avert the real dangers with which it was menaced, by spreading an +alarm of fictitious ones. A few idle people assembled (probably on +purpose) about the _Palais Egalite,_ and the place where the Jacobins held +their meetings, and the exclamation of "Down with the Convention!" served +as the signal for hostilities. The aristocrats joined the partizans of +the Convention, the Jacobins were attacked in their hall, and an affray +ensued, in which several persons on each side were wounded. Both parties +accused each other of being the aggressor, and a report of the business +was made to the Assembly; but the Assembly had already decided--and, on +the ninth of November, while the Jacobins were endeavouring to raise the +storm by a recapitulation of the rights of man, a decree was passed, +prohibiting their debates, and ordering the national seal to be put on +their doors and papers. The society were not in force to make +resistance, and the decree was carried into execution as quietly as +though it had been levelled against the hotel of some devoted aristocrat. + +When the news of this event reached the departments, it occasioned an +universal rejoicing--not such a rejoicing as is ordered for the successes +of the French arms, (which always seems to be a matter of great +indifference,) but a chearfulness of heart and of countenance; and many +persons whom I do not remember to have ever seen in the least degree +moved by political events, appeared sincerely delighted at this-- + + "And those smile now, who never smil'd before, + "And those who always smil'd, now smile the more." + Parnell's Claudian. + +The armies might proceed to Vienna, pillage the Escurial, or subjugate +all Europe, and I am convinced no emotion of pleasure would be excited +equal to that manifested at the downfall of the Jacobins of Paris. + +Since this disgrace of the parent society, the Clubs in the departments +have, for the most part, dissolved themselves, or dwindled into peaceable +assemblies to hear the news read, and applaud the convention.--The few +Jacobin emblems which were yet remaining have totally disappeared, and no +vestige of Jacobinism is left, but the graves of its victims, and the +desolation of the country. + +The profligate, the turbulent, the idle, and needy, of various countries +in Europe, have been tempted by the successes of the French Jacobins to +endeavour to establish similar institutions; but the same successes have +operated as a warning to people of a different description, and the fall +of these societies has drawn two confessions from their original +partizans, which ought never to be forgotten--namely, that they were +formed for the purpose of subverting the monarchy, and that their +existence is incompatible with regular government of any kind.--"While +the monarchy still existed, (says the most philosophic Lequinio, with +whose scheme of reforming La Vendee you are already acquainted,) it was +politic and necessary to encourage popular societies, as the most +efficacious means of operating its destruction; but now we have effected +a revolution, and have only to consolidate it by mild and philosophic +laws, these societies are dangerous, because they can produce only +confusion and disorder."--This is also the language of Brissot, who +admires the Jacobins from their origin till the end of 1792, but after +that period he admits they were only the instruments of faction, and +destructive of all property and order.* + + * The period of the Jacobin annals so much admired by Brissot, + comprises the dethronement of the King, the massacres of the + prisons, the banishment of the priests, &c. That which he + reprobates begins precisely at the period when the Jacobins disputed + the claims of himself and his party to the exclusive direction of + the government.--See Brissot's Address to his Constituents. + +--We learn therefore, not from the abuses alone, but from the praises +bestowed on the Jacobins, how much such combinations are to be dreaded. +Their merit, it appears, consisted in the subversion of the monarchical +government, and their crime in ceasing to be useful as agents of tyranny, +the moment they ceased to be principals. + +I am still sceptical as to the conversion of the Assembly, and little +disposed to expect good from it; yet whatever it may attempt in future, +or however its real principles may take an ascendant, this fortunate +concurrence of personal interests, coalition of aristocrats and +democrats, and political rivalry, have likewise secured France from a +return of that excess of despotism which could have been exercised only +by such means. It is true, the spirit of the nation is so much +depressed, that an effort to revive these Clubs might meet no resistance; +but the ridicule and opprobrium to which they have latterly been subject, +and finally the manner of their being sacrificed by that very Convention, +of which they were the sole creators and support, will, I think, cool the +zeal, and diminish the numbers of their partizans too much for them ever +again to become formidable. + +The conduct of Carrier has been examined according to the new forms, and +he is now on his trial--though not till the delays of the Convention had +given rise to a general suspicion that they intended either to exonerate +or afford him an opportunity of escaping; and the people were at last so +highly exasperated, that six thousand troops were added to the military +force of Paris, and an insurrection was seriously apprehended. This +stimulated the diligence, or relaxed the indulgence, of the commission +appointed to make the report on Carrier's conduct; and it being decided +that there was room for accusation, the Assembly confirmed the decision, +and he was ordered into custody, to be tried along with the Revolutionary +Committee of Nantes which had been the instrument of his crimes. + +It is a circumstance worth noting, that most of the Deputies who +explained the motives on which they thought Carrier guilty, were silent +on the subject of his drowning, shooting, and guillotining so many +thousands of innocent people, and only declared him guilty, as having +been wanting in respect towards Trehouard, one of his colleagues, and of +injuring the republican cause by his atrocities. + +The fate of this monster exhibits a practical exposition of the enormous +absurdity of such a government. He is himself tried for the exercise of +a power declared to be unbounded when entrusted to him. The men tried +with him as his accomplices were obliged by the laws to obey him; and the +acts of which they are all accused were known, applauded, and held out +for imitation, by the Convention, who now declare those very acts to be +criminal!--There is certainly no way of reconciling justice but by +punishing both chiefs and subordinates, and the hour for this will yet +come.--Adieu. + + + + +Amiens. [No date given.] + +I do not yet venture to correspond with my Paris friends by the post, but +whenever the opportunity of private conveyance occurs, I receive long and +circumstantial letters, as well as packets, of all the publications most +read, and the theatrical pieces most applauded. I have lately drudged +through great numbers of these last, and bestowed on them an attention +they did not in themselves deserve, because I considered it as one means +of judging both of the spirit of the government and the morals of the +people. + +The dramas produced at the beginning of the revolution were in general +calculated to corrupt the national taste and morals, and many of them +were written with skill enough to answer the purpose for which they were +intended; but those that have appeared during the last two years, are so +stupid and so depraved, that the circumstance of their being tolerated +even for a moment implies an extinction both of taste and of morals.* + + * _"Dans l'espace d'un an ils ont failli detruire le produit de + plusieurs siecles de civilization."_--("In the space of a year they + nearly destroyed the fruits of several ages of civilization.") + +The principal cause of this is the despotism of the government in making +the stage a mere political engine, and suffering the performance of such +pieces only as a man of honesty or genius would not submit to write.* + + * The tragedy of Brutus was interdicted on account of these two + lines: + + _"Arreter un romain sur de simple soupcons, + "C'est agir en tyrans, nous qui les punissons."_ + + That of Mahomet for the following: + + _"Exterminez, grands dieux, de la terre ou nous sommes + "Quiconque avec plaisir repand le sang des hommes."_ + + It is to be remarked, that the last lines are only a simple axiom of + humanity, and could not have been considered as implying a censure + on any government except that of the French republic. + +--Hence a croud of scribblers, without shame or talents, have become the +exclusive directors of public amusements, and, as far as the noise of a +theatre constitutes success, are perhaps more successful than ever was +Racine or Moliere. Immorality and dulness have an infallible resource +against public disapprobation in the abuse of monarchy and religion, or a +niche for Mr. Pitt; and an indignant or impatient audience, losing their +other feelings in their fears, are glad to purchase the reputation of +patriotism by applauding trash they find it difficult to endure. The +theatres swarm with spies, and to censure a revolutionary piece, however +detestable even as a composition, is dangerous, and few have courage to +be the critics of an author who is patronized by the superintendants of +the guillotine, or who may retaliate a comment on his poetry by the +significant prose of a mandat d'arret. + +Men of literature, therefore, have wisely preferred the conservation of +their freedom to the vindication of their taste, and have deemed it +better to applaud at the Theatre de la Republique, than lodge at St. +Lazare or Duplessis.--Thus political slavery has assisted moral +depravation: the writer who is the advocate of despotism, may be dull and +licentious by privilege, and is alone exempt from the laws of Parnassus +and of decency.--One Sylvan Marechal, author of a work he calls +philosophie, has written a sort of farce, which has been performed very +generally, where all the Kings in Europe are brought together as so many +monsters; and when the King of France is enquired after as not being +among them, a Frenchman answers,--"Oh, he is not here--we have +guillotined him--we have cut off his head according to law."--In one +piece, the hero is a felon escaped from the galleys, and is represented +as a patriot of the most sublime principles; in another, he is the +virtuous conductor of a gang of banditti; and the principal character in +a third, is a ploughman turned deist and politician. + +Yet, while these malevolent and mercenary scribblers are ransacking past +ages for the crimes of Kings or the abuses of religion, and imputing to +both many that never existed, they forget that neither their books nor +their imagination are able to furnish scenes of guilt and misery equal to +those which have been presented daily by republicans and philosophers. +What horror can their mock-tragedies excite in those who have +contemplated the Place de la Revolution? or who can smile at a farce in +ridicule of monarchy, that beholds the Convention, and knows the +characters of the men who compose it?--But in most of these wretched +productions the absurdity is luckily not less conspicuous than the +immoral intention: their Princes, their Priests, their Nobles, are all +tyrannical, vicious, and miserable; yet the common people, living under +these same vicious tyrants, are described as models of virtue, +hospitality, and happiness. If, then, the auditors of such edifying +dramas were in the habit of reasoning, they might very justly conclude, +that the ignorance which republicanism is to banish is desirable, and +that the diffusion of riches with which they have been flattered, will +only increase their vices, and subtract from their felicity. + +There are, however, some patriotic spirits, who, not insensible to this +degeneracy of the French theatre, and lamenting the evil, have lately +exercised much ingenuity in developing the cause. They have at length +discovered, that all the republican tragedies, flat farces, and heavy +comedies, are attributable to Mr. Pitt, who has thought proper to corrupt +the authors, with a view to deprave the public taste. There is, +certainly, no combating this charge; for as, according to the assertions +of the Convention, Mr. Pitt has succeeded in bribing nearly every other +description of men in the republic, we may suppose the consciences of +such scribblers not less flexible. Mr. Pitt, indeed, stands accused, +sometimes in conjunction with the Prince of Cobourg, and sometimes on his +own account, of successively corrupting the officers of the fleet and +army, all the bankers and all the farmers, the priests who say masses, +and the people who attend them, the chiefs of the aristocrats, and the +leaders of the Jacobins. The bakers who refuse to bake when they have no +flour, and the populace who murmur when they have no bread, besides the +merchants and shopkeepers who prefer coin to assignats, are notoriously +pensioned by him: and even a part of the Representatives, and all the +frail beauties, are said to be enlisted in his service.--These +multifarious charges will be found on the journals of the Assembly, and +we must of course infer, that Mr. Pitt is the ablest statesman, or the +French the most corrupt nation, existing. + +But it is not only Barrere and his colleagues who suppose the whole +country bribeable--the notion is common to the French in general; and +vanity adding to the omnipotence of gold, whenever they speak of a battle +lost, or a town taken, they conclude it impossible to have occurred but +through the venal treachery of their officers.--The English, I have +observed, always judge differently, and would not think the national +honour sustained by a supposition that their commanders were vulnerable +only in the hand. If a general or an admiral happen to be unfortunate, +it would be with the utmost reluctance that we should think of +attributing his mischance to a cause so degrading; yet whoever has been +used to French society will acknowledge, that the first suggestion on +such events is _"nos officiers ont ete gagnes,"_ [Our officers were +bought.] or _"sans la trahison ce ne seroit pas arrive."_ [This could not +have happened without treachery.]--Pope's hyperbole of + + "Just half the land would buy, and half be sold," + +is more than applicable here; for if we may credit the French themselves, +the buyers are by no means so well proportioned to the sellers. + +As I have no new political intelligence to comment upon, I shall finish +my letter with a domestic adventure of the morning.--Our house was +yesterday assigned as the quarters of some officers, who, with part of a +regiment, were passing this way to join the Northern army. As they spent +the evening out, we saw nothing of them, but finding one was a Colonel, +and the other a Captain, though we knew what republican colonels and +captains might be, we thought it civil, or rather necessary, to send them +an invitation to breakfast. We therefore ordered some milk coffee early, +(for Frenchmen seldom take tea,) and were all assembled before the usual +time to receive our military guests. As they did not, however, appear, +we were ringing to enquire for them, when Mr. D____ entered from his +morning walk, and desired us to be at ease on their account, for that in +passing the kitchen, he had perceived the Captain fraternizing over some +onions, bread, and beer, with our man; while the Colonel was in close +conference with the cook, and watching a pan of soup, which was warming +for his breakfast. We have learned since, that these heroes were very +willing to accept of any thing the servants offered them, but could not +be prevailed upon to approach us; though, you are to understand, this was +not occasioned either by timidity or incivility, but by mere ignorance. +--Mr. D____ says, the Marquise and I have not divested ourselves of +aristocratic associations with our ideas of the military, and that our +deshabilles this morning were unusually coquetish. Our projects of +conquest were, however, all frustrated by the unlucky intervention of +Bernardine's _soupe aux choux,_ [Cabbage-soup.] and Eustace's regale of +cheese and onions. + + "And with such beaux 'tis vain to be a belle." + +Yours, &c. + + + + +Amiens, Dec. 10, 1794. + +Your American friend passed through here yesterday, and delivered me the +two parcels. As marks of your attention, they were very acceptable; but +on any other account, I assure you, I should have preferred a present of +a few pecks of wheat to all your fineries. + +I have been used to conclude, when I saw such strange and unaccountable +absurdities given in the French papers as extracts from the debates in +either of your Houses of Parliament, that they were probably fabricated +here to serve the designs of the reigning factions: yet I perceive, by +some old papers which came with the muslins, that there are really +members so ill-informed or so unprincipled, as to use the language +attributed to them, and who assert that the French are attached to their +government, and call France "a land of republicans." + +When it is said that a people are republicans, we must suppose they are +either partial to republicanism as a system, or that they prefer it in +practice. A little retrospection, perhaps, will determine both these +points better than the eloquence of your orators. + +A few men, of philosophic or restless minds, have, in various ages and +countries, endeavoured to enlighten or disturb the world by examinations +and disputes on forms of government; yet the best heads and the best +hearts have remained divided on the subject, and I never heard that any +writer was able to produce more than a partial conviction, even in the +most limited circle. Whence, then, did it happen in France, where +information was avowedly confined, and where such discussions could not +have been general, that the people became suddenly inspired with this +political sagacity, which made them in one day the judges and converts of +a system they could scarcely have known before, even by name?--At the +deposition of the King, the French, (speaking at large,) had as +perspicuous a notion of republics, as they may be supposed to have of +mathematics, and would have understood Euclid's Elements as well as the +Social Contract. Yet an assemblage of the worst and most daring men from +every faction, elected amidst massacres and proscription, the moment they +are collected together, declare, on the proposal of Collot d'Herbois, a +profligate strolling player, that France shall be a republic.--Admitting +that the French were desirous of altering their form of government, I +believe no one will venture to say such an inclination was ever +manifested, or that the Convention were elected in a manner to render +them competent to such a decision. They were not the choice of the +people, but chiefly emissaries imposed on the departments by the Jacobins +and the municipality of Paris; and let those who are not acquainted with +the means by which the elections were obtained, examine the composition +of the Assembly itself, and then decide whether any people being free +could have selected such men as Petion, Tallien, Robespierre, Brissot, +Carrier, Taillefer, &c. &c. from the whole nation to be their +Representatives.--There must, in all large associations, be a mixture of +good and bad; but when it is incontrovertible that the principal members +of the Convention are monsters, who, we hope, are not to be paralleled-- +that the rest are inferior rather in talents than wickedness, or cowards +and ideots, who have supported and applauded crimes they only wanted +opportunity to commit--it is not possible to conceive, that any people in +the world could make a similar choice. Yet if the French were absolutely +unbiassed, and of their own free will made this collection, who would, +after such an example, be the advocates of general suffrage and popular +representation?--But, I repeat, the people were not free. They were not, +indeed, influenced by bribes--they were intimidated by the horrors of the +moment; and along with the regulations for the new elections, were every +where circulated details of the assassinations of August and September.* + + * The influence of the municipality of Paris on the new elections is + well known. The following letter will show what instruments were + employed, and the description of Representatives likely to be chosen + under such auspices. + + "Circular letter, written by the Committee of Inspection of the + municipality of Paris to all the departments of the republic, dated + the third of September, the second day of the massacres: + + "The municipality of Paris is impatient to inform their brethren of + the departments, that a part of the ferocious conspirators detained + in the prisons have been put to death by the people: an act of + justice which appeared to them indispensable, to restrain by terror + those legions of traitors whom they must have left behind when they + departed for the army. There is no doubt but the whole nation, + after such multiplied treasons, will hasten to adopt the same + salutary measure!"--Signed by the Commune of Paris and the Minister + of Justice. + + Who, after this mandate, would venture to oppose a member + recommended by the Commune of Paris? + +--The French, then, neither chose the republican form of government, +nor the men who adopted it; and are, therefore, not republicans on +principle.--Let us now consider whether, not being republicans on +principle, experience may have rendered them such. + +The first effects of the new system were an universal consternation, +the disappearance of all the specie, an extravagant rise in the price of +provisions, and many indications of scarcity. The scandalous quarrels of +the legislature shocked the national vanity, by making France the +ridicule of all Europe, until ridicule was suppressed by detestation at +the subsequent murder of the King. This was followed by the efforts of +one faction to strengthen itself against another, by means of a general +war--the leaders of the former presuming, that they alone were capable of +conducting it. + +To the miseries of war were added revolutionary tribunals, revolutionary +armies and committees, forced loans, requisitions, maximums, and every +species of tyranny and iniquity man could devise or suffer; or, to use +the expression of Rewbell, [One of the Directory in 1796.] "France was in +mourning and desolation; all her families plunged in despair; her whole +surface covered with Bastilles, and the republican government become so +odious, that the most wretched slave, bending beneath the weight of his +chains, would have refused to live under it!" + +Such were the means by which France was converted into a land of +republicans, and such the government to which your patriots assert the +French people were attached: yet so little was this attachment +appreciated here, that the mere institutions for watching and suppressing +disaffection amount, by the confession of Cambon, the financier, to +twenty-four millions six hundred and thirty-one thousand pounds sterling +a year! + +To suppose, then, that the French are devoted to a system which has +served as a pretext for so many crimes, and has been the cause of so many +calamities, is to conclude them a nation of philosophers, who are able to +endure, yet incapable of reasoning; and who suffer evils of every kind in +defence of a principle with which they can be little acquainted, and +which, in practice, they have known only by the destruction it has +occasioned. + +You may, perhaps, have been persuaded, that the people submit patiently +now, for the sake of an advantage in perspective; but it is not in the +disposition of unenlightened men (and the mass of a people must +necessarily be so) to give up the present for the future. The individual +may sometimes atchieve this painful conquest over himself, and submit to +evil, on a calculation of future retribution, but the multitude will ever +prefer the good most immediately attainable, if not under the influence +of that terror which supersedes every other consideration. Recollect, +then, the counsel of the first historian of our age, and "suspend your +belief of whatever deviates from the laws of nature and the character of +man;" and when you are told the French are attached to a government which +oppresses them, or to principles of which they are ignorant, suppose +their adoption of the one, and their submission to the other, are the +result of fear, and that those who make these assertions to the contrary, +are either interested or misinformed. + +Excuse me if I have devoted a few pages to a subject which with you is +obsolete. I am indignant at the perusal of such falsehoods; and though I +feel for the humiliation of great talents, I feel still more for the +disgrace such an abuse of them brings on our country. + +It is not inapposite to mention a circumstance which happened to a friend +of Mr. D____'s, some little time since, at Paris. He was passing through +France, in his way from Italy, at the time of the general arrest, and was +detained there till the other day. As soon as he was released from +prison, he applied in person to a member of the Convention, to learn when +he might hope to return to England. The Deputy replied, _"Ma soi je n'en +sais rien_ [Faith I can't tell you.]--If your Messieurs (naming some +members in the opposition) had succeeded in promoting a revolution, you +would not have been in your cage so long--_mais pour le coup il faut +attendre."_ [But now you must have patience.] It is not probable the +members he named could have such designs, but Dumont once held the same +language to me; and it is mortifying to hear these miscreants suppose, +that factious or ambitious men, because they chance to possess talents, +can make revolutions in England as they have done in France. + +In the papers which gave rise to these reflections, I observe that some +of your manufacturing towns are discontented, and attribute the +stagnation of their commerce to the war; but it is not unlikely, that the +stagnation and failures complained of might have taken place, though the +war had not happened.--When I came here in 1792, every shop and warehouse +were over-stocked with English goods. I could purchase any article of +our manufacture at nearly the retail price of London; and some I sent for +from Paris, in the beginning of 1793, notwithstanding the reports of war, +were very little advanced. Soon after the conclusion of the commercial +treaty, every thing English became fashionable; and so many people had +speculated in consequence, that similar speculations took place in +England. But France was glutted before the war; and all speculations +entered into on a presumption of a demand equal to that of the first +years of the treaty, must have failed in a certain degree, though the two +countries had remained at peace.--Even after a two years cessation of +direct intercourse, British manufactures are every where to be procured, +which is a sufficient proof that either the country was previously over +supplied, or that they are still imported through neutral or indirect +channels. Both these suppositions preclude the likelihood that the war +has so great a share in relaxing the activity of your commerce, as is +pretended. + +But whatever may be the effect of the war, there is no prospect of peace, +until the efforts of England, or the total ruin of the French finances,* +shall open the way for it. + + * By a report of Cambon's at this time, it appears the expences of + France in 1792 were eighteen millions sterling--in 1793, near ninety + millions--and, in the spring of 1794, twelve and a half millions per + month!--The church bells, we learn from the same authority, cost in + coinage, and the purchase of copper to mix with the metal, five or + six millions of livres more than they produced as money. The church + plate, which was brought to the bar of the Convention with such + eclat, and represented as an inexhaustible resource, amounted to + scarcely a million sterling: for as the offering was every where + involuntary, and promoted by its agents for the purposes of pillage, + part was secreted, a still greater part stolen, and, as the + conveyance to Paris was a sort of job, the expences often exceeded + the worth--a patine, a censor, and a small chalice, were sent to the + Convention, perhaps an hundred leagues, by a couple of Jacobin + Commissioners in a coach and four, with a military escort. Thus, + the prejudices of the people were outraged, and their property + wasted, without any benefit, even to those who suggested the + measure. + +--The Convention, indeed, have partly relinquished their project of +destroying all the Kings of the earth, and forcing all the people to be +free. But, though their schemes of reformation have failed, they still +adhere to those of extirpation; and the most moderate members talk +occasionally of "vile islanders," and "sailing up the Thames."*-- + + * The Jacobins and the Moderates, who could agree in nothing else, + were here perfectly in unison; so that on the same day we see the + usual invectives of Barrere succeeded by menaces equally ridiculous + from Pelet and Tallien-- + + _"La seule chose dont nous devons nous occuper est d'ecraser ce + gouvernement infame."_ + + + Discours de Pelet, 14 Nov. + + "The destruction of that infamous government is the only thing that + ought to engage our attention." + Pelet's Speech, 14 Nov. 1794. + + _"Aujourdhui que la France peut en se debarrassant d'une partie de + ses ennemis reporter la gloire de ses armes sur les bordes de la + Tamise, et ecraser le gouvernement Anglais." + Discours de Tallien._ + + "France, having now the opportunity of lessening the number of her + enemies, may carry the glory of her arms to the banks of the Thames, + and crush the English government." + Tallien's Speech. + + _"Que le gouvernement prenne des mesures sages pour faire une paix + honorable avec quelques uns de nos ennemis, et a l'aide des + vaisseaux Hollandais et Espagnols, portons nous ensuite avec vigueur + sur les bordes de la Tamise, et detruisons la nouvelle Carthage." + Discours de Tallien, 14 Nov._ + + "Let the government but adopt wise measures for making an honorable + peace with a part of our enemies, and with the aid of the Dutch and + Spanish navies, let us repair to the banks of the Thames, and + destroy the modern Carthage." + Tallien's Speech, 14 Nov. 1794. + +No one is here ignorant of the source of Tallien's predilection for +Spain, and we may suppose the intrigue at this time far advanced. +Probably the charms of his wife (the daughter of Mons. Cabarrus, a French +speculator, formerly much encouraged by the Spanish government, +afterwards disgraced and imprisoned, but now liberated) might not be the +only means employed to procure his conversion. + +--Tallien, Clauzel, and those who have newly assumed the character of +rational and decent people, still use the low and atrocious language of +Brissot, on the day he made his declaration of war; and perhaps hope, by +exciting a national spirit of vengeance against Great Britain, to secure +their lives and their pay, when they shall have been forced to make peace +on the Continent: for, be certain, the motives of these men are never to +be sought for in any great political object, but merely in expedients to +preserve their persons and their plunder. + +Those who judge of the Convention by their daily harangues, and the +justice, virtue, or talents which they ascribe to themselves, must +believe them to be greatly regenerated: yet such is the dearth both of +abilities and of worth of any kind, that Andre Dumont has been +successively President of the Assembly, Member of the Committee of +General Safety, and is now in that of Public Welfare.--Adieu. + + + + +Amiens, Dec. 16, 1794. + +The seventy-three Deputies who have been so long confined are now +liberated, and have resumed their seats. Jealousy and fear for some time +rendered the Convention averse from the adoption of this measure; but the +public opinion was so determined in favour of it, that farther resistance +might not have been prudent. The satisfaction created by this event is +general, though the same sentiment is the result of various conclusions, +which, however, all tend to one object--the re-establishment of monarchy. + +The idea most prevalent is, that these deputies, when arrested, were +royalists.* + + * This opinion prevailed in many places where the proscribed + deputies took refuge. "The Normans (says Louvet) deceived by the + imputations in the newspapers, assisted us, under the idea that we + were royalists: but abandoned us when they found themselves + mistaken." In the same manner, on the appearance of these Deputies + in other departments, armies were collecting very fast, but + dispersed when they perceived these men were actuated only by + personal fear or personal ambition, and that no one talked of + restoring the monarchy. + +--By some it is thought, persecution may have converted them; but the +reflecting part of the nation look on the greater number as adherents of +the Girondists, whom the fortunate violence of Robespierre excluded from +participating in many of the past crimes of their colleagues, and who +have, in that alone, a reason for not becoming accomplices in those which +may be attempted in future. + +It is astonishing to see with what facility people daily take on trust +things which they have it in their power to ascertain. The seventy-three +owe a great part of the interest they have excited to a persuasion of +their having voted either for a mild sentence on the King, or an appeal +to the nation: yet this is so far from being true, that many of them were +unfavourable to him on every question. But supposing it to have been +otherwise, their merit is in reality little enhanced: they all voted him +guilty, without examining whether he was so or not; and in affecting +mercy while they refused justice, they only aimed at conciliating their +present views with their future safety. + +The whole claim of this party, who are now the Moderates of the +Convention, is reducible to their having opposed the commission of crimes +which were intended to serve their adversaries, rather than themselves. +To effect the dethronement of the King, and the destruction of those +obnoxious to them, they approved of popular insurrections; but expected +that the people whom they had rendered proficients in cruelty, should +become gentle and obedient when urged to resist their own authority; yet +they now come forth as victims of their patriotism, and call the heads of +the faction who are fallen--martyrs to liberty! But if they are victims, +it is to their folly or wickedness in becoming members of such an +assembly; and if their chiefs were martyrs, it was to the principles they +inculcated. + +The trial of the Brissotins was justice, compared with that of the King. +If the former were condemned without proof, their partizans should +remember, that the revolutionary jury pretended to be influenced by the +same moral evidence they had themselves urged as the ground on which they +condemned the King; and if the people beheld with applause or +indifference the execution of their once-popular idols, they only put in +practice the barbarous lessons which those idols had taught them;--they +were forbidden to lament the fate of their Sovereign, and they rejoiced +in that of Brissot and his confederates.--These men, then, only found the +just retribution of their own guilt; and though it may be politic to +forget that their survivors were also their accomplices, they are not +objects of esteem--and the contemporary popularity, which a long +seclusion has obtained for them, will vanish, if their future conduct +should be directed by their original principles.* + + * Louvet's pamphlet had not at this time appeared, and the + subsequent events proved, that the interest taken in these Deputies + was founded on a supposition they had changed their principles; for + before the close of the Convention they were as much objects of + hatred and contempt as their colleagues. + +Some of these Deputies were the hirelings of the Duke of Orleans, and +most of them are individuals of no better reputation than the rest of the +Assembly. Lanjuinais has the merit of having acted with great courage in +defence of himself and his party on the thirty-first of May 1792; but the +following anecdote, recited by Gregoire* in the Convention a few days ago +will sufficiently explain both his character and Gregoire's, who are now, +however, looked up to as royalists, and as men comparatively honest. + + * Gregoire is one of the constitutional Clergy, and, from the habit + of comparing bad with worse, is more esteemed than many of his + colleagues; yet, in his report on the progress of Vandalism, he + expresses himself with sanguinary indecency--"They have torn (says + he) the prints which represented the execution of Charles the first, + because there were coats of arms on them. Ah, would to god we could + behold, engraved in the same manner, the heads of all Kings, done + from nature! We might then reconcile ourselves to seeing a + ridiculous embellishment of heraldry accompany them." + +--"When I first arrived at Versailles, (says Gregoire,) as member of the +Constituent Assembly, (in 1789,) I met with Lanjuinais, and we took an +oath in concert to dethrone the King and abolish Nobility." Now, this +was before the alledged provocations of the King and Nobility--before the +constitution was framed--before the flight of the royal family to +Varennes--and before the war. But almost daily confessions of this sort +escape, which at once justify the King, and establish the infamy of the +revolutionists. + +These are circumstances not to be forgotten, did not the sad science of +discriminating the shades of wickedness, in which (as I have before +noticed) the French have been rendered such adepts, oblige them at +present to fix their hopes--not according to the degree of merit, but by +that of guilt. They are reduced to distinguish between those who +sanction murders, and those who perpetrated them--between the sacrificer +of one thousand victims, and that of ten--between those who assassinate, +and those who only reward the assassin.* + + * Tallien is supposed, as agent of the municipality of paris, to + have paid a million and a half of livres to the Septembrisers or + assassins of the prisons! I know not whether the sum was in + assignats or specie.--If in the former, it was, according to the + exchange then, about two and thirty thousand pounds sterling: but if + estimated in proportion to what might be purchased with it, near + fifty thousand. Tallien has never denied the payment of the money-- + we may, therefore, conclude the charge to be true. + +--Before the revolution, they would not have known how to select, where +all were objects of abhorrence; but now the most ignorant are casuists in +the gradations of turpitude, and prefer Tallien to Le Bon, and the Abbe +Sieyes to Barrere. + +The crimes of Carrier have been terminated, not punished, by death. He +met his fate with a courage which, when the effect of innocence, is +glorious to the sufferer, and consoling to humanity; but a career like +his, so ended, was only the confirmation of a brutal and ferocious mind.* + + * When Carrier was arrested, he attempted to shoot himself, and, on + being prevented by the Gens-d'armes, he told them there were members + of the Convention who would not forgive their having prevented his + purpose--implying, that they apprehended the discoveries he might + make on his trial. While he was dressing himself, (for they took + him in bed,) he added, "_Les Scelerats!_ (Meaning his more + particular accomplices, who, he was told, had voted against him,) + they deserved that I should be as dastardly as themselves." He + rested his defence entirely on the decrees of the Convention. + +--Of thirty who were tried with him as his agents, and convicted of +assisting at the drownings, shootings, &c. two only were executed, the +rest were acquitted; because, though the facts were proved, the moral +latitude of the Revolutionary Jury* did not find the guilt of the +intention--that is, the culprits were indisputably the murderers of +several thousand people, but, according to the words of the verdict, they +did not act with a counter-revolutionary intention. + + * An English reader may be deceived by the name of Jury. The + Revolutionary Jury was not only instituted, but even appointed by + the Convention.--The following is a literal translation of some of + the verdicts given on this occasion: + + "That O'Sulivan is author and accomplice of several noyades + (drownings) and unheard-of cruelties towards the victims delivered + to the waves. + + "That Lefevre is proved to have ordered and caused to be executed a + noyade of men, women, and children, and to have committed various + arbitrary acts. + + "That General Heron is proved to have assassinated children, and + worn publicly in his hat the ear of a man he had murdered. That he + also killed two children who were peaceably watching sheep. + + "That Bachelier is author and accomplice of the operations at + Nantes, in signing arbitrary mandates of arrest, imposing vexatious + taxes, and taking for himself plate, &c. found at the houses of + citizens arrested on suspicion. + + "That Joly is guilty, &c. in executing the arbitrary orders of the + Revolutionary Committee, of tying together the victims destined to + be drowned or shot." + + There are thirty-one articles conceived nearly in the same terms, + and which conclude thus--"All convicted as above, but not having + acted with criminal or counter-revolutionary intentions, the + Tribunal acquits and sets them at liberty." + + All France was indignant at those verdicts, and the people of Paris + were so enraged, that the Convention ordered the acquitted culprits + to be arrested again, perhaps rather for protection than punishment. + They were sent from Paris, and I never heard the result; but I have + seen the name of General Heron as being at large. + +The Convention were certainly desirous that the atrocities of these men +(all zealous republicans) should be forgotten; for, independently of the +disgrace which their trial has brought on the cause, the sacrifice of +such agents might create a dangerous timidity in future, and deprive the +government of valuable partizans, who would fear to be the instruments of +crimes for which, after such a precedent, they might become responsible. +But the evil, which was unavoidable, has been palliated by the tenderness +or gratitude of a jury chosen by the Convention, who, by sacrificing two +only of this mass of monsters, and protecting the rest, hope to +consecrate the useful principle of indulgence for every act, whatever its +enormity, which has been the consequence of zeal or obedience to the +government. + +It is among the dreadful singularities of the revolution, that the +greatest crimes which have been committed were all in strict observance +of the laws. Hence the Convention are perpetually embarrassed by +interest or shame, when it becomes necessary to punish them. We have +only to compare the conduct of Carrier, le Bon, Maignet, &c. with the +decrees under which they acted, to be convinced that their chief guilt +lies in having been capable of obeying: and the convention, coldly +issuing forth their rescripts of extermination and conflagration, will +not, in the opinion of the moralist, be favorably distinguished from +those who carried these mandates into execution. + + + + +December 24, 1794. + +I am now at a village a few miles from Amiens, where, upon giving +security in the usual form, we have been permitted to come for a few days +on a visit to some relations of my friend Mad. de ____. On our arrival, +we found the lady of the house in a nankeen pierrot, knitting grey thread +stockings for herself, and the gentleman in a thick woollen jacket and +pantaloons, at work in the fields, and really labouring as hard as his +men.--They hope, by thus taking up the occupation and assuming the +appearance of farmers, to escape farther persecution; and this policy may +be available to those who have little to lose: but property is now a more +dangerous distinction than birth, and whoever possesses it, will always +be considered as the enemies of the republic, and treated accordingly. + +We have been so much confined the last twelve months, that we were glad +to ride yesterday in spite of the cold; and our hosts having procured +asses for the females of the party, accompanied us themselves on foot.-- +During our ramble, we entered into conversation with two old men and a +boy, who were at work in an open field near the road. They told us, they +had not strength to labour, because they had not their usual quantity of +bread--that their good lady, whose chateau we saw at a distance, had been +guillotined, or else they should have wanted for nothing--_"Et ste pauvre +Javotte la n'auroit pas travaille quant elle est qualsiment prete a +mourir."_ ["And our poor Javotte there would not have had to work when she +is almost in her grave."]--_"Mon dieu,"_ (says one of the old men, who had +not yet spoke,) _"Je donnerais bien ma portion de sa terre pour la ravoir +notre bonne dame."_ ["God knows, I would willingly give up my share of +her estate to have our good lady amongst us again."]--_"Ah pour ca oui,"_ +(returned the other,) _"mais j'crois que nous n'aurons ni l'une l'autre, +voila ste maudite nation qui s'empare de tout."_ ["Ah truly, but I fancy +we shall have neither one nor the other, for this cursed nation gets hold +of every thing."] + +While they were going on in this style, a berline and four cabriolets, +with three-coloured flags at the windows, and a whole troop of national +guard, passed along the road. _"Vive la Republique!"_--"Vive la Nation!" +cried our peasants, in an instant; and as soon as the cavalcade was out +of sight, _"Voyez ste gueusaille la, quel train, c'est vraiment quelque +depute de la Convention--ces brigands la, ils ne manquent de rien, ils +vivent comme des rois, et nous autres nous sommes cent sois plus +miserables que jamais."_ ["See there what a figure they make, those +beggarly fellows--it's some deputy of the convention I take it. The +thieves want for nothing, they live like so many kings, and we are all a +hundred times worse off than ever."]--_"Tais toi, tais tois,"_ ["Be quiet, +I tell you."] (says the old man, who seemed the least garrulous of the +two.)--_"Ne crains rien,_ ["Never fear."] (replied the first,) _c'est de +braves gens;_ these ladies and gentlemen I'm sure are good people; they +have not the look of patriots."--And with this compliment to ourselves, +and the externals of patriotism, we took our leave of them. + +I found, however, by this little conversation, that some of the peasants +still believe they are to have the lands of the gentry divided amongst +them, according to a decree for that purpose. The lady, whom they +lamented, and whose estate they expected to share, was the Marquise de +B____, who had really left the country before the revolution, and had +gone to drink some of the German mineral waters, but not returning within +the time afterwards prescribed, was declared an emigrant. By means of a +friend, she got an application made to Chabot, (then in high popularity,) +who for an hundred thousand livres procured a passport from the Executive +Council to enter France. Upon the faith of this she ventured to return, +and was in consequence, notwithstanding her passport, executed as an +emigrant. + +Mrs. D____, who is not yet well enough for such an expedition, and is, +besides, unaccustomed to our montures, remained at home. We found she +had been much alarmed during our absence, every house in the village +having been searched, by order of the district, for corn, and two of the +horses taken to the next post to convey the retinue of the Deputy we had +seen in the morning. Every thing, however, was tranquil on our arrival, +and rejoicing it was no worse, though Mons. ____ seemed to be under great +apprehension for his horses, we sat down to what in France is called a +late dinner. + +Our host's brother, who left the army at the general exclusion of the +Noblesse, and was in confinement at the Luxembourg until after the death +of Robespierre, is a professed wit, writes couplets to popular airs, and +has dramatized one of Plutarch's Lives. While we were at the desert, he +amused us with some of his compositions in prison, such as an epigram on +the Guillotine, half a dozen calembours on the bad fare at the _Gamelle,_ +[Mess.] and an ode on the republican victory at Fleurus--the last written +under the hourly expectation of being sent off with the next _fournee_ +(batch) of pretended conspirators, yet breathing the most ardent +attachment to the convention, and terminated by a full sounding line +about tyrants and liberty.--This may appear strange, but the Poets were, +for the most part, in durance, and the Muses must sing, though in a cage: +hope and fear too both inspire prescriptively, and freedom might be +obtained or death averted by these effusions of a devotion so profound as +not to be alienated by the sufferings of imprisonment, or the menace of +destruction. Whole volumes of little jeux d'esprit, written under these +circumstances, might be collected from the different prisons; and, I +believe, it is only in France that such a collection could have been +furnished.* + + * Many of these poetical trifles have been published--some written + even the night before their authors were executed. There are + several of great poetical merit, and, when considered relatively, + are wonderful.--Among the various poets imprisoned, was one we + should scarcely have expected--Rouget Delille, author of the + Marseillois Hymn, who, while his muse was rouzing the citizens from + one end of the republic to the other to arm against tyrants, was + himself languishing obscurely a victim to the worst of all + tyrannies. + +Mr. D____, though he writes and speaks French admirably, does not love +French verses; and I found he could not depend on the government of his +features, while a French poet was reciting his own, but kept his eyes +fixed on a dried apple, which he pared very curiously, and when that was +atchieved, betook himself to breaking pralines, and extracting the +almonds with equal application. We, however, complimented Monsieur's +poetry; and when we had taken our coffee, and the servants were entirely +withdrawn, he read us some trifles more agreeable to our principles, if +not to our taste, and in which the Convention was treated with more +sincerity than complaisance. It seems the poet's zeal for the republic +had vanished at his departure from the Luxembourg, and that his wrath +against coalesced despots, and his passion for liberty, had entirely +evaporated. In the evening we played a party of reversi with republican +cards,* and heard the children sing "Mourrons pour la Patrie." + + * The four Kings are replaced by four Genii, the Queens by four + sorts of liberty, and the Knaves by four descriptions of equality. + +--After these civic amusements, we closed our chairs round the fire, +conjecturing how long the republic might last, or whether we should all +pass another twelve months in prison, and, agreeing that both our fate +and that of the republic were very precarious, adjourned to rest. + +While I was undressing, I observed Angelique looked extremely +discontented, and on my enquiring what was the matter, she answered, +_"C'est que je m'ennuie beaucoup ici,"_ ["I am quite tired of this +place."] "Mademoiselle," (for no state or calling is here exempt from this +polite sensation.) "And why, pray?"--_"Ah quelle triste societe, tout le +monde est d'un patriotisme insoutenable, la maison est remplie d'images +republicaines, des Marat, des Voltaire, des Pelletier, que sais-moi? et +voila jusqu'au garcon de l'ecurie qui me traite de citoyenne."_ ["Oh, +they are a sad set--every body is so insufferably patriotic. The house +is full from top to bottom of republican images, Marats, and Voltaires, +and Pelletiers, and I don't know who--and I am called Citizen even by the +stable boy."] I did not think it right to satisfy her as to the real +principles of our friends, and went to bed ruminating on the improvements +which the revolution must have occasioned in the art of dissimulation. +Terror has drilled people of the most opposite sentiments into such an +uniformity of manner and expression, that an aristocrat who is ruined and +persecuted by the government is not distinguishable from the Jacobin who +has made his fortune under it. + +In the morning Angelique's countenance was brightened, and I found she +had slept in the same room with Madame's _femme de chambre,_ when an +explanation of their political creeds had taken place, so that she now +assured me Mad. Augustine was _"fort honnete dans le fond,"_ [A very good +girl at heart.] though she was obliged to affect republicanism.--"All the +world's a stage," says our great dramatic moralist. France is certainly +so at present, and we are not only necessitated to act a part, but a +sorry one too; for we have no choice but to exhibit in farce, or suffer +in tragedy.--Yours, &c. + + + + +December 27, 1794. + +I took the opportunity of my being here to go about four leagues farther +to see an old convent acquaintance lately come to this part of the +country, and whom I have not met since I was at Orleans in 1789. + +The time has been when I should have thought such a history as this +lady's a romance, but tales of woe are now become familiar to us, and, if +they create sympathy, they no longer excite surprize, and we hear of them +as the natural effects of the revolution. + +Madame de St. E__m__d is the daughter of a gentleman whose fortune was +inadequate both to his rank and manner of living, and he gladly embraced +the offer of Monsieur de St. E__m__d to marry her at sixteen, and to +relinquish the fortune allotted her to her two younger sisters. Monsieur +de St. E__m__d, being a dissipated man, soon grew weary of any sort of +domestic life, and placing his wife with her father, in less than a year +after their marriage departed for Italy.--Madame de St. E__m__d, thus +left in a situation both delicate and dangerous for a young and pretty +woman, became unfortunately attached to a gentleman who was her distant +relation: yet, far from adopting the immoral principles not unjustly +ascribed to your country, she conducted herself with a prudence and +reserve, which even in France made her an object of general respect. +About three years after her husband's departure the revolution took +place, and not returning, he was of course put on the list of emigrants. +In 1792, when the law passed which sanctioned and facilitated divorces, +her friends all earnestly persuaded her to avail herself of it, but she +could not be prevailed upon to consider the step as justifiable; for +though Monsieur de St. E__m__d neglected her, he had, in other respects, +treated her with generosity and kindness. She, therefore, persisted in +her refusal, and her lover, in despair, joined the republican army. + +At the general arrest of the Noblesse, Madame de St. E__m__d and her +sisters were confined in the town where they resided, but their father +was sent to Paris; and a letter from one of his female relations, who had +emigrated, being found among his papers, he was executed without being +able to see or write to his children. Madame de St. E__m__d's husband had +returned about the same time to France, in the disguise of a post-boy, +was discovered, and shared the same fate. These events reached her love, +still at the army, but it was impossible for him to quit his post, and in +a few days after, being mortally wounded, he died,* recommending Eugenie +de St. E__m__d to the protection of his father.-- + + * This young man, who died gallantly fighting in the cause of the + republic, was no republican: but this does not render the murder of + his father, a deaf [There were people both deaf and dumb in the + prisons as conspirators.] and inoffensive man, less abominable.--The + case of General Moreau's father, though somewhat similar, is yet + more characteristic of the revolution. Mons. Moreau was persuaded, + by a man who had some interest in the business, to pay a debt which + he owed an emigrant, to an individual, instead of paying it, as the + law directed, to the use of the republic. The same man afterwards + denounced him, and he was thrown into prison. At nine o'clock on + the night preceding his trial, his act of accusation was brought + him, and before he had time to sketch out a few lines for his + defence, the light by which he wrote was taken away. In the morning + he was tried, the man who had informed against him sitting as one of + his judges, and he was condemned and executed the very day on which + his son took the Fort de l'Ecluse!--Mons. Moreau had four sons, + besides the General in the army, and two daughters, all left + destitute by the confiscation of his property. + +--A brother officer, who engaged to execute this commission, wrote +immediately to the old man, to inform him of his loss, and of his son's +last request. It was too late, the father having been arrested on +suspicion, and afterwards guillotined, with many other persons, for a +pretended conspiracy in prison, the very day on which his son had fallen +in the performance of an act of uncommon bravery. + +Were I writing from imagination, I should add, that Madame de St. E__m__d +had been unable to sustain the shock of these repeated calamities, and +that her life or understanding had been the sacrifice. It were, indeed, +happy for the sufferer, if our days were always terminated when they +became embittered, or that we lost the sense of sorrow by its excess: but +it is not so--we continue to exist when we have lost the desire of +existence, and to reason when feeling and reason constitute our torments. +Madame de St. E__m__d then lives, but lives in affliction; and having +collected the wreck of her personal property, which some friends had +concealed, she left the part of France she formerly inhabited, and is now +with an aunt in this neighbourhood, watching the decay of her eldest +sister, and educating the youngest. + +Clementine was consumptive when they were first arrested, and vexation, +with ill-treatment in the prison, have so established her disorder, that +she is now past relief. She is yet scarcely eighteen, and one of the +most lovely young women I ever saw. Grief and sickness have ravaged her +features; but they are still so perfect, that fancy, associating their +past bloom with their present languor, supplies perhaps as much to the +mind as is lost by the eye. She suffers without complaining, and mourns +without ostentation; and hears her father spoken of with such solemn +silent floods of tears, that she looks like the original of Dryden's +beautiful portrait of the weeping Sigismunda. + +The letter which condemned the father of these ladies, was not, it seems, +written to himself, but to a brother, lately dead, whose executor he was, +and of whose papers he thus became possessed. On this ground their +friends engaged them to petition the Assembly for a revision of the +sentence, and the restoration of their property, which was in consequence +forfeited. + +The daily professions of the Convention, in favour of justice and +humanity, and the return of the seventy-three imprisoned Deputies, had +soothed these poor young women with the hopes of regaining their paternal +inheritance, so iniquitously confiscated. A petition was, therefore, +forwarded to Paris about a fortnight ago; and the day before, the +following decree was issued, which has silenced their claims for ever: +"La Convention Nationale declare qu'elle n'admettra aucune demande en +revision des jugemens criminels portant confiscation de biens rendus et +executes pendant la revolution."* + + * "The National Convention hereby declares that it will admit no + petitions for the revisal of such criminal sentences, attended with + confiscation of property, as have been passed and executed since the + revolution." + + Yet these revolutionists, who would hear nothing of repairing their + own injustice, had occasionally been annulling sentences past half a + century ago, and the more recent one of the Chevalier La Barre. But + their own executions and confiscations for an adherence to religion + were to be held sacred.--I shall be excused for introducing here a + few words respecting the affair of La Barre, which has been a + favourite topic with popular writers of a certain description. The + severity of the punishment must, doubtless, be considered as + disgraceful to those who advised as well as to those who sanctioned + it: but we must not infer from hence that he merited no punishment + at all; and perhaps degradation, some scandalous and public + correction, with a few years solitary confinement, might have + answered every purpose intended. + + La Barre was a young etourdi, under twenty, but of lively talents, + which, unfortunately for him, had taken a very perverse turn. The + misdemeanour commonly imputed to him and his associates was, that + they had mutilated a Christ which stood on the Pont-neuf at + Abbeville: but La Barre had accustomed himself to take all + opportunities of insulting, with the most wanton malignity, these + pious representations, and especially in the presence of people, + with whom his particular connections led him to associate, and whose + profession could not allow them entirely to overlook such affronts + on what was deemed an appendage to the established religion of the + country. + + The people of Abbeville manifested their sense of the business when + d'Etalonde, La Barre's intimate friend, who had saved himself by + flight, returned, after a long exile, under favour of the + revolution. He was received in the neighbourhood with the most + mortifying indifference. + + The decree of the Convention too, by which the memory of this + imprudent young man was re-established, when promulgated, created + about as much interest as any other law which did not immediately + affect the property or awaken the apprehensions of the hearers. + +Madame de St. E__m__d told me her whole fortune was now reduced to a few +Louis, and about six or seven thousand livres in diamonds; that she was +unwilling to burden her aunt, who was not rich, and intended to make some +advantage of her musical talents, which are indeed considerable. But I +could not, without anguish, hear an elegant young woman, with a heart +half broken, propose to get her living by teaching music.--I know not +that I ever passed a more melancholy day. In the afternoon we walked up +and down the path of the village church-yard. The church was shut up, +the roof in part untiled, the windows were broken, and the wooden crosses +that religion or tenderness had erected to commemorate the dead, broken +and scattered about. Two labourers, and a black-smith in his working +garb, came while we were there, and threw a sort of uncouth wooden coffin +hastily into a hole dug for the purpose, which they then covered and left +without farther ceremony. Yet this was the body of a lady regretted by a +large family, who were thus obliged to conquer both their affection and +their prejudices, and inter her according to the republican mode.* + + * The relations or friends of the dead were prohibited, under severe + penalties, from following their remains to the grave. + +I thought, while we traversed the walk, and beheld this scene, that every +thing about me bore the marks of the revolution. The melancholy objects +I held on my arm, and the feeble steps of Clementine, whom we could +scarcely support, aided the impression; and I fear that, for the moment, +I questioned the justice of Heaven, in permitting such a scourge to be +let loose upon its works. + +I quitted Madame de St. E__m__d this morning with reluctance, for we +shall not meet again till I am entirely at liberty. The village +municipality where she now resides, are quiet and civil, and her +misfortunes make her fearful of attracting the notice of the people in +authority of a large place, so that she cannot venture to Amiens.--You +must observe, that any person who has suffered is an object of particular +suspicion, and that to have had a father or a husband executed, and to be +reduced to beggary, are titles to farther persecution.--The politics of +the day are, it is true, something less ferocious than they were: but +confidence is not to be restored by an essay in the Orateur du Peuple,* +or an equivocal harangue from the tribune; and I perceive every where, +that those who have been most injured, are most timid. + + + * _"L'Orateur du Peuple,"_ was a periodical paper published by + Freron, many numbers of which were written with great spirit.-- + Freron was at this time supposed to have become a royalist, and his + paper, which was comparatively favourable to the aristocrats, was + read with great eagerness. + + The following extract from the registers of one of the popular + commissions will prove, that the fears of those who had already + suffered by the revolution were well founded: + + "A. Sourdeville, and A. N. E. Sourdeville, sisters of an emigrant + Noble, daughters of a Count, aristocrats, and having had their + father and brother guillotined. + + "M. J. Sourdeville, mother of an emigrant, an aristocrat, and her + husband and son having been guillotined. + + "Jean Marie Defille--very suspicious--a partizan of the Abbe Arnoud + and La Fayette, has had a brother guillotined, and always shewn + himself indifferent about the public welfare." + + The commissions declare that the above are condemned to banishment. + +I did not reach this place till after the family had dined, and taking my +soup and a dish of coffee, have escaped, under pretext of the headache, +to my own room. I left our poet far gone in a classical description of a +sort of Roman dresses, the drawings of which he had seen exhibited at the +Lyceum, as models of an intended national equipment for the French +citizens of both sexes; and my visit to Madame de St. E__m__d had +incapacitated me for discussing revolutionary draperies. + +In England, this is the season of festivity to the little, and +beneficence in the great; but here, the sterile genius of atheism has +suppressed the sounds of mirth, and closed the hands of charity--no +season is consecrated either to the one or the other; and the once-varied +year is but an uniform round of gloom and selfishness. The philosopher +may treat with contempt the notion of periodical benevolence, and assert +that we should not wait to be reminded by religion or the calendar, in +order to contribute to the relief of our fellow creatures: yet there are +people who are influenced by custom and duty, that are not always awake +to compassion; and indolence or avarice may yield a too ready obedience +to prohibitions which favour both. The poor are certainly no gainers by +the substitution of philosophy for religion; and many of those who are +forbidden to celebrate Christmas or Easter by a mass, will forget to do +it by a donation. For my own part, I think it an advantage that any +period of the year is more particularly signalized by charity; and I +rejoice when I hear of the annual gifts of meat or firing of such, or +such a great personage--and I never enquire whether they might still +continue their munificence if Christianity were abolished.--Adieu. + + + + + + +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, Complete, by An English Lady + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A RESIDENCE IN FRANCE, COMPLETE *** + +***** This file should be named 11996.txt or 11996.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/9/9/11996/ + +Produced by Mary Munarin and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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