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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/76267-0.txt b/76267-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ffddb3 --- /dev/null +++ b/76267-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14149 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76267 *** + + + + + + FRANCE IN EIGHTEEN + HUNDRED AND TWO + + + + +VERSAILLES AND THE TRIANONS + + By PIERRE DE NOLHAC, Director of the Versailles Museum. With 50 + pictures by R. BINET, reproduced in colour. One Volume, price + 16s. net. Edition de Luxe, limited to 100 copies, numbered and + signed, price Two Guineas net. + + +THE FLIGHT OF MARIE ANTOINETTE + + From the French of G. LENOTRE, by Mrs. RODOLF STAWELL. 1 vol., + with 50 illustrations, 10s. 6d. net. + + +NAPOLEON, KING OF ELBA + + From the French of PAUL GRUYER. 1 vol., 24 full-page + illustrations, 10s. 6d. net. + + +MADAME RECAMIER + + (According to many hitherto unpublished documents) From the + French of EDOUARD HERRIOT. By ALYS HALLARD. 2 vols., 16 + photogravure plates, 10s. 6d. net each volume. + + +FRENCH SONGS OF OLD CANADA + + Pictured by GRAHAM ROBERTSON. Coloured Plates and Music. 4to, + picture boards, 31s. 6d. net. + + +FELICITY IN FRANCE + + By CONSTANCE MAUD, Author of “An English Girl in Paris.” 1 vol., + 6s. + +“The sight of a book on France from the able and witty pen of Miss Maud +is almost as good as a trip thither in person--only much cheaper.... We +can imagine no better unconventional guide-book, giving the life and +soul rather than the dry bones of fact.”--_Outlook._ + + + WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C. + + + + + FRANCE IN EIGHTEEN + HUNDRED AND TWO + + DESCRIBED IN A SERIES OF + CONTEMPORARY LETTERS + BY HENRY REDHEAD YORKE + + EDITED AND REVISED WITH A + BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX BY J. A. C. + SYKES AND AN INTRODUCTION BY + RICHARD DAVEY + + [Illustration: W H] + + LONDON + WILLIAM HEINEMANN + MCMVI + + + + + _Copyright 1906 by William Heinemann_ + + + + + INTRODUCTION + + BY RICHARD DAVEY + + +Some months ago Lady Sykes accidentally came across a very rare +work--Henry Redhead Yorke’s “Letters from France, written in +1802.” She immediately became its possessor, and a perusal of its +contents suggested the excellent idea of editing the book for modern +publication: for, although intensely interesting, Yorke’s “Letters” +were written in the verbose style characteristic of his day. By +judicious pruning and omissions Lady Sykes has reduced the volume +by about a third, without, however, omitting anything of the least +importance; whereby she enables in a concise manner students of French +history to bridge over the important though little known period which +elapsed between the downfall of Robespierre and the Consulate. + +Many imagine that immediately after the Reign of Terror ended things +settled down very quickly in France, and that whatever benefits +accrued from the Revolution soon blossomed and bore abundant fruit. +It was, however, very much otherwise; and the prevalent idea, that +the prosperity of modern France is due to the great Revolution, is +a fallacy; for, independently of the chaos created by the Reign of +Terror, we must take into consideration the decade of Napoleonic +despotism which separates the Revolution from the beginning of what is +known as _la France moderne_. + +Henry Redhead was born in 1772, most probably in the West Indies, +whence he was fetched as a child, and brought up at Little Eaton, +near Derby. He was evidently a youth of considerable observation and +studious habits, and before he was twenty had written a pamphlet +against negro emancipation, which, however, he recalled a couple +of years later as the result of a visit to Paris, then in the early +throes of the Revolution. Redhead threw himself heart and soul with the +enthusiasm of youth into a popular movement which he believed was to +liberate humanity from every sort of bondage, and bring about a period +of quite utopian peace and prosperity. Whilst under the influence of +the buoyant rhetoric that marked the first period of the Revolution, +he was privileged to witness many of the most striking events and +scenes in that momentous drama; including the trial of Louis XVI., in +connection with which he gives in these “Letters” several facts omitted +by general historians. There were at this time several other British +enthusiasts in Paris, amongst them Robert and John Sheares, with whom +he became acquainted, and who induced him to join the British Club, an +association at which were discussed such subjects as the advantage of +liberating England by the assassination of that harmless monarch George +III. Redhead would not, however, hear of any such project, and, after +a violent quarrel with the Sheares, left the Club, being denounced to +the Convention by Robert Rayment. He now concluded it were wiser to put +the frontier between himself and the disorderly and fanatical horde of +informers and informed who had, with surprising rapidity, seized the +reins of administration in Paris. He changed his name, assumed that of +Yorke, and, travelling through Holland, reached England in 1793, where +he joined a liberal debating society in Derby, and became distinguished +for his rhetorical eloquence. It was soon alleged against him, however, +that he had, amongst other revolutionary ebullitions, declared, “You +have before you, young as I am (about twenty-two years of age), a man +who has been concerned in three revolutions already, who essentially +contributed to serve the Republic in America, who contributed to that +of Holland, who materially assisted in that of France, and who will +continue to cause revolutions all over the world.” This striking +boast did not receive the support Redhead imagined it would; for he +was promptly arrested, and at the York Spring Assizes in 1795, true +bills were found against him for conspiracy, sedition and libel. His +trial took place on July 23, 1795, at York, but his co-defendant, +Joseph Gales, printer of the “Sheffield Register,” and Richard Davison, +compositor, absconded. Although he repudiated the violent words +imputed to him, and declared himself to be a loyal citizen, Redhead +was none the less sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in Dorchester +Castle, whence he was not released until March 1799. Whilst in prison +his views, political and otherwise, became greatly modified, and, +although he remained a staunch Liberal, he conceived an abhorrence of +revolutionary methods, considering them as the most unlikely to conduce +to true freedom or to the prosperity of the peoples who employed them. +In 1802 he revisited France, the result of his observations on this +occasion being embodied in the “Letters from France.” He remained in +Paris three months, making notes of all he saw, visiting such old +friends as had survived the Terror, and seeing for himself all the +havoc the Revolution had wrought. On his return to England Redhead +continued to place his talents at the disposal of the Liberal party. +In 1811 he appeared in London, and delivered a series of lectures on +historical and political subjects; but his health completely broke +down, and although he had been induced by Richard Valpy to undertake +the continuation of John Campbell’s “Lives of British Admirals,” +he was too ill to finish that work, and died at Chelsea, after a +brief illness, on January 28, 1813. Mr. Redhead married in 1800 the +accomplished daughter of Mr. Andrews, keeper of Dorchester Castle, by +whom he had four children. This lady accompanied him, and together with +her friend, Mrs. Cosway, the wife of the celebrated painter and herself +a fine artist, was his companion on most of his excursions in that city +and its neighbourhood. + +Redhead was a man of very keen perception, generous impulse, and, +having the courage of his opinions, was never ashamed to own that +circumstances had occasionally compelled him to change them. The best +known of his numerous publications is this volume of “Letters from +France,” written with the object of exposing the fruits of a tyrannical +and corrupt form of government, whose wires were pulled by unscrupulous +miscreants in the oft-blasphemed names of “Liberty, Equality, and +Fraternity.” These “Letters” were not published until after the +author’s death, when Mrs. Redhead found copies of them amongst her +husband’s effects, and a very limited edition was printed; so that at +present the work is exceedingly scarce. + +The value of Redhead Yorke’s “Letters from France” consists not only +in the remarkable picture he gives of Paris eight years after the +Reign of Terror, but in the fact that, as he was intimately acquainted +with many of those who played a prominent part in that tragedy, he was +frequently able to give an account of their latter years. In 1802 the +majority, however, of those with whom he had lived on terms of fairly +good fellowship on the occasion of his first visit to France, had +been guillotined; and, on the other hand, not a few who had been but +little known in his earlier years had now risen to conspicuous official +positions--which, more often than not, they did not fill so much for +their country’s good as for their own. He gives us a very interesting +account of a conversation which he had with Tom Paine, whom he had +known and admired previously, but whom he now discovered in a state of +abject poverty on the very day that the American Republic determined +to bring him back to his own country, where, however, he lived, after +all his sufferings and misery in France, only two years. Our author was +also well acquainted with that remarkable woman, Miss Helen Williams; +and he supplies many unedited anecdotes of other Revolutionary +celebrities, including Théroigne de Mirecourt; David, the celebrated +painter, and his wife; the partially insane English revolutionary, +Colonel Oswald; Joseph Le Bon, and the brothers Sheares. One of them +was the son of that unhappy Amazon, Théroigne de Mirecourt. + +The perusal of these “Letters” will probably convince many readers +that this Revolution did not benefit humanity to a quarter of the +extent which its enthusiasts would have us believe it did. In fact, +Redhead, like most travellers in France at that period, soon came to +the conclusion, from personal and unprejudiced observation, that the +much-vaunted great Revolution had been a failure. The class which +was to have more especially benefited by it was reduced to a greater +depth of degradation and poverty in the first decade of the nineteenth +century than ever it had been under the _ancien régime_: the +peasantry and the working classes in general were for the most part +out of employment; and the pernicious forced recruiting system which +Napoleon had introduced was draining the country of useful men, whose +place in the fields and manufactories had to be filled by incompetent +lads, old men, and even by girls and women. At least a third of the +arable land had gone out of cultivation, and French manufactures had +sunk to the utmost insignificance. The rich landowners who had hitherto +helped the peasantry were either dead, in exile or else bankrupt. The +village school, like the village church, was generally closed; and +the rustic population were endeavouring to escape the conscription +which weighed so heavily on the country. Higher education was also at +a standstill: the richly endowed universities, colleges, and public +schools which had been founded in the eighteenth century, had been +pillaged, many of their buildings were in ruins, and their libraries +confiscated by the Revolutionaries, had not yet been restored. So +it was with the scientific and literary institutions in the capital +and larger towns, though in 1802 some of these were beginning to +slowly revive. The Revolution was, in short, an orgy of brute force, +a destroyer producing nothing great either in art, literature, or +science. David was the representative painter, and his pictures, when +put up for auction in a modern sale-room, now fetch scarcely the price +of the canvas and frames on which they are painted and stretched. +The exquisite highly finished art-work of the eighteenth century in +bronze, furniture, and ceramic, which still sells for fabulous prices +at Christie’s and the Hôtel Drouet, was lost; and it was not until +the Empire was well established that it began gradually to improve, +a proof, if one were needed, that the artistic taste of the nation +had not been entirely extinguished in the general disorder that had +overwhelmed the capital and country. The utmost licentiousness reigned +supreme in Paris at this period; and Redhead’s description of the +nightly and indecent scenes in the Palais Royal, which proved so +attractive to British and other foreign bachelors, shows that they +were not unlike those that draw crowds of tourists to the heights of +Montmartre in 1906. The shop windows in 1802, as at present, were +filled with abominable and blasphemous prints: and the whole atmosphere +of Parisian life was charged with an unwholesome _miasma_ which +filled Redhead with horror and disgust, despite his fiery advocacy of +the Revolution in its earlier stages. + +The man of genius who was destined eventually to re-establish order +was only First Consul; but even then people were beginning to whisper +that he intended to make himself King or Emperor. Naturally, Redhead, +as an Englishman, has not many compliments to bestow on Napoleon; +though, had he lived to see the accomplishment of the great Corsican’s +work, he might have entertained a higher opinion of the “ogre.” As it +was, Redhead was disgusted with Napoleon’s ostentatious display, and +above all with the manner in which the spoils stolen from Italy were +exhibited in Paris; one of his most interesting letters being that +in which he describes the condition of the Louvre even as he saw it +stuffed with the treasures of Italy, many of which bore inscriptions he +considered an outrage to decency. Thus, for instance, on the _Madonna +del Orto_ might have been read, “This picture was taken from the +church of Santa Maria del Orto at Venice,” or again, “This picture, one +of the best that Paul Veronese ever painted, was taken from the church +of the nuns of St. Zacharia at Venice,” and so on. Unfortunately, +many of the pictures brought to Paris were injudiciously restored; +and when, after the Treaty of Vienna, they were returned to Italy, it +was found that they had been irreparably damaged. Not content with +carrying off pictures, statues, and other works of art, Napoleon carted +away the chief archives of the foremost Italian cities; and these were +so carelessly packed that many hundreds of valuable documents were +irretrievably lost. From the artistic and historical point of view, +the French Revolution was especially injurious to Italy. Venice not +only lost her independence, but half her art treasures. During the +French occupation at the beginning of the nineteenth century, forty +of her churches were closed and thirty of them destroyed, amongst the +finest of them being San Gregorio, still standing though desecrated; +and the Servi, one of the largest and most historical in the city, +not a stone of which exists. Eugène Beauharnais, when Governor of +Venice, pulled down Palladio’s Church of San Geminiano, which stood +opposite St. Mark’s, to increase the Royal Palace, and over thirty of +the characteristic and beautiful _campanile_, or church towers, +which form so delightful a feature in Venetian scenery, were destroyed, +their material being carted away to build the new fortifications. +At Verona the magnificent church of San Zeno was desecrated (since +restored), and two out of three of its splendid cloisters were wantonly +laid level. Padua, and, indeed, every other city in Venetia, suffered +losses. Ravenna lost three of the handsomest of her ancient basilicas, +including San Agnese, whose fine mosaics are now in the Berlin Museum. +Milan lost fifty churches full of fine frescoes by Leonardo, Luini, +Foppa, and Proccaccino. At Genoa, thanks to the French Revolutionaries, +the magnificent Church of San Domenico was demolished, as well as +that of San Francesco, which contained the tombs of the Doges, not +one of which was spared. Moreover, the sudden suppression of the +law of primogeniture ruined half the Italian nobility, and obliged +them to sell at low prices the accumulated art treasures of their +ancestors. To this day Italy is covered with churches and chapels +ruined during the French occupation--which was effected on the pretext +of “liberating” that country from superstition. + +Every subsequent Revolution which has taken place in France since +1793--in 1838, 1848, and 1870--has originated in the continuance of +the Jacobin traditions, the main object of which is to substitute +free-thought for Christianity. In each case the Revolution has ended +in disorder and bloodshed, and has been succeeded by a more or less +modified form of autocracy; yet the dawn of the twentieth century is +witnessing what may be termed the most powerful combat between the +Revolutionary traditions and those of the _ancien régime_ which +has taken place since the execution of Louis XVI. Europe is to-day +watching with anxiety the result of the abrogation of that very +Concordat in honour of the signing of which a _Te Deum_ was sung +in Notre Dame amidst the utmost ecclesiastical, civil, and military +pomp, and attended by Napoleon and his Court, a function described by +Redhead in a letter which is especially interesting at the present time. + +It is not by religious persecution that a lasting Republic can be +established. France, so generous in her impulses, so artistic, and, +above all, so literary, has not yet learned that a true democracy can +only be founded upon a more practical interpretation of the motto, +“Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity,” than the one that is now in vogue +amongst the majority of Frenchmen in both camps. + +At the end of this volume will be found a very interesting series of +biographies, compiled by Lady Sykes, of the persons connected with the +Revolution mentioned in Redhead Yorke’s “Letters,” many of whom are +little known even to close students of Revolutionary history. + + + + + I + + ARRIVAL AT CALAIS + + +I will endeavour in these letters to give some details of the present +moral and political condition of France. + +Twelve years of unceasing revolution have changed the face of a country +highly favoured by nature. Amidst the dilapidations of civil discord, +and the ravages of foreign armies, France has become doubly formidable +to Europe, and after the bloodshed, the misery, and the upheaval of +the Revolution, the nation has resumed all the habits of her ancient +system, and seeks internal repose in the arms of a military despotism. +We embarked at Dover, on board the _Venus_ for Calais. + +Before the war, the price of the passage was half a guinea, on the +signature of the preliminaries of peace six guineas was the price +demanded; but this is now reduced to one guinea and a half for each +person, with five shillings to the mate, and seven to the steward. The +sailors also expect to be remembered. For taking a carriage on board +the fee is two guineas. + +At Dover and Calais passports are examined with the greatest attention. + +My passport was signed by the King, and countersigned by Lord Pelham, +Secretary of State. At Dover all that was required was that it +should be properly verified at the Custom House, where it was again +countersigned by the controller. + +At Calais the ceremony was much more scrupulous and imposing. +Unfortunately, at the time of our arrival the tide was ebbing, and +we were forced to wait outside the harbour until the tide flowed. We +did not enter until three in the morning, having been at sea fourteen +hours! + +When we anchored, an officer came on board to inspect our passport. + +He informed us that it was impossible to enter the town until the +gates were opened at eight o’clock in the morning, but that there was +a little “cabaret,” to which strangers were permitted to visit for +refreshment. + +I gave the officer a letter of recommendation addressed to the +Commissary-General Mengoud, requesting him, on behalf of the lady who +was with me, to deliver it immediately, not doubting that it would +facilitate us the disagreeable necessity of sitting up all night in the +public cabin of the packet. + +The officer declared he dared not disturb Monsieur Mengoud at night. + +We remained until seven o’clock in the morning, in this uncomfortable +situation, when exhaustion compelled us to leave the vessel and repair +to the “cabaret.” + +We were then conducted to a little pig-stye beside the gates of the +town, where we underwent a pleasant ceremony called “La visite de la +personne.” + +Four of the passengers could only be admitted at a time. Two officers +of the Customs passed their hands over the ladies’ dresses, and +contented themselves with asking the gentlemen whether they had any +contraband goods about them. After this we were allowed to enter the +“cabaret,” a filthy hovel, full of fishermen, drinking beer and gin. +Here we were regaled with coffee and bread, so disgustingly bad that +we could not touch either, and for which each person was charged three +English shillings. + +I could not help observing to my hostess, that I did not doubt but that +when I next visited France, I should have the honour of waiting upon +her husband as Mayor of Calais, for she was certain of soon amassing a +vast fortune. + +There were nine of us in company, and she cleared twenty-seven +shillings in a moment. + +[Sidenote: ARRIVAL AT CALAIS] + +I conversed with one of the fishermen sitting in the room. He stated +that in no part of France had the peace of England caused more joy +than at Calais, which had suffered extremely by the war, where the +inhabitants were in a most deplorable condition; the young and the +middle-aged, to avoid being famished, had no other resource than to +join the armies, which chiefly subsisted upon the plunder of foreign +countries, for they had no alternative between famine and conquest. + +These opinions were fully supported by a young man who joined in the +conversation, who said that only dire necessity forced him to become a +soldier. + +He had served with reluctance in all the campaigns against the English, +and was now a captain of Grenadiers. The French army, he said, took no +interest in the events occurring in Paris, nor in the Revolution, their +common principle being to obey their officers and plunder for bread. +The language of every general was the same, “Behind you is nothing but +want and misery, before you glory and plenty.” + +They fought for glory and plenty, but never liberty, which he +acknowledged no Frenchman could either understand or enjoy. + +I remarked upon the inconvenience to which travellers were exposed by +the port regulations. He replied: “It is no fault of our municipality, +they are men of worth. It is the will of the First Consul and must be +obeyed.” I inquired whether a “douceur” would not produce admittance +into the town. He answered no sum of money could purchase disobedience +to an order of the Consul, for the Argus he had planted in it was the +terror of the whole department, and nothing escaped the prying eyes of +his spies and informers. + +About nine o’clock the officer returned with the welcome +news--“Monsieur Mengoud would be happy to receive us.” We were then all +conducted to the town-hall, where we answered to our names, then we +were permitted to go to our respective inns, after a solemn charge to +hold ourselves in readiness to present our passports. + +After refreshing myself at the “Lion d’Argent” (one of the best hotels +in France, and where an Englishman is sure to meet with attention and +civility) I proceeded to the house of the Commissary-General, a man +who, fulfilling the orders of the executive directors, had introduced +French troops and ignited the flames of civil discord in unhappy +Switzerland. + +Such an interview could not be grateful to one of my habits of +thinking, the more so that amidst the cloud-capped mountains and +retired valleys of that once free, independent and prosperous country, +I had passed the happiest hours of my life. + +The secretary announced my name. A voice of thunder roared, “Show him +in!” + +I entered. Monsieur Mengoud desired me to be seated; the door was shut, +and we were left alone altogether. + +He was a man of vast stature, and immense calibre, with a round +countenance, not unlike in appearance to our Henry VIII., large rolling +eyes, and bristly black hair. + +The room was hung with carbines, horse pistols, daggers and a +pike--proper symbols of his trade. + +I mentioned that as I had a lady with me, I had taken the liberty of +asking the officer to present my letter of introduction at an early +hour, hoping, from the known politeness of the French, she might have +experienced the indulgence always conceded to her sex. + + MENGOUD. The orders of the Government make no distinction of sex. + + MYSELF. I am aware a law is general, but I flattered myself + there might be some discretionary power in the person entrusted + with its execution. + + MENGOUD. There is no power vested in any hands but those of the + Government of France. + + MYSELF. I recollect an instance of the same kind which occurred + while I was in the garrison at Douvi, a fortified town. + + MENGOUD. Examples drawn from the ancient Tyranny cannot apply to + the Republic. + + MYSELF. Will this regulation continue? + + MENGOUD. It is all the same to me. + + MYSELF. Shall I experience any difficulties on my route to Paris? + + MENGOUD. None. + + MYSELF. When may I depart? + + MENGOUD. Now, if you choose. + +Here he called his secretary, ordered him to bring up my passport, +which he instantly signed, and after having desired me to proceed to +the Municipality for countersignment, with a profound bow gave me leave +to depart. + +As soon as I had despatched my business at the Municipality I returned +to the “Lion d’Argent,” and found I had another ceremony to go through +at the Custom House, our portmanteaux had not been visited. Accordingly +I hastened thither, and after a most rigid search had been made, and I +had chastised one of the officers for strutting about wearing my cocked +hat for the amusement of his fellows, my things were removed to the inn. + +While our property was being repacked, and the horses sent for, I paid +a visit to a respectable merchant I had known some years before, and +who had survived the havoc of the Revolution. + +The information I received from him will form the subject of my next +letter. + + + + + II + + CHARACTER OF THE CITIZENS OF CALAIS + + +Calais is one of the very few French towns which escaped the horrors of +the Revolution. This circumstance is the more remarkable because from +its vicinity to England and the attachment borne by its inhabitants to +our countrymen, it became an object of suspicion to the Committee of +Public Safety. + +To the firmness and humanity of one man who filled the office of +mayor, and to the unblemished character of the persons who composed the +Municipality, do the citizens of Calais owe the preservation of their +lives and properties. + +The Committee of Public Safety accused the inhabitants of Anglomania, +and ordered the ferocious Joseph Le Bon[1] to _visit_ this +guiltless town and re-organise the constituted authorities. During +those cruel days the _visit_ of a constitutional deputy was really +the visit of a public executioner, and in the dismal catalogue of men +who were distinguished by unfeeling severity, Le Bon was foremost. +He had just perpetrated the most horrible cruelties at Arras before +proceeding to Calais. The following anecdote will delineate the +fierceness and brutality of his character. + +Two young ladies of Arras, neither of whom had attained the age of +twenty, practising on the pianoforte the same morning that the news of +the surrender of Valenciennes reached their city, Le Bon happened to +pass their window and paused to listen. They were playing the tune, “Ça +Ira,” a most revolutionary air, which one would have imagined was a +proof of their civism. + +Nevertheless, by Le Bon’s orders, these beautiful girls were arrested, +tried, and condemned the next day, and, notwithstanding their youth and +innocence, were executed for “playing on the piano on the day the news +of a Republican defeat had arrived, a defeat at which they evidently +rejoiced.” + +[Sidenote: THE CITIZENS OF CALAIS] + +This atrocious action struck even Jacobins with horror. In the defence +of the accused it was stated to the Revolutionary Tribune that “Ça Ira” +was a Republican march, written to animate armies on the day of battle. +To this Le Bon replied that this popular air had been converted into a +vehicle of mischief, and that the _time_ these young people had +selected for playing “Ça Ira” proved their evil dispositions. “They +played ‘Ça Ira,’” said he, “for the Austrian army, they had doubtless +heard of the surrender of Valenciennes, and they meant by Ça Ira, +that they desired the Austrian advance and the capture of other French +fortresses. Why did they not, if they were true patriots, play ‘Le +Réveil du Peuple?’” + +This argument induced the jurors to condemn the unfortunate young +persons to death. Thin, indeed, was the thread upon which human +existence was suspended in these days of wretchedness and terror. +The effect upon the minds of the people was to make the very name of +liberty odious, and the vast majority sighed for a return of that +ancient despotism in which they lived secure. Tormented by those who +had abused their confidence and exasperated at the accumulation of +public wrongs, they were prepared by degrees for those astonishing +events which I shall relate in my future letters. + +But to return from this digression. The instant Le Bon received his +orders, he departed for Calais, where he found prevailing the utmost +order, good conduct and tranquillity. This condition of affairs +appeared to the Revolutionary emissary a strong symptom of aristocracy. +Accordingly, he deposed the mayor, dissolved the Municipality, convoked +an assembly of the people in the market-place, when he desired them to +elect true sans culottes in place of their former magistrates. + +To his surprise he found not a single person would accept of a +situation in the Municipality while their former magistrates were +destituted. He attempted in vain to form a Jacobin Club or to establish +a Revolutionary Tribunal. In vain he threatened individuals with arrest. + +There were not a dozen Jacobins in the whole town. + +The mayor boldly remonstrated, and by his prudence and the loyalty of +his fellow citizens, Le Bon, muttering vows of vengeance, was driven +from the town. + +Immediately after his departure the former magistrates resumed their +functions. In cases where a peremptory mandate from Paris obliged them +to arrest any individual, the order was executed with the utmost +humanity. The victim was not sent to prison, but allowed to remain in +his own house, and even to walk out attended by gendarmes of his own +choice. + +Thus the citizens of Calais never saw the blood of their countrymen +flow upon the scaffold, nor were any delivered to the homicidal rage +of inquisitors, whose sense of freedom consisted in privileged misrule +and promises of fraternity, terminated in slaughter. Had the municipal +officers of other great towns in France displayed the same courage and +determination as those of Calais, many thousands of lives would have +been saved, and France avoided much dishonour, misery, and shame. + +The humane and uncorrupted character of the people of Calais proves +that they have not degenerated from the high repute of their ancient +burghers. + + + + + III + + MODE OF TRAVELLING IN FRANCE + + +There are three modes of travelling in France: by diligence; by post +chaise; in your own carriage. The diligence is the cheapest, but it is +a method of conveyance quite out of the question for those who travel +for recreation, or in search of information. + +The traveller is exposed to the inconveniences attendant on a journey +of two hundred miles in a vast unwieldy machine, less comfortable than +an English waggon, which travels all night, and makes no stoppages +except to change horses. Those who wish to make a trip to Paris and its +environs will do best to take their own carriage from England. + +[Sidenote: MODE OF TRAVELLING IN FRANCE] + +It will be found, even including the expense of the packet, that this +is a cheaper plan than to hire a carriage at Calais. But as it was +my intention to extend my tour beyond Paris, to penetrate through La +Vendée as far as Bordeaux, it became necessary I should provide myself +with a strong carriage, capable of passing over horrible and neglected +country roads. I therefore resolved upon procuring a carriage at Calais. + +This was a Post-chaise or Cabriolet, which runs on two wheels and is +very light and convenient, having, besides plenty of room for two +persons and their luggage, a number of pockets for almost every kind of +article, and on each side a pillow for the ease of the traveller while +sleeping. It opens in front, and is so constructed as to give complete +shelter in bad weather. + +When the carriage is secured it is important to be provided with a +sufficient sum of money to carry you to your journey’s end. A letter of +credit is more advantageous than English bank-notes or guineas. + +The former are not of that value they were at the commencement of the +Republic; and the exportation of guineas being unlawful, no honest +Englishman should carry them out of his country. A guinea is not worth +five sous more now in France than in England. + +A device has lately been discovered and employed in France for raising +money to repair the high roads. It consists in the erection of +Barrières, at which every carriage must pay a toll. These Barrières +are stationed at irregular distances, at some I have paid eighteen, +at others only three sous. In former times a Cabriolet might run the +thirty-four posts between Calais and Paris (each post containing +two leagues, six miles) for two hundred and thirteen livres, ten +sous, exclusive of the hire of the carriage. But now the number of +Barrières and the exactions of the postillions considerably augment the +expenditure. Although the postillions legally can only demand fifteen +sous per post, it is customary _never_ to give them less than +thirty and frequently fifty to sixty sous. + +I am sorry to say that several of our dashing British sparks have +corrupted postillions on the road by their improvident donations. + +Hence during the whole of my route between Calais and Paris, I never +found one of the fellows satisfied with thirty sous for a single +post, and I was always teased out of more. This is trifling to men +who can afford to throw away many thousand pounds during a six weeks’ +visit to Paris, but to a plain animal like myself, it is a matter of +serious consequence. This remark I have often had occasion to make in +Switzerland, when that delightful but now wretched country was the +favourite resort of our gentry. They were so prodigal of their money, +that I have often heard the Swiss declare “Les Anglais sont de braves +gens, mais ils sont fous.” Nor is there any rational motive for such +extravagance. Such persons are often accused of being emissaries of Mr. +Pitt, despatched to France to illustrate the wealth of Great Britain +and to prove we understand the art of becoming rich in the midst of war +and alarms. + +The French, for the greater part, laugh at all such folly, and say +that the English are doing their best to refund the products of that +commerce which Mr. Pitt had completely wrested from them. + +French people are keen and artful, and though they receive such +squanderers with bows and smiles, they secretly despise their folly. +These truths I write reluctantly, because whatever is disreputable to +our nation’s character wounds me to the quick. + +I make these observations from no desire to deprive the poor +postillions of any advantage they may derive from the folly of +travelling Englishmen, but because this system has extended to the inns +on the road and to the hotels and shops in Paris and is severely felt +by persons of inferior fortune and sober disposition. + +It is an established principle in France that in travelling you pay for +as many horses as there are people, not excepting servants. + +[Sidenote: JOURNEY TO AMIENS] + +But this regulation is not always rigidly adhered to The postmasters +in general seldom put on more than three horses, even for four +persons. They are civil and obliging men, and I have often found their +conversation interesting and instructive. + +The service of posting is well managed, and for good order, regularity, +and promptness, excels any other part of Europe. + +This must by no means be ascribed to the effects of the Revolution, +for it was projected and executed under the ancient _régime_, +and since the establishment of the Republic the best part of the +establishment, _i.e._, the excellent roads, have been utterly +neglected, and in many cases almost destroyed, notwithstanding the +enormous charges at the Barrières, for the ostensible purpose of +keeping them in good order. + +The traveller has nothing whatever to apprehend from highway robbers or +footpads, and this I attribute to the number of Gens d’armes, extremely +well mounted, who are continually riding along the roads to ensure the +safety of travellers. + + + + + IV + + JOURNEY TO AMIENS, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE + PRESENT STATE OF THE COUNTRY + + +After all our arrangements had been concluded we proceeded on the route +towards Paris. + +We were forcibly struck by the backward state of the vegetation in the +Department of Calais, and we compared the poverty of the exhausted soil +with the luxuriant richness of the county of Kent this early spring. + +Over the service of vast unenclosed tracts of land we perceived +scarcely any but women employed in culture of the earth. + +The implements of village husbandry, as well as the cattle, were +the worst I ever beheld, and the population did not seem in any +way adequate to the extent of the country. Wherever any vestiges +of religion or aristocracy remained we traced the ravages of the +Revolution. Monasteries and churches were heaps of ruins; if a church +had escaped the general wreck, an inscription over its portal, “This +is the Temple of Reason and Truth,” denoted that it had been abused for +atheistical purposes. + +In every village through which we passed crowds of children, women and +old men pressed upon us, begging charity and bread. I inquired into the +causes of this melancholy spectacle. My informer pointed to a monastery +in ruins, and shook his head. I felt the force of this explanation. + +The agreeable seaport of Boulogne presented itself before us. When we +reached the gates I asked whether Parker was alive. + +I heard he still kept the same hotel where I slept in 1792. + +When we reached it I found him grown grey, however, with suffering and +persecution. He received me with unfeigned pleasure, few Englishmen +had hitherto passed, and the sight of a countryman rejoiced his heart. +He told me that during the time of Terror, Dounne,[1] the Conventional +Deputy, took up his quarters in his hotel, and fared sumptuously upon +the fat of the land. In a very short time this representative of the +people contrived to absorb a vast quantity of wine, particularly port, +for which he had a great relish, and for none of this did he ever pay +one farthing. + +One day after dinner he sent for Parker and inquired whether he had +any more port. The latter replied that unfortunately his stock was +exhausted. At this the Citizen Deputy expressed great regret. Two +hours later, he ordered, in consequence, poor Parker into arrest, and +sent him to a prison in Paris, without permitting him to make any +arrangements respecting his family concerns, or even to take leave of +his family. + +He remained eighteen months in jail, cut off from his friends and +relations, while his house and property were completely at the mercy of +the Jacobins. + +[Sidenote: JOURNEY TO AMIENS] + +He has now returned to try his fortune once more at Boulogne, and I +sincerely hope English travellers will encourage a countryman, who is +highly deserving of their patronage. + +I traversed after dinner several streets of the town. I found a great +number of private houses, convents and monasteries utterly demolished +and reduced to piles of ruins, giving the town the appearance of having +experienced a long and severe siege. I thought (for I forgot for a +moment the enlightened age of Reason) that all this devastation was the +result of the late bombardment of Lord Nelson. But I was in error. Only +one bomb fell into the town, and did no mischief. + +The ruins everywhere visible were formerly the habitations of suspected +persons and religious and charitable foundations destroyed by the +Jacobins, when they overthrew what they were pleased to call prejudice +and superstition. Some of these buildings were remarkably handsome, +and it might have been supposed could have served for the use of the +public, but when the waters of bitterness overflow, destruction is +general and indiscriminate. + +During the bombardment of the town, the French naval officers, among +whom was Jerome Bonaparte, brother of the First Consul, messed every +day at Parker’s. In contradistinction to the Deputy of the Convention, +they conducted themselves with the greatest liberality to this +Englishman during their residence. + +Jerome put up at Parker’s by the express desire of his elder brother. +The inhabitants and the French officers scouted the idea of a +French invasion of England, and wondered that the bravest and most +distinguished admiral of the British Fleet should have been sent to +oppose an inconsiderable flotilla moored in Boulogne waters. + +“Your countrymen,” they said, “are very brave, but you are a mercantile +nation, and merchants are always nervous. This town, as well as Calais +and Dunkerque were, before the war, filled by English refugees, persons +who sought shelter from the pursuit of their creditors.” + +Considering the extraordinary severity of the English law of debtor +and creditor, I cannot avoid looking upon these with some slight +approbation, as affording to the unfortunate and improvident the means +of becoming careful and honest! and more advantageous resorts for the +debtor than the wood of America among rattlesnakes and savages. + +So far, since the Peace, few persons of this description have arrived +at Boulogne, though many are expected. + +To give any account of the present state of commerce here is quite out +of my power. I doubt if the town can be said to possess any. Formerly +the fishing was prosperous, and much shipbuilding was undertaken and +a smart smuggler’s trade carried on with the seaports on the opposite +side of the water. + +It had been my intention to have slept at Montreuil-sur-Mer, a distance +of four posts or about twenty-three miles from Boulogne, but my +companion was so exhausted that we settled to pass the night at Samur, +the nearest post town. Although we were obliged to lodge at a miserable +inn, nothing could exceed the kind attention of the people who owned +it, they had but milk and coffee to give us, which were but slender +supports for persons just recovered from sea-sickness, and seven hours +had elapsed since dinner. However, as we had provided ourselves at +Calais with a fowl and two bottles of burgundy we were thus enabled to +make an excellent supper; the milk and coffee I poured into a bowl and +gave with a big French roll to a miserable creature at the gate. The +manner in which they were received and devoured absolutely confounded +me, for I had never seen the like in old France. + +[Sidenote: JOURNEY TO AMIENS] + +The next day we proceeded to Cormont, about five miles and a half, +where we changed horses, and from thence to Montreuil, situated on a +steep mountain and formerly a strong fortress. + +Before the Revolution there was here an English convent, and a number +of English families, but the convent has been demolished, and the town +altogether abandoned by our people. + +I entered into a political dialogue with two very respectable persons +whom I found at the inn, and asked them what was their opinion of the +Peace and their present Government. They expressed themselves content +with both. They observed that no man who had witnessed such scenes as +they had done could avoid rejoicing at an event which promised repose +to France. + +The blood which had been spilt within and without their country had +sickened the French people with the very name of war. Then followed +the old and trite remark, that if England and France could join in a +cordial union they might _command the whole world_ and retain it +in a state of permanent peace. In their opinion the Peace was in favour +of England, and when I enumerated the names of the different colonies +we had restored to France they laughed at me and said, “You have taken +away our commerce, and what have we taken from you?” + +They expressed themselves satisfied with the present Government, and +avowed that any Government which maintained order was preferable to +a state of anarchy. They assured me that they had witnessed scenes +which could not be described. They said, “We lived in times when no +man could trust his neighbour, much less speak his thoughts. A brother +could not confide in a brother.” Then I observed, “You have doubtless +had the guillotine permanent in your town?” “No, sir, it has never +been erected here, but many of our fellow townsmen were imprisoned +and executed at Arras.” “By Joseph Le Bon?” “The same.” “What induced +your people to destroy the Convent?” “With many fear of death, +with others because it was the fashion.” While we were engaged in +conversation, a person brought in a hare and a leveret, for which our +hostess paid ten sous. On my observing that provisions must, to judge +from this price, be extremely cheap in France, it was quickly proved +to me that any articles of necessity were inordinately dear; bread +I found was a halfpenny a pound dearer than in England. Our horses +being now harnessed, or rather corded, we took our leave, but we had +literally to penetrate through a column of beggars before we mounted +the carriage. They were mostly boys between fourteen and seventeen +years of age, and their number was three-and-twenty. I requested the +person with whom I had been conversing to explain why at eleven o’clock +in the morning these lads were not at work. He answered that they +had no work, and were in an utter state of indigence, their parents +not having the means of providing them with subsistence. On which I +observed that they might find ample occupation in the pursuits of +agriculture and husbandry, and asked if it was not highly injurious to +the community to suffer their boys not to be brought up to a trade. +He then whispered that while the Noblesse resided in the country, and +the Monasteries existed, vast numbers found employment, and those +who were out of a place were assisted by a charity of the religious +orders, but that since their destruction, the land had devolved in +other hands, and often to proprietors who were in Paris and never lived +on their estate. “It is evident,” said I, “that these poor people are +punished for their folly.” A fact he fully admitted. He mentioned that +the parents of these children were the persons now employed in the +business of agriculture, and that as for trades all those who were not +requisitioned for the armies were only too glad for the sake of bread +to serve different tradesmen and perform the duties formerly fulfilled +by boys, but, he added, “all in good time. These lads will be in the +next conscription, and then they will be provided for.” I thanked him +for his description, and after distributing a little money among these +children, I resumed my journey, pondering on the reversed order of +social life. + +[Sidenote: JOURNEY TO AMIENS] + +The Revolution, which was brought about ostensibly for the benefit of +the lower classes of society, has sunk them to a degree of degradation +and misfortune to which they never were reduced under the ancient +monarchy. They have been disinherited, stripped and deprived of every +resource for existence, except defeats of arms and the fleeting spoil +of vanquished nations. In the sententious language of Montesquieu, +“With an hundred thousand arms they have overthrown everything, while +with an hundred thousand feet they have crawled like insects.” This +reversion of social order must destroy sentiments of moral obligation. + +Boys of fifteen beg for charity while their fathers and mothers toil in +the field! Full-grown men are engaged in avocations peculiar to youth. +A life of habitual indolence is encouraged in those who should be +toiling for those who gave them birth. From this they will shortly be +transplanted to the armies, without having been taught one occupation +by which they might obtain a livelihood when the period of service has +expired. + +What is to be expected of such young men on their return as citizens? +They will be a dead stock on the community--a load on their friends, an +incumbrance to themselves, they who have been taught no other trade but +to handle a firelock, to parade and plunder--will merely be the terror +of peaceful citizens, and the Government will find the only mode of +disposing of them to send them back to the army. + +Thus an immense permanent military establishment will result, and +will consist of an army which is the reservoir of the indolent and +profligate, who must be supported by the speculations of the merchant +and the labours of the farmer. This is in itself far more pernicious +than the _corvées_, the abolishment of which was one of the pleas +for the extirpation of the aristocracy. + +To foreign nations the possession by France of such an immense force +ready to burst upon them at a single word of command must be an object +of terror and alarm. And in self-defence they too must maintain +powerful armies in the centre of Europe, in the midst of a profound and +general peace. + +If an estimate is made of the many hundred thousand hands thus +withdrawn from the pursuits of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, +some idea may be formed of the loss which huge standing armies cause to +the community at large. + +Such arguments are, however, vain while the vast military establishment +of France is upheld. + +Necessity compels every nation in Europe to provide for its own +security. The military force of France is justly pleaded as a reason +for maintaining a strong standing army in our island. How much more +reason have continental nations to adopt a similar precaution, for they +do not possess our advantage of being separated from France by a ditch? +A man who proposed the reduction of the English army at the present +time would be esteemed a madman. The continental powers are only +pursuing a system forced upon them by imperious necessity. + +Nevertheless, much is to be hoped from the versatile and ingenious +character of the French people. A Frenchman can turn himself to +occupations which would never enter the brain of an Englishman or +German, and it is a common adage that if a Frenchman be turned adrift +and penniless on the wide world he will thrive and prosper. + +If the situation of the nations on the continent be contrasted with +that of our happy country, we shall perceive that Great Britain enjoys +a decided advantage. All our soldiers and most of our sailors, before +their entrance into the Navy or Army, have been previously educated +to some industrial pursuit. Hence after a long war they rejoice in +returning to their former pursuits, and the country has nothing to +apprehend from them. They resume their former relations to society, and +every species of trade and manufacture is open to them. + +The present Government should seriously reflect upon these undoubted +facts if the First Consul is sincerely desirous of peace. + +These reflections have led me out of my road to Nampont (a post and a +half from Montreuil). Here we changed horses and proceeded to Bernay, +where we again changed. + +[Sidenote: JOURNEY TO AMIENS] + +The weather was favourable and we hastened on, hoping to reach Amiens +before dark. Nouviou was our next stage, whence we traversed a flat and +unpleasant tract of country to Abbeville. + +We passed a pretty château surrounded by trees. It belonged to a +Monsieur de St. Quentin, who, having emigrated, found himself deprived +of his property, which was purchased for a trifling sum from the +Republican Government by a merchant of Abbeville. + +Since the proscription of emigrants has been removed by the First +Consul, Monsieur de St. Quentin has returned to France. He now resides +at a little village, formerly belonging to him, within sight of the +mansion which was once his. None of his property has been restored to +him, and no allowance so far granted by the State, he therefore lives +in a forlorn state of poverty. Our postillion had lived twelve years +with M. de St. Quentin in the capacity of a gardener. He pointed to a +young plantation and said, sadly, “All those trees were planted by me.” + +Love of country must be a predominant passion in the mind of a man who +after twelve years’ exile is content to reside in it in penury, and +endure the mortification of being constantly within view of his former +property. We dined at Reichord’s hotel, were well entertained, and the +charges reasonable. But our meal was rendered uncomfortable on account +of the crowd of beggars who were looking through the window and craving +charity. As fast as one crowd was dismissed another advanced upon their +heels. A gentleman who was there declared he counted over a hundred +persons. The city of Abbeville is old and wretchedly built, many of the +houses being made of wood there is a gloomy aspect in every part of it. +Before the Revolution it was celebrated for its damasks, and the vast +establishment of Vau Robois, established by Louis XIV., gave employment +to over 4000 persons; but this industry perished in the Revolution. +Before the war the population of Abbeville was computed at 22,000, it +is now reduced to less than 18,000 souls. + +Ally-le-haut Clocher was our next stopping-place--the only circumstance +worthy of notice there was a red cap on the top of the church steeple, +a mark of Jacobinism; during the nine miles traversed between Abbeville +and this place we never remarked one cheerful prospect or one well +cultivated lot of ground. At Flixecourt stood a tree of Liberty, the +first we had noticed since our arrival in France. From this place we +proceeded to Picquigny, where we again changed horses and thence to +Amiens, a stage of nine miles. It was late when we arrived, and to our +misfortune (as you will learn later) I mistook the house to which I +had been recommended. By the light of the lantern I read _Pollet_ +instead of _La Poste_, and in consequence drove to Madame Pollet’s +inn, “Le Lion d’Or.” + +Before I close this letter I will make a few observations on the +general face of the country and the state of agriculture. The soil is +good, but cultivation is deplorable. + +There are scarcely any enclosures, trees have been ruthlessly cut down, +and the hills completely stripped of timber. I saw neither cattle nor +sheep pasturing. + +[Sidenote: DESCRIPTION OF AMIENS] + +Nothing can exceed the wretchedness of the implements of husbandry +employed but the wretched appearance of the persons using them. Women +at the plough and young girls driving a team give but an indifferent +idea of the progress of agriculture under the Republic. There are no +farmhouses dispersed over the fields. The farmers reside together in +remote villages, a circumstance calculated to retard the business of +cultivation. The interiors of the houses are filthy, the farmyards +in the utmost disorder, and the miserable condition of the cattle +sufficiently bespeaks the poverty of their owner. Meat of all kinds is +poor and unnutritious, but the poultry is excellent. The wine is sour +and worse than vinegar and water, and even in the great inns where I +paid a high price for so-called burgundy and bordeaux, I never drank +one glass of even _tolerable wine_ (Chantilly excepted) between +Calais and the capital. + +Between Montreuil and Flixecourt we were greatly diverted at the sight +of two women ploughing with three asses, although this confirms the +opinion upon which I have always insisted, but not ludicrously, that +if we in England made more use of asses in husbandry advantage might +be derived to the community and a saving to the farmer. If instead of +harassing and ill-treating these useful animals we gave them a little +more consequence in the society of brutes and raised them from the +condition of slaves to servants, they would possess more spirit and +energy and be more tractable. + +The asses at the plough looked plump and sleek and performed their work +apparently as well as horses. After having seen a goat at the plough +I think no one should be surprised that I plead the cause of the poor +ass, besides I acknowledge myself to be the friend of asses. + + + + + V + + DESCRIPTION OF AMIENS, AND HAPPY RELEASE + FROM THE “LION D’OR” + + +At the time we arrived at the inn, the people of the town were just +leaving the theatre, which overflowed on account of a new piece having +been represented that night. A Frenchman would rather be called a knave +than be accused of a want of _goût_. Hence the theatres are always +crowded at the representation of a new piece (whatever may be the +celebrity of the author, or even if he enjoy no celebrity at all). + +In England, at a first representation, the house is seldom half filled, +except by friends of the author, who is either bowing to the manager or +quaking in the green room, waiting for the sentence of the critics in +the pit. + +In France, every man fancies himself a born critic, and makes a point +of attending the theatre to form part of the general tribunal. + +The author generally stations himself in the most distinguished part of +the theatre, where, with all the assurance of certain success, he bows +to the pit, gallery, and the ladies. If the piece succeeds he carries +himself high, and confesses that his countrymen are the only men of +taste in the world. But should the play unhappily be damned (a not +unfrequent circumstance) his deportment changes, he clenches his fists, +gives a horrible and ghastly smile, and swears the audience are a gang +of _f-- canaille, scélérats, bandits_, and to crown all, “_Des +gens de mauvais goût_.” When he has reached this climax of epithets +he rushes furiously from the theatre. + +It happened that on the night of our arrival at Amiens a very good +piece had been presented to the public. But my inclinations (a proof of +_mauvais goût_) were directed to a good supper. + +In order to give a proper notion of the dexterity of Madame Pollet, +hostess of the “Lion d’Or,” I must describe our mode of living in her +house. + +We were shown into a large room, containing four chairs, a small round +table, and a chest of drawers. In a corner stood a dome bedstead, +prettily hung with blue silk curtains, the bed covered by a blue silk +counterpane. It is a nasty custom in France to eat and drink in one’s +bedroom at an inn. I ordered supper for two persons. + +In a quarter of an hour the following dishes were served in succession. +A jowl of salmon (the largest and fattest I ever saw), two of the +finest soles I ever beheld, a partridge, a pigeon, a hashed hare, +a fowl, bouillie beef, spinach, and other vegetables--a bottle of +Picardy beer, a bottle of champagne, and one bottle of Volnay wine. The +unceasing procession of viands surpassed the scene at Barataria. + +[Sidenote: DESCRIPTION OF AMIENS] + +My wife ate scarcely anything, but I was hungry and took courage. No +sooner had I despatched my quota of a dish when another followed, and +another and another. + +I do believe it would have continued all night if nature, being +entirely exhausted, had not obliged me to cry mercy. + +Having successfully begged for quarter and forbidden any dessert, I +retired for the night, having desired to see the Cathedral in the +morning. It must not be imagined that I attacked every dish as it +advanced--I made a hearty supper on a bit of salmon, part of a sole and +some hashed hare; the rest of the feast went down untouched. + +In the morning we went to see the Cathedral--one of the finest +monuments of the piety of ancient days. It has escaped in some measure +the onslaughts of Revolutionaries, though its decorations have been +grievously mutilated. At the principal portal all the heads of the +saints have been struck off, and the sculptured groups representing +Scripture history have been so disfigured as to be rendered ridiculous. +The admirable marble statue of the weeping child has received +considerable injury, but the beautiful chapels on each side of the +choir are in an excellent state of preservation, as well as the marble +statues over the altars. + +Nothing is missing from them but the gold and silver candlesticks +and the rich ornaments of the church; even the bones of the tutelary +saint have been unmolested, although the immense box of silver in +which they were deposited has been seized. The grand altar-piece of +the Cathedral, which spreads across the whole breadth of the church +and rises majestically towards the top, has outlived the fury which +threatened its destruction; a circumstance which must be ascribed +solely to the spirit and good sense of the citizens of Amiens. For +when the Revolutionary army from Paris had commenced a general sack of +the Cathedral and were demolishing its ornaments, the National Guard +of Amiens arrived with its drums beating; a pitched battle ensued in +the aisles, which did not finish till the _sans culottes_ were +driven out of the Cathedral; the citizens afterwards mounted guard over +the minster and saved it from the common ruin a ruffianly horde had +involved S. Denys and half of the finest churches in France. + +Bishop Evrard began to build this edifice in the year 1220, during +the reign of Philip Augustus. Three architects superintended the +work--Robert de Luzarche, Thomas de Cormont, and Maître Renoult. In +three years the foundations were laid, a marvellously rapid work when +their solidity and extent are considered. The Cathedral is built on +irregular ground, and required very deep foundations. + +Upon the death of Evrard, his successor, Godfroi d’Eu, continued the +building, and during the fourteen years he held the episcopal see piles +were raised and the Cathedral completed as far as the arched roof. + +Arnold d’Amiens succeeded Godfroi, and he was followed by Gerard of +Couchy and Alexander of Neuilly; and under their successor, Bernard +of Abbeville, the work was completed in 1260, forty years after the +foundation stone was laid. This last ecclesiastic adorned the Cathedral +with an immense pointed window, which now ornaments the central part +of the choir. Beneath it may still be read the following inscription: +“_Bernardus Epis. me dedit anno MCCLIX._” + +Nothing can now exceed the gloomy appearance of this church, shorn of +all its former decorations. When we entered there were not more than +six old women and a veteran soldier of artillery at their matins, all +shivering with cold and hunger. When we associated this circumstance +with the absence and former persecution of all ministers of religion, +it gave a chilly aspect to the whole scene and damped all those +emotions of the soul which arise from contemplating a vast edifice +formerly consecrated to piety. + +[Sidenote: DESCRIPTION OF AMIENS] + +On our return we viewed the ruins of a building, once the palace of +Henry IV., situated at the back of the “Lion d’Or.” It is surprising +that the Revolutionary army, in its rage for destruction, left this +vestige of royalty untouched. But the fury of the Jacobins seems to +have been directed principally against the sculptured heads of saints, +for none of the houses in the Close, formerly the Canons’ residences, +have been destroyed. They became national property, but they remain +until this day without a purchaser. I have been informed that it is the +intention of the First Consul to revive the discipline of the Cathedral +and restore these houses to the Chapter. A Bishop has been already +nominated; but as the Episcopal Palace has been destroyed, a proper +house will be provided for him at the expense of the Government. + +When a person is travelling in the French Republic, if he arrives at +any town which has been a theatre of Revolutionary carnage, he will +have no difficulty in collecting anecdotes (should he desire it), some +pathetic, some ludicrous, and some horribly jocose, together with many +entertaining lies. + +France still bleeds at every pore--she is a vast mourning family, clad +in sackcloth. It is impossible at this time for a contemplative mind to +be gay in France. At every footstep the merciless and sanguinary route +of fanatical barbarians disgust the sight and sicken humanity--on all +sides ruins obtrude themselves on the eye and compel the question, “For +what and for whom are all this havoc and desolation?” + +It was in this city that that execrable villain, Joseph Le Bon met his +well-earned doom. He was executed among the curses and yells of that +very populace who a few weeks previously had received him with shouts +of approval and loaded him with caresses. + +When he first reached Amiens a poor harmless priest fell under his +displeasure. Le Bon issued an order for the arrest of the ecclesiastic, +who sought refuge in the woods. This roused the fury of the vindictive +tyrant, who wrote instantly to the Committee of Public Safety, +declaring he had discovered a great conspiracy, and that an agent of +Pitt had fled to the woods, but he was about to adopt vigorous measures +to bring the criminal to justice. + +The _générale_ was beaten, the tocsin sounded, and all armed +citizens were ordered to scour the woods and seize upon the agent +of Pitt. On the ensuing day the poor priest, exhausted with fatigue, +hunted like a wild beast and utterly famished, returned to the city +and surrendered himself to his tormentors. He was at once carried +before the Revolutionary Tribunal. He was asked his name, and had no +sooner replied than the jury, without hearing indictment or evidence, +pronounced him guilty, and he was sentenced to death. Being remanded to +the prison he spent the night in prayer. When the Gens d’armes arrived +the next morning to take him to the place of execution they found him +resigned and courageous. Fortified by his religious sentiments and +conscious innocence, he proclaimed that he preferred death to living +in a society in which every spark of justice was extinguished. The +time was come, he said, when good men should no longer desire to live, +and he would show his fellow-citizens in how calm a manner an innocent +man could die. He refused to get into the cart, and with a steady +step and cheerful countenance, surrounded by the Sbirri of Le Bon and +the miscreants who delight in bloodshed, he walked to the scaffold, +which he mounted with joy. But even in the moment of death the bloody +tyrant continued to torment him, he desired the execution to be delayed +until his women appeared at the window of an opposite house; and when +these unfeeling wretches, with a ferocity which disgraced their sex, +waved their handkerchiefs as a symptom of exultation, the fatal knife +was permitted to fall and the victim released from a world which was +unworthy of him. + +[Sidenote: DESCRIPTION OF AMIENS] + +I have described this melancholy event in order to contrast it with +Le Bon’s own behaviour at the place of execution. The night before he +suffered excruciating agonies of mind. At intervals he attempted to +destroy himself, but fear and hope withheld his hand. He was heard to +give loud shrieks, yells of rage, disappointment, terror and despair. +When he was brought out of the prison to be seated in the cart, the +shout that rent the air cannot be described--a person who was present +assured me that the howls of cannibals were nothing compared to it. +The populace spat upon him; they asked him, as it was a fine day why +he did not walk to the guillotine, as the priest had done a few weeks +previously, and die like a man? He was goaded with a thousand terrible +questions; and as the procession moved women and children danced in the +streets, clapping their hands, and reproaching him with a number of +bitter recollections. + +Le Bon was convulsed with passion, and sometimes he cried; but when +he reached the scaffold he gave a horrible cry, which drew peals of +laughter from the spectators. He had to be lifted out of the cart, fear +had paralysed his strength; during the short period before the knife +descended a hundred mocking voices wished him _bon voyage_ and a +happy meeting with his friends in hell. Thus amidst curses did this +ferocious monster expire. + +Amiens exhibits nothing new or interesting since the Revolution. The +shag and plush manufactories and the manufactory of woollen stuffs and +goats’ hair continue, but have suffered severely by the events of the +last ten years. Trade is still dull, but it is hoped it will soon be +rendered more brisk by the return of peace. + +On our return to the “Lion d’Or” we were charged seven pounds eight +shillings sterling money of the Kingdom of Great Britain for a supper +in the Republic of France! I ordered horses, resolving never to set +foot again in a house where I had been so egregiously cheated. Just +before I stepped into the carriage Madame Pollet made her appearance +and exclaimed, “Êtes-vous content, monsieur?” + +I promised to let my countrymen know what good cheer they might expect +at her house, not forgetting the reasonableness of her charges. I have +now fulfilled my promises. + + + + + VI + + JOURNEY TO CHANTILLY, AND DESCRIPTION OF THAT PLACE + + +Hebricourt was the next great town upon our route, and here we found +another church consecrated to Reason. The cap of Liberty, appropriately +placed upon the weather-cock, veered round with every different gust of +wind--over the door of the church the words “Temple de la Raison” were +inscribed. + +At Bréteuil, twenty-three miles from Amiens, we dined, or rather +starved, at the Hôtel de l’Ange. They made a thousand apologies for the +wretched fare put before us, and explained that there was a fair in the +town, and the crowd of country people flocking to it had completely +demolished every vestige of provision. + +After the plates were removed from the table and we had finished our +apology for a meal, we visited the fair. There was a great concourse of +people, but no noise or disorder. The women were in holiday clothes, +wearing close caps. The men were decently attired, but with cocked +hats, which gave them a most puritanical appearance. I did not see a +single person intoxicated, nor much show of articles of trade. There +were many Merry Andrews, quack doctors and puppet shows. + +During the greater part of our journey from Amiens to Bréteuil we +observed lands in much better order and farmhouses neater and more +comfortable than any we had seen in France; the country is agreeably +diversified, and woods appear in every direction. + +After Bréteuil the country becomes flat and the soil chalky. We changed +horses at Wavigny, St. Just and Clermont, the latter being twenty-seven +miles from Bréteuil. The road was paved and in excellent order, the +country pleasing and fertile, and woods frequent. + +[Sidenote: JOURNEY TO CHANTILLY] + +A little before we reached Clermont we passed the grounds and +plantations of the Duke de FitzJames.[1] The elegant Château was +completely destroyed by the Revolutionists, and is at this time a heap +of ruins. But the name of the duke has just been erased from the list +of émigrés, and all his estates restored to him. He is now in Paris, +making arrangements for his future life. The return of their old master +is eagerly awaited by the country people, and it is hoped that this +beautiful spot will once more flourish. + +At Clermont there is a manufactory of painted linen; the environs of +the town are gay and picturesque, the neighbouring hills afford several +pleasing landscapes, and the culture of the vine gave a charming +variety to the scenery. To the left is Liancourt, the magnificent seat +of the Duke de la Rochefoucauld.[1] This nobleman, well known for his +useful writings on agricultural subjects and his travels in North +America, has returned from exile, and is improving and embellishing his +patrimonial estate. + +Cultivation here is more diversified than in the northern Department, +through which we have just travelled. Besides vineyards there are +fields of lucerne, wheat, clover and corn, and a large quantity of +fruit trees. From Longueville, the next post town, we had a delightful +ride through the park of Chantilly. On our arrival at Chantilly we +slept at the post-house, where a neatness prevailed we had not yet +observed in France. The kitchen and stables, usually filthy in a French +establishment, were clean and well arranged. + +On the next morning we sent to see Chantilly, so famed for its +magnificent gardens and for the heroes of Montmorency and Condé who +have inhabited it. Alas! it is now one vast heap of ruins. After the +fatal August 1792, a horde of Paris miscreants ransacked, pillaged and +destroyed the greater part of the chefs d’œuvres of art. The servants, +faithful to their ancient master, concealed a number of valuable +articles in the woods, and found means to convey most of them to the +Prince de Condé. + +Of the fidelity and affection of the Prince’s domestics we heard a +great deal, and nothing can exceed the respect in which his memory is +held by the villagers. On more than one occasion we saw the honest tear +start from their eyes at the mention of his name, and the solicitude +they expressed for his welfare and their many tender inquiries +respecting his present situation in England, convinced us these poor +people were sensible they had lost their best friend. When I told +them the Prince de Condé[1] lived near London, and was in fairly easy +circumstances and kindly received by the King and Royal Family and by +the Ministers of State, they were so greatly affected as to excite +in our minds a sympathetic emotion of soul, and on the ruins of the +Château of Chantilly, on the very spot where once stood the statue +of the Great Condé, we shed tears over the fate of his forsaken and +proscribed descendant. + +No one can be sensible of the desolation of Chantilly unless they +saw the gardens, _jets d’eau_ and variegated plantations there +previous to 1792. + +The Palace is now completely destroyed, there is not even a vestige +remaining, all is ruin. As we approached its sight several troops of +cavalry were exercising on the lawn. The stables, upon the left, have +escaped the fury of the Revolutionists. It is a magnificent building, +with all the appearance of a Palace itself. It was originally built for +240 horses. But 400 animals belonging to the Chasseurs stationed at +Chantilly are now quartered there without inconvenience. + +It is an immense oblong, well paved, with mangers and racks on either +side. In the centre is a spacious dome with several apartments now +occupied by the smiths of the regiment. All the stags’ heads which +ornamented the interior of the building have been struck off, only +stumps being left behind. There was formerly a pretty emblematical +figure over the reservoir of water under the dome, this has been +completely annihilated. + +[Sidenote: JOURNEY TO CHANTILLY] + +To the left of the stables is the _ménage_, an open circular +piece of ground, encircled by Doric pillars. Here we found the +subaltern officers of the regiment instructing their men in the art of +riding. The French soldiers, in general, keep their seats well, but +their position does not appear so easy as that of the English. They +ridicule our long trot as ungraceful, perhaps with some reason; but +horses and riders using it are better able to support a long journey +than a Frenchman, erect as a post, jogging on a dancing horse. + +On one side of the _ménage_ is the court for carriages and +grooms, and a few yards behind the tennis court, as large as the one +at Versailles, enclosed in a noble stone building. A merchant has +purchased this place, and is resolved to reconvert it to its original +purpose. From these edifices, which are all in fair order, we advanced +to the scene of horror. The Palace is a heap of ruins; it was purchased +by two persons, who demolished it for the sake of the materials, which +they sold for above ten times the original purchase money. It is +just the name of these Vandals should descend to posterity, they are +Damois, an ironmonger of the Faubourg St. Antoine, Paris, and Boulet, a +carpenter of Compiègne. + +The Château d’Enghien has escaped, and is now used as a barrack for +Chasseurs. The Château of the Duc de Bourbon, where the family, +except on State occasions, formerly resided, was in the days of the +Revolutionary Tribunal converted into a prison, 750 prisoners were +therein confined; men and women intentionally herded together in the +same apartments, in defiance of decency. The Château of Bourbon has +been completely stripped of decorations and furniture, only the bare +walls remain. The beautiful bridge of La Volière, which formed the +communication between the Palace and the Island of Love, was broken +down lest the prisoners should escape over it. + +We traversed the lonely apartments, and were shown the study of +the exiled Prince de Condé, a room the former beauty of which the +mutilated paintings still remaining gave a lively idea. The gallery of +Conquest, formerly filled with pictures representing the achievements +of Montmorencies and Condés, exhibits now merely a dead wall. As we +descended the staircase we observed the walls covered by inscriptions +of the names of prisoners, often accompanied by verses alluding to +their forlorn condition. + +The gallery of marble vases opposite to the Pavilion of Apollo, +consisting of twenty-two rams’ heads, which spouted into basins beneath +them, is utterly destroyed. The Island of Love is a bog, and the +Pavilion of Venus no more. + +At the foot of the grand staircase was once a _jet d’eau_, +remarkable for its size and beauty. It had a superb marble column in +the centre, around which swans sailed in majestic order, while immense +quantities of tench played upon the surface of the water. The column, +the _jet d’eau_ and the swans have vanished--the water drawn off +and the tench devoured by the Revolutionary army. The romantic cottage +by the mill has been pulled down--the carcase of the dairy is still +standing, but every article it contained was pillaged, for our guide +remarked, “The Jacobins never slept as long as there was anything left +to seize.” The small cascade, situated opposite the menagerie, was +demolished for the sake of the leaden pipes, profitable articles of +sale, indeed _all_ the leaden conduits were removed, so that the +numerous communications between the different reservoirs of water and +the court being destroyed, the waters in rainy weather overflow their +basins and pour upon the adjacent ground. Every step we went we trod in +water, and to this circumstance the wretched appearance of the Island +of Love is due. + +[Sidenote: JOURNEY TO CHANTILLY] + +There was formerly a great menagerie on the opposite side of the +court. The Revolutionary army condemned to death the beasts and birds +which inhabited it, on the ground that they were agents in the alleged +conspiracy of Condé to starve the people. But as they were apprehensive +these animals might make a rally, and feeling their courage unequal +to the shock of a pitched battle, and being afraid to butcher the +animals in detail, they stationed a couple of pieces of artillery on +the neighbouring height, and the onslaught commenced. A heavy fire was +opened on the imprisoned sovereigns of the forest by the sovereign +people--after a breach had been effected the drums beat a general +charge, the centre of the Revolutionary army advanced, bayonets fixed, +while the right and left wings kept up a smart fire of musketry upon +the invisible enemy. The army entered the breach, and the whole +garrison being put to the sword, the majesty of the people shone forth +in all its glory. + +A person who was an eye-witness of the affair described to me in detail +this patriotic act of carnage. + +At the end of the great court a place was erected by the Prince of +Condé for the accommodation of the sick who resorted there to drink the +water of a mineral spring. The spring is filled up, and four mills for +boring cannon supplant the building. The violence of destruction was so +great that the source of these mineral waters cannot now be traced. The +immense kitchen garden has been preserved, and the house, which once +belonged to Monsieur Hatorme, steward or _homme d’affaires_ of +the Prince. It is now inhabited by Damois, the ironmonger, one of the +Vandals who bought and destroyed the Château. When the Jacobins came to +murder Monsieur Hatorme he fortunately escaped by a small secret door +at the back of the house. + +No better idea can be given of the general horror and desolation +effected everywhere by the Revolutionists than a sight of Chantilly. +Thistles and grass cover every part of the gardens, here and there a +few solitary tulips peep out of the earth. The fox that peeped through +the crevices of the desolate Castle of Ossian could not give a more +faithful conception of ruin than those lonely and deserted flowers. + +It would not be amiss to give here a description of Chantilly, given +fifteen years ago by that acute and intelligent traveller, Mr. Arthur +Young: + +“Chantilly! Magnificence is its reigning character. The Château is +great and imposing. The gallery of the great Condé’s victories and the +cabinet of natural history, rich in fine specimens, most advantageously +arranged, demand particular notice. The stable exceeds anything of the +kind I have ever seen. It is 580 feet long and 40 broad, and is filled +with 240 English horses. I came to Chantilly prepossessed against the +idea of a court, but the one here is striking, and gives the effect +which magnificent scenes impress. This arises from extent and from the +right lines of the water uniting with the regularity of the object +in view. Lord Kaimes says the part of a garden contiguous to a house +should partake of the regularity of the building. The effect here +is lessened by the _parterre_ before the Castle, in which the +divisions and the diminutive _jets d’eau_ do not correspond in +size with that of the court. + +“The menagerie is very pretty, and exhibits a prodigious quantity of +domestic poultry from every part of the world, one of the best objects +to which a menagerie can be applied. The _hameau_ contains an +imitation of an English garden. The most English idea I saw was the +lawn in front of the stables; it is large, of good verdure and well +kept. The labyrinth, the only complete one I have ever seen. In the +Sylvae are many fine and scarce plants. The great beech is the finest +I ever saw, straight as an arrow, between eighty and ninety feet in +height and twelve feet in diameter, five feet from the ground. Two +others near it are almost equal to this superb tree.” + +We were accompanied as guide at Chantilly by a man named Touret, +formerly _garde de chasse_ to the Prince. He is a very sensible +and good-natured man. He was accused of an attachment to his ancient +master, and for that crime pursued by the Jacobins with unrelenting +vigour. He was compelled to fly into the woods, where he subsisted on +acorns, nuts and berries for several days, and concealed himself in +secluded haunts, which from his former situation as gamekeeper were +known to him. + +[Sidenote: JOURNEY TO CHANTILLY] + +The contrast between this poor faithful fellow and that of Hautoir, +administrator of the district of Genlis, is great. The former, like +Shakespeare’s Adam, fled to the woods for the love he bore his master; +the latter is an ungrateful miscreant, who rioted on the spoils of his +ancient patron. The Prince of Condé had granted to this fellow, who was +originally a grocer, every species of parental favour and indulgence. +In return for these acts of kindness Hautoir marched at the head of the +Revolutionary army to the superb Château, opened it to the ravages of +those sanguinary vagabonds, and affixed the municipal seal on the doors +of his former benefactor. + +Fanaticism in those awful days transported many individuals to the +commission of outrages of which I have heard them now express the +deepest and most heartfelt repentance. This rogue could only plead a +thirst for pillage, which very shortly afterwards was signally proved +by his being publicly detected in a particularly mean theft. + +The Bishop of Châlons had a pretty pavilion on the lawn, which I have +already described. This prelate was compelled to fly, and his retreat +occupied by Jacobins. His property was seized and advertised for +sale. Hautoir,[1] as administrator of the district, superintended the +business. + +While he was announcing the business of the day he was detected with +having in his pocket a valuable snuffbox belonging to the Bishop, +which he had stolen from the cabinet of the ecclesiastic when placing +seals on the property. He was not arrested owing to his position as +a Revolutionary delegate, but he was severely hissed at the auction, +deprived of his position, and now resides in obscurity at Morli la +Ville. + +After having taken leave of Touret, who had attended us from morning +till night during our three days’ excursions in the immense Forest of +Chantilly, which, with its territorial domains, extends to more than +one hundred miles in circumference, we drove from a spot where, from +the charms of the surrounding country, the serenity of the season and +the uncommon attractions of all around us, we had passed the sweetest +days of melancholy we had ever experienced. + + + + + VII + + JOURNEY TO S. DENYS, DESCRIPTION OF THAT PLACE + AND THE FEUDAL CASTLE OF ECOUEN. + ARRIVAL IN PARIS + + +The road to Luzarches from Chantilly is exceedingly pretty. After +passing through part of the Forest we entered upon a magnificent paved +road, bordered by trees and lands, which exhibited on either side a +_little_ better cultivation than those we had hitherto passed. + +Luzarches is seven miles from Chantilly. We were compelled to stop for +some time at a miserable inn in this wretched town. One of the wheels +of our carriage was broken, and it was necessary to have it repaired. +In a miserable room, containing two dirty beds, cold and famished +(for we could not touch a morsel that was brought to us), we remained +seven hours. The wheel being repaired we proceeded to Ecouen and from +thence to S. Denys, but we quitted the public road for the purpose of +visiting the Castle of Ecouen, built by Anne de Montmorency, Constable +of France. The Château is completely stripped of furniture, even the +tapestry being torn away. Two hundred unhappy Vendéans were imprisoned +here. It was converted later into a military hospital. Upon the whole +nothing is now left of this stately Castle but the walls. It stands +on an eminence and commands an extensive prospect. There is a large +kitchen garden in front of the grand entrance. A Swiss, formerly in the +service of Spain during the siege of Gibraltar, is entrusted with the +care of the place. He conducted us over every part of the Castle. + +[Sidenote: JOURNEY TO S. DENYS] + +It has all the appearance of a modern prison, and does not convey that +appearance of feudal grandeur which distinguishes the Castles on the +banks of the Danube and the Rhine. + +We arrived at a late hour at the S. Denys post-house, where we were +well lodged and comfortably entertained, and early the next day went to +visit the Cathedral. + +My astonishment was great when the old Swiss, whom I remembered ten +years before, opened the door, and I perceived this once beautiful +gothic edifice was a heap of ruins. My guide entered into my sentiments +of horror and disgust, and certainly did not spare the authors of +this devastation. The tombs and mausoleums of the Kings and Queens +of France, of Guesclin, of Turenne, and of the most illustrious +warriors and great men, were deposited in various compartments of +the Cathedral, and formed a striking and splendid decoration. But +these, together with the oriflamme of Clovis, the sceptre and sword +of Charlemagne, the portrait and sword of the Maid of Orleans, the +bronze chair of Dagobert, the reliques and shrines, royal robes and +crowns, ancient manuscripts and an immense number of curiosities, +sacred and profane--now all vanished; some destroyed: others, by the +industry of Monsieur Le Noir, removed to the museum of French monuments +in Paris. The Cathedral is unroofed, and it is fraught with peril to +traverse any part of it, for stones are continually falling. Our Swiss +described with minute precision where every tomb stood, from Pepin to +Louis XV. A small room formerly used as a sacristy our pious guardian +had converted into an ossory. And here lay in one indistinguished +heap the bones of kings, princes and heroes, who for ages had slept +undisturbed in the mansions of death. I inquired into the cause of +all this ruthless destruction, and was told that the Revolutionary +Committee of S. Denys, composed of twelve citizens, six of whom were +labouring men, decreed that this ancient and noble ornament of their +town should be pulled to pieces for the sake of the lead and iron it +contained. Their determination was carried into effect, on the plea +that arts and science were of no utility to mankind, and that respect +for the habitations of the dead was a mark of puerile superstition. +At that time Lavoisier was executed, being told at his trial that the +French Republic stood in no need of chemists. After we had quitted the +Cathedral we visited the chapel of Mesdames de France. When we entered +Divine service was being celebrated therein. The chapel has been +stripped of all its ornaments, and was scarcely worth the trouble of a +walk to visit it. + +S. Denys is not distant more than four miles from Paris. + +The approach to the capital is through a wide and magnificent paved +road, bordered with double rows of trees, on either side of which are +extensive and well-cultivated fields of corn and other grain; but none +of those neat and diversified habitations are seen which in our country +denote the fruits of commercial industry and mercantile opulence. +For that order of men, whom we in England denominate country squires +or persons living on their own small estates, the Republic has done +nothing; in truth, there are no such persons in France, neither are +there any country houses erected with a view to their being inhabited +by such a description of beings, much less by merchants and tradesmen. +In the “great nation” nothing is so conspicuous as disparity or in +other words inequality. Magnificence and filth, opulence and beggary +are beside each other. There is no medium in France; in fact, the +great middle class which in our country intervenes between rich and +poor and forms the solid Doric pillar of society, is unknown in any +European country but Great Britain. This class is the most substantial +boon for the consolidation of an enlightened form of government; it is +the nursery of statesmen, freedom, and equal laws; to the want of it +France may ascribe the origin of the greater part of her misfortunes, +to the possession of it England is indebted for her independence, her +regulated power, and her system of jurisprudence. + +[Sidenote: JOURNEY TO S. DENYS] + +Rational liberty can never flourish where there are no classes but +high and low. Laws can never be executed, except by the point of the +bayonet, in any State where a numerous body of men do not exist who are +sufficiently independent to prevent the oppressions of the great from +trampling the poor under foot and sufficiently strong to repress the +reaction of the poor on the property and security of the great. + +Every thinking Englishman must feel the dissolution of this middling +order of men would transform the State into an absolute military power, +or, what is worse, a tyrannical and licentious democracy. This argument +finds an apt illustration in a great commercial city which is under +aristocratic government. Hamburg, by the encouragement afforded to +that body, is one of the best regulated cities of Europe. Multitudes +of country seats belonging to traders are scattered plentifully on +the banks of the Elbe; and even Denmark, although a purely absolute +monarchy, owes much of its happiness and strength to the importance +attached to this order of men--an order which in France has never so +far existed. Hence during the old monarchy despotism wantoned in power, +or was mildly exercised according to the views and inclinations of the +rulers, while during every stage of the Republic the leaders of the +people, drunk with authority, wallowed in the blood of their fellow +citizens. At this very moment an absolute military despot is governing +the country, and the people are, as before, mere slaves, insecure of +property or personal security. + +The entrance to Paris from S. Denys is not calculated to give a +foreigner a favourable idea of the capital. The city has every +appearance of filth and poverty, and the Triumphal Arch or Porte S. +Denys, under which we passed, has such a sombre cast as to give the +traveller the impression that he is going into the courtyard of a +prison. I ordered the postillion to drive to the hotel in the Rue +Coquenon, where I resided in 1792 and 1793, and where I had left all my +books. + +When we arrived there I saw written in large letters over the +_porte-cochère_ “_Maison de Commission_.” I alighted and +inquired what had become of the former proprietor. I was told that +he had been guillotined. We then drove to the Hôtel Morigny, where I +afterwards learnt a celebrated Corsican, when times went hard with him, +lodged in a small apartment at seven shillings per week. There were, +however, no rooms vacant, we therefore took up our lodgings at the Coq +Heron--an hotel lately established and kept by an Englishman named +Guillandeau, the greatest blackguard in Christendom. + +We afterwards removed to private apartments in the Rue Mirabeau, +_ci-devant_ Chaussée d’Antin. + + + + + VIII + + A DESCRIPTION OF THE _MODE_ + + +I am once more in Paris. A thousand painful recollections obtrude +themselves on my mind, and I am almost afraid to inquire after my +former acquaintances. I know not where I shall address myself for +information, or where I shall first set my foot. When I reflect upon +the strange vicissitudes of fortune I have experienced; when I recall +the whirlpool of danger I have passed, and the proscription which, +with some mean and pusillanimous minds, is still considered to hang +over me, I am doubtful whether I am prudent to venture again into the +source of all my injuries. The motive that brought me from England, the +desire of ascertaining the fate of a relative, so dearly beloved and so +long lost, gives strength to my resolution and dissipates my personal +anxieties. But I am both low and dejected in mind and spirits. + +[Sidenote: A DESCRIPTION OF THE _MODE_] + +I will attempt to give a faithful account of this capital, which may +be considered as the manufactory whence all the horrors and changes +of the _Revolution_ have originated. France as a country should +not be judged by the dissolute principles of the inhabitants of her +metropolis. In the provinces remote from the centre of government as +much character and simplicity exist as in the best regulated empires. + +The _Revolution_ may in _some_ degree have changed the innocence of the +peasantry, and corrupted the primitive integrity of their character. +The cause of this may be traced to the artifices of demagogues and +atheists. In the mountains of the Vosges, in La Vendée and in the +South-Western parts of the Republic, the people of both town and +country possess an originality of character founded on sentiments +of generosity and virtue. But in many Departments of the Republic, +particularly the Department of the Seine, every principle of Society is +inverted, and Society itself is loathsome, abhorrent, corrupt, poisoned +and poisonous. + +My first duty was to visit those old friends who had survived the +general wreck of moral order. From them I hoped to learn the history of +those who had perished. With an anxious mind I hastened after dinner to +the Rue Jacob, in the Faubourg S. Germain, to see if my old friend M. +Suédaeur was alive. I inquired if the doctor resided there; the answer +was affirmative, but he was not at home. I proceeded to the Rue Niçoise +and found M. de la Metherie in perfect health and better spirits than +on that gloomy night in 1793 when we last parted. From him I learnt +the fatal end of many of my acquaintance, but he mentioned several who +were not only in existence but prosperous, and gave me considerable +encouragement in what was the main object of my journey to Paris. + +I returned home to find a citizen hairdresser playing the devil with my +wife’s locks. He had so clipped and twisted them as to give her the air +of a person just issued from the bath. Upon my seriously remonstrating +against this wild appearance, he very coolly informed me that it was +_La Mode_, and unless my pate was better organised it would be +impossible for me to go into good company. I immediately submitted +to an operation. My tail was instantly amputated and the hair of my +unfortunate head frizzled into such a multitude of compound forms as +to give me precisely the appearance of one of the ourang outangs which +is to be seen over Exeter Change. Having undergone this ceremony, I +supposed I was now in the _Mode_. But no! He pulled from his +pocket two horrible whiskers, which were to extend from my cheek bones +and meet at the bottom of my chin, and another piece of hair which was +to be hid under my neckcloth and fly up so as to cover my chin. + +“What is all this apparatus for?” + +“To complete you in the Parisian _mode_.” + +“I will not submit to be made into a baboon.” + +“But, sir, you must! It is _La Mode_!” + +“I tell you I will not obey _La Mode_!” + +“Donc, monsieur, vous êtes perdu!” + +“If you trouble me with another word on this subject I shall be under +the indispensable necessity of knocking you down.” + +Thus by an act of matchless fortitude I rescued myself from the hands +of this prattler, but not till he had extracted from me eighteen +shillings for having made my companion look wild, myself like a monkey, +and annoyed me with perfumes and gallipots. + +Before we were allowed to retire to rest a tailor, a hatter and a +glover made their appearance. All honest tradesmen in Paris are really +to be pitied, a long and sanguinary war has ruined their commerce, and +these poor hungry wretches are as voracious as sharks. It is impossible +to complain of them. To all these civil gentlemen I returned a plain +answer, saying I had brought from England every article necessary for +use during my residence in France. On which they retired with great +politeness, and left me for the first time in nine years to take repose +in the capital of a nation whose former rulers thirsted to shed our +blood. + + + + + IX + + ATTENDANCE UPON THE MINISTER OF POLICE + + +[Sidenote: THE MINISTER OF POLICE] + +The following morning my landlord informed me I must at once wait upon +the Minister of Police, present my passport and have it ratified. +He added that otherwise he might be called to account, as police +emissaries called frequently and unexpectedly at every hotel to +ascertain the names of the residents. + +Accordingly I engaged a very good chariot at six guineas a week for my +stay in Paris, and after paying my respect to our Minister, Mr. Jackson +(the British Embassy is lodged in the Faubourg S. Germain), I hastened +to the office of the notorious Fouché,[1] the Minister of Police, on +the Quai Voltaire, opposite the Louvre, where I was admitted into an +ante-chamber, crowded with ninety persons; their number I knew because +on entering I received a billet marked 91 from a soldier. I had to wait +two hours and a half for my audience. + +During this long period I was able to make the following observations. +I was never more surprised than at the want of courtesy shown to +females in a country which has always boasted more of its gallantry +than its virtue. Several well-dressed ladies received their billets +long after mine, but when I offered them the precedence, the brute who +attends the entrance pushed them back with disgusting insolence and +violence. I remarked that I cheerfully resigned my right to the ladies; +he replied with a savage sneer, “If you don’t choose to take your turn, +pass to the bottom.” In this ante-chamber stood a motley group whose +countenances evidently bespoke the sentiments of their hearts. The +returned emigrants might easily be distinguished, supple and servile, +and never suffering the lowest commissary of police, who wore a little +gold or silver tinsel about his coat, to pass without offering him a +profound reverence. And they were right, for the ancient aristocracy +were lofty and self-conceited, but affable and courteous withal. +The modern aristocracy of France, that is those men who have been +transplanted from the dunghill to the exercise of public functions, +are, in general, brutal in their manners to inferiors, cringing to +their superiors and insolent to unofficial persons, they also show +strong traits of a ferocity of character. + +An unanswerable proof of this degeneracy may be found in the degraded +condition of the fair sex, who are no longer treated with that decorous +respect which heretofore characterised the French people. This is a +nation of soldiers, not cavaliers--not a solitary blade would leap +out of its scabbard to resent an insult to the finest woman in the +Republic. The sword here is now used, not for the defence of the +feeble, but as an instrument to acquire wealth and power. + +The Republican soldier is fully as brave as was the soldier of the +Royal army, but he is destitute of the honour and urbanity which +distinguished the latter. + +An army of soldiers, organised for conquest, propelled by avarice, and +inured to victory, resemble more the hordes of an Attila or Ghengiz +Khan, than the forces of a polished Empire. The Republican troops +are now masters of the State, their defeats obliterated, and their +victories confirmed by triumphing over the liberties of their fellow +citizens. + +The other personages who composed this assembly were waggoners, +farmers, tradesmen, persons about to depart for the colonies, ladies, +and common women. An army subaltern officer came in while we were +waiting; without taking a billet he entered the bureau, every person +hastily making way for him. I inquired of the doorkeeper the reason of +his admittance before his turn, and he replied that no officer of the +army was ever kept waiting. + +[Sidenote: THE MINISTER OF POLICE] + +We were drawn up in the ante-chamber in two opposite lines, like files +of soldiers. A sentinel patrolled backwards and forwards with a drawn +bayonet in his hand and maintained discipline. If any one happened to +advance a little too forward, he or she received a far from gentle tap +from the bayonet to compel them to keep their position. + +When at length I was admitted into the bureau I was informed that in +consequence of a recent regulation the business of examining passports +and giving certificates was transferred to the office of the Prefect, +on the Quai du Louvre, the other side of the river. + +In the office of the Prefect I experienced no delay. The passport I had +received from the Calais Municipality was taken from me and I received +another in exchange. On its top was a figure of the Republic, garbed +as Minerva, her right hand supported by the fasces and a hatchet. In +her left she holds a spear, at her feet a game-cock, standing on one +leg, denotes vigilance. On either side are the laughable words in this +country: “Egalité, Liberté, Fraternité,” and below as follows, which I +insert by way of contrast to passports of former times: + + + PREFECTURE DE POLICE. + +We, Prefect of the Police of Paris, invite the Civil and Military +Authorities to permit to pass freely in this Commune, Henry Redhead +Yorke, English Gentleman, who declares he lodges in Paris, at the Hôtel +Coq Heron, accompanied by his wife. The present pass is only to be in +force two months, when it must be revised at the Prefecture, under +penalty of being arrested, conformably to the law of the 4th Floreal, +year three. Done at the Prefecture of Police, Paris, 23 Germinal, Year +10 of the Republic, one and indivisible. + + (Signed) For the Prefect, + + (Here followed an illegible signature.) + + + OFFICE OF PASSPORTS. + +=Note=:--No passport will be delivered on this pass, and the +bearer arrested if he be found elsewhere in France, save in the +Department of the Seine. + +For a longer residence than two months in Paris a petition must be made +to the Prefect of Police, without delay. + +Residence must not be changed without permission. + + * * * * * + +Then followed description of my appearance, age, person and signature. +On changing my residence the Secretary wrote the day of the month, the +street and number of the house upon my pass and returned it to me. + +The want of a pass is attended by disagreeable circumstances. One such +occurred to me a day or two after our arrival at Paris. Being desirous +of saving a little distance on my way to the Pont Neuf, I was stopped +by a sentinel and my pass demanded; but not having it about me, and +notwithstanding my plea of being a foreigner, I was compelled to make a +very considerable _détour_ before I reached my destination. + +[Sidenote: THE PRESENT STATE OF FRANCE] + +In England no one would tolerate the introduction of such a system +which would prove the destruction of commerce. There are merchants +who travel from Bristol, Manchester, and Liverpool to London, merely +to settle in the course of a few hours their great concerns and then +to return. Conceive what an obstacle to their affairs would be a +two hours’ attendance in the ante-chamber of a Minister of Police. +Suspicion is the result of fear--the jealousy of a despotism doubtful +of its existence--a system proper for the present government of France. +But there is more _charbonnerie_ than effective vigour in the +boasted police of M. Fouché. If the French Government be seriously +inclined to extend their commerce there must be a relaxation in this +perplexing system of police, they must give free scope to industry, +and not jealously inquire into the motives which may lead their fellow +countrymen to visit the capital or pass from one district of France to +another. If the present plan is continued the revenues will be less +productive, and the support of an immense military, as well as the +extensive pageantry of a pompous Government, will be provided for with +difficulty and only by imposing severe taxes which depress and ruin the +cause of agriculture. + +I would not dare to affirm that these consequences are to be traced +exclusively to police espionage; but when this latter is contemplated +as a brand of a widely extended system of jealous government, it enters +into a consideration and forms a constituent of a policy the French +Republic will long have good reason to deplore. + + + + + X + + GENERAL VIEW OF THE PRESENT STATE OF FRANCE + + +Without a preconcerted plan a person who visits Paris will be lost +among the multitude of captivating subjects which require his +attention, and he will return to his native country having seen many +things but obtained a knowledge of none. + +Apart from the private motive which brought me here I live in France +only for the good of my country. + +My inquiries, conversations and labours, are directed to that end. +On the final result of this examination of the state of the French +Republic depends my future resolutions and my future destiny. + +After twelve years of active engagement on the disturbed theatre of +public life; after having seen the rise and fall of contending factions +at home and abroad; after having beheld the theories I had studied +completely belie themselves in practice, I may, I think, be entitled to +give an opinion on political occurrences and public establishments. + +On such considerations I proceed to describe the governments, laws, +institutions, manners, relative form, internal resources and ultimate +view of a people, whom I have seen at one time frivolous, abject and +superstitious; at another period starting like Lazarus from a dead +repose, roused to a vindication of national liberty; afterwards the +base tools of sanguinary demagogues, furious, vindictive and cowardly, +renouncing their obligations to God and man, and astounding the +civilised world by their folly and their crime--next sighing after that +regulated freedom and social order for which they had shed the blood of +millions, but never been worthy or able enough to establish; lastly, +conscious of their unfitness to be free, relapsing again into the +bosom of that ancient despotism, which they had disdainfully trodden +under foot, with all the superadded terrors of military government, +and a suspicious administration; laughing at the very names of public +virtue and public liberty, and themselves the terror and the mockery +of Europe. These are great events, worthy of solemn investigation; +they have no parallel in the history of mankind. The principal agents +in these scenes merit alternate pity and indignation, but the scenes +themselves illustrate and present to our minds during the short space +of ten years the history of men for ages. + + + + + XI + + DESCRIPTION OF LONGCHAMPS. BOIS DE BOULOGNE + AND THE BOULEVARDS + + +Strangers in Paris are always recommended to visit the theatres and +places of public amusements. Arts, manufactures, courts of justice, +useful institutions and distinguished characters in the literary and +political worlds rarely trouble. We arrived in good time to see the +Easter Promenade de Longchamps in the Bois de Boulogne. This ceremony +is for the time uppermost in the heads of the Parisians, it was the +only subject of conversation; and every one quitted his house and shop +to take a share in the spectacle. The uninitiated might therefore +conclude that this favourite diversion of the public was a grand and +splendid scene, rivalling the marriage of the Adriatic or the Carnival +at Rome. + +[Sidenote: BOIS DE BOULOGNE] + +It is on the contrary an insipid and contemptible show, consisting +merely in the procession of a long string of coaches, cabriolets, +carts and horsemen; with a few boobies mounted on asses, making wry +faces, and a number of Merry Andrews playing fantastic antics for the +diversion of the populace. There was much noise but no real mirth. + +The Bois de Boulogne has been extolled, but it presents no object +or _coup d’œil_ either agreeable or attractive. The roads are +miserable tracks of sand, and the _Wood_ (?) contains no lofty +trees, it consists of an extensive copse, composed of shrubs, none of +which exceed eight feet in height. There is a sheet of water laden with +boats, which plain calculating English Islanders would call a duckpond. + +On our return from this excursion we drove round the Boulevards of +Paris. They are by far the most pleasant, neat and lively parts of +the capital. Indeed, the expressions I have employed do not convey an +adequate idea of their beauty and elegance. They extend around the city +12,100 yards in length, and are at least eighty feet wide, bordered by +four rows of trees, which form three alleys, the middle for the use of +carriages and horsemen and the two collateral ones for passengers on +foot. + +On the Northern Boulevards the fashionable and idle resort to while +away their time in theatres and puppet shows--at Tivoli, Frascati, +public baths and eating-houses; but especially at an exhibition of +waxwork, so horrible and disgusting that its mere description would +make the hair of the most abandoned English libertine stand on end. + +I feel no hesitation in saying that I would rather a child of mine +should inhabit hell itself than be a spectator of what I have seen +there. + +The Southern Boulevard is more agreeable and serene; it has more +moral views, and though no meretricious forms render it the haunt +of fashionable votaries, there is an air of tranquillity about it, +which denotes the absence of guilt and the resort of innocence. This +is the part frequented by the industrious tradesman and his family. +There are two public gardens on the Northern Boulevard, which from the +decorum observed there are justly deserving of encomium, especially +when contrasted with other public places in Paris. I mean Tivoli and +Frascati. + +Tivoli is celebrated for its mineral waters and baths as well as its +garden. The French compare its walks to those of our Vauxhall, but +the comparison is ridiculous, as well compare the sun to a farthing +rushlight. In the first place there are no variegated lamps. The +gardens are not lighted at all except the platform appropriated to +dancing. + +The _sheet of water_ is about sixty yards long and three yards +broad. Upon this the gay Parisians perform their nautical exploits or +_promenade sur l’eau_. The illuminations and fireworks are on such +an inferior scale that the price of admission, three livres (or half a +crown), is absolutely exorbitant. Frascati, at the corner of the rue +de la Loi, on the boulevard, is the most elegant lounge in Paris. The +garden is small but well lighted--along each walk are busts of the +French and English poets, and at the extremity of the principal one is +a pretty little hermitage, arranged with great taste. Nothing is paid +for admission, the proprietors are amply compensated by the prices +the fashionable company of Paris pay for the exquisite ices in the +form of peaches and other refreshments supplied at no very immoderate +price. There is no place of public amusement here which unites so much +elegance with decency, and I was never satisfied with the fascinations +of Frascati _below stairs_. Above the apartments are reserved for +gamblers. + +[Sidenote: THE BOULEVARDS] + +Chantilly, in the Champs Elysées, is a lower kind of Tivoli, a franc +is the price of admission, which includes refreshments. The inferior +orders in France conduct themselves with more propriety and are less +riotous than the Londoners who assemble at Bagnigge Wells and the +so-called tea gardens of our Metropolis. + +On the other side of the water, near the residence of the British +Minister, in the Faubourg S. Germain, is a fashionable walk in the +Garden of Biron. But that which gave me most pleasure was the solitary +and unfrequented garden of the Luxembourg. To this solitude I fled +when I wished to avoid the noise of Paris. It was also a place of +conversation with my friends. Here I learnt the _true_ history of +the French Revolution from personages who had distinguished themselves +in that wonderful event, here I was instructed in the characters of +those who now govern France; this was the rendezvous of concealed +Royalists and avowed Republicans. I shall never forget the walks in the +Gardens of the Luxembourg. We were too remote from the office of Fouché +for our whispers to reach it, and we were too well guarded to become +objects of suspicion. + +The Government are now repairing the Palace, and the new Senate is to +hold its sittings there. The garden will then be cleared and beautified. + +There are three or four other public walks in Paris. The Gardens of the +Arsenal, the Soubise and the Temple, but they are totally deserted. +The garden of the Tuileries, attached to the residence of the First +Consul, the Garden of the Palais Royal and the Jardin des Plantes I +have not yet described. Each of these gardens has been the scene of +extraordinary events and deserve a detailed account and description. + + + + + XII + + GARDEN OF THE TUILERIES. + FOUNDATIONS OF THE REPUBLIC. + ANECDOTE OF MLLE. THÉROUANNE. + KNIGHTS OF THE POIGNARD. + NATIONAL CONVENTION. + TRIAL OF LOUIS XVI. + ATTEMPT TO SAVE HIM + + +The garden of the Tuileries is large and handsome. It evokes the +memories of the glorious efforts of the brave Swiss Guard, murdered for +their fidelity to their trust on August 10, 1792. I have been informed +on very good authority that if the King could have been persuaded to +remain in the Palace, surrounded by his faithful guards, the victory +would have terminated in favour of the Royal cause. Several persons +who were then members of the Legislative Assembly have assured me the +majority of the Convention never dreamt of a deposition until they +perceived their victim at their mercy. The King’s fatal resolution +determined those who were yet undecided. But even then it was supposed +Royalty would be continued in different hands. The Orleans faction +were, however, afraid to exert their power. Those engaged in the +conspiracy of the Duke neglected to seize the moment and thus secure +their object. They were duped by men who had no share in their +treachery, a convincing proof that in political matters too much +refinement and fine-spun preliminaries will never avail against unity +of principle. + +Above a month elapsed before the Orleans faction and the Republican +party felt their mutual strength. The former were employed in sounding +the minds of others and in treaty; the latter, while they held out +encouraging hopes to the former, were concentrating their forces and +preparing to strike a decisive blow. Thus they compelled the Orleans +party to become their blind instruments. + +[Sidenote: FOUNDATIONS OF THE REPUBLIC] + +At length the National Convention assembled on September 21; the +Orleans party awaited with eager expectation that some distinguished +member of the other side, with whom they had been tampering, should +move the deposition of King Louis. They then intended to propose a +Regent should be nominated in the person of Philippe of Orleans.[1] +The Republicans, however, expected a motion for the total abolition of +Royalty. + +A solemn pause ensued. How the heart of Orleans must have palpitated! +On a sudden the thunder burst from an unexpected quarter; it was +reserved for an ecclesiastic to pronounce the doom of a throne which +had existed for centuries. Gregoire,[1] Bishop of Blois, exclaimed: + + Why debate when all are agreed? Kings are in the moral economy + of the world what monsters are in the natural; Courts are the + repositories of crimes and the dens of tyrants. The history of + Kings is the martyrology of nations. As we are all convinced of + these truths, why, I repeat, should we debate? + +This speech operated like an electric shock upon the Convention, +the members rose _en masse_, and called for _the question_. This +proposition was then decreed: ROYALTY IS ABOLISHED IN FRANCE. Thus +vanished the prospects of Orleans and his abettors, and so was a +Republic established in France. + +The fears and listlessness of Louis XVI. were the proximate causes +which led to his ruin and overthrow. As a corroborating proof of this +statement I give the evidence of a young and beautiful but fanatical +girl, Mademoiselle Thérouanne de Mirecourt,[1] who has repeatedly +declared to me _que c’était la poltronnerie seule du tyran qui sauva +la France_. + +[A] See Appendix. + +Before I quit this subject I cannot avoid noticing the character of +this young woman. During the attack upon the Tuileries she headed +a body of pikemen and showed absolute fearlessness and marvellous +courage. I have often been in her company, and remarked that she +possessed by nature a fund of humanity and a tolerable share of +information; but that vanity, desire of popularity and fanaticism made +her wild, savage and ferocious. One day she invited me to breakfast +with her, and on my entering her apartment I beheld a pike, a sword, a +brace of pistols, and suspended over the chimney-piece the _bonnet +rouge_; scattered about the floor lay above a hundred books and +pamphlets, on her bed newspapers, on her table Marat’s _Ami du +Peuple_. On my inquiry why a lady of her charms kept such dreadful +instruments in her room, she replied: “No compliments, Citizen. Society +is undergoing a change, a grand re-organisation, and women are about +to resume their rights. We shall no more be flattered in order to be +enslaved, these arms have dethroned the tyrant, and conquered freedom. +Sit down and take your chocolate.” + +With all this severity of character she possessed some attractions and +captured the heart of John Sheares,[1] who was executed for treason +during the late rebellion. His affection for her was so great that he +proposed marriage to her. Had he been gratified in his inclination +there is good reason to suppose _he_ might have been now alive, +and _she_ in a happy situation. For he often assured me that +should his suit prove successful he would abandon politics altogether +and retire into private life. He was one of the finest young men I ever +beheld, and a handsomer pair would have rarely been seen. But fortune +decided their fate should be disastrous. When he tendered his proposals +she pulled a pistol from her pocket and threatened to shoot him if he +said another word upon the subject. _He_ returned to Ireland, to +fall a victim five years later to offended justice. _She_ is now +in a miserable state of insanity, confined in a madhouse in the Rue de +Sèvre, Faubourg S. Germain. + +[Sidenote: KNIGHTS OF THE POIGNARD] + +The Garden of the Tuileries brings to my recollection the famous story +of the Knights of the Poignard, when on February 23, 1791, a number +of the Knights of S. Louis were _supposed_ to have entered into a +conspiracy to carry off the King. I was present on the occasion, and a +spectator of the scene. An immense concourse of people collected about +the Palace, and there was much noisy talk about concealed daggers, but +I saw none, nor any blade save that of La Fayette’s[1] sword, who, +mounted on his white charger, galloped to and fro as if the fate of the +world depended on his actions. + +One moment he formed the National Guard into line. At the next he +ordered them to file off, then he dismounted and bolted into the +Palace--in a trice he was again on horseback--in short he created +more alarm among the people than if an Austrian army had reached the +barriers. At length, after a great deal of marching, counter-marching, +bustling and puffing, the Marquis assured the mob that all was safe. +Here followed great applause, and the populace quietly dispersed. Some +Knights of S. Louis were present and were very roughly handled by the +people, but no other motive had carried them to the Tuileries except +an anxious desire to defend the King against attacks by the mob. There +is one fact established by this event, that even at that period Louis +XVI. was respected by the people, and they considered their security to +be identified by his person. I have not the least doubt that a decided +majority of the people of France would at this day rejoice in the +restoration of their ancient line of Princes. + +The Hall used by the National Convention stands on one side of the +Tuileries garden. It was formerly the King’s stables. It is the +intention of the First Consul to restore it to its original purpose. + +Curiosity induced me to enter a place which had been the focus of so +many revolutions, where the Republic was declared, the unhappy King +tried, and more bloody tragedies performed in one twelvemonth than in +all Europe in the space of two hundred years. + +I found it completely dismantled, the galleries, the Tribune, the flag +of Liberty that was planted over the Bastille and suspended in triumph +over the centre of the hall, all have been destroyed, even the floor +removed, and we trod upon the bare earth. The place was, however, so +familiar to me that I was able to give my companion a very accurate +description of it, and to point out the spot on which the unfortunate +King was placed during his trial. + +Now that I am upon this subject I will mention some circumstances +respecting this event which have not, I believe, been ever made known +to the public. I was present at the trial and sat very near to the +King. Before he was brought to the bar, it was decreed, on the motion +of one Legendre,[1] a butcher, that “No person, except the President, +should be permitted to speak a word while Louis Capet was present.” +Legendre premised his motion by this remark: “Citizen President, I +demand that this Assembly preserves the mournful silence of the tomb, +so that when the bloody tyrant enters it may strike his guilty soul +with horror.” This speech was received with unbounded applause, and the +bloodstained hypocrite Barrère,[1] who was President, apostrophised +the people on the propriety of observing silence. There were very few +people of respectable or even decent appearance in the galleries; they +were filled with the vilest rabble. During the night preceding this +mock trial the people in the galleries kept themselves awake by singing +the Marseillaise hymn, which was vociferated more than a hundred +times. The officers of the National Guard provided wine and cakes for +those who were willing to purchase them. In the morning the deputies +assembled and proceeded upon the order of the day, Santerre,[1] the +brewer, being despatched to the Temple to conduct the King to the +Convention. + +[Sidenote: THE NATIONAL CONVENTION] + +It was arranged the President should first read the whole of the +charges and then propose them severally to the King, demanding answers. +He was authorised to interrogate the monarch, and any refusal to answer +was to be construed into a confession of guilt. Santerre now presented +himself at the bar, and thus addressed the President: + +“Citizen President, Louis Capet awaits your orders.” + +Before Barrère[1] had time to reply, Mailhé, one of the Secretaries, +exclaimed: “Bring him in!” The King attended by several of the officers +of the Paris Etat[AAÉtat?]-Majeur, and followed by Santerre, then +advanced to the bar, standing erect and firm, and casting (as it seemed +to me) a look of defiance upon the silent Assembly. A little before the +King entered a member of the Convention said to an Englishman who was +present: “This will give you a correct idea of your country in the last +century.” To which he replied with uncommon spirit: “No, indeed, we +shall see too many tricks here.” + +I watched the King with the minutest attention, and I observed that in +looking round the assembly, he cast his eye upon the standards taken +from the Austrians and Prussians, and gave a sudden start, from which, +however, he recovered himself in an instant. + +A wooden chair was brought, upon which Barrère invited him to be +seated. He then read the whole of the charges, during which the King +fixed his eyes attentively upon him. To every charge he answered +directly, without premeditation, and with such skilful propriety that +the audience were astonished. + +When he was accused of shedding the blood of Frenchmen he raised his +voice with all the conscientiousness of innocence, and replied: “No, +sir, I have never shed the blood of any Frenchman.” His spirit was +evidently wounded at this charge, and I perceived a tear trickle down +his cheek; but, as if unwilling to give his enemies an opportunity of +weakness in his conduct, he instantaneously wiped his face and forehead +to denote he was oppressed by heat. + +After all his answers had been obtained several papers were handed to +him, with some degree of politeness, by one of the Huissiers. This +civility was a contrast to the brutal behaviour of Mailhé,[1] the +Secretary, who was afterwards desired to present some papers to the +King. These papers were said to have been signed by the monarch, and +to have been found in a box concealed in a secret part of his cabinet. +Their contents were not of great importance, but the object of the +Convention was to identify the King’s handwriting. A chair was placed +for Mailhé close to the King, but within the bar. Immediately he was +seated the unfeeling monster turned it completely round, so as to face +the President and show his back to the King. The insulted monarch +felt the affront, and showed by the manner in which he resented it +a proud superiority over his dastardly enemy. He rose from his seat +and remained on his legs during the whole of the examination. Mailhé +retained his position, and, sitting with one leg crossed over the +other, read aloud each paper and then handed it over his right shoulder +to the sovereign, accompanied each time by the query: “Louis, is that +your handwriting?” The unfortunate monarch snatched it abruptly from +his hand and answered indignantly: “No, it is _not_ my writing.” + +A multitude of papers were presented on the one part and denied on the +other, in the same style. + +Finally Mailhé rose from his seat, exclaiming dramatically, “Louis +denies everything! Louis recollects nothing at all!” + +A voice from the boxes, behind the Deputies, shouted: “Take off his +head!” but it was not noticed. + +Thus far victory was on the side of the King. Never were charges more +completely refuted by a forsaken individual, deprived of the support of +friends or counsel. + +The President was at a loss how to proceed. Barbaroux[1] and several +Deputies rushed up to his chair and whispered in his ear. This confused +him the more. At length Manuel,[1] nicknamed the Solon or Solomon or +Socrates of France (I forget which), advanced into the area of the +hall, and in a bungling manner said: “President, the representatives +of the people have decreed that none of us shall speak while the +King--Louis, I mean--is amongst us. Now I propose that Louis be made +to withdraw for a little while, so that every member may deliver his +opinion.” + +[Sidenote: THE NATIONAL CONVENTION] + +No words can give an idea of the silly appearance of Manuel when he +found the word _King_ had escaped from his lips. At the sound of +that name I perceived Legendre,[1] his body writhing and distorted, +preparing to bellow. As he was sitting down he gave Bourdon l’Oise[1] +a tremendous box on the ear for calling him to order, which the other +returned by a sound blow in the face. + +Several Deputies parted them. In the midst of this confusion, when all +the members were talking together, Barrère rang his bell and told the +King he might withdraw. The King then said to the President: “I request +to have the assistance of counsel,” and then withdrew before an answer +could be given. + +That artful and infernal villain, Barrère, during this trial affected +great sympathy towards his injured sovereign, articulated all the +charges in a faltering accent, and remained uncovered during the +whole time the King was present. Most of the members wore their hats. +The Duke of Orleans, who seated himself in full view of his fallen +relative, was, however, uncovered. + +The King was plainly dressed in an olive silk coat, and looked +remarkably well. Barrère wore a dark coat and scarlet waistcoat, +lead-coloured kerseymere breeches and white silk stockings. Robespierre +wore black. Orleans was habited in blue. The majority of the members +looked like blackguards. Legendre wore no neckcloth, but an open collar +_à la_ Brutus. + +Manuel was much agitated by the misapplication of the word King. Not +so the monarch, who dropped a similar expression. As he was giving an +account of the invitation to the entertainment at Versailles, which the +Queen had received from the Gardes de Corps, he caught up his words +and said: “La ci-devant Reine, ma femme.” The rest of this affecting +spectacle is sufficiently known. I have mentioned the incidents +above because I have never seen them in any printed accounts of that +melancholy day. + +It has been generally asserted that no effort was made to rescue the +captive monarch. This assertion is false. I am personally acquainted +with a man who had 15,000 livres deposited in his hands for the purpose +of rescuing the King. This sum was so prudently distributed and the +plan so judiciously made, that if Santerre had not ordered drums to +beat, to drown the forcible appeal the Royal sufferer was making to +the people, I surely believe it would have been carried into effect. +There were persons on the fatal spot prepared to seize the moment of +opportunity, had the fickle character of the Parisian populace, who +would send up shouts to Heaven to-morrow at the execution of the First +Consul, whom they adore to-day, made it likely that they would have +joined or divided in the enterprise. + +There is not a spot in this Hall of Convention which does not revive a +thousand sublime and painful recollections. + +I remember seeing Mirabeau,[1] Barnave[1] and the Lornettes,[1] and +on the same side of the Hall those conspicuous members who thundered +against the Clergy, the Feudal Laws, and the despotism of the Throne. +I have heard the virtuous Mounier[1] pour forth the language of +generous indignation against the motion of Barnave on the emigration +of the aunts of the King. Methinks I hear again the nervous eloquence +of Cazalis[1] on behalf of his King and the established laws of the +country. Here I have heard Mirabeau on the Veto; the celebrated speech +of Cardinal Moury[1] on Avignon and the Comtal Venaissin,[1] the gloomy +metaphysics of Condorcet[1] and the eloquent if mistaken enthusiasm of +Grégoire. + +[Sidenote: GARDEN OF THE PALAIS ROYALE] + +I have also beheld, O wretched change!--this Hall polluted by monsters +breathing nothing but death and devastation. I have heard in that +Tribune the sanguinary suggestions of Danton and Robespierre, the +howlings of Marat--the ravings of Brissot, Anarcharsis Cloots[1] and +Gondet,[1]1 and the _calembours_ of the Gascon Barrère. + +There, too, I have seen Tom Paine[1] stand up like a post, while +another read a translation of his speech. What noise, what uproar and +cabals have originated within these walls! They seem besmeared with +human blood. The images they excite arise in dreadful succession, and +stalk before my imagination like the shades of Banquo’s line. + +Never shall I forget the day when in the midst of a solemn speech +Gensonne[1]1 was delivering, the impudent little Marat,[1]1 who could +scarcely reach his throat, gave him a box on the ear. The other took +him in his arms and threw him neck and heels out of the Tribune. + + + + + XIII + + GARDEN OF THE PALAIS ROYALE. MANNERS OF THE PEOPLE + + +The greatest beauty in the world becomes by pollution an odious and +repulsive creature. Health and charm flourish only in the practice of +virtue and in the abodes of innocence. The prostitute is shunned by +every woman of honour and reputation, and dens of vice are avoided by +every man to whom virtue is not an empty word. + +I am now about to treat of the Palais Royale, that hot-bed of +revolution and crime, that nursery of every loathsome vice, that +abomination of all virtue and profanation of all religion. + +This infernal sink of iniquity is situated in the very centre of Paris, +and by certain vicious inhabitants of the capital is considered its +brightest ornament, just as the Devils in Milton’s “Paradise Lost” +admired the Palace of the Pandemonium. In my last letter I mentioned +that Duke of Orleans, who styled himself Philippe Egalité, during the +Revolution. This wretch was the proprietor of the Palais Royale. His +great grandfather, who was nearly though not quite as great a scoundrel +as his great grandson, was the first who made this place the focus +for his illicit pleasures; it has ever since been dedicated to Cabal, +Bloodshed, Rapine and Debauchery. + +During the first moments of the Revolution it was the rendezvous of the +desperate, the ambitious and the cut-throat. Political mountebanks, +mounted on tables, harangued the people on the Rights of Man. The +Palais Royale became the arsenal wherein were forged the instruments +of anarchy and murder. Here could an unsophisticated provincial, newly +arrived in Paris, listen to provocatives to civil discord and learn +those arts by which the repose of France has been disturbed for above +ten years. The orators had the words Liberty and Virtue continually in +their mouths, but their hearts were rank and rotten to the core, and +the real objects they courted were licentiousness and vice. + +Their ignorance was only equalled by their effrontery; they talked of +subjects they did not understand; they encouraged their countrymen to +revolt, they passed their days in exciting the populace to murder, and +rioted away their nights in taverns and styes of prostitution. They +promoted confusion and civil strife; covetous without economy, and bold +without courage, they were deaf to the voice of honour and honesty. +The frequenters of this place are in the present day[1] no better than +their predecessors. The former march of the Parisian cannibals to +Versailles was arranged at and begun from this spot, it was also the +rendezvous of the apostles of Marat and the sbirri of Robespierre. + +I remember the last interview had in this garden with the mad Colonel +Oswald, who asserted that a representation of the people was as +great a despotism as absolute monarchy. He asserted as a man could +not _eat_ by proxy, so he could not _think_ by proxy. He +proposed, therefore, that men and women should assemble in an open +plain and there make and repeal laws. I endeavoured to persuade him +that his plan was not sufficiently extensive, as he had excluded from +this grand assembly the most populous portion of his fellow creatures, +_i.e._, cats, dogs, horses, chickens, sheep, cattle, &c. + +Oswald was originally a captain of a Highland regiment in the British +service, and when quartered in India lived some considerable time with +some Brahmins, who turned his head. From that period he never tasted +flesh meat. He did not, however, embrace the whole Brahmin theology, +for he was a professed atheist and denied the metempsychosis, and +drank plentifully of wine. Such a man, living in a fermented capital, +was capable of doing much mischief. He dined on his roots one day at +a party of some members of the Convention at which I was present, and +coolly proposed, as the most effectual way of averting civil war, to +put to death every suspected man in France. I was deeply shocked to +hear such a sentiment proceed from the mouth of an Englishman. The +expression was not suffered to pass unnoticed, and the famous Thomas +Paine remarked: “Oswald, you have lived so long without tasting flesh +that you have now a most voracious appetite for blood.” + +[Sidenote: GARDEN OF THE PALAIS ROYALE] + +In consequence of my remarks upon this occasion, Oswald invited me to +meet him in the gardens of the Palais Royale. As soon as I arrived +I found him already there. He darted forward, drew his sword and +exclaimed: “You are not fit to live in civilised society!” Having +uttered these words he returned his sword into the scabbard and +disappeared in a moment. His regiment was ordered to La Vendée, when, +while bravely leading on his men at the battle of Pont-de-Cé, he was +killed by a cannon ball; and at the same instant a discharge of grape +shot laid both his sons, who served as drummer boys in the corps he +commanded, breathless on their father’s corpse. He had two wives, +who still reside in Paris. They were both singularly handsome, and, +strange to say, lived together in friendship and harmony. + +The history of this warrior brings to my recollection a curious +rencontre I had in this place with Anarcharsis Clootz, who called +himself “Orator of the human race.” For four hours did this man expose +his political dreams. In six months the tri-colour flag was to wave +over the dome of S. Sophia at Constantinople. A month later it would be +seen on Mount Caucasus, and then at St. Petersburg and Pekin. + +Paris would be the capital of the world, mankind composed of one +family, subordinate to one government, and French be the sole +international language. + +All this would be accomplished in the short space of three years. +Before these wonders could come about Anarcharsis was publicly +executed, together with many other fanatics. I have actually heard this +man propose at the Jacobin Club that the moment the French army came +in sight of the Austrian and Prussian soldiers, they should, instead +of attacking the enemy, throw down their own arms and advance towards +them, dancing in a friendly manner. Such a measure, he was persuaded, +would strike the wretched victims of tyranny with a sentiment of +affection, which would be announced by an equally sympathetic movement. + +After such a proposition I suspected that the accusation by which he +perished, namely that he was a pensioner of the King of Prussia, had +some foundation. + +Unquestionably Clootz, by his speeches and conduct, cast more ridicule +than any man else upon the Revolution. His abominable deification and +worship in the Cathedral Church of Notre Dame of an abandoned woman, +whom he created Goddess of Reason, and the manœuvres he employed to +induce Gobel, Archbishop of Paris, to renounce his character and +belief at the bar of the Convention, are proofs either of madness or +conspiracy. + +[Sidenote: GARDEN OF THE PALAIS ROYALE] + +The Palais Royale is an immense building, in the form of a +parallelogram, within which is a garden distributed into separate +gravelled walks. In the piazzas which run along the sides of +the edifice are shops, coffee-houses, bagnios, money-changers, +gambling-houses, and stockbrokers. The jewellers’ shops are as numerous +and brilliant as if neither misery nor miserable human beings existed. +You see nothing but chains, half pearl, half diamond. The woollen +drapers unfurl from the top of their shops to the floor every kind of +stuff. The stuffs are under your hand, no one watching you; and the +master is careless and sorry when you ask him the price. + +The odour of exquisite ragouts ascends in vapours to the air, the side +tables are loaded with fruit, confectionery and pastry, and you may +dine to the sound of musical instruments and French horns played by +girls who are _not_ nymphs of Diana. Petty gaming-houses support +the shops of women who sell garters, lavender water, toothbrushes +and sealing-wax. Booksellers’ shops allure the libertine and entrap +innocent youth. Pictures from curious collection books, licentious +engravings, libidinous novels serve as signs to a crowd of loose women, +lodging in the wooden shops. Their nets are ten feet distant from the +sauntering youth, idle and already emaciated in the flower of his age. +Above the wooden shops are gambling-rooms, where all the passions and +torments of hell are assembled. + +As soon as the day closes all the arcades are suddenly illuminated, +the shops become resplendent and the crowd more numerous. This is the +moment when the gaming-houses open under the sanction of the Government +and afford it a productive revenue. While the great sharpers are +employed in the drawing-rooms above, the lesser ones are at work in +the through passages, which communicate with the adjacent street and +serve as gliding holes to swarms of pickpockets and money jobbers. +Your steps under the arcades are arrested by smoke, which pricks your +eyes, it is the kitchen flame of the restaurateurs. Close to them are +the balls beginning in subterraneous grottoes. Across the air-holes +you see circles of girls, leaping, giggling, rushing on their gallants +like Bacchantes. In the auction rooms the brokers, dealers, retailers +are all seated. Women’s wigs, chimney pendulums, shawls, handkerchiefs, +shirts, beds _â la Duchesse_ were sold to the highest bidder. +Spies of the police prowl in every coffee house, but no one dares +now talk politics in them. Under the arcades are holes of shops, +where young girls attract the passengers by their glances. These +places are the assiduous rendezvous of every man fattened by rapine, +army contractors, agents, administrators of tontines and lotteries, +professors of nocturnal robberies, and stock-jobbers. + +These places are to the seraglio what the cookshops are to the +restaurateurs. At these latter places you are served by a nod. The +dish is placed on the table the moment it is ordered. Private rooms +offer you everything to satiate gluttony and sensuality. The glasses +which decorate them offer to the libidinous eye of an old satyr the +charms of his mistress, and all the seats are elastic. There is a +private saloon in which you drink the coolest liquors, and where burnt +incense escapes from boxes in light cloudy streams. There you dine _à +l’Orientale_! and find on certain days all the pomp and singularity +of a repast of Trimalcion. On a signal given the ceiling opens, and +from above descended heathen goddesses in classical attire. The +amateurs choose, and the divinities, not of Olympus, but the ceiling, +join the mortals. + +[Sidenote: GARDEN OF THE PALAIS ROYALE] + +Such is the infected lazar house, placed in the middle of a great city, +which has reduced the whole of society to degradation and corruption. +Independently of the fatal contagion of gaming, the excuses of cupidity +under all its forms, and the licentiousness of morals, blasphemy and +infidelity in every mouth, and at every moment, brutal and depraved +language has pervaded every condition and made a sport of sacred words +heretofore never pronounced without respect. Everywhere you meet +troops of children, without order or modesty, who swear, blaspheme, +and scandalise chaste and pious ears. At Sodom and Gomorra they would +not have allowed such books to circulate as are printed and sold in +the Palais Royale. The infamous work of De Sade,[1] “Justine, or the +Misfortunes of Virtue,” is exposed on every stall, and a hundred other +productions, equally distinguished for turpitude and vice, are there to +finish the decomposition of what instinctive morality remains in the +hearts of young people. + +I cannot help expressing the utmost indignation against the compiler +of a publication just issued, entitled, “A Practical Guide, during a +journey from London to Paris,” in which the writer asserts “that no +station, no age, no temper could leave the Palais Royale without an +ardent desire to return.” It is proper the English public should not be +thus abused by perversions and falsehoods, and on this account I have +entered more fully into a detail of the wanton and disgusting scenes +at the Palais Royale than their monstrous enormities would otherwise +deserve. + +Accompanied by an English gentleman, like myself a married man, we +visited every part of this Temple of Sin, and we agreed in opinion that +as long as it existed it will be vain to look in Paris for any sincere +demonstrations of either moral probity, decency in private or honesty +in public life. The Government appears sensible of the evil, though +they have taken no steps to prevent it. It is believed, and from what +I have seen I do not entertain the least doubt upon the subject, that +they _protect_ these scenes of voluptuousness for the purpose of +enervating the minds and diverting the attentions of the Parisians from +the consideration of public affairs. + +If this is not the case why should the legislators and the Government +be continually preaching up the advantage of morality, and the +necessity of establishing a national education system for the +encouragement of virtue and the suppression of vice, when they receive +at the same time a considerable revenue from the wages of harlots and +the profits of gambling-houses? Why is a soldier stationed at the door +of every one of these dens of impurity but to demonstrate that they +are tolerated? There is another circumstance which is noticeable +in the Palais Royale, this is the domineering aspect and conduct of +the military, the airs and consequence assumed by the soldiers, and +the manifest superiority they affect and maintain over their fellow +citizens. Every one makes room for them to pass, the officers strut +or saunter along arm in arm, the clinking of their sabres along the +pavement announcing their approach warns the servile citizen to make +way. The very prostitute, leaning on the arm of the large whiskered +regimental pantaloon, feels an importance far above her sisters. She +laughs and talks loud, and as she moves exacts from the spectators the +ecstatic apostrophe: “_Eh! regardez-là, comme elle est belle!_” + +These things are better ordered in our country, which is at once a land +of liberty and of paramount laws. The soldier, with us, comprehends the +obligation he owes the laws, and while he displays the utmost loyalty +to his sovereign he associates under the idea of duty a regard for his +fellow subjects. I cannot conclude this subject without noticing a +remark made to me by one of the founders of the French Revolution, an +ex-Bishop and now a member of the Senate. + + The thing [said he] which gives me most pleasure in your English + institutions is the general appearance of moral conduct that + everywhere prevails, the astonishing observance of Sunday + and holy days, the respect for religion, and the orderly and + unaffected manners of your soldiers, who are neither insolent + nor consequential, but who seem to feel they are neither masters + nor slaves. + + + + + XIV + + EXCURSION TO VERSAILLES + + +Versailles is four leagues from Paris, and the road leading to it is +perhaps the finest and most elegant in the world. I was prompted by +curiosity to pass two or three days in a city formerly the seat of +government and pleasure, and which now presents a striking contrast +with its ancient splendour. When I last saw Versailles it was the pride +and boast of the French nation. What a change does it now exhibit! how +silent are those streets, formerly the scenes of gaiety, bustle and +delight! In consequence of the events of the Revolution and the removal +of the Court, its population is reduced from 80,000 to 18,000 souls. It +is now, therefore, the cheapest town in France, and to those who are +fond of sequestered walks and retired scenery offers a most enchanting +residence. There are excellent libraries, quiet and good society, +plenty of rational amusements, and the disgusting orgies of vice and +sensuality so prevalent in the capital are here unknown. + +[Sidenote: EXCURSION TO VERSAILLES] + +The Palace is built on an elevated site, and is a gorgeous and massy +pile. The following is the account given of its origin. Louis XIII. +purchased the land of John de Soissy[1] in 1627, and erected upon it +a hunting lodge. Louis XIV. was delighted with the site, and decided +to erect a magnificent Palace upon this spot. He collected skilful +architects and artists, converted the village into a city and the +hunting lodge into the finest royal residence in the world. The work +commenced in 1673, and was completed in 1680. The artists employed were +Mansard[1] for the architecture, André le Nostre[1] for the arrangement +of the gardens, and Charles le Brun[1] for the department of painting, +sculpture and design. The stables were planned by Mansard, commenced in +1679 and completed in 1685, they are remarkable for the regularity of +their structure, and relieved by some good pieces of sculpture. + +The entrance to the interior of the Palace by the grand marble +staircase is closed. It was the original design of the Government to +have converted this Palace into a museum of the French School, by +retaining the paintings and ornaments it contained. But since the whole +of the Republic is now squeezed to furnish wealth and splendour to the +Metropolis, the greater part of those paintings have been removed to +Paris. The Cabinet of Natural History has also been stripped of all +its beauties for the benefit of the Parisians. We entered by the last +staircase on the North Terrace, into the Saloon of Hercules, sixty-four +feet long by fifty-four feet broad, superbly decorated. The ceiling +is painted with a representation of Olympus and the apotheosis of +Hercules. In the middle of this saloon is the marble Cupid formerly in +the Temple of Love at Trianon. + +The second great apartment is the Hall of Plenty, the ceiling painted +by Houdon,[1] then comes the Hall of Diana, painted by Blanchard.[1] +The fourth apartment is called the Hall of Mars. Audran[1] has painted +this deity in his car, surrounded by all his martial attributes. Here +is an ingenious mechanical clock by Moraud, which played a carillon +every hour, but since the Revolution the tunes have been altered. +Through the Halls of Mercury and Apollo we reach the Saloon of War. +Over the chimney-piece is a fine oval bas-relief of Mars on horseback, +but as the head of Mars was a copy of the features of Louis XV., the +Sovereign People thought proper to knock it off. It is in contemplation +to repair this mischief by placing a resemblance of a celebrated +Corsican gentleman in the stead of the former master. + +It would be folly to dispute the superiority of the French in the +art of decoration; their public edifices, without excluding those +constructed since the Revolution, exhibit the highest proof of +excellence in the ornamental art, and in no part of Europe is there any +apartment to compare with the Grand Gallery of Versailles, for both +arrangements or magnificence. It is 220 feet in length, 30 in breadth +and 32 in height, and contains seventeen large windows, opposite which +are as many arcades, filled with looking-glasses that reflect the +gardens and their water pieces. + +Between the arcades and the windows are forty-eight pilasters of the +rarest marbles, the bases and capitals being of gilded bronze. + +[Sidenote: EXCURSION TO VERSAILLES] + +The Gallery terminates in the Saloon of Peace, which formed part of +the apartments of the Queen of France. Beyond this chamber are two +apartments, which complete this magnificent suite, they are superbly +ornamented with plate glasses, vases, columns and busts. In the last +there are twenty-two paintings by Leseuer, brought from the Chartreuse +monastery. + +Formerly we might have passed through the apartments of the late King +and descended by the marble staircase, but these rooms are now all +occupied by military invalids. We had to return through the state +saloons and descend to the gallery which leads to the Opera House, +unquestionably the most magnificent in Europe. This building was +commenced in 1753, and it was only finally completed in 1770, being +first used for the festivities given in honour of the marriage of the +late unfortunate Louis XVI., then Dauphin. + +It would be tedious to detail every particular of this elegant hall, +suffice it to observe that it combines taste with splendour, and that +the orchestra is large enough to contain eighty musicians. The Chapel +of the Palace was finished in the year 1710 and is a superb monument. +This chapel has been preserved with great care from the havoc of the +Revolution, and is in the same state as when it was the daily resort of +the Royal family of France. + +The Library is detached from the Palace, and consists of a collection +of books in different languages, by no means comparable, either for +choice or arrangement, to his Majesty’s collection at Buckingham House. + +One compartment was peculiarly appropriated to the use of the late King +and Queen, and their handwriting is often to be met with in turning +over the books. There is a splendid volume in vellum, containing an +account of a tournament given by Louis XIV. at the conclusion of a +general peace, when the Princes of the blood and the nobility appeared +in costumes of different nations and characters. Larcher’s translation +of Herodotus is printed on the richest paper I ever beheld. The +librarian tells me it was a favourite work of Louis XVI. + +The Palace is surrounded to the west by three enclosures the last of +which, called the Great Park, is thirty miles in circumference, and +comprises the villages of Bac, St. Cyr, Bois d’Arcy Bailly. On the +north of this Great Park are Nursery Gardens, and on the south the +furthermost ponds and aqueducts which conduct into the reservoirs of +the Deer Park. There were very few deer there, but an immense quantity +of game, which has been entirely destroyed by the Sovereign People. +The circuit of the little park comprises several farms, one of which, +the Menagerie, has been presented by Bonaparte to the celebrated +Abbé Siezes.[1] This property and Trianon are enclosed at the two +extremities of the two arms of the canal. + +The most noble entrance to the Park is by the great stairs of the +greenhouse. When the waterworks played the _coup d’œil_ was +exquisite. Various parts of the garden are ornamented with groves, +groups, antique statues, bottes, vases, basins and fountains in marble, +bronze or gilded metal. The principal groves are the Rock or Bath of +Apollo, the colonnade, the domes and the three fountains. + +The Bath of Apollo is the masterpiece of Girardon.[1] This divinity +is represented surrounded by nymphs offering their services, the two +groups of horses held by Tritons are admirably executed. The figures +of Apollo and the nymphs are on an elevated situation at the entrance +of the Grotto of Thetis, upon the top of a rock which has been wrought +into a most romantic form. On either side the horses are seen in +the act of drinking; a large quantity of water falls into a great +reservoir, with wild and picturesque beauty, and the whole piece is +enclosed within a plantation of wild and exotic trees. Nothing can +exceed the extreme beauty of this spot and the exquisite sculpture of +the horses. + +[Sidenote: VERSAILLES] + +The Grove of the Colonnade is remarkable for the group representing the +Rape of Proserpine. The Domes contain two cabinets supported by eight +marble columns and enriched with bas-reliefs of bronze and metal. + +The statues of Amphitrite, Acis and Galatea are the most distinguished +in this collection. + +All the other groves are ornamented with bas reliefs and pieces of +sculpture. The basins of water, fountains, arcades and spouts which +abound in them, give additional charm to the scenery. + +Amongst the groups scattered about the garden are two by Puget--these +are Milo of Crotona and Perseus delivering Andromeda. The great piece +of Neptune is a vast basin of water, ornamented with five groups and +twenty-two great vases of bronze metal. The principal groups represent +Neptune, Amphitrite, Proteus and the Ocean. + +The greenhouse was built in 1685, upon the plan of Mansard. The +parterre, decorated with marble vases, is surrounded with a +considerable number of orange trees, some of them as old as the time of +Francis I. + +The hothouse is 480 feet long and 38 wide, in the middle is a statue +in white marble executed by Dessardin, 10 feet 9 inches high, of Mars, +dressed Roman fashion. Why this divinity has been placed in the abode +of Flora I have not been able to understand. + +Opposite to the greenhouse is a large basin, 2100 feet in length and +700 in breadth, called La Pièce des Suisses, at the extremity of which +is an equestrian statue of Louis XIV. They have changed the traits +of the countenance so that it now represents Quintus Curtius. These +metamorphoses are very common in France, and have been occasionally +carried to blasphemous impiety. A picture represented the Descent of +the Saviour from the Mountain--the countenance of the Redeemer was +altered so as to represent that of Robespierre; should the painting +descend in this dishonoured state to posterity it will be a memorable +record of the iniquity and madness of the days of the Terror. + +On one side of the Pièce des Suisses are 50 acres of land, which +formerly served as the King’s Garden. + +The canal is 4800 feet in length, the two branches join on one side of +Trianon; but the whole is in a wretched state and almost destitute of +water. + +Trianon, called in the twelfth century Trianum, is the name of an +ancient palace belonging to the diocese of Chartres. Louis XIV. +purchased it from the Abbaye of Ste. Geneviève. It has always been +called the region of flowers on account of the enchanting gardens, by +which it is surrounded. The two wings are united by a peristyle of +twenty-two columns of the Doric order, and the whole building contains +only a ground floor. + +The gallery and the billiard-rooms are ornamented with a great many +different views of Versailles and Trianon, but all the gilded fleurs +de lys which were affixed to the frames have been torn off by order of +the Jacobin Municipality at Versailles. A fine portrait of the Emperor +Joseph II. in this Palace was destroyed years ago. + +Charles Delacroix attended the sale of the movables, and when this +picture was put up to be sold, he observed to the citizens that no true +Republican could desire to have any resemblance of the family of Marie +Antoinette, and therefore he should serve this portrait as he would +like to deal with all kings. Accordingly he drew a carving knife from +his side and decapitated the Emperor Joseph. It was Hildebrand, the +Suisse keeper of Trianon, from whom we heard this anecdote; and as he +told it to us, he grinned a horrible and ghastly smile over the acts of +the Revolutionists. + +Little Trianon is at the extremity of the Park belonging to Trianon. +The beautiful gardens are now going to decay. The pavilion and grounds +are held for three years at the rent of 18,000 livres (£750 sterling +a year) by a man who was formerly cook to the late Queen. He realises +considerable sums by the curiosity of the traveller and the visit of +Parisian cockneys, the admissions being a franc for each male and half +a franc for each female. + +[Sidenote: VERSAILLES] + +But although he contracted to keep the place in good repair he has +allowed it to go to ruin. For instance, the lovely little Temple of +Love, situated in the midst of artificial rocks and surrounded by a +thick wood, has been completely ransacked, the marble floor pulled up +and removed and the little Cupid transferred to Versailles. All the +cottages are falling to pieces, and the water has been drawn off the +lake. + +This once enchanting spot was once the favourite resort of the late +Queen, who often amused herself in sailing thither from the sheet of +water in the Great Park. + +These are the chief places of any note at Versailles. I have been +rather minute in my narrative in order to establish a comparison +between the ancient and present state of that celebrated place. + +Versailles, as the capital of the Department, possesses a Criminal +Tribunal, composed of a President, two Judges and Assistants, a +Registrar and a sworn Commissary. + +Justices of the Peace abound in every district, but it is in +contemplation to reduce their number. + +A project has been submitted to the Council-General of Versailles to +make a number of embellishments and build a magnificent town hall for +the use of the mayor and municipality; but as the town is already +considerably in debt it would be a prudent and honest measure, though +one not much practised by the present French Government, to postpone +these decorations until they have liquidated their debts. + +An hospital, under very excellent administration, is established here, +and there are public baths near the park, open from four in the morning +till nine at night. + +We passed our time very agreeably at Versailles and were well +accommodated, though the charges could not be called reasonable. +The expenses of a dinner for four and lodging for ourselves and two +servants for one night amounted to over four pounds sterling. We +arrived at an unlucky moment in the hotel. For a young Irishman of +rank was unfortunately in the house with his newly-married bride, and +when we reflected that in less than six weeks’ residence in Paris he +contrived to spend £16,000 it was not surprising that we too were bled +in honour of our national character for generosity. + +An English gentleman of our acquaintance and also personally acquainted +with this young man and his lady, paid them a visit, and told me +that they displayed to him a purchase of fifty-six snuff-boxes and +twenty-five watches. + +This recital excited our merriment, and we tried to imagine what motive +could induce those young persons to throw away their money in such a +ridiculous manner. He could not take snuff, it always made him sick. A +man of his fortune could not have bought those trinkets as an article +of merchandise, and they were too many and certainly unsuitable to +decorate the girdle of his lady at a birthnight ball.[2] + +Finally we united in surmising that these costly articles were intended +as presents for the electors of the county of X----, for which he +proposed to be returned as member at the coming election. + +Having now thoroughly investigated the _remains_ of the once +magnificent Versailles, we took leave of Mr. B----, who set off for La +Vendée, and returned to Paris through the Bois de Boulogne. + + + + + XV + + ACCOUNT OF AN ESTABLISHMENT AT CHAILLOT + FOR THE RECEPTION OF THE AGED + AND DESTITUTE + + +[Sidenote: ASYLUM FOR AGED AT CHAILLOT] + +The French Revolution having overthrown those humane establishments, +which had for long ages subsisted in the country, some private +individuals are generously endeavouring to repair those breaches which +crime has effected in the order of society. + +Nothing tends more to the happiness of society than the discovery of +practical methods which may increase the comforts of those who are no +longer able to support themselves. + +When a nation has increased in number and power, it is bound to provide +for its people additional means of subsistence. Beneficence should not +be stationary when nations are progressive. I will now enter into a +detail of the establishment of Chaillot, which is equally praiseworthy +for its benevolent views and ingenuity. + +I happened to fall into company with a ci-devant nobleman, named +Duchaillot,[1] who, during the time of the Terror, lost all his fortune +and took refuge in Berlin. + +I found he possessed a sound and inquisitive mind, and was thoroughly +conversant in every branch of domestic economy. He inquired whether +we had in Great Britain and Ireland any institutions which offered a +retreat for old age. I answered they were numberless. But this answer +did not satisfy him, and he placed his question on a different footing. +“Have you,” said he, “any institution independent of charitable +purposes, in which male and female persons, after they have reached +the age of seventy can by right and without asking the favour of +any individual, place themselves in order to pass the remainder of +their days in comfort and repose?” As I failed to recollect any such +establishment in England, he immediately said: “Come and dine at my +house to-morrow and I will show you one.” + +The house of Monsieur Duchaillot is beautifully situated at Chaillot, +in the Champs Élysées, commanding an extensive view of the city, the +Seine and the Champ de Mars. In front, there is a large and elegant +parterre, terminating in an extensive kitchen garden. Behind there +is another large house, formerly the monastery of S. Perine, which +also belongs to this establishment, and a field of about four acres, +bordered by a well-cultivated garden. + +In this retreat I found above one hundred aged persons, of both sexes, +whose manners and appearance showed that they had once figured in the +genteeler walks of life, and whose countenances indicated the most +perfect happiness and content. + +“This,” said he, “is the retreat I have established for old age.” + +The chambers occupied by the female part of the society compose the +right wing of the house. Each female has a bed-chamber to herself, and +there is a parlour or sitting-room appointed to two females. Their +clothing, if required, is found for them. + +The left wing of the house is occupied by the males, the arrangements +being precisely similar to that adopted for the females. Husbands and +wives have rooms to themselves. + +The diet corresponds with the neatness and simplicity of the apartments. + +At one o’clock a plentiful dinner is served to the whole society in +the refectory, and at seven they re-assemble for supper. Besides a +sufficient quantity of meat and vegetables each person is allowed a +pound-and-half of bread and a bottle of wine daily. + +[Sidenote: ASYLUM FOR AGED AT CHAILLOT] + +In case of sickness they are removed to a part of the house used as an +infirmary, where medical attendance is provided, and they receive every +possible attention. In case of decease, they are decently interred in +the neighbouring church, at the expense of the society, or elsewhere +at the expense of their friends. + +Their time is entirely at their own disposal. They may even employ +themselves in any lucrative occupation, provided it does not interfere +with the quiet and general rules of the house. + +I observed several females engaged very profitably in needle work and +embroidery. What little emoluments they acquire by their industry +supply them with pocket-money. The men pass their time in reading, +walking in the neighbouring fields or in the garden. I observed they +were usually less active than the women, but much more devout. I met an +old Abbé whose whole time is spent in reading his breviary, missal and +other religious books. His library was composed of about 200 volumes. + +Another, about seventy-four years of age, had seen much of the world. +His manners were prepossessing, and his conversation proved him a man +who lived for others rather than himself. + +He was pious without austerity, cheerful without dissipation, and +polite without frivolity. He had seen better days, and been one of +those sufferers whom the Revolution had plundered and proscribed on +account of his attachment to religion. He never spoke with the least +asperity of what had happened, he only shrugged his shoulders and +smiled contemptuously at the miserable efforts of his countrymen to +establish liberty and equality. He was well read in French literature +and fond of astronomy. But his favourite books were a Bible and Don +Quixote, Cervantes being an author to whom he was especially partial. + +Just as we were sitting down to dinner one of the old gentlemen +entered, and with great vivacity, informed Monsieur Duchaillot he +proposed going to the play. On inquiry, I found he had been an amateur +of music; and that at seventy-two years of age his taste for it was +still so predominant that he was about to avail himself of a ticket a +friend had sent him to see the second representation of Poesiello’s +_Zingari in Flora_, at the Opera Buffa. + +I have entered into these details to show that there is no restriction +on their amusements, and that they are entirely their own master. +Upon the whole, I observed that they were all more or less engaged in +religious exercises. + +At that period of life when mind and body require repose, when it is +necessary old age should “walk pensive on the silent solemn shore of +that vast ocean it must sail so soon,” what can be more consolatory +than a retreat where wants are supplied and infirmities alleviated +without reluctance or repining? + +It has been alleged against most governments of Europe that there +is nothing seen but youth going to the gallows, and old age to the +workhouse. + +A government is no more responsible for the misfortunes than for the +crimes of its subjects, and all that can be expected is that it should +give a proper direction to charitable provisions, and guard them with +the sacred sanction of the law. + +It will be found a true maxim of public economy that these +charitable institutions should spring from the natural sympathy of +mankind--nothing is needful for government than to see that they are +administered honestly. + +This fact has been illustrated in Britain, where there exist more usual +monuments of piety and benevolence, than in all the other countries of +Europe put together. + +[Sidenote: ASYLUM FOR AGED AT CHAILLOT] + +In the course of my visits to Chaillot, Monsieur Duchaillot often +expressed a wish that a similar establishment should be attempted in +England. At first it appeared to me liable to some objections, but +these he successfully removed. I thought that respect for aged parents +being a quality inherent in the character of every Briton, that such an +institution might have a tendency to look as if we meant to canonise +ingratitude and place old age in the light of a burdensome load upon +the community. + +Barbarous natives are accustomed to destroy the old in order that the +young may live. But in civilised countries, where agriculture, arts and +commerce flourish, and where a greater degree of population promises a +greater degree of stock, such motives could never for a moment enter +the breast of a human being. I am aware however that some eight years +ago it was seriously proposed in the Jacobin Club, to knock all the old +people on the head or starve them to death, lest they should consume +what would be necessary for the support of soldiers and citizens. + +But even in that wild and guilty assembly there were some persons who +had not utterly abandoned the feelings of men, and this abominable +principle was not carried into execution. + +Monsieur Duchaillot combated my opposition to his scheme, by pointing +out that it is the _object_ of the institution at Chaillot not to +destroy but to give efficacy to domestic attachments. All persons who +enter there can experience the attentions of their kinsmen by receiving +their visits or visiting them. + +Secondly, the institution is only intended for those who cannot provide +for themselves, and whose friends and relations cannot provide for them. + +Thirdly, more comforts and enjoyments, more attention can be procured +under one establishment than when a number of persons are dispersed +individually in private houses. + +Fourthly, it is not necessary that every one who becomes a member +of this Society should be either a father or a mother. There are +a multitude of unmarried persons of both sexes, to whom such an +establishment offers a happy asylum. + +Fifthly, many fathers and mothers of families would prefer the society +of persons of their own age and circumstances, and if they are +discontented with the institution they can leave it when they choose. + +After hearing these arguments I became convinced that similar +establishments would be thankfully received by every rational man in +our country, who at all reflects on the uncertain chances of prosperity +in life. + +How many industrious persons contemplate the approach of old age with +horror. How many respectable worthy people meet misfortune in the +decline of life. Is it right there should be _no_ refuge between +death and the workhouse? Should not some encouragement be held out for +securing a retreat against misfortune and the inevitable ills attendant +on old age? + +I will now give M. Duchaillot’s own account of his establishment. + + + RETREAT FOR OLD AGE AT CHAILLOT. + +Several zealous and humane persons, who wish to assist and befriend +the unfortunate, have united to execute a beneficent plan, by which +industry itself may generate the means which will give a _certain +property_ to those who, worn out by age and misfortune, possess +none. To attain this object a small voluntary sacrifice only is +required, according to a progression almost imperceptible to persons +who are not even in easy circumstances. The difference between this +institution and hospitals consists in this, the subscriber has _a +right_ to the possession of this property for life, acquired by his +own economy and labour, and for which he is indebted neither to the +compassion nor the liberality of others. Here no act of patronising +benevolence humbles self love or mortifies pride. + +This institution encourages morality, by habituating persons to make +a proper use of their small surplus, resulting from their profits or +labour, which is too often squandered in debaucheries. It will animate +them to be industrious as an infallible resource against that adversity +which is inseparable from old age without fortune. + +The plan is simple and inexpensive, its execution prompt and within the +reach of every one. + +[Sidenote: ACCOUNT OF ASYLUM] + +Some years ago Mr. Pitt submitted several excellent proposals to amend +the Poor Laws. They struck me forcibly as being useful, sensible and +moral. They were aimed so as to give the poor occupation in their +homesteads, instead of dragging them to the workhouse. This was a +generous idea, worthy of the great mind that conceived it, unhappily it +was never carried into effect. + +Since my first visit to Chaillot I have had excellent accounts of the +progress of the institution. The First Consul pays thirty subscriptions +and has founded several places in the establishment and confided +the superintendence of them to the Archbishop of Paris, an aged and +respectable man, who from his own experience of misfortune will be able +to select such unfortunate persons as deserve no longer to remain so. + +The Archbishop, accompanied by a number of his clergy, thought proper +to visit Chaillot before making any nominations. He was delighted with +the beauty of the situation, the purity of the air, the neatness, order +and decorum which prevailed. When dinner was on the table eighty-seven +aged persons of both sexes appeared, with countenances expressive of +the greatest happiness and satisfaction; many of them declaring they +felt as much at their ease as when in their own families. + +The Archbishop at first imagined he was the eldest person present, but +it was found on examination that many had the advantage of him in years. + +He was so sensibly affected by this serene spectacle, that he expressed +his regret that he had not before been made acquainted with this +asylum. For in that case the First Consul must have forced him out of +it, to have raised him to his Episcopal See of Paris. + +The indispensable condition of acquiring the right of admission is to +take a subscription. The rules are that every subscriber pays from +the age of ten till thirty years of age, tenpence or a franc a month. +Fifteen pence per month from thirty to fifty--twenty pence or two +francs a month from fifty to seventy years of age. These different +payments amount in their entirety to £45, which must be completely paid +before a person can acquire the right of admission. Hence if any one +more than ten years of age should offer as a subscriber, he or she must +deposit at the time of subscription and according to his or her age, +the sum which would have been advanced, had the subscriptions commenced +at ten. In order to give encouragement to benevolence, all persons +who may be disposed to subscribe, may transfer their right to as many +persons as they have made subscriptions on condition that the person +to be benefited by the transfer shall not be admitted until the £45 be +paid in its entirety. The funds are placed on securities and subjected +to an administration which is in every respect safe and undeniable. + + + + + XVI + + GARDEN OF PLANTS. GALLERY OF NATURAL HISTORY. + PHILOSOPHICAL LECTURES + + +We had heard so much of the Jardin des Plantes that we became impatient +to see it. Our friend De la Metherie procured us an admission on a +day the place is closed to the public, to give us a better and more +convenient opportunity of examining its contents. + +We made up a small party, the two ladies and Monsieur de la Metherie +went in one carriage, and M. ----, the late President of the Cis +Alpine Republic, and myself in another. I have already mentioned, and +it cannot be too often repeated, that the French greatly surpass our +country in the arts of decoration. Of this truth we found a striking +proof in the classification of the subjects of Natural History and the +superb embellishments of the gallery. + +[Sidenote: GALLERY OF NATURAL HISTORY] + +When we first entered this gallery we saw merely large green curtains +extending from one end to the other of the hall. But in less than +two minutes we were most agreeably surprised by a display of beauty, +richness and grandeur of which no pen can do sufficient justice. + +The attendants withdrew the curtains, a blaze of creative glory dazzled +our sight, and in this moment of admiration I could not refrain from +whispering to the philosopher from whom I had before received several +lessons on the different degrees of French Atheism: “There is a God!” +He smiled and returned for answer that I was evidently in an ecstasy. + +Before I relate the various dispositions of the museum, I will give +an account of the impressions which the whole excited in our minds. +All the variegated productions of Nature were before our eyes; and +the perilous researches of the most adventurous circumnavigators and +natural historians submitted to our examination. Whatever is great and +wonderful in the operations of Providence, whatever has been discovered +in regions so far explored by man, we had an opportunity of seeing. + +The quadrupeds form a distinct compartment and the whole collection +of other animals, together with fossils, shells, minerals and stones, +is disposed in glass cases, extending from the top of the gallery to +the floor. There is also a compartment allotted to esculent roots and +specimens of trees. On the right hand stands the albatross, which has +been so beautifully described in Captain Cook’s voyages; next the +maimed bird which has no wings and lives entirely on the water. It has +an immense cylindrical body, behind which are fixed what may be called +two oars instead of feet. The body is covered by a species of hard +down, having the appearance of close-shaved hair, shooting out in small +shining tubes and forming a coat of mail impervious to the water.[3] +Then follow the crane, the swan, the heron, the ibis, the ostrich, the +pelican, &c. + +It is not my intention to give an account of every animal we saw, much +less to mention all their names; for, in the first place, it would be +attempting a subject on which I am ashamed to confess my ignorance, +and, in the second, would occupy a volume. I only wish to notice +singularities. Amongst these was the largest and most beautiful bird +I ever beheld. The body, completely white, the wings tinged with a +gold colour.[4] I am still unacquainted with its name, as no one could +inform us to what species it belonged; but I mention it on account of +the following anecdote, which conveys a forcible impression in a few +words. + +“Where did this bird come from?” said one of our party. + +“We borrowed it from the Stadtholder,” replied the attendant; adding, +“and if he had not lent it, we should have taken it.” + +In the same way they obtained possession of the head of a petrified +crocodile, which was originally found in a quarry in the neighbourhood +of Maestricht. It belonged to one of the priests who resided in that +town; and as his house was known to be situated near the ramparts, and +the French Natural Philosophers had long coveted this head, orders +were issued at the time of the siege that the house containing the +crocodile’s head should not be bombarded. Professor Thouin[1] was at +that time with the French Army, and wrote to his colleagues: “Le siége +de Maestricht se pousse avec vigueur; dans deux jours je compte faire +partir pour Paris la tête du crocodile.” + +The French Army entered Maestricht, and the poor priest was stripped of +his treasure for the benefit of the Great Nation. + +The collection of caterpillars, butterflies and insects surpasses +anything of the kind I ever saw. The library is composed of a choice +and rare collection of books in every language upon subjects of natural +history. M. Tuscan, the librarian, obligingly displayed to us some +admirable paintings of plants. Mrs. Cosway, who was of our party, and +is an exquisite artist herself, pronounced them very beautiful, and +executed in a masterly style. The number of books in the library is +about 8000, which is a noble library upon one science, the very nature +of which requires costly publications on account of the infinite number +as well as the richness of the drawings and the plates. + +[Sidenote: LIVING ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTION] + +After having amused ourselves with all the different compartments, we +proceeded to the garden and paid a visit to the _living_ beasts +in the menagerie. These are dispersed in various districts of the +enclosure, and with as much regard as possible to their original mode +of life. + +An enormous elephant enjoys a courtyard to himself, and his keeper is +an Englishman named Thompson. The animal is very docile, and has been +taught to play at what we call Bob Cherry with pieces of bread. Nothing +can be more ridiculous, except the idea of a lion catching flies. + +Camels and dromedaries are allowed to posture under the trees, and the +stags and deer distributed in the field beside the river. All the tame +animals are placed within a large grass enclosure. The savage beasts +and birds kept in cages so small that the poor creatures can hardly +turn themselves, in consequence of which, together with the wretched +food, many have perished, and none of the survivors are in good +condition. There are three bears, several wolves, leopards and tigers, +one hyaena, a fox, a cockatoo, an hedgehog, a vulture, a cassowary, +and a number of other fierce birds stolen from the menagerie of the +Stadtholder of Holland. There are also a number of monkeys. + +Upon the whole this collection is very insignificant and compares very +badly with Pidcocks Exhibition, over Exeter Change. The lions and one +of the elephants are dead. Most of these animals were transported to +Paris from the Royal Menagerie at Versailles, but in order to increase +the effect of the scene, it was decreed by Governmental order that +those wild animals which were exhibited about the country at fairs, +should be put into a state of requisition in order to add to the +savage population of the garden. Cossal (the Parisian Pidcock), who +had made a valuable collection of rare animals which he sent about the +country to public shows, was robbed of all of them and to indemnify him +in some manner for his ruin, made Warden of the National Menagerie at a +small salary. + +He was not the only sufferer in conformity with the political principle +of the Revolution, that individual property must ever be ready as a +sacrifice to the Nation, every man who led about a dancing bear in the +street or a monkey, playing his tricks on the back of a dromedary, +was obliged to lay aside his flageolet and tambourine and conduct his +Bruin, his camel or his ape, to replenish the national stock. The +two elephants were _borrowed_ from the Stadtholder, they came +originally from Ceylon, whence they were sent to Holland, where they +had remained fourteen years. The mode of transporting them was the +subject of very grave discussion among the philosophers of Paris. It +was first proposed to march them from Holland to Paris and to throw +temporary wooden bridges over the canals, to facilitate their passage +but on account of their aversion to water this sapient scheme was +abandoned. A caravan was now constructed mounted on wheels, in order +to drag the ponderous brutes along and in order to accustom them to +their movable dwelling, they were never to be fed except in their +travelling carriages. On the day of their departure, the elephants +were driven into their conveyance and the keeper bolted the door. The +moment the procession started, the male elephant gave the door a gentle +tap with his head, which instantly shivered the panel to pieces, and +the continent of organised matter marched out with the greatest ease. +By separating the male and the female they at length succeeded in +conveying these vast creatures to Paris. Thompson, the keeper, assured +me that when the elephants met again in the garden, after their long +journey, the air resounded with their cries and their eyes were bedewed +with tears. The French had never seen an elephant in their country +since the middle of the seventeenth century, when, in 1668, the King of +Portugal presented one (which only survived thirteen years) to Louis +XIV. + +[Sidenote: THE AMPHITHEATRE] + +Upon inquiry I learnt that the greater part of the curiosities +collected in this place were the fruits of victorious pillage, and I +was told that this measure was justified by the right of conquest. +“Par suite de la conquête de la Hollande, ils sont tombés au pouvoir +des Français--nous les avons emportés comme trophées de nos victoires. +Ainsi Alexandre le Grand fit passer dans la Grèce les éléphans du Roi +de Perse.” + +The amphitheatre is a public building, within this garden, where +lectures are given by professors, nominated and paid by the Government. + +I attended the chemical lecture of Fourcroy; he delivers himself with +purity, eloquence and cleverness. He exercises (what would be deemed +extraordinary in any country but this) the two functions of a public +lecturer on science and a Counsellor of State, in which latter capacity +he often discusses political measures before the Legislative Body. All +the benches of the amphitheatre are in a semicircular form, rising one +above the other, and capable of containing 2000 persons. The lecturer +is stationed at the bottom, with a large table and apparatus before him. + +There is no doubt students in chemistry derive advantages from those +lectures, but much of their good effect is impaired by the amphitheatre +being considered a fashionable lounge for the idle and a favourite +place of “rencontre” between the fair Parisian and her lover. The women +constitute a distinguished part of the auditory, and in number and +noise are not inferior to the males. + +There are thirteen professors in this institution, whereof seven are +members of the French “Académie,” or Institut, and one an Associate. +_Fourcroy_, Professor of Chemistry; _Desfontaines_, Botany; _Lamark_, +Zoology; _Thonin_, Gardening; and _Vanspaendorick_, of Ichnography, +have each a pleasant dwelling, free of expense, in the garden. In the +centre of the garden and near a pool of water, is a small hamlet, +where philosophical students and the curious may entertain themselves +on girls and burgundy, of a wretched quality and at a trifling +expense. I am at a loss to explain how the sage superintendent of his +museum should have licensed the existence of his hovel, devoted to +disreputable practices, in the sequestered bowers of Acadème. Unless it +be meant as a practical illustration of the moral tendency of Darwin’s +Loves of the Plants--a work greatly admired here. The Botanical Garden, +itself, fell very far short of my expectations; it is neither well laid +out nor pleasing to the eye. + +The garden is about 2000 feet long and 700 wide, divided into three +alleys, terminating in the public walks. + +Henry IV. was the first who established a Botanical Garden in France. +He authorised John Robin to rear in a private garden some plants +several navigators had brought from America. It was his intention to +have had this garden in Paris, but he was persuaded that these exotics +would flourish better in the southern part of France; in consequence, +Montpellier was preferred, and a physician appointed in 1598 to +superintend the enterprise. But Gui la Brosse[1] persuaded Louis XIII. +some twenty years later of the inconvenience of this arrangement, and +an edict was issued for the establishment of the present “Jardin des +Plantes.” By la Brosse’s exertions two thousand plants were placed in +it, in the space of ten years. + +The Government then numbered three professors to make known their +properties and virtues and an exhibitor to display them. + +The Garden was, in course of time, greatly enlarged and beautified, but +its most rapid progress was during the reign of the late unfortunate +Louis XVI. + +[Sidenote: REMINISCENCES OF THE TERROR] + +On the left of the Museum is a plantation of trees and shrubs, called +“The Labyrinth.” The greatest part of the trees are ever-green, and +there is a noble cedar of Lebanon. It was brought from England +and planted by the famous Bertrand de Sussien[1] in the year 1734; +beneath its shades stands a pedestal, formerly supporting the bust +of Linnæus,[1] which was destroyed by the revolutionists under the +notion it represented an aristocrat. From the top of the Labyrinth +there is a very extensive view of Paris from a tower, which M. de la +Metherie[1] and myself ascended, the ladies and S---- having returned +home. Here, while we were looking at the city, M. de la Metherie +pointed to a large building, not far distant, and desired me to look +at the third window upon the second floor--he further remarked, “I was +imprisoned there.” Confounded for the moment by this observation (for +I had never understood the ruffians had meddled with him), I could not +help laughing, and he joined heartily in my merriment. But two persons +standing near, who, though wearing lay attire, were evidently priests, +turned round and addressed us with much agitation. “This is not a +laughing matter; what honest man has not been imprisoned in this land +of _scélérats_?” This observation restored our gravity, and I said +to one of them: “I hope, sir, you have not been a sufferer?” To which +he abruptly replied: “I was imprisoned five times and sentenced to the +guillotine. My life, however, was spared, and, by way of compensation +for my sufferings, they took all my property from me!” De la Metherie +introduced me, saying, “Monsieur est Anglais.” Upon this they took off +hats, and the speaker remarked: “Vous avez raison, monsieur, de vous +vous moquer de la France!” + +[A] See Appendix. + +We requested him to oblige us with his history. He said he lived +formerly in Bordeaux and possessed considerable property in that +neighbourhood. He had been arrested and confined in the prison of that +city, together with a multitude of persons of both sexes. The only +accusation against him was, that being a priest, he must necessarily +be an aristocrat. He explained that he had not exercised sacerdotal +functions since the Decree of the National Convention, and that his +whole and sole pursuit was the science of Botany--“Botany!” exclaimed +the Judge and President of the Court--“c’est une science royale!--it +abounds with aristocratic terms, was the favourite diversion of Kings +and Princes, and is of no use to a Republic--your attachment to this +study clearly proves your hankering after the old _régime_, and +convicts you!” He was hurried off to prison and close confinement at +once. However, he escaped destruction, and recovered his liberty by +paying a large sum of money as a bribe for his release. He returned +with joy to the house of a friend, and was just sitting down to dinner +when an officer of the Municipality entered the apartment, stating he +had come to arrest him. He acquainted the officer with the fact that +he had only two hours before been released by an _arrêt_ of the +Municipality. “I know that perfectly well,” was the reply; “you were +dismissed upon the charge laid against you, but since then another +_serious charge_ has been established against you, by Citizen +Tallien,[1] and I am ordered to arrest you _on suspicion of being +suspected_!!!” There was no resisting the dreadful name of Tallien, +and the unhappy priest was reconducted to his former cage. As the name +of Tallien was mentioned, I interrupted the conversation to ask whether +the atrocities said to have been committed at Bordeaux by Tallien and +Lequino were not greatly exaggerated. He answered “Unhappily those +enormities could hardly be exaggerated, for there was scarcely a family +in that city and district which did not mourn the murder of a relative +or friend.” The butcheries of Tallien were perpetrated chiefly in the +streets and on the scaffold. He often took large sums of money from the +persons, upon condition of releasing them, and the next day they were +sure to be guillotined. This removal from the prison to the scaffold +Tallien, in his merry moods, used to call a Republican release in full +of all demands. Lequino[1] was never suspected of having realised +money in this manner, he confined his little peculations to the public +revenues. But his brutal and ferocious nature exercised itself within +as well as without the walls of the prisons, by frequently shooting at +the prisoners with pistols and killing them without any discrimination. +He dined almost daily with the public executioners. + +[Sidenote: PERSECUTED PRIEST AND PHILOSOPHER] + +But to continue--after a long confinement, the priest was brought to +a trial with a number of other persons, and charged with conspiring +against the Republic. He and they were all found guilty and condemned +to public execution. But at that moment a courier arrived with news of +the fall and death of Robespierre, and orders to suspend all carnage +until further directions from the Committee of Public Safety. + +“What evidence was adduced against you?” I asked. + +“None, save that I was a _ci-devant_ minister of religion.” + +“You have suffered,” said I, “because you were a priest; and here,” +pointing to de la Metherie, “is one who has suffered because he was a +philosopher.” + +In the progress of the fiery Revolution, the different Governments +of France must have been inspired by the spirit of a merry devil, +for if such charges were sufficient to deprive a man of his liberty +nine-tenths of the French people ought to have been locked up. But +although de la Metherie was in no way interested in politics, he was +suspected of being a suspicious man. When the ruling power wished +to criminate or murder a man, every circumstance of his life from +infancy was raked up and passed under review, and therefore no accused +individual could hope to escape if his destruction was decided upon. + +The accusation against this philosopher was that of coolness, +indifference and incivism, because, amidst the noise of arms and +domestic slaughter, he continued to cultivate in the sequestered shade +of private life, the philosophy of nature. + +By a miracle he escaped--the fall of the tyrant Robespierre calmed +the fury of the Terror, and de la Metherie was more fortunate than +Lavoisier[1]--after a few months’ rigorous confinement he was released +from his prison. He was permitted to return to his house, the seals +were taken off his library, his beautiful collections of plants and +minerals, and his manuscripts. The _Journal de Physique_, which he +had edited for above twenty years, again shone forth in all its wonted +splendour. + +Monsieur de la Metherie assured me that during the time of the +Revolutionary Tribunals, it was in serious contemplation to reduce +the population of France to 14,000,000. Dubois Crouée[1] was a +very distinguished and enthusiastic partisan of this humane and +philosophical policy. + +One of the most horrible and affecting anecdotes I ever heard related +to a young married lady of rank and beauty, whose husband was immured +in the same prison cell with de la Metherie. After having solicited +one Bureau, petitioned another, and bribed a third in vain to obtain +her husband’s liberty, she applied in person to the representative +of the people, by whose influence her husband had been arrested. The +hypocritical assassin returned her supplications with scorn. At length +after many entreaties he informed her that there was _one_ way in +which she might obtain her husband’s liberty. Anxious to save his life, +the distracted female sacrificed her honour to the brutal lust of this +deputy of the National Convention. On the next day, when she went to +the prison to bring to her husband the joyful news of his impending +delivery, she found him bound and seated in the cart, which a moment +later carried him to the place of execution. Frantic with rage and +despair, and shuddering with horror at the unavailing sacrifice she had +made of her chastity, the hapless young woman rushed into the presence +of her betrayer and severely rebuked him for his perfidy; in return for +which he caused her to be arrested, and she was guillotined upon the +following day. + + + + + XVII + + THE ARSENAL. SITE OF THE BASTILLE. FAUBOURG STE. ANTOINE. + THE DONJON DE VINCENNES. SHORT ACCOUNT OF + FRANÇOIS DE NEUFCHÂTEAU. THE TEMPLE + + +[Sidenote: THE ARSENAL] + +My principal object in going beyond the Bois des Vincennes was to +examine the agricultural dispositions and the improved plough of +François de Neufchâteau,[1] who has obtained a considerable celebrity +in France for the great encouragement he, when Minister of the +Interior, afforded to husbandry. + +In this excursion we were accompanied by two men of very different +political characters. Monsieur P----, an avowed Royalist, and Monsieur +Dumond,[1] a moderate Republican. The former is distinguished for +his dramatic writings and by a very ingenious mode he has invented +to enable foreigners to pronounce French correctly without the aid +of an instructor. Monsieur Dumond is what we should call a gentleman +farmer--and has a large establishment at Epluches, near Pontoise, where +he makes an annual exhibition of sheep reared upon his own estate. +He possesses excellent stock and great skill in this branch of rural +economy. We promised ourselves great pleasure from the political battle +I was determined they should wage, and the instructive conversation of +M. Dumond upon farming and agricultural subjects. + +After traversing the city in an easterly direction we alighted at +the Arsenal. This place was gutted at the outbreak of the Revolution +to supply arms to the sovereign people. It has never since been +replenished. + +There are, however, still some considerable quantity of arms in it, +but I observed nothing particularly deserving of notice. The Bastille, +so famous in the early history of the Revolution, from having been the +first fortress over which the triumphant banner of the people waved, is +now no more. But the gardens, the “fosse,” and part of the wall remain. +The site of the Bastille, which the French vainly flattered themselves +would become their Runnymede, is instead a lasting monument of their +unfitness to be free--for it is impossible to walk over these ruins +without despising a race of men who, in a paroxysm of jealousy, pulled +down an ancient fortress for the sake of liberty, and twelve years +later suffered their whole country to be converted into a vast prison +where free speech and a free press are not tolerated. + +From the site of the Bastille we proceeded along the Faubourg St. +Antoine, now the cleanest and most unfrequented part of Paris. What +a melancholy silence now reigns in that place! Who would suppose +that this district of Paris was formerly the focus of intrigue +and its inhabitants the successive instruments of every ambitious +adventurer--of an Orleans, a Robespierre,[1] a Marat and a Babœuf?[1] +In the days of the Convention this was the arsenal of blood and murder, +here pikes were forged and poignards sharpened, and from hence an armed +banditti issued to execute the bloody mandate of demagogues. But now no +spirit-stirring drum is heard, no uplifted bleeding heads are carried +as standards by butchering battalions. Santerre himself scarce dare +show his face, and the whole Jacobin colony has been disarmed, and by +a little thing from Corsica, who, acting as lieutenant to Barras in +1794, commenced his military operations against the liberties of France +by a triumph over the fanatics of this Faubourg. The pikemen stand +in awe of the heroes of Lodi and Marengo, who surround the palace of +the usurper. Santerre, it is true, often murmurs vengeance, but the +Government either laugh at this consequential man of no consequence +or treat him with the most perfect contempt. He had an interview with +Bonaparte soon after the latter became First Consul and was received +with civility and attention, but the Consular Guard was not then +formed, and Santerre might still be useful. Bonaparte, who must have +heard that at the first fire of the Vendéans upon the Parisian Guard, +Santerre actually ran away, said: “I think, general, you made war in La +Vendée.” “Oui, général,” replied the brewer, “avec beaucoup d’éclat.” +The Corsican grinned a smile, and Santerre withdrew, and boasted after +the interview “that Bonaparte had treated him with proper consideration +and acknowledged his great services in La Vendée.” + +[Sidenote: VINCENNES] + +The famous donjon de Vincennes is situated close by the public road, +in the middle of a wood, and was in ancient times a royal castle, +where State prisoners were confined. Since the Revolution it has been +converted into a common jail--at present it is reserved entirely for +deserters and runaway conscripts. We found about 600 of these in +confinement. They were walking in the courtyard, and seemed extremely +sorrowful and dejected. + +We were not permitted to enter the Gothic tower, which is the finest +part of The building; but if we may form an estimate of the interior by +the exterior, the state prisoners formerly lodged there must have drawn +out a wretched existence--yet here were confined the great Condé and +the celebrated Mirabeau. + +The attraction of this fortress is its antiquity. Draw-bridges, +battlements, covered galleries and fosses display the ancient mode +of defence. Some companies of infantry and a troop of horse are in +barracks within the walls. After having sufficiently gratified our +curiosity we continued our route, and the name of Mirabeau being +mentioned I thought a favourable opportunity had arrived for us to +enjoy our French companions. + +The project succeeded, and the Revolution was furiously discussed +from the time of Mirabeau to the present hour. I asked M. Dumond (the +Republican) what was now the pay to the different ranks of general? +M. P---- (the Royalist) answered before his friend had time to reply: +“Nothing, we allow them to thrive and take what they please.” This +unexpected answer produced a good laugh, in which M. Dumond joined. +Some days after, happening to be in company with a celebrated general, +as honest as it is possible for a modern French general to be, I +asked him whether it was true that the Republican generals received +no salary from the State, but were at liberty to take what they +pleased, he answered: “You have been misinformed. The French generals +are _well_ paid; but as they are fond of good living and their +expenses are great, they naturally make some provision for themselves +out of the contributions of conquered countries.” This reply fully +confirmed M. P----’s assertion. + +At the extremity of the Bois de Vincennes in a hollow stands the +Château of Monsieur François. All the country hereabouts is in a fine +state of cultivation, the fruits exquisite, and the wine from the +vineyards is highly esteemed in Paris. + +Monsieur François de Neufchâteau’s house is of moderate size, the +gardens large and well disposed. The barns and other out-houses make a +respectable appearance, but I perceive none of the animals essential to +husbandry or a thrifty farmyard. Most of the ground we went over had +been sown. I perceived, however, no grass or meadow land. The French +are an age behind us in this branch of agriculture. All the arable +land was well cleared and showed care and attention had been bestowed +upon it. But I saw no yards, either near or distant to the house, for +raising poultry or pigs, &c., which constitute no small proportion of +the wealth of a well-managed farm. + +After we had sufficiently viewed the general distribution of the +grounds, we examined the improved drill plough, to inspect which had +been the principal object of our journey. But I discovered not a single +property in it which is not already known to the English agriculturist. + +[Sidenote: FRANÇOIS DE NEUFCHÂTEAU] + +Perhaps I am wrong in thus entering into the particulars of a farm +which, though in a very satisfactory state, promises to be much better +when the owner’s attention can be spared upon it. The house has not +long been in the possession of its present proprietor. There are only +two bedrooms furnished and not one sitting-room, though there is an +excellent library, containing many beautiful editions of the most +celebrated works. + +The gallery upon the first floor contains some interesting plans +and drawings of canals and other public works of France, conceived, +executed or repaired when M. de Neufchâteau was Minister of the +Interior. + +Monsieur Nicholas François, for that is his real and only proper name, +was born at the village of Neufchâteau, where he married a woman like +himself of humble parentage, and endeavoured to live by writing poetry +and scribbling nonsensical verses. + +He is the first instance in the history of nations of a poet who +exchanged his tattered garments for the mantle of a chief magistrate. +M. François being cast upon the surface of the revolutionary cauldron, +contributed his humble mite in the holy work of human regeneration, +under a variety of Protean shapes, sometimes as a punster in the public +journals, at other times by striking off a few _calembours_ and +diatribes and then by some fine-spun antitheses, and next by fulsome +adulations heaped on the great scoundrels who have successively +disturbed the peace of France and of mankind. M. François contrived +to at length receive the reward of his indefatigable labours, in the +appointment to the very arduous and important functions of Minister of +the Interior to the French Revolution. + +No sooner had he begun to figure upon the revolutionary stage, over +which was inscribed _Liberty_, _Equality_, _Abolition of +Titles and Privileged Caste_, than he assumed the feudal name of +François de Neufchâteau, a name to which under the old _régime_ he +would have no more pretensions than the political adventurer who now +rules France would have to that of Bonaparte of Ajaccio. + +Another instance of his philosophic mind was shown at the same time. +He discarded his virtuous wife, the humble companion of his adverse +fortunes, as unworthy to share in the splendour of his new situation, +and a handsome and elegant woman was introduced in her stead as +mistress of his mansion, and she still continues to fill in the midst +of plenty and opulence the place of a legitimate wife now driven to +want and wretchedness. + +But these are trifles in Paris at the present day, and Monsieur +François de Neufchâteau passes for a mild, amiable and _virtuous_ +man. + +Of the administration of this man I shall have much to say in a future +letter, he certainly contributed towards the establishment of many +salutary institutions in the Republic, _i.e._, he revived such +of the old government as were contented to promote the happiness and +prosperity of France upon the return of a general peace. + +I am the more astounded at this as from the conversation I had with him +and from the relations made to me by those most intimately acquainted +with him he appeared to be a man of weak, contemptible and superficial +character. Nevertheless we find him in a short time seated upon the +curule chair, and forming one of that junto of rapacious tyrants +who under the name of the Executive Directory, by their imbecility, +wickedness and crimes, prepared the way for the reign of the usurper +who stole like a coward from Egypt to complete the misery of France. +François, it appears, took no active part in the directorship, he +was merely an empurpled pageant, whose sole occupation was to sign +his name whenever ordered to do so by his more wily colleagues. At +length finding his situation irksome he profited by an offer from his +more ambitious partners and left the Government before the Government +left him. In consideration of a douceur of a million livres, £40,000 +sterling, he connived at a sham ballot by which he voluntarily +blackballed himself from the further enjoyment of the executive +magistracy. + +[Sidenote: VISIT TO THE TEMPLE] + +His conduct was fortunate as well as prudent. For when the Corsican +made short work of the Directory, instead of being banished like +Barras[1] or discarded like la Reveillère[1] and Leproux, we find him +admitted into the new tyrant’s Senate and actively receiving at the +present time £2000 a year sterling during his life for registering +the edicts of his master. This annuity, together with his £40,000 +indemnification money, and the little pickings he was able to secure +during his Ministry, enable him to live in better style than ever +before fell to the lot of a French rhymer, for he can now jingle cash +as well as the words of the great nation. + +This visit to M. François brought on a second engagement between +ourselves and our two comrades, and we made an expedition the following +day to the Temple, where the unhappy Louis XVI. and his family had been +confined. The place is now greatly altered, indeed I should hardly have +recognised it. All the surrounding buildings have been pulled down and +a large opening formed which absolutely secludes it from all immediate +communication with the city. It is impossible to obtain admission into +this State prison--it is rigidly guarded within and without the walls. +Persons are daily conveyed there by a _lettre de cachet_ from the +Grand Inquisitor Fouché, without any preliminary examination and often +without the knowledge of their friends. This is the real history of +those sudden disappearances of a number of persons, which the French +journalists ascribe to robbers and assassins. A trial is never an +absolute necessity in this land of liberty to establish innocence or +guilt; hence the “Cayenne diligence” is always in readiness to take up +such passengers as are not _required_ to make a long stay in the +Temple, which is the _safest_ place of baiting between the Bureau +of the Minister of Police and Rochefort. + +It is not until the wretched victims are upon the eve of embarking upon +the Salaminian vessel of state that they are permitted to disclose +their fate to their relations and to announce their destination to the +delectable regions of the most luxurious climate of Central America. +Even this indulgence is however frequently denied to the hapless +sufferers. + +Yet the constant talk in France is of freedom and equality. It is +impossible to live here without imbibing daily fresh causes of +detestation and abhorrence of the laws and government of this unhappy +country; and I already contemplate with pleasure the moment when I +shall take an everlasting leave of France, a country which at one time +I almost loved as well as I do my own. + + + + + XVIII + + CELEBRATION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF GENERAL BONAPARTE’S + CONCORDAT WITH THE POPE, AND OF THE GENERAL PEACE + PROCESSION TO NOTRE DAME. ILLUMINATION OF PARIS + + +[Sidenote: CONSULAR CEREMONIAL] + +We had not yet seen the tyrant. Hence we did not hesitate to take +advantage of the opportunity offered us by the public exhibition of +his personage on Easter Sunday. The ceremonial had been pompously +announced in the Parisian Gazettes; and M. Chaptal, the Minister of +the Interior, displayed great skill in making arrangements for giving +a fine stage effect to the pious exhibition of the Church Militant. +Bonaparte himself is also very clever at such work, and I have it on +unquestionable authority that he himself actually arranged the plan of +the procession, as well as that of the solemn farce acted afterwards +in Nôtre Dame. A person with whom I am acquainted related to me a +conversation he overheard between the First Consul and the various +underlings who were to carry out his orders, a conversation which +shows the little man can take as much interest in a puppet show as +in a victory. When the leader of the orchestra waited upon him to +mention the arrangements he had made for placing the music in front of +the Consuls, Bonaparte desired him to change the position, for he was +determined a battalion of soldiers should stand in front and behind. +The conductor observed the effect of the music would be totally lost +by this scheme; but the reply was, “N’importe, il me faut toujours des +bataillons.” Another instance of his taking upon himself the business +of stage manager was his order to Monsieur de Talleyrand that the +latter should write to the different foreign Ambassadors and Ministers +requesting that they would repair to the Palace of the Tuileries +with four horses to their carriages, instead of two. All the foreign +envoys, in consequence, clapped on an additional pair of animals, which +should by right have been jackasses, to their coaches. The Consuls’ +own Ministers also, not only drove four horses, but their domestics +sported, by order, the _same_ liveries--yellow turned up with red. +Their carriages were ranged to the right of the door, exactly opposite +the Ambassadors. Soon after arrived the Councillors of State, Senators, +the Legislative Body, the Tribunats, the Prefets and the Generals in +their respective costume. All this time the foreign Ministers were in +a room below, called _Salle des Ambassadeurs_, waiting until his +Highness should be graciously pleased to condescend to admit them to +his presence. Count Cohentzel, the Austrian Minister, stood near the +door in full view of the spectators. I could not refrain from a feeling +of disgust and rage at beholding the representative of the once proud +house of Austria standing like a suppliant upon the threshold of the +Corsican adventurer. + +The whole of the day’s exhibition was humiliating to every one +concerned, save to Bonaparte and his satellites. After all the +carriages were ranged in their places and the different regiments of +horse and foot taken their positions in front of the Palace, a signal +gun was fired, and a little thing leaped with uncommon agility upon +the back of a white horse, superbly caparisoned, and set off at full +trot along the line, followed by a numerous train of generals and +aides-de-camp. Upon inquiry I learnt that the white horse was called +Marengo, and its rider was Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of France. + +Nothing was now heard but trumpets and kettledrums, and the whole +spectacle was certainly an imposing one; as Bonaparte passed along the +officers saluted and the men presented arms. He never returned a single +salute. + +His dress was very plain but extremely neat, in the uniform of the +Consular Guard--a blue coat, faced with white, gold epaulettes, white +kerseymere breeches and waistcoat, a small hat with a tri-colour bow. + +None of the portraits or engravings which I have seen in England +purporting to resemble this man are exactly like him. The picture by +Masquier, representing him on his return from reviewing the Consular +Guard, though the best likeness we have, is nevertheless a feeble +representation of what is one of the most penetrating and animated +countenances in the world. The complexion of Bonaparte is sallow, his +face oval and his chin long, his eyes are of a dark blue, so dark as +to appear black at a distance, they are keen and piercing, long in +form and sunk deeply in his head. His black hair is cut short and he +wears no powder. His smile is sweet and fascinating, but his visage +terrible when ruffled with anger. His voice deep-toned, rather coarse +and disfigured by a provincial accent.[5] He looks extremely well on +horseback, his carriage thereon remarkably erect, and not unlike that +of a riding master or cavalry drill sergeant. The lineaments of his +face bespeak a violent nature, it is marked with the expression of dark +and unruly passions. Upon the whole I do not hesitate to acknowledge he +possesses the most interesting countenance I ever beheld. + +[Sidenote: PROCESSION TO NOTRE DAME] + +After the First Consul had reviewed his troops “au trot” he hastily +dismounted, shot like an arrow into the Palace, and soon after the +general procession to Nôtre Dame began to form, and commenced with the +slow march of the infantry towards the Cathedral. + +The cavalry followed and the foreign Ministers and Ministers of State. +Madame Letitia Bonaparte,[1] the Consul’s mother, a truly good, +respectable woman, and Madame Bonaparte,[1] the reigning Queen, with +Madame Louis Bonaparte,[1] her daughter, proceeded by another route +(not taking part in the procession). They occupied with their suite +two splendid coaches and four, each horse led by a running footman in +green and gold livery and escorted by a squadron of Hussars. The corps +of Mamelukes, leading six beautiful chargers of the First Consul, each +horse caparisoned to the tune of £2500, preceded the state coach, which +contained the three Consuls, attired in their consular garb of scarlet +velvet, embroidered with gold. These rulers were drawn by eight bay +horses and followed by a regiment of Hussars. Discharges of artillery +continued from their departure from the Palace till their arrival at +the Cathedral Church of Paris. + +Three chairs of state were placed in front of the altar for the +Consuls, that of Bonaparte’s was advanced a little in front of the +other two, and he drew it still further forward before he seated +himself. He sat erect during the whole ceremony, except during the +Consecration of the Host and Communion, when he stood. At the elevation +of the Host he crossed himself with the most sanctified composure, +using that same hand which in Egypt had signed his abjuration of +the Christian faith. The Consul le Brun[1] sat on his right hand +and Cambacères[1] on his left. When High Mass was over, the Bishops +approached in turn to take the oath of allegiance: as each mitred +apostle knelt before Bonaparte he gave a gentle nod; but one poor old +prelate, almost blind by age and too weak to kneel, having by mistake, +directed his obeisance to Cambacères, the First Consul gave such a +frown that the poor old man was almost terrified out of his wits. + +To form a just idea of the feelings of those present one must remember +that the greater part of the company consisted of the Senate, the +Corps Législatif, the Tribunalate and the Generals, nearly all of whom +had been or were avowed atheists, notorious for murders, thefts and +atrocities they had perpetrated, while the Chief Magistrate had a few +years earlier worshipped at the altar of atheism in Paris and embraced +the religion of Mahomet in Africa. These persons were now assembled +together to adore a God in whom they had no faith and to propose a +religion they despised merely that they might be enabled to preserve +their authority over the people and retain their lucrative places and +appointments. To my mind this is an occurrence in the history of pious +fraud only equalled by the action of Judas Iscariot. + +I may safely affirm that with exception of the Bishops and clergy, +there was not a single official personage in the church who quitted +this religious mockery with a sentiment of piety in his heart, nor one +who did not perfectly see through the whole object of the ceremony. + +When the bowing, kneeling and swearing were ended the First Consul +and his two scarlet supporters departed. Fresh discharges of cannons +accompanied their return journey to the Tuileries. + +The opinion entertained by the people of this day of ceremony was that +of indignation, mixed with contemptuous ridicule. + +In the evening Madame Bonaparte gave a grand rout to the ladies +of the constituted authorities, and the city was illuminated. The +illuminations were poor indeed, a few farthing rushlights stuck in +paper lanterns hung out from every third or fourth house in the +streets, and were called general illuminations, and even of those the +greater part was put out by the wind. The Palace of the Tuileries was +handsomely illuminated _à la chinoise_ with variegated lamps. +Cambacères, the Second Consul, also illuminated his house with great +taste and splendour. + +[Sidenote: THEATRE OF OPERA BUFFA] + +Vast numbers of people filled the streets and walks--great decorum +and sobriety were everywhere observed, a circumstance which practically +always distinguishes Frenchmen on such occasions. + +In the midst of all these pompous festivities the minds of the people +are still greatly divided respecting the future. They are gratified +by the return of peace--but they are suspicious of its continuation. +To this may be added the general apprehension of some fresh changes +in France, from the restless character of its present ruler, and his +disposition to interfere in the internal economy of other States. + + + + + XIX + + THEATRES. OPERA BUFFA. CORONATION OF PAESIELLO + + +The theatres of Paris at the present time display such gross acts of +licentiousness among the spectators and such obscene dialogue on the +stage, that it is impossible to accompany a modest woman to most of +them. To those where the rules of decency were observed, our ladies +went, and the Opera Buffa was one of the few where we could resort with +comfort and convenience. + +This theatre is in the Rue de la Victoire, and here one could listen to +the charming music of Cimarosa, Martinelli and Paesiello.[1] This last +composer has attained an immense success by a piece, called _Zingari +in Flora_, which attracts crowded houses. On the third night of +its representation Paesiello himself, just arrived from Naples, made +his appearance in the box next the stage, opposite the one in which +the First Consul, his wife, Louis Bonaparte and _his_ wife, +_ci-devant_ Mdlle. Beauharnais, and the lady of Joseph Bonaparte +were sitting. + +The instant Paesiello was recognised, he was saluted with loud and +repeated applause, and all the spectators stood up to pay their +respects to the genius who had so often charmed them by his powers of +composition. A lady then stepped into his box, and placed a crown of +laurel on his head, the plaudits then redoubled, while Bonaparte passed +his hand over his own forehead as an indication of what was uppermost +in his mind. He condescended to notice Paesiello, and signified by a +movement of his head that he participated in the general sentiment of +approbation. + +The respect paid to the composer by the band of musicians was +remarkable. They all rose at his entrance, turned towards him, and +retained this position during the rest of the evening. Great decorum +and good conduct are maintained in every part of this theatre, and even +behind the scenes. Sentinels are planted, not only behind the curtain +to preserve order, but plenty of them are stationed in every part of +the house, boxes, pit and gallery. Their conduct is exemplary. The +spectators, at this the best of the Paris theatres, behave themselves +with infinitely more propriety than the audiences at Drury Lane and +Covent Garden. The Cyprian corps also set an example of orderly +conduct, which their frail sisters in the fashionable London resorts +would do well to follow. + +On the night of Paesiello’s coronation we were so extremely fortunate +as to obtain a box nearly opposite to that occupied by the First +Consul and his relatives, and we remarked that Madame Bonaparte, her +daughter, and Madame Joseph Bonaparte were the only French women in the +theatre whose dress was modest as well as elegant. I was peculiarly +gratified to observe this circumstance, because, when the force of +example is considered, these persons may be enabled, owing to their +distinguished positions, to do much to check the _mauvais goût_ in +the fashionable Parisian toilettes of to-day. + +The three distinguished ladies sat in front of the box, and were +attired much as would be a respectable English woman of the upper +classes wearing evening dress. + +Mesdames Napoleon, Louis and Joseph, wore fine diamond necklaces and +drop earrings. + +[Sidenote: A REVIEW AT THE TUILERIES] + +Behind them, with his back to the audience, sat the First Consul, who +conversed during the whole evening with his step-son, young Beauharnais. + +During the whole evening Bonaparte never exchanged a syllable with the +female members of his party, and when the play was over he darted from +his seat and departed by a side entrance, leaving his family to be +conducted from the theatre by their attendants. + + + + + XX + + REVIEW OF THE CONSULAR GUARD. CONVERSATION WITH ONE + OF THE HEADS OF THE REPUBLIC, RESPECTING BONAPARTE + + +I wish to describe a grand review of the Consular Guard, which took +place on the Place du Carrousel, at this very Easter-tide--a review of +which so much has been said all over Europe. It is really nothing more +nor less than a parade, for not a single evolution is made. Indeed, if +it were wished to make an evolution the size and situation of the Place +du Carrousel would not admit it. + +The order in which the troops are disposed shows the impossibility +of manœuvring them, for the place in which 6000 men, horse and foot, +besides artillery, are collected, is not so large as our Horse Guards +Parade at Whitehall. + +The review really consists in the First Consul, his generals, his +aides-de-camp and his Mamelukes, trotting very fast through the lines. +He then takes his station in front of the gates of the Tuileries, and +the troops pass him in quick time, afterwards filing off to their +respective quarters. + +In order that I may give a clear idea of this military show, I will +briefly state the order in which the troops take their positions and +move from the ground. + +A battalion of Grenadiers, with their band, is stationed from the left +corner of the Tuileries to the Palace door, from the right corner to +the same door is another battalion of Grenadiers, called the Column +of Granite, because at the battle of Marengo, “firm as adamant,” they +withstood the charges of Austrian cavalry. About sixteen paces in front +the first line commences with a battalion of Invalids, without a band +or even pipes, having only half a dozen drums attached to it. Next to +these are two battalions composed of select troops from the line. An +intervening space of thirty-six paces here occurs, when another line of +infantry, composed of two heavy battalions without music, extend along +the whole area. Behind these are two regiments of Hussars. A little +on their side at the right two troops of flying Artillery, and then +the famous regiment of Guides, commanded by Eugène de Beauharnais[1] +(the Consul’s step-son) surnamed the Casse Cous, because they are said +neither to give nor receive quarter. Opposite this corps, at the other +extremity of the lines and under the Gallery of the Louvre, stands the +corps of Mamelukes--they retain their national costume, and every means +is employed to attach them to the interests of the French people--which +they are made to believe are identical with those of their Mussulman +Caliph. + +Three generals of division commanded the Consular troops under +Bonaparte, who reserves to himself the chief command. + +As soon as the First Consul had mounted Marengo, the drums beat a +tattoo, and the men shouldered arms. + +[Sidenote: BONAPARTE] + +Preceded by several Mamelukes and four aides-de-camp in superb Hussar +uniforms, he rode at full trot through the lines. When he returned +to the centre a detachment from an Artillery corps, now serving in +Italy, marched up to the Consul to receive their standard. It was +held by a sergeant. The Consul made them a short speech, ordering +them to swear they would rather die than abandon it. The infantry +guard then passed before the Consul, beginning with the battalion of +Invalids and ending with the Column of Granite, then came the Flying +Artillery, the regiments of Horse, and, last of all, the regiment of +Guides, beyond comparison the finest corps, whether for men or horses, +I ever beheld, their Colonel, Beauharnais, being the handsomest young +man amongst them. This regiment is dressed in green, as Hussars, and +wheeled with uncommon precision and velocity. The Column of Granite +was the only battalion which seemed to pay any attention to distance +or time; its sections wheeled and performed like a piece of machinery, +but all the other battalions were remarkably deficient in this branch +of discipline. I remarked to a French general upon the slovenly manner +in which those battalions wheeled; he nodded assent to the observation, +remarking shrewdly and wisely: “It is of no matter of consequence, they +know how to fight.” + +As soon as the last section had passed, the Consul, who seemed to be +in a very ill-humour, rode to the door of the Palace, dismounted and +disappeared. He was not in a general’s uniform, but wore the same dress +as that in which he appeared on the morning of the procession to Nôtre +Dame. + +Upon the whole, I cannot say that this review answered my expectations. +The troops were tall and well-clothed. The cavalry were magnificently +mounted, and made a noble appearance, but still the _tout +ensemble_ did not excite my admiration to a very great extent. + +While Bonaparte was passing the lines, one of my acquaintance +exultingly turned to me and said: “Voilà le maître de la terre!” +Several English gentlemen, who were not very distant from me, made +themselves conspicuous by their ecstatic exclamations of adulation +towards Bonaparte, one of them, a person of rank and fortune, bawling +out loud enough to be heard by fifty people, “By G--d! this man +deserves to govern the world!” + +On our return from the parade, we went into a large party of ladies +and gentlemen, among whom were several members of the Government. One +of them took me aside; he questioned me as to the state of feeling in +England on the subject of the peace, and asked me whether I read with +attention the English papers. Upon my answering in the affirmative, +he remarked that though the liberty of the Press was an essential +principle of our British Constitution, persons in foreign countries +were often exposed to the highest and most malignant censures from its +abuse. I now understood the drift of his conversation and observed +that natives of England, as well as foreigners, frequently had to +smart under the lash of the British Press and that no one had been +more severely handled (on some occasions) than myself. I explained +that we in England never noticed those things, unless by retorting +upon our opponents through the medium of the Press. He then said with +some hesitation: “I have excellent authority for saying that the First +Consul is incensed beyond measure at the liberties taken with his +character and government in the English papers.” “If that be all,” I +replied, “his anger will not go down with the sun, for I may venture +to promise him an unceasing fire from the British Press as long as he +discloses an ambition that is fatal to the security of Europe.” “And to +France,” he exclaimed. Then taking me by the arms, he said with great +energy, “When, my dear friend, you return to England, animate every +person concerned in the public journals to give him no quarter. It is +only through the medium of your papers that we know our situation; the +sound philosophy of your principles (meaning the English nation’s) will +finally rescue France from slavery.” Having uttered these words under +strong symptoms of agitation, he left the room. + +[Sidenote: ENGLISHMEN AND FIRST CONSUL] + +Thunderstruck and confounded at this unexpected termination of our +discourse, I was for a moment at a loss what to think and how to act, +when fortunately the ex-Director Barthélémi came up and asked whether +I was pleased with the review. This made me recover my senses, and I +was enabled to enter into genial conversation. I was introduced to +Archbishop Faesh,[1] Bonaparte’s uncle; and to Visconti,[1] but the +only news they communicated were the details of the operations in San +Domingo, brought home by Jerome Bonaparte. We soon afterwards left the +party. I conveyed the ladies back to the hotel, and then drove to the +house of the person with whom I have been engaged in the conversation +related above. + +He received me with great consideration and politeness, and stated how +happy he was to be able to confer with me alone, as it was not safe to +enter into particular details in a mixed assembly. I agreed with him, +and he immediately entered more fully into the subject. + +He told me that there were at present in France several Englishmen +employed by the First Consul to write against our Government and in +support of his (Bonaparte’s) administration. That an Englishman named +Joliffe was employed by Monsieur de Talleyrand to translate all the +articles in our newspapers which had any reference to France, and +that Talleyrand carried them to Bonaparte as regularly as he did his +official despatches. He mentioned the names of several other Englishmen +employed by the Consul for similar purposes, among whom were Messrs. +Morgan, Stone and Dr. Watson. + +The two objects he seemed extremely anxious to impress upon me were, +first that the Government and person of Bonaparte ought to inspire us +with extreme aversion, but secondly that we ought to abstain rigidly +from involving ourselves in another war with him. + +These points seemed rather paradoxical, and I asked how Great Britain +would be compromised in case of a renewal of the war. To this he +answered that 50,000 or 60,000 such military automatons as I had seen +to-day were always ready to execute without reflection or care whatever +orders the First Consul might issue. Then, again, the violent spirit +of Bonaparte was greatly to be dreaded. In case of a war between +England and France he would infallibly attack some of the weaker Powers +of Europe under the pretext that they favoured our cause. Upon my +expressing my astonishment that an enlightened nation should passively +submit to a system of tyranny which they disapproved of, and that +himself, who had so great an influence, together with many of his +colleagues, were taking no steps to abridge the power of this Corsican, +he observed with great feeling: “The Revolution was made _for_ the +people, but not _by_ the people. The principles of philosophy upon +which it was founded have been trampled under foot by the military, +and under every form of our government they have been masters. Whoever +got possession of the power of the sword ruled and rules the Republic. +France is the prize of generals whom our folly has placed on too high +an eminence.” + +The conversation was next resumed on the dissatisfaction which the +government of Bonaparte had occasioned throughout the Republic; and of +my speaking favourably of the character, abilities and influence of +Moreau,[1] he differed from me, and observed that General Moreau was a +man of passive qualities, destitute of energy to undertake any grand +political scheme. His chief employment consisted in reading all the +military memoirs and books which had ever been written and playing with +his pretty wife. + +Upon the whole, after a conversation of about three hours, he ended +the dialogue by observing that he was at a loss whether to think war +or peace would be most favourable to the views of those who wished +the destruction of Bonaparte. He urged me, however, on my return to +England, that I should describe in the Press the horrible state of +slavery to which “Le Petit Caporal” had reduced the French. After +having solemnly enjoined me to be very guarded in my expressions during +my stay in France, we took leave of each other. The sentiments I have +detailed being those of a distinguished member of the Government, what +must be those of the people? + + + + + XXI + + VISIT TO DAVID. ACCOUNT OF HIS PAINTINGS. + + +[Sidenote: DAVID’S STUDIO] + +We have just returned from passing a very agreeable evening at the +apartments of David,[1] in the Louvre. It seemed strange to find myself +under the roof of a man who actually signed a warrant for my arrest +some years ago. But in this capital these are things of course, and +it would have been quite natural in 1793 for me to dine with him, and +he had sent me the same evening to prison and two days later to the +guillotine. The fact is we were very desirous of seeing this man, +both on account of his political character and his reputation as the +first artist in France. We were received by Madame David and her two +daughters with great politeness, and Citizen David comported himself as +an human being. + +I met in this society a number of intelligent and respectable +characters, and had several opportunities of entering into conversation +with Monsieur David. The names of several English and French artists +were mentioned, but he never condescended to make an observation about +them. + +His lady frequently desired me to give my opinion of his celebrated +picture of the Sabines, and she assured me it would be a good +speculation to purchase it for exhibition in London. The price is £5000! + +I have heard much of the character, public and private, of M. David, +and it is but an act of justice to declare that amidst the most +unfavourable circumstances that hover over his public life, I have not +been able to trace any relative to his private reputation. + +The picture of the Sabines, which is now publicly exhibited in the +ancient Academy of Architecture, is considered by David as his +masterpiece, and he grounds its character principally on the persons +of Hersillia, Tatius and Romulus. Poussin has pencilled the Rape of +the Sabine women, but David has chosen the sequel of the story at the +moment when the Sabine women rush between the two hostile armies for +the purpose of reconciling the Roman and Sabine soldiers. + +The two chiefs, Romulus and Tatius, are about to engage in single +combat, the former, while holding his uplifted javelin in his right +hand, in the attitude of preparing to hurl at his antagonist, his left +is concealed under a broad shield, which also covers the left part +of his body; on his head he wears a splendid helmet, a shoulder-belt +suspends his sword, and his feet are laced with sandals. + +In every other respect he is painted stark naked. Tatius is displayed +full to the view _in puris naturalibus_. He also wears not only a +helmet and sandals, but carries a shield and a scarlet mantle buckled +upon the breast, but so contrived as to exhibit his whole body in a +state of nature. + +Between these two figures stands Hersillia; she is robed in white _à +la grecque_, in other words according to the present fashion. Her +hair hangs dishevelled over her shoulders. At her feet lie her two +naked infants. In the centre ground groups of Sabine women are seen, +carrying their naked infants amidst heaps of dead and horses furious in +combat. Others are placing their children at the feet of the soldiers +of both armies, who struck with the sight ground their spears. The +general of the horse sheathes his sword. Numbers of soldiers wave their +helmets as a signal of peace. The walls of Rome form the background. +These are all the circumstances connected with the picture. I must now +give M. David’s vindication of the nakedness of his heroes. + +[Sidenote: DAVID’S STUDIO] + +“It was a received custom among the painters, statuaries and poets of +antiquity to represent naked their gods, heroes, and in general all +those whom they intended to illustrate. If they painted a philosopher, +he was naked with a cloak over his shoulders and the attributes of his +character; if a warrior, he was likewise naked except for a helmet on +his head, a shield on his arm and sandals on his feet; sometimes they +added drapery to give grace to the figure.” + +Among the many paintings we had seen from his hand his “Horatii” is +by far the most striking and most justly executed. Those which were +hastily drawn for days of ceremonies, in order to be exposed in the +open air, are on an immense scale and are not less horrible to the +sight than the objects which they were designed to represent were +terrific to the mind. He has also drawn the figure of Bonaparte on +horseback, at the passage of S. Gothard, for which he received one +thousand pounds. + +But the picture which interested me most was the representation +of the Deputies of the Tiers Etats assembled at Versailles while +their President is reading the Declaration of the Rights of Man. +The portraits of some of the members were astonishingly striking, +particularly those of Mirabeau and Barnave; in most, however, Citizen +David has failed in the correctness of his representations, especially +in those of Siège and Grégoire. + +The public character of David is well-known and held in general +detestation. In the course of my conversation with him I once took a +favourable opportunity of asking whether he recollected having signed +a warrant for my arrest. To these questions he simply replied that it +was impossible for him to recall to memory all the warrants of arrest +which had been issued at the time he was a member of the Committee of +General Vigilance; that hundreds were sometimes signed in one day, and +that in the _hurry of business_, he had often put his name to +warrants on the reports of his colleagues. I remarked that through this +_hurry_ of business a great deal of injustice had been committed. + +This he frankly confessed, but defended the measures by the old plea: +“What could we do surrounded by traitors, who were paid by Pitt and his +government to sap the foundations of the Republic?” I could not help +observing that the conduct of the Committee reminded me of the hangman +in an English play, who states to his friends, that having a great deal +upon his hands one day in the hurry of business whipped the rope round +a bystander’s neck, and did not discover his mistake until a full hour +after the man had been hanging. + +Whenever the atrocities of the different rulers of France are made the +subjects of inquiry, I have always found the same language employed +to extenuate the guilt of their principal agents. Murders, rapes, +burnings, proscriptions and pillage are all laid upon the Revolution, +which is a generic term for every species of crime; but the agents, the +authors of these horrors, remain unmolested and riot in the blood and +tears they have caused to flow. + +If it be necessary to offer an apology for deeds of blood, the gold of +Pitt is displayed in all its wonder-working efficacy; if the murder of +an innocent person be lamented, we are instantly told he was an agent +of Pitt. + +However penitent some of these miscreants may affect to be, their +example does not appear to be followed by David. In general he is +silent and reserved upon political subjects. Nothing seems to distress +him more than the recollection of the conventional period. But his +distress arises not from the awakening voice of nature, nor from the +reproaches of an accusing conscience. It originates in idea that the +days of blood and proscriptions are no more. + +I am convinced that David regrets the halcyon times when thousands were +butchered to illustrate the reign of liberty and equality. Speaking +of St. Just,[1] the hated Decemvir, he declared: “Notwithstanding the +fate of that _unfortunate_ young man and the _prejudices_ +entertained against him, he was véritablement à la hauteur de la +Revolution.” In an unguarded moment he proceeded to pour forth the +bloody sentiments of his ferocious soul. + +[Sidenote: CHARACTER OF DAVID] + +He did not scruple to avow that the Committee of Public Safety had +been the saviours of France and the founders of her gigantic empire; +and after a flourish on the civil wars and massacres attendant on the +acquisition of our English freedom, said it was impossible to establish +a Republic except by wading through seas of blood. + +I asked him whether it was true that a project had been in +contemplation to reduce the population of France to one-third of its +present number. He answered that it had been seriously discussed, and +that Dubois Croucé was the author. + +M. David, like every other Frenchman, is utterly ignorant of the nature +of the liberty we enjoy and of all our institutions. + +They have not a conception of the possibility of freedom existing in +any state with a monarch at its head; with them there is not a vestige +of liberty among any people who have not high-sounding Roman titles. + +In the same measure they cannot comprehend the being of that middle +class of society which constitutes the bulwark of our isle. According +to their notions of Britain, a man must be noble or a pauper. + +Thanks to our barbarous forefathers we have the whole essence of +regulated freedom, without the gilded terms of Roman despotism; we +have gothic names for the enjoyment of an enlightened people. David +recognises no freedom that is not open to holy insurrection against +established authority. Wherever shrieks of murder and the notes of +the trumpet are not heard, there can be no liberty. A person who is +conversant in the science of physiognomy would pronounce the character +of this monster at first sight. With a hideous wen upon his lip, which +shows his teeth and for ever marks him with the snarling grin of a +tiger--with features and eyes which denote a lust for massacre, he is a +savage by instinct and an assassin by rule. He is an atheist in faith +and practice, and a murderer by choice. + +While he was a member of the Committee of Public Safety and General +Vigilance, his greatest pleasure consisted in frequenting the prison, +where he feasted his eyes upon those who were condemned to die and +loaded the unhappy victims with imprecations. It was his constant +practice to call every morning at the prisons to inquire how many were +to be guillotined, and on being told one day that there were sixteen, +he instantly exclaimed in a furious attitude: “How, only sixteen! The +Republic is undone!” + +Retributive justice eventually overtook David, and he was committed +to prison in order to be tried for his life. After he had lain some +time in jail, two individuals sent to inform him that they were +commissioned by certain persons in England to save his life. A powerful +interposition did take place, and he was restored to liberty. Some time +after he was officially informed (I heard this from his own mouth) that +he was wholly indebted to the English for his life and liberation. + +I endeavoured in vain to persuade him that if this were true it must +have been the work of private friendship or some ardent admirer of +his distinguished talents. He persisted in the belief that it was the +interference of the English Government which saved him, notwithstanding +the obvious improbability of such an occurrence. + +When we perceive on all sides in France at the present day nothing but +the ruins of religion and morality, it is a relief to the soul and a +debt of justice due to an innocent family to describe them as they are, +devoid of guile and unstained with their father’s crimes. + +Madame David, during the Terror, retired with her children to a country +residence, where she lived in ignorance of her husband’s conduct in +Paris. She was what the French then termed an aristocrat, that is an +honest loyal woman, who believed in God, loved good order and cherished +the affections of domestic life. + +[Sidenote: MADAME DAVID] + +The French Revolution has produced many amazons and many female +philosophers, who have died cursing God and man. It has also exhibited +magnificent traits of female heroism, and the scaffold has reddened +with the blood of women who have sacrificed their private interests +for the public cause. But Madame David in her way is as great a heroine +as any of these. As soon as the intelligence reached her that her +husband was in prison and about to be tried for his life, she forgot at +once the religious and political differences which had estranged her +from him, and set off instantly for Paris, making herself the companion +of his misfortunes. + +During the whole period of his confinement, at the risk of arrest on +suspicion, she was assiduous in her attendance upon him, and spared no +expense to procure him all the comforts of which his situation would +admit. She was also unceasing in her work to save him. Every day she +was to be seen at the different bureaus or at the houses of the men in +power, entreating and even intriguing for her husband. It may be justly +questioned whether David does not owe his life to her exertions rather +than those of some English emissary. + +Of the rest of the family I can speak in equal terms of respect. His +daughters are modest and prepossessing, and their good sense is as +marked as their good manners. The son devotes his whole time to a study +of the Greek language, in which he is in a fair way of excelling. Once +a week he has a conversazione, at which every respectable native of +Greece, resident in Paris, is invited, as well as all who cultivate +Greek literature. + +His Attic conversations are extremely well attended, for I have met +there Villaison, Viscomti, Mangez,[1] Cornus,[1] Bitaubé,[1] and +Larcher. As soon as young David has completed his course of Greek +studies he intends to proceed to Greece, and the islands of the +neighbouring Archipelago, from whence he will pass over into the Troad +and visit Asia Minor. + + + + + XXII + + EXCURSION TO RINCY. AMUSEMENTS OF THE + VILLAGES ON SUNDAY EVENING + + +The late Duke of Orléans owned Rincy, and took great pains to arrange +his park and garden in the English taste. Since his death it has fallen +into decay, but the Parisians frequent it on Sunday, much as our +Londoners regale themselves at Richmond or at Greenwich Parks. + +We departed at an early hour, accompanied by Mrs. Cosway. Rincy is +thirteen miles from the capital and situated on the Strasburg road. On +our journey we met two open carts filled with criminals, principally +robbers, who were under their way to the metropolis under an escort of +gens d’armes. The first cart contained two captains of those predatory +bands of thieves who infest the Departments near the Rhine, and of +whose exploits such terrible accounts have been given. One of them +seemed to be placed in an unusually conspicuous position, so that he +might be easily recognised. He was extraordinarily tall, and under an +immense round hat exhibited features almost equalling in ferocity those +of the painter David. + +It seemed incomprehensible that the Government should go to the expense +and inconvenience of transporting these wretches 200 miles from the +theatre of their crimes, in order to take their trials before the +criminal tribunal in Paris, where all witnesses for and against could +only be produced at a very great public cost. When I returned to +Paris I attempted to probe this matter to the bottom, when the only +_rational_ answer I obtained was that the citizens of Paris were +fond of seeing the execution of great criminals! I suggested that this +taste for blood might be as easily gratified if the culprits were +transferred after their conviction to the Parisian guillotine, having +been first tried in the Department where their crimes were committed. I +was told, however, the effect would not be the same. + +[Sidenote: THE CHÂTEAU OF RINCY] + +I resume my narrative. We had hitherto been favoured with fine weather, +but just as we arrived at the gates of the château a heavy shower of +rain began to fall--the coachman desired the woman to open the gates, +which she bluntly refused to do unless we produced a permit from the +present proprietor. Upon which I held out “un petit écu,” and received +this reply from the female citizen: “C’est impossible, monsieur, ce +n’est pas une affaire du gouvernement!” A more open and honest avowal +of the venality of the present government of France was impossible. + +But a further parley and exhibition of our papers of identity effected +what bribery could not accomplish, and we were suffered eventually to +pass. + +Just at the entrance of the park is a traiteur’s (or restaurant), +where, it being Sunday, many of the bourgeois of Paris were regaling +themselves. The grounds themselves resemble an Englishman’s park. +It has, of course, suffered from the effects of the Revolution, but +enough remains to indicate that it was once a most voluptuous spot. The +château unhappily is demolished, and the massive pillars lie broken +and dispersed upon the ground. The lodge is repairing for the actual +proprietor, a wealthy Parisian merchant and the present keeper of +Madame Tallien, the wife of the Conventional butcher of Bordeaux. + +Opposite to this edifice stand the stables, in a tolerably good state +of preservation. The gravel walks are in good order, the fountains, +aqueducts and basins in a complete state, and the copses and woods have +not been cut down. The magnificent dairy is untouched, and at the top +of the hill which overlooks the park, the Sunday excursionists amuse +themselves by wandering in a labyrinth and surveying the “jets d’eau” +which are continually playing. + +In ascending the hill we found a pretty cottage, at the door of which +stood a man whose physiognomy announced his English extraction. He +also perceived we were English and invited us in our own language +to rest in his house. His name is Hudson, he was gamekeeper to the +late Duke of Orleans for fourteen years, and had accompanied him from +England on the occasion of that Prince’s visit when Duc de Chartres to +our country. He had a son of about ten years of age, who spoke English +and French with equal facility. The extreme neatness of the little +cottage showed it was not inhabited by a Frenchman--everything was +arranged in English fashion. A fine ham was on the table and several +flitches of bacon decorated the ceiling. During Robespierre’s reign +Hudson was imprisoned, and was to have been executed, but the death of +that monster happily intervening, he was liberated. + +Hudson made many affectionate and respectful inquiries after the +young Princes of the House of Orleans, and was very particular in his +questions respecting the Count of Beaujolais, whom he had taught to +ride, and for whom he seemed to entertain a great affection. He did not +appear the least disposed to quit France, nor to leave the situation he +now holds under another master. He consoles himself with the idea “that +things are coming round again as they were before the Revolution, and +he hoped he should do as well at Rincy under the new proprietor as he +did under the late Duke.” He is one of those beings who are satisfied +with any master so long as he is well provided for. + +I inquired for the celebrated breed of merino sheep, and was told the +whole flock had been removed to Rambouillet. We then retired to the +traiteur’s, where we were provided with an excellent dinner; and after +eating it, while the horses were harnessing, entered into conversation +with an old man who had formerly received a pension from the late Duke, +and who now, with so many others, was quite destitute. + +[Sidenote: THE PANTHEON] + +Most bitterly did he deplore the Revolution and curse its abettors. We +were surprised to find nearly all the people at Rincy speak of the late +Duke in terms of deep regret. On our return to Paris we were serenaded +in every village, and twice alighted to watch the diversions of the +peasants. At one place they were dancing by moonlight on a green, and +at another in a large room lighted for the purpose. They were neatly +dressed in their Sunday clothes, and seemed to enjoy their sports. We +did not pass a single village where there was not a rural ball; and on +the left of the high road a great number of rooms were lighted in which +suppers were preparing for the dancers. These rooms were interspersed +among the trees and gave a pleasing and lively appearance. + +Such innocent diversions reminded us of the old days of France, when +the country people were remarkable for their innocent gaiety and +good-natured mirth; as the sweet poet sings: + + “Gay sprightly land of mirth and social ease, + Pleased with itself, whom all the world can please, + Alike all ages. Dames of ancient days + Have led their children through the mirthful maze, + And the gay grandsire, skilled in jestic lore, + Has frisked beneath the burden of fourscore.” + + GOLDSMITH’S _Traveller_. + + + + + XXIII + + THE PANTHEON AND ITS LIBRARY. HALLE AU BLED. + THE SORBONNE. OBSERVATIONS + + +In 1793 a visit to the Pantheon in the Rue St. Jacques was considered +a duty for every patriot, who thus made a pilgrimage to the shrines of +the departed saints of Liberty. It was an affecting sight to behold the +regenerated children of freedom besmeared with blood and their feverish +heads covered with _bonnets rouges_, descending into the vaults +where the remains of their Satanic hierarchs reposed, and invoking, by +the glimmering light of funeral torches, the shades of Marat and le +Pelletier,[1] St. Fargeon. + +In the more rational and early part of the Revolution this place +was consecrated to the memory of those who by their genius, their +discoveries, or their civil and military services, had contributed to +raise the prosperity of their country. France, in St. Denis, possessed +a Royal Mausoleum, but she was destitute of a cemetery for her national +benefactors, and nothing could therefore be more laudable than the +appropriation of the vaults (for this purpose) of one of the finest +churches in Christendom, and accordingly this church of St. Geneviève +was selected for this purpose. But this Christian temple was soon +converted into a temple of Paganism, and its name changed to a heathen +one, while instead of becoming an offertory to genius, its vaults +became the receptacle of the bodies of bloody-minded maniacs. + +I remember to have seen the tombs of Voltaire[1] and Mirabeau at the +extremity of these caverns, and they were the _only great men_ +who, in 1792, were judged worthy of being pantheonised. The remains +of the latter were soon disturbed, for after the deposition of the +King, he was suspected of being a Royalist and therefore a traitor to +that Republic which, at the time of his death, was nonexistent. The +relics of the Man of the People were therefore removed and flung into +the Seine. But the ashes of Voltaire, the economist of monarchical +government, the flatterer of kings, a determined aristocrat and a man +who entertained as hearty a contempt for republican institutions as +does Bonaparte himself, were left to moulder undisturbed. + +[Sidenote: VOLTAIRE] + +If I am not mistaken, Voltaire would, I am persuaded, had he lived +in these times, have been the panegyrist of Bonaparte. Such a man as +the First Consul would have captured the senses of the Philosopher of +Fernay, and the declarations of this affected Mussulman delighted the +eulogist of Mahomet. + +Whoever is acquainted with the writings of Voltaire must perceive that +the vivacity of his imagination carries him beyond himself. Acute, +penetrating and ingeniously sceptical, no man was more easily deceived +by appearances. A successful usurper and a great man were, in his mind, +identical; with him goodness and greatness were correlative terms. The +vilest scoundrel on earth, if possessed of Imperial power, is a great +man. Hence we find Voltaire calumniating Constantine because he was a +convert to Christianity and complimenting the most perfidious, cruel +and barbarous conquerors because they were not Christians; extolling +the licentious despotism of a puny tyrant of France, because infidelity +flourished in his court and camp and publicly avowing that no conqueror +existed without being at the same time a man of good understanding. + +The legislators of modern France, I am convinced, never read with any +attention the works of Voltaire, much less penetrated the spirit and +object of his compositions. They denominated him a Republican simply +because Condorcet[1] commented on Voltaire’s atheistical doctrines +from the tribune of the Convention, and because they were not able to +distinguish a desire to sap the foundations of Christian belief from a +love of anarchy and misrule. Voltaire was the champion of kings, but +the implacable enemy of priests. + +From the private correspondence of Voltaire, it is evident he held in +utter contempt the applause of the multitude. He aspired to obtain the +suffrages of the great and to make proselytes of kings, countries, +statesmen, women who possessed an influence over public men, and these +personages he flattered unceasingly. The _kind_ of revolution he +wanted to establish was as distinct from Jacobinism as true liberty +from licentiousness. I do not wish it to be understood from this remark +that I approve of the work of Voltaire, nor do I deny that he planted +the seeds of that irreligious movement which in France has proved a +powerful auxiliary to political disorder. Voltaire neither loved nor +understood liberty, he treated with contempt the Parliaments and +States-General of France; he apostrophised civil despotism wherever it +despises religion, and criticised Montesquieu without understanding him. + +Such was the man whose bones were unmolested, while the great advocate +of Public Freedom was committed to the muddy waters of the Seine. +I have had many conversations with Mirabeau, and I am certain that +although no Republican, he did not detest a Republican system of +government. The portals of the Pantheon, after the removal of the +body of Mirabeau, were opened to receive the corrupt carcase of that +miserable little demoniac, Marat, and a multitude of other sages, +who had rendered themselves, by their villainies, their buffooneries +and their insanities, worthy of immortality. Later on Marat was +unpantheonised and tossed into the public sewer, and I apprehend the +greater number of the men whom their grateful country has canonised +in this polluted Temple have been served a similar trick; for upon +inquiring on our visit there we learnt that there were _no_ +immortals at present in preservation. + +There is nothing, therefore, now (1802) to be seen in Ste. Geneviève +but ruins; it has sunk considerably, and fresh supports have been +placed to the foundations. The edifice, commenced thirty years ago, is +not finished. We were warned it was not safe to traverse the interior; +we did, however, cross two of the naves, though repeatedly warned to +desist. Behind the church is the cloister, in which there is a library +of 30,000 volumes open all day for the use of the public. It is kept in +great order and decorated with a multitude of busts of the literati of +France, and at the extremity is a glass case containing a model of the +city of Rome. + +Dannon, an ex-legislator, is the principal librarian. + +The next object we visited was the Halle au Bled, or corn market. This +is a very interesting place--both on account of the different species +of corn offered for sale and of the vast cupola which covers the whole +of the market. This cupola is the largest in France, and its diameter +is 120 feet--only 13 feet less than that of the Pantheon at Rome, +considered the greatest in the world. The vast Doric column employed +the genius of Catherine de Medici, who believed in both astrology and +magic. There are several allegorical figures upon it which denote the +Queen’s widowhood. The world cannot produce such another extraordinary +spectacle. The dome is constructed with finely ornamented wood, and so +contrived that each partition is supported by another; there are no +pillars used to uphold the fabric. + +[Sidenote: SORBONNE AND OBSERVATORY] + +The word Sorbonne recalls to my mind that of the Inquisition. In the +hall of these controversialists, it has solemnly been discussed whether +black was not white, assassination has been alternately extolled and +condemned. The same doctrines have been deemed heretical and orthodox, +according to the circumstances of the times. I have no other word to +say respecting the Sorbonne, except that it exhibits nothing now but +bare walls and ruins, and is scarcely worth the trouble of a visit. + +The National Observatory is situated near the Rue S. Jacques; it was +erected by Perrault, who was a better architect than an astronomer. +The meridian line is traced along the great hall of the first storey. +Under the edifice are subterranean caves or catacombs, which form a +labyrinth from which no stranger can hope to extricate himself without +the services of a guide. + +The rooms are bare and destitute of furniture or accommodation for +those who ought to assemble in them. + +Cassini, the able director under the Royal Government, was driven away +by the Revolution. No leading astronomers go to this Observatory. + +From the top of the building we had a magnificent view of Paris and its +environs. + +The astronomical instruments are stationed in the great hall, but on +account of the absence of the officials connected with the building we +were unable to examine them or to see the immense telescope. Upon the +whole this edifice is, like all French public buildings, superior in +architecture to anything of the kind in England, but greatly inferior +in _utility_, and far less calculated to answer its object than +that at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, was under the direction of +Dr. Maskelyne.[1] + + + + + XXIV + + EXCURSION TO ST. CLOUD. PORCELAIN MANUFACTORY + AT SÈVE. A DUEL + + +Queen Marie Antoinette paid dearly for the vast sums expended upon this +palace. A fourth part of the money expended upon St. Cloud would have +sufficed to purchase by bribery all the demagogues of France. + +This place derives its name from a very remote antiquity. When the +grandsons of Clovis and Ste. Clotilde were murdered by their ambitious +and unnatural uncles, one (Cleodold) escaped, and was conveyed by his +nurse to a secret place, where he was educated for the priesthood. He +eventually founded a monastery in the vicinity of Paris, called after +him St. Cleodold or St. Cloud. In later years a Royal château was built +upon the same site. Before the Revolution his tomb was still preserved, +inscribed with a very ancient epitaph. + +St. Cloud is about six miles from Paris. The château stands upon an +eminence commanding a full view of the capital and adjacent country; +and the Seine, which widens at this point, meanders slowly beside the +grove of trees planted along the banks. During the life of the Queen, +the paintings in the gallery, the magnificence of the furniture in all +the apartments, and the beauty of the walks, waters and cascades, made +St. Cloud a most attractive spot. But the paintings and furniture were +destroyed, and the place is now fitted up in a most costly style for +the residence of the First Consul. + +It is his intention to hold his Court here occasionally, and to enrich +it with some choice pictures from the gallery in the Louvre. I have +been informed that he intends to make it the depôt for all the gold +and silver utensils which he stole out of private houses during the +campaign in Italy. + +[Sidenote: ST. CLOUD] + +A considerable quantity of Church plate which he purloined he has sent +to a silversmith’s to be melted, and afterwards wrought into salvers +and other domestic vessels, marked with his initials, so that the +Consular family will always be served upon gold and silver plates and +dishes. + +The cascades of St. Cloud are perfectly preserved, and they play once +a month for the amusement of the Parisian populace. The expense of +these exhibitions amounts to £12,750 per annum. The waterworks of +Marli, which originally cost £200,000 sterling, are to be destroyed in +order to increase the celebrity of those which ornament the Consular +residence. + +I have more than once had occasion to animadvert on the facilities open +to licentiousness and debauchery in almost every place of public resort +in Paris. There is a circumference of wickedness traced within twelve +miles of this metropolis, seemingly on purpose to prevent unwary youth +from escaping the bonds of infection. No repose or time for reflection +is allowed to the voluptuous inhabitant of Paris. Of this melancholy +truth the detail of what I saw in the village of St. Cloud is a proof. + +This place being in the vicinity of Paris, and only a pleasant +promenade from that capital, it is frequented by the Sunday devotees +of pleasure. It is chiefly the resort of young persons of both sexes, +who, after wandering about the charming walks, retire to an auberge at +the foot of the bridge where there are a number of little hermitages in +which they procure refreshments. These hermitages, though in the style +of English tea-gardens, are refinements on the dull insipid morality of +British rural architecture, because in France it is a prevailing maxim +that elegant vice is preferable to dull virtue. + +Into one of these little boxes we were ushered for the purpose of +taking refreshment. After we had rested awhile I perceived a small door +which excited my curiosity; I opened it, when, behold!... Confounded +at what I saw, I resolved to find out whether we might not have been +introduced into this hut by mistake; but, after examining at least +twenty others, I found they were precisely upon the same plan and with +the same views, only a few of them surpassed the others in decoration +and scenery. + +I inquired of the mistress of the place why so many little bedrooms +were annexed to these boxes; she replied coolly that they were for the +accommodation of such ladies and gentlemen who came to St. Cloud, and +who desired a private _tête-à-tête_. + +We then visited the celebrated porcelain manufactory of Sève, which +is at all times open to public inspection. The range of apartments in +which the porcelain is exhibited is extensive. A few groups of figures +are in glass cases, but all the other articles exposed to the touch of +the visitor. The price is affixed to each article, and no abatement +whatever is made to purchasers. + +The trade in porcelain, we are told, has for long been dull and heavy, +but it is expected the general peace will open a vent for the sale of +these articles. + +The highest price of any article we saw was £20 sterling for a single +plate, a price we thought exorbitant. + +I maintain that the porcelain manufactured at Derby will stand a +comparison with that at Sève. If the latter be more pellucid and +delicate in its white colour, the finishing of the figures is equal, if +not superior, at the former. I saw some years ago at Derby a dessert +service manufactured for the Prince of Wales, and I did not find +anything so beautifully executed at Sève. + +[Sidenote: NEGLECT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION] + +We thoroughly examined this elegant exhibition, and were received with +great politeness and attention. We then returned by the walks of St. +Cloud, and drove off to Paris through the Bois de Boulogne. + +On our way we saw several persons carrying the dead body of General +d’Estaing,[1] who had just been shot by General Regnier[1] in a duel. +The cause of the quarrel arose in Egypt, where both officers served +with distinction. D’Estaing was an able man, and is much regretted; +but Regnier is possessed of very splendid abilities and an acute and +penetrating genius, as is shown in the admirable account he has sent +the Agricultural Society concerning the state of agriculture in Egypt. +This unfortunate affair does not excite the sensation here that the +death of a fighting booby does in London. Duelling is by no means +so frequent as under the Monarchy, the point of honour being little +understood by the Republican nobles. + + + + + XXV + + ESTABLISHMENTS FOR PUBLIC INSTRUCTIONS. + THE MILITARY SCHOOL. THE CHAMPS DE MARS. + THE GOBELIN MANUFACTORY. + THE HÔTEL DE VILLE AND THE GARDE MEUBLE + + +In old France there were more universities, colleges and public schools +than in any other part of the world. All these were overthrown by the +Jacobin Revolution, and the funds allotted to their support squandered +on the adventurers who figured and still figure on the theatre of the +French Republic. + +To this hour there is no general plan of education in the country. +There are only three central schools in Paris, and their organisation +is essentially defective. + +Abstract sciences and history fill up the whole course of education +until the pupil is eighteen years of age. + +Geography is not taught; there is no professor of foreign languages, +and only one lecturer upon the ancient and classical tongues, who once +a week reads aloud a discourse rather for his own amusement than for +the advantage of his pupils. + +In consequence of these arrangements the understanding of the scholar +is never exercised. To teach the abstract sciences to boys merely +by reading dissertations to them is much the same as to attempt the +demonstration of a problem by Euclid without pen, ink or paper. + +These central schools therefore are no manner of use, they only serve +as a parade of useless erudition on the part of the professor, and +nurse consummate ignorance and vanity in the students who attend them. + +However, when the pupils have somehow or other gone through their +classes, they are removed to the Polytechnic school, which is the +Parisian University. + +About 400 boys are here finishing at this Polytechnic school, +laboratories, mechanical workshops and philosophical apparatus are +provided for the use of the pupils. + +If a young person is ambitious of acquiring the elements of science, +he must work at home and pay his own masters, for the central schools +cannot possibly render him any useful assistance. When he has +educated himself he may possibly derive some advantage from attending +the lectures of certain Professors. They are the following. In the +Geographical School, the science of geography is well taught, but +only twenty pupils are admitted to this establishment. The School of +Roads and Bridges is also a very useful institution. It was founded +by M. Prony[1] during the Monarchy, thirty-six Polytechnicians are +received into this school. The School of Naval Architecture is also an +institution of the old Monarchy. The School of Medicine contains 1000 +students, twenty professors, a modeller in wax and a designer. There +is a school of pharmacy, a mineral school and a veterinary school at +Alfort near Charenton. + +But the most important college still remaining is the “Collège de +France,” Place de Cambrai, which has survived the storms of the +Revolution and retains its ancient reputation. It has seventeen +professors, who are all men of the greatest merit and celebrity in the +Republic of letters. + +[Sidenote: CHAMP DE MARS] + +Lalande, perhaps the ablest astronomer in Europe, is the professor of +astronomy; la Croix, a profound geometrician, professor of mathematics; +and my estimable and revered friend, de la Metherie, professor of +natural history. + +These different colleges are supported entirely at the expense of the +State; the professors are paid out of the public revenues, and students +of all ages and countries permitted to consult and attend their +lectures free of any expense. + +But these establishments are not in the least suitable for those who +have not long overstepped the boundaries of elementary knowledge, and +they are beyond the reach of juvenile or vulgar understandings. + +The Ecole Militaire, erected in 1751, after the designs of Gabriel, did +not suffer as a building during the Revolution, because it was used as +a barrack for the troops of the Convention. + +It is now converted into a barrack for the Consular Horse Guards +commanded by Eugène Beauharnais. + +We were permitted to walk round the piazzas that encircle the court, +beneath which soldiers were sleeping in groups. So solemn a silence +reigned through the building we might have fancied ourselves in a +Benedictine monastery. + +The Champs de Mars is by many people mistaken for a Campus Martius, but +the origin of its designation is taken from the fact that this spot was +in early ages used for the holding of those assemblies of the people +which were precursors of the more modern Parliaments. As these meetings +were usually held in the month of March, the places where they were +held were termed the Fields of March. This great enclosure is now one +of the dullest and least frequented spots in Paris. Formerly the Altar +of Federation stood in its centre, but that, with every other ornament +of the Revolution, is now levelled with the ground. + +But when we reflect upon the many philosophical, conventional and +dictatorial antics which have been exhibited and practised here within +the last decade, it is worth the trouble of visiting this place. + +All the blasphemous pantomimes which were performed in commemoration of +the sanguinary freaks of the Republic were represented on the Champs de +Mars. + +The pencil of David has been often employed on the scenery, and the pen +of Chenier ran with blood as he composed the pæans of Jacobinism. + +It was here also that Robespierre, with a lighted torch, set fire +to the altar to the Etre Suprème, while the people shouted “Vive +Robespierre! Vive la Convention!” All this sounds like fiction, and yet +it all took place on this very field. + +The manufactory of Gobelins still exists, though its productions past +and present are in no request and have grown out of fashion. + +During the Monarchy it was a most thriving and prosperous industry, and +a vast number of workmen were employed there. The different apartments +contain many beautiful tapestries, taken from original paintings by +great French artists, but they find no purchasers. + +Nothing can be more exquisite than the colouring and exquisite +workmanship of the articles produced here; a single piece requires +two or three years’ labour. The workmen are not paid more than three +shillings a day for their sedentary and difficult occupation. This is +accounted for by the fact that the Government supports the manufactory, +and that there is no sale whatever for the works. + +Fashions are changing constantly, and perhaps the Gobelins may +again have its day. Gilles Gobelins, a celebrated dyer, erected the +manufactory during the reign of Francis I. + +[Sidenote: HÔTEL DE VILLE] + +The Hôtel de Ville is worthy of a traveller’s attention on account +of its antiquity and its having been the focus of many extraordinary +events. It was built in the middle of the sixteenth century and +contains a great number of apartments. After August 10, 1792, all the +ancient inscriptions and ornaments were taken down and either removed +or destroyed. When the King was brought to Paris from Versailles by the +mob, prepared and hired for that purpose, he was exhibited at one of +the windows to the populace; and Monsieur Bailly, the Mayor, informed +him that it was a fine day, and presented him with the National cockade +instead of a bouquet. + +This is the place where Robespierre first took refuge when he had +been outlawed, and in front of it is the lamp iron from which so many +victims have been suspended. Here the red flag, with the inscription +_Citoyens, la patrie est en danger!_ was first unfurled, to serve +as the signal for massacre, and here the guillotine is preserved for +the inspection of the curious. + +Twelve years ago the Garde Meuble was one of the principal curiosities +which attracted the attention of foreigners. The apartments were filled +with ancient armoury, national and foreign, rare tapestries, after +the cartoons and designs of Dürer, Lucas of Leyden, Julius Romano, +Raphael, le Brun and Coypel; precious vases, presents from ambassadors, +jewels, pearls, diamonds, and a multitude of other rich and valuable +articles. In the month of September 1792, a band of thieves broke into +the halls and carried off a great quantity of these riches, among other +things the Pitt diamond, the largest belonging to the Crown. However, +there are still some precious antiques remaining, such as the sword +of Henry IV., the spontoon of Paul V., and the polished armour worn +by Francis I. at the Battle of Pavia, with which on the day of the +capture of the Bastille a cobbler of the Faubourg St. Antoine, then on +guard, completely caparisoned himself, to the utter astonishment of +the spectators. The exterior of this vast edifice has not suffered by +the blows of the Revolution. It is not yet decided to what purpose the +Government intend to convert it. + + + + + XXVI + + THE CONSERVATORY OF ARTS AND MACHINES + + +THE ravages of the Revolution completely laid waste the whole +of France intellectually, as well as morally, and the labours of +eminent artists and inventors were either suspended or transferred to +foreign countries. + +The murderers of Lavoisier could scarcely be expected to patronise +either arts or useful sciences. + +In the short space of ten years more injury has been done to the useful +arts in France than by all the Alarics and Omars of antiquity. + +However, the Revolutionists had not proceeded very far in the route of +devastation, when a few enlightened men, who perceived the extent of +the mischief threatened to be entailed upon posterity, courageously +opposed their further progress, and adopted the most provident +precautions to stop the fury of the evil. + +Through the indefatigable exertions of Bishop Grégoire the National +Convention on October 11, 1794, decreed the establishment of a +Conservatory of Arts, whose object was to collect machines, utensils, +designs, descriptions and experiments, relating to the improvement +of industry, so as to diffuse some knowledge of them throughout the +Republic. + +But it was one thing to decree and another to execute. By a studied +remissness the law was suspended for three years. National edifices +were granted by dint of favour to useless projectors, but the +Conservatory of Arts could find no place to display its riches and +means of instruction. At length a decree, passed on May 7, appropriated +a portion of the former Abbey of St. Martin des Champs to this object, +and the inadequate sum of 56,000 livres, or £2240 sterling, was voted +for the reparations of the building, the purchase of the land and the +indemnity accorded to the renter. + +[Sidenote: CONSERVATOIRE D’ARTS] + +Thus finally organised, the Conservatory of Arts presents a splendid +accumulation of useful machines, always open for the inspection and +improvement of the public. The machines, which Pajot d’Ozemberg gave to +the ancient Academy of Sciences, and the greater part of the beautiful +models which composed the celebrated gallery of mechanical arts +belonging to the late Duke of Orleans, are now in this Conservatory. +Also the 500 machines bequeathed to the Government by the celebrated +Vaucouson, to whom the French nation is as much indebted as to Olivier +des Serres and Bernard Palissy. + +In addition to these collections there is an infinite number of +machines relative to agricultural labours, such as draining, +irrigation, preparation of oil, &c. + +The Conservatory also contains machines for twisting tobacco, taken +from on board an English vessel, as well as a very important chart of +North America, executed by order of our Government. It has been greatly +enriched by the “_discoveries_” of certain French savans, those +learned robbers of the National Institute who followed the victorious +march of the Republican armies in Holland and Italy. Whole waggon loads +of instruments of science have been filched from their proprietors +and transmitted to this National reservoir by those industrious, +indefatigable and erudite thieves, Citizens Thonin, Fanjos, Leblond, +Bertholet, Barthélémy, Monge, Moitte and De Wailly. + +The object of the Conservatory is not only to secure to the public the +knowledge of those inventions for which the Government has conferred +rewards or granted patents, but also to become the common depot of +all inventions. Thus it is for the useful arts what the Louvre is for +sculpture or painting. + +Upon the whole this Conservatoire d’Arts is one of the most beneficial +and laudable establishments in France. It has a direct tendency to +encourage industry and stimulate genius. Some persons who have not +sufficiently examined the matter object to it on the plea, that by +rendering handicrafts more simple by mechanical force, a multitude of +workmen will be deprived of the means of subsistence. + +Such arguments were used by the watermen of London when Westminster +Bridge was built. + +But the world possesses more scope for labour than it possesses hands, +and the powers of mechanism by simplifying the process of manufacture +also diminish the price of the article, bringing it thereby into +general circulation and opening a more lucrative commerce to a nation +by underselling the produce of foreign countries and so putting an end +to all competition. + +The true principle of public economy begins to be studied in every part +of Europe, and we are making a slow but certain progress in improvement. + +But if the rash spirit of innovation takes possession of the minds of +those who govern mankind, if they will insist on bringing all things +within a punctilious system of rules, they must not be surprised if +their fondness for precision should terminate in a similar anarchy to +that which has oppressed and ruined France. + + + + + XXVII + + THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE + + +The decay of letters and philosophy during the progress of the French +Revolution placed the French under the necessity of establishing some +measures to restore the cultivation of science and literature. Thus the +National Institute was eventually formed. The old Academies had been +completely destroyed, their members banished, murdered, or dispersed. + +[Sidenote: THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE] + +The National Institute is designed to remedy this evil by once more +collecting together the genius, talents and industry of France, and it +belongs to the whole Republic and is fixed at Paris. It is composed of +_one hundred and forty-four members resident in the capital_, and +144 Associates, taken from different parts of the Republic, together +with 24 learned foreigners. Every preference in this arrangement is +manifestly given to Paris, at the expense of the Departments. + +The Departments, containing a majority of 30 to 1 compared with the +metropolis, are never expected to produce more great men collectively +than the latter. This is absurd, for every one knows that under the old +Monarchy there were men scattered over the provinces often equal and in +many instances far superior to the members of the Parisian Academies. + +Montesquieu[1] was a member of the Academy of Bordeaux in 1716, and +it was not till the year 1728 that he was admitted into the Académie +Française. Indeed, an admittance into that famous society was often no +evidence of supereminent merit. Genius had to contest against cabal, +intrigue and Court favour; so that the _literati_ of Europe looked +for great and estimable men in other Academies of France, such as Aix, +Marseilles, Lyons, Bordeaux, &c. + +The pre-eminence thus accorded to the Parisian _savans_, who are +in general a gang of the vilest ruffians in the world, is a marked +insult to the rest of the Republic, and proves that to rule France it +is only necessary to be master at Paris. For the sake of this city, +France, as well as foreign countries, has been laid under contribution +and pillaged of whatever transportable monuments of art and genius +they possessed. Had it been possible, the triumphal arch at Orange, +the bridge of Gard, the amphitheatre at Nismes would have been removed +here to gratify the fancy of the Parisian rabble of philosophers and +legislators. + +The law by which the learned men of a single city were placed on a +level with those who people the whole of a vast country was made +by the very men who afterwards became self-elected members of this +_miscalled_ National Institute. It is no trivial matter to be +one of the 144 resident in Paris. It leads to fame and fortune, to +places and appointments, and it is the highest step on the ladder of +philosophical ambition. + +To return to the laws of the Institute, it is divided into three +classes: + + + FIRST CLASS.--_Physical and Mathematical Sciences._ + +(1) Mathematics, (2) mechanical arts, (3) astronomy, (4) experimental +physics, (5) chemistry, (6) natural history, (7) botany, (8) anatomy +and zoology, (9) medicine and surgery, (10) rural economy and +veterinary art. + + + SECOND CLASS.--_Moral and Political Sciences._ + +(1) Analysis of sensations and ideas, (2) morals or moral philosophy, +(3) social science and legislation, (4) political economy, (5) history, +(6) geography. + +It will be observed that in this class there is no section for despised +theology, which surely should have a foremost place therein. + + + THIRD CLASS.--_Literature and the Fine Arts._ + +(1) Grammar, (2) ancient languages, (3) poetry, (4) antiquities and +monuments, (5) painting, (6) sculpture, (7) architecture, (8) music and +declamation. + +When the National Institute was about to be established a law was +enacted (3rd Brumaire, year 4) by which the Directory were authorised +to provide salaries for each member, and the five members of the +Executive Directory were empowered to nominate the first 48 members, +who _thus_ elected had power to choose the remaining 144 +Associates. + +In nominating the first 48, the Directors first elected each other, +then their friends, and those friends nominated other friends in Paris +and the Departments. + +Every class of the Institute assembles twice in each decade; the +assemblies are private, but each member is allowed to introduce a +visitor. + +The secretaries of each class assemble once a year to prepare a +report of its labours, which is presented to the Institute, and whose +president then writes to the Minister of the Interior to know when +it shall please his consular majesty to give admission to his sacred +person in order that they may present it. + +[Sidenote: RULES OF NATIONAL INSTITUTE] + +When that gala day arrives, the members of the Institute appear with +clean shirts, dressed in their grand uniform, and neatly shaved. The +First Consul receives them, habited in all his paraphernalia, and as +gorgeously attired as any Emperor or King in Europe. Every member of +the Institute receives 1600 livres (£60 sterling) per annum. Every +member has a silver medal with the head of Minerva on one side and his +name on the other, which serves as his passport into every place in +which the Institute is concerned. The First Consul, who is so fond of +stage effect that he will not allow an assembly of grave philosophers +to think and act without a uniform, was graciously pleased to command +one for the members of the Institute. The State dress consists of a +black satin coat, waistcoat, and breeches, embroidered throughout with +branches of olive in deep green silk, not _à la Française_. + +The undress costume is similar, but only embroidered at the collar and +cuffs. This regulation was signed and countersigned by the First Consul +and the Minister of the Interior. + +On the 5th Frimaire, year 10, the Institute decreed that on the death +of a member the president, the senior of the two secretaries of each +class, as well as the members of the section to which the deceased +belonged, were, unless prevented by some unavoidable cause, to assist +at his funeral. The procession departs from the National Palace of the +Louvre at _noon precisely_, in order that the moment it arrives at +the late residence of the deceased the funeral ceremony may immediately +be despatched. + +Formerly a hole was dug in the earth and the philosopher’s carcase +quickly deposited therein, but since it has become the fashion to +be a Christian the old service for the dead is to be revived. The +Conservatory of Music are to execute a solemn dirge, and black crape +is to be worn upon the left arm. An historical memoir of the deceased +is to be made in the course of the year by the secretaries and read at +a public sitting of the Institute, when the family of the dead member +are to be seated in a distinguished place. The precision with which +all these ceremonies are minutely marked out leaves room for regret +that it has not been mentioned at what signal from the president the +assembly shall begin to cry. + +I ought, perhaps, to give a list of the members of this Institute, +with details of their characters previous to and since the Revolution, +and their respective claims to literary pre-eminence. Such a narrative +would be interesting, as the greater part of them have rendered +themselves less conspicuous in the world of letters than in taking a +very active part in some of the most bloody tragedies of the Republic. + +For instance: Bonaparte, Carnot,[1] Mouge,[1] le Blond,[1] +Berthelet,[1] Foucroy,[1] Revellière,[1] Lepoux,[1] Cambacères, +Merlin,[1] Talleyrand,[1] Roederer,[1] François de Neufchâteau, +Chenier,[1] Thonin,[1] Mouette,[1] have all been known for their +assassinations, robberies and atrocious crimes. Foucroy was the cause, +for instance, of the murder of the immortal Lavoisier. All these +ruffians and others space prevents my naming, furnish abundant matter +for inquiry and reflection, but it is impossible to include such a +length of biographies in a letter; but before I leave Paris I intend to +procure sufficient authentic documents by which upon my return (should +I escape in safety from the tyrant’s grasp) I shall be then enabled to +drag these philosophical murderers and thieves out of their National +Palace, strip them of their silken disguises, and expose them in all +their naked deformity to the execration of mankind. + +In vain do they flatter themselves that by the arts of a meretricious +rhetoric they elude the vigilant pursuit of injured innocence and +affronted justice, in vain do they suppose that they shall court +foreign applause by associating with the learned of other countries. It +is a disgrace and a dishonour to be favoured by the National Institute +where a band of sanguinary ruffians pollute the halls consecrated to +learning, science and wisdom. Whoever lives under a government where +religion, morals and public freedom are revered, ought to reject their +silver medal and _procès verbal_, as he would cast away from him +food contaminated with poison. + +If it be an honour to be elected a member of a society, learned, +indeed, but fundamentally vicious and depraved, why not petition to be +admitted to the Palace of Pandemonium? + +The devils in hell are fully as knowing as the members of the +Institute, and, for ought I know, not done greater evil to mankind. +They are the fittest colleagues for such men, and not the upright and +pensive cultivators of science and literature. + + + + + XXVIII + + THE CENTRAL MUSÉE DES ARTS. THE GALLERY OF THE LOUVRE. + + +[Sidenote: MUSEUM OF THE LOUVRE] + +When the French Republicans first took up arms, they protested to the +world that they fought not for conquest, but to spread their beneficent +doctrines of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, and that wherever their +victorious standards were spread, the liberty and property of nations +should be respected. Their first campaigns were directed against their +warlike neighbours who hovered round their frontiers; and when they +succeeded in repelling the veteran troops of the continental Powers, +they began a career of robbery, pillage, rapine and destruction, which +has no parallel in the history of disciplined nations, nor even in that +of predatory hordes of barbarians. + +The principle on which the robberies of the French have been conducted +has been to _aggrandise_ France by the utter _impoverishment_ +of other countries. + +After having demolished the monuments of the genius and industry of +their own countrymen, they went forth to ransack other countries, +and destroyed all they could not carry away with them. Whatever had +been raised by the talents, the piety or the care of the lovers of +science, arts and literature, became the object of their vandalism or +their peculation. Their policy had no element but to divide in order to +conquer, and so arrive at universal domination by universal confusion. +Occupied constantly on the destruction of Europe in detail, they +trampled under their feet Monarchies and Republics alike. + +Every time I have paced along the galleries of the Louvre sentiments +of hatred and indignation took possession of my breast. Amidst all the +blaze of artistic beauty I never entered nor left without feelings of +disgust. + +I confess I received no gratification from all the Raphaels, Titians, +and Correggios I saw there. + +In their _proper places_ I could have gazed with transport upon +these masterpieces, but I cannot look with pleasure on productions thus +violently torn from their lawful owners. + +Of all the countries which have been undone by French havock Italy has +suffered the most, and its miseries are least known to the world. The +French have literally exhausted upon that country the fecundity of +rapine, cheating and fury. They have rendered themselves masters of its +correspondence, and all we know now of the existence of that desolated +country is through the frequent eruptions of a tyranny without remorse, +of a powerless despair and of the accumulations of spoil which +decorates the public exhibitions of Paris. The contributions of the +French were nothing less than a general sack, the encyclopædia of their +thefts forms a monument of curiosity. + +[Sidenote: STOLEN PICTURES] + +The barbarians who formerly overran Italy despised art, and neglected +to take possession of such treasures. The fanatical Mussulman destroyed +them as monuments of idolatry. But in our times Academicians, poets, +orators, philosophers, members of the National Institute, have crossed +the Alps to strip Italy of her talents, to force from her the labours +of her children, the most sacred illustration of a people, a property +which the laws of war among civilised nations has hitherto held to be +inviolable until the present epoch, when a gang of savage sophists have +replunged Italy into a darkness worse than any of the early ages of +Europe. + +Those who are ignorant of the methods by which a thief has realised an +immense fortune may be forgiven for their admiration of his wealth and +treasures, but the man who is acquainted with the villainy employed in +such an accumulation is inexcusable should he lavish praises on objects +in that thief’s possession. Therefore, with the knowledge that none of +these pictures belong to France, and that they are all stolen goods +acquired by fraud, injustice and murder, I could not coolly fix my eyes +upon them nor repeat ecstacies of vulgar adulation. + +No sooner have you entered the Gallery than you are presented with a +catalogue of these paintings, in which the robbers do not blush to avow +their robberies. The facetious rascals of the National Institute talk +and write of the knavery with as much _sangfroid_ as they take a +pinch of snuff. + +The paintings are styled “Tableaux conquis en Italie, recueillis dans +la Lombardie, à Bologne, Cento, Modêne, Parme, Plaisance, Rome, Venise, +Vérone, Florence, Turin.” + +With this register of pillage in your hand, you enter the Gallery +containing the spoils of nations, and nearly every picture bears at the +bottom an inscription declaring it to be a stolen article. Scarcely +a page of the catalogue but contains such proclamations of theft as +these: “Ces deux tableaux viennent de la Cathédrale de Plaisance, où +ils pendoient aux deux coins du Sanctuaire. Ce tableau est tiré de la +galerie de Turin. Ce tableau vient du Palais Pitti. Ce tableau est +tiré du Palais Pontifical de Monte Cavallo à Rome. Ce tableau vient +du Cabinet du ci-devant Roi de Sardaigne à Turin. Ce tableau, un +des meilleurs qu’a produit Paolo Veronese, est tiré de l’église des +Réligieuses de St. Zacharin à Venise. Ce tableau vient du maître autel +de l’église de San Giorgio à Venise. Ce tableau est tiré de l’église +de Santa Maria del Orto à Venise. Ce précieux et magnifique tableau +que les artistes regardent comme un des chefs d’œuvres de Titian, le +martyre de St. Pierre, vient de l’église San Giovanni e Paolo à Venise. +Ce portrait vient du Palais du Prince Breschi à Rome.” + +There is no end to this catalogue of iniquity, it fills at present +three volumes, but much more will be added. I question if the Newgate +Calendar for the last 100 years contains altogether a hundredth part of +the impudent dexterity in the art of filching which the rogues of the +National Institute present to us in these three little syllabuses of +Republican iniquity. + +Englishmen, happily shut out from the view of the sack of the continent +by that sea which guards our honest little island, have no adequate +idea of the indignant feelings of the wretched inhabitants of the +wronged countries which the French armies have plundered. I have +visited this gallery of paintings in company with some Italians of +distinction; I perceived in their countenances a deep and fixed look of +unutterable anguish and regret. Such a look that only the artists of +Italy whose expatriated portraits hung around us could delineate. + +May Heaven preserve our country from ever experiencing a similar +stroke of humiliation and abasement! How should we Britons feel if one +day in a later catalogue we read among these: “Notices sur plusieurs +précieux tableaux recueillis par les Philosophes de l’Institut pour +multiplier les jouissances du public. Ce tableau peint sur toile est +tiré de l’autel de l’église cathédrale de Westminster. Ce vitre vient +de King’s College à Cambridge. Ce tableau est tiré du Cabinet du +ci-devant Roi d’Angleterre à Windsor. Ce tableau de Shakespeare vient +de la bibliothèque de la librairie à Cambridge. Ce tableau de la mort +du General Wolfe est tiré du cabinet de la ci-devant Reine d’Angleterre +à Buckingham House. Cette statue vient du Cabinet de Milord Lansdowne. +Ce tableau peint par Claude vient du cabinet de Milord Gwydir.” + +Having expressed with candour what my sentiments have ever been when I +visited the gallery of paintings in the Louvre, I now proceed to fulfil +the important duty of an historian. + +[Sidenote: MRS. COSWAY] + +Mrs. Cosway, whose taste and skill are well known, is now occupied in +copying all the paintings in the Gallery on a small scale, intending +to execute later an enlarged account of them, together with the +biography of their respective masters. She has already executed several +compartments; and not all the fascinations of society nor the gaieties +of the capital can allure her from the daily pursuit of the labour of +her choice. I tell her the Gallery of the Louvre is her drawing-room, +for when she is at work all the English gather around her. However, she +loses no time, for she enters in conversation and paints also, and it +is difficult to affirm in which she most excels. + +The object of Mrs. Cosway is to represent, by etchings, all the +pictures precisely as they are fixed in the Gallery. The Hon. Mr. E---- +is struck with the undertaking, and he has appropriated a particular +part of his house at H---- for the display of her works. + +There is _one_ circumstance attached to all the public institutions of +Paris on which I must bestow the highest commendation, they are open +to the public _gratis_. I wish I could say the same of our excellent +establishments at home. With the exception of the British Museum, I do +not know of a single institution in Great Britain to which a native or +a foreigner can be admitted without a fee. And these fees are generally +exacted under so many circumstances of barefaced imposition that one +cannot help feeling ashamed that such abuses should be tolerated, and +that the officers of these establishments are permitted to exclude +travellers who do not pay them gratuities for viewing these interesting +and instructive collections. + +The only qualification in Paris to visit museums or public institutions +is to have your passport in your pocket--without it the porter at the +gate will assuredly forbid your entrance. + +Under the Monarchy, the Gallery of the Louvre alone was appropriated +to the public, and contained a splendid collection of paintings. Now +the whole palace is appropriated to National uses. + +It is not only the repository of pictures, but also of antiquities; the +National Institute and the Polytechnic Society designed to supply the +Ancient Academy des Belles Lettres, hold their assemblies here. + +The productions of living artists are exhibited here once a year, and +_appartements_ are allotted free of expense to various artists and +men of science. The museum is maintained in a high state of cleanliness +and propriety; and the orderly conduct of the spectators, who are all +admitted free of charge and without respect of persons, is greatly to +be commended. + +The great Gallery of the Louvre is not well adapted for the exhibition +of pictures; it is too narrow in proportion to its length, and the +windows which look out towards the Seine defeat the effect of those +which look towards the Place du Carrousel. A great number of the +paintings thus appear to be covered with a continual mist, and others +are scarcely discernible, so that the principal effect of light and +shade is destroyed. + +In addition to this misfortune a number of the noblest masterpieces +of the Italian School have been injudiciously retouched by the French +artists and been rendered quite unnatural and in many instances +ridiculous. The colouring of the parts defaced has been executed in +such a bungling manner as to resemble a piece of patchwork. They have +likewise injured a multitude of exquisite performances with a species +of varnish, by which, when I have approached them in search of the +beauties of the artists, I have been mortified by a vision of my own +homely features. Things are often more spoilt by overdoing than by +remaining stationary, and by the neglect of this maxim the French have +ruined many of the finest pictures in their stolen collection. + + + + + XXIX + + THE GALLERY OF ANTIQUITIES AT THE CENTRAL MUSEUM OF ARTS + + +[Sidenote: THE GALLERY OF ANTIQUITIES] + +I cannot better begin the description of this Gallery than by quoting +the declaration which preceded the catalogue of the statues, busts and +bas-reliefs therein contained. + +The preface is as follows:-- + +“The greater part of the statues exhibited in this Gallery are the +fruits of the conquests of the army of Italy. They have been selected +out of the Capitol and the Vatican by Citizens Barthélémy, Bertholet, +Moitte, Monge, Thonin, Tinet--the commissioners appointed by the +Government for that purpose. To the scrupulous care with which these +artists and savans have packed up and transported them, we are indebted +for the happy preservation of these glorious fruits of victory; and the +distinguished choice they have made from among the masterpieces which +Rome possessed, proves their knowledge and skill, and all lovers of the +arts must owe them a debt of eternal gratitude.” + +This account of the means by which they became masters of these +exquisite pieces of art is worthy of its writers. They consider +themselves worthy of credit for their perfidy and their predatory +adventures. + +But I have already sufficiently animadverted on the philosophical +exploits of the National Institute, and will therefore now describe +to the best of my abilities this Gallery, to which I paid particular +attention. + +It may appear strange, but I never felt equal disgust or distress +at the sight of these statues to that excited in my mind by the +magnificent gallery of paintings. + +The herd of men flock to the gallery of paintings to indulge their eyes +with the brilliant luxury of beauty, but in the hall of statuary very +few admirers greet the trophies of French conquest. + +Yet it contains more monuments of the capacity of men than all the +pictures in the Louvre put together. Indeed, the Laocoon and the +Belvidere Apollo alone, both of which incomparable statues are here, +may be justly said to equal if not exceed in value all the pictorial +tributes wrung from ravaged Italy. + +In the court through which you pass to enter the Gallery are four +colossal statues of slaves and the celebrated statue of Jupiter Hermes, +all removed from Versailles to enrich Paris. + +For the Revolution was made in Paris. The Republic was founded in +Paris--the rest of France _was made_ for Paris--therefore it must +be fleeced for the sake of Paris. In this way the patriotic members of +the Institute continually reason. + +Every article in the Gallery merits attention, but I will only +enumerate a few while giving a general description of the various halls +in their order. + +“The Hall of the Seasons,” which is so named on account of the painted +ceiling by Romanelli, representing the Seasons. This hall contains +twenty-six figures, of which the most celebrated and beautiful are:-- + +A faun, reposing, and holding a flute (supposed to be a copy of the +famous satyr of Praxiteles), stolen from the Museum of the Capitol at +Rome. + +A naked youth extracting a thorn from his foot, and a young faun of +Parian marble, stolen as above. + +Venus issuing from a bath of Pentelicon marble, stolen from the Museum +of the Vatican. + +Ariadne, stolen from the Belvidere of the Vatican. Septimus Severus, +from Ecouen. + +A colossal bust of Antoninus Pius and one of Lucius Verus, from the +same place. + +Augustus, stolen from the Cabinet of the Bevilacqua, at Verona. + +We then enter the “Hall of Illustrious Men,” decorated by eight antique +pillars of granatillo, plundered from the nave of the church of Aix la +Chapelle. + +[Sidenote: SPOILS FROM THE VATICAN] + +Here are statues of Zeus, the Philosopher from the Capitol, +Demosthenes, Trajan and a statue of Sextus, the uncle of Plutarch--all +removed from the Vatican. From the Papal Museum are also statues of +Menander, the Greek poet, and a fine Minerva of Pentelicon marble. + +The next chamber is the “Roman Hall.” + +The ceiling being ornamented with various subjects, taken from Roman +history. + +It contains twenty-nine statues, all bearing relation to the Roman +people. Amongst them are: + +The head of Scipio Africanus in bronze; the bust of Hadrian in the +same metal, stolen from the Library of St. Mark’s at Venice. From +the Capitol, the bust of Brutus; a Wounded Warrior[6] (this is a +magnificent piece of work); Urania, sitting on a rock. + +From the Vatican, Melpomene, Antoninus, and Venus at the bath, are the +most striking figures. + +And we now arrive at the “Hall of the Laocoon.” + +This vast room is embellished with four beautiful columns of verde +antique, taken from the Mausoleum, erected after the designs of +Bulloin, of the famous Constable of France, Anne de Montmorency. + +Each is a massive single block of the richest quality, about eleven +feet high and half a yard in diameter. + +In this hall are twenty-one figures, of which the first which demands +attention is that wonder of the world and masterpiece of sculpture, +“The Groups of the Laocoon,” executed by Agisander, Polydorus and +Athenodorus. It surpasses all comment, and displays at once the +perfection of sentiment, plan and composition. Some other statues, +worthy of particular notice, in this hall, are a Thrower of the Disk; +a Hermes, representing Tragedy; a statue of an Amazon, drawing her +bow; and a colossal statue of a Triton, this latter discovered by our +countryman Hamilton,[1] in the neighbourhood of Naples, and given by +him to Pope Ganganalli. These are all, like the Laocoon, stolen from +the Vatican. + +The fourth compartment of the Gallery is termed the “Hall of Apollo,” +ornamented with four superb pillars of red granite, stolen from a +Cathedral in Italy. It contains twenty-seven statues, of which “The +Apollo Belvidere,” that subject of delight to every tasteful eye, +stands in a niche at the end of the hall--two sphinxes of oriental red +granite, brought from the Vatican Museum, are placed on the steps which +lead up to the statue of the Sun God. These steps and the platform on +which the Apollo is fixed are of the most beautiful marble, and in the +centre there are five squares of mosaic antique, representing animals +in cars and other ornaments. + +The pillars which ornament the niche were taken from the tomb of +Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle. The statue is preserved from too near +approach by a handsome railing. The name of the sculptor of this statue +is unknown. Giovanni Angelo di Montorsoli, pupil of Michael Angelo, +restored the right arm and left hand, which were missing when the +statue was discovered among the ruins of Antium. + +It was fixed in the Belvidere of the Vatican by Pope Julius II., where +for more than three centuries it excited the admiration of mankind, +until, to use the language of the guide book provided by the Institute: +“Un héros, guidé par la victoire, est venu l’en tirer pour la fixer à +jamais sur les rives de la Seine.” + +On the 16th Brumaire, year 9, the First Consul, Bonaparte, celebrated +the inauguration of the Apollo by placing upon the pedestal of the +statue the following inscription, engraved upon a bronze tablet: + + “Le statue d’Apollon, qui s’élève sur ce piédestal, placé au + Vatican par Jules II., au commencement du XVI. siècle, conquise + l’an 5 de la République, par l’armée d’Italie, + Sous les ordres du Général Bonaparte, + A été fixée ici le 21 Germinal an VIII. + Première année de son Consulat, + Bonaparte, Ier Consul, + Cambacères, IIme Consul, + Lebrun, IIIme Consul. + Lucien Bonaparte, Ministre de l’Intérieur.” + +[Sidenote: HISTORICAL TOMBS] + +The thirty-six other statues, which decorate this hall, are all of +great merit; a statue of Mercury, called the Belvidere Antinous, from +the Vatican, is perhaps the finest and one of the most perfect remains +of antiquity, this once stood by the Apollo in the Vatican Belvidere. + +The Capitoline Venus is also exceedingly beautiful. + +The sixth and last portion of this Museum is termed the “Hall of the +Muses;” it contains twenty statues, every one of which was stolen from +the magnificent gallery Pius VI. built as an addition or annex to the +Vatican Museum. The members of the National Institute thus express +themselves in the catalogue upon the contents of this hall: + +“Since the revival of the arts, the admirers of antiquity have several +times attempted to form collections or a series of the antique statues +of the Muses; but none have proved so complete as that formed by the +industry of Pius V., a collection which Victory has enabled us to +transport to the National Museum.” + +This chamber contains, besides the celebrated Nine Muses, heads of +Bacchus, Hippocrates and a statue of the Cytherian Apollo, a Hermes and +busts of Socrates, Virgil and Homer. + +I have now mentioned the principal antiques contained in the six +compartments of this Gallery, but were I to write a volume upon them +I could give no adequate idea of their exquisite beauty and artistic +merit. + + + + + XXX + + MUSEUM OF FRENCH MONUMENTS + + +One of the earliest calamities which the intemperate zeal of her +would-be reformers brought upon France was the entire confiscation of +all ecclesiastical property, this property being placed at the disposal +of the nation. Broken loose from the bonds of subordination, the people +misinterpreted this decree, and in the effervescence of a wanton and +licentious spirit demolished the sanctuaries of religion, persecuted +their ancient pastors and disturbed the tranquil ashes of the dead. + +The National Assembly was finally compelled to acknowledge its +precipitate folly by ordering the committee which had charge of +alienated property to take measures for the preservation of those +monuments of art erected on the domains of the Church. + +The municipality of the city of Paris nominated several literary men +and artists who were to point out what books and monuments should +be saved from destruction. These persons formed a “Commission des +Monuments.” The desecrated convent “_des Petits Augustins_” +was chosen for a deposit of sculpture and paintings and that of the +“Capucins” in the Rue St. Honoré for books and manuscripts. + +This was shortly before the actual and final downfall of the Monarchy. +But when a few months later Paris was torn by strong convulsions and +the Republic ushered in amidst shrieks of murder and falling ruins, +it became the fashion to _talk_ of nothing but philosophy and +regeneration, while the demon of havoc made his devastating rounds. + +An era of uproar, confusion, fierce fanaticism and mental darkness +overspread France. + +Science and learning were perverted to the vilest purposes; +incendiaries and murderers, wearing the masks of patriots and +philanthropists, deluged France with blood. + +A man of mild and unassuming manners, of spotless purity of principle, +of general and profound knowledge, and of inflexible perseverance, +devoted the labours of his life to collect and preserve from the +general wreck the monuments of his country. This man is Monsieur +Lenoir, the founder and director of the Musée des Monuments Français. + +[Sidenote: WORK OF LENOIR] + +This excellent man traversed France in every direction to save and +preserve the precious evidences of his country’s former exploits. +Examining the tombs of the dead, amidst crackling flames and temples +crushing to atoms, he rescued much priceless worth from the tempest of +destruction. + +Both my wife and myself consider it one of the happiest events of our +lives to have been introduced to M. Lenoir and his lady. Grave, silent, +modest and pensive, his character and manner in speaking of his work is +that of an affectionate son who collects with tender care the ashes of +a murdered parent. + +Monsieur Lenoir was for fifteen years the pupil of Doyen, by whom he +was presented to the municipality of Paris as a proper person to act +as conservator of the depôt of monuments, which by a decree of the +Assembly, January 4, 1791, was established in the convent des Petits +Augustins. He retained this post through all the anarchy and fury of +the years which followed. In many cases he was able to arrest the +hands of folly employed in beating down statues and tearing to pieces +valuable pictures and destroying the finest bronzes. + +“From the Abbey de St. Denis,” says M. Lenoir, “the interior of which +the flames seem to have consumed from the roof to the bottom of the +graves, I have saved the magnificent mausoleums of Louis XII., François +I., Henri II., Turenne and many more. I have collected such of the +precious remains that I could restore, and I am already able to display +those of François I. and Louis XII. in all their splendour. Happy shall +I be if I succeed in making posterity forget the ravages of vandalism.” + +When we consider the light which monuments throw upon chronology and +history, it is strange to hear M. Lenoir met with multiplied objections +from artists (such as David) against his preservation and accumulation +of the monuments of the Middle Ages--monuments which they explained +were of no service to art. Monsieur Lenoir met their objections by +affirming that their presence was necessary to complete his series, +and he also justly observed that nothing tends more to give a just +notion of any art than the view of its progress and the opportunity of +comparing distances between rudeness and refinement. + +M. Lenoir collected into one establishment all paintings and statues +which had any reference to the history of France. “Such an imposing +mass of monuments of every period,” says he, “made me conceive the +idea of forming an historical and chronological museum in relation to +French art and French history, and, in despite of the malevolent and in +the face of great opposition, my plan was favourably received by the +Committee of Public Instruction of the National Convention, and on the +15th Germinal, year 4, the Museum was opened.” + +M. Lenoir, after ten years of assiduous researches, is now able to +display five centuries and also a sepulchral chamber, containing the +fully restored tomb of François I. + +This Museum embraces the sepulchral art of France, from the age of +Clovis to the present time. + +Here French and English artists may find models of costumes and arms of +every age and rank in a regular series, from Clovis to Philip II. There +seems little variation in dress. Rapid changes in costume and fashion +appear only to have commenced after the return of the Crusaders. + +We enter the Museum through the portico of the now demolished Château +d’Anet (immortalised by Voltaire in his _Henriade_). In the first +hall are the monuments of the Middle Ages; many, including that of +Fredegonde and her husband Chilperic, have been taken from the church +of St. Germains des Près. + +The bones of Charlemagne, contained in a marble sarcophagus of +Roman origin, were sent from Aix-la-Chapelle by Dervailly, one of +the Republican Commissioners. The great conqueror, torn from his +magnificent tomb, now lies in a Museum! + +[Sidenote: ST. DENIS AND BACCHUS] + +One of the most ancient stone coffins is that of an Abbot of St. +Germains des Près, A.D. 990, in it his skeleton was found +extremely well clothed in a robe of satin of a faded red colour, a +long woollen tunic of purple brown, ornamented with an embroidery +upon which several figures were wrought, slippers of an extremely +well-tanned black leather served as shoes. + +The southern gate of the Abbey of St. Denis, which is in this hall, +is a most important specimen of early art. The large bas-relief in +the middle represents the punishment of St. Denis and his companions +Rusticus and Eleutherus. + +Denis is the saint to whom the temple was dedicated; but, what is very +remarkable, a sprig of vine, laden with grapes, is placed at his feet, +precisely in the form as a badge of Dionysus or Bacchus. M. Lenoir +says he cannot answer whether the priests who dedicated these temples +considered Denis and Dionysus to be the same person, or whether by +mere tradition they ordered that to be executed which would certainly +characterise both. But it is certain that all the ornaments which +decorate St. Denis are attributes of Bacchus. The vine, hunting and +tigers appear; Bacchus is cut to pieces by the Maenades; Denis has his +head cut off at Montmartre; Bacchus is placed in a tomb and bewailed +by women; the body of Denis is collected by holy women, who weep over +his remains and place them in a tomb; Bacchus rises again; Denis, after +undergoing execution, rises again, picks up his head and walks. On +this gate are two tigers, emblematical of the worship of Bacchus. It +presents as well a chronology of thirty-six Kings of France. + +On entering the hall which contains the monuments of the thirteenth +century there are ceilings at angles, sprinkled with stars on a blue +ground, supported by posts, rudely decorated. These ceilings are also +adorned by the flowers of those times, three of which are emblems of +the Evangelists, the others consist of the cabbage and the thistle in +a variety of forms. The doors and the windows, constructed from the +remains of a ruined building of the thirteenth century, which had been +destroyed by the Jacobins, and which Lenoir collected at St. Denis, +have been arranged according to the revised taste in architecture by +the celebrated Montreau. + +Three painted glass windows, representing moral subjects, and taken +from the refectory of St. Germain des Près, shed a gloomy light upon +the spot. + +The tombs Louis IX. erected to his predecessors are only cenotaphs, +merely large confines of hollowed stone, in which the body was +placed and covered by another stone, the inscription, when there was +one, being engraven on the inside. According to St. Foix the tombs +of the Kings of the first race were small deep vaults of stone. On +these vaults neither figures nor epitaphs were to be seen, as it was +the inside that was engraven with inscriptions and laid out with +magnificence. Charlemagne was originally buried in a sitting posture. +His body after being enbalmed was seated on a throne of gold, clad in +the Imperial dress, with the sword Joyeuse by its side. The head of the +dead Emperor was ornamented with a golden chain in shape of a diadem. +He held a globe of gold in one hand, and a New Testament was placed +upon his knees. His gold sceptre and shield were hung on the wall +opposite to him. + +After the cave had been filled with perfumes, aromatics, and much +treasure, it was shut up and sealed. + +In the Hall of the Fourteenth Century are some very curious monuments, +which show the improvement in the art of design, which the Crusaders +brought back with them. A new species of decoration, the Arabian taste, +was introduced into architecture. The heavy edifices of the former +age gave way to more elegant buildings, and gilding and brilliant +colours ornamented the churches. This hall is decorated with the +ruins of the St. Chapelle in Paris, built about the year 1300. The +Apostles, sculptured in stone of natural size, were taken from this +chapel, and are remarkable for the naturalness of their expression and +excellent execution. Their habits give an exact idea of the stuffs and +embroidery then in fashion, the former of which being not unlike our +Indian shawls. The mosaics which cover the ceilings and the walls of +this hall were formed from materials taken from St. Denis. The painted +windows in this hall are of the same century, and were taken from the +“Celestines” and the “Bonshommes de Passy.” + +[Sidenote: TOMB OF LOUIS XII.] + +In the fifteenth century artists began to produce general plans, and +to connect the calculations of their minds with a grand and careful +execution. Gothic art in consequence disappeared. As Paris did not +afford many palaces or ornamented houses of this century, M. Lenoir +went several times among the monuments left by Cardinal d’Amboise, who +employed in the decoration of his palaces Jean Juste, a sculptor, born +at Tours, whom the Cardinal had sent at his own expense to Rome, for +the purpose of studying the revived Grecian art. + +The ceiling, windows, and in general the whole embellishment of this +hall are composed on the type of the tomb of Louis XII., which stands +in the middle of it, together with the materials brought from the +Château de Gaillon, which has been lately demolished. The pillars which +support the gates are a present to M. Lenoir from the Administrators +of the Department of Eure et Loire, who, to M. Lenoir’s consternation, +pulled down the portico of the church of the St. Père at Chartres in +order to place its fragments at his disposal. + +This portico was erected in 1509, and superadded to an ancient edifice +built by Hildnard, a Benedictine monk, in 1170. Two bas-reliefs in this +hall merit attention, one, representing God the Father in the midst +of angels, was taken from the Cemetery of the Innocents. The other, +from the church of St. Geneviève, represents the Pentecost. The violet +and blue grounds, the gilded framework and the carmined legend are +characteristic of the fifteenth century. Four marble medallions are +worthy of careful notice, purchased from the ruined château of Gaillon. +Anne of Brittany is represented as Minerva, Louis XII. as Mars, Gallas +and Vespasian occupy the remaining medallions. + +In this hall stands a bust of Joan of Arc by Beauvollet, after an +ancient painting; this bust is placed beside that of Charles VII., +whom she maintained on the throne of France. The Hall of the Sixteenth +Century contains many interesting figures, and its glass windows are +taken from Ecouen, Vincennes, Ault, and the Temple. The monument to +the historian Philippe de Comines is an admirable work, and rests on +a grand bas-relief, representing St. George and the Dragon. The tomb +of Louis XII. and Anne of Brittany, which occupies the centre of this +hall, is a superb monument. Unfortunately this fine mausoleum has +greatly suffered from the fury of the revolutionary fanatics. + +Here are also the statues of François I^{er}, of Chancellor de +l’Hôpital; Montaigne, Prieur, Diane de Poitiers, Philip Desportes the +poet, Jean Goujon, the celebrated artist and sculptor, a magnificent +monument erected to the Constable of France, Anne de Condé, and the +tomb of the Valois, surmounted by statues of François I^{er} and his +wife Claude. + +The Hall of the Seventeenth Century contains a fine monument erected +to the family of the Villeray; one to the celebrated historian de +Thou, the statue of Louis XI., the _chef d’œuvre_ of Girardon, +containing the celebrated group in marble designed by Lebrun, 14 feet +long and 6 feet broad, which forms the mausoleum of Cardinal Richelieu, +the inscription bears: “_Magnum disputandi argumentum_.” + +This admirable sculpture, which had previously been mutilated by +anarchists who had forcibly entered the chapel, was afterwards injured +by the revolutionary soldiers, who bayoneted M. Lenoir for opposing +their destructive intentions; he still bears the scar of this wound on +his hand. + +Cardinal Mazarin’s monument of white marble, executed by Coyzevox, +is equal in artistic merit to that of Richelieu. The Cardinal is +represented on his knees. + +[Sidenote: EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MONUMENTS] + +An admirable group in white marble by Girardon represents Louvois, the +French Minister, and History in the form of a woman turning towards +him and pointing to her book. The First Consul was attracted to this +monument on his visit to the Museum, and gazed upon it a considerable +time. When he was in the Hall of the Thirteenth Century he said to M. +Lenoir: “Lenoir, vous me transportez en Syrie, je suis content.” + +The fine statue of Louis XIV. which stood in the Place Vendôme, was +destroyed in 1792, but there is here an exact representation in bronze. + +Monsieur Lenoir has also re-erected one from the ruins of that which +stood on the Place des Victoires. In this Hall of the Seventeenth +Century are the busts of all the great men who figured during that +period in France. + +The Hall of the Eighteenth Century contains a vast number of subjects, +but few of them are very remarkable. + +Here are busts of Louis XVI. and his Queen, and of Brissac, who with +the prisoners of Orleans was assassinated at Versailles. In the garden +belonging to this institution an elysium is formed in which above forty +statues are placed. Here and there on a mossy ground, pines, cypresses +and poplars shroud these monuments, and funereal urns placed on the +walls serve to diffuse an air of repose and melancholy over the whole. +In this enclosure a sepulchral chapel to the memory of Abelard and +Héloise has been formed out of part of the ruins of the Abbey of St. +Denis, in order to show the style of architecture adopted in that age. + +Much remains yet to be done by M. Lenoir, but he has already effected +wonders, and without ostentation or bustle he has done more for France +than she has had the gratitude to acknowledge. Notwithstanding he is +extremely circumscribed in the sums allotted to him, being only allowed +£1000 per annum, he is always collecting and is continually in advance +for the benefit of the institution. + +What a contrast does the life of this disinterested antiquarian present +to that of the conduct of that gang of philosophical thieves belonging +to the National Institute! + +M. Lenoir related to me two curious circumstances connected with the +taking up of the bodies of the Kings, Queens, Princesses and celebrated +men who during the space of 1500 years had been buried in the Abbey of +St. Denis, which act of horrid indecency was ordered to be executed by +a special decree of the National Convention, for the sake of extracting +the lead belonging to these tombs. On October 12, 1793, the workmen +opened the tomb of Turenne and found the body of this great man in so +perfect a state of preservation that neither were his features deformed +nor his countenance altered. + +M. Lenoir, who had an opportunity of examining it, stated that it +resembled in every way the pictures and medallions of the hero. + +The body of Henri IV. was in a perfect state of preservation and the +features of his face unchanged. + +A soldier who was present, moved by martial enthusiasm, threw himself +upon the body and embraced it, and after a long silence of admiration +cut off a long lock from the beard and exclaimed, “And I too am a +French soldier, henceforth I will have no other mustachios!” And he +placed it on his upper lip. “Now,” said he, “I am sure to conquer, and +I march to victory!” Immediately after this he disappeared, and was +never seen again in the town. + + + + + XXXI + + THE NATIONAL LIBRARY + + +This establishment was founded in the fourteenth century by Charles the +Wise, and consisted at first of about twenty volumes! the number of +which naturally continued to increase rapidly as time went on. It has +now been enriched by a multitude of books and manuscripts saved from +the monasteries, collections seized from proscribed nobles, and plunder +from the libraries of Italy. So it is now one of the completest in the +world. The large building containing these treasures is in the Rue de +Richelieu, now called the Rue de la Loi. It is under the direction of +Messieurs Capperonier and van Praet. In the first room of the principal +floor a long table extends nearly the whole length of the apartment, +with benches placed on each side for the convenience of students. This +room is lined with books from floor to ceiling. + +[Sidenote: CURIOUS MANUSCRIPTS] + +Before the French irruption into Italy the National Library consisted +of 200,000 volumes, besides a large collection of manuscripts. It now +contains 300,000 printed books, which are already arranged in five +divisions, besides a vast number which Monsieur van Praet informed me +had not been even examined. The library is disposed with judgment and +knowledge. No catalogue has yet been published, but the directors are +preparing one, with a suitable explanation respecting the principal +authors and the names of the libraries from which the books were stolen. + +Here are some very curious documents in manuscript relative to English +history, well worthy of reference to any author desirous of treating +of that subject. The celestial and terrestrial globes constructed by +Coronelli are preserved in one of the wings of the building; they are +thirty feet in diameter, their circles are gilded, the water is painted +blue, the land white, and the mountains with a green ground shaded +with brown. These are the largest globes in the world, they resemble +air ballons, and I cannot imagine any other mode for a philosopher to +use them than by putting himself in a little curule chair suspended by +ropes, and in this manner making the tour of the universe. + +The manuscripts exceed 80,000 in number, 30,000 of which are on the +history of France and are called the Mazarin Gallery. The rest are +in foreign and dead languages, many written on vellum and superbly +illuminated. Many of these manuscripts contain most extraordinary +specimens of the state of poetry and genius in ancient times. Among +others here is this of Philippe d’Orleans, Comte de Vertus, who died +in 1420, aged twenty-four. + + + BALLADE. + + Jeune gente plaisante et débonnaire, + Par un prière qui vaut commandement, + Chargé m’avez d’une ballade faire, + Si l’ai faite de cœur joyeusement; + Or, la veuillez recevoir doucement + Vous y verrez, s’il vous plait à la lire, + Le mal que j’ai, combien que vraiment, + J’aimasse mieux de bouche vous le dire. + + Votre douceur m’a sçu si bien attraire, + Que tous vostre je suis entièrement + Très désirant de vous servir et plaire, + Mais je soffre mainte douloureux tourment, + Quand a mon gre je ne vous voi souvent + Et me déplaist quand me font vous l’escrire; + Car si fou je pouvois autrement + J’aimasse mieux de bouche vous le dire. + + C’est par dangier mon cruel adversaire, + Qui m’a tenu en ses mains longuement. + En tous mes faits je le trouve contraire + Et plus se rit quand plus me voit dolent. + Si je voulais raconter pleinement + En cet escrit mon ennuyeux martyre + Trop long serois; pour certainement + J’aimasse mieux de bouche vous le dire. + +Besides these manuscripts there are many treasures of inestimable +value, particularly the cabinet of medals, a rich and magnificent +collection, to which has been added the cabinets of medals and +antiques taken from St. Geneviève, St. Germains des Près and the +Petits Pères, besides a vast accession from the plunder of Italy. The +late Abbé Barthélémy, author of the “Travels of Anacharnis,” had the +superintendence of the cabinet of medals, and by his exertions several +beautiful and rare additions were made to the original collection. A +very fine bust of him stands at the extremity of the hall. + +There is also a rich collection of engravings, amounting to more than +5000 volumes. It requires whole months to review and examine all the +curiosities and beauties contained within this library, and as it is +impossible to detail them without writing a volume, I consider the +synopsis I have given sufficient to explain their value to the student +of every nation. + + + + + XXXII + + HUMANE INSTITUTIONS: THE HOSPITAL OF INVALIDES + + +[Sidenote: OVERTHROW OF INSTITUTIONS] + +The French Revolution wrought as much harm to the cause of humanity as +to letters, science, and art. I have, it is true, described certain +brilliant institutions which the present Government has created, but +they form the least substantial part of social order, and are in a +sense but the holiday suit of the Republic. + +It would be as wrong to judge the French nation by this splendid +exterior as of a private family by the same rule. To form a correct +judgment of the character of a man we should enter his dwelling, see +him as a parent, husband or friend, and examine his domestic economy. +To contemplate him driving in a chariot, and surrounded by glittering +attendants, would give us no idea of his real situation. + +Much as we may admire establishments which ornament and serve a nation, +if haggard poverty and distress meet the eye at every turn we cannot +but infer that the nation in which such things prevail has mistaken the +true road to grandeur and public felicity. + +I speak with regret, and without prejudice or passion, when I affirm +that this is the case with the French Republic. They overthrew all +their ancient national charitable establishments, and by so doing +exposed a great portion of the community to misery and want. They +destroyed wholesome institutions without making any provision for +supplying their absence. They suppressed convents and monasteries under +many pleas, the most specious of which was that they would put an end +to mendicity by striking at indiscriminate charity, which was, they +maintained, the root of indolence. The principle was good, but it was +applied in an entirely unjustifiable manner. Those who formerly aided +the poor and wretched were themselves driven to mendicity, and the +poor, the ailing, the afflicted were left even without the hope of a +resource. + +Sensible of the alarming effect of these evils, which in a land +where the sources of industry have been suspended for ten years, are +absolutely terrific, the French Government and some worthy and humane +private individuals have, during the last few months, seriously devoted +their attention to the means of eradicating them. + +So far the state of public finance has not admitted of the permanent +establishment of any asylums for the deserving poor. A few which had +been anciently endowed are still poorly maintained at the public +expense, but the mass of the nation is without any provision whatever +for the miserable. + +There is, however, one happy exception. The Hospital of the Invalides +retains its ancient excellence and lustre. + +This institution, the illustrious monument of the gratitude of a Prince +towards a people devotedly attached to him, is appropriated to such +superannuated or wounded soldiers no longer fit for service. It will +contain 5000 individuals, supported, clothed and fed at the expense of +the nation. There are four large halls where they assemble to dinner; +it was the wish of Louis XIV. that the aged or wounded warrior should +_live well_ during the remainder of his days. Therefore their +daily allowance, besides an excellent dinner, at which there was always +a _bouillie_ (or good meat soup), was a pound and a half of bread +and a quart of wine. This allowance is still continued. + +[Sidenote: INTERIOR OF THE INVALIDES] + +The edifice consists of fine courts, and a magnificent saloon called +the Temple of Mars, in which are suspended as trophies all the +standards taken during the late war. The dome that surmounts the centre +of this Temple, 300 feet in elevation from the level of the ground and +50 feet in diameter, is a masterpiece of architecture; the cupola is +decorated with paintings by Charles de la Fosse. + +Four beautiful paintings represent the four quarters of the globe, and +there is also a huge canvas upon which David has portrayed the triumph +of man over religion and royalty. The Devil himself could not have +executed a more infernal picture than is this work of the national +painter (Member of the Institute). Man, displayed as a gigantic +figure (stark naked), tramples on kings, priests, crowns, sceptres, +crosses and rosaries; in one hand he holds a flaming torch, in the +other a sword. The Goddess of Reason, tutelary genius of the Republic, +majestically arrayed, smiles over her votary’s triumph. A multitude +of other similar characters fill up the hellish group, and complete a +picture of horror and iniquity. + +By what fatal perversion of human nature, a temple, consecrated +to valour, patriotism and merit, should have been selected as the +depository of such a vicious production, I know not. But I declare I +felt petrified with horror when I gazed upon it. It is strange that the +rulers of France should have not already banished from the public gaze +such a sign of their past apostasy and hatred for that religion they +have lately found it convenient to once more profess. + +To an Englishman who views the trophies which adorn this hall there +is a reason for feelings of patriotic exultation. The banners of +almost every European nation weep over the disasters of the valorous +defenders. But only one solitary standard of Great Britain confesses to +the chances of war. + +All the plans of Vauban,[1] in relievo, of the different docks, +harbours and fortifications of France were preserved here. They have +now been removed to the Bureau of the Minister of War. It was from a +cabinet in the Hôtel des Invalides, containing an excellent collection +of military books and also plans for subjugating Egypt, conceived +under the reign of Louis XIV., and which had lain there for whole +generations untouched but not forgotten, that the Council of War +procured the information which enabled Bonaparte to invade Egypt--an +invasion he accomplished with the most marvellous secrecy and celerity. + +This invasion, I know from the highest authority and those who are +most intimately acquainted with him, he will again attempt whenever +circumstances prove favourable to his enterprise. + +The monument formerly erected at St. Denis to Marshal Turenne, which +was saved from the Revolutionary vandals by Monsieur Lenoir, almost at +the risk of his life, has been removed from the Museum, where it was at +first placed, to the Temple of Mars in this Hospital, where it is now +to be seen. + +By a decree of the First Consul on the 1st of Vendemaire year 9, the +body of Turenne,[1] which had been preserved by Lenoir in a secret +tomb, was transported with great funeral pomp to the Invalides, where +it was once more deposited in its ancient receptacle. + +The car on which the body was laid was drawn by four general officers +of the Republic; on arriving at the Invalides it was received by a +salvo of artillery, after which Carnot, the Minister of War, pronounced +the following funeral oration: + +“Citizens! behold the body of Turenne the Great--a warrior dear to +every Frenchman, a man whose name excites emotion in every virtuous +bosom, and who should be to after ages a model of heroes! + +“To-morrow we celebrate the foundation of the Republic. Let us +initiate that festival by the apotheosis of all that is praiseworthy +and illustrious in the past. This temple is allotted to all those +who, in every age past and present, have displayed virtues worthy of +the nation. Henceforward, O Turenne! thy manes shall dwell within +these walls--they shall become naturalised among the founders of the +Republic! + +[Sidenote: CARNOT’S PANEGYRIC OF TURENNE] + +“It is a sublime idea to place the mortal remains of a hero in the +midst of warriors who trod in his steps. To the brave belong the ashes +of the brave. After the death of a warrior, his remains have a right to +be preserved under the safeguard of the warriors who survive him--to +partake with them the asylum consecrated to glory. + +“Praise be to the Government which strives to pay the debt of gratitude +to former benefactors! + +“Praise be to the chiefs of a warlike nation who are not ashamed to +invoke the shade of Turenne! + +“Turenne lived in an age wherein prejudice placed imaginary +distinctions of rank above signal services. But in him noble rank +disappeared before that conferred by his victories. France, Italy, +Germany re-echoed with his triumphs, and the sublime eulogy pronounced +after his death by Monticuculi was the true description of his virtues: +_A man is dead who was an honour to human nature!_ + +“Ah! what more glorious title can I add to that of ‘Father,’ conferred +on Turenne by his soldiers during his whole life? + +“On the plains of Salzbach Turenne commanded the French army. Confident +of victory, secure of position, he fell slain by a musket ball. +Confidence and hope disappeared, and France was left to mourn. + +“The Germans for many years left the spot untilled upon which he was +killed, and the inhabitants of the neighbourhood considered it hallowed +ground. + +“The remains of Turenne were at first preserved in the Cemetery of +Kings. The Republicans have taken it from this vainglorious oblivion, +and have this day transferred his body to the Temple of Mars, where +veteran warriors can daily repeat the history of his victories. + +“Marble and brass decay in time, but this asylum of French warriors +whom old age or wounds has deprived of the power of fighting, will +exist from age to age. On the tomb of Turenne the veteran will shed +tears of admiration and the youth of France perform his vows to the +profession of arms. After embracing this monument and invoking the +shade of Turenne, he will feel himself inspired by a holy enthusiasm. + +“Had Turenne lived in our time, he would have been a Republican. The +love of country was his actuating principle. His glory therefore must +be identified with that of the heroes of the Republic; and it is in the +name of the Republic my hands depose these laurels on his tomb. + +“May the shade of the illustrious Turenne be sensible of this act of +national government, dictated by a government which is only guided by +principles of virtue. + +“Citizens! let me not diminish the emotions which you feel at this +tremendous and awful funeral solemnity. Language cannot describe what +is now displayed before your senses. What shall I say of Turenne? +Behold him! there he lies! Behold the sword grasped by his victorious +hand! Behold also the fatal ball which snatched him from France and +from the whole human race!” + +Such was the discourse delivered by Carnot; not _quite equal_ to +the funeral oration of Pericles, but la la for a philosopher of the +National Institute! + +Had Turenne lived in our time he might possibly have proved as great a +rascal as any in the late Directorate. + +Maréchal Turenne possessed military genius in a transcendent degree, +but he must also by every dispassionate inquirer be condemned as a bad +man, a worse citizen, a rebel and an incendiary. He began his career +as a Maréchal de France with an act of base ingratitude, perfidy and +treason towards his Sovereign and the laws of his country. + +No sooner had he been raised to the rank of Maréchal than he suffered +himself to be prevailed upon by an intriguing woman, the Duchess of +Longueville (of whom, although she made a jest of his passion, he was +desperately enamoured), to persuade the army which he commanded to +revolt against the infant King and his mother, the Regent. + +[Sidenote: CAREER OF TURENNE] + +Being unsuccessful in this attempt, he quitted the army a fugitive and +a Bonaparte, and from General to the King of France he became General +of Don Estevan de Gomora, this enemy of his King and country, by whom +he was defeated at Revel by French troops. + +With respect to his policy it was merciless. + +His glorious German campaign was achieved by inflicting unheard-of +calamities upon the defenceless inhabitants. After the battle of +Sintzheim he laid waste with fire and sword the Palatinate, a level and +fertile country, full of rich cities and prosperous villages. + +From his castle at Mannheim, the Elector Palatine beheld two cities and +twenty-five villages burnt before his eyes. In the first emotion of +resentment this unhappy Prince wrote a letter to Turenne, filled with +bitter reproaches and defying him to single combat. + +Turenne made a cool and ambiguous answer, conveying an empty compliment. + +In the same cold blood he destroyed all the ovens and cornfields of +Alsace, and afterwards permitted his cavalry to ravage Lorraine. +Turenne acted throughout this campaign contrary to the orders of his +Government, who desired him to treat the conquered provinces with +lenity. + +But to return to the Philosophical Tribune of France. The most curious +part of the ceremony consisted in the tears of Carnot! He actually!! +Carnot shed tears!!! + +I cannot help thinking this as a most ludicrous instance of the +ceremonial. + +Instead of sounding the praises of the present despotism of France, +Carnot might have recited the following lines intended to have been +inscribed on the pedestal of the tomb of Turenne in St. Denis: + + Turenne a son tombeau parmi ceux de nos rois, + C’est le fruit glorieux de ces fameux exploits. + On a voulu par-là couronner sa vaillance + Afin qu’aux siècles à venir + On ne fit point de difference + Entre porter la couronne ou de la soutenir. + +When we reflect upon the melancholy catastrophe which has befallen the +monuments of the most distinguished Frenchmen, it is to be considered a +fortunate circumstance that the mausoleum of Turenne was rescued from +the general devastation. As the Abbey of St. Denis is totally destroyed +and there is no longer a place for the illustrious dead, except the +Pantheon, in which their bodies would be commingled with those of the +ruffians of the Republic, the Temple of Mars is undoubtedly the most +honourable asylum for the body of one who, notwithstanding his faults, +was perhaps the greatest General of France. + +The Hospital of the Invalides maintains its pre-eminence over every +other charitable institution of France. + +The funds for the disbursement of its expenses are paid with great +exactitude, and its internal organisation is conducted with exactitude +and decorum. + +Had other institutions of France, not less useful, been maintained with +equal scrupulousness, my pen would not have found an opportunity of +portraying the wickedness and folly of a people whose history during +the last ten years is nothing but a disgusting record of rapine, murder +and impiety. + + + + + XXXIII + + HUMANE INSTITUTIONS--_continued_ + SOUP ESTABLISHMENTS + + +During the last winter (1801–1802) the distress of the lower orders +rose to such a height that it became necessary to open subscriptions +for the distribution of soup to the poor. A committee was formed for +the purpose, and this committee distributed 164,000 rations of soups, +besides what was sold from different furnaces, established by voluntary +contributions. + +The committee commenced their useful labours with the names of only +_one hundred subscribers_. The price of each subscription is +eighteen francs or fifteen shillings and ninepence sterling, and any +person is at liberty to take as many subscriptions as he thinks proper. +In consideration of every subscription the subscriber receives 240 +bonuses of soup from any establishment he may prefer, or he may leave +the disposal of them to the committee. + +[Sidenote: HUMANITY OF BONAPARTE] + +Madame Bonaparte, the wife of the First Consul, who is a most +benevolent, charitable and kind-hearted woman, gave 600 francs towards +the establishment of a furnace in her division. + +The committee solicited the generosity of the public functionaries, +“Not because they are wealthy, but because as the greater part of them +were known for their philanthropy, their example would encourage others +to subscribe.” The result of this appeal to these rich philanthropists +who fatten upon the blood of the people was somewhat ludicrous, +considering the small subscriptions it drew forth. The Senate granted +a subsidy of 1500 livres, or £60 sterling; the Council of State took +forty-six subscriptions, about £35; the Bank of France, 60, about £40; +the Mont de Piété, 20, about £14; and the officers of the Consular +Guard, 84, making a total of about £252! + +The First Consul generously put down his name for a 1000 subscription, +which would have amounted to £787 sterling. But there was no security +for his payment except his inclination; his servile vassals, however, +boasted of his magnificence, and the Commissioners who drew up the +report on the distribution of the soup broke forth into the following +apostrophe:--“Our eyes are turned with complacency on the 1000 +subscription of the First Consul. The Conqueror of Marengo has made +_humanity_ the companion of _glory_. His triumphant hand has +repaired the edifice of social happiness; this hero, who seemed to +have attained the summit of _perfection_ and _grandeur_, has +proved that a good action may make him _still mount_, and lift him +above sublimity itself!” + +Unluckily for the trumpeters of this “astonishing man” this hero who +has made humanity the companion of glory has not to this hour paid +one sou of the thousand subscription to which he signed his name and +entered into a solemn engagement. + +In the report made by Cadet de Vaux to the Minister of the Interior it +is stated--“Of all the branches of polite economy the least advanced +among us is public beneficence. Formerly there was an organised system +of charity, but now unhappily this branch of our administration is +defective. When there were clergy resident in every parish, their +profession gave them the privilege of asking charity from the rich and +of penetrating into the secret wants of the poor, and they therefore +possessed much greater opportunities of doing good than does the +present Board of Public Assistance, notwithstanding its activity and +zeal. Among the religious orders some corporations were distinguished +for their zeal in affording relief to the poor, particularly the +Sisters of Charity, who devoted their whole lives to the most fatiguing +details of charitable benevolence!” + +These respectable Associations no longer exist, but it is under +consideration to permit the re-assembling of the dispersed communities. + +In France at this time there are neither parochial rates nor workhouses +such as we have in England. For idle, disorderly or viciously disposed +persons no midway exists between the high road and the prison, and +no kind of provision exists which affords employment to persons who, +from sickness, misfortune, or lack of employment, have been thrown +out of work. Hence the poverty of a French pauper is the consummation +of wretchedness; rags, filth and disease waste his constitution and +destroy his body, while despair for ever settles on his soul. If he +have strength enough to carry a musket he is instantly transported into +a soldier; and if this means of subsistence fail, his only alternative +is to steal or to become a beast of burden, performing labour that in +other countries is only executed by horses and asses. + +But miserable as he is, the lot of the female beggar is infinitely +worse. Objects of loathsome corruption and horrible aspect, they seem +planted in the streets of this capital, only to laugh to scorn the +Revolution, and to rebuke the greedy and the sumptuous magnificence of +the upstart. As you traverse the streets they follow you, conjuring you +in the name of God, and, with entreaties which would melt a heart of +flint, implore you to give them a little charity. + +The charitable are deprived of the power of discriminating; they must +attend to the cries of beggary or submit to be pursued for half a mile +by the same forlorn wretch, imploring for mercy and pity. This is +indeed a wretched state of society, yet we are told the Revolution was +the work of philosophers, made for the benefit of the people to dispel +the darkness of their prejudices, and to remove all the moral and +physical evils under which they groaned before the advent of freedom. + + + + + XXXIV + + HUMANE INSTITUTIONS--_continued_ + + LA SALPÊTRIÈRE. HÔTEL DIEU. HÔPITAL DE JESUS, + DE LA CHARITÉ, DE LA PITIÉ. + THE FOUNDLING SOCIETY + + +[Sidenote: HOSPITALS] + +La Salpêtrière, before the Revolution, was a prison for females; since +that event it has been converted into an ordinary prison, an infirmary, +and at length a hospital. It is an immense building, extremely well +situated near the river, and is now appropriated as a receptacle for +girls, above 1500 of whom are maintained in it. I am sorry to say I can +say little in favour of its comfort or cleanliness. + +The Hôtel Dieu, changed into Hôtel de l’Humanité by the Revolutionists, +is an infirmary for the sick and diseased. It will contain 4000 people. + +The Hospital of Jesus is not upon so large a scale. The Hospital of +Charity is appropriated exclusively for males. The Hôpital de la +Pitié is somewhat similar to our parish charity schools, for the +maintenance and instruction of poor boys; this hospital is under very +good discipline. The Hospital of the Trinity of St. Sulpice and of the +Incurable are well regulated, particularly the latter, where the utmost +attention and humanity are shown to its miserable inhabitants. + +The Foundling Hospital, now called that of La Maternité, overflowed +with little helpless infants during those periods of the Revolution +when the holy rites of marriage were treated with derision, and +licensed vice was the order of the day. Consequently the number of +foundlings ever since the accession of the Corsican hero still exceeds +that of all Europe. + +This establishment embraces two objects, provision for lying-in women +and maintenance for foundlings. + +I can dwell with complacency and pleasure upon the advantages of this +hospital, and I am glad to be able to praise its excellent management. + +It is divided into two compartments, one for the reception of pregnant +women, who are received into this house during the eighth month, upon +their presenting themselves for admission, and are allowed to remain +until a proper time has elapsed after their delivery. The second +compartment is allotted to those children who have been exposed or +abandoned by their parents. Nothing can be more interesting than the +spectacle of so many infants in cradles, arranged in lines. They are +put into the hands of wet nurses belonging to the institution, until +women out of the country can be found to take charge of them in their +own homes. Each wet nurse in the institution has care of two infants, +her own and a foundling. + +This establishment has supplied the place of that which was in +pre-Revolution days called l’Hospice des Enfants Trouvés; a charity +which owes its origin to the efforts of S. François de Paul. + +It is a happy idea to blend the principles of the former institution +with a provision for poor lying-in women, who formerly in their hour +of labour had to resort to the Hôtel Dieu and be delivered amongst the +sick. + +The building for these women is part of the house once occupied by the +Society of the Oratorians. + +[Sidenote: OLD FOUNDLING HOSPITAL] + +It is spacious and airy and has very large galleries, leading to the +respective apartments, in each of which not more than six or seven beds +are prepared. + +The children are accommodated in the _ci-devant_ Abbey of Port +Royal--a convent formerly occupied by nuns. During the days of +proscription and massacre, this edifice was converted into a prison. +The passages were blocked up, daylight shut out, and circular walls +raised. The revolutionary demoniacs changed the name of Port Royal into +that of Port Libre. + +Whilst it was used as a Foundling Hospital, 500 infants, 200 wet +nurses, belonging to the house, 200 women either expecting a child or +having already laid in, and forty sick persons were indiscriminately +crowded together, besides a multitude of attendants and the apothecary. +The multitude of partitions impeded the circulation of the air and +retained the offensive effluvia which proceeded from this multitude of +children, always clothed in dirty linen. There was not one apartment of +the building through which a pure draught of air passed. + +It was difficult to inspect so many dark rooms detached from each +other, it frequently happened that two women who had just become +mothers slept in the same bed. A general cleansing and whitewashing of +the place was unknown. The institution was burdened with children left +upon the hands of the charity, for the country nurses having been paid +with assignats or paper money and thus deprived of the full value of +their wages, nurses would not now offer themselves. The great influx +of children required a proportionate number of house nurses, and hence +arose the impossibility of selecting them, the necessity of complying +with all their demands and a great want of management. + +The food and the linen, in consequence of the low ebb to which the +credit of the house was sunk, were left to be provided by contractors. +The nurses had no clothes found them, pregnant women could get none, +and the infants were not even provided with linen which is an absolute +necessity. These evils resulted from the prodigal waste of public +money which during the Directorship was diverted from its proper +objects to gorge the insatiate appetite and hungry rapacity of the +officials of the Government. Indeed, I am in possession of unanswerable +vouchers to prove that to this circumstance (_i.e._, public and +private plunder) the present shameful and dilapidated condition of the +hospitals is to be attributed. So forcible are the representations of +the Consular precepts on this subject that many go so far as to boldly +assert that the grants made for the support of the hospitals have been +scandalously diverted from their original destination and lavished +without account on less necessary purposes. + +However, in 1801 the Council General of the Institution were enabled to +create and carry out a most necessary series of reforms. + +The first duty they had to discharge was to secure and regulate the +payment of the country nurses. + +Only £250 was due to these women, yet even this was paid with +difficulty. This debt has now been discharged, and this has been +attended with a very striking effect. The infants have been sent to +nurse much sooner, and the amount of deaths has in consequence greatly +diminished; so many house nurses have not been required, so those +who are employed are now selected with care and kept under a regular +management; persons who were of no use whatever to the Institution have +been discharged. Attention has been directed to salubrity, economy and +supply of clothing and linen. The small outbuildings, which were in +a ruinous state, have been pulled down; the partitions which divided +the wards taken away; the number of windows increased, and cleanliness +introduced over the whole hospital. + +Walls have been close scraped and afterwards whitewashed; rotten +timbers have been repaired, and the unserviceable and antiquated window +frames renewed and replaced. + +[Sidenote: “MATERNITÉ” CHARITY] + +The inspectors observed that a quantity of the provisions disappeared, +and the people of the house were constantly complaining they had not +enough. The truth being that they sold the victuals supplied to them. + +To remedy this evil refectories have been established, where they all +eat together. In the lying-in part of the hospital the food is now +abundant, wholesome and varied. The children’s kitchen, in which milk, +panade and broth are prepared, is under especial inspection. The place +of apothecary has been suppressed. Plenty of linen is provided for +the children. The servant girls and house nurses as well as the women +patients are now well supplied with clothes. + +All double bedsteads have been removed. + +Each woman and each nurse has a separate bed, and the latter two cribs, +one for each of the infants they suckle. The bedsteads and cribs +have been repainted, and the vermin which used to infect them has +disappeared. + +Two next excellent regulations have been adopted which deserve +notice. The women near their time were formerly suffered to be +without employment, in consequence of which they fell into a languor +and lowness of spirits, frequently not disassociated from bodily +indisposition. Work-rooms have now been established where they are +employed in sewing and embroidery under the direction of a proper +person belonging to the house. The charity might convert their earnings +to the benefit of the hospital, but instead it pays them for items, the +intention being to encourage them to moderate work, so that when they +quit the hospital they may not be distressed by the painful uncertainty +of not knowing where to search for the subsistence of the morrow. + +The second regulation establishes a course of midwifery for female +pupils, from all the departments. There were generally four pupils +under the chief midwife, whom she instructs in the practice of +midwifery for three months. This has just given rise to a public school +of midwifery in the Hospital of Maternity, to which are invited +as many midwives as can be procured from the several Departments. +The theoretical part is to be taught by M. Bandelocque, principal +accoucheur, and the practical by Madame la Chapelle, principal midwife. +The school will open three months hence, on August 23. France has long +stood in need of such an establishment on which the lives of so many +individuals depend. + +All these improvements, which have so entirely changed this vitally +important establishment, are to be attributed to the energy and +determination of one man, whose name deserves to be remembered and +revered by future generations of Frenchmen. This individual is Monsieur +Camus, member of the General Council of Hospitals. + +Citizen Bailly, the steward and housekeeper, has also greatly +contributed towards the establishment of order and the direction and +accomplishment of the several kinds of work. + +I hope I have not been too prolix in these details, but it is +impossible and unjust to applaud or to censure institutions without +entering into very minute particulars respecting them; besides +which, as the above statements have been _privately_ but +_officially_ communicated to me, I cannot help thinking they have +some public interest. With a very few exceptions the account of one +hospital in Paris contains the history of every other. + +By an exposure of the disgraceful decay into which one of the most +important charitable establishments of old France was allowed to fall, +when it came under the administration of the friends of the people, +some conception can be formed as to the amount of interest the French +Government during the last ten years has bestowed upon such subjects. + +At this moment the very existence of all charitable institutions in +France (I do not except the hospitals) depends entirely on the personal +industry of the few good and virtuous men and women who adorn the +commonwealth. + +[Sidenote: SISTERS OF CHARITY REQUIRED] + +All the hospitals and other institutions for the protection of the poor +of Paris are maintained by the Government, the private endowments +having all been confiscated during the Revolution. It is, therefore, +just and proper that the conduct of that Government should be fully +investigated, when complaints resound from every quarter, against its +inattention to the fundamental principles of the establishment. + +I conclude these remarks by presenting the observations and +requisitions of the present Prefect of the Department of the Seine: + +“Re-establish the former Sisters of Charity, place them at the head of +the hospital department, authorise them to choose others, that this +useful institution may be perpetuated. Employ in sedentary labours +the old men and the infirm; the produce of their work may be divided +between themselves and the hospital. Provide for the necessities of the +hospitals by _securing on them national property equal in value to +the amount of what they formerly possessed_. + +“This _restitution_ will supply the place of assessments, whose +produce is insufficient, in the meantime let the produce of these +assessments be paid into the treasuries of the hospitals _in order +that they may never be diverted from their primitive destination_. +Establish houses of instruction for the reception of foundlings, when +they have passed their infancy, and habituate them to industry. + +“Repair the buildings. Provide linen. Discharge the debts of the +hospitals, and confide to a single administration the direction of +the succour to be afforded to the whole department, and let it be +distributed in proportion to the population of the Commune.” + + + + + XXXV + + HUMANE INSTITUTIONS--_continued_ + NATIONAL INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB + UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE ABBÉ SICARD. + THE SAUVAGE D’AVEYRON + + +The Abbé Sicard[1] is a man who, as a classical, humane and scientific +instructor of the deaf and dumb, inspires the liveliest emotions of +admiration and respect. I was present at one of his lectures. The abbé +commenced by explaining the cause of dumbness to be the privation of +hearing (which precludes the possibility of imitating sounds)--and not +any absolute defect in the organ or instrument of speech. Such have +been the labours of the immortal Abbé de l’Epée and his successor, the +Abbé Sicard, that they have actually taught deaf and dumb persons how +to communicate by speech, as well as signs, with the rest of humanity. + +They have taught some to pronounce aloud any sentence written for them. +This pronunciation is the effect of a compelled mechanical utterance, +produced by the abbé placing his lips and mouth in certain positions +and appearing to the scholar to make certain motions, which motions +necessarily bring forth a sound more or less like that required. + +The degree of force which it is necessary the scholar should apply to +pronounce distinctly any word is regulated by the abbé pressing his arm +gently, moderately or strongly. + +[Sidenote: THE LITTLE SAVAGE] + +I attended a lecture at which the Abbé Sicard showed to an audience +the first mode of communication with the deaf and dumb. A boy about +thirteen years of age, whom the abbé had not even seen, was sent out of +the institution. A sheet of paper was brought on which were painted +many of the most common objects, such as a horse, a carriage, a bird, +a tree, and so on. Upon the abbé pointing these pictures out to the +boy, the latter appeared delighted to show by signs that he fully +comprehended the representation. These signs, attentively observed +by the abbé, formed the basis of future conversation. To prove that +_speech_ is merely a matter of imitation, the abbé produced a girl +about seventeen years old, who had lost her hearing at the age of six. +She had, therefore, acquired a small vocabulary of words and ideas +such as might be expected from a child of six years of age. Her mode +of enunciation was that of a young child. She pronounced “chat” “sa.” +There had been a dog in the house where she passed her infancy, whose +name was Toutou--she remembered the word and called every dog Toutou. +This girl was a curious instance of the primary effects of education. + +At this lecture the abbé stated a curious occurrence. He was once told +that a blind man, on being asked to describe the sound of a trumpet, +said he believed it to be of a red colour. He himself asked one of +his deaf and dumb pupils to define his idea of scarlet, the pupil +immediately replied: “The blast of a horn.” + +As soon as the lecture was ended, our party proceeded to the top of +the building in order to take a peep at the “Sauvage d’Aveyron.” When +M. P----, the gentleman who introduced us to Abbé Sicard, made the +proposal I was not aware that he was going to show us anything human. +Accordingly I followed close at his heels, and after I had entered the +room, perceiving only a man, a woman and a boy, I inquired for the +savage. “This is he,” said M. P----, pointing to the boy, “Kiss him.” +And without waiting for me to recover myself, he actually pushed me +on to the lad, and in this attitude of kissing I was discovered when +the ladies entered the apartment, the little savage holding me at the +same time by the arms. I was not a little confused at this involuntary +fraternal buss, which I was obliged to make, and which has been ever +since a subject of merriment. + +However, the savage no sooner saw ladies at the door than he sprang +from me, went to the window, and, after looking out for a few moments, +turned suddenly round and moved (for it could not be called walking) +very fast up and down the room, without seeming to pay them the least +attention. + +I had by this time recovered myself, and grasped him firmly by the arm; +but he took no manner of notice of me. He had a vacant countenance, +but not an idiotic one. He broke out in a most extraordinary manner, +however, a few minutes later, stamping with both his feet, rolling his +body from side to side, and howling in a strange and dreadful tone. + +This savage phenomenon was found in the forest of Aveyron, and here +his history begins and ends. During the two years of his captivity he +has not made any progress in knowledge or speech, and though in the +possession of his senses he does not seem to have a human idea. + +Civil society has no charm for him, and nothing has been known to +attract his attention. Every effort has been made to impress him with +some kind of sentiment. A good deal has been published respecting this +“child of nature,” as he has been foolishly nicknamed by the Parisian +wits; and the wretched condition of his mind has furnished several +philosophists with arguments in which they have attempted to reason +away the understanding and virtue of mankind. But this is a ridiculous +mode of reasoning, and what Dr. Paley[1] has said in his _Elements of +Moral Philosophy_, respecting Peter the Wild Boy of Germany, may be +applied with equal force to the Wild Boy of France. + +[Sidenote: RENTE VIAGÈRE] + +The conversations into which I have been led in consequence of my +visit to this young savage have been very interesting, chiefly because +they were carried on with avowed atheists, members of the National +Institute. It is really astonishing to what extremities they push +their subtle sophisms; and while they affect to discard everything +that is not _material_ and appurtenant to this globe, they are +continually soaring _extra flammentia mœnia mundi_. + +In a solemn discussion I had the other day with a man who is considered +one of the first natural philosophers in the world, he told me gravely +that Lagrange, Lacroix and several members of the Institute had sent +a German to the interior of Africa to request he would make the +experiment of uniting an ourang outang to a negro woman, and that he +looked forward with eager expectation to the result of these nuptials! + +Such a project is worthy of the philosophers of the National Institute. + + + + + XXXVI + + ECONOMICAL ESTABLISHMENTS. PROGRESSIVE ANNUITY FUND. + SOCIETY FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF NATIONAL INDUSTRY + + +A plan is in preparation for the establishment of an annuity fund. +It is to be named _Caisse des Placemens en Viager_. It is to be +established at 440 Rue Saint Méry and 435 Rue du Renard Saint Méry. Its +motto is _surety, stability, simplicity_. Those who hold shares are to +enjoy a progressive annuity. This annuity is paid according to their +ages, and not to their shares; hence all the holders of shares who have +attained any particular age receive the same rate of interest whatever +may have been the price of their shares. The _minimum_ of rate for the +first age is six livres per share, and is assigned to the first class +only; the primitive rate of the subsequent classes rises gradually to +the twelfth, which comprehends the holders of shares who have attained +their sixtieth year. By reckoning from the rate assigned to the first +class, the annuity increases at fixed epochs, and rises by thirty-five +gradations to the maximum of 5000 livres, which belongs to all the +classes, and is paid to all holders of shares who have attained +the age to which this last term of the progression relates. All the +intermediate terms determine equally what is to be paid, without any +distinction to the holders of shares in each class, in proportion as +they arrive at the different ages which correspond to each rate of +annuity. Those holders are divided into twelve classes, and each class +into twelve series, each of which has a separate and distinct account. + +At first view this plan seems to resemble a Tontine, but it is a very +different thing. A Tontine divides annually amongst the survivors the +shares of those deceased, but in this fund the probabilities of human +life have been calculated, and by making them agree with the decrease +of the capital invested, which together with their interest serve to +augment the annuities, the movement of the funds and the death of the +holder of shares are so combined that every holder knows at any given +point the benefits he will derive at the different periods of his life. + +The principle of the establishment consists “in an equality of +annuities, payable to the same ages, whatever may have been the time +of investment of the share, combined with an equality in the number of +survivors among such holders of shares as have attained the same age, +whatever may have been the time of becoming such.” + +The holders have been distributed into twelve classes, the first of +which has been fixed at 3200. It comprises only such individuals as are +under a year old, and serves as a regulation of the decreasing numbers +of each subsequent class. Thus the numbers decreasing of the shares in +each class are as follows: + + First 3200 + Second 2400 + Third 2242 + Fourth 2102 + Fifth 1940 + Sixth 1792 + Seventh 1648 + Eighth 1438 + Ninth 1200 + Tenth 1020 + Eleventh 838 + Twelfth 656 + +[Sidenote: RENTE VIAGÈRE] + +In order to make the annuities equal for all ages it has been +necessary only to reproduce in each class, at the age wherein each of +the subsequent classes are introduced, an operation which consists +simply in dividing this capital, the same for all the classes which +have attained the same ages, by the number of shares in the class in +question, which number is the same as that to which all former classes +are reduced. + +The twelve classes comprise from one year to sixty-five years; each +class contains different periods of five, six, or seven years; all the +individuals comprehended under these periods are considered as being of +the same age, and paid as such until the extinction of the amount to +which they belong. The total number of shares cannot exceed 245,712, +and the prices of shares in the respective classes are thus regulated: + + PRICES OF SHARES. + + Livres. Centimes. + + 1. Those who have not completed their first year 140 0 + 2. Those who have not completed their eighth year 199 75 + 3. From 8 to 13 years of age 223 26 + 4. „ 13 to 18 „ „ 242 39 + 5. „ 18 „ 24 „ „ 260 91 + 6. „ 24 „ 30 „ „ 279 98 + 7. „ 30 „ 36 „ „ 301 52 + 8. „ 36 „ 43 „ „ 335 65 + 9. „ 43 „ 50 „ „ 383 28 + 10. „ 50 „ 55 „ „ 427 27 + 11. „ 55 „ 60 „ „ 479 84 + 12. „ 60 „ 65 „ „ 552 84 + +These shareholders receive a progressive annuity per share as follows: + + ANNUITY. + + Livres. Centimes. + + 1. Until 8 years of age 6 0 + 2. From 8 to 13 years of age 8 0 + 3. „ 13 to 18 „ „ 10 0 + 4. „ 18 „ 24 „ „ 12 0 + 5. „ 24 „ 30 „ „ 13 0 + 6. „ 30 „ 36 „ „ 14 0 + 7. „ 36 „ 43 „ „ 16 0 + 8. „ 43 „ 50 „ „ 19 0 + 9. „ 50 „ 55 „ „ 23 0 + 10. „ 55 „ 60 „ „ 28 0 + 11. „ 60 till death 34 0 + +There is no limit to the number of shares a person may hold. Each class +is to be closed as soon as the fixed number of shares shall have been +completed. + +As soon as a series of each class is closed, a new one will be opened, +to be closed in its turn when the number of its shares shall be +completed. + +When 144 series of a class are closed, no further investments will +be admitted. Besides the above annuity, the four last survivors of a +class and of each series will divide between them the four-fifths of +the residue of their account in proportion to the number of shares +belonging to them, the remaining fifth belonging to the administration. +The object of this institution, like the one I have described at +Chaillot, is to make a comfortable provision for old age, by giving +encouragement to a habit of economy. It is open to foreigners as well +as to Frenchmen. + +_The Society for the Encouragement of National Industry_ is held +at the Louvre and is open to all the world. Any person may be admitted +a member on being presented by a member, received by the Council +of Administration, and on paying annually _at least_ a sum of +thirty-six livres. The object of this society is to offer prizes for +the invention, improvement and execution of machines or processes, +advantageous to agriculture, arts and manufactures, to diffuse +information respecting agriculture, arts and manufactures and to make +experiments in order to ascertain the utility of new inventions and to +afford pecuniary assistance to artists whose personal poverty prevents +them being able to try the effects of their inventions. + +The administration of this society is composed of men of first-rate +ability, and is divided into five distinct committees: The Committee +of Mechanical Arts, the Committee of Commerce, the Committee of +Agriculture and those of Economical and Chemical Arts. + + + + + XXXVII + + THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE SEINE. + GENERAL VIEW OF THE STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN FRANCE + + +[Sidenote: AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY] + +Of all the institutions in Paris, the Agricultural Society afforded me +most satisfaction. It is unexceptionable and praiseworthy in a high +degree, and partakes of the innocence and simplicity of rural economy. +The formation of such an establishment in such a city as Paris is an +anomaly in politics, and, extraordinary to say, the members are nearly +all men of good character, fortune and talents. + +This Society supplies the place of the old Royal Society of +Agriculture. Its members are limited to sixty resident in the +Department of the Seine, and not more than 150 Associates, one of +whom at least is chosen from each Department. It also elects foreign +Associates. The Society assembles for the present at the Préfecture de +la Seine in the Place Vendôme. I was present at the last meeting, and +sixteen members were there, including my excellent friend Grégoire; +also François de Neufchâteau, Huzard, Parmentier, Silvestre, the +Secretary and others. It was with extreme pleasure I perceived the zeal +manifested by all the members of the Society for the promotion of the +great and important science of agriculture. In old France the business +of the husbandman was considered the lowest and most grovelling form of +vassalage. The order of nature and of sound policy was thus reversed. + +But agriculture in France may now be said to be progressive, and if it +be allowed time and be spared from vexation it will truly enrich the +Republic. When we take into consideration the immense extent of France, +the variety of its climate and the fertility of its soil, together +with the vast resources it contains, one cannot avoid looking with +affection on an establishment so well adapted to collect into one focus +the experiments, details and improvements, native and foreign, by which +these natural advantages may be rendered more politically beneficial to +the country. + +The condition of the labouring classes of France has so far not been in +the least bettered by the Revolution; they are yet in the same abject +state for which they were heretofore distinguished. That mutual hatred +which existed between the inhabitants of the population of town and +country still prevails; notwithstanding that liberty and equality have +been written in characters of blood all over France. The Agricultural +Society are endeavouring to connect together the labourer and the +artisan, by pointing out their reciprocal obligations to each other, +and by giving rewards to such persons as shall point out the most +effective methods of rendering their common exertions serviceable to +the State. A variety of publications, some ingenious and lively, others +grave and argumentative, have been circulated to show the immense +importance of rural economy to a State, and to exalt the character of +the agriculturist. + +The members of the Agricultural Society are well aware of the many +difficulties which they have to encounter, and the obstinate prejudices +they must remove, before they can hope to bring the rural economy +of France to that point of perfection of which it is susceptible. A +great obstacle in the way of agricultural improvement in France is the +astonishing multitude and diversity of local customs, which even the +violence of the Revolution has failed to alter much less eradicate. + +[Sidenote: AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY] + +Upon the whole, notwithstanding the present unfavourable appearance +of the general state of husbandry in the Republic, I entertain +little doubt that a peace of ten years will wonderfully alter the +face of things. The means of giving efficacy to the zeal and ardour +of the French I am sensible are wanting, nevertheless so long as +zeal prevails a well-founded hope exists that in defiance of the +poverty and extravagance of the Government, much will be done by the +people themselves. Unfortunately a general sentiment is at this time +predominant in France that nothing can be done or undertaken without +the Government. It is true the Government listens with attention to +every scheme, but their interest appears to go no further. The only way +to prevent all things from going to decay is by continually aiming to +better them in some respect or other, and to afford an attentive ear to +every project for that purpose. It must frequently happen that many of +those projects will be chimerical, but men who expose themselves and +desert the common and certain roads of gain in pursuit of advantages +for the public and not for themselves, must necessarily have something +odd and singular in their characters. It is the character of pride and +laziness to reject all offers, as it is that of weakness and credulity +to listen to all without distinction. Cromwell, partly from his +circumstances, but more from his genius and disposition, received daily +a number of proposals which were often most useful, and often remote +from probability and good sense. But he made a signal use of many +things of this kind. + +Colbert spent much of his time in hearing every sort of scheme for +the extending of commerce, the improvement of agriculture and the +arts; and spared no pains or expense to put them in execution, and +bountifully rewarded and encouraged their authors. By these means +France advanced during the reign of Louis XIV. and under this Minister +more than it had done for a couple of centuries, and by these means +also in the midst of wars, which brought France and the rest of Europe +almost to destruction, amidst all the faults in the royal character +and many errors of his Government, a seed of industry and enterprise +was sown, which on the first respite of the public calamities, and +even while they oppressed the nation, rose to produce that flourishing +internal and external wealth and power for which France was afterwards +distinguished. + + + + + XXXVIII + + THE POST OFFICE. HALLS OF THE LEGISLATIVE BODIES. + COURTS OF JUSTICE. THE JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON REVIVED + + +Any person who has paid a visit to our General Post Office in Lombard +Street, and is acquainted with the extraordinary bustle united to +the utmost precision visible there, would think, should he happen to +alight on a sudden in the Rue Coqueron without knowing in what part of +the world he was, that the Post Office therein was that of some small +trading town, instead of the capital of the _greatest_ nation on +earth. + +Should he judge of the population by the revenue of each place, he +would conclude Great Britain contained some 100,000,000 souls and +France not above 3,000,000. + +It does not require much skill in political economy to discover the +causes of this disparity. + +Commercial nations have a greater number of artificial wants and a most +extensive circle of correspondents. To them the expense of postage is +no burthen, it is a source of profit. A merchant therefore exults in +the number of his letters. Hence the duties of postage are never paid +with reluctance. You would never see in the General Post Office of such +countries, piles of returned letters sufficient to supply a bonfire. +Amsterdam, at the period of its commercial prosperity, received more +letters in one day than the citizens of Paris in a week. I will now +compare the London and Paris Post Offices, and this comparison is +really an entertaining one. + +I wrote to the Mayor of Chatillon in La Vendée an important letter, +requiring a reply. Consequently I was obliged to go frequently to the +General Post Office in order to make inquiries for it. + +[Sidenote: IRREGULAR POSTAL SYSTEM] + +Upon the first time I presented myself at the office, I inquired +whether the post had arrived? “No.” “When do you expect it?” “To-day.” +“But you desired me to be here at one o’clock.” “Eh, monsieur! one +cannot be _so_ precise.” “When shall I call again?” “To-morrow.” +On the next day I returned. “Now, what say you?” “The post is not +arrived.” “When will it come?” “To-night or perhaps to-morrow.” “How do +you account for this irregularity?” “Who knows? the courier may have +broken his neck, one cannot be particular.” “But the post from England +is regular enough!” “C’est une autre affaire, les routes de Calais à +Paris sont superbes.” + +The next evening the post did arrive. I asked the reason for delay, and +was coolly replied: “there was none.” + +If I had been a merchant what fatal consequences might have ensued from +this delay had I been under the necessity of making a considerable +payment! + +I will relate another circumstance, sufficiently ludicrous, though a +general and useful deduction may be drawn from it. My valet de chambre, +who fortunately for me cannot read, brought me one afternoon a letter +which, after a hundred apologies for the liberty he was taking, he +begged _I_ would read to him. It came from his father, who is a +well-to-do farmer near Besançon. The style of the letter was good, but +the writing difficult to decypher. After the usual expressions between +a parent and a son, he proceeded in the letter to ask four distinct +questions, every one of which required an explicit answer. One of them, +upon which he laid the greatest stress, was to inform him by its reply +whether his daughter had been safely delivered. The letter, however, +had a postscript: “Au Nom de Dieu ne réponds pas à cette lettre, le +prix des facteurs est trop cher!” + +Now without any invidious allusion to Ireland I may be permitted to +observe that no so-called Irish bull was ever so simple as this remark. + +No English labourer whose daughter was in a similar condition would +have grudged a few sous upon such occasion, and the expense of internal +postage in France is cheaper than with us. + +Disinclination to correspond extends to men in better circumstances. +Amidst the most sumptuous festivities and the Oriental style of living +peculiar to the Consular Satrap, there is throughout the mass of +the Parisians a chilling penury that would excite compassion, if we +could forget that they had been the voluntary authors of their own +wretchedness. + +The extensive operations carried on, the numerous armies maintained on +the Continent by the Republic, have rendered it extremely difficult for +persons to know the destination and circumstances of their relatives. + +Hence a new species of egoism has been introduced into society. The +social claim is dissolved and every one lives on conjecture or only for +himself. The charms and joys of friendship cannot exist in such a state. + +It must be observed that trade is at a standstill; not on account +of want of opportunities but for want of _means_. Property has +not yet made its appearance from out the holes where the spirits +of fraud, rapine and fear have deposited it. Concealment of spoil +is the universal adage; for with all the fulsome panegyrics on the +Central Government, which originate with its subaltern agents, and are +despatched by the Prefects of the Departments, doubt and anxiety are +pictured on every countenance, except the military and the immediate +counsellors of the consulate authority. If a merchant be disposed to +make a venture, the next moment his fears deter him. He hesitates to +trust, and least of all is he inclined to trust his Government. Under +such circumstances it is little wonder the General Post Office does so +little business. + +I have stood for hours in the courtyard in order to see the arrivals of +the different couriers. + +[Sidenote: POSTAL TRANSIT] + +Nothing can be more ridiculous than the contrast between the English +and French mail coaches. The French post waggons are huge unwieldy +machines, drawn by cart horses, harnessed with ropes and moving at a +slow pace, their arrival is nevertheless always announced by tremendous +cracks of whips. + +When this is compared with the smart dress and cheerful horns of our +coachmen and guards, the elegant neatness and convenience of our mail +coaches, the beauty of our horses, and the expedition with which they +are received and despatched to pursue their different routes almost to +a minute, it is impossible not to feel a proud opinion of the “little +nation of shopkeepers” as the _Master of the Earth_ is pleased to +call the inhabitants of our islands. I shall conclude this account of +the Post Office with observing first, from official documents on my +table, that I could sail with a light wind to Jamaica before a letter +in France would arrive at some of the cross posts in the Interior. + +For instance, between Bourges and Sancerre, in the Department of +Cher, there is at present no communication. Between Orleans and +Montargis, in the Department du Loiret, there is no established mode of +correspondence. But the Prefect hopes later to accomplish the matter by +putting a tax on all the inhabitants. + +There is no communication between Langagne and Genvielhac, in the +Department of Lozère; none between Roquefort and Bordeaux, in the Lower +Pyrenees, although the merchants of Pau have proved it would be a +shorter route than through Toulouse. + +In the Eastern Pyrenees the correspondence of the Department with that +of the Department of Aude takes up five days; it should be done in one. + +The most egregious villainies having been perpetrated in the Department +of the _Haut Rhin_, it has been thought _wise, prudent, and +politic to suspend the postal arrangements there altogether_. + +Unless letters addressed to Ministers and officers of the Government +are _prepaid_, they will never reach their destination. The +Ministers make an annual charge of postage, and cabbage the difference. +At first sight this perquisite may seem trivial for the fingers of an +officer of State. But these officers are Ministers who have their +fortunes to make. + +Hence every little helps. + +It should seem that circumstances, times, places, persons, things are +of more importance in France than elsewhere. This was a common mania +under the old Government, but _it_ had the great resources of +commerce, arts, and the wants of a great number of rich proprietors, +who, unhappily, have now, with arts and commerce, been destroyed. +Nevertheless, the opinion still prevails that the Government can +command the harvest, and compel persons to sell and buy. + +The business, however, of the Government is to correct itself by +experience, to secure itself against the mistakes and bad measures of +commercial administration. For no private industry, no knowledge of +commercial affairs, can secure individuals against the folly of a bad +Minister, or the pernicious effects of his administrative regulations. +This reasoning has no influence in France; Government is required +to invent, to build, to manufacture--in short, to do everything but +consume; and yet this latter is the precise article in which the +present Government excels and takes the greatest delight. + +The perquisites of postage must be immense, as whenever despatch is +required, a solicitation, to be successful, must be accompanied by a +very considerable pecuniary compliment. Therefore, the Minister who +holds the portfolio of the Postes amasses a considerable sum during his +Ministry. + + + THE LEGISLATIVE BODY. + +[Sidenote: CORPS LEGISLATIF] + +This Tribunate meets in those departments of the Palais Royale which +are opposite the Rue St. Thomas. A few shabby-looking individuals +compose what is called their Guard of Honour. I had the honour and +privilege of being admitted to one of these meetings, and I will try +to describe what passed on this occasion. Having obtained an order of +admittance at the door in exchange for our cards, we were ushered into +a seat appropriated for the friends of the members, and just opposite +to the Presidential chair. Immediately behind us were the reporters, +and beyond them the place reserved for the public, who on that +particular day consisted of eight persons. The room itself is small +and mean, furnished with benches covered with blue cloth. After we had +waited about twenty minutes, during which time two or three individuals +peeped through the folding doors opposite to us, much in the same way +as a head is sometimes seen through the green curtain at Drury Lane, +in the act of exploring the house, a sudden crash of drums as a signal +was heard, and the folding-door vanished as if touched by the wand of +Harlequin. The drums then beat a salute, and the scene that opened +presented us with a very fine perspective of soldiers presenting arms. +In a minute or two the procession commenced, with six men in fancy +dresses, whose appearance was a burlesque upon French legislation. + +They were dressed in grey coats and pantaloons, with scarlet waistcoats +and red half-boots. Upon their heads a round hat turned up in front +with a blue feather, a red sash round the waist, and a good-sized stick +in their hands. + +Next followed the President, his round hat garnished with three upright +tri-coloured feathers; he wore a mazarine-blue coat embroidered in +silver, breeches to match, and a white silk waistcoat bound in by a +silk tri-colour sash with silver fringes. + +Behind followed the secretaries, and a motley group whose appearance +provoked great merriment amongst us. Most of them were in full costume, +like the President, but some with worsted, others with black silk, +stockings. They wore pantaloons and half-boots, and several had whole +boots with dirty brown tops. + +Except the President and secretaries, there were but three in this +crowd who wore a clean pair of shoes and looked like gentlemen. These +three were Lucien Bonaparte, the First Consul’s next brother, who was +not only in full uniform, but appeared in silk stockings and clean +linen, and had in every respect the manners and address of a gentleman, +with the countenance of an Italian Jew; Chauvelier,[7] formerly +resident for the late unfortunate King of France in our country; and +Carnot, the ex-Director, who was dressed in a suit of black worthy of a +courtier. He seemed very surly, and during the whole sitting employed +himself reading a pamphlet. All the rest looked like blackguards in +masquerade. As soon as the President mounted his tribune, he rang +a handbell; he then took off his hat, and remarked, “La Séance est +ouverte.” The six gentlemen in grey already mentioned began to get up +a hissing resembling geese. This was to obtain silence (for they were +gentlemen ushers). The order of the day was then read. No debate took +place. After each law proposed, every man (as his name was called) +advanced to the tribune, and put the ball which recorded his vote into +the urn. This ceremony was repeated a number of times, and, indeed, +this figuring continued for above three hours. The President then rang +his bell again, and declared, “La Séance est levée!” Instantly the +folding doors disappeared once more with a crash, and exeunt President, +secretaries, and tribunes to their respective dressing-rooms, where +they exchanged their fine fancy clothes for their ordinary habiliments. + +Having described the nature and object of this body, I shall now +endeavour to do the same by that extraordinary assembly of Mutes, which +goes by the name of the _Legislative Council of France_, in which +300 choice spirits are collected together to be dumb by law during +four months in ever year. According to the code of “_Minos_” +Bonaparte, article 34, we find: “The legislative body enacts the law +by secret _scrutiny and without the least discussion on the part of +its members_, upon the plans of the law debated before it, by the +orators of the Tribunate and the Government.” + +[Sidenote: A SILENT PARLIAMENT] + +This is exquisite! Each mute is allowed the sum of £436 sterling per +annum, with permission to talk during eight months of the year. Such is +the best account I can give of this marvellous assembly. It is called +a Legislative Council, but this designation is an improper one. In +the French, as well as the English language, the word _council_, +derived from the Latin _concilium_, signifies a body of men met +together for the purpose of consultation. Now, except in “Dean Swift’s +Voyage to Laputa,” I have never heard or read of a number of men +assembled together only to _think_, not even at a Quaker meeting. + +The hall where these thoughtful meetings take place was constructed +during the Directorate; it is now pompously called “The Palace of the +Legislative Bodies,” and it merits the name of palace, for it is one +of the most elegant and beautiful rooms in Europe. It is semicircular, +with benches rising one upon the other, for the convenience of members. +Above the uppermost bench, and extending along the semicircle, are a +number of arcades of fine marble, the capitals composed of bronze. + +Within these persons who have obtained cards of admission are +stationed, and considerably above them, nearly at the top of the +ceiling is a gallery, for spectators. Opposite to the benches of +the members, and in the middle of its diameter, is the chair of the +President, a little below him the place of the secretaries and the +tribune from which the orators of the Government, viz., the Council +of State and those of the Tribunate harangue the assembly. These are +all made of solid mahogany, inlaid with gold, and the pedestal of the +tribune has a beautiful relief in marble, filched from Italy. On the +right of the President there are three niches, within which are the +statues of Lycurgus, Demosthenes and Solon, on the left three others, +in which Brutus, Cato, and Cicero are fixed. + +The floor, which forms the area between the tribune and the benches of +the members, is of marble. + +We were never present at the opening of the _séance_, so I cannot +say whether the drums beat as at the Tribunate, but I think it likely +this assembly has also a guard of honour. There is a semicircular +bench on the floor opposite to the President appropriated for those +tribunes and orators of the Government who are detached for the purpose +of discussing the laws. They are preceded by huissiers at their +entrance into the hall, and the doors are always opened as if by magic +and with a crash. + +The mutes wear the same uniforms as the tribunes, except that their +clothing is embroidered with gold; they are by no means so slovenly in +their appearance as the gentlemen of the lower chamber. A great many +general officers are among their number. + +The palace to which this hall is attached is the Palace Bourbon, +formerly the Parisian residence of the Prince de Condé. It is situate +on the other side of the Seine, opposite to the place once Place Louis +XV., now Place de la Concorde, on the middle of which the unfortunate +monarch of France and innumerable numbers of his former subjects were +put to death. + +The beautiful bridge, Pont de la Concorde, which leads to the palace, +and the triumphant portal between two noble pavilions, to which it is +connected by a double row of lofty columns of the Corinthian order, add +to the splendour of its appearance. We must _not_ forget while +admiring so many noble specimens of architecture that not _one_ of +them is the work of the genius of Republican France; on the contrary, +they were raised and embellished by the liberality of Princes, whose +descendants an ungrateful people have driven into exile. + +The only pieces of architecture produced by the Republic are several +wooden houses erected upon barges on the river for shows and bagnios +where the lascivious and polluted may at any hour of the day or night +regale themselves with girls, liqueurs, coffee, dainties of all kinds +and hot and cold baths. + +[Sidenote: CRIMINAL COURT] + +In the interior of the _Palais du Corps Législatif_ there are +several halls dedicated to peace and victory, and to those funny +divinities, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. + +I will now describe the _Palais de Justice_. + +This is another magnificent edifice. It is enclosed within a gate 120 +feet in length, which forms the boundary of a large area. The façade +presents a very dignified appearance, at the middle of which, after +ascending a flight of steps, the people enter through a vast opening. + +Among the different courts there is one which can never fail to attract +a foreigner--the hall where the Revolutionary Tribunal assembled to +murder innocents by wholesale. It is now called the Chamber of the +Court of Appeal, and is completely altered since I last saw it in +1793, when a set of drunken cannibals, selected from the filthiest +styes of the Metropolis, with red caps upon their heads, made human +nature tremble, inundated France with blood, and caused every honest +man to envy the days of Nero and Caracalla. The person who was with me +gave me a very minute account of the trials of the Queen and Princess +Elizabeth, where they were stationed, and how calm and dignified was +their behaviour. + +In the Criminal Court four young men were being tried for their lives. +The room, the seats of the judges, advocates, jury and spectators, made +me think I was in one of the circuit courts of our own country. Every +person was uncovered. The judge politely invited us to sit within the +tribunal, so we saw and heard all that passed distinctly. + +There were three judges, who wore the same gowns as our Masters of +Arts. The prisoners were seated on their left, attended by two _gens +d’armes_ and their counsel on a seat below them; to the right the +jury and public prosecutor were stationed. This latter official was +habited like the judges. + +One of the prisoners completely established an _alibi_, the others +succeeded so far as to render the evidence against them all ambiguous, +so in consequence they were acquitted. + +The Revolution caused such havoc among the corps of lawyers that the +profession is scarcely deemed reputable. Every advocate of the old +Monarchy, who entered into the spirit of the times, is now either a +member of the Tribunate or the Conservative Senate. + +The most lamentable circumstance in the interests of justice is the +mean salaries granted to the judges, the principal of whom do not +receive more than £400 sterling a year; and when the importance of +their functions and their relative rank in society are contrasted +with their pay, one cannot avoid thinking that there is a deliberate +intention to degrade the name of Justice in this country, by rendering +it infinitely below the scale of military authority. + +This opinion is corroborated by what took place a short time ago at the +Tuileries, when the Civil Code was under discussion. Cambacères, the +Second Consul, had actually persuaded Bonaparte that in England there +were _no juries_ in _civil causes_. Upon further inquiry St. Jean d’ +Angely assured him of the contrary. “How is this, Cambacères,” said +the First Consul, “I am now told that the English always have juries +in civil as well as criminal causes?” The latter still persisting, +Blackstone was appealed to, but as no one present understood enough +English to read this law book, Bonaparte extricated himself from the +dilemma by saying: “Oh! as to these matters, one says one thing and +another another; there appears to be no certainty at all about what is +the practice in England, nor is it of any consequence whatever, but +I decide there shall be no juries in France in civil causes!” _Ainsi +soit-il!_ + +With this stupendous effort of human judgment I finish my account of +the mode in which justice is administered in this enlightened Republic. + + + + + XXXIX + + NEWSPAPERS. CHARACTERS OF THOSE CONCERNED IN THEM + + +[Sidenote: FRENCH NEWSPAPERS] + +In the inaugural address pronounced by the celebrated Montesquieu +on his admission to the French Academy, January 24, 1728, he said: +“Talents without virtues are fatal presents, only proper to add +strength to our vices and to render them more conspicuous.” + +Had Montesquieu lived to this day he would have thought in the same +spirit. + +But he would not have survived the Revolutionary storm unless he had +taken refuge in exile. + +I well remember a rebuke I once received from Robespierre when I +extolled “The Spirit of Laws.” + +“The Spirit of Laws,” said he, “is the production of a fanatic and +weak mind (_imbécile_), replete with dogma and prejudice; if +Montesquieu were now alive he would very soon be less by a head, _car +il était un parlementaire, non pas un bon Republicain_.” The word +_parlementaire_ means, strictly speaking, a Roundhead or a Whig; +but such a person was not sufficiently divested of prejudice to be a +good Republican in the eyes of Robespierre; besides, as the tyrant +continued, “being a member of the ancient parliament of France (he was +president of that at Bordeaux) he was _necessarily_ an enemy of +Republican Government, for which reason, notwithstanding his dogmas and +prejudices in favour of public liberty, he was without doubt worthy of +death as an aristocrat and a conspirator.” + +When I heard that Montesquieu would have been less by a head had he +fallen into Robespierre’s hands, I felt an unpleasant sensation in +my throat, and I therefore was immediately _convinced_ that +the tyrant’s arguments were correct; but knowing that extremes of +servility and opposition were alike obnoxious to him, I endeavoured +to appease him with observing that it was very true, the author of +“The Spirit of Laws” groped in darkness, especially in the article in +which he treats of Influence of Climate, as it was now _clear_ +that the enlightened principles of the Revolution were equally +applicable to the whole race of man, and that there would probably be +a National Convention very soon in China; but still that I could not +avoid considering Montesquieu, as well as Machiavel, in the light of +a pioneer of liberty! “Machiavel, the pioneer of liberty!” he cried +(giving me a fixed look with his two large tigerish eyes and clenching +his fists, the usual preliminaries of a warrant of arrest), “you are +not acquainted with the true principles, the doctrines of Machiavel +established tyranny over the whole of Europe.” Every one who has read +Machiavel with attention, which I am persuaded Robespierre never did, +if he read him at all, must be satisfied that his book “The Prince,” +was written solely to expose the machinations of tyrants, and caution +the people of free States against their intrigues. + +I have been led to these remarks in order to expose the worthlessness +of the literary claims of those _political_ writers and orators +who affect a great deal of information when they possess none. No +people possess greater facility than the French in persuading the world +that they know everything, when in fact they know little or nothing. + +When I was about to depart for France I was requested by the +proprietors of a long-established daily paper in London to procure if +possible some intelligent person in whom they might confide to act as +a proper correspondent, to give them authentic information of what was +passing in France. When I arrived in Paris I therefore addressed myself +to men of approved talents in science, and, as I had been informed, of +knowledge in politics. + +[Sidenote: FRENCH NEWSPAPERS] + +The sum I was empowered to offer was sufficiently captivating, and +they buzzed about me in consequence like so many paupers round the +overseer of a parish in the act of distributing bread. With respect to +operas, plays, masquerades, concerts, balls and all the other equipage +of folly and pleasure, information respecting them was none of my +object. I wanted such communications as should prove useful to men of +understanding, to the politician, the manufacturer and the merchant; I +did not care to learn whether the First Consul slept at Malmaison or +the Tuileries. The points upon which accurate information might be of +incalculable advantage to the British public were, who was the last +person robbed, banished, poisoned, or otherwise murdered by the order +of the chief of the State, what measures were in agitation to sap the +foundations of any kingdom, and what independent community was next to +be overthrown and enslaved. + +Accordingly I stated distinctly to my would-be correspondents that we +required _facts_ and _facts only_. Politics were the principal topics +of conversation during our interviews, and I was utterly astonished to +discover the profound ignorance my new acquaintances displayed. + +None of them seemed to have any just notion either of the state of +Europe or their own country. After a short intercourse I discovered +that with the little information I had gained I already knew more of +the affairs of France than they did. + +However, that I might not be led away by my own opinions, I suggested +to five of those gentlemen, who I selected from the crowd owing to +their distinguished credentials, that they should take up their +pens and give a specimen of their manner of treating things, that +I might forward such writings immediately to the two gentlemen in +England who had commissioned me to seek for correspondents. I told +this to each applicant separately, and requested he should choose +his subject for himself. Two of those individuals were members of +the National Institute, one a very celebrated Professor, and the two +others distinguished and respected _savans_! Five hours after the +conversation I received an _estafette_ from one of the Institute +men, and before two days had elapsed despatches arrived from all +the rest. After having read them all over with repeated attention, +I decided, for the sake of my own credit, to send none of them to +England. They were so puerile that I will stake my honour upon a boy +at Eton or Westminster writing more and better to the purpose. + +They were full of flowers, tropes and metaphors, but contained nothing +solid; and all overflowed with the commonplace metaphysics of the new +Philosophy. My embarrassments now increased, for the Club of Sages, +whom the report of my commission collected round me, besieged my +lodgings day after day, like suitors in the ante-chamber of Talleyrand; +and notwithstanding their courteous carriage and apparent indifference +they all asked me anxiously what news I had received by the post. The +awkward situation in which I found myself compelled me eventually +to say that my colleagues had altered their plans and determined +to confide their correspondence to an English gentleman now in +Paris--_i.e._, _myself_. + +But although these philosophers did not obtain any ulterior benefit +from my offer, I was enabled by my intercourse with them to obtain +considerable information respecting the state of the Press in Paris at +the present time, and I here give the result of my inquiries. + +Newspapers in France are under the immediate control of the police, and +are principally edited by those illuminated children of science, better +known under the title of the National Institute. + +The _Moniteur_ is the first in order in baseness and infamy. It is +considered the official paper of the Government. As all its papers are +under the superintendence of the police, they are _all_ official. +Its nominal proprietors are Messrs. Roederer[1] and Hautrive,[1] but +the profits belong to a club consisting of five Ministers, those of +Finance, Interior, Foreign Affairs, War and Police. Roederer receives +a stipend of £800 a year (which, with his income of a Councillor of +State, gives him £3500 to spend) as a salary for editing the paper, +for which he is of course considered the responsible person. All +the expenses of paper, printing and publishing, are defrayed by the +Treasury. + +[Sidenote: CHARACTERS OF EDITORS] + +Hautrive is not a stipendiary or responsible editor, but he writes +in the _Moniteur_, and his articles are well paid. The Decemvir +Barrère receives £1000 per annum for his literary assistance, but he is +really acting as a private spy for the First Consul, on the operations +of the Jacobins. He is likewise engaged as spy upon the Grand Spy, +Fouché, Minister of Police. + +The different Ministers frequently employ the pens of their subalterns +in office. You cannot be mistaken respecting the authors of the +articles, as their style convicts them. The following may, however, +serve as general rules for the discovery of the distinguished literati +engaged. + +_Ferocious and blustering passages on the power of the Republic, in +the style of epic prose._--Treilhard,[1] ex-Avocat, ex-Director, +ex-Negotiator, and Councillor of State. + +_Religious homilies and pious incantations, with much whining +about the restoration of the Catholic Faith, but written in good +style._--Portales,[1] the Elder Councillor of State, who from a +professed atheist, having read the Bible over and over again, as he +says, during his exile at Homburgh, has found himself converted, and on +his return converted Bonaparte to believe what he believes, and is now +a saint as well as his disciple. + +_Gasconades, calembours, bombast, apostrophes to nature, mothers with +infants at their breasts. Hard-hearted men who never had children, +heaving bosoms of humanity, all the impure verbiage of the Tribunal +of the National Convention._--Barrère, ex-member of the Council of +Public Safety. Practical reporter of all its atrocities, who signed +the death warrants of about 40,000 of his countrymen, avowing in +the Committee that dead men tell no tales; afterwards sentenced to +transportation; turned Christian in jail, won the good opinion of his +jailer, at whose table he said grace before and after meals. Escaped +from prison and secreted himself till Bonaparte attained supreme power, +to whom he sent a fulsome address, declaring _he_ was the reporter +who made known to astonished Europe the exploits of the hero of Italy; +liberated by the commiseration and sympathy of his master, he now licks +his feet and is his humble servant; though retired (as his profession +requires) he lives in good style, near my lodgings, keeps a girl of his +own and is allowed by the First Consul to share in the profits of a +house of ill fame which he founded. + +_Comparisons between Great Britain and the great nations; +between porter and burgundy, coals and wood, roast beef and +bouillie._--Chaptal,[1] the chemist, Minister of the Interior, one +of the basest of slaves. + +_Surly remarks on the tyrants of the ocean, the insolence +and intrigues of British Government, the cravings and jealous +disposition of the Nation of Shopkeepers, the National Debt of +England, its exhausted resources, bad faith and sincere integrity of +France._--Roederer, Councillor of State, member of the National +Institute, ex-avocat, has always sided with every party in order to +illustrate practically his valuable treatise on making loans and on +solving the question whether the State should pay its debts. He was +Procureur-General, Syndic of the Department of Paris, during the +expiring moments of the Monarchy. + +_The same in more fluent and easy language._--Hautrive,[1] a +pensioner of the Consul and nominal sub-editor of the paper. + +_Sallies respecting Malta and hints respecting Egypt and the +Mediterranean._--Regnault de St. Jean d’Angely, Councillor of State, +in great favour with Bonaparte, formerly an avocat of Saintogne, a +furious royalist as long as Louis XVI. continued to fee him. Intrepid +royalist, editor of the _Journal de Paris_ in 1791; violent +Jacobinist, editor of the _Gazette de Milan_ under the auspices +of Bonaparte in 1796. Member of the Constituent Assembly, in which +capacity he was pensioned by the Order of Malta to plead on behalf +of its rights; in return for which he betrayed his clients, went to +the island as the Commissary of the Directory, and superintended the +administration of the plunder. Completely sacked the Palace of the +Grand Master, Baron de Homfesch, pilfered all the plate and money +he could lay his hands on, composed a Revolutionary Gazette for the +Islands of the Archipelago, and returned to France laden with an +immense booty, is a member of the National Institute in the class of +Political Economy; is a married man with a family, keeps a girl, but is +saving and takes care of the main chance. + +[Sidenote: FALSE NEWS] + +_Barefaced lies and swindling propositions._--Talleyrand, Minister +of Foreign Affairs, ex-Bishop of Autun; renounced Christianity and his +Order, went to England, 1793, to assist Chauvelin and Moret in lulling +the English Government. Trembling for his head remained there after +the war broke out. Took lodgings at Mr. Colpus’s, near Highgate Pond, +during which time he made a point of eating boiled beef on Fridays, +departed for America, whence he humbly sued for permission to return +to France. The Directorate, being in want of a dexterous rascal to +manage the pillage, sequestration of the German abbeys, and other +ecclesiastical possessions, permitted him to return home, and gave +him the portfolio of Charles de la Croix; since which he has been +actively engaged in the decomposition of Europe and in converting the +German Empire into a State Lottery for himself and his masters--takes +bribes from all and cheats all, with placid composure. Feels a great +reluctance to enter into negotiation without a preliminary douceur (the +American commissioners to wit); the greatest swindler in Europe. Rich +as Lucullus, has lately resumed Christianity and sent to request the +Pope will unfrock him and give him absolution for his past sins. The +First Consul has promised to make it his care that his Holiness shall +execute this request, and in return for which special grace Talleyrand +will richly reward the Pontifical Ambassador for the expenses incurred +in negotiating the business.--Keeps Madame Grand, of Indian fame, at +the hotel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she acts in every +way as if she were his lawful wife. He also keeps a young tit at a +little château where he transacts private business. + +Is a man of rank, education and princely birth, possesses transcendent +abilities, and perhaps is the greatest living rogue and liar in +Christendom. + +_Sensible data on the public law in Europe, afforded though +not written for publication, but digested by Roederer for the +Press._--Rosensthiel, formerly principal Secretary of Legation to +the French Ministers at the farcical congress of Radstadt in 1799, the +pupil and friend of Pfeffer, long employed in the diplomatic department +under the old Monarchy; devotedly attached to his King, detesting the +Revolution, on that account dismissed by Dumouriez, when Minister +of Foreign Affairs; having been imprisoned, proscribed and ruined. +Father of a large family, he was constrained from the necessity of his +circumstances to accept the Consulship of Elsineur in 1796, whence, +being the only Frenchman profoundly versed in the history and practice +of public law, he was again transferred to the Ministry of Foreign +Affairs. Modest, mild, virtuous and learned, he is therefore _not_ +a member of the National Institute. + +These are the principal workmen who furnish the _Moniteur_ with +leading articles, most of which are a vehicle for blustering and +imposture. + +The next Parisian newspaper in rank and circulation to the Moniteur is +the _Journal des Défenseurs de la Patrie_. In this paper there are +often good articles and useful literary criticisms. But all political +reflection is, for obvious reasons, banished from its pages. + +One, Joseph la Vallée, without appearing ostensibly to take any +interest in this paper, is really paid £260 sterling by the Government +for watching its concerns. + +I have seen a great deal of la Vallée; he is endowed with great +intellectual acquirements. He is a modest, inoffensive man, extremely +anxious to oblige, not loquacious, but interesting in conversation. + +He is not a member of the National Institute, which may account for his +integrity. In one of our conversations he complained bitterly of the +English newspapers for their animadversions on the French Government, +and particularly on the First Consul, expressing his fears that these +attacks might lead to bloodshed between the two countries. + +[Sidenote: CONTROL OF PRESS BY BONAPARTE] + +I desired him to name the papers he alluded to; he mentioned the +_Porcupine_ and the _Morning Post_. I explained to him that the +_Porcupine_ was nonexistent, having been for some months merged in the +_True Briton_. He was quite confounded by this information, for he had +no idea the _Porcupine_ had been relinquished. He observed that the +_True Briton_ was however also extremely violent. + +“Why then,”, I returned, “do you not, my dear friend, answer them +with equal vehemence?” “Because these political discussions are not +agreeable to the Government, for if we replied it would be impossible +to do so without translating and so publishing the arguments of the +enemy, for such discussions would only unsettle the minds of people and +might shake the Government.” “Ah, vive la Liberté,” said I. “I thought +I was in a free Republic!” He gave no reply, and our conversation +abruptly ended. + +A curious incident took place a few years ago here. It was common +talk the Senate (Législatif Conseil) were to pass a decree continuing +Bonaparte in the Consulate for life. A paper was circulated containing +remarks upon the meanness of such a project, declaring national +gratitude should proclaim Napoleon Bonaparte Emperor of the Gauls, and +make the throne hereditary to his race. + +The very next day there appeared in the _Journal des Défenseurs_ +a well-written article in the true spirit of a Republican against +not only the Imperial project, but also against that of making the +Consulate a life-long appointment. Soon after I had read it la Vallée +called on me. “You see,” said he, “Frenchmen can write as they please. +Nothing shall deter me,” continued the indignant Republican. “I never +disliked the late King, nor shared in the events of the Revolution; +but rather than see any one of my fellow citizens upon the throne of +France, I would burn this hand if I did not write against him!” + +_Two days_ after this animated declaration, I took up the same +journal and read a long laboured dissertation on the innumerable +advantages the Republic would obtain by conferring the Consulate for +life “on the genius of victory and peace.” I became extremely desirous +of another interview with the intrepid Republican. But he never came +near us for several days. At length we met him at a dinner party, +consisting of twenty persons. He betrayed on seeing me some confusion +and sheepishness. I shook him heartily by the right hand, whispering in +his ear, “I am happy to find you have not burnt it.” I was sorry I gave +way to this not ill-natured jest, for a visible dejection overspread +his features, and he remained depressed and dispirited during the whole +time he was in my company that evening. + +_Le Chef du Cabinet_, the best printed of the Parisian journals, +is compiled with care, and gives in general a fairly faithful account +of continental news. + +One of the principal writers in this paper and in _Le Publiciste_ +is Garot, member of the Senate, and also of the National Institute. +Before the Revolution he was what the French call _homme des +lettres_, _i.e._, a poor lawyer without practice. In England, +our men of letters, successful or otherwise, are almost invariably men +of a classical education and cultivated talents. But in France, a mere +smattering of Greek and Latin, learnt principally through the medium of +translations, constitute their principal studies. + +He began his career with writing paragraphs for the _Mercure_. He +was next a member of the Constitutional Assembly, in which his talents +were considered in so contemptible a light that he was never noticed. + +But in later years he attributed his silence in that Assembly to his +philosophy. He then became editor of the _Journal de Paris_. +Here he seems to have been most liberally paid, as out of six months’ +savings, he managed to find 32,000 livres (£1280 sterling), with which +he purchased a house and garden. + +[Sidenote: JOSEPH LA VALLÉE] + +In April 1792, he arrived in England, in the suite of the French +Embassy. After the memorable 10th of August in the same year, he having +returned to France, was made by the Convention _Editeur de la +Gazette Nationale_. + +Less than two months later, on October 9, he was appointed Minister of +Justice. Here was a leap! + +During his short ministry, he truckled to every faction, and courted +the goodwill of every demagogue. He was nevertheless pronounced an +imbecile, deposed, arrested for a day, and released. He next composed a +book, in which he compared himself to Sully, Turgot, and our Lord Jesus +Christ. He was appointed Commissary of Public Instruction, but shortly +afterwards cashiered. Then sent as French Ambassador to the Court of +Naples, in order to pave the way for the irruption of a Republican army. + +Recalled and nominated a member of the Council of the Ancients, +dismissed by Bonaparte--he retired into a corner, and quitted his +obscurity for a seat among the Mutes. He then became the apologist of +Bonaparte, as he had before been of Robespierre and Danton--gets a +pension of £3000 sterling per annum of the public spoils, and finally +becomes a member of the National Institute. He, now, in a work of his +lately published, calls Robespierre _un monstre, un fou, scélérat, +étranger à une bonne logique, having a soul filled with suspicion, +terror, vanity and vengeance_. His elocution, he pronounces to have +been _senseless babbling, eternal and tiresome repetition of the same +sentiments for the rights of man, the sovereignty of the people on +principles of which he incessantly harangued without ever propounding a +new or correct idea_. + +The following epistle was found among the papers of Robespierre after +his execution; it was a letter, written by this very Garot to the man +whom he afterwards described as given above. + + _October 30, 1793._ + + “I have read your report on foreign powers, and the extracts of + your last speech, delivered to the Jacobins: as I have not at + this time an opportunity of making my sentiments known to the + public, I hasten to acquaint you yourself with the impressions + they have made on me. + + “The report is a _magnificent_ piece of policy, Republican + morality, style and eloquence. It is with such _profound_ + and exalted sentiments of virtue, and I will add with such + _language_, that the nation one represents is honoured in + the eyes of all mankind. The style of the report on foreign + Powers is throughout dignified, pointed and elegant, and rises + to the tone of the highest order of eloquence by the grandeur of + its sentiments and its ideas. + + “Your speech to Louvet, your speech on the trial of Louis Capet, + are in my opinion the most exquisite pieces which have appeared + during the whole Revolution. They will be studied in the schools + of the Republic as models of classic eloquence, and they will + be transcribed upon the pages of history as the most powerful + causes that have operated on the destiny of France.” + +_Le Citoyen Français_ is the most independent paper in Paris. +Before the usurpation of Bonaparte, Thomas Paine frequently furnished +it with articles, but since that event he has withdrawn his assistance. + +_Le Journal de Commerce_ is under the direction of Monsieur +Penchet, member of the Commercial Council and the Board of Commerce. He +is a respectable man, possessed of enlightened views and scientific and +practical knowledge. + +The _Publiciste_, the _Gazette de France_, _Journal des Débats_ are +the remaining newspapers, worthy of notice. It is refreshing to the +national pride of an Englishman to contrast the wretched state of the +craven French Press with the free and vigorous reasoning which appears +in the London journals; I become hourly more enamoured of my country +and more disgusted with the Republic. + +Louis XIV. during the whole of his reign never degraded the Press of +his country as it is now degraded. But with respect to other branches +of literature, the French still shine with uncommon brilliancy, and as +no man is more ready than myself to do them justice, when they deserve +it, I will describe some of those publications in my next letter. + + + + + XL + + PHILOSOPHICAL, LITERARY AND OTHER PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS + + +[Sidenote: MAGAZINES AND OTHER PERIODICALS] + +During the Old Monarchy, France made great advances in practical +philosophy, but scientific knowledge was still confined within very +circumscribed limits. The Revolution has enabled scientific and +literary men to diffuse their acquirements over the surface of the +Republic. A short review of the leading periodicals of the day will +demonstrate their respective objects. + +The first of those periodicals, in point of respectability and talent, +is the _Journal de Physique_, edited and conducted by one of +the ablest and most virtuous men in France, Dr. de la Metherie. I +have already mentioned he had been imprisoned during those days of +persecution, when it was the fashion to oppress every man of worth +and talents. But to this hour no ground has ever been given for +his arrestation. He is now Professor of Mineralogy in the College +de France, and receives for this £100 per annum. As editor of the +_Journal de Physique_ he receives £200 a year, and this is the +whole emolument his literary labours bring him. + +The _Annales de Chimie_ is a publication which merits attention, +and I believe every eminent chemist in France contributes to its +contents and reputation. + +_Annales de l’Agriculture Française_ is published by Tessier, and +is now advanced as far as the twelfth volume. It is one of the best and +most valuable publications extant in the Republic, and has afforded +great encouragement and information to the cultivator. Although Tessier +is the editor of the work, Monsieur Hugard is the principal manager. +He is an honest, indefatigable and learned man. He was brought up as +a practising farrier in his father’s shop, to which circumstance he is +indebted for the beginning of his knowledge (now that of an expert) +upon the diseases and treatment of horses and other cattle. + +He has a sound and vigorous intellect, looks as plump and jolly as John +Bull, and possesses all the good nature of that character. + +_Annales Statistiques_ is likely to prove one of the most valuable +productions of France. It is extremely well printed on good paper, and +a number appears every month. + +_Bibliothèque Commerciale_ is a new work determined to diffuse +information upon subjects of commerce and navigation. + +_Annales des Arts et Manufactures._ This is a periodical +publication, accompanied by a number of engravings. + +The editor is one O’Reilly, an Irishman, once a pronounced and violent +Jacobin. + +[Sidenote: CITIZEN O’REILLY] + +As citizen O’Reilly, in the year 1792, he succeeded in expelling +two Englishmen from White’s in the Rue des Petits Pères, because +they opposed the maniac Irish propositions of Citizen Lord Edward +Fitzgerald and the two unhappy Sheares, all of whom met a tragic fate +in Ireland.[8] O’Reilly, however, remained in France and thereby +saved himself from the fate which his deserts fully entitled him. +The Colonel Commandant of Tyrone in Ireland during the rebellion, +informed me that Citizen O’Reilly had been hanged. I was therefore not +a little astonished one day in Paris, when about to sit down to dinner +at a party to which I had been invited, to see my old friend enter +the room, quite _debonnair_ and dressed or rather masked _à +la française_. In this land of magic I had been so accustomed to +see supposed dead men once more in the flesh, that I eyed this ghost +for a considerable time before addressing him, but he hearing my name +mentioned, at once exclaimed: God bless me! is it you, Mr. Yorke? do +you not recollect me? “Upon my word, sir, yes; you are so much like a +gentleman of my acquaintance who had the misfortune to be hanged four +years since in Ireland, that I could swear you were the very man.” +After some explanation, I found he had escaped the hands of Jack Ketch, +and is now, as he expressed it, “a French citizen and no subject of the +King of England.” He seemed desirous of taking every opportunity to +affront the English and asperse our Government. + +This man would not have occupied so much of my space did I not know +him to be one of the rankest conspirators against our country. He ran +away from England on account of the debts which he had incurred as +one of the proprietors or managers of the Opera House, and set up in +Paris as a _persecuted Irish patriot_. From the year 1792 to the +present hour he has been ceaselessly engaged in plots against England, +and his hatred increases daily against our country to whose genial +soil he knows he can never return. He has fought against England in +the French armies, and glories in the fact. He is a favourite with +Bonaparte in consequence of his suggesting a new plan of gun vessels +for transporting an invading army to our shores. He is an ardent and +active member of the Irish Club in Paris, and avows his heart and soul +are bound up in the hope and desire of emancipating Ireland. After he +left the army he returned to Paris and commenced the periodical work +I have already mentioned. It is in high esteem, and its sale must be +great or his means of subsistence amply supplied by the Government, for +he has a press of his own, lives in style and keeps his girl. + +_Bibliothèque Britannique_, printed at Geneva, has a great sale in +Paris. It is edited by Messrs. Picter and Mourin, and contains a digest +of the most valuable philosophical treatise in our language. + +_Mazarin Encyclopædie ou Journal des Sciences, Lettres et Arts_, +edited by A. L. Millier, keeper of the antiques and medals in the +National Library, is considered one of the most valuable periodical +journals in France. + +_La Decade Philosophique, Littéraire et Politique_, appears three +times every month, and has the greatest circulation of any other +periodical work in France. But this is no evidence of its superiority. +It is a farrago of modern philosophical trash and impiety. It is a +critical review, a poetical repository, a novelists’ magazine, a +political register, a literary advertiser, a theoretical reporter, a +herald of folly, a base and servile declaimer in favour of the ruling +power, and a recorder of obscenity and atheism. + +Ginguené,[1] member of the National Institute and the Senate, is the +avowed editor of this political decade. This person, before the era +of the Republic, was employed as a secretary by Madame Necker. Being +patronised by Marmontel, he soon became a man of consequence. He +next became the tool of Mirabeau, then the spaniel of Danton. Then a +first-rate Jacobin, a hireling of the Directoire, and now a humble +servant of the First Consul. Such a career deserved a rich reward in +such a Republic as this of France. + +[Sidenote: TOM PAINE] + +He was accordingly preferred to the post of Director of Public +Instruction, but he solicited a more brilliant destiny, and was +accordingly turned into an ambassador and sent to Turin to assist +General Bruno in preparing the dethronement and exile of the +Piedmontese sovereign. On his return to Paris he has been temporarily +gratified by a membership in the Conservative Senate, and the +editorship of this periodical, a lucrative situation. + +I could mention many more interesting literary works and periodicals +of the highest literary interest, but I have commemorated enough works +of uncommon merit, edited and produced most of them by men of great +ability and furnished with means and opportunities of increasing the +knowledge they already possess. It is but a tribute of justice which +every man owes to superior genius to declare that in point of real +science, experimental philosophy and literary merit, “France is without +a rival.” + + + + + XLI + + THOMAS PAINE. JACK BARLOW. THE ABBÉ COSTI. DR. SUDAEUR + + +The name of Tom Paine is familiar to every Englishman. Had I not been +previously acquainted with him I should have contrived an interview +with him during my stay in Paris. Nearly ten years had elapsed since +we were last together, and I felt deeply interested in learning his +opinions concerning the French Revolution, after all the experiences, +so long a period of storms and convulsion, must have afforded him. + +It was not without considerable difficulty that I discovered his +residence, for the name of Thomas Paine is now odious in France, far +more so than in England. A bookseller’s shop in the Palais Royal +appeared a likely place for inquiries, but I had no sooner mentioned +his name than the bookseller, his wife and a bystander fell upon me, +in the most unmerciful manner, calling Paine “_Scélérat, bandit, +coquin!_” and ascribing to him the resistance Leclerc had received +from the negroes of St. Domingo, of which repulse to French arms they +had just received intelligence, so that I found it necessary to decamp +as soon as possible. + +Being at a loss how to proceed, I determined to inquire at the hotel +of the American Minister, where I was informed that Paine lived at a +bookseller’s in the Rue du Théâtre Français, an American bookseller, +who inhabited No. 2. I immediately repaired to the house, and after +mounting to the second storey, was shown into a little dirty room, +containing a small wooden table and two chairs. “This,” said the +portress, who had guided me upstairs, “is Mr. Paine’s room; he is +taking a nap, but will be here presently.” I never saw such a filthy +apartment in the whole course of my life. The chimney hearth was a +heap of dirt. There was not a speck of cleanliness anywhere. Three +shelves were filled with paste-board boxes, each labelled after the +manner of a Minister of Foreign Affairs: “Correspondance Américaine, +Ditto Britannique--idem Française. Notices politiques. Le Citoyen +Français,” &c. In one corner of the room stood several huge bars of +iron, curiously shaped, and two large trunks; opposite the fireplace a +board covered with pamphlets and journals, having more the appearance +of a dresser in a scullery than a sideboard. Such was the wretched +habitation where I found Thomas Paine, one of the founders of the +American Independence, whose extraordinary genius must ever command +attention, and whose writings have summoned to action the minds of the +most enlightened politicians of Europe! How different the dwelling +of the apostle of Freedom from the gorgeous mansions tenanted by the +apostles of the French Republic! + +After I had waited for a short time, Mr. Paine came downstairs, dressed +in a long flannel gown. + +[Sidenote: INTERVIEW WITH PAINE] + +I was shocked by his altered appearance. Time seemed to have made +dreadful ravages over his frame, and a settled melancholy was visible +over his countenance. He pressed me by the hand, his countenance +brightened as he recollected me, and a tear stole down his cheek. Nor +was I less affected than himself. “Thus we are met once more, Mr. +Paine, after a separation of ten years, and after we have both been +severely weather-beaten.” + +“Aye,” he replied, “and who would have thought that we should meet in +Paris,” he continued, with a smile of contempt; “they have shed blood +enough for liberty, and now they have liberty in perfection, no honest +man should live in this country, they do not and cannot understand the +principles of free government. They have conquered half Europe only to +make it more miserable than before.” + +I replied that I thought much might yet be done for the Republic. +“Republic!” he exclaimed, “this is no Republic! I know of no Republic +but that of America, and that is the only place for men like you and I. +It is my intention to return as soon as possible. You are a young man, +and may see better times. For myself I renounce all European politics.” + +I enumerated my objections, concluding with the want of society and the +apprehension I had of contracting yellow fever. These objections he +met by declaring there was as good and even _better_ society in +America than in Europe; and as to the yellow fever, proper precautions +would cause it wholly to disappear. In the course of our long +conversation about America he put into my hands a letter written to him +by Mr. Jefferson, the President of the United States. + +It was dictated with the freedom of an old friend. Mr. Jefferson began +by congratulating Mr. Paine upon his determination to settle finally +in the New World, for he says he will find on his return a favourable +change in the political opinions of the citizens, who are happily +come back to those enlightened principles which he, Mr. Paine, had +so usefully contributed to spread over the world. As Mr. Paine had +expressed a desire to return in a _public manner_, he states that +the sloop of war which brought the Minister Livingston from France +would return at a given time and convey him to America if he could make +it _convenient_ to take advantage of the occasion. The rest of +the letter is couched in terms of the warmest friendship, assuring Mr. +Paine of a hearty reception. + +When I had perused this letter he observed that only four persons now +survived who had acted in concert during the American Revolution, +John Adams,[1] Jefferson,[1] Livingston[1] and himself. He continued +laughingly: “It would be a curious circumstance if I were sent as +Secretary of Legation to the British Court, which outlawed me. What a +hubbub it would create at the King’s levée to see Tom Paine presented +by the American ambassador! All the bishops and great ladies would +faint away; the women supposing I came to rob and ravish them, the +bishops to rob and ravish their titles. I think it would be a good +joke!” + +But he finally added that this was not a probable event to occur at +his time of life, but that he should dispose of his American property, +live on the interest, and amuse himself by writing memoirs of his life +and correspondence, two volumes of which he had already completed. The +estate he possesses in America is valuable, he estimates it at about +£7000. + +I inquired how he had passed his life since we parted. He gave a long +account of his occupations since he was sent to prison. During our +invasion of Holland he went to Brussels, where he passed a few days +with General Bruno, with a view, he declared, of accompanying him to +Holland, “to see the last of John Bull.” But he said that in France and +in the French army there was but one opinion concerning that event, +_i.e._, the final certain success of the English. + +[Sidenote: PAINE AND LADY S.] + +When he was in prison he wrote “The Age of Reason,” and amused himself +by carrying on a correspondence with Lady S----, under the assumed name +of “The Castle in the Air.” To this her ladyship answered under the +title of “The Little Corner of the World.” This correspondence still +continues. + +He showed me some of it, which, notwithstanding the dreadful places in +which it was composed, is beautiful and interesting. He is the author +of that beautiful song on the death of General Wolfe, which a few years +ago was in every one’s mouth. The following extract from one of his +manuscript essays affords a competent idea of his manner in treating +subjects less solemn and invidious than politics. + + + TO FORGETFULNESS. + + _From the “Castle in the Air,” to the “Little Corner of the + World.”_ + + +Memory like a beauty that is always present to hear herself flattered, +is flattered by every one. But the silent goddess Forgetfulness has no +votaries, yet we owe her much. She is the goddess of ease, though not +of pleasure. + +When the mind is like a room hung with black, and every corner of it is +crowded with the most horrid images Imagination can create, this kind +speechless goddess Forgetfulness is following us night and day with +her opium wand and gently touching first one and then another, benumbs +them into rest, and at last glides away with the silence of a departing +shadow. + +How dismal must the picture of life appear to that soul which resolves +on darkness and to die! Yet how many of the young and beautiful, timid +in everything else, have shut their eyes upon the world and made the +waters their sepulchral bed! Ah! if at that crisis they had thought +or tried to think that Forgetfulness would eventually come to their +relief, they would lay hold on life. + +All grief, like all things else, will yield to the obliterating power +of time, while Despair is preying on the mind, Time is preying upon +Despair and Forgetfulness will change the scene. + +I have twice been present at a scene of attempted suicide. The one +a love-distracted girl in England; the other a patriotic friend in +France. I will relate these circumstances to you. They will in some +measure corroborate my assertion upon Forgetfulness. + +About the year 1766 I was in Lincolnshire on a visit to a widow lady, +Mrs. E. It was summer and after supper one evening Mrs. E. and I went +to take a turn in the garden. It was about eleven o’clock, to avoid +the night air of the Fens, we were walking in a bower shaded by hazel +bushes. On a sudden she screamed and pointed to a white shapeless +figure without head or arms, moving along one of the walks at some +distance away. I quitted my companion and went after it. When I got up +into the walk where the figure was, it took a cross walk. There was a +holly bush on the corner of the two walks, which, being night, I did +not observe, and as I continued to step forward the holly bush came in +a straight line between me and the figure, which thus appeared to have +vanished. But when I had passed the bush I caught sight of the figure +again, and coming up to it put out my hand to touch it. My hand rested +on the shoulder of a human figure. I spoke, it answered “Pray let me +alone.” I then recognised a young lady on a visit to Mrs. E., who that +evening, on the plea of indisposition, had not joined us at supper. I +said, “My God! I hope you are not going to do yourself some hurt!” She +replied, with pathetic melancholy, “Life has not one pleasure left for +me.” I got her into the house, and Mrs. E. took her to sleep in her +room. + +The case was, the man who had promised to marry her had forsaken her, +and was about to be married to another. The shock and sorrow appeared +to her too great to be borne. She had retired to her room, and when, as +she supposed, all the family had gone to bed, she undressed herself, +tied her apron over her head--which, descending below her waist, gave +her a shapeless figure--and was going to drown herself in a pond at the +bottom of the garden, when I arrested her progress. + +[Sidenote: PAINE’S FORGETFULNESS] + +By gentle usage, and leading her into subjects that might distract her +mind and occupy her thoughts, we gradually stole her from the horror +and misery she was in. In the course of a few months she recovered her +former cheerfulness, and was afterwards a happy wife and mother of a +family. + +The other case is as follows:[9] In Paris, in 1793, I had lodgings in +the Rue Faubourg St. Denis, No. 63; they were agreeable, except for +the fact that they were too remote from the Convention, of which I was +a member. But this was recompensed by the lodging being also remote +from the alarms and confusion into which the interior of Paris was so +often thrown at this time. The house, which was enclosed by a wall and +gateway from the street, was a good deal like an old mansion farmhouse, +and the courtyard was stocked like a farmyard, with fowls, turkeys and +geese, which for amusement we used to feed out of the window of the +parlour on the ground floor. There were some hutches for rabbits, and +a stye or two for pigs. Beyond was a garden of two acres, well laid +out and stocked with excellent fruit-trees. The orange, the apple, +the greengage and the plum were the best I ever tasted. The place had +formerly been occupied by some curious person. + +My apartments consisted of three rooms. The first for wood, water, &c., +with an old-fashioned chest high enough to hang up clothes in. The +next was the bedroom, and beyond the sitting-room. At the end of the +sitting-room was a glass door leading to a flight of narrow stairs, by +which I could descend privately into the garden. + + * * * * * + +I went into my chamber to write and sign a certificate for them, which +I intended to take into the guard-house to obtain their release. Just +as I had finished it, a man came into my room dressed in the uniform of +a captain, spoke to me in good English and with a good address. + +He told me that two young Englishmen were arrested and detained at the +guard-house, and that “_the section_” had sent him to ask me if +I knew them and would answer for them, and in that case they would be +liberated. + +This matter being soon settled between us, he talked to me about the +“Rights of Man,” which he had read in English, and finally took his +leave in the politest and most friendly manner, _saying he was always +at my service_. + +This man, who so civilly offered me _his service_, turned out to +be Samson, the public executioner, who guillotined the King and all the +political victims of the Revolution. + + * * * * * + +As for me, I used to find some relief by walking alone in the garden +after it was dark, and cursing with hearty good will the authors +of that terrible system which had so altered the character of that +Revolution I had been so proud to defend.[10] + +I went but little to the Convention, and then only to show an +appearance, because I found it _impossible to join in their +tremendous decrees, and useless and dangerous to oppose them_. My +having voted, as well as extensively spoken (more so than any member) +against the execution of the King, had already fixed a mark upon me; +neither dared any of my associates in the Convention translate and +speak in French for me, as they formerly did when I wished to make my +views publicly known.[11] + + * * * * * + +Pen and ink was then of no use to me. No good could be done by writing +what no printer dared to print; and whatever I might have written +for my private amusement as anecdotes of the times would have been +continually exposed to be examined and tortured into any meaning the +rage of party might fix upon it. And my heart was in distress at the +fate of my friends, and my harp strung upon the weeping willows. + +[Sidenote: PAINE’S FORGETFULNESS] + +It was summer; we therefore spent most of our time in the garden, and +passed it away in childish amusements, such as marbles, scotch hop, +battledore, &c., so as to try and keep reflection from our minds. + + * * * * * + +In this retired manner we remained about six or seven weeks. Our +landlord went every evening into the city to bring us the news of the +day and the _Evening journal_. + + * * * * * + +He recovered, and being anxious to get out of France, a passport was +obtained for him and his friend, chiefly, I believe, by the means of +the huissier Rose, and secretly by the influence of some of the members +of the Committee.[12] They received their passport late in the evening, +but set off that same night in a post-chaise to Basle, which place they +reached in safety. The very morning after their departure I heard a +rapping at the gate, and looking out of the window I beheld entering +the courtyard a guard with muskets and fixed bayonets. It was a guard +to take up the fugitives, but they were already, happily, out of their +reach.[13] + +The same guard returned a month later and took the Landlord Geit and +myself to prison! + +I have often been in company with Mr. Paine since my arrival in +Paris. I was surprised to find him quite indifferent about the public +spirit in England or the influence of his doctrines upon his fellow +countrymen. Indeed he disliked the mention of the subject, and when +one day I casually remarked that I had altered my opinions upon my +principles, he said: + +“You certainly have the right to do so, but you cannot alter the nature +of things; the French have alarmed all honest men, but still truth +is truth. My principles are possibly almost impracticable and might +cause in their carrying out much misery and confusion, but they are +_just_.” Here he spoke with the greatest severity of Mr. ----, +who had obtained a seat in Parliament, and said: “parsons were always +mischievous fellows.” I then hinted to him that his publication of the +“Age of Reason” had lost him the good opinion of many Englishmen. He +became uncommonly warm at this remark, and said he only published it +“to inspire mankind with a higher idea of the Supreme Architect of the +Universe, and to put an end to villainous imposture.” + +He then broke out into violent invectives against Christianity, +declaring at the same time his intense reverence for the Omnipotent +Supreme Being. He avowed himself ready to lay down his life in support +of his opinions and said “The Bishop of Llandaff may roast me in +Smithfield if he likes, but human torture cannot shake my opinions.” + +I assured him that the Bishop of Llandaff was a man of too enlightened, +tolerant and humane a disposition to wish to roast any man for +differing with him in opinions, and that his celebrated apology +breathes tolerance in every page. + +[Sidenote: RETENTIVE MEMORY OF PAINE] + +“Aye, it is an apology indeed, for priestcraft. Parsons will meddle +and make mischief, they thus hurt their own cause, but I have a rod in +pickle for Mr. Bishop.” Here he reached down a copy of the Bishop’s +work, interleaved with remarks upon it, which he read to me. It seems +as if in proportion to his present listlessness in politics, his zeal +in his religious or anti-religious opinions increases; of this the +following anecdote is an instance. + +An English lady of our acquaintance, as remarkable for her talents as +her charm of person and manners, entreated me to arrange a meeting +for her with Mr. Paine. As this lady is a very rigid Roman Catholic I +cautioned Mr. Paine beforehand to be very discreet in touching upon +religious subjects, and with much good nature he promised to be so. For +about four hours he kept every one of the company on this occasion in +astonishment and admiration of his memory, of his keen observation of +men and women, his numberless anecdotes of the American Indians, of the +American War, of Franklin, Washington and even of his Majesty the King, +of whom he told several curious anecdotes of humour and benevolence. +His remarks on genius and taste can never be forgotten by those present. + +So far all went excellently well, and the sparkling champagne gave a +zest to his conversation, and we were all delighted. But, alas! alas! +one of the company happened to allude to his “Age of Reason,” he +then broke out immediately. He began with astronomy, and addressing +himself to Mrs. Y----, the lady in question, he declared that the +least inspection of the motion of the stars proved Moses to be a liar. +Nothing would then stop him. In vain I attempted to change the subject +by every artifice in my power. He returned to the charge with unabated +ardour. + +The ladies gradually stole unobserved from the room, and left three +other gentlemen and myself to contest or rather leave him master of the +field of battle. + +I felt extremely mortified, and reminded him of his promise. + +“Oh!” says he, “what a pity people should be so prejudiced!” One of the +most extraordinary properties belonging to Mr. Paine is the power of +retaining everything he has written during his life. He can repeat word +for word every sentence in his “Common Sense”--“Rights of Man”--“Age +of Reason” and others. This I attribute first to the unparalleled +slowness with which he composes every passage he writes, and secondly +to his dislike of reading other books than his own. Wonderful and +productive as his mechanical genius is, he assured me he never has read +anything on this subject. This he told me when showing me one day the +beautiful models of two bridges he had devised. These models exhibit an +extraordinary degree of skill and taste. They are wrought with extreme +delicacy, entirely by his own hands. The longest is nearly four feet +long, the iron work, the chains and every other article belonging to +it were forged and manufactured by himself. It is intended to be a +model for a bridge to span the Delaware extending 480 feet, with a +single arch. The other is to be erected over a lesser river (whose name +indeed I have forgotten), and is likewise a single arch of his own +workmanship, excepting the chains, which instead of iron are cut out +of paste-board, by the fair hands of his correspondent, “Little Corner +of the World.” He was offered £3000 sterling for those models, but has +refused it. He intends to dispose of them to the American Government. +The iron bars, I noticed in the corner of his room, are also forged +by himself, and as the model of a new description of crane. He put +them together and exhibited to me the power of a lever in a surprising +degree. + +It would require the leisure and the memory of James Boswell himself +to relate in detail the conversations I had while in Paris with Thomas +Paine, or the opinions and anecdotes he recounted. I shall therefore +only conclude this account of him with a few words, respecting his +acquaintance with Bonaparte. + +When the hero of Italy had returned to Paris, in order to take the +command of that “_Army of England_” (whose left wing he afterwards +conducted to the burning sands of Egypt instead of the Valley of +Thames) he called on Mr. Paine and invited him to dinner. + +In the course of his rapturous ecstasies, he declared that a statue of +gold ought to be erected to him _in every city in the universe_; +he also assured Paine that he (Bonaparte) always slept with a copy of +the “Rights of Man” under his pillow, and conjured him to honour him +with his counsel and advice. + +[Sidenote: BONAPARTE AND PAINE] + +When the Military Council of Paris, who then directed the movements +of Bonaparte, came to a serious consultation about the invasion of +England, Mr. Paine was at the sitting by special invitation. After they +had ransacked all the plans, charts and projects of the Monarchical +Government, Bonaparte submitted to them that they should hear what +Citizen Paine had to say on the matter. They were, however, already +all of opinion that the measure was impracticable and dangerous in +idea, much more in attempt. General d’Arcor, a celebrated engineer +(who directed the siege of Gibraltar during the American War), was +one of this Council. He laughed at the project, and said there was +no Prince Charlie nowadays, and that they might as well attempt to +invade the moon as England, considering her superior fleet at sea. +“Ah! but,” exclaimed Bonaparte, “there will be a fog.” “Yes,” replied +d’Arcor, “but there will be an English fleet in that fog.” “Cannot we +pass?” said Bonaparte. “Doubtless,” answered the other, “if you dive +below twenty fathoms of water.” Then, looking steadfastly at the hero, +“General,” he continued, “the earth is ours, but _not_ the sea; we +must recruit our fleets before we can hope to make any impression on +England, and even then the enterprise would be fraught with perdition, +unless we could raise a diversion among the people.” + +Then Bonaparte rose and said with dignity and emphasis: “That is the +very point I mean--here is Citizen Paine, who will tell you that the +whole English nation, except the Royal Family and the Hanoverians, who +have been created Peers of the Realm and absorb the landed property, +are ardently burning for fraternisation.” + +Paine being called upon said: “It is now many years since I have been +in England, and therefore I can judge of it by what I knew when I was +there. I think the people are very disaffected, but I am sorry to add +that if the expedition should escape the fleet, I think the army would +be cut to pieces. The only way to kill England is to annihilate her +commerce.” This opinion was backed by all the Council, and Bonaparte, +turning to Paine, asked him how long it would take to annihilate +British commerce? Paine answered that everything depended on a Peace. +From that hour Bonaparte has never spoken to him again, and when he +returned from finishing his adventures in Egypt, he passed by him at a +grand dinner given to the Generals of the Republic a short time before +his usurpation, staring him in the face and then remarking in a loud +voice to General Lasnes, “The English are all alike, in every country +they are rascals” (_canailles_). + +Mr. Paine thinks the Directorate determined upon the Egyptian +expedition in consequence of the rejection of the project to invade +England by the Council. The popularity of Bonaparte was so excessive +and his inflammatory and determined character so great that they +were glad to get rid of him in any way they could. Paine detests and +despises Bonaparte, and declares he is the completest charlatan that +ever existed. + +[Sidenote: JOEL BARLOW] + +Mr. Joel Barlow lives at No. 50, Rue Vaugirard, one of the finest +houses in Paris. As he was not at home when I first called, I inquired +of the servant if any one lived there besides Mr. Barlow, and was +answered that it was his own house and he had purchased it (it was +confiscated property and sold much below its value). The next day Mr. +Barlow called on me and invited us to visit him, when he received us +with great cordiality and showed us over his magnificent hotel. It +was however, wholly destitute of furniture, excepting four rooms, +occupied by himself and his family. He explained he had bought the +house some years previously, purely as a speculation, with the idea +that at the return of Peace he might sell it to some English ambassador +or nobleman, who should choose to reside in Paris, when he hoped to +get £6000 sterling instead of the 6000 livres Français he originally +gave for it. It certainly would suit an ambassador in point of +accommodation, and its situation is desirable. The lawn at the back, +consisting of two acres of pleasure ground, bordered by a shrubbery, +is bordered by fruit trees, but it is far from the centre of the city, +and I doubt he will get the price he asks, notwithstanding the influx +of strangers. He informed me that the instant he had disposed of this +property he intended to return to America with Mrs. Barlow. Of the +Republic and its rulers he entertains a profound contempt. Respecting +the English Government and its rulers, he said very little, but that +little was in their favour. He confessed his utter astonishment at the +exertions we had made during the War, and avowed that he had entirely +mistaken the financial resources and patriotic spirit of Great Britain. + +“I have been calculating,” he said, “year by year the downfall of +the Government, and could not conceive it possible you could stand +up another year. Whenever I took up a paper and saw the Committee of +Ways and Means and read of your subsidies, I looked for a national +bankruptcy in the course of the ensuing twelve months. But when Mr. +Pitt came forward with the Income Tax, all the wise heads of this +metropolis (Paris) gave you over as lost, and I pronounced you saved. +When I saw the nation cheerfully submit to it, I was convinced you +might carry on the war for fifty years.” He spoke of Mr. Pitt in terms +which surprised me, and declared he believed in his conscience, if he +had dared to execute to the full extent of what he thought, he would +have succeeded in changing the face of Europe. “At all events,” said +he, “it cannot be denied that he has the merit of having saved the old +fabric (meaning the Constitution), if it be worth saving.” + +On my asking what he thought of the Peace and our present situation, +he said that he saw nothing censurable in it, but had cut out plenty +of work for the French which he was sure they would never finish. +“If they do, woe betide you!” I asked for an explanation, and he +replied, “If the French Government are intent on Peace they will +set themselves seriously to work on their colonies; and such is the +activity of the French that they will soon repair their losses, create +a vast commerce, which their local possessions and influences will +facilitate, and they will end with a powerful navy.” On my noticing +that they had already excluded our commerce, he answered: “That will +just give you an idea what a set of fools they are. This false step +at the first start is a convincing proof they don’t know how to go to +work. The prohibition of your manufactories has created an avidity +for them. They should have opened a _free trade_ with you and +gradually cozened away your industry and mechanics. But this Government +is in such a confounded hurry that instead of sticking to any given +point, it attempts five hundred different projects and only succeeds in +one, enslaving the people!” + +He thought the Peace might be permanent if any change took place in +the Government; but with Bonaparte at its head he was convinced it +could not be of long duration. For the First Consul is essentially +the creature of the army, and hungry generals and soldiers are hourly +importuning him. Unless he could find them employment they would employ +him. + +I asked if he thought Bonaparte secure. He replied: “Not more so than +any of his predecessors; they are satisfied and grateful because he +does not use the guillotine, but we have not yet got to the end of the +third act of the Revolution. It is impossible to tell, but my guess is +it will end either in the complete subjugation of Europe or in a bloody +civil war between rival Generals, Republicans, Jacobins and Royalists, +and bring back out of its confusion a Royal establishment.” + +The Abbé Costi is a phenomenon; he is eighty-four years of age, and +as frolicsome as a boy of eighteen. His reputation as the first poet +of Italy has long been established, and it is certain he would be now +Laureate to the First Consul had it not been for his enthusiastic +admiration for the principle of true liberty. We have frequently been +in his company, and have always found him in the same lively humour, +but it is rather unpleasant to hear him speak, as he has lost the +roof of his mouth. He is endeavouring to procure a subscription for a +splendid edition of his works, and proposes visiting England for that +purpose. + +[Sidenote: DR. SUEDAEUR] + +Dr. Suedaeur intended to have gone to Naples and established himself +there as a physician, but the sbirri of the Committee of Public Safety +arrested him as he was leaving France on foot and in disguise. They +gave him his choice--to go to prison and appear a day or two later +before the Revolutionary Tribunal, or to be a Director of a public +establishment in which some chemical operations were being carried out +for the use of the armies. The doctor naturally accepted the latter. +As soon as he had taken up his position in his new residence an order +came that he was _never_ to go out of the house on pain of being +instantly sent to prison. This was a cruel joke, as the doctor was of +course virtually a close prisoner during the eighteen months he was +superintending this factory. At length he was allowed to breathe the +fresh air, attended by a guard, and to visit certain patients; but +the guard attended him even into the chambers of the sick, even under +circumstances of peculiar delicacy. Upon his presenting a remonstrance +against this indecorum, he was sent straight to prison, with a promise +that he should be tried with the next batch of prisoners for conspiring +against the unity and indivisibility of the Republic. After keeping +him in jail for some time, he was taken out of his bed at midnight, +put into a hackney coach and brought back to his lodging in the +Governmental establishment. The next morning, just as he was putting +things there a little in order, he was again arrested and carried +before the Committee of General Vigilance, of which the painter David +was a present member, who, giving him one of his snarling tiger grins, +asked him how he dared as a foreigner have his name inscribed at his +Section. While the doctor was endeavouring to explain, David accused +him of being an agent of Pitt, and he was remanded to prison. Two days +later a guard took him once more to the Committee of Public Safety, who +told him there had been a mistake in his affair. + +It was a lucky thing the mistake was discovered, as on that very +morning all his fellow-prisoners were tried and found guilty of +conspiring against the Republic and summarily executed. + +He was once again remanded to his Directorship and forbidden to leave +his lodgings. + +At last an end came to those days of blood and peril, and the doctor +was liberated, after being duly ruined. Thrown upon the wide world at +his age, when something like comfort and ease had become necessary, he +found he had to beat up again his learning through life. + +Sometimes he thought of going to America or England. A mere accident +repaired his fortunes. A female personage of high consequence was +suddenly taken ill in her husband’s absence. Suedaeur attended and +cured her. He was thenceforward recommended and pushed among the +Governmental people. He now keeps his carriage, and makes, as he tells +me, over 50,000 livres (£2000 sterling) per annum. + +The effect of his sufferings is, however, very apparent. He looks older +than his years. He has lost his vivacity and his tongue is sealed on +politics, in which he declares he will never more have any concern. + +But he told us many histories of the Terror, and one which struck me +as peculiarly sad and horrible I will relate, because it concerns an +Englishman. + +Young L---- (whose mother is still alive and resides in London) was +sent to Paris in order to polish and keep him out of harm’s way. I +remember him well; he was a good-natured lad, very incautious, and +possessed of great simplicity of manners. He was a most impassioned +English patriot, and openly cursed the French and their measures, +for which indiscretion Suedaeur remonstrated with him in vain. The +Committee of Public Safety, wanting some English heads for exhibition, +ordered his arrestation. Suedaeur visited him in prison. He was always +merry, full of the heyday of youth, and continued to _blaspheme_ +the French Republic. “Rule Britannia” and “God Save the King” were the +favourite songs with which he made his prison walls resound. But these +very songs proved him to be a “serf” of King George and an agent of +Pitt. It was evident, said Fouquier-Tainville, the Public Accuser, that +he was engaged in a conspiracy to destroy the unity and indivisibility +of the Republic. Accordingly he was brought before the Revolutionary +Tribunal, with a vast number of other persons of both sexes, among whom +was Colonel Newton, who was sentenced to death for playing at cards.[14] + +[Sidenote: EXECUTION OF COLONEL NEWTON] + +As the poor youth knew scarcely anything of the French language, he +was quite unaware of what passed. They asked him no questions, merely +sentenced him to die. When he returned to prison he was as unconcerned +and gay as ever, for he had not the most distant idea he had ever been +tried. The next morning he was led down into the courtyard, where the +fatal cart, attended by gens-d’armes awaited him. At the same instant +Dr. Suedaeur entered the prison to take a last adieu of him and +Colonel Newton. Colonel Newton was seated in the cart already, bound +and looking very dejected. The spectacle of Newton bound and in that +situation surprised and startled the young man, who inquired where they +were going to take him. He could not make himself understood, as he +did not speak French. At that instant Suedaeur overwhelmed with grief, +came up to him. He asked hastily, “Dr. Suedaeur! what are they going +to do with me?” “My poor lost boy,” said Suedaeur, quite overcome and +bursting into tears, “you are going to instant death!” “To death!” he +cried, “I have not been tried!” Then wringing his hands, he exclaimed, +“Oh God! Oh God!” and swooned away in the arms of the doctor. While +in this condition he was flung into the cart. He recovered before he +reached the scaffold, and cried more bitterly. Colonel Newton (who +had long served under Suwarroff, and received twelve wounds at the +storming of Ishmael, and was colonel of the Regiment of Dragoons which +guarded the King to the scaffold), pitying the distress of the youth, +employed the last moments of his existence in administering comfort +to him. But Nature was uppermost, the misery of his afflicted mother +rushed into his mind, and he did not cease to exclaim: “My poor mother! +my poor mother!” until the fatal axe closed his eyes upon this world. +His person was extremely prepossessing, and the sight of his unaltered +countenance was enough to wring a tear from a heart of stone. He was +but eighteen years of age, and the only child of his widowed mother. + + + + + XLII + + HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS. MADAME TALLIEN. KOSCIUSKO + + +Miss Helen Maria Williams[1] lives at the hotel of Alexander Berthier, +Minister of War. Helen is a personage, and at the Ministry of War she +holds her court. + +The notorious Mr. Stone,[1] who has driven away from his side +and cruelly ill-used his wife, lives with Helen, in a virtuous +philosophical platonic friendship. It is singular so spiritual a +damsel should harbour and entertain a man of whom no one, not even in +Paris, speaks a good word. It is difficult to describe his services; +his functions being so variously compounded of the German squire, the +Italian cicisbeo, the English master of the ceremonies, and the French +peroquet (as those fellows are termed whom the French Republican ladies +keep to puff them, their beauty, toilets and talents in the Journals). + +He also acts as her “garde des archives” and her chamberlain. He is in +short a man of all work! + +These things give no offence in this easy capital, where it is a common +thing for a man to sit down at table with his wife and children and +his mistress, and _vice versâ_. I have been present at many +of these happy meetings, or, as they are called here, _mélanges +morales_. + +[Sidenote: LAX VIEWS ON MARRIAGE] + +A Parisian man of fashion told me the other day in the presence of his +wife, a very handsome woman, that after the first child, he thought +both parties were at liberty to do as they pleased. This would have +been a good plea before an English jury for the mitigation of damages. +In Paris they are more enlightened than in London, and you never hear +of a single action for “crim. con.” from beginning to the end of the +year in the French capital. + +I have assisted at a dinner given by Madame Tallien,[1] who has long +been separated from her husband, and now lives with a rich merchant, +who I mentioned in a former letter as the present proprietor of the +late Duke of Orleans’ château of Rincy. There were sixteen persons at +table, exclusive of Madame and her “cher ami,” and one of the sixteen +was Tallien himself. He sat by the side of his _ci-devant_ spouse, +and was engaged during most of the banquet in an animated and almost +affectionate conversation with her. + +A fashionable French philosopher has lately announced, after the most +recondite meditation, that he has discovered “marriage to be the most +odious of all monopolies.” This important discovery has, so far, made +no progress in England; but in this city, the favourite abode of true +philosophy, it is taught in every _stoa poecile_. If I could +borrow the pencil of Gilray, I might hope to delineate this nuptial +banquet in its proper colours--a banquet at which Venus Suadala was +present, accompanied by all the Loves and Graces in playful dalliance. + +When Tallien was in Egypt, his patriotic wife, feeling for the grievous +losses which the Republic had sustained in the number of its sons +cut off by the sword, pestilence and famine, with a generous and +disinterested ardour contributed her material labours towards making +up the deficiency in the population. Two little Republicans, presented +to the State during her husband’s absence, attest her zeal, and it +is pleasant to add she was by no means singular in this sublime and +Spartan devotion. + +On the return of the illustrious Commissioner, he followed (for it is +by no means etiquette for a husband and wife to go together) his lovely +spouse to a ball. + +When he arrived, he found her in a state so resembling a state of +nature (she had but one apology for a garment, and that was of the +thinnest muslin), that he was indignant. He reproached her for her +indecent attire, and received the reply that he was free to get another +wife to dress more to his mind. She told him coolly that she had never +loved him, and only married him to save her life. But that as she was +no longer in terror of the guillotine, he was welcome to her fortune, +but should have nothing more to do with her person. “You know,” she +added, “what I can tell if I choose.” + +The ladies of Paris, from Madame Bonaparte downwards, highly approve of +the spirited conduct of Madame Tallien, whom they consider a persecuted +beauty as well as a charming woman. + +The fact is that when she was Marquise de Fontenay, and in prison +at Bordeaux, Tallien, then on a mission to that city, which he was +reorganising in torrents of blood, proposed to save her head if she +would surrender to him her purse and person, but threatened her with +death should she reject his offer. She gave her hand, therefore, +to this renowned Sans Culotte--a circumstance which engendered an +irreconcilable hatred between him and Robespierre, which exploded on +the 9th of Thermidor in favour of the former. + +Some of Tallien’s exploits during the Revolution are worthy of record. +In the days of September 1792, he knocked out with his own hands the +brains of one old priest eighty years old, and bludgeoned six others. +At Bordeaux only eighteen persons were executed on his own personal +recommendation, but he brought away with him from that city 1,700,000 +livres (£64,000 sterling) in solid cash--money paid to him as bribes +for generously restoring to liberty “good citizens he discovered to +have been falsely accused.” + +[Sidenote: WILLIAMS AND BECCARIA] + +But to return from this digression to Helen Williams. This priestess +of the Revolution has a nightly synod at her apartments, to which the +political dramatists and _literati_ of the capital resort. Here +she is in her glory. Perched like the bird of wisdom on her shrine, she +snuffs up the mounting incense of adulation offered up by homicides and +plunderers of the public. At the instant of inspiration she becomes +convulsed like the Delphic Priestess. By an ingenious device she +contracts her lips into the form of a pipe, and literally whistles out +the words of the oracle she pronounces. The keeper of the archives +is at hand to record what passes for the benefit of the booksellers. +The instant each ruling party is overthrown, out come two or four +little duodecimos, which this fanatical female calls “Anecdotes of the +Founders of the French Revolution,” &c., in which she records all their +_sayings_, and abuses in turn those whom she before received with +smiles at her conversaziones. If you wish to become acquainted with a +devil in the shape of a philosopher, a general, a legislator, a quiz or +a thief, you will find any of these characters at Helen’s coteries. + +I mention Madame de Beccaria in this place by way of a contrast. She is +the daughter of the celebrated Marquis de Beccaria, author of the book +on Crimes and Punishments. Elegant in her manners, she is possessed of +a pleasing person, and is modest, affable, and good-natured. Though +a rigid Catholic, she does not pose as a saint, nor does she keep a +coterie, or wish to take advantage of her father’s celebrity to collect +around her the fops of philosophy. She had a great disappointment in +her marriage. Her husband was an Italian nobleman, whose union with her +has been annulled on account of his insanity. + +Madame de Beccaria[1] will go to England very shortly for the purpose +of having her father’s writings translated there. She made me a present +of her father’s portrait, assuring me that he never wrote an Italian +work entitled _Saggio sopra la Politica e la Legislatione Romana_. + +Kosciusko has disappointed my expectations; perhaps I judge of him too +rashly, but if in two hours’ conversation with _any_ man upon +subjects most interesting, not a _spark_ of extraordinary light is +emitted, I think it is but fair to conclude that such a man is not fit +to move out of the common circle. According to my way of thinking, the +negro General Toussaint is immeasurably his intellectual superior. But +his valour and sufferings will always excite sympathy, and the cause in +which he strove the interest of mankind. + + + + + CONCLUSION + + +We did not experience any difficulty in getting out of Paris, after our +four months’ stay there. + +I went to the office of Minister Talleyrand with my passport. It +was punctually returned by noon the next day, and after sending our +heavy luggage to the office of the diligence and laid in a stock of +provisions for the journey, we stepped into our chaise and took our +leave of the French capital. As it was my wish to gratify my companion +with the sight of as much of France as our time would permit, we did +not return by the road we came, but shaped our course for Brussels. +The account of that extensive tour would be out of place here, being +too long for insertion. Suffice it to say that though bowed down under +the yoke of a most horrible despotism, the rest of France, unlike +Paris, presents everywhere objects of interest and sympathy. The moral +influence of the Revolution has by no means wrought such pernicious +effects as might have been expected. The people retained much of their +civility and engaging manners of former times, and until my second +interview with the brutal Mengard at Calais, there was not one place +from Senlis where we did not feel a regret at leaving. + +[Sidenote: CONCLUSION] + +The roads are inconceivably wretched; and sometimes very dangerous. We +were often obliged to go for many miles at a foot’s pace. Between Arras +and Lille ruts were often three feet deep, our traces were continually +breaking, and fresh horses constantly required. In some places the +people did not even know the Peace had been signed, for no English had +come that way. While getting out of the carriage they once asked me, +with looks of inexpressible anxiety, whether I had brought them peace +at last. On my answering “Yes,” they exclaimed: “Ah! but has the King +of England signed it?” + +These letters give my opinions of the present Government of France. +I purpose, however, to give the subject a more ample and serious +discussion, although I do not pledge myself to execute this work. + +I left the Republic convinced that it was the interest of France to be +at peace with England, but with manifold doubts of that Peace’s long +continuance. + + + + + APPENDIX + + [BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES] + + TO + + LETTERS FROM FRANCE + + IN 1802 + + + THESE BIOGRAPHIES COMPRISE SHORT NOTICES OF CERTAIN PERSONS + MENTIONED BY MR. REDHEAD YORKE IN HIS LETTERS FROM FRANCE. + + I HAVE NOT THOUGHT IT NECESSARY TO INCLUDE THEREIN BIOGRAPHIES + OF ANY MEMBER OF THE BONAPARTE FAMILY NOR OF SUCH WELL-KNOWN + ENGLISHMEN AS WILLIAM PITT AND CHARLES FOX, BUT MERELY + ENDEAVOURED TO GIVE A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF CERTAIN LEADING + CHARACTERS IN THE FIRST FRENCH REVOLUTION WHOM A LATER + GENERATION HAS FORGOTTEN, AND ALSO DESCRIBED CERTAIN OTHER + HISTORICAL PERSONAGES. + + V. A. C. SYKES. + + + + + APPENDIX + + +ADAMS, JOHN. + +The sailor who led the mutiny on the _Bounty_ against Lieutenant +Bligh in 1789. Fearing the eventual reprisals of the British +Government, he persuaded a number of his companions to leave Otaheite +and seek fortune among the then unknown islands of the Southern Sea. +They eventually settled at Pitcairn Island, and founded a colony. + +John Adams was born in 1754 and died at Pitcairn Island, May 5, 1829, +having fully earned the title by which he was known--“The Patriarch of +Pitcairn.” + + +ANDRON. + +A Greek sculptor, believed to have lived some time in the second +century A.D. + + +BARNAVE, ANTONY PETER JOSEPH MARIE. + + Born at Grenoble, October 22, 1761; executed in Paris, November + 30, 1793. One of the great promoters of that Revolution of which + he eventually became a victim. + +His father was a Procurator of Parliament and his mother the daughter +of a military officer. In those days professions were hereditary, and +young Barnave was therefore destined for the Bar. In early life he +showed signs of talent and an impetuous disposition; he was sixteen +when he fought his first duel, and he published a remarkable book at +the age of twenty. + +In 1783 he was chosen by the lawyers of the Grenoble Bar to pronounce +the speech before the vacation at the local Parliament. He chose +for his subject “The Divisions of Political Power in a State.” This +discourse excited much interest, not only in Dauphiny, but all over +France; the speaker was then twenty-two years of age. + +His political career did not commence until he was twenty-eight, when, +having been elected Deputy to the States-General, he proceeded to +Versailles. + +Barnave was, a few days after the opening of that Assembly, named a +Commissioner by the “Tiers Etat,” and he composed the first petition, +or address, that body presented to the King. During the session of the +Assembly he became more and more prominent; he was still a believer +in the monarchical system, and--under a constitutional form of +government--a strong supporter of the throne. + +On October 25, 1790, Barnave was elected President of the Assembly. + +A few weeks after the death of Mirabeau, April 2, 1791, the Royal +Family fled from Paris and were arrested at Varennes: Barnave was +commissioned with Pêthion to bring them back to Paris. The many hours +he thus spent in their company greatly influenced him in their favour, +and the Queen’s charm exercised an influence over him which dominated +the remainder of his short life. The question of the inviolability of +Royalty arose immediately after the King’s return, and Barnave made a +moving and eloquent speech on this subject. The discussion of the new +Constitution commenced on August 8, 1791. On the 14th the King took the +oath, and on the 30th the Assembly was dissolved. + +The public career of Barnave then terminated, and his final speech was +made before a different tribunal. He returned to Grenoble in January +1792, and there wrote “The Introduction to the French Revolution.” On +August 15 of the same year the Deputy La Rivière denounced the author +of this book from the Tribune; on the 29th of the same month Barnave +was arrested. After ten months’ imprisonment at Grenoble he was removed +to Paris on November 3, 1793. He appeared on December 28 before the +Revolutionary Tribunal; two days later he perished. + +Barnave addressed the crowd from the scaffold, his last words being, as +he pointed to the fatal knife, “This is the reward for all I have done +for France and for Liberty.” + + +BARBŒUF (SURNAMED “CAIUS GRACCHUS”), FRANÇOIS NOEL. + + Born at St. Quintin in 1764; died May 25, 1797. + +In early life he was apprenticed to an architect, and when quite a +young man he wrote articles for newspapers at Amiens. He hailed with +joy the principles of the Revolution. + +He was tried in 1790, in Paris, owing to the violence of his writings; +although acquitted, he had to undergo another trial in 1792, under an +accusation of embezzlement, when he was a second time acquitted and +soon after appointed administrator of a Department; he did not return +to Paris until Thermidor 1794. + +He created the journal _Le Tribun du Peuple_, and developed in its +pages, under the synonym “Caius Gracchus,” the doctrine of the absolute +equality of mankind. Two years later Babœuf and his followers, now a +numerous body, constituted themselves into a secret society, with the +object of re-establishing the _régime_ of 1793. + +This society spread its emissaries over France, and early in 1796 was +prepared for a rising. With the aid of 16,000 men, soldiers belonging +to the garrison of Paris, and of artillery posted at Vincennes and at +the Invalides, and of certain disaffected members of Grenadiers and +police, together with a large number of the labouring classes--these +conspirators planned to seize the Directorate, the Legislative +Assembly, and the Military Staff of the Etat Major. Their arrangements +were apparently perfect, but, as is usual in such cases, traitors among +the plotters revealed the whole scheme to the Directorate. The heads +of this conjuration, to the number of sixty-five, were arrested, and +Babœuf himself was seized just as he was dictating the manifesto which +was to be issued after the rising had taken place. + +The trial of the conspirators lasted three months and was held at +Vendôme. After the sentence of death was pronounced, Babœuf and +his friend Dârtre stabbed themselves, but were nevertheless, like +Robespierre and his friends, carried in an expiring condition to the +scaffold and beheaded. + +Babœuf’s principles were those of the most advanced Socialism, one of +his precepts for the government of the Utopia of his dreams being, +“Whoever pronounces the word ‘property’ shall be imprisoned as a +dangerous madman.” + + +BARBAROUX, CHARLES JEAN MARIE. + + Born in Marseilles, 1767; guillotined at Bordeaux, June 23, 1794. + +As a very young man he showed scientific aptitude, and when quite a boy +was in correspondence with Franklin. He became an advocate at the Bar +of Marseilles, and had already obtained much success as a pleader when +the Revolution broke out. + +He was made secretary to the new Commune of Marseilles, and after +quelling a Royalist insurrection at Arles, was despatched to Paris as +Deputy for Marseilles. He became a member of the “Jacobin Club,” and an +intimate friend and ally of Roland and his wife. He took an active part +in the events of August 10, 1792, and was soon after named President of +the “Elective Assembly,” and, later, a member of the Convention. From +the outset of his legislative career he was an opponent of the Extreme +Left; he denounced Robespierre and Marat, insisting upon the punishment +of the authors of the bloody massacres of September. An excellent +economist, Barbaroux treated in a masterly manner the question of +commercial administration. + +At the trial of Louis XVI. he voted against the execution of the +monarch. A movement was set on foot to drive Barbaroux from the +Convention, and on May 31 he was forced to fly from Paris. He was +declared a traitor to his country. At Caen he had an interview with +Charlotte Corday, and it is he who is supposed to have inspired this +young girl with the idea of killing Marat. + +He was a man of remarkable personal beauty, and unjustly accused +of having carried on a guilty intrigue with Mme. Roland. He took +refuge at Bordeaux, but was discovered and arrested. Although he shot +himself twice, he retained sufficient appearance of life to enable the +possibility of his public execution. + + +BARRAS, JEAN PAUL FRANÇOIS, COMTE DE. + + Born in 1755 at Lohenpoux, Provence; died at Chaillot, near + Paris, 1829. + +He entered the army at the age of eighteen, went with his regiment to +the Ile de France in 1775, and eventually joined the French Indian Army +at Pondicherry. After the capture of that town he took service under +Suffren, and spent some time at the Cape of Good Hope, returning to +France with the rank of captain. + +He then proceeded to lead a life of debauchery and extravagance. Many +ruined rakes perceived in the Revolution a chance, as they thought, of +retrieving their fallen fortunes; among such was Barras. He was present +at the attack on the Bastille in 1789, and at the sack of the Tuileries +three years later. He was a member of the Convention, and voted for the +instant execution of Louis XVI. without appeal. + +As a delegate to the South of France he assisted in those sanguinary +repressions of the revolt against the Republic in Provence. At Nice +he arrested Brunet and Trogoff, whom he accused of ceding Toulon to +the English. He was present at the siege and capture of that town, +and helped to carry out horrible massacres of supposed traitors. +Nevertheless, he was an object of distrust to Robespierre, who disliked +the intense immorality of his private life, and doubted the sincerity +of his Republicanism. Barras therefore directed his efforts towards +the overthrow of the _Montagne_, and was the principal instigator +of the events of Thermidor, which led to the fall of Robespierre. + +Later he obtained control of the home military force--and the +Presidency of the Convention. He declared Paris in a state of siege, +and when the mob surrounded the Assembly, shouting for bread and the +Constitution of 1793, he directed the armed force which dispersed the +people. + +To him Bonaparte owed the command, by which the latter, in the name of +Barras, suppressed the attempted Royalist revolution. + +During the Directorate, Barras reigned practically alone until the +advent of Sièyes. He amassed a vast fortune, although during his +official reign he squandered money lavishly upon his pleasures and +lived in great state. + +The Revolution of the 18th Brumaire annulled his political power, and +he sought and obtained permission to leave Paris. + +During the rest of his life he ceased to be a man of any public +importance; he was frequently exiled, and perpetually intriguing with +the Bourbons. After the second Restoration he returned to Paris, and +settled at Chaillot, where he died at the age of seventy-four. + + +BARRÈRE DE VIEUZAC, BERTRAND. + + Born at Tarbes, September 10, 1755; died January 15, 1841. + +He studied law and was advocate to the Parliament of Toulouse. Later +he returned to Tarbes, from whence he eventually went as Deputy to the +States-General. Here he soon took a prominent place, defending the +liberty of the press; and brought forward successfully numerous motions +as to the confiscation of Crown lands and the declarations of the +rights of citizens. + +The National Assembly being dissolved, Barrère became a member of the +Tribunal of Cassation, and in 1792 Deputy for the Department of the +Upper Pyrenees. He publicly defended the September massacres on the +ground of their being a necessity to save the State. He was elected +President of the Convention of December 1792, his first act being to +press for the immediate judgment of “Louis the Traitor,” as he termed +the King, saying that “the tree of Liberty would never flourish until +it had been watered by the blood of kings.” He voted the death of +Louis XVI. without respite, and later in the year brought forward a +project of ostracism against the Duke of Orleans and the Ministers +Roland and Pache. + +The triumph of the _Montagne_ over the Girondins caused Barrère to +join forces with the former. Terror for his own life made him ruthless +in the destruction of the lives of others. + +He became in July 1793 a member of the Committee of Public Safety, +and, soon after, chief of that body, and its principal acts were +carried out by his order and at his instigation. By his command the +royal tombs at St. Denis were destroyed, Paoli declared a traitor, the +expulsion of those English who arrived in France after July 14, 1789, +decreed, as well as instant confiscation of all property belonging to +the _émigrés_. He caused the Château de Caen to be razed to the +ground, sent troops to punish Lyons, created a revolutionary army, +and promulgated the decree, “Terror is the order of the day.” He also +planned the speedy execution of the Queen, and proposed that every +Frenchman who had not already made his declaration of adhesion to the +Republic should be transported, and all persons accused of spreading +false news brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal. He implored the +Assembly to treat with the utmost severity all enemies of the nation, +saying: “Have pity on them to-day and they will massacre you to-morrow. +It is only the dead who cannot return.” + +Until the fall of Robespierre, Barrère was his lieutenant and obedient +servant; but after the _coup d’état_ against Robespierre, +Barrère was violent and condemnatory against the “conspirator whose +projects had up to then been veiled in mystery.” Nevertheless, +Barrère did not succeed in escaping; he was arrested, with Callot, +D’Herbois and Billaud, on March 2, 1795. He and they were condemned to +transportation, but later on Barrère obtained a re-trial of his case, +and was removed to another prison, from which he succeeded in making +his escape. He evaded re-arrest until the law of amnesty for political +prisoners was passed. He remained in obscurity till 1815, when, during +“the hundred days,” he was elected a Deputy. + +After the second Restoration he was banished as a regicide, and retired +to Brussels, where he resided until 1830, when he returned to France +and there remained until his death, at the age of eighty-six years, in +1841. + + +BLANCHARD DE DA MUSSE, FRANÇOIS GABRIEL URSIN. + + Born at Nantes, 1752; died at Rennes in 1836. + +A pupil and friend of Delisle de Salés. He was called to the Bar at +Rennes, capital of Brittany, and became Councillor of the Parliament +of that town. He was one of those arrested suspects saved by the +Revolution of Thermidor, 1794. + +After the 18th Brumaire his well-known honesty and amiability of +character caused his nomination as a judge of the High Court at Trèves +and later Nantes. In 1815 he was, as a Liberal, deprived of his +functions, but reinstated the following year. + +He wrote much poetry and several philosophical treatises. + + +BRISSOT DE WARVILLE, JEAN PIERRE. + + Born at Chartres, January 1754; executed in Paris, October 1793. + +The thirteenth child of a wealthy innkeeper, Brissot early showed signs +of talent, and his first book, _Théories des Lois criminelles_, +evoked a complimentary letter from the aged Voltaire, to whom the work +was dedicated. + +In Paris, Brissot entered a lawyer’s office, where Robespierre was his +fellow clerk. But he soon abandoned law for journalism, and became a +well-known pamphleteer. He visited England, and his book upon English +literature was at one time considered a classic. + +On his return from England he was falsely accused of being the author +of a lampoon upon the Queen of France, and imprisoned in the Bastille. +Here he remained four months, but was released by the influence of +Mdme. de Genlis and the Duke of Orleans. He was advised to take refuge +in London. He joined the Abolition of Slavery League, and resolved to +establish a similar League in France under the title of _Les Amis des +Noirs_. He went to America to study the question of slavery. + +On his return from America he devoted all his talents and his efforts +to add to the impetus of the French Revolution. + +Brissot was elected one of the members for Paris in the National +Assembly. An honest man and a true patriot, he fought against anarchy. +He was an opponent of the massacres of September, and of the King’s +trial. + +Constantly attacked by the Robespierre faction, he was arrested at +Moulins; incarcerated in the Abbaye at Paris; condemned to death with +twenty-one of his friends on October 12, 1793, and executed on the +following day. + +Brissot was one of the writers who exercised great influence in those +various publications which aided the advance of the French Revolution, +and accelerated that movement. His books on law and legislature, his +innumerable pamphlets, his speeches at the Assembly and Convention, +attest his earnest devotion to the Revolutionary cause in its infancy. + + +BOURDON DE L’OISE, FRANÇOIS LOUIS. + + Born at Rémy, near Campièges; died in 1797 at Simamari in Guiana. + +He commenced his career as a lawyer, became Procureur of the Parliament +of Paris, and eventually embraced the Revolutionary cause in 1789, +taking part in the attack on the Tuileries, August 10, 1792. + +He became a member of the Convention by a trick. Another François +Louis Bourdon, to whom he was in no way related, was elected both by +the Department of l’Oise and also that of the Loiret as a Member of +the Convention. This Bourdon chose to represent the Loiret; and his +namesake, whom the electors had never seen, profiting by the similarity +of names, presented himself to the Convention, took his seat without +any difficulty, and held it without question. + +He first distinguished himself by the ferocity of his utterances. He +voted for the death of Louis XVI. without an appeal to the people, +and denounced all the more moderate Deputies, such as Brissot, as +being Royalists at heart. He defended the Reign of Terror, violently +attacking the Abbé Grégoire for his desire to Christianise the +Revolution. + +As he later showed signs of pity towards the Royal insurgents in La +Vendée, Robespierre and Hébert accused him of moderation, and caused +him to be excluded from the Jacobin Club. Bourdon, alarmed, threw +his influence in the scale against Robespierre in the Thermidor +_contra-Revolution_, and went so far as to suggest that every +Deputy who resisted the decree for Robespierre’s arrest should be shot +upon the spot. He was one of the escort that accompanied Robespierre +and his partisans to the scaffold. + +From this time Bourdon declared himself the enemy of the Revolutionary +system, and the protector of priests and nobles. Nevertheless, when +sent to Chârtres to discover traces of those who were supposed to have +plotted against the Convention, Bourdon showed excessive and merciless +cruelty. He eventually became a Member of the Council of the Five +Hundred, and realised a large fortune by dealing in assignats and in +the national property. + +The Directorate contained many of his mortal enemies, who inscribed his +name upon the list of those to be transported to Cayenne, and he was +arrested and deported; shortly after his arrival at Simamari Bourdon +expired, broken down by impotent rage, remorse and despair. + + +BITANBÉ, PAUL JEREMIE. + + Born at Kœnigsburg in Prussia, 1732; died in Paris, 1808. + +Descended from a Huguenot family, banished from France by the +Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He was a learned student, and a +voluminous writer. + +His translation of the Iliad, published in Berlin in 1762, brought +him the patronage of Frederick the Great, who allowed him to settle +in France, in order that he might perfect his knowledge of the French +language. He published various translations from the Greek in Paris, +and was naturalised as a French citizen. + +He was arrested during the Terror, and, together with his wife, +suffered a lengthy imprisonment; the 9th Thermidor brought his release. + +He was one of the principal members of the new _Institut_, and +there represented literature and the fine arts. His writings are +somewhat marred by the fact that they were composed by a man who had +not thoroughly grasped the intricacies of the French language. + + +_LE BON, Josephe._ + + Born at Arras, September 25, 1765; executed at Amiens, 1795. + +He made his first studies at an Oratorian College, and eventually +became a member of that congregation. At the age of eighteen, he was +already a teacher of rhetoric in the College of Béaune in Burgundy, and +enjoyed a great reputation for piety and learning. His sympathy with +the Revolution caused him to become a “Constitutional” parish priest +at Vernois, and a year later he was appointed to a cure of souls near +Arras. + +Robespierre, St. Just, and Le Bas were his intimate friends: at their +persuasion he abandoned Christianity, married, and adopted a political +career. He was appointed Mayor of Arras and Syndic for the whole +Department of Pas de Calais, and, at first, showed much judgment and +great moderation. + +In 1793 he was despatched on a mission to the Pas du Calais, and +was at first so indulgent, that Suffray, his neighbour and enemy, +denounced him to the Committee of Public Safety as a protector of the +aristocrats and a persecutor of patriots. He was recalled to Paris, +but under Robespierre’s guarantee and his own promise to redeem the +past, was sent back to the Pas de Calais with unlimited powers, and the +order to crush the anti-revolutionary movement in the towns of this +Department. He carried out these orders without mercy. Terrified by +these responsibilities and by the fact that the Austrian army occupied +the neighbouring frontier, he imagined enemies of the Republic on every +side, and wherever he went blood flowed freely. So great, however, were +his cruelties that he was again accused. But Barrère declared that Le +Bon had saved Cambrai by his energy, and for a time the accusation +lapsed; his severities, however, made his enemies thirst for revenge. +In May 1795, a committee was appointed to inquire into his conduct, and +the report they returned was: + +1. That he had been guilty of public assassination. + +2. Of oppressing citizens. + +3. Exercising personal vengeance in his summary executions of accused +persons. + +He was then tried and found guilty of an “unlimited abuse of the +guillotine.” + +Le Bon exclaimed, as they dressed him in the red garment reserved for +murderers upon their road to the scaffold; “It is not I who should wear +this garment, but those whose orders I obeyed.” He showed pitiable +cowardice at his execution, and his cries and groans rent the air. + +Lamartine says of Le Bon: + + He decimated the Departments of Le Nord and Pas du Calais. This + man is a striking example of the kind of vertigo by which men + of weak mind are affected in great political crises. Certain + periods of history excite criminality. Blood is in the air. + Revolutionary fever has its delirium. Le Bon during his short + life of thirty years experienced all the phases of this mental + disease. In ordinary times he would have left behind him the + reputation of a worthy, respectable, and religious man. In those + sinister days he became a pitiless proscriptor. + + +BEAUHARNAIS, EUGÈNE, DUKE DE LEUCHTENBERG, PRINCE OF EICHSTADT, +VICEROY OF ITALY. + + Born in Paris, 1781, died February 22, 1824. + +His father was executed by order of the Revolutionary Tribunal in +1794, and his mother would have shared the same fate but for the +fall of Robespierre. At the age of fourteen he was taken by General +Hoche, who had been his father’s friend, to join the army in Brittany. +His mother’s marriage to Napoleon in 1796 changed the course of his +existence. In 1797 he was created sub-lieutenant, and from that time +was the constant companion of his stepfather; and for the future that +stepfather’s fortunes were his own. + +He was only twenty-four when he became ruler of Italy, and showed +extraordinary intelligence and moderation during his Vice-Royalty. +After the signature of the Treaty of Pressburg, he married in 1806 +Princess Louisa of Bavaria, and Napoleon bestowed upon him the titles +of “Prince of the Empire, adopted son and heir-presumptive to the crown +of Italy.” + +After the fall of Napoleon, Prince Eugène retired with his wife and +family to Bavaria, and was created Duke de Leuchtenberg by the King, +his father-in-law. He spent a few years in seclusion, devoting himself +to the education of his children. He died suddenly from an accident +when only forty-three years of age. + +His sons and daughters made brilliant alliances, his eldest son +marrying Donna Maria della Gloria, Queen Regnant of Portugal; his +younger son, Olga, daughter of the Emperor Nicholas. Of his daughters, +the eldest became Queen of Sweden, the second Princess Hohenzollern, +and the third Empress of Brazil. + +The present Russian semi-Imperial family of Leuchtenberg is descended +from Prince Eugène. + + +BARLOW, JOEL. + + Born at Reading in Connecticut, 1755; died in December 1812, in + Russian Poland. + +He served as chaplain to a regiment during the American War of +Independence, and attained some celebrity by the patriotic songs he +composed. + +In 1788 he abandoned the clerical profession and sailed for Europe as +agent of the Ohio Company. He settled in Paris, where he identified +himself with the Revolutionary party, and was intimate with the leaders +of the Girondins. + +In 1791 he published several pamphlets and poems in favour of the +Revolution, and in 1792 he addressed “A letter to the National +Convention” begging them to abolish royalty, and presented in person +an address to that Assembly from English Republicans. When the Abbé +Gregoire went to Savoy on a special mission from the Convention, Barlow +accompanied him and made many speeches at Chambéry against the King of +Savoy. + +On his return to Paris he was appointed American Consul at Tripoli; +in 1805, after another long stay in Paris, he returned to America; in +1811 he was sent as American Minister to Paris. The following year +he started to join the Duke de Bassano in Russia, which the French +had just invaded, but falling ill on his way to Wilna he expired in a +miserable village near Cracow. + + +CAMBACÈRES AND PRINCE OF PARMA, JEAN JAQUES RÉGIS, DUC DE. + + Born at Montpellier, 1753; died at Paris, 1824. + +He belonged to an ancient family of the Long Robe, and many of his +ancestors and family connections had been distinguished lawyers and +churchmen. He was intended for the magistrature, and made law his +chief study. In 1789 he proceeded to Paris and became a popular leader +during the first years of the Revolution. He was elected a member of +the Convention in 1792. Through the next two stormy years Cambacères, +by the exercise of extreme prudence, kept himself free from suspicion, +although he was never identified with the extreme party, and opposed +the execution of Louis XVI. He was President of the Assembly in 1794, +and a member of the Committee of Public Safety. He was Minister of +Justice during the Directory, and when Napoleon Bonaparte assumed the +head of affairs after the eighteenth Brumaire he appointed Cambacères +as Second Consul, with power to act for the First Consul during the +latter’s absence. + +When Napoleon assumed the title of Emperor Cambacères was created +Arch-Chancellor, with perpetual Presidency of the _Senate_. He +held this position during the whole of the reign of Napoleon I. None +of his councillors were esteemed more highly by the Emperor than +Cambacères; his advice was usually moderate and sensible. He opposed +the Austrian marriage and the Russian campaign. It was he who in 1814 +conducted Marie Louise and her child to Blois and delivered them over +to the Austrian commissioners. Her flight from Paris was contrary to +his advice. + +During “the hundred days” he resumed his position as Chancellor. The +Second Restoration banished him from France as a regicide. In 1818 the +decree of his banishment was reversed, and he returned to Paris, where +he died six years later at the age of seventy-one. + + +CARNOT, LAZARE NICHOLAS MARGUERITE. + + Born at Noisy, Burgundy, 1753; died at Magdeburg, in Prussia, + 1827. + +Educated in Paris at a military school he joined the army with +the grade of lieutenant in 1773. He was soon distinguished by his +scientific attainments as well as his literary talents. + +When the Revolution broke out Carnot addressed many memorials to the +Assembly on the subject of financial reform. Had his proposals been +then carried out national bankruptcy might have been prevented. + +He became a Deputy in 1791, and after the events of August 10, 1792, +Carnot was despatched to the Republican army of the Rhine. During +the next two years he commanded armies on the frontier, and gained +many brilliant victories. He took no part in the atrocities of the +Terror, but has been unjustly accused both by his contemporaries and +by posterity of having approved the massacres at Avignon and the +executions at Lyons. As a member of the Committee of Public Safety +his name is attached to the decrees ordering these cruel punishments, +but he was at this time fighting on the banks of the Rhine. He hated +Robespierre and Robespierre detested him, often saying, “We need Carnot +now for the war, but as soon as the war is over his head shall fall.” + +Carnot became one of the five Directors, and in that capacity gave +Napoleon Bonaparte command of the army of Italy. During that campaign +the other four Directors opposed Carnot; he was stripped of his office +and even of his seat in the Institut, a body he had virtually founded, +was impeached and forced to fly for his life to Switzerland. He +remained in exile until the events of the 18th Brumaire, when he was +recalled and appointed Minister of War and Tribune. He was opposed to +the creation of a life consulate, and later on to that of an Empire. + +From 1807 to 1813 he retired into private life, employing his leisure +in scientific studies and the education of his children. The disasters +of 1813 brought him out of his retreat, and he again offered his +services to the Emperor. + +Napoleon appointed him Governor of Antwerp on January 24, 1814, which +place he defended with so much ability that it was still in the +possession of the French at the conclusion of the war. He again retired +into private life, but when Napoleon returned from Elba he made Carnot +Minister of the Interior. He held his appointment for less than three +months, but during that short period brought about many educational +reforms which are still in use. + +After Waterloo, Carnot was a member of the Provisional Government, but +as soon as the Bourbons returned he was banished and outlawed. The +Emperor Alexander gave him a passport to Poland. He eventually fixed +his residence with his family at Magdeburg in Prussia, where he died at +the age of seventy. + + +CHAPTAL, COMTE DE CHANTELOUP, JEAN ANTOINE. + + Born June 4, 1756; died 1832. + +A celebrated chemist. His uncle, a rich physician at Montpellier, gave +him his first education. He studied chemistry at the University of +Montpellier, received the title of Doctor in 1777, and went to Paris. +In 1781 he returned to his native town a celebrated man. + +The State of Languedoc founded in his honour a Professorship of +Chemistry at the School of Medicine. Chaptal had adopted the theories +of Lavoisier. The young professor considered chemistry, then in its +infancy, likely to become the most useful and practical of sciences. +By his uncle’s death he inherited a large fortune, and he devoted the +whole of it to constructing various laboratories, where experiments +could be carried out, and large establishments in which scientific +productions might be manufactured. + +By his inventive studies, and assisted by his large fortune, +manufactories of alum, soda, and saltpetre were successfully +established, and the Government recompensed this work by giving him a +patent of nobility and the Grand Cordon of the Order of St. Michael. + +Chaptal adopted all the ideas of the Revolution, although he +disapproved its excesses. He was in consequence arrested; but his +scientific knowledge was too important to the Government, and he was +liberated and appointed Director of the Saltpetre Manufactory at +Grenoble. After this he directed also the re-organisation of the School +of Medicine. During the Consulate, Chaptal succeeded Lucien Bonaparte +as Minister of the Interior, and in that capacity rendered great +service to the State; he was appointed Treasurer of the _Senat_, +under the title of Count Chanteloup. When Napoleon returned from Elba, +Chaptal accepted the portfolio of Minister of Commerce. After the +Restoration, Louis XVIII. erased his name from the list of Peers of +France, but a few years later his peerage was restored. He was a member +of the Academy of Sciences, and wrote several important scientific +works in his old age. + +Before his death, at the age of seventy-five, he had many pecuniary +misfortunes, and died in comparative poverty. + + +CIMAROSA, DOMENICO. + + Born 1749 at Aversa, in the Kingdom of Naples; died in Venice, + 1801. + +The son of a poor mason, he was but seven years of age when his father +was killed by a fall from a scaffold. In her distress the boy’s mother +applied to a charitable monk for help. This good man gave Cimarosa +a few Latin lessons, and was so struck by the child’s intelligence +that he decided to adopt him. This monk was organist of the convent, +and taught his pupil music. Discovering the boy’s extraordinary +aptitude for musical composition, he obtained his admission into the +Conservatory at Santa Maria di Loretto. + +At the age of twenty-four Cimarosa produced his first opera at Naples. +His next ten years were a succession of triumphs, and he produced +innumerable operas and other musical compositions. In 1787 the Empress +Catherine offered him the title of Imperial Composer, with a high +salary. He journeyed to Russia, was treated with great distinction, and +many operas written by him in Russia were performed during his five +years’ stay in that country. He returned to Naples in 1793. + +In 1799 he joined the Revolutionary party in Italy, was thrown into +prison, and but for the intercession of the Russian Ambassador would +have been executed. Upon his release he took refuge at Venice, where he +died. + +He composed over a hundred operas, many of which still hold the stage. + + +CLOOTZ (surnamed ANACHARSIS), JEAN BAPTISTE, BARON DE. + + Born in Cleves in Germany, 1755; guillotined in Paris, 1794. + +He was educated in Paris, possessed considerable natural intelligence, +but was led astray by the violent excitability of his nature. He had +confused dreams of social regeneration, and declared that his life was +to be devoted to the reformation of the world. + +He inherited a vast fortune, renounced his title of baron, taking +the romantic name of Anacharsis, travelled over Germany, Italy and +England, preaching his extraordinary doctrines, and spending money with +unbridled extravagance. + +The French Revolution filled him with delirious joy; it appeared to +realise all his mad projects. On June 19, 1790, he presented himself +at the bar of the Assembly to read an address in which he requested +that all strangers residing in Paris might be admitted to the Grand +Federation which was to take place on July 14 of the same year. He +called himself “the Ambassador of Humanity” to France, and gave large +sums to the “nation” for the fitting out of a regiment “to fight in the +holy war against tyranny.” + +The events of August 10 seem to have shaken Clootz’s reason. Not +content with attacking all the kings and princes of the earth, he +delivered a violent tirade against the Almighty, declaring himself +the personal enemy of God. He publicly abjured all religion. He +complimented the Convention upon their victories near the Rhine, +and requested the members to put prices upon the heads of the Duke +of Brunswick and the King of Prussia. A decree of August 20, 1792, +having granted him the title of citizen, he repaired to the Bar of the +Assembly and delivered a long speech of thanks, and in the praise of +regicide. After he became a member of the Convention he wearied his +co-Deputies by long rambling speeches. He voted for the death of the +King “in the name of the whole generation of mankind,” adding, “he +personally condemned Frederick William of Prussia to death.” + +Robespierre was his secret enemy, and by his (Robespierre’s) influence +Clootz was excluded from the club of the Jacobins and arrested, the +only accusation against him being that he was rich and of noble +birth. Clootz was condemned to death with his supposed accomplices. +He received his sentence with calmness, and passed his remaining +hours preaching materialism to his fellow victims. At the scaffold +he requested permission to suffer last, as he wished to make some +observations while watching the heads of his companions fall. + +He wrote several books, as strange in their contents as was his own +character. + + +CONDORCET, JEAN ANTOINE NICOLAS DE CARINTON, MARQUIS DE. + + Born at Ribemont, in Picardy, 1743. + +A member of a very ancient and noble family: being her only surviving +son, his mother devoted him to the Virgin, making him wear girl’s +clothes until the age of eleven. + +He became one of the most illustrious mathematicians and philosophers +of France. He was not quite twenty-two when he presented his celebrated +essay, “Sur le calcul intégral” before the Academy. He was elected +member of the Academy of Science after composing an eulogy on the death +of La Fontaine in 1771. + +During the next fifteen years he published many books of historical and +philosophical interest. + +Turgot inspired Condorcet with a taste for political economy. + +In 1789, notwithstanding his great position in the world of literature +and politics, Condorcet was not elected a member of the States-General. +But in 1791 he was a Deputy for Paris in the second Assembly. He voted +against the execution of Louis XVI. + +Condorcet was shortly after denounced as an Academician, a conspirator, +and an enemy of the people. He was also accused of having attacked the +“sublime efforts of the Committee of Public Safety,” and on October 3 +the Convention ordered his arrest. For a time various friends concealed +the illustrious refugee in their houses, but he was obliged to fly +on April 6, 1794, from his last hiding-place. Hunger drove him into +a baker’s shop to buy bread, where the whiteness of his hands, the +fineness of his linen, and the fact that he was carrying a volume of +Horace excited suspicion, and he was arrested. He committed suicide the +same night in prison, swallowing poison contained in a ring. He was +fifty years of age. + +Condorcet was one of the most illustrious of Frenchmen, a true +friend of liberty, a gentleman, an honest man, an elegant speaker, a +brilliant writer, and a distinguished geometrician; he fell a victim, +with many others almost equally distinguished, to the fury of those +revolutionary demagogues who deprived France of most of the benefits +she might have received from the Revolution of 1789. + + +CONDÉ, PRINCE LOUIS JOSEPH DE BOURBON. + + Born at Chantilly, 1736; died in Paris, 1818. + +The son of that Duke de Bourbon (afterwards Prince de Condé) who +succeeded the Regent Duke of Orleans as Prime Minister to Louis XV. +This Prince died in 1739, when his only son was three years of age. + +From his earliest childhood the young Prince de Condé was devoted to +military studies. His guardian, the Count de Charolais, gave him an +excellent general education. The Prince made a good classical scholar, +and through life was fond of making quotations of Greek and Latin +authors. He wrote an admirable history of the life of his ancestor, the +great Condé. + +During the Seven Years War he showed military genius and personal +courage, and the victory of Johannesburg was principally due to his +efforts (1762). He married at the age of seventeen Mlle. de Soubise, +by whom he had a son and a daughter. She died when her husband was +twenty-seven and she but twenty-five years old. + +His disposition was noble and generous, and his political views +distinctly liberal. He violently opposed the suggestions of Count +St. Germain (the War Minister) that Russian discipline, including +the caning of soldiers, should be introduced into the French army. +Deserving officers, not of noble birth, found in him a friend and +protector, as he used his influence to assist their promotion. + +The Prince de Condé spent twenty years of his life in embellishing and +improving his magnificent residence at Chantilly and the surrounding +domain. Here he entertained the German Emperor, Joseph II., the Emperor +Paul, when Grand Duke Cesarovitch, Gustavus, King of Sweden, the Duke +of Brunswick, and many other potentates. He was a generous landlord and +a public benefactor during the famine (1775); he bought up, at any and +every price, all the grain he could possibly obtain, this corn being +re-sold to the people at the usual price given in prosperous years for +wheat. + +Governor of Burgundy, that province owed to his efforts new roads +and bridges, the encouragement of local art, and the foundation of +useful and literary institutions. In 1787, as President of the Assembly +of Notables, his discourses were in favour of order, economy and +reform. Nevertheless, he was one of the first objects of attack by the +Revolutionary party, and menaced on every side. Very shortly after the +destruction of the Bastille he departed with his family from France. He +went first to Austrian Flanders, and later to Turin, where he helped +to combine the movement which brought about the counter revolution +in Lyons and Southern France. He was chosen to command the body of +French noblemen and gentlemen known as _L’armée du Rhin_ or _Des +Emigrés_. + +A decree of the Assembly, 1791, deprived him of an annuity of £24,000 +a year (granted by the State to the House of Condé in exchange for the +territory of Clemontain). His property at Chantilly was confiscated, +and, as he was without resources, he sold all his plate, diamonds and +jewels. + +When the civil war began he commanded a body of five thousand men. At +the close of the first campaign he possessed no funds beyond a sum of +money the Empress Catherine sent him as a present. Shortly after this +he entered regularly into the service of the Emperor of Austria and +received the pay of an ordinary general. + +In the campaign of 1793 the Prince de Condé performed many brilliant +feats of strategy, entering Alsace and occupying Berstein; the enemy +drove his troops to Hagenau, and he marched on foot at the head of +his regiment and retook Berstein by a bayonet charge. During the two +following campaigns, Condé’s army was occupied only in guarding the +Rhine. He suffered from the jealousy and malevolence of the Austrian +commanders, and was supplied with bad provisions and spoilt flour; but +the Prince ordered his table to be served with similar bread to that of +the soldiers. + +During the whole of this time (in 1795) Condé was negotiating with +Pichegru, who commanded the Republican army on the opposite bank of +the Rhine. They agreed that Condé should pass over the Rhine with +his army and join Pichegru; they were to march jointly on Paris and +restore the monarchy. The Prince, being subordinate to the Austrian +Commander-in-Chief, Werhmer, considered it a point of honour to +communicate this scheme to his superior officer. The Cabinet of Vienna +refused to assent to Condé’s arrangement with the Republican general, +unless Strasburg and the other Alsatian fortresses were occupied by +the Imperial troops. The Prince refused his consent, and Pichegru, +whose first condition had been “no Austrian soldier shall set his foot +on French soil,” naturally refused to entertain the proposal for an +instant. The project was, therefore, abandoned. + +The forces of Condé, consisting of 10,000 men, were now an integral +part of the regular Austrian army. The passage of Moreau over the Rhine +caused the retreat of the Austrians, and although Condé and his troops +invariably distinguished themselves, and at the battle of Biberach +saved the Austrian army from a crushing defeat, the advance of Moreau +was never seriously checked. + +After the peace of Campo-Formio in the following year, Condé and his +remaining followers took service under Paul I. of Russia. In 1799 Paul +abandoned the Austrian alliance, and made peace with France; the army +of the _Emigrés_ then passed over to the English. Condé fought in +Bavaria and defended the passage of the Inn. But after the battle of +Hohenlinden the whole of his remaining forces were disbanded. In 1801 +the Prince joined his son, the Duke de Bourbon, in England, the British +Government providing them with a small allowance. + +Condé settled in the ancient abbey of Malmesbury, where he found a +devoted companion in his second wife, the Dowager Princess of Monaco. +In 1804 the news reached him of the assassination of his grandson, the +Duke d’Enghien, the last male heir of his race. In 1813 he lost his +wife, at the very moment when his long and cruel exile was about to +terminate. + +He landed at Calais with Louis XVIII. in May 1814. Notwithstanding his +great age (he was nearly eighty) he was the only member of the royal +family who did not instantly attempt flight from Paris on the return of +Napoleon from Elba. + +“We should fight,” he cried, as the carriage in which he had been +forcibly seated was bearing him away towards the frontier. + +On his return after Waterloo he spent the remaining five years of his +life at the Palais Bourbon (now the Chamber of the French Legislature) +and at a small château at Chantilly, the last relic of its ancient +splendour. + +He died in Paris, aged eighty two, and was, by order of Louis XVIII., +buried at St. Denis, in the vault of the Kings of France. + + +DANTON, GEORGE JACQUES. + + Born October 28, 1759; executed April 6, 1794. + +At the time of the outbreak of the Revolution he was a needy lawyer. +The immorality of his private life caused him to be greatly discredited +by members of his profession, and he seldom obtained employment. He +therefore hailed with joy the social changes, and threw himself with +all the energy of his temperament into the Revolutionary movement. He +made the acquaintance of Mirabeau, who found him a man whose actions +and unscrupulousness were likely to be of great use to his political +plans. Mignet, in his “History of the Revolution,” says: + + Danton was a revolutionary giant. He saw nothing condemnable in + any action which could serve his purpose. His theory was that + with audacity one could achieve anything and everything. + + Danton, who had been surnamed “the Mirabeau of the populace,” + possessed the following characteristics in common with the great + Tribune. Strongly marked features, a loud voice, an imperious + mien, a bold eloquence, and a dominating presence. Their vices + were similar, with this difference, that in all his debaucheries + Mirabeau remained a patrician, and Danton never ceased to be a + democrat. + +President of the Cordeliers, Danton took for his satellites Marât and +Camille Desmoulins. Danton became the orator of the people, and was +ready to speak anywhere and everywhere either in a public hall or in +the street, from an open window or in the Tribune of the Assembly. + +The political _rôle_ and public life of Danton did not attain +real importance until the return of the Royal Family from Varennes. +For a time he sold himself to the Court party, and as he was under an +order of arrest for debts he gladly accepted the terms offered him +by the anti-revolutionists. He received altogether £12,000 sterling, +but as soon as supplies ceased he rejoined his former friends and +was a more implacable revolutionist than before. When the “Federals” +arrived from Marseilles, Pétion, the Mayor of Paris, placed them under +Danton’s orders. He plied them with wine and led them himself, with +that personal courage which never deserted him, to the attack on the +Tuileries on August 10. During the whole of that eventful day Marât and +Robespierre were hiding in a cellar. + +After August 10, Danton was appointed, as a reward for his services, +Minister of Justice. He began his ministry by ordering domiciliary +visits in every part of Paris, by arresting the clergy and all +suspected Royalists. He then assembled the General Committee of +National Defence, and in a speech to that body on September 1, 1792, +said: “My advice is that it is necessary to terrify all Royalists.” + +The following day he appeared in the Legislative Assembly at the head +of the authorities, and in a voice of thunder shouted to the trembling +Deputies: + + It is at this moment, gentlemen, you can decree that Paris is + worthy of France. The cannon you are about to hear sound, is not + the cannon of alarm, it is the first step taken to destroy our + enemies. What is required to vanquish them? Audacity! still more + audacity!! and ever increasing audacity!!! + +A few hours afterwards the massacres of September commenced. They +lasted four days, and to the assassinations of defenceless prisoners in +Paris succeeded those of the equally defenceless prisoners at Orleans +on the ninth of the same month; a day or two later, a similar scene of +slaughter occurred at Versailles. + +Elected one of the Paris Deputies to the Convention, Danton resigned +his Ministerial post. He was a violent promoter of the trial of Louis +XVI., and to a friend who suggested the Convention was not by right of +law a court of justice, he replied: “You are right; and we will _not +judge him_, we shall _kill him_.” + +Bertrand de Molleville, ex-Minister of Marine, who had taken refuge in +London, informed Danton he possessed a letter written by him (Danton) +at the time he was in the pay of the Royalists. This he threatened +to publish if Danton used his influence to condemn Louis XVI. Danton +left Paris in consequence and did not return until the last day of +the King’s trial. Immediately after the King’s execution, Danton and +Lacroix repaired to Belgium, which Dumouriez had just invaded. They +received 4,000,000 of francs (£600,000) to be used in promoting a +Revolution in Flanders and the Netherlands. + +They were accused of having appropriated the greater part of this +enormous sum, and there is every reason to believe this accusation was +a just one. In order to avert suspicion, Danton replaced himself at +the head of the most extreme revolutionists. He proposed and carried a +motion for the levying of an army of 300,000 men, and also suggested +the devastation of France in case of invasion. On March 10 he decreed +the establishment of the famous Revolutionary Tribunal, which a year +later sent him to the scaffold. + +The Committee of Public Safety was formed and became the real governing +power of France. Danton was its foremost member, and now reached the +apogee of his career. But he was menaced on two sides; by the party +of the Girondins, who clamoured for the punishment of those who had +_by murder soiled the cause of Liberty_, and by the “Purists” +of the _Montagne_, who accused him of the embezzlement of funds +in Belgium. As, according to his own cynical remark, “authority in a +Revolution should always belong to rogues,” he joined Robespierre and +Pache and brought about the trial and execution of the Girondins. Soon +afterwards the influence of Danton began to wane, he was now reproached +with too much moderation, and of being desirous to coerce the actions +of the Revolutionary Tribunal. He had denounced the Saturnalia of the +Feast of Reason. + +Robespierre decided Danton should fall, and many of his (Danton’s) +friends advised him to fly while there was yet time. He replied: “They +would not dare!” and remained, lulled by this false security, until +he was arrested in his own house on the night of March 30, 1794. Many +members of the Convention tried to save him, and an effort was made to +give him an opportunity of appearing before the Assembly and publicly +attesting his patriotism; but this was vetoed by Robespierre, who with +feigned indignation said: “We shall see whether the Convention will be +able to break a rotten idol, or will allow that idol to destroy in its +fall not only the Convention but the people of France.” + +St. Just ascended the Tribune, and poured forth a violent impeachment +of his former ally, whom he accused of every possible form of treachery +to the Republic. “Terror was voted as the order of the day,” and +Danton’s fate was sealed. + +After he and his companions had undergone a mock trial, devoid of every +semblance of justice, they were sentenced to death. Danton’s answer to +the sentence was: “We are being immolated by a few cowardly brigands; +but they will not long enjoy the fruits of their victory. Robespierre, +that infamous coward, will soon follow me.” + +Danton was executed on April 5 with Camille Desmoulins, Lacroix, Fabre +d’Eglantine, Hermit, Le Sechelle, Philippeaux, Declannoy de Angers, +Chalet and Bazire (all of these men were Deputies of the Convention) +the famous Abbé d’Espagne, General Westerman, a Spaniard, a Dane, and +two Austrians. His last words were: _Montrez ma tête au Peuple, elle +en vaut la peine_. + +He was thirty-five years of age when he perished. Robespierre enjoyed +the sight of the execution of his rival from a neighbouring window, and +after the fall of the knife retired into the Tuileries gardens to take +his daily walk, rubbing his hands with satisfaction. + + +DAVID, JACQUES LOUIS. + + Born in Paris, 1748; died in Brussels, 1824. + +Left an orphan at an early age, his grandfather, an architect, adopted +him. When a boy at school he met with an accident which deformed his +face for life. A stone struck him in the mouth, broke several teeth, +and a growth eventually formed upon his upper lip which gave him a +savage and ferocious expression. In early childhood he showed promise +of artistic talent. His uncle intended the boy to follow his profession +of an architect, but when the youth begged to be allowed to study +painting he yielded to his entreaties. + +The famous painter, Boucher, then a very old man, saw some sketches +made by young David, and offered to take him into his studio as a +pupil. After Boucher, the painter Vien became David’s master, and the +student competed for the “Grand Prix de Rome”; he was unsuccessful four +times, but finally carrying off the prize started for Italy in 1776. He +devoted himself to the study of the antique, and adopted that severe +classical style by which his work is distinguished. While at Rome he +painted “The Pests of Saint Roch” for the Lazaretto at Marseilles. In +1780 he returned to Paris and produced “Belisarius” and “The Death +of Hector,” after which he was elected to the Academy, given an +appointment in the Louvre, and opened a school for young painters. + +He married Mademoiselle Pecconi, a beautiful Italian girl, on the +occasion of his second visit to Rome in 1784. He exhibited the +“Horaces” in Paris, and was proclaimed “The Regenerator of Art.” Louis +XVI. patronised the painter, and commissioned him to paint “Brutus,” +which picture was finished early in 1789. + +The Revolution changed David’s life and ideas; in 1790 the National +Assembly commissioned him to paint “The Oath in the Tennis Court.” In +1792 the artist was elected Deputy for Paris in the Convention. This +position seemed to affect his intellect and excite his brain. + +The painter of “Brutus” considered himself another Brutus, and +imagined Louis XVI. deserved death because, being a king he must +necessarily be a tyrant. + +During the early months of the Republic David organised those fêtes +which were intended to imitate the ancient popular feasts of Greece and +Rome. + +He painted, amongst other numerous pictures, “The Assassination of +Michel le Pelletier” and that of “Marat by Charlotte Corday.” These +pictures were exhibited to the public in the courtyard of the Louvre. + +He became the most violent among the violent Terrorists. His speeches +in the Convention invariably contained cries for more bloodshed. He +was the intimate friend and ally of Robespierre. After the fall of the +latter, David was twice arrested, and remained first four, and then +three, months in prison. + +Bonaparte, after his first campaign in Italy, and when the peace +of Campo-Formio was concluded, sent for the painter, with whom he +had an interview. The General desiring he should paint his portrait +David said, “I will paint you sword in hand in the midst of a +battle.” Bonaparte replied, “Battles are not now gained with swords. +Paint me seated on a fiery charger.” This idea was realised in that +well-known picture, “The Return from Marengo.” Napoleon, after +assuming the imperial title, appointed David his painter-in-ordinary, +and commissioned him to paint four immense pictures to cover the +walls of the throne room in the Tuileries. “The Coronation” and “The +Distribution of Eagles in the Champ de Maers” were the only two +executed. “The Coronation” occupied the artist during three years +of incessant work. Until 1814 David remained in Paris, an imperial +favourite and a fashionable portrait-painter, enjoying the reputation +of being the greatest artist of his day. On the return of the Bourbons, +of whom he had been in a certain sense a personal enemy, he was not +allowed to exhibit his great picture, “The Thermophyles,” in public. + +After the Second Restoration he was banished from France, to which +country he never returned. Before his departure he cut his two great +works, “The Coronation” and “The Distribution of the Eagles,” to pieces +with his own hands. By the order of Louis XVIII. the fragments were +re-united, and the pictures may now be seen in the museum at Versailles. + +During his twenty years exile David continued to paint with industry +and vigour, dying at Brussels in 1824. + + +D’ESTAING, GENERAL. + +The General mentioned by Yorke was a member of a very ancient family, +whose archives date back to the tenth century. A Count D’Estaing saved +the life of Philippe Augustus in battle. As a reward the D’Estaing +family were granted the privilege by that King of quartering the Royal +arms of France upon their escutcheon. An Admiral D’Estaing, uncle of +General D’Estaing, was one of the most distinguished French naval +officers of the eighteenth century; his opinions were liberal, and he +at first favoured the Revolutionary changes. He was, nevertheless, a +devoted friend of Marie Antoinette, and when she was tried in October +1793, made an effort to assist in her defence. He fell in consequence +under the suspicion of the Committee of Public Safety, and was +condemned and executed. When sentence of death was pronounced upon him, +he exclaimed: “You had better send my head to the English; they will +pay you highly for it.” + + +FITZ JAMES, EDOUARD, DUKE DE. + + Born at Versailles, 1776; died in Paris, 1838. + +His family emigrated in the early days of the Revolution, and settled +in Italy. + +After the formation of Condé’s army, young Fitz James joined its ranks, +became aide-de-camp to Marshal Castries, showing on many occasions +great personal bravery. After the forcible dispersion of the French +_Emigré_ Regiment, Fitz James visited England and Scotland, and +married in London a Mdlle. Latouche. + +During the Consulate he applied for, and received, permission to reside +in France. + +He refused to accept any place or dignity at the hands of Napoleon, +and took no part in public affairs until December 1813 (when the fall +of the Empire appeared imminent). He then entered the National Guard +as a non-commissioned officer, with the object of obtaining a secret +influence over the men. In this he was successful, for his arguments +and actions practically caused the refusal on the part of the National +Guard to attack the Allied Army then marching upon Paris. + +After the capitulation of that city, Fitz James organised and headed +a vast demonstration in favour of the restoration of the Bourbons. +Thousands of young men rushed through the streets of Paris, waving +white flags and shouting _Vive le Roi!_ This popular manifestation +greatly affected the Emperor Alexander, and caused his final decision +in favour of the Restoration of the ancient monarchy. + +When Louis XVIII. assumed the sovereignty of France, Fitz James was +created a Peer, Colonel of the National Cavalry, and Chamberlain to +Count d’Artois. During the second Restoration Fitz James was one of the +principal instigators of the severe reprisals on the Royalist side, +known as the “White Terror.” Marshal Ney’s execution was caused by the +efforts of Fitz James. + +He unsuccessfully endeavoured to bring about the condemnation to death +of General Bertrand, although the latter was his own brother-in-law. + +A wild fanaticism seemed at this period to have affected his mind. He +opposed every constitutional concession on the part of the Government, +and showed himself so hostile to Ministerial and even Royalist +projects, that he was finally forbidden to appear at Court. + +After the Revolution of 1830, Fitz James, as a Peer of France, took the +oath of allegiance to Louis Philippe. But in secret he was still loyal +to the exiled King. + +At the time of the rising in La Vendée excited by the Duchess de Berry, +Fitz James was arrested, but released owing to lack of evidence against +him. + +He became Deputy for Toulouse in 1834, and until his death four years +later was a prominent member of the Right in the French Parliament, and +took a considerable part in the debates. + + +FOUCHÉ, DUKE OF OTRANTO, JOSEPH. + + Born at Nantes, 1763; died at Trieste, 1820. + +He was intended by his father, a sea captain, for the merchant service, +but owing to his delicate health this project was abandoned. He was +sent to the Oratorian College in Nantes, and later to an establishment +of the same Order in Paris. He received the tonsure and became an +abbé; at the time of the Revolution he was a professor in the Nantes +University. He quitted the cassock, married, and proceeded to Paris. + +In 1792 he was elected member of the Convention, and became intimate +with Robespierre. The King’s trial gave him his first opportunity of +publicly expressing his extreme views. He said in a speech from the +Tribune: “I demand the execution of the tyrant, for it would almost +appear as if we regretted our courage in abolishing Royalty, were we to +tremble before its wretched shadow.” + +In March 1793, Fouché was despatched to his native town (Nantes), armed +with full powers to crush a rebellion against the Republic in the West +of France. He opened the campaign by a violent attack on every form +of Christianity, confiscated all ecclesiastical buildings, arrested +and imprisoned the priests, commanded the destruction of all religious +emblems, and ordered this inscription to be placed on the gates of the +cemeteries: “Death is an Eternal Sleep.” + +He affected a disdain for wealth, writing to the Assembly, “Let us +abolish gold and silver and fling away all such idols of Monarchy!” + +These deeds and sentiments caused his rapid promotion, and he was sent +to Lyons in company with Herbois, with orders to chastise with fire and +sword that recalcitrant city. The two commissioners inaugurated their +mission by celebrating a “Feast of Reason,” which, like that of Paris, +was a licentious and impious orgie. One of its principal features was a +procession headed by an ass, upon whose head was fixed a mitre, while +to his tail were fastened the Books of the Old and New Testaments. +An altar was erected, at which a mock Mass was celebrated, and the +ass given food and drink from consecrated vessels. A bonfire fed with +religious emblems and sacred books was extinguished by a violent storm +of rain and wind, which finally broke up the “_Feast_.” Upon the +next day the massacres of Lyons began. The tribunal decided that the +guillotine was too slow a form of execution. They therefore decreed +the condemned should be mowed down in batches by cannon shot. As many +as fifty-nine persons were on one occasion blown to pieces at the same +instant. During their four months’ reign in Lyons, over 1700 persons +are known to have been destroyed by order of the commissioners. + +On the retaking of Toulouse by the Republican forces Fouché wrote to +Callot, who was charged with the administration of “justice” to the +rebels: “Annihilate _all_ traitors. Take Nature’s example, strike +and scorch as one does with lightning and thunderbolts, so that the +very ashes of the enemies of the Republic may disappear from the soil +of Liberty. Tears of joy flow from my eyes and inundate my soul. We +celebrate your victory to-day by sending 213 rebels to be destroyed by +the thunder of our guns!” + +During his residence at Lyons, Fouché was denounced by Hébert at the +Jacobin Club; it was with satisfaction, therefore, that he saw the +former fall with Danton. When, in April 1794, Fouché returned to Paris, +after an absence of eight months, he found Robespierre at the zenith of +his power. When rendering an account of his services, Fouché ended his +speech with these words: “Criminal blood fertilises the soil of Liberty +and establishes justice upon secure and immovable foundations.” He was +almost immediately afterwards selected as President by the Jacobin Club. + +On the occasion of the celebrated _Fête de l’Etre Suprême_, Fouché +had the imprudence publicly to mock Robespierre’s devotion to the new +Deity, saying _Tu nous embêtes avec ton être suprême_. Robespierre +impeached him before the Jacobin Society, and caused Fouché’s expulsion +from the Club of which he was President, but the 10th Thermidor was not +far off; and the execution of Robespierre saved the life of Fouché. + +For a time the latter retired into private life. Two years later he +ostensibly joined the party of Baboeuf, the Socialist, but when he had +thoroughly mastered the details of Baboeuf’s plot he revealed the whole +of the affair to the Directorate. + +After the execution of Baboeuf, Fouché obtained, as the price of his +services, an army contractorship, and later was created ambassador to +the Cisalpine Republic. After remaining some time in this capacity at +Milan he returned to Paris in January 1799. In July of the same year +he was nominated Minister of Police. Notwithstanding the opposition of +Siezès, Fouché retained this appointment until the establishment of the +Consular Government. Napoleon, who thoroughly appreciated the abilities +and understood the astuteness of Fouché’s character, made use of him as +his most confidential Minister until 1810. + +The remarkable system of secret police which distinguished the +Consular and Imperial Governments was originated and carried out by +Fouché. It was he who discovered the plot of Georges; who prevented +the assassination of the First Consul by an infernal machine in 1810; +and upon his head, more than upon his master’s, that the guilt of the +murderous execution of the Duke d’Enghien rests. + +Fouché was too wise and far-seeing to approve of the divorce and +re-marriage of Napoleon, and he particularly opposed the Austrian +Alliance; for this the Emperor never forgave him, and when he +discovered that his union with Marie Louise did not induce the British +Government to recognise his sovereignty, he dismissed Fouché, and in +1810 gave the portfolio of Police to Savary. Fouché was not, at first, +openly disgraced, but appointed Governor of Rome. Before his intended +departure, however, Napoleon ordered him to give up all political +documents in his possession. Fouché sent some insignificant papers, +declaring he had destroyed the remainder. Napoleon was furious, and the +ex-Minister was obliged to fly from France. + +A compromise was arranged, and two years later Fouché returned. In 1813 +he was appointed Governor of Illyria. In the following April, after +the first abdication of the Emperor, he returned to Paris, headed the +deputation which received the Comte d’Artois, and shortly afterwards +Louis XVIII. took him into his confidence and consulted him on many +points. He did not, as he desired, become Police Minister. + +Upon the return of Napoleon and the flight of the Royal Family, Fouché +accepted his old post, but during the whole of the hundred days he +secretly intrigued with the exiled Princes. + +After the Second Restoration, he was immediately summoned to the +Tuileries and re-appointed Police Minister, but he only retained office +three months; he had too many enemies in the Royal _entourage_, +and found foes among Liberals and reactionaries alike. He was made +Ambassador to the Court of Saxony, but the law of 1815--which banished +all regicides--deprived him of this position and drove him again into +exile. He became a naturalised Austrian, and died four years later at +Trieste, on Christmas Day, 1820. He was but fifty-seven years old, but +a life of excitement and mental overwork had given him the appearance +of extreme old age. He left a fortune of £560,000, amassed, it is +supposed, by subtle and dishonest means during his occupation of the +Ministry of Police. + + +FOUQUIER-TINVILLE, QUENTIN ANTOINE. + + Born at Hérouet in 1747; guillotined in Paris May 8, 1795. + +He was a son of a wealthy farmer, and after studying law in Paris +bought a _charge_ of _procureur_ at the Châtelet. Although +active and intelligent, his well-known immorality prevented his +achieving success in his profession, and he was forced to sell his +_charge_ to avoid bankruptcy. + +Reduced to any and every expedient to earn a livelihood, he addressed +some flattering verses to Louis XVI., which, by the efforts of the +Abbé Delille, obtained for their author an appointment in the bureau of +police. + +On the outbreak of the Revolution, Fouquier-Tinville, became an +extremist, and was made commissionary over the district in Paris where +he resided. + +He passed the evening of August 9 in the Commune, pronouncing the most +sanguinary discourses, and took a prominent part in the attack upon the +Tuileries the following day. + +Robespierre and Danton appointed him a member of the jury of the +Revolutionary Tribunal. + +His legal knowledge, his calm determined manner, and his gift of +eloquence led very shortly afterwards to his nomination to the post of +“Public Accuser.” From this moment he considered that he was “Minister +of Political Justice,” the Committee of Public Safety being his +sovereign, and the jury and executioners his servants. He interrogated +the accused as a judicial formality, but he made no inquiry as to the +innocence or guilt of the prisoner. Every evening at ten o’clock he +repaired to the Committee of Public Safety, to give an account of his +doings during the day. His lodgings were in the Palace of Justice, and +he never left them, except to go in the daytime to the Tribunal, and in +the evening to the Committee. + +It was before him that Marat appeared on April 24, 1793, accused by the +National Assembly. Fouquier facilitated his acquittal; this was the +only instance in which he ever showed mercy. Before him passed in vast +procession during the next fifteen months the victims of the Revolution. + +He accused and delivered to death Danton, Hébert and the whole Commune +of Paris, as mercilessly as he prosecuted the last Queen of France. +When Robespierre and his companions were dragged before the Tribunal, +Fouquier said to the jury, who were in doubt as to the course they +should pursue: “We are dispensers of justice, and justice must be +executed upon all who come before us.” + +After the 12th Thermidor, Barrère was desirous of retaining +Fouquier-Tinville in his sanguinary functions. But a universal outcry +prevented this. Fréron, who had himself an odious reputation for +cruelty, denounced Fouquier, saying: “It is time Fouquier-Tinville were +sent to hell to expiate his bloody deeds.” + +The Assembly decreed his trial, and five days later he appeared at the +bar of the Convention. He attempted to throw all the blame for his +acts upon Robespierre, but he was arrested and imprisoned. His trial +lasted forty-one days, over two hundred witnesses, who gave lengthy +evidence, being interrogated + +He was found guilty of + + having caused the death of innumerable innocent persons of both + sexes under pretence of being conspirators; of having on one + occasion sent during the space of three hours eighty persons to + the scaffold without respecting legal formalities; of having + crowded upon carts (prepared in readiness before their trial), + victims who had not had any semblance of justice and whose + condemnations were never signed; of having ordered the execution + of a number of pregnant women. + +Fouquier’s defence was as follows: + + The Convention having declared Terror to be the Order of the + day, in the same breath ordered the extermination of all rebels. + The prisoners were merely sent before me in order that I might + carry out certain legal formalities. It was therefore your + orders, citizen representatives, that I obeyed. Which of you + ever gave me a word of blame? Blood was the perpetual cry upon + the lips of your orators. If I am guilty, then you are all + guilty. I was but the weapon of the Convention; do you punish + the executioner’s axe? + +He was condemned to death with fifteen other persons, and conducted the +following day to the scaffold. The populace followed the cart which +bore him to punishment with yells of execration and insult. He spoke to +them cynically, and to a man who cried out, _Tu n’as plus la parole +aujourd’hui_--the taunt he used to those of his victims who wished +to defend themselves before the Tribunal--Fouquier said: + +“And thou, wretched creature, go and claim thy three ounces of bread at +the Section; I at least die with a full stomach and have never known +want.” + + +GANGENELLI, POPE CLEMENT XIV., JEAN VINCENT ANTOINE. + + Born, October 1705; died, September 22, 1774. + +He was the son of a doctor, and became a Franciscan monk at the age of +nineteen. An ardent student of philosophy and theology, he was sent to +the College of St. Bonaventura at Rome to teach theology, and made a +doctor of divinity. Later he became Professor of Philosophy at Ascoli. +He was also a noted orator, and his reputation as a preacher was high +at Bologna, Milan, Ferrara, Venice, and Florence. + +In 1741 he was recalled to Rome. + +He led as retired a life as practicable in Rome, though he was fond of +exercise and riding on horseback. He declared it to be his most earnest +wish to return to the monastery of S. Francis at Assisi, and twice +refused to accept the position of General of his Order. Nevertheless +his great reputation as a theologian caused his elevation to the +Cardinalate in 1759 and ten years later to the Papacy. His election +surprised every one, himself most of all, for Cardinal Ganganelli was +not even a Bishop when nominated to the headship of the Church. + +His five years’ reign was one of the most important during the history +of the Papacy. At that time the Order of Jesus was assailed on all +sides, and every reigning Prince of Europe desired its dissolution. +Still the Society was so powerful, so numerous, and had been so +staunch a supporter of the Holy See that its position was considered +impregnable. Clement XIV., after due consideration and much diplomatic +action, decreed in 1773 the suppression of the congregation founded by +S. Ignatius Loyola. + +He died the following year, and the Jesuits have frequently been +accused of having poisoned him. Historical researches have proved +the injustice of this statement. He was in his seventieth year, and +completely worn out by mental anxiety and overwork. + +He was one of the very ablest as well as one of the worthiest +successors of St. Peter. + + +GIRARDON, FRANÇOIS. + +François Girardon, a celebrated French sculptor, born in 1628, died in +1715 (the same year as his patron and employer, Louis XIV.). + +From 1652 until his retirement in extreme old age he was employed, +first in conjunction with Le Brun, and afterwards singly in directing +the art work undertaken in Paris and at Versailles by Louis XIV. + +His greatest achievements were considered to be the _Bain +d’Apollon_, the “Rape of Proserpine” at Versailles and the +equestrian statue of Louis XIV., which, before its destruction during +the Revolution, occupied the centre of the Place Vendôme. + + +GRÉGOIRE, HENRI. + +Henri Grégoire, born near Lunéville, 1750, died in Paris, 1831, +was _Curé_ of Embermesnil. Elected to the States-General as +representative of the clergy of Lorraine he proceeded to Versailles, +1789. + +His liberal opinions were already well known by a book he had +published, entitled “Regeneration of the Jews.” This book was in 1788 +crowned by the Academy of Metz. + +At Versailles the Abbé Grégoire soon became intimate with the leading +members of the _Tiers État_. He exercised an ever-increasing +influence over those among the clerical members of the Assembly who, +like himself, were drawn from the ranks of the people. + +At the very moment when the attack upon the Bastille was proceeding, +and when a large proportion of the Deputies expressed apprehension, +fear and alarm, Grégoire delivered a vehement oration in the Assembly +in favour of the Revolution. + +His influence in the Constitutional Assembly was invariably directed +towards the advancement of those reforms by which he hoped the +enfranchisement of the people might be accelerated. He took an active +part in the abolition of the privileges possessed by the nobility and +clergy, voted against the law of primogeniture, and demanded that Jews +and negroes should have equal civil rights with Christians and white +men. + +When the Clerical Constitution was promulgated, Grégoire was the first +priest who took the oath; and he accepted the Bishopric of Blois under +the new _régime_. He represented the Department Loir et Cher +(in which his episcopal see is situated) in the Convention, and on +September 22 brought forward a motion in favour of the total abolition +of Royalty and the proclamation of a Republic; his favourite axiom +being, “The history of kings is the martyrology of the people.” + +He was not present at the trial of Louis XVI., but wrote from Chambery +to the Convention, declaring his opposition to a death sentence upon +the King. + +Grégoire became a prominent member of the Committee of Public +Instruction, and by his efforts the _Conservatoire des Arts et +Métiers_ was established. + +He persuaded the Assembly to vote for the political and civil +emancipation of the Hebrew race in France, and to pass a law abolishing +negro slavery in the French colonies. + +Grégoire continued to be an earnest and ardent Christian throughout +the bitter religious persecutions of “the Terror,” and constantly +proclaimed the sincerity of his religious beliefs. He had, indeed, been +first attracted towards the Revolution because he imagined it would +bring the adoption of Gospel principles into ordinary life. Bourdon de +l’Oise accused him in the Jacobin Club of a design to Christianise the +Revolution. Grégoire, in reply, declared this his earnest desire. + +After the closing of the Convention, Grégoire joined the Council of the +five hundred; in 1798 he became a Member of the _Corps Législatif_ +to the Presidency, of which he was soon after elected. He did not hold +this post many weeks. His intense Republicanism was distasteful to the +new Government, while his faith in Christianity aroused against him the +animosity of the Radical party. + +Grégoire became a senator in 1801, and retained his senatorship +during Napoleon’s reign. He was opposed to the Imperial policy, +protesting against the occupation of the Papal States and the divorce +and re-marriage of Napoleon. After the Restoration Grégoire suffered +considerable persecution. The Government deprived him of his pension +as a Senator and of his membership in the Academy and Institute. He +was reduced to such a depth of poverty as to be compelled to sell his +library in order to support existence. + +The next fifteen years of his life were spent in complete retirement; +he carried out during this period a vast amount of literary work, and +kept up a very extensive correspondence with eminent and learned men +belonging to various European countries. + +His situation was not improved by the Revolution of 1830. Louis +Philippe obliged him to resign his commandership of the Legion of +Honour, and when, a few months later, he was upon his death bed, +the last sacraments were refused him, by the express order of the +Archbishop of Paris. A courageous priest, the Abbé Gallon, did, +however, administer the viaticum to the dying ex-bishop. + + +HAMILTON, WILLIAM RICHARD. + +William Richard Hamilton was born in London in 1777. In 1799 he +accompanied Lord Elgin to Constantinople as private secretary, and was +employed by that nobleman (British Ambassador to the Porte) to bring +from Rome those artists who assisted him in his selection of certain +statues and friezes, known as the Elgin Marbles, which are now in +the British Museum. These marbles were placed on the _Mentor_, +this ship being wrecked in September 1803, near the Island of Cos. +Hamilton, who was on board, saved most of these priceless relics of +antiquity by his presence of mind and intelligence. + +He travelled shortly afterwards in Egypt, and published in 1809 a book, +“Egyptian Monuments,” which was the first work of any importance on +that subject since the days of Herodotus. + +Mr. Hamilton was permanent Under Secretary at the English Foreign +Office from 1809 to 1822; British Minister to the Court of Naples from +1822 to 1829, and President of the Geographical Society in London from +1837 to 1841. + + +HAUTERIVE, COUNT BLANC DE LANAUTTE (ALEXANDRE MAURICE). + + Born in 1754 at Aspres, in Dauphiné; died in Paris, 1830. + +He was the thirteenth child of noble born but poor parents. + +One of his uncles, a priest, adopted him, and he was intended for +the Church, and educated at an Oratorian College. He refused to take +orders, and became a lay professor in the University of Tours. + +When the Duke de Choiseul visited this College, young Hauterive +composed and delivered the discourse of welcome. The great nobleman +was so well satisfied that he invited the youthful professor to +Chanteloup. Here he found the Count de Choiseul de Gauffier, who was +about to depart as Ambassador to Constantinople. Hauterive was offered +and accepted the post of private secretary to this Minister, whom he +accompanied to the Levant in 1784. + +When he reached Constantinople he was appointed French secretary to the +Hospodar of Moldavia, an important and highly paid situation. + +Four years later he returned to Paris and married a rich and handsome +widow. When the Revolution broke out he refused to emigrate, and +remained in France a faithful servant to the house of Choiseul. He was +in consequence totally ruined. + +In 1792 he was given the French Consulship at New York, but he soon +lost this appointment on account of his anti-Republican views. He +was at last reduced to great poverty, and worked for a time as a day +labourer. While in America he was joined by Talleyrand, who, however, +soon returned to France. In 1798 Hauterive ventured back to Paris, and +obtained a clerkship at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. + +After the Revolution of the 18th Brumaire (November 1799) Bonaparte, +who required an intelligent individual capable of composing a general +manifesto to the nations of Europe, was recommended by Talleyrand to +employ Hauterive. + +In six weeks the work appeared under the title of “The Condition of +France at the End of the Year VIII.” Napoleon was greatly pleased, +and Hauterive became one of his most trusted councillors. He was the +principal factor in the diplomatic work of France during the Consulate. +The most important of his achievements was the Concordat. His ancient +theological studies among the Oratorians fitted him well for his task, +and, as he had never taken holy orders, he was not, like Talleyrand, +under the stigma of being a renegade priest. All through the Empire +Hauterive continued to act as diplomatic adviser and agent for Napoleon +all over Europe; he was also the guardian of the archives of France. In +1809 he received the title of Count of the Empire. + +In 1814 he retired into private life. During “the Hundred Days” he +refused to join the Ministry, and only solicited the restitution of his +position as “Director and Guardian of the Archives of France.” + +When the Bourbons returned, Hauterive was restored in this position by +the Duke of Richelieu, the Prime Minister. + +Hauterive exercised great influence during the reign of Louis XVIII., +who had an immense respect for him. His literary work during the +fifteen years of the Restoration was colossal. He died in 1830, aged +seventy-six. + + +HOUDON, JEAN ANTOINE. + + Born at Versailles, 1740; died, July 16, 1828. + +He gained at the age of nineteen the “Grand Prix” of Sculpture, and +immediately departed for Rome. He was in Italy when Herculaneum and +Pompeii were discovered. He remained for ten years in the Italian +Peninsula, and executed the colossal statue of St. Bruno, founder of +the Cistercian order, which still stands in the Portico of Santa Maria +dei Angeli in Rome. + +After his return to France he attained great celebrity, and +“L’Ecorché,” the well-known study of a man’s body after the skin has +been removed, showing all the sinews and muscles, was his work. This +model is still used in all Art Academies. + +The United States having decreed that a statue of Washington should +be erected, Houdon was invited to America that he might undertake the +commission. He accompanied Franklin to Philadelphia on the return +of the latter from his embassy in France. Washington gave him many +sittings, and the statue in question is now in the City Hall of +Richmond, Virginia. + +Many of his later works are well known, particularly the seated figure +of Voltaire in the foyer of the Théâtre Français. + + +KOSCIUZKO (THADDEUS OF WARSAW). + + Born in Poland, February 12, 1746; died in Switzerland, in 1817. + +A member of an ancient and noble family belonging to Lithuanian Poland. +Being disappointed in love, he left his native country in 1775, for +America, offering his services to Washington as a volunteer. During +the War of Independence he became the intimate friend of Lafayette. +He served with great distinction throughout the long campaign, and, +on the conclusion of peace in 1783, was awarded a considerable share +in those pecuniary gifts decreed by Congress for those who aided the +cause of Freedom; he received the rank of Brigadier-General, and the +order of Cincinnatus. He returned to Poland, and proceeded to take a +considerable and active part in the politics of his native country. + +When, after the first treaty of partition, the Russians occupied +Poland under various pretexts, Kosciuzko acted successfully as +General-in-Chief of the Polish Army and repulsed the enemy; but the +pusillanimous King Stanislaus commanded his troops to lay down their +arms. The Russians entered Warsaw in 1792, and from that moment the +independence of Poland virtually terminated. + +Kosciuzko headed an insurrection against the Russians in 1794, and +after many successes was defeated, seriously wounded and taken prisoner +at the battle of Maciejovice, while Warsaw and Praga were brutally +sacked by Suwaroff. The patriot Pole was thrown into a dungeon, where +he remained until the death of Catherine II. in 1796. + +Paul I. reversed his mother’s policy and released Kosciuzko, who +proceeded first to France and then to England. In both countries he +was received with the greatest honour and respect; the former granted +him the title of CITOYEN FRANÇAIS. Napoleon, as First Consul, +favoured the Polish general, and employed him in hopes of obtaining +redress for his country’s wrong; the latter was ready to serve and +did serve either Napoleon or Alexander I., but his hopes were always +frustrated, and after the peace of 1815, when the Duchy of Warsaw was +finally united to the Russian Empire, he retired into voluntary exile +and died at Solenme in Switzerland in 1817. His body was eventually +removed to Cracow in Austrian Poland, and his coffin placed in the +cathedral of that city between those of John Sobieski and Joseph +Poniotowski. + + +LAFAYETTE, MARIE PAUL MOTIER, MARQUIS DE. + + Born, 1757; died, May 19, 1834. + +Lafayette’s father fell at Minden a few months before his son’s birth, +his mother died when he was an infant. Lafayette inherited a large +fortune, and at the age of seventeen married an heiress, Mdlle. de +Novilles. + +Refusing brilliant offers to Court appointments, and regardless of the +entreaties of his young wife and other relatives, he insisted, when +but twenty years of age, in fitting out a ship at his own expense and +offered his sword to Washington in aid of American independence. He +fought for two years in the War of Secession, was wounded at the battle +of Brandy-Wine, and assisted in the retreat of Barren Hill, where he +showed much courage and tactical skill. + +On hearing there was a likelihood of war breaking out between England +and France, he returned to Europe. He succeeded in persuading Louis +XVI. to send out 4000 troops under the joint command of Count +Rochambeau and himself to assist Washington, and this reinforcement was +mainly instrumental in obtaining the American final successes. + +Lafayette defended Virginia against Lord Cornwallis, and it was he who +was the principal means of causing that commander to capitulate at York +Town. + +Lafayette returned to France in 1785 with a glorious reputation. + +When the States-General assembled, Lafayette was member for Auvergne. +He was elected Vice-President of the Assembly; was in Paris during the +taking of the Bastille, and used every effort in his power to produce +moderation in the Revolutionary party, of which he was a member. When +the mob attacked Versailles his presence of mind and influence over the +crowd were the means of saving the lives of the Queen and the whole +Royal Family. During their terrible drive to Paris, Lafayette rode the +whole way by the side of their carriage, and saved them from as much +outrage as possible. + +His popularity declined after the flight to Varennes, which he was +suspected to have assisted. He was given the command of the army on the +frontier, and succeeded in putting these irregular troops into some +kind of order and discipline. He fell into disgrace and was deprived of +his command, owing to the fact that he dared to report unfavourably of +the Jacobin Club; forced to fly from France, arrested in Austria, and +imprisoned for five years at Olmutz. + +His wife and daughters having escaped after fifteen months’ captivity +in the dungeons of Robespierre, joined him in his exile. + +When at last released the Directorate forbade his return to France, +which he did not re-enter until after the events of 18 Brumaire. +Napoleon received him with favour, made him a Counsellor, and offered +him a Senatorship. He voted against the Life Consulate and the +Empire, and retired from public life until the end of the Napoleonic +_régime_. + +After Waterloo he took part in the Provisionary Government which held +the reins of power until the Allies re-entered Paris. He met with +little favour from the Government of the Restoration, his opinions were +too liberal, and he was suspected of Republicanism. + +In 1824 he returned to the United States, where he was received with +unbounded enthusiasm. In recognition of his services that Government +voted him in land and money a sum equivalent to £30,000. + +He took a leading part in the Revolution of 1830, and greatly assisted +Louis Philippe in obtaining the sovereignty of France; for in his +opinion a constitutional monarchy was the best of republics. + +He died in 1834 at the age of seventy-seven. + + +LARCHER, PIERRE HENRI. + + Born, 1726; died, 1812. + +One of the greatest Greek scholars of modern times. He translated +Herodotus and innumerable Greek plays and poems. His writings are very +numerous. + +During the Revolution, although his religious convictions were well +known, he escaped persecution and was allotted a pension of 3000 +francs a year by the Directory. He was one of the founders of the +Institut, and was nominated Professor of Greek when aged eighty-four. +Notwithstanding his great age he carried out his duties in this +capacity satisfactorily until his death three years later. + + +L’ASNE, MICHEL. + + Born in Paris, 1594; died, 1667. + +He was a celebrated draughtsman and engraver. His engravings after +Rubens and Paul Veronese are now of great value. He also drew and +engraved the portraits of great and distinguished men. + + +LAVOISIER, ANTOINE LAURENT. + + Born in Paris, 1743; guillotined, May 8, 1794. + +The founder of modern chemistry. His father, a wealthy merchant, gave +him an excellent education, but from his early youth he showed a +precocious taste for science, and when only twenty-one he received the +prize that the Academy of Science had offered “for discovering the best +manner of lighting the streets of great towns.” In 1768 he was elected +Academician. Turgot, in 1776, gave to this great chemist the direction +of the manufacture of gunpowder and saltpetre. In the course of the +next ten years Lavoisier made innumerable useful scientific discoveries. + +Elected Deputy to the National Assembly in 1789; in 1791 he was named +Commissionary of the Treasury, and propounded a scheme which, had it +been carried out, would have been of immense economical service to +France. He took an active part in the construction of the new system +of weights and measures, and constructed in the gardens of the arsenal +apparatus for experiments to aid this purpose. + +In 1793 he measured the base of the new meridian; as Treasurer of the +Academy he put in order the whole of the accounts of that body; and was +able to discover funds which no one was aware the Academy possessed. +In 1769 he had received a post as _Fermier-Général_ from the +Crown; and although such offices had long ceased to exist Robespierre +caused his arrest in 1794, and, on the sole plea that it was the will +of the people that no _Fermier-Général’s_ life should be spared, +the head of this great citizen fell upon the scaffold: four other +former _Fermier-Généraux_, including his father-in-law, M. Poulze, +perished the same day. + + +LE BRUN, DUC DE PLAISANCE, CHARLES FRANÇOIS. + + Born, March 19, 1739; died, June 16, 1824. + +In early life he showed an extraordinary disposition for learning +languages, and he resolved to perfect this talent by travelling in +foreign countries. He went to England, where he spent some time. He +was delighted with the country, its inhabitants and its liberty, +notwithstanding its aristocracy and monarchy. + +After his return to France he became a lawyer. In 1768 he was appointed +Inspector-General of the Crown Lands. He was Chief Secretary to +Maupeau, the Chancellor, whose speeches he composed. In 1774, after +the accession to the throne of Louis XVI., when Maupeau shared the +fate of all the favourites of Louis XV., and had to deliver up his +seals of office, le Brun lost his place too; he continued to practise +his profession till the outbreak of the Revolution; he was Deputy to +the States-General, and spoke in that assembly in favour of the reform +of all abuses. In the Constitutional Assembly he opposed the issue of +paper money and the creation of public lotteries. + +He was the editor and reporter of the new financial laws. Le Brun was +named President of the Directorate of Seine and Oise. In 1792, riots +having occurred in his Department, he put them down by energetic +measures. + +After August 10 he threw up all his employments and retired into +private life; he was shortly afterwards arrested and imprisoned at +Versailles, but, under the _surveillance_ of a gaoler, he was +allowed to visit his friends and relatives. When Robespierre attained +supreme power, le Brun’s captivity became severe; but for the events of +the 9th Thermidor he would certainly have perished upon the scaffold. + +Le Brun re-entered public life in 1795. In December 1799, Bonaparte +appointed him Third Consul, with control of the Finance Department, +and, after the establishment of the Empire, Arch-Treasurer of France. + +Notwithstanding le Brun’s objection to hereditary titles, the Emperor +insisted on creating him Duc de Plaisance. + +To le Brun France owes the establishment of the Cour des Comptes. + +In 1805 the Republic of Genoa was annexed to France. Napoleon +despatched le Brun as Governor-General. He remained a year in Genoa, +and showed both ability and moderation there. On his return to Paris +he had the courage to remonstrate with the Emperor upon the proposed +abolition of the “Tribunal,” and resigning his Arch-Treasurership, +retired into private life. + +In 1810 Napoleon, who respected his honesty and valued his intellectual +powers, commanded le Brun to undertake the Governorship of Holland, the +throne of that country being vacant owing to the abdication of Louis +Bonaparte. Le Brun was now seventy-one years of age, yet he undertook +this arduous task with the vigour of a young man, and in fifteen months +completely reorganised the little kingdom. He was called “the good +Stadtholder” by the Dutch. + +In the disastrous Russian retreat the second son of le Brun perished, +and after the battle of Leipzig the Cossacks invaded Holland. The +Dutch, anxious to regain their independence, rose against the French. +Their respect for the Viceroy was, however, so great that they +conducted him to the frontier with an honourable escort and every +possible courtesy. + +During the events of the first two months of 1814, le Brun assisted the +Imperial Government to the best of his power, and vigorously opposed +the departure from Paris of the Empress Marie Louise. + +He accepted, in the “Hundred Days,” the Grand Mastership of the +University of Paris. After the Second Restoration his name was erased +from the list of peers of France. It was restored in 1819, after which +date, though eighty years of age, he made many important speeches in +the House of Peers, and occupied himself with literary as well as +political work until his death in 1824, aged eighty-five. + +He was not only a great statesman, but a distinguished author, and +besides writing many important works, translated Tasso’s _Jerusalem +Delivered_ and the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ of Homer. + + +LE CLERC, JEAN BAPTISTE. + + Born, 1756; died, 1826. + +A philosopher of the school of Jean Jacques Rousseau, he led until the +outbreak of the Revolution, a secluded and studious life, devoted to +literature, music and philosophy, in his native town of Angers. + +Elected to the States-General as a representative of Anjou he +embraced extreme revolutionary views, and, becoming later a member +of the Assembly, invariably voted with the majority: as a member of +the Convention he voted for the immediate death of the King. He was +suspected of favouring the principles of the Girondins, and arrested +and imprisoned, but released after the fall of Robespierre. + +When on the Council of the Five Hundred he created the French +Conservatoire of Music. + +In 1801 Le Clerc was elected President of the _Corps Législatif_, +but only retained this office for a year. He then retired to Chalonnes, +refusing all honours from Napoleon. + +The act of 1816 banished Le Clerc as a regicide. + +Some years before his death he was permitted to return to France. + +He wrote books upon history, philosophy and music, besides much poetry +and many moral tales. + + +LEGENDRE, JEAN SEBASTIAN. + + Born, 1755; died, 1794. Until 1789 he was a butcher in Paris. + +He headed that procession which on July 13, 1789, carried round Paris +busts of the Duke of Orleans and Necker. On the following day he +conducted the mob to the Invalides, where they plundered the armoury, +previous to attacking the Bastille. He soon became one of the principal +revolutionary leaders, and was instrumental in forming the _Club des +Cordeliers_. He it was who, when the crowd invaded the Tuileries +upon June 20, 1792, forced the red cap upon Louis XVI. On August 10 he +took a prominent part in the attack upon the Palace. + +Member for Paris in the Convention, he pressed incessantly for the +speedy trial and execution of the King. During that trial he was +constantly appearing at the Convention and in the Jacobin Club, where +mounting the tribune he demanded with violence that the body of Louis +after his execution should be divided into eighty-four pieces, so +that a portion of the tyrant’s remains might be despatched to every +Department in the Republic. Legendre as Member of the Committee of +Public Safety was, like Marat, one of the principal instigators of +the proscription and execution of the Girondins. When Lanjuna made an +attempt to speak in their defence, the ex-butcher threatened to hurl +the orator from the tribune, unless he was instantly silent. In January +1794, Legendre was accused of _Hébertisme_, and threatened with +expulsion from the Jacobin Club, but he escaped by proving his intimate +friendship with Marat. Danton had been his friend and ally, and when +the former was arrested Legendre at first spoke in his favour; finding +that the Convention were against such a proceeding, he immediately +declared that he answered for no one’s patriotism, and would never +again defend an accused person. Legendre became the ally of Tallien +and Fréron, and played an important part in the revolution of 9th +Thermidor. As soon as the decree of arrest against Robespierre had been +carried, Legendre sprang into the tribune and harangued with great +heat and much vigour against the accused, after which he rushed to the +Jacobin Club, forced every member to quit the building, locked the +doors and brought the keys to the Convention. From that day Legendre +never ceased clamouring for the immediate condemnation of the members +of the very party of which he had so long been a leader, calling them +“blood drinkers” and “terrorists.” + +He was elected President of the Convention, and in that capacity +marched at the head of the troops who dispersed and shot down the +surging mobs who surrounded the walls of the Convention demanding bread. + +This was his last exploit. His excesses and the violence of his +temperament had undermined his constitution, and as Member of the +Council of Ancients, he took little part in debate. A few weeks before +his death he made a speech indicting the Government for their leniency +towards the _emigrés_. He bequeathed his body to the School of +Medicine, “so that even after his death he might still serve mankind.” + + +LIVINGSTONE, ROBERT. + + Born, 1746; died, 1813. He was descended from an ancient + Dutch family that settled on the banks of the Hudson, in the + seventeenth century. + +A lawyer, one of the committee of five who drew up the Act of +Independence, in 1780 he became Foreign Secretary, and distinguished +himself during the whole of the American War by his zeal and +intelligence. On the conclusion of peace he was named Chancellor for +the State of New York. + +In 1801 President Jefferson despatched him to Paris as American +Minister, when he, conjointly with Monroe, carried out successfully the +negotiations for the cession of Louisiana to the United States. + +Upon his return to his native country in 1805 he founded the New York +Academy of Art, of which he was first President. + + +MARAT, JEAN PAUL. + + Born at Boudry, 1744; assassinated in Paris, July, 3, 1793. + +In early life he was a medical student, and the author of various +treatises on physical science, and of a pamphlet in favour of the +abolition of capital punishment. + +He settled in Paris, and after attempting unsuccessfully many careers, +such as savant, romantic writer and philosopher, was finally glad, +after many efforts, to obtain the position of doctor to the body guard +of the Comte D’Artois. He had lost this situation some time before the +Revolution. + +When that took place, Marat adopted the surname of “Friend of the +People”: editing and publishing under that title a weekly newspaper. + +Towards the close of 1789, in one of his articles he proposed the +erection of 800 gibbets within the Tuileries Gardens, upon each of +which was to be hanged one of those whom he called “traitors to the +community”; of these the first was to be Mirabeau. In consequence of +this audacious proposal the Constitutional Assembly ordered the arrest +of the author, who took refuge first in the house of an actress at the +Théâtre Français, and later in the presbytery of the _curé_ of St. +Louis at Versailles. + +Marat was one of those seven members of the Commune who signed the +order for the September massacres in the prisons of Paris. + +At the King’s trial his (Marat’s) vote was couched in these terms: “No +appeal to the people, only an accomplice of the tyrant would demand +this.” + +After the execution of Louis XVI. Marat was seized with a frenzied +thirst for blood and massacre, “Let us slay,” he wrote in his journal, +“270,000 partisans of the _ancien régime_, and reduce by +executions the number of the Convention by a quarter.” He constantly +complained that too few persons were executed, adding, “Only the dead +do not return.” + +The Girondins succeeded in bringing him before the Revolutionary +Tribune, but by the efforts of Fouquier-Tinville he was triumphantly +acquitted. He soon revenged himself upon them, for all the Girondin +party were ordered into arrest upon the 2nd of June following. + +A few escaped from Paris, amongst these was the young gallant and +handsome Barbaroux, who took temporary refuge at Caen in Normandy, +where he met a female descendant of the great Corneille, Charlotte +Corday. Barbaroux’s recitals of the cruelties being exercised in +Paris moved her profoundly; and when a few days later the news of his +execution at Bordeaux reached Caen, she determined ta proceed to Paris +and kill Danton or Marat. The sequel of her journey is too well known +to need repetition here. + +After the death of Marat his body lay in state; he was accorded a +magnificent funeral; his bust placed in all French municipalities, and +the honours of the Panthéon decreed to him. + +When the reaction came his bust and statue were destroyed, his remains +disinterred and burnt, and their ashes flung into the main sewer of the +Rue Montmârtre. + + +MIRECOURT, THÉROIGNE DE. + + Born at Mirecourt, Flanders, 1752; died in Paris, 1817. + +The true name of this heroine of the French Revolution was Anne Josephe +Terwagne of Marcourt, a small town in Luxemburg. The daughter of a rich +farmer, Pierre Théroigne or Terwagne, by the kindness of a distant +cousin, who was the Abbess, she was, although not of noble birth, +educated in the Convent of Robermont. At the age of seventeen she left +her home and followed her lover, a young nobleman, to Paris. + +Here we find her settled, apparently independently, in 1789. A +contemporary describes her as having “a waist you could span with two +hands and the face of the Venus of Praxiteles.” She adopted violent +revolutionary principles, and never missed attending a meeting of the +Assembly. + +She held a kind of _salon_ in her apartment, where she received +the Abbé Siezès and his brother Roussin, Camille Desmoulins, Péthion +and other well-known revolutionists; adopted an extraordinary +semi-masculine military costume, never appearing in public without a +couple of pistols in her girdle, and a sword by her side. She attended +all the principal revolutionary meetings, making violent and incendiary +harangues on every possible occasion; was present at the taking of the +Bastille, and rode in front of the mob which marched on Versailles. +After the arrival of the Royal family in Paris her speeches in Flemish +to the soldiers of the “Regiment de Flandre” assisted greatly in +shaking their loyalty to the King. + +In 1790 she returned to her native country, and remained some time at +Liège. She was arrested there by the Austrians and carried off to the +fortress of Kuffstein in the Tyrol, being accused of plotting against +Marie Antoinette. + +The Emperor Leopold II. had an interview with Théroigne at Vienna, and +was so much smitten by her charms as not only to order her release, but +to pay the expenses of her journey back to France. When she reached +Paris she found herself the heroine of the hour. Soon after her return +she commanded the 3rd Army Corps in the Faubourg on the occasion of the +riots of June 20, 1792, and when the fight was over, the Federals, as a +compliment to her bravery, decreed her a civic crown. + +Suleon, the editor of a newspaper, having insulted Théroigne in a +leading article, she, in company with a band of devoted adherents, laid +in wait for him; and although he was at the time actually one of a +patrol of the National Guard going their rounds, seized him by the coat +collar and dragged him into the middle of the street, where she and her +companions despatched him with their sabres. + +She professed opinions similar to those of the Girondins, and when +the fall of this party was imminent, declaimed loudly in their +favour in public places. On one occasion when making a speech in the +gardens of the Tuileries a number of women belonging to the so-called +Société Fraternelle, stripped her naked and flogged her on the spot. +This terrible punishment drove her mad, and she never recovered her +reason. She died at the age of fifty-four in the public madhouse of +La Salpêtrière, where, with one or two brief intervals, she had been +confined for over twenty-four years. + + +METHERIE, JEAN CLAUD DE LA. + + Born near Macon, 1743; died in Paris, 1817. + +A medical doctor and a great celebrity in his day as a chemist. He made +many remarkable discoveries, particularly on the subject of oxygen +and other gases. During the last thirty years of his life he devoted +himself to the study of mineralogy and geology. He was appointed in +1812 Professor of Natural Science to the Collège de France, which post +he retained until his death. + + +MERLIN, ANTOINE CHRISTOPHER. + + Born, 1762; died, 1833. + +The eldest of four remarkable brothers, who all took a prominent +part in the days of the Revolution and the Empire. Intended for the +Church, he resolutely refused to take holy orders, and leaving his +home in Lorraine at the age of twenty-one, arrived in Paris with only +twenty-five louis in his pocket. He obtained a place as usher in a +military school. The following year he was reconciled to his family, +and his father being President and Procureur of Thionville, he agreed +to act as his head clerk, intending eventually to succeed to his +parent’s appointments. + +When the Revolution commenced, Merlin joined the Jacobin party, +returned to Paris, and in 1791 represented Moselle in the Legislative +Assembly. According to his views, Royalty, clergy, and nobility were +alike to be annihilated without delay. Living as he had done upon the +road to Coblentz, he had been able to watch emigration upon the spot. +He wearied the Assembly by his rages and recriminations, accumulating, +as he said, proof upon proof of treason. His violent speeches, his +fierce activity, and his wild passion made him a leader in the Jacobin +Club. He demanded the deportation to the American penal colonies of all +priests who refused the oath, the confiscation of the property of every +_émigré_, and the establishment of a Committee of Public Safety. + +After the abolition of the Monarchy these proposals were all adopted, +and he made an audacious appeal to insurrection. “It is not with +speeches,” he said, “but with cannon we should attack kings in their +palaces, if we wish to ensure the liberty of the people.” + +When the Tuileries was invaded upon June 20, the spectacle of the +Royal family, abandoned by their friends and covered with insult and +opprobrium, affected him to tears. “You weep,” said the Queen, “at the +sight of a great King brought so low.” “Madame,” he answered, “my tears +are not for a King but for a good father of a family and his estimable +wife, who are suffering misfortune.” + +He took an active part in the events of August 10. He persuaded the +King and his family to leave the Château of the Tuileries, protecting +them on their way to the Assembly. At the peril of his own life he +saved later in the day those of the Duc de Choiseul and a number of the +officers of the Swiss Guard. + +After these events his conduct in the Legislature was more violent +than before. His cry was: “War upon Kings, and peace for Nations.” +At the moment of the invasion he encouraged the people to meet the +enemy at the frontier. Commissioner of the Assembly, he rode over +the five Departments surrounding Paris, obtaining money, horses and +provisions everywhere he went; through his eloquence volunteers flocked +to the Republican flag. He used his influence to prevent massacres of +prisoners and suspected persons. + +His joy at the proclamation of the Republic was intense. He took his +seat in the Convention on the benches of the _Montagne_, and +soon became as ferocious as the most ferocious of his companions. He +declared it would be an honour to stab, with his own hand, any person +who aspired to become a tyrant. He pressed forward the trials of the +“infamous Louis” and the “infamous Antoinette.” He defended Robespierre +against Louvet, and was a mortal enemy to Roland. + +At the time of the trial of Louis XVI. Merlin was with the army at +Mayence, he therefore did not vote for the King’s death; but he wrote +to Paris on January 8, 1793: “We are surrounded by the dead and dying. +In the name of Louis Capet our brothers are slain, and yet Louis Capet +still lives!” Merlin, who was in supreme command, showed great ability +and prodigies of courage during the siege of Mayence, which lasted from +March to July of the same year, but famine and the superior number of +the enemy prevailed, and the town capitulated on July 24, 1793. + +On his return to Paris he was arrested as a traitor, and accused of +selling Mayence to the enemy; but was triumphantly acquitted, a victim +being found to assuage the vanity of the Republic in the person of +General Alexandre de Beauharnais, the first husband of the Empress +Josephine, who, being a noble, was a more agreeable offering to the +guillotine than Merlin. + +Merlin for a short time commanded part of the Republican army in La +Vendée, but was recalled and returned to the Convention after an +absence of nearly a year. During this time the political condition of +France had undergone a complete change. + +Merlin, who had now become more a soldier than a politician, joined no +party, until a few days before the fall of Robespierre. + +He made a speech in favour of Danton, and also brought forward a motion +(which was carried) that all the riches and art treasures of conquered +nations should be brought to Paris. It was upon this very motion +Bonaparte acted when he first began to plunder the art collections of +Italy. Merlin terminated his speech in these words: “People of foreign +nations may complain; the remedy is, however, in their own hands,--let +them destroy their monarchs.” + +When the 9th Thermidor arrived, Merlin at once entered into direct +antagonism with Robespierre, and as head of the Committee of War +despatched various brigades of the Parisian _Gendarmerie_ in +detachments to various positions in the city. He descended into the +street, haranguing the people, whom he called upon to rise in defence +of the Convention. Henriot was arrested by Merlin’s soldiers, and +the same men made the celebrated seizure at the Hôtel de Ville of +Robespierre and the proscribed representatives. The real success of the +9th Thermidor rising is entirely due to Merlin. On August 17 he was +elected President of the Convention, and he prosecuted the Jacobins +without mercy, insisting upon the dissolution of that club (of which he +had once been a leading member), “Let us close,” said he, “this cavern +of brigands and murderers.” It was mainly through his influence that +this society was dissolved. + +In October 1794 he was again despatched to the army of the Rhine, and +gave further proof of excellent generalship and military ability. The +taking of Mannheim, the occupation of Luxemburg and another siege of +Mayence marked this campaign. + +After his return to Paris he assisted in quelling the insurrection of +April 1, 1795, in the Faubourgs of Paris. He was even then only thirty +years of age; and strange to say (although he was still a member of +the Five Hundred), his political and military career may be then said +to have closed. He saw with disgust the Republic alienating itself +from the people and entirely depending upon the army. His dreams of +universal freedom were over, and he did not seek re-election in 1798. +He retired to Commençaux near Chauny, and devoted himself to the +cultivation and improvement of an estate he had purchased during the +_Ventes des Biens Nationaux_, and the only public function he +exercised was the modest one of _juge de paix_. + +As he was absent from Paris during the trial of Louis XVI. the law +against regicides did not affect him. He was threatened with banishment +on account of the message he sent the Convention on January 8, 1793, +but he addressed a letter to the Ministers of Louis XVIII. which gained +his pardon; it terminated in these words; “_Messeigneurs_, I was +twenty-seven when I wrote from Mayence; I am now fifty, and my opinions +have changed. I rely upon the clemency and justice of his Majesty Louis +XVIII.” + + +MIRABEAU, HONORÉ GABRIEL RICHIETTI, COMTE DE. + + Born, March 9, 1749; died, April 2, 1791. + +At the age of three he suffered from the smallpox, which disfigured +him for life and completely transformed his features. His father was a +bigoted Jansenist, despotic, harsh, and cruel to his son, whose ardent +nature and genius he did not in the least understand. He compelled +Honoré, at the age of fifteen, to enter the army. After five years with +his regiment, the young man had shown such aptitude for military study +that he was about to receive promotion, when his father discovered that +he had lost forty louis at play; was in debt, and engaged in an amorous +intrigue with a young woman of the people. The old marquis, therefore, +obtained a _lettre de cachet_, by which his son was imprisoned +in the fort of the _Ile de Rê_. Here Mirabeau wrote his famous +“Essay upon Despotism.” After his release he went with his regiment to +Corsica, where he conducted himself with so much distinction as to be +recommended for a captaincy of dragoons. But his arbitrary old father +would not consent to this, as he now wished his son to leave the army +and to embrace a rural life. + +The result was a breach between father and son, though a reconciliation +was effected a few months later. The maternal grandmother of young +Mirabeau died in 1770, and left a vast fortune, which her daughter +attempted to secure entirely for herself by obtaining a separation from +her tyrannical husband. The result was a lawsuit lasting fifteen years, +during the whole of which time Mirabeau was in the painful position +of a son between two parents who furiously hated one another. In 1772 +Mirabeau married, under pressure from his father, the only daughter +of the Marquis de Mariguana, a plain girl of eighteen, reputed to be +a great heiress. He never received any fortune with her, beyond an +annuity of 3000 francs, for her father survived his son-in-law twelve +years, dying in 1803. + +The young couple lived for some time quietly together in the Château of +Mirabeau, but Mirabeau’s fortune was not in any way equal to his rank, +and he soon contracted heavy debts; this again excited his father’s +anger, and he caused him to be arrested in 1774. Mirabeau was therefore +reimprisoned, this time in the Château d’If, in the Gulf of Marseilles. +From the Château d’If he was transported to Fort de Jaux in the Jura. +The governor, who sympathised with him, accorded him semi-liberty, and +he was able to make acquaintances in the town of Portarlier, where +he was hospitably received by the leading families. One of these was +that of the Marquis de Monnier, an old man of seventy, with a young, +beautiful and intelligent wife. Mirabeau became her lover, and he and +she eloped, first to Switzerland, and then to Holland, where they took +up their abode in Amsterdam. The two fugitives were arrested, and +Mirabeau was imprisoned in the Castle of Vincennes, where he remained +for four years, his lengthy incarceration being the result of the +efforts of his implacable father. + +He wrote in prison his _Lettres à Sophie_, and executed much +literary work. After personally conducting two law cases, one to cause +the revocation of the act against him as ravisher of Mdme. Monnier, and +the other to re-establish his conjugal rights over Mdme. Mirabeau--both +of which he won, after showing prodigious eloquence, though he had +never before spoken in public--he proceeded to London, where he printed +“Considerations upon the Order of Cincinnatus.” + +When the States-General assembled, Mirabeau endeavoured to obtain a +membership; but his own order, the nobility, refused to accept him as +a candidate. He therefore hired a shop in the town of Aix in Provence, +and wrote over the door “Mirabeau, Cloth Merchant.” He was elected by +the _Tiers État_ Deputy for Aix. + +After the opening of the States-General, Mirabeau soon became the most +noted orator in the Assembly, and although on the side of liberty and +freedom he showed much moderation and common sense. It is probable that +had he lived France might have enjoyed the benefits of a constitutional +monarchy, and all the horrors of the Revolution been averted; but his +irregular life had destroyed even his robust constitution, and he +expired on April 2, 1791, aged forty-two. + + +MOUGE, COMTE DE PELUSE, GASPARD. + + Born at Béaune in Burgundy, 1746; died in Paris, 1818. + +Early in life he attained extraordinary knowledge in mathematics, +chemistry and geometry. At the age of sixteen he made a plan of his +native town with only the aid of geometrical instruments he had +manufactured himself. This plan was exhibited in the Hôtel de Ville of +Béaune, and was there seen by a distinguished engineering officer, who +invited its creator to enter the famous College of Mézières. This offer +was accepted; Mouge became Professor of Mathematics in this College, +and was admitted to the Academy of Sciences in 1780. He retained this +post until the Revolution closed both College and Academy. + +In 1792 Mouge was appointed Minister of Marine; he held this position +for a year--from August 11, 1792, to August 12, 1793. + +At this moment the indignation of Europe against France had reached +its height; the whole continent was prepared to attack her. The French +Government, without money and without credit, required fourteen +armies--and they obtained them. A million men were at their disposal, +but these men were unarmed. Until this period all war material, iron, +bronze, steel, even gunpowder had been supplied from abroad; but +importation had now ceased. Mouge now showed the resources of his +genius; he wrote, “All we require to aid the triumphs of our soldiers, +all we formerly asked for from the stranger is concealed in our +soil--it remains only for us to pluck it out.” + +He placed himself at the head of a body of metallurgists, mechanics +and chemists, and directed night and day the manufacture of arms and +explosives. Bells were turned into cannon, old iron hardened into +steel, and saltpetre extracted from the simplest materials. An immense +quantity of powder filled the magazines, and cannons and other weapons +were cast or forged in enormous quantities. + +These great efforts ended, Mouge determined to open, at his own +expense, a house where he might entertain and instruct a number of +young men destined for the artillery of engineers. This establishment +was the nucleus from which the _École Polytechnique_ sprang. + +In 1792, when Mouge was Minister of Marine, he received with kindness a +young artillery officer who was out of employment. This same artillery +officer, four years later, became the conqueror of Italy. + +Mouge received an order to proceed to Italy to value, collect, and +attempt to preserve, those works of Italian art it was proposed to +remove to France. He received the warmest greeting from Bonaparte, who +gave him every token of friendship. + +Mouge was despatched by Bonaparte in 1797 to Rome--when the Pope was +forced to fly and the Roman Republic established--with the order to +bring statues and pictures from the Vatican to Paris. + +He accompanied Napoleon to Egypt, together with many other men of +science, to bring back the spoils of that country, in the same way +they had removed those of ancient Rome. While the French occupation +of Egypt continued, Mouge made many discoveries there, and explored +the Temples of the Nile, travelling as far as the Second Cataract. He +followed Bonaparte to Syria, and was his constant companion during that +disastrous expedition. When Napoleon quitted Egypt surreptitiously for +France, August 22, 1799, Mouge was one of the passengers on board the +small frigate which carried General Bonaparte and his destiny. + +On his return to France, Mouge continued his scientific work. After the +establishment of the Empire, he was appointed Governor and Director of +the _École Polytechnique_, Senator, and given the title of Comte +de Peluse. He retained these honours until the second Restoration, when +Louis XVIII. erased his name from the list of the Institute, besides +depriving him of the Directorship of the _Polytechnique_, which he +(Mouge) had founded. + +Mouge felt this deprivation deeply, and the last three years of his +life were passed in melancholy depression and regret. He died in 1818, +at the age of seventy-two. + + +MOITTE, PIERRE-ETIENNE. + + Born, 1722; died, 1780. + +A celebrated French engraver. His works are now of high commercial +value. + + +NECKER, SUZANNE CURCHOD. + + Born at Crassier in the Canton of Vaud, 1739; died at Lauzanne, + 1794. + +Her father was a Protestant pastor, who educated her. At the age +of twenty she had a perfect and intimate knowledge of modern and +classical literature. She was tall and handsome, her manners amiable +and dignified. Her parents were poor; she was therefore obliged to give +private lessons in families. Gibbon, the historian, knew and admired, +and even desired to marry her. His father, however, absolutely refused +his consent on account of Mdlle. Curchod’s want of means. + +Having lost both her parents she went to Paris as the companion of a +Mdme. de Verenenon, a rich widow. Mdme. Verenenon possessed a suitor, +one Monsieur Necker, a wealthy banker of about thirty-two years of age. + +When M. Necker met the young companion he transferred his affections to +her, and they were married in 1764. Their union was a very happy one. + +Mdme. Necker’s salon was one of the most agreeable and cultured in +Paris, her _habitués_ being Buffon, Thomas, St. Lambert, Suard, +Marmontel, Saurin, Duclosé, Diderot, D’Alembert, De la Harpe, Guibert, +Abbé Delille, Abbé Arnaud, Abbé Morellet, Comte de Creutz, Duc d’Azeu, +Marquis de Caraccioli. Her greatest friends were Buffon and Thomas. + +During her husband’s first Ministry, Mdme. Necker occupied herself +particularly with the Paris Hospitals, then in a deplorable condition, +and at the moment when the Revolution drove her from France, she was +busy arranging a model hospital she had founded at her own expense. + +She died, aged fifty-four, at Lausanne. + +She had an only daughter, the celebrated Madame de Staël, born in +1766. The relations of mother and child were, unfortunately, never +happy, as the amiable, pious, but rigid Calvinist mother could in no +way understand the character or disposition of her brilliant daughter. +M. Necker, on the contrary, made his child his friend and companion +from her early girlhood, and in consequence a violent jealousy existed +between the mother and daughter, which as years went on embittered both +their lives, and continued until Mdme. Necker’s death. M. Necker died +ten years later, in 1804. + + +NEUFCHÂTEAU, NICHOLAS FRANÇOIS, COMTE DE. + + Born, 1750; died, 1828. + +Son of a schoolmaster in Lorraine, Nicholas François was educated at +a Jesuit College, where he was known as “the Infant Prodigy.” At the +age of fourteen he published a volume of poems and fables, imitations +of Ovid, Horace, and Virgil; and was crowned by the Academy of Dijon. +Voltaire, then seventy-two years of age, invited the youthful genius +to Ferney, and wished to make him his private secretary (1767), but +the Comte de Henin, who was the patron of François, insisted upon his +_protégé_ leaving Ferney and accepting a post in the magistracy. +The town of Neufchâteau solemnly adopted their illustrious young +citizen, who from thenceforward added the name of Neufchâteau to that +of François. + +He was brought under the notice of Maréchal de Costires, then Minister +of Marine, who appointed François Procurator to the General Council in +the Colony of St. Domingo, now the Island of Hayti. + +After spending five years in the West Indies, the young magistrate +obtained leave of absence, and started for France, bringing with him +the literary work of five years, including a complete translation of +the works of Ariosto. His ship was wrecked, and he was cast on a desert +island; all his manuscripts going down with the ill-fated vessel. +François Neufchâteau considered this loss to be the great catastrophe +of his life. He was finally rescued, reaching France in safety, and +receiving a pension of 3000 livres (£120), proposed to devote his life +to literature and poetry. + +The events of 1789 altered the current of his existence. He was elected +a member of the Assembly, and the following year sent as Commissionary +to the Vosges for the organisation of that new Department. + +He was eventually appointed President of the first Legislative Assembly. + +He refused the Ministry of Justice, choosing instead the humbler but +safer position of _juge de paix_ in the Department of Vosges. + +His friends persuaded him to return to Paris to superintend the +rehearsal of his play “Pamela” (translated from one of Goldoni’s +comedies) at the Théâtre Français. Produced on August 1, 1793, this +innocent and simple drama achieved an immense success, and was played +for eight consecutive nights. The curtain was just about to rise upon +the ninth performance, when a message from the Committee of Public +Safety arrived to stop the play, the author was summoned before +the Committee the same evening, and ordered to bring with him the +manuscript of the piece. Neufchâteau submitted humbly to all demands as +to corrections and excisions, altered, as desired, the fourth and fifth +acts of the play, and even gave it a different ending. Robespierre +and his Council permitted the performance of the revised play. It was +reproduced September 1, and again ran for eight nights; upon the ninth +evening this verse was applauded:-- + + Ah! les persécuteurs sont les seuls condamnable, + Et les plus tolérants sont les plus raisonnable. + +Before the play was finished, the Committee of Public Safety served the +following order at the Théâtre Français: + +“The _Théâtre Français_ is to be immediately closed, the actors, +actresses, and _employées_ arrested, together with the author of +‘Pamela,’ and conveyed to the Prison of La Force.” + +In this prison Neufchâteau remained eleven months, until August 4, +1794, when he was released, and shortly afterwards appointed Judge +of the High Court during the Directorate, after being Governmental +Commissionary for some time in the district of the Vosges. He became +Minister of the Interior in 1797. In all these appointments he gave +many proofs of capacity, judgment, moderation, and kindliness of heart. + +When the Consulate was established he was not only made a Senator, +but occupied the Presidential Chair of the Senate until 1808, when +he abandoned politics for scientific and literary pursuits. He was +deprived of his peerage (Napoleon had made him a Count of the Empire) +at the Restoration, but allowed to retain his membership of the Academy. + +Although married four times, he left only one surviving son. A painful +malady rendered Neufchâteau a helpless invalid for the last ten years +of his life, but he retained his lively philosophic character to the +last, and was constantly surrounded by friends and admirers, who +enjoyed his witty as well as learned conversation. He continued his +literary work until his death. + +His moral tales, poems, and philosophical and historical treatises are +now forgotten; but his writings upon scientific agriculture are still +consulted by experts in that science. + + +LE NÔTRE, ANDRÉ. + + A celebrated designer of gardens. Born, 1613; died, 1700. + +Louis XIV. commissioned him to lay out the park and gardens of +Versailles, and gave him entire control over the royal gardens of +France. The geographical situation of Versailles made any arrangements +for gardens, fountains, and terraces extremely difficult, but Le Nôtre +overcame all difficulties, and fed the fountains by constructing a +canal to carry off the waters of a neighbouring marsh, which was thus +rendered a fertile and cultivated spot. + +Le Nôtre created the gardens of Marly, and also constructed the +splendid terrace at St. Germain. He laid out the gardens of Chantilly +for the Prince de Condé of the day. Those at Fontainebleau and St. +Cloud were also designed by him. Proceeding to England in the reign of +Charles II., he laid out and arranged the present Parks of Greenwich +and St. James. The lake in the latter was constructed by Le Nôtre. + +Le Nôtre was a man of the most simple and natural nature, and for that +very reason was probably one of the greatest favourites, among his +servants, of Louis XIV. This anecdote, which is historically true, +describes the character of the man: In 1678 he made a visit to Italy +to study the beautiful gardens which surround the great villas of +that country. He was received in audience by Pope Innocent XI., who +treated him with much distinction, and Le Nôtre, as he was taking +leave, remarked: “I have now nothing more to desire; I have seen the +two greatest men in the world--your Holiness and the King of France.” +“There is a great difference between us,” replied the Pope; “the King +of France is a great and victorious Prince, I am but a poor priest, the +servant of the servants of God.” Le Nôtre, delighted with this reply, +slapped the Pope familiarly on the back, saying, “Holy Father, do not +be despondent; you look in perfect health, and may live to bury every +present member of your sacred College.” Innocent XI. burst into a fit +of laughter, and Le Nôtre threw himself on the Pope’s neck, kissing him +affectionately. Le Nôtre retired, delighted with his interview, and +proceeded to write full details of it to Bontemps, the confidential +valet of Louis XIV.; this letter was read aloud at the Petit Levée of +the King. Several courtiers doubted the truth of its contents, but the +King said, “Why not? Whenever I return from a campaign and give Le +Nôtre an audience he always embraces me, so he most likely embraces the +Pope also.” + +At the age of eighty, when he wished to retire, Le Nôtre only obtained +permission to do so on the condition he would pay a weekly visit to the +King. He died at eighty-seven, and was buried in the church of St. Roch +in Paris, in a chapel he had founded. + +He refused armorial bearings when offered a patent of nobility, +declaring his only crest was a spade. + + +D’ORLÉANS, LOUIS PHILIPPE JOSEPH, DUC (PHILIPPE EGALITÉ). + + Born at St. Cloud, April 13, 1747. Guillotined in Paris, + November 6, 1793. + +His tutor was the Comte St. Meurice, and great pains were taken with +his education. + +He appears to have inherited the character and disposition of his great +grandfather, the Regent, without the firmness of disposition and great +natural intelligence and perspicuity possessed by that Prince. + +In 1769 he married Louise de Bourbon, only daughter of the Duke de +Penthièvre. At the wedding he greatly scandalised the Court by his +behaviour, although his offence was only that natural to a lively young +man. Being accidentally placed on the left, instead of the right, of +the bride, he took a running leap and jumped over her train to reach +the other side. + +Soon after his marriage, he entered on a life of wild dissipation, +became a Freemason, declared his admiration for everything English, and +imported horses and jockeys from the other side of the Channel. He +also made every effort to gain popularity with the people. In 1771 he +opposed the decree by which, in the last years of the reign of Louis +XV., the Chancellor Maupeon had suppressed the provincial Parliaments +of France, and was in consequence exiled to his country seat during the +remainder of that King’s reign. Immediately on his accession, Louis +XVI. re-established these Parliaments, and the Duc de Chartres (as he +then was) returned to Court. + +When the war broke out between France and England, the young Duke +petitioned that he might act for his father-in-law, the Duke de +Penthièvre, who was Grand Admiral of France. This was refused; he was, +however, given a nominal command in the fleet of Admiral d’Orvilliers. +He was present at the battle of Onessant, where he commanded the +squadron of the blue, under the surveillance of Admiral Lamotte +Picquet, who was really in charge of this portion of the fleet. The +admiral gave an excellent account of the courage and coolness shown by +the Prince when under fire. + +The French were victorious, but, owing to the incompetency of +d’Orvilliers, gained no real advantage from the combat. + +The fleet returned to Brest, August 2, 1778, and when the Duc de +Chartres reached Paris he was received with so much enthusiasm by the +populace as to excite the apprehension of the Court party and to evoke +an indignant hostility from the Queen. + +Shortly afterwards the Duke returned to his duties on the fleet, and +his enemies at Court took the opportunity of his absence to spread +against him the most scandalous libels--amongst others that the Duke de +Penthièvre was persuaded that his son-in-law desired to supplant him +in the post of Grand Admiral, whereas he only desired to act as his +deputy. So well did his enemies work, that when Chartres returned after +a few months’ absence, he was as coldly received by the populace as by +the courtiers. More than this, when he wished to return to the fleet, +his command was taken from him and he was compelled to leave the Navy. +This treatment was rendered the more bitter, as the first intimation he +received of it was in a letter from his avowed enemy the Queen. + +From this moment the Duke avoided the Court, although he retained a +friendship for the Comte d’Artois, and the two young Princes were +companions in pleasure. The Queen, who was greatly attached to her +young brother-in-law, used all her influence to draw him away from the +“contagion” of Orleans. She persuaded the King to buy the Château de S. +Cloud from the Duke (it was the favourite residence of the latter), and +although d’Orléans was both furious and chagrined at being compelled +to part with his _château_, he had no alternative but to obey +the order of his sovereign. The huge sum raised to buy this palace +was a serious drain on the exhausted Treasury, and the Queen lived to +bitterly regret her imprudent action. A libel was freely circulated +and believed all over France, on the occasion of the death of the +Prince de Lamballe, only son of the Duke de Penthièvre. It was said +that d’Orleans had poisoned his brother-in-law, in order that his wife +might be sole heiress to the vast fortune of her father. The Queen went +so far as to say publicly she feared a similar fate would soon befall +the Comte d’Artois. Driven from the Court by these outrages, the Duke +d’Orleans’ amiable and _débonnaire_ nature became utterly soured. +In the first Assembly of Notables he became one of the leaders of +the Opposition. On November 19, 1787, when the King proposed to this +Assembly two edicts--one for the creation of a stamp duty, the other +for a graduated loan of 440,000,000 francs--the Duke d’Orleans rose and +boldly questioned the monarch, asking him whether this sitting was “a +bed of justice” or “an open debate.” “It is a royal sitting,” the King +replied. “If that is the case,” answered the Duke, “I protest against +this measure; for I declare that the right of voting taxes only belongs +to the States-General.” Only two other Councillors agreed with the +Duke, and the edicts were immediately carried. Fréteau and Sabatier, +the Councillors in question, were immediately exiled to Iles d’Hyères, +the Duke of Orleans to Villers. This disgrace immensely increased the +Duke’s popularity. He did not return to Paris for a year, and when the +States-General was assembled he was elected deputy for Crespy. During +the solemn procession at Versailles (May 4, 1789), before the opening +of this Assembly, it was noticed with what affectation the Duke sought +to mingle with the ranks of the Deputies of the _Tiers État_. + +In the first sittings of the States-General, the Duke pronounced +energetically in favour of the reunion of all the orders. On June +25 he, together with forty-six other noblemen, joined the _Tiers +État_, now the National Assembly; on July 3 he was elected +President, but refused the honour. On the 12th the people, exasperated +by the fall of Necker, carried the busts of Necker and the Duke about +Paris under the leadership of Legendre. It was from the gardens of the +Duke’s house (the Palais Royal) that, two days later, the organised mob +departed to take the Bastille. + +Had d’Orléans possessed at this moment sufficient determination and +intellectual force, he might easily have become Lieutenant-General of +the Kingdom, with Necker for his Prime Minister. But he had not enough +courage, nor, possibly, enough ambition to carry out any definite +project; and he drove his partisans, among whom was Mirabeau, to +despair by his hesitating and undecided conduct. He remained a member +of the Extreme Left of the Assembly, but scarcely ever made a public +speech. In October of the same year, the Court party, and also the +_bourgeois_, were so exasperated against the Duke of Orleans, that +Lafayette himself was persuaded to order the Duke out of France. He was +sent to London on an imaginary mission: returned the following summer, +was acclaimed by the Assembly, and renewed his alliance with Mirabeau. + +After the flight of Louis XVI., in June 1791, the throne was +temporarily vacant; and again, had the Duke chosen to come forward, his +advances would have been well received by the nation and the Assembly. +He did not dare to do so, and so lost his last opportunity. + +The next month the new Constitution ordained that French Princes could +not be elected to any functions by the votes of the people; Orléans, +therefore, publicly renounced all prerogatives or privileges accorded +to Royalty, and declared himself a simple citizen. + +At that time there was an attempted reconciliation between the King +and the Duke, which was doubtless sincere on both sides. The new +Minister of Marine, Bertrand de Motteville, arranged that the Duke of +Orleans should be one of the Vice-Admirals in the reorganised fleet. +The project was communicated to Louis XVI., who expressed himself +satisfied, and the Duke was grateful. The King and he, by the medium +of de Motteville, had a private interview, and parted on friendly +terms. The following Sunday (January 1792) the new Admiral came to +the Tuileries to pay homage to the King. It was the dinner-hour, the +table for the King and Queen was already laid, and the room was full of +courtiers. As soon as the Duke appeared, he became the object for the +most opprobrious insults. “Take care of the dishes!” was shouted on all +sides--the insinuation being he was about to put poison in them. He was +pushed about, his feet were purposely trodden on, and as he descended +the stairs several persons spat on his head and clothes. He left in a +state of indescribable rage, believing that the King had enticed him to +the Palace in order to insult him; the King was really innocent of the +whole matter, but sent no message of apology or regret. + +From that day Orléans threw himself with energy into the extreme +revolutionary party, and by becoming Danton’s banker drew him away from +the Court party, in whose pay that corrupt politician had for some time +been. + +Orléans became Deputy for Paris in the Convention, accepting the name +of Philippe _Égalité_, which title was bestowed upon him on +September 15, 1792. When the King’s trial took place, “_Egalité_” +said Robespierre, “is the only member who has a right to refuse to +vote.” But Orléans thought he would save his own head and his credit +with the Jacobins by condemning his relative. When his name was called, +he said: “Entirely preoccupied by a sense of duty, and convinced that +all those who attempted to reign or have reigned as sovereigns over the +people merit death--I vote for death.” This speech did not have the +expected effect, those who were not indignant being disgusted at it. + +On April 6 of the same year the Convention ordered that “all members +of the Bourbon family be detained as hostages”; on the 7th, Orléans +was arrested and conducted to Marseilles. He addressed petition after +petition to the Convention without effect, and was removed to Paris +and imprisoned at the Conciergerie on October 3. Both Queen Marie +Antoinette and d’Orleans simultaneously occupied cells in this prison +for a space of a few days. Two or three weeks after her execution the +Duke was put upon his trial; he defended himself with courage and +coolness, but his fate was sealed in advance. After condemnation he +asked to be executed without delay; and on the same afternoon, four +hours after the trial, he was conducted to the scaffold with five +Deputies, condemned, like himself, as Girondists. He passed by his +former palace on the way to execution, and, pointing to it, exclaimed, +with a gesture of contempt, “How they applauded me once!” When he had +left the cart and mounted the plank of the guillotine he said to the +executioner, “Do not let your fellows pull off my boots until I am +dead, they will come off easier then; make haste! make haste!” These +were his last words. + + +PAINE, THOMAS. + + Born at Thetford, Norfolk, in 1737; died at New York, 1809. + +Paine was the son of a Quaker staymaker. He learnt to read, write, +and cypher at a free school, and at the age of sixteen worked at his +father’s trade. He twice ran away from home to go to sea; but married +in 1759 and settled in Sandwich, still working as a staymaker. His wife +dying two years later, he went to London, and obtained a situation as +schoolmaster in an elementary school, and toiled hard for two years at +his own self-education. + +In 1771 he married the daughter of a tobacconist, and joined his +father-in-law in trade. His affairs did not prosper, and three +years later he became bankrupt. He decided to emigrate to America; +having made the acquaintance of Franklin (at that time in London), +the latter, as a fellow Quaker, gave him letters of recommendation. +Paine was thirty-seven when he embarked for America; on his arrival +in Philadelphia he was engaged as editor for a periodical called the +_Philadelphian Magazine_. His articles began to excite attention, +particularly several against slavery. + +He took the most ardent interest in the struggle between England and +America. After the battle of Bunker Hill it was still undecided whether +the colonists would demand complete independence and separation, or be +satisfied with certain concessions on the part of the mother country. +It was then Paine published his famous pamphlet “Common Sense,” which +produced a tremendous impression, more than 100,000 copies being sold. +From an obscure individual he became a celebrity. During the remainder +of his life Paine invariably signed himself “Common Sense,” and was +convinced that had he not written the work in question the United +States, as a nation, would never have come into existence. + +The following autumn he joined the American army as _aide-de-camp_ +to General Green, and in 1777 he was appointed by Congress Secretary +to the Committee of Foreign Affairs; after two years he was dismissed, +under the accusation of indiscretion as to diplomatic secrets. In 1781 +he accompanied Colonel Laurence, whom Congress had commissioned to try +and raise a loan, to France. This mission was a complete success. Louis +XVI. lent six millions of francs, and guaranteed another ten millions +promised by Holland. + +Peace having been declared, Paine returned to America. As a return for +his services, Congress voted him 5500 dollars in two separate sums, and +gave him a grant of 300 acres of land and a house. + +Paine proceeded to work out various scientific and mechanical problems, +by which he hoped to realise a large fortune, his favourite dream +being to throw an iron bridge over the Schuykill. Want of capital, and +the impossibility of getting iron properly wrought or cast in America, +caused his return to Europe. He proposed to present the model of his +bridge to the French Academy of Science, Franklin giving him letters of +introduction: the Academy received him well, and their committee made +a favourable report. But politics, and not science, were in the air, +and no one could be persuaded to put money into the venture. Paine then +went to London in hopes of better luck; a Yorkshire ironmaster took up +the invention, and an American merchant advanced the money; but the +expenses proved far heavier than had been anticipated, the ironmaster +went bankrupt, and his creditors arrested Paine, who only obtained his +liberty at the sacrifice of most of his little fortune. + +The Revolution had now broken out in France, and the English Whig +party, which had at first shown much sympathy with the movement, became +alarmed and shocked at the excesses and disorders it entailed. In +1790 Burke published his celebrated treatise, “Thoughts on the French +Revolution,” which Paine answered by his equally well-known work, +“The Rights of Man.” This book excited immense indignation in England +among the general public, and its author was burnt in effigy in the +streets. The second part of the “Rights of Man,” which was published +in February 1792, was still more violent, containing direct personal +attacks upon George III. These books delighted the extremists, and were +immediately translated into French. The British Ministry issued a royal +proclamation forbidding seditious writings, and summoned Paine before +the Court of King’s Bench. + +At the same time a deputation of electors arrived from France to inform +Paine that he had been elected a Member of the Convention; flattered +by this distinction, he started at once for France, and an hour after +he had sailed the order for his arrest arrived. He was tried by +default, and his sentence was banishment for life from Great Britain +and Ireland. As he could not speak French, he was unable to take part +in the debates of the Convention; but when the King’s trial took place +he fought courageously against the death sentence, and caused the +following expression of his opinions to be read aloud by one of his +fellow members: + + To kill Louis would not only be a gross act of inhumanity, but + also of insane folly. His death would augment the number of your + enemies. If I could speak French I would now descend and appear + as a humble suppliant before your bar, imploring you in the name + of my generous American brethren not to send Louis to execution. + +This generous action on the part of Paine completely destroyed his +credit with the Jacobins, and also in a great measure his general +popularity in France. The governing party were from that time his open +enemies; Robespierre erased his name from the list of members of the +Convention, as “a foreigner who was an enemy to Liberty and Equality.” +He was arrested and imprisoned in the Luxemburg. + +Thomas Paine remained for more than a year in prison in daily +expectation of death. It was only by a mistake on the part of his +gaoler in reading out the names of the condemned that he escaped +execution. Even the fall of Robespierre did not give him freedom; +and he was at length liberated in November 1794, by the influence of +Monroe, the American Minister, who claimed him as a citizen of the +United States. + +He attempted to obtain a seat in the Assembly, but was not elected. +The long imprisonment had not only affected his health but also his +intelligence. He published a work entitled the “Age of Reason”--a +violent attack upon Christianity, which aroused a sensation in England, +and evoked much energetic refutation of its teaching. It made Paine +a vast number of enemies in the United States, and he rendered the +situation still more impossible by publishing in 1797 a letter, full of +bitterness and ill-nature, criticising the character and administration +of Washington. + +He did not leave France until the autumn of 1802, when he returned to +America, where he found he had lost the consideration and respect which +he formerly enjoyed in the United States. + +His last years were spent in loneliness and neglect. He was thought by +his enemies to be avaricious, dirty and careless of his appearance, and +to indulge in intemperate habits. He died, almost forgotten, in New +York in 1809, aged seventy-one, and was buried upon his farm at New +Rochelle. In 1837 Cobbett transported the remains to England, where +they were reverently received by the Radicals and Chartists of the day. + + +PIUS VI., GIOVANNI ANGELO, COUNT DE BRASCHI. + + Born, December 27, 1717; died at Valence, August 29, 1799. + +He was the only child of Count More Aurelius Braschi, the head of +one of the oldest families in the Romagna. To his parents’ grief he +insisted upon taking holy orders, and was appointed secretary to his +maternal uncle, Cardinal Ruffio, Legate at Ferrara. Later Braschi +became auditor to the Bishoprics of Ostia and Velletri; while in the +latter city, in 1744, when there was an encounter between the Austrians +and Neapolitans (the latter commanded by King Charles III. of Spain, +then King of Naples), Braschi was able by his presence of mind to +save the Neapolitan archives. This circumstance brought him to the +notice of the King of Naples, who promised him his protection: shortly +afterwards he successfully conducted a mission from the Pope to the +King of Naples, and was appointed _Camariere Segreto_ and Canon of +St. Peter’s. In 1758 he became a Prelate, and Treasurer-General of the +Apostolic Chamber. Clement XIV. created him a Cardinal in 1773, and in +1775 he was elected Pope, under the title of Pius VI. + +His reign inaugurated an era of reform; he issued many rules and +regulations as to the dress and general conduct of the clergy, which +at the time, owing to the indifference and weakness of his immediate +predecessor’s administration, left much to be desired. + +His position as treasurer had given him an insight into the abuses +prevailing in the financial department of the Papal Government, and a +reduction or suppression of a number of dishonestly obtained pensions +took place. He published various laws for the protection of farmers and +corn-dealers, and offered substantial pecuniary rewards to industrious +and intelligent peasant farmers. A Congregation of Cardinals was called +together to pass regulations to put a stop to the grave disorders +occasioned by idleness, mendicity, and too low wages; the system of +weights and measures was thoroughly investigated, and one contractor +in particular, who had received 900,000 crowns from the Apostolic See +during the famine of 1771–72 to buy grain for the assistance of ruined +farmers, was forced to restore 280,000 crowns of this money to the +Treasury. Pius VI. ordered the drainage of the Pontine Marshes, and +employed for this purpose the celebrated engineer, Louis Benck; and +although the work was not finished, owing to the Revolution, 12,000 +acres were reclaimed. He also cleared the Appian Way, then impassable +owing to the vast multitude of stone heaps from ruined buildings by +which it was encumbered. Pius VI. embellished, completed, arranged, and +classified the “Museo Clementino.” Combined with these reforms he gave +great attention to charitable institutions, initiated those schools +of the Christian Brothers which are now spread all over the world, and +erected many orphanages and refuges for poor children of both sexes. + +Pius’s serious troubles began with the accession of that misguided but +well-meaning monarch, Joseph II. of Austria. This Emperor’s intentions +were excellent, nor was he impious or irreligious, yet by his +exorbitant pretensions to sovereignty in every department of the State, +and his avowed intention to re-organise on his own responsibility the +spiritual affairs of his Empire, he was a powerful agent to the enemies +of Christianity. After having continued for some time a correspondence +with the Emperor which led to no satisfactory understanding on either +side, Pius VI. determined to seek a personal interview with him. +Leaving on February 27, 1782, he arrived on March 22 at Vienna. The +Emperor received the Pope with the utmost courtesy, but remained +inflexible, and Pius VI. soon perceived that his long journey had +been in vain. However, Joseph II. treated the Pope with the greatest +outward magnificence, and endeavoured to appease him by offering the +brevet of a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire to Count Louis Braschi, the +Pontiff’s nephew and heir. This the Pope refused, saying: “We are not +occupied with the advancement or grandeur of our family, our interests +are concentrated on those of the Church.” The following year Joseph +II. returned the Pope’s visit, but on his way to Rome he appointed +a new Archbishop of Milan without consulting the Holy See; but gave +way, however, on this point later, and the result of the visit was the +signature of a Concordat between the Pope and Austria, which put an end +to the principal misunderstandings, although, until his death, Joseph +never ceased to be a source of anxiety and annoyance to his Holiness. + +The French Revolution brought more trouble to Pius VI. After the +measures taken against the clergy, attacks began to be levelled at +the Roman Curia. The Assembly introduced the “Constitution Civile +du Clergé,” which, by abolishing the various hierarchical degrees, +destroyed the ancient Gallican Church; and Avignon, a part of the +Papal States since mediæval times, was formally united to France. The +Pope was powerless, and the storm of war began to descend on Italy: +Savoy and Nice were invaded, the clergy compelled to fly before the +persecutions of the Republic, and the States of the Church were crowded +by destitute ecclesiastics of every condition, who were hospitably +entertained by the Pope, whose own turn of misfortune was at hand; the +French Government accused him of being “an enemy of the changes in the +French Government”; they invaded the Pontifical territory, and Pius +signed in 1797 the treaty of Tolentio, by which he gave up Bologna, +Ferrara, and Romagna, and renounced all claims to the sovereignty over +Avignon. + +Throughout these reverses Pius VI. showed courage, self-control and +prudence. The Directorate were determined to drive him from Rome; they +therefore excited a riot in the city, and under pretence of quelling +it, despatched an army, commanded by General Berthier, which camped +under the walls of Rome, January 29, 1798. (As Bonaparte was at that +time in Egypt, and did not return until after the death of the Pope, he +took no part in the events which followed.) + +On February 15, the French general threw off the mask, entered Rome, +and the robbery and sacrilege commenced. Five days later the Swiss +Haller, the corrupt treasurer of the French army, seized the person +of the Pontiff, flung him by force into a post-chaise, and, without +attendants, luggage or any conveniences for a winter’s journey, +carried this infirm old man of eighty into exile. He was first taken +to Siena, then to the Benedictine mountain fortress of San Cassiano, +to Florence, to Parma, to Piacenza, to Turin; at length, worn out +and half paralysed, he arrived at Valence on July 14, after enduring +five months’ imprisonment, privation and misery, during which time +no pity had been shown him, although his physical condition was most +pitiful, for he had suffered a paralytic stroke, and from sheer +weakness his body had become covered with ulcers. He was incarcerated +in the ordinary prison of the citadel at Valence and kept in solitary +confinement; but by this time he was indifferent to earthly affairs, +and his time spent entirely in prayer. He retained his faculties to +the last, and, as a special favour, permitted to receive the last +Sacraments at the hands of a fellow prisoner, Mgr. Spina, Archbishop of +Corinth. + +Pius VI. died on August 26, 1799, at one o’clock in the morning, +aged eighty-one years and eight months. His body was buried without +any ceremony in the desecrated chapel of the citadel; but after the +establishment of the Concordat it was, by the orders of the First +Consul, removed to Rome, and now lies there in the Church of St. Peter. +He was Pope for more than twenty-four years. + + +PELLETIER, JACQUES. + + Born, 1760; died, 1839. + +A rich landed proprietor who adopted revolutionary principles, +represented the Department of Cher in the Convention, and voted for +Louis XVI.’s death, subject to an appeal to the people. After the +9th Thermidor, he was sent to administer Languedoc, showed firmness, +justice and moderation, and in 1795 was one of the Commissioners for +the Directorate. + +Banished as a regicide in 1816, he was allowed to return to France in +1819, and the last twenty years of his life were uneventful. + + +PRIEUR, CLAUDE ANTOINE DUVERNOIS. + + Born, 1763; died, 1832. + +The son of a receiver of taxes at Auxonne, Prieur was an officer in +the Engineers at the time of the Revolution, which he joined from +its outset. Elected by the _Côte d’Or_ to the Assembly, the +Convention, and finally to the Council of the Five Hundred, he sat +in all these Assemblies from 1791 to 1793, and distinguished himself +by his genuine Republicanism, was for a short time President of the +Convention, but after August 10 joined the Army of the Rhine. + +At the King’s trial he voted for the immediate execution of the +accused. Three months later the Convention sent him to Normandy to put +down the counter revolutionary projects of the Girondins, who succeeded +in arresting Prieur and his brother commissionary, and they remained +fifty-one days in the prisons of Caen. On his return to Paris, Prieur +became a member of the Committee of Public Safety (August 1793). At the +time of the Revolution of 18th Brumaire, Prieur was once more with the +army, acting as a colonel in the Engineers, but being too republican to +serve the First Consul, he in 1800 retired from military service. + +He was one of those few among the revolutionists who was an admirable +organiser and a practical man. He worked heart and soul for the +re-establishment of Public Instruction, and together with Mouge helped +to found the _École Polytechnique_. Prieur was the author of the +great reform in the metric system. + + +PRONY, GASPARD CLAIR FRANÇAIS MARIE RICHE DE. + + Born, 1755; died, 1839. + +One of the greatest engineers of France. In 1787 he commenced the +bridge, first called _Pont Louis XVI._, and now _Pont de la +Concorde_, which was completed in 1791, when Prony was appointed +chief engineer of France. The same year he undertook the composition +of new tables of trigonometry adapted to the decimal division of the +circle. Prony completed his work in three years, and in 1798 became the +Director of the _École des Ponts et des Chaussées_ and professor +of mechanics and mathematics at the _École Polytechnique_. +Bonaparte made every effort to induce Prony to abandon this appointment +and accompany him to Egypt, but was unsuccessful. During the Consulate +and Empire, Prony’s word was considered law in all that concerned civil +engineering in France, and after the restoration he retained his post +at the _École Polytechnique_. In 1818 he was sent to Italy to +carry out improvements in the Ports of Genoa, Pola, and Ancona, and to +give an opinion upon the possible regularisation of the course of the +Po, and in 1827 he carried out works which successfully stopped the +annual floods in the Rhone valley, for which service Charles X. created +him a Baron. + +He died at the age of eighty-four. + + +LA REVEILLIÈRE, LOUIS MARIE. + + Born, 1753; died, 1824. + +One of the five Directors, and at the time of the dissolution of the +Directorate their President. Unlike Barras and his co-directors, la +Reveillière was an honest man and a sincere Republican. He refused to +take the oath of allegiance to Napoleon as First Consul or Emperor, and +retired into private life after the events of the 18th Brumaire (Nov. +1799). + + +REGNIER, DUC DE MASSA, CLAUDE AMBROISE. + + Born, 1736; died, June 24, 1814. + +He was at the time of the Revolution one of the most distinguished +lawyers in Nancy. He pronounced violently in favour of the new +doctrines, and was elected by the _Tiers État_ of his native town +as their representative at the States-General. He took a considerable +part in the debates of the Assembly, and defended Nancy against the +attacks of the Jacobins. When the Convention took extreme measures, +Regnier disappeared from Paris until the events of the 9th Thermidor +were concluded. In 1795 he joined the Council of the Ancients, and +became first Secretary to and then President of the Council. He opposed +the return of the exiled _émigrés_ and caused the transportation +of many priests (February 1796). He was re-elected in 1799, but as +he was persuaded, by this time, that the Directorate could neither +serve the peace nor the aggrandisement of France, he took an active +part in arranging the _coup d’état_ of the 18th Brumaire (Nov. +1799). It was in his house that the conspirators met the day before +this event took place. When he was appointed a member of the _Conseil +d’État_, he catalogued and investigated all details with regard to +the National Domains. He was the principal author of that code of laws +known as the _Code Napoleon_, still the law of France. In 1802 +he became Minister of Justice and also Chief Judge of France; he held +these offices until 1813. He was created Duc de Massa by the Emperor in +1805. In 1813, after resigning the portfolio of Minister of Justice, +Regnier became President of the Corps Législatif. After the first +abdication of Napoleon Regnier hoped to retain his position, but he was +doomed to be disappointed, a misfortune which, together with the fall +of the Emperor, to whom he was personally attached, probably hastened +his death, which occurred two months later, at the age of seventy-eight. + + +ROBESPIERRE, MAXIMILIEN MARIE ISIDORE DE. + + Born at Arras, May 6, 1756; died in Paris, July 1794. + +The public history of Robespierre is so well known that it is +unnecessary to give it here. A short description of his early life, +previous to becoming a Deputy to the States-General in 1789, may, +however, be of interest, as but little is known. + +Robespierre’s father, a lawyer, was a man of eccentric habits and +peculiar disposition, who after the death of his wife left his native +town, and, it is believed, went to England and America. Nothing was +again seen of him in France, nor did he ever communicate with his +family. He left behind him three young children, Augustus, Maximilien, +and a daughter Margaret. Of these Maximilien was adopted by two +maiden aunts, who sent him to the College at Arras, and defrayed the +expenses of his education. The religious circle in which his aunts +lived brought the boy in contact with the wealthy and influential +clergy of the town; a canon of the Cathedral of Arras took him under +his immediate protection, and obtained for him, when twelve years of +age, a _bourse_ or scholarship at the College of Louis le Grand, +Paris. Robespierre, during his six years’ stay at this College, was +studious, obedient, and intelligent, and took a first prize in the +class of rhetoric. Among his schoolfellows were Camille, Desmoulins, +and Fréron. On leaving college, Robespierre, who was very poor, studied +law. A letter addressed by him to the Abbé Proyart, is still extant, +in which he begs for a little help towards purchasing a decent suit of +clothes in which to present himself before the Bishop of Arras, one +of his protectors then in Paris. At this time (1778) Robespierre was +twenty years of age. After completing his legal studies, he returned to +his native town and exercised his profession as lawyer. His reputation +had preceded him, and he soon obtained many clients, unfortunately for +him most of them poorer than himself. Many reports of his pleadings +remain--they are (most of them) mere declamations or speeches upon +political and social questions; full of tirades against the “ignorance, +prejudice, and those passions which form a redoubtable league against +all men of genius--in order to punish these men for the services +they render to humanity.” These speeches produced a great sensation. +Robespierre invariably interlarded his discourses with the most fulsome +eulogies of the King. In one speech he speaks of “that beloved and +sacred head, the head of the Prince who is the delight and glory of +France.” He occupied his spare time in literary pursuits, and wrote a +great deal of indifferent poetry. He was in 1783 elected member of the +Academy of Arras. His reputation for eloquence and intellect was now +such that when the States-General assembled he was immediately chosen +one of the sixteen representatives for the province of Artois. He was +then so poor that he was obliged to borrow ten louis and a travelling +trunk in order to be able to proceed to Paris. The inventory of the +contents of his trunk is preserved, viz.: “six shirts, six neckcloths, +and six pocket handkerchiefs, of which the greater portion are in good +order.” + + +ROCHEFOUCAULT, FRANÇOIS ALEXANDRE FREDERIC, DUKE DE LA (_Liancourt_.) +Born, 1737; died, 1827, aged eighty. + +This distinguished nobleman was the son of the Duke d’Estissac and of +Marie, daughter and heiress of the Duke Alexandre de la Rochefoucault, +from whom he inherited his title. He joined the regiment of Carabineers +when a mere lad, and married at the age of seventeen. His father +was Grand Master of the King’s _Garderobe_, this appointment +being hereditary in the family. The young Duke of Liancourt, as he +was then called, did not find favour with Madame du Barry. He left +Court in 1769, and paid a long visit to England. On his return he +put into practice, upon his estate at Liancourt, the industrial and +agricultural improvements he had observed upon his journey; amongst +other undertakings he started a model farm, and brought cattle from +Switzerland and Germany, to improve the breed of cows. He founded an +industrial school at Liancourt for the education and instruction of +the children of poor soldiers. In 1786 de la Rochefoucault accompanied +Louis XVI. on a progress through Normandy, and showed the King the +various industrial and agricultural establishments of that province, +then in a very prosperous condition. When the States-General assembled, +the Duke de Liancourt was elected Deputy by the nobility of Clermont. +His position in the Assembly was that of a defender of Royalty, and +also of public liberty. On July 12, 1789, the Duke de Liancourt, +who, though no courtier, was one of the few sincere friends of Louis +XVI., for whom he had a personal regard, appeared at Versailles and +gave a true and succinct account of the agitation which was pervading +the capital. “It is a revolt,” said the astonished monarch. “Sire,” +replied the Duke, “it is a _Revolution_.” The Bastille fell two +days later. On July 18 the Duke was invested with the Presidency of +the Assembly. After the session of the Assembly had concluded, he +returned to Liancourt, where he continued his industrial experiments, +and founded in 1790 work-rooms for spinning and weaving cotton and +wool under a new process. As a lieutenant-general, his rank in the +army, he commanded a military division in Normandy, and, when the first +excesses of the Revolution began, implored the King and Royal Family +to take refuge at Rouen. Had this proposal been accepted much trouble +might have been averted. Upon the King’s refusal of his offer the Duke +generously put at his disposal the sum of 150,000 livres (£6000). +The horrors of August 10 decided the Duke to fly from France, and +pass into England. In exile he was almost without resources. An old +maiden lady, in whom--although she had never seen him--he inspired a +romantic interest, left him her whole fortune, some £50,000. He refused +to accept any part of the legacy, and handed the money to her legal +heirs. The death of Louis XVI. induced the Duke de la Rochefoucault +(since the massacre of his cousin in 1793, he had assumed this +title) to leave Europe and spend several years in America, devoting +his time to scientific studies, and observations of the Government +and character of the people of the United States, and even of the +Indians in Canada. Louis XVIII. sent him in 1798 an imperious message, +commanding him to join him and take up his duties as Grand Master of +the royal household, an order which the Duke respectfully declined; +Louis XVIII. never forgave him, and there is little doubt the neglect +and quasi-disgrace with which la Rochefoucault was treated after the +Restoration arose mainly from this unforgotten incident. + +In 1799 Rochefoucault returned to France, and dwelt for some time +ignored in Paris; he was still, however, conferring benefits +upon humanity. As soon as his name was erased from the list of +_émigrés_ he started a committee for vaccination in Paris, and +opened a dispensary for the purpose of making this remedy known among +the people. When he was allowed to return to Liancourt, he found +to his delight that notwithstanding the storms of the Revolution, +every succeeding Government since his departure had respected the +institutions he had created. The Emperor Napoleon bestowed upon him +the legion of honour, but affected to treat him as a manufacturer, and +did not offer him a peerage. The Duke lived entirely at Liancourt. In +1809 when Napoleon restored his title, and gave him the right of grand +entry to the Imperial Court, la Rochefoucault did not take advantage +of this favour, and remained in retirement until the Restoration. +Louis XVIII. treated him with marked coldness and disfavour, and did +not appoint him to any office at Court. Rochefoucault, nevertheless, +was a member of the House of Peers as a Duke of France. In 1816 he +was elected member of the general council of the hospitals of Paris. +The Duke de la Rochefoucault inaugurated the “Society of Christian +Morals” in 1821, and soon afterwards became President of the school of +_Arts et Métiers_, founded by him at Liancourt, now transferred +to Châlons, and member of the Councils of Agriculture, Hospitals and +Prisons. In 1823 the reactionist Ministry, who disapproved of his +political views, relieved him of all his public but strictly honourable +functions, on the ground of his age (76). Not daring to deprive him of +his Presidency of the Committee on vaccination, they suppressed this +Committee altogether. On March 21, 1827, whilst the Duke was speaking +in the Chamber of Peers, he was suddenly seized with a fit, and expired +four days later. + +On the day of his funeral, a number of old students of his school +of _Arts et Métiers_ came to the church, with the intention of +carrying his coffin; when they attempted to do so, they were suddenly +charged by a troop of mounted _gens d’armes_ in the Rue St. +Honoré, and the Duke’s coffin fell in the mud, his coronet and other +symbols of the peerage being trampled under foot. + + +ROEDERER, PIERRE LOUIS, COMTE DE. + + Born 1654 at Metz; died in 1735. + +His father, a lawyer at Strasbourg, compelled his son, who was an +ardent disciple of Jean Jacques Rousseau, to follow the parental +profession, much against his will. + +Roederer began his political life in 1788, by publishing a pamphlet +on the “Deputation to the States-General,” when he also became a +journalist. Sent by the electors of Metz to the States-General, as a +representative of the _Tiers État_, he took an important part in +the debates, proposing the new law reforms, the institution of trial by +jury, the abolition of religious orders and of titles of nobility, and +demanding also liberty for the press and equality in political rights +for every citizen. He showed great financial ability, compiled the new +stamp and patent laws, inventing a new system of taxation. He was a +member of the Jacobin Society until June 20, 1792, after which date +(the day of the first invasion of the Tuileries) he seceded from the +club, and from that period the extreme party were his mortal enemies. +On August 10 he, together with Merlin, conducted the Royal Family to +the Assembly, and protected, helped, and comforted them to the best of +his power. + +The following day he was denounced by the Jacobins, but not arrested, +and he prudently disappeared from the Assembly, and devoted himself +entirely to the sub-editorship of the _Journal de Paris_. An +article in this paper, dated January 6, 1793, in which Roederer denied +the right of the Convention to try the King, brought him into immediate +danger; however, he fled from Paris, and did not reappear there until +after the 9th Thermidor (July 28, 1794). + +In 1795 he became editor of the _Journal de Paris_. He was +threatened with transportation to Guienne during the Directorate, +and only saved by the direct intervention of Talleyrand. He was now +satisfied that a firm and stable government was the sole means of the +regenerating of France, and was therefore an active agent for what he +termed the “generous and patriotic conspiracy” of the 18th Brumaire. +He wrote the “Address to the Parisians,” which was placarded upon the +walls of Paris on that eventful morning. + +Bonaparte made him Councillor of State on 25th December, 1799, and in +1802 he was named Director of _L’Esprit Public_, a position which +gave him control of all the theatres and of public instruction. In +1806 he was sent to Naples, of which Joseph Bonaparte had just been +created King, and by Napoleon’s orders undertook the duty of Neapolitan +Finance Minister, which post he continued to hold under Murat. In 1810 +he was appointed administrator to the Grand Duchy of Berg. When the +Bourbons returned, he quitted political life and retired to his country +seat, the Château of Bois Roussel, devoting himself until 1830 to +literary pursuits. + +After the accession of Louis Philippe he was again summoned to the +Chamber of Peers, and, notwithstanding his advanced age, took a +considerable part in debate, publishing a pamphlet, _Lettre aux +Constitutionnels_, which caused a violent excitement all over Paris. +In it he attacked the doctrine that “The King reigns, but does not +govern.” + +Roederer died from an accident at the age of eighty-one, when still in +the enjoyment of good health and spirits. + + +DE SADE, MARQUIS ALPHONSE FRANÇOIS. + + Born in Paris 1740; died in the madhouse at Charenton, 1814. + +De Sade, a man of noble family and high position, being +Lieutenant-General of Bresse and Valroney, appears at the age of +twenty-six to have been seized with a form of insanity which only +showed itself in the use of obscene language, writings, and deeds. + +He was arrested at Marseilles in 1772 for a terrible offence against +public morality, and from that time, under a _lettre de cachet_, +was imprisoned in various fortresses, amongst others Vincennes and the +Bastille. During this imprisonment he wrote those notoriously obscene +books which have rendered his name infamously famous. He was liberated +in 1790 by the decree which released all prisoners imprisoned under +_lettres de cachet_. + +His wife obtained a separation from him, and for the next ten years he +continued to publish books and plays of the most appalling immorality. +When Bonaparte returned from Egypt, De Sade sent him copies of his two +novels, “Juliette” and “Justine,” illustrated by himself, and with a +dedication to the First Consul. Napoleon, filled with disgust, had +the books burned, and De Sade arrested as a dangerous lunatic, and +incarcerated in the madhouse at Charenton, where he died fourteen years +later. + +Those who visited him there describe him as a venerable looking old +man, with beautiful features and abundant snow-white hair, exquisite +manners and an amiable expression; but as soon as he opened his mouth, +every word he spoke was either indecent or profane. + + +SANTERRE, ANTOINE JOSEPH, GENERAL. + + Born, 1752, in Paris; died in 1809. + +Son of a Flemish brewer who had established himself in the Faubourg +St. Antoine, he continued to follow his father’s trade. He was rich, +and had an excellent reputation among the working classes for the +generosity and kindness he showed his employées. Santerre was one +of those electors of Paris who met on July 14, 1789, at the Hôtel +de Ville; he commanded the National Guard of his district, and for +the next three years the brewery and beerhouse of Santerre were a +_rendezvous_ for all the agitators of the Faubourg, indeed it was +here that the attack upon the Tuileries of June 20, 1792, was agreed +upon. + +Upon that day Santerre marched at the head of the crowd which invaded +the National Assembly, and standing at the foot of the tribune he +directed the march of the people through the Chamber. After thanking +the Deputies for the marks of friendship they had shown to the +inhabitants of the Faubourg St. Antoine, he presented them with a flag, +and then went out to join his men upon the Place Carousel, from whence +he led them to the Tuileries. He also took a prominent part in the +second attack upon August 10, and the Commune afterwards created him +commander-in-chief of the National Guard of Paris, a command originally +held by the Marquis of Lafayette (!) in which capacity he conducted +Louis XVI. and his family to the Temple. On January 21, 1793, he was in +command of the troops who surrounded the scaffold, and it was at his +signal that the drums were beaten to drown the dying speech of King +Louis. + +In April of the same year, Santerre obtained a release from the debt of +40,500 francs which he owed to the State for taxes he should have paid +upon malt and beer, the reason for the remission of this debt being +“that the beer in question had all been consumed by patriots.” + +Santerre, who was raised to the rank of a general of division, in +July 1793, expressed a desire to show his prowess in the field, and +asking for employment in the army, was sent to fight the Royalists in +La Vendée. He met with nothing but disaster, owing to his complete +ignorance of military tactics, and after being defeated at Corow on +September 3, was recalled to Paris. Shortly afterwards he was arrested, +and remained in prison until the death of Robespierre. + +In July 1794, he was deprived of his rank as general and returned +to private life; but his business had perished, and he was entirely +ruined. He addressed petitions to various authorities, and finally, in +January 1800, appealed to the First Consul for employment in the army +or “any post by which I can live.” + +Bonaparte did not employ him, but he placed his name on the list of +retired generals, by which means Santerre enjoyed a pension for the +rest of his life. Santerre has been quoted as a monster of ferocity, +no doubt owing to the part he played on January 21, 1793: but he was +in reality neither brutal nor cruel, and constantly sought to calm the +ardour of his partisans, and saved the lives of persons whose opinions +were opposed to his own. He was, however, a man without either capacity +or originality, whom the irony of fate placed for a short time in a +prominent and powerful situation. + + +SIEYÈS, EMMANUEL JOSEPH, COMTE DE. + + Born, 1748 at Fréjus; died in Paris, 1836. + +Being the youngest of seven children his father insisted upon his +embarking in an ecclesiastical career. Sieyès remained for ten years +at the seminary of Saint Sulpice in Paris, until he had, at the age +of twenty-four, received priest’s orders. While at college he devoted +himself to the study of metaphysics, Locke being his favourite author. + +He was made Canon of Trégnier in Brittany in 1775, and in 1780 +transferred to a Canonry at Chârtres, united to the posts of +Vicar-General and Chancellor. + +The revolutionary period approached, and Provincial Assemblies were +called together, Sieyès being a member of the Assembly at Orleans in +1787. He published a succession of pamphlets in the course of the next +two years, which added greatly to his literary and political reputation. + +The electors of Paris sent him as the twentieth member for their town +to the States-General, where he represented the _Tiers d’État_ and +not the clergy. He took a prominent part as soon as he entered this +assembly; it was he who promoted the meeting of the Orders, framed the +oath administered in the Tennis Court; and the division of France into +Departments was entirely his work. His influence in the Assembly was +so great that Mirabeau gave him the nickname of “Mahomet.” In February +1791 he was offered the Constitutional Bishopric of Paris, which he +refused. He was elected member of the Convention in 1792, and appointed +to the leadership of the Committee _D’Instruction Publique_. +Sieyès was too prudent and, possibly, too humane to take any prominent +part in that noisy and ill-regulated assembly; but at the trial of +Louis XVI. he voted for death, without adding a single word beyond +recording his vote; indeed, with the exception of the occasion when +he publicly abjured his religious faith and declared he had ceased to +be a priest, Sieyès never made a speech in the Convention, though he +recorded his vote in favour of every revolutionary measure. + +He was asked, in later life, what he had done during the Terror. He +replied significantly, “I lived.” + +In 1795 he went to Holland, and while in that country was offered a +place in the Directorate, which he refused, but the _coup d’état_ +of Vendemaire brought him out of his retreat, and he was named +President of the Five Hundred (November 25, 1797). + +The following year he went as Ambassador to Berlin, and on May 16, +1799, he returned to Paris and replaced Rewbell in the Directorate. On +June 19 he undertook the Presidency of the disorganised Government, his +object being to make an end of Republicanism, and he joined forces with +Bonaparte. + +During the Revolution of 18th Brumaire, Sieyès showed great ability +and coolness, and Napoleon appointed him one of the three provisionary +Consuls. He was soon succeeded by le Brun, after which his active +political life may be said to have concluded, for Bonaparte, supported +by the army, easily effaced his rival. The constitution planned by +Sieyès was not even discussed, and Napoleon entirely destroyed his +public influence by creating him a Senator, and bestowing upon him as a +national gift the fine estate and château of Crosne. + +In later years Sieyès was given the Presidency of the Senate, the grand +cross of the legion of honour, and created a Count. After the second +restoration the law of 1816 exiled him as a regicide, and he retired to +Brussels until 1830, dying at Paris six years later, aged eighty-eight. + + +SICARD, ROCH AMBROISE, ABBÉ. + + Born, 1742; died, 1822. Ordained priest at Toulouse and joined + the Congregation _de la Doctrine Chrétienne_. + +In 1784, the Archbishop of Bordeaux, who intended to open an asylum +and school for the deaf and dumb in his cathedral town, sent the Abbé +Sicard to Paris, that he might study the method of instructing deaf +mutes invented by the Abbé l’Epée. He returned to Bordeaux two years +later, and the school was immediately opened, the Abbé Sicard proving +extraordinarily successful, many of his pupils making rapid and even +astonishing progress. The Abbé l’Epée died in 1789, and Sicard was +appointed to succeed him in Paris. + +Sicard adopted the principles of the Revolution, and although he did +not take the civil or constitutional clerical oath, he took that of +fidelity to liberty, equality and fraternity. On August 26, 1792, he +was arrested as a suspect; his pupils addressed a touching petition to +the Assembly in favour of their master, but it was disregarded, and on +September 2 he was conveyed with other priests to the Abbaye. Nearly +all of his companions were slaughtered as soon as they reached the +prison, but Sicard’s life was saved by a watchmaker, Mounet. Sicard +remained for some time in prison expecting immediate death, but was +eventually liberated and returned to his Institution. + +When the “Institute” was created in 1795, he was one of its first +members, but writing some offensive articles in a publication entitled +_Les Annales Réligieuses_, he was arrested and condemned to +transportation; he escaped this fate, but was not replaced in his +functions at the deaf and dumb asylum until after the 18th Brumaire, +1799. He found an ardent protector in Choptal, the Minister of the +Interior, who caused a printing press to be erected, at the Abbé’s +request, at the Institution. + +For some unknown reason Napoleon always detested the Abbé Sicard, and +refused to ratify his appointment as Canon at Nôtre Dame; nor would +he give him the legion of honour; but he was more fortunate under the +Restoration, when he received the coveted decoration, a canonry, and +other honourable and well-paid appointments. + +Abbé Sicard wrote a number of books on the deaf and dumb, and even some +for their use. + + +SAINT FARGEON, LOUIS MICHEL LE PELLETIER, DE. + + Born, 1760; assassinated, 1793. + +He was the great grandson of the celebrated Comte de Saint Fargeon, +Minister of Finance from 1726 to 1730; at the outbreak of the +Revolution he possessed an annual income of 600,000 francs (£24,000). +He was chosen as one of the ten Deputies to represent the nobility of +Paris in the States-General; of these only two, the Count de Mirepoix +and himself, joined the _Tiers État_, and from that time they +became the most democratic among the Deputies. Saint Fargeon said, “If +one has 600,000 francs a year one must either be at Coblentz or join +the Jacobins.” + +In January 1790, as Member for Criminal Jurisprudence, he first +proposed the abolition of the death penalty, the galleys, and branding +or flogging, and in June the same year he succeeded in passing a decree +replacing hanging by decapitation. In the same month he proposed a +motion, which was adopted, abolishing all titles, and took the name of +le Pelletier instead of Fargeon. + +At the trial of Louis XVI. he declared his intention of voting against +the death penalty; but when the time came he pronounced in favour of +immediate execution, saying: + + If we decide the fate of Louis Capet in a way which is contrary + to the conscience and intimate feelings of the French people, + would it be against the prisoner in the Temple that the people + would have a right to execute their vengeance? No, for in his + case treason is unarmed and vanquished. It would be against her + unfaithful representatives that the nation would have a right to + rise, because in such a case they would find treason and power + united. + +This speech persuaded a number of Deputies who were wavering to vote +for the death penalty, and thus decided a majority in its favour. + +A former soldier of the King’s body guard swore to revenge the death +of Louis XVI. upon one of his judges. Le Pelletier, de Saint Fargeon, +like the Duke of Orleans and many other persons of high rank, voted +the death penalty in order to save his own life and fortune, and for +this very reason he excited the bitterest hatred among the Royalists. +On the evening of the King’s trial he went to dine at Feorier’s, the +restaurant in the Palais Royale, and was pointed out to the soldier in +question as he was sitting at table. The young man, wrapped in a cloak +under which he concealed a sword, came forward and said; “Is it thou, +infamous le Pelletier, who has just voted for the death of thy King?” +Le Pelletier answered: “Yes, but I am not infamous, I voted according +‘to my conscience.’” The soldier, whose name was Paris, replied: “Here +is thy recompense,” and drawing the sword, thrust Saint Fargeon through +the body; he fell mortally wounded and was carried to his _hôtel_, +where he expired. The Convention buried him in the Pantheon, and his +daughter, aged eight, was formally adopted by the Republic. + +The soldier Paris escaped at the time, but when about to be arrested a +few days later, he blew out his brains. + + +SHEARES, JOHN. + + Born, 1766; executed, 1798. + +This young Irish patriot, who is described by Yorke as having been +the fervent admirer of and even suitor for the hand of Théroigne de +Mirecourt, was the fourth son of Henry Sheares, of Whiterock (who was +a connection of the then Earl of Shannon). This gentleman was a member +of the Irish Parliament from 1761 to 1767, and was eventually appointed +to a well-paid Governmental sinecure office. When his father died, John +Sheares, a student in Trinity College, Dublin, inherited £3000. He was +called to the Irish Bar in 1790. + +In 1792 he and his brother Henry visited France and he became a convert +to the views of the most revolutionary party in that country. He was +a member of the Convention, voted for the death of Louis XVI., and +was present at his execution. He was obliged to fly from France, as +his views were considered too moderate by the leaders of the Jacobin +Club. He returned to Dublin and there led a retired and literary +life, following at the same time his profession as a barrister, when +unfortunately for himself he began to take a leading part in Irish +politics. + +When the “Press,” an anti-Governmental organ, was started by Arthur +O’Connor in 1797, Sheares wrote several leading articles for it; and +one of these, a violent attack upon Lord Clare, caused the total +suppression of that newspaper in March 1798. + +The hostility of Lord Clare having stopped him in the practice of +his profession, Sheares and his brother Henry decided to emigrate +to America. But they not only did not do so but joined in a plot to +disaffect the militia in King’s County against the Government. A +certain Captain Armstrong of that regiment made their acquaintance, and +after having gained their confidence, informed against them, and they +were both arrested May 21, 1798, and confined in Kilmainham Gaol. They +were tried for high treason six weeks later. John Sheares, knowing that +his own fate was sealed, only desired and hoped to save his brother +Henry, his senior by thirteen years, a married man with six children, +and whom he declared had acted entirely under his (John Sheares’) +guidance. + +The only witness against the brothers was Armstrong. The trial +lasted for sixteen consecutive hours--an adjournment was moved for +by the prisoner’s counsel, as every one connected with the affair +was sinking from exhaustion, but the motion was opposed by the +Attorney-General--and at eight o’clock in the morning, after a summing +up lasting only a few minutes, a hurried verdict of guilty against the +prisoners was returned by the wearied and worn out jury. Henry Sheares +fainted in court upon hearing the sentence of death pronounced. After +their condemnation no friends or relatives were allowed an interview +with the brothers, who were hanged the following morning before the +prison gates. After remaining for some time on the gallows their heads +were struck off; but their bodies were not quartered (July 14, 1798). + + +ST. JUST, LOUIS ANTOINE DE SAINT JUST. + + Born August 25, 1767; guillotined, July 28 (10th Thermidor), + 1794, in Paris. + +His father, a retired army captain, died in 1777, and St. Just was +placed in the Oratorian school of Soissons, where he remained for seven +years. On leaving school he studied law for a short time at Rheims, but +finally decided to embrace a literary career. Having written a volume +of poems, he proceeded to Paris, to arrange about their publication, +towards the close of the year 1789, and he there became an enthusiastic +revolutionary, giving up literature for politics. His youthful ardour +and natural eloquence were assisted by an extraordinary beauty of +form and feature, grave and serious manners, and a haughty and +resolute demeanour. His private life was that of an ascetic until the +termination of his short but chequered career. + +The inhabitants of his native town, Decize (Minervais) elected him +lieutenant-colonel of their newly formed National Guard, and he +conducted a detachment of that regiment to Paris in 1790 to join in +the Feast of Federation. His youth prevented his election to the +Legislative Assembly until September 1792, when he attained the age of +twenty-five. + +From that time he took a most active part in the Government, and became +the intimate (perhaps the only intimate) friend of Robespierre. + +On November 12, when the question of the King’s trial came before the +Convention, St. Just’s diatribe was by far the most violent of the many +violent and fanatical speeches made on that occasion. On December 16 he +proposed the exile of all the Bourbons. At the trial of Louis XVI. he +voted for the immediate execution of the King. + +In the meantime the Republic was attacked on all sides, from both +without and within, for, of the eighty-four Departments, sixty-five +were known to be secretly hostile to the Revolution, and to desire the +restoration of the _ancien régime_. On April 24, 1793, St. Just +presented to the Convention the following scheme: + + The Republic, one and indivisible, was to be represented by + a Legislative Assembly, elected every two years by universal + suffrage and by a Council elected every three years by the + electors of the second degree. This Council, composed of a + member for each Department, could only act by the authority of + the Assembly, and the Ministers whom it was to appoint were + to have _no personal or individual power_. Any conflict + between the Council and the Assembly should be settled by an + appeal to the people. + +This impossible and impracticable project gives an excellent example +of the exaggerated humanitarianism which at that time pervaded the +opinions of the young legislator. The Girondins were, in the opinion +of St. Just, a danger to the Republic. Their dreams of a federation by +which France would be governed in the same way as the United States, +and Paris cease to be the head and centre of government, filled him +with apprehension. When the Girondins fell St. Just took an important +part in their impeachment; his report on the matter was received with +applause, and in July he became one of the leading members of the +Committee of Public Safety. + +From this moment a coalition was formed between Robespierre, Couthon, +Le Bas, and St. Just, which continued until they all perished twelve +months later. They banded themselves together with a settled purpose, +and pitilessly destroyed any and every individual who opposed their +views. St. Just was the principal instrument of Robespierre; he read, +on October 10, the report upon the organisation of a revolutionary +government until a general peace should be declared. “In the present +circumstances,” he said, “no Constitution can be established; for it +would be an attack upon liberty; with a Constitution the Government +could not use sufficient violence against the enemies of the Republic.” +He then proposed a decree, which was unanimously adopted by which the +Ministers, the Generals, the Admirals, the Executive Council, and all +constitutional bodies were to be placed under the immediate supervision +of the Committee of Public Safety. + +On October 16, the very day of the execution of the Queen, St. Just +presented a report by which all foreigners residing in Paris, and +particularly the English, were to be arrested. He referred to the +death of Marie Antoinette in these words: “Your Committee has punished +Austria by bringing a scaffold and the infamy of a public execution +into the reigning family of that country.” + +A few days later St. Just was despatched to Alsace as a superintendent +of military operations; le Bas accompanied him. Arrived at Strasburg, +they immediately established a commission to punish summarily “crimes, +disorders, and abuses.” No legal forms were observed: a colonel +accused of having spoken against the Republic was shot upon the spot; +an officer accused of striking one of his men was degraded to the +ranks; General Eisenberg, who had been defeated by the Austrians, was +executed without a trial. The soldiers were in want of boots. St. Just +wrote to the Strasburg municipality: “Ten thousand men in the army are +bare-footed; strip the boots and shoes from the feet of the aristocrats +of Strasburg. To-morrow, before 10 o’clock, 10,000 pairs of boots must +be on their way to the military headquarters.” An immense number of +persons were arrested and imprisoned, and innumerable executions took +place. The commissioners left Strasburg and joined the army beyond the +Rhine, where the generals were treated in the same high-handed manner. +On the 12th Frimaire (November 9) St. Just wrote to General Hoche: +“Thou hast taken at Kaiserslautern (where he had won a great battle) a +further engagement; for instead of one victory, we require TWO.” + +After remaining two months with the army St. Just returned to Paris in +January 1794. He only remained a couple of weeks in the metropolis, +departing for Flanders to supervise the conduct of those military +chiefs who commanded in the north. In a few days he had inspected +the various posts on the frontier, and, after carrying out his usual +policy, he gave the supreme command to Pichegru, and returned to Paris. +On February 19 St. Just was elected President of the Convention. + +In March the fall of Hébert was followed by that of Danton. The +impeachment of the latter was carried out by St. Just, his speech being +composed from notes made by Robespierre. He accused Danton of having +served the “Tyrant,” of being the _protégé_ of Mirabeau, the +friend of Lameth, the accomplice of Dumouriez, and of having defended +the Girondins. + +Danton’s execution, and those of his immediate allies, delivered +Robespierre and St. Just from the enemies they feared, and they +flattered themselves they could now carry out their plans without +interruption. + +On April 29 St. Just returned to the army, Robespierre remaining +the head and centre of all government in Paris. This was the most +sanguinary period of the Terror. + +St. Just remained with the army in Flanders until June 27, when, +Charleroi having fallen and the army of the Republic being everywhere +victorious in Belgium, he returned in triumph to Paris. The conspiracy +which was to break out on July 27 (9th Thermidor) was already in +process of formation, but St. Just suspected nothing, and continued +to attend the meetings of the Committee of Public Safety and to make +many violent speeches. He attacked Fouché, Tallien, and other members +without mercy, and on the very morning of 9th Thermidor was speaking +in the Tribune, when he was interrupted by Tallien, and the well-known +violent scenes which resulted in the arrest of Robespierre and his +immediate friends took place. + +St. Just, unlike Couthon, le Bas, and Robespierre, did not attempt +suicide; he followed the mutilated bodies of his friends on foot, +with his hands bound behind him, from the Hôtel de Ville to the +Conciergerie. The next day he mounted the scaffold and died silently +and courageously. He was not quite twenty-seven years of age. + + +TALLEYRAND, PERIGARD, PRINCE DE BENEVENTO, CHARLES MAURICE DE. + + Born, 1754; died, 1838. + +To give a description of the life and work of this statesman would far +exceed the limits of this biographical supplement; but the following +few facts may interest the reader. + +The eldest son of the Comte de Talleyrand, as he was lame and slightly +deformed he could not enter the army, he was therefore compelled by +his parents to take holy orders; he had no vocation whatever for the +priesthood. He received valuable ecclesiastical preferment, and in 1778 +was ordained Bishop of Autun. He joined the revolutionary party, and +was a member of the National Assembly. + +On July 14, 1790, it was he who celebrated the Mass of the Federation +in the Champs de Mars, and in December of the same year he took the +constitutional oath. He ordained several of the constitutional bishops, +and was in consequence excommunicated by the Holy See, who declared all +constitutional priests and bishops schismatics. + +He was sent to England in February 1792 as an envoy by the French +Government, with the idea of reconciling the British Sovereign and +his Ministers to the revolutionary changes being then carried out +in France. He did not, however, inspire any confidence in either +George III. or Pitt, with whom he had several interviews. He returned +privately to London in December 1792, and three months later was +accused of conspiring against the Republic. He continued to remain +in England until the death of Louis XVI., when, finding his position +intolerable, owing to the indignation the death of the King excited +against all supposed revolutionaries, he departed to America, where +he remained until his sentence of banishment from France was revoked +in 1795. He did not arrive in France till the following year; he was +accompanied by the then notorious Mdme. Grand, with whom he cohabited +for a considerable time before he married her. She was the divorced +wife of a merchant at Calcutta, and had created a considerable scandal +in India owing to her intrigue with Sir Philip Francis, the enemy of +Warren Hastings, and reputed author of the _Junius Letters_. +Talleyrand reached Paris, March 1796. + +In 1797, by the influence of Barras, and notwithstanding the opposition +of Carnot (who was probably the only sincere and disinterested member +of the Directorate), Talleyrand was appointed Minister of Foreign +Affairs. He took a considerable part in the _coup d’état_ of 18th +Fructidor (September 4, 1797), by which the Directorate re-established, +in the name of liberty, most of the tyrannical excesses of the +Convention. He had already discovered the extraordinary genius of +Bonaparte, and from that time until the fall of the Empire was more or +less attached to the fortunes of the then youthful hero. + +It was Talleyrand who drew up the treaty of Campo-Formio (October 17, +1794), which Talleyrand and Bonaparte concluded in direct opposition to +the desires of the Directorate. Talleyrand first suggested to Bonaparte +the idea of an expedition to Egypt, in lieu of that invasion of England +which was then the favourite scheme of the French Government. + +Bonaparte endeavoured to persuade Talleyrand to accompany him to +Egypt; but this he refused, and remained in Paris during the Egyptian +and Syrian campaigns, carrying out unchecked his ingenious and tortuous +foreign policy. He it was who brought about the occupation of the +Papal States by the French, and the imprisonment and capture of the +Pope (_see_ Pius VI.), and he also caused the destruction of the +Swiss Republic, on the ground that its government was not sufficiently +democratic. By diplomatic ruses and threatened violence he extorted an +act of abdication from Charles Emmanuel, King of Sardinia, December 9, +1798. + +During this time Talleyrand was obtaining in various ways large sums +of money for his own private use, more particularly from the Kings of +Spain and Portugal, who by lavish bribes to the French Minister of +Foreign Affairs hoped to prevent the invasion of their kingdoms. + +These circumstances, coupled with the fact that the French army met +with defeat after defeat, and, since the departure of Bonaparte, lost +all hold over Northern Italy, brought about a violent movement against +Talleyrand, who resigned his office as Minister of Foreign Affairs in +July 1799. + +The return of Napoleon changed the situation, and on November 22 +Talleyrand once more occupied his old post, which he held until 1807, +when, a month after the treaty of Tilsit, he gave up the seals of this +office to Champagny, Duke de Cadore. He was promoted to the dignity +of a Prince Electeur of the Empire; he had been created Prince of +Benevento, with a fief granted from the Papal States in the previous +year. + +He continued to hold the key of office as Lord High Chamberlain until +1809, but his intimate relations with the Emperor ceased from the time +he abandoned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His astute nature had +already foreseen the inevitable fall of the Empire, and he secretly +used every effort to hasten this catastrophe. He continued to act, +nevertheless, as Napoleon’s emissary with foreign Powers; gave up his +château at Valençay as a State prison for the Spanish Princes; was +present at the interview between Napoleon and Alexander at Erfurt, and +in an audience with the Russian Emperor, explained to that sovereign +Napoleon’s project for a divorce, and asked him, in his master’s name, +for the hand of the Grand Duchess Catherine Paulovna, sister to the +Czar. + +In 1813, when the troubles of the Empire had reached their zenith, +Talleyrand was summoned to St. Cloud, and offered the portfolio of +Foreign Affairs. He consented to take it on condition peace should +immediately be concluded. His advice was not accepted. + +During the winter of 1814 he was in secret communication with the +Bourbons; had much to do with the conclusion of peace in the April of +that year, and entered as Foreign Minister into the first Cabinet of +Louis XVIII. May 12, 1814, he represented France at the Council of +Vienna. + +On the return of Napoleon, Talleyrand during “the Hundred Days” +absolutely refused to listen to any offer from the Emperor. After the +Second Restoration he took up his old office in the Cabinet, but his +opposition to the return of the artistic treasures with which the +Republic and the Empire had enriched the Museums of Paris, and his +efforts to prevent any cession of French territory, diminished his +credit with the Czar and the English commander-in-chief, who were at +that time the rulers of France. By their influence he was compelled +to leave the Cabinet, Louis XVIII. creating him the same day Lord +Chamberlain with a salary of 100,000 francs (£4000). + +During the whole of the Restoration, Talleyrand was excluded from +taking any leading part in public affairs. + +After the Revolution of 1830, to which he had contributed not a +little, Talleyrand, who had had for a considerable period a private +understanding with Louis Philippe, became his principal political +auxiliary. + +In September 1830, Prince Talleyrand was sent as Ambassador from the +King of the French to the Court of St. James’. He remained in London in +that capacity for four years, and notwithstanding his great age showed +himself an astute and admirable diplomatist. He received a warm welcome +in all the higher circles of English society. + +In November 1834 he retired from political life; but his mind was +still fresh and vigorous, and his life during the next four years was +occupied by social amenities and intellectual pursuits. On March 3, +1838, having entered his eighty-fifth year, he gave an address to the +Academy of Science upon the death of the Comte Reinhard, a celebrated +diplomatist. + +A few weeks later he was suddenly attacked by a painful internal +malady, and died on May 17, aged eighty-four years and three months. +Before his death he received the Sacraments, signing a letter in which +he regretted his abjurations and sins against religion; this letter was +despatched to Pope Gregory XVI. + + +TALLIEN, JEAN LAMBART. + + Born in 1769; died in 1820. + +The son of the house steward of the Marquis de Bercy. He received, +through the kindness of this nobleman, a good education, and became a +notary’s clerk. + +At the outbreak of the Revolution he gave up this employment for +journalism, publishing for five months under the title of _L’Ami des +Citoyens_, a newspaper which was a worthy companion to the _Ami du +Peuple_ of Marat. His newspaper was financed by the Jacobin Club. + +He took a prominent part in the events of August 10, and in the +massacres in the prisons on September 2. Elected member of the +Convention, he defended Marat and denounced General Montesquieu and +Roland (then Minister). His speeches against Louis XVI. and the Royal +family were so violent and so frequent as actually to evoke a vote of +censure from the Convention. At the King’s trial he voted, “For instant +death in the interests of humanity.” + +It was upon his proposal five months later that the Girondins were put +_hors de la loi_; and in September 1793, Tallien departed with +Ysabeau for Bordeaux, “to utterly extirpate any remains of that hydra +Girondism.” + +Here he instituted a reign of terror. He added tortures to executions, +and, under the name of “requisitions,” made, as he said, war upon the +commercial aristocracy, by plundering all the wealthy merchants of the +town. To the mean cruelties of the worst form of Roman pro-consul he +added in his private life the luxury and pomp of a Persian satrap. + +He met Mdme. Fontenay and fell desperately in love with her. He +saved her from prison and brought her back with him to Paris. He was +in consequence ill received by the Committee of Public Safety, who +immediately imprisoned the woman he loved, on the accusation of being +an aristocrat. + +To avert suspicion, Tallien affected an even more vehement and +sanguinary patriotism than he had previously shown, and on March 22, +1794, was elected President of the Convention. Robespierre denounced +him to the Convention on June 12. He also erased the name of Tallien +from the Jacobin Society; this was tantamount to a sentence of death. + +Tallien determined to strike first, and to save not only his own life, +but that of his mistress; he therefore joined those who feared and +hated the triumvirate of Robespierre, St. Just, and le Bas, and who +wished to avenge Danton and save their own lives. Tallien became the +leader of the party who six weeks later overthrew Robespierre. + +After this he occupied for a short time the place that the death of +Maximilien Robespierre had left unoccupied. He married the woman he +loved, closed the Club of the Jacobins, and put upon their trial le +Bon, Fouquier-Tinville and other agents of terrorism. He retained +predominant power in the State until July 1795, when he visited the +army on the western frontier on a mission to General Hoche. Here he +was once more guilty of summary executions and caused much unnecessary +bloodshed. + +The advent of the Directorate in October of the same year practically +finished his active political career. He was accused of venality +and treason, and though he became a member of the Five Hundred, his +speeches were received with indifference or insult. + +In May 1798 he left that assembly, and here his public life may be said +to have terminated. + +He accompanied the expedition of Bonaparte to Egypt in the capacity of +a _savant_! Bonaparte and he were friends at the time owing to the +intimacy of their wives, and he had acted as witness when the general +married Madame Beauharnais. + +In Egypt Tallien was appointed Administrator of the Interior, and he +wrote a work called “Décade Egyptienne.” On his return to Europe a year +after the departure of Napoleon, the ship upon which he sailed was +taken by an English cruiser and he was carried to London. Here he was +enthusiastically received by the Radical party. + +After the peace of Amiens he returned to France, but did not find a +warm welcome. His wife had been notoriously unfaithful to him during +his absence; he divorced her immediately. + +After vainly petitioning the First Consul for an appointment he +received, by the influence of Talleyrand and Fouché, the unenviable +situation of Consul in the unhealthy Spanish seaport of Alicante +several months later. Here he remained for some years, nearly dying on +one occasion of yellow fever, by which he lost the sight of an eye. + +He returned to France, and ended his days living in obscurity on a +small pension, and dying in 1820, at the age of fifty-one. + + +TALLIEN, COMTESSE OF CARAMON, PRINCESSE DE CHIMAY, THERESA +CABARRUS. + + Born at Saragossa, in Spain, 1773; died at Chimay, in Belgium, + 1835. + +This beautiful woman was the daughter of the Count of Cabarrus, Spanish +Minister of Finance. At the age of sixteen she married M. Devin de +Fontenoy, Counsellor to the Parliament of Bordeaux. Her married life +was unhappy; and when the Republic instituted divorce, she obtained +one from her husband. After this she led a life of absolute freedom, +joined the revolutionary party, and became a conspicuous feature in +their meetings at Bordeaux. For some reason, now unknown, she was +imprisoned. Tallien, on his mission to Bordeaux as Commissionary of +the Republic, heard her beauty praised, visited her in her cell, fell +madly in love with her, and carried her back with him to Paris; there +she was arrested and again imprisoned. After her release and marriage +to Tallien, she became one of the most brilliant leaders of the corrupt +and immoral society of the Directorate. Her conduct, during the absence +of her husband in Egypt, passed all bounds of decency, and she gave +birth to two children, whom Tallien refused to acknowledge. He divorced +her in 1802. + +In 1805 she married M. de Caramon, who became Prince de Chimay, by whom +she had a family of two sons and two daughters. + +Although she had been the companion in prison of Josephine Beauharnais, +and both Tallien and herself intimate friends of the Bonapartes in the +early days of their married life, Napoleon would never allow his wife +to receive her publicly at the Tuileries, either as Mdme. Tallien or +the Princess de Chimay. + + +TREILHARD, JEAN BAPTISTE, COMTE DE. + + Born at Brives, January 3, 1742; died in Paris, 1810. + +He began life as a lawyer, being a prominent notary at Limoges. The +whole aristocracy and higher clergy in the town put their business +affairs into his hands. In 1789 he was sent to Paris as a member of +the _Tiers État_. His opinions were moderate at first, but soon +became intensely democratic. It was he who undertook the business of +reporting on Church property, and he presided over the Ecclesiastical +Committee in the Assembly. He proposed and passed a decree which +suppressed all religious orders, and made the property of the Church +national. In 1791 he proposed that Voltaire should receive the honours +of the Panthéon, adding “that Voltaire was perhaps the man amongst the +dead who most deserved the honours accorded to great patriots.” During +the session of 1792, Treilhard presided over the criminal tribune of +the departments of Paris. He decreed that Louis XVI. was guilty of +conspiracy against public liberty, and against the security of the +State. At the King’s trial he voted for his death, but with a respite +and appeal to the people. He was sent to Bordeaux to suppress the +rising of the Girondins, but recalled under the accusation of showing +too much moderation, and was replaced by Tallien. + +He was Minister of Justice under the Directorate. Later he underwent +much persecution, owing to the intrigues of Sieyès, who was his +enemy. Napoleon appointed him President (or Judge) of the High Court +of Appeal, and he held this appointment till 1808, when he became +President of the Council of State until his death, two years later, at +the age of sixty-eight. + + +TURENNE, HENRI DE LA TOUR D’AUVERGNE, VICOMTE DE. + + Born at Sedan, September 11, 1611; killed at Salzbach, July 27, + 1675. + +The second son of Henri, Duc de Bouillon, and Elizabeth, daughter of +William the Silent, Prince of Orange, and granddaughter of Admiral +Coligny. He was educated in his mother’s religion, Calvinism. At the +age of fifteen (1626), he went to study military science and the art +of war under his uncles, the Princes Maurice and Henry of Nassau. In +1630 he arrived in France, and Richelieu gave him the colonelcy of a +regiment. For the next eight years he was incessantly engaged in active +service, and distinguished himself as a commander, both on the Rhine +and in Flanders. Richelieu, who had the highest opinion of his military +capacity, wished to attach him to his interests, and offered him the +hand of one of his nieces who had a large dowry. Turenne took advantage +of the difference of religion as a pretext for refusing this alliance. + +In 1639 Turenne served in Italy, and saved the army of the Prince de +Carignan by the celebrated battle of the “Route de Quiers.” His courage +and tenacity of purpose brought about the capture of Turin. The Duke +de Bouillon, his elder brother, was implicated in the plot of _Cinq +Mars_ and arrested. Turenne used his influence over the Cardinal to +obtain his brother’s release. The Duke left France, abjured Calvinism, +and became commander-in-chief of the Papal army. At the commencement of +the Regency of Anne of Austria, Turenne was commanding the French army +in Italy; but Richelieu, fearing that he and his elder brother might +become allies against him, despatched Turenne to Germany, with orders +to collect and reform the dispersed and broken mercenary Westphalian +troops, then in the pay of France. In this he was successful. From 1644 +to 1648 he continued the German campaign, until the conclusion of the +Treaty of Westphalia (October 24, 1648), which terminated the Thirty +Years War. At this time the troubles of the Fronde, which had been +long simmering, blazed out. The Duke de Bouillon, Turenne’s brother, +was one of the principal leaders of the movement. The Queen, Condé, +and the Cardinal used every effort to prevent Turenne following his +brother’s example. Mazarin offered him one of his nieces in marriage +and the Governorship of Alsace. Turenne brought his troops back to +France, and then attempted to lead them against the Minister; but the +men, having been bribed by Cardinal Mazarin, refused to obey their +general, who was compelled to take refuge in Holland. A month later +he returned to Paris. When the Princes were arrested (January 18, +1650), Mazarin again offered him his protection, and the command of the +army in Flanders. By this time the seductive graces of the Duchess de +Longueville had completely captivated Turenne, and he left Paris for +Stenay, a fortified town near Sedan, in the principality of the Duke +de Bouillon. Here he was joined by the Duchess. Under her influence he +signed a treaty with the Spaniards, by which he agreed to fight with +them against France until the imprisoned Princes should be released. +He joined the Archduke Leopold, marched through Picardy, took several +towns, and pushed on until he and his army were within a few hours of +Vincennes, where the Princes had been confined; but hearing they had +been transferred to the Castle of Marcoussis, near Rambouillet, he +recrossed the River Aisne and directed his march in that direction; he +encountered the whole Royal army, 19,000 strong, and though enormously +outnumbered, was forced to fight in a valley near Sompuis. He was +totally defeated. He then retired from the civil war, and returned +to the Archduke the 100,000 crowns which the latter had given him to +continue the campaign. The Princes were shortly afterwards released, +Mazarin exiled, and the Duc de Bouillon’s just claims, which he had +been making unavailingly for eight years, fully satisfied. Turenne +then returned to France, and married, in 1651, Charlotte de Caumont, +daughter of the Maréchal Armand de la Force. The bridegroom was forty +and the bride thirty, but their attachment had lasted many years, +and it was for her sake Turenne had already refused many brilliant +alliances. + +Turenne was greatly opposed to the second rebellion of Condé, who up +to that time had been his intimate friend. He conducted the campaign +against the army of the Fronde during the critical year of 1652, +defeated the rebellious Princes, and was able to bring back the King +to Paris on October 21. Condé and his allies, the Spaniards, were +eventually absolutely vanquished and driven from France, but the war +lasted for nearly seven years, and it was not until November 1659, +that a peace, glorious for France, was concluded by the Treaty of the +Pyrenees. + +From this time forth Turenne was one of those few men in whom Louis +XIV. had absolute confidence, and he consulted him on all matters +of foreign policy. Turenne took a very considerable part in the +restoration of Charles II. In 1667 a fresh war with Spain was imminent, +the King of France informed Turenne that it was his intention to march +at the head of the army, and learn from his commander-in-chief the art +of war. + +At this time Turenne abjured Calvinism and joined the Catholic Church. +There is every reason to believe his change of religion was sincere and +not dictated by political motives. He had for two years been anxious +to become a Catholic, and made a serious study of religious questions +under the guidance of Bossuet; and in 1668 he was privately re-baptised +by the Archbishop of Paris. + +Turenne in 1672 took supreme command on the occasion of the war with +Holland; the King acting as a figure-head. The campaign was long, +arduous and only partially successful. + +The year 1674 was the apogee of the military career of Turenne. At +a moment when several armies were gathered together ready to invade +France, he determined, notwithstanding the inferiority of his forces, +to divide his enemies and attack them separately. He marched down +the left bank of the Rhine, and, meeting the Imperialists, defeated +them at Sinzheim upon June 16. He then passed the river, and defeated +another body of the enemy’s troops at Ladenburg. The allies, having +reorganised their army, invaded Alsace and established there their +winter quarters. Turenne brought his troops by the Vosges mountains, +entered Alsace, and attacking the Imperialists (who were taken entirely +by surprise, not expecting an army would venture to move in the +winter), defeated them first at Mulhouse (December 29) and at Turckheim +on January 5. Alsace was thus entirely reconquered. Turenne made a +triumphant return to Versailles, where Louis XIV. publicly embraced him. + +In the following year, 1675, Turenne found himself the adversary of +Montecuccoli, the greatest living tactician in Europe. For six weeks +the two generals manœuvred and out-manœuvred each other in their +respective efforts to cross the Rhine. At length Turenne found a +favourable opportunity. The two armies were face to face near the +village of Salzbach (July 27), and Turenne was riding round the advance +posts, when his lieutenant-general, St. Hilaric, rode up to inform him +a column of the enemy was approaching. At this moment a shell struck +the party, St. Hilaric lost his left arm, and Turenne was wounded in +the side. The marshal never spoke again, but fell dead from his horse. + +His death caused universal mourning all over France. General +Montecuccoli, on hearing of the death of his rival, said: “A man has +died to-day who was an honour to humanity.” Turenne is buried under the +same dome as Napoleon--at the Invalides. + + +VAUBAN, SEBASTIAN LE PRESTRE, SEIGNEUR DE. + +Military engineer and Marshal of France. Born, May 1, 1633; died, March +30, 1707. His father, the _cadet_ of an ancient family, was styled +by himself “the poorest gentleman in France.” + +Young Vauban, left a penniless orphan at the age of ten, was adopted +and educated by the village priest. At seventeen he enlisted in Condé’s +rebel army, being taken prisoner a year later, and brought before +Mazarin, who, discovering his natural genius, gave him a commission of +lieutenant and put him under the orders of the Chevalier de Clermont, +the greatest military engineer of the day. + +In 1655 Vauban obtained the brevet of engineer. His reputation grew +rapidly. Acting under the orders of Turenne he was of the greatest +service at the sieges of Stenay, Clermont, Landrecies, Condé, +Valenciennes, and Montmedz, and this notwithstanding the fact that he +was several times severely wounded. + +In 1658 he directed on his own responsibility the sieges and attacks +upon Mardyk, Gravelines, Oudenarde and Ypres. After the Peace of the +Pyrenees he employed the succeeding next years of profound peace in +constructing new fortresses and modernising old ones. When, in 1667, +war broke out again he at once reassumed his old post. In the presence +of Louis XIV. he conducted the sieges of Tournai and Douai, and took +Lille after only eighteen days’ investiture. + +The following year he captured Dôle, and was then desired by Loubois, +who was his principal protector, to construct new fortifications at +all the recently conquered Flemish towns. He carried out these orders +so completely that when the Dutch war occurred five years later +the northern frontier of France was defended by a chain of almost +impregnable forts. The siege of Maestricht, which fell after an attack +lasting only thirteen days, raised his credit to an enormous height. + +In 1674 he was created Brigadier of the Royal army, and in 1675 +_Maréchal de camp_. Two years later he succeeded the Chevalier +M. Clermont as Commissary-General of the fortifications of France. +During the next ten years he surrounded France from north to south +with admirably planned and almost impregnable fortresses. He also +constructed the aqueduct of Maintenon and the canal of Riquet. Another +war taking place in 1688, Vauban conducted the sieges of Phillipsburg, +and, after saving Dunkirk and other French towns from the enemy, +conquered Mons and Namur in the King’s presence. In 1697 the Peace of +Ryswick put an end to his military career, during which he had built or +repaired 333 fortresses, conducted 53 sieges, and been present at 140 +battles and skirmishes. + +After the Peace of Ryswick, Vauban devoted the remaining ten years +of his life to the study of political economy; and the result of +his labours was the composition of a book, famous in its day and +still remembered by economists, called _Dîme Royale_. This book +described the system of political economy Vauban wished to introduce, +which was to substitute for all taxes and levies of money from the +people a contribution of the tenth part (or less) of the annual value +of all lands and money in the hands of private individuals; in fact, a +graduated income tax. + +He wished to abolish all taxes and Governmental duties on articles +of food and upon salt; but he desired to retain duties upon articles +of luxury and certain merchandise, such as spirits, tea, coffee and +tobacco. This book, which also included a graphic description of the +misery and want which the lower classes in France were suffering at the +time, appeared in 1707. + +St. Simon gives a vivid description of the King’s fury, when he +received a copy from Maréchal Vauban. His Majesty had already obtained +a pretty good idea of the scope and matter it contained. + +A few weeks later the book was seized and confiscated by an Act +of Parliament, and its publication stopped. Vauban did not long +survive the blow; he died in Paris three weeks after this decree was +promulgated. To quote St. Simon: + + The King looked now upon Marshal Vauban as a fanatical defender + of the people, and a criminal who was attempting an attack upon + the authority of the Ministers, and, through them, upon the + Crown. The unfortunate Marshal could not survive the loss of + the favour of a master to whom he was deeply attached and whom + he had served so faithfully; he died soon after, seeing no one + and consumed with grief. The King received the news of his death + with indifference, and did not even recognise that he had lost + one of his most illustrious servants. + +The writings of Vauban upon fortifications and military matters are +well-known to all experts, and are still the best works that have been +written on these subjects. + + +VISCONTI, ENNIO QUIRINO. + + Born in Rome, 1751; died in Paris, 1818. + +He was an extraordinarily precocious child, and at the age of +thirteen had translated “Hecuba” of Euripides and the “Olympics” of +Pindar. He obtained the degree of doctor of law and literature in +1771 (aged twenty), and was then appointed camararis to the Pope and +sub-librarian to the Vatican. He steadily refused to take holy orders, +notwithstanding personal pressure from the Pope. When he married in +1785, he was dismissed from the Vatican, although he had compiled the +whole of the catalogues of the Museo Clementius. Prince Chigi then +took him into his service as librarian. During the next ten years he +arranged and classified the collections the two Englishmen, Jenkins and +Wortley, had made from excavations at Athens and other parts of Greece. +He also organised the Borghese Museum. + +When the French entered Rome in January 1798, Visconti was appointed by +General Berthier Minister of the Interior, and, later, one of the five +Consuls who were to govern the Roman Republic; he had only occupied +this post seven months, when the intrigues of his enemies compelled his +flight to Perugia, his honesty and moderation having excited the hatred +of his four fellow Consuls. + +The Neapolitans retook Rome in 1799, and Visconti, separated from +his wife and family, was exiled, and departed for France. Here he was +immediately employed in organising and arranging the Museum of the +Louvre, then just founded. He was appointed Professor of Archæology +and Member of the Institute. In 1801 appeared his celebrated _Livret +du Musée_. He also made a complete catalogue containing elaborate +descriptions of the works of art in the Louvre. By Napoleon’s orders +he commenced the _des dessins antiques_, which was to contain +illustrations drawn and engraved by him, comprising portraits of all +the illustrious heroes of antiquity. The Academies of Europe vied with +one another in asking his advice and judgment upon matters of art. In +1814 he was summoned to London to give his opinion upon the merits or +possible demerits of the Elgin marbles, the English Government not +being willing to give Lord Elgin the price demanded. Visconti valued +them at 800,000 francs (£32,000) and decided that they were all the +work of Phidias and his pupils. This sum was paid. + +Soon after his return to Paris he was attacked by a painful internal +malady, and died, aged sixty-six. + + +LA VALLÉE, MARQUIS JOSEPH DE BOIS, ROBERT DE. + + Born in 1747; died in 1816. + +He was captain in a regiment of Champagne before the Revolution. He +became an enthusiastic democrat; later, a devoted adherent of Napoleon. +During the Empire he was head of the _Chancellerie_ of the Legion +of Honour. He lost this appointment, however, under the Restoration, +and retired to London, where he died. La Vallée was a voluminous +writer, a great linguist, and had a knowledge of ancient art and +literature. + + +VOLTAIRE, FRANÇOIS MARIE, DE. + + Born, 1694, at Sceaux; died in Paris, 1778. + +He was the son of Maître François Arouet, a lawyer who held a position +in the _Cour des Comptes_ in Paris. The birth of Voltaire took +place under peculiar circumstances. His mother, who was not immediately +expecting her confinement, joined a party one afternoon for a long walk +in the environs of Paris. Before she could get home, she was taken +suddenly in labour, and her child was prematurely born in a stranger’s +house. The infant was so weak, small, and feeble that it could not be +taken to church for baptism until nine months after its birth. Young +Arouet lost his mother a few years later. His relations with his father +were not happy, and his only brother, ten years his senior, was a +bigoted Jansenist. + +When only ten years of age, François Arouet was placed at the College +of Louis le Grand, directed by the Jesuit Fathers. Here he remained +for seven years, the favourite of his teachers, who considered him +their most brilliant scholar, his amusing sallies and lively wit gained +him popularity with his fellow students. At college, Voltaire (who +through life assiduously cultivated intimacy with exalted personages) +contracted friendships with the sons of noblemen, ministers and +magistrates. When he was eleven years of age his godfather, the Abbé +Châteauneuf, presented him to Ninon de l’Enclos, then nearly ninety +years old, but still mentally and physically attractive. The clever +and witty child delighted the aged courtesan, who in her will left him +2000 francs (£80) to buy books. He also met Jean Jacques Rousseau a few +years later: the latter embraced him, and predicted a glorious future +for the youthful genius. + +After he left college, Arouet soon profited by the friendships he +had made among his superiors in rank and position, and succeeded in +obtaining a footing which he maintained till 1726 in the most exclusive +and fashionable society in Paris. He had many adventures, notably a +romantic affair when attached to the Legation in Holland. Accused of +writing a series of satirical poems against the Government of the +Regency, he was sent to the Bastille; but this only increased his fame +and added to his notoriety. Released a year later, the Regent granted +him a private and friendly interview, settling upon him a pension of +1000 livres (£120) a year. Ever afterwards he wrote in most eulogistic +terms of the Regent, and dedicated his _Tragedy of Œdipus_ to +the Duchess of Orleans. He continued to write successful plays and to +publish books of poetry and prose as well as to move in the highest +society until 1726, when a catastrophe occurred which changed the bent +of his whole life. + +Arouet, who had now assumed the name and style of de Voltaire, was on +December 10 of this year dining with one of his chief patrons, the +Duke de Sully. Among the guests was a dissolute middle aged man, the +Chevalier de Rohan (younger son of the Duke de Rohan). The Chevalier +inquired in a loud voice--“Who was the young man who talked so much +and gave his unasked-for opinion so freely?” Voltaire answered, “He +is a man who cannot boast of an exalted name, but who understands how +to keep up the honour of the humble name he does bear.” This sally +almost convulsed de Rohan with fury, being a direct allusion to his +notoriously evil reputation. Three days later Voltaire was seized +on the very steps of the Hôtel du Sully and soundly flogged there +and then in the open street by three of the chevalier’s lackeys, De +Rohan enjoying the spectacle seated in a coach drawn up hard by. The +chevalier’s victim could obtain no redress, his adversary refused to +fight him, and when Arouet made further efforts to obtain satisfaction, +he was again confined in the Bastille. Upon his release he immediately +started for England, his pride forbade his reappearance among his old +companions. His host in London was Bolingbroke, who had only just +returned to Great Britain after a long exile. Arouet remained three +years in England, making an earnest and thorough study of English +literature, and becoming intimate with Pope, Addison, and Swift. + +In 1729 he went back to Paris and recommenced his literary career. The +bold unconventionality of his writings and the freedom of his opinions +in religion and politics made the author an object of suspicion to the +French Government. His “Letters from England” were suppressed, his +_Lettres Philosophiques_ publicly burnt by the common hangman, +and their publisher incarcerated in the Bastille; to avoid sharing his +fate, Voltaire again fled from France. + +His _liaison_ with the beautiful and cultivated Madame du Châtelet +commenced about this time. She was about twenty-eight years of age. The +Marquis and Marchioness du Châtelet inhabited a château in Lorraine, +and there Voltaire principally lived until the death of the Marquis in +1749. He was occasionally absent for considerable periods--at Brussels +in 1739, in Paris, 1740. + +He had several interviews with Frederick the Great when the latter was +Prince of Prussia. + +After the Battle of Fontenoy in 1744, an ode he composed upon that +victory brought him once more into favour at Versailles, and for two +years he enjoyed the immediate patronage of Madame de Pompadour. He +could not, however, control his powers of satire, and in 1746 fell into +disgrace at Court, from which he never successfully emerged. He then, +in company with Madame du Châtelet, joined the literary _coterie_ +of the Duchess de Maine at Sçeaux, and afterwards, still accompanied by +his fair friend, paid a visit to the Court of the ex-King Stanislaus, +father of the Queen of France, at Luneville. Here Madame du Châtelet +fell desperately in love with a handsome young officer, thirteen years +her junior, the Marquis de St. Lombert. Voltaire accepted the situation +with philosophic calm, saying he wished to change his position as lover +for that of a sincere and devoted friend. A year later the Marquise +died in child-bed, and a grotesque as well as melancholy scene took +place; the three men, her husband, the Marquis du Châtelet, Voltaire, +and St. Lombert, all weeping in each other’s arms over her body! + +Voltaire established himself in Paris: a widowed niece, Mdme. Denis, +whom he adopted as his daughter, kept house for him, and remained +his companion for the rest of his life. In 1750 Frederick the Great +invited the distinguished author to settle at Potsdam as his permanent +guest. Voltaire accepted the offer, reaching Berlin in July of the +same year. He was received with almost regal honours: a pension of +20,000 livres, the golden key of Great Chamberlain, and the Cross of +the Order of Prussia bestowed upon him. All his plays were performed +in succession at the theatre of Potsdam. At the King’s private suppers +the French poet was privileged to make any remarks he pleased, and not +bound to observe any form of Court etiquette. This (to Voltaire) ideal +existence lasted two years and six months, during which time he wrote +and published at Berlin the _Siècle de Louis XIV._ Voltaire began +to take too great an advantage of the licence accorded to him by the +Prussian monarch; he presumed to correct Frederick’s French prose, +and to make light of his verses. He quarrelled with the Court banker, +Hirsch (the direct ancestor of the late great financier Baron Hirsch), +about a doubtful monetary speculation, and a lawsuit took place +between them. It seems probable that this affair, which has never been +satisfactorily cleared up, contributed far more than a literary dispute +to the final rupture between King Frederick and his pet philosopher. +Voltaire had always shown great financial ability, and had amassed a +large fortune, which he continued to increase during the remainder of +his career. + +In the early spring of 1753, Voltaire and Frederick parted never to +meet again, mutually disgusted with one another. The poet departed +with his niece to Weime, on a visit to the Grand Duke and Duchess. +Frederick, discovering soon after that Voltaire had taken with him a +volume of very obscene, scurrilous, and questionable verse, which the +King had had printed for private circulation only, a commission, led +by a stupid and hotheaded officer named Freytag, was despatched in +pursuit, with orders to take it by force if necessary from the former +favourite, together with his golden key, and the Cross of Prussia. +Voltaire and Mdme. Denis were accordingly arrested at Frankfort and +kept in durance for thirty-six days, during which time they were +subjected to every possible form of arrogant insult. + +Although Voltaire desired to conciliate the religious party in France, +even going so far as to confess and communicate at Easter in Lyons, he +could not persuade them to overlook his anti-Christian publications. +The appearance in print of the _Siècle de Louis XIV._, and an +abominable skit upon Joan of Arc, called _La Pucelle_, destroyed +the last chance of his ever again being received at Court. He therefore +purchased an estate in Switzerland, where he built a charming villa +called _Les Délices_; in 1760 he bought the estate of Ferney, near +the Swiss and French frontier, but in French territory. For the next +eighteen years he resided there in great state, and was visited by +innumerable famous and distinguished personages, from kings and princes +to authors and actors. One of his visitors has thus described life at +Ferney: + + Voltaire is very rich; he is as proud of his wealth as of his + literary reputation. He loves to act the part of _Seigneur + du Village_, and to show his guests his houses, gardens, + fields, woods, horses (of which he has twelve in his private + stable), and his cattle. He dresses with elegance and care; on + feast days his attire is splendid. He has built a church for the + villagers, and attends Mass in state on Sundays, with an escort + of two game-keepers carrying loaded muskets. He exacts all + feudal rights and privileges as a landlord. He is always ill, + or ailing, and yet an indefatigable worker, with an activity + and liveliness of mind and intellect of a young man. His temper + is variable. He is by turns capricious, obstinate, irascible, + passionate, and revengeful. His reputation for avarice is + undeserved, but, on the other hand, he is often very liberal and + generous; though, being a man of great business capacity, he + administers his affairs with practical common sense, and will + not allow himself to be cheated of a farthing. + +His writings continued to make more and more stir in the world of +letters, and he was to a great extent the arbiter of intellectual +thought all over Europe during the last twenty years of his life. He +hailed the advent of Louis XVI. to the throne of France with joy, +believing a new and enlightened _régime_ was about to begin. + +Pressure was put upon him on all sides to return to Paris, Queen Marie +Antoinette herself interceded with the King to give the required +permission for the exile’s reception at Court, and in February 1778, +Voltaire quitted Ferney and arrived in Paris on the evening of the +10th of that month. He had been an exile for twenty-nine years. From +this time until his death his existence was one perpetual ovation. +The excitement of this round of entertainments and receptions--which +culminated, when after a performance of his new tragedy _Irene_, +his bust was crowned upon the stage of the _Théâtre Français_--was +too much for his aged feeble frame to support, and taken suddenly ill +he expired on May 30, 1778, aged eighty-four and three months. He +desired to receive the last Sacraments, but when the priest arrived the +patient was already unconscious. He had, however, confessed himself +to the Abbé Gauthier, an ex-Jesuit, and received the Communion on +the previous March 2, when he signed a retractation of his deistic +and infidel opinions. He added--“I shall die adoring God, loving my +friends, and detesting superstition of every kind.” + +Voltaire was buried in the Abbey of Scellières, where his body lay +until it was removed to the Panthéon by the order of the Convention. + + + Printed by BALLANTYNE & CO. LIMITED + Tavistock Street, London + + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] See Appendix. + +[2] These articles have since 1802 increased a hundredfold in +value.--[ED.] + +[3] This bird is undoubtedly a Penguin. + +[4] Probably an albatross. + +[5] Italian or rather Corsican pronunciation. + +[6] This statue is the celebrated dying Gladiator immortalised by Byron. + +[7] Chauvilet. + +[8] I must here relate two very extraordinary circumstances respecting +the younger Sheares, whom I described in Letter XII. as a charming +young man and the admirer of Mlle. Théronne (Théroigne). During the +King’s trial he sat near me, and was so extremely affected he shed +tears, observing at the same time that the French would dishonour their +name and the cause of freedom by this proceeding. + +Some days later we visited Versailles together, and as we were +contemplating the scenery of the beautiful garden at Petit Trianon, +laid out by the Queen, he went to the top of the look-out, fell upon +one knee, and exclaimed, drawing a dirk: “By heaven! I’ll thrust this +dirk into the heart of the man who shall dare to propose the least +injury to Marie Antoinette.” His brother, who was of a more cool and +less enthusiastic temperament, immediately observed, “You had better +set off post to Paris and take her out of the Temple.” It may appear +incredible to those who have been unconnected with any of the agents +of those convulsions which have disturbed the world for the last +twelve years, that men previously distinguished for the sensibility of +their natures and for their humanity, have proved, when immersed in +the Revolution whirlpool, the most cruel and inexorable of incarnate +devils. Carrier, Robespierre, Foquet-Tinville, and most of those +exterminating furies who thinned the best part of the population of +France, are instances in point. + +[9] A peculiar motive, which I shall not here explain, obliges me +to omit the insertion of the case alluded to, but I have given the +beginning, which contains an account of Mr. Paine’s mode of life before +he was sent to prison, and the conclusion. + +[10] This passage and the following, which I have marked in italics, +deserves the solemn reflection of every one who formerly entertained a +favourable prepossession in behalf of the French Revolution. + +[11] At this period the French talked of the “Rights of Man,” of the +Republic one and indivisible, democratic and imperishable; and branded +English people with the epithets of English slaves, serfs of George, +&c. &c. + +[12] Of the Committee of Public Safety, at that time the executive +power of France in every sense of the word. For the benefit of the +Great Nation they pocketed £400 for signing these very passports, +permitting two of the “serfs _of George and agents of Pitt_” to +escape from France. + +[13] So that the £400 these Public Safety scoundrels had touched would +have caused their murder had they delayed their departure for a few +hours, as Barrère wisely observed, “dead men tell no tales”--it would +have been vain to plead the bribe; this plea itself would have been +such an outrage to the Majesty of the Republic that it alone would have +satisfied the consciences of the jury of the Revolutionary Tribunal. + +[14] The use of packs of cards with figures of royal personages, +_i.e._, the kings and queens of hearts, diamonds, clubs, and +spades, were forbidden by the revolutionary authorities as being +emblems of royalty, and those who used them were condemned as Royalists. + + +Transcriber’s Notes: + +1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been +corrected silently. + +2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the +original. + +3. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have +been retained as in the original. + +4. Italics are shown as _xxx_. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76267 *** diff --git a/76267-h/76267-h.htm b/76267-h/76267-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..80afe60 --- /dev/null +++ b/76267-h/76267-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,15062 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + France in Eighteen Hundred and Two | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + font-weight: normal; +} + +h2 {font-size: 120%; } + +.subhed { display: block; margin-top: 0em; font-size: 90%; font-weight: normal; } + + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; + text-indent: 1.2em; +} + +.p1 {margin-top: 1em;} +.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} +.p4 {margin-top: 4em;} +.p6 {margin-top: 6em;} + +.p-left {text-indent: 0em; } + +.p-min {margin-top: -.5em;} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} + +table { +margin: auto; +width:auto; +border: 0; +border-spacing: 0; +border-collapse: collapse; } + +td { +padding: 0em .2em 0em 2.5em; +border: .1em none white; +text-align: left; +text-indent: -2em; } + +td.cht { +text-align: left; +vertical-align: top; +padding-left: 1.5em; +text-indent: -1em;} + + td.ctr { + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + padding-left: 0em; + vertical-align: top; } + +td.right { +text-align: right; +vertical-align: top; +padding-left: 2em; +padding-right: 2em;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} /* page numbers */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; + font-size: 90%; +} + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: small; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: 1px dashed; +} + +.hangingindent { + padding-left: 2em ; + text-indent: -2em ;} + +#half-title { text-align: center; + font-size: 150%; } + +.xs { font-size: x-small;} + +.sm { font-size: small;} + +.lg { font-size: large;} + +.smaller {font-size: 90%; } + +.center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.r2 {text-align: right; + margin-right: 2em;} + +.r6 {text-align: right; + margin-right: 6em;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.allsmcap {font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;} + +.gesperrt +{ + letter-spacing: 0.1em; + margin-right: -1.2em; +} + +/* Images */ + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poetry-container +{ +text-align: center; +font-size: 90%; +} + +.poetry +{ +display: inline-block; +text-align: left; +margin-left: 2.5em; +line-height: 100%; +} + +.poetry .stanza +{ +margin: .5em 0em .5em 1em; +} + +.poetry .ileft {margin-left: -.4em;} +.poetry .i1 {margin-left: 1em;} +.poetry .i2 {margin-left: 2em;} + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:small; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; +} + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76267 ***</div> + + + +<p id="half-title" class="p6">FRANCE IN EIGHTEEN<br> +<span class="gesperrt">HUNDRED AND TWO</span></p> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="p-left">VERSAILLES AND THE TRIANONS</p> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">By <span class="smcap">Pierre de Nolhac</span>, Director of the Versailles Museum. +With 50 pictures by <span class="smcap">R. Binet</span>, reproduced in colour. One +Volume, price 16s. net. Edition de Luxe, limited to 100 copies, +numbered and signed, price Two Guineas net.</p> +</div> + + +<p class="p-left">THE FLIGHT OF MARIE ANTOINETTE</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">From the French of <span class="smcap">G. Lenotre</span>, by Mrs. <span class="smcap">Rodolf +Stawell</span>. 1 vol., with 50 illustrations, 10s. 6d. net.</p> +</div> + + +<p class="p-left">NAPOLEON, KING OF ELBA</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">From the French of <span class="smcap">Paul Gruyer</span>. 1 vol., 24 full-page +illustrations, 10s. 6d. net.</p> +</div> + + +<p class="p-left">MADAME RECAMIER</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">(According to many hitherto unpublished documents) From the +French of <span class="smcap">Edouard Herriot</span>. By <span class="smcap">Alys Hallard</span>. 2 +vols., 16 photogravure plates, 10s. 6d. net each volume.</p> +</div> + + +<p class="p-left">FRENCH SONGS OF OLD CANADA</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Pictured by <span class="smcap">Graham Robertson</span>. Coloured Plates and +Music. 4to, picture boards, 31s. 6d. net.</p> +</div> + + +<p class="p-left">FELICITY IN FRANCE</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">By <span class="smcap">Constance Maud</span>, Author of “An English Girl in +Paris.” 1 vol., 6s.</p> +</div> + +<p class="sm">“The sight of a book on France from the able and witty pen of Miss Maud +is almost as good as a trip thither in person—only much cheaper.... We +can imagine no better unconventional guide-book, giving the life and +soul rather than the dry bones of fact.”—<i>Outlook.</i></p> + + +<p class="p-left">WILLIAM HEINEMANN, <span class="smcap">21 Bedford Street, W.C.</span></p> + + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h1>FRANCE IN EIGHTEEN<br> +HUNDRED AND TWO</h1></div> + +<p class="center p2 lg">DESCRIBED IN A SERIES OF +CONTEMPORARY LETTERS</p> + +<p class="center p2">BY HENRY REDHEAD YORKE</p> + +<p class="center p2 sm">EDITED AND REVISED WITH A +BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX BY J. A. C. +SYKES AND AN INTRODUCTION BY +RICHARD DAVEY</p> + + <div class="figcenter"> + <img + class="p2" + src="images/title.jpg" + alt=""> + </div> + +<p class="center p4 sm">LONDON</p> + +<p class="center">WILLIAM HEINEMANN</p> + +<p class="center xs">MCMVI</p> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p class="center p6 xs"><i>Copyright 1906 by William Heinemann</i></p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span></p> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>INTRODUCTION<br> +<span class="subhed">BY RICHARD DAVEY</span></h2></div> + +<p>Some months ago Lady Sykes accidentally came across a very rare +work—Henry Redhead Yorke’s “Letters from France, written in +1802.” She immediately became its possessor, and a perusal of its +contents suggested the excellent idea of editing the book for modern +publication: for, although intensely interesting, Yorke’s “Letters” +were written in the verbose style characteristic of his day. By +judicious pruning and omissions Lady Sykes has reduced the volume +by about a third, without, however, omitting anything of the least +importance; whereby she enables in a concise manner students of French +history to bridge over the important though little known period which +elapsed between the downfall of Robespierre and the Consulate.</p> + +<p>Many imagine that immediately after the Reign of Terror ended things +settled down very quickly in France, and that whatever benefits +accrued from the Revolution soon blossomed and bore abundant fruit. +It was, however, very much otherwise; and the prevalent idea, that +the prosperity of modern France is due to the great Revolution, is +a fallacy; for, independently of the chaos created by the Reign of +Terror, we must take into consideration the decade of Napoleonic +despotism which separates the Revolution from the beginning of what is +known as <i>la France moderne</i>.</p> + +<p>Henry Redhead was born in 1772, most probably in the West Indies, +whence he was fetched as a child, and brought up at Little Eaton, +near Derby. He was evidently a youth of considerable observation and +studious habits, and before he was twenty had written a pamphlet +against negro emancipation, which, however, he recalled a couple<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span> +of years later as the result of a visit to Paris, then in the early +throes of the Revolution. Redhead threw himself heart and soul with the +enthusiasm of youth into a popular movement which he believed was to +liberate humanity from every sort of bondage, and bring about a period +of quite utopian peace and prosperity. Whilst under the influence of +the buoyant rhetoric that marked the first period of the Revolution, +he was privileged to witness many of the most striking events and +scenes in that momentous drama; including the trial of Louis XVI., in +connection with which he gives in these “Letters” several facts omitted +by general historians. There were at this time several other British +enthusiasts in Paris, amongst them Robert and John Sheares, with whom +he became acquainted, and who induced him to join the British Club, an +association at which were discussed such subjects as the advantage of +liberating England by the assassination of that harmless monarch George +III. Redhead would not, however, hear of any such project, and, after +a violent quarrel with the Sheares, left the Club, being denounced to +the Convention by Robert Rayment. He now concluded it were wiser to put +the frontier between himself and the disorderly and fanatical horde of +informers and informed who had, with surprising rapidity, seized the +reins of administration in Paris. He changed his name, assumed that of +Yorke, and, travelling through Holland, reached England in 1793, where +he joined a liberal debating society in Derby, and became distinguished +for his rhetorical eloquence. It was soon alleged against him, however, +that he had, amongst other revolutionary ebullitions, declared, “You +have before you, young as I am (about twenty-two years of age), a man +who has been concerned in three revolutions already, who essentially +contributed to serve the Republic in America, who contributed to that +of Holland, who materially assisted in that of France, and who will +continue to cause revolutions all over the world.” This striking +boast did not receive the support Redhead imagined it would; for he +was promptly arrested, and at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span> the York Spring Assizes in 1795, true +bills were found against him for conspiracy, sedition and libel. His +trial took place on July 23, 1795, at York, but his co-defendant, +Joseph Gales, printer of the “Sheffield Register,” and Richard Davison, +compositor, absconded. Although he repudiated the violent words +imputed to him, and declared himself to be a loyal citizen, Redhead +was none the less sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in Dorchester +Castle, whence he was not released until March 1799. Whilst in prison +his views, political and otherwise, became greatly modified, and, +although he remained a staunch Liberal, he conceived an abhorrence of +revolutionary methods, considering them as the most unlikely to conduce +to true freedom or to the prosperity of the peoples who employed them. +In 1802 he revisited France, the result of his observations on this +occasion being embodied in the “Letters from France.” He remained in +Paris three months, making notes of all he saw, visiting such old +friends as had survived the Terror, and seeing for himself all the +havoc the Revolution had wrought. On his return to England Redhead +continued to place his talents at the disposal of the Liberal party. +In 1811 he appeared in London, and delivered a series of lectures on +historical and political subjects; but his health completely broke +down, and although he had been induced by Richard Valpy to undertake +the continuation of John Campbell’s “Lives of British Admirals,” +he was too ill to finish that work, and died at Chelsea, after a +brief illness, on January 28, 1813. Mr. Redhead married in 1800 the +accomplished daughter of Mr. Andrews, keeper of Dorchester Castle, by +whom he had four children. This lady accompanied him, and together with +her friend, Mrs. Cosway, the wife of the celebrated painter and herself +a fine artist, was his companion on most of his excursions in that city +and its neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>Redhead was a man of very keen perception, generous impulse, and, +having the courage of his opinions, was never ashamed to own that +circumstances had occasionally compelled him to change them. The best<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span> +known of his numerous publications is this volume of “Letters from +France,” written with the object of exposing the fruits of a tyrannical +and corrupt form of government, whose wires were pulled by unscrupulous +miscreants in the oft-blasphemed names of “Liberty, Equality, and +Fraternity.” These “Letters” were not published until after the +author’s death, when Mrs. Redhead found copies of them amongst her +husband’s effects, and a very limited edition was printed; so that at +present the work is exceedingly scarce.</p> + +<p>The value of Redhead Yorke’s “Letters from France” consists not only +in the remarkable picture he gives of Paris eight years after the +Reign of Terror, but in the fact that, as he was intimately acquainted +with many of those who played a prominent part in that tragedy, he was +frequently able to give an account of their latter years. In 1802 the +majority, however, of those with whom he had lived on terms of fairly +good fellowship on the occasion of his first visit to France, had +been guillotined; and, on the other hand, not a few who had been but +little known in his earlier years had now risen to conspicuous official +positions—which, more often than not, they did not fill so much for +their country’s good as for their own. He gives us a very interesting +account of a conversation which he had with Tom Paine, whom he had +known and admired previously, but whom he now discovered in a state of +abject poverty on the very day that the American Republic determined +to bring him back to his own country, where, however, he lived, after +all his sufferings and misery in France, only two years. Our author was +also well acquainted with that remarkable woman, Miss Helen Williams; +and he supplies many unedited anecdotes of other Revolutionary +celebrities, including Théroigne de Mirecourt; David, the celebrated +painter, and his wife; the partially insane English revolutionary, +Colonel Oswald; Joseph Le Bon, and the brothers Sheares. One of them +was the son of that unhappy Amazon, Théroigne de Mirecourt.</p> + +<p>The perusal of these “Letters” will probably convince<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span> many readers +that this Revolution did not benefit humanity to a quarter of the +extent which its enthusiasts would have us believe it did. In fact, +Redhead, like most travellers in France at that period, soon came to +the conclusion, from personal and unprejudiced observation, that the +much-vaunted great Revolution had been a failure. The class which +was to have more especially benefited by it was reduced to a greater +depth of degradation and poverty in the first decade of the nineteenth +century than ever it had been under the <i>ancien régime</i>: the +peasantry and the working classes in general were for the most part +out of employment; and the pernicious forced recruiting system which +Napoleon had introduced was draining the country of useful men, whose +place in the fields and manufactories had to be filled by incompetent +lads, old men, and even by girls and women. At least a third of the +arable land had gone out of cultivation, and French manufactures had +sunk to the utmost insignificance. The rich landowners who had hitherto +helped the peasantry were either dead, in exile or else bankrupt. The +village school, like the village church, was generally closed; and +the rustic population were endeavouring to escape the conscription +which weighed so heavily on the country. Higher education was also at +a standstill: the richly endowed universities, colleges, and public +schools which had been founded in the eighteenth century, had been +pillaged, many of their buildings were in ruins, and their libraries +confiscated by the Revolutionaries, had not yet been restored. So +it was with the scientific and literary institutions in the capital +and larger towns, though in 1802 some of these were beginning to +slowly revive. The Revolution was, in short, an orgy of brute force, +a destroyer producing nothing great either in art, literature, or +science. David was the representative painter, and his pictures, when +put up for auction in a modern sale-room, now fetch scarcely the price +of the canvas and frames on which they are painted and stretched. +The exquisite highly finished art-work of the eighteenth<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span> century in +bronze, furniture, and ceramic, which still sells for fabulous prices +at Christie’s and the Hôtel Drouet, was lost; and it was not until +the Empire was well established that it began gradually to improve, +a proof, if one were needed, that the artistic taste of the nation +had not been entirely extinguished in the general disorder that had +overwhelmed the capital and country. The utmost licentiousness reigned +supreme in Paris at this period; and Redhead’s description of the +nightly and indecent scenes in the Palais Royal, which proved so +attractive to British and other foreign bachelors, shows that they +were not unlike those that draw crowds of tourists to the heights of +Montmartre in 1906. The shop windows in 1802, as at present, were +filled with abominable and blasphemous prints: and the whole atmosphere +of Parisian life was charged with an unwholesome <i>miasma</i> which +filled Redhead with horror and disgust, despite his fiery advocacy of +the Revolution in its earlier stages.</p> + +<p>The man of genius who was destined eventually to re-establish order +was only First Consul; but even then people were beginning to whisper +that he intended to make himself King or Emperor. Naturally, Redhead, +as an Englishman, has not many compliments to bestow on Napoleon; +though, had he lived to see the accomplishment of the great Corsican’s +work, he might have entertained a higher opinion of the “ogre.” As it +was, Redhead was disgusted with Napoleon’s ostentatious display, and +above all with the manner in which the spoils stolen from Italy were +exhibited in Paris; one of his most interesting letters being that +in which he describes the condition of the Louvre even as he saw it +stuffed with the treasures of Italy, many of which bore inscriptions he +considered an outrage to decency. Thus, for instance, on the <i>Madonna +del Orto</i> might have been read, “This picture was taken from the +church of Santa Maria del Orto at Venice,” or again, “This picture, one +of the best that Paul Veronese ever painted, was taken from the church +of the nuns of St. Zacharia at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span> Venice,” and so on. Unfortunately, +many of the pictures brought to Paris were injudiciously restored; +and when, after the Treaty of Vienna, they were returned to Italy, it +was found that they had been irreparably damaged. Not content with +carrying off pictures, statues, and other works of art, Napoleon carted +away the chief archives of the foremost Italian cities; and these were +so carelessly packed that many hundreds of valuable documents were +irretrievably lost. From the artistic and historical point of view, +the French Revolution was especially injurious to Italy. Venice not +only lost her independence, but half her art treasures. During the +French occupation at the beginning of the nineteenth century, forty +of her churches were closed and thirty of them destroyed, amongst the +finest of them being San Gregorio, still standing though desecrated; +and the Servi, one of the largest and most historical in the city, +not a stone of which exists. Eugène Beauharnais, when Governor of +Venice, pulled down Palladio’s Church of San Geminiano, which stood +opposite St. Mark’s, to increase the Royal Palace, and over thirty of +the characteristic and beautiful <i>campanile</i>, or church towers, +which form so delightful a feature in Venetian scenery, were destroyed, +their material being carted away to build the new fortifications. +At Verona the magnificent church of San Zeno was desecrated (since +restored), and two out of three of its splendid cloisters were wantonly +laid level. Padua, and, indeed, every other city in Venetia, suffered +losses. Ravenna lost three of the handsomest of her ancient basilicas, +including San Agnese, whose fine mosaics are now in the Berlin Museum. +Milan lost fifty churches full of fine frescoes by Leonardo, Luini, +Foppa, and Proccaccino. At Genoa, thanks to the French Revolutionaries, +the magnificent Church of San Domenico was demolished, as well as +that of San Francesco, which contained the tombs of the Doges, not +one of which was spared. Moreover, the sudden suppression of the +law of primogeniture ruined half the Italian nobility, and obliged +them to sell at low prices the accumulated art treasures<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span> of their +ancestors. To this day Italy is covered with churches and chapels +ruined during the French occupation—which was effected on the pretext +of “liberating” that country from superstition.</p> + +<p>Every subsequent Revolution which has taken place in France since +1793—in 1838, 1848, and 1870—has originated in the continuance of +the Jacobin traditions, the main object of which is to substitute +free-thought for Christianity. In each case the Revolution has ended +in disorder and bloodshed, and has been succeeded by a more or less +modified form of autocracy; yet the dawn of the twentieth century is +witnessing what may be termed the most powerful combat between the +Revolutionary traditions and those of the <i>ancien régime</i> which +has taken place since the execution of Louis XVI. Europe is to-day +watching with anxiety the result of the abrogation of that very +Concordat in honour of the signing of which a <i>Te Deum</i> was sung +in Notre Dame amidst the utmost ecclesiastical, civil, and military +pomp, and attended by Napoleon and his Court, a function described by +Redhead in a letter which is especially interesting at the present time.</p> + +<p>It is not by religious persecution that a lasting Republic can be +established. France, so generous in her impulses, so artistic, and, +above all, so literary, has not yet learned that a true democracy can +only be founded upon a more practical interpretation of the motto, +“Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity,” than the one that is now in vogue +amongst the majority of Frenchmen in both camps.</p> + +<p>At the end of this volume will be found a very interesting series of +biographies, compiled by Lady Sykes, of the persons connected with the +Revolution mentioned in Redhead Yorke’s “Letters,” many of whom are +little known even to close students of Revolutionary history.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span></p> + +<h2>I<br> +<span class="subhed">ARRIVAL AT CALAIS</span></h2></div> + + +<p>I will endeavour in these letters to give some details of the present +moral and political condition of France.</p> + +<p>Twelve years of unceasing revolution have changed the face of a country +highly favoured by nature. Amidst the dilapidations of civil discord, +and the ravages of foreign armies, France has become doubly formidable +to Europe, and after the bloodshed, the misery, and the upheaval of +the Revolution, the nation has resumed all the habits of her ancient +system, and seeks internal repose in the arms of a military despotism. +We embarked at Dover, on board the <i>Venus</i> for Calais.</p> + +<p>Before the war, the price of the passage was half a guinea, on the +signature of the preliminaries of peace six guineas was the price +demanded; but this is now reduced to one guinea and a half for each +person, with five shillings to the mate, and seven to the steward. The +sailors also expect to be remembered. For taking a carriage on board +the fee is two guineas.</p> + +<p>At Dover and Calais passports are examined with the greatest attention.</p> + +<p>My passport was signed by the King, and countersigned by Lord Pelham, +Secretary of State. At Dover all that was required was that it +should be properly verified at the Custom House, where it was again +countersigned by the controller.</p> + +<p>At Calais the ceremony was much more scrupulous and imposing. +Unfortunately, at the time of our arrival the tide was ebbing, and +we were forced to wait outside the harbour until the tide flowed. We +did not enter until three in the morning, having been at sea fourteen +hours!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span></p> + +<p>When we anchored, an officer came on board to inspect our passport.</p> + +<p>He informed us that it was impossible to enter the town until the +gates were opened at eight o’clock in the morning, but that there was +a little “cabaret,” to which strangers were permitted to visit for +refreshment.</p> + +<p>I gave the officer a letter of recommendation addressed to the +Commissary-General Mengoud, requesting him, on behalf of the lady who +was with me, to deliver it immediately, not doubting that it would +facilitate us the disagreeable necessity of sitting up all night in the +public cabin of the packet.</p> + +<p>The officer declared he dared not disturb Monsieur Mengoud at night.</p> + +<p>We remained until seven o’clock in the morning, in this uncomfortable +situation, when exhaustion compelled us to leave the vessel and repair +to the “cabaret.”</p> + +<p>We were then conducted to a little pig-stye beside the gates of the +town, where we underwent a pleasant ceremony called “La visite de la +personne.”</p> + +<p>Four of the passengers could only be admitted at a time. Two officers +of the Customs passed their hands over the ladies’ dresses, and +contented themselves with asking the gentlemen whether they had any +contraband goods about them. After this we were allowed to enter the +“cabaret,” a filthy hovel, full of fishermen, drinking beer and gin. +Here we were regaled with coffee and bread, so disgustingly bad that +we could not touch either, and for which each person was charged three +English shillings.</p> + +<p>I could not help observing to my hostess, that I did not doubt but that +when I next visited France, I should have the honour of waiting upon +her husband as Mayor of Calais, for she was certain of soon amassing a +vast fortune.</p> + +<p>There were nine of us in company, and she cleared twenty-seven +shillings in a moment.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ARRIVAL AT CALAIS</div> + +<p>I conversed with one of the fishermen sitting in the room. He stated +that in no part of France had the peace<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span> of England caused more joy +than at Calais, which had suffered extremely by the war, where the +inhabitants were in a most deplorable condition; the young and the +middle-aged, to avoid being famished, had no other resource than to +join the armies, which chiefly subsisted upon the plunder of foreign +countries, for they had no alternative between famine and conquest.</p> + +<p>These opinions were fully supported by a young man who joined in the +conversation, who said that only dire necessity forced him to become a +soldier.</p> + +<p>He had served with reluctance in all the campaigns against the English, +and was now a captain of Grenadiers. The French army, he said, took no +interest in the events occurring in Paris, nor in the Revolution, their +common principle being to obey their officers and plunder for bread. +The language of every general was the same, “Behind you is nothing but +want and misery, before you glory and plenty.”</p> + +<p>They fought for glory and plenty, but never liberty, which he +acknowledged no Frenchman could either understand or enjoy.</p> + +<p>I remarked upon the inconvenience to which travellers were exposed by +the port regulations. He replied: “It is no fault of our municipality, +they are men of worth. It is the will of the First Consul and must be +obeyed.” I inquired whether a “douceur” would not produce admittance +into the town. He answered no sum of money could purchase disobedience +to an order of the Consul, for the Argus he had planted in it was the +terror of the whole department, and nothing escaped the prying eyes of +his spies and informers.</p> + +<p>About nine o’clock the officer returned with the welcome +news—“Monsieur Mengoud would be happy to receive us.” We were then all +conducted to the town-hall, where we answered to our names, then we +were permitted to go to our respective inns, after a solemn charge to +hold ourselves in readiness to present our passports.</p> + +<p>After refreshing myself at the “Lion d’Argent” (one of the best hotels +in France, and where an Englishman is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span> sure to meet with attention and +civility) I proceeded to the house of the Commissary-General, a man +who, fulfilling the orders of the executive directors, had introduced +French troops and ignited the flames of civil discord in unhappy +Switzerland.</p> + +<p>Such an interview could not be grateful to one of my habits of +thinking, the more so that amidst the cloud-capped mountains and +retired valleys of that once free, independent and prosperous country, +I had passed the happiest hours of my life.</p> + +<p>The secretary announced my name. A voice of thunder roared, “Show him +in!”</p> + +<p>I entered. Monsieur Mengoud desired me to be seated; the door was shut, +and we were left alone altogether.</p> + +<p>He was a man of vast stature, and immense calibre, with a round +countenance, not unlike in appearance to our Henry VIII., large rolling +eyes, and bristly black hair.</p> + +<p>The room was hung with carbines, horse pistols, daggers and a +pike—proper symbols of his trade.</p> + +<p>I mentioned that as I had a lady with me, I had taken the liberty of +asking the officer to present my letter of introduction at an early +hour, hoping, from the known politeness of the French, she might have +experienced the indulgence always conceded to her sex.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mengoud.</span> The orders of the Government make no +distinction of sex.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Myself.</span> I am aware a law is general, but I flattered +myself there might be some discretionary power in the person +entrusted with its execution.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mengoud.</span> There is no power vested in any hands but +those of the Government of France.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Myself.</span> I recollect an instance of the same kind which +occurred while I was in the garrison at Douvi, a fortified town.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mengoud.</span> Examples drawn from the ancient Tyranny cannot +apply to the Republic.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Myself.</span> Will this regulation continue?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mengoud.</span> It is all the same to me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Myself.</span> Shall I experience any difficulties on my route +to Paris?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mengoud.</span> None.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Myself.</span> When may I depart?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mengoud.</span> Now, if you choose.</p> +</div> + +<p>Here he called his secretary, ordered him to bring up my passport, +which he instantly signed, and after having desired me to proceed to +the Municipality for countersignment, with a profound bow gave me leave +to depart.</p> + +<p>As soon as I had despatched my business at the Municipality I returned +to the “Lion d’Argent,” and found I had another ceremony to go through +at the Custom House, our portmanteaux had not been visited. Accordingly +I hastened thither, and after a most rigid search had been made, and I +had chastised one of the officers for strutting about wearing my cocked +hat for the amusement of his fellows, my things were removed to the inn.</p> + +<p>While our property was being repacked, and the horses sent for, I paid +a visit to a respectable merchant I had known some years before, and +who had survived the havoc of the Revolution.</p> + +<p>The information I received from him will form the subject of my next +letter.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>II<br> +<span class="subhed">CHARACTER OF THE CITIZENS OF CALAIS</span></h2></div> + + +<p>Calais is one of the very few French towns which escaped the horrors of +the Revolution. This circumstance is the more remarkable because from +its vicinity to England and the attachment borne by its inhabitants to +our countrymen, it became an object of suspicion to the Committee of +Public Safety.</p> + +<p>To the firmness and humanity of one man who filled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span> the office of +mayor, and to the unblemished character of the persons who composed the +Municipality, do the citizens of Calais owe the preservation of their +lives and properties.</p> + +<p>The Committee of Public Safety accused the inhabitants of Anglomania, +and ordered the ferocious Joseph Le Bon<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> to <i>visit</i> this +guiltless town and re-organise the constituted authorities. During +those cruel days the <i>visit</i> of a constitutional deputy was really +the visit of a public executioner, and in the dismal catalogue of men +who were distinguished by unfeeling severity, Le Bon was foremost. +He had just perpetrated the most horrible cruelties at Arras before +proceeding to Calais. The following anecdote will delineate the +fierceness and brutality of his character.</p> + +<p>Two young ladies of Arras, neither of whom had attained the age of +twenty, practising on the pianoforte the same morning that the news of +the surrender of Valenciennes reached their city, Le Bon happened to +pass their window and paused to listen. They were playing the tune, “Ça +Ira,” a most revolutionary air, which one would have imagined was a +proof of their civism.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, by Le Bon’s orders, these beautiful girls were arrested, +tried, and condemned the next day, and, notwithstanding their youth and +innocence, were executed for “playing on the piano on the day the news +of a Republican defeat had arrived, a defeat at which they evidently +rejoiced.”</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE CITIZENS OF CALAIS</div> + +<p>This atrocious action struck even Jacobins with horror. In the defence +of the accused it was stated to the Revolutionary Tribune that “Ça Ira” +was a Republican march, written to animate armies on the day of battle. +To this Le Bon replied that this popular air had been converted into a +vehicle of mischief, and that the <i>time</i> these young people had +selected for playing “Ça Ira” proved their evil dispositions. “They +played ‘Ça Ira,’” said he, “for the Austrian army, they had doubtless +heard<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span> of the surrender of Valenciennes, and they meant by Ça Ira, +that they desired the Austrian advance and the capture of other French +fortresses. Why did they not, if they were true patriots, play ‘Le +Réveil du Peuple?’”</p> + +<p>This argument induced the jurors to condemn the unfortunate young +persons to death. Thin, indeed, was the thread upon which human +existence was suspended in these days of wretchedness and terror. +The effect upon the minds of the people was to make the very name of +liberty odious, and the vast majority sighed for a return of that +ancient despotism in which they lived secure. Tormented by those who +had abused their confidence and exasperated at the accumulation of +public wrongs, they were prepared by degrees for those astonishing +events which I shall relate in my future letters.</p> + +<p>But to return from this digression. The instant Le Bon received his +orders, he departed for Calais, where he found prevailing the utmost +order, good conduct and tranquillity. This condition of affairs +appeared to the Revolutionary emissary a strong symptom of aristocracy. +Accordingly, he deposed the mayor, dissolved the Municipality, convoked +an assembly of the people in the market-place, when he desired them to +elect true sans culottes in place of their former magistrates.</p> + +<p>To his surprise he found not a single person would accept of a +situation in the Municipality while their former magistrates were +destituted. He attempted in vain to form a Jacobin Club or to establish +a Revolutionary Tribunal. In vain he threatened individuals with arrest.</p> + +<p>There were not a dozen Jacobins in the whole town.</p> + +<p>The mayor boldly remonstrated, and by his prudence and the loyalty of +his fellow citizens, Le Bon, muttering vows of vengeance, was driven +from the town.</p> + +<p>Immediately after his departure the former magistrates resumed their +functions. In cases where a peremptory mandate from Paris obliged them +to arrest any individual,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span> the order was executed with the utmost +humanity. The victim was not sent to prison, but allowed to remain in +his own house, and even to walk out attended by gendarmes of his own +choice.</p> + +<p>Thus the citizens of Calais never saw the blood of their countrymen +flow upon the scaffold, nor were any delivered to the homicidal rage +of inquisitors, whose sense of freedom consisted in privileged misrule +and promises of fraternity, terminated in slaughter. Had the municipal +officers of other great towns in France displayed the same courage and +determination as those of Calais, many thousands of lives would have +been saved, and France avoided much dishonour, misery, and shame.</p> + +<p>The humane and uncorrupted character of the people of Calais proves +that they have not degenerated from the high repute of their ancient +burghers.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>III<br> +<span class="subhed">MODE OF TRAVELLING IN FRANCE</span></h2></div> + + +<p>There are three modes of travelling in France: by diligence; by post +chaise; in your own carriage. The diligence is the cheapest, but it is +a method of conveyance quite out of the question for those who travel +for recreation, or in search of information.</p> + +<p>The traveller is exposed to the inconveniences attendant on a journey +of two hundred miles in a vast unwieldy machine, less comfortable than +an English waggon, which travels all night, and makes no stoppages +except to change horses. Those who wish to make a trip to Paris and its +environs will do best to take their own carriage from England.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MODE OF TRAVELLING IN FRANCE</div> + +<p>It will be found, even including the expense of the packet, that this +is a cheaper plan than to hire a carriage at Calais. But as it was +my intention to extend my tour beyond Paris, to penetrate through La +Vendée as far as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span> Bordeaux, it became necessary I should provide myself +with a strong carriage, capable of passing over horrible and neglected +country roads. I therefore resolved upon procuring a carriage at Calais.</p> + +<p>This was a Post-chaise or Cabriolet, which runs on two wheels and is +very light and convenient, having, besides plenty of room for two +persons and their luggage, a number of pockets for almost every kind of +article, and on each side a pillow for the ease of the traveller while +sleeping. It opens in front, and is so constructed as to give complete +shelter in bad weather.</p> + +<p>When the carriage is secured it is important to be provided with a +sufficient sum of money to carry you to your journey’s end. A letter of +credit is more advantageous than English bank-notes or guineas.</p> + +<p>The former are not of that value they were at the commencement of the +Republic; and the exportation of guineas being unlawful, no honest +Englishman should carry them out of his country. A guinea is not worth +five sous more now in France than in England.</p> + +<p>A device has lately been discovered and employed in France for raising +money to repair the high roads. It consists in the erection of +Barrières, at which every carriage must pay a toll. These Barrières +are stationed at irregular distances, at some I have paid eighteen, +at others only three sous. In former times a Cabriolet might run the +thirty-four posts between Calais and Paris (each post containing +two leagues, six miles) for two hundred and thirteen livres, ten +sous, exclusive of the hire of the carriage. But now the number of +Barrières and the exactions of the postillions considerably augment the +expenditure. Although the postillions legally can only demand fifteen +sous per post, it is customary <i>never</i> to give them less than +thirty and frequently fifty to sixty sous.</p> + +<p>I am sorry to say that several of our dashing British sparks have +corrupted postillions on the road by their improvident donations.</p> + +<p>Hence during the whole of my route between Calais<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span> and Paris, I never +found one of the fellows satisfied with thirty sous for a single +post, and I was always teased out of more. This is trifling to men +who can afford to throw away many thousand pounds during a six weeks’ +visit to Paris, but to a plain animal like myself, it is a matter of +serious consequence. This remark I have often had occasion to make in +Switzerland, when that delightful but now wretched country was the +favourite resort of our gentry. They were so prodigal of their money, +that I have often heard the Swiss declare “Les Anglais sont de braves +gens, mais ils sont fous.” Nor is there any rational motive for such +extravagance. Such persons are often accused of being emissaries of Mr. +Pitt, despatched to France to illustrate the wealth of Great Britain +and to prove we understand the art of becoming rich in the midst of war +and alarms.</p> + +<p>The French, for the greater part, laugh at all such folly, and say +that the English are doing their best to refund the products of that +commerce which Mr. Pitt had completely wrested from them.</p> + +<p>French people are keen and artful, and though they receive such +squanderers with bows and smiles, they secretly despise their folly. +These truths I write reluctantly, because whatever is disreputable to +our nation’s character wounds me to the quick.</p> + +<p>I make these observations from no desire to deprive the poor +postillions of any advantage they may derive from the folly of +travelling Englishmen, but because this system has extended to the inns +on the road and to the hotels and shops in Paris and is severely felt +by persons of inferior fortune and sober disposition.</p> + +<p>It is an established principle in France that in travelling you pay for +as many horses as there are people, not excepting servants.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">JOURNEY TO AMIENS</div> + +<p>But this regulation is not always rigidly adhered to The postmasters +in general seldom put on more than three horses, even for four +persons. They are civil and obliging men, and I have often found their +conversation interesting and instructive.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span></p> + +<p>The service of posting is well managed, and for good order, regularity, +and promptness, excels any other part of Europe.</p> + +<p>This must by no means be ascribed to the effects of the Revolution, +for it was projected and executed under the ancient <i>régime</i>, +and since the establishment of the Republic the best part of the +establishment, <i>i.e.</i>, the excellent roads, have been utterly +neglected, and in many cases almost destroyed, notwithstanding the +enormous charges at the Barrières, for the ostensible purpose of +keeping them in good order.</p> + +<p>The traveller has nothing whatever to apprehend from highway robbers or +footpads, and this I attribute to the number of Gens d’armes, extremely +well mounted, who are continually riding along the roads to ensure the +safety of travellers.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>IV<br> +<span class="subhed">JOURNEY TO AMIENS, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE PRESENT STATE OF THE COUNTRY</span></h2></div> + + +<p>After all our arrangements had been concluded we proceeded on the route +towards Paris.</p> + +<p>We were forcibly struck by the backward state of the vegetation in the +Department of Calais, and we compared the poverty of the exhausted soil +with the luxuriant richness of the county of Kent this early spring.</p> + +<p>Over the service of vast unenclosed tracts of land we perceived +scarcely any but women employed in culture of the earth.</p> + +<p>The implements of village husbandry, as well as the cattle, were +the worst I ever beheld, and the population did not seem in any +way adequate to the extent of the country. Wherever any vestiges +of religion or aristocracy remained we traced the ravages of the +Revolution. Monasteries and churches were heaps of ruins; if a church +had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span> escaped the general wreck, an inscription over its portal, “This +is the Temple of Reason and Truth,” denoted that it had been abused for +atheistical purposes.</p> + +<p>In every village through which we passed crowds of children, women and +old men pressed upon us, begging charity and bread. I inquired into the +causes of this melancholy spectacle. My informer pointed to a monastery +in ruins, and shook his head. I felt the force of this explanation.</p> + +<p>The agreeable seaport of Boulogne presented itself before us. When we +reached the gates I asked whether Parker was alive.</p> + +<p>I heard he still kept the same hotel where I slept in 1792.</p> + +<p>When we reached it I found him grown grey, however, with suffering and +persecution. He received me with unfeigned pleasure, few Englishmen +had hitherto passed, and the sight of a countryman rejoiced his heart. +He told me that during the time of Terror, Dounne,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> the Conventional +Deputy, took up his quarters in his hotel, and fared sumptuously upon +the fat of the land. In a very short time this representative of the +people contrived to absorb a vast quantity of wine, particularly port, +for which he had a great relish, and for none of this did he ever pay +one farthing.</p> + +<p>One day after dinner he sent for Parker and inquired whether he had +any more port. The latter replied that unfortunately his stock was +exhausted. At this the Citizen Deputy expressed great regret. Two +hours later, he ordered, in consequence, poor Parker into arrest, and +sent him to a prison in Paris, without permitting him to make any +arrangements respecting his family concerns, or even to take leave of +his family.</p> + +<p>He remained eighteen months in jail, cut off from his friends and +relations, while his house and property were completely at the mercy of +the Jacobins.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">JOURNEY TO AMIENS</div> + +<p>He has now returned to try his fortune once more at Boulogne, and I +sincerely hope English travellers will<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span> encourage a countryman, who is +highly deserving of their patronage.</p> + +<p>I traversed after dinner several streets of the town. I found a great +number of private houses, convents and monasteries utterly demolished +and reduced to piles of ruins, giving the town the appearance of having +experienced a long and severe siege. I thought (for I forgot for a +moment the enlightened age of Reason) that all this devastation was the +result of the late bombardment of Lord Nelson. But I was in error. Only +one bomb fell into the town, and did no mischief.</p> + +<p>The ruins everywhere visible were formerly the habitations of suspected +persons and religious and charitable foundations destroyed by the +Jacobins, when they overthrew what they were pleased to call prejudice +and superstition. Some of these buildings were remarkably handsome, +and it might have been supposed could have served for the use of the +public, but when the waters of bitterness overflow, destruction is +general and indiscriminate.</p> + +<p>During the bombardment of the town, the French naval officers, among +whom was Jerome Bonaparte, brother of the First Consul, messed every +day at Parker’s. In contradistinction to the Deputy of the Convention, +they conducted themselves with the greatest liberality to this +Englishman during their residence.</p> + +<p>Jerome put up at Parker’s by the express desire of his elder brother. +The inhabitants and the French officers scouted the idea of a +French invasion of England, and wondered that the bravest and most +distinguished admiral of the British Fleet should have been sent to +oppose an inconsiderable flotilla moored in Boulogne waters.</p> + +<p>“Your countrymen,” they said, “are very brave, but you are a mercantile +nation, and merchants are always nervous. This town, as well as Calais +and Dunkerque were, before the war, filled by English refugees, persons +who sought shelter from the pursuit of their creditors.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span></p> + +<p>Considering the extraordinary severity of the English law of debtor +and creditor, I cannot avoid looking upon these with some slight +approbation, as affording to the unfortunate and improvident the means +of becoming careful and honest! and more advantageous resorts for the +debtor than the wood of America among rattlesnakes and savages.</p> + +<p>So far, since the Peace, few persons of this description have arrived +at Boulogne, though many are expected.</p> + +<p>To give any account of the present state of commerce here is quite out +of my power. I doubt if the town can be said to possess any. Formerly +the fishing was prosperous, and much shipbuilding was undertaken and +a smart smuggler’s trade carried on with the seaports on the opposite +side of the water.</p> + +<p>It had been my intention to have slept at Montreuil-sur-Mer, a distance +of four posts or about twenty-three miles from Boulogne, but my +companion was so exhausted that we settled to pass the night at Samur, +the nearest post town. Although we were obliged to lodge at a miserable +inn, nothing could exceed the kind attention of the people who owned +it, they had but milk and coffee to give us, which were but slender +supports for persons just recovered from sea-sickness, and seven hours +had elapsed since dinner. However, as we had provided ourselves at +Calais with a fowl and two bottles of burgundy we were thus enabled to +make an excellent supper; the milk and coffee I poured into a bowl and +gave with a big French roll to a miserable creature at the gate. The +manner in which they were received and devoured absolutely confounded +me, for I had never seen the like in old France.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">JOURNEY TO AMIENS</div> + +<p>The next day we proceeded to Cormont, about five miles and a half, +where we changed horses, and from thence to Montreuil, situated on a +steep mountain and formerly a strong fortress.</p> + +<p>Before the Revolution there was here an English convent, and a number +of English families, but the convent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span> has been demolished, and the town +altogether abandoned by our people.</p> + +<p>I entered into a political dialogue with two very respectable persons +whom I found at the inn, and asked them what was their opinion of the +Peace and their present Government. They expressed themselves content +with both. They observed that no man who had witnessed such scenes as +they had done could avoid rejoicing at an event which promised repose +to France.</p> + +<p>The blood which had been spilt within and without their country had +sickened the French people with the very name of war. Then followed +the old and trite remark, that if England and France could join in a +cordial union they might <i>command the whole world</i> and retain it +in a state of permanent peace. In their opinion the Peace was in favour +of England, and when I enumerated the names of the different colonies +we had restored to France they laughed at me and said, “You have taken +away our commerce, and what have we taken from you?”</p> + +<p>They expressed themselves satisfied with the present Government, and +avowed that any Government which maintained order was preferable to +a state of anarchy. They assured me that they had witnessed scenes +which could not be described. They said, “We lived in times when no +man could trust his neighbour, much less speak his thoughts. A brother +could not confide in a brother.” Then I observed, “You have doubtless +had the guillotine permanent in your town?” “No, sir, it has never +been erected here, but many of our fellow townsmen were imprisoned +and executed at Arras.” “By Joseph Le Bon?” “The same.” “What induced +your people to destroy the Convent?” “With many fear of death, +with others because it was the fashion.” While we were engaged in +conversation, a person brought in a hare and a leveret, for which our +hostess paid ten sous. On my observing that provisions must, to judge +from this price, be extremely cheap in France, it was quickly proved +to me that any articles of necessity were inordinately dear;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span> bread +I found was a halfpenny a pound dearer than in England. Our horses +being now harnessed, or rather corded, we took our leave, but we had +literally to penetrate through a column of beggars before we mounted +the carriage. They were mostly boys between fourteen and seventeen +years of age, and their number was three-and-twenty. I requested the +person with whom I had been conversing to explain why at eleven o’clock +in the morning these lads were not at work. He answered that they +had no work, and were in an utter state of indigence, their parents +not having the means of providing them with subsistence. On which I +observed that they might find ample occupation in the pursuits of +agriculture and husbandry, and asked if it was not highly injurious to +the community to suffer their boys not to be brought up to a trade. +He then whispered that while the Noblesse resided in the country, and +the Monasteries existed, vast numbers found employment, and those +who were out of a place were assisted by a charity of the religious +orders, but that since their destruction, the land had devolved in +other hands, and often to proprietors who were in Paris and never lived +on their estate. “It is evident,” said I, “that these poor people are +punished for their folly.” A fact he fully admitted. He mentioned that +the parents of these children were the persons now employed in the +business of agriculture, and that as for trades all those who were not +requisitioned for the armies were only too glad for the sake of bread +to serve different tradesmen and perform the duties formerly fulfilled +by boys, but, he added, “all in good time. These lads will be in the +next conscription, and then they will be provided for.” I thanked him +for his description, and after distributing a little money among these +children, I resumed my journey, pondering on the reversed order of +social life.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">JOURNEY TO AMIENS</div> + +<p>The Revolution, which was brought about ostensibly for the benefit of +the lower classes of society, has sunk them to a degree of degradation +and misfortune to which they never were reduced under the ancient +monarchy. They<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span> have been disinherited, stripped and deprived of every +resource for existence, except defeats of arms and the fleeting spoil +of vanquished nations. In the sententious language of Montesquieu, +“With an hundred thousand arms they have overthrown everything, while +with an hundred thousand feet they have crawled like insects.” This +reversion of social order must destroy sentiments of moral obligation.</p> + +<p>Boys of fifteen beg for charity while their fathers and mothers toil in +the field! Full-grown men are engaged in avocations peculiar to youth. +A life of habitual indolence is encouraged in those who should be +toiling for those who gave them birth. From this they will shortly be +transplanted to the armies, without having been taught one occupation +by which they might obtain a livelihood when the period of service has +expired.</p> + +<p>What is to be expected of such young men on their return as citizens? +They will be a dead stock on the community—a load on their friends, an +incumbrance to themselves, they who have been taught no other trade but +to handle a firelock, to parade and plunder—will merely be the terror +of peaceful citizens, and the Government will find the only mode of +disposing of them to send them back to the army.</p> + +<p>Thus an immense permanent military establishment will result, and +will consist of an army which is the reservoir of the indolent and +profligate, who must be supported by the speculations of the merchant +and the labours of the farmer. This is in itself far more pernicious +than the <i>corvées</i>, the abolishment of which was one of the pleas +for the extirpation of the aristocracy.</p> + +<p>To foreign nations the possession by France of such an immense force +ready to burst upon them at a single word of command must be an object +of terror and alarm. And in self-defence they too must maintain +powerful armies in the centre of Europe, in the midst of a profound and +general peace.</p> + +<p>If an estimate is made of the many hundred thousand<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span> hands thus +withdrawn from the pursuits of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, +some idea may be formed of the loss which huge standing armies cause to +the community at large.</p> + +<p>Such arguments are, however, vain while the vast military establishment +of France is upheld.</p> + +<p>Necessity compels every nation in Europe to provide for its own +security. The military force of France is justly pleaded as a reason +for maintaining a strong standing army in our island. How much more +reason have continental nations to adopt a similar precaution, for they +do not possess our advantage of being separated from France by a ditch? +A man who proposed the reduction of the English army at the present +time would be esteemed a madman. The continental powers are only +pursuing a system forced upon them by imperious necessity.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, much is to be hoped from the versatile and ingenious +character of the French people. A Frenchman can turn himself to +occupations which would never enter the brain of an Englishman or +German, and it is a common adage that if a Frenchman be turned adrift +and penniless on the wide world he will thrive and prosper.</p> + +<p>If the situation of the nations on the continent be contrasted with +that of our happy country, we shall perceive that Great Britain enjoys +a decided advantage. All our soldiers and most of our sailors, before +their entrance into the Navy or Army, have been previously educated +to some industrial pursuit. Hence after a long war they rejoice in +returning to their former pursuits, and the country has nothing to +apprehend from them. They resume their former relations to society, and +every species of trade and manufacture is open to them.</p> + +<p>The present Government should seriously reflect upon these undoubted +facts if the First Consul is sincerely desirous of peace.</p> + +<p>These reflections have led me out of my road to Nampont (a post and a +half from Montreuil). Here we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span> changed horses and proceeded to Bernay, +where we again changed.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">JOURNEY TO AMIENS</div> + +<p>The weather was favourable and we hastened on, hoping to reach Amiens +before dark. Nouviou was our next stage, whence we traversed a flat and +unpleasant tract of country to Abbeville.</p> + +<p>We passed a pretty château surrounded by trees. It belonged to a +Monsieur de St. Quentin, who, having emigrated, found himself deprived +of his property, which was purchased for a trifling sum from the +Republican Government by a merchant of Abbeville.</p> + +<p>Since the proscription of emigrants has been removed by the First +Consul, Monsieur de St. Quentin has returned to France. He now resides +at a little village, formerly belonging to him, within sight of the +mansion which was once his. None of his property has been restored to +him, and no allowance so far granted by the State, he therefore lives +in a forlorn state of poverty. Our postillion had lived twelve years +with M. de St. Quentin in the capacity of a gardener. He pointed to a +young plantation and said, sadly, “All those trees were planted by me.”</p> + +<p>Love of country must be a predominant passion in the mind of a man who +after twelve years’ exile is content to reside in it in penury, and +endure the mortification of being constantly within view of his former +property. We dined at Reichord’s hotel, were well entertained, and the +charges reasonable. But our meal was rendered uncomfortable on account +of the crowd of beggars who were looking through the window and craving +charity. As fast as one crowd was dismissed another advanced upon their +heels. A gentleman who was there declared he counted over a hundred +persons. The city of Abbeville is old and wretchedly built, many of the +houses being made of wood there is a gloomy aspect in every part of it. +Before the Revolution it was celebrated for its damasks, and the vast +establishment of Vau Robois, established by Louis XIV., gave employment +to over 4000 persons; but this industry perished in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span> Revolution. +Before the war the population of Abbeville was computed at 22,000, it +is now reduced to less than 18,000 souls.</p> + +<p>Ally-le-haut Clocher was our next stopping-place—the only circumstance +worthy of notice there was a red cap on the top of the church steeple, +a mark of Jacobinism; during the nine miles traversed between Abbeville +and this place we never remarked one cheerful prospect or one well +cultivated lot of ground. At Flixecourt stood a tree of Liberty, the +first we had noticed since our arrival in France. From this place we +proceeded to Picquigny, where we again changed horses and thence to +Amiens, a stage of nine miles. It was late when we arrived, and to our +misfortune (as you will learn later) I mistook the house to which I +had been recommended. By the light of the lantern I read <i>Pollet</i> +instead of <i>La Poste</i>, and in consequence drove to Madame Pollet’s +inn, “Le Lion d’Or.”</p> + +<p>Before I close this letter I will make a few observations on the +general face of the country and the state of agriculture. The soil is +good, but cultivation is deplorable.</p> + +<p>There are scarcely any enclosures, trees have been ruthlessly cut down, +and the hills completely stripped of timber. I saw neither cattle nor +sheep pasturing.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DESCRIPTION OF AMIENS</div> + +<p>Nothing can exceed the wretchedness of the implements of husbandry +employed but the wretched appearance of the persons using them. Women +at the plough and young girls driving a team give but an indifferent +idea of the progress of agriculture under the Republic. There are no +farmhouses dispersed over the fields. The farmers reside together in +remote villages, a circumstance calculated to retard the business of +cultivation. The interiors of the houses are filthy, the farmyards +in the utmost disorder, and the miserable condition of the cattle +sufficiently bespeaks the poverty of their owner. Meat of all kinds is +poor and unnutritious, but the poultry is excellent. The wine is sour +and worse than vinegar and water, and even in the great inns where I +paid a high price for so-called burgundy and bordeaux,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span> I never drank +one glass of even <i>tolerable wine</i> (Chantilly excepted) between +Calais and the capital.</p> + +<p>Between Montreuil and Flixecourt we were greatly diverted at the sight +of two women ploughing with three asses, although this confirms the +opinion upon which I have always insisted, but not ludicrously, that +if we in England made more use of asses in husbandry advantage might +be derived to the community and a saving to the farmer. If instead of +harassing and ill-treating these useful animals we gave them a little +more consequence in the society of brutes and raised them from the +condition of slaves to servants, they would possess more spirit and +energy and be more tractable.</p> + +<p>The asses at the plough looked plump and sleek and performed their work +apparently as well as horses. After having seen a goat at the plough +I think no one should be surprised that I plead the cause of the poor +ass, besides I acknowledge myself to be the friend of asses.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>V<br> +<span class="subhed">DESCRIPTION OF AMIENS, AND HAPPY RELEASE FROM THE “LION D’OR”</span></h2></div> + + +<p>At the time we arrived at the inn, the people of the town were just +leaving the theatre, which overflowed on account of a new piece having +been represented that night. A Frenchman would rather be called a knave +than be accused of a want of <i>goût</i>. Hence the theatres are always +crowded at the representation of a new piece (whatever may be the +celebrity of the author, or even if he enjoy no celebrity at all).</p> + +<p>In England, at a first representation, the house is seldom half filled, +except by friends of the author, who is either bowing to the manager or +quaking in the green room, waiting for the sentence of the critics in +the pit.</p> + +<p>In France, every man fancies himself a born critic, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span> makes a point +of attending the theatre to form part of the general tribunal.</p> + +<p>The author generally stations himself in the most distinguished part of +the theatre, where, with all the assurance of certain success, he bows +to the pit, gallery, and the ladies. If the piece succeeds he carries +himself high, and confesses that his countrymen are the only men of +taste in the world. But should the play unhappily be damned (a not +unfrequent circumstance) his deportment changes, he clenches his fists, +gives a horrible and ghastly smile, and swears the audience are a gang +of <i>f— canaille, scélérats, bandits</i>, and to crown all, “<i>Des +gens de mauvais goût</i>.” When he has reached this climax of epithets +he rushes furiously from the theatre.</p> + +<p>It happened that on the night of our arrival at Amiens a very good +piece had been presented to the public. But my inclinations (a proof of +<i>mauvais goût</i>) were directed to a good supper.</p> + +<p>In order to give a proper notion of the dexterity of Madame Pollet, +hostess of the “Lion d’Or,” I must describe our mode of living in her +house.</p> + +<p>We were shown into a large room, containing four chairs, a small round +table, and a chest of drawers. In a corner stood a dome bedstead, +prettily hung with blue silk curtains, the bed covered by a blue silk +counterpane. It is a nasty custom in France to eat and drink in one’s +bedroom at an inn. I ordered supper for two persons.</p> + +<p>In a quarter of an hour the following dishes were served in succession. +A jowl of salmon (the largest and fattest I ever saw), two of the +finest soles I ever beheld, a partridge, a pigeon, a hashed hare, +a fowl, bouillie beef, spinach, and other vegetables—a bottle of +Picardy beer, a bottle of champagne, and one bottle of Volnay wine. The +unceasing procession of viands surpassed the scene at Barataria.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DESCRIPTION OF AMIENS</div> + +<p>My wife ate scarcely anything, but I was hungry and took courage. No +sooner had I despatched my quota of a dish when another followed, and +another and another.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span></p> + +<p>I do believe it would have continued all night if nature, being +entirely exhausted, had not obliged me to cry mercy.</p> + +<p>Having successfully begged for quarter and forbidden any dessert, I +retired for the night, having desired to see the Cathedral in the +morning. It must not be imagined that I attacked every dish as it +advanced—I made a hearty supper on a bit of salmon, part of a sole and +some hashed hare; the rest of the feast went down untouched.</p> + +<p>In the morning we went to see the Cathedral—one of the finest +monuments of the piety of ancient days. It has escaped in some measure +the onslaughts of Revolutionaries, though its decorations have been +grievously mutilated. At the principal portal all the heads of the +saints have been struck off, and the sculptured groups representing +Scripture history have been so disfigured as to be rendered ridiculous. +The admirable marble statue of the weeping child has received +considerable injury, but the beautiful chapels on each side of the +choir are in an excellent state of preservation, as well as the marble +statues over the altars.</p> + +<p>Nothing is missing from them but the gold and silver candlesticks +and the rich ornaments of the church; even the bones of the tutelary +saint have been unmolested, although the immense box of silver in +which they were deposited has been seized. The grand altar-piece of +the Cathedral, which spreads across the whole breadth of the church +and rises majestically towards the top, has outlived the fury which +threatened its destruction; a circumstance which must be ascribed +solely to the spirit and good sense of the citizens of Amiens. For +when the Revolutionary army from Paris had commenced a general sack of +the Cathedral and were demolishing its ornaments, the National Guard +of Amiens arrived with its drums beating; a pitched battle ensued in +the aisles, which did not finish till the <i>sans culottes</i> were +driven out of the Cathedral; the citizens afterwards mounted guard over +the minster and saved it from the common<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span> ruin a ruffianly horde had +involved S. Denys and half of the finest churches in France.</p> + +<p>Bishop Evrard began to build this edifice in the year 1220, during +the reign of Philip Augustus. Three architects superintended the +work—Robert de Luzarche, Thomas de Cormont, and Maître Renoult. In +three years the foundations were laid, a marvellously rapid work when +their solidity and extent are considered. The Cathedral is built on +irregular ground, and required very deep foundations.</p> + +<p>Upon the death of Evrard, his successor, Godfroi d’Eu, continued the +building, and during the fourteen years he held the episcopal see piles +were raised and the Cathedral completed as far as the arched roof.</p> + +<p>Arnold d’Amiens succeeded Godfroi, and he was followed by Gerard of +Couchy and Alexander of Neuilly; and under their successor, Bernard +of Abbeville, the work was completed in 1260, forty years after the +foundation stone was laid. This last ecclesiastic adorned the Cathedral +with an immense pointed window, which now ornaments the central part +of the choir. Beneath it may still be read the following inscription: +“<i>Bernardus Epis. me dedit anno MCCLIX.</i>”</p> + +<p>Nothing can now exceed the gloomy appearance of this church, shorn of +all its former decorations. When we entered there were not more than +six old women and a veteran soldier of artillery at their matins, all +shivering with cold and hunger. When we associated this circumstance +with the absence and former persecution of all ministers of religion, +it gave a chilly aspect to the whole scene and damped all those +emotions of the soul which arise from contemplating a vast edifice +formerly consecrated to piety.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DESCRIPTION OF AMIENS</div> + +<p>On our return we viewed the ruins of a building, once the palace of +Henry IV., situated at the back of the “Lion d’Or.” It is surprising +that the Revolutionary army, in its rage for destruction, left this +vestige of royalty untouched. But the fury of the Jacobins seems to +have been directed principally against the sculptured heads of saints, +for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span> none of the houses in the Close, formerly the Canons’ residences, +have been destroyed. They became national property, but they remain +until this day without a purchaser. I have been informed that it is the +intention of the First Consul to revive the discipline of the Cathedral +and restore these houses to the Chapter. A Bishop has been already +nominated; but as the Episcopal Palace has been destroyed, a proper +house will be provided for him at the expense of the Government.</p> + +<p>When a person is travelling in the French Republic, if he arrives at +any town which has been a theatre of Revolutionary carnage, he will +have no difficulty in collecting anecdotes (should he desire it), some +pathetic, some ludicrous, and some horribly jocose, together with many +entertaining lies.</p> + +<p>France still bleeds at every pore—she is a vast mourning family, clad +in sackcloth. It is impossible at this time for a contemplative mind to +be gay in France. At every footstep the merciless and sanguinary route +of fanatical barbarians disgust the sight and sicken humanity—on all +sides ruins obtrude themselves on the eye and compel the question, “For +what and for whom are all this havoc and desolation?”</p> + +<p>It was in this city that that execrable villain, Joseph Le Bon met his +well-earned doom. He was executed among the curses and yells of that +very populace who a few weeks previously had received him with shouts +of approval and loaded him with caresses.</p> + +<p>When he first reached Amiens a poor harmless priest fell under his +displeasure. Le Bon issued an order for the arrest of the ecclesiastic, +who sought refuge in the woods. This roused the fury of the vindictive +tyrant, who wrote instantly to the Committee of Public Safety, +declaring he had discovered a great conspiracy, and that an agent of +Pitt had fled to the woods, but he was about to adopt vigorous measures +to bring the criminal to justice.</p> + +<p>The <i>générale</i> was beaten, the tocsin sounded, and all armed +citizens were ordered to scour the woods and seize<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span> upon the agent +of Pitt. On the ensuing day the poor priest, exhausted with fatigue, +hunted like a wild beast and utterly famished, returned to the city +and surrendered himself to his tormentors. He was at once carried +before the Revolutionary Tribunal. He was asked his name, and had no +sooner replied than the jury, without hearing indictment or evidence, +pronounced him guilty, and he was sentenced to death. Being remanded to +the prison he spent the night in prayer. When the Gens d’armes arrived +the next morning to take him to the place of execution they found him +resigned and courageous. Fortified by his religious sentiments and +conscious innocence, he proclaimed that he preferred death to living +in a society in which every spark of justice was extinguished. The +time was come, he said, when good men should no longer desire to live, +and he would show his fellow-citizens in how calm a manner an innocent +man could die. He refused to get into the cart, and with a steady +step and cheerful countenance, surrounded by the Sbirri of Le Bon and +the miscreants who delight in bloodshed, he walked to the scaffold, +which he mounted with joy. But even in the moment of death the bloody +tyrant continued to torment him, he desired the execution to be delayed +until his women appeared at the window of an opposite house; and when +these unfeeling wretches, with a ferocity which disgraced their sex, +waved their handkerchiefs as a symptom of exultation, the fatal knife +was permitted to fall and the victim released from a world which was +unworthy of him.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DESCRIPTION OF AMIENS</div> + +<p>I have described this melancholy event in order to contrast it with +Le Bon’s own behaviour at the place of execution. The night before he +suffered excruciating agonies of mind. At intervals he attempted to +destroy himself, but fear and hope withheld his hand. He was heard to +give loud shrieks, yells of rage, disappointment, terror and despair. +When he was brought out of the prison to be seated in the cart, the +shout that rent the air cannot be described—a person who was present<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span> +assured me that the howls of cannibals were nothing compared to it. +The populace spat upon him; they asked him, as it was a fine day why +he did not walk to the guillotine, as the priest had done a few weeks +previously, and die like a man? He was goaded with a thousand terrible +questions; and as the procession moved women and children danced in the +streets, clapping their hands, and reproaching him with a number of +bitter recollections.</p> + +<p>Le Bon was convulsed with passion, and sometimes he cried; but when +he reached the scaffold he gave a horrible cry, which drew peals of +laughter from the spectators. He had to be lifted out of the cart, fear +had paralysed his strength; during the short period before the knife +descended a hundred mocking voices wished him <i>bon voyage</i> and a +happy meeting with his friends in hell. Thus amidst curses did this +ferocious monster expire.</p> + +<p>Amiens exhibits nothing new or interesting since the Revolution. The +shag and plush manufactories and the manufactory of woollen stuffs and +goats’ hair continue, but have suffered severely by the events of the +last ten years. Trade is still dull, but it is hoped it will soon be +rendered more brisk by the return of peace.</p> + +<p>On our return to the “Lion d’Or” we were charged seven pounds eight +shillings sterling money of the Kingdom of Great Britain for a supper +in the Republic of France! I ordered horses, resolving never to set +foot again in a house where I had been so egregiously cheated. Just +before I stepped into the carriage Madame Pollet made her appearance +and exclaimed, “Êtes-vous content, monsieur?”</p> + +<p>I promised to let my countrymen know what good cheer they might expect +at her house, not forgetting the reasonableness of her charges. I have +now fulfilled my promises.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span></p> + +<h2>VI<br> +<span class="subhed">JOURNEY TO CHANTILLY, AND DESCRIPTION OF THAT PLACE</span></h2></div> + + +<p>Hebricourt was the next great town upon our route, and here we found +another church consecrated to Reason. The cap of Liberty, appropriately +placed upon the weather-cock, veered round with every different gust of +wind—over the door of the church the words “Temple de la Raison” were +inscribed.</p> + +<p>At Bréteuil, twenty-three miles from Amiens, we dined, or rather +starved, at the Hôtel de l’Ange. They made a thousand apologies for the +wretched fare put before us, and explained that there was a fair in the +town, and the crowd of country people flocking to it had completely +demolished every vestige of provision.</p> + +<p>After the plates were removed from the table and we had finished our +apology for a meal, we visited the fair. There was a great concourse of +people, but no noise or disorder. The women were in holiday clothes, +wearing close caps. The men were decently attired, but with cocked +hats, which gave them a most puritanical appearance. I did not see a +single person intoxicated, nor much show of articles of trade. There +were many Merry Andrews, quack doctors and puppet shows.</p> + +<p>During the greater part of our journey from Amiens to Bréteuil we +observed lands in much better order and farmhouses neater and more +comfortable than any we had seen in France; the country is agreeably +diversified, and woods appear in every direction.</p> + +<p>After Bréteuil the country becomes flat and the soil chalky. We changed +horses at Wavigny, St. Just and Clermont, the latter being twenty-seven +miles from Bréteuil. The road was paved and in excellent order, the +country pleasing and fertile, and woods frequent.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">JOURNEY TO CHANTILLY</div> + +<p>A little before we reached Clermont we passed the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span> grounds and +plantations of the Duke de FitzJames.<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The elegant Château was +completely destroyed by the Revolutionists, and is at this time a heap +of ruins. But the name of the duke has just been erased from the list +of émigrés, and all his estates restored to him. He is now in Paris, +making arrangements for his future life. The return of their old master +is eagerly awaited by the country people, and it is hoped that this +beautiful spot will once more flourish.</p> + +<p>At Clermont there is a manufactory of painted linen; the environs of +the town are gay and picturesque, the neighbouring hills afford several +pleasing landscapes, and the culture of the vine gave a charming +variety to the scenery. To the left is Liancourt, the magnificent seat +of the Duke de la Rochefoucauld.<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> This nobleman, well known for his +useful writings on agricultural subjects and his travels in North +America, has returned from exile, and is improving and embellishing his +patrimonial estate.</p> + +<p>Cultivation here is more diversified than in the northern Department, +through which we have just travelled. Besides vineyards there are +fields of lucerne, wheat, clover and corn, and a large quantity of +fruit trees. From Longueville, the next post town, we had a delightful +ride through the park of Chantilly. On our arrival at Chantilly we +slept at the post-house, where a neatness prevailed we had not yet +observed in France. The kitchen and stables, usually filthy in a French +establishment, were clean and well arranged.</p> + +<p>On the next morning we sent to see Chantilly, so famed for its +magnificent gardens and for the heroes of Montmorency and Condé who +have inhabited it. Alas! it is now one vast heap of ruins. After the +fatal August 1792, a horde of Paris miscreants ransacked, pillaged and +destroyed the greater part of the chefs d’œuvres of art. The servants, +faithful to their ancient master, concealed a number of valuable +articles in the woods, and found means to convey most of them to the +Prince de Condé.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span></p> + +<p>Of the fidelity and affection of the Prince’s domestics we heard a +great deal, and nothing can exceed the respect in which his memory is +held by the villagers. On more than one occasion we saw the honest tear +start from their eyes at the mention of his name, and the solicitude +they expressed for his welfare and their many tender inquiries +respecting his present situation in England, convinced us these poor +people were sensible they had lost their best friend. When I told +them the Prince de Condé<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> lived near London, and was in fairly easy +circumstances and kindly received by the King and Royal Family and by +the Ministers of State, they were so greatly affected as to excite +in our minds a sympathetic emotion of soul, and on the ruins of the +Château of Chantilly, on the very spot where once stood the statue +of the Great Condé, we shed tears over the fate of his forsaken and +proscribed descendant.</p> + +<p>No one can be sensible of the desolation of Chantilly unless they +saw the gardens, <i>jets d’eau</i> and variegated plantations there +previous to 1792.</p> + +<p>The Palace is now completely destroyed, there is not even a vestige +remaining, all is ruin. As we approached its sight several troops of +cavalry were exercising on the lawn. The stables, upon the left, have +escaped the fury of the Revolutionists. It is a magnificent building, +with all the appearance of a Palace itself. It was originally built for +240 horses. But 400 animals belonging to the Chasseurs stationed at +Chantilly are now quartered there without inconvenience.</p> + +<p>It is an immense oblong, well paved, with mangers and racks on either +side. In the centre is a spacious dome with several apartments now +occupied by the smiths of the regiment. All the stags’ heads which +ornamented the interior of the building have been struck off, only +stumps being left behind. There was formerly a pretty emblematical +figure over the reservoir of water under the dome, this has been +completely annihilated.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">JOURNEY TO CHANTILLY</div> + +<p>To the left of the stables is the <i>ménage</i>, an open<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span> circular +piece of ground, encircled by Doric pillars. Here we found the +subaltern officers of the regiment instructing their men in the art of +riding. The French soldiers, in general, keep their seats well, but +their position does not appear so easy as that of the English. They +ridicule our long trot as ungraceful, perhaps with some reason; but +horses and riders using it are better able to support a long journey +than a Frenchman, erect as a post, jogging on a dancing horse.</p> + +<p>On one side of the <i>ménage</i> is the court for carriages and +grooms, and a few yards behind the tennis court, as large as the one +at Versailles, enclosed in a noble stone building. A merchant has +purchased this place, and is resolved to reconvert it to its original +purpose. From these edifices, which are all in fair order, we advanced +to the scene of horror. The Palace is a heap of ruins; it was purchased +by two persons, who demolished it for the sake of the materials, which +they sold for above ten times the original purchase money. It is +just the name of these Vandals should descend to posterity, they are +Damois, an ironmonger of the Faubourg St. Antoine, Paris, and Boulet, a +carpenter of Compiègne.</p> + +<p>The Château d’Enghien has escaped, and is now used as a barrack for +Chasseurs. The Château of the Duc de Bourbon, where the family, +except on State occasions, formerly resided, was in the days of the +Revolutionary Tribunal converted into a prison, 750 prisoners were +therein confined; men and women intentionally herded together in the +same apartments, in defiance of decency. The Château of Bourbon has +been completely stripped of decorations and furniture, only the bare +walls remain. The beautiful bridge of La Volière, which formed the +communication between the Palace and the Island of Love, was broken +down lest the prisoners should escape over it.</p> + +<p>We traversed the lonely apartments, and were shown the study of +the exiled Prince de Condé, a room the former beauty of which the +mutilated paintings still remaining gave a lively idea. The gallery of +Conquest,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span> formerly filled with pictures representing the achievements +of Montmorencies and Condés, exhibits now merely a dead wall. As we +descended the staircase we observed the walls covered by inscriptions +of the names of prisoners, often accompanied by verses alluding to +their forlorn condition.</p> + +<p>The gallery of marble vases opposite to the Pavilion of Apollo, +consisting of twenty-two rams’ heads, which spouted into basins beneath +them, is utterly destroyed. The Island of Love is a bog, and the +Pavilion of Venus no more.</p> + +<p>At the foot of the grand staircase was once a <i>jet d’eau</i>, +remarkable for its size and beauty. It had a superb marble column in +the centre, around which swans sailed in majestic order, while immense +quantities of tench played upon the surface of the water. The column, +the <i>jet d’eau</i> and the swans have vanished—the water drawn off +and the tench devoured by the Revolutionary army. The romantic cottage +by the mill has been pulled down—the carcase of the dairy is still +standing, but every article it contained was pillaged, for our guide +remarked, “The Jacobins never slept as long as there was anything left +to seize.” The small cascade, situated opposite the menagerie, was +demolished for the sake of the leaden pipes, profitable articles of +sale, indeed <i>all</i> the leaden conduits were removed, so that the +numerous communications between the different reservoirs of water and +the court being destroyed, the waters in rainy weather overflow their +basins and pour upon the adjacent ground. Every step we went we trod in +water, and to this circumstance the wretched appearance of the Island +of Love is due.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">JOURNEY TO CHANTILLY</div> + +<p>There was formerly a great menagerie on the opposite side of the +court. The Revolutionary army condemned to death the beasts and birds +which inhabited it, on the ground that they were agents in the alleged +conspiracy of Condé to starve the people. But as they were apprehensive +these animals might make a rally, and feeling their courage unequal +to the shock of a pitched battle, and being afraid<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span> to butcher the +animals in detail, they stationed a couple of pieces of artillery on +the neighbouring height, and the onslaught commenced. A heavy fire was +opened on the imprisoned sovereigns of the forest by the sovereign +people—after a breach had been effected the drums beat a general +charge, the centre of the Revolutionary army advanced, bayonets fixed, +while the right and left wings kept up a smart fire of musketry upon +the invisible enemy. The army entered the breach, and the whole +garrison being put to the sword, the majesty of the people shone forth +in all its glory.</p> + +<p>A person who was an eye-witness of the affair described to me in detail +this patriotic act of carnage.</p> + +<p>At the end of the great court a place was erected by the Prince of +Condé for the accommodation of the sick who resorted there to drink the +water of a mineral spring. The spring is filled up, and four mills for +boring cannon supplant the building. The violence of destruction was so +great that the source of these mineral waters cannot now be traced. The +immense kitchen garden has been preserved, and the house, which once +belonged to Monsieur Hatorme, steward or <i>homme d’affaires</i> of +the Prince. It is now inhabited by Damois, the ironmonger, one of the +Vandals who bought and destroyed the Château. When the Jacobins came to +murder Monsieur Hatorme he fortunately escaped by a small secret door +at the back of the house.</p> + +<p>No better idea can be given of the general horror and desolation +effected everywhere by the Revolutionists than a sight of Chantilly. +Thistles and grass cover every part of the gardens, here and there a +few solitary tulips peep out of the earth. The fox that peeped through +the crevices of the desolate Castle of Ossian could not give a more +faithful conception of ruin than those lonely and deserted flowers.</p> + +<p>It would not be amiss to give here a description of Chantilly, given +fifteen years ago by that acute and intelligent traveller, Mr. Arthur +Young:</p> + +<p>“Chantilly! Magnificence is its reigning character.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span> The Château is +great and imposing. The gallery of the great Condé’s victories and the +cabinet of natural history, rich in fine specimens, most advantageously +arranged, demand particular notice. The stable exceeds anything of the +kind I have ever seen. It is 580 feet long and 40 broad, and is filled +with 240 English horses. I came to Chantilly prepossessed against the +idea of a court, but the one here is striking, and gives the effect +which magnificent scenes impress. This arises from extent and from the +right lines of the water uniting with the regularity of the object +in view. Lord Kaimes says the part of a garden contiguous to a house +should partake of the regularity of the building. The effect here +is lessened by the <i>parterre</i> before the Castle, in which the +divisions and the diminutive <i>jets d’eau</i> do not correspond in +size with that of the court.</p> + +<p>“The menagerie is very pretty, and exhibits a prodigious quantity of +domestic poultry from every part of the world, one of the best objects +to which a menagerie can be applied. The <i>hameau</i> contains an +imitation of an English garden. The most English idea I saw was the +lawn in front of the stables; it is large, of good verdure and well +kept. The labyrinth, the only complete one I have ever seen. In the +Sylvae are many fine and scarce plants. The great beech is the finest +I ever saw, straight as an arrow, between eighty and ninety feet in +height and twelve feet in diameter, five feet from the ground. Two +others near it are almost equal to this superb tree.”</p> + +<p>We were accompanied as guide at Chantilly by a man named Touret, +formerly <i>garde de chasse</i> to the Prince. He is a very sensible +and good-natured man. He was accused of an attachment to his ancient +master, and for that crime pursued by the Jacobins with unrelenting +vigour. He was compelled to fly into the woods, where he subsisted on +acorns, nuts and berries for several days, and concealed himself in +secluded haunts, which from his former situation as gamekeeper were +known to him.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">JOURNEY TO CHANTILLY</div> + +<p>The contrast between this poor faithful fellow and that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span> of Hautoir, +administrator of the district of Genlis, is great. The former, like +Shakespeare’s Adam, fled to the woods for the love he bore his master; +the latter is an ungrateful miscreant, who rioted on the spoils of his +ancient patron. The Prince of Condé had granted to this fellow, who was +originally a grocer, every species of parental favour and indulgence. +In return for these acts of kindness Hautoir marched at the head of the +Revolutionary army to the superb Château, opened it to the ravages of +those sanguinary vagabonds, and affixed the municipal seal on the doors +of his former benefactor.</p> + +<p>Fanaticism in those awful days transported many individuals to the +commission of outrages of which I have heard them now express the +deepest and most heartfelt repentance. This rogue could only plead a +thirst for pillage, which very shortly afterwards was signally proved +by his being publicly detected in a particularly mean theft.</p> + +<p>The Bishop of Châlons had a pretty pavilion on the lawn, which I have +already described. This prelate was compelled to fly, and his retreat +occupied by Jacobins. His property was seized and advertised for +sale. Hautoir,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> as administrator of the district, superintended the +business.</p> + +<p>While he was announcing the business of the day he was detected with +having in his pocket a valuable snuffbox belonging to the Bishop, +which he had stolen from the cabinet of the ecclesiastic when placing +seals on the property. He was not arrested owing to his position as +a Revolutionary delegate, but he was severely hissed at the auction, +deprived of his position, and now resides in obscurity at Morli la +Ville.</p> + +<p>After having taken leave of Touret, who had attended us from morning +till night during our three days’ excursions in the immense Forest of +Chantilly, which, with its territorial domains, extends to more than +one hundred miles in circumference, we drove from a spot where,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span> from +the charms of the surrounding country, the serenity of the season and +the uncommon attractions of all around us, we had passed the sweetest +days of melancholy we had ever experienced.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>VII<br> +<span class="subhed">JOURNEY TO S. DENYS, DESCRIPTION OF THAT PLACE AND THE FEUDAL CASTLE OF +ECOUEN. ARRIVAL IN PARIS</span></h2></div> + + +<p>The road to Luzarches from Chantilly is exceedingly pretty. After +passing through part of the Forest we entered upon a magnificent paved +road, bordered by trees and lands, which exhibited on either side a +<i>little</i> better cultivation than those we had hitherto passed.</p> + +<p>Luzarches is seven miles from Chantilly. We were compelled to stop for +some time at a miserable inn in this wretched town. One of the wheels +of our carriage was broken, and it was necessary to have it repaired. +In a miserable room, containing two dirty beds, cold and famished +(for we could not touch a morsel that was brought to us), we remained +seven hours. The wheel being repaired we proceeded to Ecouen and from +thence to S. Denys, but we quitted the public road for the purpose of +visiting the Castle of Ecouen, built by Anne de Montmorency, Constable +of France. The Château is completely stripped of furniture, even the +tapestry being torn away. Two hundred unhappy Vendéans were imprisoned +here. It was converted later into a military hospital. Upon the whole +nothing is now left of this stately Castle but the walls. It stands +on an eminence and commands an extensive prospect. There is a large +kitchen garden in front of the grand entrance. A Swiss, formerly in the +service of Spain during the siege of Gibraltar, is entrusted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span> with the +care of the place. He conducted us over every part of the Castle.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">JOURNEY TO S. DENYS</div> + +<p>It has all the appearance of a modern prison, and does not convey that +appearance of feudal grandeur which distinguishes the Castles on the +banks of the Danube and the Rhine.</p> + +<p>We arrived at a late hour at the S. Denys post-house, where we were +well lodged and comfortably entertained, and early the next day went to +visit the Cathedral.</p> + +<p>My astonishment was great when the old Swiss, whom I remembered ten +years before, opened the door, and I perceived this once beautiful +gothic edifice was a heap of ruins. My guide entered into my sentiments +of horror and disgust, and certainly did not spare the authors of +this devastation. The tombs and mausoleums of the Kings and Queens +of France, of Guesclin, of Turenne, and of the most illustrious +warriors and great men, were deposited in various compartments of +the Cathedral, and formed a striking and splendid decoration. But +these, together with the oriflamme of Clovis, the sceptre and sword +of Charlemagne, the portrait and sword of the Maid of Orleans, the +bronze chair of Dagobert, the reliques and shrines, royal robes and +crowns, ancient manuscripts and an immense number of curiosities, +sacred and profane—now all vanished; some destroyed: others, by the +industry of Monsieur Le Noir, removed to the museum of French monuments +in Paris. The Cathedral is unroofed, and it is fraught with peril to +traverse any part of it, for stones are continually falling. Our Swiss +described with minute precision where every tomb stood, from Pepin to +Louis XV. A small room formerly used as a sacristy our pious guardian +had converted into an ossory. And here lay in one indistinguished +heap the bones of kings, princes and heroes, who for ages had slept +undisturbed in the mansions of death. I inquired into the cause of +all this ruthless destruction, and was told that the Revolutionary +Committee of S. Denys, composed of twelve citizens, six of whom were +labouring men, decreed that this ancient and noble ornament of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span> their +town should be pulled to pieces for the sake of the lead and iron it +contained. Their determination was carried into effect, on the plea +that arts and science were of no utility to mankind, and that respect +for the habitations of the dead was a mark of puerile superstition. +At that time Lavoisier was executed, being told at his trial that the +French Republic stood in no need of chemists. After we had quitted the +Cathedral we visited the chapel of Mesdames de France. When we entered +Divine service was being celebrated therein. The chapel has been +stripped of all its ornaments, and was scarcely worth the trouble of a +walk to visit it.</p> + +<p>S. Denys is not distant more than four miles from Paris.</p> + +<p>The approach to the capital is through a wide and magnificent paved +road, bordered with double rows of trees, on either side of which are +extensive and well-cultivated fields of corn and other grain; but none +of those neat and diversified habitations are seen which in our country +denote the fruits of commercial industry and mercantile opulence. +For that order of men, whom we in England denominate country squires +or persons living on their own small estates, the Republic has done +nothing; in truth, there are no such persons in France, neither are +there any country houses erected with a view to their being inhabited +by such a description of beings, much less by merchants and tradesmen. +In the “great nation” nothing is so conspicuous as disparity or in +other words inequality. Magnificence and filth, opulence and beggary +are beside each other. There is no medium in France; in fact, the +great middle class which in our country intervenes between rich and +poor and forms the solid Doric pillar of society, is unknown in any +European country but Great Britain. This class is the most substantial +boon for the consolidation of an enlightened form of government; it is +the nursery of statesmen, freedom, and equal laws; to the want of it +France may ascribe the origin of the greater part of her misfortunes, +to the possession of it England is indebted for her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span> independence, her +regulated power, and her system of jurisprudence.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">JOURNEY TO S. DENYS</div> + +<p>Rational liberty can never flourish where there are no classes but +high and low. Laws can never be executed, except by the point of the +bayonet, in any State where a numerous body of men do not exist who are +sufficiently independent to prevent the oppressions of the great from +trampling the poor under foot and sufficiently strong to repress the +reaction of the poor on the property and security of the great.</p> + +<p>Every thinking Englishman must feel the dissolution of this middling +order of men would transform the State into an absolute military power, +or, what is worse, a tyrannical and licentious democracy. This argument +finds an apt illustration in a great commercial city which is under +aristocratic government. Hamburg, by the encouragement afforded to +that body, is one of the best regulated cities of Europe. Multitudes +of country seats belonging to traders are scattered plentifully on +the banks of the Elbe; and even Denmark, although a purely absolute +monarchy, owes much of its happiness and strength to the importance +attached to this order of men—an order which in France has never so +far existed. Hence during the old monarchy despotism wantoned in power, +or was mildly exercised according to the views and inclinations of the +rulers, while during every stage of the Republic the leaders of the +people, drunk with authority, wallowed in the blood of their fellow +citizens. At this very moment an absolute military despot is governing +the country, and the people are, as before, mere slaves, insecure of +property or personal security.</p> + +<p>The entrance to Paris from S. Denys is not calculated to give a +foreigner a favourable idea of the capital. The city has every +appearance of filth and poverty, and the Triumphal Arch or Porte S. +Denys, under which we passed, has such a sombre cast as to give the +traveller the impression that he is going into the courtyard of a +prison. I ordered the postillion to drive to the hotel in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span> the Rue +Coquenon, where I resided in 1792 and 1793, and where I had left all my +books.</p> + +<p>When we arrived there I saw written in large letters over the +<i>porte-cochère</i> “<i>Maison de Commission</i>.” I alighted and +inquired what had become of the former proprietor. I was told that +he had been guillotined. We then drove to the Hôtel Morigny, where I +afterwards learnt a celebrated Corsican, when times went hard with him, +lodged in a small apartment at seven shillings per week. There were, +however, no rooms vacant, we therefore took up our lodgings at the Coq +Heron—an hotel lately established and kept by an Englishman named +Guillandeau, the greatest blackguard in Christendom.</p> + +<p>We afterwards removed to private apartments in the Rue Mirabeau, +<i>ci-devant</i> Chaussée d’Antin.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>VIII<br> +<span class="subhed">A DESCRIPTION OF THE <i>MODE</i></span></h2></div> + + +<p>I am once more in Paris. A thousand painful recollections obtrude +themselves on my mind, and I am almost afraid to inquire after my +former acquaintances. I know not where I shall address myself for +information, or where I shall first set my foot. When I reflect upon +the strange vicissitudes of fortune I have experienced; when I recall +the whirlpool of danger I have passed, and the proscription which, +with some mean and pusillanimous minds, is still considered to hang +over me, I am doubtful whether I am prudent to venture again into the +source of all my injuries. The motive that brought me from England, the +desire of ascertaining the fate of a relative, so dearly beloved and so +long lost, gives strength to my resolution and dissipates my personal +anxieties. But I am both low and dejected in mind and spirits.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A DESCRIPTION OF THE <i>MODE</i></div> + +<p>I will attempt to give a faithful account of this capital, which may +be considered as the manufactory whence all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span> the horrors and changes +of the <i>Revolution</i> have originated. France as a country should +not be judged by the dissolute principles of the inhabitants of her +metropolis. In the provinces remote from the centre of government as +much character and simplicity exist as in the best regulated empires.</p> + +<p>The <i>Revolution</i> may in <i>some</i> degree have changed the +innocence of the peasantry, and corrupted the primitive integrity of +their character. The cause of this may be traced to the artifices of +demagogues and atheists. In the mountains of the Vosges, in La Vendée +and in the South-Western parts of the Republic, the people of both town +and country possess an originality of character founded on sentiments +of generosity and virtue. But in many Departments of the Republic, +particularly the Department of the Seine, every principle of Society is +inverted, and Society itself is loathsome, abhorrent, corrupt, poisoned +and poisonous.</p> + +<p>My first duty was to visit those old friends who had survived the +general wreck of moral order. From them I hoped to learn the history of +those who had perished. With an anxious mind I hastened after dinner to +the Rue Jacob, in the Faubourg S. Germain, to see if my old friend M. +Suédaeur was alive. I inquired if the doctor resided there; the answer +was affirmative, but he was not at home. I proceeded to the Rue Niçoise +and found M. de la Metherie in perfect health and better spirits than +on that gloomy night in 1793 when we last parted. From him I learnt +the fatal end of many of my acquaintance, but he mentioned several who +were not only in existence but prosperous, and gave me considerable +encouragement in what was the main object of my journey to Paris.</p> + +<p>I returned home to find a citizen hairdresser playing the devil with my +wife’s locks. He had so clipped and twisted them as to give her the air +of a person just issued from the bath. Upon my seriously remonstrating +against this wild appearance, he very coolly informed me that it was +<i>La Mode</i>, and unless my pate was better organised it would be +impossible for me to go into good<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span> company. I immediately submitted +to an operation. My tail was instantly amputated and the hair of my +unfortunate head frizzled into such a multitude of compound forms as +to give me precisely the appearance of one of the ourang outangs which +is to be seen over Exeter Change. Having undergone this ceremony, I +supposed I was now in the <i>Mode</i>. But no! He pulled from his +pocket two horrible whiskers, which were to extend from my cheek bones +and meet at the bottom of my chin, and another piece of hair which was +to be hid under my neckcloth and fly up so as to cover my chin.</p> + +<p>“What is all this apparatus for?”</p> + +<p>“To complete you in the Parisian <i>mode</i>.”</p> + +<p>“I will not submit to be made into a baboon.”</p> + +<p>“But, sir, you must! It is <i>La Mode</i>!”</p> + +<p>“I tell you I will not obey <i>La Mode</i>!”</p> + +<p>“Donc, monsieur, vous êtes perdu!”</p> + +<p>“If you trouble me with another word on this subject I shall be under +the indispensable necessity of knocking you down.”</p> + +<p>Thus by an act of matchless fortitude I rescued myself from the hands +of this prattler, but not till he had extracted from me eighteen +shillings for having made my companion look wild, myself like a monkey, +and annoyed me with perfumes and gallipots.</p> + +<p>Before we were allowed to retire to rest a tailor, a hatter and a +glover made their appearance. All honest tradesmen in Paris are really +to be pitied, a long and sanguinary war has ruined their commerce, and +these poor hungry wretches are as voracious as sharks. It is impossible +to complain of them. To all these civil gentlemen I returned a plain +answer, saying I had brought from England every article necessary for +use during my residence in France. On which they retired with great +politeness, and left me for the first time in nine years to take repose +in the capital of a nation whose former rulers thirsted to shed our +blood.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span></p> + +<h2>IX<br> +<span class="subhed">ATTENDANCE UPON THE MINISTER OF POLICE</span></h2></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">THE MINISTER OF POLICE</div> + +<p>The following morning my landlord informed me I must at once wait upon +the Minister of Police, present my passport and have it ratified. +He added that otherwise he might be called to account, as police +emissaries called frequently and unexpectedly at every hotel to +ascertain the names of the residents.</p> + +<p>Accordingly I engaged a very good chariot at six guineas a week for my +stay in Paris, and after paying my respect to our Minister, Mr. Jackson +(the British Embassy is lodged in the Faubourg S. Germain), I hastened +to the office of the notorious Fouché,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> the Minister of Police, on +the Quai Voltaire, opposite the Louvre, where I was admitted into an +ante-chamber, crowded with ninety persons; their number I knew because +on entering I received a billet marked 91 from a soldier. I had to wait +two hours and a half for my audience.</p> + +<p>During this long period I was able to make the following observations. +I was never more surprised than at the want of courtesy shown to +females in a country which has always boasted more of its gallantry +than its virtue. Several well-dressed ladies received their billets +long after mine, but when I offered them the precedence, the brute who +attends the entrance pushed them back with disgusting insolence and +violence. I remarked that I cheerfully resigned my right to the ladies; +he replied with a savage sneer, “If you don’t choose to take your turn, +pass to the bottom.” In this ante-chamber stood a motley group whose +countenances evidently bespoke the sentiments of their hearts. The +returned emigrants might easily be distinguished, supple<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span> and servile, +and never suffering the lowest commissary of police, who wore a little +gold or silver tinsel about his coat, to pass without offering him a +profound reverence. And they were right, for the ancient aristocracy +were lofty and self-conceited, but affable and courteous withal. +The modern aristocracy of France, that is those men who have been +transplanted from the dunghill to the exercise of public functions, +are, in general, brutal in their manners to inferiors, cringing to +their superiors and insolent to unofficial persons, they also show +strong traits of a ferocity of character.</p> + +<p>An unanswerable proof of this degeneracy may be found in the degraded +condition of the fair sex, who are no longer treated with that decorous +respect which heretofore characterised the French people. This is a +nation of soldiers, not cavaliers—not a solitary blade would leap +out of its scabbard to resent an insult to the finest woman in the +Republic. The sword here is now used, not for the defence of the +feeble, but as an instrument to acquire wealth and power.</p> + +<p>The Republican soldier is fully as brave as was the soldier of the +Royal army, but he is destitute of the honour and urbanity which +distinguished the latter.</p> + +<p>An army of soldiers, organised for conquest, propelled by avarice, and +inured to victory, resemble more the hordes of an Attila or Ghengiz +Khan, than the forces of a polished Empire. The Republican troops +are now masters of the State, their defeats obliterated, and their +victories confirmed by triumphing over the liberties of their fellow +citizens.</p> + +<p>The other personages who composed this assembly were waggoners, +farmers, tradesmen, persons about to depart for the colonies, ladies, +and common women. An army subaltern officer came in while we were +waiting; without taking a billet he entered the bureau, every person +hastily making way for him. I inquired of the doorkeeper the reason of +his admittance before his turn, and he replied that no officer of the +army was ever kept waiting.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE MINISTER OF POLICE</div> + +<p>We were drawn up in the ante-chamber in two opposite lines, like files +of soldiers. A sentinel patrolled backwards and forwards with a drawn +bayonet in his hand and maintained discipline. If any one happened to +advance a little too forward, he or she received a far from gentle tap +from the bayonet to compel them to keep their position.</p> + +<p>When at length I was admitted into the bureau I was informed that in +consequence of a recent regulation the business of examining passports +and giving certificates was transferred to the office of the Prefect, +on the Quai du Louvre, the other side of the river.</p> + +<p>In the office of the Prefect I experienced no delay. The passport I had +received from the Calais Municipality was taken from me and I received +another in exchange. On its top was a figure of the Republic, garbed +as Minerva, her right hand supported by the fasces and a hatchet. In +her left she holds a spear, at her feet a game-cock, standing on one +leg, denotes vigilance. On either side are the laughable words in this +country: “Egalité, Liberté, Fraternité,” and below as follows, which I +insert by way of contrast to passports of former times:</p> + + +<p class="center sm">PREFECTURE DE POLICE.</p> + +<p>We, Prefect of the Police of Paris, invite the Civil and Military +Authorities to permit to pass freely in this Commune, Henry Redhead +Yorke, English Gentleman, who declares he lodges in Paris, at the Hôtel +Coq Heron, accompanied by his wife. The present pass is only to be in +force two months, when it must be revised at the Prefecture, under +penalty of being arrested, conformably to the law of the 4th Floreal, +year three. Done at the Prefecture of Police, Paris, 23 Germinal, Year +10 of the Republic, one and indivisible.</p> + +<p class="r6">(Signed) For the Prefect,</p> + +<p class="r2 p-min">(Here followed an illegible signature.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span></p> + + +<p class="center sm">OFFICE OF PASSPORTS.</p> + +<p><b>Note</b>:—No passport will be delivered on this pass, and the +bearer arrested if he be found elsewhere in France, save in the +Department of the Seine.</p> + +<p>For a longer residence than two months in Paris a petition must be made +to the Prefect of Police, without delay.</p> + +<p>Residence must not be changed without permission.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Then followed description of my appearance, age, person and signature. +On changing my residence the Secretary wrote the day of the month, the +street and number of the house upon my pass and returned it to me.</p> + +<p>The want of a pass is attended by disagreeable circumstances. One such +occurred to me a day or two after our arrival at Paris. Being desirous +of saving a little distance on my way to the Pont Neuf, I was stopped +by a sentinel and my pass demanded; but not having it about me, and +notwithstanding my plea of being a foreigner, I was compelled to make a +very considerable <i>détour</i> before I reached my destination.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE PRESENT STATE OF FRANCE</div> + +<p>In England no one would tolerate the introduction of such a system +which would prove the destruction of commerce. There are merchants +who travel from Bristol, Manchester, and Liverpool to London, merely +to settle in the course of a few hours their great concerns and then +to return. Conceive what an obstacle to their affairs would be a +two hours’ attendance in the ante-chamber of a Minister of Police. +Suspicion is the result of fear—the jealousy of a despotism doubtful +of its existence—a system proper for the present government of France. +But there is more <i>charbonnerie</i> than effective vigour in the +boasted police of M. Fouché. If the French Government be seriously +inclined to extend their commerce there must be a relaxation in this +perplexing system of police, they must give free scope to industry,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span> +and not jealously inquire into the motives which may lead their fellow +countrymen to visit the capital or pass from one district of France to +another. If the present plan is continued the revenues will be less +productive, and the support of an immense military, as well as the +extensive pageantry of a pompous Government, will be provided for with +difficulty and only by imposing severe taxes which depress and ruin the +cause of agriculture.</p> + +<p>I would not dare to affirm that these consequences are to be traced +exclusively to police espionage; but when this latter is contemplated +as a brand of a widely extended system of jealous government, it enters +into a consideration and forms a constituent of a policy the French +Republic will long have good reason to deplore.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>X<br> +<span class="subhed">GENERAL VIEW OF THE PRESENT STATE OF FRANCE</span></h2></div> + + +<p>Without a preconcerted plan a person who visits Paris will be lost +among the multitude of captivating subjects which require his +attention, and he will return to his native country having seen many +things but obtained a knowledge of none.</p> + +<p>Apart from the private motive which brought me here I live in France +only for the good of my country.</p> + +<p>My inquiries, conversations and labours, are directed to that end. +On the final result of this examination of the state of the French +Republic depends my future resolutions and my future destiny.</p> + +<p>After twelve years of active engagement on the disturbed theatre of +public life; after having seen the rise and fall of contending factions +at home and abroad; after having beheld the theories I had studied +completely belie themselves in practice, I may, I think, be entitled to +give an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span> opinion on political occurrences and public establishments.</p> + +<p>On such considerations I proceed to describe the governments, laws, +institutions, manners, relative form, internal resources and ultimate +view of a people, whom I have seen at one time frivolous, abject and +superstitious; at another period starting like Lazarus from a dead +repose, roused to a vindication of national liberty; afterwards the +base tools of sanguinary demagogues, furious, vindictive and cowardly, +renouncing their obligations to God and man, and astounding the +civilised world by their folly and their crime—next sighing after that +regulated freedom and social order for which they had shed the blood of +millions, but never been worthy or able enough to establish; lastly, +conscious of their unfitness to be free, relapsing again into the +bosom of that ancient despotism, which they had disdainfully trodden +under foot, with all the superadded terrors of military government, +and a suspicious administration; laughing at the very names of public +virtue and public liberty, and themselves the terror and the mockery +of Europe. These are great events, worthy of solemn investigation; +they have no parallel in the history of mankind. The principal agents +in these scenes merit alternate pity and indignation, but the scenes +themselves illustrate and present to our minds during the short space +of ten years the history of men for ages.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XI<br> +<span class="subhed">DESCRIPTION OF LONGCHAMPS. BOIS DE BOULOGNE AND THE BOULEVARDS</span></h2></div> + + +<p>Strangers in Paris are always recommended to visit the theatres and +places of public amusements. Arts, manufactures, courts of justice, +useful institutions and distinguished characters in the literary and +political worlds rarely trouble. We arrived in good time to see<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span> the +Easter Promenade de Longchamps in the Bois de Boulogne. This ceremony +is for the time uppermost in the heads of the Parisians, it was the +only subject of conversation; and every one quitted his house and shop +to take a share in the spectacle. The uninitiated might therefore +conclude that this favourite diversion of the public was a grand and +splendid scene, rivalling the marriage of the Adriatic or the Carnival +at Rome.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">BOIS DE BOULOGNE</div> + +<p>It is on the contrary an insipid and contemptible show, consisting +merely in the procession of a long string of coaches, cabriolets, +carts and horsemen; with a few boobies mounted on asses, making wry +faces, and a number of Merry Andrews playing fantastic antics for the +diversion of the populace. There was much noise but no real mirth.</p> + +<p>The Bois de Boulogne has been extolled, but it presents no object +or <i>coup d’œil</i> either agreeable or attractive. The roads are +miserable tracks of sand, and the <i>Wood</i> (?) contains no lofty +trees, it consists of an extensive copse, composed of shrubs, none of +which exceed eight feet in height. There is a sheet of water laden with +boats, which plain calculating English Islanders would call a duckpond.</p> + +<p>On our return from this excursion we drove round the Boulevards of +Paris. They are by far the most pleasant, neat and lively parts of +the capital. Indeed, the expressions I have employed do not convey an +adequate idea of their beauty and elegance. They extend around the city +12,100 yards in length, and are at least eighty feet wide, bordered by +four rows of trees, which form three alleys, the middle for the use of +carriages and horsemen and the two collateral ones for passengers on +foot.</p> + +<p>On the Northern Boulevards the fashionable and idle resort to while +away their time in theatres and puppet shows—at Tivoli, Frascati, +public baths and eating-houses; but especially at an exhibition of +waxwork, so horrible and disgusting that its mere description would<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span> +make the hair of the most abandoned English libertine stand on end.</p> + +<p>I feel no hesitation in saying that I would rather a child of mine +should inhabit hell itself than be a spectator of what I have seen +there.</p> + +<p>The Southern Boulevard is more agreeable and serene; it has more +moral views, and though no meretricious forms render it the haunt +of fashionable votaries, there is an air of tranquillity about it, +which denotes the absence of guilt and the resort of innocence. This +is the part frequented by the industrious tradesman and his family. +There are two public gardens on the Northern Boulevard, which from the +decorum observed there are justly deserving of encomium, especially +when contrasted with other public places in Paris. I mean Tivoli and +Frascati.</p> + +<p>Tivoli is celebrated for its mineral waters and baths as well as its +garden. The French compare its walks to those of our Vauxhall, but +the comparison is ridiculous, as well compare the sun to a farthing +rushlight. In the first place there are no variegated lamps. The +gardens are not lighted at all except the platform appropriated to +dancing.</p> + +<p>The <i>sheet of water</i> is about sixty yards long and three yards +broad. Upon this the gay Parisians perform their nautical exploits or +<i>promenade sur l’eau</i>. The illuminations and fireworks are on such +an inferior scale that the price of admission, three livres (or half a +crown), is absolutely exorbitant. Frascati, at the corner of the rue +de la Loi, on the boulevard, is the most elegant lounge in Paris. The +garden is small but well lighted—along each walk are busts of the +French and English poets, and at the extremity of the principal one is +a pretty little hermitage, arranged with great taste. Nothing is paid +for admission, the proprietors are amply compensated by the prices +the fashionable company of Paris pay for the exquisite ices in the +form of peaches and other refreshments supplied at no very immoderate +price. There is no place of public amusement here which unites<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span> so much +elegance with decency, and I was never satisfied with the fascinations +of Frascati <i>below stairs</i>. Above the apartments are reserved for +gamblers.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE BOULEVARDS</div> + +<p>Chantilly, in the Champs Elysées, is a lower kind of Tivoli, a franc +is the price of admission, which includes refreshments. The inferior +orders in France conduct themselves with more propriety and are less +riotous than the Londoners who assemble at Bagnigge Wells and the +so-called tea gardens of our Metropolis.</p> + +<p>On the other side of the water, near the residence of the British +Minister, in the Faubourg S. Germain, is a fashionable walk in the +Garden of Biron. But that which gave me most pleasure was the solitary +and unfrequented garden of the Luxembourg. To this solitude I fled +when I wished to avoid the noise of Paris. It was also a place of +conversation with my friends. Here I learnt the <i>true</i> history of +the French Revolution from personages who had distinguished themselves +in that wonderful event, here I was instructed in the characters of +those who now govern France; this was the rendezvous of concealed +Royalists and avowed Republicans. I shall never forget the walks in the +Gardens of the Luxembourg. We were too remote from the office of Fouché +for our whispers to reach it, and we were too well guarded to become +objects of suspicion.</p> + +<p>The Government are now repairing the Palace, and the new Senate is to +hold its sittings there. The garden will then be cleared and beautified.</p> + +<p>There are three or four other public walks in Paris. The Gardens of the +Arsenal, the Soubise and the Temple, but they are totally deserted. +The garden of the Tuileries, attached to the residence of the First +Consul, the Garden of the Palais Royal and the Jardin des Plantes I +have not yet described. Each of these gardens has been the scene of +extraordinary events and deserve a detailed account and description.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span></p> + +<h2>XII<br> +<span class="subhed">GARDEN OF THE TUILERIES. FOUNDATIONS OF THE REPUBLIC. ANECDOTE OF MLLE. +THÉROUANNE. KNIGHTS OF THE POIGNARD. NATIONAL CONVENTION. TRIAL OF +LOUIS XVI. ATTEMPT TO SAVE HIM</span></h2></div> + + +<p>The garden of the Tuileries is large and handsome. It evokes the +memories of the glorious efforts of the brave Swiss Guard, murdered for +their fidelity to their trust on August 10, 1792. I have been informed +on very good authority that if the King could have been persuaded to +remain in the Palace, surrounded by his faithful guards, the victory +would have terminated in favour of the Royal cause. Several persons +who were then members of the Legislative Assembly have assured me the +majority of the Convention never dreamt of a deposition until they +perceived their victim at their mercy. The King’s fatal resolution +determined those who were yet undecided. But even then it was supposed +Royalty would be continued in different hands. The Orleans faction +were, however, afraid to exert their power. Those engaged in the +conspiracy of the Duke neglected to seize the moment and thus secure +their object. They were duped by men who had no share in their +treachery, a convincing proof that in political matters too much +refinement and fine-spun preliminaries will never avail against unity +of principle.</p> + +<p>Above a month elapsed before the Orleans faction and the Republican +party felt their mutual strength. The former were employed in sounding +the minds of others and in treaty; the latter, while they held out +encouraging hopes to the former, were concentrating their forces and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span> +preparing to strike a decisive blow. Thus they compelled the Orleans +party to become their blind instruments.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">FOUNDATIONS OF THE REPUBLIC</div> + +<p>At length the National Convention assembled on September 21; the +Orleans party awaited with eager expectation that some distinguished +member of the other side, with whom they had been tampering, should +move the deposition of King Louis. They then intended to propose a +Regent should be nominated in the person of Philippe of Orleans.<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +The Republicans, however, expected a motion for the total abolition of +Royalty.</p> + +<p>A solemn pause ensued. How the heart of Orleans must have palpitated! +On a sudden the thunder burst from an unexpected quarter; it was +reserved for an ecclesiastic to pronounce the doom of a throne which +had existed for centuries. Gregoire,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Bishop of Blois, exclaimed:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Why debate when all are agreed? Kings are in the moral economy +of the world what monsters are in the natural; Courts are the +repositories of crimes and the dens of tyrants. The history of +Kings is the martyrology of nations. As we are all convinced of +these truths, why, I repeat, should we debate?</p> +</div> + +<p>This speech operated like an electric shock upon the Convention, the +members rose <i>en masse</i>, and called for <i>the question</i>. This +proposition was then decreed: <span class="smcap">Royalty is Abolished in France</span>. +Thus vanished the prospects of Orleans and his abettors, and so was a +Republic established in France.</p> + +<p>The fears and listlessness of Louis XVI. were the proximate causes +which led to his ruin and overthrow. As a corroborating proof of this +statement I give the evidence of a young and beautiful but fanatical +girl, Mademoiselle Thérouanne de Mirecourt,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> who has repeatedly +declared to me <i>que c’était la poltronnerie seule du tyran qui sauva +la France</i>.</p> + +<p>Before I quit this subject I cannot avoid noticing the character of +this young woman. During the attack upon the Tuileries she headed +a body of pikemen and showed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span> absolute fearlessness and marvellous +courage. I have often been in her company, and remarked that she +possessed by nature a fund of humanity and a tolerable share of +information; but that vanity, desire of popularity and fanaticism made +her wild, savage and ferocious. One day she invited me to breakfast +with her, and on my entering her apartment I beheld a pike, a sword, a +brace of pistols, and suspended over the chimney-piece the <i>bonnet +rouge</i>; scattered about the floor lay above a hundred books and +pamphlets, on her bed newspapers, on her table Marat’s <i>Ami du +Peuple</i>. On my inquiry why a lady of her charms kept such dreadful +instruments in her room, she replied: “No compliments, Citizen. Society +is undergoing a change, a grand re-organisation, and women are about +to resume their rights. We shall no more be flattered in order to be +enslaved, these arms have dethroned the tyrant, and conquered freedom. +Sit down and take your chocolate.”</p> + +<p>With all this severity of character she possessed some attractions and +captured the heart of John Sheares,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> who was executed for treason +during the late rebellion. His affection for her was so great that he +proposed marriage to her. Had he been gratified in his inclination +there is good reason to suppose <i>he</i> might have been now alive, +and <i>she</i> in a happy situation. For he often assured me that +should his suit prove successful he would abandon politics altogether +and retire into private life. He was one of the finest young men I ever +beheld, and a handsomer pair would have rarely been seen. But fortune +decided their fate should be disastrous. When he tendered his proposals +she pulled a pistol from her pocket and threatened to shoot him if he +said another word upon the subject. <i>He</i> returned to Ireland, to +fall a victim five years later to offended justice. <i>She</i> is now +in a miserable state of insanity, confined in a madhouse in the Rue de +Sèvre, Faubourg S. Germain.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">KNIGHTS OF THE POIGNARD</div> + +<p>The Garden of the Tuileries brings to my recollection the famous story +of the Knights of the Poignard, when on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span> February 23, 1791, a number +of the Knights of S. Louis were <i>supposed</i> to have entered into a +conspiracy to carry off the King. I was present on the occasion, and a +spectator of the scene. An immense concourse of people collected about +the Palace, and there was much noisy talk about concealed daggers, but +I saw none, nor any blade save that of La Fayette’s<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> sword, who, +mounted on his white charger, galloped to and fro as if the fate of the +world depended on his actions.</p> + +<p>One moment he formed the National Guard into line. At the next he +ordered them to file off, then he dismounted and bolted into the +Palace—in a trice he was again on horseback—in short he created +more alarm among the people than if an Austrian army had reached the +barriers. At length, after a great deal of marching, counter-marching, +bustling and puffing, the Marquis assured the mob that all was safe. +Here followed great applause, and the populace quietly dispersed. Some +Knights of S. Louis were present and were very roughly handled by the +people, but no other motive had carried them to the Tuileries except +an anxious desire to defend the King against attacks by the mob. There +is one fact established by this event, that even at that period Louis +XVI. was respected by the people, and they considered their security to +be identified by his person. I have not the least doubt that a decided +majority of the people of France would at this day rejoice in the +restoration of their ancient line of Princes.</p> + +<p>The Hall used by the National Convention stands on one side of the +Tuileries garden. It was formerly the King’s stables. It is the +intention of the First Consul to restore it to its original purpose.</p> + +<p>Curiosity induced me to enter a place which had been the focus of so +many revolutions, where the Republic was declared, the unhappy King +tried, and more bloody tragedies performed in one twelvemonth than in +all Europe in the space of two hundred years.</p> + +<p>I found it completely dismantled, the galleries,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span> the Tribune, the flag +of Liberty that was planted over the Bastille and suspended in triumph +over the centre of the hall, all have been destroyed, even the floor +removed, and we trod upon the bare earth. The place was, however, so +familiar to me that I was able to give my companion a very accurate +description of it, and to point out the spot on which the unfortunate +King was placed during his trial.</p> + +<p>Now that I am upon this subject I will mention some circumstances +respecting this event which have not, I believe, been ever made known +to the public. I was present at the trial and sat very near to the +King. Before he was brought to the bar, it was decreed, on the motion +of one Legendre,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> a butcher, that “No person, except the President, +should be permitted to speak a word while Louis Capet was present.” +Legendre premised his motion by this remark: “Citizen President, I +demand that this Assembly preserves the mournful silence of the tomb, +so that when the bloody tyrant enters it may strike his guilty soul +with horror.” This speech was received with unbounded applause, and the +bloodstained hypocrite Barrère,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> who was President, apostrophised +the people on the propriety of observing silence. There were very few +people of respectable or even decent appearance in the galleries; they +were filled with the vilest rabble. During the night preceding this +mock trial the people in the galleries kept themselves awake by singing +the Marseillaise hymn, which was vociferated more than a hundred +times. The officers of the National Guard provided wine and cakes for +those who were willing to purchase them. In the morning the deputies +assembled and proceeded upon the order of the day, Santerre,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> the +brewer, being despatched to the Temple to conduct the King to the +Convention.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE NATIONAL CONVENTION</div> + +<p>It was arranged the President should first read the whole of the +charges and then propose them severally to the King, demanding answers. +He was authorised to interrogate the monarch, and any refusal to answer +was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span> to be construed into a confession of guilt. Santerre now presented +himself at the bar, and thus addressed the President:</p> + +<p>“Citizen President, Louis Capet awaits your orders.”</p> + +<p>Before Barrère<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> had time to reply, Mailhé, one of the Secretaries, +exclaimed: “Bring him in!” The King attended by several of the officers +of the Paris Etat[AAÉtat?]-Majeur, and followed by Santerre, then +advanced to the bar, standing erect and firm, and casting (as it seemed +to me) a look of defiance upon the silent Assembly. A little before the +King entered a member of the Convention said to an Englishman who was +present: “This will give you a correct idea of your country in the last +century.” To which he replied with uncommon spirit: “No, indeed, we +shall see too many tricks here.”</p> + +<p>I watched the King with the minutest attention, and I observed that in +looking round the assembly, he cast his eye upon the standards taken +from the Austrians and Prussians, and gave a sudden start, from which, +however, he recovered himself in an instant.</p> + +<p>A wooden chair was brought, upon which Barrère invited him to be +seated. He then read the whole of the charges, during which the King +fixed his eyes attentively upon him. To every charge he answered +directly, without premeditation, and with such skilful propriety that +the audience were astonished.</p> + +<p>When he was accused of shedding the blood of Frenchmen he raised his +voice with all the conscientiousness of innocence, and replied: “No, +sir, I have never shed the blood of any Frenchman.” His spirit was +evidently wounded at this charge, and I perceived a tear trickle down +his cheek; but, as if unwilling to give his enemies an opportunity of +weakness in his conduct, he instantaneously wiped his face and forehead +to denote he was oppressed by heat.</p> + +<p>After all his answers had been obtained several papers were handed to +him, with some degree of politeness, by one of the Huissiers. This +civility was a contrast to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span> brutal behaviour of Mailhé,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> the +Secretary, who was afterwards desired to present some papers to the +King. These papers were said to have been signed by the monarch, and +to have been found in a box concealed in a secret part of his cabinet. +Their contents were not of great importance, but the object of the +Convention was to identify the King’s handwriting. A chair was placed +for Mailhé close to the King, but within the bar. Immediately he was +seated the unfeeling monster turned it completely round, so as to face +the President and show his back to the King. The insulted monarch +felt the affront, and showed by the manner in which he resented it +a proud superiority over his dastardly enemy. He rose from his seat +and remained on his legs during the whole of the examination. Mailhé +retained his position, and, sitting with one leg crossed over the +other, read aloud each paper and then handed it over his right shoulder +to the sovereign, accompanied each time by the query: “Louis, is that +your handwriting?” The unfortunate monarch snatched it abruptly from +his hand and answered indignantly: “No, it is <i>not</i> my writing.”</p> + +<p>A multitude of papers were presented on the one part and denied on the +other, in the same style.</p> + +<p>Finally Mailhé rose from his seat, exclaiming dramatically, “Louis +denies everything! Louis recollects nothing at all!”</p> + +<p>A voice from the boxes, behind the Deputies, shouted: “Take off his +head!” but it was not noticed.</p> + +<p>Thus far victory was on the side of the King. Never were charges more +completely refuted by a forsaken individual, deprived of the support of +friends or counsel.</p> + +<p>The President was at a loss how to proceed. Barbaroux<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and several +Deputies rushed up to his chair and whispered in his ear. This confused +him the more. At length Manuel,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> nicknamed the Solon or Solomon or +Socrates of France (I forget which), advanced into the area of the +hall, and in a bungling manner said: “President, the representatives +of the people have decreed that none of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span> us shall speak while the +King—Louis, I mean—is amongst us. Now I propose that Louis be made +to withdraw for a little while, so that every member may deliver his +opinion.”</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE NATIONAL CONVENTION</div> + +<p>No words can give an idea of the silly appearance of Manuel when he +found the word <i>King</i> had escaped from his lips. At the sound of +that name I perceived Legendre,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> his body writhing and distorted, +preparing to bellow. As he was sitting down he gave Bourdon l’Oise<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +a tremendous box on the ear for calling him to order, which the other +returned by a sound blow in the face.</p> + +<p>Several Deputies parted them. In the midst of this confusion, when all +the members were talking together, Barrère rang his bell and told the +King he might withdraw. The King then said to the President: “I request +to have the assistance of counsel,” and then withdrew before an answer +could be given.</p> + +<p>That artful and infernal villain, Barrère, during this trial affected +great sympathy towards his injured sovereign, articulated all the +charges in a faltering accent, and remained uncovered during the +whole time the King was present. Most of the members wore their hats. +The Duke of Orleans, who seated himself in full view of his fallen +relative, was, however, uncovered.</p> + +<p>The King was plainly dressed in an olive silk coat, and looked +remarkably well. Barrère wore a dark coat and scarlet waistcoat, +lead-coloured kerseymere breeches and white silk stockings. Robespierre +wore black. Orleans was habited in blue. The majority of the members +looked like blackguards. Legendre wore no neckcloth, but an open collar +<i>à la</i> Brutus.</p> + +<p>Manuel was much agitated by the misapplication of the word King. Not +so the monarch, who dropped a similar expression. As he was giving an +account of the invitation to the entertainment at Versailles, which the +Queen had received from the Gardes de Corps, he caught up his words +and said: “La ci-devant Reine, ma femme.” The rest of this affecting +spectacle is sufficiently known.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span> I have mentioned the incidents +above because I have never seen them in any printed accounts of that +melancholy day.</p> + +<p>It has been generally asserted that no effort was made to rescue the +captive monarch. This assertion is false. I am personally acquainted +with a man who had 15,000 livres deposited in his hands for the purpose +of rescuing the King. This sum was so prudently distributed and the +plan so judiciously made, that if Santerre had not ordered drums to +beat, to drown the forcible appeal the Royal sufferer was making to +the people, I surely believe it would have been carried into effect. +There were persons on the fatal spot prepared to seize the moment of +opportunity, had the fickle character of the Parisian populace, who +would send up shouts to Heaven to-morrow at the execution of the First +Consul, whom they adore to-day, made it likely that they would have +joined or divided in the enterprise.</p> + +<p>There is not a spot in this Hall of Convention which does not revive a +thousand sublime and painful recollections.</p> + +<p>I remember seeing Mirabeau,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Barnave<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +and the Lornettes,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and +on the same side of the Hall those conspicuous members who thundered +against the Clergy, the Feudal Laws, and the despotism of the Throne. +I have heard the virtuous Mounier<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> pour forth the language of +generous indignation against the motion of Barnave on the emigration +of the aunts of the King. Methinks I hear again the nervous eloquence +of Cazalis<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> on behalf of his King and the established laws of the +country. Here I have heard Mirabeau on the Veto; the celebrated speech +of Cardinal Moury<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> on Avignon and the Comtal Venaissin,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> the gloomy +metaphysics of Condorcet<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and the eloquent if mistaken enthusiasm of +Grégoire.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">GARDEN OF THE PALAIS ROYALE</div> + +<p>I have also beheld, O wretched change!—this Hall polluted by monsters +breathing nothing but death and devastation. I have heard in that +Tribune the sanguinary<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span> suggestions of Danton and Robespierre, the +howlings of Marat—the ravings of Brissot, Anarcharsis Cloots<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and +Gondet,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>1 and the <i>calembours</i> of the Gascon Barrère.</p> + +<p>There, too, I have seen Tom Paine<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> stand up like a post, while +another read a translation of his speech. What noise, what uproar and +cabals have originated within these walls! They seem besmeared with +human blood. The images they excite arise in dreadful succession, and +stalk before my imagination like the shades of Banquo’s line.</p> + +<p>Never shall I forget the day when in the midst of a solemn speech +Gensonne<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> was delivering, the impudent little Marat,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> who could +scarcely reach his throat, gave him a box on the ear. The other took +him in his arms and threw him neck and heels out of the Tribune.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XIII<br> +<span class="subhed">GARDEN OF THE PALAIS ROYALE. MANNERS OF THE PEOPLE</span></h2></div> + + +<p>The greatest beauty in the world becomes by pollution an odious and +repulsive creature. Health and charm flourish only in the practice of +virtue and in the abodes of innocence. The prostitute is shunned by +every woman of honour and reputation, and dens of vice are avoided by +every man to whom virtue is not an empty word.</p> + +<p>I am now about to treat of the Palais Royale, that hot-bed of +revolution and crime, that nursery of every loathsome vice, that +abomination of all virtue and profanation of all religion.</p> + +<p>This infernal sink of iniquity is situated in the very centre of Paris, +and by certain vicious inhabitants of the capital is considered its +brightest ornament, just as the Devils in Milton’s “Paradise Lost” +admired the Palace<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span> of the Pandemonium. In my last letter I mentioned +that Duke of Orleans, who styled himself Philippe Egalité, during the +Revolution. This wretch was the proprietor of the Palais Royale. His +great grandfather, who was nearly though not quite as great a scoundrel +as his great grandson, was the first who made this place the focus +for his illicit pleasures; it has ever since been dedicated to Cabal, +Bloodshed, Rapine and Debauchery.</p> + +<p>During the first moments of the Revolution it was the rendezvous of the +desperate, the ambitious and the cut-throat. Political mountebanks, +mounted on tables, harangued the people on the Rights of Man. The +Palais Royale became the arsenal wherein were forged the instruments +of anarchy and murder. Here could an unsophisticated provincial, newly +arrived in Paris, listen to provocatives to civil discord and learn +those arts by which the repose of France has been disturbed for above +ten years. The orators had the words Liberty and Virtue continually in +their mouths, but their hearts were rank and rotten to the core, and +the real objects they courted were licentiousness and vice.</p> + +<p>Their ignorance was only equalled by their effrontery; they talked of +subjects they did not understand; they encouraged their countrymen to +revolt, they passed their days in exciting the populace to murder, and +rioted away their nights in taverns and styes of prostitution. They +promoted confusion and civil strife; covetous without economy, and bold +without courage, they were deaf to the voice of honour and honesty. +The frequenters of this place are in the present day<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> no better than +their predecessors. The former march of the Parisian cannibals to +Versailles was arranged at and begun from this spot, it was also the +rendezvous of the apostles of Marat and the sbirri of Robespierre.</p> + +<p>I remember the last interview had in this garden with the mad Colonel +Oswald, who asserted that a representation of the people was as +great a despotism as absolute monarchy. He asserted as a man could +not <i>eat</i> by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span> proxy, so he could not <i>think</i> by proxy. He +proposed, therefore, that men and women should assemble in an open +plain and there make and repeal laws. I endeavoured to persuade him +that his plan was not sufficiently extensive, as he had excluded from +this grand assembly the most populous portion of his fellow creatures, +<i>i.e.</i>, cats, dogs, horses, chickens, sheep, cattle, &c.</p> + +<p>Oswald was originally a captain of a Highland regiment in the British +service, and when quartered in India lived some considerable time with +some Brahmins, who turned his head. From that period he never tasted +flesh meat. He did not, however, embrace the whole Brahmin theology, +for he was a professed atheist and denied the metempsychosis, and +drank plentifully of wine. Such a man, living in a fermented capital, +was capable of doing much mischief. He dined on his roots one day at +a party of some members of the Convention at which I was present, and +coolly proposed, as the most effectual way of averting civil war, to +put to death every suspected man in France. I was deeply shocked to +hear such a sentiment proceed from the mouth of an Englishman. The +expression was not suffered to pass unnoticed, and the famous Thomas +Paine remarked: “Oswald, you have lived so long without tasting flesh +that you have now a most voracious appetite for blood.”</p> + +<div class="sidenote">GARDEN OF THE PALAIS ROYALE</div> + +<p>In consequence of my remarks upon this occasion, Oswald invited me to +meet him in the gardens of the Palais Royale. As soon as I arrived +I found him already there. He darted forward, drew his sword and +exclaimed: “You are not fit to live in civilised society!” Having +uttered these words he returned his sword into the scabbard and +disappeared in a moment. His regiment was ordered to La Vendée, when, +while bravely leading on his men at the battle of Pont-de-Cé, he was +killed by a cannon ball; and at the same instant a discharge of grape +shot laid both his sons, who served as drummer boys in the corps he +commanded, breathless on their father’s corpse. He had two wives, +who still reside in Paris. They were both singularly handsome,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span> and, +strange to say, lived together in friendship and harmony.</p> + +<p>The history of this warrior brings to my recollection a curious +rencontre I had in this place with Anarcharsis Clootz, who called +himself “Orator of the human race.” For four hours did this man expose +his political dreams. In six months the tri-colour flag was to wave +over the dome of S. Sophia at Constantinople. A month later it would be +seen on Mount Caucasus, and then at St. Petersburg and Pekin.</p> + +<p>Paris would be the capital of the world, mankind composed of one +family, subordinate to one government, and French be the sole +international language.</p> + +<p>All this would be accomplished in the short space of three years. +Before these wonders could come about Anarcharsis was publicly +executed, together with many other fanatics. I have actually heard this +man propose at the Jacobin Club that the moment the French army came +in sight of the Austrian and Prussian soldiers, they should, instead +of attacking the enemy, throw down their own arms and advance towards +them, dancing in a friendly manner. Such a measure, he was persuaded, +would strike the wretched victims of tyranny with a sentiment of +affection, which would be announced by an equally sympathetic movement.</p> + +<p>After such a proposition I suspected that the accusation by which he +perished, namely that he was a pensioner of the King of Prussia, had +some foundation.</p> + +<p>Unquestionably Clootz, by his speeches and conduct, cast more ridicule +than any man else upon the Revolution. His abominable deification and +worship in the Cathedral Church of Notre Dame of an abandoned woman, +whom he created Goddess of Reason, and the manœuvres he employed to +induce Gobel, Archbishop of Paris, to renounce his character and +belief at the bar of the Convention, are proofs either of madness or +conspiracy.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">GARDEN OF THE PALAIS ROYALE</div> + +<p>The Palais Royale is an immense building, in the form of a +parallelogram, within which is a garden distributed into separate +gravelled walks. In the piazzas which run<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span> along the sides of +the edifice are shops, coffee-houses, bagnios, money-changers, +gambling-houses, and stockbrokers. The jewellers’ shops are as numerous +and brilliant as if neither misery nor miserable human beings existed. +You see nothing but chains, half pearl, half diamond. The woollen +drapers unfurl from the top of their shops to the floor every kind of +stuff. The stuffs are under your hand, no one watching you; and the +master is careless and sorry when you ask him the price.</p> + +<p>The odour of exquisite ragouts ascends in vapours to the air, the side +tables are loaded with fruit, confectionery and pastry, and you may +dine to the sound of musical instruments and French horns played by +girls who are <i>not</i> nymphs of Diana. Petty gaming-houses support +the shops of women who sell garters, lavender water, toothbrushes +and sealing-wax. Booksellers’ shops allure the libertine and entrap +innocent youth. Pictures from curious collection books, licentious +engravings, libidinous novels serve as signs to a crowd of loose women, +lodging in the wooden shops. Their nets are ten feet distant from the +sauntering youth, idle and already emaciated in the flower of his age. +Above the wooden shops are gambling-rooms, where all the passions and +torments of hell are assembled.</p> + +<p>As soon as the day closes all the arcades are suddenly illuminated, +the shops become resplendent and the crowd more numerous. This is the +moment when the gaming-houses open under the sanction of the Government +and afford it a productive revenue. While the great sharpers are +employed in the drawing-rooms above, the lesser ones are at work in +the through passages, which communicate with the adjacent street and +serve as gliding holes to swarms of pickpockets and money jobbers. +Your steps under the arcades are arrested by smoke, which pricks your +eyes, it is the kitchen flame of the restaurateurs. Close to them are +the balls beginning in subterraneous grottoes. Across the air-holes +you see circles of girls, leaping, giggling, rushing on their gallants +like Bacchantes. In the auction rooms the brokers,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span> dealers, retailers +are all seated. Women’s wigs, chimney pendulums, shawls, handkerchiefs, +shirts, beds <i>â la Duchesse</i> were sold to the highest bidder. +Spies of the police prowl in every coffee house, but no one dares +now talk politics in them. Under the arcades are holes of shops, +where young girls attract the passengers by their glances. These +places are the assiduous rendezvous of every man fattened by rapine, +army contractors, agents, administrators of tontines and lotteries, +professors of nocturnal robberies, and stock-jobbers.</p> + +<p>These places are to the seraglio what the cookshops are to the +restaurateurs. At these latter places you are served by a nod. The +dish is placed on the table the moment it is ordered. Private rooms +offer you everything to satiate gluttony and sensuality. The glasses +which decorate them offer to the libidinous eye of an old satyr the +charms of his mistress, and all the seats are elastic. There is a +private saloon in which you drink the coolest liquors, and where burnt +incense escapes from boxes in light cloudy streams. There you dine <i>à +l’Orientale</i>! and find on certain days all the pomp and singularity +of a repast of Trimalcion. On a signal given the ceiling opens, and +from above descended heathen goddesses in classical attire. The +amateurs choose, and the divinities, not of Olympus, but the ceiling, +join the mortals.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">GARDEN OF THE PALAIS ROYALE</div> + +<p>Such is the infected lazar house, placed in the middle of a great city, +which has reduced the whole of society to degradation and corruption. +Independently of the fatal contagion of gaming, the excuses of cupidity +under all its forms, and the licentiousness of morals, blasphemy and +infidelity in every mouth, and at every moment, brutal and depraved +language has pervaded every condition and made a sport of sacred words +heretofore never pronounced without respect. Everywhere you meet +troops of children, without order or modesty, who swear, blaspheme, +and scandalise chaste and pious ears. At Sodom and Gomorra they would +not have allowed such books to circulate as are printed and sold in +the Palais<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span> Royale. The infamous work of De Sade,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> “Justine, or the +Misfortunes of Virtue,” is exposed on every stall, and a hundred other +productions, equally distinguished for turpitude and vice, are there to +finish the decomposition of what instinctive morality remains in the +hearts of young people.</p> + +<p>I cannot help expressing the utmost indignation against the compiler +of a publication just issued, entitled, “A Practical Guide, during a +journey from London to Paris,” in which the writer asserts “that no +station, no age, no temper could leave the Palais Royale without an +ardent desire to return.” It is proper the English public should not be +thus abused by perversions and falsehoods, and on this account I have +entered more fully into a detail of the wanton and disgusting scenes +at the Palais Royale than their monstrous enormities would otherwise +deserve.</p> + +<p>Accompanied by an English gentleman, like myself a married man, we +visited every part of this Temple of Sin, and we agreed in opinion that +as long as it existed it will be vain to look in Paris for any sincere +demonstrations of either moral probity, decency in private or honesty +in public life. The Government appears sensible of the evil, though +they have taken no steps to prevent it. It is believed, and from what +I have seen I do not entertain the least doubt upon the subject, that +they <i>protect</i> these scenes of voluptuousness for the purpose of +enervating the minds and diverting the attentions of the Parisians from +the consideration of public affairs.</p> + +<p>If this is not the case why should the legislators and the Government +be continually preaching up the advantage of morality, and the +necessity of establishing a national education system for the +encouragement of virtue and the suppression of vice, when they receive +at the same time a considerable revenue from the wages of harlots and +the profits of gambling-houses? Why is a soldier stationed at the door +of every one of these dens of impurity but to demonstrate that they +are tolerated? There is another circumstance which is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span> noticeable +in the Palais Royale, this is the domineering aspect and conduct of +the military, the airs and consequence assumed by the soldiers, and +the manifest superiority they affect and maintain over their fellow +citizens. Every one makes room for them to pass, the officers strut +or saunter along arm in arm, the clinking of their sabres along the +pavement announcing their approach warns the servile citizen to make +way. The very prostitute, leaning on the arm of the large whiskered +regimental pantaloon, feels an importance far above her sisters. She +laughs and talks loud, and as she moves exacts from the spectators the +ecstatic apostrophe: “<i>Eh! regardez-là, comme elle est belle!</i>”</p> + +<p>These things are better ordered in our country, which is at once a land +of liberty and of paramount laws. The soldier, with us, comprehends the +obligation he owes the laws, and while he displays the utmost loyalty +to his sovereign he associates under the idea of duty a regard for his +fellow subjects. I cannot conclude this subject without noticing a +remark made to me by one of the founders of the French Revolution, an +ex-Bishop and now a member of the Senate.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>The thing [said he] which gives me most pleasure in your English +institutions is the general appearance of moral conduct that +everywhere prevails, the astonishing observance of Sunday +and holy days, the respect for religion, and the orderly and +unaffected manners of your soldiers, who are neither insolent +nor consequential, but who seem to feel they are neither masters +nor slaves.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XIV<br> +<span class="subhed">EXCURSION TO VERSAILLES</span></h2></div> + + +<p>Versailles is four leagues from Paris, and the road leading to it is +perhaps the finest and most elegant in the world. I was prompted by +curiosity to pass two or three days in a city formerly the seat of +government and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span> pleasure, and which now presents a striking contrast +with its ancient splendour. When I last saw Versailles it was the pride +and boast of the French nation. What a change does it now exhibit! how +silent are those streets, formerly the scenes of gaiety, bustle and +delight! In consequence of the events of the Revolution and the removal +of the Court, its population is reduced from 80,000 to 18,000 souls. It +is now, therefore, the cheapest town in France, and to those who are +fond of sequestered walks and retired scenery offers a most enchanting +residence. There are excellent libraries, quiet and good society, +plenty of rational amusements, and the disgusting orgies of vice and +sensuality so prevalent in the capital are here unknown.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">EXCURSION TO VERSAILLES</div> + +<p>The Palace is built on an elevated site, and is a gorgeous and massy +pile. The following is the account given of its origin. Louis XIII. +purchased the land of John de Soissy<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> in 1627, and erected upon it +a hunting lodge. Louis XIV. was delighted with the site, and decided +to erect a magnificent Palace upon this spot. He collected skilful +architects and artists, converted the village into a city and the +hunting lodge into the finest royal residence in the world. The work +commenced in 1673, and was completed in 1680. The artists employed were +Mansard<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> for the architecture, André le Nostre<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> for the arrangement +of the gardens, and Charles le Brun<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> for the department of painting, +sculpture and design. The stables were planned by Mansard, commenced in +1679 and completed in 1685, they are remarkable for the regularity of +their structure, and relieved by some good pieces of sculpture.</p> + +<p>The entrance to the interior of the Palace by the grand marble +staircase is closed. It was the original design of the Government to +have converted this Palace into a museum of the French School, by +retaining the paintings and ornaments it contained. But since the whole +of the Republic is now squeezed to furnish wealth and splendour to the +Metropolis, the greater part of those paintings have been removed to +Paris. The Cabinet of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span> Natural History has also been stripped of all +its beauties for the benefit of the Parisians. We entered by the last +staircase on the North Terrace, into the Saloon of Hercules, sixty-four +feet long by fifty-four feet broad, superbly decorated. The ceiling +is painted with a representation of Olympus and the apotheosis of +Hercules. In the middle of this saloon is the marble Cupid formerly in +the Temple of Love at Trianon.</p> + +<p>The second great apartment is the Hall of Plenty, the ceiling painted +by Houdon,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> then comes the Hall of Diana, painted by Blanchard.<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +The fourth apartment is called the Hall of Mars. Audran<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> has painted +this deity in his car, surrounded by all his martial attributes. Here +is an ingenious mechanical clock by Moraud, which played a carillon +every hour, but since the Revolution the tunes have been altered. +Through the Halls of Mercury and Apollo we reach the Saloon of War. +Over the chimney-piece is a fine oval bas-relief of Mars on horseback, +but as the head of Mars was a copy of the features of Louis XV., the +Sovereign People thought proper to knock it off. It is in contemplation +to repair this mischief by placing a resemblance of a celebrated +Corsican gentleman in the stead of the former master.</p> + +<p>It would be folly to dispute the superiority of the French in the +art of decoration; their public edifices, without excluding those +constructed since the Revolution, exhibit the highest proof of +excellence in the ornamental art, and in no part of Europe is there any +apartment to compare with the Grand Gallery of Versailles, for both +arrangements or magnificence. It is 220 feet in length, 30 in breadth +and 32 in height, and contains seventeen large windows, opposite which +are as many arcades, filled with looking-glasses that reflect the +gardens and their water pieces.</p> + +<p>Between the arcades and the windows are forty-eight pilasters of the +rarest marbles, the bases and capitals being of gilded bronze.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">EXCURSION TO VERSAILLES</div> + +<p>The Gallery terminates in the Saloon of Peace, which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span> formed part of +the apartments of the Queen of France. Beyond this chamber are two +apartments, which complete this magnificent suite, they are superbly +ornamented with plate glasses, vases, columns and busts. In the last +there are twenty-two paintings by Leseuer, brought from the Chartreuse +monastery.</p> + +<p>Formerly we might have passed through the apartments of the late King +and descended by the marble staircase, but these rooms are now all +occupied by military invalids. We had to return through the state +saloons and descend to the gallery which leads to the Opera House, +unquestionably the most magnificent in Europe. This building was +commenced in 1753, and it was only finally completed in 1770, being +first used for the festivities given in honour of the marriage of the +late unfortunate Louis XVI., then Dauphin.</p> + +<p>It would be tedious to detail every particular of this elegant hall, +suffice it to observe that it combines taste with splendour, and that +the orchestra is large enough to contain eighty musicians. The Chapel +of the Palace was finished in the year 1710 and is a superb monument. +This chapel has been preserved with great care from the havoc of the +Revolution, and is in the same state as when it was the daily resort of +the Royal family of France.</p> + +<p>The Library is detached from the Palace, and consists of a collection +of books in different languages, by no means comparable, either for +choice or arrangement, to his Majesty’s collection at Buckingham House.</p> + +<p>One compartment was peculiarly appropriated to the use of the late King +and Queen, and their handwriting is often to be met with in turning +over the books. There is a splendid volume in vellum, containing an +account of a tournament given by Louis XIV. at the conclusion of a +general peace, when the Princes of the blood and the nobility appeared +in costumes of different nations and characters. Larcher’s translation +of Herodotus is printed on the richest paper I ever beheld. The +librarian tells me it was a favourite work of Louis XVI.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span></p> + +<p>The Palace is surrounded to the west by three enclosures the last of +which, called the Great Park, is thirty miles in circumference, and +comprises the villages of Bac, St. Cyr, Bois d’Arcy Bailly. On the +north of this Great Park are Nursery Gardens, and on the south the +furthermost ponds and aqueducts which conduct into the reservoirs of +the Deer Park. There were very few deer there, but an immense quantity +of game, which has been entirely destroyed by the Sovereign People. +The circuit of the little park comprises several farms, one of which, +the Menagerie, has been presented by Bonaparte to the celebrated +Abbé Siezes.<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> This property and Trianon are enclosed at the two +extremities of the two arms of the canal.</p> + +<p>The most noble entrance to the Park is by the great stairs of the +greenhouse. When the waterworks played the <i>coup d’œil</i> was +exquisite. Various parts of the garden are ornamented with groves, +groups, antique statues, bottes, vases, basins and fountains in marble, +bronze or gilded metal. The principal groves are the Rock or Bath of +Apollo, the colonnade, the domes and the three fountains.</p> + +<p>The Bath of Apollo is the masterpiece of Girardon.<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> This divinity +is represented surrounded by nymphs offering their services, the two +groups of horses held by Tritons are admirably executed. The figures +of Apollo and the nymphs are on an elevated situation at the entrance +of the Grotto of Thetis, upon the top of a rock which has been wrought +into a most romantic form. On either side the horses are seen in +the act of drinking; a large quantity of water falls into a great +reservoir, with wild and picturesque beauty, and the whole piece is +enclosed within a plantation of wild and exotic trees. Nothing can +exceed the extreme beauty of this spot and the exquisite sculpture of +the horses.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">VERSAILLES</div> + +<p>The Grove of the Colonnade is remarkable for the group representing the +Rape of Proserpine. The Domes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span> contain two cabinets supported by eight +marble columns and enriched with bas-reliefs of bronze and metal.</p> + +<p>The statues of Amphitrite, Acis and Galatea are the most distinguished +in this collection.</p> + +<p>All the other groves are ornamented with bas reliefs and pieces of +sculpture. The basins of water, fountains, arcades and spouts which +abound in them, give additional charm to the scenery.</p> + +<p>Amongst the groups scattered about the garden are two by Puget—these +are Milo of Crotona and Perseus delivering Andromeda. The great piece +of Neptune is a vast basin of water, ornamented with five groups and +twenty-two great vases of bronze metal. The principal groups represent +Neptune, Amphitrite, Proteus and the Ocean.</p> + +<p>The greenhouse was built in 1685, upon the plan of Mansard. The +parterre, decorated with marble vases, is surrounded with a +considerable number of orange trees, some of them as old as the time of +Francis I.</p> + +<p>The hothouse is 480 feet long and 38 wide, in the middle is a statue +in white marble executed by Dessardin, 10 feet 9 inches high, of Mars, +dressed Roman fashion. Why this divinity has been placed in the abode +of Flora I have not been able to understand.</p> + +<p>Opposite to the greenhouse is a large basin, 2100 feet in length and +700 in breadth, called La Pièce des Suisses, at the extremity of which +is an equestrian statue of Louis XIV. They have changed the traits +of the countenance so that it now represents Quintus Curtius. These +metamorphoses are very common in France, and have been occasionally +carried to blasphemous impiety. A picture represented the Descent of +the Saviour from the Mountain—the countenance of the Redeemer was +altered so as to represent that of Robespierre; should the painting +descend in this dishonoured state to posterity it will be a memorable +record of the iniquity and madness of the days of the Terror.</p> + +<p>On one side of the Pièce des Suisses are 50 acres of land, which +formerly served as the King’s Garden.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span></p> + +<p>The canal is 4800 feet in length, the two branches join on one side of +Trianon; but the whole is in a wretched state and almost destitute of +water.</p> + +<p>Trianon, called in the twelfth century Trianum, is the name of an +ancient palace belonging to the diocese of Chartres. Louis XIV. +purchased it from the Abbaye of Ste. Geneviève. It has always been +called the region of flowers on account of the enchanting gardens, by +which it is surrounded. The two wings are united by a peristyle of +twenty-two columns of the Doric order, and the whole building contains +only a ground floor.</p> + +<p>The gallery and the billiard-rooms are ornamented with a great many +different views of Versailles and Trianon, but all the gilded fleurs +de lys which were affixed to the frames have been torn off by order of +the Jacobin Municipality at Versailles. A fine portrait of the Emperor +Joseph II. in this Palace was destroyed years ago.</p> + +<p>Charles Delacroix attended the sale of the movables, and when this +picture was put up to be sold, he observed to the citizens that no true +Republican could desire to have any resemblance of the family of Marie +Antoinette, and therefore he should serve this portrait as he would +like to deal with all kings. Accordingly he drew a carving knife from +his side and decapitated the Emperor Joseph. It was Hildebrand, the +Suisse keeper of Trianon, from whom we heard this anecdote; and as he +told it to us, he grinned a horrible and ghastly smile over the acts of +the Revolutionists.</p> + +<p>Little Trianon is at the extremity of the Park belonging to Trianon. +The beautiful gardens are now going to decay. The pavilion and grounds +are held for three years at the rent of 18,000 livres (£750 sterling +a year) by a man who was formerly cook to the late Queen. He realises +considerable sums by the curiosity of the traveller and the visit of +Parisian cockneys, the admissions being a franc for each male and half +a franc for each female.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">VERSAILLES</div> + +<p>But although he contracted to keep the place in good<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span> repair he has +allowed it to go to ruin. For instance, the lovely little Temple of +Love, situated in the midst of artificial rocks and surrounded by a +thick wood, has been completely ransacked, the marble floor pulled up +and removed and the little Cupid transferred to Versailles. All the +cottages are falling to pieces, and the water has been drawn off the +lake.</p> + +<p>This once enchanting spot was once the favourite resort of the late +Queen, who often amused herself in sailing thither from the sheet of +water in the Great Park.</p> + +<p>These are the chief places of any note at Versailles. I have been +rather minute in my narrative in order to establish a comparison +between the ancient and present state of that celebrated place.</p> + +<p>Versailles, as the capital of the Department, possesses a Criminal +Tribunal, composed of a President, two Judges and Assistants, a +Registrar and a sworn Commissary.</p> + +<p>Justices of the Peace abound in every district, but it is in +contemplation to reduce their number.</p> + +<p>A project has been submitted to the Council-General of Versailles to +make a number of embellishments and build a magnificent town hall for +the use of the mayor and municipality; but as the town is already +considerably in debt it would be a prudent and honest measure, though +one not much practised by the present French Government, to postpone +these decorations until they have liquidated their debts.</p> + +<p>An hospital, under very excellent administration, is established here, +and there are public baths near the park, open from four in the morning +till nine at night.</p> + +<p>We passed our time very agreeably at Versailles and were well +accommodated, though the charges could not be called reasonable. +The expenses of a dinner for four and lodging for ourselves and two +servants for one night amounted to over four pounds sterling. We +arrived at an unlucky moment in the hotel. For a young<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span> Irishman of +rank was unfortunately in the house with his newly-married bride, and +when we reflected that in less than six weeks’ residence in Paris he +contrived to spend £16,000 it was not surprising that we too were bled +in honour of our national character for generosity.</p> + +<p>An English gentleman of our acquaintance and also personally acquainted +with this young man and his lady, paid them a visit, and told me +that they displayed to him a purchase of fifty-six snuff-boxes and +twenty-five watches.</p> + +<p>This recital excited our merriment, and we tried to imagine what motive +could induce those young persons to throw away their money in such a +ridiculous manner. He could not take snuff, it always made him sick. A +man of his fortune could not have bought those trinkets as an article +of merchandise, and they were too many and certainly unsuitable to +decorate the girdle of his lady at a birthnight ball.<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>Finally we united in surmising that these costly articles were intended +as presents for the electors of the county of X——, for which he +proposed to be returned as member at the coming election.</p> + +<p>Having now thoroughly investigated the <i>remains</i> of the once +magnificent Versailles, we took leave of Mr. B——, who set off for La +Vendée, and returned to Paris through the Bois de Boulogne.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span></p> + +<h2>XV<br> +<span class="subhed">ACCOUNT OF AN ESTABLISHMENT AT CHAILLOT FOR THE RECEPTION OF THE AGED +AND DESTITUTE</span></h2></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">ASYLUM FOR AGED AT CHAILLOT</div> + +<p>The French Revolution having overthrown those humane establishments, +which had for long ages subsisted in the country, some private +individuals are generously endeavouring to repair those breaches which +crime has effected in the order of society.</p> + +<p>Nothing tends more to the happiness of society than the discovery of +practical methods which may increase the comforts of those who are no +longer able to support themselves.</p> + +<p>When a nation has increased in number and power, it is bound to provide +for its people additional means of subsistence. Beneficence should not +be stationary when nations are progressive. I will now enter into a +detail of the establishment of Chaillot, which is equally praiseworthy +for its benevolent views and ingenuity.</p> + +<p>I happened to fall into company with a ci-devant nobleman, named +Duchaillot,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> who, during the time of the Terror, lost all his fortune +and took refuge in Berlin.</p> + +<p>I found he possessed a sound and inquisitive mind, and was thoroughly +conversant in every branch of domestic economy. He inquired whether +we had in Great Britain and Ireland any institutions which offered a +retreat for old age. I answered they were numberless. But this answer +did not satisfy him, and he placed his question on a different footing. +“Have you,” said he, “any institution independent of charitable +purposes, in which male and female persons, after they have reached +the age of seventy can by right and without asking the favour of +any individual, place themselves in order to pass the remainder of +their days in comfort and repose?” As I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span> failed to recollect any such +establishment in England, he immediately said: “Come and dine at my +house to-morrow and I will show you one.”</p> + +<p>The house of Monsieur Duchaillot is beautifully situated at Chaillot, +in the Champs Élysées, commanding an extensive view of the city, the +Seine and the Champ de Mars. In front, there is a large and elegant +parterre, terminating in an extensive kitchen garden. Behind there +is another large house, formerly the monastery of S. Perine, which +also belongs to this establishment, and a field of about four acres, +bordered by a well-cultivated garden.</p> + +<p>In this retreat I found above one hundred aged persons, of both sexes, +whose manners and appearance showed that they had once figured in the +genteeler walks of life, and whose countenances indicated the most +perfect happiness and content.</p> + +<p>“This,” said he, “is the retreat I have established for old age.”</p> + +<p>The chambers occupied by the female part of the society compose the +right wing of the house. Each female has a bed-chamber to herself, and +there is a parlour or sitting-room appointed to two females. Their +clothing, if required, is found for them.</p> + +<p>The left wing of the house is occupied by the males, the arrangements +being precisely similar to that adopted for the females. Husbands and +wives have rooms to themselves.</p> + +<p>The diet corresponds with the neatness and simplicity of the apartments.</p> + +<p>At one o’clock a plentiful dinner is served to the whole society in +the refectory, and at seven they re-assemble for supper. Besides a +sufficient quantity of meat and vegetables each person is allowed a +pound-and-half of bread and a bottle of wine daily.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ASYLUM FOR AGED AT CHAILLOT</div> + +<p>In case of sickness they are removed to a part of the house used as an +infirmary, where medical attendance is provided, and they receive every +possible attention. In case of decease, they are decently interred in +the neighbouring<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span> church, at the expense of the society, or elsewhere +at the expense of their friends.</p> + +<p>Their time is entirely at their own disposal. They may even employ +themselves in any lucrative occupation, provided it does not interfere +with the quiet and general rules of the house.</p> + +<p>I observed several females engaged very profitably in needle work and +embroidery. What little emoluments they acquire by their industry +supply them with pocket-money. The men pass their time in reading, +walking in the neighbouring fields or in the garden. I observed they +were usually less active than the women, but much more devout. I met an +old Abbé whose whole time is spent in reading his breviary, missal and +other religious books. His library was composed of about 200 volumes.</p> + +<p>Another, about seventy-four years of age, had seen much of the world. +His manners were prepossessing, and his conversation proved him a man +who lived for others rather than himself.</p> + +<p>He was pious without austerity, cheerful without dissipation, and +polite without frivolity. He had seen better days, and been one of +those sufferers whom the Revolution had plundered and proscribed on +account of his attachment to religion. He never spoke with the least +asperity of what had happened, he only shrugged his shoulders and +smiled contemptuously at the miserable efforts of his countrymen to +establish liberty and equality. He was well read in French literature +and fond of astronomy. But his favourite books were a Bible and Don +Quixote, Cervantes being an author to whom he was especially partial.</p> + +<p>Just as we were sitting down to dinner one of the old gentlemen +entered, and with great vivacity, informed Monsieur Duchaillot he +proposed going to the play. On inquiry, I found he had been an amateur +of music; and that at seventy-two years of age his taste for it was +still so predominant that he was about to avail himself of a ticket a +friend had sent him to see the second representation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span> of Poesiello’s +<i>Zingari in Flora</i>, at the Opera Buffa.</p> + +<p>I have entered into these details to show that there is no restriction +on their amusements, and that they are entirely their own master. +Upon the whole, I observed that they were all more or less engaged in +religious exercises.</p> + +<p>At that period of life when mind and body require repose, when it is +necessary old age should “walk pensive on the silent solemn shore of +that vast ocean it must sail so soon,” what can be more consolatory +than a retreat where wants are supplied and infirmities alleviated +without reluctance or repining?</p> + +<p>It has been alleged against most governments of Europe that there +is nothing seen but youth going to the gallows, and old age to the +workhouse.</p> + +<p>A government is no more responsible for the misfortunes than for the +crimes of its subjects, and all that can be expected is that it should +give a proper direction to charitable provisions, and guard them with +the sacred sanction of the law.</p> + +<p>It will be found a true maxim of public economy that these +charitable institutions should spring from the natural sympathy of +mankind—nothing is needful for government than to see that they are +administered honestly.</p> + +<p>This fact has been illustrated in Britain, where there exist more usual +monuments of piety and benevolence, than in all the other countries of +Europe put together.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ASYLUM FOR AGED AT CHAILLOT</div> + +<p>In the course of my visits to Chaillot, Monsieur Duchaillot often +expressed a wish that a similar establishment should be attempted in +England. At first it appeared to me liable to some objections, but +these he successfully removed. I thought that respect for aged parents +being a quality inherent in the character of every Briton, that such an +institution might have a tendency to look as if we meant to canonise +ingratitude and place old age in the light of a burdensome load upon +the community.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span></p> + +<p>Barbarous natives are accustomed to destroy the old in order that the +young may live. But in civilised countries, where agriculture, arts and +commerce flourish, and where a greater degree of population promises a +greater degree of stock, such motives could never for a moment enter +the breast of a human being. I am aware however that some eight years +ago it was seriously proposed in the Jacobin Club, to knock all the old +people on the head or starve them to death, lest they should consume +what would be necessary for the support of soldiers and citizens.</p> + +<p>But even in that wild and guilty assembly there were some persons who +had not utterly abandoned the feelings of men, and this abominable +principle was not carried into execution.</p> + +<p>Monsieur Duchaillot combated my opposition to his scheme, by pointing +out that it is the <i>object</i> of the institution at Chaillot not to +destroy but to give efficacy to domestic attachments. All persons who +enter there can experience the attentions of their kinsmen by receiving +their visits or visiting them.</p> + +<p>Secondly, the institution is only intended for those who cannot provide +for themselves, and whose friends and relations cannot provide for them.</p> + +<p>Thirdly, more comforts and enjoyments, more attention can be procured +under one establishment than when a number of persons are dispersed +individually in private houses.</p> + +<p>Fourthly, it is not necessary that every one who becomes a member +of this Society should be either a father or a mother. There are +a multitude of unmarried persons of both sexes, to whom such an +establishment offers a happy asylum.</p> + +<p>Fifthly, many fathers and mothers of families would prefer the society +of persons of their own age and circumstances, and if they are +discontented with the institution they can leave it when they choose.</p> + +<p>After hearing these arguments I became convinced that similar +establishments would be thankfully received<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span> by every rational man in +our country, who at all reflects on the uncertain chances of prosperity +in life.</p> + +<p>How many industrious persons contemplate the approach of old age with +horror. How many respectable worthy people meet misfortune in the +decline of life. Is it right there should be <i>no</i> refuge between +death and the workhouse? Should not some encouragement be held out for +securing a retreat against misfortune and the inevitable ills attendant +on old age?</p> + +<p>I will now give M. Duchaillot’s own account of his establishment.</p> + + +<p class="center sm p2">RETREAT FOR OLD AGE AT CHAILLOT.</p> + +<p>Several zealous and humane persons, who wish to assist and befriend +the unfortunate, have united to execute a beneficent plan, by which +industry itself may generate the means which will give a <i>certain +property</i> to those who, worn out by age and misfortune, possess +none. To attain this object a small voluntary sacrifice only is +required, according to a progression almost imperceptible to persons +who are not even in easy circumstances. The difference between this +institution and hospitals consists in this, the subscriber has <i>a +right</i> to the possession of this property for life, acquired by his +own economy and labour, and for which he is indebted neither to the +compassion nor the liberality of others. Here no act of patronising +benevolence humbles self love or mortifies pride.</p> + +<p>This institution encourages morality, by habituating persons to make +a proper use of their small surplus, resulting from their profits or +labour, which is too often squandered in debaucheries. It will animate +them to be industrious as an infallible resource against that adversity +which is inseparable from old age without fortune.</p> + +<p>The plan is simple and inexpensive, its execution prompt and within the +reach of every one.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">ACCOUNT OF ASYLUM</div> + +<p>Some years ago Mr. Pitt submitted several excellent proposals to amend +the Poor Laws. They struck me forcibly as being useful, sensible and +moral. They were aimed so as to give the poor occupation in their +homesteads, instead of dragging them to the workhouse. This was a +generous idea, worthy of the great mind that conceived it, unhappily it +was never carried into effect.</p> + +<p>Since my first visit to Chaillot I have had excellent accounts of the +progress of the institution. The First Consul pays thirty subscriptions +and has founded several places in the establishment and confided +the superintendence of them to the Archbishop of Paris, an aged and +respectable man, who from his own experience of misfortune will be able +to select such unfortunate persons as deserve no longer to remain so.</p> + +<p>The Archbishop, accompanied by a number of his clergy, thought proper +to visit Chaillot before making any nominations. He was delighted with +the beauty of the situation, the purity of the air, the neatness, order +and decorum which prevailed. When dinner was on the table eighty-seven +aged persons of both sexes appeared, with countenances expressive of +the greatest happiness and satisfaction; many of them declaring they +felt as much at their ease as when in their own families.</p> + +<p>The Archbishop at first imagined he was the eldest person present, but +it was found on examination that many had the advantage of him in years.</p> + +<p>He was so sensibly affected by this serene spectacle, that he expressed +his regret that he had not before been made acquainted with this +asylum. For in that case the First Consul must have forced him out of +it, to have raised him to his Episcopal See of Paris.</p> + +<p>The indispensable condition of acquiring the right of admission is to +take a subscription. The rules are that every subscriber pays from +the age of ten till thirty years of age, tenpence or a franc a month. +Fifteen pence per month from thirty to fifty—twenty pence or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span> two +francs a month from fifty to seventy years of age. These different +payments amount in their entirety to £45, which must be completely paid +before a person can acquire the right of admission. Hence if any one +more than ten years of age should offer as a subscriber, he or she must +deposit at the time of subscription and according to his or her age, +the sum which would have been advanced, had the subscriptions commenced +at ten. In order to give encouragement to benevolence, all persons +who may be disposed to subscribe, may transfer their right to as many +persons as they have made subscriptions on condition that the person +to be benefited by the transfer shall not be admitted until the £45 be +paid in its entirety. The funds are placed on securities and subjected +to an administration which is in every respect safe and undeniable.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XVI<br> +<span class="subhed">GARDEN OF PLANTS. GALLERY OF NATURAL HISTORY. PHILOSOPHICAL LECTURES</span></h2></div> + + +<p>We had heard so much of the Jardin des Plantes that we became impatient +to see it. Our friend De la Metherie procured us an admission on a +day the place is closed to the public, to give us a better and more +convenient opportunity of examining its contents.</p> + +<p>We made up a small party, the two ladies and Monsieur de la Metherie +went in one carriage, and M. ——, the late President of the Cis +Alpine Republic, and myself in another. I have already mentioned, and +it cannot be too often repeated, that the French greatly surpass our +country in the arts of decoration. Of this truth we found a striking +proof in the classification of the subjects of Natural History and the +superb embellishments of the gallery.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">GALLERY OF NATURAL HISTORY</div> + +<p>When we first entered this gallery we saw merely large<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span> green curtains +extending from one end to the other of the hall. But in less than +two minutes we were most agreeably surprised by a display of beauty, +richness and grandeur of which no pen can do sufficient justice.</p> + +<p>The attendants withdrew the curtains, a blaze of creative glory dazzled +our sight, and in this moment of admiration I could not refrain from +whispering to the philosopher from whom I had before received several +lessons on the different degrees of French Atheism: “There is a God!” +He smiled and returned for answer that I was evidently in an ecstasy.</p> + +<p>Before I relate the various dispositions of the museum, I will give +an account of the impressions which the whole excited in our minds. +All the variegated productions of Nature were before our eyes; and +the perilous researches of the most adventurous circumnavigators and +natural historians submitted to our examination. Whatever is great and +wonderful in the operations of Providence, whatever has been discovered +in regions so far explored by man, we had an opportunity of seeing.</p> + +<p>The quadrupeds form a distinct compartment and the whole collection +of other animals, together with fossils, shells, minerals and stones, +is disposed in glass cases, extending from the top of the gallery to +the floor. There is also a compartment allotted to esculent roots and +specimens of trees. On the right hand stands the albatross, which has +been so beautifully described in Captain Cook’s voyages; next the +maimed bird which has no wings and lives entirely on the water. It has +an immense cylindrical body, behind which are fixed what may be called +two oars instead of feet. The body is covered by a species of hard +down, having the appearance of close-shaved hair, shooting out in small +shining tubes and forming a coat of mail impervious to the water.<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> +Then follow the crane, the swan, the heron, the ibis, the ostrich, the +pelican, &c.</p> + +<p>It is not my intention to give an account of every animal we saw, much +less to mention all their names;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span> for, in the first place, it would be +attempting a subject on which I am ashamed to confess my ignorance, +and, in the second, would occupy a volume. I only wish to notice +singularities. Amongst these was the largest and most beautiful bird +I ever beheld. The body, completely white, the wings tinged with a +gold colour.<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> I am still unacquainted with its name, as no one could +inform us to what species it belonged; but I mention it on account of +the following anecdote, which conveys a forcible impression in a few +words.</p> + +<p>“Where did this bird come from?” said one of our party.</p> + +<p>“We borrowed it from the Stadtholder,” replied the attendant; adding, +“and if he had not lent it, we should have taken it.”</p> + +<p>In the same way they obtained possession of the head of a petrified +crocodile, which was originally found in a quarry in the neighbourhood +of Maestricht. It belonged to one of the priests who resided in that +town; and as his house was known to be situated near the ramparts, and +the French Natural Philosophers had long coveted this head, orders +were issued at the time of the siege that the house containing the +crocodile’s head should not be bombarded. Professor Thouin<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> was at +that time with the French Army, and wrote to his colleagues: “Le siége +de Maestricht se pousse avec vigueur; dans deux jours je compte faire +partir pour Paris la tête du crocodile.”</p> + +<p>The French Army entered Maestricht, and the poor priest was stripped of +his treasure for the benefit of the Great Nation.</p> + +<p>The collection of caterpillars, butterflies and insects surpasses +anything of the kind I ever saw. The library is composed of a choice +and rare collection of books in every language upon subjects of natural +history. M. Tuscan, the librarian, obligingly displayed to us some +admirable paintings of plants. Mrs. Cosway, who was of our party, and +is an exquisite artist herself, pronounced<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span> them very beautiful, and +executed in a masterly style. The number of books in the library is +about 8000, which is a noble library upon one science, the very nature +of which requires costly publications on account of the infinite number +as well as the richness of the drawings and the plates.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">LIVING ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTION</div> + +<p>After having amused ourselves with all the different compartments, we +proceeded to the garden and paid a visit to the <i>living</i> beasts +in the menagerie. These are dispersed in various districts of the +enclosure, and with as much regard as possible to their original mode +of life.</p> + +<p>An enormous elephant enjoys a courtyard to himself, and his keeper is +an Englishman named Thompson. The animal is very docile, and has been +taught to play at what we call Bob Cherry with pieces of bread. Nothing +can be more ridiculous, except the idea of a lion catching flies.</p> + +<p>Camels and dromedaries are allowed to posture under the trees, and the +stags and deer distributed in the field beside the river. All the tame +animals are placed within a large grass enclosure. The savage beasts +and birds kept in cages so small that the poor creatures can hardly +turn themselves, in consequence of which, together with the wretched +food, many have perished, and none of the survivors are in good +condition. There are three bears, several wolves, leopards and tigers, +one hyaena, a fox, a cockatoo, an hedgehog, a vulture, a cassowary, +and a number of other fierce birds stolen from the menagerie of the +Stadtholder of Holland. There are also a number of monkeys.</p> + +<p>Upon the whole this collection is very insignificant and compares very +badly with Pidcocks Exhibition, over Exeter Change. The lions and one +of the elephants are dead. Most of these animals were transported to +Paris from the Royal Menagerie at Versailles, but in order to increase +the effect of the scene, it was decreed by Governmental order that +those wild animals which were exhibited about the country at fairs, +should be put into a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span> state of requisition in order to add to the +savage population of the garden. Cossal (the Parisian Pidcock), who +had made a valuable collection of rare animals which he sent about the +country to public shows, was robbed of all of them and to indemnify him +in some manner for his ruin, made Warden of the National Menagerie at a +small salary.</p> + +<p>He was not the only sufferer in conformity with the political principle +of the Revolution, that individual property must ever be ready as a +sacrifice to the Nation, every man who led about a dancing bear in the +street or a monkey, playing his tricks on the back of a dromedary, +was obliged to lay aside his flageolet and tambourine and conduct his +Bruin, his camel or his ape, to replenish the national stock. The +two elephants were <i>borrowed</i> from the Stadtholder, they came +originally from Ceylon, whence they were sent to Holland, where they +had remained fourteen years. The mode of transporting them was the +subject of very grave discussion among the philosophers of Paris. It +was first proposed to march them from Holland to Paris and to throw +temporary wooden bridges over the canals, to facilitate their passage +but on account of their aversion to water this sapient scheme was +abandoned. A caravan was now constructed mounted on wheels, in order +to drag the ponderous brutes along and in order to accustom them to +their movable dwelling, they were never to be fed except in their +travelling carriages. On the day of their departure, the elephants +were driven into their conveyance and the keeper bolted the door. The +moment the procession started, the male elephant gave the door a gentle +tap with his head, which instantly shivered the panel to pieces, and +the continent of organised matter marched out with the greatest ease. +By separating the male and the female they at length succeeded in +conveying these vast creatures to Paris. Thompson, the keeper, assured +me that when the elephants met again in the garden, after their long +journey, the air resounded with their cries and their eyes were bedewed +with tears. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span> French had never seen an elephant in their country +since the middle of the seventeenth century, when, in 1668, the King of +Portugal presented one (which only survived thirteen years) to Louis +XIV.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE AMPHITHEATRE</div> + +<p>Upon inquiry I learnt that the greater part of the curiosities +collected in this place were the fruits of victorious pillage, and I +was told that this measure was justified by the right of conquest. +“Par suite de la conquête de la Hollande, ils sont tombés au pouvoir +des Français—nous les avons emportés comme trophées de nos victoires. +Ainsi Alexandre le Grand fit passer dans la Grèce les éléphans du Roi +de Perse.”</p> + +<p>The amphitheatre is a public building, within this garden, where +lectures are given by professors, nominated and paid by the Government.</p> + +<p>I attended the chemical lecture of Fourcroy; he delivers himself with +purity, eloquence and cleverness. He exercises (what would be deemed +extraordinary in any country but this) the two functions of a public +lecturer on science and a Counsellor of State, in which latter capacity +he often discusses political measures before the Legislative Body. All +the benches of the amphitheatre are in a semicircular form, rising one +above the other, and capable of containing 2000 persons. The lecturer +is stationed at the bottom, with a large table and apparatus before him.</p> + +<p>There is no doubt students in chemistry derive advantages from those +lectures, but much of their good effect is impaired by the amphitheatre +being considered a fashionable lounge for the idle and a favourite +place of “rencontre” between the fair Parisian and her lover. The women +constitute a distinguished part of the auditory, and in number and +noise are not inferior to the males.</p> + +<p>There are thirteen professors in this institution, whereof seven are +members of the French “Académie,” or Institut, and one an Associate. +<i>Fourcroy</i>, Professor of Chemistry; <i>Desfontaines</i>, +Botany; <i>Lamark</i>, Zoology; <i>Thonin</i>, Gardening; and +<i>Vanspaendorick</i>, of Ichnography,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span> have each a pleasant dwelling, +free of expense, in the garden. In the centre of the garden and near a +pool of water, is a small hamlet, where philosophical students and the +curious may entertain themselves on girls and burgundy, of a wretched +quality and at a trifling expense. I am at a loss to explain how the +sage superintendent of his museum should have licensed the existence of +his hovel, devoted to disreputable practices, in the sequestered bowers +of Acadème. Unless it be meant as a practical illustration of the moral +tendency of Darwin’s Loves of the Plants—a work greatly admired here. +The Botanical Garden, itself, fell very far short of my expectations; +it is neither well laid out nor pleasing to the eye.</p> + +<p>The garden is about 2000 feet long and 700 wide, divided into three +alleys, terminating in the public walks.</p> + +<p>Henry IV. was the first who established a Botanical Garden in France. +He authorised John Robin to rear in a private garden some plants +several navigators had brought from America. It was his intention to +have had this garden in Paris, but he was persuaded that these exotics +would flourish better in the southern part of France; in consequence, +Montpellier was preferred, and a physician appointed in 1598 to +superintend the enterprise. But Gui la Brosse<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> persuaded Louis XIII. +some twenty years later of the inconvenience of this arrangement, and +an edict was issued for the establishment of the present “Jardin des +Plantes.” By la Brosse’s exertions two thousand plants were placed in +it, in the space of ten years.</p> + +<p>The Government then numbered three professors to make known their +properties and virtues and an exhibitor to display them.</p> + +<p>The Garden was, in course of time, greatly enlarged and beautified, but +its most rapid progress was during the reign of the late unfortunate +Louis XVI.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">REMINISCENCES OF THE TERROR</div> + +<p>On the left of the Museum is a plantation of trees and shrubs, called +“The Labyrinth.” The greatest part of the trees are ever-green, and +there is a noble cedar of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span> Lebanon. It was brought from England +and planted by the famous Bertrand de Sussien<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> in the year 1734; +beneath its shades stands a pedestal, formerly supporting the bust +of Linnæus,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> which was destroyed by the revolutionists under the +notion it represented an aristocrat. From the top of the Labyrinth +there is a very extensive view of Paris from a tower, which M. de la +Metherie<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and myself ascended, the ladies and S—— having returned +home. Here, while we were looking at the city, M. de la Metherie +pointed to a large building, not far distant, and desired me to look +at the third window upon the second floor—he further remarked, “I was +imprisoned there.” Confounded for the moment by this observation (for +I had never understood the ruffians had meddled with him), I could not +help laughing, and he joined heartily in my merriment. But two persons +standing near, who, though wearing lay attire, were evidently priests, +turned round and addressed us with much agitation. “This is not a +laughing matter; what honest man has not been imprisoned in this land +of <i>scélérats</i>?” This observation restored our gravity, and I said +to one of them: “I hope, sir, you have not been a sufferer?” To which +he abruptly replied: “I was imprisoned five times and sentenced to the +guillotine. My life, however, was spared, and, by way of compensation +for my sufferings, they took all my property from me!” De la Metherie +introduced me, saying, “Monsieur est Anglais.” Upon this they took off +hats, and the speaker remarked: “Vous avez raison, monsieur, de vous +vous moquer de la France!”</p> + +<p>We requested him to oblige us with his history. He said he lived +formerly in Bordeaux and possessed considerable property in that +neighbourhood. He had been arrested and confined in the prison of that +city, together with a multitude of persons of both sexes. The only +accusation against him was, that being a priest, he must necessarily +be an aristocrat. He explained that he had not exercised sacerdotal +functions since the Decree of the National Convention, and that his +whole and sole pursuit<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span> was the science of Botany—“Botany!” exclaimed +the Judge and President of the Court—“c’est une science royale!—it +abounds with aristocratic terms, was the favourite diversion of Kings +and Princes, and is of no use to a Republic—your attachment to this +study clearly proves your hankering after the old <i>régime</i>, and +convicts you!” He was hurried off to prison and close confinement at +once. However, he escaped destruction, and recovered his liberty by +paying a large sum of money as a bribe for his release. He returned +with joy to the house of a friend, and was just sitting down to dinner +when an officer of the Municipality entered the apartment, stating he +had come to arrest him. He acquainted the officer with the fact that +he had only two hours before been released by an <i>arrêt</i> of the +Municipality. “I know that perfectly well,” was the reply; “you were +dismissed upon the charge laid against you, but since then another +<i>serious charge</i> has been established against you, by Citizen +Tallien,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and I am ordered to arrest you <i>on suspicion of being +suspected</i>!!!” There was no resisting the dreadful name of Tallien, +and the unhappy priest was reconducted to his former cage. As the name +of Tallien was mentioned, I interrupted the conversation to ask whether +the atrocities said to have been committed at Bordeaux by Tallien and +Lequino were not greatly exaggerated. He answered “Unhappily those +enormities could hardly be exaggerated, for there was scarcely a family +in that city and district which did not mourn the murder of a relative +or friend.” The butcheries of Tallien were perpetrated chiefly in the +streets and on the scaffold. He often took large sums of money from the +persons, upon condition of releasing them, and the next day they were +sure to be guillotined. This removal from the prison to the scaffold +Tallien, in his merry moods, used to call a Republican release in full +of all demands. Lequino<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> was never suspected of having realised +money in this manner, he confined his little peculations to the public +revenues. But his brutal and ferocious nature exercised itself within<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span> +as well as without the walls of the prisons, by frequently shooting at +the prisoners with pistols and killing them without any discrimination. +He dined almost daily with the public executioners.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PERSECUTED PRIEST AND PHILOSOPHER</div> + +<p>But to continue—after a long confinement, the priest was brought to +a trial with a number of other persons, and charged with conspiring +against the Republic. He and they were all found guilty and condemned +to public execution. But at that moment a courier arrived with news of +the fall and death of Robespierre, and orders to suspend all carnage +until further directions from the Committee of Public Safety.</p> + +<p>“What evidence was adduced against you?” I asked.</p> + +<p>“None, save that I was a <i>ci-devant</i> minister of religion.”</p> + +<p>“You have suffered,” said I, “because you were a priest; and here,” +pointing to de la Metherie, “is one who has suffered because he was a +philosopher.”</p> + +<p>In the progress of the fiery Revolution, the different Governments +of France must have been inspired by the spirit of a merry devil, +for if such charges were sufficient to deprive a man of his liberty +nine-tenths of the French people ought to have been locked up. But +although de la Metherie was in no way interested in politics, he was +suspected of being a suspicious man. When the ruling power wished +to criminate or murder a man, every circumstance of his life from +infancy was raked up and passed under review, and therefore no accused +individual could hope to escape if his destruction was decided upon.</p> + +<p>The accusation against this philosopher was that of coolness, +indifference and incivism, because, amidst the noise of arms and +domestic slaughter, he continued to cultivate in the sequestered shade +of private life, the philosophy of nature.</p> + +<p>By a miracle he escaped—the fall of the tyrant Robespierre calmed +the fury of the Terror, and de la Metherie was more fortunate than +Lavoisier<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>—after a few months’<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span> rigorous confinement he was released +from his prison. He was permitted to return to his house, the seals +were taken off his library, his beautiful collections of plants and +minerals, and his manuscripts. The <i>Journal de Physique</i>, which he +had edited for above twenty years, again shone forth in all its wonted +splendour.</p> + +<p>Monsieur de la Metherie assured me that during the time of the +Revolutionary Tribunals, it was in serious contemplation to reduce +the population of France to 14,000,000. Dubois Crouée<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> was a +very distinguished and enthusiastic partisan of this humane and +philosophical policy.</p> + +<p>One of the most horrible and affecting anecdotes I ever heard related +to a young married lady of rank and beauty, whose husband was immured +in the same prison cell with de la Metherie. After having solicited +one Bureau, petitioned another, and bribed a third in vain to obtain +her husband’s liberty, she applied in person to the representative +of the people, by whose influence her husband had been arrested. The +hypocritical assassin returned her supplications with scorn. At length +after many entreaties he informed her that there was <i>one</i> way in +which she might obtain her husband’s liberty. Anxious to save his life, +the distracted female sacrificed her honour to the brutal lust of this +deputy of the National Convention. On the next day, when she went to +the prison to bring to her husband the joyful news of his impending +delivery, she found him bound and seated in the cart, which a moment +later carried him to the place of execution. Frantic with rage and +despair, and shuddering with horror at the unavailing sacrifice she had +made of her chastity, the hapless young woman rushed into the presence +of her betrayer and severely rebuked him for his perfidy; in return for +which he caused her to be arrested, and she was guillotined upon the +following day.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span></p> + +<h2>XVII<br> +<span class="subhed">THE ARSENAL. SITE OF THE BASTILLE. FAUBOURG STE. ANTOINE. THE DONJON DE +VINCENNES. SHORT ACCOUNT OF FRANÇOIS DE NEUFCHÂTEAU. THE TEMPLE</span></h2></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">THE ARSENAL</div> + +<p>My principal object in going beyond the Bois des Vincennes was to +examine the agricultural dispositions and the improved plough of +François de Neufchâteau,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> who has obtained a considerable celebrity +in France for the great encouragement he, when Minister of the +Interior, afforded to husbandry.</p> + +<p>In this excursion we were accompanied by two men of very different +political characters. Monsieur P——, an avowed Royalist, and Monsieur +Dumond,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> a moderate Republican. The former is distinguished for +his dramatic writings and by a very ingenious mode he has invented +to enable foreigners to pronounce French correctly without the aid +of an instructor. Monsieur Dumond is what we should call a gentleman +farmer—and has a large establishment at Epluches, near Pontoise, where +he makes an annual exhibition of sheep reared upon his own estate. +He possesses excellent stock and great skill in this branch of rural +economy. We promised ourselves great pleasure from the political battle +I was determined they should wage, and the instructive conversation of +M. Dumond upon farming and agricultural subjects.</p> + +<p>After traversing the city in an easterly direction we alighted at +the Arsenal. This place was gutted at the outbreak of the Revolution +to supply arms to the sovereign people. It has never since been +replenished.</p> + +<p>There are, however, still some considerable quantity<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span> of arms in it, +but I observed nothing particularly deserving of notice. The Bastille, +so famous in the early history of the Revolution, from having been the +first fortress over which the triumphant banner of the people waved, is +now no more. But the gardens, the “fosse,” and part of the wall remain. +The site of the Bastille, which the French vainly flattered themselves +would become their Runnymede, is instead a lasting monument of their +unfitness to be free—for it is impossible to walk over these ruins +without despising a race of men who, in a paroxysm of jealousy, pulled +down an ancient fortress for the sake of liberty, and twelve years +later suffered their whole country to be converted into a vast prison +where free speech and a free press are not tolerated.</p> + +<p>From the site of the Bastille we proceeded along the Faubourg St. +Antoine, now the cleanest and most unfrequented part of Paris. What +a melancholy silence now reigns in that place! Who would suppose +that this district of Paris was formerly the focus of intrigue +and its inhabitants the successive instruments of every ambitious +adventurer—of an Orleans, a Robespierre,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> a Marat and a Babœuf?<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +In the days of the Convention this was the arsenal of blood and murder, +here pikes were forged and poignards sharpened, and from hence an armed +banditti issued to execute the bloody mandate of demagogues. But now no +spirit-stirring drum is heard, no uplifted bleeding heads are carried +as standards by butchering battalions. Santerre himself scarce dare +show his face, and the whole Jacobin colony has been disarmed, and by +a little thing from Corsica, who, acting as lieutenant to Barras in +1794, commenced his military operations against the liberties of France +by a triumph over the fanatics of this Faubourg. The pikemen stand +in awe of the heroes of Lodi and Marengo, who surround the palace of +the usurper. Santerre, it is true, often murmurs vengeance, but the +Government either laugh at this consequential man of no consequence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span> +or treat him with the most perfect contempt. He had an interview with +Bonaparte soon after the latter became First Consul and was received +with civility and attention, but the Consular Guard was not then +formed, and Santerre might still be useful. Bonaparte, who must have +heard that at the first fire of the Vendéans upon the Parisian Guard, +Santerre actually ran away, said: “I think, general, you made war in La +Vendée.” “Oui, général,” replied the brewer, “avec beaucoup d’éclat.” +The Corsican grinned a smile, and Santerre withdrew, and boasted after +the interview “that Bonaparte had treated him with proper consideration +and acknowledged his great services in La Vendée.”</p> + +<div class="sidenote">VINCENNES</div> + +<p>The famous donjon de Vincennes is situated close by the public road, +in the middle of a wood, and was in ancient times a royal castle, +where State prisoners were confined. Since the Revolution it has been +converted into a common jail—at present it is reserved entirely for +deserters and runaway conscripts. We found about 600 of these in +confinement. They were walking in the courtyard, and seemed extremely +sorrowful and dejected.</p> + +<p>We were not permitted to enter the Gothic tower, which is the finest +part of The building; but if we may form an estimate of the interior by +the exterior, the state prisoners formerly lodged there must have drawn +out a wretched existence—yet here were confined the great Condé and +the celebrated Mirabeau.</p> + +<p>The attraction of this fortress is its antiquity. Draw-bridges, +battlements, covered galleries and fosses display the ancient mode +of defence. Some companies of infantry and a troop of horse are in +barracks within the walls. After having sufficiently gratified our +curiosity we continued our route, and the name of Mirabeau being +mentioned I thought a favourable opportunity had arrived for us to +enjoy our French companions.</p> + +<p>The project succeeded, and the Revolution was furiously discussed +from the time of Mirabeau to the present hour. I asked M. Dumond (the +Republican) what was now the pay to the different ranks of general?<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span> +M. P—— (the Royalist) answered before his friend had time to reply: +“Nothing, we allow them to thrive and take what they please.” This +unexpected answer produced a good laugh, in which M. Dumond joined. +Some days after, happening to be in company with a celebrated general, +as honest as it is possible for a modern French general to be, I +asked him whether it was true that the Republican generals received +no salary from the State, but were at liberty to take what they +pleased, he answered: “You have been misinformed. The French generals +are <i>well</i> paid; but as they are fond of good living and their +expenses are great, they naturally make some provision for themselves +out of the contributions of conquered countries.” This reply fully +confirmed M. P——’s assertion.</p> + +<p>At the extremity of the Bois de Vincennes in a hollow stands the +Château of Monsieur François. All the country hereabouts is in a fine +state of cultivation, the fruits exquisite, and the wine from the +vineyards is highly esteemed in Paris.</p> + +<p>Monsieur François de Neufchâteau’s house is of moderate size, the +gardens large and well disposed. The barns and other out-houses make a +respectable appearance, but I perceive none of the animals essential to +husbandry or a thrifty farmyard. Most of the ground we went over had +been sown. I perceived, however, no grass or meadow land. The French +are an age behind us in this branch of agriculture. All the arable +land was well cleared and showed care and attention had been bestowed +upon it. But I saw no yards, either near or distant to the house, for +raising poultry or pigs, &c., which constitute no small proportion of +the wealth of a well-managed farm.</p> + +<p>After we had sufficiently viewed the general distribution of the +grounds, we examined the improved drill plough, to inspect which had +been the principal object of our journey. But I discovered not a single +property in it which is not already known to the English agriculturist.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">FRANÇOIS DE NEUFCHÂTEAU</div> + +<p>Perhaps I am wrong in thus entering into the particulars of a farm +which, though in a very satisfactory state, promises to be much better +when the owner’s attention can be spared upon it. The house has not +long been in the possession of its present proprietor. There are only +two bedrooms furnished and not one sitting-room, though there is an +excellent library, containing many beautiful editions of the most +celebrated works.</p> + +<p>The gallery upon the first floor contains some interesting plans +and drawings of canals and other public works of France, conceived, +executed or repaired when M. de Neufchâteau was Minister of the +Interior.</p> + +<p>Monsieur Nicholas François, for that is his real and only proper name, +was born at the village of Neufchâteau, where he married a woman like +himself of humble parentage, and endeavoured to live by writing poetry +and scribbling nonsensical verses.</p> + +<p>He is the first instance in the history of nations of a poet who +exchanged his tattered garments for the mantle of a chief magistrate. +M. François being cast upon the surface of the revolutionary cauldron, +contributed his humble mite in the holy work of human regeneration, +under a variety of Protean shapes, sometimes as a punster in the public +journals, at other times by striking off a few <i>calembours</i> and +diatribes and then by some fine-spun antitheses, and next by fulsome +adulations heaped on the great scoundrels who have successively +disturbed the peace of France and of mankind. M. François contrived +to at length receive the reward of his indefatigable labours, in the +appointment to the very arduous and important functions of Minister of +the Interior to the French Revolution.</p> + +<p>No sooner had he begun to figure upon the revolutionary stage, over +which was inscribed <i>Liberty</i>, <i>Equality</i>, <i>Abolition of +Titles and Privileged Caste</i>, than he assumed the feudal name of +François de Neufchâteau, a name to which under the old <i>régime</i> he +would have no more pretensions than the political adventurer who now +rules France would have to that of Bonaparte of Ajaccio.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span></p> + +<p>Another instance of his philosophic mind was shown at the same time. +He discarded his virtuous wife, the humble companion of his adverse +fortunes, as unworthy to share in the splendour of his new situation, +and a handsome and elegant woman was introduced in her stead as +mistress of his mansion, and she still continues to fill in the midst +of plenty and opulence the place of a legitimate wife now driven to +want and wretchedness.</p> + +<p>But these are trifles in Paris at the present day, and Monsieur +François de Neufchâteau passes for a mild, amiable and <i>virtuous</i> +man.</p> + +<p>Of the administration of this man I shall have much to say in a future +letter, he certainly contributed towards the establishment of many +salutary institutions in the Republic, <i>i.e.</i>, he revived such +of the old government as were contented to promote the happiness and +prosperity of France upon the return of a general peace.</p> + +<p>I am the more astounded at this as from the conversation I had with him +and from the relations made to me by those most intimately acquainted +with him he appeared to be a man of weak, contemptible and superficial +character. Nevertheless we find him in a short time seated upon the +curule chair, and forming one of that junto of rapacious tyrants +who under the name of the Executive Directory, by their imbecility, +wickedness and crimes, prepared the way for the reign of the usurper +who stole like a coward from Egypt to complete the misery of France. +François, it appears, took no active part in the directorship, he +was merely an empurpled pageant, whose sole occupation was to sign +his name whenever ordered to do so by his more wily colleagues. At +length finding his situation irksome he profited by an offer from his +more ambitious partners and left the Government before the Government +left him. In consideration of a douceur of a million livres, £40,000 +sterling, he connived at a sham ballot by which he voluntarily +blackballed himself from the further enjoyment of the executive +magistracy.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">VISIT TO THE TEMPLE</div> + +<p>His conduct was fortunate as well as prudent. For<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span> when the Corsican +made short work of the Directory, instead of being banished like +Barras<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> or discarded like la Reveillère<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and Leproux, we find him +admitted into the new tyrant’s Senate and actively receiving at the +present time £2000 a year sterling during his life for registering +the edicts of his master. This annuity, together with his £40,000 +indemnification money, and the little pickings he was able to secure +during his Ministry, enable him to live in better style than ever +before fell to the lot of a French rhymer, for he can now jingle cash +as well as the words of the great nation.</p> + +<p>This visit to M. François brought on a second engagement between +ourselves and our two comrades, and we made an expedition the following +day to the Temple, where the unhappy Louis XVI. and his family had been +confined. The place is now greatly altered, indeed I should hardly have +recognised it. All the surrounding buildings have been pulled down and +a large opening formed which absolutely secludes it from all immediate +communication with the city. It is impossible to obtain admission into +this State prison—it is rigidly guarded within and without the walls. +Persons are daily conveyed there by a <i>lettre de cachet</i> from the +Grand Inquisitor Fouché, without any preliminary examination and often +without the knowledge of their friends. This is the real history of +those sudden disappearances of a number of persons, which the French +journalists ascribe to robbers and assassins. A trial is never an +absolute necessity in this land of liberty to establish innocence or +guilt; hence the “Cayenne diligence” is always in readiness to take up +such passengers as are not <i>required</i> to make a long stay in the +Temple, which is the <i>safest</i> place of baiting between the Bureau +of the Minister of Police and Rochefort.</p> + +<p>It is not until the wretched victims are upon the eve of embarking upon +the Salaminian vessel of state that they are permitted to disclose +their fate to their relations and to announce their destination to the +delectable<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span> regions of the most luxurious climate of Central America. +Even this indulgence is however frequently denied to the hapless +sufferers.</p> + +<p>Yet the constant talk in France is of freedom and equality. It is +impossible to live here without imbibing daily fresh causes of +detestation and abhorrence of the laws and government of this unhappy +country; and I already contemplate with pleasure the moment when I +shall take an everlasting leave of France, a country which at one time +I almost loved as well as I do my own.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XVIII<br> +<span class="subhed">CELEBRATION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF GENERAL BONAPARTE’S CONCORDAT +WITH THE POPE, AND OF THE GENERAL PEACE PROCESSION TO NOTRE DAME. +ILLUMINATION OF PARIS</span></h2></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">CONSULAR CEREMONIAL</div> + +<p>We had not yet seen the tyrant. Hence we did not hesitate to take +advantage of the opportunity offered us by the public exhibition of +his personage on Easter Sunday. The ceremonial had been pompously +announced in the Parisian Gazettes; and M. Chaptal, the Minister of +the Interior, displayed great skill in making arrangements for giving +a fine stage effect to the pious exhibition of the Church Militant. +Bonaparte himself is also very clever at such work, and I have it on +unquestionable authority that he himself actually arranged the plan of +the procession, as well as that of the solemn farce acted afterwards +in Nôtre Dame. A person with whom I am acquainted related to me a +conversation he overheard between the First Consul and the various +underlings who were to carry out his orders, a conversation which +shows the little man can take as much interest in a puppet show as +in a victory. When the leader of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span> orchestra waited upon him to +mention the arrangements he had made for placing the music in front of +the Consuls, Bonaparte desired him to change the position, for he was +determined a battalion of soldiers should stand in front and behind. +The conductor observed the effect of the music would be totally lost +by this scheme; but the reply was, “N’importe, il me faut toujours des +bataillons.” Another instance of his taking upon himself the business +of stage manager was his order to Monsieur de Talleyrand that the +latter should write to the different foreign Ambassadors and Ministers +requesting that they would repair to the Palace of the Tuileries +with four horses to their carriages, instead of two. All the foreign +envoys, in consequence, clapped on an additional pair of animals, which +should by right have been jackasses, to their coaches. The Consuls’ +own Ministers also, not only drove four horses, but their domestics +sported, by order, the <i>same</i> liveries—yellow turned up with red. +Their carriages were ranged to the right of the door, exactly opposite +the Ambassadors. Soon after arrived the Councillors of State, Senators, +the Legislative Body, the Tribunats, the Prefets and the Generals in +their respective costume. All this time the foreign Ministers were in +a room below, called <i>Salle des Ambassadeurs</i>, waiting until his +Highness should be graciously pleased to condescend to admit them to +his presence. Count Cohentzel, the Austrian Minister, stood near the +door in full view of the spectators. I could not refrain from a feeling +of disgust and rage at beholding the representative of the once proud +house of Austria standing like a suppliant upon the threshold of the +Corsican adventurer.</p> + +<p>The whole of the day’s exhibition was humiliating to every one +concerned, save to Bonaparte and his satellites. After all the +carriages were ranged in their places and the different regiments of +horse and foot taken their positions in front of the Palace, a signal +gun was fired, and a little thing leaped with uncommon agility upon +the back of a white horse, superbly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span> caparisoned, and set off at full +trot along the line, followed by a numerous train of generals and +aides-de-camp. Upon inquiry I learnt that the white horse was called +Marengo, and its rider was Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of France.</p> + +<p>Nothing was now heard but trumpets and kettledrums, and the whole +spectacle was certainly an imposing one; as Bonaparte passed along the +officers saluted and the men presented arms. He never returned a single +salute.</p> + +<p>His dress was very plain but extremely neat, in the uniform of the +Consular Guard—a blue coat, faced with white, gold epaulettes, white +kerseymere breeches and waistcoat, a small hat with a tri-colour bow.</p> + +<p>None of the portraits or engravings which I have seen in England +purporting to resemble this man are exactly like him. The picture by +Masquier, representing him on his return from reviewing the Consular +Guard, though the best likeness we have, is nevertheless a feeble +representation of what is one of the most penetrating and animated +countenances in the world. The complexion of Bonaparte is sallow, his +face oval and his chin long, his eyes are of a dark blue, so dark as +to appear black at a distance, they are keen and piercing, long in +form and sunk deeply in his head. His black hair is cut short and he +wears no powder. His smile is sweet and fascinating, but his visage +terrible when ruffled with anger. His voice deep-toned, rather coarse +and disfigured by a provincial accent.<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> He looks extremely well on +horseback, his carriage thereon remarkably erect, and not unlike that +of a riding master or cavalry drill sergeant. The lineaments of his +face bespeak a violent nature, it is marked with the expression of dark +and unruly passions. Upon the whole I do not hesitate to acknowledge he +possesses the most interesting countenance I ever beheld.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PROCESSION TO NOTRE DAME</div> + +<p>After the First Consul had reviewed his troops “au trot” he hastily +dismounted, shot like an arrow into the Palace, and soon after the +general procession to Nôtre<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span> Dame began to form, and commenced with the +slow march of the infantry towards the Cathedral.</p> + +<p>The cavalry followed and the foreign Ministers and Ministers of State. +Madame Letitia Bonaparte,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> the Consul’s mother, a truly good, +respectable woman, and Madame Bonaparte,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> the reigning Queen, with +Madame Louis Bonaparte,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> her daughter, proceeded by another route +(not taking part in the procession). They occupied with their suite +two splendid coaches and four, each horse led by a running footman in +green and gold livery and escorted by a squadron of Hussars. The corps +of Mamelukes, leading six beautiful chargers of the First Consul, each +horse caparisoned to the tune of £2500, preceded the state coach, which +contained the three Consuls, attired in their consular garb of scarlet +velvet, embroidered with gold. These rulers were drawn by eight bay +horses and followed by a regiment of Hussars. Discharges of artillery +continued from their departure from the Palace till their arrival at +the Cathedral Church of Paris.</p> + +<p>Three chairs of state were placed in front of the altar for the +Consuls, that of Bonaparte’s was advanced a little in front of the +other two, and he drew it still further forward before he seated +himself. He sat erect during the whole ceremony, except during the +Consecration of the Host and Communion, when he stood. At the elevation +of the Host he crossed himself with the most sanctified composure, +using that same hand which in Egypt had signed his abjuration of +the Christian faith. The Consul le Brun<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> sat on his right hand +and Cambacères<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> on his left. When High Mass was over, the Bishops +approached in turn to take the oath of allegiance: as each mitred +apostle knelt before Bonaparte he gave a gentle nod; but one poor old +prelate, almost blind by age and too weak to kneel, having by mistake, +directed his obeisance to Cambacères, the First Consul gave such a +frown that the poor old man was almost terrified out of his wits.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span></p> + +<p>To form a just idea of the feelings of those present one must remember +that the greater part of the company consisted of the Senate, the +Corps Législatif, the Tribunalate and the Generals, nearly all of whom +had been or were avowed atheists, notorious for murders, thefts and +atrocities they had perpetrated, while the Chief Magistrate had a few +years earlier worshipped at the altar of atheism in Paris and embraced +the religion of Mahomet in Africa. These persons were now assembled +together to adore a God in whom they had no faith and to propose a +religion they despised merely that they might be enabled to preserve +their authority over the people and retain their lucrative places and +appointments. To my mind this is an occurrence in the history of pious +fraud only equalled by the action of Judas Iscariot.</p> + +<p>I may safely affirm that with exception of the Bishops and clergy, +there was not a single official personage in the church who quitted +this religious mockery with a sentiment of piety in his heart, nor one +who did not perfectly see through the whole object of the ceremony.</p> + +<p>When the bowing, kneeling and swearing were ended the First Consul +and his two scarlet supporters departed. Fresh discharges of cannons +accompanied their return journey to the Tuileries.</p> + +<p>The opinion entertained by the people of this day of ceremony was that +of indignation, mixed with contemptuous ridicule.</p> + +<p>In the evening Madame Bonaparte gave a grand rout to the ladies +of the constituted authorities, and the city was illuminated. The +illuminations were poor indeed, a few farthing rushlights stuck in +paper lanterns hung out from every third or fourth house in the +streets, and were called general illuminations, and even of those the +greater part was put out by the wind. The Palace of the Tuileries was +handsomely illuminated <i>à la chinoise</i> with variegated lamps. +Cambacères, the Second Consul, also illuminated his house with great +taste and splendour.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THEATRE OF OPERA BUFFA</div> + +<p>Vast numbers of people filled the streets and walks—great<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span> decorum +and sobriety were everywhere observed, a circumstance which practically +always distinguishes Frenchmen on such occasions.</p> + +<p>In the midst of all these pompous festivities the minds of the people +are still greatly divided respecting the future. They are gratified +by the return of peace—but they are suspicious of its continuation. +To this may be added the general apprehension of some fresh changes +in France, from the restless character of its present ruler, and his +disposition to interfere in the internal economy of other States.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XIX<br> +<span class="subhed">THEATRES. OPERA BUFFA. CORONATION OF PAESIELLO</span></h2></div> + + +<p>The theatres of Paris at the present time display such gross acts of +licentiousness among the spectators and such obscene dialogue on the +stage, that it is impossible to accompany a modest woman to most of +them. To those where the rules of decency were observed, our ladies +went, and the Opera Buffa was one of the few where we could resort with +comfort and convenience.</p> + +<p>This theatre is in the Rue de la Victoire, and here one could listen to +the charming music of Cimarosa, Martinelli and Paesiello.<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> This last +composer has attained an immense success by a piece, called <i>Zingari +in Flora</i>, which attracts crowded houses. On the third night of +its representation Paesiello himself, just arrived from Naples, made +his appearance in the box next the stage, opposite the one in which +the First Consul, his wife, Louis Bonaparte and <i>his</i> wife, +<i>ci-devant</i> Mdlle. Beauharnais, and the lady of Joseph Bonaparte +were sitting.</p> + +<p>The instant Paesiello was recognised, he was saluted with loud and +repeated applause, and all the spectators stood up to pay their +respects to the genius who had so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span> often charmed them by his powers of +composition. A lady then stepped into his box, and placed a crown of +laurel on his head, the plaudits then redoubled, while Bonaparte passed +his hand over his own forehead as an indication of what was uppermost +in his mind. He condescended to notice Paesiello, and signified by a +movement of his head that he participated in the general sentiment of +approbation.</p> + +<p>The respect paid to the composer by the band of musicians was +remarkable. They all rose at his entrance, turned towards him, and +retained this position during the rest of the evening. Great decorum +and good conduct are maintained in every part of this theatre, and even +behind the scenes. Sentinels are planted, not only behind the curtain +to preserve order, but plenty of them are stationed in every part of +the house, boxes, pit and gallery. Their conduct is exemplary. The +spectators, at this the best of the Paris theatres, behave themselves +with infinitely more propriety than the audiences at Drury Lane and +Covent Garden. The Cyprian corps also set an example of orderly +conduct, which their frail sisters in the fashionable London resorts +would do well to follow.</p> + +<p>On the night of Paesiello’s coronation we were so extremely fortunate +as to obtain a box nearly opposite to that occupied by the First +Consul and his relatives, and we remarked that Madame Bonaparte, her +daughter, and Madame Joseph Bonaparte were the only French women in the +theatre whose dress was modest as well as elegant. I was peculiarly +gratified to observe this circumstance, because, when the force of +example is considered, these persons may be enabled, owing to their +distinguished positions, to do much to check the <i>mauvais goût</i> in +the fashionable Parisian toilettes of to-day.</p> + +<p>The three distinguished ladies sat in front of the box, and were +attired much as would be a respectable English woman of the upper +classes wearing evening dress.</p> + +<p>Mesdames Napoleon, Louis and Joseph, wore fine diamond necklaces and +drop earrings.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A REVIEW AT THE TUILERIES</div> + +<p>Behind them, with his back to the audience, sat the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span> First Consul, who +conversed during the whole evening with his step-son, young Beauharnais.</p> + +<p>During the whole evening Bonaparte never exchanged a syllable with the +female members of his party, and when the play was over he darted from +his seat and departed by a side entrance, leaving his family to be +conducted from the theatre by their attendants.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XX<br> +<span class="subhed">REVIEW OF THE CONSULAR GUARD. CONVERSATION WITH ONE OF THE HEADS OF THE +REPUBLIC, RESPECTING BONAPARTE</span></h2></div> + + +<p>I wish to describe a grand review of the Consular Guard, which took +place on the Place du Carrousel, at this very Easter-tide—a review of +which so much has been said all over Europe. It is really nothing more +nor less than a parade, for not a single evolution is made. Indeed, if +it were wished to make an evolution the size and situation of the Place +du Carrousel would not admit it.</p> + +<p>The order in which the troops are disposed shows the impossibility +of manœuvring them, for the place in which 6000 men, horse and foot, +besides artillery, are collected, is not so large as our Horse Guards +Parade at Whitehall.</p> + +<p>The review really consists in the First Consul, his generals, his +aides-de-camp and his Mamelukes, trotting very fast through the lines. +He then takes his station in front of the gates of the Tuileries, and +the troops pass him in quick time, afterwards filing off to their +respective quarters.</p> + +<p>In order that I may give a clear idea of this military show, I will +briefly state the order in which the troops take their positions and +move from the ground.</p> + +<p>A battalion of Grenadiers, with their band, is stationed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span> from the left +corner of the Tuileries to the Palace door, from the right corner to +the same door is another battalion of Grenadiers, called the Column +of Granite, because at the battle of Marengo, “firm as adamant,” they +withstood the charges of Austrian cavalry. About sixteen paces in front +the first line commences with a battalion of Invalids, without a band +or even pipes, having only half a dozen drums attached to it. Next to +these are two battalions composed of select troops from the line. An +intervening space of thirty-six paces here occurs, when another line of +infantry, composed of two heavy battalions without music, extend along +the whole area. Behind these are two regiments of Hussars. A little +on their side at the right two troops of flying Artillery, and then +the famous regiment of Guides, commanded by Eugène de Beauharnais<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +(the Consul’s step-son) surnamed the Casse Cous, because they are said +neither to give nor receive quarter. Opposite this corps, at the other +extremity of the lines and under the Gallery of the Louvre, stands the +corps of Mamelukes—they retain their national costume, and every means +is employed to attach them to the interests of the French people—which +they are made to believe are identical with those of their Mussulman +Caliph.</p> + +<p>Three generals of division commanded the Consular troops under +Bonaparte, who reserves to himself the chief command.</p> + +<p>As soon as the First Consul had mounted Marengo, the drums beat a +tattoo, and the men shouldered arms.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">BONAPARTE</div> + +<p>Preceded by several Mamelukes and four aides-de-camp in superb Hussar +uniforms, he rode at full trot through the lines. When he returned +to the centre a detachment from an Artillery corps, now serving in +Italy, marched up to the Consul to receive their standard. It was +held by a sergeant. The Consul made them a short speech, ordering +them to swear they would rather die than abandon it. The infantry +guard then passed before the Consul, beginning with the battalion of +Invalids and ending with the Column of Granite, then came the Flying<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span> +Artillery, the regiments of Horse, and, last of all, the regiment of +Guides, beyond comparison the finest corps, whether for men or horses, +I ever beheld, their Colonel, Beauharnais, being the handsomest young +man amongst them. This regiment is dressed in green, as Hussars, and +wheeled with uncommon precision and velocity. The Column of Granite +was the only battalion which seemed to pay any attention to distance +or time; its sections wheeled and performed like a piece of machinery, +but all the other battalions were remarkably deficient in this branch +of discipline. I remarked to a French general upon the slovenly manner +in which those battalions wheeled; he nodded assent to the observation, +remarking shrewdly and wisely: “It is of no matter of consequence, they +know how to fight.”</p> + +<p>As soon as the last section had passed, the Consul, who seemed to be +in a very ill-humour, rode to the door of the Palace, dismounted and +disappeared. He was not in a general’s uniform, but wore the same dress +as that in which he appeared on the morning of the procession to Nôtre +Dame.</p> + +<p>Upon the whole, I cannot say that this review answered my expectations. +The troops were tall and well-clothed. The cavalry were magnificently +mounted, and made a noble appearance, but still the <i>tout +ensemble</i> did not excite my admiration to a very great extent.</p> + +<p>While Bonaparte was passing the lines, one of my acquaintance +exultingly turned to me and said: “Voilà le maître de la terre!” +Several English gentlemen, who were not very distant from me, made +themselves conspicuous by their ecstatic exclamations of adulation +towards Bonaparte, one of them, a person of rank and fortune, bawling +out loud enough to be heard by fifty people, “By G—d! this man +deserves to govern the world!”</p> + +<p>On our return from the parade, we went into a large party of ladies +and gentlemen, among whom were several members of the Government. One +of them took me aside; he questioned me as to the state of feeling in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span> +England on the subject of the peace, and asked me whether I read with +attention the English papers. Upon my answering in the affirmative, +he remarked that though the liberty of the Press was an essential +principle of our British Constitution, persons in foreign countries +were often exposed to the highest and most malignant censures from its +abuse. I now understood the drift of his conversation and observed +that natives of England, as well as foreigners, frequently had to +smart under the lash of the British Press and that no one had been +more severely handled (on some occasions) than myself. I explained +that we in England never noticed those things, unless by retorting +upon our opponents through the medium of the Press. He then said with +some hesitation: “I have excellent authority for saying that the First +Consul is incensed beyond measure at the liberties taken with his +character and government in the English papers.” “If that be all,” I +replied, “his anger will not go down with the sun, for I may venture +to promise him an unceasing fire from the British Press as long as he +discloses an ambition that is fatal to the security of Europe.” “And to +France,” he exclaimed. Then taking me by the arms, he said with great +energy, “When, my dear friend, you return to England, animate every +person concerned in the public journals to give him no quarter. It is +only through the medium of your papers that we know our situation; the +sound philosophy of your principles (meaning the English nation’s) will +finally rescue France from slavery.” Having uttered these words under +strong symptoms of agitation, he left the room.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ENGLISHMEN AND FIRST CONSUL</div> + +<p>Thunderstruck and confounded at this unexpected termination of our +discourse, I was for a moment at a loss what to think and how to act, +when fortunately the ex-Director Barthélémi came up and asked whether +I was pleased with the review. This made me recover my senses, and I +was enabled to enter into genial conversation. I was introduced to +Archbishop Faesh,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Bonaparte’s uncle; and to Visconti,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> but the +only news<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span> they communicated were the details of the operations in San +Domingo, brought home by Jerome Bonaparte. We soon afterwards left the +party. I conveyed the ladies back to the hotel, and then drove to the +house of the person with whom I have been engaged in the conversation +related above.</p> + +<p>He received me with great consideration and politeness, and stated how +happy he was to be able to confer with me alone, as it was not safe to +enter into particular details in a mixed assembly. I agreed with him, +and he immediately entered more fully into the subject.</p> + +<p>He told me that there were at present in France several Englishmen +employed by the First Consul to write against our Government and in +support of his (Bonaparte’s) administration. That an Englishman named +Joliffe was employed by Monsieur de Talleyrand to translate all the +articles in our newspapers which had any reference to France, and +that Talleyrand carried them to Bonaparte as regularly as he did his +official despatches. He mentioned the names of several other Englishmen +employed by the Consul for similar purposes, among whom were Messrs. +Morgan, Stone and Dr. Watson.</p> + +<p>The two objects he seemed extremely anxious to impress upon me were, +first that the Government and person of Bonaparte ought to inspire us +with extreme aversion, but secondly that we ought to abstain rigidly +from involving ourselves in another war with him.</p> + +<p>These points seemed rather paradoxical, and I asked how Great Britain +would be compromised in case of a renewal of the war. To this he +answered that 50,000 or 60,000 such military automatons as I had seen +to-day were always ready to execute without reflection or care whatever +orders the First Consul might issue. Then, again, the violent spirit +of Bonaparte was greatly to be dreaded. In case of a war between +England and France he would infallibly attack some of the weaker Powers +of Europe under the pretext that they favoured our cause. Upon my +expressing my astonishment that an enlightened nation should passively +submit to a system<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span> of tyranny which they disapproved of, and that +himself, who had so great an influence, together with many of his +colleagues, were taking no steps to abridge the power of this Corsican, +he observed with great feeling: “The Revolution was made <i>for</i> the +people, but not <i>by</i> the people. The principles of philosophy upon +which it was founded have been trampled under foot by the military, +and under every form of our government they have been masters. Whoever +got possession of the power of the sword ruled and rules the Republic. +France is the prize of generals whom our folly has placed on too high +an eminence.”</p> + +<p>The conversation was next resumed on the dissatisfaction which the +government of Bonaparte had occasioned throughout the Republic; and of +my speaking favourably of the character, abilities and influence of +Moreau,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> he differed from me, and observed that General Moreau was a +man of passive qualities, destitute of energy to undertake any grand +political scheme. His chief employment consisted in reading all the +military memoirs and books which had ever been written and playing with +his pretty wife.</p> + +<p>Upon the whole, after a conversation of about three hours, he ended +the dialogue by observing that he was at a loss whether to think war +or peace would be most favourable to the views of those who wished +the destruction of Bonaparte. He urged me, however, on my return to +England, that I should describe in the Press the horrible state of +slavery to which “Le Petit Caporal” had reduced the French. After +having solemnly enjoined me to be very guarded in my expressions during +my stay in France, we took leave of each other. The sentiments I have +detailed being those of a distinguished member of the Government, what +must be those of the people?</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span></p> + +<h2>XXI<br> +<span class="subhed">VISIT TO DAVID. ACCOUNT OF HIS PAINTINGS.</span></h2></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">DAVID’S STUDIO</div> + +<p>We have just returned from passing a very agreeable evening at the +apartments of David,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> in the Louvre. It seemed strange to find myself +under the roof of a man who actually signed a warrant for my arrest +some years ago. But in this capital these are things of course, and +it would have been quite natural in 1793 for me to dine with him, and +he had sent me the same evening to prison and two days later to the +guillotine. The fact is we were very desirous of seeing this man, +both on account of his political character and his reputation as the +first artist in France. We were received by Madame David and her two +daughters with great politeness, and Citizen David comported himself as +an human being.</p> + +<p>I met in this society a number of intelligent and respectable +characters, and had several opportunities of entering into conversation +with Monsieur David. The names of several English and French artists +were mentioned, but he never condescended to make an observation about +them.</p> + +<p>His lady frequently desired me to give my opinion of his celebrated +picture of the Sabines, and she assured me it would be a good +speculation to purchase it for exhibition in London. The price is £5000!</p> + +<p>I have heard much of the character, public and private, of M. David, +and it is but an act of justice to declare that amidst the most +unfavourable circumstances that hover over his public life, I have not +been able to trace any relative to his private reputation.</p> + +<p>The picture of the Sabines, which is now publicly exhibited in the +ancient Academy of Architecture, is considered by David as his +masterpiece, and he grounds its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span> character principally on the persons +of Hersillia, Tatius and Romulus. Poussin has pencilled the Rape of +the Sabine women, but David has chosen the sequel of the story at the +moment when the Sabine women rush between the two hostile armies for +the purpose of reconciling the Roman and Sabine soldiers.</p> + +<p>The two chiefs, Romulus and Tatius, are about to engage in single +combat, the former, while holding his uplifted javelin in his right +hand, in the attitude of preparing to hurl at his antagonist, his left +is concealed under a broad shield, which also covers the left part +of his body; on his head he wears a splendid helmet, a shoulder-belt +suspends his sword, and his feet are laced with sandals.</p> + +<p>In every other respect he is painted stark naked. Tatius is displayed +full to the view <i>in puris naturalibus</i>. He also wears not only a +helmet and sandals, but carries a shield and a scarlet mantle buckled +upon the breast, but so contrived as to exhibit his whole body in a +state of nature.</p> + +<p>Between these two figures stands Hersillia; she is robed in white <i>à +la grecque</i>, in other words according to the present fashion. Her +hair hangs dishevelled over her shoulders. At her feet lie her two +naked infants. In the centre ground groups of Sabine women are seen, +carrying their naked infants amidst heaps of dead and horses furious in +combat. Others are placing their children at the feet of the soldiers +of both armies, who struck with the sight ground their spears. The +general of the horse sheathes his sword. Numbers of soldiers wave their +helmets as a signal of peace. The walls of Rome form the background. +These are all the circumstances connected with the picture. I must now +give M. David’s vindication of the nakedness of his heroes.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DAVID’S STUDIO</div> + +<p>“It was a received custom among the painters, statuaries and poets of +antiquity to represent naked their gods, heroes, and in general all +those whom they intended to illustrate. If they painted a philosopher, +he was naked with a cloak over his shoulders and the attributes of his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span> +character; if a warrior, he was likewise naked except for a helmet on +his head, a shield on his arm and sandals on his feet; sometimes they +added drapery to give grace to the figure.”</p> + +<p>Among the many paintings we had seen from his hand his “Horatii” is +by far the most striking and most justly executed. Those which were +hastily drawn for days of ceremonies, in order to be exposed in the +open air, are on an immense scale and are not less horrible to the +sight than the objects which they were designed to represent were +terrific to the mind. He has also drawn the figure of Bonaparte on +horseback, at the passage of S. Gothard, for which he received one +thousand pounds.</p> + +<p>But the picture which interested me most was the representation +of the Deputies of the Tiers Etats assembled at Versailles while +their President is reading the Declaration of the Rights of Man. +The portraits of some of the members were astonishingly striking, +particularly those of Mirabeau and Barnave; in most, however, Citizen +David has failed in the correctness of his representations, especially +in those of Siège and Grégoire.</p> + +<p>The public character of David is well-known and held in general +detestation. In the course of my conversation with him I once took a +favourable opportunity of asking whether he recollected having signed +a warrant for my arrest. To these questions he simply replied that it +was impossible for him to recall to memory all the warrants of arrest +which had been issued at the time he was a member of the Committee of +General Vigilance; that hundreds were sometimes signed in one day, and +that in the <i>hurry of business</i>, he had often put his name to +warrants on the reports of his colleagues. I remarked that through this +<i>hurry</i> of business a great deal of injustice had been committed.</p> + +<p>This he frankly confessed, but defended the measures by the old plea: +“What could we do surrounded by traitors, who were paid by Pitt and his +government to sap the foundations of the Republic?” I could not help<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span> +observing that the conduct of the Committee reminded me of the hangman +in an English play, who states to his friends, that having a great deal +upon his hands one day in the hurry of business whipped the rope round +a bystander’s neck, and did not discover his mistake until a full hour +after the man had been hanging.</p> + +<p>Whenever the atrocities of the different rulers of France are made the +subjects of inquiry, I have always found the same language employed +to extenuate the guilt of their principal agents. Murders, rapes, +burnings, proscriptions and pillage are all laid upon the Revolution, +which is a generic term for every species of crime; but the agents, the +authors of these horrors, remain unmolested and riot in the blood and +tears they have caused to flow.</p> + +<p>If it be necessary to offer an apology for deeds of blood, the gold of +Pitt is displayed in all its wonder-working efficacy; if the murder of +an innocent person be lamented, we are instantly told he was an agent +of Pitt.</p> + +<p>However penitent some of these miscreants may affect to be, their +example does not appear to be followed by David. In general he is +silent and reserved upon political subjects. Nothing seems to distress +him more than the recollection of the conventional period. But his +distress arises not from the awakening voice of nature, nor from the +reproaches of an accusing conscience. It originates in idea that the +days of blood and proscriptions are no more.</p> + +<p>I am convinced that David regrets the halcyon times when thousands were +butchered to illustrate the reign of liberty and equality. Speaking +of St. Just,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> the hated Decemvir, he declared: “Notwithstanding the +fate of that <i>unfortunate</i> young man and the <i>prejudices</i> +entertained against him, he was véritablement à la hauteur de la +Revolution.” In an unguarded moment he proceeded to pour forth the +bloody sentiments of his ferocious soul.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">CHARACTER OF DAVID</div> + +<p>He did not scruple to avow that the Committee of Public Safety had +been the saviours of France and the founders of her gigantic empire; +and after a flourish on the civil wars and massacres attendant on the +acquisition of our English freedom, said it was impossible to establish +a Republic except by wading through seas of blood.</p> + +<p>I asked him whether it was true that a project had been in +contemplation to reduce the population of France to one-third of its +present number. He answered that it had been seriously discussed, and +that Dubois Croucé was the author.</p> + +<p>M. David, like every other Frenchman, is utterly ignorant of the nature +of the liberty we enjoy and of all our institutions.</p> + +<p>They have not a conception of the possibility of freedom existing in +any state with a monarch at its head; with them there is not a vestige +of liberty among any people who have not high-sounding Roman titles.</p> + +<p>In the same measure they cannot comprehend the being of that middle +class of society which constitutes the bulwark of our isle. According +to their notions of Britain, a man must be noble or a pauper.</p> + +<p>Thanks to our barbarous forefathers we have the whole essence of +regulated freedom, without the gilded terms of Roman despotism; we +have gothic names for the enjoyment of an enlightened people. David +recognises no freedom that is not open to holy insurrection against +established authority. Wherever shrieks of murder and the notes of +the trumpet are not heard, there can be no liberty. A person who is +conversant in the science of physiognomy would pronounce the character +of this monster at first sight. With a hideous wen upon his lip, which +shows his teeth and for ever marks him with the snarling grin of a +tiger—with features and eyes which denote a lust for massacre, he is a +savage by instinct and an assassin by rule. He is an atheist in faith +and practice, and a murderer by choice.</p> + +<p>While he was a member of the Committee of Public<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span> Safety and General +Vigilance, his greatest pleasure consisted in frequenting the prison, +where he feasted his eyes upon those who were condemned to die and +loaded the unhappy victims with imprecations. It was his constant +practice to call every morning at the prisons to inquire how many were +to be guillotined, and on being told one day that there were sixteen, +he instantly exclaimed in a furious attitude: “How, only sixteen! The +Republic is undone!”</p> + +<p>Retributive justice eventually overtook David, and he was committed +to prison in order to be tried for his life. After he had lain some +time in jail, two individuals sent to inform him that they were +commissioned by certain persons in England to save his life. A powerful +interposition did take place, and he was restored to liberty. Some time +after he was officially informed (I heard this from his own mouth) that +he was wholly indebted to the English for his life and liberation.</p> + +<p>I endeavoured in vain to persuade him that if this were true it must +have been the work of private friendship or some ardent admirer of +his distinguished talents. He persisted in the belief that it was the +interference of the English Government which saved him, notwithstanding +the obvious improbability of such an occurrence.</p> + +<p>When we perceive on all sides in France at the present day nothing but +the ruins of religion and morality, it is a relief to the soul and a +debt of justice due to an innocent family to describe them as they are, +devoid of guile and unstained with their father’s crimes.</p> + +<p>Madame David, during the Terror, retired with her children to a country +residence, where she lived in ignorance of her husband’s conduct in +Paris. She was what the French then termed an aristocrat, that is an +honest loyal woman, who believed in God, loved good order and cherished +the affections of domestic life.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MADAME DAVID</div> + +<p>The French Revolution has produced many amazons and many female +philosophers, who have died cursing God and man. It has also exhibited +magnificent traits of female heroism, and the scaffold has reddened +with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span> blood of women who have sacrificed their private interests +for the public cause. But Madame David in her way is as great a heroine +as any of these. As soon as the intelligence reached her that her +husband was in prison and about to be tried for his life, she forgot at +once the religious and political differences which had estranged her +from him, and set off instantly for Paris, making herself the companion +of his misfortunes.</p> + +<p>During the whole period of his confinement, at the risk of arrest on +suspicion, she was assiduous in her attendance upon him, and spared no +expense to procure him all the comforts of which his situation would +admit. She was also unceasing in her work to save him. Every day she +was to be seen at the different bureaus or at the houses of the men in +power, entreating and even intriguing for her husband. It may be justly +questioned whether David does not owe his life to her exertions rather +than those of some English emissary.</p> + +<p>Of the rest of the family I can speak in equal terms of respect. His +daughters are modest and prepossessing, and their good sense is as +marked as their good manners. The son devotes his whole time to a study +of the Greek language, in which he is in a fair way of excelling. Once +a week he has a conversazione, at which every respectable native of +Greece, resident in Paris, is invited, as well as all who cultivate +Greek literature.</p> + +<p>His Attic conversations are extremely well attended, for I have met +there Villaison, Viscomti, Mangez,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +Cornus,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Bitaubé,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and +Larcher. As soon as young David has completed his course of Greek +studies he intends to proceed to Greece, and the islands of the +neighbouring Archipelago, from whence he will pass over into the Troad +and visit Asia Minor.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span></p> + +<h2>XXII<br> +<span class="subhed">EXCURSION TO RINCY. AMUSEMENTS OF THE VILLAGES ON SUNDAY EVENING</span></h2></div> + + +<p>The late Duke of Orléans owned Rincy, and took great pains to arrange +his park and garden in the English taste. Since his death it has fallen +into decay, but the Parisians frequent it on Sunday, much as our +Londoners regale themselves at Richmond or at Greenwich Parks.</p> + +<p>We departed at an early hour, accompanied by Mrs. Cosway. Rincy is +thirteen miles from the capital and situated on the Strasburg road. On +our journey we met two open carts filled with criminals, principally +robbers, who were under their way to the metropolis under an escort of +gens d’armes. The first cart contained two captains of those predatory +bands of thieves who infest the Departments near the Rhine, and of +whose exploits such terrible accounts have been given. One of them +seemed to be placed in an unusually conspicuous position, so that he +might be easily recognised. He was extraordinarily tall, and under an +immense round hat exhibited features almost equalling in ferocity those +of the painter David.</p> + +<p>It seemed incomprehensible that the Government should go to the expense +and inconvenience of transporting these wretches 200 miles from the +theatre of their crimes, in order to take their trials before the +criminal tribunal in Paris, where all witnesses for and against could +only be produced at a very great public cost. When I returned to +Paris I attempted to probe this matter to the bottom, when the only +<i>rational</i> answer I obtained was that the citizens of Paris were +fond of seeing the execution of great criminals! I suggested that this +taste for blood might be as easily gratified if the culprits were +transferred after their conviction to the Parisian guillotine,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span> having +been first tried in the Department where their crimes were committed. I +was told, however, the effect would not be the same.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE CHÂTEAU OF RINCY</div> + +<p>I resume my narrative. We had hitherto been favoured with fine weather, +but just as we arrived at the gates of the château a heavy shower of +rain began to fall—the coachman desired the woman to open the gates, +which she bluntly refused to do unless we produced a permit from the +present proprietor. Upon which I held out “un petit écu,” and received +this reply from the female citizen: “C’est impossible, monsieur, ce +n’est pas une affaire du gouvernement!” A more open and honest avowal +of the venality of the present government of France was impossible.</p> + +<p>But a further parley and exhibition of our papers of identity effected +what bribery could not accomplish, and we were suffered eventually to +pass.</p> + +<p>Just at the entrance of the park is a traiteur’s (or restaurant), +where, it being Sunday, many of the bourgeois of Paris were regaling +themselves. The grounds themselves resemble an Englishman’s park. +It has, of course, suffered from the effects of the Revolution, but +enough remains to indicate that it was once a most voluptuous spot. The +château unhappily is demolished, and the massive pillars lie broken +and dispersed upon the ground. The lodge is repairing for the actual +proprietor, a wealthy Parisian merchant and the present keeper of +Madame Tallien, the wife of the Conventional butcher of Bordeaux.</p> + +<p>Opposite to this edifice stand the stables, in a tolerably good state +of preservation. The gravel walks are in good order, the fountains, +aqueducts and basins in a complete state, and the copses and woods have +not been cut down. The magnificent dairy is untouched, and at the top +of the hill which overlooks the park, the Sunday excursionists amuse +themselves by wandering in a labyrinth and surveying the “jets d’eau” +which are continually playing.</p> + +<p>In ascending the hill we found a pretty cottage, at the door of which +stood a man whose physiognomy announced<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span> his English extraction. He +also perceived we were English and invited us in our own language +to rest in his house. His name is Hudson, he was gamekeeper to the +late Duke of Orleans for fourteen years, and had accompanied him from +England on the occasion of that Prince’s visit when Duc de Chartres to +our country. He had a son of about ten years of age, who spoke English +and French with equal facility. The extreme neatness of the little +cottage showed it was not inhabited by a Frenchman—everything was +arranged in English fashion. A fine ham was on the table and several +flitches of bacon decorated the ceiling. During Robespierre’s reign +Hudson was imprisoned, and was to have been executed, but the death of +that monster happily intervening, he was liberated.</p> + +<p>Hudson made many affectionate and respectful inquiries after the +young Princes of the House of Orleans, and was very particular in his +questions respecting the Count of Beaujolais, whom he had taught to +ride, and for whom he seemed to entertain a great affection. He did not +appear the least disposed to quit France, nor to leave the situation he +now holds under another master. He consoles himself with the idea “that +things are coming round again as they were before the Revolution, and +he hoped he should do as well at Rincy under the new proprietor as he +did under the late Duke.” He is one of those beings who are satisfied +with any master so long as he is well provided for.</p> + +<p>I inquired for the celebrated breed of merino sheep, and was told the +whole flock had been removed to Rambouillet. We then retired to the +traiteur’s, where we were provided with an excellent dinner; and after +eating it, while the horses were harnessing, entered into conversation +with an old man who had formerly received a pension from the late Duke, +and who now, with so many others, was quite destitute.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE PANTHEON</div> + +<p>Most bitterly did he deplore the Revolution and curse its abettors. We +were surprised to find nearly all the people at Rincy speak of the late +Duke in terms of deep<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span> regret. On our return to Paris we were serenaded +in every village, and twice alighted to watch the diversions of the +peasants. At one place they were dancing by moonlight on a green, and +at another in a large room lighted for the purpose. They were neatly +dressed in their Sunday clothes, and seemed to enjoy their sports. We +did not pass a single village where there was not a rural ball; and on +the left of the high road a great number of rooms were lighted in which +suppers were preparing for the dancers. These rooms were interspersed +among the trees and gave a pleasing and lively appearance.</p> + +<p>Such innocent diversions reminded us of the old days of France, when +the country people were remarkable for their innocent gaiety and +good-natured mirth; as the sweet poet sings:</p> + + <div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="ileft">“Gay sprightly land of mirth and social ease,</div> + <div>Pleased with itself, whom all the world can please,</div> + <div>Alike all ages. Dames of ancient days</div> + <div>Have led their children through the mirthful maze,</div> + <div>And the gay grandsire, skilled in jestic lore,</div> + <div>Has frisked beneath the burden of fourscore.”</div> + <div class="right"><span class="smcap">Goldsmith’s</span> <i>Traveller</i>.</div> + </div> + </div> + </div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XXIII<br> +<span class="subhed">THE PANTHEON AND ITS LIBRARY. HALLE AU BLED. THE SORBONNE. OBSERVATIONS</span></h2></div> + + +<p>In 1793 a visit to the Pantheon in the Rue St. Jacques was considered +a duty for every patriot, who thus made a pilgrimage to the shrines of +the departed saints of Liberty. It was an affecting sight to behold the +regenerated children of freedom besmeared with blood and their feverish +heads covered with <i>bonnets rouges</i>, descending into the vaults +where the remains of their Satanic hierarchs reposed, and invoking, by +the glimmering<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span> light of funeral torches, the shades of Marat and le +Pelletier,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> St. Fargeon.</p> + +<p>In the more rational and early part of the Revolution this place +was consecrated to the memory of those who by their genius, their +discoveries, or their civil and military services, had contributed to +raise the prosperity of their country. France, in St. Denis, possessed +a Royal Mausoleum, but she was destitute of a cemetery for her national +benefactors, and nothing could therefore be more laudable than the +appropriation of the vaults (for this purpose) of one of the finest +churches in Christendom, and accordingly this church of St. Geneviève +was selected for this purpose. But this Christian temple was soon +converted into a temple of Paganism, and its name changed to a heathen +one, while instead of becoming an offertory to genius, its vaults +became the receptacle of the bodies of bloody-minded maniacs.</p> + +<p>I remember to have seen the tombs of Voltaire<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and Mirabeau at the +extremity of these caverns, and they were the <i>only great men</i> +who, in 1792, were judged worthy of being pantheonised. The remains +of the latter were soon disturbed, for after the deposition of the +King, he was suspected of being a Royalist and therefore a traitor to +that Republic which, at the time of his death, was nonexistent. The +relics of the Man of the People were therefore removed and flung into +the Seine. But the ashes of Voltaire, the economist of monarchical +government, the flatterer of kings, a determined aristocrat and a man +who entertained as hearty a contempt for republican institutions as +does Bonaparte himself, were left to moulder undisturbed.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">VOLTAIRE</div> + +<p>If I am not mistaken, Voltaire would, I am persuaded, had he lived +in these times, have been the panegyrist of Bonaparte. Such a man as +the First Consul would have captured the senses of the Philosopher of +Fernay, and the declarations of this affected Mussulman delighted the +eulogist of Mahomet.</p> + +<p>Whoever is acquainted with the writings of Voltaire<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span> must perceive that +the vivacity of his imagination carries him beyond himself. Acute, +penetrating and ingeniously sceptical, no man was more easily deceived +by appearances. A successful usurper and a great man were, in his mind, +identical; with him goodness and greatness were correlative terms. The +vilest scoundrel on earth, if possessed of Imperial power, is a great +man. Hence we find Voltaire calumniating Constantine because he was a +convert to Christianity and complimenting the most perfidious, cruel +and barbarous conquerors because they were not Christians; extolling +the licentious despotism of a puny tyrant of France, because infidelity +flourished in his court and camp and publicly avowing that no conqueror +existed without being at the same time a man of good understanding.</p> + +<p>The legislators of modern France, I am convinced, never read with any +attention the works of Voltaire, much less penetrated the spirit and +object of his compositions. They denominated him a Republican simply +because Condorcet<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> commented on Voltaire’s atheistical doctrines +from the tribune of the Convention, and because they were not able to +distinguish a desire to sap the foundations of Christian belief from a +love of anarchy and misrule. Voltaire was the champion of kings, but +the implacable enemy of priests.</p> + +<p>From the private correspondence of Voltaire, it is evident he held in +utter contempt the applause of the multitude. He aspired to obtain the +suffrages of the great and to make proselytes of kings, countries, +statesmen, women who possessed an influence over public men, and these +personages he flattered unceasingly. The <i>kind</i> of revolution he +wanted to establish was as distinct from Jacobinism as true liberty +from licentiousness. I do not wish it to be understood from this remark +that I approve of the work of Voltaire, nor do I deny that he planted +the seeds of that irreligious movement which in France has proved a +powerful auxiliary to political disorder. Voltaire neither loved nor +understood liberty, he treated with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span> contempt the Parliaments and +States-General of France; he apostrophised civil despotism wherever it +despises religion, and criticised Montesquieu without understanding him.</p> + +<p>Such was the man whose bones were unmolested, while the great advocate +of Public Freedom was committed to the muddy waters of the Seine. +I have had many conversations with Mirabeau, and I am certain that +although no Republican, he did not detest a Republican system of +government. The portals of the Pantheon, after the removal of the +body of Mirabeau, were opened to receive the corrupt carcase of that +miserable little demoniac, Marat, and a multitude of other sages, +who had rendered themselves, by their villainies, their buffooneries +and their insanities, worthy of immortality. Later on Marat was +unpantheonised and tossed into the public sewer, and I apprehend the +greater number of the men whom their grateful country has canonised +in this polluted Temple have been served a similar trick; for upon +inquiring on our visit there we learnt that there were <i>no</i> +immortals at present in preservation.</p> + +<p>There is nothing, therefore, now (1802) to be seen in Ste. Geneviève +but ruins; it has sunk considerably, and fresh supports have been +placed to the foundations. The edifice, commenced thirty years ago, is +not finished. We were warned it was not safe to traverse the interior; +we did, however, cross two of the naves, though repeatedly warned to +desist. Behind the church is the cloister, in which there is a library +of 30,000 volumes open all day for the use of the public. It is kept in +great order and decorated with a multitude of busts of the literati of +France, and at the extremity is a glass case containing a model of the +city of Rome.</p> + +<p>Dannon, an ex-legislator, is the principal librarian.</p> + +<p>The next object we visited was the Halle au Bled, or corn market. This +is a very interesting place—both on account of the different species +of corn offered for sale and of the vast cupola which covers the whole +of the market. This cupola is the largest in France, and its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span> diameter +is 120 feet—only 13 feet less than that of the Pantheon at Rome, +considered the greatest in the world. The vast Doric column employed +the genius of Catherine de Medici, who believed in both astrology and +magic. There are several allegorical figures upon it which denote the +Queen’s widowhood. The world cannot produce such another extraordinary +spectacle. The dome is constructed with finely ornamented wood, and so +contrived that each partition is supported by another; there are no +pillars used to uphold the fabric.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SORBONNE AND OBSERVATORY</div> + +<p>The word Sorbonne recalls to my mind that of the Inquisition. In the +hall of these controversialists, it has solemnly been discussed whether +black was not white, assassination has been alternately extolled and +condemned. The same doctrines have been deemed heretical and orthodox, +according to the circumstances of the times. I have no other word to +say respecting the Sorbonne, except that it exhibits nothing now but +bare walls and ruins, and is scarcely worth the trouble of a visit.</p> + +<p>The National Observatory is situated near the Rue S. Jacques; it was +erected by Perrault, who was a better architect than an astronomer. +The meridian line is traced along the great hall of the first storey. +Under the edifice are subterranean caves or catacombs, which form a +labyrinth from which no stranger can hope to extricate himself without +the services of a guide.</p> + +<p>The rooms are bare and destitute of furniture or accommodation for +those who ought to assemble in them.</p> + +<p>Cassini, the able director under the Royal Government, was driven away +by the Revolution. No leading astronomers go to this Observatory.</p> + +<p>From the top of the building we had a magnificent view of Paris and its +environs.</p> + +<p>The astronomical instruments are stationed in the great hall, but on +account of the absence of the officials connected with the building we +were unable to examine them or to see the immense telescope. Upon the +whole this edifice is, like all French public buildings, superior<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span> in +architecture to anything of the kind in England, but greatly inferior +in <i>utility</i>, and far less calculated to answer its object than +that at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, was under the direction of +Dr. Maskelyne.<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XXIV<br> +<span class="subhed">EXCURSION TO ST. CLOUD. PORCELAIN MANUFACTORY AT SÈVE. A DUEL</span></h2></div> + + +<p>Queen Marie Antoinette paid dearly for the vast sums expended upon this +palace. A fourth part of the money expended upon St. Cloud would have +sufficed to purchase by bribery all the demagogues of France.</p> + +<p>This place derives its name from a very remote antiquity. When the +grandsons of Clovis and Ste. Clotilde were murdered by their ambitious +and unnatural uncles, one (Cleodold) escaped, and was conveyed by his +nurse to a secret place, where he was educated for the priesthood. He +eventually founded a monastery in the vicinity of Paris, called after +him St. Cleodold or St. Cloud. In later years a Royal château was built +upon the same site. Before the Revolution his tomb was still preserved, +inscribed with a very ancient epitaph.</p> + +<p>St. Cloud is about six miles from Paris. The château stands upon an +eminence commanding a full view of the capital and adjacent country; +and the Seine, which widens at this point, meanders slowly beside the +grove of trees planted along the banks. During the life of the Queen, +the paintings in the gallery, the magnificence of the furniture in all +the apartments, and the beauty of the walks, waters and cascades, made +St. Cloud a most attractive spot. But the paintings and furniture were +destroyed, and the place is now fitted up in a most costly style for +the residence of the First Consul.</p> + +<p>It is his intention to hold his Court here occasionally, and to enrich +it with some choice pictures from the gallery<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span> in the Louvre. I have +been informed that he intends to make it the depôt for all the gold +and silver utensils which he stole out of private houses during the +campaign in Italy.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ST. CLOUD</div> + +<p>A considerable quantity of Church plate which he purloined he has sent +to a silversmith’s to be melted, and afterwards wrought into salvers +and other domestic vessels, marked with his initials, so that the +Consular family will always be served upon gold and silver plates and +dishes.</p> + +<p>The cascades of St. Cloud are perfectly preserved, and they play once +a month for the amusement of the Parisian populace. The expense of +these exhibitions amounts to £12,750 per annum. The waterworks of +Marli, which originally cost £200,000 sterling, are to be destroyed in +order to increase the celebrity of those which ornament the Consular +residence.</p> + +<p>I have more than once had occasion to animadvert on the facilities open +to licentiousness and debauchery in almost every place of public resort +in Paris. There is a circumference of wickedness traced within twelve +miles of this metropolis, seemingly on purpose to prevent unwary youth +from escaping the bonds of infection. No repose or time for reflection +is allowed to the voluptuous inhabitant of Paris. Of this melancholy +truth the detail of what I saw in the village of St. Cloud is a proof.</p> + +<p>This place being in the vicinity of Paris, and only a pleasant +promenade from that capital, it is frequented by the Sunday devotees +of pleasure. It is chiefly the resort of young persons of both sexes, +who, after wandering about the charming walks, retire to an auberge at +the foot of the bridge where there are a number of little hermitages in +which they procure refreshments. These hermitages, though in the style +of English tea-gardens, are refinements on the dull insipid morality of +British rural architecture, because in France it is a prevailing maxim +that elegant vice is preferable to dull virtue.</p> + +<p>Into one of these little boxes we were ushered for the purpose of +taking refreshment. After we had rested awhile I perceived a small door +which excited my<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span> curiosity; I opened it, when, behold!... Confounded +at what I saw, I resolved to find out whether we might not have been +introduced into this hut by mistake; but, after examining at least +twenty others, I found they were precisely upon the same plan and with +the same views, only a few of them surpassed the others in decoration +and scenery.</p> + +<p>I inquired of the mistress of the place why so many little bedrooms +were annexed to these boxes; she replied coolly that they were for the +accommodation of such ladies and gentlemen who came to St. Cloud, and +who desired a private <i>tête-à-tête</i>.</p> + +<p>We then visited the celebrated porcelain manufactory of Sève, which +is at all times open to public inspection. The range of apartments in +which the porcelain is exhibited is extensive. A few groups of figures +are in glass cases, but all the other articles exposed to the touch of +the visitor. The price is affixed to each article, and no abatement +whatever is made to purchasers.</p> + +<p>The trade in porcelain, we are told, has for long been dull and heavy, +but it is expected the general peace will open a vent for the sale of +these articles.</p> + +<p>The highest price of any article we saw was £20 sterling for a single +plate, a price we thought exorbitant.</p> + +<p>I maintain that the porcelain manufactured at Derby will stand a +comparison with that at Sève. If the latter be more pellucid and +delicate in its white colour, the finishing of the figures is equal, if +not superior, at the former. I saw some years ago at Derby a dessert +service manufactured for the Prince of Wales, and I did not find +anything so beautifully executed at Sève.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">NEGLECT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION</div> + +<p>We thoroughly examined this elegant exhibition, and were received with +great politeness and attention. We then returned by the walks of St. +Cloud, and drove off to Paris through the Bois de Boulogne.</p> + +<p>On our way we saw several persons carrying the dead body of General +d’Estaing,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> who had just been shot by General Regnier<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> in a duel. +The cause of the quarrel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span> arose in Egypt, where both officers served +with distinction. D’Estaing was an able man, and is much regretted; +but Regnier is possessed of very splendid abilities and an acute and +penetrating genius, as is shown in the admirable account he has sent +the Agricultural Society concerning the state of agriculture in Egypt. +This unfortunate affair does not excite the sensation here that the +death of a fighting booby does in London. Duelling is by no means +so frequent as under the Monarchy, the point of honour being little +understood by the Republican nobles.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XXV<br> +<span class="subhed">ESTABLISHMENTS FOR PUBLIC INSTRUCTIONS. THE MILITARY SCHOOL. THE CHAMPS +DE MARS. THE GOBELIN MANUFACTORY. THE HÔTEL DE VILLE AND THE GARDE +MEUBLE</span></h2></div> + + +<p>In old France there were more universities, colleges and public schools +than in any other part of the world. All these were overthrown by the +Jacobin Revolution, and the funds allotted to their support squandered +on the adventurers who figured and still figure on the theatre of the +French Republic.</p> + +<p>To this hour there is no general plan of education in the country. +There are only three central schools in Paris, and their organisation +is essentially defective.</p> + +<p>Abstract sciences and history fill up the whole course of education +until the pupil is eighteen years of age.</p> + +<p>Geography is not taught; there is no professor of foreign languages, +and only one lecturer upon the ancient and classical tongues, who once +a week reads aloud a discourse rather for his own amusement than for +the advantage of his pupils.</p> + +<p>In consequence of these arrangements the understanding of the scholar +is never exercised. To teach the abstract<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span> sciences to boys merely +by reading dissertations to them is much the same as to attempt the +demonstration of a problem by Euclid without pen, ink or paper.</p> + +<p>These central schools therefore are no manner of use, they only serve +as a parade of useless erudition on the part of the professor, and +nurse consummate ignorance and vanity in the students who attend them.</p> + +<p>However, when the pupils have somehow or other gone through their +classes, they are removed to the Polytechnic school, which is the +Parisian University.</p> + +<p>About 400 boys are here finishing at this Polytechnic school, +laboratories, mechanical workshops and philosophical apparatus are +provided for the use of the pupils.</p> + +<p>If a young person is ambitious of acquiring the elements of science, +he must work at home and pay his own masters, for the central schools +cannot possibly render him any useful assistance. When he has +educated himself he may possibly derive some advantage from attending +the lectures of certain Professors. They are the following. In the +Geographical School, the science of geography is well taught, but +only twenty pupils are admitted to this establishment. The School of +Roads and Bridges is also a very useful institution. It was founded +by M. Prony<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> during the Monarchy, thirty-six Polytechnicians are +received into this school. The School of Naval Architecture is also an +institution of the old Monarchy. The School of Medicine contains 1000 +students, twenty professors, a modeller in wax and a designer. There +is a school of pharmacy, a mineral school and a veterinary school at +Alfort near Charenton.</p> + +<p>But the most important college still remaining is the “Collège de +France,” Place de Cambrai, which has survived the storms of the +Revolution and retains its ancient reputation. It has seventeen +professors, who are all men of the greatest merit and celebrity in the +Republic of letters.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CHAMP DE MARS</div> + +<p>Lalande, perhaps the ablest astronomer in Europe, is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span> the professor of +astronomy; la Croix, a profound geometrician, professor of mathematics; +and my estimable and revered friend, de la Metherie, professor of +natural history.</p> + +<p>These different colleges are supported entirely at the expense of the +State; the professors are paid out of the public revenues, and students +of all ages and countries permitted to consult and attend their +lectures free of any expense.</p> + +<p>But these establishments are not in the least suitable for those who +have not long overstepped the boundaries of elementary knowledge, and +they are beyond the reach of juvenile or vulgar understandings.</p> + +<p>The Ecole Militaire, erected in 1751, after the designs of Gabriel, did +not suffer as a building during the Revolution, because it was used as +a barrack for the troops of the Convention.</p> + +<p>It is now converted into a barrack for the Consular Horse Guards +commanded by Eugène Beauharnais.</p> + +<p>We were permitted to walk round the piazzas that encircle the court, +beneath which soldiers were sleeping in groups. So solemn a silence +reigned through the building we might have fancied ourselves in a +Benedictine monastery.</p> + +<p>The Champs de Mars is by many people mistaken for a Campus Martius, but +the origin of its designation is taken from the fact that this spot was +in early ages used for the holding of those assemblies of the people +which were precursors of the more modern Parliaments. As these meetings +were usually held in the month of March, the places where they were +held were termed the Fields of March. This great enclosure is now one +of the dullest and least frequented spots in Paris. Formerly the Altar +of Federation stood in its centre, but that, with every other ornament +of the Revolution, is now levelled with the ground.</p> + +<p>But when we reflect upon the many philosophical, conventional and +dictatorial antics which have been exhibited and practised here within +the last decade, it is worth the trouble of visiting this place.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span></p> + +<p>All the blasphemous pantomimes which were performed in commemoration of +the sanguinary freaks of the Republic were represented on the Champs de +Mars.</p> + +<p>The pencil of David has been often employed on the scenery, and the pen +of Chenier ran with blood as he composed the pæans of Jacobinism.</p> + +<p>It was here also that Robespierre, with a lighted torch, set fire +to the altar to the Etre Suprème, while the people shouted “Vive +Robespierre! Vive la Convention!” All this sounds like fiction, and yet +it all took place on this very field.</p> + +<p>The manufactory of Gobelins still exists, though its productions past +and present are in no request and have grown out of fashion.</p> + +<p>During the Monarchy it was a most thriving and prosperous industry, and +a vast number of workmen were employed there. The different apartments +contain many beautiful tapestries, taken from original paintings by +great French artists, but they find no purchasers.</p> + +<p>Nothing can be more exquisite than the colouring and exquisite +workmanship of the articles produced here; a single piece requires +two or three years’ labour. The workmen are not paid more than three +shillings a day for their sedentary and difficult occupation. This is +accounted for by the fact that the Government supports the manufactory, +and that there is no sale whatever for the works.</p> + +<p>Fashions are changing constantly, and perhaps the Gobelins may +again have its day. Gilles Gobelins, a celebrated dyer, erected the +manufactory during the reign of Francis I.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">HÔTEL DE VILLE</div> + +<p>The Hôtel de Ville is worthy of a traveller’s attention on account +of its antiquity and its having been the focus of many extraordinary +events. It was built in the middle of the sixteenth century and +contains a great number of apartments. After August 10, 1792, all the +ancient inscriptions and ornaments were taken down and either removed +or destroyed. When the King was brought to Paris from Versailles by the +mob, prepared and hired for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span> that purpose, he was exhibited at one of +the windows to the populace; and Monsieur Bailly, the Mayor, informed +him that it was a fine day, and presented him with the National cockade +instead of a bouquet.</p> + +<p>This is the place where Robespierre first took refuge when he had +been outlawed, and in front of it is the lamp iron from which so many +victims have been suspended. Here the red flag, with the inscription +<i>Citoyens, la patrie est en danger!</i> was first unfurled, to serve +as the signal for massacre, and here the guillotine is preserved for +the inspection of the curious.</p> + +<p>Twelve years ago the Garde Meuble was one of the principal curiosities +which attracted the attention of foreigners. The apartments were filled +with ancient armoury, national and foreign, rare tapestries, after +the cartoons and designs of Dürer, Lucas of Leyden, Julius Romano, +Raphael, le Brun and Coypel; precious vases, presents from ambassadors, +jewels, pearls, diamonds, and a multitude of other rich and valuable +articles. In the month of September 1792, a band of thieves broke into +the halls and carried off a great quantity of these riches, among other +things the Pitt diamond, the largest belonging to the Crown. However, +there are still some precious antiques remaining, such as the sword +of Henry IV., the spontoon of Paul V., and the polished armour worn +by Francis I. at the Battle of Pavia, with which on the day of the +capture of the Bastille a cobbler of the Faubourg St. Antoine, then on +guard, completely caparisoned himself, to the utter astonishment of +the spectators. The exterior of this vast edifice has not suffered by +the blows of the Revolution. It is not yet decided to what purpose the +Government intend to convert it.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span></p> + +<h2>XXVI<br> +<span class="subhed">THE CONSERVATORY OF ARTS AND MACHINES</span></h2></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> ravages of the Revolution completely laid waste the whole +of France intellectually, as well as morally, and the labours of +eminent artists and inventors were either suspended or transferred to +foreign countries.</p> + +<p>The murderers of Lavoisier could scarcely be expected to patronise +either arts or useful sciences.</p> + +<p>In the short space of ten years more injury has been done to the useful +arts in France than by all the Alarics and Omars of antiquity.</p> + +<p>However, the Revolutionists had not proceeded very far in the route of +devastation, when a few enlightened men, who perceived the extent of +the mischief threatened to be entailed upon posterity, courageously +opposed their further progress, and adopted the most provident +precautions to stop the fury of the evil.</p> + +<p>Through the indefatigable exertions of Bishop Grégoire the National +Convention on October 11, 1794, decreed the establishment of a +Conservatory of Arts, whose object was to collect machines, utensils, +designs, descriptions and experiments, relating to the improvement +of industry, so as to diffuse some knowledge of them throughout the +Republic.</p> + +<p>But it was one thing to decree and another to execute. By a studied +remissness the law was suspended for three years. National edifices +were granted by dint of favour to useless projectors, but the +Conservatory of Arts could find no place to display its riches and +means of instruction. At length a decree, passed on May 7, appropriated +a portion of the former Abbey of St. Martin des Champs to this object, +and the inadequate sum of 56,000 livres, or £2240 sterling, was voted +for the reparations of the building, the purchase of the land and the +indemnity accorded to the renter.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">CONSERVATOIRE D’ARTS</div> + +<p>Thus finally organised, the Conservatory of Arts presents a splendid +accumulation of useful machines, always open for the inspection and +improvement of the public. The machines, which Pajot d’Ozemberg gave to +the ancient Academy of Sciences, and the greater part of the beautiful +models which composed the celebrated gallery of mechanical arts +belonging to the late Duke of Orleans, are now in this Conservatory. +Also the 500 machines bequeathed to the Government by the celebrated +Vaucouson, to whom the French nation is as much indebted as to Olivier +des Serres and Bernard Palissy.</p> + +<p>In addition to these collections there is an infinite number of +machines relative to agricultural labours, such as draining, +irrigation, preparation of oil, &c.</p> + +<p>The Conservatory also contains machines for twisting tobacco, taken +from on board an English vessel, as well as a very important chart of +North America, executed by order of our Government. It has been greatly +enriched by the “<i>discoveries</i>” of certain French savans, those +learned robbers of the National Institute who followed the victorious +march of the Republican armies in Holland and Italy. Whole waggon loads +of instruments of science have been filched from their proprietors +and transmitted to this National reservoir by those industrious, +indefatigable and erudite thieves, Citizens Thonin, Fanjos, Leblond, +Bertholet, Barthélémy, Monge, Moitte and De Wailly.</p> + +<p>The object of the Conservatory is not only to secure to the public the +knowledge of those inventions for which the Government has conferred +rewards or granted patents, but also to become the common depot of +all inventions. Thus it is for the useful arts what the Louvre is for +sculpture or painting.</p> + +<p>Upon the whole this Conservatoire d’Arts is one of the most beneficial +and laudable establishments in France. It has a direct tendency to +encourage industry and stimulate genius. Some persons who have not +sufficiently examined the matter object to it on the plea, that by +rendering handicrafts more simple by mechanical<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span> force, a multitude of +workmen will be deprived of the means of subsistence.</p> + +<p>Such arguments were used by the watermen of London when Westminster +Bridge was built.</p> + +<p>But the world possesses more scope for labour than it possesses hands, +and the powers of mechanism by simplifying the process of manufacture +also diminish the price of the article, bringing it thereby into +general circulation and opening a more lucrative commerce to a nation +by underselling the produce of foreign countries and so putting an end +to all competition.</p> + +<p>The true principle of public economy begins to be studied in every part +of Europe, and we are making a slow but certain progress in improvement.</p> + +<p>But if the rash spirit of innovation takes possession of the minds of +those who govern mankind, if they will insist on bringing all things +within a punctilious system of rules, they must not be surprised if +their fondness for precision should terminate in a similar anarchy to +that which has oppressed and ruined France.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XXVII<br> +<span class="subhed">THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE</span></h2></div> + + +<p>The decay of letters and philosophy during the progress of the French +Revolution placed the French under the necessity of establishing some +measures to restore the cultivation of science and literature. Thus the +National Institute was eventually formed. The old Academies had been +completely destroyed, their members banished, murdered, or dispersed.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE</div> + +<p>The National Institute is designed to remedy this evil by once more +collecting together the genius, talents and industry of France, and it +belongs to the whole Republic and is fixed at Paris. It is composed of +<i>one hundred and forty-four members resident in the capital</i>, and +144 Associates, taken from different parts of the Republic, together<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span> +with 24 learned foreigners. Every preference in this arrangement is +manifestly given to Paris, at the expense of the Departments.</p> + +<p>The Departments, containing a majority of 30 to 1 compared with the +metropolis, are never expected to produce more great men collectively +than the latter. This is absurd, for every one knows that under the old +Monarchy there were men scattered over the provinces often equal and in +many instances far superior to the members of the Parisian Academies.</p> + +<p>Montesquieu<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> was a member of the Academy of Bordeaux in 1716, and +it was not till the year 1728 that he was admitted into the Académie +Française. Indeed, an admittance into that famous society was often no +evidence of supereminent merit. Genius had to contest against cabal, +intrigue and Court favour; so that the <i>literati</i> of Europe looked +for great and estimable men in other Academies of France, such as Aix, +Marseilles, Lyons, Bordeaux, &c.</p> + +<p>The pre-eminence thus accorded to the Parisian <i>savans</i>, who are +in general a gang of the vilest ruffians in the world, is a marked +insult to the rest of the Republic, and proves that to rule France it +is only necessary to be master at Paris. For the sake of this city, +France, as well as foreign countries, has been laid under contribution +and pillaged of whatever transportable monuments of art and genius +they possessed. Had it been possible, the triumphal arch at Orange, +the bridge of Gard, the amphitheatre at Nismes would have been removed +here to gratify the fancy of the Parisian rabble of philosophers and +legislators.</p> + +<p>The law by which the learned men of a single city were placed on a +level with those who people the whole of a vast country was made +by the very men who afterwards became self-elected members of this +<i>miscalled</i> National Institute. It is no trivial matter to be +one of the 144 resident in Paris. It leads to fame and fortune, to +places and appointments, and it is the highest step on the ladder of +philosophical ambition.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span></p> + +<p>To return to the laws of the Institute, it is divided into three +classes:</p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">First Class.</span>—<i>Physical and Mathematical Sciences.</i></p> + +<p>(1) Mathematics, (2) mechanical arts, (3) astronomy, (4) experimental +physics, (5) chemistry, (6) natural history, (7) botany, (8) anatomy +and zoology, (9) medicine and surgery, (10) rural economy and +veterinary art.</p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Second Class.</span>—<i>Moral and Political Sciences.</i></p> + +<p>(1) Analysis of sensations and ideas, (2) morals or moral philosophy, +(3) social science and legislation, (4) political economy, (5) history, +(6) geography.</p> + +<p>It will be observed that in this class there is no section for despised +theology, which surely should have a foremost place therein.</p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Third Class.</span>—<i>Literature and the Fine Arts.</i></p> + +<p>(1) Grammar, (2) ancient languages, (3) poetry, (4) antiquities and +monuments, (5) painting, (6) sculpture, (7) architecture, (8) music and +declamation.</p> + +<p>When the National Institute was about to be established a law was +enacted (3rd Brumaire, year 4) by which the Directory were authorised +to provide salaries for each member, and the five members of the +Executive Directory were empowered to nominate the first 48 members, +who <i>thus</i> elected had power to choose the remaining 144 +Associates.</p> + +<p>In nominating the first 48, the Directors first elected each other, +then their friends, and those friends nominated other friends in Paris +and the Departments.</p> + +<p>Every class of the Institute assembles twice in each decade; the +assemblies are private, but each member is allowed to introduce a +visitor.</p> + +<p>The secretaries of each class assemble once a year to prepare a +report of its labours, which is presented to the Institute, and whose +president then writes to the Minister of the Interior to know when +it shall please his consular majesty to give admission to his sacred +person in order that they may present it.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">RULES OF NATIONAL INSTITUTE</div> + +<p>When that gala day arrives, the members of the Institute appear with +clean shirts, dressed in their grand uniform, and neatly shaved. The +First Consul receives them, habited in all his paraphernalia, and as +gorgeously attired as any Emperor or King in Europe. Every member of +the Institute receives 1600 livres (£60 sterling) per annum. Every +member has a silver medal with the head of Minerva on one side and his +name on the other, which serves as his passport into every place in +which the Institute is concerned. The First Consul, who is so fond of +stage effect that he will not allow an assembly of grave philosophers +to think and act without a uniform, was graciously pleased to command +one for the members of the Institute. The State dress consists of a +black satin coat, waistcoat, and breeches, embroidered throughout with +branches of olive in deep green silk, not <i>à la Française</i>.</p> + +<p>The undress costume is similar, but only embroidered at the collar and +cuffs. This regulation was signed and countersigned by the First Consul +and the Minister of the Interior.</p> + +<p>On the 5th Frimaire, year 10, the Institute decreed that on the death +of a member the president, the senior of the two secretaries of each +class, as well as the members of the section to which the deceased +belonged, were, unless prevented by some unavoidable cause, to assist +at his funeral. The procession departs from the National Palace of the +Louvre at <i>noon precisely</i>, in order that the moment it arrives at +the late residence of the deceased the funeral ceremony may immediately +be despatched.</p> + +<p>Formerly a hole was dug in the earth and the philosopher’s carcase +quickly deposited therein, but since it has become the fashion to +be a Christian the old service for the dead is to be revived. The +Conservatory of Music are to execute a solemn dirge, and black crape +is to be worn upon the left arm. An historical memoir of the deceased +is to be made in the course of the year by the secretaries and read at +a public sitting of the Institute, when the family of the dead member +are to be seated in a distinguished place. The precision with which +all these<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span> ceremonies are minutely marked out leaves room for regret +that it has not been mentioned at what signal from the president the +assembly shall begin to cry.</p> + +<p>I ought, perhaps, to give a list of the members of this Institute, +with details of their characters previous to and since the Revolution, +and their respective claims to literary pre-eminence. Such a narrative +would be interesting, as the greater part of them have rendered +themselves less conspicuous in the world of letters than in taking a +very active part in some of the most bloody tragedies of the Republic.</p> + +<p>For instance: Bonaparte, Carnot,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Mouge,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> + le Blond,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Berthelet,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> + Foucroy,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Revellière,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> + Lepoux,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Cambacères, Merlin,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> + Talleyrand,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Roederer,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> + François de Neufchâteau, Chenier,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Thonin,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> + Mouette,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> have all been known for their +assassinations, robberies and atrocious crimes. Foucroy was the cause, +for instance, of the murder of the immortal Lavoisier. All these +ruffians and others space prevents my naming, furnish abundant matter +for inquiry and reflection, but it is impossible to include such a +length of biographies in a letter; but before I leave Paris I intend to +procure sufficient authentic documents by which upon my return (should +I escape in safety from the tyrant’s grasp) I shall be then enabled to +drag these philosophical murderers and thieves out of their National +Palace, strip them of their silken disguises, and expose them in all +their naked deformity to the execration of mankind.</p> + +<p>In vain do they flatter themselves that by the arts of a meretricious +rhetoric they elude the vigilant pursuit of injured innocence and +affronted justice, in vain do they suppose that they shall court +foreign applause by associating with the learned of other countries. It +is a disgrace and a dishonour to be favoured by the National Institute +where a band of sanguinary ruffians pollute the halls consecrated to +learning, science and wisdom. Whoever lives under a government where +religion, morals and public freedom are revered, ought to reject their +silver<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span> medal and <i>procès verbal</i>, as he would cast away from him +food contaminated with poison.</p> + +<p>If it be an honour to be elected a member of a society, learned, +indeed, but fundamentally vicious and depraved, why not petition to be +admitted to the Palace of Pandemonium?</p> + +<p>The devils in hell are fully as knowing as the members of the +Institute, and, for ought I know, not done greater evil to mankind. +They are the fittest colleagues for such men, and not the upright and +pensive cultivators of science and literature.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XXVIII<br> +<span class="subhed">THE CENTRAL MUSÉE DES ARTS. THE GALLERY OF THE LOUVRE.</span></h2></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">MUSEUM OF THE LOUVRE</div> + +<p>When the French Republicans first took up arms, they protested to the +world that they fought not for conquest, but to spread their beneficent +doctrines of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, and that wherever their +victorious standards were spread, the liberty and property of nations +should be respected. Their first campaigns were directed against their +warlike neighbours who hovered round their frontiers; and when they +succeeded in repelling the veteran troops of the continental Powers, +they began a career of robbery, pillage, rapine and destruction, which +has no parallel in the history of disciplined nations, nor even in that +of predatory hordes of barbarians.</p> + +<p>The principle on which the robberies of the French have been conducted +has been to <i>aggrandise</i> France by the utter <i>impoverishment</i> +of other countries.</p> + +<p>After having demolished the monuments of the genius and industry of +their own countrymen, they went forth to ransack other countries, +and destroyed all they could not carry away with them. Whatever had +been raised by the talents, the piety or the care of the lovers of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span> +science, arts and literature, became the object of their vandalism or +their peculation. Their policy had no element but to divide in order to +conquer, and so arrive at universal domination by universal confusion. +Occupied constantly on the destruction of Europe in detail, they +trampled under their feet Monarchies and Republics alike.</p> + +<p>Every time I have paced along the galleries of the Louvre sentiments +of hatred and indignation took possession of my breast. Amidst all the +blaze of artistic beauty I never entered nor left without feelings of +disgust.</p> + +<p>I confess I received no gratification from all the Raphaels, Titians, +and Correggios I saw there.</p> + +<p>In their <i>proper places</i> I could have gazed with transport upon +these masterpieces, but I cannot look with pleasure on productions thus +violently torn from their lawful owners.</p> + +<p>Of all the countries which have been undone by French havock Italy has +suffered the most, and its miseries are least known to the world. The +French have literally exhausted upon that country the fecundity of +rapine, cheating and fury. They have rendered themselves masters of its +correspondence, and all we know now of the existence of that desolated +country is through the frequent eruptions of a tyranny without remorse, +of a powerless despair and of the accumulations of spoil which +decorates the public exhibitions of Paris. The contributions of the +French were nothing less than a general sack, the encyclopædia of their +thefts forms a monument of curiosity.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">STOLEN PICTURES</div> + +<p>The barbarians who formerly overran Italy despised art, and neglected +to take possession of such treasures. The fanatical Mussulman destroyed +them as monuments of idolatry. But in our times Academicians, poets, +orators, philosophers, members of the National Institute, have crossed +the Alps to strip Italy of her talents, to force from her the labours +of her children, the most sacred illustration of a people, a property +which the laws of war<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span> among civilised nations has hitherto held to be +inviolable until the present epoch, when a gang of savage sophists have +replunged Italy into a darkness worse than any of the early ages of +Europe.</p> + +<p>Those who are ignorant of the methods by which a thief has realised an +immense fortune may be forgiven for their admiration of his wealth and +treasures, but the man who is acquainted with the villainy employed in +such an accumulation is inexcusable should he lavish praises on objects +in that thief’s possession. Therefore, with the knowledge that none of +these pictures belong to France, and that they are all stolen goods +acquired by fraud, injustice and murder, I could not coolly fix my eyes +upon them nor repeat ecstacies of vulgar adulation.</p> + +<p>No sooner have you entered the Gallery than you are presented with a +catalogue of these paintings, in which the robbers do not blush to avow +their robberies. The facetious rascals of the National Institute talk +and write of the knavery with as much <i>sangfroid</i> as they take a +pinch of snuff.</p> + +<p>The paintings are styled “Tableaux conquis en Italie, recueillis dans +la Lombardie, à Bologne, Cento, Modêne, Parme, Plaisance, Rome, Venise, +Vérone, Florence, Turin.”</p> + +<p>With this register of pillage in your hand, you enter the Gallery +containing the spoils of nations, and nearly every picture bears at the +bottom an inscription declaring it to be a stolen article. Scarcely +a page of the catalogue but contains such proclamations of theft as +these: “Ces deux tableaux viennent de la Cathédrale de Plaisance, où +ils pendoient aux deux coins du Sanctuaire. Ce tableau est tiré de la +galerie de Turin. Ce tableau vient du Palais Pitti. Ce tableau est +tiré du Palais Pontifical de Monte Cavallo à Rome. Ce tableau vient +du Cabinet du ci-devant Roi de Sardaigne à Turin. Ce tableau, un +des meilleurs qu’a produit Paolo Veronese, est tiré de l’église des +Réligieuses de St. Zacharin à Venise. Ce tableau vient du maître autel +de l’église de San Giorgio à Venise. Ce tableau est tiré de l’église +de Santa Maria del Orto à<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span> Venise. Ce précieux et magnifique tableau +que les artistes regardent comme un des chefs d’œuvres de Titian, le +martyre de St. Pierre, vient de l’église San Giovanni e Paolo à Venise. +Ce portrait vient du Palais du Prince Breschi à Rome.”</p> + +<p>There is no end to this catalogue of iniquity, it fills at present +three volumes, but much more will be added. I question if the Newgate +Calendar for the last 100 years contains altogether a hundredth part of +the impudent dexterity in the art of filching which the rogues of the +National Institute present to us in these three little syllabuses of +Republican iniquity.</p> + +<p>Englishmen, happily shut out from the view of the sack of the continent +by that sea which guards our honest little island, have no adequate +idea of the indignant feelings of the wretched inhabitants of the +wronged countries which the French armies have plundered. I have +visited this gallery of paintings in company with some Italians of +distinction; I perceived in their countenances a deep and fixed look of +unutterable anguish and regret. Such a look that only the artists of +Italy whose expatriated portraits hung around us could delineate.</p> + +<p>May Heaven preserve our country from ever experiencing a similar +stroke of humiliation and abasement! How should we Britons feel if one +day in a later catalogue we read among these: “Notices sur plusieurs +précieux tableaux recueillis par les Philosophes de l’Institut pour +multiplier les jouissances du public. Ce tableau peint sur toile est +tiré de l’autel de l’église cathédrale de Westminster. Ce vitre vient +de King’s College à Cambridge. Ce tableau est tiré du Cabinet du +ci-devant Roi d’Angleterre à Windsor. Ce tableau de Shakespeare vient +de la bibliothèque de la librairie à Cambridge. Ce tableau de la mort +du General Wolfe est tiré du cabinet de la ci-devant Reine d’Angleterre +à Buckingham House. Cette statue vient du Cabinet de Milord Lansdowne. +Ce tableau peint par Claude vient du cabinet de Milord Gwydir.”</p> + +<p>Having expressed with candour what my sentiments<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span> have ever been when I +visited the gallery of paintings in the Louvre, I now proceed to fulfil +the important duty of an historian.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MRS. COSWAY</div> + +<p>Mrs. Cosway, whose taste and skill are well known, is now occupied in +copying all the paintings in the Gallery on a small scale, intending +to execute later an enlarged account of them, together with the +biography of their respective masters. She has already executed several +compartments; and not all the fascinations of society nor the gaieties +of the capital can allure her from the daily pursuit of the labour of +her choice. I tell her the Gallery of the Louvre is her drawing-room, +for when she is at work all the English gather around her. However, she +loses no time, for she enters in conversation and paints also, and it +is difficult to affirm in which she most excels.</p> + +<p>The object of Mrs. Cosway is to represent, by etchings, all the +pictures precisely as they are fixed in the Gallery. The Hon. Mr. E—— +is struck with the undertaking, and he has appropriated a particular +part of his house at H—— for the display of her works.</p> + +<p>There is <i>one</i> circumstance attached to all the public +institutions of Paris on which I must bestow the highest commendation, +they are open to the public <i>gratis</i>. I wish I could say the +same of our excellent establishments at home. With the exception of +the British Museum, I do not know of a single institution in Great +Britain to which a native or a foreigner can be admitted without a +fee. And these fees are generally exacted under so many circumstances +of barefaced imposition that one cannot help feeling ashamed that +such abuses should be tolerated, and that the officers of these +establishments are permitted to exclude travellers who do not pay them +gratuities for viewing these interesting and instructive collections.</p> + +<p>The only qualification in Paris to visit museums or public institutions +is to have your passport in your pocket—without it the porter at the +gate will assuredly forbid your entrance.</p> + +<p>Under the Monarchy, the Gallery of the Louvre alone<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span> was appropriated +to the public, and contained a splendid collection of paintings. Now +the whole palace is appropriated to National uses.</p> + +<p>It is not only the repository of pictures, but also of antiquities; the +National Institute and the Polytechnic Society designed to supply the +Ancient Academy des Belles Lettres, hold their assemblies here.</p> + +<p>The productions of living artists are exhibited here once a year, and +<i>appartements</i> are allotted free of expense to various artists and +men of science. The museum is maintained in a high state of cleanliness +and propriety; and the orderly conduct of the spectators, who are all +admitted free of charge and without respect of persons, is greatly to +be commended.</p> + +<p>The great Gallery of the Louvre is not well adapted for the exhibition +of pictures; it is too narrow in proportion to its length, and the +windows which look out towards the Seine defeat the effect of those +which look towards the Place du Carrousel. A great number of the +paintings thus appear to be covered with a continual mist, and others +are scarcely discernible, so that the principal effect of light and +shade is destroyed.</p> + +<p>In addition to this misfortune a number of the noblest masterpieces +of the Italian School have been injudiciously retouched by the French +artists and been rendered quite unnatural and in many instances +ridiculous. The colouring of the parts defaced has been executed in +such a bungling manner as to resemble a piece of patchwork. They have +likewise injured a multitude of exquisite performances with a species +of varnish, by which, when I have approached them in search of the +beauties of the artists, I have been mortified by a vision of my own +homely features. Things are often more spoilt by overdoing than by +remaining stationary, and by the neglect of this maxim the French have +ruined many of the finest pictures in their stolen collection.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span></p> + +<h2>XXIX<br> +<span class="subhed">THE GALLERY OF ANTIQUITIES AT THE CENTRAL MUSEUM OF ARTS</span></h2></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">THE GALLERY OF ANTIQUITIES</div> + +<p>I cannot better begin the description of this Gallery than by quoting +the declaration which preceded the catalogue of the statues, busts and +bas-reliefs therein contained.</p> + +<p>The preface is as follows:—</p> + +<p>“The greater part of the statues exhibited in this Gallery are the +fruits of the conquests of the army of Italy. They have been selected +out of the Capitol and the Vatican by Citizens Barthélémy, Bertholet, +Moitte, Monge, Thonin, Tinet—the commissioners appointed by the +Government for that purpose. To the scrupulous care with which these +artists and savans have packed up and transported them, we are indebted +for the happy preservation of these glorious fruits of victory; and the +distinguished choice they have made from among the masterpieces which +Rome possessed, proves their knowledge and skill, and all lovers of the +arts must owe them a debt of eternal gratitude.”</p> + +<p>This account of the means by which they became masters of these +exquisite pieces of art is worthy of its writers. They consider +themselves worthy of credit for their perfidy and their predatory +adventures.</p> + +<p>But I have already sufficiently animadverted on the philosophical +exploits of the National Institute, and will therefore now describe +to the best of my abilities this Gallery, to which I paid particular +attention.</p> + +<p>It may appear strange, but I never felt equal disgust or distress +at the sight of these statues to that excited in my mind by the +magnificent gallery of paintings.</p> + +<p>The herd of men flock to the gallery of paintings to indulge their eyes +with the brilliant luxury of beauty, but in the hall of statuary very +few admirers greet the trophies of French conquest.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span></p> + +<p>Yet it contains more monuments of the capacity of men than all the +pictures in the Louvre put together. Indeed, the Laocoon and the +Belvidere Apollo alone, both of which incomparable statues are here, +may be justly said to equal if not exceed in value all the pictorial +tributes wrung from ravaged Italy.</p> + +<p>In the court through which you pass to enter the Gallery are four +colossal statues of slaves and the celebrated statue of Jupiter Hermes, +all removed from Versailles to enrich Paris.</p> + +<p>For the Revolution was made in Paris. The Republic was founded in +Paris—the rest of France <i>was made</i> for Paris—therefore it must +be fleeced for the sake of Paris. In this way the patriotic members of +the Institute continually reason.</p> + +<p>Every article in the Gallery merits attention, but I will only +enumerate a few while giving a general description of the various halls +in their order.</p> + +<p>“The Hall of the Seasons,” which is so named on account of the painted +ceiling by Romanelli, representing the Seasons. This hall contains +twenty-six figures, of which the most celebrated and beautiful are:—</p> + +<p>A faun, reposing, and holding a flute (supposed to be a copy of the +famous satyr of Praxiteles), stolen from the Museum of the Capitol at +Rome.</p> + +<p>A naked youth extracting a thorn from his foot, and a young faun of +Parian marble, stolen as above.</p> + +<p>Venus issuing from a bath of Pentelicon marble, stolen from the Museum +of the Vatican.</p> + +<p>Ariadne, stolen from the Belvidere of the Vatican. Septimus Severus, +from Ecouen.</p> + +<p>A colossal bust of Antoninus Pius and one of Lucius Verus, from the +same place.</p> + +<p>Augustus, stolen from the Cabinet of the Bevilacqua, at Verona.</p> + +<p>We then enter the “Hall of Illustrious Men,” decorated by eight antique +pillars of granatillo, plundered from the nave of the church of Aix la +Chapelle.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SPOILS FROM THE VATICAN</div> + +<p>Here are statues of Zeus, the Philosopher from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span> Capitol, +Demosthenes, Trajan and a statue of Sextus, the uncle of Plutarch—all +removed from the Vatican. From the Papal Museum are also statues of +Menander, the Greek poet, and a fine Minerva of Pentelicon marble.</p> + +<p>The next chamber is the “Roman Hall.”</p> + +<p>The ceiling being ornamented with various subjects, taken from Roman +history.</p> + +<p>It contains twenty-nine statues, all bearing relation to the Roman +people. Amongst them are:</p> + +<p>The head of Scipio Africanus in bronze; the bust of Hadrian in the +same metal, stolen from the Library of St. Mark’s at Venice. From +the Capitol, the bust of Brutus; a Wounded Warrior<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> (this is a +magnificent piece of work); Urania, sitting on a rock.</p> + +<p>From the Vatican, Melpomene, Antoninus, and Venus at the bath, are the +most striking figures.</p> + +<p>And we now arrive at the “Hall of the Laocoon.”</p> + +<p>This vast room is embellished with four beautiful columns of verde +antique, taken from the Mausoleum, erected after the designs of +Bulloin, of the famous Constable of France, Anne de Montmorency.</p> + +<p>Each is a massive single block of the richest quality, about eleven +feet high and half a yard in diameter.</p> + +<p>In this hall are twenty-one figures, of which the first which demands +attention is that wonder of the world and masterpiece of sculpture, +“The Groups of the Laocoon,” executed by Agisander, Polydorus and +Athenodorus. It surpasses all comment, and displays at once the +perfection of sentiment, plan and composition. Some other statues, +worthy of particular notice, in this hall, are a Thrower of the Disk; +a Hermes, representing Tragedy; a statue of an Amazon, drawing her +bow; and a colossal statue of a Triton, this latter discovered by our +countryman Hamilton,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> in the neighbourhood of Naples, and given by +him to Pope Ganganalli. These are all, like the Laocoon, stolen from +the Vatican.</p> + +<p>The fourth compartment of the Gallery is termed the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span> “Hall of Apollo,” +ornamented with four superb pillars of red granite, stolen from a +Cathedral in Italy. It contains twenty-seven statues, of which “The +Apollo Belvidere,” that subject of delight to every tasteful eye, +stands in a niche at the end of the hall—two sphinxes of oriental red +granite, brought from the Vatican Museum, are placed on the steps which +lead up to the statue of the Sun God. These steps and the platform on +which the Apollo is fixed are of the most beautiful marble, and in the +centre there are five squares of mosaic antique, representing animals +in cars and other ornaments.</p> + +<p>The pillars which ornament the niche were taken from the tomb of +Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle. The statue is preserved from too near +approach by a handsome railing. The name of the sculptor of this statue +is unknown. Giovanni Angelo di Montorsoli, pupil of Michael Angelo, +restored the right arm and left hand, which were missing when the +statue was discovered among the ruins of Antium.</p> + +<p>It was fixed in the Belvidere of the Vatican by Pope Julius II., where +for more than three centuries it excited the admiration of mankind, +until, to use the language of the guide book provided by the Institute: +“Un héros, guidé par la victoire, est venu l’en tirer pour la fixer à +jamais sur les rives de la Seine.”</p> + +<p>On the 16th Brumaire, year 9, the First Consul, Bonaparte, celebrated +the inauguration of the Apollo by placing upon the pedestal of the +statue the following inscription, engraved upon a bronze tablet:</p> + +<p class="smaller">“Le statue d’Apollon, qui s’élève sur ce piédestal, placé au +Vatican par Jules II., au commencement du XVI. siècle, conquise +l’an 5 de la République, par l’armée d’Italie,</p> + +<p class="center p-min smaller">Sous les ordres du Général Bonaparte,<br> +A été fixée ici le 21 Germinal an VIII.<br> +Première année de son Consulat,<br> +Bonaparte, Ier Consul,<br> +Cambacères, IIme Consul,<br> +Lebrun, IIIme Consul.<br> +Lucien Bonaparte, Ministre de l’Intérieur.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">HISTORICAL TOMBS</div> + +<p>The thirty-six other statues, which decorate this hall, are all of +great merit; a statue of Mercury, called the Belvidere Antinous, from +the Vatican, is perhaps the finest and one of the most perfect remains +of antiquity, this once stood by the Apollo in the Vatican Belvidere.</p> + +<p>The Capitoline Venus is also exceedingly beautiful.</p> + +<p>The sixth and last portion of this Museum is termed the “Hall of the +Muses;” it contains twenty statues, every one of which was stolen from +the magnificent gallery Pius VI. built as an addition or annex to the +Vatican Museum. The members of the National Institute thus express +themselves in the catalogue upon the contents of this hall:</p> + +<p>“Since the revival of the arts, the admirers of antiquity have several +times attempted to form collections or a series of the antique statues +of the Muses; but none have proved so complete as that formed by the +industry of Pius V., a collection which Victory has enabled us to +transport to the National Museum.”</p> + +<p>This chamber contains, besides the celebrated Nine Muses, heads of +Bacchus, Hippocrates and a statue of the Cytherian Apollo, a Hermes and +busts of Socrates, Virgil and Homer.</p> + +<p>I have now mentioned the principal antiques contained in the six +compartments of this Gallery, but were I to write a volume upon them +I could give no adequate idea of their exquisite beauty and artistic +merit.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XXX<br> +<span class="subhed">MUSEUM OF FRENCH MONUMENTS</span></h2></div> + + +<p>One of the earliest calamities which the intemperate zeal of her +would-be reformers brought upon France was the entire confiscation of +all ecclesiastical property, this property being placed at the disposal +of the nation. Broken loose from the bonds of subordination, the people +misinterpreted this decree, and in the effervescence of a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span> wanton and +licentious spirit demolished the sanctuaries of religion, persecuted +their ancient pastors and disturbed the tranquil ashes of the dead.</p> + +<p>The National Assembly was finally compelled to acknowledge its +precipitate folly by ordering the committee which had charge of +alienated property to take measures for the preservation of those +monuments of art erected on the domains of the Church.</p> + +<p>The municipality of the city of Paris nominated several literary men +and artists who were to point out what books and monuments should +be saved from destruction. These persons formed a “Commission des +Monuments.” The desecrated convent “<i>des Petits Augustins</i>” +was chosen for a deposit of sculpture and paintings and that of the +“Capucins” in the Rue St. Honoré for books and manuscripts.</p> + +<p>This was shortly before the actual and final downfall of the Monarchy. +But when a few months later Paris was torn by strong convulsions and +the Republic ushered in amidst shrieks of murder and falling ruins, +it became the fashion to <i>talk</i> of nothing but philosophy and +regeneration, while the demon of havoc made his devastating rounds.</p> + +<p>An era of uproar, confusion, fierce fanaticism and mental darkness +overspread France.</p> + +<p>Science and learning were perverted to the vilest purposes; +incendiaries and murderers, wearing the masks of patriots and +philanthropists, deluged France with blood.</p> + +<p>A man of mild and unassuming manners, of spotless purity of principle, +of general and profound knowledge, and of inflexible perseverance, +devoted the labours of his life to collect and preserve from the +general wreck the monuments of his country. This man is Monsieur +Lenoir, the founder and director of the Musée des Monuments Français.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">WORK OF LENOIR</div> + +<p>This excellent man traversed France in every direction to save and +preserve the precious evidences of his country’s former exploits. +Examining the tombs of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[165]</span> dead, amidst crackling flames and temples +crushing to atoms, he rescued much priceless worth from the tempest of +destruction.</p> + +<p>Both my wife and myself consider it one of the happiest events of our +lives to have been introduced to M. Lenoir and his lady. Grave, silent, +modest and pensive, his character and manner in speaking of his work is +that of an affectionate son who collects with tender care the ashes of +a murdered parent.</p> + +<p>Monsieur Lenoir was for fifteen years the pupil of Doyen, by whom he +was presented to the municipality of Paris as a proper person to act +as conservator of the depôt of monuments, which by a decree of the +Assembly, January 4, 1791, was established in the convent des Petits +Augustins. He retained this post through all the anarchy and fury of +the years which followed. In many cases he was able to arrest the +hands of folly employed in beating down statues and tearing to pieces +valuable pictures and destroying the finest bronzes.</p> + +<p>“From the Abbey de St. Denis,” says M. Lenoir, “the interior of which +the flames seem to have consumed from the roof to the bottom of the +graves, I have saved the magnificent mausoleums of Louis XII., François +I., Henri II., Turenne and many more. I have collected such of the +precious remains that I could restore, and I am already able to display +those of François I. and Louis XII. in all their splendour. Happy shall +I be if I succeed in making posterity forget the ravages of vandalism.”</p> + +<p>When we consider the light which monuments throw upon chronology and +history, it is strange to hear M. Lenoir met with multiplied objections +from artists (such as David) against his preservation and accumulation +of the monuments of the Middle Ages—monuments which they explained +were of no service to art. Monsieur Lenoir met their objections by +affirming that their presence was necessary to complete his series, +and he also justly observed that nothing tends more to give a just +notion of any art than the view of its progress and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[166]</span> opportunity of +comparing distances between rudeness and refinement.</p> + +<p>M. Lenoir collected into one establishment all paintings and statues +which had any reference to the history of France. “Such an imposing +mass of monuments of every period,” says he, “made me conceive the +idea of forming an historical and chronological museum in relation to +French art and French history, and, in despite of the malevolent and in +the face of great opposition, my plan was favourably received by the +Committee of Public Instruction of the National Convention, and on the +15th Germinal, year 4, the Museum was opened.”</p> + +<p>M. Lenoir, after ten years of assiduous researches, is now able to +display five centuries and also a sepulchral chamber, containing the +fully restored tomb of François I.</p> + +<p>This Museum embraces the sepulchral art of France, from the age of +Clovis to the present time.</p> + +<p>Here French and English artists may find models of costumes and arms of +every age and rank in a regular series, from Clovis to Philip II. There +seems little variation in dress. Rapid changes in costume and fashion +appear only to have commenced after the return of the Crusaders.</p> + +<p>We enter the Museum through the portico of the now demolished Château +d’Anet (immortalised by Voltaire in his <i>Henriade</i>). In the first +hall are the monuments of the Middle Ages; many, including that of +Fredegonde and her husband Chilperic, have been taken from the church +of St. Germains des Près.</p> + +<p>The bones of Charlemagne, contained in a marble sarcophagus of +Roman origin, were sent from Aix-la-Chapelle by Dervailly, one of +the Republican Commissioners. The great conqueror, torn from his +magnificent tomb, now lies in a Museum!</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ST. DENIS AND BACCHUS</div> + +<p>One of the most ancient stone coffins is that of an Abbot of St. +Germains des Près, <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 990, in it his skeleton was found +extremely well clothed in a robe of satin of a faded red colour, a +long woollen tunic of purple brown, ornamented<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span> with an embroidery +upon which several figures were wrought, slippers of an extremely +well-tanned black leather served as shoes.</p> + +<p>The southern gate of the Abbey of St. Denis, which is in this hall, +is a most important specimen of early art. The large bas-relief in +the middle represents the punishment of St. Denis and his companions +Rusticus and Eleutherus.</p> + +<p>Denis is the saint to whom the temple was dedicated; but, what is very +remarkable, a sprig of vine, laden with grapes, is placed at his feet, +precisely in the form as a badge of Dionysus or Bacchus. M. Lenoir +says he cannot answer whether the priests who dedicated these temples +considered Denis and Dionysus to be the same person, or whether by +mere tradition they ordered that to be executed which would certainly +characterise both. But it is certain that all the ornaments which +decorate St. Denis are attributes of Bacchus. The vine, hunting and +tigers appear; Bacchus is cut to pieces by the Maenades; Denis has his +head cut off at Montmartre; Bacchus is placed in a tomb and bewailed +by women; the body of Denis is collected by holy women, who weep over +his remains and place them in a tomb; Bacchus rises again; Denis, after +undergoing execution, rises again, picks up his head and walks. On +this gate are two tigers, emblematical of the worship of Bacchus. It +presents as well a chronology of thirty-six Kings of France.</p> + +<p>On entering the hall which contains the monuments of the thirteenth +century there are ceilings at angles, sprinkled with stars on a blue +ground, supported by posts, rudely decorated. These ceilings are also +adorned by the flowers of those times, three of which are emblems of +the Evangelists, the others consist of the cabbage and the thistle in +a variety of forms. The doors and the windows, constructed from the +remains of a ruined building of the thirteenth century, which had been +destroyed by the Jacobins, and which Lenoir collected at St. Denis, +have been arranged according<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span> to the revised taste in architecture by +the celebrated Montreau.</p> + +<p>Three painted glass windows, representing moral subjects, and taken +from the refectory of St. Germain des Près, shed a gloomy light upon +the spot.</p> + +<p>The tombs Louis IX. erected to his predecessors are only cenotaphs, +merely large confines of hollowed stone, in which the body was +placed and covered by another stone, the inscription, when there was +one, being engraven on the inside. According to St. Foix the tombs +of the Kings of the first race were small deep vaults of stone. On +these vaults neither figures nor epitaphs were to be seen, as it was +the inside that was engraven with inscriptions and laid out with +magnificence. Charlemagne was originally buried in a sitting posture. +His body after being enbalmed was seated on a throne of gold, clad in +the Imperial dress, with the sword Joyeuse by its side. The head of the +dead Emperor was ornamented with a golden chain in shape of a diadem. +He held a globe of gold in one hand, and a New Testament was placed +upon his knees. His gold sceptre and shield were hung on the wall +opposite to him.</p> + +<p>After the cave had been filled with perfumes, aromatics, and much +treasure, it was shut up and sealed.</p> + +<p>In the Hall of the Fourteenth Century are some very curious monuments, +which show the improvement in the art of design, which the Crusaders +brought back with them. A new species of decoration, the Arabian taste, +was introduced into architecture. The heavy edifices of the former +age gave way to more elegant buildings, and gilding and brilliant +colours ornamented the churches. This hall is decorated with the +ruins of the St. Chapelle in Paris, built about the year 1300. The +Apostles, sculptured in stone of natural size, were taken from this +chapel, and are remarkable for the naturalness of their expression and +excellent execution. Their habits give an exact idea of the stuffs and +embroidery then in fashion, the former of which being not unlike our +Indian shawls. The mosaics which cover the ceilings and the walls of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span> +this hall were formed from materials taken from St. Denis. The painted +windows in this hall are of the same century, and were taken from the +“Celestines” and the “Bonshommes de Passy.”</p> + +<div class="sidenote">TOMB OF LOUIS XII.</div> + +<p>In the fifteenth century artists began to produce general plans, and +to connect the calculations of their minds with a grand and careful +execution. Gothic art in consequence disappeared. As Paris did not +afford many palaces or ornamented houses of this century, M. Lenoir +went several times among the monuments left by Cardinal d’Amboise, who +employed in the decoration of his palaces Jean Juste, a sculptor, born +at Tours, whom the Cardinal had sent at his own expense to Rome, for +the purpose of studying the revived Grecian art.</p> + +<p>The ceiling, windows, and in general the whole embellishment of this +hall are composed on the type of the tomb of Louis XII., which stands +in the middle of it, together with the materials brought from the +Château de Gaillon, which has been lately demolished. The pillars which +support the gates are a present to M. Lenoir from the Administrators +of the Department of Eure et Loire, who, to M. Lenoir’s consternation, +pulled down the portico of the church of the St. Père at Chartres in +order to place its fragments at his disposal.</p> + +<p>This portico was erected in 1509, and superadded to an ancient edifice +built by Hildnard, a Benedictine monk, in 1170. Two bas-reliefs in this +hall merit attention, one, representing God the Father in the midst +of angels, was taken from the Cemetery of the Innocents. The other, +from the church of St. Geneviève, represents the Pentecost. The violet +and blue grounds, the gilded framework and the carmined legend are +characteristic of the fifteenth century. Four marble medallions are +worthy of careful notice, purchased from the ruined château of Gaillon. +Anne of Brittany is represented as Minerva, Louis XII. as Mars, Gallas +and Vespasian occupy the remaining medallions.</p> + +<p>In this hall stands a bust of Joan of Arc by Beauvollet, after an +ancient painting; this bust is placed beside that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span> of Charles VII., +whom she maintained on the throne of France. The Hall of the Sixteenth +Century contains many interesting figures, and its glass windows are +taken from Ecouen, Vincennes, Ault, and the Temple. The monument to +the historian Philippe de Comines is an admirable work, and rests on +a grand bas-relief, representing St. George and the Dragon. The tomb +of Louis XII. and Anne of Brittany, which occupies the centre of this +hall, is a superb monument. Unfortunately this fine mausoleum has +greatly suffered from the fury of the revolutionary fanatics.</p> + +<p>Here are also the statues of François I<sup>er</sup>, of Chancellor de +l’Hôpital; Montaigne, Prieur, Diane de Poitiers, Philip Desportes the +poet, Jean Goujon, the celebrated artist and sculptor, a magnificent +monument erected to the Constable of France, Anne de Condé, and the +tomb of the Valois, surmounted by statues of François I<sup>er</sup> and his +wife Claude.</p> + +<p>The Hall of the Seventeenth Century contains a fine monument erected +to the family of the Villeray; one to the celebrated historian de +Thou, the statue of Louis XI., the <i>chef d’œuvre</i> of Girardon, +containing the celebrated group in marble designed by Lebrun, 14 feet +long and 6 feet broad, which forms the mausoleum of Cardinal Richelieu, +the inscription bears: “<i>Magnum disputandi argumentum</i>.”</p> + +<p>This admirable sculpture, which had previously been mutilated by +anarchists who had forcibly entered the chapel, was afterwards injured +by the revolutionary soldiers, who bayoneted M. Lenoir for opposing +their destructive intentions; he still bears the scar of this wound on +his hand.</p> + +<p>Cardinal Mazarin’s monument of white marble, executed by Coyzevox, +is equal in artistic merit to that of Richelieu. The Cardinal is +represented on his knees.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MONUMENTS</div> + +<p>An admirable group in white marble by Girardon represents Louvois, the +French Minister, and History in the form of a woman turning towards +him and pointing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span> to her book. The First Consul was attracted to this +monument on his visit to the Museum, and gazed upon it a considerable +time. When he was in the Hall of the Thirteenth Century he said to M. +Lenoir: “Lenoir, vous me transportez en Syrie, je suis content.”</p> + +<p>The fine statue of Louis XIV. which stood in the Place Vendôme, was +destroyed in 1792, but there is here an exact representation in bronze.</p> + +<p>Monsieur Lenoir has also re-erected one from the ruins of that which +stood on the Place des Victoires. In this Hall of the Seventeenth +Century are the busts of all the great men who figured during that +period in France.</p> + +<p>The Hall of the Eighteenth Century contains a vast number of subjects, +but few of them are very remarkable.</p> + +<p>Here are busts of Louis XVI. and his Queen, and of Brissac, who with +the prisoners of Orleans was assassinated at Versailles. In the garden +belonging to this institution an elysium is formed in which above forty +statues are placed. Here and there on a mossy ground, pines, cypresses +and poplars shroud these monuments, and funereal urns placed on the +walls serve to diffuse an air of repose and melancholy over the whole. +In this enclosure a sepulchral chapel to the memory of Abelard and +Héloise has been formed out of part of the ruins of the Abbey of St. +Denis, in order to show the style of architecture adopted in that age.</p> + +<p>Much remains yet to be done by M. Lenoir, but he has already effected +wonders, and without ostentation or bustle he has done more for France +than she has had the gratitude to acknowledge. Notwithstanding he is +extremely circumscribed in the sums allotted to him, being only allowed +£1000 per annum, he is always collecting and is continually in advance +for the benefit of the institution.</p> + +<p>What a contrast does the life of this disinterested antiquarian present +to that of the conduct of that gang of philosophical thieves belonging +to the National Institute!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span></p> + +<p>M. Lenoir related to me two curious circumstances connected with the +taking up of the bodies of the Kings, Queens, Princesses and celebrated +men who during the space of 1500 years had been buried in the Abbey of +St. Denis, which act of horrid indecency was ordered to be executed by +a special decree of the National Convention, for the sake of extracting +the lead belonging to these tombs. On October 12, 1793, the workmen +opened the tomb of Turenne and found the body of this great man in so +perfect a state of preservation that neither were his features deformed +nor his countenance altered.</p> + +<p>M. Lenoir, who had an opportunity of examining it, stated that it +resembled in every way the pictures and medallions of the hero.</p> + +<p>The body of Henri IV. was in a perfect state of preservation and the +features of his face unchanged.</p> + +<p>A soldier who was present, moved by martial enthusiasm, threw himself +upon the body and embraced it, and after a long silence of admiration +cut off a long lock from the beard and exclaimed, “And I too am a +French soldier, henceforth I will have no other mustachios!” And he +placed it on his upper lip. “Now,” said he, “I am sure to conquer, and +I march to victory!” Immediately after this he disappeared, and was +never seen again in the town.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XXXI<br> +<span class="subhed">THE NATIONAL LIBRARY</span></h2></div> + + +<p>This establishment was founded in the fourteenth century by Charles the +Wise, and consisted at first of about twenty volumes! the number of +which naturally continued to increase rapidly as time went on. It has +now been enriched by a multitude of books and manuscripts saved from +the monasteries, collections seized from proscribed nobles, and plunder +from the libraries of Italy. So it is now one of the completest in the +world. The large<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span> building containing these treasures is in the Rue de +Richelieu, now called the Rue de la Loi. It is under the direction of +Messieurs Capperonier and van Praet. In the first room of the principal +floor a long table extends nearly the whole length of the apartment, +with benches placed on each side for the convenience of students. This +room is lined with books from floor to ceiling.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CURIOUS MANUSCRIPTS</div> + +<p>Before the French irruption into Italy the National Library consisted +of 200,000 volumes, besides a large collection of manuscripts. It now +contains 300,000 printed books, which are already arranged in five +divisions, besides a vast number which Monsieur van Praet informed me +had not been even examined. The library is disposed with judgment and +knowledge. No catalogue has yet been published, but the directors are +preparing one, with a suitable explanation respecting the principal +authors and the names of the libraries from which the books were stolen.</p> + +<p>Here are some very curious documents in manuscript relative to English +history, well worthy of reference to any author desirous of treating +of that subject. The celestial and terrestrial globes constructed by +Coronelli are preserved in one of the wings of the building; they are +thirty feet in diameter, their circles are gilded, the water is painted +blue, the land white, and the mountains with a green ground shaded +with brown. These are the largest globes in the world, they resemble +air ballons, and I cannot imagine any other mode for a philosopher to +use them than by putting himself in a little curule chair suspended by +ropes, and in this manner making the tour of the universe.</p> + +<p>The manuscripts exceed 80,000 in number, 30,000 of which are on the +history of France and are called the Mazarin Gallery. The rest are +in foreign and dead languages, many written on vellum and superbly +illuminated. Many of these manuscripts contain most extraordinary +specimens of the state of poetry and genius in ancient times. Among +others here is this of Philippe<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span> d’Orleans, Comte de Vertus, who died +in 1420, aged twenty-four.</p> + + <div class="poetry-container"> + <h3 class="smcap">Ballade.</h3> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div>Jeune gente plaisante et débonnaire,</div> + <div class="i1">Par un prière qui vaut commandement,</div> + <div>Chargé m’avez d’une ballade faire,</div> + <div class="i1">Si l’ai faite de cœur joyeusement;</div> + <div class="i1">Or, la veuillez recevoir doucement</div> + <div>Vous y verrez, s’il vous plait à la lire,</div> + <div class="i1">Le mal que j’ai, combien que vraiment,</div> + <div>J’aimasse mieux de bouche vous le dire.</div> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <div>Votre douceur m’a sçu si bien attraire,</div> + <div class="i1">Que tous vostre je suis entièrement</div> + <div>Très désirant de vous servir et plaire,</div> + <div class="i1">Mais je soffre mainte douloureux tourment,</div> + <div class="i1">Quand a mon gre je ne vous voi souvent</div> + <div>Et me déplaist quand me font vous l’escrire;</div> + <div class="i1">Car si fou je pouvois autrement</div> + <div>J’aimasse mieux de bouche vous le dire.</div> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <div>C’est par dangier mon cruel adversaire,</div> + <div class="i1">Qui m’a tenu en ses mains longuement.</div> + <div>En tous mes faits je le trouve contraire</div> + <div class="i1">Et plus se rit quand plus me voit dolent.</div> + <div class="i1">Si je voulais raconter pleinement</div> + <div>En cet escrit mon ennuyeux martyre</div> + <div class="i1">Trop long serois; pour certainement</div> + <div>J’aimasse mieux de bouche vous le dire.</div> + </div> + </div> + </div> + + +<p>Besides these manuscripts there are many treasures of inestimable +value, particularly the cabinet of medals, a rich and magnificent +collection, to which has been added the cabinets of medals and +antiques taken from St. Geneviève, St. Germains des Près and the +Petits Pères, besides a vast accession from the plunder of Italy. The +late Abbé Barthélémy, author of the “Travels of Anacharnis,” had the +superintendence of the cabinet of medals, and by his exertions several +beautiful and rare additions were made to the original collection. A +very fine bust of him stands at the extremity of the hall.</p> + +<p>There is also a rich collection of engravings, amounting to more than +5000 volumes. It requires whole months to review and examine all the +curiosities and beauties<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span> contained within this library, and as it is +impossible to detail them without writing a volume, I consider the +synopsis I have given sufficient to explain their value to the student +of every nation.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XXXII<br> +<span class="subhed">HUMANE INSTITUTIONS: THE HOSPITAL OF INVALIDES</span></h2></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">OVERTHROW OF INSTITUTIONS</div> + +<p>The French Revolution wrought as much harm to the cause of humanity as +to letters, science, and art. I have, it is true, described certain +brilliant institutions which the present Government has created, but +they form the least substantial part of social order, and are in a +sense but the holiday suit of the Republic.</p> + +<p>It would be as wrong to judge the French nation by this splendid +exterior as of a private family by the same rule. To form a correct +judgment of the character of a man we should enter his dwelling, see +him as a parent, husband or friend, and examine his domestic economy. +To contemplate him driving in a chariot, and surrounded by glittering +attendants, would give us no idea of his real situation.</p> + +<p>Much as we may admire establishments which ornament and serve a nation, +if haggard poverty and distress meet the eye at every turn we cannot +but infer that the nation in which such things prevail has mistaken the +true road to grandeur and public felicity.</p> + +<p>I speak with regret, and without prejudice or passion, when I affirm +that this is the case with the French Republic. They overthrew all +their ancient national charitable establishments, and by so doing +exposed a great portion of the community to misery and want. They +destroyed wholesome institutions without making any provision for +supplying their absence. They suppressed convents and monasteries under +many pleas, the most specious of which was that they would put an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span> end +to mendicity by striking at indiscriminate charity, which was, they +maintained, the root of indolence. The principle was good, but it was +applied in an entirely unjustifiable manner. Those who formerly aided +the poor and wretched were themselves driven to mendicity, and the +poor, the ailing, the afflicted were left even without the hope of a +resource.</p> + +<p>Sensible of the alarming effect of these evils, which in a land +where the sources of industry have been suspended for ten years, are +absolutely terrific, the French Government and some worthy and humane +private individuals have, during the last few months, seriously devoted +their attention to the means of eradicating them.</p> + +<p>So far the state of public finance has not admitted of the permanent +establishment of any asylums for the deserving poor. A few which had +been anciently endowed are still poorly maintained at the public +expense, but the mass of the nation is without any provision whatever +for the miserable.</p> + +<p>There is, however, one happy exception. The Hospital of the Invalides +retains its ancient excellence and lustre.</p> + +<p>This institution, the illustrious monument of the gratitude of a Prince +towards a people devotedly attached to him, is appropriated to such +superannuated or wounded soldiers no longer fit for service. It will +contain 5000 individuals, supported, clothed and fed at the expense of +the nation. There are four large halls where they assemble to dinner; +it was the wish of Louis XIV. that the aged or wounded warrior should +<i>live well</i> during the remainder of his days. Therefore their +daily allowance, besides an excellent dinner, at which there was always +a <i>bouillie</i> (or good meat soup), was a pound and a half of bread +and a quart of wine. This allowance is still continued.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">INTERIOR OF THE INVALIDES</div> + +<p>The edifice consists of fine courts, and a magnificent saloon called +the Temple of Mars, in which are suspended as trophies all the +standards taken during the late war. The dome that surmounts the centre +of this Temple, 300<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span> feet in elevation from the level of the ground and +50 feet in diameter, is a masterpiece of architecture; the cupola is +decorated with paintings by Charles de la Fosse.</p> + +<p>Four beautiful paintings represent the four quarters of the globe, and +there is also a huge canvas upon which David has portrayed the triumph +of man over religion and royalty. The Devil himself could not have +executed a more infernal picture than is this work of the national +painter (Member of the Institute). Man, displayed as a gigantic +figure (stark naked), tramples on kings, priests, crowns, sceptres, +crosses and rosaries; in one hand he holds a flaming torch, in the +other a sword. The Goddess of Reason, tutelary genius of the Republic, +majestically arrayed, smiles over her votary’s triumph. A multitude +of other similar characters fill up the hellish group, and complete a +picture of horror and iniquity.</p> + +<p>By what fatal perversion of human nature, a temple, consecrated +to valour, patriotism and merit, should have been selected as the +depository of such a vicious production, I know not. But I declare I +felt petrified with horror when I gazed upon it. It is strange that the +rulers of France should have not already banished from the public gaze +such a sign of their past apostasy and hatred for that religion they +have lately found it convenient to once more profess.</p> + +<p>To an Englishman who views the trophies which adorn this hall there +is a reason for feelings of patriotic exultation. The banners of +almost every European nation weep over the disasters of the valorous +defenders. But only one solitary standard of Great Britain confesses to +the chances of war.</p> + +<p>All the plans of Vauban,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> in relievo, of the different docks, +harbours and fortifications of France were preserved here. They have +now been removed to the Bureau of the Minister of War. It was from a +cabinet in the Hôtel des Invalides, containing an excellent collection +of military books and also plans for subjugating Egypt,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span> conceived +under the reign of Louis XIV., and which had lain there for whole +generations untouched but not forgotten, that the Council of War +procured the information which enabled Bonaparte to invade Egypt—an +invasion he accomplished with the most marvellous secrecy and celerity.</p> + +<p>This invasion, I know from the highest authority and those who are +most intimately acquainted with him, he will again attempt whenever +circumstances prove favourable to his enterprise.</p> + +<p>The monument formerly erected at St. Denis to Marshal Turenne, which +was saved from the Revolutionary vandals by Monsieur Lenoir, almost at +the risk of his life, has been removed from the Museum, where it was at +first placed, to the Temple of Mars in this Hospital, where it is now +to be seen.</p> + +<p>By a decree of the First Consul on the 1st of Vendemaire year 9, the +body of Turenne,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> which had been preserved by Lenoir in a secret +tomb, was transported with great funeral pomp to the Invalides, where +it was once more deposited in its ancient receptacle.</p> + +<p>The car on which the body was laid was drawn by four general officers +of the Republic; on arriving at the Invalides it was received by a +salvo of artillery, after which Carnot, the Minister of War, pronounced +the following funeral oration:</p> + +<p>“Citizens! behold the body of Turenne the Great—a warrior dear to +every Frenchman, a man whose name excites emotion in every virtuous +bosom, and who should be to after ages a model of heroes!</p> + +<p>“To-morrow we celebrate the foundation of the Republic. Let us +initiate that festival by the apotheosis of all that is praiseworthy +and illustrious in the past. This temple is allotted to all those +who, in every age past and present, have displayed virtues worthy of +the nation. Henceforward, O Turenne! thy manes shall dwell within +these walls—they shall become naturalised among the founders of the +Republic!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">CARNOT’S PANEGYRIC OF TURENNE</div> + +<p>“It is a sublime idea to place the mortal remains of a hero in the +midst of warriors who trod in his steps. To the brave belong the ashes +of the brave. After the death of a warrior, his remains have a right to +be preserved under the safeguard of the warriors who survive him—to +partake with them the asylum consecrated to glory.</p> + +<p>“Praise be to the Government which strives to pay the debt of gratitude +to former benefactors!</p> + +<p>“Praise be to the chiefs of a warlike nation who are not ashamed to +invoke the shade of Turenne!</p> + +<p>“Turenne lived in an age wherein prejudice placed imaginary +distinctions of rank above signal services. But in him noble rank +disappeared before that conferred by his victories. France, Italy, +Germany re-echoed with his triumphs, and the sublime eulogy pronounced +after his death by Monticuculi was the true description of his virtues: +<i>A man is dead who was an honour to human nature!</i></p> + +<p>“Ah! what more glorious title can I add to that of ‘Father,’ conferred +on Turenne by his soldiers during his whole life?</p> + +<p>“On the plains of Salzbach Turenne commanded the French army. Confident +of victory, secure of position, he fell slain by a musket ball. +Confidence and hope disappeared, and France was left to mourn.</p> + +<p>“The Germans for many years left the spot untilled upon which he was +killed, and the inhabitants of the neighbourhood considered it hallowed +ground.</p> + +<p>“The remains of Turenne were at first preserved in the Cemetery of +Kings. The Republicans have taken it from this vainglorious oblivion, +and have this day transferred his body to the Temple of Mars, where +veteran warriors can daily repeat the history of his victories.</p> + +<p>“Marble and brass decay in time, but this asylum of French warriors +whom old age or wounds has deprived of the power of fighting, will +exist from age to age. On the tomb of Turenne the veteran will shed +tears of admiration and the youth of France perform his vows to the +profession of arms. After embracing this monument<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span> and invoking the +shade of Turenne, he will feel himself inspired by a holy enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>“Had Turenne lived in our time, he would have been a Republican. The +love of country was his actuating principle. His glory therefore must +be identified with that of the heroes of the Republic; and it is in the +name of the Republic my hands depose these laurels on his tomb.</p> + +<p>“May the shade of the illustrious Turenne be sensible of this act of +national government, dictated by a government which is only guided by +principles of virtue.</p> + +<p>“Citizens! let me not diminish the emotions which you feel at this +tremendous and awful funeral solemnity. Language cannot describe what +is now displayed before your senses. What shall I say of Turenne? +Behold him! there he lies! Behold the sword grasped by his victorious +hand! Behold also the fatal ball which snatched him from France and +from the whole human race!”</p> + +<p>Such was the discourse delivered by Carnot; not <i>quite equal</i> to +the funeral oration of Pericles, but la la for a philosopher of the +National Institute!</p> + +<p>Had Turenne lived in our time he might possibly have proved as great a +rascal as any in the late Directorate.</p> + +<p>Maréchal Turenne possessed military genius in a transcendent degree, +but he must also by every dispassionate inquirer be condemned as a bad +man, a worse citizen, a rebel and an incendiary. He began his career +as a Maréchal de France with an act of base ingratitude, perfidy and +treason towards his Sovereign and the laws of his country.</p> + +<p>No sooner had he been raised to the rank of Maréchal than he suffered +himself to be prevailed upon by an intriguing woman, the Duchess of +Longueville (of whom, although she made a jest of his passion, he was +desperately enamoured), to persuade the army which he commanded to +revolt against the infant King and his mother, the Regent.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CAREER OF TURENNE</div> + +<p>Being unsuccessful in this attempt, he quitted the army a fugitive and +a Bonaparte, and from General to the King<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[181]</span> of France he became General +of Don Estevan de Gomora, this enemy of his King and country, by whom +he was defeated at Revel by French troops.</p> + +<p>With respect to his policy it was merciless.</p> + +<p>His glorious German campaign was achieved by inflicting unheard-of +calamities upon the defenceless inhabitants. After the battle of +Sintzheim he laid waste with fire and sword the Palatinate, a level and +fertile country, full of rich cities and prosperous villages.</p> + +<p>From his castle at Mannheim, the Elector Palatine beheld two cities and +twenty-five villages burnt before his eyes. In the first emotion of +resentment this unhappy Prince wrote a letter to Turenne, filled with +bitter reproaches and defying him to single combat.</p> + +<p>Turenne made a cool and ambiguous answer, conveying an empty compliment.</p> + +<p>In the same cold blood he destroyed all the ovens and cornfields of +Alsace, and afterwards permitted his cavalry to ravage Lorraine. +Turenne acted throughout this campaign contrary to the orders of his +Government, who desired him to treat the conquered provinces with +lenity.</p> + +<p>But to return to the Philosophical Tribune of France. The most curious +part of the ceremony consisted in the tears of Carnot! He actually!! +Carnot shed tears!!!</p> + +<p>I cannot help thinking this as a most ludicrous instance of the +ceremonial.</p> + +<p>Instead of sounding the praises of the present despotism of France, +Carnot might have recited the following lines intended to have been +inscribed on the pedestal of the tomb of Turenne in St. Denis:</p> + + <div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div>Turenne a son tombeau parmi ceux de nos rois,</div> + <div>C’est le fruit glorieux de ces fameux exploits.</div> + <div class="i1">On a voulu par-là couronner sa vaillance</div> + <div class="i2">Afin qu’aux siècles à venir</div> + <div class="i1">On ne fit point de difference</div> + <div class="i2">Entre porter la couronne ou de la soutenir.</div> + </div> + </div> + </div> + +<p>When we reflect upon the melancholy catastrophe which has befallen the +monuments of the most distinguished Frenchmen, it is to be considered a +fortunate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[182]</span> circumstance that the mausoleum of Turenne was rescued from +the general devastation. As the Abbey of St. Denis is totally destroyed +and there is no longer a place for the illustrious dead, except the +Pantheon, in which their bodies would be commingled with those of the +ruffians of the Republic, the Temple of Mars is undoubtedly the most +honourable asylum for the body of one who, notwithstanding his faults, +was perhaps the greatest General of France.</p> + +<p>The Hospital of the Invalides maintains its pre-eminence over every +other charitable institution of France.</p> + +<p>The funds for the disbursement of its expenses are paid with great +exactitude, and its internal organisation is conducted with exactitude +and decorum.</p> + +<p>Had other institutions of France, not less useful, been maintained with +equal scrupulousness, my pen would not have found an opportunity of +portraying the wickedness and folly of a people whose history during +the last ten years is nothing but a disgusting record of rapine, murder +and impiety.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XXXIII<br> +<span class="subhed">HUMANE INSTITUTIONS—<i>continued</i> SOUP ESTABLISHMENTS</span></h2></div> + + +<p>During the last winter (1801–1802) the distress of the lower orders +rose to such a height that it became necessary to open subscriptions +for the distribution of soup to the poor. A committee was formed for +the purpose, and this committee distributed 164,000 rations of soups, +besides what was sold from different furnaces, established by voluntary +contributions.</p> + +<p>The committee commenced their useful labours with the names of only +<i>one hundred subscribers</i>. The price of each subscription is +eighteen francs or fifteen shillings and ninepence sterling, and any +person is at liberty to take as many subscriptions as he thinks proper. +In consideration<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span> of every subscription the subscriber receives 240 +bonuses of soup from any establishment he may prefer, or he may leave +the disposal of them to the committee.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">HUMANITY OF BONAPARTE</div> + +<p>Madame Bonaparte, the wife of the First Consul, who is a most +benevolent, charitable and kind-hearted woman, gave 600 francs towards +the establishment of a furnace in her division.</p> + +<p>The committee solicited the generosity of the public functionaries, +“Not because they are wealthy, but because as the greater part of them +were known for their philanthropy, their example would encourage others +to subscribe.” The result of this appeal to these rich philanthropists +who fatten upon the blood of the people was somewhat ludicrous, +considering the small subscriptions it drew forth. The Senate granted +a subsidy of 1500 livres, or £60 sterling; the Council of State took +forty-six subscriptions, about £35; the Bank of France, 60, about £40; +the Mont de Piété, 20, about £14; and the officers of the Consular +Guard, 84, making a total of about £252!</p> + +<p>The First Consul generously put down his name for a 1000 subscription, +which would have amounted to £787 sterling. But there was no security +for his payment except his inclination; his servile vassals, however, +boasted of his magnificence, and the Commissioners who drew up the +report on the distribution of the soup broke forth into the following +apostrophe:—“Our eyes are turned with complacency on the 1000 +subscription of the First Consul. The Conqueror of Marengo has made +<i>humanity</i> the companion of <i>glory</i>. His triumphant hand has +repaired the edifice of social happiness; this hero, who seemed to +have attained the summit of <i>perfection</i> and <i>grandeur</i>, has +proved that a good action may make him <i>still mount</i>, and lift him +above sublimity itself!”</p> + +<p>Unluckily for the trumpeters of this “astonishing man” this hero who +has made humanity the companion of glory has not to this hour paid +one sou of the thousand subscription to which he signed his name and +entered into a solemn engagement.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span></p> + +<p>In the report made by Cadet de Vaux to the Minister of the Interior it +is stated—“Of all the branches of polite economy the least advanced +among us is public beneficence. Formerly there was an organised system +of charity, but now unhappily this branch of our administration is +defective. When there were clergy resident in every parish, their +profession gave them the privilege of asking charity from the rich and +of penetrating into the secret wants of the poor, and they therefore +possessed much greater opportunities of doing good than does the +present Board of Public Assistance, notwithstanding its activity and +zeal. Among the religious orders some corporations were distinguished +for their zeal in affording relief to the poor, particularly the +Sisters of Charity, who devoted their whole lives to the most fatiguing +details of charitable benevolence!”</p> + +<p>These respectable Associations no longer exist, but it is under +consideration to permit the re-assembling of the dispersed communities.</p> + +<p>In France at this time there are neither parochial rates nor workhouses +such as we have in England. For idle, disorderly or viciously disposed +persons no midway exists between the high road and the prison, and +no kind of provision exists which affords employment to persons who, +from sickness, misfortune, or lack of employment, have been thrown +out of work. Hence the poverty of a French pauper is the consummation +of wretchedness; rags, filth and disease waste his constitution and +destroy his body, while despair for ever settles on his soul. If he +have strength enough to carry a musket he is instantly transported into +a soldier; and if this means of subsistence fail, his only alternative +is to steal or to become a beast of burden, performing labour that in +other countries is only executed by horses and asses.</p> + +<p>But miserable as he is, the lot of the female beggar is infinitely +worse. Objects of loathsome corruption and horrible aspect, they seem +planted in the streets of this capital, only to laugh to scorn the +Revolution, and to rebuke the greedy and the sumptuous magnificence of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span> +the upstart. As you traverse the streets they follow you, conjuring you +in the name of God, and, with entreaties which would melt a heart of +flint, implore you to give them a little charity.</p> + +<p>The charitable are deprived of the power of discriminating; they must +attend to the cries of beggary or submit to be pursued for half a mile +by the same forlorn wretch, imploring for mercy and pity. This is +indeed a wretched state of society, yet we are told the Revolution was +the work of philosophers, made for the benefit of the people to dispel +the darkness of their prejudices, and to remove all the moral and +physical evils under which they groaned before the advent of freedom.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XXXIV<br> +<span class="subhed">HUMANE INSTITUTIONS—<i>continued</i></span><br> +<span class="subhed">LA SALPÊTRIÈRE. HÔTEL DIEU. HÔPITAL DE JESUS, DE LA CHARITÉ, DE LA +PITIÉ. THE FOUNDLING SOCIETY</span><br></h2></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">HOSPITALS</div> + +<p>La Salpêtrière, before the Revolution, was a prison for females; since +that event it has been converted into an ordinary prison, an infirmary, +and at length a hospital. It is an immense building, extremely well +situated near the river, and is now appropriated as a receptacle for +girls, above 1500 of whom are maintained in it. I am sorry to say I can +say little in favour of its comfort or cleanliness.</p> + +<p>The Hôtel Dieu, changed into Hôtel de l’Humanité by the Revolutionists, +is an infirmary for the sick and diseased. It will contain 4000 people.</p> + +<p>The Hospital of Jesus is not upon so large a scale. The Hospital of +Charity is appropriated exclusively for males. The Hôpital de la +Pitié is somewhat similar to our parish charity schools, for the +maintenance and instruction of poor boys; this hospital is under very +good discipline.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span> The Hospital of the Trinity of St. Sulpice and of the +Incurable are well regulated, particularly the latter, where the utmost +attention and humanity are shown to its miserable inhabitants.</p> + +<p>The Foundling Hospital, now called that of La Maternité, overflowed +with little helpless infants during those periods of the Revolution +when the holy rites of marriage were treated with derision, and +licensed vice was the order of the day. Consequently the number of +foundlings ever since the accession of the Corsican hero still exceeds +that of all Europe.</p> + +<p>This establishment embraces two objects, provision for lying-in women +and maintenance for foundlings.</p> + +<p>I can dwell with complacency and pleasure upon the advantages of this +hospital, and I am glad to be able to praise its excellent management.</p> + +<p>It is divided into two compartments, one for the reception of pregnant +women, who are received into this house during the eighth month, upon +their presenting themselves for admission, and are allowed to remain +until a proper time has elapsed after their delivery. The second +compartment is allotted to those children who have been exposed or +abandoned by their parents. Nothing can be more interesting than the +spectacle of so many infants in cradles, arranged in lines. They are +put into the hands of wet nurses belonging to the institution, until +women out of the country can be found to take charge of them in their +own homes. Each wet nurse in the institution has care of two infants, +her own and a foundling.</p> + +<p>This establishment has supplied the place of that which was in +pre-Revolution days called l’Hospice des Enfants Trouvés; a charity +which owes its origin to the efforts of S. François de Paul.</p> + +<p>It is a happy idea to blend the principles of the former institution +with a provision for poor lying-in women, who formerly in their hour +of labour had to resort to the Hôtel Dieu and be delivered amongst the +sick.</p> + +<p>The building for these women is part of the house once occupied by the +Society of the Oratorians.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">OLD FOUNDLING HOSPITAL</div> + +<p>It is spacious and airy and has very large galleries, leading to the +respective apartments, in each of which not more than six or seven beds +are prepared.</p> + +<p>The children are accommodated in the <i>ci-devant</i> Abbey of Port +Royal—a convent formerly occupied by nuns. During the days of +proscription and massacre, this edifice was converted into a prison. +The passages were blocked up, daylight shut out, and circular walls +raised. The revolutionary demoniacs changed the name of Port Royal into +that of Port Libre.</p> + +<p>Whilst it was used as a Foundling Hospital, 500 infants, 200 wet +nurses, belonging to the house, 200 women either expecting a child or +having already laid in, and forty sick persons were indiscriminately +crowded together, besides a multitude of attendants and the apothecary. +The multitude of partitions impeded the circulation of the air and +retained the offensive effluvia which proceeded from this multitude of +children, always clothed in dirty linen. There was not one apartment of +the building through which a pure draught of air passed.</p> + +<p>It was difficult to inspect so many dark rooms detached from each +other, it frequently happened that two women who had just become +mothers slept in the same bed. A general cleansing and whitewashing of +the place was unknown. The institution was burdened with children left +upon the hands of the charity, for the country nurses having been paid +with assignats or paper money and thus deprived of the full value of +their wages, nurses would not now offer themselves. The great influx +of children required a proportionate number of house nurses, and hence +arose the impossibility of selecting them, the necessity of complying +with all their demands and a great want of management.</p> + +<p>The food and the linen, in consequence of the low ebb to which the +credit of the house was sunk, were left to be provided by contractors. +The nurses had no clothes found them, pregnant women could get none, +and the infants were not even provided with linen which is an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span> absolute +necessity. These evils resulted from the prodigal waste of public +money which during the Directorship was diverted from its proper +objects to gorge the insatiate appetite and hungry rapacity of the +officials of the Government. Indeed, I am in possession of unanswerable +vouchers to prove that to this circumstance (<i>i.e.</i>, public and +private plunder) the present shameful and dilapidated condition of the +hospitals is to be attributed. So forcible are the representations of +the Consular precepts on this subject that many go so far as to boldly +assert that the grants made for the support of the hospitals have been +scandalously diverted from their original destination and lavished +without account on less necessary purposes.</p> + +<p>However, in 1801 the Council General of the Institution were enabled to +create and carry out a most necessary series of reforms.</p> + +<p>The first duty they had to discharge was to secure and regulate the +payment of the country nurses.</p> + +<p>Only £250 was due to these women, yet even this was paid with +difficulty. This debt has now been discharged, and this has been +attended with a very striking effect. The infants have been sent to +nurse much sooner, and the amount of deaths has in consequence greatly +diminished; so many house nurses have not been required, so those +who are employed are now selected with care and kept under a regular +management; persons who were of no use whatever to the Institution have +been discharged. Attention has been directed to salubrity, economy and +supply of clothing and linen. The small outbuildings, which were in +a ruinous state, have been pulled down; the partitions which divided +the wards taken away; the number of windows increased, and cleanliness +introduced over the whole hospital.</p> + +<p>Walls have been close scraped and afterwards whitewashed; rotten +timbers have been repaired, and the unserviceable and antiquated window +frames renewed and replaced.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">“MATERNITÉ” CHARITY</div> + +<p>The inspectors observed that a quantity of the provisions<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span> disappeared, +and the people of the house were constantly complaining they had not +enough. The truth being that they sold the victuals supplied to them.</p> + +<p>To remedy this evil refectories have been established, where they all +eat together. In the lying-in part of the hospital the food is now +abundant, wholesome and varied. The children’s kitchen, in which milk, +panade and broth are prepared, is under especial inspection. The place +of apothecary has been suppressed. Plenty of linen is provided for +the children. The servant girls and house nurses as well as the women +patients are now well supplied with clothes.</p> + +<p>All double bedsteads have been removed.</p> + +<p>Each woman and each nurse has a separate bed, and the latter two cribs, +one for each of the infants they suckle. The bedsteads and cribs +have been repainted, and the vermin which used to infect them has +disappeared.</p> + +<p>Two next excellent regulations have been adopted which deserve +notice. The women near their time were formerly suffered to be +without employment, in consequence of which they fell into a languor +and lowness of spirits, frequently not disassociated from bodily +indisposition. Work-rooms have now been established where they are +employed in sewing and embroidery under the direction of a proper +person belonging to the house. The charity might convert their earnings +to the benefit of the hospital, but instead it pays them for items, the +intention being to encourage them to moderate work, so that when they +quit the hospital they may not be distressed by the painful uncertainty +of not knowing where to search for the subsistence of the morrow.</p> + +<p>The second regulation establishes a course of midwifery for female +pupils, from all the departments. There were generally four pupils +under the chief midwife, whom she instructs in the practice of +midwifery for three months. This has just given rise to a public school +of midwifery in the Hospital of Maternity, to which are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span> invited +as many midwives as can be procured from the several Departments. +The theoretical part is to be taught by M. Bandelocque, principal +accoucheur, and the practical by Madame la Chapelle, principal midwife. +The school will open three months hence, on August 23. France has long +stood in need of such an establishment on which the lives of so many +individuals depend.</p> + +<p>All these improvements, which have so entirely changed this vitally +important establishment, are to be attributed to the energy and +determination of one man, whose name deserves to be remembered and +revered by future generations of Frenchmen. This individual is Monsieur +Camus, member of the General Council of Hospitals.</p> + +<p>Citizen Bailly, the steward and housekeeper, has also greatly +contributed towards the establishment of order and the direction and +accomplishment of the several kinds of work.</p> + +<p>I hope I have not been too prolix in these details, but it is +impossible and unjust to applaud or to censure institutions without +entering into very minute particulars respecting them; besides +which, as the above statements have been <i>privately</i> but +<i>officially</i> communicated to me, I cannot help thinking they have +some public interest. With a very few exceptions the account of one +hospital in Paris contains the history of every other.</p> + +<p>By an exposure of the disgraceful decay into which one of the most +important charitable establishments of old France was allowed to fall, +when it came under the administration of the friends of the people, +some conception can be formed as to the amount of interest the French +Government during the last ten years has bestowed upon such subjects.</p> + +<p>At this moment the very existence of all charitable institutions in +France (I do not except the hospitals) depends entirely on the personal +industry of the few good and virtuous men and women who adorn the +commonwealth.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SISTERS OF CHARITY REQUIRED</div> + +<p>All the hospitals and other institutions for the protection of the poor +of Paris are maintained by the Government,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span> the private endowments +having all been confiscated during the Revolution. It is, therefore, +just and proper that the conduct of that Government should be fully +investigated, when complaints resound from every quarter, against its +inattention to the fundamental principles of the establishment.</p> + +<p>I conclude these remarks by presenting the observations and +requisitions of the present Prefect of the Department of the Seine:</p> + +<p>“Re-establish the former Sisters of Charity, place them at the head of +the hospital department, authorise them to choose others, that this +useful institution may be perpetuated. Employ in sedentary labours +the old men and the infirm; the produce of their work may be divided +between themselves and the hospital. Provide for the necessities of the +hospitals by <i>securing on them national property equal in value to +the amount of what they formerly possessed</i>.</p> + +<p>“This <i>restitution</i> will supply the place of assessments, whose +produce is insufficient, in the meantime let the produce of these +assessments be paid into the treasuries of the hospitals <i>in order +that they may never be diverted from their primitive destination</i>. +Establish houses of instruction for the reception of foundlings, when +they have passed their infancy, and habituate them to industry.</p> + +<p>“Repair the buildings. Provide linen. Discharge the debts of the +hospitals, and confide to a single administration the direction of +the succour to be afforded to the whole department, and let it be +distributed in proportion to the population of the Commune.”</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span></p> + +<h2>XXXV<br> +<span class="subhed">HUMANE INSTITUTIONS—<i>continued</i></span><br> +<span class="subhed">NATIONAL INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF +AND DUMB UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE ABBÉ SICARD. THE SAUVAGE D’AVEYRON</span></h2></div> + + +<p>The Abbé Sicard<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> is a man who, as a classical, humane and scientific +instructor of the deaf and dumb, inspires the liveliest emotions of +admiration and respect. I was present at one of his lectures. The abbé +commenced by explaining the cause of dumbness to be the privation of +hearing (which precludes the possibility of imitating sounds)—and not +any absolute defect in the organ or instrument of speech. Such have +been the labours of the immortal Abbé de l’Epée and his successor, the +Abbé Sicard, that they have actually taught deaf and dumb persons how +to communicate by speech, as well as signs, with the rest of humanity.</p> + +<p>They have taught some to pronounce aloud any sentence written for them. +This pronunciation is the effect of a compelled mechanical utterance, +produced by the abbé placing his lips and mouth in certain positions +and appearing to the scholar to make certain motions, which motions +necessarily bring forth a sound more or less like that required.</p> + +<p>The degree of force which it is necessary the scholar should apply to +pronounce distinctly any word is regulated by the abbé pressing his arm +gently, moderately or strongly.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE LITTLE SAVAGE</div> + +<p>I attended a lecture at which the Abbé Sicard showed to an audience +the first mode of communication with the deaf and dumb. A boy about +thirteen years of age, whom the abbé had not even seen, was sent out of +the institution. A sheet of paper was brought on which were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span> painted +many of the most common objects, such as a horse, a carriage, a bird, +a tree, and so on. Upon the abbé pointing these pictures out to the +boy, the latter appeared delighted to show by signs that he fully +comprehended the representation. These signs, attentively observed +by the abbé, formed the basis of future conversation. To prove that +<i>speech</i> is merely a matter of imitation, the abbé produced a girl +about seventeen years old, who had lost her hearing at the age of six. +She had, therefore, acquired a small vocabulary of words and ideas +such as might be expected from a child of six years of age. Her mode +of enunciation was that of a young child. She pronounced “chat” “sa.” +There had been a dog in the house where she passed her infancy, whose +name was Toutou—she remembered the word and called every dog Toutou. +This girl was a curious instance of the primary effects of education.</p> + +<p>At this lecture the abbé stated a curious occurrence. He was once told +that a blind man, on being asked to describe the sound of a trumpet, +said he believed it to be of a red colour. He himself asked one of +his deaf and dumb pupils to define his idea of scarlet, the pupil +immediately replied: “The blast of a horn.”</p> + +<p>As soon as the lecture was ended, our party proceeded to the top of +the building in order to take a peep at the “Sauvage d’Aveyron.” When +M. P——, the gentleman who introduced us to Abbé Sicard, made the +proposal I was not aware that he was going to show us anything human. +Accordingly I followed close at his heels, and after I had entered the +room, perceiving only a man, a woman and a boy, I inquired for the +savage. “This is he,” said M. P——, pointing to the boy, “Kiss him.” +And without waiting for me to recover myself, he actually pushed me +on to the lad, and in this attitude of kissing I was discovered when +the ladies entered the apartment, the little savage holding me at the +same time by the arms. I was not a little confused at this involuntary +fraternal buss, which I was obliged to make, and which has been ever +since a subject of merriment.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span></p> + +<p>However, the savage no sooner saw ladies at the door than he sprang +from me, went to the window, and, after looking out for a few moments, +turned suddenly round and moved (for it could not be called walking) +very fast up and down the room, without seeming to pay them the least +attention.</p> + +<p>I had by this time recovered myself, and grasped him firmly by the arm; +but he took no manner of notice of me. He had a vacant countenance, +but not an idiotic one. He broke out in a most extraordinary manner, +however, a few minutes later, stamping with both his feet, rolling his +body from side to side, and howling in a strange and dreadful tone.</p> + +<p>This savage phenomenon was found in the forest of Aveyron, and here +his history begins and ends. During the two years of his captivity he +has not made any progress in knowledge or speech, and though in the +possession of his senses he does not seem to have a human idea.</p> + +<p>Civil society has no charm for him, and nothing has been known to +attract his attention. Every effort has been made to impress him with +some kind of sentiment. A good deal has been published respecting this +“child of nature,” as he has been foolishly nicknamed by the Parisian +wits; and the wretched condition of his mind has furnished several +philosophists with arguments in which they have attempted to reason +away the understanding and virtue of mankind. But this is a ridiculous +mode of reasoning, and what Dr. Paley<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> has said in his <i>Elements of +Moral Philosophy</i>, respecting Peter the Wild Boy of Germany, may be +applied with equal force to the Wild Boy of France.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">RENTE VIAGÈRE</div> + +<p>The conversations into which I have been led in consequence of my +visit to this young savage have been very interesting, chiefly because +they were carried on with avowed atheists, members of the National +Institute. It is really astonishing to what extremities they push +their subtle sophisms; and while they affect to discard everything +that is not <i>material</i> and appurtenant to this globe,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span> they are +continually soaring <i>extra flammentia mœnia mundi</i>.</p> + +<p>In a solemn discussion I had the other day with a man who is considered +one of the first natural philosophers in the world, he told me gravely +that Lagrange, Lacroix and several members of the Institute had sent +a German to the interior of Africa to request he would make the +experiment of uniting an ourang outang to a negro woman, and that he +looked forward with eager expectation to the result of these nuptials!</p> + +<p>Such a project is worthy of the philosophers of the National Institute.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XXXVI<br> +<span class="subhed">ECONOMICAL ESTABLISHMENTS. PROGRESSIVE ANNUITY FUND. SOCIETY FOR THE +ENCOURAGEMENT OF NATIONAL INDUSTRY</span></h2></div> + + +<p>A plan is in preparation for the establishment of an annuity fund. +It is to be named <i>Caisse des Placemens en Viager</i>. It is to be +established at 440 Rue Saint Méry and 435 Rue du Renard Saint Méry. Its +motto is <i>surety, stability, simplicity</i>. Those who hold shares +are to enjoy a progressive annuity. This annuity is paid according to +their ages, and not to their shares; hence all the holders of shares +who have attained any particular age receive the same rate of interest +whatever may have been the price of their shares. The <i>minimum</i> +of rate for the first age is six livres per share, and is assigned to +the first class only; the primitive rate of the subsequent classes +rises gradually to the twelfth, which comprehends the holders of shares +who have attained their sixtieth year. By reckoning from the rate +assigned to the first class, the annuity increases at fixed epochs, +and rises by thirty-five gradations to the maximum of 5000 livres, +which belongs to all the classes,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span> and is paid to all holders of shares +who have attained the age to which this last term of the progression +relates. All the intermediate terms determine equally what is to be +paid, without any distinction to the holders of shares in each class, +in proportion as they arrive at the different ages which correspond to +each rate of annuity. Those holders are divided into twelve classes, +and each class into twelve series, each of which has a separate and +distinct account.</p> + +<p>At first view this plan seems to resemble a Tontine, but it is a very +different thing. A Tontine divides annually amongst the survivors the +shares of those deceased, but in this fund the probabilities of human +life have been calculated, and by making them agree with the decrease +of the capital invested, which together with their interest serve to +augment the annuities, the movement of the funds and the death of the +holder of shares are so combined that every holder knows at any given +point the benefits he will derive at the different periods of his life.</p> + +<p>The principle of the establishment consists “in an equality of +annuities, payable to the same ages, whatever may have been the time +of investment of the share, combined with an equality in the number of +survivors among such holders of shares as have attained the same age, +whatever may have been the time of becoming such.”</p> + +<p>The holders have been distributed into twelve classes, the first of +which has been fixed at 3200. It comprises only such individuals as are +under a year old, and serves as a regulation of the decreasing numbers +of each subsequent class. Thus the numbers decreasing of the shares in +each class are as follows:</p> + +<table class="smaller"> + <tr> + <td class="cht">First</td> + <td class="right">3200</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="cht">Second</td> + <td class="right">2400</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="cht">Third</td> + <td class="right">2242</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="cht">Fourth</td> + <td class="right">2102</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="cht">Fifth</td> + <td class="right">1940</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="cht">Sixth</td> + <td class="right">1792</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="cht">Seventh</td> + <td class="right">1648</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="cht">Eighth</td> + <td class="right">1438</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="cht">Ninth</td> + <td class="right">1200</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="cht">Tenth</td> + <td class="right">1020</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="cht">Eleventh</td> + <td class="right">838</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="cht">Twelfth</td> + <td class="right">656</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<div class="sidenote">RENTE VIAGÈRE</div> + +<p>In order to make the annuities equal for all ages it has been +necessary only to reproduce in each class, at the age wherein each of +the subsequent classes are introduced, an operation which consists +simply in dividing this capital,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span> the same for all the classes which +have attained the same ages, by the number of shares in the class in +question, which number is the same as that to which all former classes +are reduced.</p> + +<p>The twelve classes comprise from one year to sixty-five years; each +class contains different periods of five, six, or seven years; all the +individuals comprehended under these periods are considered as being of +the same age, and paid as such until the extinction of the amount to +which they belong. The total number of shares cannot exceed 245,712, +and the prices of shares in the respective classes are thus regulated:</p> + +<p class="smcap center p1">Prices of Shares.</p> + +<table class="smaller" style="max-width: 50em"> + <tr> + <td></td> + <td></td> + <td class="ctr">Livres.</td> + <td class="ctr">Centimes.</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">1.</td> + <td class="cht">Those who have not completed their first year</td> + <td class="right">140</td> + <td class="right">0</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">2.</td> + <td class="cht">Those who have not completed their eighth year</td> + <td class="right">199</td> + <td class="right">75</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">3.</td> + <td class="cht">From 8 to 13 years of age</td> + <td class="right">223</td> + <td class="right">26</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">4.</td> + <td class="cht"> „ 13 to 18 „  „</td> + <td class="right">242</td> + <td class="right">39</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">5.</td> + <td class="cht"> „ 18 „ 24 „  „</td> + <td class="right">260</td> + <td class="right">91</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">6.</td> + <td class="cht"> „ 24 „ 30 „  „</td> + <td class="right">279</td> + <td class="right">98</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">7.</td> + <td class="cht"> „ 30 „ 36 „  „</td> + <td class="right">301</td> + <td class="right">52</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">8.</td> + <td class="cht"> „ 36 „ 43 „  „</td> + <td class="right">335</td> + <td class="right">65</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">9.</td> + <td class="cht"> „ 43 „ 50 „  „</td> + <td class="right">383</td> + <td class="right">28</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">10.</td> + <td class="cht"> „ 50 „ 55 „  „</td> + <td class="right">427</td> + <td class="right">27</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">11.</td> + <td class="cht"> „ 55 „ 60 „  „</td> + <td class="right">479</td> + <td class="right">84</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">12.</td> + <td class="cht"> „ 60 „ 65 „  „</td> + <td class="right">552</td> + <td class="right">84</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>These shareholders receive a progressive annuity per share as follows:</p> + +<p class="smcap center p1">Annuity.</p> + +<table class="smaller" style="max-width: 50em"> + <tr> + <td></td> + <td></td> + <td class="ctr">Livres.</td> + <td class="ctr">Centimes.</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">1.</td> + <td class="cht">Until 8 years of age</td> + <td class="right">6</td> + <td class="right">0</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">2.</td> + <td class="cht">From 8 to 13 years of age </td> + <td class="right">8</td> + <td class="right">0</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">3.</td> + <td class="cht"> „ 13 to 18 „  „</td> + <td class="right">10</td> + <td class="right">0</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">4.</td> + <td class="cht"> „ 18 „ 24 „  „</td> + <td class="right">12</td> + <td class="right">0</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">5.</td> + <td class="cht"> „ 24 „ 30 „  „</td> + <td class="right">13</td> + <td class="right">0</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">6.</td> + <td class="cht"> „ 30 „ 36 „  „</td> + <td class="right">14</td> + <td class="right">0</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">7.</td> + <td class="cht"> „ 36 „ 43 „  „</td> + <td class="right">16</td> + <td class="right">0</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">8.</td> + <td class="cht"> „ 43 „ 50 „  „</td> + <td class="right">19</td> + <td class="right">0</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">9.</td> + <td class="cht"> „ 50 „ 55 „  „</td> + <td class="right">23</td> + <td class="right">0</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">10.</td> + <td class="cht"> „ 55 „ 60 „  „</td> + <td class="right">28</td> + <td class="right">0</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="right">11.</td> + <td class="cht"> „ 60 till death</td> + <td class="right">34</td> + <td class="right">0</td> + </tr> +</table> + + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span></p> + +<p>There is no limit to the number of shares a person may hold. Each class +is to be closed as soon as the fixed number of shares shall have been +completed.</p> + +<p>As soon as a series of each class is closed, a new one will be opened, +to be closed in its turn when the number of its shares shall be +completed.</p> + +<p>When 144 series of a class are closed, no further investments will +be admitted. Besides the above annuity, the four last survivors of a +class and of each series will divide between them the four-fifths of +the residue of their account in proportion to the number of shares +belonging to them, the remaining fifth belonging to the administration. +The object of this institution, like the one I have described at +Chaillot, is to make a comfortable provision for old age, by giving +encouragement to a habit of economy. It is open to foreigners as well +as to Frenchmen.</p> + +<p><i>The Society for the Encouragement of National Industry</i> is held +at the Louvre and is open to all the world. Any person may be admitted +a member on being presented by a member, received by the Council +of Administration, and on paying annually <i>at least</i> a sum of +thirty-six livres. The object of this society is to offer prizes for +the invention, improvement and execution of machines or processes, +advantageous to agriculture, arts and manufactures, to diffuse +information respecting agriculture, arts and manufactures and to make +experiments in order to ascertain the utility of new inventions and to +afford pecuniary assistance to artists whose personal poverty prevents +them being able to try the effects of their inventions.</p> + +<p>The administration of this society is composed of men of first-rate +ability, and is divided into five distinct committees: The Committee +of Mechanical Arts, the Committee of Commerce, the Committee of +Agriculture and those of Economical and Chemical Arts.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[199]</span></p> + +<h2>XXXVII<br> +<span class="subhed">THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE SEINE. GENERAL VIEW +OF THE STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN FRANCE</span></h2></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY</div> + +<p>Of all the institutions in Paris, the Agricultural Society +afforded me most satisfaction. It is unexceptionable and praiseworthy +in a high degree, and partakes of the innocence and simplicity of rural +economy. The formation of such an establishment in such a city as Paris +is an anomaly in politics, and, extraordinary to say, the members are +nearly all men of good character, fortune and talents.</p> + +<p>This Society supplies the place of the old Royal Society of +Agriculture. Its members are limited to sixty resident in the +Department of the Seine, and not more than 150 Associates, one of +whom at least is chosen from each Department. It also elects foreign +Associates. The Society assembles for the present at the Préfecture de +la Seine in the Place Vendôme. I was present at the last meeting, and +sixteen members were there, including my excellent friend Grégoire; +also François de Neufchâteau, Huzard, Parmentier, Silvestre, the +Secretary and others. It was with extreme pleasure I perceived the zeal +manifested by all the members of the Society for the promotion of the +great and important science of agriculture. In old France the business +of the husbandman was considered the lowest and most grovelling form of +vassalage. The order of nature and of sound policy was thus reversed.</p> + +<p>But agriculture in France may now be said to be progressive, and if it +be allowed time and be spared from vexation it will truly enrich the +Republic. When we take into consideration the immense extent of France, +the variety of its climate and the fertility of its soil, together<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[200]</span> +with the vast resources it contains, one cannot avoid looking with +affection on an establishment so well adapted to collect into one focus +the experiments, details and improvements, native and foreign, by which +these natural advantages may be rendered more politically beneficial to +the country.</p> + +<p>The condition of the labouring classes of France has so far not been in +the least bettered by the Revolution; they are yet in the same abject +state for which they were heretofore distinguished. That mutual hatred +which existed between the inhabitants of the population of town and +country still prevails; notwithstanding that liberty and equality have +been written in characters of blood all over France. The Agricultural +Society are endeavouring to connect together the labourer and the +artisan, by pointing out their reciprocal obligations to each other, +and by giving rewards to such persons as shall point out the most +effective methods of rendering their common exertions serviceable to +the State. A variety of publications, some ingenious and lively, others +grave and argumentative, have been circulated to show the immense +importance of rural economy to a State, and to exalt the character of +the agriculturist.</p> + +<p>The members of the Agricultural Society are well aware of the many +difficulties which they have to encounter, and the obstinate prejudices +they must remove, before they can hope to bring the rural economy +of France to that point of perfection of which it is susceptible. A +great obstacle in the way of agricultural improvement in France is the +astonishing multitude and diversity of local customs, which even the +violence of the Revolution has failed to alter much less eradicate.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY</div> + +<p>Upon the whole, notwithstanding the present unfavourable appearance +of the general state of husbandry in the Republic, I entertain +little doubt that a peace of ten years will wonderfully alter the +face of things. The means of giving efficacy to the zeal and ardour +of the French I am sensible are wanting, nevertheless so long as +zeal prevails a well-founded hope exists that in defiance of the +poverty<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[201]</span> and extravagance of the Government, much will be done by the +people themselves. Unfortunately a general sentiment is at this time +predominant in France that nothing can be done or undertaken without +the Government. It is true the Government listens with attention to +every scheme, but their interest appears to go no further. The only way +to prevent all things from going to decay is by continually aiming to +better them in some respect or other, and to afford an attentive ear to +every project for that purpose. It must frequently happen that many of +those projects will be chimerical, but men who expose themselves and +desert the common and certain roads of gain in pursuit of advantages +for the public and not for themselves, must necessarily have something +odd and singular in their characters. It is the character of pride and +laziness to reject all offers, as it is that of weakness and credulity +to listen to all without distinction. Cromwell, partly from his +circumstances, but more from his genius and disposition, received daily +a number of proposals which were often most useful, and often remote +from probability and good sense. But he made a signal use of many +things of this kind.</p> + +<p>Colbert spent much of his time in hearing every sort of scheme for +the extending of commerce, the improvement of agriculture and the +arts; and spared no pains or expense to put them in execution, and +bountifully rewarded and encouraged their authors. By these means +France advanced during the reign of Louis XIV. and under this Minister +more than it had done for a couple of centuries, and by these means +also in the midst of wars, which brought France and the rest of Europe +almost to destruction, amidst all the faults in the royal character +and many errors of his Government, a seed of industry and enterprise +was sown, which on the first respite of the public calamities, and +even while they oppressed the nation, rose to produce that flourishing +internal and external wealth and power for which France was afterwards +distinguished.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[202]</span></p> + +<h2>XXXVIII<br> +<span class="subhed">THE POST OFFICE. HALLS OF THE LEGISLATIVE BODIES. COURTS OF JUSTICE. +THE JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON REVIVED</span></h2></div> + + +<p>Any person who has paid a visit to our General Post Office in Lombard +Street, and is acquainted with the extraordinary bustle united to +the utmost precision visible there, would think, should he happen to +alight on a sudden in the Rue Coqueron without knowing in what part of +the world he was, that the Post Office therein was that of some small +trading town, instead of the capital of the <i>greatest</i> nation on +earth.</p> + +<p>Should he judge of the population by the revenue of each place, he +would conclude Great Britain contained some 100,000,000 souls and +France not above 3,000,000.</p> + +<p>It does not require much skill in political economy to discover the +causes of this disparity.</p> + +<p>Commercial nations have a greater number of artificial wants and a most +extensive circle of correspondents. To them the expense of postage is +no burthen, it is a source of profit. A merchant therefore exults in +the number of his letters. Hence the duties of postage are never paid +with reluctance. You would never see in the General Post Office of such +countries, piles of returned letters sufficient to supply a bonfire. +Amsterdam, at the period of its commercial prosperity, received more +letters in one day than the citizens of Paris in a week. I will now +compare the London and Paris Post Offices, and this comparison is +really an entertaining one.</p> + +<p>I wrote to the Mayor of Chatillon in La Vendée an important letter, +requiring a reply. Consequently I was obliged to go frequently to the +General Post Office in order to make inquiries for it.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[203]</span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">IRREGULAR POSTAL SYSTEM</div> + +<p>Upon the first time I presented myself at the office, I inquired +whether the post had arrived? “No.” “When do you expect it?” “To-day.” +“But you desired me to be here at one o’clock.” “Eh, monsieur! one +cannot be <i>so</i> precise.” “When shall I call again?” “To-morrow.” +On the next day I returned. “Now, what say you?” “The post is not +arrived.” “When will it come?” “To-night or perhaps to-morrow.” “How do +you account for this irregularity?” “Who knows? the courier may have +broken his neck, one cannot be particular.” “But the post from England +is regular enough!” “C’est une autre affaire, les routes de Calais à +Paris sont superbes.”</p> + +<p>The next evening the post did arrive. I asked the reason for delay, and +was coolly replied: “there was none.”</p> + +<p>If I had been a merchant what fatal consequences might have ensued from +this delay had I been under the necessity of making a considerable +payment!</p> + +<p>I will relate another circumstance, sufficiently ludicrous, though a +general and useful deduction may be drawn from it. My valet de chambre, +who fortunately for me cannot read, brought me one afternoon a letter +which, after a hundred apologies for the liberty he was taking, he +begged <i>I</i> would read to him. It came from his father, who is a +well-to-do farmer near Besançon. The style of the letter was good, but +the writing difficult to decypher. After the usual expressions between +a parent and a son, he proceeded in the letter to ask four distinct +questions, every one of which required an explicit answer. One of them, +upon which he laid the greatest stress, was to inform him by its reply +whether his daughter had been safely delivered. The letter, however, +had a postscript: “Au Nom de Dieu ne réponds pas à cette lettre, le +prix des facteurs est trop cher!”</p> + +<p>Now without any invidious allusion to Ireland I may be permitted to +observe that no so-called Irish bull was ever so simple as this remark.</p> + +<p>No English labourer whose daughter was in a similar<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[204]</span> condition would +have grudged a few sous upon such occasion, and the expense of internal +postage in France is cheaper than with us.</p> + +<p>Disinclination to correspond extends to men in better circumstances. +Amidst the most sumptuous festivities and the Oriental style of living +peculiar to the Consular Satrap, there is throughout the mass of +the Parisians a chilling penury that would excite compassion, if we +could forget that they had been the voluntary authors of their own +wretchedness.</p> + +<p>The extensive operations carried on, the numerous armies maintained on +the Continent by the Republic, have rendered it extremely difficult for +persons to know the destination and circumstances of their relatives.</p> + +<p>Hence a new species of egoism has been introduced into society. The +social claim is dissolved and every one lives on conjecture or only for +himself. The charms and joys of friendship cannot exist in such a state.</p> + +<p>It must be observed that trade is at a standstill; not on account +of want of opportunities but for want of <i>means</i>. Property has +not yet made its appearance from out the holes where the spirits +of fraud, rapine and fear have deposited it. Concealment of spoil +is the universal adage; for with all the fulsome panegyrics on the +Central Government, which originate with its subaltern agents, and are +despatched by the Prefects of the Departments, doubt and anxiety are +pictured on every countenance, except the military and the immediate +counsellors of the consulate authority. If a merchant be disposed to +make a venture, the next moment his fears deter him. He hesitates to +trust, and least of all is he inclined to trust his Government. Under +such circumstances it is little wonder the General Post Office does so +little business.</p> + +<p>I have stood for hours in the courtyard in order to see the arrivals of +the different couriers.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">POSTAL TRANSIT</div> + +<p>Nothing can be more ridiculous than the contrast between the English +and French mail coaches. The French post waggons are huge unwieldy +machines, drawn<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[205]</span> by cart horses, harnessed with ropes and moving at a +slow pace, their arrival is nevertheless always announced by tremendous +cracks of whips.</p> + +<p>When this is compared with the smart dress and cheerful horns of our +coachmen and guards, the elegant neatness and convenience of our mail +coaches, the beauty of our horses, and the expedition with which they +are received and despatched to pursue their different routes almost to +a minute, it is impossible not to feel a proud opinion of the “little +nation of shopkeepers” as the <i>Master of the Earth</i> is pleased to +call the inhabitants of our islands. I shall conclude this account of +the Post Office with observing first, from official documents on my +table, that I could sail with a light wind to Jamaica before a letter +in France would arrive at some of the cross posts in the Interior.</p> + +<p>For instance, between Bourges and Sancerre, in the Department of +Cher, there is at present no communication. Between Orleans and +Montargis, in the Department du Loiret, there is no established mode of +correspondence. But the Prefect hopes later to accomplish the matter by +putting a tax on all the inhabitants.</p> + +<p>There is no communication between Langagne and Genvielhac, in the +Department of Lozère; none between Roquefort and Bordeaux, in the Lower +Pyrenees, although the merchants of Pau have proved it would be a +shorter route than through Toulouse.</p> + +<p>In the Eastern Pyrenees the correspondence of the Department with that +of the Department of Aude takes up five days; it should be done in one.</p> + +<p>The most egregious villainies having been perpetrated in the Department +of the <i>Haut Rhin</i>, it has been thought <i>wise, prudent, and +politic to suspend the postal arrangements there altogether</i>.</p> + +<p>Unless letters addressed to Ministers and officers of the Government +are <i>prepaid</i>, they will never reach their destination. The +Ministers make an annual charge of postage, and cabbage the difference. +At first sight this perquisite may seem trivial for the fingers of an +officer<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[206]</span> of State. But these officers are Ministers who have their +fortunes to make.</p> + +<p>Hence every little helps.</p> + +<p>It should seem that circumstances, times, places, persons, things are +of more importance in France than elsewhere. This was a common mania +under the old Government, but <i>it</i> had the great resources of +commerce, arts, and the wants of a great number of rich proprietors, +who, unhappily, have now, with arts and commerce, been destroyed. +Nevertheless, the opinion still prevails that the Government can +command the harvest, and compel persons to sell and buy.</p> + +<p>The business, however, of the Government is to correct itself by +experience, to secure itself against the mistakes and bad measures of +commercial administration. For no private industry, no knowledge of +commercial affairs, can secure individuals against the folly of a bad +Minister, or the pernicious effects of his administrative regulations. +This reasoning has no influence in France; Government is required +to invent, to build, to manufacture—in short, to do everything but +consume; and yet this latter is the precise article in which the +present Government excels and takes the greatest delight.</p> + +<p>The perquisites of postage must be immense, as whenever despatch is +required, a solicitation, to be successful, must be accompanied by a +very considerable pecuniary compliment. Therefore, the Minister who +holds the portfolio of the Postes amasses a considerable sum during his +Ministry.</p> + + +<h3 class="sm p1">THE LEGISLATIVE BODY.</h3> + +<div class="sidenote">CORPS LEGISLATIF</div> + +<p>This Tribunate meets in those departments of the Palais Royale which +are opposite the Rue St. Thomas. A few shabby-looking individuals +compose what is called their Guard of Honour. I had the honour and +privilege of being admitted to one of these meetings, and I will try +to describe what passed on this occasion. Having obtained an order of +admittance at the door in exchange for our cards, we were ushered into +a seat appropriated for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[207]</span> the friends of the members, and just opposite +to the Presidential chair. Immediately behind us were the reporters, +and beyond them the place reserved for the public, who on that +particular day consisted of eight persons. The room itself is small +and mean, furnished with benches covered with blue cloth. After we had +waited about twenty minutes, during which time two or three individuals +peeped through the folding doors opposite to us, much in the same way +as a head is sometimes seen through the green curtain at Drury Lane, +in the act of exploring the house, a sudden crash of drums as a signal +was heard, and the folding-door vanished as if touched by the wand of +Harlequin. The drums then beat a salute, and the scene that opened +presented us with a very fine perspective of soldiers presenting arms. +In a minute or two the procession commenced, with six men in fancy +dresses, whose appearance was a burlesque upon French legislation.</p> + +<p>They were dressed in grey coats and pantaloons, with scarlet waistcoats +and red half-boots. Upon their heads a round hat turned up in front +with a blue feather, a red sash round the waist, and a good-sized stick +in their hands.</p> + +<p>Next followed the President, his round hat garnished with three upright +tri-coloured feathers; he wore a mazarine-blue coat embroidered in +silver, breeches to match, and a white silk waistcoat bound in by a +silk tri-colour sash with silver fringes.</p> + +<p>Behind followed the secretaries, and a motley group whose appearance +provoked great merriment amongst us. Most of them were in full costume, +like the President, but some with worsted, others with black silk, +stockings. They wore pantaloons and half-boots, and several had whole +boots with dirty brown tops.</p> + +<p>Except the President and secretaries, there were but three in this +crowd who wore a clean pair of shoes and looked like gentlemen. These +three were Lucien Bonaparte, the First Consul’s next brother, who was +not only in full uniform, but appeared in silk stockings and clean<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[208]</span> +linen, and had in every respect the manners and address of a gentleman, +with the countenance of an Italian Jew; Chauvelier,<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> formerly +resident for the late unfortunate King of France in our country; and +Carnot, the ex-Director, who was dressed in a suit of black worthy of a +courtier. He seemed very surly, and during the whole sitting employed +himself reading a pamphlet. All the rest looked like blackguards in +masquerade. As soon as the President mounted his tribune, he rang +a handbell; he then took off his hat, and remarked, “La Séance est +ouverte.” The six gentlemen in grey already mentioned began to get up +a hissing resembling geese. This was to obtain silence (for they were +gentlemen ushers). The order of the day was then read. No debate took +place. After each law proposed, every man (as his name was called) +advanced to the tribune, and put the ball which recorded his vote into +the urn. This ceremony was repeated a number of times, and, indeed, +this figuring continued for above three hours. The President then rang +his bell again, and declared, “La Séance est levée!” Instantly the +folding doors disappeared once more with a crash, and exeunt President, +secretaries, and tribunes to their respective dressing-rooms, where +they exchanged their fine fancy clothes for their ordinary habiliments.</p> + +<p>Having described the nature and object of this body, I shall now +endeavour to do the same by that extraordinary assembly of Mutes, which +goes by the name of the <i>Legislative Council of France</i>, in which +300 choice spirits are collected together to be dumb by law during +four months in ever year. According to the code of “<i>Minos</i>” +Bonaparte, article 34, we find: “The legislative body enacts the law +by secret <i>scrutiny and without the least discussion on the part of +its members</i>, upon the plans of the law debated before it, by the +orators of the Tribunate and the Government.”</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A SILENT PARLIAMENT</div> + +<p>This is exquisite! Each mute is allowed the sum of £436 sterling per +annum, with permission to talk during eight months of the year. Such is +the best account I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[209]</span> can give of this marvellous assembly. It is called +a Legislative Council, but this designation is an improper one. In +the French, as well as the English language, the word <i>council</i>, +derived from the Latin <i>concilium</i>, signifies a body of men met +together for the purpose of consultation. Now, except in “Dean Swift’s +Voyage to Laputa,” I have never heard or read of a number of men +assembled together only to <i>think</i>, not even at a Quaker meeting.</p> + +<p>The hall where these thoughtful meetings take place was constructed +during the Directorate; it is now pompously called “The Palace of the +Legislative Bodies,” and it merits the name of palace, for it is one +of the most elegant and beautiful rooms in Europe. It is semicircular, +with benches rising one upon the other, for the convenience of members. +Above the uppermost bench, and extending along the semicircle, are a +number of arcades of fine marble, the capitals composed of bronze.</p> + +<p>Within these persons who have obtained cards of admission are +stationed, and considerably above them, nearly at the top of the +ceiling is a gallery, for spectators. Opposite to the benches of +the members, and in the middle of its diameter, is the chair of the +President, a little below him the place of the secretaries and the +tribune from which the orators of the Government, viz., the Council +of State and those of the Tribunate harangue the assembly. These are +all made of solid mahogany, inlaid with gold, and the pedestal of the +tribune has a beautiful relief in marble, filched from Italy. On the +right of the President there are three niches, within which are the +statues of Lycurgus, Demosthenes and Solon, on the left three others, +in which Brutus, Cato, and Cicero are fixed.</p> + +<p>The floor, which forms the area between the tribune and the benches of +the members, is of marble.</p> + +<p>We were never present at the opening of the <i>séance</i>, so I cannot +say whether the drums beat as at the Tribunate, but I think it likely +this assembly has also a guard of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[210]</span> honour. There is a semicircular +bench on the floor opposite to the President appropriated for those +tribunes and orators of the Government who are detached for the purpose +of discussing the laws. They are preceded by huissiers at their +entrance into the hall, and the doors are always opened as if by magic +and with a crash.</p> + +<p>The mutes wear the same uniforms as the tribunes, except that their +clothing is embroidered with gold; they are by no means so slovenly in +their appearance as the gentlemen of the lower chamber. A great many +general officers are among their number.</p> + +<p>The palace to which this hall is attached is the Palace Bourbon, +formerly the Parisian residence of the Prince de Condé. It is situate +on the other side of the Seine, opposite to the place once Place Louis +XV., now Place de la Concorde, on the middle of which the unfortunate +monarch of France and innumerable numbers of his former subjects were +put to death.</p> + +<p>The beautiful bridge, Pont de la Concorde, which leads to the palace, +and the triumphant portal between two noble pavilions, to which it is +connected by a double row of lofty columns of the Corinthian order, add +to the splendour of its appearance. We must <i>not</i> forget while +admiring so many noble specimens of architecture that not <i>one</i> of +them is the work of the genius of Republican France; on the contrary, +they were raised and embellished by the liberality of Princes, whose +descendants an ungrateful people have driven into exile.</p> + +<p>The only pieces of architecture produced by the Republic are several +wooden houses erected upon barges on the river for shows and bagnios +where the lascivious and polluted may at any hour of the day or night +regale themselves with girls, liqueurs, coffee, dainties of all kinds +and hot and cold baths.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CRIMINAL COURT</div> + +<p>In the interior of the <i>Palais du Corps Législatif</i> there are +several halls dedicated to peace and victory, and to those funny +divinities, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.</p> + +<p>I will now describe the <i>Palais de Justice</i>.</p> + +<p>This is another magnificent edifice. It is enclosed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[211]</span> within a gate 120 +feet in length, which forms the boundary of a large area. The façade +presents a very dignified appearance, at the middle of which, after +ascending a flight of steps, the people enter through a vast opening.</p> + +<p>Among the different courts there is one which can never fail to attract +a foreigner—the hall where the Revolutionary Tribunal assembled to +murder innocents by wholesale. It is now called the Chamber of the +Court of Appeal, and is completely altered since I last saw it in +1793, when a set of drunken cannibals, selected from the filthiest +styes of the Metropolis, with red caps upon their heads, made human +nature tremble, inundated France with blood, and caused every honest +man to envy the days of Nero and Caracalla. The person who was with me +gave me a very minute account of the trials of the Queen and Princess +Elizabeth, where they were stationed, and how calm and dignified was +their behaviour.</p> + +<p>In the Criminal Court four young men were being tried for their lives. +The room, the seats of the judges, advocates, jury and spectators, made +me think I was in one of the circuit courts of our own country. Every +person was uncovered. The judge politely invited us to sit within the +tribunal, so we saw and heard all that passed distinctly.</p> + +<p>There were three judges, who wore the same gowns as our Masters of +Arts. The prisoners were seated on their left, attended by two <i>gens +d’armes</i> and their counsel on a seat below them; to the right the +jury and public prosecutor were stationed. This latter official was +habited like the judges.</p> + +<p>One of the prisoners completely established an <i>alibi</i>, the others +succeeded so far as to render the evidence against them all ambiguous, +so in consequence they were acquitted.</p> + +<p>The Revolution caused such havoc among the corps of lawyers that the +profession is scarcely deemed reputable. Every advocate of the old +Monarchy, who entered into<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[212]</span> the spirit of the times, is now either a +member of the Tribunate or the Conservative Senate.</p> + +<p>The most lamentable circumstance in the interests of justice is the +mean salaries granted to the judges, the principal of whom do not +receive more than £400 sterling a year; and when the importance of +their functions and their relative rank in society are contrasted +with their pay, one cannot avoid thinking that there is a deliberate +intention to degrade the name of Justice in this country, by rendering +it infinitely below the scale of military authority.</p> + +<p>This opinion is corroborated by what took place a short time ago at +the Tuileries, when the Civil Code was under discussion. Cambacères, +the Second Consul, had actually persuaded Bonaparte that in England +there were <i>no juries</i> in <i>civil causes</i>. Upon further +inquiry St. Jean d’ Angely assured him of the contrary. “How is this, +Cambacères,” said the First Consul, “I am now told that the English +always have juries in civil as well as criminal causes?” The latter +still persisting, Blackstone was appealed to, but as no one present +understood enough English to read this law book, Bonaparte extricated +himself from the dilemma by saying: “Oh! as to these matters, one says +one thing and another another; there appears to be no certainty at all +about what is the practice in England, nor is it of any consequence +whatever, but I decide there shall be no juries in France in civil +causes!” <i>Ainsi soit-il!</i></p> + +<p>With this stupendous effort of human judgment I finish my account of +the mode in which justice is administered in this enlightened Republic.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[213]</span></p> + +<h2>XXXIX<br> +<span class="subhed">NEWSPAPERS. CHARACTERS OF THOSE CONCERNED IN THEM</span></h2></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">FRENCH NEWSPAPERS</div> + +<p>In the inaugural address pronounced by the celebrated Montesquieu +on his admission to the French Academy, January 24, 1728, he said: +“Talents without virtues are fatal presents, only proper to add +strength to our vices and to render them more conspicuous.”</p> + +<p>Had Montesquieu lived to this day he would have thought in the same +spirit.</p> + +<p>But he would not have survived the Revolutionary storm unless he had +taken refuge in exile.</p> + +<p>I well remember a rebuke I once received from Robespierre when I +extolled “The Spirit of Laws.”</p> + +<p>“The Spirit of Laws,” said he, “is the production of a fanatic and +weak mind (<i>imbécile</i>), replete with dogma and prejudice; if +Montesquieu were now alive he would very soon be less by a head, <i>car +il était un parlementaire, non pas un bon Republicain</i>.” The word +<i>parlementaire</i> means, strictly speaking, a Roundhead or a Whig; +but such a person was not sufficiently divested of prejudice to be a +good Republican in the eyes of Robespierre; besides, as the tyrant +continued, “being a member of the ancient parliament of France (he was +president of that at Bordeaux) he was <i>necessarily</i> an enemy of +Republican Government, for which reason, notwithstanding his dogmas and +prejudices in favour of public liberty, he was without doubt worthy of +death as an aristocrat and a conspirator.”</p> + +<p>When I heard that Montesquieu would have been less by a head had he +fallen into Robespierre’s hands, I felt an unpleasant sensation in +my throat, and I therefore was immediately <i>convinced</i> that +the tyrant’s arguments were correct; but knowing that extremes of +servility and opposition were alike obnoxious to him, I endeavoured +to appease him with observing that it was very true, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[214]</span> author of +“The Spirit of Laws” groped in darkness, especially in the article in +which he treats of Influence of Climate, as it was now <i>clear</i> +that the enlightened principles of the Revolution were equally +applicable to the whole race of man, and that there would probably be +a National Convention very soon in China; but still that I could not +avoid considering Montesquieu, as well as Machiavel, in the light of +a pioneer of liberty! “Machiavel, the pioneer of liberty!” he cried +(giving me a fixed look with his two large tigerish eyes and clenching +his fists, the usual preliminaries of a warrant of arrest), “you are +not acquainted with the true principles, the doctrines of Machiavel +established tyranny over the whole of Europe.” Every one who has read +Machiavel with attention, which I am persuaded Robespierre never did, +if he read him at all, must be satisfied that his book “The Prince,” +was written solely to expose the machinations of tyrants, and caution +the people of free States against their intrigues.</p> + +<p>I have been led to these remarks in order to expose the worthlessness +of the literary claims of those <i>political</i> writers and orators +who affect a great deal of information when they possess none. No +people possess greater facility than the French in persuading the world +that they know everything, when in fact they know little or nothing.</p> + +<p>When I was about to depart for France I was requested by the +proprietors of a long-established daily paper in London to procure if +possible some intelligent person in whom they might confide to act as +a proper correspondent, to give them authentic information of what was +passing in France. When I arrived in Paris I therefore addressed myself +to men of approved talents in science, and, as I had been informed, of +knowledge in politics.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">FRENCH NEWSPAPERS</div> + +<p>The sum I was empowered to offer was sufficiently captivating, and +they buzzed about me in consequence like so many paupers round the +overseer of a parish in the act of distributing bread. With respect to +operas, plays, masquerades, concerts, balls and all the other equipage +of folly and pleasure, information respecting them was none of my +object. I wanted such communications as should<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[215]</span> prove useful to men of +understanding, to the politician, the manufacturer and the merchant; I +did not care to learn whether the First Consul slept at Malmaison or +the Tuileries. The points upon which accurate information might be of +incalculable advantage to the British public were, who was the last +person robbed, banished, poisoned, or otherwise murdered by the order +of the chief of the State, what measures were in agitation to sap the +foundations of any kingdom, and what independent community was next to +be overthrown and enslaved.</p> + +<p>Accordingly I stated distinctly to my would-be correspondents that +we required <i>facts</i> and <i>facts only</i>. Politics were the +principal topics of conversation during our interviews, and I +was utterly astonished to discover the profound ignorance my new +acquaintances displayed.</p> + +<p>None of them seemed to have any just notion either of the state of +Europe or their own country. After a short intercourse I discovered +that with the little information I had gained I already knew more of +the affairs of France than they did.</p> + +<p>However, that I might not be led away by my own opinions, I suggested +to five of those gentlemen, who I selected from the crowd owing to +their distinguished credentials, that they should take up their +pens and give a specimen of their manner of treating things, that +I might forward such writings immediately to the two gentlemen in +England who had commissioned me to seek for correspondents. I told +this to each applicant separately, and requested he should choose +his subject for himself. Two of those individuals were members of +the National Institute, one a very celebrated Professor, and the two +others distinguished and respected <i>savans</i>! Five hours after the +conversation I received an <i>estafette</i> from one of the Institute +men, and before two days had elapsed despatches arrived from all +the rest. After having read them all over with repeated attention, +I decided, for the sake of my own credit, to send none of them to +England. They were so puerile that I will stake my honour upon a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[216]</span> boy +at Eton or Westminster writing more and better to the purpose.</p> + +<p>They were full of flowers, tropes and metaphors, but contained nothing +solid; and all overflowed with the commonplace metaphysics of the new +Philosophy. My embarrassments now increased, for the Club of Sages, +whom the report of my commission collected round me, besieged my +lodgings day after day, like suitors in the ante-chamber of Talleyrand; +and notwithstanding their courteous carriage and apparent indifference +they all asked me anxiously what news I had received by the post. The +awkward situation in which I found myself compelled me eventually +to say that my colleagues had altered their plans and determined +to confide their correspondence to an English gentleman now in +Paris—<i>i.e.</i>, <i>myself</i>.</p> + +<p>But although these philosophers did not obtain any ulterior benefit +from my offer, I was enabled by my intercourse with them to obtain +considerable information respecting the state of the Press in Paris at +the present time, and I here give the result of my inquiries.</p> + +<p>Newspapers in France are under the immediate control of the police, and +are principally edited by those illuminated children of science, better +known under the title of the National Institute.</p> + +<p>The <i>Moniteur</i> is the first in order in baseness and infamy. It is +considered the official paper of the Government. As all its papers are +under the superintendence of the police, they are <i>all</i> official. +Its nominal proprietors are Messrs. Roederer<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and Hautrive,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> but +the profits belong to a club consisting of five Ministers, those of +Finance, Interior, Foreign Affairs, War and Police. Roederer receives +a stipend of £800 a year (which, with his income of a Councillor of +State, gives him £3500 to spend) as a salary for editing the paper, +for which he is of course considered the responsible person. All +the expenses of paper, printing and publishing, are defrayed by the +Treasury.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CHARACTERS OF EDITORS</div> + +<p>Hautrive is not a stipendiary or responsible editor, but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[217]</span> he writes +in the <i>Moniteur</i>, and his articles are well paid. The Decemvir +Barrère receives £1000 per annum for his literary assistance, but he is +really acting as a private spy for the First Consul, on the operations +of the Jacobins. He is likewise engaged as spy upon the Grand Spy, +Fouché, Minister of Police.</p> + +<p>The different Ministers frequently employ the pens of their subalterns +in office. You cannot be mistaken respecting the authors of the +articles, as their style convicts them. The following may, however, +serve as general rules for the discovery of the distinguished literati +engaged.</p> + +<p><i>Ferocious and blustering passages on the power of the Republic, in +the style of epic prose.</i>—Treilhard,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> ex-Avocat, ex-Director, +ex-Negotiator, and Councillor of State.</p> + +<p><i>Religious homilies and pious incantations, with much whining +about the restoration of the Catholic Faith, but written in good +style.</i>—Portales,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> the Elder Councillor of State, who from a +professed atheist, having read the Bible over and over again, as he +says, during his exile at Homburgh, has found himself converted, and on +his return converted Bonaparte to believe what he believes, and is now +a saint as well as his disciple.</p> + +<p><i>Gasconades, calembours, bombast, apostrophes to nature, mothers with +infants at their breasts. Hard-hearted men who never had children, +heaving bosoms of humanity, all the impure verbiage of the Tribunal +of the National Convention.</i>—Barrère, ex-member of the Council of +Public Safety. Practical reporter of all its atrocities, who signed +the death warrants of about 40,000 of his countrymen, avowing in +the Committee that dead men tell no tales; afterwards sentenced to +transportation; turned Christian in jail, won the good opinion of his +jailer, at whose table he said grace before and after meals. Escaped +from prison and secreted himself till Bonaparte attained supreme power, +to whom he sent a fulsome address, declaring <i>he</i> was the reporter +who made known to astonished Europe the exploits of the hero of Italy;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[218]</span> +liberated by the commiseration and sympathy of his master, he now licks +his feet and is his humble servant; though retired (as his profession +requires) he lives in good style, near my lodgings, keeps a girl of his +own and is allowed by the First Consul to share in the profits of a +house of ill fame which he founded.</p> + +<p><i>Comparisons between Great Britain and the great nations; +between porter and burgundy, coals and wood, roast beef and +bouillie.</i>—Chaptal,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> the chemist, Minister of the Interior, one +of the basest of slaves.</p> + +<p><i>Surly remarks on the tyrants of the ocean, the insolence +and intrigues of British Government, the cravings and jealous +disposition of the Nation of Shopkeepers, the National Debt of +England, its exhausted resources, bad faith and sincere integrity of +France.</i>—Roederer, Councillor of State, member of the National +Institute, ex-avocat, has always sided with every party in order to +illustrate practically his valuable treatise on making loans and on +solving the question whether the State should pay its debts. He was +Procureur-General, Syndic of the Department of Paris, during the +expiring moments of the Monarchy.</p> + +<p><i>The same in more fluent and easy language.</i>—Hautrive,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> a +pensioner of the Consul and nominal sub-editor of the paper.</p> + +<p><i>Sallies respecting Malta and hints respecting Egypt and the +Mediterranean.</i>—Regnault de St. Jean d’Angely, Councillor of State, +in great favour with Bonaparte, formerly an avocat of Saintogne, a +furious royalist as long as Louis XVI. continued to fee him. Intrepid +royalist, editor of the <i>Journal de Paris</i> in 1791; violent +Jacobinist, editor of the <i>Gazette de Milan</i> under the auspices +of Bonaparte in 1796. Member of the Constituent Assembly, in which +capacity he was pensioned by the Order of Malta to plead on behalf +of its rights; in return for which he betrayed his clients, went to +the island as the Commissary of the Directory, and superintended the +administration of the plunder. Completely sacked the Palace of the +Grand Master, Baron de Homfesch, pilfered all the plate and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[219]</span> money +he could lay his hands on, composed a Revolutionary Gazette for the +Islands of the Archipelago, and returned to France laden with an +immense booty, is a member of the National Institute in the class of +Political Economy; is a married man with a family, keeps a girl, but is +saving and takes care of the main chance.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">FALSE NEWS</div> + +<p><i>Barefaced lies and swindling propositions.</i>—Talleyrand, Minister +of Foreign Affairs, ex-Bishop of Autun; renounced Christianity and his +Order, went to England, 1793, to assist Chauvelin and Moret in lulling +the English Government. Trembling for his head remained there after +the war broke out. Took lodgings at Mr. Colpus’s, near Highgate Pond, +during which time he made a point of eating boiled beef on Fridays, +departed for America, whence he humbly sued for permission to return +to France. The Directorate, being in want of a dexterous rascal to +manage the pillage, sequestration of the German abbeys, and other +ecclesiastical possessions, permitted him to return home, and gave +him the portfolio of Charles de la Croix; since which he has been +actively engaged in the decomposition of Europe and in converting the +German Empire into a State Lottery for himself and his masters—takes +bribes from all and cheats all, with placid composure. Feels a great +reluctance to enter into negotiation without a preliminary douceur (the +American commissioners to wit); the greatest swindler in Europe. Rich +as Lucullus, has lately resumed Christianity and sent to request the +Pope will unfrock him and give him absolution for his past sins. The +First Consul has promised to make it his care that his Holiness shall +execute this request, and in return for which special grace Talleyrand +will richly reward the Pontifical Ambassador for the expenses incurred +in negotiating the business.—Keeps Madame Grand, of Indian fame, at +the hotel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she acts in every +way as if she were his lawful wife. He also keeps a young tit at a +little château where he transacts private business.</p> + +<p>Is a man of rank, education and princely birth,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[220]</span> possesses transcendent +abilities, and perhaps is the greatest living rogue and liar in +Christendom.</p> + +<p><i>Sensible data on the public law in Europe, afforded though +not written for publication, but digested by Roederer for the +Press.</i>—Rosensthiel, formerly principal Secretary of Legation to +the French Ministers at the farcical congress of Radstadt in 1799, the +pupil and friend of Pfeffer, long employed in the diplomatic department +under the old Monarchy; devotedly attached to his King, detesting the +Revolution, on that account dismissed by Dumouriez, when Minister +of Foreign Affairs; having been imprisoned, proscribed and ruined. +Father of a large family, he was constrained from the necessity of his +circumstances to accept the Consulship of Elsineur in 1796, whence, +being the only Frenchman profoundly versed in the history and practice +of public law, he was again transferred to the Ministry of Foreign +Affairs. Modest, mild, virtuous and learned, he is therefore <i>not</i> +a member of the National Institute.</p> + +<p>These are the principal workmen who furnish the <i>Moniteur</i> with +leading articles, most of which are a vehicle for blustering and +imposture.</p> + +<p>The next Parisian newspaper in rank and circulation to the Moniteur is +the <i>Journal des Défenseurs de la Patrie</i>. In this paper there are +often good articles and useful literary criticisms. But all political +reflection is, for obvious reasons, banished from its pages.</p> + +<p>One, Joseph la Vallée, without appearing ostensibly to take any +interest in this paper, is really paid £260 sterling by the Government +for watching its concerns.</p> + +<p>I have seen a great deal of la Vallée; he is endowed with great +intellectual acquirements. He is a modest, inoffensive man, extremely +anxious to oblige, not loquacious, but interesting in conversation.</p> + +<p>He is not a member of the National Institute, which may account for his +integrity. In one of our conversations he complained bitterly of the +English newspapers for their animadversions on the French Government, +and particularly on the First Consul, expressing his fears that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[221]</span> these +attacks might lead to bloodshed between the two countries.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CONTROL OF PRESS BY BONAPARTE</div> + +<p>I desired him to name the papers he alluded to; he mentioned the +<i>Porcupine</i> and the <i>Morning Post</i>. I explained to him +that the <i>Porcupine</i> was nonexistent, having been for some +months merged in the <i>True Briton</i>. He was quite confounded by +this information, for he had no idea the <i>Porcupine</i> had been +relinquished. He observed that the <i>True Briton</i> was however also +extremely violent.</p> + +<p>“Why then,”, I returned, “do you not, my dear friend, answer them +with equal vehemence?” “Because these political discussions are not +agreeable to the Government, for if we replied it would be impossible +to do so without translating and so publishing the arguments of the +enemy, for such discussions would only unsettle the minds of people and +might shake the Government.” “Ah, vive la Liberté,” said I. “I thought +I was in a free Republic!” He gave no reply, and our conversation +abruptly ended.</p> + +<p>A curious incident took place a few years ago here. It was common +talk the Senate (Législatif Conseil) were to pass a decree continuing +Bonaparte in the Consulate for life. A paper was circulated containing +remarks upon the meanness of such a project, declaring national +gratitude should proclaim Napoleon Bonaparte Emperor of the Gauls, and +make the throne hereditary to his race.</p> + +<p>The very next day there appeared in the <i>Journal des Défenseurs</i> +a well-written article in the true spirit of a Republican against +not only the Imperial project, but also against that of making the +Consulate a life-long appointment. Soon after I had read it la Vallée +called on me. “You see,” said he, “Frenchmen can write as they please. +Nothing shall deter me,” continued the indignant Republican. “I never +disliked the late King, nor shared in the events of the Revolution; +but rather than see any one of my fellow citizens upon the throne of +France, I would burn this hand if I did not write against him!”</p> + +<p><i>Two days</i> after this animated declaration, I took up the same +journal and read a long laboured dissertation on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[222]</span> innumerable +advantages the Republic would obtain by conferring the Consulate for +life “on the genius of victory and peace.” I became extremely desirous +of another interview with the intrepid Republican. But he never came +near us for several days. At length we met him at a dinner party, +consisting of twenty persons. He betrayed on seeing me some confusion +and sheepishness. I shook him heartily by the right hand, whispering in +his ear, “I am happy to find you have not burnt it.” I was sorry I gave +way to this not ill-natured jest, for a visible dejection overspread +his features, and he remained depressed and dispirited during the whole +time he was in my company that evening.</p> + +<p><i>Le Chef du Cabinet</i>, the best printed of the Parisian journals, +is compiled with care, and gives in general a fairly faithful account +of continental news.</p> + +<p>One of the principal writers in this paper and in <i>Le Publiciste</i> +is Garot, member of the Senate, and also of the National Institute. +Before the Revolution he was what the French call <i>homme des +lettres</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, a poor lawyer without practice. In England, +our men of letters, successful or otherwise, are almost invariably men +of a classical education and cultivated talents. But in France, a mere +smattering of Greek and Latin, learnt principally through the medium of +translations, constitute their principal studies.</p> + +<p>He began his career with writing paragraphs for the <i>Mercure</i>. He +was next a member of the Constitutional Assembly, in which his talents +were considered in so contemptible a light that he was never noticed.</p> + +<p>But in later years he attributed his silence in that Assembly to his +philosophy. He then became editor of the <i>Journal de Paris</i>. +Here he seems to have been most liberally paid, as out of six months’ +savings, he managed to find 32,000 livres (£1280 sterling), with which +he purchased a house and garden.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">JOSEPH LA VALLÉE</div> + +<p>In April 1792, he arrived in England, in the suite of the French +Embassy. After the memorable 10th of August in the same year, he having +returned to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[223]</span> France, was made by the Convention <i>Editeur de la +Gazette Nationale</i>.</p> + +<p>Less than two months later, on October 9, he was appointed Minister of +Justice. Here was a leap!</p> + +<p>During his short ministry, he truckled to every faction, and courted +the goodwill of every demagogue. He was nevertheless pronounced an +imbecile, deposed, arrested for a day, and released. He next composed a +book, in which he compared himself to Sully, Turgot, and our Lord Jesus +Christ. He was appointed Commissary of Public Instruction, but shortly +afterwards cashiered. Then sent as French Ambassador to the Court of +Naples, in order to pave the way for the irruption of a Republican army.</p> + +<p>Recalled and nominated a member of the Council of the Ancients, +dismissed by Bonaparte—he retired into a corner, and quitted his +obscurity for a seat among the Mutes. He then became the apologist of +Bonaparte, as he had before been of Robespierre and Danton—gets a +pension of £3000 sterling per annum of the public spoils, and finally +becomes a member of the National Institute. He, now, in a work of his +lately published, calls Robespierre <i>un monstre, un fou, scélérat, +étranger à une bonne logique, having a soul filled with suspicion, +terror, vanity and vengeance</i>. His elocution, he pronounces to have +been <i>senseless babbling, eternal and tiresome repetition of the same +sentiments for the rights of man, the sovereignty of the people on +principles of which he incessantly harangued without ever propounding a +new or correct idea</i>.</p> + +<p>The following epistle was found among the papers of Robespierre after +his execution; it was a letter, written by this very Garot to the man +whom he afterwards described as given above.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="r2"><i>October 30, 1793.</i></p> + +<p>“I have read your report on foreign powers, and the extracts of +your last speech, delivered to the Jacobins: as I have not at +this time an opportunity of making my sentiments known to the +public, I hasten to acquaint<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[224]</span> you yourself with the impressions +they have made on me.</p> + +<p>“The report is a <i>magnificent</i> piece of policy, Republican +morality, style and eloquence. It is with such <i>profound</i> +and exalted sentiments of virtue, and I will add with such +<i>language</i>, that the nation one represents is honoured in +the eyes of all mankind. The style of the report on foreign +Powers is throughout dignified, pointed and elegant, and rises +to the tone of the highest order of eloquence by the grandeur of +its sentiments and its ideas.</p> + +<p>“Your speech to Louvet, your speech on the trial of Louis Capet, +are in my opinion the most exquisite pieces which have appeared +during the whole Revolution. They will be studied in the schools +of the Republic as models of classic eloquence, and they will +be transcribed upon the pages of history as the most powerful +causes that have operated on the destiny of France.”</p> +</div> + +<p><i>Le Citoyen Français</i> is the most independent paper in Paris. +Before the usurpation of Bonaparte, Thomas Paine frequently furnished +it with articles, but since that event he has withdrawn his assistance.</p> + +<p><i>Le Journal de Commerce</i> is under the direction of Monsieur +Penchet, member of the Commercial Council and the Board of Commerce. He +is a respectable man, possessed of enlightened views and scientific and +practical knowledge.</p> + +<p>The <i>Publiciste</i>, the <i>Gazette de France</i>, <i>Journal des +Débats</i> are the remaining newspapers, worthy of notice. It is +refreshing to the national pride of an Englishman to contrast the +wretched state of the craven French Press with the free and vigorous +reasoning which appears in the London journals; I become hourly more +enamoured of my country and more disgusted with the Republic.</p> + +<p>Louis XIV. during the whole of his reign never degraded the Press of +his country as it is now degraded. But with respect to other branches +of literature, the French still shine with uncommon brilliancy, and as +no man is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[225]</span> more ready than myself to do them justice, when they deserve +it, I will describe some of those publications in my next letter.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XL<br> +<span class="subhed">PHILOSOPHICAL, LITERARY AND OTHER PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS</span></h2></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">MAGAZINES AND OTHER PERIODICALS</div> + +<p>During the Old Monarchy, France made great advances in practical +philosophy, but scientific knowledge was still confined within very +circumscribed limits. The Revolution has enabled scientific and +literary men to diffuse their acquirements over the surface of the +Republic. A short review of the leading periodicals of the day will +demonstrate their respective objects.</p> + +<p>The first of those periodicals, in point of respectability and talent, +is the <i>Journal de Physique</i>, edited and conducted by one of +the ablest and most virtuous men in France, Dr. de la Metherie. I +have already mentioned he had been imprisoned during those days of +persecution, when it was the fashion to oppress every man of worth +and talents. But to this hour no ground has ever been given for +his arrestation. He is now Professor of Mineralogy in the College +de France, and receives for this £100 per annum. As editor of the +<i>Journal de Physique</i> he receives £200 a year, and this is the +whole emolument his literary labours bring him.</p> + +<p>The <i>Annales de Chimie</i> is a publication which merits attention, +and I believe every eminent chemist in France contributes to its +contents and reputation.</p> + +<p><i>Annales de l’Agriculture Française</i> is published by Tessier, and +is now advanced as far as the twelfth volume. It is one of the best and +most valuable publications extant in the Republic, and has afforded +great encouragement and information to the cultivator. Although Tessier +is the editor of the work, Monsieur Hugard is the principal manager. +He is an honest, indefatigable and learned man.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[226]</span> He was brought up as +a practising farrier in his father’s shop, to which circumstance he is +indebted for the beginning of his knowledge (now that of an expert) +upon the diseases and treatment of horses and other cattle.</p> + +<p>He has a sound and vigorous intellect, looks as plump and jolly as John +Bull, and possesses all the good nature of that character.</p> + +<p><i>Annales Statistiques</i> is likely to prove one of the most valuable +productions of France. It is extremely well printed on good paper, and +a number appears every month.</p> + +<p><i>Bibliothèque Commerciale</i> is a new work determined to diffuse +information upon subjects of commerce and navigation.</p> + +<p><i>Annales des Arts et Manufactures.</i> This is a periodical +publication, accompanied by a number of engravings.</p> + +<p>The editor is one O’Reilly, an Irishman, once a pronounced and violent +Jacobin.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CITIZEN O’REILLY</div> + +<p>As citizen O’Reilly, in the year 1792, he succeeded in expelling +two Englishmen from White’s in the Rue des Petits Pères, because +they opposed the maniac Irish propositions of Citizen Lord Edward +Fitzgerald and the two unhappy Sheares, all of whom met a tragic fate +in Ireland.<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> O’Reilly, however, remained in France and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[227]</span> thereby +saved himself from the fate which his deserts fully entitled him. +The Colonel Commandant of Tyrone in Ireland during the rebellion, +informed me that Citizen O’Reilly had been hanged. I was therefore not +a little astonished one day in Paris, when about to sit down to dinner +at a party to which I had been invited, to see my old friend enter +the room, quite <i>debonnair</i> and dressed or rather masked <i>à +la française</i>. In this land of magic I had been so accustomed to +see supposed dead men once more in the flesh, that I eyed this ghost +for a considerable time before addressing him, but he hearing my name +mentioned, at once exclaimed: God bless me! is it you, Mr. Yorke? do +you not recollect me? “Upon my word, sir, yes; you are so much like a +gentleman of my acquaintance who had the misfortune to be hanged four +years since in Ireland, that I could swear you were the very man.” +After some explanation, I found he had escaped the hands of Jack Ketch, +and is now, as he expressed it, “a French citizen and no subject of the +King of England.” He seemed desirous of taking every opportunity to +affront the English and asperse our Government.</p> + +<p>This man would not have occupied so much of my space did I not know +him to be one of the rankest conspirators against our country. He ran +away from England on account of the debts which he had incurred as +one of the proprietors or managers of the Opera House, and set up in +Paris as a <i>persecuted Irish patriot</i>. From the year 1792 to the +present hour he has been ceaselessly engaged in plots against England, +and his hatred increases daily against our country to whose genial +soil he knows he can never return. He has fought against<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[228]</span> England in +the French armies, and glories in the fact. He is a favourite with +Bonaparte in consequence of his suggesting a new plan of gun vessels +for transporting an invading army to our shores. He is an ardent and +active member of the Irish Club in Paris, and avows his heart and soul +are bound up in the hope and desire of emancipating Ireland. After he +left the army he returned to Paris and commenced the periodical work +I have already mentioned. It is in high esteem, and its sale must be +great or his means of subsistence amply supplied by the Government, for +he has a press of his own, lives in style and keeps his girl.</p> + +<p><i>Bibliothèque Britannique</i>, printed at Geneva, has a great sale in +Paris. It is edited by Messrs. Picter and Mourin, and contains a digest +of the most valuable philosophical treatise in our language.</p> + +<p><i>Mazarin Encyclopædie ou Journal des Sciences, Lettres et Arts</i>, +edited by A. L. Millier, keeper of the antiques and medals in the +National Library, is considered one of the most valuable periodical +journals in France.</p> + +<p><i>La Decade Philosophique, Littéraire et Politique</i>, appears three +times every month, and has the greatest circulation of any other +periodical work in France. But this is no evidence of its superiority. +It is a farrago of modern philosophical trash and impiety. It is a +critical review, a poetical repository, a novelists’ magazine, a +political register, a literary advertiser, a theoretical reporter, a +herald of folly, a base and servile declaimer in favour of the ruling +power, and a recorder of obscenity and atheism.</p> + +<p>Ginguené,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> member of the National Institute and the Senate, is the +avowed editor of this political decade. This person, before the era +of the Republic, was employed as a secretary by Madame Necker. Being +patronised by Marmontel, he soon became a man of consequence. He +next became the tool of Mirabeau, then the spaniel of Danton. Then a +first-rate Jacobin, a hireling of the Directoire, and now a humble +servant of the First Consul.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[229]</span> Such a career deserved a rich reward in +such a Republic as this of France.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">TOM PAINE</div> + +<p>He was accordingly preferred to the post of Director of Public +Instruction, but he solicited a more brilliant destiny, and was +accordingly turned into an ambassador and sent to Turin to assist +General Bruno in preparing the dethronement and exile of the +Piedmontese sovereign. On his return to Paris he has been temporarily +gratified by a membership in the Conservative Senate, and the +editorship of this periodical, a lucrative situation.</p> + +<p>I could mention many more interesting literary works and periodicals +of the highest literary interest, but I have commemorated enough works +of uncommon merit, edited and produced most of them by men of great +ability and furnished with means and opportunities of increasing the +knowledge they already possess. It is but a tribute of justice which +every man owes to superior genius to declare that in point of real +science, experimental philosophy and literary merit, “France is without +a rival.”</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XLI<br> +<span class="subhed">THOMAS PAINE. JACK BARLOW. THE ABBÉ COSTI. DR. SUDAEUR</span></h2></div> + + +<p>The name of Tom Paine is familiar to every Englishman. Had I not been +previously acquainted with him I should have contrived an interview +with him during my stay in Paris. Nearly ten years had elapsed since +we were last together, and I felt deeply interested in learning his +opinions concerning the French Revolution, after all the experiences, +so long a period of storms and convulsion, must have afforded him.</p> + +<p>It was not without considerable difficulty that I discovered his +residence, for the name of Thomas Paine is now odious in France, far +more so than in England. A bookseller’s shop in the Palais Royal +appeared a likely<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[230]</span> place for inquiries, but I had no sooner mentioned +his name than the bookseller, his wife and a bystander fell upon me, +in the most unmerciful manner, calling Paine “<i>Scélérat, bandit, +coquin!</i>” and ascribing to him the resistance Leclerc had received +from the negroes of St. Domingo, of which repulse to French arms they +had just received intelligence, so that I found it necessary to decamp +as soon as possible.</p> + +<p>Being at a loss how to proceed, I determined to inquire at the hotel +of the American Minister, where I was informed that Paine lived at a +bookseller’s in the Rue du Théâtre Français, an American bookseller, +who inhabited No. 2. I immediately repaired to the house, and after +mounting to the second storey, was shown into a little dirty room, +containing a small wooden table and two chairs. “This,” said the +portress, who had guided me upstairs, “is Mr. Paine’s room; he is +taking a nap, but will be here presently.” I never saw such a filthy +apartment in the whole course of my life. The chimney hearth was a +heap of dirt. There was not a speck of cleanliness anywhere. Three +shelves were filled with paste-board boxes, each labelled after the +manner of a Minister of Foreign Affairs: “Correspondance Américaine, +Ditto Britannique—idem Française. Notices politiques. Le Citoyen +Français,” &c. In one corner of the room stood several huge bars of +iron, curiously shaped, and two large trunks; opposite the fireplace a +board covered with pamphlets and journals, having more the appearance +of a dresser in a scullery than a sideboard. Such was the wretched +habitation where I found Thomas Paine, one of the founders of the +American Independence, whose extraordinary genius must ever command +attention, and whose writings have summoned to action the minds of the +most enlightened politicians of Europe! How different the dwelling +of the apostle of Freedom from the gorgeous mansions tenanted by the +apostles of the French Republic!</p> + +<p>After I had waited for a short time, Mr. Paine came downstairs, dressed +in a long flannel gown.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[231]</span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">INTERVIEW WITH PAINE</div> + +<p>I was shocked by his altered appearance. Time seemed to have made +dreadful ravages over his frame, and a settled melancholy was visible +over his countenance. He pressed me by the hand, his countenance +brightened as he recollected me, and a tear stole down his cheek. Nor +was I less affected than himself. “Thus we are met once more, Mr. +Paine, after a separation of ten years, and after we have both been +severely weather-beaten.”</p> + +<p>“Aye,” he replied, “and who would have thought that we should meet in +Paris,” he continued, with a smile of contempt; “they have shed blood +enough for liberty, and now they have liberty in perfection, no honest +man should live in this country, they do not and cannot understand the +principles of free government. They have conquered half Europe only to +make it more miserable than before.”</p> + +<p>I replied that I thought much might yet be done for the Republic. +“Republic!” he exclaimed, “this is no Republic! I know of no Republic +but that of America, and that is the only place for men like you and I. +It is my intention to return as soon as possible. You are a young man, +and may see better times. For myself I renounce all European politics.”</p> + +<p>I enumerated my objections, concluding with the want of society and the +apprehension I had of contracting yellow fever. These objections he +met by declaring there was as good and even <i>better</i> society in +America than in Europe; and as to the yellow fever, proper precautions +would cause it wholly to disappear. In the course of our long +conversation about America he put into my hands a letter written to him +by Mr. Jefferson, the President of the United States.</p> + +<p>It was dictated with the freedom of an old friend. Mr. Jefferson began +by congratulating Mr. Paine upon his determination to settle finally +in the New World, for he says he will find on his return a favourable +change in the political opinions of the citizens, who are happily +come back to those enlightened principles which he, Mr. Paine, had +so usefully contributed to spread over the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[232]</span> world. As Mr. Paine had +expressed a desire to return in a <i>public manner</i>, he states that +the sloop of war which brought the Minister Livingston from France +would return at a given time and convey him to America if he could make +it <i>convenient</i> to take advantage of the occasion. The rest of +the letter is couched in terms of the warmest friendship, assuring Mr. +Paine of a hearty reception.</p> + +<p>When I had perused this letter he observed that only four persons now +survived who had acted in concert during the American Revolution, +John Adams,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Jefferson,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> + Livingston<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and himself. He continued +laughingly: “It would be a curious circumstance if I were sent as +Secretary of Legation to the British Court, which outlawed me. What a +hubbub it would create at the King’s levée to see Tom Paine presented +by the American ambassador! All the bishops and great ladies would +faint away; the women supposing I came to rob and ravish them, the +bishops to rob and ravish their titles. I think it would be a good +joke!”</p> + +<p>But he finally added that this was not a probable event to occur at +his time of life, but that he should dispose of his American property, +live on the interest, and amuse himself by writing memoirs of his life +and correspondence, two volumes of which he had already completed. The +estate he possesses in America is valuable, he estimates it at about +£7000.</p> + +<p>I inquired how he had passed his life since we parted. He gave a long +account of his occupations since he was sent to prison. During our +invasion of Holland he went to Brussels, where he passed a few days +with General Bruno, with a view, he declared, of accompanying him to +Holland, “to see the last of John Bull.” But he said that in France and +in the French army there was but one opinion concerning that event, +<i>i.e.</i>, the final certain success of the English.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PAINE AND LADY S.</div> + +<p>When he was in prison he wrote “The Age of Reason,” and amused himself +by carrying on a correspondence with Lady S——, under the assumed name +of “The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[233]</span> Castle in the Air.” To this her ladyship answered under the +title of “The Little Corner of the World.” This correspondence still +continues.</p> + +<p>He showed me some of it, which, notwithstanding the dreadful places in +which it was composed, is beautiful and interesting. He is the author +of that beautiful song on the death of General Wolfe, which a few years +ago was in every one’s mouth. The following extract from one of his +manuscript essays affords a competent idea of his manner in treating +subjects less solemn and invidious than politics.</p> + + +<p class="center sm p1">TO FORGETFULNESS.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>From the “Castle in the Air,” to the “Little Corner of the +World.”</i></p> + + +<p>Memory like a beauty that is always present to hear herself flattered, +is flattered by every one. But the silent goddess Forgetfulness has no +votaries, yet we owe her much. She is the goddess of ease, though not +of pleasure.</p> + +<p>When the mind is like a room hung with black, and every corner of it is +crowded with the most horrid images Imagination can create, this kind +speechless goddess Forgetfulness is following us night and day with +her opium wand and gently touching first one and then another, benumbs +them into rest, and at last glides away with the silence of a departing +shadow.</p> + +<p>How dismal must the picture of life appear to that soul which resolves +on darkness and to die! Yet how many of the young and beautiful, timid +in everything else, have shut their eyes upon the world and made the +waters their sepulchral bed! Ah! if at that crisis they had thought +or tried to think that Forgetfulness would eventually come to their +relief, they would lay hold on life.</p> + +<p>All grief, like all things else, will yield to the obliterating power +of time, while Despair is preying on the mind, Time is preying upon +Despair and Forgetfulness will change the scene.</p> + +<p>I have twice been present at a scene of attempted suicide. The one +a love-distracted girl in England; the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[234]</span> other a patriotic friend in +France. I will relate these circumstances to you. They will in some +measure corroborate my assertion upon Forgetfulness.</p> + +<p>About the year 1766 I was in Lincolnshire on a visit to a widow lady, +Mrs. E. It was summer and after supper one evening Mrs. E. and I went +to take a turn in the garden. It was about eleven o’clock, to avoid +the night air of the Fens, we were walking in a bower shaded by hazel +bushes. On a sudden she screamed and pointed to a white shapeless +figure without head or arms, moving along one of the walks at some +distance away. I quitted my companion and went after it. When I got up +into the walk where the figure was, it took a cross walk. There was a +holly bush on the corner of the two walks, which, being night, I did +not observe, and as I continued to step forward the holly bush came in +a straight line between me and the figure, which thus appeared to have +vanished. But when I had passed the bush I caught sight of the figure +again, and coming up to it put out my hand to touch it. My hand rested +on the shoulder of a human figure. I spoke, it answered “Pray let me +alone.” I then recognised a young lady on a visit to Mrs. E., who that +evening, on the plea of indisposition, had not joined us at supper. I +said, “My God! I hope you are not going to do yourself some hurt!” She +replied, with pathetic melancholy, “Life has not one pleasure left for +me.” I got her into the house, and Mrs. E. took her to sleep in her +room.</p> + +<p>The case was, the man who had promised to marry her had forsaken her, +and was about to be married to another. The shock and sorrow appeared +to her too great to be borne. She had retired to her room, and when, as +she supposed, all the family had gone to bed, she undressed herself, +tied her apron over her head—which, descending below her waist, gave +her a shapeless figure—and was going to drown herself in a pond at the +bottom of the garden, when I arrested her progress.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PAINE’S FORGETFULNESS</div> + +<p>By gentle usage, and leading her into subjects that might distract her +mind and occupy her thoughts, we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[235]</span> gradually stole her from the horror +and misery she was in. In the course of a few months she recovered her +former cheerfulness, and was afterwards a happy wife and mother of a +family.</p> + +<p>The other case is as follows:<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> In Paris, in 1793, I had lodgings in +the Rue Faubourg St. Denis, No. 63; they were agreeable, except for +the fact that they were too remote from the Convention, of which I was +a member. But this was recompensed by the lodging being also remote +from the alarms and confusion into which the interior of Paris was so +often thrown at this time. The house, which was enclosed by a wall and +gateway from the street, was a good deal like an old mansion farmhouse, +and the courtyard was stocked like a farmyard, with fowls, turkeys and +geese, which for amusement we used to feed out of the window of the +parlour on the ground floor. There were some hutches for rabbits, and +a stye or two for pigs. Beyond was a garden of two acres, well laid +out and stocked with excellent fruit-trees. The orange, the apple, +the greengage and the plum were the best I ever tasted. The place had +formerly been occupied by some curious person.</p> + +<p>My apartments consisted of three rooms. The first for wood, water, &c., +with an old-fashioned chest high enough to hang up clothes in. The +next was the bedroom, and beyond the sitting-room. At the end of the +sitting-room was a glass door leading to a flight of narrow stairs, by +which I could descend privately into the garden.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>I went into my chamber to write and sign a certificate for them, which +I intended to take into the guard-house to obtain their release. Just +as I had finished it, a man came into my room dressed in the uniform of +a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[236]</span> captain, spoke to me in good English and with a good address.</p> + +<p>He told me that two young Englishmen were arrested and detained at the +guard-house, and that “<i>the section</i>” had sent him to ask me if +I knew them and would answer for them, and in that case they would be +liberated.</p> + +<p>This matter being soon settled between us, he talked to me about the +“Rights of Man,” which he had read in English, and finally took his +leave in the politest and most friendly manner, <i>saying he was always +at my service</i>.</p> + +<p>This man, who so civilly offered me <i>his service</i>, turned out to +be Samson, the public executioner, who guillotined the King and all the +political victims of the Revolution.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>As for me, I used to find some relief by walking alone in the garden +after it was dark, and cursing with hearty good will the authors +of that terrible system which had so altered the character of that +Revolution I had been so proud to defend.<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>I went but little to the Convention, and then only to show an +appearance, because I found it <i>impossible to join in their +tremendous decrees, and useless and dangerous to oppose them</i>. My +having voted, as well as extensively spoken (more so than any member) +against the execution of the King, had already fixed a mark upon me; +neither dared any of my associates in the Convention translate and +speak in French for me, as they formerly did when I wished to make my +views publicly known.<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Pen and ink was then of no use to me. No good could be done by writing +what no printer dared to print; and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[237]</span> whatever I might have written +for my private amusement as anecdotes of the times would have been +continually exposed to be examined and tortured into any meaning the +rage of party might fix upon it. And my heart was in distress at the +fate of my friends, and my harp strung upon the weeping willows.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PAINE’S FORGETFULNESS</div> + +<p>It was summer; we therefore spent most of our time in the garden, and +passed it away in childish amusements, such as marbles, scotch hop, +battledore, &c., so as to try and keep reflection from our minds.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>In this retired manner we remained about six or seven weeks. Our +landlord went every evening into the city to bring us the news of the +day and the <i>Evening journal</i>.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>He recovered, and being anxious to get out of France, a passport was +obtained for him and his friend, chiefly, I believe, by the means of +the huissier Rose, and secretly by the influence of some of the members +of the Committee.<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> They received their passport late in the evening, +but set off that same night in a post-chaise to Basle, which place they +reached in safety. The very morning after their departure I heard a +rapping at the gate, and looking out of the window I beheld entering +the courtyard a guard with muskets and fixed bayonets. It was a guard +to take up the fugitives, but they were already, happily, out of their +reach.<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>The same guard returned a month later and took the Landlord Geit and +myself to prison!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[238]</span></p> + +<p>I have often been in company with Mr. Paine since my arrival in +Paris. I was surprised to find him quite indifferent about the public +spirit in England or the influence of his doctrines upon his fellow +countrymen. Indeed he disliked the mention of the subject, and when +one day I casually remarked that I had altered my opinions upon my +principles, he said:</p> + +<p>“You certainly have the right to do so, but you cannot alter the nature +of things; the French have alarmed all honest men, but still truth +is truth. My principles are possibly almost impracticable and might +cause in their carrying out much misery and confusion, but they are +<i>just</i>.” Here he spoke with the greatest severity of Mr. ——, +who had obtained a seat in Parliament, and said: “parsons were always +mischievous fellows.” I then hinted to him that his publication of the +“Age of Reason” had lost him the good opinion of many Englishmen. He +became uncommonly warm at this remark, and said he only published it +“to inspire mankind with a higher idea of the Supreme Architect of the +Universe, and to put an end to villainous imposture.”</p> + +<p>He then broke out into violent invectives against Christianity, +declaring at the same time his intense reverence for the Omnipotent +Supreme Being. He avowed himself ready to lay down his life in support +of his opinions and said “The Bishop of Llandaff may roast me in +Smithfield if he likes, but human torture cannot shake my opinions.”</p> + +<p>I assured him that the Bishop of Llandaff was a man of too enlightened, +tolerant and humane a disposition to wish to roast any man for +differing with him in opinions, and that his celebrated apology +breathes tolerance in every page.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">RETENTIVE MEMORY OF PAINE</div> + +<p>“Aye, it is an apology indeed, for priestcraft. Parsons will meddle +and make mischief, they thus hurt their own cause, but I have a rod in +pickle for Mr. Bishop.” Here he reached down a copy of the Bishop’s +work, interleaved with remarks upon it, which he read to me. It seems +as if in proportion to his present listlessness in politics, his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[239]</span> zeal +in his religious or anti-religious opinions increases; of this the +following anecdote is an instance.</p> + +<p>An English lady of our acquaintance, as remarkable for her talents as +her charm of person and manners, entreated me to arrange a meeting +for her with Mr. Paine. As this lady is a very rigid Roman Catholic I +cautioned Mr. Paine beforehand to be very discreet in touching upon +religious subjects, and with much good nature he promised to be so. For +about four hours he kept every one of the company on this occasion in +astonishment and admiration of his memory, of his keen observation of +men and women, his numberless anecdotes of the American Indians, of the +American War, of Franklin, Washington and even of his Majesty the King, +of whom he told several curious anecdotes of humour and benevolence. +His remarks on genius and taste can never be forgotten by those present.</p> + +<p>So far all went excellently well, and the sparkling champagne gave a +zest to his conversation, and we were all delighted. But, alas! alas! +one of the company happened to allude to his “Age of Reason,” he +then broke out immediately. He began with astronomy, and addressing +himself to Mrs. Y——, the lady in question, he declared that the +least inspection of the motion of the stars proved Moses to be a liar. +Nothing would then stop him. In vain I attempted to change the subject +by every artifice in my power. He returned to the charge with unabated +ardour.</p> + +<p>The ladies gradually stole unobserved from the room, and left three +other gentlemen and myself to contest or rather leave him master of the +field of battle.</p> + +<p>I felt extremely mortified, and reminded him of his promise.</p> + +<p>“Oh!” says he, “what a pity people should be so prejudiced!” One of the +most extraordinary properties belonging to Mr. Paine is the power of +retaining everything he has written during his life. He can repeat word +for word every sentence in his “Common Sense”—“Rights of Man”—“Age +of Reason” and others. This I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[240]</span> attribute first to the unparalleled +slowness with which he composes every passage he writes, and secondly +to his dislike of reading other books than his own. Wonderful and +productive as his mechanical genius is, he assured me he never has read +anything on this subject. This he told me when showing me one day the +beautiful models of two bridges he had devised. These models exhibit an +extraordinary degree of skill and taste. They are wrought with extreme +delicacy, entirely by his own hands. The longest is nearly four feet +long, the iron work, the chains and every other article belonging to +it were forged and manufactured by himself. It is intended to be a +model for a bridge to span the Delaware extending 480 feet, with a +single arch. The other is to be erected over a lesser river (whose name +indeed I have forgotten), and is likewise a single arch of his own +workmanship, excepting the chains, which instead of iron are cut out +of paste-board, by the fair hands of his correspondent, “Little Corner +of the World.” He was offered £3000 sterling for those models, but has +refused it. He intends to dispose of them to the American Government. +The iron bars, I noticed in the corner of his room, are also forged +by himself, and as the model of a new description of crane. He put +them together and exhibited to me the power of a lever in a surprising +degree.</p> + +<p>It would require the leisure and the memory of James Boswell himself +to relate in detail the conversations I had while in Paris with Thomas +Paine, or the opinions and anecdotes he recounted. I shall therefore +only conclude this account of him with a few words, respecting his +acquaintance with Bonaparte.</p> + +<p>When the hero of Italy had returned to Paris, in order to take the +command of that “<i>Army of England</i>” (whose left wing he afterwards +conducted to the burning sands of Egypt instead of the Valley of +Thames) he called on Mr. Paine and invited him to dinner.</p> + +<p>In the course of his rapturous ecstasies, he declared that a statue of +gold ought to be erected to him <i>in every city in the universe</i>; +he also assured Paine that he (Bonaparte)<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[241]</span> always slept with a copy of +the “Rights of Man” under his pillow, and conjured him to honour him +with his counsel and advice.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">BONAPARTE AND PAINE</div> + +<p>When the Military Council of Paris, who then directed the movements +of Bonaparte, came to a serious consultation about the invasion of +England, Mr. Paine was at the sitting by special invitation. After they +had ransacked all the plans, charts and projects of the Monarchical +Government, Bonaparte submitted to them that they should hear what +Citizen Paine had to say on the matter. They were, however, already +all of opinion that the measure was impracticable and dangerous in +idea, much more in attempt. General d’Arcor, a celebrated engineer +(who directed the siege of Gibraltar during the American War), was +one of this Council. He laughed at the project, and said there was +no Prince Charlie nowadays, and that they might as well attempt to +invade the moon as England, considering her superior fleet at sea. +“Ah! but,” exclaimed Bonaparte, “there will be a fog.” “Yes,” replied +d’Arcor, “but there will be an English fleet in that fog.” “Cannot we +pass?” said Bonaparte. “Doubtless,” answered the other, “if you dive +below twenty fathoms of water.” Then, looking steadfastly at the hero, +“General,” he continued, “the earth is ours, but <i>not</i> the sea; we +must recruit our fleets before we can hope to make any impression on +England, and even then the enterprise would be fraught with perdition, +unless we could raise a diversion among the people.”</p> + +<p>Then Bonaparte rose and said with dignity and emphasis: “That is the +very point I mean—here is Citizen Paine, who will tell you that the +whole English nation, except the Royal Family and the Hanoverians, who +have been created Peers of the Realm and absorb the landed property, +are ardently burning for fraternisation.”</p> + +<p>Paine being called upon said: “It is now many years since I have been +in England, and therefore I can judge of it by what I knew when I was +there. I think the people are very disaffected, but I am sorry to add +that if the expedition should escape the fleet, I think the army<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[242]</span> would +be cut to pieces. The only way to kill England is to annihilate her +commerce.” This opinion was backed by all the Council, and Bonaparte, +turning to Paine, asked him how long it would take to annihilate +British commerce? Paine answered that everything depended on a Peace. +From that hour Bonaparte has never spoken to him again, and when he +returned from finishing his adventures in Egypt, he passed by him at a +grand dinner given to the Generals of the Republic a short time before +his usurpation, staring him in the face and then remarking in a loud +voice to General Lasnes, “The English are all alike, in every country +they are rascals” (<i>canailles</i>).</p> + +<p>Mr. Paine thinks the Directorate determined upon the Egyptian +expedition in consequence of the rejection of the project to invade +England by the Council. The popularity of Bonaparte was so excessive +and his inflammatory and determined character so great that they +were glad to get rid of him in any way they could. Paine detests and +despises Bonaparte, and declares he is the completest charlatan that +ever existed.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">JOEL BARLOW</div> + +<p>Mr. Joel Barlow lives at No. 50, Rue Vaugirard, one of the finest +houses in Paris. As he was not at home when I first called, I inquired +of the servant if any one lived there besides Mr. Barlow, and was +answered that it was his own house and he had purchased it (it was +confiscated property and sold much below its value). The next day Mr. +Barlow called on me and invited us to visit him, when he received us +with great cordiality and showed us over his magnificent hotel. It +was however, wholly destitute of furniture, excepting four rooms, +occupied by himself and his family. He explained he had bought the +house some years previously, purely as a speculation, with the idea +that at the return of Peace he might sell it to some English ambassador +or nobleman, who should choose to reside in Paris, when he hoped to +get £6000 sterling instead of the 6000 livres Français he originally +gave for it. It certainly would suit an ambassador in point of +accommodation, and its situation is desirable. The lawn at the back, +consisting of two acres of pleasure<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[243]</span> ground, bordered by a shrubbery, +is bordered by fruit trees, but it is far from the centre of the city, +and I doubt he will get the price he asks, notwithstanding the influx +of strangers. He informed me that the instant he had disposed of this +property he intended to return to America with Mrs. Barlow. Of the +Republic and its rulers he entertains a profound contempt. Respecting +the English Government and its rulers, he said very little, but that +little was in their favour. He confessed his utter astonishment at the +exertions we had made during the War, and avowed that he had entirely +mistaken the financial resources and patriotic spirit of Great Britain.</p> + +<p>“I have been calculating,” he said, “year by year the downfall of +the Government, and could not conceive it possible you could stand +up another year. Whenever I took up a paper and saw the Committee of +Ways and Means and read of your subsidies, I looked for a national +bankruptcy in the course of the ensuing twelve months. But when Mr. +Pitt came forward with the Income Tax, all the wise heads of this +metropolis (Paris) gave you over as lost, and I pronounced you saved. +When I saw the nation cheerfully submit to it, I was convinced you +might carry on the war for fifty years.” He spoke of Mr. Pitt in terms +which surprised me, and declared he believed in his conscience, if he +had dared to execute to the full extent of what he thought, he would +have succeeded in changing the face of Europe. “At all events,” said +he, “it cannot be denied that he has the merit of having saved the old +fabric (meaning the Constitution), if it be worth saving.”</p> + +<p>On my asking what he thought of the Peace and our present situation, +he said that he saw nothing censurable in it, but had cut out plenty +of work for the French which he was sure they would never finish. +“If they do, woe betide you!” I asked for an explanation, and he +replied, “If the French Government are intent on Peace they will +set themselves seriously to work on their colonies; and such is the +activity of the French that they will soon repair their losses, create +a vast commerce,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[244]</span> which their local possessions and influences will +facilitate, and they will end with a powerful navy.” On my noticing +that they had already excluded our commerce, he answered: “That will +just give you an idea what a set of fools they are. This false step +at the first start is a convincing proof they don’t know how to go to +work. The prohibition of your manufactories has created an avidity +for them. They should have opened a <i>free trade</i> with you and +gradually cozened away your industry and mechanics. But this Government +is in such a confounded hurry that instead of sticking to any given +point, it attempts five hundred different projects and only succeeds in +one, enslaving the people!”</p> + +<p>He thought the Peace might be permanent if any change took place in +the Government; but with Bonaparte at its head he was convinced it +could not be of long duration. For the First Consul is essentially +the creature of the army, and hungry generals and soldiers are hourly +importuning him. Unless he could find them employment they would employ +him.</p> + +<p>I asked if he thought Bonaparte secure. He replied: “Not more so than +any of his predecessors; they are satisfied and grateful because he +does not use the guillotine, but we have not yet got to the end of the +third act of the Revolution. It is impossible to tell, but my guess is +it will end either in the complete subjugation of Europe or in a bloody +civil war between rival Generals, Republicans, Jacobins and Royalists, +and bring back out of its confusion a Royal establishment.”</p> + +<p>The Abbé Costi is a phenomenon; he is eighty-four years of age, and +as frolicsome as a boy of eighteen. His reputation as the first poet +of Italy has long been established, and it is certain he would be now +Laureate to the First Consul had it not been for his enthusiastic +admiration for the principle of true liberty. We have frequently been +in his company, and have always found him in the same lively humour, +but it is rather unpleasant to hear him speak, as he has lost the +roof of his mouth. He is endeavouring to procure a subscription for a +splendid<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[245]</span> edition of his works, and proposes visiting England for that +purpose.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DR. SUEDAEUR</div> + +<p>Dr. Suedaeur intended to have gone to Naples and established himself +there as a physician, but the sbirri of the Committee of Public Safety +arrested him as he was leaving France on foot and in disguise. They +gave him his choice—to go to prison and appear a day or two later +before the Revolutionary Tribunal, or to be a Director of a public +establishment in which some chemical operations were being carried out +for the use of the armies. The doctor naturally accepted the latter. +As soon as he had taken up his position in his new residence an order +came that he was <i>never</i> to go out of the house on pain of being +instantly sent to prison. This was a cruel joke, as the doctor was of +course virtually a close prisoner during the eighteen months he was +superintending this factory. At length he was allowed to breathe the +fresh air, attended by a guard, and to visit certain patients; but +the guard attended him even into the chambers of the sick, even under +circumstances of peculiar delicacy. Upon his presenting a remonstrance +against this indecorum, he was sent straight to prison, with a promise +that he should be tried with the next batch of prisoners for conspiring +against the unity and indivisibility of the Republic. After keeping +him in jail for some time, he was taken out of his bed at midnight, +put into a hackney coach and brought back to his lodging in the +Governmental establishment. The next morning, just as he was putting +things there a little in order, he was again arrested and carried +before the Committee of General Vigilance, of which the painter David +was a present member, who, giving him one of his snarling tiger grins, +asked him how he dared as a foreigner have his name inscribed at his +Section. While the doctor was endeavouring to explain, David accused +him of being an agent of Pitt, and he was remanded to prison. Two days +later a guard took him once more to the Committee of Public Safety, who +told him there had been a mistake in his affair.</p> + +<p>It was a lucky thing the mistake was discovered, as on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[246]</span> that very +morning all his fellow-prisoners were tried and found guilty of +conspiring against the Republic and summarily executed.</p> + +<p>He was once again remanded to his Directorship and forbidden to leave +his lodgings.</p> + +<p>At last an end came to those days of blood and peril, and the doctor +was liberated, after being duly ruined. Thrown upon the wide world at +his age, when something like comfort and ease had become necessary, he +found he had to beat up again his learning through life.</p> + +<p>Sometimes he thought of going to America or England. A mere accident +repaired his fortunes. A female personage of high consequence was +suddenly taken ill in her husband’s absence. Suedaeur attended and +cured her. He was thenceforward recommended and pushed among the +Governmental people. He now keeps his carriage, and makes, as he tells +me, over 50,000 livres (£2000 sterling) per annum.</p> + +<p>The effect of his sufferings is, however, very apparent. He looks older +than his years. He has lost his vivacity and his tongue is sealed on +politics, in which he declares he will never more have any concern.</p> + +<p>But he told us many histories of the Terror, and one which struck me +as peculiarly sad and horrible I will relate, because it concerns an +Englishman.</p> + +<p>Young L—— (whose mother is still alive and resides in London) was +sent to Paris in order to polish and keep him out of harm’s way. I +remember him well; he was a good-natured lad, very incautious, and +possessed of great simplicity of manners. He was a most impassioned +English patriot, and openly cursed the French and their measures, +for which indiscretion Suedaeur remonstrated with him in vain. The +Committee of Public Safety, wanting some English heads for exhibition, +ordered his arrestation. Suedaeur visited him in prison. He was always +merry, full of the heyday of youth, and continued to <i>blaspheme</i> +the French Republic. “Rule Britannia” and “God Save the King” were the +favourite songs with which he made his prison walls resound. But these +very songs proved<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[247]</span> him to be a “serf” of King George and an agent of +Pitt. It was evident, said Fouquier-Tainville, the Public Accuser, that +he was engaged in a conspiracy to destroy the unity and indivisibility +of the Republic. Accordingly he was brought before the Revolutionary +Tribunal, with a vast number of other persons of both sexes, among whom +was Colonel Newton, who was sentenced to death for playing at cards.<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p> + +<div class="sidenote">EXECUTION OF COLONEL NEWTON</div> + +<p>As the poor youth knew scarcely anything of the French language, he +was quite unaware of what passed. They asked him no questions, merely +sentenced him to die. When he returned to prison he was as unconcerned +and gay as ever, for he had not the most distant idea he had ever been +tried. The next morning he was led down into the courtyard, where the +fatal cart, attended by gens-d’armes awaited him. At the same instant +Dr. Suedaeur entered the prison to take a last adieu of him and +Colonel Newton. Colonel Newton was seated in the cart already, bound +and looking very dejected. The spectacle of Newton bound and in that +situation surprised and startled the young man, who inquired where they +were going to take him. He could not make himself understood, as he +did not speak French. At that instant Suedaeur overwhelmed with grief, +came up to him. He asked hastily, “Dr. Suedaeur! what are they going +to do with me?” “My poor lost boy,” said Suedaeur, quite overcome and +bursting into tears, “you are going to instant death!” “To death!” he +cried, “I have not been tried!” Then wringing his hands, he exclaimed, +“Oh God! Oh God!” and swooned away in the arms of the doctor. While +in this condition he was flung into the cart. He recovered before he +reached the scaffold, and cried more bitterly. Colonel Newton (who +had long served under Suwarroff, and received twelve wounds at the +storming of Ishmael, and was colonel of the Regiment<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[248]</span> of Dragoons which +guarded the King to the scaffold), pitying the distress of the youth, +employed the last moments of his existence in administering comfort +to him. But Nature was uppermost, the misery of his afflicted mother +rushed into his mind, and he did not cease to exclaim: “My poor mother! +my poor mother!” until the fatal axe closed his eyes upon this world. +His person was extremely prepossessing, and the sight of his unaltered +countenance was enough to wring a tear from a heart of stone. He was +but eighteen years of age, and the only child of his widowed mother.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>XLII<br> +<span class="subhed">HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS. MADAME TALLIEN. KOSCIUSKO</span></h2></div> + + +<p>Miss Helen Maria Williams<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> lives at the hotel of Alexander Berthier, +Minister of War. Helen is a personage, and at the Ministry of War she +holds her court.</p> + +<p>The notorious Mr. Stone,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> who has driven away from his side +and cruelly ill-used his wife, lives with Helen, in a virtuous +philosophical platonic friendship. It is singular so spiritual a +damsel should harbour and entertain a man of whom no one, not even in +Paris, speaks a good word. It is difficult to describe his services; +his functions being so variously compounded of the German squire, the +Italian cicisbeo, the English master of the ceremonies, and the French +peroquet (as those fellows are termed whom the French Republican ladies +keep to puff them, their beauty, toilets and talents in the Journals).</p> + +<p>He also acts as her “garde des archives” and her chamberlain. He is in +short a man of all work!</p> + +<p>These things give no offence in this easy capital, where it is a common +thing for a man to sit down at table with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[249]</span> his wife and children and +his mistress, and <i>vice versâ</i>. I have been present at many +of these happy meetings, or, as they are called here, <i>mélanges +morales</i>.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">LAX VIEWS ON MARRIAGE</div> + +<p>A Parisian man of fashion told me the other day in the presence of his +wife, a very handsome woman, that after the first child, he thought +both parties were at liberty to do as they pleased. This would have +been a good plea before an English jury for the mitigation of damages. +In Paris they are more enlightened than in London, and you never hear +of a single action for “crim. con.” from beginning to the end of the +year in the French capital.</p> + +<p>I have assisted at a dinner given by Madame Tallien,<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> who has long +been separated from her husband, and now lives with a rich merchant, +who I mentioned in a former letter as the present proprietor of the +late Duke of Orleans’ château of Rincy. There were sixteen persons at +table, exclusive of Madame and her “cher ami,” and one of the sixteen +was Tallien himself. He sat by the side of his <i>ci-devant</i> spouse, +and was engaged during most of the banquet in an animated and almost +affectionate conversation with her.</p> + +<p>A fashionable French philosopher has lately announced, after the most +recondite meditation, that he has discovered “marriage to be the most +odious of all monopolies.” This important discovery has, so far, made +no progress in England; but in this city, the favourite abode of true +philosophy, it is taught in every <i>stoa poecile</i>. If I could +borrow the pencil of Gilray, I might hope to delineate this nuptial +banquet in its proper colours—a banquet at which Venus Suadala was +present, accompanied by all the Loves and Graces in playful dalliance.</p> + +<p>When Tallien was in Egypt, his patriotic wife, feeling for the grievous +losses which the Republic had sustained in the number of its sons +cut off by the sword, pestilence and famine, with a generous and +disinterested ardour contributed her material labours towards making +up the deficiency in the population. Two little Republicans, presented +to the State during her husband’s absence,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[250]</span> attest her zeal, and it +is pleasant to add she was by no means singular in this sublime and +Spartan devotion.</p> + +<p>On the return of the illustrious Commissioner, he followed (for it is +by no means etiquette for a husband and wife to go together) his lovely +spouse to a ball.</p> + +<p>When he arrived, he found her in a state so resembling a state of +nature (she had but one apology for a garment, and that was of the +thinnest muslin), that he was indignant. He reproached her for her +indecent attire, and received the reply that he was free to get another +wife to dress more to his mind. She told him coolly that she had never +loved him, and only married him to save her life. But that as she was +no longer in terror of the guillotine, he was welcome to her fortune, +but should have nothing more to do with her person. “You know,” she +added, “what I can tell if I choose.”</p> + +<p>The ladies of Paris, from Madame Bonaparte downwards, highly approve of +the spirited conduct of Madame Tallien, whom they consider a persecuted +beauty as well as a charming woman.</p> + +<p>The fact is that when she was Marquise de Fontenay, and in prison +at Bordeaux, Tallien, then on a mission to that city, which he was +reorganising in torrents of blood, proposed to save her head if she +would surrender to him her purse and person, but threatened her with +death should she reject his offer. She gave her hand, therefore, +to this renowned Sans Culotte—a circumstance which engendered an +irreconcilable hatred between him and Robespierre, which exploded on +the 9th of Thermidor in favour of the former.</p> + +<p>Some of Tallien’s exploits during the Revolution are worthy of record. +In the days of September 1792, he knocked out with his own hands the +brains of one old priest eighty years old, and bludgeoned six others. +At Bordeaux only eighteen persons were executed on his own personal +recommendation, but he brought away with him from that city 1,700,000 +livres (£64,000 sterling) in solid cash—money paid to him as bribes +for generously<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[251]</span> restoring to liberty “good citizens he discovered to +have been falsely accused.”</p> + +<div class="sidenote">WILLIAMS AND BECCARIA</div> + +<p>But to return from this digression to Helen Williams. This priestess +of the Revolution has a nightly synod at her apartments, to which the +political dramatists and <i>literati</i> of the capital resort. Here +she is in her glory. Perched like the bird of wisdom on her shrine, she +snuffs up the mounting incense of adulation offered up by homicides and +plunderers of the public. At the instant of inspiration she becomes +convulsed like the Delphic Priestess. By an ingenious device she +contracts her lips into the form of a pipe, and literally whistles out +the words of the oracle she pronounces. The keeper of the archives +is at hand to record what passes for the benefit of the booksellers. +The instant each ruling party is overthrown, out come two or four +little duodecimos, which this fanatical female calls “Anecdotes of the +Founders of the French Revolution,” &c., in which she records all their +<i>sayings</i>, and abuses in turn those whom she before received with +smiles at her conversaziones. If you wish to become acquainted with a +devil in the shape of a philosopher, a general, a legislator, a quiz or +a thief, you will find any of these characters at Helen’s coteries.</p> + +<p>I mention Madame de Beccaria in this place by way of a contrast. She is +the daughter of the celebrated Marquis de Beccaria, author of the book +on Crimes and Punishments. Elegant in her manners, she is possessed of +a pleasing person, and is modest, affable, and good-natured. Though +a rigid Catholic, she does not pose as a saint, nor does she keep a +coterie, or wish to take advantage of her father’s celebrity to collect +around her the fops of philosophy. She had a great disappointment in +her marriage. Her husband was an Italian nobleman, whose union with her +has been annulled on account of his insanity.</p> + +<p>Madame de Beccaria<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> will go to England very shortly for the purpose +of having her father’s writings translated there. She made me a present +of her father’s portrait,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[252]</span> assuring me that he never wrote an Italian +work entitled <i>Saggio sopra la Politica e la Legislatione Romana</i>.</p> + +<p>Kosciusko has disappointed my expectations; perhaps I judge of him too +rashly, but if in two hours’ conversation with <i>any</i> man upon +subjects most interesting, not a <i>spark</i> of extraordinary light is +emitted, I think it is but fair to conclude that such a man is not fit +to move out of the common circle. According to my way of thinking, the +negro General Toussaint is immeasurably his intellectual superior. But +his valour and sufferings will always excite sympathy, and the cause in +which he strove the interest of mankind.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CONCLUSION</h2> +</div> + + +<p>We did not experience any difficulty in getting out of Paris, after our +four months’ stay there.</p> + +<p>I went to the office of Minister Talleyrand with my passport. It +was punctually returned by noon the next day, and after sending our +heavy luggage to the office of the diligence and laid in a stock of +provisions for the journey, we stepped into our chaise and took our +leave of the French capital. As it was my wish to gratify my companion +with the sight of as much of France as our time would permit, we did +not return by the road we came, but shaped our course for Brussels. +The account of that extensive tour would be out of place here, being +too long for insertion. Suffice it to say that though bowed down under +the yoke of a most horrible despotism, the rest of France, unlike +Paris, presents everywhere objects of interest and sympathy. The moral +influence of the Revolution has by no means wrought such pernicious +effects as might have been expected. The people retained much of their +civility and engaging manners of former times, and until my second +interview with the brutal Mengard at Calais, there was not one place +from Senlis where we did not feel a regret at leaving.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[253]</span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">CONCLUSION</div> + +<p>The roads are inconceivably wretched; and sometimes very dangerous. We +were often obliged to go for many miles at a foot’s pace. Between Arras +and Lille ruts were often three feet deep, our traces were continually +breaking, and fresh horses constantly required. In some places the +people did not even know the Peace had been signed, for no English had +come that way. While getting out of the carriage they once asked me, +with looks of inexpressible anxiety, whether I had brought them peace +at last. On my answering “Yes,” they exclaimed: “Ah! but has the King +of England signed it?”</p> + +<p>These letters give my opinions of the present Government of France. +I purpose, however, to give the subject a more ample and serious +discussion, although I do not pledge myself to execute this work.</p> + +<p>I left the Republic convinced that it was the interest of France to be +at peace with England, but with manifold doubts of that Peace’s long +continuance.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[255]</span></p> + +<h2>APPENDIX</h2> +</div> + +<p class="center p-min xs">[BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES]</p> + +<p class="center xs">TO</p> + +<p class="center sm">LETTERS FROM FRANCE</p> + +<p class="center sm">IN 1802</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">THESE BIOGRAPHIES COMPRISE SHORT NOTICES OF CERTAIN PERSONS +MENTIONED BY MR. REDHEAD YORKE IN HIS LETTERS FROM FRANCE.</p> + +<p class="p-left">I HAVE NOT THOUGHT IT NECESSARY TO INCLUDE THEREIN BIOGRAPHIES +OF ANY MEMBER OF THE BONAPARTE FAMILY NOR OF SUCH WELL-KNOWN +ENGLISHMEN AS WILLIAM PITT AND CHARLES FOX, BUT MERELY +ENDEAVOURED TO GIVE A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF CERTAIN LEADING +CHARACTERS IN THE FIRST FRENCH REVOLUTION WHOM A LATER +GENERATION HAS FORGOTTEN, AND ALSO DESCRIBED CERTAIN OTHER +HISTORICAL PERSONAGES.</p> + +<p class="r2">V. A. C. SYKES.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[257]</span></p> +<h2 class="smaller">APPENDIX</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">ADAMS, John.</span></p> + +<p>The sailor who led the mutiny on the <i>Bounty</i> against Lieutenant +Bligh in 1789. Fearing the eventual reprisals of the British +Government, he persuaded a number of his companions to leave Otaheite +and seek fortune among the then unknown islands of the Southern Sea. +They eventually settled at Pitcairn Island, and founded a colony.</p> + +<p>John Adams was born in 1754 and died at Pitcairn Island, May 5, 1829, +having fully earned the title by which he was known—“The Patriarch of +Pitcairn.”</p> + + +<p class="p-left">ANDRON.</p> + +<p>A Greek sculptor, believed to have lived some time in the second +century <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span></p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">BARNAVE, Antony Peter Joseph Marie.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Grenoble, October 22, 1761; executed in Paris, November +30, 1793. One of the great promoters of that Revolution of which +he eventually became a victim.</p> +</div> + +<p>His father was a Procurator of Parliament and his mother the daughter +of a military officer. In those days professions were hereditary, and +young Barnave was therefore destined for the Bar. In early life he +showed signs of talent and an impetuous disposition; he was sixteen +when he fought his first duel, and he published a remarkable book at +the age of twenty.</p> + +<p>In 1783 he was chosen by the lawyers of the Grenoble Bar to pronounce +the speech before the vacation at the local Parliament. He chose +for his subject “The Divisions of Political Power in a State.” This +discourse excited much interest, not only in Dauphiny, but all over +France; the speaker was then twenty-two years of age.</p> + +<p>His political career did not commence until he was twenty-eight, when, +having been elected Deputy to the States-General, he proceeded to +Versailles.</p> + +<p>Barnave was, a few days after the opening of that Assembly, named a +Commissioner by the “Tiers Etat,” and he composed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[258]</span> the first petition, +or address, that body presented to the King. During the session of the +Assembly he became more and more prominent; he was still a believer +in the monarchical system, and—under a constitutional form of +government—a strong supporter of the throne.</p> + +<p>On October 25, 1790, Barnave was elected President of the Assembly.</p> + +<p>A few weeks after the death of Mirabeau, April 2, 1791, the Royal +Family fled from Paris and were arrested at Varennes: Barnave was +commissioned with Pêthion to bring them back to Paris. The many hours +he thus spent in their company greatly influenced him in their favour, +and the Queen’s charm exercised an influence over him which dominated +the remainder of his short life. The question of the inviolability of +Royalty arose immediately after the King’s return, and Barnave made a +moving and eloquent speech on this subject. The discussion of the new +Constitution commenced on August 8, 1791. On the 14th the King took the +oath, and on the 30th the Assembly was dissolved.</p> + +<p>The public career of Barnave then terminated, and his final speech was +made before a different tribunal. He returned to Grenoble in January +1792, and there wrote “The Introduction to the French Revolution.” On +August 15 of the same year the Deputy La Rivière denounced the author +of this book from the Tribune; on the 29th of the same month Barnave +was arrested. After ten months’ imprisonment at Grenoble he was removed +to Paris on November 3, 1793. He appeared on December 28 before the +Revolutionary Tribunal; two days later he perished.</p> + +<p>Barnave addressed the crowd from the scaffold, his last words being, as +he pointed to the fatal knife, “This is the reward for all I have done +for France and for Liberty.”</p> + + +<p class="p-left hangingindent"><span class="smcap">BARBŒUF (surnamed “Caius Gracchus”), François Noel.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at St. Quintin in 1764; died May 25, 1797.</p> +</div> + +<p>In early life he was apprenticed to an architect, and when quite a +young man he wrote articles for newspapers at Amiens. He hailed with +joy the principles of the Revolution.</p> + +<p>He was tried in 1790, in Paris, owing to the violence of his writings; +although acquitted, he had to undergo another trial in 1792, under an +accusation of embezzlement, when he was a second time acquitted and +soon after appointed administrator of a Department; he did not return +to Paris until Thermidor 1794.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[259]</span></p> + +<p>He created the journal <i>Le Tribun du Peuple</i>, and developed in its +pages, under the synonym “Caius Gracchus,” the doctrine of the absolute +equality of mankind. Two years later Babœuf and his followers, now a +numerous body, constituted themselves into a secret society, with the +object of re-establishing the <i>régime</i> of 1793.</p> + +<p>This society spread its emissaries over France, and early in 1796 was +prepared for a rising. With the aid of 16,000 men, soldiers belonging +to the garrison of Paris, and of artillery posted at Vincennes and at +the Invalides, and of certain disaffected members of Grenadiers and +police, together with a large number of the labouring classes—these +conspirators planned to seize the Directorate, the Legislative +Assembly, and the Military Staff of the Etat Major. Their arrangements +were apparently perfect, but, as is usual in such cases, traitors among +the plotters revealed the whole scheme to the Directorate. The heads +of this conjuration, to the number of sixty-five, were arrested, and +Babœuf himself was seized just as he was dictating the manifesto which +was to be issued after the rising had taken place.</p> + +<p>The trial of the conspirators lasted three months and was held at +Vendôme. After the sentence of death was pronounced, Babœuf and +his friend Dârtre stabbed themselves, but were nevertheless, like +Robespierre and his friends, carried in an expiring condition to the +scaffold and beheaded.</p> + +<p>Babœuf’s principles were those of the most advanced Socialism, one of +his precepts for the government of the Utopia of his dreams being, +“Whoever pronounces the word ‘property’ shall be imprisoned as a +dangerous madman.”</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">BARBAROUX, Charles Jean Marie.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born in Marseilles, 1767; guillotined at Bordeaux, June 23, 1794.</p> +</div> + +<p>As a very young man he showed scientific aptitude, and when quite a boy +was in correspondence with Franklin. He became an advocate at the Bar +of Marseilles, and had already obtained much success as a pleader when +the Revolution broke out.</p> + +<p>He was made secretary to the new Commune of Marseilles, and after +quelling a Royalist insurrection at Arles, was despatched to Paris as +Deputy for Marseilles. He became a member of the “Jacobin Club,” and an +intimate friend and ally of Roland and his wife. He took an active part +in the events of August 10, 1792, and was soon after named President of +the “Elective Assembly,” and, later, a member of the Convention. From +the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[260]</span> outset of his legislative career he was an opponent of the Extreme +Left; he denounced Robespierre and Marat, insisting upon the punishment +of the authors of the bloody massacres of September. An excellent +economist, Barbaroux treated in a masterly manner the question of +commercial administration.</p> + +<p>At the trial of Louis XVI. he voted against the execution of the +monarch. A movement was set on foot to drive Barbaroux from the +Convention, and on May 31 he was forced to fly from Paris. He was +declared a traitor to his country. At Caen he had an interview with +Charlotte Corday, and it is he who is supposed to have inspired this +young girl with the idea of killing Marat.</p> + +<p>He was a man of remarkable personal beauty, and unjustly accused +of having carried on a guilty intrigue with Mme. Roland. He took +refuge at Bordeaux, but was discovered and arrested. Although he shot +himself twice, he retained sufficient appearance of life to enable the +possibility of his public execution.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">BARRAS, Jean Paul François, Comte de.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born in 1755 at Lohenpoux, Provence; died at Chaillot, near +Paris, 1829.</p> +</div> + +<p>He entered the army at the age of eighteen, went with his regiment to +the Ile de France in 1775, and eventually joined the French Indian Army +at Pondicherry. After the capture of that town he took service under +Suffren, and spent some time at the Cape of Good Hope, returning to +France with the rank of captain.</p> + +<p>He then proceeded to lead a life of debauchery and extravagance. Many +ruined rakes perceived in the Revolution a chance, as they thought, of +retrieving their fallen fortunes; among such was Barras. He was present +at the attack on the Bastille in 1789, and at the sack of the Tuileries +three years later. He was a member of the Convention, and voted for the +instant execution of Louis XVI. without appeal.</p> + +<p>As a delegate to the South of France he assisted in those sanguinary +repressions of the revolt against the Republic in Provence. At Nice +he arrested Brunet and Trogoff, whom he accused of ceding Toulon to +the English. He was present at the siege and capture of that town, +and helped to carry out horrible massacres of supposed traitors. +Nevertheless, he was an object of distrust to Robespierre, who disliked +the intense immorality of his private life, and doubted the sincerity +of his Republicanism.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[261]</span> Barras therefore directed his efforts towards +the overthrow of the <i>Montagne</i>, and was the principal instigator +of the events of Thermidor, which led to the fall of Robespierre.</p> + +<p>Later he obtained control of the home military force—and the +Presidency of the Convention. He declared Paris in a state of siege, +and when the mob surrounded the Assembly, shouting for bread and the +Constitution of 1793, he directed the armed force which dispersed the +people.</p> + +<p>To him Bonaparte owed the command, by which the latter, in the name of +Barras, suppressed the attempted Royalist revolution.</p> + +<p>During the Directorate, Barras reigned practically alone until the +advent of Sièyes. He amassed a vast fortune, although during his +official reign he squandered money lavishly upon his pleasures and +lived in great state.</p> + +<p>The Revolution of the 18th Brumaire annulled his political power, and +he sought and obtained permission to leave Paris.</p> + +<p>During the rest of his life he ceased to be a man of any public +importance; he was frequently exiled, and perpetually intriguing with +the Bourbons. After the second Restoration he returned to Paris, and +settled at Chaillot, where he died at the age of seventy-four.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">BARRÈRE DE VIEUZAC, Bertrand.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Tarbes, September 10, 1755; died January 15, 1841.</p> +</div> + +<p>He studied law and was advocate to the Parliament of Toulouse. Later +he returned to Tarbes, from whence he eventually went as Deputy to the +States-General. Here he soon took a prominent place, defending the +liberty of the press; and brought forward successfully numerous motions +as to the confiscation of Crown lands and the declarations of the +rights of citizens.</p> + +<p>The National Assembly being dissolved, Barrère became a member of the +Tribunal of Cassation, and in 1792 Deputy for the Department of the +Upper Pyrenees. He publicly defended the September massacres on the +ground of their being a necessity to save the State. He was elected +President of the Convention of December 1792, his first act being to +press for the immediate judgment of “Louis the Traitor,” as he termed +the King, saying that “the tree of Liberty would never flourish until +it had been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[262]</span> watered by the blood of kings.” He voted the death of +Louis XVI. without respite, and later in the year brought forward a +project of ostracism against the Duke of Orleans and the Ministers +Roland and Pache.</p> + +<p>The triumph of the <i>Montagne</i> over the Girondins caused Barrère to +join forces with the former. Terror for his own life made him ruthless +in the destruction of the lives of others.</p> + +<p>He became in July 1793 a member of the Committee of Public Safety, +and, soon after, chief of that body, and its principal acts were +carried out by his order and at his instigation. By his command the +royal tombs at St. Denis were destroyed, Paoli declared a traitor, the +expulsion of those English who arrived in France after July 14, 1789, +decreed, as well as instant confiscation of all property belonging to +the <i>émigrés</i>. He caused the Château de Caen to be razed to the +ground, sent troops to punish Lyons, created a revolutionary army, +and promulgated the decree, “Terror is the order of the day.” He also +planned the speedy execution of the Queen, and proposed that every +Frenchman who had not already made his declaration of adhesion to the +Republic should be transported, and all persons accused of spreading +false news brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal. He implored the +Assembly to treat with the utmost severity all enemies of the nation, +saying: “Have pity on them to-day and they will massacre you to-morrow. +It is only the dead who cannot return.”</p> + +<p>Until the fall of Robespierre, Barrère was his lieutenant and obedient +servant; but after the <i>coup d’état</i> against Robespierre, +Barrère was violent and condemnatory against the “conspirator whose +projects had up to then been veiled in mystery.” Nevertheless, +Barrère did not succeed in escaping; he was arrested, with Callot, +D’Herbois and Billaud, on March 2, 1795. He and they were condemned to +transportation, but later on Barrère obtained a re-trial of his case, +and was removed to another prison, from which he succeeded in making +his escape. He evaded re-arrest until the law of amnesty for political +prisoners was passed. He remained in obscurity till 1815, when, during +“the hundred days,” he was elected a Deputy.</p> + +<p>After the second Restoration he was banished as a regicide, and retired +to Brussels, where he resided until 1830, when he returned to France +and there remained until his death, at the age of eighty-six years, in +1841.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[263]</span></p> + + +<p class="p-left hangingindent"><span class="smcap">BLANCHARD DE DA MUSSE, François Gabriel Ursin.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Nantes, 1752; died at Rennes in 1836.</p> +</div> + +<p>A pupil and friend of Delisle de Salés. He was called to the Bar at +Rennes, capital of Brittany, and became Councillor of the Parliament +of that town. He was one of those arrested suspects saved by the +Revolution of Thermidor, 1794.</p> + +<p>After the 18th Brumaire his well-known honesty and amiability of +character caused his nomination as a judge of the High Court at Trèves +and later Nantes. In 1815 he was, as a Liberal, deprived of his +functions, but reinstated the following year.</p> + +<p>He wrote much poetry and several philosophical treatises.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">BRISSOT DE WARVILLE, Jean Pierre.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Chartres, January 1754; executed in Paris, October 1793.</p> +</div> + +<p>The thirteenth child of a wealthy innkeeper, Brissot early showed signs +of talent, and his first book, <i>Théories des Lois criminelles</i>, +evoked a complimentary letter from the aged Voltaire, to whom the work +was dedicated.</p> + +<p>In Paris, Brissot entered a lawyer’s office, where Robespierre was his +fellow clerk. But he soon abandoned law for journalism, and became a +well-known pamphleteer. He visited England, and his book upon English +literature was at one time considered a classic.</p> + +<p>On his return from England he was falsely accused of being the author +of a lampoon upon the Queen of France, and imprisoned in the Bastille. +Here he remained four months, but was released by the influence of +Mdme. de Genlis and the Duke of Orleans. He was advised to take refuge +in London. He joined the Abolition of Slavery League, and resolved to +establish a similar League in France under the title of <i>Les Amis des +Noirs</i>. He went to America to study the question of slavery.</p> + +<p>On his return from America he devoted all his talents and his efforts +to add to the impetus of the French Revolution.</p> + +<p>Brissot was elected one of the members for Paris in the National +Assembly. An honest man and a true patriot, he fought against anarchy. +He was an opponent of the massacres of September, and of the King’s +trial.</p> + +<p>Constantly attacked by the Robespierre faction, he was arrested at +Moulins; incarcerated in the Abbaye at Paris; condemned to death with +twenty-one of his friends on October 12, 1793, and executed on the +following day.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[264]</span></p> + +<p>Brissot was one of the writers who exercised great influence in those +various publications which aided the advance of the French Revolution, +and accelerated that movement. His books on law and legislature, his +innumerable pamphlets, his speeches at the Assembly and Convention, +attest his earnest devotion to the Revolutionary cause in its infancy.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">BOURDON DE L’OISE, François Louis.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Rémy, near Campièges; died in 1797 at Simamari in Guiana.</p> +</div> + +<p>He commenced his career as a lawyer, became Procureur of the Parliament +of Paris, and eventually embraced the Revolutionary cause in 1789, +taking part in the attack on the Tuileries, August 10, 1792.</p> + +<p>He became a member of the Convention by a trick. Another François +Louis Bourdon, to whom he was in no way related, was elected both by +the Department of l’Oise and also that of the Loiret as a Member of +the Convention. This Bourdon chose to represent the Loiret; and his +namesake, whom the electors had never seen, profiting by the similarity +of names, presented himself to the Convention, took his seat without +any difficulty, and held it without question.</p> + +<p>He first distinguished himself by the ferocity of his utterances. He +voted for the death of Louis XVI. without an appeal to the people, +and denounced all the more moderate Deputies, such as Brissot, as +being Royalists at heart. He defended the Reign of Terror, violently +attacking the Abbé Grégoire for his desire to Christianise the +Revolution.</p> + +<p>As he later showed signs of pity towards the Royal insurgents in La +Vendée, Robespierre and Hébert accused him of moderation, and caused +him to be excluded from the Jacobin Club. Bourdon, alarmed, threw +his influence in the scale against Robespierre in the Thermidor +<i>contra-Revolution</i>, and went so far as to suggest that every +Deputy who resisted the decree for Robespierre’s arrest should be shot +upon the spot. He was one of the escort that accompanied Robespierre +and his partisans to the scaffold.</p> + +<p>From this time Bourdon declared himself the enemy of the Revolutionary +system, and the protector of priests and nobles. Nevertheless, when +sent to Chârtres to discover traces of those who were supposed to have +plotted against the Convention, Bourdon showed excessive and merciless +cruelty. He eventually<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[265]</span> became a Member of the Council of the Five +Hundred, and realised a large fortune by dealing in assignats and in +the national property.</p> + +<p>The Directorate contained many of his mortal enemies, who inscribed his +name upon the list of those to be transported to Cayenne, and he was +arrested and deported; shortly after his arrival at Simamari Bourdon +expired, broken down by impotent rage, remorse and despair.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">BITANBÉ, Paul Jeremie.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Kœnigsburg in Prussia, 1732; died in Paris, 1808.</p> +</div> + +<p>Descended from a Huguenot family, banished from France by the +Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He was a learned student, and a +voluminous writer.</p> + +<p>His translation of the Iliad, published in Berlin in 1762, brought +him the patronage of Frederick the Great, who allowed him to settle +in France, in order that he might perfect his knowledge of the French +language. He published various translations from the Greek in Paris, +and was naturalised as a French citizen.</p> + +<p>He was arrested during the Terror, and, together with his wife, +suffered a lengthy imprisonment; the 9th Thermidor brought his release.</p> + +<p>He was one of the principal members of the new <i>Institut</i>, and +there represented literature and the fine arts. His writings are +somewhat marred by the fact that they were composed by a man who had +not thoroughly grasped the intricacies of the French language.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><i>LE BON, Josephe.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Arras, September 25, 1765; executed at Amiens, 1795.</p> +</div> + +<p>He made his first studies at an Oratorian College, and eventually +became a member of that congregation. At the age of eighteen, he was +already a teacher of rhetoric in the College of Béaune in Burgundy, and +enjoyed a great reputation for piety and learning. His sympathy with +the Revolution caused him to become a “Constitutional” parish priest +at Vernois, and a year later he was appointed to a cure of souls near +Arras.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[266]</span></p> + +<p>Robespierre, St. Just, and Le Bas were his intimate friends: at their +persuasion he abandoned Christianity, married, and adopted a political +career. He was appointed Mayor of Arras and Syndic for the whole +Department of Pas de Calais, and, at first, showed much judgment and +great moderation.</p> + +<p>In 1793 he was despatched on a mission to the Pas du Calais, and +was at first so indulgent, that Suffray, his neighbour and enemy, +denounced him to the Committee of Public Safety as a protector of the +aristocrats and a persecutor of patriots. He was recalled to Paris, +but under Robespierre’s guarantee and his own promise to redeem the +past, was sent back to the Pas de Calais with unlimited powers, and the +order to crush the anti-revolutionary movement in the towns of this +Department. He carried out these orders without mercy. Terrified by +these responsibilities and by the fact that the Austrian army occupied +the neighbouring frontier, he imagined enemies of the Republic on every +side, and wherever he went blood flowed freely. So great, however, were +his cruelties that he was again accused. But Barrère declared that Le +Bon had saved Cambrai by his energy, and for a time the accusation +lapsed; his severities, however, made his enemies thirst for revenge. +In May 1795, a committee was appointed to inquire into his conduct, and +the report they returned was:</p> + +<p>1. That he had been guilty of public assassination.</p> + +<p>2. Of oppressing citizens.</p> + +<p>3. Exercising personal vengeance in his summary executions of accused +persons.</p> + +<p>He was then tried and found guilty of an “unlimited abuse of the +guillotine.”</p> + +<p>Le Bon exclaimed, as they dressed him in the red garment reserved for +murderers upon their road to the scaffold; “It is not I who should wear +this garment, but those whose orders I obeyed.” He showed pitiable +cowardice at his execution, and his cries and groans rent the air.</p> + +<p>Lamartine says of Le Bon:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>He decimated the Departments of Le Nord and Pas du Calais. This +man is a striking example of the kind of vertigo by which men +of weak mind are affected in great political crises. Certain +periods of history excite criminality. Blood is in the air. +Revolutionary fever has its delirium. Le Bon during his short +life of thirty years experienced all the phases of this mental +disease. In ordinary times he would have left behind him the +reputation of a worthy, respectable, and religious man. In those +sinister days he became a pitiless proscriptor.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[267]</span></p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">BEAUHARNAIS, Eugène, Duke de Leuchtenberg, Prince of Eichstadt, +Viceroy of Italy.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born in Paris, 1781, died February 22, 1824.</p> +</div> + +<p>His father was executed by order of the Revolutionary Tribunal in +1794, and his mother would have shared the same fate but for the +fall of Robespierre. At the age of fourteen he was taken by General +Hoche, who had been his father’s friend, to join the army in Brittany. +His mother’s marriage to Napoleon in 1796 changed the course of his +existence. In 1797 he was created sub-lieutenant, and from that time +was the constant companion of his stepfather; and for the future that +stepfather’s fortunes were his own.</p> + +<p>He was only twenty-four when he became ruler of Italy, and showed +extraordinary intelligence and moderation during his Vice-Royalty. +After the signature of the Treaty of Pressburg, he married in 1806 +Princess Louisa of Bavaria, and Napoleon bestowed upon him the titles +of “Prince of the Empire, adopted son and heir-presumptive to the crown +of Italy.”</p> + +<p>After the fall of Napoleon, Prince Eugène retired with his wife and +family to Bavaria, and was created Duke de Leuchtenberg by the King, +his father-in-law. He spent a few years in seclusion, devoting himself +to the education of his children. He died suddenly from an accident +when only forty-three years of age.</p> + +<p>His sons and daughters made brilliant alliances, his eldest son +marrying Donna Maria della Gloria, Queen Regnant of Portugal; his +younger son, Olga, daughter of the Emperor Nicholas. Of his daughters, +the eldest became Queen of Sweden, the second Princess Hohenzollern, +and the third Empress of Brazil.</p> + +<p>The present Russian semi-Imperial family of Leuchtenberg is descended +from Prince Eugène.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">BARLOW, Joel.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Reading in Connecticut, 1755; died in December 1812, in +Russian Poland.</p> +</div> + +<p>He served as chaplain to a regiment during the American War of +Independence, and attained some celebrity by the patriotic songs he +composed.</p> + +<p>In 1788 he abandoned the clerical profession and sailed for Europe as +agent of the Ohio Company. He settled in Paris,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[268]</span> where he identified +himself with the Revolutionary party, and was intimate with the leaders +of the Girondins.</p> + +<p>In 1791 he published several pamphlets and poems in favour of the +Revolution, and in 1792 he addressed “A letter to the National +Convention” begging them to abolish royalty, and presented in person +an address to that Assembly from English Republicans. When the Abbé +Gregoire went to Savoy on a special mission from the Convention, Barlow +accompanied him and made many speeches at Chambéry against the King of +Savoy.</p> + +<p>On his return to Paris he was appointed American Consul at Tripoli; +in 1805, after another long stay in Paris, he returned to America; in +1811 he was sent as American Minister to Paris. The following year +he started to join the Duke de Bassano in Russia, which the French +had just invaded, but falling ill on his way to Wilna he expired in a +miserable village near Cracow.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">CAMBACÈRES and Prince of Parma, Jean Jaques Régis, Duc de.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Montpellier, 1753; died at Paris, 1824.</p> +</div> + +<p>He belonged to an ancient family of the Long Robe, and many of his +ancestors and family connections had been distinguished lawyers and +churchmen. He was intended for the magistrature, and made law his +chief study. In 1789 he proceeded to Paris and became a popular leader +during the first years of the Revolution. He was elected a member of +the Convention in 1792. Through the next two stormy years Cambacères, +by the exercise of extreme prudence, kept himself free from suspicion, +although he was never identified with the extreme party, and opposed +the execution of Louis XVI. He was President of the Assembly in 1794, +and a member of the Committee of Public Safety. He was Minister of +Justice during the Directory, and when Napoleon Bonaparte assumed the +head of affairs after the eighteenth Brumaire he appointed Cambacères +as Second Consul, with power to act for the First Consul during the +latter’s absence.</p> + +<p>When Napoleon assumed the title of Emperor Cambacères was created +Arch-Chancellor, with perpetual Presidency of the <i>Senate</i>. He +held this position during the whole of the reign of Napoleon I. None +of his councillors were esteemed more highly by the Emperor than +Cambacères; his advice was usually moderate and sensible. He opposed +the Austrian marriage and the Russian campaign. It was he who in 1814 +conducted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[269]</span> Marie Louise and her child to Blois and delivered them over +to the Austrian commissioners. Her flight from Paris was contrary to +his advice.</p> + +<p>During “the hundred days” he resumed his position as Chancellor. The +Second Restoration banished him from France as a regicide. In 1818 the +decree of his banishment was reversed, and he returned to Paris, where +he died six years later at the age of seventy-one.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">CARNOT, Lazare Nicholas Marguerite.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Noisy, Burgundy, 1753; died at Magdeburg, in Prussia, +1827.</p> +</div> + +<p>Educated in Paris at a military school he joined the army with +the grade of lieutenant in 1773. He was soon distinguished by his +scientific attainments as well as his literary talents.</p> + +<p>When the Revolution broke out Carnot addressed many memorials to the +Assembly on the subject of financial reform. Had his proposals been +then carried out national bankruptcy might have been prevented.</p> + +<p>He became a Deputy in 1791, and after the events of August 10, 1792, +Carnot was despatched to the Republican army of the Rhine. During +the next two years he commanded armies on the frontier, and gained +many brilliant victories. He took no part in the atrocities of the +Terror, but has been unjustly accused both by his contemporaries and +by posterity of having approved the massacres at Avignon and the +executions at Lyons. As a member of the Committee of Public Safety +his name is attached to the decrees ordering these cruel punishments, +but he was at this time fighting on the banks of the Rhine. He hated +Robespierre and Robespierre detested him, often saying, “We need Carnot +now for the war, but as soon as the war is over his head shall fall.”</p> + +<p>Carnot became one of the five Directors, and in that capacity gave +Napoleon Bonaparte command of the army of Italy. During that campaign +the other four Directors opposed Carnot; he was stripped of his office +and even of his seat in the Institut, a body he had virtually founded, +was impeached and forced to fly for his life to Switzerland. He +remained in exile until the events of the 18th Brumaire, when he was +recalled and appointed Minister of War and Tribune. He was opposed to +the creation of a life consulate, and later on to that of an Empire.</p> + +<p>From 1807 to 1813 he retired into private life, employing his leisure +in scientific studies and the education of his children.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[270]</span> The disasters +of 1813 brought him out of his retreat, and he again offered his +services to the Emperor.</p> + +<p>Napoleon appointed him Governor of Antwerp on January 24, 1814, which +place he defended with so much ability that it was still in the +possession of the French at the conclusion of the war. He again retired +into private life, but when Napoleon returned from Elba he made Carnot +Minister of the Interior. He held his appointment for less than three +months, but during that short period brought about many educational +reforms which are still in use.</p> + +<p>After Waterloo, Carnot was a member of the Provisional Government, but +as soon as the Bourbons returned he was banished and outlawed. The +Emperor Alexander gave him a passport to Poland. He eventually fixed +his residence with his family at Magdeburg in Prussia, where he died at +the age of seventy.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">CHAPTAL, Comte de Chanteloup, Jean Antoine.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born June 4, 1756; died 1832.</p> +</div> + +<p>A celebrated chemist. His uncle, a rich physician at Montpellier, gave +him his first education. He studied chemistry at the University of +Montpellier, received the title of Doctor in 1777, and went to Paris. +In 1781 he returned to his native town a celebrated man.</p> + +<p>The State of Languedoc founded in his honour a Professorship of +Chemistry at the School of Medicine. Chaptal had adopted the theories +of Lavoisier. The young professor considered chemistry, then in its +infancy, likely to become the most useful and practical of sciences. +By his uncle’s death he inherited a large fortune, and he devoted the +whole of it to constructing various laboratories, where experiments +could be carried out, and large establishments in which scientific +productions might be manufactured.</p> + +<p>By his inventive studies, and assisted by his large fortune, +manufactories of alum, soda, and saltpetre were successfully +established, and the Government recompensed this work by giving him a +patent of nobility and the Grand Cordon of the Order of St. Michael.</p> + +<p>Chaptal adopted all the ideas of the Revolution, although he +disapproved its excesses. He was in consequence arrested; but his +scientific knowledge was too important to the Government, and he was +liberated and appointed Director of the Saltpetre<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[271]</span> Manufactory at +Grenoble. After this he directed also the re-organisation of the School +of Medicine. During the Consulate, Chaptal succeeded Lucien Bonaparte +as Minister of the Interior, and in that capacity rendered great +service to the State; he was appointed Treasurer of the <i>Senat</i>, +under the title of Count Chanteloup. When Napoleon returned from Elba, +Chaptal accepted the portfolio of Minister of Commerce. After the +Restoration, Louis XVIII. erased his name from the list of Peers of +France, but a few years later his peerage was restored. He was a member +of the Academy of Sciences, and wrote several important scientific +works in his old age.</p> + +<p>Before his death, at the age of seventy-five, he had many pecuniary +misfortunes, and died in comparative poverty.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">CIMAROSA, Domenico.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born 1749 at Aversa, in the Kingdom of Naples; died in Venice, +1801.</p> +</div> + +<p>The son of a poor mason, he was but seven years of age when his father +was killed by a fall from a scaffold. In her distress the boy’s mother +applied to a charitable monk for help. This good man gave Cimarosa +a few Latin lessons, and was so struck by the child’s intelligence +that he decided to adopt him. This monk was organist of the convent, +and taught his pupil music. Discovering the boy’s extraordinary +aptitude for musical composition, he obtained his admission into the +Conservatory at Santa Maria di Loretto.</p> + +<p>At the age of twenty-four Cimarosa produced his first opera at Naples. +His next ten years were a succession of triumphs, and he produced +innumerable operas and other musical compositions. In 1787 the Empress +Catherine offered him the title of Imperial Composer, with a high +salary. He journeyed to Russia, was treated with great distinction, and +many operas written by him in Russia were performed during his five +years’ stay in that country. He returned to Naples in 1793.</p> + +<p>In 1799 he joined the Revolutionary party in Italy, was thrown into +prison, and but for the intercession of the Russian Ambassador would +have been executed. Upon his release he took refuge at Venice, where he +died.</p> + +<p>He composed over a hundred operas, many of which still hold the stage.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[272]</span></p> + + +<p class="p-left">CLOOTZ (surnamed ANACHARSIS), <span class="smcap">Jean Baptiste, Baron de</span>.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born in Cleves in Germany, 1755; guillotined in Paris, 1794.</p> +</div> + +<p>He was educated in Paris, possessed considerable natural intelligence, +but was led astray by the violent excitability of his nature. He had +confused dreams of social regeneration, and declared that his life was +to be devoted to the reformation of the world.</p> + +<p>He inherited a vast fortune, renounced his title of baron, taking +the romantic name of Anacharsis, travelled over Germany, Italy and +England, preaching his extraordinary doctrines, and spending money with +unbridled extravagance.</p> + +<p>The French Revolution filled him with delirious joy; it appeared to +realise all his mad projects. On June 19, 1790, he presented himself +at the bar of the Assembly to read an address in which he requested +that all strangers residing in Paris might be admitted to the Grand +Federation which was to take place on July 14 of the same year. He +called himself “the Ambassador of Humanity” to France, and gave large +sums to the “nation” for the fitting out of a regiment “to fight in the +holy war against tyranny.”</p> + +<p>The events of August 10 seem to have shaken Clootz’s reason. Not +content with attacking all the kings and princes of the earth, he +delivered a violent tirade against the Almighty, declaring himself +the personal enemy of God. He publicly abjured all religion. He +complimented the Convention upon their victories near the Rhine, +and requested the members to put prices upon the heads of the Duke +of Brunswick and the King of Prussia. A decree of August 20, 1792, +having granted him the title of citizen, he repaired to the Bar of the +Assembly and delivered a long speech of thanks, and in the praise of +regicide. After he became a member of the Convention he wearied his +co-Deputies by long rambling speeches. He voted for the death of the +King “in the name of the whole generation of mankind,” adding, “he +personally condemned Frederick William of Prussia to death.”</p> + +<p>Robespierre was his secret enemy, and by his (Robespierre’s) influence +Clootz was excluded from the club of the Jacobins and arrested, the +only accusation against him being that he was rich and of noble +birth. Clootz was condemned to death with his supposed accomplices. +He received his sentence with calmness, and passed his remaining +hours preaching materialism to his fellow victims. At the scaffold +he requested permission to suffer<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[273]</span> last, as he wished to make some +observations while watching the heads of his companions fall.</p> + +<p>He wrote several books, as strange in their contents as was his own +character.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">CONDORCET, Jean Antoine Nicolas de Carinton, Marquis de.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Ribemont, in Picardy, 1743.</p> +</div> + +<p>A member of a very ancient and noble family: being her only surviving +son, his mother devoted him to the Virgin, making him wear girl’s +clothes until the age of eleven.</p> + +<p>He became one of the most illustrious mathematicians and philosophers +of France. He was not quite twenty-two when he presented his celebrated +essay, “Sur le calcul intégral” before the Academy. He was elected +member of the Academy of Science after composing an eulogy on the death +of La Fontaine in 1771.</p> + +<p>During the next fifteen years he published many books of historical and +philosophical interest.</p> + +<p>Turgot inspired Condorcet with a taste for political economy.</p> + +<p>In 1789, notwithstanding his great position in the world of literature +and politics, Condorcet was not elected a member of the States-General. +But in 1791 he was a Deputy for Paris in the second Assembly. He voted +against the execution of Louis XVI.</p> + +<p>Condorcet was shortly after denounced as an Academician, a conspirator, +and an enemy of the people. He was also accused of having attacked the +“sublime efforts of the Committee of Public Safety,” and on October 3 +the Convention ordered his arrest. For a time various friends concealed +the illustrious refugee in their houses, but he was obliged to fly +on April 6, 1794, from his last hiding-place. Hunger drove him into +a baker’s shop to buy bread, where the whiteness of his hands, the +fineness of his linen, and the fact that he was carrying a volume of +Horace excited suspicion, and he was arrested. He committed suicide the +same night in prison, swallowing poison contained in a ring. He was +fifty years of age.</p> + +<p>Condorcet was one of the most illustrious of Frenchmen, a true +friend of liberty, a gentleman, an honest man, an elegant speaker, a +brilliant writer, and a distinguished geometrician; he fell a victim, +with many others almost equally distinguished, to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[274]</span> fury of those +revolutionary demagogues who deprived France of most of the benefits +she might have received from the Revolution of 1789.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">CONDÉ, Prince Louis Joseph de Bourbon.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Chantilly, 1736; died in Paris, 1818.</p> +</div> + +<p>The son of that Duke de Bourbon (afterwards Prince de Condé) who +succeeded the Regent Duke of Orleans as Prime Minister to Louis XV. +This Prince died in 1739, when his only son was three years of age.</p> + +<p>From his earliest childhood the young Prince de Condé was devoted to +military studies. His guardian, the Count de Charolais, gave him an +excellent general education. The Prince made a good classical scholar, +and through life was fond of making quotations of Greek and Latin +authors. He wrote an admirable history of the life of his ancestor, the +great Condé.</p> + +<p>During the Seven Years War he showed military genius and personal +courage, and the victory of Johannesburg was principally due to his +efforts (1762). He married at the age of seventeen Mlle. de Soubise, +by whom he had a son and a daughter. She died when her husband was +twenty-seven and she but twenty-five years old.</p> + +<p>His disposition was noble and generous, and his political views +distinctly liberal. He violently opposed the suggestions of Count +St. Germain (the War Minister) that Russian discipline, including +the caning of soldiers, should be introduced into the French army. +Deserving officers, not of noble birth, found in him a friend and +protector, as he used his influence to assist their promotion.</p> + +<p>The Prince de Condé spent twenty years of his life in embellishing and +improving his magnificent residence at Chantilly and the surrounding +domain. Here he entertained the German Emperor, Joseph II., the Emperor +Paul, when Grand Duke Cesarovitch, Gustavus, King of Sweden, the Duke +of Brunswick, and many other potentates. He was a generous landlord and +a public benefactor during the famine (1775); he bought up, at any and +every price, all the grain he could possibly obtain, this corn being +re-sold to the people at the usual price given in prosperous years for +wheat.</p> + +<p>Governor of Burgundy, that province owed to his efforts new roads +and bridges, the encouragement of local art, and the foundation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[275]</span> of +useful and literary institutions. In 1787, as President of the Assembly +of Notables, his discourses were in favour of order, economy and +reform. Nevertheless, he was one of the first objects of attack by the +Revolutionary party, and menaced on every side. Very shortly after the +destruction of the Bastille he departed with his family from France. He +went first to Austrian Flanders, and later to Turin, where he helped +to combine the movement which brought about the counter revolution +in Lyons and Southern France. He was chosen to command the body of +French noblemen and gentlemen known as <i>L’armée du Rhin</i> or <i>Des +Emigrés</i>.</p> + +<p>A decree of the Assembly, 1791, deprived him of an annuity of £24,000 +a year (granted by the State to the House of Condé in exchange for the +territory of Clemontain). His property at Chantilly was confiscated, +and, as he was without resources, he sold all his plate, diamonds and +jewels.</p> + +<p>When the civil war began he commanded a body of five thousand men. At +the close of the first campaign he possessed no funds beyond a sum of +money the Empress Catherine sent him as a present. Shortly after this +he entered regularly into the service of the Emperor of Austria and +received the pay of an ordinary general.</p> + +<p>In the campaign of 1793 the Prince de Condé performed many brilliant +feats of strategy, entering Alsace and occupying Berstein; the enemy +drove his troops to Hagenau, and he marched on foot at the head of +his regiment and retook Berstein by a bayonet charge. During the two +following campaigns, Condé’s army was occupied only in guarding the +Rhine. He suffered from the jealousy and malevolence of the Austrian +commanders, and was supplied with bad provisions and spoilt flour; but +the Prince ordered his table to be served with similar bread to that of +the soldiers.</p> + +<p>During the whole of this time (in 1795) Condé was negotiating with +Pichegru, who commanded the Republican army on the opposite bank of +the Rhine. They agreed that Condé should pass over the Rhine with +his army and join Pichegru; they were to march jointly on Paris and +restore the monarchy. The Prince, being subordinate to the Austrian +Commander-in-Chief, Werhmer, considered it a point of honour to +communicate this scheme to his superior officer. The Cabinet of Vienna +refused to assent to Condé’s arrangement with the Republican general, +unless Strasburg and the other Alsatian fortresses were occupied<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[276]</span> by +the Imperial troops. The Prince refused his consent, and Pichegru, +whose first condition had been “no Austrian soldier shall set his foot +on French soil,” naturally refused to entertain the proposal for an +instant. The project was, therefore, abandoned.</p> + +<p>The forces of Condé, consisting of 10,000 men, were now an integral +part of the regular Austrian army. The passage of Moreau over the Rhine +caused the retreat of the Austrians, and although Condé and his troops +invariably distinguished themselves, and at the battle of Biberach +saved the Austrian army from a crushing defeat, the advance of Moreau +was never seriously checked.</p> + +<p>After the peace of Campo-Formio in the following year, Condé and his +remaining followers took service under Paul I. of Russia. In 1799 Paul +abandoned the Austrian alliance, and made peace with France; the army +of the <i>Emigrés</i> then passed over to the English. Condé fought in +Bavaria and defended the passage of the Inn. But after the battle of +Hohenlinden the whole of his remaining forces were disbanded. In 1801 +the Prince joined his son, the Duke de Bourbon, in England, the British +Government providing them with a small allowance.</p> + +<p>Condé settled in the ancient abbey of Malmesbury, where he found a +devoted companion in his second wife, the Dowager Princess of Monaco. +In 1804 the news reached him of the assassination of his grandson, the +Duke d’Enghien, the last male heir of his race. In 1813 he lost his +wife, at the very moment when his long and cruel exile was about to +terminate.</p> + +<p>He landed at Calais with Louis XVIII. in May 1814. Notwithstanding his +great age (he was nearly eighty) he was the only member of the royal +family who did not instantly attempt flight from Paris on the return of +Napoleon from Elba.</p> + +<p>“We should fight,” he cried, as the carriage in which he had been +forcibly seated was bearing him away towards the frontier.</p> + +<p>On his return after Waterloo he spent the remaining five years of his +life at the Palais Bourbon (now the Chamber of the French Legislature) +and at a small château at Chantilly, the last relic of its ancient +splendour.</p> + +<p>He died in Paris, aged eighty two, and was, by order of Louis XVIII., +buried at St. Denis, in the vault of the Kings of France.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[277]</span></p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">DANTON, George Jacques.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born October 28, 1759; executed April 6, 1794.</p> +</div> + +<p>At the time of the outbreak of the Revolution he was a needy lawyer. +The immorality of his private life caused him to be greatly discredited +by members of his profession, and he seldom obtained employment. He +therefore hailed with joy the social changes, and threw himself with +all the energy of his temperament into the Revolutionary movement. He +made the acquaintance of Mirabeau, who found him a man whose actions +and unscrupulousness were likely to be of great use to his political +plans. Mignet, in his “History of the Revolution,” says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Danton was a revolutionary giant. He saw nothing condemnable in +any action which could serve his purpose. His theory was that +with audacity one could achieve anything and everything.</p> + +<p>Danton, who had been surnamed “the Mirabeau of the populace,” +possessed the following characteristics in common with the great +Tribune. Strongly marked features, a loud voice, an imperious +mien, a bold eloquence, and a dominating presence. Their vices +were similar, with this difference, that in all his debaucheries +Mirabeau remained a patrician, and Danton never ceased to be a +democrat.</p> +</div> + +<p>President of the Cordeliers, Danton took for his satellites Marât and +Camille Desmoulins. Danton became the orator of the people, and was +ready to speak anywhere and everywhere either in a public hall or in +the street, from an open window or in the Tribune of the Assembly.</p> + +<p>The political <i>rôle</i> and public life of Danton did not attain +real importance until the return of the Royal Family from Varennes. +For a time he sold himself to the Court party, and as he was under an +order of arrest for debts he gladly accepted the terms offered him +by the anti-revolutionists. He received altogether £12,000 sterling, +but as soon as supplies ceased he rejoined his former friends and +was a more implacable revolutionist than before. When the “Federals” +arrived from Marseilles, Pétion, the Mayor of Paris, placed them under +Danton’s orders. He plied them with wine and led them himself, with +that personal courage which never deserted him, to the attack on the +Tuileries on August 10. During the whole of that eventful day Marât and +Robespierre were hiding in a cellar.</p> + +<p>After August 10, Danton was appointed, as a reward for his services, +Minister of Justice. He began his ministry by ordering domiciliary +visits in every part of Paris, by arresting the clergy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[278]</span> and all +suspected Royalists. He then assembled the General Committee of +National Defence, and in a speech to that body on September 1, 1792, +said: “My advice is that it is necessary to terrify all Royalists.”</p> + +<p>The following day he appeared in the Legislative Assembly at the head +of the authorities, and in a voice of thunder shouted to the trembling +Deputies:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>It is at this moment, gentlemen, you can decree that Paris is +worthy of France. The cannon you are about to hear sound, is not +the cannon of alarm, it is the first step taken to destroy our +enemies. What is required to vanquish them? Audacity! still more +audacity!! and ever increasing audacity!!!</p> +</div> + +<p>A few hours afterwards the massacres of September commenced. They +lasted four days, and to the assassinations of defenceless prisoners in +Paris succeeded those of the equally defenceless prisoners at Orleans +on the ninth of the same month; a day or two later, a similar scene of +slaughter occurred at Versailles.</p> + +<p>Elected one of the Paris Deputies to the Convention, Danton resigned +his Ministerial post. He was a violent promoter of the trial of Louis +XVI., and to a friend who suggested the Convention was not by right of +law a court of justice, he replied: “You are right; and we will <i>not +judge him</i>, we shall <i>kill him</i>.”</p> + +<p>Bertrand de Molleville, ex-Minister of Marine, who had taken refuge in +London, informed Danton he possessed a letter written by him (Danton) +at the time he was in the pay of the Royalists. This he threatened +to publish if Danton used his influence to condemn Louis XVI. Danton +left Paris in consequence and did not return until the last day of +the King’s trial. Immediately after the King’s execution, Danton and +Lacroix repaired to Belgium, which Dumouriez had just invaded. They +received 4,000,000 of francs (£600,000) to be used in promoting a +Revolution in Flanders and the Netherlands.</p> + +<p>They were accused of having appropriated the greater part of this +enormous sum, and there is every reason to believe this accusation was +a just one. In order to avert suspicion, Danton replaced himself at +the head of the most extreme revolutionists. He proposed and carried a +motion for the levying of an army of 300,000 men, and also suggested +the devastation of France in case of invasion. On March 10 he decreed +the establishment of the famous Revolutionary Tribunal, which a year +later sent him to the scaffold.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[279]</span></p> + +<p>The Committee of Public Safety was formed and became the real governing +power of France. Danton was its foremost member, and now reached the +apogee of his career. But he was menaced on two sides; by the party +of the Girondins, who clamoured for the punishment of those who had +<i>by murder soiled the cause of Liberty</i>, and by the “Purists” +of the <i>Montagne</i>, who accused him of the embezzlement of funds +in Belgium. As, according to his own cynical remark, “authority in a +Revolution should always belong to rogues,” he joined Robespierre and +Pache and brought about the trial and execution of the Girondins. Soon +afterwards the influence of Danton began to wane, he was now reproached +with too much moderation, and of being desirous to coerce the actions +of the Revolutionary Tribunal. He had denounced the Saturnalia of the +Feast of Reason.</p> + +<p>Robespierre decided Danton should fall, and many of his (Danton’s) +friends advised him to fly while there was yet time. He replied: “They +would not dare!” and remained, lulled by this false security, until +he was arrested in his own house on the night of March 30, 1794. Many +members of the Convention tried to save him, and an effort was made to +give him an opportunity of appearing before the Assembly and publicly +attesting his patriotism; but this was vetoed by Robespierre, who with +feigned indignation said: “We shall see whether the Convention will be +able to break a rotten idol, or will allow that idol to destroy in its +fall not only the Convention but the people of France.”</p> + +<p>St. Just ascended the Tribune, and poured forth a violent impeachment +of his former ally, whom he accused of every possible form of treachery +to the Republic. “Terror was voted as the order of the day,” and +Danton’s fate was sealed.</p> + +<p>After he and his companions had undergone a mock trial, devoid of every +semblance of justice, they were sentenced to death. Danton’s answer to +the sentence was: “We are being immolated by a few cowardly brigands; +but they will not long enjoy the fruits of their victory. Robespierre, +that infamous coward, will soon follow me.”</p> + +<p>Danton was executed on April 5 with Camille Desmoulins, Lacroix, Fabre +d’Eglantine, Hermit, Le Sechelle, Philippeaux, Declannoy de Angers, +Chalet and Bazire (all of these men were Deputies of the Convention) +the famous Abbé d’Espagne, General Westerman, a Spaniard, a Dane, and +two Austrians. His last words were: <i>Montrez ma tête au Peuple, elle +en vaut la peine</i>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[280]</span></p> + +<p>He was thirty-five years of age when he perished. Robespierre enjoyed +the sight of the execution of his rival from a neighbouring window, and +after the fall of the knife retired into the Tuileries gardens to take +his daily walk, rubbing his hands with satisfaction.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">DAVID, Jacques Louis.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born in Paris, 1748; died in Brussels, 1824.</p> +</div> + +<p>Left an orphan at an early age, his grandfather, an architect, adopted +him. When a boy at school he met with an accident which deformed his +face for life. A stone struck him in the mouth, broke several teeth, +and a growth eventually formed upon his upper lip which gave him a +savage and ferocious expression. In early childhood he showed promise +of artistic talent. His uncle intended the boy to follow his profession +of an architect, but when the youth begged to be allowed to study +painting he yielded to his entreaties.</p> + +<p>The famous painter, Boucher, then a very old man, saw some sketches +made by young David, and offered to take him into his studio as a +pupil. After Boucher, the painter Vien became David’s master, and the +student competed for the “Grand Prix de Rome”; he was unsuccessful four +times, but finally carrying off the prize started for Italy in 1776. He +devoted himself to the study of the antique, and adopted that severe +classical style by which his work is distinguished. While at Rome he +painted “The Pests of Saint Roch” for the Lazaretto at Marseilles. In +1780 he returned to Paris and produced “Belisarius” and “The Death +of Hector,” after which he was elected to the Academy, given an +appointment in the Louvre, and opened a school for young painters.</p> + +<p>He married Mademoiselle Pecconi, a beautiful Italian girl, on the +occasion of his second visit to Rome in 1784. He exhibited the +“Horaces” in Paris, and was proclaimed “The Regenerator of Art.” Louis +XVI. patronised the painter, and commissioned him to paint “Brutus,” +which picture was finished early in 1789.</p> + +<p>The Revolution changed David’s life and ideas; in 1790 the National +Assembly commissioned him to paint “The Oath in the Tennis Court.” In +1792 the artist was elected Deputy for Paris in the Convention. This +position seemed to affect his intellect and excite his brain.</p> + +<p>The painter of “Brutus” considered himself another Brutus,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[281]</span> and +imagined Louis XVI. deserved death because, being a king he must +necessarily be a tyrant.</p> + +<p>During the early months of the Republic David organised those fêtes +which were intended to imitate the ancient popular feasts of Greece and +Rome.</p> + +<p>He painted, amongst other numerous pictures, “The Assassination of +Michel le Pelletier” and that of “Marat by Charlotte Corday.” These +pictures were exhibited to the public in the courtyard of the Louvre.</p> + +<p>He became the most violent among the violent Terrorists. His speeches +in the Convention invariably contained cries for more bloodshed. He +was the intimate friend and ally of Robespierre. After the fall of the +latter, David was twice arrested, and remained first four, and then +three, months in prison.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte, after his first campaign in Italy, and when the peace +of Campo-Formio was concluded, sent for the painter, with whom he +had an interview. The General desiring he should paint his portrait +David said, “I will paint you sword in hand in the midst of a +battle.” Bonaparte replied, “Battles are not now gained with swords. +Paint me seated on a fiery charger.” This idea was realised in that +well-known picture, “The Return from Marengo.” Napoleon, after +assuming the imperial title, appointed David his painter-in-ordinary, +and commissioned him to paint four immense pictures to cover the +walls of the throne room in the Tuileries. “The Coronation” and “The +Distribution of Eagles in the Champ de Maers” were the only two +executed. “The Coronation” occupied the artist during three years +of incessant work. Until 1814 David remained in Paris, an imperial +favourite and a fashionable portrait-painter, enjoying the reputation +of being the greatest artist of his day. On the return of the Bourbons, +of whom he had been in a certain sense a personal enemy, he was not +allowed to exhibit his great picture, “The Thermophyles,” in public.</p> + +<p>After the Second Restoration he was banished from France, to which +country he never returned. Before his departure he cut his two great +works, “The Coronation” and “The Distribution of the Eagles,” to pieces +with his own hands. By the order of Louis XVIII. the fragments were +re-united, and the pictures may now be seen in the museum at Versailles.</p> + +<p>During his twenty years exile David continued to paint with industry +and vigour, dying at Brussels in 1824.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[282]</span></p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">D’ESTAING, General.</span></p> + +<p>The General mentioned by Yorke was a member of a very ancient family, +whose archives date back to the tenth century. A Count D’Estaing saved +the life of Philippe Augustus in battle. As a reward the D’Estaing +family were granted the privilege by that King of quartering the Royal +arms of France upon their escutcheon. An Admiral D’Estaing, uncle of +General D’Estaing, was one of the most distinguished French naval +officers of the eighteenth century; his opinions were liberal, and he +at first favoured the Revolutionary changes. He was, nevertheless, a +devoted friend of Marie Antoinette, and when she was tried in October +1793, made an effort to assist in her defence. He fell in consequence +under the suspicion of the Committee of Public Safety, and was +condemned and executed. When sentence of death was pronounced upon him, +he exclaimed: “You had better send my head to the English; they will +pay you highly for it.”</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">FITZ JAMES, Edouard, Duke De.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Versailles, 1776; died in Paris, 1838.</p> +</div> + +<p>His family emigrated in the early days of the Revolution, and settled +in Italy.</p> + +<p>After the formation of Condé’s army, young Fitz James joined its ranks, +became aide-de-camp to Marshal Castries, showing on many occasions +great personal bravery. After the forcible dispersion of the French +<i>Emigré</i> Regiment, Fitz James visited England and Scotland, and +married in London a Mdlle. Latouche.</p> + +<p>During the Consulate he applied for, and received, permission to reside +in France.</p> + +<p>He refused to accept any place or dignity at the hands of Napoleon, +and took no part in public affairs until December 1813 (when the fall +of the Empire appeared imminent). He then entered the National Guard +as a non-commissioned officer, with the object of obtaining a secret +influence over the men. In this he was successful, for his arguments +and actions practically caused the refusal on the part of the National +Guard to attack the Allied Army then marching upon Paris.</p> + +<p>After the capitulation of that city, Fitz James organised and headed +a vast demonstration in favour of the restoration of the Bourbons. +Thousands of young men rushed through the streets<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[283]</span> of Paris, waving +white flags and shouting <i>Vive le Roi!</i> This popular manifestation +greatly affected the Emperor Alexander, and caused his final decision +in favour of the Restoration of the ancient monarchy.</p> + +<p>When Louis XVIII. assumed the sovereignty of France, Fitz James was +created a Peer, Colonel of the National Cavalry, and Chamberlain to +Count d’Artois. During the second Restoration Fitz James was one of the +principal instigators of the severe reprisals on the Royalist side, +known as the “White Terror.” Marshal Ney’s execution was caused by the +efforts of Fitz James.</p> + +<p>He unsuccessfully endeavoured to bring about the condemnation to death +of General Bertrand, although the latter was his own brother-in-law.</p> + +<p>A wild fanaticism seemed at this period to have affected his mind. He +opposed every constitutional concession on the part of the Government, +and showed himself so hostile to Ministerial and even Royalist +projects, that he was finally forbidden to appear at Court.</p> + +<p>After the Revolution of 1830, Fitz James, as a Peer of France, took the +oath of allegiance to Louis Philippe. But in secret he was still loyal +to the exiled King.</p> + +<p>At the time of the rising in La Vendée excited by the Duchess de Berry, +Fitz James was arrested, but released owing to lack of evidence against +him.</p> + +<p>He became Deputy for Toulouse in 1834, and until his death four years +later was a prominent member of the Right in the French Parliament, and +took a considerable part in the debates.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">FOUCHÉ, Duke of Otranto, Joseph.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Nantes, 1763; died at Trieste, 1820.</p> +</div> + +<p>He was intended by his father, a sea captain, for the merchant service, +but owing to his delicate health this project was abandoned. He was +sent to the Oratorian College in Nantes, and later to an establishment +of the same Order in Paris. He received the tonsure and became an +abbé; at the time of the Revolution he was a professor in the Nantes +University. He quitted the cassock, married, and proceeded to Paris.</p> + +<p>In 1792 he was elected member of the Convention, and became intimate +with Robespierre. The King’s trial gave him his first opportunity of +publicly expressing his extreme views. He said in a speech from the +Tribune: “I demand the execution of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[284]</span> tyrant, for it would almost +appear as if we regretted our courage in abolishing Royalty, were we to +tremble before its wretched shadow.”</p> + +<p>In March 1793, Fouché was despatched to his native town (Nantes), armed +with full powers to crush a rebellion against the Republic in the West +of France. He opened the campaign by a violent attack on every form +of Christianity, confiscated all ecclesiastical buildings, arrested +and imprisoned the priests, commanded the destruction of all religious +emblems, and ordered this inscription to be placed on the gates of the +cemeteries: “Death is an Eternal Sleep.”</p> + +<p>He affected a disdain for wealth, writing to the Assembly, “Let us +abolish gold and silver and fling away all such idols of Monarchy!”</p> + +<p>These deeds and sentiments caused his rapid promotion, and he was sent +to Lyons in company with Herbois, with orders to chastise with fire and +sword that recalcitrant city. The two commissioners inaugurated their +mission by celebrating a “Feast of Reason,” which, like that of Paris, +was a licentious and impious orgie. One of its principal features was a +procession headed by an ass, upon whose head was fixed a mitre, while +to his tail were fastened the Books of the Old and New Testaments. +An altar was erected, at which a mock Mass was celebrated, and the +ass given food and drink from consecrated vessels. A bonfire fed with +religious emblems and sacred books was extinguished by a violent storm +of rain and wind, which finally broke up the “<i>Feast</i>.” Upon the +next day the massacres of Lyons began. The tribunal decided that the +guillotine was too slow a form of execution. They therefore decreed +the condemned should be mowed down in batches by cannon shot. As many +as fifty-nine persons were on one occasion blown to pieces at the same +instant. During their four months’ reign in Lyons, over 1700 persons +are known to have been destroyed by order of the commissioners.</p> + +<p>On the retaking of Toulouse by the Republican forces Fouché wrote to +Callot, who was charged with the administration of “justice” to the +rebels: “Annihilate <i>all</i> traitors. Take Nature’s example, strike +and scorch as one does with lightning and thunderbolts, so that the +very ashes of the enemies of the Republic may disappear from the soil +of Liberty. Tears of joy flow from my eyes and inundate my soul. We +celebrate your victory to-day by sending 213 rebels to be destroyed by +the thunder of our guns!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[285]</span></p> + +<p>During his residence at Lyons, Fouché was denounced by Hébert at the +Jacobin Club; it was with satisfaction, therefore, that he saw the +former fall with Danton. When, in April 1794, Fouché returned to Paris, +after an absence of eight months, he found Robespierre at the zenith of +his power. When rendering an account of his services, Fouché ended his +speech with these words: “Criminal blood fertilises the soil of Liberty +and establishes justice upon secure and immovable foundations.” He was +almost immediately afterwards selected as President by the Jacobin Club.</p> + +<p>On the occasion of the celebrated <i>Fête de l’Etre Suprême</i>, Fouché +had the imprudence publicly to mock Robespierre’s devotion to the new +Deity, saying <i>Tu nous embêtes avec ton être suprême</i>. Robespierre +impeached him before the Jacobin Society, and caused Fouché’s expulsion +from the Club of which he was President, but the 10th Thermidor was not +far off; and the execution of Robespierre saved the life of Fouché.</p> + +<p>For a time the latter retired into private life. Two years later he +ostensibly joined the party of Baboeuf, the Socialist, but when he had +thoroughly mastered the details of Baboeuf’s plot he revealed the whole +of the affair to the Directorate.</p> + +<p>After the execution of Baboeuf, Fouché obtained, as the price of his +services, an army contractorship, and later was created ambassador to +the Cisalpine Republic. After remaining some time in this capacity at +Milan he returned to Paris in January 1799. In July of the same year +he was nominated Minister of Police. Notwithstanding the opposition of +Siezès, Fouché retained this appointment until the establishment of the +Consular Government. Napoleon, who thoroughly appreciated the abilities +and understood the astuteness of Fouché’s character, made use of him as +his most confidential Minister until 1810.</p> + +<p>The remarkable system of secret police which distinguished the +Consular and Imperial Governments was originated and carried out by +Fouché. It was he who discovered the plot of Georges; who prevented +the assassination of the First Consul by an infernal machine in 1810; +and upon his head, more than upon his master’s, that the guilt of the +murderous execution of the Duke d’Enghien rests.</p> + +<p>Fouché was too wise and far-seeing to approve of the divorce and +re-marriage of Napoleon, and he particularly opposed the Austrian +Alliance; for this the Emperor never forgave him, and when he +discovered that his union with Marie Louise did not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[286]</span> induce the British +Government to recognise his sovereignty, he dismissed Fouché, and in +1810 gave the portfolio of Police to Savary. Fouché was not, at first, +openly disgraced, but appointed Governor of Rome. Before his intended +departure, however, Napoleon ordered him to give up all political +documents in his possession. Fouché sent some insignificant papers, +declaring he had destroyed the remainder. Napoleon was furious, and the +ex-Minister was obliged to fly from France.</p> + +<p>A compromise was arranged, and two years later Fouché returned. In 1813 +he was appointed Governor of Illyria. In the following April, after +the first abdication of the Emperor, he returned to Paris, headed the +deputation which received the Comte d’Artois, and shortly afterwards +Louis XVIII. took him into his confidence and consulted him on many +points. He did not, as he desired, become Police Minister.</p> + +<p>Upon the return of Napoleon and the flight of the Royal Family, Fouché +accepted his old post, but during the whole of the hundred days he +secretly intrigued with the exiled Princes.</p> + +<p>After the Second Restoration, he was immediately summoned to the +Tuileries and re-appointed Police Minister, but he only retained office +three months; he had too many enemies in the Royal <i>entourage</i>, +and found foes among Liberals and reactionaries alike. He was made +Ambassador to the Court of Saxony, but the law of 1815—which banished +all regicides—deprived him of this position and drove him again into +exile. He became a naturalised Austrian, and died four years later at +Trieste, on Christmas Day, 1820. He was but fifty-seven years old, but +a life of excitement and mental overwork had given him the appearance +of extreme old age. He left a fortune of £560,000, amassed, it is +supposed, by subtle and dishonest means during his occupation of the +Ministry of Police.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">FOUQUIER-TINVILLE, Quentin Antoine.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Hérouet in 1747; guillotined in Paris May 8, 1795.</p> +</div> + +<p>He was a son of a wealthy farmer, and after studying law in Paris +bought a <i>charge</i> of <i>procureur</i> at the Châtelet. Although +active and intelligent, his well-known immorality prevented his +achieving success in his profession, and he was forced to sell his +<i>charge</i> to avoid bankruptcy.</p> + +<p>Reduced to any and every expedient to earn a livelihood, he addressed +some flattering verses to Louis XVI., which, by the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[287]</span> efforts of the +Abbé Delille, obtained for their author an appointment in the bureau of +police.</p> + +<p>On the outbreak of the Revolution, Fouquier-Tinville, became an +extremist, and was made commissionary over the district in Paris where +he resided.</p> + +<p>He passed the evening of August 9 in the Commune, pronouncing the most +sanguinary discourses, and took a prominent part in the attack upon the +Tuileries the following day.</p> + +<p>Robespierre and Danton appointed him a member of the jury of the +Revolutionary Tribunal.</p> + +<p>His legal knowledge, his calm determined manner, and his gift of +eloquence led very shortly afterwards to his nomination to the post of +“Public Accuser.” From this moment he considered that he was “Minister +of Political Justice,” the Committee of Public Safety being his +sovereign, and the jury and executioners his servants. He interrogated +the accused as a judicial formality, but he made no inquiry as to the +innocence or guilt of the prisoner. Every evening at ten o’clock he +repaired to the Committee of Public Safety, to give an account of his +doings during the day. His lodgings were in the Palace of Justice, and +he never left them, except to go in the daytime to the Tribunal, and in +the evening to the Committee.</p> + +<p>It was before him that Marat appeared on April 24, 1793, accused by the +National Assembly. Fouquier facilitated his acquittal; this was the +only instance in which he ever showed mercy. Before him passed in vast +procession during the next fifteen months the victims of the Revolution.</p> + +<p>He accused and delivered to death Danton, Hébert and the whole Commune +of Paris, as mercilessly as he prosecuted the last Queen of France. +When Robespierre and his companions were dragged before the Tribunal, +Fouquier said to the jury, who were in doubt as to the course they +should pursue: “We are dispensers of justice, and justice must be +executed upon all who come before us.”</p> + +<p>After the 12th Thermidor, Barrère was desirous of retaining +Fouquier-Tinville in his sanguinary functions. But a universal outcry +prevented this. Fréron, who had himself an odious reputation for +cruelty, denounced Fouquier, saying: “It is time Fouquier-Tinville were +sent to hell to expiate his bloody deeds.”</p> + +<p>The Assembly decreed his trial, and five days later he appeared at the +bar of the Convention. He attempted to throw all the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[288]</span> blame for his +acts upon Robespierre, but he was arrested and imprisoned. His trial +lasted forty-one days, over two hundred witnesses, who gave lengthy +evidence, being interrogated</p> + +<p>He was found guilty of</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>having caused the death of innumerable innocent persons of both +sexes under pretence of being conspirators; of having on one +occasion sent during the space of three hours eighty persons to +the scaffold without respecting legal formalities; of having +crowded upon carts (prepared in readiness before their trial), +victims who had not had any semblance of justice and whose +condemnations were never signed; of having ordered the execution +of a number of pregnant women.</p> +</div> + +<p>Fouquier’s defence was as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>The Convention having declared Terror to be the Order of the +day, in the same breath ordered the extermination of all rebels. +The prisoners were merely sent before me in order that I might +carry out certain legal formalities. It was therefore your +orders, citizen representatives, that I obeyed. Which of you +ever gave me a word of blame? Blood was the perpetual cry upon +the lips of your orators. If I am guilty, then you are all +guilty. I was but the weapon of the Convention; do you punish +the executioner’s axe?</p> +</div> + +<p>He was condemned to death with fifteen other persons, and conducted the +following day to the scaffold. The populace followed the cart which +bore him to punishment with yells of execration and insult. He spoke to +them cynically, and to a man who cried out, <i>Tu n’as plus la parole +aujourd’hui</i>—the taunt he used to those of his victims who wished +to defend themselves before the Tribunal—Fouquier said:</p> + +<p>“And thou, wretched creature, go and claim thy three ounces of bread at +the Section; I at least die with a full stomach and have never known +want.”</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">GANGENELLI, POPE CLEMENT XIV., Jean Vincent Antoine.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, October 1705; died, September 22, 1774.</p> +</div> + +<p>He was the son of a doctor, and became a Franciscan monk at the age of +nineteen. An ardent student of philosophy and theology, he was sent to +the College of St. Bonaventura at Rome to teach theology, and made a +doctor of divinity. Later he became Professor of Philosophy at Ascoli. +He was also a noted orator, and his reputation as a preacher was high +at Bologna, Milan, Ferrara, Venice, and Florence.</p> + +<p>In 1741 he was recalled to Rome.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[289]</span></p> + +<p>He led as retired a life as practicable in Rome, though he was fond of +exercise and riding on horseback. He declared it to be his most earnest +wish to return to the monastery of S. Francis at Assisi, and twice +refused to accept the position of General of his Order. Nevertheless +his great reputation as a theologian caused his elevation to the +Cardinalate in 1759 and ten years later to the Papacy. His election +surprised every one, himself most of all, for Cardinal Ganganelli was +not even a Bishop when nominated to the headship of the Church.</p> + +<p>His five years’ reign was one of the most important during the history +of the Papacy. At that time the Order of Jesus was assailed on all +sides, and every reigning Prince of Europe desired its dissolution. +Still the Society was so powerful, so numerous, and had been so +staunch a supporter of the Holy See that its position was considered +impregnable. Clement XIV., after due consideration and much diplomatic +action, decreed in 1773 the suppression of the congregation founded by +S. Ignatius Loyola.</p> + +<p>He died the following year, and the Jesuits have frequently been +accused of having poisoned him. Historical researches have proved +the injustice of this statement. He was in his seventieth year, and +completely worn out by mental anxiety and overwork.</p> + +<p>He was one of the very ablest as well as one of the worthiest +successors of St. Peter.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">GIRARDON, François.</span></p> + +<p>François Girardon, a celebrated French sculptor, born in 1628, died in +1715 (the same year as his patron and employer, Louis XIV.).</p> + +<p>From 1652 until his retirement in extreme old age he was employed, +first in conjunction with Le Brun, and afterwards singly in directing +the art work undertaken in Paris and at Versailles by Louis XIV.</p> + +<p>His greatest achievements were considered to be the <i>Bain +d’Apollon</i>, the “Rape of Proserpine” at Versailles and the +equestrian statue of Louis XIV., which, before its destruction during +the Revolution, occupied the centre of the Place Vendôme.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">GRÉGOIRE, Henri.</span></p> + +<p>Henri Grégoire, born near Lunéville, 1750, died in Paris, 1831, +was <i>Curé</i> of Embermesnil. Elected to the States-General<span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[290]</span> as +representative of the clergy of Lorraine he proceeded to Versailles, +1789.</p> + +<p>His liberal opinions were already well known by a book he had +published, entitled “Regeneration of the Jews.” This book was in 1788 +crowned by the Academy of Metz.</p> + +<p>At Versailles the Abbé Grégoire soon became intimate with the leading +members of the <i>Tiers État</i>. He exercised an ever-increasing +influence over those among the clerical members of the Assembly who, +like himself, were drawn from the ranks of the people.</p> + +<p>At the very moment when the attack upon the Bastille was proceeding, +and when a large proportion of the Deputies expressed apprehension, +fear and alarm, Grégoire delivered a vehement oration in the Assembly +in favour of the Revolution.</p> + +<p>His influence in the Constitutional Assembly was invariably directed +towards the advancement of those reforms by which he hoped the +enfranchisement of the people might be accelerated. He took an active +part in the abolition of the privileges possessed by the nobility and +clergy, voted against the law of primogeniture, and demanded that Jews +and negroes should have equal civil rights with Christians and white +men.</p> + +<p>When the Clerical Constitution was promulgated, Grégoire was the first +priest who took the oath; and he accepted the Bishopric of Blois under +the new <i>régime</i>. He represented the Department Loir et Cher +(in which his episcopal see is situated) in the Convention, and on +September 22 brought forward a motion in favour of the total abolition +of Royalty and the proclamation of a Republic; his favourite axiom +being, “The history of kings is the martyrology of the people.”</p> + +<p>He was not present at the trial of Louis XVI., but wrote from Chambery +to the Convention, declaring his opposition to a death sentence upon +the King.</p> + +<p>Grégoire became a prominent member of the Committee of Public +Instruction, and by his efforts the <i>Conservatoire des Arts et +Métiers</i> was established.</p> + +<p>He persuaded the Assembly to vote for the political and civil +emancipation of the Hebrew race in France, and to pass a law abolishing +negro slavery in the French colonies.</p> + +<p>Grégoire continued to be an earnest and ardent Christian throughout +the bitter religious persecutions of “the Terror,” and constantly +proclaimed the sincerity of his religious beliefs. He had, indeed, been +first attracted towards the Revolution because<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[291]</span> he imagined it would +bring the adoption of Gospel principles into ordinary life. Bourdon de +l’Oise accused him in the Jacobin Club of a design to Christianise the +Revolution. Grégoire, in reply, declared this his earnest desire.</p> + +<p>After the closing of the Convention, Grégoire joined the Council of the +five hundred; in 1798 he became a Member of the <i>Corps Législatif</i> +to the Presidency, of which he was soon after elected. He did not hold +this post many weeks. His intense Republicanism was distasteful to the +new Government, while his faith in Christianity aroused against him the +animosity of the Radical party.</p> + +<p>Grégoire became a senator in 1801, and retained his senatorship +during Napoleon’s reign. He was opposed to the Imperial policy, +protesting against the occupation of the Papal States and the divorce +and re-marriage of Napoleon. After the Restoration Grégoire suffered +considerable persecution. The Government deprived him of his pension +as a Senator and of his membership in the Academy and Institute. He +was reduced to such a depth of poverty as to be compelled to sell his +library in order to support existence.</p> + +<p>The next fifteen years of his life were spent in complete retirement; +he carried out during this period a vast amount of literary work, and +kept up a very extensive correspondence with eminent and learned men +belonging to various European countries.</p> + +<p>His situation was not improved by the Revolution of 1830. Louis +Philippe obliged him to resign his commandership of the Legion of +Honour, and when, a few months later, he was upon his death bed, +the last sacraments were refused him, by the express order of the +Archbishop of Paris. A courageous priest, the Abbé Gallon, did, +however, administer the viaticum to the dying ex-bishop.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">HAMILTON, William Richard.</span></p> + +<p>William Richard Hamilton was born in London in 1777. In 1799 he +accompanied Lord Elgin to Constantinople as private secretary, and was +employed by that nobleman (British Ambassador to the Porte) to bring +from Rome those artists who assisted him in his selection of certain +statues and friezes, known as the Elgin Marbles, which are now in +the British Museum. These marbles were placed on the <i>Mentor</i>, +this ship being wrecked in September 1803, near the Island of Cos. +Hamilton,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[292]</span> who was on board, saved most of these priceless relics of +antiquity by his presence of mind and intelligence.</p> + +<p>He travelled shortly afterwards in Egypt, and published in 1809 a book, +“Egyptian Monuments,” which was the first work of any importance on +that subject since the days of Herodotus.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hamilton was permanent Under Secretary at the English Foreign +Office from 1809 to 1822; British Minister to the Court of Naples from +1822 to 1829, and President of the Geographical Society in London from +1837 to 1841.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">HAUTERIVE, Count Blanc de Lanautte (Alexandre Maurice).</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born in 1754 at Aspres, in Dauphiné; died in Paris, 1830.</p> +</div> + +<p>He was the thirteenth child of noble born but poor parents.</p> + +<p>One of his uncles, a priest, adopted him, and he was intended for +the Church, and educated at an Oratorian College. He refused to take +orders, and became a lay professor in the University of Tours.</p> + +<p>When the Duke de Choiseul visited this College, young Hauterive +composed and delivered the discourse of welcome. The great nobleman +was so well satisfied that he invited the youthful professor to +Chanteloup. Here he found the Count de Choiseul de Gauffier, who was +about to depart as Ambassador to Constantinople. Hauterive was offered +and accepted the post of private secretary to this Minister, whom he +accompanied to the Levant in 1784.</p> + +<p>When he reached Constantinople he was appointed French secretary to the +Hospodar of Moldavia, an important and highly paid situation.</p> + +<p>Four years later he returned to Paris and married a rich and handsome +widow. When the Revolution broke out he refused to emigrate, and +remained in France a faithful servant to the house of Choiseul. He was +in consequence totally ruined.</p> + +<p>In 1792 he was given the French Consulship at New York, but he soon +lost this appointment on account of his anti-Republican views. He +was at last reduced to great poverty, and worked for a time as a day +labourer. While in America he was joined by Talleyrand, who, however, +soon returned to France. In 1798 Hauterive ventured back to Paris, and +obtained a clerkship at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.</p> + +<p>After the Revolution of the 18th Brumaire (November 1799) Bonaparte, +who required an intelligent individual capable of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[293]</span> composing a general +manifesto to the nations of Europe, was recommended by Talleyrand to +employ Hauterive.</p> + +<p>In six weeks the work appeared under the title of “The Condition of +France at the End of the Year VIII.” Napoleon was greatly pleased, +and Hauterive became one of his most trusted councillors. He was the +principal factor in the diplomatic work of France during the Consulate. +The most important of his achievements was the Concordat. His ancient +theological studies among the Oratorians fitted him well for his task, +and, as he had never taken holy orders, he was not, like Talleyrand, +under the stigma of being a renegade priest. All through the Empire +Hauterive continued to act as diplomatic adviser and agent for Napoleon +all over Europe; he was also the guardian of the archives of France. In +1809 he received the title of Count of the Empire.</p> + +<p>In 1814 he retired into private life. During “the Hundred Days” he +refused to join the Ministry, and only solicited the restitution of his +position as “Director and Guardian of the Archives of France.”</p> + +<p>When the Bourbons returned, Hauterive was restored in this position by +the Duke of Richelieu, the Prime Minister.</p> + +<p>Hauterive exercised great influence during the reign of Louis XVIII., +who had an immense respect for him. His literary work during the +fifteen years of the Restoration was colossal. He died in 1830, aged +seventy-six.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">HOUDON, Jean Antoine.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Versailles, 1740; died, July 16, 1828.</p> +</div> + +<p>He gained at the age of nineteen the “Grand Prix” of Sculpture, and +immediately departed for Rome. He was in Italy when Herculaneum and +Pompeii were discovered. He remained for ten years in the Italian +Peninsula, and executed the colossal statue of St. Bruno, founder of +the Cistercian order, which still stands in the Portico of Santa Maria +dei Angeli in Rome.</p> + +<p>After his return to France he attained great celebrity, and +“L’Ecorché,” the well-known study of a man’s body after the skin has +been removed, showing all the sinews and muscles, was his work. This +model is still used in all Art Academies.</p> + +<p>The United States having decreed that a statue of Washington should +be erected, Houdon was invited to America that he might undertake the +commission. He accompanied<span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">[294]</span> Franklin to Philadelphia on the return +of the latter from his embassy in France. Washington gave him many +sittings, and the statue in question is now in the City Hall of +Richmond, Virginia.</p> + +<p>Many of his later works are well known, particularly the seated figure +of Voltaire in the foyer of the Théâtre Français.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">KOSCIUZKO (Thaddeus of Warsaw).</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born in Poland, February 12, 1746; died in Switzerland, in 1817.</p> +</div> + +<p>A member of an ancient and noble family belonging to Lithuanian Poland. +Being disappointed in love, he left his native country in 1775, for +America, offering his services to Washington as a volunteer. During +the War of Independence he became the intimate friend of Lafayette. +He served with great distinction throughout the long campaign, and, +on the conclusion of peace in 1783, was awarded a considerable share +in those pecuniary gifts decreed by Congress for those who aided the +cause of Freedom; he received the rank of Brigadier-General, and the +order of Cincinnatus. He returned to Poland, and proceeded to take a +considerable and active part in the politics of his native country.</p> + +<p>When, after the first treaty of partition, the Russians occupied +Poland under various pretexts, Kosciuzko acted successfully as +General-in-Chief of the Polish Army and repulsed the enemy; but the +pusillanimous King Stanislaus commanded his troops to lay down their +arms. The Russians entered Warsaw in 1792, and from that moment the +independence of Poland virtually terminated.</p> + +<p>Kosciuzko headed an insurrection against the Russians in 1794, and +after many successes was defeated, seriously wounded and taken prisoner +at the battle of Maciejovice, while Warsaw and Praga were brutally +sacked by Suwaroff. The patriot Pole was thrown into a dungeon, where +he remained until the death of Catherine II. in 1796.</p> + +<p>Paul I. reversed his mother’s policy and released Kosciuzko, who +proceeded first to France and then to England. In both countries he +was received with the greatest honour and respect; the former granted +him the title of <span class="smcap">Citoyen Français</span>. Napoleon, as First Consul, +favoured the Polish general, and employed him in hopes of obtaining +redress for his country’s wrong; the latter was ready to serve and +did serve either Napoleon or Alexander I.,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">[295]</span> but his hopes were always +frustrated, and after the peace of 1815, when the Duchy of Warsaw was +finally united to the Russian Empire, he retired into voluntary exile +and died at Solenme in Switzerland in 1817. His body was eventually +removed to Cracow in Austrian Poland, and his coffin placed in the +cathedral of that city between those of John Sobieski and Joseph +Poniotowski.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">LAFAYETTE, Marie Paul Motier, Marquis de.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, 1757; died, May 19, 1834.</p> +</div> + +<p>Lafayette’s father fell at Minden a few months before his son’s birth, +his mother died when he was an infant. Lafayette inherited a large +fortune, and at the age of seventeen married an heiress, Mdlle. de +Novilles.</p> + +<p>Refusing brilliant offers to Court appointments, and regardless of the +entreaties of his young wife and other relatives, he insisted, when +but twenty years of age, in fitting out a ship at his own expense and +offered his sword to Washington in aid of American independence. He +fought for two years in the War of Secession, was wounded at the battle +of Brandy-Wine, and assisted in the retreat of Barren Hill, where he +showed much courage and tactical skill.</p> + +<p>On hearing there was a likelihood of war breaking out between England +and France, he returned to Europe. He succeeded in persuading Louis +XVI. to send out 4000 troops under the joint command of Count +Rochambeau and himself to assist Washington, and this reinforcement was +mainly instrumental in obtaining the American final successes.</p> + +<p>Lafayette defended Virginia against Lord Cornwallis, and it was he who +was the principal means of causing that commander to capitulate at York +Town.</p> + +<p>Lafayette returned to France in 1785 with a glorious reputation.</p> + +<p>When the States-General assembled, Lafayette was member for Auvergne. +He was elected Vice-President of the Assembly; was in Paris during the +taking of the Bastille, and used every effort in his power to produce +moderation in the Revolutionary party, of which he was a member. When +the mob attacked Versailles his presence of mind and influence over the +crowd were the means of saving the lives of the Queen and the whole +Royal Family. During their terrible drive to Paris, Lafayette rode the +whole way by the side of their carriage, and saved them from as much +outrage as possible.</p> + +<p>His popularity declined after the flight to Varennes, which he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">[296]</span> was +suspected to have assisted. He was given the command of the army on the +frontier, and succeeded in putting these irregular troops into some +kind of order and discipline. He fell into disgrace and was deprived of +his command, owing to the fact that he dared to report unfavourably of +the Jacobin Club; forced to fly from France, arrested in Austria, and +imprisoned for five years at Olmutz.</p> + +<p>His wife and daughters having escaped after fifteen months’ captivity +in the dungeons of Robespierre, joined him in his exile.</p> + +<p>When at last released the Directorate forbade his return to France, +which he did not re-enter until after the events of 18 Brumaire. +Napoleon received him with favour, made him a Counsellor, and offered +him a Senatorship. He voted against the Life Consulate and the +Empire, and retired from public life until the end of the Napoleonic +<i>régime</i>.</p> + +<p>After Waterloo he took part in the Provisionary Government which held +the reins of power until the Allies re-entered Paris. He met with +little favour from the Government of the Restoration, his opinions were +too liberal, and he was suspected of Republicanism.</p> + +<p>In 1824 he returned to the United States, where he was received with +unbounded enthusiasm. In recognition of his services that Government +voted him in land and money a sum equivalent to £30,000.</p> + +<p>He took a leading part in the Revolution of 1830, and greatly assisted +Louis Philippe in obtaining the sovereignty of France; for in his +opinion a constitutional monarchy was the best of republics.</p> + +<p>He died in 1834 at the age of seventy-seven.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">LARCHER, Pierre Henri.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, 1726; died, 1812.</p> +</div> + +<p>One of the greatest Greek scholars of modern times. He translated +Herodotus and innumerable Greek plays and poems. His writings are very +numerous.</p> + +<p>During the Revolution, although his religious convictions were well +known, he escaped persecution and was allotted a pension of 3000 +francs a year by the Directory. He was one of the founders of the +Institut, and was nominated Professor of Greek when aged eighty-four. +Notwithstanding his great age he carried out his duties in this +capacity satisfactorily until his death three years later.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">[297]</span></p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">L’ASNE, Michel.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born in Paris, 1594; died, 1667.</p> +</div> + +<p>He was a celebrated draughtsman and engraver. His engravings after +Rubens and Paul Veronese are now of great value. He also drew and +engraved the portraits of great and distinguished men.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">LAVOISIER, Antoine Laurent.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born in Paris, 1743; guillotined, May 8, 1794.</p> +</div> + +<p>The founder of modern chemistry. His father, a wealthy merchant, gave +him an excellent education, but from his early youth he showed a +precocious taste for science, and when only twenty-one he received the +prize that the Academy of Science had offered “for discovering the best +manner of lighting the streets of great towns.” In 1768 he was elected +Academician. Turgot, in 1776, gave to this great chemist the direction +of the manufacture of gunpowder and saltpetre. In the course of the +next ten years Lavoisier made innumerable useful scientific discoveries.</p> + +<p>Elected Deputy to the National Assembly in 1789; in 1791 he was named +Commissionary of the Treasury, and propounded a scheme which, had it +been carried out, would have been of immense economical service to +France. He took an active part in the construction of the new system +of weights and measures, and constructed in the gardens of the arsenal +apparatus for experiments to aid this purpose.</p> + +<p>In 1793 he measured the base of the new meridian; as Treasurer of the +Academy he put in order the whole of the accounts of that body; and was +able to discover funds which no one was aware the Academy possessed. +In 1769 he had received a post as <i>Fermier-Général</i> from the +Crown; and although such offices had long ceased to exist Robespierre +caused his arrest in 1794, and, on the sole plea that it was the will +of the people that no <i>Fermier-Général’s</i> life should be spared, +the head of this great citizen fell upon the scaffold: four other +former <i>Fermier-Généraux</i>, including his father-in-law, M. Poulze, +perished the same day.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">LE BRUN, Duc de Plaisance, Charles François.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, March 19, 1739; died, June 16, 1824.</p> +</div> + +<p>In early life he showed an extraordinary disposition for learning +languages, and he resolved to perfect this talent by travelling in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">[298]</span> +foreign countries. He went to England, where he spent some time. He +was delighted with the country, its inhabitants and its liberty, +notwithstanding its aristocracy and monarchy.</p> + +<p>After his return to France he became a lawyer. In 1768 he was appointed +Inspector-General of the Crown Lands. He was Chief Secretary to +Maupeau, the Chancellor, whose speeches he composed. In 1774, after +the accession to the throne of Louis XVI., when Maupeau shared the +fate of all the favourites of Louis XV., and had to deliver up his +seals of office, le Brun lost his place too; he continued to practise +his profession till the outbreak of the Revolution; he was Deputy to +the States-General, and spoke in that assembly in favour of the reform +of all abuses. In the Constitutional Assembly he opposed the issue of +paper money and the creation of public lotteries.</p> + +<p>He was the editor and reporter of the new financial laws. Le Brun was +named President of the Directorate of Seine and Oise. In 1792, riots +having occurred in his Department, he put them down by energetic +measures.</p> + +<p>After August 10 he threw up all his employments and retired into +private life; he was shortly afterwards arrested and imprisoned at +Versailles, but, under the <i>surveillance</i> of a gaoler, he was +allowed to visit his friends and relatives. When Robespierre attained +supreme power, le Brun’s captivity became severe; but for the events of +the 9th Thermidor he would certainly have perished upon the scaffold.</p> + +<p>Le Brun re-entered public life in 1795. In December 1799, Bonaparte +appointed him Third Consul, with control of the Finance Department, +and, after the establishment of the Empire, Arch-Treasurer of France.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding le Brun’s objection to hereditary titles, the Emperor +insisted on creating him Duc de Plaisance.</p> + +<p>To le Brun France owes the establishment of the Cour des Comptes.</p> + +<p>In 1805 the Republic of Genoa was annexed to France. Napoleon +despatched le Brun as Governor-General. He remained a year in Genoa, +and showed both ability and moderation there. On his return to Paris +he had the courage to remonstrate with the Emperor upon the proposed +abolition of the “Tribunal,” and resigning his Arch-Treasurership, +retired into private life.</p> + +<p>In 1810 Napoleon, who respected his honesty and valued his intellectual +powers, commanded le Brun to undertake the Governorship of Holland, the +throne of that country being<span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">[299]</span> vacant owing to the abdication of Louis +Bonaparte. Le Brun was now seventy-one years of age, yet he undertook +this arduous task with the vigour of a young man, and in fifteen months +completely reorganised the little kingdom. He was called “the good +Stadtholder” by the Dutch.</p> + +<p>In the disastrous Russian retreat the second son of le Brun perished, +and after the battle of Leipzig the Cossacks invaded Holland. The +Dutch, anxious to regain their independence, rose against the French. +Their respect for the Viceroy was, however, so great that they +conducted him to the frontier with an honourable escort and every +possible courtesy.</p> + +<p>During the events of the first two months of 1814, le Brun assisted the +Imperial Government to the best of his power, and vigorously opposed +the departure from Paris of the Empress Marie Louise.</p> + +<p>He accepted, in the “Hundred Days,” the Grand Mastership of the +University of Paris. After the Second Restoration his name was erased +from the list of peers of France. It was restored in 1819, after which +date, though eighty years of age, he made many important speeches in +the House of Peers, and occupied himself with literary as well as +political work until his death in 1824, aged eighty-five.</p> + +<p>He was not only a great statesman, but a distinguished author, and +besides writing many important works, translated Tasso’s <i>Jerusalem +Delivered</i> and the <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i> of Homer.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">LE CLERC, Jean Baptiste.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, 1756; died, 1826.</p> +</div> + +<p>A philosopher of the school of Jean Jacques Rousseau, he led until the +outbreak of the Revolution, a secluded and studious life, devoted to +literature, music and philosophy, in his native town of Angers.</p> + +<p>Elected to the States-General as a representative of Anjou he +embraced extreme revolutionary views, and, becoming later a member +of the Assembly, invariably voted with the majority: as a member of +the Convention he voted for the immediate death of the King. He was +suspected of favouring the principles of the Girondins, and arrested +and imprisoned, but released after the fall of Robespierre.</p> + +<p>When on the Council of the Five Hundred he created the French +Conservatoire of Music.</p> + +<p>In 1801 Le Clerc was elected President of the <i>Corps Législatif</i>,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">[300]</span> +but only retained this office for a year. He then retired to Chalonnes, +refusing all honours from Napoleon.</p> + +<p>The act of 1816 banished Le Clerc as a regicide.</p> + +<p>Some years before his death he was permitted to return to France.</p> + +<p>He wrote books upon history, philosophy and music, besides much poetry +and many moral tales.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">LEGENDRE, Jean Sebastian.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, 1755; died, 1794. Until 1789 he was a butcher in Paris.</p> +</div> + +<p>He headed that procession which on July 13, 1789, carried round Paris +busts of the Duke of Orleans and Necker. On the following day he +conducted the mob to the Invalides, where they plundered the armoury, +previous to attacking the Bastille. He soon became one of the principal +revolutionary leaders, and was instrumental in forming the <i>Club des +Cordeliers</i>. He it was who, when the crowd invaded the Tuileries +upon June 20, 1792, forced the red cap upon Louis XVI. On August 10 he +took a prominent part in the attack upon the Palace.</p> + +<p>Member for Paris in the Convention, he pressed incessantly for the +speedy trial and execution of the King. During that trial he was +constantly appearing at the Convention and in the Jacobin Club, where +mounting the tribune he demanded with violence that the body of Louis +after his execution should be divided into eighty-four pieces, so +that a portion of the tyrant’s remains might be despatched to every +Department in the Republic. Legendre as Member of the Committee of +Public Safety was, like Marat, one of the principal instigators of +the proscription and execution of the Girondins. When Lanjuna made an +attempt to speak in their defence, the ex-butcher threatened to hurl +the orator from the tribune, unless he was instantly silent. In January +1794, Legendre was accused of <i>Hébertisme</i>, and threatened with +expulsion from the Jacobin Club, but he escaped by proving his intimate +friendship with Marat. Danton had been his friend and ally, and when +the former was arrested Legendre at first spoke in his favour; finding +that the Convention were against such a proceeding, he immediately +declared that he answered for no one’s patriotism, and would never +again defend an accused person. Legendre became the ally of Tallien +and Fréron, and played an important<span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">[301]</span> part in the revolution of 9th +Thermidor. As soon as the decree of arrest against Robespierre had been +carried, Legendre sprang into the tribune and harangued with great +heat and much vigour against the accused, after which he rushed to the +Jacobin Club, forced every member to quit the building, locked the +doors and brought the keys to the Convention. From that day Legendre +never ceased clamouring for the immediate condemnation of the members +of the very party of which he had so long been a leader, calling them +“blood drinkers” and “terrorists.”</p> + +<p>He was elected President of the Convention, and in that capacity +marched at the head of the troops who dispersed and shot down the +surging mobs who surrounded the walls of the Convention demanding bread.</p> + +<p>This was his last exploit. His excesses and the violence of his +temperament had undermined his constitution, and as Member of the +Council of Ancients, he took little part in debate. A few weeks before +his death he made a speech indicting the Government for their leniency +towards the <i>emigrés</i>. He bequeathed his body to the School of +Medicine, “so that even after his death he might still serve mankind.”</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">LIVINGSTONE, Robert.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Born, 1746; died, 1813. He was descended from an ancient +Dutch family that settled on the banks of the Hudson, in the +seventeenth century.</p> +</div> + +<p>A lawyer, one of the committee of five who drew up the Act of +Independence, in 1780 he became Foreign Secretary, and distinguished +himself during the whole of the American War by his zeal and +intelligence. On the conclusion of peace he was named Chancellor for +the State of New York.</p> + +<p>In 1801 President Jefferson despatched him to Paris as American +Minister, when he, conjointly with Monroe, carried out successfully the +negotiations for the cession of Louisiana to the United States.</p> + +<p>Upon his return to his native country in 1805 he founded the New York +Academy of Art, of which he was first President.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">MARAT, Jean Paul.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Boudry, 1744; assassinated in Paris, July, 3, 1793.</p> +</div> + +<p>In early life he was a medical student, and the author of various<span class="pagenum" id="Page_302">[302]</span> +treatises on physical science, and of a pamphlet in favour of the +abolition of capital punishment.</p> + +<p>He settled in Paris, and after attempting unsuccessfully many careers, +such as savant, romantic writer and philosopher, was finally glad, +after many efforts, to obtain the position of doctor to the body guard +of the Comte D’Artois. He had lost this situation some time before the +Revolution.</p> + +<p>When that took place, Marat adopted the surname of “Friend of the +People”: editing and publishing under that title a weekly newspaper.</p> + +<p>Towards the close of 1789, in one of his articles he proposed the +erection of 800 gibbets within the Tuileries Gardens, upon each of +which was to be hanged one of those whom he called “traitors to the +community”; of these the first was to be Mirabeau. In consequence of +this audacious proposal the Constitutional Assembly ordered the arrest +of the author, who took refuge first in the house of an actress at the +Théâtre Français, and later in the presbytery of the <i>curé</i> of St. +Louis at Versailles.</p> + +<p>Marat was one of those seven members of the Commune who signed the +order for the September massacres in the prisons of Paris.</p> + +<p>At the King’s trial his (Marat’s) vote was couched in these terms: “No +appeal to the people, only an accomplice of the tyrant would demand +this.”</p> + +<p>After the execution of Louis XVI. Marat was seized with a frenzied +thirst for blood and massacre, “Let us slay,” he wrote in his journal, +“270,000 partisans of the <i>ancien régime</i>, and reduce by +executions the number of the Convention by a quarter.” He constantly +complained that too few persons were executed, adding, “Only the dead +do not return.”</p> + +<p>The Girondins succeeded in bringing him before the Revolutionary +Tribune, but by the efforts of Fouquier-Tinville he was triumphantly +acquitted. He soon revenged himself upon them, for all the Girondin +party were ordered into arrest upon the 2nd of June following.</p> + +<p>A few escaped from Paris, amongst these was the young gallant and +handsome Barbaroux, who took temporary refuge at Caen in Normandy, +where he met a female descendant of the great Corneille, Charlotte +Corday. Barbaroux’s recitals of the cruelties being exercised in +Paris moved her profoundly; and when a few days later the news of his +execution at Bordeaux reached Caen, she determined ta proceed to Paris +and kill Danton or Marat.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">[303]</span> The sequel of her journey is too well known +to need repetition here.</p> + +<p>After the death of Marat his body lay in state; he was accorded a +magnificent funeral; his bust placed in all French municipalities, and +the honours of the Panthéon decreed to him.</p> + +<p>When the reaction came his bust and statue were destroyed, his remains +disinterred and burnt, and their ashes flung into the main sewer of the +Rue Montmârtre.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">MIRECOURT, Théroigne de.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Mirecourt, Flanders, 1752; died in Paris, 1817.</p> +</div> + +<p>The true name of this heroine of the French Revolution was Anne Josephe +Terwagne of Marcourt, a small town in Luxemburg. The daughter of a rich +farmer, Pierre Théroigne or Terwagne, by the kindness of a distant +cousin, who was the Abbess, she was, although not of noble birth, +educated in the Convent of Robermont. At the age of seventeen she left +her home and followed her lover, a young nobleman, to Paris.</p> + +<p>Here we find her settled, apparently independently, in 1789. A +contemporary describes her as having “a waist you could span with two +hands and the face of the Venus of Praxiteles.” She adopted violent +revolutionary principles, and never missed attending a meeting of the +Assembly.</p> + +<p>She held a kind of <i>salon</i> in her apartment, where she received +the Abbé Siezès and his brother Roussin, Camille Desmoulins, Péthion +and other well-known revolutionists; adopted an extraordinary +semi-masculine military costume, never appearing in public without a +couple of pistols in her girdle, and a sword by her side. She attended +all the principal revolutionary meetings, making violent and incendiary +harangues on every possible occasion; was present at the taking of the +Bastille, and rode in front of the mob which marched on Versailles. +After the arrival of the Royal family in Paris her speeches in Flemish +to the soldiers of the “Regiment de Flandre” assisted greatly in +shaking their loyalty to the King.</p> + +<p>In 1790 she returned to her native country, and remained some time at +Liège. She was arrested there by the Austrians and carried off to the +fortress of Kuffstein in the Tyrol, being accused of plotting against +Marie Antoinette.</p> + +<p>The Emperor Leopold II. had an interview with Théroigne at Vienna, and +was so much smitten by her charms as not only to order her release, but +to pay the expenses of her journey back to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">[304]</span> France. When she reached +Paris she found herself the heroine of the hour. Soon after her return +she commanded the 3rd Army Corps in the Faubourg on the occasion of the +riots of June 20, 1792, and when the fight was over, the Federals, as a +compliment to her bravery, decreed her a civic crown.</p> + +<p>Suleon, the editor of a newspaper, having insulted Théroigne in a +leading article, she, in company with a band of devoted adherents, laid +in wait for him; and although he was at the time actually one of a +patrol of the National Guard going their rounds, seized him by the coat +collar and dragged him into the middle of the street, where she and her +companions despatched him with their sabres.</p> + +<p>She professed opinions similar to those of the Girondins, and when +the fall of this party was imminent, declaimed loudly in their +favour in public places. On one occasion when making a speech in the +gardens of the Tuileries a number of women belonging to the so-called +Société Fraternelle, stripped her naked and flogged her on the spot. +This terrible punishment drove her mad, and she never recovered her +reason. She died at the age of fifty-four in the public madhouse of +La Salpêtrière, where, with one or two brief intervals, she had been +confined for over twenty-four years.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">METHERIE, Jean Claud de la.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born near Macon, 1743; died in Paris, 1817.</p> +</div> + +<p>A medical doctor and a great celebrity in his day as a chemist. He made +many remarkable discoveries, particularly on the subject of oxygen +and other gases. During the last thirty years of his life he devoted +himself to the study of mineralogy and geology. He was appointed in +1812 Professor of Natural Science to the Collège de France, which post +he retained until his death.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">MERLIN, Antoine Christopher.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, 1762; died, 1833.</p> +</div> + +<p>The eldest of four remarkable brothers, who all took a prominent +part in the days of the Revolution and the Empire. Intended for the +Church, he resolutely refused to take holy orders, and leaving his +home in Lorraine at the age of twenty-one, arrived in Paris with only +twenty-five louis in his pocket. He obtained a place as usher in a +military school. The following year he was reconciled to his family, +and his father being President and Procureur of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">[305]</span> Thionville, he agreed +to act as his head clerk, intending eventually to succeed to his +parent’s appointments.</p> + +<p>When the Revolution commenced, Merlin joined the Jacobin party, +returned to Paris, and in 1791 represented Moselle in the Legislative +Assembly. According to his views, Royalty, clergy, and nobility were +alike to be annihilated without delay. Living as he had done upon the +road to Coblentz, he had been able to watch emigration upon the spot. +He wearied the Assembly by his rages and recriminations, accumulating, +as he said, proof upon proof of treason. His violent speeches, his +fierce activity, and his wild passion made him a leader in the Jacobin +Club. He demanded the deportation to the American penal colonies of all +priests who refused the oath, the confiscation of the property of every +<i>émigré</i>, and the establishment of a Committee of Public Safety.</p> + +<p>After the abolition of the Monarchy these proposals were all adopted, +and he made an audacious appeal to insurrection. “It is not with +speeches,” he said, “but with cannon we should attack kings in their +palaces, if we wish to ensure the liberty of the people.”</p> + +<p>When the Tuileries was invaded upon June 20, the spectacle of the +Royal family, abandoned by their friends and covered with insult and +opprobrium, affected him to tears. “You weep,” said the Queen, “at the +sight of a great King brought so low.” “Madame,” he answered, “my tears +are not for a King but for a good father of a family and his estimable +wife, who are suffering misfortune.”</p> + +<p>He took an active part in the events of August 10. He persuaded the +King and his family to leave the Château of the Tuileries, protecting +them on their way to the Assembly. At the peril of his own life he +saved later in the day those of the Duc de Choiseul and a number of the +officers of the Swiss Guard.</p> + +<p>After these events his conduct in the Legislature was more violent +than before. His cry was: “War upon Kings, and peace for Nations.” +At the moment of the invasion he encouraged the people to meet the +enemy at the frontier. Commissioner of the Assembly, he rode over +the five Departments surrounding Paris, obtaining money, horses and +provisions everywhere he went; through his eloquence volunteers flocked +to the Republican flag. He used his influence to prevent massacres of +prisoners and suspected persons.</p> + +<p>His joy at the proclamation of the Republic was intense. He<span class="pagenum" id="Page_306">[306]</span> took his +seat in the Convention on the benches of the <i>Montagne</i>, and +soon became as ferocious as the most ferocious of his companions. He +declared it would be an honour to stab, with his own hand, any person +who aspired to become a tyrant. He pressed forward the trials of the +“infamous Louis” and the “infamous Antoinette.” He defended Robespierre +against Louvet, and was a mortal enemy to Roland.</p> + +<p>At the time of the trial of Louis XVI. Merlin was with the army at +Mayence, he therefore did not vote for the King’s death; but he wrote +to Paris on January 8, 1793: “We are surrounded by the dead and dying. +In the name of Louis Capet our brothers are slain, and yet Louis Capet +still lives!” Merlin, who was in supreme command, showed great ability +and prodigies of courage during the siege of Mayence, which lasted from +March to July of the same year, but famine and the superior number of +the enemy prevailed, and the town capitulated on July 24, 1793.</p> + +<p>On his return to Paris he was arrested as a traitor, and accused of +selling Mayence to the enemy; but was triumphantly acquitted, a victim +being found to assuage the vanity of the Republic in the person of +General Alexandre de Beauharnais, the first husband of the Empress +Josephine, who, being a noble, was a more agreeable offering to the +guillotine than Merlin.</p> + +<p>Merlin for a short time commanded part of the Republican army in La +Vendée, but was recalled and returned to the Convention after an +absence of nearly a year. During this time the political condition of +France had undergone a complete change.</p> + +<p>Merlin, who had now become more a soldier than a politician, joined no +party, until a few days before the fall of Robespierre.</p> + +<p>He made a speech in favour of Danton, and also brought forward a motion +(which was carried) that all the riches and art treasures of conquered +nations should be brought to Paris. It was upon this very motion +Bonaparte acted when he first began to plunder the art collections of +Italy. Merlin terminated his speech in these words: “People of foreign +nations may complain; the remedy is, however, in their own hands,—let +them destroy their monarchs.”</p> + +<p>When the 9th Thermidor arrived, Merlin at once entered into direct +antagonism with Robespierre, and as head of the Committee of War +despatched various brigades of the Parisian <i>Gendarmerie</i> in +detachments to various positions in the city. He descended<span class="pagenum" id="Page_307">[307]</span> into the +street, haranguing the people, whom he called upon to rise in defence +of the Convention. Henriot was arrested by Merlin’s soldiers, and +the same men made the celebrated seizure at the Hôtel de Ville of +Robespierre and the proscribed representatives. The real success of the +9th Thermidor rising is entirely due to Merlin. On August 17 he was +elected President of the Convention, and he prosecuted the Jacobins +without mercy, insisting upon the dissolution of that club (of which he +had once been a leading member), “Let us close,” said he, “this cavern +of brigands and murderers.” It was mainly through his influence that +this society was dissolved.</p> + +<p>In October 1794 he was again despatched to the army of the Rhine, and +gave further proof of excellent generalship and military ability. The +taking of Mannheim, the occupation of Luxemburg and another siege of +Mayence marked this campaign.</p> + +<p>After his return to Paris he assisted in quelling the insurrection of +April 1, 1795, in the Faubourgs of Paris. He was even then only thirty +years of age; and strange to say (although he was still a member of +the Five Hundred), his political and military career may be then said +to have closed. He saw with disgust the Republic alienating itself +from the people and entirely depending upon the army. His dreams of +universal freedom were over, and he did not seek re-election in 1798. +He retired to Commençaux near Chauny, and devoted himself to the +cultivation and improvement of an estate he had purchased during the +<i>Ventes des Biens Nationaux</i>, and the only public function he +exercised was the modest one of <i>juge de paix</i>.</p> + +<p>As he was absent from Paris during the trial of Louis XVI. the law +against regicides did not affect him. He was threatened with banishment +on account of the message he sent the Convention on January 8, 1793, +but he addressed a letter to the Ministers of Louis XVIII. which gained +his pardon; it terminated in these words; “<i>Messeigneurs</i>, I was +twenty-seven when I wrote from Mayence; I am now fifty, and my opinions +have changed. I rely upon the clemency and justice of his Majesty Louis +XVIII.”</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">MIRABEAU, Honoré Gabriel Richietti, Comte de.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, March 9, 1749; died, April 2, 1791.</p> +</div> + +<p>At the age of three he suffered from the smallpox, which disfigured +him for life and completely transformed his features. His father was a +bigoted Jansenist, despotic, harsh, and cruel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_308">[308]</span> to his son, whose ardent +nature and genius he did not in the least understand. He compelled +Honoré, at the age of fifteen, to enter the army. After five years with +his regiment, the young man had shown such aptitude for military study +that he was about to receive promotion, when his father discovered that +he had lost forty louis at play; was in debt, and engaged in an amorous +intrigue with a young woman of the people. The old marquis, therefore, +obtained a <i>lettre de cachet</i>, by which his son was imprisoned +in the fort of the <i>Ile de Rê</i>. Here Mirabeau wrote his famous +“Essay upon Despotism.” After his release he went with his regiment to +Corsica, where he conducted himself with so much distinction as to be +recommended for a captaincy of dragoons. But his arbitrary old father +would not consent to this, as he now wished his son to leave the army +and to embrace a rural life.</p> + +<p>The result was a breach between father and son, though a reconciliation +was effected a few months later. The maternal grandmother of young +Mirabeau died in 1770, and left a vast fortune, which her daughter +attempted to secure entirely for herself by obtaining a separation from +her tyrannical husband. The result was a lawsuit lasting fifteen years, +during the whole of which time Mirabeau was in the painful position +of a son between two parents who furiously hated one another. In 1772 +Mirabeau married, under pressure from his father, the only daughter +of the Marquis de Mariguana, a plain girl of eighteen, reputed to be +a great heiress. He never received any fortune with her, beyond an +annuity of 3000 francs, for her father survived his son-in-law twelve +years, dying in 1803.</p> + +<p>The young couple lived for some time quietly together in the Château of +Mirabeau, but Mirabeau’s fortune was not in any way equal to his rank, +and he soon contracted heavy debts; this again excited his father’s +anger, and he caused him to be arrested in 1774. Mirabeau was therefore +reimprisoned, this time in the Château d’If, in the Gulf of Marseilles. +From the Château d’If he was transported to Fort de Jaux in the Jura. +The governor, who sympathised with him, accorded him semi-liberty, and +he was able to make acquaintances in the town of Portarlier, where +he was hospitably received by the leading families. One of these was +that of the Marquis de Monnier, an old man of seventy, with a young, +beautiful and intelligent wife. Mirabeau became her lover, and he and +she eloped, first to Switzerland, and then to Holland, where they took +up their abode in Amsterdam. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_309">[309]</span> two fugitives were arrested, and +Mirabeau was imprisoned in the Castle of Vincennes, where he remained +for four years, his lengthy incarceration being the result of the +efforts of his implacable father.</p> + +<p>He wrote in prison his <i>Lettres à Sophie</i>, and executed much +literary work. After personally conducting two law cases, one to cause +the revocation of the act against him as ravisher of Mdme. Monnier, and +the other to re-establish his conjugal rights over Mdme. Mirabeau—both +of which he won, after showing prodigious eloquence, though he had +never before spoken in public—he proceeded to London, where he printed +“Considerations upon the Order of Cincinnatus.”</p> + +<p>When the States-General assembled, Mirabeau endeavoured to obtain a +membership; but his own order, the nobility, refused to accept him as +a candidate. He therefore hired a shop in the town of Aix in Provence, +and wrote over the door “Mirabeau, Cloth Merchant.” He was elected by +the <i>Tiers État</i> Deputy for Aix.</p> + +<p>After the opening of the States-General, Mirabeau soon became the most +noted orator in the Assembly, and although on the side of liberty and +freedom he showed much moderation and common sense. It is probable that +had he lived France might have enjoyed the benefits of a constitutional +monarchy, and all the horrors of the Revolution been averted; but his +irregular life had destroyed even his robust constitution, and he +expired on April 2, 1791, aged forty-two.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">MOUGE, Comte de Peluse, Gaspard.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Béaune in Burgundy, 1746; died in Paris, 1818.</p> +</div> + +<p>Early in life he attained extraordinary knowledge in mathematics, +chemistry and geometry. At the age of sixteen he made a plan of his +native town with only the aid of geometrical instruments he had +manufactured himself. This plan was exhibited in the Hôtel de Ville of +Béaune, and was there seen by a distinguished engineering officer, who +invited its creator to enter the famous College of Mézières. This offer +was accepted; Mouge became Professor of Mathematics in this College, +and was admitted to the Academy of Sciences in 1780. He retained this +post until the Revolution closed both College and Academy.</p> + +<p>In 1792 Mouge was appointed Minister of Marine; he held this position +for a year—from August 11, 1792, to August 12, 1793.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_310">[310]</span></p> + +<p>At this moment the indignation of Europe against France had reached +its height; the whole continent was prepared to attack her. The French +Government, without money and without credit, required fourteen +armies—and they obtained them. A million men were at their disposal, +but these men were unarmed. Until this period all war material, iron, +bronze, steel, even gunpowder had been supplied from abroad; but +importation had now ceased. Mouge now showed the resources of his +genius; he wrote, “All we require to aid the triumphs of our soldiers, +all we formerly asked for from the stranger is concealed in our +soil—it remains only for us to pluck it out.”</p> + +<p>He placed himself at the head of a body of metallurgists, mechanics +and chemists, and directed night and day the manufacture of arms and +explosives. Bells were turned into cannon, old iron hardened into +steel, and saltpetre extracted from the simplest materials. An immense +quantity of powder filled the magazines, and cannons and other weapons +were cast or forged in enormous quantities.</p> + +<p>These great efforts ended, Mouge determined to open, at his own +expense, a house where he might entertain and instruct a number of +young men destined for the artillery of engineers. This establishment +was the nucleus from which the <i>École Polytechnique</i> sprang.</p> + +<p>In 1792, when Mouge was Minister of Marine, he received with kindness a +young artillery officer who was out of employment. This same artillery +officer, four years later, became the conqueror of Italy.</p> + +<p>Mouge received an order to proceed to Italy to value, collect, and +attempt to preserve, those works of Italian art it was proposed to +remove to France. He received the warmest greeting from Bonaparte, who +gave him every token of friendship.</p> + +<p>Mouge was despatched by Bonaparte in 1797 to Rome—when the Pope was +forced to fly and the Roman Republic established—with the order to +bring statues and pictures from the Vatican to Paris.</p> + +<p>He accompanied Napoleon to Egypt, together with many other men of +science, to bring back the spoils of that country, in the same way +they had removed those of ancient Rome. While the French occupation +of Egypt continued, Mouge made many discoveries there, and explored +the Temples of the Nile, travelling as far as the Second Cataract. He +followed Bonaparte to Syria, and was his constant companion during that +disastrous expedition.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_311">[311]</span> When Napoleon quitted Egypt surreptitiously for +France, August 22, 1799, Mouge was one of the passengers on board the +small frigate which carried General Bonaparte and his destiny.</p> + +<p>On his return to France, Mouge continued his scientific work. After the +establishment of the Empire, he was appointed Governor and Director of +the <i>École Polytechnique</i>, Senator, and given the title of Comte +de Peluse. He retained these honours until the second Restoration, when +Louis XVIII. erased his name from the list of the Institute, besides +depriving him of the Directorship of the <i>Polytechnique</i>, which he +(Mouge) had founded.</p> + +<p>Mouge felt this deprivation deeply, and the last three years of his +life were passed in melancholy depression and regret. He died in 1818, +at the age of seventy-two.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">MOITTE, Pierre-Etienne.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, 1722; died, 1780.</p> +</div> + +<p>A celebrated French engraver. His works are now of high commercial +value.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">NECKER, Suzanne Curchod.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Crassier in the Canton of Vaud, 1739; died at Lauzanne, +1794.</p> +</div> + +<p>Her father was a Protestant pastor, who educated her. At the age +of twenty she had a perfect and intimate knowledge of modern and +classical literature. She was tall and handsome, her manners amiable +and dignified. Her parents were poor; she was therefore obliged to give +private lessons in families. Gibbon, the historian, knew and admired, +and even desired to marry her. His father, however, absolutely refused +his consent on account of Mdlle. Curchod’s want of means.</p> + +<p>Having lost both her parents she went to Paris as the companion of a +Mdme. de Verenenon, a rich widow. Mdme. Verenenon possessed a suitor, +one Monsieur Necker, a wealthy banker of about thirty-two years of age.</p> + +<p>When M. Necker met the young companion he transferred his affections to +her, and they were married in 1764. Their union was a very happy one.</p> + +<p>Mdme. Necker’s salon was one of the most agreeable and cultured in +Paris, her <i>habitués</i> being Buffon, Thomas, St. Lambert, Suard, +Marmontel, Saurin, Duclosé, Diderot, D’Alembert, De la Harpe, Guibert, +Abbé Delille, Abbé Arnaud, Abbé Morellet, Comte de<span class="pagenum" id="Page_312">[312]</span> Creutz, Duc d’Azeu, +Marquis de Caraccioli. Her greatest friends were Buffon and Thomas.</p> + +<p>During her husband’s first Ministry, Mdme. Necker occupied herself +particularly with the Paris Hospitals, then in a deplorable condition, +and at the moment when the Revolution drove her from France, she was +busy arranging a model hospital she had founded at her own expense.</p> + +<p>She died, aged fifty-four, at Lausanne.</p> + +<p>She had an only daughter, the celebrated Madame de Staël, born in +1766. The relations of mother and child were, unfortunately, never +happy, as the amiable, pious, but rigid Calvinist mother could in no +way understand the character or disposition of her brilliant daughter. +M. Necker, on the contrary, made his child his friend and companion +from her early girlhood, and in consequence a violent jealousy existed +between the mother and daughter, which as years went on embittered both +their lives, and continued until Mdme. Necker’s death. M. Necker died +ten years later, in 1804.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">NEUFCHÂTEAU, Nicholas François, Comte de.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, 1750; died, 1828.</p> +</div> + +<p>Son of a schoolmaster in Lorraine, Nicholas François was educated at +a Jesuit College, where he was known as “the Infant Prodigy.” At the +age of fourteen he published a volume of poems and fables, imitations +of Ovid, Horace, and Virgil; and was crowned by the Academy of Dijon. +Voltaire, then seventy-two years of age, invited the youthful genius +to Ferney, and wished to make him his private secretary (1767), but +the Comte de Henin, who was the patron of François, insisted upon his +<i>protégé</i> leaving Ferney and accepting a post in the magistracy. +The town of Neufchâteau solemnly adopted their illustrious young +citizen, who from thenceforward added the name of Neufchâteau to that +of François.</p> + +<p>He was brought under the notice of Maréchal de Costires, then Minister +of Marine, who appointed François Procurator to the General Council in +the Colony of St. Domingo, now the Island of Hayti.</p> + +<p>After spending five years in the West Indies, the young magistrate +obtained leave of absence, and started for France, bringing with him +the literary work of five years, including a complete translation of +the works of Ariosto. His ship was wrecked, and he was cast on a desert +island; all his manuscripts going down<span class="pagenum" id="Page_313">[313]</span> with the ill-fated vessel. +François Neufchâteau considered this loss to be the great catastrophe +of his life. He was finally rescued, reaching France in safety, and +receiving a pension of 3000 livres (£120), proposed to devote his life +to literature and poetry.</p> + +<p>The events of 1789 altered the current of his existence. He was elected +a member of the Assembly, and the following year sent as Commissionary +to the Vosges for the organisation of that new Department.</p> + +<p>He was eventually appointed President of the first Legislative Assembly.</p> + +<p>He refused the Ministry of Justice, choosing instead the humbler but +safer position of <i>juge de paix</i> in the Department of Vosges.</p> + +<p>His friends persuaded him to return to Paris to superintend the +rehearsal of his play “Pamela” (translated from one of Goldoni’s +comedies) at the Théâtre Français. Produced on August 1, 1793, this +innocent and simple drama achieved an immense success, and was played +for eight consecutive nights. The curtain was just about to rise upon +the ninth performance, when a message from the Committee of Public +Safety arrived to stop the play, the author was summoned before +the Committee the same evening, and ordered to bring with him the +manuscript of the piece. Neufchâteau submitted humbly to all demands as +to corrections and excisions, altered, as desired, the fourth and fifth +acts of the play, and even gave it a different ending. Robespierre +and his Council permitted the performance of the revised play. It was +reproduced September 1, and again ran for eight nights; upon the ninth +evening this verse was applauded:—</p> + + <div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div>Ah! les persécuteurs sont les seuls condamnable,</div> + <div>Et les plus tolérants sont les plus raisonnable.</div> + </div> + </div> + </div> + +<p>Before the play was finished, the Committee of Public Safety served the +following order at the Théâtre Français:</p> + +<p>“The <i>Théâtre Français</i> is to be immediately closed, the actors, +actresses, and <i>employées</i> arrested, together with the author of +‘Pamela,’ and conveyed to the Prison of La Force.”</p> + +<p>In this prison Neufchâteau remained eleven months, until August 4, +1794, when he was released, and shortly afterwards appointed Judge +of the High Court during the Directorate, after being Governmental +Commissionary for some time in the district of the Vosges. He became +Minister of the Interior in 1797. In<span class="pagenum" id="Page_314">[314]</span> all these appointments he gave +many proofs of capacity, judgment, moderation, and kindliness of heart.</p> + +<p>When the Consulate was established he was not only made a Senator, +but occupied the Presidential Chair of the Senate until 1808, when +he abandoned politics for scientific and literary pursuits. He was +deprived of his peerage (Napoleon had made him a Count of the Empire) +at the Restoration, but allowed to retain his membership of the Academy.</p> + +<p>Although married four times, he left only one surviving son. A painful +malady rendered Neufchâteau a helpless invalid for the last ten years +of his life, but he retained his lively philosophic character to the +last, and was constantly surrounded by friends and admirers, who +enjoyed his witty as well as learned conversation. He continued his +literary work until his death.</p> + +<p>His moral tales, poems, and philosophical and historical treatises are +now forgotten; but his writings upon scientific agriculture are still +consulted by experts in that science.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">LE NÔTRE, André.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">A celebrated designer of gardens. Born, 1613; died, 1700.</p> +</div> + +<p>Louis XIV. commissioned him to lay out the park and gardens of +Versailles, and gave him entire control over the royal gardens of +France. The geographical situation of Versailles made any arrangements +for gardens, fountains, and terraces extremely difficult, but Le Nôtre +overcame all difficulties, and fed the fountains by constructing a +canal to carry off the waters of a neighbouring marsh, which was thus +rendered a fertile and cultivated spot.</p> + +<p>Le Nôtre created the gardens of Marly, and also constructed the +splendid terrace at St. Germain. He laid out the gardens of Chantilly +for the Prince de Condé of the day. Those at Fontainebleau and St. +Cloud were also designed by him. Proceeding to England in the reign of +Charles II., he laid out and arranged the present Parks of Greenwich +and St. James. The lake in the latter was constructed by Le Nôtre.</p> + +<p>Le Nôtre was a man of the most simple and natural nature, and for that +very reason was probably one of the greatest favourites, among his +servants, of Louis XIV. This anecdote, which is historically true, +describes the character of the man: In 1678 he made a visit to Italy +to study the beautiful gardens which surround the great villas of +that country. He was received in audience by Pope Innocent XI., who +treated him with much distinction, and Le Nôtre, as he was taking +leave, remarked: “I have now nothing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_315">[315]</span> more to desire; I have seen the +two greatest men in the world—your Holiness and the King of France.” +“There is a great difference between us,” replied the Pope; “the King +of France is a great and victorious Prince, I am but a poor priest, the +servant of the servants of God.” Le Nôtre, delighted with this reply, +slapped the Pope familiarly on the back, saying, “Holy Father, do not +be despondent; you look in perfect health, and may live to bury every +present member of your sacred College.” Innocent XI. burst into a fit +of laughter, and Le Nôtre threw himself on the Pope’s neck, kissing him +affectionately. Le Nôtre retired, delighted with his interview, and +proceeded to write full details of it to Bontemps, the confidential +valet of Louis XIV.; this letter was read aloud at the Petit Levée of +the King. Several courtiers doubted the truth of its contents, but the +King said, “Why not? Whenever I return from a campaign and give Le +Nôtre an audience he always embraces me, so he most likely embraces the +Pope also.”</p> + +<p>At the age of eighty, when he wished to retire, Le Nôtre only obtained +permission to do so on the condition he would pay a weekly visit to the +King. He died at eighty-seven, and was buried in the church of St. Roch +in Paris, in a chapel he had founded.</p> + +<p>He refused armorial bearings when offered a patent of nobility, +declaring his only crest was a spade.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">D’ORLÉANS, Louis Philippe Joseph, Duc (Philippe Egalité).</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at St. Cloud, April 13, 1747. Guillotined in Paris, +November 6, 1793.</p> +</div> + +<p>His tutor was the Comte St. Meurice, and great pains were taken with +his education.</p> + +<p>He appears to have inherited the character and disposition of his great +grandfather, the Regent, without the firmness of disposition and great +natural intelligence and perspicuity possessed by that Prince.</p> + +<p>In 1769 he married Louise de Bourbon, only daughter of the Duke de +Penthièvre. At the wedding he greatly scandalised the Court by his +behaviour, although his offence was only that natural to a lively young +man. Being accidentally placed on the left, instead of the right, of +the bride, he took a running leap and jumped over her train to reach +the other side.</p> + +<p>Soon after his marriage, he entered on a life of wild dissipation, +became a Freemason, declared his admiration for everything English, and +imported horses and jockeys from the other side of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_316">[316]</span> the Channel. He +also made every effort to gain popularity with the people. In 1771 he +opposed the decree by which, in the last years of the reign of Louis +XV., the Chancellor Maupeon had suppressed the provincial Parliaments +of France, and was in consequence exiled to his country seat during the +remainder of that King’s reign. Immediately on his accession, Louis +XVI. re-established these Parliaments, and the Duc de Chartres (as he +then was) returned to Court.</p> + +<p>When the war broke out between France and England, the young Duke +petitioned that he might act for his father-in-law, the Duke de +Penthièvre, who was Grand Admiral of France. This was refused; he was, +however, given a nominal command in the fleet of Admiral d’Orvilliers. +He was present at the battle of Onessant, where he commanded the +squadron of the blue, under the surveillance of Admiral Lamotte +Picquet, who was really in charge of this portion of the fleet. The +admiral gave an excellent account of the courage and coolness shown by +the Prince when under fire.</p> + +<p>The French were victorious, but, owing to the incompetency of +d’Orvilliers, gained no real advantage from the combat.</p> + +<p>The fleet returned to Brest, August 2, 1778, and when the Duc de +Chartres reached Paris he was received with so much enthusiasm by the +populace as to excite the apprehension of the Court party and to evoke +an indignant hostility from the Queen.</p> + +<p>Shortly afterwards the Duke returned to his duties on the fleet, and +his enemies at Court took the opportunity of his absence to spread +against him the most scandalous libels—amongst others that the Duke de +Penthièvre was persuaded that his son-in-law desired to supplant him +in the post of Grand Admiral, whereas he only desired to act as his +deputy. So well did his enemies work, that when Chartres returned after +a few months’ absence, he was as coldly received by the populace as by +the courtiers. More than this, when he wished to return to the fleet, +his command was taken from him and he was compelled to leave the Navy. +This treatment was rendered the more bitter, as the first intimation he +received of it was in a letter from his avowed enemy the Queen.</p> + +<p>From this moment the Duke avoided the Court, although he retained a +friendship for the Comte d’Artois, and the two young Princes were +companions in pleasure. The Queen, who was greatly attached to her +young brother-in-law, used all her influence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_317">[317]</span> to draw him away from the +“contagion” of Orleans. She persuaded the King to buy the Château de S. +Cloud from the Duke (it was the favourite residence of the latter), and +although d’Orléans was both furious and chagrined at being compelled +to part with his <i>château</i>, he had no alternative but to obey +the order of his sovereign. The huge sum raised to buy this palace +was a serious drain on the exhausted Treasury, and the Queen lived to +bitterly regret her imprudent action. A libel was freely circulated +and believed all over France, on the occasion of the death of the +Prince de Lamballe, only son of the Duke de Penthièvre. It was said +that d’Orleans had poisoned his brother-in-law, in order that his wife +might be sole heiress to the vast fortune of her father. The Queen went +so far as to say publicly she feared a similar fate would soon befall +the Comte d’Artois. Driven from the Court by these outrages, the Duke +d’Orleans’ amiable and <i>débonnaire</i> nature became utterly soured. +In the first Assembly of Notables he became one of the leaders of +the Opposition. On November 19, 1787, when the King proposed to this +Assembly two edicts—one for the creation of a stamp duty, the other +for a graduated loan of 440,000,000 francs—the Duke d’Orleans rose and +boldly questioned the monarch, asking him whether this sitting was “a +bed of justice” or “an open debate.” “It is a royal sitting,” the King +replied. “If that is the case,” answered the Duke, “I protest against +this measure; for I declare that the right of voting taxes only belongs +to the States-General.” Only two other Councillors agreed with the +Duke, and the edicts were immediately carried. Fréteau and Sabatier, +the Councillors in question, were immediately exiled to Iles d’Hyères, +the Duke of Orleans to Villers. This disgrace immensely increased the +Duke’s popularity. He did not return to Paris for a year, and when the +States-General was assembled he was elected deputy for Crespy. During +the solemn procession at Versailles (May 4, 1789), before the opening +of this Assembly, it was noticed with what affectation the Duke sought +to mingle with the ranks of the Deputies of the <i>Tiers État</i>.</p> + +<p>In the first sittings of the States-General, the Duke pronounced +energetically in favour of the reunion of all the orders. On June +25 he, together with forty-six other noblemen, joined the <i>Tiers +État</i>, now the National Assembly; on July 3 he was elected +President, but refused the honour. On the 12th the people, exasperated +by the fall of Necker, carried the busts of Necker and the Duke about +Paris under the leadership of Legendre. It was from the gardens<span class="pagenum" id="Page_318">[318]</span> of the +Duke’s house (the Palais Royal) that, two days later, the organised mob +departed to take the Bastille.</p> + +<p>Had d’Orléans possessed at this moment sufficient determination and +intellectual force, he might easily have become Lieutenant-General of +the Kingdom, with Necker for his Prime Minister. But he had not enough +courage, nor, possibly, enough ambition to carry out any definite +project; and he drove his partisans, among whom was Mirabeau, to +despair by his hesitating and undecided conduct. He remained a member +of the Extreme Left of the Assembly, but scarcely ever made a public +speech. In October of the same year, the Court party, and also the +<i>bourgeois</i>, were so exasperated against the Duke of Orleans, that +Lafayette himself was persuaded to order the Duke out of France. He was +sent to London on an imaginary mission: returned the following summer, +was acclaimed by the Assembly, and renewed his alliance with Mirabeau.</p> + +<p>After the flight of Louis XVI., in June 1791, the throne was +temporarily vacant; and again, had the Duke chosen to come forward, his +advances would have been well received by the nation and the Assembly. +He did not dare to do so, and so lost his last opportunity.</p> + +<p>The next month the new Constitution ordained that French Princes could +not be elected to any functions by the votes of the people; Orléans, +therefore, publicly renounced all prerogatives or privileges accorded +to Royalty, and declared himself a simple citizen.</p> + +<p>At that time there was an attempted reconciliation between the King +and the Duke, which was doubtless sincere on both sides. The new +Minister of Marine, Bertrand de Motteville, arranged that the Duke of +Orleans should be one of the Vice-Admirals in the reorganised fleet. +The project was communicated to Louis XVI., who expressed himself +satisfied, and the Duke was grateful. The King and he, by the medium +of de Motteville, had a private interview, and parted on friendly +terms. The following Sunday (January 1792) the new Admiral came to +the Tuileries to pay homage to the King. It was the dinner-hour, the +table for the King and Queen was already laid, and the room was full of +courtiers. As soon as the Duke appeared, he became the object for the +most opprobrious insults. “Take care of the dishes!” was shouted on all +sides—the insinuation being he was about to put poison in them. He was +pushed about, his feet were purposely trodden on, and as he descended +the stairs several persons spat on his head and clothes. He left in a +state of indescribable rage, believing that the King had enticed him to +the Palace in order to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_319">[319]</span> insult him; the King was really innocent of the +whole matter, but sent no message of apology or regret.</p> + +<p>From that day Orléans threw himself with energy into the extreme +revolutionary party, and by becoming Danton’s banker drew him away from +the Court party, in whose pay that corrupt politician had for some time +been.</p> + +<p>Orléans became Deputy for Paris in the Convention, accepting the name +of Philippe <i>Égalité</i>, which title was bestowed upon him on +September 15, 1792. When the King’s trial took place, “<i>Egalité</i>” +said Robespierre, “is the only member who has a right to refuse to +vote.” But Orléans thought he would save his own head and his credit +with the Jacobins by condemning his relative. When his name was called, +he said: “Entirely preoccupied by a sense of duty, and convinced that +all those who attempted to reign or have reigned as sovereigns over the +people merit death—I vote for death.” This speech did not have the +expected effect, those who were not indignant being disgusted at it.</p> + +<p>On April 6 of the same year the Convention ordered that “all members +of the Bourbon family be detained as hostages”; on the 7th, Orléans +was arrested and conducted to Marseilles. He addressed petition after +petition to the Convention without effect, and was removed to Paris +and imprisoned at the Conciergerie on October 3. Both Queen Marie +Antoinette and d’Orleans simultaneously occupied cells in this prison +for a space of a few days. Two or three weeks after her execution the +Duke was put upon his trial; he defended himself with courage and +coolness, but his fate was sealed in advance. After condemnation he +asked to be executed without delay; and on the same afternoon, four +hours after the trial, he was conducted to the scaffold with five +Deputies, condemned, like himself, as Girondists. He passed by his +former palace on the way to execution, and, pointing to it, exclaimed, +with a gesture of contempt, “How they applauded me once!” When he had +left the cart and mounted the plank of the guillotine he said to the +executioner, “Do not let your fellows pull off my boots until I am +dead, they will come off easier then; make haste! make haste!” These +were his last words.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">PAINE, Thomas.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Thetford, Norfolk, in 1737; died at New York, 1809.</p> +</div> + +<p>Paine was the son of a Quaker staymaker. He learnt to read, write, +and cypher at a free school, and at the age<span class="pagenum" id="Page_320">[320]</span> of sixteen worked at his +father’s trade. He twice ran away from home to go to sea; but married +in 1759 and settled in Sandwich, still working as a staymaker. His wife +dying two years later, he went to London, and obtained a situation as +schoolmaster in an elementary school, and toiled hard for two years at +his own self-education.</p> + +<p>In 1771 he married the daughter of a tobacconist, and joined his +father-in-law in trade. His affairs did not prosper, and three +years later he became bankrupt. He decided to emigrate to America; +having made the acquaintance of Franklin (at that time in London), +the latter, as a fellow Quaker, gave him letters of recommendation. +Paine was thirty-seven when he embarked for America; on his arrival +in Philadelphia he was engaged as editor for a periodical called the +<i>Philadelphian Magazine</i>. His articles began to excite attention, +particularly several against slavery.</p> + +<p>He took the most ardent interest in the struggle between England and +America. After the battle of Bunker Hill it was still undecided whether +the colonists would demand complete independence and separation, or be +satisfied with certain concessions on the part of the mother country. +It was then Paine published his famous pamphlet “Common Sense,” which +produced a tremendous impression, more than 100,000 copies being sold. +From an obscure individual he became a celebrity. During the remainder +of his life Paine invariably signed himself “Common Sense,” and was +convinced that had he not written the work in question the United +States, as a nation, would never have come into existence.</p> + +<p>The following autumn he joined the American army as <i>aide-de-camp</i> +to General Green, and in 1777 he was appointed by Congress Secretary +to the Committee of Foreign Affairs; after two years he was dismissed, +under the accusation of indiscretion as to diplomatic secrets. In 1781 +he accompanied Colonel Laurence, whom Congress had commissioned to try +and raise a loan, to France. This mission was a complete success. Louis +XVI. lent six millions of francs, and guaranteed another ten millions +promised by Holland.</p> + +<p>Peace having been declared, Paine returned to America. As a return for +his services, Congress voted him 5500 dollars in two separate sums, and +gave him a grant of 300 acres of land and a house.</p> + +<p>Paine proceeded to work out various scientific and mechanical problems, +by which he hoped to realise a large fortune, his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_321">[321]</span> favourite dream +being to throw an iron bridge over the Schuykill. Want of capital, and +the impossibility of getting iron properly wrought or cast in America, +caused his return to Europe. He proposed to present the model of his +bridge to the French Academy of Science, Franklin giving him letters of +introduction: the Academy received him well, and their committee made +a favourable report. But politics, and not science, were in the air, +and no one could be persuaded to put money into the venture. Paine then +went to London in hopes of better luck; a Yorkshire ironmaster took up +the invention, and an American merchant advanced the money; but the +expenses proved far heavier than had been anticipated, the ironmaster +went bankrupt, and his creditors arrested Paine, who only obtained his +liberty at the sacrifice of most of his little fortune.</p> + +<p>The Revolution had now broken out in France, and the English Whig +party, which had at first shown much sympathy with the movement, became +alarmed and shocked at the excesses and disorders it entailed. In +1790 Burke published his celebrated treatise, “Thoughts on the French +Revolution,” which Paine answered by his equally well-known work, +“The Rights of Man.” This book excited immense indignation in England +among the general public, and its author was burnt in effigy in the +streets. The second part of the “Rights of Man,” which was published +in February 1792, was still more violent, containing direct personal +attacks upon George III. These books delighted the extremists, and were +immediately translated into French. The British Ministry issued a royal +proclamation forbidding seditious writings, and summoned Paine before +the Court of King’s Bench.</p> + +<p>At the same time a deputation of electors arrived from France to inform +Paine that he had been elected a Member of the Convention; flattered +by this distinction, he started at once for France, and an hour after +he had sailed the order for his arrest arrived. He was tried by +default, and his sentence was banishment for life from Great Britain +and Ireland. As he could not speak French, he was unable to take part +in the debates of the Convention; but when the King’s trial took place +he fought courageously against the death sentence, and caused the +following expression of his opinions to be read aloud by one of his +fellow members:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>To kill Louis would not only be a gross act of inhumanity, but +also of insane folly. His death would augment the number of your +enemies. If<span class="pagenum" id="Page_322">[322]</span> I could speak French I would now descend and appear +as a humble suppliant before your bar, imploring you in the name +of my generous American brethren not to send Louis to execution.</p> +</div> + +<p>This generous action on the part of Paine completely destroyed his +credit with the Jacobins, and also in a great measure his general +popularity in France. The governing party were from that time his open +enemies; Robespierre erased his name from the list of members of the +Convention, as “a foreigner who was an enemy to Liberty and Equality.” +He was arrested and imprisoned in the Luxemburg.</p> + +<p>Thomas Paine remained for more than a year in prison in daily +expectation of death. It was only by a mistake on the part of his +gaoler in reading out the names of the condemned that he escaped +execution. Even the fall of Robespierre did not give him freedom; +and he was at length liberated in November 1794, by the influence of +Monroe, the American Minister, who claimed him as a citizen of the +United States.</p> + +<p>He attempted to obtain a seat in the Assembly, but was not elected. +The long imprisonment had not only affected his health but also his +intelligence. He published a work entitled the “Age of Reason”—a +violent attack upon Christianity, which aroused a sensation in England, +and evoked much energetic refutation of its teaching. It made Paine +a vast number of enemies in the United States, and he rendered the +situation still more impossible by publishing in 1797 a letter, full of +bitterness and ill-nature, criticising the character and administration +of Washington.</p> + +<p>He did not leave France until the autumn of 1802, when he returned to +America, where he found he had lost the consideration and respect which +he formerly enjoyed in the United States.</p> + +<p>His last years were spent in loneliness and neglect. He was thought by +his enemies to be avaricious, dirty and careless of his appearance, and +to indulge in intemperate habits. He died, almost forgotten, in New +York in 1809, aged seventy-one, and was buried upon his farm at New +Rochelle. In 1837 Cobbett transported the remains to England, where +they were reverently received by the Radicals and Chartists of the day.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">PIUS VI., Giovanni Angelo, Count de Braschi.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, December 27, 1717; died at Valence, August 29, 1799.</p> +</div> + +<p>He was the only child of Count More Aurelius Braschi, the head of +one of the oldest families in the Romagna. To his parents’<span class="pagenum" id="Page_323">[323]</span> grief he +insisted upon taking holy orders, and was appointed secretary to his +maternal uncle, Cardinal Ruffio, Legate at Ferrara. Later Braschi +became auditor to the Bishoprics of Ostia and Velletri; while in the +latter city, in 1744, when there was an encounter between the Austrians +and Neapolitans (the latter commanded by King Charles III. of Spain, +then King of Naples), Braschi was able by his presence of mind to +save the Neapolitan archives. This circumstance brought him to the +notice of the King of Naples, who promised him his protection: shortly +afterwards he successfully conducted a mission from the Pope to the +King of Naples, and was appointed <i>Camariere Segreto</i> and Canon of +St. Peter’s. In 1758 he became a Prelate, and Treasurer-General of the +Apostolic Chamber. Clement XIV. created him a Cardinal in 1773, and in +1775 he was elected Pope, under the title of Pius VI.</p> + +<p>His reign inaugurated an era of reform; he issued many rules and +regulations as to the dress and general conduct of the clergy, which +at the time, owing to the indifference and weakness of his immediate +predecessor’s administration, left much to be desired.</p> + +<p>His position as treasurer had given him an insight into the abuses +prevailing in the financial department of the Papal Government, and a +reduction or suppression of a number of dishonestly obtained pensions +took place. He published various laws for the protection of farmers and +corn-dealers, and offered substantial pecuniary rewards to industrious +and intelligent peasant farmers. A Congregation of Cardinals was called +together to pass regulations to put a stop to the grave disorders +occasioned by idleness, mendicity, and too low wages; the system of +weights and measures was thoroughly investigated, and one contractor +in particular, who had received 900,000 crowns from the Apostolic See +during the famine of 1771–72 to buy grain for the assistance of ruined +farmers, was forced to restore 280,000 crowns of this money to the +Treasury. Pius VI. ordered the drainage of the Pontine Marshes, and +employed for this purpose the celebrated engineer, Louis Benck; and +although the work was not finished, owing to the Revolution, 12,000 +acres were reclaimed. He also cleared the Appian Way, then impassable +owing to the vast multitude of stone heaps from ruined buildings by +which it was encumbered. Pius VI. embellished, completed, arranged, and +classified the “Museo Clementino.” Combined with these reforms he gave +great attention to charitable institutions, initiated<span class="pagenum" id="Page_324">[324]</span> those schools +of the Christian Brothers which are now spread all over the world, and +erected many orphanages and refuges for poor children of both sexes.</p> + +<p>Pius’s serious troubles began with the accession of that misguided but +well-meaning monarch, Joseph II. of Austria. This Emperor’s intentions +were excellent, nor was he impious or irreligious, yet by his +exorbitant pretensions to sovereignty in every department of the State, +and his avowed intention to re-organise on his own responsibility the +spiritual affairs of his Empire, he was a powerful agent to the enemies +of Christianity. After having continued for some time a correspondence +with the Emperor which led to no satisfactory understanding on either +side, Pius VI. determined to seek a personal interview with him. +Leaving on February 27, 1782, he arrived on March 22 at Vienna. The +Emperor received the Pope with the utmost courtesy, but remained +inflexible, and Pius VI. soon perceived that his long journey had +been in vain. However, Joseph II. treated the Pope with the greatest +outward magnificence, and endeavoured to appease him by offering the +brevet of a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire to Count Louis Braschi, the +Pontiff’s nephew and heir. This the Pope refused, saying: “We are not +occupied with the advancement or grandeur of our family, our interests +are concentrated on those of the Church.” The following year Joseph +II. returned the Pope’s visit, but on his way to Rome he appointed +a new Archbishop of Milan without consulting the Holy See; but gave +way, however, on this point later, and the result of the visit was the +signature of a Concordat between the Pope and Austria, which put an end +to the principal misunderstandings, although, until his death, Joseph +never ceased to be a source of anxiety and annoyance to his Holiness.</p> + +<p>The French Revolution brought more trouble to Pius VI. After the +measures taken against the clergy, attacks began to be levelled at +the Roman Curia. The Assembly introduced the “Constitution Civile +du Clergé,” which, by abolishing the various hierarchical degrees, +destroyed the ancient Gallican Church; and Avignon, a part of the +Papal States since mediæval times, was formally united to France. The +Pope was powerless, and the storm of war began to descend on Italy: +Savoy and Nice were invaded, the clergy compelled to fly before the +persecutions of the Republic, and the States of the Church were crowded +by destitute ecclesiastics of every condition, who were hospitably +entertained by the Pope, whose own turn of misfortune was at hand; the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_325">[325]</span> +French Government accused him of being “an enemy of the changes in the +French Government”; they invaded the Pontifical territory, and Pius +signed in 1797 the treaty of Tolentio, by which he gave up Bologna, +Ferrara, and Romagna, and renounced all claims to the sovereignty over +Avignon.</p> + +<p>Throughout these reverses Pius VI. showed courage, self-control and +prudence. The Directorate were determined to drive him from Rome; they +therefore excited a riot in the city, and under pretence of quelling +it, despatched an army, commanded by General Berthier, which camped +under the walls of Rome, January 29, 1798. (As Bonaparte was at that +time in Egypt, and did not return until after the death of the Pope, he +took no part in the events which followed.)</p> + +<p>On February 15, the French general threw off the mask, entered Rome, +and the robbery and sacrilege commenced. Five days later the Swiss +Haller, the corrupt treasurer of the French army, seized the person +of the Pontiff, flung him by force into a post-chaise, and, without +attendants, luggage or any conveniences for a winter’s journey, +carried this infirm old man of eighty into exile. He was first taken +to Siena, then to the Benedictine mountain fortress of San Cassiano, +to Florence, to Parma, to Piacenza, to Turin; at length, worn out +and half paralysed, he arrived at Valence on July 14, after enduring +five months’ imprisonment, privation and misery, during which time +no pity had been shown him, although his physical condition was most +pitiful, for he had suffered a paralytic stroke, and from sheer +weakness his body had become covered with ulcers. He was incarcerated +in the ordinary prison of the citadel at Valence and kept in solitary +confinement; but by this time he was indifferent to earthly affairs, +and his time spent entirely in prayer. He retained his faculties to +the last, and, as a special favour, permitted to receive the last +Sacraments at the hands of a fellow prisoner, Mgr. Spina, Archbishop of +Corinth.</p> + +<p>Pius VI. died on August 26, 1799, at one o’clock in the morning, +aged eighty-one years and eight months. His body was buried without +any ceremony in the desecrated chapel of the citadel; but after the +establishment of the Concordat it was, by the orders of the First +Consul, removed to Rome, and now lies there in the Church of St. Peter. +He was Pope for more than twenty-four years.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_326">[326]</span></p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">PELLETIER, Jacques.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, 1760; died, 1839.</p> +</div> + +<p>A rich landed proprietor who adopted revolutionary principles, +represented the Department of Cher in the Convention, and voted for +Louis XVI.’s death, subject to an appeal to the people. After the +9th Thermidor, he was sent to administer Languedoc, showed firmness, +justice and moderation, and in 1795 was one of the Commissioners for +the Directorate.</p> + +<p>Banished as a regicide in 1816, he was allowed to return to France in +1819, and the last twenty years of his life were uneventful.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">PRIEUR, Claude Antoine Duvernois.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, 1763; died, 1832.</p> +</div> + +<p>The son of a receiver of taxes at Auxonne, Prieur was an officer in +the Engineers at the time of the Revolution, which he joined from +its outset. Elected by the <i>Côte d’Or</i> to the Assembly, the +Convention, and finally to the Council of the Five Hundred, he sat +in all these Assemblies from 1791 to 1793, and distinguished himself +by his genuine Republicanism, was for a short time President of the +Convention, but after August 10 joined the Army of the Rhine.</p> + +<p>At the King’s trial he voted for the immediate execution of the +accused. Three months later the Convention sent him to Normandy to put +down the counter revolutionary projects of the Girondins, who succeeded +in arresting Prieur and his brother commissionary, and they remained +fifty-one days in the prisons of Caen. On his return to Paris, Prieur +became a member of the Committee of Public Safety (August 1793). At the +time of the Revolution of 18th Brumaire, Prieur was once more with the +army, acting as a colonel in the Engineers, but being too republican to +serve the First Consul, he in 1800 retired from military service.</p> + +<p>He was one of those few among the revolutionists who was an admirable +organiser and a practical man. He worked heart and soul for the +re-establishment of Public Instruction, and together with Mouge helped +to found the <i>École Polytechnique</i>. Prieur was the author of the +great reform in the metric system.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">PRONY, Gaspard Clair Français Marie Riche de.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, 1755; died, 1839.</p> +</div> + +<p>One of the greatest engineers of France. In 1787 he commenced the +bridge, first called <i>Pont Louis XVI.</i>, and now <i>Pont de la<span class="pagenum" id="Page_327">[327]</span> +Concorde</i>, which was completed in 1791, when Prony was appointed +chief engineer of France. The same year he undertook the composition +of new tables of trigonometry adapted to the decimal division of the +circle. Prony completed his work in three years, and in 1798 became the +Director of the <i>École des Ponts et des Chaussées</i> and professor +of mechanics and mathematics at the <i>École Polytechnique</i>. +Bonaparte made every effort to induce Prony to abandon this appointment +and accompany him to Egypt, but was unsuccessful. During the Consulate +and Empire, Prony’s word was considered law in all that concerned civil +engineering in France, and after the restoration he retained his post +at the <i>École Polytechnique</i>. In 1818 he was sent to Italy to +carry out improvements in the Ports of Genoa, Pola, and Ancona, and to +give an opinion upon the possible regularisation of the course of the +Po, and in 1827 he carried out works which successfully stopped the +annual floods in the Rhone valley, for which service Charles X. created +him a Baron.</p> + +<p>He died at the age of eighty-four.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">LA REVEILLIÈRE, Louis Marie.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, 1753; died, 1824.</p> +</div> + +<p>One of the five Directors, and at the time of the dissolution of the +Directorate their President. Unlike Barras and his co-directors, la +Reveillière was an honest man and a sincere Republican. He refused to +take the oath of allegiance to Napoleon as First Consul or Emperor, and +retired into private life after the events of the 18th Brumaire (Nov. +1799).</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">REGNIER, Duc de Massa, Claude Ambroise.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, 1736; died, June 24, 1814.</p> +</div> + +<p>He was at the time of the Revolution one of the most distinguished +lawyers in Nancy. He pronounced violently in favour of the new +doctrines, and was elected by the <i>Tiers État</i> of his native town +as their representative at the States-General. He took a considerable +part in the debates of the Assembly, and defended Nancy against the +attacks of the Jacobins. When the Convention took extreme measures, +Regnier disappeared from Paris until the events of the 9th Thermidor +were concluded. In 1795 he joined the Council of the Ancients, and +became first Secretary to and then President of the Council. He opposed +the return of the exiled <i>émigrés</i> and caused the transportation +of many priests (February 1796). He<span class="pagenum" id="Page_328">[328]</span> was re-elected in 1799, but as +he was persuaded, by this time, that the Directorate could neither +serve the peace nor the aggrandisement of France, he took an active +part in arranging the <i>coup d’état</i> of the 18th Brumaire (Nov. +1799). It was in his house that the conspirators met the day before +this event took place. When he was appointed a member of the <i>Conseil +d’État</i>, he catalogued and investigated all details with regard to +the National Domains. He was the principal author of that code of laws +known as the <i>Code Napoleon</i>, still the law of France. In 1802 +he became Minister of Justice and also Chief Judge of France; he held +these offices until 1813. He was created Duc de Massa by the Emperor in +1805. In 1813, after resigning the portfolio of Minister of Justice, +Regnier became President of the Corps Législatif. After the first +abdication of Napoleon Regnier hoped to retain his position, but he was +doomed to be disappointed, a misfortune which, together with the fall +of the Emperor, to whom he was personally attached, probably hastened +his death, which occurred two months later, at the age of seventy-eight.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">ROBESPIERRE, Maximilien Marie Isidore de.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Arras, May 6, 1756; died in Paris, July 1794.</p> +</div> + +<p>The public history of Robespierre is so well known that it is +unnecessary to give it here. A short description of his early life, +previous to becoming a Deputy to the States-General in 1789, may, +however, be of interest, as but little is known.</p> + +<p>Robespierre’s father, a lawyer, was a man of eccentric habits and +peculiar disposition, who after the death of his wife left his native +town, and, it is believed, went to England and America. Nothing was +again seen of him in France, nor did he ever communicate with his +family. He left behind him three young children, Augustus, Maximilien, +and a daughter Margaret. Of these Maximilien was adopted by two +maiden aunts, who sent him to the College at Arras, and defrayed the +expenses of his education. The religious circle in which his aunts +lived brought the boy in contact with the wealthy and influential +clergy of the town; a canon of the Cathedral of Arras took him under +his immediate protection, and obtained for him, when twelve years of +age, a <i>bourse</i> or scholarship at the College of Louis le Grand, +Paris. Robespierre, during his six years’ stay at this College, was +studious, obedient, and intelligent, and took a first prize in the +class of rhetoric. Among his schoolfellows were Camille, Desmoulins,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_329">[329]</span> +and Fréron. On leaving college, Robespierre, who was very poor, studied +law. A letter addressed by him to the Abbé Proyart, is still extant, +in which he begs for a little help towards purchasing a decent suit of +clothes in which to present himself before the Bishop of Arras, one +of his protectors then in Paris. At this time (1778) Robespierre was +twenty years of age. After completing his legal studies, he returned to +his native town and exercised his profession as lawyer. His reputation +had preceded him, and he soon obtained many clients, unfortunately for +him most of them poorer than himself. Many reports of his pleadings +remain—they are (most of them) mere declamations or speeches upon +political and social questions; full of tirades against the “ignorance, +prejudice, and those passions which form a redoubtable league against +all men of genius—in order to punish these men for the services +they render to humanity.” These speeches produced a great sensation. +Robespierre invariably interlarded his discourses with the most fulsome +eulogies of the King. In one speech he speaks of “that beloved and +sacred head, the head of the Prince who is the delight and glory of +France.” He occupied his spare time in literary pursuits, and wrote a +great deal of indifferent poetry. He was in 1783 elected member of the +Academy of Arras. His reputation for eloquence and intellect was now +such that when the States-General assembled he was immediately chosen +one of the sixteen representatives for the province of Artois. He was +then so poor that he was obliged to borrow ten louis and a travelling +trunk in order to be able to proceed to Paris. The inventory of the +contents of his trunk is preserved, viz.: “six shirts, six neckcloths, +and six pocket handkerchiefs, of which the greater portion are in good +order.”</p> + + +<p class="p-left hangingindent"><span class="smcap">ROCHEFOUCAULT, François Alexandre Frederic, Duke de la</span> +(<i>Liancourt</i>.) Born, 1737; died, 1827, aged eighty.</p> + +<p>This distinguished nobleman was the son of the Duke d’Estissac and of +Marie, daughter and heiress of the Duke Alexandre de la Rochefoucault, +from whom he inherited his title. He joined the regiment of Carabineers +when a mere lad, and married at the age of seventeen. His father +was Grand Master of the King’s <i>Garderobe</i>, this appointment +being hereditary in the family. The young Duke of Liancourt, as he +was then called, did not find favour with Madame du Barry. He left +Court in 1769, and paid a long visit to England. On his return he +put into practice, upon his estate at Liancourt, the industrial and +agricultural improvements<span class="pagenum" id="Page_330">[330]</span> he had observed upon his journey; amongst +other undertakings he started a model farm, and brought cattle from +Switzerland and Germany, to improve the breed of cows. He founded an +industrial school at Liancourt for the education and instruction of +the children of poor soldiers. In 1786 de la Rochefoucault accompanied +Louis XVI. on a progress through Normandy, and showed the King the +various industrial and agricultural establishments of that province, +then in a very prosperous condition. When the States-General assembled, +the Duke de Liancourt was elected Deputy by the nobility of Clermont. +His position in the Assembly was that of a defender of Royalty, and +also of public liberty. On July 12, 1789, the Duke de Liancourt, +who, though no courtier, was one of the few sincere friends of Louis +XVI., for whom he had a personal regard, appeared at Versailles and +gave a true and succinct account of the agitation which was pervading +the capital. “It is a revolt,” said the astonished monarch. “Sire,” +replied the Duke, “it is a <i>Revolution</i>.” The Bastille fell two +days later. On July 18 the Duke was invested with the Presidency of +the Assembly. After the session of the Assembly had concluded, he +returned to Liancourt, where he continued his industrial experiments, +and founded in 1790 work-rooms for spinning and weaving cotton and +wool under a new process. As a lieutenant-general, his rank in the +army, he commanded a military division in Normandy, and, when the first +excesses of the Revolution began, implored the King and Royal Family +to take refuge at Rouen. Had this proposal been accepted much trouble +might have been averted. Upon the King’s refusal of his offer the Duke +generously put at his disposal the sum of 150,000 livres (£6000). +The horrors of August 10 decided the Duke to fly from France, and +pass into England. In exile he was almost without resources. An old +maiden lady, in whom—although she had never seen him—he inspired a +romantic interest, left him her whole fortune, some £50,000. He refused +to accept any part of the legacy, and handed the money to her legal +heirs. The death of Louis XVI. induced the Duke de la Rochefoucault +(since the massacre of his cousin in 1793, he had assumed this +title) to leave Europe and spend several years in America, devoting +his time to scientific studies, and observations of the Government +and character of the people of the United States, and even of the +Indians in Canada. Louis XVIII. sent him in 1798 an imperious message, +commanding him to join him and take up his duties as Grand Master<span class="pagenum" id="Page_331">[331]</span> of +the royal household, an order which the Duke respectfully declined; +Louis XVIII. never forgave him, and there is little doubt the neglect +and quasi-disgrace with which la Rochefoucault was treated after the +Restoration arose mainly from this unforgotten incident.</p> + +<p>In 1799 Rochefoucault returned to France, and dwelt for some time +ignored in Paris; he was still, however, conferring benefits +upon humanity. As soon as his name was erased from the list of +<i>émigrés</i> he started a committee for vaccination in Paris, and +opened a dispensary for the purpose of making this remedy known among +the people. When he was allowed to return to Liancourt, he found +to his delight that notwithstanding the storms of the Revolution, +every succeeding Government since his departure had respected the +institutions he had created. The Emperor Napoleon bestowed upon him +the legion of honour, but affected to treat him as a manufacturer, and +did not offer him a peerage. The Duke lived entirely at Liancourt. In +1809 when Napoleon restored his title, and gave him the right of grand +entry to the Imperial Court, la Rochefoucault did not take advantage +of this favour, and remained in retirement until the Restoration. +Louis XVIII. treated him with marked coldness and disfavour, and did +not appoint him to any office at Court. Rochefoucault, nevertheless, +was a member of the House of Peers as a Duke of France. In 1816 he +was elected member of the general council of the hospitals of Paris. +The Duke de la Rochefoucault inaugurated the “Society of Christian +Morals” in 1821, and soon afterwards became President of the school of +<i>Arts et Métiers</i>, founded by him at Liancourt, now transferred +to Châlons, and member of the Councils of Agriculture, Hospitals and +Prisons. In 1823 the reactionist Ministry, who disapproved of his +political views, relieved him of all his public but strictly honourable +functions, on the ground of his age (76). Not daring to deprive him of +his Presidency of the Committee on vaccination, they suppressed this +Committee altogether. On March 21, 1827, whilst the Duke was speaking +in the Chamber of Peers, he was suddenly seized with a fit, and expired +four days later.</p> + +<p>On the day of his funeral, a number of old students of his school +of <i>Arts et Métiers</i> came to the church, with the intention of +carrying his coffin; when they attempted to do so, they were suddenly +charged by a troop of mounted <i>gens d’armes</i> in the Rue St. +Honoré, and the Duke’s coffin fell in the mud, his coronet and other +symbols of the peerage being trampled under foot.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_332">[332]</span></p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">ROEDERER, Pierre Louis, Comte de.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born 1654 at Metz; died in 1735.</p> +</div> + +<p>His father, a lawyer at Strasbourg, compelled his son, who was an +ardent disciple of Jean Jacques Rousseau, to follow the parental +profession, much against his will.</p> + +<p>Roederer began his political life in 1788, by publishing a pamphlet +on the “Deputation to the States-General,” when he also became a +journalist. Sent by the electors of Metz to the States-General, as a +representative of the <i>Tiers État</i>, he took an important part in +the debates, proposing the new law reforms, the institution of trial by +jury, the abolition of religious orders and of titles of nobility, and +demanding also liberty for the press and equality in political rights +for every citizen. He showed great financial ability, compiled the new +stamp and patent laws, inventing a new system of taxation. He was a +member of the Jacobin Society until June 20, 1792, after which date +(the day of the first invasion of the Tuileries) he seceded from the +club, and from that period the extreme party were his mortal enemies. +On August 10 he, together with Merlin, conducted the Royal Family to +the Assembly, and protected, helped, and comforted them to the best of +his power.</p> + +<p>The following day he was denounced by the Jacobins, but not arrested, +and he prudently disappeared from the Assembly, and devoted himself +entirely to the sub-editorship of the <i>Journal de Paris</i>. An +article in this paper, dated January 6, 1793, in which Roederer denied +the right of the Convention to try the King, brought him into immediate +danger; however, he fled from Paris, and did not reappear there until +after the 9th Thermidor (July 28, 1794).</p> + +<p>In 1795 he became editor of the <i>Journal de Paris</i>. He was +threatened with transportation to Guienne during the Directorate, +and only saved by the direct intervention of Talleyrand. He was now +satisfied that a firm and stable government was the sole means of the +regenerating of France, and was therefore an active agent for what he +termed the “generous and patriotic conspiracy” of the 18th Brumaire. +He wrote the “Address to the Parisians,” which was placarded upon the +walls of Paris on that eventful morning.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte made him Councillor of State on 25th December, 1799, and in +1802 he was named Director of <i>L’Esprit Public</i>, a position which +gave him control of all the theatres and of public<span class="pagenum" id="Page_333">[333]</span> instruction. In +1806 he was sent to Naples, of which Joseph Bonaparte had just been +created King, and by Napoleon’s orders undertook the duty of Neapolitan +Finance Minister, which post he continued to hold under Murat. In 1810 +he was appointed administrator to the Grand Duchy of Berg. When the +Bourbons returned, he quitted political life and retired to his country +seat, the Château of Bois Roussel, devoting himself until 1830 to +literary pursuits.</p> + +<p>After the accession of Louis Philippe he was again summoned to the +Chamber of Peers, and, notwithstanding his advanced age, took a +considerable part in debate, publishing a pamphlet, <i>Lettre aux +Constitutionnels</i>, which caused a violent excitement all over Paris. +In it he attacked the doctrine that “The King reigns, but does not +govern.”</p> + +<p>Roederer died from an accident at the age of eighty-one, when still in +the enjoyment of good health and spirits.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">DE SADE, Marquis Alphonse François.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born in Paris 1740; died in the madhouse at Charenton, 1814.</p> +</div> + +<p>De Sade, a man of noble family and high position, being +Lieutenant-General of Bresse and Valroney, appears at the age of +twenty-six to have been seized with a form of insanity which only +showed itself in the use of obscene language, writings, and deeds.</p> + +<p>He was arrested at Marseilles in 1772 for a terrible offence against +public morality, and from that time, under a <i>lettre de cachet</i>, +was imprisoned in various fortresses, amongst others Vincennes and the +Bastille. During this imprisonment he wrote those notoriously obscene +books which have rendered his name infamously famous. He was liberated +in 1790 by the decree which released all prisoners imprisoned under +<i>lettres de cachet</i>.</p> + +<p>His wife obtained a separation from him, and for the next ten years he +continued to publish books and plays of the most appalling immorality. +When Bonaparte returned from Egypt, De Sade sent him copies of his two +novels, “Juliette” and “Justine,” illustrated by himself, and with a +dedication to the First Consul. Napoleon, filled with disgust, had +the books burned, and De Sade arrested as a dangerous lunatic, and +incarcerated in the madhouse at Charenton, where he died fourteen years +later.</p> + +<p>Those who visited him there describe him as a venerable<span class="pagenum" id="Page_334">[334]</span> looking old +man, with beautiful features and abundant snow-white hair, exquisite +manners and an amiable expression; but as soon as he opened his mouth, +every word he spoke was either indecent or profane.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">SANTERRE, Antoine Joseph, General.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, 1752, in Paris; died in 1809.</p> +</div> + +<p>Son of a Flemish brewer who had established himself in the Faubourg +St. Antoine, he continued to follow his father’s trade. He was rich, +and had an excellent reputation among the working classes for the +generosity and kindness he showed his employées. Santerre was one +of those electors of Paris who met on July 14, 1789, at the Hôtel +de Ville; he commanded the National Guard of his district, and for +the next three years the brewery and beerhouse of Santerre were a +<i>rendezvous</i> for all the agitators of the Faubourg, indeed it was +here that the attack upon the Tuileries of June 20, 1792, was agreed +upon.</p> + +<p>Upon that day Santerre marched at the head of the crowd which invaded +the National Assembly, and standing at the foot of the tribune he +directed the march of the people through the Chamber. After thanking +the Deputies for the marks of friendship they had shown to the +inhabitants of the Faubourg St. Antoine, he presented them with a flag, +and then went out to join his men upon the Place Carousel, from whence +he led them to the Tuileries. He also took a prominent part in the +second attack upon August 10, and the Commune afterwards created him +commander-in-chief of the National Guard of Paris, a command originally +held by the Marquis of Lafayette (!) in which capacity he conducted +Louis XVI. and his family to the Temple. On January 21, 1793, he was in +command of the troops who surrounded the scaffold, and it was at his +signal that the drums were beaten to drown the dying speech of King +Louis.</p> + +<p>In April of the same year, Santerre obtained a release from the debt of +40,500 francs which he owed to the State for taxes he should have paid +upon malt and beer, the reason for the remission of this debt being +“that the beer in question had all been consumed by patriots.”</p> + +<p>Santerre, who was raised to the rank of a general of division, in +July 1793, expressed a desire to show his prowess in the field, and +asking for employment in the army, was sent to fight the Royalists in +La Vendée. He met with nothing but disaster, owing to his complete +ignorance of military tactics, and after<span class="pagenum" id="Page_335">[335]</span> being defeated at Corow on +September 3, was recalled to Paris. Shortly afterwards he was arrested, +and remained in prison until the death of Robespierre.</p> + +<p>In July 1794, he was deprived of his rank as general and returned +to private life; but his business had perished, and he was entirely +ruined. He addressed petitions to various authorities, and finally, in +January 1800, appealed to the First Consul for employment in the army +or “any post by which I can live.”</p> + +<p>Bonaparte did not employ him, but he placed his name on the list of +retired generals, by which means Santerre enjoyed a pension for the +rest of his life. Santerre has been quoted as a monster of ferocity, +no doubt owing to the part he played on January 21, 1793: but he was +in reality neither brutal nor cruel, and constantly sought to calm the +ardour of his partisans, and saved the lives of persons whose opinions +were opposed to his own. He was, however, a man without either capacity +or originality, whom the irony of fate placed for a short time in a +prominent and powerful situation.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">SIEYÈS, Emmanuel Joseph, Comte de.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, 1748 at Fréjus; died in Paris, 1836.</p> +</div> + +<p>Being the youngest of seven children his father insisted upon his +embarking in an ecclesiastical career. Sieyès remained for ten years +at the seminary of Saint Sulpice in Paris, until he had, at the age +of twenty-four, received priest’s orders. While at college he devoted +himself to the study of metaphysics, Locke being his favourite author.</p> + +<p>He was made Canon of Trégnier in Brittany in 1775, and in 1780 +transferred to a Canonry at Chârtres, united to the posts of +Vicar-General and Chancellor.</p> + +<p>The revolutionary period approached, and Provincial Assemblies were +called together, Sieyès being a member of the Assembly at Orleans in +1787. He published a succession of pamphlets in the course of the next +two years, which added greatly to his literary and political reputation.</p> + +<p>The electors of Paris sent him as the twentieth member for their town +to the States-General, where he represented the <i>Tiers d’État</i> and +not the clergy. He took a prominent part as soon as he entered this +assembly; it was he who promoted the meeting of the Orders, framed the +oath administered in the Tennis Court; and the division of France into +Departments was entirely his work.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_336">[336]</span> His influence in the Assembly was +so great that Mirabeau gave him the nickname of “Mahomet.” In February +1791 he was offered the Constitutional Bishopric of Paris, which he +refused. He was elected member of the Convention in 1792, and appointed +to the leadership of the Committee <i>D’Instruction Publique</i>. +Sieyès was too prudent and, possibly, too humane to take any prominent +part in that noisy and ill-regulated assembly; but at the trial of +Louis XVI. he voted for death, without adding a single word beyond +recording his vote; indeed, with the exception of the occasion when +he publicly abjured his religious faith and declared he had ceased to +be a priest, Sieyès never made a speech in the Convention, though he +recorded his vote in favour of every revolutionary measure.</p> + +<p>He was asked, in later life, what he had done during the Terror. He +replied significantly, “I lived.”</p> + +<p>In 1795 he went to Holland, and while in that country was offered a +place in the Directorate, which he refused, but the <i>coup d’état</i> +of Vendemaire brought him out of his retreat, and he was named +President of the Five Hundred (November 25, 1797).</p> + +<p>The following year he went as Ambassador to Berlin, and on May 16, +1799, he returned to Paris and replaced Rewbell in the Directorate. On +June 19 he undertook the Presidency of the disorganised Government, his +object being to make an end of Republicanism, and he joined forces with +Bonaparte.</p> + +<p>During the Revolution of 18th Brumaire, Sieyès showed great ability +and coolness, and Napoleon appointed him one of the three provisionary +Consuls. He was soon succeeded by le Brun, after which his active +political life may be said to have concluded, for Bonaparte, supported +by the army, easily effaced his rival. The constitution planned by +Sieyès was not even discussed, and Napoleon entirely destroyed his +public influence by creating him a Senator, and bestowing upon him as a +national gift the fine estate and château of Crosne.</p> + +<p>In later years Sieyès was given the Presidency of the Senate, the grand +cross of the legion of honour, and created a Count. After the second +restoration the law of 1816 exiled him as a regicide, and he retired to +Brussels until 1830, dying at Paris six years later, aged eighty-eight.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">SICARD, Roch Ambroise, Abbé.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, 1742; died, 1822. Ordained priest at Toulouse and joined +the Congregation <i>de la Doctrine Chrétienne</i>.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_337">[337]</span></p> + +<p>In 1784, the Archbishop of Bordeaux, who intended to open an asylum +and school for the deaf and dumb in his cathedral town, sent the Abbé +Sicard to Paris, that he might study the method of instructing deaf +mutes invented by the Abbé l’Epée. He returned to Bordeaux two years +later, and the school was immediately opened, the Abbé Sicard proving +extraordinarily successful, many of his pupils making rapid and even +astonishing progress. The Abbé l’Epée died in 1789, and Sicard was +appointed to succeed him in Paris.</p> + +<p>Sicard adopted the principles of the Revolution, and although he did +not take the civil or constitutional clerical oath, he took that of +fidelity to liberty, equality and fraternity. On August 26, 1792, he +was arrested as a suspect; his pupils addressed a touching petition to +the Assembly in favour of their master, but it was disregarded, and on +September 2 he was conveyed with other priests to the Abbaye. Nearly +all of his companions were slaughtered as soon as they reached the +prison, but Sicard’s life was saved by a watchmaker, Mounet. Sicard +remained for some time in prison expecting immediate death, but was +eventually liberated and returned to his Institution.</p> + +<p>When the “Institute” was created in 1795, he was one of its first +members, but writing some offensive articles in a publication entitled +<i>Les Annales Réligieuses</i>, he was arrested and condemned to +transportation; he escaped this fate, but was not replaced in his +functions at the deaf and dumb asylum until after the 18th Brumaire, +1799. He found an ardent protector in Choptal, the Minister of the +Interior, who caused a printing press to be erected, at the Abbé’s +request, at the Institution.</p> + +<p>For some unknown reason Napoleon always detested the Abbé Sicard, and +refused to ratify his appointment as Canon at Nôtre Dame; nor would +he give him the legion of honour; but he was more fortunate under the +Restoration, when he received the coveted decoration, a canonry, and +other honourable and well-paid appointments.</p> + +<p>Abbé Sicard wrote a number of books on the deaf and dumb, and even some +for their use.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">SAINT FARGEON, Louis Michel le Pelletier, De.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, 1760; assassinated, 1793.</p> +</div> + +<p>He was the great grandson of the celebrated Comte de Saint Fargeon, +Minister of Finance from 1726 to 1730; at the outbreak of the +Revolution he possessed an annual income of 600,000 francs<span class="pagenum" id="Page_338">[338]</span> (£24,000). +He was chosen as one of the ten Deputies to represent the nobility of +Paris in the States-General; of these only two, the Count de Mirepoix +and himself, joined the <i>Tiers État</i>, and from that time they +became the most democratic among the Deputies. Saint Fargeon said, “If +one has 600,000 francs a year one must either be at Coblentz or join +the Jacobins.”</p> + +<p>In January 1790, as Member for Criminal Jurisprudence, he first +proposed the abolition of the death penalty, the galleys, and branding +or flogging, and in June the same year he succeeded in passing a decree +replacing hanging by decapitation. In the same month he proposed a +motion, which was adopted, abolishing all titles, and took the name of +le Pelletier instead of Fargeon.</p> + +<p>At the trial of Louis XVI. he declared his intention of voting against +the death penalty; but when the time came he pronounced in favour of +immediate execution, saying:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>If we decide the fate of Louis Capet in a way which is contrary +to the conscience and intimate feelings of the French people, +would it be against the prisoner in the Temple that the people +would have a right to execute their vengeance? No, for in his +case treason is unarmed and vanquished. It would be against her +unfaithful representatives that the nation would have a right to +rise, because in such a case they would find treason and power +united.</p> +</div> + +<p>This speech persuaded a number of Deputies who were wavering to vote +for the death penalty, and thus decided a majority in its favour.</p> + +<p>A former soldier of the King’s body guard swore to revenge the death +of Louis XVI. upon one of his judges. Le Pelletier, de Saint Fargeon, +like the Duke of Orleans and many other persons of high rank, voted +the death penalty in order to save his own life and fortune, and for +this very reason he excited the bitterest hatred among the Royalists. +On the evening of the King’s trial he went to dine at Feorier’s, the +restaurant in the Palais Royale, and was pointed out to the soldier in +question as he was sitting at table. The young man, wrapped in a cloak +under which he concealed a sword, came forward and said; “Is it thou, +infamous le Pelletier, who has just voted for the death of thy King?” +Le Pelletier answered: “Yes, but I am not infamous, I voted according +‘to my conscience.’” The soldier, whose name was Paris, replied: “Here +is thy recompense,” and drawing the sword, thrust Saint Fargeon through +the body; he fell mortally wounded and was carried to his <i>hôtel</i>, +where he expired. The Convention buried him in the Pantheon,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_339">[339]</span> and his +daughter, aged eight, was formally adopted by the Republic.</p> + +<p>The soldier Paris escaped at the time, but when about to be arrested a +few days later, he blew out his brains.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">SHEARES, John.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, 1766; executed, 1798.</p> +</div> + +<p>This young Irish patriot, who is described by Yorke as having been +the fervent admirer of and even suitor for the hand of Théroigne de +Mirecourt, was the fourth son of Henry Sheares, of Whiterock (who was +a connection of the then Earl of Shannon). This gentleman was a member +of the Irish Parliament from 1761 to 1767, and was eventually appointed +to a well-paid Governmental sinecure office. When his father died, John +Sheares, a student in Trinity College, Dublin, inherited £3000. He was +called to the Irish Bar in 1790.</p> + +<p>In 1792 he and his brother Henry visited France and he became a convert +to the views of the most revolutionary party in that country. He was +a member of the Convention, voted for the death of Louis XVI., and +was present at his execution. He was obliged to fly from France, as +his views were considered too moderate by the leaders of the Jacobin +Club. He returned to Dublin and there led a retired and literary +life, following at the same time his profession as a barrister, when +unfortunately for himself he began to take a leading part in Irish +politics.</p> + +<p>When the “Press,” an anti-Governmental organ, was started by Arthur +O’Connor in 1797, Sheares wrote several leading articles for it; and +one of these, a violent attack upon Lord Clare, caused the total +suppression of that newspaper in March 1798.</p> + +<p>The hostility of Lord Clare having stopped him in the practice of +his profession, Sheares and his brother Henry decided to emigrate +to America. But they not only did not do so but joined in a plot to +disaffect the militia in King’s County against the Government. A +certain Captain Armstrong of that regiment made their acquaintance, and +after having gained their confidence, informed against them, and they +were both arrested May 21, 1798, and confined in Kilmainham Gaol. They +were tried for high treason six weeks later. John Sheares, knowing that +his own fate was sealed, only desired and hoped to save his brother +Henry, his senior by thirteen years, a married man with six children, +and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_340">[340]</span> whom he declared had acted entirely under his (John Sheares’) +guidance.</p> + +<p>The only witness against the brothers was Armstrong. The trial +lasted for sixteen consecutive hours—an adjournment was moved for +by the prisoner’s counsel, as every one connected with the affair +was sinking from exhaustion, but the motion was opposed by the +Attorney-General—and at eight o’clock in the morning, after a summing +up lasting only a few minutes, a hurried verdict of guilty against the +prisoners was returned by the wearied and worn out jury. Henry Sheares +fainted in court upon hearing the sentence of death pronounced. After +their condemnation no friends or relatives were allowed an interview +with the brothers, who were hanged the following morning before the +prison gates. After remaining for some time on the gallows their heads +were struck off; but their bodies were not quartered (July 14, 1798).</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">ST. JUST, Louis Antoine de Saint Just.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born August 25, 1767; guillotined, July 28 (10th Thermidor), +1794, in Paris.</p> +</div> + +<p>His father, a retired army captain, died in 1777, and St. Just was +placed in the Oratorian school of Soissons, where he remained for seven +years. On leaving school he studied law for a short time at Rheims, but +finally decided to embrace a literary career. Having written a volume +of poems, he proceeded to Paris, to arrange about their publication, +towards the close of the year 1789, and he there became an enthusiastic +revolutionary, giving up literature for politics. His youthful ardour +and natural eloquence were assisted by an extraordinary beauty of +form and feature, grave and serious manners, and a haughty and +resolute demeanour. His private life was that of an ascetic until the +termination of his short but chequered career.</p> + +<p>The inhabitants of his native town, Decize (Minervais) elected him +lieutenant-colonel of their newly formed National Guard, and he +conducted a detachment of that regiment to Paris in 1790 to join in +the Feast of Federation. His youth prevented his election to the +Legislative Assembly until September 1792, when he attained the age of +twenty-five.</p> + +<p>From that time he took a most active part in the Government, and became +the intimate (perhaps the only intimate) friend of Robespierre.</p> + +<p>On November 12, when the question of the King’s trial came<span class="pagenum" id="Page_341">[341]</span> before the +Convention, St. Just’s diatribe was by far the most violent of the many +violent and fanatical speeches made on that occasion. On December 16 he +proposed the exile of all the Bourbons. At the trial of Louis XVI. he +voted for the immediate execution of the King.</p> + +<p>In the meantime the Republic was attacked on all sides, from both +without and within, for, of the eighty-four Departments, sixty-five +were known to be secretly hostile to the Revolution, and to desire the +restoration of the <i>ancien régime</i>. On April 24, 1793, St. Just +presented to the Convention the following scheme:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>The Republic, one and indivisible, was to be represented by +a Legislative Assembly, elected every two years by universal +suffrage and by a Council elected every three years by the +electors of the second degree. This Council, composed of a +member for each Department, could only act by the authority of +the Assembly, and the Ministers whom it was to appoint were +to have <i>no personal or individual power</i>. Any conflict +between the Council and the Assembly should be settled by an +appeal to the people.</p> +</div> + +<p>This impossible and impracticable project gives an excellent example +of the exaggerated humanitarianism which at that time pervaded the +opinions of the young legislator. The Girondins were, in the opinion +of St. Just, a danger to the Republic. Their dreams of a federation by +which France would be governed in the same way as the United States, +and Paris cease to be the head and centre of government, filled him +with apprehension. When the Girondins fell St. Just took an important +part in their impeachment; his report on the matter was received with +applause, and in July he became one of the leading members of the +Committee of Public Safety.</p> + +<p>From this moment a coalition was formed between Robespierre, Couthon, +Le Bas, and St. Just, which continued until they all perished twelve +months later. They banded themselves together with a settled purpose, +and pitilessly destroyed any and every individual who opposed their +views. St. Just was the principal instrument of Robespierre; he read, +on October 10, the report upon the organisation of a revolutionary +government until a general peace should be declared. “In the present +circumstances,” he said, “no Constitution can be established; for it +would be an attack upon liberty; with a Constitution the Government +could not use sufficient violence against the enemies of the Republic.” +He then proposed a decree, which was unanimously adopted by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_342">[342]</span> which the +Ministers, the Generals, the Admirals, the Executive Council, and all +constitutional bodies were to be placed under the immediate supervision +of the Committee of Public Safety.</p> + +<p>On October 16, the very day of the execution of the Queen, St. Just +presented a report by which all foreigners residing in Paris, and +particularly the English, were to be arrested. He referred to the +death of Marie Antoinette in these words: “Your Committee has punished +Austria by bringing a scaffold and the infamy of a public execution +into the reigning family of that country.”</p> + +<p>A few days later St. Just was despatched to Alsace as a superintendent +of military operations; le Bas accompanied him. Arrived at Strasburg, +they immediately established a commission to punish summarily “crimes, +disorders, and abuses.” No legal forms were observed: a colonel +accused of having spoken against the Republic was shot upon the spot; +an officer accused of striking one of his men was degraded to the +ranks; General Eisenberg, who had been defeated by the Austrians, was +executed without a trial. The soldiers were in want of boots. St. Just +wrote to the Strasburg municipality: “Ten thousand men in the army are +bare-footed; strip the boots and shoes from the feet of the aristocrats +of Strasburg. To-morrow, before 10 o’clock, 10,000 pairs of boots must +be on their way to the military headquarters.” An immense number of +persons were arrested and imprisoned, and innumerable executions took +place. The commissioners left Strasburg and joined the army beyond the +Rhine, where the generals were treated in the same high-handed manner. +On the 12th Frimaire (November 9) St. Just wrote to General Hoche: +“Thou hast taken at Kaiserslautern (where he had won a great battle) a +further engagement; for instead of one victory, we require TWO.”</p> + +<p>After remaining two months with the army St. Just returned to Paris in +January 1794. He only remained a couple of weeks in the metropolis, +departing for Flanders to supervise the conduct of those military +chiefs who commanded in the north. In a few days he had inspected +the various posts on the frontier, and, after carrying out his usual +policy, he gave the supreme command to Pichegru, and returned to Paris. +On February 19 St. Just was elected President of the Convention.</p> + +<p>In March the fall of Hébert was followed by that of Danton. The +impeachment of the latter was carried out by St. Just, his speech being +composed from notes made by Robespierre. He<span class="pagenum" id="Page_343">[343]</span> accused Danton of having +served the “Tyrant,” of being the <i>protégé</i> of Mirabeau, the +friend of Lameth, the accomplice of Dumouriez, and of having defended +the Girondins.</p> + +<p>Danton’s execution, and those of his immediate allies, delivered +Robespierre and St. Just from the enemies they feared, and they +flattered themselves they could now carry out their plans without +interruption.</p> + +<p>On April 29 St. Just returned to the army, Robespierre remaining +the head and centre of all government in Paris. This was the most +sanguinary period of the Terror.</p> + +<p>St. Just remained with the army in Flanders until June 27, when, +Charleroi having fallen and the army of the Republic being everywhere +victorious in Belgium, he returned in triumph to Paris. The conspiracy +which was to break out on July 27 (9th Thermidor) was already in +process of formation, but St. Just suspected nothing, and continued +to attend the meetings of the Committee of Public Safety and to make +many violent speeches. He attacked Fouché, Tallien, and other members +without mercy, and on the very morning of 9th Thermidor was speaking +in the Tribune, when he was interrupted by Tallien, and the well-known +violent scenes which resulted in the arrest of Robespierre and his +immediate friends took place.</p> + +<p>St. Just, unlike Couthon, le Bas, and Robespierre, did not attempt +suicide; he followed the mutilated bodies of his friends on foot, +with his hands bound behind him, from the Hôtel de Ville to the +Conciergerie. The next day he mounted the scaffold and died silently +and courageously. He was not quite twenty-seven years of age.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">TALLEYRAND, Perigard, Prince de Benevento, Charles Maurice de.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, 1754; died, 1838.</p> +</div> + +<p>To give a description of the life and work of this statesman would far +exceed the limits of this biographical supplement; but the following +few facts may interest the reader.</p> + +<p>The eldest son of the Comte de Talleyrand, as he was lame and slightly +deformed he could not enter the army, he was therefore compelled by +his parents to take holy orders; he had no vocation whatever for the +priesthood. He received valuable ecclesiastical preferment, and in 1778 +was ordained Bishop of Autun. He joined the revolutionary party, and +was a member of the National Assembly.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_344">[344]</span></p> + +<p>On July 14, 1790, it was he who celebrated the Mass of the Federation +in the Champs de Mars, and in December of the same year he took the +constitutional oath. He ordained several of the constitutional bishops, +and was in consequence excommunicated by the Holy See, who declared all +constitutional priests and bishops schismatics.</p> + +<p>He was sent to England in February 1792 as an envoy by the French +Government, with the idea of reconciling the British Sovereign and +his Ministers to the revolutionary changes being then carried out +in France. He did not, however, inspire any confidence in either +George III. or Pitt, with whom he had several interviews. He returned +privately to London in December 1792, and three months later was +accused of conspiring against the Republic. He continued to remain +in England until the death of Louis XVI., when, finding his position +intolerable, owing to the indignation the death of the King excited +against all supposed revolutionaries, he departed to America, where +he remained until his sentence of banishment from France was revoked +in 1795. He did not arrive in France till the following year; he was +accompanied by the then notorious Mdme. Grand, with whom he cohabited +for a considerable time before he married her. She was the divorced +wife of a merchant at Calcutta, and had created a considerable scandal +in India owing to her intrigue with Sir Philip Francis, the enemy of +Warren Hastings, and reputed author of the <i>Junius Letters</i>. +Talleyrand reached Paris, March 1796.</p> + +<p>In 1797, by the influence of Barras, and notwithstanding the opposition +of Carnot (who was probably the only sincere and disinterested member +of the Directorate), Talleyrand was appointed Minister of Foreign +Affairs. He took a considerable part in the <i>coup d’état</i> of 18th +Fructidor (September 4, 1797), by which the Directorate re-established, +in the name of liberty, most of the tyrannical excesses of the +Convention. He had already discovered the extraordinary genius of +Bonaparte, and from that time until the fall of the Empire was more or +less attached to the fortunes of the then youthful hero.</p> + +<p>It was Talleyrand who drew up the treaty of Campo-Formio (October 17, +1794), which Talleyrand and Bonaparte concluded in direct opposition to +the desires of the Directorate. Talleyrand first suggested to Bonaparte +the idea of an expedition to Egypt, in lieu of that invasion of England +which was then the favourite scheme of the French Government.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte endeavoured to persuade Talleyrand to accompany<span class="pagenum" id="Page_345">[345]</span> him to +Egypt; but this he refused, and remained in Paris during the Egyptian +and Syrian campaigns, carrying out unchecked his ingenious and tortuous +foreign policy. He it was who brought about the occupation of the +Papal States by the French, and the imprisonment and capture of the +Pope (<i>see</i> Pius VI.), and he also caused the destruction of the +Swiss Republic, on the ground that its government was not sufficiently +democratic. By diplomatic ruses and threatened violence he extorted an +act of abdication from Charles Emmanuel, King of Sardinia, December 9, +1798.</p> + +<p>During this time Talleyrand was obtaining in various ways large sums +of money for his own private use, more particularly from the Kings of +Spain and Portugal, who by lavish bribes to the French Minister of +Foreign Affairs hoped to prevent the invasion of their kingdoms.</p> + +<p>These circumstances, coupled with the fact that the French army met +with defeat after defeat, and, since the departure of Bonaparte, lost +all hold over Northern Italy, brought about a violent movement against +Talleyrand, who resigned his office as Minister of Foreign Affairs in +July 1799.</p> + +<p>The return of Napoleon changed the situation, and on November 22 +Talleyrand once more occupied his old post, which he held until 1807, +when, a month after the treaty of Tilsit, he gave up the seals of this +office to Champagny, Duke de Cadore. He was promoted to the dignity +of a Prince Electeur of the Empire; he had been created Prince of +Benevento, with a fief granted from the Papal States in the previous +year.</p> + +<p>He continued to hold the key of office as Lord High Chamberlain until +1809, but his intimate relations with the Emperor ceased from the time +he abandoned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His astute nature had +already foreseen the inevitable fall of the Empire, and he secretly +used every effort to hasten this catastrophe. He continued to act, +nevertheless, as Napoleon’s emissary with foreign Powers; gave up his +château at Valençay as a State prison for the Spanish Princes; was +present at the interview between Napoleon and Alexander at Erfurt, and +in an audience with the Russian Emperor, explained to that sovereign +Napoleon’s project for a divorce, and asked him, in his master’s name, +for the hand of the Grand Duchess Catherine Paulovna, sister to the +Czar.</p> + +<p>In 1813, when the troubles of the Empire had reached their zenith, +Talleyrand was summoned to St. Cloud, and offered the portfolio of +Foreign Affairs. He consented to take it on condition<span class="pagenum" id="Page_346">[346]</span> peace should +immediately be concluded. His advice was not accepted.</p> + +<p>During the winter of 1814 he was in secret communication with the +Bourbons; had much to do with the conclusion of peace in the April of +that year, and entered as Foreign Minister into the first Cabinet of +Louis XVIII. May 12, 1814, he represented France at the Council of +Vienna.</p> + +<p>On the return of Napoleon, Talleyrand during “the Hundred Days” +absolutely refused to listen to any offer from the Emperor. After the +Second Restoration he took up his old office in the Cabinet, but his +opposition to the return of the artistic treasures with which the +Republic and the Empire had enriched the Museums of Paris, and his +efforts to prevent any cession of French territory, diminished his +credit with the Czar and the English commander-in-chief, who were at +that time the rulers of France. By their influence he was compelled +to leave the Cabinet, Louis XVIII. creating him the same day Lord +Chamberlain with a salary of 100,000 francs (£4000).</p> + +<p>During the whole of the Restoration, Talleyrand was excluded from +taking any leading part in public affairs.</p> + +<p>After the Revolution of 1830, to which he had contributed not a +little, Talleyrand, who had had for a considerable period a private +understanding with Louis Philippe, became his principal political +auxiliary.</p> + +<p>In September 1830, Prince Talleyrand was sent as Ambassador from the +King of the French to the Court of St. James’. He remained in London in +that capacity for four years, and notwithstanding his great age showed +himself an astute and admirable diplomatist. He received a warm welcome +in all the higher circles of English society.</p> + +<p>In November 1834 he retired from political life; but his mind was +still fresh and vigorous, and his life during the next four years was +occupied by social amenities and intellectual pursuits. On March 3, +1838, having entered his eighty-fifth year, he gave an address to the +Academy of Science upon the death of the Comte Reinhard, a celebrated +diplomatist.</p> + +<p>A few weeks later he was suddenly attacked by a painful internal +malady, and died on May 17, aged eighty-four years and three months. +Before his death he received the Sacraments, signing a letter in which +he regretted his abjurations and sins against religion; this letter was +despatched to Pope Gregory XVI.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_347">[347]</span></p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">TALLIEN, Jean Lambart.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born in 1769; died in 1820.</p> +</div> + +<p>The son of the house steward of the Marquis de Bercy. He received, +through the kindness of this nobleman, a good education, and became a +notary’s clerk.</p> + +<p>At the outbreak of the Revolution he gave up this employment for +journalism, publishing for five months under the title of <i>L’Ami des +Citoyens</i>, a newspaper which was a worthy companion to the <i>Ami du +Peuple</i> of Marat. His newspaper was financed by the Jacobin Club.</p> + +<p>He took a prominent part in the events of August 10, and in the +massacres in the prisons on September 2. Elected member of the +Convention, he defended Marat and denounced General Montesquieu and +Roland (then Minister). His speeches against Louis XVI. and the Royal +family were so violent and so frequent as actually to evoke a vote of +censure from the Convention. At the King’s trial he voted, “For instant +death in the interests of humanity.”</p> + +<p>It was upon his proposal five months later that the Girondins were put +<i>hors de la loi</i>; and in September 1793, Tallien departed with +Ysabeau for Bordeaux, “to utterly extirpate any remains of that hydra +Girondism.”</p> + +<p>Here he instituted a reign of terror. He added tortures to executions, +and, under the name of “requisitions,” made, as he said, war upon the +commercial aristocracy, by plundering all the wealthy merchants of the +town. To the mean cruelties of the worst form of Roman pro-consul he +added in his private life the luxury and pomp of a Persian satrap.</p> + +<p>He met Mdme. Fontenay and fell desperately in love with her. He +saved her from prison and brought her back with him to Paris. He was +in consequence ill received by the Committee of Public Safety, who +immediately imprisoned the woman he loved, on the accusation of being +an aristocrat.</p> + +<p>To avert suspicion, Tallien affected an even more vehement and +sanguinary patriotism than he had previously shown, and on March 22, +1794, was elected President of the Convention. Robespierre denounced +him to the Convention on June 12. He also erased the name of Tallien +from the Jacobin Society; this was tantamount to a sentence of death.</p> + +<p>Tallien determined to strike first, and to save not only his own life, +but that of his mistress; he therefore joined those who feared<span class="pagenum" id="Page_348">[348]</span> and +hated the triumvirate of Robespierre, St. Just, and le Bas, and who +wished to avenge Danton and save their own lives. Tallien became the +leader of the party who six weeks later overthrew Robespierre.</p> + +<p>After this he occupied for a short time the place that the death of +Maximilien Robespierre had left unoccupied. He married the woman he +loved, closed the Club of the Jacobins, and put upon their trial le +Bon, Fouquier-Tinville and other agents of terrorism. He retained +predominant power in the State until July 1795, when he visited the +army on the western frontier on a mission to General Hoche. Here he +was once more guilty of summary executions and caused much unnecessary +bloodshed.</p> + +<p>The advent of the Directorate in October of the same year practically +finished his active political career. He was accused of venality +and treason, and though he became a member of the Five Hundred, his +speeches were received with indifference or insult.</p> + +<p>In May 1798 he left that assembly, and here his public life may be said +to have terminated.</p> + +<p>He accompanied the expedition of Bonaparte to Egypt in the capacity of +a <i>savant</i>! Bonaparte and he were friends at the time owing to the +intimacy of their wives, and he had acted as witness when the general +married Madame Beauharnais.</p> + +<p>In Egypt Tallien was appointed Administrator of the Interior, and he +wrote a work called “Décade Egyptienne.” On his return to Europe a year +after the departure of Napoleon, the ship upon which he sailed was +taken by an English cruiser and he was carried to London. Here he was +enthusiastically received by the Radical party.</p> + +<p>After the peace of Amiens he returned to France, but did not find a +warm welcome. His wife had been notoriously unfaithful to him during +his absence; he divorced her immediately.</p> + +<p>After vainly petitioning the First Consul for an appointment he +received, by the influence of Talleyrand and Fouché, the unenviable +situation of Consul in the unhealthy Spanish seaport of Alicante +several months later. Here he remained for some years, nearly dying on +one occasion of yellow fever, by which he lost the sight of an eye.</p> + +<p>He returned to France, and ended his days living in obscurity on a +small pension, and dying in 1820, at the age of fifty-one.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_349">[349]</span></p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">TALLIEN, Comtesse of Caramon, Princesse de Chimay, Theresa +Cabarrus.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Saragossa, in Spain, 1773; died at Chimay, in Belgium, +1835.</p> +</div> + +<p>This beautiful woman was the daughter of the Count of Cabarrus, Spanish +Minister of Finance. At the age of sixteen she married M. Devin de +Fontenoy, Counsellor to the Parliament of Bordeaux. Her married life +was unhappy; and when the Republic instituted divorce, she obtained +one from her husband. After this she led a life of absolute freedom, +joined the revolutionary party, and became a conspicuous feature in +their meetings at Bordeaux. For some reason, now unknown, she was +imprisoned. Tallien, on his mission to Bordeaux as Commissionary of +the Republic, heard her beauty praised, visited her in her cell, fell +madly in love with her, and carried her back with him to Paris; there +she was arrested and again imprisoned. After her release and marriage +to Tallien, she became one of the most brilliant leaders of the corrupt +and immoral society of the Directorate. Her conduct, during the absence +of her husband in Egypt, passed all bounds of decency, and she gave +birth to two children, whom Tallien refused to acknowledge. He divorced +her in 1802.</p> + +<p>In 1805 she married M. de Caramon, who became Prince de Chimay, by whom +she had a family of two sons and two daughters.</p> + +<p>Although she had been the companion in prison of Josephine Beauharnais, +and both Tallien and herself intimate friends of the Bonapartes in the +early days of their married life, Napoleon would never allow his wife +to receive her publicly at the Tuileries, either as Mdme. Tallien or +the Princess de Chimay.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">TREILHARD, Jean Baptiste, Comte de.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Brives, January 3, 1742; died in Paris, 1810.</p> +</div> + +<p>He began life as a lawyer, being a prominent notary at Limoges. The +whole aristocracy and higher clergy in the town put their business +affairs into his hands. In 1789 he was sent to Paris as a member of +the <i>Tiers État</i>. His opinions were moderate at first, but soon +became intensely democratic. It was he who undertook the business of +reporting on Church property, and he presided over the Ecclesiastical +Committee in the Assembly. He<span class="pagenum" id="Page_350">[350]</span> proposed and passed a decree which +suppressed all religious orders, and made the property of the Church +national. In 1791 he proposed that Voltaire should receive the honours +of the Panthéon, adding “that Voltaire was perhaps the man amongst the +dead who most deserved the honours accorded to great patriots.” During +the session of 1792, Treilhard presided over the criminal tribune of +the departments of Paris. He decreed that Louis XVI. was guilty of +conspiracy against public liberty, and against the security of the +State. At the King’s trial he voted for his death, but with a respite +and appeal to the people. He was sent to Bordeaux to suppress the +rising of the Girondins, but recalled under the accusation of showing +too much moderation, and was replaced by Tallien.</p> + +<p>He was Minister of Justice under the Directorate. Later he underwent +much persecution, owing to the intrigues of Sieyès, who was his +enemy. Napoleon appointed him President (or Judge) of the High Court +of Appeal, and he held this appointment till 1808, when he became +President of the Council of State until his death, two years later, at +the age of sixty-eight.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">TURENNE, Henri de la Tour d’Auvergne, Vicomte de.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born at Sedan, September 11, 1611; killed at Salzbach, July 27, +1675.</p> +</div> + +<p>The second son of Henri, Duc de Bouillon, and Elizabeth, daughter of +William the Silent, Prince of Orange, and granddaughter of Admiral +Coligny. He was educated in his mother’s religion, Calvinism. At the +age of fifteen (1626), he went to study military science and the art +of war under his uncles, the Princes Maurice and Henry of Nassau. In +1630 he arrived in France, and Richelieu gave him the colonelcy of a +regiment. For the next eight years he was incessantly engaged in active +service, and distinguished himself as a commander, both on the Rhine +and in Flanders. Richelieu, who had the highest opinion of his military +capacity, wished to attach him to his interests, and offered him the +hand of one of his nieces who had a large dowry. Turenne took advantage +of the difference of religion as a pretext for refusing this alliance.</p> + +<p>In 1639 Turenne served in Italy, and saved the army of the Prince de +Carignan by the celebrated battle of the “Route de Quiers.” His courage +and tenacity of purpose brought about the capture of Turin. The Duke +de Bouillon, his elder brother, was implicated in the plot of <i>Cinq +Mars</i> and arrested. Turenne<span class="pagenum" id="Page_351">[351]</span> used his influence over the Cardinal to +obtain his brother’s release. The Duke left France, abjured Calvinism, +and became commander-in-chief of the Papal army. At the commencement of +the Regency of Anne of Austria, Turenne was commanding the French army +in Italy; but Richelieu, fearing that he and his elder brother might +become allies against him, despatched Turenne to Germany, with orders +to collect and reform the dispersed and broken mercenary Westphalian +troops, then in the pay of France. In this he was successful. From 1644 +to 1648 he continued the German campaign, until the conclusion of the +Treaty of Westphalia (October 24, 1648), which terminated the Thirty +Years War. At this time the troubles of the Fronde, which had been +long simmering, blazed out. The Duke de Bouillon, Turenne’s brother, +was one of the principal leaders of the movement. The Queen, Condé, +and the Cardinal used every effort to prevent Turenne following his +brother’s example. Mazarin offered him one of his nieces in marriage +and the Governorship of Alsace. Turenne brought his troops back to +France, and then attempted to lead them against the Minister; but the +men, having been bribed by Cardinal Mazarin, refused to obey their +general, who was compelled to take refuge in Holland. A month later +he returned to Paris. When the Princes were arrested (January 18, +1650), Mazarin again offered him his protection, and the command of the +army in Flanders. By this time the seductive graces of the Duchess de +Longueville had completely captivated Turenne, and he left Paris for +Stenay, a fortified town near Sedan, in the principality of the Duke +de Bouillon. Here he was joined by the Duchess. Under her influence he +signed a treaty with the Spaniards, by which he agreed to fight with +them against France until the imprisoned Princes should be released. +He joined the Archduke Leopold, marched through Picardy, took several +towns, and pushed on until he and his army were within a few hours of +Vincennes, where the Princes had been confined; but hearing they had +been transferred to the Castle of Marcoussis, near Rambouillet, he +recrossed the River Aisne and directed his march in that direction; he +encountered the whole Royal army, 19,000 strong, and though enormously +outnumbered, was forced to fight in a valley near Sompuis. He was +totally defeated. He then retired from the civil war, and returned +to the Archduke the 100,000 crowns which the latter had given him to +continue the campaign. The Princes were shortly afterwards released, +Mazarin exiled, and the Duc de Bouillon’s just claims, which he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_352">[352]</span> had +been making unavailingly for eight years, fully satisfied. Turenne +then returned to France, and married, in 1651, Charlotte de Caumont, +daughter of the Maréchal Armand de la Force. The bridegroom was forty +and the bride thirty, but their attachment had lasted many years, +and it was for her sake Turenne had already refused many brilliant +alliances.</p> + +<p>Turenne was greatly opposed to the second rebellion of Condé, who up +to that time had been his intimate friend. He conducted the campaign +against the army of the Fronde during the critical year of 1652, +defeated the rebellious Princes, and was able to bring back the King +to Paris on October 21. Condé and his allies, the Spaniards, were +eventually absolutely vanquished and driven from France, but the war +lasted for nearly seven years, and it was not until November 1659, +that a peace, glorious for France, was concluded by the Treaty of the +Pyrenees.</p> + +<p>From this time forth Turenne was one of those few men in whom Louis +XIV. had absolute confidence, and he consulted him on all matters +of foreign policy. Turenne took a very considerable part in the +restoration of Charles II. In 1667 a fresh war with Spain was imminent, +the King of France informed Turenne that it was his intention to march +at the head of the army, and learn from his commander-in-chief the art +of war.</p> + +<p>At this time Turenne abjured Calvinism and joined the Catholic Church. +There is every reason to believe his change of religion was sincere and +not dictated by political motives. He had for two years been anxious +to become a Catholic, and made a serious study of religious questions +under the guidance of Bossuet; and in 1668 he was privately re-baptised +by the Archbishop of Paris.</p> + +<p>Turenne in 1672 took supreme command on the occasion of the war with +Holland; the King acting as a figure-head. The campaign was long, +arduous and only partially successful.</p> + +<p>The year 1674 was the apogee of the military career of Turenne. At +a moment when several armies were gathered together ready to invade +France, he determined, notwithstanding the inferiority of his forces, +to divide his enemies and attack them separately. He marched down +the left bank of the Rhine, and, meeting the Imperialists, defeated +them at Sinzheim upon June 16. He then passed the river, and defeated +another body of the enemy’s troops at Ladenburg. The allies, having +reorganised their army, invaded Alsace and established there their +winter<span class="pagenum" id="Page_353">[353]</span> quarters. Turenne brought his troops by the Vosges mountains, +entered Alsace, and attacking the Imperialists (who were taken entirely +by surprise, not expecting an army would venture to move in the +winter), defeated them first at Mulhouse (December 29) and at Turckheim +on January 5. Alsace was thus entirely reconquered. Turenne made a +triumphant return to Versailles, where Louis XIV. publicly embraced him.</p> + +<p>In the following year, 1675, Turenne found himself the adversary of +Montecuccoli, the greatest living tactician in Europe. For six weeks +the two generals manœuvred and out-manœuvred each other in their +respective efforts to cross the Rhine. At length Turenne found a +favourable opportunity. The two armies were face to face near the +village of Salzbach (July 27), and Turenne was riding round the advance +posts, when his lieutenant-general, St. Hilaric, rode up to inform him +a column of the enemy was approaching. At this moment a shell struck +the party, St. Hilaric lost his left arm, and Turenne was wounded in +the side. The marshal never spoke again, but fell dead from his horse.</p> + +<p>His death caused universal mourning all over France. General +Montecuccoli, on hearing of the death of his rival, said: “A man has +died to-day who was an honour to humanity.” Turenne is buried under the +same dome as Napoleon—at the Invalides.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">VAUBAN, Sebastian le Prestre, Seigneur de.</span></p> + +<p>Military engineer and Marshal of France. Born, May 1, 1633; died, March +30, 1707. His father, the <i>cadet</i> of an ancient family, was styled +by himself “the poorest gentleman in France.”</p> + +<p>Young Vauban, left a penniless orphan at the age of ten, was adopted +and educated by the village priest. At seventeen he enlisted in Condé’s +rebel army, being taken prisoner a year later, and brought before +Mazarin, who, discovering his natural genius, gave him a commission of +lieutenant and put him under the orders of the Chevalier de Clermont, +the greatest military engineer of the day.</p> + +<p>In 1655 Vauban obtained the brevet of engineer. His reputation grew +rapidly. Acting under the orders of Turenne he was of the greatest +service at the sieges of Stenay, Clermont, Landrecies, Condé, +Valenciennes, and Montmedz, and this notwithstanding the fact that he +was several times severely wounded.</p> + +<p>In 1658 he directed on his own responsibility the sieges and attacks +upon Mardyk, Gravelines, Oudenarde and Ypres. After<span class="pagenum" id="Page_354">[354]</span> the Peace of the +Pyrenees he employed the succeeding next years of profound peace in +constructing new fortresses and modernising old ones. When, in 1667, +war broke out again he at once reassumed his old post. In the presence +of Louis XIV. he conducted the sieges of Tournai and Douai, and took +Lille after only eighteen days’ investiture.</p> + +<p>The following year he captured Dôle, and was then desired by Loubois, +who was his principal protector, to construct new fortifications at +all the recently conquered Flemish towns. He carried out these orders +so completely that when the Dutch war occurred five years later +the northern frontier of France was defended by a chain of almost +impregnable forts. The siege of Maestricht, which fell after an attack +lasting only thirteen days, raised his credit to an enormous height.</p> + +<p>In 1674 he was created Brigadier of the Royal army, and in 1675 +<i>Maréchal de camp</i>. Two years later he succeeded the Chevalier +M. Clermont as Commissary-General of the fortifications of France. +During the next ten years he surrounded France from north to south +with admirably planned and almost impregnable fortresses. He also +constructed the aqueduct of Maintenon and the canal of Riquet. Another +war taking place in 1688, Vauban conducted the sieges of Phillipsburg, +and, after saving Dunkirk and other French towns from the enemy, +conquered Mons and Namur in the King’s presence. In 1697 the Peace of +Ryswick put an end to his military career, during which he had built or +repaired 333 fortresses, conducted 53 sieges, and been present at 140 +battles and skirmishes.</p> + +<p>After the Peace of Ryswick, Vauban devoted the remaining ten years +of his life to the study of political economy; and the result of +his labours was the composition of a book, famous in its day and +still remembered by economists, called <i>Dîme Royale</i>. This book +described the system of political economy Vauban wished to introduce, +which was to substitute for all taxes and levies of money from the +people a contribution of the tenth part (or less) of the annual value +of all lands and money in the hands of private individuals; in fact, a +graduated income tax.</p> + +<p>He wished to abolish all taxes and Governmental duties on articles +of food and upon salt; but he desired to retain duties upon articles +of luxury and certain merchandise, such as spirits, tea, coffee and +tobacco. This book, which also included a graphic description of the +misery and want which the lower classes in France were suffering at the +time, appeared in 1707.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_355">[355]</span></p> + +<p>St. Simon gives a vivid description of the King’s fury, when he +received a copy from Maréchal Vauban. His Majesty had already obtained +a pretty good idea of the scope and matter it contained.</p> + +<p>A few weeks later the book was seized and confiscated by an Act +of Parliament, and its publication stopped. Vauban did not long +survive the blow; he died in Paris three weeks after this decree was +promulgated. To quote St. Simon:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>The King looked now upon Marshal Vauban as a fanatical defender +of the people, and a criminal who was attempting an attack upon +the authority of the Ministers, and, through them, upon the +Crown. The unfortunate Marshal could not survive the loss of +the favour of a master to whom he was deeply attached and whom +he had served so faithfully; he died soon after, seeing no one +and consumed with grief. The King received the news of his death +with indifference, and did not even recognise that he had lost +one of his most illustrious servants.</p> +</div> + +<p>The writings of Vauban upon fortifications and military matters are +well-known to all experts, and are still the best works that have been +written on these subjects.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">VISCONTI, Ennio Quirino.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born in Rome, 1751; died in Paris, 1818.</p> +</div> + +<p>He was an extraordinarily precocious child, and at the age of +thirteen had translated “Hecuba” of Euripides and the “Olympics” of +Pindar. He obtained the degree of doctor of law and literature in +1771 (aged twenty), and was then appointed camararis to the Pope and +sub-librarian to the Vatican. He steadily refused to take holy orders, +notwithstanding personal pressure from the Pope. When he married in +1785, he was dismissed from the Vatican, although he had compiled the +whole of the catalogues of the Museo Clementius. Prince Chigi then +took him into his service as librarian. During the next ten years he +arranged and classified the collections the two Englishmen, Jenkins and +Wortley, had made from excavations at Athens and other parts of Greece. +He also organised the Borghese Museum.</p> + +<p>When the French entered Rome in January 1798, Visconti was appointed by +General Berthier Minister of the Interior, and, later, one of the five +Consuls who were to govern the Roman Republic; he had only occupied +this post seven months, when the intrigues of his enemies compelled his +flight to Perugia, his honesty and moderation having excited the hatred +of his four fellow Consuls.</p> + +<p>The Neapolitans retook Rome in 1799, and Visconti, separated<span class="pagenum" id="Page_356">[356]</span> from +his wife and family, was exiled, and departed for France. Here he was +immediately employed in organising and arranging the Museum of the +Louvre, then just founded. He was appointed Professor of Archæology +and Member of the Institute. In 1801 appeared his celebrated <i>Livret +du Musée</i>. He also made a complete catalogue containing elaborate +descriptions of the works of art in the Louvre. By Napoleon’s orders +he commenced the <i>des dessins antiques</i>, which was to contain +illustrations drawn and engraved by him, comprising portraits of all +the illustrious heroes of antiquity. The Academies of Europe vied with +one another in asking his advice and judgment upon matters of art. In +1814 he was summoned to London to give his opinion upon the merits or +possible demerits of the Elgin marbles, the English Government not +being willing to give Lord Elgin the price demanded. Visconti valued +them at 800,000 francs (£32,000) and decided that they were all the +work of Phidias and his pupils. This sum was paid.</p> + +<p>Soon after his return to Paris he was attacked by a painful internal +malady, and died, aged sixty-six.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">LA VALLÉE, Marquis Joseph de Bois, Robert de.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born in 1747; died in 1816.</p> +</div> + +<p>He was captain in a regiment of Champagne before the Revolution. He +became an enthusiastic democrat; later, a devoted adherent of Napoleon. +During the Empire he was head of the <i>Chancellerie</i> of the Legion +of Honour. He lost this appointment, however, under the Restoration, +and retired to London, where he died. La Vallée was a voluminous +writer, a great linguist, and had a knowledge of ancient art and +literature.</p> + + +<p class="p-left"><span class="smcap">VOLTAIRE, François Marie, de.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p-left">Born, 1694, at Sceaux; died in Paris, 1778.</p> +</div> + +<p>He was the son of Maître François Arouet, a lawyer who held a position +in the <i>Cour des Comptes</i> in Paris. The birth of Voltaire took +place under peculiar circumstances. His mother, who was not immediately +expecting her confinement, joined a party one afternoon for a long walk +in the environs of Paris. Before she could get home, she was taken +suddenly in labour, and her child was prematurely born in a stranger’s +house. The infant was so weak, small, and feeble that it could not be +taken to church for baptism until nine months after its birth. Young +Arouet lost his mother a few years later. His relations with his father +were not happy,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_357">[357]</span> and his only brother, ten years his senior, was a +bigoted Jansenist.</p> + +<p>When only ten years of age, François Arouet was placed at the College +of Louis le Grand, directed by the Jesuit Fathers. Here he remained +for seven years, the favourite of his teachers, who considered him +their most brilliant scholar, his amusing sallies and lively wit gained +him popularity with his fellow students. At college, Voltaire (who +through life assiduously cultivated intimacy with exalted personages) +contracted friendships with the sons of noblemen, ministers and +magistrates. When he was eleven years of age his godfather, the Abbé +Châteauneuf, presented him to Ninon de l’Enclos, then nearly ninety +years old, but still mentally and physically attractive. The clever +and witty child delighted the aged courtesan, who in her will left him +2000 francs (£80) to buy books. He also met Jean Jacques Rousseau a few +years later: the latter embraced him, and predicted a glorious future +for the youthful genius.</p> + +<p>After he left college, Arouet soon profited by the friendships he +had made among his superiors in rank and position, and succeeded in +obtaining a footing which he maintained till 1726 in the most exclusive +and fashionable society in Paris. He had many adventures, notably a +romantic affair when attached to the Legation in Holland. Accused of +writing a series of satirical poems against the Government of the +Regency, he was sent to the Bastille; but this only increased his fame +and added to his notoriety. Released a year later, the Regent granted +him a private and friendly interview, settling upon him a pension of +1000 livres (£120) a year. Ever afterwards he wrote in most eulogistic +terms of the Regent, and dedicated his <i>Tragedy of Œdipus</i> to +the Duchess of Orleans. He continued to write successful plays and to +publish books of poetry and prose as well as to move in the highest +society until 1726, when a catastrophe occurred which changed the bent +of his whole life.</p> + +<p>Arouet, who had now assumed the name and style of de Voltaire, was on +December 10 of this year dining with one of his chief patrons, the +Duke de Sully. Among the guests was a dissolute middle aged man, the +Chevalier de Rohan (younger son of the Duke de Rohan). The Chevalier +inquired in a loud voice—“Who was the young man who talked so much +and gave his unasked-for opinion so freely?” Voltaire answered, “He +is a man who cannot boast of an exalted name, but who understands how +to keep up the honour of the humble name he does bear.”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_358">[358]</span> This sally +almost convulsed de Rohan with fury, being a direct allusion to his +notoriously evil reputation. Three days later Voltaire was seized +on the very steps of the Hôtel du Sully and soundly flogged there +and then in the open street by three of the chevalier’s lackeys, De +Rohan enjoying the spectacle seated in a coach drawn up hard by. The +chevalier’s victim could obtain no redress, his adversary refused to +fight him, and when Arouet made further efforts to obtain satisfaction, +he was again confined in the Bastille. Upon his release he immediately +started for England, his pride forbade his reappearance among his old +companions. His host in London was Bolingbroke, who had only just +returned to Great Britain after a long exile. Arouet remained three +years in England, making an earnest and thorough study of English +literature, and becoming intimate with Pope, Addison, and Swift.</p> + +<p>In 1729 he went back to Paris and recommenced his literary career. The +bold unconventionality of his writings and the freedom of his opinions +in religion and politics made the author an object of suspicion to the +French Government. His “Letters from England” were suppressed, his +<i>Lettres Philosophiques</i> publicly burnt by the common hangman, +and their publisher incarcerated in the Bastille; to avoid sharing his +fate, Voltaire again fled from France.</p> + +<p>His <i>liaison</i> with the beautiful and cultivated Madame du Châtelet +commenced about this time. She was about twenty-eight years of age. The +Marquis and Marchioness du Châtelet inhabited a château in Lorraine, +and there Voltaire principally lived until the death of the Marquis in +1749. He was occasionally absent for considerable periods—at Brussels +in 1739, in Paris, 1740.</p> + +<p>He had several interviews with Frederick the Great when the latter was +Prince of Prussia.</p> + +<p>After the Battle of Fontenoy in 1744, an ode he composed upon that +victory brought him once more into favour at Versailles, and for two +years he enjoyed the immediate patronage of Madame de Pompadour. He +could not, however, control his powers of satire, and in 1746 fell into +disgrace at Court, from which he never successfully emerged. He then, +in company with Madame du Châtelet, joined the literary <i>coterie</i> +of the Duchess de Maine at Sçeaux, and afterwards, still accompanied by +his fair friend, paid a visit to the Court of the ex-King Stanislaus, +father of the Queen of France, at Luneville. Here Madame du Châtelet<span class="pagenum" id="Page_359">[359]</span> +fell desperately in love with a handsome young officer, thirteen years +her junior, the Marquis de St. Lombert. Voltaire accepted the situation +with philosophic calm, saying he wished to change his position as lover +for that of a sincere and devoted friend. A year later the Marquise +died in child-bed, and a grotesque as well as melancholy scene took +place; the three men, her husband, the Marquis du Châtelet, Voltaire, +and St. Lombert, all weeping in each other’s arms over her body!</p> + +<p>Voltaire established himself in Paris: a widowed niece, Mdme. Denis, +whom he adopted as his daughter, kept house for him, and remained +his companion for the rest of his life. In 1750 Frederick the Great +invited the distinguished author to settle at Potsdam as his permanent +guest. Voltaire accepted the offer, reaching Berlin in July of the +same year. He was received with almost regal honours: a pension of +20,000 livres, the golden key of Great Chamberlain, and the Cross of +the Order of Prussia bestowed upon him. All his plays were performed +in succession at the theatre of Potsdam. At the King’s private suppers +the French poet was privileged to make any remarks he pleased, and not +bound to observe any form of Court etiquette. This (to Voltaire) ideal +existence lasted two years and six months, during which time he wrote +and published at Berlin the <i>Siècle de Louis XIV.</i> Voltaire began +to take too great an advantage of the licence accorded to him by the +Prussian monarch; he presumed to correct Frederick’s French prose, +and to make light of his verses. He quarrelled with the Court banker, +Hirsch (the direct ancestor of the late great financier Baron Hirsch), +about a doubtful monetary speculation, and a lawsuit took place +between them. It seems probable that this affair, which has never been +satisfactorily cleared up, contributed far more than a literary dispute +to the final rupture between King Frederick and his pet philosopher. +Voltaire had always shown great financial ability, and had amassed a +large fortune, which he continued to increase during the remainder of +his career.</p> + +<p>In the early spring of 1753, Voltaire and Frederick parted never to +meet again, mutually disgusted with one another. The poet departed +with his niece to Weime, on a visit to the Grand Duke and Duchess. +Frederick, discovering soon after that Voltaire had taken with him a +volume of very obscene, scurrilous, and questionable verse, which the +King had had printed for private circulation only, a commission, led +by a stupid and hotheaded officer named Freytag, was despatched in +pursuit, with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_360">[360]</span> orders to take it by force if necessary from the former +favourite, together with his golden key, and the Cross of Prussia. +Voltaire and Mdme. Denis were accordingly arrested at Frankfort and +kept in durance for thirty-six days, during which time they were +subjected to every possible form of arrogant insult.</p> + +<p>Although Voltaire desired to conciliate the religious party in France, +even going so far as to confess and communicate at Easter in Lyons, he +could not persuade them to overlook his anti-Christian publications. +The appearance in print of the <i>Siècle de Louis XIV.</i>, and an +abominable skit upon Joan of Arc, called <i>La Pucelle</i>, destroyed +the last chance of his ever again being received at Court. He therefore +purchased an estate in Switzerland, where he built a charming villa +called <i>Les Délices</i>; in 1760 he bought the estate of Ferney, near +the Swiss and French frontier, but in French territory. For the next +eighteen years he resided there in great state, and was visited by +innumerable famous and distinguished personages, from kings and princes +to authors and actors. One of his visitors has thus described life at +Ferney:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Voltaire is very rich; he is as proud of his wealth as of his +literary reputation. He loves to act the part of <i>Seigneur +du Village</i>, and to show his guests his houses, gardens, +fields, woods, horses (of which he has twelve in his private +stable), and his cattle. He dresses with elegance and care; on +feast days his attire is splendid. He has built a church for the +villagers, and attends Mass in state on Sundays, with an escort +of two game-keepers carrying loaded muskets. He exacts all +feudal rights and privileges as a landlord. He is always ill, +or ailing, and yet an indefatigable worker, with an activity +and liveliness of mind and intellect of a young man. His temper +is variable. He is by turns capricious, obstinate, irascible, +passionate, and revengeful. His reputation for avarice is +undeserved, but, on the other hand, he is often very liberal and +generous; though, being a man of great business capacity, he +administers his affairs with practical common sense, and will +not allow himself to be cheated of a farthing.</p> +</div> + +<p>His writings continued to make more and more stir in the world of +letters, and he was to a great extent the arbiter of intellectual +thought all over Europe during the last twenty years of his life. He +hailed the advent of Louis XVI. to the throne of France with joy, +believing a new and enlightened <i>régime</i> was about to begin.</p> + +<p>Pressure was put upon him on all sides to return to Paris, Queen Marie +Antoinette herself interceded with the King to give the required +permission for the exile’s reception at Court, and in February 1778, +Voltaire quitted Ferney and arrived in Paris on the evening of the +10th of that month. He had been an exile for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_361">[361]</span> twenty-nine years. From +this time until his death his existence was one perpetual ovation. +The excitement of this round of entertainments and receptions—which +culminated, when after a performance of his new tragedy <i>Irene</i>, +his bust was crowned upon the stage of the <i>Théâtre Français</i>—was +too much for his aged feeble frame to support, and taken suddenly ill +he expired on May 30, 1778, aged eighty-four and three months. He +desired to receive the last Sacraments, but when the priest arrived the +patient was already unconscious. He had, however, confessed himself +to the Abbé Gauthier, an ex-Jesuit, and received the Communion on +the previous March 2, when he signed a retractation of his deistic +and infidel opinions. He added—“I shall die adoring God, loving my +friends, and detesting superstition of every kind.”</p> + +<p>Voltaire was buried in the Abbey of Scellières, where his body lay +until it was removed to the Panthéon by the order of the Convention.</p> + + +<p class="center p2 xs">Printed by <span class="smcap">Ballantyne & Co. Limited</span><br> +Tavistock Street, London</p> + + + +<h2>FOOTNOTES</h2> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> See Appendix.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> These articles have since 1802 increased a hundredfold in +value.—[<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> This bird is undoubtedly a Penguin.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> Probably an albatross.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> Italian or rather Corsican pronunciation.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> This statue is the celebrated dying Gladiator immortalised +by Byron.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> Chauvilet.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> I must here relate two very extraordinary circumstances +respecting the younger Sheares, whom I described in Letter XII. as +a charming young man and the admirer of Mlle. Théronne (Théroigne). +During the King’s trial he sat near me, and was so extremely affected +he shed tears, observing at the same time that the French would +dishonour their name and the cause of freedom by this proceeding.</p> + +<p>Some days later we visited Versailles together, and as we were +contemplating the scenery of the beautiful garden at Petit Trianon, +laid out by the Queen, he went to the top of the look-out, fell upon +one knee, and exclaimed, drawing a dirk: “By heaven! I’ll thrust this +dirk into the heart of the man who shall dare to propose the least +injury to Marie Antoinette.” His brother, who was of a more cool and +less enthusiastic temperament, immediately observed, “You had better +set off post to Paris and take her out of the Temple.” It may appear +incredible to those who have been unconnected with any of the agents +of those convulsions which have disturbed the world for the last +twelve years, that men previously distinguished for the sensibility of +their natures and for their humanity, have proved, when immersed in +the Revolution whirlpool, the most cruel and inexorable of incarnate +devils. Carrier, Robespierre, Foquet-Tinville, and most of those +exterminating furies who thinned the best part of the population of +France, are instances in point.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> A peculiar motive, which I shall not here explain, obliges +me to omit the insertion of the case alluded to, but I have given the +beginning, which contains an account of Mr. Paine’s mode of life before +he was sent to prison, and the conclusion.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> This passage and the following, which I have marked in +italics, deserves the solemn reflection of every one who formerly +entertained a favourable prepossession in behalf of the French +Revolution.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> At this period the French talked of the “Rights of Man,” +of the Republic one and indivisible, democratic and imperishable; and +branded English people with the epithets of English slaves, serfs of +George, &c. &c.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> Of the Committee of Public Safety, at that time the +executive power of France in every sense of the word. For the benefit +of the Great Nation they pocketed £400 for signing these very +passports, permitting two of the “serfs <i>of George and agents of +Pitt</i>” to escape from France.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> So that the £400 these Public Safety scoundrels had +touched would have caused their murder had they delayed their departure +for a few hours, as Barrère wisely observed, “dead men tell no +tales”—it would have been vain to plead the bribe; this plea itself +would have been such an outrage to the Majesty of the Republic that +it alone would have satisfied the consciences of the jury of the +Revolutionary Tribunal.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> The use of packs of cards with figures of royal +personages, <i>i.e.</i>, the kings and queens of hearts, diamonds, +clubs, and spades, were forbidden by the revolutionary authorities as +being emblems of royalty, and those who used them were condemned as +Royalists.</p> + +</div> + + +<p class="transnote">Transcriber’s Notes:<br> +<br> +1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been +corrected silently.<br> +<br> +2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the +original.<br> +<br> +3. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have +been retained as in the original.</p> + + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76267 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/76267-h/images/cover.jpg b/76267-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5a304c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/76267-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/76267-h/images/title.jpg b/76267-h/images/title.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..048a91c --- /dev/null +++ b/76267-h/images/title.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5dba15 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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