More than once during the course of this long review the Minister must have flushed with shame; for to the reprimands dispatched by him to these apathetic administrations, they reply by citing himself as an example:
"You desire us to denounce the arbitrary arrests to the public prosecutor; have you denounced those guilty of similar and yet greater crimes committed at the capital?"32106—
From all quarters come the cries of the oppressed appealing to "the patriot Minister, the sworn enemy of anarchy," to "the good and incorruptible Minister of the Interior, his only reproach, the common sense of his wife," and he could only reply with empty phrases and condolences:
"To lament the events which so grievously distress the province, all administrations being truly useful when they forestall evils, it being very sad to be obliged to resort to such remedies, and recommend to them a more active supervision."32107
"To lament and find consolation in the observations made in the letter," which announces four murders, but calls attention to the fact that "the victims immolated are counter-revolutionaries."32108
Roland has carried on written dialogues with the village municipalities, and given lessons in constitutional law to communities of pot-breakers.32109—But, on this territory, he is defeated by his own principles, while the pure Jacobins read him a lesson in turn; they, likewise, are able to deduce the consequences of their own creed.
"Brother and Friend, Sir," write those of Rouen, "not to be always at the feet of the municipality, we have declared ourselves permanent, deliberative sections of the Commune."32110
Let the so-called constituted authorities, the formalists and pedants of the Executive Council and the Minister of the Interior, look twice before censuring the exercise of popular sovereignty. This sovereign raises his voice and drives his clerks back into their holes; spoliation and murder, all this is just.
"Can you have forgotten that, after the tempest, as you yourself declared in the height of the storm, it is the nation which saves itself? Well, sir, this is what we have done.32111.. What! when all France was resounding with that long expected proclamation of the abolition of tyranny, you were willing that the traitors, who strove to reestablish it, should escape public prosecution! My God, what century is this in which we find such Ministers!"
Arbitrary taxes, penalties, confiscations, revolutionary expeditions, nomadic garrisons, pillage, what fault can be found with all that?
"We do not pretend that these are legal methods; but, drawing nearer to nature, we demand what object the oppressed have in view in invoking justice. Is it to lag behind and vainly pursue an equitable adjustment which is rendered fleeting by judicial forms? Correct these abuses or do not complain of the sovereign people suppressing them in advance.... You, sir, with so many reasons for it, would do well to recall your insults and redeem the wrongs you have inflicted before we happen to render them public."... "Citizen Minister, people flatter you; you are told too often that you are virtuous; the moment this gives you pleasure you cease to be so.... Discard the astute brigands who surround you, listen to the people, and remember that a citizen Minister is merely the executor of the sovereign will of the people."
However narrow Roland's outlook may be, he must finally comprehend that the innumerable robberies and murders which he has just noted over are not a thoughtless eruption, a passing crisis of delirium, but a manifesto of the victorious party, the beginning of an established system of government. Under this system, write the Marseilles Jacobins,
"to-day, in our happy region, the good rule over the bad, and constitute a party which allows no contamination; whatever is vicious has gone into hiding or has been exterminated." The programme is very precise, and acts form its commentary. This is the programme which the faction, throughout the interregnum, sets openly before the electors.
3201 (return)[ Guillon de Montléon, I. 122. Letter of Laussel, dated Paris, 28th of August, 1792, to the Jacobins of Lyons: "Tell me how many heads have been cut off at home. It would be infamous to let our enemies escape." (1792).]
3202 (return)[ "Les Révolutions de Paris," by Prudhomme, Vol. XIII. pp. 59-63 (14th of July, 3 Decrees of the 10th and 11th of August, 1792.)]
3204 (return)[ Prudhomme, number of the 15th of September, p. 483.—Mortimer-Ternaux, IV. 430.]
3205 (return)[ Mortimer-Ternaux. IV. II. Fauchet's report, Nov. 6, 1792.—Ib., IV. 91, 142. Discourse of M. Fockedey, administrator of the department of the north, and of M. Bailly, deputy de Seine-et-Marne.]
3206 (return)[ Prudhomme, number of Sept. 1, 1792, pp. 375, 381, 385: number of Sept. 22, pp. 528-530,—Cf. Guillon de Montléon, I. 144. Here are some of the principles announced by the Jacobin leaders of Lyons, Châlier, Laussel, Cusset, Rouillot, etc. "The time has come when this prophecy must be fulfilled: The rich shall be put in the place of the poor, and the poor in the place of the rich."—"If a half of their property be left them the rich will still be happy."—"If the laboring people of Lyons are destitute of work and of bread, they can profit by these calamities in helping themselves to wealth in the quarter where they find it."—"No one who is near a sack of wheat can die of hunger. Do you wish the word that will buy all that you want? Slay!—or perish!"]
3207 (return)[ Prudhomme, number for the 28th of August, 1792, pp. 284-287.]
3208 (return)[ Cf.. "The French Revolution," I.346. In ten of the departments the seventh jacquerie continues the sixth without a break. Among other examples, this letter from the administrators of Tarn, June 18, 1792, may be read ("Archives Nationales," F7, 3271). "Numerous bands overran both the city (Castres) and the country. They forcibly entered the houses of the citizens, broke the furniture to pieces, and pillaged everything that fell into their hands. Girls and women underwent shameful treatment. Commissioners sent by the district and the municipality to advocate peace were insulted and menaced. The pillage was renewed; the home of the citizen was violated." The administrators add: "In many places the progress made by the constitution was indicated by the speedy and numerous emigrations of its enemies."]
3209 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3272. Letter of the administrators of the Var, May 27, 1792.—Letter of the minister, Duranthon, May 28.—Letter of the commission composing the directory Oct. 31.]
3210 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," Letter of the administrators of Var, May. 27.—The saying is the summary of the revolutionary spirit; it recurs constantly.—Cf. the Duc de Montpensier, "Mémoires," p. 11. At Aix one of his guards said to the sans-culotte who were breaking into the room where he had been placed: "Citizens, by what order do you enter here? and why have you forced the guard at the door?" One of them. answered: "By order of the people. Don't you know that the people is sovereign?"]
3211 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," letter of the public prosecutor, May 23.—Letters of the administrators of the department, May 22, and 27 (on the events of the 13th of May at Beausset).]
3212 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7 3193 and 3194. Previous details may be found in these files. This department is one of those in which the seventh jacquerie is merely a prolongation of the sixth.—Cf. F7, 3193. Letter of the royal Commissioner at Milhau, May 5, 1791. "The situation is getting worse; the administrative bodies continue powerless and without resources. Most of their members are still unable to enter upon their duties; while the factions, who still rule, multiply their excesses in every direction. Another house in the country, near the town, has been burnt; another broken into, with a destruction of the furniture and a part of the dinner-service, and doors and windows broken open and smashed; several houses visited, under the pretense of arms or powder being concealed in them; all that is found with private persons and dealers not of the factious party is carried off; tumultuous shouts, nocturnal assemblages, plots for pillage or burning; disturbances caused by the sale of grain, searches under this pretext in private granaries, forced prices at current reductions; forty louis taken from a lady retired into the country, found in her trunk, which was broken into, and which, they say, should have been in assignats. The police and municipal officers witnesses of these outrages, are sometimes forced to sanction them with their presence; they neither dare suppress them nor punish the well-known authors of them. Such is a brief statement of the disorders committed in less than eight days."—In relation specially to Saint-Afrique. Cf. F7, 3194, the letter, among others, of the department administrator, march 29, 1792.]
3213 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3193. Extract from the registers of the clerk of the juge-de-paix of Saint-Afrique, and report by the department commissioners, Nov. 10, 1792, with the testimony of the witnesses, forming a document of 115 pages.]
3214 (return)[ Deposition of Alexis Bro, a volunteer, and three others.]
3215 (return)[ Deposition of Pons, a merchant. After this devastation he is obliged to address a petition to the executive power, asking permission to remain in the town.]
3216 (return)[ Deposition of Capdenet, a shoemaker.]
3217 (return)[ Depositions of Marguerite Galzeng, wife of Guibal a miller, Pierre Canac and others.]
3218 (return)[ Depositions of Martin, syndic-attorney of the commune of Brusque; Aussel, curé of Versol; Martial Aussel, vicar of Lapeyre and others.]
3219 (return)[ Deposition of Anne Tourtoulon.]
3220 (return)[ Depositions of Jeanne Tuffon, of Marianne Terral, of Marguerite Thomas, of Martin syndic-attorney of the commune of Brusque, of Virot, of Brassier, and othes. The details are too specific to allow quotation.]
3221 (return)[ Depositions of Moursol, wool-carder; Louis Grand, district-administrator, and others.]
3222 (return)[ For example, at Limoges, Aug. 16.—Cf. Louis Guibert, "le Parti Girondin dans la Haute-Vienne," p. 14.]
3223 (return)[ Paris, "Histoire de Joseph Lebon," I. 60. Restoration of the Arras municipality. Joseph Lebon is proclaimed mayor Sept. 16.]
3224 (return)[ For example, at Caen and at Carcassonne.]
3225 (return)[ For example, at Toulon.]
3226 (return)[ "Un séjour en France," 19, 29. ("Letters of a Wittness to the French Revolution," translated by H. Taine.1872)]
3227 (return)[ Ibid., p. 38: 2M. de M—, who had served for thirty years gave up his arms to a boy who treated him with the greatest insolence."]
3228 (return)[ Paris, Ibid., p. 55 and the following pages.—Albert Babeau, "Histoire de Troyes," I. 503-515.—Sausay, III. ch. I.]
3229 (return)[ "The Ancient Régime," 381, 391, 392.]
3230 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3217. Letter of Castanet, an old gendarme, Aug. 21 1792.]
3231 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3219. Letter of M. Alquier to the first consul, Pluviôse 18, year VIII.]
3232 (return)[ Lauvergne, "Histoire du Var," p. 104.]
3233 (return)[ Mortimer-Ternaux, III. 325, 327.]
3234 (return)[ "Archives-Nationales," F7, 3271. Letter of the Minister of Justice, with official reports of the municipality of Rabastens. "The juge-de-paix of Rabastens was insulted in his place by putting an end to the proceedings commenced against an old deserter at the head of the municipality, and tried for robbery. They threatened to stab the judge if he recommenced the trial. Numerous gangs of vagabonds overrun the country, pillaging and putting to ransom all owners of property.. . The people has been led off by a municipal officer, a constitutional curé, and a brother of sieur Tournal, one of the authors of the evils which have desolated the Comtat." (March 5, 1792).]
3235 (return)[ Guillon de Montléon, I. 84, 109, 139, 155, 158, 464.—Ibid., p.441, details concerning Châlier by his companion Chassagnon.—"Archives Nationales," F7, 3255. Letter by Laussel, Sept. 22, 1792.]
3236 (return)[ Barbaroux, "Mémoires," 85. Barbaroux is an eye-witness, for he has just returned to Marseilles and is about to preside over the electoral assembly of the Bouches-du-Rhône.]
3237 (return)[ C. Rousset, "Les Volontaires," p. 67.—In his report of June 27, 1792, Albert Dubayet estimates the number of volunteers at 84,000.]
3238 (return)[ C. Rousset, "Les Volontaires," 101. Letter of Kellermann, Aug.23, 1792.—"Un séjour en France," I. 347 and following pages.—"Archives Nationales," F7, 3214. Letter of an inhabitant of Nogent-le-Rotrou (Eure). "Out of 8,000 inhabitants one-half require assistance, and two-thirds of these are in a sad state, having scarcely straw enough to sleep on."(Dec. 3, 1792).—In his report of June 27, 1792, Albert Dubayet estimates the number of volunteers at 84,000.]
3239 (return)[ C. Rousset, "Les Volontaires," 106 (Letter of General Biron, Aug. 23, 1792).—226, Letter of Vezu, major, July 24, 1793.]
3240 (return)[ C. Rousset, "Les Volontaires," 144 (Letter of a district administrator of Moulins to General Custines, Jan. 27, 1793).—"Un séjour en France," p.27: "I am sorry to see that most the volunteers about to join the army are old men or very young boys."—C. Rousset, Ibid., 74, 108, 226 (Letter of Biron, Nov. 7, 1792); 105 (Letter of the commander of Fort Louis, Aug. 7); 127 (Letter of Captain Motmé). One-third of the 2d battalion of Haute-Saône is composed of children 13 and 14 years old.]
3241 (return)[ Moniteur, XIII. 742 (Sept. 21). Marshal Lückner and his aids-de-camp just miss being killed by Parisian volunteers.—"Archives Nationales," BB, 16703. Letter by Labarrière aide-de-camp of General Flers, Antwerp, March 19, 1793. On the desertion en masse of gendarmes from Dumouriez's army, who return to Paris.]
3242 (return)[ Cf. "L'armée et la garde nationale," by Baron Poisson, III. 475. "On hostilities being declared (April, 1792), the contingent of volunteers was fixed at 200,000 men. This second attempt resulted in nothing but confused and disorderly levies. Owing to the spinelessness of the volunteer troops it was impossible to continue the war in Belgium, which allowed the enemy to cross the frontier."—Gouverneur Morris, so well informed, had already written, under date of Dec.27, 1791: "The national guards, who have turned out as volunteers, are in many instances that corrupted scum of overgrown population of which large cities purge themselves, and which, without constitutions to support the fatigues... of war, have every vice and every disease which can render them the scourge of their friends and the laughing stock of their foes."—Buchez et Roux, XXVI. 177. Plan of the administrators of Hérault, presented to the Convention April 27, 1793. "The composition of the enlistment should not be concealed. Most of those of which it is made up are not volunteers; they are not citizens all classes of society, who, submitting to draft on the ballot, have willingly made up their minds to go and defend the Republic. The larger part of the recruits are substitutes who, through the attraction of a large sum, have concluded to leave their homes."]
3243 (return)[ C. Rousset, 47. Letter of the directory of Somme, Feb. 26, 1792.]
3244 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F 7, 3270. Deliberations of the council-general of the commune of Roye, Oct. 8, 1792 (in relation to the violence committed by two divisions of Parisian gendarmerie during their passage, Oct. 7 and 8).]
3245 (return)[ Moore, I. 338 (Sept. 8, 1792).—(The Condés were proud princes from a branch of the royal house of Bourbon. (SR).]
3246 (return)[ C Rousset, 189 (Letter of the Minister of War, dated at Dunkirk, April 29, 1793).—Archives Nationales," BB, 16, 703. (Parisian national guard staff major-general, order of the day, letter of citizen Férat, commanding at Ostend, to the Minister of War, March 19, 1793): "Since we have had the gendarmes with us at Ostend there is nothing but disturbance every day. They attack the officers and volunteers, take the liberty of pulling off epaulettes and talk only of cutting and slashing, and declare that they recognize no superior being equals with everybody, and that they will do as they please. Those who are ordered to arrest them are chased and attacked with saber cuts and pistols]
3247 (return)[ C. Rousset, 20 (Letter of General Wimpfen, Dec. 30, 1791).—"Souvenirs" of General Pelleport, pp.7 and 8.]
3248 (return)[ C. Rousset, 45 (Report of General Wimpfen, Jan. 20, 1792).—Letter of General Biron, Aug. 23, 1792.]
3249 (return)[ C. Rousset, 47, 48.—"Archives Nationales," F7, 3249. Official report of the municipality of Saint-Maxence, Jan. 21, 1792.—F 7, 3275. Official report of the municipality of Châtellerault, Dec. 27, 1791.—F7, 3285 and 3286—F7, 3213. Letter of Servan, Minister of War, to Roland, June 12, 1792: "I frequently receive, as well as yourself and the Minister of Justice, complaints against the national volunteers. They commit the most reprehensible offenses daily in places where they are quartered, and through which they pass on their way to their destination."—Ibid., Letter of Duranthon, Minister of Justice, May 5: "These occurrences are repeated, under more or less aggravating circumstances, in all the departments."]
3250 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3193. Official report of the commissaries of the department of Aveyron, April 4, 1792. "Among the pillagers and incendiaries of the chateaux of Privesac, Vaureilles, Péchins, and other threatened mansions, were a number of recruits who had already taken the road to Rhodez to join their respective regiments." Nothing remains of the château of Privesac but a heap of ruins. The houses in the village "are filled to over flowing with pillaged articles, and the inhabitants have divided the owners' animals amongst themselves."—Comte de Seilhac, "Scènes et portraits de la Révolution dans le bas Limousin," P.305. Pillage of the châteaux of Saint-Jéal and Seilhac, April 12, 1792, by the 3rd battalion of la Corrèze, commanded by Bellegarde, a former domestic in the château.]
3251 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3270. Deliberation of the council-general of the commune of Roye, Oct. 8, 1792 (passage of two divisions of Parisian gendarmes). "The inhabitants and municipal officers were by turns the sport of their insolence and brutality, constantly threatened in case of refusal with having their heads cut off, and seeing the said gendarmes, especially the gunners, with naked sabers in their hands, always threatening. The citizen mayor especially was treated most outrageously by the said gunners... forcing him to dance on the Place d'armes, to which they resorted with violins and where they remained until midnight, rudely pushing and hauling him about, treating him as an aristocrat, clapping the red cap on his head, with constant threats of cutting it off and that of every aristocrat in the town, a threat they swore to carry out the next day, openly stating, especially two or three amongst them, that they had massacred the Paris prisoners on the 2nd of September, and that it cost them nothing to massacre."]
3252 (return)[ Summaries, in the order of their date or locality, and similar to those about to be placed before the reader, sometimes occur in these files. I pursue the same course as the clerk, in conformity with Roland's methodical habits.]
3253 (return)[ Aug. 17, 1792 (Moniteur, XIII, 383, report of M. Emmery).]
3254 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3271. Letter of the administrators of Tarn, July 21.]
3255 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3234. Report of the municipal officers of Clairac, July 20.-Letter of the syndic-attorney of Lot-et-Garonne, Sept. 16.]
3256 (return)[ Mercure de France, number for July 28, (letters from Bordeaux).]
3257 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3275. Letter of the administrators of Haute-Vienne, July 28 (with official reports).]
3258 (return)[ '"Archives Nationales," F7, 3223. Letter of the directory of the district of Neuville to the department-administrators, Sept 18.]
3259 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," report of the administrators of the department and council-general of the commune of Orleans, Sept 16 and 17. (The disarmament had been effected through the decrees of Aug.26 and Sept. 2.)]
3260 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3249. Letter of the lieutenant of the gendarmerie of Dampierre, Sept 23 (with official report dated Sept 19).]
3261 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," draft of a letter by Roland, Oct 4, and others of the same kind.—Letter of the municipal officers of Ray, Sept 24.—Letter of M. Desdouits, proprietor, Sept 30.—Letter of the permanent council of Aigle, Oct 1, etc.]
3262 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," Letter of the administrators of the Orne department, Sept 7.]
3263 (return)[ Mortimer-Ternaux, III. 337 (Sept. 6).]
3264 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3265. Letter of the lieutenant-general of the gendarmerie, Aug. 30.—Official report of the Rouen municipality on the riot of Aug. 29.—Letters of the department-administrators, Sept 18 and Oct. 11.—Letter of the same, Oct 13, etc.—Letter of David, cultivator and department administrator Oct 11.]
3265 (return)[ Albert Babean, "Letters of a deputy of the municipality of Troyes to the army of Dumuriez," p. 8.—(Sainte-Menehould, Sept. 7, 1792): "Our troops burn with a desire to meet the enemy. The massacre reported to have taken place in Paris does not discourage them; on the contrary, they are glad to know that suspected persons in the interior are got rid of."]
3266 (return)[ Moore, I.338 (Sept. 4). At Clermont, the murder of a fish-dealer, killed for insulting the Breton volunteers.—401 (Sept. 7), the son of the post-master at Saint-Amand is killed on suspicion of communicating with the enemy.—"Archives Nationales," F7; 3249. Letter of the district-administrators of Senlis, Oct. 31 (Aug. 15). At Chantilly, M. Pigean is assassinated in the midst of 1,200 persons.—C. Rousset, p.84 (Sept. 21), lieutenant-colonel Imonnier is assassinated at Châlons-sur-Marne.—Mortimer-Ternaux, IV. 172. Four Prussian deserters are murdered at Rethel, Oct. 5, by the Parisian volunteers]
3267 (return)[ Mortimer-Ternaux, III. 378, 594 and following pages.]
3268 (return)[ Lacretelle, "Dix années d'épreuves," p. 58. Description of Liancourt.—"Archives Nationales," F7, 3249. Letter of the department-administrators of the Eure, Sept. 11 (with official report of the Gisors municipality, Sept 4).—Mortimer-Ternaux, III. 550.]
3269 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 4394. Letter of Roland to the convention, Oct. 31 (with a copy of the documents sent by the department of the Nord on the events of Oct. 10 and 11).]
3270 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3191. Official report of the municipality of Charleville; Sept. 4, and letter, Sept. 6.—Moniteur, XIII. 742, number for Sept. 21,1792 (letter of Sept. 17, On the Parisian volunteers of Marshal Lückner's army). "The Parisian volunteers again threatened to have several heads last evening, among others those of the marshal and his aids. He had threatened to return some deserters to their regiments. At this the men exclaimed that the ancient régime no longer existed, that brothers should not be treated in that way, and that he general should be arrested. Several of them had already seized the horse's bridle."]
3271 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3185. Documents relating to the case of M. de Fossés. (The pillage takes place Sept. 4.)]
3272 (return)[ Letter of Goulard, mayor of Coucy, Oct. 4.—Letter of Osselin, notary, Nov. 7. "Threats of setting fire to M. de Fossés' two remaining farm-houses are made."—Letter of M. de Fossés, Jan. 28, 1793. He states that he has entered no complaint, and if anybody has done so for him he is much displeased. "A suit might place me in the greatest danger, from my knowledge of the state of the public mind in Coucy, and of what the guilty have done and will do to affect the minds of the people in the seventeen communes concerned in the devastation."]
3273 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3249 letter of M. de Gouy to Roland, Sept. 21. (An admirable letter, which, if copied entire, would show the character of the gentleman of 1789. Lots of heart, many illusions and much verbosity.) The first attack was made Sept. 4 and the second on the 13th.]
3274 (return)[ Most of the domiciliary visits end in similar damages. For example, ("Archives Nationales," F7, 3265, letter of the administrators of Seine-Inferieure, Sept. 18, 1792). Visit to the château de Catteville, Sept. 7, by the national guard of the neighborhood. "The national guard get drunk, break the furniture to pieces, and fire repeated volleys at the windows and mirrors; the château is a complete ruin." The municipal officers on attempting to interfere are nearly killed.]
3275 (return)[ The letter ends with the following: "No, never will I abandon the French soil!" He is guillotined at Paris, Thermidor 5, year II., as an accomplice in the pretended prison-plot.]
3276 (return)[ Raid on Protestants under Louis XIV. (SR).]
3277 (return)[ '"Archives Nationales," Letter of the Oise administrators, Sept. 12 and 15.—Letter of the syndic-attorney of the department, Sept. 23.—Letter of the administrators, Sept. 20 (on Chantilly). "The vast treasures of this domain are being plundered." In the forest of Hez and in the park belonging to M. de Fitz-James, now national property, "the finest trees are sold on the spot, cut down, and carried off."—F7, 3268, Letter of the overseer of the national domains at Rambouillet, Oct. 31. Woods devastated "at a loss of more than 100,000 crowns since August 10."—"The agitators who preach liberty to citizens in the rural districts are the very ones who excite the disorders with which the country is menaced. They provoke the demand for a partition of property, with all the accompanying threats."]
3278 (return)[ Albert Babeau, I.504 (Aug.20).]
3279 (return)[ Mortimer-Ternaux, III. 322 (Sept 4).]
3280 (return)[ Mortimer-Ternaux, III.325.—"Archives Nationales," F7, 3239. Official report of the municipality of Rheims, Sept 6.]
3281 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 4394. Correspondence of the ministers in 1792 and 1793. Lists presented by Roland to the convention, on the part of various districts and departments, containing the names of priests demanding passports to go abroad, those who have gone without passports, and of sick or aged priests in the department asylums.]
3282 (return)[ Albert Babeau, I. 515-517. Guillon de Montléon, I. 120. At Lyons after the 10th of August the unsworn conceal themselves; the municipality offers them passports; many who come for them are incarcerated; others receive a passport with a mark on it which serves for their recognition on the road, and which excites against them the fury of the volunteers. "A majority of the soldiers filled the air with their cries of 'Death to kings and priests!' "—Sauzay, III. ch. IX., and especially p. 193: "M. Pescheu; while running along the road from Belfort to Porentruy, is seen by a captain of the volunteers, riding along the same road with other officers; demanding his gun, he aimed at M. Pescheur and shot him."]
3283 (return)[ "Histoire de Chalons-sur-Marne et de ses monuments," by L. Barbat, pp. 420, 425]
3284 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3207. Letter of the directory of the Côte d'Or, Aug. 28 and Sept. 26. Address of the Beaune municipality, Sept. 2. Letter of M. Jean Sallier, Oct. 9: "Allow me to appeal to you for justice and to interest yourself in behalf of my brother, myself, and five servants, who on the 14th of September last, at the order of the municipality of La Roche-en-Bressy, where we have lived for three years, were arrested by the national guard of Saulieu, and, first imprisoned here in this town, were on the 18th transferred to Semur, no reason for our detention being given, and where we have in vain demanded a trial from the directory of the district, which body, making no examination or inquiry into our case, sent us on the 25th, at great expense, to Dijon, where the department has imprisoned us again without, as before, giving any reason therefore."—The directory of the department writes "the communes of the towns and of the country arrest persons suspected by them, and instead of caring for these themselves, send them to the district"—Such arbitrary imprisonment multiply towards the end of 1792 and early in 1793. The commissaries of the convention arrest at Sedan 55 persons in one day: at Nancy, 104 in three weeks; at Arras, more than 1,000 in two months; in the Jura, 4,000 in two months. At Lons-le-Saulnier all the nobles with their domestics, at Aix all the inhabitants of one quarter without exception are put in prison. (De Sybel, II. 305.)]
3285 (return)["Archives Nationales," F7, 3276. Letters of the administrators of the Yonne, Aug. 20 and 21.-Ibid., F7, 3255. Letter of the commissary, Bonnemant, Sept. 22.—Mortimer-Ternaux, III. 338.—Lavalette, "Mémoires," I.100.]
3286 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3,255. Letter of the district administrator of Roanne, Aug. 18. Fourteen volunteers of the canton of Néronde betake themselves to Chenevoux, a mansion belonging to M. Dulieu, a supposed émigré. They exact 200 francs from the keeper of' the funds of the house under penalty of death, which he gives them.—Letter of the same. Sept. 1. "Every day repressive means are non-existent. Juges-de-paix before whom complaints are made dare not report them, nor try citizens who cause themselves to be feared. Witnesses dare not give testimony for fear of being maltreated or pillaged by the criminals."—Letter of the same, Aug. 22.—Official report of the municipality of Charlieu, Sept. 9, on the destruction of the land registry books. "We replied that not having the force with which to oppose them, since they themselves were the force, we would abstain."—Letter of an officer of the gendarmerie, Sept.9, etc.]
3287 (return)[ "Lettres autographes de Madame Roland," published by Madame Bancal des Issarts, p. 5 (June 2, 1790)]
3288 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3245.—Letter of the mayor and municipal officers of Lyons, Aug. 2.—Letter of the deputy procureur of the commune, Aug. 29.—Copy of a letter by Dodieu, Aug. 27. (Roland replies with consternation and says that there must be a prosecution.)—Official report of the 9th of September, and letter of the municipality, Sept. 11.—Memorandum of the officers of the Royal-Pologne regiment, Sept. 7.—Letter of M. Perigny, father-in-law of one of the officers slain, Sept. 19.—Mortimer-Ternaux, III. 342.—Guillon de Montléon, I. 124.—Balleyder, "Histoire du peuple de Lyon," 91.]
3289 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," Letter of Danton, Oct. 3.]
3290 (return)[ Decius, Roman emperor from 248 to 251 famous for having persecuted the Christians. He was unable to tolerate their refusal to join in communal corporate pagan observances. He insisted that they do so and once they had done it, a Certificate of Sacrifice (libellus), was issued. (SR).]
3291 (return)[ "Etude sur Madame Roland," by Dauban, 82. Letter of Madame Roland to Bosc, July 26, 1798. "You busy yourselves with a municipality and allow heads to escape which will devise new horrors. You are mere children; your enthusiasm is merely a straw bonfire! If the National Assembly does not try two illustrious heads in regular form or some generous Décius strike them down, you are all lost.—" Ibid.,, May 17, 1790: "Our rural districts are much dissatisfied with the decree on feudal privileges... A reform is necessary, in which more châteaux must be burnt. It would not be a serious evil were there not some danger of the enemies of the Revolution profiting by these discontents to lessen the confidence of the people in the National Assembly."—Sept. 27, 1790. "The worst party is successful; it is forgotten that insurrection is the most sacred of duties when the country is in danger."—Jan.24, 1791. "The wise man shuts his eyes to the grievances or weaknesses of the private individual; but the citizen should show no mercy, even to his father, when the public welfare is at stake."]
3292 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3202. Report of the commissary, member of the Cantal directory, Oct. 24. On the 16th of October at Chaudesaigues the volunteers break open a door and then kill one of their comrades who opposes them, whom the commissary tries to save. The mayor of the place, in uniform, leads them to the dwellings of aristocrats, urging them on to pillage; they enter a number of houses by force and exact wine. The next day at Saint-Urcize they break into the house of the former curé, devastate or pillage it, and "sell his furniture to different persons in the neighborhood." The same treatment is awarded to sieur Vaissier, mayor, and to lady Lavalette; their cellars are forced open, barrels of wine are taken to the public square, and drinking takes place from the tap. After this "the volunteers go in squads into the neighboring parishes and compel the inhabitants to give them money or effects." The commissary and municipal officers of St. Urcize who tried to mediate were nearly killed and were saved only through the efforts of a detachment of regular cavalry. As to the Jacobin mayor of Chaudesaigues, it was natural that he should preach pillage; on the sale of the effects of the nuns "he kept all bidders away, and had things knocked down to him for almost nothing."]
3293 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3217. Letter or Castanet, an old gendarme, Nîmes, Aug.21.—Letter of M. Griolet, syndic-attorney of the Gard, Sept. 8: "I beg, sir, that this letter may be considered as confidential; I pray you do not compromise me. "—Letter of M. Gilles, juge-de-paix at Rocquemaure, Oct.31 (with official reports).]
3294 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3227. Letter of the municipal officers of Tullins, Sept. 8.]
3295 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3190. Letter of Danton, Oct. 9.—Memorandum of M. Casimir Audiffret (with documents in support of it). His son had been locked up by mistake, instead of another Audiffret, belonging to the Comtat; he was slashed with a saber in prison Aug.25. Report of the surgeon, Oct. 17: "The wounded man has two gashes more on the head, one on the left cheek and the right leg is paralyzed; he has been so roughly treated in carrying him from prison to prison as to bring on an abscess on the wrist; if he is kept there he will soon die."]
3296 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3195. Letter of M. Amiel, president of the bureau of conciliation, Oct. 28.—Letter of an inhabitant of Avignon, Oct. 7.—Other letters without signatures.—Letter of M. Gilles, juge-de-paix, Jan. 23, 1793.]
3297 (return)[ Fabre, "Histoire de Marseilles," II. 478 and following pages.—"Archives Nationales," F7, 3195. Letter of the Minister of Justice, M. de Joly (with supporting documents), Aug. 6.—Official reports of the Marseilles municipality, July 21, 22, 23.—Official report of the municipality of Aix, Aug. 24.—Letter of the syndic-attorney of the department (with a letter of the municipality of Aubagne), Sept. 22, etc., in which M. Jourdan, a ministerial officer, is accused of "aristocracy." A guard is assigned to him. About midnight the guard is overcome, he is carried off, and then killed in spite of the entreaties of his wife and son. The letter of the municipality ends with the following: "Their lamentations pierced our hearts. But, alas, who can resist the French people when aroused? We remain, gentlemen, very cordially yours, the municipal officers of Aubagne."]
3298 (return)[ This stage of revolution seems to be sought after by the secret communist revolutionaries arranging for the break-up of formerly powerful independent states such as Germany, Yougoslavia, India etc. (SR).]
3299 (return)[ Moniteur, XIII. 560. Act passed by the administrators of the Bouches-du-Rhône, Aug. 3, "forbidding special collectors from henceforth paying taxes with the national treasury."—Ibid., 744. A report by Roland. The department of Var, having called a meeting of commissaries at Avignon to provide for the defense of these regions, the Minister says: "This step, subversive of all government, nullifies the general regulations of the executive power."—"Archives Nationales," F7, 3195. Deliberation of the three administrative bodies assembled at Marseilles, Nov. 5, 1792.—Petition of Anselme, a citizen of Avignon, residing in Paris, Dec. 14.—Report of the Saint-Rémy affair, etc.]
32100 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," CII. I. 32. Official Report of the Electoral Assembly of Bouches-du-Rhône, Sept. 4. "To defray the expenses of this expenditure the syndic-attorney of the district of Tarascon is authorized to draw upon the funds of public registry and vendor of revenue stamps, and in addition thereto on the collector of direct taxation. The expenses of this expedition will be borne by the anti-revolutionary agitators who have made it necessary. A list, therefore, is to be drawn up and sent to the National Assembly. The commissioners will be empowered to suspend the district administrations, municipal officers, and generally all public functionaries who, through incivism or improper conduct, shall have endangered the public weal. They may even arrest them as well as suspected citizens. They will see that the law regarding the disarming of suspected citizens and the banishment of priests be faithfully executed."—Ibid., F7, 3195. Letter of Truchement, commissary of the department, Nov. 15.—Memorandum of the community of Eyguières and letter of the municipality of Eyguières, Sept. 13.—Letter of M. Jaubert, secretary of the Salon popular club, Oct. 22: "The department of Bouches-du-Rhône has for a month past been ravaged by commissions. .. The despotism of one is abolished, and we now stagger under the much more burdensome yoke of a crowd of despots."—Situation of the department in September and October, 1792 (with supporting documents).]
32101 (return)[ Barbaroux, "Mémoires," 89.]
32102 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3196.—Letters and petition of citizen de Sades, Nov., 1792, Feb.17, 1793, and Ventose 8, year III.: "Towards the middle of Sept., 1792 (old style), some Marseilles brigands broke into a house of mine near Apt. Not content with carrying away six loads of furniture.. they broke the mirrors and wood-work." The damage is estimated at 80,000 francs. Report of the executive council according to the official statement of the municipality of Coste. On the 27th of September Montbrion, commissioner of the administration of the Bouche-du-Rhône, sends two messengers to fetch the furniture to Apt. On reaching Apt Montbrion and his colleague Bergier have the vehicles unloaded, putting the most valuable effects on one cart, which they appropriate to themselves, and drive away with it to some distance out of sight, paying the driver out of their own pockets: "No doubt whatever exists as to the knavery of Montbrion and Bergier; administrators and commissioners of the administration of the department."—De Sades, the author of "Justine," pleads his well-known civism and the ultra-revolutionary petitions drawn up by him in the name of the section of the Pikes.]
32103 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3272. Read in this file the entire correspondence of the directory and the public prosecutor.]
32104 (return)[ Deliberation of the commune of Toulon. July 28 and following days.—That of the three administrative bodies, Sep. 10—Lauvergne, "Histoire du department du Var," 104-137.]
32105 (return)[ "Mémoires" of Chancelier Pasquier. Vol. I. p. 106. Librarie Plon, Paris 1893—Pasquier and his wife stopped in Picardy, brought to Paris by a member of the commune, a small, bandy-legged fellow formerly a chair-letter in his parish church, imbued with the doctrines of the day and a determined leveler. At the village of Saralles they passed the house of M. de Livry, a rich man enjoying an income of 50,000 francs, and the lover of Saunier, an opera-dancer. "He is a good fellow," exclaims Pasquier's bandy-legged guardian: "we have just made hint marry. Look here, we said to him, it is time that to put a stop to that behavior! Down with prejudice! Marquises and dancers ought to marry each other. He made her his wife, and it is well he did; otherwise he would have been done for a long time ago, or caged behind the Luxembourg walls."—Elsewhere, on passing a chateau being demolished, the former chair-letter quotes Rousseau: "For every chateau that falls, twenty cottages rise in its place." His mind was stored with similar phrases and tirades, uttered by him as the occasion warranted. This man may be considered as an excellent specimen of the average Jacobin.]
32106 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3,207. Letter of the administrators of the Côte d'Or to the Minister, Oct. 6, 1792.]
32107 (return)[ "Archives Nationales" F7, 3195. Letter of the administrators of the Bouche-du-Rhône, Oct 29, and the Minister's answer on the margin.]
32108 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3249. Letter of the administrators of the Orne, Sept. 7, and the Minister's reply noted on the margin.]
32109 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F', 3,249. Correspondence with the municipality of Saint-Firmin (Oise). Letter of Roland, Dec. 3: "I have read the letter addressed to me on the 25th of the past month, and I cannot conceal from you the pain it gives me to find in it principles so destructive of all the ties of subordination existing between constituted authorities, principles so erroneous that should the communes adopt them every form of government would be impossible and all society broken up. Can the commune of Saint-Firmin, indeed, have persuaded itself that it is sovereign, as the letter states? and have the citizens composing it forgotten that the sovereign is the entire nation, and not the forty-four thousandth part of it? that Saint-Firmin is simply a fraction of it, contributing its share to endowing the deputies of the National Convention, the administrators of departments and districts with the power of acting for the greatest advantage of the commune, but which, the moment it elects its own administrators and agents, can no longer revoke the powers it has bestowed, without a total subversion of order? etc."—All the documents belonging to this affair ought to be quoted; there is nothing more instructive or ludicrous, and especially the style of the secretary-clerk of Saint-Firmin: "We conjure you to remember that the administrators of the district of Senlis strive to play the part of the sirens who sought to enchant Ulysses."]
32110 (return)[ Letter of the central bureau of the Rouen sections, Aug. 30.]
32111 (return)[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3195. Letter of the three administrative bodies and commissaries of the sections of Marseilles, Nov. 15, 1792. Letter of the electors of Bouches-du-Rhône, Nov. 28.—(Forms of politeness are omitted at the end of these letters, and no doubt purposely.) Roland replies (Dec. 31): "While fully admiring the civism of the brave Marseilles people,... do not fully agree with you on the exercise of popular Sovereignty." He ends by stating that all their letters with replies have been transmitted to the deputies of the Bouches-du-Rhône, and that the latter are in accord with him and will arrange matters.]