书城公版The Origins of Contemporary France
19097600000451

第451章

[30] Louvet, "Mémoires" 32. "I belonged to the bold philosophers who, before the end of 1791, lamented the fate of a great nation, compelled to stop half-way in the career of freedom," and, on page 38 -- "Aminister of justice was needed. The four ministers (Roland, Servane, etc.) "cast their eyes on me. . . Duranthon was preferred to me. This was the first mistake of the republican party. It paid dear for it.

That mistake cost my country a good deal of blood and many tears."Later on, he thinks that he has the qualifications for ambassador to Constantinople.

[31] Buzot, "Mémoires" (Ed. Dauban), pp.31, 39. "Born with a proud and independent spirit which never bowed at any one's command, how could Iaccept the idea of a man being held sacred? With my heart and head possessed by the great beings of the ancient republics, who are the greatest honor to the human species, I practiced their maxims from my earliest years, and nourished myself on a study of their virtues. . .

The pretended necessity of a monarchy . . . could not amalgamate, in my mind, with the grand and noble conceptions formed by me, of the dignity of the human species. Hope deceived me, it is true, but my error was too glorious to allow me to repent of it." - Self-admiration is likewise the mental substratum of Madame Roland, Roland, Pétion, Barbaroux, Louvet, etc., (see their writings). Mallet du Pan well says: "On reading the memoirs of Madame Roland, one detects the actress, rehearsing for the stage. " -- Roland is an administrative puppet and would-be orator, whose wife pulls the strings. There is an odd, dull streak in him, peculiarly his own. For example, in 1787(Guillon de Montléon, "Histoire de la ville de Lyon, pendant la Révolution," 1.58), he proposes to utilize the dead, by converting them into oil and phosphoric acid. In 1788, he proposes to the Villefranche Academy to inquire "whether it would not be to the public advantage to institute tribunals for trying the dead?" in imitation of the Egyptians. In his report of Jan. 5, 1792, he gives a plan for establishing public festivals, "in imitation of the Spartans," and takes for a motto, Non omnis moriar (Baron de Girardot, "Roland and Madame Roland". I. 83, 185)[32] Political club uniting moderate and constitutional monarchists.

They got their nickname because they held their meetings in the old convent formerly used by the feullants, a branch of Cistercians who, led by LaBarrière, broke away in 1577. The Feuillant Club was dissolved in 1791. (SR).

[33] Moniteur, XI. 61 (session of Jan 7, 1792). - Ibid., 204 (Jan.

25); 281 (Feb. 1); 310 (Feb. 4); 318 (Feb. 6); 343 (Feb. 9); 487 (Feb.

26). - XII. 22 (April 2). Reports of all the sessions must be read to appreciate the force of the pressure. See, especially, the sessions of April 9 and 16, May 15 and 29, June 8, 9, 15, and 25, July 1, 2, 5, 9, 11, 17, 18, and 21, and, after this date, all the sessions. -Lacretelle, "Dix Ans d'Epreuves," p. 78-81. "The Legislative Assembly served under the Jacobin Club while keeping up a counterfeit air of independence. The progress which fear had made in the French character was very great, at a time when everything was pitched in the haughtiest key. . . The majority, as far as intentions go, was for the conservatives; the actual majority was for the republicans."[34] Moniteur, XIII. 212, session of July 22.

[35] Moniteur, XII. 22, session of April 2. - Mortimer-Ternaux, II.

95. - Moniteur, XIII. 222, session of July 22.

[36] Lacretelle, "Dix Ans d'Epreuves," 80.

[37] Mathieu Dumas, "Mémoires," II. 88 (Feb. 23). - Hua, "Mémoires"d'un Avocat au Parliament de Paris," 106, 121, 134, 154. Moniteur, XIII. 212 (session of July 21), speech by M. --- "The avenues to this building are daily beset with a horde of people who insult the representatives of the nation."[38] De Vaublanc, "Mémoires," 344. - Moniteur, XIII. 368 (letters and speeches of deputies, session of Aug. 9).

[39] Hua, 115. -- Ibid., 90. 3 out of 4 deputies of Seine-et-Oise were Jacobins. "We met once a week to talk over the affairs of the department. We were obliged to drive out the vagabonds who, even at the table, talked of nothing but killing."[40] Moniteur, XII. 702. For example, on the 19th of June, 1792, on a motion unexpectedly proposed by Condorcet, that the departments be authorized to burn all titles (to nobility) in the various depots. --Adopted at once, and unanimously.

[41] Later Stalin and his successors should invest the United Nations and other international organizations to indirectly propose and ensure the acceptance of a new convention of human rights, children's rights, the rights of refugees etc. In many cases these became the base of national legislation which is now giving trouble to many of the Western democracies. (SR).

[42] Hua, 114.

[43] Moniteur, XII. 664. - Mercure de France, June 23, 1792.

[44] Hua, 141. -- Mathieu Dumas, II. 399: "It is remarkable that Lafond de Ladébat, one of our trustiest friends, was elected president on the 23rd of July, 1792. This shows that the majority of the Assembly was still sound; but it was only brought about by a secret vote in the choice of candidates. The same men who obeyed their consciences, through a sentiment of justice and of propriety, could not face the danger which surrounded them in the threats of the factions when they were called upon to vote by rising or sitting."[45] This description and others of the same period have undoubtedly been studied carefully by thousands of socialists and political hopefuls who, in any case, made use of similar tactics to take over thousands of governing committees, institutions and organizations.

(SR).