书城公版The Origins of Contemporary France
19097600000574

第574章

[44] These traits are well defined in the charges of the popular party against them made by Fabre d'Eglantine. Maillan, "Mémoires,"323. (Speech of Fabre d'Eglantine at the Jacobin Club in relation to the address of the commune, demanding the expulsion of the Twenty-Two.) "You have often taken the people to task; you have even sometimes tried to flatter them; but there was about this flattery that aristocratic air of coldness and dislike which could deceive nobody. Your ways of a bourgeois patrician are always perceptible in your words and acts; you never wanted to mix with the people. Here is your doctrine in few words: after the people have served in revolutions they must return to dust, be of no account, and allow themselves to be led by those who know more than they and who are willing to take the trouble to lead them. You, Brissot, and especially you, Pétion, you have received us formally, haughtily, and with reserve. You extend to us one finger, but you never grasp the whole hand. You have not even refused yourselves that keen delight of the ambitious, insolence and disdain."[45] Buzot, "Mémoires," 78.

[46] Edmond Biré, "La légende des Girondins." (Inedited fragments of the memoirs of Pétion and Barbaroux, quoted by Vatel in "Charlotte Corday and the Girondists," III. 472, 478.)[47] Buchez et Roux, XXVI. A financial plan offered by the department of Hérault adopted by Cambon and rejected by the Girondists.

[48] Buchez et Roux, XXV. Speech by Vergniaud (April 10), pp. 376, 377, 378. "An effort is made to accomplish the Revolution by terror. Iwould accomplish it through love."[49] Maillan, 22.

[50] Buchez et Roux, XXIV. 109. Plan of a constitution presented by Condorcet. Declaration of rights, article 32. "In every free government the mode of resistance to different acts of oppression should be regulated by law." - Ibid., 136. Title VIII. Of the Constitution "De la Censure des lois."[51] Buchez et Roux, 93. Session of the Jacobin Club, April 21, 1793.

[52] Schmidt, "Tableaux de la révolution Fran?aise," II.4 (Report of Dutard, June 6, 1793.) - The mental traits of the Jacobins form a contrast and are fully visible in the following speeches: "We desire despotically a popular constitution." (Address of the Paris Jacobin Club to the clubs in the departments, Jan. 7, 1793.) - Buchez et Roux, XXIII. 288 - Ibid., 274. (Speech by Legros in the Jacobin Club, Jan.

1.) "Patriots are not counted; they go by weight. . . One patriot in a scale weights more than 100,000 aristocrats. One Jacobin weights more than 10,000 Feuillants. One republican weights more than 100,000monarchists. One patriot of the Mountain weights more than 100,000Brissotins. Hence I conclude that the convention should not be stopped by the large number of votes against the death-sentence of Louis XVI., (and that) even (if there should be) but a minority of the nation desiring Capet's death." - "Applauded." (I am obliged to correct the last sentence, as it would otherwise be obscure.)[53] Buzot, "Mémoires," 33: "The majority of French people yearned after royalty and the Constitution of 1790. This was the strongest feeling, and especially at Paris . . This people is only republican because it is threatened by the guillotine. . All its desires, all its hopes incline to the constitution of 1791."---Schmidt, I. 232(Dutard, May 16). Dutard, an old advocate and friend of Garat, is one of those rare men who see facts behind words; clear-sighted, energetic, active, abounding in practical counsels, and deserving of a better chief than Garat.

[54] Schmidt, ibid., I. 173, 179 (May 1, 1793).

[55] "La Démagogie à en Paris en 1793," p.152. Dauban ("Diurnal de Beaulieu," April 17). - "Archives Nationales," AF II. 45 (report by the police, May 20). "The dearness of supplies is the leading cause of agitation and complaints." -- (Ib., May 24). "The calm which now appear to prevail in Paris will soon be disturbed if the prices of the prime necessities of life do not shortly diminish." -- (Ibid., May 25). "Complaints against dear food increase daily end this circumstance looks as if it might become one of the motives of forthcoming events.

[56] Schmidt, I. 198 (Dutard, May 9).

[57] Schmidt, I. 350; II. 6 (Dutard, May 30, June 7 and 8).

[58] Durand-Maillane,100: "The Girondist party was yet more impious than Robespierre." -- A deputy having demanded that mention should be made of the Supreme Being in the preamble of the constitution, Vergniaud replied: "We have no more to do with Numa's nymph than with Mahomet's pigeon; reason is sufficient to give France a good constitution." -- Buchez et Roux, XIII. 444. Robespierre having spoken of the Emperor Leopold's death as a stroke of Providence, Guadet replies that he sees "no sense in that idea," and blames Robespierre for "endeavoring to return the people to slavery of superstition." -Ibid., XXVI. 63 (session of April 19, 1793). Speech by Vergniaud against article IX of the Declaration of Rights, which states that "all men are free to worship as they please." This article, says Vergniaud, "is a result of the despotism and superstition under which we have so long languished." -- Salle : "I ask the Convention to draw up an article by which each citizen, whatever his form of worship, shall bind himself to submit to the law " - Lanjuinais, who often ranked along with the Girondists, is a Catholic and confirmed Gallican.

[59] Schmidt, I. 347 (Dutard, May 30). "What do I now behold? Adiscontented people hating the Convention, all its administrators, and the actual state of things generally."[60] Schmidt, I. 278. (Dutard, May 23).

[61] Schmidt, I. 216 (Dutard, May 13).

[62] Schmidt, I. 240 (Dutard, May 17).

[63] Schmidt, I. 217 (Dutard, May 13).

[64] Schmidt, I. 163 (Dutard, April 30).