书城公版The Origins of Contemporary France
19097600000649

第649章

[32] Order of the day of the Convention September 17, 1792; circular of the Executive Council, January 22, 1793; decrees of the Convention, July 19, August 12, September 17, November 15, 1793. - Moniteur, October, and November, 1793, passim. (November 23, Order of the Paris Commune, closing the churches.) - In relation to the terror the constitutional priests were under, I merely give the following extracts (Archives Nationales, F7,31167): "Citizen Pontard, bishop of the department of Dordogne, lodging in the house of citizen Bourbon, No. 66 faubourg Saint-Honoré, on being informed that there was an article in a newspaper called "le Republican" stating that a meeting of priests had been held in the said house, declares that he had no knowledge of it; that all the officers in charge of the apartments are in harmony with the Revolution; that, if he had had occasion to suspect such a circumstance, he would have move out immediately, and that if any motive can possibly be detected in such a report it is his proposed marriage with the niece of citizen Caminade, an excellent patriot and captain of the 9th company of the Champs-Elysées section, a marriage which puts an end to fanaticism in his department, unless this be done by the ordination of a priest à la sans-culotte which he had done yesterday in the chapel, another act in harmony with the Revolution. It is well to add, perhaps, that one of his curés now in Paris has called on him, and that he came to request him to second his marriage. The name of the said curé is Greffier Sauvage; he is still in Paris, and is preparing to be married the same time as himself.

Aside from these motives, which may have given rise to some talk, citizen Pontard sees no cause whatever for suspicion. Besides, so thoroughly patriotic as he, he asks nothing better than to know the truth, in order to march along unhesitatingly in the revolutionary path. He sighs his declaration, promising to support the Revolution on all occasions, by his writings as well as by his conduct. He presents the two numbers of his journal which he has had printed in Paris in support of the principles he adheres to. At Paris, September 7, 1793, year II. Of the Republic, one and indivisible. F. Pontard, bishop of the Republic in the department of Dordogne." - Dauban La Demagogie en 1793, p. 557. Arrest of representative Osselin, letter his brother, curé of Saint-Aubin, to the committee of section Mutius Sc?vola, Brumaire 20, year II.,"Like Brutus and Mutius Sc?vola, Itrample on the feelings with which I idolised my brother! O, truth, thou divinity of republicans, thou knowest the incorruptibility of may intentions!" (and so on for fifty-three lines). "These are my sentiments, I am fraternally, Osselin, minister of worship at Saint-Aubin." - P.S. "It was just as I was going to answer a call of nature that I learned this afflicting news." (He keeps up this bombast until words fail him, and finally, frightened to death, and his brain exhausted, he gives this postscript to show that he was not an accomplice.)[33] A term denoting the substitution of ten instead of seven days as a division of time in the calendar, and forced into use during the Revolution.

[34] "Recuil de pieces authentiques servant à l'histoire de la revolutionà Strasbourg," II., 299. (A district order.)[35] Later, when Lenin and Stalin resurrected Jacobinism, they placed the headquarters of any subversive movement outside the country where it operated. (SR.)[36] Thermidor refers to the a very important day and event during the French Revolution: the day Robespierre fell: Thermidor 9, year II, (July 27, 1794), Robespierre's fall, effective the 10, was prepared by his adversaries, Tallien, Barras, Fouché etc., essentially because they feared for their lives. Robespierre and 21 of his followers were executed on the evening of the 10th of Thermidor year II. (SR.).

[37] Ludovic Sciout, IV., 426. (Instructions sent by the Directory to the National Commissions, Frimaire, year II.) - Ibid., ch. X. to XVIII.

[38] Ibid., IV., 688.An order of the Director, Germinal 14, year VI.

- "The municipal governments will designate special days in each decade for market days in their respective districts, and not allow, in any case, their ordinance to be set aside on the plea that the said market days would fall on a holiday. They will specially strive to break up all connection between the sales of fish and days of fasting designated on the old calendar. Every person exposing food or wares on sale in the markets on days other than those fixed by the municipal government will be prosecuted in the police court for obstructing a public thoroughfare." - The Thermidorians remain equally as anti-Catholic as their predecessors; only, they disavow open persecution and rely on slow pressure. (Moniteur, XIII., 523. Speech by Boissy d'Anglas, Vent?se 3, year II.) "Keep an eye on what you cannot hinder;regulate what you cannot prohibit. . . . It will not be long before these absurd dogmas, the offspring of fear and error, whose influence on the human mind has been so steadily destructive, will be known only to be despised. . . . It will not be long before the religion of Socrates, of Marcus Aurelius and Cicero will be the religion of the whole world."[39] Moniteur, XVI., 646. (The King's trial.) Speech by Robespierre:

"the right of punishing the tyrant and of dethroning him is one and the same thing." - Speech by Saint-Just: "Royalty is an eternal crime, against which every man has the right of taking up arms . . . To reign innocently is impossible!"[40] Epigraph of Marat's journal: Ute readapt miseries, abet Fortuna superb is.

[41] Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 323. (Report of Saint-Just, Germinal 21, year II., and a decree of Germinal 26-29, Art. 4, 13, 15.) - Ibid., 315.