书城公版The Origins of Contemporary France
19097600000869

第869章

[96] Dufort de Cheverney, "Mémoires," September 7, 1798. - Ibid., February 26, 1799. "In Belgium priests are lodged in the Carmelites (convent)." September 9, 1799. "Two more carts are sent full of priests for the islands of Rhé and Oléron."[97] Thibaudeau, II.. 318, 321. - Mallet-Dupan, II., 357, 368. The plan went farther: "All children of emigrants," or of those falsely accused of being such, "left in France, shall be taken from their relatives and confided to republican tutors, and the republic shall administer their property."[98] In reading about this Lenin and Stalin must have been inspired to create their Goulags to which not only Russian and Estonian "petit Bourgeois," but also other undesirable national groups were sent.

(SR.)

[99] Decree of Frimaire 9, year VI. (Exceptions in favor of the actual members of the Directory, ministers, military men on duty, and the members of the diverse National Assemblies, except those who in the constituent Assembly protested against the abolition of nobility.)One of the speakers, a future count of the Empire, proposed that every noble claiming his inscription on the civic registers should sign the following declaration: "As man and as republican, I equally detest the insolent superstition which pretends to distinctions of birth, and the cowardly and shameful superstition which believes in and maintains it."[100] Decree of Fructidor 19, year II.

[101] Lally-Tollendal, "Défense des Emigrés," (Paris. 1797, 2nd part, 49, 62, 74. Report of Portalis to the Council of Five Hundred, Feb.

18, 1796. "Regard that innumerable class of unfortunates who have never left the republican soil." - Speech by Dubreuil, Aug.26, 1796.

"The supplementary list in the department of Avignon bears 1004 or 1005 names. And yet I can attest to you that there are not six names on this enormous list justly put down as veritable emigrants."[102] Ludovic Sciout, IV., 619. (Report of the Yonne administration, Frimaire, year VI.) "The gendarmerie went to the houses, in Sens as well as Auxerre, of several of the citizens inscribed on the lists of émigrés who were known never to have left their commune since the Revolution began. As they have not been found it is probable that they have withdrawn into Switzerland, or that they are soliciting you to have their names stricken off."[103] Decrees of Vendémiaire 20 and Frimaire 9, year VI. - Decree of Messidor 10.

[104] Dufort de Cheverney, " Mémoires." (Before the Revolution he enjoyed an income of fifty thousand livres, of which only five thousand remain.) "Madame Amelot likewise reduced, rents her mansion for a living. Through the same delicacy as our own she did not avail herself of the facility offered to her of indemnifying her creditors with assignats." Another lady, likewise ruined, seeks a place in some country house in order that herself and son may live." - "Statistique de la Moselle," by Colchen, préfet, year VI. "A great many people with incomes have perished through want and through payment of interest in paper-money and the reduction of Treasury bonds." - Dufort de Cheverney, Ibid., March, 1799. "The former noblesse and even citizens who are at all well-off need not depend on any amelioration.... They must expect a complete rescission of bodies and goods.... Pecuniary resources are diminishing more and more....

Impositions are starving the country." - Mallet-Dupan, "Mercure Britannique," January 25, 1799. "Thousands of invalids with wooden legs garrison the houses of the tax-payers who do not pay according to the humor of the collectors. The proportion of impositions as now laid in relation to those of the ancient regime in the towns generally is as 88 to 32."[105] De Tocqueville, "?uvres complètes," V., 65. (Extracts from secret reports on the state of the Republic, September 26, 1799.)[106] Decree of Messidor 24, year VI.

[107] De Barante, "Histoire du Directoire," III., 456.

[108] A. Sorel, " Revue Historique," No.1, for March and May, 1882.

"Les Frontières Constitutionelles en 1795." The treaties concluded in 1795 with Tuscany, Prussia and Spain show that peace was easy and that the recognition of the Republic was effected even before the Republican government was organized. . . . . that France, whether monarchical or republican, had a certain limit which French power was not to overstep, because this was not in proportion to the real strength of France, nor with the distribution of force among the other European governments. On this capital point the convention erred; it erred knowingly, through a long-meditated calculation, which calculation, however, was false. and France paid dearly for its consequences." - Mallet-Dupan, II., 288, Aug. 23, 1795. "The monarchists and many of the deputies in the Convention sacrificed all the conquests to hasten on and obtain peace. But the fanatical Girondists and Siéyès' committee persisted in the tension system.

They were governed by three motives: 1, the design of extending their doctrine along with their territory; 2, the desire of successively federalizing the States of Europe with the French Republic; and 3, that of prolonging a partial war which also prolongs extraordinary powers and revolutionary resources." -- Carnot, "Mémoires," I., 476.

(Report to the Committee of Public Safety, Messidor 28, year II.) "It seems much wiser to restrict our plans of aggrandizement to what is purely necessary in order to obtain the maximum security of our country." - Ibid., II., 132, 134 and 136. (Letters to Bonaparte, Oct.