书城公版The Origins of Contemporary France
19097600000874

第874章

All classes of society are panic-stricken at the faintest probability of the re-establishment of a republican government copied after that of 1793" . . . . The party of political incendiaries in France is the only one which carries out such designs energetically and directly."[142] Leouzon-Leduc, ibid, 328, 329. (Dispatches of September 19 and 23.) - Mallet-Dupan, "Mercure Britannique." (No. for October 25, 1799. Letter from Paris. September 15. Exposition of the situation and tableau of the parties.) "I will add that the war waged with success by the Directory against the Jacobins, (for, although the Directory is itself a Jacobin production, it wants no more of its masters), that this war, I say, has rallied people somewhat to the government without having converted anyone to the Revolution or really frightened the Jacobins who will pay them back if they have time to do it."[143] Gohier, "Mémoires," conversation with Sieyès on his entry into the Directory. "Here we are," says Sieyès to him, "members of a government which, as we cannot conceal from ourselves, is threatened with a coming fall. But when the ice melts skilful pilots can escape in the breaking up. A falling government does not always imperil those at the head of it."[144] Tacitus, "Annales," book VI., § 50. "Macro, intrepidus, opprimi senem injectu mu1t? vestis discedique a limine."[145] Mallet-Dupan," Mercure Britannique." (Nos. for December 25, 1798 and December 1799.) "From the very beginning of the Revolution, there never was, in the uproar of patriotic protestations, amidst so many popular effusions of devotion to the popular cause to Liberty in the different parties, but one fundamental conception, that of grasping power after having instituted it, of using every means of strengthening themselves, and of excluding the largest number from it, in order to center themselves in a privileged committee. As soon as they had hurried through the articles of their constitution and seized the reins of government, the dominant party conjured the nation to trust to it, notwithstanding that the farce of their reasoning would not bring about obedience, . . . Power and money and money and power, all projects for guaranteeing their own heads and disposing of those of their competitors, end in that. From the agitators of 1789to the tyrants of 1798, from Mirabeau to Barras, each labors only to forcibly open the gates of riches and authority and to close them behind them."[146] Mallet-Dupan, ibid., No. for April 10, 1799. On the Jacobins.

"The sources of their enmities, the prime motive of their fury, their coup-d'état lay in their constant mistrust of each other . . . .

Systematic, immoral factionists, cruel through necessity and treacherous through prudence, will always attribute perverse intentions. Carnot admits that there were not ten men in the Convention that were conscious of probity."[147] See in this respect "Histoire de ma Vie," by George Sand, volumes 2, 3 and 4, the correspondence of her father enlisted as a volunteer in 1798 and a lieutenant at Marengo. - Cf. Marshal Marmont, "Memoires," I., 186, 282, 296, 304. "Our ambition, at this moment, was wholly secondary; we were occupied solely with our duties or pleasures. The most cordial and frankest union prevailed amongst us all."[148] "Journal de Marche du sergent Fracasse." - " Les Cahiers du capitaine Coignet." - Correspondence of Maurice Dupin in "Histoire de ma Vie," by George Sand.

[149] "Les Cahiers du Capitaine Coignet," p.76. "And then we saw the big gentlemen getting out of the windows. Mantles, caps and feathers lay on the floor and the grenadiers ripped off the lace." - Ibid., 78, Narration by the grenadier Chome: " The pigeons all flew out of the window and we had the hall to ourselves."[150] Dufort de Cheverney, " Mémoires," September 1, 1800.

"Bonaparte, being fortunately placed at the head of the government, advanced the Revolution more than fifty years; the cup of crimes was full and overflowing. He cut off the seven hundred and fifty heads of the hydra, concentrated power in his own hands, and prevented the primary assemblies from sending us another third of fresh scoundrels in the place of those about to take themselves off. . . . Since Istopped writing things are so changed as to make revolutionary events appear as if they had transpired more than twenty years ago. . . .

The people are no longer tormented on account of the decade, which is no longer observed except by the authorities. . . . One can travel about the country without a passport. . . . Subordination is established among the troops; all the conscripts are coming back. .