书城公版The Origins of Contemporary France
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第931章

Only on Seine-inferiure, of which the following are some of the reports of the gendarmerie for one year. - Messidor, year VII, seditious mobs of conscripts and others in the cantons of Motteville and Doudeville. "What shows the perverted spirit of the communes of Gremonville and of Héronville is that none of the inhabitants will make any declaration, while it is impossible that they should not have been in the rebels' secrets." - Similar mobs in the communes of Guerville, Mi1lebose,and in the forest of Eu: "It is stated that they have leaders, and that drilling goes on under their orders. -Vendémiarie 27, year VIII.) "Twenty-five armed brigands or drafted men in the cantons of Réauté and Bolbec have put farmers to ransom." -(Niv?se 12~ year VIII.) In the canton of Cuny another band of brigands do the same thing. - (Germinal 14, year VIII.) Twelve brigands stop the diligence between Neufchatel and Rouen; a few days after, the diligence between Rouen and Paris is stopped and three of the escort are killed. - Analogous scenes and mobs in the other departments.

[7] "Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc), Librarie Plon, Paris 1893. I., 260. Under the Directory," one day, in order to dispatch a special courier, the receipts of the Opera had to be taken because they were in coin. Another day, it was on the point of sending every gold piece in the musée of medals to be melted down (worth in the crucible from 5000 to 6000 francs)."[8] "Théorie constitutionnelle de Sieyès." (Extract from unpublished memoirs by Boulay de la Meurthe.) Paris, 1866, Renouard.

[9] "Correspondance de Napoleon 1er," XXX.. 345. ("Mémoires.") -"Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène[10] "Extrait des Mémoires" de Boulay de la Meurthe, p.50. (Words of Bonaparte to Roederer about Sieyès, who raised objections and wanted to retire.) "If Sieyès goes into the country, draw up for me at once the plan of a constitution. I will summon the primary assemblies in a week and make them accept it after discharging the (Constituant)committees."[11] "Correspondance de Napoléon ler" XXX., 345, 346. ("Mémoires.")"Circumstances were such as to still make it necessary to disguise the unique magistracy of the president."[12] The Revolution," III., 458, 417. - " Mercure britannique," nos.

for November 1798 and January 1799. (Letters from Belgium.) - " More than 300 millions have been seized by force in these desolated provinces; there is not a landowner whose fortune has not been ruined, or sequestrated, or fatally sapped by forced levies and the flood of taxes which followed these, by robberies of movable property and the bankruptcy due to France having discredited claims on the emperor and on the governments, in short through confiscation." - The insurrection breaks out, as in Vendée, on account of the conscription; the war-cry of the insurgents is, "Better die here than elsewhere."[13] De Martel, "Les Historiens fantaisistes," part 2 (on the Pacification of the West, according to reports of the royalist leaders and of the republican generals).

[14] Archives nationales, F7, 3218. (Summary of dispatches arranged according to dates.-Letters of Adjutant-General Vicose, Fructidor 3, year VII. - Letters of Lamagdelaine, commissioner of the executive Directory, Thermidor 26 and Fructidor 3, year VII.) - " The rascals who led the people astray had promised them, in the King's name, that they should not be called on for further taxes, that the conscripts and requisitionnaires should not leave, and, finally, that they should have the priests they wanted." - Near Montréjean "the carnage was frightful, nearly 2000 men slain or drowned and 1000 prisoners." -(Letter of M. Alquier to the first consul, Pluvi?se 18, year VIII.)"The insurrection of Thermidor caused the loss of 3000 cultivators. -(Letters of the department administrators and of the government commissioners, Niv?se 25 and 27, Pluvi?se 13, 15, 25, 27, and 30, year VIII.) - The insurrection is prolonged through a vast number of isolated outrages, with sabers or guns, against republican functionaries and partisans, justices of the peace, mayors, etc. In the commune of Balbèze, fifty conscripts, armed deserters with their knapsacks, impose requisitions ,give balls on Sunday, and make patriots give up their arms. Elsewhere, this or that known patriot is assaulted in his house by a band of ten or a dozen young folks who make him pay a ransom, shout "Vive le Roi!" etc. - Cf. "Histoire de I'

insurrection royaliste de l'an VII," by B. Lavigne, 1887.