Sometimes it succeeds surreptitiously by rushing them through. As "there is no order of the day circulated beforehand, and, in any event, none which anybody is obliged to adhere to,"2239 the Assembly is captured by surprise. "The first knave amongst the 'Left,' (which expression, says Hua, I do not strike out, because there were many among those gentlemen), brought up a ready-made resolution, prepared the evening before by a clique. We were not prepared for it and demanded that it should be referred to a committee. Instead of doing this, however, the resolution was declared urgent, and, whether we would or not, discussion had to take place forthwith."2240—"There were other tactics equally perfidious, which Thuriot, especially, made use of. This great rascal got up and proposed, not the draft of a law, but what he called a principle; for instance, a decree should be passed confiscating the property of the ÉmigrÉs,.. or that unsworn priests should be subject to special surveillance.2241... In reply, he was told that his principle was the core of a law, the very law itself; so let it be debated by referring it to a committee to make a report on it.—Not at all—the matter is urgent; a committee might fix the articles as it pleases; they are worthless if the principle is not common sense." Through this expeditious method discussion is stifled. The Jacobins purposely prevent the Assembly from giving the matter any consideration. They count on its bewilderment. In the name of reason, they discard reason as far as they can, and hasten a vote because their decrees do not stand up to analysis.—At other times, and especially on grand occasions, they compel a vote. In general, votes are given by the members either sitting down or standing up, and, for the four hundred deputies of the "Center," subject to the scolding of the exasperated galleries, it is a tolerably hard trial. "Part of them do not arise, or they rise with the 'Left'."2242 If the "Right" happens to have a majority, "this is contested in bad faith and a call of the house is demanded." Now, "the calls of the house, through an intolerable abuse, are always published; the Jacobins declaring that it is well for the people to know their friends from their enemies." The meaning of this is that this list of the opposition will soon serve as a list of the outlaws, on which the timid are not disposed to inscribe themselves. The result is an immediate defection in the heavy battalions of the "Centre"; "this is a positive fact," says Hua, "of which we were all witnesses; we always lost a hundred votes on the call of the house."—Towards the end they give up, and protest no more, except by staying away: on the 14th of June, when the abolishment of the whole system of feudal credit was being dealt with, only the extreme left was attending; the rest of the "Assembly hall was nearly empty"; out of 497 deputies in attendance, 200 had left the session.2243 Encouraged for a moment by the appearance of some possible protection, they twice exonerate General Lafayette, behind whom they see an army,2244 and brave the despots of the Assembly, the clubs, and the streets. But, for lack of a military chief and base, the visible majority is twice obliged to yield, to keep silent, and fly or retreat under the dictatorship of the victorious faction, which has strained and forced the legislative machine until it has become disjointed and broken down.2245

2201 (return)
["Correspondence (manuscript) of Baron de StaËl," with his Court in Sweden. Oct. 6, 1791.]

2202 (return)
[ "Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc), chancelier de France, in VI volumes, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893.—Dumouriez, "MÉmoires," III. ch. V: "The Jacobin party, having branches all over the country, used its provincial clubs to control the elections. Every crackbrain, every seditious scribbler, all the agitators were elected ... very few enlightened or prudent men, and still fewer of the nobles, were chosen."—Moniteur, XII. 199 (meeting of April 23, 1792). Speech M. Lecointe-Puyravaux. "We need not dissimulate; indeed, we are proud to say, that this legislature is composed of persons who are not rich."]

2203 (return)
[ Mathieu Dumas, "MÉmoires," I. 521. "The excitement in the electoral assemblages was very great; the aristocrats and large land-owners abstained from coming there."—Correspondance de Mirabeau et du Comte de la Mark, III. 246, Oct.10, 1791. "Nineteen twentieths of this legislature have no other transportation (turn-out) than galoshes and umbrellas. It has been estimated, that all these deputies put together do not possess 300,000 livres solid income. The majority of the members of this Assembly have received no education whatever."]

2204 (return)
[ They rank as MarÉchaux de camp, a grade corresponding to that of brigadier-general. They are Dupuy-Montbrun (deceased in March, 1792), Descrots-d'EstrÉe, a weak and worn old man whom his children forced into the Legislative Assembly, and, lastly, Mathieu Dumas, a conservative, and the only prominent one.]

2205 (return)
[ "Correspondance du Baron de StaËl," Jan.19, 1792.—Gouverneur Morris (II.162, Feb. 4, 1792) writes to Washington that M. de Warville, on the diplomatic committee, proposed to cede Dunkirk and Calais to England, as a pledge of fidelity by France, in any engagement which she might enter into. You can judge, by this, of the wisdom and virtue of the faction to which he belongs—Buchez et Roux, XXX 89 (defense of Brissot, Jan. 5, 1793) "Brissot, like all noisy, reckless, ambitious men, started in full blast with the strangest paradoxes. In 1780. in his 'Recherches philosophiques sur le droit de propriÉtÉ,' he wrote as follows: 'If 40 crowns suffice to maintain existence, the possession of 200,000 crowns is plainly unjust and a robbery... Exclusive ownership is a veritable crime against nature... The punishment of robbery in our institutions is an act of virtue which nature herself commands.'"]

2206 (return)
[ Moniteur, speech by Cambon, sittings of Feb. 2 and April 20, 1792.]

2207 (return)
[ Ibid., (sitting of April 3). Speech by M. Cailliasson. The property belonging to the nation, sold and to be sold, is valued at 2,195 millions, while the assignats already issued amount to 2,100 millions.—Cf. Mercure de France, Dec. 17, 1791, p.201; Jan.28, 1792, p. 215; May 19, 1792, p. 205.—Dumouriez, "MÉmoires," III. 296, and 339, 340, 344, 346.—"Cambon, a raving lunatic, without education, humane principle, or integrity (public) a meddler, an ignoramus, and very giddy. He tells me that one resource remained to him, which is, to seize all the coin in Belgium, all the plate belonging to the churches, and all the cash deposits... that, on ruining the Belgians, on reducing them to the same state of suffering as the French, they would necessarily share their fate with them; that they would then be admitted members of the Republic, with the prospect of always making headway, through the same line of policy; that the decree of Dec. 15, 1792, admirably favored this and, because it tended to a complete disorganization, and that the luckiest thing that could happen to France was to disorganize all its neighbors and reduce them to the same state of anarchy." (This conversation between Cambon and Dumouriez occurs in the middle of January, 1793.)—Moniteur, XIV. 758 (sitting of Dec. 15, 1792). Report by Cambon.]

2208 (return)
[ Chronique de Paris, Sept. 4, 1792. "It is a sad and terrible situation which forces a people, naturally amiable and generous, to take such vengeance!"—Cf. the very acute article, by St. Beuve, on Condorcet, in "Causeries du Lundi,"—Hua (a colleague of Condorcet, in the Legislative Assembly), "MÉmoires," 89. "Condorcet, in his journal, regularly falsified things, with an audacity which is unparelleled. The opinions of the 'Right' were so mutilated and travestied the next day in his journal, that we, who had uttered them, could scarcely recognise them. On complaining of this to him and on charging him with perfidy, the philosopher only smiled."]

2209 (return)
[ Malouet, II. 215.—Dumouriez, III. ch. V. "They were elected to represent the nation to defend, they say, its interests against a perfidious court."]

2210 (return)
[ Moniteur, X. 223 (session of Oct. 26, 1791). Speech by M. FranÇois Duval.—Grandiloquence is the order of the day at the very first meeting. On the 1st of October, 1791, twelve old men, marching in procession, go out to fetch the constitutional act. "M. Camus, keeper of the records, with a composed air and downcast eyes, enters with measured steps," bearing in both hands the sacred document which he holds against his breast, while the deputies stand up and bare their heads. "People of France," says an orator, "citizens of Paris, all generous Frenchmen, and you, our fellow citizens—virtuous, intelligent women, bringing your gentle influence into the sanctuary of the law—behold the guarantee of peace which the legislature presents to you!"—We seem to be witnessing the last act of an opera.]

2211 (return)
[ Ibid., XII. 230 (sessions of April 26 and May 5). Report and speech by FranÇois de Nantes. The whole speech, a comic treasure from the beginning to the end, ought to have been quoted: "Tell me, pontiff of Rome, what your sentiments will be when you welcome your worthy and faithful co-operators?.. I behold your sacred hands, ready to launch those pontifical thunderbolts, which, etc... Let the brazier of Scoevola be brought in, and, with our outstretched palms above the burning coals, we will show that there is no species of torture, no torment which can excite a frown on the brow of him whom the love of country exalts above humanity!"—Suppose that, just at this moment, a lighted candle had been placed under his hand!]

2212 (return)
[ Moniteur, XI. 179 (session of Jan. 20, 1792).—Ibid., 216 (session of Jan. 24).—XII. 426 (May 9).]

2213 (return)
[ Ibid., XII. 479 (session of May 24).—XIII. 71 (session of July 7, speech by Lasource).—Cf. XIV. 301 (session of July 31) a quotation from Voltaire brought in for the suppression of the convents.]

2214 (return)
[ Moniteur. Speech by Aubert Dubayer, session of Aug. 30.]

2215 (return)
[ Speech by Chaumette, procureur of the commune, to the newly married. (Mortimer-Ternaux, IV. 408).]

2216 (return)
[ The class to which they belonged has been portrayed, to the life, by M. Roye-Collard (Sainte-Beuve, "Nouveaux Lundis," IV. 263): "A young lawyer at Paris, at first received in a few houses on the Ile St. Louis, he soon withdrew from this inferior world of attorneys and pettyfoggers, whose tone oppressed him. The very thought of the impression this gallant and intensely vulgar mediocrity made upon him, still inspired disgust. He much preferred to talk with longshoremen, if need be, than with these scented limbs of the law."]

2217 (return)
[ Etienne Dumont, "MÉmoires," 40.—Mercure de France, Nov. 19, 1791; Feb. 11 and March 3, 1792. (articles by Mallet du Pan).]

2218 (return)
[ Moniteur, Dec. 17 (examination at the bar of the house of Rauch, a pretended labor contractor, whom they are obliged to send off acquitted). Rauch tells them: "I have no money, and cannot find a place where I can sleep at less than 6 sous, because I pee in the bed."—Moniteur, XII. 574. (session of June 4), report by Chabot: "A peddler from Mortagne, says that a domestic coming from Coblentz told him that there was a troop about to carry off the king and poison him, so as to throw the odium of it on the National Assembly." Bernassais de Poitiers writes: "A brave citizen told me last evening: 'I have been to see a servant-girl, living with a noble. She assured me that her master was going to-night to Paris, to join the 30,000, who, in about a month, meant to cut the throats of the National Assembly and set fire to every corner of Paris!'"—"M. Gerard, a saddler at Amiens, writes to us that Louis XVI is to be aided in his flight by 5,000 relays, and that afterwards they are going to fire red-hot bullets on the National Assembly."]

2219 (return)
[ Mercure de France, Nov. 5, 1791 (session of Oct. 25).—Ibid., Dec. 23.-Moniteur, XII. 192 (session of April 21, 1792).—XII. 447 (address to the French, by Clootz): "God brought order out of primitive chaos; the French will bring order out of feudal chaos. God is mighty, and manifested his will; we are mighty, and we will manifest our will... The more extensive the seat of war the sooner, and more fortunately, will the suit of plebeians against the nobles be decided... We require enemies,.. Savoy, Tuscany, and quickly, quickly!"]

2220 (return)
[ Cf. Moniteur, XI. 192 (sitting of Jan. 22, 1792). "M. Burnet, chaplain of the national guard, presents himself at the bar of the house with an English woman, named Lydia Kirkham, and three small children, one of which is in her arms. M. Burnet announces that she is his wife and that the child in her arms is the fruit of their affection. After referring to the force of natural sentiments which he could not resist, the petitioner thus continues: 'One day, I met one of those sacred questioners. Unfortunate man, said he, of what are you guilty? Of this child, sir; and I have married this woman, who is a Protestant, and her religion has nothing to do with mine... Death or my wife! Such is the cry that nature now and always will, inspire me with."—The petitioner receives the honors of the Assembly.—(Ibid., XII 369).]

2221 (return)
[ The grotesque is often that of a farce. "M. Piorry, in the name of poor; but virtuous citizens, tenders two pairs of buckles, with this motto: 'They have served to hold the shoe-straps on my feet; they will serve to reduce under them, with the imprint and character of truth, all tyrants leagued against the constitution' (Moniteur, XII. 457, session of May 21)"—Ibid., XIII. 249 (session of July 25). "A young citoyenne offers to combat, in person, against the enemies of her country;" and the president, with a gallant air, replies: "Made rather to soothe, than to combat tyrants, your offer, etc."]

2222 (return)
[ Moniteur, XL 576 (session of March 6); XII. 237, 314, 368 (sessions of April 27, May 5 and 14).]

2223 (return)
[ Mercure de France. Sept. 19,1791, Feb.11, and March 3, 1792.—Buchez et Roux, XVI 185 (session of July 26, 1792).]

2224 (return)
[ "MÉmoires de Mallet du Pan," 1433 (tableau of the three parties, with special information).]

2225 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, XII. 348 (letter by the deputy ChÉron, president of the Feuillants Club). The deputies of the Legislative Assembly, registered at the Feuillants Club, number 264 besides a large number of deputies in the Constituent Assembly.—According to Mallet du Pan the so-called Independents number 250.]

2226 (return)
[ These figures are verified by decisive ballottings (Mortimer-Ternauz, II. 205, 348.)]

2227 (return)
[ Moniteur, XII. 393 (session of May 15, speech by Isnard): "The Constituent Assembly only half dared do what it had the power to do. It has left in the field of liberty, even around the very roots of the young constitutional tree, the old roots of despotism and of the aristocracy... It has bound us to the trunk of the constitutional tree, like powerless victims given up to the rage of their enemies."——Etienne Dumont saw truly the educational defects peculiar to the party. He says, apropos of Madame Roland: "I found in her too much of that distrustful despotism which belongs to ignorance of the world.. . What her intellectual development lacked was a greater knowledge of the world and intercourse with men of superior judgment to her own. Roland himself had little intellectual breadth, while all those who frequented her house never rose above the prejudices of the vulgar."]

2228 (return)
[ "Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc), chancelier de France. in VI volumes, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893.]

2229 (return)
[ Madame de Stael, "Considerations sur la RÉvolution FranÇaise," IIIrd part, ch. III.-Madame de StaËl conversed with them and judges them according to the shrewd perceptions of a woman of the world.]

2230 (return)
[ Louvet, "MÉmoires" 32. "I belonged to the bold philosophers who, before the end of 1791, lamented the fate of a great nation, compelled to stop half-way in the career of freedom," and, on page 38—"A minister of justice was needed. The four ministers (Roland, Servane, etc.) cast their eyes on me... Duranthon was preferred to me. This was the first mistake of the republican party. It paid dear for it. That mistake cost my country a good deal of blood and many tears." Later on, he thinks that he has the qualifications for ambassador to Constantinople.]

2231 (return)
[ Buzot, "MÉmoires" (Ed. Dauban), pp.31, 39. "Born with a proud and independent spirit which never bowed at any one's command, how could I accept the idea of a man being held sacred? With my heart and head possessed by the great beings of the ancient republics, who are the greatest honor to the human species, I practiced their maxims from my earliest years, and nourished myself on a study of their virtues... The pretended necessity of a monarchy... could not amalgamate, in my mind, with the grand and noble conceptions formed by me, of the dignity of the human species. Hope deceived me, it is true, but my error was too glorious to allow me to repent of it."—Self-admiration is likewise the mental substratum of Madame Roland, Roland, PÉtion, Barbaroux, Louvet, etc., (see their writings). Mallet du Pan well says: "On reading the memoirs of Madame Roland, one detects the actress, rehearsing for the stage. "—Roland is an administrative puppet and would-be orator, whose wife pulls the strings. There is an odd, dull streak in him, peculiarly his own. For example, in 1787 (Guillon de MontlÉon, "Histoire de la ville de Lyon, pendant la RÉvolution," 1.58), he proposes to utilize the dead, by converting them into oil and phosphoric acid. In 1788, he proposes to the Villefranche Academy to inquire "whether it would not be to the public advantage to institute tribunals for trying the dead?" in imitation of the Egyptians. In his report of Jan. 5, 1792, he gives a plan for establishing public festivals, "in imitation of the Spartans," and takes for a motto, Non omnis moriar (Baron de Girardot, "Roland and Madame Roland". I. 83, 185)]

2232 (return)
[ Political club uniting moderate and constitutional monarchists. They got their nickname because they held their meetings in the old convent formerly used by the feullants, a branch of Cistercians who, led by LaBarriÈre, broke away in 1577. The Feuillant Club was dissolved in 1791. (SR).]

2233 (return)
[ Moniteur, XI. 61 (session of Jan 7, 1792).—Ibid., 204 (Jan. 25); 281 (Feb. 1); 310 (Feb. 4); 318 (Feb. 6); 343 (Feb. 9); 487 (Feb. 26).—XII. 22 (April 2). Reports of all the sessions must be read to appreciate the force of the pressure. See, especially, the sessions of April 9 and 16, May 15 and 29, June 8, 9, 15, and 25, July 1, 2, 5, 9, 11, 17, 18, and 21, and, after this date, all the sessions.—Lacretelle, "Dix Ans d'Epreuves," p. 78-81. "The Legislative Assembly served under the Jacobin Club while keeping up a counterfeit air of independence. The progress which fear had made in the French character was very great, at a time when everything was pitched in the haughtiest key... The majority, as far as intentions go, was for the conservatives; the actual majority was for the republicans."]

2234 (return)
[ Moniteur, XIII. 212, session of July 22.]

2235 (return)
[ Moniteur, XII. 22, session of April 2.—Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 95.—Moniteur, XIII. 222, session of July 22.]

2236 (return)
[ Lacretelle, "Dix Ans d'Epreuves," 80.]

2237 (return)
[ Mathieu Dumas, "MÉmoires," II. 88 (Feb. 23).—Hua, "MÉmoires d'un Avocat au Parliament de Paris," 106, 121, 134, 154. Moniteur, XIII. 212 (session of July 21), speech by M.—-"The avenues to this building are daily beset with a horde of people who insult the representatives of the nation."]

2238 (return)
[ De Vaublanc, "MÉmoires," 344.—Moniteur, XIII. 368 (letters and speeches of deputies, session of Aug. 9).]

2239 (return)
[ Hua, 115.—Ibid., 90. 3 out of 4 deputies of Seine-et-Oise were Jacobins. "We met once a week to talk over the affairs of the department. We were obliged to drive out the vagabonds who, even at the table, talked of nothing but killing."]

2240 (return)
[ Moniteur, XII. 702. For example, on the 19th of June, 1792, on a motion unexpectedly proposed by Condorcet, that the departments be authorized to burn all titles (to nobility) in the various depots.—Adopted at once, and unanimously.]

2241 (return)
[ Later Stalin and his successors should invest the United Nations and other international organizations to indirectly propose and ensure the acceptance of a new convention of human rights, children's rights, the rights of refugees etc. In many cases these became the base of national legislation which is now giving trouble to many of the Western democracies. (SR).]

2242 (return)
[ Hua, 114.]

2243 (return)
[ Moniteur, XII. 664.—Mercure de France, June 23, 1792.]

2244 (return)
[ Hua, 141.—Mathieu Dumas, II. 399: "It is remarkable that Lafond de LadÉbat, one of our trustiest friends, was elected president on the 23rd of July, 1792. This shows that the majority of the Assembly was still sound; but it was only brought about by a secret vote in the choice of candidates. The same men who obeyed their consciences, through a sentiment of justice and of propriety, could not face the danger which surrounded them in the threats of the factions when they were called upon to vote by rising or sitting."]

2245 (return)
[ This description and others of the same period have undoubtedly been studied carefully by thousands of socialists and political hopefuls who, in any case, made use of similar tactics to take over thousands of governing committees, institutions and organizations. (SR).]