Chapter VII: Introduction: By Richard Davey (7)

M. Lenoir collected into one establishment all paintings and statues which had any reference to the history of France. “Such an imposing mass of monuments of every period,” says he, “made me conceive the idea of forming an historical and chronological museum in relation to French art and French history, and, in despite of the malevolent and in the face of great opposition, my plan was favourably received by the Committee of Public Instruction of the National Convention, and on the 15th Germinal, year 4, the Museum was opened.”

M. Lenoir, after ten years of assiduous researches, is now able to display five centuries and also a sepulchral chamber, containing the fully restored tomb of François I.

This Museum embraces the sepulchral art of France, from the age of Clovis to the present time.

Here French and English artists may find models of costumes and arms of every age and rank in a regular series, from Clovis to Philip II. There seems little variation in dress. Rapid changes in costume and fashion appear only to have commenced after the return of the Crusaders.

We enter the Museum through the portico of the now demolished Château d’Anet (immortalised by Voltaire in his _Henriade_). In the first hall are the monuments of the Middle Ages; many, including that of Fredegonde and her husband Chilperic, have been taken from the church of St. Germains des Près.

The bones of Charlemagne, contained in a marble sarcophagus of Roman origin, were sent from Aix-la-Chapelle by Dervailly, one of the Republican Commissioners. The great conqueror, torn from his magnificent tomb, now lies in a Museum!

[Sidenote: ST. DENIS AND BACCHUS]

One of the most ancient stone coffins is that of an Abbot of St. Germains des Près, A.D. 990, in it his skeleton was found extremely well clothed in a robe of satin of a faded red colour, a long woollen tunic of purple brown, ornamented with an embroidery upon which several figures were wrought, slippers of an extremely well-tanned black leather served as shoes.

The southern gate of the Abbey of St. Denis, which is in this hall, is a most important specimen of early art. The large bas-relief in the middle represents the punishment of St. Denis and his companions Rusticus and Eleutherus.

Denis is the saint to whom the temple was dedicated; but, what is very remarkable, a sprig of vine, laden with grapes, is placed at his feet, precisely in the form as a badge of Dionysus or Bacchus. M. Lenoir says he cannot answer whether the priests who dedicated these temples considered Denis and Dionysus to be the same person, or whether by mere tradition they ordered that to be executed which would certainly characterise both. But it is certain that all the ornaments which decorate St. Denis are attributes of Bacchus. The vine, hunting and tigers appear; Bacchus is cut to pieces by the Maenades; Denis has his head cut off at Montmartre; Bacchus is placed in a tomb and bewailed by women; the body of Denis is collected by holy women, who weep over his remains and place them in a tomb; Bacchus rises again; Denis, after undergoing execution, rises again, picks up his head and walks. On this gate are two tigers, emblematical of the worship of Bacchus. It presents as well a chronology of thirty-six Kings of France.

On entering the hall which contains the monuments of the thirteenth century there are ceilings at angles, sprinkled with stars on a blue ground, supported by posts, rudely decorated. These ceilings are also adorned by the flowers of those times, three of which are emblems of the Evangelists, the others consist of the cabbage and the thistle in a variety of forms. The doors and the windows, constructed from the remains of a ruined building of the thirteenth century, which had been destroyed by the Jacobins, and which Lenoir collected at St. Denis, have been arranged according to the revised taste in architecture by the celebrated Montreau.

Three painted glass windows, representing moral subjects, and taken from the refectory of St. Germain des Près, shed a gloomy light upon the spot.

The tombs Louis IX. erected to his predecessors are only cenotaphs, merely large confines of hollowed stone, in which the body was placed and covered by another stone, the inscription, when there was one, being engraven on the inside. According to St. Foix the tombs of the Kings of the first race were small deep vaults of stone. On these vaults neither figures nor epitaphs were to be seen, as it was the inside that was engraven with inscriptions and laid out with magnificence. Charlemagne was originally buried in a sitting posture. His body after being enbalmed was seated on a throne of gold, clad in the Imperial dress, with the sword Joyeuse by its side. The head of the dead Emperor was ornamented with a golden chain in shape of a diadem. He held a globe of gold in one hand, and a New Testament was placed upon his knees. His gold sceptre and shield were hung on the wall opposite to him.

After the cave had been filled with perfumes, aromatics, and much treasure, it was shut up and sealed.

In the Hall of the Fourteenth Century are some very curious monuments, which show the improvement in the art of design, which the Crusaders brought back with them. A new species of decoration, the Arabian taste, was introduced into architecture. The heavy edifices of the former age gave way to more elegant buildings, and gilding and brilliant colours ornamented the churches. This hall is decorated with the ruins of the St. Chapelle in Paris, built about the year 1300. The Apostles, sculptured in stone of natural size, were taken from this chapel, and are remarkable for the naturalness of their expression and excellent execution. Their habits give an exact idea of the stuffs and embroidery then in fashion, the former of which being not unlike our Indian shawls. The mosaics which cover the ceilings and the walls of this hall were formed from materials taken from St. Denis. The painted windows in this hall are of the same century, and were taken from the “Celestines” and the “Bonshommes de Passy.”

[Sidenote: TOMB OF LOUIS XII.]

In the fifteenth century artists began to produce general plans, and to connect the calculations of their minds with a grand and careful execution. Gothic art in consequence disappeared. As Paris did not afford many palaces or ornamented houses of this century, M. Lenoir went several times among the monuments left by Cardinal d’Amboise, who employed in the decoration of his palaces Jean Juste, a sculptor, born at Tours, whom the Cardinal had sent at his own expense to Rome, for the purpose of studying the revived Grecian art.

The ceiling, windows, and in general the whole embellishment of this hall are composed on the type of the tomb of Louis XII., which stands in the middle of it, together with the materials brought from the Château de Gaillon, which has been lately demolished. The pillars which support the gates are a present to M. Lenoir from the Administrators of the Department of Eure et Loire, who, to M. Lenoir’s consternation, pulled down the portico of the church of the St. Père at Chartres in order to place its fragments at his disposal.

This portico was erected in 1509, and superadded to an ancient edifice built by Hildnard, a Benedictine monk, in 1170. Two bas-reliefs in this hall merit attention, one, representing God the Father in the midst of angels, was taken from the Cemetery of the Innocents. The other, from the church of St. Geneviève, represents the Pentecost. The violet and blue grounds, the gilded framework and the carmined legend are characteristic of the fifteenth century. Four marble medallions are worthy of careful notice, purchased from the ruined château of Gaillon. Anne of Brittany is represented as Minerva, Louis XII. as Mars, Gallas and Vespasian occupy the remaining medallions.

In this hall stands a bust of Joan of Arc by Beauvollet, after an ancient painting; this bust is placed beside that of Charles VII., whom she maintained on the throne of France. The Hall of the Sixteenth Century contains many interesting figures, and its glass windows are taken from Ecouen, Vincennes, Ault, and the Temple. The monument to the historian Philippe de Comines is an admirable work, and rests on a grand bas-relief, representing St. George and the Dragon. The tomb of Louis XII. and Anne of Brittany, which occupies the centre of this hall, is a superb monument. Unfortunately this fine mausoleum has greatly suffered from the fury of the revolutionary fanatics.

Here are also the statues of François I^{er}, of Chancellor de l’Hôpital; Montaigne, Prieur, Diane de Poitiers, Philip Desportes the poet, Jean Goujon, the celebrated artist and sculptor, a magnificent monument erected to the Constable of France, Anne de Condé, and the tomb of the Valois, surmounted by statues of François I^{er} and his wife Claude.

The Hall of the Seventeenth Century contains a fine monument erected to the family of the Villeray; one to the celebrated historian de Thou, the statue of Louis XI., the _chef d’œuvre_ of Girardon, containing the celebrated group in marble designed by Lebrun, 14 feet long and 6 feet broad, which forms the mausoleum of Cardinal Richelieu, the inscription bears: “_Magnum disputandi argumentum_.”

This admirable sculpture, which had previously been mutilated by anarchists who had forcibly entered the chapel, was afterwards injured by the revolutionary soldiers, who bayoneted M. Lenoir for opposing their destructive intentions; he still bears the scar of this wound on his hand.

Cardinal Mazarin’s monument of white marble, executed by Coyzevox, is equal in artistic merit to that of Richelieu. The Cardinal is represented on his knees.

[Sidenote: EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MONUMENTS]

An admirable group in white marble by Girardon represents Louvois, the French Minister, and History in the form of a woman turning towards him and pointing to her book. The First Consul was attracted to this monument on his visit to the Museum, and gazed upon it a considerable time. When he was in the Hall of the Thirteenth Century he said to M. Lenoir: “Lenoir, vous me transportez en Syrie, je suis content.”

The fine statue of Louis XIV. which stood in the Place Vendôme, was destroyed in 1792, but there is here an exact representation in bronze.

Monsieur Lenoir has also re-erected one from the ruins of that which stood on the Place des Victoires. In this Hall of the Seventeenth Century are the busts of all the great men who figured during that period in France.

The Hall of the Eighteenth Century contains a vast number of subjects, but few of them are very remarkable.

Here are busts of Louis XVI. and his Queen, and of Brissac, who with the prisoners of Orleans was assassinated at Versailles. In the garden belonging to this institution an elysium is formed in which above forty statues are placed. Here and there on a mossy ground, pines, cypresses and poplars shroud these monuments, and funereal urns placed on the walls serve to diffuse an air of repose and melancholy over the whole. In this enclosure a sepulchral chapel to the memory of Abelard and Héloise has been formed out of part of the ruins of the Abbey of St. Denis, in order to show the style of architecture adopted in that age.

Much remains yet to be done by M. Lenoir, but he has already effected wonders, and without ostentation or bustle he has done more for France than she has had the gratitude to acknowledge. Notwithstanding he is extremely circumscribed in the sums allotted to him, being only allowed £1000 per annum, he is always collecting and is continually in advance for the benefit of the institution.

What a contrast does the life of this disinterested antiquarian present to that of the conduct of that gang of philosophical thieves belonging to the National Institute!

M. Lenoir related to me two curious circumstances connected with the taking up of the bodies of the Kings, Queens, Princesses and celebrated men who during the space of 1500 years had been buried in the Abbey of St. Denis, which act of horrid indecency was ordered to be executed by a special decree of the National Convention, for the sake of extracting the lead belonging to these tombs. On October 12, 1793, the workmen opened the tomb of Turenne and found the body of this great man in so perfect a state of preservation that neither were his features deformed nor his countenance altered.

M. Lenoir, who had an opportunity of examining it, stated that it resembled in every way the pictures and medallions of the hero.

The body of Henri IV. was in a perfect state of preservation and the features of his face unchanged.

A soldier who was present, moved by martial enthusiasm, threw himself upon the body and embraced it, and after a long silence of admiration cut off a long lock from the beard and exclaimed, “And I too am a French soldier, henceforth I will have no other mustachios!” And he placed it on his upper lip. “Now,” said he, “I am sure to conquer, and I march to victory!” Immediately after this he disappeared, and was never seen again in the town.

XXXI

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY

This establishment was founded in the fourteenth century by Charles the Wise, and consisted at first of about twenty volumes! the number of which naturally continued to increase rapidly as time went on. It has now been enriched by a multitude of books and manuscripts saved from the monasteries, collections seized from proscribed nobles, and plunder from the libraries of Italy. So it is now one of the completest in the world. The large building containing these treasures is in the Rue de Richelieu, now called the Rue de la Loi. It is under the direction of Messieurs Capperonier and van Praet. In the first room of the principal floor a long table extends nearly the whole length of the apartment, with benches placed on each side for the convenience of students. This room is lined with books from floor to ceiling.

[Sidenote: CURIOUS MANUSCRIPTS]

Before the French irruption into Italy the National Library consisted of 200,000 volumes, besides a large collection of manuscripts. It now contains 300,000 printed books, which are already arranged in five divisions, besides a vast number which Monsieur van Praet informed me had not been even examined. The library is disposed with judgment and knowledge. No catalogue has yet been published, but the directors are preparing one, with a suitable explanation respecting the principal authors and the names of the libraries from which the books were stolen.

Here are some very curious documents in manuscript relative to English history, well worthy of reference to any author desirous of treating of that subject. The celestial and terrestrial globes constructed by Coronelli are preserved in one of the wings of the building; they are thirty feet in diameter, their circles are gilded, the water is painted blue, the land white, and the mountains with a green ground shaded with brown. These are the largest globes in the world, they resemble air ballons, and I cannot imagine any other mode for a philosopher to use them than by putting himself in a little curule chair suspended by ropes, and in this manner making the tour of the universe.

The manuscripts exceed 80,000 in number, 30,000 of which are on the history of France and are called the Mazarin Gallery. The rest are in foreign and dead languages, many written on vellum and superbly illuminated. Many of these manuscripts contain most extraordinary specimens of the state of poetry and genius in ancient times. Among others here is this of Philippe d’Orleans, Comte de Vertus, who died in 1420, aged twenty-four.

BALLADE.

Jeune gente plaisante et débonnaire,
Par un prière qui vaut commandement,
Chargé m’avez d’une ballade faire,
Si l’ai faite de cœur joyeusement;
Or, la veuillez recevoir doucement
Vous y verrez, s’il vous plait à la lire,
Le mal que j’ai, combien que vraiment,
J’aimasse mieux de bouche vous le dire.

Votre douceur m’a sçu si bien attraire,
Que tous vostre je suis entièrement
Très désirant de vous servir et plaire,
Mais je soffre mainte douloureux tourment,
Quand a mon gre je ne vous voi souvent
Et me déplaist quand me font vous l’escrire;
Car si fou je pouvois autrement
J’aimasse mieux de bouche vous le dire.

C’est par dangier mon cruel adversaire,
Qui m’a tenu en ses mains longuement.
En tous mes faits je le trouve contraire
Et plus se rit quand plus me voit dolent.
Si je voulais raconter pleinement
En cet escrit mon ennuyeux martyre
Trop long serois; pour certainement
J’aimasse mieux de bouche vous le dire.

Besides these manuscripts there are many treasures of inestimable value, particularly the cabinet of medals, a rich and magnificent collection, to which has been added the cabinets of medals and antiques taken from St. Geneviève, St. Germains des Près and the Petits Pères, besides a vast accession from the plunder of Italy. The late Abbé Barthélémy, author of the “Travels of Anacharnis,” had the superintendence of the cabinet of medals, and by his exertions several beautiful and rare additions were made to the original collection. A very fine bust of him stands at the extremity of the hall.

There is also a rich collection of engravings, amounting to more than 5000 volumes. It requires whole months to review and examine all the curiosities and beauties contained within this library, and as it is impossible to detail them without writing a volume, I consider the synopsis I have given sufficient to explain their value to the student of every nation.

XXXII

HUMANE INSTITUTIONS: THE HOSPITAL OF INVALIDES

[Sidenote: OVERTHROW OF INSTITUTIONS]

The French Revolution wrought as much harm to the cause of humanity as to letters, science, and art. I have, it is true, described certain brilliant institutions which the present Government has created, but they form the least substantial part of social order, and are in a sense but the holiday suit of the Republic.

It would be as wrong to judge the French nation by this splendid exterior as of a private family by the same rule. To form a correct judgment of the character of a man we should enter his dwelling, see him as a parent, husband or friend, and examine his domestic economy. To contemplate him driving in a chariot, and surrounded by glittering attendants, would give us no idea of his real situation.

Much as we may admire establishments which ornament and serve a nation, if haggard poverty and distress meet the eye at every turn we cannot but infer that the nation in which such things prevail has mistaken the true road to grandeur and public felicity.

I speak with regret, and without prejudice or passion, when I affirm that this is the case with the French Republic. They overthrew all their ancient national charitable establishments, and by so doing exposed a great portion of the community to misery and want. They destroyed wholesome institutions without making any provision for supplying their absence. They suppressed convents and monasteries under many pleas, the most specious of which was that they would put an end to mendicity by striking at indiscriminate charity, which was, they maintained, the root of indolence. The principle was good, but it was applied in an entirely unjustifiable manner. Those who formerly aided the poor and wretched were themselves driven to mendicity, and the poor, the ailing, the afflicted were left even without the hope of a resource.

Sensible of the alarming effect of these evils, which in a land where the sources of industry have been suspended for ten years, are absolutely terrific, the French Government and some worthy and humane private individuals have, during the last few months, seriously devoted their attention to the means of eradicating them.

So far the state of public finance has not admitted of the permanent establishment of any asylums for the deserving poor. A few which had been anciently endowed are still poorly maintained at the public expense, but the mass of the nation is without any provision whatever for the miserable.

There is, however, one happy exception. The Hospital of the Invalides retains its ancient excellence and lustre.

This institution, the illustrious monument of the gratitude of a Prince towards a people devotedly attached to him, is appropriated to such superannuated or wounded soldiers no longer fit for service. It will contain 5000 individuals, supported, clothed and fed at the expense of the nation. There are four large halls where they assemble to dinner; it was the wish of Louis XIV. that the aged or wounded warrior should _live well_ during the remainder of his days. Therefore their daily allowance, besides an excellent dinner, at which there was always a _bouillie_ (or good meat soup), was a pound and a half of bread and a quart of wine. This allowance is still continued.

[Sidenote: INTERIOR OF THE INVALIDES]

The edifice consists of fine courts, and a magnificent saloon called the Temple of Mars, in which are suspended as trophies all the standards taken during the late war. The dome that surmounts the centre of this Temple, 300 feet in elevation from the level of the ground and 50 feet in diameter, is a masterpiece of architecture; the cupola is decorated with paintings by Charles de la Fosse.

Four beautiful paintings represent the four quarters of the globe, and there is also a huge canvas upon which David has portrayed the triumph of man over religion and royalty. The Devil himself could not have executed a more infernal picture than is this work of the national painter (Member of the Institute). Man, displayed as a gigantic figure (stark naked), tramples on kings, priests, crowns, sceptres, crosses and rosaries; in one hand he holds a flaming torch, in the other a sword. The Goddess of Reason, tutelary genius of the Republic, majestically arrayed, smiles over her votary’s triumph. A multitude of other similar characters fill up the hellish group, and complete a picture of horror and iniquity.

By what fatal perversion of human nature, a temple, consecrated to valour, patriotism and merit, should have been selected as the depository of such a vicious production, I know not. But I declare I felt petrified with horror when I gazed upon it. It is strange that the rulers of France should have not already banished from the public gaze such a sign of their past apostasy and hatred for that religion they have lately found it convenient to once more profess.

To an Englishman who views the trophies which adorn this hall there is a reason for feelings of patriotic exultation. The banners of almost every European nation weep over the disasters of the valorous defenders. But only one solitary standard of Great Britain confesses to the chances of war.

All the plans of Vauban,[1] in relievo, of the different docks, harbours and fortifications of France were preserved here. They have now been removed to the Bureau of the Minister of War. It was from a cabinet in the Hôtel des Invalides, containing an excellent collection of military books and also plans for subjugating Egypt, conceived under the reign of Louis XIV., and which had lain there for whole generations untouched but not forgotten, that the Council of War procured the information which enabled Bonaparte to invade Egypt--an invasion he accomplished with the most marvellous secrecy and celerity.

This invasion, I know from the highest authority and those who are most intimately acquainted with him, he will again attempt whenever circumstances prove favourable to his enterprise.

The monument formerly erected at St. Denis to Marshal Turenne, which was saved from the Revolutionary vandals by Monsieur Lenoir, almost at the risk of his life, has been removed from the Museum, where it was at first placed, to the Temple of Mars in this Hospital, where it is now to be seen.

By a decree of the First Consul on the 1st of Vendemaire year 9, the body of Turenne,[1] which had been preserved by Lenoir in a secret tomb, was transported with great funeral pomp to the Invalides, where it was once more deposited in its ancient receptacle.

The car on which the body was laid was drawn by four general officers of the Republic; on arriving at the Invalides it was received by a salvo of artillery, after which Carnot, the Minister of War, pronounced the following funeral oration:

“Citizens! behold the body of Turenne the Great--a warrior dear to every Frenchman, a man whose name excites emotion in every virtuous bosom, and who should be to after ages a model of heroes!

“To-morrow we celebrate the foundation of the Republic. Let us initiate that festival by the apotheosis of all that is praiseworthy and illustrious in the past. This temple is allotted to all those who, in every age past and present, have displayed virtues worthy of the nation. Henceforward, O Turenne! thy manes shall dwell within these walls--they shall become naturalised among the founders of the Republic!

[Sidenote: CARNOT’S PANEGYRIC OF TURENNE]

“It is a sublime idea to place the mortal remains of a hero in the midst of warriors who trod in his steps. To the brave belong the ashes of the brave. After the death of a warrior, his remains have a right to be preserved under the safeguard of the warriors who survive him--to partake with them the asylum consecrated to glory.

“Praise be to the Government which strives to pay the debt of gratitude to former benefactors!

“Praise be to the chiefs of a warlike nation who are not ashamed to invoke the shade of Turenne!

“Turenne lived in an age wherein prejudice placed imaginary distinctions of rank above signal services. But in him noble rank disappeared before that conferred by his victories. France, Italy, Germany re-echoed with his triumphs, and the sublime eulogy pronounced after his death by Monticuculi was the true description of his virtues: _A man is dead who was an honour to human nature!_

“Ah! what more glorious title can I add to that of ‘Father,’ conferred on Turenne by his soldiers during his whole life?

“On the plains of Salzbach Turenne commanded the French army. Confident of victory, secure of position, he fell slain by a musket ball. Confidence and hope disappeared, and France was left to mourn.

“The Germans for many years left the spot untilled upon which he was killed, and the inhabitants of the neighbourhood considered it hallowed ground.

“The remains of Turenne were at first preserved in the Cemetery of Kings. The Republicans have taken it from this vainglorious oblivion, and have this day transferred his body to the Temple of Mars, where veteran warriors can daily repeat the history of his victories.

“Marble and brass decay in time, but this asylum of French warriors whom old age or wounds has deprived of the power of fighting, will exist from age to age. On the tomb of Turenne the veteran will shed tears of admiration and the youth of France perform his vows to the profession of arms. After embracing this monument and invoking the shade of Turenne, he will feel himself inspired by a holy enthusiasm.

“Had Turenne lived in our time, he would have been a Republican. The love of country was his actuating principle. His glory therefore must be identified with that of the heroes of the Republic; and it is in the name of the Republic my hands depose these laurels on his tomb.

“May the shade of the illustrious Turenne be sensible of this act of national government, dictated by a government which is only guided by principles of virtue.

“Citizens! let me not diminish the emotions which you feel at this tremendous and awful funeral solemnity. Language cannot describe what is now displayed before your senses. What shall I say of Turenne? Behold him! there he lies! Behold the sword grasped by his victorious hand! Behold also the fatal ball which snatched him from France and from the whole human race!”

Such was the discourse delivered by Carnot; not _quite equal_ to the funeral oration of Pericles, but la la for a philosopher of the National Institute!

Had Turenne lived in our time he might possibly have proved as great a rascal as any in the late Directorate.

Maréchal Turenne possessed military genius in a transcendent degree, but he must also by every dispassionate inquirer be condemned as a bad man, a worse citizen, a rebel and an incendiary. He began his career as a Maréchal de France with an act of base ingratitude, perfidy and treason towards his Sovereign and the laws of his country.

No sooner had he been raised to the rank of Maréchal than he suffered himself to be prevailed upon by an intriguing woman, the Duchess of Longueville (of whom, although she made a jest of his passion, he was desperately enamoured), to persuade the army which he commanded to revolt against the infant King and his mother, the Regent.

[Sidenote: CAREER OF TURENNE]

Being unsuccessful in this attempt, he quitted the army a fugitive and a Bonaparte, and from General to the King of France he became General of Don Estevan de Gomora, this enemy of his King and country, by whom he was defeated at Revel by French troops.

With respect to his policy it was merciless.

His glorious German campaign was achieved by inflicting unheard-of calamities upon the defenceless inhabitants. After the battle of Sintzheim he laid waste with fire and sword the Palatinate, a level and fertile country, full of rich cities and prosperous villages.

From his castle at Mannheim, the Elector Palatine beheld two cities and twenty-five villages burnt before his eyes. In the first emotion of resentment this unhappy Prince wrote a letter to Turenne, filled with bitter reproaches and defying him to single combat.

Turenne made a cool and ambiguous answer, conveying an empty compliment.

In the same cold blood he destroyed all the ovens and cornfields of Alsace, and afterwards permitted his cavalry to ravage Lorraine. Turenne acted throughout this campaign contrary to the orders of his Government, who desired him to treat the conquered provinces with lenity.

But to return to the Philosophical Tribune of France. The most curious part of the ceremony consisted in the tears of Carnot! He actually!! Carnot shed tears!!!

I cannot help thinking this as a most ludicrous instance of the ceremonial.

Instead of sounding the praises of the present despotism of France, Carnot might have recited the following lines intended to have been inscribed on the pedestal of the tomb of Turenne in St. Denis:

Turenne a son tombeau parmi ceux de nos rois,
C’est le fruit glorieux de ces fameux exploits.
On a voulu par-là couronner sa vaillance
Afin qu’aux siècles à venir
On ne fit point de difference
Entre porter la couronne ou de la soutenir.

When we reflect upon the melancholy catastrophe which has befallen the monuments of the most distinguished Frenchmen, it is to be considered a fortunate circumstance that the mausoleum of Turenne was rescued from the general devastation. As the Abbey of St. Denis is totally destroyed and there is no longer a place for the illustrious dead, except the Pantheon, in which their bodies would be commingled with those of the ruffians of the Republic, the Temple of Mars is undoubtedly the most honourable asylum for the body of one who, notwithstanding his faults, was perhaps the greatest General of France.

The Hospital of the Invalides maintains its pre-eminence over every other charitable institution of France.

The funds for the disbursement of its expenses are paid with great exactitude, and its internal organisation is conducted with exactitude and decorum.

Had other institutions of France, not less useful, been maintained with equal scrupulousness, my pen would not have found an opportunity of portraying the wickedness and folly of a people whose history during the last ten years is nothing but a disgusting record of rapine, murder and impiety.

XXXIII

HUMANE INSTITUTIONS--_continued_
SOUP ESTABLISHMENTS

During the last winter (1801–1802) the distress of the lower orders rose to such a height that it became necessary to open subscriptions for the distribution of soup to the poor. A committee was formed for the purpose, and this committee distributed 164,000 rations of soups, besides what was sold from different furnaces, established by voluntary contributions.

The committee commenced their useful labours with the names of only _one hundred subscribers_. The price of each subscription is eighteen francs or fifteen shillings and ninepence sterling, and any person is at liberty to take as many subscriptions as he thinks proper. In consideration of every subscription the subscriber receives 240 bonuses of soup from any establishment he may prefer, or he may leave the disposal of them to the committee.

[Sidenote: HUMANITY OF BONAPARTE]

Madame Bonaparte, the wife of the First Consul, who is a most benevolent, charitable and kind-hearted woman, gave 600 francs towards the establishment of a furnace in her division.

The committee solicited the generosity of the public functionaries, “Not because they are wealthy, but because as the greater part of them were known for their philanthropy, their example would encourage others to subscribe.” The result of this appeal to these rich philanthropists who fatten upon the blood of the people was somewhat ludicrous, considering the small subscriptions it drew forth. The Senate granted a subsidy of 1500 livres, or £60 sterling; the Council of State took forty-six subscriptions, about £35; the Bank of France, 60, about £40; the Mont de Piété, 20, about £14; and the officers of the Consular Guard, 84, making a total of about £252!

The First Consul generously put down his name for a 1000 subscription, which would have amounted to £787 sterling. But there was no security for his payment except his inclination; his servile vassals, however, boasted of his magnificence, and the Commissioners who drew up the report on the distribution of the soup broke forth into the following apostrophe:--“Our eyes are turned with complacency on the 1000 subscription of the First Consul. The Conqueror of Marengo has made _humanity_ the companion of _glory_. His triumphant hand has repaired the edifice of social happiness; this hero, who seemed to have attained the summit of _perfection_ and _grandeur_, has proved that a good action may make him _still mount_, and lift him above sublimity itself!”

Unluckily for the trumpeters of this “astonishing man” this hero who has made humanity the companion of glory has not to this hour paid one sou of the thousand subscription to which he signed his name and entered into a solemn engagement.

In the report made by Cadet de Vaux to the Minister of the Interior it is stated--“Of all the branches of polite economy the least advanced among us is public beneficence. Formerly there was an organised system of charity, but now unhappily this branch of our administration is defective. When there were clergy resident in every parish, their profession gave them the privilege of asking charity from the rich and of penetrating into the secret wants of the poor, and they therefore possessed much greater opportunities of doing good than does the present Board of Public Assistance, notwithstanding its activity and zeal. Among the religious orders some corporations were distinguished for their zeal in affording relief to the poor, particularly the Sisters of Charity, who devoted their whole lives to the most fatiguing details of charitable benevolence!”

These respectable Associations no longer exist, but it is under consideration to permit the re-assembling of the dispersed communities.

In France at this time there are neither parochial rates nor workhouses such as we have in England. For idle, disorderly or viciously disposed persons no midway exists between the high road and the prison, and no kind of provision exists which affords employment to persons who, from sickness, misfortune, or lack of employment, have been thrown out of work. Hence the poverty of a French pauper is the consummation of wretchedness; rags, filth and disease waste his constitution and destroy his body, while despair for ever settles on his soul. If he have strength enough to carry a musket he is instantly transported into a soldier; and if this means of subsistence fail, his only alternative is to steal or to become a beast of burden, performing labour that in other countries is only executed by horses and asses.

But miserable as he is, the lot of the female beggar is infinitely worse. Objects of loathsome corruption and horrible aspect, they seem planted in the streets of this capital, only to laugh to scorn the Revolution, and to rebuke the greedy and the sumptuous magnificence of the upstart. As you traverse the streets they follow you, conjuring you in the name of God, and, with entreaties which would melt a heart of flint, implore you to give them a little charity.

The charitable are deprived of the power of discriminating; they must attend to the cries of beggary or submit to be pursued for half a mile by the same forlorn wretch, imploring for mercy and pity. This is indeed a wretched state of society, yet we are told the Revolution was the work of philosophers, made for the benefit of the people to dispel the darkness of their prejudices, and to remove all the moral and physical evils under which they groaned before the advent of freedom.

XXXIV

HUMANE INSTITUTIONS--_continued_

LA SALPÊTRIÈRE. HÔTEL DIEU. HÔPITAL DE JESUS,
DE LA CHARITÉ, DE LA PITIÉ.
THE FOUNDLING SOCIETY

[Sidenote: HOSPITALS]

La Salpêtrière, before the Revolution, was a prison for females; since that event it has been converted into an ordinary prison, an infirmary, and at length a hospital. It is an immense building, extremely well situated near the river, and is now appropriated as a receptacle for girls, above 1500 of whom are maintained in it. I am sorry to say I can say little in favour of its comfort or cleanliness.

The Hôtel Dieu, changed into Hôtel de l’Humanité by the Revolutionists, is an infirmary for the sick and diseased. It will contain 4000 people.

The Hospital of Jesus is not upon so large a scale. The Hospital of Charity is appropriated exclusively for males. The Hôpital de la Pitié is somewhat similar to our parish charity schools, for the maintenance and instruction of poor boys; this hospital is under very good discipline. The Hospital of the Trinity of St. Sulpice and of the Incurable are well regulated, particularly the latter, where the utmost attention and humanity are shown to its miserable inhabitants.

The Foundling Hospital, now called that of La Maternité, overflowed with little helpless infants during those periods of the Revolution when the holy rites of marriage were treated with derision, and licensed vice was the order of the day. Consequently the number of foundlings ever since the accession of the Corsican hero still exceeds that of all Europe.

This establishment embraces two objects, provision for lying-in women and maintenance for foundlings.

I can dwell with complacency and pleasure upon the advantages of this hospital, and I am glad to be able to praise its excellent management.

It is divided into two compartments, one for the reception of pregnant women, who are received into this house during the eighth month, upon their presenting themselves for admission, and are allowed to remain until a proper time has elapsed after their delivery. The second compartment is allotted to those children who have been exposed or abandoned by their parents. Nothing can be more interesting than the spectacle of so many infants in cradles, arranged in lines. They are put into the hands of wet nurses belonging to the institution, until women out of the country can be found to take charge of them in their own homes. Each wet nurse in the institution has care of two infants, her own and a foundling.

This establishment has supplied the place of that which was in pre-Revolution days called l’Hospice des Enfants Trouvés; a charity which owes its origin to the efforts of S. François de Paul.

It is a happy idea to blend the principles of the former institution with a provision for poor lying-in women, who formerly in their hour of labour had to resort to the Hôtel Dieu and be delivered amongst the sick.

The building for these women is part of the house once occupied by the Society of the Oratorians.

[Sidenote: OLD FOUNDLING HOSPITAL]

It is spacious and airy and has very large galleries, leading to the respective apartments, in each of which not more than six or seven beds are prepared.

The children are accommodated in the _ci-devant_ Abbey of Port Royal--a convent formerly occupied by nuns. During the days of proscription and massacre, this edifice was converted into a prison. The passages were blocked up, daylight shut out, and circular walls raised. The revolutionary demoniacs changed the name of Port Royal into that of Port Libre.

Whilst it was used as a Foundling Hospital, 500 infants, 200 wet nurses, belonging to the house, 200 women either expecting a child or having already laid in, and forty sick persons were indiscriminately crowded together, besides a multitude of attendants and the apothecary. The multitude of partitions impeded the circulation of the air and retained the offensive effluvia which proceeded from this multitude of children, always clothed in dirty linen. There was not one apartment of the building through which a pure draught of air passed.

It was difficult to inspect so many dark rooms detached from each other, it frequently happened that two women who had just become mothers slept in the same bed. A general cleansing and whitewashing of the place was unknown. The institution was burdened with children left upon the hands of the charity, for the country nurses having been paid with assignats or paper money and thus deprived of the full value of their wages, nurses would not now offer themselves. The great influx of children required a proportionate number of house nurses, and hence arose the impossibility of selecting them, the necessity of complying with all their demands and a great want of management.

The food and the linen, in consequence of the low ebb to which the credit of the house was sunk, were left to be provided by contractors. The nurses had no clothes found them, pregnant women could get none, and the infants were not even provided with linen which is an absolute necessity. These evils resulted from the prodigal waste of public money which during the Directorship was diverted from its proper objects to gorge the insatiate appetite and hungry rapacity of the officials of the Government. Indeed, I am in possession of unanswerable vouchers to prove that to this circumstance (_i.e._, public and private plunder) the present shameful and dilapidated condition of the hospitals is to be attributed. So forcible are the representations of the Consular precepts on this subject that many go so far as to boldly assert that the grants made for the support of the hospitals have been scandalously diverted from their original destination and lavished without account on less necessary purposes.

However, in 1801 the Council General of the Institution were enabled to create and carry out a most necessary series of reforms.

The first duty they had to discharge was to secure and regulate the payment of the country nurses.

Only £250 was due to these women, yet even this was paid with difficulty. This debt has now been discharged, and this has been attended with a very striking effect. The infants have been sent to nurse much sooner, and the amount of deaths has in consequence greatly diminished; so many house nurses have not been required, so those who are employed are now selected with care and kept under a regular management; persons who were of no use whatever to the Institution have been discharged. Attention has been directed to salubrity, economy and supply of clothing and linen. The small outbuildings, which were in a ruinous state, have been pulled down; the partitions which divided the wards taken away; the number of windows increased, and cleanliness introduced over the whole hospital.

Walls have been close scraped and afterwards whitewashed; rotten timbers have been repaired, and the unserviceable and antiquated window frames renewed and replaced.

[Sidenote: “MATERNITÉ” CHARITY]

The inspectors observed that a quantity of the provisions disappeared, and the people of the house were constantly complaining they had not enough. The truth being that they sold the victuals supplied to them.

To remedy this evil refectories have been established, where they all eat together. In the lying-in part of the hospital the food is now abundant, wholesome and varied. The children’s kitchen, in which milk, panade and broth are prepared, is under especial inspection. The place of apothecary has been suppressed. Plenty of linen is provided for the children. The servant girls and house nurses as well as the women patients are now well supplied with clothes.

All double bedsteads have been removed.

Each woman and each nurse has a separate bed, and the latter two cribs, one for each of the infants they suckle. The bedsteads and cribs have been repainted, and the vermin which used to infect them has disappeared.

Two next excellent regulations have been adopted which deserve notice. The women near their time were formerly suffered to be without employment, in consequence of which they fell into a languor and lowness of spirits, frequently not disassociated from bodily indisposition. Work-rooms have now been established where they are employed in sewing and embroidery under the direction of a proper person belonging to the house. The charity might convert their earnings to the benefit of the hospital, but instead it pays them for items, the intention being to encourage them to moderate work, so that when they quit the hospital they may not be distressed by the painful uncertainty of not knowing where to search for the subsistence of the morrow.

The second regulation establishes a course of midwifery for female pupils, from all the departments. There were generally four pupils under the chief midwife, whom she instructs in the practice of midwifery for three months. This has just given rise to a public school of midwifery in the Hospital of Maternity, to which are invited as many midwives as can be procured from the several Departments. The theoretical part is to be taught by M. Bandelocque, principal accoucheur, and the practical by Madame la Chapelle, principal midwife. The school will open three months hence, on August 23. France has long stood in need of such an establishment on which the lives of so many individuals depend.

All these improvements, which have so entirely changed this vitally important establishment, are to be attributed to the energy and determination of one man, whose name deserves to be remembered and revered by future generations of Frenchmen. This individual is Monsieur Camus, member of the General Council of Hospitals.

Citizen Bailly, the steward and housekeeper, has also greatly contributed towards the establishment of order and the direction and accomplishment of the several kinds of work.

I hope I have not been too prolix in these details, but it is impossible and unjust to applaud or to censure institutions without entering into very minute particulars respecting them; besides which, as the above statements have been _privately_ but _officially_ communicated to me, I cannot help thinking they have some public interest. With a very few exceptions the account of one hospital in Paris contains the history of every other.

By an exposure of the disgraceful decay into which one of the most important charitable establishments of old France was allowed to fall, when it came under the administration of the friends of the people, some conception can be formed as to the amount of interest the French Government during the last ten years has bestowed upon such subjects.

At this moment the very existence of all charitable institutions in France (I do not except the hospitals) depends entirely on the personal industry of the few good and virtuous men and women who adorn the commonwealth.

[Sidenote: SISTERS OF CHARITY REQUIRED]

All the hospitals and other institutions for the protection of the poor of Paris are maintained by the Government, the private endowments having all been confiscated during the Revolution. It is, therefore, just and proper that the conduct of that Government should be fully investigated, when complaints resound from every quarter, against its inattention to the fundamental principles of the establishment.

I conclude these remarks by presenting the observations and requisitions of the present Prefect of the Department of the Seine:

“Re-establish the former Sisters of Charity, place them at the head of the hospital department, authorise them to choose others, that this useful institution may be perpetuated. Employ in sedentary labours the old men and the infirm; the produce of their work may be divided between themselves and the hospital. Provide for the necessities of the hospitals by _securing on them national property equal in value to the amount of what they formerly possessed_.

“This _restitution_ will supply the place of assessments, whose produce is insufficient, in the meantime let the produce of these assessments be paid into the treasuries of the hospitals _in order that they may never be diverted from their primitive destination_. Establish houses of instruction for the reception of foundlings, when they have passed their infancy, and habituate them to industry.

“Repair the buildings. Provide linen. Discharge the debts of the hospitals, and confide to a single administration the direction of the succour to be afforded to the whole department, and let it be distributed in proportion to the population of the Commune.”

XXXV

HUMANE INSTITUTIONS--_continued_
NATIONAL INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB
UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE ABBÉ SICARD.
THE SAUVAGE D’AVEYRON

The Abbé Sicard[1] is a man who, as a classical, humane and scientific instructor of the deaf and dumb, inspires the liveliest emotions of admiration and respect. I was present at one of his lectures. The abbé commenced by explaining the cause of dumbness to be the privation of hearing (which precludes the possibility of imitating sounds)--and not any absolute defect in the organ or instrument of speech. Such have been the labours of the immortal Abbé de l’Epée and his successor, the Abbé Sicard, that they have actually taught deaf and dumb persons how to communicate by speech, as well as signs, with the rest of humanity.

They have taught some to pronounce aloud any sentence written for them. This pronunciation is the effect of a compelled mechanical utterance, produced by the abbé placing his lips and mouth in certain positions and appearing to the scholar to make certain motions, which motions necessarily bring forth a sound more or less like that required.

The degree of force which it is necessary the scholar should apply to pronounce distinctly any word is regulated by the abbé pressing his arm gently, moderately or strongly.

[Sidenote: THE LITTLE SAVAGE]

I attended a lecture at which the Abbé Sicard showed to an audience the first mode of communication with the deaf and dumb. A boy about thirteen years of age, whom the abbé had not even seen, was sent out of the institution. A sheet of paper was brought on which were painted many of the most common objects, such as a horse, a carriage, a bird, a tree, and so on. Upon the abbé pointing these pictures out to the boy, the latter appeared delighted to show by signs that he fully comprehended the representation. These signs, attentively observed by the abbé, formed the basis of future conversation. To prove that _speech_ is merely a matter of imitation, the abbé produced a girl about seventeen years old, who had lost her hearing at the age of six. She had, therefore, acquired a small vocabulary of words and ideas such as might be expected from a child of six years of age. Her mode of enunciation was that of a young child. She pronounced “chat” “sa.” There had been a dog in the house where she passed her infancy, whose name was Toutou--she remembered the word and called every dog Toutou. This girl was a curious instance of the primary effects of education.

At this lecture the abbé stated a curious occurrence. He was once told that a blind man, on being asked to describe the sound of a trumpet, said he believed it to be of a red colour. He himself asked one of his deaf and dumb pupils to define his idea of scarlet, the pupil immediately replied: “The blast of a horn.”