Chapter IV: The Departments (2)

[Footnote 2425: Ibid., F7, 3198. Dispatches of the procureur--syndic of the department to the Minister, Aix, Sept. 14, 15, 20, and 23, 1791. The electoral assembly declared itself permanent, the constitutional authorities being fettered and unrecognized.--Dispatch of the members of the military bureau and correspondence with the Minister, Arles, Sept.17, 1791.]

[Footnote 2426: Ibid., Dispatch of the commandant of the Marseilles detachment to the Directory of the department, Sept. 22, 1791: "I feel that our proceedings are not exactly legal, but I thought it prudent to acquiesce in the general desire of the battalion."]

[Footnote 2427: "Archives Nationales." Official report of the municipal officers of Arles on the insurrection of the Mint band, Sept. 2, 1791.--Dispatch of Ripert, royal commissioner, Oct. 2 and 8.--Letter of M. d'Antonelle, to the Friends of the Constitution, Sept.22. "I cannot believe in the counter-orders with which we are threatened. Such a decision in the present crisis would be too inhuman and dangerous. Our co-workers, who have had the courage to devote themselves to the new law, would be deprived of their bread and shelter... The king's proclamation has all the appearance of having been hastily prepared, and every sign of having been secured unawares."]

[Footnote 2428: De Dampmartin (an eye-witness), II. 60-70.--" Archives Nationales," F7, 3196.--Dispatch of the two delegated commissioners to the Minister, Nimes, March 25, 1792.--Letter of M. Wittgenstein to the Directory of the Bouche-du--Rhône, April 4, 1792.--Reply and act passed by the Directory, April 5.--Report of Bertin and Rebecqui to the administrators of the department, April 3.--Moniteur, XII. 379. Report of the Minister of the Interior to the National Assembly, April 4.]

[Footnote 2429: Moniteur, XII. 408 (session of May 16). Petition of M. Fossin, deputy from Arles.--"Archives Nationales," F7, 3196. Petition of the Arlesians to the Minister, June 28.--Despatches of M. Lombard, provisional royal commissioner, Arles, July 6 and 10. "Neither persons nor property have been respected for three months by those who wear the mask of patriotism."]

[Footnote 2430: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3196. Letter of M. Borelly, vice-president of the Directory, to the Minister, Aix, April 30, 1792. "The course pursued by the sieur: Bertin and Rébecqui is the cause of all the disorders committed in these unhappy districts... Their sole object is to levy contributions, as they did at Aries, to enrich themselves and render the Comtat-Venaisson desolate."]

[Footnote 2431: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3196. Deposition of one of the keepers of the sieur Coye, a proprietor at Mouriez-les-Baux, April 4.--Petition of Peyre, notary at Maussane, April 7.--Statement by Manson, a resident of Mouriez-les-Baux, March 27.--Petition of Andrieu, March 30.--Letter of the municipality of Maussane, April 4: "They watch for a favorable opportunity to devastate property and especially country villas."]

[Footnote 2432: "Archives Nationales," Claim of the national guard presented to the district administrators of Tarascon by the national guard of Château-Renard, April 6.--Petition of Juliat d'Eyguières, district administrator of Tarascon, April 2 (in relation to a requisition of 30,000 francs by Camoïn on the commune of Eyguières).--Letter of M. Borelly, April 30. "Bertin and Rébecqui have openly protected the infamous Camoïn, and have set him free. "--Moniteur, XII. 408. Petition of M. Fossin, deputy from Arles.]

[Footnote 2433: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3195. Dispatch of M. Mérard, royal commissioner at the district court of Apt, Apt, March 15, 1792 (with official report of the Apt municipality and debates of the district, March 13).--Letter of M. Guillebert, syndic-attorney of the district March 5.. (He has fled. )--Dispatches of the district Directory, March 23 and 28. "It must not be supposed for a moment that either the court or the juge-de-paix will take the least notice of this circumstance. One step in this direction would, in a week, bring 10,000 men on our hands."]

[Footnote 2434: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3195. Letter of the district Directory of Apt, March 28. "On the 26th of March 600 armed men, belonging to the communes of Apt, Viens, Rustrel, etc. betook themselves to St.-Martin-de-Castillon and, under the pretense of restoring order, taxed the inhabitants, lodging and feeding themselves at their charge"--The expeditions extend even to the neighboring departments, one of them March 23, going to Sault, near Forcalquier, in the Upper-Alps.]

[Footnote 2435: Ib., F7, 3195. On the demand of a number of petitioning soldiers who went to Aries on the 22d of March, 1792, the department administration passes an act (September, 1793) granting them each forty-five francs indemnity. There are 1,916 of them, which makes 86,200 francs "assessed on the goods and property of individuals for the authors, abettors, and those guilty of the disturbances occasioned by the party of Chiffonists in the commune of Arles." The municipality of Aries designates fifty-one individuals, who pay the 86,200 livres, plus 2,785 francs exchange, and 300 francs for the cost of sojourn and delays.--Petition of the ransomed, Nov.21, 1792.]

[Footnote 2436: Ib., F7, 3165. Official report of the Directory on the events which occurred in Aix, April 27, 28, and 29, 1792.]

[Footnote 2437: Michelet, "Histoire de la Révolution Française," III.56 (according to the narratives of aged peasants).--Mercure de France, April 30, 1791 (letter from an inhabitant of the Comtat).--All public dues put together (octrois and interest on the debt) did not go beyond 800,000 francs for 126,684 inhabitants. On the contrary, united with France, it would pay 3,793,000 francs.--André, "Histoire de la Révolution Avignonaise," I. 61.--The Comtat possessed representative institutions, an armed general assembly, composed of three bishops, the elected representative of the nobility, and thirteen consuls of the leading towns.--Mercure de France, Oct. 15, 1791 (letter from an inhabitant of the Comtat).--There were no bodies of militia in the Comtat; the privileges of nobles were of little account. Nobody had the exclusive right to hunt or fish, while people without property could own guns and hunt anywhere.]

[Footnote 2438: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3272. Letter of M. Pelet de la Lozère, prefect of Vaucluse; to the Minister, year VIII. Germinal 30.--Ibid., DXXIV. 3. Letter of M. Mulot, one of the mediating commissioners, to the Minister, Oct. 10, 1791. "What a country you have sent me to! It is the land of duplicity. Italianism has struck its roots deep here, and I fear that they are very hardy."]

[Footnote 2439: The details of these occurrences may be found in André and in Soulier, "Histoire de la Révolution Avignonaise." The murder of their seven principal opponents, gentlemen, priests and artisans, took place June 11, 1790.--"Archives Nationales," DXXIV. 3. The starting-point of the riots is the hostility of the Jansenist Camus, deputy to the Constituent Assembly. Several letters, the first from April, 1790, may be found in this file, addressed to him from the leading Jacobins of Avignon, Mainvielle, Raphel, Richard, and the rest, and among others the following (3 July, 1790): "Do not abandon your work, we entreat you. You, sir, were the first to inspire us with a desire to be free and to demand our right to unite with a generous nation, from which we have been severed by fraud."--As to the political means and enticements, these are always the same. Cf., for instance, this letter of a protégé, in Avignon, of Camus, addressed to him July 13, 1791: "I have just obtained from the commune the use of a room inside the Palace, where I can carry on my tavern business.. My fortune is based on your kindness... what a distance between you and myself!"]

[Footnote 2440: "Archives Nationales," DXXIV. 3. Report on the events of Oct.10, 1791.--Ibid., F7, 3197. Letter of the three commissioners to the municipality of Avignon, April 21, and to the Minister, May 14, 1791. "The deputies of Orange certify that there were at least 500 French deserters in the Avignon army. "--In the same reports, May 21 and June 8: "It is not to be admitted that enrolled brigands should establish in a small territory, surrounded by France on all sides, the most dangerous school of brigandage that ever disgraced or preyed upon this human species. "--Letter of M. Villardy, president of the Directory of the Bouches-du-Rhône May 21. "More than two millions of the national property is exposed to pillage and total destruction by the new Mandrins who devastate this unfortunate country. "--Letter of Méglé, recruiting sergeant of the La Mark regiment, arrested along with two of his comrades. "The corps of Mandrins which arrested us set us at liberty... We were arrested because we refused to join them, and on our refusal we were daily threatened with the gallows."]

[Footnote 2441: Mortimer-Ternaux, I. 379 (note on Jourdan, by Faure, deputy).--Barbaroux, "Mémoires"(Ed. Dauban), 392. "After the death of Patrix a general had to be elected. Nobody wanted the place in an army that had just shown so great a lack of discipline. Jourdan arose and declared that as far as he was concerned, he was ready to accept the position. No reply was made. He nominated himself, and asked the soldiers if they wanted him for general. A drunkard is likely to please other drunkards; they applauded him, and he was thus proclaimed."]

[Footnote 2442: After a famous brigand in Dauphiny, named Mandrin.--TR. Mandrin, (Louis) (Saint Étienne-de--Saint-Geoirs, Isère, 1724--Valence, 1755). French smuggler who, after 1750, was active over an enormous territory with the support of the population; hunted down by the army, caught, condemned to death to be broken alive on the wheel. See also Taine's explanation in Ancient Régime page 356 app. (SR).]

[Footnote 2443: Cf. André, passim, and Soulier, passim.--Mercure de France, June 4, 1791.--"Archives Nationales," F7, 3197. Letter of Madame de Gabrielli, March 14, 1791. (Her house is pillaged Jan. 10, and she and her maid escape by the roof.)--Report of the municipal officers of Tarascon, May 22. "The troop which has entered the district pillages everything it can lay its hands on."--Letter of the syndic-attorney of Orange, May 22. "Last Wednesday, a little girl ten years of age, on her way from Châteauneuf to Courtheson, was violated by one on of them, and the poor child is almost dead. "--Dispatch of the three commissioners to the Minister, May 21. "It is now fully proved by men who are perfectly reliable that the pretended patriots, said to have acted so gloriously at Sarrians, are cannibals equally execrated both at Avignon and Carpentras."]

[Footnote 2444: "Archives Nationales," letter of the Directory of the Bouches-du-Rhône, May 21, 1791.--Deliberations of the Avignon municipality, associated with the notables and the military committee, May 15: "The enormous expense attending the pay and food for the detachments.. .forced contributions... What is most revolting is that those who are charged with the duty arbitrarily tax the inhabitants, according as they arc deemed bad or good patriots... The municipality, the military committee, and the club of the Friends of the Constitution dared to make a protest; the proscription against them is their reward for their attachment to the French constitution.]

[Footnote 2445: Letter of M. Boulet, formerly physician in the French military hospitals and member of the electoral assembly, May 21.]

[Footnote 2446: "Archives Nationales," DXXIv. 16-23, No.3. Narrative of what took place yesterday, August 21, in the town of Avignon.--Letters by the mayor, Richard, and two others, Aug. 21.--Letter to the president of the National Assembly, Aug.22 (with five signatures, in the name of 200 families that had taken refuge in the Ile de la Bartelasse).]

[Footnote 2447: "Archives Nationales," DXXIV. 3.--Letter of M. Laverne, for M. Canonge, keeper of the Mont-de-Piété. (The electoral assembly of Vaucluse and the juge-de-paix had forbidden him to give this box into any other hands.)--Letters of M. Mulot, mediating commissioner, Gentilly les Sorgues, Oct. 14, 15, 16, 1791.--Letter of M. Laverne, mayor, and the municipal officers, Avignon, Jan. 6, 1792.--Statement of events occurring at Avignon, Oct. 16, 17, and 18 (without a signature, but written at once on the spot).--Official rapport of the provisional administrators of Avignon, Oct. 16.--Certified copy of the notice found posted in Avignon in different places this day, Oct. 16 (probably written by one of the women of the lower class and showing what the popular feeling was).--A letter written to M. Mulot, Oct. 13' already contains this phrase: "Finally, even if they delay stopping their robberies and pillage, misery and the miserable will still remain "--Testimony of Joseph Sauton, a chasseur in the paid guard of Avignon, Oct. 17 (an eye-witness of what passed at the Cordeliers).]

[Footnote 2448: André. II.62. Deposition of la Ratapiole.--Death of the girl Ayme and of Mesdames Niel et Crouzet.--De Dampmartin, II. 2.]

[Footnote 2449: "Archives Nationales," DXXIV, 3. Report on the events of Oct. 16: "Two sworn priests were killed, which proves that a counter-revolution had nothing to do with it,.. Six of the municipal officers were assassinated. They had been elected according to the terms of the decree; they were the fruit of the popular will at the outbreak of the Revolution; they were accordingly patriots."--Buchez et Roux, XII. 420.--Official report of the Commune of Avignon, on the events of Oct. 16.]

[Footnote 2450: "Archives Nationales," DXXIV. 3. Dispatch of the civil Commissioners deputized by France (Messrs. Beauregard, Lecesne, and Champion) to the Minister Jan. 8, 1792. (A long and admirable letter, in which the difference between the two parties is exhibited, supported by facts, in refutation of the calumnies of Duprat. The oppressed party is composed not of royalists, but of Constitutionalists.)]

[Footnote 2451: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3177. Dispatches of the three commissioners, April 27, May 4, 18, and 21.]

[Footnote 2452: Three hundred and thirty-five witnesses testified during the trial.--De Dampmartin, I.266. Entry of the French army into Avignon, Nov. 16, 1791: "All who were rich, except a very small number, had taken flight or perished. The best houses were all empty or closed."----Elections for a new municipality were held Nov.26, 1791. Out of 2,287 active citizens Mayor Levieux de Laverne obtains 2,227 votes, while the municipal officer lowest on the list 1,800. All are Constitutionalists and conservatives.]

[Footnote 2453: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3196. Official report of Augier and Fabre, administrators of the Bouches-du-Rhône, Avignon, May 11, 1792.--Moniteur, XII. 313. Report of the Minister of Justice, May 5.--XII. 324. Petition of forty inhabitants of Avignon, May 7.--XII 334. Official report of Pinet, commissioner of the Drôme, sent to Avignon.--XII. 354 Report of M. Chassaignac and other papers, May 10.--XI. 741 Letter of the civil commissioners, also of the Avignon municipality, March 23.]

[Footnote 2454: "The French Revolution," vol. I. pp. 344-352, on the sixth jacquerie, everywhere managed by the Jacobins. Two or three traits show its spirit and course of action. ("Archives Nationales," F7, 3202. Letter of the Directory of the district of Aurillac, March 27, 1792, with official reports.) "On the 20th of March, about forty brigands, calling themselves patriots and friends of the constitution, force honest and worthy but very poor citizens in nine or ten of the houses of Capelle-Viscamp to give them money, generally five francs each person, and sometimes ten, twenty, and forty francs." Others tear down or pillage the châteaux of Rouesque, Rode, Marcolès, and Vitrac and drag the municipal officers along with them. "We, the mayor and municipal officers of the parish of Vitrac, held a meeting yesterday, March 22, following the example of our neighboring parishes on the occasion of the demolition of the châteaux. We marched at the head of our national guard and that of Salvetat to the said châteaux. We began by hoisting the national flag and to demolish... The national guard of Boisset, eating and drinking without stint, entered the château and behaved in the most brutal manner; for whatever they found in their way, whether clocks, mirrors, doors, closets, and finally documents, all were made way with. They even sent off forty of the men to a patriotic village in the vicinity. They forced the inmates of every house to give them money, and those who refused were threatened with death." Besides this the national guard of Boisset carried off the furniture of the château.--There is something burlesque in the conflicts of the municipalities with the Jacobin expeditions (letter of the municipal officers of Cottines to the Directory of St. Louis, March 26). "We are very glad to inform you that there is a crowd in our parish, amongst which are many belonging to neighboring parishes; and that they have visited the house of sieur Tossy and a sum of money of which we do not know the amount is demanded, and that they will not leave without that sum so that they cam have something to live on, these people being assembled solely to maintain the constitution and give greater éclat to the law."]

[Footnote 2455: Mercure de France, numbers for Jan. 1 and 14, 1792 (articles by Mallet du Pan).--" Archives Nationales," F7, 3185, 3186. Letter of the president of the district of Laon (Aisne) to the Minister, Feb. 8, 1792: "With respect to the nobles and priests, any mention of them as trying to sow discord among us indicates a desire to spread fear. All they ask is tranquility and the regular payment of their pensions."--De Dampmartin, II. 63 (on the evacuation of Arles, April, 1792). On the illegal approach of the Marseilles army, M. de Dampmartin, military commander, orders the Arlesians to rise in a body. Nobody comes forward. Wives hide away their husbands' guns in the night. Only one hundred volunteers are found to act with the regular troops.]

[Footnote 2456: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3224. Speech of M. Saint-Amans, vice-president of the Directory of Lot-et-Garonne, to the mayor of Tonneins, April 20 and the letter of the syndic-attorney-general to M. Roland, minister, April 22: "According to the principles of the mayor of Tonneins, all resistance to him is aristocratic, his doctrine being that all property-owners are aristocrats. You can readily perceive, sir, that he is not one of them."--Dubois, formerly a Benedictine and now a Protestant minister.--Act of the Directory against the municipality of Tonneins, April 13. The latter appeals to the Legislative Assembly. The mayor and one of the municipal counselors appear in its name (May 19) at the bar of the Assembly.]

[Footnote 2457: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3198. Letter of M. Debourges, one of the three commissioners sent by the National Assembly and the king, Nov. 2, 1791 (apropos of the Marseilles club). "This club has quite recently obtained from the Directory of the department, on the most contemptible allegation, an order requiring of M. de Coincy, lieutenant-general at Toulon, to send the admirable Ernest regiment out of Marseilles, and M. de Coincy has yielded."]

[Footnote 2458: For instance (Guillon de Montléon, "Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de Lyon," I. 109), the general in command of the national guard of this large town in 1792 is Juillard, a poor silk-weaver of the faubourg of the Grande Côte, a former soldier.]

[Footnote 2459: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3215, affair of Plabennec (very curious, showing the tyrannical spirit of the Jacobins and the good disposition at bottom of the Catholic peasantry)--The commune of Brest dispatches against that of Plabennec 400 men, with two cannon and commissioners chosen by the club.--Many documents, among them: Petition of 150 active citizens of Brest, May 16, 1791. Deliberations of the council-general and commune of Brest, May 17. Letter of the Directory of the district, May 17 (very eloquent). Deliberations of the municipality of Plabennec, May 20. Letter of the municipality of Brest to the minister, May 21. Deliberations of the department Directory, June 13.]

[Footnote 2460: Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 376 (session of the Directory of the Pas-du-Calais, July 4, 1792). The petition, signed by 127 inhabitants of Arras, is presented to the Directory by Robespierre the younger and Geoffroy. The administrators are treated as impostors, conspirators, etc., while the president, listening to these refinements, says to his colleagues: "Gentlemen, let us sit down; we can attend to insults sitting as well as standing."]

[Footnote 2461: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3223. Letter of M. Valéry, syndic-attorney of the department, April 4, 1792.]

[Footnote 2462: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3220. Extract from the deliberations of the department Directory and letter to the king, Jan.28, 1792.--Letter of M. Lafiteau, president of the Directory, Jan. 30. (The mob is composed of from five to six hundred persons. The president is wounded on the forehead by a sword-cut and obliged to leave the town.) Feb. 20, following this, a deputy of the department denounces the Directory as unpatriotic.]

[Footnote 2463: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3223. Letter of M. de Riolle, colonel of the gendarmerie, Jan. 19, 1792.--"One hundred members of the club Friends of Liberty" come and request the brigadier's discharge. On the following day, after a meeting of the same club, "four hundred persons move to the barracks to send off or exterminate the brigadier."]

[Footnote 2464: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3219. Letter of M. Sainfal, Toulouse, March 4, 1792.--Letter of the department Directory, March 14.]

[Footnote 2465: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3229. Letter of M. de Narbonne, minister, to his colleague M. Cahier, Feb. 3, 1792.--"The municipality of Auch has persuaded the under-officers and soldiers of the 1st battalion that their chiefs were making preparation to withdraw."--The same with the municipality and club of the Navarreins. "All the officers except three have been obliged to leave and send in their resignations."--F7, 3225. The same to the same, March 8.--The municipality of Rennes orders the arrest of Col. de Savignac, and four other officers. Mercure de France, Feb. 18, 1792. De Dampmartin, I. 230; II. 70 (affairs of Landau, Lauterbourg, and Avignon).]

[Footnote 2466: "'The French Revolution," I. 344 and following pages. Many other facts could be added to those cited in this volume.--"Archives Nationales," F7, 3219. Letter of M. Neil, administrator of Haute-Garonne, Feb. 27, 1792. "The constitutional priests and the club of the canton of Montestruc suggested to the inhabitants that all the abettors of unsworn priests and of aristocrats should be put to ransom and laid under contribution."--Cf. 7, 3193, (Aveyron), F7, 3271 (Tarn), etc.]

[Footnote 2467: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3200. Letter of the syndic-attorney of Bayeux, May 14, 1792, and letter of the Bayeux Directory, May 21. "The dubs should be schools of patriotism; they have become the terror of it. If this scandalous struggle against the law and legitimate authority does not soon cease liberty, a constitution, and safeguards for the French people will no longer exist"]

[Footnote 2468: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3253. Letter, of the Directory of the Bas-Rhin, April 26, 1792, and of Dietrich, Mayor of Strasbourg, May 8. (The Strasbourg club had publicly invited the citizens to take up arms, "to vigorously pursue priests and administrators." )--Letter of the Besançon club to M. Dietrich, May 3. "If the constitution depended on the patriotism or the perfidy of a few magistrates in one department, like that of the Bas-Rhin, for instance, we might pay you some attention, and all the freemen of the empire would then stoop to crush you. "--Therefore the Jacobin clubs of the Upper and Lower Rhine send three deputies to the Paris club.]

[Footnote 2469: Moniteur, XII. 558, May 19, 1792. "Letter addressed through patriotic journalists to all clubs of the Friends of the Constitution by the patriotic central society, formed at Clermont-Ferrand." (there is the same centralization between Lyons and Bordeaux.)]

[Footnote 2470: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3198. Report of Commissioners Bertin and Rebecqui, April 3, 1792.--Cf. Dumouriez, book II. ch. V. The club at Nantes wants to send commissioners to inspect the foundries of the Ile d'Indrette.]

[Footnote 2471: Moniteur, X. 420. Report of M. Cahier, Minister of the Interior, Feb. 18, 1792. "In all the departments freedom of worship has been more or less violated... Those who hold power are cited before the tribunals of the people as their enemies."--On the radical and increasing powerlessness of the King and his ministers, Cf. Moniteur, XI. 11 (Dec. 31, 1791).--Letter of the Minister of Finances.--XII. 200 (April 23, 1792), report of the Minister of the Interior.--XIII. 53 (July 4, 1792), letter of the Minister of Justice.]

[Footnote 2472: Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 369. Letter of the Directory of the Basses-Pyrénées, June 25, 1792.--"Archives Nationales," F7, 3200. Letter of the Directory of Calvados to the Minister of the Interior, Aug. 3. "We are not agents of the king or his ministers."--Moniteur, XIII. 103. Declaration of M. de Joly, minister, in the name of his colleagues (session of July 10, 1792).]