Chapter VI: The Birth of the Terrible Paris Commune (3)

[Footnote 26113: Ibid., Aug. 14. Decree for dividing the property of the émigrés into lots of from two to four arpents, in order to "multiply small proprietors."--Ibid., Sept. 2. Other decrees against the émigrés and their relations, Aug. 14, 23, 30, and Sept. 5 and 9.]

[Footnote 26114: Ibid., Aug. 26. Other decrees against the ecclesiastics or the property of the church, Aug. 17, 18, 19, and Sept. 9 and 19.]

[Footnote 26115: Ibid., Sept. 20.]

[Footnote 26116: Imagine the impression these last lines may have upon any ardent, ambitious and arrogant young man who, like Lenin in 1907, would have read this between 1893 and 1962, date of the last English reprinting of Taine's once widely know work. They summed up both what had to be done and who would be the primary beneficiaries of the revolution. Lenin, Hitler, Mussolini and countless other young hopeful political men. Read it once more and ask yourself if much of this program has not been more or less surreptitiously carried out in most western countries after the second world war? (SR).]

[Footnote 26117: Malouet, II. 241.]

[Footnote 26118: Mercure de France, July 21, 1792.]

[Footnote 26119: "Révolutions de Paris," XIII. 137.]

[Footnote 26120: Mallet du Pan. "Mémoires," I. 322. Letters to Mallet du Pan. Aug. 4 and following days.]

[Footnote 26121: Buchez et Roux, XVI. 446. Pétion's narrative.--Arnault, "Souvenirs d'un sexagénaire," I. 342. (An eye-witness on the 10th of August.) "The massacre extended but little beyond the Carrousel, and did not cross the Seine. Everywhere else I found a population as quiet as if nothing had happened. Inside the city the people scarcely manifested any surprise; dancing went on in the public gardens. In the Marais, where I lived then, there was only a suspicion of the occurrence, the same as at Saint-Germain; it was said that something was going on in Paris, and the evening newspaper was impatiently looked for to know what it was."]

[Footnote 26122: Moore, I. 122.--The same thing is observable at other crises in the Revolution. On the 6th of October, 1789 (Sainte-Beuve, "Causeries du Lundi," XII. 461), Sénac de Meilhan at an evening reception hears the following conversations: "'Did you see the king pass?' asks one. 'No, I was at the theater.' 'Did Molé play?'--'As for myself; I was obliged to stay in the Tuileries; there was no way of getting out before 9 o'clock.' 'You saw the king pass then?' 'I could not see very well; it was dark.'--Another says: 'It must have taken six hours for him to come from Versailles.'--Others coolly add a few details.--To continue: 'Will you take a hand at whist?' 'I will play after supper, which is just ready.' Cannon are heard, and then a few whisperings, and a transient moment of depression,. 'The king is leaving the Hôtel-de-ville. They must be very tired.' Supper is taken and there are snatches of conversation. They play trente et quarante and while walking about watching the game and their cards they do some talking: 'What a horrid affair!' while some speak together briefly and in a low tone of voice. The clock strikes two and they all leave or go to bed.--These people seem to you insensible. Very well; there is not one of them who would not accept death at the king's feet."--On the 23d of June, 1791, at the news of the king's arrest at Varennes, "the Bois de Boulogne and the Champs Elysées were filled with people talking in a frivolous way about the most serious matters, while young men are seen, pronouncing sentences of death in their frolics with courtesans." (Mercure de France, July 9, 1791. It begins with a little piece entitled Dépit d'un Amant.)--See ch. XI. for the sentiment of the population in May and June, 1793.]

[Footnote 26123: Moniteur, XIII. 290 (July 29) and 278 (July 30).]

[Footnote 26124: "Archives Nationales," F7, 145. Letter of Santerre to the Minister of the Interior, Sept. 16, 1792, with the daily list of all the men that have left Paris between the3rd and 15th of September, the total amounting to 18,635, of which 15,504 are volunteers. Other letters from the same, indicating subsequent departures: Sept. 17, 1,071 men; none the following days until Sept. 21, 243; 22nd 150; up to the 26th, 813; on Oct. 1st, 113; 2nd and 3rd, 1,088; 4th, 1620; 16th, 196, etc.--I believe that amongst those who leave, some are passing through Paris coming from the provinces; this prevents an exact calculation of the number of Parisian volunteers. M. de Lavalette, himself a volunteer, says 60,000; but he furnishes not proofs of this.]

[Footnote 26125: Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 362.]

[Footnote 26126: Soulavie, "Vie privée du Maréchal duc de Richelieu," IX. 384.----"One can scarcely comprehend," says Lafayette, ("Mémoires," I. 454), "how the Jacobin minority and a gang of pretended Marseilles men could render themselves masters of Paris, while almost the whole of the 40,000 citizens forming the national guard desired the Constitution."]

[Footnote 26127: Hua, 169.]

[Footnote 26128: Moniteur, XIII. 437. (session of Aug. 16, the applause reiterated and the speech ordered to be printed).]

[Footnote 26129: These words should cause society to change resulting in a leveling of incomes through proportional taxation and aids of all kinds throughout the industrialized world. Nobody could ever imagine the immense wealth which was to be produced by the efficient industry of the 20th century. (SR).]

[Footnote 26130: Roederer, "oeuvres Complètes." VIII 477. "The club orators displayed France to the proletariat as a sure prey if they would seize hold of it."]

[Footnote 26131: This manifesto, was drafted for the Duke of Brunswick-Lunebourg, the general commanding the combined Prussian and Austrian forces, by the French émigré Marquis de Limon. It threatened the French and especially the Paris population with unspecified "rigors of war" should it have the temerity to resist or to harm the King and his family. It was signed in Koblenz, Germany on 25 August 1792 and published in royalist newspapers 3 days later in Paris.(SR).]

[Footnote 26132: "Moore's Journal," I. 303-309.]

[Footnote 26133: "Archives Nationales," 474, 426. Section of Gravilliers, letter of Charles Chemin, commissary, to Santerre, and deposition of Ilingray, cavalryman of the national gendarmerie, Aug. 11.]

[Footnote 26134: Beaumarchais, "oeuvres complètes," letter of Aug. 12, 1792.--This very interesting letter shows how mobs are composed at this epoch. A small gang of regular brigands and thieves plot together some enterprise, to which is added a frightened, infatuated crowd, which may become ferocious, but which remains honest.]

[Footnote 26135: The words of Hobbes applied by Roederer to the democracy of 1792: "In democratia tot possent esse Nerones quot sunt oratores qui populo adulantur; simul et plures sunt in democratia, et quotidie novi suboriuntur."]

[Footnote 26136: Lucas de Montigny, "Mémoires de Mirabeau," II. 231 and following pages.--The preface affixed by Manuel to his edition (of Mirabeau's letters) is a masterpiece of nonsense and impertinence.--Peltier, "Histoire du 10 Aout," II. 205.--Manuel "came out of a little shop at Montargis and hawked about obscene tracts in the upper stories of Paris. He got hold of Mirabeau's letters in the drawers of the public department and sold them for 2,000 crowns." (testimony of Boquillon, juge-de la paix).]

[Footnote 26137: Lafayette, "Mémoires," I. 467, 471. "The queen had 50,000 crowns put into Danton's hands a short time before these terrible days."--" The court had Danton under pay for two years, employing him as a spy on the Jacobins."--" Correspondance de Mirabeau et du Comte de la Marck," III. 82. Letter from Mirabeau, March 10, 1791: "Danton received yesterday 30,000 livres".--Other testimony, Bertrand de Molleville, I. 354, II. 288.--Brissot, IV. 193--. Miot de Melito, "Mémoires," I. 40, 42. Miot was present at the conversations which took place between Danton, Legendre, etc., at the table of Desforges, Minister of Foreign Affairs. "Danton made no concealment of his love of pleasure and money, and laughed at all conscientious and delicate scruples."--" Legendre could not say enough in praise of Danton in speaking of his talents as a public man; but he loudly censured his habits and cxpensive tastes, and never joined him in any of his odious speculations."--The opposite thesis has been maintained by Robinet and Bougeart in their articles on Danton. The discussion would require too much space. The important points are as follows: Danton, a barrister in the royal council in March, 1787, loses about 10,000 francs on the refund of his charge. In his marriage-contract dated June, 1787, he admits 12,000 francs patrimony in lands and houses, while his wife brings him only 20,000 francs dowry. From 1787 to 1791 he could not earn much, being in constant attendance at the Cordeliers club and devoted to politics; Lacretelle saw him in the riots of 1788. He left at his death about 85,000 francs in national property bought in 1791. Besides, he probably held property and valuables under third parties, who kept them after his death. (De Martel, "Types Révolutionnaires," 2d part, p.139. Investigations of Blache at Choisy-sur-Seine, where a certain Fauvel seems to have been Danton's assumed name.)--See on this question, "Avocats aux conseils du Roi," by Emil Bos, pp.513-520. According to accounts proved by M. Bos, it follows that Danton, at the end of 1791, was in debt to the amount of 53,000 francs; this is the hole stopped by the court. On the other side, Danton before the Revolution signs himself Danton even in authentic writing, which is an usurpation of nobility and at that time subject to the penalty of the galleys.--The double-faced infidelity in question must have been frequent, for their leaders were anything else but sensitive. On the 7th of August Madame Elizabeth tells M. de Montmorin that the insurrection would not take place; that Pétion and Santerre were concerned in it, and that they had received 750,000 francs to prevent it and bring over the Marseilles troop to the king's side (Malouet, II. 223).--There is no doubt that Santerre, in using the king's money against the king, thought he was acting patriotically. Money is at the bottom of every riot, to pay for drink and to stimulate subordinate agents.]

[Footnote 26138: Buchez et Roux, XXVIII. 92. Letter of Gadolle to Roland, October, 1792, according to a narrative by one of the teachers in the college d'Harcourt, in which Varlet was placed.]

[Footnote 26139: Buchez et Roux, XIII. 254.]

[Footnote 26140: "C. Desmoulins," by Claretie, 238 (in 1786 and in 1775). "The inquest still exists, unfortunately it is convincing."--Westermann was accused of these acts in December, 1792, by the section of the Lombards, "proofs in hand."--Gouverneur Morris, so well informed, writes to Washington, Jan. 10, 1793: The retreat of the King of Prussia "was worth to Westermann about 10,000 pounds... The council ... exerted against him a prosecution for old affairs of no higher rank than petty larceny."]

[Footnote 26141: "Archives Nationales," F7, 4434 (papers of the committee of general safety). Note on Panis, with full details and references to the occurrence.]

[Footnote 26142: "Révolutions de Paris," No.177 (session of the council-general at the Hotel-de-ville, Nov. 8, 1792, report of the committee of surveillance). "Sergent admits, except as to one of the watches, that he intended to pay for the said object the price they would have brought. It was noticed, as he said this, that he had on his finger the agate ring that was claimed."]

[Footnote 26143: Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 638; III. 500 and following pages; IV. 132.--Cf. II. 451.]

[Footnote 26144: Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 456.]

[Footnote 26145: Buchez et Roux, XVI. 138, 140 (testimony of Mathon de la Varenne, who was engaged in the case).]

[Footnote 26146: "Dictionnaire biographique," by Eymery (Leipsic, 1807), article HÉBERT.]

[Footnote 26147: Mortimer-Ternaux, III. 484, 601. Cf. letter of the representative Cavaignac, Ibid., 399.]

[Footnote 26148: "Dictionnaire biographique," article HENRIOT.-The lives of many of these subordinate leaders are well done. Cf. "Stanislas Maillard," by AL Sorel; "Le Patriote Palloy," by V Fournel.]

[Footnote 26149: Granier de Cassagnac, "Histoire des Girondins," 409.--"Archives Nationales," F7 3196. Letters of de Sades on the sacking of his house near Apt, with supporting document and proofs of his civism; among others a petition drawn up by him in the name of the Pique section and read at the Convention year II. brumaire 25. "Legislators, the reign of philosophy has at last annihilated that of imposture... The worship of a Jewish slave of the Romans is not adapted to the descendants of Scoevola. The general prosperity which is certain to proceed from individual happiness will spread to the farthest regions of the universe and everywhere the dreaded hydra of ultramontane superstition, chased by the combined lights of reason and virtue, no longer finding a refuge in the hateful haunts of a dying aristocracy, will perish at her side in despair at finally beholding on this earth the triumph of philosophy!"]

[Footnote 26150: Barbaroux, "Mémoires," 57, 59. The latter months of the legislative assembly.]

BOOK THIRD. THE SECOND STAGE OF THE CONQUEST.