Chapter I: Recovery of Social Order (2)

By this Concordat, the Pope "declares that neither himself nor his successors shall in any manner disturb the purchasers of alienated ecclesiastical property, and that the ownership of the said property, the rights and revenues derived there from, shall consequently remain in commutable in their hands or in those of their assigns."[3193] Henceforth the possession of this property is no longer a sin; at least, it is not condemned by the spiritual authority, by that external conscience which, in Catholic countries, governs the inward conscience and often supplies its place; the Church, the moral head, removes with its own hands the moral scruple, the last small stone, troublesome and dangerous, which, lying underneath the cornerstone of lay society, breaks the level of the entire structure and compromises the equilibrium of the new government.--In exchange, the State endows the Church. By the same Concordat, and by the decrees which follow it, "the government[3194] ensures a suitable salary to bishops and cure's," 15,000 francs to each archbishop, 10,000 francs to each bishop, 1500 francs to each curé of the first class and 1000 francs to each curé of the second class,[3195] also, later on,[3196] a maximum of 500 francs and a minimum of 300 francs to each assistant-priest or vicar. "If circumstances require it,[3197] the conseils-généraux of the large communes may grant to prelates or to curés an increase of salary out of their rural possessions or octrois." In all cases, archbishops, bishops, curés and priests shall be lodged, or receive a lodging indemnity. So much for the support of persons.-As to real property,[3198] "all the metropolitan churches, cathedrals, parochial buildings and others, not alienated, and needed for the purposes of worship, shall be subject to the disposition of the bishops."--The parsonages and gardens attached to these, not alienated, shall be given up to the curés and assistant-priests."--"The possessions of the fabriques,[3199] not alienated, as well as the rentals they enjoyed, and which have not been transferred, shall be restored to their original purpose.--As to the outlay and expenditure for worship,[31100] for the parochial center or cathedral, if its revenue is not sufficient, this shall receive aid from its commune or from its department; besides, "an assessment of 10 %.[31101] shall be laid on the revenues of all the real estate of the communes, such as houses, woods, and rural possessions, for the formation of a common fund of subsidy," a general sum with which to provide for "acquisitions, reconstructions or repairs of churches,... seminaries and parsonages." Moreover,[31102] the government allows "the French Catholics to make endowments, if so disposed, in favor of churches.. . for the support of ministers and the exercise of worship," that is to say to bequeath or make gifts to the fabriques or seminaries; in fine, it exempts seminarists, the future cure's, from the conscription.

It also exempts the "Ignorantins," or brethren of the Christian schools, who are the instructors of the common people. With respect to these and in relation to every other Catholic institution, it follows the same utilitarian principle, the fundamental maxim of laic and practical good sense: when religious vocations make their appearance and serve the public, it welcomes and makes use of them; it grants them facilities, dispensations and favors, its protection, its donations, or at least its tolerance. Not only does it turn their zeal to account, but it authorizes their association.[31103] Numerous societies of men or of women again spring up with the assent of the public authorities--the "Ignorantins," the "Filles de la Charité," the "Seurs Hospitalières," the "Sæurs de Saint-Thomas," the "Sæurs de Saint-Charles," the "Sæurs Vatelottes." The Council of State accepts and approves of their statutes, vows, hierarchy, and internal regulations. They again become proprietors; they may accept donations and legacies. The State frequently makes presents to them. In 1808,[31104] thirty-one communities of Sisters of Charity, and mostly educational, thus obtain the buildings and furniture they ask for, in full possession and gratuitously. The State, also, frequently supports them;[31105] it repeatedly decides that in this asylum, or in that school, the "sisters" designated by the ancient foundation shall resume their work and be paid out of the income of the asylum or school. Better still, and notwithstanding threatening decrees,[31106] Napoleon, between 1804 and 1814, allows fifty-four communities to arise and exist, outside of the congregations authorized by him, which do not submit their statutes to him and which dispense with his permission to exist; he lets them live and does not disturb them; he judges[31107] "that there is every sort of character and imagination, that eccentricities even should not be repressed when they do no harm," that, for certain people, an ascetic life in common is the only refuge; if that is all they desire they should not be disturbed, and it is easy to feign ignorance of them; but let them remain quiet and be sufficient unto themselves!--Such is the new growth of the regular clergy alongside of the secular clergy, the two main branches of the Catholic trunk. Owing to the help, or to the authorization, or to the connivance of the State, inside or outside of its limitations, both clerical bodies, legally or in reality, recover a civil existence, and thus obtain, or at least nearly so, their physical maintenance.[31108]

And nothing more. Nobody, better than Napoleon, knows how to make a good bargain, that is to say, to give a little in order to gain a great deal. In this treaty with the Church he tightens his purse-strings and especially avoids parting with his ready money. Six hundred and fifty thousand francs for fifty bishops and ten archbishops, a little more than four million francs for the three or four thousand cantonal curés, in all five million francs per annum, is all that the State promises to the new clergy. Later on,[31109] he takes it on himself to pay those who officiate in the branch chapels; nevertheless, in 1807, the entire appropriation for public worship costs the State only twelve million francs a year;[31110] the rest, as a rule, and especially the salaries of the forty thousand assistant-priests and vicars, must be provided by the fabriques and the communes.[31111] Let the clergy benefit by occasional contributions;[31112] let it appeal to the piety of believers for its monstrances, chalices, albs and chasubles, for decorations and the other expenses of worship; they are not prohibited from being liberal to it, not only during the services, on making collections, but in their houses, within closed doors, from hand to hand. Moreover, they have the right of making gifts or bequests before a notary, of establishing foundations in favor of seminaries and churches; the foundation, after verification and approval by the Council of State, becomes operative; only,[31113] it must consist of state securities, because, in this shape, it helps maintain their value and the credit of the government; in no case must it be composed of real estate;[31114] should the clergy become land-owners it would enjoy too much local influence. No bishop, no curé must feel himself independent; he must be and always remain a mere functionary, a hired workman for whom the State provides work in a shop with a roof overhead, a suitable and indispensable atelier, in other words, the house of prayer well known in each parish as "one of the edifices formerly assigned to worship." This edifice is not restored to the Christian community, nor to its representatives; it is simply "placed at the disposition of the bishop."[31115] The State retains the ownership of it, or transfers this to the communes; it concedes to the clergy merely the right of using it, and, in that, loses but little. Parish and cathedral churches in its hands are, for the most part, dead capital, nearly useless and almost valueless; through their structure, they are not fitted for civil offices; it does not know what to do with them except to make barns of them; if it sells them it is to demolishers for their value as building material, and then at great scandal. Among the parsonages and gardens that have been surrendered, several have become communal property,[31116] and, in this case, it is not the State which loses its title but the commune which is deprived of its investment. In short, in the matter of available real estate, land or buildings, from which the State might derive a rent, that which it sets off from its domain and hands over to the clergy is of very little account. As to military service, it makes no greater concessions. Neither the Concordat nor the organic articles stipulate any exemption for the clergy; the dispensation granted is simply a favor; this is provisional for the seminarians and only becomes permanent under ordination; now, the government fixes the number of the ordained, and it keeps this down as much as possible;[31117] for the diocese of Grenoble, it allows only eight in seven years.[31118] In this way, it not only saves conscripts, but again, for lack of young priests, it forces the bishops to appoint old priests, even constitutionalists, nearly all pensioners on the treasury, and which either relieves the treasury of a pension or the commune of a subsidy.[31119]--Thus, in the reconstruction of the ecclesiastical fortune the State spares itself and the portion it contributes remains very small: it furnishes scarcely more than the plan, a few corner and foundation stones and the permission or injunction to build; the rest concerns the communes and private individuals. They must exert themselves, continue and complete it, by order or spontaneously and under its permanent direction.

VIII. Public Education.

State appropriations very small.--Toleration of educational
institutions.--The interest of the public in them invited.
--The University.--Its monopoly.--Practically, his
restrictions and conditions are effective.--Satisfaction
given to the first group of requirements.

Invariably the government proceeds in the same manner with the reorganization of the other two collective fortunes.--As regards the charitable institutions, under the Directory, the asylums and hospitals had their unsold property restored to them, and in the place of what had been sold they were promised national property of equal value.[31120] But this was a complicated operation; things had dragged along in the universal disorder and, to carry it out, the First Consul reduced and simplified it. He at once sets aside a portion of the national domain, several distinct morsels in each district or department, amounting in all to four millions of annual income derived from productive real-estate,[31121] which he distributes among the asylums, pro rata, according to their losses. He assigns to them, moreover, all the rents, in money or in kind, due for foundations to parishes, curés, fabriques and corporations; finally, "he applies to their wants" various outstanding claims, all national domains which have been usurped by individuals or communes and which may be subsequently recovered, "all rentals be-longing to the Republic, the recognition and payment of which have been interrupted."[31122] In short, he rummages every corner and picks out the scraps which may help them along; then, resuming and extending another undertaking of the Directory, he assigns to them, not merely in Paris, but in many other towns, a portion of the product derived from theatres and octrois.[31123]--Having thus increased their income, he applies himself to diminishing their expenses. On the one hand, he gives them back their special servants, those who cost the least and work the best, I mean the Sisters of Charity. On the other hand, he binds them down rigidly to exact accounts; he subjects them to strict supervision; he selects for them competent and suitable administrators; he stops, here as everywhere else, waste and peculation. Henceforth, the public reservoir to which the poor come to quench their thirst is repaired and cleaned; the water remains pure and no longer oozes out; private charity may therefore pour into it its fresh streams with full security; on this side, they flow in naturally, and, at this moment, with more force than usual, for, in the reservoir, half-emptied by revolutionary confiscations, the level is always low.

There remain the institutions for instruction. With respect to these, the restoration seems more difficult, for their ancient endowment is almost entirely wasted; the government has nothing to give back but dilapidated buildings, a few scattered investments formerly intended for the maintenance of a college scholarship,[31124] or for a village schoolhouse. And to whom should these be returned since the college and the schoolhouse no longer exist?--Fortunately, instruction is an article of such necessity that a father almost always tries to procure it for his children; even if poor, he is willing to pay for it, if not too dear; only, he wants that which pleases him in kind and in quality and, therefore, from a particular source, bearing this or that factory stamp or label. If you want him to buy it do not drive the purveyors of it from the market who enjoy his confidence and who sell it cheaply; on the contrary, welcome them and allow them to display their wares. This is the first step, an act of toleration; the conseils-généraux demand it and the government yields.[31125] It permits the return of the Ignorantin brethren, allows them to teach and authorizes the towns to employ them; later on, it graduates them at its University: in 1810, they already possess 41 schoolhouses and 8400 pupils.[31126] Still more liberally, it authorizes and favors female educational congregations; down to the end of the empire and afterwards, nuns are about the only instructors of young girls, especially in primary education.--Owing to the same toleration, the upper schools are likewise reorganized, and not less spontaneously, through the initiative of private individuals, communes, bishops, colleges or pensionnats, at Reims, Fontainebleau, Metz, Évreux, Sorrèze, Juilly, La Fléche and elsewhere small seminaries in all the dioceses. Offer and demand have come together; instructors meet the children half-way, and education begins on all sides.[31127]

Thought can now be given to its endowment, and the State invites everybody, the communes as well as private persons, to the undertaking. It is on their liberality that it relies for replacing the ancient foundations; it solicits gifts and legacies in favor of new establishments, and it promises "to surround these donations with the most invariable respect."[31128] Meanwhile, and as a precautionary measure, it assigns to each its eventual duty;[31129] if the commune establishes a primary school for itself, it must provide the tutor with a lodging and the parents must compensate him; if the commune founds a college or accepts a lycée, it must pay for the annual support of the building,[31130] while the pupils, either day-scholars or boarders, pay accordingly. In this way, the heavy expenses are already met, and the State, the general-manager of the service, furnishes simply a very small quota; and this quota, mediocre as a rule, is found almost null in fact, for its main largess consists in 6400 scholarships which it establishes and engages to support; but it confers only about 3000 of them,[31131] and it distributes nearly all of these among the children of its military or civilian employees This way a son's scholarship becomes additional pay or an increased salary for the father; thus, the 2 millions which the State seems, under this head, to assign to the lycées are actually gratifications which it distributes among its functionaries and officials: it takes back with one hand what it be-stows with the other.--Having put this in place, it establishes the University. It is not at its own expense, however, but at the expense of others, at the expense of private persons and parents, of the communes, and above all at the expense of rival schools and private boarding-schools, of the free institutions, and all this in favor of the University monopoly which subjects these to special taxation as ingenious as it is multifarious.[31132] A private individual obtaining diploma to open on a boarding school must pay from 200 to 300 francs to the University; likewise, every person obtaining a diploma to open an institution shall pay from 400 to 600 francs to the University; likewise every person obtaining permission to lecture on law or medicine.[31133] Every student, boarder, half-boarder or day-scholar in any school, institution, seminary, college or lycée, must pay to the University one-twentieth of the sum which the establishment to which he belongs demands of each of its pupils. In the higher schools, in the faculties of law, medicine, science and literature, the students pay entrance and examination fees and for diplomas, so that the day comes when superior instruction provides for its expenditures out of its receipts and even shows on its budget a net surplus of profit. The new University, with its expenses thus defrayed, will support itself alone; accordingly, all that the State really grants to it, as a veritable gift, in ready cash, is 400,000 francs annual income on the public ledger, a little less than the donation of one single college, Louis-le-Grand, in 1789.[31134] It may even be said that it is exactly the fortune of the old college which, after being made use of in many ways, turned aside and with other mischance, becomes the patrimony of the new University.[31135] From high-school to University, the State has effected the transfer. Such is its generosity. This is especially apparent in connection with primary instruction; in 1812, for the first time, it allows 25,000 francs for this purpose, of which only 4,500 are received.[31136]

Such is the final liquidation of the great collective fortunes. A settlement of accounts, an express or tacit bargain, intervenes between the State and all institutions for instruction, worship and charity. It has taken from the poor, from the young and from believers, 5 milliards of capital and 270 millions of revenue;[31137] it gives back to them, in public income and treasury interest, about 17 millions per annum. As it has the might and makes the law it has no difficulty in obtaining or in giving itself its own discharge; it is a bankrupt who, having spent his creditors money, bestows on these 6%. of their claim by way of alms.

Naturally, it takes the opportunity to bring them under its strict and permanent dependence, in adding other claims to those with which the old monarchy had already burdened the corporations that administered collective fortunes. Napoleon increases the weight of these chains and screws them tighter. Not only does he take it upon himself to impose order, probity, and economy on the administrators, but, again, he appoints them, dismisses them, and prescribes or authorizes each of their acts. He puts words in their mouths; he wants to be the great bishop, the universal genius, the sole tutor and professor, in short, the dictator of opinion, the creator and director of every political, social and moral idea throughout his empire.--With what rigidity and pertinacious intent, with what variety and convergence of means, with what plenitude and certainty of execution, with what detriment and with what danger, present and to come, for corporations, for the public, for the State, for himself, we shall see presently; he himself, living and reigning, is to realize this. For his interference, pushed to extremes, is to end in encountering resistance in a body which he considers as his own creature, the Church: here, forgetting that she has roots of her own, deep down and out of his reach, he carries off the Pope, holds him captive, sends cardinals into the interior, (Page 198/504)imprisons bishops, banishes priests, and incorporates seminarians in his regiments.[31138] He decrees the closing of all small seminaries,[31139] alienates forever the Catholic clergy like the royalist nobility, precisely at the same moment and through the same absolutism, through the same abuse of power, through the same recurrence to revolutionary tradition, to Jacobin infatuation and brutality, even to the frustration of his Concordat of 1802 as with his amnesty of 1802, even to compromising his capital work of the attempted reconciliation and reunion of old France with the new France. His work, nevertheless, although incomplete, even interrupted and marred by himself, remains substantial and salutary. The three grand machines which the Revolution had demolished with so little foresight, and which he had reconstructed at so little cost, are in working order, and, with deviations or shortcomings in result, they render to the public the required services, each its own, worship, charity and instruction. Full toleration and legal protection to the three leading Christian cults, and even to Judaism, would of itself already satisfy the most sensitive of religious demands; owing to the donation furnished by the State and communes and by private individuals, the necessary complement is not wanting.

The Catholic community, in particular, the most numerous of all, exercises and celebrates its system of worship in conformity with its faith, according to ecclesiastical canons under its own orthodox hierarchy; in each parish, or within reach of each parish, dwells one authorized priest who administers valid sacraments; in his stole he says mass publicly in a consecrated edifice, plainly decorated at first but gradually beautified; not less publicly, various congregations of monks and nuns, the former in black robes and the "sisters in wimples and white caps, serve in the schools and asylums.

On the other hand, in these well-equipped and well-governed asylums and hospitals, in the bureaux of charity, their resources are no longer inferior to their needs, while Christian charity and philanthropic generosity are constantly operating in all directions to fill the empty drawers; legacies and private donations, after 1802, authorized by the Council of State, multiply; we see them swelling the pages of the "Bulletin des Lois."[31140] From 1800 to 1845, the hospitals and asylums are thus to receive more than 72 millions, and the charity bureaux over 49 millions; from 1800 to 1878, all together will thus receive more than 415 millions.[31141] The old patrimony of the poor is again reconstituted piece by piece; and on January 1st, 1833, asylums and hospitals, with their 51 millions of revenue, are able to support 154,000 elderly and the sickly.[31142]

Like public charity, public education again becomes effective; Fourcroy, after 1806,[31143] lists 29 organized and full lycées; besides these, 370 communal secondary schools and 377 private secondary schools are open and receive 50,200; there are 25,000 children in the 4500 schools. Finally, in 1815,[31144] we find in France, restored to its ancient boundaries, 12 faculties of Law or Medicine with 6,329 students, 36 lycées with 9000 pupils, 368 colleges with 28,000 pupils, 41 small seminaries with 5233 pupils, 1255 boarding-schools and private institutions with 39,623 pupils, and 22,348 primary schools with 737,369 scholars; as far as can be gathered, the proportion of men and women able to read and to sign their name is raised under the empire up to and beyond the figures[31145] it had reached previous to 1789.

In this manner are the worst damages repaired. The three new administrative services, with a different set-up, do the job of the old ones and, at the expiration of twenty-five years, give an almost equal return.--In sum, the new proprietor of the great structure sacked by the Revolution has again set up the indispensable apparatus for warming, lighting and ventilation; as he knows his own interests perfectly, and is poorly off in ready money, he contributes only a minimum of the expense; in other respects, he has grouped together his tenants into syndicates, into barracks, in apartments, and, voluntarily or involuntarily, he has put upon them the burden of cost. In the meantime, he has kept the three keys of the three engines in his own cabinet, in his own hands, for himself alone; henceforth, it is he who distributes throughout the building, on each story and in every room, light, air and heat. If he does not distribute the same quantity as before he at least distributes whatever is necessary; the tenants can, at last, breathe comfortably, see clearly and not shiver; after ten years of suffocation, darkness and cold they are too well satisfied to wrangle with the proprietor, discuss his ways, and dispute over the monopoly by which he has constituted himself the arbitrator of their wants.--The same thing is done in the material order of things, in relation to the highways, dikes, canals, and structures useful to the people: here also he repairs or creates through the same despotic initiative,

* with the same economy,[31146]

* the same apportionment of expense,[31147]

* the same spontaneous or forced aid to those interested,

* the same practical efficiency.[31148]

Summing it up and if we take things as a whole, and if we offset the worse with the better, it may be said that the French people have recovered the possessions they had been missing since 1789:

* internal peace,

* public tranquility,

* administrative regularity,

* impartial justice,

* a strict police,

* security of persons, property and consciences,

* liberty in private life,

* enjoyment of one's native land, and, on leaving it, the privilege of coming back;

* the satisfactory endowment, gratuitous celebration and full exercise of worship;

* schools and instruction for the young;

* beds, nursing and assistance for the sick, the indigent and for foundlings;

* the maintenance of roads and public buildings.

So that of the two groups of cravings which troubled men in 1800, the first one, that which dated from the Revolution, has, towards 1808 or 1810, obtained reasonable satisfaction.

*****

[Footnote 3101: Roederer, III., 334 (August 6, 1800).]

[Footnote 3102: The word means "what is beyond the Alps" but refers to a number of doctrines favoring the Pope's absolute authority. (SR.)]

[Footnote 3103: Stanislas Girardin, "Mémoires," I., 273 (22 Thermidor, year X): "The only craving, the only sentiment in France, disturbed for so many years, is repose. Whatever secures this will gain its assent. Its inhabitants, accustomed to take an active part in all political questions, now seem to take no interest in them."--Roederer, III., 484 (Report on the Sénatorerie of Caen, Dec. 1, 1803): "The people of the rural districts, busy with its new affairs,... are perfectly submissive, because they now find security for persons and property.. .. They show no enthusiasm for the monarch, but are full of respect for and trust in a gendarme; they stop and salute him on passing him on the roads."]

[Footnote 3104: Rocquam, "l'État de la France au 18 Brumaire." (Report by Barbé-Marbois, p. 72, 81.) Cash-boxes broken open and exclamations by the officers "Money and fortune belong to the brave. Let us help ourselves. Our accounts will be settled at the cannon's mouth."--"The subordinates," adds Barbé-Marbois, "fully aware of their superior's drafts on the public treasury, stipulate for their share of the booty; accustomed to exacting contributions from outside enemies they are not averse to treating as conquered enemies the departments they were called upon to defend."]

[Footnote 3105: Ibid. (Reports of Barbe-Marbois and Fourcroy while on their missions in the 12th and 13th military divisions, year IX., p.158, on the tranquility of La Vendée.) "I could have gone anywhere without an escort. During my stay in some of the villages I was not disturbed by any fear or suspicion whatever.... The tranquility they now enjoy and the cessation of persecutions keep them from insurrection."]

[Footnote 3106: Archives nationales, F7,3273 (Reports by Gen. Ferino, Pluviôse, year IX, with a table of verdicts by the military commission since Floreal, year VIII.) The commission mentions 53 assassinations, 3 rapes, 44 pillagings of houses, by brigands in Vaucluse, Drôme, and the Lower Alps; 66 brigands taken in the act are shot, 87 after condemnation, and 6, who are wounded, die in the hospital.--Rocquain, ibid., p. 17, (Reports of Français, from Nantes, on his mission in the 8th military division.) "The South may be considered as purged by the destruction of about 200 brigands who have been shot. There remains only three or four bands of 7 or S men each."]

[Footnote 3107: Three classes of insurrectionary peasants or marauders.--Tr.]

[Footnote 3108: Archives Nationales, F7, 7152 (on the prolongation of brigandage). Letter from Lhoste, agent, to the minister of justice, Lyons, Pluviôse 8, year VIII. "The diligences are robbed every week."--Ibid., F7,3267, (Seine-et-Oise, bulletins of the military police and correspondence of the gendarmerie). Brumaire 25, year VIII, attack on the Paris mail near Arpajon by 5 brigands armed with guns. Fructidor, year VIII, at three o'clock P.M., a cart loaded with 10,860 francs sent by the collector at Mantes to the collector at Versailles is stopped near the Marly water-works, by 8 or 10 armed brigands on horseback.--Similar facts abound. It is evident that more than a year is required to put an end to brigandage.--It is always done by employing an impartial military force. (Rocquam, Ibid, p. 10.) "There are at Marseilles three companies of paid national guards, 60 men each, at a franc per man. The fund for this guard is supplied by a contribution of 5 francs a month paid by every man subject to this duty who wishes to be exempt. The officers... are all strangers in the country. Robberies, murders, and conflicts have ceased in Marseilles since the establishment of this guard."]

[Footnote 3109: Archives Nationales, 3144 and 3145, No.1004. (Reports of the councillors of State on mission during the year IX, published by Rocquam, with omissions, among which is the following, in the report of François de Nantes.) "The steps taken by the mayors of Marseilles are sufficiently effective to enable an émigré under surveillance and just landed, to walk about Marseilles without being knocked down or knocking anybody else down, an alternative to which they have been thus far subject. And yet there are in this town nearly 500 men who have slaughtered with their own hands, or been the accomplices of slaughterers, at different times during the Revolution.... The inhabitants of this town are so accustomed to being annoyed and despoiled, and to being treated like those of a rebellious town or colony, that arbitrary power no longer frightens them, and they simply ask that their lives and property be protected against murderers and pillagers, and that things be entrusted to sure and impartial hands."]

[Footnote 3110: Roederer, III., 481. (Report on the Sénatorerie of Caen, Germinal 2, year XIII.)--Faber, "Notice sur l'intérieur de la France"(1807), p.110, 112. "Justice is one of the bright sides of France of to-day. It is costly, but it cannot be called venal."]

[Footnote 3111: Rocquain, ibid., 19. (Report of François de Nantes on the 8th military division.) "For the past eighteen months a calm has prevailed here equal to that which existed before the Revolution. Balls and parties have been resumed in the towns, while the old dances of Provence, suspended for ten years, now gladden the people of the country."]

[Footnote 3112: Proclamation to the French people, Dec. 15, 1799.]

[Footnote 3113: See "The Revolution," vol. III., p.292. (Notes.) (Laff. II, the notes on pp. 218-219.)]

[Footnote 3114: Decision of the Council of State, Pluviôse 5, year VIII (Jan. 25, 1800).]

[Footnote 3115: Forneron, "Histoire générale des émigrés," II., 374. In 1800, the army of Condé still comprised 1007 officers and 5840 volunteers.]

[Footnote 3116: Decrees of Brumaire 3, year IV, and of Frimaire 9, year VI. (Cf. "The Revolution," pp.433, 460.)]

[Footnote 3117: Constitution of Frimaire 22, year VIII. (December 13, 1799), article 93. "The French nation declares that in no case will it suffer the return of the Frenchmen who, having abandoned their country since the 14th of July 1789, are not comprised in the exceptions made to the laws rendered against émigrés. It interdicts every new exception in this respect."]

[Footnote 3118: Opinion of the Council of State, Dec. 25, 1799.]

[Footnote 3119: Resolution of Dec. 26, 1799.--Two ultra-Jacobins, exiled after Thermidor, are added to the list, Barère and Vadier, undoubtedly by way of compensation and not to let it appear that the scales inclined too much on one side.]

[Footnote 3120: Resolution of Dec. 30, 1799.]

[Footnote 3121: Resolutions of February 26, March 2, and March 3, 1800.]

[Footnote 3122: Thibaudeau, "Mémoires sur le Consulat," 199. (Stated by the First Consul at Regnault at a meeting of the council of state, Aug.12, 1801.) "I am glad to hear the denunciation of striking off names. How many have you yourselves not asked for? It could not be otherwise. Everybody has some relation or friend on the lists."]

[Footnote 3123: Thibaudeau. ibid. (Speech by the First Consul.) "Never have there been lists of émigrés; there are only lists of absentees. The proof of this is that names have always been struck off. I have seen members of the Convention and even generals on the lists. Citizen Monge was inscribed."]

[Footnote 3124: Thibaudeau, ibid., 97.--"The minister of police made a great hue and cry over the arrest and sending back of a few émigrés who returned without permission, or who annoyed the buyers of their property, while, at the same time, it granted surveillance to all who asked for it, paying no attention to the distinction made by the resolution of Vendémiaire 28."]

[Footnote 3125: Sénatus-consulte of April 26, 1802.]

[Footnote 3126: Sénatus-consulte of April 26, 1802, title II., articles 16 and 17.--Gaudin, Duc de Gaëte, "Mémoires," I., 183. (Report on the administration of the Finances in 1803.) "The old proprietors have been reinstated in more than 20,000 hectares of forests."]

[Footnote 3127: Thibaudeau, ibid., p. 98. (Speech of the First Consul, Thermidor 24, year IX.) "Some of the émigrés who have been pardoned are cutting down their forests, either from necessity or to send money abroad. I will not allow the worst enemies of the republic, the defenders of ancient prejudices, to recover their fortunes and despoil France. I am glad to welcome them back; but it is important that the nation should preserve its forests; the navy needs them."]

[Footnote 3128: An arpent measures about an acre and a half.(TR.)]

[Footnote 3129: Stourm, "Les Finances de l'ancien régime et de la révolution,"II., 459 to 461.--(According to the figures appended to the projected law of 1825.)--This relates only to their patrimony in real estate; their personal estate was wholly swept away, at first through the abolition, without indemnity, of their available feudal rights under the Constituent and Legislative assemblies, and afterwards through the legal and forced transformation of their personal capital into national bonds (titres sur le grand-livre, rentes) which the final bankruptcy of the Directory reduced to almost nothing.]

[Footnote 3130: Pelet de la Lozère, "Opinions de Napoléon au conseil d'état" (March 15th and July 1st, 1806): "One of the most unjust effects of the revolution was to let an émigré; whose property was found to be sold, starve to death, and give back 100,000 crowns of rente to another whose property happened to be still in the hands of the government. How odd, again, to have returned unsold fields and to have kept the woods! It would have been better, starting from the legal forfeiture of all property, to return only 6000 francs of rente to one alone and distribute what remained among the rest."]

[Footnote 3131: Léonce de Lavergne, "Economie rurale de la France," p.26. (According to the table of names with indemnities awarded by the law of 1825.)--Duc de Rovigo, "Mémoires," IV., 400.]

[Footnote 3132: De Puymaigre, "Souvenirs de l'émigration de l'empire et de la restauration," p.94.]

[Footnote 3133: Pelet de la Lozère, ibid., p.272.]

[Footnote 3134: De Puymaigre, ibid., passim.--Alexandrine des Écherolles, "Une famille noble pendant la Terreur," pp.328, 402, 408.--I add to published documents personal souvenirs and family narrations.]

[Footnote 3135: Duc de Rovigo, "Mémoires," IV., 399. (On the provincial noblesse which had emigrated and returned.) "The First Consul quietly gave orders that none of the applications made by the large number of those who asked for minor situations in various branches of the administration should be rejected on account of emigration."]

[Footnote 3136: M. de Vitrolles, "Mémoires."--M. d'Haussonville, "Ma jeunesse," p. 60: "One morning, my father learns that he has been appointed chamberlain, with a certain number of other persons belonging to the greatest families of the faubourg Saint-Germain."]

[Footnote 3137: Madame de Rémusat, "Mémoires," II., 312, 315 and following pages, 373.--Madame de Staël, "Considérations sur la révolution française," 4th part, ch IV.]

[Footnote 3138: Roederer, III., 459. (Speech by Napoleon, December 30, 1802.)--"Very well, I do protect the nobles of France; but they must see that they need protection.... I give places to many of them; I restore them to public distinction and even to the honors of the drawing-room; but they feel that it is alone through my good will.--Ibid., III., 558 (January 1809): "I repent daily of a mistake I have made in my government; the most serious one I ever made, and I perceive its bad effects every day. It was the giving back to the émigrés the totality of their possessions. I ought to have massed them in common and given each one simply the chance of an income of 6000 francs. As soon as I saw my mistake I withdrew from thirty to forty millions of forests; but far too many are still in the hands of a great number of them."--We here see the attitude he would impose on them, that of clients and grateful pensioners. They do not stand in this attitude. (Roederer, III., 472. Report on the Sénatorerie of Caen, 1803.)--"The returned émigrés are not friendly nor even satisfied; their enjoyment of what they have recovered is less than their indignation at what they have lost. They speak of the amnesty without gratitude, and as only partial justice.... In other respects they appear submissive."]

[Footnote 3139: Duc de Rovigo1 "Memoires." V., 297. Towards the end, large numbers of the young nobles went into the army. "In 1812, there, was not a marshal, or even a general, who had not some of these on his staff, or as aids-de-camp. Nearly all the cavalry regiments in the army were commanded by officers belonging to these families. They had already attracted notice in the infantry. All these young nobles had openly joined the emperor because they were easily influenced by love of glory."]

[Footnote 3140: Madame de Rémusat II., 299 (1806): "He began to surround himself about this time with so much ceremony that none of us had scarcely any intimate relations with him.... The court became more and more crowded and monotonous, each doing on the minute what he had to do. Nobody thought of venturing outside the brief series of ideas which are generated within the restricted circle of the same duties.... Increasing despotism,... fear of a reproof if one failed in the slightest particular, silence kept by us all.... There was no opportunity to indulge emotion or interchange any observation of the slightest importance."]

[Footnote 3141: Roederer, III., 558 (January 1809).--"The Modern Régime," ante, book I., ch. II.]

[Footnote 3142: Madame de Rémusat, III., 75, 155: "When the minister of police learned that jesting or malicious remarks had been made in one of the Paris drawing-rooms he at once notified the master or mistress of the house to be more watchful of their company."--Ibid., p.187 (1807): "The emperor censured M. Fouché for not having exercised stricter watchfulness. He exiled women, caused distinguished persons to be warned, and insinuated that, to avoid the consequences of his anger, steps must be taken to show that his power was recognized in atonement for the faults committed. In consequence of these hints many thought themselves obliged to be presented."--Ibid., II., 170, 212, 303.--Duc de Rovigo, "Mémoires," IV., 311 and 393. "Appointed minister of police, said he, I inspired everybody with fear: each packed up his things; nothing was talked about but exiles, imprisonment and worse still."--He took advantage of all this to recommend "everybody on his list who was inscribed as an enemy of the government" to be presented at court, and all, in fact, except stubborn "grandmothers" were presented. (Note that the Duc de Rovigo and the general Savary mentioned many times by Taine is one and the same person. Savary was the general who organized the infamous kidnapping and execution of the Duc d'Enghien. He was later made minister of police (1810-1814) and elevated Duke of Rovigo by Napoleon. SR.)]

[Footnote 3143: Madame de Staël, "Considérations sur la révolution française" and "Dix ans d'exil." Exile of Madame de Balbi, of Madame de Chevreuse, of Madame de Duras, of Madame d'Aveaux, of Madame de Staël, of Madame de Récamier, etc.--Duc de Rovigo, Ibid., IV., 389: "The first exiles dated from 1805; I think there were fourteen."]

[Footnote 3144: Roederer, III., 472. (Report on the Sénatorerie of Caen, 1803.) The nobles "have no social relations either with citizens or with the public functionaries, except with the prefect of Caen and the general in command.... Their association with the prefect intimates their belief that they might need him. All pay their respects to the general of division; his mantelpiece is strewed with visiting-cards."]

[Footnote 3145: Madame de la Rochejaquelein, "Mémoires," 423: "We lived exposed to a tyranny which left us neither calm nor contentment. At one time a spy was placed amongst our servants, at another some of our relations would be exiled far from their homes, accused of exercising a charity which secured them too much affection from their neighbors. Sometimes, my husband would be obliged to go to Paris to explain his conduct. Again, a hunting-party would be represented as a meeting of Vendéans. Occasionally, we were blamed for going into Poitou because our influence was regarded as too dangerous; again, we were reproached for not living there and not exercising our influence in behalf of the conscription."--Her brother-in-law, Auguste de la Rochejaquelein, invited to take service in the army comes to Paris to present his objections. He is arrested, and at the end of two months "the minister signifies to him that he must remain a prisoner so long as he refuses to be a second-lieutenant."]

[Footnote 3146: Sénatus-consulte of April 26, 1802: "Considering that this measure is merely one of pardon to the large number who are always more led astray than criminal... the amnestied will remain for ten years under a special government surveillance." It may oblige each one "to leave his usual residence and go to a distance of twenty leagues, and even farther if circumstances demand it."]

[Footnote 3147: Thiers, X., 41. (Letter to Fouché, Dec.31, 1808, not inserted in the correspondence.)--"The Modern Régime," book I., ch.II.]

[Footnote 3148: Rocquain, "État de la France au 18 brumaire," pp.33, 189, 190. (Reports of Français de Nantes and of Fourcroy.)--"Statistique elementaire de la France," by Peuchet (according to a statement published by the minister of the interior, year IX), p. 260.--"Statistiques des préfets," Aube, by Aubray, p.23; Aisne, by Dauchet, p.87; Lot-et-Garonne, by Pieyre, p. 45: "It is during the Revolution that the number of foundlings increased to this extraordinary extent by the too easy admission in the asylums of girls who had become mothers, along with their infants; through the passing sojourn of soldiers in their houses; through the subversion of every principle of religion and morality."--Gers, by Balguerie: "Many defenders of the country became fathers before their departure.... The soldiers, on their return, maintained the habits of their conquests.... Many of the girls, besides, for lack of a husband took a lover."--Moselle, by Coichen, p.91: "Morals are more lax. In 1789, at Metz, there are 524 illegitimate births; in the year IX, 646; in 1789, 70 prostitutes; in the year IX, 260. There is the same increase of kept women."--Peuchet, "Essai d'une statistique générale de la France," year IX, p.28. "The number of illegitimate births, from one forty-seventh in 1780, increased to nearly one eleventh of the total births, according to the comparative estimates of M. Necker and M. Mourgue."]

[Footnote 3149: Rocquam, ibid., p. 93. (Report of Barbé-Marbois.)]

[Footnote 3150: "The Revolution," III., p.416 (note), P.471 (note). (Laff. II. pp. 307-308, p 348.)]

[Footnote 3151: "Statistiques des préfets," Deux-Sèvres, by Dupin, p. 174: "Venereal diseases which thanks to good habits. were still unknown in the country in 1789, are now spread throughout the Bocage and in all places where the troops have sojourned."--"Dr. Delahay, at Parthenay observes that the number of maniacs increased fright fully in the Reign of Terror." (It should be remembered that the terminal stage of untreated syphilis is madness and death. SR.)]

[Footnote 3152: Decrees of March 19, 1793, and Messidor 23, year II.--Decrees of Brumaire 2, year IV, and Vendémiaire 16 year V.]

[Footnote 3153: "Statistiques des préfets," Rhône, by Verminac, year X. Income of the Lyons Asylums in 1789,1.510,827 francs; to-day, 459,371 francs.--Indre, by Dalphonse, year XII. The principal asylum of Issoudun, founded in the twelfth century, had 27,939 francs revenue, on which it loses 16,232. Another asylum, that of the Incurables, loses, on an income of 12,062 francs, 7457 francs.--Eure, by Masson Saint-Amand, year XIII: "14 asylums and 3 small charity establishments in the department, with about 100,000 francs income in 1789, have lost at least 60,000 francs of it.--Vosges, by Desgouttes, year X: "10 asylums in the department. Most of these have been stripped of nearly the whole of their property and capital on account of the law of Messidor 23, year II; on the suspension of the execution of this law, the property had been sold and the capital returned.--Cher, by Luçay: "15 asylums before the revolution; they remain almost wholly without resources through the loss of their possessions.--Lozère, by Jerphaniou, year X: "The property belonging to the asylums, either in real estate or state securities, has passed into other hands."--Doubs, analysis by Ferrieres: "Situation of the asylums much inferior to that of 1789, because they could not have property restored to them in proportion to the value of that which had been alienated. The asylum of Pontarlier lost one-half of its revenue through reimbursements in paper-money. All the property of the Ornans asylum has been sold," etc.--Rocquain, p. 187. (Report by Fourcroy.) Asylums of Orne: their revenue, instead of 123,189 francs, is no more than 68,239.--Asylums of Calvados: they have lost 173,648 francs of income, there remains of this only 85,955 francs.--Passim, heart-rending details on the destitution of the asylums and their inmates, children, the sick and the infirm.--The figures by which I have tried to show the disproportion between requirements and resources are a minimum.]

[Footnote 3154: Abbé Allain, "l'Instruction primaire en France avant la Révolution," and Albert Duruy, "l'Instruction publique et la Révolution," passim.]

[Footnote 3155: "Statistique de l'enseignement primaire" (1880),II., CCIV. The proportion of instructed and uninstructed people has been ascertained in 79 departments, and at various periods, from 1680 down to the year 1876, according to the signatures on 1,699,985 marriage-records.--In the "Dictionnaire de pédagogie et d'instruction primaire," published by M. Buisson, M. Maggiolo, director of these vast statistics, has given the proportion of literate and illiterate people for the different departments; now, from department to department, the figures furnished by the signatures on marriage records correspond with sufficient exactness to the number of schools, verified moreover by pastoral visits and by other documents. The most illiterate departments are Cantal, Puy-de-Dome, Nièvre, Allier, Vienne, Haute-Vienne, Deux-Sèvres, Vendée and the departments of Brittany.]

[Footnote 3156: One sou equals 1/20 of a franc or 5 centimes. (SR.)]

[Footnote 3157: Albert Duruy, ibid., p.25. (According to the report of M. Villemain on common-school education in 1843.)--Abbé Allain, "la Question d'enseignement en 1789," p. 88--A. Silvy, "les Collèges en France avant la Révolution," p.5. The researches of M. Silvy show that the number of high-schools (collèges) given by M. Villemain is much too low: "The number of these schools under the ancient Régime cannot be estimated at less than about 900.... I have ascertained 800.... I must add that my search is not yet finished and that I find new institutions every day."]

[Footnote 3158: Lunet, "Histoire du collège de Rodez," p. 110.--Edmond, "Histoire du collège de Louis-le-Grand," p. 238.--"Statistiques des préfets," Moselle. (Analysis by Ferrière, year XII.) Before 1789, 4 high-schools at Metz, very complete, conducted by regular canons, Benedictines, with 33 professors, 38 assistant teachers, 63 servants, 259 day-scholars and 217 boarders. All this was broken up. In the year IX there is only one central school, very inadequate, with 9 professors, 5 assistants, 3 servants and 233 day-scholars.]

[Footnote 3159: Albert Duruy, ibid., p. 25.]

[Footnote 3160: Lunet, ibid, p.110,]

[Footnote 3161: "Statistiques des préfets," Ain, by Bossi, p.368. At Bourg, before the revolution, 220 pupils, of which 70 were boarders, 8000 livres income in real property confiscated during the revolution.--At Belley, the teachers consist of the congregationist of Saint-Joseph; 250 pupils, 9950 francs revenue from capital invested in the pays d'état, swept away by the revolution.--At Thoissy, 8000 francs rental of real property sold, etc.--Deux-Sèvres, by Dupin, year IX, and "analyse" by Ferrière, P. 48: "Previous to the revolution, each department town had its high-school.--At Thouars, 60 boarders at 300 livres per annum, and 40 day-scholars. At Niort, 80 boarders at 450 livres per annum, and 100 day-scholars".--Aisne, by Dauchy, p.88. Before 1789, nearly all the small high-schools were gratuitous, and, in the large ones, there were scholarships open to competition. All their possessions, except large buildings, were alienated and sold, as well as those of the 60 communities in which girls were taught gratuitously.--Eure, by Masson Saint-Amand. There were previous to 1789, 8 high-schools which were all suppressed and destroyed.--Drôme, by Collin, p.66. Before the revolution, each town had its high-school," etc.]

[Footnote 3162: Cf. Marmontel, "Mémoires," I., 16, for details of these customs; M. Jules Simon found the same customs afterwards and describes them in the souvenirs of his youth.--La Chalotais, at the end of the reign of Louis XV., had already described the efficiency of the institution. "Even the people want to study. Farmers and craftsmen send their children to the schools in these small towns where living is cheap."--This rapid spread of secondary education contributed a good deal towards bringing on the revolution.]

[Footnote 3163: "Statistiques des préfets," Indre, by Dalphonse, year XII, p.104: "The universities, the colleges, the seminaries, the religious establishments, the free schools are all destroyed; vast plans only remain for a new system of education raised on their ruins. Nearly all of these rest unexecuted.... Primary schools have nowhere, one may say, been organized, and those which have been are so poor they had better not have been organized at all. With a pompous and costly system of public instruction, ten years have been lost for instruction."]

[Footnote 3164: Moniteur, XXI., 644. (Session of Fructidor 19, year II.) One of the members says: "It is very certain, and my colleagues see it with pain, that public instruction is null."--Fourcroy: "Reading and writing are no longer taught."--Albert Duruy, p. 208. (Report to the Directory executive, Germinal 13, year IV.) "For nearly six years no public instruction exists."--De La Sicotiere, "Histoire du collège de Alençon," p.33: "In 1794, there were only two pupils in the college."--Lunet, "Histoire du collège de Rodez," p.157: "The recitation-rooms remained empty of pupils and teachers from March 1793 to May 16, 1796."--"Statistiques des préfets," Eure, by Masson Saint-Amand year XIII: "In the larger section of the department, school-houses existed with special endowments for teachers of both sexes. The school-houses have been alienated like other national domains; the endowments due to religious corporations or establishments have been extinguished--As to girls, that portion of society has suffered an immense loss, relatively to its education, in the suppression of religious communities which provided them with an almost gratuitous and sufficiently steady instruction."]

[Footnote 3165: My maternal grandmother learned how to read from a nun concealed in the cellar of the house.]

[Footnote 3166: Albert Duruy, ibid., 349. (Decree of the Directory, Pluviôse 17, year V, and circular of the minister Letourneur against free schools which are "dens of royalism and superstition."--Hence the decrees of the authorities in the departments of Eure, Pas de Calais, Drôme, Mayenne and La Manche, closing these dens.) "From Thermidor 27, year VI, to Messidor 2, year VII, say the authorities of La Manche, we have revoked fifty-eight teachers on their denunciation by the municipalities and by popular clubs."]

[Footnote 3167: Archives nationales, cartons 3144 to 3145, No. 104. (Reports of the Councillors of State on mission in the year IX.) Report by Lacuée on the first military division. Three central schools at Paris, one called the Quatre-Nations. "This school must be visited in order to form any idea of the state of destruction and dilapidation which all the national buildings are in. No repairs have been made since the reopening of the schools; everything is going to ruin.... Walls are down and the floors fallen in. To preserve the pupils from the risks which the occupation of these buildings hourly presents, it is necessary to give lessons in rooms which are very unhealthy on account of their small dimensions and dampness. In the drawing-class the papers and models in the portfolios become moldy."]

[Footnote 3168: Albert Duruy, ibid., 484. ("Procès-verbaux des conseils-généraux," year IX, passim.)]

[Footnote 3169: Ibid., 476. ("Statistiques des préfets," Sarthe, year X.) "Prejudices which it is difficult to overcome, as well on the stability of this school as on the morality of some of the teachers, prevented its being frequented for a time."--483. (Procès-verbaux des conseils-généraux," Bas-Rhin.) "The overthrow of religion has excited prejudices against the central schools."--482. (Ibid., Lot.) "Most of the teachers in the central school took part in the revolution in a not very honorable way. Their reputation affects the success of their teaching. Their schools are deserted."]