The French Revolution (Vol.1-3). Taine Hippolyte
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(return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3196, Letter of M. de Miran, May 5.—The spirit of the ruling party at Marseilles is indicated by several printed documents joined to the dossier, and, among others, by a "Requéte à Desmoulins, procureur-général de la Lanterne." It relates to a "patriotic inkstand," recently made out of the stones of the demolished citadel, representing a hydra with four heads, symbolizing the nobility, the clergy, the ministry and the judges. "It is from the four patriotic skulls of the hydra that the ink of proscription will be taken for the enemies of the Constitution. This inkstand, cut out of the first stone that fell in the demolition of Fort Saint-Nicolas, is dedicated to the patriotic Assembly of Marseilles. The magic art of the hero of the liberty of Marseilles, that Renaud who, under the mask of devotion, surprised the watchful sentinel of Notre-Dame de la Garde, and whose manly courage and cunning ensured the conquest of that key of the great focus of counter-revolution, has just given birth to a new trait of genius a new Deucalion, he personifies this stone which Liberty has flung from the summit of our menacing Bastilles, etc."]
3136 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7. 3198. Letters of the royal commissioners, April 13 and 5, 1791.]
3137 (return) [ De Ségur, "Memoires," III, 482 (early in 1790).]
3138 (return) [ De Dampmartin, I. 184 (January, 1791).]
3139 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," KK, 1105. Correspondence of M. de Thiard (October 12, 1789).]
3140 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3250. Minutes from the meeting of the directory of the department. March 28, 1792. "As the ferment was at the highest point and fears were entertained that greater evils would follow, M. le Président, with painful emotion declared that he yielded and passed the unconstitutional act." Reply of the minister, June 23: "If the constituted authorities are thus forced to yield to the arbitrary will of a wild multitude, government no longer exists and we are in the saddest stage of anarchy. If you think it best I will propose to the King to reverse your last decision."]
3141 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3250. Letter of M. Duport, minister of justice, December 24, 1791.]
3142 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3248, Report of the members of the department, finished March 18, 1792.—Buchez and Roux, IX. 240 (Report of M. Alquier).]
3143 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3268. Extract from the deliberations of the directory of Seine-et-Oise, with the documents relating to the insurrection at Etampes, September 16, 1791. Letter of M. Venard, administrator of the district, September 20—" I shall not set foot in Etampes until the re-establishment of order and tranquility, and the first thing I shall do will be to record my resignation in the register. I am tired of making sacrifices, for ungrateful wretches."]
3144 (return) [ Moniteur, March 16, 1792.—Mortimer-Ternaux, "Histoire de la Terreur" (Proceedings against the assassins of Simoneau), I. 381.]
3145 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3226. Letter and memorandum of Chenantin, cultivator, November 7, 1792. Extract from the deliberations of the directory of Langeais, November 5, 1792 (sedition at Chapelle-Blanche, near Langeais, October 5, 1792).]
3146 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3105. Report of the commissioners sent by the National Assembly and the King, February 23, 1791. (On the events of December 12 and 14, 1790)—Mercure de France, February 29, 5791. (Letters from Aix, and notably a letter from seven officers shut up in prison at Aix, January 30, 1791.) The oldest Jacobin Club formed in February, 1790, was entitled "(Club des vrais amis de la Constitution.)" The second Jacobin club, formed in October, 1790, was "composed from the beginning of artisans and laborers from the faubourgs and suburbs." Its title was" Société des frères anti-politiques," or "frères vrais, justes et utiles à la patrie." The opposition club, formed in December, 1790, bore the title, according to some, of "Les Amis du Roi, de la paix et de la religion;" according to others, "Les amis de la paix;" and finally, according to another report, "Les Défenseurs de la religion, des personnes et des proprietés."]
3147 (return) [ A special series of religious services. (TR)]
3148 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3195. Letters of the commissioners, March 20, February 11, May 10, 1791.]
CHAPTER II. SOVEREIGNTY OF UNRESTRAINED PASSIONS.
Under these conditions when passions are freed; any determined and competent man who can gather a couple of hundred men may form a band and slip through the enlarged or weakened meshes of the net held by the passive or ineffective government. An experiment on a grand scale is about to be made on human society; owing to the slackening of the regular restraints which have maintained it, it is now possible to measure the force of the permanent instincts which attack it. They are always there even in ordinary times; we do not notice them because they are kept in check; but they are not the less energetic and effective, and, moreover, indestructible. The moment their repression ceases, their power of mischief becomes evident; just as that of the water which floats a ship, but which, at the first leak enters into it and sinks it.
I.—Old Religious Grudges
Montauban and Nîmes in 1790.
Religious passions, to begin with, are not to be kept down by federations, embraces, and effusions of fraternity. In the south, where the Protestants have been persecuted for more than a century, hatreds exist more than a century old.3201 In vain have the odious edicts which oppressed them fallen into desuetude for the past twenty years; in vain have civil rights been restored to them since 1787: The past still lives in transmitted recollections; and two groups are confronting each other, one Protestant and the other Catholic, each defiant, hostile, ready to act on the defensive, and interpreting the preparations of its adversary as a plan of attack. Under such circumstances the guns go off of their own accord.—On a sudden alarm at Uzès3202