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the origins of contemporary france-3-第29部分

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graver excesses exited greater censure。



〃Anarchy exists'72' to a degree scarcely to be paralleled; wrote the

ambassador of the United States。 The horror and apprehension; which

the licentious associations have universally inspired; are such that

there is reason to believe that the great mass of the French

population would consider even despotism a blessing; if accompanied

with that security to persons and property; experienced even under the

worst governments in Europe。〃



Another observer; not less competent;'73' says:



〃it is plain to my eyes that when Louis XVI。 finally succumbed; he had

more partisans in France than the year previous; at the time of his

flight to Varennes。〃



The truth of this; indeed; was frequently verified at the end of 1791

and beginning of 1792; by various investigations。'74'  〃Eighteen

thousand officers of every grade; elected by the constitutionalists;

seventy…one department administrations out of eighty…two; most of the

tribunals;'75' all traders and manufacturers; every chief and a large

portion of the National Guard of Paris;〃 in short; the élite of the

nation; and among citizens generally; the great majority who lived

from day to day were for him; and for the 〃Right〃 of the Assembly

against the 〃Left〃。   If internal trouble had not been complicated by

external difficulties; there would have been a change in opinion; and

this the King expected。 In accepting the Constitution; he thought that

its defects would be revealed in practical operation and that they

would lead to a reform。 In the mean time he scrupulously observed the

Constitution; and; through interest as well as conscience; kept his

oath to the letter。 〃The most faithful execution of the Constitution;〃

he said to one of his ministers; 〃is the surest way to make the nation

see the changes that ought to be made in it。〃'76'   In other words;

he counted on experience; and it is very probable that if there had

been nothing to interfere with experience; his calculations would have

finally chosen between the defenders of order and the instigators of

disorder。 It would have decided for the magistrates against the clubs;

for the police against rioters; for the king against the mob。 In one

or two years more it would have learned that a restoration of the

executive power was indispensable for securing the execution of the

laws; that the chief of police; with his hands tied; could not do his

duty; that it was undoubtedly wise to give him his orders; but that if

he was to be of any use against knaves and fools; his hands should

first be set free。









V。



Effects of the war on the common people。 Its alarms and fury。  The

second revolutionary outburst and its characteristics。  Alliance of

the Girondists with the mob。  The red cap and pikes。  Universal

substitution of government by force for government by law。



Just the contrary with war; the aspect of things changes; and the

alternative is the other way。 It is no longer a choice between order

and disorder; but between the new and the old regime; for; behind

foreign opponents on the frontier; there stand the émigrés。 The

commotion is terrible; especially amongst the lower classes which

mainly bore the whole weight of the old establishment; among the

millions who live by the sweat of their brow; artisans; small farmers;

métayers; day…laborers and soldiers; also the smugglers of salt and

other articles; poachers; vagabonds; beggars and half…beggars; who;

taxed; plundered; and harshly treated for centuries; have to endure;

from father to son; poverty; oppression and disdain。 They know through

their own experience the difference between their late and their

present condition。 They have only to fall back on personal knowledge

to revive in their imaginations the enormous royal; ecclesiastical;

and seignorial taxes; the direct tax of eighty…one per cent。; the

bailiffs in charge; the seizures and the husbandry service; the

inquisition of excise men; of inspectors of the salt tax; wine tax

(rats de cave) and game…keepers; the ravages of wild birds and of

pigeons; the extortions of the collector and his clerk; the delay and

partiality in obtaining justice; the rashness and brutality of the

police; the kicks and cuffs of the constabulary; the poor wretches

gathered like heaps of dirt and filth; the promiscuousness; the over…

crowding; the filth and the starvation of the prisons。'77'  They have

simply to open their eyes to see their immense deliverance; all direct

or indirect taxes for the past two years legally abolished or

practically suppressed; beer at two pennies a pot; wine at six;

pigeons in their meat…safes; game on their turn…spits; the wood of the

national forests in their lofts; the gendarmerie timid; the police

absent; in many places the crops all theirs; the owner not daring to

claim his share; the judge avoiding condemning them; the constable

refusing to serve papers on them; privileges restored in their favor;

the public authorities cringing to the crowds and yielding to their

exactions; remaining quiet or unarmed in the face of their misdeeds;

their outrages excused or tolerated; their superior good sense and

deep feeling lauded in thousands of speeches; the jacket and the

blouse  considered as symbols of patriotism; and supremacy in the

State claimed for the sans…culottes'78' in the name their merits and

their virtues。  And now the overthrow of all this is announced to

them; a league against them of foreign kings; the emigrants in arms;

an invasion imminent; the Croats and Pandours in the field; hordes of

mercenaries and barbarians crowding down on them again to put them in

chains。  From the workshop to the cottage there rolls along a

formidable outburst of anger; accompanied with national songs;

denouncing the plots of tyrants and summoning the people to arms。'79'

This is the second wave of the Revolution; fast swelling and roaring;

less general than the first; since it bears along with it but little

more than the lower class; but higher and much more destructive。



Not only; indeed; is the mass now launched forth coarse and crude; but

a new sentiment animates it; the force of which is incalculable; that

of plebeian pride; that of the poor man; the subject; who; suddenly

erect after ages of debasement; relishes; far beyond his hopes and

unstintedly; the delights of equality; independence; and dominion。

〃Fifteen millions white Negroes;〃 says Mallet du Pan;'80' worse fed;

more miserable than those of St。 Domingo; like them rebelled and freed

from all authority by their revolt; accustomed like them; through

thirty months of license; to ruling over all that is left of their

former masters; proud like them of the restoration of their caste and

exulting in their horny hands。 One may imagine their transports of

rage on hearing the trumpet…blast which awakens them; showing them on

the horizon the returning planters; bringing with them new whips and

heavier manacles?  Nothing is more distrustful than such a sentiment

in such breasts  quickly alarmed; ready to strike; ready for any act

of violence; blindly credulous; headlong and easily impelled; not

merely against real enemies on the outside; but at first against

imaginary enemies on the inside;'81' but also against the King; the

ministers; the gentry; priests; parliamentarians; orthodox Catholics;

against



all administrators and magistrates imprudent enough to have appealed

to the law;



all manufacturers; merchants; and owners of property who condemn

disorder;



the wealthy whose egotism keeps them at home;



all those who are well…off; well…bred and well…dressed。



They are all under suspicion because they have lost by the new regime;

or because they have not adopted its ways。  Such is the colossal

brute which the Girondins introduce into the political arena。'82' For

six months they shake red flags before its eyes; goad it on; work it

up into a rage and drive it forward by decrees and proclamations;



* against their adversaries and against its keepers;



* against the nobles and the clergy;



* against aristocrats inside France in complicity with those of

Coblentz;



* against 〃the Austrian committee〃 the accomplice of Austria;



* against the King; whose caution they transform into treachery;



* against the whole government to which they impute the anarchy they

excite; and the war of which they themselves are the instigators。'83'



Thus over…excited and topsy…turvy; the proletariat require only arms

and a rallying…point。 The Girondins furnish both。 Through a striking

coincidence; one which shows that the plan was concerted;'84' they

start three political engines at the same time。 Just at the moment

when; through their deliberate saber…rattling; they made war

inevitable; they invented popular insignia and armed the poor。 At the

end of January; 1792; almost during one week; they announced their

ultimatum to Austria using a fixed deadline; they adopted the red

woolen cap and began the manufacture of pikes。  It is evident that

pikes are of no use in the open field against cannon and a regular

army; accordingly the are intended for use in the interior and in

towns。 Let the national…guard who can pay for his uniform; and the

active citizen whose three francs of direct tax gives him a privilege;

own their guns; the stevedore; the market…porter; the lodger; the

passive citizen; whose poverty excludes them from voting must have

their pikes; and; in these insurrectionary times; a ballot is not

worth a good pike wielded by brawny arms。   The magistrate in his

robes may issue any summons he pleases; but it will be rammed down his

throat; and; lest he should be in doubt of this he is made to know it

beforehand。 〃The Revolution began with pikes and pikes will finish

it。〃'85'  〃Ah;〃 say the regulars of the Tuileries gardens; 〃if the

good patriots of the Champs de Mars only
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