书城公版The Origins of Contemporary France
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第462章

"This insurrection is due to an extra meeting of 'The Friends of the constitution,' held the evening before in the theater, to which the public were invited." M. de la Jaille, it must be stated, is not a proud aristocrat, but a sensible man, in the style of Florian's and Berquin's heroes. But just pounded to a jelly, he writes to the president of the "Friends of the Constitution," that, "could he have flown into the bosom of the club, he would have gladly done so, to convey to it his grateful feelings. He had accepted his command only at the solicitation of the Americans in Paris, and of the six commissioners recently arrived from St. Domingo." -- Mercure de France, April 14, article by Mallet du Pan "I have asked in vain for the vengeance of the law against the assassins of M. de la Jaille.

The names of the authors of this assault in full daylight, to which thousands can bear witness, are known to everybody in Brest.

Proceedings have been ordered and begun, but the execution of the orders is suspended. More potent than the law, the motionnaires, protectors of assassins, frighten or paralyze its ministrants."[28] Mercure de France, Nov. 12 (session of Oct. 31st, 1792).

[29] Decree of Feb. 8, and others like it, on the details, as, for instance, that of Feb. 7.

[30] April 9, at the Jacobin Club, Vergniaud, the president, welcomes and compliments the convicts of Chateau-vieux.

[31] Mortimer-Ternaux, book I, vol. I. (especially the session of April 15).

[32] Comtat (or comtat Venaisssin) ancient region in France under papal authority from 1274 to 1791.(SR)[33] Moniteur, XII. 335. - Decree of March 20 (the triumphal entry of Jourdan and his associates belongs to the next month).

[34] Moniteur, XII. 730 (session of June 23).

[35] Moniteur, XII. 230 (session of April 12).

[36] Moniteur. XI. 6, (session of March 6).

[37] Moniteur, XI. 123, (session of Jan. 14)[38] 150 years later these rights were written into the International Declaration of Human Rights in Paris in 1948. (SR).

[39] Mercure de France, Dec. 23 (session of Dec. 23), p.98.

[40] Moniteur, X. 178 (session of Oct. 20, 1791). Information supplied by the deputies of the Upper and Lower Rhine departments. -- M. Koch says: "An army of émigrés never existed, unless it be a petty gathering, which took place at Ettenheim, a few leagues from Strasbourg. . . (This troop) encamped in tents, but only because it lacked barracks and houses." -- M. ---, deputy of the lower Rhine, says: "This army at Ettenheim is composed of about five or six hundred poorly-clad, half-paid men, deserters of all nations, sleeping in tents, for lack of other shelter, and armed with clubs, for lack of fire-arms and deserting every day, because money is getting scarce.

The second army, at Worms, under the command of a Condé, is composed of three hundred gentlemen, and as many valets and grooms. I have to add, that the letters which reach me from Strasbourg, containing extracts of inside information from Frankfort, Munich, Regensburg, and Vienna, announce the most pacific intentions on the part of the different courts, since receiving the notification of the king's submission." The number of armed emigrants increases, but always remain very small (Moniteur, X. 678, letter of M. Delatouche, an eyewitness, Dec. 10). "I suppose that the number of emigrants scattered around on the territories of the grand-duke of Baden, the bishop of Spires, the electorates, etc., amounts to scarcely 4,000men."[41] Moniteur, X. 418 (session of Nov. 15, 1791). Report by the minister Delessart. In August, the emperor issued orders against enlistments, and to send out of the country all Frenchmen under suspicion; also, in October, to send away the French who formed too numerous a body at Ath and at Tournay (Now in Belgium). -- Buchez et Roux, XII. 395, demands of the king, Dec. 14, -- Ibid., XIII. 15, 16, 19, 52, complete satisfaction given by the Elector of Trèves, Jan. 1, 1792, communicated to the Assembly Jan. 6; publication of the elector's orders in the electorate, Jan. 3. The French envoy reports that they are fully executed, which news with the documents, are communicated to the Assembly, on the 8th, 16, and 19th of January. --" Correspondance de Mirabeau et M. de la Marck," III.287. Letter of M.

de Mercy-Argenteau, Jan. 9, 1792. "The emperor has promised aid to the elector, under the express stipulation that he should begin by yielding to the demands of the French, as otherwise no assistance would be given to him in case of attack."[42] Mallet du Pan, "Mémoires," I. 254 (February, 1792). -- "Correspondance de Mirabeau et du M. de la Marck," III. 232 (note of M.

de Bacourt). On the very day and at the moment of signing the treaty at Pilnitz, at eleven o'clock in the evening, the Emperor Leopold wrote to his prime minister, M. de Kaunitz, "that the convention which he had just signed does not really bind him to anything; that it only contains insignificant declarations, extorted by the Count d'Artois."He ends by assuring him that "neither himself nor his government is in any way bound by this instrument."[43] Words of M. de Kaunitz, Sept. 4, 1791 ("Recueil," by Vivenot, I.

242).

[44] Moniteur, XI. 142 (session of Jan. 17). - Speech by M.

Delessart. - Decree of accusation against him March 10. - Declaration of war, April 20. - On the real intentions of the King, cf. Malouet, "Malouet, "Mémoires" II. 199-209; Lafayette, "Mémoires," I. 441 (note 3); Bertrand de Molleville, "Mémoires," VI. 22; Governor Morris, II.

242, letter of Oct. 23, 1792.

[45] Moniteur, X. 172 (session of Oct. 20, 1791). Speech by Brissot. -- Lafayette, I. 441. "It is the Girondists who, at this time, wanted a war at any price" - Malouet, II. 209. "As Brissot has since boasted, it was the republican party which wanted war, and which provoked it by insulting all the powers."[46] Buchez et Roux, XII. 402 (session of the Jacobin Club, Nov. 28, 1791).

[47] Gustave III., King of Sweden, assassinated by Ankerstrom, says: